Chapter Fourteen: December

As was customary, at the end of November they all sent letters home to their parents, asking to stay around at each other's houses during the Christmas break. Lily spent some extra time on her letter though, trying to explain to her mother what was going on without writing anything that was too embarrassing. She wished she had thought to ask about it at some other time. She had no doubt her mother would do a very good job of explaining things in person.

Lisa and Sally's parents got back quickly to say that they would be delighted to host the girls, Sally's parents taking them before Christmas until Christmas Eve while they would go to Lisa's for the New Year. Lily would be going back to her house briefly at the end of term though, as her mother had written back that it would probably be better if they could see each other for a few days. And as always she would be spending Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day at home. She didn't mind that so much though. They no longer visited the Malfoy house over the holidays, and she had no doubt her father's newfound obsession with muggle-culture would have started to reveal some truly unique strangeness.

The Ravenclaw team continued to practice, but with much less ferocity now, and Lisa was beginning to relax after her success during the match. She had only scored the one hoop, but to hear her talk she had carried the team through the victory on her own. Sally and Lily decided to let her have her moment of glory. There was talk that Oliver Wood was pushing the Gryffindor team to their absolute limits now that Harry Potter was out of the hospital, and they were sure the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match would end very differently.

Another Hogsmeade visit was announced two weeks before the end of term, and the girls signed up immediately. They had been plotting the things they wanted to do since their last trip, and had decided that the Shrieking Shack was definitely something they needed to see.

Winter finally arrived, sending the castle into its usual white-blanketed beauty. To Lily's delight Flitwick had decorated his classroom with real fairies that twinkled overhead as they practiced their charms. He also taught them a charm to make it snow, which was utterly redundant given the state of the grounds, but Lily got some enjoyment out of it by making it snow over Pansy's head when they were in the Common Room.

When the day of the Hogsmeade trip arrived they gathered in the courtyard, Lisa and Lily waiting for the pink puffball that was Sally to appear. Shortly after she bounced up in her enormous overcoat someone tugged on Lily's sleeve and she turned to see Terence, looking more awkward than she had ever seen him.

"Hey."

"What's up?" She managed, along with a smile.

"Not much," he said, giving a nod to Lisa and Sally, who were both staring at him. Sally had covered her mouth with her scarf so all they could see was her eyes sparkling out from under her hood.

"Hi," Lisa said, sticking her hand out. "Lisa. This is Sally. You must be Terence. Lily's mentioned you once or twice."

"Same with you," he said, giving her a firm handshake. "Uh, can we chat Lily?"

She frowned, wondering what had him acting so nervous. She was used to finding it difficult to talk with him around, but he had never been like this before. "Sure."

"Uhm." He cast a look to Sally and Lisa.

"Oh!" Sally grabbed Lisa's arm. "Look, there's Morag, let's go." And they disappeared across the crowd, completely ignoring Morag, who was standing less than three feet away.

"Subtle," Terry said as he watched them leave.

"They try," Lily responded. "So what's up?"

"I was hoping if maybe, if you didn't have other plans, and I would understand if you did, so don't worry about saying no because this isn't really anything, but I thought you might like to maybe, you know?"

Her heart was tripping in her chest as she forced her voice to stay level. "Uh, no I don't know."

"Oh!" He moved as if he was going to hit himself in the forehead, then stopped himself and managed a grin. "Go. Hogsmeade. Me?"

"What now?"

He seemed to be thinking very hard about how to form his sentences. "Would you. Like to go. To Hogsmeade. With me?"

Things seemed to be happening oddly fast and slow. Her skin was prickling and it seemed to be very hard to breathe in. Terry was looking at her expectantly and every word she had ever known had apparently decided to vacate her brain. She thought her mouth was open. Or had possibly locked closed forever.

"So uh. Yeah. Lily?"

"I would love to!" She had said it very loud. "I would love to." That was almost too quiet to be heard. "I would love to." She had finally found the right volume.

"So I'm getting the impression that you'd like to go?"

"Yes, absolutely." She finally found her voice again properly. "I just need to tell my friends."

He had a smile on his face that he seemed to be trying to hide. "I'll be here."

She smiled back, hoping it didn't look too weird, and walked back towards the crowd where Lisa and Sally had found someone from Ravenclaw to talk to. Lily walked up and grabbed both of them by the elbows.

"Need to talk. Right now."

"Alright there grabby," Lisa drawled as she took them right to the edge of the crowd, away from prying ears. "So what did Terence what?"

The words all came out in a rush. "He wants me to go to Hogsmeade with him and I said yes."

Sally's eyes went the same approximate size as saucers and Lisa's mouth fell open.

"I know," Lily said.

"So what are you doing with us now?"

"I don't know! I just wanted to get away."

"Well go back to Terry!" Sally grabbed her in an enormous hug that made her spine crack. "Oh this is so wonderful!"

"What do people even do when they go out?"

Lisa's eyebrow went up. "I'm not exactly an expert but I think they do things like looking at sights and having drinks."

"Yes, sarcasm is just what I need right now."

Sally was a little more helpful, thankfully. "Go to Madam Puddifoot's. Look at the Shrieking Shack. Talk about things."

"Thank you. Yes. Good ideas." Lily looked around slightly wildly. "I'm going to go back over to him now."

"Good idea." Lisa rubbed her shoulder. "And if you get overwhelmed come find us."

"Ok. See you later then." She received another big hug from Sally, nodded to Lisa, and wound her way back through the crowds to where Terry was waiting for her. McGonagall had come out to stand at the front of the group of them and was clapping her hands for attention.

"If everyone will please follow me." She turned and led the way down towards the gates, which were open once more.

As they were walking down to Hogsmeade Terry reached down to take Lily's hand in his, making her flinch. She relaxed slightly and wound her fingers through his. They were both wearing gloves, and she tried to convince herself that was why her hand felt so warm. The moment they reached Hogsmeade the students split off to go their separate ways, and Terry pulled her off the main street almost at once, taking her down between two of the little shops.

"So where are we going?" She asked.

"Uhm, I actually hadn't really thought that far ahead."

She laughed and squeezed his hand. "Well do you know where this street leads?

"I do not."

It turned out that the road just led them to another little street with houses all clustered in close together. They walked down, completely alone in the snow. It was as pretty as anything Lily had ever seen. She looked at Terry and grinned.

"What's funny?" He said.

"You," she said. "You make this whole big deal out of asking me to come to Hogsmeade with you and then you have no idea what to do when we're here."

His nervousness was making her feel much better about herself. He was obviously just as clueless as she was about everything that was going on.

"Well do you have any ideas?"

"Sally said we should go to Madam Puddifoot's. Or look at the Shrieking Shack."

"I've never been to Madam Puddifoot's."

"Well then that sounds perfect."

Their wanderings were bringing them back towards Main Street now, where most of the students had disappeared into the various shops.

"Oh I took your advice," he said.

"About what?"

"About the Quidditch team."

Madam Puddifoot's was only a short walk away from them, so they headed there, Terry holding the door open for her. Inside a smiling witch in a salmon pink robe pointed them to a table. The café was very small and cramped, and the moment they were inside warmth spread back into her face.

"Did I give you advice about Quidditch?" She asked as they took off their jackets and gloves. "I don't remember."

"Yeah, you told me that I should ask Flint to be let back on the team as a Chaser, be the first alternate if Draco ever wasn't available. So I went and asked him."

"What did he say?" The salmon-robed Witch came over to take their order. Lily asked for a hot chocolate, while Terry asked for a pot of tea.

"He said yes. I'm not going to be one of the first Chasers, but I might be playing this year with any luck."

"That's excellent." She smiled and rubbed his hand. "Well done."

"I just wanted to thank you for not letting me wallow and sulk all year long. I'm happier when I'm playing Quidditch."

"Well then I'm glad I could help."

The witch was back with their drinks, setting them down in steaming mugs in front of them. Lily picked hers up and took a deep breath of the creamy chocolatey scent that steamed off from it. Terry poured himself a mug of tea and added milk and sugar.

"The House Elves do an excellent job of making almost everything, but I've always found their tea lacking," he said. "I'm not sure what it is."

"I've never tried it." Lily took a sip of her own drink, burning her tongue. She covered her mouth and quickly put the mug down, her cheeks flushing slightly.

"My grandfather told me every good Englishman should drink tea."

"Your muggle grandfather?"

"Yeah."

"Do your muggle relatives know about your magical family?"

"Yep. It took them ages to fully accept it. My father made sure to tell my mother as soon as they started going out, and when they got engaged they told the rest of the family."

"Wow. I always wonder how those conversations go."

"I never asked." He took a sip of his own tea. "Have you ever had to tell anyone?"

"No. We were a kind of isolated family."

"I don't know much about your family."

"Well." She took a deep breath. "I don't know the whole story either. But apparently the Moons used to be a really rich family. Then something happened in the war and the family lost all their money." She took another sip of her drink. "I was born after all that though."

"And you had to spend time with the Malfoys when you were younger?"

She nodded. "It was some sort of old pureblood family thing, because there's not many left. They always invited us and the Greengrasses around every Christmas."

"I can't imagine that was fun. I'm glad my dad wasn't a Pureblood."

They sat quietly for a moment, drinking their tea and hot chocolate. Lily tried to cast about for something else to talk about, when Terry spoke.

"Did you hear about Potter's broom?"

"No?"

"When he fell off it at the match it wandered off into the grounds and hit the Whomping Willow!"

"Oh no!" It had been one of the few areas of the Hogwarts grounds that they had never investigated, the wild tree with its whipping branches. Most of the students avoided it out of common sense. "What happened to the broom?"

"Splinters from what I hear, and it's almost impossible to put a broom back together."

"I know," Lily said. "My father worked on them last year. He said that every inch of the wood has very precise magic spelled into it. If you even take a chunk off one end it won't fly right ever again."

"Your dad worked on brooms? How?"

"Oh, he works with arithmancy. Nimbus hired him to help on the Two Thousand and One."

"Oh wow!" Terry's eyes had gone wide. "I'd love to work on brooms."

"I don't think he really worked with brooms, I think he just wrote out the formulas for them."

"Still, the Two Thousand and One is the fastest broom ever made."

/|\

They spent over an hour in the tea room. Lily learned that Terry had one much younger sister, who would not be joining Hogwarts until after he had left. He was about as bad at Transfiguration as she was, and loved Herbology, although not quite as much as flying. All in all she felt like the day was going very well.

As they were leaving Terry stopped and stared down the street, frowning. "Wow, that's weird."

"What's up?" She asked, looking down to see a group of teachers. It was impossible to not recognise the massive form of Hagrid, and the short figure of Flitwick besides him. In the middle McGonagall was talking to a shorter man in a bowler hat.

"I think that's Cornelius Fudge."

She looked again, surprised to recognise the face from the newspapers. "What's the Minister for Magic doing here?" She asked.

"Probably just checking up after Sirius Black broke in," Terry said, shrugging. "He's the one who ordered all the dementors to be here as well, it was in the Prophet."

"Ah." Lily wasn't sure how she felt about that. After the Quidditch match she had begun to actively fear the dementors. The malevolent shapes hovered at the gates, always looking inwards whenever she got close enough to see them. She had thought that they would keep an eye out to make sure no one was coming in, not that they would stare at the school every hour of the day.

"I hate the dementors," Terry said.

"Mm." She almost asked him what he felt when they were near, but realised that it was probably a very personal question.

The conversation had absolutely been dampened by the topic, and they wandered in silence back towards the centre of the village. Students were everywhere, and Lily saw Fred n' George sneaking after a Slytherin boy from their year, clearly intent on some sort of mischief. Terry watched them as well, as they disappeared down another street.

"Do you ever wish you were in another house?" He asked.

She nodded. "All the time."

"I sometimes think I'd have been a lot better off in Hufflepuff."

"Really?"

They started to wander again as he spoke. "I know. No one ever says they want to be in Hufflepuff, but I always think I shouldn't have ended up in Slytherin. I'd much rather just get on with things and hang out."

"there's more to Hufflepuff than just hanging out," she said. "You have to be loyal. And caring."

"I think I could do that."

"I think you could too."

He gave her a smile that made her knees go wobbly and she had to bite her lip to keep what she knew would be a very stupid grin from spreading across her face.

"I've had an idea," he said all of a sudden.

"Oh really?" She said. "Is it your first?"

"Har har." He took her hand again and she knew her cheeks had gone bright pink. "We're going to get you into music."

/|\

Sally and Lisa found her again when they had come back to Hogwarts. Terry had gone to do some last minute packing, and Lily had found herself drifting to the library, where she ended up sat amongst the Charms. She had been humming to herself ever since they left Maestro's. Terry had shown her a special room with a gramophone that customers were allowed to use to listen to music. She had never really listened to anything before, and she still wasn't convinced by some of his choices to show her, but it had been lovely to watch his eyes light up as he put on another Weird Sisters album.

"So?" Sally asked, sliding into the seat next to her. "Tell us everything."

"There's not a lot to tell," Lily said. "We talked. We had tea. We listened to music."

"What music did you listen to?"

"We went to Maestro's. He showed me the Weird Sisters."

"Aren't they a wizard band?" Lisa said, frowning. "How come you didn't already know them?"

"I don't really listen to music."

"Alright." Lisa had her determined face on. "What you come round mine we are raiding my dad's record collection."