AN:- At some point I'm going to finally reach Halloween. Until then enjoy more drama!

Chapter Eight: House Loyalties

Lily's mood stayed good for nearly a whole week after the food fight incident. Whenever Pansy made a snide comment or threw something at the back of her head, all Lily had to do was remember the girl screaming and crying as Snape removed the jam from her hair and it put a smile right back on her face. Draco Malfoy with cherry frosting running down his face and Snape sliding out of the Great Hall on his back were other highlights.

Her spell work improved immensely, and soon she was able to Aparecium invisible ink, buttons and needles, and could create partial outlines of larger objects like books and clothes. In Charms she mastered the tricky art of changing something's colour more than once at will, and could even control what colour she wanted. Herbology was a little tougher, but at least she hadn't tried to add a pint of water to dragon dung fertiliser and covered the greenhouse in horrible brown liquid like one of the Ravenclaw boys had.

But of course her good spirits couldn't last forever. She was still aware that if she actually spoke to Lisa and Sally then she would be right back in trouble with her Slytherin house mates, and while they had eased up now that she was no longer actively communicating with people in other houses, they wanted her to start making friends with them, an activity she considered only marginally less fun than History of Magic. History of Magic at least had occasionally interesting moments.

The week before Halloween Pansy launched her next round of bullying, a well-timed splitting charm depositing all of Lily's books on the floor of the Transfiguration classroom a minute before the lesson started. By the time she had finished collecting her things and sat down McGonagall had already given her a stern look for holding up the class. We're not even supposed to know the splitting charm yet, Lily thought as she sat, I guess causing me embarrassment actually gives them a reason to learn something.

On her way up to the Astronomy tower that night her foot slipped on something and she went careening back down the stairs, narrowly avoiding hitting Daphne on her way down. At the bottom, bruised and sore, she looked down at her shoe to see that there was something slimy stuck there. Climbing the stairs again, she kept her eyes down and saw where someone had left a patch of wet mud and the note, Careful not to slip, in Pansy's heavy handwriting.

Lily decided that it was time to make friends with Daphne properly. The other girl hadn't had quite so hard a time as her, but she knew that Daphne didn't really like Pansy or the others, so that was enough in common to start with.

The next morning she struck up a conversation with Daphne about their Charms homework, and agreed to meet her in the library later to study. Satisfied that she was finally getting somewhere, she headed to her classes.

At lunch she and Daphne met up in the library and got to work on the newest spell Flitwick had given them to practice.

"No," Daphne said for the dozenth time, "Flick, don't jab, and the swish should be, uhm, bigger?" She demonstrated, and Lily tried to copy her, but even she could see that her attempt looked more like uncoordinated flailing.

"We call it flourishing," A voice from behind them said.

They turned round to see Lisa sitting at the next table, her books spread out in front of her, she smiled at the girls, "There's actually some debate on it, but if you try doing it like this," She swished and flicked her quill, "Then it should work."

"How do you know?" Daphne asked, not exactly rudely, "We haven't even learned Wingardium Leviosa yet."

"Ravenclaw," Lisa reminded them, "We kind of read ahead most of the time, and I liked the idea of the spell more than anything."

"How can you like the idea of a spell?" Daphne asked. Lily thought it was fascinating to see the girl opening up so much. It looked like the best way to her was through intellectual questions and magic.

"Well don't you like some spells more than others?" Lisa had turned her chair round now so they could talk better, "Like transfiguration is really hard, but when you manage it you feel a sense of accomplishment?"

"I do like charms," She said shyly, "You can do some really interesting stuff with them."

"See," Lisa turned back to her books, "I just happen to like individual spells instead of whole branches of magic."

Lily wanted to say something, but at that moment she saw Pansy entering the library, and thought better of it, turning back to her work with Daphne, who now had a rather goofy smile on her face. "I don't think I've ever seen you talk to someone for so long," Lily said quietly.

Daphne blushed, "I just don't really know what to say to anyone. All the other girls are going on about how we have to beat Gryffindor, or they're listening to Malfoy going on about how they shouldn't let half-bloods into Hogwarts. And no one in the other houses will talk to me because I'm in Slytherin."

"So what do you like to talk about?"

"I like magic," There was something very childlike in the way she said it, "I just think that doing magic is really incredible, but everyone in Slytherin talks about how magic is supposed to be used to help you do things you want to do. Why can't we just learn about magic because we want to learn about magic?"

Lily could swear she heard Lisa laugh under her breath, but she chose to ignore it, "How did you end up in Slytherin?" She asked, "It sounds like Ravenclaw would have been a better fit."

Daphne shrugged and buried her nose into a potions almanac, "I guess my family name had something to do with it," She mumbled, "And I'm a pureblood, and all my family have been in Slytherin."

It was a depressingly familiar tale, "What are your family like?"

She considered her answer, "They're very old fashioned." She eventually said, "They believe in the roper way of doing things. They're not quite as uptight as the Malfoys, but they're not far off. My older brother is really bad. You've probably seen him talking to Draco, going on about how the old traditions need to be upheld because they're all we have left now."

"And what do you believe?"

"I don't know." Daphe was talking so quietly Lily had to lean in close and strain to hear her, "My parents aren't stupid, so I don't think they'd believe something if it was completely wrong, but then how come that Granger girl is the best in the year? Or half of the Ravenclaws are half-blood or muggle-born?"

Lily didn't exactly have an answer, but she was spared having to by Pansy coming over and planting herself on the end of the desk, "What are you two bookworms talking about?" She asked.

Lily held up her book, "Flitwick's charms work."

"Oh," Pansy snickered, "You actually care about that old fart? He's been teaching far too long, and that book? Way too boring to bother reading. And everyone knows he's too much of a pushover to give anyone detention or anything. It's almost as soft a class as Herbology."

Pansy couldn't see, but Lisa had suddenly gone very tense, and her hand had disappeared somewhere into her robes. "You know," Pansy continued, "I bet that the only reason old Flitters is here is because he likes young children. I wouldn't past him you know. He walks around all the time at the girls' waists, it's just not right. And all the charms later in the year? Yeah, making things invisible has lots of innocent uses, doesn't it?"

Lily had gotten used to ignoring Pansy, and it was a lot easier when the barbs weren't being directed at her, but Lisa didn't have the same restraint, and Pansy was suddenly whimpering as a wand was jabbed into the side of her cheek, "Stop it." Lisa said quietly, "Take your stupid with you when you leave."

"I know you," Pansy said, her voice quavering, "You're that Ravenclaw that Lily used to chum around with. Well she's a proper Slytherin now, so it looks like you're outnumbered."

Lisa shot a look to Lily, but she didn't say anything, instead pressing her wand harder against Pansy's cheek, "I'm not going to warn you again." She said.

"Go on then, if you're so tough."

Lisa's eyes narrowed and for a moment Lily really thought she was going to do something, but then her wand lowered and she drew herself up with an air of dignity most of the purebloods would have given anything to possess. "I wouldn't waste my time on any Slytherin." She said haughtily. She scooped her books up with one arm and left, nose still firmly in the air.

Pansy looked to the other two, "Well," She said, "I knew that Gryffindors were stupid, but I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be wise."

It took a lot of effort for Lily to not repeat her friend's example, but she wouldn't want to leave Daphne there with Pansy, and she was more than a little scared of what the consequences would be for her as well. Instead, she turned back to her books, wishing she had only imagined that Lisa had thrown her a lot when she had said 'any Slytherin.'

By the time Lisa reached Transfiguration she had worked herself into a truly fantastic rage, and when she slammed her bag down next to Sally the Hufflepuff girl nearly jumped out of her chair. "What's wrong?" She asked in concern.

"Lily," McGonagall wasn't there yet, so she felt safe ranting, "I was just down in the library, and that horrible Parkinson girl came in and started insulting Professor Flitwick. And I jumped up to shut her up and Lily didn't say anything, just sat there with some other Slytherin girl and watched it happen."

"I thought you said she was being bullied for being friends with us?" Sally looked confused, "If she stood up with you wouldn't she start getting bullied again?"

"Well, maybe, but I thought friendship was supposed to mean more than that!" Lisa hauled her textbook out and slammed it open, "I mean, we started a food fight for her! She should be at least a little bit grateful."

"Everyone always says that the house boundaries need to be respected, but then suddenly when someone does something that their house always does you get upset." Sally still looked very confused, "How does that work?"

Lisa took in a breath, then let it out slowly as she realised that Sally had absolutely pierced her argument. "It doesn't," She admitted, "But it still means something."

"So we aren't friends with Lily anymore?"

"I didn't say that," Lisa dropped her voice to a whisper as McGonagall swept in, "I don't know what we're doing."

"Well I know we have to go to the library after school to talk, because I haven't got any idea about what I'm doing for Snape in potions."

They met in the library after their lessons and got to work on finding the potion that Snape expected them to concoct in their next class with him. It wasn't difficult so much as it was complicated, and Lisa had to admit that he couldn't have set a more fiddly first year potion for them to do. She spent over an hour going over the correct method of brewing for Sally, correcting some points where the book was out of date and adding some things she had asked her house mates about.

"So what about Lily?" Sally finally asked when they were tucking the scrolls away.

Lisa shrugged, "I think we need to talk to her again, see what she thinks about this. Because she hasn't even tried to speak to us for nearly two weeks. Maybe she just doesn't want to be friends with us anymore."

"I don't think that's true," Sally slung her bag onto her back and led the way out, "I think she just doesn't know what to do. She wouldn't have made any friends in Slytherin after all, but they'd bully her if she tried to be friends with us."

"Since when do you know so much about her?" Lisa asked curiously.

"I don't understand her, but I'm a Hufflepuff, and we understand friendship."

Sally was absolutely beaming, which made Lisa raise an eyebrow, "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or sincere, but either way it's adorable."

Sally's smile vanished and she stared at Lisa in wide-eye innocence, "I'm only a Hufflepuff, we don't know anything about sarcasm. Ravenclaws and Slytherins are sarcastic, remember?"

Lisa chuckled, "All right, you've made your point. We'll talk to Lily, try and work something out so she doesn't get bullied too badly."

Sally bounced on her heels and clapped her hands, "Yay! We're getting our friend back!"

"How long are you planning on doing this act?"

"Act? What act?"

With a week to go until Halloween Lisa snuck a note to Lily in the middle of History of Magic, the one class where she knew that no one would be paying attention to them.

Why didn't you stand up for me against Pansy?

Lily read the note Lisa had just passed her and frowned. She didn't like what it seemed to be saying.

My house mates aren't very nice to me when I talk to you.

Lisa chewed the end of her quill thoughtfully as she considered her choices. She wasn't sure whether she should own up to knowing about the bullying.

I know they bullied you when you were friends with Sally and me.

Lily's hand tightened into a fist when she read the note. She hadn't liked the bullying itself, but that other people knew made it humiliating on a whole other level.

I can handle it.

"Yeah right," Lisa muttered under her breath as she scribbled a response.

You don't have to do everything on your own you know.

Lily shot the girl a glance, but she appeared to be utterly transfixed by what Binns was saying.

I don't have much choice do I? What would you suggest?

Lisa had been hoping for that question, and it was with no small amount of glee that she flicked her response back.

How about another flying lesson?

Lily's eyes shot up her forehead, but at the same time she could feel the smile creeping back onto her face.

What day?

Monday. Same time, same place.

AN:- When I was in second year, some kids in the year below us forced one of our PE teachers in retirement. They accused him of being a paedophile, and although the resulting investigation eventually proved he wasn't, the parents just weren't happy with even the suggestion of it, so he was forced to leave.

I don't know why I include real life anecdotes like this. Part of it's to deflect cries of 'that's unrealistic' from readers. A lot of this is based on stuff that really has happened to me (minus magic of course). I guess the other part is because at some point someone's going to either say 'yeah, that happened to me to' or 'oh my god where the hell did you go to school?' And I'll know whether or not my high school experience was as messed up as I thought it was.

I really did intend for this chapter to be the Halloween chapter, but then I got writing it and realised I quite enjoyed the Daphne/Lily/Lisa thing that I had going. next chapter for certain...

In other news, I am officially the only writer of a Harry Potter fanfiction in the T rated, over 20,000 words, in the category of friendship, featuring Lisa T. and Sally-Anne P. in the Books universe, still in progress! Hooray for overly narrow definitions!

That would probably also explain why no one is reading or reviewing this thing.