When Lily and Harry were finally let out of the hospital wing, they went back to the Gryffindor Tower. On their way there, they walked past Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. Harry grabbed Lily's hand and walked faster, but she still made eye contact with Draco for a split second when he looked up.
The next Hogsmeade visit came, and despite Lily's protests, Harry insisted that she go to Hogsmeade without him, much to her dismay.
"But you'll be all alone." She frowned, crossing her arms.
"That's not true, I'll hang out with Lena or something." Harry said.
Lily frowned.
"Go on, Lil." He insisted, "Have fun."
"...I'll bring you back chocolates."
Harry smiled and agreed, so Lily reluctantly followed Neville to Hogsmeade. Over the past few weeks she had gotten closer to him, along with Lena, Ginny and Luna. December even stopped by to say hello to her a couple times. Speaking of December, the girl was currently standing outside of Honydukes, staring in through the window.
"Hi." Lily said, softly.
December whipped around.
"Oh, hi Lily! Hi Neville!" She beamed.
Then she turned back around and continued staring through the window with a dreamy smile.
"You going in?" Neville asked awkwardly, seeing how she had yet to enter the sweet shop.
"Mum and Dad never let me have too much candy." December said sorrowfully, "Not after the incident."
Lily and Neville exchanged glances.
"What's the incident?" Lily asked quietly.
"Oh, you know, I just ate one too many candy bars and poof! Everything was all upside down!"
"Huh?" Neville said.
"I turned the living room upside down, took my brother, January, ages to fix it." December explained, "And he's good with breaking spells- like, really good!"
Neville was silent. He looked over at Lily with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Well, I didn't mean to!" December defended, "Accidental magic and all."
"Oh, yeah." He said, still confused.
"I guess I was just so hyper, I couldn't contain the magic inside of me."
Neville nodded his head. There was another moment of silence as December looked back through the window.
"Well, I'm going to go in..." Neville said unsurely, "And if you want to join...?"
"Oh! Okay!" December agreed.
As if turns out, December and candy did not mix well.
"COME ON NEVI, EVEN LILY IS A REBEL!" December yelled.
"It's Neville." Neville corrected, wincing at her loudness.
"I'm not a rebel, really-" Lily began.
"No, you are." December said, "Remember that book you stole?"
Lily blushed and looked down at her shoes.
"Rebel." December affirmed.
"Okay, well could we go to the Three Broomsticks n-"
"OH!" December cried, "I JUST HAD AN IDEA! A WONDERFUL, DELIGHTFUL IDEA!"
"Yes?" Neville sighed.
"WE SHOULD GO TO THE TWO BROOMSTICKS!"
"Three." He corrected, but instantly regretted it.
"Three?" December asked, "Why on Earth would they name their place "three" broomsticks? Two sounds much better."
"I don't know, December." Neville sighed.
"Oh, you can call me Deci." December informed him.
"Okay." He sighed, causing Lily to giggle.
"That's the spirit, Lily!" December cried, grabbing Lily's and and pulling the girl down the street, "Catch up, Nevi!"
"Neville." Neville whispered, but he followed the girls to the restaurant anyway.
"So, my old man brother, January, or Jay, is twenty seven, and my sister February is... twenty five? March is twenty two, but everyone calls him Archie. Oh! And then comes the first pair of twins, twenty one years old, I think, April and May. We call them... April... and May... Ooh! And then comes the second pair of twins, Junie and Julie, but their real names are June and July. They are eighteen... no, Wait! Nineteen! August is eighteen. And then comes the siblings who go to Hogwarts with us, September, or Ember, sixth year, Toby, real name October, fourth year. And then there's Nova, November, also fourth year, but not a twin, and then meeeeeeeee! December, Deci Ross, third year!"
Lily and Neville were staring at her, mouthed open.
"What?" December asked, "Did I go too fast?"
"And I thought Ron had a big family." Neville mused.
"Here, let me go over it again-" December began.
"NO!" Lily and Neville cried.
"I mean, um, maybe we should... refill our butterbeers instead?" Lily offered.
"Hm, okay!" December cheered, grabbing their cups and heading to the counter to get them refilled.
When she came back, much to her two new friend's dismay, she began talking more about her life story.
"So, my parents first decided to adopt January, and then they liked the month name, so they thought, let's stick with it." December said, "And then came along the rest of us... and we all have magic, except for February, Febe. She was born without it, but we all love her anyways! Mum and Dad even said after they adopted her that they would be open to adopting little muggle babies, but the Ministry of Magic wouldn't let them. Sometimes I get tired of being the youngest, and I wish I had a little sibling, but then there'd be thirteen of us and honestly, I think my parents have their hands tied with twelve. Besides, what would we name them? Paul? Can you imagine having twelve kids named after months, and then one kid named Paul?! Poor Paul."
Just then, Hermione made her way over to the table.
"Hey." She greeted them all, before turning specifically to Lily, "Could I borrow you for a second?"
Lily looked over at her friends. December nodded with a bright smile and although Neville looked a bit sad about being left behind with a sugar high December, he gave her a nod as well.
Lily followed Hermione out of the shop and over to Ron, who was waiting seeming alone outside.
"Hi-" Lily broke herself off with a little squeak as Harry materialized out of nowhere.
"Sorry." Harry apologized.
Lily moved forward and hugged him tightly. When she pulled away, she looked confused.
"How did you get here?" She asked.
"Oh, um, a little help from Fred and George." Harry said, nervously.
"They gave you that map?" Lily guessed.
"You knew about the map?!" Harry exclaimed.
"...yeah." Lily said quietly.
"You didn't tell me!" Harry said.
"Sorry." She apologized.
"...It's okay." He said, "But can we go inside and get something to drink? I want to try the butterbeers here."
"Sure." Lily agreed.
Since she already had two mugs of the drink, Lily opted to simply sit and talk with Harry, Ron and Hermione. They were talking amongst themselves when a group of people entered the Three Broomsticks, one of them being the Minister if Magic himself.
"-of course with Black going after the Potter boy, I would suspect Lily isn't safe-" someone was saying before they were shushed.
"Not here." They said.
The group went upstairs and Harry grabbed his cloak.
"Harry, no-" Hermione began to protest.
"I want to know why they're talking about us." Harry said, "Come on, Lil."