Dancing Queen

Lily is brought out of her daydreams when the door to Gryffindor common room opens. In comes Regulus, a very pale boy with black and green hair, a dark skinned girl wearing a green dress, a boy with platinum blonde hair and a girl wearing blue with moving stars. She recognised them from the library and around school. The girl in blue came to visit Regulus sometimes when they were studying and Lily always thought she was quite pretty. If she looked pretty then, she looked gorgeous now. Her hair was down, a contrast to her usual bun, and the blue brought out the green in her eyes. Lily realized she was staring and quickly averted her gaze. She hoped they hadn’t noticed. To distract herself, she glanced over to Sirius to see if Remus had told him. From the way he was staring at Regulus, she didn’t think he had. She wondered how Petunia would react to one of these parties, and quickly dismissed the thought. It wouldn’t do her much good to think about Petunia.

Lily hadn’t even realized Mary was coming over until she was right next to her. 

‘Hey Lils!’

‘Hey Mary!’

Mary and Lily had been best friends since 1st year. They had bonded over being roommates, and soon they were two peas in a pod. Mary was Lily’s first crush, though she’d never admit that to anyone. Ever.

‘Do you wanna come dance? They’re playing Dancing Queen and literally no one will dance with me!’

Mary had been obsessed with ABBA ever since Remus had been sent a muggle record of their songs and her obsession had only grown when Dancing Queen came out.

‘I will absolutely dance with you.’

Lily was also a little bit obsessed with ABBA.

They made their way over to the ‘dance floor’, which was really just the area where they had pushed the chairs out of the way to create some space. The song echoed throughout the common room and Lily let herself forget everything. Forget Petunia and her parents. Forget how Sirius looked at Regulus. Forget how pretty Pandora looked in her dress tonight. Right now it was just her and Mary and ABBA. 

She knew it wouldn’t last and soon enough, the song ended. Mary was grinning at her and she looked breathless. 

‘Thanks Lils,’ Mary was saying as they walked back over to the spot Lily was just standing in. ‘I needed that.’

‘Same.’

‘Did you see Sirius’ brother come in? Reginald or something.’

‘Regulus.’

Mary turns so she can properly see Lily.

‘How do you know that?’

‘Me and Remus used to study with him. For our OWLs.’

It wasn’t a lie, so Lily didn’t know why she felt like it was. But then Mary was walking off to talk to Emmaline, with a quick goodbye. Now, Lily was alone again.

But not for long. 

She was watching the party, particularly at Sirius, who kept making some not-so-subtle glances over to Regulus, when a melodic voice interrupted her thoughts.

‘Penny for your thoughts?’

Lily turned to see Pandora, looking even more beautiful up close. Lily had to turn away before she could say anything stupid.

‘You’d need a lot more than a penny for my thoughts.’

Pandora laughed, and Lily found herself wishing she could bottle up that sound forever. Then, she snapped herself out of it. She refused to let herself fall for someone, knowing how it ended up last year.

‘Pandora, right?’

‘That’s me. You’re Lily, aren’t you?’

Lily nodded.

‘I recognise you from when you studied with Regulus. He always told me that that was why he passed his OWLs.’

Lily felt a grin taking over her face, the praise warming her whole body. The feeling didn’t last long though, as she caught a flash of greasy, black hair coming in through the portrait hole. She begged internally that it wasn’t him, but, to her dismay, it was Snape. He began scanning the room, and she had a gut feeling he was looking for her. She had to get out of there.

‘Excuse me.’

She walked away from Pandora, which made her wish she had given her an explanation. But she couldn’t turn back now. She kept walking until she reached the girls dormitories.