Lily's Very Buddha-rific Year

November - Scarlet Women on Parade!

November 1, 1977

Beside the lake

Dear Diary,

Took a vote on Emmeline's fancy dress party.

Vesta loooooved it. She says she's gotten a group of small girls to start calling her Our Lady Emmeline, which, despite her insisting otherwise, she loves.

I said that the only downside was that Claudius was a prat about costume choice. Really, the Giant Squid?

We asked Lis and she just kind of stared at us vacantly. Since this wasn't the first time this had happened in the course of our friendship, I kind of nudged Lis.

"Oh - oh, sorry. It was okay, I suppose." And the look on her face looked like something oddly familiar, but I can't exactly place my well-manicured finger on it.

Okay?

Oh, Merlin, we are in a fix.

Later

Potions

Brian - V.v.v. concerned about Roger. - Freddie

Fredster - Me, too. - Bry

What could have her in a strop? - V.C.

I have no idea - Lis is v.v. mysterious. - L.E.

If that's what you want to call it. - V.C.

November 3, 1977

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear diary,

Lis sulking in corner, still looking like something impossible to place. Puh. I'll put on Muggle Past, Present, and Future. That ought to cheer her up.

...And it's David Cassidy. Oh, bugger.

Lis looked me in the eye and said, "I hate you."

November 4, 1977

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

My eighteenth birthday!

Dear Diary,

Well, I am now eighteen.

Vesta gave me a card that said, "Cheers to legal drinking!"

Flora hugged me and handed me a framed picture of us in second-year that no one will ever see again.

Lis sulked.

Someone left me roses with an unsigned note. I wish the fourth-years would realize that I am, you know, with someone.

What a weird and inexplicable birthday.

November 6, 1977

Transfiguration

Dear Diary,

Heterosexually staring at Lis. Really, she is beginning to scare me with this quiet business. Plus, she keeps reminding me of something -

Oh, yes. A pumpkin with all the gooey pulp scooped out.

Where has Lis's pulp gone?

Ves has just thrown me a note:

Brian - Don't worry; we'll get her loaded at your do and she'll spill. DO NOT PANIC. - Freddie

Later

Brief break in the dormitory

Dear Diary,

Lis is a different person.

When Vesta offered Lis a drink in hopes of getting the location of her pulp out of her, Lis declined. Declined. This is Felicity Singleton, an effing Bacchanalian princess, turning down a bloody drink.

Ves said, "Oh, c'mon, Singleton, you're legal."

Again Lis politely said, "I don't want to drink. Ever."

I just might give up on her and let her sulk. Hmmph.

November 9, 1977

Gryffindor Common Room

Dear Diary,

Sirius and I just had a very weird conversation. Somehow I think I know where Lis's pulp went.

Sirius leaned on the armo f my chair and said, "So...Lis wasn't doing a whole lot of partying at your do."

"No, she's been a bit pulp-less lately."

Since Sirius speaks barking mad, he understood. I continued.

"Wonder why that is."

Sirius said nothing.

"Spill it, Black. Where is Lis's pulp?"

I could hear the sound of Peter Pettigrew worshipping Potter coming dangerously close. Sirius said, "Listen, Evans, ask Lis about it. Ask her about Emmeline Vance's fancy dress party. She'll catch your drift. And if she tries to decapitate you...sorry in advance!" Sirius ran off to join his army of prats.

Decapitation? Oh, hell.

November 11, 1977

Transfiguration

V.C. - Should I ask her? - L.E.

L.E. - Who? What? Hm? - V.C.

You know. Lis. Pulp. - L.E.

Oh. That. Well, yeah. - V.C.

Today? - L.E.

You lark, you should have asked when S. gave you the hint. - V.C.

He gave decapitation as a possible consequence. - L.E.

That was S. being S. you bird. - V.C.

So today? - L.E.

Whatever you want, Lily. - V.C.

Later

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear Diary,

Oh, hell in a wicker basket on its way to Devonshire.

I know I should ask her.

But if it'll make her mad, maybe I shouldn't...

Vesta sent me a look that said, "Well?" I shook my head and mouthed, "Not now."

...Vesta just asked Lis what happened with Emmeline's fancy dress party.

We are all going to die.

November 12, 1977

Gryffindor Common Room

Dear Diary,

Oh my...Lis has got herself in a big fix. And even though neither of us has vocalized it, Vesta and I are so worried for her, mainly because, for once, we can't take her problem away.

Lis took a deep breath after Ves asked her the question. "What makes you sure that all of this is coming from the party?"

"Sirius told us," Vesta said, nonchalantly.

"Oh." It might have just been my imagination, but something Lis's face changed at the mention of Sirius. "Right, of course he did."

"So?"

"It was after you'd both left. I was a little more than drunk, and so was Sirius." Oh, God, I knew where this was going. "We started to kind of fool around, you know, nothing we hadn't done already, and it all happened so fast, and I felt like I was drowning, but I didn't know how to stop!" Lis started to bawl.

"You...didn't...sleep with him, did you, Lis?" Vesta asked tentatively.

Tearfully she nodded.

"Oh, hell, Lis, why -"

"Don't," Lis interrupted, "don't yell at me. I'll tell you why - I thought that maybe 'sleeping with him' would somehow make me mean more to him." She started to cry harder. "But it only did the reverse - now I'm just like everyone else who wants him and had sex with him." She wiped the tears mixed with mascara and panstick away. "And it kills me how I've given my virginity to someone who doesn't even care!"

"Oh, please, Lis. You should have known that he wouldn't care going into it." Ves, that well-known supportive best friend, rolled her eyes. "The bloke collects virginities like Hummel figures."

Lis and I both turned and looked at Vesta in shock. I yelled, "Hummel figures!"

"Oh, come on, Lils, you know Sirius."

"Not that, it's just - usually Hummel figures are smiling and cute and praying to Jesus."

Ves laughed and walked away.

Then, Lis, in a rare bout of religiousness, prayed. "Forgive her, Lord, for she knows not what she does."

November 16, 1977

Gryffindor Common Room

Dear Diary,

So the plot thickens.

Sirius was sitting, having a laugh with Pettigrew and Potter, when I finally said, "You are a despicable creature."

Because, as I said earlier, he speaks barking mad, so he didn't ask for clarification. "So she told you."

"Yes, and how dare you take advantage of her! She's always had a thing for you, and even if you don't feel the same -"

"How do you know I don't?" he yelled. "Listen, right here, Lily: I love her. I love the way she's slightly dim, the way she half-smiles at you, and Ves, the vapid Roger Taylor expression, the way she looks...just everything." He turned on Pettigrew and Potter, who looked ready to burst. "And you two would do very well to keep quiet - you wouldn't want twelve-nine-twelve-twenty-five getting out, now would you?" Back to me. "But her parents can't have a blood traitor for their darling daughter, and I let myself break her heart."

"Okay...how long has this pureblood soap opera been going on, and why didn't I know about it?"

"It's not a soap opera, Lily."

"Oh." I stood there, feeling very numb. "Well, then. What do you want me to tell Lis?"

"Tell her I'm sorry - and that this will all make sense in the end."

I was growing number. Everyone is insane, but somehow it hasn't rubbed off on me.

Later

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear Diary,

Just danced to "Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin with the Party Sombrero to release pent-up anger.

Yes, I am still sane.

November 18, 1977

Ravenclaw Common Room

Dear Diary,

I decided that it was probably time to talk to Flora.

I stood outside the entrance, divving about when Emmeline Vance, who was walking by, said, "De facto."

"Hm?"

"De facto - that's the password," said Emmeline, smiling. "I know you want to visit Flora."

"Ah - yeah. Thanks," I said.

So now I'm here, waiting for Flora to realize that her beloved is here.

...What the hell is taking so long? I think I might just pop into the Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory to go fetch Flora...

November 20, 1977

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear Diary,

Oh my God.

Everyone is a scarlet woman. Everyone except for me and, so far, Ves. But who knows how long Vesta's innocence can last?

...Oh, hell, I've just called Vesta innocent. Any day now, God will come and pour out his sieve of pain or whatever it is.

I think God should meditate and join a yoga class, because his karma is seriously affected.

Back to scarlet women!

I walked into Flora's dormitory and found...

Flora "occupied" with some older-looking man.

Oh my God, after that, I closed my eyes and began to grope around on the floor for some sulphuric acid to burn my eyes out.

"Lily! You - you should have knocked!" Flora stammered, clutching the comforter to her body.

"Well, you shouldn't have been shagging a bloke other than Remus in your dorm! Now if you'll please excuse me, I'll continue looking for some window cleaner to spray in my eyes..."

The bloke laughed. "Oh, I'd remember that temper anywhere..."

"And who are you? You know, besides Flora's instrument of evil."

He chuckled and said, "Timothy Lovegood." His hand was stuck out towards me. Hah. As if I'd take the hand of someone who was assisting in breaking one of my oldest friend's heart.

"How do you know me?"

"He's - he's one of Ted Tonks's best friends. Apparently, he watched us annoying Rom and Josie back when we were in second-year..."

"And five years later, he ends up in your bed?"

"I visited Andromeda a lot during the summer - and he was there one night...and...we...clicked."

"And yet you're still with Remus?"

"Well - well - I don't want to hurt his feelings!"

Before I stalked out, I said, "Believe me, Flora, what you're doing now is far worse."

November 21, 1977

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear Diary,

Just got back from a meeting with Severus. God, there is just something so different about him.

I stormed into the dungeon and yelled, "Why is everyone an idiot?"

Severus quietly said, "I've wondered the same thing for six years now." I gave him a Look. "Somehow I think that didn't help."

"Good guess," I snapped.

He tried again. "How is everyone else an idiot?"

"Because Sirius is letting Lis's parents keep him from being in a relationship with her, but that didn't stop him from shagging her."

Severus wrinkled his thin, spindly nose. "How anyone would want to shag that girl is beyond me. She's so...daft."

"Watch it." I pointed at him threateningly. "And I walked in on Flora cheating on Remus with some twenty-three-year-old...yahoo! And I can't help but think...'Am I the only one with my head screwed no properly?'"

"You're not the only one," was all Severus said.

November 23, 1977

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear Diary,

I saw Flora walking with Remus today in the halls, and I almost cried.

November 26, 1977

Gryffindor Common Room

Dear Diary,

Lis wants to know why Flora is dead to me.

Somehow I don't think Lis would understand if I said that Flora was yet another scarlet woman.

November 30, 1977

Gryffindor Seventh-Year Girls' Dormitory

Dear Diary,

Well, good riddance to November.