It had been weeks after the infamous duo had had their famous fight. They'd made up, obviously, and the first trial was over as well. Durmstrang was in the lead, Hogwarts second, and Beauxbatons last. Oliver, Percy and Lily were having breakfast on the Gryffindor table. As usual, Percy and Oliver were fighting over Lily's copy of the Daily Prophet while the girl focused on reading letters from home and a place a lot of other students wondered of; Woldingham Boarding School. Percy insisted he had to catch up with the current events while Oliver wanted to check the sports pages. It was a typical Friday morning.
"Excuse me students." Professor McGonagall approached the head of the table. Everyone looked at the woman, and Percy immediately gave up his struggle for the newspaper. "All students, fourth year and above, please assemble in the Gryffindor corridor after breakfast. That is all." she acknowledged before walking away.
"What do you reckon that's about?" Lily asked curiously, before turning back to what looked like Oliver Smith's letter. She had only half been paying attention.
Percy was about to speak when Lily turned around as she felt someone poke her on the shoulder. It was the Durmstrang boy she'd bumped into a few days ago.
"Oh hello." she said, a little taken aback. "Can I help you with something?"
"Hi." the boy flashed her a charming smile and the girl's ears tinged pink. "I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Ivor Parslov." he said, extending his hand to the red head as he spoke in carefully crafted English.
"Lily Smith." she shook his hand. "Nice to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine." he winked, before lifting her hand up and kissing the top of it. Lily's eyes widened slightly before she slowly pulled it back. From the corner of her eye, she saw an Oliver Wood that was about to burst laughing and a Percy Weasley who had a deep frown etched into his face.
"That's great." she said nervously, patting the boy's shoulders before grabbing her letters and standing up abruptly. "Um, I need to go, our Head of House made an announcement right now, didn't you hear? I'll see you around Ivor." and with that the girl hurriedly walked out of the dining hall.
The Durmstrang boy just stood there, dumbfounded before he turned to the two boys who she had been talking to earlier. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, you were awesome." Oliver assured, his face still comical as he grabbed Percy and stood up. "As she said, we need to go to the Gryffindor corridor." he flashed him a quick smile before pulling the other boy out of the dining hall as well. The two ran to catch up with Lily who still looked a little flustered.
"Carrots!" Wood called out and she turned around, spotting them. She stopped, waiting for them to catch up with her. "What was that all about?"
"What was what about?" she asked in a small voice.
"Oh, please. We all know the boy's got the hots for you." Percy scoffed.
"What he said." Oliver agreed.
Lily laughed lightly, shaking her head. "You boys really are stupid, aren't you?" she shook her head, making eye contact with Percy for a split-second before looking away hurriedly. "I mean, don't get me wrong, he was attractive, obviously." she stated, her cheeks going almost as red as her hair, "They all are-"
Before she could continue her sentence, Professor McGonagall appeared out of seemingly nowhere and separated the two from the girl. "Boys to the left," then she turned to Lily, "Girls on the right." with that, she went about sorting all the boys and girls onto two different sides of the corridor before talking about the Yule Ball. Then she asked one of the seventh years to dance with her. It was awkward. And then she urged the students to start dancing as well.
Some of the girls rushed to ask the boys and some of the boys rushed to ask the girls. Lily looked about nervously. She could see three boys were already making their way to her. And she didn't feel like dancing with any of them in the congested little corridor. So she ran her way towards Oliver and Percy.
"One of you, quick, just dance with me." she grabbed Percy's hand, and the book he had been reading fell out of his arms just as Oliver caught it. She dragged him to the dance floor, looking around cautiously.
"What was that about?"
"Don't get me started Perce. Three Gryffindors were on their way to me. I barely escaped." she said, looking around; paranoid.
Percy let out a short and hearty laugh.
"Didn't realize you were that popular Lil."
"Oh shove off." the girl said, playfully shoving him as he twirled her around. "In case you haven't noticed, I don't even know the names of half the girls in my dorm, not that they could care about mine anyway."
"Of course they know who you are. Everyone knows who you are ever since that stunt you pulled in last year's Slytherin match." he said with a wise grin. "And in case you haven't noticed, they have full reason to ignore you. You mostly hang around with me and Ollie and the only girls you even talk to are Alicia and Angelina from your Quidditch team."
"Well I'm sorry for not being sociable enough." she muttered. "Speaking of, you probably won't be seeing me as much for the next week or so. We have mid-terms coming up."
"I can-"
"I know you're a pro at the all the classes Perce, but we both know your studying methods haven't been working for me lately. I have my own methods to learning, which you probably would find unproductive, but they work for me. If you need anything, I'll be at the library." she assured.
That dance lesson was the last time both Percy and Oliver saw the lively red head.
Lily, on the other hand, had fallen into a routine. Since they had an entire week to prep, all she did was drop by breakfast early, grab some coffee, go to the library (fall asleep occasionally for a while), then pop in super late for lunch, go back to the library, check some textbooks out, go to the Black Lake for some fresh air, go back to the library when it got dark, and leave only when it closed. She would then ask one of the house elves, Winky to make her a sandwich and pay the elf for the favour after which she returned to her dorm. It had become such a routine that Winky had started saving dinner for her in advance, which Lily was utterly thankful for. There were only so many sandwiches she could survive on. Sometimes, to mix things up, she went up to her dorm early, sneaking outside the window and onto the roof of Gryffindor Tower, that overlooked the entire school. It was one of her favourite places, besides the Astronomy Tower.
Meanwhile, for anyone looking for Lily, it was an incredibly hard task. Because whenever someone searched for Lily, they searched for either Oliver Wood or Percy Weasley, and with neither of them knowing the girl's whereabouts, it was frustrating to locate the girl unless they accidentally crossed paths with her in the hallway, which was incredibly rare.
"Is anyone sitting here?"
Lily didn't even look up from her textbook as she grunted in response.
"If it isn't Lillian Ariana Smith." the girl's face shot up at the use of her full name. Not many people knew it.
"T-Terrence?" she asked, a little taken aback, "What're you doing here?"
"Studying of course. You think you're the only one with mid-terms?" he asked, quirking a brow her way.
"Right, of course." she muttered. "Go ahead, I won't disturb you."
Terrence nodded, mumbling to himself. "Okay, Draught of Living Death... ingredients."
"Powdered root of Asphodel and an Infusion of Wormwood." Lily said, as if on cue. Then her head shot up, embarrassed. "Sorry, force of habit."
Terrence blinked at her, quite amazed. "That's a fifth year Potion. How do you know-"
"I'm good at Potions." she answered, shrugging. "I won't disturb you now, sorry." she turned back to her Transfiguration book."
"No, go ahead. I don't know why but I'm actually remembering what you said." Terrence answered. Lily couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic.
"What'd you just say?"
"Well, as Snape likes to say, I'm 'as hopeless as a pixie in a jar' at Potions, and honestly, I forget everything I read in a second or so within reading it. But what you said right now, about the Powdered Root of Asphodel and an Infusion of Wormwood, I actually remember it."
"Shhh!" Madame Pinch scowled from across the room.
Lily made sure she lowered her voice considerably. "That's all good Higgs, but let's go back to studying."
"No." the boy shook his head. "Please. You have to tutor me in Potions."
"I don't have to do anything." she whispered pointedly, still reading her textbook.
"You're right. But could you? Please? Snape says I need to maintain an average of at least an A in all my classes or else I'm off the Quidditch team. If not for me, do it for the love of Quidditch." he tried desperately.
Lily rolled her eyes, looking up at the brown-eyed boy. He was looking back at her with a look so adorable, she was doubtful even Oliver could've beaten it.
"Fine." she gave in. "But in return you need to help me out with the topics McGonagall chooses to focus on."
"I guess it's your lucky day because Transfiguration happens to be the only subject I get an O on." he smiled proudly, and Madame Pince hushed shrilly.
Terence made a face as he looked back at Lily. The girl shook her head, grabbing her satchel as Terence followed her out of the library.
_____
"Okay? Remember, we meet here straight after." Terence said looking seriously at Lily as the stood under a willow tree by the Black Lake.
Lily nodded, determined. "Best of luck with Potions."
"And best of luck with Transfiguration." he said before the two headed their separate ways.
Three hours later, Lily went back to the tree, where Terence was already standing, looking ecstatic.
"I'm assuming it went well." she smirked, peeking out from behind the tree.
Terrence burst. "It was wonderful! I might even go as far as to say that I might get an E. I didn't blank during every question, and I absolutely nailed that essay section." he ran over, hugging her before he twirled her around in the air as Lily giggled. "I could kiss you right now."
But of course then, he realized the words that had escaped his mouth. "Um- how was yours?"
"Excellent." she responded. "But I guess we'll get to know after Christmas."
"Do you maybe – I don't know, want to go get a Butterbeer? You know, to celebrate the end of our exams?" he asked nervously, scratching the back of his neck, which Lily found peculiar, especially since he was almost always confident.
"Sure. I've been craving for one since forever." she groaned, hardly believing that the hectic exams were actually over. "I don't even want to imagine how the OWLs are going to go at this rate." she admitted as the two walked towards Hogsmeade.
"Oh, boy am I glad I gave them last year." Terrence shuddered, then noticed the look of panic on Lily's face. "But I'm sure you'll do great." he offered.
"You, Terrence Higgs, suck at calming people down." she chuckled and the older boy let out a laugh, shaking his head as his straight and floppy brown hair moved around freely with the sound of his laughter.
Word count: 1986