02.
Here's Spreading Darkness continued:
Lily reached across Ivy's plate to grab an apple from the fruit bowl, placing it next to the huge pile of food already on her plate. It was hard to act like a dainty young lady, like Petunia always did with her small servings at meals, when there was so much delicious food at all Hogwarts meals. It might mean that she and Ivy had to spend their weekends attempting to work out, but it was worth it and didn't affect her too much thanks to her fast metabolism.
Ivy sat next to her, also piling her plate and eating almost everything she could get her hands on. Ivy complained that she was always forced to work so hard on her figure, but Lily knew she was faking it - she played Quidditch, and managed to get five times as much exercise as Lily. Lily spent most of her time inside of the castle, except when Ivy managed to drag her outside.
"So, Evans, you excited to spend every day with me?"
Lily turned to James, who had snagged the seat on her other side. He had another seemingly-genuine smile on his face, and there didn't seem to be any cockiness in it.
She shrugged. "I already have to see your face everywhere - now I get to see it while you're attempting to discipline students. That'll definitely be interesting."
James grimaced - he probably wasn't looking forward to attempting to punish students for stuff he had already done himself, but it certainly would be funny to see him try.
Ivy's brother, Dillon, suddenly plopped down across from Lily. He smiled at her before looking at his sister, who was talking to Sirius on her other side. "Hey, Ive, did you hear that Abercrombie's mum is missing?"
Ivy turned to her brother. "Isn't he one of your friends? What happened to her?"
"About a week ago she disappeared on her way home from work. No one knows where she went, although the Ministry certainly has an idea. See, she was a Muggle-born, and some Death Eaters had apparently been stalking her for a few months. They figure they got her, probably killed or tortured her. Lucas Abercrombie is still at home - not sure if he's even going to come back to school this year."
Lily recalled some of the stuff she had read about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the Daily Prophet that morning. It had suggested that he had been behind some Muggle attacks - perhaps he was going after Muggle-born witches and wizards now. Lily shivered - everyone knew about her parentage, especially after Severus Snape, her former friend, had called her a Mudblood in front of all the other students back in fifth year. Certainly she'd be safe in Hogwarts, though, right?
James seemed to have noticed her shivers; he grabbed her hand and squeezed it, smiling warmly as he whispered, "Don't worry, Evans, you'll be perfectly safe. I'll protect you."
Lily wanted to scoff at his cheesy attempt at being a knight in shining armor, but it really did comfort her. She wanted to know that her friends would have her back in this new, scary world that was slowly beginning to form around her.
James gave her hand another squeeze before letting go of it and returning to his food. The rest of their group, after processing the news, also returned to eating and talking about their summer breaks. The atmosphere became light-hearted once more, and Lily relaxed, letting her worries slip from her mind and instead began thinking about the exciting, although hard, year that she had to look forward to.
The food slowly disappeared and students began getting up and heading back to their dormitories. Soon there were only a few older students and all the first years, who were unsure of where to go. Lily almost forgot about her job until she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see James, who was already standing up. "Come on; let's show the little pipsqueaks how to get to their beds."
Lily nodded and stood up, promising to catch up with Ivy as soon as she was done. She was surprised to see that James had already rounded up all the first years, who looked nervously up at the tall seventh year, who probably looked quite intimidating to the young eleven year olds. Lily couldn't imagine herself, let alone the towering James Potter, as young first years who were so scared of the huge, unknown castle. Lily now considered it to be her real home, much more than the house she lived in for summer break with her sister, who hated her, and her parents, who, though they cared dearly about her, were in a completely different world. She couldn't talk to them about the growing danger in the wizarding world, or about her fears of becoming a target of a man so evil wizards were beginning to fear saying his name. Hogwarts was the place that she felt she could fit into, even though she still stood out for her blood status and intelligence.
"Come on, first years, Gryffindor dormitory is this way!" Lily clapped her hands to get their attention before walking out of the Great Hall, leading the way to the huge portrait of the Fat Lady. James easily caught up to her with his long legs, his hands in his pants pocket and a bemused expression on his face. "So, do we just need to show them to their rooms and then we're done with them?"
"Yep, that's all we have to do. Although we'll have to make sure to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks, make sure that they're doing alright." Lily glanced back to the first years, slowing down when she realized that even her pacing, hampered by her short legs, was too big for the young children. Realizing that Lily was falling behind, James also adjusted his own pacing and returned to Lily's side.
The rest of the walk went in silence, the first years too nervous to talk to each other, until Lily finally stood in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. In all of her seven years of education at Hogwarts, Lily had never seen the Fat Lady look different - always the same frilly ball gown and ringlets of brown hair that framed her aged face. Lily couldn't believe that this was the last time she was ever going to see the Fat Lady on the first day of school.
James coughed loudly, returning Lily's attention to the impatient first years. Then she realized that she had completely forgotten the password. She had told the old Gryffindor prefects herself, but now she couldn't remember what it was. She turned helplessly to James.
Before she could even admit her mistake, he smiled and turned towards the portrait. "Nargles," he stated clearly, smiling as the portrait swung open to reveal the hole to the Gryffindor common room.
The red and gold room was just as cozy as ever, and Lily desperately wanted to fall into one of the comfy armchairs that was in front of the roaring fireplace. But she first showed the five first year girls the room they would occupy for the next seven years, noting how similar it was to her own room, which was the first room in the girls' corridor.
After leaving the girls to settle into their new room, Lily hurried down to the common room and immediately fell across the first armchair in front of the fireplace, her legs hanging over one arm, her head resting on the other. She stared into the fire, not wanting to think about how this was her last year, and how far she had come since she had been a young first year who had seven years of educational life at Hogwarts before she had to worry about her future.
A shadow loomed next to her head, and Lily turned to see James sitting in the armchair next to her own. He smiled at her before turning to the fire, the flames reflecting in his hazel eyes. His raven black hair was messy, as it always was, and his glasses were slipping down his nose. Lily watched the expression on his face; it seemed to be one of thoughtfulness, as if he was trying to concentrate on something he didn't really want to think about. That was a feeling Lily knew well. She pulled herself into a sitting position, her legs folded up underneath her arms. "What's up, Potter? You look like you're thinking about something deep."
Rather than smiling and cracking some smart-aleck remark, James continued to stare into the fire. "I was just thinking about Abercrombie's mum. She went to school with my parents; she was roommates with my mum. And now she's missing, all because of her parents. She didn't do anything wrong purposely, she just happened to get magical abilities while no one else in her family did. There's no justice in the situation."
Lily frowned. She hadn't realized that James even knew Lucas Abercrombie and his family.
Lucas was one of Dillon's friends, although not very close, and a year younger than them. He
hadn't hung around them much, but Lily knew of him from Dillon, plus Hogwarts wasn't too big a school to lose track of people like that. She had never seen James caring about anyone other than his close friends. This was a side she didn't know, and she wasn't exactly sure how to deal with it.
When James remained silent, Lily got up and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders. She felt James relax beneath her arms, and she smiled to herself. This would be a difficult year, but maybe it'd be alright.
* * *
"Lily, I know that you enjoy your sleep but you have to wake up now," Ivy insisted from the side of Lily's bed, trying to pull the covers off of her. Lily merely groaned and pulled harder.
"Come on, Ive, it's only seven! Classes don't start until 9 or something. Can't I sleep?" Lily whined, sticking her head underneath her pillow.
Ivy slumped on her bed next to Lily, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at her best friend. "Lily, I thought you'd at least break your habit of sleeping in on the first day. Don't you want to hurry down to breakfast, stuff your face, and enjoy your last few minutes of freedom with friends instead of burrowed underneath your pillow?"
Lily's response was a simple grunt that was close to a "no."
Ivy groaned before grabbing hold of Lily's pillow. Catching Lily off-guard, Ivy managed to pull it off of her head, exposing her red mane to the empty room, which their three other roommates had already left a while ago.
Lily slowly pulled herself up, her eyes open a tiny slit and a huge yawn escaping her lips.
She stretched her arms high above her head as she glared at her friend. "Thanks for that, Ive. Good to see that I can always count on my friends, no matter what."
Ivy rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop being such a drama queen. You should be happy that I bothered to wake you up - I could have left you in bed, and you'd probably sleep through breakfast, and maybe even first class. Then you'd be yelling at me for not waking you up, instead of the opposite."
Even though she knew her friend was right, Lily continued to glare at her as she got up and went to the bathroom, quickly taking a shower before pulling on her uniform. The skirt was about a centimeter shorter - maybe she had actually grown that summer! - and the white blouse had a small ink stain near the bottom, but it was barely noticeable and Lily couldn't be bothered to get a new one. Besides, she could always clean it up with her wand, although she never had it with her when she was thinking of it.
Coming back out into the bedroom, Lily saw Ivy was already standing impatiently at the door, her own uniform slightly wrinkled from being stuffed into her trunk and just pulled out about five minutes before. Lily walked over to her friend and they set off down the steps to the common room, already talking about their classes for that day. They were discussing Potions when suddenly Lily ran into something - make that, someone.
"Are you sleepwalking, Evans? Did you really want to see me that much?"
Lily sighed and glared up at James, who towered over her. "No, I just failed to notice such a waste of space."
"Are you calling me pointless, Evans? Because I think there are plenty of girls at this school who would disagree with you, not to mention my dear ol' mum. Are you insulting my mum?" James pretended to act offended, but Lily could see the curve of a smile on his lips and the trace of a laugh in his voice. She rolled her eyes and quickly stepped around him, not bothering to wait for Ivy.
Ivy caught up with her anyway, a smirk on her face. "Well, that sure gets the year off to a great start, doesn't it?" Lily's response was a grunt. "Are you saying that you aren't completely pleased to see James after such a long and lonely summer?" A second grunt followed. "You know, for such a smart girl, you really need to expand your vocabulary."
This time Lily groaned. "Can we please talk about something else? Preferably something about you?"
Ivy laughed, elbowing Lily as they walked down to the Great Hall. By the time they reached the Gryffindor table, they were laughing about Ivy's summer vacation with her family's friends, the Longbottoms, who had spent a week in their summer house back in July. Frank Longbottom, their only son, spent all of his time writing letters to his girlfriend, Alice, or talking about her with Ivy and Dillon. After four days straight of that, Ivy and Dillon spent the rest of the week trying to hide from him.
Lily sat down at the table, grabbing a bagel as James and his friends sat down around the two girls. Lily silently groaned but she merely spread some cream cheese on her bagel as she stared across the table at Ivy, who was already talking to Sirius, laughing about a story he was telling. Traitor, Lily thought to herself.
"So, Evans, how would you like to spend the first Hogsmeade weekend with me?" James asked, a cocky grin on his handsome face. Lily desperately wanted to smack him.
"Sorry, I'm allergic to egotistical players who have nothing better to do with their time than pull childish pranks and ask girls out." Lily smiled sweetly, making her voice sound apologetic. Ivy giggled into her hand on the other side of the table, and Sirius and Peter laughed loudly, while Remus smirked.
Even with the comeback and its reaction, James remained unflappable, without a trace of red across his cheeks. He let out a genuine laugh and slung his arm around Lily's shoulder, giving it a huge squeeze which Lily was unable to get out from under. She grimaced at Ivy, but she merely shrugged with a knowing smile on her face.
"Evans, you are a clever one. You sure know how to make all of this so much fun."
Lily was about to return with another comeback when she felt a hand on her shoulder, which was still partially covered by James' arm. She turned around, a blush growing on her pale cheeks as she took in the sight of Professor Slughorn, the Potions teacher. He had a smile visible through his straw-colored moustache and his large belly was jiggling with the laugh he was trying to repress. Lily quickly shook James' arm off her shoulder and tried to calm down and get rid of the blush that added way too much color to her otherwise pale face. "Hello, Professor Slughorn. How are you today?"
"I'm doing very well, Ms. Evans, although I'm not having nearly as much fun as you young people seem to be having!" The laugh grew bigger as he let it out. "Oh, to be young and in love again!"
Lily quickly stammered out a response, something along the line of: "Oh, we're just friends, nothing's happening, we're just being teenagers and having fun, you know."
"Of course, Ms. Evans, I slightly remember having fun like that when I was your age, eons ago," he said with a seemingly-knowing wink.
The blush grew and Lily looked down at her hands, which were even pink-tinted. "So, did you want to ask me something, Professor?"
"Oh, yes, that's right. I just wanted to tell you that the Slug Club is having a back-to-school dinner this Sunday night. I know that's after your first week is over, but it'll hopefully be a great ‘last hurrah’ before school really starts up and you young people are overwhelmed by your immense workload. I hope you'll take the time out of your busy social life to come on Sunday, and maybe you can bring your great friend here. You're welcome to come, Mr. Potter," Slughorn let another wink slip, acting as if he was in on an inside secret with them.
"We'd love to come, Professor!" James replied with an equally 'knowing' smile on his face, grabbing Lily again and beaming up at Slughorn. "We'll see you on Sunday."
"Splendid! I'll be anxiously awaiting Sunday night now," Slughorn smiled. "Now, I'll leave you youngsters a chance to continue your conversation. I'll see you in Potions later!"
Lily smiled at her professor as he walked away, but as soon as he was out of sight she dropped the smile and turned to James, a glare on her face. "Why did you accept the invitation? I don't want to go to that dinner with you!"
James merely smiled and ate his breakfast silently, which annoyed Lily even more. She spent the rest of the meal glaring at her bagel and barely taking a bite of it before Ivy was getting up across from her and heading to their first class, conveniently leaving Lily alone with James. Lily didn't even notice it until James stood up and towered over her, the cocky smile returning to his face. "Well, Evans, are you coming? Won't want to be late for our first Charms class, would we?"
That was when Lily noticed that the Great Hall was nearly empty and her best friend was nowhere to be found. She grumbled to herself as she got up, grabbed her bag, and tried to hurry towards Charms before James could catch up to her. Unfortunately his long legs continued to help him and he caught up to her in no time.
"So, Evans, I didn't realize you thought of me that way."
Lily glanced at James, a questioning look on her face. "What do you mean?"
James chuckled. "Well, you told Slughorn that we were friends. I was unaware that we had made it past the stage where you hated my guts and I asked you out 24/7. Glad to know we've finally moved onto the friends part, especially knowing what comes after that..."
Lily groaned. She hadn’t even noticed she had referred to James as her friend. There was no way she could ever live that down - James would remind her until the day she died.
"So, now that we're friends, would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me?"
Lily was about to reply with another scathing remark when she caught sight of the wall in front of them. There were words crudely written on it, in some sort of red ink. Looking closer, Lily noticed it dripping onto the floor and gulped as she noticed how much it looked like blood.
James noticed that Lily had stopped and he followed her gaze to the follow, a look of anger growing onto his face. He read the message aloud.
"Mudbloods are no better than Muggles, and deserve the same punishment: a nice dose of Avada Kedavra."
Lily reached across Ivy's plate to grab an apple from the fruit bowl, placing it next to the huge pile of food already on her plate. It was hard to act like a dainty young lady, like Petunia always did with her small servings at meals, when there was so much delicious food at all Hogwarts meals. It might mean that she and Ivy had to spend their weekends attempting to work out, but it was worth it and didn't affect her too much thanks to her fast metabolism.
Ivy sat next to her, also piling her plate and eating almost everything she could get her hands on. Ivy complained that she was always forced to work so hard on her figure, but Lily knew she was faking it - she played Quidditch, and managed to get five times as much exercise as Lily. Lily spent most of her time inside of the castle, except when Ivy managed to drag her outside.
"So, Evans, you excited to spend every day with me?"
Lily turned to James, who had snagged the seat on her other side. He had another seemingly-genuine smile on his face, and there didn't seem to be any cockiness in it.
She shrugged. "I already have to see your face everywhere - now I get to see it while you're attempting to discipline students. That'll definitely be interesting."
James grimaced - he probably wasn't looking forward to attempting to punish students for stuff he had already done himself, but it certainly would be funny to see him try.
Ivy's brother, Dillon, suddenly plopped down across from Lily. He smiled at her before looking at his sister, who was talking to Sirius on her other side. "Hey, Ive, did you hear that Abercrombie's mum is missing?"
Ivy turned to her brother. "Isn't he one of your friends? What happened to her?"
"About a week ago she disappeared on her way home from work. No one knows where she went, although the Ministry certainly has an idea. See, she was a Muggle-born, and some Death Eaters had apparently been stalking her for a few months. They figure they got her, probably killed or tortured her. Lucas Abercrombie is still at home - not sure if he's even going to come back to school this year."
Lily recalled some of the stuff she had read about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the Daily Prophet that morning. It had suggested that he had been behind some Muggle attacks - perhaps he was going after Muggle-born witches and wizards now. Lily shivered - everyone knew about her parentage, especially after Severus Snape, her former friend, had called her a Mudblood in front of all the other students back in fifth year. Certainly she'd be safe in Hogwarts, though, right?
James seemed to have noticed her shivers; he grabbed her hand and squeezed it, smiling warmly as he whispered, "Don't worry, Evans, you'll be perfectly safe. I'll protect you."
Lily wanted to scoff at his cheesy attempt at being a knight in shining armor, but it really did comfort her. She wanted to know that her friends would have her back in this new, scary world that was slowly beginning to form around her.
James gave her hand another squeeze before letting go of it and returning to his food. The rest of their group, after processing the news, also returned to eating and talking about their summer breaks. The atmosphere became light-hearted once more, and Lily relaxed, letting her worries slip from her mind and instead began thinking about the exciting, although hard, year that she had to look forward to.
The food slowly disappeared and students began getting up and heading back to their dormitories. Soon there were only a few older students and all the first years, who were unsure of where to go. Lily almost forgot about her job until she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see James, who was already standing up. "Come on; let's show the little pipsqueaks how to get to their beds."
Lily nodded and stood up, promising to catch up with Ivy as soon as she was done. She was surprised to see that James had already rounded up all the first years, who looked nervously up at the tall seventh year, who probably looked quite intimidating to the young eleven year olds. Lily couldn't imagine herself, let alone the towering James Potter, as young first years who were so scared of the huge, unknown castle. Lily now considered it to be her real home, much more than the house she lived in for summer break with her sister, who hated her, and her parents, who, though they cared dearly about her, were in a completely different world. She couldn't talk to them about the growing danger in the wizarding world, or about her fears of becoming a target of a man so evil wizards were beginning to fear saying his name. Hogwarts was the place that she felt she could fit into, even though she still stood out for her blood status and intelligence.
"Come on, first years, Gryffindor dormitory is this way!" Lily clapped her hands to get their attention before walking out of the Great Hall, leading the way to the huge portrait of the Fat Lady. James easily caught up to her with his long legs, his hands in his pants pocket and a bemused expression on his face. "So, do we just need to show them to their rooms and then we're done with them?"
"Yep, that's all we have to do. Although we'll have to make sure to keep an eye on them for the first few weeks, make sure that they're doing alright." Lily glanced back to the first years, slowing down when she realized that even her pacing, hampered by her short legs, was too big for the young children. Realizing that Lily was falling behind, James also adjusted his own pacing and returned to Lily's side.
The rest of the walk went in silence, the first years too nervous to talk to each other, until Lily finally stood in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. In all of her seven years of education at Hogwarts, Lily had never seen the Fat Lady look different - always the same frilly ball gown and ringlets of brown hair that framed her aged face. Lily couldn't believe that this was the last time she was ever going to see the Fat Lady on the first day of school.
James coughed loudly, returning Lily's attention to the impatient first years. Then she realized that she had completely forgotten the password. She had told the old Gryffindor prefects herself, but now she couldn't remember what it was. She turned helplessly to James.
Before she could even admit her mistake, he smiled and turned towards the portrait. "Nargles," he stated clearly, smiling as the portrait swung open to reveal the hole to the Gryffindor common room.
The red and gold room was just as cozy as ever, and Lily desperately wanted to fall into one of the comfy armchairs that was in front of the roaring fireplace. But she first showed the five first year girls the room they would occupy for the next seven years, noting how similar it was to her own room, which was the first room in the girls' corridor.
After leaving the girls to settle into their new room, Lily hurried down to the common room and immediately fell across the first armchair in front of the fireplace, her legs hanging over one arm, her head resting on the other. She stared into the fire, not wanting to think about how this was her last year, and how far she had come since she had been a young first year who had seven years of educational life at Hogwarts before she had to worry about her future.
A shadow loomed next to her head, and Lily turned to see James sitting in the armchair next to her own. He smiled at her before turning to the fire, the flames reflecting in his hazel eyes. His raven black hair was messy, as it always was, and his glasses were slipping down his nose. Lily watched the expression on his face; it seemed to be one of thoughtfulness, as if he was trying to concentrate on something he didn't really want to think about. That was a feeling Lily knew well. She pulled herself into a sitting position, her legs folded up underneath her arms. "What's up, Potter? You look like you're thinking about something deep."
Rather than smiling and cracking some smart-aleck remark, James continued to stare into the fire. "I was just thinking about Abercrombie's mum. She went to school with my parents; she was roommates with my mum. And now she's missing, all because of her parents. She didn't do anything wrong purposely, she just happened to get magical abilities while no one else in her family did. There's no justice in the situation."
Lily frowned. She hadn't realized that James even knew Lucas Abercrombie and his family.
Lucas was one of Dillon's friends, although not very close, and a year younger than them. He
hadn't hung around them much, but Lily knew of him from Dillon, plus Hogwarts wasn't too big a school to lose track of people like that. She had never seen James caring about anyone other than his close friends. This was a side she didn't know, and she wasn't exactly sure how to deal with it.
When James remained silent, Lily got up and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders. She felt James relax beneath her arms, and she smiled to herself. This would be a difficult year, but maybe it'd be alright.
* * *
"Lily, I know that you enjoy your sleep but you have to wake up now," Ivy insisted from the side of Lily's bed, trying to pull the covers off of her. Lily merely groaned and pulled harder.
"Come on, Ive, it's only seven! Classes don't start until 9 or something. Can't I sleep?" Lily whined, sticking her head underneath her pillow.
Ivy slumped on her bed next to Lily, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at her best friend. "Lily, I thought you'd at least break your habit of sleeping in on the first day. Don't you want to hurry down to breakfast, stuff your face, and enjoy your last few minutes of freedom with friends instead of burrowed underneath your pillow?"
Lily's response was a simple grunt that was close to a "no."
Ivy groaned before grabbing hold of Lily's pillow. Catching Lily off-guard, Ivy managed to pull it off of her head, exposing her red mane to the empty room, which their three other roommates had already left a while ago.
Lily slowly pulled herself up, her eyes open a tiny slit and a huge yawn escaping her lips.
She stretched her arms high above her head as she glared at her friend. "Thanks for that, Ive. Good to see that I can always count on my friends, no matter what."
Ivy rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop being such a drama queen. You should be happy that I bothered to wake you up - I could have left you in bed, and you'd probably sleep through breakfast, and maybe even first class. Then you'd be yelling at me for not waking you up, instead of the opposite."
Even though she knew her friend was right, Lily continued to glare at her as she got up and went to the bathroom, quickly taking a shower before pulling on her uniform. The skirt was about a centimeter shorter - maybe she had actually grown that summer! - and the white blouse had a small ink stain near the bottom, but it was barely noticeable and Lily couldn't be bothered to get a new one. Besides, she could always clean it up with her wand, although she never had it with her when she was thinking of it.
Coming back out into the bedroom, Lily saw Ivy was already standing impatiently at the door, her own uniform slightly wrinkled from being stuffed into her trunk and just pulled out about five minutes before. Lily walked over to her friend and they set off down the steps to the common room, already talking about their classes for that day. They were discussing Potions when suddenly Lily ran into something - make that, someone.
"Are you sleepwalking, Evans? Did you really want to see me that much?"
Lily sighed and glared up at James, who towered over her. "No, I just failed to notice such a waste of space."
"Are you calling me pointless, Evans? Because I think there are plenty of girls at this school who would disagree with you, not to mention my dear ol' mum. Are you insulting my mum?" James pretended to act offended, but Lily could see the curve of a smile on his lips and the trace of a laugh in his voice. She rolled her eyes and quickly stepped around him, not bothering to wait for Ivy.
Ivy caught up with her anyway, a smirk on her face. "Well, that sure gets the year off to a great start, doesn't it?" Lily's response was a grunt. "Are you saying that you aren't completely pleased to see James after such a long and lonely summer?" A second grunt followed. "You know, for such a smart girl, you really need to expand your vocabulary."
This time Lily groaned. "Can we please talk about something else? Preferably something about you?"
Ivy laughed, elbowing Lily as they walked down to the Great Hall. By the time they reached the Gryffindor table, they were laughing about Ivy's summer vacation with her family's friends, the Longbottoms, who had spent a week in their summer house back in July. Frank Longbottom, their only son, spent all of his time writing letters to his girlfriend, Alice, or talking about her with Ivy and Dillon. After four days straight of that, Ivy and Dillon spent the rest of the week trying to hide from him.
Lily sat down at the table, grabbing a bagel as James and his friends sat down around the two girls. Lily silently groaned but she merely spread some cream cheese on her bagel as she stared across the table at Ivy, who was already talking to Sirius, laughing about a story he was telling. Traitor, Lily thought to herself.
"So, Evans, how would you like to spend the first Hogsmeade weekend with me?" James asked, a cocky grin on his handsome face. Lily desperately wanted to smack him.
"Sorry, I'm allergic to egotistical players who have nothing better to do with their time than pull childish pranks and ask girls out." Lily smiled sweetly, making her voice sound apologetic. Ivy giggled into her hand on the other side of the table, and Sirius and Peter laughed loudly, while Remus smirked.
Even with the comeback and its reaction, James remained unflappable, without a trace of red across his cheeks. He let out a genuine laugh and slung his arm around Lily's shoulder, giving it a huge squeeze which Lily was unable to get out from under. She grimaced at Ivy, but she merely shrugged with a knowing smile on her face.
"Evans, you are a clever one. You sure know how to make all of this so much fun."
Lily was about to return with another comeback when she felt a hand on her shoulder, which was still partially covered by James' arm. She turned around, a blush growing on her pale cheeks as she took in the sight of Professor Slughorn, the Potions teacher. He had a smile visible through his straw-colored moustache and his large belly was jiggling with the laugh he was trying to repress. Lily quickly shook James' arm off her shoulder and tried to calm down and get rid of the blush that added way too much color to her otherwise pale face. "Hello, Professor Slughorn. How are you today?"
"I'm doing very well, Ms. Evans, although I'm not having nearly as much fun as you young people seem to be having!" The laugh grew bigger as he let it out. "Oh, to be young and in love again!"
Lily quickly stammered out a response, something along the line of: "Oh, we're just friends, nothing's happening, we're just being teenagers and having fun, you know."
"Of course, Ms. Evans, I slightly remember having fun like that when I was your age, eons ago," he said with a seemingly-knowing wink.
The blush grew and Lily looked down at her hands, which were even pink-tinted. "So, did you want to ask me something, Professor?"
"Oh, yes, that's right. I just wanted to tell you that the Slug Club is having a back-to-school dinner this Sunday night. I know that's after your first week is over, but it'll hopefully be a great ‘last hurrah’ before school really starts up and you young people are overwhelmed by your immense workload. I hope you'll take the time out of your busy social life to come on Sunday, and maybe you can bring your great friend here. You're welcome to come, Mr. Potter," Slughorn let another wink slip, acting as if he was in on an inside secret with them.
"We'd love to come, Professor!" James replied with an equally 'knowing' smile on his face, grabbing Lily again and beaming up at Slughorn. "We'll see you on Sunday."
"Splendid! I'll be anxiously awaiting Sunday night now," Slughorn smiled. "Now, I'll leave you youngsters a chance to continue your conversation. I'll see you in Potions later!"
Lily smiled at her professor as he walked away, but as soon as he was out of sight she dropped the smile and turned to James, a glare on her face. "Why did you accept the invitation? I don't want to go to that dinner with you!"
James merely smiled and ate his breakfast silently, which annoyed Lily even more. She spent the rest of the meal glaring at her bagel and barely taking a bite of it before Ivy was getting up across from her and heading to their first class, conveniently leaving Lily alone with James. Lily didn't even notice it until James stood up and towered over her, the cocky smile returning to his face. "Well, Evans, are you coming? Won't want to be late for our first Charms class, would we?"
That was when Lily noticed that the Great Hall was nearly empty and her best friend was nowhere to be found. She grumbled to herself as she got up, grabbed her bag, and tried to hurry towards Charms before James could catch up to her. Unfortunately his long legs continued to help him and he caught up to her in no time.
"So, Evans, I didn't realize you thought of me that way."
Lily glanced at James, a questioning look on her face. "What do you mean?"
James chuckled. "Well, you told Slughorn that we were friends. I was unaware that we had made it past the stage where you hated my guts and I asked you out 24/7. Glad to know we've finally moved onto the friends part, especially knowing what comes after that..."
Lily groaned. She hadn’t even noticed she had referred to James as her friend. There was no way she could ever live that down - James would remind her until the day she died.
"So, now that we're friends, would you like to come to Hogsmeade with me?"
Lily was about to reply with another scathing remark when she caught sight of the wall in front of them. There were words crudely written on it, in some sort of red ink. Looking closer, Lily noticed it dripping onto the floor and gulped as she noticed how much it looked like blood.
James noticed that Lily had stopped and he followed her gaze to the follow, a look of anger growing onto his face. He read the message aloud.
"Mudbloods are no better than Muggles, and deserve the same punishment: a nice dose of Avada Kedavra."