“Accio!”

Lily’s pin cushion zoomed away from her desk and towards the back of the classroom. She turned, her green eyes searching for the culprit. She found her red pin cushion in the hands of a boy whose messy jet-black hair stuck up at the back of his head.

James Potter winked at Lily, waving her cushion triumphantly in his left hand. Lily glared at him and turned to face the front again. But James wouldn’t stop there, and Lily knew it.

She shook her head, in an attempt to take her thoughts away from James. She looked at the box where they got their own individual cushions to practice their Summoning Charms on (which was their lesson for the day) and saw that there was only one left. Lily barely got to her feet when her patience was tested again. A piece of parchment, folded into a heart shape, had landed neatly on her desk

Lily didn’t need to look around and search for who sent it. She sat down again, and picked up the parchment. Lily cast a look at little Professor Flitwick to make sure that her record as the best student in Charms wouldn’t be destroyed, and then she unfolded the parchment. She recognized James’s penmanship adorning the top of the parchment:


Hogsmeade trip this Saturday, as you well know, the same day as Valentine’s Day;
I’ve grown tired of going with Padfoot, Moony, and Wormy (and it is only our second year to go to Hogsmeade). Got any ideas?

I would really appreciate it if you write a reply, as you can see
I saved you a lot of writing space.

James


Yeah, I got an idea. Turn gay and ask Sirius to be your boyfriend, Lily thought.

Before she realized what she was doing, her hand had already finished a reply �” she didn’t even know where the message came from. Is it her hand? Her quill? Her heart?

Surely not the last one.

She read her reply, scrawled under James’s writing:


You steal my cushion and you’re asking me about the Hogsmeade trip.
I have an idea: Ask the Giant Squid out. At least you’ll be in better company rather than those dogs you call your friends… Although the term “rats” would probably be better. I exempt Remus on this, being the most civilized in your little group.

Lily


Oh, maybe it did come from the heart, she thought menacingly. She crumpled the parchment and took another glance at Professor Flitwick. Seeing that the little man was busy rummaging through a large pile of paper, she threw the ball of parchment back to James.

Lily sighed, hoping that her reply settled it. She was just about to pick up her wand when the crumpled piece of parchment (now folded in a heart shape again) reappeared on her desk. She opened it again:


You are a very funny girl, Lily Evans. You certainly amuse me.
But I have got to say that my friends are not dogs or rats, at least, not yet.
I would also want you to know that you would be a much better date than the Giant Squid. I exempt its tentacles on this since they are quite entertaining to watch on rare occasions that they appear.

James


Lily rolled her eyes, but wrote another reply:


I would go to Hogsmeade but I have no desire whatsoever to spend my time there with you.

Lily


She crumpled the parchment and threw it across the room again �” towards James, who caught it, demonstrating the reflexes of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team’s Chaser.

Lily stood up to transfer to another seat, before James distracted her again. She took the seat beside her best friend, Severus Snape �” a pale boy whose long black hair framed his face. Their friendship was quite unusual �” it was not typical for a Slytherin to form a strong bond of friendship with a Gryffindor. Lily was aware of that, her other friends from Gryffindor often told her to stop hanging around with Severus. It was not right, Lily. Slytherin hated us Gryffindors, they said. It was true. Aside from Severus, the others Slytherins were quite cruel.

“Hi, Sev.”

“Hi, Lily.”

Lily picked up a spare cushion from Severus’s desk, “I’ll take this, okay?”

“What happened to yours?” Severus asked.

“It got lost,” Lily answered simply.

“Are you okay?” Severus asked, after a couple of seconds of silence. Lily nodded in reply. Severus asked another question, “How’s your Summoning Charm?”

“Great. But apparently, Potter has already mastered the art of Summoning and Banishing Charms, and he couldn’t resist showing off and bothering other people in the process,” Lily grunted. Severus look bothered for some reason, but Lily didn’t notice this. “How about you?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Severus answered quietly. He pointed his wand on his green cushion and it zoomed towards his free hand and he caught it.

“So you’ve been trying it non-verbally now, huh?”

“I’ve been practicing for a while on it. This is just my second successful attempt in the past two weeks of practice �””

But Severus was interrupted in his words as a piece of parchment landed between him and Lily.

Lily snatched it as Severus shot her a look of curiosity and annoyance.


If you are going on a date with Snivellus this Saturday, I am going to cut my hands off. (Just joking! I need my hands or else the Quidditch Cup will be taken by those slimy Slytherins). I would still wait for your consideration regarding my proposal for our first date.

P.S. I would also like to say that your hair looks wonderful today. Even tying it up in a ponytail makes you beautiful (more beautiful than you already are). Your eyes are as amazing as usual.

Another P.S. You don’t need to practice your Summoning Charm anymore, since you have already Summoned my heart with your Charm. (That was cheesy)

And another P.S. This note would be flying back to me. I will keep it and reread it in any case you have inserted loving clues beneath your cruel words.

Lots of love,
James


The corners of Lily’s mouth twitched, but she managed to stop herself from smiling completely. Those words from James were very sweet. Tacky, but sweet.

Sure enough, the parchment flew out of Lily’s hands and went towards James’s.

Lily turned to Severus, who was still wearing a confused look on his face. Lily smiled at him. She muttered the incantation, pointing her wand at the green cushion, and the cushion flew into her free hand.

***

“Evans!”

Lily turned at the sound of her surname, and to her dismay, it was James who called her. He was running with his bag barely closed.

Lily stopped and waited for him. When James managed to catch up, he put his hands on his knees and breathed deeply.

Lily stared at him as he took deep steady breaths. She never realized that his hair was messed-up perfectly. Perfectly messy. Messy and perfect.

“Perfect?” Lily said, dazed.

“What?” James asked.

“Oh! I… er… nothing,” Lily mumbled, “What do you want?”

“Well, I just thought that I should ask you now about Saturday.”

“What about Saturday?”

“Our date. Hogsmeade. Valentine’s Day. Zonko’s.”

“Zonko’s?” Lily asked. That’s out of place, she thought.

“Do you really want to be with those mushy couples in Madam Puddifoot’s?” James laughed.

His laughed was genuine, the kind of laugh you know that’s real. His laugh was always like that. �” so true, so full of life.

“Er... No,” Lily answered after a short while.

James grinned widely. “So you are going to go to Hogsmeade with me?”

“Huh?” Lily asked. Did she really agree? “I… no… uh…”

James’s smile faded, “You’re not?”

“No,” she said firmly.

Lily started to walk away when she heard James’s voice again.

“That’s it?” he asked.

Lily looked at him, simply dumbfounded, “What do you mean ‘that’s it’?”

“I mean, ‘that’s it?’” James answered. “Nothing to make me feel any better after turning me down?”

Lily blinked.

James sighed. “At least say something nice, Lily.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, “Okay… uh.” She pondered for a while, unable to say anything nice about an arrogant toe rag. Lily remembered James’s note earlier and she smiled.

“Okay, Potter. Here it goes: You know the right words to say to a girl.”

James grinned. “Really?” Lily nodded.

“It just doesn’t sound right when you say it,” Lily continued, smirking. She patted James’s shoulder and continued walking.

As she reached the corner, she heard James’s voice yet again.

“Padfoot, I thought that book would help me!”

“Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches, First Edition? It does work.”

“Well, obviously, it didn’t”

“I dunno, James. Whenever I use those tips on that girl working in Florean Fortescue’s, I always end up getting free ice cream.”

Lily smiled to herself. Sirius Black is indeed oblivious of his charm and good looks.

***

“Ooh! Let me have one!”

It was already nine in the evening; every Gryffindor might have already gone to bed, probably sleeping or chatting with friends. Lily reached the door labeled “Fourth Years” in the Gryffindor dormitories. She entered her dormitory room and said, “Denise, I could hear your voice from the Common Room.”

Denise turned slightly pink. Her black hair was tied up in a ponytail, as usual.

Monica flipped her long sheet of silky black hair, “Lily! Look at these! Do you know these things?”

Lily peered at what Monica had in the box she was holding. “Fortune Cookies,” Lily answered.

“Exactly! They’re supposed to have these little parchments in them and you have to break the cookie to get it.”

“Yeah, and they’re supposed to tell you your fortune and give you advice in life… Yada… Yada… Yada…” Lily added.

Rachel's brown eyes widened with a mixture of interest and excitement. “You mean the Muggles have their own form of Divination?”

“No, they don’t. It’s just Chinese superstition �” really old Chinese superstition.”

Phoebe stared at the impassive wall while twirling her blonde hair on her finger idly. “You mean, you’ve tried this before?”

Lily, being a Muggle born, had already tried a fortune cookie, although she tried it only once. She thought it was…

“Bogus. The fortune cookie thing is a bloody trick.”

The four girls frowned, and Lily panicked.

“I… er… no! I mean… er…” Lily stammered.

Rachel looked up at her, the excitement she had a few seconds ago had vanished from her pretty face. “What made you say that it is just a trick?”

“I… er… well…” Lily began, unable to string her words together. She took a deep breath to clear her mind. She didn’t expect to tell this stupid story, but these girls were her friends, and they wouldn’t laugh at her, no matter how stupid she could get. But this was Lily Evans, she’s no stupid girl. “I was ten then, it was my sister Tuney’s birthday. You know Petunia, right? Well, we went to this fancy Chinese restaurant and they offered me a fortune cookie… and…”

“Well? Denise asked, “What did it say?”

“It said…” Lily turned scarlet; she could feel her whole face heating up. “It said: ‘You will find love when you least expect it’.”

“And?”

“Well… I… I didn’t find anything. My Mum said it means that I will find love in unexpected places and unexpected times. Believe me, I have been to the weirdest places and I haven’t found anything.”

“Maybe that’s just because you were too young and you were not supposed to find love then,” Denise said.

Phoebe faced Lily now, she was still twirling her blonde hair. “Or maybe you shouldn’t find it. You know what others say: You’re not supposed to look for love, it looks for you. It will come eventually. That is why it said, ‘when you least expect it’.”

Lily, of course, had never thought about this. She was very young then, she didn’t even know what “love” meant. Except, of course, love for her family �” like, “I love you Mum, and Dad, and Tuney”, but that’s about it.

“I hope the same thing happens to me,” Rachel said.

Lily looked up. “What?”

“Wouldn’t it be romantic if a non-magical object tells you your future in love?”

Monica sighed. “She’s still delusional. Don’t listen to Rachel, Lily. She still thinks Black would pay attention to her.”

Phoebe stopped twirling her hair, her blue eyes widened in intrigue. “Which Black?”

“The one that’s in the same year with us. Sirius, of course.”

Lily choked on her own spit. Rachel was indeed delusional. Nobody in their right minds would expect some attention from Sirius.

“Are you alright, Lily?” Phoebe asked.

“Of course she’s not, Phoebe!” Monica answered.

“Maybe you should read the papers now.” Lily coughed.

“There are only four cookies in here. If you want I could ask Mary for another,” Monica said.

“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind,” Lily said as she shook her head.

Rachel was the first one to react. “’You are made for great things, be confident of your abilities’, does that even matter?” she groaned.

Lily laughed, “Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the one who will be able to defeat Voldemort!” Everyone in the room laughed, even Rachel.

The other three girls received messages similar to what Rachel got; which would either be about family or about themselves.

“I’ll go to bed now,” groaned Monica, whose message read, “It is when we do little things that we are able to accomplish great things.”

Lily watched as her friends arranged themselves for bed. After a few moments, Lily was asleep too.

***

“Freesia!”

Lily ran as fast as she could. She could barely keep up with Denise’s pet cat, Freesia. Though little, the cat seemed to have descended from cheetahs.

She saw the cat enter a room on the second floor corridor and she walked towards it, not able to run anymore. Lily was taking deep breaths to recover from what seemed like a hike around the whole castle.

A sign blocked the doorway, it said: “Out of Order”.

“Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom?” Lily sighed. She ignored the sign and went in. “Freesia?”

As if the cat could understand me. Are they even as smart as dogs? Lily shuddered, she never really liked cats.

The bathroom was large and gloomy; it showed signs of not being used for a very long time. The tiles were quite dirty and one of the mirrors was cracked. Lily checked for signs of Moaning Myrtle, but she didn’t see anything nor hear the depressed ghost’s cries.

It took her a minute to realize that she was not alone, but the ghost wasn’t her company.

It was James Potter.

He was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall. He was making puffs of smoke with his wand while Freesia tried to catch them.

“Potter, this is a girl’s bathroom,” Lily said, keeping the tone of annoyance in her voice.

James was startled. He looked up at Lily, smoke still continued to flow out of his wand.

“It’s illegal now, is it? I never realized this place was forbidden.” He looked at Lily. “The sign says “Out of Order”, and that sign means that girls should not use this bathroom since it is out of order.”

Lily blinked at him.

“Well, yes. This place hasn’t been used. They might have put up that sign just to keep us out,” James continued, “but that’s probably just because of Moaning Myrtle, or it could be some other stupid reason, like, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is in here, and Myrtle’s the guardian. I wouldn’t know this, since I haven’t met her. I just heard about her.”

Lily blinked again.

“So this bathroom hasn’t been used for years. Nobody ever comes in here, so I think it is not illegal for a boy to enter this place. It is not like anyone would be using one of the toilets here, and that would be disgusting. It wouldn’t matter if I stay here. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting anyone to come here, I thought almost everyone’s in Hogsmeade. But then, this little cat entered a couple of minutes ago, and then, here you are.”

Lily blinked at him for the third time, taken aback.

“Yeah. Can I have Freesia back?” she asked.

James stopped conjuring smoke and Freesia purred. He picked up the cat and handed it to Lily. James ran his hand on the cat’s ginger fur.

“She’s a charming cat. Smart, too,” he said, smiling.

“She’s not mine. She’s Denise’s. Denise asked me to take care of her since she would go to Hogsmeade today. I thought you went to Hogsmeade, too. Why are you here?”

James scowled. “I told you, didn’t I? I got tired of going with my gang and I don’t fancy going on a date with the giant squid either.”

Lily snorted.

“Why are you here?” James asked.

“I need to do that Potions essay Slughorn assigned.”

“Oh darn! I forgot about that!”

“You better go now. It’s quite difficult, two rolls of parchment.”

“Right.” James nodded. He headed for the door and Lily watched him go. James already had his hand on the sign (to move it out of the way) when he turned around to face Lily.

“It’s really nice talking to you,” he said, showing his genuine smile again. Lily smiled back.

“It’s really nice to talk to you, too… In a civilized manner,” she replied. James smiled again, and then he left.

Freesia purred in Lily’s arms. “Are you hungry?” Lily asked. The cat made a noise that Lily understood as a “yes”.

“Hang on, I think I have some crackers here. Oh no, they are not for cats, are they? Parrots eat crackers… Ah well…”

She put Freesia down and the cat just stared at her as she rummaged her robe pockets. Lily heard a cracking noise when she searched her right pocket. She took the thing out.

It was a small purple pouch and a note dangled from it.


Lily, I am so sorry I forgot to give you one! Here it is!
Lots of Love,
Mary


“What?” She opened the pouch and saw a cracked fortune cookie. Though cracked, it was still whole.

Feeling that there would be no loss if she tried another one, she broke it and took the little paper out.


You will find love when you least expect it.


Lily did not understand what it meant, but she knew that this fortune really was for her.

“One weird thing…” Lily jumped. Moaning Myrtle suddenly appeared out of nowhere and was reading the message over Lily’s shoulder. “This is a very peculiar place and time to be reading a message from a cookie.”

Lily gave Myrtle a confused look and Myrtle laughed. The ghost let out a sigh (still smiling), and said “I love staying in this place.”

Lily laughed, still clueless. “I’ll go now, Myrtle. Come here, Freesia!”

“Wait! I know you know Sirius Black!” Myrtle shouted, and Lily nodded in reply. Myrtle giggled. “Say hello to him for me.”

Lily laughed. “Sure thing, Myrtle.” With that, she left. Myrtle watched her go, still smiling to herself.

***

Myrtle’s POV

Oh, darn! Curse those Merpeople! I swear I am never going to go back there again!

I got out of my toilet and I see James Potter and Lily Evans talking. After a while, James left. Oh, this girl is crazy. Why is she talking to that cat?

Well, duh. Crackers are for parrots… But cats can eat them, too… I think…

What is this girl doing?

Ooh! That’s really sweet. Oh! This girl is an idiot! Clueless!

Oh no, Myrtle. Clam down.

“One weird thing…” Lily jumped at the sound of my voice. “This is a very peculiar place and time to be reading a message from a cookie.”

Lily gives me a confused look. I use a large amount of resistance not to roll my eyes at her, so I laugh instead. “I love staying in this place.”

Lily laughs. “I’ll go now, Myrtle. Come here, Freesia!”

“Wait! I know you know Sirius Black!” I shout before I could even stop myself. Lily nods. It is too late to turn back now, and besides, this is my greatest chance. I giggle. “Say hello to him for me.”

Lily laughs again. “Sure thing, Myrtle.” And then she leaves.

I am alone once again here in my bathroom, though I am giggling like mad.

Lily Evans already found love, yet she does not know it yet. I will just have to wait until she realizes that she just talked to her future man… Well no. I am not really sure. I suck at Divination. But I have got to admit, they do look good together.

…

I wonder if she really does talk to Sirius…

Ah…

With nothing else to do, I zoom back to my toilet.


"Why look for love?"
"Because it's the closest thing we have to magic"
- Aquamarine