We return to the adventures of Lily Potter. Previous disclaimers apply.

Lily's disastrous week was far from over. Lily let out a raging shriek of dismay, "My room!"

Lily shivered, dripping rainwater onto the carpet, as she looked around at the slashed ruins of her Hogwarts uniforms. "And my bloody dress robe!"

She had laid the red velvet dress robes out on her bed before going to visit Hagrid's cottage. Now, her dress robes had a series of slashes across the front. The gold-embroidered sleeves dangled by threads. The long skirt was frayed and ripped at the end.

Lily's mouth opened and closed and she felt heat rush up her neck and cheeks as she stared around her room. The doors to her wardrobe hung open and her Hogawrts uniforms spilt out onto the ground in a pile of gray and black, and each skirt, sweater, and shirt had been ripped apart. It looked like someone had let a Grim lose in her room, but when she had arrived, the door had been closed and no one had been inside.

"Lily?"

Lily whirled around. "Grace, look! They...they...they went into my room! And they cut up all my clothes!"

"Oh my," Grace said delicately as she stepped over a shredded pant-leg and into the room. "Did they splash you with water as well?"

"What? No, it's raining out, I just came back from Hagrid's," Lily flapped her arms and spraying a few drops towards Grace, "No, look!"

Grace nodded. Lily noted that Grace wasn't wearing her uniform but, instead, a yellow silk dress with a white and red pattern of curling phoenixes and clouds.

"It looks like a Severing Charm," Grace said thoughtfully as she looked around.

In the hall Lily heard muffled voices, a shrill giggle, and then a door closing. She growled and took a step back towards the door, her wet shoes making squeaking sounds on the stones.

Grace held out a hand, "Wait, Lily, leave them alone. They couldn't have done it anyways, it's a Severing Charm and that's a second year spell."

"Yeah, well, I bet they know who did do it," Lily said, clenching her fists, "And when I find out..."

Grace gave Lily a flat look, "You can't just hex them, Lily. It's not proper."

"Does this look proper?" Lily said, pointing at her ruined dress robes indignantly.

Just when Lily had started to think that Grace was pretty fun, Grace had to go and say something like that. Lily considered her fellow Slytherin. They had been thrown together by chance but Lily was almost ready to consider her a friend. On Friday they had been partnered together in Herbology and then, later the same day, Professor Slughorn had moved Lily to sit her next to Grace in Potions. During dinner Lily had worked up the nerve to apologize to Grace for all the insulting things she had said about Slytherin earlier in the week, an Grace had been surprisingly accepting. Lily had realized that the small girl was rather tough. It had also helped that Deloitte and Laila had essentially excluded them from their little circle—it turned out Grace had nothing in common with the vapid Slytherin girls except a love for Quidditch, but Grace actually liked to fly, not just compare players and teams.

Lily sighed and shook off her reminiscence. She pouted at Grace. "Come on, this isn't proper, Grace, they broke into my room!"

"I know," Grace closed the door to Lily's room. She looked thoughtful and unconsciously reached up with a hand and started playing with her lower lip. "It must have been a girl, right, to get through the door."

Lily paced back and forth, dripping water across her carpet. "Argh! This is the worst. I think I prefer the Gryffindorks, at least they'll be mean to my face. And I can jinx them! This..." Lily looked around her room. "This was mine..." she moaned.

"An Upper Year girl," Grace pursed her lips, still thinking about who had committed the heinous assault on Lily's wardrobe.

Lily stared at her tattered robes and thought furiously. "If it wasn't a first year... It was probably Walburga Burke, or Cynthia Worme! She hates me because I'm not all mannered."

"She's a Prefect, so I doubt it," Grace said. "She might have known about it but she wouldn't have done it herself."

"True, very Slytherin of her." Lily struggled to keep bitterness out of her voice for Grace's sake.

"If she had anything to do with it all, Lily," Grace corrected her patiently, "We don't know for certain."

Lily slowed to a step, trying to shed her useless anger. She couldn't do anything right now. She chewed on her cheek and considered the raven-haired girl, hoping that she knew that Lily didn't include Grace in her anger. Lily considered apologizing but she was so tired of it. The bed groaned as Lily flopped down with a sigh. She kicked off her black shoes and tugged at her damp socks.

Grace came over and picked up Lily's ruined dress robes, "What are you going to wear to dinner?"

Lily threw her wet socks across the room (Grace shuddered in disgust). Lily shrugged. "What's the point? Maybe I won't go."

"You have to go!" Grace said indignantly.

"I'm soaking wet and Hagrid lectured me for a half hour about 'respectin' me elders.' I don't want to go to a stupid party," Lily said petulantly.

"You said you would go. It's not polite to just now show up," Grace insisted.

"Ugh."

"What about me?" Grace said, "I need help putting on the rest of my robes."

"The rest? There's more, seriously?" Lily rolled her eyes.

Grace nodded.

"Fine, fine, you win, Grace. Then we need someone to repair my dress robes first so I can get out of these wet things. Let's find Sita, hopefully she's in her room."

Grace nodded. "And we'll report what happened when we find her."

"No we won't." Lily scowled.

"Yes, we will, we have to, Lily."

"It won't help and I don't want to, so, no," Lily said, pulling out a fresh pair of socks and realizing that they had cut holes in the heel of each sock. "Really? Really? Argh!"

Lily tossed the ripped dress robes over her arm and stuffed the ripped socks in her shoes. "Come on, let's go."

"So unsanitary," Grace sighed.

Shoes dangling by the buckle in her hands, Lily walked barefoot on the rough stone steps. Grace followed her up the spiral staircase to the Fifth Years' corridor.

Lily hesitated on the stairwell, examining the dark wooden doors with golden plaques.

"Are we supposed to be here?" Grace whispered behind her.

"It's fine," Lily said, "She said I could visit. Look, there she is, right by the door."

Lily strode forward and knocked loudly on Sita's door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, Lily."

There was a rustling sound. "Come in!"

Lily opened the door. Sita's room was larger than Lily's. It still had crystal portals looking out into the underwater world of the Black Lake, but it had a free-standing bed adjacent to the wall and far more furniture. Emerald and blue tiles were set in a wavy pattern on floor. Sita's large black wardrobe was open and long bolts of gauzy, gold-fringed cloth were draped over the doors and various pieces of furniture. Sita was sitting in front of a vanity with a gilded silver mirror and arrays of cosmetics in lacquered jars and boxes. She wore a fitted, sleeveless black-and-copper blouse cropped to reveal her waist and navel and a pair of gauzy black pants. She had swiveled on a stool to face the door. A tiny sparkling gem nestled in her belly button.

"How are you, Miss Potter? And Miss Li, come in, close the door please."

"Thanks, Miss Kumar. You look really nice," Lily said, "Are you going to Slughorn's Club too?"

"Yes I am," Miss Kumar said with a slight upwards tilt of her lips, "As for you, you look very wet, Miss Potter. What happened?"

"It's just raining out," Lily shrugged one shoulder as they entered and closed the door, Lily held out her dress, "Would you mind repairing my dress robes, Miss Kumar? I, uh, accidentally ripped them."

Sita took the robes with a small smile. Her dark eyes roved across Lily and Grace, "Ripped them?" she said, putting a finger through the long slashes. "I see."

"Yeah. Ripped," Lily said.

Lily shot a look at Grace who was playing with her lower lip.

"Very well," Sita said, picking up her wand from the vanity. "This looks relatively complicated. If it was just ripped a simple Reparo would do the trick but if it was, say, a series of Severing Charms..."

"It was," Grace said immediately.

"Grace!" Lily groaned.

"Lily, she needs to know or she can't fix it and we're all going to Slughorn's club."

"Fine!" Lily grumbled.

"Interesting," Sita said, "Well, now I can fix it."

Lil fumed while Sita started running her wand along the dress and murmuring, over and over, "Reparo Incantatum..."

Lily crossed her arms and shivered, rolling her shoulders to peel her damp shirt from her back. Now that she wasn't moving, and wasn't as angry as she was before, she was getting cold.

Sita absentmindedly paused, pointed her wand at Lily, and said "Ventus Tepidus."

A warm wind dired Lily's clothes and Lily laughed, turning on the spot to warm her back for a moment before Sita returned to repairing the dress and the warm breeze died down.

Lily was much more comfortable now that she was dry, and she waited in relative patience until Sita was done. Finally, Sita put her wand back down and lifted up the dress. "This should be fine now. How does it look?"

"Thanks Sita, it looks perfect!" Lily beamed.

She seized the dress and ran her hands along the seamlessly repaired slashes.

Grace smiled, "It looks quite nice, I like the sleeves."

"Your robe is wonderful as well," Sita said to Grace, "Alright is there anything else, girls?"

"My socks?" Lily sighed, removing them from her shoes.

Sita repaired them quickly and then frowned. "I'll look into who slashed up your robes, Lily—what is it?"

Grace had coughed loudly.

"Well, there's also, uh, all my other clothes." Lily said shifting from foot to foot and glaring at Grace.

Sita frowned and tapped the side of her mouth. "I see. I will look into it, Lily. That's unacceptable behavior."

"Please don't tell anyone I told you," Lily said quickly, "People already think I'm...you know."

"Of course," Sita said. "And you're not, Miss Potter."

"Not what?"

"You know." Sita grinned. "Alright I really need to finish getting ready, but I'll see you soon."

They left Sita in her room and went back downstairs to the First Year Corridor, where they split up. In her room Lily changed out of her wet clothes and into her dress robes and a fresh pair of socks. After that she twirled in front of the mirror, admiring the wide red-and-gold sleeves and the voluminous skirt as it swished through the air in a ripple of crimson. Then she went and joined Grace in her room.

"What do you need help with?" Lily asked.

Grace stood in front of her wardrobe wearing her yellow dress and a beautiful green silk robe on top of that that pooled around her ankles.

"Woah," Lily said, "Cool! You like great, Grace."

"Thank you," Grace nodded. "I need help with my belt and hair! Can you...?"

Lily shrugged. "We'll see."

Lily belted Grace's outer robe with a jeweled band easily enough. However, it took forever for Lily to put Grace's hair up in a bun. Grace's mirror kept offering snide advice and sniffing loudly.

"I have brothers, okay?" Lily said sourly as she unwound Grace's hair again.

"This isn't hard," Grace said pointedly, "And you have plenty of cousins. We're going to be late."

"By, like, five minutes," Lily said, glancing at the clock, "Ah, I think I got it!"

Grace tilted her head to the side to see. The mirror sighed. "Finally, my dears."

"Thank you," Grace said with a sigh.

Lily stuck out of her tongue at the mirror.

Grace fixed her hair in place with a charmed golden comb that had three filigree butterflies on top that fluttered their glass wings and twitched metal antennae.

"Let's go!" Lily said, skipping to the door.

Grace pulled on embroidered yellow slippers. "I can't move very fast in this," she confessed, twitching her knees against the tight yellow skirt, "And we're already late, so there's no point in arriving with our robes all messed up."

"Fine," Lily rolled her eyes, "Let's go, very, very slowly."

Lily and Grace ascended the Grand Staircase towards Professor Slughorn's office. It was just past six and Upper Years were leaving the library loaded down with books and stacks of parchment after spending their Saturday afternoon studying. Most were too absorbed in their own conversations to notice the two first years gliding up the stairs opposite them, but a few glanced across the wide hall at the moving marble staircase. Lily scowled at the mingled looks of curiosity, surprise, and dislike that met their progress. She tugged at the collar of her dress robes.

"Ignore them," Grace said, "Just ignore them."

Lily looked sourly at Grace.

"Easy for you to say," Lily muttured to Grace, "You like amazing. I look stupid. I'm wearing Gryffindor colours, what was I thinking?"

"That's not right, Lily," Grace said sternly, "You look quite nice. And I think what's really stupid is that the Houses can monopolize a colour, Lily."

Lily went pink. "Sorry," she muttered, and sighed. She had been saying that a lot lately and she didn't like it very much.

The moving stairs carried Lily and Grace into sight of the Third Floor Landing. The tall, dark doors to the library were open and two Upper Year Gryffindors were exiting the library. Lily and Grace stepped off the stairs and onto the landing and the boy looked up and smiled maliciously, elbowing his companion and whispering something. Lily recognized Tiberius McClaggen, her brother's former friend. Lily glared at them and felt Grace stiffen beside her. "Let's go," Grace whispered.

But it was too late. Tiberius paced forward. "Look, it's Princess Slytherin! Look atcha, all dressed up like you're somethin' special, arencha? Better than me and ma brother, eh?"

"Ignore him," Grace said softly as the slowed.

"I'm trying!" Lily hissed.

Lily's face felt hot. Lily and Grace turned to the right towards the Third Floor Corridor but the two Gryffindor boys stepped in front of them.

"Where are ya' going, then?"

Tiberius was at least a foot taller than Lily and Grace. He had broad shoulders, a beefy neck, and a slightly squashed face. He had a few thin hairs on his upper lip and bushy brown eyebrows.

"Why're ya' dress like that, eh?"

"If you would be so kind as to get out of the way," Grace said in a cold voice.

Tiberius guffawed, "As if ya can tell me what to do, pretty."

Lily was chewing on the inside of her cheek now. She was doing her utmost to not draw her wand. The rational part of her knew she couldn't really do anything to Tiberius McClaggen, a tough bruiser with a reputation almost as fierce as her brother James, but she longed to wipe the smirks off his squashed face. Ignore him, she told herself. Ignore him!

The second Gryffindor, a curly-haired girl standing by the stairs, stamped her foot. "Come on, Tiberius, we've been stuck in the library for hours working on this stupid project of Clearwater's. Let's go."

She had an Irish accent and sounded very cross.

"Hold on a minute," Tiberius said with a smile growing on his face. "Look at 'em, think they're somethin' special don't they with their dress robes and bein' all polite and shit. What's that made outta then, eh?"

Tiberius reached out towards Grace, who withdrew a stately step. "If you touch me I will scream very loudly and Madam Pince will be out here in a second."

Tiberius let his arm fall and scowled heavily, "I was just jokin'!"

"Tiberius!" the Gryffindor girl said shrilly, "That's enough, come on!"

"They're just Slytherins," Tiberius protested, "And she's worst than most, arencha, Potter? A lying, tricky coward."

Lily exploded. "I'm sick of fat nincompoops like you calling me names! I'm not a liar or a coward, and I'd rather be a Slytherin than a giant troll like you are, Tiberius!"

"Why you little..." Tiberius took a menacing step forward.

Lily's face was on fire and her heart pounded. She raised her chin and, eyes flashing, and dared him to come forward. "Come on then!"

Grace stepped in front of Lily. "If you do anything to her this is going to end very badly for you, we're going straight to Professor Slughorn's office!"

The Gryffindor girl seized Tiberius arm and pulled. Red in the face, Tiberius let himself be drawn backwards. "You're a right bitch, Potter!" he snarled, "An' your friend too!"

"Shut it, Tiberius, we're leaving!"

The two Gryffindors started walking away, hissing to each other. Grace grabbed Lily's sleeve and tugged. Lily growled and turned away. The two girls retreated, Lily's heart pounding.

"Don't drag me," Lily muttered and tugged her arm away from Grace.

They stood in the entrance to the Third Floor corridor. Grace sniffed and released her, patting her robes. "What does that word mean?" Grace asked, wrinkling her nose, "I mean, I could tell it was very rude..."

"B-b-bitch?" Lily asked and suppressed an uncomfortable laugh that tickled the back of her throat. Her face was still very pink and hot. "It's a bad word. Mummy uses it sometimes but she says I'm not allowed to use it, but I think it means a really mean woman. Also I read that it's a girl dog. But I don't know what that means though."

"It seems like a very bad word. I will report him to Miss Kumar." Grace said nodding thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Lily nodded without really listening.

Princess Slytherin...

"How can they think that!?" Lily burst out, "I'm not... I'm not a bitch am I?"

Grace stopped and shuddered. "Please don't say it."

"Am I?" Lily moaned, turning to face Grace.

"You could have been more polite," Grace said reluctantly, playing with her lip.

"They started it," Lily said, staring at her.

Grace nodded, the jeweled butterflies in her hair dancing, "I know. But we should always be respectful and polite."

"You threatened him!" Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"I told him what would happen," Grace said stiffly. "Politely."

Lily ground her teeth together. "You're really weird, Grace."

Two spots of colour appeared on Grace's cheeks. "Fine!" she said, "Next time I won't say anything!"

Lily felt regret rise in her chest, "No, no, sorry... That's not what I meant. I'm just still mad, alright? I didn't mean it."

Grace relaxed slightly, hesitated, and then nodded. "Apology accepted, Lily Potter. And they were quite mean."

"They were trolls," Lily grunted.

"That is an insult to hardworking security trolls," Grace said. "Now we really should go."

Lily laughed. "I thought we were already late?"

Grace sniffed.

"You're pretty cool," Lily said after a second, "You know that, right? I didn't think you were at first but I was wrong. That was cool, you stepping in front of me, and knowing what to say to make them stop without fighting and everything."

Grace looked at her funny.

"What?"

"Nothing. Thank you."

A second laugh bubbled out of Lily's chest and she ran a hand through her hair, feeling a little better. They resumed walking down the Third Floor corridor. Lily couldn't help but smile. Grace's skirt hissed along the floor. She glanced at Lily. "The Gryffindors still seem very upset. It seems like such an effort to go to over the Houses."

"It's about more than that now," Lily shrugged, "They blame me for losing all the Gryffindor points, because Tiberius convinced everyone that Sabine and me started the fight with Shafiq and Tiberius' dumb brother. It's completely not fair!"

"You should talk to your elder brother, he must protect you," Grace said.

"Merlin, Grace, this again? We're fine aren't we? I don't want to be protected! And besides, James is in enough trouble as it is. He got into a huge row with Tiberius."

"But your brother—"

"I don't want to talk about it, okay, Grace?" Lily sighed, "I can handle it, honestly."

"You're wrong," Grace said lightly, and then fell silent and tugged at her silk sleeves, nose in the air.

Lily rubbed at her sweaty forehead with the sleeve of her robe. She sighed and glanced at Grace out of the corner of her eye as they walked briskly down the corridor. At least she believes me. I think.

Lily couldn't believe that so many people believed Cormac McLaggen and Ali Shafiq instead of her. She didn't understand how anyone could believe those two cowards. Tiberius, Cormac's older brother, had a huge row with James in the Gryffindor Common Room on Thursday and Albus had told Lily all about it. Tiberius had accused Lily of cheating and ambushing Cormac and Ali Shafiq, as well as using magic that only James could have taught her. James had called Cormac a coward and a liar. Tiberius had told James that Gryffindor mattered more than his brat sister and Sabine, the child of a convicted Death Eater (Lily suspected a few more choice words had been used but no one would tell her). Dominique and Jackie Bell had tried to intervene but that had only made things worse: Tiberius had accused James of sleeping with his cousin and Jackie Bell had punched Tiberius in the face. Lily had gagged when she heard that part of the story. After that, they had turned to wands. It had taken Uncle Neville to separate them—and repair the Gryffindor Common Room. Tiberius and James had spent the night in the Hospital Wing. Now, half the Gryffindors blamed Lily for losing them House Points. In the meantime, in Slytherin House, Professor Slughorn had made a big, very uncomfortable speech about how everything had been settled and Lily was a proper Slytherin. Of course, that hadn't really helped. Over half of Slytherin House still treated her like a leper for losing over fifty points in her first three days (it was a new school record, but not a record that Lily had wanted). So half the Slytherins and half the Gryffindors treated her like dirt.

Lily had done poorly in her classes for the rest of the week. She had been tired and distracted, between Astronomy and repeated detentions. It was a shame because Lily had been looking forward to classes with Uncle Neville but now she hated the idea of spending every Friday morning with the Gryffindors. In Slytherin House, Deloitte, Reginald Bletchley, and Damien Morehead were snide and cruel. Outside Slytherin, Gryffindors like Cormac and Ali took every opportunity to nettle her. Professor Hoarwell ignored their antics completely and Lily swore he took vindictive pleasure in letting them frustrate her. Yes, the only good thing that had happened was that Grace was becoming a friend. Sita had delivered both of them gilded invitations to the Slug Club on Friday, and now they knew Sita was going too. Lily decided that it wasn't going to be that bad after all. It didn't quite make up for everything that was going on, but at least Lily wasn't going to be alone at the party.

"I believe we've arrived," Grace said, gesturing at the door to Slughorn's office.

Lily nodded when she spotted the familiar door. "I don't know how it's going to fit all of us. It's just any old office."

"I don't know, but I'm sure Professor Slughorn has thought about that as well, Lily," Grace said with a smile.

Grace knocked on the door and then stepped back, patting at her butterfly comb absentmindedly before folding her hands inside her green silk sleeves. Lily hunched her shoulders and blew out a breath, sending a strand of her copper hair fluttering.

The door opened and Professor Slughorn beamed down at them. He was wearing shiny black and white dress robes with a green-and-silver cravat, and looked rather like a portly penguin. "Ah, our final members! Come in, come in! Welcome to the Club for Gifted Youngsters."