Lily Evans closed the door into the compartment where the two boys were laughing of her and Severus. She turned to him.

"Great, now we'll have to find a new place to sit," she said, and walked with fast steps through the train while she looked around.

"Um… Lily…" Lily turned around, and Severus nodded towards a compartment. There was only one girl inside.

Lily opened the door and sat down beside the girl, and Severus sat on the opposite side of them, without asking. After all, this was a public train, and they were in the same right as this girl to sit there.

Lily stared at the girl for a short second. The girl had black hair that fell past her shoulders, a little dark skin and dark brown eyes, and she was wearing a white top, an open red jacket and blue jeans. She didn't exactly look like she wanted company. When they sat down, she focused even harder on the book she was reading. Lily recognized the title of the book, it was a muggle book. She had a feeling that the girl measured her with her eyes, looked at Severus for a second, then turned back to her book.

"Those boys, have you any idea who they are?" Lily asked Severus.

"One of them was of the Black family, one of the worst pureblood families. You should stay away from him."

Lily wondered if it was something she imagined, but it seemed like the girl beside her listened to what they said, even though she still looked down.

The three of them were silent for a while, before Severus broke the silence. "As I said earlier, we're on the way, Lily, we are on our way, and no matter what those boys said, Slytherin is the best house." Severus stopped; he didn't know what to say to cheer her up again.

"Tell me about the different houses," said Lily, and smiled to him. Severus was encouraged, and began to tell her everything he knew about the four different houses. Lily listened carefully to what he said.

"I'm glad there's a house who takes in everybody who falls outside, then I'm guaranteed to be placed somewhere. What did you say it's called, again?" She looked at Severus with her green eyes.

"Hufflepuff, but Lily, you won't be placed there, I can tell."

Lily smiled again. It was clear she had been worried that she wouldn't be placed anywhere.

"I wonder where Tuny -" she stopped. They hadn't talked about what had happened at the station since they was in the compartment with the annoying boys.

"Don't think of her. It's just how some mu –, well, it's just how some people reacts on magic people. At least you're not half-blood, that's worse." The girl locked up for a second, but then, before Lily more than barely got to see the angry look in her eyes, she looked down again. But she kept holding the book really hard, and her eyes didn't move.

Lily felt ashamed, she knew that Severus' parents was fighting all the time, and she wanted to apologize, but she didn't think that Severus would like it if the girl beside her got to know about his family situation, so she stayed silent.

There was a long silence. Lily wondered if the girl beside her knew where she wanted to be placed, but if she was muggleborn, she probably didn't know any more than what Severus had just told Lily.

"Um… What house do you hope you'll come to?" Lily had fighted herself the past five minutes if she should ask the girl where she wanted to be placed at Hogwarts or not, and now she had asked. The girl looked up with an expression that clearly shoved that she wondered if it was her they were talking to. When no one answered, she answered nothing more than:

"Gryffindor," turned a page in the book and looked down.

Lily was surprised by the short answer, but a moment later she accepted it, and thought:

"Ok, she obviously doesn't want to talk to us," but just when she had made this conclusion then the girl said something.

"How 'bout you?"

Lily didn't understand anything of how this girl was acting, and wanted to give an impatient answer, but at the same time she was glad the girl had said something of her own free will.

"Well, you heard what Sev said…" she said after a short pause and tried to make it sound relaxed. The girl still didn't take her eyes of the book.

"What?"

"Well… he said – he said that Slytherin was best," said Lily, though her voice didn't sound so sure. "So, you wanna go to Slytherin, then?"

"Um…" Lily had never before been this unsure what to say (well, maybe except from with Tuny, then). And what could she answer? Of course she wanted to support Severus, who at this point looked nervous over at her, but she wasn't sure if that was really the right place for her to go.

"I'm not sure, I'll rather wait and see where the Hat will place me," she said in a firm tone (even though she had been wondering what she should answer, and her brain had had to work very fast).

"Well, in Slytherin you won't only be, but also be treated as, a mudblood." She shaked her head a little and turned to the book again, but Severus, on the other hand, looked angry, like if the girl had just said something horrible.

"Don't you dare to use that word on Lily!"

"Why not? What exactly does it mean, Sev?" Lily asked, wondering over his sudden anger. Severus suddenly looked nervous and he didn't answer, but looked down, he too.

"Mudblood means dirty blood, that you don't have magic blood in you." It was the girl who had answered, even though she still looked down into the book. Lily looked down, she too.

"I – I didn't think is made any difference, I – " her voice was thinner. This was what she had worried about, that it would be different to be muggleborn – or mudblood, as this girl called her. Severus looked up and looked at Lily.

"It doesn't make any difference, I mean, some – no – to be – it makes no difference!" he sounded kind of desperate as he finished.

The girl looked at Lily.

"The Slytherins care." Lily looked from the girl to Severus.

"You didn't mention this, Sev, is it true, does Slytherin care about pure blood?"

"Yes – I mean no – I mean – some does – oh, can't we just forget 'bout that girl, what does she know, anyway?!" But Lily sent him a bitter look.

"Obviously more than you! I thought Slytherin was the best house, after what you told me. But it seems like you forgot some details, didn't you?" Lily didn't know where all this anger came from, but now it was there.

The girl said silent; "I could be a Slytherin." Now it was Severus' turn to react weird. He laughed.

"You? Nope, I don't think so. Slytherin doesn't take in this kind of scum."

"Of course not, but if it wasn't because of my blood, I could get there."

"What do you mean?" said Severus cold.

"Seeing how you're talking to Lily I doubt you are a muggleb –" he stopped himself. "What do you mean?" he tried again. "Slytherin's too good to chose students after how their blood is."

"Well, Gryffindor and Slytherin are the two houses that are the most similar to each other," she answered back.

"I see…" said Severus. "It you think that Gryffindor and Slytherin are similar to each other I doubt that you have a lot to say about this. I know this is getting tiring, but come – let's find another compartment. She's even worse than those boys." Lily looked at the girl one more second, then she said coldly:

"Yeah, it's not like anything makes me wanna stay."