Day 20- cinnamon- Marylily
Mary has never been late to a class she has with Lily, in their 5 years at Hogwarts they have been practically joined at the hip, which means that Lily has dragged her to class at least 3 minutes early every single lesson. Mary hadn’t even noticed how dependent she’d become on this.
That was until this term, Lily was preoccupied with her stupid boyfriend and had no time for Mary or their friends anymore. It was stupid that she was upset about it, really what did she expect? That she and Lily would just live together their whole lives and never get partners?
…..Kind of. It wasn’t something she’d really thought about, she’d dated a few people and had always made time for Lily so she had at least expected her to do the same, but alas, Lily had no time for her and all Mary could do is mourn the loss of the only person she ever needed.
Not that she would ever admit it, but Mary had been feeling very lonely. It was ridiculous, she had other friends, Marlene was around all the time and brought her girlfriend over a lot, the Gryffindor boys still had time for her, all of the clubs she was in and the friends she made in her elective classes. It wasn’t like she was short on people to talk to, it was just that, well, Lily was the one she wanted to talk to the most.
She knows that it wouldn’t be fair to expect Lily to set aside all of her time for Mary, but that doesn’t make it hurt less. She would never complain or voice this irrational thought process to Lily but it was clear to everyone that something was up. Mary had been moping around the school for weeks now, showing up to meals late, drifting from class to class and overall not being present in anything.
This leads to today, where Mary is running down the corridors, already 10 minutes late to potions. It had completely slipped her mind that today was Monday, she had been lying in her bed with a pillow pulled over her face, desperately trying to fall back asleep when the bell had rung out for first lesson, pulling her out of her thoughts and splashing her into the cold water of reality.
She tumbles through the door, her bag falling off of her shoulder and her hair is probably a mess, she isn’t sure if her jumper's even on the right way and her tie seems to have been dropped on her journey. It seems like the entire class turns to her as she walks to her spot next to Lily, and she can feel the embarrassment burning her insides.
Mary pulls out her notebook and pencil case while blood rushes in her ears and she can’t quite tell what the lesson's about. When she looks back at the table, Lily slides over a napkin with a muffin in it, taken from breakfast and wrapped with care.
“I thought you’d just missed breakfast,” Lily whispers, not taking her eyes off of Slughorn.
“Forgot what day it was, sorry,” Mary murmurs sheepishly, taking the muffin. Lily just nods, but her brow furrows in concern. Mary tries to distract her before that worry blows up too much, she doesn’t want to feel like a burden.
“Is this cinnamon? It smells really strongly of cinnamon in here.” Mary asks, peeling the wrapper back and breaking off a piece. Lily responds as she pops it into her mouth and immediately panics at the realisation.
“No, it’s lemon,” Lily’s face goes red, still facing the board Slughorn is standing in front of, a list of ingredients and the method blocked by his frame. He moves to unlock the cupboard and Mary freezes. Written in bold letters, the white contrasting against the pure black of the chalkboard is today's lesson. Amortentia.
At the front of the classroom is a bubbling cauldron of the potion, glimmering under the light like it’s taunting Mary. The muffin isn’t cinnamon, the lipgloss of the girl she loves is though. The girl who is currently sat directly next to her, trying to keep her face turned away from Mary.
Their legs are touching under the table and Mary feels awful, she must be making Lily so uncomfortable. She has a boyfriend for Morgana’s sake.
Mary pulls her leg away, trying to make herself as small as possible at their shared table, fighting the urge to run right back out of the classroom, off-campus and all the way back home to cry into her mother's arms.
She feels tears spring to her eyes, feeling so stupid for even saying that, she should’ve just eaten the damn muffin and figured it out instead of even saying anything. Lily reaches for one of Mary’s hands, and she feels the air re-enter her lungs.