Disclaimer: Dutch car-wash today — there was a huge thunderstorm this morning at 10 and washed my car and the family van. I'm infatuted with thunderstorm. Complete fun. It was so windy that my sister and I couldn't even hear eachother yelling. Plus it started to hail. OH! never forgetting that much fun. Anyways, since I'm outside in the rain all the time, I never actually have time to write the HP series, so that belongs to J.K. Rowlintg. Other than May and Joe and all the aforementioned names, I, also Charmelite, own nothing.

Enjoy. Please review we greatly appreciate it.

Charmelite and Abarraine. 2005.

When She Smiles:

Breathtakingly Beautiful

Tuesday

4 November 1983

MAY-

It's that time of year again. The time of coats, scarves, and sweaters. I can feel the drafts coming in from the large windows surrounding me. Teasing the edges of my homework, threatening to blow it all across the room. Lils and I are sitting in the library at the moment, working on some last minute homework.

We can't help but to procrastinate. We have vowed to spend every possible moment outside before the grounds are covered with ice and frost. After classes today Lily and I diligently committed ourselves to packing away our summer clothes in our trunks, and bringing out all of our sweaters, coats, and sweatpants.

I guess we'll have to get used to wearing the over-sized, bulky sweatshirts around all the time. It's almost sad to see the summer clothes put away… like closing a chapter on your life.

Well I suppose I'm being over dramatic. I'm sure that winter will be just as fun.

Classes were long and boring today. Just as they usually are. Nothing nearly as exciting as our experience with the Gumming yesterday. Tuesdays just never seem to end, it's our longest day of the week.

Need I tell you that divination was as pointless as usual? Two hours of unsuccessfully looking into the crystal ball. Thankfully Professor Trelwany has informed us that this is our last week of practice. Next week will be the test, and then we'll finally be moving onto something new. Though I suppose I shouldn't be getting too excited about moving onto something 'new', things could always get worse.

As boring as things seemed today, we actually didn't feel all that bad. Everyone remained ecstatic about Sirius' near miss with getting expelled. He practically seemed to bounce from class to class. Yes, he was that jubilant!

I guess that when Sirius' parents came yesterday there was a big 'to-do' in Dumbledore's office. Ministry officials, Dumbledore, other members of the staff, parents, and Amos.

Sirius said that nobody was there to defend him, his parents seemed to care nothing about the situation, just angry about fouling the family name or whatnot. Dumbledore patiently listened to all sides of the story, then argued on Sirius' behalf himself. Sirius was so lucky to get out with such little punishment, I'm so glad.

But I can't help but wonder why I wasn't there, also. Wasn't the whole thing centered around me? Maybe I'm too delicate to be taken seriously.

Of course, the bimbos always have to have their say in everything. It was sickening, the way they all rushed to him during our first class this morning; worshiping the very ground Sirius walks on. Well, if I walk on that ground too, by all means, proclaim me saintly.

I heard a few snippets of their worshiping:

Blaise: (In tears) "Oh, Sirius-baby, we were so worried. Imagine having to suffer through the rest of our years at Hogwarts without you!" Can you imagine the suffer?

Siena: (hugging him) "I would have left with you Sirius! We all would have." A consensus of nods.

Lydia: "Imagine, being kicked out of Hogwarts all on account of that brat! I'd have killed her! Ohh, but thank God you're here." (heaving breath)

Geminey: (tried to kiss Sirius, but ended up kissing his ear after he ducked away) "…I stayed up crying last night, I couldn't live with the thought that you might never be able to hold me in your arms again… but now that you'll be staying for awhile (flutters eye lashes here), I thought that maybe we could pick things up where we left off last summer. I never realized how stupid I was for leaving you. So... If you're up to it, why don't we hold a 'welcome back' reception in my dorm tonight. It'll be fun…" Royal gag-fest.

I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore, so Lils and I rushed to the back of the classroom and took our usual seats, I took my moodily. I don't know if Sirius believed any of what they were saying, but he seemed to really enjoy all of the attention. Bloody two-timer.

You can never quite tell what he's playing at, oh well. It's best not to get my hopes up. He can deal with the Bimbos in whatever fashion he wants. The more power to him.

Well onto a lighter note. Breakfast was semi-exciting today. Lots of pancakes! Lily and I are practically pancaking geniuses! Questions, comments, personal experiences, we've got them all.

Lily decided to top her pancake off with peanut butter and cocoa mix. While I went with the chocolate syrup and strawberry approach. We consider food to be an art form, the messier and more disgusting it looks, the better tasting it usually is!

We had a visitor during breakfast this morning. Someone that I haven't seen in awhile…my dear and beloved owl, Aerwyne! It was a good change, seeing the brown and tan barn owl flying in with the rest of the students' owls. She circled around the Great Hall a few times, then landed in front of Lily and me with a thud.

Aerwyne spread out her large wings, knocking Remus' bowl of fruit loops into his lap. "Darn owl..." he muttered while taking out his wand to clean up the mess. Aerwyne held out her leg where a white envelope was tied. She clucked madly as I tried to untie the envelope, must have been a triple knot; it took forever.

I turned over the envelope. Probably from grandmum, I hadn't heard from her in awhile; it was due time for a letter.

I was surprised to find not my name on the front of the envelope, but Lily's. Lily glanced over my shoulder, "Well, that's odd." She said while giving the owl an curious look and grabbing the envelope out of my hands. It's a joyous day when Lily gets a letter. Bless her muggle parents, they just don't understand wizarding concepts, though they do try.

Lils tore the letter open, and began reading the parchment. The letter looked to be fairly short, but soon Lily read with a smile encompassing her face.

"It's from Ben!" She shouted to me in excitement. "I was wondering when he would remember to write to me!"

"Ben?" James muttered from his place at the end of the table, a bit darkly. "Who's that?"

"He's my best muggle friend!" said Lily ecstatically. James stared back at his food dejectedly, but Lily didn't seem to notice. She continued reading the letter, and when she was finished she handed it over to me.

Hey there Chili Pepper!

I really hope that this owl gets to you, I remember you educating me about owl-post this summer. But unfortunately I think that I've forgotten most of it. Don't worry you'll have plenty of time to scold me later.

Replying from your last letter, no, Sera isn't interested. And to tell you the truth Chili, I don't care for her anymore. Besides leading me on, she had the nerve to drop me for Luke. The sod was supposed to be my best friend. As you can tell, I need your hugs here. And that left foot of yours so we can kick out the anger in a good game of football.

I hope you're finding luck with the guys. But then, look at you, who wouldn't want a stand out like you?

David got accepted to Shirton University, going for the Agricultural studies dept. He's gonna be dirt poor, so don't even think about liking my brother.

Mum's great, so is dad. Pup's excellent, just had eight pups of her own — I saved one for you. She's a real small one.

It is very odd, this owl has been sitting outside of my bedroom window for the last six nights in a row, constantly squawking. Guess she was trying to get my attention, after getting a good look at her I recognized her as the same owl that I had seen in your room so many times this summer! Guess she was bored, decided that I needed to owl you a letter! Darn smart bird.

Well I haven't got a lot else to say at the moment. Just wondering how things go with you. I haven't seen a whole lot of Petty lately either, I guess that she must be really busy with that boyfriend of hers…the really fat one, uh Vern I think his name was. I Bet you're glad to be away from home; not having to see them all the time.

Well send back an owl when you can. I miss you!

Hugs,
Ben

So after getting her letter from Ben, Lily was in an extra good mood for the rest of the day. Actually, she's busy writing him a letter as we speak! Well more like as I write. I guess that both of us have abandoned our homework for the rest of the night. That's okay though. The homework can wait.

(later that day, omniscient POV)

"Each day seems to be getting colder and colder." Muttered May as she hugged her scarf closer to her body. The wind was blowing fiercely off the pond as the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff 6th years made their way back towards the castle.

"No kidding," responded Lily, who was barely visible under the abundance of coat and scarf that she had wrapped around her. "Being in the greenhouses felt more like standing in a refrigerator!"

"Standing in a what?" asked a confused Sirius from behind Lily.

Lily turned around and laughed at him. "Are you ever going to start paying attention in Muggle Studies Sirius?"

Sirius seemed to give the question some careful thought. "…well…. It's not likely…"

Lily gave him a disgusted look, while Sirius just laughed and pushed her back towards May. The two girls, followed by the rest of the marauders, walked up the castle steps and greeted the warm castle air with pleasure.

"Time for some good old hot chocolate." said May as the color began to return to her cheeks, "nothing else sounds better in the world." Lily nodded her head in agreement, and the two headed towards the great hall.

"Aren't you guys coming?" Lily asked to the four boys who had remained behind.

"Nah…" said James, "We're gunna go look some stuff up in the library." Lily raised her eyebrows at the four of them in surprise. "Well, I mean look up some potions for new pranks." James said quickly, making a recovery.

"Oh, go figure!" laughed Lily, "You wouldn't want me to wrongly assume that the four of you were being over-achievers for once, and getting a head start on your homework." She turned on her heel with a smile and followed May into the great hall.

The hall was practically deserted at this time of day. Just a few students here or there playing a game of chess, or sitting down for an afternoon snack. Lily collapsed into a seat next to May. "I'm thinking that it's about time to return my Gumming to the Forbidden Forest." She said sadly. Lily looked up at the clock on the wall. 6:03 pm.

"So we better get going... unless you want to venture into the Forbidden Forest after dark." Lily added with a tempting edge to her voice.

May looked back at Lily with surprise. "You know the Marauders will kill us if we go into the Forest alone, especially when it's almost dark. It's not exactly hard to notice how protective they are since Amos tried to take advantage of me on Halloween."

Lily's eyes continued to sparkle. "Oh come on, what's the fun in leading a life without taking a few risks here and there!"

May debated with herself for awhile. 'It would be exciting if they went to take the gumming back to the forest themselves. But what if something happened, what if Lily got hurt? She couldn't stand to let that happen. She didn't want to get her best friend into something as stupid as she had gotten herself into only a few nights ago.'

"I don't know Lily," May responded slowly. "What if we get lost, or something attacks us?"

Lily looked at her best friend. First she suspected that May was just getting cold feet at the thought of going into the Forbidden Forest alone, but then she saw a different emotion in May's eyes. Care.

Lily's brilliant green eyes softened as she studied May. Deep lines on May's forehead disrupted her clear skin, her curved lips folded into a small frown, and the dark brown bruise still outlined her right cheekbone.

Lily dropped her eyes from May's face, and guessed the real reason why May was reluctant to make this trip to the forbidden forest. Lily squeezed May's hands in her own.

"Listen May, we'll be going out there together. What's the worst that could happen when we've got each other!" May still didn't look convinced. "It's when we're apart that you should be worried! Not even the world could stand between us, and if it challenged me —I would dare it to try. Nothing in this world can hurt us, not when we're looking out for each other." The complete and solid truth.

May smiled sincerely at Lily, she believed and trusted every word that Lily had said. "All right Lils, lets go. I'm sorry, I must have sounded like a kill-joy. I just can't stand the thought of something bad happening — again."

Lily laughed, "Perhaps you should stop thinking such thoughts!" May let go of the worry that she had inside of her and laughed. Lily fetched the Gumming that had been sleeping soundly in her school bag, grabbed another mug of hot chocolate, and the two girls headed back outside.

The cold hadn't lessened any since they had been out earlier, but the sun had fallen a bit lower into the western sky. May judged that they had little more then half an hour before all the daylight would be lost. So the girls quickened their pace towards the forest. It loomed before them like a dark and heavy blanket, concealing everything inside of it, and all of the secrets it held. The forest wasn't forbidden for no reason at all.

Luckily Hagrid's hut seemed to be empty. Hopefully the gamekeeper was somewhere else on the grounds, and hopefully he'd be staying there for a good little while.

The girls made their way closer to the forest, almost sensing the foreboding hatred it represented, soon they found themselves standing on its edge. The forest wasn't quite as dark as it had seemed from a distance. Relieving the two of a weight they hadn't known was on them. May linked arms with Lily, and they took a step into the forest. Kind of like the Wizard of Oz, Lily thought, here we march — not quite a yellow brick road, but arm and arm, looking for our latent courage.

Soon trees loomed up on every side of them, taunting them with their gangling limbs and twisted faces. As mysterious as they represented themselves to be, their colorful display was breathtakingly beautiful. Autumn had turned the once green leaves into many incomparable shades of scarlet, orange, purple, yellow, and gold. Some trees even sported leaves with a hue of rich blue. The ground was littered with them, casting an elvish glow enamored with the rich glow of the setting sun.

The snap of a twig or the rustle of leaves answered every step that the girls took. They soon forgot about the ever-present dangers of the forest, and basked in the beauty of everything that surrounded them. The bitter wind rushed through the trees and sent a whirlwind of color floating down.

Lily laughed as she pulled leaves out of her curly red hair, though as soon as any came out, more leaves blew back in. May looked exactly the same, a face which is regularly framed by long dark hair, was now surrounded by a kaleidoscope of leaves.

"Here is where we shall let my faithful little friend free!" shouted Lily, twirling along with the whirlwind of leaves. Her graceful body echoing an elf.

"Perhaps he will love this as much as I do!" Lily carefully set her Gumming into the leaves, where he quickly perked up and bounded off into the bushes. Surprisingly Lily didn't feel sad about letting him go, for this was where he belonged.

There was something about this area of the forest, it made her feel vivacious. Like she was full of life; absolutely no fears, needs, or wants. Lily collapsed into the blanket of leaves that covered the forest floor and felt May fall down beside her. The two of them looked up into the canopy of colors that was drawn over their heads. Forever mesmerized.

"I know that I would be stating the obvious," said May dreamily, "but I could say that this place is truly magical, in every sense of the word!"

"I feel it too," agreed Lily, "it's like my soul is floating around with all of these leaves." The girls continued to rest in the leaves as the sun set even lower in the darkening sky.

"You know when I was a child," said May after awhile, "I remember helping my father rake all of the leaves from the trees around our home into one big pile, where I would jump into them. All of this reminds me so much of those times. I miss them."

Lily smiled over at May. "When I was a child, Petty and I would always go into our back yard, and as the leaves fell we would have a leaf dance. We'd frolic around, then play tag. Eventually when the sun set, we'd gather our neighborhood friends and play Ghost in the Graveyard or Hide and Seek. Petty and I used to be so close, before she found out that I was…different. "

The two girls remained silent for awhile. Reminiscing about old memories. "Let's make new memories!" Said May, sitting up from the leaves. "Both of our lives have changed so much, I probably won't forget this trip into the Forbidden Forest for as long as I live!"

Lily sat up from the leaves as well. "Alright, how about this for starters!" She pushed May over backwards into a bigger pile of leaves.

"Okay, that's it!" shouted May, as she spit the leaves out of her mouth and hopped up to try to catch Lily who was already bounding through the piles of leaves. The girls chased each other through the leaves, throwing them, and resorting to their usual tackling methods.

Everything in the forest was still except for the leaves, the wind, and the girls. The wind's whisper created the music, and the blowing leaves — its dance. May and Lily couldn't help but to dance along. As the leaves danced around them, they danced within them. Twirling and laughing until only an ounce of sunlight was left in the sky.

After realizing the time, the girls rushed back through the forest. Finding their way in the darkness, without even being conscious of it. They were still filled with the magic of the forest. Their feet led them, and they didn't resist.

Soon enough May and Lily found themselves back in their dorm room. No evidence was left that they had made a trip into the forest besides for a few leaves still sticking to their clothes.

"Lily," said May much later when the two girls were both lying in their beds. "Thanks for making me go out there tonight. I wouldn't give away all the fun we had for anything in the world."

"You're welcome May," responded Lily, "this is just another one of our many secrets." She smiled and closed her eyes.

Goodnight,

Mayan

Hey! Finally had time to edit this — my editing skills suck and i did this by myself so please forgive me for the errors.

This entry was written by Charmelite — I love this chapter, just cuz it's full of that lovely earthy feeling. I hope to get more up soon.

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