I love reviews and I love you all. Enjoy! :)
Albus and Rose received high marks in their NEWTs and everyone knew that meant Albus would be joining his family members as an Auror. Rose, however, shocked everyone with the announcement that she would be working for the Ministry in the Muggle Relations department. Lily was a little surprised when Albus mentioned at dinner one night that Scorpius would be training to be an Auror too.
Summer ended and sixth year began. That year, Avery's younger twin siblings Remington and Rosamund would be attending Hogwarts for their first year. James and Jenny were at the station with their kids looking a bit frazzled, which was understandable considering the twins would not stop moving and threatening each other with their wands.
"Kids, please!" Jenny finally begged her children to stop for a least a second. Lily made her way over to the Watson family. Avery smiled at her friend's approach.
"Wanna help get the hooligans on the train?" she asked hopefully.
"Hmm tempting," Lily responded with a laugh.
"Oh, Lily!" Jenny greeted the Potter enthusiastically. "How have you been, love?" The woman wrapped the girl in a hug.
"Hello, Mrs. Watson. Need some help with the twins?"
"That would be wonderful. Remi! Rosy!" Jenny called them over. The twins skidded to a halt in front of their parents, breathless and disheveled. Jenny straightened them out and kissed them both goodbye. They hugged their mother and father and joined the girls on the train. Avery had them sit with her and the rest of the group to make sure they stayed out of trouble. As they were walking into the Great Hall for the sorting and dinner, Avery turned to Lily.
"Mark my words, both of them will be in Slytherin," she told her before joining her House at the Ravenclaw table. Just as she said, both Remi and Rosy joined the Slytherin table by the end of the sorting ceremony.
Jenny was thrilled when the twins wrote her of their sorting. James, understandably, was a bit concerned that this would only encourage his kids rambunctious mannerisms. Avery assured her parents that her group of friends would keep a close eye on the kids over the next two years. The twins ended up trying out for their House's Quidditch team. Everyone assumed they would be going for Beaters, but they surprised all when they were both put in Chaser positions – quite a feat for first years.
Lily found that sixth year was much harder than she thought it was going to be. With her more than full load of classes, captaining the Quidditch team, having a boyfriend, preparing for NEWTs, and private alchemy lessons, she found that she was not getting nearly as much sleep as she would have liked to be getting. Even though she was majorly stressed and exhausted, she was enjoying her time. Her alchemy lessons were turning out to be her absolute favorite part of that year. Professor Williams had gone to school with her father's parents and thought Lily was a lot like her grandmother. This made their professor-student relationship more like friends. She often stayed in his office past their lessons chatting about life and he would make them a pot of tea. He reminded her a lot of her grandfather Arthur and enjoyed forgetting about the stress of sixth year for an hour or so.
"Really though, I should go now," Lily said breathlessly as she recovered from laughing at a story Professor Williams had told about first year's mistakes in Potions class. "I've got Quidditch practice tonight and still need to finish that Potions essay for you."
"Ah." Professor Williams waved off her worries. "If the essay is a tad bit late, I wouldn't be too upset."
"Now you can't go showing favoritism. Well...more than you already have," Lily chided. Professor Williams laughed but did not deny Lily was his favorite. "Have a good day, sir."
"You too, Miss Potter."
Lily left his office and started down the hallway, pulling out her Potions book and flipping to the page she knew she needed for her essay. She was so invested in the chapter that she wasn't watching where she was going and when she turned a corner, ran into a small person.
"Oh! I'm so sorry! I should've be-" Lily looked down at a familiar face. "Rosamund, you alright?" she asked upon seeing the small Slytherin's furrowed brow.
"I'm fine," she forced through gritted teeth. Lily could see her eyes were bloodshot as if she'd been crying and the tip of her nose was pink as if it had been running.
"Merlin, what's happened?" Lily squatted to the girl's level. "Rosy?" she prodded when she got no response.
"I don't know why he has to be such a git!" Rosamund shouted.
"Remington?"
"No," Rosamund paused, scanning the hallways for any eavesdroppers. "Joshua Merriweather."
"Who? Is it someone in your House? Do I need to beat him up?"
"No," Rosamund sniffled. She rubbed her eyes and took a breath, calming herself. "He is in my House yes, a year above me. You don't need to hurt him though. It would probably only make things worse."
"Make what worse? What's he done to you, kid?" Lily was very confused by the first year's run-around responses.
"He was being nice and helping me with my Charms homework cause he's really good at it. And then he was all happy for me making the team. He was eating with me at the table and he spent time with me in the Common Room." Now she was rambling.
"Rosy, I'm lost. What's the issue?"
"The issue is that now he's being all nice and making eyes at Katherine Beaumont. She's a Hufflepuff in his year." Suddenly, things became clearer to Lily and she did all she could not to laugh at the poor girl's predicament.
"So...you don't like him hanging around Katherine, do you?" Rosamund shook her head. "You prefer it when he pays attention to you?" Another nod. "Well, Ros dear, I'm going to let you in on a little secret." The small Slytherin perked up at the words. "Boys can be jerks. They really, really can. Sometimes, the ones you like most are the biggest jerks of all. But you can't help it; it's not your fault for liking them. You just have to forget about the gits and the prats and all the immature boys too. One day they'll grow up, but you don't really want one of those boys. You want one smarter than them. But you needn't be concerned with all that rubbish now." The two heard rushed footsteps echoing down the hall and Lily looked past Rosamund to see her twin.
"There you are!" Remington's voice was filled with relief. Lily noticed he had both of their bags slung over his shoulders and a balled up handkerchief in his hand. "Are you alright, Ros?" She nodded and stood up a little straighter than before.
"Yeah. I'm fine." She turned to Lily with a small smile on her face. "Thanks, Lily."
"Anytime, munchkin," she told her fondly. The twins started towards the dungeons and Lily stood in the hall watching them.
"Here." Remington passed his sister the ball in his hands. She unwrapped it and found half of a sandwich. "You didn't get to finish eating before you left and I was worried you'd get hungry in Potions."
"It was the cutest most purest thing I have ever witnessed in my time here on earth," Lily told Avery later. "I know most of the time those two are literally Satan reincarnate, but this afternoon my heart was absolutely melting."
"I can't believe-" Avery paused. "You know what. I can believe she's already having boy problems. Mum will think this is hilarious." The group of friends laughed.
Quidditch practice that night didn't go as well as Lily wished it would have. Jackson had finished his seventh year and so they had to fill his position as Beater. Lily decided to take on Jasper Knight, a fifth year who flew extremely well. He was talented but wasn't the best team player. Slowly but surely he was learning. He was also a bit annoying because of his nonstop flirting with Lily even though he knew she was very much involved with Grayson. Today was proving to be a rough practice. Jasper was getting fed up with Elliot, who was distracted by something that evening. He would stop flying and lecture Elliot and working with him. Lily finally decided she had had enough and told everyone to go get some rest. She called Jasper back to have a word with him.
"What was that, Knight?" she demanded.
"What?"
"Your performance tonight. It left something to be desired, don't you think?"
"I thought I did well," Jasper said shrugging.
"Well you didn't," she told him flatly. "You're so talented and we've been making great progress in teamwork but today...I don't know what that was. You need to lay off El, alright? I'm the Captain; I call the shots. Got it?" He nodded looking slightly ashamed.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
"S'alright, Jasper. Just don't let it happen again." He nodded and slunk off to the changing rooms. "I wasn't too rough on him was I?" Lily asked Grayson who had waited behind.
"Not at all," he assured her reaching out to take her hand. "He needs a little tough love sometimes."
"That's quite an understatement," Lily said with a laugh. Their conversation hit a comfortable lull. Once they made it to the stairs, Lily started talking again. "What was up will Elliot tonight?"
"You know I'm not entirely sure. He's been a tad bit moody lately and I can't figure out what's got his knickers in a twist. I asked him the other day what was bothering him but he blew me off."
"That's odd," Lily commented, her brow furrowed slightly. "I'll ask him about it tomorrow."
The next day, Lily cornered Elliot on their way to Charms. He had been walking alone, his gaze transfixed on the floor.
"El?" Lily got his attention. "You alright? You've been off the last week or so."
"I'm fine."
"Clearly your not fine. And it's staring to effect your playing ability which I can't have."
"Then replace me," he shot back.
"Merlin, calm down, Elliot. You know I don't wanna do that."
"I'm...I-" he stopped walking and turned to her. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you, Lily." His tone was earnest and his face begged for forgiveness.
"We're just worried about you," she told him.
"I know and it's nice. There's nothing you can do though. Just some stuff I'm working through," he explained.
"Okay. Well...if you need anything I guess..."
"I know. I've always got you guys." He smiled at Lily, but it didn't reach his eyes. Lily decided she'd let it slide for now at least.
Later that day, she was sprawled out with homework and letters to family by the Black Lake with Alice, who was reading through a book. She hit another roadblock in her Transfiguration work and tossed it aside, shutting her eyes.
"Giving up?" Alice asked peeking over her book, a teasing twinkle in her eyes.
"I'll have you know...yes. I am giving up," Lily announced which was met by laughter by Alice. "I just need a break. My eyes hurt and I just wanna enjoy this evening's nice weather." She stretched her stiff limbs and yawned. Alice shut her book and set it down next to her.
"Can I talk to you about something?" Alice's tone implied it was something she had been working up the nerve to talk to Lily about.
"Sure. What's up? Everything alright?" Lily asked sitting up.
"So...don't be mad I didn't tell you," she started avoiding eye contact with her friend.
"Alice, I'd never be mad at you for keeping things you're not ready to share," Lily assured.
"Okay. So over the summer, towards the end, I ran into Elliot at Diagon Alley. We hung out a little and I realized how much I really liked spending time just with him. Or I guess I just liked the attention from a guy one-on-one." Lily thought she saw where this was going. "And I know you two had a thing so I didn't want to make things weird, but I thought since you and Grayson were so happy..." She paused, sighing. "Anyway, we started talking and writing more and he suggested we meet for ice cream or something. I was really excited because I've never really dated and I thought it was going to work out great and all." Lily was getting confused by Alice's use of past tenses. "We spent a few weeks getting closer or I felt closer, but I noticed there was something off. After awhile, instead of getting closer, he just distanced himself and always was distracted and talking about your letters to him..." Lily definitely didn't like the direction this story was taking. "I confronted him and he told me that was still hung up on you and had feelings for you. So we didn't get into anything serious and I guess when I think about it I didn't like him all that much; but I though I should tell you. Just because he's been acting all weird now and I think that has something to do with it. I hope you're not mad."
"Merlin, Alice! Of course not! How could I ever be mad? Well I am mad, just not at you."
"Don't be mad at him!"
"You bet your arse I'm mad at him. He was using you!"
"He didn't mean to. I'm not mad at him and I don't want this to mess up our group. I just wanted to tell you."
"Well I appreciate it a lot. I'm so sorry you had to deal with that; really I am. Believe me you'll find a good guy who isn't a prick one day." Alice chuckled.
"I just wanted the attention; it wasn't him I wanted to be with or anything," Alice explained. "Honestly, I'm not bothered by it anymore. I just feel bad for him and feel like it's a bit awkward for you." Lily snorted.
"Yeah well...don't worry about me. I'll see if I am talk some sense into Elliot. Probably yell at him a little."
"I wouldn't be opposed to that," Alice trailed off.
Lily told Grayson the story the next day as he was walking her to the dungeons for her alchemy lesson.
"I mean I can't say I'm surprised, but it's still weird."
"You're telling me. I just feel bad for Alice."
"Oh absolutely," he agreed. They stopped outside of Professor William's office and turned to face each other. He kissed her forehead. "I will see you tonight, my dear."
"Sounds good," she said smiling up at him. He leaned in to peck her on the lips before letting her go and walking down the corridor.
Just as her hand was poised to knock on the door, it opened. Professor Williams appeared looking frazzled.
"Oh, Miss Potter! Is it four already?"
"Yes, sir. Do you need to reschedule?"
"No, no, no! I just have to go speak to the headmistress because one of my Slytherin's got themselves in trouble today in Defense Against the Dark Arts," he explained. "It'll just take a few minutes to decide on a detention and send a letter to his parents. You can come in, make yourself at home, go ahead and put on a pot of tea. We'll begin with our lesson for the afternoon when I get back." Before she had the chance to acknowledge what he said, he was halfway down the hall.
Lily entered the office and shut the door behind her. Being alone made his dungeon office seem so cold and quiet. She made her way over to the fireplace and stoked the fire before putting on a pot with water. She knew it would be awhile before the water was hot enough and even though he said it wouldn't take long, she knew Professor Williams would be gone for at least half an hour. She started humming to herself as she peeked through the books on his overflowing bookshelves. When she came across one she found interesting, she would pull it off the shelf and look through it. She found herself wandering deeper into his office where his desk was. He only used this corner of his office to grade papers and so she'd never actually been back here. There was another bookshelf overpacked with books. She ran her fingers across the spines of the books and watched as dust came off the books in little clouds. She chuckled because it really didn't surprise her that Professor Williams wasn't much of a cleaner. She tilted her head to the side to read a couple of the titles. Lily was so distracted by his excessive book collection, she didn't notice the portrait that hung on the other side of the room. The portrait's occupant hadn't heard the girl come in, but his attention was drawn to her as she laughed. After he recovered from the initial surprise at someone being in Professor Williams office that wasn't him, he addressed the visitor.
"What are you doing in here?" he drawled. The red-head whipped around, a startled look in her eyes. Her eyes weren't immediately drawn to the portrait as she wasn't in the habit of talking to paintings. Once she realized who had addressed her, she stepped forward.
"Sorry. I didn't realize he had a painting in here. I'm taking alchemy lessons privately with Professor Williams, but he had to run upstairs to the headmistresses office," she explained, walking through the dark room towards the portrait.
"I am aware of where he went. Why are you here?" he asked.
"He told me it was alright for me to wait here. I was curious to what books he had since he's got so many." Once she got close enough, the man felt his heart pound painfully in his chest and his breath catch in his throat. Lily noticed the change in him. "You alright, sir?" she asked with an eyebrow quirked.
"Who are you?" he question wasn't harsh, but Lily felt the power behind it.
"Lily. Lily Potter. Do I...know you?" she tilted her head to the side and but her lip. The man in the paining couldn't believe how much her little quirks and tendencies were so similar to someone he used to know so well. Before the man could answer her, the answer she was looking for dawned on her. "Oh, Merlin! Blood hell! You're Severus Snape, aren't you?" Her inquisitive eyes lit up and the corners of her mouth turned up into a small smile.
"You are the daughter of Harry Potter I take it?"
"Yeah, and my mum's Ginny Weasley. You knew my grandmother when you went to school here. And you taught both my parents in Potions. I've heard loads of stories about you. Why isn't your painting in the headmaster's office? Weren't you headmaster of Hogwarts at one point?" Her nervous rambling didn't cease and Snape was overwhelmed at the rate at which she was throwing questions at him. He never would have expected the girl to know who he was or even speak to him for that matter.
"Miss Potter," he stopped her. "I did not expect you to be aware of who I was," he admitted honestly.
"Well I sorta have to be," she said lightheartedly. "I mean the stories with you in them are crazy so I loved hearing them as a kid. That and my brother's named after you."
"He's what?"
"Yeah. I've got two brothers: James Sirius and Albus Severus." Lily couldn't tell what the man was thinking because his face was devoid of all emotion. There were a couple of beats of silence before she broke it. "You alright?"
"Your water is ready." It was only then she turned and heard the whistling of the kettle in the other room. When she looked back, Snape was gone.
"Professor Snape?" she called even though she knew if he was gone, he wouldn't be able to hear her. She moved back into the other room and fixed a pot of tea while her mind stewed over what had just happened. Moments later, Professor Williams swept back into the room, still out of breath.
"Tea ready?" he asked.
"Just finished it." He walked over to pour himself a cup then sat in his normal seat. "Professor..." Lily started as he did this. "That portrait in your office. The one of Professor Snape."
"Ah, did you encounter him while I was gone?" She nodded. "I should've warned you."
"Warned me?" She sat across from him with a cup of her own.
"Yes well I'm sure you're aware your grandparents went to school with me and him. And I'm sure you also know of the falling out your grandmother had with him and the issues your father had with him while he was at school. Well I probably should've told him you came around here often and maybe introduced the two of you. He may have been a little shocked seeing as how you look so much like your grandmother."
"Yeah something I said caused him to run off."
"I'm not surprised," Professor Williams said with a sigh. "Don't worry about it, you didn't do anything wrong. I'll have a word with him later."
"I'd sorta like to talk to him again," Lily admitted before sipping her tea.
"I'll see what I can do. Now, where did we leave off last time?"