After the feast, Lily and her fellow first-year Gryffindors were led upstairs to their dormitories, where Lily met her roommates. There was, of course, Mandy and Lily herself, but there were also four other girls: Gauness Swilt, who had her long chestnut hair pulled back in a braid; Rillet Aumortia, a dark, French girl who was very intelligent, but who could not speak English very well; and Cindy Xu and her twin sister Kait, the two of which Lily still could still not tell apart.
Lily suddenly grinned.
"This year is going to be fantastic."
"I agree. But first we need to figure out bed arrangements." Kait smiled sweetly at her new friends, and then stared hard at her sister. At last she said, "Cindy and I have decided that we want to be on opposite sides of the room. I'll take the bed farthest from the door."
Soon, almost everyone was asleep. Lily stared at the ceiling for a while, wondering silently what classes the next day would be like. She turned on her side abuptly, and found Rillet staring at her in the bed opposite. Lily smiled and whispered to her-
"Hi."
Rillet smiled. "It is warm." Though she knew little English, her accent was flawless. Lily was struck with admiration for the girl. She already could speak much of the language, and had only been in Britain for three weeks prior to coming to Hogwarts. She must be musical too, with an ear like that, Lily thought suddenly, and vowed to ask her about it later.
"Yes…"
"I want to ask you…help me with English? She is language hard."
Lily was a bit surprised. It was her first day after meeting this girl, and Rillet was already asking for lessons! But, then again, she thought, Rillet will need to understand the school material. And it would be nice to get to know someone else… "Sure," Lily whispered back with a grin and a nod. "I'll be glad to help."
***
Remus had warned Lily about the owls that deliver the mail the previous night, but her breath still caught at the sight of them. She didn't yet have a bird, but at the sight of the ones overhead, she immediately longed for one.
"Many," said Rillet simply, as Mandy, too, stared.
Lily then focused her attention on the sheet of paper – her schedule – infront of her. But instead of displaying the name 'Lily Evans', it said-
Sirius Black suddenly stood up on his seat, and, in a voice audible to the whole Gryffindor table, demanded, "Who has my schedule?"
Lily sighed loudly, and, swallowing a grin, got up to return the schedule to its rightful owner. She adopted a stern voice.
"Well, Mr. Black," she scolded, "I would have expected more from you! Letting most important things – namely your schedule!- fall in the unkowing hands of-"
Sirius turned around, and so did Remus Lupin, who was sitting next to him. The former narrowed his eyes slightly before his expression, too, became regal.
"My dearest Lady - or, Lily, I suppose - would you please allow me to be of assistance…" he said before making a swipe for the paper in her hands.
But Lily, vaguely wondering why her little trip to hand back Sirius's schedule was getting out of control, refused to give up the slip of paper. "Where's mine?"
Sirius looked affronted. "I do not know."
"Find it, then. What work for a poor, frail being such as myself…"
Sirius made another announcement to the Gryffindors, informing them of his quest for Lily's schedule.
Throughout the exchange Remus had been watching them, looking mildly amused. But his expression had just changed. Lily noticed.
"Why the slight widening of the eyes, my dear fellow?"
Remus tore his gaze from the High Table and glared at Sirius. "You weren't serious about dying Professor McGonagall's hair pink…were you?"
Sirius stared.
He blinked.
He grinned.
"Now that turned out good!"
Lily rolled her eyes and directed her attention towards Remus. She handed him Sirius's schedule, as Sirius didn't seem much interested anymore. Remus, keeping a straight face, picked up hers from underneath Sirius's plate.
She stared. "It was there the whole time?"
"He told me not to tell."
Remus's face was passive. Then he grinned. "See you in classes."
Lily didn't know what to say, so she went back to sit with the girls, perusing the information on the paper in front of her. Their first class was Transfiguration. Transfiguration…
Lily's head suddenly snapped up, and she looked at Professor McGonagall, who had just seemed to notice her predicament. Lily poked Mandy, who sat on her other side.
"Ouch! What-"
"Look what Sirius did to Professor McGonagall!"
Lily's friend stared. "Can you believe that! On her first day, too! And she can't be much older than the seventh years…" Mandy looked almost as distressed as the teacher, who was now receiving some derisive remarks from the students. "Oh, I'll kill Sirius…"
"You didn't seem very mad about it last night, when he told us…"
Mandy looked up at her and glared. "I didn't know he was really going to do it."
"Oh."
There was an akward pause, then-
"I'm sorry…it's just, I can't stand that sort of thing. Professor McGonagall doesn't look like one who would gladly accept a practical joke…Sirius could've waited until she was more familiar with all of us…"
Lily didn't meet her friend's eyes, but nodded.
The two girls turned back to their schedules.
.
A/N - Okay. Phew. I'd thought I'd abandoned this story already, but I had the strange urge to write the next chapter. I've taken four months of a gruelling English class since I began the story, so I hope chapter three seemed a bit better than the previous two. Now, though, I have a bit of an idea what the plot shall be...:) But, of course, I better write it over the rest of Winter Break, because once school starts up again... ::shrugs:: My English teacher kindly explained to my class that we'd just went through the "easy" part of the year, and that second semester will be "much more taxing". Huh. Fun. Well, reviews are welcomed; they keep my spirits high....:)
