Little Black
Lily woke up late. This never happened.
Merlin, McGonagall was going to be pissed.
Lily and the other girls had spent so long chatting into the night that the four of them slept through breakfast. What was a typical habit for Emmaline, and to a lesser extent, Mary, was completely foreign to Lily and Marlene.
Lily was hurriedly dressing herself and watching the other girls do the same, bar Emmeline, who was sat on her bed half dressed with her shirt unbuttoned. She conjured a mirror in front of her and started drawing on her eyeliner instead.
“Honey, don’t you think you should button your shirt before you put on makeup.” Mary pointedly asked as she laced her boots.
“Nah.”
Mary tutted.
“Okay I’m ready. I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy Minnie giving me shit today.” Marlene said, loosely tying her tie in her signature “I-woke-up-like-this-I-don’t-care” way. “Lils, you ready?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Lily picked up her books and slipped Dora’s compact into the inside pocket of her robes. The girls made it to Transfiguration with a minute to spare. She slipped into her seat next to Remus, ignoring his raised eyebrow at her obviously flustered state.
Thankfully Lily had read today’s chapter already, so she was free to let her mind wander. She reassured herself as much since her mind refused to focus on the Professor’s words regardless. She thought about her meeting with Pandora later on; she hadn’t seen the girl all summer and start of term was so hectic they only saw each other in passing. Their difference in year group definitely didn’t help either. Lily thought back to the compact in her pocket. She was constantly impressed by Pandora’s magic; Pandora was the only person Lily felt intellectually inept around. She was so smart, but in a different way to Lily. Her knowledge was instinctual, while Lily felt as though she could never be smart enough.
Why else would she spend so much time holed away in the library.
This magic thing came so much easier to everyone else. They all had so much more of a head start compared to her, even Black, who barely tried, managed to get Outstandings on his essays sometimes. Lily relied on her Muggle knowledge to give her an edge. The best of both worlds, her mother had told her once. She tried to believe it, but she knew there were many in this school who despised even the notion of her.
Mudblood. Halfbreed. Halfblood. Muggle.
All these names for people like her, people who grew up away from magic. She was pulled from her thoughts by Remus’ foot tapping the side of her leg. She looked at him, startled for a moment.
“You, okay?” he mouthed. Lily smiled slightly before nodding, turning her attention towards McGonagall. It was reasons like this she was so thankful for her friendship with Remus. He was always there, and he always just seemed to know.
The rest of Lily’s day passed without incident; whatever Sirius and/or Remus had said to Potter seemed to have taken, at least for today. Her classes had finished but there were still a few hours before it was time for her to meet Pandora. She was antsy. Lily never did quite know how to fill short periods of time like this, she always worked herself into a restless state.
Finally, she saw the sky begin to darken and took that as her signal to leave. She almost made it out of the common room unnoticed, her luck had clearly run out as she met Potter walking in with Marlene.
“Evans!”
“Hi, James.” She said. “Sorry, I need to be…somewhere.”
A wicked grin appeared on Marlene’s face. “Have fun on your da-ateee.” Marlene practically sung the word to her; Lily just sneered sarcastically at her in response. She looked to Potter stood next to Marlene and she almost felt bad as she watched his face drop.
Lily arrived at the clocktower with the compact held tightly in her hand. She looked around for a moment, wondering whether to begin the climb up the tower, when she saw Pandora walking towards her. Her blonde hair caught in the light as she walked out from the shadow of the castle; it glinted like sun on ice, both warm and cold in feeling. A warmth began spreading through Lily’s chest, she had missed her friend. Lily held the compact up in lieu of a greeting as Pandora grew closer.
“Faic sin! Tell me, how long did it take you to figure it out?” Pandora goaded.
“I’m not saying a word until you tell me what you did to land yourself a detention.”
Pandora gave a noncommittal hum. “Rather fancied you wouldn’t have heard of that actually.”
“I am a prefect, remember, Rosier.”
“‘Rosier’? We’re surnaming are we Evans?” She retorted, raising an eyebrow, and poking her tongue against the inside of her cheek.
Lily’s cheeks flamed. “Just tell me what you did! C’mon Little Black refused to tell me when I asked.”
This time it was Pandora’s fair skin that turned pinkish. “Magairlean. It’s his fault, really.”
Lily raised an eyebrow; she wanted this story, whether Dora wanted to tell it or not.
Pandora released a harsh sigh. “Fine.”
Pandora had been in Potions class, the one class the Ravenclaws shared with the Slytherins, which meant one problem: her brother. Evan Rosier and Pandora Rosier could not be more different. Their house colours for a start, but her brother had a confidence that seemed to evade Pandora completely. After being sorted into Slytherin, Evan had crawled his way to the top of the social circle, befriending two of the elitist wizarding families in all of the Wizarding World, Barty Crouch Jr. and Regulus Black. They walked around untouchable; they became almost royalty among the Slytherins, even with the years that proceeded them. This, by extension, meant Pandora was usually left alone. A few unsavoury run ins with her brother in their younger years had sworn bullies away from her… mostly. There were a few brave souls who still taunted her, teased her, when he wasn’t around, but that was to be expected.
“Today we will be doing something…a little different. A little house-on-house competition.” Slughorn had announced as they filed into Potions that day.
“The rules are as follows.” He continues. “One Ravenclaw and one Slytherin in each pair, both will be brewing the same potion, and you will all have the rest of class to brew it to the best of your ability-“
“What do we get when we win?”
“Raise your hand, Crouch.” Slughorn drawled before answering. “The winner of each pairing will be earning 10 points for their house. The potion you will all be brewing today is known as Sentirduce. It proceeds what is now recognised as Amortentia but is not as potent. Sentire meaning “feel” with the additional root Duc meaning “to lead”; this potion intends for existing feels to be brought to the surface. Contrary to the Amortentia potion which creates temporary artificial feelings for the drinker. The potion, if brewed correctly, should result in an orange colour, with a sweet citrus scent. Alright, I will now be pairing you up.”
“…Bones with Crouch, Lovegood with Rosier, and Miss Rosier you are with Mr Black here. Now everyone move to work with their partner, and brewing begins now!”
Pandora looked over to where Regulus was sat with her brother. Over the years they had been friends, Pandora had little knowledge of the “Little Black”. Despite the summers he had spent in their little cottage on the Isle, she had not heard him speak much, contrary to Crouch who did not stop. Pandora walked over to Regulus, and they began their potion competition.
“…It was awful Lily!” Pandora said, as she retold her story.
“You still haven’t got to why you ended up in detention.”
“He was trying to sabotage my potion! I saw him sending notes back and forth with my brother, and suddenly his elbow is in my side! Right as I’m putting the crucial ingredient in! So, I nudged him back. I didn’t mean for his potion to topple and stain the bottom of everyone’s robes orange!”
Lily could not stop laughing.
“That’s not even the end of it Lily!” Pandora was getting more and more flushed by the second, hands flailing everywhere. “Then, Regulus starts grabbing me – holding me by the waist – and would not let go. Meanwhile, my brother and Crouch are pissing themselves laughing. I was so shocked I pushed him, again, and he fell into more of the potion at his feet.”
“I think I understand why he didn’t want to tell me when I asked.” Lily said, wiping away tears from the corners of her eyes. “Merlin, Dora.”
“I think he has a crush on me.” She whispered after a moment.
Lily’s eyes bulged. “Regulus? Has a crush? I didn’t know he did feelings.”
“Neither did I.” Pandora said.
"How d'you know?"
"Well, you know the potion is supposed to bring existing feelings to the surface?"
"Yeah...?"
Pandora seemed to wrestle with what she was about to say next. "The real reason I pushed him was because, while he was holding onto me, I heard him whisper something. He said 'Don't tell Evan, but you're my favourite Rosier, Pandora' and he looked like he was about to kiss me or something!"
Lily almost didn't believe what Pandora was saying. Regulus Black was a cold and stoic as they came; a complete contrast to his older brother who was loud and larger than life. Regulus slipped beneath the surface like a shadow - a very attractive and intimidating shadow.
"I don't know what to do Lily - I don't like him like that. I mean he's nice, or at least, nicer than Crouch, but- what do I do?"
"I don't know, but we'll think of something."
Lily returned to her dormitory much later than she should’ve, she had to make sure not to wake any of the girls as she walked past. She was still reeling, and slightly amused, by Pandora’s detention tale. She wondered how the two of them had managed to garner such unwanted attention from these boys, without trying. They needed a way to get them off their backs. Lily knew from her Potter experience that it should be nipped in the bud – what she should’ve done back in first year, instead she had given Potter false hope, and James is nothing but determined. She didn’t want the same unwanted attention for Pandora.