Disclaimer: It belongs to J. K. Rowling. Period.
Lily sat against the wall and cried for what felt like years. Finally, completely drained, she dragged herself back to the Gryffindor common room and up to the seventh-year girls' dormitory. She was unutterably tired and wanted nothing more than to fall into bed, still clothed, and give in to sleep—anything for the day to be over—but, Lily being Lily, she was also painfully aware of what she had to do, and right now she was in desperate need of some advice. She wanted to sleep. She didn't want to wake Mary. But being responsible meant that a lot of the time Lily did things she didn't want to do, and this was no exception.
Lily shook Mary awake.
"Wha . . . ? 'S'not morning yet . . . 's too dark to be morning . . ." Mary groaned. Lily continued shaking her. Mary blinked several times and seemed to become more aware of the situation. "Lily? I tried to wait for you. I stayed up 'til 12:30. What took you so long? Did you and James decide to take it to th—" A shadow shifted from in front of the moon, and light splashed suddenly across Lily's face. Mary changed direction mid-word. "Good Merlin, Lily! What happened?"
Making sure to whisper to avoid waking her dorm mates, Lily related the events of the evening. Mary listened intently, gasping and visibly reacting at times, but she didn't interrupt.
When Lily had finished, Mary said, "Before I say anything else, I want to remind you of one thing that might have gotten lost in all of tonight's drama: James loves you. He may be immature, impulsive, stupid, arrogant, irrational, and a complete git, but you can't deny that he loves you."
Lily sighed. "I know. That's what's so hard. Part of me just wants to be done with him—well, for that matter, part of me thinks it was an enormous mistake to ever date him in the first place—but another part won't let go of the fact that he's in love with me. I mean, when all is said and done, love is worth a lot, and turning my back on it could be a big mistake. On the other hand . . . he's just so stupid! And not just stupid—immoral! What kind of person uses their authority as a Head to use magic to get even with people they don't like?"
"Hate to break it to you, Lily, but I'd say probably most people would," Mary pointed out. "Especially when caught in that sort of situation."
"We would have sorted it out somehow!" Lily argued back, raising her voice. "There was no need for James to go and hex Sev!"
"Shh, shh, you don't want to wake up the whole dorm, do you?" Mary whispered. "Look, it was arrogant and wrong of James to use his power as Head Boy to obliviate Snape, lie to him, and take points from Slytherin. But it also made sense, and there was no really good way out of the situation that you were caught in. James wasn't right, but I wouldn't say that any of this is worth breaking up over."
Lily sighed. "I know. But it's not just the mess with Snape that's bothering me. It's the argument afterward. Couldn't James just have apologized, rather than trying to make it seem like I was the one who was wrong?"
"It's called pride, Lily," Mary said patiently. "James was wrong about this, too, but his reaction completely makes sense. It's really hard to admit you're wrong, and it would be especially hard for James. He's smart, good at Quidditch, and even when he gets a detention the teachers are trying so hard not to laugh that they don't have much energy to be actually mad at him. Being wrong is something that happens to other people, not to him. And you didn't just accuse him of being wrong; you expected him to accept your judgement. Do you realize how humiliating that was for him? Lily, boys want to be macho. They especially want to look macho in front of their girlfriends. And you went and humiliated him. Of course he argued with you. Of course he took it way too far. People do bad things when they're embarrassed. It's human."
"So you want me to just stay with him and pretend nothing ever happened?" Lily asked.
"Not quite," Mary replied. "Stay with him—it's your choice, but, if you're asking for my opinion, I would advise not breaking up with him. You don't need to pretend it never happened. He abused his power, he did something he knew you wouldn't like, and, when you called him on it, he argued so hard against you that he made you cry. That's pretty pathetic boyfriend behavior, and he should definitely apologize to you. But ultimately, it was a bad situation and he had a fairly normal, if fundamentally wrong, way of dealing with it, and I wouldn't advise you to dump him."
"But he's such a git."
"If that's what you really think, then by all means break up with him. It's your choice, Lily. But you can't really judge a person by how they act on one day."
"I know. But—I thought he wasn't going to be like this anymore."
"And mostly he wasn't," Mary pointed out.
"Until tonight."
"Do what you want, Lily. It's your choice."
Lily's mind was going in circles. Her thoughts were full of accusations and contradictions and fears and regrets and blame and possibilities. Then she made a decision: "I'm going to bed."
A/N: What do you think? What should happen next? Any input is welcome—please review! Thanks!