A/N: Heyyo! Here's another chapter for you amazing Jily-shipping human beings!

Chapter 6: Pumpkins and Dingbats

3rd November, 1976

"Aaaahahhahah," I yawn as I wake up. Today is going to be a good day. An awesome day, even. No Potter, no Transfiguration, no trouble! Yeah, it's day three of my Potter-free Month! It's time to part-aay! Who would have thought that a regular Monday could be so wholesome!

I change into my school robes and slide down the bannister in my glee. I hear a faint 'meow' as I slide down the final flight of stairs, and in my surprise, instead of jumping at the end like I am supposed to, I keep seated and dash into Alice's cat, Breadstick.

"Ow, bad start to the best day ever, but that little accident doesn't matter, Stixie! We're both fine, and I'm going to be better when I have eaten condiments that have the same name as you! Ta-ta!" I say to an awestruck and confused cat, transfixed with horror.

Whatever happens, nothing is going to lower my spirits, it's a great day! I have double Charms and then double Potions today! Also, I hope, in regards to the Potter-free Month, Potter does not stare at the back of my head as usual in Potions. Before I even realise it, I'm walking to the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall.

"Hey, guys!" I say to Remus and Mary, who were already eating their breakfast.

"Hi Lily, you look cheerful today," Remus says with a smile.

"That's because I am, Remus! I'm ecstatic! Do you want to know why? Huh? Do you? Do you? Do you?" I ask them with a huge toothy grin and wide eyes.

"I'm guessing it is not because of that," Mary says as she stares at something behind me. I turn around just in time to see Rodolphus Lestrange enter the Great Hall with none other than Severus Snape.

"Oh fuck. Oh, fuckity, fuckity, fuck. Shitty shit shittttt." I mumble. This cannot be happening. This cannot be happening today. Today is supposed to be a good day, an awesome day.

"Tut-tut, Evans, what did I tell you about cursing too much?" Oh, no.

I make no reply as I pick up my book bag and all but sprint out the Great Hall. Why does this happen to me? What have I done? Have I somehow enraged the Gods – whose existence I don't even believe in?

"Why me?!" I shout to no one in particular in the empty courtyard.

"Lily, is 'at you?"

"I'm in no mood, alright, just leave me alone!" I say to the poor soul who had stumbled across me.

"Oh, but 'it ain't happenin', you see? I don' 'leave people alone.'" Wait, I know that voice.

"Hagrid! I haven't seen you in ages! Where have you been?" I ask my dear old friend. It's true; I hadn't seen him since the Welcoming Feast at the start of term.

"Where've I been? Where've you been? I'm always in my cottage!"

"I have been rather busy. Can't even find time to think straight, let alone walking all the way across the grounds," I turn to look at the grounds. October brings with it its cool breeze with a tinge of pumpkin in it. "How are the pumpkins this year, Hagrid?"

"They're amazin'! Better than ever before! Wanna come see?" I almost say no, in view of double Charms that start in less than 10 minutes, but who cares? I'm great at Charms and ahead of everyone in the class.

"You know what, Hagrid, yes, I do."

So I spent the next hour drinking Hagrid's horrendous tea while looking at the pumpkin patch in front of his cottage. I have spent many of my evenings in the same position. But, with me was Potter. Hagrid used to give us his cookies and we would sit and talk about how annoying the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher was.

But now? Even with our new teacher-Professor Bloomwood, even at Hagrid's cottage with his freshly burnt cookies, we find ourselves doing nothing but arguing with each other. Why? Because I am a very bad judge of character, that's why.

"I have to go Hagrid, I have class. Thanks for the tea!"

"Come visit me sometime, Lilypad! I miss you kids!"

"I will, bye!" I say and start walking towards the castle. But I really don't want to go to class. I'm sure Professor Flitwick won't mind, he knows I know all he's teaching. So, I start climbing up the stairs toward my favourite place in the whole castle, the Room of Requirement.

Of all the places in the castle, I found that room on an unfortunate day. It's was Hallow's eve in 3rd year and there was a huge food fight in the Great Hall. Sirius, being the awful dog that he is, was chasing me with lemon meringue pie in one hand and treacle tart in the other. I had been searching for a place to hide on the 7th floor, which I had reached surprisingly quickly, and had to run back and forth in the same spot a few times. That's when the door showed up out of nowhere and I bolted in. Ah, good old days.

Since then, I've made the Room of Requirement turn into plenty of things, but most of all, a music room. Being Muggle-born, my Mum had always assumed that I would need extracurricular activities to get into a good college. So, I've done plenty of things – from martial arts to performing arts, nothing was left behind. So, playing the piano has always been my salvation.

Whenever I am not in the Common Room, class or the Library, you can find me here. But, I hope you don't. Please?

I start randomly playing some scales on the Baby Grand when the door to the Room opens slightly and closes, and if I didn't have super sensitive ears, I wouldn't have heard the ruffling noises in the room.

"Okay, Potter, you can come out now," I speak to thin air when suddenly the grinning git appears in front of me. Our years of childhood friendship had me know all about his family's Invisibility Cloak. "How did you find me?"

"Well, you weren't in class, the Common Room, not even the Library, so I assumed you would be here," he says, all the while playing with his hair, ugh, he's more obsessed with his hair than all the girls in the school put together!

"And why would you know that?" Seriously, my visits here are one of my best-kept secrets.

"Instinct," he shrugs.

"Whatever it is, Potter, I would very much appreciate if you would leave, it is my Potter-free Month, after all. Plus, I haven't been gaining all my benefits of it since yesterday. So, toodles!"

"But, Evans, what if I don't want to leave," there's that bloody annoying smirk again. Ugh.

"I will hex you so bad, that you won't come around until the end of this month!" I say scathingly.

"But what's the fun in that?" stop riling me up, chimp.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE, WHAT PART OF THAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? ARE YOU THAT THICK? ARE YOU SO STUPID THAT YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT A PERSON DOES NOT WANT YOU COMPANY?!" I am pretty sure my voice would have travelled out of the Room into the corridor. I'm an extremely loud person, you see? So loud, that Marlene has to pull me into the dormitory if she wants to tell me something because otherwise, the entire Gryffindor Common Room would be able to hear squeals of 'Really? No way!' or 'He is such an asshole!'

"Fine, I'll leave, just thought you would want some lunch since you left your breakfast untouched. But, if you wanted any food, you would come by yourself, wouldn't you? Yeah, you would. Anyway, sorry for troubling you, bye." He turned on his heel and left the room. That's it? No 'Come on, Evans, it was just a joke' or 'Who doesn't want my company'? That's queer. Is he up to something? Or maybe he's just started seeing sense. Oh, who am I kidding? This is James Head-inflated-to-a-thousand-times-its-normal-size Potter we're talking about. But, at least he's gone. Now, back to my piano…

I restart my scales when my super sensitive ears picked up the noise of the door opening and closing again. Without turning around or pausing playing, I sneer, "I thought I told you to leave, Potter!"

"It's not that imbecile, Lily." Oh, fuck. How is every one finding me? This is supposed to be a top-secret hideout!

"Get out, Severus. I think I've made it sufficiently clear on countless occasions that I do not want to talk to you." Honestly, don't people understand that I don't want to have anything to do with them? I realise that boys' hypothalamus is smaller than girls' but that does not have any effect on their reasoning and understanding!

"Lily, I did not come here to apologize or beg you for forgiveness, I came here to tell you not to take part in the Wizarding Tournament."

"Really, and why would that be? Wouldn't you be happier, having one less Mudblood to kill because everyone knows this is a suicide mission?" Snape visibly cringed at the sound of the insult that had ended our friendship not too long ago.

"You know I didn't mean it, please Lily, at least listen to what I have to say. It's him, he's going to-"

"I don't want to hear it, Severus. I've had enough of your manipulative ways, and I don't care what you have to say." I say all this in a resigned tone; I really have had it with these Y chromosome-d beings ruining my life.

"The Dark Lord is going to meddle with the tournament, causing very bad things to happen, I'm saying this because I care about you, do not participate."

"Care about me? If you did care about me, you would not have been absent from school for an entire month doing Merlin-knows-what with you Death Eater buddies, so thanks but no thanks. This is my alone time, so leave."

"You didn't have a problem when Potter was interrupting your time," he sneered.

"I did and that is - you know what? I don't need to explain myself to you. So, I would very much appreciate you keeping you unnaturally long and slimy nose OUT OF MY BUSINESS!" There, my voice had already risen to high levels and if he didn't leave now, my own vocal chords would cause my eardrums to rupture.

"Whatever, Lily. Keep in mind what I said. And stray away from that good for nothing asshole," he said.

"Excuse me? You have no right to tell me what I can and can't do. You lost the right to express you filthy opinion in front of me months ago, you Death Eater fledgeling."

"Oh, so now we're defending Potter are we?"

"Stop twisting words around, you big oaf! He is ten times the man you will ever be, now LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!" Did I just say that? Did I really just defend Potter? Merlin, that too in front of Snape! Oh, God, James Potter is going to be the death of me.

"Fine, be another one of Potty's whores, Lily, we'll see where that will get you."

Before I could strain my vocal chords further, he quickly left the room. Thank you, Merlin, Agrippa, Circe, and all things magical! I owe you one!

"Now, for you, my dearest," I say to my inanimate piano, "How about some actual playing now?"

"LILY! There you are…"

"WHAT NOW?!" Whoops, it's Marlene. "Sorry, Marls, I'm a bit distracted, what do you need? Oh and also, HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND ME?" I scream the last part because it's not Lily Evans without a bit of shouting.

"Woah, woman, calm down. James told me to come here and call you for lunch…"

"Doesn't that tosser understand that I do not want to eat?"

"Come on, Lils, don't be mean. He's just looking out for you."

I scoff, "Looking out for me? Sure, this has nothing to do with his stalking abilities."

"Look at yourself, you haven't eaten since last night! Let's go eat… I hear there are French fries for the Americans! How weird, the French are here but the French fries are not for them…" She physically dragged me off the bench and out of the Room of Requirement, all the while rambling about how strange those Americans were, "Have you seen their books? They spell 'bannister' as 'banister'! I mean, how daft!"