"Bye, Dad. I love you. I'm coming home for Easter, so don’t die before that!"
He smoothed her rumpled hair. "You do the same."
Petunia hugged her sister tightly. "You'll be sending me lots of owls. Plus you said you'd look up that one recipe for coffee cake."
Lily grinned. "Of course. And remember not to leave the potatoes in the oven for two hours."
"It's not my fault they burned black!"
Lily laughed.
"Well, maybe it is. But see you at Easter. And don't kill yourself!"
"Why, I didn't think you cared! But see you-" Lily wheeled her trolley around-"later." With a running start, she pushed the trolley through the barrier and soon stood in front of the steam-puffing, scarlet Hogwarts Express.
Looking around for her friends, Lily spotted Eva, who was hugging her mother goodbye. She felt a small wrench in her chest as she saw Mrs. Doylen and her daughter, but she wiped it out of her mind as she saw her blonde friend hurtle towards her.
"Lily! You're here-oh, good! Come on-train's leaving in fifteen minutes and we'd better get into a compartment before they fill up. Come on!" Playfully, she grabbed her friend by her hand and dragged her and the heavy trunk to the last compartment on the train-the only empty one. Within minutes, they were joined by Vanessa and Amanda, Miranda and Nigel. Almost too quickly to see, a pack of Exploding Snap cards were on the floor of the compartment, and they were jumping back every time the cards threatened to explode.
The train pulled slowly out of the station, and as it speeded up and they were rocketing through snowy countrysides, Lily was getting pretty good at avoiding scorched bangs, though Miranda's usually silky black sheet was turning frizzled and a bit more gray than usual.
Nothing eventful happened that trip, and, even though they discussed it for a good three and a half hours, no one knew who could have forged the note. Several thousand suggestions were offered, among them Serena, Sheila, Severus, Lucius, James, Eva, Vanessa, Miranda, Amanda, or Lily. The suggestion that Petunia had sent it was laughed away, for no one in their right mind would try to forge their own handwriting, and the handwriting on the note was a forged version of Petunia's. All in all, they spent a fun and fruitless journey back to school.
It was snowing heavily as they got off of the train and headed for the horseless carriages at the Hogsmeade train station. Trying their best to keep the almost golf-ball-sized snowflakes out of their eyes and owl cages, the students piled into the carriages and flopped down onto the seats.
The ride to Hogwarts seemed to take almost no time. Over the holidays, Lily had written Professor Dumbledore, informing him that her father was still alive and that an orphanage was a bit unnecessary. Dumbledore had asked to speak to her as soon as she arrived at school, so instead of going to dinner, she followed Professor McGonagall up to the headmaster's office.
When they stepped inside, Lily noted that he had a new acquisition: a red and gold phoenix flaunting his magnificent plumage in a corner on a perch. As they entered, he threw his head back and let out one beautiful, warming note. As if the phoenix served as a doorbell, Dumbledore opened a door to the right of the visitors and sat down at his desk, waving Professor McGonagall out of the room. Knotting his fingers into a twisted sort of knot, he took in Lily at a glance, noting that, over the holidays, the weight she'd lost in shock had come back, and her ribs weren't showing through her robes.
"You are doing well, then, I take it?"
Lily smiled. "Yes, sir. Everything's been going wonderfully."
"And you've started eating again. Madam Pomfrey was worried she would lose your job if you starved to death." His eyes twinkled merrily behind the half-moon shaped glasses.
"Have you any idea who could have written that letter?"
Lily shook her head. "No, sir. We-well, we discussed it on the train, but-but, well, it didn't get very far."
Dumbledore nodded. "I see. Well, I don't think I need to tell you that if we do find that person, he or she will be expelled. And, in the meantime, I want to tell you that every teacher at this school is very proud of the success of your education." His smile made Lily blush with pleased embarrassedness.
"Sir?"
"You are one of only twenty-three students that have skipped a grade since this school has been founded and still remained at the top of his or her classes, besides showing potential to skip another. We don't need to tell you how proud we are to be able to teach you."
Lily turned even redder and dropped her head. "Sir-I-well, thank you."
Dumbledore stood up, his dark blue robes with silver stars scattered over them swaying as he moved from behind his desk and began sorting books in a bookshelf near a window. "I should suggest that you go downstairs to dinner. It might be over otherwise."
Lily nodded her head in assent. "Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Closing the door behind her and returning to Gryffindor Tower, since she wasn't hungry, she undressed quickly and slipped into bed, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
She woke up the next morning full of energy and life. It surprised even herself as to where that came from, but she supposed she was simply glad to be back here. She showered and dressed in a hurry, pulling her hair back in a plait that she flung over her shoulder. Slipping into the school robes, Lily grabbed her bag and headed for breakfast, for once she hadn't awakened at six or roundabouts.
Eva met her near the Great Hall doors and led her to her seat. It was right smack in the middle of the Gryffindor table, and Lily had to stifle several blushes as she noted the stares.
"Eva?"
"Oh. See, they were expecting you to be going to an orphanage and not come back and stuff, so they're naturally a bit surprised."
"Oh. But didn't you or anyone else that knew tell them?"
Eva smiled. "It's none of their business, is it? That is," she amended, shrugging, as she propelled Lily to her chair, "that is, we figured you had a right to tell them, before we butted in."
Lily helped herself to the milk jug. "Thanks. But you'd better do it-I don't think it's any of their business, either."
Eva took the pitcher from Lily's hand. "That means that no one's going to find out, unless Dumbledore decides to become a blabbermouth. Which I highly doubt."
"Dumbledore a blabbermouth about what?" Sirius had leaned over.
Eva hit his knuckles a sharp rap; they had been inching towards the last bit of stollen on the table. He withdrew his hand, and Eva helped herself.
"You little git. No, really, what's he a blabbermouth about?"
Lily set her mouth in a straight line. "Sirius, nose out if you like having one."
He drew back. "Well, sorry if I've offended your Majesty. I didn't know that simply questioning would provoke such an attack."
"You should have known better. Eva, don't tell him anything."
Sirius looked really hurt. "Why not?"
Lily simply stared at him. "Why do you think?"
Dumbfounded, he gesticulated so wildly he almost knocked his plate and glass off of the table. "What do I think? What do I think? Lily, I've been there for you practically for the last two years. I've never spread anything around the school that you told me. Ever. And I-"
Lily placed a small hand over his mouth, and he fell silent. "But you have a very talkative best friend that insists that other's secrets simply slip out. And I don't want him knowing anything, for if I do, then-"
"Hola, everybody-what's for breakfast?"
Lily drew back and started talking to Eva, fixedly ignoring the person who had just plopped down in the seat of the other side of her.
James turned to Sirius. "What'd I do?"
Sirius busied himself with his bacon, accidentally puncturing the egg yolk on his plate. The rest of his food was quickly soaked, and he pushed his plate away in disgust.
"I'm not sure what you did, but I have a feeling it has to do with your not being able to keep secrets. That's what she said, at least."
James frowned. He lightly put a hand on Lily's shoulder and turned her around. His first sight of her since she got back startled him greatly.
When she had received the news about her father, she kept losing weight and the circles around her eyes became more pronounced with each passing day. Now, however, she had gained back all she had lost, she wasn't the brittle and frail icicle she had been, the rings around her eyes were almost completely gone, and her eyes had a spark in them, a sort of light that he hadn't seen there for quite some time. The red curls that had unwoven themselves from the waist-length plait framed her glowing countenance, and, wondering what could have caused that change in her, he simply stared till she lifted his hand off of her shoulder with an expression of disgust.
"Excuse you?"
He pulled himself together. "Lil, what happened?"
"How happened? You put your hand on my shoulder. What do you mean, what happened?"
He waved that away. "No. Over Christmas. You look-" he searched for a word-"well, so much nicer than you did."
"Am I supposed to take that as a compliment or an insult?"
"Is anything wrong? Or was something wrong and it's right now?"
With the icy dignity of a heartless queen sentencing a mass of people to death, she looked down on him.
"And what makes you think I'd honor you with my confidence?"
He started to speak, then seemed to notice the full Great Hall for the first time. "Oh. Tell me later?"
Her glare became piercing. "And what makes you think I'd tell you anything?"
When he didn't answer, she stood up, pulling Eva with her. "Eve, let's go. There's no point staying here and talking to simpletons. I've got Study of Ancient Runes next and you're going to help me find my alphabet of the dwarf-runes. I left it somewhere in my trunk, and now…" They left the Great Hall, chattering like a pack of mice, and Sirius had to hit James hard on the back before he turned around and paid attention to the pretty blonde girl that had just slipped into a seat next to him. Now, however, she was a bit pink with rage.
Lily, persuaded by Eva, told Sirius everything in Study of Ancient Runes. It was a relief to tell him; he listened and didn't interrupt at all; simply looked at her, absorbing everything with an air of-of-well, of something Lily couldn't quite put her finger on, but it comforted her. She didn't need to tell him not to tell James-she knew he wouldn't. That was one of the things about Sirius-you could tell him anything and trust him with it.
By the time lunch rolled around, Lily was getting rather sick of teachers patting her on the back and nodding to her in the hallways, so she begged Eva to bring a bit of lunch up to the common room. Eva appeared, empty-handed, but with a following of a dark-haired dog-like person carrying something looking disturbingly like a picnic basket with him. "House-elves," was the only explanation he gave, and, almost on cue, Minky came toddling in with two jugs of pumpkin juice in her hands, set them down, bowed very low, and retreated, almost knocking her head against her knees.
The food stayed hot all through the lunch hour, and Lily told both her friends exactly what happened, this time including the details. There was one detail she kept to herself, however-her conversation with Severus. She had an eerie feeling that, however good Sirius might be at keeping secrets, he was terrible at it if it involved a possible blackmail situation and Severus Snape in the same sentence.
But, that evening, when Lily and Eva were sitting in the windowseat, the darkest corner of the common room, she told Eva about Christmas Eve. Eva was both impressed and disgusted, but she kept that last feeling to herself. No matter how much she disliked Snape, he was Lily's friend, and therefore she had no right to say anything mean about him.
"He asked you out?"
Lily nodded. "I told you, I said no."
"But why? You'd have James begging for forgiveness!"
Lily frowned. "I don't follow your thought processes."
Sighing, Eva gripped Lily by the shoulders. "I don't care how many bottles of butterbeer he shares with his Cissa git, he still likes you. And if you did that, he'd either be begging you for forgiveness or-"
Smoothly, Lily cut in. "Or he'd never speak to me again."
"Oh." Eva sat back. "I didn't think of it that way. By the way-" she straightened up-"can I see the note?"
Lily had expected this, and she pulled it out of her jeans pocket. "Read and keep to self."
Eva rolled her eyes. "All right, all right. What on earth-" she was staring at the bot of parchment-"If you aren't too busy this year, do you mind if we officially-" She was snorting with laughter. "That is the weirdest way I've ever heard of of asking anyone out."
Lily ripped the note out of her hands cleanly, tucking it back into her pocked. "I figured you'd say that. It could be worse, though."
"But not by much."
Lily and Eva both jumped, then glared. Looking over Lily's shoulder was a familiar tousle-headed, raven-haired someone that Lily wasn't too friendly with at the moment.
"Excuse you?"
"Bathroom's down that hall. What's this about Snape?" His eyes twinkled mischievously.
Eva was holding onto the back of Lily's robes to keep her from attacking James. "Will you leave? This was none of your business!"
"Exactly. Was. It is now. So-what's this about Snape?"
Lily wrenched herself free from Eva's grasp. "Go away. I haven't told you this for a reason."
"And that reason would be?"
"Look at the way you're acting now! Not to mention that you spilled what I told you to Sirius!"
He shrugged. "You would have told him anyway."
"THAT DOESN’T MATTER! I TRUSTED YOU!"
"All right, all right! Calm down!" He saw with relief that Lily obeyed him and sank back down onto the window seat. "Lil, I promise, I didn't tell him anything except what you heard me say. Now what's going on? You can trust me."
Eva sat in her corner, smirking as she saw the angry face of Serena peeping our from behind an armchair, barely visible between the two in front of her, inches apart. The only drawback to that, Eva noted, was that Lily was glaring daggers at James.
"Can I?"
"Yes. Truly. I promise you, I won't tell anyone."
"Why do you want to know?"
He shrugged. "Well, it's pretty important to you. And I'd like to know what it is, so if anything else like it happens, I can be there for you?" His voice raised in a question at the end.
Lily's angry glare faded, and she almost gave in. But then she caught sight of his eyes. They were just as concerned and understanding and pleading as they had been the night she had told him about her father, and she drew back, out of his reach.
"You mean, so you can spread it all around the school. No thanks." With that final statement, she whirled around, headed for her dormitory, and vanished from sight, leaving James to a disappointed but amused Eva and an enraged, possessive girlfriend.
Eva drew back even more into the curtains, effectively hiding herself but able to see and hear all. It was lucky that she knew how to contain her laughter, otherwise she would have interrupted the extremely interesting discussion that went on only three feet in front of her. Serena was foaming at the mouth.
"Excuse you? What were you doing there?"
James raised his eyebrows. "Talking."
"Yes, talking! Talking to the one girl who's made my life here miserable! Two inches away from her face! That kind of talking!"
"She's just had her father die! What do think I was doing? You've never had anyone close to you die-she's lost both her parents in six months!"
Serena shook her head. "No, she didn't."
He was dumbfounded. "What do you mean, no she didn't?"
"She didn't tell you? That note was a fake. Her dad's still there to abuse her if he wants to."
"A fake? How do you know?"
"I know."
"And where'd you get the idea that her dad abuses her? You've got no right to think that!"
"Well, excuse me! I'm simply repeating what you said! You mean it's against the law now to agree with you?"
"And when did you hear me say that?"
"On the lawn. It was a Sunday."
"So you were eavesdropping, too?"
Serena folded her arms. "Well, I have the funny feeling that I have a right to know what my boyfriend's doing outside on the lawn with my greatest enemy, who just happens to be a girl."
"So you have a right to know everything that goes on in my life?"
"Well-yeah!"
"Well-no!"
"I'm your girlfriend, James Potter, and I have more of a right to you than anyone else here. Remember that."
"No."
"What do you mean, no?" She wasn't remotely pretty anymore. Practically spitting with rage, her features were convulsed and the usual innocent sweetheart look was wiped off.
"I meant what I said! No! To the first bit of that last sentence, that is."
"That I have more of a right to you than anyone else?"
"No, that you're my girlfriend."
Her jaw dropped. "WHAT?"
"Jesus!" He covered his ears. "Don't scream like that!"
"I'll scream if I damn well please! WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!"
James lost control, effectively drawing the attention of the entire common room to the arguing couple silhouetted by the light of the moon outside the window.
"I TOLD YOU WHAT I JUST SAID! I'M SICK AND TIRED OF YOUR POSSESSIVENESS! I'M MY OWN PERSON, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"
Upstairs, Lily heard screaming and shrieking noises coming from downstairs. Swiftly throwing her navy bathrobe on over her black nightgown and quickly plaiting her hair to that morning's style, she slipped downstairs, hiding in the shadow of the stairwell, with a clear view of the verbal fight.
"So what does this mean?" Serena squared her shoulders defensively.
"You, of all people, should know! Of all the uninteresting idiots in this whole darn school that don't have an idea of their own, you should know!"
"Excuse me? I am uninteresting? You weren't singing that tune a year ago!"
"Well, yeah! I never did. You were the one picking on me for not being able to sing! Besides, a year ago I was an idiot."
"So what you're telling me is that I'm an uninteresting idiot without any original ideas, an eavesdropper-what else, James Potter? What else?"
Remus was sitting in an armchair, leaning over to Sirius. "Five Galleons on James."
Sirius shook his head. "I don't know about that. She's got a lot of rage. And spit."
James stepped back. "What else? Well-let's see-you're dumped, maybe?"
Sirius slapped Remus on the back. "I'll take that bet!"
Mouthing wordlessly and resembling a dead codfish with a moving mouth, Serena stared after James as he left the common room, slamming the portrait closed and earning an enraged shout from the Fat Lady. She only left the common room when she was unfrozen by applause and whistles from the common room. Then she brushed herself off with as much dignity as she could muster, turned on her heel, and left for the girls' dormitory. On her way up, however, she caught sight of a redhead clad in shadows, standing on the stairwell.
Serena stopped, scowled, smirked, and glared all at the same time. She thought she was frightening Lily. Lily was thinking to herself how stupid Serena looked.
"So, happy now?"
"Why should I be?"
"I've been totally humiliated in front of Gryffindor Tower, dumped by my boyfriend, and insulted rudely. And it's all your fault."
"Wow." Lily looked approving. "I should get a medal for that!"
Stamping her foot on the stairwell, Serena's contorted features returned. "If you know what's good for you, you're going to find a way to get us back together."
Lily shrugged. "I'm not the best person to use that line on. I ate rat poison once when I was eight to see what would happen. And when I was ten, I stuck my hand into a pot of boiling water to see how hot it was. Same goes for the iron."
Mad as a smushed hornet, Serena practically started spitting again. Lily thought to herself that tonight she'd have to take her shower at night instead of in the mornings.
"You little impudent rat! You've completely ruined every single chance I had with him!"
Lily resumed a thoughtful look. "No, I'd say you did that. You didn't have to be so possessive."
"So you eavesdropped on us?"
"I didn't need to. I'll bet they heard you in the Alendoren Cove."
"The who?"
"You're not very good at geography, are you, dear?"
"You were eavesdropping?"
"So were you."
Serena could find nothing to say to that. She simply stared after Lily as the slight figure made her way down to the common room where Eva was waiting for her. A bit to late, Serena found her voice.
"I'll make sure you don't forget this, Evans!"
Lily sighed. Calling over her shoulder, she sent her remark back. "And Hogwarts will make sure you don't forget your humiliation, Sikora."
Without bothering to watch Serena vanish up the stairwell, she grabbed Eva's robes and pushed her into a chair. "Tell me what happened."
The next morning, when Lily walked into the Great Hall Sirius and Remus were slapping James on the back, clapping loudly as he tried to eat. He gave up just as Lily slid into her seat, choking on a mouthful of milk.
"How are you?"
James spit the mess out into a napkin. "Sick."
"Oh. I mean besides the milk."
As he was coughing up the rest of the milk that had found its way into his lungs, he didn't answer right away, but when he did, his answer was to be expected. "Absolutely wonderful. Do you know, I haven't been able to play one really good prank since Serena happened? Oh, think of the possibilities!" His voice faded, and he drifted off into a sort of dreamland, where Sirius and Remus obviously didn't exist, for he took another swig from his mug. Immediately, hands were clapping him on his back, and he woke up with a loud snort of milk coming out of his nose and a howl of pain. Everyone around him almost killed themselves laughing. Serena wasn't too happy. She had been walking by, and some of the milk had landed on her robes. They laughed even harder at her stamped foot and storm out of the Great Hall, and when they subsided, Lily had only time for a quick bowl of oatmeal before they had to dash off to Transfiguration.
Lily had forgotten that she shared this subject with James, and she didn't know quite what she felt about that when she remembered. He waved to her to sit down in the desk next to him, and, after a bit of uncertainty, she gave up and slid into the seat.
"So, forgiven me now?"
"No."
"But you're sitting here!"
"There is no other seat left, genius!"
James looked around. "Oh, right. Well-what'd you think of last night?"
Lily pulled out her quill and bottle of ink. "I think that you're going to regret it."
He looked dumbfounded. "Why? You're taking her side?"
"NO." Lily shook her head determinedly. "I just think that you're more vulnerable to her wrath than I am."
"So, you're worried now?" He nudged her in the side, but pulled his arm away quickly as she pointed the inky quill at him.
"I am not worried."
"So, why'd you decide to warn me?"
"Blood and guts spread all over the common room are not nice to sit down on."
"Oh." He stretched, yawning loudly. "Shame."
"Why?"
"I thought for a minute there you had actually turned human."
"Me and human in the same sentence? Excuse me; is this St. Mungo's? Someone's using me and human in the same lifetime…uh-huh…temperature? Five hundred and ninety…"
James grabbed the imaginary phone out of her hand. "Will you grow up?"
"You need to shrink. You're sitting on Bob."
It was just as well that Professor McGonagall was out of the room, for Lily burst into laughter at seeing his perplexed expression.
"Bob?"
"Yes, Bob! Can't you see him!"
"Who is Bob?"
Lily put her hands on her hips in feigned indignation. "Bob is my invisible friend! Stand up! He doesn't like having you on his lap!"
James rolled his eyes. "For a moment there I thought you were serious."
Lily gasped affectedly. "Don't you dare insult Bob!"
Their conversation was terminated by the entrance of Professor McGonagall, but they continued it in Anatomy while they were working with giant tarantulas. Lily, after insisting that Bob be let to do his share of the fun, entwined James in a long conversation about how he couldn’t prove that Bob didn't exist. James left that room at lunchtime with his head grasped in his hands, whining for headache medicine.
In Astronomy, however, Lily had snapped back to her previous coldness, scowling at the person working at her star chart. Wisely, for once, he decided not to interrupt her.
He wasn't in the common room that night; the Quidditch team was practicing. They tromped in at about eleven, freezing and bruised, since the snow had iced over. Miranda was the first to fling herself onto an armchair, and Lily quickly snapped her book shut as tiny ice particles came flying her way.
"I take it it's cold outside?"
Nigel sighed, stretching out in front of the fire. "I would answer that, but I have a funny feeling that the ice hanging off of my robes says it for me."
Rebecca Oxley, the new Chaser, shoved him out of the way, her chestnut hair almost frozen stiff with the cold. "Move. Now."
Lily shook her head and returned to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but she was startled rudely when water droplet dripped onto the page.
"Potter, can't you go thaw somewhere else?"
He shook his head. "I wanted you to see this."
"See what?" Her voice was almost as icy as the wind beating the windows.
He knelt down next to her. "Look at my hair."
She obeyed, and next instant burst out laughing. "Why, of all things, do you have your hair frozen to your head?"
Miranda waved that away. "That's nothing. He had icicles reaching down to his armpits before, but he broke them off."
"Really? May I ask why?"
"You just did."
"James, shut up." John had butted in. "He was being an idiot, so we emptied some lake water over his head. He had nice little sheets of ice lining his eyelashes!"
James glared. "You could have left that part out."
John smirked. "Why-you embarrassed to have your faults revealed in front of a lady?"
Miranda, Anya, and Jacqueline coughed loudly.
"They don't count. No, really-you're blushing!"
"That would be blood rushing to the head."
"Yeah, that's what happens when you blush!"
"Or when you're angry."
Lily stood up, interrupting the conversation. "Goodnight, my statues of ice. I betaketh me to my quarters now."
James leaned around the back of Lily's armchair. He was now occupying it. "James thanks Lily very much for the empty seat Lily just gave James! James is eternally grateful for a place to sit; thank you, Miss Lily!" He interrupted his house-elf talk as a piece of ice came hurtling down the girls' dormitory stairs at him.
"As James was saying, James is very grateful to the-" He had to duck as she aimed another bit at him.
