"Give it back," a young Severus Snape hissed angrily.
"What's the magic word?" James Potter grinned smugly whilst holding a rather large Potions book in his hand.
"Planning to brew up some love potions are we, Snivellus?" Sirius Black laughed as he stole the book from James's hand, flicking through it with pure contempt. "I don't think one hundred cauldrons full could make anyone fall in love with you."
"I said give it back!" Severus barked. He had begun to turn red in the face, with both utter humiliation and anger as every single person in the corridor began to stare at the developing scene.
Severus would like to have very much at that moment punch Sirius Black in the face. Not curse, not hex, not severely wound with magic, but physically beat him with his bare knuckles.
But he couldn't. The main reason was simply being he did not want to get into trouble, or worse expelled for violence. The second most important reason, Lily Evans was walking down the corridor his way, and he most certainly did not want to stoop to James and Sirius's level of pig headedness in front of her.
"Maybe he's trying to brew up a potion to make him less ugly," James said, snatching the book back from Sirius and looking at the inside scribbles Severus had previously made.
"Once again, I don't think any amount of potion could make that nose smaller!" Sirius roared with laughter, whilst James amusedly grinned at Severus.
Lily Evans scowled as she walked up towards the three boys, surrounded by many onlookers, half of them being girls, giggling to their friends as they watched the famous Sirius Black and James Potter strut around and taunt Severus.
'Why women are attracted those two disrespectful bullies, I'll never know.' Lily thought to herself as she began to walk past the crowd, Severus, James and Sirius.
She smiled weakly at Severus, who looked back at her in complete distress. Deep down she knew he hated being teased like this as it made him look weak and venerable, which made her hate the fact she had not stopped to help him, but simply walked by pretending nothing was going on.
Usually she would have waltzed straight up to Potter with an outstretched finger and rudely jab him in the chest, claiming how much of a disrespectful idiot he was. But after several years of sticking up for Severus, yelling at both Potter and Black, she was getting nowhere. Several years later, and they were stillbullying Severus, which to Lily, was becoming very tiresome.
"Let's face it Snivellus, the only way to make you more attractive is to just burn your face off," Lily heard Sirius taunt as she walked past the group and down the corridor.
"Yeah, Sirius and I can help you with that one!" James laughed, and Lily narrowed her eyes with anger as she heard the crowd of boys and girls laugh along with James.
'There's nothing you can do,' she thought to herself as she continued to walk away from the scene, clutching her hands into fists tightly, whilst reminding herself of the many failed attempts of coming to Severus's rescue. 'Absolutely nothing!'
Trying hard to convince herself that there was nothing she could do to help Severus, Lily walked hastily through the castle and towards the library; she could only pray that the mountain of homework she had received in only one day could distract her and help her feel less guilty.
As she turned the last corner and walked through the large stone doors into the library, the weird sensation of going from a loud and bustling hallway to a complete silence hit her.
The familiar silence and smell of the library came crashing down on her and she smiled to herself as she walked towards a row of tables which several students towered over whilst working hard, most of them sixth and seventh years.
"Remus?" Lily frowned as she found Remus Lupin sat alone, strangely staring up at something with his chin rested in the palm of his hand.
It amazed her how much she and Remus got on together, considering he was friends with two of the biggest idiots in the world.
"Oh, Lily," Remus said quickly, jumping as Lily sat next to him.
"Sorry, am I interrupting?" Lily grinned as Remus gathered himself together.
"No, sorry," he laughed uneasily.
"You seemed distant," Lily said softly. "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, I'm fine it's just..." he paused and wore a heavy frown as he nodded in front of him at something, or to Lily's surprise, someone.
She turned her head to the right and saw that her friend Olivia Tippet was sat in the very corner of the library, staring down at a piece of parchment. Her jaw hung open ajar and it soon became obvious she was reading the parchment over and over.
Olivia had been friends with Lily for an extremely long time. Their relationship started when they met in Diagon Alley before their first year at Hogwarts. Olivia, like Lily was Muggle born, and after both their parents bumped into each other at Olivander's they bonded over the fact both sets of families were amazed by the Wizarding world and could still not come to terms with the reality of everything.
"She's been sat like that for a good fifteen minutes," Remus said quietly.
"I should talk to her," Lily said, grabbing her bag which she'd only just put on the floor.
"You don't think she wants to just be alone, do you?" Remus asked, grabbing Lily by the arm and pulling her back down to her seat.
They both watched Olivia for a minute and looked on in pity as she began to cry into her hand silently, finally looking away from the parchment and slamming it down on the table.
"I'm pretty sure anyone that sad could do with someone to talk to," Lily said raising an eyebrow, before lifting herself from her seat and walking over towards Olivia.
As Lily walked up towards Olivia, Olivia saw her and quickly tried to wipe away her tears and any evidence that she had been crying.
"Hey," Lily smiled sympathetically as she sat beside Olivia, who grabbed the letter she'd been reading and shoved it into her bag quickly.
"Hi," she said quietly, wiping her eyes again.
"Are you OK?" Lily asked.
"I'm fine," Olivia said falsely. "Why?"
"Well, Remus and I just saw you crying." Lily frowned.
Olivia looked from Lily to Remus, who was still staring at Olivia. The moment Olivia caught Remus's eye he looked back at his book as if he had not even seen her the entire time he'd been in the library.
"I'm fine," Olivia repeated, smiling uncomfortably at Lily.
Lily looked at Olivia suspiciously, and looked at her in a manner that caused Olivia to sigh heavily and mutter under her breath, "Fine."
She pulled her bag to her lap and took out the piece of parchment she had just hidden from Lily. Flattening it out, she placed it on the table and put it in front of Lily.
"I know you're not going to give up," Olivia said as she pushed the paper forwards. "So I might as well show you."
Lily frowned at Olivia then looked down on the piece of parchment which had obvious tear stains on it where Olivia had been crying.
It read:
'Dear Olivia,
I hope you are settling back at Hogwarts well and are enjoying seeing your friends, I know you had missed them over the holidays.
Your father and I have some news...
I'm sorry that I have to tell you this way, especially as you only just returned to Hogwarts a week ago and I hope that you'll understand this is very important for your father, and it could lead to great things for him.
He's been offered the job in Florida, directing a new unit out in the USA and managing the new crew and planes on their base. After a long discussion we've decided it is probably best that we move to America altogether and start a new life over there next year. I hope you understand that both your father and I agreed that we could not cope with living far apart from one another if I stayed in the UK for you to finish your last two years at Hogwarts.
Your father has convinced his boss to postpone the job until you have completed your fifth year at school, but if you wish to finish your N.E.W.T's we will have to enrol you in a school over in America so you can finish your school year altogether.
I hope you understand our decision and look forward to starting a new life in America.
We've researched into many Wizarding schools and they all look good, maybe better then Hogwarts itself!
We'll see you at Christmas.
All my love, Mum.'
Lily read the letter for a second time, and then a third.
"I don't believe it," she said quietly.
"I know," Olivia said sadly. "They're ruining my life!"
"But you can't just leave and start somewhere else!" Lily cried angrily. "It'll be so hard to settle in this late into your school years!"
"Thanks for the encouraging words, Lily." Olivia said, finally laughing.
"I'm sorry," Lily said quickly. "I just can't believe you're leaving."
Olivia nodded and folded the piece of parchment up before placing it back in her bag.
"Why can't you stay in England, and your dad can travel by Floo Powder?" Lily asked.
"He's not a wizard, Lily." Olivia said seriously. "He can't travel to Florida every day by plane, that's madness!"
"OK, well why can't you go to London by Floo Powder, and then stay over for the night before the Hogwarts Express –?"
"Lily," Olivia laughed faintly. "It's much easier this way. I completely understand my parents reasoning behind moving. My mum would hate it if only my dad moved to Florida and she stayed at home in England. It's just going to suck. Really suck."
Lily looked at Olivia sympathetically. The realisation that her oldest friend was moving almost half way round the planet would not sink in, and she didn't think it ever would.
"I'm going to miss you," Lily said quietly.
"I'll come and visit," Olivia said sternly, "as much as I can!"
"Good," Lily smiled. "And hey, at least you've got a whole year left. At least they're not dragging you away early!"
"I suppose," Olivia nodded. "I'm just going to have to make the most of this year, aren't I?"
"Well you'll have to study hard," Lily said seriously. "If you can do most of the work here, you might not have to even try over in America."
"Lily, I don't think in my final year at Hogwarts I'm going to lock myself away and study," Olivia laughed as she shook her head.
"Oh, I suppose not," Lily said, frowning at her own seriousness.
"No, this year is going to have to be special," Olivia said, leaning back in her chair. "I want to do things I'd never have dreamed about before."
Lily looked at Olivia surprised, never had she heard her friend talk so rebelliously.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked.
Olivia grinned and leant forwards, putting her head near Lily's as she spoke quietly.
"I want to break the rules," she said as she continued to grin. "Lily, I want to...I want to kiss a boy! Several of them! I want to run down the halls at midnight, screaming at the top of my lungs! I want to slack off, I want to break stuff –"
"You mean you want to break the rules completely?" Lily said raising an eyebrow and smiling amusedly.
"Exactly," Olivia smiled, slamming her hand down on the table, earning a few glares from the surrounding people who were studying quietly.
"OK then," Lily shrugged. "Go nuts. It's your last year so it's not like they can do anything to you. If you get kicked out it just means your parents can move quicker."
"Yeah," Olivia said with a small nod. "I'm going to do it. Starting from tomorrow I'm going to be a completely new Olivia."
"Sure thing," Lily said, raising her eyebrows quickly at her friend.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Olivia said as she looked at Lily's smug, unconvinced smile.
"Of course I do!" Lily laughed. "Well, I believe you want to do those things, I just don't believe you will."
Olivia narrowed her eyes and she pursed her lips in thought.
"Well then, all I can do is prove you wrong," Olivia smiled. "I'll show you."
A/N: This is an old story I've revisited from my old account PaperAnchor which I unfortunately cannot get into! Hope you liked it! Please review :)