academic curiosity

"It´s NO USE you fool... Were up the swanny!" screamed an elderly coot standing outside the door to the Hogshead as Lily and a couple of her girlfriends trudged past in the the icy breeze.

Lily could very briefly feel the enveloping, malodorous warmth of the old dive as they cruised quickly past the partially open doorway.

Debra and another Gryffindor girl, Peggy Calanka were giggling softly, looking back over their shoulders at several young louts that were also standing outside the shady pub and eyeing them back carefully.

"That sandy haired one is looking at you, Lily!" Debra hissed, releasing a sharp jet of steamy breath into the chilly air.

Lily obligingly turned to examine this man. "Looks like the discriminatory sort," she commented loftily and stared straight ahead again while the other two laughed.

"Where is this place were going?" Lily asked Debra skeptically. They had been walking past all the warm shops and sleepy pubs and now they had reached the very fringe elements of the village. There was nothing but a run-down newspaper bin, a abandoned sign post and... A huge black dog that looked like it could eat all three of them in one gulp.

They all froze at the sight of it and gasped.

It wagged it´s tail merrily, in sharp contrast to it´s ferocious appearance. The girls exchanged cautious glances and tried to walk around the giant animal but it moved into their path immediately and made a low noise of appeal.

Lily reached over and pet it and it spun three or four frantic circles. "Wow..." she muttered as it spun in another circle and jumped back, scattering snow and dirt behind itself. "Cool dog."

"I wonder who it belongs to? There´s no collar," said Peggy.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Debra asked pointedly. When no one answered and the other two were still watching the big dog do fancy tricks of it´s own accord she added impatiently, "Shouldn´t we get a move on? It´s freaking cold out here!"

"Okay, okay," Peggy replied, watching the big black dog shake paws with Lily.

"Look," Lily said with a smile, "He´s coming with us!" she pointed behind her as it followed them into the woods. "So where exactly are we going, Debra?" she asked glumly.

Lily didn´t find any group meeting that occurred in the forest in the dead of winter a promising social event. In fact forests (or any place that you were unable to wear heels) were often discluded from her list of fun places to gather with friends.

The whole way the black dog marched behind them, every few seconds catching up Lily and trotting at her side. He was so large that his back reached her hip and she didn't have to bend to pet him.

"Not far off from here," Debra mumbled. Lily detected a hopeful note in her voice, but since she didn´t have anything better (but OWLS studies) to do she walked on, flipping her coat hood over head. Lily didn't share a dorm with Debra or Peggy but they were all in the same year. Debra had told them earlier that morning that she had found out about a 'very cool' place to hang out in the village that hardly anyone knew about. Lily was starting to have her doubts that either of the other girls knew where they were really going.

Luckily though, Debra wasn´t wrong. They began to approach what looked like a rustic camp. Lily thought of a band of gypsies. But instead of gypsies, there were assembled around a poorly made fire, a middling group of Hogwarts students. The only one that Lily knew well, Eddie Carmichael, was seated left of center, a hand rolled fag hanging out of his mouth, studying some sort of dried plant that Toggie Booth, a fellow Slytherin was holding out.

No one in the circle acknowledged the three girls as they came by. Instead a Ravenclaw named Nathan Corner said loudly at another boy from their own house, Rusty Cogswell, "Bet you I can swallow a conflagration curse!"

"Yeh, right Nate," he drawled. Then both boys looked up at the girls anxiously.

"Hi?" Lily tried, since Debra was too busy staring at the group distastefully.

"Afternoon, Evans. Pull up a log why don´t you?" Eddie called, motioning to a couple of empty logs that were intended as low benches.

As they obligingly sat, it seemed that everyone in the huddled camp,all of them boys, looked at the girls collectively, in a surly sort of way and then their eyes fell on the huge black dog that suddenly appeared out of the shadows to sit in front of Lily.

"What the hell is that?" A Ravenclaw called Arthur Dash asked in a strange voice, his feet scraping the earth as he seemed to be subconsciously recoiling.

The other boys laughed uproariously at him. "Dash is afraid of dogs," Toggie explained.

"Dog!?" Dash moaned. "Is that what you´re trying to call that beast?" he asked Lily with a scowl, seeming to misunderstand her to be the dog´s owner.

Lily looked at the black dog and it wagged it´s tail. "What´s your problem?" she asked Dash with a degree of impatience. "It doesn´t bite, look!" She pet the animal's great black head. "See? He´s a very good dog."

"I like him, Evans," Toggie Booth offered. "Looks a bit familiar actually..." he turned to Eddie, "Hey, isn´t that the stray that chased that wee little bloke, Black, all the way back to school year or so ago?"

Thinking of Sirius, the only male Black she knew of, Lily had a hard time fathoming such a demeaning image.

"That´s what first years get for trying to stick their noses in my business," Eddie explained stoically. "Caught that one listening in on me a couple times at the Hogshead... Can´t stand snitches."

"Don´t think he was looking to snitch, he´s got his own little business don´t he? I saw him with a few of those Dark Lord wannabes yesterday-"

"Who are you talking about?" Peggy interrupted with a bewildered glare.

"Calm down!" A boy named Ethan Hoep replied condescendingly. "Don´t get your knickers all in a bunch. They ain´t talking `bout Sirius Black. It´s that brother of his- Er, what´s his name?" Hoep asked Eddie.

"Regulus," Eddie offered, handing back the dried plants and watching Toggie wrap them with loving care back into his book bag with an amused smile.

Everyone turned to stare when the black dog let out a low growling sound. But as it didn´t start attacking them all, everyone turned back to their conversations and the girls went back to pretending that they were not grossly out of place.

It hadn´t taken Lily until this moment to wonder how more possibly bored she could be doing her her studies in the piping hot common room, a pumpkin juice at her elbow, maybe a few of those blueberry scones if there were any left over from breakfast...

"So Evans? Care to see something really funny?" Arthur Dash suddenly called over at her with a grin that promised that she would was about to be disgusted and or horrified, possibly both within the next two minutes.

"No she doesn´t Arthur!" Debra snapped angrily at him, making both Lily and Peggy jump. "You don´t even say HI ANYMORE, I see!!" she stood up from the dirty, frozen log to stamp her foot at the sixth year while everyone in the clearing fell silent and watched. The log upended a bit and the other two struggled not to fall over. "I KNEW I SHOULDN´T HAVE COME! YOU SLEAZY, NO GOOD-"

As she progressed into a stream of more controversial language Lily gazed around Debra´s backside, to make eye contact with Peggy. Peggy looked back at her with widened eyes as she clutched the filthy log bench for dear life.

"OY!" Dash cried out as Debra stormed over to him and started kicking. "CALM DOWN..." His eyes flicked around the circle of his hysterical mates and he grabbed her leg, saying in a very low voice that was hard to make out, "I was going to say hello... Jesus... What´s your problem, woman? I was going to- OW!" She took aim and kicked him again. A pair of Gryffindor fourth years were taking bets. The rest of the boys were contented with sucking down some sort of drink in brown, unmarked bottles, laughing.

"This will be the last time I wander out into the middle of the wilderness to meet up with the likes of YOU!" Debra spun around, facing him and pointing at his heart dramatically.

"She should consider theater," Lily whispered in wonder to Eddie and Toggie.

"She´s got a pretty nice rack," Toggie said in what apparently was some sort of agreement.

Lily and Peggy had to cover their mouths. Peggy was trying to laugh so hard that tears leaked from her eyes and froze on her cheeks. Lily had to clutch at her when she nearly tipped them both off the log again. No one noticed this as the boys were all gradually falling back into their various business plans (which is what Lily suspected were surrounded by the dried foliage in baggies).

The black dog twitched and made a whine of annoyance.

"See? The dog knows what were talking about," Eddie reached over to scratch his ears. However, the dog didn´t seem to have any interest in being fondled by the likes of Eddie and quickly backed away out of his reach.

Debra had by this time made it up with Dash and was crying into his shoulder with exhaustion.

"Is that her boyfriend?" Peggy turned round and asked Lily, "I am so lost."

"Want some Edsmead?" Eddie suddenly asked them. "It´ll keep you warm."

Lily had to scratch the top of her lip for a few seconds so that no one would see the smile trying to form at the word `Edsmead.´

"No thanks, it has the ring of something you made in your lab, you geek," Lily muttered, waving away a bottle. Peggy took a bottle, but Lily saw out of the corner of her eye that she couldn´t manage to pry off the cap so she set it by the log.

"I was thinking of calling it Carmead, too... But I thought using my surname would be unoriginal," Eddie explained as if he was surrounded by his board of directors.

"Are we the only girls out here?" Peggy asked Lily quietly. Lily saw her point. There was definitely the air of male desperation out in the woods today, with the exception of Eddie and Booth who had a a lot of practice acting natural from their selling of black market items.

Making the situation worse, Debra and Arthur Dash began doing something that could have been called snogging, except it was more like some sort of imitation of what would happen if two squids got hurled at one another during the height of mating season.

"Disgusting!" Lily whispered to Peggy in glee.

After a few minutes a somewhat good-looking one of the group, possibly the only good-looking one, sat by Peggy and struck up a conversation about how he hates `these sorts of things´ and she happened to agree and so Lily was left with the dog who rested it´s head in her lap happily as she scratched behind his ears.

Another few minutes went by and then more boys trudged into the camp and Lily quickly discerned James Potter from the bunch.

When Potter´s sight fell on her side of the mangy camp, the dog let out a sharp bark and leapt up from her feet.

Potter´s face lit up immediately. "Found my best friend, Evans!" he said with a boyish smile that Lily enjoyed.

Potter pet the dog roughly as it spun and barked loudly again. The other boys laughed.

"Cool dog, Potter!" Dash cried as he yanked his face from Debra´s. Lily rolled her eyes.

Frank Longbottom appeared out of this new group and sat on the log with Lily, Peggy and the good-looking boy. Lily watched as Potter, his black hair standing practically on end, went to stand on the opposite side of the clearing to talk to a a few Ravenclaws. Lily watched him for a full minute. It appeared that he was saying something very dirty and very funny because the group of boys were rolling with mischievous laughter and then the black dog set off into a excited barking fit. After a bit the dog settled down by Lily and she felt as if it were watching her, which was pretty ridiculous, but she stopped examining Potter anyway and nestled into the dog´s warm fur, patting it on the head. He was warm and soft.

"That thing must be pretty filthy," Longbottom suddenly said to her with distaste as he watched her wrap her arms around it´s neck.

"No, actually... He´s really clean... Must have a home around here somewhere," she replied.

"Certainly looks well fed," Frank muttered.

The dog stared balefully at him.

"You calling my dog fat, Longbottom? Lucky you, I can´t give out detentions as a prefect! I´d have you scrubbing the mold out of the dungeons for the next two months," Lily retorted indignantly.

"So how are you doing, Peggy?" Longbottom asked, ignoring Lily angrily. He was still bothered about the Grodzisk Goblins cap she had jinxed to say " ...ARE LOSERS," just after Christmas probably.

"I´m fine," Peggy said, in a tone of voice that indicated that she was lying.

"Oh? Well would you care for a stroll? I thought I saw a good spot that overlooks the Shrieking Shack through that little, narrow path over there..."

"You mean that dark, secluded one?" Lily muttered to herself as the two of them got off the log causing her to get badly jostled. They walked off and Lily realized that somehow she had been duped, severely. And now even her big pretty dog had lost interest and was nipping at Potter´s heels for attention.

Lily debated about which was the best way to exit the scene without attracting any attention.

The good-looking fellow, who had been left on log by Peggy, said, "So... Don´t you hate these sorts of things?"

*    *    *

"Peggy? With Longbottom?" Alia gasped. "THAT TART!" she screamed in delight.

"Shhhh!" Lily waved her hand at her as half the girls in the corridor snapped their necks back towards them.

"I have to go this way..." Lily sighed, gesturing to the opposite end of the corridor that Alia was turning to.

"Rendezvous with Sirius Black on the Astronomy Tower?" Alia suggested merrily, in just loud enough voice that over a dozen people could hear.

Lily scowled. After a few moments she said, "Slugclub convergence in the third floor corridor, actually."

"Oooh... But maybe afterward you can go up to the Astron-"

"If I do, I´ll be sure to let you know," Lily said shaking her head as she sauntered off.

"Ahoy!" a smallish fourth year with thick glasses saluted her before she could get much farther. She was going to definitely be late for Slughorn, which didn´t make a difference to Lily.

"Ossie!" Lily greeted.

"It´s true! It´s me," he agreed. "We missed you in Advanced Charms study last night!"

"Oh really? Did you and Ralph figure out around that nosebleed hex?"

"Nope," he said. "Ralph was distracted. So we didn´t get much work done, I´d say. What a drag, huh."

"Distracted? Ralph? What had him distracted do you think?" Lily asked. She knew better than asking questions like this of Ossie Hooten, but she couldn´t resist the urge. Lily wouldn´t be even asking the if she hadn´t caught Ralph looking at her in their Advanced Charms study period a few more times than what could be normal. And she wouldn´t have been asking either, if Ralph wasn´t tall and dark haired and very amusing to talk to.

"Oh, I dunno. He just kept staring at the big clock over the door, like this," Ossie said solemnly and then his face went perfectly slack and began to look anxious as his pupils fixed on a spot somewhere over Lily´s head. "Then," Ossie continued looking a little put out now, "He kept asking me if I knew why you hadn´t shown up and I heard him ask Harriet Perkins if it was true that you had a boyfriend. Oh, wow..." Ossie seemed to just realize something. He focused back on her and smiled, "You have a boyfriend? That´s pretty funny!"

"No, I don´t have one actually," Lily said, a weak feeling in her knees taking over.

Ossie misunderstood the wistful look on her face. "Are you okay? Did you get food poisoning at lunch?! You look bizarre!"

"Uh, I have butterflies in my stomach..."

Ossie bent his knees until his head was level with her belly. He looked up, glinting at her through his goggle-like glasses. "How did they get in there?" he asked in a appalled voice.

"Ossie... Did you happen to hear what Perkins said to Ralph when he asked her if I... Uh, had a boyfriend?" she put forth as nonchalantly as possible.

"Well... I think she said a bunch of stuff. But I just can´t remember any of it. Frankly,Lily," Ossie said seriously, looking at her sternly, "I´m worried about this butterfly business."

"Don´t worry," she mumbled. "Look, I should go. If you see Ralph, could you do me a favor?" she asked.

"Possibly..."

"When you see him around can you happen to mention to him that I do not have a boyfriend. But don´t say that I told you to say that, okay? I mean, just like mention that I don´t have one and make it sound natural like, maybe fit into the conversation and-"

"Lily!" Ossie scolded.

"Sorry, what?"

"Is it okay if I just have you tell him that you don´t have a boyfriend? I get very confused sometimes and what with this and now the butterflies I can´t keep up with all this turmoil in your life. So just tell Ralph you don´t have a boyfriend and then ask him what he thinks of your butterfly infestation. Quite frankly, I´ve never heard of a wizard being infested and being able to stand and have conversations about boyfriends they don´t have like this."

Lily took what she could from this sage wisdom and left for Professor Slughorn´s office.

Her stomach once again took a nasty turn when she flipped open the lock and saw Ralph Venkmen himself huddled behind all the Slugclub regulars. Professor Slughorn himself, in the center of the small crowd, getting plied with candied pineapple saw her enter and gasped as if she was a vision of the greatest beauty.

"My! My! We can finally have some fun, Lily´s here!"

Now the Slubclub mainly consisted of social-climbing future employees of the Ministry of Magic. Lily didn´t like any of them excepting a few of the newer additions to the club like herself. `Fun´ was not something that was likely to occur here, but at the same time, the Slughorn sessions were not un-fun either. They always ended up being pretty illuminating. James Potter had been a recent addition to the club, though not as recent as she herself was. Lily suspected that as a muggle born it had taken Slughorn a bit longer to discover she was three times better than Potter in his potions class. Sirius Black had been yanked into Slughorn´s office off and on for years, as he had confided last time she had seen him there. Apparently Slughorn wasn´t prejudiced against the pure blood Black family simply because 99% of them had gone to cauldron due to a affinity for interfamily marriages.

Slughorn had continued to say what was probably very embarrassing, complimentary things but she hadn´t been listening. She was concentrating on trying not to appear that she was noticing Ralph more than usual and at the same time trying not to appear as if she was ignoring him. Trying to do both these things at once nearly made her cross-eyed so she quickly found a seat on one of the lower stools by Slughorn and looked at the ground.

Why was Ralph here all the sudden? It wasn´t that Ralph didn´t have a bright future that Slughorn would enjoy leeching off of, but he was a seventh year and had escaped Slughorn´s notice this long... Why all the sudden was he here, in Slughorn´s office, chewing on candied pineapple and trying to look like he didn´t want to jab shifty Osman Shodwick across from him in the eye socket with the end of his wand?

James Potter was in her peripheral vision, making the situation worse. She was beginning to have the feeling that he was always studying her closely. In class, in the corridors, sometimes at dinner and even one time at a Quidditch tournament. The sensation was of one being under a magnifying glass.

"I keep telling her that she belongs in my house... Don´t you agree Osman? Regulus?"

Lily snapped to attention at this last name and gazed in the direction that Slughorn was looking. Seated in the back corner behind Tomoko Satori, a beastly Ravenclaw girl that helped found the Junior Knights of Walpurgis, a Dark Lord worshipping club that ended with a few of it´s members running off to join Him in the big war, was a sullen-looking boy that appeared to be only a year or two younger than herself. He was attractive, like all the members of the Black family she had seen, but he had his face fixed in a permanent scowl that distorted his graceful features. It was disappointing to look at him, though Lily couldn´t think of exactly why this was.

As Osman began hooting his snarky disapproval of Slughorn´s suggestion, Regulus shot her a dirty look and looked at the wall behind her head.

"That´ll be the first weekend after Hell freezes over, Professor Slughorn," Lily retorted in a respectful voice.

The only reason she could fathom that Slughorn had invited Regulus was because he was from a famous pure blood family. And for that, Lily could be sympathetic. The boy obviously did not want to be here in this enlarged office watching a rotund little man suck on candy and gloat.

Lily´s gaze shifted from Regulus to Sirius, who managed to look amazing even when he was scowling. He had probably been caught in the middle of the corridor by Slughorn. His uniform tie was loose behind his neck and his shirt was unbuttoned as if he had been on his way to relaxation after a hard days work. Next to him, reclined in a posture of polite misery was Potter. She caught his eye and he wiggled in his chair and made a face at her.

As Slughorn turned to talk to her directly, Potter continued to make faces at her and then mimicked Slughorn from behind a hand so that the others wouldn´t see it.

"Now Lily, there are a few new faces to you, I´m certain of this... Well, you must get to know them... Kesmit Owens there next to you is a grandson of the famous Laverne de Montmorency and you´ll be seeing him someday on one of those delectable Chocolate Frog cards, I´m sure! Sirius Black and James Potter," here Potter lowered his hand and nodded at Slughorn, the very picture of dignity and righteousness, "elude me nearly every time I have a little gathering but-" as he went on, Potter went back to the faces and imitations and Lily was having a very hard time keeping her face straight. "Of course you are likely well informed already on James Potter´s fabulous Quidditch records and his family´s remarkable history in the invention of the game itself..." Here Lily blinked and tried to appear as if this wasn´t startling news, "And Sirius´ heritage is of course not going to be mystery to you... Heh, heh, not that one needs to be pure blood to be a great wizard! You´re Inferius spell is quite the little to-do, according to Professor Flitwick and McGonagall!"

Once again, Lily could nothing but blink. She was only vaguely informed on the word `Inferius.´ She had read it somewhere... But couldn´t think of what it meant.

Some of the others were looking at her quite sharply now. Particularly Tomoko, who began hissing something into Regulus Black´s ear. When he nodded and snickered, her sympathies for him fell flat.

Potter was rolling his eyes and stuck out his hands and let his mouth fall open with a dumb, vacant expression. Sirius turned and grinned and looked at her, chuckling silently.

Slughorn had seen this too and also chuckled. "Well, I´m sure it´s much less gauche than that, James!"

"I wouldn´t be so sure, Professor," replied Potter. He shot Lily a smile and she was only mildly confused now. They must be somehow referring to the charm she did that reanimated dead things. So the charm already had existed... This was relieving news. She was contemplating why Dumbledore, or someone hadn´t bothered with telling her this when Slughorn began piping up about some other new face to the Slugclub.

"Ralph Venkmen is our school´s most prodigious artist with charm work... He´s been your tutor for how long now? Three years? Fabulous!"

Lily felt a lot like she was on a episode of `This Is Your Life!´ as Ralph suddenly moved from the shadows behind Potter and Sirius´ arm chairs. He was perched on a low stool and seemed to want to remain invisible but was forced by Slughorn to move forward.

"Oh, I know Ralph very well!" Lily said with a small smile.

"Yes, we work together often," Ralph confirmed hesitantly to a delighted Slughorn. "We have loads in common... I would say that Lily is probably much further ahead than I in most areas of charm work too... Truly talented..."

Potter seemed to disagree with all this, he was glaring at the back of Ralph´s head venomously. As Slughorn and Ralph made some sort of awkward conversation, Lily began to wonder if it wasn´t necessarily the allegations that she was good in charm work, that had Potter fired up. She knew it was wrong, but she began to feel in a much better mood than when she had first walked in the office!

After Lily had agreed to several pieces of candied pineapple and helped herself to two butterbeers she fled out of the office with the others. She and Ralph walked out together, Ralph in some mind bendingly confusing speech about the nature of anti-jinxes and Lily pointedly did not look at Potter or Black as they passed them on the stair.

Ralph was a fast walker, what with his long legs, so they soon overtook everyone and it was only as they reached the fabric flap in the wall that led to a short cut to the Gryffindor common room that he came to a abrupt halt, but kept talking.

"I´m sorry... I´m talking a lot. Am I boring you to tears?"

"No, I didn´t understand some of the bit you said as we passed the statue of Gregory the Smarmy, but I´m just a hands-on sort of person... I don´t work nearly as well with a text book as I do with just practical work."

She had definitely meant there to be a innuendo in that statement, but Ralph hadn´t understood.

"That´s okay! You´re brilliant, so I wouldn´t worry about that. Listen, I wanted to ask you a question..."

"Shoot," Lily replied thinking dismally that he was going to inquire about the worth of trying to learn counter curses that equated to about the same end as a charm you already knew.

"You can say `no´ if you want, I won´t be offended... But I was wondering if you were at all interested in going to Hogsmeade with me sometime... Maybe next one? I just think we have loads in common and so it makes sense that we should, uh, hang out sometime," he finished looking as if was expecting to be turned down.

Lily smiled widely at him. "Really? Your asking me out? Wow... Yes!"

"Yes?" Ralph asked.

"Of course! I was hoping you´d ask me!"

"You were?" he asked in disbelief that she was ahead of the game.

"Yeah..." Lily´s shyness finally caught up with her, but she had enough adrenaline left to make a graceful parting, without embarrassing herself. She watched Ralph bounce off looking ecstatic.