SUMMARY: Lily has always lived a shadow, whether it was her brothers' or her father's. So when she finds herself with the enemies of her brothers, how will they take it? And what about Scorpius Malfoy, who always seems to have an eye on her? Lily goes through drastic changes in perspective, and she starts to wonder, are her brothers really the Golden Boys everyone says they are?


NOT JUST A POTTER

Rejection of the Worst Nature

Two weeks later, Lily woke in her dorm to find Remus next to her, a letter attached to his leg. As soon as she awoke properly, she untied it.

Lily,

Yes, Albus and James did write to us saying that you'd been Sorted into Slytherin.

Of course we're not angry with you, princess, how could we be? Albus was partly named after a Slytherin and that man was one of the greatest men I've ever met. I know you're going to brilliant, princess. It doesn't matter what house you are in. As long as you are happy, then we are happy.

Write to us soon,

Dad

Lily could help but feel sad at the letter. Not at the words, but because her brothers didn't feel the same way at all. She sighed to herself, folded up her letter and headed down to the common room. She still had an hour before breakfast and she wasn't bothered about getting dressed yet, so she wandered downstairs in a small pair of shorts and one of her band t-shirts that was slightly too big for her. She swept her red hair into a messy ponytail and entered the common room.

She made her way over to the black piano that stood in the corner of the room. Lily loved to play – she had done since Albus had left for Hogwarts. With him out of the house she'd needed a way to distract herself, and she'd taught herself to play. She sat down in front of the piano, opening the lid and taking in the familiar smell that she loved so. Her fingers tapped the keys in a pattern, and before she knew it she was lost in the music.

"Hey, red!" Lily jumped, hearing a drawling voice. Scorpius Malfoy stood on the other side of the common room, and was now making his way over. "What are you doing up?"

"Woke up early." She shrugged, surprising herself with how comfortable she was around him, even in her pyjamas. He was also in his, wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a black t-shirt that he'd obviously just pulled over his head. Lily couldn't help but notice the way his muscles jumped through his shirt. "What about you?"

"I'm always down here at this time." Scorpius shrugged back, flopping down on the black leather sofa. "You play?" He nodded towards the piano.

"Yeah, a little bit."

"Sounded like more than a little bit, red." He smiled at her, and Lily blushed. No one called Lily 'LilyLu' now, because even though he himself had started the nickname, Scorpius chose to call her 'red'. Scorpius seemed like the leader around here, just like James and Albus were like the leaders in Gryffindor. Lily couldn't decide whether she liked being called 'red' or not. She'd always wished to have her father's black hair instead; she found it more appealing than her own.

"Scorpius, can I ask you a question?" She said hesitantly. It was something that had been on her mind, and she decided to just ask him.

"Sure." He shrugged.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" As soon as she said it she realised how pathetic she sounded.

"What do you mean? Would you rather me beat you up or something?" Scorpius' brow furrowed as he assumed a puzzled expression.

"No, no, it's just… well… I know you don't really like my brothers, and I thought that 'cause I was a Potter too that you might've, I don't know, not treated me as nice as you have. If that makes any sense." She rolled her eyes at herself.

"Red, you have to remember that your brothers are tools. To me, anyway. And to anyone else in Slytherin. You're not. You're fun." He said after thinking about it for a moment. Lily laughed.

They sat talking for a while until they both knew it was time for them to go back upstairs and get dressed, ready for breakfast. Upstairs, the other girls were just waking up. Effy looked up when Lily walked in, but was evidently too tired to say anything. She groaned while heaving herself out of bed and Lily rolled her eyes at her. The girls dressed quickly dressed into their school robes, and hurried down to the common room. Down there they met Jay, the boy who Lily had met on her first day at the Slytherin table. Lily noticed the way Jay looked at Effy, and it was obvious the way he felt about her. Apparently obvious to everyone but her, as she seemed oblivious to the way his eyes lit up when she looked or spoke to him. Lily made a mental note to question Effy about it later.

Lily and Effy sat down with Scorpius, Adrian, Alice, Paige, Grace, Jay, and their friend Elliot Fowl. Over the last fortnight, Lily had noticed Elliot eyeing her up a lot. It unnerved her slightly, but she could not deny he was attractive. In fact, he was more than attractive. He was hot. Lily had seen lots of girls look at him in the way that he looked at her. He either didn't notice this or chose to ignore it. But he definitely had his eye on Lily, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

She looked up from where she sat at the Slytherin table and her eyes found her brothers. They were sat next to each other, as per usual. Suddenly, James turned his head sharply and his eyes locked with Lily's. She stared right back at him, not being able to tear her eyes away. Neither he nor Albus had spoken a word to her since she was sorted into Slytherin. Lily tried to convince herself it was just because they were busy and maybe they hadn't noticed her, but she knew she didn't really believe that. She felt her tears well up in her eyes at the sight of her elder brothers. Why wouldn't they speak to her? She answered the question herself.

Because they thought she was the enemy.

Of course they did. James had always hated Slytherins, and whatever James did Albus did too. They hadn't done anything to her. Nothing like that. They hadn't even acknowledged her existence. That was what bothered Lily. It was like they didn't care about her anymore. They treated her as if they didn't know her. As if as soon as she'd been put into Slytherin, they'd stopped being family and they started to be strangers.

James still stared at her, evidently not being able to look away. Lily thought she saw a flicker of guilt flash in her elder brother's eyes. It was gone in a second, and he turned away from her, his face stony once more. Lily tore her eyes down to her breakfast, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore. Tears clouded her vision, and it took everything she had not to let them fall.

"Lil? What's wrong?" Scorpius asked, his big grey eyes full of concern.

"Nothing." She lied.


There was one girl at Hogwarts that Lily knew to stay away from. Stella Skeeter. Well, her name was actually Stella Brown, but she went by Stella Skeeter so everyone would recognise who she was. Her mother was Rita Skeeter, who worked for the Daily Prophet. Lily's Aunt Hermione had choked on her drink when it was announced that Rita Skeeter was having a baby.

"What poor man would want to have a child with that old hag?" She'd exclaimed, causing Lily's father and her Uncle Ron to nod in agreement.

Stella Skeeter knew everything about everyone, and she had lots of ways to get dirt on people. She knew who was friends with who, and, more importantly, who wasn't friends with who, and anything to do with anyone important got passed on to her mother. Lily's family situation was just the thing Stella would love, so she tried to stay out of the girl's way. Unfortunately, being a Potter wasn't ideal when you were trying to stay unnoticed for a while. Stella had managed to corner Lily just as she was heading down to lunch.

"Lily! I've been dying to meet you!" She exclaimed, her blonde curls bouncing upon her shoulders.

"Er, hi." Lily replied awkwardly.

"So, what's going on with you and your brothers? Is it true you haven't spoken?" She spoke rapidly, diving straight into what she wanted to know.

"Er, I haven't really seen them enough to talk to them…" Lily said, telling Stella the lie that she'd been telling herself.

"You're avoiding each other?"

"No… no, that's not what I meant…"

"Why don't you want to speak to them?"

"I do… that's not… that's not what I mean, we've just all been so–" Lily tried frantically to undo the damage.

"Are you afraid how they'll react?"

"I… what?" Stella's lips curled into a smile, obviously realising how close to home she'd just hit.

"You know, the Golden Boys of Gryffindor's sister gets put into their enemy house with all of their rivals. You've got to be worried what they might think."

"I… I… er… I don't…" Lily stammered, trying to come up with something that didn't confirm it, but her silence established it anyway.

"Do yourself a favour, Skeeter, and fuck off." Scorpius appeared out of nowhere, coming to Lily's defence. Stella looked absolutely terrified at the thought of being on Scorpius' bad side, and scarpered off quickly. Lily smiled at her retreating figure, knowing that Scorpius would never beat up a girl, and would never instruct anyone else to.

"Thanks." Lily grinned at her rescuer.

"No problem, red." He winked at her, making her laugh. People passing them in the hallway threw them confused looks. Lily knew it was strange for Scorpius Malfoy to be hanging out with a first-year, but for her it didn't seem so unusual. She counted Scorpius as one of her best friends, and she knew he thought of her as his little sister. They grinned at each other, making their way down to lunch together.


"When does Quidditch training start, James?" Lily heard Albus' voice around the corner.

"I think Thomas said tryouts were next week…" James said, and Lily could practically see him shrugging and ruffling his hair. "It doesn't matter; we're still going to crush those snakes." He added, a disgusted tone to his voice that hurt Lily a little more than she thought it would. She took a deep breath and rounded the corner, Effy's arm linked tightly with her own. She intended on walking straight past them, but it seemed they were both coming around the corner at the same time, and Lily and James stumbled into each other.

"Fuck!" Lily heard her eldest brother swear. "Are you–" He stopped, noticing who he'd bumped into. "What do you want?" James sneered at her, shocking her. She blinked at him, not knowing what to say. "Well?" He demanded, snarling.

"What are you doing here, Lily?" Albus said quietly.

"I was just going back to my common room." Lily replied in a small voice, not bothering to ask where they were going.

"Right."

"Al, why are you talking to one of them?" James sneered.

"James, what are you talking about?" Lily said, her voice louder now.

"She's a snake, Al." He said, refusing to look at her.

"I'm your sister!"

"It's Lily." Albus responded, a look of utter confusion crossing his features.

"It's a Slytherin." James snarled.

"I don't get it." Albus threw his hands up in perplexity, shaking his head.

"Yeah, neither do I!" Lily practically yelled, "I'm your sister! What's wrong with you? I haven't changed! I'm still Lily! You're going to start hating me just because I'm in a different house to you? Wow, James, pathetic much?"

"See! You're already changing!"

"Really? Because to me it seems like you're the one who's changed, James. I haven't done anything except get sorted into a house, and you've turned on me. Brilliant, James, way to show the family love." Lily's voice cracked and she bit back the tears that were clouding her vision.

"You're already different! You've been with them," James threw a nasty look at Effy, "for just two weeks and you're already acting like one of them!"

"I'm not acting like anything! I'm just being me. My friends can accept that, why can't you? You're supposed to be my brother!"

"This isn't how you're supposed to be!"

"How am I supposed to be then, James? Am I supposed to be hanging on your every word like your so-called friends? Or should I call them your fan club? Am I supposed to pretend to be someone I'm not just to fit in with you? Who am I supposed to be?"

"You're supposed to be a Gryffindor!" He blurted out. "And now you've disappointed everyone." His voice was dangerously low. "Even your own father is disappointed in you. You've shamed your entire family."

Lily couldn't stop the tears now. They rolled down her cheeks rapidly, and her chest tightened. She took a deep breath. "You know what? I'm sorry you can't accept me, and I'm sorry that it has to be this way. But I'm not and I will never be sorry for being myself." She barged past her brothers, dragging Effy with her.

They walked in silence back to the common room, Effy's arm around Lily's shoulders. They entered the room and headed straight to the chairs by the fire. Effy let go of her and Lily huddled up in the armchair, bringing her knees up to her chin and rocking back and forth. Lily felt a warm weight on her shoulders and knew who it was almost immediately. She buried her head into Scorpius' chest and sobbed.

"It's okay, Lil." He whispered to her, pulling her closer towards him. "It's all going to be okay."

He wrapped his strong arms around her small frame as her body shook.

"I believe you."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Okay, so I've been writing this for the past five days. I've rewritten it like fifteen times in that time, but I've finally written it like this. I'm not sure whether you'll like this one, because it's just a bit of a filler to establish the James/Lily/Albus thing and to see how the Scorpius/Lily relationship is at the moment.

Please review!

thanks guys,

beccasophX