"Oh, for god's sake Al! I can't do it and that's that!" cried Lily, throwing down her Standard book of Spells Grade 5 on the table in front of her, sinking back into an armchair crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at her brother, while listening to the calming crackling of the fire. Charms was normally not a problem for Lily, as Professor Flitwick seemed to know only too well. He loved to challenge Lily, since the majority of the time she accomplished the task without so much as a dew drop of sweat; today however she was not so impressive. As much as Lily tried, she simply couldn't grasp any aspect of concentration, which made her very irritable. This was especially when she couldn't conduct the spell properly, which was responded to with giggles and smirking. Then Professor Flitwick would applaud and praise Amanda Vain, who would smile modestly at the class until she caught eye contact with Lily, and her sweet blush would turn into an ugly smirk. It was for this reason that Lily now had detention for two Saturday's with Professor Flitwick, for casting a Bat-Bogey Hex on Amanda, a specialty she had learned from her mother.
Albus groaned loudly in frustration. Lily may be ambitious, but it only matched with her stubbornness when it came to her cousins trying to teach her a new spell. She simply paid no attention to Al's attempts, knowing that he was quite the pushover. James didn't even bother, and when he was asked he would block his ears and shout out that he can't hear anything, in a very immature manner. Lysander and Molly had insisted that they were busy with 'challenging homework' that evening, though it was obvious what they were really getting up to. Rose could win her over most times, but it was Franky who effortlessly earned Lily's undivided attention. This particular evening, James was off with Fred and the Marauder's Map, as it was his fortnight, most likely trying to catch Lorcan Scamander snogging Molly Weasley, or even better, trying to catch Rose and Scorpius Malfoy at it again. Louis was most likely struggling with his herbology homework, as he normally had either Lysander or Molly to help him finish it. Lysander was taking Lucy out on their first date into the Hogsmead night shift, Hugo was probably tuning his guitar in his dorm, while Roxanne would probably be out in the grounds shagging some boy behind a tree. Therese was taking her brand new firebolt for a practice flight and family friend Alicia had just entered through the portrait hole. Franky however, was never anywhere to be seen. He seemed to have a talent of just melting into the background and disappearing, then evaporating back into the strangest places in Hogwarts. It annoyed Lily how she never seemed to be able to find him, yet he was always able to find her.
"Hello you two," said Alicia in a resigned voice as she sank down into one of the armchairs beside the fire opposite Lily. She exhaled loudly, muttering something about how she 'hates being Head Girl sometimes', before she noticed her cousins forlorn expressions, and Al's wand in his hand.
"What are you two up to?" She asked casually, looking from one to the other.
"Attempting," began Al as he sank on the floor, "and failing at teaching Lily how to cast a banishing charm." Alicia raised her eyebrows, frowning slightly, at Lily, as if she hadn't heard quite right. After all, Lily was very intelligent for her age, and never really required help for anything. Lily simply responded to Alicia's questioning look with a slightly uncomfortable shrug, careful not to meet her gaze.
"Oh, come on Al! Surely you can teach her a simple banishing charm? And Lily, to be honest I'm surprised; you always manage to grasp the concept of spell casting without so much as a second thought!" Alicia said with disbelief.
"You would have thought so wouldn't you?" interjected Al, as Lily scowled at him. "She is fucking hard work you know! She doesn't listen to anything I say" he also added in exasperation.
"It's all right to be scared of me, Al; it's quite understandable" Lily retorted with an undertone of acidity, and flashing her deceptively sweet smirk. Alicia snorted in spite of herself, and Al inhaled with an air of forced calm; Lily had become adept at inflaming both Al's and James' chagrin with unfortunate precision over the years, having had to survive amongst her majorly masculine family.
"Alright, fine" he said at last after exhaling and turning swiftly to face Alicia, "lets see you try, being the infamous head girl and all that."
"Al, can't you see I'm bus-"
"Unless you're scared?"
Alicia raised her eyebrows as a grin played in the corners of her mouth. She stood up. "Alright then! C'mon Lily, time to dominate this pointless charm," she declared whipping out her wand from beneath her robes. Lily groaned, getting up from the arm chair slowly, picking up her own wand and proceeded to stand in front of Alicia, Al sitting on the sidelines, grinning with anticipation. He was roaring with mirthless laughter about half an hour later, when Lily had slunk back into her arm chair and Alicia had turned a slight purple shade. If anything angered Alicia Longbottom more than anything, it was failing, especially a challenge. "Lily, its such a simple spell! C'mon lets try again," she said trying to keep calm, but her voice was evident with impatience and embarrassment.
"No!" spat Lily, "honestly, just leave it! I'll try again in the morning when I'm not pissed off. And I thought you were busy!" she added tartly. Alicia blinked and shook her head in astonishment, obviously ashamed of how she was unable to achieve something so easy.
Albus however found the whole situation priceless, and he and Alicia had just erupted into fresh bickering, when James and Fred plunged through the portrait hole and on to the floor. "What the fuck?" cried Al, as he and Alicia rushed over and stood over the two, who were both rolling about on the floor with laughter.
"Oh-hey Al-" James gasped between sniggers.
"What's occurring?" Fred pitched in, he too failing to stifle his giggles, as the pair of them got to their feet.
"Spying on Lorcan and Molly were we?" asked Al smiling, which was confirmed by James' and Fred's nervous guffaws. "We just lost Lorcan as we ran past Filch's office," explained James, pointing over his shoulder. "Yeah," panted Fred, "we would've felt bad for him if he hadn't drenched us with water." Lily only just noticed that two of them were soaked to the bone. Alicia shook her head, yet smiling, as she cast a drying charm on the two of them. James winked at her as he grabbed her waist and pulled her into a kiss. "Thanks babe," he murmured, as Fred and Al groaned loudly, Lily rolling her eyes and turning back to gazing into the fire. "Oh, piss off you two," James smirked, releasing Alicia and pecking a kiss on her temple, before imitating boxing with Fred.
At that point, Rose entered through the portrait hole in a more respectable fashion, arm in arm with Scorpius Malfoy, her boyfriend. They had been a couple for almost a year now, and the family was surprisingly fond of him, despite the icy tension towards the beginning. As long as the family rarely had to come into contact with the Malfoy's themselves, Scorpius was always welcome. Lily herself was quite fond of Scorpius, as he had hexed a couple of third years for bullying her in her first year at Hogwarts. Of course he received a detention from Headmistress McGonagall, but he had been valiant nonetheless. Everyone was expecting him or Al to become Head Boy next year, as he was constantly reminded of by current Head Boy, surprisingly, James; to say the least, it had been highly astonishing when James had waddled slowly into the kitchen, and had held up his shiny new badge to the room at large, as if seeking confirmation, with a dumbfounded expression upon his face. It came as an even greater shock to everyone when he managed to woo Alicia only two years before in the summer, when Lily and Hugo had found them very near to shagging in the attic bedroom during The Potter's and Weasley's wedding anniversary. Alicia was responsible, mature and very 'shaggable', as it was said throughout the boys of Hogwarts, and she had always seemed miles out of James' league of maturity.
Scorpius leaned in to Rose, whispering something in her ear which made her grin. Lily smiled at the sight of them. She had always adored Rose, especially her and Scorpius as a couple, despite being somewhat envious. She always saw them together around school, and if they weren't snogging they were flirting or otherwise playfully teasing and winding each other up. The same could also be said for the rest of her siblings and cousins; After James and Alicia two summers ago, Albus was found snogging Sasha Woolcott in the thick snow; James had found Teddy Lupin snogging Victoire Weasley on Platform 9 3/4 almost 6 years ago and they were due to be married next summer, an event Lily most looked forward to; Lorcan was seen snogging Molly in the library three months ago and now they could hardly keep their hands off each other; Lysander asked Lucy out three days ago, after Lucy had unexpectedly kissed him; Fabian and Dominique started going out at the start of the school year; Fred overwhelmed Valerie Wood by snogging her when they won the house cup last year, since he was never very good with words, and Hugo was found doing a little more than snogging with Therese Gregoire in his bedroom by Louis and Lily last Halloween, though this had been kept tight under wraps as Therese was currently with someone else. She admitted that she wasn't the only single one in the family, as Louis preferred to flirt and tease girls rather than actually date them and Roxanne was more of a school slut.
No one ever really knew with Franky. Franklin Longbottom was known to be single among the adults, however among the younger generation, his single status was an ambiguous matter; Even though he was unbelievably shy throughout his first year at Hogwarts, he eventually managed to find his stride throughout his second year and was now undoubtably in his prime as being the Hogwarts Womaniser, having had his first snog with Shelley Moore in his second year, whom he also successfully seduced and shagged on the last day before summer in his fourth year. Before this, he'd simply effortlessly snog girls senseless. His various girlfriends even included family friend Valerie Wood, and Lily's very own cousins Dominique and Rose Weasley, as well as the odd fling with Roxanne. She had asked Rose why they broke up, and she simply stated that she knew, with Franky being a bit of a player, that she was undoubtedly going to get her heart broken. But she agreed by all means that Franky was a good-hearted person, but not very professional when it came to falling in love, as many broken hearts had soon found out.
Rose sat on the rug at Lily's feet, with Scorpius leaning beside her. "Hey Lily," she smiled, winking. Lily smiled back lazily, soon having to look away however when Rose and Scorpius began to snog, but were momentarily interrupted by James. "Malfoy!" he barked, his tone licked with amusement, "what kind of boy do you call yourself? Going round, snogging my cousin?" he jeered, which was greeted with laughter.
"The Head Boy that shows love and affection to his fellows peers," Scorpius replied smugly, which was also greeted by laughter, jeers, and another quick kiss from Rose. "Eurgh, you manwhore!," retorted James; he and Scorpius were actually good friends, thanks to Professor McGonagall's hard work since Albus Dumbledore's demise to truly unite the four houses. Half of Slytherin these days were Muggle-Born, and their families never really seemed to mind which houses they were sorted into.
"Two can play at that game!" Al roared, laughing and getting to his feet on his armchair. His girlfriend Sasha Woolcott, a very pretty and friendly fellow Gryffindor in the sixth year, had just appeared at the bottom of the staircase from the girl's dormitories. She was reading what looked like her copy of her Potions textbook. Al leapt over the armchairs towards her, and Sasha had literally looked up and opened her mouth to ask a question, when it was engulfed by Al snogging her full on the mouth. Everyone jeered and wolf-whistled, as Sasha dropped her textbook, tilted her head, and wrapped her arms around Al's neck. When Sasha pulled away, she asked, rather dumbstruck, 'Well, what was that for?'
Before Al could answer with something sweet or romantic, Scorpius bellowed, 'We're trying to see whether me or Al is the better candidate at seducing their girlfriend! Very important trait in a Head Boy you see.' Everyone, along with Sasha, laughed at the indignant pout on Albus' face.
"Honestly, Syltherin's!" James shouted, "In the Griffindor Common Room! Can you Imagine?" Everyone else laughed, for by now James was surely pissed on some Firewhisky that he had pocketed from Hogsmead. His gaze now fell on Lily, whom was still giggling, and his eyes seem to pop as he roared, "and Hufflepuff's! What a fucking disgrace!," laughing stupidly as Fred caught him in a headlock and prised the Firewhiskey out of his fingers, then landing lazily beside Alicia in one of the armchairs. "I'm not in Hufflepuff, you moron!" Lily shouted back at him, shaking her head.
"What are you doing down here anyway Lily? Isn't it your beddy time?" he taunted, grinning stupidly and hiccuping slightly. Lily was just about to retort, when the portrait hole opened. A gaggle of Gryffindors entered, all laughing and chatting. In their midst was Amanda Vain, a tall, slim girl with olive skin, and long, dark, bushy black hair. She was flirting, arm in arm, with a tall, muscular boy called Leon Sebastian. Lily's ex-boyfriend. The Potter-Weasley party suddenly became very quiet, with the slight exception of James and Fred who were now giggling over a game of rock-paper-scissors, and looked over coldly at the group. Amanda's murky brown eyes caught Lily's bright green ones, as she turned with a smirk to the rest of her followers and whispered something, before they all burst out laughing and stalked off. Lily just caught Leon's eye for an awkward second before he turned away and out of sight, Amanda clinging on to his arm like a lost puppy.
"What a bitch," murmured Rose with disgust. The silence that followed only confirmed her statement. Al watched them exit with a somewhat predatory gaze, Sasha clutching his shoulder with some restraint. Lily could feel the colour draining from her face, settling as a heated flush on her poignant cheeks, her fingers dangerously close to her wand. But she was just able to contain the desire to strike as she suddenly got up, bent down to pick up her bag (While curtly swiping away a tear) and swinging it over her shoulder.
"Where are you going?" demanded Rose, as her fingers hastened to entwine around Lily's wrist. Lily couldn't quite bring herself to look at her. She knew Rose meant well, but Lily had a preference of isolating her emotions for herself. "A walk," she replied curtly, attempting to sound nonchalant, "around the grounds. I won't be long." She was just about to leave, her wrist sliding out of Rose's grasp, when yet another hand clasped itself around her wrist. Lily looked down upon James' drunken state, yet she knew his words were sincere: "Don't let that whore get you down. We both know you're better than that." And he winked before falling asleep on Alicia's lap. Lily smiled, shaking her head, and with that she turned her back on her family, and walked briskly out of the portrait hole.