After the Hogsmeade incident, Lily refused to have anything to do with James. If she and her friends were doing homework in the common room and he sat down with them, she’d stomp off to the dormitory and continue her work there. If he sat near her at meals or in classes, she would resolutely get up and find a new seat. She wanted no affiliations with him whatsoever.
But life went on. The seven first-years all served their detentions, feeling that they deserved it. Halloween grew nearer and Lily was forced to make a decision of whom she was going to invite to Slughorn’s Halloween party. She was dreading choosing between Alex and Cadrian, not wanting to hurt anybody’s feelings. But one day, her problem resolved itself.
“Lily, guess what!” Lily was dozing off near the fireplace in the common room, enjoying the crackling flames’ heat, when Alex burst through the portrait hole excitedly. “You know Slughorn’s party?”
Lily sat up tiredly and rubbed her eyes. “No, tell me about it.”
Alex waved Lily’s sarcastic remark aside and perched on the arm of Lily’s chair. “Well, Allie just invited me!”
“Who?”
“Allie. My sister,” Alex clarified. “She got invited to the party and was going to bring a friend, but all of her friends were either invited by Slughorn or somebody else, so she invited me because she knew you were going.”
“Wait, what…?” Lily was always a bit disoriented after just waking up.
Alex grabbed Lily’s shoulders. “I’m going to the party. Invite Cadrian.” Then she grinned and raced upstairs to the dormitory, presumably to inform Cadrian of her news.
Lily sat up and rummaged through her bag, pulling out a silver hairbrush. She pulled it through her hair a few times and dropped it into her bag as a wide smile spread across her face. Alex was invited! She could bring Cadrian and nobody would get mad!
“What’s got you so happy, Evans?” It was James climbing in through the portrait hole.
“Oh, nothing, James,” said Lily sweetly, forgetting about how mad she was as she skipped up to the dormitory.
* * * * * * * * * *
Halloween was on a Sunday. While most of the school buzzed excitedly about the feast, Lily and her friends spent the day speculating about the party. After a light breakfast, they went back to the common room. Lily struggled through a Charms essay, writing a few words here and there, while watching Alex and Cadrian’s game of Exploding Snap.
Chris entered the common room and slumped down on the couch next to Lily dejectedly. “What’s up, Chris?” asked Lily. “Where are all your friends?” Chris was usually enveloped by his Quidditch-player friends and didn’t talk to Lily much. (After the Hogsmeade incident, however, he’d found plenty of time to tease her.)
“They’re all going to Slughorn’s party,” he said. “I’m, like, the only one not. Just me and Aidan, really.”
“Well, at least you’ve got Aidan,” said Cadrian reasonably, carefully placing a card on top of Alex’s.
“That’s not the point,” growled Chris. Obviously he was not in a reasonable mood.
“Then what is?” asked Alex absently, concentrating hard on her next card as she carefully placed it on the castle.
Chris just grunted and then got up and left. “Jeez,” said Lily. “He’s ticked.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” said Alex breezily. “Teenagers are crazy.”
Lily laughed and finished up her essay. “Done!” she said brightly, rolling it up neatly and placing it in her bag. Cadrian looked away from the game. “Lily, how do you always finish homework so fast?”
Lily grinned. “Dunno. I just do it.”
Cadrian sighed. “Lily, do you want to take my place? I really need to do that essay.”
“Okay,” agreed Lily, so she took Cadrian’s place. “Alex, did you do the essay yet?”
“Nah,” said Alex. “I’ll do it later. No sweat.” She placed her next card on the castle and it promptly exploded. Lily shrieked, laughing, and grabbed a pillow to shield herself. Alex’s robes were slightly singed, but the two of them were fine and they lapsed into giggles as the smell of smoke wafted through the air.
* * * * * * * * * *
At seven o’ clock Lily and her friends went up to the dormitory to get ready for the party. Danielle and Jeniece, two other first-year girls, watched them enviously. “Tell us everything about it,” they kept saying as Lily brushed all the tangles out of her silky hair.
At seven forty-five, Lily, Alex, and Cadrian went downstairs to the common room. Danielle and Jeniece followed them all the way down to Slughorn’s dungeon, badgering them with random facts. “I heard the Minister of Magic’s going to be there.” “Well, I heard that that singer, Aurora Beam, is going to be there.” “Slughorn knows the manager of the Kenmare Kestrels, they’re friends, and the whole team’s gonna be there!”
Lily and her friends were very relieved when they finally reached the dungeon. Then Danielle and Jeniece had to leave, because they hadn’t been invited. As the three friends entered the room, Alex remarked, “They really are very annoying.” Lily laughed and looked around.
The room had been dimmed, but lights bounced off every surface. It seemed Slughorn had somehow bewitched the room to give off tiny lights of all different colors: silver, gold, blue, red, green, purple…the lights were tiny, but they filled the room sufficiently, setting everything off in a nice glow.
It also seemed that Slughorn had magically enlarged the dungeon. Usually, it was cramped with the students and their cauldrons, as everybody ran back and forth from the store cupboards to their seats. But now multitudes of people, long tables covered in platters of food, and even a smallish stage fit in quite comfortably.
“Food!” exclaimed Alex, worming between little clumps of people to get over to the food. Lily and Cadrian exchanged amused glances and followed. Alex grabbed a plate and started heaping everything she could onto it. Cadrian did the same, but Lily just took a cup of iced pumpkin juice and sipped it conservatively, looking around the room.
She spotted James and Peter standing with a group of fifth-years. Lily’s insides boiled with anger. How had they gotten invited, and why were they hanging out with fifth-years?
Just then the stage Slughorn had set up creaked as the professor stepped onto it. He waddled over to the microphone and said, “Welcome to my Halloween party!”
This was met by cheers and claps. Lily set down her cup to clap politely. “Now I’ll get out of the way for the amazing and talented…Aurora Beam!”
This aroused even more cheering, especially from the boys. Some of the older ones whistled as Aurora Beam stepped onto the stage, her silvery blond hair shiny and glowing in the tiny little lights, dressed in a short, shimmery silver dress. She winked as she grabbed the microphone and began to sing.
Aurora Beam had a good voice, but Lily wasn’t very interested. She emptied her cup of juice and then another as Alex sang along, slightly off-key, and by the time Aurora Beam stepped off the stage, she really needed to use the restroom. She slipped out of the room, away from the noise and growing heat and immediately bumped into somebody.
“Sorry-” she muttered, ready to scurry away. Then she noticed it was Chris. “Chris, what are you doing?”
“Shh!” Chris grabbed Lily’s shoulders and turned her back towards the dungeon roughly. Then he pushed her forward. “Go back inside. I’m not here,” he hissed, so she stumbled back into the party, confused.
“Lils, where’d you go?” asked Alex, thrusting a bottle of butterbeer into Lily’s hands. “Danielle was right, the Kenmare Kestrels are here! Cadrian’s over there begging for autographs, Quidditch drone that she is, but I have no idea who any of them are. This butterbeer’s great, though-straight from the Three Broomsticks.”
Lily twisted the cap off the bottle and took a swig. It did indeed taste like Madam Rosmerta’s. Seven tall people in navy blue robes were surrounded by practically everybody at the party; presumably they were the Quidditch team. In a corner Aurora Beam was eating delicately off a tiny plate. Up close, she didn’t look as beautiful as she had on stage. She had tiny little wrinkles pulling at the corners of her eyes, and her face sagged slightly, looking lonely.
Lily felt a rash impulse coming over her that she couldn’t resist. She piled food onto a plate, grabbed two bottles of butterbeer, and marched boldly over to Aurora Beam. She plunked herself down in the empty chair next to her. “Hello,” she said.
Aurora glanced over at Lily. “Hello,” she said, sounding amused.
“Do you want a butterbeer?” Lily asked. She knew the situation was a little comical, but she didn’t really care.
“Um, sure.” Aurora accepted the bottle Lily handed her and popped the cap off easily. Lily did the same and took a sip of the rich substance.
After taking a long drink of her butterbeer, Aurora set the bottle on the floor, tossed her silky hair over her shoulder, and asked, her eyebrows arched, “So, no begging for autographs?”
Lily shook her head. “Nah,” she said. “No offense, but I’ve never heard of you. I’m Muggle-born.”
Aurora smiled. “So am I.” She took a strawberry off of Lily’s plate and popped it into her mouth.
By now Alex had wandered over, never liking to be kept away from any sort of excitement. “Hi,” she said brightly. “I’m Alex Parker.”
“Aurora Beam,” said Aurora warmly, offering Alex her hand. Alex shook it and sat down on Lily’s other side.
“My name’s Lily Evans,” Lily said shyly, kicking herself for forgetting something as simple as introducing herself.
Aurora smiled and took another strawberry. “Nice to meet you.”
Just then there was a commotion at the door to the dungeon. Lily, Alex, and Aurora all looked over. Chris was struggling against three of the Quidditch players, who were trying to force him back outside, with his wand pointed straight at Aurora.
Lily, Blossoming by halfbloodprincess22
Chapter Notes: Slughorn's Halloween party doesn't turn out quite as expected.