Bored Children (Lilith)

Astoria giggled as she looked around the side of a tree trunk. Her parents were far from her now and finally she had been able to get away without them noticing. She just wanted to play in the grass but they kept telling her that she couldn't in case it ruined her dress. When she was sure that her parents were busy under a gazebo, she plopped onto the green ground cover and began to rip up clumps of grass. She had no idea where they were, all she knew was that there was a load of adults and not so many other children to play with.

She knew better than to just roll around, even though the soft grass looked so inviting. Her parents may just laugh it off while they were in front of people, but she would be in a lot of trouble when they all got home. She wished that she had brought her book, but she had forgotten it on the table at her house.

Lilith was bored. Kain was nowhere to be found, Chandra was busy doing... whatever it was, and that left Lilith alone with herself. With the fact it was middle of the day, she got bored quickly and managed to disappear into the woods, where sun couldn't follow her and annoy her that much. She now stood at the very edge of the forrest and was observing people's lives, from which she always felt so distant, when she saw familiar figure just few steps from her. She smiled as she watched Astoria and a bit wondered where her sister was, while waiting if Astoria notices her.

Astoria was looking at the sky, watching as the clouds moved slowly past. She was thinking about Hogwarts again, and how her sister was going that year, but she was not. She didn't think it was fair, but she knew that she would be able to go for just as long as Daphne. Oh well, she thought, at least I won't have to deal with all of that homework and forced reading and all of that. The girl was feeling tired and was even considering have a sleep on the ground when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

She sat up quickly and looked over at the other girl who near the end of the forest. Immediately recognising her, Astoria quickly got to her feet and walked over to where she was standing. "Hello Lilith! I didn't know you were here as well. Are your parents over there?"

Lilith continued smiling as she saw Astoria finally noticing her. As the girl spoke to her, smile on her lips quickly disappeared. She never really spoke about her family with anyone, so Astoria couldn't know. "My parents cannot be here. For more than ten years now," she replied only, hint of sadness in her voice as she looked towards the bunch of adults. There wasn't a day when she wouldn't wish them to be here with her. She loved her godparents and Chandra. And she was grateful they took her, so she didn't have to grow up in cold cell of Azkaban, without friends, fresh air, safety and her beloved stars. But that could never change the fact she hated the World for taking two most precious people away from her. She had only a photo. One photo of her mum and dad in their Slytherin robes in seventh year at Hogwarts. Just about a year before their imprisonment.

Astoria's face dropped and she wanted to slap herself. She knew that she shouldn't talk about Lilith's parents, as it was something that upset her. "I'm so sorry, Lilith. I meant your godparents, Mr and Mrs Lupin.." The girl chewed on her lip, wondering what she could say to make Lilith feel better. Half of the wizarding world knew where Lilith's parents were, and she can remember some for her parents friends talking about them. But she didn't understand why Lilith couldn't have her parents and Mr and Mrs Lupin.

"Lilith, do you want to go and look at the stream down there?" Astoria pointed through the trees, where she had seen a running water body the last time that she was there. She then looked back over to all of the older people and asked, "Do you think that the adults would notice if we just went for five minutes?"

Lilith shaked her head. "No, it's okay. And they are not here, they are at home. This is not exactly their type of society anyway. I just wanted to get away and somehow ended up on the other side of the forest," she explained, weak smile on her face again. "And sure, why not? And as for adults, they seem enough busy by themselves to notice us," she laughed and started to walk deeper into the forest. "So, where is your sister? Is she excited for Hogwarts? Which house would she be in you think?" Lilith asked a few questions to get attention away from her family.

Astoria pulled a face at Lilith's words. Not because she didn't agree with what she said, but because she knew what it meant. "I don't know if this kind of society will be my scene when I get older, either," she said, smiling slightly. She hardened her gaze and said, "I don't like that some people are welcome here, and some are not. Unless they are really mean, everyone should be welcomed!" She didn't know if the Lupins chose not to come because they thought that it wouldn't be fun for them, or if they just weren't invited.

"Okay!" Astoria said, walked with Lilith as they started walking toward where she had pointed before. She hoped that the other girl wouldn't think she was lame for liking such things. "Oh, Daphne is around here somewhere, I think. Or maybe she went home. She's so excited! She says that she will be a Slytherin like the rest of the family whether the Sorting Hat likes it or not!" The little girl thought for a moment before saying, "I think I might want to be in Slytherin as well. She is right, the only person in our family who wasn't in Slytherin is my Aunt Alexis. She was put in Ravenclaw, and my daddy says that that was okay because it's better than a 'bloody Hufflepuff'."

Lilith didn't comment about society anymore. She didn't really understand it anyway and she didn't even want to. Of course her dad was and still is member of the highest pureblood society, but he was younger than uncle Rodolphus, so nobody really minded him marrying her mum, only halfblood. Lilith herself was of course aware of the fact she is the only child in this Lestrange line, which meant being heir of the family. But she didn't grow up in all this, so she could hardly understand how it works.

She laughed at Hufflepuff remark. "I don't blame her. I can't wait to be at Hogwarts as well. I finally want to learn something about my abilities. For my it is only Slytherin. I feel strongly for the house and my entire family was there. In Slytherin, I could finally be close to them," she said as they finally arrived to the stream. She sat into the grass and took out photo of her parents, watching her mum's mysterious smile while her dad was kissing her on her cheek.

Astoria noticed that Lilith didn't say anything more about the social circle that her parents were in. She didn't mind though, because she had already said her opinion on it, and there wasn't much more to it. The girl nodded and grinned. "I wish I was already there. Right now!" Astoria picked up a stick and began to wave it in the air, pretending to do magic like she saw her parents doing. When they reached the water, the youngest Greengrass also sat on the grass, not too far away from Lilith.

She saw her pull out a photo, and didn't want to pry. But she also wanted to see what the other girl's parents looked like. They must have been nice looking, because Astoria thought that their daughter was very pretty. Looking at Lilith, she asked, "May I see your picture? Or do you like to keep it private?"

Lilith looked at Astoria, slightly surprised by the question. "Uhm... sure," she said and handed the most precious object in her life to Astoria, watching the photo closely and ready to take it away in the moment something could happen. Of course her godparents had quite a few other photos where her parents, specialy her dad, were, but this was the only one where was her parents only. And it was also given to her in one of the letters from Azkaban from her mum. It was simply closest thing to them she had.

Rachel had sneaked away from home and from her twinsister. She was walking around and she saw two girls sitting on the grass looking at a picture. Probably two muggle girls, Rachel thought but still she walked up to them. She kept her distance. "Hello! I have never seen you two here before, are you new here?" Rachel asked curiously. She knew this neighborhood very good as she played here every day in the weekends because she doesn't want to be at home all the time.

Astoria accepted the photograph from Lilith, knowing by the look on her face that it was incredibly important to her. She carefully brought it toward her so that she could look properly. The girl smiled a little at the image of the young couple. They were so young, and she wondered what on earth they had done to land them in Azkaban so early in life. She would never ask, though. The younger girl then returned the photo to Lilith, "Thank you for letting me see. They look so sweet. Do you know if you will ever be able to see them?"

When another voice sounded, Astoria looked up in surprise. There was another girl standing nearby. The girl froze, having no idea what to do. It wasn't one of the children from the gathering, of that she was sure. What if she was a muggle? Astoria had never in her life even seen one, but she had heard that you couldn't really tell them apart from wizards. Being very careful not to mention anything about magic, which she new that non-magical people weren't allowed to know about, she said, "Hello, we don't live here. I come here with my parents every now and then so that they can talk to their friends." That sounded normal enough.. right?

Lilith took the photo back and hid it carefully in her dress. "I doubt it. The only way out for them is to run. They were sentenced for life for the crimes they did. But I wish I could see them again,"she replied sadly before she turned to the new person. "Hey. I live on the other side of the forest, so I guess I am kinda new here, since I don't there very often. I am Lilith and this is Astoria," Lilith introduced herself and her friend casually. Even if this girl could be muggle, there was nothing wrong with this conversation. She knew that for a fact, since her godparents occasionaly took her into muggle London and she was quite accustomed to muggle way of life. Or at least she knew how it works.

Rachel smiled carefully at the two girls, she walked closer to the girls. They had no muggle names as the girls in her class. "I'm Rachel Snape, nice to meet you. I live here just down the hill. I like your names, they are in some kind special." Rachel's smile widened. Rachel didn't think they were muggles but she choose her words carefully even though she was curious.

Astoria felt bad for Lilith, for having to go through the things that she had. But she also knew that Lilith was in very good hands. "Maybe one day, when you're old enough, you might be able to visit them?" She couldn't imagine not being able to see or know her parents, all that she did know is that she would have hated it.

The girl wondered if it was a good idea to share their names with someone that they didn't know, but figured it was too late anyway. Her eyebrows shot up when she heard the new comer's name. "Snape?" she asked, thinking for a moment. Maybe she was a witch after all. "Have you ever heard of Severus Snape?" Her sister had not stopped talking about the Potions Master at Hogwarts, and his surname was Snape. Perhaps the girl knew him. "It's nice to meet you, too, Rachel."

Lilith left the topic behind. She didn't know Rachel and she didn't want to talk about her pains and secrets in front of complete stranger. At the name of the girl and Astoria's question she connected one and one together. "You are one of his kids, right? I once heard aunt and uncle talking about your family," she smiled, hoping she was right. She didn't really hear that much about Severus Snape in general. Just a few times, when uncle told her and Chandra about his school years with his friends, from which she never knew any. He was sad about the fact they couldn't be there with him, but he still seemed to enjoy telling girls about all the pranks. But that was all.

Rachel nodded happily. "Yeah he is my dad but how do you know him?" Rachel asked Astoria as Lilith already told her where she knew her family from. She was surprised how they knew her father as he didn't seem a person that knew a lot of people. When her father was at home he was always inside, working on potions or doing weird stuff with her mum like dancing or giving kisses, making Violet and her run upstairs.

Astoria smiled, thankful that the question of whether Rachel was muggle or not was answered. If she was Professor Snape's daughter then she had to know about magic. Not that the girl minded either way, it just meant that she didn't have to be careful of what she said around her. In a bright voice, the girl said, "Oh, my sister will be starting school this coming year, and she has told me about him. Well, she had told me everything that she knows about Hogwarts, actually. It's kind of annoying sometime.."

She shrugged, smiling at Rachel. "So what are you doing out here? Lilith and I just escaped from a party. It was so boring! All of the grown ups were talking and I wasn't even allowed to bring something to read," Astoria pouted.

Rachel listened to Astoria's story about her sister. "My brother doesn't tell my sister and me much about Hogwarts. We have asked him several times but we stopped asking him." Rachel shrugged. "I escaped the house so i don't have to eat lunch...i don't like warm meals for lunch, and i always sit here and watch over the hill." Rachel told them, she turned her head to the hill and then back to the girls.

Lilith listened to the girls and still kept smiling. "Me and Chandra are going into the same year, so there is no one to spoil the surprise for me, luckily," she said to keep herself in conversation. "All I know is what aunt and uncle told me about it. It's a beautiful place according to what they said. Aunt told us about amazing Ravenclaw chambers. And uncle was Gryffindor, so his stories are mostly about pranks and all that," she added, suddenly feeling excited for school that awaited her in more than a year.