Friends
The three of us stood outside the bathroom door and waited for Lily, the radio had been turned off. We were determined, we hadn’t even gotten dressed or ready for the day. We just waited outside the bathroom. Lily finally opened the door and stared at us.
“What do you want?” She asked us and tried to push through our blockade, Marlene stopped her.
“Look Lil, like it or not but we’re going to share this room for the next seven years. We either fix this now or I’ll wake you up every day for the next seven years asking you to talk to us.” Marlene was deadly serious, and we all believed her. Lily seemed to decide that morning sleep was better than walking away from this conversation.
“Fine.” She said. We all sat down on the floor in a circle, Mary made us place our wands in the center so we wouldn’t use them.
“I am sorry I didn’t try to stop James.” I started “I didn’t know it was going to be that extreme. All he did was ask if I knew any water repellent spells and then we walked into the great hall.” I wasn’t going to tell Lily I had helped him plan revenge during break. He didn’t use any of my ideas and it would only cause trouble. Lily took in my words, it seemed to dawn on her that I never actually knew the plan or that it would create a storm.
“Why didn’t you tell me that?” She asked after a while.
“Tell you what?” I asked
“That you didn’t know most of the prank?”
I wanted to say well you weren’t exactly talking to us and before yesterday I didn’t even know you blamed me for it! But I felt that that would create more problems than less.
“Logic doesn’t exactly come to mind during a screaming match.” I said, I decided that was nice enough.
“What about you two? Are you sorry for laughing?” Lily asked. Mary and Marlene looked at each other, they definitely weren’t sorry, I wasn’t really either.
“Lily I was serious earlier today, he calls me and other kids mudbloods, he deserved it.” Mary said softly. She wasn’t picking up any fights, she was just stating what had happened. Marlene nodded. I suspected when they hung out together without Lily or I, they got called names a lot.
“I..” Lily started, but I could tell she didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t go on defending the man after he called our friends rude things. But something about Severus made her want to protect him.
“I.. I can’t speak for Sev.” Lily started again. “I know he does hurtful things and says hurtful things but he is my friend. At home he is my only friend now. When I was home for break my sister wouldn’t talk to me. It wasn’t until Christmas Eve that I tried to have a conversation and she called me a freak and unnatural. She would say that witches weren’t normal and didn’t belong in normal peoples lives. Sev was the one who first taught me magic was a thing, he’s kind to me in ways no one else sees. At home Severus is the only friend I have left.” Lily wiped her eyes, I had never met her sister, but she sounded horrid. I began to understand why Lily ignores Severus’s cruelness. Having friends that are rude are still better than having no friends, especially if the friend is still nice to you.
“I just.. Sev already thinks I betrayed him for being Gryffindor and for being friends with you guys. I need to stand up for him so I.. so I..” Lily had started crying. I understood what she meant: she needed to stand up for him so at least she’d still have one friend. I nodded.
“I understand Lily. At home, we live far from all muggles and most wizards. You guys were the first friends I ever made. I understand wanting to protect that.” I said looking at Lily. Lily gave a soft smile as a form of appreciation.
“What about James?” Marlene asked “you have him at home.” She didn’t mean this as anything rude, she was simply wondering aloud.
“James and I are very different people. Yes we hang out, but he spends lots of his time with Peter or my father. I think almost the whole school has noticed how charming and fun James is, he shines from miles away. Don’t get me wrong, I love my brother but… but sometimes he just shines so brightly it’s hard to see me.” I had never said this aloud. My brother was an amazing person who always made sure to include me. The thing was, he was always the one in the center of the room needing to drag me in. He had the spotlight on him and made sure I was there to share it. A lot of people I meet here already know him, it’s just a lot sometimes. My friends seemed to get it.
“My brother is a professional quidditch player. Even the muggle side of my family thinks it’s a huge deal. At school, I had friends, but people always thought I was too much. Too loud, too out there, too mean sometimes. You were the first bunch not to say it, even if you think it.” Marlene shared.
“We don’t think those things.” Lily said, Marlene smiled a little. I think it meant more coming from Lily than coming from Mary to her.
“How bout you Mary? Any sad past you’d like to share?” I joked and the others chuckled under there breath. Mixed in the laughs were a few sniffles but I think I still lightened the mood.
“Well.. I haven’t got any siblings, my parents work nonstop in jobs that I’m not entirely sure as to what they do. I spent grade school making myself known. I wanted to make sure that someone would remember me. I used to think, and still kinda do, that when you die you get to be in the after life as long as someone remembers you. My parents were only children, my grandparents died a few years past, all I wanted to do was to leave my mark. Then professor Dumbledore came to my house and suddenly I was a witch being sent off meeting you guys. After being here for a while, it suddenly didn’t matter to be known because I knew that.. I knew you guys would remember me. I knew we’d get older together and be aunts to each other’s kids and had a laugh about all the stuff we did here.” She was teary eyed, I was teary eyed. I never imagined Mary would be the one to think of such dark things. Sure, I was scared of dying but I never thought about it the way Mary did. I never felt the need to do something because of the fear. I looked to see that all four of us were getting emotional.
“I’m sorry I got mad at you guys for something that’s not your fault!” Lily said and before I knew it, she pulled us into a group hug. We all hugged back and the whole world felt good again. Us being friends just felt good.