Chapter 10

Prefects and Defence

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"Have you tried that one yet?" Alice asked as she smeared another thick load of cherry marmalade on her bread.

"Which one?" Lily answered before taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. Before she had gone to Hogwarts, Lily had never even heard of Pumpkin juice, but now that she had tried it, she'd become quite fond of the weird, orange liquid.

"That one." Alice answered as she pointed at the basket filled with baked goods. "I think that one is with raspberry marmalade but I am not quite sure."

The Great Hall was filled with students leisurely eating their breakfast as they chattered good-naturedly. It was a pleasant and peaceful atmosphere. It had been a pleasant atmosphere till the moment the door of the Great Hall burst open. Three seething Slytherin students entered the Great Hall and Lily nearly choked on her pumpkin juice as soon as she saw them. Their appearance was, in one word, surprising. Their hair had the most outrageous colours Lily could think of. Their skin was green, purple and bright red. On their foreheads words were written in bright bold red letters. On the blond girl's face, some green slime clung. The colour of their ropes literally hurt if you stared at them for more than a second. All three had a manic look in their eyes. All four house tables stared at them dumbstruck, as if they were spell bound.

A loud snort echoed in the silent hall. Lily turned her head away from the Slytherin students and searched from where the noise had come from. Sirius Black was shaking, his eyes wide as he held his hand in front of his mouth to block the laughter that tried to escape. His three friends looked no better. Pettigrew was giggling uncontrollably. The hand in front of his mouth did not help to suppress the sound. Lupin was bent over trying to contain his laughter and Potter didn't even try. His laughter broke free and once he started his three friends soon joined in. As if a spell had been lifted the whole Great Hall broke into laughter.

The girl with wild (and now bright gold) curls glared at Black with venom clear in her eyes, but as far as Lily had seen, Black just sent her a smirk. It took a while but at some point the Great Hall managed to return to its former relatively tranquil state. Well, it took longer than a little while.

Potter and Black high-fived across the table. Lily could not help but overhear parts of their conversation

"Remy, can we do another one?" Black asked with a pleading tone.

"Please?" Potter added. Lupin sighed, but before he could say anything Pettigrew spoke.

"Please? No one was harmed and everyone laughed."

"Almost everyone." Potter amended. Black laughed gleefully.

"Ugh, fine." Lupin conceded defeat with an amused sigh. Potter and Black cheered loudly.

"We need more stuff then."

"I can write dad, he would give us some supplies." Potter answered.

"Your father would seriously sent us supplies?" Pettigrew asked with something akin to awe.

"Wicked." Sirius' gleeful chortle followed.

"Did you finish the assignment for Slughorn?" At Alice's question, Lily turned her attention away from the very suspicious conversation.

"Yes, Sev and I completed it yesterday evening in the library." Lily answered. It hadn't been an easy assignment but she and Severus had managed to finish it together after a while.

"You are so lucky that both of you know how to brew a potion without it blowing up in your face." Alice complained. Lily had quickly noticed that Alice and Potions were not a good combination. Her potions tended to explode quite spectacularly. It didn't help that her new found friend was as clumsy as someone could possibly be. Alice more often than not fell out of bed in the morning, tumbled down the stairs and fell over invisible objects. She had also already managed to break three glasses, one mug and pull off the shower curtain completely with the rod. It was no wonder that she had fallen off her broom.

At the thought of their flying lesson, her gaze once again strayed over to James Potter and his friends. He had been surprising during the lessons. Him helping out a Slytherin girl had been a nice surprise. She was once again brought out of her thoughts by a gentle tap on her shoulders. She smiled brightly as she turned around.

"Morning, Sev."

"Morning, Lily." Her childhood friend smiled softly at her as he tried to keep his bangs from falling into his eyes. "Ready for Defence?"

"Sure, just give me a moment." She turned back towards Alice, who still had half a pumpkin pie in her mouth, waved at her to go. She sent her an apologetic look before following Severus out of the great hall.

Alice watched her friend leave as she swallowed. She didn't understand at all what Lily saw in Snape but she withheld her judgement, principally because they had been friends for a while apparently, and she had just gotten to know Lily. With a shrug, she took another sip of her pumpkin juice before taking one more blueberry muffin out of the plate right in front of her. They were utterly divine and Alice already saw a future addiction on the horizon.

With a small self satisfied smile she finished the muffin. She grabbed her bag and just as she was about to get up, her foot got caught in her robe. She stumbled over the bench. Well, there was the accident she had somehow managed to avoid all morning.

Almost blindly she grabbed hold of the next best thing, and, apparently, she managed to grab hold of some kind of fabric. It managed to stop her descend towards the floor.

"Are you all right?" A voice asked that seemed to be attached to the fabric she was holding onto.

"I am okay, that always happens." She answered still slightly breathless as she continued to hang suspended in mid-air.

"Okay?" The voice sounded slightly befuddled. "Then could you let go of my pants?" Alice slowly looked up and indeed she was holding onto a trouser leg which was attached to a boy with short brown hair. He had an embarrassed look on his face as he held onto his pants to stop her from pulling them down.

Alice actually squeaked and let go as if she had been burned. Which resulted in her continuing to fall towards the floor. A pair of arms caught her before she could 'greet the floor with her face', as Black had put it.

"Sure that you're all right?" The boy asked with a bemused expression. She looked up from his arms and Alice just knew that she was beet red. She was utterly mortified. She was thankful for the small mercy of not having pulled down his pants.

He helped her back onto her feet. He was probably only one year older than her but he already quite tall. Especially next to her because she was not one of the tallest of her year, in fact, she was actually quite little for her age.

"Thanks" Alice's reply was nothing more than a very flustered murmur. Internally she cursed herself . Horrible first impression. He just smiled at her. His gaze left her when someone called for him.

"Frank! Hurry up, mate! Professor McGonagall is going to kill us!" Someone bellowed from the entrance.

"Coming!" He called back before he turned towards Alice again. "Gotta go. Try to be more careful." He turned around and ran towards his friends. Alice blinked after him before she realized that she would most likely be late for defence. She ran out of the Great Hall.

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"Did you finish the Transfiguration essay?" Lily asked as she tried to balance her books in her arms, which caused Severus to take the books from her. She sent him a small grateful smile. Had anybody else done it she would probably have complained, but she trusted Sev around her books.

"Not yet, I am still having some issues with the basic concept." Severus said with a small shake of his head.

"Me too but apparently all of us have problems with the concept. Well, almost all of us." Lily amended as she noticed Potter and his friends trailing a distance behind them. They were laughing loudly, the sound echoing in the corridor. They took a left turn instead of going directly to the classroom. Lily hoped for them that they would not be late otherwise they would certainly cost some points.

A dark look passed over Severus face before it cleared again and he asked her about her opinion on Herbology.

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Remus realized that it had been a really bad idea to take what James considered a short cut. Especially when it ended with a furious Bellatrix Black stopping them at wand point. Only James' hand around Sirius' wrist had stopped him from punching his cousin.

"I wonk taht siht si rouy tluaf! I ma gniog ot redrum uoy!" Remus blinked startled. He hadn't expected her to speak backwards. That had not been part of their plan. Maybe the teeth colouring potion had turned out faulty? Anyways, it took quite a lot away from her menacing glower.

"I am sorry dear cousin, but could you repeat that?" Sirius asked sweetly. He was just as surprised but hid it beneath a sneer.

"rotiartdoolB!" She snarled as he raised her wand threateningly. Remus quickly pulled his own wand and pointed it at her and Sirius' and James' wands were already raised. Sirius looked ready to attack her at any given moment should she so much as twitch. (Not that any of them could do much, Remus thought).

"Now, Now Bella aren't you overreacting?" A voice drawled from behind her. She didn't turn around but her expression darkened further.

"teg tsol, repraH!" Bellatrix hissed darkly.

"Really that is not very nice!" A fifth year Slytherin walked forward. His wand in his hand. A silver glinting Prefect badge on his chest. He had dark brown messy curls and his cold eyes watched Bellatrix blankly."Just as it is not very nice to threaten first years."

"evaeL!"

"Ah no can do. You should be the one to leave." Bellatrix's glare darkened even more than any of them had thought possible.

"Or should I tell McGonagall about the incident last year?" He drawled with a bored expression on his face. "The one with that poor second year Hufflepuff? Or better yet the one that happened in the Library in the forbidden section?"

With an angry snarl she whirled around and left them, her bright orange cloak billowing behind her in a dramatic fashion that was severely ruined by the bright colour.

"What just happened?" Peter whispered quietly.

"Truthfully? I have no idea." Remus answered softly.

"Potter!" The fifth year boy said as he walked towards them. James inwardly stiffened as the boy stopped mere inches in front of him. Sirius stepped closer to James' side, ready to defend him if he needed it. He barely stopped himself from growling threateningly at the older boy. The Slytherin smirked at the action.

"So you were the one that helped Dot." The boy drawled and his cold features softened slightly.

The four Gryffindors looked at each other in confusion. "Dot?" James asked after a while. The Slytherin rolled with his eyes in clear expiration at their slowness.

"Dot, Dori, Dorothy whatever you like to call the menace that is my little sister." The Slytherin said. Even though he called her menace, there was a certain amount of fondness implied in his tone.

"Ed!" A voice called and the Slytherin sighed dramatically.

"You're late, Samantha!" He called back in an annoyed voice.

"Do not talk to me about being late, Edmund! And stop calling me Samantha, I hate that name!" The fifth year Hufflepuff girl, Samantha, came to a stop beside Edmund favouring him with a dark look. She was short and seemed very petit next to the tall boy. Her hair was an untameable mess of blond waves that escaped her braid. Her round face was covered in freckles. She had a small scar beneath her right eye that became more noticeable as she glared at Edmund. A Prefect badge was attached to her robes."Who was the one who came three hours late to Prefect duties because he had to gather blackmail material?!"

Edmund rolled with his eyes in answer. A long suffering look passed over his features.

"Do not roll your eyes at me Ed! And what on earth did you do to Bellatrix?! Besides the colour change, which obviously wasn't you since you wouldn't know a prank till it bit you in the ass." She continued "She just stormed past me without attacking or verbally assaulting me even once! That has never happened in all my five years here!" It almost sounded as if she was insulted by not being threatened by Bellatrix.

"I didn't do much." He shrugged with his shoulders.

"He just threatened her." James supplied.

"Ed! You blackmailed her, again?" Samantha asked with exasperation, not even looking at the four younger boys.

"Wait, what do you mean again?!" Sirius asked suddenly. The idea of someone blackmailing his cousin greatly appealed to him. It seemed to be the first time that she really noticed the first year Gryffindors standing in front of Edmund.

"You don't want to know." She said with a grimace and an eye roll. She looked back at Edmund and a small light of understanding seemed to dawn in her eyes. "So who of them is 'Jamie Potter' as Dot had so politely called him?" She asked after a moment looking at the first years. Remus, Sirius and Peter pointed at James simultaneously. James just rolled his eyes.

"Thank you for helping Dot." Samantha said with smile. "I am Sam Wakefield. This one here is Ed Harper, Dot's annoying older brother. If you have any problems you can ask us."

"Please don't" Ed said with an annoyed sigh.

"Oh, we will." Sirius said taking great pleasure out of Ed 's tormented expression.

"Ignore him" Sam said as she rammed an elbow into Ed's side. He winced.

"Sam, don't you have Ancient runes now?" Ed asked, his voice clearly portraying his hope to get rid of his... friend? Remus wasn't quite sure whether the two were friends or not.

"Yes and don't try to escape since you have that class with me." She glared at him again before she grabbed his wrist and promptly dragged him away.

"What was that?" James asked after a moment feeling slightly dumbfounded. He had known the two Prefects only fleetingly last time so he couldn't quite remember their interactions all that well. He just remembered that one better not antagonize Sam or else one could be quickly thrown over her shoulder. He remembered that he and Sirius had held quite some respect for the petit Prefect whenever she had roared at them for breaking one or another rule while Ed stood in the background looking utterly bored. The Slytherin had caught them more than once. Sometimes they had even thought he had eyes and ears everywhere, which was probably not all that far from the truth.

"I have no idea, mate." Sirius conceded with a shrug of his shoulders.

"The only thing I know for sure is that we are definitely late for Defence." Remus commented.

"Bloody hell!" James exclaimed. They hastily made their way through the corridor. Luckily no one scolded them for running at high speed towards their classroom.

oOo

Lily scowled as she watched Potter and his friends rush through the door, hasty apologies tumbling from their lips till no one understood a word they were saying. Sev rolled his eyes next to her, an annoyed frown marring his features. Professor Daugherty was not amused. Elethea Daugherty was a woman whom one should not annoy. Alice had already received a scolding for being late, so Lily could only imagine what she would do to the boys. She regarded the boys coldly from behind her square glasses.

"One at a time gentlemen." She said as she crossed her arms. Professor Daugherty was a thin and tall woman. It seemed as if one good wind gust would be able to throw her off of her feet. Her grey hair was cut short and it barely reached her chin.

"We apologize for our lateness, we lost track of time when Prefects Wakefield and Harper asked us a question regarding the incident during our flying lesson." Potter explained calmly. He did not seem to be all that nervous beneath her harsh scrutiny, unlike Pettigrew who seemed to be about ready to faint at any given moment. Lily heard Dorothy Harper let out a sound of embarrassed annoyance a few rows behind her, which caused her to glance towards her. Harper was hiding her face in her hands but her ears were a startling red.

"Ah, yes. I've heard of what happened. Still, next time refrain from discussing such things so shortly before class." Professor Daugherty said. Her demeanor was not gentle in any way, but she seemed to have decided not to say anything further. Potter and his friends quickly took their seats in the last row of the classroom. Lily didn't quite understand how they always manage to weasel out of trouble. It was not the first class they had been late for, and yet they had not been punished in any class. They always somehow managed to avoid it and from the dark look on Sev's face, he was displeased by that fact nearly as much as she was.

James sighed and pulled out his Defence books. It was a small wonder that Daugherty had not docked house points from them. He had always remembered her with a certain amount of fondness. She had been quite a good teacher. None of his Defence professors had ever been as horrible as Harry's had been, but she was still one of the best. James ignored her lecture in favour of writing a letter to his father. He gave a brief summary of the days before adding a request for some prank supplies. While he was busy writing, Professor Daughtery started talking about the Knockback Jinx.

"All right, Now on to actual spell practice. Two students will be assigned to one training dummy. The pairs will be drawn randomly." With those words she ended her elaboration of the jinx. At her words, groans could be heard from every student. James sincerely hoped that Snape would not be paired with any of his friends.

Their professor ignored the feeble protests of her students and started pulling pieces of parchment out of a small box.

"Mr. Snape and Mr. Avery please take the first practice dummy." She called. With an annoyed sigh, Snape stood up and walked over to the dummy. Avery was already waiting for him there.

"Mr. Black and Ms. Harper." James let out a small sigh of relief. His best mate could have been paired with someone a lot worse. Sirius sent him a small cheeky grin before sauntering over to his practise dummy. Harper was already waiting with her arms crossed. No doubt she would question him just what her brother had wanted from them.

"Mr. Pettigrew and Mr. Mulciber, the third dummy please." James suppressed a small wince. Great, Peter had to be the one paired with a future Death Eater. This could be really bad. It would undermine all of Pete's confidence again. He would have to keep an eye on that. He barely registered the fact that the professor had paired Alice and Remus together. He was too busy staring at Mulciber with narrowed eyes.

"Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter." James looked up startled. He didn't remember being paired with Lily. He might have simply forgotten after all it had been years. Or maybe things had changed. Great, now he was starting to get really nervous. He really needed to be careful. Lily was very capable of hating him and he really didn't want her to hate him quite as much. With a small sigh, he got up and made his way towards the Dummy.

Lily led out an annoyed sigh. Just her luck, she had to be paired with Potter. She grabbed her wand and made her way over to where Potter was studying their dummy. She silently stood next to Potter as the other students were paired up. Potter's gaze would stray over his friends as if making sure that they were really there. His gaze more often than not landed on Peter. Then he would wear a worried frown.

"Pettigrew will do fine- Stop worrying, Potter." Lily commented with an eye roll. It seemed as if he had no confidence at all in his friend. Potter jumped slightly as if he had forgotten that she was even there. Rude. His gaze turned towards and he looked at her with a sheepish expression.

"Ah, I know Peter will do fine. It's not really him I am worried about. Mulciber is a-" Potter stopped talking as if he swallowed a word he had originally wanted to use before continuing. "Let's just say that Mulciber can be slightly unpleasant to work with." Potter amended with a small frown.

"There is no reason to expect the worst of him you know." Lily scolded lightly. She disliked any kind of prejudice. Especially if one knew next to nothing of the other person.

"I know that but I also know a bit more than I want to about Mulciber" Potter said with a small shrug and a mildly disgusted expression. Lily frowned with slight confusion but she never got to ask because at that moment Professor Daugherty called for their attention.

"All right students, I will now demonstrate the wand movement for the Knockback Jinx called Flipendo. After that I want each of you to practise the movement a few times before using the Jinx on the Dummy. Under no circumstances are you allowed to use the jinx on your fellow students." At her stern stare all the students nodded. Lily carefully copied the movement the professor made. Potter, beside her, did the same even though his heart did not seem to be in it as he kept glancing at his friends. After they all had copied the wand movement a few times, she allowed them to finally practice the jinx on the dummy.

"Ladies first." Potter said. She distantly heard the words echo from Black's lips as well. Potter had said it with all seriousness whereas in Black's there had been a mocking quality. Lily choose not to dwell on it, so instead she turned towards the dummy and raised her wand.

"Flipendo!" She called as she made the wand movement. A small spark of blue left the tip of her wand but that was it, nothing more happened. She scowled at her wand. "Can I try again?"

"You can try it for as long as you want." Potter said with a small shrug as he watches her try the Jinx over and over again. Every time there are only blue sparks. Lily can feel her temper rising. She raises her wand for one more angry try. She would have shouted the spell had not a hand enclosed her wrist from behind.

"Easy there, Evans." Potter said calmly from behind her. She hadn't even heard him step closer. She turned her head to glare at him, but was stopped as she saw him looking at the dummy and not her.

"Don't let your frustration rule you. Angry spells can often have nasty consequences... or at least that is what mum always tells me. Just let the magic flow through you and will it to hit the dummy." Potter commented lightly. Underneath the smile on his face there was an unsettling seriousness. He released her wrist and stepped back before she could get truly mad at him. Potter then looked at her, watching her with a small secretive smile. Lily turned away from him and took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Flipendo!" A jet of light blue light leaves her wand and knocks into the dummy pushing it backwards. Lily let a proud grin spread over her face.

"See? That was bloody perfect!" Potter exclaimed with a broad grin. Her answering grin was something she really didn't think about. It was an automatic response to the bright smile he threw her way.

"Excellent Ms. Evans, 10 points for Gryffindor." Professor Daugherty said from behind her before she walked away to look at the progress of the other students. Lily grinned pleased.

"Your turn, Potter." Potter nodded at her before raising his wand. Yet before he could even utter the spell a voice drifted over to them.

"Are you sure you're not a Squib?" Mulciber sneered as he looked darkly at Peter. The rest of the words that he threw at Peter Lily couldn't quite understand. She just saw Pettigrew growing red in shame. She glanced at Potter. His expression was murderous. Yet, before he or any of his friends could do something to protect their friend, professor Daugherty intercepted. She scolded Mulciber before turning her attention towards Peter to help him with the spell. Lily let out a small breath of relief. She turned her back to them and looked back at Potter, who was taking a deep breath before raising his wand.

"Flipendo!" The words were spoken calmly but what happened was the true mirror of his emotional turmoil. A jet of blue like hit the dummy with enough force to almost break it in half and make it fly backwards. As if in slow motion, Lily watched as the broken dummy flew into the direction of the window behind it. With a resounding crash, the dummy broke through the window and descended towards the ground below. Deadly silence descended upon the classroom. Potter was staring at his wand in surprise. Lily was openly gaping and Black lost it somewhere in the background. He was nearly howling with laughter.

"Mr. Potter." Professor Daugherty said with a scowl and her arms crossed. She couldn't suppress her admiration, though. Potter turned around and answered her with a sheepish "Oops?"

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A.N.: I hope you enjoy this chapter and reviews are as always welcome. Oh and just as warning my pacing is a little slow it will get faster as soon as the basics are covered.