Notes:
Not mine, no beta. This is an attempt at something different?
As far as the timeframe go, in OotP, professional orientation meetings happened before the OWLs, so Lily and Snape would still consider each other friends at this point in time. I've also taken the liberty of imagining this happens before the Whomping Willow disaster.
Professor McGonagall looked at Lily from above her spectacles. The kind light in her eyes and the soft tilt to her head reminded Lily of that teacher she had loved so much in her early years of primary school. The old woman had been strict, but she had also always praised the drawings the quiet Lily made during recess, full of bright colors and fantastic animals which had too many limbs and tails, and feathers or scales where fur had ought to be. She would look at Lily over her rectangular spectacles, just like Professor McGonagall was doing at the moment, and then she would take Lily's hand and lead her to the bathroom so she could clean her pastel-stained hands in time before the classes resumed. This treasured memory made the knots in Lily's stomach loosen, which in turn helped her get her fidgeting under control.
The professional orientation meeting had gone well so far. Truly, there had been no need to stress over it the way she had ever since it had been announced. She might not be the best in her year – everyone knew that this distinction went to Pandora Selwyn, since the only class in which she took second place was potions – but she knew she was good. She did. She compared her papers with her classmates, even with Pandora, often enough to know she was in the top five in all of her classes, all Houses included. The end of year rankings had confirmed it for the past four years and Fifth Year was no different.
So why didn't she feel completely at ease?
Her Head of House shuffled over several papers on her desk, the movement displacing several sheets piled neatly though precariously on the edge of the professor's desk and making them flutter to the ground. Lily craned her head to find out the Deputy Headmistress was looking at her latest grade reports and that the papers on the floor were the ones from her first year.
Internally, and not for the first time, Lily took a second to regret that wizards never used bound notebooks and favored loose pieces of parchment that could so easily become lost or disorganized, simply because they had somehow convinced themselves having magic made them above using binders. If there was one thing she regretted from the Muggle world, it was that.
"Overall, you have nearly only had Os and Es with the rare A ever since first year. Excellent work Miss Evans, you have made Gryffindor proud thus far."
Lily straightened her back and beamed at her second favorite professor, right after professor Flitwick, who nodded back at her before reaching to her right to slide the easily recognizable square sheet of parchment where Lily had written her career plan in front of her.
The corners of Professor McGonagall's mouth tightened and despite her best efforts to remain confident, a sinking sensation began to build up in Lily's stomach.
"It is truly rare to see a Muggleborn as gifted as you are, and your bravery in having kept on being on friendly terms with a Slytherin for so long shows true strength of character."
The professor pushed a small plate of shortbread biscuits towards Lily and waited until she took one to nibble on to continue. Her dry mouth made her small bites turn into a paste that got stuck on her teeth and palate and she stopped eating the biscuit as soon as her professor turned her eyes away from her.
"But for all your talent, I would advise you against pursuing the path of becoming an Unspeakable."
"But, but why?" Lily stammered. She didn't understand. Professor McGonagall had only ever praised her, so had all her other professors, ever since first year. What could make her not good enough? Her last Transfiguration essay wasn't the best she had ever turned in but surely that wasn't enough to disqualify her?
The professor sighed and rubbed her eyes from under her glasses before looking at her again.
"You seem intelligent enough, Miss Evans, and your magical prowesses are impressive for a Muggleborn."
"For a–"
Professor McGonagall raised a hand to stall Lily's incredulous protest. Hearing such a sentence from the mouth of her professor, who was always so fair and above such reasonings, seemed surreal. This was the sort of discourse Purists held. Not Gryffindors. And certainly not professor McGonagall.
Lily blinked a few time and closed her mouth with a click of teeth colliding against teeth. Perhaps her professor was simply trying to warn her about how others would perceive her career choice. Yes, that must be it. She was preparing her for the hurdles that were sure to come her way.
"Unfortunately, being an Unspeakable is reserved to the elite, both in terms of intellect and magical power. While you could reasonably hold your own intellectually speaking, this career path requires a lot of power and a natural ease with magic that you do not possess."
Lily's hand tightened around her biscuit and some crumbs escaped from her fingers, dropping in her sleeve, scratching and sticking to her skin. Lily shook them away absent-mindedly. This couldn't be happening. Professor McGonagall believed in her. She was the fairest of all of her teachers. She had just told Lily she was good enough, she couldn't be changing her mind.
"As much as it pains me, Miss Evans, I shall be blunt. I am afraid I have let you entertain dreams that are beyond your capabilities and for this I apologise. While you are more gifted than your average Muggleborn and you work hard to achieve your current results, you will never be able to equal a Pureblood as far as magical prowesses go."
Lily stared at her professor's desk, unable to meet her eyes, mouth open in a bid to get air in her lungs when all she could feel was the suffocating feeling of a vice brutally crushing them while her head was swimming with a dizziness she had only ever associated with holding her breath for too long.
"Look at the effortless ease Messers Potter and Black have in Transfiguration," her professor continued with an earnest tone, "look at Miss Selwyn's splendid works of magic. This is the result of their Magic having been refined by generations of practice. The injection of some fresh blood can do wonder to a bloodline, as your friend Mister Snape has demonstrated, but it doesn't change the fact that power builds on across generations. You have done quite well despite your innate disadvantage, Miss Evans, in huge part thanks to your cleverness and your hard work, but you need to realise that while you were lucky enough to be born with more magic than most of your fellow Muggleborns, you are bound to reach your limits shortly, limits your Pureblood agemates will not start to struggle against for many years."
She leant forward in Lily's direction and Lily pressed herself against the backseat of her chair until her spine ached despite the chair's padding.
"I am sorry, Miss Evans, I truly am," was it pity shining in her professor's eyes? Lily gritted her teeth and forced her eyes to remain wide open as she focused on a blank piece of the wall behind her Head of House's right shoulder. No blinking and eyes angled slightly upwards. That was the best way to prevent the tears from falling, or so her mother claimed. Her Muggle mother. There was nothing wrong with her parents not having magic. There was nothing wrong with her being the first person in her family to have magic either. Sev's mother had come from a Purist family and had thought it didn't matter. Ever since first year, whenever she fell prey to doubt, Sev himself would tell her the same. She might not like the crowd he was currently frequenting, but she knew his view on that matter hadn't changed, not yet at least. "I cannot in good conscience recommend this career for you."
The professor set down the parchments on her desk and extended an open hand towards Lily. When she made no move to take it, Professor McGonagall grimaced and retracted it, using the momentum to pick back up the parchments on her desk and pull them into a stack, before levitating the one that had fallen earlier back on her desk with a wave of her wand.
She pushed her glasses up her nose. "Far it from me to completely stifle your ambitions though," the fake cheer in the professor's voice made it difficult for Lily to swallow a cry that this wasn't fair, the others had to work too, she was just as good at them. Why couldn't she see that?
"If it were any other person, I would have recommended that you try and enter the Muggle Affairs department in the Ministry, they could certainly do with intelligent Muggleborns with a Hogwarts education willing to work hard and to brave the bad reputation of the place. But I feel you truly want to have a career focused on doing magic."
Her Head of House stopped speaking and smiled, awaiting her answer. After several long seconds during which Lily debated on simply storming out of her former second favorite professor's office, she eventually managed to tilt her head in a stiff nod.
Professor McGonagall gave her a genuinely pleased smile this time and rummaged in her drawers until she pulled out a stack of parchments bound by a golden ribbon featuring Gringotts' seal.
"Goblins have quite the open policy when it comes to recruiting Muggleborns, they grant them many career opportunities, so I would recommend you peruse the various jobs they offer humans and turn your interests there.
She slid the ribbon off and leafed through several parchments before pulling one out and extending it towards her. Lily's arm sized up but she eventually managed to fight its stiffness long enough for her to take the parchment.
She let her eyes rove over it and her eyebrows rose. Curse Breaker. She sagged in her seat and a small smile spread over her face. She never should have doubted Professor McGonagall. She had been right earlier, Professor McGonagall was simply trying to shield her from the Ministry's open bigotry.
"Of course, you wouldn't be a Curse Breaker, more of an assistant," Lily stilled and involuntarily closed her fist tightly around the parchment, crumpling it. She lifted her eyes to see McGonagall still had a sincere smile on her face. "But you would be able to do magic everyday in a way that would challenge you and be part of their teams to help them in their jobs which is, I believe, a satisfying compromise."
She truly believed what she was saying. It was all there: in the tilt of her head, the shine in her eyes, the warmth in her voice. She believed she had worked hard and had managed to find the ideal solution for Lily, because Lily was a good student 'for a Muggleborn' who she liked.
Lily bit the interior of her cheek hard enough to draw blood. Was this all she was in the eyes of this person who was supposed to be on her side? A better than usual Muggleborn? An oddity? Someone with ambitions too high for her station but likeable enough the professor wanted to humor her? She looked down at the crumpled parchment in her hand. She had been told all her schooling to not listen to the Purists, that she was good enough. She was a member of the exclusive Slug Club. Sev had always said she was better than him in Charms. Professor Flitwick had told her she was second only to Pandora in that area and not by much.
Except this was the problem, wasn't it? At best, they all saw her as the second one. The not good enough one. The curiosity who shouldn't be able to compete with her superiors.
Lily closed her eyes and bowed her head when the tears began to fall. She had thought the Professor saw her without the blinders of Pureblood propaganda, but clearly she had been wrong.
Her Head of House started to speak again, either unawares or unwilling to acknowledge her student's stifled sobs and shaking shoulders.
"This path will be hard though, as you shall be competing with all the average Purebloods. While you won't be able to compete against the Hogwarts alumni, your magical levels allowed you to be schooled here, a place notorious for its elite education and powerful students, instead of one of Great Britain's other magical schools, so you will have an edge over those other graduates along with the home schooled wizards and witches."
Lily wiped her eyes with her sleeve and hoped her face hadn't reddened too much when she stole a glance at her professor from under her eyelashes. Professor McGonagall wasn't even looking at her anymore: she was shuffling papers around her desk and pulling Lily's sheets to the side, clearly preparing for the next student.
"If you continue the way you have academically, you should do well enough on your OWLs, which is an absolute necessity for you, Miss Evans, as you cannot afford to fail any of them should you want to succeed as an Assistant Curse Breaker."
She was saying this as though Lily had agreed with her earlier speech. She hadn't. She wanted to become an Unspeakable and she knew she could. Yesterday, McGonagall had encouraged Evelyn Fawley to pursue this path and Lily knew that in full objectivity, she was far better than Evelyn in every subject except perhaps Arithmancy. She had better results both in practical and theory classes. She was good enough!
Professor McGonagall rose and Lily took this as her cue to signify that the meeting was now officially over. She staggered to her feet, leaning on the desk for support, before she followed the professor to the door, the steps more of an automatism than impulsed by her will.
She was about to push the door open when a hand on her shoulder stopped her and brought her back to the present so fast she stumbled and nearly collided against the professor. The momentum had her take a step back and her head hit the hard wood of the door, making her see stars.
"I know this is hard to accept, Miss Evans, but this is the truth," McGonagall said with a soft voice and it took all of Lily's strength to not shrug the hand softly squeezing her shoulder away. "If you continue this way next year, I might recommend your for the Head Girl position. You have been a good Prefect, even though your taste in friends can leave a little to be desired."
Lily's eyes widened. Was she speaking about Sev now? So first, she wasn't good enough to beat a Pureblood, but now she was threatening to prevent her from achieving the distinction of Head Girl because she was friends with a Slytherin?
"But you have been a good example for the school's other Muggleborns so far, which is a huge point in your favor: they need to know we value their presence too."
Lily looked at her Head of House, stern but fair and open-minded Professor McGonagall. She had no words for this. Fortunately for Lily, the professor opened her door before giving her shoulder another gentle squeeze and a push to get her in the corridor before the manners her very much not magical parents had drilled in her from a young age flew out the proverbial window and she gave her professor a piece of her mind.
She walked until her feet hit the wall opposite the professor's office door and stood, unmoving, as Remus Lupin was called in and she heard their Head of House step aside to let him in before closing her door.
Someone's hands landed on her shoulders and turned her around, making her yelp. It took her longer than it should have to recognize her promiscuous assaillant. Burning hazel eyes, artfully styled hair, lean muscles apparent despite the tailored Hogwarts uniform, James Potter was standing in front of her. She should have suspected he would be around, with his friend having just entered McGonagall's office. When there was one, the other three were never far away.
Had it been any other day, any other time, Lily could have let herself be charmed by his handsome features, could have let herself be flattered by his obvious interest in her, could have felt the now familiar twinge of both guilt and resentment towards Severus and the difficult position his conflict with James put her in.
But not today.
Today, there was no yearning to be allowed to return his advances without betraying an age old friendship. Today, she wondered if deep down, he saw her as lesser than himself. If he understood her future would forever be stunted while his path would easily lead him to higher positions than she could ever hope to reach, simply because of his parentage. Or perhaps he expected her to marry him, have his babies and be dutiful and stay in her place while courageous James was out fighting crime as an Auror.
That would have been her family's expectations of her too: marry a rich guy and be provided for until the end of her days. Except that this was her sister's dream, not hers. Petunia was the well adjusted one while she had always wanted more from life. It had been one of the highlights of the Wizarding World: despite their strange blood fixation, they had achieved true equality between men and women. Some of their noble lineages were even matriarchies, like the Longbottom and the Greengrass.
But what if he considered her weaker not because of her sex but because she was a Muggleborn and he expected her to have a subservient role in any relationship of theirs? Worse, what if deep down he only wanted her not for herself but so she could spice up his bloodline and her being good friends with his sworn nemesis had made him take an interest in her?
The questions whirled around in her mind, gaining in speed and colliding against each other until she couldn't stand to see his handsome face anymore. Head aching, it was for once with no conflict that she pushed him away and ran out of the corridor without a word.
Two floors, a run-in with a wall, and a wing later, she skidded around a corner and ran face first into Severus, knocking him on the ground.
His outraged exclamation died in his throat once he took a look at her and saw the state she was in. She could imagine all too well the spectacle she was making of herself: hair in disarray, puffy eyes from earlier, face red from the effort, and tie askew from when she had loosened it earlier because it had been strangling her. She bowed over her knees to catch her breath and calm her racing heart.
"Lily? What happened to you? Is it Potter?"
The concern and rage on her behalf she could hear plainly in his voice stopped her short and she coughed around a gulp of air, not knowing what to say. Could she tell him? It had been so long since they had last confided into each other. Would he support her? Or would he only laugh at her naivete and tell her she should have listened to him because really, what had she been expecting from Gryffindors? Worse, would he side with them?
Lost in her thoughts as she was, she didn't notice when Severus picked himself up from the ground and dusted himself off until he closed his hands around her elbows to help straighten her.
His touch was light, tentative even. This, more than anything, was the deciding factor and she launched herself in the recounting of her professional orientation meeting.
Severus listened to her. For once, there were no snide remarks, no 'I told you so'. He was listening to her, as though surprised she was opening up to him. If she were to be honest with herself, so was she. They hadn't talked about more than their lessons and homeworks in months. If they ever broached another subject, they argued.
But not today.
Her tale over, she put her back on the wall closest to her and let herself slide onto the floor and Severus did the same by her side, body vibrating with anger but respecting her wordless request for silence. A sad smile flickered on her lips. At least, they hadn't grown so far apart yet that he couldn't understand her from body language alone anymore.
She heaved a sigh, trying and failing to make all her emotions drain away from her with that exhale, and turned towards her friend. The only person she had ever truly talked about her fear of never being good enough for the people in this world. She had tried with her housemates once or twice. But they hadn't taken her seriously and she had pretended to laugh it off alongside them instead of insisting.
"And you? How did it go?"
Severus grimaced and waved a dismissive hand.
"About as well as I expected."
Severus closed his eyes and let his head drop against the wall. Lily turned her head away to hide her grimace. It was fair, she supposed. He didn't owe her a personal confession in return. They hadn't shared anything personal in too long and it showed. She had hesitated to tell him the truth when not so long ago she would have ran to him to tell him everything. No, she wouldn't even have had to go to him. He would have been waiting for her outside of McGonagall's office.
She shook her head and was about to find an excuse to leave when he turned towards her.
"My mother burnt down many bridges when she decided to run away and marry a Muggle and you know how having relations is important around here. People won't really want to take a chance on me." He flushed and averted his eyes before muttering, "though I guess I still have it better than you, I should be able to get a Potion Mastery, even if I won't be able to Apprentice under one of the good Masters."
Lily hummed as she pondered that. Perhaps he understood her more than she had thought he could. But it still wasn't fair. She was good enough. Both of them were and they needed to not lose sight of that : both of them deserved better than what the Wizarding World had in store for them.
Strangely enough, the knowledge that even Severus would have difficulties in this world too despite his Slytherin frequentations and his Pureblood mother soothed her. Despite everything that separated them nowadays, at least, they were standing on even grounds on this point.
Energy filled her again and she jumped to her feet. She rolled her shoulders and felt the knots stiffening them dissolve.
"Well, I don't know you, but I refuse to be looked down upon by people who think quills are superior to pens !"
"What?"
She stood in front of him, towering over him while he craned his head to look up at her and she placed her hands on her hips.
"I won't. According to everyone, I'll never be good enough to equal a Pureblood. I'm never going to have a good job. If I keep talking to you I won't be made Head Girl and even if I am, it'll only be because McGonagall knows she has to give people like us hope that one day this society will accept us when it never will."
"That's not true. I can -"
"Oh you think it isn't?" The words had more bite than she intended but she was tired of him pretending his blood wasn't just as 'dirty' as hers for the general populace of the Wizarding World. He had blinded himself to the full truth of his situation when he had been sorted in Slytherin. But it was okay. Perhaps she had gone about things the wrong way before, it was only natural that he would try to fit in with his housemates the way she had made efforts to fit with hers. She had never lost sight of who she truly was the way she did though. So she would make sure to get his blinders off his eyes before he did something he could one day regret.
She crouched down in front of Severus and placed a hand on the wall above his shoulder for support, bringing their face so close she could feel his breath on her face. "You think the Prince part of your parentage will save you? You think your 'friends'", she carried on with derision, "will help you? Your father is a Muggle! They can count back ten or twenty generations of only wizard humans in their genealogy and you think they'll one day view you as their equal?"
She puffed tossing her head to put her hair behind her shoulders.
"Wake up Sev, you hide behind the title of Halfblood but in their eyes, you're just like me, a lowly Mudblood. A drop of Muggle blood is enough in their eyes."
Severus recoiled as though she had slapped him. She didn't give him time to collect himself and carried on: McGonagall had opened her eyes, he needed to face the truth just like she had and the sooner the better. It would hurt now, but it was for a good cause.
"Well you know what? I personally don't care anymore," she surprised herself by realizing she meant every word. Burning warmth coursed through her veins, filling her with energy and strengthening her voice. She put a knee on the floor and placed her forehead against his, her long red hair cascading around and narrowing both of their worlds to the other. "I'll show them. And so will you. So we're inferiors because we were not born and bred wizards? Who cares!"
She grabbed his limp hand and squeezed it. It was all so clear now. "Do you see the amount of things Muggles have invented that even their magic doesn't give them access to? We have phones! Electricity! Tellies! An efficient post office system instead of using homing pigeons like in the Middle Ages! Suitcases with wheels instead of those heavy trunks! Think of all the things we could do if we just combined magic with what our Muggle ancestor have invented!"
"Things don't work that way Lils."
She snorted. "They should. I will not be ashamed who I am and where I come from anymore. I really wanted to fit in, you know? I have tried so hard to be like them, to acclimate myself. But they don't truly let us in, we're never taught about how things work here and History of Magic is a joke." She drew back from him a bit, to better look at her friend in the eyes. She needed to make the disbelief and denial go from them as she finally vocalized the thoughts she had spent years stifling. "There is nothing: no Geography lessons, no Litterature, no real History content where we could learn about this new culture and understand each other better, nothing. They don't allow us to have common grounds with the Wizard raised. Because they are afraid of us. They are afraid of what we could do because we're different. They would prefer to stagnate and even regress rather than make concessions and evolve. And you know what? I can even understand why they are afraid. Because you know what else us Muggles are better at than them?"
Severus mutely shook his head, eyes wide and unblinking. At least, he was fully focused on her words.
"War. And adaptability. These people have spells for everything they don't make efforts anymore. You want to kill someone? Killing Curse. Torture someone? Cruciatus. Transform a beetle into a button? There's a spell for that too. Clean your drawers? A specific spell too. But none of them realise the potential of all the spells. Imagine how much you can do with a little creativity, there is no need for those specific curses and charms when you can accio someone's heart right out of their chest."
Severus gulped and she took a deep breath to ease the tension in her muscles.
"But that's not all. If I bought a gun to a wandfight, who do you think would win? Let me tell you, I'd bet on the gun. And if we go to war? I think nuclear bombs and machine-guns tell their own stories."
She rose to her feet, pacing in a small circle in front of him.
"Don't you see? If we mix the two, we could do so much more, not only for destruction, but for everything else too, we could be so great," the sheer amount of possibilities left her giddy. She could see it, a new world where magic wouldn't be some dark secret that tore some children away from their families and fostered grief and resentment. A world mixing the best of both cultures. It would be wonderful.
"And how would you achieve that? You said it yourself, we're nobodies. The power lies with the Purebloods, and not your Purebloods, but the Death Eater ones."
Severus' voice was strangely neutral, nearly devoid of inflections. She could hear a hint of their shared Cokeworth accent though, which he had worked so hard to eliminate from his speech to adopt the clipped tones of the nobility that roamed the castle's halls.
"Then we create our own faction. How many Purebloods are there? How many Muggleborns or Halfbloods cross the gates of Hogwarts each year? How long before they are outnumbered?" She came to a stop in front of him and spun her arms in a wide arc around her, palms facing upward. "They only have more power because they have been fighting to hoard their privileges for generations while we come in at eleven, just naive children in a new world with people who promised us wonders and we get either brainwashed or crushed under the weight of their established order. Either they bring you into the fold, like you, or they give you illusions to lower your guard only to shatter them and leave you defenseless, like me."
McGonagall was right, her future wasn't as an Unspeakable. But it wasn't to be an assistant to some bigoted Curse Breaker either. The teachers all agreed she was intelligent, right? And they would have sent her to some Muggle oriented department at the Ministry if she had only been clever but not as good at magic as she was.
Perhaps they first idea had been the right one. If they sent most of their Muggleborns to work there, it meant she wouldn't have to search for them. She was sure many others had been in her position before. She would convince them. Give them hope. And together they would rise and fight to even the scales. The Wizarding World was a derelict ruin living in the shadows of their past glory days. She would make it grow and shine again.
"I've decided what I'm going to do with my life." There was a fire burning in her belly, as powerful and eternal as a Phoenix's fire. "I am going to change the world, Sev. No more silly House division, I'm going to unite us all. I'm going to make them see how much we can give them, that we have always been just as worthy as those inbred wizards. They will see they were stupid to dismiss us. Perhaps they are right that magic builds up across the generations. Perhaps they are not. How could they know? They don't even understand the concept of genetics and biology. For all we know, it's just silly prejudices."
It felt right, to finally acknowledge it. It was as though a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. No, things were not okay right now. Yes, even in her House full of so called Muggle-lovers, there were still tensions and invisible barriers. But she was a Gryffindor and if there was one thing they all excelled at, it was defying expectations. She would make her own path.
"So, are you with me?"
He hung his head and muttered, "you know I would follow you to the end of the world Lily,"
He wasn't fully convinced, but she could work on that later. At least, he wasn't denying that his Muggle ancestry was placing him at a disadvantage amongst their peers anymore.
She smiled. In the end, despite their difficulties, their friendship held true. It was good: she had found something she hadn't known was missing in her life, a cause she believed in, something to fight for. Perhaps also a form of self-appreciation. But she didn't want to walk that road alone or surrounded by strangers.
"Good," she nodded. "But I warn you: no more Death Eater stuff."
"Well, no more Gryffindors are superior to everyone propaganda either," he hissed with a sudden vehemence that took her by surprise and she took a step back.
It was fair, she supposed. They both had work to do. And she had just advocated for no artificial House frontiers anymore. All of their values were needed to create a functional world and they would need a lot of ambition to reach this goal after all.
She looked at him squarely in the eyes and nodded, "I'll do my best."
She offered him her hand. After only a heartbeat, where she felt him gauge her sincerity and resolve to stick to her oath, his was in hers and she pulled him to his feet.
She looked down at their intertwined hands. It felt like more than just a gesture. It was a vow, to walk this path together, to have each other's back, always. It was his way of beginning to accept this part of him he had always rejected and that she had secretly started to be ashamed of in herself lately. They would learn to embrace it, together.
A grin spread over her face. It was bright and matched the determination bubbling and burning in her veins. She had never felt more alive than at this exact moment.
She was a Gryffindor, brave and courageous.
She was a lioness, and everyone knew that in the prides, it was the lionesses who hunted.
She was Lily Evans, Mudblood and proud.
They thought she was a good example for others with a similar background? They had seen nothing yet.
End notes:
Sooo, well that's it. This theme is new writing territory for me, so I'd appreciate some feedback if you have the time.
Thank you for reading