After the party, which Mark and his friends had “volunteered” to clean up, though they all looked thoroughly disgruntled for some reason, Mary smacked Lily on the arm hard and screamed, “Race ya!”
She shot off down the corridor, leaving Lily to dash and try as hard as she could to catch up, which she could never seem to do no matter how swiftly she ran, even though she was normally considered a fast runner. Therefore, it was unsurprising that by the time Lily reached the Gryffindor portrait hole, Mary was long gone. Assuming she was up in the girl’s dormitory, Lily gave the Fat Lady the password (fiddlesticks) and stepped into the common room.
“Mary what happened?” Lily asked as her friend came running at her, hair streaming wildly and she had already changed into her fuzzy pink pajamas with the unicorns that actually moved around on the shirt.
Mary skidded to a halt just before crashing into the red-head, “I BEAT YOU!!!”
“It wasn’t fair,” Lily objected, wondering why Mary’s pajamas were on backwards. Unicorns were chasing each other in circles around Mary’s body.
Mary grinned smugly, “I’m fifteen, I don’t have to be fair. Any who, why aren’t you in your PJ’s? We are going to reserve the sofas aren’t we? If we don’t hurry, someone else will get there first and we’ll have to use force.”
At least once a week, the girls slept on the couches down in the common room. They did this for two reasons:
1) So that they could stay up late chatting
2) The other girls in their dormitory, Mira Black, Lucy Gordon, and Alice Bones did not…get…Mary’s humor. They had been around her too much and after a while no longer found Mary and her antics amusing, more like annoying. Lily and Mary also did not really want them knowing their secrets and about their personal discussions.
Forgetting her exasperation at Mary, Lily smiled broadly, “Of course we are. I’ll just change really quickly. Hold on.”
She made to go upstairs into her dormitory, but Mary said, “No need sweetheart.”
She waved her wand and Lily was now wearing her favorite pajamas, red and gold plaid shorts and a lacy crimson tank top. Another wave of Mary’s hand put blankets on the two couches closest to the warm fireplace and hot chocolate mugs on the table. A third sent silencing spells up the staircases so the girls could not possibly be overheard by anyone AKA the Marauders. Settling down on their bellies on the sofas, the girls each grabbed a mug, generously added marshmallow spiders, and warmed their toes by the fire.
“So, I saw you dancing with Kian,” Mary blurted out unabashedly.
Lily blushed profusely, wishing she had not as she knew how horrible it looked with her flaming red hair, “Maybe.”
“Come on Lils, you know it’s an honest-to-goodness law not to lie during our secret slumber parties.”
“Alright, so he asked me to dance and to Hogsmeade in a few weeks. Is something wrong with that?” she was not looking at Mary, but watching a marshmallow spider that was trying to get away by crawling on the couch where Mary was lying.
Mary smirked, “Only that you’ve had a crush on him forever.” Without her stare at Lily wavering, she reached over, picked up the marshmallow delicately with two fingers, and plopped it into her hot cocoa mug.
“I have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not.”
“Oh that’s right; you are in love with James Potter.”
“I am most certainly not! Anyway, what about your fabulous love life? How is that going?” Lily asked, trying to change the subject hastily. She hated that nobody believed she did not like James arrogant Potter. Just because he liked her does not mean she liked him!
Mary sighed, “Nonexistent.”
Lily raised an eyebrow doubtfully. Mary had admirers all over the school. Being so pretty, funny, exciting, and nice got her many date requests, but she was definitely not a player. She turned most of them down unless she actually liked the boy.
“Alright, so a few guys asked me out at the party,” she burst out.
“Who? What did you say?” Lily asked curiously.
“Michael Boot, Sirius, William Corner, his brother Thomas Corner, Sirius, Samuel Jones, Sirius, Nicholas Abbot, Kyle what’s-his-name, Sirius, that Ravenclaw with black hair, blue eyes, and always answers questions in Astronomy class and Sirius,” Mary rattled off.
Lily, astounded by the notion, replied, “That’s you nonexistent love life?”
“Yup. I’ve got eight dates for Hogsmeade, but I think I’ll say no thanks to all of them.”
“Except…” Lily prompted.
“Except for Kyle,” Mary responded, burying her head into her multicolored tie-die pillow.
Lily poked her friend, “Psst, Mary Cherri.”
There was no result.
“I know you are awake. Stop pretending.”
Still there was no movement.
“What color are your toenails today?” Lily asked. She of all people knew that Mary was obsessed with nail polish and each day painted her toenails a new color. She said when that when she was little it was the only way anyone could tell her and Mark apart or something of the sort.
Mary shot up and danced around the room. “Today they are purple and lavender striped, but tomorrow I want Gryffindor red and gold and the next day sparkly pink with flowers and then turquoise with black French tips and after that…”
All right, Chapter 3 is up! Don’t worry there should be some action in just a few chapters, but for now I want everyone to get a good feel for the characters and set some foundations. Review and let me know what you think so far.
By the way, I don’t own Harry Potter no matter how much I would like to. I don’t even own marshmallow spiders, that would be the brilliant people that made the Halloween Town movies.
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