“Okay, this is getting me nowhere,” came the sudden, impatient voice of Kathleen.
“Not again,” muttered Lily, exchanging an amused glance with Hallie, who was studying with them in their dormitory.
“I mean, what’s the point of learning to transform a salamander into an owl? When am I ever going to need to do that?” Kathleen questioned loudly, slamming her textbook book shut.
Lily leaned back into the pillows stacked at the head of her bed, watching Kathleen on her own bed with an expectant expression. Hallie, who was sitting at the foot of Lily’s bed, nudged her and winked, giving her the signal to speak her line.
“You probably aren’t,” Lily said with a dull tone, exactly like she always did when Kathleen began the rant.
“Why don’t they focus our only seven years of education on things we actually will need?” Kathleen continued, ignoring Lily’s words.
“Kathleen,” Hallie began rationally, “you’ve been giving us this lovely speech just about every month since fifth year. Not that it isn’t an absolutely striking point, but don’t you think you’ve vented enough about this?”
“What? I’ve said this maybe once, ever. But you know, the thing that is really maddening is that there’s so much more we should concentrate our studies on! We could be learning a ton more Defence Against the Dark Arts, which is definitely useful these days. I mean, poor Peter Pettigrew would have no chance against a real, live Death Eater!”
“Why don’t you tell all of this to Dumbledore or McGonagall?” Lily suggested tiredly.
“You know what? I think I will.”
Tossing her books onto the floor, Kathleen slid off her bed and exited the room with her head held high. Lily rolled her eyes and picked up the books, then stood near the door and waited for a moment.
It didn’t take much time before the door reopened and Kathleen came back inside. Smiling, Lily held out the books and Kathleen took them grudgingly as she walked back to her bed.
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“Hogsmeade weekend in three weeks!” James heard a girl squeal as she entered the common room.
“For Halloween?” Sirius asked the girl, who turned out to be Peyton, turning around to face her.
“Yeah,” said Peyton, sitting down on the couch where her dormmates were packed together.
James, Remus, and Peter were on the couch opposite the girls, with the fire to their side. Looking down, James saw Sirius giving him a look from where he was stretched on the floor. Sirius looked to make sure that none of the girls were looking and then mouthed, “You going to ask Evans?”
“No, you idiot,” James mouthed back. He leaned back into the cushions, rolling his eyes. Obviously, Sirius still didn’t understand the whole ‘not asking Lily out’ thing he had been working on this year.
“Who are you going with, James?” asked Peyton, who was promptly elbowed by Kathleen.
James glanced at Lily and saw her blushing faintly. He quickly looked back to Peyton. “Probably just go with Moony and Wormtail, and meet up with Padfoot after his date.”
“And who are you taking, Sirius?” Peyton kept on.
“Kathleen,” he said confidently.
All of the girls turned to gape at Kathleen. “What?” they all asked simultaneously.
“He’s joking,” Lily said scornfully. “Do you honestly think she would date him again?”
James looked at Kathleen, who was beginning to seem uncomfortable. He saw Lily notice this about the same time as he did, and she stood up.
“Damn, I forgot my Potions book in the dungeons,” she said, not even trying to sound convincing. “Come on, Kat.”
Lily gave Sirius a cold look as she headed towards the portrait hole with Kathleen at her side.
“I was just kidding,” said Sirius defensively.
“That was pretty thoughtless,” Hallie pointed out.
“It was two years ago!”
“Let’s just drop it,” said Annis. “Remus, I heard that sixth year girl in Ravenclaw likes you. You should ask her.”
“Felicia Holstein?” asked Peyton. “I’m pretty sure she does.”
“Well then. Looks like Moony here’s got himself a date for Hogsmeade! But just so you know, I call the dorm for afterwards,” Sirius said, grinning.
James chuckled as the girls all sent Sirius a dirty look and headed up the stairs to their own room.
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“Oh, Misses Evans and Brady! Can Mimsy bring the misses anything?”
Lily smiled down at her favourite house-elf in all of Hogwarts. “Do you think you could get us some of that treacle we had last night for supper? It was wonderful.”
“Yes, yes! Would the misses want chocolate to go with their snack?” said Mimsy eagerly.
“That would be nice,” answered Kathleen.
Mimsy rushed off to get their snack, and Kathleen and Lily sat down at a small table in the corner of the kitchens.
“You always know exactly what to do,” Kathleen told Lily with a grateful smile.
“Well, I know that comfort food deals with almost anything,” Lily laughed.
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad. I’m totally over it and all. I just think that it’s just weird how he acts like we never dated.”
“Maybe he feels bad about dropping you just like all the other girls” -Lily paused for a moment- “but then you never know.”
“Probably not,” Kathleen said sourly.
Lily only nodded and sighed. She wondered how Sirius could be so incredibly loyal to his friends, but utterly unconcerned when it came to anyone else.
“Oh, food!” Kathleen said in relief as Mimsy came back with their plates. “Thank you.”
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“James, how were the Quidditch tryouts? Do you know who you‘ll pick yet?” a blonde fifth year girl asked James the next afternoon as he entered the castle and headed for the common room.
“They were excellent! I think this will be the best team I’ve seen yet,” he told her. “But I haven’t exactly had time to decide the players yet, sorry.”
“But you’re definitely going to go with Hamilton for Keeper?” Sirius asked in a low voice.
James and Sirius turned into a lesser-known corridor and were able to speak louder, no longer worried about being overheard.
“Right. He’s the obvious choice for that one. I just need to think on a new Chaser and one Beater.”
“Frankly, I thought that Lawrence girl was the best of the Beaters. She might not be able to hit quite as hard as McCullen, but she can definitely aim. And then it’s between that third year and the short fourth year for Chaser.”
“Yeah,” James agreed. “I’m leaning towards Lawrence, but I still think there’s a possibility for Bullock as a Beater. He was fast, too.”
“You know what Moony would say? Sleep on it.”
“Sounds like a good idea. Hey wait, though. Isn’t it the eighth?” James wondered.
“Yeah. Oh, right. I had actually forgotten about the full moon. Guess that means no sleep tonight,” Sirius realised. “Well, I’m going to go ahead and sleep until it’s time. Today wore me out.”
“Good idea.”
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“So you’re fine?” Lily asked Kathleen again, trying to be certain.
The two were walking back up to the Gryffindor tower from the grounds, where they had taken their food from the kitchens. They had spent a few hours around the lake, successfully distracting themselves from their schoolwork and any classmates that were in the castle.
“Yes,” Kathleen said emphatically. “I told you, it was fifth year.”
“But he was just so rude to bring it up again,” Lily argued.
“Of course he was rude. He’s always been like that.” Kathleen paused to give the Fat Lady the password and the portrait swung open to show a nearly empty common room. “You ready to go to bed? I’m pretty tired, actually.”
“Well,” Lily hesitated. “I think I’ll just relax in here on a couch or something for a few minutes. I’m sure the dormitory is crowded and at full volume.”
“Okay, ‘night,” said Kathleen, heading for the girls’ staircase.
“’Night,” Lily responded as she settled into the same couch beside the fireplace the boys had been sitting in earlier.
Kathleen paused by the first step. “Thanks,” she said quietly, turning to look at Lily.
Lily smiled warmly and watched her leave. Yawning, she kicked her shoes off onto the floor next to her and stretched out on the couch. When she stared into the fire, Lily realised she had grown drowsy but was too out of it to consider getting up and stumbling all the way to her room. Her eyes slowly closed and soon she was sleeping.
She stirred for the first time around dawn, when the moon had only disappeared minutes earlier. Propping herself higher up on the pillow underneath her head, Lily only wondered where she was for a moment before comprehending that some noise must have woken her up. Then she saw two poorly lit figures slip into the room and quickly disappear up the boys’ stairway.
Lily had almost stood all the way up before the portrait swung forward again and one more person entered. He had almost crossed the room before he stopped and noticed Lily.
“James?” she called questioningly. “Is that you?”
“Yeah. Lily? What are you doing?” James walked towards her and yawned down at her.
“I fell asleep,” she admitted, motioning towards the couch. “What about you?” she continued suspiciously. “Have you been out all night? And was that Sirius and Peter that just came in?”
“Yeah. We were, uh, in the Hospital Wing. Moony’s sick again, so we stayed down there with him.”
“Oh.” Lily accepted this answer, but then frowned. “But why are you so tired? Surely you three didn’t just sit there while he slept all night.”
“Well, we didn’t,” James began, but he was interrupted when the Fat Lady swung forward yet again and Remus walked in.
Lily looked to James to watch his eyes widen as Remus came closer. Confused, Lily glanced at Remus and her mouth opened in shock as James cursed quietly.
“What in Merlin’s name happened to you, Remus?” Lily looked in confusion between the two boys in front of her, who didn’t say a word. “Okay, somebody needs to start filling me in right now.”