Portraits of a Flower in Bloom | Jily

3: The Immaculate Conception of a Perfect Prank

~ Sunday 4th September, 1977: Dinner ~
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"Here you go," Lily shrugged off James' robes and passed it back to him. She was even redder than before, but couldn't stop the facade until they were in the great hall, she didn't want to make him think she lied so he'd give her his robes. God, why was she thinking like this? She'd never before cared what Potter thinks, why now?

"Oh thanks," James said with a noticeable hint of disappointment in his voice. The walk up was amazing, no one had managed to interrupt them and they had a lovely, albeit slightly boring, conversation about being head body and girl. He felt as though the moment had passed now, and they were back to their old 'Lily Rejecting James' ways.

"Ready to go in?" She looked up at him expectingly, "I'm starving."

He smiled, maybe there was still hope yet, "let's go! I want to get some roast potatoes before Sirius full-on attacks them."

She stifled a laugh and they made their way towards the entrance, the marauders and girls trailing.

The doors were shut, but they could hear muffled noises from inside, which meant the sorting ceremony was over. They pushed open the doors and stalked over to the Gryffindor table. As they made all of the 7th year, the whole head of the table should be empty, so they could take the seats of their choosing.

But as they neared their new seating spots, there was a new girl that none of them recognised. Sat in the middle of a bench, not nearing any of the 6th years was a tall girl, with a cascading mess of blonde curly hair rolling down her back. Her posture was immaculate but her body language didn't mirror it: instead she looked utterly terrified.

Slightly taken aback, James stopped short, but Lily kept walking.

"Josephine right?" Lily leaned down to the girl, smiling a professional but still genuinely warm smile, "hi I'm Lily Evans, head girl and fellow 7th year Gryffindor by the looks of it! I was told there'd be a new 7th year I'd need to look out for, but being Gryffindor is even better, I'll see you all the time, so you don't need to worry about a thing."

Josephine looked overwhelmed with this sudden influx of knowledge from this strange, new redhead, she nodded, giving a quiet hum of agreement, only quietly announcing, "Jo- uh Jo is fine, really."

Lily smiled warmly and turned to face the rest of the Gryffindor clan, "guys this is Jo Maddox! She was previously homeschooled but has decided to join us for her final year at school."

Everyone began to take their seats and a chorus of "hi Jo!", "don't worry it's great here!", "we can help you settle in" could be heard.

Lily sat next to Peter and Marlene, and James sat diagonal to her. James was sitting next to Sirius, which Marlene wasn't too happy about as she couldn't make any flirtatious eye contact without craning her neck awkwardly, and was next to a new girl who she felt an unusual awkwardness next to. A feeling of, what felt like jealousy raged inside, this new girl was someone she'd never seen the likes of before. Her face was warm and her eyes had showed a quickness about them, she was beautiful in the conventional way, but that was nothing to be sneered at. Marlene had never seen a girl who radiated such divine energy before.

Whilst Marlene glared at this marvellous woman who sat beside her, Remus settled down opposite Sirius and felt a weird sense of happiness, which he'd never quite felt before. He'd sat next to Peter and opposite Sirius a million times, so that couldn't be the issue. Maybe he was just hungry, he though and resolved to stuffing his face until the weird sensation in his stomach was at ease.