The Party Part 3
Mary was going to kill James. Mary had been minding her own business watching Lily dance with James when suddenly James had to make her dance with Lily.
It wasn’t that she wouldn’t dance with Lily. The fact was that Lily was a great dancer. Mary had done ballet since she was young-stopping lessons once she had started Hogwarts but she didn’t dance like Lily did. Lily danced like no one was looking. She danced with hip movements and amazing core strength in a way that made everyone stop what they were doing to look at her. It made Mary want to kiss her, but she couldn’t. Lily danced closer to Mary, who had stopped dancing.
“Mary”, she said, “Why’d you stop dancing? I want to dance with you”.
Mary felt her heart beating fast and loud. She hoped Lily couldn’t hear it. Shit. Lily was looking at her waiting for an answer. She slowly started moving along to the music, “ No reason, just zoned out, don’t worry”. Lily smiled, it made her whole face brighter and her eyes shimmered.
Lily joined Mary, staring into her eyes and swaying to either side. Shit. Mary was done for. She glanced behind Lily and she saw a girl staring at her—Lily’s girl.
Lily had seen this girl at Hogsmeade and instantly became obsessed with her. She stared at her subtly in the hallway and started wearing crystal jewelry like the girl. Her name was Pandora and she was their year in Ravenclaw. Mary hated her. More accurately she hated how Lily didn’t hate her. They had Potions with the Ravenclaws. While normally Lily would be hyper-focused on helping Mary and making sure Mary didn't mess up their potion, now she stared at the girl's long hair swaying down the chair at the table in front of them. Mary had almost ruined their last potion because Lily was looking at Pandora instead of helping Mary.
Mary hated her, but she made Lily happy. Lily had gotten ready for this party keeping Pandora in mind and would be sad if she didn’t get to talk to her. Mary didn’t want Lily to be disappointed. She forced the smile on her face to grow before talking into Lily’s ear, “ That Ravenclaw girl is looking at you”. Lily’s face lit up and she stole a glance behind to look for Pandora. She looked back again at Mary with a shimmer in her emerald eyes. Mary smiled and tried to keep the pain she felt out of her expression, “ Go talk to her. I’ll wait, don’t worry”. Lily smiled and threw her arms around Mary,” Thank you!”
Mary hugged her back and smelled Lily’s perfume, nutmeg, and vanilla. Lily darted off and Mary watched as she spoke to Pandora who instantly smiled. She chugged the rest of her drink and let out a cough. Stealing one last glance she saw Lily was dancing with Pandora like she had just been dancing with Mary. She pivoted around and walked over to the drink table.
As she was refilling her drink somebody's shoulder bumped into hers. She glanced up and a girl nodded at her, “Oh, sorry.” Mary nodded back, “ It’s fine, don't worry.” She continued pouring the drink in. When she reached for her mixer, her arm bumped the girls again. The girl laughed, “Guess we have the same taste in drinks”. Mary laughed a little back “ Guess so”. When she was about to reach for a lime the girl handed one to her.
“Thank you”.
“No problem. What’s your name?”
Mary looked the girl up and down for the first time. She was tall and had a slim, athletic build. She had long, straight, dark hair and deep brown eyes. Mary thought she might have seen her before at a Quidditch game.
“I’m Mary”
“Nice to meet you, Mary, I’m Emmeline. I hope this isn’t too forward but you’re gorgeous”.
Mary smiled, “Thank you, so are you.”
Emmeline grinned, “Do you want to go talk over there”. She motioned over to a corner not too far away from them. Mary looked back at the dance floor and saw Lily and Pandora still dancing together. She turned back to Emmeline, “Sure”.
They both walked over to the corner and Emmeline turned to face Mary with her back against the wall, Mary mimicked her. Emmeline looked like she was grappling with her thoughts for a moment before speaking, “ I need to let you know that I’m not looking for anything romantic. I’m kind of hung up on my best friend and she’s dancing with another girl right now so I need to get my mind off of her.”
Mary let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank God, me too.”
Emmeline let out a sudden laugh, “What your best friend who you’re madly in love with is dancing with another girl”. Mary groaned, “Yes and I helped set them up”.
Emmeline burst out laughing and leaned her head back against the wall, “No Way. You might have it worse than me. Why would you do that?”
Mary laughed with her, “ I don’t know. She’d just been wanting to dance with this girl and I didn’t want her to be disappointed when we got back to the dorm.” She took a sip of her drink and instantly frowned, she had added a bit too much alcohol. She shrugged and took another sip.
Emmeline recovered from her fit of laughter and looked at Mary thoughtfully while sipping her drink, “ You’re a Gryffindor right?” Mary nodded, “Yeah, 6th year. Don’t ask me if I know what house you’re in because I have no idea”. Emmeline giggled, “That's ok. I’m Ravenclaw. 6th-year like you. I actually play on the team”. Mary’s eyes widened and she pointed an accusatory finger at Emmeline, “That’s where I know you from! Emmeline Vanace, 6th-year Ravenclaw keeper. You just played against some of my friends last game”. Emmeline nodded, “Yeah McKinnon gave us a run for our money with that stunt she pulled with Potter and Jordans.” Mary groaned, “No more of that please, I had to hear about it the entire party and the next few days. Marlene just stopped talking about it”. Emmeline leaned back fully against the wall again and looked at Mary with the same courier expression she had earlier. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re searching my soul or something”.
Emmeline smiled lightly, “Not searching your soul, just wondering”. Mary sighed, “Wondering what?”
“If you would date me”.
Mary thought her eyes might burst out of her skull, “Look Emmeline, you’re great but I just met you- and I’m still hung up on my friend and-” Emmeline cut her off, “Not actually. My friends are just jerks and the ones who know I like my best friend have been telling me to date someone else. Rather intensely actually. They think if I date someone else I’ll stop liking her instantly. So I was thinking and I thought- if I fake date someone and then me and them break up, I’ll have a reason to act sad. I thought doing it to someone who actually liked me would be shitty but then you came along and-” Mary finished her sentence, “And I’m in the same boat. That makes sense.” Mary thought it over in her head while Emmeline looked at her anxiously. It might help her get over Lily if she had someone to have fun with; and it wouldn’t be real.
“Okay”, she heard herself saying. Emmeline breathed out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank God, you made me nervous girl”. Mary smiled, “We should probably talk some more about this- like when do we announce it? Is it just for our friends? Do we tell any friends? Anything either of us don’t want to do?” Emmeline smiled but it was calmer than before,” Tomorrow at breakfast, I’ll go up to you so don’t worry your pretty head about it. You can tell a friend but I’m not going to seeing as they’re the ones I want to fool. I don’t really care who knows so that’s up to you. I’m chill with pretty much anything I think”. Mary nodded slowly, “Ok, same, I’m cool with anything. Tomorrow sounds good. I’m going to have to tell one of my friends because I talked to him about Lily tonight but otherwise I won’t tell anyone”. Emmeline’s eyes widened, “Wait like Lily Evans?” Mary nodded slowly, “Yeah why?” Emmeline laughed, “Oh my god this is too good”. Mary looked at her, confused, “Why?” Emmeline looked at her, “Mary, I’m in love with Pandora who has a crush on Lily”. Realization swept over Mary like a wave, “Pandora who Lily has a crush on”. They both looked at each other before bursting out laughing. Emmeline amidst the laughter choked out, “I’m fake dating my best friend/crush’s crushes best friend”. Mary wiped tears away from her eyes, “So am I”.
They kept laughing until Emmeline looked to the side and straightened up, “Shit Lily’s looking this way, I think she’s about to walk over”. Mary straightened up, “Okay shit, hug me and then walk away and find Pandora- if Lily’s alone, Pandora probably is too”. Emmeline nodded and quickly hugged Mary- then walked away in search of Pandora, whispering, “See you at breakfast”. As Emmeline left Mary’s sight, Lily walked over to her with a big smile, “Mary she’s gorgeous”. Mary tried to keep the smile on her face even as it faded, “Ok, let’s get you back to the dorm”. Lily sighed and put her arm around Mary who started walking back to their dorm with Lily. As Lily droned on about Pandora's eyes Mary got lost in her mind thinking about what she had just agreed to with Emmeline.