"Lily honey, wake up!" Caroline gently shook her. "We've got to get back to school."
Lily slowly opened her bright green eyes and saw complete darkness around her. "Where are we?" She asked, looking around.
"The island, remember? Picnicking with the boys?" Caroline smiled. "Come on, honey, we've gotta go."
"Where are the boys?" Lily asked.
"They're putting the stuff in the boat with Lee-lee," Caroline explained, "I'm here to make sure you come with us. You fell asleep while we sat around the fire and talked."
Lily sat up and a warm jacket fell off of her. "Who's is this?"
"James's, he put it over you when you fell asleep."
Lily smiled and pulled it closer to her, inhaling James's cologne. "Mhmm. It smells like him."
Caroline rolled her eyes and stood up. "We've gotta go, Lily."
Lily stood up, clutching the jacket. "Did I miss anything?"
"Not really. We all kind of fell asleep." Caroline smiled. "Only thing I realized is that our friend Remus has a crush on Lee-lee."
Lily felt herself go wide awake at that. "No way? That'd be so great!"
"I know! It'd be perfect. She's absolutely amazing." Caroline smiled. "I love that kid. I feel so bad for the hell her roommates put her through."
Lily nodded. "It's not fair, at all. She's such a sweet girl."
"She's great," Caroline agreed, "and she's gorgeous."
The two walked back in silence after that note, smiling at each other occasionally as they met up with their friends. James placed his arm around Lily as he guided her into the boat while Caroline plopped herself down in Sirius's lap. Remus held out his arm to assist Lee-lee, who thanked the Lord that it was dark because that meant he couldn't see her blushing.
Once everyone had managed to get into the castle safely, the girls escorted Lee-lee to her floor before hugging her goodnight. "See you tomorrow!" Lily whispered as they hugged.
Caroline smiled at Lee-lee before hugging her. "I'm sorry for being a bitch," she said softly.
Lee-lee hugged her back. "Don't worry about it, Caro," she replied before walking into her bedroom. She wasn't the least bit surprised to see that the conversation stopped as she entered. "Goodnight ya'll." She said, yawning. "Everyone have a good night?" She didn't bother to wait for a reply. "Great. I'm so completely tired." She pulled her favorite sleeping shirt out of her trunk and climbed onto her bed, closing the curtains to change behind them. Once she finished, she opened them to throw her clothes back into her truck when she heard someone address her.
"Did you have fun?" Marietta Flynn asked.
Lee-lee nodded. "Tons."
"Where did you go?" Another of her roommates, Victoria, added.
"An island."
"Really?!?"
"Yeah. But I'm really tired. Goodnight." Lee-lee pulled her curtains shut and smiled in the darkness. Now that she actually had friends, these girls wanted to talk to her. As if.
In the floor above hers, a very important conversation was going on.
"Are you serious about James?" Caroline asked, lounging upon her bed.
"As a heart attack." Lily replied with a slight smile. "Trust me, Caro, I'm really into him."
"Are you dating?" Pippa looked up from her pillow. "Charles and I can't figure it out."
Lily laughed. "We're both dating and not. We haven't kissed or anything but we're together, I suppose. We just like being around each other."
"I'm surprised you two haven't argued yet!" Caroline teased.
"Me too," Lily said earnestly, "I'm really surprised. I've been expecting a huge argument but there isn't anything to argue about. He's so sweet to me and he's always so perfect. I don't know what I can argue with him about! The only thing we disagree about lately is whether my hair is ugly or not!"
Pippa and Caroline burst into laughter. "You two need help, Lils." Pippa said. "Charles and I don't argue but that's because Charles knows better than to try. He knows I'm right."
Caroline's eyes twinkled. "Sirius and I argue but we have the best way to remedy all of our fights."
"Uh oh…" Lily winked at Pippa. "I'm not sure we want to hear this method."
Caroline rolled her eyes. "Pippa does it too, even though she and Charles don't argue."
"You do?" Lily asked, looking at her.
"Sure," Pippa shrugged, "it's really no big deal."
"It's not?"
Caroline shook her head. "It's fun, it's simple, it's great."
Lily looked at them, a bit aghast. She hadn't imagined that they were both that far in their relationships.
"I do live with him," Caroline said quietly. "What did you think we did?"
Lily bit her lip. "I don't know?"
There was an awkward pause before Caroline and Pippa laughed. "We're talking about COOKING, Lils!" Pippa cried out, rolling around with laughter.
"Cooking?!?" Lily stared at them. "I thought we were talking sex!"
Caroline laughed. "No! Sirius and I have done it, you know that, but it's not my way to remedy situations!"
Pippa nodded. "Charles and I have but I agree with Caro that it's not a solution to an argument."
Lily rolled her eyes at them. You guys are terrible!" She exclaimed.
"Oh but you love us, honey." Caroline smiled as she pulled her covers towards her head. "Goodnight girls."
Lily and Pippa responded in unison before too rolling over and falling into a deep and wonderful sleep.
"Merlin, Lils! Look at this!" Pippa shoved a thick envelope at her, stuffed almost to the point of breaking.
"What is it?" She replied groggily, reaching across the bed.
Pippa shrugged. She sat down on the end of Lily's bed and looked at the writing again. "Maybe you should read it?"
Lily nodded. "I guess so."
Lily Catharine Evans,
First off, I have to let you know that the spelling of your middle name is absolutely amazing. I have met a billion Catherine's but not a single Catharine. I think it's bloody brilliant.
Well I suppose the next thing to do is to tell you whose letter this is. Well, I've decided to not tell you, keeping you in suspense. Maybe you'll guess by the end of it but I plan to wax on somewhat poetically. Well maybe not poetically. I'm not really the poetry type. That's more up the alley of my best mate, though he'll kill me if he knew I told you that.
I figured that instead of writing you some stupid little letter that was completely sickeningly sweet and all I'd let you read the letters I've written my mates. Certain names have been changed though, to protect the innocent (or not-so).
So I guess here goes my only attempt at achieving happiness.
(If you manage to figure out who I am, at least pretend not to. I can't really change my letters but you know…)
Lily paused for a moment to place the page down upon her bed. She glanced at the clock she had on her bed night stand. "Tell all the professors I'm sick." She said, uncharacteristically. Caroline and Pippa raised their eyebrows at each other but refrained from commenting.
Dog, you bloody bastard who stole my money!
You, mate, owe me so much money that it isn't even remotely funny. I expect you to pay me back by the time school starts, yeah?
Good. Glad we have that settled. Now to more pressing matters.
Have you or Princess talked to her? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to write her a letter or not. I want to but I don't want to scare her. I don't think I will… it'd be brilliant to though. Write her a letter. I'm bloody obsessed, Dog. Call the doctor, I need a cure!
She's stunning though, absolutely gorgeous. I had a great dream about her last night (nothing along the lines of your dreams—I'm not disgusting!). It involved her NOT being angry at me. Mostly we sat by the lake and talked. Merlin, mate, I seem to be losing my edge.
Remember how I told you about my neighbors? Well Gorgeous seems to fancy me. She's the girl with the amazing legs that stretch on for miles. She's gorgeous, that one. Even nearly as stunning as Lily is… damn it! I hadn't wanted to write that name. Oh well. Back to Gorgeous. She's tall and tanned and blonde and stunning. She's the hottest girl on the block, that's for certain. I think I'm going to ask her out. Maybe it'll help to have someone like that to keep my mind off of… well you know what.
Give my best to Princess! See you all soon, alright?
Frog's legs,
Me
Lily folded it carefully and placed the letter on top of the cover letter. She read on.
Emergency!
I'm dating Gorgeous and I can't even kiss her! What the hell is wrong with me?!? She's the hottest girl around for miles but every time she tries to kiss me, I can't! What the hell?!?
There was a reply attached to that parchment.
Me, you are a bloody idiot. But that's just my opinion. Princess thinks you're amazingly sweet (her words, not mine). Gorgeous is gorgeous and you should kiss her and snog her and get over Lily.
Reply:
I can't. I bloody can't. I feel like such a jackass, using Gorgeous like this.
Then bin her. Get Evans. There you go.
Evans hates my guts.
Then you're fucked, man. Oh wait. No. Princess thinks that's mean. You're not fucked. And according to her, Evans doesn't hate your guts completely, only mostly. She thinks you're alright, sometimes.
Why the hell am I writing you and not Princess then? She seems to be a lot more interested in helping me than you, mate.
Because her loyalties lie with Evans and mine are with you. Princess just wants you to feel better. I want you to date the gorgeous woman that is Gorgeous. She'd be good for you, I swear!
I'm trying, I really am. Princess, should I tell Gorgeous?
You suck, man. Asking my girlfriend for advice instead of me is low, way low. Way beyond our code, low. But I digress (because Princess just hit me on the head). She says you should. She thinks you should do the whole "honesty" thing. It's your funeral.
That's it. I'm telling Gorgeous the whole story.
Good luck.
I did it! I told her! I told her the ENTIRE story about Lily from day one. I mean, all the way back from meeting her.
Princess wants to know what you told her. Write it to us.
Fine… I'll tell you the whole story.
We were sitting outside by my pool, just relaxing. She was in her smallest bikini yet (white on tan skin, my friend, is bliss). Her long blonde hair was down and she looked amazing. Of course she did, she's Gorgeous.
Anyway, we were sitting there and she had her head on my shoulder and I was really trying to kiss her but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So I told her we had to talk.
"What about?" She asked, those stunning blue eyes of hers looking confused. It killed me, nearly.
"I have to tell you something."
She moved her head away from my shoulder. "Okay."
I took a deep breath and launched in. "There is a girl I know named Lily Evans. Well, before I get in too deep, you need to know that I've never cheated on you nor have I even contemplated it. I do like you, you're an amazing girl."
She nodded at me to go on.
"Lily Evans. Right. Okay. So. She's this girl at school. I met her when I was eleven. She had the fieriest red hair I'd ever seen and she definitely stood out amongst the other little eleven year-olds. You remember my best friends, Dog, Sand, and Rat? Well we all just stopped to look at her. I remember staring at her wondering how her hair got to be that red."
Gorgeous let me ramble for a bit about Lily's red hair before she interrupted. "Listen, Me, I know this is hard and all but I get that her hair is red. Can you get on with it, please?"
"Okay. Sorry. Yeah. So. Lily. First year. I kind of upset her by playing a prank or ten on her. She was shy and she started to hate me. Which was fine with me because I didn't like her much either. We both hated each other, passionately practically, and that lasted until our fifth year."
I paused for a minute and went inside the house to get drinks. When I got back, Gorgeous was looking at me with a small smile and said, "So you hated each other… go on."
"Fifth year, she showed up. She was 5'2 and had the longest legs I've ever seen, besides yours." Gorgeous smiled again but waved for me to continue. "Her hair, which had been fiery, tamed itself down to a mild auburn. Her eyes were still the same green but were framed by her newly calm hair. In short, she was gorgeous.
"I walked up to her and asked her out. Just like that. No 'hi Lily, how're you?' or 'you look great!' Nope, my stupid self asked her out. She said, and I quote, 'what the bloody hell is wrong with you?' I spent the rest of that day staring at her."
Gorgeous nodded again. She really was beautiful.
"Well, I spent that whole year asking Lily out periodically. Well more than that. I asked her out every time I saw her. I think I annoyed her a bit. I think my ultimate record for asking her out in one day was forty-two times."
Gorgeous laughed before she realized I was serious. "Go on!" She urged.
"The fifth year was bad. She was seriously upset with me but I knew I liked her a lot. The last few weeks of school she had to see me pranking on this one guy. She got mad, I got mad, we argued. Summer came and I banished her out of my mind. Then, last year, I grew up a little bit. I started trying to grow up. I quit playing a lot of pranks, except for that one guy but that doesn't count. I stopped arguing with her and really was a lot nicer to her. That helped a bit, but not much.
"There was a big problem. It was awful. It was because of Dog and Rat, playing a prank on the enemy. It was bad. But I mean, the four of us worked it out.
"Then, at the end of the year, I decided to try talking to her. Still didn't work. Hell, I don't think anything will work. But I have to let you know that I'm still really into her. Maybe not love but I really like her, a lot. And I do like you but I don't think it's fair for me to date you if I'm also interested in another girl. I don't want to hurt you, Gorgeous, and dating Lily is probably a pipe dream, but I like her. That's it. I can't change it. I like her a lot."
Gorgeous didn't say anything for a few minutes. Then she lent over and kissed me on the cheek. "You're the sweetest guy I've ever met, Me." She hugged me. "We'll be amazing as friends."
That's it, Princess & Dog. That's the whole story, nothing held out. Even the mushy bits about how much I like her.
Merlin. The hell is wrong with me?
Nothing, mate, according to Princess. Come over for margaritas soon. Sand promised he'd be over Tuesday. Rat's out of town, who knows where. But come over, okay?
See you there.
Lily placed that letter down beside the others and glanced at the clock. It was nearly time for lunch. Sighing, she took the next letter.
Sand,
It was great seeing you, mate! I hope you're not under the weather or anything. Write me back soon.
Seeing as how the last time I saw you was at Lily Evan's house, it feels necessary for me to tell you about how I've actually hung out with her, one-on-one.
I'm bad at this all, Sand. Here's a list of what I learned about her.
1. She loves peanut butter. I mean, the girl's obsessed with PEANUT BUTTER. How random is that?
2. Her sister is an absolute bitch. (An explanation will be provided later.)
3. She's had four boyfriends (all Muggle), none serious.
4. She "adores" Horse-Girl and Princess. Thinks they're "the bee's knees".
5. Lily thought I was a big-headed prick until now. Now she doesn't know what to think.
6. Her taste in ice-cream is weird. She loves the following flavors: orange, apple, watermelon, and lemon. I didn't even know they made lemon ice-cream.
There's more but I'm not sure about getting into it, Sand. Come stay with me soon, okay?
Frog's legs,
Me
Lily laughed and opened the drawer near her. She reached for her jar of peanut butter and an apple. "This is bliss," she said quietly before grabbing another letter.
Me!
Listen mate, you're "smitten". That's what Princess said to call it. "Smitten". She thinks you're absolutely mad about her. Which, of course, you are.
You've really got to get a hold of yourself though. Sand sent me the letter you wrote him. You're obsessed. Not a single mention of pranking! Princess and I are a bit worried.
Oh and it was nice of you to gloss over that "event". It was bad, I know. But I'm sorry for it and Sand knows it. Rat's sorry too. But he's just bad at showing it. I think.
God man, we need to think of some pranks. What do you say we do one for the girls? For Princess and your lover-girl?
Speaking of lovers, have you noticed how much more mature I am? Princess says it's because I'm growing up and becoming an adult. She also blames it on the fact that we now live together. It's brilliant though, living with her. She cooks and cleans.
Okay. I lied. We both cook and clean. But she taught me how to do most of it. I didn't know anything! Did you know that you can clean a kitchen without a wand? She made me do it once. It sucked. But I got a great prize… I was going to tell you what it was but Princess just hit me over the head. And now for telling you. And again. Damn. I should just quit writing!
Listen mate, keep us updated. You know I'm living vicariously through you.
Frog's legs,
Dog
PS. Princess wants to know how it's going between Gorgeous and Lily.
Dog & the Amazing Princess,
Gorgeous and Lily are practically best pals. G loves her and is doing her best to make sure she's happy. L loves her too and they hang out a lot. I'm crazy jealous over the attention G gets.
G's also proved to be a great friend. She kept the story quiet, thank Merlin. She's a wonderful girl. A part of me wishes that she was The Girl, like L is. It'd make my life a load easier. But then again, who wants it easy?
Yeah Dog, I DID notice how responsible you've gotten. I blame Princess. Damn it, Princess, you've taken away my one joy! Dog and I had such fun, being bad together. Now it's gone, all gone. (Cue sobs.)
Damn that Sand for sending you my letter! Now I know that you guys will never keep ANYTHING quiet. Oh well. It's alright with me, I suppose.
I've got to run. Lily's coming over soon.
Frog's legs,
Me
PS. She just left. God she's brilliant. I'm in love.
PPS. Bloody hell, I'm a prat. She saw that last bit. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I don't know what to do. The girl alternately drives me insane with lust or hate. I can't decide! What the hell?!?
Half the time I want to take her and… uh yeah, that. The other half I'm trying not to murder her! She's such a psycho! I can't decide if I love or hate her. Jesus H. Christ. Kill me, please. Or else that red haired girl who seems to enjoy inhabiting my dreams will.
Lily had to admit, it felt extremely strange to read about herself in third person, with such nice things written about her. She wasn't used to hearing about how wonderful she was, or gorgeous, or brilliant. Well, of course she wasn't Gorgeous but it was okay.
She grabbed the last letter.
Dear Lily Catharine Evans,
I know you think I'm a bit crazy, and slow, and terrible sometimes but I want you to know that I really do care about you. You're an amazing woman and I'm desperately infatuated with you. I'm a bit scared to use the word "love" because it's kind of overused.
So here's the guide. Gorgeous was Rachael, Princess Caroline, Dog was Sirius, Sand was Remus, and Rat was Peter. I'm Me. Obviously.
Lily, I don't know how you're feeling right now. I don't know how you feel about your parents' death. Well I know it sucks because I feel that way too. But I mean, the only thing that really truly got me out of my slump was you. Being with you. Being near you. You're my angel, Lily.
Actually, I've decided to call you Ace. Ace as in the A in Catharine, my favorite name. If I ever have a daughter, that'll be her name. For a son, I'd name him Harry. Harry James Potter. Sounds good, doesn't it? Whoops. I've revealed who I am. But I'm fairly sure you already knew that because you're not daft like me.
Oh and I'm also going to call you Nut. Because of the whole peanut butter thing. But yeah.
Lily, it'd mean the world to me if you'd actually become my girlfriend. Not yet but in the future. Not that I wouldn't be happy to date you now. I just think some more time needs to elapse, to feel better I guess.
You mean the world to me.
Frog's legs,
James Potter
Lily looked down at his signature. "Frog's legs," she wondered aloud.
"Faithfully, Rightly, Outlandishly, Gregariously, Stupidly, Lovingly, Excitedly, Gorgeously, Yours. The 's'
"Read the postscript," a voice advised her.
She smiled and glanced down.
PS. Faithfully, righteously, outlandishly, gregariously, stupidly, lovingly, excitedly, gorgeously yoursFROG'S LEGS. Long story. Blame Sirius.