Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Ten

When Lily woke up the next morning, she was surprised to see the Sanger twins' beds empty. If they had been out so late, how on earth did they have the will to wake up even before Lily had? Lily had slept almost soundly through the night, but she still felt like a zombie waking up early in the morning- thanks to her mind wandering about the endless possibilities of what was off with the twins.

Her bed creaked as she stood up, and her cats jumped onto the floor, walking out of the room to prowl around the castle. She peered around the corner to see Cecily's curtains were still drawn around her bed. Not wanting to wake up her friend, Lily creeped to her own trunk and pulled out her uniform; she sighed and thought of how thankful she was to step back into her Hogwarts clothes. She was finally back home; it was real. After taking her time getting ready in the bathroom, she walked back into the room to find Cecily searching through her own trunk frantically, tossing clothes and books all over what once was a neat dorm room.

"Morning," Lily greeted her from the doorway, watching with a concerned eye.

"I can't believe I overslept," Cecily groaned, running her hands through her knotty, messy bedhead without even glancing up at Lily. "On the first day, too. I'm so stupid."

"Do you need some help getting ready?" Lily offered, feeling bad for the panicky first year and stepping closer to her. "I could-"

"It's fine," Cecily sighed, finally picking up a wrinkled, white blouse. "I'm always late for everything; you'll learn that about me. Just go down to breakfast without me."

"Are you sure?" Lily asked, slinging her bag over her thin shoulder. "Do you know the way down the Great Hall? I can stay if you want me to; it's not a big deal."

Cecily shook her head, "I'm only stopping down there later anyway- just to get my schedule and grab some quick. My dad wants to talk to me before breakfast with Alice, so I'm going over to his office as soon as I get ready."

"That's nice," Lily said. "I guess I'll see you down at breakfast then, Cecily."

"See you later, Lily," she responded, not even looking up from her search for the rest of her uniform in her trunk.

With her goodbye said, Lily walked out of the room and down into the common room, leaving Cecily to her trunk searching.

"Good morning, Lil," Eli greeted her at the bottom of the stairs. "Hugo already went downstairs for breakfast with Rudolph."

"They left us," she sighed. "How sweet of them."

"They aren't the ones who forgot to wake you up," he said with an annoyed expression on his face, shaking his head of messy, dark curls. "Hugo was probably starving, and Rudolph probably wanted to get his schedule early, but they forgot about me."

Lily shook her head at her cousin's hunger, "I can believe both of those things, but Hugo really couldn't wait to eat for fifteen more minutes? I mean, I understand Rudolph's thing, but Hugo's appetite is a little..."