The Magic of MASH
By DrillSargent87
"Okay, Lily, do you want to play MASH?" Alice asks me as I sit down on my bed. This bed happens to be in the Heads dorms I was given a room in at the beginning of the year. That's right, I, Lily Evans, am Head Girl at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This means I'm in my final and last year here. *sigh* Alice has spent that last few hours telling me, in detail, about her latest date with her longtime boyfriend, Frank Longbottom. Now she wishes to play a muggle game, with a wizarding twist.
"Alright, Alice, you got me. I'll play." I tell her as I get up and retrieve my portable writing stand.
"So, do you want me to take or give the predictions," I question her.
"I'll give it because I already know my future," she replies, reaching for the stand in my hands. "Okay," she said as she wrote on the parchment, "Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House, Salary, Spouse, number of children, job."
"You ready," I inquire as a try to choose what I'd like to fill in for my choices.
"Almost," she says, "Alright…done. Okay, what do you want your salary to be?"
"Um…one million galleons and…err…100 thousand galleons."
"Okay…my pick…done," she mumbles as she writes it all down, "Now spouse."
"Let me think….Severus Snape or…um…Sirius Black," I say choosing two opposite people. She gives me a look to imply that she thought I was crazy, rolls her eyes, and writes it down.
"Now I have to choose…um…oh, I've got it," she says excitedly to herself. Then to me, "Okay, what about number of children?"
"I've always wanted either a small family or a really big family…so…one and six," I mull over out loud, then give my answer.
"Now you need to tell me what job you want."
"Okay, this is the easy one. Healer or auror," I tell her matter-of-factly.
"Alright, she mumbles quickly, scribbling her choice for me, "Now choose a random number."
"56," I answer.
"Fine, now go make sure no one can over hear us. Then go put on your cutest pajamas," she ordered me. I went off to do as she ordered but added my own tasks; taking a shower (because my hair looks better wet) and magically painting my nails. I know Alice can take a while to count during this game because she is so excited she sometimes, well most times, has to start over.
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As I took my shower in the bathroom that I shared with the Head Boy, I heard him come in from his evening Quidditch practice. I quickly finished up my shower, knowing he would want one. I pulled on my red and gold vertically striped girl boxer shorts over my smooth pale legs. I also put on my red bra with a gold spaghetti strap tank top over it. I ran a brush though my toweled dry hair to get rid of any remaining tangles. Then I quickly shook my head from side to side to get the wet stringy look I loved with my hair. I grabbed my wand and magically painted my nails with Gryffindor red and gold with tiny, silently roaring Gryffindor lions on each nail. Then I cleared the humidity in the room.
Stepping in to his room I saw it was very clean, for a teenage boy. His back was to me and he was removing his shirt. I cleared my throat, announcing my presence. He spun around with his t-shirt sleeves at his wrists and covering his hands. As he stared at me in surprise the shirt fell to the ground.
"Lily," us all he could choke out before his eyes glanced over my attire. He gulped and added, "Wow."
"What?" I question, glancing down at what I'm wearing, I see nothing wrong with having house spirit in my sleepwear and nail polish but I added, "Is there something wrong with what I'm wearing?"
He quickly recovered and cleared his throat, only to clear it again and reply, "No, nothing is wrong. It's just that I've never seen you dressed that way before."
"Oh, well, it's just my pajamas. I'm done in the bathroom, you can use it now. See you in the morning," I smile and turn to cross though the bathroom back to my room. Where Alice should be done counting what my fortune is.
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"Are you done yet?" I ask Alice as I lay down on my stomach, propping my face up with my hands and kicking my feet up behind me, only to cross them left over right.
"Yep," she replies mysteriously, popping the p, "And you'll never guess what your fortune is."
"Oh no, I'm not going to marry Snape and have six kids with him, am I?" I ask horrified at what it could be.
"No," she laughs at me, shuddering at the thought of anyone having six kids with Snape, "I would feel sorry for that to be the fate of anyone."
"You have to tell me what it is," I plead as I try to peek at the paper.
"Only if you don't get mad at me," she bargains, hugging the parchment to her chest.
"Why would I be mad?" I inquire as I sit up, sitting chris-cross-applesause and my wrists crossing right over left where my legs cross. [AN: it was the only way I could think of describing what I had in mind, even though it is very preschool]
"Well, not mad in particular, but…angry?" she tries to explain.
"Just tell me," I insist.
"Aright," she gives in, "You're going to be a healer with a salary of one million galleons a year. You'll live in a house with your husband and one child," she reads, picking and choosing what words to use.
"Yeah, but whose my husband?" I prod her, trying to peek at the parchment again. She pulls it to her chest and hides the words from me. She mumbles something I can't hear.
"What did you say?" I ask, suspicious that something was wrong.
"James Potter," she whispers.
"You must be joking," I look at her serious face, "You're not joking." I fall back against my pillows, thinking to my self well, he hasn't acted romantically towards me all year and he does look good, no yummy, with out his shirt off. No, Lily, don't think that, you think he is a sculpture of a Greek god. No, I don't, and who are you to talk to me? I'm your conscience, dear. How come you sound like my grandmother? Because you believe that she would be there for you, no matter what. Now lets get back to that "yummy" boy you've dreamt about. I didn't try to dream of holding a child that looked like him. Ah, but the child had your eyes. That doesn't mean anything. Alice is right. You two would be a wonderful couple. Shut up, I'm going back to the real world, where things make since. Aright, dear, good-bye for now. I left the conversation in my head and looked for Alice. She was leaning over me with a worried look on her face.
"What happened to you?" she worriedly asks, "You heard the end of the prediction and passed out."
"Oh, I was just internally fighting with my conscience," I tell her as I sit up and look around the room, nobody else is there, "I was just shocked that you could see me with him in the future. It mainly came as a surprise."
"I'm glad you're alright. I thought you would kill me."
"If I did, Frank would kill himself, then we'd lose a wonderful auror to be," I point out.
"You're right," she sighs dreamily, "He is going to be a wonderful auror."
"Speaking of Frank, don't you have to go back to the Gryffindor common room and spend more time with him before curfew?"
"Oh! You're right. I've got to go. Good-bye, Lily. See you at breakfast," she remembers, bouncing up and out the door, only to poke her head back in to say, "Don't forget MASH," and disappear once again.
I heard a chuckle from the doorway and turn to see James propping him self there. Leaning on his left shoulder with is arms crossed over his *gulp* bare chest. He's wearing the lounge pants version of my girl boxers.
"How much did you hear?" I ask venomously.
"Just something about not forgetting MASH. What were you two doing playing that childish muggle game?" he asks me with curiosity dripping from his voice.
"Nothing really. She just wanted to see what my future would be like. 'Cause last time we did hers and it had her being an auror, marrying Frank, and having one child. She already knew the part about Frank and being an auror but she mainly wanted to know how many children she would have with him," I babble on nervously.
"You're nervous," he states, taking a step into the room. I see him coming closer and grab my giant teddy bear from the end of my bed. I hug him close to me; he was all I had left from my muggle childhood. I'd named him Mr. Snuggles before I left for my first year at Hogwarts.
"What's that?" James questions, nodding towards Mr. Snuggles, taking another step towards my bed.
"He's Mr. Snuggles," I answer before burying my face in the fur of Mr. Snuggles' back, my arms wrapped around his middle. I hear James stifle a laugh and I looked up, "What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing," he answers, sobering up, "I've never seen him before. When did you get him?" James steps close enough to my bed that I have to look up at him.
"Sit down, that way I don't hurt my neck trying to talk to you," I order him. He sits down across from me and I continue the Story of Mr. Snuggles, "My parents gave him to me before I left for my first year here at Hogwarts. It was because I often became homesick when I slept over at a friend's house. They wanted me to have something that would remind me of them when I became homesick. Mr. Snuggles just became my life line in tough times."
"Be right back," James grins as he dashes off to his room. When he came back he was carrying a brown version of Mr. Snuggles, "Her name is Miss Floppy. My parents gave her to me for the same reason yours gave you Mr. Snuggles. Though they enchanted her to say "we love you" when I say "I miss home." It helped a lot my first year when I was still getting the hang of boarding school. Though the charms have worn off by now. My parents are older then most would think for having a seventeen year old son, so I'm their miracle baby.
"That's so sweet."
For the next few hours he and I continued to talk of family, home, friends, school, memories, and anything that came to mind. I think it was something when he was describing last years Quidditch season that I dosed off. I woke the next morning to find the blankets from the end off my bed pulled over me, and Mr. Snuggles tucked under my arm. One thought came to mind, James, and how much he and I had in common.
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AN: if anyone wants more, I'll write a sequel but I left this at a point I thought was good.
Please review!!!!!!!!!!