"Well I undied and now im hungry"
“Marlene, for god’s sake, get up!”
Lovely as Lily was, it was only half seven in the morning. Realistically, Marlene wasn’t moving for another 20 minutes.
“Marls, if you don’t hurry up, I’m telling James and Pete you’re dead” Mary genuinely didn’t seem to care, she probably would’ve left by that point if she hadn’t been scrolling on tiktok.
“Then I’ll let them mourn.”
“Fair enough.” With a shrug Mary left the dorm to walk to the dining hall.
“Mary! We can’t just leave her here, she’ll never be on time!”
“THEN WE’LL LET MCGONAGALL MOURN HER PRESENCE!” Mary called up the staircase she was somehow already halfway down. With a sigh, Lily followed her, unwilling to be late herself, even if it was only breakfast.
There was no point getting up anyway, the bed was so warm and soft and comfy and there was no chance she was leaving any time soon. The light from the window was shining gently on the bed across from her, illuminating the room without the need of the main light.
God knows how long Marlene lied in bed for in the end. Point is, she arrived at the dining hall three whole entire minutes before breakfast ended, just enough time to stuff her face (and her pockets).
“Marls!! Where were you? Mary told us your parents died and you died of shock and we couldn’t go near the dorm before they got rid of the body!” James was somehow naïve enough to believe it.
“Well, I un-died, and now I’m hungry.”
“Shocking, it’s almost as if she was never dead in the first place, James.” James’ roommate said with a level of sarcasm not even Lily could achieve, before returning to his reading.
Breakfast soon finished, and they all hurried to their lessons, Marlene eating on the way.
~*~
Mary had always loved art, it gave her a chance to think about life and what was happening in her day. She never got that most of the time at home with her three siblings, who always loved running around and being far too loud for her. So, when she walked into her art classroom first period on a Monday, she looked around to find a seat alone on an empty desk. No luck. All the tables were full of people chatting away with friends. Except one, on one table was a lonely looking boy with wavy black hair.
“Anyone sitting here?” Mary asked the boy, gesturing towards one of the chairs on the other side of the table.
“No, go ahead I suppose,” he shrugged.
“What’s your name? I’m Mary.”
“Sirius” he smiled, Mary could tell that these two were going to be friends.
“I think I’ve seen you around a bit, you’re friends with Marlene’s friends right?”
“Yeah, I share a dorm with them, isn’t your dorm next to ours?”
“Pretty sure I do, I can always hear you all talking. Lily, my roommate, absolutely hates it.”
“Oh yeah, Lily, she stopped by on the first day to tell us to shut up. One of my roommates, James, seems to like her. He won’t stop talking about her.”
“Well, I mean, I can’t blame him, she is absolutely beautiful. Not like that, just that she could be a model or something!” Mary blushed bright pink, hoping he would believe her.
“Fair enough,” Sirius said, looking like he believed absolutely none of what she was saying.
“Right class, I know I’ve been nice enough to let you settle down with your new class, but we need to get some work done,” the teacher, Dr D.J. who had insisted that her last name was too hard to say, interrupted the conversations going on across the room.
“This term we’ll be learning about colours and how to mix different shades,” she continued, already passing out worksheets to everyone in the class. Sirius and Mary both looked at each other as if to say “This is going to be a long term.”
Once their teacher had finished explaining the sheets for that lesson, everyone got quickly to work and Sirius and Mary continued their conversation.
“Ok, this is the one thing that’ll make or break this friendship, favourite art medium?” Mary asked with a smile, as she mindlessly filled in the colour wheel.
“Paint, although I quite like pen. Usually acrylic but watercolours nice too. But what I really hate is coloured pencils, they’re awful and it takes forever to get any depth.”
“Ok, good, we can still be friends. I love painting too, I don’t understand people who can make coloured pencils look good.”
“What other lessons do you have today?”
“One sec,” She pulled out her planner where she had written her timetable , “Next I’ve got French, then Drama, I really like that, then I have Biology and Computer science. You?”
Sirius was already pulling out his planner to check, “I’ve got Swimming next, then Life studies-”
“Oh god you’ve got all those stairs right before lunch, that’s awful. Anyway, continue.” Mary interrupted.
“Then I’ve got History, and computer science last. Hey, maybe we’re in the same class for it.” They both smiled at that.
“Hope so,”
The lesson carried on like that for a while, with their teacher occasionally interrupting to hand out yet another sheet.
~*~
From what Remus had gathered from older students, joining clubs meant not only would he not have to hang around his form every lunchtime, but it would also mean he got to go in the ‘early lunch queue’, as opposed to the insufferable queue with his year group.
Naturally, Remus was now on his way to the club fair with his friends.
Upon entering the main hall, he noticed there was plenty of stands, and about 40 people, give or take. The four of them split up, knowing it was near impossible for them to all have the same interests. He thoroughly passed every stand, sitting down for a minute half way through. In the end he decided to do d&d on Mondays and Fridays, creative writing on Tuesdays, tactical games on Wednesdays, and classics club on Thursdays. He’d be damned if he ever queued with his year group ever again.
Upon meeting up with his friends he found out Peter had joined chess club, gardening club, and animation. Sirius had joined drama club and dance, and – for some ungodly reason – James had joined cross country. Remus would truly never understand James.
With... effort, to say the least, Remus managed to talk the other three into joining d&d club with him (partially because he didn’t want to be alone and partially because he knew he couldn’t leave peter to supervise James and Sirius) and the teacher running the club looked incredibly pleased – Remus hoped with all he had that teacher was a patient person. Sirius also convinced James to join drama club with him (surprising absolutely no one), and, with that, they left the club fair.
~*~
“Oi Pete! How’s the start of the year going?” Peter’s sister, Holly yelled to him as he walked into the dining hall, for tea, looking for his friends, who had usually got a table by now. He couldn’t see them waving. He might as well go talk to Holly then, he thought. He walked over, desperately trying not to drop his tray.
“Oh, hi Hols, yeah, schools good so far. Did you really have to yell that though?”
“Course I did, how else would everyone know that you’re my brother ?”
“I don’t want everyone to know.”
“Why, do you think I’m gonna embarrass you?” Holly replied in a mocking tone.
“Yes, actually, you always have.”
“Not my fault, it’s my job as your big sister,” she ruffled Peters hair, nearly making him drop his tray.
“Oh, there’s all your friends, waiting for you,” she pointed to James, who was waving aggressively at him, Sirius and Remus, who were desperately waiting for Peter to come over, so James would stop waving.
“I guess you should go see them, bye Pete!”
As Peter walked away from her, he could hear her and her friends laughing.
“Hey Pete, what’s up?” James asked him.
“My sister. She’s decided to make it her mission to embarrass me at every moment she gets.”
“That absolute motherfucker,” Marlene had just sat down at the table with them.
“Do we need to get revenge?” James laughed.
“Nah, it’s alright, she’s just like this.”
“Alright, how’s everyone’s days been?”
They carried on like that for a while, discussing whatever came to mind at that moment . Peter was grateful for the distraction from his sister.
~*~
It was about 9pm when Petunia’s phone buzzed.
Again.
She reluctantly put down the jacket she was embroidering for a friend and walked over to the table the phone was on.
Lily had messaged her.
Again.
She didn’t understand why her sister couldn’t just leave her alone. Was she trying to rub it in her face?
Not only had Lily always been better at everything, but she’d always been their parents’ favourite and it showed. Petunia was prettier, more polite, and less of a know-it-all, but everything always had to be about Lily. It was insufferable.
When they were children, Petunia loved her little sister. They played together, shared a room, wrote stories together, everything. Petunia had even spent weeks making a teddy for her sister. She designed a calico cat – Lily’s favourite animal – bought fabric, sewed it together, stuffed it, and given it to her sister. Lily loved her cat. She named it Dusty and she took it everywhere.
When Petunia was in year six, she spent months revising for the entrance exams for her dream school. She passed the exams, but in the end, wasn’t offered a place. Lily, however, didn’t so much as open a textbook the entire year and passed anyway. Petunia was sure Lily wouldn’t make it in, yet on the other side of the room, Lily’s bed was empty.
Apart from one thing.
Lily had left Dusty behind.
Petunia didn’t open the message.
It would’ve been a waste of time anyway.