Winter Break was upon Lily faster than she had expected. It only really occurred to her, as she was saying goodbye to Liz, Beth and Theresa for the two weeks they would be home. She hadn't even started plotting about how she was going to get closer to James; she had already become 'Best Friends' with Alicia.
Little did she know that 'Best Friends' in the popular clique were non-existent. Alicia had spread the word that Lily had a crush on James to all of her friends; who told all of their friends, and that's how the word spread through Hogwarts.
As Lily stood right outside the Great Hall; at the open doors that led outside, watching her friends leave on the carriages, she heard someone call her name. She turned around to see James Potter coming at a slight jog, towards her.
"Hey, Lily," he said. She almost thought she heard a tone of annoyance in his voice. "Why didn't you come to me yourself to tell me that you liked me?" Yeah, she was right. She did hear a tone of annoyance in his voice, which was slowly growing.
"I-what? Who told you that?" Lily asked, very confused all of a sudden. She was sure Alicia wouldn't have told…..and she was the only person Lily told about her crush on James Potter. But wait- hadn't she told Liz, Theresa, and Beth, too? They couldn't have, wouldn't have! But they had been acting kind of funny lately. They seemed less welcome to Lily joining them, and they didn't wait for her to walk to their classes together. They had grown apart from Lily this past week. As soon as their friendship had come, it had gone. But why? With a sudden, dreadful pain she realized that they had grown apart because of her 'friendship' with Alicia. So it had affected their friendship, and in the worst way.
Lily was brought uncomfortably back to the current situation with James.
"I…..why would you care?" She asked, running away from him. She knew she wouldn't do something like that, but she couldn't bear to be in that situation any longer. She ran up to her dormitory, crying.
James just sighed, and walked back to the common room; where his friends were hanging out.
"What's with the long face, Prongsie?" Sirius asked, apparently in a good mood.
"I...Uh…Do I really look that bad?" James asked, taken aback by how well his friends could read him.
"Yeah, it looks like you're …..embarrassed or something." Remus replied, looking up from the thick novel in his lap.
"I guess I am, Moony," James said, sitting down with his friends.
"Really? What happened Prongs?" Sirius asked understanding that his friend needed someone…..or some people to talk to right then.
"Well, apparently that girl…Lily Evans? Likes me, and she told everyone! So I only found out because some girls were talking about it in the hallway…..That was such a rude thing to do! Why just not tell me to my face without letting the whole school know before me? Why embarrass me that bad? Do you really think I want the whole school to know that a freak likes me?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, James! That was a pretty arrogant thing to say! First of all, Lily isn't considered a 'freak' by most of the school, anymore. She's friends with Alicia now. And second of all; if she's friends with Alicia, she probably told Alicia because all girls tell their friends their secrets; and do you think Alicia is the most trustworthy person?" Remus had a lot of good points to make, and he seemed wiser than any of the other first years in the school.
"Thanks, Remus; I think I understand a little bit now. But why tell Alicia if its quite apparent that she's not trustworthy in the first place? And why would she run away from me when I tried to confront her about it?" James was getting upset as he was talking about this.
"Prongs calm down! Only one girl ran away from you. You have nothing to worry about until two girls run away from you." Sirius said, meaning well.
"Yeah, whatever. I think I'm going to go read-"James said, disappearing up the stairs; into his dorm.
"Poor, James," Sirius said, shaking his head.
"Poor Lily," Remus thought, correcting Sirius in his head. He realized this was going to be one long winter break.
