It was late, or perhaps early, depending how you looked at it. Everyone had gone - either home or else to bed... Or at least to sleep, as was the case with Sirius Black, who lay sprawled on the couch in his black-and-white diamond print spandex unitard, the fake mustache he had conjured up flapping over his mouth as he snored loudly.

The kitchen was the place where any one of them could be found at any odd hour going over things that kept them up at night - be that homework, casework, or ancient runes.

Lily was bent over a pad of paper, biting her lip in concentration, copying each rune carefully. She was doing it first in pencil, not yet ready to ink her work. When she'd copied a full line of them, she paused and looked over the key Remus had created for her, and then turning back to the original in Professor Laurie's books, before turning back to her own.

In the very beginning, before anything else had ever been, there was love.

Lily stared at the words, feeling somehow underwhelmed and yet accomplished at the same time. A full sentence - written out in runic text, and, just below, in English. It was a triumph - however small. She smiled, and reached for the purple feathered quill that Professor Laurie had given to her. She looked it over, inspecting it, then opened her ink pot, dipped the metal tip, and brought the quill down onto the page.

The moment the tip touched the parchment a rush of emotions came over her, as heavy and steady as a waterfall coming over a very high cliff. She gasped and dropped the quill as the emotions resonated and she panted, her heart racing a thousand miles. She felt as though she'd been sling-shotted 'round the moon in a matter of seconds and was reminded rather forcibly of a time when she'd sat side-by-side with Petunia in the front cart of a roller coaster at Walt Disney World when her family had gone to Florida on vacation one summer.

"Tuney, are you frightened?" she had squealed with excitement, grabbing onto her sister's arm as the carts had crawled up-up-up toward the sky in a seeming never-ending rise to the very pinnacle of the atmosphere.

"I don't know what we're on this thing at all!" Tuney had wailed, though not in an angry way, more in anticipation.

It was the one bonding moment they'd had on the trip. Everything else had made Tuney cranky and full of complaints. It was too hot, the air conditioner was too cold, the food wasn't as good as she expected, the lines were too long... blah, blah, blah. But they'd gotten on the roller coaster and somehow the thought of what goes up must come down had erased all of that, done away with all their history, and Lily and Petunia were just two sisters, sitting on a ride, about to go flying down toward the earth at unthinkable speeds.

"I love you Petunia!" Lily had cried, pretending to say her last goodbyes in a gesture of pure dramatic fantasy.

"I love you Lily!" Petunia had cried back.

It was the last time Petunia had ever said those words to her.

Lily felt a jerk behind her naval, as though she'd been disapparated to the memory and now she was back - back in the kitchen, back in the flat in East London, back in the present.

She stared at the quill in her hand, her mouth dry, tears running down her cheeks.

There was a sound at the door and she looked up. Sirius stood there, leaning against the frame, one leg of the spandex unitard had ridden up to his knee and the opposite shoulder slouched down to his elbow. His hair was a mess, his eyes bleary. "Where'd everyone go?" he asked.

Lily cleared her thoat. "Oh, um. Um they left. After the party. It's the middle of the night, love."

Sirius blinked sleepily. "It is?"

"It is," she nodded.

"I should be in with Moony."

"Yes you should."

"And you should be in with Prongs."

"I will be soon, I'm just working on this first."

Sirius nodded, too tired to ask questions or to hesitate. "Alright. G'night then." He stood there, still, and leaned deeper against the door frame.

Lily cleared her throat. "Um. Sirius?"

"Yes peaches?" he murmured, his voice nearly a gurgle.

"Bed," Lily reminded him.

"Yessofcourse," Sirius stumbled away down the hall. A few moments later, the bedroom door opened and then closed.

Lily sighed and turned back to her parchments, feeling suddenly rather exhausted herself. She looked the quill over one more time, then screwed the cap back onto her pot of ink and scooped up the lot, heading to bed herself.

She snuck into the dark room and tiptoed across to the desk, where she set down her stack of books, parchment, and quill. Lily slipped into the adjoined bathroom and brushed her teeth and hair, braiding it quickly before changing into her pyjamas. She snuck back out to her side of the bed, lay her wand on the night stand, and leaned back, expecting to fall into the crook of James's arm and her pillow, but instead --

"Sirius!"

One eye opened, peering up at her.

"Go to your own bed!"

Sirius paused, assessing his position, snuggled under James Potter's arm. It took a moment for the bleariness to clear from his eyes, but then they widened a d he said, "Blimey he's just so warm."

"Bad dog - go to your room!"

Sirius whimpered, then slid out from beneath James, who muttered, "Where you goin' Evans?" before falling back into snoring.

"Off you go," Lily said, taking Sirius by the shoulders. She pushed him toward his room before closing her own bedroom door. "Ugh, he is such a dog!" She muttered and quickly climbed into bed. She reached out and took James's arm, pulling it 'round her, and fell asleep.

And - oh what a funny sleep it was! All punctuated by dreams of roller coasters and snowflakes... matching primary school jumpers and pigtails, toy tea sets and daisy chains... swing sets and paper dolls, and Mickey Mouse... spinning, spinning, spinning until it all blurred together and the night was over.

Lily woke in bed, alone, sunlight cutting across the room from the window onto her face, and stared up at the ceiling for several long moments. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Petunia - not the Petunia who had screamed at her at their mum's funeral, but, rather, the Tuney she had loved and admired when they were so very small, when they shared a room and their mum put them in matching clothes. These days, the girls were separate as could be but once upon a time, and what seemed like a million years ago, they'd shared not only a bedroom but also a womb. Petunia Evans had, therefore, been the first person in the entire world that Lily had ever loved.

Lily rolled out of bed, slid her feet into her slippers, and went to the desk, looking down at the parchment where she has inscribed the first words in ink. She ran her finger over the runes.

"In the very beginning, before anything else had ever been, there was love," she read the sentence aloud, then pulled out her chair and sat down at the desk, setting herself to work for a second sentence.

"Love is light; darkness does not understand light and light defeats darkness - this has been true since the very beginning."

Inking the second sentence made a flavor like chicken noodle soup appear in her mouth, warm and salty, enriched by notes of lemon, cardamom and turmeric, so that it tasted golden and fresh. It was warm and safe, restorative, and all of the feelings of security and assurance came over her. Protection. Caring arms after challenging days at school, and ears that listened without judgement lying in wait on sour lips; but rather a trustworthy safety net... Lily could almost hear her mum's voice, almost feel the squeeze of her hugs, with that one little extra pump for love as they broke apart. She could smell the perfumed mixture of her mum's favorite moisturizer and shampoo mixing together.

Lily was glad to be sitting for if she'd been standing, her knees would have betrayed her and given out.

"Oh mum," she sobbed into her arm, an overwhelming feeling of loss filling her soul, permeating through her bones and into the very marrow and fiber of her being. Not sadness, per-say, but the knowledge that something grand and powerful had once been in this place that was now gone away, removed, and inaccessible.

Each stroke of the quill lining the penciled in runes of the second sentence brought that feeling ever more palpable to Lily, but also brought into her mind flashes of memories. There were glances stolen in rearview mirrors while driving and eyes filled with pride and admiration, hands which were so familiar Lily could have drawn the lines of their palms out on the parchment. There was marmalade sandwiches with the crusts cut off and kisses on top of the head or on the forehead or the nose.

"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with string... These are a few of my favorite things..."

She could see her mum in her mind, doing house work and singing in a soft voice, beautifully enough that when she was little she fancied her mum was a secret famous singer.

"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels, door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles, wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings... These are a few of my favorite things..."

Her mum once stood on a kitchen chair, dusting the drapes in the living room, a mint green apron tied about her waist over a polka dotted dress, on her very tippy toes, trying to reach the top of the valance. Always caring for everyone in the house, always keeping it nice. An unsung hero, singing like a bird.

"Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, silver-white winters that melt into springs... These are a few of my favorite things..."

Lily's cheeks were lined with tears once again. She closed her eyes and felt an overwhelming gratitude now, a gratitude for the time she had been given with her mum, and for the opportunity to learn life from her mum, for the chance to see light and love demonstrated in not only grand gestures but in mundane and everyday life, in the vacuuming of a carpet and the spreading of jam on toast.

It takes a moment to step in front of a bullet or a spell, to take that kind of brave but final act of love, but it takes a lifetime commitment to serve. It takes selflessness to be there day in and day out, to be present in the moments when you most feel like giving up yourself. It takes more to live in love than to die for it. Death for love was powerful, of course, but to live for love... both were sacrificial if sincere.

Those drapes were never dusty. The marmalade jar was always replaced before it has gone empty. There had not been single bout of illness that had not been lovingly treated with chicken soup and long days reading books together with lots of pictures and hugs.

Lily put the final dot of ink at the end of the second sentence.

She took a deep breath.

She was lucky, she realized; she had love in her past, and love was in her present, and love was in her future... and she felt a sudden sorrow for people who never knew love. Suddenly she understood Professor Laurie presuming she might not want to or be able to go on with the love magic. For what would people without love feel and see when they copied the runes?

The thought of it broke her heart yet again.