A/N: Hi, I finished the last chapter of APR and posted it, yay me! However, I might write an epilogue though I'm not totally sure yet. Um, the reason for this A/N at the start of the chapter is because after rereading my last chapter, I noticed an error though I don't know if people picked up on it or not. Felicity's last name is Wallace, not Hofflin. I think I was in a split mind at the time but a friend pointed out there was a celebrity called Felicity Hoffman or something so its definitely Wallace. Enjoy Chapter 4!
Chapter 4: Out With The Old, In With The New
The next morning, Lily awoke to the sound of 'Portions of Potions' by some wizarding band that Sirius was a fan of. She groaned at the sound of the opening bars, annoyed that Sirius's taste in music had rubbed of on Felicity. She turned over, and began to hide her head under pillow but thought better of it as she was trying to get into their good books.
"Come on Lily! Time to get up!" Felicity sung, pulling the covers off Lily. She sat up and stretched, scanning the room as she did so. Jessica had her head under her pillow, doing what Lily had done seconds previous, Felicity and Patience had their hairbrushes out and were using them as microphones. Lily glanced at the bed between Felicity and Patience and noticed it was empty and the sheets prissily made.
"Where's Claudia?" Lily hadn't really taken any notice of when Claudia arrived and left from Hogwarts, but she realized that she hadn't actually seen Claudia on the night before term except in their first year when they were being sorted.
"She never arrives till the first day back," Felicity explained before whispering "She's afraid of trains"
"Oh" said Lily, using her fingers to pretend to zip her mouth shut before going over to her trunk to get her robes out.
"Come ON!" Patience snapped, her foot tapping "We're going to be late for breakfast" However, Lily was sure the real reason was that Patience was mad at her for taking Felicity's attention away from herself. Lily quickly dressed and was ready in a matter of minutes, but to Patience it mustn't have been enough as she kept going to Felicity
"Come on! Lets just leave her and she can meet us there. I don't even know WHY we are waiting for her,"
"Shut up Patience. If you have a problem being patient and waiting, then YOU go down to breakfast!" Felicity sneered and Patience shut up straight away. The three of them descended down the girl's staircase and walked into the common room. Lily spied James, Sirius and Remus in the corner and quickly turned her head the other way. She remembered how she was going to save Remus from Felicity but decided that he deserved it.
They walked out of the portrait hole, their arms linked with Felicity in the middle, Patience on the right and Lily on the left. Lily liked this solution because she didn't have to stand next to Patience, however, Patience was having her own ideas and kept trying to push between Lily and Felicity to stand in the middle but was failing miserably.
"Hey, Lily!" A voice yelled from behind them, making the trio stop in mid step. James Potter came running up to them and shook his head of hair as he stopped before speaking to Lily.
"So Lily, how you doing?"
Lily make herself blush before turning back to Felicity and Patience before letting out a giggle and a millisecond later the other two joined in before turning their back on him and continued to walk down the corridor, leaving James behind with him scratching his head in confusion at what Lily was giggling at him for.
-:-
As they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, Lily realized she didn't know have to eat like a girl. She hadn't really thought about it before but remembered a time where Sirius was teasing Felicity for only eating a quarter of a slice of toast so Lily decided to watch first.
Since Patience was sitting opposite her, she decided it would be less suspicious to stare at her then stare at Felicity who was sitting next to her (Patience wasn't happy about that but after the outburst this morning she decided to keep her mouth shut).
Patience it seemed, was watching Felicity to see what she was going to eat first. Lily was sure it was so that Patience wanted to learn her eating habits since she wanted to be Felicity so much. Felicity took a green apple from the fruit bowl and took a bite out of it. Patience hand shot in the bowl afterwards, though unfortunately came out with a red one. She bit into it grumpily. And Lily? Well, being the individual she was, promptly stuck her hand in and came out with a pear.
It was when Lily took her third bite out of her pear when she heard a scream. Felicity had leapt out of her seat and ran off down the Great Hall towards the entrance. Lily turned her head in time to see Felicity run up to a girl with chocolate brown hair a bear hug. Lily turned back to see what Patience was doing and saw her still in her seat, giving Felicity an dirty look. She turned back to look at Felicity and saw her and Claudia hand in hand coming down towards them. As they came closer, Lily smiled.
"Claudia, I want you to meet Lily. Lily this is Claudia," Felicity introduced, smiling at both of them.
"Its really nice to meet you" Lily replied, standing up, trying to think of something else to say.
"Hi! It's so nice to meet someone who doesn't stammer around me. And you're in Gryffindor too? Fantastic!" Claudia smiled, sitting down between Lily and Felicity.
"So how come you've become friends with Felicity? I thought you were friends with Potter and co.?"
"Well, they just don't understand a girl's need to gossip of fashion sense" Lily sighed. Felicity and Claudia nodded enthusiastically.
"I know!" Felicity complained "When I was dating Remus, he actually feel asleep when I was telling him about Benson cheating on Spencer with Stevenson!"
'Of course he would've' Lily thought but said 'How rude!'
"Miss Evans, your timetable" Professor McGonagall interrupted handing a timetable to her, Claudia, Felicity and Patience "And I'm glad that this year you arrived on time this year Miss Roderick" McGonagall added and Claudia smiled.
"We started earlier to avoid traffic" Claudia replied before McGonagall continued down the Gryffindor table. Lily looked down at the timetable she had been given and scanned her subjects for today.
"Looks like we have charms first up" Lily stated, looking up at the others.
"Aww I love having charms! Professor Flitwick is so cute!" Claudia simpered and Lily and Felicity nodded in agreement.
"Oh my God I know!" Patience exclaimed afterwards, making Claudia and Felicity stare at her.
"No Patience, no. Moments gone" Felicity snapped and Claudia nodded. Patience slammed her half eaten apple on the table.
"Fine! I know when I'm not wanted" she snapped before getting up and storming out of the hall.
"Finally!" Claudia exclaimed "Why do you even hang out with her?"
"Coz she was like the only other person like us. Well, until now. Lily is SO much cooler then Patience!" Felicity explained and Claudia turned to Lily and smiled.
"I'm really glad you're going to start hanging out with us Lily" Claudia said and she and Felicity stood up and walked arm and arm out of the Hall.
Once they were out of sight, Lily grabbed two pieces of toast and spread peanut butter thickly across them.
"Hey Lily" Sirius said brightly as he slid down the bench next to her.
"What do you want?" Lily snapped as James and Remus joined them.
"Nothing, just seeing how you're going as a girl" Sirius replied, taking a piece of Lily's toast.
"I'm doing fine" she snarled through her teeth after she failed to stop Sirius from taking the toast.
"Hey! No need to snap, just wondering" Sirius said whilst taking a breath while eating
"No need to snap? No NEED to SNAP?" Lily's voice grew louder, and her face brighter as anger consumed her "My best friends for YEARS have finally told me that I can't be a girl and are making me prove I can be a girl so as ditching me in the process!" and with that, she picked up her bag and stormed out of the Great Hall.
She was in such a bad mood, she walked past the charms and was half way up Ravenclaw tower until she realized this. She had to sprint all the way back to the charms class so as not to be late. As it was, she only just managed to tag onto the last person entering the classroom as it was. She walked through the doorway then stopped, not knowing who to sit next too. She scanned the classroom, finally spotting Felicity, Claudia and Patience at a table with Felicity waving at her to get her attention.
Lily made her way over to them, dodging a paper aeroplane and ignoring Sirius. When she reached them, she realized there were only three seats and those three seats were taken.
"Um, there's only three seats" Lily said to them, puzzled. She didn't see the point in them calling her over if they didn't have a seat for her. Felicity had turned to Patience.
"Leave us" she commanded and Patience's face had shock written all over it.
"WHAT!" she exclaimed at them, her mouth gaping "I was here before you even discovered Lily and now, and now! And now your just, ditching me!"
"Umm, yeah. That's pretty much it. And to tell you the truth, you will never become me. And unlike you, Lily isn't even trying to be me! Lily's hot, your not. I'm sorry. Buh by now!" Felicity waved at her. Lily could see her face flush with anger.
"So this is it huh? After years of being friends you're going to ditch me just like that?"
"Pretty much"
"Fine" she said with a quick sob as she picked up her books and fled down the rows of desks to a seat on the other side of the classroom. Lily sat down on the vacated seat just as Professor Flitwick called for order.
The lesson passed fairly quickly for Lily as they were practicing summoning and banishing charms which Lily was good at, if she said so herself. However, sitting next to Felicity and Claudia it was a whole different experience.
"Accio Windy City Pretty" Claudia commanded before sitting back down in her chair, waiting for it to arrive.
"What's that?" Lily asked, searching the room to find something that fits that description.
"Its nail polish, duh! We always do our nails in charms" Felicity said while banishing the pillows which where the objects supposed to be summoned and banished. The doors of the classroom opened and a little bottle zoomed across the classroom towards them, before landing in front of Claudia.
"Claudia is an expert with colours. This is the one that suits me the most" Felicity simpered as she stuck her hands out onto the desk.
"Let me see your hands" Claudia said to Lily who immediately stuck her hands our as well to let Claudia examine them. She gasped.
"What have you done to your nails? This is going to take longer then I expected. I'll have to do them tonight. What have you done to your nail beds?"
"I dunno" Lily said, trying to think of a good excuse but failing miserably.
"The poor thing doesn't have any clothes either" Felicity added "She was forced to bring her sister's clothes because they were moving house and so she couldn't unpack them in time. I took pity and gave her a pair of my pajamas as her sisters were covered in fungi!" Lily nodded.
"Well, don't worry. You will be our new project!" Claudia said happily, and she and Felicity clapped their hands.
"Project! We will style your hair, tell you what colours suit your skin and complexion and help you buy a whole new wardrobe!"
"Great!" Lily said, thinking how this would wipe the smirk of Sirius's face.
"Great! We'll do it on the weekend! Slumber party! Yay!"
A/N: Hey guys, sorry it isn't as long as my others but I figured you deserved to read something after waiting a while. But after posting this I'm going to start on the next chapter which will be longer!! Cross my heart. Sorry for the long wait, just finished end of term stuff, exam exam, assignment exam the usual though all over now! On holswoopwoop! Anyways, thanks to MRideemeraldeye, Maxie1514, mEGGIE, Brazilian Princess, Mad Over Mooney, CASOCCERCHIC02, Prankster 4 life, Pyromaniac-Girl, Dazzled1, Anso and prongsies.lady for reviewing!!