Tue', March 3rd 1977
Lily wakes up at 7am and getting out of bed. As usual, she checkes the calender on the wall next to the dressing table they had in the dorm room. It's hard to keep track on the Hebrew calendar when she's in Hogwarts, so her grandma bought her this Hebrew calendar every year before she leaves for school.
After Lily checkes the calender, she goes to the bathroom to get ready for the day. Mary just finished dressing and now sits in front of the dressing table and starts doing her makeup. Lily dresses up, brush her teeth and do her hair, and then she gets back to the room and Waits that Mary will free the table so she could do her makeup too.
"Sorry lills, do you want me to stop so you could do your makeup and go? It takes yiu Less time then me" Mary says, looking at Lily through the mirror. Lily shakes her head. "No that's fine," she says, "I'm not rushing for breakfast today."
"You're not eating?" Remus asks her after she didn't eat anything although she sits with them for already 15 minutes. Lily shakes her head, "No, it's Ta'anit Ester today," she replied in a quiet voice.
Remus looks confused.
"Already? I thought there's time until then" he says, taking another bit from his toast.
"Yes, already" she smiled, rolling her eyes, "are you going home for the holiday?"
"No, I'm staying here" Remus replies, "Are you?"
"I hadn't decide yet," Lily replies, fidgeting with her hair while speaking. "I think Maybe I'll stay here this year, but then I would celebrate alone"
"Did I hear celebrate? Is there a celebration? What are we celebrating?" Sirius intervenes, his eyes wide open and he's smiling, like every time when someone mentions a party or something similar.
"Purim starts this evening," Lily says, can't help herself but smile back at Sirius. His has a contagious smile.
He looks at Remus in confusion, and Remus sighs. "A Jewish holiday" Remus explains, "You know that Lily and I are Jewish, right?" He adds, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah! Of course I know that, don't underestimate my memory!" He says, sarcastically offended. Lily giggles and covers her mouth with her hand.
"I just didn't know about this holiday, did you ever said it's name?" Sirius asks me, now more seriously. He looks a bit guilty now for not knowing.
"That's ok, you probably weren't around I did mention it, we weren't such close friends until this year."
"Also, I myself didn't mention it because I didn't celebrate it since I was like 10 years old" Remus adds, shrugs and they continue to eat his breakfast.
"We can celebrate it with you if you don't want to go home!" Sirius offers with his toothy smile, jumping a little in his sit.
"I don't know... isn't it weird? Besides Remus, non of you are Jewish, and not a single one of you is even religious." Now all of her friends are listening. Lily she didn't want to force her believes upon anybody.
"Not at all! Tells us how you celebrate and we will plan everything for you!" Mary says and pulling Lily into her arms, hugging her.
She looks at Remus, asking him without words what does he think. After all, it's not just her. Remus nods a bit, no one could've see that tiny move of head.
"Ok, thanks" Lily says eventually. There was not a single person in the great hall that couldn't hear Sirius' clarion.
During the day, Lily does great in classes, like always. On morning classes she feels fine, but on the classes after lunch she starts to be a little less focused, she is hungry and thirsty, but doesn't break the fast.
Lily loves Putin. Not only because of the costumes and fun, but also because she thinks that the story of Megilat Ester is one of the most powerful and important stories in the history of the Jewish people.
Since she was a little girl, Lily always thought that Ester is one of the coolest women she ever heard of.
Girls in that age usually obsessed with princesses like Snow-White or Sleeping Beauty, but when they asked Lily who is her favourite princess, she said "Queen Ester" with a big smile that reveals the gap between her front teeth.
Those girls didn't talk to her since then.
After the end of the last class, Lily goes back to the Griffindor common room with Mary and Marlene. While they're walking, Lily tells her friends about the cultural customs during the Purim holiday.
"So we need to wear costumes? Like on Halloween?" Marlene asks with excitement.
Lily nods.
"But we don't have customes other then the ones we wore on Halloween, it will be boring to wear them again." Mary says. Lily has an idea.
"We can dress as eachother," she offers
"Like, l'll dress up like as Sirius for example, and Remus will dress up as Mary,"
Marlene's smile goes bigger and bigger with every word.
"That's genius Lils!" She says, grabbing her arm with too much force.
They decids to draw lots for who would dress up as who.
"In Hebrew, the word for "lot" is "Pur"," Lily says while shaking the little notes in her hands. James is the first to pick a note.
"Pur? It sounds like Purim," he says. Lily smiles to herself. All those years he acted like a total shtum who doesn't care about anything or anyone, but he's actually a very considerate and intelligent guy.
"Yes James, Purim is for Pur." She replies. James grins at her and then opes his note. "I got Mary!" He says with joy and looks at her, "I'm going to be you!" They give eachother a high five.
Mary was next to pick a note. "I got Peter!" She smiles at him an he smiles back, "thats cool" he says, and Mary agrees with him.
After whey were done with the lottery, the group goes to the great hall for dinner.
Lily looks at the ceiling that reflects the sky outside the castle. Only after the sun was fully gone, Lily starts to eat her dinner.
"Can you help me with another thing today?" She asks while eating her pie. James' eyes lights up, "Yes of course! What do you need?" He asks.
Lily blushes a little, he is really sweet.
"I need to read the Megilah this evening, I'll read it out loud and you'll need to do loud noises when you hear the name Haman." She explains. Sirius smile is bigger then any smile she ever saw on his face. "I love making loud noises!" He says wit excitement, leaning towards Lily from the other side of the table.
"Yeah. And you're really good at it, too" Remus replies in a mocking voice.
"Thank you, darling," Sirius decides to take it as a compliment.
Lily takes another bit of pie, "so is that ok for you to do?"
"Of course!" Marlene replies.
"Thank you."
Lily is super excited for the Purim party that she and her friends set up for the next night. She is exited to share her traditions with them after she hided her identity almost completely all those years.
Lily is also happy to see that Remus is looking forward for the party as well. I surprised her at first, because she knows that his family and him aren't the traditional kind of Jews, but seeing Remus explaining things to the boys or talks with her about the traditions, makes Lily so happy.
"I need to find my yarmulka," Remus told her an hour ago, "I hope I brought it with me."
It made Lily smile to herself.
Now, after they found Remus' yarmulka, all of her friends are gathering in the boy's dormroom. It's a bit crowded for seven people, but it gives them privecy so no one complains.
Lily is sitting on James' bed and holding her Megilah - a thin hard-covered book with silver decorations. She opens it.
"Remember, every time I say Haman, shake the Groggers I gave for a couple of minutes, and then I'll continue reading."
They nod.
Lily says the blessing, and then she starts to read the Megilah. It's not like reading a book out loud. The words have kind of like a melody. Every book in the Hebrew bible has it's own melody, each part is different. Lily learned Megilat Esther's melody when she was 13 years old, and she reads it in the synagogue every year.
Every time she says Haman, her friends do their part and make loud noises with their Groggers. When they don't do that, they are very quiet and listene to her, even though they don't understand anything.
"You're reading was beautiful," Mary tells Lily when they're back in their room. Lily smiles. "Thank you."
Lily sits on her bed and picks a book from the table beside her bed. Mary and Marlene is getting ready for bed while Lily reads her "Pride & prejudice". It's her favourite book.
After a while she stops reading. She can't get James out of her head for some reason.
Lily is exited for the party tomorrow, she always wanted to celebrate holidays with her friends, and now she gets the opportunity to do so.
She already asked Professor McGonagall for permission to set this party on a school day, and the professor agreed to this, but she said we have the responsibility to do the works that will be in class tomorrow.
Lily starts to think about James again. About his smile when he listened to her explanation about the holiday, or when he looks at her with those deep brown eyes that looks like chocolate. If he'll ask her one more time, she will say yes. But James Potter stopped asking her out since the end of 5th year. Maybe he's over her.
She finally falls asleep when she's still thinking about him, and a little smile in her lips.
On breakfast, three owls land on the table in front of Lily, holding a basket with their claws. "Wow, what's that??" Marlene asks with a smile, leaning towards Lily so she could see what's inside.
"That's probably shalech mones from my parents," Lily replies, thanking the basket closer to her and looks inside.
"Yes, that's what it is."
Everyone want to see what's inside the basket, but she doesn't let them.
"Finish breakfast, I'll show you at the party." She says.
After they're done eating, they go back to the common room. The Griffindor tower is empty, which means they have privacy until lunch.
The girls go to their room and the boys to theirs, so they could change to their costumes.
When they see each other, they Bursting with laughter. James is wearing Mary's hot-pink Minnie dress and high heels. Lily is surprised to see that he's very stable in these shoes.
"I think I need some makeup" James says with a smile full of joy.
"Oh you definitely need some makeup." Mary replies, still giggling. She wears Peter's clothes and looks pretty comfy. She takes James' hand and drags him to the girls' dorm fir some touchups. In the meantime, the other starts to set up one of tables with drinks and snacks.
"Hereeee comesss the brideeee~" James sings while he walks down the stairs, Mary is right behind him, her curly hair is bouncing every time her head moves slightly.
Lily puts her hands on his shoulders so she could observe Mary's work on James' face.
"Well?? What do you think, Evans?" He asks her, his blood rising up to his brown cheeks.
Lily doesn't notice the blush on his cheeks, but can feel that her own face burning.
She takes a step back and laughed a little, "It looks great."
"Well, tell us what's in the basket now!" Peter says, "yeah! I've been waiting!" Sirius agrees. Sirius' dressed up as Marlene. Flared jeans with a top that has a deep decolletage.
"Alright alright!" Lily says, taking the basket from the corner of the common room and sits down on the floor. Everyone gather with her.
"It's a basket with snacks and candies" she says taking all the things out.
"But my mum also baked the traditional food of this holiday" she continues, and lastly taking out of the basket a can box.
She opens it, and instead there are some kind of cookies. Thirty of them.
"Would you look at that, those are some really weird cookies." Marlene says, impressed. Mary hits Marlene in the back of her head. "What??" She asks and looks at Mary, offended. "It's disrespectful!" Mary replies.
Lily laughs.
"Don't worry Im not offended by that, they do look weird."
"I think they look delicious." Sirius says, "what is it called?"
"It's called Hamantaschen," Lily tells them, "taste it! It's great."
Each one one of the take a single Hamantaschen and takes a bite. "That's really good!" Mary says, covering her mouth with her hand while taking.
"I agree." Remus says with a smile, Lily smiles back at him.
"Now get up! All of you! Let's partyyy!!!" James says, full of adrenaline like always. Peter gets up and put some music, then the party actually starts. They dance, drink, eat. Remus with James' Quidditch uniform, Peter with Lily's green summer dress, Marlene will Remus' granpa sweater.
It's so fun and haert warming, Lily is so happy that she found her people. People how would do everything to make her happy.
After a while the music is more quiet and romantic. Lily gets up from the church she was resting on and walks towards James until she stands in front of him. She bow a little and offers her hand.
"Ma'am," she says with a noble tone, "would you like to join me for dance?"
James looks a little surprised, but plays along.
He takes her hand and get up, and they start dancing around the common room like it's a ball at some important royals family.
At first they're laughing and giggling, half-drunk, but after a couple of moments it's stops.
Now they're looking into each other's eyes, and Lily can feel her heart beating like crazy.
"You read really beautiful last night," James says quality, her voice cracks a little because of the silence.
"That's you," Lily smiles, and he smiles back at her.
Another moment passed with silence until Lily decides to do it. She kiss his lips for on second and the pulls back, a bit nervous.
James looks so surprised that he just stares at her for a second, and Lily is sure she made a mistake by kissing him.
"I'm sorry-" she says, but then he smiles.
"Yesssss!!! Wowhooo!!" He yell, joyfully. Lily starts laughing, confused and a little embarrassed.
"Lily kissed me! She likes me!" He say, his eyes are shining.
He takes a deep breath to calm down and looks at her, still smiling from ear to ear.
He holds her face gently and kisses her again.
James is still smiling after they pull out from the kiss.
"Happy Purim, Lily."