A/N: Updated as of 1/22/14. The aftermath of the party, oh Merlin, it's going down. Read and Review

Disclaimer: The base of this story is all due to JK Rowling's amazing books in the Harry Potter series.

Y6: B is for Betrayal

Lily woke up the next morning with a pounding head ache. She turned slowly in her bed and moaned. Emmeline and Mary who were already awake looked at the poor red head who was clearly too hung-over to function.

Mary stood and placed a glass by Lily's bed muttering, "Aguamenti."

The glass was then full and Lily slowly reached for it.

"Are you alright, Lily?" Emmeline asked form the floor.

Lily moaned, "I think I was hit in the face last night with a bat."

Emmeline smiled, "You look like you were hit with a bat."

Mary glared at Emmy, "You're just a bit hung-over is all."

"Oh, please tell me I wasn't plastered last night," Lily cried to them.

"Well," Mary sighed, "I mean it can always be worse, I guess."

"Do you remember anything?" Emmy wondered.

"Well, I-I," Lily tried to think but she kept getting major head pains, "I talked to Potter out in the halls and I apologized for being a twat to him the other day. And then I- I think I went into the party and we, Potter and I, - we hung out for a bit and then everything went fuzzy from there."

Mary nodded and looked to Emmeline. Emmeline gave Mary a look as if trying to say DO NOT TELL HER.

Mary looked away as Emmy started, "It wasn't really all that bad. You know, everyone was pretty drunk. I'm sure no one remembers a thing."

Lily frowned, "What don't I want them to remember?"

"Nothing," Emmy said quickly, "you were just pretty tipsy is all."

"Oh God, did I make a full of myself?" Lily said embarrassed.

Emmy hesitated, "No- no you didn't."

Lily let the air puff out of her as she sunk into her bed. Her brain felt as if it was vibrating in her head and when she closed her eyes, she felt nauseous.

"I can go see if anyone has anything to get rid of that," Mary sighed watching as Lily struggled.

"Thank you," Lily whispered and Mary walked out of the room.

She came back seconds later with a flask of red liquid in her hand, "It's called Prolly Fusion, it's supposed to take away the headaches. Sober you up a bit, I guess."

Lily nodded and sat up as she downed the potion, "That is disgusting."

"Did it work?" Emmeline asked from her bed in the corner.

Lily nodded noting that her headaches were gone but flinched at the burning in her throat, "Now my throat feels funny."

"It'll go away," Mary assured her, "should we go to breakfast?"

The other two nodded and the three of them went on their way to the Great Hall. Lily hadn't noticed the eyes on her as she walked through the Common Room. She watched as some people turned in the corridors but thought nothing of it.

The doors to the Great Hall were opened as they walked in. And quickly Lily found everyone's eyes on her. Lily halted blushing.

"Mar," Lily whispered, "is there something on my face?"

Mary was too choked to answer.

Emmeline glared at Mary before smiling to Lily, "No, nothing. Let's sit down."

The three sat at the end of the table where first years typically sat. Mary kept her head down feeling incredibly guilty for not telling Lily of her previous night. She looked up once and caught James Potter staring straight at her. He nodded his head towards the door, stood and walked out. Mary excused herself and went after him.

"Does she know?" James rounded on her just as she turned the corner.

Mary shook her head.

"Shit, Diven, this is bad."

"Should we tell her?" Mary looked at him.

His eyes opened wide, "Wha—of course not! She'll blame me for it—"

"Well, it was your fault!" Mary frowned at him.

"Mine?" James spat, "I was just as drunk too!"

"Well, yes, but—"

"I mean I didn't even really remember anything until Remus told me!"

"Fine but—"

"No, I was too drunk to even remember kissing her let alone sleeping with her! How did I-!"

Mary looked at him surprised, "WAIT! You didn't sleep with her, Potter!"

"What?" James frowned.

"You. Did. NOT. Sleep. With. Her," Mary spelt it out.

"But- but Sirius- and Remus said—wait what?" James ruffled his hair confused.

"I ran up to the room before anything happened," Mary almost laughed, "I mean to be frank, if I hadn't gone up, you still would've been too drunk to unzip your trousers!"

"You're saying, I didn't sleep with her."

"No, Potter, you did not."

"Oh thank Merlin," James said relieved, "she would've killed me."

"She still will," Mary warned, "when she finds out."

"You can't tell her!" James begged, "Nothing even happened anyway!"

"Right, but she should know why everyone is calling her a slag behind her back!"

"C'mon, Divs, you can't tell her!"

"I don't want to," Mary said crossing her arms, "I want you to."

"Me! I can't do that!"

"Then I guess I have to then!" Mary turned to go back in to the Great Hall.

"Wait, wait, wait! I'll do it, I'll do it!" James grabbed Mary by the arm, "I can do it when I find the right time."

"Deal," Mary sighed, "Find the 'right time' soon though."

James nodded and Mary left him alone.

….

Two days passed and Lily grew more paranoid by the minute.

"I feel like people are staring at me!" Lily whispered to Dori.

Dori had gotten the memo from Emmeline to not tell Lily what happened.

"Oh hush, Lils, I'm trying to pay attention!" Dorcas lied nervously.

Lily frowned and went back to work.

…..

Another day went by and Lily rung her hands as she felt the glares of everyone in the Library.

"I think everyone hates me," Lily whispered to Marlene.

Marlene struggled to think of a way to distract Lily but Pince beat her to it.

"Miss Evans, if you insist on talking then you can leave my classr—I mean Library!"

Lily apologized and went back to work.

…

The next night and Lily sat with Remus at a prefect meeting.

"Slag," Lily heard someone whisper.

She snapped her head around to see the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw prefects laughing.

"Remus, am I going crazy or does everyone keep watching me?"

Remus gave a shaky laugh, "Oh they're looking at me, Lily."

She frowned, "Why?"

He rubbed the back of his neck searching for words, "I—erm – I'm just too damn gorgeous."

Lily laughed and went back to work.

…

Lily sat in the Common Room Friday night surrounded by her friends. The Marauders had just walked in when someone in the room hollered, "Gonna go snog your whore for us, Potter?"

James searched the room, "Who the bloody fuck said that?"

No one answered and the stares of the audience went between James and Lily.

Lily turned red when she met people's gazes. She gathered her books and went to her dormitory, her friends traipsing after her.

She threw her books to the ground, "WHY ARE THEY LOOKING AT ME?!"

"Calm down, Lils," Emmy hushed closing the door before anyone downstairs could eavesdrop.

"NO!" Lily shouted, "People have been looking at me funny all week! WHY?!"

No one answered and Mary looked down as she whispered, "They think you slept with Potter."

"I what?" Lily said incredulous as the others glared at Mary.

Mary chewed her lip, "At the Halloween party, you were drunk and went up to James' room. They think you had—they think you slept with him."

"They think I shagged JAMES POTTER!" Lily screamed disgusted.

"Yes," Mary replied.

"Shut it, Mary," Emmeline whispered.

Mary looked at her disgusted and snapped, "No, Emmeline, I won't. I kept shut because of you and now I think she should know!"

"Wait," Lily paused them, "what the hell does Emmeline have to do with this?"

Emmeline started, "Nothing, I—"

Mary cut her off, "She didn't want me to tell you in the first place!"

"Wait to throw her under the bus," Marlene muttered.

"YOU WEREN'T GOING TO TELL ME?!" Lily screamed.

"I didn't want you to freak out!" Emmy defended herself.

"Because walking around paranoid was so much better," Lily laughed.

"I didn't—" Emmeline began but Lily cut her off.

"I DON'T CARE!" she laughed maniacally, "You kept it from me! And you!"

Mary, Dori, and Marlene flinched as Lily pointed at them.

"None of you wanted to tell me."

"I did," Mary said, "I just did!"

"You waited all week to tell me!"

"Well, because I told Potter to!" Mary yelled back.

"HE KNEW ABOUT THIS TOO!" Lily cried frustrated.

"Everyone does!" Mary said.

"You know what, fuck you," Lily had never said such a thing to anyone let alone her friends. But they weren't her friends in this moment.

"Excuse me?" Mary said, "That's a nice thing to say to the person who got you out of the situation before you actually did shag Potter!"

"AND THANK YOU," Lily cried, "BUT FUCK YOU FOR WAITING ALL BLOODY WEEK TO TELL ME!"

Lily stormed out of the room leaving the girls to argue amongst themselves over Mary telling Lily. Lily stormed up the boys' staircase, too enraged to acknowledge the stares she was receiving. She threw their door open charging at James who lay on his bed.

"I SHAGGED YOU?" she took a pillow and threw it at him!

"Wha- ow- no, Lily, no that didn't happen!" James said warding off her attacks of pillows.

"I KNOW THAT BLOODY DIDN'T HAPPEN!" she cried, "BUT THAT'S WHAT EVERYONE THINKS YOU ARSE!"

"I never said that it—"

"I hate you, Potter! Honestly!" she screamed in his face wanting to choke him, "You are honestly the biggest arse in all of England!"

She went to pull out her wand when Remus stopped her, "Lily! Lily!"

"AND YOU," she turned to Remus, "YOU KNEW TOO!"

"Yes," he apologized, "I'm really sorry."

"NO YOU ARE NOT! OR YOU WOULD'VE TOLD ME!"

"Yeah, maybe, but—"

"No buts, Remus! I thought you were my friend!" Lily cried to him.

"I am—"

"No you are not!" Lily laughed, "And I kept your bloody secret! I WAS ALWAYS YOUR FRIEND! AND THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT ME!"

"Lily, please, I didn't—"

"Shut it," Lily threw her hands up, "you're worse than Potter! You're worse because I trusted you! I TRUSTED YOU! And you go and pull something like this."

Remus couldn't even respond.

James started, "Evans, I didn't know what to do when I found out."

Lily looked at him with tearful eyes. She had been completely embarrassed in front of the entire school. And now she didn't even have a single friend who she could trust. Her voice cracked as she whispered, "You could've told me."

James felt a knife go through his heart. He couldn't find the words to say, perhaps there were none. Remus looked away in shame. Sirius and Peter who had been in the room through it all sat quietly on their beds too frightened to bring her wrath on them. She looked only at James and James looked straight at her.

She shook her head and left. James didn't run after her. And Lily didn't run back to her room. She ran out of the Gryffindor Common Room, away from the Gryffindor tower. She didn't care that it was nearing curfew as she ran outside to the lake.

She threw herself to the ground and began crying. Lily was more than embarrassed. More than disappointed in her friends. There were no words to explain her emotions. She began throwing stones into the lake. Her throws were rough and powerful. She had a build of what felt like hatred in her. Tears rushed down her face and she didn't care to wipe them away.

"Lily?" a voice called from behind her.

She was still hyperventilating as she snapped her head around.

"Are- are you okay?" Severus Snape asked feeling stupid for asking the question. Of course she wasn't.

"What do you want?" She spat at him.

He took a few steps forward, "What happened?"

"Oh don't pretend to care!" Lily laughed, "You're just as bad as the others. Another shit friend who let me down!"

He flinched at her words, "Please, what happened?"

She meant to curse him off but a sob came out instead and she fell to the ground. Severus rushed to her side and rubbed her back. She tried to push away but he wouldn't let her go and she stopped trying.

Lily cried hard for almost an hour but when she finally gained composure, she brushed herself off.

"Feeling better?" Severus asked.

"No," she whispered standing from their spot on the grass.

He followed her suit, "Do you want me to walk you to the castle?"

"No," she glared at him.

He smiled slightly, "You know I'm going to anyway."

She let out a sigh, "Whatever, Snape."

He hated when she used his surname like that.

She stocked off and he jogged to catch up with her then matched her pace. They walked in silence but with every step Lily was less angry and Severus could sense it.

When they got in to the castle, they were quiet hoping not to get caught. Lily started up the steps as Severus watched her go.

He frowned, "Are you not going to say thank you?"

Lily glared at him, "Thank you so much for listening to a filthy Mudblood cry, I know you didn't want to."

Severus rolled his eyes, "Lily—"

"No!" She warned him, "You don't call me that. That's not a luxury you have anymore. I'm Evans to you now. Or nothing. I'd rather you not call me anything. I don't want you talking to me as if we were friends."

"I think I'm the only friend you have right now considering everything you mumbled in to my shoulder," Severus snapped at her.

"No," Lily shook her head smiling ironically, "You're wrong. You are most definitely not my friend. And neither are they. Looks like the only person I can rely on is myself. I wish I'd learned that when you backstabbed me. Looks like it took me another year to figure that lesson out."

"Lil—"

"It's Evans," she snapped back at him, "And I'm going to my Common Room. And you will go to your dungeon. And when we wake up, we won't talk to each other because nothing has changed. I still hate you. And you still hate Mudbloods. And you'll have your little Slytherin buddies and I'll have myself. That's what our friendship taught me, Snape. I only have myself. I wonder what it taught you."

She turned leaving him to his thoughts. He slumped to his dungeons and she was right. The next day they did not speak to each other nor the day after that. And Lily moved her bed towards the front of the room closest to the door. She woke early so she didn't have to see the girls and came to bed past curfew. She sat on the opposite side of the classroom than all her friends. In prefect meetings, she only spoke to Remus to argue against his ideas. She couldn't even look at James Potter, and James couldn't find the strength to look at Lily. Weeks began to pass and this became their routine.

Perhaps she was being over dramatic, but how else was Lily supposed to feel. When something happens to a friend, you tell them, don't you? Why is there any logic to ever keeping things away from them? Would the rumor have hurt Lily? Yes, and it did. Would keeping it from her make it go away? No, people would still think it and they still do. Is she supposed to forgive them because they were sorry? Well, Severus had been sorry too and she couldn't find it in her heart to forgive him. She was hurt, and betrayed, and angry, and annoyed… let down… embarrassed… ashamed… everything… she felt everything. And it hurt when she ran into Mary in the corridors or Emmeline in the class rooms. Or every night when she walked in to her dorm, she'd catch one of them watching her walk in and she had to pretend to not notice them. It hurt. Lies hurt. Betrayal, what a terrible, terrible word to use.