Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling is a much better writer and is much richer than I.

Chapter Nine

(An Adventure in a Broom Closet)

When I was little, I once had a fight with James. This in itself isn't actually that rare, as you have probably guessed that he is one of the most annoying people to have ever graced the world with his infuriating presence. But this fight was a particularly bad one and involved a decapitated stuffed dragon named Sprinkles, a smashed broomstick, blue hair and the neighbor's dog (you really don't want to know). Anyways, Mum told James and me that we would be in huge trouble when Dad got home from work, which actually means "You are going to be tortured for eternity". Okay, so maybe it meant that you'll be grounded/time out/privileges taken away etc., but give me a break. I was five! In my terror of getting into trouble, I decided to run away rather than face the wrath of my parents. And so I, in my red-pigtailed, ripped-overall-wearing and horrible-Muggle-pink-backpack (of which contained useful items for survival that included half a peanut butter sandwich, a pair of mostly clean Harpies underwear and a broken blue crayon) told my mother I was running away and ran all of twenty yards into the woods before getting lost.

Needless to say, my dad found me as soon as he got home sobbing uncontrollably on a stump. He cradled me on his lap, stroking my hair as I babbled into his shoulder ("James…idiot…Mum…torture…crayon…scared"). He listened before giving me a good piece of advice.

"Lily, no matter what, you can't run away from your problems."

I tried to understand, but again, I was only five so it kinda went right over my head. I merely nodded before my dad proceeded to tell me I couldn't ride my broom for a week (not quite torture). And now, ten years later I still don't think I understand.

See, I have problems. Not mental ones (doubtful) but problems nonetheless. My cousin hates me. I got Sorted into Slytherin, thus alienating myself from my family. I made enemies with two of the most popular people in my House. I made friends with my father's sort-of-ex-enemy-that-he-now-respects-kind-of-but-not-really's son and my family hates him on principle. My best friend is facing an arranged marriage, and I can't seem to really help. That son I made friends with. Yeah, I fell asleep on his lap, and spent the night in the common room with him. That enemy I told you about told my family. I managed to cause a huge fight, got into trouble and now there are rumors around the school about my not-quite-sane personality. And my fellow Common-Room-night-spender has been treating me weirdly and whenever I see/think of him all I can think of is how nice he smells. Merlin, I should probably see one of those Muggle therapists.

Anyways, I am a coward. I pretend that I don't actually have my multitude of problems and if things get really bad, I run away from said problems. This is why currently I'm hiding in a broom closet on the fourth floor that smells. A lot.

Most people use broom closets for inappropriate encounters with their significant other. This significant other may or not be the significant other of someone else but I digress. This is proven by the amount of times someone else (or two someone elses) have rattled the door knob to the cupboard (of which I have locked using magic) trying to barge in on my smelly sanctuary. This failed attempt is usually accompanied with words like "Someone else must be using it", "Stay safe you two!" or a swear (fill in the blank with whatever dirty words you want. Go ahead, swear.)

Currently, I'm trying to pretend that I'm not where snogging (or worse) has occurred and that the smell really couldn't be worse. Seriously. James' Quidditch socks, Fred's cooking and Hugo during his all-natural stage (no baths) combined. Ugh. And why couldn't Filch hang up some air fresheners of something. There are much better smells. Like for example, Scor-Abort, abort! No thinking of said gorgeous-blond-Slytherin.

Come on Lily. Think of puppies. They are adorable with their ungainly paws and dirty faces. They can kind of remind me of James. Would he take offense to that? Probably. Do I care? Not really. I wonder if Mum or Dad would let me get one. I don't have a pet of my own after all. Dad got an owl when he got to Hogwarts. However, I am in trouble now, so this could be difficult. Maybe I can get a petition started with signatures of people who like puppies and think I deserve one. You know who likes puppies and would sign. (I bet you can guess).

If you can see, the said blond boy has been popping up in my thoughts all day. So much for running away from my problems. They only seem to follow me.

One more thing about broom closets. When one is in one is trying to avoid all thinking about blond boys and does not have a pair of lips to snog, one can get very bored in broom closets. There really isn't much in terms of entertainment. However, about three minutes and thirty seconds away from me dying a slow painful death of boredom, I find a most curious discovery.

In my particular broom closet, there is a slight crack in the wall separating the closet from another hallway in the school. This rather ingenious crack not only enables the bored-broom-closet-attendee to hear through said crack but also see if one pushes one's face right up against the crack. Thus enabling the person to spy on the rest of the school. EEEEEEE!

I love to spy on people! The knowledge that I know knowledge that is otherwise believed secret by the people being spied on is priceless. I get this huge rush of power of knowing. However, I, when finding a particularly juicy secret, cannot hold my tongue and blab to the nearest non-enemy I see. So I don't hold the power for long. But who cares? There is still that rush for moments…

Just call me Potter. Lily Potter.

Now some of you probably don't know how to spy correctly. Here is Lily's Guide to Spying Without Getting Caught (Mostly):

Find an appropriate spot to spy. You must be hidden from all (especially annoying older brothers/cousins) unless one wants to be discovered immediately.

Stay quiet at all costs. Seriously. Despite the fact that one may want to giggle, cry or yell when discovering secrets of others, don't make a sound least one gets caught. If need be, bite one's knuckles to avoid making a sound.

Have appropriate healing objects to heal one's knuckles once one has made them bleed on hand. Having to explain to brother/cousin/parent/Healer of School that one bit one's own hand is suspicious.

Wait it out. One may get bored quite easily. However, a juicy secret comes to one who waits. Unless, one chooses a place like the attic or library where no one ever goes willingly (unless subject of spying is considered abnormal).

In my case, number 4 is the hardest. As you have probably seen, I don't do bored well. And unfortunately, it is rather hard to happen across people with juicy secrets on the Fourth Floor on Friday afternoons when most people are relaxing in the common rooms or outside. You will be left with rather boring people including:

A pair of Hufflepuffs talking about the weather. (Yes, it is a nice day. Now if you aren't going to spill your deepest darkest secrets, please leave. Immediately.)

An awkward Third year trying to ask another Third Year out. (Dear Romeo, Your skills aren't bad, but it would probably be best to find a Juliet not obsessed with your best friend. Love, Lily).

Two Six Year Ravenclaws talking about "that rather messy incident at breakfast" and "the hooligan responsible". (Stupid bloody Ravenclaws. I hope you… er… lose some House points! Yeah!)

First Years panicking about being lost. (Firsties are rather pathetic aren't they? Someone should tell them that their fourth period DADA class was over ages ago. And that, Professor Vincent will eat them alive. With rhubarb sauce.)

There really wasn't much in the way of discovering juicy gossip. Grr…

I was pretty much left to twiddle my thumbs. And when that got boring, I began to sing (quietly of course) some songs consisting of the Weird Sisters' greatest hit, Gilderoy Lockhart's My Missing Memory (Aren't I awesome) and the Rainbow Unicorns' latest song for little witches and wizards titled The Boggart Under Your Bed. I sound rather catchy in my opinion.

While singing of the terror that possesses young children, I almost another opportunity to find gossip. Trying to not get my hopes up, I saw to my surprise someone I knew. Rose.

At first I thought that I was seeing things. Rose Weasley, not even slightly tipsy on a late Friday afternoon? But there was the red curly hair, light freckles, brown eyes and curves of beautiful and popular Rose Weasley, who is currently checking her watch every five seconds. She seemed oddly keyed up with her watch checking, foot tapping and fingers bouncing. What was she waiting for?

After a few minutes in which Rose checked her watch a thousand times and I doubted her sanity, I could hear footsteps coming from the corresponding corridor. Rose's hands flew to her hair, pushed down her top and pulled up her skirt. Whoever she was waiting for must be important.

Finally, someone came into view. More accurately, one of the male population at Hogwarts (and not a teacher). With light brown hair, light blue eyes, a killer tan and a crooked smile that made the female students (and a couple males as well) giggle, myself included, Michael Thomas sauntered up to Rose before leaning against the wall next to her. He grinned before leaning closer. She giggled before leaning up and pressing her lips to his for a rather heated snog. They broke apart after a moment and he grinned again before speaking.

"Hey, babe."

"Hi. I see you got my message."

"Mhmm." He leaned down and kissed her again.

"I missed you."

"We just say each other last week, babe. It hasn't been that long."

"I know, but still. Can't a girl miss her guy?"

"I'm not your only guy, babe. Remember your boyfriend."

"We broke up on the train, didn't you hear? I'm all yours."

"I like the sound of that." They proceeded to snog even more passionately than before with his hands creeping up her shirt and Rose stroking his chest. Not wanting to see more, I quickly turned around to see the dark view of my broom cupboard.

Oh. Dumbledore's. Great. Aunt. Mildred.

First, Rose was cheating her boyfriend. Remember him? The one with the three-month record. She's never done it before to my knowledge so this is a big deal. And yet, I'm not surprised. And that's bad. My own cousin cheats on her boyfriend and I'm not surprised. Not exactly saying much for our relationship, is it?

However, I am surprised. Not about Rose. She plays with enough boys' hearts. Just they're normally single.

That's right. Rose's new boyfriend has a girlfriend. And the thing is both Michael and his girlfriend are friends of the family. Michael is the youngest son of Dean and Demelza Thomas, both of whom are old friends of my parents. My mother played Chaser with the both of them in her Fifth Year and with Demelza on the Harpies. The entire Thomas family comes over every New Years for our annual party and other times in between. Evan Thomas graduated last year and is close friends with James. Michael is friends with Albus and has oftentimes frequented the backyard during the summer for Quidditch. The last game I played Chaser with him. That was last week. When Rose and he last saw each other. They might have snogged at my house!

And the girlfriend you ask? Kelsi Finnegan. The daughter of Michael's father's best friend. Her family is also close friends of the family too. Kelsi is especially close to Emma.

Kelsi and Michael have been dating for years. They are one of those disgustingly cute couples that you see in the halls. I thought they would get married someday. They were that close. And now, Michael is snogging my cousin.

And I know about it.

A/N: Well… Hello. Anyone there? (Insert sound of crickets)

I am so so so so soooo sorry about the delay in updating. It's been three months already. Since then, I have graduated Driver's Ed, taken two AP tests, taken finals and finish the school year. Now that it's summer, I'm going to try and finish up the story. There is still a while to go, but I have a better idea of what I want to do with the middle part.

Anyways, I hope you like what I did with Lily and her problems. No Scorpius in this chapter, though he is in Lily's thoughts. However, I felt that I needed to drag their relationship out a bit and work more on Rose and Bella, both of whom are rather important to the story. Here's Rose. Bella will follow.

Any advice of what I'm doing would be appreciated as well as any thoughts.

I've also decided to add Chapter titles besides numbers. They're more fun.

~Frostyfriend96