Chapter Text
The weekend was somewhat of a blur for Lily. More like her brain was blocking it out for the sake of her sanity. She knew Saturday she got drunk, she remembers being all over Pandora, and she remembers the prank. Being all over Pandora was the problem. Speaking of, then there was Sunday. She wasn’t all over her per se, she kind of just blacked out after spending too much time with her. All of these things led to Lily deciding she needed a day to herself. Said day alone had been needed for days , but Lily was really going to put in the effort this time to get it.
Even better, the two classes she had today were Alchemy and Arithmancy, the two classes she didn’t have any of her friends in. This meant she could relax in peace, not having to worry about someone bringing up her rather strange behavior at the party.
Before heading to class, Lily told Mary and Marlene that she wouldn’t be eating lunch with them today. They didn’t question this, assuming she was just going to study, which she definitely was. Alchemy was peaceful, she was ahead on the reading so she already knew everything they were discussing. Her table partner was also out today, probably skipping, and she got the whole table to herself. Lily had not enjoyed a class this much in a year.
There was only one thing she wanted to do with her “free time” in class, and that was read. And, not reading from her textbooks, reading from an actual book, for fun. Yes, technically she did that yesterday, but reading for fun two days in a row had become a luxury. Lily pulled her book and started reading, taking her time and savoring it.
She read up until class was about to end, not sure what she was going to do during lunch. Luckily, she had the map on her, it had never gotten returned to Marlene after last night. This led to her pulling it out under the table and more or less studying it to some extent. She searched all over for any hidden rooms or alcoves she could sit in during lunch to continue to read. No studying during lunch, just reading, she could study later. Right before they were about to leave class, she spotted a little alcove that wasn’t far from her class and scanned the path to get there.
Getting to the alcove was relatively easy, all she had to do was weave through the students, which she did almost 4 times a day. Once she found it, she squeezed in past the banner and got as comfortable as she could. It was actually very cozy, and there was a tiny place where she could put her tote. Within seconds, she had her book out again and started to read. Whenever the halls had officially cleared, the spot was actually very peaceful. It was truly silent, seeing as everyone was at lunch.
Halfway through lunch, the silence was broken by the sound of bangles clanking against each other. Oh, what a familiar sound that was. Lily carefully pulled the map out, making sure to not make much noise, and found her spot again. Right outside of the alcove, she could see Pandora’s name moving, and it was in the direction of the library. Was she looking for her?
Lily watched Pandora’s name move through the halls and to the library. She watched it hover in there before it exited and headed back the way it came. The sound of bangles could be heard again as she passed by the banner again. In the presence of Pandora, well somewhat, Lily remembered she still had the ring on her finger. She had completely forgotten that Marlene had slipped it on her finger last night. This morning she had been too busy trying to get out of the dorm to notice.
The snake was wrapped gracefully around her pointer finger, placed on the same finger it had been on Pandora. Lily wanted to say it looked bad, that it didn’t make sense on her, but god that wouldn’t be true. It looked so good. However, Lily could confidently say it looked better on Pandora. Lily slowly slipped the ring off her finger and held it in front of her eyes, quickly casting Lumos so she could get a better look. The lighting behind the banner was fine, she could read pretty easily, but she needed better light to be able to observe the ring.
The ring was about the size of half her finger, and it made it perfect swirl. The snake was relatively thick with detailed scales. This thing must have cost a fortune, well at least that’s what Lily thought as she rotated it. On the inside of it, there seemed to be an engraving. Lily pulled it closer and squinted.
Evan and Pandora
That’s right, Evan is her brother, well twin. And, apparently, she had a ring engraved with his name. More than likely, he had a matching one. It’s not like she would know though, she has never seen Evan or paid attention to him. Seeing the engraving, Lily felt the need to return it. Having the ring, knowing it was probably a matching one, felt wrong. Lily glanced back down at the map, Pandora’s name was still close by. Quickly levitating the ring, she led it out from behind the banner and hopefully toward Pandora. Not being able to see it didn’t help.
After 30 seconds, Pandora’s name stopped its movement, letting Lily know that she had gotten the ring relatively close to her. She could feel when Pandora grabbed the ring, no longer having to levitate it. Now that Pandora had the ring, Lily wasn’t sure why she thought levitating it to her was a good idea. She obviously knew that Lily had it and that it meant the girl was nearby. Pandora’s name started to move again, but not toward Lily, it was heading back to the Great Hall. Thank Merlin. She had almost single-handedly ruined the only alone time she had gotten for a long time.
With the ring out of her possession and no noise distracting her, Lily picked her book back up and continued reading. It had just gotten to a good part and there were only about 15 minutes left of Lunch. She wanted to finish this chapter before Arithmancy.
And that she did
***
Today had to be Lily’s lucky day because in Arithmancy they were going over stuff she knew as well. Maybe the gods had finally listened to her and given her a break. Even if it was just for a day, she was extremely grateful. She spent Arithmancy doing what she had done all day, which was reading. She had decided that she would do homework later tonight, it would be very easy since she already knew what they were talking about in class for both subjects.
Arithmancy went by in a blur and then she had to make a decision. Dinner or no dinner?
Now, the smart decision would have been to go to dinner. She had gotten plenty of alone time today and she needed to eat. But, she was almost done with her book. If she skipped dinner, she could finish her book before having to start her homework. To compromise, Lily rushed to the great hall, grabbed food, and bundled it up in a napkin, before making her way out onto the grounds. She could eat and read . Merlin, she was a genius.
Lily made her way to the tree by the lake, the one she always frequented when she had free time. She sat down, laying her napkin out and pulling her book back out of her tote. When she had grabbed the food, she made sure not to grab anything that would make a mess or cause her fingers to be sticky. Ms.Pince hated it when students returned books with any kind of marks or messes on them.
Lily ate her dinner while simultaneously finishing the last two chapters of her book. This wasn’t the first time she had done this, so her reading speed did not slow down. The book had completely invested her and she finished it a few minutes after dinner.
Once she read the last lines of the book, she realized she didn’t want alone time anymore. She had to find Remus. She had to talk about this goddamn book. Lily shot up and quickly vanished her napkin. Most likely he would be in the common room, so that’s exactly where she went.
Usually Lily kept a quick but steady pace when walking in the halls, however, classes were over for the day and she really wanted to talk about this book. So, she was running through the halls, heading toward Gryffindor Tower. She burst in through the portrait hole and spotted Remus sitting on the couch with Sirius.
“Remus oh my god!” she shrilled, rushing over to the couch and taking the spot right next to him, that wasn’t occupied by Sirius. Sirius seemed to be glaring at her, but he spent practically half of the day with Remus, when he wasn’t with James or Peter, so he could deal.
“What?” Remus asked.
“The book! The ending!” Lily cried out, grabbing his arms and shaking him.
Sirius and Remus both laughed. Sirius gave Remus a quick kiss before he got up and walked over to Peter, who was playing chess with James. Remus turned his attention fully to her once Sirius was mostly out of sight.
“Did you like it, then?” he chuckled.
“Do you even need to ask?”
Lily went off on a tangent, talking about everything and anything from the book. Remus had finished it about two weeks ago and had recommended it to her. Thank god he did because it was so good. She talked his ear off until she was out of breath and her voice felt hoarse. Not speaking much all day made her want to talk all that she could with Remus. He gave her his full attention, butting in a few times to give his opinion. Lily loved talking books with him.
“You know,” Remus started when Lily had finally stopped talking, “Regulus has read that book too. And, he loves to talk about books as much as you do.”
Lily arched her eyebrow at him, waiting for him to explain himself.
“Well, I talk books with Regulus. He’s just like us you know, loves reading all the time.”
Lily nodded her head. “And, how exactly did you start talking to him?”
“Well, it was when I caught him and-” Remus quickly stopped himself and his eyes grew wide.
“Caught him and who?” Lily leaned in. This was going to be good.
“Don’t you have homework?” Remus asked, his voice a little higher pitched.
It was an attempt at a distraction.
It worked.
“Oh shit!” Lily yelped, checking her pocket watch to see she had spent about an hour talking about the book. “Talk to you tomorrow Remus!” Lily shouted as she ran up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
Lily rushed into the room and dumped her tote on her bed, grabbing the few things she needed out of it before tossing it onto the ground. Her timing for finishing her homework would be a little off now, but she would manage.
Mary and Marlene were already in the dorm, meandering about, doing whatever, Lily wasn’t sure. Marlene continued to do whatever she was doing, but Mary made her way over to Lily. She placed herself at the edge of Lily’s bed, making sure not to sit on any of her work.
“So how was your day of absolutely no human interaction?” Mary asked, scanning over all of the work Lily was doing. Lily glanced up for a second and then went back to her work.
“Amazing. Fantastic. The best.”
Pause.
“I missed you two though.”
Mary smiled and leaned over to hug Lily.
“We missed you too, Lils. But, it’s okay if you need alone time, all you have to do is tell us.”
Lily nodded her head. Mary blew her a kiss and walked back over to her bed.
Lily loves her friends. Thank god for them being roomed together during first year. Because if they hadn’t, Lily doesn’t know where she would be today.