Chapter Text
Friday 20th February 1976
Lily had a migraine when she got back to her dorm room from her last class of the day on Friday. Unfortunately, the sheer amount of homework, essays, and exams had gotten to her, and she wasn’t doing too well. It probably also meant she was about to get her period– she always seemed to get more migraines then, and she was always in a bad mood right before her period. Not a good combination.
“Lils?” Marls called from the open bathroom door– she treated everything like a quidditch locker room at this point. “Is that you?”
“Yeah,” Lily replied, and winced. “I think I’m going to go to the hospital wing…”
“sh*t,” Marls cursed, and Lily heard a shampoo container drop. “Do you have a migraine?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Lily answered, and tried blinking. Her eyelids were getting dryer by the second, and she was starting to lose vision in her left eye. “Just needed to drop off my bags.”
“Good thing,” Marls called, and Lily heard the shower stop. Marls walked out wrapped in a towel, and began digging around in her trunk. “I needed to tell you– Potter said he needed to talk to you about something.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “That prat.” She sighed. “He probably just wants to ask me out again. He’s done so three times this week already.” She started towards the door.
“I don’t think it’s–” Marls started, but Lily interrupted her.
“I’ve got to get to the hospital wing right now,” Lily said, and put a hand to her left eye. “We’ll get back to this, yes?” She didn’t wait for a response, and practically ran down the stairs of the dorm room towards the hospital wing.
“Lily!” A voice shouted as she was going down the hall. She turned, and Sev was running after her. “Hey, Lily!”
“What, Severus?” Lily asked, wincing. “I’ve got to go right about now, so make it quick, please.”
“You shouldn’t be roaming the halls alone,” Sev said, and he fell into step beside her.
“I think I can handle myself just fine,” Lily replied, rolling her eyes. She immediately regretted it, as pain shot through her head. “What did you need?”
“I was wondering if you’d gotten done with the Potions essay yet?” He shrugged. “It looked difficult, that’s all. Also, are you doing anything for the next Hogsmeade weekend?”
“Yes, and yes,” Lily answered. “Why?”
“Nothing,” Sev said. “Just wondering.”
“I think I’m going with Remus, James, Sirius, Marls, that whole group.”
“Remus?” Sev raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Sev, what the hell do you mean by that?” Lily stopped short, the hospital wing momentarily forgotten.
“I just meant–”
“How many times do I have to tell you!?” Lily interrupted. “I don’t think you’re right.”
“Lily, I’m going to find a way to prove it to you,” Sev insisted. “I swear.”
“That’s great,” Lily replied, sarcastically. “I’ll see you later, Sev.” He began to follow her, and she withdrew her wand threateningly. “If you follow me, I’ll have your guts for garters, Severus.”
He took the hint and went in the opposite direction, shooting her one last glance. She ignored it– she would apologize later. Right now she needed the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey.
“Madame Pomfrey?” Lily called into the empty sick bay. The calming gray colors of the room immediately soothed her, and she sighed with relief. Just the silence and lack of distractions was starting to calm her down.
The medi-witch bustled out of her office at the sound of her name. “Lily!” She eyed her up and down. “Migraine?”
Lily sucked in a gasp as another sharp pain shot through her skull. “Yep,” She said sharply.
Pomfrey gave her a pitying look, and hurried Lily to sit on a bed. “Here,” the witch said, and handed Lily a small bottle of potion. “Drink that.”
Lily quickly downed the bottle, the cool taste almost evaporating on her tongue. “What’s this?” Lily asked, and as soon as she’d said it, her migraine seemed to disappear. “What on earth…” Lily said, incredulous.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Pomfrey said, smiling widely. “New advancements have been made in migraine and headache potions…” She dug around in a few shelves while Lily watched. “I have a few already brewed,” She explained, and smiled knowingly at Lily. “Thought you might stop by. OWLs are never a fun time.”
Lily examined the bottle again. “That’s really amazing,” she remarked. “Wish I could do that.”
“Do what, hon?” The medi-witch asked, and brought over a tray of the potions. Clearly she had stocked up.
“Oh, I just meant…” Lily blushed. “I wish I could do potion stuff like that. Apothecary stuff, you know?”
“I think you would be wonderful at that,” Madame Pomfrey said, quite seriously. She raised an eyebrow. “You should talk to McGonagall about it, if you’re invested in it that much.” She took a few potions off of the silver tray and handed them to Lily. “Here. Now, I don’t want you to be overworking yourself, alright?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” Lily said, and smiled as she tucked the potions into her pocket. “I’ll make sure I don’t.”
“Good.” The medi-witch waved as Lily departed, and Lily thought about what she’d said on the way back to Gryffindor Tower. She could be good at apothecary things, right? She was quite good at potions. And charms. She was alright at healing and herbology as well. She probably would bring it up during her career interview, then.
***
Lily ran into Sev on the way back to Gryffindor Tower, as luck would have it. “Sev!” She exclaimed, seeing the boy across the hall.
Sev turned around, his face brightening. “Hey, Lily. Where were you?”
“Oh, uh…” Lily hesitated. “Picking up something from Madam Pomfrey.” She shook her head. “That’s unimportant.” She took a breath in. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” Sev blinked.
“For exploding at you back there– I was completely out of it, and I’m really sorry.” She sighed, and held out her hand to shake his. “Truce?”
He nodded, and the two shook hands in agreement. “Truce.”
***
Lily was studying one of the transfiguration spells at one of the tables in the common room when Marls came up to her, slightly out of breath. “Oh my god, there you are,” She said, and flopped into the seat across from Lily.
“Er…” Lily raised an eyebrow, confused. “Yeah?”
“Ok. James needs to talk to you,” Marls explained, and she waved over James, who was about to go up to the boy’s dorm room. “It’s about…” She lowered her voice, “Remus’s birthday party.”
Lily shrugged. “Why not.” She smiled sweetly at James, who gave Marls a nervous look.
“You’re sure she’s not going to hex my fingers off?” James asked.
“No promises, Potter,” Lily said, still smiling. “What d’you need me for?” She rested her chin on her hand. “I thought the marauders were the best party planners?”
“Oh, we definitely are,” James replied, grinning self-assuredly and messing up his hair. Lily rolled her eyes. “We just need your help with sending out invites.”
“Like I’d send out invites for a huge party in the common room,” Lily rolled her eyes. “Yeah, right. No.” She looked at her transfiguration book.
“Seriously!?” James sighed, and she heard his head thunk on the table. “You prefects are all…”
“Responsible?” Lily offered. “Reasonable?”
“Well, yes… No, wait–” He sighed. “Come on. It’s Remus. Our Moony!”
“It’s on a school night!” Lily exclaimed. “How can you expect me to agree with it?!”
“I dunno, I kinda thought that the idea that it was Moony’s party would convince you…”
“That was your game plan?” Lily gave him a stern look, but he powered on, simply grinning and ruffling his stupid hair. She relented. “You’re going official with this, then?” Lily asked. “Fine. I’ll do it, but only because I’m friends with Remus.”
James’s’ face lit up, and he grinned widely. “You’re a lifesaver, Evans, you know that?” His energy returned to him in full. “Oh, by the way,” He added, “it’s a surprise party for him. So… if you could put that into the invites…”
“Yeah, I’ll do that,” Lily agreed. “But only because–”
“Yeah, yeah,” James said. “Because you’re friends with Remus. I know.” He leaned forward. “Hey, are you doing anything the next Hogsmeade weekend? Because I was thinking that we could–”
“Don’t push your luck, Potter.”
“Right.” James blinked once, then slapped the palm of his hand to his head. “sh*t, I almost forgot…” He pulled a stack of blank invitations out of his bag. “We were considering charging entry, but we didn’t think it would be right, you know, commercializing our dear Moony.” He handed half the stack of invitations to Lily.
“Wow, you really did go all out,” Lily said, mildly impressed. “Yeah, I’ll get to it.” She glanced up after a moment. “Potter, that’s directly translated to ‘get lost.’”
James blinked, then grinned at her, saluting her as he and Marls walked off to go to Quidditch practice.
