The Stag and The Doe

Musings and Revelations

"Well then what did he say?"

Lily sputtered into her pumpkin juice. "Ally," she choked out while repeatedly coughing up her drink, "I've recited this story to the point of insanity. Clearly, you're a little slow today if you haven't caught on."

One look at Alice's pointed expression was enough to make her annoyance crumble into dust. "Besides," she added hastily, "you act as if it's easy to sum it all up. He said a million things and then some."

Marlene rolled her eyes, while Alice gave her a glare that put Petunia's anger to shame. "Give me the gist of it then."

She sighed and set down her goblet. Her three friends were eying her like a newly discovered specimen - almost as if she were a Herbology project gone disastrously wrong.

"Look," she added, "I told you all of it. I cut my hand on a potion's knife, and he dragged me into the corridor. I swear, his freakishly athletic Quidditch arms have the strength of an ox when it comes to getting something done."

"I'm sure there's an innuendo in there somewhere," Marlene interrupted. At seeing Lily's pissed off expression, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "Don't be so sensitive Lily, I was only joking."

"Right," she scoffed, "as much as I appreciate your jokes about shagging, I'd rather not endure them if they're said about me and that pigheaded toe rag."

Mary coughed into her goblet. Glaring at both of them, she said, "Would you two kindly refrain from putting those images in my head. I rather fancy a good apple crumble, and I'm not too keen on spitting it back up."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Anyways, after making a jab at his infuriating ego, I demanded that he go back into the dungeons and leave me be. He ignored me and grabbed my hand to properly heal it-"

"And that's when he performed wandless magic?" Mary interrupted in one short breath.

"Yes," Lily said with her arms crossed "And then-"

"He said he wanted to be your friend?" added Marlene with one quizzical eyebrow raised.

"Exactly," Lily bit out through clenched teeth. "After that-"

"You said you'd think about it," Alice concluded.

"Then why do I need to repeat myself?" she burst out, "since apparently you all know it by heart!"

A chorus of giggles erupted around her. "Well sometimes it's fun to annoy the hell out of you," said Marlene with a lazy flick of her wand. A dinner roll gently floated towards her as she grinned at a fuming Lily Evans. "But in this case, you could say we're all utterly bamboozled. It's a lot to process."

"Do you think I can make any sense of it?" she snapped. "Having James Potter as a friend is like teaching a hippogriff how to ballroom dance. It seems too ridiculous to consider."

"Well at least Potter's better on the eyes than a dancing hippogriff," Mary added amusedly.

Lily could only scoff at the humor in her friend's eyes. "Is this suddenly a joking matter? I'm at my wits end here!"

"Don't be so dramatic Lily," said Marlene. "You had a confusing confrontation with Potter. How is that any different from a typical Monday at Hogwarts?"

"Well actually," said Alice while thoughtfully tapping her chin, "the corridor incident is the third confrontation they've had today."

"Third? By god Lily, you've managed to turn a Monday into a Friday!" Marlene exclaimed. The amusement and fake astonishment never left her face.