It was a week later. An entire week. Lily couldn't believe it had been an entire week already. It is amazing how, when you're in the midst of terrible sorrow the time seems to drag along and yet move so very quickly that it becomes a blur at exactly the same time as you're buried beneath it forever.

James's arm wrapped about Lily's shoulders, his palm splayed on her shoulder, clutching her tightly. He could feel her weight pressing into him, and he got the idea - by the weight of her pressing against him - that she might tip right over if he didn't hold her close. Lily's lovely green eyes were covered with sunglasses, dark ones with black lenses that kept the dark bags beneath her eyes from showing. Her breath trembled.

All around them, people stood, quiet and staring ahead. Sirius was at James's shoulder, and beside him stood Remus and Peter. Jasper and Ethel had come as well, and, though he stayed a good distance away, lurking like a shadow behind a tree out of view of the Marauders, so had Severus Snape.

James glanced over Lily's head at her sister, Petunia, who was clinging to Vernon Dursley much the same as Lily was clinging onto him. For all the jokes about Vernon being a dudder and a walrus, James had to admit that the way that the bloke held onto Petunia Evans was entirely telling of just how much he cared for her. Nearly as much as he, James, cared for Lily Evans. 

As though hearing James's thoughts, Vernon looked over and their eyes met. Vernon's gaze travelled over James's arms around Lily, then he tightened his own arms slightly about Petunia, and turned back to face forward. James wondered if the gesture was competitive or if it had been in recognition of their identical roles in the girls' lives - an admission that, despite their differences in other areas of their lives, this one thing they would forever have in common.

Mrs. Evans smiled at them from a large portrait by the grave, where flowers had been placed and a brilliant candle had been lit. A magical funeral in the wizarding world would have been utterly different than the procession that was taking place here, but there were many more muggles in Mrs. Evans' life than there'd been witches and wizards, and so a muggle funeral would have to do. Though James would have preferred to have a long talk with a wizarding portrait of Mrs. Evans over the still, unmoving picture print they'd displayed. 

Lily, James, Petunia, and Vernon stood the longest by the grave, even after the minister had said his final amen and the dust of the earth was being returned to the earth. Lily stood still as a bone.

"C'mon," James whispered softly in her ear after several very long minutes had passed by. Most of the other guests had departed - only the Marauders hovered about the car across the way, waiting for James and Lily to leave with them. "We should go," James said to Lily.

"Just another minute, please," Lily whispered, voice cracking.

James didn't move. He would wait until Lily did.

Petunia had her eyes closed, her palm over her stomach. An anger-filled expression turned her lips into a pouting scowl and she seemed to tremble for several long moments as Lily stood there, silent and staring into the hole in the ground. 

Six feet deep, and a world apart.

Suddenly Petunia twitched, and Vernon's hand tightened on her elbow in an attempt to keep her by his side, but Petunia wrenched away and she took three very quick steps across the grass to where Lily and James were standing, raised her hand and brought it swiftly toward Lily's face and -- 

James caught her wrist, throwing it back. His lightening-fast reflexes from Quidditch having paid off, he pulled Lily a step aside so that he stood between the two sisters. Vernon stood behind Petunia, solid and bold, his scowl evident under his thick mustache. Petunia raised her hand again and James, again, caught it mid-swipe, though this time instead of a flat palm to strike her sister's face, the hand was twisted into a pointing finger.

"This is YOUR fault," she hissed. "It's all because of you. All because of you, you wicked, terrible, god-awful FREAK."

Lily's face was pale and her glasses had been knocked aside, her shock evident on her face as she scrambled to replace them. She reacted as though struck by these words and a squeak came from her as she choked back a sob.

"Don't you dare," James breathed lowly, "Don't you dare blame her. She didn't ask for it to happen." He glared at Petunia, "Don't be foolish. Can't you see she's just as upset as you are?"

"She has NO RIGHT TO BE," Petunia screamed, her voice climbing higher with each word. 

At the car, Sirius had been leaning with his back against the frame, but at this shriek from Petunia he stood upright, uncrossing his arms, his expression concerned.

"She has every right to be," James snapped, "You're not the only one hurting right now - not that you'd ever remove your head out of your arse long enough to see that anyone else's emotions matter as much as your bleedin' own!"

"James," Lily choked, "Don't."

"What would you know about it?" Petunia hissed, "All you wizard-types are alike. Freaks, the whole lot of you." Vernon nodded supportively from behind Petunia, his beady eyes narrowed and any kindness that James had seen in him was gone now.

Lily let out a gasp of a sob and James shook his head, deciding that these horrible muggles were just not worth the trouble of the fight - or at least not worth letting go of Lily long enough to get his wand from the leather scabbard at his waist. Instead, he turned, gently guiding Lily away, "Come on," he whispered.

Lily shook under his arm as they walked away, clinging onto him as though he were a life vessel. 

"It IS your fault, whatever he tells you!" Petunia shouted after them. "It's because of magic that they're dead! If it wasn't for your stupid magic this never would've happened. Mummy and daddy both would still be alive this very moment!"

James's arms tightened 'round her as Lily's knees nearly gave out at these words.

"Everyone thought it was so great, having a WITCH in the family! But look where it got them. Look what you've done. I hate you," Petunia said, and seeing the flinch of Lily's shoulders when the words were spoken, she continued, "I hate you and it should have been YOU, not them, not either of them!! I hate you!!!"

 Lily's legs completely gave out.

Again, James's quick impulses meant that he caught her, scooping her up and holding her close to himself. "Don't listen to her," he whispered into her ear, "Don't listen to her. She's evil, she's wrong. She's horrible."

Lily was sobbing.

"It should've been you!!! And... and I wish it was! I wish you were dead!""

At these words, Sirius was running forward - Remus following after. James shook his head and Remus slowed, catching Sirius by the back of his suit jacket. But catching onto him had little effect. 

"Don't you fucking say that!" Sirius bellowed, "Don't you ever say that! You don't mean it, so don't you ever say it."

"I DO MEAN IT," Petunia shrieked, voice pitching loudly. "I DO! I WISH SHE WERE DEAD INSTEAD!"

Lily's face was buried in James's shoulder and she gasped into it at these words, as though they were physically taking the breath from her lungs and James had a wildly panicked thought - what if Petunia did have some magical bit of her, deep down, deep in the bottom of her that she was using now without even knowing it? What if her words were laced with enough meaning, with enough hatred that they were pressing the breath from Lily's lungs even as he carried her away?

Sirius's wand was out and his arm shook, his eyes cold with hatred. "Take it back, or I'll --"

"What?" Petunia demanded, "Kill me? Kill me with your MAGIC?"

Vernon was standing behind Petunia, his mustache twitching.

Sirius's voice rang with anger. "If anything ever happened to her -- you'd be sorry for it! You'd be really sorry you wished her dead."

Petunia's sneer deepened, "I wouldn't be sorry. She would deserve whatever it is she got, for playing with MAGIC and for going to that freak school with you freaks!"

"Oh you'd be sorry alright," Sirius promised, his tone as level and steady as it had ever been. "I'd make sure you were bloody sorry. And if you weren't - if you weren't sorry, really, then I would find you and I would make you be fucking sorry." At this, both Petunia and Vernon recoiled and Sirius's eyes flashed with anger. "So shut your bloody mouth or I'll shut it for you," he finished.

Remus's grip tightened on the suit jacket and he tugged, and Sirius reluctantly tore his glare away from them. He spit on the grass in dismissal, then turned and walked slowly back to the car with Remus. Remus's face was pale and his expression empty of emotion.

James was tucking Lily into the car carefully, which involved getting in himself for she would not let go of him. He settled into the back, his arms around her as she cried, and he tucked her head against his sternum, laying his cheek against her forehead. "Shh," he whispered, "Shh. Don't listen to her. She's wrong about magic and about you, Evans. She's wrong."

Lily gulped for air, "B - b - but wh- what -what if she - she's - she's not?"

"She is wrong," James's voice was firm.

Peter was on the other side of Lily, and he reached up and gently patted her hair, his face pinched with fear. "It'll be okay, Lily," he whispered.

Sirius got into the passenger seat, still fuming horribly even as Remus slammed the door shut. "Fucking muggle rubbish," Sirius hissed, swearing under his breath as Remus ran about the car and got into the driver's seat.

"Shh, Sirius," Remus said quietly. "Enough now."

Sirius glared out the window, biting his lower lip to keep from muttering any further slurs against the pair of them.

Remus looked about the console of the car and he reached up for the key, turning the engine on, though the car made a funny shrieking sound as he turned the keys too far the first two tries at it. It hummed to life and he swallowed nervously as he looked about, hoping that he remembered how to do this properly..

It was a long and terribly jerky ride home, though Remus did the best he could. Lily quieted as the car moved, being lulled to an exhausted, emotional sleep that had James holding her and rocking her gently all of the way back to the safety of their flat in East London.