gold rush

There wasn’t anything that compared to how all of Gryffindor tower felt when there was a quidditch match. Somebody always charmed the common room to have an excessive amount of memorabilia, and everyone was wearing house colors.

Marlene gave Lily her jumper basically first thing in the morning, telling her she had to wear it all day. Lily agreed mostly because all of her uniforms were dirty, and she at least wouldn’t get dress coded in it. 

At breakfast it was just Lily and Mary. Marlene was a little further down the table talking to James and a few other players on the quidditch team. Lily made eye contact with James once by accident, and then looked away. She refused to look back, even though she can practically feel his eyes on her.

“Are you going to avoid him forever?” Mary asked. She was also dressed up in her own red sweater, and her hair was up in two buns tied with red bows. 

Lily shrugged, moving her breakfast around her plate with a fork. “If I have to.”

“He’s literally staring at you, Lils.”

“Good for him.”

Mary sighed. “Fine, I won’t force you. I will just say that James didn’t do what he did with bad intentions.”

“I don’t really care about his intentions, Mary.”

“Okay, I won’t bring it up again.”

“Thank you.”

Lily went to all of her classes, finding a way to avoid speaking to James in all of the ones they shared together, which was only two today. It was harder yesterday, where she sat in the row behind him in one of her classes. She went to the library directly after classes to meet up with Remus. She had a lot of homework to get done, especially if she was expected at the quidditch game. And she was definitely expected. She had only missed one of Marlene’s games in fourth year when she was incredibly sick. Marlene hadn’t even given her any shit for it, that’s how horrible Lily felt. 

Remus looked up when he heard her approaching. “You cut your hair.”

Lily smiled, she liked it even better this morning. “I did.”

“It suits you.”

“I know.”

She sat down, taking out her Charms book first. They were learning about the impervious charm, which Lily found incredibly boring. She supposed it could be useful, to be able to charm an object to repel water, but she didn’t want to write seven inches on the advantages it could bring and the ways it could be used. 

“This feels like busy work,” Lily said, halfway through her essay. “We’re in seventh year, essays are pointless.”

“I thought you loved writing essays.”

“Only when they’re on interesting subjects.”

Still, Lily finished the essay relatively quickly and was able to cross it off her to do list. She swears it grows three times faster every time she is actually able to cross something off. She has assignments in all of her classes, and she needs to find a good night to do observations in the astronomy tower. Not to mention the prefect schedule needs to be changed again, everyone having new requests. There are only two people who don’t refuse to patrol with Snape, so she needs to be very careful that there ends up being enough coverage on his nights.

“Oh, did Mary come up with a price?” Remus asked. He was helping Lily figure out how to fundraise, but they couldn’t figure out the best way to do it until they knew the price. Selling tickets would help, but she wasn’t sure it would be enough to pay for the whole thing.

“She says she’s working on it, but she’s hopeless with a budget.”

“I thought she was good at math.”

“She is. She just isn’t good with money.”

Lily was probably going to have to help Mary with that, and she wrote it at the bottom of her to-do list. She could probably figure that out tomorrow, but the sooner the better. 

“You know, Regulus asked about you,” Remus said a little while later. Lily was in the middle of her history of magic assignment, and she was more than grateful for the distraction. 

“What? When?”

“After the prefect meeting. Sirius told me he asked.”

“Asked about what?”

“Just about you, I guess. After the thing with Snape.”

“Oh. That’s… nice, I think.”

Remus shrugged. “I think he’s making an effort, and I guess he does it by caring about Sirius’ friends.”

Lily smiled. “Oh, that’s kind of sweet.”

Lily had been there for Sirius at the end of fifth year, when he had run away to the Potter’s during winter break and lived there since. He had to leave Regulus behind, and he thought he could convince Regulus to leave with him, only Regulus refused to speak with him for months after that. She saw how hard it had been, and she was glad they were finally reconciling.

Part of her wished she could do that with Petunia. That maybe if Lily just reached out one more time that they could mend their relationship. As kids they were always really close, but it all changed when Lily went to Hogwarts and Petunia didn’t. Lily knew it was irreparable after their dad died. Lily got to go back to school, she got to leave. Petunia stayed home and went to the school close to where they lived. Petunia hadn’t spoken to her for weeks after that. Every time Lily would visit home, or send a letter, she would go silent.

She added one more thing to her to-do list.

Write to Petunia.

“Lily?” Remus said, waving a hand in front of her face. She looked up. “Sorry, you just look like you spaced out.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?”

“You’ve just been a bit spacey recently.”

Lily shrugged. “I’ve just got a lot to do. I’m fine.”

Remus seemed very unconvinced, but Sirius found them just moments later, so he dropped it.

“There you are!” he said to Remus. “Hi, Evans,” he said a moment later, quickly turning. “Love the hair, by the way.”

Lily smiled, messing it up a little bit. “Thanks.”

“What’s up?” Remus asked.

“Right. We need to go.”

“Go where?”

“To find James. Nobody can find him.”

“What?” Lily said, surprised that James went MIA when he had a quidditch match. Lily has known him for long enough to know that he has a very strict pre game ritual that follows him throughout the whole day.

“They’re supposed to be warming up, but nobody has seen him since lunch.”

“What about the map?”

“He has it,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes a little bit.

Any other time Lily would have asked what map they were talking about, but Remus was already standing up, ready to go help look for him. Lily started packing her stuff away too. If James was missing then something was wrong, and she might be upset with him right now, but they’re still friends. 

They split off in three different directions, and Lily wandered the corridors on the floor, looking in all the nooks and crannies. She was trying to think of what reason he could have to go missing like this before she spotted him. He was in one of the windows in the most secluded corner of the school, there was hardly ever any foot traffic here.

“There you are,” Lily said, taking the seat next to him.

James looked up, surprised to see her. “Evans?”

“The one and only.”

He looked like he had been crying, his eyes were a bit red. Lily decided not to comment on it, James would tell her if he wanted to. “I like your hair,” he said after a moment. “I wanted to tell you this morning, but…”

“Sirius said you’ve been missing since lunch,” Lily said. She didn’t really want to have the conversation where she’s supposed to forgive him just yet. 

James shrugged. “I’ve just been… doing stuff.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

James cracked a small smile. “Sitting here, mostly. I’ve gotten to know that painting really well,” he said pointing at a portrait of a young child and a father.

“Are they nice?”

“The kid told me I have big hair. Reminded me of when we first met, actually.”

Lily laughed a little bit. “I remember.”

James took a deep breath. “Look, I’m really sorry that I upset you yesterday.”

“Let’s not worry about that right now,” Lily said. She could tell that something else was bothering him, not just their fight. “Why’ve you been hiding out here?”

“It’s silly.”

“I bet it’s not.”

“I had my meeting with McGonagall today, about my future, or whatever.”

“Oh, how did that go?”

James shook his head a little bit. “I have no idea what to do.”

Lily frowned a little in confusion. She had always assumed that James would end up being a professional quidditch player. He had the aptitude for it, and he definitely had the passion. “What do you mean?”

“My dad has been subtly hinting that I become a potioneer since I was born. He wants to give me the family business, I guess. Which wouldn’t be the worst thing, but I’m not very good at potions.”

“You’re not bad,” Lily said. Sometimes he had trouble remembering what he had done, or what step he was on, but he was not bad at potions. With a little bit of concentration he could probably be as good as Lily.

“I just… I don’t want to let him down, but it’s not what I want to do.”

“Then don’t do it.”

“But-”

“It’s your future, James. Not his. And I’ve met Fleamont, he seems like the type to support you no matter what you choose.”

“McGonagall said that I could become a potioneer if I invested more of my time in potions,” James said. He had hardly looked up from his hands, and he kept twiddling them back and forth.

“Is that what you want?”

“I would have to quit quidditch.”

“You love quidditch.”

“Yeah, but it’s not practical. I mean I would have maybe seven years after graduating if I played professionally. And then what?”

“Since when have you cared about practical?”

James sighed. “I don’t know.”

“You should do what you actually want to do. And you shouldn’t quit quidditch.”

“No?”

“No. You’re actually not half bad,” she said, nudging him slightly.

James laughed, nudging her back. “As if you know anything about it. You’re always reading in the stands.”

“Well, I know that you score a lot of points,” Lily said with a shrug. “That seems like good enough evidence to me.”

“I suppose they didn’t make me captain for nothing,” James said, feigning humility.

“Yeah, come off it,” Lily said. Rolling her eyes a little bit. “Okay, but really. You don’t need to figure it all out right now either.”

“Evans, we’re graduating in like eight months.”

“That’s not what I meant, idiot. I just… well I hope this isn’t insensitive, but you have money. A lot of it. You can afford to spend some time figuring out your passions. And you’d also make a ton of money professionally.”

James shrugged. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t know why I was so freaked out.”

“That’s not what I meant. Everyone’s freaked out over this stuff, it’s normal.”

James scoffed. “Even you?”

“Especially me,” Lily said. “I have no idea what I’m going to do after school.”

“Really? I thought you would do something with potions.”

Lily hopped off the seat. “Everyone thinks that. Now come on, Potter. I’m wearing red, so you have to win this game.”

James grinned, his eyes finally lighting up to match the look on his face. He stood up next to her, still dressed in his school clothes. He was going to have to hurry if he wanted to make it on time. “You look good in that jumper, you know?”

Lily shoved him to the side a little. “Shut up. Marlene made me wear it.”

“I’ll be sure to thank her.”

“Don’t you have a game to play?”

“Yeah, I guess. You’re coming, right?”

“Marlene would kill me if I didn’t.”

“Are you going to be reading?”

Lily smiled. “Yeah, probably. But Sirius always tells me when it’s the right time to cheer, don’t worry.”

James laughed. “Okay, good. And thank you.”

“Don’t thank me.”

“Thank you,” he said again, this time making sure she was looking at him. “I don’t normally get like that.”

“Like what?”

“Sad.”

“Everyone gets sad, even you.”

“Still, you helped me feel less so. So thank you.”

“Anytime.”

James started heading in the direction of the pitch, Lily going the other way to find Mary, when he suddenly stopped. “Just checking,” he said, getting Lily’s attention back. “But are you still mad at me?”

Lily smiled at him. “Yup! Good luck.”

James laughed, walking backward. “C’mon Evans, you know I don’t need luck.”

Lily rolled her eyes, smiling to herself as she turned away. 

On her way to the stands, she ran into Remus and Sirius. “Oh, I found him,” she told them.

“You found him? Where was he?” Sirius asked.

Lily shrugged, pointing in the general direction. “He was over there, he’s on his way to the locker room now though.”

“Well is he okay?” Remus asked.

“Seemed to be,” Lily said. It wasn’t her business to tell, and if James wanted to tell them, then he could do so himself. “You guys seen Mary?”

“She’s holding our seats with Pete,” Sirius said. 

The two of them were holding an entire row open, but Lily was surprised to see the couple of guests that they accumulated. Pandora, Regulus, and Dorcas were sitting with Peter and Mary. She assumed it had something to do with Sirius trying to spend more time with Regulus, so Lily just took her seat next to Mary and Remus without much of a word.

She still had her heavy school bag with her; she hadn’t had time to put it back in her room, so she set it on the ground in front of her. The game hadn’t started yet, but she could tell it was coming up soon with the way everyone in the stands seemed to be getting ready for it.

“You found Prongs?” Peter said, leaning forward to ask Lily and Remus. 

Lily nodded. “Yeah.”

“Is he good?”

“I think so.”

Sirius smiled. “Was he all mopey because you were avoiding him?”

“No.”

“Did you give him a kiss for good luck?” Peter asked, making smooching noises.

Lily flipped him off, not even entertaining that with an answer.

“Wait, did you?” Mary asked.

“Why would I ever do that?”

“For luck,” Sirius said.

Lily shrugged. “He said he doesn’t need luck.”

Mary gasped. “So you offered him a kiss for good luck and he turned you down?” she said, jumping to her own conclusions like usual.

“You guys are so delusional sometimes, I swear.”

“You’re not denying it,” Remus said, giving her a little nudge.

“Oh my God. You’re all insane.”

“So that is what happened, then?” Mary said.

“No, it’s not. I just wished him luck verbally. That is all.”

None of them seemed convinced, and Lily sat down. She didn’t understand why people stood the whole time during sporting events anyway. Especially in quidditch when it was hard to tell how long it was going to take. There was usually a betting pool going around about which seeker would catch the snitch and how long it would take them to do so. Lily never bet in it, but Sirius did almost every time. He almost always lost money.

It was a Hufflepuff that was going around collecting names on who was betting, and when she got to their row it started an argument between Sirius and Regulus.

“You’re only betting on your own team out of loyalty, not who you actually think is going to win,” Regulus said. He bet that the Ravenclaw seeker was going to find it an hour into the game and accidentally lead the Gryffindor seeker right to it. 

Sirius scoffed. “Of course I think that my own team is going to win. We’ve got James and Marlene!”

“Yeah, but this is about the snitch. Ravenclaw has a better seeker.”

“Sure, but we’ve got a better team all around. You even said yourself we would get it.”

“By default, because the Ravenclaw seeker is still young. Also, you bet on Dawson finding the snitch after ten minutes,” Regulus said. “When was the last time it was even found before thirty minutes?”

Sirius shrugged. “No idea. Maybe I just have faith in my team.”

The argument was pointless, of course. Neither of them could accurately predict how the game was going to go.

Lily took out her Transfiguration work, needing to get the assignment done before the weekend. If the game lasted long enough then she would probably be able to finish it. 

“Evans,” Sirius said. “At least stand for the introductions.”

Lily sighed, standing up as the announcer called out the Ravenclaw team. They were all pretty fast on their brooms, but they didn’t really work as a team yet. Most of their players this year were new, and they hadn’t found their footing quite yet.

Everyone seemed to think that it was going to end up being Gryffindor and Slytherin fighting for the cup at the end of the year, so the other three houses were rooting mostly for Ravenclaw to win this one. 

Lily cheered with everyone else when the Gryffindor team came out, especially for Marlene. She used to be a chaser, but after the beaters graduated two years ago, she changed positions and found that she loved it more. Lily thought it was a great way to help her get some pent up anger out.

James came out last, like he always did, doing a lap around the pitch. He was fast, and he waved at everyone in the stands, even the ones that were clearly supporting Ravenclaw. He had a way of getting everyone to cheer for him no matter what; Lily found it a bit annoying.

He slowed down a little bit when he neared them, blowing kisses at Sirius. She didn’t understand how he didn’t fall off of his broom, he wasn’t even holding on. Lily hadn’t flown on one since second year, and she had no interest in it to this day. 

“Evans wants a kiss for luck!” Mary yelled to him, cupping her hands so it would be louder.

Lily shoved her, shaking her head.

James heard though, because of course he did, and blew her a kiss too, adding a wink before flying back to the middle where the teams were facing off.

“I hate you,” Lily said to her.

Mary was laughing, and she leaned down to pick up a cup of cocoa. “Will this make you feel better?” she asked.

“Yes, actually.”

The game started and almost immediately James scored a goal in the middle post, adding ten points to Gryffindor. 

“Did you cut your hair?” Pandora asked. She was all the way on the other side of the bench, and Lily leaned closer to hear her better.

“Yeah, Marlene did it for me.”

“I like it,” Pandora said with a thumbs up.

Lily smiled, “Thanks.”

All day she’s been getting compliments on her hair, even from people she hardly speaks to in her classes. It’s more attention than she’s used to, but she doesn’t think it’s a bad thing. 

Lily did sit back down eventually. She had found herself watching James more than she was watching the game, although to be fair, he did have the quaffle a lot of the time. She watched Marlene a little bit too, and she had sent a bludger so fast that she almost knocked the Ravenclaw chaser right off their broom. They didn’t fall, but they did drop the quaffle right into James’ waiting arms.

Remus was already sitting down, drinking what was probably his third cup of cocoa. 

“Your cheeks are red,” he said unhelpfully. He had a small smile on his face as he brought the cup up to his lip. 

“It’s windy,” Lily said.

“You don’t look cold.”

“Fuck off.”

“I think you just watched the game for longer than you have in the past seven years added up.”

“Your point?” Lily asked, pulling her textbook back out.

“Just wondering what brought on the sudden interest.”

“There is no sudden interest.”

“You just watched a game of quidditch for twenty minutes.”

“It was interesting.”

“You hate quidditch.”

“I’m supporting Marlene.”

Remus laughed. “Yeah, okay,” he said sarcastically. 

Lily worked on her homework, looking up every once in a while when she heard the crowd cheering. The score was starting to get up high enough that the snitch wouldn’t have done anything for Ravenclaw. Sirius, Peter, and Dorcas were the only three who seemed to actually understand what was going on, and they were cheering the loudest, yelling different things at the players.

Sirius had long ago already lost the betting, but he didn’t seem to care too much about that, shrugging it off. 

“Lupin! Evans! Stand up!” Sirius said, suddenly yelling at her. 

Remus dragged Lily up with him, and she tried to figure out what was going on. The score was 210-180, and it looked like the Ravenclaw seeker had found the snitch based on the way she was chasing it around the field. 

And then, just like Regulus had predicted, the Gryffindor seeker made a beeline for the snitch, flying faster than she had all game and catching it, just like that. It won Gryffindor an extra 150 points and ended the game.

Lily was cheering before she even realized it, the energy of the crowd getting to her as the announcer read out the final scores and confirmed that Gryffindor had won. 

Sirius jumped up. “Ha!” he said to Regulus.

“You got it wrong.”

“Yeah, but we won! I have to go give Prongs the biggest smooch of his life,” Sirius said, running down onto the pitch with the rest of the crowd. 

The rest of them moved a bit slower, not wanting to get trampled. 

Marlene found Lily and Mary almost immediately, running over to them.

“Meadowes was sitting with you guys?” she asked, eyes already scanning to try and find her. 

Lily smiled. “Yes, she was.”

“She watched you. A lot,” Mary added.

Marlene grinned. “Really?”

“Yeah, really,” Lily confirmed. Dorcas’ eyes seemed to always be following Marlene.

“That makes me ten times happier that we won.”

Dorcas walked over to them, pretending like she hadn’t cheered along with everyone else when Gryffindor won. 

“Good game, McKinnon,” she said.

“Did you enjoy the show?”

Dorcas shrugged. “Wasn’t very entertaining.”

Marlene nodded. “Mhm, right. Sure it wasn’t.”

James ran over to them all of the sudden, ruffling Marlene’s hair. He was still catching his breath, and he was a little bit sweaty, something that Lily tried very hard not to dwell on. 

“Marley! My favorite beater,” he said, throwing an arm around her shoulders.

Marlene laughed, shoving him off. “I thought the captain wasn’t supposed to have favorites.”

“Oh, well. Don’t tell anyone else.”

“I’m telling everyone at practice on Monday.”

James shoved her a little bit. “Hi,” he said, looking at Lily with a bit of a goofy grin. He genuinely looked like there was nothing in the world that could bring him down. “Enjoy the game?”

Lily shrugged. “Nothing to write home about,” she said.

Marlene gasped. “Hey!”

“You are such a bad liar,” James said, shaking his head a little bit.

“You think I’m lying?”

“I know you’re lying. You were watching for at least fifteen minutes.”

“It was closer to twenty,” Mary chimed in.

“That means nothing.”

“It means you liked the game,” James said. This time, when he rested himself onto Marlene, she didn’t push him off. “It’s okay to admit it, Evans.”

Lily shook her head. “I admit nothing.”

“McKinnon! Potter!”

James and Marlene turned their heads at the sound of their names, one of their teammates waving them over, probably to celebrate.

“Oh, we gotta go. You guys coming to the party tonight?” James asked, walking backwards slowly.

“We’ll be there,” Mary said.

James grinned. “Okay, great. Hey, expect to see you there too, Meadowes,” he said, pointing at Dorcas.

Marlene shoved James a little bit, and he turned around to jog over to the team. “He’s right. You should come,” Marlene said before following behind James.

Dorcas didn’t say anything, but Lily could have sworn she saw the beginnings of a smile on her face.

“I’ll see you guys later, then,” Dorcas said, going over to where Regulus and Pandora were waiting for her.

Mary turned to Lily. “Odds they hook up tonight?”

“If they don’t I’m going to throw myself off the roof,” Lily said.

———

Lily worked on some homework for about an hour and a half after the match ended. The party couldn’t start until after curfew anyway, and she didn’t need a lot of time to get ready. 

Mary fixed her hair about five times, never happy with it. Lily eventually gave in and helped her with it, knowing Mary’s arms had to be getting tired from holding them over her head. Marlene was in the shower for the second time. She had taken one after the game, but she didn’t have the chance to shampoo her hair until now.

Mary drew red hearts in the corners of her eyes with an eyeliner pencil as Lily started getting ready herself. She put on the outfit she bought after plenty of reminders from Mary and Marlene. They were more excited about it than Lily was at this point. 

She tried to fix her hair a little bit, adding some product to it to make it curlier. Sometimes she would use magic on it, but Marlene said that it was actually horrible for her hair. Marlene’s mom was a hairdresser, so she trusted her expertise on that. 

Marlene walked out in her robe, trying to find her own outfit to wear. 

“Wear that waistcoat,” Lily said. She had bought it when they were in Hogsmeade, and she hadn’t worn it yet either.

“Really?”

“Yes, absolutely,” Mary said.

It was a denim waistcoat that she ended up pairing with low waisted jeans that were almost the exact same wash. She put her leather jacket over it, just like she always did, but Lily would have bet on that coming off almost right away. The common room was too hot for a jacket, especially during a party.

Even people who didn’t care about Gryffindor’s win in the slightest would come to these parties. It was always open to all houses. James had said once that he didn’t care why people came, the more people to celebrate with, the better.

Lily did her own makeup this time, just fixing it up a little from earlier in the day. She didn’t really want to have the dark look like Marlene had done last time. It had been too hard to take off, and it was completely smeared after she woke up the next morning. She kept it simple so she wouldn’t end up looking like a raccoon after two hours of dancing. 

Mary got dressed in a short, black skirt and a bright red tank top. “House pride,” she said, applying lipstick.

Lily knocked on the bathroom door twenty minutes later. Mary and Lily were both ready to leave, but Marlene had locked herself in the bathroom. 

“Marls?”

Marlene opened the door. “I can’t go down there.”

Lily laughed. “What? Why not?”

“Dorcas is down there. Or she will be. I- That was so stupid. Why did I invite her?”

“Technically, James invited her, if that makes it better.”

Marlene shook her head. “He only did that because I was freaking out about it.”

“Oh.”

“I’m going to be sick.”

“It’s going to be fine.”

“She hates me.”

“She does not,” Lily said. “She’s literally always staring at you.”

“Probably plotting my demise.”

“C’mon,” Lily said, dragging her out of the bathroom. “We can take a shot before we go down.”

Mary was already pouring one for each of them, filling Marlene’s up to the very brim.

Marlene took the shot before Mary or Lily could take it with her, setting it back on the desk. “One more,” she said with a nod.

Mary laughed while filling it up one more time, and this time the three of them poured the shots down their throats at the same time. Lily’s face scrunched up a little bit at the taste, and she immediately wanted something that would taste better.

“I’m going to kiss her tonight,” Marlene said. “I mean, I look good. Right?”

“Denim on denim is very sexy,” Lily told her with a nod.

“If we weren’t best friends, I would ask you out,” Mary said, patting her back to get her to walk out of the room. 

Marlene laughed. “That’s not as encouraging as you think it is.”

The music hit their ears as soon as they opened the door. Lily shook her head a little at the fact that nobody remembered to cast a sound charm so that the younger students wouldn’t be bothered by all the noise. She grabbed her wand and quickly did it herself before she got too drunk to remember.

Mary and Marlene had already made their way down the stairs, and Lily followed after them. Her cheeks had already started to heat up from the one shot she took, a side effect she got whenever she drank even the tiniest amount of alcohol. 

A couple of people from the quidditch team had come and grabbed Marlene, bringing her to the center of the room to do the chant. Everyone got celebrated after a win, and everyone in the room cheered for them even if they didn’t know what was going on.

“I need a drink,” Mary said, grabbing Lily’s hand to get her to follow. They went to the opposite side of the room where Peter was currently in charge of both the drinks and the music. “Pettigrew!” Mary said, pulling him into a hug.

He stumbled back a little bit, wrapping. his free hand around her torso. “Hey, MacDonald.”

Mary smiled at him. “We require refreshments,” she said, letting him go.

Peter bent down and grabbed two drinks from underneath the table. “Specially made for you, courtesy or Remus,” he said, handing them to him. “They refill themselves though, so watch how much you’re drinking.”

Lily smiled, glad she got the warning this time. She took a sip, actually pleasantly surprised. Sometimes, Remus would just drink straight whiskey, which was a shame because he was the best drink maker in all of Gryffindor tower.

“Save me a dance, yeah Pete?” Mary said, already backing away.

Peter nodded. “Only for you.”

Mary blew him a kiss, laughing as she convinced Lily to dance with her. She didn’t recognize the song that was playing, but she didn’t really need to know the song to enjoy it.

“Em’s here,” Mary said after a couple of minutes, taking a couple of big sips of the drink.

Lily nodded. “I know, I saw her when we walked in.”

Mary groaned. “She looks so good. She’s wearing so much blue, I’m almost sad we beat her.”

“She played well,” Lily said, although she wasn’t really sure if it was true or not. 

“She did,” Mary agreed. “Don’t tell, but I wore blue underwear,” Mary said, barely whispering it in Lily’s ear.

Lily laughed, shoving Mary away a little bit. “That’s ridiculous. You should go tell her.”

“Yeah? Is that a bad idea?”

Lily shrugged, taking another sip. “Probably, but it will send a clear message.”

Marlene found them just then, her cheeks red and her jacket already off. “There you are! Lupin made us drinks!” she said, holding up her cup that was identical to Lily’s and Mary’s. It was just a red solo cup, but the contents of the drink looked the same.

“We know!” Mary said.

“Mary wore blue underwear for Emmeline,” Lily said, unable to keep something like that to herself.

Mary gasped. “I told you that in confidence.”

Lily giggled. “I think this drink is really strong,” Lily said, noting how she already felt so much lighter. This whole party was a welcome distraction for her after this past week. Everything with Snape the other day, and with how much homework she was getting in all of her classes, this was what she needed. “Marlene, I am so glad you guys won,” Lily told her.

Marlene laughed. “Yeah, me too.”

“Oh fuck,” Mary said, turning her head away. “She’s coming over here. What do I do?”

Lily gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Tell her about the Ravenclaw underwear,” she said, turning Mary around and pushing her forward a little bit.

“Oh, that reminds me!” Marlene said. “Potter is looking for you.”

“Why?” Lily asked. She kept reminding herself that she was upset with him at the moment, but he was a very difficult person to stay mad at. 

Marlene shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

“Why didn’t you ask?” Lily asked, eyes already scanning around her so she could see if he was walking in their direction. She hadn’t seen him once since she got down here, but she knows he’s here somewhere.

“I was honestly barely listening, so maybe he did tell me.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Great.”

“Are you still mad at him?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Because you were heavily flirting with him after the game.”

Lily looked back at Marlene, her jaw dropped. “What? No I wasn’t.”

Marlene snorted. “Yes, you were.”

“That was not flirting.”

“It was.”

“It wasn’t.”

“It totally was! Acting like he didn’t score like fifteen bloody goals; even you have to know that the game was good.”

“He scored fifteen goals?” 

Marlene nodded. “Yup. He’s such a fucking show-off, but he is good. Don’t tell him I said that.”

“I would never.”

“Oh, there he is!” Marlene said, pointing behind her.

Lily turned to look, eyes meeting James’ easily. He was talking to Peter and Sirius over at the drinks table. Lily looked away quickly only to find that Marlene had already left her.

“Fuck me.”

James was making his way over when Lily looked over again. He was wearing a red button up, but none of the buttons were actually done up anymore. Well, except for one closer to the bottom, not that it was really doing anything. His entire chest was exposed, and Lily got to clearly see what quidditch had done for him. Her throat felt a little bit dry.

“Hi,” James said, ending up standing very close to Lily. She was still sort of in the middle of the dance area, and there were people pushing them around.

She looked up to meet his eyes, her mind finally catching up with her. “Hi. Your shirt is unbuttoned.”

James looked down. “Oh, huh. Yeah, guess it is,” he said with a shrug. 

Lily nodded. “Right.”

James scratched the back of his head, actually looking a little nervous. “Can we talk?” he asked.

“Talk?” Lily was not in her right mind, especially not to talk. 

“Yeah. Please?”

She found herself nodding. “Yeah, yeah. We can talk.”

Lily ended up leading the way, although she didn’t realize where she was going until they made it to the portrait and out of Gryffindor tower. There was a little bay window just outside of it, and they sat down there. It was much colder out here, Lily noticed. Or maybe the party was just really warm. Lily took another sip of her drink, waiting for James to say something.

The window seat wasn’t very large, and their thighs ended up touching. Lily tried not to think about that too much, but then she noticed that their arms brushed against each other. It was just a lot for her to not focus on.

“So… you wanted to talk,” Lily said. James didn’t seem to be making any moves to start the conversation, even though he was the one who suggested it.

“Oh, yeah.”

“What about?” Lily asked, even though she had a pretty good idea.

“The other day. At the prefect meeting. I- I upset you.”

“You did.”

“I’m not sorry for what I said. I mean… I’m sorry that I upset you, that’s not what I was trying to do. I don’t know. I didn’t even really think, I guess. He was just… he was being an asshole, Lily. You know? Obviously you know, but… You were right, I shouldn’t have done that in front of everyone. It wasn’t fair to you, and I am sorry for that. But I am not sorry for saying it. Like it or not, I care about you, and I stick up for the people I care about. So… yeah. That’s all.”

Lily didn’t know how to respond to that, so she didn’t say anything for a long time.

“He called me a mudblood,” Lily said eventually. “Last year. I was leaving to go hang out with Mary, and he really didn’t like that, I guess. He also said a lot of homophobic stuff to me. I had just come out to him, told him I’m bi, which I should’ve known was a bad idea, but I’ve known him since we were five. I guess I thought he would be… I don’t know, okay with it.”

“Is that why you stopped being his friend?”

“It was a lot of stuff, but yeah. Mostly that day. I hadn’t spoken to him until that prefect meeting, actually.”

“I didn’t know that,” James said quietly. “I am sorry, you didn’t deserve that.”

Lily let out a dry laugh. “You’re not gonna say ‘I told you so’ or something?”

“Why would I do that?”

“You’ve hated Severus since the beginning.”

“I didn’t grow up with him. You were his friend, and he shouldn’t have said that stuff. Besides, the last thing you need from me is an I told you so.”

Lily nodded, a smile finding its way onto her face. “Well, you’re right about that.”

“You know, if we tell McGonagall about this, we could probably get him kicked out of being a prefect,” James said.

Lily shook her head. “No, it’s fine.”

“It’s not fine. The things he was saying… it’s not right.”

“I’ve accepted that he can't change. It’s fine.”

“Lily.”

“James, drop it.”

He sighed. “Fine, but just know that I really don’t want to.”

Lily rested her head back on the window, enjoying how it felt cold. “I know. But we’re graduating soon, and then I won’t have to see him again.”

“Doesn’t he live by you?”

“I’m planning on moving out,” Lily said. She hadn’t exactly told anyone, but she didn’t think she could live at home anymore.

“Oh. Well I’m happy for you, then.”

“Thanks.”

“Are we good?”

Lily nodded. “Yeah, you’re too hard to be mad at anyway.”

James smiled, looking over at her. “Am I?”

“Yes. I heard you scored fifteen goals today, is that true?”

“It’s true,” James confirmed. “Impressed?”

Lily scoffed. “Not in the least.”

“C’mon, Evans. It’s impressive.”

“You scored a hundred fifty points in ninety minutes. All that Dawson had to do was catch the snitch and she got the same amount. Not impressive.”

James laughed. “I’d like to see you try.”

“I would fall to my death.”

“So you admit not everyone can do it.”

“I didn’t say that everyone could do it, I just said it wasn’t that impressive, all things considered..”

“Just say you’re impressed.”

“Not worth it, lying would only send me to the eighth circle of hell.”

“Fifteen goals. Fifteen out of twenty one. That’s like… seventy five percent. That’s impressive,” James said, still trying to convince her.

“Get all twenty one next time and maybe I’ll be impressed.”

James grinned. “Oh? Is that a challenge?”

“Only if you actually think you can do it.”

“Score twenty one goals in a game? Yeah, I can do it,” he said confidently.

Lily stood up, ready to go back inside. “Guess we’ll have to wait and see,” she said.

“What’ll you give me if I do it?” James asked. He was swinging his feet a little bit, and Lily leaned against the wall for stability. She had been slowly drinking a little the entire time they’ve been out here, but maybe it was more than she thought.

“Sounds like you already have something in mind.”

James looked her up and down for a moment, and Lily felt very watched. If James was drunk he was doing a very good job at seeming sober. “You know, I like this outfit.”

She smiled, holding her free arm out. “Look at the sleeves,” she said, flapping it around a little bit. James stood up, suddenly standing close to her, forcing her to look up. Lily dropped her hand, remembering how to breathe. It forced her to focus on James, and all she could focus on was that he smelled good. That and the fact that he was very close. “You smell good,” Lily said a bit suddenly. It was like the only thought in her head, just on a loop, she had to say it.

“I smell good?” James said, his head tilted to the side. His eyes kept moving, looking all over her face. She felt very watched.

“Yeah, like… green. Foresty. But sweeter.”

“Eucalyptus?” James offered.

Lily smiled. “Yeah, that.”

“It’s my conditioner.”

“Oh, makes sense.”

“If I score twenty one goals at my next quidditch game, I want you to tell the entire great hall at breakfast the next morning how impressive I am,” James said, drawing Lily’s mind back to the conversation they were having before.

“And if you don’t score twenty one goals?” Lily asked.

“I will.”

“But if you don’t?”

“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Do we have a deal?”

Lily thought about it for a moment. “Are you drunk?”

“A little. Why?”

“Making sure you know what you’re agreeing to, is all,” she said with a smile. The next game was against Slytherin, no way it went on long enough for James to score twenty one goals.

“Do you really know what you’re agreeing to, Evans? You seem a bit… gone.”

“I’m fine,” Lily said, although she was very much not fine. 

“If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure. We have a deal.”

“Good,” James said, backing up a little bit. “Now let’s go. We’re celebrating my win.”

Lily laughed, following him back inside. “The team’s win,” she corrected.

“Sure, whatever.”

“Idiot,” she mumbled under her breath, letting the portrait swing shut behind her.