Perhaps it was the results arriving, or the fact that she no longer dreaded seeing James Potter, but the days seemed to pass quickly. She had written back to James and after sending out the other letters, she spent some time trying to keep track of which letters she had answered. Most were short but Nigel had responded with two pages of analysis of his results, and a discussion of Dumbledore's unfair rejection of his prefect idea, which Lily privately appreciated as Remus was entertaining and fun to be with, but she sensed Nigel would give her slightly more work. She wrote back as much as she could, with her condolences, but suggesting he might still be made head boy, as they could be selected from the entire year. His next letter was optimistic, mentioning that he would fully support her for Head Girl. That gave her a laugh, the head girl role was essentially already chosen, the Slytherin prefect, Ivy Nott, was the perfect choice, threatening physically at a height over that of most boys, and a permanent scowl set into the lines of her overly mature face. She had a reputation for punishing rule breakers with severity, and never failed to deduct some house points when patrolling the corridors. Lily would fear for her life if she ever had anything that Ivy Nott wanted, especially a badge with a sharp pin attached. It wasn't a stretch to imagine it finding its way into her throat should Ivy be passed over.
Still, days passed in letters sent and received. Jac wrote, inviting her to stay for the day before and after the party. She would be returning home only to sleep and then leave for the station to go to Hogwarts. She accepted and set about packing up everything she might need for the next year into her trunk. Books were piled neatly next to clothes, the robes plain black but her red and gold tie and scarf showing the house to which she belonged. After a day of debating every item, she was ready to leave. Her father was a bit annoyed, mostly because she was leaving only hours before Petunia's big dinner, with Vernon coming to the house for a meal, Petunia having lost the restaurant/home battle. He was annoyed that Lily would escape the torment, but glad to see her so happy.
She was met, on the same corner as before, by Karen and her mother, having arranged to be apparated to the Prewett house with Mrs Coleridge. Lily couldn't apparate alone yet so she needed an adult and Mrs Coleridge was always happy, if hurried, to bring Lily along.
The Prewett family was old, one of the noble lines, that had retained 'purity' through generations, though they held little pride in their blood status, unlike many others, such as the Black family or the Malfoys. Still, ages had been kind to them and they were able to maintain several homes, not to mention having several branches, so that Jacqueline was one of five or so roughly similar aged Prewett cousins. The poorly-nicknamed Shed in which they lived made Lily's house look like a hovel, and was enhanced by the candles in every window, and colourful lights that seemed to illuminate the facade of the house. Clearly, the party had been prepared for, though it was hours away. Mrs Coleridge was welcomed by Jac's parents, and they told the two girls where to find Jac.
Karen and Lily whispered as they walked up a white marble staircase, and under a golden chandelier.
"D'you think we've dressed too plainly?" Karen asked, looking around at the opulent surroundings. Lily almost felt that she needed to screw up her eyes, the hallway was so bright.
Jac had suggested that it was simply a house party, but the parents at the gate, and the elaborate lights was making Lily's yellow sundress and Karen's paisley print shift dress seem overly casual. The green dress from the Muggle eveningwear shop near Diagon Alley seemed more appropriate to this remarkable setting.
Jacqueline was easy to find, from following the sound of Muggle music blaring, easy to distinguish from wizarding music. Music from the magical community was generally a little more dated, like Lily's parents music, and also had a lot of references to hippogriffs or trolls.
Jac's room, though ten times the size, was very similar in decor to Lily's room, the pale colours and floral bed sheets suggesting she had been here since a child, but with posters and photographs plastered over every wall showing the growth. Lily could see herself and Karen in many, the Gryffindor common room making several appearances, as well as many other familiar faces and places.
Jac and Lily on the grounds, under the big tree.
Lily and Karen at dinner, during a competition to eat the most chips.
Karen and Lynn, flying a broomstick down at the Quidditch pitch.
Jac and Beth, outside the boys dormitories, giggling as they dared one another to try the stairs to see if they were allowed up.
"Ahhh!" Jac saw them in the doorway and jumped, hugging them forcefully and pulling them inside the room.
"How are you both? Has your summer been good? Guess who I saw?" these questions all came in very quick succession and answers weren't really required. She continued.
"Sirius! He mentioned you!" she narrowed her eyes at Lily. "what's all this about you writing Potter love letters?"
Lily hadn't really been listening, but the last part drifted through and Karen just had time to shield her ears before Lily exploded.
"What?!" she shrieked, her face took only a second to turn a bright tomato red, and the transformation from calm, to indignation was immediate. "Did he say that? I knew he was just as horrible as ever!" she blistered, falling furiously into silence.
"Oh, calm down! Sirius just said you wrote a letter, that James wouldn't let him read it, and that he wrote about twelve versions before sending one back. Did you write to him?"
Lily realised she hadn't told Jac the story, and proceeded to, leaving out the bit where she danced around the room on seeing he wasn't going to make a big deal about the fight. It just wasn't really relevant.
The story had sent Jacqueline's eyebrows steadily upwards and a smile had grown on her lips.
"God, Lily, you're such a... you're a real martyr, aren't you?" She rolled her eyes and smiled reasonably. "James can't figure you out, and I'm starting to see why! You scream at him, or snap at him, or even hex him and then feel guilty and act nice to make up for it, that's your pattern, and it must be doing a number on the poor boy."
Lily didn't know what she was talking about, what gave her the impression that James Potter had spent any time at all trying to 'figure her out', and how would he have struggled to do it, she was straightforward, everyone snapped sometimes and must surely feel guilty for it.
"What d'you mean, that's my pattern? I don't have a pattern!"
"Oh but you do, dearest! A very confusing, hard to understand pattern, but it's there, you have known James for five full years, and in all that time, you've never been friends, you're friends with everyone, but not him, either you hate him and he's immature and arrogant, or you're feeling bad for calling him those things and you're overly polite and formal, until he blows up a greenhouse, or sets Peeves loose in the divination classrooms, when you start screaming."
"Okay..." She nodded resentfully. "but that thing with Peeves really was awful, those crystal balls were expensive, and that tea was scalding, someone could really have gotten hurt."
It was hard to maintain her severity when both her friends were cackling at her. It wasn't funny but she laughed along. She wasn't oblivious, and so she noticed the look that passed between Karen and Jac, a smirking, knowing look that Lily could only roll her eyes at, not being certain about what it meant.
"Look, you were right to tell him off, and you shouldn't feel guilty about it, but you do, because you're Lily and you're both painfully stubborn and self-doubting. You ought to either tell him off, and stick to it, or don't tell him off. I'm not saying you were wrong, you're not!"
Jac nodded her head, as if that was the end of it, and turned the record up. Jac started to pull dresses from her wardrobe, holding up each, and asking for opinions. Karen clarified that the party wasn't a ball, and Jac assured them that her parents were leaving. They spent a while waiting for Jac to try on the many dresses, and then, when a pale blue dress was chosen, Jac turned her attentions to her friends, to their dismay.
"Lily, really? Yellow?" She wrinkled her nose questioningly. Lily looked around for something to throw and Jac cackled.
"I'm kidding, you look lovely. Nicer than I do, which is a problem! Kidding!" she shouted, as Lily found a shoe, and she danced away into the bathroom.
The hours before a party were always Lily's favourite. The air seemed to buzz with excitement, as if all the different things that could happen that night were waiting, hanging in the air and shouting out, she could almost hear the music and voices that would fill the halls, and she couldn't wait. She had offered to help the house elf set things up, which mostly seemed to involve putting the various pieces of expensive artwork, vases, paintings and a particularly elaborate marble sculpture from Spain that was covered by cloth and hidden in an upstairs locked bedroom, hopefully safe from harm. She had helped bring in several cases of 'juice' which required Jac's parents to be skilfully distracted by the innocent looking Karen. Clearly her parents had not been involved in all aspects of the party planning process.
Lily was a sorter by nature, she often found herself picking up litter and ensuring not too much damage was done by the partygoers, she liked to think that parents of her friends would see her as responsible and sensible, though she bore a lot of teasing from her friends as being dull and mothering them. It wasn't really true, she knew how to enjoy herself and did so occasionally, but she preferred to actually celebrate something, the atmosphere was just better when there was that excitable, cheer-filled fervour of triumph, like after the final Quidditch match of the year, where, if Gryffindor had won, which she had to admit they did frequently thanks to James Potter, the entire house would pour themselves into the Common Room and dance and sing and cheer, until their voices were hoarse and their vision blurred.
This was Jac's birthday, and knowing Jac, it would be long, loud and someone would end up crying. She was prepared to comfort most people, but drunken ones were rarely easily managed, and she often grew a little frustrated when she realised they were upset over something ridiculous. Still, Lily knew that it would be fun, and as the hours drew on and Jac's parents left by floo, with assurances that they would be home mid-afternoon tomorrow, and a final kiss to their daughter, followed by a mouthed gesture to Lily to keep her sober from Jac's father, the anticipation grew. Lily tried to attribute the slight twisting in her stomach to excitement, or perhaps hunger, but she knew that she was nervous. Everyone invited were Hogwarts people, most of whom had last seen her screaming at James Potter, being called a Mudblood by her (former, she had to remind herself) best friend, and then retreating to her room until she could sneak onto the train and hide in the prefects carriage, which no one used on the trip home, having had enough with duties and wanting to spend their last few hours with their friends. She couldn't pretend that she was looking forward to the awkward conversations, the overly-jolly enquiries about her summer and her results, all the while knowing that half of them were pitying her and the other half judging her for not making a public and tear-filled apology to James Potter. She wasn't self centred enough to think that most of them would have given her a second thought, but when they ran into her, they would remember. She didn't want them to remember, she wished she could have erased the memory of everything between the end of the Defence exam and the train home. Part of her had even wished she hadn't went over, hadn't intervened in the bullying, but she didn't know who she would be if she hadn't, that was Lily's place, she stopped bullies from bullying, and she couldn't, no matter how painful the consequences, regret that action.
Feeling like a diver, taking a final breath before immersion, she prepared for the night ahead. Maybe everyone would forget that she had been at the lake, maybe they were all so relieved to have exams over that their brains refused to retain the memory of the red-haired girl cutting James Potter apart and being humiliated for her trouble.