Lily was horrified to find out that her and James' antics yesterday was the main source of conversation at the Gryffindor table the next morning and Lily had dealt with this by resting her head on the table until Professor McGonagall came around to hand out timetables.
"Now, Miss Evans, I believe you will be continuing with Potions, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Herbology and Arithmancy?" she asked, peering at long piece of parchment that just almost touched the floor. "I see you are doing quite well."
"Yes, Professor," Lily agreed.
"Very well," Professor McGonagall said and she conjured up Lily's timetable handing it to her. "And Miss Evans, you will do well to remember that as Head Girl you can not go around punching the Head Boy." Lily felt the blood rush to her cheeks and bowed her head slightly.
"Yes, Professor," Lily nodded. "Sorry."
"None the matter. And Evans," she said before moving onto Marlene, "Congratulations. You deserve it."
Lily beamed and said, "Thank you, Professor!"
Professor McGonagall nodded curtly before talking to Marlene about her subjects and Lily read her timetable and was disappointed that she had Herbology first. She'd been hoping for Potions. Potions had always been her favourite. Something about it felt so orderly, like cooking. There was a recipe and if you followed it correctly you ended with an awesome potion. Her mood further diminished when she realised she would never have Potions on Fridays. Today would consist of double Herbology in the morning followed with Charms and then a free period and lunch followed by another free period and then Arithmancy. At least she had Charms. Lily had always been good at Charms.
"Do you think the work is going to be much harder?" Marlene asked twirling a piece of her stringy, blonde hair around her finger nervously. Lily tucked away her timetable.
"Relax, you'll be fine," Lily assured her friend. Marlene had a knack for worrying a bit too much on school. Lily thought school was important but she didn't think that all there was to life. Besides Lily only stressed over it when it was important, like exams or which subjects could give her the career she wanted. "At least you know you want to become a healer when you leave school. I've no idea what I want to do."
Marlene rolled her eyes as she swallowed the toast she'd been chewing on. "Oh please, go work at St Mungo's as a potioneer. You'd be making all sorts of potions and maybe you'd be able to even create your own potions!"
"I know I'd be good at that, but I just don't know how I'd feel about standing over a cauldron my whole life besides I've always wanted to do something to do with the ministry."
"You're thinking way too much into it," Marlene said and Lily frowned, finding it ironic that the girl who had changed her mind only a billion times was telling Lily that she was thinking too much into it. Besides, a career was an important decision to make. You could be doing it for the rest of your life.
Ella sat opposite Marlene and Lily in a fluster. "Did you hear?"
"Hear what?" Lily asked disinterested as she studied her timetable. She only had one class with the Slytherins, Potions. Severus would be in her class indefinitely.
"The Marauders they've blown up every toilet in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom! She's been moping around all morning and crying saying that students have personally attacked her."
"Who said it was the Marauders?" Marlene asked as Alice sat down.
Alice grabbed a piece of toast and said, "Leonora Stretton has been spreading the rumour since seven in the morning. Apparently she heard explosions coming out of the bathroom and then saw the Marauders I quote 'fleeing the scene' unquote."
"Really?" Ella said, "I heard it from Polly Piggens and Hannah Abott. They've been talking about it all morning."
"I swear that would be just like Potter," Lily almost growled getting annoyed immediately.
He was supposed to be setting an example, not blowing up toilets. Why Dumbledore even thought Potter was a good choice for Head Boy was beyond Lily. He was as arrogant as ever thinking nothing had consequences, but she'd show him. Game on, all right.
—
James Potter was sitting on his bed trying to muster up the energy to actually get up. Remus, Peter and Alex Brown (the quiet member of their dormitory that was obsessed with reading textbooks, James had been told that was called studying) had all gotten up at seven and it was now seven thirty and James was still sitting on his bed. Sirius was still sleeping, snoring loudly too, it was bothering James. Why couldn't he sleep quietly?
Another five minutes passed before he actually got up. He threw a pillow at Sirius in the process and Sirius grunted, "What?"
"Get up, it's seven forty and if you want to brush your lovely mane of hair I suggest you move your butt, Padfoot."
James had a quick shower and changed into his school robes. He didn't bother brushing his hair, it'd still stick up at the back and McGonagall would probably still tell him off for not combing his hair. When James got out of the bathroom Sirius went in.
James sat back down on his bed and considered when he could hold Quidditch trials. They'd have to be held sometime within a week, he would have a lot of new players to train so he wanted to get as many training sessions in as possible before their game against Slytherin in November. Three players had left and James now needed two new beaters and a keeper. Trials would be a drag but the quicker he got them over with the quicker he could start whipping everyone into shape.
James laughed to himself as he heard Sirius singing along with the wireless that James had left in the bathroom. Remus came back into their dormitory looking fresh and cheerful. He held three pieces of parchment.
"I see you're awake," he said happily. "I somehow managed to get Professor McGonagall to give me yours and Sirius' schedules." Remus handed James his schedule and groaned when he saw that they had Potions first. That meant yucky smells going up their noses and possible explosions of gooey muck. Potter did not forget the dreadful experience last year where their concoction had melted through Lily Evans' cauldron and burned a sizeable hole in the wooden table before Professor Slughorn vanished the thick, green goo.
"Thanks, Moony," James yawned. "Where's Peter?"
"Well he's with Professor McGonagall," Remus said and James arched his eyebrow. "He's, we are all, apparently in trouble."
"Why?" James said.
"You and Sirius didn't happen to sneak out at night and blow up all the toilets in the second floor girl's bathroom?"
"Someone blew up Moaning Myrtle's bathroom? That's genius! Why the hell didn't Padfoot and I think of that?"
"Prongs, focus! We're all being blamed for it!"
"Yeah but – wait what? We're being blamed for it, why?"
"Because who else would blow up a toilet in this school? Ninety nine point nine percent of the pranks at this school is our doing."
James yawned again. "It's too early for this and Elora Prinstone in there is giving me a headache," James said pointing towards their bathroom where the noises of a dying seal could be heard coming from. Sirius had tried to hit a high note and even Remus winced.
"Bloody hell, Padfoot!" James shouted, "Shut it! You sound like a bloody banshee!"
James Potter's head hurt indeed. It began to hurt even more when suddenly his hair started to itch. He scratched his head and scowled when he noticed his hair falling out in large chunks. He looked around for the perpetrator, ready to give them a good telling off when a hand curled around his arm and he was pulled behind a tapestry, face to face with Lily bloody Evans. Fan-bloody-tastic. Just what he needed.
"What do you think you're doing, Potter?" she demanded to know and James quite not in the mood for Lily replied curtly.
"Going to class, it's Herbology now isn't it?" he asked her. "Oh, and you didn't happen to see anyone hex me did you? My hair seems to be falling out."
"Tragic," Lily said indifferently, "And, no," Lily snapped.
"It's not Herbology?" James asked and he started digging around his bag for his timetable, "I could've sworn Sirius said Herbology."
"No, you idiot, I mean what are you doing, as in why are you a complete moron?" — "Thanks for clarifying," James said dryly — "You are Head Boy now! Weren't you listening on the train when I said we set the standards? That means you can't go around blowing up toilets!"
"I think you have high blood pressure," James decided, "You should go to Madam Pomfrey."
"Potter, I'm not in the mood!"
"Well neither am I and I didn't blow up any damn toilets!" he hissed at her before stalking out of the hidden corridor. Great, now he was going to be late for Herbology and Professor Postumus had promised James a house point for every lesson he arrived on time. Now he was also cranky. Not only had he missed out on a point for Gryffindor but he was now being dragged into corridors by Lily Evans and being accused of blowing up Moaning Myrtle's toilets.
Lily stalked out after him and called out, "Oh, and Potter!" He stopped and Lily continued, "The games is so on." He turned around slowly.
"You didn't," he said, running a hand through his hair and an unnatural amount of locks fell out.
Lily smirked, "Oh, I so did. You may want to find a counter curse before all your pretty hair falls out." James' jaw set and he could've sworn his eye twitched out of anger. "See you in Herbology," she said cheerily as she all but skipped passed him. Damn her. Did she really have to hex him on the one morning when he just was not bothered? And because he wasn't bothered, he summoned a black beanie from his dormitory and shoved it over his head to hide the fact he was steadily going bald and labelled it as a problem to deal with at lunch before heading to Herbology where he stared daggers at Evans the entire period.
—
Adaline had been giving Alice a bit of a cold shoulder all day. She couldn't really say that she was surprised that Alice would prefer to move in with her boyfriend over Adaline (her best friend since first year) but it still hurt a little and that was what Adaline was thinking about in Charms when Professor Flitwick decided to call on her.
"Miss Bennett, can you please explain the reason why non-verbal spells, if not done correctly, are less powerful than verbal spells?"
But Adaline hadn't been paying attention and sat gobsmacked in front of the whole class. Alice slid a piece of parchment over with the answer and Adaline read it out, Flitwick copying the answer onto the black board. Adaline slid the parchment back without a thank you and then glared at the board again. Alice tusked.
"You have to talk to me some time," she snapped quietly. Adaline said nothing. "Bloody hell, you can't be that shocked. Frank and I have been together for two years and we're going to be aurors together. It makes sense! All that stuff we said back then, it's just stuff you say because you can! Like when your mum says she'll get you a horse one day, you know it's not actually going to happen."
"I got a horse for my seventh birthday."
Alice snorted, "You have gotten everything you've ever wanted from your parents and brothers but life isn't like that, Della."
"Am I interrupting something, ladies?" Professor Flitwick asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Er, no sir," Alice replied quickly, "Sorry."
"Well, at least you're sorry about something," Adaline muttered.
Alice squinted her eyes and was about to say something but Lily coughed and gave them both a pointed look. Alice folded her arms, falling back into her seat and Adaline focused on writing notes and they ignored each other for the rest of the lesson.
As soon as the bell rung, Adaline packed her things quickly and left immediately. Lily caught up to her in the crowded corridors, a little breathless.
"You have a free period now don't you?"
"Yeah."
"Want to sit outside and do the Herbology essay?"
Adaline agreed and they turned into a corridor that would lead them to the Entrance Hall.
"You know," Lily started.
"Oh, please don't start with the lecture about Alice. I know I'm being unreasonable."
"And yet…"
Adaline sighed. "Is it stupid to be jealous?"
"No. I get jealous of Frank and Alice all the time. You know I've hardly ever seen them fight?"
"And the way Frank would always kiss her forehead when they hugged."
"So annoying," Lily agreed. "But you know, Ella and Marlene will probably move in together after Hogwarts so we could move in together after Hogwarts, if you wanted that is."
"And granted neither of us has a boyfriend," Adaline pointed out and Lily giggled.
"Please, who would I get together with?"
"James" "Don't finish that-" "Potter."
"I hate you! He left me glued to a train, Della!"
"You punched him in the nose."
"It's not going to happen. Ever."
Adaline shook her head but didn't say anything because in her opinion no one would be more perfect for each other than James Potter and Lily Evans but Lily always turned a blind eye when it came to Potter. No matter how many times that Adaline had tried to convince her to give him a chance.
"So, Herbology should be pretty easy, right?"
"Should be?"
"Because I'm thinking, it's pretty warm out and we could ditch the essay and dip our feet in the lake instead."
Lily grinned.
—
Ella smirked when she came across a pile of make-up on the vanity in the bathroom. With one swift move she'd knocked it all into the bin where it was promptly vanished immediately.
"What did you just put in the bin?" Alice asked suspiciously as she came into the bathroom.
"I didn't put anything in the bin."
"Ella … where's my make-up?"
Ella shrugged and waltzed out of the bathroom, laying down on her bed as Alice searched for her make-up.
"You threw it out, didn't you?" Marlene asked appalled.
Ella shrugged again. "Anything to piss mum off, right?"
Marlene lay down next to Ella. "Alice is going to be so pissed. It's only second day back, Ella."
"I know."
Marlene sighed. "Alice, shut-up about your make-up! I don't think Ella's touched it! I was in the bathroom before her and there wasn't any make-up on the vanity. Maybe, you packed it away."
"I saw her put something in the bin!" Alice insisted. "It was my make-up, I just know it! She always does this and you always try to cover up for her. I am so sick of buying new make-up," she grumbled, before storming out of the dormitory, the door slamming behind her.
"Now look what you did."
Ella just shrugged again. She never asked Marlene to cover for her. In fact, Ella wanted Alice to know it was her who threw out her make-up. That was the whole point. So Mrs Vance would annoy Ella's mum about it. Maybe if they became tight enough on money, her mum would finally leave her sorry excuse of a husband. Ella almost laughed at the thought. Mrs Dearborn would never leave Mr Dearborn. Ella and her brother had been trying for months but Mrs Dearborn was set in her ways and she'd "said her vows". Mrs Dearborn wouldn't leave Mr Dearborn no matter how much money he lost gambling or how much he drunk or how unhappy the family home had become.
"Is it really so bad at home?" Marlene asked quietly.
"Yeah," Ella whispered, "It is. Doc moved out. Got an apartment in the city. I wanted to go with him but mum wouldn't let. Said I have to wait until I finish school."
"That's not so bad."
But that wasn't quite true but Ella didn't have the heart to get into it just then so instead she said, "As long as I don't have to go back for Christmas."
—
By the end of the day Lily already had mounds of homework, including the Herbology essay, so after Arithmancy she retired to the library to get a head start on it. It had taken her a while to concentrate, her materials spread out across a table in the far corner. She'd successfully hexed James, and she highly doubted he'd had time to find the counter curse unless he went straight to Madam Pomfrey, which judging by the fact that he wore a beanie in September, he didn't. Lily felt a sweet sort of satisfaction at having the upper hand in the 'game' they seemed to be having. Though that did mean that she'd have to be on the look out for his retaliation and knowing that Potter also did not have class now did not help. Hopefully, he was too preoccupied trying to fix his hair. Yes, Lily thought, he wouldn't get Lily back until he'd fixed his hair.
James had denied blowing up the toilets and Lily couldn't help but wonder who it could've been. Perhaps a silly third or second year? She'd been so sure it was the Marauders. The prank basically screamed them so Lily decided that James must've been lying to her and it fell logically in her mind. Why would James Potter admit to the Head Girl that him and his friends had blown up toilets on the second floor?
After an hour or so of working tirelessly on her Herbology essay she felt something hit her head lightly. She looked up and saw a floating teapot of all things. The teapot was small and would easily fit into the palm of her hand. It was made with white porcelain and Lily suspected that someone had nicked it from the Divination classroom. She plucked it out of the air and set it on the desk in front of her. The levitation charm it possessed immediately stopped working as soon as she had touched it. Odd.
Lily continued on with her essay for Herbology but found herself stealing glances at the little teapot. It was peculiar, it had a blue tinge to it and Lily thought the spout could almost pass as the nose of a small mouse.
When the bell rang for lunch, the library filled with other students and Lily huffed at the whispers and little noises the other students made. Lily was putting away a book titled Poisonous Beans by Taylor Burt when she saw Potter. He was staring at a quill with so much focus he hadn't even heard Lily walk into his aisle. Without muttering a single word, James tapped the quill with his wand and it transformed into a small yellow canary.
Lily smiled slyly, impressed, as the canary fluttered around the aisle. James followed the bird and a look of surprise came over his face when he saw Lily with the huge book in her arms. Potter hissed, "What?" at her and she replied, "Nothing," coolly, before placing the book back in its correct spot and then walked away, smirking slightly at the fact that he was still wearing a beanie.
Lily packed her things, including the teapot and then headed to the common room. She was halfway to the Gryffindor Tower when she realised she should probably return Professor Vates' teapot. She turned and detoured to the North Tower, climbing all the way to the top and up the trap door where she found Professor Vates sitting at his desk. All the windows were open, blowing thing white curtain about breezily and Lily enjoyed how airy the room was.
"Miss Evans, how can I help you?" he said surprised. Lily had never taken Divination.
"Hello, sir," she greeted, "I think I found one of your teapots in the library. I've just come to return it." Lily dug around in her bag for a moment before pulling out the blue teapot.
Professor Vates peered at the teapot, "I'm afraid you've made the trip for nothing. I don't have any missing teapots. But thank you, Miss Evans."
"Are you sure?"
"Positively," he assured her and Lily frowned. She stuck the teapot back into her bag before leaving the classroom and heading back to the common room. But curiosity got the better of her and she pulled the teapot back out of her bag once again, and inspected it as she walked.
She pulled her wand out, tapped the teapot with it and said, "Specialis revelio!" Nothing happened.
"Lily!" someone shouted and before Lily even turned around she recognised the voice of her best friend Marlene. Lily shoved the teapot back into her bag. "Where have you been?" Marlene caught up to Lily and looped her arm around Lily's.
"I went to the library. Finished the essay for Professor Postumus."
Marlene rolled her eyes, "So much for meeting us in the common room! We've been looking all over for you!"
"I was just coming. Why? What's wrong?" Lily asked curiously.
"Well Alice is a bit angry," Marlene said. Alice Vance was a petite girl with shoulder length brown hair and she was a little dramatic at times. Alice shared the same dormitory as Marlene, Ella, Lily and then of course there was Adaline Bennett who was a bit more boy-like than the rest of them. Adaline had a sturdy build and Lily suspected it was because Adaline had been playing Quidditch ever since she was old enough to understand the rules.
"What's happened? Ella hasn't caused trouble has she?"
"How did you know?" Marlene asked, a sparkle in her blue eyes and Lily rolled her own. Alice the most girly person Lily knew and Ella who saw material things as unnecessary. Of curse they'd always fight. It had been that way since day one.
"What happened?" Lily repeated.
"Well Ella was cleaning stuff off the vanity and threw away all of Alice's make-up and now Alice will have to buy new ones and she's insisting that Ella pay for the replacements and she obviously refuses saying that Alice shouldn't have left her stuff in the bathroom."
"Oh for heavens sake," Lily muttered. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Why can't they act mature for once? Now they're going to be avoiding each other for the rest of the night and it's only our second night back!"
"Good luck," Marlene said. "They've been trying to find you so you can break the tie on who should sleep in the common room."
"No one's sleeping in the common room! Galloping gargoyles!" Lily said crossly. "It's only make-up."
"Yeah but last year Ella threw out Alice's Elora Prinstine posters and her favourite scarf – you remember the dark green thing she had, it was actually quite ugly – but yeah," Marlene shrugged.
They walked back up to the common room where they gave the password to the Fat Lady ("Mimwimble") and at once Alice and Ella both tried to plead their case to Lily.
"That's enough! All of you! Ella stop being so insensitive and Alice stop taking everything so seriously-"
"I'm not sleeping in the same room as her!" Alice shouted interrupting Lily. "Not until she stops throwing away my things!"
"Merlin, Alice, you'd think Ella cursed your family! No one is sleeping in the common room and that's final. Grow up. The lot of you!"
Lily stopped any further comments on the matter with a steely glare before settling down in an armchair by the window and taking out the Transfiguration homework and attempted to turn a quill into a canary without speaking and grew increasingly frustrated when she could not produce a fully functioning live canary. Potter could do it, a voice in the back of her mind teased and she told that voice to shut up.
—
At eight o'clock, Lily and James were summoned to Professor Dumbledore's office. The walk there was silent and their footsteps seemed to echo on the stone floor. When they reached the gargoyle that protected the entrance to Professor Dumbledore's office, Lily murmured the password ("Sherbet lemon") and the gargoyle moved around in a slow spin and rose up high leaving a spiral staircase to walk up. James knocked on the wooden door and Professor Dumbledore told them to come in.
Professor Dumbledore's office was quite magnificent. It was perched in a circular tower and was filled with extraordinary things. Lily didn't know what to observe first, the large, orange and red phoenix or the golden globe of the Earth, it had red dots all over it and Lily would bet her hat that the dots signified a wizard community. Lily's eyes gazed around the office and she spotted the Sorting Hat sitting on top of a very high shelf. Lily looked up at the ceiling and smiled in delight when she saw that the ceiling looked like the night sky, but not their night sky. Green and pink glowed over them, seemingly rippling through the sky and Lily recognised them as the Northern Lights. Lily stared in amazement this being the closest thing she'd ever encountered of the Northern Lights apart from pictures.
Professor Dumbledore came out from behind a shelf filled with large, heavy books. Most of the spines featured ancient runes or truly gruesome names. Lily continued to look around and noticed all the portraits of the previous headmasters and headmistresses. They were sleeping but Lily thought she saw one open an eye.
"Ah, Lily! James!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "I assume the position of Head Boy came as a shock to you, James?"
James was a bit flustered and replied lamely, "Yeah, yeah. I guess it was."
"Before I run through your duties are there any concerns you wish to voice?"
Lily held her tongue because she felt like saying, "Well, Potter as Head Boy for one." But she didn't think Dumbledore would approve and it wasn't like Dumbledore was going to change his mind about James being Head Boy just because Lily didn't think it was the right choice. She held her tongue.
"None? Very well," Dumbledore said, "As you know as Head Boy and Girl you are to instruct the other prefects-"
"What if they rebel against us?" James asked and Lily felt like face-palming.
"In that case James, you can enlist the help of Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said. "Moving on, you two will be helping the teachers decorate for Halloween, Christmas and Easter. I believe you have to report to Professor McGonagall and she'll decide who needs the most help this year, it's usually Hagrid or Professor Flitwick though. The Christmas trees can be quite tiresome to decorate, even with magic. I believe that you two will carry out your tasks responsibly and I urge you to remember that you are the student leaders and you must act so. As you know, the Heads Office is opposite the Prefect's Bathroom. It is only to be used for Head work and as such will be available to all Prefects, however, you do get to set the password, which must be changed monthly. You must schedule the patrols, ensure any detention or points taken slips are filled out correctly, both of you must sign these slips or else it immediately becomes void. It is up to your discretion whether or not you agree with the reasons but I must insist on fairness and equality." Dumbledore glanced at them sternly.
Lily wondered how Dumbledore could make the position of Head Boy and Girl sound like the lives of the other students were in their hands.
Dumbledore mentioned a few more things and then bade them goodnight. Lily and James walked back down the stairs and started off for their common room.
"So what did you think?" James asked and Lily crossed her arms, not interested in talking to him.
"I think we should swap off on the schedules. So I'll do one week and then you do the next."
James agreed and they didn't speak for the rest of the walk until James muttered the password at the portrait of the Fat Lady. Lily jogged up the steps to her dormitory and fell onto her bed happily.
"How was the meeting then?" Marlene asked, flopping down next to Lily.
Lily shrugged, "Standard. Boring."
"Alice and Ella aren't-"
"Ahhhhhrgh!" Lily shouted as hot water spilled down her back. She jumped up shrugging her robes off, hissing at the sting of the hot water.
"Son of a banshee!" Marlene shouted. "Are you okay?"
Lily looked over her bed for the source of the hot water and saw the blue teapot hovering in the air. Lily snatched it out of the air and inspected it closely and then, "What's that?" Marlene asked pointing to the spout. Lily turned the teapot and read, the game is so on. Buck up, Evans. Lily vanished the teapot with her wand and gritted her teeth. James bloody Potter. Of course. Only he'd be creative enough to think of a damn tea pot.
"Don't worry about it," Lily told Marlene. "I'm going to go for a shower." It was a good time to think about how she'd get back at Potter. Perhaps she'd hit him with a bat-bogey hex but it just didn't seem punishment enough. She wanted it to be something that bothered him over an extended period of time — something where he couldn't be sure if he'd been hexed or whether he was slowly loosing his mind. Yes, Lily thought, the shower was the best time for thinking because that would take a while. How was Lily supposed to out smart a professional prankster?
—
Adaline wrung her robes whilst she waited. The castle was beautiful at this time of night, the windows lit up, silhouetted against the stars of the night. Adaline had been no stranger to pretty things in her life, whilst she wasn't too fussed with material things, she had always had the best of everything — gold jewellery, dragon hide boots and gloves, moleskin scarves, the best broom — it had been a side effect of being the youngest of three brothers. The watch on her wrist was proof of how much they loved to spoil her — it was gold plated with a faceted ruby face and sapphire clock hands.
She wondered what her brothers were doing now. They were all grown up now, the youngest brother being ten years older than Adaline and the oldest brother being fifteen years older than her. Adaline missed her two eldest brothers, Elijah and Ezra. They'd moved to New York pretty much straight away after Ezra had finished Hogwarts and they'd lived there ever since. She'd seen them a handful of times over the years, the odd Christmas or holiday over the summers, when Elijah got married, when Ezra got married, when Ezra and his wife Cheryl had a little baby boy, Alexi. Emmett was the only brother who refused to settle down, instead he travelled around, never staying in the same spot for longer than six months. Adaline loved his letters, he had such adventures — learning to fly dragons in Romania, travelling for three days to get to Atlantis, studying ancient Aztec magic in Peru and so much more.
Adaline checked said watched and noted that he was ten minutes late. She chewed her lip whilst hoping she hadn't been stood up. She forced herself not to jump to rash conclusions as it had only been ten minutes — maybe he was finishing up some last minute homework or maybe he was in the library and needed to drop his things in his dormitory.
She'd been surprised when two weeks into the school year, he asked her out. Adaline had always been pretty enough to be asked out occasionally but over the years she'd been known to get a reputation for being a little … prudish, which was just false. If Adaline had to pick a word to describe herself, she'd chose picky. But more to the point, she'd gotten that reputation so the dates usually rolled in in the second half of the year when the boys were getting a little desperate. Adaline didn't mind so much. She'd always believed when it came to love, it would happen without you even realising.
"Adaline! Sorry, I'm a little late," Thomas Plunkett walked towards her breathlessly. Adaline turned around, a smile on her face.
"You better have a good excuse, Tommy," Adaline joked.
Tommy smiled at her charmingly and Adaline saw the appeal in him. He was dreamy with dark blue eyes and wavy straw coloured hair, dimples in his cheeks and he looked strong and sturdy. He wasn't a boy. "I was trying to convince the house elves to give me a bottle of wine."
"Good excuse then," Adaline smiled, "Not that I mind, it's such a nice night."
"It is," he agreed, "Come on, I want to show you something."
He grabbed her hand and led her towards the boat house and Adaline thought she knew what he was up to but there was no way to be sure.
"Where are you taking me?" Adaline laughed as they rushed through the night, the breeze hitting their faces and cooling them down.
"Come on," he urged and they reached the door to the boat house. He tapped it with his wand quickly, the door springing open and they rushed in quickly.
"We aren't supposed to be in here," Adaline whispered.
He mimicked her and then said, "Get in the boat, Del."
Adaline chewed her lip torn between wanting to but, "What if a teacher sees us through the window?"
"So? Curfew hasn't passed yet."
"We're not supposed to use the boats."
"Live a little, Del. Get in the boat." He held his hand out towards her, beckoning for her to step into the bobbing boat.
Adaline considered and then relented. She used his hand for support as she stepped into the wooden boat and sat down on the bench. He followed in after her and sat opposite her, setting the wine on the floor. He tapped the boat with his wand and it lurched forwards, heading out to the lake.
"Do you do this with all the girls?" Adaline teased. Thomas hesitated and Adaline laughed, "You do!"
"We can go back if you want."
"No," Adaline said, "Let's stay. I haven't been on the lake since first year. It's nice." And it was. The castle loomed on top of them and then it was the pretty night sky and Adaline loved the night sky. Adaline pointed at an orange star in the sky, "That's Mars … and that's Saturn," she pointed out a bright dot in the sky on the opposite side to Mars and Thomas followed her line of vision.
"How do you tell if it's a planet or a star?"
"Stars blink, planets don't. See? There's Jupiter! Oh! And there's the Plough and then Polaris and …. There's Cassiopea."
"I take it you were good at Astronomy then?"
Adaline smiled, "I've always liked the night sky. When I was nine my brothers pitched in all together and got me a top of the range telescope — it's my favourite thing in the whole world. Since then, I've been hooked. Did you have a hobby growing up?"
"Sailing. I love the ocean. Here, the lakes the closest thing I've got to it."
"That's pretty cool. Different," Adaline noted. "I've never really heard of many — well, any — wizards that were into sailing."
Thomas shrugged, "I grew up by the sea in a rich muggle town right by the sea. My neighbour — muggle — introduced me to it."
"That's nice. I had muggle neighbours growing up too, but the kids ended up being muggle-born," Adaline frowned, "Maybe that doesn't count then. You remember Daniela from the year above us?
"Oh yeah, she was in Gryffindor too, right?"
"Yeah. How about we pop open that wine?" Adaline suggested and Thomas complied. "Don't let me get too lush though. I'll start talking nonsense. My brother always says I can't hold my liquor, but I've been practicing."
Thomas chuckled, "That's good to know." He handed her a glass full of sparkling drink. "I didn't know you had a brother. There weren't any Bennetts in the year above us."
Adaline nodded, "Not that you'd know. My brothers and I are separated by a ten year age gap."
"Brothers?"
"I have three. Two live in New York and the other travels around. You've got a sister in fifth year, right?"
"Yeah, Jenny. She's all right, I guess."
The date went on in the same fashion and by the end of the night, they shared a shy kiss that was nothing to brag about in front of the Fat Lady and he asked her on another date.
—
Ella didn't like many things — at least that's what she liked to pretend. In reality, deep inside her own mind, she liked quite a lot of things. For instance, she liked not being in Potions. The room was always humid, the windows always shut less a wind interfere with the brewing of a Potion that would probably never be used and Professor Slughorn's bubbling personality to those in the Slug Club was downright annoying and offensive to those who weren't in the Slug Club. Ella was one of the few who were in the Slug Club so she knew firsthand just how annoying Professor Slughorn's personality was. So when Ella found herself in the Potions room on a hot Thursday afternoon, she spent the first half of it thinking of things she'd rather be doing. The list was quite simple really. She'd rather be doing anything that consisted of her not being in the Potions classroom. But, alas, fate would not heed her wishes and because she wasn't listening and her friends were traitors she'd been rather abruptly forced to partner up with Michael Putley. Her mood diminished further when Slughorn announced that they would be doing an assignment with their partners.
"This is just fan-fucking-tastic," Ella muttered.
"Bad day, Dearborn, or am I just naturally repelling?" Putley asked and Ella rolled her eyes.
"Both."
"Fair enough." He scribbled something onto his parchment in a messy scrawl, a brown lock falling into his eyes. "So what potion do you want to research?"
"Research?" Ella asked dryly. Her mood diminishing even further.
"Unfortunately. Glad to know I'm not the only one who hates theory assignments."
"Don't know what's worse," Ella agreed, "Slughorn's assignments or his parties."
Michael laughed, "Tough call. Maybe it's a tie?"
"Maybe," Ella agreed and Michael slid over the list of potions they could chose from to research. After debating which potion would be the easy to research as well as not a soft option that it would cost them marks, Ella was quite relieved that she'd at least been stuck with another Sluggie because if you were a Sluggie, you were somewhat adept at Potions and you definitely weren't stupid and Michael was proving both of those things.
"Great," Ella concluded when the bell rung, "So we can both start researching. If I do the analysis on the ingredients and their properties part and the effect of the completed potion, can you do the introduction and the three major ways the potion is brewed incorrectly and how that affects the potion?"
"Easy," he agreed. "Next Thursday, after Potions want to head to the library together to see what we've got and maybe together we can start the impact the potion has had on society?"
"Yes, that's perfect," Ella grinned happily. If they ket going at this rate the assignment would be over before dinner next Thursday and that meant that instead of dragging the assignment out for three weeks, it would be over and done with, which meant Ella won't be stuck doing group work for the next three weeks. Ella liked not doing group work. "So I'll see you around then. Bye."
She jumped up and walked over to Marlene and Lily. "I hope you know that you two are traitors for ditching me and forcing me to go outside my social circle."
"That's what you get when you day dream," Marlene hummed.
"You seemed pretty chummy with Putley anyways," Lily commented.
"We bonded over our mutual dislike of theory assignments or Slughorn's parties. I'd hardly call it chummy."
"Whatever you say," Lily shrugged, "Just telling you what I saw."
Annoyed, Ella bit back, "Oh, go ogle at Potter some more."
"Reeee-ooow," Marlene smirked, rolling the 'R'. "You're in a mood today."
"As long as she doesn't throw out anymore of Alice's things."
"I have never touched any of Alice's things," Ella denied which sent Marlene and Lily on a rant naming the list of things Ella had thrown out that happened to be Alice's.
"They bother me," Ella defended.
"Alice's Holyhead Harpies poster bothered you?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrows. "I don't think so. It's okay, Ella. We know why you do it … you wanna piss your mum off."
Ella glowered. Lily didn't understand. Sure, Lily had a bitch of a sister but Ella would rather sibling troubles over parental troubles any day.
"So what potion did you pick for the assignment?" Marlene changed the subject, sensing dangerous area.
—
After two weeks, James and Lily had fallen into a good routine on performing Head Boy and Girl duties with minimal contact between each other. They left notes for each other in the Heads Office, and Lily admitted, they both used Remus a lot to relay messages to each other. They had yet to actually patrol together, they had both avoided it, James usually patrolled with Remus and Lily found herself enjoying her patrols with Andrew Fortescue, the seventh year Hufflepuff prefect. She had never realised how kind he was and as Marlene and Alice had pointed out he was good looking with bright, blue eyes, short brown curls and a sizzling jaw line. They always found it funny how tall Andrew was, he was a good head and a half taller than Lily — he was even taller than Potter!
Lily had stayed thoroughly on top of all of her homework and Professor Slughorn had given her essay on Hopkins law an 'O' (Outstanding). Lily had been so pleased that she gave Professor Slughorn a fishbowl with a white flower floating on the top. She had enchanted the flower to turn into a goldfish. Slughorn had been so surprised and Lily laughed lightly at the Professor's claims that she was one of the best in the year and then proceeded to name Lily's beautiful fish, Francis. Lily swore it was the last time she ever gave that Professor anything and in her mind renamed the fish to Pebbles.
Their classes had become slightly harder than last year's N.E.W.T work and the homework load had definitely increased, it didn't help that Lily and James were trying to one up each other at every turn. Lily had hexed James with a Confused Bruise spell, which basically meant James would wake with a bruise or two that he couldn't remember getting. It was amusing when on the twelfth day, Potter had stormed up to her in the common room and demand she take the hex off him.
"I'm not playing around, Evans," he's said.
"I've no idea what you are on about, Potter," Lily responded, but on the inside, she was smirking.
"Don't play dumb," he hissed, "I'm getting all these random bruises! I know it was you!"
"I think I'd remember giving you bruisers, Potter, and if you're referring to that rather unfortunate hickey on your neck, it definitely wasn't me. Why don't you go take it up with Helena Bonham?"
Potter flushed and pulled his collar up to hide the hickey Lily's hex had caused and stormed away. Lily smirked for a good five minutes, before she could continue her Arithmancy problems. But of course, a day had barely passed before James got Lily back. She'd been practicing on conjuring a live canary — she'd mainly grasped the concept, though the bird could be cuter — when James conjured a bloody pigeon and made it sit on her head for over an hour. She got pooped on five bloody times and her bloody canary hadn't become any cuter, thanks to James bloody Potter.
Despite, their feud though, Lily was keeping up reasonably well. Charms and Potions had always come naturally to her and she was rather good at Defence Against the Dark Arts as a lot of it required defensive charms, which she was good at. Herbology was a breeze for anyone with a brain, you just had to pay attention and listen to the instructions. Arithmancy, whilst hard, was doable. Her biggest problem was Transfiguration. Last year she'd been averaging an 'Acceptable' bordering 'Exceeds Expectations'. This year, she planned to pull her marks up to a full 'Exceeds Expectations'. Her aim was 'O's and 'E's for every subject.
"Now today we'll be learning how to conjure large animals," McGonagall said, "I want all of you to try and conjure a cat."
Lily groaned internally. The damn canary had been hard enough but Lily listened intently on how the spell was to be performed and asked an awful amount of questions but try as she might Lily could only conjure a life-like statue of a cat that could meow. It reminded Lily of dead animals that have been stuffed and treated to remain life like in muggle museums. Lily wasn't the only one though. Marlene couldn't conjure anything except a few loose bits of fur and Adaline managed a couple of whiskers. Even James and Sirius couldn't conjure an entire, functioning cat, though Sirius did manage a cat that could move, it was stiff and looked like a robotic toy.
McGonagall looked down on the class, "For homework, practice! Next lesson I will mark your attempt! I also want a twelve-inch essay on the problems of conjuring. You may go."
The class filed out and moved onto their next two classes until they ended up at Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Scrivens was a middle aged woman and in Lily's opinion she may have fought off one too many dark wizards and witches because the lady was as batty as a house elf. Marlene reckoned she's obsessed with defending against the dark arts but Lily just thinks this woman has lost her marbles. Professor Scrivens had long, scruffy honey coloured hair and Lily wondered when the last time Professor Scrivens got a haircut was. She didn't wear robes like a normal witch or wizard, she said they were too restricting and distracting in a battle, instead she wore a loose coat and jeans. Lily couldn't see how jeans were less constricting than robes.
On the first day the batty professor told the class a story about how she'd fought off a dark wizard and that was how her two fingers were sliced off by a dark curse. That was when Lily started to doubt the professor's sanity because the entire class looked at Professor Scrivens hands and saw ten perfectly normal fingers. Nevertheless, Professor Scrivens had proved a sufficient enough teacher and, like all the other professors, provided a tremendous amount of homework after every lesson.
"Sit, sit class. Hurry up," she barked. "Now you're probably all wondering how I've survived my years in the Auror office and I can assure you that no matter what spells and curses you know, it is your reflex and ability to perform spells non-verbally that will save you. So I want everyone to pair up and you are all going to duel. I don't want any stunning!" she ordered. "That's for next week. You are all to duel, however if I hear a single mutter of a spell you are out. The aim is to not get hexed or jinxed. You are to block silently and hex silently. Out of the pair, the one who is hexed or jinxed first looses. The winner is to find another winner and duel them until we are left with one pair. The winner of the final duel will win twenty house points along with a rather fattening bag of Honeyduke's sweets."
Lily first paired up with Marlene and having practiced non-verbal spells all summer, Lily was confident she would win. After only a few minutes Lily thought, "Flipendo!" a streak of light came out of Lily's wand and knocked Marlene over. Lily smiled apologetically as Marlene dusted herself off.
"Adams, out!" Professor Scrivens announced, "Take a seat. Evans duel with … Vance!"
Lily fought with Alice and Alice, who was very good a D.A.D.A, was a much harder opponent. It took ten minutes to finally curse Alice who got an extremely runny nose. Professor Scrivens sent her to Madam Pomfrey. Lily looked around and saw that only half the class remained. Lily duelled next with Rosalie Parker and won in only three minutes.
"Lupin and Evans!" Professor Scrivens announced.
Lily and Remus Lupin duelled for so long that by the time their duel ended there was only one other pair: James Potter and Sirius Black. Their duel ended when Sirius' hair fell off his head. The class laughed at his bald head and again Professor Scrivens sent him to Madam Pomfrey to get it sorted out but Sirius refused saying he wanted to see who won.
"Very well! The last duel of the lesson! Evans! Potter! You're up!"
James and Lily stood a couple of metres away from each other, bowed and James said, "Good luck, Evans."
"Won't need it," Lily assured him coldly and the duel begun. Lily deflected many of James' hexes before she managed to throw one at him. He deflected it easily and Lily shot another bat-bogey hex at him but he deflected and sent a hex flying at Lily. She deflected his jelly-fingers curse and threw a jelly-legs curse at him waving her wand furiously. The exchange of sending and deflecting curses went on for more than fifteen minutes and Lily was starting to get a bit breathless whilst James had a look of utter determination. Lily sent two melofors jinxes one after the other with barely a two second gap. James deflected the first jinx but wasn't quick enough to deflect the second. The class roared with laughter as his head became encased in a pumpkin.
Lily filled with pride at having beat James Potter in a duel and did not feel guilty for one second about trapping his head in a pumpkin. At least the pumpkin reflected the true size of Potter's head.
"And Evans wins!" Professor Scrivens announces. "Twenty points to Gryffindor and take the bag off my desk when you leave class today. Anyone who has been jinxed head over to Madam Pomfrey so she can sort you all out." She was looking oddly at Sirius' bald head but it didn't seem to affect him at all.
"I can't see a thing!" a muffled voice screamed and Lily laughed before Sirius performed the counter-jinx and the pumpkin popped out of existence.
James stared at her and Lily raised her eyebrows at him. "Stop staring before I put your head in a pumpkin again." James looked abruptly away and Lily rejoined conversation with her friends, stealing a glance at Potter. His stare hadn't been angry or bitter, it had been … no, she shook her head, she'd been imagining it.
But she hadn't. That night at dinner, Lily had been treated like a hero because she had won a duel against James Potter and her friends kept making terrible jokes about pumpkins. Lily couldn't help herself though, she had glanced at James only to find he'd been staring at her, his expression unreadable. He abruptly looked away, getting up and leaving the Great Hall. Lily frowned. He should be trying to get her back. Why was he looking at her like that?
After that, Lily found it hard to concentrate on anything so she excused herself and left only to be pulled into a broom closet on the fifth floor.
"Potter?" she asked. She couldn't see a damn thing. She pulled her wand out and thought, lumos, and her wand lit up. "What?"
James didn't say anything he just looked at her but words were on the tip of his tongue, he just had to say it. "I — congratulations, for winning."
Lily raised an eyebrow, "That's it? You pulled me into a broom closet to congratulate me for beating you?"
"Well, I don't think you'd be pleased with what I really wanted to say," James said softly, and his eyes flickered down to her lips for a moment.
Lily, aware of the small space they were in and completely oblivious, said, "And what would that be? That you set all the detention slips on fire?"
"I - what? No! Argh, just forget it." James opened the door and walked out leaving Lily in the closet.
—
James watched from across the Common Room as she helped Adaline with her Charms essay. In the past two weeks, James had found their little competition fun. He had reasons to talk to her and her little smirk when she'd successfully gotten the better of him was absolutely adorable. James knew exactly why he was coming around to Lily again. He was scared. He'd overheard her and her mates talking about Andrew Fortescue the other night and when he'd looked at the patrol schedules, he noticed that they patrolled together all the bloody time and something fell in James because he knew that if she were to start dating, he'd lose her. He'd completely lose her and the thought of that made his stomach flip. He didn't want those two months to be the only thing to ever transpire between him and the pretty red head.
He'd tried to talk to her after dinner, had snagged her into a broom closet even but he'd wanted to use words and his words had failed him. He'd been on the verge of saying it. Of telling her he missed her but just as they were about to come out, he realised how stupid he'd have sounded, so instead he congratulated her like a moron. And he was a moron for ever letting her go in the first place. Lily Evans was unforgettable for a reason. No, she wasn't perfect or beautiful beyond words. She was stubborn and had freckles and perhaps red wasn't the best hair colour but she was unforgettable because she was Lily freaking Evans. What more needed to be said? James was a moron for ever thinking he could even forget Lily. No one could forget Lily.
He watched from across the Common Room as she perfected her conjuring of a cat and found his lips twitching into a smile when she squealed with happiness when she produced a perfect white cat. How could stubbornness be a flaw, when it brought her such achievement? She'd been practicing that spell since she entered the Common Room three hours prior, only breaking to help Adaline occasionally with her essay.
"Prongs, you going to join us or are you just going to keep ogling at Evans the whole night?" Sirius asked and James pulled his eyes away from Lily.
"I wasn't ogling. She conjured a cat was all."
Sirius rolled his eyes, "So? We did that during lunch." This time Remus rolled his eyes.
"I didn't," Peter chimed with a small frown and Sirius rolled his eyes again.
"It's alright, Wormtail, I'll help you," James assured him.
James glanced back at Lily who was smiling brightly as Dearborn told her something. "There you go ogling again," Sirius said snapping his fingers in front of James' face. "What's gotten into you? I thought you were over her?"
"I am," James agreed, though he sounded as convincing as Pinnochio.
"Sure," Remus said, "And I'm in love with Peter."
James threw a scrunched up piece of parchment at Remus, who deflected it with his hand.
—
Lily had just finished reading over Alice's Transfiguration essay and had handed it back, having circled some areas that could use work. Alice frowned at it.
"Expand on all those points and you should be alright," Lily told her. "Have you practiced the spell yet?"
"I tried before," Alice said glumly, "I'm never going to get it right. Birds were a piece of cake compared to this."
Lily laughed, she somehow had managed to get a hang of the cat quicker, "Do you remember Adaline's birds? They went rogue and attacked the class! I don't think McGonagall's ever been so displeased in her life. Poor Adaline she got a detention because of that."
"Yes! I've still got a bloody scar on my arm," Alice exclaimed and Lily laughed even more. "Are you coming to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
"I don't know, I spent a lot at Diagon Alley when I went and I won the bag of Honeyduke's sweets so I think I'm set until at least next week."
"Not sick of the castle yet?"
"How can anyone ever get sick of the castle? Everything bloody moves every other day. Yesterday, I got to McGonagall's class by a staircase near a statue of Salazar Slytherin, today I found the statue but the staircase was gone! I was almost late."
"The castle's funny like that," Alice wrinkled her nose. Then she put her head down and started working on her essay whilst Lily, with nothing better to do, snuck a look at James. He was laughing about something with his friends and it being so late in the night all he wore were a pair of flannel pyjama pants and a white t-shirt. There should be a rule against that, Lily thought, as she couldn't seem to pull her eyes away from him.
The events from earlier in the night flooded her mind and she knew that he hadn't really wanted to congratulate her, but she did wonder about what he had really wanted to say, if he'd really wanted to say anything to her. Maybe he was planning on pranking her. Maybe that was the prank. It was a stupid one, if it was a prank. It had accomplished absolutely nothing. Lily hadn't even felt pranked. Lily concluded that it was decidedly not a prank because this was James Potter in question, the mastermind of pranks — well, at least a quarter of the mastermind of pranks. She glanced over at the Marauders, catching James throwing a scrunched up piece of parchment at Remus who blocked it with his hand.
—
Adaline shook her head.
"What's wrong?" Marlene asked, putting her quill down.
"Lily and Potter. They keep staring at each other."
"I bet you five galleons that they bang this year," Ella piped.
Marlene considered, "You're on. There's no way them two will be civil enough to each other that they'll end up banging."
"To be honest, I'm still surprised that all their flirting last year didn't end up with the two of them snogging in a broom closet."
"And civility has nothing to do with sexual tension," Adaline pointed out. Marlene and Ella both peeked a glance at Lily and James who were still stealing glances at each other every so often.
"I think Lily's scared to want him," Marlene concluded. "After all that's happened between him and Snape and Lily still feels loyal to him even if they aren't friends anymore."
"Snape's an arse."
"Potter can be one too if he wants to," Ella shrugged. "I still think they'll bang this year. It's inevitable."
Marlene rolled her eyes. "Maybe," she allowed. "What about you?" Marlene asked Ella.
"What about me?"
"Michael Putley."
"What about him?" Ella asked annoyed.
Adaline and Marlene shared a look. "You two got awfully cozy during Potions."
"Haven't we already been over this?"
"Yes," Marlene said and Ella was momentarily relieved but Marlene opened her mouth again, "But I want to revise it."
Ella's rolled her eyes. "Er, I'm going to turn in." Ella quickly packed away her materials and headed for the stairs, not bothered to listen to Marlene and Adaline going on about something that was non-existent.
"Of course you are," Adaline smirked, "We're not letting you off the hook that easily, Dearborn!"
"What about your date with Plunkett last night?" Marlene asked but Adaline shrugged.
"There wasn't any sparks."
Marlene laughed, "You say that with every guy you go out with. Are you a lesbian?"
Adaline glared at her. "I just, I don't know. Maybe I'm too picky but if it's love, shouldn't it be exciting?"
"Well, what happened last night?"
Adaline sighed, "Nothing bad, I guess but it just it was mediocre. He took me out on the lake with a bottle of wine he coerced from the house elves. We talked. He kissed me goodnight in front of the Fat Lady and that was it. He wants to go on another date though but I don't know."
"Go," Marlene insisted.
"But he-"
"No! You always do this! You go on one date, you say it was mediocre and that's it. Just try. Besides, he took you out on the lake! How is that a mediocre date? I would love to go out on the lake! And he stole a bottle of wine for you! That was so not a mediocre date."
"He's not the one, though."
"Del, we're seventeen we aren't supposed to find the one, we're just supposed to find someone. Give Tommy another chance. I hear he's an excellent kisser."