Lily jolted straight up, back cracking loudly at the sudden movement after a night of no motion. Her eyes cast about the room frantically and her heart rate slowed as she recognized the familiar maroon bed hangings and the gentle wheezes of Alice in the bed beside her. For a moment, her sleep addled brain had thought she was still in James' bed. She should have realized that wasn't true from the lack of warmth. Napping next to James was like lying beside a furnace. He burned her.
Finding herself in her own bed as she should be only served to calm her slightly because the anxious thought that had awoken her hadn't been disproven by the light of day. It was Sunday.
Sunday. As in the end of the week, or beginning depending on how someone chose to view it.
So caught up in her new relationship with James, Lily had allowed the week to pass by without meeting her pranking quota. Of her seven allotted pranks, she'd only completed three, and something told her she was going to have to fight to have her truth-or-dare pranks counted.
Careful to keep her steps quiet so as not to wake anyone, Lily slowly slipped from her bed and headed for the bathroom. She took the world's fastest shower and then stood before the mirror scrubbing at her teeth viciously. Her mind was occupied with ways she could rectify the situation. Hygiene and her beauty routine couldn't be suspended, of course, but she'd have to make some sacrifices if she wanted to get these pranks and her homework finished today. Breakfast would be the first thing to go.
In some ways, Lily almost wondered whether she ought to take the loss and move on with her life. The point of the bet had been made for both sides. Lily had to admit that James worked hard in his way as pranking took a surprising amount of strategy and foresight. She also thought he'd be slower to disparage her efforts as Head Girl – partially due to the bet and partially due to the fact that they weren't enemies any longer. Their newfound respect for each other wasn't going to decrease if the bet ended a week earlier than planned.
Calling it early, however, smacked of failure, and Lily still couldn't accept that. No one would give her a hard time if she quit now. She was almost certain of that, but she'd have to live with it. Fear of hating herself had always motivated her more than fear of others looking down upon her. Lily loved herself but that love wasn't unconditional and she was terrified of someday losing it.
Not for the first time as Lily walked downstairs to the Common Room, she wished that Hogwarts wasn't so isolated from the rest of the world. Her pranks would be a lot easier to coordinate if there was a corner store she could raid for supplies on a given notice. There was Zonko's of course, but she was almost embarrassed to resort to such crass humor. Zonko's lacked elegance, the signature finesse that Lily tried to incorporate into all (okay, most) of her pranks. She'd drop her lofty ideals if no better ideas presented themselves, but she'd rather manage without.
Unintentionally, Lily had woken up early enough that the sun was just peaking above the mountains outside. No one was awake that early on a Sunday. The castle was almost eerily silent when it was like this. Lily had always found the castle in the early morning far creepier than the castle at night. Hogwarts was supposed to be empty of students when the sun had gone down and the torches were lit. With light filtering through the windows, Lily expected to see a bustle of students around every corner. It was far easier to trick herself into believing the castle was abandoned in moments like this.
Wandering around the castle, Lily was looking for inspiration. A search that was proving futile. No answers leapt from the stone walls to solve her dilemma.
Unthinkingly, Lily wandered towards the professors' living quarters. It wasn't strictly forbidden for students to walk the halls outside, but it was irregular. In the past, Lily had only ever come down there in order to summon a professor when trouble was afoot.
Lily started when she almost walked straight into Professor McGonagall who was just leaving her living quarters for the day. The older witch managed to look completely unfazed by the near collision, merely adjusting her hat a smidge so that it sat more firmly atop her head.
"Everything alright, Miss Evans?" McGonagall asked.
"Yes, Ma'am. I'm just thinking," Lily said quickly.
McGonagall regarded her skeptically for a moment but it accepted her answer. "The scavenger hunt went very well yesterday. You should be very proud of your work this year."
"That was all James," Lily deflected, surprised at how easy it was for her to share the praise with James. From everything she'd heard, he deserved it.
"Oh, I nearly forgot. While I have you here, I want to give you the points deductions from the professors for the week," McGonagall said. She motioned for Lily to wait while she returned to her rooms to get the documents.
Lily froze in place, a gasp caught in her throat as McGonagall didn't bother to lower her voice as she gave her door the password. She now had the password to a professor's rooms! It was hard to breathe imagining all the pranking possibilities that James and his friends could have only dreamt of.
Except, it wasn't just any professor. It was McGonagall. There was no one more terrifying in all of Hogwarts, and if Lily was ever caught skulking about in McGonagall's rooms, she wasn't sure she'd survive the experience. Beyond that, McGonagall had just told her how proud she was of her. How could she possibly betray that kindness and trust? Sneaking into her room would be invasive, crossing every sort of line.
Yet, it was a sign from up above wasn't it that McGonagall had needed to return to her rooms right when Lily was there to hear the password. Coincidences like that held meaning, and the meaning as far as Lily could determine was that she ought to win.
McGonagall returned and passed along the point deduction papers before leaving Lily alone in the hall. For a few minutes, Lily wandered the passage, trying to look inconspicuous while she confirmed that McGonagall really had left for breakfast. It was unlike the organized professor to be forgetful, so Lily thought it unlikely she'd return once again for something forgotten inside.
After a few minutes of that, Lily didn't have any more excuses for waiting. Her moment had arrived, and she ought to take it. Hushed and trembling, Lily whispered the password to the door and slipped inside McGonagall's private rooms.
The guilt was immediate. Everything she saw inside felt like the worst kind of intrusion. She didn't want to snoop on McGonagall's private life, but it felt like her every observation did just that. Had she not been sure she'd trip over some furniture and break an ankle, Lily would have covered her eyes as she maneuvered through the room.
For all her dramatics, the room didn't reveal much about her professor that wasn't previously obvious. The professor's quarters were not spacious. It looked to consist of a bedroom, a common area, a lavatory and a closet. There was no private kitchen or office space, though Lily supposed the latter would have been redundant. The entrance had let her directly into the common area, where Lily spotted a burgundy couch that would not have looked amiss in the Gryffindor common room, row upon row of bookshelves all stacked to the brim, and a half-stocked glass case for drinks. Everything was exactly in place, with no stacks of papers or loose hair ties or strewn shoes like there were in the seventh-year girls' dormitory. McGonagall lived neatly.
Nothing Lily saw presented her with any ideas. She could steal some of the liquor maybe, but that seemed pointless and she wasn't sure McGonagall would have noticed.
Next, Lily drifted to the closet. Her jaw dropped when she opened the swinging doors. Precisely hung robes filled the closet, assorted by color. The colors ranged from deep emerald green to the darkest shade of black. There were no bright colors, no accessories, nothing to spice up an outfit. Her closet was designed for practicality and nothing else.
This struck Lily as rather sad. Minimalism was all well and good. Lily could understand the aesthetical appeal certainly, but it seemed a waste to go one's life with no patterns or pink or flare. It gave Lily her first idea.
Charming a little color into McGonagall's wardrobe was as simple as a swish and a jab at the various articles of clothing. An array more wonderful than the rainbow quickly filled the closet with vibrant pinks and startlingly cheerful yellows. The tricky part was controlling for McGonagall's own magical talent. Lily had little doubt that McGonagall was more than capable of reversing a simple color charm even if Transfiguration was her area of expertise. In the others, the professor was still no slouch. What she needed was some sort of trigger so that McGonagall would dress, business as usual, and only upon a certain event taking place would the charm be unleashed and her wardrobe change fantastically in sight of everyone.
Unwilling to sit on any of McGonagall's furniture, Lily sat cross-legged on the floor, chin in her hands as she thought through her conundrum. It couldn't be as simple as a time release or McGonagall would have reason to suspect that her clothes were bewitched and would take measures to undo the curse upon them. Using the same trigger for each article of clothing was equally inadvisable because McGonagall would be able to sort out something was amiss if every time she heard the word 'tuna' her robes turned orange.
Eventually, Lily was forced to admit that there was no silver bullet. McGonagall was too clever not to sort out her prank given enough time. The best Lily could do was vary the trigger for different articles of clothing so that Lily's spell would be unlocked in unexpected moments. Nearly half an hour passed in that fashion with Lily concocting increasingly outlandish triggers.
The pièce de résistance was McGonagall's hat. Her second which was not currently atop the breakfasting witch's head. Lily layered the spell there three times over so that the first two times McGonagall reversed the charm, a different trigger would cause the hat to revert once more to a bright blue bedecked with sparkles.
Lily rolled her wrists a few times. Her joins now ached from casting so many times in quick succession. She was purposefully wasting time. The door to McGonagall's bedroom lay before her, and she was terrified to breach that last barrier of privacy. More pressing was the amount of time that had passed. Unfamiliar with McGonagall's eating habits, Lily couldn't predict when her professor would return. It would be best to go nick the invisibility cloak off James and return later. One prank, however, was nowhere near enough and she was on a deadline, so with a fortifying gulp of air, Lily pushed open the portal.
Had Lily been holding something, she would have dropped it.
"No way," Lily breathed.
Not a centimeter of the walls were bare. Hanging on the walls were an array of banners, each one stretching from the ceiling to the plush, brown carpet. The banners each sported the logo of a different Quidditch team. Moving closer, Lily could see that they were all adorned with memorabilia corresponding to the appropriate team – flags, brochures, photos from games sometimes featuring McGonagall herself, and autographs. So many autographs. They were scrawled on napkins, hastily scribbled on post cards, some featuring heartfelt notes and others impersonal initials. Without knowing much about Quidditch, Lily was fairly certain every team in Britain was featured, plus most of the national teams from across Europe.
The Quidditch madness wasn't confined to the walls either. A bookshelf contained every copy – Lily checked and not a volume was missing – of the Quidditch Review, and the bedside table was messy with papers all filled to the brim with suppositions on how the next season would go. All culminating with McGonagall's prediction for the national champion: the Chudley Cannons.
Never in her wildest dreams would Lily have imagined McGonagall's Quidditch interest extended so far. The contents of her bedroom spoke of obsession, of fanaticism. It was so absurd that trying to salvage a prank out of it proved impossible. The reality was sillier than anything Lily could come up with.
She stopped in front of the Dover Dragons' banner to examine the pictures there. In one photo, McGonagall was young and euphoric, standing alongside a group of fans and a player still dressed in his Quidditch uniform. In another far more recent photograph, she leapt to her feet and cheered as the players streaked past. The difference in the pictures spoke to a commitment to the sport that had dominated the better part of her life.
"Sigmund Trout. Excellent player. His career ended early after he developed arthritis in both his wrists. Fatal for a chaser."
The expression about 'jumping out of your skin' had never made much sense to Lily before that moment. Upon hearing McGonagall's voice directly behind her, Lily gave a start so violent that she felt as if she'd left her skin behind and was now nothing but raw nerves. Lily hoped desperately that she'd merely missed a portrait on the wall, but luck was not on her side. Standing merely a few paces behind her was McGonagall.
"Professor," Lily squeaked out.
McGonagall gave an amused hum in reply. "I am so looking forward to hearing your explanation as to how you came to be in my bedroom, Miss Evans. It's been so long since I've heard a good story."
Bizarrely, something honest spilled out of Lily's mouth – earnest and more than a little desperate – before her brain could concoct a compelling lie. "I have a bet with a classmate to prank the student body, and it was never my intention to break in here, I swear, only you said the password in front of me and I had no ideas. I'm so, so, so sorry."
An endless moment passed in which Lily prepared herself for expulsion before McGonagall said, "Well, did you arrive at any ideas?"
It felt like a trick. Surely, McGonagall merely wanted to know her plans so that she could efficiently thwart them. Yet, form behind her spectacles, McGonagall's eyes glinted with amusement, and Lily knew after having seen this room that she'd always misjudged her professor. McGonagall wasn't a severe, personality-less titan of education. She knew how to have fun. The jubilant, young woman in the photo of wall could care about more than due dates and revision.
"Inspiration hadn't struck yet," Lily said.
"What if I were to tell you that you had the entire Hogwarts faculty at your disposal?" McGongall asked impishly.
Slowly, Lily answered, "Then, I'd have to wonder what time it is."
"Half past seven," McGonagall said.
A grin blossomed across Lily's face. With a sleeping castle and all the professors of Hogwarts on her side, Lily could come up with something brilliant.
Quickly, Lily filled McGonagall in on the rough outline of the plan that had sprang to her mind. After asking a few questions and fleshing out some details, McGonagall conceded that Lily's proposed prank hurt no one and could be pulled off at limited cost to everyone involved. Lily rather got the impression that McGongall was excited to take part in a little controlled mayhem. Maybe professors grew stir crazy too.
As Lily hurried to leave and begin her part in implementing the prank, McGongall called out, "Oh and Miss Evans, you'll owe me a month's worth of detentions come November."
Lily's returning smile was sheepish. "Yes, Professor."
The best part about Lily's prank was that there was very little Lily needed to do to pull it off. McGonagall would handle the majority of the work. All Lily really needed to do was not arouse suspicion, which wouldn't be difficult as her housemates were sleepy and not the most observant lot in the first place. The prank had been modified at McGonagall's urging to only target the Gryffindor seventh years, as extending it to the entire student body would have ruined everyone's Sunday. Like Lily, McGonagall was of the mind that pranks should exalt and delight, not just provide undue discomfort.
Rather than creeping back up to bed, Lily settled in the common room. Her only responsibility would be to ensure that none of her targets wandered off to breakfast and saw the rest of the student body at play because that would ruin the entire illusion. The illusion being that it was a Monday, not a Sunday, and the Gryffindor seventh years had collectively blown off their classes for the morning.
Draped across the couch, Lily had a perfect view of both staircases. At her side rest a bag of pumpkin pasties, ready to be used as bribery if any of her friends resisted her attempts to keep them cooped up in Gryffindor Tower. To keep her mind occupied during the wait, Lily opened up a borrowed copy of Marlene's Witches Weekly and settled in for a satisfying hour of reading about resisting chapped lips in the winter months – a subject that had gained relevance for Lily now that she was snogging someone with regularity.
Shelia was the first of her targets to come wandering downstairs that morning. Her hair was coiled together in a pony-tail and she wore little shorts with an elastic band, the kind that was only ever forgivable to wear on a run, which, incidentally, was where Shelia was headed. With only a nod of recognition, Shelia made towards the portrait hole.
"Wait!" Lily called out, causing Shelia to stop in her tracks. "Where are you going?"
"Breakfast to grab an apple or something and then I'm going to run around the grounds. Want to come?" Shelia said.
Lily glanced at her watch. It was ten after nine. McGonagall couldn't reasonably be on the warpath to find them for another half hour, and while still early, there would probably be students down at breakfast by now, all of whom would signal it was a lazy weekend. Shelia would need to be sidetracked.
"Skip it. Sit down and cuddle with me," Lily pleaded, making grabby motions towards her friend.
Shelia rolled her eyes. "Okay, weirdo. I'm going now."
Lily shook the bag of pumpkin pasties at her like she might a pet. "I already have breakfast right here. Don't you want some?"
"Candy for breakfast? Did Potter dump you or something?" Shelia snorted and turned to leave once again. "I'm not skipping a healthy breakfast and a run for a bag full of sugar. Go wake up Marly if you want cuddles."
Eyeing the bag of candy warily, Lily fished a pasty out of its wrappings. With a great deal of heavy-handed moaning, Lily bit into the creamy confection. "So, so good. Someone's missing out!"
Shelia paused, hand on the portrait, to turn back and stare at Lily. Her expression was a mixture of longing and derision. Lily could understand. As disgusted as she was at eating a piece of candy before noon of all things, she had to admit, it tasted pretty damn good.
"Are you having a crisis?" Shelia asked again, this time more seriously.
"No, I just want to tell you about my date from Friday. Don't you care at all? I have stories," Lily wheedled. "I want to share them with my best friend."
Unintentional though it was, Lily had managed to avoid sharing any details of her date from Friday with her best friend. She'd been hung over half of yesterday, which was utterly unfair because she hadn't drank a tenth as much as Marlene and the other girl had seemed fine. In the second half, she'd holed up in bed, reading for pleasure for once and enjoying some much needed personal time. Then, she'd fallen asleep in James' bed, and the opportunity to fill Shelia in had never presented itself.
Like a piggy bank, Shelia was designed to break under pressure, and the promise of gossip was her favorite kind. Eagerly, Shelia abandoned her plans to leave and crawled under the blanket to join Lily on the opposite side of the couch. Deviously, Shelia dug her foot into Lily's stomach as she settled, but Lily didn't resent it because she'd achieved her goal of keeping Shelia occupied.
"So, spill," Shelia ordered.
Lily started with the good stuff: where they'd gone, the ridiculous bet with James and the wonderful people she'd met as a result, an ambiguous overview of what she'd discussed/done with James but with a very in-depth examination of the feelings that resulted. Shelia listened with rapt attention, the only sounds coming from her mouth being those from chewing her pumpkin pasties and supportive coos throughout.
"I don't know. He, like, told me things, real things. I hadn't been expecting that," Lily said honestly. "I thought he'd just want to get drunk and fool around, but then he's telling me about his parents. Really deep stuff, Shells. It feels like he's leaning on me, which is good, you know? Because I care about him even if we're not dating, and I want him to tell me these things as they come up. I can help share the burden a little bit."
"What'd he tell you?" Shelia pried.
"I don't want to say, but it was heavy stuff. He looked so upset about it, and all I could think about was how to make him smile again."
Lily was in danger of making herself melt into a pile of goo because she'd succeeded in seeing him smile again, bright and uninhibited. A world in which James was frowning wasn't a world Lily wanted to live in. Thinking about James' fears shouldn't bring her that much happiness. She recognized that, and at the time that he'd first told her, she'd been nothing but concerned. Devastated, really, on his behalf. Now that she was distant from the night and the intensity in his voice, she was able to feel a tiny bubble of joy at the fact that he'd told her. The concern and worry was still there, but behind that, wriggling about, was excitement.
"And did you? Make him smile again?" Shelia pressed.
Lily bit down on her lip, unsuccessfully trying to suppress a smile. "Yeah."
"Merlin, you slut!" Shelia laughed.
"I didn't say anything like that!" Lily cried, but Shelia continued to snicker. "Okay, fine. There was a little something like that, but I managed to cheer him up by providing a sympathetic ear and with my razor-sharp wit."
"You have to promise to tell me when you have sex with him," Shelia said solemnly.
"In your dreams, and I'm not going have sex with him anyway," Lily tacked the last bit on hastily. An afterthought. She hoped she wasn't as red as she felt.
"I told you when I had sex for the first time," Shelia pointed out.
"And it was gross and oversharing then."
Lily didn't mean it though. How could she? There was little doubt in her mind that she'd consult with Shelia before she ever planned to have sex with someone, get a little advice on what to expect beyond the obvious. Your first time was an experience that was meant to be shared and not just with your sexual partner. All of her friends would share in it, one way or another.
They continued on in that vein for another few minutes. Shelia trying to pry from Lily details about just how much fun she and James were having. By the end, though Lily hadn't admitted to anything, there was very little mystery left. Their conversation had deteriorated into euphemisms and giggling, and Lily couldn't bother denying anything.
After that conversational well had dried up, they shifted to the other gossip from the night. Mainly, Lily had been privy to a front row examination of how Marlene and Sirius functioned as a couple.
"I mean, I guess, they're fine," Lily said with a wrinkle of her nose. "He's not like, belittling her at every turn or anything, but he's not great to her either. There were a couple of times where he was just so dismissive, and you know Marlene, she's never going to stand up to him."
"Godric no," Shelia agreed. "He could tell her to crawl in a hole and die, and she'd just frown at the ground."
"Exactly! I don't even know. Sometimes he's nice to her. Other times he's not. The only thing I know for certain is that Marlene is too good for any man on this planet, but maybe Black is the best choice if she has to choose one," Lily said.
Lily could have kept bemoaning her discomfort at Hogwart's newest couple for several more minutes, but her little powwow with Shelia had been designed to be transitionary, a way to hold Shelia in place, so life had to go on. Crawling through the portrait hole, and managing to make the climb look somehow dignified, McGonagall entered the Gryffindor Common Room. Shelia immediately turned to Lily with raised eyebrows, mouthing a question because it was decidedly uncommon for the head of house to visit unless something was on fire, and empty but for the two of them, the Common Room seemed decidedly peaceful that morning.
"Miss Marks. Miss Evans," McGonagall said sharply. "Could you direct me to your fellow conspirators?"
"Our what?" Shelia asked confused.
"Don't begin with me, Miss Marks. I'll tell you that in all my years at this school, I have never been so outraged. Where are the others?" McGonagall barked.
Lily had to bite down on the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. "Umm, if you mean our dorm mates, I think they're all still in bed."
"This is how you choose to spend your truancy? Lounging about in the Common Room and taking a lie in? I have never…I expect both of you girls to still be here when I return. Trying to run will only make things more difficult for you." McGonagall swanned off, up the staircase, leaving the two seemingly bewildered girls alone.
"What the fuck was that?" Shelia said, lost and wide-eyed.
Lily shrugged. "Dunno."
It didn't take long before McGonagall had corralled the rest of the girls, ordering them in a similar fashion to stay put in the Common Room while she returned for the boys. Alice was still wearing her pajamas – heavy flannel that was more conservative than anything Lily had ever owned. Marlene wailed about how McGonagall had dragged her from the bathroom while she was in the middle of brushing her teeth. That she'd been interrupted during her morning routine was obvious to the casual observer, as her hair was half-braided and she'd yet to hide the circles under her eyes.
The boys joined a minute later. Remus practically ran down the stairs as if McGonagall was chasing him, still clumsy and unsure on his feet from having just woken up. It was clear all of the Marauders were in a similar state. Not a one of them was dressed, though it appeared McGonagall had permitted Sirius to put on pants as he came down still buckling his belt.
From there, McGonagall marched them all to her office. Lily had to marvel at the empty corridors. It was really a wonder that McGonagall had been able to successfully quarantine the path all the way from Gryffindor Tower to her office. When it came to a little mischief, Hogwarts sure did know how to rally together. Behind her, the others whispered frantically, trying to guess what they could be called in for. From what Lily could gather, Sirius was struggling with too many options, while Mary was wracking her brain for a time in her life she'd ever done something to deserve such strong censure.
In preparation for their visit, McGonagall had added a few extra chairs to her office, so they were all able to sit, albeit in tight quarters. Never had Lily seen McGongall look so stern. It was like she was playing a parody of herself – a severe, career professor who had never seen any reason to break a rule in her life and could never possibly care for something as trivial as Quidditch. A big, fat lie essentially.
"Despite what you may all believe, I do remember what it was like to be young," McGonagall began. "I don't expect perfect attendance from all of my students, though some of you have exploited this leniency more than others –" her eyes flickered to James and Sirius – "that said, when I heard that all of you had chosen not to attend your first class this morning, I was outraged. The example you're setting! And Head Boy and Head Girl as well! Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"
Throughout McGonagall's lecture, the group had started to shoot confused looks at one another. Mary looked to be about one second away from checking McGonagall's temperature to make sure she wasn't suffering from a fever induced hallucination. Until McGonagall gave them the opportunity to defend themselves, however, none of them voiced their confusion until McGonagall yielded the floor.
It was James, unsurprisingly, who spoke up, "Erm, Professor, it's Sunday."
McGonagall rolled her eyes. "That's the excuse you want to go with? That all of you just collectively forgot the day of the week?"
"No, it's really Sunday. The twenty-second. Sunday. You know?" Sirius chimed in.
"Don't insult my intelligence, Mr. Black. Normally, I'd only assign one detention for one skipped class, but as this appears to be a conspiracy and you insist on lying to me, I'm going to up it to three. Each of you will serve three detentions with me next week. Now off to your other classes," McGonagall said, dismissing them. Only, none of them were ready to go anywhere just yet.
"Prongs, I think she's lost it," Sirius whispered far too loudly.
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Shelia cried.
"Professor, would you like me to accompany you to the Hospital Wing?" Mary offered.
Amidst all the bedlam, Lily said, "Hmm, maybe we did just forget. I wonder how that's possible."
No one reacted to her declaration, far too caught up in their own protestations, except for Sirius. Upon hearing her words, he came up short and stared at her for a long moment, assessing. Lily tried not to squirm in her seat.
"You think it's possible we just, what, forgot all of Sunday?" Sirius asked.
"Well, McGonagall seems to think so," Lily said a little uncertainly.
Sirius thought about her answer for another minute before he turned to McGonagall and announced, "Professor, this is all Evan's fault."
"What?" Lily shouted.
James kicked him. "Mate, what are you talking about?"
"Oh come on! She's befuddled McGonagall. You can't possibly expect us all to believe that we forgot an entire day – a weekend no less."
"Why would I want to get detention?" Lily protested.
Sirius sneered. "Your stupid bet. I hope it was worth it. Cursing a professor's got to get you a year's worth of detentions."
Lily turned to James, looking beseeching, hoping he'd refute Sirius's (accurate) claims. James took one look at her face and cursed, "Fuck! You really are behind this aren't you?"
"Language!" McGonagall reprimanded, but she was ignored.
The pretty obvious flaws in her plan were quickly becoming apparent. Lily wasn't sure why she hadn't predicted this little setback. In her imagination, her friends would have been overwhelmed by the evidence and begun to panic. They would have descended into chaos trying to determine how they could have all forgotten the day of the week. After several minutes of chaos, she and McGonagall would have conducted a dramatic reveal, and then had a good laugh at all their antics. Real life was biting her in the arse.
"Aspersions on my clarity of mind aside, I can assure you it is Sunday. I am not, Miss MacDonald, suffering from fever. I'm almost certain, Mr. Black, that I have not been cursed of late. It is Monday, October twenty-third, and these dramatic displays of yours are not going to do much to alleviate your punishment for skipping class this morning," McGonagall said severely.
"I'll prove it's Sunday," Remus volunteered. He stood up and made towards the door, before casting his gaze back to McGonagall as if seeking permission. "Um, I mean, let's all take a trip to the Charms classrooms. If it's really Monday, there should be a class in there right now."
For some reason, McGonagall permitted this deviation from the plan. Silently, Lily walked towards her inevitable discovery. She was struggling not to pout at how everything had gone awry. Lily bet that James wouldn't have wasted teacher assistance on such a stupid prank. Given the same opportunity, he'd have managed to pull off something legendary.
She'd really need to work on finding out a few of James' flaws. They used to come so readily to her mind, but he'd grown a lot as a person in the past few years, and his vices were slowly disappearing. Even the arrogance that was still present had somehow transformed, no longer driving him to merciless cruelty but just a steady pride that showed in his every step. Not something Lily, a proud person herself, could really fault. Everyone had flaws though. You never fully outgrew them, and for her own sanity, she needed to know what James' were.
He looked too perfect. Unlike Lily, he wasn't pressed and neat. He was the very fabric of the universe, the chaotic tangle of matter that somehow came together to create something all the more beautiful for its messiness. The world had never been about order, and James understood that better than anyone.
They arrived at their destination quickly after that, which was good because Lily was pretty openly ogling the back of James's head. (Mess like the creation of the universe? Honestly, her hormones were getting out of control.) McGonagall raised her fist to knock on the door, but James rather dramatically swung it open before her knuckles could land on the wood.
The triumphant moment he'd clearly expected was shattered when they saw what was inside. Sitting, all dressed in their school robes, were their classmates. They all looked up from their textbooks at the interruption, a few glancing at Flitwick, who stood upon a stool at the front of the room, as if for their cues.
"Ah, you found them. I trust they all had a good reason for being late to class this morning," Flitwick said pleasantly.
Before McGonagall could answer, James had closed the door again, like he couldn't bear to look upon the class a second longer. He leaned his back against the door and sank down partially. Body sagging against the weight of his surprise.
Lily didn't have to fake her expression of shock. She'd no idea that McGonagall had prepared for such a contingency. That so many students had agreed to wake up early on a Sunday just to have a laugh was completely unexpected. As everyone was too busy shaking their heads in disbelief, only Lily saw the pleased smirk that briefly graced McGonagall's face.
Looking almost hopeful, Alice asked, "Lily did you drug us or something?"
"I'd swear under Veritaserum, I didn't do anything to you," Lily said honestly.
As if his knees had given out, James sank the rest of the way to the floor. "I just don't understand."
McGonagall ordered them all back to her office. She would meet them there after she was done conferring with Professor Flitwick about their punishment. Really, Lily thought McGonagall just wanted to give them a chance to panic a bit longer. Once the door of the Charms classroom was securely shut behind her, she and the others involved in the prank would probably laugh so hard they upset their stomachs.
"It just doesn't make sense," James said for the hundredth time, an endless loop of disbelief that he'd kept up from the moment they started walking back to McGonagall's office to now when they were seated and waiting.
"I'm going to puke," Alice said faintly to herself, sounding as surprised by her weakness as her supposedly missing memories.
Most upset by the proceedings was Sirius. He sat brooding, brow drawn down heavily to make him look almost angry, and ignoring the speculation around him. When Marlene tried to take him by the hand, he rather rudely shoved her hand aside. With a sad, little quirk of her lips, Marlene slid to the side, closer to Mary, to give him some distance.
"We've got to convince McGonagall that none of this was intentional," Remus said. "I'm happy to serve my detentions as I earn them, but I'm not about to accept this. We didn't do anything wrong."
"Good luck with that," Shelia snorted. "We sound deranged."
"Dumbledore might believe us," Alice supplied helpfully. Her head was still tucked between her knees, fighting back the waves of nausea that had overwhelmed her at having her understanding of reality upheaved so suddenly.
"We shouldn't bother Dumbledore with something like this. I don't know why you guys are so upset about this. So we forgot a day, it's not a big deal," Marlene said calmly.
Given the chance, Lily never would have pegged Marlene as the girl would keep her calm in a crisis. Yet there she was, poised and collected while everyone else fell apart. Lily wondered how much it had to do with Mary sitting beside her. Everything seemed easier to face with your rock sitting by your side.
"Are you stupid?" Sirius snapped at Marlene. And it was a snap, all sharp teeth that appeared nerve-wrackingly animal in his open mouth. "This is an attack! If someone took the time to erase our memories, it's because there was something worth erasing. For all we know, some Death Eater bastard tortured you last night. Maybe they murdered someone right in front of us, and this is how they're covering their tracks. It's not a fucking joke."
Marlene paled and stared down at her hands.
Rationally, Lily supposed she could understand why Sirius was wound so tightly. His conclusion, while unexpected, actually made a lot of sense. Faced with the endless swirl of terrible scenarios that were probably circulating through his head in that moment, it made sense that he would lash out in a temper. None of that excused the fact that Marlene now looked on the verge of tears, and Mary's knuckles had turned white as she clenched the armrests of her seat, and Alice's threats that she might vomit had started anew.
"We'll tell McGonagall we need to speak to Dumbledore first thing," James said authoritatively. "Let's not assume the worst with no evidence, but we need to be prepared for anything."
The look he sent Lily's way was masked but she saw the hint of fear there. Lily wanted to scream. This was all supposed to be a silly, little joke, but now she had James sitting there terrified out of his mind that some Death Eater had tortured her last night or something. Lily opened her mouth to dispel their worry, she'd let things go on long enough, but McGonagall cut her off by returning to the room.
"Professor Flitwick and I have decided on the appropriate punishment for you. We both agreed my previous idea of three detentions was inadequate," McGonagall said, settling in front of them once more. James leaned forward to explain what they'd discovered, but McGonagall carried on without allowing the interruption. "We've decided to award seventy points to Gryffindor instead."
"Wait…what?" Remus asked.
"Ten points for each of you for being such good sports this morning," McGonagall said, smiling slyly. "I do so hope you enjoy the rest of your Sunday."
Disorientation probably didn't begin to describe how everyone was feeling. Lily almost wished she could experience it with them because she'd never had her understanding of reality manipulated and overturned like that before. The idea of McGonagall knowingly participating in a prank was even less likely than all of them forgetting about their Sunday, so it took a few moments for everyone to come to terms with McGonagall's meaning.
"Why only seventy points?" Mary asked finally. "There are eight of us."
"Well, Miss Evans is being repaid through this bet I heard you mention. Adding points seems like overkill," McGonagall explained.
Darkly Sirius began, "You bi–"
"Language, Mr. Black. Don't make me take your points back already," McGonagall said quickly, and this time she wasn't playing at being stern."
The first person to break and begin laughing was Remus. It started as an ambiguous clearing of his throat but quickly he couldn't hide it anymore. He leaned back in his chair and laughed at the absurdity of what had just transpired. James met his eyes for a half a second and then he was gone too, smiling madly at his mate. Still looking sick, Alice guffawed into her knees, murmuring about how she couldn't believe Lily's cheek. The others were quick to join. The room was soon a ruckus of laughter that even McGonagall joined in.
The only hold outs were Lily and Sirius. The latter didn't appear to understand the humor in the situation at all and chose to show it by glowering darkly at his hysterical friends. Lily, seeing his anger, couldn't bring herself to find it funny either. A joke wasn't a joke if it upset someone. Even she knew that.
"I can't believe you went along with this," James breathed out, awestruck at McGonagall's involvement.
"I owed you a little payback, Mr. Potter," McGonagall said pleasantly. It made them all laugh even harder.
"Payback," Sirius said, rolling the word along his tongue.
An unpleasant shiver crept up Lily's spine. She didn't like the way he said that at all.
Sirius left pretty quickly after McGonagall dismissed them. Lily had hoped to speak with James for a few minutes. Her morning had been such a whirlwind and she wanted to share all of the details with him – an impulse she hadn't even begun to slog through – but James was out the door after his friend before she could. As funny as he'd found her prank, he hadn't missed how on edge it had set Sirius.
There was no shortage of people who wanted to talk to her though. Namely, all of the girls who wanted to know just how she had pulled off something so brilliant. Unlike Sirius, they didn't think her prank was a distasteful, upsetting thing. They loved it and had enough questions to make Lily's head spin as she tried to sort through their clashing voices.
Lily was halfway to starved by the time she finally managed to extract herself from her friends. Her routine was a set thing, and her body wasn't built for deviations like missing meals. Since the others all swore they could wait for the official lunch hour, Lily made her way to the Great Hall alone. Normally, breakfast was served from seven to nine, after which students were out of luck until lunch unless they knew where the kitchens were located. On Sundays, however, a few plates were left out – paltry options that could be eaten cold: oatmeal, apples, toast – until the noon lunch hour to keep the stragglers fed.
There weren't many Gryffindors in the Great Hall when she arrived. Her eyes cast around for a friendly face. From across the hall, Sev waved discreetly at her. It was a summons.
They hadn't spoken much since their spat in Potions last Monday. She'd been too busy to make time to see him, and, well, a part of her didn't want to. Things hadn't returned to normal between them like she'd hoped. Instead, interactions with him left her feeling stressed out and inadequate. He didn't fit neatly into the life she'd built for herself.
The only time she ever actively longed for his company was when she was brewing. Her other friends kept her too occupied most other times to notice his absence.
Once, she'd thought that losing Sev would be like losing a limb. Something she'd had for so long going missing would be the kind of absence that itched and grated on her for years afterwards. If he'd ever been a limb, it turned out he'd been something non-functional and unnecessary like her little toe. Lily had survived, was surviving, the loss of her sister. Schoolyard friendships were paltry in comparison.
Still, Lily would have gone to sit with him. In a lot of ways, he was her anchor to home. His presence was once a comfort, and she longed for when it would be again.
He wasn't, however, alone at the Slytherin table. Seated a ways down – far enough that they couldn't be said to be eating together but close enough to hear every word exchanged by the other – was Nott. He'd noticed Sev wave at her. With a predatory smile, he gave a wave of his own. It was a challenge. Come, be my entertainment.
Lily felt sick.
A hand on the crook of her elbow made her jolt with surprise. There, steering her steadily away before she made a fool of herself by staring dumbly back at Nott, was Erik.
He gave her a tight smile. "Sit with me instead."
In that moment, Lily could have crowned Erik her savior. Made obstinate by her pride, Lily could have easily marched over to join Nott. Even though she knew such a thing would end poorly. Despite her best attempts, she'd yet to win against Nott. The excuse that she was meeting Erik, let her ignore Nott's challenge with her pride intact. She wasn't running away, or, at least, she could pretend as much.
Lily's hopes for a pleasant breakfast with Erik were immediately dashed as he opened with, "So, you and Potter have a nice time Friday?"
Boys and their territorial jealousy. Lily would never understand it. She didn't feel the need to go chasing Rin around the castle, demanding answers about what she got up to with James. Yes, a small part of her seized up when she thought about the two of them together, but she found the jealousy manageable. Death would be preferable to letting James know how much it bothered her.
"It was lovely," Lily said, buttering her toast with more care than was strictly necessary.
She hated being put into such a tight spot. The only way to satisfy Erik would be to dismiss her date as terrible. Then, he could preen and feel like a big man, comfortable in the knowledge that he could show her a better time. Downplaying how nice the date had been, however, would surely get back to James, and she valued what they had too much to risk it. She only hoped Erik didn't start berating her at the table. Sev would have.
"Where'd you go?" Erik asked.
"Loads of places. Just around the castle, you know?" Lily lied. Vindictive, jilted lovers were the types who would turn you in for sneaking out. At least, she'd learned as much from the telly.
Erik sighed and took a moment to collect his thoughts. He was probably brainstorming all the synonyms for 'whore.'
Finally, he said, "Lily, should I not bother wasting my time?"
"What?"
"I'm asking if you've already made a decision, and it's not me," Erik said simply. "I get it. I mean, everyone loves Potter. I'm not going to waste my time if I've already lost."
Had she been less distracted, Lily might have taken Erik to task for his terminology. 'Lost' implied James had won. The prize or the game being Lily. She was no such thing and such metaphors were archaic and misogynistic.
The question he'd presented, however, was too important and required her concentration. Without a moment's thought, Lily could say definitively that she'd rather be with James than with Erik. More telling, she didn't want both. Even if they never made her choose (unlikely as that was), she would only want to see James.
The issue that made her hesitate was that Erik served as a kind of shield for her. Lily wasn't ready to go steady with James and occasionally going on dates with Erik was her excuse. Without Erik to blame, Lily would have to explain to James what the holdup really was: I'm scared. You're everything. I'll lose myself. Someone always has the power and with us it'll be you.
Ultimately, Lily knew stringing Erik along just to avoid a conversation with James would be selfish. Erik deserved to find a girl who loved him, and James deserved a little honesty.
"I'm really, really sorry," Lily said.
At her words, Erik slumped back in his chair. A part of him must have held out some hope. He was a confident bloke after all.
"It's not you. It's just –"
Erik held up a hand to stop her. "Don't finish that sentence. It's fine. We can stay friends, and just, don't."
The smacking sound of Lily munching on her toast stretched between them. She should have waited for the awkwardness to subside before taking a bite, but she'd been too nervous to think clearly. Now, all she could do was wait for him to speak, while trying to keep crumbs from dribbling out the sides of her mouth. Maybe if they did he'd feel better about her decision. He wouldn't want to date such a slob anyway.
"Nott still giving you a hard time?" Erik asked finally to break the silence.
Lily grimaced. If making her dread the two days each week that she'd have to see him could be counted, then yes. Her stomach twisted remembering how sure Sirius had been that they'd all suffered a death eater attack. If they had, Nott would be the one to do it.
"He makes me feel powerless," Lily admitted quietly.
Erik nodded sadly. "Potter must not know. Can't imagine Nott would be up and walking if he did."
Briefly, Lily toyed with the idea that opening up to Erik might be a poor decision. He appeared to be handling his rejection well, but Lily knew better than anyone that appearances could be deceiving. In Erik, however, she'd never seen anything but sympathy. Someone who genuinely understood her struggles and fears as a muggleborn. He'd done nothing to earn her distrust.
"James knows someone's bothering me, but not who or any of the details. I don't want him getting involved," Lily said.
"Course not. It's your fight. And he's a pureblood," Erik said, and it meant the world to Lily that she didn't need to explain as much to him. "Potter understand your reasons?"
Lily shook her head. "He's pretending to be over it though, so that's something.
"So what are you going to do?" Erik asked, and Lily recognized that they'd returned to talking about Nott rather than James.
"I just don't know. Normally bullies get bored if you don't react, but that doesn't work on him. He takes it as a challenge to become even viler. It's like he's obsessed with proving he can break me."
Saying it out loud was terrible because the words rang true in her ears. Even after two weeks of lessons with him and lifetime of pureblood supremacist shite, realizing someone genuinely wanted to destroy her was still a shock to her system. Given the chance, Nott would rend her in two and laugh when her blood mingled with the dirt. She wasn't sure a person could ever become accustomed to such cruelty.
"Can you ask Snape for help?" Erik asked contemplatively.
"Sev?" Lily said bewildered.
"Yeah, he's your mate, right? And he has some pull with Nott. If he tells him to back off, he might."
Sev would never, ever do such a thing. He would never risk the space he'd carved out amongst the Slytherins. Earning any respect as a half-blood kid who was frequently bullied by students from other houses, had been a brutal act of patience. Sev wouldn't abandon all that hard work.
Lily could just picture how such a conversation would go. Sev would tell her that she was being too sensitive. It wasn't like Nott was hexing her. And it wasn't like Nott would listen to Sev anyway. Better not to try. To drive the point home, he'd remind Lily that she'd never been able to protect him from the abuse doled out by her housemates. It was a good argument. No amount of screeching from Lily had ever convinced James to lay off Sev, and James had fancied her at the time. Sev couldn't be held responsible for his housemates' actions either.
"Sev would never help."
Lily was surprised by the acidic taste of bitterness that coated her tongue. Knowing Sev's interference wouldn't help didn't seem to make a difference. She'd never stopped trying to protect him. Futile as it was.
Rationalizing, Lily knew Sev would step in, in his own way, if the situation ever became dire enough. But he'd never openly defend her. He'd bargain with Nott or he'd find some other girl to take Lily's place, just like Lily had done with Susan Kerns.
She wanted to throw the platter of toast across the room.
"Want me to kick Nott's arse for you?" Erik offered.
"What? No!"
"I thought maybe it would be different with me since I'm muggleborn," Erik explained.
It wouldn't help. Lily knew that in addition to endangering Erik, such an act would mean Nott had won. Nott wanted her helpless, and getting someone stronger to fight her battles would be just what a helpless, little girl would do. Lily could appreciate that Erik would enjoy clocking Nott in the face, but if anyone would get that honor, it would be her.
"I have until Tuesday to come up with a plan," Lily said slowly, "but I think it's time I gave as good as I got. He can't hurt me. Not in the middle of class. He wants, no needs, our arrangement to be a secret because if it gets out, I won't be able to stop James from killing him, and the second he does something violent, I'll report his sorry arse. So when he calls me a 'worthless mudblood' on Tuesday, I'll call him an 'inbred prick.' See how he likes it."
As far as plans went, Lily's – retaliatory name-calling – was a little rough, a little lacking in nuance, but it was enough. Just knowing that she had a strategy made her perfectly clean blood thrum with anticipation. Come Tuesday, she'd be ready.
A/N: Not a lot of Jily, sad day. But the next chapter is a bit better.
Point of order, we're returning to the two chapters per day format. I'd hoped to get through the rest of October in the one-chapter per day format, but there are just too many storylines that need to get wrapped up and necessitate more chapters. So next chapter will be a continuation of this Sunday.
Nice weekend!