Chapter 2: A Pair of Old Socks
Lily Potter stared at the lone little box that stood on her nightstand. She had been worried sick about it since the day it had arrived. The box wasn't wrapped and there was no bow attached, but nonetheless her name was scrawled sloppily on the side. There was no doubt it was for her. And if the delivery of the box hadn't been odd, the contents were most certainly going to be. Lily set the box on her bed and took a deep breath, her fingers only inches away from opening the box. Just one tap with her wand and it would open...
"Lilianaaaaa!"
Lily suddenly found herself being pushed out of her bed and the box ending up somewhere in the folds of the sheets. A dark-haired girl with a goofy grin greeted her in the form of Mary MacDonald.
"Oh, have you seen the sky outside Liliana?" Mary sighed calling her by the 'more elegant' version of Lily she had come up with. "It's all white and clear and you know what that means right?"
"Uh no?" Lily shook her head, confused and yet thankful that she had been distracted. Just another reason to not open the dreaded box.
"Oh, Lilliana it's going to snow of course!" Mary twirled around making Lily get up and join as well. "And snow is just so romantic! Just imagine you're walking on a long windy road and suddenly it starts snowing. Little snowflakes fall magically onto the ground making the world all white and glittery and then-" Mary's eyes widened. "your prince charming shows up and makes you-"
"Hot chocolate, I hope."
Lily grimaced as she realized who had just woken up. Her gray eyes were covered by a lace mask but the perfect blond curls that tumbled effortlessly down her shoulders were enough to mark her as Marlene McKinnon.
"Oh Marley- you've seen it haven't you?" Mary asked hopping onto her bed and pulling off the mask impatiently "Just look outside-it's going to snow tonight!"
"It looks normal, Mary." Marlene sighed used to her friends energy this early in the morning. "I'm telling you it's not going to snow until after Christmas is over. Even the Daily Prophet's confirmed it."
"See this-" Mary waved her hands in the air and pointed to them, "This is why I tell youguys have no imagination. I'm telling you it's going to snow tonight and you guys will all thank me when it does."
Mary huffed pretending to be annoyed and swung around slipping out the door. "I'm going to go find Dorc- she believes."
"Only because she wants hot chocolate." Marlene mumbled shaking her head and falling back into her pillow. Lily looked at the blond girl for a moment before turning back to the box-the box- she whipped her face around the bed, but it wasn't there. She scanned the room, hoping the box had fallen somewhere nearby on the ground.
"God Mary!" Lily huffed angrily throwing up the covers and shoving the sheets of the bed. She looked underneath the bed. Nope. She searched Mary's bed- that girl had a knack for slipping into places she didn't belong, but it was empty albeit a pile of gifts for tonight. Lily eyed the latter wondering which one was hers but shook her head. She would not be tempted. No, nothing could tempt Lily Evans.
"Finished searching, darling?"
Marlene had propped herself on the bed and was watching Lily with amusement. Lily stood up tall and faced Marlene in the eye.
"Did you have a good night sleeping beauty?" Lily asked not amused.
Marlene yawned and flipped her curls. Lily watched it fall elegantly and wondered exactly how frizzy her hair looked at the moment. She hadn't bothered to comb it since she woke up and she knew there were a good number of knots in the red abundance that covered her head.
"I think so- I might have actually if one of my roommates wasn't snoring."
"It's called breathing- and some people happen to have an issue doing so at night-" Lily started defensively.
"Oh, I didn't ask." Marlene said heading for the bathroom. "but thanks for letting me know it was you Little willy Lily."
Needless to say, Lily and Marlene were not the best of friends.
"One of these days I hope McKinnon loses all her hair and gets spots all over her face!"
"She's really nice when you get to know her." Dorcas waved her wand making the little pebbles on the ground twirl around Lily's head.
"Sure. If you want to call it that." Lily grumbled.
"Are you sure that's the only thing bothering you?" Dorcas asked suddenly breaking her concentration and letting the pebble fall. "oh sorry Lily!"
"Yeah." Lily said finally brushing them off her shoulder. "Just her."
Dorcas looked like she wanted to argue but she smiled at Lily and tugged her along towards the dungeons.
Severus was already waiting for her in the classroom and she smiled and took her seat next to him.
"What does it look like today?" She asked pulling out a pink scrunchie to tie her hair back. Severus blinked at her and stared for a moment before answering. "Same as yesterday-although you can see a light sheen from where the iridescent bulbs have immersed completely into the potion. All we need to do now it add the kettle wings so that the sheen is preserved and the color-"
"turns to a light peach." Lily smiled at him. "Yes, Severus I know. Shocking. I actually had Mary read over the textbook to me."
"You're teasing." Severus replied curtly.
"Of course." Lily grinned measuring 3/4 of the kettlewings and handing the mortar and pestle to Severus. "Although Mary did read the entire chapter word for word last night."
"She should, her potion looks terrible." Severus added. "If her partner had any sense, he would have offered to do the entire potion himself"
"Hey," Lily snapped. "Mary's smart. She just needs to focus on potions more. You're just mad she scored higher on the Transfig exam yesterday."
"Typical Gryffindor response." Severus sniffed. "McGonagall does favor the Gryffindors, how could she not?"
"Slughorn seems to like you too." Lily responded evenly.
"And you."
Professor Slughorn walked by their table at that exact moment and smiled at the pair of them causing Lily to blush. Yes, Professor Slughorn had taken a liking to her, but only because of Severus. God knows how awful she would have been at potions had she not spent the summer before with Severus who taught her everything and anything to do with magic.
There was a loud yelp from the back. Something had splattered into Dorcas cauldron. There was a roar of laughter from the class as Professor Slughorn rushed forward to examine the damage and sent Dorcas and Lisa Gilmore to the hospital wing. But Lily had seen something else. The object was clearly thrown from the back-entirely a mistake on Gregory's fault. His pastry box had fallen onto the nearest shelf on his right, which in turn knocked over the bulbing grassweeds and-
Lily felt a huge weight being lifted off of her chest. She knew exactly where her box had fallen now!
"Lily-!" Severus called after her pointedly.
"Sorry Sev, Professor Slughorn I need to check on Dorcas-!"
Lily sprinted past the Hospital Wing where Dorcas was being examined by Madam Pomprey and mentally promised she would be back to visit, before running up the stairs. She narrowly avoided Michael Duke who had evidently just woken up by the state his hair was in.
"Hey Lily is it-?" he began to ask rubbing his eyes and trying to squint at the large clock on the deep red wall.
"3rd period is nearly over Michael." She shouted grinning as she ran up the stairs. It would snow, she mused, the day Michael Duke got to class on time.
She forced the door open, breathing heavily, expecting it to be empty. What she did not expect to see was James Potter digging through her drawers like he was on a mission. The box lay tore open on the foot of her bed and Lily's right hand curled to a fist, blood rushing to her ears.
"JAMES POTTER!" She screamed stomping towards him ready to knock him into his senses. How had he gotten into the girls dorms when they were enchanted to keep boys out and why of all things was he digging through her drawers. The pervert, she realized when she noticed one of her underwear's lay near his feet.
He turned around with such vigor that Lily even forgot why she was mad in the first place but she quickly remembered and glared at him daring him to move.
"Oh hi-um this is not what it looks like Lily. See Sirius and I had a bet and-" Lily was fuming now. "What did you do with the chocolate frog cards? Was Grindelwald one of them?"
James Potter almost looked hopeful, but Lily looked back at the box and rage consumed her once again.
"You opened the box?" She asked calmly.
"Oh yeah," James rubbed his hair. "That's exactly how Sirius's handwriting is. Don't worry it wasn't anything bad just a pair of old socks-!"
Lily Evans screamed so loud that James Potter backed away.
"How DARE you?" Lily screamed. "You can't just WALK in here and OPEN OTHER PEOPLES THINGS! Who are you James Potter-no who do you think you are? I don't have your bloody chocolate frog cards-JUST." Lily took a deep breathe. "JUST. LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW."
James didn't think twice and bolted out of the room.
Lily dropped next to the box and pulled out the socks that were fraying at the edges. One was pink, the other a slight lavender-almost gray. To anyone like James Potter they would mean nothing but to Lily they meant everything. She put the pink sock on her right hand, and the purple one on her left.
"I miss you too Tuney." She whispered looking down at them and wondering why in the world James Potter was such an insensitive prick.