"I mean, my parents expect me to go home for Christmas, when they know full well Tuney hates me. She'll ruin everything! Oh yeah, and another thing, she has a boyfriend!" Alice looked like she was struggling to hold back her laughter.
"What?" she asked finally.
"Yeah. His name is Vernon Dursley," said Lily bitterly. Alice covered her mouth and snickered. Lily grinned. It was a kind of silly name for a guy.
"Honestly, though. Who the hell would want to date your sister?" Lily shrugged. Alice shook her head, laughing, then gathered her books.
"Well, I can't stay for Christmas. All my relatives are coming home. Oh, and Frank is staying with us for Christmas, too." Lily noticed Alice blush as she said the last bit.
"Is that right?" she asked, mildly interested. Alice nodded.
"I don't think any of the girls' are staying at Hogwarts." Lily looked distressed at this news, but Alice quickly reassured her.
"I think Casey's staying, though. She was saying something about her mum needing a vacation- away from the kids." Lily raised an eyebrow. Casey's family sure was mean.
"Well, I'd better get going. I promised Frank I'd meet him at lunch." Gathering her books, she sat off, giving a wave to Lily as she walked away.
"Now, who would like to identify these three potions?" asked Slughorn, pointing at three small goblets of potions standing on his desk. Lily's hand shot up. Slughorn beamed.
"Yes, Miss Evans?" he asked.
"Well, the first is Amortentia, a love potion," she said enthusiastically, flashing a smile at a scowling Casey sitting behind her. "The second is a Calming potion. And the third is the Polyjuice potion. It can give you the ability to take someone else's form when you use your victim's DNA."
Lily didn't know whether she was imagining things, but she thought she saw James's eyes' spark with interest when she explained the last one.
"Excellent, excellent, ten points to Gryffindor," said Slughorn happily. The Hufflepuffs' let out a frustrated groan.
"Well, it's your fault!" snarled Casey, rounding on them. "Quit being dunderheads and start answering questions for once in your life!" The Gryffindors laughed loudly. The Hufflepuffs looked down in a mixture of fear and embarassment.
"Now, now, Miss Anderson, let's keep personal opinions to ourselves." Casey leaned back in her seat, still flushing with anger.
"Now, turn to page 54. I have a surprise for you..." said Slughorn, his eyes' twinkling. Lily turned to the right page. And stared.
"But, Professor," stated Casey again, much more angrier then she was a couple of minutes ago. "This is Felix Felicis! It's way too hard for us, and very dangerous!"
"Aaah, but that's the beauty of it," replied Slughorn, taking a seat in his chair.
"You gave us Amortentia a few days ago!" stormed Casey at Slughorn. "And it was bloody hard! So what makes you think we're going to be able to do this...this crap?" Slughorn looked like he was struggling down the urge to burst out laughing. Lily heard Sirius, James, Peter and Lupin laugh and she couldn't help but grin herself.
"Ah, Miss Anderson. You bring life to my class." Lily heard Casey mutter "I'll bring my wand next." Lily, still smiling, gathered her ingredients to start on her potion.
"Oh, that was hilarious, Case!" said Janet excitedly as she joined them.
"God, I hate him!" grumbled Casey. "Giving us potions that are meant for NEWT students."
"Maybe because he thinks we have the potential to do the more complicating ones," offered Lily. Casey snorted.
"Yeah, you do, Lily," said Janet enviously. "We don't."
"Well, I promise as soon as I finish with the lucky potion, I'll share it with you two."
"Really?" asked Janet excitedly.
"Of course," said Lily. The three then walked off towards the school grounds.
Christmas
"Merry Chrsistams, Lily!" Lily heard someone scream. Groaning, she sat up in bed to see Casey beaming at her across the room, fully dressed and opening up a mound of presents at the foot of her bed.
"Oh, happy Chrsitmas," yawned Lily. She noticed there was a mound of presents next to her too. Delighted, she leapt up and began unwrapping them.
There was an enchanted jewellry box from Alice that seemed to whisk up any kind of jewelly you were in aid of out of thin air.
"Oh, I got that one too!" called out Casey excitedly. Lily grinned and sat it on her bed, moving to unwrap the rest.
There was a huge box of chocolate frogs from Janet. Lily notcied a small, neatly wrapped up present. She opened it and gasped.
"Oh, that would be from me," said Casey happily. Lily looked back at the present. It was a gorgoeus silky emerald green scarf, the exact colour of her eyes.
"Thanks!" she breathed, looking up at Casey. She grinned.
"No problem." Casey lifted her wrist and glanced at her watch.
"Well, I'm off. I'm famished! I'll see you downstairs after you've unwrapped all your presents, yeah?" Lily nodded. Casey stretched, sent a wink in her direction and headed out. Lily decided to get dressed. Looking through her wardrobe, she settled on a fuzzy white jumper and black jeans. She brushed out her hair and let it cascade down her back in silky waves. Wrapping the emerald scarf around her neck, she was just starting to unwrap her presents again when she heard the door open. She looked up, startled. It was Casey.
"Oh," said Lily, surprised. "Thought you were going down for breakfast?" Casey shrugged.
"Couldn't be bothered." Lily thought Casey sounded a little odd, but shrugged it off, She opened her next package. It was a one pence piece from Petunia. Typical of her. Lily saw Casey staring at her out of the corner of her eye and she turned to her.
"Something wrong, Case?" she asked her. Casey smiled, walked forward, then gripped Lily by the shoulders.
"Lil,y I have a confession to make. I like you." Lily beamed at her.
"Aw, thanks, Casey! I like you too!"
"No, Lily," said Casey, smiling. Then her face turned serious. "I really like you." Lily looked confused for a moment, then her face registered shock and...fear. She barely had time to gather her thoughts before Casey leaned forward...
"What? No!" cried Lily, pulling away from her grasp. "What the hell are you doing?" But even as she asked the question, she noticed that Casey was starting to look a little...different. Her hair was turning more black, her eyes' lighter. But the wierd thing was her hair seemed to be growing shorter, like it was getting pulled into her skull. Lily looked away confused. Then she grabbed her wand at the last second. Turning, she pointed it at Casey. And screamed.
