Chapter Seven
'I'm guessing you spoke to him then.' Alice said as she and Lily stood in the toilets at lunch touching up their makeup.
'Spoke to who?' Lily asked blankly, peering at a freckle on her cheek with interest. It was a Friday and Lily had received her 42nd letter from her anonymous admirer. Not that she was counting. Nevertheless, she had been in a slightly distracted mood all day especially after Sirius had smirked omnisciently at her during break.
'Kingsley.'
'What? Oh, yeah.' Lily grimaced. 'I spoke to him.'
'I thought so since he's been avoiding her for more than a week.' She lightly powdered her nose.
'Mm…' Lily agreed, applying some faintly tinted lip balm.
'So – so he definitely doesn't like her, then?' Alice's usually cheerful face drooped visibly.
'Prick.'
'Oh, Lil, I was so sure he fancied her.'
'So was I.' Lily murmured and looked away from the mirror, so she couldn't make eye contact with Alice in it, choosing instead to fuss about with her makeup bag.
'I can't believe he'd lead her on like that – Frank wouldn't be friends with someone like that… surely.' Alice whispered, missing Lily sniff quietly.
'He must be the best actor in the world and the world's biggest twat.'
'You can't act that like that, can you?'
'Apparently, you can.'
'Oh, this is so stupid!'
'Poor Marlie…' Lily closed her makeup bag with a loud zipping sound to conceal the light gasp she let out. 'Did we – I mean did I do the right thing? Is it worse this way? He's not getting her hopes up this way… but – but at least she was happy before…'
'Lil, if you think Marlene was happy before then your mad!' Alice grabbed Lily by her shoulders and spun her around to face her. She smiled reassuringly as she took in Lily's slightly watery eyes.
'But she was! At least he flirted with her and paid her attention, so she could tell herself he liked her back.'
'Then it's better he's stopped sooner rather than later once her feelings were way deeper.'
'I suppose…' Lily sniffed and shook herself. 'We'd better get Hestia to waft that list of shaggable blokes near Marlie. Maybe we can have another girls' night or something.'
'If we do it tonight then there's Saturday for the hangover.'
There was the sound of a toilet flushing in one of the end cubicles and both Alice and Lily looked at each other in alarm. A click and the cubicle door opened. Marlene stepped out into the threshold and both Alice and Lily drew up in shock. Hastily, Lily wiped away a single tear and then she rushed over to Marlene, flinging her arms around her.
'Oh, Marlie…' she murmured, rocking her friend in her arms.
'It's nothing,' Marlene insisted, coughing loudly. 'Don't fuss about me, Lil.' She pulled away from Lily and forced a smile. 'I'm all right. He's just a bloke.' And then she pushed past and left the bathroom, leaving Alice and Lily alone, the two girls staring worriedly after her.
They had Potions after lunch and Lily sat beside Marlene, glancing at her every 5 minutes. Professor Slughorn was lecturing at the front of the dungeon but Lily couldn't concentrate for worry. Marlene's gaze was blank, and she stared into space, not registering the world around her in the slightest. Lily bit her lip nervously and as she looked to the front she caught Artur's eye. He smiled at her and she returned it awkwardly before hurriedly copying down a sentence of Slughorn's speech.
A while later and Professor Slughorn produced a stack of wooden trays from underneath his desk.
'Now, it came to my attention last time we had a practical lesson that many of you struggle to recognise ingredients by appearance, so I want you all to collect one of these trays and sketch the ingredients on them.' There was a great scraping of chairs. 'One tray between two!' he added hastily.
'I'll go get one.' Lily said to Marlene, her features worried as she took in her friend's face. Marlene continued to stare in front of her and Lily knew better than to wait for a response, so she turned and joined the queue of her classmates waiting for a tray.
'Hello, Lily.' Artur greeted from behind her and she smiled with slight force, her mind still on Marlene.
'Hi.'
'Are you looking forward to drawing plants for the rest of the lesson?'
'Can't you tell by my face?' Lily responded. 'I'm nearly pissing with excitement.'
Artur threw back his head and laughed. Loudly. His entire face seemed to achieve amusement at precisely the same moment; his eyes filled with mirth and his lips burst into a wide grin while he chortled.
'What's so funny?' Potter piped up from behind Artur, his hazel eyes glowering in Artur's direction.
'Your sex appeal.' Lily replied instantly, taking a tray from the pile.
'W-what?' he spluttered, unsure if he had heard correctly.
'It's so lacking it's funny.' she said sweetly and then returned to her table to begin the arduous task of drawing vegetation, a small but triumphant smirk playing about her lips.
But things returned to their negative state as Alice, Mary, Hestia, Marlene and Lily headed down from their dormitory, where they had deposited their things, to dinner and Kingsley came rushing past them. Evidently, he had eaten quickly to avoid seeing Marlene at dinner and then noticed her as he arrived in the same corridor as the subject of his avoidance and promptly made the executive decision that running past her would decrease the likelihood of uncomfortable eye contact.
Unfortunately, he had not considered that greater speed also meant a greater chance of collision and thus he and Marlene went crashing to the ground.
'S-sorry!' Marlene stammered, scrambling to her feet and edging nervously towards him. 'You all right?' She cautiously held out a hand to help him up.
'Yeah, I'm fine – you know me.' Kingsley dismissed but accepted her hand up anyway. 'Thanks.'
'No problem.' she said, eyeing him with wide eyes and hastily dropping his hand. 'Bye…'
She began to usher her friends down the corridor.
'Hey, Marlie!' he called after her as they reached the end of the corridor, but she chose to ignore him. Despite her rather defiant act, Marlene returned to her blank state as soon as they were out of sight.
'Does anyone get that essay Reynolds set yesterday?' Mary asked the group at large and Lily was glad someone had decided to strike up conversation. 'Those theories about lethifolds went over my head completely.'
'Well, basically they're just talking about how they're probably related to dementors and that's why you can use a Patronus to fight them.' Lily answered, very willing indeed to talk about something entirely unrelated to Kingsley.
'When were we studying lethifolds? I thought we were looking at dementors.' Hestia questioned in bemusement.
'Since two lessons ago.' Alice replied, smiling. 'Dementors were the lesson before that.'
'By any chance, Hestia,' Lily remarked, a grin spreading across her face, 'was the lesson on dementors the last lesson we had before Reynolds started growing a bit of stubble?'
'Maybe…'
'Merlin, Hestia!' Mary cried in exasperation. 'You need to stop drooling over our teacher!'
'What?' Hestia smirked. 'I'm just appreciating the view.' Lily groaned. 'Like you lot can talk! Alice, you spend half your time day-dreaming about Frank! Mary, you spend most meals staring at Callum Hayes! And Marlene does nothing but fall over when Kingsley's around.'
Marlene suddenly sped up and ran out of sight into the Great Hall.
'What the hell is wrong with you?' Mary thundered, gesturing after Marlene. 'D'you ever think before you speak?'
'Let's just go after Marlene.' Lily suggested tiredly.
'I didn't say anything wrong!' Hestia snapped.
'You're such a piece of shit!' Mary narrowed her eyes at Hestia. 'Y'know, you're just a massive bitch, Hestia!'
'I'm not a bitch!'
'Yes, you fucking are! The only reason we put up with you is 'cause Lily and Alice are too bloody nice to let you walk around like a loner. None of us like you! You're just a fucking hanger on! And I won't let you say shit like that and get away with it! We all hate you!'
'That's not true! Mary, you're just angry.' Alice interjected as Hestia's eyes grew slightly watery.
'Oh, don't lie, Al! You know it's true!'
'I'm going after Marlene.' Lily announced. 'Hestia, don't listen to Mary – she's just pissed – though you shouldn't have said that about Marlene. And Mary – that was out of order – calm down, it's going to be fine.'
And it was thanks to their friends that Lily and Alice spent the entirety of dinner attempting to coax apologies out of them and get Marlene to acknowledge anyone's presence.
The December evening was dark and the grounds of the castle isolated. All along the walls light from the mullioned windows speckled the grass so that it glowed orange like flames or perhaps the sunset from two hours prior. A few stars were already making a lazy appearance in the sky, sparkling in a bored fashion as they eyed the eventless land below them. Sirius leaned against one of the stone walls of the castle in a dark coat smoking a cigarette and looking out over the dark grounds, which were absent of the seasonal snow that had usually already fallen this far into the month.
'One present for a special someone named Remus Lupin.' a voice said from beside him and he let out a small bark of shock and promptly dropped his cigarette. It extinguished dully in the frozen ground.
'Fuck me, Evans!' he cursed but grinned nonetheless at his new companion. 'Give a bloke some warning next time, will you?' Lily held out an expertly wrapped present.
'I believe you wanted me to get you this.'
'What is it?'
'Well, you can find out when Remus finds out.' she responded in sing-song tones.
'I hate you sometimes.'
'I've been told I have that effect on people.'
Lily leaned against the wall beside him and sighed. Her face was tired, and her eyes saddened as she stared out in front of her. The dark grounds looked back blankly.
'Today's been shit.' she confessed after a moment of silence.
'For you too, eh?' Sirius chuckled humourlessly. 'Well, ladies first.'
'Marlene's turned into a ghost – she hardly says a fucking thing and it's all ruddy Kingsley's fault because I was sure he liked her but then when I told him to ask her out or fuck off, he fucked off! Can you fucking believe him? Honestly, Kingsley Shacklebolt is just a massive arse! Who's he to flirt with Marlene like that and then just chuck her away? Fucking shit-eating wanker.'
Lily scowled.
'And poor Marlene's heartbroken but she won't talk to anyone about it and then Hestia goes a says something stupid; she drives me up the wall sometimes because she just never thinks about anything she says. She's one of my best mates and I love her but fucking hell she's tactless. So now Marlene's pissed at Hestia and then Mary blew up at Hestia with some shit about none of us really liking her – which was a load of bollocks but when Mary's pissed she's fucking pissed and loads of shite ends up leaving her mouth – so those two hate each other at the moment as well.'
Lily ran a frustrated hand through her hair.
'So it's all fairies and glitter with them then?'
'Oh, yeah.' Lily snorted. 'And you? How come your day was shit?'
'One word: James.' Sirius told her, rolling his eyes slightly when Lily let out a noise that implied she was not surprised. 'He's such a fucking idiot sometimes and no, I can't tell you what about – but he's blind to anything we say to him. He makes me so pissed when it comes to this subject because he's being the world's biggest twat about it. And his never-ending list of birds. Don't even get me fucking started on that! I mean, I'm glad he's getting some action, but he needs to stop – sorry, this comes back to the thing I can't tell you about. He stays up late at night whining about it and all I'm fucking thinking is if he didn't shag so many girls he wouldn't have half as much to complain about.'
'Nice.' Lily commented. 'Really nice. I don't think I even want to know what this oh-so-mysterious subject is.'
'Oh, you'll definitely find out one day.' Sirius informed her wisely and she pulled a face.
'I look forward to it.'
'You should. You'll be delighted.'
'Nothing you're saying is making me want to find out.' Lily said, smiling in spite of herself.
'You have no way of not finding out.' responded Sirius with a grin.
'Doesn't mean I want to know.'
'You will.'
'I won't.'
'You really will.'
'I really won't.' Sirius opened his mouth to continue this battle of repetition. 'Anyway, what's the next thing I have to do to find out who's been sending me those ruddy letters?'
'I'm glad you said that because I do actually have a second task.' He smirked widely.
'And what's that?'
'You have to help me plan how to ask out Remus – and then the date as well.'
'How to ask Remus out? He doesn't speak a different language! It's not that hard!' Lily cried incredulously.
'But I've got to confess my feelings and that needs great wording!' he replied indignantly. She raised an eyebrow. 'Besides, I might do it on Valentine's Day, so it needs to be extra romantic.'
'Romantic?' Lily scoffed. 'You've come to the wrong person.'
'Evans, I trust you to stop me from cocking this up.'
'Me? I once sneezed on someone whilst shagging them! I'm not exactly the person to save you from making a mess of this.'
'You sneezed on – who was it?' Sirius' eyes were eager.
'That's classified information.' Lily informed him snootily, and Sirius snorted. 'Fine, it was Charlie Caldwell.'
'Caldwell? The old Ravenclaw Seeker?' Sirius seemed mildly impressed. 'He's not bad, Evans; you've got good taste.'
'Yeah, well, I sneezed on him.' Her cheeks had turned slightly red. 'It's good he's graduated now.'
'I'll say.' Sirius agreed smugly.
'If anyone else finds out about that I will permanently vanish your hair!' Lily threatened, and he laughed.
'You still have to help me.' Sirius reminded her merrily causing her to shake her head.
'On your own head be it.'
Reaching into his pocket, Sirius produced another cigarette. Placing it between his lips, he cupped his hand around it, bringing his wand to meet the its tip. A gold flame burst from his wand and lit the cigarette with an unnecessary flourish. Replacing his wand, Sirius took a long drag on the cigarette and then exhaled a great plume of smoke. Lily wrinkled her nose beside him.
'Do you have to smoke right next to me?' she complained. Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. 'That smell makes me feel sick.'
'You've certainly changed your tune since 4th and 5th year.'
'Well, I gave up over the holidays – I was a complete cranky bitch though.' Lily fumbled about in her robes for a moment and took out her box of strawberries and cream lollies. Their container was in fact a cigarette box, but it had been wrapped with brown paper to cover the original design of the box. She flicked it open and removed a lolly. 'I still get cravings sometimes.' Sirius frowned at the box and she smiled sheepishly. 'It was my mum's idea. She thought it might help if I still have a box to open like I'm about to have a smoke and then have a sweet or something instead.'
'And does it?'
'Yeah. I mean, it's still a fucking pain to give up but I feel… lighter.'
'Well, don't mind if I keep this up then.' Sirius said, breathing out another cloud of smoke. They stood in silence beside each other for a moment, both looking through the cigarette smoke at the grounds before them. 'I still can't believe you sneezed on Caldwell.'
'We were in a broom cupboard, all right, and it was really dusty!' Lily replied indignantly. 'Anyone would've sneezed.'
'So Caldwell sneezed as well?' Sirius inquired smugly, smirking as Lily pulled a face.
'Not exactly.'
'Not exactly?' he mocked. 'What? Did he only half-sneeze? Did he say 'ah' but not 'choo'?'
'All right then, he didn't sneeze!' Lily responded grumpily, and he laughed. 'Oh, shut up!'
'Did he notice?'
'Notice what?'
'That you sneezed.'
'You know,' Lily began thoughtfully, 'I'm not sure. He didn't react anyway.'
'He must've liked you then.'
'I suppose… But I tried to hide it with my um… fake orgasm noise.' Lily had turned scarlet and she hastily looked away from Sirius, avoiding his gaze at all costs.
'That bad, eh?' Sirius snickered, and she remained silent, completely embarrassed. 'Good of you to fuel his ego though.' he encouraged, smirking wider as he attempted to coerce Lily into looking at him. 'A lot of birds wouldn't have.'
'Thanks.' she said dryly. 'I'm glad that's what makes me unique.'
'You're welcome.' He took another drag of his cigarette and Lily rested her head on Sirius' shoulder. She sensed his eyes flick down at her and she smiled slightly to herself. Closing her eyes, Lily felt the cold night air pinch her cheeks affectionately and she sighed contentedly.
It was times like this where she appreciated the winter season even if it did cause her toes to feel uncomfortably icy. There was something quite relaxing about the chilling temperatures that summer couldn't keep up with; almost as if the cold slowed the world down to a manageable pace that Lily could bear.
'Thanks for cheering me up, Sirius.' she murmured with only just enough volume for him to hear her.
'No problem, Evans.' he replied and dropped the cigarette to the floor, stamping it into extinction so that the two friends could enjoy the quiet peace of the night in silent companionship.
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