Lily Evans desperately kept her eyes pressed shut while she cupped her forehead with her soothingly cool left hand and held her right hand up to shield herself from the sliver of light shining in through the slit of her crimson bed curtains. Her head felt like she had been hit with a bludger and her ears rang as if a stadium full of crazed Quidditch fans were recapping last night's events to her in booming and echoing voices. Behind her eyelids a laser show of blurry moments gave her an inkling of what had happened the evening before. But at that moment, her dark nightmare became a waking one as the bed curtains were drawn aside and a hateful June sun hit Lily square in the face.
"Lils, you really have to pack the rest of your stuff, the train is leaving the station in an hour," she could make out Dorcas' gentle voice. Train... Hogwarts... an hour... wait... an hour... an hour. An HOUR? Lily whipped up from her child's pose and instantly regretted the motivation, holding her head in vain.
"Owww... the train leaves in an hour? Why didn't you wake me earlier? This is a nightmare, I've got nothing packed and," Lily stood up from her mattress, "Argh, my head!"
"We tried to wake you earlier, but we were only greeted with kicking and lovely name-calling. Next time I'll make sure to try the ice bucket method!" Marlene seemed to be in an excellent mood.
"Oh... no. No need. Thanks, guys," Lily scanned the room and saw five trunks neatly aligned next to the entrance door of the dormitory, "Wait, what's my trunk doing there?"
"It's nice to see you up to average witch speed this morning," Dorcas winked at Lily lovingly, "Mar and I took the liberty to pack your suitcase for you as you were... ah, indisposed earlier."
"You guys are lifesavers, really, thank you so much," Lily started swaying towards the bathroom and scrunched her nose, "What is that smell?"
"I'm afraid that's all you," Marlene stated cheerily, "better hop in the shower before we all die under your breath and miss the train." Lily cast a rude hand gesture her way and disappeared in the bathroom.
As the hot water turned the small space into a hazy steam room, Lily's head cleared a bit. She had danced with Black last night. A lot. At some point she had also danced with James... Lily's stomach turned as she remembered the closeness of his face and his strong build holding her. Standing under the massaging stream of the shower, she couldn't place how they had gotten so intertwined, but she blushed nonetheless at the memory and her longing for it back. After scrubbing down with the papaya shower gel that had somehow gotten abandoned in the packing process, Lily stepped out on the cold tiles. She already felt a bit better about her situation. She had gotten close to James, why and however that had happened, and she had not yet missed the Hogwart's Express. Things were perhaps not as bad as they seemed after all.
Lily dried her hair with a spell and threw on a pair of light blue bell-bottom jeans with a dark green top. She downed a sweet tasting bright orange pick-me-up potion that Dorcas had set on her nightstand, feeling an instant relief, and took one last look around her beloved dorm room.
"Already miss it, huh?" Marlene put an arm around Lily's shoulder, her voice a little bitter. Marlene usually loved going home to see her family and to spend time with her little brother, but ever since early March her mother had been sending cryptic messages on the subject of 'having to talk about things when she came home' that had led her to believe that someone had grown ill or worse, had disappeared.
"Yeah," Lily in turn wrapped her arm around her best friend and cringed inwardly at the awkward summer ahead, with Severus on her front lawn and Vernon in her back yard. But worst of all, she was now isolated from the wizarding world without Severus to keep her in the loop. Especially with the attacks growing worse by the week, she felt helplessness in the war against Riddle which she didn't feel as severely when she was at school, surrounded by mostly like-minded students, teachers and friends.
"Ah, you know you're never coming back, Lils," Dorcas chimed in from behind.
"Hey!" Lily pouted at her insensitive friend.
"Oh- I didn't mean- because you're going to be head girl of course!" Dorcas beamed at her friend.
"Shut up, it's never going to happen," Lily dismissed her.
"Yes, especially with how bad you were last night," Marlene wiggled her eyebrows suggestively and ducked away from her red-headed friend that was now trying to tickle her into oblivion, "Stop!" Marlene shrieked, but Lily kept chasing her until she was completely exhausted.
"Stop being so fast!" Lily demanded, breathing heavily.
"That's what they keep telling me," Marlene winked and hopped aside easily to escape Lily's final attempt at beating her friend.
"Could we continue this on our way towards the station?" Dorcas suggested.
As the three went down to leave Hogwart's for a sixth time, they ran into Remus Lupin who was pushing past them nervously on the third floor staircase.
"Hey! Slow down, Padfoot," Marlene called after him. It seemed Remus had only just then noticed the three Gryffindor girls.
"Oh! Hey... It's Moony," he said quickly, his eyes meeting Lily's and then quickly darting away.
"What?"
"I'm- nevermind. I forgot a parchment upstairs. I thought Sirius had it, but he said he put it under my bed, why ever he would do such a thing, and now I have to get it since it's 'legally on my territory'," he explained hastily, continuing to avoid Lily's gaze.
"A parchment? I could just lend you one, you know," Marlene offered, already opening her book bag.
"Oh, erm, no! It's special," the three girls eyed him quizzically while Remus grew more nervous; "The four of us share it. Nevermind. Hope you're feeling better, Lily!" and with that he rushed up the stairs without turning back. The girls resumed their decent downstairs.
"Okay, why did he just say that? Didn't we all have a long night yesterday? I mean I get that I don't join into festivities as much as others, but why did he have to single me out as if I ran over my cat?"
"How can you run over a cat?"
"With a car, oh, never mind Marlene," Dorcas quickly changed the subject back, "Lily, are you telling us that you don't remember what happened?"
"Remember what? That I danced inappropriately with Black? I'm very aware and ashamed thank you very much. But I think we can all get over that now. I actually had a lot of fun with him- aside from the inappropriateness of it all."
"Yes, no. Not that. Lily, remember how at one point James left to bring Alexa back to the Ravenclaw tower..."
"Uh-huh."
"And that he returned from that trip a while later..."
"Uh-huh."
"And he climbed through the portrait hole..."
"Uh-huh."
"At which point you jumped on top of him and tackled him to the ground-"
"Oh no."
"And he brought you up to the dorm room-"
"Oh no," they were outside of the castle now and halted behind the line of students that were waiting to access a carriage down to the station, "don't tell me I did anything inappropriate with Potter." Lily was frightened and anxious of the answer that Dorcas held on her lips. Twenty students ahead she saw the back of a particularly cute head of unruly hair. But Marlene spoke instead.
"Nope. You just puked on him."
"I- What?" Dorcas and Marlene marvelled as Lily's face widened in complete horror until she covered up her features with her arms and started stomping on the soft lush ground.
"Oh it's not that bad," Marlene said soothingly while patting her friends head, "Maybe it was worse that when he told us how Alexa got angry because Flitwick caught them while they went up to the Ravenclaw dorm, you listed all the reasons she would never be head girl."
"No," Lily held onto the sides of her faces in exasperation, "please tell me I didn't."
"Oh, I'm afraid you did," Dorcas added in a soft, pitying voice, "didn't know that being tall is a downside when patrolling hallways by the way." Lily had lowered herself to the ground and just sat on the grass in shame.
"I'm never drinking anything ever again," she whispered into her lap.
"Never say that, flower," it was a gloriously handsome Sirius Black grinning down at the pile of red hair.