A/N: Hi! it's DB, soo... I've been reading a bit about this site and it seems that I need to be a little more "simpatica" with my readers to get more views. This story is my baby, it gives me joy to write and create (my real-life job burns my creativity a bit). J.K. Rowling owns my inspiration but does not own my words or my opinions by the way. Hope this story can be your friend and a little escape from the real world :)

CHAPTER 4 "Retaliation"

Lily woke up in the hospital wing, her eyes fluttered open, and looked around. She felt her belly clench when she remembered what had happened the night before. Her head and elbows ached, she must have hit the wall with them. Madam Pomfrey had given her a sleeping potion so she had slept through the night peacefully. Now that she was awake everything started to sink in. She felt vulnerable and betrayed by the school she'd dreamed of. She had been useless. She didn't know any defensive spells and besides, she hadn't even had time to think.

"Lily!" a dramatized Meredith walked in the wing. Phyllida and Mary walked closely behind. "Oh, Lily! We were so worried when you never came back last night!" When she got close enough to Lily's bed, Mer reached for her and gave her a big hug. "Only this morning Professor McGonagall had the decency of letting us know."

"What happened Lily?" Phyllida's face was usually very serious but now was worried. Mary gave her a small smile and held her hand.

"Walking back from the library, someone attacked me," Lily's voice was small, "They left me a note, do you know what it means?" Lily showed them the paper she had hidden in her pocket. Phyllida gasped and looked horrified.

"We have to show this to Professor McGonagall," she said more seriously than usual, "That word is an awful way to say muggle-born. Some wizards don't accept that your 100% wizards. But they're wrong!"

"Like that voice on the train?" Mary asked, horrified.

"That is exactly like him. It's what he fights for and many of his followers have kids in this school, most of them are in Slytherin."

"Seriously?" Lily asked, she was confused, "Sev never mentioned anything."

"Just be careful Lily, this is no joke. An 11-year-old was attacked in school," Phyllida said.

The girls left for breakfast after a little more talking and making sure Lily was doing better. Immediately after, Severus appeared as if waiting for Lily to be alone.

"I'm so sorry, Lily. I'm so sorry this happened to you," he said with anguish in his eyes.

"It's OK Sev, I'm fine now," Lily said, a little annoyed having to comfort him.

"I'm really sorry!" he whispered.

"What is it, Sev? Do you know something?" she asked.

"N.. no, no!" he stuttered and looked away "Don't worry, Lily. This will never happen again," Lily saw a dark shade run through his frown and felt a shiver down her back. Lily had never seen Severus like this. Without saying anything more, Severus turned around and left. She felt uneasy, he had something on his mind.

Lily stayed in bed the rest of the day, her pains had subsided but she still felt a little uneasy and she felt safe where she was. About mid-afternoon, when Lily was starting to feel a little restless, she heard a loud bang from the entrance of the infirmary that made her jump. Her head snapped towards the place of the racket and saw a plumb girl that had clumsily opened the door.

"Excuse me!" said Madame Pomfrey outrageously, "This is the Hospital Wing, no need for such commotion,"

"I'm sorry Poppy," said the girl, "You know me, I just came to check up on Lily for a second,"

Lily blinked at the sound of her name. She had never seen this girl in her life and they were on a first-name basis? The girl was much older than Lily, she had dark brown hair and a sweet face with thick eyebrows that started high on her forehead giving her a constant look of worry.

"Hi Lily," she said, with a kind smile. "How are you doing? I heard of your attack, how did it happen?"

"Um…" Lily was speechless, she felt extremely uncomfortable with this stranger. "Who are you?"

"Oh! Sorry, I always forget," she said giggling. "I know everyone, so I never know who knows me. The other day I found out that Richard Allan, you know him? Ravenclaw in your year. Well, he fancies you, head over heels!" Lily thought that she couldn't be more uncomfortable than this. "And there's Aloise Apraxia, she says she's going to marry James Potter," she said incredulously, she paused and remembered her mission. "So how are you?"

"You didn't say who you are," Lily was starting to feel a little annoyed.

"Oh, Yes! I'm Bertha Jorkins. I'm a 6th-year student in Slytherin," she said proudly.

"S.. Slytherin?" muttered Lily with a gulp.

"So, a Slytherin attacked you?" Bertha said inquisitively, "Don't worry, I'm harmless," she said emphasizing the 'I', "I just have all the juicy news of Hogwarts. So, you don't know who it was?"

Lily realized she wouldn't get this girl off her back if she didn't give her what she wanted. "All I can tell you is that someone with black and green robes jinxed me from behind and left it clear that it was because I'm a muggle-born," Bertha looked shocked.

"This is outrageous! This is not tolerated in Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore will be pissed." She stared at nothing specific as she was deep in thought, "Well, I'm happy you're doing fine. See you around, Lily," and with that, she was gone.

Just before supper, as Lily was trying to convince Madam Pince to let her go, two new visitors appeared. It was Remus Lupin and James Potter. Remus looked pale, paler than usual.

"Hey Evans," Remus said weakly, he looked sick.

"Hey," Lily said, trying to fix her bedridden hair.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Yes… But Madam Pince won't let me leave yet," she said annoyed.

"I bet all my gold that it was a Slytherin. They're arses," James said angrily.

"Not all of them," Lily said, thinking of Severus.

"No, Evans, all of them are," he said sternly. Lily decided not to answer, she knew it was useless.

"Are you not feeling good, Lupin?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, my stomach is a bit off," he said touching his belly.

Madam Pomfrey came up to them and said, "Mr. Lupin I've got a bed ready for you over there. Ms. Evans you may go to supper, you too Mr. Potter."

Happy to leave, Lily walked out of the wing and James followed. After a few steps she realized that they were alone, an awkward silence surrounded them. They walked towards the Great Hall and only halfway there, James finally broke the silence.

"I'm really sorry this happened to you. Hogwarts is supposed to be a safe place," he said. Lily was surprised to hear him talk so seriously and not teasing.

"Um... Thanks." Lily didn't know what else to say. She didn't want to ruin the moment since she was glad she wasn't walking alone. When they arrived at the Great Hall, they each went to sit with their respective friends.

"Lily! Your back!" said an energetic Meredith.

"Anything interesting today?" Lily asked.

"Not really," Mary said.

"Actually" Meredith was more of a gossip, "This boy from Ravenclaw had Charms with me today, he was so nice," she said with a sparkle in her eyes. Phyllida rolled her eyes.

"Really?" Lily asked with a laugh.

"Yes! He has beautiful grey eyes. There, he's over there Lily," she said pointing to a big-sized boy.

"What did you guys see in class?" Lily asked.

"Boring stuff as always," Phyllida said blandly.

"We learned how to turn stuff into a sponge, or something like that," Meredith said, not really interested in the topic "Can't remember the spell."

"Spongify," Mary said, "But we didn't get it."

"Did you take notes?" Lily asked.

"Half of it," Mary said with an awkward smile, "It's hard!"

"What am I going to do with friends like you? Can't I get sick?" Lily said laughing.

"You can borrow Remus," Sirius cut in, "He's our go-to, homework person."

"Thanks!" Lily said with a smile to her fellow Gryffindor, "All ask him when he feels better."

"What's wrong with Lupin?" Phyllida asked.

"He wasn't feeling well and went to the hospital wing. I'm sure tomorrow he'll be fine."

Dumbledore rose from his seat and the hall went silent immediately. He had a stern expression.

"As most of you already know, a student was attacked last night in the halls of this school," Lily's cheeks turned red, "I am completely ashamed of these actions and am obliged to remind you that this kind of behavior is completely forbidden. An official investigation will be established and I will personally make the responsible pay for his or her actions," He paused and the silence deepened, "Now, off to bed."

In the Gryffindor boys dormitory, James was pacing back and forth and was clenching his hands in anger. Peter looked at him worried while Sirius sat slouched on top of his trunk.

"Relax man," Sirius said, "You're overreacting."

"Overreacting? Who does the filthy Slytherins thing they are? Attacking an 11-year-old girl? I found this earlier when I took Remus to the hospital wing," He showed Sirius the piece of paper he had picked up from the floor under Lily's cot.

"Ok, so this is worth overreacting," Sirius said after reading and sitting up.

"Of course it is! It means some of these idiots want to follow you know who," James paused, "In school."

"But what can we do?" Peter asked.

"We retaliate."

The next couple of days went on smoothly, with no new incident. Lily still felt anxious, she wouldn't walk alone if she could help it and when she had no other option she would look behind constantly. Lily decided to focus on her studies and learn as much as she could. So, besides what she learned in class, she had gotten all the charms books she could fit in her bag to read in her free time. She was only able to catch up on her missed classes about four days later when Lupin had finally left the Hospital Wing.

"You still look a little bit funny," Lily said worriedly. Remus had shown up for supper.

"I still feel a bit woozy but I'm much better than before. And I can't keep on missing class," he said.

"Don't worry, here's what we had this week," Lily had already separated the notes and homework Lupin had missed.

"Oh, thank you, Lily," he said using her first name.

"You're welcome Remus," she answered with a smile.

After eating, as everyone was leaving to their respective common rooms, there was a loud noise that came from the corridor that took Slytherin's down to the dungeons. Everybody close enough to hear gathered to see what had happened. Lily was able to squeeze in as she had been the closest to the entrance. Her heart flipped as she saw three Slytherins flat on the floor covered in rubble from the wall they seemingly had crashed. Lily glimpsed Severus walking quickly away, she tried to follow but the number of students gawking wouldn't let her through.

"What are you looking at?" said one of the Slytherins as he picked himself up red with anger, "Go find something better to do," he quickly picked his fellow Slytherins up and repaired the wall before Professor McGonagall had arrived.

"What is all this racket?" she asked sternly as always.

"Nothing Professor," said the smallest of the Slytherins "Mulciber slipped and fell just now. Nothing more."

"Don't think me as a fool, Mr. Avery," seeing no other evidence of foul play, she said, "Everyone off to bed."

Lily had no idea why they had lied. She left to her common room as fast as she could so she wouldn't be left alone.

James saw Lily leave the crowd and head towards the Gryffindor entrance. Sirius waved Remus, Peter, and him over.

"Someone beat us to it," he said.

"Beat us to what?" Remus asked. Sirius explained.

"We were waiting for you to feel better to get it done," James said "It's weird they didn't blabber, I think that was an inside job or something."

"Yeah it does, Slytherin's love to tattle on other houses," Sirius said.

"We're going to have to wait aren't we?" Peter said.

"Yeah," James said gloomily.

Next morning Lily made sure she found Severus before breakfast.

"Sev!" she said "What was that yesterday?"

"What? The fight? I dunno, some idiots," he shrugged.

"I saw you," Lily said, a little annoyed.

"Just leave it, Lily. It's not your business."

"Something tells me it is my business, Sev. They were the ones who attacked me, weren't they?" Lily said strongly.

"Stop, Lily!" he said loudly "Back off, not everything is about you!" he said and stormed off to breakfast.

Lily blinked and swallowed. Severus had never been mad at her that way. She felt horrible, maybe it wasn't really about her. She found herself alone in the corridor and panicked. She grabbed her wand trying to remember the spells she had been reading and hurried off to breakfast.

A/N: Well, that was a long one! Loved giving life to Bertha using Siriuses description of her in HP the Goblet of Fire. So let me know what you think!