A New System
The next day, Lily sat in the second row of Professor Florays Charms lesson, she wasn't paying much attention and found her concentration ebbing away as her thoughts continued to revolve in her mind. She sighed as the Professor continued to explain about the levitating charm, she had previously studied this, in fact, she had previously studied the whole Charms book in preparation of the N.E.W.T's, which she would be taking later in the year.
Sitting across the long horizontal wooden with Lily was Cassie Loren and Elaine Redor, seventh year Hufflepuffs. They both had the opposite characteristics to Lily and she didn't particularly get along with either of them. They were school gossips, and they had a strange way of knowing everything about everyone, this caused people to watch their mouths when in a short hearing distance of them. They were unsurprisingly gossiping again, Cassie grooming her short brown hair while she talked, her brown eyes flashing vividly as she discussed the latest scandal. Elaine was nodding her head avidly, her long fiery red hair bouncing and her blue eyes sparkling eagerly.
Lily didn't like to converse with them, not because she was withdrawn or reserved with people, she just didn't feel the need to dive into a pool of rumours involving herself.
"Have you seen them? They're, like, so close, it's unbelievable, I mean, like... why aren't they going out?" asked Cassie avidly.
Elaine rolled her aqua eyes. "Well, duh, it's pretty obvious, Cass... the reasons sitting to the right of you," she said, inclining her head towards Lily's direction, who spun round at the sound of her name.
She didn't particularly want to talk to them, but if they chose to discuss a topic involving her, they left her with no choice.
"What about me?" Lily asked vigilantly.
Cassie's face contorted into surprise, as if Lily was mad not to know about what they were talking about, but how could they really expect her to fully listen to their ramblings?
"Lily, aren't you supposed to be smart? You and James, obviously. You know, Sandra's been getting close to him, but I think you're, like, so stopping them from going out," she said with a critical nod of her head.
Lily sighed again, every conversation she had ever had with Cassie and Elaine seemed to revolve around her and James and recently Sandra too. She didn't think she was personally stopping James from going out with Sandra, if he wanted to go out with her he could, Sandra would obviously have no objections and neither would Lily.
"I don't think I'm stopping him, if James likes Sandra, he can go out with her," said Lily irritably, however Cassie and Elaine seemed to have moved on from the subject of James and Lily, as they were now rapidly conversing about something else.
Lily rolled her eyes and retreated back to watching the Professor, however, she slightly strained her ears to listen to the rest of Cassie and Elaine's conversation. This continued for a while, and Lily soon lost interest and began to invest in different thoughts. The Professor didn't seem to notice either of them talking and was still telling the class about the levitating charm and the effects of what performing it wrong could cause.
"What do you think?" suddenly asked Elaine to Lily, poking her head round Cassie's shoulder and watching her with a flawless raised eyebrow.
Lily felt taken aback and did a silent double take on the question, what did she think about what? Cassie and Elaine's voices had only just recently dissolved out of her mind and she was just beginning to think in different waters.
"What?" Lily asked, startled.
"Sean Marlon, he's supposed to like you," chimed Cassie instantly, as if she had silently timed when to say her line.
Sean Marlon was a seventh year Ravenclaw and a very popular, good looking one at that. He was Captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team and was also a very skilled Keeper. He had most enchanting dark brown eyes, which contrasted with his refined dark hair very graciously; he also had a very nice personality to match. A few years back, Lily had had a small crush on him, but over the years it had gradually evaporated, as she had found herself wound up in more important things, like studying.
"Where did you here that?" asked Lily disbelievingly, Cassie and Elaine still staring at her, impatient eager looks playing on their faces.
They shared patronising glances, as if Lily was a young child who did not understand the conversation, Elaine then turned and motioned a sugary smile to Lily. "We know everything, and we could set you up, if you like," she said willingly, as if the prospect of setting Lily up would be great.
Lily instantly shook her head, she would rather have an encounter with the Giant Squid then have either Cassie or Elaine set her up. "Err, I don't think so, thanks," she said.
Elaine and Cassie both scoffed in an identical way. "Why?" they both asked in bewilderment.
Lily watched them incredulously for a moment, she didn't quite understand why they were asking why, wasn't it obvious... well, supposedly not to them. She didn't trust either of them, much alike the rest of the school, and she also didn't think that Sean liked her.
The bell suddenly rang and Lily's insides automatically squirmed with relief. The scraping of chairs juddered across the floor and Lily packed her equipment away before heaving her bag onto her back. Cassie and Elaine had again lost focus in her, and instead were watching the near figures of Sirius and James (who both had chosen to take Charms) walking out of the classroom amongst the rest of the crowd, both laughing aloud.
"Did you know that he goes out with Herra?" asked Cassie to Lily, pointing a highly manicured finger to Sirius's just visible head among the crowd.
Lily watched Cassie strangely and frowned at her rather foolish question, of course she knew, it was a known fact that Herra was her best friend. "Yes, I do," she said slowly.
Elaine suddenly took a high intake of breath and her smile broadened, the red lipstick on her lips slightly gleaming against the pale sunlight, "You know, you should go out with James, it would be so perfect," she said eagerly.
Lily didn't shift her expression; instead her mind whirled into a new question, why was she being told this again? It was common to Lily that almost everyone would discuss something with her along those lines, 'Lily, you should go out with James,' or 'Lily, why won't you go out with James?' it was one of the most frequent conversations and she didn't particularly like to discuss it, it was a persistent echo to her ears. And here it was again, the same conversation that interlinked her and James and put her in an awkward situation.
"Why?" she asked wearily, her voice thrown effortlessly as she did not care for the answer one bit.
"Because, two best friends would be going out with two best friends," said Cassie, as if this was the obvious answer.
Lily shifted her gaze away from the Cassie and Elaine and looked towards the classroom door in hope for Herra. She wanted to get away from them, and the recurring conversation... she hated it. Relief swept through her for the second time as she noticed Herra leaning against the doorframe, watching her impatiently. Lily nodded to Herra and then hurriedly left Elaine and Cassie with no intention of saying goodbye; she knew her effort would be wasted as they had yet again lost focus in her.
"Merlin, Cassie! Imagine if they did go out, it'd be, like, the talk of the school!" Lily heard Elaine say to Cassie, just as she had turned on her heel and left.
She didn't hear the rest of the conversation, and didn't particularly want to; instead she joined Herra and left the classroom, before Cassie or Elaine interrogated her again.
"What was all that about?" asked Herra, once Lily had emerged out from the classroom and they had began tracing down the sifting corridor.
Lily rolled her eyes and turned the corner of the passage with Herra, just passing the portrait of 'Lord Famor', a famous wizard.
"Oh, you know them, trying to set me up again, first with Sean Marlon and then with James Potter," Lily said with an exasperating sigh.
They began to walk down the large magically rotating staircase and just stopped in the precise moment as one of the staircases turned in a western direction, Lily turned to Herra, who frowned.
"Sean?" she asked oddly.
Lily didn't wait long to reply. "Yes, he apparently likes me," she said with a slight chuckle. The rumours spun from Cassie and Elaine could easily get tangled up, so Lily knew better then to believe them.
Herra smiled, she didn't seem to have spotted the sarcasm in Lily's voice, instead she seemed positively delighted by what Lily had just stated. "And you like him, don't you?" she asked.
Lily shrugged, she did like Sean, but that was all in the past. All her previous feelings for him had faded away and if any were left, they were very small.
"Herra, they're gossips, no one knows what they say is actually true and it usually isn't," she told Herra seriously, at the same time continuing to walk down the staircase in tune with her.
Herra frowned. "But, if he did?" she asked hopefully, hopping off the last step of the revolving staircase and making a direction towards the large oak entrance doors, Lily parallel with her.
Lily contemplated, if he did like her in that way, she would most probably consider going out with him, as would most other girls. "Well probably..." she said slowly.
Herra beamed as they both stepped out into the cold, breezy exterior of the castle. The grass squelched beneath their feet as they compressed the damp grass.
"I could find out for you," Herra said, just as avidly as Cassie and Elaine had earlier and with the same sparkle in her eyes.
Lily frowned, she sat down onto a fairly dry plot of grass and turned to Herra, who had also seated herself on the ground, "And how would you do that?" she asked inquisitively.
Herra clucked her tongue and shrugged, however within a short moment she answered. "Well, you could tell me what you exactly said to Sirius, and we could go from there,"
Lily immediately shook her head, causing her claret hair to flap amidst in her face, she impatiently tugged it back before replying, "Herra, that was different, I had a strategy then. Anyway, I hardly ever talk to Sean,"
She hardly ever did talk to Sean, and unlike Herra and Sirius, she wasn't at all confident with him. She would have to reassure herself that their feelings were mutual, if she ever did like him, that was.
Herra smirked. "Well, we have Defence Against the Dark Arts next, so you can start by talking to him then. He's in your class, right?" Herra asked, waiting for Lily to verify what she just stated, but instead she watched Herra absentmindedly.
"Hey, I'm just returning the favour!" Herra said mockingly.
Lily laughed; it wouldn't hurt to talk to Sean. Not that she was mute around him, she had previously talked to him, but that was when she had liked him. But- she didn't necessarily have to have a crush on Sean to be able to talk with him; she had friends that were boys that she regularly talked to. She continued to think about Sean and found that her current state of feelings began to rapidly ebb away. She envisioned his captivating brown eyes, and couldn't help but nod.