Their Seventh Year

The Slytherin girl-  at this point she exists to torment him because I find it amusing, but she will be important, and yes, you will find out who she is in a little while.

Chapter 16- Progress

The attacks were certainly not forgotten, but over the next week the darkness that had settled over Hogwart’s seemed to lift.  The routine of classes and homework was actually comfortable and familiar, providing a sense of continuity.  Slowly the knot that had formed in Lily’s stomach when she heard about the attacks on the families of muggle borns started to loosen, and she allowed herself to be drawn out of hiding in her bedroom by Flora and Alice.

She seemed to have formed a cautious truce with James as well, she had not forgotten how nice he had been that night in the common room, though she would absolutely curl up with embarrassment if he’d known she fell asleep on this shoulder.  Luckily, he had been asleep as well, and she’d left before he woke up.  She had not mentioned anything of it to her friends, but it had actually been pleasant, and strangely…comfortable.

He caught up with her on Friday afternoon as she was leaving herbology, dressed in his robes for quidditch practice, which she secretly thought were rather nice looking.  The bright Gryffindor colors suited him.

“So Evans, I was thinking maybe we should get together later tonight and see if we could get that defense club set up again?  I mean, with everything that’s happened, I think it would be good to get it going.”

Of course, she had forgotten all about it when they had been fighting.

“Sure, that’s a good idea.”

“Great!  I’ll meet you in the common room after practice, if that’s okay with you?”

“Okay.”

“Brilliant.”  He ran a hand through his hair, and she realized it did not annoy her nearly as much as it used to.  “I’ll see you later I guess.”

=====

Remus was rather surprised to find Flora in the library on a Friday afternoon, sitting at a table with her charms book and a clean piece of parchment in front of her.  She was not generally the sort to do her homework on Friday afternoons, she generally left it to Sunday night.  Late Sunday night.  He joined her at the table.

“Are you working on your charms essay?”

She gave a sort of vague nod.  “Yeah, want to join me?”

For about fifteen minutes he worked diligently, but he slowly became aware she wasn’t doing anything, just staring at a blank piece of parchment while her books remained closed.

“Are you waiting to see if the essay does itself?”  He inquired politely.

She shrugged.  “What’s the point?”

“Well, you see, that’s how the system works.  They assign the homework, and we do the homework.”

“No point in getting good grades.  It’s my job to disappoint my family.”

He frowned, guessing that had something to do with the howler she had received over her part in the Hogsmeade mess.  She wasn’t exactly studious, but she was smart and her grades were decent.  Certainly not bad enough to be a disappointment.

“I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Sure it is.  It’s my sister’s job to make them proud.  She’s perfect.  And it’s my job to not live up to that.”  She picked at the edge of her parchment listlessly.  “It’s always ‘why can’t you be more like your sister, she was a prefect, she had perfect grades, she never got in trouble’.  It’s not like I’m failing all my classes and wreaking havoc.”  She looked up and gave him an unconvincing smile.  “I’m sorry.  You just wanted to do your essay and here I am whining at you.”

“No, that’s okay.”  He said quickly, laying down his quill.  “I don’t have any brothers or sisters, but I don’t see how your sister could be any better than you.  Grades aren’t everything you know.”

She raised an eyebrow and gave him a more genuine smile.  “Who are you and what have you done with Remus Lupin?  This from the boy who’s had the best grades in class since first year.”

“That was just to keep James’s head from getting too big.”

“I don’t think it worked.”

“I think that myself some days.”

She opened her book and picked up a quill.  “All right then.  Just for you I’ll do the homework.  I wouldn’t want to shake the system.”

=====

Lily was indeed sitting in the common room when he returned from quidditch practice.  He took a moment to admire the way the firelight played over her hair before he approached her and took the chair across from her.

“How was practice?”

He was a little surprised.  Had she just expressed interest in quidditch?

“It went pretty well.”  He replied cautiously.  “I think we’ll beat Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw no problem.  Slytherin might be a bit more of a challenge.”

“They always are, aren’t they?”  She replied.  “I know McGonagall really wants to win the house cup this year.”

“I reckon we’ve got a pretty good chance.  I’d like to win it too, this being our last year and all.”  A little jolt, a mixture of excitement and fear always skipped through him when he remembered that, that after this year they’d be out of Hogwart’s and on their own.  He shook it aside.

“So I think Wednesday night would be good for meetings?  I mean, I don’t think there are any quidditch practices that night, and so the most people would be able to come.”

“Maybe, when we put up fliers about it in the common rooms, we should put a sign up sheet too?  So we know how many people to expect?”

“That’s a good idea, then we can know how big of a room we need.”

He leaned over to see what she was writing.  “First meeting next Wednesday then?”

“Right.”  He agreed.  She copied the information they had decided onto three more pieces of parchment, one for each of the house common rooms.  Then she stood and marched over to the notice board and tacked one of them up.  A few first years looked at it with interest, and as she came back there was an excited chatter from their little group as they crowded around.

“Well Potter, it looks like we just started a club.”

=====

He spotted her sitting alone on a bench in the courtyard.  It was a bit cold out, but pleasantly sunny.  James was at quidditch practice, Remus was probably studying, and he wasn’t sure where Peter had gotten off to, but Sirius was bored.  So without being invited, he strolled over and sat next to her, stretching out his legs and crossing his arms behind his head.

“I give up.”  He announced.

“Someone alert the Daily Prophet.”  She replied boredly, not even glancing at him.

“I mean it, I can’t figure out your name.”

“How disappointing.  I was only just getting started.”  She glanced up from her book long enough to smirk at him, but then proceeded to ignore him.

“So are you going to tell me?”

She stretched out her own legs, mirroring his pose, and Sirius could not help but admire.  He’d always thought those damn Hogwart’s skirts were too long.

“Might be I was going to tell you.”  She remarked after a few moments.  “Until you started leering at me.  Now I’m not.”

“But-“

“You can’t stand it, can you?  That there are girls at this school who don’t melt into little puddles at your feet?  Get over yourself Black, then I might consider it.”  She threw her bag over her shoulder and walked off without looking back.

=====

“Well, only a week, and I think we’ve earned back all the points we lost last week in Hogsmeade.”  Flora remarked cheerfully as they got ready for bed that night.  All week the seventh year Gryffindors had been on a mission to rectify things with the rest of their house by earning back the hundred points they’d lost in Hogsmeade.  It hadn’t been so hard when they set their minds to it, and they were especially pleased because Slytherin had not yet managed to earn back all the points they had lost.

“We lost in Hogsmeade?”  repeated, raising an eyebrow.  “I think not my Dear, I had no part in all that, if you recall.”

“Just because you were hidden away somewhere shagging Frank.”  Replied Flora bluntly.

“Flora Margaret McKinnon!”  practically shrieked, turning an impressive shade of dark red.

“Notice, she is shocked, but she doesn’t actually deny it.”  Flora said conversationally to Lily, who wisely did not say anything.

“That’s not…I mean we weren’t…it isn’t…” Alice sputtered, finally giving up and dragging the blankets over her head with a groan and some muttering about stupid roommates and how some people had no idea what they were talking about.

“Speaking of such things, what about you and Potter?”  Flora continued to Lily.

It was Lily’s turn to be shocked.  She couldn’t even believe that “shagging” and “Potter” should be used in the same conversation.  The absurdity of it struck her speechless for a moment.

“WHAT?!”

“Well, I just mean you two seem to be getting on.  I’ve seen you have several conversation with him with no punches being thrown.”

“That hardly means I like him.  Maybe we’re just being civil and acting our age.”

“Hm.” Was the maddening reply.