Chapter 12
Lily:
Lily Evans was unremarkably happy. For once, every aspect of her life at school was perfect. Everything was great with her friends, and James had stopped constantly asking her out or flirting with her. She had top grades in most of her classes and had mostly been able to keep up with the coursework. She was a prefect along with Remus.
Most important of all, she had a romance brewing.
She liked Pandora, and she was pretty sure Pandora liked her a decent amount too. They had got to dancing at the party last night, and Lily had just been able to look into Pandora’s eyes. She had beautiful eyes—crystal blue—a shade that might not have captivated Lily as much as someone else, but for Pandora it was perfect. With her pale skin, white blonde hair, and gorgeous blue eyes, she looked like a spirit of some sort, most especially when she wore blue like she had last night.
Her life at home was a different story. Her sister hated her. Petunia had never said it, but the contempt in her eyes that appeared whenever she looked at Lily or Lily spoke said otherwise. Lily’s mom insisted that Petunia didn’t hate her, as did her dad, but Lily was smart enough to know that they were lying to try and protect her feelings. She loved her parents, but they didn’t understand her life at school as much as they did for Petunia. They could relate to Petunia’s stories of life; after all, they had experienced similar things, and the same couldn’t be said for Lily’s life. She tried not to think about going back home while she was at Hogwarts so that she could savor every moment of being there, but she thought about her home too much.
She was sitting in the library with Pandora and was supposed to be reading a book about Transfiguration, but she wasn’t doing much reading as she looked at Pandora and drifted off into thought. Pandora was sitting across from Lily, reading some sort of book on Divination. Lily believed that Divination didn’t work, but Pandora believed the opposite, that it was accurate and helpful, and who was she to argue?
Pandora spoke calmly as she looked up from the book, “Do I have something on my face?”
Lily shook her head, bemused. “No. Why?”
"Oh," Pandora said, “You just kept looking over here; I assumed there was something on my face.” Lily felt her cheeks heat up. “Pandora, I was looking at you because you’re beautiful.” A wave of light pink spread across Pandora’s face. “Really?”
Lily nodded. “Of course.” Pandora tilted her head to look at Lily. “You’re quite beautiful as well.” They both looked at each other and Lily found herself smiling. Pandora spoke first, “Would you like to go walk around the grounds with me?” Lily looked out the window where the rain was coming down before looking back at Pandora, “It’s raining”. Pandora smiled, “Is that a no?” Lily shook her head, “No, I just need to drop off my bags and grab a coat first.” Pandora nodded, “Meet at the doors to the castle?” Lily nodded in response.
They both quickly packed up before leaving the library and splitting up to walk to their respective dorms. Once Lily had reached the tower, she uttered the password before running up to her dorm. As she opened her dorm door she saw Marlene sitting on the bed, doing some sort of work with papers spread all around her. Lily quickly threw her bag onto her bed, then grabbed her coat and an umbrella from their coat holder. She seized her rain boots from the floor and almost fell due to the speed she put them on. She shouted a quick goodbye to Marlene before darting down the stairs, almost tripping over in her haste. She moved past Mary braiding Sirius’s hair and opened the portrait to leave. Lily slowed down to a fast walk and before she knew it she was at the doors to the castle. Pandora stood there, with a short black jacket on and a smile. Lily slowed to a walk as she got closer to Pandora and stopped right in front of her.
Pandora wrapped her arm around Lily’s and looked up at her, “Shall we?” Lily nodded, her brain nearly short-circuiting from feeling their arms against each other before remembering her umbrella. She stepped out the doors and opened up the umbrella before they started to walk. Lily could hear the rain pattering down on the umbrella above them and was thankful that she had remembered to bring it.
They walked in comfortable silence for a good amount of time until they started to reach the edge of the lake where Pandora let out a gasp and darted out from underneath the umbrella, letting go of Lily’s arm in the process.
“Wait- Pandora-”
Pandora was already too far away to hear her so Lily started walking towards her- careful not to trip on the wet grass. Pandora was kneeling by a patch of flowers, not caring about her clothes getting wet. Lily approached her and stood to her side, holding the umbrella over Pandora to ensure she wouldn’t get soaked any more than she already was by the rain.
“Lily look at the flowers.”
Lily looked down at the flowers for the first time and let out a gasp, similar to the one Pandora had uttered minutes before. There was a gorgeous patch of flowers in front of her. There were forget-me-nots, crocuses, hyacinths, and bluebells, as well as tons that she couldn’t name. Pandora pulled her down, and Lily went easily, not caring about her pants getting wet and dropping the umbrella. Pandora was motioning to a small flower that looked wilted.
“I think the rain’s too heavy for it. It’s a delicate flower”. Pandora was holding her hands above it to create a barrier against the rain but rain still hit the poor flower. Lily wracked her brain over what she could do, drawing blanks until she let out a gasp. She grabbed the umbrella from next to her.
Pandora looked at her confused. Lily simply said, “Hold this”. She handed the umbrella to Pandora who held it with one hand as the other covered the flower. She pulled her wand out of her pocket and muttered a spell, “Reducio”. The umbrella shrunk by half but she needed it to be smaller so she uttered the spell again, this time causing the umbrella to shrink almost to the size a doll would carry. Lily started to dig a tiny hole in the dirt next to the flower, then motioned for Pandora to stick the umbrella in said hole, which she did. They both patted the ground around the umbrella to secure it in the ground and Pandora placed a few rocks by the base of it. They both leaned back and looked as the rain came down in sheets and the flower remained where it was, its delicate leaves no longer hurt by the rain.
Lily turned to look at Pandora who was looking at her with a sense of wonder. Lily suddenly felt self-conscious, “If that doesn’t work we can do something else or-” Pandora’s hands came up to rest on Lily’s face and Lily felt her breath catch in her throat and she couldn’t remember what she had been about to say and before she could even get out another word, Pandora was kissing her.
Lily could stay as she was forever. Pandora kissed her gently like a warm summer breeze blowing over you when you were sitting outside. She was like a feather floating in the wind, like seafoam floating up to the shore, like the morning mist when you had just woken up. She was all this and somehow had a brightness and warmth to her, like the sun or a gentle fire. Lily loved it. As fast as it had started it was over. Pandora pulled back and they both smiled at each other.
“I like you, Lily. Not in a way where I want to be your friend, like I want to kiss you all the time. I want to hold your hand in the halls and go on dates. If you don’t want that it’s fine-” This time it was Lily who cut Pandora off with a kiss, shorter than their last but just as wonderful. She pulled away, “Pandora Rosier you would have to be a fool to think I don’t like you back. I want all that too, and if you’ll have me, I want to be your girlfriend”. Pandora’s face lit up and she pulled Lily up from where they had been sitting. She pulled Lily over to a more grassy area where they wouldn’t trample any flowers.
Pandora stepped back from Lily and spun, flecks of rain falling all around her.
“Ask me again”, Pandora shouted. It took Lily a moment to understand her words but finally, she took a step closer to Pandora, finding her voice.
“Pandora Rosier”, she grabbed one of Pandora’s hands and spun her around, “Can I-“, she took a step closer to Pandora, “Be your-“, another step, “Girlfriend”. Pandora kissed her, and when she pulled away she still held Lily’s face in her hands. Pandora whispered, “If I can be yours”. Lily had to kiss her again for that.
They stayed out in the rain dancing, and kissing until Lily’s fingers were nearly pruned. Then they finally went back inside, walking over to the Gryffindor tower. They paused in front of the portrait. Pandora linked both of her hands with Lily’s. Lily didn’t want her to leave so she spoke, not even thinking, “Will you come inside with me?” Pandora nodded and with that, they made their way into the common room.
All of Lily’s friends were draped over the couches talking and laughing. They paused when Lily came in and they saw who she was with.
Sirius grinned and called out to Lily, “Oi, Evans”. She looked at him, “Yeah?”. Sirius motioned towards Pandora, “This who you’re leaving us for?” She nodded, “Yeah pretty much”. He laughed as Lily kept walking, pulling Pandora behind her.
They reached Lily’s dorm after a few minutes and Lily started rummaging in her drawers for something she could wear, then looking for something Pandora could wear, finally pulling out an oversized sweater and some sweatpants for Pandora and similar clothes for herself. She turned to face Pandora, “Sorry this is all I have, most of my stuff is dirty right now.” Pandora smiled, “This is perfect, where should I change?” Lily pointed to the bathroom, “There, I’ll just change here”. Pandora nodded and walked over to the bathroom.
They both quickly changed into their clothes and made their way back down. Partially down the staircase, Lily turned to Pandora, “My friends are kind of a lot. Can I tell them we’re dating?.” Pandora smiled, “So are mine. You could scream to the whole castle that I’m your girlfriend and I’d still be happy”, She paused, “Although maybe don’t do that”. Lily nodded and with a little laugh said, “Noted”.They continued to walk again with their hands intertwined.
Lily and Pandora reached Lily’s friends and sat down, choosing to sit on an empty couch that was more like an oversized chair. Lily cleared her throat and her friends felt silent. She looked at Pandora and then back at her friends, “This is Pandora, she’s my girlfriend. Pandora, these are my friends, I’ll let them introduce themselves.” Lily’s friends immediately started saying all their names, Pandora nodded at each one of them.
Conversation started up again soon after and after an hour Lily had started dozing off, laying on Pandora’s lap as her fingers carded through Lily’s hair.
Yes, Lily Evans was happy.