In her room, Lily threw herself on her bed and started sobbing. She had looked forward to going to the dance this year with Oliver. Lily looked at a photo of Oliver and she from the previous year and they looked good together. The photo was on her nightstand beside her bed. She slammed it down and continued to cry into her pillow.

Audrey heard her sobs. She knocked on her door, and called out, "Lily, are you okay?"

Lily replied, "I'm fine, Audrey."

Audrey said, "Why are you crying?"

Lily mumbled something uncoherent. Audrey shrugged her shoulders, figuring correctly that she probably had a fight with Oliver or one of her friends. Audrey decided to go into her room and look over her schoolbooks to see if there was anything that she had missed for the week for homework.

In her room, Lily sighed. She sat up on her bed. How was she going to tell her friends this? Then there was the matter with James. James would go ballistic when, not if, he found out. The news would be all over Ilvermorny within the week that Oliver and she were not a couple.

At dinner, Lily and her friends chatted. Lily let her friends know about the email that she got from Allen.

Renee said, "I'm glad that father and grandfather got it straightened out. I don't know why Mr. Ruttle went to the president in the first place."

Lily said in between bites, "More than likely trying to get back at the family for embarrassing him."

Renee said, "Whose fault is that? We told you to be careful around the Ruttle family."

Lily said, "Are you saying that I should not have defended him talking like that about my own grandmother, your great-aunt, and Julia, Irene and Wanda?"

Julia looked from Renee to Lily at that.

Renee said, "Appearances must be kept in the face of people like Mr. Ruttle.'

Lily slammed down her fork, and said, "I never would have thought that you would defend such actions!"

Lily ran out with Julia closely following her. Brandy and Deidra were shocked at this. Thomas and Timothy looked split. Thomas was seen nodding his head, and Timothy had a puzzled expression on his face.

Back in the dormitories, Julia caught up with Lily. She said, "Lily, I don't agree with her."

Lily said, "I know. Let's go to my room."

Up in her room, Lily and Julia sat in shocked silence. They had never thought that Renee would act like that. Lily said, "This day just can't get any worse. First the thing with Oliver and now my own cousin…"

Julia held up her hand and said, "What happened with Oliver?"

Lily's eyes welled up with tears. She said, "He broke up with me citing that he was getting a lot of pressure from home and that his father thought it was a bad idea to let him study magic."

Julia stood up and started pacing furiously. She kept muttering "bastard, going to castrate him when I get a chance."

Lily said, "Julia, please. I thank you for your anger on my behalf. I was going to tell everyone tonight at dinner after the email discussion, but I'm kind of glad that I didn't get a chance to. I don't know what I'm going to do for Christmas now."

Just then a knock came at the dorm door. Julia went to answer it as Lily put her head in her hands. When Julia looked in the peephole, she saw Brandy and Deidra. Julia opened the door and let them in.

Brandy said, "I can't believe Renee said those things. You were defending your family and friends. I heard about it through my father who also heard about it at his work. It was all over the MACUSA office network. I'm just glad that it didn't hurt the Allen and Victor along with the rest of your family."

Julia said, "Renee acting like that was just the icing on the cake for Lily's bad day." She looked to Lily, who nodded her head. "Oliver broke up with her today."

Deidra was shocked. Julia went on to explain what Lily told her. Just as she was finishing up, Audrey came in followed by Emily. Lily looked up.

Emily said, "I cornered Renee afterwards, as the whole hall heard what was going on. I'm sorry, but she still thinks what she thinks."

Lily said, "Thank you for defending me, Emily. I had a feeling our friendship group was going to break up at some point. I just never thought I would lose Renee as a friend."

Deidra said, "Well, you have me at least." Brandy agreed. She continued, "However I think we might be losing the twins."

Brandy said, "Thomas yes. He was agreeing with Renee the whole time. I think Timothy is conflicted. They have been brought up to think like Mr. Ruttle."

Lily nodded, knowing this from Timothy.

Emily said, "You know where to find me if you need to talk, Lily. Your still my family. Renee might come around, she might not."

Lily smiled her thanks. Emily left, and the girls sat there and talked until curfew. Everyone left, and the roommates separated to their rooms.

Lily sighed. What was she going to do? One of her first friends had turned on her tonight, when she needed her the most.

News about Renee and Lily's fight was the talk of the week, but by the weekend, there was a new rumor circulating that Oliver and Lily had broken up and Oliver had asked a fourth-year girl to the dance. Lily wanted to cry upon hearing this, but she held her head high. She would not let the rumors get to her.

On Saturday, Lily was sitting in the library going over her ancient rune's homework, when a book was slammed down in front of her. Lily looked up and saw James and Jasmine standing there. Lily groaned. It was just a matter of time before she was cornered by James.

James said, "What the heck, Lily? First, I hear about this fight with Renee, and now I'm hearing that Oliver broke your heart?"

Lily said, "I wouldn't say he broke my heart. Yeah, he broke up with me, but I can't tell you one way or the other that I was in love with him. I'm a little young to be thinking that way."

James said, "He still hurt you. Audrey told me you were crying in your room that afternoon, before your fight with Renee, so I know you weren't crying because of that."

Jasmine said, "James…."

Lily said, "James, what happens in my love life is none of your business. Oliver did make me cry, but that was because I thought we were having a good relationship, and his request to break-up threw came out of left field on me. He never once hinted that he was unhappy with our relationship."

Jasmine said, "Then why did he break-up with you?"

Lily said, "he said that he was getting a lot of pressure from home, though he didn't go into detail on what kind of pressure and that his father seemed to be regretting letting him study magic. He looks up to his father, even wants to follow in his footsteps as a professional baseball player."

Jasmine said, "He is good enough for it. James, leave it alone."

James said, "I can't. He hurt my sister."

Lily stood up and said, "James, you leave Oliver alone, or I'll hex you."

James paled remembering that Lily's best spell was their mother's bat-bogey hex and that was her favorite spell to get back at people when she wanted to.

Lily packed up her back. She continued, "Thanks for ruining my study time. Its one of the few times I study alone rather than with my friends who are busy right now."

Lily walked out of the library. Just as she was about to head into the hall for lunch, she heard her name being called. She turned and saw Timothy standing there. She could tell that he was nervous.

Lily said, "Hey Tim. What's up?"

Lily was the only one that was allowed to call Timothy, Tim. She rarely did it and only when they were alone.

Timothy said, "Can I talk to you in private?"

Lily nodded and they walked to one of the rooms that were used for meetings amongst family that had to come to the school for one reason or another. They were open also for tutoring and always unlocked for this purpose.

Inside the room, Lily sat her bag down, and turned towards Timothy. Timothy said, "Ilikeyoualotandwaswonderingifyouwouldgowithmetothevillagenextweekend?"

Lily blinked. "Come again?"

Timothy blushed beet red. He said, "I like you a lot, more than a friend and was wondering if you would go with me to the village next weekend?"

It was Lily's turn to blush. However, she became serious. She said, "Tim, I thank you for asking me, however, I just ended a relationship. Ask me later in the year, I might be willing to. Nothing against you."

Timothy said, "I understand. I just wanted to let you know my feelings. I don't believe that Renee was like that last night."

Lily nodded. They left the room and continued into the hall, but before they reached the doors, something caught her eye on in the courtyard. It was actually a nice day, somewhat warm for December. Lily told Timothy to go on in without her and to save her a seat. Outside, she found a crowd gathered around two boys. Lily sighed as she made her way through the crowd. There in the middle were Oliver and James fighting. It seemed that Oliver was winning.

Lily put her thumb and index finger and whistled. Oliver and James looked at her. Jasmine was across the way from Lily shaking her head. Lily said, "James, what did I tell you not even twenty minutes ago? Leave Oliver alone."

James said, "But Lily, he hurt you."

Oliver said, "I didn't mean to as I have been trying to tell you, your knucklehead. I've got a lot of things going on at home. The rumor about me going to the Christmas dance with another girl is just that, a rumor! I don't even plan on attending."

Lily smiled. Jasmine walked up to James and slapped him, hard. She said, "I told you not to interfere, but of course you had to defend your sister." Jasmine turned to Lily who was wiping Oliver's face with a handkerchief. "Lily, I'm sorry. I told him not to."

Lily said, "I understand Jasmine. My brother can be a bit reckless. He wasn't sorted into Gryffindor at Hogwarts for nothing after all."

James said, "I resent that!"

Lily rolled her eyes. She turned back to Oliver. She said, "Oliver, I'm sorry about this."

Oliver said, "No problem, Lily."

They all separated with that. Jasmine took James to the infirmary and everyone else went their separate ways. Lily went into the dining hall and sat down beside Timothy who had been joined by Brandy, Deidra, and Julia. Renee and Thomas were at another table all to themselves.

Julia said, "Do I even want to know what that was all about?"

Lily said, "My brother sticking his nose into things he has no business sticking his nose into."

Timothy said, "If I had a little sister, and some guy had made her cry, I would want to beat him up, too."

Lily said, "I told my brother not to bother Oliver. I may get back at James for that. Father won't be happy about it if he hears about James fighting at school."

Julia nodded.

The rest of December passed with little to no consequence. Lily decided that she would go home for Christmas and let things settle down between her and Renee. She hated the no-talking between the two of them. They were cousins for pete's sake. Renee was totally ignoring her now. Lily was used to be close with her cousins.

Finals week came. The group minus two were busy with their finals.

The Saturday they were to leave the school, Lily received a message from her father that he would be in Boston to pick her up. Lily made one last stop to her dorm to pick up her mail and her suitcase. Her grade report was there:

Lily Potter

Year 3

Grades:

Charms EE

General Studies Overall: EE

Transfiguration EE

Ancient Runes A

Potions EE

Defense EE

Herbology O

Alchemy EE

Creature Care O

Arithmancy O

Latin O

History A

Astronomy A

Lily was disappointed that some of her grades in her normal classes dropped.

A/N:

So, here is another chapter. I am returning to school on the 23rd. I'm seriously trying to work on this guys, but I have been getting writers block alot. Let me know what you think about this chapter. Also, I was thinking of having James propose to Jasmine over Christmas hols. What do you think?