Early on Friday morning, I woke up. But when I tried to yawn and stretch I found myself rather unable to breathe properly or move.
"HEY!" screamed Emmeline from her bed beside me. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?"
As I pushed away what was threatening to suffocate me, I realized that it was tinsel. I could hear Emmeline thrash her way out of her pile of tinsel.
I figured that I would swim upwards through the stuff. Pushing it away with a smooth freestyle, I emerged above it all. Emmeline came up too; her brown hair in knots and a furious look on her face.
"What the hell is going on?" she asked angrily.
Our whole dormitory had been turned into a swimming pool of tinsel. I hoped that Kelly Tinkle was up earlier than us, 'cause if she wasn't, we were gonna be in big trouble.
"Morning!" called Dorcas from the direction of the bathroom.
I kicked furiously through the itchy decorations and found Dorcas paddling comfortably outside the bathroom.
Emmeline came over too, her eyes narrowed. "Dorcas…" she began slowly, "why on earth is our dormitory a pool of tinsel?"
"Oh that," said Dorcas, as if she had just noticed that we were treading tinsel. "I figured we could use some more tinsel, so I Summoned some from the closest place I could find."
This couldn't be good. "And, uh, where might that be?" I asked.
"That great big Christmas tree in that Muggle village two towns over."
Emmeline and I slapped our foreheads at the same time.
"What in the name of –" began Emmeline, but she was drowned out by a voice from downstairs.
"DORCAS MEADOWES!" screeched Professor McGonagall from the common room. "COME DOWN HERE THIS MINUTE, YOUNG LADY!"
"You're in for it now," said Emmeline smugly, glad Dorcas was getting her comeuppance.
We swam over to the door and slid down the stairs on the tsunami of tinsel that came with us. We landed at the foot of the stairs with most of Gryffindor, who had been woken up by Professor McGonagall, staring at us.
"Hi," said Dorcas with a cheerful wave of her hand.
Professor McGonagall looked murderous. "What is the meaning of this, Miss Meadowes?" she asked. I could see that she was waiting for Dorcas' excuse before she exploded.
"Well, I figured that we could use a bit more festivity around the place," said Dorcas. "And what says Christmas better than tinsel?"
Professor McGonagall's eyes narrowed.
"Plus, the leftover stuff would be great for our party."
"Oh God," muttered Emmeline beside me. "She had to mention it, didn't she?"
"Miss Meadowes, you've done a lot of crazy things over the years –" said Professor McGonagall.
I didn't hear what she said after that because I suddenly got a flood of flashbacks.
(Flashback)
First Year
"Who let their cat go out the train window?"
"She told me she wanted to learn how to fly! But have you got her, Professor? She didn't come back, that's all."
"Would you really like to know what happened to her?"
"Oh yes."
"We found her twisted around the axle of the train's wheels."
"NOOO!!"
Second Year
"Someone, I don't know who, has put sneezing powder into the breakfasts this morning. (sneeze) If you (sneeze) own up now, your punishment (sneeze) won't be as bad."
"Um, it was me, Professor."
"Why on EARTH did you (sneeze) do such a thing?"
"Well, I kinda wanted to see everyone sneeze at the same time."
"(sneeze) What?"
Third Year
"Who scared the Fat Lady out of her portrait?"
"It was me."
"Miss Meadowes. How did you manage to do such a thing?"
"Well, she told me that she wasn't scared of anything, so I pulled my scariest face and then she just ran."
"And what is this 'scariest face'?"
(screams)
"Dear God, stop! Stop Dorcas! Your parents should be ashamed!"
Fourth Year
"Who put an Itching Spell on every sweet in Honeydukes?"
"That was me."
"Why?"
"I like seeing people struggle to scratch something that's inside them."
Fifth Year
"Who gave Professor Flitwick a giant teddy bear for Christmas? Oh wait, was it Dorcas Meadowes, by any chance?"
"Yeah, that was me."
"Why?"
"He could use a big friend."
"It was twenty times his size!"
"Hehe, yeah."
"And what made you bring it to life?"
"Well, it's no good giving him a friend if he can't even do anything with it."
"It ate him."
"There's that problem."
Sixth Year
"Who put a curse on all the Quidditch balls so that when someone touched them they would get dragon pox?"
"You have to admit, Professor, it was a good spell."
"I'm not admitting anything! You've put both the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor teams into the Hospital Wing!"
"At least we're rid of James Potter for a while."
(End Flashback)
" – So you are getting a week's worth of detention starting next week."
"Okay Professor. Won't do anything like this again, Professor."
"You say that every time," said Professor McGonagall tiredly.
"Well, I can't do anything for a bit now, can I? We've got the NEWTs and I've almost finished school."
"Just get this tinsel out of my sight," said Professor McGonagall, before she left the common room.
Emmeline, Dorcas and I sent the whole lot of tinsel down into the empty classroom where our party was going to be held. Then we headed down into the Great Hall for breakfast.
.x.x.x.
"Partners for this next potion please!" boomed Professor Slughorn gazing around the dungeon. "I'll choose. Vance, with Pettigrew. Meadowes, Lupin. Evans, Potter. Elveria, Fratney. Richardson, Michaels. Um, Langton with –"
I'd stopped listening after I heard the words 'Evans' and 'Potter' put together. Emmeline and Dorcas had already given me their grimaces as they set off to be with their partners, while I remained in my seat in a state of shock.
"Hiya Evans!" said James, jumping into the vacant seat beside me with way too much energy for first class. "How has your morning been? I heard that Meadowes got busted for having tinsel; what's up with that? And hey, have you –"
"Shut up for a minute, would you?" I said, squeezing my eyes tightly shut and trying to work out what my brain was trying to tell me.
James.
Sitting next to me.
And, um, didn't we have that date last night?
I snapped my eyes open. "Oh my God, James, I was supposed to –"
I looked him in the eyes and saw the minute sadness there. He nodded slightly.
"Sorry. I'm so sorry, I just, well, Dorcas was being the git she always is; she wanted to give her teddy a bath and it took ages to wring the damn thing out 'cause she refused to use magic to dry it, after what happened to her last bear. And, well…" James was shaking his head and laughing. "What?"
"It's okay, Lily. We'll meet tonight. Alright?"
I smiled. "Okay."
Professor Slughorn came around to our desk then. "Miss Evans…? You haven't even got your cauldron out yet!"
I looked down at the blank desk. "Oh, right, Professor." I got up and hurriedly got out all the ingredients we needed. I told James to chop up everything while I did the mixing.
We worked pretty well together.
I spent the rest of the day thinking about our date/meeting tonight. Emmeline had to keep repeating herself to me in Muggle Studies.
"Lily! Are you even with us?!"
I blinked and shook my head. "Oh, wha – Yeah, I'm here, aren't I?"
Emmeline shook her head at me. "I said, what is up with you today? You didn't even laugh at my joke."
"It wasn't funny, that's why," remarked Dorcas from behind us.
"Yes it was, it was about that hag and the dog and the dog –"
"Stop her," said Dorcas, feigning impending death. "Stop her before it's too late."
"I've heard that one," I said, even though I haven't. I know that if Dorcas doesn't laugh, it can't be funny at all, 'cause she'll laugh at the lamest of jokes.
Emmeline looked dejected. "You still haven't answered my question. What is up with you?"
"She's thinking about her impending date with James," said Dorcas.
I looked at her with an open mouth. "How did you know?"
"I can lip read," she answered smugly.
"Really?" asked Emmeline.
"Yeah. It's a great skill to have. I learnt it to find out what my mother said to relatives when we met up with them."
"And what does she say about you?" I asked.
"Crap about how I do so well in school and 'Isn't her hair just gorgeous?' Lame stuff, really. Well, not the hair bit." Dorcas fluffed up her hair. "It's nice when people compliment me."
Emmeline and I rolled our eyes.
.x.x.x.
I was in the common room at nine sharp. Not many other people were there. Must be Early Bedtime Day or something.
I sat down in an armchair and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
It was now eleven o'clock and James still hadn't turned up. I headed upstairs with severe disappointment.
"Lily?" said Dorcas when I walked into the dormitory.
"Night," I said shortly, climbing into bed, even though I was still fully dressed, and pulling the hangings around me. Then I put my face in my pillow and cried.
.x.x.x.
Disclaimer: Any characters that you think resemble something out of Harry Potter, that's probably 'cause they do. They're not mine.
Eleven sleeps til Christmas!