The Marauders: Year Five #Wattys2017

Rutabagas and Celery Sticks

Rutabagas and Celery Sticks

Lily got up earlier than she normally did and spent a good deal of time charming her hair to hang just right, with just a little bit of curl to the end of it. She carefully applied a bit of make-up, covering up some of the freckles that spattered her nose and putting a bit of lipgloss on so her mouth looked shiny... She dressed in her Hogwarts uniform, her hands shaking as she did up her tie and rolled up her knee socks. Her toes wiggled in her Mary Jane shoes and she stood staring at herself in the mirror, fidgeting with how her hair rested on her shoulders. She hated how jittery she felt...

Downstairs, the common room was empty when she headed for the portrait hole, tucking her textbooks into her book bag as she went. She spared a glance up the stairs toward the boys dormitories and swept her sweaty palms over her skirt, trying to gather up her nerves.

Why was she so nervous? She wondered. It was just James Potter.

But it was also James Potter.

Lily sat at the Gryffindor table, nervously picking at breakfast, watching the door for the Marauders, fixing her hair, smoothing her skirt... waiting.

Finally they came in, and they were laughing as they usually were, Sirius going on in a dramatic fashion, his hands flapping about as he spoke, James walking backwards ahead of him as they entered the Great Hall. They split at the table, Sirius and Remus going 'round one side while James and Peter came toward her. She sat up straighter and shifted over on the bench to make room for them and they sank onto the bench beside her - James immediately reaching for the plate of bacon before his bum had even hit the bench.

"Yesssss," he hissed, shovelling quite a lot onto his plate, "They made it crunchy this morning, just the way I like it." He stuck a strip of it into his mouth, talking with his mouth full as he scooped some hash onto his plate beside the bacon. "Breakfast is my favorite bloody meal of the day." Lily stared at him as he handed off the plate of hash to Peter and finally sat down, grabbing a second strip of the bacon from the plate. He caught her staring and smirked at her as he chewed, "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," she said and she looked back at her own plate, her face hot.

"Usually it's floppy," he explained, waving the crispy bacon strip in her face.

"Yes, I know," she said.

"I like it hard."

Sirius snorted, spraying pumpkin juice across the table.

Remus smirked and patted Sirius's back.

James looked over at him. "I didn't mean it like that, you dog."

Sirius was still choking on the pumpkin juice and couldn't respond.

Lily looked at James, "I like breakfast too!" she blurted.

James looked back at her. "Yeah? Good on you, Evans."

"Yeah. That's, uh, that's why I'm sort of - of looking forward to Slughorn's brunch on Sunday," she said.

Remus looked over as Sirius wheezed himself back to normal. "Oh no. Sluggy's having a brunch?"

"Yes, and you're invited," James informed him.

Remus groaned.

Lily said, "We should go together."

James looked over at her.

"Yeah!" Remus exclaimed, "So we don't end up cornered by him or stuck sitting next to some insane Slytherin or something."

Lily blinked in surprise. She'd meant her and James. Not her and James and Remus.