On the train ride back to Illvermorny, Lily asked for a private word with Timothy. They went in search of a spare compartment and found one towards the back of the train. Timothy opened the door and let her go in first, and then followed.
Timothy said, "Okay. Lay it on me."
Lily said, "Your acting like you already know what I'm going to say."
Timothy said, "I have an inkling."
Lily replied take a deep sigh, "For now, I think its best that we just remain friends, Timothy. I'm not ready for that kind of thing. I thank you for the invitation to the Valentine Dance, but I don't think I'll be going this year. If in a couple of years, you want to ask, you may do so if I am unattached to someone else. Honestly, I don't even know at this point if I'm going to stay in America after I finish my studies here at Ilvermorny or go back home to Britain."
Timothy hung his head. He said, "I understand. I would like to remain friends definitely."
On their way back to their compartment, they bumped into Thomas Branton with June Lewis. That kind of surprised her but thought nothing of it.
June said, "Thank you, Lily for giving up Thomas as you did. If you touch or come near by boyfriend in the future, you will pay."
Lily almost laughed. She commented, "I hope then that you don't mind that he will want to know your every step. That's why I left him. He wanted to know what I was doing every single minute of every single day. I will not have my life controlled by a man."
Thomas paled.
Back in their compartment, Lily sat down and sighed heavily. They were about an hour into their three-hour journey. The rest of her friends were playing games or reading.
Renee looked at her over her book and gave her a questioning glance. Lily shook her head and Renee knew she would hear about it later. Lily was glad that Timothy had taken her answer of no so well. Better than Thomas had at least.
They were soon at Ilvermorny, and they all scanned their wands. Lily's room and schedule were the same, but instead of music like she had in the first part of the year, she had physical education.
Up in her room, Lily unpacked. She then went out into their shared common room between the three bedrooms. Andrea and Audrey were sitting there talking about their various holidays. Lily had a couple of presents in her arms.
Lily said, "I didn't get these until I was in Houston but thought you guys would like them."
Audrey and Andrea tore open their presents. Lily had gotten Andrea a charmed hairbrush and comb to help with frizzy hair. Audrey got a charm bracelet with one charm on it which was the figure of a Wampus for her Ilvermorny house.
Andrea said, "Thank you, Lily. I've thought about asking for these from my parents, but the collection can be expensive."
Lily nodded. She had to get special permission from her father to get it and he agreed immediately, considering he had bought the collection for his own use and it had tamed down his wild hair somewhat.
Audrey looked near tears. She said, "Thank you."
Lily replied, "Your welcome."
She remembered the gifts she had gotten from them. Audrey had gotten her some of her favorite candy: chocolate frogs. Andrea had gotten her a journal that was charmed so that she could only read and write in it. Lily was in the process of writing the visions she has had in it from the other one. The one thing that Lily liked was that she didn't have to worry about the journal needing more paper. She just had to tap a rune and it would add more pages, but the book remained thin no matter how many pages were in it.
Lily turned to her roommates and said, "Thank you guys for your gifts, also. The chocolate was delicious, and I got a few cards that I didn't have. The journal is already proving helpful. You guys know I get visions of sorts, and I'm going to start writing my visions down in the journal instead of a regular notebook."
Andrea said, "That's why I got it."
Lily looked at Andrea. Andrea just shrugged her shoulders. Lily filled them in on her holiday with her family.
Andrea said, "So, Julia and her sisters are going to be adopted into your family. How sweet."
Lily commented, "I was so shocked when we got to the train station that they were there. I'm happy for Julia that Mr. Murphy was able to keep them together. It saddens me that a parent would just abandon their kids like that just because of their circumstances."
"I couldn't agree more."
Classes resumed the next day. Everyone seemed to be a bit tired still from the holidays.
January passed into February with little to no fanfare. The weather around the school was a rollercoaster. Several students fell ill with colds and sinus issues due to the constant change in weather. Lily and her friend group so far were lucky enough to avoid it.
Talk soon turned to the Valentine's Day Dance. Since Valentine's day was on a Sunday this year, the dance was held the evening before. Girls were giggling and watching the boys making them flush with embarrassment. Timothy ended up asking another second year, Qiana Garcia to go to the dance.
Andrea was going with her boyfriend, Brandon. Lily was happy for them. Andrea said, "Are you sure you don't want to go?"
Lily nodded. She said, "I'm going to look over some of the books I have yet to read on wand lore."
Andrea nodded. Audrey and her friends were going as a group.
Lily went to her room and took out one of the books she had been studying for wand lore but hadn't quite made it through the book. It was a fascinating subject for sure.
After Valentine's Day was done and over, the school fell back into a routine. Lily and her friends threw themselves into their homework. Talk also went around to what they were considering taking as electives next year.
Lily said, "I'm taking Arithmancy, alchemy, ancient runes, creature care, and Latin."
Deidra said, "I'm taking arithmancy, ancient runes, and Latin. I've looked over the pamphlets but can't decide on a career. It seems that arithmancy and ancient runes are required for several careers so I thought that would be best."
It seemed a lot of her friends were taking similar subjects. Julia added creature care to her classes along with French instead of Latin. Renee was taking the same classes as Lily except for creature care as she was interested in becoming a healer.
The schedule for the meeting with their dorm mothers was announced the first week of March and went in alphabetical order. Fifth years were also included in the list as they had to talk about their plans after OWLs and what their plans were for after they graduated. The meetings took place on the weekend and were slotted for an hour each.
The same week that they announced the meetings with the head of the dorms, they also announced the schedule for the following years' team tryouts. Lily looked and saw that Quidditch and tennis were scheduled the second and third week of April. Lily put her name down for both. She was interested in the seeker position in Quidditch.
On March 20th, Lily sat outside Mrs. Cutters office. She was nervous. She had pamphlets of the three careers she was interested in along with the classes listed on a piece of paper that she wanted to take. Lily was interested in wand craft, healing, and curse breaking. She knew it was an eclectic choice of subjects, but from talking with her Uncle Bill, curse breaking seemed interesting. He had done it for several years before the second wizarding war broke out and he married Fleur. Now he just worked for the bank, and did some warding for the bank with the occasion curse breaking job thrown in.
"Ms. Potter, come on in."
Lily stood up and stepped inside the office. Mrs. Cutter was just putting a students' file and was pulling Lily's file out. Lily sat down in a single chair in front of the fireplace. Mrs. Cutter took the chair opposite of her.
Mrs. Cutter said, "So first off, Ms. Potter, you have excellent grades, top ten percent of your class. I think you can handle anything you want to do. So, tell me, what careers have interested you up to this point?"
Lily laid out the pamphlets and replied, "Wand craft, healing, and curse-breaking."
Mrs. Cutter took the pamphlets and said, "Your lucky that these three careers require pretty much the same subjects on the elective aspect. If for fifth year, you are still interested in healing, we can have you under the healer in the infirmary for a bit to make sure that is what you want to do. Unfortunately, we don't have anyone with experience in curse-breaking or wand craft in the building."
Lily said, "I'm going to start working in London with Ollivander in the summer to get some experience. I also have a former curse-breaker as a family member. He's walked me through some of the horrible aspects of the job and the most rewarding aspects also."
Mrs. Cutter leaned back in her chair. She said, "Having someone in the family who works or has worked in a field such as curse-breaking can be beneficial." She then pulled out of the folder a sheet that had a selection of course offerings on it. "She said, "So, pretty much for these three careers, it is recommended to take arithmancy and ancient runes. For wand-craft and healing, it is recommended that you take Alchemy and creature care. Are we on the same page?"
Lily said, "Those were the classes I was considering Mrs. Cutter. As for my language course, I would like to start taking Latin."
Mrs. Cutter said, "A good choice. I've marked your selections down. I would like you to look over them, and then sign at the bottom of the sheet."
Lily nodded. She looked over the paper and noted that it was marked in blue black ink and took the red pen and signed it. She felt good as she was leaving the office.
The rest of the school year went quietly. Everyone was talking about how they were looking forward to summer. Julia had gotten notice that her sisters and her were approved to be adopted into the Murphy family over the summer. Lily and Renee were ecstatic.
A Saturday during the second week in April, Lily was on the Quidditch field and had her broom in her hand. She had brought it to school with her this year and would take to flying around the pitch as she saw several people doing it.
"Alright Horned Serpents! All positions are up for trying out. What we do is select the main players, and then a couple of back up players for each position: 4 chasers, 3 beaters, 2 keepers, and 3 seekers for back up. The starting squad along with the backups will be notified in their school mailboxes the last week of school. Now let's have fun!"
The tryouts were brutal. The people on the team this year were fighting hard to keep their positions, but the fresh faces were giving them a run for their money.
The following week had the tennis tryouts. Lily's friends were with her to cheer her on. The tennis tryouts were competitive also, but not as bad as the Quidditch tryouts. The ones who won the positions there would learn the same week that Lily would hear about the Quidditch team.
Two weeks later was an exciting time for Lily and her friends. Not only were they learning if they made any of the teams that they tried out, they would find out if they would be able to take their electives that they wanted. Their dorm parents had already assured the friends that they saw no issue with their choices as the seven of them were in the top 20 of their class.
Lily woke up on that Saturday excited. Today was the day the notifications went out. She went down to her mailbox and brought out three letters. Back in her room, Lily decided to set aside the one about the electives to look at later with her friends which they had agreed to do.