"Besides, James will just fall to pieces when he sees you wearing it," Mia added with
a mischievous grin, glad when Lily blushed. "If anyone honours the words of our House,
it's you. Courage and Craft? Might as well just say 'Lily Evans.'"
It took an additional five minutes for Lily to stop arguing with Mia and Sirius, and
even then, Alice and Mary had to intervene and try to pretend that Lily was offending
pureblood tradition by refusing the bracelet. Mia, a Muggle-born herself by birth, noted
the lie and shook her head in disapproval. She wondered if Ron and Ginny had ever pulled
something like that over her eyes.
Once back inside Lily and James's common room, Sirius sat beside the redhead on
the sofa, hugging her close to comfort her. Mia fixed hot chocolate in the small attached
kitchen, not wanting to bother the house-elves for it. It gave her something to do to keep
occupied and not let her thoughts linger on the future where Petunia and Vernon Dursley
still existed. Had they not already written themselves on Mia's shit list based on the way
they treated Harry, they would have been added today for how they had treated Lily.
"We got everything taken care of," James announced as he and Remus walked
through the portrait hole. Sirius vacated the spot on the sofa, letting James take his place
beside Lily with a tender smile. "All your things are back at the manor, Lils. And I tried to
stop her, but Tilly's already gone through half of the first box. She's setting up an entire
room for you. Hopefully, you like purple, it's the colour I saw her charming the walls when
we left."
Lily laughed and hugged James tight. "Thank you."
"What happened?" Remus inquired as he stood in the centre of the room looking
alert and nervous.
"What do you mean?" Mia asked as she approached, placing the tray of hot
chocolate on the table in front of the sofa. "We've just been here since getting back. Frank,
Alice, Mary, and Peter headed back to the tower to change into normal robes."
Remus shook his head. "Something's different. Something changed.. ." His
nostrils flared and golden eyes settled on Lily. "Are you... ?" he began and then looked