Lily looked at the
mirror straight in front of her. She removed the pale-blue French nails and put
on the white ones. The room echoed slowly with the extremely-old jewelry box
that had been opened to let Lily's diamonds rest from their tired owner's ears.
Lily moved very
slowly, as if she had no choice. The music pumped out slowly, too. By the time
Lily was completely finished, it was nine in the morning. She would have been
in Transfiguration by now.
With some idiot
staring at the back of your head.
Lily laughed
lightly in spite of herself. She didn't like to ridicule her suitors straight
to their faces, but (if they were not Gryffindors), she would laugh at the
"dramatic" reenactments that Sirius and Remus performed. They did a very good
impression of Fatmir Massimo's attempt to climb up to the girls' dormitory
window, to sing Lily a love song when he ended up at Minerva McGonagall's
window and with three-hundred points from Slytherin. (And unbeknownst to anyone
else, a fit of shrill laughter from the professor herself.)
Today Lily had
selected a red leather mini-skirt that looked like plastic. And, to add to
that, bright yellow tights and chunky black shoes. You might as well enjoy
your youth while you can. Claire is lining marriages up for you as you think.
And, a bright green leather vest that also looked like plastic, with a glossy
white silk blouse underneath, that she had expertly trimmed the collar off.
Where the collar had been, bright, thick strands of yarn had been sewn that
looked like the stitches on a baseball. The ends of the sleeves went just past
her wrist. She braided her thick hair into two thick plaits on either side of
her head.
"Tsk, tsk. From
elegance of Vogue to a David Cassidy fan." James muttered as she skipped down
to breakfast.
"David Cassidy
fan?" Lily asked, appalled.
"That's what you
look like."
"I was going to
wear completely white, but its after Labor Day." Lily said off-handly. "Pass
the syrup."
"Who made up that
rule anyway?" James said through his pancakes.
"Oh, Mrs.
Butterworth Alert!" Lily shouted as she ducked, avoiding bits of pancake.
"Thanks." He said
sarcastically. One piece hit her in her eye.
"Oh, that is the
final straw. I finally decide what eye-makeup to try and you go and get Bisquick
on me!" She pouted. She threw the powdered-sugar shaker at him. He ducked, but
got some in his hair.
He threw the
French toast. "Perfect accessories to your French nails." He laughed.
She ended up
getting the orange juice on his pants in a certain, er, embarrassing spot.
She got up to wash
her hands when he flicked some cereal and milk from his spoon onto the back of
her skirt.
"That is it,
Potter!" She shrieked with glee. She picked up some scrambled eggs off of the
next person's table ("Thanks.") and stuffed it down the back of James's shirt.
It was rather
funny to see a fifteen year old boy dance around like he had ice cream down his
shirt (worse, it was scrambled eggs and you know what grease stains do to your
dark clothing). She laughed and he threw his bacon at her hair. She, in return,
put sausage in the shoe that had come off when he was shaking the eggs down his
pant leg. Let him find that later.
She was one up on
him, and threw an English muffin at the back of his head. He stuffed a
buttermilk biscuit down her shirt. She threw a piece of a Belgian waffle on his
shoes.
The rest of the
Quidditch team was not exactly morning people. When they finally dragged
themselves into the breakfast room (looking like drowned cats, in Lily's
opinion), Rafe had to rub his eyes twice.
The dignified, the
regal Lily Evans had a buttermilk biscuit emerging from her vest, a piece of
syrupy pancake in her hair along with a smidgen of bacon, a Frosted Flake
leaving a milky trail on the back of her skirt and French toast on her shoes.
And she was shrieking with laughter.
The noble, the
rich James Potter had a "stain" on a certain spot on his pants, a grease trail
on the back of his shirt, a sausage hanging out of his left shoe (the right one
had a piece of a waffle on it), muffin crumbs in his hair, along with powdered
sugar. And he was chasing after a happily-shrieking Lily. They hadn't yet
spotted their fellow Hogwarts students standing in the doorway with their jaws
dropping to the floor.
Lily stopped.
James caught her. He looked up from the floor, slowly, to find a very large
group of familiar people staring openly in shock at him. Lily stood straight as
if in the military, absentmindedly scraping the cereal off her skirt. James
shook his shoe to get rid of the waffle. They tried (and failed) to regain a
scrap of their dignity.
"I guess we should
go change." Lily said, as Rafe just stood there, speechless. "Yes, Father Rafe.
Three Hail-Marys and lentils for mid-meal will be good. I will see Brother
Papito about my further punishments."
James stifled a
laugh. He followed Lily as she trotted up the stairs to her room.
Rafe was still
standing there, looking in wonder at the cereal flake on the hardwood, the
piece of waffle on the Persian rug. He didn't want to think of how bad this
would have been at the Ministry ball.
"Psst, Helen.. It's
your boyfriend, Ranting Rafe." Missy giggled. Helen smacked her with her square
handbag. It hit Missy square on Helen's target, Missy's stomach. Missy groaned.
James easily
changed into dark gray slacks and a dark blue shirt. He sat on Lily's bed,
winding up the little jewelry box. She was whipping into some new designer
outfit she picked up on a splurge.
"Princess? Do you mind
hurrying up?" He called. His voice was strong, because even though his back
faced Lily's bathroom door, and the door was thick, Lily still heard him.
"What's with the
Princess thing?" She asked, her voice equally loud.
"Remember the day
I came here?" He asked.
"The twenty-first
of September." She murmured to herself. "How can I forget?"
"Sirius introduced
you as the Queen of Hogwarts, Princess of Gryffindor, Owner of the Stage,
Sparkle of the Kingdom, the Most Elegant, Charming, Intelligent-" He began, but
she laughed.
"Good thing you're
not in here, I haven't blushed so much since.. Well, in a long time."
"And remember last
week? I asked you whether you knew you passed off as arrogant, a little
princess even?" He asked. She certainly remembered, and then a thought flashed
in her mind- What was she doing here? What was he doing, in her room, on her
bed?
"I decided from then
that you were regal, what Latin calls pulchra Regina. The pretty queen."
He said decidedly. She was still wondering why she wasn't hating him at this
very moment.
"Though right now
you are only princess of Gryffindor- Until the last Potter female dies, there
is no queen of Gryffindor. Meaning, until somebody marries me, there is no
Queen. I think it's quite sad not to have a queen for something so powerful in
good vibes, don't you?" He asked.
She opened the
door. She had side-lace black leather bellbottoms on, with a tight, cap-sleeve
silver shirt that cut itself off at the midriff. She wore a few bangles and her
hair was loose and wavy. Her feet had these black platforms strapped tightly to
them with sparkly silk.
"You seriously
think you're going out like that, in November?" James said, raising his
eyebrows as he stood, looking her over.
"You sound like my
grandmother." She muttered.
"I was shooting for
your mom." He said, as he slipped an arm around her bare stomach.
"My mom's dead,"
She said silently.
He paused. "Not
Volde-"
She laughed
uncomfortably and shook her head. "No, not him. Car crash."
"Then your dad?" He
said, smiling weakly, hoping that he hadn't hit a soft spot. Potter, what
are you thinking? You like hitting soft spots! All the more irritating to bring
up!
"No, he's
not around. Unfortunately, his stupid new wife is." She said as they began to
walk out her door.
"Then I sounded
like your stepmother?" He asked hopefully. She laughed again. He loved making
her laugh. No, you don't. You like making her irritated.
"No, she probably
would be the one wearing something like this in her size. The fat, blonde cow
doesn't realize her obviously fake tan and her tiny skirts aren't enough
anymore. I can tell you, this time next year I've got a new stepmother. She
lasted almost as long as my mom."
"Sorry." James
muttered after an odd silence.
"It's not your
fault. Society. That's why I was extremely eager to go here." Lily chirped, but
it was obvious to James that she was not too happy on the subject.
"But last night you
seemed so content being a society girl." James protested, not trying to get
flustered. Boy, did this girl have issues.
"A magical society
girl. It's no fun elsewhere. Less options to ruin Claire's social events." Lily
said with an evil grin. "She no longer holds dinners in the same house as I am
and she makes the butler search my bags."
"No wonder Sirius
and Remus like you so much!" James exclaimed, secretly happy that he got her
off the subject of her family.
"Are you kidding
me!? See, Claire tricked this guy into marrying my sister Petunia without her
dowry! And at their wedding (at one of our smaller estates so he wouldn't ask),
I pulled off Filibuster Fireworks in Petunia's bouquet and Dungbombs in the
cake! Claire was ranting for a week!" She said happily. "And then don't even
remind me of the garden party! That was the most fun of them all!"
"I'm sure they're
waiting. We've got shopping to do. How much did you bring?" James asked, not
really caring. He supposed that she had everything she could want from
Hogsmeade.
"Three hundred
Galleons." She said without a care.
"WHAT?!" He nearly
shouted. They were making their way down the stairs and people started to look
at them.
"Hello?!?! Godric's
Hollow has way more stuff that would annoy Claire but look normal. And
plus, I want stuff from the Quidditch match, I had to pay for opera glasses- I
want to sneak out and have fun, and plus, this place is historical. They
invented the Golden Snitch just three doors down." Lily said a-matter-a-factly.
"Oh, darling Miss
Debutante, tell me more." James teased in a stuffy, nasal voice.
Lily smacked him
lightly. He grabbed her hands and pulled her closer. His heart was beating
almost as fast as Lily's was.
"Hey, Lily! You
got some 'splainin' to do!!!" Sirius called from the breakfast room, in a very
bad Desi Arnez voice.
"Comin' Desi!"
She called back playfully, withdrawing her hands from James's now loosened
grasp. She skipped down the stairs, not looking back once.
