A/N: I'm sorry it took so long... school's been really really tough. Basically, I'm coming down with senioritis 4 years early, and softball's already started... but since winter break's coming up, the next chapter or two will be up soon. PLEASE REVIEW!! I'm getting more and more discouraged... really, the story will get much better once I'm done setting it up...
“Lily, come down here!” Scarlett yelled up the stairs at me. It carried throughout the big, mostly empty mansion.
I looked up from my potions homework and shouted back, “What is it?”
“The letters from Hogwarts are here, come quick!” Cassara yelled.
I dropped my quill and sprinted down the long, winding staircase. I stood briefly at the kitchen door, telling myself not to be too disappointed if I wasn’t Head Girl. My friends had told me repeatedly that there were no other possibilities, but they were all smart and pretty responsible. And then there were always the people in other houses to consider.
“It’s simple, really,” Cassara had explained, “if any of us are Head Girl, we’ll step down, and you’ll probably be the next choice.”
“But what if you aren’t Head Girl?” I asked. “And what if someone really bad happens to be second-up?”
She didn’t have any answer to that one.
But nothing could be anywhere near as bad as my sister’s wedding…
*Flashback*
A few hours before the wedding, Petunia had made us all sit down in the living room to give us some last-minute orders. Yvonne had stood next to her, her bony face stretched into a menacing grin, while Petunia went on and on about what we were supposed to do. She glared at me briefly, then looked away, so I let my eyes wander around the room. It was actually funny”the room looked like a big sea of frilly pink bows and ruffles with a few heads sticking out above them. Even people’s arms and legs were lost in their dresses.
Well, I thought, that’s what they get when they don’t eat.
Petunia, who had eaten nothing but carrots since I had gotten home for summer vacation, was slightly orange. She had been complaining to Mum about how she wanted to go down just one more size, although I don’t know how that worked”she was already the smallest adult size there was, if she was lucky.
The wedding was a blur. I barely remembered any of it, until we were asked if any of us objected. I was almost crying”of course I did! I had a feeling that, if Petunia hadn’t become so wrapped up in him and he hadn’t always made such a big deal out of being normal, Petunia would’ve been a bit nicer to me. And he was a pig, anyway. He was fat and ugly and always very cruel.
The reception afterwards was bad, too. I just sat at my table sullenly, not wanting to move at all. I wished for the millionth time that one of my friends had been there to help me through it. It only dawned on me then that I could’ve tried telling my parents that I wouldn’t be a bridesmaid unless Petunia let one of my friends come to the wedding. But it was too late now.
A few guys who were about my age came up and asked me to dance. I agreed, but only because Mum was standing a few feet away, glaring at me for having such a bad attitude. Every time this happened, I briefly wondered what Petunia would act like at my wedding, if I even let her come.
Somehow I managed to last through the night. Hoping that I would be able to forget about it soon, I had taken a shower immediately after we got back, then went to bed. There was no lecture on my attitude, surprisingly.
*End of Flashback*
I flung the swinging door open and ran in, my horrible hand-eye coordination forgotten as I grabbed my letter when Robyn threw it to me.
I pulled out the nearest chair and flopped down, deciding that if I was sitting I would be able to handle whatever I found (or didn’t find) a lot better. Then I tore off the seal, trying hard not to rip the letters.
And a little gold badge fell into my lap, landing upside-down. I flipped it over, and saw it was inscribed with the letters “HG.” I opened my mouth to tell them that I was Head Girl, but I was too dumbfounded to speak.
Cassara cocked her head to the right, a puzzled expression on her face. Then she grinned, walking around the table to me. “Lily, I’ve never seen you speechless, so that must mean…” she trailed off as she saw the badge. The whole room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop”that is, until Cassara fully processed it and shrieked.
She screamed excitedly, “Lily’s Head Girl!” then proceeded to do a victory dance around the table, spinning around and jumping up in the air in a very odd way.
Everyone congratulated me, even Scarlett’s parents, who had heard Cassara’s earsplitting screech and rushed in to see what was wrong. I was still in total shock.
“Congratulations. We knew you could do it, Lily,” Eve said, so quiet I could barely hear her. She even mustered up a small smile, just for me, which completely made my day. She was still able to be happy for me, after all she’d been through. The whole Head Girl thing seemed like such a petty thing compared to all the losses she’d had. Not that I wasn’t still excited.
The funeral for Eddie and her dad had been a couple weeks before. The hardest part about it was finding out that Eddie had been engaged to a girl named Zora. And she was five months pregnant. She was really nice; I’d been briefly introduced to her before the funeral, and we’d stood next to her throughout the service. It was sad. I don’t think I’d ever seen anything sadder. And Zora somehow managed to stand there all by herself, her hand over the bulge of her unborn baby, her blue eyes filled with tears. It was sad, that she had no one to comfort her. And she had no job! Eddie had been an Auror, so she didn’t have to work. Luckily, Eve’s grandfather was able to hook her up with a job in the Ministry. Well, that’s what I’d heard. It was a low-paying job in a little-known department, but since it was just her and her baby, it was better than nothing.
We’d gone to Eve’s frequently after the funeral for the next couple days, making sure that Eve knew we were there for her and we’d do anything she needed. I hadn’t seen her cry, even at the funeral. I knew that she cried when she was alone, though. That was Eve”she never wanted to show others her pain. She didn’t want to burden us with it. She’d just shut everyone out for days, telling us “I’m fine” whenever we asked her a question. We weren’t stupid”we knew that she was not fine, but there wasn’t much we could do to help her out if she wouldn’t let us in.
She’d come a week after the funeral, and none of us had expected her so soon. We soon saw that she was much better. Although she was still quiet, she would carry on conversations and even talked to us about her dad and Eddie. It was definitely good for her, so we wee happy she was doing it. The only difference between her now and the old Eve was that she was quieter still. But that was sometimes a good thing”then there wasn’t as much competition between all of my incredibly loud friends.
Now I was sitting at the table in a total daze, extremely excited for the new school year. I couldn’t wait to see who the Head Boy was. Probably Remus, I thought. But there was something telling me that it wasn’t him that I just couldn’t place my finger on.
We decided to go out to Diagon Alley the day after we got the letters, knowing that there wouldn’t really be a way to beat the rush except to leave early in the morning. Cassara, a late sleeper, loved that. We woke up at about seven and managed to get out of the house by eight, a great accomplishment when you’re in a house with four other girls who all feel like they have to get their makeup perfect because we might see boys. I don’t really know what the purpose of that is, and I asked them to explain it. Not that it made any sense. Eve seemed nervous and jumpy”I briefly wondered if she was thinking about Potter, but that only depressed me. Seeing him was the only thing I wasn’t looking forward to in the new school year.
We split up according to what classes we had so we could cover more ground, but that proved to be hard since I had almost all the classes all four of them had. Basically I spent a lot of time running around to other stores while they waited in line and bought my books and supplies for me.
It was really busy. It seemed like almost everyone had decided to come today just to get it over with, although I knew that all the people here were significantly less than half the people at Hogwarts.
Getting there early paid off”we were done by early afternoon. We’d planned to meet by Florean Fortescue’s to walk around a bit more, since it was the first time we’d really been out of Scarlett’s house in a while. Eve was off by herself getting a frog for Juli, since she wanted one for her birthday, and Cassara and Robyn were buying Quidditch supplies. Scarlett and I saw Remus, Sirius, and Potter sitting at a table outside of the ice cream parlor. Sirius was just walking away with a blonde girl who had huge boobs. They made their way to a table and started to make out. Cassara and Robyn joined us shortly after, and I glanced over at Cassara. She was frowning, her face flushing slightly. I’d known for a long time that she liked him, even though she never said it. I have no idea what she saw in him, though”he was worse than Potter. But to each his own. Or her own, I guess.
Potter and Remus were left alone at the table, talking. I looked distastefully at Potter, but then an idea popped into my head”I leaned over to Scarlett, covering my lips with my hands.
“Go say hi to Remus,” I suggested. I knew she would do it; for the past few months she’d been trying a bit harder to catch Remus’s attention.
She took a quick look at him, paling slightly, but then she smiled and stood, squaring her shoulders bravely. “Okay, I will.”
She courageously made her way over to Remus. He looked like he was about to throw up, he was so nervous. But I knew he liked her. He’d just never been good at talking to girls.
We watched them talk for a bit, then Potter stood up to leave the two of them alone. Shortly after, Remus and Scarlett stood up and left the table. Then James must’ve realized he had nothing to do”he stared back at the table and looked quite uncomfortable, like he didn’t know what to do with himself.
“Poor James,” Robyn said. Cassara was still in a bit of a daze, since Sirius was sitting on a park bench making out with a girl we’d never seen before. Everyone else, however, was completely oblivious of the fact that Cassara was in total pain. Or maybe they realized it and just weren’t reacting.
“Cassara, I think we should force Lily to go say hi to James,” Robyn said, grinning.
That got her out of her depression. She grinned. “Definitely. Lily, do it.”
I looked over at him, sitting dejectedly on the bench. To my surprise and disgust, he looked right up at me and smiled slightly. I turned back around and saw Cassara whispering in Robyn’s ear. Soon after, the two of them burst out laughing.
“How about we don’t go over to see Potter?” I suggested in a slightly exasperated voice. I hated it when my friends tried to push me closer to Potter. It was never going to happen between us. The thought made me want to puke. “I mean, he’ll probably be happier if we don’t bother him anyway.”
“Well, Lils, we’re taking you whether you like it or not,” Robyn insisted. Cassara nodded so vehemently I thought her head might fall off. Then, much to my horror, they grabbed my arms and pulled me over to see him. I didn’t fight back too hard, though”I knew I was going to have to speak with him. This knowledge made me irritated, and I had the intense desire to bash my head into a wall.
Once we were over there, there was a slightly awkward silence where I defiantly refused to speak. Then Cassara elbowed me hard in the side, and I said curtly, “Hey, Potter.”
“Hey Evans,” He replied with the annoying look in his eyes he got whenever I was around. “You’re hot.”
“Don’t start,” I told him, scowling warningly.
Robyn saved the conversation by asking James about Quidditch. They began to discuss their new strategies and who they needed to replace the people who’d graduated.
Since I was already in a foul mood, it didn’t take me long to get extremely exasperated. “I still don’t know what you see in Quidditch,” I complained. “ It’s just a weird sport where you throw things at each other and attack each other with bats.”
“But that’s the fun of it!” Robyn said, grinning lopsidedly.
“Well, nothing’s fun for you unless you can hit something with a bat or kick something,” I responded crossly.
Then there were footsteps behind us. I was sure it was Eve, back with the frog for Juli. I turned around and moved over slightly, allowing a little space in our semicircle for her to stand between Cassara and me.
To my surprise, the look on James’s face was different than I’d ever seen. He staring up at her with an almost sensitive look, like he truly cared about her. It looked a bit like the look he gave me, but there was no humor in his eyes like there was with me. I had no idea what to think”it seemed like maybe he liked her.
Eve and James were talking, and I cut in, saying, “Did you get the present for Juli?” I felt slightly twitchy and anxious, but I wasn’t sure why.
While they discussed the frog, things became more and more obvious that James liked Eve. The thought of that made me want to throw up, but in the back of my mind it seemed like I was almost jealous.
Stop thinking like that, Lily, I told myself. You just feel bad that Eve will be
subjected to the same sort of torture you have to go through.
Accepting that as the answer to my strange feelings, I went on to join in the conversation, although I wasn’t really my usual self. I had too much to think about.
Soon, Scarlett and Remus came back. Scarlett was grinning stupidly and completely spacing out. I was happy for her, but my bad mood was still too great for me to be as excited for her as I should’ve been. “Scarlett, are you alive?” I asked.
She grinned even more widely and replied, “Yes.”
James whispered something in Remus’s ear, and Remus shrugged and smiled. I glanced at my watch and said to Scarlett, “I think we should leave, your mum was expecting us ten minutes ago.”
Scarlett started to act like a three-year-old you had just told should take their nap. “Do we have to?” she whined.
“You know how worried your mum was just letting us come here by ourselves,” I told her.
“Yeah, and with You-Know-Who on the loose, your mum’ll probably expect the worst. Hell, she probably already does,” Robyn pointed out.
“We should probably be getting back, too,” Remus said to James. “Your mum wanted us home before dark.”
“Good luck getting Sirius away from that girl,” Scarlett giggled, pointing over at the bench. Cassara’s face tensed, but after a deep breath she composed herself, smiling agian. Then Scarlett kissed Remus on the cheek and Disapparated.
We all gaped at Remus, although I wasn’t necessarily surprised. He was blushing all the way down his neck.
It apparently surprised Cassara, because she screeched and ran at Remus, hugging him tightly and shrieking something almost indeterminable at him. Then she Disapparated, leaving us to congratulate Remus more civilly, and we followed her back.
I could tell this year would be interesting, with James’s interests shifting from me to Eve. I knew I should be happy, but something inside me felt empty from it.
It’ll take some getting used to, having Potter not as interested in you, I told myself, but it’ll be a good thing.
Somehow I wasn’t completely convinced.