CHAPTER TWO: MEETINGS WITH MUDBLOODS
Lessons started the very next day and the fifth years were very soon made aware of the fact that this year at Hogwarts was going to be the hardest yet. This was the year they took their Ordinary Wizarding Levels, and, as Professor McGonagall explained, they needed to be prepared for them. Hence, when the weekend arrived, everyone was even more glad than usual.
"I am exhausted already and it's only been one week," Ingrid complained to Evelyn, Sirius, James and Peter at breakfast on Saturday morning.
"Buck up, old girl," said Sirius bracingly. "Only three more terms to go. Where's Lily this morning?"
"She's coming," Evelyn yawned, nodding towards the staircase. "She was up late last night doing that transfiguration essay."
"Oh no…" groaned peter, 'I haven't even started it!"
Sirius craned his neck so that he had a clear view of the marble staircase. Evelyn gave him a shrewd look.
"You sweet on her, mate?"
Sirius turned and grinned. "Who isn't?" he said, without a trace of embarrassment. "She's hot!"
James nearly choked on a mouthful of porridge.
"What?!" he coughed in disbelief. "Don't tell me you have a thing for her?"
"Why?' said Sirius, raising his eyebrows. James shook his head, giving Sirius a despairing look. "Honestly, I thought you had better taste than that!"
Sirius smirked. "Well obviously I have better taste than you, if you can't see that she's hot."
Evelyn and Ingrid were both frowning at James, so he decided that he'd better keep quiet.
"Well, I just wish I was in your position," said Sirius. "James you are such a lucky bastard."
"Huh?" said James.
"Well, jeez, with you and her both being prefects you're going to be able to spend so much time with her, I mean, you'll see her like, twenty-four-seven!" he shook his head "I could handle being Prefect if Lily Evans was one too."
James stared at Sirius for a moment in bewilderment, but once again decided to keep his mouth shut.
Secretly, he happened to agree with Sirius. He had noted Lily Evans' beauty, of course- it was hard to miss. In first year Lily had been nothing more than a little girl with red pigtails and metal strings across her teeth (Muggles called them 'braces"). But since then, she had grown up a bit, and really, she had blossomed. This year, it was even more apparent. She was definitely growing up, and as James was too, he noticed it. She had grown taller, the braces had long since come off, and her smile much better for it. He had never met anyone with hair as dark a red as hers was. And her eyes…they were the greenest James had ever seen. A strange, emerald green they were. Whenever she glared at him, James was drawn to the intensity of those eyes despite himself. Of course Lily was beautiful.
But all that didn't change the fact that she was a big-headed know it all.
"Is Remus around?' said Ingrid, interrupting James' thoughts. Sirius looked at James and said, too quickly to be casual, "No, he's sick."
"Again?' said Evelyn incredulously. "It's only the start of term!"
"Yeah well, Remus has always been delicate," James said, kicking Sirius under the table.
"Ow! What was that for?' said Sirius, glaring at James. James clenched his teeth and tried to give him a meaningful "shut up" look without being too obvious.
"Chill out," he said through clenched teeth. Evelyn was looking at them shrewdly. Luckily, Peter deftly distracted them all. "Oh, look, here comes Lily!" he said quickly. The four of them turned to see Lily descending the marble staircase. James swallowed hard. She had neglected to tie up her long red hair this morning, and it swished behind her, just reaching below her shoulder blades. She spotted her friends when she reached the door of the Great hall, grinned and headed straight for them. Sirius watched her walk towards them, eyes following her every move.
"James, you lucky, lucky bastard,' he said under his breath, 'what I wouldn't give to be working with her."
Just as Lily passed the Slytherin table, Severus Snape provided another distraction. Like most Slytherins, Snape was a pure-blood wizard and saw Muggle born witches and wizards as terribly inferior. Like most Slytherins, Snape saw muggle-borns as sport.
As Lily passed the Slytherin table the usual jeers and cat-calls followed her. For Lily was a muggle born, and everyone knew it. "All right, mudblood?" Snape called, at which several of his Slytherin friends laughed nastily. Lily ignored this, but Sirius couldn't. He, too, was muggle born and nothing angered him more than use of the word 'mudblood" which was a very offensive term for a muggle born witch or wizard. James also found himself clenching his fists; he hated the prejudice against muggle-borns. Why couldn't people see that it made no difference who your parents were as long as you had magic inside and could learn to do something with it?
Sirius had angrily gotten to his feet, fuming.
"Oh, Sirius…d-don't do anything stupid…" mumbled Peter, looking frightened. Sirius ignored him and marched angrily over to the Slytherin table, looking ready to kill.
"What's wrong?" Lily said, catching him by the arm as he strode past her. Sirius gestured angrily towards the Slytherins, who were still laughing.
"Are you just going to let him call you that? How can you do that, Lil?" He glared at the Slytherins murderously. "Doesn't it make your blood just boil?"
Lily rolled her eyes. 'Of course it makes me angry but those prats will get sick of it after a while. I just ignore them, and I think you should do the same."
"I can't," Sirius growled. "I can't! It makes me so angry."
"Well, someday they'll learn," said Lily soothingly, patting his arm to placate him. "Come on. Just leave it Sirius."
Sirius sighed. "Okay. But I'll get him. He can't get away with it."
"I know," said Lily, leading him back to the Gryffindor table. Lily sat down next to Sirius, gave everyone a warm hello (except James) and inquired about Remus. She seemed concerned learning that he was sick again.. Watching her, sitting next to Sirius, giggling when he tried to put his arm around her, reassuring Peter that the Transfiguration essay wasn't that hard, and all the while steadfastly ignoring himself, James felt strange. He felt something that he could only describe as resentment. But what did that mean? Could he possibly be jealous of his best friend and the others that Lily Evans bestowed attention upon? She certainly was as popular, if not more so than James, so what was so special about her? What was there that he couldn't see about that drew people to her?
James made up his mind. He was going to find out exactly what.
*
That night was the Prefects' first official meeting. Professor McGonagall usually sat in on the meetings, but as tonight was the first one, then all the heads of house were there, as well as Professor Dumbledore himself. The meetings were held in the Trophy room. This was a room on the third floor, with dusty cabinets full of trophies lining the walls. A large, wooden rectangular table stood in the middle of the room when Lily, James and the other Gryffindor prefects got there. Professor Dumbledore was already there, sitting at the head of the table, flanked by two Heads of House on either side. Professor McGonagall stood to his right, along with Lily's least favourite teacher, Professor Dolohov, who was head of Slytherin. He was a thin, weedy man with long, grey streaked brown hair and a long moustache. He taught potions, and was always favouring his own house above the others. On Dumbledore's left stood Professor Flitwick, a tiny little man with a shock of white hair, who taught Charms and was head of Ravenclaw. And next to Professor Flitwick stood Professor Sprout, the dumpy little Herbology witch who was head of Hufflepuff. Dumbledore smiled at them all and bade them sit down.
Lily felt slightly apprehensive and sat down quickly. To her irritation, James sat down in the chair to her right. After the Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff prefects had filed in, professor Dumbledore began the meeting.
'Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts I would like to begin by going around the table and one by one, introducing ourselves." His eyes twinkled, "I would like us all to get to know each other better, as from now you embark on a journey that you must travel together. So please, give us your name and tell us something about yourself."
He indicated to the sixth year Hufflepuff prefect on his right and she stood up.
"My name is Jessica MacMillan, I'm sixteen in January and I have a pet cat called Ferdinand." She beamed at them all and sat down. One by one, each of the prefects introduced themselves, most of them already wearing their shiny prefect badges. Lily patted her pocket, where she was keeping her badge. She hadn't pinned it to the front of her robes just yet. She didn't feel it was right when, as a Prefect, she hadn't actually done anything for the school yet. Dumbledore nodded to her. "Miss Evans?"
"Oh!" she stood up, flushing as all eyes landed on her. "Um, My name is Lily Evans, I'm from, um, London…I'll be fifteen in October, and I…like Butterbeer?" she said uncertainly. The Prefects chuckled appreciatively and Lily looked up and smiled, pleased that she didn't embarrass herself. She happened to catch Severus Snape's eye. He smirked at her and mouthed, "Mudblood!" Lily stopped smiling and stared at Snape. He actually had the nerve to call her a Mudblood in front of all these teachers? Lily was momentarily stunned.
"You may sit down, Miss Evans," Dumbledore said. She sat down quickly, fleeing another flush travel up her throat, stinging her eyes. She looked up again to see Snape shaking with silent laughter, smirking at her from behind his hand. She felt her cheeks grow hot. Next to her, James stood up at Dumbledore's indication.
"Hi there, my name is James Potter. I turned fifteen three weeks ago, I have a pet owl named Gorgon, and…" He paused, glanced at Lily, cleared his throat and said, "…And I think everyone should know that nothing annoys me more than Wizarding prejudice like Severus just displayed."
Lily looked up at him quickly. He was staring quite calmly at Snape, who was sitting opposite him at the table. Snape was glaring at James, a slight blush colouring his normally white face.
"Whatever do you mean, Mr Potter?" said Dumbledore, also calm. Everyone else looked confused. Lily shook her head at James, but he ignored her and continued.
"I'm just saying, Professor," said James slowly, "that it shouldn't matter who your parents were as long as you have magic inside you and can learn to do something with it."
"Precisely," said Dumbledore, as the teachers around him nodded, as did several of the Prefects.
"So that is why, sir, that it angers me to see people of Muggle parentage being insulted-" (And here he glared at Snape malevolently) "-being taunted with insulting terms simply because their parents are Muggles."
"As it should," said Dumbledore quietly, now looking grave. "I myself feel angry anytime I witness a display of prejudice. But what does this have to do with Severus?"
James looked at Lily again, and she knew for sure what he was talking about. She shook her head again and whispered, 'Shut up, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter!"
James ignored her and carried on talking. "He mouthed an insulting term at Evans, sir. I saw him. I think you must know the term I mean, sir." There were a few gasps and a flurry of whispers. "I saw him too," Lily heard Kiki Kessavat, the fifth year Hufflepuff who was sitting on Lily's other side whisper. Everyone stared at Snape and Lily. Lily felt her fact going even redder and bowed her head, feeling her eyes sting again.
"Miss Evans?" Dumbledore said softly, in a very grave voice. Lily raised her head slowly and looked at him. "Is this true?"
The room went absolutely quiet. All eyes were on Lily. "I…well…um…" she faltered.
"It is professor," said James earnestly.
"Yeah, its true," Kiki added. More whispers from around the table. Snape was looking absolutely livid. His face was as flushed as Lily had ever seen it. Lily bit her lip and finally, nodded. A gasp from around the table, and even more whispers, angry whispers this time, people glaring at Snape. The Slytherins looked uncomfortable. Some of them were looking at Snape in a way that clearly conveyed they thought he was an idiot. Professor McGonagall, professor Flitwick, and professor Sprout all immediately looked to Dumbledore. Professor Dumbledore turned to Dolohov.
"Anton…he is in your house. What are you going to do?"
Dolohov's greasy moustache twitched. He was looking angry but Lily didn't think it was because Snape called her a mudblood.
"Severus, stand up please," he said sharply. Snape reluctantly got to his feet, and the room went silent once again. This time, all eyes were on Snape.
"Is Potter telling the truth?" said Dolohv crisply. "Did you insult Miss Evans?"
Snape opened his mouth and shut it again. He was looking extremely nervous. Suddenly he raised his eyebrows so high they disappeared into his greasy black fringe.
"No, Professor," he said softly.
"That's a lie!" James said angrily, but Dumbledore held up his hand to silence James.
"James- let him speak."
Snape took a breath, 'What I really said was…"well done". I mouthed it across the table so I, I suppose Potter just mistook what I was saying for…you know…the "M" word…"
"Well, there you have it professor Dumbledore," said Dolohov eagerly. "Potter merely mistook what Severus was mouthing." He turned sharply to James, looking disdainful. "Apologise, Potter."
James started. "I will NO-" but Lily gave him a sharp kick under the table.
"Potter, please…" she said under her breath. James set his jaw.
"Sorry," he said through clenched teeth, as though the apology was going to make him throw up. Snape smirked, his expression almost perfectly matching Dolohov's.
"That's fine. And I'm sorry to you," He directed his smirk at Lily, "For mistaking my congratulations."
"That's all right," Lily said, cringing as everyone turned to look at her again.
"May we continue?" Dolohov said to Dumbledore. Dumbledore paused momentarily, looking from Snape to Lily.
"Yes, of course. Please continue the introductions. We are running behind time."
Lily could tell no one believed Snape of course. Everyone's eyes kept flickering onto her, including James Potter's. She couldn't stand being stared at, so, halfway through the meeting, she asked to be excused, saying that she felt sick. She hurried out of the trophy room, glad to be away from everyone else and their stares.
Lily ran to the bathroom at the end of the corridor, breathing heavily. As soon as she as in there she splashed cold water on her burning face. She had never felt so embarrassed in her life. Why had James insisted on making a fuss about it? It was none of his business!
And really, Snape called her a "mudblood" at least twice a day. She couldn't pretend it didn't upset her, but she had gotten used to it.
So why on earth did James do that? There was really no need to make such a big deal over nothing!
Lily looked at her dripping face in the mirror, feeling angrier by the second. What on earth was James Potter's problem?
*
And so the term wore on, the weather getting colder by the day. Remus returned to lessons, and then a month later, mysteriously fell ill again. Lily's birthday was on Halloween, so the Gryffindor students threw her a party. (Wheee! Celebrations!) Quidditch season began too. James Potter and Sirius Black were both on the Gryffindor Quidditch team; James a Chaser, and Sirius a Beater. Three nights a week, the team was put through vigorous training, and the two of them would always come back muddy and tired. James had been on the team since his second year at Hogwarts, so he was quite used to the hard training sessions. Sirius, however, was only made a beater last year and found it more tiresome than James. One night near the end of term, James and Sirius returned from a particularly long training session to find a nearly empty common room. Lily, Evelyn and Ingrid were sitting at a table near the fire, talking quietly as they did their homework. There was a sixth year reading in an armchair and two first years writing a letter near the window, but that was all.
"Jeez, it must be late. What's the time?" Sirius yawned, dumping his broomstick on the ground and plonking himself down in an armchair.
'Well past ten o'clock, boys," said Evelyn, looking up from her Divination homework. "How was training?"
"Muddy," said James, collapsing in the chair next to Ingrid. He kicked off his Quidditch boots and wet socks and leant his head on the desk, looking morosely at Evelyn's Divination homework.
"When's that due, Eve?" he asked her.
"First period tomorrow morning," Evelyn said calmly. James' head came off his arms.
"Oh, shit!" he exclaimed, then clapped a hand over his mouth and looked around the common room. Then seeing it had emptied since their arrival, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"What?" said Sirius sleepily.
"Last time I swore in a corridor McGonagall swooped down on me and told me I was setting a bad example for the younger years and took ten points off Gryffindor."
"Don't worry about it," said Sirius, "you know McGonagall never ventures in here."
Evelyn laughed. "Never mind, love. You can copy mine."
"Seriously? Jeez, thanks Eve. You're a lifesaver!"
"I know," said Evelyn. She pushed back her chair and yawned. "Just don't spill butterbeer on it like you did last time to my Potions essay."
"I told you, that wasn't me, it was Sirius' fault!" James protested. Evelyn laughed again.
"I don't mind boyo. But I'm off to bed, so just leave it on the table, all right? Coming girls?"
"Yep!" Ingrid agreed, looking satisfied as she wrote the last word on her star chart. She too pushed back her chair and stood up. "Lily? Bedtime!"
"What?" Lily said, looking distracted as she pored over a rune diagram. "Um…yeah, in a minute…"
Evelyn rolled her eyes. 'So you'll still be here in the morning, then?"
"Mmm," said Lily vaguely, tapping her quill on the table and pulling some parchment towards her. They all grinned.
"Night guys," Ingrid called over her shoulder as she and Evelyn went to the dormitories.
"Night," they called back. There was a silence as Lily continued working, and James started copying out Evelyn's zodiac chart. Sirius stayed in his armchair and began pulling clods of dirt off his Quidditch robes. Eventually Lily looked up and blinked.
"Oh. What are you two doing here?"
"We came in about half an hour ago Lily, didn't you notice?" said Sirius sleepily.
"Oh….oh, right, so you did. And where are…?"
"Evelyn and Ingrid? Your two best friends?" Sirius said teasingly. "They went to bed."
"Oh, ok," said Lily, stifling a yawn.
"Maybe you should join them?" Sirius suggested, noticing with concern the grey bags under here eyes. He grinned wickedly. 'Or better yet, you could join me."
James' arm jerked, sending a bottle of red ink onto the rug. It spilled, leaving a large red puddle. Lily stopped giggling and frowned.
"Well done! That was clever." she said sarcastically. James glared at her as he retrieved his wand from inside his robes.
"Returno," he said sulkily, and the ink returned to its bottle. He picked it up and continued copying the zodiac chart, feeling his face turn red. The way Lily was looking at him made him feel like he was two inches tall. (But no one ever did that to him apart from her. No one could glare at him so and make him feel so stupid.)
Lily shook her head and continued working. Sirius picked up a book from the table and idly flicked through it, yawning hugely.
"Finished," said James sleepily, after a while. "Do you need to copy it too, Sirius? Sirius?" he turned. Sirius had fallen asleep in the armchair, the book lying open on his chest.
"Oh…" James groaned. Lily looked up from her work.
"Oh…is he asleep?' she said softly.
"Yeah," said James. He got to his feet. "Oi! Wake up, Sirius!" he shook his friend by the shoulder.
"Sod off…" Sirius murmured, and turned over.
"You can't sleep out here, idiot!" James said, shaking him again. 'Sirius. Yoo-hoo, Sirius! Wake up you great prat!"
But Sirius remained asleep, despite James' violent shaking.
"Just leave him there," said Lily. "The fire's still going, he won't get cold."
James raised his eyebrows. "You want me to let him sleep in a chair?"
Lily shrugged. 'What's the problem?" She frowned at him. "You're making a lot of noise. I need to concentrate, all right?"
James rolled his eyes at her and continued trying to wake up Sirius. 'Sirius, wake up! Wake up!" he took a deep breath and put his face close to Sirius' ear. "WAKE UP SIRIUS!"
Lily jerked, causing her quill to go all the way up the page, drawing a neat line through all the work she'd just done.
"Oh, no!" she exclaimed, leaping to her feet. "Oh, look what you made me do!" She slapped herself on the forehead. 'Now I have to do it all again, and it's due in a week! Oh…" She sat down heavily in her chair, hand over her eyes, apparently distraught.
James stared at her in disbelief. "Are you…all right?"
Lily brought her face up savagely, sniffling. "No, I'm not all right! That took me so long to write, and it's two whole rolls of parchment, and…" her voice broke form tiredness and she leant her head on the desk, groaning.
"Calm down," James said. "Let me have a look." He picked up the parchment. "Jeez, it's really not that bad. Look, I'll teach you a spell."
He picked up his wand again, and said, "Erasario." The tip of his wand started glowing. He then traced along the line Lily had accidentally drawn with the tip of his wand. The line disappeared.
"See? Nothing to it." He handed her back the parchment.
"Oh." Lily said. She looked slightly embarrassed. "I've never heard that one before. Um…thank you."
"No problem," said James quietly. He held her gaze for a few seconds. (How he loved the colour of her eyes. They were so green…)
Lily, embarrassed, sat down quickly and tucked her hair behind her ears quickly. James sat down again as well, and twiddled his wand between his fingers. He looked at Lily. Feeling his gaze, she glanced up, but then back down to her work. Several minutes ticked by in silence, with the two of them glancing at each other. Finally, Lily couldn't take it anymore.
'What is it?"
"Huh?"
'Why do you keep looking at me?" she frowned at him. "It's very distracting."
"Sorry," said James, shrugging. More silence. Then;
"What exactly are you still doing down here?' Lily snapped irritably. 'Why don't you go to bed?"
James gestured towards Sirius. "I can't leave him down here by himself. I'll just wait until he's awake." He tilted his head a little and looked at her. She was looking at him quizzically.
"Tell me something, Evans…" James said, suddenly curious. "Why do you work as hard as you do?"
"What?" Lily said.
"I mean…look, obviously you're a smart, um, girl, so why do you feel the need to stay up so late every night, scratching away with that quill?"
"It's called work," she said frostily. "I don't suppose you've heard of it."
"No, I don't suppose I have," said James, laughing softly. Lily frowned at him.
"So how do you manage to pass, then?"
"Hmm?" he said, lazily sending swirls of purple smoke into the air from his wand.
"How do you pass? I've never seen you do any study, but you…you still manage to turn out top grades!"
"Grades as good as yours, you mean?" James said, grinning at her.
She raised her eyebrows. "Don't be an idiot. You know as well as I do you get the best grades in the year."
"Well, so do you," said James graciously.
"That's only because I work hard!" Lily said, thoroughly exasperated. James laughed softly again, and she glared at him. "You are so annoying!"
James sat up straighter. "That was very rude," he said quietly. "You really want to know why I manage to pass?"
"I would like to know…yes…" she said softly.
"It's because I know I'm smart enough to handle it." He shrugged. "So I don't gotta worry."
"I can see that," said Lily dryly. He looked up at her, and she was smiling, very faintly, but it was there. (Even at midnight she was pretty. How did that work?)
"Maybe your problem is you're totally hung up about stuff," he said. "You've just got to relax sometimes."
"Relax," she said, mirthlessly, "hah."
James raised his right eyebrow at her. (He'd been practising that talent in his mirror for weeks). "Something funny about it?"
"Not at all," said Lily. "Ironic, really. I'm the one always telling my parents to relax. When they first heard I was a witch I had to work at them for at least a week for them to let me come here. Even now, they worry. They think the Wizarding world is so dangerous. I have to keep saying, "relax I won't get eaten by a dragon". Or, "Relax, I really do know how to transform petunia back from a fruit bat."
James started at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. 'Who's petunia?"
She grinned shyly. "My sister."
He laughed even harder. "Are you telling me, Evans, that you turned your sister into a fruit bat?"
"It was an accident!" she protested, "It really was, I was just practicing that cricket bats to real bats spell and she kind of…got in the way…"
Now James was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.
"It really wasn't that funny at the time.." she murmured, watching him laugh.
"But it's funny now!" James exclaimed. Lily grinned. She'd never thought of it that way, he could tell. Suddenly, she started giggling. Then chuckling, then full out laughing. For a while, neither her nor James could stop.
With a snort, Sirius jolted awake. "Hm? Wha? Whass so funny?' he said sleepily.
"Oh, good, you're up," James giggled, wiping tears from his eyes.
"What's going on?" Sirius yawned.
"Nothing," Lily said, brushing her hair off her face. "Sorry we woke you."
"'S'all right," Sirius said, getting to his feet. "I'd better go to bed anyway… Christ! Is that Zodiac chart thing due tomorrow?"
"Yeah,' said Lily, "but don't worry about it." She started packing up her things.
"What, you're going to bed?" Sirius said in disbelief, rubbing his tousled hair.
"Yeah, I'm kind of tired."
"Jeez." He glanced at his watch. "And it's not even one o'clock yet."
James and Lily exchanged a glance. Lily turned away first.
"I know, I just thought I should…relax a little."
"Well, you deserve it, Lil." Sirius said sleepily. "Goodnight."
"'Night Sirius…night Potter."