The Appreciation of Pureed Plants

It couldn't be said that, having accepted that she was jealous of Daisy, Lily embraced it, but she was inarguably more liberal with the path she allowed her thoughts on the witch's relationship with the Quidditch Captain to take.

During the classes she shared with the couple she amused herself with daydreams in which Daisy fell flat on her face and knocked all her teeth out or grew a hairy wart on her forehead. After she had exhausted the more inane scenarios, she graduated to fantasies in which James found out that Daisy was pregnant with Severus Snape's child and the like. Soon she had also contracted spattergroit from a hobo and had started to pay for her pixie dust addiction by role-playing with Vector and Filch.

For most of her life, Lily had been a peaceable and non-violent witch, and so she was quite disturbed by the violent dislike she quickly developed for poor Daisy Abbott. The irony was crippling. The one thing that had always turned her from peaceable and non-violent into a harpy was James Potter and now, even if indirectly, it was James Potter who was causing these awful feelings in her again.

Emmeline and Dorcas knew of her quandary: Emmeline, having been witness to Lily glaring at Daisy's back in Runes every single class couldn't possibly not know and Dorcas, just being Dorcas, picked up on it pretty quickly. Thankfully they didn't laugh or poke fun at her as Marlene would have, or project the news out to James and the rest of the school as Alice and Mary would, but assured her that the feeling was probably natural and that Daisy wouldn't wake up with both her legs broken if Lily so happened to have a dream that the blonde took a long walk off the Astronomy tower.

But it was quite discomfiting after one Ancient Runes lesson in April to find that her feelings were visible to people outside her dormitory. During this particular lesson, Lily had viciously stabbed 'Daisy' (an ink blot charmed a blonde-ish colour) to death several times and it was quite possible that her enthusiasm had been a little too animated.

The distraction she found in this lesson meant that she spent very little time actually listening to Vector and, as a result, now had very little understanding of the topic. She told Emmeline to go ahead, meaning to stay behind and ask Vector a question, but a quiet 'Lily?' from her right side halted her.

'Remus!' she greeted, surprised. The boy was, as ever, looking tired, his pale blue eyes underlined by strokes of grey and his hair dishevelled. His face was open and friendly, though, and his infinite patience with people had always impressed Lily. She smiled and began to pack away her charts. 'Deathly dull class, hey?'

He smiled back. 'I noticed that you didn't listen to much of it.' When she didn't reply for a moment, trying to process what that meant, he began to weave his way to the front of the classroom. Feeling her heart rate quicken and her face start to redden, Lily darted after him and asked, her voice suspiciously shrill, 'Wha– what do you mean?'

Without answering, he opened the door for her and followed her out. 'Let's take a walk, Evans,' he said, faking a deep American accent. He was trying to put her at ease, but Lily wouldn't have any of it.

'What do you mean? How did you… you… what do you mean?' she asked nervously, clutching her things to her chest. He shut the door and gestured that they walk together. Looking around her to ensure that corridor was empty, she followed him.

'Remus!' she said in frustration. 'Come on! What is it?'

'You're making it very obvious that there is something to know, Lily Evans,' he said, laughing.

'You're making me uncomfortable,' she said, a touch indignant now. 'I don't —I don't know how much you know,' she said, quiet and firm, despite her nervousness, 'but I'm not really in a place to be —to be pushing this around lightly, Remus.'

They had stopped in the middle of the corridor. It was around one o'clock and most of Hogwarts was in the Great Hall for lunch so it was very quiet at this end of the school. She fidgeted under his assessing gaze. After a moment he smiled. 'I've always like that about you, Lily Evans. You're dramatic, but there's no beating around the bush, you know?'

She didn't know how to respond to that, and so after a few minutes of silence she asked, 'Why are you calling me by my full name?'

Remus frowned. 'I dunno. I honestly don't know whether to call you Lily or Evans. Your full name is as good a title as any.'

After another pause, she said, 'You should call me Lily.' Feeling all of a sudden as if she had to let it out and that Remus would be a better confidante than most, she blurted, 'I'm really torn up at the moment.'

To Lily's great embarrassment he laughed at that. She shot him a sharp look and he seemed to realize his mistake: he took a step back, arms raised above his head. 'I'm sorry! That was completely insensitive.'

'You'd better believe that was insensitive. What was so amusing?' They were still standing in the middle of the corridor. Tilting her head in the direction of the Great Hall in a sharp gesture that he follow (her stomach knew it was one o'clock with more conviction than her mind did) and she started walking again. Sheepishly, he complied, hesitantly explaining as he took a few running strides to catch up, 'I just can't believe how far this has come – how much it's changed, you know?'

His disbelief mirrored hers, then. 'Oh, I know, my friend. I know very well.'

Another small smile tugged at Remus's mouth. Shooting a few hesitantly amused looks at her, he said, 'don't tell me you don't see how it's funny. Just a little bit?'

'I assure you, Remus,' she said stiffly, 'It's quite different on this side of the situation, actually being me, you know. It's more of a suffering than an amusement.'

He nodded apologetically and they walked in silence for a few minutes. Then Lily shot him an impatient look. 'What's funny then?'

Unable to contain his mirth now, he laughed. 'You've spent nearly your entire time at Hogwarts fighting James off and now whenever I look at you in class you're staring at him like he's —'

'Right, thanks,' she interjected quickly, feeling her face explode in heat. Merlin. Had no idea it was that obvious.

'So, what are you going to do about it?' Remus asked curiously shortly after.

'Do about it?' she repeated, looking at him with genuine surprise, expecting to see a grin or some other telling form of amusement. But his face was honest and open. 'What? Seriously?' He nodded, eyebrows raised at her disbelief. 'Nothing!' she exclaimed, laughing at the idea. 'Wait for it to die down, I suppose.'

After a pause in which she could have sworn he was going to say something else, he said, 'Well, I wish you the best of luck with that,' eyebrows still raised. He stopped walking and Lily became conscious suddenly that they had arrived at the doors to the Entrance Hall. 'When's the last time you spoke to James?' he asked curiously while she tried to think how they could have gotten to the ground floor so quickly. When she had processed the question she felt her cheeks flame again. 'Properly? Not for a long time.'

Remus nodded in a way that closed the conversation. 'To lunch, then?' He waved her into the Great Hall, but she paused under the doorway, frowning. 'How in the name of Merlin did we get here so quickly?' she asked incredulously.

Fingers wiggling, he grinned. 'Must have been magic.'

Later that evening Lily sat with her back to Dorcas's armchair in front of the common room fire. She had stretched her legs out and had a piece of Honeyduke's Finest carefully levitating at the perfect slow-melting distance from the flames and a hunk of bread and cheese awaiting it in her lap.

'That really freaks me out,' Dorcas said lazily, watching Lily drum her feet in excitement upon the hearth. 'Cheese and chocolate on bread? You are a sick witch.'

'That is foul, Lil,' Marlene agreed, gently turning a first year out of an armchair close by and dragging it over to the fire. 'Hey!' Lily said, watching the eleven year-old scamper off. 'That's an abuse of power! Poor thing.' It sounded more like 'porfink' through the cheese and chocolate. Marlene scrunched up her face in disgust and Dorcas moaned, pushing Lily's head down.

Taking a huge bite of the concoction, Lily widened her eyes unnaturally and bared her chocolate-covered teeth at her friends in a manic smile. 'Yum yum.' Dorcas pretended to gag. 'It's like dessert on toast. Chocolate cheesecake toast.' She hummed happily and took another large bite. After swallowing the mouthful, she admitted, 'It would taste better with peanut butter.' She stared mournfully at the remains of the bread.

The other two sixth year girls groaned aloud. 'Not again, Lily,' Dorcas moaned.

One of the only things Lily found lacking in the wizarding world was its condiments —or lack thereof. Those of her friends from a generally pureblood line had never eaten peanut butter, let alone the more exotic and adventurous chocolate or yeast-based spreads.

'We've been over this a million times, Lil,' Marlene said, covering her eyes with her hands. 'What could possess a muggle to grind up peanuts and put it on bread?'

Lily swung around, firing up. 'What possesses anyone to squash strawberries into goo, Ms. Jam-marmalade-or-nothing?'

'Because jam is a food unto itself!' her opposition cried.

'Hear, hear!' Dorcas said, punching the air with a fist. 'We should start a religion,' she said, looking seriously at Marlene, whose eyes widened. 'No, a cult!' Marlene squeaked in excitement. 'The Cult for the Appreciation of Pureed Plants!' The Anti-Peanut Butter Association crowed with enthusiasm at the scheme.

Determined to burst their bubble, Lily interjected, 'if you're celebrating the appreciation of pureed plants then you'll have to appreciate pickles and chutney and soup as well, not just jam.'

Some of the joy slid off Marlene's face. 'I suppose you're right. But I really like the alliteration. A-PPuh-reciation of Puh-ureed Puh-lants.'

Dorcas shrugged. 'I quite like pickles.'

A voice from behind the three witches piped up enthusiastically, with, 'So do I, Dorcas! We should be really good friends.' Sirius Black had come up behind the armchairs. 'I've been looking for a Segway into this conversation for at least three minutes.' Patting a laughing Dorcas on the head, he sat himself down next to Lily and snagged a piece of chocolate. Surprised, she watched him toe off his shoes and arrange himself comfortably on the floor. Feeling her gaze on him, Sirius turned his head and with amusement in his eyes, nodded, saying gravely, 'Evans.'

Since the end of fifth year James's behaviour toward Lily may have drastically changed, but so had Sirius's. He and Lily had been paired for a History of Magic assignment a few months ago —a few weeks before she had discovered her jealous tendencies where a certain Daisy Abbot was concerned —and upon learning that they were partners Sirius had come up to her and clapped her on the shoulder, saying, 'I feel that this is the start of something beautiful, Evans.' Feeling confused and a little discomfited by his sudden civility toward her, Lily had suspiciously replied 'I hope you don't think I'm going to do all the work.'

Sirius had laughed and begun assigning the different roles of the project with the bright pink flamingo quill that she had always coveted. 'No, Lilykins! In my experience that would be an extremely dangerous thought for me to have.'

Half an hour into the lesson, Lily had found herself laughing and joking around with the notorious prankster. Suddenly realising how odd it the whole thing was, she had blurted, 'Why are you being so nice to me?'

Kicking his chair off the front two legs and balancing on the back two, Sirius considered the question. 'You're less of a shrew this year. And it helps that every time I'm with my mate —James Potter, you know him? —I don't have my ear chewed off about you.' He adopted a falsetto: 'Do you think Lily's noticed my new haircut? Look, Lily ironed her skirt —aren't the pleats crisp? Oh, isn't Lily as majestic as a waterfall?'

Cheeks reddening, Lily said, 'A waterfall?'

'Oh, yes,' Sirius said earnestly. 'I've heard you compared to all sorts of natural wonders, from Dumbledore's lustrous beard, to rich, fertile soil.'

'I'm not sure how I feel about knowing that you discussed my fertility.'

'I assure you, Evans, there is no facet of you that has not been pondered over in laborious detail.'

Since then they had been tentative friends. They would joke around in class and greet each other in passing, but Lily was still surprised when he settled easily next to her in the common room.

Not knowing what to say in reply to his greeting, she thrust the cheese at him. 'Cheese?'

Eyebrows raised, he accepted a piece and Lily showed him how to assemble it with the chocolate and bread, ignoring the moans from Dorcas and Marlene.

Later on, when Sirius had begun to enthusiastically construct his second chocolate-cheese-bread snack, Lily asked, 'Why're you slumming it with the lasses, then, Black?'

Sighing loudly, he said, 'Peter's in detention, Remus is in the li-lib-library —' he pretended to choke on the word ' —and Prongs is gagging poor Daisy Abbott with his tongue on the couches behind us.'

Vaguely, Lily heard Marlene ask what Peter's detention was for and Sirius's reply, but a dull buzzing had started in her ears. She could feel Dorcas's eyes in the back of her head.

The couches behind us…

Rather feeling as if she were disconnected from her body, she poked her head around the side of Marlene's couch and looked over at the couches in the outer ring around the fireplace.

Sure enough, James Potter and Daisy Abbott were there, curled around each other, snogging with great enthusiasm.

It must be known that what happened next was completely unprecedented. Prior to this, it was well known that Lily Evans was perpetually in control of her facilities. But something had always snapped in her where James Potter was concerned: he had always had the ability to change her from 'that lovely Lily Evans' to 'that raging lunatic' in a split second.

All would have been fine if Lily had just turned back around. Instead of taking the safe option, she heard herself speak, almost as if it were someone else. The question was innocuous, really, but Lily was later informed that she had posed it very loudly (Dorcas may have used the word 'foghorn') and people who weren't really supposed to hear it, did.

'Have they been there the whole time?'

There was a noise like a suction plug as the couple on the couch pulled apart. Both sets of eyes zeroed in on Lily, whose head was poking around the armchair, and who was staring at them as if she had never seen a couple getting to know one another in such a way. It was even worse than a train wreck —it was like watching the train coming towards her at one hundred miles per hour, but all Lily could see was his wonderfully tousled hair and the glint of his glasses —his arms, flung across the back of the couch —how his skin looked gold in the firelight —his eyes, impossibly wide with surprise —the apples of his cheeks reddening —the movement of his Adam's apple as he swallowed… in preparation to answer Lily's question. It was only then that she realised what she had done.

He swallowed again, drawing his arm from under Daisy's neck. 'Uh, yes. We've been here a little while,' he said.

You need to literally pull your head in right now, her sense was yelling like a mental Howler. But the way James Potter was looking at her, with a mixture of surprise, caution and something else intense and heavy, quickly rendered it mute. His air looked so soft and touchable and his mouth —

'Are you okay, Lily?'

In her thorough perusal of James, Lily had almost forgotten. That's right. It takes two to snog. Daisy's hair was dishevelled and her cheeks were pink and she was frowning at Lily in gentle concern, clearly worried about the other witch's unnatural behaviour. Despite this —and she felt guilty even as she experienced it —Lily had to tamp down an irrational surge of dislike. No, she wanted to say. And I think you shouldn't ever kiss that young man again. Not trusting herself not to say it just yet —look at what had already happened! She was seriously out of control —she grappled with words.

Then, before she could even begin to patch things over with some witty repartee about taking notes on technique, an awkward, 'er…' from behind reminded her that there were others —three in fact —who had also been witness to the Great Mouth of Lily Evans, she with the Uncontrollable Facilities, in action.

'Evans?' Sirius was staring at her in astonishment. Marlene was wide-eyed with shock and Dorcas was fighting an incredulous grin.

'I'm sorry,' Lily said suddenly, shaking her head as if to clear her ears from water. 'Wow, sorry! I —I —' she tried to laugh ' —I feel a bit weird. I think I'm really tired.'

'Yes,' Dorcas caught on very quickly. 'You were looking pale before. You've been working really late recently. Go to bed, Lil.'

Even Marlene, bless her little soul, chimed in. 'And you do get a bit kooky when you don't sleep.'

'Right.' Zombie-like, Lily rose to her feet. Without looking at anyone, she said with forced lightness, ''S'been lovely fun. Sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs snog —bite. Bite.'