Letters From A Stranger || James and Lily ||

Pandora Fawley

Disclaimer : I'm a high school student who has too much homework to do. So, I certainly don't own Harry Potter.

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Chapter 7

The next day when Lily went to the great hall for breakfast Marlene, Alice and Daisy were already there.
She sat down next to Alice who was filling her plate with food.

"Where's Mary?" Lily asked.

"She went to ask Professor Kettleburn about the Care of Magical Creatures assignment." Alice said.

"I thought she took Potions." Lily said.

"She didn't get E in the Potions OWL." Marlene said.

As Lily ate, she saw Marlene look between James and her.
"What?" she asked.

Marlene smiled innocently and turned to Alice. "Alice, wanna bet? Three chocolate frogs."

"Bet on what?" Alice asked.

"James will ask Lily out before dinner." Marlene said it so confidently that Lily suspected if she had planned anything with James. Then she remembered her conversation with him and shook her head.

"He won't." Lily said.

"What? You threatened to confiscate his broom or something?" Alice asked.

"No." Lily said, "But he won't ask me out."

"Here ends the saga." Alice said dramatically.

"We'll see that later. Daisy what do you think?" Marlene asked.

"I don't think he will. If Lily's saying he won't, there must be some reason." Daisy said.

Lily mouthed Thank you at her. Daisy was the only one who sided with Lily when Marlene and Alice paired her up with every boy in school and teased her mercilessly (the worse till date being Gilderoy Lockhart).

"He will." Marlene said, as if she was convincing herself. Lily never understood why Marlene so very badly wanted Lily and James to get together. She assumed it's because James is her cousin.

"What do we have next?" Daisy asked, subtly changing the subject.

"Double Potions."

Lily, Daisy and Marlene walked to the Potions classroom as Alice went to the common room to get her books.

"This year, all of you will be working in pairs." Professor Slughorn said.

Lily and Marlene shared The Look (which meant they'll work together).

"And I will assign your partners."

There was a collective groan. Lily's heart sank. The sixth year Gryffindors had Potions with Slytherins and there was a fifty percent chance that she'll be paired with a Slytherin. And she had a suspicion that Slughorn might pair his two favorite students together which might end up with her being partnered with Severus.

The Professor called out the names one by one. Remus was paired with Frank, Marlene with James, Daisy and Alice with two Slytherin boys. Lily felt slightly better when Snape was paired with Sirius (she sincerely hoped the two of them wouldn't strangle each other by the end of the class). But the relief was immediately gone when she saw that there were no more Gryffindors without partners.

"Miss Evans with Miss Fawley at table 7" Slughorn said. Lily collected her books and waved at Marlene who waved back and wiped away a non existent tear. She saw James look at both of them in mild amusement.