According to Lily

Chapter 2

The remaining weeks at Hogwarts were spent only having fun. Exams were over, and for the most part, Lily had nothing to worry about. Except for one thing - James. Lily would catch him staring at breakfast, or History of Magic. She hated it. Lily was not the kind of person who liked getting attention. She just tried to ignore it for the most part, and she went on with life as usual.

Two weeks before the summer holidays, Lily awoke in the Gryffindor Girls' dorm to a full-fledged symphony coming from her pillow. She rolled off the bed and fell the floor, tangled in blankets.

"Shut iterff," she mumbled from the ground.

"Sorry. I was just experimenting," Mattie said sheepishly. She flipped through an old, brown spell book. "I'm just looking for the counter-curse."

"You mean you don't know it?" Amanda asked from her bed, where her curtains were drawn shut. She yawned loudly and muttered a few choice words under her breath.

"Er. . . No," Mattie said, blushing. She slammed the book shut, on the verge of tears. "It's not in here. . . Oh, I'm really sorry. . Please don't be mad, guys."

Nadia sat up and walked over to Mattie, followed by Lily. Lily gave a quick one-armed hug to Mattie.

"Don't worry," she said gently, "I'm sure Nadia will know how to shut it off. Finite Incantem, right, Nadia?"

Nadia shook her head, confused. "Tried it. Doesn't work. I think there's another one though." Nadia chanted a string of spells, one after another. Finally, it shut off.

The girls cheered, with the exception of Amanda.

"Nice job there, Nadia. Mattie, as a hint, practice outside next time, mm'kay, dear?" Amanda grinned and stretched her arms. "Can you believe our fifth year is practically done? I'm thrilled. A whole year plus without any O.W.L.'s or N.E.W.T.'s, and next year we can drop classes!" Amanda certainly looked thrilled about the idea of not having certain classes and high-pressure exams.

"Yes, I'm going to be dropping History of Magic for sure," Nadia said, "It's a waste, don't you think? Well, not really, but with Binns teaching, you might as well be listening to a rubbish bin."

There's two advantages to dropping HoM. . . no more Binns, no more be stared at by James. You'd think he could at least pretend he's not looking. Lily walked to her dresser and pulled out a set of robes. "I heard from Timothy McCarthy - you know, that fourth year with the brown hair and glasses? - that there's going to be a last Hogsmeade visit."

"Really?" Nadia asked, interested. "They usually don't have anything after exams."

"No, I heard that, too," Mattie said. "I'm glad. Me and Andrew - from Ravenclaw - can go together."

Lily grinned. "Mattie, should Andrew know that your heart 'only belongs to James?' Or has it been split in two?"

Mattie blushed. "You know I was just kidding. My heart only belongs to James in the sense that if he asked me out, I'd drop Andrew like a hot potato."

Amanda burst out laughing. "Well, I know where you got that bit of feistiness," she said, glaring at Lily.

Lily tossed her hair and grinned. "I wouldn't say I'm that cold, but what can I say? I influence people," she said jokingly. Lily threw her fresh set of robes over her shoulder and shrugged. "Not quite the supermodel look, eh?"

The other girls looked at her quizzically.

"Muggle thing." Lily laughed.

*******

Sure enough, there was a Hogsmeade visit for the upcoming weekend.

"Only 35 hours and 18 minutes till Hogsmeade!" Sirius Black yelled and turned a cartwheel in the common room, accidentally kicking a first year girl. "Whoopsie-daisy. Sorry there!"

The girl scampered up to her dorm and Sirius shrugged. "Hey, you can't always get forgiveness," he said.

Lily shook her head and surveyed the situation in the common room. As Prefect, she felt personally responsible for helping out the kids who were constantly being tormented by Sirius and James. Remus helped out quite a lot as well. Lily was constantly grateful that Remus was Prefect rather than James or someone.

"Hello, wooorrrlld!" James strolled down the stairs, hair rumpled and smiling broadly. A cluster of fourth year girls rushed up to him.

"James!" one said in a shrill voice, "That last Quidditch game was brilliant, you know. You put Ravenclaw's Keeper to shame."

James just went on smiling. "Well, not everyone can accomplish certain things," he said, eyes darting around the room. The fourth years were now dangling on every word. He returned his focus on them. "But I, however, have been playing Quidditch since I could walk!"

Lily coughed loudly and glared at James. He blushed, and tried to push his way though the group of girls. "Sorry there, girls. . I - er, I got to go now. . "

They looked thoroughly devastated, but let him through.

Lily met James after he made his way through the crowded common room.

"What d'you think you're doing, James?"

James stared at the ground. "Er. . . being a stuck-up prat?" he suggested, grinning slightly.

Now it was Lily's turn to blush. She turned a bright pink and looked James in the eye. "Well, I just wanted to know if you knew where Remus is. We have a Prefect meeting."

"Oh. OH!" James eyes widened and he didn't let himself make eye contact with Lily. "He's . . . he's sick. Got some kind of fever."

"Well, Pomfrey can fix these things quickly, can't she?" Lily asked exasperatedly.

"Er . . . Well, you see . . . There's a potion. And . . . She's run out, she needs to make more," James said.

Lily nodded. "Well, I'll see you later then?" James nodded. "Er, look James." Lily searched around for the right words. It was like stepping in a minefield. You had to choose where you'd go carefully. "I'm sorry about yesterday, and even though I don't want to go out with you, it's not like I completely loathe you or anything. I just...you know." Lily bit her lip. Now it was time to see if her step was a safe one, if the mine would explode under her feet.

"It's ok." James turned away and left through the portrait hole without another word.

*******

The next day or so went by in a blur. Saturday, around 10:00 A.M., Lily was just ushering the last third years out of the common room when Remus stepped through the portrait hole. Lily smiled, and waved him over.

"Hey, Remus! James told me you were in the hospital wing," Lily said, "How are you now?"

A look of horror crossed Remus's face, but it was soon replaced with a fake smile. "Er, I'm doing ok. I'm not going to Hogsmeade, though. I'm just not feeling up to it."

Lily nodded and smiled sympathetically. "Hope you feel better, Remus. Hey, would you mind watching the first and second years? They're only playing exploding snap, but last month Alex singed his eyebrows off."

Remus chuckled and said, "Of course."

Alex, a small second year with spiky black hair stood up and yelled, "It was all Jonas' fault about my eyebrows!"

Lily gave Remus a quick, one-armed hug and a kiss on the cheek before leaping through the portrait hole. "Good luck, Remus! You're great!"

She left so quickly she failed to notice that Remus was standing with his mouth wide open, a face redder than her own hair, and a look of immense surprise.

*****

Once in Hogsmeade, Lily and Nadia went off on their own. Amanda and Mattie usually went into Madame Puddifoot's (with whomever Amanda's latest boyfriend was and Mattie's ever-reliable Andrew), or Gladrags.

The two girls scoured the streets of Hogsmeade in search of something to do. There were plenty of things, but they wanted to celebrate making it though their O.W.L.'s. After an hour of milling around, they stumbled into the Three Broomsticks and managed to snag a table in the back of the room. Nadia went up to get two butterbeers, and came back with an idea.

"We can chug. Let's see who can their butterbeer the fastest. The whole bottle," Nadia said, with a sly grin. Her face was red with excitement as she slid Lily a bottle.

Lily groaned in mock exasperation, but smiled. "Where on earth did you get that idea?"

Nadia jerked her head in the direction of the counter, where Sirius Black and James Potter were chugging bottle after bottle of butterbeer. Peter was holding an enormous butterbeer, with three empty mugs beside him. Madame Rosmerta was chuckling at them, but her face turned a nasty shade of purple when Sirius began to look green.

"See, Nadia!" Lily whispered, watching the scene. "That's what happens with chugging."

Nadia paled and watched Sirius as well. "He's going to spew, isn't he." It wasn't a question, more of a declaration.

Lily nodded solemnly. "Yes," she said, "Right all over Rosmerta's green, sparkly he-"

There was a heave and Sirius was double over the bar, coughing. All the people in the bar turned to see what was going on. The older students, used to Sirius' chugging-then-spewing procedure, just shook their heads and turned away. The third years and bar patrons not from Hogwarts watched with fascination.

Madame Rosmerta sighed and flicked her wand. "Sirius Black, no more butterbeer for you today. I refuse to sell any to you, or your friend James."

James nodded, Sirius grimaced (he was still pale with a greenish tinge), and Peter snickered. The adults in the bar scuffled to the front in a stampede-like manner, and the third years still watched, eyes as wide as saucers.

"And, I'm afraid I'll be alerting McGonagall," Madame Rosmerta continued, "I warned you the last time that if you did this again, you'll be hearing from your Head of House. And here you are, doing it again. I'm going to send her a quick owl."

Sirius, who was getting back some color, smiled dazzlingly. Madame Rosmerta frowned at him, but Sirius ignored her and began to talk, "I know you're upset, Rosmerta. May I call you Rosmerta? But please, let us slide. We're innocent fifteen-year-old boys. We can't be expected to be good. We're letting out our inner rebellion."

James nodded and continued where Sirius left off. "It's better for our community to be a teensy bit naughty here, than go off attacking girls for a snog in the broom closets back at Hogwarts isn't it?"

Lily gaped and raised her eyebrows. He's drunk or something isn't he? He's got to be drunk. Not even James would say that to an adult.

Nadia was shocked as well. "Well, he's just asked for it," she said softly.

The other students in the bar were now silent, except for one third year Lily didn't recognize.

"AW! I think it's better to snog than to drink butterbeer!" His friend whacked him in the shins and yanked him to his seat.

Lily stifled a chuckle and turned her attention back James, where he was continuing his speech.

"Why, we could be doing all sorts of things if we didn't let out our inner bad-boy here at the Three Broomsticks. And really, what's a little smell of puke? It can be covered with a charm!" James waved his wand and yelled something unidentifiable. Sirius sprouted green horns and yelped.

"James, you git!" Sirius felt his head and moaned.

Madame Rosmerta turned red and towed in her sparkly turquoise shoes. She wasn't very tall, but she looked eight feet tall now. "YOU TWO! Out! NOW!" She pointed to the door expectantly.

Sirius, blushing madly, pulled his robe up to cover his horns and grabbed James by the arm. "You git, you bloody git. How could you get drunk on butterbeer? How?" Peter followed meekly, grinning a little. At the door, the trio stopped. James wrenched his arm away from Sirius and turned to the table where Lily and Nadia were sitting.

Oh God. Please, no. Make Sirius shut him up. Please. Lily desperately ducked down under the table a little. Now James was pointing. Nadia stared, open-mouthed.

"You, there, with the red hair! Yes, that's you, Lily Evans!" James grinned shakily. "You know I love you, Lily. I'll see you in the common room." He attempted to blow Lily a kiss, but Peter and Sirius both grabbed an arm.

"A git, I tell you, you're a GIT!" Sirius jerked James out the door and the group made their way towards the path that led to Hogwarts.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Lily came up from under the table. She stared out at all the faces that were staring at her. Everyone was watching her wide-eyed, with the exception of the boy who'd yelled out about snogging. He was still sniggering. Nadia reached for her satchel and stood up. Lily grabbed her own bag and the two girls walked as quickly as they could out of the Three Broomsticks.

*****

That same night, Lily hunched in a little ball on a sofa in the common room. Nadia had gone up to bed ages ago, along with most of the other Gryffindors. The only people in the common room besides Lily were Sirius, Remus, and Peter. They were sitting in a circle by the fire, talking in hushed whispers. They hadn't paid any attention to Lily except to tell her that McGonagall wanted to talk to the four of them, plus James, when she came back. Sirius had apparently brought James to McGonagall after they got to Hogwarts. He was still in her office.

Lily sighed loudly and glared at the boys. They could at least include her in the conversation. She'd gone up listening ages ago, but she still caught snippets of what they were saying. Evidently, Peter had an enormous zit that he had charmed to be invisible; Sirius had claimed to have snogged for two hours straight with the blond Ravenclaw fifth year; and Remus was feeling much better. The only useful thing she had overhead was a quick mention of James using a charm that increases alcohol content on his butter.

Well, that's good for Remus. Peter should know that charming pimples makes them worse when the charm wears off. Does Sirius know that Ravenclaw girl is going out with the Amos Diggory?

And where on earth would James learn a spell like that? They sure don't teach those at Hogwarts, that's for sure.

Out of the blue, Peter leapt up and yelled, "James'll KILL you!"

Remus turned purple and yanked Peter's shirt. He sat down, slightly embarrassed, and the boys returned to the conversation. Sirius began to laugh, despite Remus' death glares. He stopped instantly, however, when McGonagall stepped through the portrait hole, followed by a weak-looking James. The boys and Lily stood instantly, and McGonagall nodded. They walked towards her and sat down around a large table in the center of the common room.

"Now. You should all know that James has earned himself a week's worth of detention, plus 30 points from Gryffindor. And it will be worse for anyone who tries these sorts of things again." She glared at each of them in turn before continuing. "James, what do you need to say to them?"

James grimaced and said, "Sorry, Sirius, for giving you horns. Lily, sorry for..." He blushed and McGonagall glared at him severely. "Forsayingthatstuffaboutyou," he finished quickly. McGonagall was obviously not pleased, but let him go with that.

Lily turned red and stared down at the tabletop. Oh, please don't say McGonagall knows what he said. She looked up and met James eye. She glared, and James turned away.

"Lily? Remus?" McGonagall nodded towards them. "You two will announce to the other Gryffindors tomorrow morning that this chugging business will not be permitted anymore." The two Prefects nodded. "Well then," McGonagall said with a note of finality, "This is done. Good night." She stood, smoothed her tartan dressing gown and walked to the portrait hole. Lily stared after her, wishing she could read minds. Before McGonagall left, she turned back to all of them. She flashed a look towards the boys and Lily and stepped out. Maybe Lily was just imagining it, but she could have sworn McGonagall gave her a look of pity.