Girls' Dormitory, September 1976

[lilium_evansiae]

As Lily expected, she and Potter attracted absolutely no attention from his best friend and her roommate. (Which is definitely for the best. It would have been horridly awkward, and she doesn't really want to know what either Black or Perdita would have to say about her coming into the common room after hours and hand-in-hand with James Potter.)

Her room, when she reaches it, is just about as deserted as the common room. Mary's combing out her hair with Queen playing on the record player, but there's no one else there. Of course, Lily knew Perdita wasn't going to be there, and Cliona would have walked back from Slughorn's with Fenton, which means she could be out for a while yet.

"Where's Glynis?" Lily asks.

"She went to take a shower," Mary says. "She should be back in five or ten minutes, I'd think."

"And, um, have you two seen Perdita this evening?"

"Sure," Mary says. "We were all down in the common room, but Glynis and I came up about a half an hour ago. Perdita said she had one or two things left to take care of."

"So it would seem," Lily mutters.

"Didn't you come past her when you came in?" Mary asks, turning away from the mirror. "Lily, is something wrong?"

"No, not exactly," Lily says, but before she can explain further, the door flies open and in comes Cliona.

"Did you see?" she asks.

"Yeah," Lily says.

"Did you know?" Cliona asks.

"Of course not," Lily says. "And neither did Potter."

"Know what?" Mary asks.

Cliona and Lily exchange glances, and then Lily says, "Perdita's down in the common room right now attempting to suck the face off of Sirius Black."

"What, Perdita and Black?" Mary says. "Are they dating?"

"Don't know," Lily says.

"But they're definitely snogging," Cliona says. "Like they're revising for an OWL in it or something. Fenton's down there telling them off because Sirius had her shirt halfway undone. In the middle of the common room."

Lily frowns, and is suddenly very glad she and Potter didn't spend any more time talking out in the corridor before going in.

"We've got to tell Glynis, don't you think?" Lily asks. "Before she hears it from someone else?"

"Tell me what?" Glynis asks, and they all jump, because no one heard the door open. "Tell me what?" she repeats, when none of them starts talking.

Mary's record reaches the end of the last song, and the record spins for a moment playing nothing but end-of-the-side skips, before the arm rises and goes back to its starting place.

"It's about Perdita," Cliona says, finally.

"And Sirius Black," Mary says.

"It looks like they might be ... "

"Snogging again?" Glynis asks.

"Again?" Cliona says. "What d'you mean 'again'?"

"I saw them yesterday," Glynis says, with a shrug. "They were in the Charms classroom, but they didn't think to close the door. I went past."

"Why didn't you say something?" Lily asks.

"To them?" Glynis asks, clearly startled by the idea.

"No, to us," Cliona says.

"What would I have said?" Glynis says. "It's Perdita's news, isn't it?"

"But you fancy him, Glynis," Mary says, very gently.

And they all know it.

Glynis shrugs again. "I don't fancy him. I just had a bit of a crush on him last year, that's all. It's completely in the past," she says, but she doesn't quite manage to sell it. "Anyway, I just came back for my toothbrush. I forgot it. Don't worry about me. I'm fine, really. I'm just going to go brush my teeth."

"If it's 'completely in the past,' I'll quit the Quidditch team," Cliona says, darkly, after Glynis has left.

"We shouldn't push her, though," Mary says. "Maybe she really is all right with it. And maybe it's for the best."

"How's it for the best?" Cliona asks.

"Well, she's been a bit hung up on him, hasn't she? For a good long while. Maybe this'll make her move on. I mean ... I feel horrible about saying this, but ... it's not really like Sirius Black was ever going to ask Glynis out, is it?" Mary says.

And that's hard to argue with, because it's all true.

"Though I can't say I ever saw him with Perdita, either," Lily says.

"Or Perdita with him. She's lost her mind," Cliona says. "Don't get me wrong, I like Sirius. But he's not exactly boyfriend material, is he?"

"Guess he's good at snogging, though," Lily says, dryly.

There's a moment's silence, and then they all laugh, even though it wasn't really all that funny.

"Did I miss a joke?" Perdita asks, as she comes into the room. She looks a bit rumpled -- what's left of her lipstick is smeared, her hair is messed up, and the buttons are mismatched on the top half of her shirt.

"Hello, Perdita," Cliona says. "Anything you'd like to tell us?"

"Don't think so," Perdita says.

"Maybe about you and Black?" Lily suggests.

"Oh, that," Perdita says, reaching for her hairbrush to begin undoing the damage to her hair. "Yeah, I'm going out with Sirius Black."

"And how did that happen?" Mary asks.

"It just happened, you know. We were talking in Muggle Studies, and then we were flirting in Muggle Studies, and then he asked me and I said yes. Simple as that."

"And what about Glynis?" Cliona asks.

"What about Glynis?" Perdita asks. "She hasn't got anything to do with it."

"Expect that she fancies him and you're supposed to be one of her best friends," Lily says.

"Please, it's not like I stole her boyfriend," Perdita says. "She has a silly little crush on him, that's all. And he's not interested in her and he is interested in me. So, what, I was supposed to say no just because someone has a little crush that is never going to be anything but a little crush?"

"You could have been a little more discreet about it, at least," Lily says. "You could have told her, before she found out by seeing you two."

"Yeah? So tell me, Lily, if one of us had a little crush on James Potter, would that stop you?"

"Stop me from what? I'm not dating James Potter."

"It's nothing but a matter of time, though, isn't it?" Perdita asks. "And when you finally stop mucking about there, and say yes to him, you're not going to stop to worry about whether or not Cliona fancies him."

"Which I don't," Cliona says. "Ew. It would be like fancying my brother Liam."

"Fine, if Mary did, then," Perdita says. "The point's the same."

"We're not talking about me," Lily says. "And we're certainly not talking about Potter. We're talking about you."

"No, we're not. Look, I'm sorry if Glynis got her feelings hurt, but I haven't done anything wrong, and I don't have anything else to say about it. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go wash my face."

Perdita sweeps back out of the room, with her shirt still misbuttoned.

Cliona, Mary, and Lily look at each other.

"I'd better go check on Glynis," Mary says. "She's been gone for too long, if she's just brushing her teeth."

"Would it have stopped you?" Lily asks Cliona, when they're alone in the room. "Would you have gone out with Fenton if one of us had fancied him?"

"Yeah, I would have," Cliona says, after a second. "But I would have talked to whichever of you it was about it before we were snogging in the common room."

"Yeah."

"What about you? Would it stop you?"

"What, if one of you'd fancied Jeremy Flourish?" Lily asks, laughing a little.

"No, if one of us fancied James."

"I don't know," Lily says, after several seconds. "Maybe. Maybe not."

She's certainly let a friend's opinion influence that decision in the past. She's not sure she would in the future.

"None of you do, though, do you?" Lily asks.

"Like going out with Liam," Cliona says again, pulling a face.

"Who Mary had a terrible crush on, fourth year, if you'll remember."

"Fair enough," Cliona says. "But no, as far as I know, the only one of us with a crush on James is you, Lily."

"I do not have a crush on Potter," Lily says.

It's not a 'crush.'

Lily's not sure what it is, any more, but it's not a 'crush.'