7 – The Ugly Blue Tangled Yarn

"Lily!"

"Lily, wake up!"

"Now!"

"Whaaaaat?!"

"Get up now!"

Anna and Mary grinned at each other as Lily turned in her bed.

"Lily!" Anna said. "Time to get up!"

Mary pushed Lily who turned towards the window, squinting. "But it's still dark outside!" she complained.

"Exactly!" Anna said.

"I'm not a morning person!"

"We don't care," Mary said. "Get up!"

"But whyyyyy?" Lily groaned.

"Well," Anna said,"As it's Sunday and everyone's sleeping in… We figured we could use a swim in the lake…" she trailed off.

"Naked!" Mary grinned.

Lily sat up at once. "Okay," she said, "But someone help me up!"

Mary and Anna exchanged glances before grabbing Lily's hands and pulling her up.

"Grab a towel, Lils," Anna said, "And some clothes. Then we're going!"

"But, I need to change first!"

"Nope. We're going like this."

Lily groaned, "No way!"

"Yes way!" Mary laughed.

"Now, come on!"

"Fine! I'm up, I'm up! Okay?"

Mary and Anna started to drag Lily out of the dorm after she'd grabbed a towel and some clean clothes. When they reached the lake, the sun had nearly risen and the grounds were much lighter.

"I can't believe you're making me do this!" Lily groaned.

"I can," Anna laughed, "Now drop your nightdress!"

Lily looked pleadingly at them.

"Get over it!" Mary said and let her own dress fall to the ground.

"But the water is cold!"

"How do you know? You haven't been in it!"

"Well, I-"

"Lily, get over yourself and get in it!" Anna called form the shore. "It's really not bad."

Lily and Mary looked at Anna who had long dropped her clothes, laid them behind a bush, and was now moving out into the water. Mary gave Lily a last look and moved towards the water like Anna. At last Lily sighed and dropped her dress.

Anna was at this point swimming around a little longer out. Lily threw her and Mary's clothes behind the bush like Anna's and took a deep breath. Then she ran.

Mary was splashed with water as Lily slowly walked into it, but then suddenly dived, head first, down. Anna and Mary looked astonished at each other.

"OH MERLIN!" Lily squealed as her head popped up from the water again. "It's freaking COOOOOLD!" She continued cursing loud, but the other girl ignored her.

Mary laughed and then she dived under too. At last Anna did. Lily grinned at them as they stood up again. All of them swung their arms around themselves and stood freezing in the water.

"Well," Anna said, "Let's take a swim now!"

Mary nodded and dived again. Anna and Lily followed.

After swimmingaround the lake for some time Anna suddenly stopped and stood up, eyes attentive. Lily looked back at her.

"What?"

"Can you hear that?"

At last Mary got up. "Yeah…"

"What?" Lily repeated.

"Voices," Anna said and hushed her.

"On no!" Lily said took both her hand up to her mouth. "Oh no, no, no!"

They all turned towards the castle and saw four people walk down the lawn. They all had brooms over their shoulders.

"Oh no," Mary echoed.

"The Marauders," Anna whispered.

"Crap!" Lily said.

"Okay! Don't panic!" Anna hissed.

"There!" Mary said and pointed. "Over behind those bushes."

All three girls exchanged glances and quickly swam over there. And there they sat, in the water, listening to the four walkdown the lawn and towards the Quidditch pitch. Anna could feel her heart pound up around her throat and her stomach hurt.

"I can't believe we're hiding," Lily mumbled.

"It's better to be hiding than letting them find us like this!" Anna said. "Think what James and Sirius would do if they found us!"

"They'd look as if Christmas had come early this year," Mary mumbled.

"Aha…"

"Maybe we should begin to go up," Lily suggested.

Anna nodded slightly. "I'm going up as soon as they are gone…"

"I think they are now… Almost…"

Anna looked past the bush and saw them enter the Quidditch pitch. She nodded to herself before she walked up on land again and grabbed a towel. She motioned for Lily and Mary to come too and they did.

"I can't believe you made me do this!" Lily hissed as she had swung her towel around her.

Anna pulled her dressover her head and was the first to have dressed completely. She stepped out from the bush in the same second as she heard something fly through the air and land in the grass only a few meters away. She looked over there and saw a quaffle.

"Merlin," she mumbled and looked towards the Quidditch pitch.

In the next second she saw one of the guys flying towards her. She looked towards the bush whereLily and Mary still hadn't dressed.

"What is it?" Lily asked.

"Err… quaffle," Anna said weakly, "aaaaaand Quidditch player."

Lily wailed.

"Oh no," Mary whispered. "I'm not wearing any clothes."

"Hide," Anna hissed in the same moment as she spotted who the person was.

Only a second later, Sirius landed in the grass, smirking. "Hey Anna," he said and picked up the quaffle. "What'cha doing out here at this time?"

Anna raised an eyebrow. "I could ask you the same?"

Sirius seemed to spot the towel on the ground. "You've been swimming?"

"Err… maybe?"

He grinned. "A bit early ain't it?"

"You're the one playing Quidditch," she said. "You and the other Marauders."

"Well… it's mostly me and James. Remus is a bit of a girl and Peter can barely leave the ground without falling off broom."

Anna grinned and nervously brushed wet hair away from her face.

"So where're the other girls?" Sirius asked and looked around.

"Err," Anna said and slowly moved away from the bush that hid Lily and Mary. "In the dorm. Sleeping."

"Oh," Sirius said. "Hmm… Not much of early risers, are they?"

"Lily's not. Mary is just as much as me."

Sirius nodded. "Well I probably should get back… the others really can't play without this one," he said and held up the quaffle.

"Why did it even land here?" Anna asked, frowning.

"Well," he said and scratched his chin, "Peter tried a charm on it which made it easier to hold. It didn't go well… James's fixing him right now."

Anna smiled. "Hope he'll be alright."

"He will. James's good at that stuff… well, I'm off again."

Anna raised her hand quickly as Sirius jumped on his broom and set off the ground. When he was gone Anna slowly moved towards the bush again.

"He's gone now."

She heard Lily let out a sigh of relief. Half a minute later both girls appeared from behind of the bush, dressed.

"That was so close!" Lily said. "I'll never do such thing again!"

"I think I've caught a cold," Lily mumbled and pulled the blankets closer to her body.

Anna looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Lily, it's just the start of October. You can't fall ill now. You don't get colds before December!"

"Really? Because I'm going down that road at the moment!" Lily said very sarcastically.

Anna raised an eyebrow. "I think you want to be ill…"

"What?" Lily exclaimed. "I'm falling ill because I sat soaked from head to footin no clothesat eight in the morning down at the lake!"

Anna laughed. "Not my fault Sirius dropped by. And Mary did too, and she's not falling ill."

Lily stuck her tongue out. "You're an idiot, Anna."

"I know."

"I could use some hot chocolate!" Lily complained.

"Well, I'm not getting it for you," Anna said.

"Anna, please?" She pouted.

"No, you think I'm an idiot."

"I'll go get it for you," a voice said.

Both Lily and Anna looked up to find James and Sirius sitting in a couch not far away. They hadn't noticed them until now. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"No thanks," she said. "I'm feeling much better now."

James smiled at her. "No, you're not. Just let me."

Lily sighed. "Nooooo."

"Oh, come on Lily," he said.

"It's 'Evans' to you," she mumbled and pulled the blankets yet even closer.

"I can go get it," Anna smirked and got up.

"No! Don't you dare leave me here with that!"

Anna sat down again. Sirius, who sat next to James, grinned at her before he turned his gaze towards James. "Maybe we should get out of here, Prongs?"

James nodded and got up. "Okay. But you're sure you don't want any hot chocolate?"

"Yes!" Lily said.

"Okay…" he said and looked at Sirius. "Should we go annoy Moony down at the library? I think he said he was doing homework with Mary."

"Sure," Sirius grinned. "Anything that annoys Moony. Let's go."

The two boys left Lily and Anna alone. Anna looked at Lily who looked as if she tried to suppress a sneeze.

"You just couldn't let him get that hotchocolate for you, could you?" she asked reproachfully.

"No," Lily said and sneezed loud. "I don't want anything from him."

"You just have to be such a snob…"

"I'm not a snob!" she said. "But I'm ill tomorrow, I'm sure of that."

Sure Lily was right. When she woke up in the morning she couldn't breathe through her nose and her throat hurt.

"Lils are you coming?" Anna asked. "Class starts in ten minutes."

"I'm ill!" Lily groaned. "I told you I'd be."

Mary came over to Lily's bed and put a hand on her forehead. She pulled it back at once.

"Whoa, Lily. You're literally burning. Maybe you should stay in bed."

"Oh, you think?" Lily asked her sarcastically, "Because I don't feel bad at all!"

"Relax," Anna said. "We can't help that you're ill. Just stay in bed and I'll bring the homework for you."

Lily nodded. "Okay…"

Then Anna and Mary left Lily alone. Down in the common room, three Marauders were standing (Remus was missing), really not doing anything.

"Hey," James greeted Anna and Mary. "Where's Lily?"

"She's ill," Mary said.

"Oh," he said and looked very disappointed.

"Get over it, James," Mary said. "Where's Remus?"

"Home, visiting his mother," Sirius said while finding a book in his bag. "She's ill again."

"Oh," Mary said. "Fair enough."

"Should we get going to potions?" Anna asked.

Mary nodded and the two girls moved out of the common room. Down in the potions classroom, they sat at their usual table, but it just didn't seem right without Lily.

"We have a problem," Anna mumbled to Mary. "We don't have Lily to save our arses now. What do we do?"

Mary looked horrified at the thought of Lily was gone. "I have no idea," she said with slight panic in her voice. "I guess we have to do it on our own."

"I guess…"

Next, the Marauders entered the classroom. Well, as Anna quickly noticed, it was the Marauders and now James was missing too. She studied them as the two others grinned and sat down at their usual table next to the girls'. Anna leaned a bit over towards Sirius and made him look at her.

"What did you do to James?" she asked outright.

Sirius looked around, then he turned to Peter. "Where is Prongs?"

He looked around just like Sirius and shrugged. "No idea. Last time I saw him was when we left the common room."

Then Sirius turned to Anna. "We have no idea."

"I understood that," Anna said sarcastically.

"Aww… you're not that stupid after all!" Sirius grinned.

Anna jostled him, mumbling, "Git."

That just made him grin even wider. Anna rolled her eyes and turned back to Slughorn, who had started to speak.

Lily sat staring into the wall after Anna and Mary left. Her head hurt and so did every other thing in her body. After a few minutes of doing nothing she sighed and grabbed her wand.

"Accio Anna's magazines!" she said and a couple of Anna's magazines flew over to her.

She grabbed the newest edition of Witch's Weakly and started to leaf through. She stopped at an article of a newly discovered band; the Weird Sisters. She only read half of it before she continued through the magazine. She stopped again at the headline; 'Scandal! Witch marries goblin', and started to read.

She was so swallowed up in the article that she didn't even notice the door to the dorm slide open and someone entering, and she continued through the article. Halfway down someone spoke up.

"What're you reading?"

She gave a start and almost screamed of surprise. She dropped her magazine and saw James standing there, leaned against Anna's four-poster bed, grinning widely and his hair messy as always.

"Did I scare you?" he grinned.

Lily held her hand up to her heart and took a deep breath. "Hell yeah," she said. "What are you doing up here?"

"Visiting you," he answered as was it the most obvious thing in the world. "How are you?"

Lily ignored the question. "How did you get up here? Guys can't!"

"But the Marauders can," James grinned. Lily looked questioned at him. "It's a Marauders' secret, Love," he added.

Lily raised an eyebrow, but decided to let the nickname go, she wasn't in the mood to yell at James now. Maybe later.

"But you're not supposed to be up here," she said. "It's against the rules."

"So you want to give me a detention?" James grinned. "Come on, Lily. Go ahead!"

"I didn't say that," Lily mumbled. "I just said you weren't aloud…"

James grinned and walked over and sat down on her bed. "So, how are you?"

Lily shrugged. "I'm fine…"

"Then why aren't you at class?"

"I'm ill… Why aren't you I could ask…?" Lily grinned.

James blushed slightly and scratched himself on the neck. "Well," he said. "I wanted to visit you." Lily didn't say anything; she had no idea what, if she even wanted to. "So," James said, "what are you reading?"

Lily shrugged and put the magazine down. "Gossip," she shrugged. "Nothing special."

"Hmm…" he just said and pulled his legs up to him and crossed them. "Need anything? Breakfast?"

She shook her head. "No…"

"Hot chocolate?" he asked and she shook her head again. "Coffee? Anything?"

"No thanks, James," she said.

He flashed a smile. "You called me James!" he said. "We're on first names now?"

Lily bit her lower lip; she had just let it slip, and didn't mean to call him James. Now she had no idea what to say. She could give him an evil comment as she would do before in time, but really she didn't feel like doing it.

She ended with sending him a shrug. "Maybe…"

James looked as if he wanted to jump up and dance, but controlled himself in the last second. Lily silently appreciated he didn't. She also admitted the way he handled her saying that. It was as if he was a whole other person than she had ever seen before.

"So," he said after a few seconds. "Sure you don't want anything? I'd be glad to get you something…"

"You would?" she asked and he nodded. "Hmm… I could use some hot chocolate…"

"I'll be back in a second," he said and jumped up.

Lily watched as he sprinted out of the door. He was back barely ten minutes later, slightly out of breath, but smiling. He had a tray in his hands with two cups and a little plate of biscuits. He smiled at Lily and sat down at the end of herbed again.

"Here," he said and handled over a mug of hot, steaming chocolate. "For you… and biscuits!"

"Thanks…"

"So how come you're suddenly falling ill? Usually you're good at trying not to be sick."

Lily shrugged, thinking of the morning the day before. "I've no idea…"

He raised an eyebrow. "Why do I have the feeling that you're lying?"

"Hmm…" she said. "I have absolutely no idea… because I'm not." She suddenly noticed a blue spot just beneath James' right eye she hadn't seen before because of his glasses. "What's that?" she asked and pointed.

"What?" he asked.

Lily leaned slightly forward and let her finger touch his skin. "It's a black eye," she said, noticing how soft his skin was. "How did you get it?"

James closed his eyes for a short second and when he opened them again he looked away. "Err… Fight with Sirius," he said. "Nothing special."

Lily raised an eyebrow and slowly removed her hand again. "Am I supposed to believe that?"

"Yeah…" he said and looked up at her. "Sirius and I fight all the time… you know. For fun."

"Ahh…" she said slowly.

"Does it really matter?" he asked. "It's just a black eye. Not a broken neck or something like that…" He drank some of his chocolate before he spoke again, "Why do you even worry?"

Lily blinked. "Who said I worried about it?"

"It just seemed like it," he said and shrugged.

Lily didn't reply and drank some of her chocolate instead.

After class Anna and Mary headed towards Gryffindor Tower with the homework Anna had promised Lily.The Gryffindor common room was empty so they just headed right up the stairs to the girls' dorm, but when they entered, they almost fell backwards of shock. Lily sat on her bed where they had left her, but on her bed also sat James Potter. They were laughing at something and Lily didn't seem irritated as she used to.

"So," Anna grinned and they turned, "that's where you were hiding, James."

A faint blush crept up his neck as he nodded. "Yep," he mumbled. "I thought Lily needed some company now that she's ill."

Mary raised an eyebrow. "Okay…"

James sat the cup he was holding on Lily's table and got up. "Well," he said, "I better get going. I believe I have Care of Magical Creatures next and I don't think Kettleburn will be too happy if I skip his class too."

Anna nodded as he walked out. Then she turned to Lily. "What happened there?" she asked.

Lily shrugged. "Nothing…"

Anna took a step towards Lily and drew out her wand. "Okay tell me!" she demanded. "Who are you and where is the real Lily Evans?!"

Lily flashed a smile. "It's just me, Ann," she said as Anna smiled too.

"Wow," Mary mumbled. "Something is wrong! James Potter just spent an hour up here and you didn't kick him out or yell at him. What is going on?"

Lily shrugged but blushed slightly. "No idea…"

Anna walked over to her drawer and pulled it out. Then she took a piece of parchment and looked at it. She grinned widely and handed it to Mary who also grinned.

"What?" Lily asked. "What is it?"

"Our list…" Anna said. "Here…"

Lily grabbed the parchment and almost gasped. Out from some of the to-dos where little crosses. It was the thing they had done. They were all red, green or blue.

"Look!" Anna said. "My crosses are red. It's the things I've done… Mary's are blue, and yours are green, Lily."

"Hey!" Lily exclaimed. "You've already gotten a 'T' in an essay?"

Anna blushed. "The last charms'…"

"Merlin!" Lily said and looked at the paper again. "Hey, look! I've 'Not hit, yell at or hurt Potter in any way for a whole week'!"

Mary grinned. "You have been way too nice towards him lately."

"Oh, shut up," Lily mumbled and blushed. "I'm just trying to be nice."

"Yeah! More than friendly nice!" Anna laughed.

Lily crossed her arms and leaned back, sulking. "I'm ill. Try to respect that!"

"Oh, come on!" Mary grinned. "Just because you're ill doesn't mean we can't make fun of you."

Lily sent her a death glare and she moved over to her own bed where she found her almost finished sweater and began to knit. Anna studied her a few seconds with raised eyebrows before she sat down on her own bed and reachedout for one of her magazines but stopped as there were none there. She looked at Lily.

"Have you taken my magazines, Lils?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah," Lily said and threw a couple of them over to her. "Here."

"Did you even have time to read them with James here and all?" Anna smirked.

Lily sent her a scowl and turned her attention to one of the magazines again. "Don't you have class now?" she asked.

"Nope," Anna said. "Free period."

Lily shrugged and returned to her magazine.

"Oh Merlin!" Mary suddenly gasped and the two other girls looked at her. "I think I'm finished. I'm finished with my sweater…"

Anna grinned. "Then you just have to wear it."

Mary looked at her sweater with disgust written all over her face. It was knitted in different blue colours and had some small holes and the one sleeve was longer than the other.

Lily looked up from her magazine, eyes sparkling. "This will be fun," she grinned.

"It's not even a sweater," Mary complained. "It's some ugly blue tangled yarn.Some hell of a long week it'll be," she mumbled and fell backwards down onto her bed with the 'sweater' covering her head.

"No, no, no, NOOO! Don't make me! Please!"

"Mary, hold yourself together!" Lily said and tucked Mary's sweater into her arms. "It's perfect for you!"

"It's so ugly!" Mary complained.

"You have to!" Anna sung while brushing her hair.

"But it's Hogsmeade on Saturday! Do-hon't ma-hake me! Please!"

Lily scratched herself on her forehead and slumped down on her bed. Mary kept complaining. At last Anna had had enough. She sighed and threw her brush at her bed. Then she turned around.

"Lily, hold Mary," she said.

Lily got up from her bed, grinning. She grasped Mary around the stomach and held her steady. Anna grabbed the ugly sweater and forced it over Mary's head.

"No, no, no!"

Anna forced Mary's arms out of the sleeves and patted her on the back. She looked like a mess with her now untidy hair and the deformed sweater.

"There you go!" Anna said and gave her a cold smile. "It's perfect for you."

Mary looked into the mirror. "I look ugly!"

Lily stepped up at the side of her. "No, you're beautiful, Mary. Right, Anna?"

"Sure…" Anna said.

She had gone back to brushing her hair and paid no really attention. Mary fell backwards at her bed, groaning.

Mary sat silently down at her seat in the back of the class, trying to be as invisible as possible. She wore her sweater and wasn't comfortable at all. Even though no one did, she thought everyone was looking at her. Anna slowly sat down next to her.

"Calm down, Mary," she said. "You look pretty nonetheless. And no one is looking!"

"No?" Mary whispered. "Sirius and James just turned because they were cracking up of laughing. And Peter and Remus are staring at us."

Anna thought for a while. She looked at the back at Remus as he didn't look at them. Mary had pushed herself low into the chair.

"Oi, Remus!" Anna whispered.

He turned. "Aha?"

"How does- Hold on a second," she said and grabbed the neck of Mary and pulled her up. "Get up you chicken!" She turned to Remus. "What do you think of the sweater?"

He smiled slightly. "The sweater alone or the sweater on her?"

"The sweater on her," Anna answered.

"It looks good," he said. "It matches your hair and eyes. It looks a bit like it's intentional with all the wholes and… err, uneven sleeves."

Some of Mary's embarrassment seemed to disappear and Anna let go of her. Remus smiled at them, but at the same time his neck had turned into a slight shade of red.

"But really," he said, "it's awfully, awfully knitted."

"I know," Mary said and nodded. "I was the one who did it."

"Okay… Am I stupid if I ask why you did that and then decided to wear it?"

Mary looked away and Anna started to find her books, looking away from Remus too.

"Err…" Mary said. "Lost bet."

"Okay then," he said. "Fair enough."

Mary dropped her jaw as Remus sent her a smile.

"So how's your mother?"

"Huh?"

"Your mother?" Mary repeated. "You were gone yesterday to visit her, right?"

"Oh," he said and looked more tired then before. "It's the same… She'll get better."

Mary sent him an encouraging smile and he turned. Anna just grinned at Mary forming the words, 'I told you so!' with her lips. Mary sent her a death glare and found her books and the class was almost about to begin. Suddenly James turned around and faced the two girls.

"Errm… Where's Lily?" he asked slowly.

"Still ill," Anna said. "She'll be fine tomorrow. Don't worry."

He nodded and turned back to the class which had now started.