Ficlet: 'Stories' Lily Luna Potter G
Title: Stories
Author: softly_sweetly
Beta: auntbijou
Character(s): Lily Luna Potter
Length: ~400
Rating: G
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this piece of fanfiction.
Warnings: Genfic
Summary: Once, just once, Lily wants the story to be about her…
Author Notes: Counts to prompt #4 Stories from my 100quills Next Generation Table and prompt #7 If Only of my mission_insane Genre Table - Angst
It's the stories that upset her the most.
Your grandmother did this.
Your grandfather did that.
Your auntie did this.
Your second cousin twice removed did that.
Lily scoffs, slinging back another vodka and banging the glass down on the bar. The bartender fills it up, and Lily stares down at the clear liquid, at the distorted wood visible through the base of the glass.
Her whole life, Lily has heard stories. Stories about what great people her ancestors were, how heroic they were, all the good they did in the two wars. And Lily has never dared point out that if they were really that great, they wouldn't be dead.
Even her name isn’t hers. Lily, for the woman who defied a tyrant and died to save her child. Luna, for reasons her mother never says and she doubts her father knows. And Potter. Potter, who survived the Killing Curse. Potter, who is never far from the front page of the Prophet.
The history is always there, weighing down on her. She doesn't know how her brothers cope, how James and Al can live with their own mantles. And why her mother allowed this to happen, Lily will never understand. Her cousins all have shiny names that have no stories, names with no history, names that they can assume and fulfil and create as their own, without the weight of the past dragging them down. How is Lily ever supposed to live up to the history everyone remembers when they hear her name?
Emptying her glass again, Lily debates going home. She is of age, but still subject to her parents' whims. Where are you going, who with, when will you be home.
"Hey! You're Lily Potter!"
Snapping her head to the side, Lily gives the man a withering look. "What of it?"
He clearly has no comeback, and Lily calls it a night. Putting money on the bar she steps out into the night, blinking rapidly and waiting for her head to stop spinning. If she goes home like this, it'll be another story. Your brothers don't behave like this.
Once, just once, Lily wants the story to be about her, not about a past she unwillingly inherited. Drawing her wand to Apparate, Lily vows to stop at nothing until the stories are about her, and not about women she has no interest in becoming.
Author: softly_sweetly
Beta: auntbijou
Character(s): Lily Luna Potter
Length: ~400
Rating: G
Disclaimer: The characters contained herein are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this piece of fanfiction.
Warnings: Genfic
Summary: Once, just once, Lily wants the story to be about her…
Author Notes: Counts to prompt #4 Stories from my 100quills Next Generation Table and prompt #7 If Only of my mission_insane Genre Table - Angst
It's the stories that upset her the most.
Your grandmother did this.
Your grandfather did that.
Your auntie did this.
Your second cousin twice removed did that.
Lily scoffs, slinging back another vodka and banging the glass down on the bar. The bartender fills it up, and Lily stares down at the clear liquid, at the distorted wood visible through the base of the glass.
Her whole life, Lily has heard stories. Stories about what great people her ancestors were, how heroic they were, all the good they did in the two wars. And Lily has never dared point out that if they were really that great, they wouldn't be dead.
Even her name isn’t hers. Lily, for the woman who defied a tyrant and died to save her child. Luna, for reasons her mother never says and she doubts her father knows. And Potter. Potter, who survived the Killing Curse. Potter, who is never far from the front page of the Prophet.
The history is always there, weighing down on her. She doesn't know how her brothers cope, how James and Al can live with their own mantles. And why her mother allowed this to happen, Lily will never understand. Her cousins all have shiny names that have no stories, names with no history, names that they can assume and fulfil and create as their own, without the weight of the past dragging them down. How is Lily ever supposed to live up to the history everyone remembers when they hear her name?
Emptying her glass again, Lily debates going home. She is of age, but still subject to her parents' whims. Where are you going, who with, when will you be home.
"Hey! You're Lily Potter!"
Snapping her head to the side, Lily gives the man a withering look. "What of it?"
He clearly has no comeback, and Lily calls it a night. Putting money on the bar she steps out into the night, blinking rapidly and waiting for her head to stop spinning. If she goes home like this, it'll be another story. Your brothers don't behave like this.
Once, just once, Lily wants the story to be about her, not about a past she unwillingly inherited. Drawing her wand to Apparate, Lily vows to stop at nothing until the stories are about her, and not about women she has no interest in becoming.