"Smoking cigs, Evans? Bit hypocritical of you." Sirius Black said as he sat down next to her at the highest tower the astronomy department could offer.
Lily Evans twisted her long, dark red hair behind her ears as she watched the smoke swirl around her face and disperse. Her tights were a bit ripped, which suited her personality, and the multiple rings on her fingers glistened under the moonlight.
"How do you figure that?" she asked with mild interest.
Sirius glanced at her, before lighting one himself, and rolled his eyes. He loved the witch, even if he would never admit it, but Merlin could she drive a wizard mad. That wizard sometimes being himself, but more likely his best mate James.
"End of term party last year, James was smoking one in the middle of the common room when you noticed and called him a great prat. You said you'd rather not see him die young end early because of his detestable life choices." Sirius said and let out a bark like spat of laughter.
"To which James replied that only the good die young." She remembered aloud.
Lily grinned to herself at this memory. She chucked her cigarette off the top of the tower and she and Sirius watched it fade out into the black sky. He raised an eyebrow at her bold gesture before mimicking her himself.
"I don't even like smoking them. I detest it actually," she said, grazing her hand on the rubble of the tower floor, "but it drove my mum round the twist. I was just missing her earlier and thought maybe if I came up here to smoke she might come back from the dead to lecture me. Stupid, I know."
Sirius shrugged, letting his dark hair fall in a curtain in front of his eyes, "Everyone deals with loss in different ways. Besides," he said with a grin, "when my parents kicked me out I dealt with it by leaving all my muggle posters of girls in bikinis up in my room."
Lily laughed too and reached over to squeeze his hand. She had always gotten along fairly well with the boys, the Marauders, and then for some reason after the incident in 5th year they had all become a lot closer. Sirius squeezed back and helped her stand up. Lily looked at him in surprise.
"Where are we going?" she asked as they started making their way back to Gryffindor tower without getting caught.
Maybe luck was on their side that night (or maybe Sirius had checked the map to see the safest route back). Or maybe since it was the first night back at school, the teachers felt they had more pressing matters at hand. Either way, Lily was glad she wasn't caught roaming the castle the first night of her 7th year, as Head Girl no less.
"The tower. James noticed you slipped out of the common room earlier and then when Mary and Marlene both didn't know where you were, I volunteered to search high and low until we found our resident house red head." He teased.
"Yeah? They tell you to lecture me on my smoking habits, too?" Lily teased back, bumping shoulders with him. "How'd you find me anyway?"
"It's not a habit if you've only done it like twice ever, Evans," Sirius said as the approached the portrait of the fat lady, "and I can't tell you all my secrets or I won't have any advantage over you."
"Wizard's chess." Lily said to the fat lady who swung open.
As she and Sirius climbed through the portrait hole she immediately saw 4 pairs of relieved eyes upon her. She resisted the chance to make fun of them for their panic before she remembered that since she was a muggleborn in the beginning of a very dangerous war, their panic wasn't exactly misplaced.
"First night back and you're already causing chaos in the corridors Lily! I knew I liked you for a reason!" Peter said, earning a few chuckles, and Lily winked at him for stopping the lecture someone was bound to give her.
"That's your job, Pete. I was just up for some nighttime wanderings." She shrugged, sitting in front of the fire at Remus' feet.
Her friends let her off the hook and resumed their conversation from before she and Sirius got back. Mary, Peter, and James all seemed to think Sprout had a crush on Flitwick while Remus and Marlene seemed horrified at the idea. Sirius was quick to input that maybe all she liked was to use him for a good shag. That sort of killed the conversation.
Lily looked across from her to James sitting in the armchair she usually liked to occupy. His tie was loosened and his shirt rolled up to his elbows, glasses resting crookedly on his nose, and his ever present grin gracing his handsome face. When he turned and made eye contact with her, neither of them looked away, entranced by the light the fire was offering, nor Remus talking to James could pull them both out of the trance.
Later, to her friends, Lily would blame it on missing her mom and the exhaustion of the train ride. Later, to his friends, James would insist they were having a moment right in front of their very eyes. Neither party seemed inclined to believe their friend.
While the 7th years girls were getting ready for bed, a soft mummer of conversation buzzed around the room. Mary, Marlene, and Lily's other two roommates Millie and Pippa asked about everyone's summer vacations. The 5 of them had always gotten along well, choosing to split off their separate ways, but always staying involved with one another. Millie and Pippa hung out often with the Hufflepuffs and always kept the other three girls relevant on the gossip from other houses. Mary, Marlene, and Lily would in turn keep the two in tune to whatever the Marauder's were planning so they could stay away.
"Sirius' hair is much too long," Pippa, observed, plaiting her long dirty blonde hair, "I expect it's because he thinks himself too punk to follow the rules."
Lily felt a rush of affection for the girl. Pippa liked to casually throw out comments about Sirius now and again; recovering from a crush she had on him circa 5th year, as if to assure them she was over him. They all knew she had moved on since she started dating her Hufflepuff boyfriend, but since they hung out with Sirius she didn't want it to be weird.
"What we really should be discussing," Millie said joining the conversation as she unpacked, "is how good looking James got over the summer. He's still mad about you Lils, that much is obvious, but now even you can't deny his good lucks."
Lily paused where she was brushing her teeth, and let the toothpaste harden on her cheek, and Marlene grinned at the sight of her. Mary was trying to be nice and hide her smile, but even her curtains couldn't block her all the way. Pippa chuckled at her best friend.
"Yes, I suppose I can't," Lily sighed, wondering if she was going to regret her next statement, "most of the time I even find myself enjoying hanging out with him."
"That much is obvious," Marlene snorted, climbing into her bed next to Lily, "we all see the way you immediately look for each other when you walk into a room."
"Don't make a mountain out of a molehill Mar," Mary chided from the other side of Lily's bed, "or Lily may never admit to fancying that bloke."
"Damn shame if you ask me." Millie added in.
"Why is it always my love life we discuss? What about you guys?" Lily protested.
"Oh Lily," Pippa laughed not unkindly, "Yours is just so much more interesting than ours."
The girls were all inclined to agree.
"She was smoking?" James asked incredulously, "After she called me a prat for it?"
"I reminded her of that actually," Sirius, yawned, pulling on his maroon sweatpants and a hollyhead harpies t-shirt, "She didn't seem to give a shit. Said it was because she missed her mom."
"I doubt Lily is turning into a chain-smoker, Prongs," Remus said quietly from his trunk across the room, "She's just sad."
"She's not so sad anymore," Peter, said thoughtfully, "I think sometimes it just creeps up on her, you know? Like she remembers and it hits her full force."
"I cannot believe I'm going to listen to another entire year of discussing Lily Evans," Matthew Johnson, their 5th roommate groaned, "Can you just snog the witch and move on already?"
Matthew had the unfortunate luck of being the 5th Gryffindor boy their year. He generally didn't participate in anything with his other roommates, despite how clever the rest of the school thought them. He didn't have a problem with them but he was never included in their little club either.
"Shut it, Johnson," James snapped, his hair sticking up in ten different directions without his hand to tame it, "Until you snog Millie you have no room to be cheeky with me about Lily."
"I have snogged Millie." The boy pointed out.
"In that case, she doesn't seem to keen to repeat the experience." James snorted.
Remus laughed and shook his head at his dorm mates. They all settled into their four-poster beds, delightfully toasty from the warming pans the house elves put in, and let it soak in for a moment that they were finally home again.
"Look at the bright side." Peter said when they all settled down.
"What are you talking about Wormtail?" Remus asked.
Matthew had long since accepted their strange nicknames that made no sense.
"Think of all the alone time Prong will spend with Lily this year as heads." He snickered.
"Oh my God someone kill me." Matthew moaned.