I found Zoë resting on her bed in the 7th year dorm room. She had her eyes squeezed tightly shut, and she looked absolutely miserable. Her face was tinted a light green. She obviously hadn't recovered from her illness.
"Do you want me to bring you back to Madame Promfrey?" I asked her, breaking the silence. At the sound of my soft voice Zoë became aware of my presence for the first time. Her eyes snapped open. Their light blue irises were misty as if she had been recently crying.
"I'm not sick, Lily," she said. Her voice was firm and unwavering. I raised an eyebrow at Zoë. From my friend's looks there was no way she wasn't sick, but I decided to play along with Zoë's game.
"You're not sick, huh? Well, what are you then?" I asked.
"Someone hexed me on my way back to the Gryffindor common room. I have a feeling it was one of the Marauders… you know, they find this kind of thing funny." Zoë looked in the mirror. She pointed her face. "I look hideous! I told Anna to find you and ask you to help me. Anna tried everything, but she couldn't fix it… You can help, right?"
I studied Zoë's problem, getting a better look than I had before. It did look like someone had hexed her to make her look sick. Yep, it was definitely something Potter would do. But then again, why would he have told me that Zoë needed me if he was to blame for her condition? I pushed this thought aside. It was Potter, I assured myself. I just wanted—no needed—to blame him for something.
"I'll see what I can do," I told my friend.
They next day, I woke up feeling like I hadn't slept at all. I had spent a full hour getting rid of the hex on Zoë. I was feeling even more ungrateful towards James Potter than I had in previous years!
The only idea that made me get up was knowing that I had the first hour of the day free of classes. I decided that I would spend it relaxing in the hopefully empty common room.
Twenty minutes later, I left my room to sit by the fire. The whole common room was deserted except for Mary, as most people were at their classes Tuesday morning. I had the hour off to work on Head Girl duties—something I wasn't in the mood for doing today.
Mary was skipping class to finish an essay. I thought she would continue to ignore me like she had all week, but she looked up and smiled. Apparently, she was only ignoring me when Anna was around. That's… frustrating.
"Hey," she said. "Will you help me with this essay?" Then again, maybe she was just talking to me in order to get homework help…
I sighed. "I guess. Let me see what you have so far." She tossed her notebook at me. I caught it and began reading the first lines. I winced at the number of errors. It was almost blinding.
"It's that bad, huh?" Mary said, reading my face.
I cleared my throat and sat down next to her at the table. "Oh no, no… It just needs a little… work." I reached for my favorite quill in my bag. As I started making corrections, Mary attempted polite conversation.
"Do you like being Head Girl, Lily? Is it a lot of work?" she asked.
I shrugged. "It has its ups and downs. I do love the responsibility though," I replied. Except when I don't, I added silently.
"I think I would like it just so I could be with James Potter," Mary sighed in a nauseating way. I looked up and laughed quite unattractively.
"Since when have you been in love with Potter?" I laughed. Mary frowned at me.
"You know, Lily, you haven't been exactly friendly to any of us lately. It makes it hard to tell you anything!" She flicked her brown hair over her shoulder in an irritated manner.
My face heated up. Then I froze. Was Mary the one who I had seen with Potter yesterday? It was definitely possible. How could this have happened without me knowing it?
"Um, Mary, does Potter know that you… like him?" My heart pounded loudly, my silent screaming at it did nothing to quiet it.
Mary looked down at her pale hands and sighed, shaking her head.
"No. But I figured it's been years, and you still don't like him… so why can't I? You're not upset, are you?" She asked.
I forced a smile. "Nah, why should I care? Potter and I aren't even friends!" I spoke harsher than I had meant to, but I couldn't get the image of Potter kissing the girl out of my mind. I should have probably told Mary about that incident, but I didn't want to come across as jealous.
Mary seemed surprised. "You're not friends at all? But you work together as Heads! I thought you would've overcome your differences by now."
Without thinking I said, "Potter and I will never overcome our differences—we will never be friends. I hate him."
There was a crashing noise on the far end of the common room. Both Mary and I jumped up, but I didn't see anyone.
"Who's there?" I called out. Of course, there was no answer. I glanced around, but I didn't see anything that had fallen over. The room looked as deserted and untouched as it had before. Mary nervously inched closer to me.
"Do you think someone is here?" she whispered cautiously.
"Nah, it was probably someone's cat in their dorm room," I said. I knew that many of the Gryffindors had cats at school with them, and it was the only logical explanation.
"Come on, let's get back to work," I told Mary, looking at her. She cowered next to me, shaking. It was beyond me how she had been put into Gryffindor all those years ago, as she jumped at the smallest noises.
Eventually she calmed down and I was able to help her complete the essay. It was messy at best, but I had better things to worry about than Mary's homework.
Later as I sat relaxing by the fire, I felt a guilty feeling ripple across my body, like a tidal wave. I couldn't believe I had said that I hated Potter. It wasn't true at all; I could admit that to myself. I was just so angry at what I had seen yesterday. I had thought he was more responsible than that.
I wanted to kick myself in the face, but thankfully I not that flexible.
It was going to be another long day. I seemed to be having a lot of those recently.
As I walked into the Great Hall for lunch, I noticed that my friends were sitting next to Potter and his gang. It wasn't the first time this had happened, but I didn't want to go anywhere near Potter, especially after our last encounter last night.
Anna, Mary, and Zoë all seemed quite happy. They were laughing at something Sirius was saying. Potter's friends seemed very jolly too. In fact, as I got closer, I noticed that the only person who didn't seem content was Potter himself. His eyebrows were narrowed in a look of rage as he stabbed at his potatoes.
"Hi guys!" I lilted. All my friends smiled at me, even Anna. She must have finally forgiven me. I sat down next to her in the only empty seat—and unfortunately it was across from Potter.
"Hey Lily!" Sirius said cheerfully. I smiled warmly at him. When he wasn't joking around all the time, Sirius could be quite nice.
I helped myself to a cheese sandwich and salad.
"So, Evans, what was up with last night?" Potter asked me through clenched teeth. I slowly looked up from my food to meet his hazel eyes. He looked about to explode.
Ha, like he has a right to be pissed off, I thought. He was the one who went about snogging in the hallway!
"I was having a bad night…" I told him, trying to keep my voice civil. It didn't really work. My anger was apparent to everyone around me, and all my friends and Potter's friends stopped talking to watch the two of us.
"Yeah, well I guess if we were friends we could have talked about it and worked something out," Potter retorted. His face was turning pink in rage.
"What are you trying to say?" I spat back.
"What I'm saying is that maybe you shouldn't hate someone you hardly even know. Maybe you should give me a chance to be your friend," seethed. "Not that I care anymore. No one is worthy to stand before the mighty perfect Head Girl."
That's when it hit me. Potter had somehow overheard my conversation with Mary that morning. He had eavesdropped! He must have been the crashing noise we had heard!
I pushed my chair away from the table and stood up angrily, spilling pumpkin juice everywhere.
"Yeah, and no one wants to be around a selfish, eavesdropping womanizer!" I yelled.
Potter's face was practically purple by now. He opened his mouth wide to shout back, but I quickly took Sirius's cup of juice out of his hand, as mine had already spilled, and splashed it in Potter's face.
I spun around and walked away from the table before he had the chance to do anything to me in return. As I walked out, I was aware that the whole Great Hall was watching me. They had no doubt seen the whole scene. My heart ached with unbearable pain. Potter and I hadn't had a fight comparable to that one since the beginning of sixth year. It must be because we're the Heads, and I'm embarrassed that people saw us acting that way, I thought. But I felt like that wasn't the only reason why. I pushed this scary idea aside.