The morning of the Quidditch final is overcast with dull, grey, heavy clouds. Lily, looking out her dormitory room window, scowls a bit at it.

"Don't worry. The clouds will burn off before the match," Glynis says, from across the room and without so much as a glance at the window, and in that cheerfully sure way she has of being certain of things she can't possibly be certain of.

Glynis is almost invariably correct, however, about things she says in that particular manner, so Lily turns her attention away from the sky and to the three of her roommates who aren't on the Quidditch team. Cliona was gone when Lily woke up, though whether there actually was some sort of planned dawn team meeting or she just couldn't sleep, Lily doesn't know.

She is not, however, at all surprised to discover that while the Gryffindor common room is practically vibrating with energy and the hum of voices, there's no sign of Cliona, James, or their teammates.

They've been fairly scarce these last few weeks, as the final gets closer and the practices get longer. Lily has mostly seen her boyfriend in classes, at meals, and on the handful of occasions they've managed to be in the common room at the same time. (And if Lily has, once or twice, taken advantage of those occasions to slip completed copies of some of the more time-consuming Potions assignments into James' bag, well, what of it?)

But it's finally here, the last match of the year, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, with the Quidditch Cup on the line. One way or the other, it'll be over and done with in a few hours.

It's felt different this year than it did last year, the run-up to the final game. Partly because, while Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both want to win (and both can reasonably expect to), and while each house is perfectly capable of being a bit snide about the other when the occasion calls for it, it's not like it is with Gryffindor and Slytherin (but then, what it?). And partly because, Lily thinks, it's all so different between her and James this year. There's been no grand promise to win the Quidditch Cup for her this time around, and she's glad. Because the game has enough riding on it in and of itself, and because while Lily definitely wants James to win, she wants James to win for himself and his teammates and Gryffindor. Not for her.

The clouds have, as predicted by Glynis, burned off by the time the students reach the stands and it's a perfect day for a Qudditch game. Lily takes a spot between Mary and Remus, which cannot properly be called a seat because none of them do all that much sitting during the match. It's not the sort of match you sit through.

Because it is, as the teams mount their brooms and the Snitch darts out of sight, really and truly anyone's game. Gryfindor and Ravenclaw are fielding incredibly good and evenly matched teams. Gryffindor has the better Chasers (of course), but Ravenclaw has the more accomplished keeper. If Ravenclaw has more precise Beaters, Gryffindor has more creative ones, and both teams use the Bludgers very effectively. And as for the Chasers . . . Raquel Clayworth and Ellery West are often little more than blurs of red and blue (respectively), weaving in and out of twelve other players, a referee, and three darting balls in pursuit of what appears to be a particularly elusive Snitch.

It's not just a good game, it's a great one, one for the record books, and so good in fact that Lily keeps finding herself watching the game instead of watching James. (And watching James is easily one of her very favorite ways to spend her time these days.) The team trades goals, and the lead, and the occasional foul for the better part of four hours. And the students watching the match cheer and gasp and occasionally hold their breath.

And like all great Quidditch matches, it ends abruptly and spectacularly, with Raquel Clayworth diving fifty feet almost impossibly vertically to close her hand around the Snitch. And there's a proper explosion of noise Gryffindor's end of the stands, and no one actually hears the announcement that Gryffindor has won 470-310.

But that's exactly what they've done.

James, Quaffle still in hand, spins 270 degrees in the air and looks straight at Lily -- never mind the distance from him to her -- with the Jamesiest of all Jamesish smiles. And for one second, Lily thinks her knees might have forgotten how to work.

Then James vanishes into a scarlet-clad, multi-armed, tangled mid-air hug of Quidditch players.

"Come on," Remus says, pulling her attention back to her immediate area. "We should move away from Sirius before we hear any plans for this evening's celebration which we cannot, as prefects, condone."

(And if that takes them down closer to the field and the players, well, again, what of it? There are congratulations to give, after all.)

"Nobody's going to sleep tonight, are they?" Lily asks, as they weave their way through a sea of cheering Gryffindors.

"Not a chance," Remus says.

Because Gryffindor -- and James -- just won the Cup.

And a celebration is definitely in order.

Lily lets herself into her dorm room very quietly, expecting that at least some of her roommates will have turned in for the evening, only to find that she needn't have bothered.

Not only are none of her roommates in bed already, the only one there at all is Glynis, who is directing her wand in the hemming of a skirt. Glynis grins at her, and then looks at the clock and adopts a mock stern expression.

Lily laughs. "I can't be in that much trouble," she says. "No one else is back, either. Where are they?"

"Perdita went to see if she could borrow the new issue of Young Witch from someone, Mary is brushing her teeth, and Raquel came to get Cliona. Joanna had some kind of night-before-the-match panic attack."

"Must be going around," Lily says, mostly to herself.

Or at least, that was the intent.

"What's going around?" Cliona asks, arriving with her usual impeccable sense of timing.

"Nothing," Lily says, just as Glynis says, "Quidditch panic attacks."

"Who's having a panic attack?" Cliona says.

"No one," Lily says. "How's Joanna?"

"She's all right," Cliona says. "I think. She went to bed early, you know, good night's sleep before the match, and woke up an hour later screaming. She had a nightmare about Quaffles with teeth."

"Quaffles with teeth?" Lily asks.

"Really mean ones," Cliona says.

For a moment, the three of them look at each other, and then they all start laughing.

"We really shouldn't laugh," Glynis says.

"No, of course not," Lily says.

"She was very upset," Cliona adds.

"But ... Quaffles," Glynis says.

"With teeth," Lily finishes, and they all start laughing again.

For a moment, Lily hopes that this has proven to be a sufficient distraction from anyone else's pre-Quidditch nerves.

But ... well, it's Cliona.

"So, who else is worried?" she asks, settling cross-legged on her bed.

"It's nothing," Lily says.

"What's nothing?" Mary asks, coming into the room. Perdita is right behind her.

"Nothing is nothing," Lily says.

"How profound," Perdita says, airily, and Lily throws a pillow at her.

"Well, obviously it's James," Cliona says, rationally. "It would have to be. Who else would it be?"

Mary's eyes widen a little, and she turns to Lily. "Wait. What about James Potter? Do you have a date with him or something?"

"No, that's not what we're talking about," Cliona says. "Lily said someone else had Quidditch nerves, and if it were a Hufflepuff she'd probably tell us who it was, and we know it wasn't Joanna or Raquel, and she doesn't know Eugene or Aurelius or ... " Cliona trails off, getting a good look at Lily's face. "And you do, don't you? You're going to go out with James, aren't you?"

Lily rather uselessly tries to will her face back to a color not usually found in poppies and strawberries. "Well, actually, yes. I am."

All four of her roommates stare at her. Glynis' skirt carries on hemming itself.

"Well, you might have told us," Perdita says. "We are your best friends."

"I was going to," Lily says. "I just didn't have a chance. He only asked me a few minutes ago."

"He asked you just now?" Cliona says. "Lily, it's the night before a match. You've probably completely destroyed his concentration."

"Well, probably not as badly as she would have if she'd said 'no' again," Mary says, practically.

"That's not why you said 'yes,' is it?" Cliona asks.

"Of course not," Lily says.

"Why did you say 'yes' this time?" Glynis asks.

"I guess I got tired of saying 'no,'" Lily says, and then nods at Glynis' skirt. "That's going to be a belt before much longer," she says.

Glynis turns to her skirt, gasps, and waves her wand to end the hemming charm.

Cliona slides off the end of her bed, pulls her dressing gown on over her pajamas, and heads for the bedroom door.

"Where are you going?" Lily asks.

"Just need to check on something," Cliona says. "Back in moment."

"She's going to talk to James, isn't she?" Lily says.

"Probably," Mary says.

"And she's going to blame me if they lose tomorrow, isn't she?" Lily asks, mostly kidding.

"Probably not," Mary says, with mock uncertainty. She comes over to sit next to Lily, taking both her hands, and looking her in the eye. "But if you are going to go out with James Potter, you have to promise us all one thing," Mary says.

"What's that?" Lily asks.

"That you will never, ever, for any reason, start addressing him as 'Jamesikins.'" Mary says, and they both have to dodge the pillow Perdita throws at them.

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.'

"What just happened?" Cliona demands, arms crossed in front of her, returning to the table where she left Lily with Potter not all that long ago.

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily says.

She doesn't even know how to talk about.

"Lily, I -- "

"Cliona. I said I don't want to talk about it," Lily says, standing and heading up the stairs to her room.

Of course the problem with that plan, really, is that Lily is a guest of the Byrnes this evening, which means that her room is also Cliona's room. In the absense of other options, Lily locks herself in the bathroom and, for good measure, gets in the shower.

She's not sure how long stands there, listening to the water run past her, wondering if it's hopelessly melodramatic or just predictably melodramatic to be wishing she could melt like a witch in a Muggle story and ultimately deciding that the adverb she's probably looking for is 'pathetically.'

"This is an awfully long shower, don't you think, dear?"

Lily startles and nearly slips.

"Oh, do be careful," the voice says. It's kindly chiding, like a tolerant grandmother, but one who expects to be listened to.

Lily looks up, blinking water out of her eyes, at the showerhead.

Which is talking to her.

God, have wizards never heard of leaving well enough alone?

(Then again, who is she to talk?)

"As I was saying, this is an awfully long shower, dear. Don't you think you've wasted enough hot water?"

"I'm in a wizarding inn," Lily says, trying to ignore how absolutely absurd it is that she is arguing with plumbing. "It's not like there's a limited supply."

"True," the showerhead admits. "But this has gone on long enough. So this is for your own good, I'm afraid."

"What is?" Lily asks, and then all but jumps out of the shower as the water abruptly gets ice cold.

"For your own good, dear," the showerhead repeats, and the water stops.

Lily pulls her bathrobe off the hook on the door and thinks that she could kind of hate the wizarding world, some days. It certainly seems to hate her some days, like when even the showerheads make her feel like she doesn't belong here.

She can't say she's surprised, three minutes later, when she emerges from the bathroom to find Cliona waiting for her. Lily ignores her for the moment, though, in favor of flinging herself down on her bed (more melodrama, really) and burying her face in her pillows.

(If they start talking to her, somebody is going to lose feathers.)

"Lily," Cliona says, carefully, putting one hand on Lily's shoulder.

Lily shrugs it off, but turns to face her. "Jesus, Cliona. What were you thinking?"

"What?"

"A month ago, Cliona, you were sitting in my backyard telling me not to lead him on and to be careful and to make sure I wasn't bloody using James Potter to get back at Severus Snape and not to mess up your stupid Quidditch season, and I was explaining that I had no intention of doing anything of the sort and that I wasn't ready to even think about getting involved with anyone, let alone James Potter, and you were telling me that you understood. And then tonight, you might as well have thrown me across the table and said 'take her, she's yours.' What were you thinking?"

Cliona blinks. "I'm sorry, Lily. I thought -- "

"No, Cliona, you didn't. You didn't think."

Cliona hesitates, and then sits down on the edge of Lily's bed. "I'm sorry. Look, it was stupid. But I thought -- or whatever word you'd like to use there -- I don't know, Lily. You did invite him to meet us. You have to admit that does kind of make you look interested. And I know he is. And I do think you two would be good for each other."

"You had all day to ask me."

"I should have. I'm sorry. What happened?"

"I tried to explain that correspondence and conversation and certain far from subtle signs from my friends notwithstanding, I really wasn't ready to date anybody, and I didn't do a very good job of it. And he left."

"Oh, Lily."

Lily sinks back into the pillows again, suddenly exhausted.

"I'm so tired of it, Cliona."

"Tired of what?"

"I'm tired of feeling like ... like no matter what I do, I can't get anything right or make anyone happy."

"What are you talking about?"

"I've got a sister who thinks I'm a freak, the whole school knows what happened with Severus, I can't even talk to Harry without upsetting him, and God alone knows what Potter must think of me at this point. Well, God and Sirius Black. If Black hasn't heard yet, I'm sure he will shortly."

"Who's Harry?"

... she said that outloud, then.

"Never mind," Lily says. "It doesn't matter."

Hell, it may be an utterly moot point now.

"All right," Cliona says, easily enough. "Lily, you're really not some grand disappointment to all and sundry. You know that, don't you?"

Lily shrugs.

"You like him, don't you? James?"

"Cliona, do you really think this is the time and the place for that conversation?"

"I think it might be, yeah," Cliona says.

"I already told you, I cannot deal with a relationship right now. So it hardly matters."

"You're very good at not answering the question. You do, don't you? If you didn't, at least a little, you just would have waited till he asked you again and turned him down. You wouldn't have bothered to explain any of it, and definitely not beforehand. So you like him."

Lily looks at her.

"I'm not going to say anything to him, I promise," Cliona says. "Or anyone else. And I will never, ever again ... what was it? ... 'throw you across a table at him.' I shouldn't have tonight, you're right, and I promise I never will again. Unless you ask me to."

"Cliona!" Lily says, sitting up again.

"Sorry."

"God, you're incorrigible."

"Yeah, but that's hardly news. Do you like him, Lily?"

"I ... I don't know that I do, but I think that I could," Lily says, finally.

If she let herself.

Cliona grins at her. "Oh, really?"

"Cliona, you promised."

"And I won't say a word to anyone."

"You'd better not. Anyway, there's probably no point," Lily says. "You saw him when he left."

"Pfffft," Cliona says, with a dismissive wave of her hand.

"'Pfffft'?"

"Yes, 'pfffft.' If you haven't run him off yet, it's going to take more than that to accomplish it. He might be grumpy for a bit, but I don't think you've managed to permanantly dissuade him yet."

"Maybe," Lily allows. "He has been frightfully persistent. But this was ... "

"Pfffft," Cliona says again, and Lily's a bit surprised when they both laugh.

"It'll be all right," Cliona says, putting an arm across Lily's shoulders. "I promise. It will be all right, because you are brilliant and wonderful and we all adore you and I will not hear a word from anyone to the contrary, not even you. All right?"

Lily nods. "Yeah, all right."

"Good." Cliona gives her a one-armed hug and then lets her go. "Now get dressed, and let's go have dinner. I could eat a hippogriff."

"All right," Lily says. She starts to head back into the bathroom to change, but stops in the doorway. "Did you know the showers here throw you out when they think you've stayed too long?"

Cliona grins at her again. "You should see what the bathtubs do."

Lily has noticed that she hasn't exactly been left alone today.

Her roommates had stuck around her for breakfast and on the way Hogsmeade Station.

Fenton Blane has followed her up and down the aisles of the Hogwarts Express, as she's taken her turns at patroling the corridors. And when he wasn't there, she's seen Sheldon Whelan (Hufflepuff, seventh year) and Iphigenia McGraw (Ravenclaw, sixth year) keeping in close proximity.

Lily both finds it kind of reassuring to know that her fellow prefects are keeping a wary eye on things ... and incredibly worrisome that they appear to think it's necessary.

(With a half-dozen notable exceptions, of course. She passes Marcellus Nott, the seventh year Slytherin prefect, at one point and he leers at her in a way that makes Lily very glad her wand is already in her hand. And that Lettie Lewis, the Head Girl, turns up at that moment to ask "All right, Nott?" and he vanishes back into his compartment.)

Lily looks back over her shoulder and sees Sheldon.

"I'm going to take a break," she tells him.

He nods. "You want to come back to the prefects' compartment?"

"Actually, I think I'm going to go find my roommates. But I'll be back in a bit."

"Be careful," he tells her, and Lily nods and starts back down the corridor.

"Have you gone completely mad?" Perdita demands, slamming into their room.

All four of her roommates look up, then look at each other.

It's Cliona who asks, "And just which of us are you questioning the sanity of?"

"Lily, of course," Perdita says. "D'you know what they're saying downstairs?"

Mary, Cliona, and Glynis look from Perdita to Lily.

Lily takes a second to wish the floor would open up and swallow her. And then she marks her place in her Transfiguration book, closes it, and says, very calmly, "Given your reaction, I suspect they're saying I'm going to Professor Slughorn's party with Severus."

"What?"

"Lily!"

"Snape?"

"I told you," Perdita says. "Completely mad."

"Perdita, shut up," Cliona says. And then turns to Lily. "Seriously, though, have you gone mad?"

"Yes, the fact that I'm going to a party with a friend makes me a raving lunatic."

"You're going on a date with Severus Snape?" Glynis asks. "Why?"

"No, it's not a date."

"It sounds like a date," Glynis says.

"Well, it's not. We're just going as friends. It's no different than when I went with Cliona's brother at Christmas. You didn't all jump down my throat then."

"That's because it is different," Mary says. "Liam's not -- "

"What? A Slytherin?"

"Yeah, a Slytherin," Mary says. "I know you don't like it, Lily, but that doesn't mean it's not true. It is different, and you know it."

"Have you forgotten what they did to Mary last term?" Perdita asks.

"No, of course not," Lily says. Mary has dropped her eyes to the floor, arms crossed tight across her chest. "You know I haven't, Mary, and I won't, but ... but that wasn't Sev!"

"No, it was just his friends," Cliona says.

"He has terrible friends, Lily," Glynis says. "They're all really creepy. Except for you, of course."

"Well, thank you, Glynis," Lily says, a little tartly.

"Don't take this out on Glynis," Perdita says.

"I'm not taking anything out on Glynis!" Lily snaps.

The room is silent for a moment, and all four of Lily's roommate stare at her.

Lily takes a breath.

"I'm sorry, Glynis," Lily says.

"It's all right," she says.

"Look," Lily says, more calmly. "I know none of you like him. You've all made that very clear for years now."

"Lily, it's not that we don't like him," Mary says.

"Speak for yourself," Perdita cuts in. "I can't stand him."

"It's just that there are things about him that worry us," Mary says, ignoring Perdita's interruption.

"Like who he chooses to spend his time with," Cliona says.

"Other than you," Glynis adds.

"And the sorts of things they do," Mary says.

"And the fact that they're slimy," Perdita says.

"Creepy," Glynis says.

"Mean-spirited," Mary adds.

"And using Dark Magic. And you know it," Cliona finishes.

"I ... Severus has been one of my best friends since I was nine," Lily says.

"And maybe he was, when you were nine," Cliona says.

"But are you sure he still is?" Glynis says.

"Yes, of course I am," Lily says, even though she realizes that if she were, that answer would have been four words shorter than it was.

"Lily -- " says Cliona.

"Would you all please just stop?" Lily asks.

She hates this, hates feeling like this, hates having to defend one friend to all the others, over and over and over again.

Hates that she's starting to wonder if they might not be right. Hates that she's even entertaining that notion.

Hates that she's ignoring it, too.

Mary comes over, sits down next to Lily, and puts her arm around Lily's shoulders. "Lily, we're not trying to upset you. We're just afraid you're going to get really hurt."

"I'll be fine. I'm just going to a party with a friend. That's all. It's not a big deal."

Cliona sighs. "I really hope you're right about that."

"Me, too," Glynis adds.

"For the record, I'm fairly certain you're wrong," Perdita says.

"Perdita!" Mary says.

"Well, I am. I'm sorry, but I think the sooner you see him for what he is, what he really is, the better it's going to be for all of us, and especially you."

"Perdita, that's enough," Cliona says.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."