bittersweet » lily evans

0.4

"Shit!" Lily quietly gasped as she dropped her pot of ink. It splattered all up the front of her robes, and up the back of the person's in front of her.

That person was Julia, who turned around with a scowl on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but, after a brief look at Lily, closed it again.

"Sorry," Lily apologised, using a spell to clean her uniform.

"It's fine," Julia grunted, her voice strained, "Just, get this off my robes, would you?"

She turned around and gestured for Lily to clean the back of her uniform. With a wave of her wand, Julia's robes looked brand new and the splat on the floor was the only proof that something had spilled.

"Did I hear you swear a minute ago, Evans?" Julia asked teasingly.

Lily blinked, trying to regain her wits, "Uh, yeah," she failed.

"That's not very prefectly of you," The brunette quipped.

"Prefectly isn't a word," was all Lily could think to say.

"Clearly it is, seeing as I said it," Julia argued.

"Well, no, that's not quite how it works," She said.

The girl in front of her shrugged and turned to keep on walking.

Lily shook her head and turned to remove the stain on the floor.

Once it was done, she hurried to lesson, having no intentions of being late. Though she knew it was inevitable; Julia was late to most of her lessons, if she got there before Lily then she was definitely not on time.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, professor," she said as she hustled into the Arithmancy classroom.

"I'm afraid that's a detention, miss Evans," Professor Greene frowned, "You and miss Thorne will be joining me at 6 this evening for it," he informed.

Lily sighed, Professor Greene hated tardiness, she had been expecting some form of punishment. It was still annoying, however.

"Yes sir," she said tiredly, taking her seat next to the blonde Ravenclaw she had sat with since the start of the year.

J U L I A

Professor Greene droned on about the subject, not pausing in his speech to ask questions. Surprisingly, Julia liked Arithmancy - she liked the patterns to it and the stability of it, even if she didn't always understand the content.

Right before the end of the lesson, when they had all packed away their things, the professor made an announcement.

"You will be expected to hand in a thorough research paper on the magic behind Arithmancy, it will count towards your final grade and is an important part of the subject. It is due in exactly two months time on January 16. I expect you to complete it either in groups of two or three, no more. That will be all." He explained swiftly.

The students left the room chatting to each other about the project. Julia could hear people 'bagsy'ing their friends, who they wanted to work with.

She glanced around the crowd of people; there was no one Julia could see who she would willingly spend time with. Except...

"Hey, Evans!" She shouted over the heads of some Hufflepuffs.

The redhead turned to the sound of her voice, frowning when she saw Julia making her way towards her.

"What is it?" She asked warily.

"Can I go with you for the project?" Julia asked semi-politely.

"Well, me and Remus were going to pair up," Lily gestured to the tall boy standing awkwardly beside her.

"Group of three?" Julia suggested.

"Uh, okay," Lily sighed in defeat.

"Alright, see you around," Julia smiled triumphantly and began the trek to her next lesson. She was pleased with. herself, despite the other girl's clear reluctance.

;

Julia looked up as someone slid onto the bench beside her. It was Lily followed by Remus Lupin.

"What can I help you with?" She asked, swallowing her mouthful.

Lily crinkled her nose, "We need to sort out what we're doing for the project."

"But it was only set today," replied Julia, pushing the food on her plate around with her fork.

"So? We still need to get it started," Lily pointed out.

"Alright, what have you got in mind?"

"I was thinking that we should do some background research first, where the idea for Arithmancy came from, basic things like that," Lily explained.

Julia nodded, "So we'll be living in the library for the next two months, is what you're saying."

"That's how I understood it," Remus, who had remained silent until this point, piped up.

"Well, we are going to spend quite a bit of time there, yes," Lily agreed, "But we won't be living there."

"You say that now," Julia quipped.

"Anyway, we'll go there tomorrow after lessons, is that fine by you?"

"Yeah, sure," Julia turned back to her food, signalling that their conversation was over.

She heard Lily give a little scoff as she walked away. Julia shook her head, turning back to her food. This stupid crush was making her willingly spend time in the library, what next? Completing homework and handing it on time? Julia scoffed under her breath, how could she let a simple, red-haired witch effect her so much?

I'm so sorry for the wait! I've been kind of preoccupied with my other story at the moment, but here you go!