Lily Bud

Chapter 21

Lily still thought about what to do about Remus a week later. All her friends asked her what she was thinking about all the time. Severus was hurt when she was with him and didn't catch what he was saying because so many thoughts were running through her head. Sulfia and Dorcas giggled when they saw her watching Remus one day in class. Now they were all talking how she had a crush on him.

ECK! Crushes were stupid and for a short time Lily even avoided Remus, because she didn't want people to think that.

But truth be told, she would have probably decided on something sooner, if it weren't for that stupid Valentine's day prank the Marauders played. Normally Lily would be down with a prank on that stupid day. To see so many people kiss was just BAH!

So when a hundred or thousand slimy green frogs rained down in the great hall and all those kissing people, it should have been funny. Lily even laughed at the beginning. That was until she noticed that all of them had a tuft of bright red hair and some of them croaked her name. People started to point at her and laugh. She knew Potter had been planning a prank on her when he stared at her in the common room!

Stupid Marauders! All of them! Remus didn't deserve any notes or help from her!

These were her thoughts when she ran back from a small potion experiment. She had Petunia's book with her. It was sometimes difficult to understand, but it was very interesting. Lily was trying to see if catalysts would work with potions as well and if you could use muggle chemistry catalysts for potions. Apparently few wizards and witches ever worried about what was happening in a potion and if there were parts in it that just change other things but not itself.

Sev first thought that it was stupid and that nothing a muggle found out could ever help in a potion, but he still sat down with her and read with her through advanced potion books in hope to see similarities or at least Lily looked for them. Sev maybe was just reading the advanced potions.

Lily and Sev talked a little bit after and Sev complained again that the teachers let the marauders get away with so many pranks. Like last potion class, when they made all cauldrons randomly switch places. Slughorn found it amusing and thought that it could give them a deeper understanding for the pepper-up potion if they always had to check how far the potion in front of them was. Not a single successful potion was brewed that lesson, but Slughorn still gave everybody good grades for the lesson. But did Sev really have to tell Slughorn it was them that did it? But then again they got away with it because Slughorn didn't want to punish them when he didn't saw them do it himself. Yes, the boys got away with lots of stuff and that made Lily think about the stupid Valentine's prank again.

She turned around a corner and ran into someone. It was Avery. He was a Slytherin in their year and Lily often saw him sit with Sev at meals. Two other Slytherins were with him.

"Oh sorry." Lily didn't like him very much, but she wanted Sev to get along with her friends, so she should try to be nice to his friends, right? Lily forced a small smile on her lips and stepped around him.

"Can't you look where you're going?" He sneered down at her. Lily balled her fists, he ran into her as much as she ran into him. She didn't say anything else and walked away from them. She could still hear Avery. "Now I have to burn my robes. You never know that filth you could catch. Worthless mudbloods shouldn't even be here, my dad says. That's why he is now doing something about it. Lord Voldemort is going to finally clean up, dad says, so that we don't have to deal with vermins like mudbloods and halfbreeds."

It wasn't the first time Lily heard that name, Voldemort, whispered between students. Nobody really knew who he was and what exactly he was doing, but it never sounded good. Some said he had something to do with the missing and killed people. Lily shook with anger. So she was a vermin, along with halfbreeds right? Maybe it was time for the vermin to form their own group!

She stormed up to the Gryffindor tower and got out all the notes she made for Remus and cornered him to next chance she got. She was lucky. That evening Potter had Quidditch training and Black and Pettigrew had detention. Remus just got through the portal hole, when Lily grabbed his wrist and pulled him back out to an unused room. He looked a bit wary and surprised, but before he could say something, Lily shoved all the notes into his arms.

"Here. Those are from the days you weren't around." Lily told him. She could still feel the anger on her heated cheeks.

"Eh, thank you?" Remus didn't sound very convinced.

"You have to learn with it and be good with those notes. They don't have the right to say that we don't belong here, so you and me have to prove to them that we belong, that we are as good as anybody else. Better than anybody else!" Lily started to pace back and forth.

"Who?" Remus asked. "And why you and me?"

"They! Those people that say muggleborns and halfbreeds don't belong at Hogwarts or in the Magical world! We have to show them!" Lily was so frustrated, she stomped her foot down.

"W-what?" Remus' voice was shaking and when Lily turned back to him, he was pale like a sheet of paper. "I don't know what you-"

"I know about your illness. It's stupid and unfair and I asked McGonagall about it and she told me that you are not dangerous apart from the fu- from that one night a month." Lily was still feeling restless. "We can't let them win!"

"How do you know?" Remus sounded scare and a bit broken.

For the first time Lily stopped and really looked at Remus. "I'm muggleborn… I still don't know a lot about magical illnesses and creatures and stuff. I mean when I think of magical beings, I think about dragons, ghosts, unicorns, vampires and well werewolves. I kind of expected to meet all of those here. So when you are sick at the full moon, that is actual the first conclusion I jump to…" Lily wasn't sure what else to tell him and shrugged her shoulders.

"You are not afraid?" Remus asked.

"No, we 'vermin and pariahs' have to stick together. How else can we be a pest?" She grinned at him and finally a small smile formed on his own face. "I'm not going to tell anyone." Lily assured him. After that it got a bit awkward and neither of them knew what to say. Lily finally turned and waved him goodbye.

"Eh, Lily, thank you…" Remus blushed and smiled at her for real this time.

"No problem."

After that Lily would meet with Remus each month after a full moon and talk about the lessons and the notes she made. It was a nice and quiet library friendship. It bloomed between the heavy cover of the books around them.

A.N.

Lily starts to fight back, by being the best she could be and by helping Remus to be the best he could be. But she is not perfect, she takes some time to decide and even then it is a quiet protest against that way of thinking. But in the end Lily is just 13 and still growing and developing and her will to fight is shining through.

Something else , tiny James is really terrible at flirting.

Have a nice day.