Mina looked around her with narrowed eyes. Then she seemed to see something sufficient, because her face brightened (although you could still see some rage in her features) and she walked towards a door at the other side of the entrance hall with determined paces.

'Come in,' she said curtly and she opened the door. Lily walked into the broom cupboard and sat down on an upside down bucket. 'Colloportus,' said Mina with a flick of her wand, and she stood before Lily. Now she narrowed her eyes again.

'Firstly,' she said, and Lily thought she resembled a furious lioness of whom the cubs are threatened. 'Lily Elizabeth Evans, I am afraid I have to inform you that everything between Tommy and I is going quite smoothly, so if you were planning on creating any more divisions between us, you're going to have to come up with some sort of masterplan.

Secondly, why didn't you tell me you had detention this morning for the very first time in your school career, and even with James Potter himself. Finally, I am very angry with you. I hope you know that. Véry angry. What did I say, fúrious.'

But now Lily got angry too. She stood up. She was half a foot bigger than Mina, but the latter didn't care. 'Mina, you know I'd never divide you if I didn't have a proper reason!

And when for god's sake should I have told you that? The only thing you've done is ignoring me. I wouldn't go back to you groveling to tell you I had detention for the first time in my life. That makes no sense at all! It wasn't even that special. I don't know if you have ever had detention, but it's not really exciting.

And to go back to Tommy, why in heaven's sake would I say that? If I have another reason than not trusting him? Well?'

'Well, for example because you like him yourself. Tommy is a really sweet, smart and especially handsome boy. Why wouldn't you be jealous? Of me? Huh? Did you have an answer to that?'

'Mina, please stop! Can't you see? Tommy has made some kind of paranoid bitch out of you! And,'

'Whát did you call me?'

But Lily had already turned around. 'Alohomora,´ she said and with one last, devastating glance, she opened the door and dashed off.

All right, bravo. The intention to win back your best friend has failed hereby. Lily ran back to the common room as fast as she could. Now she didn't want to do anything at all. Not even flying. Although it perhaps was more wise to skip flying for a couple of weeks anyway. Twice detention in a row caused by the same offence would be too much, even for someone like James.

She hurried towards her bedroom, at the very top of the tower. She threw open the door and wanted to run inside, but later realised she had the wrong room. As it happens, James Potter was changing in the middle of the room. Thank goodness only his T-shirt was off, but Lily was rooted to the spot for a second.

'What-,' said James confused, and he turned around. He looked at her in astonishment.

Then Lily heard herself mutter: 'colloportus,' and the door shut itself before her nose.

'Evans! What were you doing in my room while I was changing?' called James. She thought she heard his voice had a teasing undertone.

'James, please, forget about it,' she moaned. She sat with her back against the door. She wanted to get away preferably, but she knew he'd never stop talking about this.

'Alohomora,' she heard him say.

'Please, put clothes on,' she squeaked pleading with her hands in front of her eyes. 'Lily, I have clothes on,' he said laughing. 'Was it really that bad? Am I that hideous?'

Lily nodded childishly, still with her hands in front of her eyes. James was still laughing and pulled away her hands with one of his. 'Look. Clothes,' he said and he gestured down with his free hand. He had indeed put clothes on.

'All right, let's just forget about that and treat each other as adults,' said Lily calmly half an hour later. She and James were both sitting in the arm chairs next to the chimney of the Gryffindor common room.

'As adults! Hmpf,' said James cynically. 'Who was totally shocked a minute ago because she saw me without a T-shirt on?' Lily acted like she didn't hear him.

'Do you agree?' she said distinguished. James rolled his eyes and mockingly stuck out his hand to her. 'All right, that's settled then,' she said, after shaking his hand. 'If you don't stick to this agreement, I'll jinx you so badly you'll only be dismissed from the hospital wing after a week,' she continued casually. James protested.

'Hey, you didn't say that before!' James protested, but Lily already was in the corridor.

It was thundering outside so badly that the thunder echoed through the whole castle. Lily loved the mood that existed in a thunderstorm. Some people feared it, but she thought it was quite cosy, really. She wandered through the corridors on her own.

At this moment, she didn't really have anyone to talk to. Mina was angry with her, Severus wasn't even an option anymore, and it looked like it was full moon, which meant Remus was somewhere outside, running around with James, Sirius and Peter. To be sure, she didn't want to turn back to the common room, because if there was anyone she didn't want to see right now, it was James.

'Hi, Lily,' a voice said quietly. It was Alice Marchbanks, Frank Longbottom's girlfriend. Actually, they were together most of the time, so this was a rare occasion. She looked a little poorly. In general Alice was always cheerful, her face was always beaming and she looked well fed. Now she seemed thinner than a few weeks ago, and she looked quite jittery.

It probably was exam anxiety. Alice was Griselda Marchbanks' granddaughter, an examiner who was known for her legendary witchcraft. That's why Alice was always a bit more nervous for exams than others. After all, she had a large reputation to live up to.

'Hey Alice,' said Lily, and she tried to smile. Apparently she failed, because Alice questioning raised her eyebrows. Then she smiled at Lily, and walked with her through the corridor.

'Are you all right?' Lily asked anxiously after a few moments of silence. Initially, Alice didn't answer.

'I, erm…,' she was visibly hesitating. Then she said abruptly: 'My granddad passed away last summer.' Judging by her face, she was really relieved.

'Oh, Alice, that's terrible!' she said a bit ashamed.

'And are you?' Alice was still looking kindly at her.

'I don't know, really,' said Lily after thinking hard. 'I'm having rows with everybody that I know, but I'm feeling rather… calm. I don't expect you to understand!' she added hastily, when she realised that sounded a bit strange. Alice smiled.

'That doesn't matter,' she said quietly. 'If you understand it yourself.' Then she walked away, while she left Lily behind surprised.

'Tempus,' Lily said, and a magical watch appeared in front of her eyes. Her own watch had been broken for weeks, and reparo didn't work, because it was a magical object. She always forgot to send it to Diagon Alley, where a clockmaker was established. She saw it already was 9 o'clock. In that case, James and his friends must've been gone for a long time. Tired she returned to the common room, still thinking about what Alice had said. She didn't really know if she still understood herself. Apparently something in her current situation made sure that she forgot all of her problems. If she only could think of whát…

The common room was almost empty, in an enigmatic way. It was Sunday evening, and usually half of Gryffindor house was trying to get their essays done at the last minute, or to take in some final facts about wizarding laws. Lily sighed in relief. This way she could go to bed quietly without talking to people, and think about what she was going to do tomorrow, when she'd have classes again and was - still - arguing with everyone.

She tidied up some other loose quills and left-behind joke products of Zonko's with a flick of her wand. Next she climbed up the stairs to her bedroom. Halfway she met a bunch of girls from her year, Melody, Elinor and Jade, with whom she usually could get along well. Right now however, they ignored her. As soon as she passed them, they started whispering and giggling. Lily was too tired to care. Fifteen minutes later, she was fast asleep.

The next day went by in some kind of blur. She noticed she wasn't involved in anything, and was doubtful if that was because she didn't really have friends anymore or because the rest of the world suddenly seemed to have problems with her. After class she just went and sat in the library. There nobody was allowed to talk anyway, so it didn't matter if you had friends or not.

All of a sudden she saw Mina standing with Rachel, a Slytherin girl. Apparently Mina didn't mind making new friends when she was having trouble with her best friend. She turned around quickly, so Mina wouldn't see she had seen her. Frowning she tried to catch a whiff of their conversation. Since it was completely silent here, and Mina and Rachel weren't whispering very subtle, she could comprehend some words once in a while. At a given moment, she even believed her name was mentioned. That can't be right. Why would they talk about you?

In the evening, she thought of that conversation of Mina and Rachel in the library again. She had some questions about it. Firstly, what did Mina do in the library? She hated silence. She couldn't even be silent. Mina always got sent out by madam Pince, because she couldn't shut her mouth for longer than five minutes.

Lily wondered if they had been there because she had been there. But that didn't make sense. It was weird too that she suddenly got along with Rachel. Gryffindors and Slytherins couldn't get along very well in general. Wait a minute… what if she wanted to make me jealous! No, that also couldn't be it. Totally not Mina's style. She would rather say to you face that she didn't like you - as Lily had experienced - than doing it in such a cunning way. Yet Lily wondered if this had something to do with her…