-1When she woke up the next morning, the first thing Lily felt was something sharp digging into her side. Rolling over, she reached under herself and pulled out the picture frame. She sighed deeply. After finishing her homework the night before, she had taken out the picture to look at it again. When her roommates had suddenly walked in, she had hidden it under the blankets and apparently fallen asleep on top of it, forgetting that she had put it there.

Now she studied the picture more closely, and found herself wishing she was a little girl again. She remembered how her father used to sneak up behind her and whisper "Hello, my beautiful little flower," into her ear when he came home from work. Then he would scoop her up in his arms and spin her around and around in circles while she laughed wildly, loving every minute of it. She remembered coming home from school when she was a little older to find chocolate chip cookies or some other snack waiting for her. She remembered watching movies with her parents and friends. The memory that stood out now in her mind had been her last birthday at home, her tenth birthday. She had had her three best friends (at least they were her best friends then) over for a sleepover. Her mother had let her rent as many movies as she wanted and had even bought her new pajamas and a bunch of blankets so they could all sleep on the floor in the den in the basement. She had brought down pizza for dinner and later popcorn and every other snack they could imagine. At ten she had come down to tell them it was time to go to sleep, then ignored the soft laughter and talking that came from the basement for the rest of the night, pretending she didn't know they were awake. They watched movies and played games all night, and Lily had had the time of her life.

She found herself wishing that she could go back to that day, that she could relive it just once. Nothing was that simple anymore. She no longer lived at home for ten months out of the year, and she, along with the rest of the young witches and wizards in the school, were growing up faster than they should have had to. The threat of Voldemort hung over them all like a dark cloud the wind couldn't blow away. Everyone was affected. Two months ago, Lily had been the first one back to the common room one night. She had found a second-year sitting on the floor in front of the fire, a piece of parchment clutched in her fingers. It was crumpled and wet, from her tears, Lily later realized. Earlier in the day, Professor McGongall had told her that both of her parents had been killed, along with her younger brother and a cousin that had been living with them for the last six months after her parents had been murdered. In an instant the girl had lost her whole family. The parchment was the last letter her parents had written to her. Lily had hugged her close and sat with her for hours until she fell asleep. And hers wasn't the only case. It wasn't uncommon to hear about students losing mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, friends, and other loved ones to Voldemort. Everyday it seemed someone else had a story to tell, a memory to share because the memory was all that was left.

Lily sighed and pushed away her morbid thoughts. She hid the picture in the drawer beside her bed and stood, going to the window to look out over the lake and let the sunlight banish the darkness from her mind. Everything will be okay, she thought to herself. She refused to think that it might not be.

--

Lily sighed as she sat in Transfiguration class, the sunlight hitting the desk in front of her. She usually had no problem paying attention in class, especially in this class, since Professor McGonagall did not take kindly to daydreamers. But today her mind was somewhere else.

"What's wrong?" Alice whispered into her ear when McGonagall turned her back for a minute.

"Nothing," Lily said. "I just can't concentrate today. I think we should do something fun tonight. We need a break."

Alice nodded, a smile playing on her lips. "Why, yes, we do," she whispered. "And I think I know just the thing!"

Lily smiled, reading her friend's mind. Her spirits lifted at Alice's happiness and the prospect of the night that lay before them. It would be nice to just have a girls' night again. They hadn't had one in over a month, and Lily realized that she desperately needed it.

--

When the five roommates got back to the common room that night, they immediately went up to their dorms and tossed their bags under the beds. Then they put on their pajamas, pulled out every drop of make-up and nail polish that they owned, and sat down. They had fun for awhile, talking and painting their nails and laughing. Slowly, they relaxed. The tension eased out of the girls and left smiles and laughter in its place. Then Julie suggested they play truth or dare.

"Truth or dare, Alice?" Charlotte asked.

"Ummm….truth," she replied, remembering the last time she had let Charlotte give her a dare.

"Okay. Do you fancy Frank, Alice?"

Alice turned scarlet in an instant. "No lies, Alice," Charlotte warned. "Fine," Alice said, resigned to her fate. "Yes, okay? I fancy Frank."

The games continued. They finished truth or dare and played some other games as they talked and laughed for awhile.

When they had all laid back on the floor, a little tired, Julie suddenly sat up. "Let's have a dance party!" she said excitedly. "We can go down to the common room. No one'll be there now, it's pretty late."

Lily and Alice glanced at each other. "I don't know, Jules, I'm pretty tired," Alice said.

"Oh, come on," Kayla had joined in now. "It'll be fun! Since when do we get tired when we're having fun?"

Charlotte pushed herself off the floor. "I have a wizard radio that should work even with all the magic in the air," she offered.

"Thanks, Charlie! See? Come on, it'll be fun, Alice," Julie pleaded.

Alice pretended to be annoyed. "Oh, all right. If everyone else is…"

"Lily?" Charlotte asked. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

Lily rolled her eyes and looked at her friends for a moment. Then she grinned. "Okay. Let's do it!"

Charlotte grabbed her radio and they headed downstairs, still in their pajamas. The common room was empty, as they'd hoped it would be. Charlotte turned the radio on and they started dancing wildly. Kayla jumped up on the couch, dancing, while Lily jumped on one of the tables in front of the fire. When the song ended, they paused for minute, catching their breath. At least, until a pillow hit Lily in the head. "Hey!" she exclaimed, looking around to see Julia looking at her with a wicked expression on her face.

Lily grinned. "Okay, fine! If that's how you want to be…" she said, and then threw the pillow she had snagged from the chair behind her at Julie.

Soon pillows were flying everywhere, intermingled with some dancing when the music started up again. This was the scene that the Marauders saw when they came trudging down the stairs, yawning. Sirius was first, walking with his eyes half-closed until he came into view of the common room. His eyes almost bulged out of his head. "I must be dead, because this is heaven," he whispered to James, who was behind him. James was smiling amusedly at the scene, watching a certain girl whose red hair fanned out behind her as she spun in a circle. "Then we must have done a murder-suicide, 'cause we're both in heaven," James whispered back,

Remus and Peter were behind them, also staring at the girls. The four boys stood on the steps for a few seconds, just watching them. Then Sirius stepped down and said loudly, "So, is this what you girls do when we go to bed?"

Alice and Charlotte shrieked in surprise. Kayla jumped off the couch and crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hide the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra. Julie tried to jump off the armchair she had been standing on, tripped over the arm, and fell flat on her face. She jumped up quickly, her face turning red as she stared defiantly at the boys, who were smothering laughs. "What are you doing here?!" Lily asked, both angry and embarrassed.

James walked over and reached up to help her down off the table she was still standing on. She turned haughtily and jumped down on her own. He sighed. "You woke us up."

"No, James, they woke you up," Remus corrected. "Then you woke the rest of us up. The rest of us who happened to be sleeping quite peacefully, by the way."

"Close enough," he said, waving away this minor detail. "Okay, so you woke me up. And probably half the dorm too. We were just the only ones with the guts to come down and confront a bunch of girls who are probably on a sugar high."

Lily frowned, but she couldn't protest. They had eaten a lot of candy earlier. "Sorry we interrupted your beauty rest, Potter," she said, smirking. "God knows you need it."

James put his hands over his heart, pretending to cry. "You wound me, Evans. I happen to think you look gorgeous in those very cute little pajamas."

"Ugh, get out of here!" she screamed as she threw a pillow at him, thoroughly embarrassed.

"Hey! That's cheating! We weren't part of the pillow fight." Lily froze just long enough to register the word weren't before a pillow flew into the side of her head.

"Sirius!" she growled. Then she threw it back at him. And then all nine of them were throwing pillows everywhere.

Sirius tackled Charlotte when she threw a pillow at him, sending them both falling onto the couch. James snuck up on Lily from behind, wrapping one arm around her waist while he threw a pillow into her face with the other hand. Kayla and Alice took on Remus, while Julie aimed at Peter.

Finally, gasping, they all collapsed onto couches, chairs, and the floor. "I didn't know you girls had it in you," James said finally, propping himself up on one elbow.

"Had what in us?!" Lily asked indignantly from where she was laying on the floor next to him.

"This is just kind of - I don't know - crazy for you," he replied.

She laughed then, and slowly the other girls joined in. The boys joined James in looking puzzled. "What's so funny?" he asked.

Lily gasped, then bit back her laughter for a minute to answer him. "Potter-" she broke off as a giggle escaped but she fought it back for a second. "We do this all the time. You've just never caught us before." Then her laughter broke out, full force.

James just looked down at her. He desperately wanted to lean down and kiss her, and he almost did, but he stopped himself. Instead, he reached over and said, "Oh, yeah?" And then he started tickling her mercilessly.

"Potter!" she shrieked. "Get off me! That's not fair!" But she couldn't seem to make herself mad at him. Last year she had hated him thoroughly, but this year she couldn't seem to.