Chapter Twenty Three
Lily was just about to go to sleep when Cassie collapsed in the bed next to her. “How was it?” she asked, knowing that Cassie had just seen Rob.
“Awful,” she muttered. “I tell you, he’s kind of nice and all but since I started going out with him… I just can’t stand him. He’s so… possessive.”
Lily allowed herself a small smile as Alice threw a pillow at Cassie and said, “I do think I can say ‘I told you so’ now!”
“Maybe you should just dump him,” Lily suggested. “I thought that you said you could never be bothered with relationships.”
“Exactly,” she replied as she threw herself back on her pillows. “I’m so bored of him! Is that bad? He’s not even nice. Well, I mean he is but he has so many other flaws that they don’t really cancel each other out.”
“Dump him Cass,” Mary mumbled from around her toothbrush. “It’s way more effort than he’s worth. Besides, Potter’s going to want you out on the Quidditch pitch pretty much every day now.”
“Oh god,” Cassie sighed, “Quidditch. I can’t be bothered with this right now.”
The next morning Lily trudged down to Herbology, her robes dragging in the snow which was still piling up on the grounds. She shivered and clutched them tighter around herself with the one hand which wasn’t carrying her books, burying herself in her scarf. “I don’t understand why it’s still so cold,” she moaned to Alice as they picked their way over the hills, “it’s so unnecessary.”
Suddenly the air was knocked out of her by something which smacked into her back, throwing her forwards and into the snow; Lily picked herself up and dusted herself off, desperately trying to get all of the now rapidly melting snow out of her sleeves and neckline. On top of the freezing snow that the front of her robes had been soaked with she could feel a large sodden spot on her back where the offending snowball had hit her. “Potter!” she shouted, her voice carrying magnificently across the empty grounds. Once she was vaguely snowless she span around violently, preparing to confront the culprit. Behind them, closer to the castle, she could see Sirius and Peter laughing while snowballs flew down the hill, towards her and Alice but also towards James, who was running at full pelt towards them. As she watched him James leapt over a hummock and landed face first in the snow; he surfaced moments later with snow dripping down his glasses and white clumps sticking to the tufts of his hair; Lily barely had a chance to sigh before he was standing in front of her. “How did I know it would be you Potter?” she asked.
“Lucky guess,” he chanced. “I’m really sorry Evans, I wasn’t aiming for you, I just… overshot it a bit.”
“Whatever.”
He wiped the snow from his glasses with his sleeve and said, “I really am sorry.”
“Yeah well I really am cold now. And my stuff’s all wet. I don’t even have the energy to yell at you.”
“Oh you wouldn’t yell at me, would you Evans?” he pouted. Lily had half a mind to tell him that he looked ridiculous but she just restrained herself.
“I would if I hadn’t just been dumped in the snow,” she spat, crossing her arms and shivering.
“Here, look,” he said as he waved his wand at her, drying her off and warming her up. He stooped down and picked her books up, drying them all off too before he handed them to her. “Don’t want you to be cold or get ill, do we?”
“I could have done that myself,” Lily muttered stubbornly as James rummaged around in his robes for something. She could have sworn that she saw a hint of a smile on James’ face at that but it vanished as soon as she looked at him.
“Of course you could have done Lilybug but you didn’t so I did. Always a pleasure to do my job and take care of you,” he teased as he produced a flask and offered it to her.
“It’s definitely not your job to take care of me.”
“Fine, it’s my… calling.”
“No.”
“Vocation?” he tried.
“No.”
“Heart’s deepest desire?” he asked, still trying to shove the flask into her hands.
“It’s none of your business. And what is this?” she exclaimed.
“It’s Butterbeer. Still nice and warm,” he explained.
“Why do you carry Butterbeer around in your robes?” she asked as Sirius and Peter reached the greenhouse door at the same time as they did.
“Why wouldn’t he?” Sirius said with a grin as he held the door open for Alice.
“I…” Lily gave up. “I don’t know.”
“Exactly!” he crowed. “There’s no earthly reason why Prongs wouldn’t carry Butterbeer around with him!”
“Whatever you say Sirius,” Alice sighed as she moved over to Professor Sprout.
“Now today we will be distilling dittany,” she explained as her students gathered around her, stamping their feet and rubbing their hands together to try and stay warm. “The instructions are on page two hundred and four. Although this isn’t extremely difficult you will need to work together. Potter and Black, I suggest you don’t pair up for this.” Their mouths fell open and they protested. “No! Black you go with Pettigrew and no messing around,” she punctuated this final proclamation with a series of jabs towards Sirius, “or you’ll both be in detention for the next month. Potter… find yourself a sensible partner.”
James sidled over to Lily while she busied herself with assembling dittany cuttings and the various tools which they needed. “So Evans-”
“Thought you’d agreed to call me Lily,” she replied without looking up. “And no, I won’t work with you.”
“But Lily, you know you’re the most sensible person here. No offense Alice.” Alice shrugged and pulled a face at him. “And if I don’t work with you… well I could very well end up in detention for the next month and then we’d never win the House or Quidditch Cup.”
“Maybe you should think about that before you decide to mess around then.”
“You’re the only one who can control me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“It’s true!” As he spoke he gestured to Alice to partner up with Frank and finally, after he had wordlessly threatened to propel her over there with magic, she said, “Sorry Lil, you know I hate to abandon you but Frank just waved me over and he looks a little lost.”
“Ali- God James, do you always have to get your own way?”
“It’s not my own way Lily! Sprout explicitly commanded me to find the most sensible person here,” he protested as the pair of them wandered back over to the counter.
“Yeah yeah,” she muttered as she started to crush the first leaf.
That afternoon the sixth years had their first Apparition lesson and they all piled into the Great Hall, chattering excitedly.
“I Side-Along Apparated once,” someone could be heard to say, “my mum took me to my aunt’s house.”
“I’ve heard that someone once ended up in Southampton.”
“My cousin failed her test because she landed on top of her examiner.”
After ten minutes of waiting, in which about a hundred stories were passed round and elaborated on endlessly, the doors opened and revealed a Great Hall which was completely empty apart from a large blackboard with Destination, Determination and Deliberation written on it in enormous letters, and a large number of hoops spread out over the floor.
Standing at the front of the room was a young man in scarlet robes who looked like he’d rather be feeding Flobberworms than standing there. When everyone had filed into the Hall the doors slammed shut and the gathered pupils fell silent. “Well,” he began, his high voice making the Marauders, and many other people, dissolve into barely restrained giggles, “welcome to the first of your Apparition lessons. Apparition, before you get carried away, is extremely dangerous and many of you will likely not succeed, especially not today. Many of you may well choose not to take your test and, if you do, many of you may well never Apparate again.” From somewhere behind her Lily could hear Sirius mimicking the Ministry official and she half expected him to be making hand gestures to go with it.
Finally, just when Cassie had leant her head on Mary’s shoulder and Lily was wondering whether it would be possible to Apparate to the bathroom and claim that she had overestimated it slightly, the students were allowed to split up and move towards a hoop. Every so often the man would call out “Remember: Destination, Determination, Deliberation!” and Lily found herself more and more frustrated with him. It was one of the first times that she hadn’t mastered something very quickly and, even though she knew that nobody would master it this lesson, it was still annoying.
After an hour of focusing so hard that everyone gave themselves headaches they were released and, although no one had managed to do anything, they still left the Great Hall impatient for the next lesson.
Later that night, in the common room, she heard the Marauders discussing their attempts at Apparition. “Personally I prefer brooms,” James was saying, “wind in your hair-”
“Uncomfortable wooden stick between your legs,” Remus said dryly.
“You need a Cushioning Charm Moony,” James replied, “need to ride something decent instead of that Cleansweep Fifty from the Stone Age that you’re riding.”
“You’re only saying that because you can’t do it,” Sirius pointed out.
“No one could do it,” Peter said.
“Exactly Padfoot! Wormtail here understands! You couldn’t do it either!”
“Yeah but I don’t need to; I’ve got Sheila.”
“Who’s Sheila?” Peter asked as James and Remus started laughing.
“Oh please, please Sirius, please don’t tell me that you named that beauty of a motorbike Sheila!” James cried.
“Nah I didn’t, I was only joking. Don’t see what’s so bad about the name Sheila though.”
“Everything, Padfoot,” Remus grinned. “Anyway, it must be the first time that either of you haven’t managed something, even while making it seem that you weren’t trying. Is your pride wounded?”
“Only a little,” Sirius sighed melodramatically. “Still, I’m sure I’ll perfect it next time round.”
Sure enough, and to Lily’s frustration, both he and James managed to Apparate perfectly only twenty minutes into their next lesson and spent the rest of it appearing in other people’s hoops and putting them off, or else having a competition to see how far they could Apparate; Remus managed it five minutes later and, swiftly changing her mood to rather smug, Lily managed it not long after that. She wasn’t quite sure how she had succeeded though, especially since the most important thing in Apparition was concentration and it was very hard to concentrate when people kept screaming as someone Apparated on top of them and pushed them over.
The approach of Lily’s birthday was characterised by all of her friends whispering behind her back and congregating for meetings which they claimed were completely innocent. The weeks before it also included oddly shaped packages which arrived at breakfast being pocketed hastily and Lily, even though she tried to seem calm, could feel her excitement mounting. One evening, as she worked on her Charms essay and her friends were trying to see how late they could leave their work without panicking she found herself sitting alone in the common room.
“Got no friends Lily No Mates?” Sirius teased as he descended from the boys’ dormitories.
“Nope,” she replied, “they’re all procrastinating… and concocting some evil plan.”
Sirius rubbed his hands together. “I like the sound of the evil plan. What’s it for? How much havoc is being wreaked?”
“I think it’s for my birthday,” Lily giggled, “so probably not as much havoc as you lot are used to.”
“Oh.” He looked injured, like a puppy that had just been kicked. “Well I can introduce some more havoc I guess.”
“No you can’t. I don’t want havoc. I don’t even want there to be a vaguely evil plan,” Lily replied quickly.
“Aw come on Evans! Yes you do! When is your birthday anyway?”
“I’m definitely not telling you that,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want the whole world to explode on my birthday as some weird kind of present!” she answered.
“I wasn’t even going to go anywhere near that,” he pouted. “Come on Evans, don’t be a spoilsport; just tell me when it is. I can get it off Mary or someone anyway.”
“Fine,” Lily said with a longsuffering sigh, “it’s January the thirtieth. Happy now?”
“Very, I’ll leave you to your work now,” he grinned, bouncing away.
Sirius gazed out of the window in Transfiguration and stifled a yawn; outside the snow was falling and all he wanted to do was frolic in it and run wild in the grounds. As he turned back to McGonagall he caught sight of James, whose messy hair had a number of small plaits in it courtesy of Peter’s boredom. With a grin he cast a quick Protean Charm on his and James’ parchment and scrawled: ‘I’m so bored Prongs.’
‘Same Padfoot. Wish McGonners would teach us something more interesting. Or at least talk about what’s happening out in the world.’
‘I wish I could have a nap without her noticing. Now that would be a useful spell.’
‘Just turn your brain off Padfoot. It’s not like it’s ever really on.’
‘Hahaha you’re so funny! I would laugh out loud right now but McG would know what’s up. How was Quidditch yesterday?’
‘Average. Not too bad. Why?’
‘Just wondering. You know me, I like to take an interest in my friends and their extracurricular ‘activities’.’
‘Why is that in quotation marks? W’
‘Ah sorry W, I didn’t do the charm on your notes. Thought you were working see. ‘Cause that’s what you told us to make sure you did yesterday… And I’d hate to let one of my friends down.’
‘Yeah well this lesson isn’t exactly useful is it? P’
‘Pete would you please make your mind up and decide whether to finish your messages with a W or a P? Not that it’s even necessary… We know what your handwriting looks like.’
‘It’s just polite James. That’s what my mum always says. I’ll just leave it like this.’
‘Why did you want to know about Quidditch?’
‘No reason… Just had an interesting conversation in the common room while you were practising and looking for your missing Chaser… You’ll never guess who’s birthday is coming up…’
‘Mine? But it’s not until March…’
‘No it’s not yours you moron. It’s someone WAY cooler.’
‘It’s nearly Alfie’s birthday…’
‘No, not Alfie Wormtail (although that’s true and I was thinking we should get him some Firewhiskey for his birthday)’
‘I don’t know Padfoot, whose birthday is it?’
‘You should…’
‘My mum’s?’
‘You’re an idiot.’
‘WHOSE BIRTHDAY IS IT THEN PADFOOT??!?!?’
‘PRONGS YOUR HANDWRITING IS PRACTIALLY ILLEGIBLE WHEN YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS… YOU SHOULD WORK ON THAT.’
‘WHOSE BIRTHDAY?! Is it REALLY this important?!’
‘Lily Evans.’
‘When?’
‘Jan 30.’
‘Should we get her something?’
‘I suggested a nice helping of havoc but she turned down my offer. Silly Evans doesn’t know what’s good for her.’
‘No, no presents and no havoc. She doesn’t like us… She’s been civil recently but that’s just her being polite because we’ve stopped being annoying. We’ll leave her alone.’
‘That was… surprisingly mature?’‘Are you sure?’ Both of these last messages appeared at exactly the same time, almost scribbled over each other.
‘Yeah. We’ve probably tormented her enough for a lifetime. We’ll just let her have a nice birthday. How about that’s our birthday present to her? A quiet day.’
‘Ok. Whatever you say…’ Sirius watched as James Vanished any trace of their conversation and returned to staring emptily at McGonagall. Devoid of anything fun to do he went back to staring out of the window and seeing how small he could fold bits of parchment before flicking them at Peter.