Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Thirteen

"Of course they haven't," Nora said, shaking her head. "Rudy will probably start soon, but Hugo and Eli are definitely going to wait until the last minute and ask for our help."

"Definitely," Lily said. Rudy loved to learn but didn't like to study as much as Lily, Cassie, and Nora while Hugo and Eli loved to sit around the common room doing nothing productive. If Lily had a Galleon for every time Hugo and Eli panicked after waiting until the last minute to do an assignment and begged her for help, she would have enough money to buy Hogwarts.

"Have a little faith in the boys," Cassie said. Lily admired Cassie's ability to see good in everyone, but realistically, the boys weren't cooped up in the common room planning their essays. "They could be working on them right now."

Both Lily and Nora stopped, shared an amused smirk before looking at a Cassie, who stood with her hands on her hips. She rolled her dark eyes.

"I'm just saying that they're probably already in the Great Hall eating dinner without us," Lily said, her smirk turning into a smile as she laughed at the preposterous notion that the boys weren't procrastinating.

"Hugo's probably eaten everything already," Nora said with a disenchanted eye roll. Lily couldn't help but give an amused chuckle at her friend's annoyance with Hugo; as much as Lily loved him, Hugo's sarcastic, goofy personality wasn't for everyone.

"Why do you hate Hugo so much?" Cassie asked, bumping into Nora.

"I don't hate him; I just can't stand him sometimes," Nora said with a reasoning nod. "You have to admit that he can be a git sometimes."

"I'd admit that until the day I die," Lily said with a laugh. "I love him dearly, but he can be a handful and a git."

"He's a nice guy," Cassie said, not shying away from pointing out his positive traits.

"Nice is one way to say it," Lily said. "I'd say charmingly sarcastic."

The girls continued making jokes at Hugo's expense as they made their way down to the Great Hall. Lily told them more than few stories about her childhood adventures with her favorite cousin.

"And that's one of the many times Hugo's sarcasm got the both of us into trouble," Lily said, finishing her recollection of a childhood memory when Aunt Hermione found the both of them sneaking out of bed and Hugo mouthed back to her. The confrontation ended with Aunt Hermione sentencing them to spend the next day cleaning the house without any help from magic.

"That's funny," Cassie said, smiling as the three friends turned a corner. "Did that-"

"Stop," Nora said quietly. Her voice was nearly inaudible, but it was so definitive that Lily stopped in her tracks and Cassie silenced herself.

Lily looked over to Nora before following her gaze up ahead where Ike Thompson and Douglas Roth stood in front of the Sanger twins, levitating the twins' things above their heads. Addie and Romy jumped for their things, but they were too short to catch their bags. Although Lily was quite skeptical of the twins, she never approved of acting downright nasty, and she knew the twins didn't deserve to be bullied.

"They make Hugo look like a saint," Cassie said before sharing a look with Lily. "Shall we?"

After getting a nod of approval from Nora, Lily turned her attention to Ike and Douglas, "Absolutely."

With Lily leading the charge, the three girls marched down the hallway, wands in hand, ready to tell off the two bullies.

"Look who it is," Ike said, making eye contact with Lily.