I'm so sorry that I took so long to update this time around. Life got in the way. I do have two more chapters almost finished, so it shouldn't be another six week wait.
There was a flurry of activity around Hogwarts after James announced the Quidditch team lineup. There was a fair bit of grumbling from those who did not make the team, though that came as no surprise to Lily. James seemed completely unperturbed by it and offered no apologies about his choices.
"The team's final, Yaxley, there's no point in discussing it," she heard him tell the Seeker of last year's Slytherin team.
From what Lily observed, James was forced to repeat that line almost incessantly for some time after the team was posted. Lily wasn't sure if the arguments eventually died down because people realized James wasn't going to budge, or because Sirius Black had taken to enlarging the lips or tongues of anyone who argued with James.
The only person who received more attention than James was Emma Robbins. She had already been something of a celebrity after the trials, but once the team was posted the whole school knew who the first-year Gryffindoor was. The fact that she was Muggle-born had caused even more commotion. People were surprised she could play Quidditch so well. Lily overheard her repeatedly explaining that her uncle was a wizard and had started teaching her to fly the moment she got her Hogwarts letter. Most students accepted that she was naturally brilliant at Quidditch and were glad to have her on the team, but a vocal group concerned about blood purity seemed to disagree.
For most of her Hogwarts career, Lily had forced herself to ignore the grumbling about Muggle-borns. It generally took the form of snide insinuations or subtle exclusion, and Lily was not one to lower herself to responding to such pettiness.
If she were being entirely honest with herself, she would also have admitted that she used to avoid potential confrontations for Severus' sake. Lily had thought their friendship was strained enough without arguments over whether one of his housemates had slighted her enough to warrant a reaction. At the time it seemed better to avoid a confrontation.
Perhaps it was because her friendship with Severus had ended the way it had, or perhaps it was because of the Muggle-born kidnappings and killings that had occurred recently, but Lily was finding it more and more difficult to ignore the prejudice. One afternoon, she found herself practically itching to whip out her wand and hex a group of Slytherins who said they "just weren't sure a Muggle-born first-year could really understand Quidditch well enough to be on the team."
But she was a prefect. She ought to behave responsibly instead of acting like a female version of Sirius Black. Besides, Lily knew that a brilliant performance by Emma was the only thing that would really shut down the criticism. So, she resolved to keep her head high and ignore any petty remarks she heard.
Lily was doing reasonably well with this strategy until she found Regulus Black and two members of last year's Slytherin team talking to Emma Robbins near the potions classroom.
It was plain enough that Emma was on the defensive. She was backing up towards a stone wall as the three boys surrounded her. Her eyes darted around the corridor frantically and her hand was making its way towards her pocket.
"Trying to run away?"
Lily couldn't tell which boy said it, but they were all laughing as Emma had literally backed up against the wall.
"Potter was mad picking a scared, little Mudblood to play Seeker."
Lily was fairly sure that was Regulus Black. He might be the only person who hated James Potter as much as Severus. Lily supposed it was because Sirius seemed to be more of a brother to James than he had ever been to Regulus. But that, Lily thought, was hardly an excuse for picking on a first year.
"Is there a problem here?" she asked.
"Look the Mudbloods are banding together."
The comment came from a seventh year with brown hair and light blue eyes. Lily was fairly sure he had been a Chaser for Slytherin last year, but hadn't made the Hogwarts team. Lily suspected that, as much as blood purity, was the reason for bullying Emma.
"Continue with that and I'll have to report you to Professor Slughorn," Lily snapped. "Emma, why don't you get going to your next class."
Emma moved to leave, but the boys refused to step out of her way. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Honestly, class is going to start in ten minutes. I don't know what you think you're going to do between now and-
Lily saw the former Chaser draw his wand. Before she could draw her own, she saw a flash of light and felt a strange pressure beneath the skin of her face. Then she felt the rather sickening feeling of boils coming to the surface of her skin.
The boys all started laughing and Lily forced herself not to run for the nearest bathroom. She was sure she looked absolutely hideous, but she wasn't about to leave Emma.
"Ugly blood, and now an ugly face to match," one of the boys said. "That ought to-
But Lily didn't hear what ought to happen because the boy let out a strangled cry as hair sprouted from his nostrils and began growing rapidly toward his chin. The Chaser who had cursed Lily turned to look down the hall, but his wand sprung out of his hand and was caught by Sirius Black.
"Fernunculus," Black said, giving his own wand a lazy flourish. "Boils aren't so fun on your own face are they, Mulligan?"
Before the boy could reply Sirius stunned him and other boy Lily didn't know. Then Sirius turned and looked disdainfully at his brother.
"This your idea of fun? Tagging along with a bunch of gits to attack two girls, one of whom is only a first year. Pathetic."
"So the blood traitor is going to lecture me on dignity?"
For a brief moment Lily thought she saw an emotion other than disgust cross Sirius' face, but it was gone before she could place it.
"You really believe that rubbish about blood purity? That far gone already are you?"
"Rubbish? What's rubbish is that filth like them are allowed to hold wands and-
"Silencio!"
Regulus mouthed words for a moment. Then he pointed his wand at his brother, attempting nonverbal spells that he had not yet been taught.
"Get out of here," Sirius told Emma and Lily. Emma didn't need telling twice, she took off down the hall.
"Go on Evans, get-
"Sirius!"
Her warning came too late. Regulus had tackled his brother and the two rolled to the ground in a tangle of punches and kicks. Lily tried to pull them apart, grabbing Regulus' shoulder, but he threw an elbow hard into her stomach and she fell backwards.
"What in Merlin's name is going on here?"
Slughorn waddled down the hallway and blasted the two boys apart.
"Fighting in the middle of the corridor-
"Please professor!" Lily cried. "Black-er-Sirius was only trying to help me and Emma Robbins."
"Miss Evans?" Slughorn peered at her for a moment. "What happened to you?"
"I was hexed by that boy-er the unconscious one-and then Sirius came, but before that they were attacking Emma and-
"Slow down, Miss Evans. I'm afraid this will have to be settled in my office," Slughorn said, as he surveyed the scene in front of him.
He revived the unconscious Slytherin and rid the other of his newly acquired hair. He then herded Sirius, Lily, Regulus, and the two other Slytherins toward his office. Once inside, he restored Regulus' ability to speak and everyone began to talk at once.
"Enough! Miss Evans, why don't you tell me what happened?"
Lily ignored the glares coming her way and recounted what had happened. She wasn't surprised when Slughorn took her at her word. She had always been one of his favorites and no one attempted to argue with her version of the events. Instead, they stared sullenly at the ground as Slughorn surveyed them, shaking his head.
"Well," he said finally. "It appears you have done nothing wrong, Miss Evans. You'd probably best get to the hospital wing and get those boils seen to."
Lily did as she was told, but found that Madame Pomfrey was not as helpful as she would have hoped. The nurse informed Lily that it would take a few days for her boils to disappear, and in the mean time all she could do was keep applying a cream.
Lily hardly wanted to walk around with her face covered in angry, pus-filled boils, but Madame Pomfrey saw no "medical concerns." She shooed Lily out of the hospital wing and Lily began the miserable trek to Gryffindoor tower.
Though she tried to take the corridors most likely to be empty, Lily still ran into plenty of other students. Some winced at the sight of her face and others averted their eyes. She even had the misfortune of running into Christine Waters and a few seventh years, who sniggered loudly as she went by.
Lily barely made it to Gryffindoor Tower without bursting into tears. She had decided her day could not possibly get any worse when she ran straight into James Potter.