Mistletoe
By ~Cassandra~
~Hey all- Please please please review! My self-confidence lowers with every person who reads, but doesn't want to review. Just one thing- no flames! Thanks a bunch!!!~
Chapter 1
Lily Evans grabbed her cart and made a mad dash for the wall between Platforms 9 and 10 at Kings Cross Station. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact and the humiliation that would follow. But it never came. She opened an eye and found herself running towards a scarlet steam engine.
"You can stop running now," said a voice as Lily skidded to a halt. She looked around to find two boys lounging on their trunks. Both had black hair, but one had glasses. They smiled amusedly at her, crooked grins of troublemakers.
Lily blushed, embarrassed, and began to wheel her cart loaded with trunks in the opposite direction.
"The free compartments are that way," the one with glasses said, pointing in the opposite direction.
Lily turned as red as her hair as the two boys chuckled.
"Let me guess, you're Muggle-born," glasses asked.
Lily stared.
"Yeah," the second boy said.
Lily glared at him. "I can answer questions ya know," she informed him dryly.
"Then answer this one: what's a Muggle?"
Lily's face flamed. "A person," she snapped, then turned her trolley and set out for the train.
"What kind of person, Carrot?" the boy shouted after her. Lily ignored him, as she muttered under her breath. "What a jerk! A complete moron!"
She grabbed her red and brass trunk and heaved it through a door and into a compartment. Lemon, her cat, jumped in after her, mewing angrily as Lily almost shut the door on her tail.
Lily, still cross, sat down and looked out the window. She saw the two boys from earlier, but they had joined two more guys and were now chatting eagerly. She blushed slightly when she remembered the question.
"Then what's a muggle?"
"Hello!" a cheerful voice said. Lily turned to find a blonde sticking her head in through the door.
"Oh, hello!" Lily replied.
"Would you mind if I shared the compartment?" the girl asked, smiling a bit.
"Not at all!"
The girl dragged in her trunk, with the help of Lily, and sat down across from her.
"I'm Darcie Phillips," the blonde said. She had beautiful gray eyes, that accented her dirty blond messy-bun.
"Lily Evans," Lily smiled.
"So, are you a muggleborn?" Darcie asked.
"Huh?"
"I take that as a yes!" Darcie laughed. "Muggle means a non-magic person. Purebloods are people who have wizard parents."
"I'm already behind, and I haven't even seen the school yet!" Lily moaned.
"Oh, don't worry. Nobody's at an advantage right away," Darcie said, trying to comfort Lily.
"Sorry for interrupting, but this is the only free compartment, so we were wondering if we could share it," someone asked. Darcie and Lily turned to find two girls poking in their heads. One was Chinese, or so it seemed, and the other was a brunette.
"Of course!" Lily said. "The more the merrier!"
Once the four had resettled, introductions were made.
"I'm Mei Long," the Chinese girl said.
"And I'm Leila," the brunette smiled.
"Darcie."
"Liliane," Lily said. "But if you call me that, you're dead. Just Lily would be fine."
The other three giggled as the train lurched into motion. They started talking about Hogwarts, girl style.
"My older sister goes there!" Darcie said. "Fourth year. She said that some of the people in Ravenclaw are really hott!"
"Oooh!" Mei Long squealed. "Who should we be on the look out for?"
Darcie rattled off a list of names that Lily hardly bothered to memorize.
All of the sudden, a loud bang sounded. The girls all jumped, but Leila was quick to wave the smoke away with her wand. Four boys were revealed crouching over another smoke bomb, wands positioned.
"You again!" Lily said, astonished.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded Darcie, her wand brandished.
The boy with the glasses stood up and gave a mock bow. "I am James Potter," he said.
"Ignore him. I'm Black. Sirius Black,' said the other black-haired boy, standing in front of James.
"Remus Lupin," the brown haired kid said.
The fourth, and fat, boy had said his name so quietly that nobody heard.
"Peter," James said, gesturing towards him.
"That's all very nice-" Lily started.
"Oh, isn't it, Liliane?" James interrupted, grinning evilly.
"Do. Not. Call. Me. That!" Lily said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh, watch out, James," Sirius joked. "You'll be blown to smithereens when Carrot's through with you!"
Peter whimpered.
"That's it! Out! OUT!" Darcie said angrily, brandishing her wand. "Banishio!"
The four boys moved back two inches before bursting into hysterics.
"Banishio!" Lily said loudly.
The boys went flying backwards towards the closed doors of the compartment when-
"Openus!" Mei Long shouted. The doors swung open as the boys flew through, then closed behind them with a slam.
"You go, girls!" Leila laughed. "Show them who's boss!"
Soon, all of the girls were in hysterics, over the silliness of the whole situation and the jokes that kept popping up. They thought they had gotten the best of the guys. That wasn't what James Potter was thinking.
He lay sprawled on the floor, entangled in a web of arms and legs that took 20 long minutes to get out of.
"We'll get them back," James said. "But right now we've got more important things to think off. Like how much candy we're going to buy off the sweet cart.
Sirius was the first to race towards the sweet cart and empty his pockets of money.
"James," he began, with a devilish smile. "Most girls go on diets, right?"
James looked at Remus, who had an older sister.
"Tell me about it," he said, rolling his eyes. Suddenly, he looked intently at Sirius. "You don't mean-"
"What? What does he mean?" squeaked Peter.
"If we helped the girls along with their diets," James said, catching on.
"Oh no," Peter said, recognizing the devilish grins.
"By taking all of the sweets! Empty your pockets, men!" Sirius said gallantly.
Together they managed to empty the trolley, much to the amazement of the witch. When they had finished, not a single Chocolate Frog was left.
"Dig in," James grinned, gesturing to the mountain of sweets before them. The rest of the group was only too happy to comply.
~*~
The girls stopped chattering for a moment as a witch pulled the sweet trolley to a stop. Much to Darcie's dismay, it was empty.
"What?!" she said disbelievingly. "Where are all the Pumpkin Pasties?"
"Sorry girls," the witch said. "A group of boys back there cleaned me out."
The four shared a dark look, which the witch missed.
"I'll try to restock and be back," she promised, then left.
"Oooh, when I get my hands on them," Darcie started.
"Oh, forget it," Mei Long said dismissively. "There'll be a huge feast after the Sorting. The guys will probably be too stuffed to eat a thing."
Lily had to giggle at this. "The look on their faces when they can't eat anything. We had better offer them dessert!"
'Approaching Hogworts in 10 minutes!" announced a magically enhanced voice.
"We'd better change into our robes," Leila said.
The four slipped their robes over their heads, but Mei Long stopped to ask Lily a question.
"Where'd you get that horrendous bruise?"
Lily looked down at her arm. "Oh this? It's just... when I slipped in the shower!" she said unconvincingly.
"Well, okay," Mei Long said suspiciously, but her worries were drowned out by the feeling of awe the rest indulged in. The Hogwarts castle was in plain view. It was huge, and beautiful.
The train stopped in front of it, and the four girls still stood admiring it.
Lily slowly tore her eyes away from the sight and grabbed her things.
"C'mon!" she called over her shoulder before jumping out the door.
"Firs' years o'er here!" a huge man called from behind a massive beard. He had to be at least 10 feet tall, and made Lily's neck hurt to look at him.
"Name's Hagrid," he rumbled and took Lily's trunk for her. "You're wantin' teh go to that boat over there," he said as he steered her in that direction.
Lily climbed in the boat, shortly followed by Mei Long, Darcie, Leila. They set off across the giant moat, propelled by magic.
Lily scowled when she found that James' boat was right next to hers. James responded in the same manner, making faces at her.
Lily turned away to force down a smile.
It wasn't long before they all stood in line, approaching a raised platform in front of the entire school. Professor McGonagall briskly took out a piece of parchment and waited, staring at the objects to the front of the platform. On a stool sat a badly frayed hat. The pattern was frayed beyond recognition, except for the faded blues and reds.
"I'm going to kill my sister!" Darcie whispered from behind. "She told me we had to ward off an Auror who was attacking!"
"An Auror?" Lily asked.
Before she had time to answer, a rip at the brim of the hat opened wide, just like a mouth, and burst into song. (A/N: Here goes nothing...)
"'Twas a brilliantly sunny day,
When Godric sat down and said,
"When we're gone and buried,
who will choose students in our stead?"
Lily was so amazed, as were Darcie and Mei Long, that she hardly heard the rest of the song. (A/N: Phew!) Then a name was called out, "Abcondic,Patty!" A pudgy girl of red-brown hair stepped forward and nervously tried on the hat.
"RAVENCLAW!" it shouted, and a table to the far left burst into applause.
"Bainbridge, Samuel!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Bionco, Olivia!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Black, Sirius!" the boy from the train came forward and jammed the hat eagerly onto his head.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Lily scowled as he jauntily waved from the Gryffindor table.
"Chang, Mei Long!"
Mei Long, with wide eyes, stepped forward and tried on the hat. For two minutes the entire hall, especially Leila, Darcie, and Lily, waited in anticipation. "GRYFFINDOR!" it finally shouted.
A table in the middle cheered louder than the first tables. Mei Long, grinning, sat down by what looked like a seventh year girl, who patted her on the back.
Several other names, and houses were called ("DiCombrio, Tony!" "SLYTHERIN!"), as Lily inspected the house tables. The other center table was full of people who sneered at those trying on the Sorting Hat.
"Definitely not for me," Lily said to herself as Tony walked toward them.
"Evans, Liliane!" Lily stumbled forward then nervously tried on the hat. She got a glimpse of Mei Long giving her two thumbs up before seeing only the black silk lining of the hat.
Well, well. The hat was saying. What do we have here?
Not a Slytherin! Lily was quick to say. The hat laughed.
You've got nerve, a GRYFFINDOR trait!
Relieved, Lily set off for Mei Long's table and sat down next to her.
"I can't believe it! We're together!" Mei Long squealed and threw her arms around Lily.
They were interrupted by, "Finnigan, Leila!"
Leila walked to the hat, gave Lily and Mei Long a smile, and slipped it on. The hat hardly waited a second before announcing her a, "RAVENCLAW!"
Lily managed to give Leila an enthusiastic smile and a thumbs up as she walked to the Ravenclaw table.
"Oh no," Mei Long grieved as eight more names were called.
"Potter, James!" was called as the familiar face jammed on the hat as eagerly as Black had.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted without a moment's hesitation.
Lily groaned, but Mei Long giggled. "Look! My sister's saying he's a hottie!"
A girl who looked like an older version of Mei Long was pointing to James and fanning herself.
The two were so absorbed in giggling and signing wildly back that they almost didn't hear, "Er-Phillips, Darcie!"
Darcie glared at McGonagall, who had obviously made a mistake and skipped her name, then tried on the hat.
"GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted after long last.
Darcie ran toward them and sat down, whispering excitedly. They didn't even hear the last names being called, but when they looked up all four of the Potter gang sat in front of them. They quickly looked away.
"They hurt my eyes," Darcie moaned, sending Lily and Mei Long into a giggling spasm again.
"If you'll give me your attention, please, I have a few things to say," an old wizard said. Instantly, the school fell quiet.
Lily stared in amazement. The wizard had a long silver beard and twinkling blue eyes. He winked in her direction, and then began. "You must try some of the Yorkshire pudding this year. It's a new recipe and tastes wonderful!" McGonagall glared and he hastily continued. "On a different note, no one is allowed in the Forbidden Forest, hence the name. Now, try the Yorkshire pudding, if you please."
With his final words, the table was filled with every sort of food Lily could imagine.
She, Darcie, and Mei Long kept up their chattering all through dinner, which, to their dismay, Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew were heartily partaking in.
Barely, awake Lily walked with the rest of the Gryffindors into their common room, using the new password ("Mugdungon").
"We'll get them tomorrow," Darcie muttered then fell into bed.
Lily lay, extremely tired, without sleeping.
"Mei Long?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
"Can you sleep?"
"No."
"Me neither. I can only sleep when I feel safe," Lily admitted.
"Then you have every reason to be asleep!" Mei Long nearly shouted. Darcie mumbled in her sleep.
"Hogwarts is the safest place on the face of the Wizarding world!" Mei Long thought for a moment. "Well, besides Gringotts."
Lily felt sleepy already. "Really?"
"Really. Now go to bed," Mei Long ordered. Lily happily complied.
By ~Cassandra~
~Hey all- Please please please review! My self-confidence lowers with every person who reads, but doesn't want to review. Just one thing- no flames! Thanks a bunch!!!~
Chapter 1
Lily Evans grabbed her cart and made a mad dash for the wall between Platforms 9 and 10 at Kings Cross Station. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact and the humiliation that would follow. But it never came. She opened an eye and found herself running towards a scarlet steam engine.
"You can stop running now," said a voice as Lily skidded to a halt. She looked around to find two boys lounging on their trunks. Both had black hair, but one had glasses. They smiled amusedly at her, crooked grins of troublemakers.
Lily blushed, embarrassed, and began to wheel her cart loaded with trunks in the opposite direction.
"The free compartments are that way," the one with glasses said, pointing in the opposite direction.
Lily turned as red as her hair as the two boys chuckled.
"Let me guess, you're Muggle-born," glasses asked.
Lily stared.
"Yeah," the second boy said.
Lily glared at him. "I can answer questions ya know," she informed him dryly.
"Then answer this one: what's a Muggle?"
Lily's face flamed. "A person," she snapped, then turned her trolley and set out for the train.
"What kind of person, Carrot?" the boy shouted after her. Lily ignored him, as she muttered under her breath. "What a jerk! A complete moron!"
She grabbed her red and brass trunk and heaved it through a door and into a compartment. Lemon, her cat, jumped in after her, mewing angrily as Lily almost shut the door on her tail.
Lily, still cross, sat down and looked out the window. She saw the two boys from earlier, but they had joined two more guys and were now chatting eagerly. She blushed slightly when she remembered the question.
"Then what's a muggle?"
"Hello!" a cheerful voice said. Lily turned to find a blonde sticking her head in through the door.
"Oh, hello!" Lily replied.
"Would you mind if I shared the compartment?" the girl asked, smiling a bit.
"Not at all!"
The girl dragged in her trunk, with the help of Lily, and sat down across from her.
"I'm Darcie Phillips," the blonde said. She had beautiful gray eyes, that accented her dirty blond messy-bun.
"Lily Evans," Lily smiled.
"So, are you a muggleborn?" Darcie asked.
"Huh?"
"I take that as a yes!" Darcie laughed. "Muggle means a non-magic person. Purebloods are people who have wizard parents."
"I'm already behind, and I haven't even seen the school yet!" Lily moaned.
"Oh, don't worry. Nobody's at an advantage right away," Darcie said, trying to comfort Lily.
"Sorry for interrupting, but this is the only free compartment, so we were wondering if we could share it," someone asked. Darcie and Lily turned to find two girls poking in their heads. One was Chinese, or so it seemed, and the other was a brunette.
"Of course!" Lily said. "The more the merrier!"
Once the four had resettled, introductions were made.
"I'm Mei Long," the Chinese girl said.
"And I'm Leila," the brunette smiled.
"Darcie."
"Liliane," Lily said. "But if you call me that, you're dead. Just Lily would be fine."
The other three giggled as the train lurched into motion. They started talking about Hogwarts, girl style.
"My older sister goes there!" Darcie said. "Fourth year. She said that some of the people in Ravenclaw are really hott!"
"Oooh!" Mei Long squealed. "Who should we be on the look out for?"
Darcie rattled off a list of names that Lily hardly bothered to memorize.
All of the sudden, a loud bang sounded. The girls all jumped, but Leila was quick to wave the smoke away with her wand. Four boys were revealed crouching over another smoke bomb, wands positioned.
"You again!" Lily said, astonished.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" demanded Darcie, her wand brandished.
The boy with the glasses stood up and gave a mock bow. "I am James Potter," he said.
"Ignore him. I'm Black. Sirius Black,' said the other black-haired boy, standing in front of James.
"Remus Lupin," the brown haired kid said.
The fourth, and fat, boy had said his name so quietly that nobody heard.
"Peter," James said, gesturing towards him.
"That's all very nice-" Lily started.
"Oh, isn't it, Liliane?" James interrupted, grinning evilly.
"Do. Not. Call. Me. That!" Lily said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Oh, watch out, James," Sirius joked. "You'll be blown to smithereens when Carrot's through with you!"
Peter whimpered.
"That's it! Out! OUT!" Darcie said angrily, brandishing her wand. "Banishio!"
The four boys moved back two inches before bursting into hysterics.
"Banishio!" Lily said loudly.
The boys went flying backwards towards the closed doors of the compartment when-
"Openus!" Mei Long shouted. The doors swung open as the boys flew through, then closed behind them with a slam.
"You go, girls!" Leila laughed. "Show them who's boss!"
Soon, all of the girls were in hysterics, over the silliness of the whole situation and the jokes that kept popping up. They thought they had gotten the best of the guys. That wasn't what James Potter was thinking.
He lay sprawled on the floor, entangled in a web of arms and legs that took 20 long minutes to get out of.
"We'll get them back," James said. "But right now we've got more important things to think off. Like how much candy we're going to buy off the sweet cart.
Sirius was the first to race towards the sweet cart and empty his pockets of money.
"James," he began, with a devilish smile. "Most girls go on diets, right?"
James looked at Remus, who had an older sister.
"Tell me about it," he said, rolling his eyes. Suddenly, he looked intently at Sirius. "You don't mean-"
"What? What does he mean?" squeaked Peter.
"If we helped the girls along with their diets," James said, catching on.
"Oh no," Peter said, recognizing the devilish grins.
"By taking all of the sweets! Empty your pockets, men!" Sirius said gallantly.
Together they managed to empty the trolley, much to the amazement of the witch. When they had finished, not a single Chocolate Frog was left.
"Dig in," James grinned, gesturing to the mountain of sweets before them. The rest of the group was only too happy to comply.
~*~
The girls stopped chattering for a moment as a witch pulled the sweet trolley to a stop. Much to Darcie's dismay, it was empty.
"What?!" she said disbelievingly. "Where are all the Pumpkin Pasties?"
"Sorry girls," the witch said. "A group of boys back there cleaned me out."
The four shared a dark look, which the witch missed.
"I'll try to restock and be back," she promised, then left.
"Oooh, when I get my hands on them," Darcie started.
"Oh, forget it," Mei Long said dismissively. "There'll be a huge feast after the Sorting. The guys will probably be too stuffed to eat a thing."
Lily had to giggle at this. "The look on their faces when they can't eat anything. We had better offer them dessert!"
'Approaching Hogworts in 10 minutes!" announced a magically enhanced voice.
"We'd better change into our robes," Leila said.
The four slipped their robes over their heads, but Mei Long stopped to ask Lily a question.
"Where'd you get that horrendous bruise?"
Lily looked down at her arm. "Oh this? It's just... when I slipped in the shower!" she said unconvincingly.
"Well, okay," Mei Long said suspiciously, but her worries were drowned out by the feeling of awe the rest indulged in. The Hogwarts castle was in plain view. It was huge, and beautiful.
The train stopped in front of it, and the four girls still stood admiring it.
Lily slowly tore her eyes away from the sight and grabbed her things.
"C'mon!" she called over her shoulder before jumping out the door.
"Firs' years o'er here!" a huge man called from behind a massive beard. He had to be at least 10 feet tall, and made Lily's neck hurt to look at him.
"Name's Hagrid," he rumbled and took Lily's trunk for her. "You're wantin' teh go to that boat over there," he said as he steered her in that direction.
Lily climbed in the boat, shortly followed by Mei Long, Darcie, Leila. They set off across the giant moat, propelled by magic.
Lily scowled when she found that James' boat was right next to hers. James responded in the same manner, making faces at her.
Lily turned away to force down a smile.
It wasn't long before they all stood in line, approaching a raised platform in front of the entire school. Professor McGonagall briskly took out a piece of parchment and waited, staring at the objects to the front of the platform. On a stool sat a badly frayed hat. The pattern was frayed beyond recognition, except for the faded blues and reds.
"I'm going to kill my sister!" Darcie whispered from behind. "She told me we had to ward off an Auror who was attacking!"
"An Auror?" Lily asked.
Before she had time to answer, a rip at the brim of the hat opened wide, just like a mouth, and burst into song. (A/N: Here goes nothing...)
"'Twas a brilliantly sunny day,
When Godric sat down and said,
"When we're gone and buried,
who will choose students in our stead?"
Lily was so amazed, as were Darcie and Mei Long, that she hardly heard the rest of the song. (A/N: Phew!) Then a name was called out, "Abcondic,Patty!" A pudgy girl of red-brown hair stepped forward and nervously tried on the hat.
"RAVENCLAW!" it shouted, and a table to the far left burst into applause.
"Bainbridge, Samuel!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Bionco, Olivia!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
"Black, Sirius!" the boy from the train came forward and jammed the hat eagerly onto his head.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Lily scowled as he jauntily waved from the Gryffindor table.
"Chang, Mei Long!"
Mei Long, with wide eyes, stepped forward and tried on the hat. For two minutes the entire hall, especially Leila, Darcie, and Lily, waited in anticipation. "GRYFFINDOR!" it finally shouted.
A table in the middle cheered louder than the first tables. Mei Long, grinning, sat down by what looked like a seventh year girl, who patted her on the back.
Several other names, and houses were called ("DiCombrio, Tony!" "SLYTHERIN!"), as Lily inspected the house tables. The other center table was full of people who sneered at those trying on the Sorting Hat.
"Definitely not for me," Lily said to herself as Tony walked toward them.
"Evans, Liliane!" Lily stumbled forward then nervously tried on the hat. She got a glimpse of Mei Long giving her two thumbs up before seeing only the black silk lining of the hat.
Well, well. The hat was saying. What do we have here?
Not a Slytherin! Lily was quick to say. The hat laughed.
You've got nerve, a GRYFFINDOR trait!
Relieved, Lily set off for Mei Long's table and sat down next to her.
"I can't believe it! We're together!" Mei Long squealed and threw her arms around Lily.
They were interrupted by, "Finnigan, Leila!"
Leila walked to the hat, gave Lily and Mei Long a smile, and slipped it on. The hat hardly waited a second before announcing her a, "RAVENCLAW!"
Lily managed to give Leila an enthusiastic smile and a thumbs up as she walked to the Ravenclaw table.
"Oh no," Mei Long grieved as eight more names were called.
"Potter, James!" was called as the familiar face jammed on the hat as eagerly as Black had.
"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted without a moment's hesitation.
Lily groaned, but Mei Long giggled. "Look! My sister's saying he's a hottie!"
A girl who looked like an older version of Mei Long was pointing to James and fanning herself.
The two were so absorbed in giggling and signing wildly back that they almost didn't hear, "Er-Phillips, Darcie!"
Darcie glared at McGonagall, who had obviously made a mistake and skipped her name, then tried on the hat.
"GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted after long last.
Darcie ran toward them and sat down, whispering excitedly. They didn't even hear the last names being called, but when they looked up all four of the Potter gang sat in front of them. They quickly looked away.
"They hurt my eyes," Darcie moaned, sending Lily and Mei Long into a giggling spasm again.
"If you'll give me your attention, please, I have a few things to say," an old wizard said. Instantly, the school fell quiet.
Lily stared in amazement. The wizard had a long silver beard and twinkling blue eyes. He winked in her direction, and then began. "You must try some of the Yorkshire pudding this year. It's a new recipe and tastes wonderful!" McGonagall glared and he hastily continued. "On a different note, no one is allowed in the Forbidden Forest, hence the name. Now, try the Yorkshire pudding, if you please."
With his final words, the table was filled with every sort of food Lily could imagine.
She, Darcie, and Mei Long kept up their chattering all through dinner, which, to their dismay, Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew were heartily partaking in.
Barely, awake Lily walked with the rest of the Gryffindors into their common room, using the new password ("Mugdungon").
"We'll get them tomorrow," Darcie muttered then fell into bed.
Lily lay, extremely tired, without sleeping.
"Mei Long?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
"Can you sleep?"
"No."
"Me neither. I can only sleep when I feel safe," Lily admitted.
"Then you have every reason to be asleep!" Mei Long nearly shouted. Darcie mumbled in her sleep.
"Hogwarts is the safest place on the face of the Wizarding world!" Mei Long thought for a moment. "Well, besides Gringotts."
Lily felt sleepy already. "Really?"
"Really. Now go to bed," Mei Long ordered. Lily happily complied.