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Thanks to eVille and keaneplay for their reviews and help.

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Three days into term, and things were not going well. This was the greatest understatement ever for Lily as she pegged it through the corridors towards her transfiguration class. At least, she hoped she had transfiguration now, it wouldn't be the first time she'd ended up in the wrong place. Outside the classroom she paused, then pushed the door open slightly and peered inside.

"Ah, Miss Evans, glad you could join us."

Lily stepped inside the classroom. "Sorry Professor, I got lost."

"Maybe next time you could stay with your classmates and follow them to your lessons."

"Yes Professor." Lily decided it wasn't a great time to tell Professor McGonagall that she'd only got lost because she'd taken a detour into the girls bathrooms on the way up from Potions.

"Right. Take a seat Miss Evans."

Lily hurried to the back row, and the only empty seat she could see. Sliding into it she turned to find herself sitting next to Sirius Black.

"Alright Lily?"

"Black, stay quiet at the back there." Professor McGonagall turned her wrath on him as she heard him interrupting her second lesson on transfiguring matches. Lily nodded to him and pulled her wand, a quill and parchment out of her bag.

Soon enough, Professor McGonagall set them to work trying to transfigure their matchsticks into needles. Sharing a match between them, Lily soon worked out that Sirius was much better at talking than he was at working.

"So Lily. Why were you late? Really?"

"I got lost."

"Right." Pause. "Don't you trust me?"

"Trust you with what"

"Why you were late?"

Lily frowned. Boys did this, didn't they? Acted like complete idiots then somehow managed to make you look stupid in front of the entire class. Well she wasn't falling for it this time, not when she was trying so hard to make friends with these people.

"I. Got. Lost." She enunciated slowly and clearly. Got it? Now, you try with this matchstick thing."

"You didn't really get lost though, did you?"

"I don't know what on earth you might mean, and I don't really care." Well, Sirius could be an exception to the making friends rule for today.

"Well Miss Evans, Mr Black, we don't seem to have made much progress with our needles now, do we?" Professor McGonagall had crept up on them. "Shall we have a go now?"

"Ladies first." Smiled Black; Lily was tempted to punch him.

"Confidence, Mr Black?" Smiled McGonagall menacingly. "Maybe you'd like to show the rest of the class how it's done."

Sirius paled slightly, but only for a moment. Rolling back his sleeves, he cleared his throat and waved his arms extravagantly. Lily attempted not to giggle, aided by McGonagall's stern gaze.

Sirius completed his 'spell' and promptly vanished under a cloud of black smoke.

"Perhaps not, Mr Black. Miss Evans, your turn."

Professor McGonagall handed Lily a new match and turned her gaze on her. Lily could feel her face warming up and tried to ignore the stares of some of her classmates, who had clearly decided that this was more interesting than attempting the same with their own matches.

Lily tried her hardest to copy what McGonagall had showed them at the end of the last lesson, but by the end of the spell she wasn't entirely convinced she had done anything to it.

"Impresive Miss Evans."

Lily dared to open her eyes. The match appeared to be made of metal.

"That's the hardest part over with; the shape is all you've got left to work on. Well done." She then addressed the whole class. "We'll do more next lesson. With the exception of Miss Evans and Miss Brandon, everyone needs to practice for homework. Especially Mr Black."

The rest of the class left, giggling at the idea of Sirius getting into trouble. Lily left with them, well aware that he was watching her leave, probably not with the happiest expression on his face. Her first idea was to head for the library; she had a bit of charms homework to finish anyway. She turned down an emptier corridor she thought headed to the library and proceeded to try and guess her way there. Ten minutes later she was forced to conclude that she did not know her way around Hogwarts at all. She was hopelessly lost and hadn't seen anyone else in at least three corridors. And the corridors around Hogwarts were long!

Getting a little worried, she decided to go back the way she had come, turned round and headed for the stairs she had just come down. As she did, a figure came out of a doorway on her left. Neither Lily nor the Professor saw the other, as is often the case when you do not expect anyone else to be around and are wrapped up in your own thoughts, and so crashed straight into each other.

Lily's first knowledge of this was being knocked to the floor by a person much larger than herself.

"OH!" The Professor exclaimed. "Sorry about that, didn't see you coming down there my dear! Let's have you up." And, reaching down and taking hold of her arm, he hoisted Lily back onto her feet. "Are you alright?"

Lily nodded quickly.

"Oh don't look so scared. Get a bit lost down here did you?"

More nods.

"Right. You don't look alright, come into my office for a bit."

And before Lily could protest, her had propelled her into his office, sat her by the fire and pushed a glass of pumpkin juice into her hand.

"Come on then, what's your name?"

"Lily Evans."

"Well Miss Evans, I'm Professor Slughorn. I don't think I've had Gryffindor yet this year so you won't know me yet, but I'll be your potions teacher." He paused. "Where were you headed in such a hurry out there anyway? You can't have potions today; we've run out of time in the day!"

"The library, sir."

"The library? Got a bit lost then did you?"

"I think so, sir."

"Not half, you won't find the library down in the Dungeons here. Where did you come from?"

"Transfiguration, with Professor McGonagall."

"Oh dear, yes you're very off course Lily. Never mind, I assume you'll want to go up for dinner now?"

Lily glanced at her watch, it was later than she'd realised.

"Yes sir."

"Oh enough with the sir, we're not in a lesson. I can see I'm not going to have any trouble with you in our potions lessons! Hop up then and we'll head along to dinner."

Lily followed him out of the office, which locked itself behind them, and followed Professor Slughorn down the corridor until he stopped abruptly by a painting on the wall.

"Sherbet Lemon." He said clearly to it. Lily linked in surprise as the painting swung open. She thought it was only the common room entrances that did that!

"Best not tell anyone about this Miss Evans," commented Slughorn with a twinkle in his eye. "There are more passages in this school than even the headmaster can count, so we use the ones we can, but I don't think Professor Dumbledore would be too happy if every student started to traipse through his classroom."

Suddenly the duo found themselves in a classroom, very much like the one Lily had been in for transfiguration not so long ago. A wall hanging moved to cover the hole they had emerged from, and Lily realised that nobody could find it unless they knew it was there, or fell through it by accident or something.

"Right, Miss Evans, dinnertime!"

As Slughorn flung the classroom door open, Lily found herself right next to the dining hall. She paused, eyes wide open.

"Everything alright Lily?"

"We were down in the dungeons a minute ago…"

"Ah, the wonders of Hogwarts. It is not our place to question, only accept that we can get to dinner faster."

And with that he strode into the great hall, with a small wave over his shoulder to Lily, who would have stayed there all evening in shock if Sev had not appeared in her line of view, surrounded by friends.

"Sev!" She called. He looked back, and then motioned for his friends to go on without him. When they had gone through the doors, he met her halfway across the entrance hall, pulling her over to the side out of the way of some fifth years.

"Lily!"

"Where've you been? I've been looking out for you."

"Yeah, I'm spending a lot of time in the common room with my friends. We're a bit late cos were playing exploding snap."

Lily was taken aback. They never talked about other friends. At her old school, Lily had never even mentioned her friends to Sev. When they were together, nobody else existed. She didn't say anything. Sev didn't seem to notice.

"How come you're late?"

"I got lost looking for the library and had a chat with Professor Slughorn in his office and he showed me a really cool passageway through the school into that classroom." She pointed behind her.

Sev looked excited. "A Secret passageway? I thought the others were exaggera-"

He stopped abruptly as a group of Slytherin girls hurried past, one of whom stopped. She looked Lily up and down, and sneered.

"You coming into dinner Sev? Or staying with your, friend?"

Lily didn't like the pause before friend, or the tone this girl was using, or the look she was giving her. In fact, Lily didn't really like this girl. And she got the feeling this girl didn't like her. She also got the feeling the gap before friend was emitting the word 'mudblood', just like the last time she'd tried to talk to Sev, leaving the great hall after the sorting that first day.

"Hey, Sev, wait up."

Sev dutifully waited, and so did two of his new Slytherin friends.

"What's up Lil?"

"Nothing, you alright?"

"Yeah, this is Bellatrix and Lucius by the way." He gestured to his friends, who took this as an invitation to join the conversation.

"You're a Gryffindor?" Bellatrix accused. Lily wasn't sure if she should answer, but went with a truth policy so it couldn't come back to haunt her.

"Um, yeah."

"What houses were your parents in?"

"They didn't come to Hogwarts."

"Drumstrang? Beauxbatons?

Lucius and Bellatrix exchanged glances as Lily simply looked confused. Lucius then exchanged a glance with Sev. Lily didn't like the way this conversation was going.

"Bella and I will be going now Sev. Are you coming? Or staying with your," he paused, sneering, "mudblood friend?"

Sev looked shocked, and then regained his composure. Shooting an apologetic look at Lily, he mumbled "coming" and followed his friends up the stairs without looking back.

Lily stood there with tears in her eyes. For the first time ever, Sev had just chosen other people over her, even after they'd used that word. That word Sev had promised he would never call anyone, Because, she'd said, he was too nice for that.

And here it was, happening again. Was Sev really going to choose this new girl over her? After everything he'd promised her this summer? Lily hadn't thought she'd lose him this quickly, even after everything that had been said in the Gryffindor common room about how evil Slytherin were.

Yet here they were. But for how long?

"Yeah I'm coming. I need to eat!" Sev patted his stomach jokingly. "You coming in Lily?"

"I'll follow you in." She choked.

He hadn't chosen her. Sev was never bothered about his stomach. Ever. She watched them vanish through the doors before backing into the classroom she had come out of not so long ago, tears streaming down her cheeks.

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