A/N: This chapter is basically to adhere to a few requests, a bit of background for Lily's friends. Talking about requests (or more to the point, reviews), I'd love to reply to everyone's but, at a huge shock to me, I've received way too many to reply to...
Ok, so maybe I don't have the patience and, frankly, I can't be stuffed, but hey, this is just me.
So what I plan on doing is listing you all and bulk-thanking you. You're all fantastic, I haven't been in such a good mood for ages! Thanks guys and keep it up (especially the requests and critisism, I need advice on how to improve)!!
Fuzzy (fuzzlebub85 aol. com)
maaike-fluffy
ZayneLily
pearlstar
KissFromARose14
Sylvia Louise
Lynn (lollipop15 sbcglogabl. net)
Charmergirl07
kaze-nyv
jamesismysweetheart
phoenxarrw
Padfoot's Sidekick
I'm not one for romance and fluffy bunnies and cherubs. I've always been fairly down to earth, happy knowing if you push something that can be moved by your strength, it will move in the direction you push it. Simple physics, Newton's Laws. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. A mass will continue at its velocity unless acted upon by an external unbalanced force.
Magic and physics don't mix.
Romance, for me, is like magic and physics. Romance and I just don't make sense. So when Aoife used to sigh and dream away when we were supposed to be studying for our fifth year exams, I'd just laugh.
'Aoife, honey, romance ain't real.'
She'd just smile dreamily back at me. 'Just because you have no sense of romance, doesn't mean the rest of us do.'
'Hey, don't count me in that lovey dovey group of yours,' Sam leant back in her chair, holding up her hands as if to ward Aoife off. 'Lily and I, we have a sense of intelligence, not romance.'
Hannah snorted at the 'intelligence', earning a glare from Sammy. All eyes, however, swivelled back to Aoife when she, uncharacteristically, slammed her book shut.
'This sucks.'
Aoife is the epitome of happiness. A plump, cheery, rosy faced girl, the kind always up for hugs and giggles, she managed, with a smile, to lighten the mood in any room. She was Muggle born, like me, but that was about as far as similarities went. While I had always been the academic, quiet, sporty one, she was into shopping, socializing, and making friends left, right and centre. She's a great person to be around, and she knows it, giving herself a certain air of confidence.
She was Irish, her parents and her moving to London a year before she got 'The Letter', as she named it, that bright grin and glitter in her eyes lighting up her face. She had a golden halo of curls and bright blue eyes and a lilting accent to make anyone jealous.
Hannah, taller than most boys in our year, was quiet and thoughtful, a lot like I was when I was in that mood. But, unlike me, she was like that all the time. She was one of the sweetest girls I'd ever met and, in the last few years, it seemed like she was shrinking. It was my guess that she'd had an early growth spurt, being taller than us to begin with. But we were more than catching up.
She'd been a bit of a loner at her old school; that much she trusted me with. I have a feeling she wasn't a fan of putting her trust in people. Somewhere along the line she'd been burned. Even know, I have no idea what happened to her.
Her parents were divorced and she lived with her father. I think she once told me her mother had run off with another wizard to Spain, and that her father now worked in the ministry.
I said before that she was quiet. I meant quiet around others. Within five minutes, staying silent the first night we stayed up so late on the first day we all met and were sorted into Gryffindor, she seemed to have assessed us an filed us under 'safe'. She joked, giggled and smiled in private with us. But her conversations regarding herself only just brushed the surface.
Sammy... well, Sam was Sam. What can I say? She's a ratbag.
Things went quite blissfully for a while. But fifth year came around I had managed one important feat. I no longer thought 'this is not possible.' Congratulations to me. Sam showed her happiness by leaping up on a nearby table in the centre of the common room and catching everyone's attention in pure Sammy Style.
'OI! EVERYONE, SHUT UP!'
Silence.
'I would like to publicly congratulate my bestest buddy Lilikins Evans for managing to beat the little voice in her head which keeps telling her magic is not real. I think we can all learn a very important lesson from this...'
'When you hear voices in your head you should go see a psychologist?'
'Oh, Black, who asked for your opinion? No one? Exactly, go hex someone, because, other than that, no one else will ever care.'
Laughs and Blacks red, furious face disappeared as he flung himself angrily onto the nearest couch. I sent Sam a thumbs-up sign, even though my cheeks burned with embarrassment.
'The lesson I was about to disclose, before I was so rudely interrupted by Monsieur Ego over there, was that we can all beat our inner voices shut up no one cares...' She managed to point at Potter as she said this, her tone of voice not changing. The crowd laughed again. 'Our inner voices,' Sam called over the laughs, which died down immediately. 'And if we can beat ourselves, we can beat anything. Thank you!'
She bowed and everyone clapped as she leapt off the table and grinned at me.
'That should inspire a few of them, after what's been happening.'