Summary: Over the course of her seventh year, Lily finds out several unexpected things about James- and then forgets them all when one event leaves her confused about everything she ever knew.
Written by hermione210 of Gryffindor for Professor Kate's First Year Potions class.
Categories: School Assignments Characters: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 4
Completed: No
Word count: 5298
Read: 10023
Published: 03/18/07
Updated: 04/04/07
1. The Beginning of the End by hermione210
2. Confusion by hermione210
3. Learning and Forgetting by hermione210
4. Remembering by hermione210
The Beginning of the End by hermione210
“JAMES POTTER!” A petite girl with red hair and a prefect’s badge stormed through a group of students without stopping to apologize. Her green eyes were blazing with anger as she approached a boy with messy black hair and glasses. The boy’s three friends stepped back so as not to be caught in the crossfire. She shoved a large pile of crumpled parchment pieces in his face. “EXPLAIN YOURSELF!”
The boy, James Potter, grinned. “Well, Lily darling, I thought it was only fitting that I show you my undying love for you. I mean, we are going to be married, no?”
“WRONG! I despise you, James Potter, and I would be happy if I could never talk to you again!” Lily cried before turning on her heel and storming away.
James’ face fell the moment Lily left. He ran his hand through his messy black hair. “Let’s find a compartment,” he said, his cocky tone gone. He sounded defeated, actually. He and his friends walked towards the Hogwarts Express, luggage in tow.
After several minutes of searching, Sirius Black evicted a small first-year from a compartment and the four sixth-years entered. Sirius Black sat down first. Sirius, a very handsome boy with longish black hair and twinkling grey eyes, was still silently laughing at Lily Evans’ performance outside on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Remus Lupin sat next, a pale, sickly-looking boy with light brown hair and brown eyes. Sitting just moments after Remus was Peter Pettigrew, a slightly heavyset boy with small blue eyes and blond hair. James Potter came in a few moments afterward his three friends had sat down, looking dejected.
“Cheer up, James! It’s not the first time Lily rejected you,” said Remus light-heartedly.
“I know,” he muttered. “But for some reason, it really… hurt this time.”
Peter looked puzzled. “What do you mean, Prongs?”
“I… I don’t know, Wormtail. I just don’t know.”
Remus stood up. “Well, normally I’d try to figure out what in the world you mean by that, but I’ve got to go to the Prefect’s compartment.”
“Tell Lily… Tell Lily I’m… sorry,” James said slowly. Remus raised his eyebrows and nodded, obviously unaccustomed to hearing the word ‘Sorry’ cross James’ lips. He quickly exited the compartment.
Sirius and Peter began a game of Exploding Snap. For half an hour, a battle raged between the two friends. Friendly insults were tossed and, when the cards blew up in Peter’s face, Sirius laughed uproariously. Remus came back and the three played Gobstones the rest of the way to Hogwarts, often begging James to come and play with them. But James ignored his friends and stared moodily out the window for the entire train ride.
James lay in his bed, wondering where the evening had gone. He vaguely remembered the feast… the Sorting… the train ride… The last thing he remembered clearly was Lily yelling at him for all the letters he had sent over the summer. Her rejections never hurt this much before, James thought. What changed? He pondered on what had happened for a moment. He was deep in thought when Sirius ripped his bed curtains open. “Moony wants to talk to you. Now. You know where.”
James nodded as Sirius disappeared. Five minutes later, James stood outside the Room of Requirement. He walked back and forth three times, thinking, I need a safe place to talk to my friends. After the third time, a door appeared. James entered the magical room to find his three friends sitting, talking lightheartedly about the upcoming Quidditch season.
“James. You said Lily’s rejection really hurt this time?” Remus questioned, getting down to business immediately. James nodded, the memory of the brief encounter still stinging. Remus shook his head. “I must admit, I’m surprised. I think… I think you really love her, Prongs.”
Sirius stood up. “You’ve GOT to be kidding me, Moony! I thought you were the sensible one! What are you doing encouraging him in his delusion!” At that point, James jumped up, eyes blazing with fury and mouth open. Sirius shot him a glare that clearly said, I’m not done yet. James, following the Marauder’s unspoken rule, sat down and closed his mouth, preparing for at least an hour of listening to Sirius rant.
Lily Evans walked through Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, hands empty, a slightly worried expression on her face. “Potter,” she called, seeing the boy she was seeking just a little ways ahead of her.
James turned around slowly, a neutral expression on his face. “Yes?”
“Are… you okay? You didn’t bother me at all over the summer- not that I’m complaining,” she added hastily. “I was just wondering, because you always send me a million letters declaring your undying love for me, or whatever it is that you say.”
“I’m fine, Evans. I just grew up. That’s all.” And with that, James turned around and walked away from her.
Five minutes later, Lily was standing in the same spot when hands covered her eyes. “Guess who?” chorused two voices. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
“Hi, Tara. Hi, Trista. How are you?” Lily asked, pulling their hands from her eyes. Tara and Trista Abernathy, two of her best friends and roommates, stood before her, their brown eyes sparkling mischievously.
“Good,” they chorused. “How was your summer?”
“Oh, you know… Decent. Yours?”
“Wait. Decent? I thought James always sent you millions of letters over the summer. You always complain about him when we see you again!” Tara exclaimed, tugging at a section of her blonde hair.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now. Can we find Rebecca and Devan and get a compartment?”
Trista shrugged. “Sure,” she replied, sending a confused glance to her sister behind Lily’s back.
After Tara and Trista had found and surprised both Rebecca Edwards, who had barely suppressed a shriek when Trista’s hands had covered her grey eyes, and Devan Kincaid, who had just smiled and pulled Tara’s nails from her brown hair, the five girls boarded the train, lugging their things behind them. Subconsciously, they were all thrilled. They were on their way to Hogwarts. They were in their seventh year, which meant everyone would look up to them. But most importantly, they were with their friends again.
Lily returned to the compartment where her friends were halfway through the ride to Hogwarts, silent and confused. Rebecca immediately sat her down and began questioning her, for she knew that Lily was rarely totally silent. She was always laughing, talking, performing spells, or looking for things in her book bag, but she was never silent.
“Not only is he Head Boy, but he seems so… mature… this year,” Lily murmured. No matter what other questions Rebecca asked, that was all Lily would say.
“That’s it,” Rebecca declared. “Tara, Trista- come with me. Devan, stay here with Lily.”
Tara and Trista walked out into the hallway, while Rebecca whispered into Devan’s ear, “Sorry… I just don’t trust her alone.” Devan nodded understandingly.
Rebecca proceeded out into the hallway. “We’re going to find out who the Head Boy is,” Rebecca declared to Tara and Trista, a determined look in her steely grey eyes. “We’re going to find out who he is and why on Earth Lily is so worked up over him.”
Turning sharply on her heel, causing her jet-black hair to whip around her head, Rebecca walked quickly down the corridor of the Hogwarts Express, searching for a Prefect- or better yet, the Head Boy.
Tara and Trista hastened to catch up, keeping a sharp eye out for anyone with a Prefect’s badge pinned to their chests.
Tara, Trista, and Rebecca had walked the length of the Hogwarts Express twice and seen no one who knew who the Head Boy was. They were on their way back to their compartment, totally hopeless as to finding out the Head Boy’s identity, when Tara spotted Remus Lupin about to step into a compartment.
“Remus!” she cried out. “Remus!” The boy in question turned around and smiled widely.
“Hello, Tara, Trista, Rebecca,” he said, acknowledging each girl in turn. “What’s going on?”
“We were hoping you could help us with something. We need to know who the Head Boy is,” Rebecca said. “Lily keeps muttering strange things about the Head Boy and maturity.”
Remus’ face slowly drained of color. He stuck his head inside the compartment and said something to whoever was inside. Pulling his head out again, he said, “The Head Boy is right here.” Pulling the door open, Remus revealed none other than James Potter. With a Head Boy badge on his chest.
“Oh,” said Trista weakly. “That explains a lot.”
“Okay, so we’re going to calmly ask Lily who the Head Boy is and why she’s acting so loony. We’re going to pretend we have NO IDEA that James is the Head Boy. We will tell her that she probably hurt his feelings when she screamed at him- because that more than likely happened. We will NOT tell her that she should apologize- we don’t want to get yelled at. We WILL insist that she at least pretend to be nice to him when in front of other students, but especially in front of teachers. Got it?”
Devan Kincaid, the quiet one, the one who didn’t like being the center of attention, had just given a rather forceful speech. Tara, Trista, and Rebecca stared at her, wide-eyed, but nodded their heads. Devan’s ideas were perfection itself.
The four girls trooped back into their compartment and surrounded Lily, their hands on their hips.
“All right, Lily. We want some answers, and we want them now. Who is the Head Boy and why are you acting so weird?” Rebecca demanded.
Lily slowly turned her head away from the window.
“Potter. I don’t understand him!”
Following Devan’s plan, the girls faked confusion. “What?” questioned Tara. “What does understanding James Potter have to do with the Head Boy?”
“Everything,” Lily muttered.
“Is- Is James the Head Boy?” Trista asked, her eyes growing large with fake horror when Lily nodded. “But I thought you had to be a Prefect to be the Head Boy!”
“Apparently not, Trista, otherwise James wouldn’t have the position!” Tara snapped.
Lily sighed and turned back to the window, back to her thoughts, leaving her friends to argue.
They had brought the first-years up to Gryffindor Tower, and had then begun their first patrol. They were not speaking, Lily still slightly shocked, as if realizing that she could be in his company and be civil to him.
James was silent. It was strange, Lily realized, to be in the company of the infamous James Potter and to hear silence. She actually missed his incessant chatter, his constant attempts to ask her out. I don’t quite get it, but I actually wish James was being his annoying old self, chattering about whatever came to mind! Lily thought. Desperate to break the silence, Lily asked James a question sure to get an answer out of him.
“So, why do you like Quidditch? It never really appealed to me.”
James immediately brightened. “It’s exhilarating! Seeing all those people cheering for you, knowing you are one of just seven people who come between your entire house and either winning or losing the Quidditch Cup… Even just flying. You know, when I went out for the team in second year, I didn’t think I was really that good. I just wanted to have an excuse to fly.
“But the captain then, Hargrove, said he thought I was really talented. He tried me as Seeker, but I didn’t really have the eyes for it,” James grinned, tapping his glasses. “Then he tried me as Chaser. And… something just clicked. He said I was brilliant. So I stayed on.”
Lily nodded. She knew the feeling you got when you didn’t think you would like something but found out that you were pretty good at it. She knew the feeling very well…
“Did you play any sports at your Muggle school before you got your letter?” Now that they were talking, James seemed quite interested to continue the conversation. She let herself drift off for a moment, back to earlier that evening, back to when she was blissfully ignorant of everything that was even somewhat good about James Potter. It was a bit fuzzy, but she still remembered most of what had happened.
“Lily.” It was a statement and a question at the same time, coming from a deep voice from the door of the compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Lily had her back to whoever was speaking, and she turned around to find none other than James Potter.
“Get out, Potter. Heads only,” she said, already exasperated by the boy.
“Then I guess I’ll come in.” As James stepped into the compartment, Lily saw a badge gleaming on his chest- one that looked like the badge pinned to the front of her robes. A Head Boy badge.
“Oh, very funny, Potter.” Lily stepped out into the hallway. Remus Lupin was making his way down the hall. “Remus, good. Potter took your Heads badge. Can you send him on his way? He doesn’t listen to me.”
Remus looked nervous. “Erm, Lily… James didn’t take my badge.” He showed Lily the badge on his chest. A Prefect’s badge. Lily’s eyes grew large. And then she fell towards the floor. A pair of muscular arms caught her just before her head hit the ground, but her last thought was not of her savior. It was, How on EARTH am I going to be able to work with Potter ALL YEAR?
Lily remembered that, after she woke up, all she had been able to do was stare at James while he talked about ‘being more responsible’ and ‘living up to Dumbledore’s expectations’. She had barely been able to comprehend that James had wanted to call a truce. He would not ask her out, as long as she would not scream at him daily. She had agreed, though her friends told her that they thought that it was due to fainting that she had had a civil conversation with James Potter in the first place. And the truce was working well so far.
But still, Lily could not help feeling that something was not quite right. She enjoyed routines. She did not like it when things did not go as she had planned or as she expected them to go. And this year was starting off quite unexpectedly…
Learning and Forgetting by hermione210
Over time, their friendship grew. Though Lily was at first unwilling, she began to notice James Potter’s positives. Like how loyal he was. Insult his friends and you’d wish you had never come to Hogwarts by the time James Potter was through with you.
Even a few of his negatives turned out to not really be negatives. Like when he ran his hand through his hair- James told her once it was a nervous habit. He wasn’t being arrogant at all.
Lily found that as time went on, she looked forward to her rounds. James seemed to have a natural gift for telling funny stories, and she had always liked guys who could make her laugh.
But she knew that she shouldn’t be looking forward to her rounds. Her routines, every one of them, had been turned on their ear. And yet, she didn’t mind that all her precious routines had gone down the drain.
Our friendship has grown so much, Lily mused as she laughed hysterically while attempting to relate a story to James. He had gone home over Christmas break while Lily had stayed at Hogwarts, and there was one particular incident that Lily wanted to tell James about.
“And- And then he-” Lily gasped between giggles, “And then he gave her f- feathers! And w- wings! She- She looked like an overgrown ch- chicken!”
James grinned. “You know, Lily, you sure have loosened up a lot since the beginning of the year. The old you would have docked fifty points from Hufflepuff.”
Lily gave him a very gentle push. “I know. You’re a very bad influence.”
Lily smiled. She remembered how she had first thought that James would be impossible to deal with, how she thought he would be asking her out so constantly that he would not perform his duties properly. How wrong she had been!
James swallowed nervously. He and Remus had talked a lot about when it would be a good time for James to start asking Lily out again. This wasn’t quite the time when they had thought would be best- Remus thought he should wait at least another month- but James knew in his heart that the time was now. “Hey, Lily,” he said slowly.
Lily looked at him curiously. “What is it, James?”
“Would you… maybe… want to go to Hogsmeade… with me?” James asked.
A look of joy spread across Lily’s face. “James, I-” But the rest of her answer was cut off by a blood-curdling scream.
James could only watch in horror as Lily tumbled down the staircase that he hadn’t even noticed they had approached.
He immediately began running down the staircase, desperate to find out if Lily was alright. “Lily,” he breathed, seeing her eyes fluttering open.
Her eyes filled with confusion. “Do… Do I know you?”
James stumbled back to his dormitory. His friends saw him when he passed through the common room, and when he did not answer their calls they knew that something must be seriously wrong. The three trooped up the stairs and surrounded James’ bed. Sirius ripped open his curtains.
“What’s wrong?” asked Remus, immediately concerned about his friends’ swollen red eyes.
“Lily… remember…” James mumbled, burying his face into his pillow. Peter gently took the pillow away.
“Again,” demanded Remus, extremely worried.
“Lily doesn’t remember me,” James whispered.
The girl walked slowly up the stairs with a girl with sad grey eyes. “So you really don’t remember me?” she kept asking. “You don’t remember me or Tara or Trista or Devan or all the amazing times we’ve had here?” The girl didn’t want to tell the sad grey-eyed girl that she didn’t eve know where ‘here’ WAS!
The girl showed her a bed in the room that they had just entered. It looked no different from all the other beds in the room. “So… I’m Rebecca. Rebecca Edwards. I’m your best friend,” the girl said. “Madame Pomfrey said you can’t remember anything, but I know something that will help you.” Rebecca leaned over and dug around in the trunk by the bed she saw belonged to her.
“Um… Isn’t that my trunk? I mean, it’s my bed, right? So wouldn’t it be my trunk?”
Rebecca looked up in surprise. “Yeah, it is your trunk. But we always go through each other’s trunks. It’s a girl thing,” she explained.
“Oh, um, okay. So, I feel really stupid asking you this, but what’s my name? How old am I? When’s my birthday? Who are my friends? Where do I go to school? What classes do I take? Who-” The girl abruptly stopped when Rebecca held up her hand.
“Your name is Lily Marie Evans. Your birthday is November 9th. You turned 18 this year. Your friends all live here, in our school, Hogwarts. Myself, Tara, Trista, and Devan, are your friends. You take Charms, Potions, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.” Rebecca smiled reassuringly, holding up a red notebook. “Don’t worry. I’ll write down everything you could ever need to know about your life in this. This way, if you forget anything, it’ll all be right there.”
Lily nodded, feeling just a little bit better.
The girl stopped outside the large doors of the castle. She couldn’t remember where she was supposed to go! “Um… Wait- Remus?” she called questioningly, remembering the professor in the greenhouse calling on him.
He turned around, smiling. “Yes?”
She blushed. “Um, I don’t know where I’m going…”
“Let me see your book bag,” he asked. Taking the denim bag from her hands, Remus pulled out the red notebook and leafed through it. “You’re going to Potions now. James has Potions with- Oi, James!” A boy with hazel eyes and messy black hair paused, moments away from going back into the castle. “Take Lily to Potions,” he called. The boy nodded, walking back down the steps to stand next to her.
“Ready for Slughorn’s class?” he questioned, seeming happy.
“Who is Slughorn?” the girl questioned.
“Professor Slughorn is our Potions teacher.”
“Oh, I should have remembered- the grey-eyed girl wrote everything down in my notebook. I’m supposed to look in there so I don’t sound stupid in front of everyone else,” the girl admitted, blushing.
“Don’t worry, Lily. I’ll never think you sound stupid,” he replied, smiling tenderly at her.
“I- I’m Lily, right?” She asked anxiously, hoping that she was correct.
“Yes. Yes, you’re Lily.” His eyes grew sad, as if remembering a happier time and wishing now could be happier. He shook his head slightly, his eyes clearing. “Anyway, here we are! You can be my partner- Rebecca isn’t in this class with us, and Sirius is in the Hospital Wing again. I’ll make sure you don’t accidentally cause the potion to go horribly wrong and land yourself in the Hospital Wing like you did last week.”
“I did that?” Lily asked, confused.
“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “Anyway, let’s get started.”
Remembering by hermione210
The red notebook had become her everything. Her name, her birthday, her class schedule, her friends, almost every detail about her entire life was in that notebook. She referred to it constantly, and when she couldn’t remember the notebook existed, someone always showed her its pretty red cover again and explained its purpose.
And so two months passed. But once February threatened to give way to March, life wasn’t always so good.
On the last day of February, the teachers began pressuring their seventh-year students even more than they had been. The N.E.W.T.s were fast approaching, and the teachers wanted to be sure that each student would perform their best.
The girl tried her best to keep up with her classes, but how could the teachers expect her to learn and remember things when she didn’t even know her own name half the time?
In fairness, the teachers were kind. They gave her as much extra help as they could without neglecting the rest of the class, but what she really needed was to be able to remember her life. She needed to remember her family, her friends, her enemies, her childhood, her goals.
She needed to remember. But she couldn’t.
James sighed, throwing himself down on a comfy armchair in the Gryffindor common room. Lily wandered over, her eyes green looking confused and lost, and stared out the window at the falling rain.
“Hey, Lily,” James said softly, “come and sit down.” But Lily didn’t respond. Darn this! I’m tired of Lily not knowing who she is! I wish she could remember everything again, he thought as he got up and tapped Lily on the shoulder. She whirled around, eyes wide.
“Y- Yes?” she asked quietly.
“Come and sit down,” James requested, his voice kind. The two Gryffindors sat in adjacent armchairs and stared at each other.
“How are you?” James asked, attempting to break the awkward silence that had fallen upon them.
“Um, fine, I suppose. Except…” Lily hesitated, her eyes showing pure confusion.
James sighed inwardly. “Which do you want to know, my name or your name?”
Lily gave him a weak smile. “Both. Oh, wait never mind. I have… a… notebook! I have a notebook. And the grey-eyed girl wrote everything down in there,” Lily said, brightening considerably.
She walked towards the staircases, probably to retrieve her notebook from her dormitory. However, she started up the stairs to the boys’ dormitories! “Lily!” he cried, running towards her. James grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down. “Wrong staircase. Didn’t want people getting ideas,” he explained.
“Oh,” Lily muttered, cheeks turning crimson. “Thank you. This one, then?” she asked, pointing at the staircase that lead to the girls’ dormitories.
“Yes, that one,” James replied. He watched Lily walk slowly up the stairs until she turned the corner and was no longer visible to him. James sighed and headed towards the portrait hole. He had to patrol the halls. He wished Lily could remember that she was supposed to be patrolling too.
The girl wandered around, lost once more in the large castle that she was supposed to remember. Where was she supposed to be going again? She dug out the red notebook from the blue denim bookbag everyone told her was hers.
She checked her watch. It was 9:05. According to the schedule someone had written in the notebook, she was supposed to be in Charms… wherever that was. Her green eyes clouded over with the effort of remembering where she was supposed to be. A boy interrupted her thoughts by calling out for a girl named Lily. Is that me?, she wondered. “Am I Lily?” she asked, turning around to face the boy.
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “You are.” But his smile quickly faded. “Lily, don’t- stop- LOOK OUT!” But the girl who was Lily knew no more.
For the second time James had to watch Lily tumbling down a staircase. It was no easier than the first time, almost more horrendous, in fact. He nearly fell down the stairs in his effort to catch her. But he failed. Lily finally came to rest at the bottom of the staircase, her limbs twisted around themselves, her red hair in her face. James ran down the stairs and gently brushed her hair off her face. “Lily?” he whispered.
Her eyes fluttered open. “J- James? Wha- What happened? You look different than you did a minute ago.” She struggled into a sitting position and smiled at him. “Never mind. I’d love to go to Hogsmeade with you… But do you think you could help me get to Madam Pomfrey first? I’ve got a splitting headache.”
“S- Sure,” James replied, barely able to think straight. “Just one thing. What’s your name, what’s my name, how old are you, and where are we? Okay, so that’s four things, but anyway. The questions.”
Lily sighed, rubbing her head with one hand while supporting herself with the other. “Lily Evans, James Potter, eighteen, Hogwarts. Now can I go to Madam Pomfrey?”
“Um… No, sorry. I can fix your headache, but we’ve got to go somewhere else. Somewhere soundproof…” he muttered, pulling Lily to her feet. They wandered around for a bit when James stopped. A handle had appeared in the wall in front of them, and the two teens walked in.
“Okay, so. Yeah. It’s just- It’s not January anymore.”
“What do you mean? It’s January 5th. Of course it’s January!”
“No, Lily. You fell down a staircase and something went wrong with your head. You couldn’t remember anything. It’s been three months.”
“You… You mean that it’s MARCH! But… But my classes! Tests! Essays! Spells, charms, potions, I haven’t learned anything in MONTHS! Oh, I must be so behind! I’ve got to study! Oh, no, I didn’t even- What am I supposed to do for my N.E.W.T.s? HOW am I supposed to take THE MOST IMPORTANT TESTS OF MY LIFE when I haven’t learned anything in MONTHS?”
Lily was pacing around the small room that James had taken her, nearly screaming, hands in the air. James was sitting on the couch that hadn’t been there when they first entered and was just watching her hysterics with his eyebrows raised. She turned around and glared at him. “Why don’t you SAY anything? Can’t you HELP me?” A small tear ran down her face.
Almost immediately, James was across the room and had Lily in his arms. After learning that her answer to his question would have been a yes, James had almost not believed that he was awake. He was very insecure, almost “ he kept putting his hand over Lily’s, holding Lily tight to himself “ as if to make sure that he was not dreaming, that Lily really had accepted him at last.
“Shh, don’t worry. We’ll figure everything out. I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Lily muttered, burying her face into James’ chest.
Professor Dumbledore’s office was roomy and had lots of chairs spread out all over the place, but Lily and James had chosen chairs right next to each other and were subtly holding hands while listening to Professor Dumbledore say, “Don’t worry, Miss Evans, I’ll arrange for tutors for you. I’ll also talk to the head of the N.E.W.T. examinations and see what we can do to help you. After all, it’s hardly your fault that you had a case of amnesia!” Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Professor Dumbledore would arrange everything. It would be all right.
“In the mean-time, I know that Mr. Potter here one of the best students in his N.E.W.T Herbology class. Perhaps he would consent to be your Herbology tutor?” Professor Dumbledore looked at James, a twinkle in his eyes. James grinned.
“Of course I’ll help Lily in Herbology,” James said. “Come on, I know that Professor Sprout will let us into the greenhouses if we catch her before she locks up for the night.” James stood up and pulled Lily down the staircase, yelling his thanks to Professor Dumbledore on the way.
Professor Dumbledore smiled and slowly got up from his desk. He walked across his office and petted his phoenix, Fawkes, who was sleeping on his perch. “Fawkes, my friend,” he muttered to the phoenix, “it seems that Miss Evans has given Mr. Potter a chance at last.”
Lily stumbled into her bed, still fully clothed. She and James had spent almost three hours in the greenhouses, where he had shown her almost everything that they had covered since her accident. They had worked straight through dinner, and had almost been locked out of the castle. The pair had dashed in only moments before Filch had closed and locked the doors for the night. James had then shown her the kitchens, where a small army of house-elves had given them dinner, dessert, and some extra “snackses” in case they became hungry during the night.
The Fat Lady had been irritable when they tried to get back into the Gryffindor common room. “Almost missed the curfew, there, dears,” she had remarked while smirking at their intertwined hands. Then Lily had stayed in the common room for another hour with James, talking about anything and everything that came to mind.
Despite her exhaustion, Lily smiled. She was happy. The only thing that worried her now was how her date would be. She smiled again. There was no need to worry. James would never let anything bad happen to her.
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