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Lily had woken up in cold sweat, her heart thumping heavily against her chest as she sat up from her bed.
It was the summer of 1972, just right after Lily's first year at Hogwarts. And while it was arguably one of the best years of her life so far, it was also the worse, seeing as the expense of her going to that school was that her sister had grown to despise her.
And that whole thing wasn't helping right now. Her sister's hatred wasn't helping because Lily needed her right now.
Petunia had always been the one to have taken care of Lily prior to her going to Hogwarts. It wasn't out of obligation, it was something she was willing to do because of her love for her sister. And that in return had given Lily some sort of dependency on her older sister in situations like this.
And now that was completely backfiring on her. Usually it had been Petunia who soothed her from nightmares like this though unfortunately for Lily, she couldn't exactly ask for herself anymore, which left her where she was right now ─ terrified and absolutely clueless.
Lily looks around her bedroom as her eyes attempt to take in her surroundings. It was dark with the only source of light being the lamp on her nightstand, but she still felt like it had been too dark for her at that moment.
And so the first thing she decides to do is that she was going to open the lights. She wasn't afraid of the dark but it's a step she was going to take nonetheless.
Getting up on her feet, Lily walks across her bedroom and to the light switch of her room. Her steps had quiet and careful seeing as she hadn't wanted to alert anyone in their house.
As her finger went in contact with the switch, her surroundings had gotten so much more brighter. And so did the door that was right next to her.
For a moment, she found herself staring. She felt the need to open the door, wanting to just get out of her bedroom and knock at Petunia's door, hoping that her sister would soothe her like how she used to do prior to all of this.
Where had Lily gone wrong? She used to be so close to her older sister ─ so close. She thought they had a better relationship so why did Petunia not hesitate to avoid her and grow hatred for her after she got accepted into Hogwarts? Why was her being a witch what led to them losing the relationship they had?
This wasn't even about her having nightmares anymore, Lily just missed her sister. She missed Petunia so much and wanted things to go back to the way they were.
She wanted to go back to the times when Petunia would tie her hair up in all those different hairstyles right before she went to school, to those times when the two of them would laugh over something stupid they saw, to the times when she'd comfort Lily after nightmares such as this.
And then Lily realizes that things will never go back to the way they were, not anytime soon at least. And while that absolutely shatters her, she knows she can't do anything about it because this was how things were now.
As she returned to her bed, she sat down by the edge, and she finds herself glancing at the photo on her nightstand ─ the photo that displayed both her and Petunia back at some family trip. She misses those times, she really does but now she had to accept that she'd never experience any of that ever again.
Lily had to get rid of any dependency she had on Petunia, and she was going to start today by learning how to take care of herself during nights such as this.