Authors Note: It's not my first fanfiction, but my first one intended to have chapters.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Lily Evans had been through a lot… end of year exams, prejudice about her bloodline, met her boyfriend's parents event. But never had she experienced something so… nerve wracking. Today Lily Evans would be interviewing for her first real job as a witch out of Hogwarts on her own.
Her whole future was riding on this. If she blew this one her whole life's work would be for naught.
All those years she'd spent writing short stories, hours spent studying, and all ht time it took to start Hogwarts' first newspaper would be worth absolutely nothing if she didn't nail the interview with the Daily Prophet.
Mentally going over her checklist (respectable outfit: check. Wand: check. Portfolio of stories: check. Winning smile: check.) Lily apparated out of her flat's bedroom, and found herself in front of a formidable looking building with tons of shiny windows that was placed a little ways away from Diagon Alley.
Inside behind the receptionist's desk was the most bored looking woman she'd ever seen. She was thin and held a slight resemblance to Lily's sister Petunia, Lily thought, though she had a more pleasant look to her than Petunia ever could. The witch had to have been a couple years older than Lily herself, and was currently charming her watch to flash a different color every second.
Lily approached the woman behind the desk. "Hello, I'm Lily Evans, and I have an interview today with-"
The woman (whose nametag read 'Brigitte') cut her off, "with Mr. Burroughs at 1:30. Third floor. Room 316. It'll be on your right."
Apparently she was reading this off a sheet she'd conjured up. Lily stood there awkwardly for a second before the woman shot her a bright smile, which Lily interpreted as, "go away."
Up the lift and past a few bland doors, Lily found herself seated across from a slightly pudgy man who looked to be in his forties.
"Lily Evans I presume," he said in a slightly hoarse voice. He spoke loudly, and Lily could only guess that it was hoarse from speaking in such a loud tone all day. "What a pleasure to finally meet you."
"Hello Mr. Burroughs," greeted Lily as she reached out to shake his hand.
"Getting down to business, we have looked over your grades, (exemplary they were, might I add) and we have read over the stories you submitted and we are currently ready to hire you onto our staff. You are quite talented."
He paused and watched her eyes grow to green saucers and chuckled before, "but for the sake of formality, an actual interview must be conducted. So, tell me, how up to date are you with the current state of the magical world's affairs?"
"I've gotten the Prophet almost everyday since I entered the Wizarding World so…" Lily would have continued.
"My dear girl," here Lily was reminded of her old Potions Professor, "you cannot mean you've been reading my paper since birth!" Mr. Burroughs said incredulously, a smile stretched across his face.
"No, actually, I'm Muggleborn."
His stubbly face fell for a moment, before rising again. "Well it just goes to show, we're all so alike, that it's silly to assume bloodlines off of first impressions."
Nice save, Lily thought.
Mr. Burroughs asked her a series of other questions about her work ethic, and the newspaper she started at Hogwarts.
At the end he told Lily that she'd most definitely gotten the job, and that she'd receive a formal acceptance letter by owl post the next day.
Elated, Lily practically floated out of the building.
For the first time since moving into the flat she now lived in, Lily felt like she deserved to live in it. Before, she'd had no income, or any money to speak of, and her flat mate Dorcas Meadowes was using money from her parents, (her rich pureblood parents) to pay for their rent.
At the sound of the crack in the sitting room, Dorcas looked up at Lily expectantly from her pile of forms she was filling out.
"Well?"
"I got it!" Lily said excitedly, and hurried off to her room to change into more comfortable clothing and write a letter to her boyfriend James Potter about her most recent success.
"I don't know why you looked so surprised, you knew you were going to get the job anyway," Dorcas yelled from the other room.
"Oh, shut up Miss Famous Quidditch Star," Lily said as she reentered the room in a pair of Muggle jeans with a preloaded quill and a piece of parchment.
For a few moments the only sound that could be heard was the scratch of quills against parchment until Lily got up to send her letter.
As she fiddled with the letter and her owl's leg, she asked Dorcas what she was filling out.
"It's a… well I'm not quite sure what it is exactly, but it asks all these personal questions. When I'm done filling this out in about ten years, I turn it into my coach and voila I'm officially on the team."
Dorcas, a thin wiry youth had been playing Quidditch with her male cousins ever since she could hold a broom straight. She'd been on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a chaser (along with her cousin James) since she was a third year. Just recently she'd been recruited to play Quidditch for England's National team. This was very serious, as only a handful of women had ever played Quidditch for England.
"What does it ask you?"
"Hair color, height, Quidditch experience, criminal past, mother's maiden name, you name it, they ask it," said Dorcas.
"Blood type?" Lily asked.
"That's on here."
"Shoe size?"
"Here."
Lily racked her mind for something obscure, "Owl's name?"
"Yes, although I don't know why they need to know about Charlie."
Charlie, Dorcas' owl, and Chester, Lily's owl, were twin owls, presents from their parents upon moving in.
Chester, finally with a letter attached to his leg flew out of Lily's outstretched arms with a quick speed towards the window, when a loud sound was heard, and Chester flew into a sharp dive, towards the kitchen.
Fearing that Chester had hurt himself on the window, Lily rushed into the kitchen with her wand out prepared to heal him.
To Lily's surprise, Chester was not in a pitiful feathery heap on the kitchen floor, but was instead sitting on the counter, being stroked by some man. Reacting quickly to the man in her kitchen Lily yelled, "Petrificus Totalus," at the strange man, and he quickly keeled over, stiff as a board.
Dorcas heard Lily cast the spell and ran into the kitchen, wand out, and long blonde hair streaming out behind her.
After a couple of seconds both girls realized who the intruder was. Dorcas stalked back out of the kitchen to finish her forms all the while muttering, "can't even recognize your own bloody boyfriend."
Inside the kitchen, Lily knelt down by the frozen James. The only thing about him that was moving were his eyes, and she could tell that he was laughing, as she unfroze him.
She helped him up and pulled him into a hug
"I'm glad you've got such good reflexes Lil. Maybe you should be going off to Auror Training instead of me."
Lily laughed again before realizing what he'd said.
"You got in? That's wonderful!"
"Yeah I thought so too, I was going to take you out to a late lunch to celebrate but since that greeting I don't think I'll be going anywhere with you for a while," James said with a smirk.
A sheepish look crossed her face as she pulled him into a quick kiss.
"I was thinking we could go to the Golden Wand? I know you love it there."
"Sure just let me go change."
"You don't need to change, you look beautiful now."
"Thank you, but really James, I need to ch-"
Lily didn't get to finish her word, because James had grabbed her wrist and performed side-along apparition.
When Lily got her bearings, she made to smack James in the stomach for doing that to her (yet again) but he grabbed her hand and kissed it, before leading her into the restaurant.
They ordered, and James said, "So I'm assuming you got the job because there's no doubt in my mind that says you didn't get the job."
Lily smiled and nodded, "so, since you know you got in, Sirius and Alice both know right?"
"They're in."
"Good. It seems like everyone's planning out his or her lives this summer. Dorcas has Quidditch, I have the paper, Remus has the bookstore, and Peter has that spot with the Broom making people. Everything seems to be folding out nicely."
James grinned, but it wasn't his usual smile. Lily could tell something was wrong.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing, it's just," here he took her hand and gave her the 'don't get mad' face, "I really don't think you should be working at the prophet."
"Why not?" Lily pulled her hand back and crossed her arms.
"Oh, don't be that way, just hear me out."
"Be like what?" Lily scoffed.
"Defensive."
Lily was about to shoot our and I'm not being defensive,' when James sent her body language.
"Fine."
"Look, The Prophet is a good institution, and all, but they're a bunch liars. They never tell anything straightforward. If you read close enough, it's as if they propagandize for Voldemort and his minions. Surely as a witch with morals, a muggleborn witch no less, you can't subject yourself to working there.
She let his words sink in for a moment before, "I've read that paper since I was eleven, and I've never read anything that supported that pureblood mania. James, I've wanted to be a staff writer for them my whole magical life, and now that I have the chance to, you're shooting it down? Thanks for being so supportive."
For a moment Lily considered storming out, but enough eyes were straying to their table due to their little argument, and she didn't want to cause too much of a scene.
"Let me say this before you walk out, like you so obviously want to."
Damn. He knew her too well.
"The Ministry leans heavily on TheProphet, so even if you wanted to, you wouldn't be able to say much about the war besides, 'The Ministry has it under control,' which they don't, and you know it. Plus you'd start off at rock bottom, wasting all of your talents, when you could be excelling at something else."
Stubbornly she said, "Well I could change all that at The Prophet."
James lifted an eyebrow at her that said hardly.
"Look, lets just forget it if for a while and enjoy our food and company," James bargained.
"Sure," and for a couple of hours, all was forgotten. Mostly.
It wasn't until later when Lily was in bed, that she remembered how James had emphasized that she was Muggleborn, and Mr. Burroughs reaction to her bloodline.
She debated in her mind for a while before coming upon a conclusion.
Screw it. I've spent my whole life preparing for something like this and I'm not going to throw it all away.
Author's Note: Tell me what you think.