A crackling behind her made her look up, then, seeing who it was, she turned back.
"Lily? You all right?"
"Fine."
"No. You're not. But never mind that." Sirius sat down next to her. "Your mother was beautiful."
Lily slowly nodded.
"I'm sorry."
At that, she raised her head, eyes full of unshed tears. "Why be sorry? It wasn't your fault."
"I know that. But I'm sorry you lost her."
Lily winked away tears. "Do you know, the only reason I came down here is to escape hearing people say that? But-but now-" She searched for words. "Somehow, when you say that, it doesn't sound-sound-well, disagreeable."
"Come here." He quickly reached over and took her in a long hug, conscious of her small chest heaving up and down with swallowed sobs.
When she shook herself loose, she looked straight at him, with nothing but gratitude in her eyes.
"Sirius, I don't know how I can tell you how much that meant to me."
"I know. You want to slap every single sniveling dotard and spinster that pats you on the back and hands you a used handkerchief."
She smiled through her half-blindness. "You know me so well it's frightening."
"Oh, it's not really that hard." He leaned against the wall. "So, what did you think of James' little speech?"
Lily shrugged. "I don't know."
"You do know he only found out about this five minutes before we arrived, don't you?"
Lily stared. "What?"
"He made that up on the spot. Good, wasn't it?"
Sinking back, Lily gazed at the ground. "I had no idea. It-well, it sounded rehearsed."
"It was very good, yes. Hang on-I'll be back." He quickly stood up and left, brambles crackling beneath his feet. Soon Lily heard him return.
"Lil?"
Only one person called her that-Lily raised her head. "James?"
He gestured to the ground beside her. "May I sit down?"
She shrugged. "Sure."
"Thanks." He pushed a few weeds out of the way and sat, first staring at the gravestones and then at the white, drawn figure beside him.
He finally spoke, startling Lily out of a half-dream.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be."
"I'm just sorry you feel like this."
"I hate sympathy. And right now, that's the last thing I need."
James blew. "Well, you were accepting it nicely enough when Sirius was over here, weren't you?"
Lily fixed him with the glare of all the ferocity she could muster. "Well, Sirius, for one thing, isn't the stuck-up, conceited, backstabbing idiot you are."
His eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into his hair. "So? And since when are you Miss Perfect?"
Lily stood up, brushing the leaves off of her clothing. "Goodbye."
He quickly leaped up and caught her by the arm. "Lil, wait! I didn't really mean it--please, come sit down--I'm sorry!"
Already more than a bit shaken, Lily was in no mood for an argument, so she let herself be dragged to a bench. Neither of them spoke for a while, and then James ventured a comment.
"Your hair looks nice."
She shrugged. "I know. Not looking as much like the electrocuted phoenix anymore, am I?"
He ground his teeth. "Do you mind? I'm trying to start a decent conversation and you're doing nothing but pick a fight!"
She looked at him quizzically. Then, dropping the mask of carelessness she had worn since James had stopped speaking over the casket, her face softened into more lenient lines. The hollows in her cheeks and the caverns around her eyes were still prominent, and she was by no means pretty, but she did look more natural.
"You're right. I'm sorry."
"'S all right. God knows I'd be pitching a fit if my dad died."
Lily half-smiled. "Sad thing is, I can see you doing that."
"Doing what?"
"Pitching your miniature fit on the wet ground, screaming, 'But Mommy, you said we'd go to that World Cup together! You broke your promise! Waah!"
Surprisingly, he also smiled. "You know, I can see myself in that position, too."
"Hm."
"Oh, well." He leaned back and stared at the sky, then jerked his head back down. "Lil, what I told you that time in Fraeden Square the other day--I really meant it."
"Which part?"
"The inviting you to come and stay at Eva's part. We'd all like to see you, and frankly, I think that Cissa and you'd be really good friends after you get to know each other better."
"Cissa?" Lily stared at him, not comprehending.
"Yeah,--you used to pick fights with her all the time. Serena. I call her Cissa, though--sort of an abbreviation of her middle name."
"The only name that jumps to mind is 'Narcissa'."
"That's exactly what it is. Why?"
Lily was trying not to snort. "Nothing. It fits her very well."
"Why does it fit her so well?" James was on the defensive, fists jammed into his pockets.
Lily frowned. "I should have thought that was obvious."
"Why?"
She sighed. "Ever heard of the Greek myths, genius boy?"
"Yeah. Weren't they like Jupiter and Cupid and them?"
Rolling her eyes, Lily was doing all she could to keep from snorting again. "James, idiot dear, those are Roman. You're halfway right-the Greek names for those were Zeus and Eros."
"Oh yeah, that thundery god-thingy."
"Uh-right. Still, one of those tales has this character named Narcissus in there. He's very much like your dear Cissa-he looks nice, but he's vain and conceited and-don't snap at me! She is! But anyway, this guy falls in love with himself and wastes away by the edge of a pool, staring at his reflection. That would be Narcissus."
"Oh." James looked truly puzzled. "But I thought she was named after a narcissus flower!"
Lily rolled her eyes again. "I left that part out. When he died, a flower sprang up where he had been, and that flower the nymphs named 'narcissus.' So, either way, your sweetheart is named for someone very like Dorian Gray."
"Who?"
Lily shut her eyes. "Never mind."
"All right; I won't." He got up, then obviously remembered something and sat back down, taking her arm awkwardly. "Lil?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm sorry about your mother. She sent you those clothes, didn't she?"
Lily twisted around to stare at him. She had detested every single sniveling old drooling hag that came up to her and had hugged her, squeezing tears out of the hag's eyes and the breath from Lily's body, managing to convey the impression that Lily was being most disrespectful by appearing in colors at her mother's funeral, but, just like Sirius-well, this time was different. He had dropped his usual joking manner, and was quiet, rational, and serious. Lily didn't know how, but she knew that he had really meant what he had just said. She didn't bother with thank-yous; that part was unneeded.
"Do you know how much that meant to me?"
James looked straight into her eyes. "Not really-because I've never lost a parent, but almost."
"I can't thank you enough for that."
"Don't bother. I've been-well, hideous enough to you as is."
Surprisingly, Lily swallowed the jibe that sprang to her tongue almost effortlessly. "Still-thanks."
They both started as a voice came floating over the gravestones. "James? Eva's leaving, and remember, you promised me you'd teach me how to dive like you do."
Lily's face twisted back into its original tautness, and James stood up, shaking his black robes free of cracked paint. "Honestly, you'd think she'd know better; this is a funeral, after all."
Lily only raised her eyebrows and stood up, too, following him out of the graveyard. When Serena took his arm and led him away, he looked back over his shoulder, mouthing, "Chin up!"
Lily nodded to him over Mrs. Malfoy's shoulder. "I will."
When they got home, Lucius gave a short excuse for taking Lily out for a walk in the gardens, and when they were far enough away from the house, they stopped their meandering chatter.
"Lily, about your mother being a Muggle?"
"I was wondering about that. I mean-does your mother know?"
"Thank God, no. She might just order you out of our house if she did. No; I told her that two members of your family were Squibs, and that accounted for the Muggles that were there."
"Oh. Good. That is-not the 'she will order me out of the house'-that I'm a bit edgy about."
"And we've got to keep that secret."
Lily frowned. "Lucius, how much would you mind if I went over to Eva's to stay for about a week or so?"
He was startled. "Why?"
"I don't know how long I can keep up that deception, or even if I want to. Do you mind a lot?"
She could tell he did, though why was a mystery to her, but finally he shook his head. "Nah-it's all right. We don't mind. At least, I don't."
"Really?"
"Really. You want to see your other friends, too, don't you?"
Lily nodded.
"I see. All right-I'll tell Mother."
Two days later, Mr. Malfoy was getting ready to drop Lily off at Eva's (in other words, making sure he was wearing expensive, perfect designer clothing, so as to seem rich-he was adjusting the silver lace around his collar), and Lily was finishing up her packing. She wasn't wearing anything special; only a pair of bluejeans and an old shirt of her mother's, with 'The Youth Actor's Company' on it that she had used as a sleepshirt the last two nights. She hadn't taken great pains with her hair; just brushed it and tied it back with the black kerchief, but it still looked pretty nice. The only thing she hadn't bothered to fix or spruce up was her expression-she looked more like a hunted fox than ever. That might have been part of the reason Mrs. Malfoy had been relieved to see Lily go someplace else-if Lily happened to get sick or die here, she'd be responsible, and, besides, it was nasty living in a house where someone's corpse had been on the bed.
Slamming the trunk shut, Lily enlisted Severus' help in dragging it downstairs. They walked out on the porch for a bit of sunlight, since the house had all of the magical air conditioners working full blast.
"Lily?"
"What?"
"You won't come back from there hating me and Lucius, will you?"
She scoffed at that. "Why would I?"
"Well-they might try to make you-it's no secret that they don't like me."
Lily turned and faced Severus squarely. "Have I ever let myself been influenced like that against my friends?"
"Does James count?"
"No." She laughed. "Well-he was being a git."
"As usual."
Lily was about to reply in agreement, but then his face at the children's graveyard flitted in front of her face-serious and sympathetic-truly sympathetic, and she couldn't reply.
Severus frowned. He couldn't guess exactly what she was thinking of, but he had a pretty good idea.
"So-what's this, you're starting to defend him? Next thing you know, you'll be brandishing a marriage license in my face, with 'Lily Potter' on it."
Lily scowled. "Shut up! And goodbye." She flounced inside the house and slammed the door, ignoring Severus'-"You didn't deny it!"
They arrived at Eva's using Floo powder, and after presenting Lily to Eva's parents, Mrs. Malfoy Disapparated hurriedly, leaving Lily with Eva's mother, a welcoming atmosphere, and the twins.
"Lily! We've missed you!" And, almost immediately, Lily was engulfed by her two friends in a large, comforting hug. When they finally let go, Lily's trunk had been lugged upstairs by a house-elf. Eva and Vanessa were obviously in very good moods as they shepherded Lily to her old room.
"Lily, you're getting changed. Now. We're drinking lemonade and swimming outside, and you're coming with us."
Lily laughed, petting Willoughby, who had immediately followed her and plumped himself on the windowseat. "I'll come. Even though the only decent suit I have is that black one I used at Lucius'."
Eva waved that away. "That doesn't matter. You've got a suit, and you're coming outside with us, or I'll know the reason why."
"You won't have to. I'll be right out." And with that, Lily quickly changed into the black one-piece, knotted a black cover-up around her hips, slipped into a pair of sandals but kicked them right back off, and flung the door open, running down the spiral staircase.
"Eva? Vanessa?"
They emerged from Eva's room, Eva in a light blue suit, Vanessa in a grey one. "You ready?"
"Yes."
"Good. We're�off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz. We hear he is as wonderful wiz as ever a wiz there was. As ever as ever a wiz there was, the wizard of Oz is one because�" They raced each other down the dark blue carpet-lined hallway, stopping, out of breath, in the ocher-carpeted room leading to the terrace.
"Vanessa, all clear?"
"I'll check." Vanessa vanished onto the terrace, and, a few seconds later, she yelled back, "All set, Chief!"
Ignoring Lily's questions, Eva led her friend out onto the porch, laughing as hard as anyone did when Lily clapped her hands to her mouth in surprise at the greeting she got from practically half of Hogwarts.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, ITS LATE BUT SO WHAT, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR LILY, HAAAAAAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO AYOUUUU�"
All of the people that had been at her mother's funeral and then some were crowded around a large, white table, covered with a beautiful linen tablecloth, a crystal pitcher of lemonade for every three people, plates, cups, and silverware enough for everyone, and a large cake in the center; red velvet, with cream cheese icing and dark red flowers surrounding the writing in the middle-"We love you, Lily!"
Lily almost cried, but at the sight of everyone surrounded there and their faces, she ended up laughing instead.
In addition to the hand-made placecards in front of every table, there was a pile of packages in front of Lily's place. Her friends were practically fighting each other for the 'honor' of pulling her chair out for her, and they repeated their song once they had pushed Lily into her seat and placed a tiara on her head. It was actually a hat made out of Daily Prophets, but Amanda told Lily to 'pretend it's a tiara and see what happens.' Breathless, noisy, and laughing, everyone slid into their respective seats, attacking voraciously the large, round, five-layer pyramid-like cake as they watched Eva, Sirius, Vanessa, and Amanda rip the packing off of the presents.
Forty-five minutes later, Lily was the proud possessor of what seemed like half of Honeydukes, a good fourth of Zonko's, several new body cords for her fencing equipment (from Amanda), since hers had died, a tiny companion for Alisande (a tawny owl with odd white streaks), and as much happiness as it was possible for her to cram inside her. Then, when everyone was lying outside on the lawn, randomly rolling over onto Dungbombs and lobbing Owl Treats and Ice Mice at each other, Sirius and Remus jumped up.
"Everyone ready for the pool?"
Everyone had been in bathing suits since they had set foot on the terrace, so the response was a general roar and a mad dash for the pool.
James and Lily were the first ones in; Lily had beaten James to the high dive and done a series of imitation cheerleader jumps, earning a large laugh, especially as she pretended to do a split and came up holding her knees together and spitting water out, yelling, "OUCH!"
James immediately imitated her antics, but with a lot more flopping around. It was on his second dive that Lily got sick of this and lobbed a wet Filibuster's at him, causing him to land in a beautiful belly-flop on the surface of the water with a loud SMACK.
He recovered surprisingly well, and went on diving underwater until he reached Serena, who was busy piling her blond curls on top of her head to avoid getting them splashed. Swimming into the shallow end, he grabbed her around the knees, dunking her, and came up to face a mad cat and a caterwauling of applause from the others on the side and in the pool.
"You-you-what'd you do that for?"
"This is a pool, dummy! Swim, have fun, get wet, oh, come on, you didn�t come here just to wade around?"
Serena said nothing, simply glared at him from under sopping wet bangs hanging in her eyes.
"You did?"
Serena squared her shoulders, raised her hand, and, just when everybody, including James, thought she was going to slap him, she hit the water's surface with her hand, causing a few drops to splash him in the face.
"So-so you're not mad?"
Serena fairly shrieked, the rest bellowed, and James keeled over, falling into the pool and coming up, choking on a mouthful of water.
"Th-that was supposed to hurt? Cissa, good Lord, this is a pool, girl! I'm already wet!"
Serena hit the water a few more times, jumped out, and seated herself carefully on the other end of the basin, trying fruitlessly to ignore the flames burning up the lawn chair's towel she was lying on (Lily had thrown a firecracker at her).
They went on swimming, sometimes racing, sometimes playing water-volleyball, which the Muggle-born kids had to introduce to the wizarding ones. They fooled around until the sun was throwing its last pink, purple, and orange rays over the horizon, and then Sirius and James ordered everyone out of the pool, seating them on the well-trimmed grass. Everyone had a clear view of the dark night, lit only by the lamps at either side of the pool, and when those were extinguished, people started to murmur. Except Eva and Vanessa; they had been informed, since it was their place.
From the pool, Peter, decorated with a few spinning hoops of fire, was twirling them in the fashion of a circus clown, exaggeratedly howling every time he dropped the fiery rings onto his feet. After about five minutes, however, the light started to attract moths, and Peter was running madly around the pool with a swarm of moths following the firelight. Peter hadn't figured out yet that he was to drop the hoops, and, between laugh attacks, everyone was wondering when he would figure that out. He was relieved, however, when Sirius threw a bucket of water on him and told him to 'quit acting like a nearly headless turkey'. Then, holding a torch, James appeared, holding it in one hand and something else under the other. Draped in a toga, he greatly resembled the Statue of Liberty, as he stood in the front of the pool.
"Kids!"
Everyone howled.
"All right, all right, all right. Guys. We're about to show you something you might like. I say might. If you hate fire,-" here he coughed loudly, sounding strangely like, "Cissa!"-"you might want to leave. If you absolutely adore sparks in your hair, stay, be my guest; that's exactly what you're gonna get."
He nodded over his shoulder to Sirius, by now no more than a black shape in the gloom. He had been attaching something to the lawn chairs, statues, and diving boards surrounding the pools, and now he ran into the bushes. They could hear the sound of pouring water on leaves, and almost immediately, the atmosphere around the pool and the spectators was filled with amazing fireworks, sparklers, noisemakers, lights, and applause.
The night air lit up with the millions of fireworks that exploded as Sirius poured water over one, which exploded, with bits of it landing in the pool and splashing others, which, in their turn, went off, and so on. The sky was filled with a good fifteen minutes of firecrackers, and, needless to say, applause. Then, randomly, people started doing flips off of the high dive and trying to catch the firecrackers at the same time, so when the crackers went off underwater, it produced an amazing affair of lights.
The jumper came up with sparkles in his or her hair, which made several of the girls especially eager to join in. Sirius and James won the spontaneous sparkle contest with fifty-seven each (James got a hug and kiss from 'Cissa' as a reward), and, at ten, everybody trooped into bed, tired and exhausted, but in a very good humor.
Everyone woke up late; around twelve, and when they did, it was only to scarf down a few scones, biscuits, and slices of toast with jam and bacon and to go outside onto the lawn for a few games of soccer (the Muggle-borns had introduced that game, too, and it was a hit). At one, Eva had her mother conjure her up a temporary foil of her own, and she and Lily (who had been giving Eva lessons) entertained the crowd as they paraded up and down in medieval armor and cloaks. Lily, wearing Severus' black cloak, was designated the evil phantom, and she fell after a long fight with a supposed hole through her stomach and an idiotic grin on her face. And somewhere in between, someone had the idea of quarterstaff-combat. Serena decided to watch, but she did look pretty stupid (everyone except James thought) as she sat on the huge terrace, with no one around her, sipping lemonade while everyone else was having a good time killing themselves on the grass.
All too soon, the summer was over. Lily had gone back to Lucius' for a while, but his parents thought it the height of impropriety to brawl outside, so she didn't have nearly as much fun. She almost succeeded in drawing Lucius and Severus to Eva's house, but at the last minute, they refused, and Lily spent the rest of the holidays at the large, Versaillian/Notre Dame castle-like mansion. All too soon, however, a cloud of owls had arrived at the breakfast on the porch, dropping off each person's respective Hogwarts letter. Lily's landed in her milk jug, and she had a hard time deciphering what it said.
Still, everyone was excited and ready for the trip to Diagon Alley, which they had planned for the second-to-last week before school. Dressed moderately respectably (not in the coats of mail, Lincoln Green, cutoffs, and bathing suits they had been wearing), everyone was assembled in the entrance hall, waiting patiently as each group of five, armed with wand and money, stepped into the Floo powdered fire.
They emerged in the fireplace of the Leaky Cauldron, jumping hastily aside so as to let the group after them appear in the fireplace without knocking them over. Finally, they were all assembled in the large doorway and alley leading to Diagon Alley. Eva's mother, after giving a few hurried directions ("don't buy anything illegal, be back here by five, and keep out of Knockturn Alley!"), had set off for a caf�, leaving them to do as they wished. The first move of most of the group was to bustle into Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, and they quickly swamped the small store. The rest, which included Lily, Eva, and Amanda, were looking for school supplies. In Flourish and Blotts, Lily and the rest pulled out their lists, making the two clerks and the manager quite busy, waiting on almost twenty people. Lily's was a bit longer than the other ones:
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Four
Defense Against the Dark Arts; Curses and Deflections
Magical Plants of the Greenhouse
Divination: The Advanced Basics
Simmerings and Swellings: The Potions Guide
Charms and Hexes, An Intermediate Level
Runes and Translations, Level II
Anatomy of Magical Creatures: Grade One and Two
Students taking Anatomy of Magical Creatures will need:
Complete small dissection kit
Anesthetic-4Br7SgO4Z, 6 mol
Large apron
If you so choose, you may bring along a larger dissection kit. This, however, is not required and the absence thereof will not be penalized.
Lily was the third in line for her books, so she got out of the shop relatively quickly. Once outside, she headed straight for the shop labeled Agra's Science Accessories.
It was a pretty nice store; shelves along the walls were stacked with millions of small boxes, bottles, and different folded pieces of cloth. If you held your nose, the store was positively charming, but it was a bit impossible to shut out the odor of old fish. There was no clerk around to help, so Lily had to find her things herself. By the time she had located the anesthetic and dissection kit, however, the store was filled with several others, all chattering excitedly about some thing or another. She did catch one phrase, however, and she gathered that they were in here to look for a chemical that, when melted, had some properties similar to sugar, in the sense that it turned very alcoholic.
Lily's purse was lighter by seven Galleons when she left the store, and she was ready for something to eat. Quickly locating Amanda and Abigail, who were standing in line at a frozen lemonade booth, she moved over to them.
"Hi! You got everything?"
Amanda frowned. "With everyone crowding like that? I didn't even get inside the store. You?"
"Well- I got my books and Anatomy supplies. But that's it. What's in here?" she questioned as the line in front of them moved and she could take a good look at whatever was for sale.
Abigail nodded at the display model. "Frozen lemonade statues."
Lily frowned. "But they'd melt and get your hands all sticky before you got a chance to eat them!"
"No. They won't."
"Won't what?"
"Melt. These don't. Which is why we're going for 'em."
Lily nodded. She saw sense in that. "Hold on. I'm getting some too." Fishing some Sickles out of her bag, she gratefully bit into a frozen figure greatly resembling a pretzel.
When they left the stand to go sit on some benches, Lily's Flourish and Blotts bag burst. They had to go scurrying around after the volumes, and it took some time before they could fix up the rip and continue. But, just as Lily stood up, she crashed into something, causing her to trip backwards over the books, open up the tear, and take the skin off of her hands.
"JAMES POTTER, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"
He let go of Serena's arm. "Oops-sorry-didn't see you. Here-let me help." In a matter of seconds, he had pulled out his wand and had tapped the torn cloth, causing it to spring together, better than new. Helping her up from the rough cobblestones, he kept on apologizing profusely as he caught sight of the torn knee of her jeans and the badly torn knee underneath.
"I'm really sorry-really-I just wasn't paying any attention at all to anything else-you all right?"
"Fine. Is this a habit of yours?"
"What?"
"Every time we meet here, you have the annoying urge to knock me down."
"What-I guess you're right."
"I am."
Serena interrupted with a slight pull on James' sleeve. "James, dear, I've got to go get some things-you don't mind?"
Lily smiled sweetly. "Of course not. But we'll be sure to miss you terribly."
Serena scowled at Lily, smiled at James, and turned on her heel, heading into the store selling what they called 'girl accessories'. Lily called it stage makeup.
James stared after her, shaking his head, then turned back to Lily. "So-you sure you all right?"
Lily tipped her head quizzically. "What would you say if I said no?"
"Well-are you?"
"Look down."
He did so.
"At my knee, you idiot!"
"Oh. Oops."
"Does that answer your question?"
It should. The skinned knee and torn pants leg had rapidly turned into a freely bleeding something resembling a waterfall. It had already stained her shoes red, as well as the cobblestones beneath her. James frowned.
"That doesn't look so good. Come on-we'll go get help."
"Excuse me?"
"Come on! My aunt's best friend works here-get up!" He yanked her towards the back of Fortescue's, banging on the back door and calling a rather grumpy-looking witch to it. Her frown cleared, however, as soon as she saw James.
"James dear! How are you? Come in, come in, and I'll bet we can fix you up with something nice and cold�dear, do you still like that mango bat kind? Oh, heavens, I almost didn't see your little friend. Dear, how are you-Oh, dear!" She gave an odd little screech at the sight of Lily's red-stained jeans. "Oh, dear,�well, we'd better get that fixed up. In you go, then!" She shepherded them inside, shooing James into the bathroom for bandages, helping Lily onto a footstool and finally sending James to go help out behind the counter, since the shop was packed.
Rolling the jeans up, the old lady washed the red stains away from her leg, and then she bent over it, squinting. Lily had been afraid of this.
The old lady peered up. "Dear, there's no wound here!"
Lily bit her lip. "I know."
"Then where-"
"I had some red ink in my bag and it got smashed?" Lily said, phrasing this more as a question than a statement.
The witch, to her surprise, grinned widely, showing a row of false teeth. "Trying to get back at Jamesie, were you, dear?"
Lily wanted to smile. "Yes, ma'am. Sort of. That is-"
The old lady interrupted her with an understanding nod of the head. "I know all about that, dear. All about that kind of thing. Why, when I was young, I used to play tricks like that on old Billy all the time! But don't worry; he'll marry you anyway. If he really loves you, then�"
Lily was having a hard time keeping the smile pasted onto her face; she suspected she might have to drill it on. She was also having a hard time sitting on her fist; it kept moving in the direction of those tempting false teeth.
After binding up Lily's 'wound', the old lady hobbled to what Lily supposed was the door to the store and came back with a large waffle cone of tiger's-claw ice cream with false eyeballs made out of a sort of cr�me on top. It looked pretty disgusting, but if you went by the smell, it was quite good. James, with his cone of mango bat, was looking at her as if daring her to lick it. Glaring at him, she looked down at the orange mass.
"Lil, scared to lick eyeballs?"
"Excuse you?"
"You're scared to eat that, aren't you?"
Lily didn't answer. She simply brought the waffle cone up to her mouth and bit half of the protruding orange cream off, swallowing the false eyeballs and ignoring the pounding ice cream headache. James raised his eyebrows appreciatively.
"Not bad! You know," he added to the old witch, "I wasn't expecting her to eat that much. Still-Lil, your knee all right?"
"Couldn't be better. Let's go. I need to do some more shopping."
He groaned. "Not you, too! I'm starting to get sick of makeup stores!"
Lily pressed her lips together hard, concealing a smirk. "You don't know me very well, Potter. Meet me in front of here at two."
He shrugged. "Sure. Whatever."
"And I get to try out what I bought on you."
"No! At least, not the makeup!"
Lily nodded. "Fine. Not that part. But all the rest?"
"Can't get much worse than that. All right. You sure you're all right?"
"I want that in writing."
He stared at her. "Sure-whatever." Ripping a piece of parchment out of his new Divination book, he scribbled a short contract on it. "Happy?"
Lily stuffed the slip into her pocked. "Yes."
"And you're sure you're all right?"
"Potter, you ask me that one more time and you won't be."
"What?"
"All right."
"All right what?"
After herding James towards Quality Quidditch Supplies, Lily wound her way through the masses of people to Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, picking up a fair bit of Apparel candy, Dungbombs, and Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks. Just out of spite, she also went next door to a store selling dress robes and wigs. Picking out a fluffy blonde wig and frilly light pink robes, she ran into Sirius as she was leaving.
"Lily! What're you doing in here?"
"Why?"
"Lily Evans, buying dress robes?"
"They're not for me."
"Not for you? Who, then-Petunia?"
"Your very best friend."
Sirius was baffled. "Lily, Serena's not my friend!"
Lily snorted. "Not for her, idiot! I wouldn't spend a cent on her-well, unless you paid me to. I'm telling you-these are for your very best friend."
Sirius shook his head in disbelief, but, thirty minutes later, he understood.
Walking down the street-well, more parading than walking-were two figures. One was perched, sidesaddle, on a broomstick that was floating about a foot and a half from the ground. That figure, who was wearing bluejeans with a ripped knee and blood-soaked pants leg and a black T-shirt, was also holding an interesting sort of buggy whip. The other figure wasn't familiar to Sirius at all, at least, not till it got up close. Dressed in the frilliest pale pink robes he had ever seen, a blond girl with hair too poofy for comfort was tied to the front of the broomstick. A necklace of Dungbombs and firecrackers was around her neck, and she looked extremely tentative. The whole thing rather resembled a horse and buggy, except that the blond girl wasn't a horse and wasn't a girl, either.
"James? Have you lost your mind?"
James, with the blond wig perched on top of scraggles of black that was peeking out from underneath and forming sweaty bangs, scowled.
"Don't say a WORD."
"I won't. I don't even know you. Lily, hi, nice to see you. And who is this charming young lady here?"
He held out a hand and bowed ridiculously as Lily alighted with an affected graceful air. "Mr. Black, how nice to see you. I have acquired a new mare recently, though she does not please me as well as my last. I am thinking of selling her to Mr. Malfoy-what do you think of that?"
James snorted with ferocity, while Sirius nodded slowly, stroking an invisible beard. "It would certainly be a wise move. Mr. Malfoy will give you a good price. Let me tie up your steed-excuse me, mare-for you." Taking the reins out of her hands, he firmly tied James to a bench, leaving him to the full scrutiny of the passers-by, all of which were hooting with laughter.
The next few weeks passed rather hurriedly. James still hadn't forgiven Lily for doing that to him, but, as he had given her his written word, and a very clumsy one at that, she could now force him to wear anything she had bought that day and he couldn't do a thing about it, as she could always send that piece of parchment to his mother, who was very strict on all that had to do with signing names to contracts. James was more scared of his mother than of anyone or anything else-she was the nicest person in the world, but a fury when she was angry.
