Chapter 2: Define Crisis
If I'd been eating or drinking anythng I would have choked over what agatha was saying. Seriously, the things that this girl came up with.
"What?!" I asked hastily. "How does that have anything to do with anything!?" Monty was scrambling in my arms. Apparently, my sudden agitation was disrupting his nap. I set him on the floor and turned giving Aggie my full attention.
"Don't you get it Lils?" she said, in her mock serious tone. "Desperate times call for desperate measures. We have a crisis here!"
That depends on how you define crisis, I thought. If you define it by the overwhelming need to get out from under your parents over protective rule, then yes we really do have a crisis. Well at least I do anyways.
"Aren't you tired of being treated like a weak little girl?" she asked.
"Yes, but I-"
She didn't wait for me to finish. "And aren't you tired of having to ask your brothers for permission every time you want to do something?"
"Yeah," I said, this time more forcefully.
"And don't you want to prove to your parents that your are a mature witch who deserves a little respect!?" Her voice became louder and as it did she rose from the seat and stood up.
Caught up in the excitement, I stood up and shouted, "yes!"
"Then let's get you a boyfriend!" she shouted back, pumping her fist in the air.
"Wait what?!" I said my voice cracking. I sat back down with a thump. Deflated. The other students in the compartment were staring at us. My face was flushed with embarrassment.
"But what does..." I began. I lowered my voice hoping that Agatha would get the hint.
"Hear me out," she interrupted. At least now she was sitting down. "If you get a boyfriend it may finally prove to your dad and brothers that you aren't a little girl anymore. It might prove that you are old enough to make your own decisions and that you can take care of yourself."
"I don't think my dad would fly with that idea Aggie," I said shaking my head. "Any talk of boys and he gets extremely uncomfortable. You remember what happened when they gave me the 'talk?' Dad spent the entire time hiding in the garden staring at the gnomes. Mom ended up doing it all herself! He'll never agree to this!"
"Nonsense," she said. "James and Albus were in fourth year when they started dating. There is no way your dad can say no to you without looking like he's playing favorites."
I bit on my bottom lip as I often did when I was deep in thought. Maybe Agatha had a point. Maybe a boyfriend, a relationship, would show just how mature I really was.
"Well..." I started.
"Done!" She said excitedly. I guess in her mind my "well" was a yes. She got up to her feet and started rummaging through her trunk, pulling out a piece of parchment and a quill. Laying the parchment onto the seat cushion she began scribbling furiously.
I peaked over her shoulder curious to see what she was writing. At the top of the paper she had written the words "Lily's List" with a big heart inbetween.
"What is that?" I asked as she began adding bullet points to the parchment.
"I'm making a list of all of the boys that are available for you to date," she replied ignoring the shocked look I was giving her. This was a new one, even for Aggie."We'll rate them from zero to ten. Ten being "deliciously dateable" and zero being "total troll."
I stared at her. "That's a little harsh don't you think?"
Agatha went back to the parchment undeterred. "The world is a harsh place Lil's."
She brushed her chin with the tip of her quill feather and sighed. "I can't think when I'm hungry. Let's find something to eat."
I was relieved when she folded the piece of parchment and stuffed it into her pocket. Maybe she would forget about it. It didn't feel right rating the boys in our year. Especially over something as shallow as how 'dateable' they were.
We walked the corridors looking for the food trolley. As we walked Agatha poked her head into a few compartments looking for anyone we recognized. Someone eventually poked their head out. It was Jonathan Macby a 6th year Gryffindor.
"Lily, Agatha!," he called. "You guys want to see something cool?" Jonathan was good looking and played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. It didn't take much convincing for Agatha to follow him. I tagged along because, whatever.
"Have you ever seen anything like it?" he asked. He held a clean looking broom in his hands. It was a Bolide. The fastest broom on the market. My excitement rose but Agatha looked bored. Jonathan kept talking at them about all of the brooms specs completely oblivious to the exasperated look Aggie was giving him.
"That's...nice," she said giving him a forced smile. I was about to ask him what the max speed was when Agatha pulled me out of the compartment. "Boresville," she said and mocked a gag with her fingers. I think Jonathan was still talking when we left.
"He is a definite five!" Agatha exclaimed walking back through the corridors.
"A what?" I asked, a little confused.
"On the list," she said. "Jonathan is a definite five for 'mediocre meathead'! Did you hear him back there? All he talked about was that stupid broom and Quidditch. He's a a five no doubt about it."
I bit my lip. This list was a thing . A real thing. I had a definite crisis on my hands.
"Looks aren't everything Lil's," Agatha said later, we were paying the nice old witch from the food trolley. There was a nice pile of sweets for us to share. I had been trying to persuade her that Jonathan deserved more than a five on the scale. Explaining that he was easily the best looking boy in sixth year.
"The boy you date has to care about more than just fast brooms and Quidditch stats," she said. "He has to be intellectual and refined."
I laughed out loud. It was hard for me to picture any of the boys I knew as being intellectual or refined. And as if right on cue...
"Hey lily! Are you ready?"
It was Bernie. Agatha smiled weakly beside me.
"Hey Bernie," I said brightly. "Give me a sec." I shoved some of the snacks into Agatha's hands and stuck a few in my pocket. "Be back in a flash."
"Hey Agatha, did you have a good summer?" Bernie asked but didn't wait for a response. "My mum and I took a holiday. It was fantastic..."
I watched Agatha with amusement. She was trying to look interested but her eyes kept flashing to mine giving me desperate look. I knew the look.
"Come on Bernie," I said. "Let's go make our rounds." Before I left I took one last look at Aggie. She held up three fingers. I shook my head and followed Bernie down the corridor.
As part of our prefect duties we had to make rounds on the train. We had to walk up and down the corridors making sure everything was in order. Mostly that meant making sure no one used magic and that none of the first years disappeared. It was kind of boring and Bernie's persistent chatter wasn't helping any. It wasn't until we neared the Slytherin compartment, the one with Albus and his crew, that things got interesting.
The compartment door was partially open and I could hear scorpious's smooth drawl echoing from within. "Slytherin has to win the house cup this year. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are walking around here like they own the place. We need to bring them down a notch."
Pretending to adjust the laces of my shoes I stopped just before the open door, and I listened.
"That twit shouldn't have been given head boy," said a girl who's voice I didn't recognize. She was obviously talking about Lysander. "They should have given it to you Scor." I heard a hint of flirtation in her voice.
"Whatever," scorpious answered. "I didn't want it anyways." I couldn't help but notice the slight resentment in his voice.
By this time I had had enough. I tried to make it past the open compartment without being spotted but failed. I heard Albus calling my name.
"Hey," I said trying to sound casual. Like I wasn't just listening to the conversation. "Just making my rounds." I smiled a little and noticed that scorpious was avoiding my gaze. Maybe he realized I had heard him. "Well gotta go."
I turned to leave.
"Wait," Albus pressed on. "What's your hurry? Why don't you stick around?"
The rest of the Slytherins looked like they would want nothing more than for me to disappear. Though they would never tell Albus that. Scorpious had the strangest expression on his face. It was as though he was so uncomfortable that he was in pain.
My mind flipped trying to come up with a decent excuse, when suddenly Bernie came up behind me.
"There you are Lils, where-"
He was cut off as the people in the compartment let out a collective groan. Bernie as always, was completely oblivious to it.
"Hi guys," he said. "What's going on? We were just making our rounds. Prefects you know."
I could see one of the Slytherin girl rolling her eyes. I panicked, this was not good. They would eat Bernie alive if I didn't do something. In fact I could tell the Slytherin girl was getting ready to say something.
"Oh look at the time Bernie," I said . "Let's go." I looped my arm through his and pulled him out of the compartment. I caught scorpious's eye, he was glaring at us.
As we walked back through the train I thought about scorpious's strange reaction. He was acting weird. Yeah sure, he was a Slytherin and rude behavior was do be expected. Everyone had learned to develop a tough skin against anyone in green robes. Even Albus shared some of their snarky attitudes and callus remarks. But scorpious has always been nice to me. I racked my brain trying to figure out when his attitude had changed. When we had made it back to our compartments I still hadn't figured out what had caused his sudden change.
"Whats wrong?" Aggie asked the minute she saw me. She had always been able to read my emotions better than anyone else. I explained about my run in with scorpious.
"he's never been that way with me," I explained. "I don't know what happened."
"Wasn't her over your house a lot during summer break?" she asked. It was nearly time to get into our robes so she was gathering her stuff.
"Yeah he was," I told her thinking back onthe past few months. "He spent most of the time with al of course. Come to think of it I didn't see him that much, considering." It was almost as though he'd been avoiding me.