I Remember Lily and James

Chapter Two

Second year was harder.

Gereldine had acquired a taste for Muggle literature, and spent much of the year trying to read things like Crime and Punishment and Macbeth. By summer time she was even dappling in American literature, and she pronounced F. Scott Fitzgerald a genius. Samantha had spent all summer in the south of France, and came back tanned and as bubbly as ever. She was very proud of her acquired French accent and worldly knowledge. She and Gereldine often competed over who was more worldly, the avid reader or the world traveler. I think I pointed out once that Samantha had only gone to France, but no one really minded. Except Lily, I remember she laughed.

Emma spent three weeks over the summer with her aunt in the States. Her aunt had married a Muggle, and they had a Muggle son named Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a Beatles maniac, and gave Emma a lot of his old records and magazines. We spent weeks pouring over them, and we tried to play the records on Lily's shrinkable record player, but we ran out of batteries, and it was constantly fuzzy. Lily said she'd invite us all to her house over Easter holiday to really listen to the records. Gereldine bristled a little at the prospect, but it didn't matter. Lily owled us all the first day of the holiday that her mother was ill again, and it would not be fun at all if we came over.

We were all a little different after the summer holiday, and so there was a lot of readjusting to do. And lessons got harder too. Suddenly, not everything came to Lily like magic, and we spent longer hours in the, and learned the meaning of studying by candlelight.

Second year was also harder because it was the first time it mattered that Emma and Samantha were pretty.
In Emma's magazines we saw the dolls of Hollywood and Broadway, and we would spend hours trying to emulate their looks without their tools. We pooled our money and convinced a third year Gryffindor girl to buy us some wizarding fashion kits in Hogsmeade around Christmas time, and spent one weekend trying to curl our hair. Samantha's came out lovely, and she swore to always have curly hair. Emma's came out awful and she swore the opposite. I tried crimpimg Lily's hair, and that was a disaster. I think Lily was scarred after that; she kept her old clips in until at least fourth year.

Then we found makeup. Again, everything seemed to work so well with Samantha. Emma was a toss up, but she fell in love with mascara. McGonagall scolded her one day, for wearing too much. Emma was indignant, but I agreed with McGonagall that time; Emma had looked rather ridiculous. Lily and Gereldine weren't fond of makeup, but I liked a little bit of lipstick and some rouge, just enough, see.

Second year...the year James tried out for Quidditch and became the Gryffindor Golden Boy that is known in legend. That year he, Sirius, Remus and Peter were inseparable. That year, our doddering Potions master resigned and we had Potions with the Slytherins instead of the Hufflepuffs. We truly met Severus Snape that year. James, Sirius and he were constantly going at it, but what always bothered Lily was that it was always two against one, usually four against one. They were all inseparable, remember.

"They could at least be fair about it," she hissed to me one day as we packed up to leave.

"Snape isn't very nice though," I replied. I rather liked James and his friends. It wasn't a crush, exactly, but I liked them. Samantha was the one with the crushes.

"That's no excuse," Lily said. I knew she was right, of course, so I tried not to laugh as much when they played tricks on Snape. But it was funny.

That summer I spent August with Gereldine and her family, and Ezra and his family. Ezra and Gereldine had been friends forever, I think, and Ezra invited Kenneth Davidson to come. We went to Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland, and it was one of the best summers I'd ever had.

When we got back, I sent an owl to Lily telling her about the trip, asking about her mom and Petunia, and I sent some pictures too. She replied promptly, like she always did, saying she was glad I'd had such a good time, and that she loved the pictures, and wasn't Ezra cute, but her mom had been hospitalized early in the month.