Forever
Year one
Part 4/5
Subtitled: Maggie's cloak
The days at Hogwarts turned progressively colder, and before anyone knew it the first snow had arrived. It was on that particular Sunday, that Lily was sitting on a window ledge in the common room. She was a gifted artist, a talent she had discovered very recently. She was sketching the delicate snowflakes, or at least she was trying to. She saw their beauty but couldn't transfer it on to paper. Finally in a fit of disgust she gave up and tried to sketch other things. She gazed out the window for several minutes looking for would-be subjects before resting her eyes on three boys. She could just make out their faces. It was three boys in her year, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. They were rarely seen with out each other. There was usually a fourth boy, but he was sick again. Remus Lupin always seemed to be sick. The boys were attempting to play a ridiculous version of Quidditch on the school brooms, which of course was impossible; James Potter and Sirius Black seemed to be very good, but Peter kept going off course. Lily giggled at their antics as they tried desperately to hold Peter on his broom. She was so immersed in their game that she didn't even notice the portrait door swing open to reveal her three best friends. They made their way over to their friend.
"LILY!" Roslyn yelled.
"What? What happened?" Lily looked up in surprise.
"Hello! We've just been calling your name for the last five minutes. We're not spaced are we?" Anna asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She was rolling her eyes.
"Sorry, I'm listening now! Where have you been anyway?" Lily asked suddenly curious noticing that all three of them had rosy cheeks and sparking eyes "I woke up and you were gone."
"Um, Lily I hate to break this to you but you wake up really late," Eric spoke, a smile creeping on his lips. Tina and Anna nodded in agreement.
"As for where we were, that's another story. Do you know that really stuck up Ravenclaw? Maggie Boots?" Anna asked. Lily nodded unsure of where this was going.
"Well, she was bragging all through detention yesterday about her new cloak,"
Eric started. Lily looked up in alarm.
"What did you do?"
" It was such a nice cloak too. Black silk exterior. Royal purple satin interior. Mother of pearl fasteners," Tina said with mock whistfulness.
"What did you do?" Lily demanded again. Tina exchanged looks with her partners in crime.
"Let's just say that fuchsia leopard spots is really NOT her color," Tina howled unable to contain herself any longer. Before long Lily, Anna, and Eric had joined in.
"You should have seen her face this morning!" Eric added gasping for breath.
"One word: Priceless. Luckily we made copies," Anna finished, clutching her side as she handed Lily, Tina, and Eric a copy of a photo that contained Maggie's look of extreme horror.
"We placed them all over the school. If you look, Lily, at the bottom of each photo is our signature." Tina pointed to it. " L.A.T.E.R.?" Lily asked skeptically.
"Yeah, get it? Too late to catch us? Plus it's an acronym; Lily Anna Tina Eric Roslyn. Get it?" Roslyn asked, pleased with her own cleverness. Lily just shook her head and laughed.
And so began the war. Over the next month Maggie and her two friends Jenny and Marta had managed to have their food cursed, had pretend howlers sent to them, and of course had their bad grades distributed throughout the school. Of course Lily and her friends weren't having an easy time either. Lily's hair was dyed purple. Roslyn's broom was cursed during flying lessons. In charms, the only double class with the Ravenclaws besides flying, Anna's homework kept mysteriously "disappearing". And To top it off, according to Maggie, Tina kept sneaking into the Ravenclaw common room. Despite all the mean tricks being played on her, Lily was having the time of her life
When the holidays finally came, a melancholy Lily boarded the Hogwarts Express. She was the only one of her friends going home besides Eric and harbored mixed feelings on the subject. The whole way home she and Eric chatted, mostly about ways to get Maggie back for dyeing Tina's cat yellow, Tina's least favorite color, and before either of them knew it, the train had slowed to a stop. Lily said a tearful goodbye for the second time that day; she made her way down the metal steps onto the pavement. Gathering her strength, Lily approached the barrier. This time taking care to have her trunk with her, she walked speedily towards the gray wall. With eyes shut she kept walking until she heard many people bustling around her. Lily searched the station before her eyes came to rest on the telltale long, curly, blond hair that could belong only to her mother.
"Mum!" she cried, racing into her mother's arms. Her mother laughed.
"Come on dear, the car's over there," her father chuckled.
They worked their way through the relentless crowd. Although Petunia was there, she really didn't look happy about it. She was civil, though, and politely asked questions about her school and friends, which Lily happily answered.
The dinner table
"Oh you should have seen her face! I don't think Maggie will ever brag about her cloak again!" Lily howled. Her family laughed.
"Did you come up with the idea dear?" her Aunt Violet asked.
"Nope, my friend Tina did. You'd like her, she's really crazy!" Lily smiled at her aunt. Lily was sure she heard Petunia say something that sounded remarkably like "sounds familiar" but she shook it off. She observed her family with happiness.
"Shall we move into the living room?" her father asked. Following several nods, the Evans got up and stationed themselves around the family room. Lily chose a spot near the fire. She took in every detail of her family, her father's balding head and good-natured smile, her mother's matronly shape and laughing eyes, her Aunt Violet's curly blond hair and stately nose, even Petunia's pale complexion. Lily just sat there hugging her knees as her family talked about things that had been happening lately. Outside the snow fell but Lily was warm inside and out. This was one of those days, Lily decided later, that you tuck into the back of your mind to look back on a rainy day. She did that, and later when darkness began to fall, Lily would pull out that memory like a beloved possession and hang on the wall that was her mind.
Christmas day
Lily's eyes shot open. It was Christmas! She could hardly contain herself; this was, after all, her favorite holiday. It was all she could do not to go and wake everyone to keep herself from waking everyone else up to open presents. One look at her clock told her that this was out of the question though. It was 5:30 and her sister would kill her if she woke her up before eight. With a sigh Lily tried to sleep but found it wasn't working; so her thoughts turned to her friends. Lily had sent them their Christmas presents the night before and soon they would be opening them. She thought of the look on Tina's face when she saw what Lily had gotten her and smiled at the reflection. Lily was so lost in the thoughts of her friends she didn't hear the tapping at her window until it was too late. Petunia was awake and she sure wasn't happy.
Suddenly Lily heard the inevitable, "Lily! What is going on…? Oh My GOD!" Petunia fainted.
The tapping belonged to Anna's neon owl, which was carrying Lily's Christmas presents. Lily couldn't really blame her for fainting; it really was a scary sight to see that early in the morning. After letting Lightning, Anna's owl, Lily made her way to her parents' room to get help for Petunia.
By the time Petunia came to, Lily felt awful. She apologized several times profusely but it was no good. After that Lily was lucky to get two words out Petunia the whole vacation, let alone nice words. Needless to say, Lily was very glad when it came time to go back to Hogwarts
After dinner - Lily's first night back
Lily curled herself into a ball in her favorite spot in the common room. Since she hadn't been around for two weeks, she had missed out on a lot of things. At this point Lily was feeling very sorry for herself. One of the things she missed was Tina's friendship with Sirius Black. For some reason they had become the best of friends. What was more, Roslyn and Anna had become very friendly with James Potter and Remus Lupin respectively. All six had been absent since lunch. They hadn't even come to greet Eric and Lily at the train station, nor had they been at dinner. Eric was upstairs unpacking, leaving a very hurt Lily in the common room. Without her friends Lily felt very abandoned. When the six finally came into the common room laughing and shouting, Lily went upstairs. She could handle them leaving her out when she wasn't around, but ignoring her right in front of her face was more than she could bear. With a heavy heart she slipped under the covers. After arranging her curtains all around her, Lily opened a book and attempted to read.
"Did you see Snape's face?" Anna giggled as the door burst open, revealing three girls.
"I know! I thought he was gonna kill James!" Tina interjected.
"You say it like it's a bad thing! It's not like he wouldn't deserve it!" Roslyn laughed. They talked and giggled for a few more minutes before becoming quiet.
"OH MY GOD!" Tina shouted.
"What? Are you okay?" Anna asked.
"Today's the fourth. Lily and Eric were supposed to come home today," Tina said.
"Perceptive aren't we?" Lily said before gathering her stuff and leaving three stunned girls in the dorm. It was a full ten seconds before they got a hold of themselves and five more before they ran after her.
"Whoa Lily, I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened!" Anna apologized.
"It's fine. I understand how time consuming guys can be. " Though Lily's words were nice her voice betrayed herself. Both her voice and eyes had gone ice cold.
"You know about them?" Roslyn asked tentatively.
"It's a little suspicious when you guys aren't at lunch or dinner and neither are they, and then you walk into the dorm talking about them." Her words were still cold but her voice had softened. "Where were you all day anyway?"
"Hogsmade." Roslyn spoke as though this were nothing but her sparking eyes betrayed her.
"Excuse me? How did you manage this?" Lily asked, laughter in her voice.
"They know a bunch of secret passage ways! You would love it, Lily! There are all these neat stores and shops! It's really wicked!"
Lily grinned in spite of herself. Tina's favorite new word was 'wicked'. The rest of the night was spent talking about the holiday's adventures. That night Lily slipped under the covers for the second time; this time with a smile.
Dream
Lily was in a room talking to someone. She was sure she recognized, him she just couldn't place his face. He had messy dark brown hair, brown eyes, and glasses. They were having a seemingly nice conversation. Suddenly she was with a woman who looked surprisingly like Lily. She was rocking a baby. Upon closer inspection, Lily noticed that it was her. With a swish Professor Dumbledore arrived and took the younger Lily. He traveled a long way with her and placed the baby in her house with her parents. The headmaster performed a spell and was gone. Lily heard a voice. A voice so terrible it made her blood run cold. The voice grew louder and louder, until it was screaming. Lily finally understood what the voice was saying. "You can't hide forever."
The next morning Lily remembered nothing.
A/N- Thanks so much to TD my beta-reader and anyone who reviewed! I got this up a lot sooner than I thought I would = ). If you have any ideas or suggestions put them in the reviews or e-mail me at: flipflop372354@aol.com
Disclaimer- If you don't recognize it it's mine! !
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