The blood was surging to her head from the unbearable heat. The sun was glaring into her eyes and no matter how much she squinted, it was completely inescapable. She supposed that this was better than being in the Great Hall, where her class has just completed the OWLs. She walked over to the glistening lake, where some of her friends had already plopped down.

Two girls sat by the lake, on a forest green cotton blanket that almost disappeared in the rich summer grass. One girl faced the lake; her rich blue eyes squinted against the afternoon sun. A heavy book of some sort was held loosely in her lap, although it seemed that she had no intention of looking down at it. She had long flowing dark brown, almost black, hair that fell well below her shoulders. It was mostly straight but near the ends, they naturally formed into ringlets. She twisted her finger around one of those ringlets as she finally turned away from the sun to look at her friend approaching them.

"Lily. Finally," she said, looking at the tall girl, with voluminous auburn hair and cat-like green eyes that sat down on the edge of the blanket. The dark-haired girl turned back the lake. "Couldn't tear yourself away from the exams, could you?" she said to the open air.

Lily sighed. "That's right, Madison," she answered, almost patronizingly, "You know how I am."

Madison, the dark-haired girl, did not turn around but continued to stare at the hypnotic waves of the lake. The second girl that was sitting at the blanket looked up from the periodical that she had been intently reading. She smiled kindly at Lily.

"Lil, you have to stop worrying about the exams. I can tell you are, so relax!"

Lily gave a tight smile and nodded, almost imperceptibly.

"Of course, Blair."

Blair and Madison were twins, but there was a world of differences between the two sisters. The most apparent one was their physical appearance. Blair had wispy blond, almost white, hair. Her crystal blue eyes gave her an ethereal appearance.

Blair and Madison came from a quite affluent family. The Carltons were no joke. They had power in both the Muggle and Wizarding communities since they held government positions and they had money and great connections. However, unlike most fortunate children, Blair and Madison were innocently unaware of their true power – although Madison seemed somewhat more conscious of it than Blair.

Blair stood up from the blanket. "Here, take my place, I'm going to go to the common room for a moment. I think I left my bag in there. I'll just cry if it's lost."

Lily nodded. She would've cried too if she had lost a Prada bag. She sat down in Blair's spot, and as she did, Madison turned to her.

"James was talking about you earlier," she said slowly, not looking Lily in the eye.

Lily picked up the periodical that Blair had left behind. "Hmm, '56 ways to get his attention,'" she read off of the cover.

Madison narrowed her eyes, "I'm trying to talk to you. It's important. James is my boyfriend and he keeps bringing up your name."

Lily flinched inwardly at the way she and emphasized "my boyfriend" and "your name." She pretended to have taken great interest in a makeover article in the magazine, and didn't look up. "Madison, that is, in no way, my problem. I don't like James."

Madison continued to glare at her. "I never said anything about you liking him. I just said he mentioned your name."

Lily shrugged and after a slight pause, she asked, "And pray tell, what was he saying?"

"It doesn't matter," snapped Madison, looking incredible annoyed. "Just stay away from him."

Lily let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't seek him out. We're on the Quidditch team together. We're both the Heads of Gryffindor. We're in all the same classes. He's virtually unavoidable."

Madison was not buying it. She pressed on, "And he's always looking at you. He's looking and he's talking. I don't like it."

"I don't know what to tell you," Lily said, in a manner that can only be best described as annoyed. However, in Lily's eyes, she felt that she had every right to be more than annoyed. She reassured Madison over and over again that nothing was going on between she and James – and that nothing possibly could – but Madison simply refused to believe it. Lily missed the days that she and Madison were best friends – something that was wearing away since Madison started going out with James.

Girls always went haywire before, after, and during a relationship with James Potter. They could not completely accounted for their foolish actions since it did appear to be a mass pandemic. James was a tall Quidditch player with magnetic blue eyes and a shock of deep brown, messy hair. And he wasn't exactly poor. This all seemed reason enough for most girls to throw themselves in his whirling path of destruction, but not Lily. Of course, Madison, under the spell of James could not believe her – Lily was trying to break them up and she just couldn't allow it - she and James were meant for each other and they were going to be together forever – after all, they had been going out for an entire week.

Madison stood up suddenly, as though she could not bear Lily's presence for one more second.

"I have to go…look for Blair's bag. It was Prada," she said lamely, "very expensive."

Lily nodded, flinching inwardly. James's whirling path of destruction was having quite an impact. One week into the relationship and already, Madison hated her. She wanted to fix it and say something that would make it all go away, but for now, she was just glad Madison made up an excuse to leave. She watched as her friend walked away and finally disappeared into the halls of the castle. She breathed a sigh – this time of relief.

However, her peaceful state did not last long. She had not been sitting there for five minutes before she was interrupted, by no other than James Potter.

"God, James, what do you want?" she said irritably.

James hesitated for a moment. Instead of responding with the usual "you" which always seemed to call for a violent response on the part of Lily, he decided respond in a manner that wouldn't completely offend Lily – it was difficult abstaining; she just made it so easy.

"Yeah. Where's Madison?"

Lily squinted up at him. He was towering over her, just because she was sitting down. The sun was directly behind his head which gave a halo-like light around his head. She bit her lip to refrain from laughing at the ridiculousness.

"She went inside. Probably to the Gryffindor tower," she paused before adding, "At least that's what she told me."

James ran his hand through his hair, pausing with a tuft in his hand and looking after the path that Madison just took to the castle. He seemed distracted.

"Uh. Later then."

Lily could not help but stare after him. He was actually not paying attention her – something that had seemed impossible only a week ago. Maybe Madison didn't have much to worry about after all.