Lily

Chapter Twenty Eight:

Lily finally a managed to steal some free time to herself away from Hermione and her knitting, by convincing Hermione that she hadn't been to the library in a while and should stop knitting a bit to go read and study. Hermione gasped and agreed immediately, stating that she didn't want to get behind on her work.

Lily wandered the Hogwarts halls alone for a while, stretching her legs. She heard a soft meow and looked down to see Mrs. Norris. The feline rubbed up against Lily's legs until Lily reached down to pet her. Mrs. Norris only approached her when she was alone, so Lily secretly joked that the cat didn't want to ruin her reputation.

Filch walked by and saw the two together. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Have you been feeding her treats?" He asked Lily accusingly.

She shook her head, while internally reminding herself to to be too bothered by Finch's blunt behavior.

"Eh... with the way she's been acting, I've started to think she likes you better than me." He said gruffly.

"I'm sure that's not true." Lily smiled kindly.

Filch's eye twitched, and he looked slightly less grumpy for a few seconds before continuing to patrol the halls. Lily watch him go, only looking down when Mrs. Norris tried for start playing with her hair.

"No, that's not a toy!" Lily laughed, pulling a ball of yarn from her bag.

There was a plus side besides saving elves to Hermione and her knitting after all. Lily rolled the ball of yarn and the cat chased after it in delight.

"That's crazy." A voice said from behind Lily and she looked up to see Draco.

"Hi." She greeted.

"She only likes Filch." Draco said.

"Not anymore." Lily pointed out, walking over to retrieve the yarn.

Draco walked with her and bent down as if to pet Mrs. Norris, who hissed and swatted at him. He retracted his hand quickly before looking back at Lily. She shrugged with a smile on her face.

"You must've bewitched her." He joked.

"Yeah, sure." Lily rolled her eyes.

The two laughed together.

"Tell me about your day?" Lily asked.

"Not much to tell." Draco replied, "What about you?"

"Well lately I've been knitting." Lily said, "Hermione started an organization to help free the house elves."

She pointed at her pin and he read it.

"SPEW?"

"Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare." Lily recited.

"Wow. Sounds... thrilling."

She lightly hit him on the arm, but fought a smile.

"We went down to the kitchens the other day, to see where they worked. A house elf that used to work for Mr. Crouch was there, along with an elf that Harry befriended back in second year now work here." Lily said.

"Potter befriended an elf in second year?" Draco repeated in confusion.

"He's not a bad person." Lily reminded her friend, "And yes, his name is Dobby."

Draco's eyes widened.

"Dobby?!"

"Yeah, you know him?"

"Yeah! He, um, used to work for my family..." He said awkwardly.

"Really? Harry never told me that." Lily said.

"Yeah... how is he? Dobby?" Draco asked.

"He's happy to be free." Lily said, which made Draco look guilty.

"Yeah, um, that's great."

"Hey." Lily said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Everyone makes mistakes, but you can't be blamed for your parents actions too."

"I could've freed him in secret." Draco pointed out, "Even Potter thought of helping him."

"Yes, Harry did." Lily agreed, stressing her brother's name, "But it's done now. Overthinking it won't do anything."

"...yeah." He reluctantly agreed, "Yeah, I guess you're right... You know, I always liked Dobby. Only secretly though. My father disapproved of befriending house elves."

"No offense, but your father sucks." Lily said.

Draco smirked.

"No offense taken." He said, before growing more serious, "He's still my father, though. I still care for him."

Lily nodded in understanding. Though she definitely held no love for Aunt Marge, she was working on letting go of her resentment. Aunt Marge stole twelve years of Lily's life away from her, but wishing the woman ill will would get Lily nowhere. So, even though she couldn't relate in that way, she supposed she could sympathize with having a loved one who was so cold.

The distant sound of students approaching called the two friends ears, and Draco offered Lily a hand up, which she took.

"Must be dinner time." She said.

"Yeah."

"Well, we should probably start walking before we get stampeded." Lily joked.

"Hey, don't get in the way of hungry witches and wizards." Draco replied.

He looked as if he wanted to say something more, but it took him a second to ask his next question.

"Are you going to the Yule Ball thing?" He asked.

"Oh, probably." Lily replied, "Harry has to go, so I might as well."

"Who are you going with?" He asked.

"I dunno." She shrugged, "Probably a friend. The idea of asking a complete stranger is daunting."

"...yeah." Draco agreed, as the students started to filter through the hallway, having side conversations that made it harder for the two to hear each other.

"Who are you going with?" Lily asked him, just before they reached the Great Hall.

He must've not heard her, though, because he didn't reply and instead gave a wave before heading to the Slytherin table. She waved goodbye as well, and sat down near to Ginny with the Gryffindors.

"-really what to go though, it's unfair!" Ginny was saying before Lily took a seat.

"What?" Lily asked.

"The Yule Ball is only open for younger years if you're invited by someone older." Ginny frowned, sighing heavily.

"Have you got no one you're interested in asking?" Lily questioned.

"Well I- um, no." Ginny lied, fidgeting in her seat.

"Okay, well, I'm sure you'll figure something out." Lily said, before giving Ginny a knowing look.

Ginny blushed and looked down at her soup, but not before her brown eyes quickly darted up to glance at her friend's brother.