A/N: I finally found the chance to write this. Sorry everybody, I've been swamped! So much to do, so little time, especially with the holidays coming up!
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Lily woke up and pushed Heidi off of her and scooted past Dany's snoring form. Apparently they had all fallen asleep late the night before together on Lily's bed. She walked into the bathroom, where she took one look in the mirror and moaned. She looked like trash. Her eyes were puffy, her red hair was matted and knotted and she had chocolate around the edges of her mouth.
"What time is it?" Dany groaned from the other room.
She heard Heidi move and fall off the bed. "Oh no!" She wailed. "It's 11:30!"
"What?!" Lily ran out of the bathroom, ignoring her appearance. "Why didn't Brea or Amy or Alice or Jamie or someone wake us up?"
"I don't know!" Heidi said, throwing on her robes over her pajamas and running her hands through her hair. "Maybe they thought we were sick or something!"
"If it's already 11:30 and everyone thinks we're sick, then what's the rush?" Dany asked, lounging back on Lily's pillow.
"You can't be serious about skipping." Heidi dropped her shoe.
Lily pulled her toothbrush from her mouth. "What if they mention something important that might be on the NEWTs?"
"Look. You two look like you spent the night in the Forbidden Forest with a cold. You look like crap, I'm not going to lie." Dany said simply. "Someone will take notes for us and I am not going to say no to a couple more hours of relaxation." She raised her eyebrows invitingly.
Lily shrugged and plopped down on the bed next to Dany.
Heidi's face turned from defiant to shocked. "Lily!"
Lily looked at her. "I'm not going anywhere looking like this." She indicated the red blotches circling her eyes.
Heidi looked torn between staying and leaving. She bit her lip. "I'm going. Someone needs to take notes for you slackers."
"You may want to brush your hair first! I'm not sure if Remus will like your new hairdo!" Dany called before jumping onto her own bed.
Lily laughed as Heidi's ears went red. She soon fell asleep again, sleeping deep and dreamless.
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James was laughing at an extremely stupid and corny joke Sirius had made about McGonagall, just happy that they were all friends again, and that the tension was gone.
"You two do remember that you have your detentions with McGonagall tomorrow, right? I think it would be best if you laid off on your inane humor while you're stuck in a room with her for 4 hours."
"Lighten up, Moony." Sirius snorted. "I'm not really going to go ask Minerva what type of cat litter she uses."
"It doesn't make the joke any less stupid." Remus muttered. James had to agree with him there, it really wasn't all that funny. But instead of offering his input, he watched from the sidelines with Peter.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Must be furry little problem time soon, eh Moony?"
Remus muttered darkly and glared at him.
"Did you ever break up with Nova?" Peter asked James.
"Yeah actually. Last night after Sirius and I talked." James answered.
"What did she do to you afterwards? Do you think you'll still be able to have children one day?" Sirius joked.
"She actually didn't do anything, she just nodded and walked off." James sighed. "Should I be concerned by that?"
"Nah, you'll be fine. Girls do that all the time. Some junk about conserving their last bit of dignity or something." Sirius shrugged.
Suddenly the bell rang and they had to sprint down the corridor to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
James slid into his chair and looked around the room for some sign of Lily, he hadn't seen her all day and was worried that she had come down with something.
He caught sight of Lily's best friend Heidi and decided to write her a note.
"Sirius, I need a piece of parchment." He whispered, ignoring the professor's stern looks at their late entrance.
"Bugger off and get your own." Sirius muttered back.
James turned to Remus. "Hey Remus, can I get a piece of parchment?" Remus smiled and gave him one.
"Finally decided to take notes?" Remus asked, impressed.
"Not on your life." James pulled a quill and ink from his bag and began to write.
Where's Lily today?
He folded up the parchment and sent it flying towards Heidi. She unfolded it, read it and wrote down a response. Then she flicked it back to James.
She's a bit under the weather. She'll probably be good by tomorrow though, so don't worry.
James nodded to her and turned back to the professor, who was telling a rather gory tale about an imperiused hippogriff.
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Lily finally woke up again around 3:00 and washed her face and hair and dressed. Satisfied, she took the opportunity to finish her homework and tried her best to block out Dany's loud breathing.
She opened her potions book.
Boomslang skin, though rare, has been known for its many magical properties. Known for its many magical properties. Magical. Properties. Magical properties. Boomslang skin, though rare. Known for its many. She couldn't focus and she kept reading the same words over and over again.
She closed the book and looked about the room. She was too awake to fall back asleep, but too jumpy to read her homework. Lily stood up and decided that classes should have been over and she could walk around a bit. It would be the first time stepping out of her dorm since "the incident".
She shook Dany. A groan answered her and Lily whispered where she was going and left.
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Lucy sat and knocked her head against the wall out of boredom. Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.
"Will you stop that?" Nova hissed. "We have to be silent." Nova had been increasingly cold since that morning when James broke up with her.
"How do you even know she'll come?" Lucy was, as usual, left in the dark and had no idea what she was doing down a deserted corridor on a wonderful snowy day like that day was.
"Oh she'll be here." Nova whispered. Lucy rolled her eyes and twisted her head around the corner, looking for motion.
They sat there for a good thirty minutes before a red head came out of the portrait hole that led to Gryffindor tower. Lily hummed and waltzed down the hall and once she was past their hiding place Lucy leapt out, grabbed Lily's arms and before the girl could turn her head to see whom her captor was, Nova set lose the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and the corridor went black.
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Lily had just walked out of the common room and down the hallway before she felt hands grab her arms and twist them around to her back. She was about to scream before the whole area went completely dark and she knew her efforts would be futile. Everyone would be outside enjoying the snow one last day before the sun came to melt it. If she could only get her wand…
No it was hopeless. She kicked her kidnapper in the shins but they didn't budge. Lily felt herself being dragged and thrown into a room of some sort. The door slammed behind her and she opened her eyes.
She was in a broom closet. And she wasn't alone.
Lily froze where she stood, sensing the presence behind her. She was thinking of her next move when she caught a whiff of ground beef and salsa and felt a human hand slide up her shoulder. Then she screamed.
She whipped around and found that her wand was luckily still in her pocket. She pulled it out and faced the man. She recognized him immediately.
"Hello Evans." Terrance Shortgrass' greasy voice filled the room and sent shivers down her spine. He was by far, the creepiest guy at Hogwarts. Terrance was a 6th year Slytherin infamous for his reputation of taking advantage of drunken girls at parties and personally spiking the punch for others.
She stepped back and found herself against the wall. He followed her steps and launched himself on her. She moved to the side and ran to the door. It was locked.
"Alohomora!" She screamed. "Alohomora! Alohomora!" The door wouldn't budge. Terrance was walking back to her again. She started banging on the door. "Help! Somebody help me!"
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Dany sat up. She had the sudden feeling of dread that something bad was happening, and she had to do something about it. She jumped up from the bed and started dressing.
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Lucy started worrying once she heard the screams coming from broom closet. Whatever they had done was much worse than she thought. Calm down. She told herself.
"Nova? What were the details of this plan anyway?" She asked coolly.
Nova smiled. "Well I wrote a nice little note to Shortgrass about a girl who was interested in him. So we just helped the two get together. They were obviously meant for each other."
Shortgrass. Where had she heard that name before? Of course! "Wait, you don't mean that perverted sleaze-ball who's molested nearly every girl who's touched a glass of firewhiskey?" She felt sick.
"And then some." Nova laughed.
Lucy felt sick and ashamed. "That's what that note was for! Your plan was to get him to rape Lily?!" She had never felt so angry in her life.
Nova clicked her tongue. "It needn't come to that if she just participates."
Something in Lucy snapped right then. "You dirty, two-faced bitch!" She shouted and pointed her wand at Nova's face. "Petrificus Totalus!"
Nova stiffened and fell with a sickening thump and a whimper. Lucy was shocked but stepped over her previous best friend to walked towards the door.
"Alohomora." She tried, but she knew it wouldn't work. She flicked through various spells in her mind, trying to think of a one that would work. Then she thought of the one they had practiced in Transfiguration that day.
"Novus Ostium!" She shouted and the wall transformed into a door. She pushed it open and ran inside. What she found inside shocked her.
Lily was curled up, whimpering in a corner and an unconscious Terrance laid upon the floor, half undressed and bleeding at the lip.
"Lily?" She asked quietly and walked over to her. She was, miraculously, fully clothed. Lily looked up at her and started crying. "Oh no. I'm going to go get help. Stay right here!" She ran out of the broom closet and straight into a tall girl with short brown hair and a shocked look upon her face. Dany Winthrope.
"Dany!" She exclaimed. "I need your help!"
Dany looked at her. Then at Nova's stiff body on the floor. "If I help you, do I get an explanation for this?"
"Of course! Its about Lily!"
"Lily? What's wrong with her?" Dany demanded.
"It's a long story. I'll explain later." Lucy had never felt so in control before. She felt free and heroic.
Dany nodded and Lucy led her into the closet.
"Oh!" She yipped at the sight of Terrance on the ground. "Oh!" She yipped again when she saw Lily. Dany ran to her whimpering friend and enveloped her in a hug. Lily sobbed into her shoulder and Lucy looked away, emotional moments were always awkward to her.
After a few minutes Dany was able to coax Lily into standing up and walking to the dorm. "Sit with us at dinner and give us the details." Dany told her as she and Lily exited the closet.
Lucy released the spell on Nova -who ran off immediately after dishing her an unpleasant finger sign- and took it upon herself to drag Terrance to the hospital wing.
"Levicorpus." She muttered and he rose into the air and trailed her as she walked to visit Madam Pomfrey. Luckily, Poppy didn't ask many questions.
With that done, she decided to walk outside and tell some people she knew to be friends with Lily the main idea of what had happened. And during her walk she thought of all the ways Nova would most likely get revenge on her. She'd get a new best friend, for those were easy to get when you were that popular, and the foolish girl would do her bidding making sure that Lucy would end up in the hospital wing, or worse.
That immature prat.
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James was just admiring his handsome snowman when Nova best friend, Lucy, came running out of the castle.
"What's up?" James asked. The other marauders turned to look at Lucy.
"Lily was attacked." Lucy breathed out.
"What?!" James roared.
"By Terrance Shortgrass." She nodded. James knew instantly what that meant and his stomach boiled with hot anger.
"Is she okay?" Sirius and Remus asked at the same time.
"He didn't get the chance to do anything because she knocked him unconscious." Lucy said.
James was only slightly comforted by this. "Where is he?!"
"The hospital wing. Like I said, he's un-con-scious." She said the syllables slowly as if he was deaf or stupid. James got more ticked off when Sirius started laughing. But she still couldn't stop him.
"He. Will. Pay." James muttered and started marching up to the castle blinded by rage.
Lucy stood in front of him and put a hand on her hip. "What part of unconscious don't you understand? It means he's knocked out, immobile, out cold, passed out and possibly comatose. Do you need a dictionary? A thesaurus perhaps?"
Now James was really angry. "I need you to get out of my way!"
Lucy raised her eyebrows. "Lily would want you to wait and do the sensible thing." This got him to settle down.
He breathed out. "Fine. Where is Lily? The hospital wing?"
Lucy shook her head. "She's in her dorm. But I don't think she's entertaining visitors."
"Alright." James was calm; he could do this for Lily.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find Lily's other acquaintances and inform them about what happened." She walked off.
Sirius burst out laughing once she was gone. "She served you, Prongs."
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Lily was doing surprisingly well, compared to what Dany had envisioned recovery would be like. On the walk back to the dorm, she had pictured Lily being scarred for life and never being able to talk to anyone again and throwing herself off the astronomy tower or something.
Lily had cried a little. Then she told her story. Then she cried a little more. She was just a bit shaken up, and she now had a minor mistrust of guys, but she was really doing better than she had expected.
"What's going to happen to Shortgrass?" Lily asked. Dany didn't know how to answer that.
"I don't know. Maybe expelled?" Dany offered. "I hope he gets the boot. The dirty bast-"
"Dany!"
"Well he is…" She trailed off.
Heidi finally came upstairs and gave Lily a hug. "Lucy told me what happened." Then she started crying and wailing about how awful it was and that men suck and all that.
Lily shrugged it off. "I don't know what to make of it. Someone obviously planned the whole thing. What with someone grabbing me and throwing me in the closet and the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder-"
"What?! Lucy didn't tell me any of that!" Heidi exclaimed. "This is so awful! Who would want to do this to you?"
Dany's eyes widened. "Nova?"
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Lucy went to the library, where she knew she wouldn't find anyone. She set herself in one of the seats and looked out the window. It was only a matter of time before everyone learned what happened to Lily, and worse, they would figure out that Lucy had helped make the whole thing happen. How could she be so stupid? She was so desperate to get in with the in crowd that she never considered what Nova was capable of making her doing. Lucy was never her best friend; she was her puppet.
She decided in the end that she would come clean to Lily at dinner that night. It would be better for them all if they heard it from her own mouth.
She pulled herself up from her seat and walked down the corridor to the Great Hall. She thought that some cool pumpkin juice would do her dry throat some good.
"Lucy!" A voice called from behind her. She spun around and saw Sirius Black striding towards her.
She quirked an eyebrow at him and kept walking. "Yes Black?" She asked without turning back around to face him.
"I saw you passing and decided to accompany a lonely maiden on her journey." He smiled at her. Oh God, this was all she needed, some random guy to flirt with her when she felt a migraine forming. His pick-up lines needed improvement as well.
"Where are your shadows?" Lucy asked him.
It took him a minute to understand what she meant. "I'm actually running an errand for them."
"Pray, don't let me hold you up." Lucy sided up against the wall and waved her hand as a sign for him to pass.
"They can wait." Sirius hooked his arm through hers. What the heck, She figured. I could use the company.
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When Lucy sat down across from Lily during dinner, she hoped no one would mind. Were Ravenclaws even allowed to sit at the Gryffindor table?
"You okay?" Dany asked her.
"I need to tell you the whole story about what happened." Lucy blurted out.
"We know it was Nova." Heidi said gently.
"Well, yes. But you should know…" Lucy bit her lip. When did telling the truth become so hard? "I helped. I was the one who grabbed Lily and locked her in the closet."
They just stared at her.
She breathed out slowly. "And I was the one gave Dany the spiked butterbeer back at the Quidditch party. She was trying to get blackmail on Lily from her."
They were still staring at her, listening. She almost wished they would yell at her.
"I thought Nova was my best friend. I thought the things she was making me do were the standards for best friends. You know all the stories about girls who are dumped by their boyfriends and the best friends team up and get revenge?" They didn't answer. She cleared her throat. "Anyway, I didn't think I was doing anything wrong at the time."
When they remained silent she continued. "Once I put Lily in the closet, I started wondering why I just locked a girl up in a random room for no reason. Then I heard Lily screaming and Nova finally told me the whole plan.
"I don't know, something just burst inside me and I cursed her and used that new door spell to get into the closet."
"What new door spell?" Heidi finally spoke.
"Oh, were you not there for that lesson in Transfiguration? Novus Ostium, new door."
Heidi glared at Dany. "I told you we'd miss something important."
Dany threw her hands in the air. "We were asleep during Transfiguration!"
This didn't seem to calm Heidi down much. "Still! This spell seems to be very important! This will definitely be on our NEWTs!"
"If it's anyone's fault, it's Lily's!" Dany defended. "She's the one we had to stay up 'till the wee hours of the morning comforting!"
Lily scowled. "I don't see how it's my fault. You didn't have to 'stay up 'till the wee hours of the morning comforting' if you didn't want to! I would have let it slide!"
"No you wouldn't have! You wouldn't have talked to us all day!" Dany shot back.
Lucy pursed her lips. Didn't they notice the condition she was in? They should be either soothing her doubts or cussing her out! Not ignoring her!
"Hello? Still sitting here." She said.
"Oh yeah." Dany noticed.
"So?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah?" Lily asked back.
All right, now she was pissed. Did they not care?
"So… Do you forgive me, or do you hate me or what?" Lucy asked, trying to hide her anger.
"Oh sure." Dany shrugged. "Whatever."
"Whatever?!" Lucy demanded. "You were drunk because of me! Lily was stuffed into a closet because of me!"
"Well we already knew you were friends with Nova. She was bound to make you help somehow." Heidi said simply.
Lucy was astonished. And mad. She had just poured out her heart to them and what do they do? They do nothing.
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Sirius walked into the Great Hall and saw James, Peter and Remus sitting nearby.
"What are you loners doing in a corner?" Sirius asked, taking a seat.
"We're perfecting that stupid prank of yours for you." Remus responded.
"Operation Snivellus is not a bad prank." Sirius snorted. "What needs to be fixed?"
"We could start with the name." Peter pointed out.
Sirius frowned at him.
"I don't see why we can't do the prank on Shortgrass instead." James muttered, clenching his fists.
"Do we need to get Lucy over here to define unconscious again?" Remus asked. James shot him a look.
"You know, Lily looks fine to me." Peter said quietly.
Sirius looked down the table and spotted Lily laughing with her friends and Lucy. "Let's go say hey." He said, standing up.
Sirius plopped down on the seat beside Lucy.
"How are you doing ladies?" He asked, grabbing an empty plate from the spot beside him and filling it with food.
James, Remus and Peter followed suit and sat around the girls. James across from Lily, Remus next to Heidi and Peter next to a very repulsed-looking Dany.
"Fine, thanks for asking." Lucy answered. She looked a bit stressed out.
"You're looking a bit stressed out." He said aloud, then wished he could take it back.
"Oh do I?" She quirked her eyebrow again.
"A bit." Sirius smiled.
"Well maybe I'll just go take a long, relaxing bath to calm down then, huh?" She said slowly and quietly. Wait, was she flirting with him?
Sirius only grunted in response, trying not to picture Lucy in a bath, however wonderful that would be. He thought silently.
She smiled and stood up. Sirius couldn't help but watch the sway of her hips as she walked out of the Great Hall.
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Lily felt herself blush when James took the seat across from her. It got her thinking. Does he just want to look at me? Why didn't he sit down next to me? Does he not want to be too forward, or is he no longer interested? Or does he think that I won't want him touching me after what happened today? Or maybe what happened yesterday? She looked over at Heidi and Remus and saw how close the two were sitting next to each other. Heidi had her head on his shoulder. Why aren't I resting my head on James' shoulder? Am I supposed to make the first move? Is he?
Lily's head started hurting and she knew exactly what she would buy on her next Hogsmeade trip. Didn't books always have the answers? I Lily Evans, need a romance novel.
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A/N: Boy oh boy! That was long! Just a gift from me to you for disappearing for a week. Happy belated Thanksgiving! Can I apologize for any mistakes? Since it's so long, I might have written 'to' instead of 'too' or 'there' instead of 'their' and didn't catch it. Please point out something if I need to fix it! I would love your input. Did I display an emotion wrong? Did I make a character act different from their usual personality? Did you hate it? Tell me.