Chapter 3: Awaken

"Rise and shine, Lily," two voices announced loudly, the sound waves aimed directly at a pair of ears. Lily, who had fell asleep with a grin on her face eventually woke up with a deep frown on her forehead. Her eyelids were still stuck together yet bright lights seeped into them, tormenting her of not being a morning person. She let out an agitated groan after injuring her toe by kicking her on of her bed's legs and walking straight into a wall twice, resulting in a bruise each on her forehead and cheek. After rubbing her eyes in frustration, she opened them as wide as she could and strutted into the bathroom, slamming the door after her once she found out that it was seven o' clock.

"The least you could have done was warn me about the obstacles in my path, you bums," The words seethed out of Lily's mouth before she covered her head in her arms and shut her eyes.

"Bum is not the correct word to use, seeing as you are the biggest bum among us," said Mary while taking a bite out of her buttered toast, but Lily was already asleep on the table.

"We should not have woke her up. The both of you should have known better," Emmeline commented.

"We are doing her a favour. If she isn't up with us now, she'll be scowling at us later for not waking her up, resulting her to miss her first class. And you know Lily, just look at her," Alice then threw a glance at her best friend, whose head was still buried within her arms on the table.

Lily's red hair had been tied simply in a messy ponytail with stray hairs sticking out of her head, causing her to look like a mad woman. "That is the classic 'Lily-in-the-morning' hair-do which as all of you know, will be fixed once Lily is awake. Let's also be thankful that the school robe is concealing her crumpled blouse," Dorcas pointed out, trying to think up more good points on Lily's appearance.

The other girls chortled and at the point where they could not keep it in anymore, they burst out laughing as usual. No matter how hard they tried to keep from laughing, either they would let it all out or at least just a tiny giggle. They did not mind when their stomach ached or when their cheeks were tickled pink after a dose of laughter, if there was a profession in laughing, no doubt they would be the first to sign up for the job.

"Youpunks, gimmesomefood," a mumble emitted from Lily, who still refused to lift up her head from the table. Her eyelids felt sore and heavy, but she soon managed to balance her head on her palms after several grunts. She then let out a yawn while stretching her arms wide open. Her signature pair of emerald-green eyes which were beautiful and glassy showed that she was finally awake.

Marlene passed Lily a toast smeared with assorted jams, blueberry, raspberry and strawberry. Lily polished off her toast with a cup of tea, she then wiped her mouth which had pink and purple jam stains on it. "So, when do you think I should tell Matthew?" she asked while sipping her tea.

"I say, wait till he has something to say to you before you go to him and throw in the towel," Mary said while scanning through the Daily Prophet for some interesting news. "Sounds reasonable enough," Emmeline voiced.

"Isn't that supposed to be unkind? She makes his hopes soar and then all of a sudden, she shoves him back down," wondered Dorcas out loud. "Personally, I think that you could meet up with him as you promised and tell him the news then," Alice suggested.

"It will not be counted as your second time because you are just meeting up with him, as a friend, to tell him that you are breaking it off," Marlene said cheerily. "I never would have thought that I would break up with someone right on my second meeting with that person. Come to think, that person was my first too," sighed Lily.

"Prongs, time to get our coffee fill," Sirius said in a sing-song voice. James Potter blinked his eyes furiously, grabbing blindly at his bedside table to reach for his spectacles. His fuzzy vision cleared up once he peered through them. "How in blazes do you manage to be so hyper at this time of the morning even after a victory dance routine last night?" he asked drowsily.

"It's seven so buzz off, Padfoot," Remus then tossed a pillow at Sirius, which landed perfectly on his head. "I knew the both of you really don't like to wake up, so I decided to be a great pal and bring up some breakfast in bed. Just wondered if the two of you would mind or not," Sirius answered while clutching the pillow his heart, pretending to be hurt.

"Whatever you say, just leave the room," James gave his best friend a long look. When the last trace of Sirius made its way out of the dorm's door, James plopped back into bed and fell asleep once again the moment his head touched the pillows.

"Good morning, ladies," a voice which was all too familiar greeted the girls. Sirius Black had made his way to the breakfast table and all too surprisingly to the girls, he was indeed alone. He flashed them a smile before placing himself next to Lily, who was still reading the Daily Prophet and therefore did not notice his presence. "So, Black, what brings you to the humble side of the Gryffindor table?" asked Alice while scooping cereal into her mouth.

"Nothing, really. It just seemed that today I was in the mood to have my breakfast early and my best besties did not want to join me," Sirius replied truthfully with a glum look on his face. "Evans, anything worth knowing in today's paper?" he then turned towards Lily.

"I'll say, your best pal, the idiotic and absolutely annoying James Potter isn't here and you are trying to get closer to us? What happened to the pills which you were taking?" she said as she put down the newspaper. Sirius gave her a knowing look and patted her back. "There were no more pills, James took them away from me and stowed them somewhere else. He said that it was not going to do any good for my brain, apparently," Sirius grinned.

"It's a wonder how you and him can be friends while he is the best friend of that person which you hate so much," Mary commented. "And they really could spare us the corny remarks," Marlene said before reaching out for a scone.

"Oh well, James is not really one which I can speak to for more than two sentences without screaming at. But I think it is better for me to take one step at a time to get to know the pompous Potter. Anyway, with Sirius and Remus as my friends, I think I could hold the insulting at a safer level," Lily said while trying to dodge the bread crumbs which Sirius had charmed to sprinkle onto her hair, plates and plates of crumbs. "Evans, you called James 'pompous Potter'," Sirius warned her in a friendly tone as she shook the crumbs out of her hair.

A few months ago, Lily had formed a truce with Remus and Sirius, and their plan was to pester her when she insulted James. In exchange, her task was to make sure that they did not date or flirt too much with the wrong girls. Basically, they were keeping each other in check and being civil to each other. After the incident which involved hanging Severus Snape upside down and the revelation of his gray underpants, none of the girls had dared to question the alliance between Lily and Sirius and Remus, but it looked fine and they just acted as per normal. Fortunately, the loud quarrels between James and Lily had died down to a few moments of somewhat more logical bickering which were not too harsh, the girls called it the duo's battle of wits. Nowadays, both of them would use non-verbal spells, a task which proved to be difficult but it was unexpected and interesting to watch. Just a week ago, Lily had managed to make grass grow amidst James' jet-black hair. He had in return, turned the roots of her red hair an incredible shade of bright blue. The girls had hoped for the best and as long as the duo did not go overboard, they were quite satisfied with the way they acted towards each other.

"You need not worry about me, with your choice of dates, I have a feeling that some brightly-coloured hair dye will be knocking on your door in no time," Lily then flashed him an annoyed look.

"Breakfast is served," Sirius announced while tinkling a bell. He had prepared a rather large breakfast for his best friends with food and drinks ranging from orange juice, coffee, cereal, eggs, pancakes, bagels and apples. The silver trays he balanced on his hands were piled with food, his gray eyes focusing on them to make sure that they did not topple over. "Prongs, Moony, would both of you mind helping out a little?" he pleaded.

James quickly seized a tray from Sirius' right hand and set it on his bedside table. He gazed at the startling amount of food on the tray, quickly reminding himself that Sirius had an appetite exactly like a hungry dog and therefore had taken the liberty to share the joy of eating with them. All of a sudden, Remus let out a whoop of delight. "You didn't decaffeinate the coffee, didn't you?" James questioned Sirius who had decided to secretly swap Remus' coffee with a cup of caffeine-free fruit tea while Remus was still jumping on his bed, challenging the springs in his mattress to the extreme.

"Smart move," James grinned. After Remus had calmed down, Sirius smothered a scone with cream and jam generously before passing it blindly to James who thanked him. Remus rushed into the toilet and changed rather hastily before having his breakfast. "Thanks, Padfoot," Remus said to Sirius before ushering James to change and coaxing both of them to attend their Charms lesson instead of lying down on their beds.

"Go away, Moony. Our O.W.L.s are over, what else is there to study?" Sirius groaned. Remus just gave him a look of mock stern before pushing him and James out of their dorm.

"Lily, have you decided on what to wear to the break up?" whispered Mary as she flicked her wand. "Why in the world would Lily be thinking of what to wear while she is clearly trying to perfect this charm?" asked Dorcas who was practicing the wand movements Professor Flitwick had taught them.

Lily just gave them a smile before turning back to refining her charm. Secretly, she was hoping that she would be the first in class to perform the charm flawlessly without ending up with disastrous results. "Keep on trying, Mr. Potter. You are nearly there," Professor Flitwick commented. James' object was already half-frozen, but thankfully the ice had started to melt once the professor left his table.

"Fresconisceles!" Lily pronounced her words sharply as she waved her wand full with concentration. Whilst silver ice spurted from her wand and wound itself around the carnation in front of her slowly, the thin cage of ice looked fragile at first. Even so, after a few moments the pale pink carnation was encased within solid ice, yet it was not a chunk of ice. Instead, it looked so elegant and delicate, for a layer of ice just outlined the flower somewhat nicely.

"Well done, Miss Evans. You are once again the first in class to perform this charm. It certainly looks like your frozen carnation has been rather beautifully done. 50 points to Gryffindor," Professor Flitwick said gleefully as he stopped at her table to admire her frozen carnation. A smile slowly crept onto Lily's face after she was complimented. If only she could make all the correct decisions for her life so that it would stay as perfect as the carnation would, preserved by the cold ice.

A/N: Hi! This is the update which I promised. (Although it is already the last day of my holidays. -gloom-) And hopefully, there is some feedback. Most probably on the plot and the punctuation, I think. XD Thanks to shana.rose, Sirius Blacks Gurl and the few others (:-S my email puts these 'Story Alert' mails in Bulk Mail) for putting me on Story Alert!

Remember, a review won't hurt me ;P