Autumn Leaves- marylily

Detention

"Miss Macdonald! What did I tell you?"

"Well, yeah but-"

"No! No buts! You will attend your tutoring sessions with Miss Evans!" Flitwick reprimanded the girl.

"Sir! She's horrid! Completely horrid! Pairing me with her is basically asking for conflict." Mary responded.

"No! I'm not letting you out of this Miss Macdonald. I will fail you in this class!"

"But sir!"

"Out!"

"Fucking unbelievable!"

"Right then. Detention after dinner tonight!"

"Fine!"

And with that, Mary practically ran out of the room. Slamming the door on her way out, she stormed down the corridor.
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Meanwhile, somewhere on the 2nd floor. Lily Evans was hopelessly agitated.

"Really Lils, you shouldn't let her bother you that much. You know how she is, she loves an opportunity to be a bitch." Alice said supportively.

"She's just so insufferable Alice! I was trying to help her! I was doing a nice thing"

"I know Lils."

"I just don't get why she's so rude!"

"She hasn't got a reason Lily, you haven't done anything wrong."

"Well..."

Her moment of self reflection was quickly ended, as a particularly loud voice came from the end of the hallway.

"Hello Lily!"

"God! Not now!" Alice whispered pleadingly.

Instead of bothering with a response. Lily merely glared at the boy.

"How was your day?"

"It was going fine before you came along." She retorted, accompanied with a somewhat bitchy smile.

"Oh. Right."

James would never admit it. But he was extremely sensitive. He had always felt the need to act happy around his friends. They had it worse off than he did. It seemed silly compared to what they had to deal with.

Picking his mask up again, he kept trying.

"Well, you look gorgeous today!"

"Oh for Christs sake! Fuck off Potter!"

From Lilys' point of view, she owed him nothing. She knew that, and she wasn't going to give in. She wasn't going to be nice when she didn't need to be. She didn't have to say yes, and she couldn't stand the fact that everybody villainized her for saying no. Women don't have to say yes to every man that asks them out. She simply wasn't interested. And as long as he kept up this insufferable routine of asking her so repeatedly, she was going to keep on saying no. She didn't have to protect his feelings, he was grown, and she had a right to say no.

Unluckily for Lily, just as she said this, Professor Binns had rounded the corner.

"Mrs Evans! Detention after dinner! Fitwicks classroom!"

"Fine!" She said storming off.
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The rest of the day had gone by quietly for the two girls. So when it had finally come time to attend their detention, they were seemingly not as upset as they had been.

That was until Mary walked into the classroom to see Lily sat there.

"You've got to be kidding me." Mary muttered.

"You're late miss Macdonald."

"Sorry sir." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Right girls, copy these lines down in your books, you may leave when I see fit." Flitwick began writing something along the lines of 'I will not swear in school' in large handwriting across the chalkboard.

The girls unanimously sighed at that. Writing lines was easily the most boring form of detention at Hogwarts. They didn't expect anything else though, this was Flitwick's go-to.

After the girls had been silently writing lines for about half an hour, some random student poked their head into the classroom, saying they needed Slughorn for something. Neither of the girls were really listening. Lily was too focused on getting her lines over and done with and Mary seemed to be completely fascinated with finishing a large drawing of a lion in the middle of her page.

Once she had finished, she lifted her head up, finally snapping back into the real world. She had always hated that feeling. She liked having time to herself, and the real world always felt like a smack in the face. It felt insanely boring compared to getting lost in her thoughts.

"Soooo." She started, awkwardly drawing it out. "What are you in here for? Aren't you meant to be a good girl...?" She was bored. Mary would do anything when she was bored, even if that meant talking to her sworn enemy.

"Urgh. Me not acting immature doesn't make me a 'good girl'. I'm just more focused on my school work."

"But you never do anything fun!"

"I do lots of fun things!"

"Oh yeah? Like what?" Mary asked, an eyebrow raised and a slightly teasing smirk on her face.

"Umm. Me and Alice go out a lot!"

"To parties? Cause I've only ever seen you at one or two the entire time we've gone to school here."

"Uhh. Sometimes." That wasn't necessarily a lie. She just conveniently failed to mention that she usually left after five minutes. She just didn't really get it. It wasn't her scene, and she was okay with that.

"I don't believe youuuu!" Mary responded in a sing-song voice.

"Fine! I dont go out much but quite frankly I have far more important things to do with my time."

Shrugging her shoulders, Mary responded "Fair enough. I mean, I wish I could put as much effort into my schoolwork as you do, but I just don't have it in me."

Right...

Well...

Lily wasn't expecting that one, she was expecting Mary to tease her for it.

Lily paused for a few seconds, thinking that over. "You could if you tried."

"No, I don't think I could. I've never been the type of person who can sit and study for ages. I get too bored. I just don't see the point in putting that much effort into something that I don't enjoy doing."

"Getting a job seems like a pretty good reason, does it not?"

"Ah right...a job!" Mary said with a sarcastic enthusiasm.

Lily just sat, confusion etched across her face.

Mary seemed to pick up on that. "I hate the idea of having to work all my life. It scares me. I'd much rather be travelling the world than hunkered down in a little office doing a job I don't want to do."

"I suppose... I suppose that makes sense." Lily looked down at the table, absentmindedly tracing a finger down the patterns of the wood. "Then again, you do get to choose a profession. Is there nothing you enjoy doing?"

"Not enough to devote my entire life to it I don't think. It's not really like I have a choice in the matter. In the long run, getting a job is unavoidable, I'll just continue to put off thinking about it for as long as I can."

Lily seemed to soften at this. She felt bad for the girl. "It is inevitable though, and your grades aren't bad in any other classes as far as I'm aware... do you want to try again with the studying for Flitwicks class? We can switch it up a bit even... make it so it isn't so daunting?"

A small smile made its way onto Mary's face at the redheads idea... maybe she wasn't so terrible after all. "Yeah... yeah sure. We can try again."

"Cool." Lily smiled back.

"Cool."