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“I would argue that that’s enough pizza to feed a horse.”
“Just one horse? I’d say two.”
“Two? Have you seen horses, Dorcas, they’re huge.”
“No,” Dorcas replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “I’ve never seen a horse, Marlene.”
The girls sat in Lily and James’ kitchen, staring at the frankly enormous stack of pizza boxes on the table before them. Lily had directed a lazy wave of her hand at a series of cocktail shakers sitting on the kitchen counter; they sprung to life and began to shake back-and-forth, mixing up bilberry martinis and shrivelfig spritzes.
“Ok, I’m just saying, Dorcas, that it’s not enough pizza to feed two Abraxans, and—”
“You know I could hear you guys from inside the Floo, right?”
Lily, Marlene and Dorcas spun in their seats to see Alice Fortescue—almost Longbottom—leaning casually against the doorframe. She was still wearing her navy Auror’s robes, one sleeve of which was fraying and a little burnt. Her face was split into a relaxed, teasing smirk, making her eyes crinkle at the sides with mirth.
“Merlin’s mother, Alice Fortescue, your hair!” Lily cried in delight.
Alice grinned, and pushed her shock of purple hair back from her eyes with a casual hand. “Had it done this afternoon. Looks good, right?”
“Looks fucking insane,” Dorcas replied, jumping up and handing her best friend a glass of bilberry martini. “Who did it?”
Alice took a seat at the table beside Marlene. “The place next to Madam Malkin’s in Diagon. Went after work. Whatshername, Beryl? The one with the roving eye.” She look a sip of her drink and looked at Lily. “James not in tonight?”
Lily shook her head. “No, he and Sirius and Remus have all gone out for a quiet drink at the Leaky.”
“In what world does Sirius Black do quiet drinks?” Marlene stared at Lily incredulously.
“Same way you do, Marls.” Lily began to direct the pizza boxes and the drinks towards the door to the sitting room.
“But I don’t do quiet drinks.”
“Exactly.”
Lily led the way from the kitchen to the sitting room, carefully ensuring the food and drink floated neatly onto the coffee table. They threw themselves onto the sagging cream sofas—once Lily had shifted the large grey cat, Esmerelda, from the middle of one, of course.
Lily glanced up at the clock on the wall. They were still waiting on Emmeline, and the waiting made her anxious. She’d never been one for fretting before all this had started, but there was no denying it: the war was taking its toll. This was the first time in months they’d all been together. Life had been tough on them all, recently; the news about Benjy Fenwick had made them want to hold their friends a little closer, make the goodbye hugs a little longer, whisper I love you and stay safe in one another’s ears a little more. When Lily had suggested they get together for pizza and drinks that Friday evening, and they’d all by chance been free, they’d jumped at the opportunity.
As the other girls began to dig into the pizza, Lily couldn’t help but look up at the photographs on the wall beside the clock, and in particular, the one where she was standing next to a tall, beaming blonde in a Hufflepuff tie. Poor Benjy, Lily thought. He’d been in the year above them, with a natural talent for duelling and Transfiguration. He’d been captain of the Duelling Club when Lily had been vice-captain, and the two of them had shared many happy evenings planning club meetings. To think that he’d just been… obliterated was almost impossible to stomach.
“So come on, Fortescue,” said Dorcas through a mouthful of pizza, the sound of her voice drawing Lily from her thoughts. Dorcas poked Alice with her toe. “Tell us all about the preparations for the big day.”
“Honestly, not nearly as exciting as they make it out to be.” Alice fiddled thoughtfully with the pentagram she wore around her neck. “Between the wedding and work, I don’t remember the last time Frank and I had a weekend to ourselves!”
“You guys should come over for dinner one Saturday or something, once everything’s calmed down a little bit.”
“Revolting,” Marlene shuddered, grimacing at Lily’s suggestion. “That’s so grown up.”
“Hey—“ Lily held up her hands— “it actually wasn’t my idea. You can blame James for that.”
Dorcas tutted. “I swear to God, James is like… secretly a hundred years old.”
“First time I stayed over at his, I woke up in the middle of the night to find a pillow in between us,” Lily laughed. “I genuinely for a minute thought that he was worried I was some kind of nocturnal predator. Turns out it’s for his bad back.”
“That’s the most heterosexual thing I’ve ever heard,” replied Marlene cooly. “The heterosexual pillow.”
At that moment, the fireplace roared green. The outline of Emmeline Vance was suspended in the emerald flame for a minute, her Holyhead Harpies uniform blending in so that only the golden talon on her chest and her long blonde braid stood out bright. Then, the flames evaporated, and she stepped neatly onto the hearth rug.
“Emme!” Alice said, patting the space on the sofa beside her. “Nice of you to join us so promptly.”
“Oh ha ha,” Emmeline replied, taking off her cloak and hanging it over an armchair. “We got held up—the weather’s foul.”
“You’d better catch up then, hadn’t you?” Marlene slid a shrivelfig spritz across the coffee table towards her. “Apparently we’re doing quiet drinks tonight.”
Two comfortable hours passed, although in many ways it felt like no time had passed at all. Lily looked at her friends in turn, a funny little smile playing at her lips. Marlene—unabashed, sassy, strong Marlene—was telling a story involving dragons and reenactments with impressive lunges. Watching her with bright eyes and a wild grin was Dorcas, who was sitting on the floor leaning against Alice’s legs. Alice had her hands on Dorcas’ hair, a look of pure concentration on her face, as she transformed Dorcas’ dark hair into coils of intricate braids.
These were her people, weren’t they? They’d been together since the very beginning, since that first day at Hogwarts when they’d all met on the train. It hadn’t mattered that they’d ended up in different houses—some to Ravenclaw, some to Gryffindor. What had mattered were the breaks between classes when they’d wandered the frost covered grounds together, or the afternoons sneaking hot chocolate into the library to study together, or the nights in sixth and seventh year when their friends from all the houses snuck out to the Astronomy Tower to drink under the stars.
“You ok, friend?” Emmeline nudged Lily with her elbow.
“What?” Lily blinked rapidly. “Yeah, just thinking…”
“Oi, you two,” interrupted Marlene. “Dorko’s going to tell our futures—“
“Tarot, Marlene, tarot.”
“Yes! C’mon, Dorko,” urged Lily, nodding toward the deck of tarot cards in Dorcas’ hand. Esmerelda took that moment to hop up into Lily’s lap, and she pulled the cat—that chunky, cuddly thing—close to her. Dorcas grinned, and opened her mouth to speak when—
“Evening, ladies!”
The girls turned to see Sirius walk—well, stumble—into the sitting room. He had his arms spread wide, a lazy grin across his face. He was dressed in his trademark outfit: black skinny jeans (more rip than jean, as James liked to say), a T Rex t shirt, and a black leather jacket. Behind him was Remus, seemingly gliding into the room.
“Are you—“ Alice did a double take. “Remus, are your shoes on wheels?”
Remus made a finger-gun gesture as he rolled along behind the sofa and came to a sharp stop by the fireplace, only slightly disturbing the lamp on the way. “You bet they are, my spicy pal. The Muggles call them Heelys.”
“The Muggles have some serious questions to answer,” came a voice from behind them, and they turned once more to see James duck into the room, shucking his aviator jacket. “Also, Remus has had seven Doxypops, ignore him.”
“Rude—“ Remus began. He slumped into an armchair and pulled a cigarette from behind one ear.
“—but not wrong,” James finished with a grin. He threw himself down into the other armchair and looked at the girls expectantly. “What have you all been up to?”
“Well,” replied Emmeline, nodding at Dorcas. “Dorko was just about to read our tarot cards.”
“Ooh, do me, do me!” Sirius urged, dropping forward onto his knees beside the coffee table. He looked expectantly at Dorcas.
Marlene gave him a glare. “Are you asking my girlfriend to do you?”
Sirius rolled his eyes and tutted. “My tarot, Marls. Although—“ he wiggled his eyes at Dorcas— “I’m always available, Miss Meadowes.”
Dorcas stopped watching where the tarot cards were shuffling themselves in mid air, and fixed Sirius with a look. “First of all, ew. Secondly, could you please stop being so aggro? The cards will reject you.”
Sirius clasped his hands over his heart and feigned injury. “Dorcas, how can you wound me thus?”
Dorcas laughed, and directed the cards to the coffee table. “Oh shut up, you dramatic bitch, and let the cards call you out for once…”
There was a sudden crash! and the group of them looked up to see Remus was no longer upright, but splayed on the floor. Sirius choked out a laugh.
"What the fuck, Moony?"
Remus groaned. "Fuckin' Muggles do have questions to answer..."