A/N: It's not really an L/J one-shot. For some reason, I just really like writing Lily Evans and co. in the morning. :)
At precisely 7:00 on that very fine morning, Lily Evans awoke to the sun's rays dancing across her face, and, not so pleasantly, the incessant beeping noise of her alarm clock. The latter was what she woke up to every day, and, as usual, was turned off with a groping hand and a grumble. The former was not so commonplace, and might indeed have been what made that morning so very fine. Not only was it perpetually rainy in Scotland, the curtains were also usually shut that early in the morning, not allowing the sunlight to enter the room when it did make an appearance.
Lily Evans threw the covers off her body, allowing the chill of the room to permeate her skin so as not to succumb back to the beckoning pleasure of sleep. She shivered and reluctantly opened her eyes; they gradually became used to the uncommonly bright lighting of the room. Only then, some three or four minutes later, did she groggily sit up and scan the room's occupants.
"Why oh why didn't I think to close my bed curtains last night?" Ah; Marlene had stirred. Evidently the lack of darkness had woken her up as well. Or it might have been the alarm clock; Lily wasn't sure. Either way, at least she was awake; that was a feat in itself because Marlene was definitely not an early bird.
"Maybe because we stayed up late last night to exchange sweets and bemoan the woes of adolescent life?" Alice was awake too, groggily rubbing at her eyes despite her sardonic tone.
Lily hopped up, determined to get the first shower and thereby the hot water. On her way, she passed by Mary's bed. She swatted at the girl in it, whose hand lay over her eyes, shielding them from the sun.
"Up you get, Mary; no snoozing."
There was no reply except for a grimace and a half-hearted swipe in return. Lily let it go for the time being; she continued to the bathroom.
When she came out of the shower, ten minutes earlier than she'd have liked, conscious of the other girls waiting for their own turn, the dormitory was considerably more active than it had been when she'd left it.
"I haven't got a clean shirt! Alice, have you got a clean shirt?" Marlene called across the room, half her body in her trunk as she rummaged.
"Get Lily to do her nifty ironing charm on one of yours," Alice yelled back as she sat at the girls' shared makeup desk, applying mascara.
Mary seemed to be frantically searching for something; she spotted Lily and let out a sigh of relief. "Lily, have you seen my navy socks? I can't find them and Alice won't help me!"
"Mare, the house elves took them for cleaning last night, remember?" Lily replied. "Now go take a shower; I'll lend you my white ones for today."
As Mary gathered her makeup and went, muttering about her dislike of white socks, Marlene called, "Lily, when you get dressed could you please clean my shirt?"
Lily replied in the affirmative and Marlene went over to sit with Alice at the mirror still in her pajamas, bumping her hip against Alice's and demanding, "Budge over."
"Things would go so much faster in the morning," Lily teased, as she pulled on her blouse, her skirt, her socks, her shoes, and her robes, in that order, "if you guys readied your clothes the day before, like I do."
"We can't all be organizing geniuses like you, Lil," Marlene retorted, attempting to brush through her long brown hair and apply foundation at the same time.
"Slow down, Lena," Lily called back as she threw socks onto Mary's bed and made her way over to Marlene's, where a wrinkled shirt lay. "You don't want to get foundation in your hair." She continued as she cast a nonverbal cleaning charm on the shirt: "And why you wear that stuff anyways is beyond me . . . you have perfect skin!" This as she flicked her wand and steam rushed out of the tip, smoothing and heating the shirt in a matter of seconds.
"Shut it, I do not. In fact, I can feel a pimple forming right now!" Marlene declared dramatically. Lily and Alice laughed.
Lily walked over to the table. "Go get dressed while your shirt's still warm." Marlene stuck her tongue out at Lily's reflection ("Yes, mum,") as she smoothed her bangs one last time and hopped up. Lily took her place next to Alice.
"I want to do something different with my hair," Alice began quietly as Marlene banged around her bed, getting dressed and letting out the occasional swear, "but it's so short I can't even make it wavy." She surveyed her straight blonde tresses, cut to a bob, critically.
"Technically, there are spells you could learn to charm your hair wavy," Lily answered as she brushed through her own thick auburn hair, "and even make it longer. But we've been over this: it's cute the way it is and I think you should keep that way."
"Nothing I could do right now anyways, I guess," Alice shrugged. "Can I do some eye shadow on you today, Lil?" She asked, brightening as she watched Lily uncapping her eyeliner.
"Alice, it's just Monday," Lily laughed, "nothing special about today."
"At least put on that green eyeliner you have instead of black," Alice pleaded, "it makes your eyes pop."
Lily paused and surveyed the dark green eyeliner she'd gotten from Mary for her birthday this year skeptically for a while.
"Oh, fine," she finally acquiesced, "I guess I could do that; no one will notice the difference anyways."
"Sure they won't, Lily," Alice snorted. "It only makes your eyes look even brighter green than they already are."
Lily shrugged noncommittally as she recapped the black eyeliner and uncapped the green.
"Good choice, Lily," Mary complimented as she finally emerged from the bathroom, hair and face ready but body wrapped in a towel, "your eyes look great today."
Alice shot her a smug look. Lily sighed and held up her hands in defeat, grinning. "Alright, alright, no need to be so smug."
"If you guys will just wait a couple secs," Mary called from her bed, "I'm almost dressed."
"Go on, then," Marlene said, closing her book bag.
Lily walked over to grab her own. She'd bought it six years ago back when she'd first found out she was a witch; it was frayed and old now. But for Lily it held a certain charm. It had been basic black at first, but over the years it had gotten personalized. There were silver lilies drawn all over it; the letters SS and a little cauldron steaming sketched into a corner; the letters MLAM (Marlene, Lily, Alice, Mary) with a drawing of two hands holding each other taking up a whole side of it; in another corner the words JP + LE = heart, surrounded by Snitches and broomsticks, where they'd been etched back in fourth year by you-can-guess-who. All in all, it was quite important to Lily, and she held most of her worldly possessions in it (the books, at least).
All the girls' book bags were personalized in this way: Alice had 'Alice in Wonderland' (written by Lily) engraved on hers, surrounded by mushrooms and cards and rabbits; Marlene's was covered in marbles (made by Mary when she'd been insane on the nicknames in third year, thus 'Marbles') and doodles of Marlene's own creation; and Mary's contained information about all the Hogwarts people she'd ever known: name, several facial features, and one personality element (she liked to keep track of people). All four girls had one side of their book bag taken up by the initials MLAM and the sign of the two hands, to signify their everlasting friendship.
Why get a bothersome bracelet or necklace when you could have a friendship book bag? Lily chuckled at the memory this brought on. She heaved her bag over her shoulder and joined her friends as they filed out of the dorm and towards the stairs.
"What're you laughing about?" Mary asked, walking beside Lily as they made their way down the stairs. Ahead, Marlene and Alice were discussing the best time to finish their Herbology essay, due that day.
Lily simply gestured to the words on her bag; Mary broke into a huge smile as she understood. "That was a good night, the best night of all best nights," she reminisced.
"Speaking of nights, I completely regret ditching my poor old Herbology essay for you three marble-heads last night," Lily tossed her head to hide her mocking grin.
"Come on, admit it, Lil, you had a great time," Mary coaxed, as Marlene exclaimed, "Lily! The nickname! We agreed that we wouldn't remind Mary. At any cost. Ever," she added vehemently, grinning.
"What? Marbles?" Lily asked in mock confusion, pronouncing the world slowly and carefully to tease her friend.
"Lily!" Marlene shrieked in pretend alarm as they crossed the common room to the portrait hole.
"Moving on to more important things, when are we going to get that essay done?" Lily persisted.
A heavy arm draped itself across her shoulders and a deep voice answered, "Live a little, Evans. One missed essay isn't going to give you a T in any class." And, added in a begging tone, "Why don't I get to call you Lil?"
Lily looked up to meet the bright eyes of her new acquaintance, James Potter. "I'd prefer not to risk it, thanks, Potter," she answered shortly. "And as for the second part of that statement, this," she gestured to the arm still across her shoulders in partial disgust, "is exactly the answer to your question."
"One of the fittest blokes in school can't keep his ruddy hands off you," Mary muttered, "and you're complaining?" Marlene and Alice broke out into loud laughter upon hearing this.
"Why am I friends with you lot again?" Lily asked, rolling her eyes but half-smiling and giving in to the arm nonetheless.
"Because," Mary answered, putting a hand to her heart and fluttering her eyelashes ridiculously, "we're wonderful, and hilarious, and we bribe you with expensive chocolate and you love us!"
"Don't remind me," Lily sighed. Suddenly her eyes sparked mischievously and her hand twitched towards her wand. "I mean, you wouldn't want me to . . . spasm, or anything, and oh-so-accidentally . . . I don't know, get rid of that little acronym so obnoxiously taking up space on my bag?"
Marlene put a dramatic hand to her throat. "You wouldn't dare!" She cried shrilly, eyes twinkling. "And sever all ties of friendship with the world? You simply wouldn't!"
Potter guffawed loudly. "What are you talking about anyways?" He asked, eyes searching Lily's bag. "Mlam?" Pronouncing it as a word.
The girls broke into laughter. Lily recovered long enough to sarcastically tease, "No, jam, Potter," before descending into mirth again.
As the girls calmed down slightly, Alice looked up at Potter from under hooded eyelids. "No, he is not ready yet;" she murmured in a dark, mystic voice, "not ready to be entrusted with the dark and dangerous secret of – mlam!"
High peals of laughter sounded again.
"You sound like that new Divination witch, Trelawney," Potter snickered, rather confused but finding at least this funny in the situation.
The laughter was renewed yet another time as the five entered the Great Hall.
"You know, there's something different," Potter mused, fifteen minutes later, as they ate in contented silence, "about you today, Evans, but I can't quite pinpoint it. Your eyes are awfully bright and pretty, though. Even more enchanting than when I last saw them; and, trust me, that's saying a lot. Ask Pads if you don't believe me." He gestured to his friend, who sat beside him. Black grinned through a mouthful of pancakes and syrup and nodded vigorously, making a throat-cutting motion with his hand.
Alice once again sent a pointed look towards Lily.
"Thanks, Potter," she said sarcastically, before turning towards Alice and saying, "I admit defeat, alright? You were right."
"That smug grin can stop now," she added when a few minutes later, Alice had not abated.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Alice snorted, and tried to hum innocently into her oatmeal.
"Alice, you sound like a bee," Marlene tittered.
"What, bees are happy, I'm happy; I like being right."
"Don't we all," Potter muttered.
"Especially when it's Lily who's wrong," Mary added with an evil grin.
"Especially," Potter agreed.
"Because she's always so awfully right," Alice said.
"Is it National Gang Up on Lily day or something?" Lily asked, pretending to be offended, as she took a bite of her toast.
"Oh, Lily," Marlene sighed as if Lily was being very naïve, "it's always Gang Up On Lily day."
"Especially because you're always right; you need to be wrong every once in a while, it's good for you," Alice snickered.
Lily shook her head at her mental friends. "You are mental," she informed them all. "I told Alice I would wear green eyeliner instead of black and all of a sudden you go all self-righteous on me."
"Coming from the queen of self-righteousness herself," Potter teased.
"Hey!"
A very fine morning indeed.