Chapter One

The morning of September second was always unpleasant. Lily had thought this every day since her second year and today was no different.

When she was in her first year, she hadn't been bothered by the fact that she had to wake up earlier than she had all summer. She was thrilled to be at Hogwarts, surrounded by other people like her. The idea of finally being able to learn how to control her magic had made her so excited that she'd hardly been able to sleep. She had been nervous after the Sorting the night before, of course, since the only people she recognized from her house had been mean to Severus on the train, but she quickly became friendly with several other people in her year. It had also helped that the first class she'd ever had at Hogwarts was Charms with the Slytherins, so she had at least one friendly face to sit next to.

When her second year had rolled around, she wasn't nearly as excited. She had loved taking the train up to Scotland and seeing all her female friends again on the first, but by the second the excitement had worn off as the realization that she had another ten months of classes and early mornings dawned on her. Third and fourth year were much the same, while last year was only marginally better with the newness of being a Prefect giving her mood a boost.

This year, she was back to her groggy self. Between staying up chatting with her friends the previous night and being accustomed to another two hours of sleep, she was not ready to wake up yet. She hoped that the first period class would be something she wasn't taking, so she would have more time to wake up.

She had made her way down from the dormitory with two of her close friends who were also in Gryffindor, Aurora and Claire. As they walked in Lily looked around, trying to spot their other three friends. She was able to spot Naomi and Pippa at the Hufflepuff table quickly, sitting next to a few of the other girls who were in their year as they piled breakfast onto their plates. At the Ravenclaw table, Liv was laughing next to a mixed group of boys and girls from the upper classes.

The three Gryffindor girls sat down on the long, wooden benches, walking down so they would be well away from the professors' elevated table. They found a spot that was several yards down from a group of nervous looking kids who had to have been first years and sat down, tossing their bags at their feet.

On Lily's right, Aurora let out an exaggerated yawn. "I don't know if I should hope for a class this morning or not. On one hand, a free period means I can sleep in on Thursday mornings all year. On the other hand, I got up now and a free period would mean it was all a waste."

"I'm sure McGonagall will get here soon enough," Claire assured her, pushing her long blonde hair behind her ear. She reached down the table in the opposite direction of the scared first years to grab a copy of the Daily Prophet, discarded by a student who had clearly gotten up earlier than them.

Lily ate in silence with her friends for a few minutes before a few loud male voices came ringing behind her back let her know that James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had arrived. There were seven Gryffindor boys in their year, who had divided themselves into two cliques almost from the beginning. Even if she hadn't been able to place the voices, she would have known which group was approaching from the sheer loudness of their conversation.

The boys slid in around the three girls, dropping down book bags and laughing as they climbed over the benches. Remus sat on Lily's left while the other three boys sat by Claire on the opposite side of the table.

"We were just trying to figure out what class they're going to stick us with at nine in the morning on our first day back," Sirius said louder than was necessary, barely paying attention to where he was pouring his pumpkin juice. "Do any of you lovely ladies want to hazard a guess?"

"They'll probably pick something brutal, like Transfiguration or Ancient Runes," Aurora said.

Lily couldn't help but force back a smile. She had heard her best friend's theories about how whomever was in charge of scheduling purposefully placed the most difficult classes at the worst times many times over the last five years. "Rora, you aren't taking either of those," Lily said, raising her eyebrows.

Peter, who was sitting across from Aurora, asked, "Why did you decide not to take Transfiguration?" He stopped spreading jam onto his toast as he spoke, his voice much quieter than Sirius's had been moments before. Peter was often overshadowed by his friends, but he was usually easier to talk to.

"Didn't want to," Aurora replied with a shrug.

"More like McGonagall didn't want to take somebody who got a 'P' on their OWL," Claire muttered under her breath.

Across the table, James and Sirius exchanged a glance while sniggering. "You didn't seriously get a 'P', did you Gracin? Between all of us," he gestured to the people sitting around her, "Liv and Pippa how exactly did you pull that off?"

Aurora looked indignant. "Hey, I got an 'A'! Not all of us can be geniuses."

Luckily for her, the newly appointed Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, moved over to their group then, with a stack of parchment that would soon have their timetables. "Professor, is it true that she," he pointed at Aurora, "got an 'A' in Transfiguration, or did she get a 'P'?"

"Mr Black, you know just as well as I do that I am not at liberty to discuss another student's grades with you." As she handed a piece of parchment to him, she added, "I suggest that you spend less time bothering the other students and more time focusing on your school work."

Sirius grumbled as he took his timetable. He had only glanced down at it for a moment before he groaned. "History of Magic first thing on a Friday morning!" Looking around at the others, he asked, "Who is going to be suffering with me?"

He was met with silence. He was still complaining – and cursing – about it a few minutes later, when McGonagall had moved further down the table to the next group of students. James and Peter moved the food out of the middle of the table, so the seven Gryffindors were able to put their timetables down to compare them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see Remus peering down at her schedule. "It looks like you and James have five of your six classes together."

"That can't be right," Lily muttered, pulling James's timetable across the table so she could compare it to hers. Unfortunately, it looked like Remus was right. The only thing that was different between the two of them was that she was taking Care of Magical Creatures while James was taking Ancient Ruins. Fridays were the only days she would be free of him, because the rest of the week was packed with Herbology, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Potions.

"You must be insane," Aurora said as she placed her schedule beside Lily's to compare. She had a much lighter class load because she was only taking Herbology, Charms, and Defence Against the Dark Arts as her core subjects. She had also chosen to take Muggle Studies, which she had gotten an 'O' in thanks to having a Muggle father, and Divination, which she had proven to be surprisingly good at bullshitting in.

"I'm going to need them all if I have any hope of getting into school to be a healer," Lily said defensively. "If you don't mind me asking, what the hell do you expect to be able to do with your classes?"

"No idea," Aurora replied as she reached for an apple. "I'll figure that out as I go."

Lily couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friend. Planning things out had never been one of Aurora's strong suits. She had tried to help her through their OWLs the year before, but Aurora was not especially interested or invested in school.

The rather large group was finishing up breakfast when they were joined by the girls' other three friends. The two Hufflepuffs, Naomi and Pippa, came first and were followed almost immediately by the Ravenclaw, Liv. The three Gryffindor girls excused themselves from the table and made their way to the Entrance Hall.

"It looks like you were all having a civil conversation," Pippa said. She seemed somewhat surprised by this, and Lily didn't miss the pointed look in her direction.

"They haven't had time to be annoying yet," Lily said with an exaggerated grimace. "I'm sure it won't take them long though."

"You have to admit they can be funny," Aurora said, looking up at her best friend. When they were all standing around together, it was obvious that she was by far the shortest of the group. She was an inch shy of five feet tall and after her last birthday, she seemed to have given up on ever hitting that mark.

"You just think they're so funny because you have Quidditch with them," Lily said.

Aurora shook her head. "Or maybe it's because I wasn't bothered by the fact that they teased Snape relentlessly for the past five years," she countered.

Lily froze. She had been managing to do a pretty good job at pushing what had happened last year out of her mind and she couldn't help but feel grumpy that Aurora had brought him up, even though she knew that they couldn't avoid the topic of him forever. "Maybe."

"Still a touchy subject?" Pippa asked, touching Lily's arm gently. "Would you like us to avoid talking about him for a bit?"

Lily smiled at the brunette. She was one of the sweetest people that Lily had ever met and fiercely loyal; she was a true Hufflepuff. "I can't avoid him, or the topic of him, forever."

"In that case, we can always recruit the guys into annoying the hell out of him," Liv said with a mischievous smile. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

"Definitely not." Peter's voice came behind them. Turning around, Lily could see that he had a big grin on his face. "That's been an ongoing project for the past few years, but it would be nice to finally have your approval about it."

Behind Peter, Remus was trying somewhat unsuccessfully to hide his smirk while Sirius wasn't bothering to keep his grin secret. James looked somewhat uncomfortable at the conversation that was occurring around him, with one hand in his robe pocket and the other running through his hair. Lily guessed that he was worried about saying something either way, since he had been victim of her outbursts frequently when he had bothered Snape.

"Is that true Potter? You're being awfully quiet?"

James shrugged. "Yeah. I mean, we haven't decided otherwise."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Of course it's the plan. I think he just wants to make it through the first twenty-four hours of the school year before you bite his head off."

Pushing up the sleeve of his robe to look at his watch, Remus grinned. "If you make it another two and a half hours, you're in the clear."

"Ha, ha, very funny," James grumbled.

"Lighten up mate. At least you're not the one who has four early morning classes. And you don't have to go listen to Binns drone on and on for an hour and a half twice a week ever again. Waste of my life, I tell you."

"If you hate it that much, why did you take it?" Naomi asked.

Sirius shrugged. "I reckon for the same reason you are; it'll come in handy when I start working."

"What do you tend to get a job as exactly?"

A strange grin spread over Sirius's face. "I'm going to be a Muggle and Muggleborn rights activist or lawyer or whatever."

He was met with a lot of wide eyes and blank stares. "Oh Sirius," Naomi breathed. "Wouldn't that be dangerous given the… current climate?" She and Lily exchanged a look. Of the ten people standing around, they were the only two Muggleborns. Naomi's youngest brother had been sorted into Hufflepuff the previous day, but he was the only magical relation the two girls had between them. Even though Naomi was usually quite bubbly and happy-go-lucky, Lily knew that she had also been keeping close tabs on what was happening in the wizarding world. When the bad things were happening to a group you belonged to, it was kind of hard not to.

The others had less to worry about regarding their blood status. James and Sirius were purebloods, while Claire might as well have been since she was a part of the eighth generation of all witches and wizards in her family. Remus, Peter, Liv, and Pippa were all half-bloods, but they were all the children of a witch and a wizard. Aurora was also a half-blood, and even though her father was a Muggle her maternal grandfather had been a pureblood.

As much as nobody wanted to discuss it, it had become clear that something horrible was going on in the wizarding world. For the sixth year in a row they had a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, because their previous one, Muggleborn Gwendolyn Griffiths, had thought it was necessary to go into hiding as the school year came to an end. Lily knew that Sirius was well aware of this fact. It was impossible not to be, and he probably knew more about the other side than the rest of them coming from a family of, as he put it, "pure-blooded bigots".

"Dangerous or not, somebody has to do it," he said, seemingly nonplussed. "Anyway, it might give me another chance to argue with my family again."

Liv looked down at her watch. "We only have ten minutes to get down to the dungeons for double Potions," she said. "Lily, Naomi, you coming?" The two Muggleborns nodded and Liv said, "Anyone else? I know Pip and Aurora aren't taking it. Claire?" Claire shook her head and Liv turned to the four boys. "Any of you guys taking Potions?"

"Just Sirius and me," James said. He pulled his bag higher onto his shoulder and turned to his best friend. "C'mon mate. I want to make it through at least the first couple days before getting yelled at by a professor."

The room they had for Potions this year was different for the first time. As soon as she set foot in it, Lily could see why. The dungeon they'd had for the first five years had always needed to be big enough for nearly thirty kids between two houses, so there had been six round tables that could seat five crammed into the room. Apparently, a lot of people had dropped Potions because this room only had four tables in it, plus a desk for Slughorn at the front of the room.

Shortly after they had gotten settled, Slughorn bounded into the room. He was wearing robes made out of velvet and, in the gap in his robes, a burnt orange shirt could be seen stretching across his wide stomach. The professor greeted students as he walked to the front of the room, where he stood behind his desk.

Lily watched as he pulled three cauldrons out from underneath the table, placing them on top one at a time. Once he had three spanning the tabletop, Slughorn called all of the students to the front of the room.

There was a loud scraping of chairs as the students stood up and made their way to see what Slughorn had to show them. Once at the front of the room, Lily stood near the desk so she would have the best view of what was going on. Potions was her favourite course and, unlike some others, she liked having a double period of it first thing in the morning.

Slughorn looked around at the students in front of him. After looking them over, he offered a quick greeting before starting into questions about the three potions that he had brewed and had on display for the class. "Can anybody tell me what this is?" he asked, sticking a ladle into the first cauldron.

Lily hardly had time to get a glimpse of the clear potion being poured out before she could hear Slughorn's voice calling on somebody else. Even before he began to speak, Lily knew which voice she was going to hear. "It's Veritaserum," came Severus's voice, which she knew so well. "It forces the person drinking it to speak the truth."

Slughorn looked pleased. "Very good! And who can tell me about the potion over here?" Using a ladle, he lifted a portion of an extremely thick, almost chunky looking potion out of the middle cauldron.

Not waiting for Slughorn to call on her, Lily said, "That's Polyjuice Potion. It can make the drinker look like whoever's hair or other substance has been put into it."

"Right you are, Miss Evans," Slughorn said with a smile and Lily relaxed. She and Severus had always had a kind of playful competition when it came to Potions. She knew that it would continue, but the playfulness had disappeared from it.

Slughorn made his way to the third and final cauldron that was at the front of the room. The potion it contained was giving off spirals of smoke. "This is an extremely powerful potion," he began, "one that is to be treated extremely carefully. Who can name this one?"

Once again, Snape beat her to answering. "Amortentia," he said. "A love potion that smells different to every person, since it gives off the scents that they find most intoxicating."

"Right you are," Slughorn said. Lily grumbled something and he turned towards her. "What was that, Miss Evans?"

She felt her cheeks grow warm. "I said that it doesn't actually create love, because that is impossible, but that it actually creates a very strong infatuation that will eventually wear off."

"I'm glad to see that my two best students do not disappoint!" Slughorn was beaming. "Today, your assignment will be to create the Draught of Living Death. You will find the instructions for the potion on page ten of your textbooks. Today, the person who makes the best potion will be awarded a tiny vial of this, Felix Felicis."

"Liquid luck," Lily breathed at the same time as Snape. She looked at him and glared, which made the tentative smile on his face disappear.

"Right you two are. I must warn the winner that the use of this potion is illegal if it is used to influence sporting events, examinations, and the like. Use it wisely." His seriousness stopped, and he returned to his usual loud, perky self. "You may all begin."

For the rest of their double period, Lily worked as quickly as possible while maintaining accuracy. She didn't want to make the best potion to win the Felix Felicis as much as she wanted to win it to beat Snape and keep him from winning. By the time the period was up, she thought that she had made a good potion. At the very least, it was better than any of the potions the other four had made, but that was not surprising. She had been the only one to get an 'O' on her Potions OWL.

When Slughorn began making his way around the room, she started to get impatient. She was not surprised when he looked down at her potion and beamed. She knew that it was better than the other four that she could see, but she wasn't sure if it would be enough. She watched as he then went to see Snape's potion, secretly hoping that he had made some awful mistake and that his potion had somehow turned orange. Unfortunately, Slughorn's booming voice was congratulating Snape. "It is a very close call, but I believe that your potion is even better than Miss Evans's. Here you go Snape, twelve hours of luck. Use it well."

"Damn," Lily muttered, vanishing her potion and beginning to clean up her spot. She was tossing her copy of Advanced Potion Making into her bag when she heard Snape addressing her. "Thanks for the tough competition Lily."

"Oh, ha, ha, I lost," she snapped, turning around to face him. "Is that why you came over here, to brag about how your potion was better than mine?"

He looked taken aback. His dark eyes were wide and he opened and closed his mouth several times before speaking. "I was being serious." He seemed confused. "I just thought—"

"Well, you thought wrong," James interrupted. Deciding to let him deal with Snape so she could make a quiet escape, Lily turned back to finish putting my belongings into her bag. "She doesn't want to talk to you, so go hang out with your creepy little friends over there."

"Doesn't look like she wants to talk to you either," Snape said.

Lily gritted her teeth. "I don't need either of you to stand up for me, actually." As she grabbed a handful of ingredients off the table she told herself that she was nearly there. There were only a few more things left to put away and then she could leave.

James lowered his voice. Apparently, he thought that it was low enough that Lily was not able to hear him because he said, "I saw the way you were looking at her today when you were talking about how Amortentia smells like the person you have a thing for or whatever."

For some reason, this made Lily angry. She wasn't sure if it was because either of them could claim that he cared for her when he had called her a Mudblood or if it was the way that they were talking about her like she was either a thing to be won over. Or maybe it was that they seemed to have forgotten the fact that she was standing right behind them. Lily was just pulling her bag over her shoulder when she heard Snape say, "You say that like you haven't been staring at her for years. She's rejected you and told you to back off how many times but you still go sit beside her."

Lily had had enough. "You both need to just grow up," she said, glaring at both of them in turn. She them brushed past them, shaking off the hand Snape had placed on her arm to hold her back as she went. She could hear both of them call out, but she refused to look back at them.

She was still angry when she was making her way out of the dungeons towards the Entrance Hall a few minutes later. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even hear the heavy footfalls that came up from behind her until they were nearly right behind her. It was only when she heard a shout of "Lily!" that she finally turned around.

She slowed down as she looked over her shoulder. She saw James running through the crowd of people who were making their way to the Great Hall. He forced his way between a group of second years and said, "I didn't mean to make you upset," he said, as he caught up to her. "But can I ask, what exactly was it that bothered you?"

"I can stand up for myself," Lily said. "I don't need you to do it for me."

"I just wanted to help," James said.

"Well, you didn't need to mention that he was looking at me. Don't be ridiculous. Somebody like that could never like a Mudblood like me." She didn't like how close to her he was walking, but she knew that in a few minutes she could be eating lunch and free of him.

She was surprised to feel a tight grip around her forearm. She turned towards James to tell him off, but the look on his face threw her off for a split second, which was enough time to let him say what was on his mind. "Don't you ever call yourself that," he said harshly.

"Fine," she said, yanking her arm out of his grip. "But why do you care what I call myself?"

"Because you're so much more than just a Muggleborn Lily," he said with a sigh. He ran his hand through his already messy hair, before saying, "Just don't call yourself that."

"Fine," she said.

This seemed to appease James. At the very least, he let her go into the Great Hall without continuing to follow her.

Author's Note: Thoughts? Comments? I would love to hear what you think so far.