inspired by Your Love Is my Drug - Ke$ha
Lily held the delicate glass pipe up to her lips, inhaling the burning cannabis packed into the bowl. Her throat burned and her eyes watered, and after a gulp of fresh air and another moment of holding she let the smoke tumble from her lips and passed the pipe to the boy beside her. Lily lay back happily, her head feeling pleasantly light. It was as if all her worries had floated up to the stars above her now, leaving her lying on the dewy grass without a care in the world. Right now, it didn't matter that she was in Slytherin (when it had been assumed she would be in Gryffindor), or that she had received yet another P on her latest Defense against the Dark Arts essay (when everyone expected her to be absolutely exceptional, like her father and Al and James had been), or even that her best friend in the whole entire world just didn't seem to care anymore. That he was just too busy planning his damn wedding to the stunningly beautiful and absolutely perfect Victoire.
No, right now Lily was just happy; blissfully, amazingly happy.
Lily sat up as the person next to her passed along the pipe, and once again held it to her lips and inhaled. Lying back again, Lily blew the smoke up into the star strewn sky, letting it float up to the stars with all her troubles and disappear in the night sky. Lily lifted her arm, stretching out her hand as if she could grasp the tiny pinpricks of white light above her. It seemed quite hilarious, until a dark shadow blotted out the sky and she frowned; her eyes adjusting and realizing that the shadow was a person. A person she could recognize anywhere, at any time, not matter what.
"Teddy!" she gasped, her mind hardly comprehending his frowning face and hair the darkest blue in color, a color Lily only saw when he was exceptionally sad.
Wordlessly Teddy lifted Lily from the grass, cradling her in his arms and carrying her away from the group clustered in the shadow of the castle, still passing the pipe along, as if they hadn't noticed her departure. Lily wrapped her arms around his warm body happily, not caring why he was here, at Hogwarts in the middle of the Spring Term, when he had graduated so long ago, before she had even been Sorted. His footsteps echoed through the corridors as they entered the castle, up marble staircases and through hidden passages, until finally he stopped and opened a wooden door that Lily could have sworn hadn't been there a moment ago.
The room behind the wooden door held a very comfy-looking bed, and Lily collapsed onto it gratefully after Teddy finally lay her down. Beside the bed, Teddy sat in a straight-backed wooden chair, his face drawn and much too worried-looking for Lily's taste, and she longed for his face to crinkle into that familiar smile she loved, with his hair a vibrant fuschia or aqua blue. Lily snuggled under the warm blankets, glad she wasn't out sitting on damp grass on the cold grounds anymore, and was with Teddy now, who had always been her best friend, even though he was nine years older and engaged and twenty-five years old already while Lily was still only sixteen.
"What are you doing Lily?" he asked as Lily lay there, just looking at him and smiling that smile that he absolutely adores.
"Well I'm lying here, of course," replied Lily.
Teddy shook his head, "No, I mean, what are you doing with your life."
Lily shrugged and looked away, pulling the blankets above her head like she did when she was a child being told off by her mum and dad. In the space of a moment all of her troubles had come crashing back down from the sky, almost suffocating Lily with their weight.
Teddy continued, "Is this all you do now—smoke, skive off lessons, and do poorly on your assignments? This isn't the Lily I know; the Lily who always asked me to read her essays, to make sure they were absolutely perfect, or the Lily I teased because she would always be in bed extra early and wake up before everyone else, or the Lily who would never, ever, skive off a lesson."
"Why do you care, Teddy?" snapped Lily, emerging from the blankets with blazing eyes. "You've been gone—too busy planning your wedding, or going off vacationing with Victoire, or just not writing! And it's just been bloody awful without you Teddy, and I just couldn't take it. So I'm sorry if I wanted to forget it all for just one night and be happy, because without you I just can't, and it isn't fair that you can be happy with Victoire and I don't have anyone." Lily broke off with a sob and crawled back under the blankets, curling into the smallest ball possible and hiding her blotchy, tear-stained face in a pillow.
A moment passed before the bed shifted under the weight of another body, and Teddy once again wrapped his arms around Lily. "Do you know why I came here tonight?" he finally whispered in her ear. Lily shook her head. "I wanted to tell you that Victoire and I called the wedding off—and it's been so busy lately, calling off an entire wedding and moving my things out of her flat and avoiding everyone because I was so ashamed, and I couldn't bear to tell you just yet. I couldn't tell you that I love you Lily, not Victoire, and so I've been putting it off and putting it off until I just couldn't take it."
Lily hardly dared to breathe when she shifted her position and faced Teddy, her hazel eyes still red and a bit watery but full of happiness and hope and most of all love. "Really?" she whispered, hardly daring to believe that Teddy, her best friend, wanted her, even though he was nine years older and engaged (or was) and twenty-five years old already while Lily was still only sixteen. It was far from the perfect life he could have had with Victoire, but he had come and now he was pressing his lips against hers and it was all so picture-perfect, and suddenly all of her worries were once again among the stars and Lily was blissfully happy and she realized she didn't need drugs anymore to be happy when she had Teddy.
"I love you," Teddy whispered, kissing a stray tear from Lily's cheek.
"I love you too," she replied, and kissed him again.
"Just promise me," said Teddy, pulling away for a moment and gazing into her eyes with the utmost seriousness, "that you'll never do drugs again."
Lily smiled and snuggled closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Of course not," she replied, "because your love is my drug."
And then she kissed him again, and felt as if she could grasp the stars if she tried, and suddenly all of her worries had disappeared like smoke in the night sky.