Lily leaned on her palm as she watched from afar in the Great Hall. Normally, she'd be already sat with her family at the Gryffindor table, however, her attention was drawn to Dahlia who was currently surrounded by a few of her admirers.

Whenever that happened, Lily would naturally walk over and just take her friend away from the situation—however, as of late, she had only started to realize that the smile Dahlia wore was forced.

It had only started the moment Dahlia stopped sleeping with anyone. She hated to admit that at first, she thought her friend was deprived of her normal night activities, but it was quickly changed when she put the pieces together.

For Lily, being part of the group that was the enemy of Dahlia's admirers, she was the most disliked considering her closeness with her friend. So, whenever a new person joins the group of hated—Lily knew immediately.

She was confused when her cousin, Hugo, was now included, but it did not take a day for her to ponder about it because Dahlia immediately told her.

"I promise Lil, I am not going to make him one of them. I truly want to help him, I swear you have my word"

Lily knew of the one rule Dahlia had made and it was to never go after anyone that she was related to. Anyone that was part of her family or even a very close family friend.

It was the number one rule that her friend went by.

"What are you doing standing here, Lily?" The Potter turned her head to Hugo who had his arms crossed.

The red-haired Potter grinned and turned herself to face her cousin," Hey, so remember that favour you owe me? From summer when I covered you from Grandmother?"

Hugo dropped his head and sighed," What do you want?"

"Well, it's an experiment really—" Lily mumbled incoherently and then forced a coughed," I might be coming up with a bug and I want to avoid passing it to anyone"

"And you have no worries of passing it to me?" Hugo stepped away from her as she rolled her eyes.

"No," she said straightly and continued speaking " Look, can you just save Dahlia from those people for me? I don't have the strength today" Lily pointed discretely to the tables and Hugo's eyes followed the direction.

It hardly took time for him to find Dahlia, making him question why that was even so. Before she included him in his daily life, he always overlooked the female, however, as of late, she was someone he'd easily pick out in a crowd.

It nagged his mind a lot but he never took the time to question it, until now.

"They will eat me alive" Hugo paled and Lily snickered

"They won't, they'll probably bump you up the list of enemies, but they don't actually do anything because they know Dahlia will not like it"

"If that is the reason, then you do not need strength to save her"

Lily grumbled at him and crossed her arms," You know, I have a number of things I had listed for the favour you owed me, one of them was skipping class with me to pull pran—

Hugo did not allow Lily to finish her sentence and walked off the direction Dahlia was. He paled at the thought of what was on the list of favours, knowing how Lily was influenced immensely by James and Fred.

He put this favour as a measly choice over the others without even hearing what the other possibilities were.

"Dahlia" Hugo called out to her, making the said female turn up. Her lips turned up in a smile making the male almost mirror the gesture back.

Lily who was trailing behind slowly, stopped in place seeing the smile on her friends face.

"Well, would you look at that" Lily whispered