The Seven Year Itch

Chapter 3

"It'll be six in five minutes, Lily!" Julie called. Lily put her quill down.

"Great," she sighed, putting the essay she had just been writing in her bag.

"Have fun," Dorcas said.

"Goodbye, my one and only love!" Lily moaned, kneeling down in front of Dorcas. "Will you be waiting for me when I come back?"

"Nah," Dorcas smirked, eating a piece of chocolate. "When will you finally understand, Lily? I don't love you."

"Oh yes, you do," Lily whispered over-dramatically. "You just can't accept the fact that you love a woman yet, you can't accept that you're different... But I'll wait for you, no matter what."

"I shall never love you!" Dorcas exclaimed. "I'm already with Julie!"

"Well," Lily said, getting up. "It's better that way, I suppose. After all, you are crap in bed."

She grinned as Dorcas clapped her hand over her mouth in mock shock, but then she heard supressed snickers behind her. She turned around and saw that a group of sixth-year-boys had overheard them.

"See you, Dorcas," she said, climbing out of the portrait hole and leaving a very embarassed Dorcas behind.

She felt more sick and more sick as she approached Potter's office. What would she have to do? Surely, Potter would have thought up something really bad to annoy her.

She knocked.

"Enter," she heard Potter's voice. She grimaced and opened the door, stepping in.

"You're late, Evans."

She said nothing. He sighed and got up.

"Follow me."

He walked out the door and she followed him. They walked down staircases and Lily realized that they were going to the dungeons.

When they had arrived down there, he pushed open the door to one of the unused dungeons. Even Lily, who was definitely not a neat person, was a bit revolted as she saw all the dirt. Potter waved his wand and a bucket with soapy water and a few cleaning clothes appeared.

"You're to clean it," he said.

"What?" Lily asked, whipping around to face him.

"Only the desks. But if you ever get a detention with me again," he smirked, "you will clean the floor next."

Lily looked at the desks. They were encrusted with spilled potions and ingredients. She pulled a face.

"Oh yes, and give me your wand," he said. "You're to do this without magic."

She scowled at him.

"You'll get it back when you're finished," he said, extending his hand. "Now give me it."

She handed him her wand, glowering.

"I'll be back at 9 p.m.," he told her.

"I can hardly wait," she muttered sarcastically. He threw her a dirty look.

"Do you want to continue with the floor tomorrow evening, Evans?"

Throwing him a glare, she took one of the clothes and dipped it into the water. He chuckled and left the room.

She began cleaning the desk. She remembered what Julie had said yesterday: He'll probably make you scrub the floor in the dungeons with a toothbrush.

Well, Lily thought grimly, she was nearly right.

It was almost impossible to get the dirt off the desks. Lily briefly thought about going back to the Gryffindor Tower and borrowing Dorcas's or Julie's wand, but then dropped that thought. Potter would probably have thought she could try that and done something to stop her from doing that. Probaby he was standing guard in front of the Pink Lady's portrait.

"Lily?" she heard somebody say. She looked up to see Professor Slughorn. An idea formed in her head.

"What are you doing here, Lily?" he asked.

"Detention," she answered, putting on her best expression of innocence.

"Who would give a lovely girl like you detention?" he asked, eyeing her fondly.

"Professor Potter," she told him.

"And why?"

"Oh, it was a misunderstanding... he thought I had insulted him, but he just got it wrong," she said, smiling at him.

"Oh. Do you want me to go and talk to him?" he asked. Yep! She was on the right way.

"Oh no, he wouldn't believe me."

"Well, there's no way I will let you clean these incredibly dirty desks here," Slughorn said. "I will get a house-elf to do it."

"Oh, but-"

"No buts, Lily, a house-elf will do it and you're coming to my office to have some tea, would you like that?"

"Well, yes-"

Slughorn snapped his fingers and at once, a house-elf appeared.

"What do you want me to do, Master Slughorn?" he asked.

"I want you bring some tea and biscuits into my office and then clean up the desks here. Do you think you will manage that?"

The elf threw a glance at the tables and then said, "Yes, sir, I think so."

"Great. Let's go, Lily."

Lily took his offered arm, but not before smiling warmly at the elf who would do the revolting work for her. He looked surprised for a moment, but then smiled back.

And so it came that Lily, who had spent the whole day dreading the detention that she would have to do in the evening, sat in Professor Slughorn's office, eating biscuits and sipping tea. Sure, Slughorn was rather full of himself and a bit superficial at times, but he liked her and he had saved her from that awful detention. Lily swore herself she would never answer him cheekily again when he told her she should have been in Slytherin (she broke that promise the same evening). At this moment, life seemed really easy to her, even though it was her last year and she had a lot to study, even though Potter was her teacher, even though the fact that she would have to leave Hogwarts in a few months made her sad.

If anyone had told her that she would be dead in a little more than five years, she wouldn't have believed it. She also wouldn't have believed it if she was told that she would marry James Potter and that his love would keep her alive for the next five years, or that her death would be the final reason for Horace Slughorn to retire. Nor did she know that Severus Snape, who would be the reason for her death, would take up his post and torment her son when he would go to Hogwarts.

As she sat in Slughorn's office, she wasn't aware that Voldemort, who was slowly gaining more and more power, would slowly take away everyone who was important to her. Benjy, Dorcas... he would take them all away, and at the end, he would take James and then Lily herself.