Chapter Text
Lily could not express how little she had wanted to agree to this. But here she was. In the middle of nowhere, her left boot already semi-stuck in the mud, key in hand and bag slung over her shoulder.
There was no doormat in front of the cabin. She would drag mud into her new quarters the second she stepped in. With a deep sigh she unlocked the door and pushed it open. The job listing descried the cabin as simple but furnished with all necessities. She was disappointed anyway. It was one room, a single bed pushed against the back wall to the left, one table, one chair, a kitchenette and no curtains. Lily stepped out of her boots immediately and walked over to the table to put her bag down. Mary had shown her this nifty little trick on how to shrink and lighten a bag. Mary did not know how legal these enchantments were exactly, but Lily was willing to take the risk.
Bringing the whole contents of a magical burn unit across a border was no small feat, but she managed to pack it all in one trunk and a bag for her personal things. Getting Twig, her barn owl, to cooperate was much harder. Lily sat the cage down on the table and after making sure all the windows were closed, she opened the cage. Twig jumped out and immediately started.
Freeing the wand from the holster around her waist, Lily waved it over her bag and started unpacking. A little huff of frustration escaped her lips when she opened the wardrobe, there were no shelves and no hangers. This was a problem she did not foresee.
When her parents pulled her out of school after her second year at Hogwarts, she knew that she was going to miss important things about the wizarding community. And when she re-entered after the war, there was a lot to catch up on. She learned about magical history and tradition in her homeschool group of course, but it would never be the same as growing up amongst wizards. How magical wardrobes work was not in her lesson plans.
I didn’t take her long to find the community cabin, CC they called it, and she stepped in with her head held high. At first glance it was empty. On second glance there was a guy sitting on the couch, reading a magazine. She stepped around the table and walked towards the couch. At least she wouldn’t have to choose who to ask for help.
“Excuse me” she said, “my closet doesn’t work.”
The man looked up and frowned “Huh.”
“In my cabin, the closet? It does not work.”
The guy got up and put his magazine aside, a spiderman comic, Lily noticed. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“I don’t believe so, my name is Lily, I start work here on Monday.”
He smiled a big smile, showing a bright set of teeth. “Whatever is the matter with your closet, Lily Evans?”
Lily couldn’t even lie, her jaw hit the floor. “Wha-” she started, but he interrupted her.
“Let’s go check it out, I know the new mediwitch was allocated cabin 37, I assume that’s you?” Lily nodded, and before she found her voice again, he was already at the door. “You coming?”
“So, what seems to be the problem, this looks perfectly normal to me?”
Lily huffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “Are you gonna tell me who you are?”
The guy shrugged “You’ll figure it out.” he had the audacity to smirk at her.
Lily raised an eyebrow. “And until then I’m supposed to call you Mister X or something?”
That made him laugh. “I’m more into Spiderman, the good guys and everything, you know? My friends call me Prongs.”
“And I’m your friend?” Lily shot back, getting agitated.
Prongs shrugged again. “I hope you will be.”
Lily scowled. “Prongs is a stupid nickname.” That made him laugh.
So, turns out there was a spell for the closet. It made the clothes neatly hang themselves and you could move them just as if they were on hangers. Prongs showed a begrudging Lily some other tricks around the cabin. How to lace your threshold with a shoelacing spell, and how to tint the windowpanes so nobody could see her change her clothes. Lily was mad because he was nice, and she really needed someone to show her the ropes.
In turn, he admired her crafty shrinking spell and complimented her choice in boots. When Lily reluctantly thanked him, he smiled and said, “Can’t imagine it’s easy growing up in the muggle world and finding your way around a wizarding house. I’ll show you how to work the fireplace tomorrow, so you can call home.”
Who was this guy?
Lily lay awake that night, racking her brain and looking for any memory involving a handsome man with beautiful, luscious locks and deep brown eyes that seemed to lay bare her very soul. She could not find anything.
There was no one in St. Mungos like this, she would’ve remembered. Also, Prongs was taming dragons in a forest in the middle of easter Europe, she just couldn’t figure out a connection and decided the best next step would be writing to Mary. She rolled out of bed and sat at the table. Lily had packed her fancy stationary. The paper was sage green with daisy chains neatly decorating the border. She dug out her ink pen and began to write;
Dear Mary,
I have arrived. All my fears became true withing the first ten minutes. The cabin is bleak, it has seen neither muggle nor woman. There’s nowhere to hang your towels!
I needed help immediately upon my arrival and found this man sitting in the community cabin reading spiderman comics. He helped me figure out how to work the closet and how to live without curtains. He’s also going to connect my floo tomorrow.
Mary, he knew my name. My full name! And he would not tell me his! Said I’d “figure it out” and to just call him Prongs? I have no memory of a beautiful man named Prongs. Do we know him? I need to get to the bottom of this quickly if I must work with him, it’ll drive me up the wall if not.
With desperation,
Lily
Mary yelped when Twig, Lilys owl flew against her window at 06:13 am. Silly little bugger did it on purpose. She could swear the thing was goofily smiling at her. Quietly as to not wake her roommate next door, Mary got up and opened the window.
“What the fuck Twig?” she whispered, and the owl had the audacity to hoot at her. Mary walked over to her sink and let the water run. Twig was known to refuse water that wasn’t from a running tap, so she hurried to clear anything around the sink that wasn’t supposed to get wet. Twig liked to splash about. The hair straightener vanished not a second too soon, as Twig practically dove into the water.
Upon reading the letter, Mary suddenly did not care for being quiet anymore. She yanked open the door and yelled for Marlene. She was still laughing hysterically when Marlene opened her bedroom door. “Look at this!” Marlene took the letter off her, sleep still in her eyes ,and soon joined Mary’s laughter.
“This is the funniest thing that’s happened since Sirius got stuck in the oven.”
Mary smirked. “Well, we did tell him there’s only one real Santa Clause.”