Introducing
Lily woke up, panting.
She had just had the weirdest dream ever. James Potter, her sworn enemy, had been her boyfriend!
Laughing off the idea, she checked her calendar and had to do a double take to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating. Today was 31st August. Tomorrow she would be going back to school. She squealed with delight at the thought of returning to her beloved Hogwarts.
You see, Lily Evans was no ordinary girl. She was a 17 year old, going on 18, student at Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And tomorrow would be the beginning of her final year. Lily's stomach churned when she thought of her upcoming N.E.W.T.S. She was always like this. She fretted about exams for the majority of the time until they were over, then she fretted about the exam results and how well she had done. It drove her friends up the wall.
Last year, Lily had fretted so much about her O.W.L.S and the results that she developed Alopecia because of the stress. Alopecia was something that occurs when the person is under a lot of stress and it causes hair to fall off.
Thankfully, it didn't do a lot of damage but it gave Lily a real wake up call. It made her look back on the past six years of her life and think.
Firstly, she had the most kick ass friends that any girl could ever want. One never stopped partying and running after boys, one never got out of her bed, one never stopped being wise and a big bundle of fun and she never stopped studying and fretting and about exams. They certainly made one sexy foursome.
Secondly, she spent too much time studying and fretting. Every year she spent almost every day fretting about the exams despite her friends telling her to relax because they weren't big exams and that she could start worrying when the O.W.L.S came around but she never listened to them.
And Finally, She never allowed herself to be a proper teenager, she always gave herself the position of being the mature person, and being mature to her meant you couldn't get involved in the 'silly nonsense' that teenagers her age got up to. While her friends went out to parties and had fun, she always stayed in the library, doing nothing but wishing she could be as carefree as her friends could when she always had the chance to.
It took her almost seven years to realize that and now Lily finally knew that this was life. As her best friend, Danielle would say 'This is Life. Live it, Love it, Learn from it.' She was a teenager, she could go out, party a bit, fall in love a bit, get her heart broken a bit and dance like she just don't care a bit.
In fact, the only thing that remained the same was the fact that she thought James Potter was arrogant and cocky and she absolutely despised him. 'It's too bad,'she thought glumly, 'Because he is as fit as.'Wait a minute, where did that thought come from? Hell no, was she going to fall for that bloody Potter charm. 'But he does have lovely eyes' Oh my god. Shut up.
Lily shook her head. She was still half-asleep and the dream was on her mind. Shaking her self-awake (although she already was but she just didn't want to admit it), Lily dragged herself to the bathroom. Today was going to be a busy day.
****
James woke up to the sound of someone shouting in his ear.
"JAMES!" screamed a girls' voice in his ear "Oh my god, this guy could sleep through a mudslide."
Wait a minute. A girl, in his room, in the morning. Why is that making alarm bells ring? He slept naked last night!
James blindly leapt out of his bed reaching for his glasses and something to cover him up with. Who lets girls into his room in the morning?! Sirius Black! Oh man, is he dead!!
James finally found his glasses and put them on. As soon as he saw who was in the room he relaxed. It was Danielle, one of the lodgers and a fellow Gryffindor at Hogwarts. She was like a sister to him anyway.
"Calm down James." There was laughter in her voice. "Sirius took the liberty of covering you up before he let us enter, but honey, I doubt there's anything left of your dignity."
James looked down. Fortunately, he was now wearing black boxers; unfortunately, there was a burnt sausage with a sad smiley face drawn on it at the front and a speech bubble with the words 'My owner likes to over-use me'. James had never been so embarrassed in his life.
Danielle's sister, Rebecca appeared. She took one look at him and let out a low whistle. "James Potter, why did you never tell me that you had such a sexy body underneath all those clothes, I would have ripped them off a long time ago."
"That, would be exactly why I didn't tell you."
Rebecca shrugged. "It doesn't matter because I've seen better stuff."
"I don't even want to know what that means." Danielle said before Rebecca could say anything more.
Rebecca merely shrugged. Her phone beeped. She checked it. "Danni, how do you get it to show the message?"
Danielle took the phone off her. "Lily says she's coming today because she finally wants to be normal."
Rebecca laughed "Lily Evans wanting to be a teenager. Now that is rich. I guess it is about time. She's almost eighteen and she's never had a real boyfriend."
Danielle laughed "I'm sure I cannot trust you with that. You would set her up with the biggest womanisers ever just because they're hot."
James perked up.
"James, she despises you, remember?" Danielle said, sometimes James thought that she could read his mind. And everyone else's.
Rebecca leaned on the door. "I think I should get you a girlfriend while I'm acting the matchmaker. Remember, you've never had a real girlfriend either."
"That's because he has One Night Stands, Lily just couldn't be bothered with the whole fall in love and get your heart broken thing." Eliza, the last of the girls, appeared. Sirius appeared behind her looking extremely ruffled
Rebecca peered at them. "Wow, Eliza. You've totally out-whored yourself." Eliza merely shrugged. She was used to her sister's cutting remarks at the five-minute stands she has with Sirius, probably because Rebecca finally fell for the Sirius charm last year just as he lost interest in her. Eliza still couldn't believe that her sister could be so naïve. Everyone knew Sirius Black was a womaniser, why had she let herself fall so hard for him?
Sirius couldn't look anyone in the eye. He quickly shuffled across the room into the bathroom, and then the shower turned on. Rebecca glared at her sister. "Shouldn't you be doing the same?" Eliza rolled her eyes and walked off.
There was an awkward silence that was broken with the doorbell ringing. "I still don't understand how you can hear the bloody thing in this mansion." Rebecca sighed.
"Sound Enhancer spells" Danielle said and looked at her watch "10 o'clock on the dot. That doesn't sound like a different Lily to me."
"Give her a chance will you?" James snapped, changing quickly.
Danielle was mildly surprised. James had never used that tone of voice with her no matter how angry. Could that crush on Lily be genuine? "Hurry up James,"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" He said, sticking his head through his t-shirt.
Danielle ran down the spiral staircase and was about to reach the door when James overtook her. He gathered his breath for a second then opened the door with a huge grin on his face. It was James' mother.
"Nice to be greeted with such a wide, genuine smile." Eve Potter said. "Such a strange morning. First a met a beautiful, young red-headed girl staring at the Lilies in the garden and now my son awake before noon and opening the door with that gorgeous smile of his. This day certainly couldn't get better."
"Sirius is taking a shower." Danielle replied.
Eve chuckled "It just did. I don't think he's taken a shower all summer!"
"Be lucky you have a pool." Danielle laughed and walked out "Did you say you found a redhead in the Lily garden?"
Eve nodded "I told her she could look around if she wanted and when I left it looked like she was heading towards the fountains. Do you know her?"
"She's only the best friend ever and we're giving her a makeover today!" Rebecca squealed.
Eva looked confused "Why on earth would you want to give her a makeover?"
"She just wants to be a normal teenager." Danielle shrugged.
Eva shrugged. "I'm going to go upstairs and see if I can get Sirius to cut his hair. That really would be the cherry on top of the summer."
"Good Luck with that!" They all said, snorting.
Leaving Mrs. Potter on her own. They ran off.
When they reached the fountains, there was no sign of Lily. "Maybe she went off to check out the pool?" James said.
Danielle shook her head. "Lily doesn't like pools. Oh wait, I think I see her by the rose beds."
They walked over to the rose beds and met the most peculiar sight.
Lily Evans making out with the gardener.
****
"ARE YOU ON CRACK?" Danielle shouted at Lily later on that morning. It had taken them quite a bit of time to dislodge Lily from the gardener.
Lily's whole face and neck was red, "Sorry." She muttered.
"SORRY?! SORRY?!" Danielle roared. "Lily you do not just do that and then say sorry!"
"Maybe I let myself go a tiny bit too far?"
Danielle imploded. She was so furious that she couldn't even get the words out of her mouth, she soon gave up. "Lily, you do not throw yourself at every guy you see. Okay?"
"Eliza does."
"That's because Eliza is a whore." Danielle sighed. Everyone nodded in agreement.
"HEY!! I heard that!" Eliza appeared from under Sirius.
"Do I give a fuck?"
Eliza shrugged. It was what she did when she couldn't be bothered answering.
Danielle shook off the interruption. "Come on."
And together they walked off.
****
Several hours later, and James was still waiting for Lily and the other girls to appear. The only one of the triplets that was still there was Eliza and that was because she was crushed under Sirius. James hadn't even bothered to look in their direction.
James knew that the only reason Sirius was even bothering with Eliza was because he wanted her to fall under the Sirius charm. When he succeeded, he would go after Danielle. James also knew that he would never get to Danielle because Eliza would never fall for him.
He was so deep in thought that he hadn't acknowledged the giggling and whispering going on behind his door. The girls were back.
****
"I think we should simply walk in and say 'Tada!'" Lily giggled, never would she have thought that letting go of that mature position and being a normal 17-year-old teenage girl would be so easy. She fit right in. She just hoped that she could still be like this in school, but Danielle had guaranteed that there was no going back or she'd kick the living daylight out of her for all that wasted effort. That was the main reason why Lily was so scared.
"No I think fireworks would do the job." Danielle said "And we'll make them those illegal Japanese fireworks just to show that you're also on the rebellious side."
Lily laughed. "I think that might just give them a heart attack."
"And probably get Sirius and Eliza off each other. I can hear them from here. James must be throwing up sightlessly." Rebecca put in.
Lily opened her mouth. "Weird thing about James actually, I had a really strange dream last night that-" before she could get any further, the door opened. And out stepped James Potter.
****
James was completely gob smacked. No one could change that much in just a few hours. This was not the Lily Evans he knew. James was afraid. With the old Lily Evans, James had a mere crush on her. With every passing second, James was falling for this new Lily more and more. Something had changed about her, she was so much more fiery and James found that extremely sexy. She was now truly living up to her feline appearance.
Her green eyes had that extra sparkle, her hair seemed so much more shiny and alive and she now walked with confidence. James both hoped and dreaded that this wouldn't last. For one, he loved this new Lily and for another, if she stayed like this he didn't know how much longer he would last, and being almost as bad a womaniser as Sirius, he wasn't very fond of the whole falling in love and settling down thing, he liked being a player and getting all the attention. It stroked his ego while Lily stamped all over it.
What surprised him the most about Lily was that she agreed to come to the party they were throwing tonight as the mark of the end of the summer and most of their classmates and Gryffin-whores that Lily hated would be coming. Not surprisingly enough, most of the people coming hated Lily as well. So why Lily wanted to come he had no idea.
****
It was an hour before the party and Lily insisted on apparating home to quickly pack up the last minute things and change into one of the things that Danielle let her borrow.
Danielle was fretting over the outfit that she let Lily borrow. Although they were the same size, Danielle had a bigger bust (which Sirius could easily set the world record for staring at so much) so she let her borrow one of her old outfits and Lily said she'd transfigure it and make it more fashionable for the party.
Danielle hoped that she'd paid attention to the fashion magazine's Lily had borrowed in sixth year and would come up with something remotely fashionable, and that she wouldn't put her hair up in a ponytail or bun and would at least wear a tiny bit of makeup.
Thankfully, the dress that Danielle had leant her was a simple puffy black dress and was still a little bit in fashion so there wasn't really much for Lily to transfigure.
James just wanted to see Lily in that dress. Lily and Danielle were both roughly the same height and that dress was super-short on Danielle. Although both girls had porcelain skin, Danielle's legs were too pale for James' liking and Lily was now lightly tanned due to the fact that she'd gone to the Caribbean in July. The dress had also been strapless. James was practically jumping in excited.
"James, you do realize that there's more than one bathroom in this manor and not all of them are as minging as yours."
"Mine is only stinky because Sirius shares it with me."
Eliza appeared at the door. "My work is done."
"Huh?" James was quite confused.
"That's it. I've officially shagged every male student in Hogwarts that isn't Slytherin. I'm ready to settle down."
Danielle laughed and then stopped. "If she says every guy does that mean… Oh my god have you two had sex?!"
James blushed but Eliza just stood there. "Duh."
Danielle shot him a death glare… And walked out of the room.
"Oh shit." Eliza shook her head. "I forgot about the Lily thing."
"No, you dummy head." Danielle appeared again. "It means you've had sex with Peter Pettigrew! That's sick! And that also means you've had sex with Remus."
"Remus was boyfriend at the time and he dumped me straight after."
"That's because he didn't want to have sex and you were both drunk. And Sirius over-heard you screaming your head off about how you hated him."
When Danielle is angry. No one in their right mind would stand up to her unless you wanted to be sent flying and land on top of a sushi seller in Japan. When Danielle is furious, you just ran away screaming for help and hope that a superhero or Dumbledore would magically appear and kill her. Don't get me wrong, Danielle Nightingale is a bundle of fun. When she's not angry.
That was why, Eliza, who was naturally the brave one out of the triplets, stood down immediately when her sister started shouting at her. She had been so stupid bringing up that subject. The last person that brought up a sensitive topic (which contained their now deceased mother) was their cousin Ethel. What happened to her? Danielle had hit her with a reducto spell so powerful it had amputated her left arm. Where is she now? She's a permanent resident at St. Mungo's in the spell damage ward for trauma. No one that knows Danielle would never get her angry. Anyone stupid enough to get Danielle angry could just say hasta lavista to a limb or start singing 'I believe I can fly'
Before Danielle could shout anymore, Lily appeared at the doorway with a gawping Sirius following her.
James felt his mouth drop as well but made no effort to bring it back up. She looked STUNNING! The simple black dress that Lily went away with had disappeared. The body of the dress was still black but the skirt was now extra puffy with layers of lace that were every colour imaginable.
"Who knew Lily Evans was secretly a fashionista?" Danielle said, walking around Lily and checking out every bit of the dress. "I must say I'm impressed."
Lily blushed. James had never noticed how when she blushed, it spread to her face and neck. He couldn't help wondering whether it went down any further. He quickly dismissed that thought. He truly would never be able to prove that theory because Lily Evans would never like him, he was still amazed at the fact that she hadn't slapped him or cursed him yet, but that was because he hadn't talked to her yet, and maybe he should get started. Just to see what happens.
He raised his head to find everyone looking at him, probably waiting for him to make a sexually harassing comment about her.
"Wow, Lily. You look lovely." He said clearly.
He was confused by the look that appeared on her face. He expected shock, but instead he received realization.
What on earth was going on?
"You know what you need?" Danielle could barely conceal her excitement. Over what, James had know idea but it looked like her sister's were the same. "A pair of red shoes. And I have the perfect ones! They're in my room which we have to go to NOW!!"
With one gesture, she grabbed a surprised looking Lily by the arms and half dragged, half carried her out of the room with Eliza and Rebecca running after her. As soon as they were out of the room the squealing began. James was sure that if he went outside, he would come back deaf.
****
"GUYS!" Lily shouted, she had been trying to get her best friends to calm down but they were just squealed and shook her by the shoulders. The only thing she understood from them this past half hour was 'We told you so'.
Surprisingly enough, this time they shut up.
"We told you so!" Danielle screamed at her and started jumping up and down.
"Told me what?"
"That James is really sweet and that you should give him a chance. Didn't I tell you that the only problem was his ego? But NO, Mrs. Prefect was always right! So ha, stick that up your pipe and smoke it." Eliza squealed. The others joined in with the squealing and the talking.
Lily had to admit that they were right. James had barely spoke to her the whole time she'd been there and he hadn't asked her out once. He was just a normal boy at home, instead of the arrogant and cocky Quidditch star at school that she despised so much. Maybe it really was the screaming girls that made him that way.
The girls had stopped screaming. Danielle was looking at her. "Lily, promise us that you'll give him a chance this year."
"Why?"
"Because you've just seen what he's really like under the ego. That's why we love him." Rebecca said.
"Underneath the enormous ego of his is one hell of a guy and under the strict and mature body is a wild girl that's everything the shell isn't. That's all it is, a shell. You broke free and so can he. But no one can do that but you."
"What?" Lily suddenly had the urge to laugh.
"Lily, if you befriend him, I can almost guarantee you that he will break out of his."
Lily sighed. She doubted it was going to work but at least it would give her a new project to work on this year instead of homework. She knew if she didn't keep herself busy she'd quickly become her old self. As they say, old habits die hard. This is just a way of breaking them slowly; she was still working but not on school work.
"Fine." Cheering erupted.
"Now about those red heels…" Rebecca started. She had always been the girly girl of the bunch while Eliza was the tom boy slut and Danielle was a bit of both. Lily thought that was why she liked her best, she was a balance while the others were just one thing but that didn't mean she loved them less, she had always been a fan of balance even though the last six years didn't show it.
"And about this party…" Danielle had a wicked glint in her eyes that made Lily feel instantly nauseous.
"Danielle, what are you planning?"
"Nothing now lets get you those sexed up shoes."
"I think black would be better." Eliza said thoughtfully.
Danielle rolled her eyes. She knew what was coming from Rebecca. In 3, 2, 1.
Rebecca snorted. "Black is so plain Jane. Red is bright and bold, it makes a statement and brings out the colour of her eyes like her hair does, and thankfully, Lily is more the auburn colour so red on top of it doesn't clash. We need sexy red which is such a contrast to black and makes it bolder, and I think Lily didn't a really good job by making the lace neon instead of just normal."
"And I always wondered why you always got in trouble for talking in class. I was dumb enough to think that you were actually talking about work considering your scores." Remus Lupin had suddenly popped up. Rebecca blushed, she had always had a crush on Lupin, the only one of the marauder's that had the good looks but didn't flaunt them. All four girls had always admired that about him. Rebecca only fancied him because he talked to her like a normal person and didn't treat her like a dumb ass because of her girly personality.
"Photographic memory, our family's famous for it. Ask anyone."
"Maybe I will next time I see Dumbledore." Lupin had never got over the fact that the triplets were related to Dumbledore, or that Dumbledore was once MARRIED! You see, the triplets, now deceased mother was indeed Dumbledore's daughter. The whole school knew it but no one could get it out of their heads, although it did have an advantage. No one ever approached them for a fight apart from the incredibly cocky Slytherins' like Bellatrix Black and the Malfoy family. Narcissa, Bellatrixs' sister had never been one to fight but being one of the gang left her injured many times.
"You just go ahead and do that." Eliza said. Despite the fact that it had been two years since the sexual incident. Eliza had never forgiven Remus for dumping her, and killing her hippogriff. Last year she'd snuck in a baby hippogriff and despite James' best efforts to protect it, Remus had killed it off during a full moon.
Remus turned to Rebecca and smiled at her. "You know, I really want to learn Occlumency but no one knows how to teach me it. James told me you could?"
"Well, actually that more Danielle-" She broke off with a hiss as both Danielle and Eliza stepped on her feet.
"Oh sorry, was that you're foot? I thought it was a lizard, you should stop wearing those crocodile skin shoes, Rebecca!"
Eliza shrugged "I knew it was her foot." Lily cracked up laughing.
Rebecca smiled tightly at Remus "I'd love to. I'll see you next week."
"How about now, just for like five minutes."
Rebecca blushed "Okay. Let me just change."
"Sure. I need to talk to Prongs and Padfoot anyway." And he hurried off.
As soon as Lupin was out of sight, she turned to the other girls. "Fuck you."
****
Lily had never laughed so much in her life. She had finally let go and was having fun. Instead of getting ready, they had spent the whole time laughing over their embarrassing moments and practically throwing up at Eliza's tales of sickness.
Danielle was properly sick when Eliza told the tale of when she was 13, she went to her best friends dinner party and she farted at the table and liquid crap had run down her leg and landed on the dog who she had secretly been feeding scraps all night.
They had laughing fits over the time in third year that Danielle had come over and climbed up the pine tree in the back garden and refused to come down, only jumping down when Lily's older sister came to laugh at her with her friends and landing on top of all five of them laughing and saying how they were all soft and squiggly and should maybe lose a bit of weight.
One of Petunia's friends took Danielle seriously and had run home crying. Petunia had been furious and started screaming and shouting at Danielle calling her a freak and many other unpleasant things, the last straw had been when Petunia had shrieked in front of all the neighbours-who had come outside to see what was causing all of the commotion-that Danielle and her sisters were unwanted orphans and she hoped that became prostitutes.
Danielle had jumped on Petunia and beat her until her face inflated to three times it's normal size. When Lily's parents had asked them both to apologize to each other, Petunia had apologized although it was obvious she didn't mean it. Danielle had said "Too be honest, there's nothing I'm sorry about. Her face is an improvement, at least she doesn't look like a horse anymore, well, apart from her teeth but I'm sure one of your dentists could fix them for you"
When Rebecca had arrived, she had appeared very ruffled and had the most enormous hickey on her neck.
Eliza had laughed at her. "You must be a good teacher."
Something in Lily's memory stirred "Danielle,"
"Hmmm?"
"Why were you so smug that last day of school last year?"
Danielle laughed. "You know the way I was going out with Johnny Mokpo? The American guy? Well, the broom cupboard door opened when I was fixing myself up and Mrs. Norris appeared. She practically zoomed off to tell Filch and I was pissed off at her already because she got me three detentions that past week. One for a fanged Frisbee, one for cursing Snape." Lily scowled at that. "And one for squashing a pasty all over Filch's door so I ran after her and kicked her from the Seventh Floor. I saw her land beside Samantha Smithing's trunk in the entrance hall. I think she died. She was still there when I came down like, three hours later."
Lily and the rest of the girls were in hysterics.
Danielle continued like the girls were still listening. "Next time, I swear I'll go around the school with a bucket of soapy water and Mrs. Norris and clean every single wall with her then mail her to Filch in an envelope by muggle mail. Good luck finding her then Filch."
The girls cracked up even more.
"He'll probably hang every single mailman in Scotland by his feet and start spanking him. I prefer using their bum cheeks as drums. "She sighed and then said, "Shall we get ready then?"
The other girls were crying from laughing so hard and she still hadn't noticed. Without even acknowledging their presence, she changed and did her hair; she'd almost finished her makeup when they finally stopped. Lily was rolling around on the floor, still giggling.
"Danielle, you are so mad! I love you!" Lily said breathlessly.
James started banging on the door. "What could you guys possibly be doing in there? I got a party and myself ready in less than three hours and you guys haven't even gotten out of that room!"
Lily got up and opened the door for him, still giggling. "We're simply going insane." She threw herself on him laughing, she made a grab for his hand to pull him in but quickly let go. She could have sworn she felt electricity shooting up her arm. She made a grab for his arm again then let go. This time it was more intense. "Wow, James you're a portable electricity circuit." She giggled.
She stopped laughing. He was staring at her. Self-consciously she pulled her hair back and smoothed down her dress. "We'll be down in a minute."
That managed to shake him out of his daze. "Oh, no, no, no!" James quickly said, smiling. "I don't trust you guys. Whoever's ready get out now. Lily you're ready aren't you?" Lily nodded.
"Anyone else?"
Although it was obvious, Danielle was ready but she hurriedly shook her head. Lily stared at them. Were they doing this on purpose? "James, why don't you show Lily the party room while I finish up and they start?" Although she sounded really convincing, Lily knew she was doing this on purpose.
"Sure. Would you like to see it?" He asked her. God, he has gorgeous eyes. Lily couldn't help thinking. Why won't these thoughts stop coming to my head! This is so dumb!
Lily shrugged "Sure! I have nothing better to do."
James' whole face light up although Lily could see the astonishment there. Had she really been that bad to him? Danielle nodded behind James' back. Lily always got the feeling that Danielle could read minds.
James practically dragged Lily downstairs. What was up with everyone dragging her to places? She had two perfectly good feet! By the time she managed to voice those thoughts, James had let go of her.
"Sorry." He said sincerely. "So, this is the ballroom."
Lily was astonished. It was a Hogwarts party. There was the Hogwarts crest everywhere and the room was charmed to be like the great hall at Hogwarts with the ceiling and everything! "Wow!"
"Now, it is." James sighed. "Wait until this place is so packed you can't breath!"
"Well, James Potter, you were always one to throw a proper party." Lily laughed lightly. That's when James realized, she had called him by his proper name and had been all day!
Suddenly, everything in the room brighten. He was so much more happier. James grabbed Lily by the waist and started spinning her. She squealed with delight and playfully started slapping her hands away. He let go of her and she turned to shout at him, they found themselves face to face, noses practically touching.
Lily laughed "James Potter you do not spin me around without warning, I've been laughing my arse off for the last three hours until I was almost sick, you're lucky I'm not chucking up all over you right now!"
"You wouldn't."
"No, I wouldn't. But I would do this." She reached inside his pocket and grabbed his wand and ran to the other side of the room.
James laughed and started running after her, with a shriek of laughter, Lily was off. It was like a cat and mouse chase.
They knocked over everything, punch bowls, food bowls, even tables, they almost broke the podium as well. James tripped up around seven times on account of Lily throwing things at him, she even transfigured a cup into a water melon, which caused James to almost break his neck trying to dodge it.
By the time the other girls had popped in, the whole room was a mess.
"What have you guys been doing?" Eliza shouted while Rebecca received a fork to the forehead.
Danielle drew her wand and transfigured everything in the room apart from the people, into food. She picked up two pizzas and threw them. They hit James and Lily, who had stopped running, squarely in the face.
"FOOD FIGHT!" Both Lily and James shouted and everyone started picking up food and throwing it at one another.
An hour passed and the guests started pouring in, they also joined in, even the Gryffindor sluts, who Lily would have thought, would've been too worried about their hair and makeup getting messed up. Lily had even teamed up with Naira, the Hogwarts Whore to get James and Sirius.
It was a party that rocked all parties. Danielle managed to reinforce the food spells so that they reappeared again as soon as someone picked them up in the exact same place. Danielle called it 'Ammunition Stations'.
They carried on for hours, they stopped at one o'clock in the morning but that was only because Mr. Potter had arrived from work and thought that enough was enough.
Most students went home but some students stayed the night. Not surprisingly enough, all of the students that stayed were girls and they all disappeared with Sirius. Rebecca was shocked to find that her sister Eliza had no one tonight.
Eliza laughed in her face. "You think I was doing that because I'm a slut? Oh no, it was just a bet that I had with Wormtail. He is such a skeez. At least I got money out of it." She shook the bag in her hand and it rattled.
"So, you're a very cheap prostitute then." Rebecca sniped in causing everyone to chuckle.
This time Eliza turned red. And slapped her sister. And called her a 'cow.'
"Anyone fancy going to the kitchen for a drink?" Danielle asked..
Rebecca and Lupin also declined the offer. "What do you have planned for tonight?"
They both blushed furiously. Danielle shot Eliza a deadly look. "Anyone?"
James shook his head. "I've gotta clean up the ballroom. Lily, would you mind helping me with the charms?"
Lily nodded, quite surprised at the request. She never thought James actually took notice.
Danielle raised her eyebrows at James behind Lily's back. He had the marauder's glint in his eye. She'd been known to have the same glint when she was planning something. James winked at her when Lily wasn't looking. She had a feeling she was going to start laughing soon.
Usually, when James planned something that involved Lily. He usually ended up in the hospital wing with Danielle and Rebecca making up excuses and Eliza laughing while James was unconscious. Danielle only hoped that Lily had outgrown that when she outgrew her shell. Otherwise, James was fucked.
"I'll be in the kitchen if anyone wants to join us" Danielle said, after a while "Or needs medical attention." She couldn't help adding, giving Lily and James a pointed look.
Lily looked like she was about to laugh while James scowled. He didn't like the idea of a girl injuring him even though Lily had done numerous times in the past. One time, she was a second away from conducting an Unforgivable when Danielle had non-to-gently, snatched Lily's wand away.
"Bye!" James said cheerfully. Lily looked up at the last second. Had she just imagined it or did James just give Danielle the middle finger. She shook her head and started walking off towards the ballroom.
She turned around to look at them and found that Eliza was staring at the place on Rebecca's forehead where the fork had hit her "Wow, it looks like Satan's mighty angry with you! What the hell did you do to him?!" Danielle was outright laughing and Lupin was trying to hide his laughter by coughing.
She smiled, she had brilliant friends. But why, oh why, did they all have to be sisters!! At least Rose wasn't in Gryffindor.
Rose is the fourth sister of the quadrants. She was sorted into Slytherin and her other sisters, Gryffindor. She had never spoken them again unless it was to sneer at them or tell them it was their fault their mum died. Now she'd joined Voldemort and according to Danielle, she always sends Rebecca and Danielle death threats and tried to maintain her friendship with Eliza. Eliza had declined, telling Rose (who now refers to herself as Black Rosé.) that why on earth would she want to keep a friendship going with a so-called sister that joined the very person who single-handily killed their mother. She also told her the name Black Rosé is the shittiest nickname she'd ever heard in her life and that she should be ashamed of herself.
Lily's thoughts turned to Mrs. Nightingale. Mrs. Nightingale had been killed in an attack. Voldemort came to their house at the dead of night the summer before fifth year. He went straight into Danielle's room and woke her up when she heard the clinking. She opened her eyes to find Voldemort staring at her with his cold red eyes, wand in her face and holding in his wand hand was the shell necklace her grandmother had given her before the Inferi drowned her in a cave.
As soon as she saw the shell necklace, fury filled Danielle, she snatched the necklace off Voldemort. Her mother burst into the room, panting. Voldemort killed her before she even saw what was happening.
Danielle lost it when she saw her mother's lifeless body. She grabbed her wand off the bedside table, she hadn't even opened her mouth when her necklace started glowing and her wand let out a burst of golden red fire that had shot out of her wand and blew Voldemort through four walls and a window onto the street outside. He fled.
That night, the Nightingale's became orphans. Lily felt tears spark up in her eyes. Mrs. Nightingale. Lovely Mrs. Nightingale was dead.
Lily had never met a woman so pure. She practically glowed. When Lily first met her, she thought she was a real angel. She didn't even look like a mother. She looked like she was barely twenty and she was so beautiful. She had porcelain skin and freckles along her nose. Lily had never seen a wrinkle on her in the five years she had known her and she had Dumbledore's twinkling blue eyes, which only Danielle had inherited from her. Rebecca and Eliza both had gray eyes and Roses' were black.
When Lily's' parents had met her they had been mesmerised. Although Mrs. Nightingale was a gentle soul, she oozed power. She lived by the quote 'Never hate, just dislike.' and would always tell the girls off if they mentioned that they hated this and that. She always said that the reason why Voldemort was this way was because he started hating. She would always tell them not to make the same mistake that he did.
Every time Lily looked at Danielle, she found Mrs. Nightingale staring at her. Danielle was a living, breathing version of her mother. She oozed the same power and confidence, she had the radiant beauty and the porcelain skin with the blonde hair and freckles.
Sometimes she wondered whether that was why her sisters' let her take charge. Even Rose was intimidated by her at school. She would quickly make up an excuse to hurry away when she saw Danielle walking down the corridor. In the one time, she did fight Danielle she ran away in tears. She remembered Danielle's face, she had uttered three words 'How could you?'. Lily watch Rose turned from a sneering Slytherin to a terrified little girl that needed her mother before her very eyes. It was the moment that Danielle gained eternal respect from Lily.
Lily was brought back down to earth by James' face looking at her.
"Are you okay?" Lily looked at his kind face and nodded. Now was not the time for emotion. "I'm fine. I was just thinking about Mrs. Nightingale, that's all."
James sighed. "Mrs. Nightingale was certainly something. Remember her funeral and what the triplets said."
'I am proud to call her my mother.' a stony faced Danielle had said 'she lived so hard because she wasn't afraid to live, she wasn't afraid to die.'
'She is strongest person I know. She is the most powerful person I know' Alizah had continued. 'just because she is dead, does not mean she was weak. It just makes her more powerful.'
'Voldemort's true fear is death, and that is why he is truly weak.' Rebecca who had cried from that day to three months after the funeral 24/7, even in her sleep.
'And that is why, he will never win, because we are her legacy.' Danielle had finished.
Dumbledore himself was in tears.
And now Lily was.
James hugged her and sighed. "You know what? You're obviously tired and I think I manage to clean up the room by myself, I set it up in the first place."
Lily stubbornly shook her head. "It's fine. I said I would help and I will."
James shot her a smile that she could only describe as sexy. "You certainly do stick to your word Lily."
And with that, they went off to clean the ballroom.
*****
Danielle was crying. She had been doing that very often for the last 3 years. But only, of course when she was alone. She wouldn't want to be a burden to everyone.
She sighed and put down the bottle of butterbeer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow lurking. When she turned around it had disappeared.
She looked at her delicate hands and felt a burst a self-loathing erupt from her. Why did she have to look like her mother? She threw the empty butterbeer bottle at the wall. It smashed into a million pieces.
She started crying hysterically. She never noticed the light breeze. She sat up suddenly and felt her cheek. It was tingling. Someone had kissed her. She looked around and found she was alone.
'I must be going mad' she thought. 'Or maybe I'm just tired.'
As she made her way to her room, she caught sight of the shadow many more times but never took any of it into account.
Danielle slugged back to her room. The last thing she saw was an open window and a shadow.
*****
Lily and James were exhausted. They had cleaned up every single inch of the ballroom. Who knew food could get into so many places. Their backs were killing them and their eyes felt like lead.
"I'm not walking up all those stairs." James yawned.
Lily merely nodded her agreement.
James opened a door that lead to one of the guestrooms and silently the walked in and jumped on the bed. They were asleep before their heads hit the pillow.