Chapter 10

First Fights and Second 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 was 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 curse 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, as she found his hasty repudiation suspicious.

"I'm sure it is 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. "I think they are 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 too wrong, too dark, it is bad, I am sure of it."

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

"No Sev, never!" 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 if I want to stop it, 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 already strong, you don't need dark magic. And sometimes, it only takes one to make a difference." Though her stance didn't soften her voice did, she knew he felt powerless in the face of his father's rages.

"No I want to do this Lily," his face was determined.

Her green eyes closed in disappointment. "I'm sorry Sev, but, I can't be around you if that is your choice."

She packed up her books and swiftly departed. As Severus watched her go, he thought- she'll come back, she has to, she needs this too.

It didn't take long for Lily to realise that without Severus she was lonely. 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 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 and she flicked open the text in front of her and unrolled her parchment. She was fully engrossed in her task when Remus arrived; he was pale again and had dark circles under his eyes.

"Getting sick again?" she enquired.

"Yeah I guess," he shrugged one shoulder.

"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, 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 is my friend. I did tell him that I wanted no more to do with it and that I thought it was wrong, and that he should stop it, but….I think he wants new friends more then he wants to listen to me" her lip trembled. "He hasn't even spoken to me since."

Remus looked into her eyes and understood, she was so terribly afraid of losing his friendship, she looked so sad. "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."

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?"

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

As they worked Lily glanced thoughtfully at Remus, looking away quickly if he looked up at the same time. It wasn't long until he finished his essay and departed the library. He didn't head straight to the common room but made a detour in search of his mates instead. They were planning a prank on the Apollyon Pringle the caretaker, aiming to lace his portrait cleaning brush with rainbow coloured permanent ink.

As soon as he 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 is 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 is pretty much her only friend here, 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, and she is 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 would have 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," interjected Sirius "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

"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?"

This was the time, Remus knew, if he wanted to be friends, really good mates with these guys, this was it. 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 surely blame Sirius and James. 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 was 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 underneath 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 at all, it was his secret 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.

That night when Lily fell into an exhausted sleep the powder began to attack her skin. They didn't realise that some Muggleborns were allergic to one of the ingredients in the wizards itching powder. 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.

When she woke Lily's skin wasn't itchy it was sore. It felt her entire skin had been scraped over with a blade. The water in the shower stung but did make it feel 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 to 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," he growled in disgust.

The boys continued to laugh about it through lessons. They laughed even more when Lily did not show up to classes the next day. However Remus who was feeling guilty snuck away at lunch time to visit 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 when she replied.

"Apparently someone put wizard itching powder in my sheets and clothes and I am allergic," 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.

"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 is no room for me, not to mention that Sirius and James have convinced them not to talk to me. So I won't give him up just because they prank me. I know they are your room mates and you have to get along, but quite frankly they are just mean. Last week they used a tripping jinx on Lexi Turpin, who is the sweetest little Hufflepuff, for no reason. Like I was trying to tell Sev, you need to be careful and not let your friends drag you into things that aren't who you are." She glanced at him solemnly "You know I nearly died, don't you? By the time Kingsley got me here, I had stopped breathing."

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

"Well," she smiled. "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 that Lily had missed before Remus had to return for the afternoon sessions.

He met up with the other boys who questioned him on missing lunch.

"I just went to see Lily."

"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 is 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 movements. 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 stand on the table and started extolling her virtues and comparing her hair to the sun and her eyes to emeralds. She immediately pointed her wand at him.

"Finite Incantartum!" he stopped and looking somewhat relieved sat down hiding his red face behind his greasy hair.

Lily walked 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.