A short ways away from the entrance to the tower, we stopped and I pulled out the Map and my wand. I tapped the Map and muttered, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." The writing on the Map sprouted from the tip of my wand and I quickly flipped to our location.
Lily and I moved stealthily around the castle to the entrance of the secret passage out of the castle to the outskirts of Hogsmeade. We had to stop a few times to avoid Mr. Filtch and Mrs. Norris, but we successfully made our way behind the giant mirror. There was a set of earthen stairs that led to a winding passage. The cold air from outside was leaking in to the passage, making me very thankful for my winter coat and gloves.
When we walked beyond the limits of the Map, I cleared it and put it in my coat pocket. Shortly after that, we reached the exit to the passage, which was an out-of-order outhouse a short ways into the woods. Lily and I snuck out of the outhouse and found the road leading into town with ease.
This was our passage of choice for getting to Hogsmeade; the one into Honeydukes was too obvious unless the place was packed and there was really no way out of the Shrieking Shack. Lily and I entered the dress store and the chime on the door went off pleasantly. The woman behind the counter smiled and nodded as we passed, but otherwise left us alone. Lily and I immediately started looking through the many racks to find something.
"What's the dress code again?" Lily asked with a sigh after about five minutes of searching.
"Black tie." I said.
I gagged a little a frilly pink ball gown and Lilly chuckled.
"So black or white then?" she asked.
"I wouldn't say only those two colors specifically, but I guess we could." I said with a shrug.
"Because I found your perfect dress." Lily said, her voice edging on excitement.
I looked and saw that she was holding up a black and white halter style dress. I shrugged.
"I'll try it on, then." I said.
An employee swooped down and took the dress from Lily to take back to a dressing room. We continued flipping through the dress for about twenty more minutes. Then suddenly my hand landed on a gorgeous black and white gown. It had one shoulder strap and was divided vertically down the center, one half of the dress being white and the other black. It showed a little too much skin than I was comfortable with, seeing as I had my scars, but I was betting that Lily would look amazing in it.
"Since you picked out a dress for me, I picked out one for you to try on." I said.
I held up the dress for her and she looked skeptical. She agreed to try it on, but I could tell she had mixed feelings about it. After about twenty more minutes, and after a couple more dresses were picked out, Lily and I headed back to the dressing rooms.
Lily tried on her dresses first and I waited so I could give my opinions. The first dress she came out in was absolutely hideous. It was a high-low style dress and the skirt was made of ruffles. I recovered from my laughing fit long enough to tell her to take it off as soon as possible. Lily then tried on a simple little black dress. It was knee length and very modest. There was absolutely no decoration on it at all, and it was just so boring. Lily and I agreed that this was NOT the dress.
The last dress she tried on was the one I picked out. When she stepped out of the dressing room, my jaw dropped to my knees. Every curve she had was hugged by the dress, but in an extremely flattering way. Lily looked sexy and mysterious, and she didn't even have to do anything to her hair or make-up to look that way.
"So what do you think?" she asked, spinning to give me the full effect of the dress.
"James is going to die of happiness when he sees you in that." I said laughing.
"Who said I'm going with James?" Lily questioned, slightly defensive.
She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed a little. I rolled my eyes.
"You mean you haven't asked him yet? Tiger, you promised you would." I said, sort of scolding her.
"That was before I got a letter this morning." Lily muttered.
"A letter? From who?" I asked quickly.
"Who else do I get letters from besides you and the boys?" she asked back softly, glancing around to make sure we weren't being overheard.
The gesture was completely unnecessary because we were the only ones in the store and the girl at the counter was absorbed in her copy of Witch Weekly. Regardless, I got Lily's message loud and clear. Her family didn't understand the owl post system, and she only had one other wizard friend, if you want to call him that.
"Snape? What does he want?" I asked incredulously.
I knew Lily had been friends with him for a while, but then he called her a Mudblood at the end of our fifth year. I had been almost positive that the friendship had been terminated, but this letter changed my mind.
"He wants to see me tonight." Lily said.
She was looking at her feet. I looked at her hard.
"Well, you aren't going to go, right?" I said.
"I'm not sure. He was my very best friend, Songbird. He was there for me when my sister wasn't and before I really got to know you. I feel like I owe it to him. I didn't really give him much of a chance last time the two of us talked." Lily sighed.
She sat down in the other plush arm chair next to me.
"You do remember he kidnapped me, tortured me, and left me for dead, right?" I asked, chuckling ironically.
"Yeah, but he was my best friend. I sort of left him without much of an explanation as to why we couldn't be friends anymore. I at least owe him that." Lily said, starting to get irritated.
"The moment he called you a Mudblood was the moment you stopped owing him anything. And he shouldn't really need an explanation." I said coldly.
"That's not the point." Lily said.
She was still avoiding my eyes. I sighed; I could never understand how she could like Snape. He was vile and cruel, and I thought that before he tried to kill me.
"You're Hell bent on this, aren't you Tiger?" I sighed.
Lily hesitated, but nodded all the same.
"Then I'm going with you. I'll nick the Invisibility Cloak and follow you. I don't want you to go without some back up. God only knows whether or not this is a trap." I said.
Lily looked up and smiled at me.
"Thanks, Songbird. Thanks for understanding." She said.
She got up and hugged me tightly. I might not completely understand why she feels the need to see that would be-murderer, but I could at least support her. I hugged her back, trying to shake the uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"So you really think this is it?" she asked.
"Yes, definitely. If you don't buy it, I will and I'll force you to wear it." I said with a chuckle.
"Well, if you insist." Lily said, giggling playfully.
She went back into the dressing room and came back out in her casual clothes, the dress draped over her arm.
A/N: I know this one is short, but I promise things will get better! This is just the start of all the action! Please review with your ideas/suggestions. I may use them in a future chapter. Think post-Hogwarts ideas because I've got enough action to last through the end of the school year.