The Indie Kid

Disclaimer: Suck my tits. Not so graphically. Sorry. Yeesh.

Author's Note: Don't ask what this is. I also have an idea similar to this for Dominique, and I'll write it eventually but I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things right now. Here's my take on seventeen year old Lily Luna Potter. A little warning, it's a bit angsty and dark.

It was not easy living in a shadow, let alone three shadows. But that was where Lily Potter grew up and was still living now, even in her fifth final year at Hogwarts. Lily lived in the shadows of her brother Albus, her cousin Rose, and their dear friend Scorpius – their generation's Golden Trio. It was fascinatingly absurd to watch people pine and grovel at the trio's feet because the similarities between them and the original trio, Lily's father and Rose's parents, were uncanny and made even kids Lily's age feel nostalgic of that time of celebration when Lord Voldemort was defeated. Sure, it sounded like Lily was jealous, but she wasn't. At least not now, after five years of shadow-lurking. At first she had been painfully jealous, especially of Rose, because she had a crush on Scorpius Malfoy up until her fourth year, and it was common knowledge that the love/hate relationship between Lily's precious cousin and Malfoy was really a cover to what was happening behind closed doors. It took Lily four years to realize that she could never have Malfoy for herself, but it only took about seventy-two hours for her to actually move on. Yes, Lily Luna Potter was fine now.

She was the indie kid. Not indie, so to speak, with the pretentious taste in music and movies and the pseudo-Bohemian appearance, but independent. She was her own girl now. And she was quickly learning that if she could not join the Golden Trio, as she had so longed for for the past half of a decade, she would just have to beat them.

The transformation was simple, really. Lily was a pretty girl to start with. The red hair was, in her opinion, insufferable and hiddeous, and in all honesty, she would have done better with a shade of black like her father's with her pale complexion. Her brown eyes weren't anything stunning or mesmerizing, but she could make-believe that "sexy" glint that was entrancing and seductive. Her clothes weren't special, but the Hogwarts uniform would do. What guy didn't appreciate short skirts and Oxford button downs?

At first the change was subtle. No one noticed. Her marks didn't suffer. She was present at the Gryffindor table for meals. She still watched Hugo at Quidditch practice every other evening. No one had any reason to suspect the fifteen year old had spent two hours prior to supper snogging the seventeen year old Slytherin Quidditch captain outside under one of the large trees next to the Lake. Did they have reason to? Of course not.

By Christmastime, though, it was a secret bit of knowledge passed among the older boys at Hogwarts that Lily Potter was quite the fireball and provided a good snog, and still no one (no one being her cousin Hugo or the Trio) suspected any sort of change in their pure Lily.

Eventually the time came, and she was no longer "pure". She was impure, morally doused in mud, and steeped in sin. Her first time was with Jared Bletchley, the Slytherin Quidditch captain, on a blanket in the Astronomy Tower during the start of January's first whiteout. She was shivering the entire time, but there was weird tingly sensation creeping up and down her spine the entire time. Lily could feel passion, or perhaps it was just plain body heat, radiating off Bletchley's bare chest and stomach, and when he finally came, he actually muttered the words "I love you" into the skin right below her ear.

Bletchley tried to make their affair a routine thing, and for the most part Lily let him, but only because he had been her first and because he was incredibly good-looking. After her first time with Bletchley, there had been a record of three times with Brutus Flint, but that had been hitting a little too close to home since Flint was on buddy-buddy terms with Scorpius Malfoy. Next she became very acquainted with the Zabini boy, but they were drunk and he had a steady girlfriend, and Lily could barely remember his name the next morning. There was also Adrian Pucey Jr., Preston Runcorn, and Anthony Harper. By April she had been with the entire Slytherin Quidditch team, and the thought once occurred to her to keep a list of successes and future conquests, but she scoffed aloud at this petty suggestion to herself. She was clearly getting too good at her work and becoming egotistical about it.

Byron. That was the Zabini boy's first name.

Finally came the moment that Lily hadn't been nearly prepared for. Hugo had heard rumors about his cousin, and near the end of their fifth year, he finally confronted her about them.

"Lily, stop it. I don't know why you're doing this, but if your mum or Grandmum find out about it, you'll get an earful and then some." The color in poor Hugo's face matched his hair.

Flippantly Lily brushed a strand of her hair from her face and studied her cuticles. "I'm not sure I know what you're blubbering on about, Hughey." She grabbed the strand of hair once more and twirled it around one finger. Many times she weighed the decision of charming it black. She desperately wished to look more like her father and her brothers. She smiled at Hugo.

Hugo angrily sat down on the bench next to her. "You know perfectly well. I've heard…things. They might be impressive to those buffoons over at that table," he pointed over at the Slytherin table, "but to normal, respectable people, Lily, it's just…SLEAZY."

Lily narrowed her eyes and stared at her cousin. "Are you calling me a sleaze? Tell me, do you think I'm easy?" She paused and pondered this. The thought of "normal, respectable people" talking about her. The image of her roommates sitting awake all those nights she spent in Bletchley's bed gossiping about her. The thought warmed her heart. "Oh, Hugo. What's it matter? People will talk. You shouldn't let it bother you. It doesn't bother me."

Hugo only shook his head silently. "Fine, Lil. If you say so."

On April 29th, two days after her sixteenth birthday, Jared Bletchley accompanied Lily on the Hogsmeade trip. He held her hand and paid for all her expenses, and then, just as they were about to be herded back to the castle, he pulled out a blue, rectangular box and held it out to her. Lily opened it with a smile the size of the entire isle of Britain and discovered a silver necklace with a diamond as wide as her big toe.

"You'll be my girlfriend, won't you, Lily? Just mine, I mean." The expression on Jared Bletchley's face was priceless. It was sweet, sad-puppy-eyed, and longing, and yet Lily wanted to laugh at him just the same.

Lily handled the necklace and lifted it to her neckline. It only took her a couple of seconds to get it to latch, and already she could tell it looked great on her. The diamond felt like a good ten or fifteen carats, so she knew it looked great on her.

She looked back up at Jared. A small "aw" emitted her lips. "Sure, Bletch."

Bletchley smirked. "Wait, wait, did I just get my own 'aw'?" He roughly threw his arm around her shoulders and continued to mock her the entire way back to the castle.

About a month later, give a few days into the month of June, Lily was sitting at the Gryffindor table enjoying her breakfast when Preston Runcorn came jogging up behind her and leaned over her shoulder. Quickly he muttered, "I accidentally let it slip to Bletchley about last night. I didn't know you two were fucking monogamous, Potter. Best of luck, he's livid." With that, Runcorn took off running again.

Across the table from her, Hugo eyed Lily with both suspicion and concern. A tiny grin crept onto Lily's lips. "I think I might have done something wrong, Hughey." She raised her eyebrows a couple of times at her cousin. "Oops."

Suddenly a strong hand grabbed her neck tightly and pushed her head forward, then yanked it back. Lily gasped and tried to pry Bletchley's hand from her neck. She flinched. That was going to leave a bruise. She could feel his hot breath on her neck as he leaned over and hissed one word in her ear.

"Slut."

As quickly as he had appeared, he was gone, leaving Lily alone to rub her neck. Finally, she thought, some attention.