Chapter 2: Potions Class
"Please, Lily!" Severus pleaded, standing in the way of her leaving the Gryffindor common room. "Just let me explain!"
Severus had been standing outside the Gryffindor common room for thirty minutes, begging those who passed through the doors to retrieve Lily so that he could talk to her. After thirty minutes of waiting and wondering if Lily was simply ignoring the requests or if the Gryffindors hadn't passed on the message for him, Lily appeared at the doorway. Severus had twenty minutes to talk to her and apologize for what had happened on the Hogwarts Express before he had to make way towards Transfigurations class.
"Explain what?" Lily began, "explain how you lied to your shady Slytherin friends just to become popular amongst them?"
"No, it's not like that…" Severus began but was immediately cut off by Lily, who rolled her eyes at him.
"Yes, it's exactly like that! You lied to them! You couldn't tell them that I was YOUR FRIEND, so you lied about why you were interacting with me! I mean, what did they think all these years when we were hanging out together? Or are Muggle-borns invisible to them?"
"Please…I did it to protect you…" Severus pleaded, "I had to lie so they wouldn't harass you anymore than they did! I saw what they were saying was hurting your feelings and I just wanted them to stop!"
"Severus," Lily looked him dead in the eye, "What hurt me more than their insults was the fact that you had to lie to them about our friendship! Do you know how that makes ME feel?"
Severus stood there dumb-stricken, not knowing what to say. Finally, after several moments of absorbing what Lily had told him, he whispered: "I'm sorry…" Tears were forming in his eyes and he looked up pleadingly to Lily, who saw the remorse written all over his face.
"Sev…" Lily sighed. She hated always being the bigger person, "I forgive you, but I'm still upset at what happened. It wasn't okay and you need to stand up for our friendship because that's what friends do."
Severus nodded and they stood staring at each other for several moments before Lily pulled him into a hug. She tugged at a strand of his black hair while hugging him, "don't do it again."
"I won't…So, do you have Transfigurations right now?"
"Transfigurations?" Lily let go of him and pulled out her schedule, "No. I have Advanced Potions Class 1."
"Aw," Snape groaned, "I'm in Advanced Potions Class 2, which is tomorrow. Right now I have Transfigurations, it's starting in ten minutes…"
"I have to head over to Potions class right now. You heading that way?" Lily pointed to the west hall and he nodded as they began walking. They walked in silence for several moments before Lily broke the silence: "So, who were those creeps on the train?"
"Their names were James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and …"
Before he could finish, Lily shoved him playfully, laughing. "You know what I meant…"
"The Black sisters: Narcissa and Bellatrix, and Lucius Malfoy. They're all in my house…"
"I've never seen them before," Lily observed. Since their arrival at Hogwarts, she had been ignoring Snape and her mind was unexplainably occupied by thoughts of what had happened on the train and how that Slytherin girl, Narcissa, overwhelmed her curious senses in a peculiar way. But not wanting to make her curiosity blatantly obvious, she patiently waited until the perfect time to find out more information about Narcissa.
"Then you're lucky… They're not exactly the best people to hang around, especially if you're Muggle-Born. Narcissa and Bellatrix are born into the Black family and they're Sirius' cousin. That's why I told them about… spying on him while he's in Gryffindor," he hesitated looking at her ,but Lily was overwhelmingly curious about Narcissa nodded for him to continue, "The Black family is all about purity of Blood. They believe that pure-bloods should be taught Magic and actually believe that even half-bloods have a learning disadvantage when learning magic because of their Muggle side. I lied about spying on Sirius Black because I knew they would believe it. The Black family is afraid Sirius will tarnish their good name by associating with Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods, and they pray that he doesn't engage in a romantic relationship with one. It's all very traditional…"
"Right, so Narcissa and Bellatrix are sisters?"
"Yes, actually they have a third sister who I feel you would get along with. She's like me."
Lily eyed him suspiciously, smiling at what that could entail.
"You know, I'm friendly," Severus muttered, "Friendly towards Muggle-Borns. Anyways, her name is Andromeda and she's the middle child. Bellatrix is the oldest, but only by eleven months, and Andromeda is second. They're both seventh years. Narcissa's about a month short of a year younger than Andromeda and she's a sixth year, a year older than us…As for Lucius Malfoy, he's a seventh year and he's Head Boy of Slytherin House. His family's even worse than the Blacks! They believe…"
"Sev," Lily cut him off and pointed to the doorway that led to the dungeons where Potions class was held. He blushed at realizing he had talked the whole way. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"
He nodded and Lily opened the door to the descending stairs and made her way down to the dungeons.
Advanced Potions I was a class meant for sixth years, but since she excelled last year in Potions class and Slughorn was quite fond of her, he placed her in this class as a challenge to her academic prowess. She reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the doors to find the class filled with Slytherins. Within a moment, her gaze fell upon Narcissa who sat towards the front of the room next to an empty chair where she had placed her belongings on, clearly to ward off anyone else from sitting aside her.
"Ah, Miss Evans!" Professor Slughorn called out, "I'm glad you could join us!"
Everyone turned to face her and Lily's gaze momentarily caught Narcissa, before she turned in her seat. Professor Slughorn wore a big grin on his face, happy to find his favorite student walk through the doors. Lily looked around the classroom for any other empty seat aside from the one next to Narcissa, but all others were occupied. She lumbered her way towards Narcissa's table and supposed she should be grateful to not have to sit next to merely any Slytherin, but one she had met prior, despite the circumstances. The thought of Narcissa pulling her wand to Lily's throat crossed her mind but she shook the image out of her mind.
"Lily, why don't you take a seat next to Narcissa," Slughorn bellowed, stating what was obvious to everyone else.
Narcissa pulled her things off the seat and she didn't dare look at Lily, who watched her movements with careful precision: absorbing every detail. When the seat was empty, Lily sat down and Professor Slughorn began his lecture centering on a potion that cures food poisoning, which he insisted would never occur at Hogwarts as the Elfs are particularly well-trained Chefs. Lily pulled out her notebook and began taking notes on everything Slughorn was saying. Having to sit next to Narcissa meant she would have to brew the potion next to her and she very well wouldn't make a fool of herself. For an unexplainable reason, she wanted to impress Narcissa with her potion making skills. Not because Narcissa was pure-blooded and she wanted to prove herself a competent witch; that wasn't it. She just wanted… what did she want?
The lecture was overwhelmingly long and on many occasions, Lily could swear that she felt Narcissa's gaze fall upon her but she never turned her head to look. It would have been too awkward gazing to her left when Professor Slughorn was lecturing to her right. It would have been too obvious, and she didn't want to appear any more curious about Narcissa than was standard. After three full pages of notes, Professor Slughorn ended his lecture and prompted everyone grab the necessary ingredients and begin brewing.
"Excuse me," Narcissa said as she walked past Lily's chair. She was the first student at the front of the room and Lily half-watched her grab the ingredients while she, herself, pulled out her cauldron from her bag.
"Now, Miss Black, why don't you take an extra of each ingredient for Miss Lily over there?" Professor Slughorn suggested, wearing a large smile on his face as he said it and completely oblivious to the fact that perhaps Narcissa would loathe performing such a kind favor.
"Of course, Professor" Narcissa said and grabbed two of everything. She walked slowly back to her seat and nonchalantly placed them on Lily's side of the table.
"Thanks, Narcissa," Lily said. Narcissa didn't respond, nor even acknowledge that Lily had said anything.
Against her instinct to be confrontational, Lily let it go as she saw Narcissa had already begun working on her potion. It was within her nature to be competitive so Lily scanned through her class notes to make sure she understood everything before beginning on her own batch.
Behind them, Slytherin students were eagerly talking with one another about various topics, none of which were about potions, and it seemed blatantly obvious that Narcissa and Lily were awkwardly ignoring each other and remaining silent. Not that Lily minded since she had to focus on brewing the potion, but a ting of desire that had been there since their encounter on the train prompted her to spark up a conversation with the Slytherin, just to hear her melodious voice. She was about to ask Narcissa how her day was going, in an attempt to break the silence when Narcissa's cauldron exploded, releasing red mist into the air.
"Miss Black! What on earth is going on there!" Professor Slughorn called out from the other side of the room, "You're supposed to wait several minutes before adding the dragon's blood to the mix! It seems the potion is ruined! Well, I suppose you'll have to work with Miss Evans!"
Narcissa shot him a murderous look, which Slughorn had clearly not seen, before turning with a surly temper towards Lily.
"Well, let's get this over with, then," Narcissa scowled.
"Yeah," Lily agreed. "Alright, so right now we're waiting a few minutes before adding the dragon's blood. I've been counting the clock and so far it's only been two minutes. The book suggested seven minutes when I read the chapter last night and…"
"What a lark!"
Lily looked at Narcissa quizzically. "What do you mean by that?"
"That you actually read the chapter before the first day of class" Narcissa mocked.
"And that's why I'm prepared," Lily snapped, "If you'd have read the chapter, you wouldn't have screwed up your batch…"
"Don't tell me what I should do, Mudblood!" Narcissa growled, "Magic is part of my blood. I don't need to read about it…"
Lily glared at Narcissa with such fervid anger that the next words pouring from her mouth were icy quiet and piercing: "And this Mudblood is a better potion brewer than you, Narcissa. You're like a squib compared to me…"
"How dare you," Narcissa began reaching for her wand when Professor Slughorn appeared before them at their work station, smiling and unaware at their heated exchanges.
"Go ahead, Lily, teach Miss Black how to correctly brew a patch of the potions," Slughorn beamed. "She's quite good, this one is." Slughorn said and smiled at Narcissa while pointing to Lily. He was unaware of the anger etched all over Narcissa's face.
"So, it's time to pour the dragon's blood," Lily began describing everything she was doing out loud, completely ignoring Narcissa. "And now I'm going to stir the batch counter clockwise twenty times…"
"Are your Divinorum roots cut up, Lily?" Professor Slughorn asked, despite looking down at the untouched plant root on Lily's side of the table.
"No…" Lily stated aggressively. She hadn't had time to cut them because of Narcissa!
"Mine are, Professor," Narcissa stated sweetly and maneuvered around Lily. Slughorn beamed as Narcissa added her sliced up Divinorum roots to the batch. Lily eyed the finely cut pieces and tried to find something wrong with them, but couldn't.
"Right, so, I'm going to…" Lily realized as she glanced at her notes that the Divinorum roots are the last items to go into the potion. "Actually, that's it…"
"Right you are, Miss Evans!" Slughorn eyed the potion and gestured two thumbs up in approval. "It's a rather simple potion but delicate none-the-less, as Miss Black has discovered…"
Lily looked down at the cauldron to the bright pink solution. She pulled out stoppers from her pouch and began pouring so that she had a handful of stoppers filled with the potion. She reluctantly placed one on Narcissa's side of the table, which Narcissa did not take or acknowledge.
"Well done you two! Narcissa, you should stick with this one, Lily's got a knack for brewing potions! A real prodigy, she is!" He stated and then walked away joyfully.
When Professor Slughorn turned away, Narcissa grabbed her things and stormed out of the room leaving the stopper Lily had offered behind. Frustrated and angry, Lily retrieved the extra stopper and put it in her knapsack before cleaning up everything. "Thanks a lot," Lily whispered under her breath. She wasn't sure herself if the statement was addressed to Narcissa for being a bitch, or Professor Slughorn for assigning her to Advanced Potions I with Slytherins, or the fates of the Wizarding World for grouping her with such a vile individual.
One certainty that was absolutely clear: Narcissa was the first person that Lily has ever passionately disliked. What was it about Narcissa that Lily allowed her to get under her skin? She reached into her schedule and discovered she had a thirty minute break and sighed in relief. From such a stressful and upsetting day, she decided to treat herself to an afternoon snack and hurried towards the grand kitchen where she knew she could convince a house-elf to brew a mean ice-cream sundae.