Chapter Text
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
- 'Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood' by William Wordsworth
Summer 1971
“Come on, Lettie. Up you get.”
The sand presses into her face. It’s hard, flattened by the sea, and she is dazed. A stray wave laps at her ankles. Her dad is standing over her, looming, with the football in hand. It would be easy for him to score his goal now: she’s left the two lumps of seaweed-goalposts wide open.
She peels her face off the ground. There’s a streak of grains that linger, imprints across her cheek. She rubs them away.
“That’s it,” her dad grins.
If she were Lily or Petunia, her dad might have picked her up and placed a kiss on her forehead, brushing away the gritty sand. But she is Violet Mary Evans, she turns nine in three weeks, and she knows how to pick herself up.
“Proper tumble, that.”
“I tripped,” she says, rubbing her knees: they hurt a bit. The sea has returned, tickling her feet. She wiggles her toes against the foamy ends. There doesn’t seem to be any jellyfish today, but you never know, sometimes they lurk. Tuney is really afraid of jellyfish: one time she was stung; she hasn’t been into the sea since.
Her dad ruffles her hair. It’s the last day of August and tomorrow, Lily and Severus will be going to Hogwarts. She glances down the beach. Lily is trying to get Severus to chase the waves. Lily is laughing. The sound carries through the light breeze. Her red hair is tied back into a little blob on the back of her head. Severus holds up his trousers around his shins; he appears to be struggling.
Their parents have taken them to the beach as a special treat: to say goodbye to Lily. They’re not really saying goodbye to Severus. More like good riddance, but that’s a secret between her and Dad and Tuney.
“Harold!” Both her and Dad turn back to see her mum waving and gesturing. Petunia is tucked up next to Mum, far back from the shoreline. She’s not very tall, but it’s impossible to miss her in the big floppy bucket hat she’s wearing. Violet can’t make out Petunia’s face from this distance, but she’s probably scowling. Something she always does when she’s afraid, or angry, or bored.
“What’s she saying?” Her dad frowns. He scratches his chin.
Mum starts waving something around.
“Is it the camera?” Violet is squinting.
It is the camera. They don’t have much time to pose, which is just as well, because Violet is rubbish at posing: she always blinks at the flash.
“That bloody camera,” her dad grumbles. Mum has her photos and she’s moved along the beach to Lily and Severus. Violet looks up to her dad. He’s watching Lily and Severus with furrowed brows; Lily’s laughter can still be heard.
“The tide’s coming in,” says Violet. Each wave is hitting their ankles more and more assuredly.
“Hm. C’mon, love.” He throws the football to her. “Chippy time.”
Chippy is her favourite meal. Especially when they eat it looking out on to the sea after a good kick-about. Something about the air makes it taste so much better. She gets a whole plate of chips to herself and adds enough salt and vinegar ‘to give someone a heart attack’.
“Let her be, Mary,” says Dad, as he adds just as much salt to his chips.
Mum tuts. She’s a nurse. And a hypocrite: she loves salt and vinegar too.
Severus pokes at his chippy tea.
“If you don’t hurry up, a seagull will come and eat it,” says Violet, mouth full.
Severus scowls.
“I’ll have it, if you don’t like it.”
“Lettie!” Her mum chastises. “Let Severus have at his tea in peace. Don’t you have enough food?”
Violet grins.
Petunia thinks chippy tea is ‘uncouth’. Whatever that means. Ever since Princess Margaret came to Birmingham, Petunia has been trying to be ‘elegant’. No doubt, Princess Margaret doesn’t have chippy tea in her fancy palaces. So Violet takes the extra chips and scampi that Tuney slides on to her newspaper plate.
At least Lily loves a chippy too.
“Do they do chippies at Hogwarts?” Lily asks Severus.
Severus’ mouth twists. “No.”
Lily puffs, blowing out the hair from her face. “That’s a shame. What sort of food is it?”
“Probably a load of toad eyes,” Petunia snipes. “Sheep’s brain.”
Mum and Dad snort into their chips.
Severus turns a nasty pink colour. “It’s just normal food.”
They drop Severus back home to Spinner’s End, as the sun is setting. The sky dips into purple. Excited murmurs of ‘See-You-Tomorrow’, and shared, nervous smiles. It will be weird without Lily, Violet thinks, as the car pulls up back to the house. It’s shame that magic school has to be so far away.
Lily and Violet share a bedroom wall, so Violet can't concentrate on playing war with her dad’s old plastic figurines, because Lily is making an awful racket through the wall. "What are you doing?" Violet peeps her head round the door frame.
"I can't find my Charms textbook," Lily says. She folds her arm over her chest. "Have you taken it?"
This is stupid thing to say, because Violet doesn't read. In fact, she would sooner poke her eyes with hot sticks than have to sit down and read one of those big books with loads of words. "No," she says. "Are you sure you haven't packed it already?" Lily's trunk is very full. She's taking just about all her worldly possessions, because she's worried about missing home.
"It was in my trunk," says Lily. "But now it's gone."
Violet pokes around into the trunk. How Lily will ever find anything in here is a mystery. "D'you really need all this stuff?"
"Yes," says Lily waspishly, shooing Violet's hands away.
"Here's your book."
It's Petunia, standing in the doorway, holding the missing textbook like it's a dirty rat she's found in the gutter.
"Were you reading it?" Lily asks. She's not angry. Rather, she sounds interested.
"No." Petunia throws the book on to the single bed and the door slams shut.
Lily takes the book. "She was definitely reading it. You know," Lily stops suddenly, glancing at the door. Lily drops her voice. "I found a letter in her room."
"A letter to who?"
"To Professor Dumbledore," says Lily. "At Hogwarts, asking if she could come too."
Violet is shocked.
"She wants to go," says Lily. She says this as though it's a fact: the sea is blue, the grass is green, Petunia wants to go to Hogwarts. Lily does this quite a lot. She ropes Violet into her little secrets, almost like a prize, if Violet is the sister she favours at the time. Lily feeds Violet information that Lily has collected like sea shells. It makes Violet feel special, almost as clever as Lily.
"But she can't," says Violet. "She's not got magic."
Lily shrugs; the end of the secret.