Lily Evans stared into a pair of startlingly green eyes as she looked into the mirror...
"Mmmmnn" she said wistfully as she held up a black dress... "Now will black go with my hair??"
She has red hair. Not Bright red but a lighter shade, somewhat auburn, she thought. It wasn't like she had a problem being a red head but it was a constant trouble not being able to wear certain colors because they clashed terribly with one's hair color!
"Aaargh!! You don't happen to know where my five inch heels would be, would u??" She smiled as she heard Flemaé's groan behind her. Her friend was flinging out what seemed like a hundred pair of shoes accompanied by a series of high-octave groans.
"Calm down, Flemaé!!" They're just a pair of shoes!! Even if u can't find them you can wear another pair!!" She heard the obviously amused tones of Eva.
This WAS life!! In the same room with her two best friends, Lily felt absolutely.. well Content.. Flemaé and Eva were probably the two most opposite people in the world but somehow, the three of them were the best of friends and so they had been since her first day in Beauxbatons!
Eva and Flemaé had been the best of friends since they were like five, both of them coming from pureblood families and hence obviously related in some sort of complicated way. Flemaé was Eva's mother's brother's wife's third cousin's niece. She thought.
She had met them on the train to Beauxbatons. Being muggleborn, She had been awed by the sights of the magical world and when she met Flemaé and Eva, something had somehow, clicked! In the next few hours, they had even decided to get a room together!
In Beauxbatons, students were allotted their own rooms which they were free to share with two or more friends as well as design on their own! Lily's room was probably the best designed seeing that her two best friends were probably the most creative, color-coordinated, elegant witches in existence. Even the freaking towels in the bathroom were color coordinated! Not that she minded. Quite the opposite actually.
"Flemaé, you idiot, have you even bothered to check under your bed?!" Lily interjected smoothly as Flemaé immediately dived under the divan to return holding a pair of Prada designer shoes. She had gotten a "thing" for muggle designer wear ever since Lily's sister, Petunia had sent Lily a copy of Vogue <an obviously year-old outdated version, Petunia really hated her !> as a Christmas gift. "Lily!! You're a GENIUS!! Amazing!! I was SO worried! Imagine if I'd have to wear something else to the bash! That would be SOOOO scary!!" She'd never really understood Flemaé's need to look like a diva, well pretty much all the time! Not that it hadn't rubbed off. She was growing more fashion conscious!
"Soo… What so you think we're gonna be doing today?"
It was a Saturday and they pretty much had the day off. The teachers hadn't given them much workload seeing that one: it was their first week at school, two: they were just third years and had two more years for OWLS and three: it would probably never get done as everyone was too busy getting excited about the annual beauxbatons ice-breaker bash. As only third years and above were allowed, this was going to be Lily's first time! She was obviously thrilled, not as thrilled as Flemaé though! She thought dryly.
"How about going down to the common room to meet the guys? Who knows, Richard might actually work up the nerve to ask you out, Lil!" Flemaé giggled
"Aaaw, come of it!! You know he wouldn't!" Lily threw a pillow at her best friend trying in vain to hide the blush that was creeping up her cheeks. He WAS cute but she wasn't ready for all that crap!
"Sure, we'll just pretend that we don't know he likes you, no make that ADORES you and you don't think he's the cutest, sweetest, most adorable guy who walked on the planet and absolutely love it when he flirts with you ?! " Eva was teasing
"We're just friends!! And you know I don't like him like THAT!!" Lily blushed
"Like WHAT??!!" asked Flemaé in a mock-innocent voice
Lily was saved from having to answer her question by a large barn owl knocking on their window. She quickly opened the window and relieved it of its letter before letting it fly away.
"Lily, please don't tell me Richard Walden started writing love letters to you! Children these days!" said Eva in a mock disapproving tone
"That is soooo boyfriend-girlfriend like!!" Flemaé giggled
"Shut up, you two! Its mom and dad. Hmmm... That's really too soon, its just four days since I met them. They must be missing me a LOT! But then with Petunia for an elder daughter, who wouldn't?!" Lily said before slitting open the letter
Lily dear,
How are you? I hope your train journey was safe. You must be wondering why we are writing so soon, so I'll cut out the rambling.
Well, I don't know how you're going to take this, so I really hope you understand.
Your Dad just got a new job. It's a wonderful company and he's going to be vice-president, its really going to be a great opportunity for him. <Lily smiled, WHY would she have a problem understanding that? She knew when she read the next line> The only problem is that the job is in London and so the family has to move to England. Lil dear, you know how much I love it there don't you? Well, sweetheart, I'd really like it if you were closer to where we are staying and Beauxbatons is really far off, right? I'm sorry Lily, but I think I'm going to have to ask you to move with us. Oh no, don't worry. I don't mean for you to quit magical education, Just move to another school, in England. Remember, you got an invitation to a school called Hogwarts? Well, your father and I were thinking of moving you there. We've already written to Madame Maxime. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts says that they'd be happy to accept you. I'm really sorry, sweetie, I know this is really sudden, but we really can't stand you being so far away. Your dad and I are coming to get you day after tomorrow as you're already late for your term at Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid will pick you up from King's Cross immediately. Don't worry, Lil... You are a smart girl; you'll be able to adjust. Love you sweetheart.
Mother
Lily bit her lip. They couldn't really expect her to leave, could they? She looked up to see her two best friends playing exploding snap. This WAS her life. These were the only people she knew. She had FINALLY settled down at school and now they wanted her to move? What freaking difference did it make if she went to boarding school in France or England? After all, it was BOARDING school! But she knew she couldn't do anything about it. If her family was going, she HAD to go. There was no choice. CRAP.
She took a deep breath. "Eva, Flemaé, I'm leaving." They looked up, clearly not comprehending. "What is someone sick or something?" Eva asked.
"No, I mean I'm leaving school"
Her statement was followed by a shocked silence and a "What do you mean?" from a clearly non-plussed Flemaé.
Tears blinded her as she showed her best friends the letter. They read it and looked at each other and then looked at her. They went over to hug her.
"Aaaaw, Lil, come on. It's ok. Don't cry" Eva said in a quivering voice, as though she was going to cry herself.
"So...Errm… you're leaving then?" Flemaé ventured.
"It's not like I have much choice do I?" she replied "They ARE my family... CRAP!"
Eva nodded and Lily knew that her best friends understood. "But if you ARE gonna leave then these are gonna bloody well be the BEST two days in your life!" Flemaé hugged her tightly before pushing her into the bathroom. "Now, go wash your face. And NO crying!"
When Lily reappeared at the doorway, she saw her two friends whispering something to each other, immediately hushing up when they saw her. She frowned. Sure, she was leaving, but that didn't mean that they needed to start keeping secrets from her in like two minutes.
"Hey, Lil, U and Flemaé keep talking, ok? I'll be right back." Eva said
"Where are you going?"
"Oh, just to the common room. I forgot my transfiguration essay there. I'll be right back, ok?" Lily frowned. She had seen THAT essay on Eva's desk that morning.
She let herself be distracted by Flemaé who had pulled her onto the bed for a pillow fight. No use trying to ponder over stuff, the more she stopped thinking, the better. True to her word, Eva was back in a few moments and they spent and enjoyable afternoon talking about well, nothing… Lily sighed... She was going to miss this…
At around five o'clock, Flemé said "So what say, we get ready for the bash?!"
"Flemaé, we have THREE hours! You've got to be kidding me" said Lily incredulously
"Exactly! And tonight, you are going to be the most stunning witch in the bash because I don't know when I'm gonna be able to dress you again!" She replied with a mischievous grin. Lily knew that grin. Uh-oh.
Lily looked at Eva helplessly; hoping her other best friend would intervene. She was wrong. "Oh yeah, Evans! We're gonna have some fun!" Eva grinned
An hour and a half later, Lily had to admit that they had done a good job. She was wearing a sleeveless hip-hugging black dress. It was not indecently short, but still shorter than anything she would normally wear, reaching up to her mid-thighs. Her usually straight hair was hanging down in curls adorning her shoulders as though they were jewels. Her friends had obviously had fun with the makeup, which accentuated her eyes and her dark eyelashes now had silver threads running across them. To complete the outfit, she had a slender silver belt running across her waist, looking as though it had been made with utmost care by elf-nymphs. In short, she looked, well… did she dare say it… stunning…
The evening had been amazing, Lily decided when they trooped back into their room after the bash. She had maintained her composure, when she told the rest of her friends that she was leaving, which was a first. The night had truly been Lily's as she danced and twirled, elegantly and gracefully, changing partners with complete ease, forgetting that she wouldn't be here the next week. Well ALMOST.
And to end it all, Richard had dedicated a song to her, "to the most amazing, beautiful, stunning witch I know" he had said before leading her to the middle of the dance floor as though she was a princess and elegantly asking her for a formal dance as the entire school erupted in cheers around them. She had never been so happy…
The next day passed in a blur of hugs and "Miss yous" and Lily barely had time to say goodbye to everyone. That night as Flemaé and Eva helped her pack, the there were strangely silent… thinking about how suddenly their lives were going to change... To think just two days ago they had sat in that very room discussing their non-existent love lives!
"Lily, we're gonna miss you... you know that, don't you?"
"I'll miss you more than you can imagine" Lily choked.
"And lil, we don't ever want you to feel alone, ok? We're gonna be there for you, whenever, wherever. And you can always talk to us whenever you want to" Flemé said
"Yeah, right. And how exactly am I supposed to talk to you? Telephones don't exactly work in Hogwarts…Too much magic in the air" she couldn't keep the bitter note out of her voice
"Which is why we've got something better!" Eva slipped a package into her hand "Go on, open it"
An elaborately carved mirror fell out of the package, with a thin silver metal lining along its edges and a central partition of the same nature with each part having Flemaé and Eva carved on it, respectively. She gave them a non-comprehending look.
"That's a three way mirror," Flemaé hastened to explain as she and Eva pulled out similar mirrors, only theirs had "lily" engraved instead of their own names. "You just need to say our name aloud into the mirror and we'll appear on your screen and you on ours. We can even conference!!" Eva almost squealed
Lily caught her breath. THAT must have been expensive. She didn't even dare ask. She reached up to hug them, tears in her eyes, at a loss for words. They didn't know how much that had meant to her. And she was more than thankful for it.
As she lay in her bed that night, she thought about just how lucky she was…She had these amazing friends…What had she done to deserve so much love? They had seen something worth loving in her that she herself was blinded to… Her thoughts drifted to Hogwarts… Wonder how it's going to be? She wasn't scared… it wasn't in her nature…but she was a tad bit nervous… would she fit in? Would life ever be as good as it was now? Only time would tell…
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