Summary: Lily Evans, Slytherin Head Girl/Know-it-all and James Potter, Gryffindor Head Boy/Quidditch Star. Not exactly a destined pair. This is how I believe the two of them were unwittingly mis-matched. Pairings: L/S and later L/J, N/l, OC/R, OC/S. Later R-rated maybe...
Title: Expect The Unexpected
Author: Ruth Wilson
Rating: PG-13
Timeperiod: MWPP
Genre: Romance/Drama/Angst
Authors Notes: Well. I've noticed that you readers like relatively long chapters, so I've given you one that is over 1,300 words, without this little foreward.
I have no relation to/contact with JK Rowling, nor do I secretly write Bloomsbury, Scholastic, or Warner Brothers about contract policies with the name Maria Harding (YOU DIDN'T HEAR THAT FROM ME!!!)...
On that note, I have one other issue before you can begin reading my masterpiece. If you can't stomach the thought of Lily/Severus and/or Slyth!Lily then your should hit the back button in the top left hand corner of your browser, NOW. You have been warned. Should you continue to read after this point, and review telling me how much you hate my story, I shall reply with, "Oh dear, watch me not care" *Words frankenwrote from JL Matthews Slyhtherin Rising. Good story. Go read after you finish mine.*
Gah: Just added a new story line. Eeh, this *will* be interesting. I hope I'll be able to handle what follows. Added a new Genre. Angst. Oh come on, don't tell me that you didn't expect that of me. I am the Goddess of Angst after all. So lets see what we can do to make this fic AU... as it now appears it will be. Watch out for flying OOC's.
Chapter One: Pixies and Paternal Figures
By: Ruth Wilson
"Cornish Pixies?!" Lily sputtered with mirth, reacting to part of a letter. 'Cissia had just begun explaining how her youngest sister - Tatiana - thought there were Cornish pixies underneath her four-poster. Devilishly nasty little buggers, Lily knew, since she had encountered them numerous times during her visits to her friend's Cornwall villa. She also had no doubt that, should there truly be pixies underneath Tatiana's bed, Narcissa had placed them there herself.
'Cissia went on to say that she was bored stupid - it was only the second day of summer! - And would Lily please, PLEASE, haul herself and her nether regions out to Cornwall for a visit. She promised that they would play pranks on Sev and Luci.
LUCI? She thought, grimacing. When did he get that nickname, I wonder... And as for visiting, well, it was out of the question. She always visited her friends the last month of summer. Not that she didn't want to go; She did, very, very badly, becasue sharing a room and roof with Petunia Evans for the summer made tutoring James Potter in potions look like fun. Which it wasn't, she should know. Besides that though, she'd only been home for a day and a half, and she couldn't just up and leave her parents. She hadn't seen them since Christmas!
She heard the front door open and it occurred to her that her parents just might be home, and if so, she should go down and help them with their bags. Today was Tuesday, after all, and Tuesday was grocery day. Stacking her letters - three from 'Cissia since yesterday at King's Cross! - she placed them in her desk, and started from her room. The upstairs hallway was empty, as she was the only one in this part of the house at the moment. She bounded down the stairs two at a time, and quietly, a talent which Narcissa could never understand, and around the corner into the sitting room. There sat, not her parents, but Petunia, sat bawling.
Her first reaction was a very Slytherin sneer for the girl who had made her life hell since she turned eleven, but then she thought the better of it. Whatever had happened had apparently hurt Petunia quite badly, and Lily had always been a sucker for people in trouble.
"What's the matter, Flower?" She asked softly from the doorway, slipping into Caring Mode so quickly that she didn't even realize that she'd used her older sister's childhood nickname. Petunia's shoulders and blonde hair continued to shake, a ready sign that she hadn't heard anything. A bit frightened now, Lily crossed the room and swept her sister into an unexpected hug, which Petunia - again unexpectedly - leaned into wearily. When Lily let go, the older girl looked up at her, bewildered.
"Wha- what was that for?" She asked through her tears, still shuddering, but less noticeably. Lily shrugged
"You just looked like you needed a hug, Flower." She replied, and watched as something in that statement triggered and automatic click in Petunia's head. Be it memories, the endearment, or maybe the closeness to her sister, something changed the fledgling smile into a disgusted sneer.
"Oh, Sure." She yelled shortly. "You were probably just waiting for the right moment to turn me into a toad!"
"But Petunia, I-"
"Don't talk to me you bloody witchling!" Her sister screeched, the veins in her neck now apparent to the naked eye. "I don't need your sympathy, or your pity, or your love! Why can't you just stay out of my bloody life?!" With that said, she scrambled away from Lily, and up the stairs, slamming the door to their room.
Lily stayed where she was, stunned. Petunia hadn't been home last night, or at all today, so she supposed that this was her hello, and probably her goodbye, seeing as how they hardly ever spoke. If this was to be a preview of her summer, she might as well move in with the Decaturs. Not that 'Cissia and her mother would notice, or care much. She was practically the girl's sister, maybe even more so than she was to the sobbing girl upstairs. And it would be fun to see Severus again. If he was even allowed to visit this summer, one could never tell with his father. Lily lived half her days in fear that his father would withdraw him from Hogwarts, because he was on one of his Death Eater Jaunts and wanted Sev to initiate. His father had become increasingly more intent on Severus joining the ranks of the Dark Lord, as was Lucius's father, in the past year. Lily sighed, because from the outskirts of Ireland, all she could do was pray for time.
A car door slammed outside, and Lily knew this time that her parents were home. She ran outside and, smiling, took one of the grocery bags from her mother's arms.
"Evening Mum, Da." She said, giving them both a kiss on the cheek.
"Evening, dear." Her father replied, patting her back - he would have patted her head, but as it was a foot over his weighted down arms, that was impossible.
"How was your day?" Her mum asked, taking another bag from their small car. Lily shrugged.
"Boring." She quipped quickly. "I think I might not be able to wait until the 31st to take my apparition test. I miss my friends terribly." She suspected that, once back at Hogwarts, she would be the only 7th year with her license, but she was used to that by now. She'd been the only student allowed to use a time turner in their fifth year, and the only registered Full Witch still in tutelage. It did get kind of old, doing independent study on days when her friends were preparing for exams or just doing their regular homework. Not that it mattered much to 'Cissia. She loved the help that Lily seemed to be able to give her on virtually every subject, and told Lily that there was NO way she would have passed into 6th year without her help at the OWLS.
"Apparition?" Her father's lost voice found it's way into her thoughts. "Isn't that the unlocking hex - spell... thing?" Lily sighed inwardly. Much as she loved her parents, she was the first to admit their slightly less than secure hold on wizarding culture.
"No, Da. Alohamora's the unlocking spell." She walked into the kitchen with them, explaining as she put away the groceries in her bag. "Apparition is a way we witches and wizards travel." She saw her mother finish, and quietly sneak from the kitchen with a wink at her youngest daughter, and laughed softly to herself. Her mother was no five star chef. The woman could burn food before it even touched the stove eye, or so Evans legend went. One of the few things she'd inherited from her mother was her complete lack of culinary talents. Not that any of them minded, after all, her dad was a wizard - at least in the kitchen. He'd been working in back of this sit-in pub downtown for years, almost since he got out of school. They served food to die for, on nights that her dad was working.
"So, what's for supper, Da?" She asked hopefully.
"Nothing more or less than fried eggs on toast, gingercakes," He responded, turning towards her. "And bacon." He added, seeing the horrified expression on Lily's face at the mention of gingercakes, which she did not share his taste for.
"Brunch." She decided instantaneously. "Thank you, Da. Could I maybe be excused from kitchen duty, tonight? You aren't making salad or anything after all." She leaned a little in his direction and batted her eyes at him.
"Oh, go on you little siren, you!" He waved her away with mock anger. "Of course you can, when you ask so nicely."
"Thank you, Da!" Lily exclaimed, wrapping her father up in a big hug. How could anyone not love a man who was half a foot shorter than they? Especially when they were as nice as her father was. And she still had her letters from 'Cissia to reply to... and three paintings that had been sitting since Christmas. They needed tending too. So she headed to her mother's studio, to work and chat. She hadn't gotten to paint since Christmas, and it was a shame to waste her talent.
No, she wasn't egotistical or narcissistic at all. Not her, never!
Much later, she sat in the pitch darkness of the new moon in her bedroom, trying to levitate one of her schoolbooks. She wasn't sure which, perhaps Transfiguration, or Defense, because she couldn't see through the darkness. Levitation - she had learned last year - was an unconscious, wandless talent of hers. One she used often, and without realizing, but - for some reason - couldn't trigger at will. But she couldn't seem to concentrate tonight. Perhaps it was the music that shook the glass panes in their windows, and her brain in her head.
"Petunia, that music is very loud." She hinted, calling out so as to be heard over it. Petunia - not surprisingly - rolled her eyes.
"Meet Lily Evans, Mistress of the Obvious." She grumped, clearly still upset. Well good, Lily thought. You've got me all cross now too.
"I wondered if maybe you could turn it down a bit?" Lily called back, determined not to rise to her sister's comments. Petunia glared at her, and turned the music down just enough as to let a body think about how loud it was. Lily didn't even bother to say thank you before putting her book under her bed, and turning to face her black window. Nothing could be done tonight anyway, with all that racket.
Sliding under her covers, Lily found herself wishing for Hogwarts, and the relative quiet of the dungeons. And Severus, who had yet to write. Of course, it was only the second day of summer vacation, but usually they were all up to their ears in owls by this time. Picking up her earlier train of thought, she hoped Severus's father hadn't done anything drastic. Not that she held out too much hope. After all, she and Narcissa were the only things that kept Lucius and Severus from swearing themselves to the Dark Lord. But how much longer could any of them keep that hold? How much longer before Lucius lost out to his father's heavy hand, and Severus to his infernal loyalty to tradition? She prayed that it would be a long, long while, but she knew that praying alone would never be enough.
When he fell to the floor, the pain stayed with him, but all of the optimism that he had held on to for so long was gone. There was no hope. Nothing could save him now, because he was in hell. His own little private hell. If he hadn't been so scared, he might have retaliated. He might have just gotten up and left, like he should have done years ago. If he weren't so bloody scared, the man standing over him now wouldn't make him want to piss his nice new silk pants. The problem was, he was scared. He was scared shitless, and there was nothing he could do about it at the moment but deal with what was going on. Make the best decision for the moment; otherwise there might not be a tomorrow to plan for. He'd learned that the hard way.
God, Narcissa, I'm sorry. He pleaded inside his head. His face showed no signs of his inner distress, he couldn't afford for it to. He looked up at his father with a blank expression, one that he had perfected at four, and kept for his entire life. His father's face betrayed only rage, and only that was visible from the unusual arch of his eyebrows, and the slight paling of his face.
"You will learn, son, that it is not wise to defy me, or our Lord. Do I make myself clear?" His eyes bore through the boy in front of him, who's face suddenly showed a flicker of loss. Loss of innocence, or hope, of love. Who really knew? Who even really cared?
"Yes father." Lucius said quietly, not daring to look his father in the eyes, and yet not quite daring to look away. He wasn't even sure how the other man had moved without his noticing, but barely a second later, the old man's cane slashed across his face. He heard the snap less than a moment before he felt another wave of pain, though this was coupled with the large amount of blood draining from his nose. Slowly, so as not to provoke any more of his father's wrath, he reached up and wiped under the broken shards of what had been his nose, being careful not to get any blood on his shirt sleeve.
"You will receive the mark, before the week is out. You will convert Miss Decatur to our cause, or at least ensure her silence. And you will, you absolutely must convince that blockheaded Severus Snape that we are right, before the Order gains knowledge of his talents." Lucius swept his eyes to the floor, a seventeen year old male totally dominated by his forty-five some year old father. And he knew that things could only get worse from here.
"Yes, Father." He intoned, louder this time, but still not meeting the man's eyes. His father seemed satiated, if not satisfied, though Lucius knew things would only get worse the next time he slipped up.
"Now, get out of my office, before you bleed on my Venetian carpeting." His father sneered, and stalked over to his fire, his back turned, obviously waiting for his son to obey. So Lucius stumbled up from his position on the floor, wondering somewhere in his head why he even bothered to move. If his father didn't kill him today, he would the next time. Or the one after that. But then again, Regulus Malfoy was not one to simply kill those who disagreed with him. He'd torture his own son day in and day out until his body gave out if Lucius had ever dared to backsass him. Stepping into the sitting room, he tensed as his mother let out a small cry and called for one of the house elves. She petted his hair until the house elf showed up and then looked at him sorrowfully as the horrid looking creature led him away.
"Oh, Lucius, why must you provoke him?" She murmerd softly to his retreating form, and slumped onto the settee, wondering what had happened to her perfect marriage and her perfect life.
A/N: So, you like? If you do, review. I'll add more to it if you like, if not, then I'll probably take it down. So, review. And worship me. And read Slytherin Rising! (Okay, so the second one is optional... but I demand that the other two be done right now, as Luella and Deanna are my two absolute favorite Fan-Fiction characters.)
-Ruth