Bad Day: Part 2

The next day, Lily got up depressed. "Oh, why me?" she thought while a splitting migraine threatened to nudge its way into her head. She decided to sleep in, for it was Saturday, and she didn't have classes. In the back of her mind, she knew she would regret not doing her homework that day, but she didn't care. All that mattered was that she needed sleep, and intended to get it.

"Lily? Lily, wake up." Lily heard a familiar voice permeating her dreams of Professor McGonagall talking with the Sorting Hat (which looked strangely like a slice of pumpkin pie) about monkeys and mirrors. She opened her eyes to see Cassie hovering over her bed. "You've been sleeping all morning. It's almost lunchtime."

"Lunchtime?! I didn't think I had slept in that late!" Her stomach answered her with a growl, as if saying, 'Yes, you did sleep that late, now eat.'

"Yes. Do you want to go down to the Great Hall with me?" Cassie asked.

"Sure. I'll be ready in a minute. Meet me in the common room." Cassie agreed, and left. When she had closed the door, Lily put her head under her pillow and groaned. "Half the day gone, and I still don't have any of my homework done!"

She got dressed quickly, and went down to the common room to meet Cassie. Lily saw Cassie talking to Larissa very excitedly about something, but they soon spotted her and stopped talking.

"Let's go," Cassie said-a little too cheerily-and they left.

After lunch, the girls went back up to the common room because it was raining outside. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, and that meant that James and his cronies were lurking somewhere nearby.

Alas, this came true, and James spotted Lily seated in an armchair by the fire. He ruffled his hair and walked up to her.

"Alright, Evans?" he said, in deep tones.

She sighed, and looked at him. "What do you want, Potter? And don't tell me the Head students need to plan a ball or something; you wore that out last term."

Since this was exactly what he was going to say to her, he became very nervous, and his hand flew to his head. "Ah… well, then… Will you go out with me?" he asked, hopeful. He then realized that Lily didn't like his ruffling of the hair, and hastily lowered his hand to rub the back of his neck.

Lily noticed this, and became perplexed. It almost seemed as though the petulant boy that had persistently asked her out for the past two years had finally grown into a mature young wizard. She was further confuddled when she recognized that this was the first time he had asked her out for two months. With N.E.W.T.s coming up, she hadn't noticed. It almost seemed as though he had changed just for her. Even so…

"No, Potter."

"Er… ok, then. Ah, well, b-" he turned to leave. "Wait! McGonagall actually did want to see us. Tonight, in her office, after dinner," he said.

Lily was skeptical. "Really?"

He nodded. "Yes! I promise."

Lily still was doubtful, but said, "Alright." James nodded, and left.

Cassie and Larissa looked at each other, and raised their eyebrows. "Lily…" Larissa started.

"No. Don't you start up on me," Lily interrupted. "I don't care how cute you thought he was just now, I won't go out with him."

Her friends giggled. "That wasn't what I was going to say… But you said you thought he was cute?"

Lily groaned.

"Oh, Lily, cut the guy some slack!" Cassie said. "Can't you see that he really likes you?"

"And can't you see that it takes more than just one person liking another to build a relationship?" Lily retorted.

"You know, I think she has a point," said Kathy, who had a couple books tucked under her arm. She had just gotten back from the library.

"You see? Kathy agrees with me! Now, I have homework to do, and so do you. I'm going to the library. See you later," Lily said, picking up her bag, and going out the portrait hole.

Lily didn't really want to do her homework, but she knew she ought to. "Besides, this day can't really get any worse," she thought to herself.

Oh, but it can, and will. Those who have experienced several bad days will testify: things just don't get better as the day goes on. It's a sick twist of fate.

On her way down to the library, Lily once again crossed paths with James and his bunch of hooligans. How they got ahead of her so fast, she didn't really want to know. But there they were, and she hoped they wouldn't talk to her. At first, it seemed as though they hadn't seen her, but lo and behold, James called out, "Lily! Oi, Lily!"

She stopped dead in her tracks, and turned around slowly, trying to keep her composure. "Yes?" she said with as much sang-froid as she could muster. It was the first time she had heard him call her 'Lily,' and it startled her.

He ran up to her. "You don't want to go down this hallway. Trust me."

She narrowed her eyes. "Why?" Crossing her arms, she glanced at the rest of them. "What did you four do?"

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" said Sirius. "You just don't want to go down this hall. Why don't you go another route? Get some… exercise?" He faltered when he saw the dangerous look in her eyes that he was all too familiar with. At the moment, she was looking quite akin to McGonagall.

Lily looked back at James. "What did you do?" she reiterated.

James was becoming more and more nervous under her "Tell-me-now" stare. He needed to distract her…

"How about a date tonight, Evans? What do you say?"

Bad way to distract her, he later reflected.

Lily was at her wit's end with the quartet. "James Potter, you are Head Boy. You should not be playing childish pranks like this! Now, tell me—"

She was cut off by a massive BANG. She whirled around, and saw not three feet ahead a… Well, that was the problem. She didn't see anything.

"You… BLEW UP THE CORRIDOR?!" she yelled, seething.

"No, no, no! We didn't blow it up!" James defended. "We just…" he got an idea. "Yes, we blew up the corridor. We're bad people. We deserve to die. Good-bye, Lily." With that, he walked past her, and straight off the newly made cliff.

Lily covered her mouth with her hands. She couldn't believe he had just stepped off a ledge five stories high! Rushing over, she peered down, and saw James standing on the corridor, which had just been lowered.

However, instead of the cobblestone floor, it had become a beautiful garden of lilies. Somewhere behind her, Lily heard Remus say softly, "Nice touch, Prongs."

Lily rolled her eyes at the immaturity of it all. Later, she reflected that it was somewhat sweet, but at the moment, she wanted to curse James.

Restraining herself, Lily stalked off away from him, intending to go to Professor McGonagall.