NOVEMBER DAY
It was a relaxing afternoon in November. The sun was shining, colourful leaves were lying on the meadows of Hogwarts and you were able to see lonely shapes promenading around the lake. It can be imagined that it was warm out there, but the surroundings were misleading. The wind whistled loudly and made the fallen leaves fly, the temperature had sunk during the last days by substantial degrees. It was deathly cold.
Lily Evans was sitting in front of the window in the warm, comfy Gryffindor common room and was looking at the lake, where you were able to recognise four people dressed in black who whirled around the foliage and tapped on each other's shoulders. Next to Lily sat two young girls who were working on their essays for Transfiguration. Hestia Jones desperately shook her head right before she scribbled out the last sentence she'd written whereas Emmeline Vance had already almost finished her work. Lily averted her gaze from a certain black-haired, tall boy with glasses and looked at Hestia.
"That's wrong, you have to write that while porcupines are complicated because of –", she was interrupted by loud squeaking and Hestia tilted her head back.
"You. Will. Never. Guess. What's. Just. Happened," a girl rather small for her seventeen years sprang towards the three friends. She shook her auburn hair from her face and beamed at them. "Uh, Potions is cancelled for seventh years?", Emmeline shouted while finishing her last sentence and shoving away the essay. Hestia darted an approving look at her before looking at Alice Allington and perking her eyebrows up: "Slughorn did declare his love for Lily Evans?" Alice giggled but looked kind of disappointed at them: "No, no, no! Easier!"
"Frank asked you out?", asked Lily from the background, she bent over Hestia's essay and corrected her mistakes. Alice jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "Oh yes! Do you believe it? He'll come and take me to Hogsmeade next weekend. Isn't that great?" she shook her hair again and mumbled something about the hairdresser and a new hairstyle. Emmeline grinned at her. "I hope you'll turn into your normal, calm self until then. You'd scare him off right now." Hestia laughed and Alice sat down beside the girls and looked languorous outward. She had strong feelings for Frank for a long time, but has always been too shy to talk to him, and then they occasionally met at Diagon Alley during the summer holidays and he started a conversation. Since last July, he was in training for the job of an Auror. He was very busy and they couldn't owl often.
Lily shoved the finished essay to Hestia, reaped a big thank you and looked at the lake, but the boys had disappeared. She sighed. "You know, Lily, I think you should talk to Potter," Emmeline said suddenly jumping onto the window sill in front of Lily, so she could face her. Emmeline pulled her legs near to her body, put her head onto her knees and closed her eyes. "I mean, soon it'll be so obvious that you like him, even McGonagall will see it, do you want that?" Hestia who was sitting at the table nodded slowly. "How you stare at him, like really."
"Fiddle-faddle!", Lily retorted. "I don't have to do anything, everything's fine the way it is right now."
"James and you, you're made for each other! Even Black says so and he's got a brain that's as big as pea!", Hestia remarked while Emmeline perked her eyebrows. She wanted to say something, but Lily pre-empted her. "You're wrong, Hestia. Black is astoundingly smart. His tests are superb, that's what the teachers say." Emmeline nodded. "In Defence Against the Dark Arts, he's even better than Lily!" Alice coughed and winked at Lily. "James too, by the way. Maybe you should ask him for some tutoring and –"
"Oh, stop it, Alice.", Lily fawned with her hand and frowned. "Rot!"
"I just wanted to help, now that I almost have a boyfriend." Alice sighed and smiled.
Hestia decided to help Lily and distracted the girls: "Did you hear? The Daily Prophet reported new attacks on Muggles, I think it's horrible. You-know-who is awful!" Emmeline and Alice nodded approvingly while Lily looked outward. "That's why I've decided to become an Auror!", Alice said and sat up. "You know, to help people and everything." Emmeline ruffled through her hair. "Yeah, that's what I've been thinking too. It would be nice if you were able to help people."
"My aunt's working for the Daily Prophet for two years, I think that's what I'll do. I don't think that this Auror-thing is something for me. ", Hestia said and the three girls looked at Lily. The redhead stared at the entrance of the common room and watched the four boys who had been at the lake earlier and were entering the Gryffindor common room this minute. They were grinning, had red cheeks and messy hair. The one with the glasses looked at Lily and she briefly lifted her hand, but his best friend who was observed by the five third years, pulled him with him into their dormitory. The other two boys followed them after exchanging a few words. "Yes, being an Auror, that would be awesome. But you have to be brilliant.", Lily finally said. "And it's dangerous. Especially right now..." She swallowed and looked at the Daily Prophet that was lying on the ground. There was a Muggle family on the front page, they were killed last Thursday by Death Eaters.
"And it'll be worse," Emmeline whispered. Hestia nodded. "I don't really want to know whether or who of our friends will die. Just the thought of it ... it's dreadful." Alice said sadly looking at the ground. "I hope it's not going to be one of you," she muttered and buttoned her jacket. Lily looked at her friends: "I bet one of us will survive this," she said after a long silence and three pairs of eyes were watching her. She was angry and sad and hoped imploringly that she was wrong. That was the moment she knew that she had to do something. She had to help and learn and she had to be strong.
She had been in the library until late at night, she took complete books about the profession of an Auror with her and she read them, learned about the apprenticeship. By this time, she sat in the common room of the head boy and girl, on her lap, there was a book by Derek Chorist who was talking about his experiences about being an Auror. Lily was exhausted, her eyes slowly closed. The fire crackled, raindrops pounded against the windows, it was dark on the outside. Lily heard footsteps, then a quiet "ouch" and then finally the door opened. She looked at James Potter, the head boy. James stared at her puzzled and ruffled his hair. He looked unkempt, his glasses were taken off, he was wearing a grey t-shirt and dark blue sweatpants. "Lily? What are you doing here? It's already 1 am," he rubbed his eyes and sat down on the sofa beside her, looked at all the books lying on the table.
"I wanted to read a bit ... I just forgot the time, I guess. Does it hurt?" she yawned. James took the book that was lying on Lily's lap and closed it. "Just stubbed my toe. You want to become an Auror;" that was no question. She just stared at him and blinked shortly. "It's dangerous and –"
"I know," Lily interrupted and looked at the fire. "I have thought about it quite a lot and I think it makes sense, I mean, to adopt this career. Because of You-know-who and stuff..."
"But don't you think it would be a better idea to become a teacher for Potions or something like that? Like being in Hogwarts? I just think, Dumbledore's here and well, you'd be safe and –"
"It's not about my safety, James," she laughed briefly and looked into his brown, bright eyes. "I want to help."
"Yeah, but –," he stopped talking and swallowed. Then he nodded. "I guess, I have to cope with that. Sirius wants this too," he grumbled and Lily stared at him confused. "But why does it disturb you? That's also what you want!" She bit her lip and became silent when she saw his face. "Sirius is like my brother! Do you think I want to see him die? Or Remus? Or you?" Lily's heartbeat duplicated when she heard him saying this. She looked at him, speechless. He was scared; you could see the dread in his eyes.
For quite some time, the Gryffindor didn't say anything, and then she took his hand and squeezed it. "I don't want this too, James, but we can ... we can try to do something against this. We can try to protect the ones we love. And that's why I'll become an Auror," she explained. James looked like a little, sad boy. "James," Lily muttered and he lifted his head. "Someday, everything will get better, I know that. It's always been like this and it'll always be like this."
"Probably," he whispered and stroked her hair from her face, she closed her eyes and sensed him, he was so warm and simply James. "We have to sleep, it's late," Lily said, her voice was shaking and she opened her eyes. James looked at her. "Yes," his voice was hoarse; he rose and took Lily with him."Sleep tight, James," Lily said and smiled softly, he was still holding her hand. "Dream of me," for a brief moment he turned back into his confident, cheeky self, Lily laughed. "Only of you, Potter," she answered and James grinned. "Did you just flirt with me? If so ...," Lily blushed. "... then ... I get a goodbye kiss?" Lily gently shook his hand off and stepped back. "Maybe on our first date in Hogsmeade." And with these words she left a stunned James Potter simply thus and disappeared smiling in her dormitory. She crawled underneath her blanket and buried her head in her pillow, she was exhausted. She's spent the whole day thinking about her future and she wondered whether life would really be how she'd imagined it. Her last thought before falling asleep was a deep hope that they were wrong. That they would survive; everybody.
But how likely was that?