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It was a peaceful Wednesday afternoon and Lily was sitting against her wooden bedframe reading Pride and Prejudice. It was a reread, but she never got tired of the build-up of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy’s relationship. She only wished she could experience love like theirs.
One bed down, Marlene was laying on top of her sheets, eyes closed as she listened to the quiet music coming from the record player next to her bed. Lily had just gotten her the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album and it’d been playing on repeat in their room.
It was then, halfway through Rhiannon when Mary entered the dorm, practically skipping as she dropped her bookbag on the ground and lightly hopped onto Lily’s bed. Lily could tell Mary was about to say something important, as she took a deep breath before she spoke.
“Lily, my dear, I need you to help me get with Emmeline Vance.”
That was not what Lily was expecting her to say.
“Emmeline Vance?” Marlene sat up, pausing the music with a flick of her wand. “The Hufflepuff chaser?”
“Yes!” Mary smiled to herself softly. “About a month ago the library was packed and she sat at the same table as me and we started studying together. Well, I tried to study but I just kept looking over at her…”
Mary paused to take another breath but quickly continued.
“And then we got to talking and then decided that we actually enjoyed studying with each other- even though I wasn’t really studying -and we’ve started like actually meeting in the library and it’s so nice... although I still don’t get any work done around her. I just like being around her and talking to her and she’s so smart and gorgeous. I kind of feel like there's this connection between the two of us.”
She sighed contentedly and Lily knew that that was a sign that she had finished her rambling and it was good for Lily to jump in.
“That’s great, Mary. But why do you need my help?”
“Because…” Mary groaned and gently threw the upper half of body onto the bed, her head resting right by Lily’s knees. “I’m awkward. I can’t flirt.”
“You seemed to do well with the Prewett brothers.” Lily offered up.
“And Edgar Bones.” Marlene butted in. “Caradoc Dearborn. Frank Longbottom before he got with Alice…”
“Okay!” Mary said defensively. “But those are guys. It’s different with girls… with Emmeline.”
“Aww, Mary’s got a big crush.”
“Shut up Marlene.” She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help but blush. It really was the first time she had had this much feelings for someone.
“I still don’t get why you want my help.” Lily continued; she was still single after all, and had a harder time than Mary when it came to getting with people. The only person she knew might actually want to get with her was James Potter- but she was pretty sure he was only teasing her about it.
“Maybe Marlene would be better at this than I would.”
Mary sat up hastily. A couple of her thick curls had covered her eyes but she quickly batted them away and looked at Lily with surprise.
“You’re the one that got Marlene and Dorcas together!” She said, as if it was obvious.
Lily opened her mouth in protest. “No, I didn’t!” She looked towards Marlene for backup, who instead agreed with Mary.
“Actually you sort of did. We were pretty intense rivals until you forced us to get along; tutoring us both for Potions. That’s when we realised we actually fancied each other.” Lily furrowed her eyebrows- is that what happened?
“And you got Remus and Sirius together!” Mary added. Lily disagreed again.
“All I did was tell Remus to stop being stupid and actually express his feelings and stop hiding.”
“Yeah and he needed that.” Marlene said, flexing her wand at Lily to make a point. “Boys are hopeless, even with each other.”
Mary nodded at Marlene then raised her eyebrows towards Lily in a “i told you” sort of way and Lily resigned. Maybe her friends were right; she was good at love -for everyone but herself.
“Okay… Well what do you want me to do?”
“Come to the next Quidditch game with me. It’s Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff.”
“That’s it?” Lily didn’t really see how being in the stands far away from Emmeline would help Mary attract her, but she wasn’t about to argue more with one of her best friends.
“Yes. And Severus can’t join us.”
“What, why not?” Severus joined Lily at every Quidditch game. She knew if it wasn’t for her he wouldn’t go.
“Because, Lils, he’ll ruin the vibe. And you can’t be my wingwoman with him there.”
Lily thought it over. Severus would be down about it, probably argue with her, and end up not going to the match at all, but Lily supported her girls above anybody. After a moment of deliberating, she looked into Mary’s sparkling brown eyes and just couldn’t say no.
“Fine.”
Mary gasped in excitement and embraced Lily’s neck, enveloping her a hug. Lily wrapped her arms around Mary’s waist and squeezed.
“You’re the best Lily Evans.”
It was one of those rare perfect beautiful days for the match, Lily thought. The sun was out and there was no wind to endure. She had put on her Gryffindor hat and scarf for house pride but not to hide from any cold.
Mary had wrapped her Gryffindor scarf around her neck as well but only after a 20 minute freakout in their dorm about how she didn’t know if she should wear any house merch because it would be disloyal to Emmeline.
(Marlene settled it by saying Mary needed to wear it to support her and that got Mary to at least bring her scarf).
The two girls had gone early enough to grab good center seats and watch the warmups. Mary, of course, was looking at Emmeline the whole time, while Lily kept subconsciously looking at James Potter.
Every time she caught herself gazing at him, she stopped and tried to find Marlene in the air, but he kept appearing in her view.
Despite what some people thought, she didn’t hate Potter. She just didn’t want him to occupy her mind. She had plenty more important things to think about then him.
But she couldn’t deny he was a great Quidditch player. And that’s the only reason her eyes kept straying to him. That was it.
Time passed by quickly and soon the stands were filling up, and the players were heading back to their tents.
Mary, who was never particularly interested in Quidditch, was suddenly buzzing with excitement.
“Is it bad I’m kind of rooting for the other team?”
Lily, who also didn’t care much for the game, just shrugged.
“You’re rooting for Hufflepuff?” A voice from beside them said.
Peter was scooting his way through the crowd and landed on the empty seat beside Lily. His cheeks were painted with red and gold lines and he held a tiny Gryffindor flag.
Lily didn’t mind Peter. Besides Remus, he was the only Marauder she could stand. Which made her notice that there were two others missing from his side.
“Where’s Remus and Sirius?” She asked. Peter gave a disappointed sigh.
“Got caught sneaking around doing who-knows-what by Filch. But whatever it was got them both stuck in midday detention- during the match of course.”
Lily and Mary nodded. They knew not to ask anything more, especially about those two.
“Anyways..” Peter continued “Mary, what do you mean you’re rooting for Hufflepuff?”
“Oh… um.” She looked away shyly but turned back to them with a soft smile on her face. “I fancy Emmeline Vance.”
It took Peter a second to process the information (Mary wasn’t exactly out to anyone besides her dormmates about her attraction to women), and his raised eyebrows clearly showed his surprise, but he began to slowly nod.
“She’s a good chaser.” He responded politely.
Mary nodded, blushing cheeks appearing next to her smile. “Yeah she is.”
"Not as good as James though!" Peter added. Lily rolled her eyes.
They were silent for a moment as Lily observed her friend. She had never seen Mary like this- so infatuated. It brought a sense of joy to her. Lily may not get her Austenian love, but Mary might. Mary was destined for good things, and one of those good things may be Emmeline Vance.
Loud drumming interrupted her thoughts as the band began to play and everyone started to cheer. The match was about to commence.
The game had already gone for a couple of hours and the teams were neck and neck. Mary was so crossed between excited and nervous that she had gripped Lily’s hand hard enough that she was starting to lose feeling.
Whenever Emmeline scored- which was most of Hufflepuff’s points -, Mary cheered her name so loud that she even got looks from other Hufflepuff students. It seemed to have the desired effect though, as a couple of times after a goal, Emmeline did look over at Mary and smiled, making her hum with pleasure.
(Lily also noticed that once James Potter had winked at her after he scored but she chose to ignore it).
Another chaser on Hufflepuff scored and the crowd went wild again. The quaffle was quickly put back into play and Marlene had taken hold. She was racing across the field, James racing up to give her a chance to pass. Emmeline flew up right next to him to try and block. Marlene hesitated to pass, not wanting to give Hufflepuff another chance to score.
Close by, Lily took notice of two beaters battling with a bludger. It was getting closer to the two chasers. Neither seemed to notice, too focused on the quaffle.
The bludger flew their way and-
Lily couldn't tell who actually got hit, but suddenly they were both falling.
Gasps ran through the audience and Lily and Mary instinctively stood up.
“James!”
“Emmeline!”
The two hit the ground.
Lily and Mary pushed their way through the crowd and ran down to the field. Distantly she felt Peter trying to following behind them but lost him as they got through the stands. Her only focus was getting down to James.
By the time the two girls got to them, Marlene was by James’ side, Amelia Bones by Emmeline’s, and Madam Hooch standing over both of them, looking out to trying to alert Nurse Pomfrey.
Lily went besides Marlene and looked down at James. He looked awful.
He had an arm around his ribs and was thrashing his head around. His glasses had fallen off somewhere and his whole face was scrunched in pain. She could tell he was trying not to make any noises, but he let a groan slip through his lips.
“Potter, stop moving, you’re making it worse.” Lily said sternly, James looked up at her, blinking a couple times until his focus became unwavering.
“Angel.” He painfully breathed out.
“What?” She could tell he was clearly out of it. “It’s Lily. Lily Evans.” She hoped that Nurse Pomfrey was coming soon.
“I see an angel. You’re an angel.” James murmured before passing out.
Lily’s mouth was agape. She looked over at Marlene, who also seemed shocked by the statement, but when she turned to Lily, she gave a knowing chuckle.
Lily went back to staring at the unconscious boy on the ground. Her gaze softened. She was suddenly transfixed by him. Without his mouth spewing taunts or his eyes full of mischief, he looked peaceful and kind, attractive even.
She spotted his glasses nearby- the frame bent and one of the lenses cracked -and picked them up, wiping the dirt off of them and placing them in her pocket.
Close by, Mary shouted Emmeline’s name again before crouching beside her waist, staring at her too-pale face. Her jet black hair was sprawled out on the grass beneath her. There was a large bruise forming on the left side of her forehead. She glanced across Emmeline's body to Amelia, who looked like she was going to throw up. “What do we do?” Mary asked to no one in particular. Emmeline’s eyes fluttered.
“Hold my hand.” Emmeline groaned.
“What?” Mary whipped her head down to look at her.
“Stay with me. Hold my hand.” She said again. Mary glanced up to regard Amelia- see if she understood -but she was met with no one; and turned to find her racing to Nurse Pomfrey, who was coming across the field. Mary focused back on Emmeline. She might not have been referring to Mary when she made the request, but she didn’t want Emmeline to feel alone.
“Okay.” Mary grasped her weak hand and held it tight. She didn’t care that she wasn’t holding it back. Even when Emmeline passed out on the way to the Hospital Wing, Mary’s grip never faltered.
Emmeline woke with a jolt. Mary quickly sat up in her chair and looked at her worryingly. Emmeline took a moment to survey her surroundings but lingered on Mary sitting beside her bed.
“You stayed.” Emmeline said with surprise.
“Of course.” Mary replied sheepishly. “You asked me to.” She paused for a moment, unsure of what to do now that Emmeline woke up.
“Amelia, Benjy, and the whole Hufflepuff Quidditch team stopped by at different points. Just so you know.” She added.
Emmeline nodded, but didn't seem to care. She was just focused on the girl in front of her.
“I’m glad you’re here.” She said, conveying a lot more than a simple thanks.
“I am too.” Mary responded. Emmeline reached out her hand and Mary silently took it. Emmeline turned her face away and blushed.
“I can’t believe this.” She mumbled against the pillow.
“What? The accident?” Mary was suddenly concerned, clutching Emmeline’s hand harder. Nurse Pomfrey said that she had a concussion; that she wouldn’t be able to play for a while. Emmeline turned her face back over to Mary. The sun had hit her dark brown eyes and had turned them into a swirling galaxy.
“No. You.” Emmeline stopped herself and studied Mary’s face. It was full of acceptance and understanding.
“I like you, Mary. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since that first day in the library. And studying together was just an excuse to be by you. And you’re still here. And I know it's silly to confess this right after I just got knocked out by a bludger but you're so amazing that I just had to say it now.”
Mary took in a breath, steadying herself.
“I feel the same about you.” She whispered. She took Emmeline’s other hand and they clutched one another, gazing into each other's eyes. Their own little universe.
Lily watched Mary and Emmeline from beside one of the curtained dividers. She had gone to check on Mary- who had been there since they’d originally arrived from the Quidditch pitch -but stopped when she saw them staring at each other. She certainly didn’t want to interrupt, and it seemed like neither of them even noticed she was there. And she was okay with that.
She turned to leave the wing when she stopped and saw James Potter slowly sitting up and grabbing his glasses from the bedside table. He blinked a couple of times and finally saw Lily standing there.
“I fixed them for you.” She said, referring to his glasses.
“Evans… Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She paused and quickly scanned over his body. “Are you okay?”
James started to take stock of himself before grinning at her. His hair was as unruly as ever, which bugged her. She just wanted to go over and fix it.
“It must’ve been a pretty nasty hit if Lily Evans is making sure I’m okay.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms but decided to play along.
“Yes it was. Got Emmeline Vance too.”
“Is she alright?” James asked, which Lily felt to be thoughtful of him.
“Yes. She’s one bed down. Mary’s with her.”
“Mary, huh? I thought I saw Emmeline looking at her a few times during the match.” James pushed up his glasses- a tick of his that Lily had begun to notice.
“I also saw you looking at me a couple of times.” James smirked.
Lily scoffed at his arrogance.
“Of course I was watching you, you’re on the Gryffindor team. I’m a Gryffindor.” Lily stated the obvious.
“You also came down to the field to make sure I was okay.”
“I was worried. Like I said, it looked pretty bad.”
“You didn’t have to though.” James paused.
“You care about me.” He continued smugly. Lily gave him a look of disgust.
“You know, Potter, I think that hit got you worse than we thought, it seems you’re still delusional. First you called me an angel and now you’re thinking I care about you.”
It was a bit harsh, and Lily knew that, but James’ pride had caused a lot of problems in Lily’s life- especially when it came to Severus. And it was incredibly irksome that James, despite being badly injured, continued his pretentious act.
“You know I meant it.” James began seriously, “What I said about-”
One of the large double doors of the hospital wing swung open and Remus and Sirius rushed in, somehow immediately finding the bed that James was in and scurrying over.
“James, mate! We heard what happened.” Remus said as the two boys appeared at the end of his bed. Lily stepped back a little, a bit overwhelmed by their entrance.
“Bloody Filch just had to give us detention during the game.” Sirius bickered. “It isn’t fair, you know, taking away our right to watch Quidditch. I swear we’ll get him back, right Moony?”
“Padfoot calm down.” Remus rested his hand atop of Sirius’, which was gripping the railing at the end of the bed. “Are you alright?” He asked, looking at James with a concerned look on his face. (But then again, Remus always looked concerned).
“Yeah I’m good lads. I’ve got Lily here to take care of me.” James motioned towards her with his shoulder while also raising his eyebrows suggestively to the two boys.
Sirius looked at Lily and opened his mouth in realisation, catching on to what James was trying to say. He turned to Remus who also seemed to understand.
Lily, who was watching it all, was trying to think of a good way to leave.
“Right.” Sirius said back to James. “Well Remus and I are gonna go…study. We’ll come back later.” And before Lily could protest, Sirius linked his and Remus’ hands together and walked out of the hospital wing, leaving Lily and James alone once again.
Lily could make an excuse to go back over to Emmeline’s bed. Say something about checking in on Mary- like her original plan was- but she knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t going to ruin Mary’s moment with Emmeline just because she didn’t want to talk to James Potter.
James watched Remus and Sirius go but immediately turned his attention back to Lily once the doors had shut.
“I meant what I said when I was on the field.” He said, recalling their conversation before they were interrupted. “I know I was injured but I believe it.”
Lily shook her head in disbelief. She was not going to fall for it.
“You called me an angel. Multiple times.”
“Yeah I know. It’s true.”
“You were barely conscious.” She declared.
“Yes but I still meant it.” He spoke honestly.
“You are an angel, Lily Evans. An angel for rushing over to make sure I was okay. For fixing my glasses. For staying by me. For dealing with me. You’re so one of a kind, you must be heavenly.”
Lily had to turn away- she was flushing red.
Something in her had sparked. He wasn't teasing her this time. He truly meant it. She looked back at him and saw admiration in his eyes. Admiration for her. No one had ever looked at her that way before. She guessed James was just different.
She started to think that maybe he wasn’t all that bad.
“Why are you like this?” She said lightly, almost teasingly.
“I can’t help it. It’s you.” His voice had gone soft. Lily preferred it to his usual tone; it felt comforting.
“James Potter, you’re going to make me start to like you.” She admitted. He smiled sincerely.
“Good. I can work with that.”