gold rush

Classes immediately kicked into full swing, barely giving them a moment to breathe. Lily was taking a lot of classes, or at least more than almost all of her peers. But she wanted to make sure she had her options open, and she wanted to know everything she possibly could before she left school. 

Her schedule was as full as she could possibly get it. She was taking Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, DADA, Herbology, History of Magic, and Astronomy. McGonagall had tried to sway Lily into taking less classes. Most seventh years only took about four, but most seventh years already knew what they wanted to do with their future. Lily was still stressed, trying to figure it out.

Plus, with the title of Head Girl came a lot more responsibilities than she thought. For the first week of school, they didn’t really have to do anything. The professors were in charge of patrolling while the schedule was being worked out. 

It was Lily and James’ job to work out the schedule though, and Lily has sort of been avoiding him. She wishes she could say it wasn’t intentional, but it was. She just didn’t know what to say to him, especially after Peter very obviously thought they were hooking up.

But McGonagall, who is in charge of the prefects, told Lily that she needs the schedule on her desk by the end of the day.

Lily waited by the locker rooms after quidditch practice, the only place where she actually knew James would be. Everyone who walked past her said hi, and Marlene even chatted with her for a couple minutes, asking what she was doing.

“Head Girl stuff,” Lily told her. “Scheduling.”

“That sounds boring.”

Lily laughed. “It will be. Everyone has hyper specific requests for when they want to be on patrol.”

“Like what?”

“Somebody said they can only patrol once a month, which is almost impossible. Also there were so many people who refused to be on patrol with other people.”

“Like who?”

“Dorcas refuses to patrol with Hestia Jones.”

Marlene seemed to smile at the mention of her name. “Yeah. Quidditch rivalries are serious,” Marlene said.

“Don’t you two have a quidditch rivalry?” Lily asked. 

Marlene shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

“Mhm, right.”

Marlene rolled her eyes. “Oh, look. There’s Potter.”

James had just walked out of the locker room, almost walking right past them before he heard his name and turned around. The first thing Lily noticed was that his hair was wet, a sight that Lily realized she had never seen before. His t-shirt hugged his torso and seemed to be just a little bit damp.

“Evans?” he asked.

“Potter,” she said with a small nod.

“She’s here for you,” Marlene said to him, leaving Lily’s side to start walking back to the castle.

“Hey, were you at practice?” James asked, taking a couple steps closer to Lily.

“No, I just got here a couple of minutes ago.”

“What’s up?”

“We need to make the patrol schedule for the semester,” she reminded him.

James adjusted the bag hanging off his shoulder. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. When do we need to have it by?”

“Tonight,” Lily said, offering a smile as solace for the fact they were going to have to spend the next couple hours making a schedule.

“Tonight?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

“No problem, boss. Where do you wanna do it?”

“I was planning on going to the library to finish some homework. You can come by when you’re able,” Lily offered. She was planning on meeting Remus there so that they could work on their History of Magic essay. 

“Okay. I just want to change.”

“Okay.”

“See you soon.”

Lily nodded, heading off in the same direction that Marlene did. 

Remus was already waiting for her by the time Lily finally got to the library. It was on the exact opposite side of the castle that the quidditch pitch was on, which made for quite the walk. 

“You’re late.”

“I’m late,” Lily agreed, setting her bag onto the floor and slumping into the seat. “I was on the pitch.”

“You have a sudden interest in quidditch?”

“I had to find James.”

“Oh, I see,” Remus said.

“You see? What does that mean?”

“You have a sudden interest in quidditch players.”

Lily gave him a look. “You’re not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be.”

“Speaking of, how’s Sirius doing?” Lily asked.

“So, history of magic,” Remus said, changing the subject and opening his textbook.

Lily used to really enjoy History of Magic. It was interesting to find out how different spells and institutions came to be. Nowadays though it all feels repetitive. They were learning about the history of Azkaban, which is slightly interesting, but most of it is stuff that Lily has heard before.

They spent about an hour in relative silence, both of them working. They didn’t really need each other’s help to do the work, but it was always nicer to have company. Plus, they kept each other on track. Lily would always get a bit distracted when she tried to do any homework that took longer than ten minutes, and Remus would forget to take breaks at all once he got started. It made for a good balance. 

“Where was my invite?” Sirius asked

Lily looked up to see James and Sirius walking over to the table. She glanced at Remus, neither of them expecting for Sirius to show up.

“Must’ve gotten lost,” Lily said to him.

Sirius messed up her hair a little bit, spinning a chair around and sitting backwards in the seat. James took the last open one at the table. He had changed into jeans and a sweater, a very unsurprising red.

“Hi,” he said brightly. His hair had curled more than it normally did, probably because it had dried outside in the wind. It was still just as messy as it always was.

“I can’t believe you invited Prongs to study time and not me,” Sirius said, mostly talking to Remus.

“I didn’t invite him. Lily did.”

“Lily did?” Sirius asked, smiling at her suddenly. 

“We have to do the patrol schedule,” Lily said, already pulling out the many little slips of paper with everyone’s requests.

“Convenient. On a Friday night,” Sirius said, wagging his eyebrows.

“You’re sick,” Lily told him. “Sick and disgusting.”

“Besides, not like you two have any other plans on a Friday night,” Remus said. 

“We could have had plans,” Sirius said. 

“We didn’t,” James informed Lily.

She nodded. “I figured.”

“Fine, we didn’t. But we could have.”

“What are all these?” James asked, picking up one of the scraps of paper to read it. “No Thursday patrols on odd days?”

Lily smiled. “It’s what we have to work with.”

James groaned. “We’re going to be here forever.”

“Not forever. Just organize some of them.”

“Moony, they’re working,” Sirius said, lowering his voice to a level that was still completely audible to the other side of the table. 

“So am I.”

“Isn’t it a conflict of interest? To know the schedule before it’s out?”

“No.”

“Moony, just go keep him company,” James said, nudging Remus’ arm.

“He’s almost eighteen, he doesn’t need a babysitter.”

Lily let out a small laugh. “He clearly does.”

“You guys are so mean to me. You know I’m the oldest one here,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Remus sighed, shutting the paper he was writing on in his textbook and just sort of shoving it in his bag. “Come on, Pads.”

Sirius stood up immediately. “Where are we going?” he asked, following Remus like a lost puppy.

Lily shook her head. “They’re so dumb. Really nothing happened between them at the party?”

“Nothing happened. Now they just flirt more.”

“That’s dumb.”

“Yeah. They’ll get there eventually though. I don’t think it can be rushed.”

Lily nodded, agreeing that that was probably the best course of action. For the next twenty minutes they organized all of the requests to the best of their ability, making them easier to sort out and work through.

“This is strong evidence against doing any sort of office work in my future,” James said, rubbing his eyes.

Lily shrugged. “I find it relaxing.”

“Relaxing?”

“Yeah. Easy.”

“Easy?”

“Easier than advanced astronomy, at least,” she said, not even wanting to think about her upcoming assignments for the class.

“You’re in astronomy too? How many classes are you taking?”

“Seven.”

“Seven? That’s insane.”

“It’s not so bad.”

“Is that where you’ve been all week?”

Lily looked up, not expecting James to bring up her absence. “Oh, yeah. I’ve been a little busy, I guess.”

“Have you been avoiding me?” James asked suddenly. Trust James to dive straight in.

“Yeah, a little bit,” Lily said, figuring there was no use in lying. 

“Did I do something?”

“No, you didn’t.”

“I just… I was really drunk that night. I didn’t know if I said something stupid.”

“You didn’t. I was just being dumb.”

“That doesn’t sound like you.”

Lily took a deep breath. “We’re friends, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course we are.”

Lily nodded. “Okay, good.”

“That’s all?”

“I just wanted it out in the air. Officially.”

James smiled, holding his hand out for her to shake. “Officially,” he agreed.

Lily rolled her eyes, shaking his hand. “Now can we get back to this?”

James sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

The two of them managed to get the schedule for most of September figured out after just two hours. Lily honestly never wanted to look at a timetable again.

“We’re not a bad team,” James said. They were on their way to McGonagall’s office to deliver the schedule. Thankfully it was just on the way to Gryffindor tower, so they didn’t have to go any further out of their way.

“When you’re actually paying attention, yeah.” James would get distracted every couple of minutes. It didn’t help that they were at a table by a window, something that Lily will definitely note for the next time they have to do something like this. Everytime that James got distracted, Lily would too.

“That is not my fault. They were playing some muggle sport.”

“It’s called football,” Lily told him. 

“Oh, I think Remus took us all to a game once.”

“Really? Remus hates football,” Lily said. It’s one of the biggest muggle sports in the world, so it’s always sort of everywhere. Lily and Remus have both bonded over how much they hate watching it though.

“Sirius begged him,” James said, and that honestly explained everything. 

“Of course he did. Marlene plays it over the summer. Or she used to anyway.”

“Really? Without me?”

“Considering you’re not muggleborn, yeah.”

“I want to learn to play it.”

“You’d probably like it.”

“You think?”

“Yeah. It’s a little like quidditch, but on the ground. And there’s only one goal. And you can only score one point at a time.”

James frowned. “That sounds nothing like quidditch.”

Lily smiled, shrugging a little. “Yeah, guess it’s really not.”

They stopped in front of McGonagall’s office door, and Lily knocked just in case she was in there. After no answer, Lily tried the doorknob.

“It’s locked,” she said, actually surprised about it. McGonagall was the one that told her to drop off the schedule. She pulled out her wand, doing the unlocking spell and trying the doorknob again. 

“You really thought she wouldn’t have charms against that?” James said, a small smile on his face.

“Do you have any bright ideas, Einstein?”

“Who?”

“Muggle inventor.”

“Oh, right. I do, actually. Have an idea, I mean.” James simply bent down and slid the schedule underneath the door, looking all too proud of himself. 

“I bet you think you’re so clever right now.”

James stood up to his full height. “I do, actually. I recall you comparing me to Einstein.”

“As a joke.”

“All jokes have a little bit of truth.”

“I think you’re just making that up to help yourself feel better,” she said, walking to the tower.

James caught up in just a few strides. “Did you do your hair differently?”

“What?”

“It looks different.”

“Oh, It was in braids all night, which made my curls more tame,” Lily said, that being the only thing she could think of.

“It’s very red.”

Lily snorted. “Wow, I had no idea.”

“Red’s my favorite color.”

“You really like to point out the obvious.”

“Is that obvious?”

“Very much so.”

“Hmm. I thought I was more subtle.”

“Is that a joke?”

“No.”

Lily stopped in the middle of the corridor. “Your sweater is red,” she pointed out.

James looked down. “I like this sweater.”

“And you’ve been wearing the same pair of red converse since fifth year.”

James looked down again, this time at his shoes. “They’re suitable shoes.”

“They’re disgusting.”

“Okay, take that back.”

“I won’t.”

“Evans, I don’t think we can be friends if you don’t like my shoes.”

Lily smiled. “James, look at them. They’re falling apart.”

“So?”

She shook her head. “Fine. Your shoes are fine.”

“They’re perfect, actually.”

“Okay, you’re pushing it now.”

———

The first quidditch game of the year was Hufflepuff vs Slytherin. Marlene made them go with her to every game though. She said it was to check out the competition, but Lily knew it was so she could spend the entire game checking out Dorcas Meadowes.

“You guys are here too?” 

They all turned at the sound of Remus’ voice. Him and Sirius were standing right next to their bench. 

“Yeah, blame Marlene,” Mary said.

“I will,” Remus said, shuffling in next to them. “Although I usually prefer to blame James.”

“James?” Lily asked, not seeing him there.

“He’s getting pretzels with Peter,” Sirius explained. “Who's even on the team this year?” He was basically only asking Marlene, since she was the only one who would know.

“Cocoa?” Mary offered Remus. Years ago she had figured out a permanent heating charm that she used on all of the cups they brought to Marlene’s quidditch matches, especially the ones in the winter. It was still only September, so it wasn’t really cold enough yet to warrant it, but it was still something comforting.

“Cocoa?” Sirius said, head turning in their direction. 

Mary rolled her eyes. “You can have a cup too.”

“See, this is why we keep you around, MacDonald,” Sirius said, throwing an arm around her shoulder.

“Other way around, Black.”

By the time James and Peter made it up to them, the stands were pretty crowded. James squeezed in between Lily and Marlene, mostly so he could talk to Marlene about the game. Remus was on the other side of Lily, thankfully, so she would have a little reprieve from all the quidditch talk.

“What’s that?” James said, looking in her cup. He was wearing one of his own quidditch jumpers, but he did have a Hufflepuff flag sticking out of his front jeans pocket. 

Lily looked over, no longer listening to the conversation Mary, Peter, and Remus were having.

“What?”

“What is that?” he asked again. 

“Hot chocolate.”

“Can I have some?”

“Yeah, I’m sure Mary has another cup-”

“Can I just have some of yours?” James asked, cutting off her sentence.

“Some of mine?”

“I don’t need my own cup. Can we share?”

Lily sighed, handing it over to him. “Only if I can have some of your pretzel.”

James grinned. “Deal.”

He traded her the pretzel, and she ripped a small section off while James took a sip out of her cup. Honestly, the pretzel was very much worth it.

“Who sells these?” she asked. She was pretty sure these games didn’t have concessions.

James wiped at his top lip, getting rid of any hot chocolate that had ended up there. “Some Slytherin fifth years. Real smart of them, if I’m honest.”

“I’ll say,” Lily agreed. She was about to go find them to buy her own.

“Have the rest of it,” James said.

“It’s yours.”

“Have the rest of it,” he said again.

She shook her head. “You’re not getting the rest of my hot chocolate,” she told him.

“Evans, I only got a pretzel because Peter made me. I don’t even like pretzels.”

“Are you joking?”

“Nope. Too soft for my taste.”

“If you’re sure.”

“Consider it a gift.”

“A half eaten gift,” Lily mumbled, taking another bite off of it.

James scoffed, drinking another large sip of Lily’s hot chocolate. “So ungrateful.”

The game was pretty high stakes. Hufflepuff got a new chaser, and she was honestly scoring their team a lot of points. It almost looked like they could win it even without the snitch.

“Your brother’s on the team?” Lily said, leaning forward to see him over James and Marlene.

“He’s the seeker, yeah.”

“Since when?”

Sirius shrugged. “Couple years.”

Lily knows that Sirius has been trying to mend things with his brother, and from what he’s told her things have been going slightly better than normal. When Sirius waved to Regulus, it actually looked like he waved back.

Remus sat down after the first three minutes of the game. He had no patience for the game, and he had already pulled out his book. Lily sat down with him not long after, taking out her own book. She didn’t really care about the outcome of this game. She knew she was supposed to root for Hufflepuff because that’s what Marlene told her. Slytherin was Gryffindor’s hardest competition, so the more games they lost, the better the odds would be.

She was able to get through two chapters before she was interrupted. James sat down next to her, something he never did at quidditch games. 

“Evans,” he said, nudging her slightly.

“Yes?”

“Will you come with me?”

She shut her book, hoping she would be able to remember what page she was on in her head. “Where?”

“To find the concessions guy.”

“What?”

“I want a sno cone.”

“It’s fifteen degrees.”

James smiled. “So you agree. Perfect weather for a sno cone.”

“That is not what I meant.”

“So you’ll come with me?”

“Fine, let’s go.” 

Lily set her book down on the seat, following after James to get out of the stands. Everyone was hype because the score was so close, but there had been no sign of the snitch yet. Lily’s favorite games were the ones that lasted less than an hour and a half, but this was not looking to be one of those. 

“So, you’re wearing green,” James said. He told Lily to look out for a short kid with a red and white hat, but he seemed nowhere to be found on this side of the pitch. 

“How observant.” She was wearing a tight green and black striped sweater and blue jeans.

“I just mean, are you rooting for Slytherin?”

“I’m not.”

“But you’re wearing green.”

“I got dressed before Marlene told me that this was the plan for the day,” she told him. “Plus, I don’t look good in yellow.”

“What? Yes you do.”

“I don’t.”

“You do.”

Lily shook her head. “It washes me out.”

“Hmm, well I think you look good in yellow. Here,” he said, taking the flag out of his pocket and giving it to her.

“But now you’re not wearing yellow.”

“At least I’m not wearing green.”

She tried to stop herself from smiling as she put it in her front pocket, just like James had done. She didn’t really have anywhere else to store it.

By some miracle, Lily finally spotted the boy that they were looking for. “Is that him?” she asked.

“It is! Do you want anything?”

“No, I’m good.”

“He literally has everything, are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Do you want a sno cone?” James asked, apparently insistent upon buying Lily something.

“Sure, a sno cone sounds… nice.”

He grinned. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

Lily looked up at the quidditch match while she waited. Being so much lower on the ground was an interesting perspective. Normally, she had no idea what was going on, but especially not now. She couldn’t really even see the quaffle from here.

James came back just a couple minutes later with two sno cones, one red and one blue. “He had twenty different flavors,” he said, handing her the blue one. “I didn’t know which one you’d like, so I got blue raspberry.”

Lily smiled. “I like blue raspberry.”

The game lasted about two hours with Slytherin winning by about twenty points. Marlene pretended to be very upset when she went down to go talk to Dorcas. Lily didn’t understand why they pretended to hate each other when it was obvious that they didn’t.

“This is your fault,” Sirius said to Lily.

“My fault?”

“You wore green.”

She shook her head. “Look, I have the hufflepuff colors,” she said, taking the flag out of her pocket.

“Only for like half the game!”

“You and your superstitions. I’m wearing green to the first Gryffindor game,” she said to him.

“You’re not,” James said quickly.

“You too?”

“House pride, Evans.”

“We’ll see.”

———

The first Hogsmeade trip fell on the last weekend of September.

“God, I am so ready for this,” Mary said, zipping up her boots. “Sometimes this castle feels like prison.”

“Prison?”

“Well, we’re not allowed to leave.”

Lily shrugged. “I like the castle,” she said, putting on a little bit of blush. 

“I miss butterbeer,” Marlene said, walking out of the bathroom. She had been trimming her hair for the past thirty minutes, not happy until it looked even more naturally messy than before.

Mary groaned. “Me too.”

They were ready to go not that much after that. Lily had put on a long green skirt and a black top, and she had put her hair half up in a bun to get it out of her face. They were still some of the last people down there, but they weren’t dead last, and Lily was taking that as a win.

Lily has always loved going to Hogsmeade. There’s so much more to do than there is at the castle, and now she officially has her own money to spend without worrying too much. 

“Plan of attack,” Marlene said the second they arrived. Most everyone had already split off to do whatever it is they planned on doing.

“What?”

“I have to go meet Xeno, he’s got more stuff for us,” she said. Xeno was basically the school dealer, he had a good mix of magic and muggle stuff, but the three of them always preferred muggle weed. “I’ll meet you guys at the Three Broomsticks?”

“We’ll order you a butterbeer,” Mary said, sending Marlene on her way.

The Three Broomsticks was crowded, but Lily was able to find a table for two that they could definitely fit another chair for Marlene. Lily dragged one from the next table over that wasn’t using it, and sat down to make sure nobody would steal the table while Mary got their drinks.

Almost five minutes later Mary finally emerged from the crowd, expertly carrying three drinks by their handles.

“Busy as hell up there,” she said, setting them down and spilling a little bit.

“First trip, bound to be crowded,” Lily said, accepting the drink.

“I guess,” Mary said sitting down. She watched Lily take a couple sips of her butterbeer, an almost scary smile on her face.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“You look like you’re plotting my murder.”

“No, I’ve had that planned for ages.”

“Have you?”

“Obviously.”

“So… what is it?”

Mary smiled. “I’ll wait until Marlene gets back.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see.”

Lily looked around at all of the students. She liked to people watch, and this was one of the busiest places in all of Hogsmeade. Most everyone just ordered butterbeers and sat around for hours, just talking about nothing. It was what the three of them did almost every single trip.

Marlene found them about ten minutes later, her pockets likely stuffed with weed. “Hey,” she said, sounding slightly out of breath as she sat down. “This is a small table.”

“It’s all that was available,” Lily said.

Mary was back to her scary, grinning face. Marlene looked just as concerned though, so Lily knew she wasn’t the insane one.

“Are you going to tell me now?”

“Tell her what?” Marlene asked.

Mary took a deep breath, crossing her hands together on the table. “I have a proposition.”

“For me?”

“For you.”

“Okay,” Lily said slowly. She had no idea where this was going.

“So, you know how you’re the head girl and in charge?”

“I’m not really in charge of anything.”

“You are,” Marlene said. 

“Yeah, you are. Anyway, I think we should have a dance!”

“A dance?”

“Yes! Like a winter formal. Wouldn’t it be so cute?”

“Have we ever even had a dance?” Not once in the seven years at Hogwarts could she actually remember a dance. It was mostly just something she saw in muggle movies and not something that she thought happened in real life.

“Nope! It’s why you would be a trendsetter.”

Lily laughed. “I don’t know, Mary.”

Mary pulled a big folder out of her bag. “I would help plan everything, and I already have so many ideas. It would only be for fourth years and up, obviously, and it could be like a cute theme! Oh my God, I have so many theme ideas.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into it,” Lily said, actually impressed. Mary never tried very hard in school, but she still got very good grades. If she put even half the amount of effort into her coursework she could easily be in the top of the class.

“I have. Think about how fun it could be. All of us, all of our friends, good music, good drinks. We could have it right before winter break.”

Lily was thinking about it now, and part of her saw the appeal. It was fun to get all dressed up, and she would sort of love the excuse to buy a new dress. 

“We’ve convinced her,” Marlene said, sitting back in her chair comfortably. 

“Fine, okay. I’ll bring it up at the next meeting,” Lily said, giving in very easily. “There’s going to have to be a vote though.”

Mary grinned. “I’m not worried about that.”

“No?”

“I mean, all of the girls will vote yes. And we’ve got James and Remus, who will say yes just because you ask them to.”

“That’s majority,” Marlene added.

“It is!” Mary said. 

“We need 75% of the votes though. Not 50.”

Mary slid the folder over to Lily, shaking her head like those were minor details. “I can do most of the planning, too,” she added. 

“What are your theme ideas?” Lily asked. All she saw was a very long list, but she wanted to know which ones Mary was most interested in.

“Okay, so there’s a forest, or fairytales, or there’s a masquerade, or we could do a disco. Or a rock and roll theme, although I will say it was Sirius who suggested that one to me. We could do an underwater theme, or a space theme too,” Mary said, recounting the ideas off the top of her head.

“No disco,” Marlene said. “I can’t listen to disco music all night.”

“Well it wouldn’t be the only thing played-”

“I vote against disco,” Marlene interrupted. 

“Okay, no disco.”

“Mary, how about you just come to the meeting next week,” Lily suggested. Mary knew much more about how a dance was supposed to be arranged, and she could relay the information to the prefect much better than Lily could.

“Really?”

“Yeah, nobody will mind. Plus, you’d get more votes for yes.”

Mary grinned. “Okay, yeah. We still need to ask McGonagall and Slughorn though.” They were the two professors in charge of the prefects, and they had final say over everything.

Lily nodded. “I can do that.”

The three of them stayed at that small table for an hour or so after that, mostly just catching up. Marlene kept getting distracted by Dorcas Meadowes, who was sitting at a table with some of her friends on the other side of the room.

“You should go talk to her,” Lily suggested.

“She’s upset with me,” Marlene said, a smile on her face.

“You’re happy about that?” Mary asked.

Marlene shrugged. “She’s kind of hot when she gets angry.”

Lily and Mary both laughed at that. “You have issues.”

Marlene stood up. “Okay, you guys have to come with me though.”

Lily let her eyes travel to the group of five sitting in a booth that was big enough for ten. It’s not that Lily was afraid of them, not even by a little bit. She just didn’t want to go where she wasn’t welcome, and from the look on Mary’s face, she felt the same way.

“Come on, they’re not like that,” Marlene said. “Crouch is the one who punched Mulciber after what he said to Mary, remember?”

“That was him?” Mary asked.

She nodded. “Yup. And Pandora’s really cool. Actually, Lily, I think you two would hit it off.”

“I don’t have time for dating,” Lily said. She truly didn’t, between school and everything else, trying to date someone would end up disastrously.

“That, and she’s saving herself for Potter,” Mary said.

Lily hit her arm. “That joke gets less and less funny everytime.”

“I disagree.”

“So, are you guys coming with me, or what?” Marlene asked.

Lily sighed, finishing the last couple sips of her butterbeer before standing up. Mary got up too, signaling for Marlene to lead the way. The place was still crowded, so it was hard to get through everyone, but they eventually made it to the opposite corner.

“Funny seeing you guys here,” Marlene said to get their attention. 

Dorcas looked up almost immediately. She had been turned away, quietly chatting with Barty, when they arrived.

“McKinnon,” she said, eyes looking her up and down.

Marlene smiled. “These are my friends, Mary and Lily.”

“Fascinating,” Dorcas said, clearly not meaning it. 

“Got room for three more?” Mary asked, already sitting down on the edge of one of the benches, getting Evan and Regulus to move down a little bit. Lily sat down next to her, leaving the open seat the one next to Dorcas. 

“Don’t you guys have your own table?” Regulus asked.

Lily shrugged. “It got taken,” she said, not even having to look behind her to see if it was true. 

“Convenient,” Pandora said, a small smile on her face. Lily decided that she definitely knew what was going on.

Naturally, Marlene and Dorcas started talking about quidditch, their voices rising every couple of minutes. Marlene had a permanent flush on her face that Lily was definitely going to be making fun of her about later.

Pandora and Mary kept a lot of the conversation going with everyone else. She told them about the dance, even though it wasn’t a sure thing at all.

“Regulus, you’re a prefect, right?”

“Not if it means you need something from me.”

Mary smiled at him. “Just one tiny vote yes,” she said.

“I don’t like dances.”

“Well, you don’t have to go, if you don’t want to. But other people do enjoy them.”

Regulus sighed. “You guys are friends with my brother, right?”

“Sirius? Yeah,” Mary said.

He looked between Lily and Mary for a moment. “Fine, you have my vote.”

Mary threw her hands up in celebration. “See, knew I liked you for a reason.”

“How many more votes do you need then?” Pandora asked.

Mary looked to Lily, and Lily tried to do the math in her head. If they really were sure about all of the girls voting yes, then that was already nine votes. Plus Remus, James, and Regulus brought them to twelve.

“Technically one and a half. But it rounds up to two,” she said. 

“Benjy will say yes,” Pandora said.

“Peter’s Benjy?” Mary asked.

Lily hit her leg, trying to get her to shut up. Peter’s crush on Benjy was still supposed to be a complete secret.

Pandora tilted her head to the side, looking at the two of them carefully. “What do you mean by that?”

Lily shook her head, trying to wave it off. “Nothing, we just know Benjy because of their herbology rivalry.” They were always competing to be first in herbology, the only two in the school who consistently beat Lily for top grades in that class.

Pandora didn’t seem convinced, but she did at least drop it for now.

“So we just need to find one more vote in the next week. That should be easy.”

There came a point where Marlene and Dorcas got upset enough at each other that they stopped talking, and that was when the three of them left to do their shopping. There was a new clothing shop that had opened over the summer that Mary had been dying to check out, so the three of them went there.

“Once we get all the votes,” Mary said, flipping through a rack of jeans, “we have to go dress shopping.”

“But real dresses,” Lily said. “Magic formal wear is… appalling.”

Mary laughed, nodding in agreement. “God, do you remember Sirius’ dress robes?”

“Made me so glad not to be a pureblood,” Marlene said.

“Imagine growing up wearing that? Horrifying,” Mary said, shaking her arms a little bit as though the thought even gave her goosebumps.

“Hey, speaking of dresses,” Marlene said, getting both of their attention. “What if I wore a suit instead?”

Lily grinned. “You would look hot in a suit.”

“Really?”

“Yes. In fact, I insist that you wear one,” Mary told her.

Marlene has never been a fan of dressing super feminine. Lily can only think of one time she ever saw Marlene in a skirt, and it was because of a dare that she swapped clothes with Mary. 

“Okay, cool.”

They shopped for a little while longer, and Lily found a shirt she really liked. It was a long sleeved, wrap shirt with vertical stripes that were each a different pattern. 

She tried it on, looking in the mirror in the changing room. “I think it’s too short,” Lily said, trying to pull it down a little bit.

“Come out here, Evans,” she heard Mary say.

The shirt did not match the skirt she was wearing at all, but she opened the curtain to let them see. 

“You’re buying that,” Marlene said, sitting up a little bit.

“I think I just drooled,” Mary said, wiping at her mouth. 

“You two are ridiculous,” Lily said. She smiled though, holding her arms out. “Look at the sleeves though,” she said, swinging them around. They were bell sleeves; Lily loved bell sleeves.

Mary stood up suddenly. “Oh my Gods. Wait one second,” she said before disappearing. 

Lily and Marlene shared a look. Mary was absolutely about to pick out a pair of bottoms to go with the top.

Sure enough, about three minutes later, Mary was running back over to them with a pair of muted, red bell bottoms. “Try these on,” she said, sending Lily back into the changing room.

Lily hated trying jeans on, but these ones actually ended up fitting her super well.

Mary started wolf whistling the second Lily came back out, and Lily gave them a little spin.

“You’re buying those, too,” Marlene said, deciding right there. “If you don’t wear that outfit everyday.”

“Everyday, Marls? Shouldn’t I wash it sometimes?”

“Nope, no need.”

Lily laughed and went back to change into her regular clothes. The shop was something similar to a thrift store, so the clothes were very affordable, thankfully. Lily didn’t want to blow all of the money she made over the summer on the first Hogsmeade trip. 

Mary and Marlene both ended up buying some stuff too, and Lily found a flower necklace at checkout that she decided to get as well.

“Is it a lily?” Marlene asked, trying to look into Lily’s bag.

“It’s a daisy,” Lily said, pulling it out to show her.

They stopped in the middle of the street so that Marlene could see it better. “Here, turn around. I’ll help you put it on.”

Marlene was multiple inches taller than Lily, which made it a lot easier for her to help her put the necklace on.

“Looks gorgeous,” Mary said with a grin. “Also, we need to stop at Honeydukes before we go. I’m out of chocolate.”

Mary ended up spending a small fortune on sweets, very interested in all of the new options this year. 

“Pink coconut ice?” she said, picking up the bag. “What is that?”

“Do you even like coconut?” Marlene asked. 

Mary shrugged. “Not really. But Em does.”

Lily and Marlene shared another look.

“Oh, so we’re calling her Em now?” Lily said. They were slowly moving through the checkout line, and there were still about ten people in front of them.

“Well, she’s a friend. All of my friends have nicknames,” Mary said with a shrug. She still put the coconut candy in her basket though, planning on buying it.

“Do you buy all of your friends candy?” Marlene said.

“I bought you guys butterbeer.”

“But candy?”

Mary sighed. “She’s being so confusing,” she said, her voice lowering a lot. People around here tended to gossip. “I can’t tell if she even likes me like that anymore, or if that’s just how she is.”

“She’s not like that with me,” Lily said. She’s gotten to know Emmeline a little bit in the past month. One night they had patrol together, and they got to talking. But there was definitely no flirting, that much Lily had been sure to notice.

“Maybe she is and you just don’t notice.”

“No, I was sure to be paying attention.”

“You should just ask her out. Next Hogsmeade trip,” Marlene said.

“I’ll ask her out when you ask Dorcas out,” Mary countered.

Marlene smiled, always loving a challenge. “Deal.”

Lily shook her head a little bit. Of course they made it into something like this. At least neither of them were trying to deny their feelings anymore, that had been exhausting to contend with. 

“Evans!”

All three of them turned at the sound of Lily’s name, seeing Sirius standing in the doorway, waving her over.

“What could he want?” Mary asked.

“Probably permission to do something dumb,” Lily mumbled. “I’ll probably see you guys back at school, yeah?”

Marlene nodded. “Yeah, don’t be back too late,” she said with a little wag of her eyebrows.

“What?”

“Where Sirius is, James is,” Mary said.

“For fucks sake, you’re still on that?”

“Have fun!”

Lily flipped them off before making her way through the crowd of students and out the door. Sirius was only with Peter, the two of them waiting for her.

“What?” she asked, directing the question to Sirius.

Sirius smiled. “What’s in the bag?” he asked.

“Clothes.”

“Can I see?”

“I know you did not ask me out here for a fashion show,” she said in slight disbelief. 

“What if I did?”

Peter nudged Sirius to get him to stop. “We need your help.”

“With what?”

“Prongs is stuck.”

Lily let out a laugh, that not being the sentence she thought he was going to say. “What do you mean?”

“He’s stuck. In a tree.”

“He’s stuck in a tree?”

“Yes.”

“What do you expect me to do?”

“Help me get him out. Peter’s wand broke, and Remus is all weak cause the full moon just passed. And Prongs is heavy, okay? He’s got all those quidditch muscles and shit, so I need help.”

Lily was still laughing, but she signaled for Sirius to lead the way. 

Remus was waiting at the bottom of a tree that was quite secluded from everything, sitting and playing with a couple of fallen leaves.

She was just about to say hi when she heard a groan that drew her attention up. James was there, hanging upside down at about the midpoint of the tree. It looked like one of the branches was holding him there.

“You brought Evans?” he said to Sirius.

Sirius laughed. “She’s the strongest witch,” he said.

Lily smiled at him. “What? Not happy to see me, Potter?”

“I’m always happy to see you. Just not like this.”

“I can leave if you want,” she teased.

“All of the blood is rushing to his head. He’ll likely die if you leave,” Remus said.

“What? You didn’t say anything about dying, Moony!”

Lily got her wand out of her boot, pointing it up at where the branch had wrapped itself around James’ ankles. Sirius did the same, ready to catch James before he fell on the ground completely. 

“Ready?” she asked, knowing that this was going to be hilarious.

Lily used a spell that would cut the section of branch off the tree, and immediately James started to free fall, screaming as he went down. She had to help Sirius use a levitating spell so that he wouldn’t crash head first into the ground, trying to set him down gently.

James laid there for about twenty seconds, catching his breath. His shirt was a little ripped up somehow, Lily wasn’t sure she wanted to know what happened there.

“See? No death,” she said, looking down at him. His cheeks were bright red, but Lily decided that was because he had been hanging upside for who even knows how long. “You might want to see Pomfrey though, in case there’s brain damage.”

James sat up a little bit, resting on his elbows. “Brain damage? You didn’t mention that either, Moony.”

Remus smiled, completely unfazed by the whole thing. “Didn’t I?”

“How’d you get up there anyway?” Lily asked.

Sirius helped him off the ground, and James stumbled a little before he was stable. 

“Fucking stupid reason,” he mumbled.

“He told us to dare him to climb the tree,” Peter said.

Lily smiled. “So you did this to yourself, then?”

“Completely. I didn’t know the stupid tree was going to grab me though.”

“What happened to your shirt?” she asked. Honestly, it was mostly scraps at this point, barely any fabric left covering the torso.

James looked down. “The fucking tree. Scraped it on the wood.” He looked up a second later, his head tilted in confusion, and Lily looked to see what he was looking at. “I think the tree ate my jacket.”

Remus stood up, picking up what he had been sitting on, which Lily assumed was James’ jacket.

“You dropped it on my head,” he said.

It was a jean jacket, although now it was covered in dirt. James still put it on, it was a bit too cold to just wear a ripped up t-shirt. “Oh, sorry Moony.”

“Okay, now I need a favor,” Lily said, bringing her eyes away from James’ ripped shirt. She looked at Remus instead, he was less exposed.

Lily told them all about the dance. James agreed immediately to vote yes, and Remus just shrugged and said he was fine with whatever, which was also a vote yes.

“Good, Mary will be pleased.”

The last shuttle back to Hogwarts was leaving soon, so the five of them started walking back.

“What’d you buy?” James asked, being nosy just like Sirius had been.

“Clothes,” she said, giving him the exact same answer.

James rolled his eyes. “Fine, don’t show me then.”

“Okay then, I won’t,” Lily said, smiling to herself as they walked.