A/N: Thank you all who have taken the time to read and review. I do appreciate the feedback. As you can tell, this is another chapter that could, technically, be broken into much shorter chapters, but again, I am lazy and hope that the sheer length of it will make it worthwhile.
Disc.: I didn't create anything beyond the plot.
Quidditch Players
The first years sat in the common room while the elder Slytherins stood in a straight line. They all looked so serious and aloof. It seemed unnatural. Lily, Shale, and Kate glanced at each other, worried. Lily raised an eyebrow at Shale as one of the seventh years stepped forward and started preaching the pride each one of them was to feel for being a Slytherin.
"To be a Slytherin means knowing that you are better than everyone else," she said. Lily watched as the seventh year's face never showed even an ounce of emotion. "You have a duty to be the cool, distant personification of Salazar Slytherin."
The seventh year paced between the older Slytherins and the first years, acting as if she was a drill sergeant. Lily fought not to laugh as she, the seventh year, walked with her arms straight and stiff. To Lily, she looked like an uptight robot. Shale covered a snicker in a false sneeze, which left Kate and Lily coughing to keep from laughing. None of the older Slytherins found it very amusing.
"You three," the seventh year said as she singled them out. "Step forward."
"Yes, ma'am," the three mumbled as they broke ranks with the other first years and stood between the two groups. The seventh year paced and circled the three, huddling together under her criticizing eye.
"These three are poor excuses for Slytherin representation," she said loudly, startling the three. "They are sloppy, look at the wrinkles in their shirts. There are ink stains on their hands. They slouch. Slytherins do not slouch, we do not stain our hands with ink, and we would not be caught dead leaving our dorms with wrinkled, sloppy clothes. We represent the image of Salazar Slytherin, and I daresay he'd be disgraced with the likes of you three standing in representation."
"Yes, ma'am," the three answered quite reluctantly, seeing that the seventh year demanded a response.
"You, Potter, have to be more Slytherin than the rest of us, because we all know we belong here," the seventh year sneered at Lily. "You are going have to work harder, be a better Slytherin. You already have two detentions against you, which is shameful, especially this early in the school year. That is behavior unfitting of a Slytherin. We never get caught when we are performing the eradication and torment of lesser beings."
"Not to interrupt, Johann," Scorpius spoke up, causing the seventh year to jerk her hate-filled glare from the small first year. "But the whole lot of them are going to get into trouble if they don't leave for their Astronomy lesson, and that'd not look good for any of us. People would think we can't manage to teach our first years time management skills."
"Too right, Malfoy," Johann said as she looked him. Her face was back to its calm, unaffected state as she looked and spoke to him. She turned back to the first year student. "Go and we will continue this later."
Lily ate breakfast, tired from the social lessons the elder Slytherins decided to dump on the first years in addition to their normal homework. If that wasn't bad enough, she had spent the better part of the night squinting through the eye piece of an old telescope and drawing her star charts. It had been far more boring than she could have ever imagined. Shale and Kate had agreed that Astronomy was almost as bad as History of Magic. The three were nodding off, grumbling already that school was a pain.
Lily didn't even bother to pay much attention to the owls bringing the mail until one of them dropped a scarlet colored letter in front of her, nearly knocking over her pumpkin juice. Lily picked it up curiously, staring at it. It was addressed to her in her mother's handwriting. The thing began to tremble in her hand and Lily glanced up at her brothers curiously to see if they too had received the same odd letter. Before Lily could open it, Scorpius jerked her up off the bench and pushed her through the doors of the Great Hall into the foyer.
"What do you think…?" Lily started in on him as the letter sprung to life.
"LILY POTTER! HOW DARE YOU get TWO detentions YOUR FIRST DAY!" The letter screamed at her in the shrill, irate voice of Ginny Potter. Lily felt her face turn fire engine red as she cowered behind her hands. She heard the Great Hall go silence to listen to the howler Mrs. Potter sent her youngest. "If you're not ready to be as school, I will pack your belonging myself and bring you home straight away. You are a Potter and you darn better start acting like it or so help me Merlin, Lily; I will come down there and straighten you out."
The letter caught fire in mid air and ashes rained down on the Front Entrance Foyer's floor. Lily looked at the pile of ashes, her eyes wide and her face feeling like it was on fire. She peeked between her fingers of the hands she had covered her face with at Scorpius standing there with a smirk on his face. She groaned and turned away.
"We all get Howlers eventually," Scorpius said reassuringly. "In fact, I know I received at least three last year and between your brothers and that boy cousin of yours, they got ten. Don't be so embarrassed."
"Everyone was sure to hear," Lily groaned as she slumped on to the nearest bench and tightly covered her face.
"Yeah, probably," Scorpius said sitting next to her. "Better out here, though, than in there. That way everyone's eyes aren't on you."
"Instead just you," Lily moaned as shook her head. Scorpius laughed.
"It's all right," he said. "We're housemates. Had you been in any other house, I'd have laughed at you right along with the rest of them."
"They're laughing at me?!" Lily asked horrified, jerking her hands from her face.
"Nah, I was only messing with you," Scorpius said. "We Slytherins have to stick together."
"She sounded so mad," Lily mumbled.
"Yeah, she did," Scorpius confirmed. "She'll get over it and so you know, you don't have to act out to fit in at Slytherin. I know we get this whole rap that we're all evil and what not, but honestly, we're like any other house. We have some really normal people, all who are over shadowed by a few. I'd be safe to say that you getting detention isn't something you'd normally do."
"No," Lily admitted. Scorpius grinned and stood.
"Now get up, straighten your spine, and walk back to your breakfast as if nothing even happened," Scorpius commanded. "Part of being an excellent Slytherin is looking as if nothing affects you."
"And does it?" Lily asked as she rose to her feet.
"Naturally," Scorpius said grinning. He lowered his voice so that only she could hear. "We can't let them know it though, now can we?"
"No, I guess not," Lily said. Scorpius raised an eye brow at her and she added a little more forcefully. "Of course not."
Lily walked slowly back into the Great Hall, ignoring that quite a few people had turned to whisper and point. She plastered on a look of indifference and headed back to her spot. Neither Kate nor Shale mentioned Lily's departure or return, and the three did a great job pretending that anything at all had happened. The three finished their breakfasts and headed out to their first class of the morning.
Lily sat in the common room tired as could be Friday evening after dinner, trying to remember whose detention she had that night and whose she had Saturday night. Shale and Kate looked up from their homework that the three had started together, some paper for Transfiguration. Lily had already completed it and was trying to figure out where she had the detention. Shale bolted upright.
"I have detention tonight too!" he exclaimed. Lily looked at him wearily.
"As does Kate, yes, but where, Shale?" Lily asked. Shale's face fell and he leaned back over his paper.
"Mr. Filch," a voice said quietly from another table in the common room. Lily and Shale glanced over at Scorpius with Nott and a few other people.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Mr. Filch usually doles out the detentions," Scorpius said. He checked his watch. "You three might want to get a move on it and try not to lose anymore house points. It'd be nice to not just hand the House Cup to Gryffindor."
Without a further word, Shale, Kate, and Lily headed out of the dungeon in search of Mr. Filch for detention. The three found him in the trophy room with a bucket and a rag. Kate was immediately set to work shining the cups that had gathered dust since the last student got detention, all without magic. Shale was next dispatched to the kitchen to help scrub the pots, kettles, and pans from dinner. Lily followed Mr. Filch out to the greenhouse to meet up with Professor Longbottom. Since she had two days of detention, she was turned over to his care.
"You know, Lily, your parents and I go way back," Professor Longbottom said. "I was really surprised to see you get sorted in Slytherin, but I assume everything happens for a reason. Anyways, tonight and tomorrow we will be de-horning the Horn-Tipped roses."
"De-horning?" Lily asked hesitantly as Professor Longbottom handed her a pair of gloves and a set of gardening sheers. He nodded and led her to a smaller greenhouse.
"These Horn-Tipped Roses have these little thorn-like appendages that they use to defend themselves with. They sting like a bee sting if they stick in you, and before they get much bigger, we remove their horns. Eventually they will bloom blood red and we will harvest the flower petals. They have great medicinal properties," Professor Longbottom said. He pointed at a bucket and donned a pair of gloves himself. "Watch me then you can take over."
Lily watched as Professor Longbottom grabbed the branch of the first Horned-Tipped Roses and wrestled it a moment before clipping off its violent purple horns. They made a tiny thud in the bottom of the pail and Professor Longbottom released the branch. He nodded to Lily and left her to her work. Lily frowned and started the task of de-horning the roses that seemed pretty confident that they wanted to keep their horns.
At ten, when it was time for Lily to go to her Astronomy class, Professor Longbottom came to retrieve Lily. She had completed about half of the plants and was looking rather banged up from what the Professor could tell under the glow of the light. Her arms were scraped and one of the plants had bitten her arm. All of her injuries were minor and she looked like she was sorry she ever acted up. Professor Longbottom sent Lily on her way, telling her to be back there the next night at the same time to finish up.
Lily slid into her seat in the Astronomy tower just as class began. Kate was filthy from head to toe and smelled like silver polish and lemons. Shale was damp from the soapy water and his fingers were all prune wrinkled. Lily thought that at least he looked clean and Kate smelled clean. Lily smelled like dirt and sap, thanks to the Horn-Tipped Roses. She hated them.
By the time class let out, it was late, and nearly curfew. The three Slytherins joined their fellow Slytherins on the rush from the tower back to the dungeons. Kate and Lily ignored those who were milling around before bed time and instead gathered their belongings to hit the showers before curfew. The two girls slipped out of the portrait hole and sprinted up to the showers, thinking that if they hurried, maybe the water wouldn't be too cold.
Shivering and chattering, but clean, the girls sprinted back to the common room, making it just in time for curfew. They headed in as the prefects headed out for night rounds and Lily expelled a deep sigh of relief, grateful that she had made it and wouldn't earn another detention. They saw Shale sitting with a few other first years and he waved them over.
"We were thinking, since the third years and up will be off at Hogsmead tomorrow, we could arrange a mini pickup game of Quidditch out on the pitch," Shale informed them.
"You in, Potter?" a first year boy name Zane Natalia asked. Lily shrugged and nodded.
"Yeah, I'm in," Lily said.
"You any good?" Zane asked. Lily smirked.
"I guess we'll see tomorrow, now won't we," Lily said. She thought a minute. "We're going to play five on five?"
"Yeah, no seekers and only two chasers," Shale explained. Lily nodded.
"Sounds decent," Lily said.
"You goin' to be able to play, even with your detention?" Kate asked.
"Yeah, no problem," Lily said. "I have detention tomorrow night, removing the horns from stupid roses."
"You mean removing the thorns, right?" Zane asked. Lily grinned and shook her head.
"No, I mean horns. These stupid roses have HORNS," Lily said holding up her arms. "And the darn thing bit me too."
"That'll teach you to act up in class," Darla sneered. Lily laughed.
"You were the one who got me to throw the tuber root," Lily said. The table burst out in loud laughter.
"That was pretty funny," Darla admitted as she rubbed her eyes. "The way that last one bounced."
"First years, bed time," Professor Perkins said as he stood in the middle of the Slytherin common room. Reluctantly, the first years climbed to their feet and headed toward their dormitories. None really wanted to be sent to bed before midnight, especially on a Friday night, but they had little choice.
The first year girls spent a good portion of the night laughing and talking until Professor Perkins and one of the female prefects came in to the dormitory and demanded that the girls please go to sleep. Snickering in the dark, the girls finally settled down and went to sleep. Lily sighed happily as she snuggled into her covers. She looked at the bed drapes as the watery windows glowed with the iridescent fish and electric eels that swam by. She really was where she belonged, a member of the Silver and Green.
The Slytherin first years barely made it through breakfast before they jumped out of their skins and ran to the pitch. It was unseasonably warm as the ten Slytherin first years mounted their brooms and picked teams. Girls against boys, they started to play, Lily as a chaser with Darla. The teams were balanced; each team had the same amount of unskilled fliers. It gave everyone a bit of balance when it came to playing and made sure that the boys didn't have an unfair advantage.
The girls were up, 110 to 80, when the Slytherin Quidditch team arrived to practice. The kids stopped in midair, a few colliding with each other, sending the first years into fits of laughter. It was decided that without the Snitch, there'd be no way to say who would have won and let it be a girls' victory. The official team waited patiently as the first years rounded up the bludgers. The first one was easy to catch and retain to the case, but the second one seemed hell bent on remaining out of the box eluded the beaters as they tried to wrangle it.
"We've got it," Zane and Shale said as Kate nearly fell off her broom for the third time in so many minutes. She went to land gently on the ground next to Lily, who was patiently waiting with the other chasers. Forgetting to ease up, Kate crashed into the group, sending them all to the ground.
"Heads UP!" everyone shouted. The group looked up to see the bludger heading straight for them. Without thinking, Lily grabbed the bat from Kate and knocked it as hard as she could away from them, right towards the Slytherin Quidditch team. It slammed right into two of the teams' players, knocking them both to the ground. The captain seized the bludger and forced it back into the case before attending to his players.
The seeker, Nice Bradshaw, was out cold. The other player, Scorpius, a chaser, struggled to sit up and catch his breath. Everyone looked at Lily with contempt as the two players were whisked off to the hospital ward. Lily hung her head as she and the other first years headed back inside the castle for an early lunch in silence. They sat around, looking rather sweaty and defeated.
"Way to go," the other houses had cheered when they entered the Great Hall, having already heard that Lily had single handedly practically killed the Slytherin seeker. After lunch, the first years attempted to visit the injured players but were sent away by Madame Pomphrey.
"Haven't you done enough?" Celeste accused. "You single handedly practically handed Gryffindor the house cup, Potter."
"I'm sorry!" Lily said genuinely. "It was coming right at us."
"Better it hit you then to take out two of our players," Celeste said as she stalked away with the other players. The first years scooted off before they endured the wrath of the older kids.
"Well, I'm glad that you hit it away from us," Kate said. Darla nodded.
"Yeah," Lily said as she shoved her hands deep into her pockets. "I guess I'd better go eat dinner before I have to go to my detention."
Lily headed to the greenhouses slowly, still feeling bad about the whole Quidditch thing. Professor Longbottom sent her straight into the greenhouse to de-horn the roses. She was tired from Quidditch and found that some of the older roses were too sneaky and got the better of her a few times. She stood up, her pail full of horns, and went to find Professor Longbottom. He looked at her sympathetically.
"Take this box up to the hospital wing and give it to Madame Pomphrey," Professor Longbottom said. He wrote a little note. "See if she'll clean up some of your scrapes."
"Yes, sir," Lily said struggling with the box.
"And, Lily, try to stay out of trouble," Professor Longbottom said.
The air was cooler than it had been in previous nights as Lily headed back up to the castle. She headed straight to the hospital ward with the box for Madame Pomphrey. She took the box from Lily and clucked disapprovingly at the child. She pulled the curtain straight and instructed Lily to sit while she prepared a salve for her wounds. Lily wandered a bit, peeking in on Nice as he lay unconscious in the bed, his head taped up. Lily frowned as she patted his hand.
She hesitated as she looked at Scorpius. He was shirtless, his chest taped up along his lower ribs. She felt heat rising to her cheeks as she looked at him, though she couldn't explain why. With two older brothers, a cousin, and countless other men in her life, she had seen plenty of shirtless male chests. Still, this was different. She couldn't explain it, but she felt that this was very different. She let her eyes travel over the length of his exposed torso, a contemplative look on her face. Her hands were near his as she leaned closer, frowning as she stared to see if he was breathing.
"You shouldn't stare," Scorpius said in a whispered voice. Lily jumped, nearly knocking aside the small table. Her face turned bright red.
"I was only checking to see if you were breathing," Lily said quickly. Scorpius smirked at her and nodded.
"Well, as you can see, you failed at killing Bradshaw or myself off," Scorpius said. He tried to sit up more but cringed.
"I honestly wasn't trying to," Lily said emphatically.
"I was just teasing you, Potter," Scorpius said as his hand went to his ribs. "Hell of a hit, though, if I do say so myself; I think that you broke me."
"I'm so sorry," Lily said. He tried to shrug but it caused a sharp pain to shoot through him. "Has he come to yet?"
"Yeah. He'll be fine in a couple of days," Scorpius said as he patted the bed. Lily took a seat on the edge, the furthest from him. "Just in time for the game against Gryffindor, he'll be back to his old, prick self. The thing you have to remember, Potter, we are invincible. Slytherins never let anything keep them down. Bradshaw's a seventh year. He's practically immortal."
"Yeah," Bradshaw moaned from his side of the dividing curtain. Lily blushed a deep red, for having patted the boy's hand. Scorpius grinned, seeing the youngest Potter looking quite uncomfortable there with them.
"Miss Potter! I daresay you are trouble indeed, perhaps worse than your brothers combined! Coming in here and waking patients that you sent here injured in the first place," Madame Pomphrey said shrilly. Lily jumped up off the edge of the bed, her face on fire with embarrassment. "Perhaps a week of detention will finally get through to you."
"Madame Pomphrey, please," Lily begged, her hands clasped in front of her.
"I called her over," Scorpius said quickly.
"What?" Lily and Madame Pomphrey both said in unison.
"I saw her sitting there and I asked her to please come over," Scorpius said quickly as he struggled to sit up. He gasped slightly at the pain that shot through him and cringed.
"Heavens why?" Madame Pomphrey asked as she helped the boy.
"I needed her to go feed my cat, Ash. I knew I'd not be able to do it, and since Potter is a housemate, she could make sure Ash got fed," Scorpius said.
"Is this true?" Madame Pomphrey asked looking at Lily skeptically, her hands on her hips. Lily nodded, her face blank.
"Yes, ma'am," Lily lied flatly. "I just need to know where Ash's food is and where to find him."
"She's probably sleeping under my bed," Scorpius said. "Her food is in my trunk. Can't miss her, she's all white like I said and Damon can help point her out."
"I can manage, Malfoy," Lily said.
Madame Pomphrey looked at the two of them skeptically but figured that Scorpius had no reason to lie or to cover for Lily. She sighed and nodded, finally agreeing that what he said must have been true. Bradshaw was dead silent, pretending to be asleep so to keep up the ruse. Madame Pomphrey handed Lily a small container.
"Dab this on your scraps," she said, sighing.
"Yes, ma'am," Lily said quickly, taking the container. Lily turned to leave.
"Oh, and Potter," Scorpius called to her. She turned back to look at him.
"Yes?" Lily asked expectantly.
"Remember Ash likes to scratch a bit, not that you'd be able to tell with what that plant has done to you," Scorpius said. "I do appreciate you agreeing. No one else would get ten feet of the demonic cat."
"Uh, no problem," Lily said hesitantly as she left the hospital room.
Lily knocked on the third year boys' dormitory, almost hesitantly. She had caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and agreed that should a cat attack her, it would go unnoticed with the way that the stupid plant had decided to carve up her face, neck, and arms. Thankfully they were superficial and the ointment that Madame Pomphrey had given her should take the sting out of them.
The door swung open to a very tall boy standing there, looming over her. He looked slightly amused to see Lily standing there, trying to look taller than she really was. He crossed his arms expectantly and leaned against the door frame. Lily hesitated before she flashed him what she hoped was a disarming grin. He hesitated, a slight smile on his face.
"Malfoy asked me to come and feed his cat, Ash. Said that Damon could point the thing out to me," Lily said. The smile fell from the boy's face and for a second she was certain that she saw fear in his eyes.
"I'm Damon, and the demonic cat is over there," he said stepping aside, pointing at the large for poster bed by the under-water window. Lily felt a funny twist in her stomach. His bed was placed exactly where hers was in the first year girls' dorm. She loved looking out the window at the underwater wildlife. It was like having an aquarium by the bed. The trunk was closed, unlocked, and there was a cat perched upon the top of it. Aside from its huge, round stomach, it was lithe and trim.
"Don't know how much you could need to eat with that pot belly you have," Lily murmured at the glaring cat.
"Good luck feeding it, Potter," Damon said from the door. "That beast is a freaking demon cat. I've seen it go after blood."
"Swell," Lily said. She was standing about five feet from the cat with the most intense eyes she'd ever seen. "Nice, kitty. Good Ash. Lily only wants to feed you."
The cat hissed at Lily, throwing an extended clawed paw at her. Lily glanced around looking for something to throw over the cat but the floor was unnaturally spotless. Groaning, Lily edged closer. The cat began to growl slightly, its hairs standing up on the back of its neck. Lily continued to move closer until she was half a foot from the cat. She contemplated knocking the cat off the top of the trunk.
Glancing behind her, she could see that Damon was watching carefully from a safe position. Lily thought a moment then dug around in her jeans pocket, pulling out a piece of gum. She shoved it in her mouth and blew a small bubble. With her wand, she cast the levitation spell and the cat was transfixed with the pink bubble floating around. Lily sat down on the trunk, continuing to make the bubble with the motions of her wand while petting the cat gently with her right hand.
The cat looked at her immediately as Lily murmured to it, stroking the pure white cat. Lily glanced at Damon, who looked quite tense and on the edge of his bed as he watched. Lily continued to gently stroke the cat, and almost in a thunderous way, the cat begun to purr. Lily let the bubble land in the waste paper basket as Ash purred and climbed onto Lily's lap, nuzzling Lily's neck and face with its own small face. Lily lifted the pot bellied cat gently, and placed her on Scorpius' bed. Lily opened the trunk and fished out a bowl full of kitty kibble for Ash. She used her wand to refill the water bowl; pulling off the spell she had seen older kid use without much mess or difficulty.
"Demon cat, indeed," Lily laughed as she closed Scorpius' trunk. She petted the cat as it ate, Ash practically growling as she purred for Lily. Lily grinned at Damon on her way out. "Demon cat, really."
"She really is!" Damon called as Lily closed the dorm room door behind her and headed to her own dormitory to rub on the ointment and go to bed.