The pink tinge in the sky this early on Valentine’s Day is only a sign of things to come, Lily thought as she stared at the ceiling of the Great Hall hazily. She had come down to breakfast early in the hopes of avoiding the Valentine’s celebrations, but it was not to be.

Just as Lily thought she had escaped the Valentine’s rush for that year, she heard wings flapping in the air. Or, to put it more correctly, many wings flapping in the air. Lily’s heart sank as she began to push away her breakfast. Oh no. Definitely no.

She jumped to her feet as quickly as she could without showering the unfortunate third-year boy next to her with small bits of uneaten bacon. In her rush, she tripped over her own loose shoelace. She managed not to fall to the ground, but it gave enough time for the mass of owls to near her. She watched for her Valentine’s owl to break away from the pack, but the pack seemed to just come closer and closer.

For a moment, she shut her eyes, hoping in the vainest of hopes that the owls, or maybe the entire existence of Valentine’s Day, were just some silly dream. But when she opened them again, there was not only one owl sitting on her table as she had feared, but six of them, all squabbling for her attention.

“Someone’s popular,� the third-year said dryly, and Lily couldn’t help but wish that she had splattered him with bacon when she had possessed the chance.

After a few more sessions of rapid blinking, Lily deduced that the six owls in front of her could not be explained away as a mirage, and tentatively decided that at the very least, she should retrieve the letters, as she was slightly scared the owls would follow her if she tried to escape the room.

The first envelope was emblazoned with little else but a single, spiky capital L. She opened it and pulling the letter out, begun to read.

L-

I must admit that I am not one for baring my soul on a piece of parchment, so I kindly request that you meet with me underneath the large oak tree near the game keeper’s cottage at five o’clock this afternoon.

Lily scrunched the piece of parchment into a ball. She was not going to waste her time that she needed for her O.W.L preparation, even if they were six months away, on some mysterious stranger who was too afraid to even write anything down. If she did meet him, would he even have the courage to say what he wanted to? She shook her head. She had more important things to worry about than boys, anyway.

She barely believed that for the scantest of seconds, she had entertained the thought of going to the meeting. What was the world coming to? she thought as she opened the second envelope.

Lily,

I certainly must say that every time we talk you never cease to amaze me with your enthusiasm for life and your vibrant intelligence. I know I would never have the courage to compliment you face to face like this, so I took the cover of today to present you with this bar of chocolate. It’s not much, but I hope you will enjoy it, and that maybe, you will even share some with me.

Lily smiled to herself as she slipped the bar of Honeydukes chocolate into her pocket. She wasn’t entirely sure who the sender was (although she had her suspicions) she wasn’t going to turn down free chocolate. Maybe she would spend some time this evening tracking down probable people and offering them chocolate, just so she would be able to share it with the sender, just like he had asked…

No, she berated herself, you hate Valentine’s day, remember? The holiday of the immature boys? And besides, you have a Transfiguration essay due tomorrow that you’ve barely started—there’s not going to be anytime to traipse around Hogwarts handing out chocolate!

But still she hung onto the notion as she looked in the third envelope.

I think your hair looks pretty when you tie it up in a ponytail, and the look on your face when you answer a difficult question in Charms makes you even prettier. I think this ribbon will look great the next time you tie your hair up—I’ll be watching.

When she shook the envelope, a violently fuchsia ribbon tumbled out. Lily didn’t think it would look very great in her hair at all. She also reminded herself to be on the lookout for anyone staring at the back of her ponytails as it felt a bit weird to know she had a classmate who enjoyed staring at the back of her head.

With the fourth letter, things started becoming weirder.

Lily Evans, I have a proposition to make of you. I have made a wealth of connections, as you undoubtedly know, as you would remember me as a former member of The Slug Club. The thing is, I can get you into higher positions of power than old Sluggy could have ever dreamt of. I am even willing to overlook some of the... less than desirable aspects to your person to provide you with this wondrous opportunity. Please meet me at the school gates just after classes end.

PS: I hope that you may find the parcel useful somehow, as if you are as cowardly as you seem you will not dare meet with me, but I think that you could do very well in the future, so keep on Sluggy’s good side!

In the attached parcel was some crystallized pineapple, which Lily had to admit was good for gifting Professor Slughorn with, but didn’t detract from the overall oddity that was this person’s entire ‘proposition’. If she ever found out who it was, and, as she reminded herself, she didn’t really have the time, she would have to let the person know that insulting someone was not really the way to make them interested in anything that was being proposed.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief when the next letter was almost too normal, if not alarmingly brief.

Lily, I think you’re beautiful.

At least this person didn’t want to meet her somewhere, and wasn’t obsessively watching her hair. She slipped the note into her pocket. At last, she had reached the last envelope.

Evans, go out with me?

She glared angrily at the envelope. She didn’t even need to wonder who this was from—who else would be so arrogant as to ask such questions other than James Potter?

Seeing the bespectacled, gangly boy of her irate thoughts enter the door at the other side of the hall, along with two of his annoying friends, did not approve her mood much. She stood up sharply, just nicking the overhanging plate, but the third-year boy was no longer sitting in the danger area. Lily had difficulty deciding if this was a good thing or not.

Potter and his friends had left breakfast a little late and were surely going to miss the start of lessons if they did not eat very quickly. But with the mass of people now in the hall, yelling and shouting and opening cards, she found it very easy to escape. Shoving the letters and presents into her bag, she ran out of the room.

Once she reached the Entrance Hall, she wondered if something looked different. It took a moment to place it, but then she realised…the Entrance Hall had never been quite so pink before.

She had seen four previous Valentine’s Days in her time at Hogwarts, but none other had been quite as horrible as this. As she walked further into the hall and further into the domain of pale pink streamers and baubles, she could almost feel her knees shaking.

Pushing through the crowd of excited faces and crying schoolgirls, she was quietly thankful that her first class was in the dungeons and she didn’t have to pass through levels and levels of people in full Valentine’s Day fever.

Almost skidding into the Potions classroom, she was even more thankful that no-one was in the room yet, not even Professor Slughorn. She guessed he had already set up, however, as she noticed the large cauldron simmering near the professor’s desk. Even from this distance, it smelt vaguely of the Quidditch Pitch when rain had been falling on it, like the petals of a rose and…she snapped out of her trance before she could identify the last scent.

Groaning, she realised that Slughorn must have been caught up in the Valentine’s Day madness as well. Surely that couldn’t be…she watched the spirals coming from the cauldron. Was it really Amortentia? She doubted they were going to learn how to brew it as love potions of every type were banned at Hogwarts, but maybe Slughorn had thought that in the spirit of the day, they would at least cover the theory.

The door banged open and the rest of the class scrambled in along with the ever amiable Slughorn bringing up the rear. Large moustache quivering, he made his way to the front of the room, flicking his wand at the chalk which then flew straight to the blackboard. “So, class,� he said good-naturedly, “What day is it today?�

Lily had to work really hard to keep herself from scoffing. As if anyone really needed to answer that question! Apparently, her classmates felt that the question deserved no response either and merely giggled to each other. Slughorn, evidently, hadn’t relied on the response of his over-excited students and answered his own question. “Yes, it is the fourteenth of February!� He pointed to the board and started to say something, but Lily was interrupted by a tapping on her shoulder. She tried to ignore it at first, but she found she just wasn’t in the mood to learn about love potions, no matter how sparingly the subject was taught at Hogwarts. The small giggles coming from her classmates were are annoying her beyond belief and she just wanted this day to end already.

It was hard, but Lily managed to turn around and face the person seated behind her without letting her frustration show through. It was Peter Pettigrew sitting behind her today, and she bet that the very first thing he was going to say was—

“I don’t get it,� he said, peering up from his scribbling on the piece of parchment and up at the board.

At any other time, Lily would have helped him, but today was Valentine’s Day and the normal rules of the world just didn’t seem to apply when everyone was being so giggly. But looking around the room, she realised that it was only the girls participating in the laughter. The boys looked mainly nervous or as frustrated as she did.

“Try paying attention,� she muttered, not even looking at him as she noticed she had not written down a single piece of information that had been written on the board.

She tried following her own advice for a little while, but it seemed mostly futile. The harder she concentrated, the louder the little giggles grew.

Tap, tap, tap. Peter was tapping her on the shoulder again. Slughorn was just finishing up with the theory of love potions and they were about to get down to the actual work they were supposed to be covering in the double period. It was just then that Lily realised she had very little clue what this actually was.

Lily whipped around, nearly smacking herself in the face with her own ponytail. “What are we working on today?� she whispered.

Peter looked a little crestfallen. “I was hoping that you would tell me.�

Shrugging, Lily directed her attention to the front of the room again. “…the properties of the plant can make it volatile, so I suggest you take care and wear gloves…� Slughorn suggested, even though Lily still had no idea what he was talking about.

Tap, tap, tap. She didn’t even attempt to keep the annoyance out of her voice this time. “What do you want?� she asked.

“I…� Peter looked down at his desk for a moment, almost as if he head forgotten what he wanted to say. “I like your ponytail,� he added eventually, making it sound as if the simple sentence should have had more importance than it did. Lily raised an eyebrow and almost turned back to her ‘I really can’t wait for Valentine’s Day to be over’ haze before realising what he had meant.

“Pettigrew!� she hissed a little too loudly. Already she had attracted the attention of the half of the class that didn’t pay attention to Potions on a normal day. “Pettigrew,� she continued in a slightly quieter voice, although nearly everyone seemed to be paying attention now. She almost wanted to lean in so no-one else would hear, but that would give them all the entirely wrong impression.

Quietly, she whispered, “Did you send me a letter, Peter?� Her voice, thankfully, didn’t sound too hurtful, but maybe it was a little too pitying and sympathetic. Peter nodded and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by James Potter.

He leaned over to Peter’s desk and asked incredulously, “What, you sent a card to Evans?�

“So what?� Peter shot back at his friend. “You did too.�

James looked like he wanted to say something witty, to impress Lily in front of his friends, but seemed to think against it. Instead, he just looked down at his desk for a moment. Then he looked up again, staring straight at her with a slightly too hopeful look on his face.

The whole class was still watching her. With something that felt a bit like a cruel smile flitting around her features, she shook her head shortly. James shrugged and his friend, Sirius Black, who was sitting next to him, hit him with a scrunched up ball of parchment.

Soon the class at large had lost interest in Lily’s conversation and had gone back to their own vapid giggling while vaguely paying attention. But Lily couldn’t turn her mind back to Potions so easily. Damn, damn, damn the entire concept of Valentine’s Day.

This time, she didn’t wait for the tapping on her shoulder. She turned around to Peter, suddenly unsure of what to say. She wasn’t interested in him, or any of the boys at Hogwarts for that matter, she reminded herself, but she still felt he ought to be let down gently. Even if he was one of Potter’s friends. Even if this was some sort of elaborate scheme set up by Potter.

“Er,� Lily started, finding that she had never come across the words that she needed to express her current thoughts. “Well, you see, fuchsia really isn’t my colour.� She turned back to the front again, not really eager to see Peter’s reaction. At least she felt she could concentrate on class again, now she was no longer worried about people staring at the back of her head.

Then again, at least it was Pettigrew, instead of someone else, like one of the Slytherins. She looked up to the other side of the room and swore that her eyes met with Severus Snape’s for the briefest of moments. But she looked closely and he was just intensely scrutinising his textbook.

The day was starting to perk up a little, but she was still going to be very glad when it was over. Because then, at the very least, she could start thinking again. She passed the rest of the lesson calmly enough, but the potion she was making simply wasn’t the bright purple colour it was meant to be. Slughorn even looked a little disappointed. Maybe that crystallized pineapple would come in handy after all, even though she doubted that she should be passing out free things from mysterious strangers.

The way things were looking today, though, the ‘mysterious stranger’ with his mysterious ‘proposition’ was probably just another one of Potter’s friends.

When the class ended, she packed up her cauldron in record speed, and it was only when she had stepped outside the door that she realised that she had completely forgotten to write down the homework assignment. Cursing her forgetfulness, she reminded herself to ask someone about it later. Or maybe tomorrow, where she would revel in the fact that another Valentine’s Day wouldn’t happen for nearly another year.

After break she had Arithmancy. Thankfully, none of the people from the previous Potions class took it along with her and she was able to learn in something that almost resembled peace. After remembering to actually jot down the homework this time, she headed down to lunch.

The Gryffindor table was bustling as always and Lily almost felt like sneaking out with some slices of bread as the boisterous laughter and the ample public displays of affection really gave her a headache. Her prefect’s badge glinted oddly in the Hall’s magical sunlight and she almost wanted to yell at any kissing couple, or anyone who dared even flirt in front of her eyes.

She was about to go with the bread sneaking route when the unmistakable cry of, “Oi! Evans!� came from behind her.

Her hands froze over a slice of bread. “What do you want, Potter?� she asked, her voice losing all cordiality.

He seemed to have regained his composure since Potions. Enough to look Lily in the eyes and casually ask, “Did you get my letter?�

She dropped the piece of bread back on the plate and scurried through the parchment in her bag. “Here’s your letter, Potter.� She fought hard to keep the snarl out of her voice. “You can have it.�

Eyes narrowing, he unwrapped the crumpled piece of parchment as calmly as possible, determined to keep his cool. He had almost slipped it into the pockets of his robe when he did a double take. Sirius leaned over James’s shoulder and exclaimed loudly, “Hey, that’s not your writing!�

Oh damn. She couldn’t have possibly given them the wrong one, could she have?

Sirius cleared his throat and began reading aloud.

“L-

I must admit that I am not one for baring my soul on a piece of parchment, so I kindly request that you meet with me underneath the large oak tree near the game keeper’s cottage at five o’clock this afternoon.�

He finished to rounds of laughter from all around the table. “Ooh, Evans,� Sirius teased. “How mysteriously romantic.�

“I can see how I’m not special enough for you now, Evans,� James laughed, ruffling his hair in the usual annoying fashion.

“Nah,� Sirius said, throwing the piece of parchment back at Lily, “the poor bloke’s got no chance—his love letter was sitting at the very bottom of her bag along with yours, James!� He punched his friend playfully in the shoulder, and James shot him a look of annoyance.

Soon the assembled crowd began to lose interest in her, something that was happening much too often today. Taking a few slices of bread off the table, she only paused long enough to scrabble through the bottom of her bag to find Potter’s real letter. She unwrapped it briefly to make sure it was the right one this time, then scrunched it up again and threw it at the back of Potter’s head.

“Oi!�

But before he could do anything about it, she had long slipped out of the Hall.

The path to the lake felt familiar and she headed down there before she had any real clue as to where she was going. She leant against the trunk of a large tree and nibbled absent-mindedly on the corner of one of the slices of bread. But the bread didn’t really taste like anything, and she ended up ripping the crust off, dangling it over the still, cold surface of the lake.

A hazy tendril curled up near the surface, taking Lily’s crust down to the bottom of the lake. Lily blinked. So, the Giant Squid really did exist, did it? She was about to take another bite out of the bland bread, but paused when it was still halfway to her mouth. She didn’t want to finish eating it, she realised, but why deprive the Giant Squid of its enjoyment?

Not quite sure how big its mouth was, she tore the slices into sizable chunks before throwing them into the lake.

“Lily,� the trees whispered softly to her. She was sick of people trying to attract her attention, so she kept her eyes on the lake.

�Lily,� the voice said, sharply and clearly. Certainly not a tree then. It sounded a lot more like…Severus Snape, she realised when she turned around.

This really wasn’t her day, was it? Did she even have to keep asking herself that question any more?

Snape didn’t look entirely happy, but Lily noticed he never looked happy anymore. His dark eyes darted around the area before he approached Lily. He held a small, leather-bound book in his hands.

“I decided that the original meeting place would be too risky now, as Potter and his friends would doubtlessly be hanging around.� Inwardly, Lily cringed. So, it had been Severus’s letter… She expected him to be hurt, or angry, but on his face she could find no trace of those emotions, or of any others, for that matter.

“You sent me that?� Lily asked, needing to hear the affirmation for herself.

Snape gave the slightest incline of the head before responding, “If you mean the letter that Black read out to the entire Great Hall, then yes.�

“I’m s—� Lily started, but she was interrupted by Snape, who seemed to be going through the rigid motions of a well-rehearsed scene.

“I wanted you to have this,� he said, pushing the book roughly into her arms. A black ribbon was tied around the book Lily identified as an important and advanced Potions text. Gingerly, she touched the tip of the ribbon with a single finger.

She looked up at Snape, wondering how to say thank you. If it was necessary. If he didn’t hate her already. But before she could think about what to do, Snape looked Lily in the eyes and she paused in her stroking of the ribbon.

“I heard that fuchsia really wasn’t your colour.� She caught the barest curl of a smirk on his lips before he turned back towards the castle; classes would be starting soon.

She thought about running after him, but still had no idea what to say. ‘Sorry’ didn’t really seem to cut it, ‘thank-you’ sounded a bit too shallow in this instance, and ‘James Potter is a real bastard, isn’t he?’ would just be repeating information they already knew.

So she watched him walk off to the castle and when he was a suitable distance ahead, she followed suit.

The rest of the school day passed in some sort of abstract haze. Even in her best subject, Charms, Lily had to exert the most of efforts to get the littlest things done right. Luckily, Professor Flitwick just put it down to the Valentine’s Day hysteria or he would have thought something was wrong. Not that anything was wrong, of course, as Lily knew her problem would disappear as soon as this entire wretched day was well and truly over.

She raced out of the room as soon as her final classes were over, but was left thinking, what now? She could hardly go up to the tower, it would be full of people. This meant that if she wanted to be left well alone she had to roam the grounds. Her feet followed the much familiar road to the lake.

She wasn’t sure how long she sat there for, underneath the tree, but it sure was peaceful. She even allowed herself to forget that it was Valentine’s Day, until she saw the owl winging towards her in the sky. She checked her watch hazily. It was six in the evening, so she really ought to be heading inside, it was getting darker by the moment.

But why was the owl following her? It grew larger as it drew nearer and Lily saw that it had a letter attached to its leg. Although her tired and very annoyed brain told her to run from the owl screaming, she held out her hand and it held out its leg. With an awkward sort of shake (as she had no idea what to call it) she retrieved the envelope.

Her name was written in the same handwriting as the person who had sent her the crystallized pineapple.

You missed me.

--Lucius Malfoy.

The name sounded distantly familiar and after a few moments Lily recalled the snobbish Head Boy of a few years past. He had been described as arrogant (as well as quite a number of even worse things) by Lily’s peers. But if it was one thing he was well known for, it was the fact that he really despised Muggleborns.

Lily shook her head and casually ripped up the letter. She wondered what on Earth Lucius Malfoy had been doing at the school, and why he had been sending her presents of crystallized pineapple anyway. Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t given it to Slughorn yet. The entire thing was suspicious, but required too much thinking. It was at times like these that Lily was grateful for the simple notes, that just said things like, ‘I think you’re beautiful’ without any hidden meaning or presents attached. She still had no idea who sent that note. She bit her lip. Hopefully it was someone nice.

She ate a late dinner, thankful that most of her classmates had already left. She went up to Gryffindor Tower briefly to retrieve her Transfiguration books in the hope that she would be able to tackle the essay. But after fifteen minutes of quill chewing on her bed and listening to the subdued giggling of her dormmates, she gave up and went to the library, which was a place she usually tried to avoid. She usually studied better with the aid of a little noise, but today was an exception to every rule.

The library. The one place in the entire school, it seemed, that could be relied on to be completely quiet on Valentine’s Day. It probably had something to do with it being completely empty, too—Madam Pince wasn’t very tolerant of snogging couples in between her shelves of precious books.

In the peace and quiet of the library, Lily managed to get some useful work done, which she had almost deemed impossible on such a day. She was nearly upset that she had to leave, but she had too, as she had a prefect patrol with Remus Lupin tonight. He had been sick yesterday, but he would be out of the hospital wing by now.

She found Remus in the common room, sitting quietly by the fire with Sirius. James and Peter were nowhere to be seen. Lily felt the tiniest bit relieved. But what did she have to feel relieved for? She wasn’t scared of Potter, or any of his friends.

They walked out of the common room together; Lily felt grateful she still had an excuse to stay away. It was much noisier than usual.

Remus noticed her grimace and looked at her curiously. She jerked her head back in the direction they had just come from. “Really noisy tonight,� she stated.

They rounded a corner and he nodded. He was about to say something when—

“Get back to your common rooms!� Lily snapped. “Five points each from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.�

The third-year couple had been hiding behind a tapestry, being entirely too obvious not to be seen. They glared at Lily, but unwilling to start an argument with a prefect, they walked off separately.

In the meantime, Remus had completely forgotten what he was going to say.

After they had discovered their third couple, and Lily had wondered idly why they didn’t choose better hiding spots, she turned to Remus and stated, “This has been the worst Valentine’s Day ever.�

Remus raised an eyebrow. “But didn’t you get six letters?� he asked, his voice gently teasing.

“Yes, but,� Lily started as they ascended a staircase, “it’s been so much more…intense this year. There’s people everywhere and those decorations in the Entrance Hall were hideous.�

“It’s like that every year,� Remus pointed out. “Except for the decorations, I think they were chosen by the Heads. But the entire castle goes wild on this day.�

Lily chewed her lip. “Really?�

“Really.�

“Except for you, I noticed. You seem as sensible as usual.�

She saw a small smile on his face as they entered one of the secret corridors that were notorious for couples. But strangely enough, today it was completely empty. Maybe it was because everyone was too busy flaunting their boyfriends or girlfriends to hide in secret.

“Well, yes,� Remus admitted. “But then again, I’ve been in the hospital wing. So I’ve been a bit out of the loop. Although I did hear that both Peter and James sent you letters.�

Now Lily wasn’t sure if he was teasing or not, but responded, “Yeah. At that rate, I’m surprised Black didn’t send me one too.�

Remus thought about that for a moment, then said slowly, “Sirius isn’t much of a letter writer. He prefers to keep things short and simple.�

This made perfect sense to Lily, and she wanted to get out of this dark corridor as soon as possible, as their patrol was nearly over. Soon, she would be able to go to sleep and the entire day would be over.

Creeping out of the corridor, Lily remembered that she still had a bar of chocolate left in her bag. Considering who had sent her the crystallized pineapple, was it really safe to eat the chocolate? It would be really nice to eat some chocolate before she went to sleep. Even if it was from some mysterious stranger.

Pausing in their walk, Remus watched as Lily scavenged around in her bag for the bar of chocolate. “Hey, Remus, do you think this is safe to eat this? It’s just that I don’t know if I should trust food from anonymous senders.�

Remus took the bar of Honeydukes chocolate into his hands and closed his eyes, as if he was wondering what to say. Swallowing, he answered, “Of course it is. I sent it.�

It was then Lily vaguely remembered that this morning, she had hoped the bar had been from her fellow Prefect. But now, the length of the day had taken its toll on her and she found herself exclaiming, “Pettigrew, Potter and you?�

“I-� Remus started, but Lily interrupted him.

“Are you quite sure that Black didn’t send me anything?� As soon as she asked the question, she found her own memory answering it.

Sirius prefers to keep things short and simple, Remus had said. The words on the last note that she hadn’t found the owner of were ‘Lily, I think you’re beautiful.’

She sucked a breath in and dropping the bar, she started to run. Behind her, Remus took long strides in an attempt to catch up, but refused to start chasing her. “Lily, we didn’t plan anything! Maybe it just happened; it was just a coincidence!�

She could feel herself trembling, but she refused to break her pace.

Remus started to walk faster, and Lily found herself mildly surprised at how fast he could walk without breaking into a jog. “I’ve never seen someone so adverse to receiving compliments before,� he told her quietly.

“But they’re not compliments, Remus.� She finally halted and looked up at his face. “They’re strange...creepy. The next time someone wants to tell me they think I’m beautiful, or that my hair will look nice decorated with fuchsia ornaments, or that…that I have high ‘enthusiasm for life and vibrant intelligence’, I’d prefer if they told me in person.�

For a moment, Remus looked like he had been slapped in the face. But then he held the chocolate bar out to Lily. “I’m sorry,� he said simply, and no matter how much Lily wished she could shove the bar back into his hands and run all the way back to her dorm, she found herself accepting the gift and allowed herself to be accompanied back to the Gryffindor Tower in silence.

Once in the common room, they parted, and Lily made her way up to her dorm. Luckily, her dormmates were still in the common room, living up the remainder of Valentine’s Day. With a little bit of help from a block of Honeydukes’ chocolate, she managed to ease herself off to sleep.

When the next day came around, everything seemed back to normal again. At least all the pink baubles and streamers were gone. At breakfast time, she even allowed Remus Lupin to sit next to her. He hoped he wouldn’t bring up yesterday, as it was a day she was very willing to forget.

“So, Lily,� he said quietly, so James, Sirius and Peter wouldn’t hear, “do you want the good news or the bad news?�

Lily cut off a bit of her bacon, and even though it was pink, she could look at it without cringing. Thankfully, everything had gone back to normal. “I think I’ll take the good news first, thanks,� she said, smiling.

“The good news is that it’s over,� Remus told her, and Lily didn’t have to ask what ‘it’ was.

“The bad news?� she asked, feeling that there could be nothing wrong on this brilliant day, the fifteenth of February. What finer day was there in the year?

Remus turned around and Lily looked behind him. Potter, Black and Pettigrew were having some sort of bacon eating contest that involved stuffing as much of it down their throat without any apparent need for chewing. She pushed away her plate. “Is the bad news that you’ve put me off my breakfast?� she asked. “Because I can handle that.�

“No,� Remus said, shaking his head. “The bad news is...� he trailed off, watching as his friends gave each other silly grins, bacon hanging out the sides of their mouths. “The bad news is, they’re going to be a lot worse next year.�