Chapter 10

First Fights and More Pranks

It was a week before Lily could discuss the matter with Severus. She waited until they were seated in the Library for their usual Friday night study session. She wondered how to broach the subject and decided that the direct approach would be best.

"Sev?" she put down her quill and waited for his response.

"Yes Petal."

"Um that spell you were teaching me?"

"Yes," he finally looked up and noticed she was hesitant and pale.

"Um, well, I found out what it does," she twisted her fingers together as she leaned towards him.

"Oh?" he said trying to appear nonchalant, though he had turned a little paler.

"Yes, didn't they tell you what it does?" she desperately wanted to believe that he didn't know. "It's a curse that tortures the victims to death!" That she had even tried to produce the incantation clearly horrified her.

Severus quickly shook his head "Oh no, I didn't…. I wouldn't…!" he denied far too quickly as his mind whirred trying to concoct a reasonable excuse.

"You shouldn't be practicing it! Why are they trying to get you learn such a horrid thing?" her tone was sharp, she found his hasty repudiation suspicious.

"I'm sure it's just for our education, not to be used on anyone," he said in attempt at placating her. "They wouldn't do that I am sure," he tried to make his voice sound firm and reassuring.

Lily wanted to believe the best of him, she really did. "I think they're tricking you Sev and trying to lead you down a dark path." He was her best friend; surely he would listen to her concerns. "I'm not going to practice it anymore, I can't! It feels….. wrong, ….dark, it's bad, I'm sure of it."

"Just practicing it won't make you dark. It might make you stronger!" he insisted.

"No Sev, just no!" Her eyes glowed with an angry fire, "You need to stop it Sev!"

"I'm just a first year, I can't make them stop, I'm not sure I want to stop it anyway, it makes me feel strong, like…like I could take on my Dad," he stuck out his chin defiantly, Lily might be his best friend but she had no right to try and tell him what to do.

"Oh Sev, you're already strong, you don't need dark magic." Though her stance didn't soften her tone did. She knew he how often he had felt powerless and afraid in the face of his father's rages.

"No I want to do this Lily," his face was determined. "And you can't stop me!"

Her green eyes closed in disappointment. "I'm sorry Sev, but, I can't be around you right now. If you can't see how bad that spell is….it's your choice."

She packed up her books and swiftly departed. As Severus watched her go, he thought- she'd come back, she'd have to, she needed the opportunity too.

It didn't take long for Lily to realise just how lonely life could be without Sev. The only one who would talk to her was Remus. The girls from her dormitory had paired up as best friends and, guided by the charismatic James and Sirius, excluded her from conversation, making the dormitory an unwelcoming place. Gideon, Doc and Fabian were all busy.

Back to being the freak- she thought glumly as she sat by herself in the library. It had been a week since the confrontation with her best friend. She had arranged to meet Remus out of sight of the other Gryffindors so they could work on their astronomy assignment. They had to correlate the following nights full moon with the position of the stars. Lily sighed, she may as well get working while she waited. With a sigh she flicked open the text in front of her and unrolled her parchment. By the time Remus arrived she was fully engrossed in her task. As he approached she looked up and noted that he was pale again with dark circles under his eyes.

"Getting sick again?" she enquired.

"Yeah I guess," he shrugged one shoulder and gave a sniff.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Nah I'll be ok."

"I talked to Sev the other day, about that curse, he said that he didn't know what it was."

"And you believed him?" Remus' eyebrows made a lurch towards his hairline.

"Well…..he has never lied to me before," she defended, deliberately ignoring the fact that he had indeed lied to her, still wanting to believe her friend.

"What else did he say, that practicing it will make him more powerful and he won't actually use it. And I suppose you believed that too!" His tone was harsh and accusatory, why wouldn't she come to her senses, "Why do you believe him?"

She snapped "Why are you being so mean? I want to believe him because he's my friend. I did tell him that I want no more to do with it, that I think it's wrong, and that he should stop it, but….I think he wants new friends more than he wants to listen to me," her lip trembled. "He hasn't even spoken to me since."

Remus looked into her eyes and suddenly understood. Just like him she hadn't had a lot of friends, if any, before so she was dreadfully afraid of losing Severus' friendship. She was devastated that they had disagreed. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to get angry at you, I'm just not feeling well. I think I'll just finish the assignment and then head back to the common room," he tried to justify his actions.

Her voice softened and some of the hardness left her eyes, "It's ok. Shall I get some pepper up potion from Madam Pomfrey for you?" He wondered if she would still be so kind if she knew the cause of his ill health.

"No, it's ok, I'll stop by there on the way to the common room," he assured her.

Remus pretended not to notice the way Lily glanced consideringly at him whenever his head was turned away. Clearly something was bothering her, but until she spoke of it there wasn't anything he could do. As Lily was so distracted Remus completed his essay first and bid her farewell before exiting the library. Knowing that there was nothing Madam Pomphrey could do to help him feel any better Remus went in search of his friends. Early that day they had been talking about pranking Apollyon Pringle the caretaker, by lacing his portrait cleaning brush with rainbow coloured permanent ink so he headed off towards the cleaning supplies cupboard on the second floor.

As soon as Remus left Lily rose from her seat and headed to the shelves. Finding a book on magical maladies', she started researching: a boy who fell ill, became covered in scratches and was grumpy for every full moon, and a day on either side. There had to be a connection. She thought she knew what it was, but she had to be sure, and the book provided the answers. The only question was what should she do about it? On past experience he would disappear tonight or possibly tomorrow morning and return the afternoon of the following day. Lily had grown up in a muggle household, so it never occurred to her that she ought to be frightened of him. With the full moon tomorrow, now was not the time to confront him, but that didn't mean she couldn't do anything. She smiled as she considered the situation and packed away her things, she was pleased with the plan she had in mind.

After setting up the prank on the caretaker Remus, James, Sirius and Peter headed back to their dormitory and flung themselves onto their beds.

"I talked to Lily today about Severus," Remus cut through the excited chatter.

The other boys fell silent.

"It seems she's inclined to believe that he is only using it to progress his skills and has no intention of using it."

"What the Hell!" James exclaimed sitting up abruptly.

"Well think about it," Remus went on reasonably "She doesn't know about Andy overhearing their plan. He's pretty much her only friend here apart from me, she doesn't want to lose him, and I get the feeling she always believes the best of people."

"Yeah well with James and I being the exception," Sirius was indignant.

"Mate you made her appear pretty much naked in front of the whole school, she's so shy that she normally doesn't speak! I think you brought that on yourselves."

"It was funny though," chuckled James.

"Not for her, I am pretty sure she felt humiliated!"

"Still that's no reason for her to learn how to kill people."

"She's not, she told him she won't do…."

"Gentlemen," Sirius spoke over the top of Remus, "I think they need another prank to teach them a lesson!"

"I second that," called Peter.

"I agree," cried James.

Remus sighed and shook his head "Prank Severus…"

"Snivellus," put in James

"Fine," the blonde huffed, "Prank Snivellus only! Not Lily."

"Evans will get what's coming to her, but in deference to you Remus, we'll make hers in the common room, and Snivellus' can be in front of the school. Deal?"

Remus could feel this was a defining moment in their friendship, he could deny them now and be forever the outsider or he could join them and have friends for life or at least till they discovered his secret. He liked Lily he really did, but he needed mates too. A prank in the common room, surely it couldn't be that bad, and if he hung back, she would over look his involvement. He looked at their eager faces.

"Well?" Sirius demanded.

Remus decided "Well, I'm in, just go easy on Lily she's my friend too."

"You won't need her now that you've got us."

"Oh I should let you guys know, my Mum's sick again so I'll be heading home tomorrow morning," Remus said half hoping they would execute their pranks in his absence.

"That's a shame, hope she's better soon, we'll wait for you get back. It'll give us more time for planning."

The day after the full moon Remus was surprised to see a chocolate frog lying on the table beside him in the hospital wing, on it rested a bird folded out of paper so thin that the wings were transparent. If he had looked at the underside of the body, he would have seen a small L written in pale gold ink.

Lily had decided that she didn't need to confront Remus, it was his secret to tell after all, but that didn't mean she couldn't try and find a way to make him feel better. What better way than a gift of chocolate at least in the muggle world, chocolate made everything better.

The boys had decided that they would prank Lily first. They asked Mary MacDonald to shake a can of Zonko's All Itch powder over her bed and in her trunk, and she was only too happy to oblige. It would be hilarious to watch as the ever-composed Lily Evans scratched and fidgeted all day.

There were some ways in which the wizarding world was far behind the muggle, and one of those was in the understanding of allergies. They assumed that most magical components they were relatively harmless. However, muggles had long since realised that a substance that was harmless to one person could cause an anaphylactic reaction to others. Itching powder was designed to irritate the skin and most unfortunately with her fair sensitive skin Lily was allergic to one of the components.

That night when Lily fell into an exhausted sleep the powder began to attack her skin. She scratched feverishly in her sleep, by morning the effects were evident. Her skin was red, blistered and sore and even though her hair had provided some protection for her face her lips and eyes were nearly swollen shut from the reaction. The other girls in the dorm were horrified at her appearance. Mary who hadn't told the others what she had done herself was feeling a twinge of guilt as she witnessed the consequences of her actions.

It wasn't itchy skin that woke Lily the next morning it was a soreness that felt like her entire skin had been scraped over with a blade and a tightness in her chest. The water in the shower stung but did make her feel a little better at least until she put on her uniform and the reaction was renewed. She made it down the stairs to the common room before she collapsed. James, Sirius, Peter and Remus were sitting on the lounges and watched as Lily entered and promptly fainted. Remus ran over to her too late to stop her head hitting the ground, as the others began to laugh.

"She looks like a cooked lobster!" guffawed Peter.

"She looks like she is dying," a firm voice echoed down the stairwell "What the hell did you boys do?" Kingsley Shaklebolt the sixth year prefect came down the stairs and scooped Lily up into his arms. "I'll take her to the Madam Pomfrey, you boys get to class and that'll be five points each," he growled in disgust.

The boys ignored the prefect's words and continued to laugh about it through lessons. They laughed even more when Lily did not show up to classes the next day as well. However by the second day Shaklebolt's words wormed their way into Remus' consciousness. Feeling somewhat guilty he snuck away at lunch time to check on Lily. She smiled through her split and swollen lips as he approached her bed.

"Well you look a bit better then yesterday." He noted her voice had a wheezing quality to her breathing when she replied.

"Apparently someone put wizard itching powder in my sheets and clothes and I'm allergic. The poor house elves have had to clean all of my things," she stared at Remus' guilty expression. " Do you know something about this?"

"I'm sorry Lily, the boys came up with it, they got Mary to sprinkle it on your bed and in your trunk," he looked at the floor. "They thought it would be a laugh. We didn't know you would react like that. They just thought that you'd get a bit itchy…"

Lily looked at him thoughtfully before she spoke "Remus, I know they think that I shouldn't be friends with Sev, but you and Sev are all I've got. In the dorm Alison and Louisa, Sarah and Mary, their best friends. There's no room for me, not to mention that Sirius and James have convinced them not to talk to me. I know we aren't agreeing at the moment, but I won't give Sev up just because those spoilt prats prank me. I know they're your room mates and you have to get along with them, but quite frankly they're just mean. Last week they used a tripping jinx on Lexi Turpin for no reason. She is the sweetest little Hufflepuff and wouldn't hurt a fly. Like I was trying to tell Sev, you need to be careful and not let them drag you into things just because you think it'll mean they'll stay friends with you." She glanced at him solemnly "You know I nearly died, don't you? By the time Kingsley got me here, I 'd stopped breathing."

He looked up at her for the first time, his face pale. "I'm sorry."

"Well, to make it up to me the least you can do is let me borrow your notes."

"Sure. I'll do that."

"How was your Mum?"

"She's getting better."

They spent the next few minutes discussing the classes Lily had missed before Remus had to return for the afternoon sessions.

He met up with the other boys who questioned why he had missed lunch.

"I just went to see Lily," he confessed.

"Suck up" Sirius scoffed.

"Well I felt responsible; because of us she nearly died!" Remus hissed.

"Nearly died! As if! From a little itching powder, she's having you on!" James scoffed.

"Do you think I can't tell when someone is sick! She stopped breathing! Apparently, she's allergic to something in the powder, her lips are swollen, she's still wheezing and she won't be allowed out of Madam Pomfrey's sight until she can breathe properly."

A look of abashment briefly crossed James' face at this statement, he didn't mind embarrassing someone but hurting them was another matter. He knew his Mother wouldn't be pleased if she ever found out.

"Now what are we going to do to Snivellus?" came Sirius' unashamed comment.

"How about we cast Tarantallegra on him and make him dance on the table in the great hall."

"Or all the way to class?"

"Or we could cast cantis and a spell to make him reveal who he loves at the same time, so he sings it to the great hall!"

"That sounds a bit complicated."

"Well let's look it up, we can always practice cantis first and then see."

They had gathered in the dormitory after class and clustered around the book of jinxes.

"Here is one, dicere amica- the target reveals the one that is their hearts desire!"

"So instead of Dicere which means to speak we want cantis to sing, so we should try cantis amica."

"First of all, anyone in here in Luuuurve with anyone," Sirius and puckered his lips making exaggerated kissing nosies. The others burst out laughing.

"So how are we going to try this out?"

"Let's see if we can borrow one of the girls, I'm sure Mary will do it, she has a crush on Diggory!"

The boys traipsed out of the room in search of Mary.

The pranking of Severus Snape took place at breakfast the next morning. Lily had just been released from the hospital wing and was walking into the Great Hall when she saw Severus climb onto the table, foot on either side of a fruit bowl, he took a deep breath and began comparing her hair to a fiery sunset, her eyes to emeralds and her skin to the softest silk.. She immediately pointed her wand at him.

"Finite Incantatem!" he stopped and looking somewhat relieved climbed off the table. He hid his red face behind his greasy hair as he rushed from the hall.

Lily stormed over to where the four first year boys were practically wetting themselves with laughter.

"You ought to know better!" she spat at Remus. "And YOU lot are a bunch of bullies!" She turned on her heel and headed over to sit near the Prewett's at the end of the table with a huff.