Chapter Text
Lily Evans did not want to start her first day of the rest of her life by being late.
She had dreamt of her first day of teaching. She had imagined getting up early, dancing to music in her kitchen, coffee mug in hand; dancing away the first day jitters.
No. That is simply not what happened.
Lily had slept through thirteen of her alarms, all of which were screaming at her when she had finally come to this morning. Frantically, she had jumped out of bed, thrown on one of her favorite teaching outfits that consisted of a long, navy blue skirt and white long sleeve shirt. Afterward, she had delicately put on makeup, narrowly avoiding ruining her white shirt many times.
She had checked her phone as she ran out the door. She was two minutes behind schedule.
Shit, she had thought.
Lily had not only been unsuccessful in having the best morning ever, but she also had forgotten to drink a cup of coffee and eat something. On her first day of teaching fifth graders, she was going to have zero energy. Wonderful.
Pulling into the parking lot was a weird feeling for Lily. Her entire life, she had always parked in the student section, but here she was, a teacher.
Who allowed a twenty-two-year-old to be a teacher?
As Lily got out of her car, she looked to her right and noticed that someone else was getting out of their car as well. In their hands was a tray full of coffees and a bag full of bagels. Lily was instantly jealous and wished that she had remembered to grab something .
“Hey!” they said, flashing a smile at Lily. “Are you new? I don’t recognize you.”
Lily nodded her head.
“Yeah, it’s my first day.”
“Oh thank god, that would have been embarrassing if you weren’t new,” they said, laughing softly. They looked at Lily’s coffeeless hands and extended the tray. “Want one?”
Lily almost reached out her hands to take a cup before remembering her manners, “Oh, I couldn’t.”
“No, please, go ahead. I buy extras for the first day,” they said, pushing the tray even closer to Lily. “I do not want to end up with four coffees to myself, my eighth graders are going to think I’m crazy. Well, crazier than they already assume.”
Eighth grade. They must be Dorcas Meadowes. Lily studied the list of teachers for hours last night, in order to make a good impression on her coworkers.
Knowing she’s pushing her luck, Lily took one of the cups. She smiled as she felt the heat of the warm coffee spread from the cup into her cold hands.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, I’m Dorcas,” they said, pressing the lock button on their car. “I’m non-binary. I know that’s kind of a weird introduction, but I get misgendered all the time, so.”
Lily nodded her head, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “I’m so sorry, that must be really hard. I’m Lily, I use she/her pronouns.”
Dorcas smiled up at Lily, her slender frame relaxing. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Lily.”
“You as well, Dorcas.”
“What grade are you teaching?” they asked, starting to walk towards the classroom buildings. Lily followed behind.
“Fifth grade,” Lily responded. “This is the first classroom that I get to teach by myself.”
Dorcas raised their eyebrows. “Did you just graduate?”
Lily nodded her head. “This past fall.”
“You must be a kickass female,” Dorcas acknowledged as the two of them reached the silver doors of the elementary school. “It’s hard to get hired here.”
Lily felt her face go red. She hadn’t realized that Hogwarts Elementary was challenging to be hired by. She considered her interview and hiring process to be relatively easy.
“Oh,” Lily was stumped. “Thank you?”
“You’re welcome,” Dorcas said, handing Lily the bag of bagels and coffee tray so that they could reach into their bag and take out their keys.
Unlocking the doors, Dorcas stepped inside and beckoned Lily to follow them.
“You’ve been here before, right?”
“Yes, a couple of times, actually,” Lily said, looking around at the brown walls that surrounded the hallway. It was plain right now, with empty corkboards wanting to be filled with students’ artwork.
Lily knew that by the second week of school it would be full of creations made by children.
“Hmm, well, what can I show you?” Dorcas thought aloud as they passed multiple locked classrooms. “The teacher’s lounge is to our left and the copy room is directly across to the right. Most everyone is nice here, except for a couple of teachers, but let’s not focus on them.”
Dorcas seemed so lost in their world, but Lily adored teachers that loved their job.
“Wait,” Dorcas said, abruptly turning around to face Lily. “We forgot to drop off the bagels and coffee.”
The moment Dorcas used “we” instead of “I”, Lily knew that she wasn’t alone here.
Dorcas and Lily had been hanging around the teacher’s lounge, prepping their notes and making small talk with the teachers that stopped by.
The first teacher that had arrived was a man named Severus Snape. He taught sixth grade and loved science. He was tall and pale, but that might have been because of the black outfit that he was wearing. He also had dark, straight hair that fell to his shoulders. He hadn’t stayed for long, but he had managed to introduce himself to Lily, which Dorcas said was out of character for him.
“He doesn’t talk to anyone,” they had said.
The second teacher to stop by was another young teacher named Alice Fortescue. She was the kindergarten teacher with her rosy cheeks and plump figure, one that mirrored Lily’s. Her short, brown hair bounced with her as she entered the lounge. She had immediately taken a bagel and spread cream cheese over it as she talked about exciting events that were supposed to happen during the upcoming school year.
“I get to take my kindergarteners to the pumpkin patch! I have been begging Dumbledore to let me take them for so long. The man has finally lightened up.”
“I heard he’s close to retiring.”
“The Donalds have another child in my class, how many is that? God, I have lost track of the number of children in that family I have taught. They must be made of money.”
After a quick gossip session that Lily was not sure she needed to hear, Alice had said her goodbyes and left; another bagel in her hand.
The third teacher to stop by was Horace Slughorn. He was the third-grade teacher and seemed to know his stuff. He had been delighted to see Lily as a new addition, grateful that it was a young person versus someone closer to his age.
“You bunch are the next generation,” he had told her and Dorcas.
The last teacher Lily had the pleasure of meeting before going off to her own classroom was another young girl; Camille Hollingberry. She was the fourth-grade teacher, full of personality and cheer. She had entered the room with a gigantic smile on her face and her tan skin seemed to be glowing.
Lily had been unable to form a complete sentence around her.
“You were so smitten with Camille,” Dorcas teased as they dropped Lily off at her classroom.
“I was not!” Lily tried to argue, but she knew it was useless.
Dorcas just smiled as they continued down the hallway to their own classroom.
Now that Lily was by herself, she had time to go over her mental checklist.
Nametags on desks? Check.
Agenda on the chalkboard? Check.
Textbooks inside desks? Check.
Room in the back to hang backpacks? Check.
Sanity? Check?
The first bell was going to ring in thirty seconds. Lily had time to take the last sip of her coffee before switching to the water that she had remembered to pack.
Savoring the last moments of quiet, Lily walked over to her classroom door, ready to greet her fifth graders.
It was go time.
“Miss Evans!” a hand flew into the air.
Lily was at the board, going over sentence structure.
Placing the chalk down, Lily turned around, locating the raised hand. It was coming from a boy that had big brown eyes and a curly afro.
“Yes?” Lily asked, still slightly unnerved by her teacher name.
“When do we get to color?’
Lily looked around the room, noticing that a lot of her students were nodding their heads in agreement.
Did they like to color? Lily had not planned for that.
“Well, when did you color during fourth grade?” Lily asked, walking over to her desk. Quickly, she grabbed a sticky note and a pen, ready to listen to what her student had to say.
“We… colored…” he froze.
Lily looked at him kindly, her smile growing. She hoped that she was coming off kindly, not like a freak.
“We colored during math when Miss Millie made us math puzzles and when she taught us art!” another student yelled, their hand nowhere to be found.
“Miss Donald,” Lily said, remembering what Alice had said about the Donalds. “We raise our hand and wait to be called on.”
The pale girl with the curly blonde hair blushed a deep red. She rose her hand slowly into the air, waiting for Lily to call on her.
“Last year, in Miss Millie’s class, we were able to color often. I know that you might be thinking that coloring is beneath us, but it’s really not. We all really love coloring and we were able to do that when working on math puzzles and art class!” Rosie Donald said, her entire face lighting up as she talked about Miss Millie’s class.
Numerous other hands flew into the air to add to Rosie’s comment.
Lily had not been prepared for fifth graders to latch onto coloring.
“They’re very spirited,” Lily said carefully, tearing apart one of the bagels that had not been eaten this morning. As the pieces got small enough for Lily’s liking, she would pop them into her mouth.
Dorcas and Alice had been sitting in the lounge before Lily had gotten there, the two of them sitting very close and chatting about what had occurred in their classrooms up until this point in the day. Lily had not wanted to interrupt, but as soon as the two of them had seen her, they patted a seat down next to Alice.
“How’s Rosie?” Alice asked, trying to hide a grin.
Lily held back a chuckle as she said, “Well, spirited.”
“So is her younger brother,” Alice said, nodding her head. “He kept asking when Rosie was going to pick him up and take him into her classroom.”
“Oh lord, I do not think I could handle that,” Lily let a laugh out. “But, I think I’m going to like her.”
“She’s such a good helper around the classroom,” Alice said. “That is, when she’s in the mood.”
“Isn’t that every child though?” Dorcas asked, setting their water bottle on the table. “When things run on their schedule, they are happy.”
“When do they realize that’s not how life works?” Lily asked innocently.
Dorcas and Alice looked at each other and burst out into laughter.
“College.”
After the first day of school, Lily was more than exhausted.
During one of her breaks, she had run to the copy room to print out some “color by number” sheets so that her students could do something that they really wanted to, color. When she had returned with the coloring pages, her class had gone ecstatic and deemed her “the best teacher ever”. She knew her title would not last forever, especially as soon as she started teaching them about how to correctly write an essay.
Lily was locking up her classroom when Dorcas passed by. They gave her a small smile and waved goodbye.
“See you tomorrow, Lily!”
“Bye, Dorcas,” Lily said softly, securing her bag over her shoulder. “Wait, Dorcas!”
The sudden change in tone stopped the tall brunette. They turned around, raising their eyebrows.
“What’s up, buttercup?”
“I am beyond tired, can you recommend any good coffee places?” Lily asked, feeling embarrassed for asking. She didn’t want Dorcas to think that their coffee wasn’t enough for her.
Instead, Dorcas just smiled. “Ah, I see. A multiple cups a day kind of girl. I knew I liked you for some reason. There’s a cute place near the beach, called McKinnon’s. The baristas there are the best! I’ll text you the address.”
“Thank you so much,” Lily said, slipping her school keys into her bag and grabbing her car keys.
Finding McKinnon’s was a whole deal within itself. Lily had never lived in a beach city before, and holy shit, she should have prepared herself a little better. The number of sharp turns that come out of nowhere would have scared the shit out of a new driver. If you knew how to drive here, you knew how to drive everywhere.
And the number of people that just walk everywhere? A crazy number. Lily almost hit a couple of them while she was turning into the parking lot.
But the moment she entered McKinnon’s , she knew Dorcas had not lead her astray. The shop was small, but full of color on the walls. The tables were all just the right amount away from each other; full of customers happily chatting with each other and sipping delicious drinks.
When it was Lily’s turn to order, she realized she had no idea what to order.
“Hiya, sweetheart! What can I get for you?” the woman at the cashier asked, a kind smile on her face.
Lily glanced down at her nametag and saw that, written in swirly letters, her name was Marlene. She had short, almost platinum, blonde hair that was swooped off to one side of her head. Her blue eyes were big and watched as Lily studied the menu. Her dark maroon lips still held her smile.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Lily started, noticing the line behind her. “It’s my first time here.”
Marlene grinned, nodding her head. “No problem, what do you typically get at a coffee place?”
“Something sweet? Creamy?” Lily tried to make her order as brief as possible. She trusted Marlene, for some reason.
Marlene’s eyes twinkled as she grabbed a cup, scribbling down something.
“Sirius! Your break is over !” Marlene yelled, setting her pen down. “Sorry, my coworker must not realize how busy we are.”
Lily couldn’t help but giggle.
“Oh, it’s okay,” Lily said, pulling out her wallet to grab some cash.
“I’m sure you will like this drink,” Marlene said as she typed the order into the register. “But you’ll have to come back and let me know.”
Lily found herself nodding her head a little too aggressively.
“My coworker recommended this place,” Lily said, looking around. “It’s awesome.”
Marlene blushed as she said, “Tell your coworker that I love them.”
“Will do!” Lily grinned as she handed Marlene her cash.
Marlene’s coworker, Sirius, appeared from the back room, and he was not at all what Lily was expecting.
He was short, taller than Lily, but that wasn’t saying anything. He had long black hair that was pulled into a half-up, half-down hairdo. Behind his ear, he had a flower, some sort of lily. Piercings covered his ears and nose. As he pushed up his sleeves to tie his apron on, Lily noticed the number of tattoos that covered his arms.
Lily thought that he looked very cool .
Sirius picked up the cup that had Lily’s order on it and smiled. “Marley, I haven’t made this in forever .”
“I thought our newest customer would like it!” Marlene grinned, looking from Lily to Sirius.
Sirius looked at Lily and nodded his head, “She’ll like it.”
It was the best cup of coffee Lily had ever had.