She stopped in the shadow of the girls’ dormitory stairway. The common room was already occupied, and Lily knew that the occupants wouldn’t stick at performing several hundred Memory Charms on her if they discovered her.
“Did you get into Pince’s library?”
Sirius shook his head. “The darned owl seals it every night. I couldn’t.”
“Don’t you know how to pick locks?”
“I tried Alohomora, but that didn’t work.”
James rolled his eyes. “You idiot. We’re going to have to go back again. And to think I trusted you.”
“Wh-why?”
“You can pick the messed up lock the Muggle way even if Pince seals it. We need that book.”
“So? I mean, does it have to be tonight?”
“Uh-well-if we want to do this anytime soon, yeah.”
“Oh, all right. Changing subject now.”
“What for?” James looked puzzled.
“Curiosity is a dangerous thing to have if it’s in my hands. What did you and Lily say to each other after I left?”
“Me and who?”
“Lily.”
“I’ve never spoken to her in my life.”
“Liar.”
“Oh, fine, all right-Sirius, I just don’t want Serena to find out that I-“
“That you what?”
Lily pricked her ears, straining to hear every whispered bit.
“Erm-that I-“
“James, you chicken, no one’s awake but us. That you what?”
James broke. “Sirius, this is going to sound terribly odd. I-“
“It probably is. Then again, I’m talking to you, so it won’t be out of the ordinary.”
“Shut up. See-the problem is-you know I like Serena, right?”
“Obvious, my dear Watson, quite obvious.”
“And it’s not exactly uncommon knowledge that Lily and Serena hate each other. Don’t bother to respond to that one. And see-“
“You’ve said the word ‘see’ too many times.”
“Only twice. But still-don’t you see what I’m trying to say?”
“Thrice.”
“Is that a no or a yes?”
“It’s a ‘quite frankly, I haven’t the faintest idea.’”
“Oh.” James frowned. “I stink at explaining.”
“You stink, period.”
“I do not!”
“Oh, calm down. What about Lily?”
James clenched his fists, looked about the common room, then turned back to Sirius, satisfied that they were alone.
“Sirius, she’s an awesome person. She’s brilliant and funny and nice to be around when she isn’t mad-the only problem is, she’s terribly ugly and has the worst smart mouth ever. And I’ve been thinking-if you combined Serena’s looks and Lily’s good side of her personality, they’d make the perfect girl-but the problem is-What?”
Sirius had been trying for some minutes to keep from laughing, and he finally burst out into a series of snorts. When he calmed down, he was still smirking broadly.
“James, this is getting stupid. You’re only a third year, for Tommy the Basset Hound’s sake. Stop this whole girl nonsense.”
“Tommy the Basset Hound?”
“It’s more original than ‘for Pete’s sake’. Come on, forget those two. You’ll have plenty enough time for all that mess in a few years.”
James sighed. “Oh, all right. But at least tell me how I’m to get both of them to be my friends at the same time.”
“Impossible. And you’re wrong.”
“Huh? Wrong about what?”
“Remember when you were listing Lily’s faults? Trust me, if she tried, she’d be beating the guys here off with a rawhide whip.”
James raised his eyebrows. “Uh-huh. Right. I’m going to bed.” He stood up, tucked the book he had been reading under his arm, and headed for the dormitory stairs.
“James, you idiot!”
James turned around. “What?”
“That’s the girls’ dormitory!”
“Huh?” James looked about him, then blushed a deep red. “Oops. Forgot.”
“Forgot what? If you can forget that easily that you don’t belong in the girls’ dormitory, we need to have a talk.”
“Talk?”
“James, either you’re the most absent-minded idiot I’ve ever encountered or there are some things you haven’t told me about.”
“Sirius, shut up.”
When both of them had left the common room, Lily curled up in the largest armchair there was, pulled out The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas from underneath the cushion and flipped to D’Artagnan’s first encounter with the Cardinal’s guards. Absorbed in the fight, she didn’t notice a foot step right in front of her; a foot minus a person. She only looked up when the foot spoke.
“Lil?”
“Huh? I mean-hey! James, Remus or Sirius?”
The foot frowned. “Where did you pull those names from?”
She shrugged. “Number one, you’ve got access to just about the only Invisibility Cloak I know of; two, Peter’s too scared to get out of bed because of the vitriol-throwers and ax-murderers we have wandering around Hogwarts.”
“We do?”
“Oh, and I forget those ghosts that’ll as soon kill you as look at you. Peter’s wise to stay in bed.”
“He’s just a wuss. Lil, I need to talk to you.”
“Who are you?”
“That’s beside the point. I-“
“No, it’s not. I might be spilling deep and dark secrets to the very person I want to hide them from. Take the cloak off, James Potter.”
Looking rather sheepish, James emerged, balling the cloak up and sitting on it. He looked over at Lily and was surprised to see her trying to hold in peals of laughter.
“What? Did my hair just turn green or something?”
“James.” Lily was having a hard time keeping a three-fourths straight face. “Look down.”
James did so.
“Not at your feet, idiot.”
“What-where-“
“The end of your spine.”
James looked down again, then looked up at Lily, rolling his eyes. “Shut up.”
“Stop sitting on that cloak. It really does make you look like you have no butt.”
Glaring playfully, he pulled the silvery thing out from underneath him and turned to Lily. “Lil?”
“What?”
“Don’t try to lie-you heard what I was telling Sirius?”
“When?”
“About an hour ago. You were standing in the dorm hallway.”
“And you saw me when you ‘accidentally’ tried to go up there.”
“Stop! It was an accident!”
“Uh-huh, yeah, sure, right.”
“You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you’re speaking the truth just as I believe that you’re going to ask me to hook you up with Professor Dumbledore.”
“Oh.”
“You were really going to ask me that?”
“WHAT?”
“Never mind. What did you want to say?”
“Oh-that. Well, I saw you on the landing, so I know you heard what I said.”
“I did. Don’t fool yourself by thinking I was hurt; I know what you said about me is true.”
He stared at her as if in a new light. “Lily, you’re not mad?”
“No.”
“Any other girl would have torn my eyes out for that.”
“I’m not that vain. And I recognize truth when I hear it.”
“Well-did you hear what Sirius said?”
“I did, and I think he needs glasses.”
At that, James laughed loudly, throwing his head back and making several people upstairs stir. “Lily, you’re really something, you know that?”
“Something as in an Orc or an electrocuted phoenix?”
“Oh, forget that, won’t you?”
“I have a very retentive memory.”
“I noticed.”
“Well. Back to the point. What did you want to tell me?”
He nodded, seemingly in a state of indecision, then squared his shoulders. “Lil, I need to tell you something.”
“Shoot. I’m ready when you are.”
“I’m not going to be an idiot and throw you over simply because of someone else. You’ve been a better friend to Remus than probably anyone else could have been, you know, last year, and I was stupid to forget how you stood by him.”
“Do you want me to comment?”
“No. Let me finish.”
“Go on.” She settled herself in the armchair and draped the black cloak comfortably about her shoulders.
“I don’t want to lose you as a friend. I think you’re the best person I can talk to in this whole stinking school, and I’d be honored if thou wouldst condescend to the level of considering me as thy friend.”
“Stop the medieval language. All right. But I warn you, you taught me some good jinxes and I haven’t forgotten how to use them.”
“I invented a new one over Easter break.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Lemme get my wand; it’s a nifty little spell.”
In the morning, Eva found Lily and James joking around in the common room, with Lily practicing the jinx James had just taught her and accepting a piece of gum he’d just offered. Frowning slightly, she pulled her friend to one side.
“Lily?”
“Morning!”
Eva frowned. “You’re in a good mood. Listen, I need to ask you something.”
“OK; go ahead.”
“Not here,” Eva hissed. She tugged at Lily’s sleeve till Lily finally followed her out of the portrait hole and into an empty classroom.
“What?”
“It’s about that Potter kid.”
“James? Yeah, what about him?”
“Lily, you’re on pretty good terms with him now, aren’t you?”
“Uh-huh. So?” She blew a large bubble and snapped it loudly.
“Well, wasn’t he rude and mean as can be earlier this year?”
“Well-yeah, but he said he was sorry.”
Eva shook her head. “Lily, this is going too far. Do you know how many times he’s acted this way and you’ve forgiven him?”
“Um-I haven’t been counting. Don’t tell me you have.”
“I have, and out of respect for your pride, I won’t mention the number. Lily, this is ridiculous. Why on earth are you still his friend?”
“I-I don’t know.” Lily looked down at her robes. “I just can’t really stay mad at him for long.”
“You need to. Guys like him use girls like you, and he’s done a pretty thorough job so far. This needs to stop.”
Lily bit her lip for a minute, then nodded her head shortly.
“All right. I’ll try to stop.”
“Try? Hon, you’re going to do.”
“All right then. I’ll stop.”
“Atta girl. All right then, that lecture’s over. Go back in there and have fun being mean.”
They both smiled at each other wickedly as they left the classroom.
As they went down to breakfast, Eva broke the comfortable silence.
“Lily, you do know that I wasn’t trying to be mean to James back there, don’t you? I just want you to be, well, you know, I just don’t want you to get hurt again. You do understand, don’t you?”
Lily stared. “Of course I understand! I just realized when you were talking to me back there what an idiot I was being. I’m far too easy on him and I don’t plan to do that any more in future.”
“Well, just what do you plan to do?”
“Nothing, really. I’m not going to be mean to him, but I don’t plan to be friendly. That good?”
“Sounds safe-but, Lily, I don’t want to be responsible if you two develop another fight.”
“You’re not responsible; I am, and I’ll sign a contract to that effect if I have to.”
“Don’t bother. We’re still friends?”
“We never haven’t been.”
“True.”
With that, both of them slipped into their seats and dug into pancakes with maple syrup.
James was a bit puzzled, true, when Lily greeted him with her former coolness, but he was relieved when Serena walked in and didn’t find him talking to Lily. Lily noted this out of the corner of a narrowed eye, and thought to herself that Eva was right; he was an inconstant fool.
Their classes passed easily, and Lily won twenty points for Gryffindor when she described the effects of the Catnip Bush on people. By the end of Charms, the last period for that day, there was a notice posted in the Great Hall, which several people were gathered around.
SPECIAL COURSE OFFERED
For third years and above, there will be the choice of Anatomy of Magical Creatures offered, beginning next year. This course will only be offered for four years, as the teacher shall be leaving us at the end of that time period. If you wish to sign up for this course, please see your Head of House. The deadline is the Friday before exams.
Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Lily’s eyes opened wide. They dilated along with her pupils and started to sparkle. Eva noticed that look.
“You’re signing up?”
“What do you take me for? Of course!”
“You do know you’re going to be dissecting creatures, don’t you?”
“Precisely my reason for signing up.”
“All right.” Privately, Eva thought; anything to get her mind off of James.
Lily never wasted a moment. She immediately went to the Transfiguration room and caught Professor McGonagall as she was tidying up papers on her desk. Fifteen minutes later, Lily walked out of the room with an extremely satisfied smile on her face.
Exams came all to quickly, but this year Lily only put three days of moderate studying into her schedule. When they got their marks back, Eva was ready to hit Lily, along with the rest of the third years, when they found out that Lily had gotten the highest marks in their year. Lily herself was a bit miffed to find that her average was only two points higher than James’, but she nevertheless was excited enough to participate fully in the large party James and Sirius threw for the Gryffindors as an end-of-exams celebration. She could tell they had been to Hogsmeade by the large amounts of butterbeer and Honeydukes candy, but she kept her mouth shut.
It was boiling inside the castle, so everyone was delighted when the Hogwarts Express came to transport the students to King’s Cross. Quickly, the train was packed and the engine heading south, bearing in its vitals a fair amount of noisy explosions and sparks issuing from Exploding Snap games. Everyone was taking advantage of the few hours they had before they would have to stop using magic, and the air was filled with laughter and bangs. Lily had joined in, though in Serverus’ compartment. He had just asked her something she was considering seriously, and she had a mischievous spark in her eyes.
“Really?”
“Yeah; Lucius and I wanted to do that last year, but then they went over to someone else’s place and the effect would have been ruined. This year works, though.”
“There’s only one problem there.”
“What?”
“Do you have a sister or female cousin?”
“Er-no, why?”
“Can’t go. My dad’d throw a fit.”
“Oh, come on, we’ll work around that. Say yes, please!”
“Er-I’m not sure. It would be a nice bit of excitement…I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”
“Well, in case you say yes, Lucius’ mansion can hold seventy guests.”
“Really? That many guest rooms? His ancestors must have liked throwing parties…Serverus, I’d love to, but there’s the whole parent consent thing.”
He waved that off. “Don’t worry. I’ll handle that. You’ll do it?”
“Have I ever shirked from something that promises excitement or danger?”
“No, and sometimes I wish you would; you’ll get killed if you keep that up.”
“To die would be an awfully great adventure.”
“Peter Pan.”
“Exactly.”
She smiled and opened her trunk, pulling out a set of Gobstones. Serverus’ eyes lit up and he scooted some of his things on the floor over, giving them about a square yard of space to play on.
The train stopped before Lily was aware that two hours had passed, and they climbed onto the noisy platform. Just before she left to go through the barrier, Serverus slipped a note into her hand, with a whispered, “Read it when you’re alone.”
No one was at the Muggle station to meet her when the train pulled up and Lily walked through the barrier, and they had no Muggle money so they could use a phone. Serverus waited around with her for about a half hour, then persuaded Lily to come to his place temporarily.
"It's only for about an hour, till my parents can figure out what's wrong here. And it can't hurt anyone."
Lily was indecisive. "I'm not sure. What if they arrive just as we leave?"
"You can say that till Doomsday comes. And, besides, do you really want to stay out here with an owl, a Hogwarts trunk, and all kinds of that stuff? The Muggle please-men'd arrest you for insanity."
Lily half-smiled. "Policemen. All right. But are you sure your parents'd be all right with my coming over?"
He shrugged. "It's not exactly my parents; more like Lucius'. But it's almost the same thing. They're still inside the barrier. Coming?"
Lily sighed and turned her trolley towards the barrier. "All right. But if my parents murder me for this, you're paying the medical bills."
"What's the point? You'd be dead already. And remember, the only thing to do with someone who's all dead is to go through her clothes for loose change."
"You start going through my clothes, Serverus Snape, and you'll wish you'd never seen me."
"All right. Come on--Lucius' waiting up there."
They wheeled their trolleys onto Platform nine and three-quarters to meet their friends' parents.
"Lily!"
He was speaking in a whisper.
"What?"
"Voice down! Don't, by any means, tell his parents that you're Muggle-born!"
"Why not?"
"Just don't!"
Walking over to Lucius' family, Lily analyzed them silently.
"Mr Malfoy--tall, same white-blond hair as his son...looks nice enough, not a person I'd want to cross." She smiled as she shook his outstretched hand.
"So this is Lucius' little friend? We've heard a lot about you. And you're welcome to stay with us as long as you want."
Lucius took her arm. "Lily, this is my mother." He turned her towards a beautiful lady, with long, ash-blonde hair, and pink cheeks that were not reflected on either her husband's or son's faces. She also smiled welcomingly.
"Lily? Welcome, dear. Your parents didn't turn up? Oh, dear...well, we'll have to contact them as best we can...well, until we do, dear, you'll be staying with us." She gave Lily an extra squeeze, smiled again, and took her husband's arm.
"Dear, I need to get home. Dahlia's hosting her party tonight and I promised to help with the decorations. We'll leave now." Mildly bossy, she pulled the group, which included Severus, away towards the barrier.
