Previously: Lily realizes that she's unable to talk to Terry about everything going on in her life. Lily is understandably upset that James interrupted her reunion with her parents. When she demands to know why James did what he did, James is forced to lie. This only makes her angrier, and James is heartbroken that he just destroyed what little progress he had been making with Lily. He tries to convince himself that it was worth it when he sees that Mr. Evans had followed through with his part of the deal and provided them with the final ingredient for the Animagus potion. Mary drags Lily and Alice to see Cassandra Trelawney in Hogsmeade, but they leave with three morbid prophecies about their respective futures.


Chapter 57: Alice in Wonderland

"Okay, that's it. Seriously, one of you three needs to talk to me – it's been several weeks, and you're really starting to scare me," demanded Marlene, crossing her arms as she glared at each of her friends – she had not even bothered to open her copy of Witch Weekly.

None of her friends bothered to return her gaze.

It was Valentine's Day, which meant that the visit to Trelawney's house had been almost a month ago. When the three of them had first returned from Hogsmeade, none of them had said a single word to Marlene the rest of the day. She had desperately tried to do anything in her power to get at least one of them to talk, even going so far as borrowing a couple of Zonko's prank items from Black, with whom she shared a curiously strange on-again, off-again relationship, to try to get her friends to say something – but even though it managed to pull them back into reality, the results fell flat.

Eventually, both Lily and Mary started talking again, but no matter how much Marlene begged them to open up, they remained tight-lipped about what had happened. Anytime Marlene brought up their Hogsmeade visit, the two of them would go silent, refusing to speak about the visit to the Seer's house.

Lily simply could not bring herself to openly admit that Trelawney had predicted a very bleak future for her. For whatever reason, she could not shake the feeling – and Lily was sure that Mary felt the same way with the exception that the pudgy girl took much more stock in what Trelawney said than Lily did – that if she repeated what Trelawney had said, she would be forced to admit that it was true. Lily herself had never really bothered with Divination (she had only taken it at Mary's insistence), but at the same time, she could not deny that Trelawney was only so well-known because her predictions almost always came true.

At her insistent tone, Lily looked up from her spoon that she had been mindlessly toying with to see that Marlene was staring at her intently, concern etched in each line on her flawless face. Beside her, Mary mindlessly toyed with her food – which, in and of itself, was concerning when one considered how much Mary loved food.

Finally, Lily took a deep breath as she said, "I'm sorry, Marlene – it's just … Trelawney's predictions weren't exactly full of kittens and rainbows."

"Lily," stressed Marlene, reaching forward to take Lily's hand in her own, "How many times do I have to tell you? A lot of all that stuff is lucky guesswork – just because somebody's predicted something doesn't necessarily mean that it'll come to pass."

It was a sign of just how concerned Marlene was that she had forgone her usual scorn whenever the topic of prophecies came up.

"You weren't there, Marlene – she wasn't making this stuff up," insisted Lily.

Marlene sighed and leaned back in her seat. Her expression as she assessed all of them was not unlike the expression she wore when she interrogated Lily's boyfriend, Terry.

"And what exactly did she tell you that's got all of your wands in such knots?"

Lily shrugged as she said, "It was just a bunch of bad stuff. Apparently, I have a lot of death and pain in my future, and she mentioned something about a son and how my sacrifice for him will decide his fate in the war to come. Mary's prediction wasn't that much better: she hasn't yet reached her full potential, which I suppose it kind of good, but then Trelawney started talking about how fate will force her to play her hand."

"'First to rise, first to fall.'," muttered Mary, speaking up for the first time – though she still refused to meet anybody else's eyes.

"Okay …" said Marlene slowly, mulling over their words, "Well, that can mean anything, can't it? It could be as simple as you being the first person to trip in a classroom, but then you're also the first person to get back up on your feet – really, there's a hundred different ways that could be interpreted. And Lily – of course there's going to be a bunch of death and pain in your future – we're in the middle of a war, remember? And making a sacrifice for your son could be as simple as … I don't know – sacrificing sleep! It's the same thing with Mary – hundreds of different ways you could interpret that."

Lily had to admit that listening to Marlene rationalize Trelawney's predictions did make her feel a bit better, and she even managed a brief smile. Mary clearly thought so too because she stopped twirling her fork around.

"And what about Alice?" continued Marlene, turning to the last member of their group.

Of the three of them, Alice had definitely been affected the most by Trelawney's predictions. She had hardly spoke at all since their visit, only managing simple, one-word responses when somebody asked her a direct question. She kept her head lowered, allowing her stick-straight hair to obscure her face from anybody who tried to read her expression. Lily had heard that her flying during Quidditch practice had gotten so bad these past couple of weeks that Kingsley was debating whether he should throw her off the team, and she had even stopped trying to get Lily out of bed in the mornings – instead, that task had fallen on Marlene's shoulders.

"She … well … it didn't go as well," answered Lily, her mouth pulled into a tight grimace as she turned her head to stare at Alice, who was not even attempting to eat.

"She said that my fate was worse than death," stated Alice in an abrupt, cutting voice, keeping her gaze fixed solely on the table. If Lily had not seen her lips move, she would not have known who was talking. "Try to explain that one away, Marlene."

"Well …" started Marlene, her face screwed up in concentration, "I suppose … oh, come on, Alice – prophecies don't always come true! You can't put too much stock in what Trelawney said because even the best Seers make mistakes."

Alice gave one sharp, dejected nod and continued to stare at her plate, and the four of them were silent for the longest time after that. Lily could tell that Marlene was trying to wrack her brains to come up with a reasonable excuse that she could use on Alice, but after five minutes had passed where none of them said anything, Marlene had clearly had enough.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake! It's Valentine's Day – we shouldn't be worrying about this kind of stuff. You three – wait here," ordered Marlene, jabbing one perfectly manicured finger at each of them.

She gracefully rose her seat, and Lily was too shocked to even think about disobeying Marlene. The faint click-clack of her friend's stilettos echoed around the Great Hall as Marlene strutted down the aisle between Gryffindor's and Hufflepuff's tables. Both Mary and Lily watched with interest – Alice still had not looked up – as Marlene suddenly stopped and bent down to whisper something in the ear of somebody who Lily could not see.

Marlene then straightened, and as she did, another boy stood up with her – Frank Longbottom, a fifth year Gryffindor who Alice had been crushing on since their third year.

Together, the two of them started to head back to where Lily, Mary, and Alice were still seated – Marlene was practically oozing smugness while Frank looked politely confused. Lily had no clue what Marlene had said to him to get the boy to come with her, but she must have lied because as they drew closer, Frank's eyes widened when he noticed that Alice was sitting in front of him.

"You – sit," ordered Marlene.

She all but forced the stunned Frank into the seat beside Alice, who, once she had realized what was happening, jumped violently and stared at Marlene as the brown-haired beauty waved Lily and Mary to a spot four seats down – close enough to dissuade anybody else from sitting between them but far enough away to give them some semblance of privacy.

"Marlene!" hissed a red-faced Alice – it appeared that Marlene's method of drawing Alice back from out of the gutter was working. "What do you think you're doing!"

"Why – I'm helping you, my dear Alice," answered Marlene in a sing-song voice as she gracefully seated herself across from Lily and Mary several meters down the table. "Don't worry, Frank – I'll still have to do the whole 'interrogating my friends' boyfriends' later with you, but for now, try to help … get Alice's mind off things."

Poor Frank was completely lost as to what to say, but at Marlene's flippant wave of her hand, he awkwardly cleared his throat and turned back to Alice – unfortunately, he did not get to say much else because just then, the mail came, and considering that it was Valentine's Day after all, it was a lot of mail.

"What did your boyfriend send you this time, Lily?" asked Mary as a large eagle owl landed in front of her, a small package and letter attached to its leg.

"Nothing – I don't like Valentine's Day, remember?" responded Lily dismissively as she untied her present – it was one of her Just-Because-We-Love-You gifts that her parents always sent her on Valentine's Day. "I told him that under no circumstances was he allowed to get me anything – personally, I think it's absolutely ridiculous that our culture has a day specifically dedicated to reminding people that their significant others aren't loving you as much as they could be."

"Oh, right … you've mentioned something about 'Single-Awareness Day' in the past," said Marlene as she set herself on unwrapping the first of the dozens of packages that had landed in front of her. "I don't get why you would complain about that now, though – you have a boyfriend this time."

"It's a matter of principle," explained Lily with a shrug.

Much to her displeasure, the fact that she had a boyfriend had not stopped several owls from landing in front of her with gifts and letters from other admirers. Without thinking, Lily dumped the boxes of chocolate into Mary's empty arms – poor Mary had only received one letter – with the condition that she share before starting on the letters. Most of them were the generic kind that boys had clearly not put that much thought into, and it was only when she got to Potter's letter that she froze.

Lily glanced down the table to see that the Marauders were enjoying their breakfast – Potter had his arm slung around Silvanah Vane while Black was busy openly snogging some fifth-year Gryffindor. She quickly averted her eyes before either of them caught her staring.

It was hard to forget the Valentine's Day card that Potter had sent her last year – it had flashed so brightly in so many different colors that Lily had nearly had to visit Madam Pomfrey for the headache it had caused. Unlike last year, however, this time Potter had sent her a tiny scroll of parchment that was no different from the scraps that Lily would use to write notes to her friends during class. Curious, Lily carefully unfurled it to read the message:

Dear Evans,

I'm so sorry about what happened with your dad at King's Cross. Please accept my gift with my sincerest apologies.

James Potter

P.S: This letter isn't your apology – it's waiting in your dormitory. Happy Valentine's Day!

Lily glanced down the table again, except this time Potter caught her eye and gave her one of his signature grins. While it certainly looked more hopeful and sincere than his usual, mischievous smirk, Lily simply glared at him.

She had not forgotten how Potter had rudely interrupted her reunion with her sick father – not that Potter knew he was sick, but still – and later, when she had demanded an answer from him, Potter had shrugged it off with a vague explanation of how he had misinterpreted Lily's kindness for interest and thus, had thought that it was a good idea to meet her father – Lily did not believe Potter's excuse for a second, but he still refused to give up the real reason behind his desire to meet her father. All misinterpretations aside – Lily could not see how he thought it was appropriate to approach her father out of the blue while on Platform 9¾.

However, through her anger at the memory, Lily could not help her curiosity – usually, Potter went with grand, romantic gestures, but this was out-of-character for him. She would have expected this of Terry had she allowed herself to celebrate Valentine's Day with him, but Potter was always the flashy one.

Hating herself for permitting him to get the best of her, Lily quickly rose from the table and, ignoring Marlene's pleas that she stay, exited the Great Hall so that she could race up to the Gryffindor dormitory. Besides, she reasoned, she would have to come back up to get her things for their classes that day anyways.

She quickly made her way up the grand staircase. Other than Peeves, who was busy trying to shut Mrs. Norris in yet another suit of armor – Lily found that she did not feel the least bit sorry towards the cat, with whom she shared several bad experiences – there was nobody else in the corridors since they were all still at breakfast. Before long, she reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, and after giving her the password ("Hocus Pocus"), Lily found that the common room was just as empty as the rest of the castle.

Lily paused at the bottom of the staircase that led up to her dormitory – while it was no secret that boys could not get up the girls' staircase, she had never met anybody more determined to get past the staircase as Sirius Black, who also happened to be best mates with Potter. She cautiously made her way up the staircase until she reached the top landing, which contained the door to her dormitories. Holding her breath, Lily slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open …

… to reveal a room of lilies.

Every single surface was covered with the pure white flowers: all the beds, the floor, their nightstands, the windows, the wall, the ceiling – even the fireplace was covered with them. It was like Lily had stepped out of Hogwarts and into a secret garden. The smell overwhelmed her, and although she could not deny that the sight was beautiful, Lily tried to focus her attention on a music stand that had certainly not been there when she left for breakfast. On it was a blood-red card that was closed.

Lily stepped closer to the stand until she was close enough to read the glittery white writing:

To the Flower of My Dreams

She slowly opened it, and quickly proceeded to drop it in surprise – the loudest, most obnoxious voice burst forth from the card, singing at the top of its nonexistent lungs:

Oh, Lily…Oh, Lily,

Won't you, won't you go out with me?

Every time you talk, it melts my heart

Every time you walk, it hurts my heart

Oh, Lily…Oh, Lily,

Won't you, won't you go out with me?

Lily slammed her foot against the card, and thankfully, the singing stopped.

"Potter …" she growled, crumpling his note in her fist.