Typical Evenings
Dear Mary,
There’s something wildly monotonous about life. Is monotonous an insane word to use? It’s the type of word that Petunia has to pretend to not understand so that poor Vernon Dursley doesn’t feel bad about himself. Basically what I mean is that life is always repeating itself. Isn’t that weird? Here at home it’s always the same day, over and over. Get up, do chores, read, go for a walk, do chores, make dinner, talk with parents, go to sleep, repeat.
I kind of like it, in some ways. I like the idea that life is just finding who to love monotony with.
(P.S. You are most certainly one of those people.)
(P.P.S. I’ll be bored with you any day of the week.)
Stuck in your cycle,
Lily Evans
---
Dear Lily,
I do know what you mean, as I always find some bizarre way of doing. Monotonous is certainly a crazy word, but it kind of sounds like exactly what it’s describing. Like, the letters in the word repeat all over and over again, just like what you say happens with life. And it’s true, I guess. No matter where you live. Get up, feed the girls, drop them off, watch television, find food, pick up the girls, feed them again, go out, get pissed, go to sleep.
You’re even more right about the liking, though. You always are.
(P.S. You too, obviously.)
(P.P.S. I’ll be bored with you everyday of the week!)
Walking in your revolving door,
Mary Macdonald
Chapter 25
Upon returning to Hogwarts, there was always a ridiculous amount of things to attend to. For example, the very moment they stepped back into McGonagall’s classroom she saddled them with just about an eternity’s worth of homework and announced a test the following Friday, to which no one had a very good reaction.
Flitwick, likewise, had the sixths year breaking their wands over some very complicated animation charms and old Slughorn had been lecturing for each of the class periods since they got back from break.
It left Mary too busy to do anything but study and be next to Lily, leaving them in a very nice position.
One particular evening, the girls and boys were up late in the common room. Peter badly needed help with one of McGonagall’s more difficult writing assignments and the others were easily enlisted. Only James was nowhere to be found, off on some unexplainable Quidditch Captain duty that none of them, not even loving Lily, dared question for fear of having to hear the answer.
Mary sat cross legged on the crimson carpet with Lily’s head in her lap, gently brading away pieces of fiery hair. She had to fight to keep her face relaxed. It wanted to move into a wide smile, her eyes betraying something so deep it hurt like a stab wound. Instead, she looked down calmly and wove strands together. Right over middle, left over right, right over middle, left over right. She hadn’t realized there was something reverent about the action until she’d performed it on Lily.
Marlene and Sirius argued only a couple steps away, both of them standing to point fingers. The two of them tended to get very heated over school work, as they each had an insistence on always being right. It was Remus who usually solved it, because it was in fact he who was always correct.
Currently, he sat on the cushy couch to Mary’s left, bent over a tricky section of their Transfiguration text with Peter at his side. They poured over the book with rapt concentration, so unaware of the argument right next to them.
She had to laugh a little, “Bet’s on how long it takes either of them to realize that they’re being entirely unhelpful?”
“Oh, I’ll bet you that they never even realize it,” Lily replied, green eyes flashing mischievously. She pointed at Sirius and Marlene. “See, your lad is eventually going to trounce Marlene in this battle of wills and he is eventually going to triumphantly turn to Remus and explain the concept that Remus has in fact been explaining to Peter this entire time and Remus will probably smile and tell him well done and then have a good laugh at it with Peter and then Marlene and Sirius will return to arguing, though with slightly more good nature.”
She talked quickly and moved her hands in the air to describe each development. Mary was taken, a wide smile spreading across her face and small giggles escaping her mouth. For a moment, she even nearly forgot her braiding.
“You seem to have a pretty good handle on things,” Mary joked quickly in an attempt to cover up her rather obvious staring.
“I’ve had practice picturing it, you know. It gets lonely back home, so I sort of have nothing to but imagine what you lot are up to.”
“You imagine us?” she murmured without thinking as if to ask, All of us?
“Some more than most,” Lily admitted. Mary did not kiss her, but thought about it greatly.
“Tell me a story about Killarney, won’t you?”
“Oh, you don’t wanna hear about that.” Lily shook her head sheepishly, blushing a very pleasant shade of pink.
“Well I figure you’ve spent enough time imagining all of us! Why don’t I imagine you in your natural habitat, eh?” Mary poked Lily’s side with a gentle tease.
“My natural habitat isn’t as interesting as here, Mary,” she immediately implored back.
“Ohh, come off it! You know I think you make anywhere interesting.”
“You’ve gone mad.”
“Of course I have.” They both smiled mischievously, content with their own secret.
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” Lily accepted, throwing her hands high into the air and barely brushing against one of Mary’s dark curls. “But I swear it won’t be interesting.”
“We’ll see, dear, we’ll see.”
Lily began her story happily, a long tirade. “My father keeps sheep on the hill above our house, and it's an absolute obsession of his at this point. Ma got him a herder’s staff and everything for Christmas, we were laughing for hours!”
The tale was beautiful and funny, perfectly Lily in every way. She was charmed by the image of the Irish countryside and her perfect family. The whole time she kept thinking: What did I do to deserve this girl? What is possibly so beautiful about me?
Whatever Julien had cleared up about her psyche, he had not managed to clear up that mystery. She knew what was wrong with herself well enough, but not with Lily.
Apparently Dr. Evans had chased one of his run away ewes all the way down to the beach below her house, through drifts of snow and over dirt roads and trampling down several fields of crops. Lily had just about died at the ending, crescendoing into epic laughter when she finally told the big part about her dad stumbling back into the house, sheep in hand.
Mary laughed so hard even Marlene and Sirius took momentary notice before diving back into their arguments. She quieted herself quickly, making Lily giggle in return at her scandalized face.
“Sly of wit and beautiful of countenance,” Mary giggled slightly, finishing her last braid.
“That’s what all the fellas call me, very sly!”
They talked like they were really together, really dating, really going steady.
“I hope I get to see Killarney someday, you know?” she murmured as Lily sat up, flipping her newly done braids over one shoulder. She turned over her shoulder, head twisting slightly as a smile played gently.
“You will, Mary. I feel it in my knees,” she joked.
“Like a sailor with a big storm,” Mary laughed back.
“No, no, no, I’m not saying that!” Lily giggled again, nudging her and smiling. “All I mean is that I want you to come, so I know you will someday.”
“Come off it,” she shook her head sheepishly.
“I mean it,” Lily grabbed her hand, and they both stared at the touch, electric in the flickering fire. They both opened their mouths in light shock at the publicity of it all. No one was noticing anyway, far too engrossed in their own lives, but it was everything to them.
In a low whisper, Lily spoke again, “Why don’t you come this summer?”
“With you?” Mary murmured, taken aback.
“To home,” she gripped Mary’s knee, looking at the ground. “I want you there. I want to have our perfect summer.”
She looked around the room, daring someone to say something to them. She wondered how they didn’t notice what was happening between them. It felt like they were shouting over the noise, the crackle of the fire and the incessant chatter of their peers. Mary met Lily’s eyes, crystal clear.
“I would love to,” she said, stopping just short of cradling Lily’s face.
They reached some sort of understanding right there, in the spaces between. Somewhere inside of it all, they would have each other.
“After all, who else will braid your hair when it gets hot if I’m not there?” she giggled lightly and Lily fell back into her lap, smiling wide.
“Petunia certainly won’t.”
“Oh God, don’t remind me! I’ll be face to face with my biggest fear,” she feigned terror, wrapping her arms around Lily’s face like she was her lifeline.
“She won’t be that bad, I promise it,” Lily tutted.
“Has she even met a girl from London? Has she ever even left Ireland?”
“Da took her to Belfast once, which to be fair, was quite a bit of culture shock,” Lily shook her head and counted on her fingers all the times Petunia had ever done something exciting. “Other than that, she’s a wee bit tapped out.”
“Well then I’ll just have to show her, eh?”
“Perfect,” they both agreed, and sat back to watch as their friends bickered lovingly.
Mary finally felt content again, happy like she hadn’t been since Julien clicked in as a real friend. The two of them retired to the dorms, leaving the others to enjoy their fighting. They settled next to each other in Lily’s bed, both piled on top of thick comforters and heavy pillows and each other, too. Lily read a biography about Margaretta Ironbark, an Irish witch who slept for six hundred years, while Mary wrote a letter back one, her first of many.
Their elbows bumped, exchanging heat, and she wrote,
Dear Julien,
How are things back home? I’d ask you about the triplets but I’m sure they’re doing terrific and are full of energy and insanity, as they always are, so I’ve decided to ask you about yourself. I’m afraid I didn’t do that enough the last time we saw each other in the city. How are your brother and his girlfriend? How’s life, and the club? How’s our bouncer mate? So many questions to ask and so little time before I’m back to my private school life.
Know that I’m missing you loads, and thinking about the city all the time,
In the middle of her writing, she felt a nudge to her side. Lily was looking at her expectantly, watching every twitch of her hand.
“Are you writing to him?” she asked quietly, her book closed in her lap.
“Him?”
“Your fella. The one from London. The one who-”
“Yeah, him.” Mary saved them both the embarrassment of having to talk about it. “Julien.”
“Julien, yes.” His name tumbled around uncomfortably in her mouth, but she tried to bite it back. Mary could tell how hard she was fighting to make some part of this feel right, and she was thankful for it. They needed to keep the lads about, they both knew this. “What are you saying to him?”
“I’m asking him about the city, and my sisters,” she told her deftly, smiling with some worry.
“That’s nice,” Lily smiled awkwardly right back at her. She turned more sharply towards Mary, suddenly a little bit stricken. “You know, I should meet this lad sometime.”
“You should what?” Mary’s eyebrows creased together, a puzzled expression on her face. She wasn’t angry in the slightest, nor upset, but confused just the same.
“You’re coming to my place, meeting my family, my sister. I should meet this lad.” She said determinately.
“Well I haven’t exactly booked the ticket yet,” she put her quill down with a little laugh.
“Oh come off it, you might as well have! I must meet him!” Lily was losing it in a way that Mary had not yet seen.
“Lily, dear, I don’t-”
“You know James,” she finally huffed dramatically. “If you know him I get to know this lad.”
“And you know Sirius, isn’t that enough?” Mary countered.
“Sirius is different, Mary.” They held hands again, locking eyes. “Sirius isn’t the one. The one who- who-”
“I know.” Mary stopped her. She ran her thumb along the pale expanse of her palm, soft and warm and so real. Both of their breaths finally came evenly again and they came down from it all.
“I understand, I understand,” she murmured soothingly, pressing her forehead to Lily’s. “You will meet him, I swear to God, to Merlin if that’s what you need,” she assured.
Lily crushed forward and kissed her hard and fast. Of course that made everything alright, of course they both smiled like nothing had happened after. Mary returned to her letter and Lily returned to her book.
“And remember Mary, letters are ours,” Lily murmured idly as she flipped a page.
“Forever,” Mary agreed and scribbled with a knowing smile on her face.
Know that I’m missing you loads, and thinking of the city all the time. I hope you’re keeping well and busy and safe. Oh, and by the way! Lily Evans says one big hello.
Your friend,
Mary Macdonald
After a while, they put their things to the side and held each other tight, intertwined in that bed. They whispered together, murmuring and mumbling until it drifted them both off to sleep. They never fell asleep together before Marlene was back. They never could possibly dream of being that stupid, but there they were, passed out in a damning position.
Two hours later, Mary woke to the sound of the door resting to a silent shut, or near silent. She was familiar with the half-noise from the now months of sneaking around, trying to be quiet. Remembering herself and who she was next to, she shot up straight in bed, ready to act like a sleepwalker or a woman possessed at the slightest notice.
Through the willowy curtains, she saw Marlene’s figure strike a dark silhouette and her eyebrows raised high. It was nearly midnight, hours past the weekday curfew.
Marlene was too off-kilter to notice that Mary was absent from her bed. She flopped onto her own and seemed to pass out almost immediately, spent and done from whatever had been going on. Had she been up with Sirius for this long? Mary always assumed that her boyfriend probably often fancied other girls, and she honestly didn’t care whether he did or did not stay with her or went out with them, but she never would’ve guessed Marlene.
At the sight of Marlene’s extremely limp figure, she knew it was safe to go back to sleep. Mary slumped back against the heat of Lily’s body, wrapping herself around her best friend and following the sound of her breathing until the question finally left her mind.
What was Marlene doing?
Fitfully, Mary fell into a deep sleep.