Disclaimer: Hogwarts, the characters, etc. all belong to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing but the plot.
Chapter 12: Gilderoy Lockhart
"I can't believe Potter did that!" Severus snickered.
"Yeah..." Lily said distractedly.
They were sitting on the banks of the lake after their first flying lesson, sheltering from the strong wind behind a tree.
"I mean...he thought he was so great he could keep flying when Madam Hooch told everyone to come down!" Severus continued. "Serves him right, if you ask me."
Lily shrugged.
"...don't you think so, Lily?" Severus trailed off.
"He could have really gotten hurt if Madam Hooch hadn't slowed him down with her wand. That's pretty high to fall from..."
"Yeah, but he deserved it."
"I felt how strong those winds were up there. It would have been pretty hard to fly down at that point."
"Lily, are you defending him?" Severus demanded incredulously.
"No, but-"
"Have you forgotten what happened on the train? Potter and his mates have been nothing but rude to both of us!"
"I know, Sev!" Lily said, raising her voice a little. "I'm not defending him. He's a jerk. All I'm saying is that it wasn't completely his fault."
Severus said something in reply, but Lily wasn't paying attention. There was something else that was bothering her. Last week, Sirius Black had received a screaming letter that Alice said was a Howler.
The Howler had told Black he was unworthy of the "pureblood prestige" because he was in Gryffindor. She had heard the word "pureblood" used multiple times but didn't know what it meant. It sounded like some weird medical condition to her.
"Sev?" she said, cutting across his rants about Potter's idiocy.
"What?"
"What's a pureblood?"
Sev thought about it for a moment. "It's just what some people call themselves. People who can trace their heritage back for generations and generations of magical blood." he said bitterly.
"So your mum is one, then?"
"Yeah, so that makes me a halfblood."
"Oh. What would that make me?" Lily asked curiously.
"A mud- I mean, a muggleborn."
"What?"
"A muggleborn."
"No, I meant what were you going to say that you didn't?"
"Nothing. I just stuttered."
"Oh. Okay." Lily said, although she had been sure he had meant to say something else, something other than 'muggleborn'.
"But it doesn't mean anything, right?" she asked quickly, both to suppress the odd suspicion cropping up in her head, and to end the odd silence that had descended over the pair.
"No. Of course not. It doesn't matter at all."
"Good." Lily said, relieved.
"It's nearly lunchtime." she added, noting the the raindrops that had resumed falling from the fat gray clouds overhead. "We should get back."
Severus nodded, and the pair set off across the lawn toward the Great Hall.
They split at the Great Hall, Lily toward the Gryffindor table, Severus toward the Slytherin one. Lily gave Severus a small wave that he did not return, instead giving her a small smile before hurrying toward the Slytherin table.
Feeling a little annoyed by his behavior, Lily plopped down on the bench in between Alice and Mary.
"Where were you?" Alice demanded, taking in Lily's wet hair and robes.
"Out on the grounds."
"By yourself?" Mary inquired.
"No. With Severus."
"What, that Slytherin?" Marlene put in disgustedly. "What's the deal with you and him, anyway?"
"We're friends, like I said before." Lily said firmly, swallowing a large mouthful of pumpkin juice in the hopes of indicating the subject was closed.
"So...flying was pretty fun, right?" Lily said, when she had drained her pumpkin juice and her friends were still looking at her funny.
"Potter took quite a tumble though, didn't he?" Marlene giggled.
Lily gave a noncommittal grunt.
"Potter?" came a voice from behind them. "Isn't that the First Year with glasses and the hair that always sticks up?"
The girls turned to find Emmeline Vance, the gruff Quidditch Captain, looking at them curiously.
"Yeah."
"What happened to him?"
"He crashed into the castle wall." Mary said, suppressing her laughter.
"No wonder. The conditions were pretty terrible out there." Emmeline scowled at the clouds through the window as if that would make them go away. "I can't schedule tryouts for the team until the weather clears up, and we need to find a Seeker, pronto..."
Emmeline glanced suddenly at Lily.
"Can you fly?"
Lily nodded.
"You're just the right build for a seeker come to think of it." she said thoughtfully. "You're light and speedy. We could use you on our team. It's really too bad you're a first year."
"H-h-her?" Came an incredulous voice from behind Lily. It was-speak of the devil-James Potter, looking absolutely caught off guard.
"How's your shoulder? I heard you lost control of your broom yesterday." Emmeline asked, clearly trying to be nice. She had even gotten rid of her gruff tone.
Potter stormed away, but not before they caught a glimpse of his livid expression.
"Maybe next year." Emmeline finished, as if nothing had happened, then left to go eat lunch with her friends.
Sturgis Podmore waved at Emmeline hopefully as she passed, but she either ignored him or didn't notice. Sturgis looked rather crestfallen.
"Oooh. Potter's jealous." Marlene said gleefully. "Serves him right, for showing off today."
"He looked pretty mad, too..." Alice added, watching Potter stalk out the door.
"Careful, Lily." Mary whispered suddenly. "He's really impulsive isn't he? He'll do something to get back at Emmeline...or you."
For some reason, this really ticked Lily off. He was mad, was he? He was going to get revenge on her? If anyone deserved to be mad, it would be her. Potter had insulted her best friend, locked her in some stupid classroom in the eighth floor, got her taken to see the headmaster on the very first day, and now he was mad at her?
"Potter can try whatever he wants." Lily scoffed.
"Hello, Ladies," came a suave voice smoothly from across the table, cutting across their conversation.
The girls looked up to see a rather overweight boy with rather wavy golden hair lying across the top of his round head sitting beside Mary, who scooted away from him.
Lily exchanged a look with Alice that said clearly What in Merlin's name is he doing here?
Fortunately the boy took it upon himself to answer their unspoken question.
"I suppose you are wondering to what you owe the pleasure of my company," he began pompously, tossing his head to get a lock of his blonde hair out of his eyes.
Lily was too shocked to reply.
"The name's Lockhart. Gilderoy Lockhart."
Marlene chose this moment to cough rather loudly.
"I couldn't help but notice that you ladies were discussing Quidditch."
How long had this creep been listening in to their conversations?
"I just wanted to tell you that if you ever want to know how a real Quidditch champ flies, you know who to ask!"-here he inserted a greatly exaggerated wink-"You know, one who doesn't crash into castle walls."
For a split second, Lily had the image of Lockhart on a broomstick, his chubby cheeks flapping in the air, turning loop-the-loops like Potter had, waving to a crowd no one could see but him, and crashing into the wall anyway because he wasn't paying attention. She sniggered.
Lockhart looked around at the four girls' expressions and beamed, somehow mistaking their expressions of concealed laughter as those of crazed fangirls. "Sorry ladies, but I'm taken at the moment. I'd be happy to give out autographs, though."
Lockhart proceeded to sign everyone's cloth napkins with a ridiculous peacock quill he produced from nowhere and bottle of color-changing ink.
"I really must be on my way. Nice meeting you all." Lockhart gave them another wink, which looked rather like a wince, and left in the direction of the Ravenclaw table.
The moment he left, the girls burst into laughter.
"He's taken?" Marlene guffawed. "By who? He's eleven, just like us!"
"I don't know," Mary said mischievously. "Alice seemed pretty captivated by him."
Author's Note: Happy Birthday to Harry Potter and JK Rowling! :D This chapter (well the entire story, really) is dedicated to you. :)
Once more, I posted an unbeta'ed version of this chapter. I wanted to get this up in time for JKR and Harry's birthday, and I wrote it late, so it's totally my fault for any grammatical mistakes and whatnot in this chapter.
REVIEW!
~VictoryNike