Chapter Seven
Mary and Marlene gave her no choice. The two of them paid Sirius to alter a spell for flower acceleration and long story short for three days every time she walked outside a trail of lilies grew behind her. According to Marlene, as soon as they mentioned that the spell was for Lily, he didn’t ask questions; Sirius loved a good name pun. That was how Lily found herself walking into Hogsmeade with a multicolored bouquet of Lilies for a girl named after Pandas.
She saw her standing in front of the fountain, throwing a sickle into it, seeming to be aiming for the highest level. She was wearing a long green dress with big billowing sleeves. Her hair was tied up haphazardly by her wand and strands of it were falling all around her face, framing it in a silky web of chaos. When Lily saw Pandora, her breath hitched.
For a moment, Lily was overcome by a wave of nerves telling her to drop the flowers and sprint back to the castle. Before she had the opportunity to do that however, Pandora’s bluebell eyes found hers. There was no chance of Lily leaving after that.
Pandora stared at her curiously as Lily walked up to her with a sheepish grin. “I brought you flowers,” she said, as if the bouquet of flowers in her hand wasn’t obvious enough.
“Are they Lilies?” Pandora inquired, looking at them quizzically.
A blush fell upon Lily’s cheeks, “Yes, they are. Is it too on the nose?”
Pandora reached out and took the flowers from Lily’s hands and burrowed her face into them to smell. “They’re quite lovely,” she said, voice muffled by the flowers, “It’s awfully cheesy but I’m fond of cheese.”
Lily wasn’t sure how much of a compliment that was but Pandora seemed pleased so she decided to take it as a win. “Did you have somewhere in mind for our date or did you fancy the two of us staring at the fountain all day? I don’t mind either but I think I’d be partial to walking around at least a bit. The gardens are so pretty every time of year.”
The word “date” made Lily’s stomach lurch. “Every time of year?”
Pandora nodded, “Yes, I’ve never understood why people say things are nice during certain times of year. It’s like saying that swimming is only nice in the summer. Ridiculous if you ask me, swimming in the bitter cold is much more refreshing.”
“I suppose you have a point,” Lily said in a daze. Pandora had started walking and Lily had followed. They were now walking down an oddly empty street in the one part of the village Lily didn’t come to often. It was mostly private businesses and houses, so she’d not had much reason to go there before.
The two of them made idle chatter as they walked and in the blink of an eye, the two of them had wandered into the garden. Pandora was right; the garden was absolutely stunning.
Lily began to look around as they walked and Pandora watched her, “Do you see what I mean?” Lily’s response was to make wide eyes at her and nod. Pandora giggled, “Well just wait until you see this,” she grabbed Lily’s hand and pulled her into a more secluded part of the garden. They walked along a dirt path and then came to a small clearing in the garden. In the middle of the clearing stood a tall, proud willow.
“Do you take Care of Magical Creatures?” Pandora asked.
“Yes,” Lily answered. “I almost dropped it this year because none of the careers I’m interested in need it for Newts but I really love the class.”
Pandora made a noise of approval, “I stop by this tree every time I come to Hogsmeade.” As she talked she walked closer to the tree and lay her hand to rest against the bark of its trunk.
“Why?” Lily inquired, eyes fixated on the girl in front of her.
Pandora smiled, still looking at the tree, “Bowtruckles like trees that are good for wand making,” she said, “and this tree is teeming with them.”
As if on cue, a small, green, plant-like figure slowly crawled down from the lowest hanging branch and onto Pandora’s hand. She carefully turned around and showed Lily the little creature crawling about. “I’m not typically one for favorites of anything but if I did have a favorite of something, I think it might be Bowtruckles.”
Lily watched as Pandora played with the small creature in her hand. After a couple of minutes she gave it something to nibble on and helped it back into the tree. “Should we go to The Three Broomsticks? I’m awfully hungry. I missed breakfast this morning, got caught up with Charms.”
The two girls began to head back into the main part of the village. “Homework?” Lily asked.
Pandora shook her head, “No, I was reading a book on the principles of spell crafting. It was written in 1863, found it in the common room.”
Lily looked at her quizzically, “You took a book that was lying around your common room?”
“Well, yes. Or at least I took it from our library. Lots of interesting books, I reckon some of them were written by students, not even published.” Pandora said, smiling brightly at her.
“Really?” Lily asked, amazed, “You’ve got to show me around your common room sometime, that’s extraordinary.”
Pandora tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Aren’t we not allowed in the common rooms of other houses? Wouldn’t want to spoil your ‘good girl’ reputation as Head Girl.”
Lily’s cheeks flushed red, “I do not have a ‘good girl’ reputation, and frankly, even if I did, seeing the Ravenclaw Library would be worth risking it.”
Pandora gave her an ever so slightly manic grin, “I completely agree. So tell me, how do you feel about experimenting with magic?”
They arrived at The Three Broomsticks relatively quickly. As usual, the place was pretty packed. Pandora spotted a table on the second floor and went to get it for the two of them while Lily waited at the bar to grab them each a butterbeer and some menus.
When she got to the table, Pandora was busy braiding a couple of flowers from the bouquet Lily had gotten her into her hair. She hummed a tune to herself as she did so that was mildly mesmerizing. She didn’t acknowledge that Lily had returned and set a menu down in front of her until after she had finished the braid she was working on, leaving half of her hair unbraided as she picked up the menu and began to flip through it.
The Three Broomsticks menu was diverse. There were dishes that Lily had never heard of before like Vervain Stew but also things that she recognized from home like Fish and Chips. Lily decided on getting a grilled cheese with tomato soup after awhile and looked up to find Pandora reading her menu upsidedown.
“Is there a reason you’re holding that the wrong way?” Lily asked.
She kept her head buried in the menu but Lily could hear the smile in Pandora’s voice, “Well I’ve already decided what I want and I thought it’d be a bit fun to see how much of the menu I could read upside down before you noticed.”
“And how far did you get?”
Pandora put the menu down then with a proud look on her face, “Almost half of the lunch menu, and I didn’t skip the brunch section.”
Lily couldn’t help herself and laughed at the sheer absurdity of it. “Guess I’ll have to be more attentive then,” she said.
“Yes, please do give me all of your attention,” Pandora leaned forward with her head in her hands which were resting on the table and gave Lily a wink.
The redhead's cheeks heated up and she covered the embarrassed smile that had made its way onto her face with her hand, tilting her head away from Pandora and averting her gaze. That earned her a bubbly giggle from the other girl. Pandora reached over and took Lily’s hand off of her face so that she was forced to look at her once more. When their eyes met, however, something in Pandora’s… shifted. There was a sort of intense unfocused seriousness about them and even after several long seconds, she didn’t drop Lily’s hand.
Then, she blinked, and it was as if something had clicked and Pandora’s eyes were focused again. She let go of Lily’s hand, fingers tracing along the inside of her palm, and then went back to braiding flowers into her hair.
The rest of lunch was fairly uneventful. They talked but all Lily could think about was having her hand in Pandora’s and how desperately she wanted it again.
They spent most of their date walking around Hogsmeade and stopping in shops as they came across them. Pandora effortlessly made Lily laugh and simultaneously calm. She was a light and she was shining on Lily, who happily basked in her warm glow.
After a few hours it was nearly time for them to head back to the castle. They began the walk and were talking about jelly bean flavors.
“I always go for the ones that taste like pears.”
“Aren’t the bogey ones practically identical?” Lily asked, mildly bewildered.
Pandora shrugged, “Yes but there’s always a risk with jelly beans anyway.”
Lily hummed, “I suppose you’re right but this just proves that muggle ones are better. Did you know most of them come in packets where all of the flavors are good?”
Pandora looked thoughtful for a moment before she said, “I think I’ve heard that before.”
“If they are the ones with bad flavors though then you always go for the blue ones,” Lily explained, “They’re either blueberry or toothpaste and neither of them is really bad.”
“Well if you know you’re going to get a good flavor then where’s the excitement of it?” Pandora asked.
Lily laughed, “It’s not supposed to be exciting, the point is that it’s candy and candy tastes good.”
Pandora shook her head disapprovingly, “I’d rather it be a surprise. It’s no fun eating something if you already know what it’ll taste like.”
Lily made a scrunched up face, “I think you and I have very different opinions on food.”
Pandora nudged her arm playfully, “Opposites attract,” she said.
Lily looked at her for a moment and said, “You’re wonderful.”
She saw a hint of pink arise in Pandora’s cheeks. “Well if I’m so wonderful then I’m sure you’d be delighted to let me take you on another date?”
“Yeah I’d,” Lily swallowed, trying to pretend like Pandora hadn’t just made her internally combust, “I’d like that.”
The two of them arrived at the school gates. There wasn’t anyone around, just a few people milling about here and there. Pandora stood slightly on her toes and quickly kissed Lily’s cheek.
“Transfiguration courtyard. The thirteenth. 6 o’clock.” And then she left.
Obviously, Lily headed straight to her dorm afterwards and immediately upon walking in was bombarded with a series of questions from her two best friends.
“What happened?”
“Did you kiss?”
“Are you going out again?”
“Do you fancy her?”
“Tell us everything.”
Lily threw her hands up in surrender with a small smile pulling at the corners of her lips, “For Merlin’s sake I just got here, can a witch have a minute to breathe.”
“So she took your breath away?” Marlene pointed a finger at Lily and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Lily groaned and Mary swatted Marlene on the arm, “Come on Marls, there are much more pressing questions than that.”
“Like…?”
“Did she like the flowers?” Mary asked, giddily.
Lily spun around excitedly, “Yes! She loved them. We were at The Three Broomsticks and she braided them into her hair and she looked so lovely I could’ve kissed her,” she squealed.
Mary and Marlene stared at her until she asked, “What?”
Marlene twirled her hair with her wand and did an exaggerated giggle, “Did you?”
“Did I what?”
Mary threw her hands into the air, “Kiss her!”
Without thinking, Lily brought a hand up to the spot of her cheek that Pandora had kissed, “Well no…”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence,” Mary prompted.
“She kissed me on the cheek,” Lily mumbled under her breath.
Mary cooed but Marlene quirked an eyebrow, “What are we, second years?” she asked.
Mary rolled her eyes, “Give her a break Marls. Just because she doesn’t go around snogging in all her free time…”
“Pot, meet kettle,” Marlene said with a shrug of her shoulders.
Mary pursed her lips and gave Marlene a pointed glare. The blonde girl ignored her and focused her attention on Lily, “You at least get a second date then?”
Lily nodded, not trusting herself to speak without screaming.
Mary quickly snapped back to Lily, “Then it looks like we’ve got ourselves some planning to do.” And plan they did.