Third Year: Of Best Mates and Enemies
It was awfully quiet today, and not just because she was in the library. Ever since lunch ended, Hogwarts seemed devoid of life. Even in the Gryffindor common room, which was usually packed full on Saturdays such as today was empty. As she turned the next page of her book, she was struck with a sudden thought. "It's not the Quidditch playoffs between Slytherin and Gryffindor today, is it?" Lily leaned over to whisper to Severus, who was busying himself with his Potions essay.
"There was something like that" he mumbled, preoccupied.
"Didn't you say you wanted to watch?"
"That was before Professor Slughorn assigned the essay" he replied casually, still not looking up from his essay. Also, he had decided to stop going to those things ever since James Potter had become a permanent part of the team. The arrogant prick did not need another reason to tease him.
'Enjoyed my show on the pitch, did you?' James Potter and his moronic friends had cornered him in the courtyard the other day to poke fun at him because they had seen him watching Quidditch practice, 'Bet you wish you could ride a broom' his mocking words rang deep and clear in his head.
It wasn't like he couldn't. Every first year was given basic knowledge on broomstick flying and from there on, anything you do with a broom was from your own practice and skill. But no matter how hard Severus tried, he could never seem to find ease in handling a broom like James had done on their first flying class. He eventually gave up practicing for fear that the Marauders might catch him, they would never shut up about it then.
"But that essay is not due until next Friday. Surely you can leave it aside for just one more day?" she sounded hopeful, Lily never suggested procrastination to anyone. Could she actually be interested in the match?
"You wouldn't perhaps want to go and watch the game, would you?" Severus finally looked up from his parchment to look at her suspiciously. Something Potter had said to him after catching him at the practice game came back to him 'Bring your lady mate with you next time, will you?' he had grinned his arrogant grin and mocked him as if he were the King of the world. He hadn't thought much into it, allowing it to bounce off of him like any regular insult, but now that Lily had reminded him of it. His only girl mate would be Lily, and Potter never seemed to leave them alone whenever he was with her. It was unsettlingly curious.
"I am a tad curious of the result. This is the deciding match for Gryffindor after all," the redhead replied meekly
"Are you sure you don't just want to watch Potter and his excessively fancy flying on the pitch?" Severus retorted bitterly before turning back to his homework.
"That's not even funny, Sev. You know he doesn't need any more air going into that inflated head of his. I'm surprised he can even lift off the ground, what with all that excess ego weighing him down."
"There's no competition for today's match anyway. Slytherin's going to win for sure this time." Severus muttered. Lily took no offense in that, she wasn't much of a Quidditch follower, anyway.
"Why so?" she asked, just for the sake of it. And also because it seemed like Severus wanted to tell her exactly why his house was the better one.
"Some pure-blood aristocrat on the Slytherin Quidditch team had his father buy Nimbus 1700s for everyone, compared to the old Cleansweep models that the Gryffindors use, theirs are much faster."
To his surprise, Lily giggled. "Even so, the Slytherins can't buy a new set of skills. I don't think a new set of broomsticks would drastically increase Slytherin's chances with Gryffindor" she reasoned thoughtfully.
Suddenly bitter that Lily was suddenly praising Gryffindor's quidditch team, he wondered if she realized that she had just indirectly paid James Potter a compliment. James Potter, the arrogant, boastful, trouble-making, king of the twats. His sworn adversary.
"Though, I suppose we could just have to wait for the results. I suddenly feel like doing my Potions homework as well. D'you have an extra quill, Severus?" she spoke absentmindedly as she closed her book and moved to return it to its rightful shelf. This was alright, spending time with Lily like this was all he needed.
…
As it turned out, Lily's faith in her House's Quidditch team was not for naught. James Potter had scored the last goal before Slytherin's seeker, Regulus Black had caught the snitch. However, even with an extra 150 points, Gryffindor had led by 10 points thanks to James' last goal. Because of that, it felt like every Gryffindor in the school, whether it be his junior or senior, had come to praise him. All except one.
There was always that one exception. His lovely redheaded exception. The beautiful yet persistently stubborn Lily Evans had yet to come about with her feelings for him. He was just about to go find her after the crowd had died down around him when he spotted her in the corridors, walking side by side with none other than Severus Snape. Their shoulders brushed with every step and she occasionally turned to look at him as she spoke to him about god-knows-what. This was blasphemy! He had just won the Inter-house Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor, just about to grace her with his presence and yet he found her with… with that! Fraternizing with the enemy! This was an act of treason!
Someone had apparently noticed him standing gobsmacked in the middle of the corridor and slapped him encouragingly on the back "You should be celebrating, mate! We just won the Inter-house cup!" Sirius cheerfully joined him, and when James didn't budge an inch, he traced his best friend's line of sight to the chummy dysfunctional duo of friends. It was no secret within the Marauder circle that their James had a massive crush on the Gryffindor model student; the ever rule-loving, Ms. Lily Evans. "Shall we mess with them?" Sirius nudged James' arm, and this effectively gained the quidditch hero's attention.
"Go for it"
Lily was in the middle of telling Severus the reason why the antidote for common poisons would not be effective in counteracting the Venomous Tentacula juice because although the poison itself was not a fatal one, that did not mean it classified as a common poison in Potions terms. Just as she was waiting for Severus to retort, like he always does, something, or rather someone had rudely bumped into her shoulder in the midst of making a path between her and Severus, causing her grip on her books to falter but just as she managed to stop them from falling, someone else crashed into her arm with less force. She heard the telltale sound of heavy books hitting the concrete floor and looked up just in time to see James Potter laughing at them with Sirius by his side.
She ignored them, turning to help Severus pick up his books before turning her head to shoot James her most annoyed glare. But there was no guilt in James' eyes, instead one corner of his mouth had tugged upwards to present his signature smirk of conceit. She should've known it would be them and from the looks on their faces, she didn't think they were going to apologize for that. Driven by anger, she stalked up to their sniggering selves after helping Severus with his books and snapped angrily in James Potter's face.
"You're a right foul git, you know that?" despite her harsh words and menacing look, her voice was soft and tender. Like her personality. James had thought.
"Maybe you lot wouldn't have gotten hit if you had been paying attention to more important things," James countered snootily.
Lily caught the underlying meaning in his words and she turned a rosy shade of red from fuming. "Like what? You?" she scoffed "Give it a rest, Potter. You just don't like the fact that I'm not kissing for feet for Gryffindor's win like everyone else. Well get this, whether you like it or not, the world doesn't revolve around that big head of yours even if your ego is as big as the sun!" by the time she had finished yelling at him, her face was considerably closer to his.
Without another word, she turned sharply on her heels, effectively whipping James' face with her fiery red hair. Despite her harsh tone and insults, James found himself unable to process anything pass the glowing green color of her eyes as she glared at him and the smell of her shampoo. Sirius had once again broken him out of his Lily-trance by chuckling next to him and they both watched as the Gryffindor and Slytherin walked away in the opposite direction, still together.
"Well, that's that. How do you feel now, mate?" Sirius asked him.
His dark haired cousin simply answered with a grin "Loads better" for he knew for a fact that Lily was probably complaining about him to Snivellus as they spoke.
…
Of all times the Slytherin members decided to take notice of him, it had to be now when he's finally agreed to go to Hogsmeade with Lily. She had been pestering him about it since the start of third year despite him constantly telling her that there was nothing there for them. However, she had insisted, claiming that she's seen her roommates of Gryffindor tower come in with the most interesting confections and shared some with her. Since then, she's been dying to find the store that made the holy sweets.
They were cornered whilst on their way to the entrance of Hogsmeade and the worst part was when they approached in a group. They were all seniors from the looks of it, Severus didn't know most of them, only that their ringleader seemed to be the sixth year: Narcissa Black; the younger sister of the infamous Bellatrix Black and her seventh year boyfriend, Lucius Malfoy; a vain and cruel child of the prestigious Malfoy family. His cousin, Vanus Malfoy was supposed to be in their year but when he had failed to be sorted into Slytherin on his first year, his parents withdrew him from the school. Rumors say that he was currently studying in The Durmstrang Institute.
Although the year groups were usually rather segregated in Slytherin, as a member of the house himself, Severus was not oblivious to the cruel tyranny that these notorious duo were known for. They spoke ill of anyone short of pure-blood heritage and had an especially strong distaste for muggle-born students, which placed Lily at risk of being subjected to their bullying. Now that they've been spotted together, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor, Severus was sure that they would undoubtedly play a large role in making his life in Slytherin a living hell. Especially since their hate for Gryffindor increased ten folds after Slytherin's embarrassing quidditch defeat.
"Well, what do we have here? A traitor and his mate?" Lucius' tone was severe and filled with disdain. Lily and Severus both stiffened and resisted the urge to shuffle backwards as it would only give them more reasons to torment them. "An unlikely pairing but an eyesore nonetheless" Lucius commented with no filter of his distaste.
"Interrupted something, have we?" Narcissa sneered. Her beautiful face, Lily thought, contorted with the ugliest expression. Out of blind panic and instinct, the redheaded Gryffindor reached out a hand to snag Severus' robe sleeve. "Oh no, Lucius. I do believe we've frightened the two dearies." She looked at her significant half with the falsest look of concern Lily has ever seen.
Lucius regards Severus with cold, calculative eyes. "Slytherin has no place for filthy mudblood-loving-"
Almost after Lucius uttered the forbidden word, Lily heard the sound of a spell being launched and felt it fly past her head to hit Lucius squarely on the forehead, effectively halting his sentence. Narcissa, on the other hand looked positively scandalized with her slack jaw and widened eyes. Moments later, Lucius' head began to swell to impossible sizes but with magic, nothing was impossible.
"Not another word, Malfoy or I'll do a hell lot worse."
…
James hadn't thought about the consequences when he hexed the silver haired Slytherin prefect with a Head-swelling Hex. In fact, the only thing in his head at the time were the incantation words Engorgio Skullus and his anger towards the group of Slytherins.
"What are you doing, James!" he vaguely heard Peter squeak from his side.
Indeed, even with the arrival of his mates they were sorely outnumbered by the Slytherin seniors. Not to mention their group mostly consisted of sixth and seventh years. In terms of power, they would be over shadowed as well. But James haven't a shred of worry for his own safety, he was much too angry for that. How dare the pompous supremacist twat refer to her as such when she was ten-times the wizard he was. Lucius Malfoy would pay for it, it didn't matter how many enemies he made. He knew he was fast enough with his reflexes and smart enough to cast a shielding charm. The Slytherins could all go to hell.
And chaos followed.
Harmless bat bogey hexes and melofors jinxes eventually turned to disarming charms and stunning spells on Slytherin's end. James had dueled alongside Sirius and Remus whilst Peter hid in the sidelines, throwing poorly aimed hexes at the opposition from time to time. He had to thank Remus later for making them practice the shielding charm in the privates of their dorm.
"What is going on here?"
Just as James had ducked a potentially dangerous jinx, a loud voice resonated throughout the walls of the corridor, effectively evoking a ceasefire. He turned to see Lily and Severus following behind a very angry Professor McGonagall. A weight seemed to have been lifted off his chest at the knowledge of Lily unharmed but annoyed that Mr. Greasy was in similar condition.
"That went well" Sirius laughed next to him despite having leeks sprouting from his ears while Remus simply groaned at the idea of another detention. Except this time, they would potentially have to serve it with a group of very angry Slytherins.
And yet, James did not regret his decision for a second. Even if it did cost him his trips to Hogsmeade for the rest of the year. It was a different case for his mates, however.
TBC
