9. Invitations
November was soon over without much excitement except for Professor Slughorn having favorites like Lily, Shaina, Remus, and some kids of well known families like James and some other Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, Slytherins, and Hufflepuffs.
Everyone sat in the common room on the first Saturday night in December.
"Anyone going home over the vacation?" Peter asked. At the start of this topic Lily tensed up and became quiet. James noticed this and figured that she didn't like the subject.
"Um…I think we're all staying here except for you Pete so lets talk about something different," James said trying to make it a bit more comfortable for Lily. He guessed that the reason she tensed up was because of her mother. "Anyone excited for the quidditch game next weekend besides my devoted players?"
"We're all ecstatic about it! You know getting to sit in the stands in the negative twenty degree weather!" Massie replied sarcastically.
"Hey, at least you don't have to play in this weather!" Shaina exclaimed.
"Aww come on you guys cheer up…we all know that Shaina's going to catch the snitch in like five minutes flat anyway. So pretty much right after you sit down to watch it'll be over," Sirius said trying to lighten the mood.
"Ha ha! That's provided I don't turn into an ice sculpture first!"
"You've got nothing to worry about…I'm sure Moony here will keep you warm." Both Shaina and Remus blushed at this comment and the rest of them laughed.
"Anyway…it'll be interesting I suppose. But I still don't get the point of going…we always win," Lily said exasperated.
"So! Quidditch is only the BEST thing ever! Besides maybe…yeah," James said blushing slightly at the end and turning his head away as he was going to say Lily, but he really didn't want to ruin their growing friendship. He really wanted to just kiss her, but knew that their friendship would be over if he did, so he resisted the urge every time it came up. The comment was followed by an awkward silence, but after a few seconds Remus broke the silence.
"Uh, yeah. I think that we should start on our homework so we have a free day tomorrow," he said.
"Yeah, sounds good. Come on girls lets go upstairs and get our bags," Shaina agreed.
Girl's Dormitory-Lily, Massie, and Shaina
"Oh Merlin Lily, he was going to say your name!" Massie exclaimed the second they closed the door. Lily blushed.
"Aww look, our little Lils is blushing, I think someone's got a thing for a certain Mr. James Potter," Shaina teased.
"I do not!" Lily almost shouted while turning a darker shade of pink.
"Sure you don't and I'm the Queen of England."
"Why your Majesty, I had no idea it was you," Massie joked and bowed.
"Ha, ha," Lily said bitterly. She couldn't have a crush on James. Not James, the big-headed, arrogant git who always pranks everyone. No she couldn't. Not even a little. "Anyway lets get our bags and go back down stairs." She was desperate to get off the topic, though she knew that they would end up talking later on.
Common Room-Marauders
Sirius was rolling on the floor laughing while Peter chuckled slightly and Remus tried to suppress his laughter, but ended up giggling slightly. James just sat there glaring at them with a pink face.
"Okay, you guys can stop anytime!" James said getting angry.
"Sorry Prongs," Remus said stopping himself from laughing anymore. Peter was just starting to recover while Sirius made no effort to stop his laughing. James pounced on him trying to get him to shut up.
"Okay, okay. But you were about to say…Lil-lily's name," Sirius said starting to laugh again. James just sat back down and glared as the girls came down the stairs. Lily was pink faced and they were all looking at Sirius peculiarly.
"O-kay," Massie said. "I don't even want to know. Let's just start on our homework.
Breakfast-Everyone
"Ugh, I'm so tired," Massie complained.
"Yeah, who knew that our weekend homework would take us four hours to complete?" James said.
"I-I think my brain's rotted out," Sirius yawned.
"Well I only had one hour of homework," Peter said happily.
"Ah stuff it!" Sirius snapped.
"Don't be mean," Lily scolded Sirius, but Sirius had already tuned her out as hundreds of owls signaled the arrival of the mail. One owl landed in front of Lily, and another landed in front of Remus.
Remus opened his letter and quickly skimmed it then said, "Sorry you guys, but I have to go home for the holidays. I'll be coming back early though. The day after Christmas."
Sirius and James groaned. They were looking forward to at least having Remus with them, because Peter was also going home. Peter, on the other hand, smiled at Remus. He wouldn't have to spend the train ride back alone.
Lily just stared at the letter that the owl dropped in front of her. She'd already told her dad that she wasn't coming home. He was looking forward to seeing her, but wasn't overly upset that she wasn't coming home. He understood why and didn't blame her. Petunia wasn't in the least bit upset about it, she was actually thrilled. She had blamed Lily for their mother dying.
So Lily couldn't figure out who or why someone was writing to her, so she decided to just look at it curiously as if that would tell her who it was from and why.
"Aren't you going to open that, Lily?" Shaina asked looking at Lily peculiarly.
"Oh…um…yeah," Lily said snapping out of the trance she was in and picked up the letter timidly. She opened it slowly, pulled out what was inside, and looked at it curiously. It was an invitation, but just any invitation…it was a wedding invitation. One to…Petunia and Vernon's wedding?
Her friends all stared at it curiously too, but not like Lily. Lily was horrified. She'd only met Petunia's boyfriend or fiancé, Vernon, once. He wasn't someone that she'd want as part of her family. He acted like had a large stick stuck up his…and what made Lily curious was why would Petunia want to invite her to her wedding? She hated Lily. She blamed her for their mother's death, if it were up to her Lily wouldn't be a part of her family.
Lily thought about it a little longer before slamming it down on the table and leaving it there. She probably just invited her to make herself look better. To make it look like their family was perfect.
Now all of Lily's friends were looking at her with raised eyebrows.
"Petunia invited me to her wedding," Lily explained. Shaina and Massie immediately understood as they knew all about Petunia and how she acted towards Lily. The boys on the other hand still had curious faces.
"Who's Petunia," Peter asked.
"She's her sister," Shaina explained for Lily as she was too mad to say anything else.
"Um…o-kay," Sirius said just as, if not more, confused as before. As were the rest of the boys.
"Ugh…her and Lily don't exactly get along," Massie said. "Well, actually, that's an understatement. They loathe each other. Petunia's…jealous of Lily and never passes up an opportunity to call her a freak, because she's a witch."
"Then she also blamed Lily for…" Shaina trailed off noticing Lily's face change to a more saddened one.
"That's horrible. What kind of a sister acts like that. And then invites you to her wedding?" James said incredulously.
"I expect it's just because she wants it to seem like her family is perfect, and since most people know that she has a sister she has to invite me," Lily explained calming down a bit. "It doesn't matter, because I'm not going anyway."
"Well I think that you should," Massie said.
"And just why should I?"
"Because then you could prove to her that her calling you a 'freak' all the time, and never passing up an opportunity to make fun of you, and…"
"Okay we get it," Lily interrupted her. "Just get to your point."
"Okay, well, show her that you're not going to be affected by all that name calling stuff and that it's not your fault that…well…you know. Showing your face in public like that would just strengthen the fact that it wasn't your fault and that you don't believe it was."
"I agree," James said.
"Me too," the rest chorused.
Lily thought about it for a minute then finally agreed.
Common Room-Everyone
Everyone sat around the fireplace watching Peter, Sirius, Massie, and James play a game of exploding snap. They were all having a great time…just relaxing, and glad that the finished all their homework the night before. About half way through the game when Sirius had gotten out a third year girl came over to the group timidly.
"Um…I have something for Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin, Ms. Evans, and Ms. Ryans," the girl said reading off their names from different envelopes. The girl handed them to James, Remus, Lily, and Shaina, and ran off before any of them could say thanks.
They each opened their envelopes and looked inside. Inside each was an invitation. They were invitations to…
