little miss black

-85-

If you had told Lily Evans a year ago that she would be sitting beside James Potter at her fathers funeral, she would have told you that you were crazy. Yet, here she sat, her face buried into James' shoulder. Cass, Marlene, Alice, Dorcas, Remus and Sirius were all there to pay their respects to Mr Evans. They sat in the back row, but Lily had asked James to sit with her at the front. Lily sat between James and her mum, Poppy and Sebastian beside them. The service was quite large, as Mr Evans had been extremely popular man. After the service, Mrs Evans invited everyone back to their house. Lily took everyone up to her room.

"Thank you all for coming today." She said. "I really appreciate it."

"Of course Lil." Cass said.

"He would have- he would have really loved to see you all." Lily said, her voice shaking slightly. "And meet you, James and Sirius." She burst into tears, Cass leapt up and wrapped her arms around her. Marlene did the same, followed by Dorcas and Alice.

"We love you Lily." Marlene said.

"We're here for you." Dorcas said.

"God, I need to get out of this house." Lily said, laughing in spite of herself. "I can't deal with the atmosphere between Poppy and Tuney, it's a nightmare. Tuney just blatantly ignores me but she makes snide comments toward Poppy and it just gets under her skin and she argues back."

"Are you two.. you know, made up?" Alice asked. Lily shrugged.

"Sort of, she still spends all her time with Sebastian." She said. "I don't think she wants anything to do with me. She's avoided me since we came home."

"She'll have to see you at school though." Cass said. "Why doesn't she just get it over with?"

"Nah she won't." Lily said. "She's doing an exchange programme, doing her final year at Ilvermorny. Sebastian is as well." Almost everyone's eyebrows shot up.

"You can do that?" Marlene said.

"Apparently." Lily said.

"Well, good for her right?" Cass said. "Maybe you just need some space from each other."

"Mmm." Lily said vaguely.

"Let's go out tonight." Marlene said. "Just us girls, sorry boys. Let's get drunk."

"As fun as that sounds, we're not of age in the muggle world." Dorcas said.

"Oh come on Dor, there is a thing called fake ID." Marlene said.

"That sounds dangerous." Dorcas said, biting her lip.

"Oh, it'll be fine. We can always use a confundus charm if things take a turn for the worst." Marlene said. Dorcas didn't look sure.

"Well, I'm with Marlene." Cass said. "A night out is exactly what you need Lil."

"Sounds good to me." Lily said.

"You can all stay at ours." Cass said. "Alice? Dorcas? You in?"

"Oh why not?" Alice said. Dorcas nodded.

"Perfect." Marlene said.

"We're going to head back to James'. Peter is meeting us there." Sirius said. "See you at home, don't get too drunk." Remus, James and Sirius all hugged Lily before exiting her room.

"Right then, let's get ready to party's bitches!"

•••

The five girls landed smoothly in an alleyway beside a nightclub that Marlene had heard about. It wasn't too far from Cass and Sirius' flat so if they ended up getting too drunk to apparate, they could always walk home. They were already a little bit tipsy from their extensive pre drinks. Cass wobbled slightly on her heels, clutching onto Lily for support.