The Doe
That insatiable feeling of having forgotten something plagued Lily Evans as she fumbled through her belongings and shuffled in a distracted haze through the corridors to her Defense Against the Dark Arts class that was set to take place in the next five minutes. Her stubborn auburn hair did not help her building agitation as it continuously fell into her green, almond-shaped eyes after each time she angrily swept it back.
"Quill, no, I've got that. Notes, homework, yes, yes." She stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked up with a sigh of defeat and realization. "My wand. Lilly, you idiot." She started to turn around to head back to the Great Hall where she was just having lunch, but was interrupted by a voice.
"Looking for something, Evans?" Lily looked up at the familiar voice and found the owner standing in all his glory at 6'2", emanating the usual egocentric air he typically carried. Lily crossed her arms and relaxed against the stone wall.
"Why, yes, Potter, I am. Have you seen my wand? I do recall you and your friends playing a hilarious round of your favorite game, 'Wand Snatchers', I believe you call it, at lunch earlier today. Did mine happen to fall victim to one of your summoning charms?" Lily bit back any anger she felt and maintained her casual tone. She knew that if she overreacted or started to get snippy, she had no hope of ever seeing her wand in this century.
"Perhaps it did, perhaps it didn't. I would need to consult with my fellow Mauraders and see if any of them happened to stumble across your wand." James shot her a crooked grin which prompted Lily to smile politely and respond, "Why thank you, James. Do be a dear and let me know if you or anybody else happens to see it."
Lily turned on her heel and walked away at a leisurely pace as she fought back the urge to yell out some choice words that would have her mother chastise, "Lily, really!". She was no fool, Potter had her wand, probably right there tucked in his perfectly new robes, fresh for their sixth year at Hogwarts. Lily felt annoyance swell in her belly as she thought how presumptuous he was for stealing her wand and having the nerve to tell her he needed to "consult with his fellow Mauraders". Completely insane, is what that boy is. How does he find these antics funny?
Lily was just about to round the corner when she heard him let out an exasperated sigh followed by, "Evans! Here, here. I have your bloody wand." She smiled to herself in victory but was sure to put on a face of indifference as she turned to face him.
"My, thank you, Potter. I was sure I would never see it again. How good of you to return it to me," she said, feigning gratitude. He rolled his eyes, "You can cut the act, Evans. I know what you're doing."
She felt her face fall into irritation, "And what is it that I'm doing, Potter? Please, educate me on my own behavior."
"You just don't want to engage in- what was it you said again last week?- oh yes, 'petty little fights of schoolchildren' with me anymore. Well, I'm hurt, Evans. I quite enjoyed our petty little fights; they were our thing."
Lily rolled her eyes and smirked. "We don't have a thing, Potter. But we will have a detention if we're late to class." LIly snatched her wand back from his hand and walked briskly in the other direction towards their classroom around the corner. After watching her disappear from view, James followed resignedly after her.
Lily fiddled with her newly returned wand as she stood before her classmates at the front of the room. Their newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, a spritely man of middle age with a dust of gray in his hair and kind eyes, Professor Koppemfield, talked her through the motions of the spell.
"Miss Evans, I would like you to take the defensive stance - right foot behind, yes exactly - and conjure from memory a time when you were happiest. I expect you, and your fellow classmates," He sent a warning glance over at the rest of the class, "to have a firm understanding of this concept. So, you should know the next steps from here." Lily gave him curt nod, never taking her eyes away from the chest placed ten feet in front of her.
As Lily stared directly at the padlock that was keeping… well, whatever it was that was in there… from emerging, she flicked through her recent past and struggled to come up with a happy memory. There was the time her parents took her and Petunia to the lake that one Christmas, but thinking of them was too painful considering recent events. She thought about the first time she encountered 9 ¾ at King's Cross, and the discovery of chocolate frogs. She watched Professor Koppemfield step behind the chest and Lily started to panic. When she and Sev - no, nothing to do with Sev. Her heart ached as she began to realize all her memories of when she was happiest had to do with people no longer in her life, by force or choice. Professor Koppemfield began to peel back the lid and Lily took a hesitant step back -
SNAP!
An explosion of colorful confetti rained down upon four boys towards the back of the classroom. Snap - a sharper sound was produced by Koppemfield as he let go of the lid. He stood up and faced the culprits, "Black, Potter, Lupin, Pettigrew… do I have to ask you boys to leave… again?" They all shook their heads and started to speak at the same time:
"You see, professor, this old thing - "
"It's been in Padfoot's - I mean, Sirius' bag for years -"
"We really had no idea it still had any bang in it - "
"Honest mistake, swear it -!"
They all struggled to get their story straight as Lily felt a warm feeling spread throughout her chest. She couldn't stop herself from smiling up at the four boys because she knew what had happened. They sensed her hesitation and created a last minute diversion, for her sake. She made eye contact with the bespectacled boy she had shared words with earlier and the two had a private moment, a moment that didn't go unnoticed by a certain dark-haired Slytherin sitting in the front row. Lily felt all the annoyance she had previously felt towards Potter drain, replaced with a rather warm feeling she couldn't quite place.
Koppemfield waved down their excuses and said in an exasperated tone, "Fine, fine. Don't let it happen again," He directed his attention back to her and said with raised eyebrows, "Ready, Miss Evans?"
She grinned, "More than ever, Professor."
He stepped behind the chest once more and pulled back the lid revealing what appeared to be a Dementor. Noting his earlier instructions, she knew it was only a bogart, but pretended it was the fearful (and much more dangerous) creature. She took a steadying breath, instinctively thought of the moment that had just transpired, and whispered:
"Expecto Patronum."
Out from the tip of her wand came a silverly light that appeared in whisps as it fell to the ground and wrapped upwards around pockets of space. A doe with large, sympathetic eyes and a long neck stepped forwards and blocked its creator from view of the creature, still floating ominously ten feet in the air.
A hush fell over the classroom as the doe coerced the "Dementor" back into its trunk, which Koppemfield then closed. The doe started back towards Lily but disappeared before she could touch its nose. Her hand remained in the air for moment until she lowered it back to her side.
"Very good, Miss Evans, as usual. Now, if you all take note of what I have written on the board…" Koppemfield continued his lesson as Lily slowly walked back to her seat. She looked back up at the four boys to give them one last look of thanks, but was ignored as they were all too engrossed in a conversation that resulted in James' neck and cheeks to redden. She looked back down at her desk and felt a pair dark eyes on her a few seats to her right, but she didn't dare acknowledge their presence for fear of what she would find in them.
She vaguely wondered what had happened to make the infamous Mauraders converse in such hushed, urgent tones, but brushed it off to them being a little bit off. She bit her lip and smiled to herself, they were a little strange, yes, but they always seemed to have her back.