Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Twenty-Five

Through the night and into the next morning, the revolution weighed heavily on Lily's mind, but she kept her mouth shut. She didn't want to bog down the mood at the Christmas Eve party with talk of the revolution, so she resolved to tell her friends back at Hogwarts. Better to ruin everyone's January than everyone's Christmas.

Christmas Eve drove her insane, and Christmas Day, even though she was around her family in the Burrow, was maddening. Keeping the secret all to herself wasn't working, so she decided to tell Hugo right before their Grandma Weasley would serve up Christmas dinner. She figured if someone would listen to the craziness that it would be her beloved cousin, Hugo; he'd at least make some light of the situation that would make the whole thing less grave. And Lily could use that. Desperately.

"Hugo," Lily said, tapping her cousin's shoulder. He was playing a Muggle card game with the Weasley-Potter boys on the living room floor of the Burrow, and Lily was sure getting him to come with her would be like pulling teeth. Despite that fact, Lily was going to try.

"I'm busy, Lil," Hugo said, not looking up from his hand. Cards, evidently, were more important.

"Hugo, this is important," she said, hoping to convey some sort of urgency that would make her cousin put down the cards.

"And this game is important," Louis said from across the circle as he slapped down a queen of clubs. Evidently, no one was picking up on her message.

"Do you want to play in the next game, Lil?" Freddie asked, smiling up at her. "We should be done soon after I smoke these blokes."

"She's not allowed to play; boys only," James said, sticking his tongue out at Lily.

She rolled her eyes at her brother, wondering if he was five years old, and looked back down at Hugo, "Hugo, this is important. We have to talk about this."

"I guarantee you that it can wait, Lil," he said, drawing a card from the deck sat in the middle of the boys' circle. "I'll talk to you after this game. I promise"

Lily groaned and walked away from the boys, knowing that there was no winning when it came to her male cousins' card games. She wondered why she had even bothered in the first place.

"Trouble?" Rosie asked as Lily plopped down at the kitchen table across from her.

"Hugo's being stupid," Lily said, shaking her head and looking back to where the boys had ignored her. "He's so frustrating."

"Sounds a lot like Hugo," Rosie said, nodding. "What's he doing?"

Lily was prepared to dance around the question, "I have to talk to him about something very important, and he's too wrapped up in that card game to even care."

"You can talk to me about it," Rosie said, shrugging. "What's bugging you, Lil?"

"Oh, nothing," Lily said, wishing that she hadn't struck up a conversation with the ever curious Rosie. Lily hadn't prepared for someone to delve further into her problem, so she decided to make something up, "It's friend stuff."

"Friend drama isn't fun," Rosie said in response. "Luckily, Al, Alice, Victor, and I haven't had drama in forever."

"That's good," Lily said, not wanting to make small talk.

"So are you going to tell me or no?" Rosie asked, putting her chin in her hand and smiling at Lily. "I could try and help; I'd love to help you with your problem."

Not knowing what to say, Lily opened her mouth, and nothing came out. Luckily, that was when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Did you want to talk or something, Lil?" Hugo asked as Lily turned around.