Lily Evans-Memories
Chapter 9: The Best in the Class
Apolla: (evil grin) I'm going to pretend Harry Potter's mine in my new Fanfiction chapter! HA HA HA!
JKR: It's not! It's mine! And if you admit it's mine, I can get you tickets for The Magical World of Harry Potter in Orlando!
Apolla: Travel fair included?
JKR: Sure… Only joking, I can sue you if you don't say it's mine!
Apolla: Let's not be so hasty! Ladies, gentlemen and children who read this, let it be known that J.K. Rowling owns all the Harry Potter-related stuff on this site, even though one day she'll regret not having my genius brain and fic ideas.
A/N: I'm trying to really get ahead on this fic and not publish it late. If anyone who has read my other fic is wondering why I'm not publishing, I'm really sorry about the wait but I can assure you I am not on hiatus. Enjoy!
It was very hard to not look too excited to be going back to Hogwarts in front of my parents. Christmas hadn't been horrible but it hadn't been like the Christmases we used to have. Of course it had been wonderful to see my parents again, but Petunia seemed to have decided that she would not show one ounce of respect towards me. Needless to say, conversations at the dinner table had been very icy. Petunia filled every one of them with scorn. And every time I talked with my parents about school and my sister walked in, she glared at me and gave me the silent treatment for the rest of the day. The day before my return to King's Cross Station, I came to her bedroom and asked her "Do you want me to stay here? You know, never go back to Hogwarts?"
Petunia flinched at the name of my school. "Would it matter?" she said bitterly.
I hesitated before answering. "No. Maybe it would have two years ago but not now." I turned on my heel and stalked out of her room, determined to think only about my homework and classes until I fell asleep. I felt like my sister didn't even care about me anymore. Besides, if it would take me turning my back on magic for her to accept me, then it wasn't worth it.
The next morning, my dad drove me to King's Cross. For a large part of the ride, he talked about what my sister had done during her first term. She had had a little trouble with her best friend, Angela, and they were now not on speaking terms, she had gotten a poem printed in the school paper, she had ranked third best in her year. And she had done all this without telling me! Petunia was never shy so I assumed she just had quit trying to talk to me at all. All through break, she saw my face each and every day but not once had she even bothered to tell me anything. I knew our bond was gone and still know it but it's hard. Years ago, even after I met Severus, I sometimes went into her room and just let my feelings out. Most of the time she would order me out but on a rare occasion we would actually talk. That hadn't happened this winter and I hadn't even noticed.
Still, I thought, I won't let Petunia ruin my Christmas. I've never let her ruin anything else and I won't start now. My parents had been lovely. They had gone to extreme lengths to manage to get into Diagon Alley to get me something special and had returned with a very beautiful moon-shaped amulet and a wand-caring kit, as well as a few Muggle novels I'd written and asked for. My grandfather, who lived in Belgium and whom I'd only seen twice in my life, sent me a crisp ten pound note and Mrs. Snape had gotten me a recent book entitled Hogwarts, a History. I'd eagerly opened a very small package from Severus but was slightly annoyed that all I got was a copy of Advanced Potion Making-my copy, I later discovered- and a singing Christmas card. After all, I had given him a really personal present that I'd made an effort to make.
I came back to present as Dad drove into a car park near King's Cross. I made a mental note to ask Sev why he had robbed me of my own potions textbook and delivered it again as a gift. The next hour was quite boring. My father is one of those people that reserves extra time for everything. It was alright. What was one brief hour when I wouldn't see my dad again for three months? At least it gave him a chance to buy me several packets of sweets and a fizzy drink for the train.
About fifteen minutes before the train left, we got onto the platform and I soon spotted Diana and Marlene, the pair I had sat with on my first ride to Hogwarts.
"Hi, Lily!" said Marlene cheerfully. "Have a good Christmas?"
"It was great! My sister was a pain, of course, but my parents were lovely. How was yours?"
Marlene grinned. "It was absolutely brilliant! Most of my family was there and most of the cousins are younger and at least five of them got toy broomsticks. It drove my Mum mad!"
"And yours, Di?"
"Diana," she corrected me. "It was quiet. My dad was at St. Mungo's."
Marlene frowned, clearly miffed that her friend was casting a shadow over her back-to-school buzz. She patted her awkwardly. "I'm sorry. How'd it happen?"
"It's alright. It happens all the time. My dad checks spells and magical objects for the Ministry and some people are just so silly as to hex things and then pass them along to the Ministry. I spent most of Christmas in the kitchen with my Mum because she's writing a cookbook, or rather trying to. I spent New Year's at Marlene's, though. We should probably go get a compartment."
I hugged my Dad goodbye while Marlene parted from her family and Di thanked them for their hospitality and then we boarded the train. It was still quite early so most compartments were empty and we got our pick. Diana started bragging almost immediately about her new and very expensive astronomy kit much to our annoyance and I brought out the sweets Dad had bought me. By the time the Hogwarts Express pulled out of platform 7 ¼, both Pippa and Emmeline had joined us. It was quite fun, actually, to talk among girls.
By the time we arrived, it was very dark and cold. I was extremely thankful that we didn't have to cross the lake again. Instead, we were herded into silver carriages pulled by invisible horses. It sounds quite glamorous but we were still chilled to the bone. We drudged up the stairs to our dorms and slept as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
The next morning I lay in my bed enjoying the thought of a whole day to reconnect with the world of Hogwarts. Then I remembered that I had a pile of homework that had remained untouched, hopefully with my best friend serving as motivation. I groaned and got up, hoping to see Sev at breakfast. I showered, dressed and carefully put each piece of assigned work I had into my bag, and then left the dorms.
As soon as I came in sight of the Great Hall, I saw Severus there holding a few pieces of toast and my favourite flavour of jam. "Come on, Lily! Some of the Slytherins are having an impromptu Quidditch match with Hufflepuff in a few minutes!"
"Happy New Year to you, too, Sev," I said, raising my eyebrows. "And since when do you like Quidditch? What about those complaints that there are only sport-obsessed numb-skulls in your House?"
"I never said I didn't like Quidditch. Besides, I told them I'd be there."
I know it wasn't right but I felt a pang of jealousy. After all, the only person Severus had seemed to care about in the whole school had been me for three months. So who had he promised to meet all of a sudden? I didn't say anything as we headed for the Quidditch pitch. When we arrived, a boy clad in Slytherin colours waved at us. He had a very neat crop of chestnut hair and eyes with the colour and shine of black olives.
Severus grinned at him and climbed up to his place in the stands. I followed. "Hullo, Evan. This is Lily Evans. Lily, Evan Rosier." I half waved and sat, back stiff and straight. Severus, indifferent to the obvious awkwardness of the situation, started talking animatedly to Rosier about Quidditch. He seemed to have picked up a lot of knowledge about the subject over the holidays. I tried to concentrate on the dozen or so kids on broomsticks. As I could gather, it was like football, except with three hoops and two balls trying to knock the players off their brooms as well as two kids with bats. At one point, a tall beefy Slytherin girl with a bat wrestled a Hufflepuff off her broom but the bully of an astronomy teacher let it slide. Shocked, I turned to Severus and loudly whispered "Is that allowed?"
"I'm not sure," he said. "Probably not."
Surprised at his casual tone, I said "A month ago you cursed everyone who you had seen cheat on that Charms exam!"
"Only because Slytherin House lost fifty points!" He then went right back to talking to Rosier. I stalked off, telling Sev I still had a gigantic pile of homework, which was true. I went straight back to Gryffindor Tower and collapsed into an armchair. I took me two hours to finish all the assigned work, and after that just tidied my bed and read for a while.
After that day, school quickly regained its status as the most important part of students' lives. Severus and I went back to normal. In fact, it was better. We both now had people to talk to at lunch and in our dorms. The only person who seemed to change was a certain James Potter. He had gone from mildly annoying and ignorable to unavoidable. He was always the loudest in the Gryffindor common room, always did everything he could to get around- and by that I mean break- every single rule in the school, always got attention for this. Sometimes the attention was merited, like when McGonagall gave him a stern telling off and sometimes it was an unexplainable admiration from what seemed like every first year.
His biggest fan at that point was another Gryffindor kid named Peter Pettigrew. He was runty with quite beady eyes and was always totally absorbed in whatever Potter was doing. This infuriated me because not only did this prompt Potter's head to grow an inch an hour, but because he treated Peter like absolute dirt! Before his obsession had come to light, Peter had been called pathetic by Potter several times. Now his idol asked him to do chores for him and though he 'allowed' Peter to hang out with him and Black, his new favourite past-time was tormenting him. This, I am happy to report, was something both Emmeline and Marlene were just as disgusted by as me.
"It's not as if he doesn't have friends. Diana told me he used to always hang out with this goody-goody from her house. But they had a huge row after Peter ditched Arnold for Potter."
Another new friend of Potter's was a friendly and clever boy named Remus Lupin. I liked him, honestly I did. He was usually good-natured, though very conservative. I did not understand why he would be friends with James Potter of all people.
Needless to say, both me and Severus detested James Potter. A lot of time, I even thought Sev might be jealous of Potter, though of course he protested when I told him my theory, saying he was the opposite of Potter in every way, though I noticed he never said he liked how he was. As for why I disliked him, Sev touched on it one evening: "You hate him because of how he doesn't even try at all to get good grades yet he gets them anyway."
This was true but Sev wasn't the only one who had things he'd rather not admit. I had never seen James Potter study, ever. But he just knew everything. It drove me crazy. I could feel so amazing when coming into a class and then leave it feeling as dumb as a log. It drove me even crazier knowing that I cared so much. But had been hard, leaving my school, my friends and my dreams behind. During those first few years at Hogwarts, I was constantly aching to go back home, admit defeat and continue on as an average Muggle. But I couldn't. This was neither because I grew attached to Hogwarts, nor because I didn't want to leave Severus, nor even because I felt a need to achieve all my magical courses. Really it was because I'd never fit in the Muggle world. I was a witch at heart, I suppose.
I was enjoying my second term. The first term was very basic but during the second term we started working on magical theory, which I seemed to excel at, especially in Charms and Potions. So by Easter break, I was happy with all my lessons. But there was a dark cloud heading my way.
On the day we were supposed to leave for the Easter holiday, McGonagall came to the Common Room and announced: "The first-fourth year exams will be held shortly after the mid-term break so expect you all to study. We'll show those Ravenclaws!"
We all groaned.