this ringing in my head | lily

[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

October. Quidditch practices had started, and she’d just finished outlining a draft of the rest of the fall schedule for Chess Club. She walked through the courtyard, which at this point was a bit of luck and muscle memory. It was a shortcut back after her class to the dungeons where she would study until it was time for dinner. The fall weather was kicking into full swing, and the slight breeze flipped up the corner of the page of her notes where she had outlined the draft of her schedule. There was a look of concentration on her face, and her walking speed was not the quick pace her short legs usually demanded when she was going from one place to another. Mondays always were her busiest days in terms of classes and receiving new homework assignments, but as long as she was organized, it would all be handled. And not to mention her usual habit of kicking her friends’ into doing their own homework on time.

Addy walked around a corner, still skimming over her notes before she felt herself collide with something. Her first thought was that she had misstepped and turned the corner right into one of the courtyard statues, but when she looked up from her pages, she saw red hair. Since Addy had been walking slow, the collision had been somewhat minimal but more than enough to take her out of her thoughts. The red hair reminded her of her best friend, but this was certainly not her. ”Sorry, Lily.” She muttered, picking up the single page she had dropped. But it had slowly floated down a little bit away. But then she paused, the girl was a repeat the seventh year, and Addy’s best friend had sort of eyes on her older brother—but she had a thought. ”I thought you had class around this time?” She had spoken mostly on the immediate thought in her mind and much as she would have one of her friends.

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[lily luna potter]

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Almost one month exactly. That was how long it had taken Lily to skip on her first class for the fall term. Normally she would be in double digits by now. But it wasn’t on purpose, and was definitely for good reason that she wasn’t sitting in class right now. Tonight was a full moon, and she was beyond miserable. Typically she was given the entire day off, but had felt good enough in the morning to go her first class. She thought she was fine, at least until she was woken up by Professor Zabini a couple minutes after the class had let out and his first year class was entering. Surprisingly he didn’t belittle her like he was known to do, and let her go on her way without saying much. She assumed it was because he didn’t want the younger students seeing him really yell, but it wouldn’t have surprised her if he knew that it was a full moon tonight as well.

Instead of going to her afternoon classes, she had wandered up to the Hospital Wing and gotten her last dose of Wolfsbane for the month, begrudgingly drank it, and then immediately felt like she was going to be ill if she didn’t get fresh air. Despite the protests from the nurse for her to lay down, Lily decided the best thing for her would be to go outside. She was going to be locked up all night in the dungeons, so it was best to be outside as much as she could before then.

Making it down to one of the courtyards, just feeling the cool breeze of the October air on her face lifted some of the nausea that had been plaguing her all day. Unfortunately, Lily knew that this feeling wouldn’t last for long. The wolf always had a way of coming back to bite her the second she started to feel a little better. That was the only downside to it, aside from having to lock herself up once a month. Adrian had omitted that part of it, though she was lucky to have gotten a few months of running free before the school thought otherwise.

Not really paying attention to where she was walking, she turned around a corner of the courtyard wall quickly and bumped into someone. Normally she probably would have been able to come up with something witty to say, especially because it looked like she had bumped into Addilyn Slater. She always enjoyed talking shop about Quidditch with Addy, but today she could barely put two and two together in her head about what to say to the other girl. Addy was asking her about class, and Lily stared at her blankly, only breaking her gaze to watch the piece of paper drifting away from them. “It’s uhh…the full moon tonight. I’ve just been to the Hospital Wing and needed some fresh air,” she said a lot slower than she normally spoke, enough that even she noticed it. The full moon was definitely going to be a pain later on if she was already feeling like this.

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[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

They were very different personalities, though Lily was a bit easier to chat with than Albus had been in the Slytherin Common Room. And she supposed it would help to befriend a Potter, at least in her father’s mind. But they’d found a common topic in Quidditch to talk about, and Lily had also been a Chaser for Gryffindor alongside her other older brother. She seemed a bit unfocused after Addy had collided with her, and they both were getting their bearings. It was a bit unusual for Addy to feel and be so distracted. And then Lily explained it was the full moon, and Addy nodded. ”Right. Of course.” It was the one day a month a handful of students disappeared until the next day, but one would be reminded of the approaching part of the month. From what Addy could gather, the approaching full moon affected each werewolf in a slightly different way.

Looking at Lily, she looked a bit ill but seemed otherwise in her usual spirit. ”I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Addy apologized. Again she wasn’t usually unfocused and would have avoided a collision if she could have. Once Addy retrieved her paper and placed it neatly on top of the rest of her items, quickly brushing off any dust or small pieces of broken leaves that had stuck to the parchment, she looked at Lily again. ”Is it always like this?” Every month, she meant. She couldn’t imagine the distraction of such a physical ailment with her current workload. Addy and Lily had a good handful of classes together, though she didn’t bring up that it was a repeat year for her friend. ”Um—how are you doing on the Charms assignment?” Since she was out here, she might as well make conversation.

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[lily luna potter]

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The collision was all Lily’s fault, if they were going to really get into the fine details of it. She liked cutting corners, and even in her poorly state, had continued to do so. Had it been in a different location, maybe Addy could take the blame for it, but the Potter girl was already shaking her head at her. “It’s fine…I was staring at my feet, otherwise I would have seen you coming,” she muttered. Even with her physical condition being worse than it normally was, her senses were still sharper than they were throughout the rest of the month. That was the wolf already starting to make an appearance. She usually liked to equate that to the reason everything sucked the day of the full moon. The bombardment of everything plus the sensory overload really didn’t work together as well as most would think. And that only happened in the worst months. Normally it wasn’t this bad.

“Depends. It’s like having the flu…and how that’s always different.” The sudden talking was really starting to get to her, and she suddenly felt exhausted. There was a ledge small enough to fit herself into right next to where they were both standing, and Lily pulled herself up into it. “Sorry…I need to sit for a bit.” She was starting to think that it would have been better to have just stayed in the hospital wing until evening, and pop a window open up there. It would have gotten her the same air, and a lot less physical exertion.

She tilted her head back onto the cool stone she was leaning up against, and closed her eyes, listening to Addy ask about how the Charms assignment was going. Which one was that again? “It’s not as difficult as it was the first time I had to do it,” she stated, eyes still sealed shut. It didn’t hurt as much when she was like this. “But I also haven’t finished it yet. Probably going to ask Professor Yaxley for an extension.” Tomorrow was going to be just as awful as it was today, and she had already lost a few meaningful days’ worth of classwork because of it. Getting behind any further than this and it was only going to look like a repeat of the previous year.

addilyn elara slater ● 386 ● Song by Artist

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[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

Collisions around corners were everyday occurrences in everyday life. Still, since the school had started taking in the Americans that weren’t shipped off to the other magical schools, it happened more often than Addy cared to admit. As a result, classes were fuller as well as the Common Rooms and dormitories. The only annoyance in Addy’s life was that seating in the library could be hard to find, especially if multiple Professors had issued heavy assignments. She listened curiously as Lily described her experience. Addy didn’t know any werewolves aside from Lily, but they were hardly as close as she was with Brigh. Though now that she thought about it, Claire had mentioned a friend and colleague of hers, Max’s older brother, and the word was all the Greybacks were werewolves, but it didn’t seem that Max herself was one despite her name. And it seemed Max was the last of them that would attend Hogwarts for the time being.

It was strange to see someone typically so full of energy, so tired. But, it seemed to be a common Gryffindor trait. At least that’s what she thought of considering Brigh and how she was. ”That sounds awful.” Addy admitted. It was hard enough when one woke up with a cold or the flu and suffered until one could crawl to the hospital wing for a pepper-up potion. Lily looked tired, and it was apparent by her body language as she sat down. The Hospital Wing wasn’t far, but Addy also didn’t want to leave her here. Merlin forbid she faint, and the last person to see her was Addy. The blunt way Lily spoke about school and her assignments regarding repeating the year never ceased to catch Addy off guard. She always figured her parents would disown her if she walked that path.

”I don’t see why that wouldn’t be allowed, all things considered.” It was likely conditional on the Professor or the student, for example. Addy couldn’t picture Professor Zabini ever giving anyone an extension barring extenuating circumstances. The assignment wasn’t difficult, at least for Addy. A summary on Concealing Charms that was building upon the introduction to them the previous year. She paused a second when an idea entered her mind, she supposed it it was something she could tell her parents—she had helped Lily Potter with her homework. ”Did you need help going over it?” She offered tentatively. Surprisingly Brigh and Cheese had both finished their assignments ahead of time which left her with some free time.

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[lily luna potter]

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Awful was one way to put it. The fact that it was hit or miss every month, on whether or not she would feel like this, was absolutely ridiculous. Adrian had never mentioned that this was a possibility, though even if he had she probably would have ignored it completely at the time. Aside from that and having to drink the Wolfsbane, everything else that came along with the wolf was seemingly positive so far. She wasn’t ignorant of the societal status that came with lycanthropy but she knew that was changing. If anything, having her publically out there as one would ease people’s tensions and perceived notions about what werewolves were about. Being a werewolf hadn’t stopped Rhys or any of the other Greybacks she knew from getting jobs and succeeding in life and they were admittedly given the worst hand of all because of who their father was. The full moon still sucked though.

She took a couple deep breaths to try and get the spinning nauseous feeling to go away, and it helped that there was a chilly breeze running through the courtyard. That was the fresh air that she desperately wanted up in the hospital wing a few minutes ago. It was too bad that she had to feel like crap to get it.

Listening to Addy talk about the Charms assignment was the perfect way to be distracted from how she felt. A year ago she would have brushed off the conversation entirely, mostly because she didn’t care about what one could or could not do with Concealment Charms. She was almost positive that she had sort of gotten the general gist of them during her previous essay on them, though there was so much going on at the time that she couldn’t really remember if that was the case. It definitely didn’t seem like it was new to her so that had to have meant that she paid enough attention in class during her first go at it. “Maybe if you’re fine with reading it to see if it makes sense?” she asked with another long exhale. “It would probably be Wednesday or Thursday. I think I have my old copy so I’ll probably just improve on it.” Which meant adding a couple extra sentences if it was fine to begin with. All she had to do was pass her classes. That wasn’t nearly as hard as she had made it seem last year.

addilyn elara slater ● 410 ● The Greatest Show on Earth by Nightwish

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[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

Addy was aware that her siblings had come across werewolves in their own lives. Claire had mentioned a Greyback when she’d asked if she personally knew any Cursebreakers—for Brigh to speak to about the career. Incidentally, their sister was in their year. Her parents didn’t think very highly of them—despite what their achievements might have been and despite the greater social acceptance. Personally, it didn’t bother Addy and from how Lily appeared in front of her—pale and tired, sick. It didn’t look like a grand time. In this case, Addy wondered if Lily being a Potter would overshadow the fact that she was a werewolf. After all, she was Harry Potter’s youngest child, and such connections would be considered a great success. Addy didn’t have the same bond with James as Brigh did, and she wasn’t Albus’ biggest fan. Lily she’d never had a problem with. Maybe they could be friends.

Lily accepted her offer to help with her assignment, and it wasn’t any trouble. Charms was a strong subject for Addy (among others). ”Yes, that’s fine.” Addy agreed. But then she quickly suppressed the urge to give Lily a look she might have given Cheese or Brigh. ”You’re lucky Professor Yaxley wasn’t teaching last year.” He was one of the influx of new staff members they had hired over the past two years. Though some that had been teaching since she was a first or second year almost felt as though they’d been at Hogwarts forever.

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[lily luna potter]

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She had never thought about whether or not it was the professor that had an influence on her learning. There were definitely some that commanded all of her attention, like Professor Zabini because he sort of scared her with his booming voice and no-nonsense attitude. When it came to Yaxley, she wasn’t sure if it was because he was better at teaching the subject or because she knew that she needed to pay attention this time around or else she would be screwed. She didn’t want to repeat seventh year for a third time, and she was positive that McGonagall wouldn’t let her either. “You think I should rewrite it all?” Lily had no idea if her first go at it was even good in the first place, so starting from scratch wasn’t the worst thing she could do either. Thinking about how well she might feel after the full moon made it hard to want to do it all over though. And her head spun again. Clearly she had sort of understood the subject the first time, as the marks weren’t horrid on the paper, but there had been bits and pieces that were marked as not making sense, and the likes.

“How’s practice going for Quidditch so far?” Lily asked with her eyes closed again. She wanted to get away from talking too much about classwork. It only served one purpose: to make her head hurt more when it was already sore and throbbing. While she would have liked to have played again, there was no place nor purpose for her on the house team anymore. Dropping out the previous year basically got her removed for good, since Gryffindor always had quality players to fill out the ranks when needed. So much for her dreams of going professional. They would have been harmed by this repeat anyways, which would have sucked even more.

addilyn elara slater ● 315 ● Moving Fast by Lavender

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[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

Addy didn’t respond immediately. While she might have scoffed at the suggestion of reusing an assignment instead of starting from scratch if Brigh or her friends had suggested it, maybe it would work for Lily. ”Well I can read it first and give you my thoughts.” She paused. ”But, I think if you really want to know the material, you should start fresh…once you feel better.” She didn’t seem at all in a proper state to do anything but sleep. Obviously, Addy didn’t know what it was like to be a werewolf, but it looked much worse than just a cold that needed a pepper-up potion.

The topic switched to Quidditch, and Addy remembered when Lily was on the Gryffindor House team. At one point, her team had failed miserably against a Gryffindor team that had the talent of two Potters and others. Naturally, Addy had been less than thrilled at the result. In her mind, the name didn’t matter over ability. Unfortunately, her final year at Hogwarts had not started out as strong when it came to Quidditch as she could have liked. ”We have that match against Ravenclaw soon. We’re prepared.” Mostly. Addy noted that their Captain felt a bit disengaged lately, and it wasn’t even Halloween. But, if she was asking about herself—well, Addy felt she was flying the best she ever had.

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[lily luna potter]

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The reality of it all was that Addy was right; clearly she hadn’t learned the material well enough during the last go around, mostly because she had refused to attend classes and do work. The previous copy of the paper was dwindling and she knew she could add to it. As with most essays, she hit the bare minimum in terms of content and typically tried to overload the introduction and conclusion, making them meatier than the actual subject matter. That worked for some professors, especially those that knew she didn’t have it in her to do better, but for others it was almost an instantaneous low grade. Passing because she did the work and turned it in on time but by barely. And that never translated well over to the end of year exams, which were what the death knell for her last year. “You’re right,” Lily said, letting out a long exhale and defeated that she was going to have to start from the top again. At least she knew that she was sort of on the mark last time. Going through and revamping the paper was better than starting from nothing. Maybe that would work…

“That’s good.” Who was even on Ravenclaw’s team this year? She was sure that she knew them, but names weren’t coming to her right now with the headache that had started to creep up on her again. Obviously rooting for Slytherin was like actively going against herself, mostly because they were always the fiercest competitors and the rivalry that Gryffindor had with them. But in a year where it wouldn’t matter what her house did? She had no problem cheering on the best team. “If I hadn’t had to do all this again, I probably would have tried to play this year. Sort of missed it last year, and I think that contributed to this,” she explained, as if that really mattered to Addy at all. Lily had done a lot of thinking about why her seventh year had been so messed up and disjointed compared to the other six years. The only difference at school was that she hadn’t played Quidditch. She refused to believe that all the time spent practicing and game-planning for matches was what had kept her grades sort of intact, but it was looking like that may have been the reason all along. Either way, she knew what she had to do now. It just took an extra year is all.

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[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

Lily didn’t argue her point, though Addy hadn’t expected her to in her current state. She couldn’t imagine what the life of a werewolf was, but it seemed exhausting. Her reading had told her that while the general effects for all werewolves were about the same, the days before and after the full moon could vary from individual to individual. And then you had people like Fenrir Greyback who embraced their animilistic side, and Addy wondered what kind of magic was at play there. Maybe it was all just about intent, just as a lot of their spells didn’t work without the right intention behind it. But Lily’s intent, Addy could tell, was never a bad one. Just as most people she knew.

Addy listened as Lily mused about playing on the House Team. ”Well, as a competitor—I’m glad you didn’t.” She answered honestly. Slytherin had always had the challenge of beating a Gryffindor House team with two Potters playing in the past. While the Tri-wizard tournament had lost them a year of Quidditch, she had no doubt that Lily would have played well regardless. ”But, Gryffindor could have used the help this year.” And that was just observing these first few months of their term. Simon himself was a great Chaser, but being Captain meant worrying about the whole team rather than oneself. Though Addy tried not to think about how the Slytherin team was barely functioning under its current leadership.

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[lily luna potter]

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Had she actually been intimidating on the pitch? She’d herself described as a loose cannon, which she really couldn’t disagree with at all, but that certainly wasn’t helpful for the team if she was doing her own thing while the rest of the team did theirs. It was different with James leading her in those early years, keeping her under control and aware of what was going on. She would have benefitted being a seeker over her chosen position as chaser, and still wondered why it was that she opted to play catch with two other people when she could have played fetch instead. Going head to head with one other person was fairly easy and she had years of experience zooming around all of the other kids in Godric’s Hollow. The only person that ever took exception was Mickey McLaggen. He was a wet blanket despite it getting him a professional gig.

“I haven’t had the chance to go yet. Doing all this work correctly takes a lot more time than I thought it would,” she explained. Maybe screaming her lungs out for her house would actually do her some good. Not today, because she felt like dragon dung, but during the next match for sure. Challenge herself to get all of her work done ahead of time. That was extremely unlikely if she were to be completely honest about it, though a few hours off to watch a match would give her a nice break. And if Gryffindor was as bad as Addy was saying, she could always leave once it seemed like a blow-out was going to happen. There wasn’t any shame in showing the players that they didn’t have support when they were bad. She’d expect the same if she was still playing. “I’ll have to give them a pep talk I guess,” Lily stated tiredly. Just thinking about the energy she was lacking right now made her feel exhausted. “But I think I’ll go back to the Hospital Wing first and take a nap. Pop a window open up there…”

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[addilyn elara slater]

the early dawn moving right along

I couldn't buy an eyeful of sleep

October 6, 2025
lily luna potter

There was no surprise in seeing Potters and Weasleys on the House Quidditch Teams and no question concerning their talent. There was something about Lily’s ‘leap first, think later’ approach to the game that had made her an excellent Chaser and coupled with her brother James’ bravado as well—it had been an excellent team for a few years. And while Addy would sit in the stands and watch their tactics, mentally taking notes of maneuvers to try during Slytherin practice—she was far less amused when her team would lose against Gryffindor.

But balancing school work and Quidditch was the challenge. Addy felt pride in juggling so much and still had extra time for other things. Though her friends took advantage of that time to beg her for help on their Potions assignments. Lily, however, looked like she would fall asleep where she sat. Being a werewolf looked exhausting, aside from all the non-physical ailments they must have to deal with. Addy was not jealous of that. ”Right.” She glanced at her wristwatch. ”I’ve got to get to Potions, anyway. I’ll see you around, Lily.”

[ end addy ]

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[lily luna potter]

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“Enjoy,” she blinked at the Slytherin girl as she turned to leave. Potions right now would absolutely put her to sleep, just like Defense Against the Dark Arts had. There was a reason she was skipping all of her afternoon classes. And finally for a legitimate reason. If Zabini could understand her plight, she doubted any of the other professors would question her too much if they saw her sitting outside. She looked like hell, and everyone she’d bumped into today had said so themselves. The real trick was ungluing herself from the ledge she’d been sitting on for the past couple of minutes. The cold stone, while pleasant, wasn’t exactly comfortable anymore, and she could feel her butt starting to go numb from the horrible position she had put herself in. It had been enough of a break in the courtyard that she was sort of looking forward to curling up into a ball back up in the hospital wing. If she got warm again, opening the window like she’d just told Addy, was probably her best bet until everything passed.

There was a brief moment where her feet fit the ground as she slid off of the wall in which she thought they might buckle underneath her, but she stuck the landing and kept herself upright. That was more from her legs falling asleep while she sat than the effects of the full moon, though scary nonetheless. She hesitated as she went to go back into the castle, thinking that if she made it down onto the grounds, she could see her Uncle Charlie and crash in his office until dinner, as that would end up being an easier walk over having to climb back up to the hospital wing. While it would have lifted her spirits a bit, disrupting his class wouldn’t be cool either. The fact that she didn’t know his schedule or if he was even down there today was enough to get her legs moving back inside. To the hospital wing it was! Slowly.

[THE END]

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