Partners and Pals!
"Why so cocky?" Lily asked James, who was sat in the moltress common room with his feet up on the table, throwing a Pokeball from one hand to the other.
"Oh me? No reason, just," he threw the ball in the air and released an axew who laughed with joy and jumped right onto James' head.
"You caught an axew?" Marlene exclaimed from across the common room, rushing over towards James and patting his pokemon.
"Yeah, around an hour ago it started following me and charmander on a walk." He smiled softly as the axew hopped down from his lap and began to play with the other pokemon.
"Kin!" Lily could hear her pokemon say to the others as it refused to play. Togepi was running around with another house member's igglybuff. Sirius' tepig joined in on the fun as well, as it started to chase the other pokemon as well.
Everybody had already eaten dinner as it was around seven. Remus was nowhere to be found, though.
"Where's Lupin?" Mary asked everybody, who all shrugged or simply said they had no clue. The moon was full in the sky, and the howls of lycanrock's could be heard from the distance.
"He's probably in the library." Sirius said, brushing it off as tepig jumped into his arms.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the common room door. Everyone turned to look at it before Lily sighed and got up to open it.
Waiting outside was Regulus, Evan and Dorcas. The three had their arms folded and invited themselves inside.
"Hey?" Lily sarcastically said before taking her place on the sofa again.
"Pandora and Barty are driving us insane!" Evan sighed, leaning against the wall.
"How so?" Marlene urged with a cheeky grin as she looked up at Dorcas.
"They won't stop singing Christmas songs," Dorcas sighed, "it's September!"
"Stay here until they fall asleep," Lily suggested with a warm smile. They all agreed and took seats around the warm fireplace. Dorcas sat next to Marlene, Regulus sat with his brother whilst Evan stayed standing by the wall.
Eventually, the clock hit nine and Mary and Peter decided it was time to sleep. Lily was getting tired as well, but Fennekin was still energetic, so she didn't want to ruin her fun. Togepi, however, was asleep on Lily's lap.
Suddenly, as Lily was nodding off, there was a knock at the door. Dorcas sighed and went to open it, where she was greeted by both Pandora and Barty, who had folded arms and furrowed brows.
"You guys!" Pandora sighed, rushing towards the rest.
"I feel caught." Regulus whispered under his breath, and Lily stifled a giggle.
Barty dramatically rolled his eyes before grabbing both Evan and Regulus by the arms.
"Hey, you know I caught my first pokemon?" James chuckled, trying to relieve the tension. His axew ran up to barty and slapped his ankle before hiding behind James.
"That's nothing," Barty smirked before releasing a pokemon from it's pokeball. On the inside was a small fox-like pokemon, alike fennekin but not quite.
"You have a zorua?" Lily smiled widely as she sat up with force, causing Togepi to stir. Lily quickly returned Togepi to it's pokeball, before hurrying over and crouching next to the small pokemon.
"Zoru!" It yipped as it climbed onto Barty's shoulder and stuck it's tongue out in Lily's face.
Lily snickered as she turned away and began heading towards her bedroom. Fennekin quickly jumped on her shoulder as they continued making their way up the stairs.
As she was almost at her dorm, Lily couldn't help but notice a young girl with long, black hair and mascara running down her face was sat down and sobbing. Lily took a seat next to her and rubbed her back, trying to comfort the stranger.
"What's wrong?" She finally asked the girl, who was gripping onto her face and loudly crying.
"My pokemon doesn't like me!" She cried, as she continued to sob onto Lily's shoulder.
"Oh, I'm sure that isn't true!" Lily reassured her.
The girl silently released a turtwig, who immediately tried to use tackle on the girl's leg. Lily picked up the pokemon and scolded it.
"It's important for trainers and pokemon to get along, have you tried bonding with it?" Lily asked.
The girl wiped her tears and sniffled, "N-Not really." She said.
"Turtwig!" The pokemon cried, as Lily's fennekin jumped from her shoulder and spoke with the pokemon.
"Me and fennekin are super close, but that's only because we spend time together." Lily smiled as she stroked the fox.
"S-So we can b-be friends if we t-try?" The girl stuttered, glassy eyes with no tears falling and a red nose from all her sniffles.
"Of course," Lily giggled, "I'm Lily Evans, first year, what about you?" She pulled herself up to sit and reached a hand out for the girl to accept.
She took the hand and was pulled to stand as well, "Emmeline Vance, second year," She responded, "Do you want to see all of my pokemon?"
"Of course," Lily giggled, "I only have one other, but she's so cute," Lily reached for Togepi's pokeball as well.
Emmeline finally found her pokeballs, and threw them high in the air to release the creatures. She had a nidorina, a pidove and a swoobat, who were all adorable. Lily immediately began petting them.
"I only got turtwig last week, my mum sent him over as a starter since I never officially received one." She elaborated although unprompted.
"Do you do concerts or battles?" Lily asked as she stood up.
"Concerts, I got two ribbons last year!" Her bragging was somewhat humble still.
"That's so cool," Lily giggled, "Here's my other pokemon." She released her Togepi who fell on the floor immediately.
"You already have another pokemon? Lucky!" Emmeline giggled as she stroked it's cheek. "I better go to bed, hopefully I'll see you tomorrow." The girl then turned on her heel and went up the stairs. Her cheeks still had faint stains of tears on them, whilst she had a skip in her step now.
When Lily entered her room, Mary was fast asleep with a pink sleep mask on her face, whilst Marlene wasn't even in there yet. Lily carried Togepi onto her bed, whilst Fennekin jumped from Lily's shoulder and onto the bed there.
Lily brushed her teeth, got in her pyjamas and tucked herself in. As she slept, Lily had dreams about a strange pokemon. In her dream, she was on the top of a mountain, reaching into the distance. As she leant forward, a humanoid pokemon with a long tail which extended to the front of it's body touched fingers with her. The tip of it's lilac finger was a circle, and it seemed to be using telepathy to communicate.
All Lily remembered from that dream when she woke up in a nervous sweat was the pokemon's face and the message which it delivered.
Help me.
That was all which lingered in her mind as she drifted back to slumber, and it would continue to linger for a while longer.