Disclaimer... these characters belong to JKR.
The first match of the Quidditch season was halfway through October, and it was a freezing, sunny day. Frost cracked under James's boots as he walked out onto the pitch at the head of his team. He'd already had to separate Alex and Cami, who were clinging to each other in a decidedly unprofessional manner, and was regretting his decision to put a couple on the team. The Ravenclaw team across the pitch were in a huddle.
The stands were full – Gryffindors whooping and cheering alongside Hufflepuffs, their traditional alley in Quidditch, and the Slytherins were supporting the Ravenclaws. Remus, Peter and Sirius had dug out the banner that they'd made for tryouts, and the charmed paint was flashier than ever. Painting-James surveyed the crowd, waving regally. Real-James wanted to sink into the ground.
He spotted Lark up in the stands, in blue and bronze, chatting to a Ravenclaw. She was smiling, a scarf wound round her neck and there were woolly gloves on her expressive hands.
Felicity Toppart kicked him in the shin. "James!" she hissed. "Go shake hands!"
The Ravenclaw captain was a slim girl who played Seeker, and she grinned as she shook his hand.
"Good luck with your green team, Potter"
It was one of the longest matches James had ever played. Both teams were tiring, but still they flew, ducking and weaving around Bludgers and shooting goals when possible. James pulled away for a moment and flew straight up, looking down at his team. They were doing well, and he shot back down to join Felicity and Melody as they flew at the Keeper.
Melody and James peeled off just as Felicity threw, and scored. A blur of red and turquoise passed James, and he saw Camilla lunging towards the end of her broom, fingers closing on what looked like empty air.
"GRYFFINDOR WINS!" the commentator whooped, and Camilla was caught in the middle of a mid-air hug, still clutching the Snitch.
"450 points to 300, ladies and gentlemen, that was quite the match! Gryffindor's new team captain has put together a superb team!"
Even the sight of his mates waving around the banner gleefully couldn't tarnish James's excitement. They'd won Quidditch matches before, but James had never won one as captain.
The Marauders had snuck into Hogsmeade with James's cloak, and raided the Hogwarts kitchen to return with a feast. Since the match had gone on all day, most of Gryffindor Tower was starving, and the piles of food quickly disappeared.
James spotted Camilla and Alex engaged in a little post-match celebration of their own, and hurried away to find his friends. Sirius and Marlene were giggling about something over Butterbeer, and Lily was leaning against one wall, staring out the window. She was holding a goblet of pumpkin juice and her hair was tangled.
She looked sad, and James found his feet turning towards her without his permission. Since that night, when she'd guessed about him being an Animagi, they hadn't spoken. He didn't even know how she'd known. He hadn't been that obvious, had he? But she was smart, and she knew him, and maybe that was enough to at least plant the suspicion in her mind.
If it had been just his secret, he would've told her in a heartbeat. It was Remus's secret too, though, and Sirius's and Peter's and he couldn't share their secret even for her.
James didn't know that as he turned away, Lily turned towards him.
She nearly dropped her goblet of pumpkin juice, but caught it at the last minute. Some juice slopped over her blouse and she cursed, grabbing her wand to dry it.
"James!" Lily called. She was done fighting.
He had already disappeared into the crowd.
She set down her goblet, intending to go upstairs to the dormitory, when she spotted Anna. The other girl was dancing close to a seventh year girl, leaning into her.
Lily paused, half wanting to pretend to have seen nothing, and half wanting to march in there and yank Anna out before she did something she would regret.
She wavered, teetering. Before she could do anything, Anna backed away from the girl and dashed away.
Lily followed her friend up the stairs to the dormitory.
"Anna?"
There was no answer, and Lily stepped over to Anna's bed. Anna was lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling. Her arms were crossed over her chest.
"Are you alright?"
Lily plopped down on Anna's bed and tucked her knees under her chin.
"No" Anna said, voice hollow.
"Missing Artemis?"
"Yes"
"I'm sorry"
"S'ok. I just haven't seen her in about two months. She owls, but she's busy, and I know that she's busy, but it just – I want to see her"
Anna was whispering towards the ceiling and there was a rawness in her voice that Lily hadn't heard before.
Lily reached down to take her hand, smoothing her fingers over the back of Anna's hand as she thought. Anna's hand was pale and smooth, fingers warm.
She hadn't met Anna until after the Sorting Ceremony, when she was sitting shrouded in red Gryffindor blankets wishing they were green.
"I'm Anna" the girl sitting on the bed next to her said.
She had long, glossy black braids and her teeth were very straight.
"I'm Lily" Lily said, smiling tentatively.
"Did you want to go into Gryffindor?" Anna asked curiously, winding one fat braid around her index finger.
Lily shook her head. "Not really. I wanted to go into Slytherin like my friend"
Anna made a face, and Lily tensed. Most of the Gryffindors she'd met so far seemed to really hate Slytherin.
"The Sorting Hat told me I'd do well in Slytherin" Anna continued, and Lily relaxed. "It said I had potential and ambition"
"How come you ended up in Gryffindor?"
The other girl flopped back against her pillows and stared up at the canopy.
"I told it I'd rather be in Gryffindor cause green isn't really my colour"
Lily laughed at that, and Anna laughed with her until the small blonde girl in the bed over from them told them to be quiet.
Lily blinked out of her remembrance. "I know it's hard. But the two of you – Merlin. Sometimes you're kind of gross. I bet she wishes she could spend every day with you. One day you'll get forever, ok?"
Anna grimaced. "You're a sap"
"The Prefects' office has a connection to the Floo Network. I could sneak you in" Lily offered.
Anna perked up at that, rolling over onto her side to grin at Lily. "Really?"
"Really, come on"
They managed to skate through the still-partying Gryffindors, (Lily ignoring the Marauders resolutely, as they started lobbing fireworks out the window onto the grounds) and slipped out the Portrait Hole without being waylaid by any of their housemates.
"It's a bit of a security risk, really" Lily said, holding her Prefect badge up to the door and letting Anna in first. "After Jugson they introduced the wards – they work from the inside too, you can't get out without a badge – but they're not perfect. I can't count how many points I've had to dock from students trying to use the Floo to go see family or whatever. Mostly Hufflepuffs"
Lily kept up a constant chatter as she lit the fire, knowing it would annoy Anna out of whatever hole she was in, before passing her the silver bowl of Floo powder.
"Aren't the teachers worried about Prefects sneaking out?" Anna asked, taking a handful.
"Not really – they have a bit of a blind spot as far as the we're concerned"
"Ah"
"D'you want me to come?"
Anna shook her head tightly before chucking her handful of glittering powder into the flames.
"The Leaky Caldron. Room 18"
She stepped into the roiling green flames and was gone. Luckily for Lily, the Prefects' office was well stocked with a supply of tea and biscuits, and she made herself a cup of Earl Grey as she waited for Anna to return. It took a surprisingly short time.
Anna did not so much step out of the huge fireplace as fall. There was soot on her face, with pale streaks cut through it, and her hands shook. The cup of tea beside Lily was knocked to the ground where it spilled over the dark floorboards, but Lily didn't notice.
"Anna?-"
"She's dead"
Lily looked back over all her memories of them. Now of course, she knew something bad was going to happen. They were just too perfect. They were like flowers that hadn't been pressed to preserve them, sacrificing freshness for longevity. They were striking and lovely and fleeting. Ephemeral and doomed, because this wasn't a fairy tale, where love like this had a place. This was a horror story and the only place devotion like that belonged was at the sacrificial alter.
Every time memory of them – it was like watching a clock wind down. Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick -. She waited with held, frozen breath for the tick that wouldn't be answered. The air seemed to gather around them, trying to give them just a minute more. Now of course, she knew it couldn't last.
Every memory of the two of them together was newly tinged with desperation. The night Lily met Artemis – the way she and Anna held hands so tightly, it was like she knew that she would be pulled away. At the Yule Ball, when they danced so close it was like they were one person. When Mr Prewett died, and Anna launched herself into Artemis's arms, so relieved and grief-stricken. And most of all, the night at James's party. That memory was painfully clear. Lily wished she could soften the edges so they didn't cut into her so much.
Anna and Artemis had been barely moving, just holding each other while candlelight flickered on their skin, and flowers waved behind their ears. Artemis's had been an anemone. Anna's had been a white rose. Dead love.
Professor Tallheart had said they would learn to read omens. Lily was learning, but she was seeing them too late.
Anna on the floor had pulled herself into a ball, and Lily slid off the couch to join her. The both of them were numb together. Lily couldn't even feel Anna's hot tears on her skin.
By the time Lily was able to pull Anna off the floor, draping herself around her friend, an hour had passed. Cold tea had soaked the knees of her jeans, and there was soot on her hands from holding Anna.
There was a lump in her throat, stuck like peanut butter, and all she could do was hold Anna hoping to take a little bit of her pain.
The party had wound down by then, the fires burning low, and the only remnants of the celebration were empty butterbeer bottles and greasy crisp packets.
Although the flight of stairs up to the dormitory was short, it seemed to take far longer than it should to climb up them. Anna and Lily were frozen together.
Up in the dormitory, the other girls were still awake, but they stopped talking as the two stumbled through the door.
"Merlin – Lily? What's wrong?" Camilla crouched down by her side, the post-match glow disappearing and a worry line creasing the smooth white skin between her eyes.
"It's Artemis" Lily whispered, swallowing. She didn't want to say it aloud. That would make it real. It would solidify Anna's pain and freeze it and stick it in her chest, and that grief would never melt.
"No, no, god no"
A single tear trickled down Anna's still face and she nodded silently, turning her face into Lily's shoulder.
Marlene pulled down blankets and pillows from the beds and wrapped Anna in them, and they all spent the night on the floor, wishing for sunrise.
"We should tell McGonagall, she needs to go home to her parents" Mary whispered, after Anna fell asleep.
"I don't think that's a good idea" Camilla said. "She needs us. She'd just – retreat if she went home. We'd never be able to find her again"
"We should tell McGonagall though, she'll know what to do" Lily murmured, turning her head away from Anna.
"I can do it". Marlene extricated herself from the blankets and clambered to her feet. "I'll be right back"
She returned in ten minutes, with a sleepy looking Minerva McGonagall trailing her. The teacher seemed to wake up when she saw Anna on the floor.
"What exactly happened?" the dark haired witch asked them, speaking quietly. On the floor, Anna stirred.
Lily swallowed. "She was – really missing her girlfriend. So I told her she could use the Floo in the Prefects' office. I know it was against the rules, but I'll take full responsibility, it wasn't Anna's idea-"
"Miss Evans" Professor McGonagall interrupted. "Please continue"
"Right – sorry. So she used the Floo and she was back in ten minutes and all she said was 'she's dead' and then she just sort of – collapsed. She needs us, she shouldn't go home, not unless she wants to"
Professor McGonagall seemed to consider that for a moment, before nodding. Lily was rather surprised.
"I would tend to agree. The five of you – I think students need a larger support network than just their friends but in your case it seems to be working. I will have to notify Miss Rogers's parents, and I would suggest that you take her to the Hospital Wing once she wakes up, but in this case I think this is the best thing for Anna"
"Right" Marlene said, sounding taken aback. "Thank you Professor"
"Don't hesitate to wake me if she needs to talk" Minerva McGonagall said, before walking away with a last regretful look at Anna.
A.N. How many characters have I killed off so far? Probably too many. Someone needs to stop me. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please let me know what you think.