The next day, Lily woke up to see that there were four other girls in the other beds. Another girl was sitting up just like Lily. It was Mary Goldpipe.
"Mary!" Lily shrieked, causing two other girls to stir. Lily lowered her voice. "Morning!"
"Yeah, good morning! I was going to talk to you some more last night," Mary whispered. "But when I came in, you were already asleep."
The other three girls were sitting up by now.
"I'm Lily." Lily said, noticing the other girls were awake.
"Ma-ma-Maria," yawned a girl with long, brown hair that reached her lower back. She had beautiful brown eyes that sparkled in the sunlight that was streaming through the window beside her.
"I'm Christy," said a blue-eyed girl with dark-blonde hair. Lily could already tell, even though Christy was sitting down, that she was quite tall.
"And, I'm Lina." Lina was a brown-haired girl with matching dull brown eyes. Lily, for some reason, could tell that she would like Lina. Lina stood up on her bed and yelled, "It's a new day! Get up and shout HORRAY!" And, to everyone's amazement, Lily did. She grabbed her pillow, walked over to Lina's bed, stood up on it too, and hit Lina in the head with her pillow while she was yelling at the top of her lungs.
"HORRAY! HORRAY! IT'S A NEW DAY! HORRAY!"
Lina laughed and grabbed her pillow and started hitting Lily back. Soon, the rest of the dorm was pillow fighting and shouting.
"What, might I ask, is going on?" James asked, who was clearly watching from the doorway. He had a smile played across his lips.
Lily jumped off Mary's bed where she was last jumping, ran up to James, and threw her pillow at him. "Just having fun!" she giggled as he ducked. "Why are you up here anyway?"
"The whole common room heard screaming, so I came to investigate," he said calmly.
"Oh my gosh, they did?" Maria innocently, already knowing how loud they were being.
"Yup," laughed James. "I'd get dressed if I were you. It's the first day of term, and breakfast starts soon."
He walked over to Lily, said "good morning," and laid a kiss on her cheek, then left the room.
As soon as he left, Lily noticed the other girls gaping at her.
"What?" Lily asked, slightly laughing at the look on her room mate's faces.
"How'd you get someone so cute, funny, and fine, to like you?" asked Christy, bewildered.
Lily grinned, and Lina asked, "Are you two a couple?"
"OK, I need you all to swear to secrecy!" Lily squealed. The girls all promised they wouldn't tell anyone, and Lily then said, "We kissed on the boats over here, but I don't think we are a couple yet. He hasn't asked me."
The other girls all started talking at once. "Calm it!" ordered Lily.
"OK, lemme talk." Said Lina. "I'll ask him if he thinks you two are a couple. Maria, if he says no, I want you to bug him about asking her out. Christy, if he says yes, he thinks they are, come back and tell Lily immediately. Who ever doesn't have something to do, you'll be the messenger from Lily to James. Make sure this doesn't get around the school yet. It has to be official first." She walked over to her trunk, kicked it open, and started changing. "OK, everyone?"
"Good plan," they all said together.
As soon as they were all dressed, groomed, and clean, they walked down to the Great Hall together.
"Lily! OY, LILY! Over here!" Remus shouted from the Gryffindor table. Lily led her other friends to where the boys were, and Lina quickly slipped into a seat next to James, and Lily sat on his other side.
James just stared at Lina. "Er, sorry, but, who are you?"
Lina chuckled. "I'm Lina Bennett. I'm a first year in Gryffindor. And, this is Mary, Maria, and Christy." She said, pointing to each person as she spoke. "They are all in Gryffindor too."
"Oh yea! I remember you guys! You were the ones in your P.J.s having a pillow fight in your dorm room!" said James. "Nice to meet you." He added.
They all started stacking their plates with food, and Professor McGonagall started handing out class schedules.
"Oh good! Transfiguration first! Then Herbology, then break!" Maria squealed.
"Oh no!" James groaned. "Then potions. I hate working with them. Everyone tells me it's the worst subject ever."
As everyone immersed into conversation, Lina leaned over and whispered into James' ear. "Do you consider you and Lily a couple?"
"No, not really," James said out loud.
"Just wondering." Lina said, not whispering anymore. "Maria, remember this morning? The conversation we all had?"
Maria nodded.
"The answer works with you. Christy, messenger! Remember what to do?" Lina asked.
"Yea, but make it secret, please." Lily asked.
"OK, what are you guys talking about, and, James, what did Lina ask you?" asked Peter, who was clearly confused.
"Nothing." The girls all said together.
"None of ya business!" Christy grinned.
"Oh no! We're all going to be late for Transfiguration if we don't hurry and leave!" Remus half-screamed. They all grabbed their bags and rushed to their first class. Luckily, they still had three minutes before class started. They all sat near each other, but James was stuck between two girls: Lily and Maria.
Professor McGonagall walked in shortly after, and said, "Welcome, class, to Transfiguration. This term, you will be learning how to transfigure small things." She droned on about what they would be changing, also making them take notes on it as she spoke. Maria wrote something on her parchment and handed it to James. He read it, blushed, and Lily read that he had wrote "Maybe." He passed it back before Lily could read the rest.
Professor McGonagall changed her solid-wood desk into a mouse, then back into the desk again. Everyone applauded her, and Lily heard Maria say, "Do it! Do it!" to James.
James just blushed a deeper color, and whispered the same thing he had written: "Maybe."
Soon, the bell rang that told them to go their next class. In their case, it was Herbology.
"Oh no!" Remus said. "We have Herbology with the Slytherins!"
"The hat considered putting me in Slytherin." Said Lily. As soon as she said it, she knew she shouldn't have.
"IT DID WHAT?" James yelled, suddenly stopping in his tracks.
"Oh my- why didn't you tell us?" asked Christy.
"I just did!" said Lily.
"Oh yeah. I knew that." Christy acted like such a dumb blonde sometimes.
"It's okay," said Lina, who was walking again. "It did the same with me. It said: 'you have the makings to become the most powerful sorceress in the world. Wouldn't you like that?' And he got sort of mad because I told him I'd rather be good."
"The sorting hat didn't get mad, but he said something similar." Lily replied.
They had reached Greenhouse One by now, and their Herbology teacher, Professor Sprout, told them to line up beside a long, deep, dish-looking thing that's had a lot of dirt in it.
"Today," said the Professor. "We shall be potting Flobberworms. They would normally fall underneath the category of "Care of Magical Creatures", but, Headmaster Dumbledore wishes for me to teach them here. You shall constantly be feeding you plant, but, do not over feed it."
The Professor drawled on in her sweet but annoying voice, and Lily, once again, heard Maria whispering "Do it. Do it!" to James.
"Shut up!" James said, who was clearly annoyed with Maria.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Mr…?" asked the Professor.
"Potter," James finished, glaring at Maria. "There isn't anything, Professor."
"Well, it's not my fault you chose to respond!" Maria whispered.
After Herbology, Maria could tell James wasn't in the mood to be bugged again, so she left him alone.
"James, I'm sorry for getting you in trouble," said Maria apologetically.
"It's… it's okay. At least we didn't get any house points taken away. By the way; it doesn't bug me. I'm going to be getting in a lot more trouble this year, you wait!" said James.
Lily was walking ahead of them, and James ran up to her.
"Lily, can you meet me in the common room at midnight tonight?" James asked her. Then, looking at the expression on her face he added, "Please?"
"Well, all right." Lily said, but a little doubtfully.
He smiled, grasping her hand for a quick second. "Good. See you there."
He left, and his gang followed closely behind.