Chapter 58: Christmas Gifts
Christmas morning in Cokeworth. A thin mist clung to the glass, condensing into fine droplets.
Inside the little house at 4 Privet Drive, everything was snug. Firewood crackled in the hearth, orange light licking the grate, warming the carpet in the sitting room.
A typical Muggle home — not large, but full of warmth.
The sofa covers were checkerboard cloth laundered to softness. Breakfast plates still sat on the coffee table, a smear of jam at the rim. In the corner stood a modest Christmas tree wound with colored streamers and twinkling fairy lights.
Lily sat cross-legged on the carpet, an assortment of parcels heaped before her.
She wore a red sweater; her red hair was tied back. The firelight had brought a flush to her cheeks, and her fingers were already brushing over one of the packages.
Petunia sat on the sofa with her knees drawn up, eyes dark and heavy on the parcels beside Lily, lips pressed into a thin line.
For as long as she could remember, she had noticed something different about Lily — and now it was more pronounced than ever. Her sister had stepped into a world she could never reach.
Lily's parents sat on the facing sofa — Mother knitting, Father nursing a cup of hot tea, both watching their younger daughter.