Chapter 6

As November passed by, Lily felt herself growing more and more settled into Hogwarts, and more comfortable with her life in general. There was still tension between her and her family, but she had grown used to it. Now, it no longer ate away at her. She was polite to them so long as they were polite to her. She and Al seemed to have reached an understanding to just not bring up House politics. She and James just tried to avoid each other. She and Hugo still hadn't made up, and tended to argue a lot whenever they crossed paths. Hugo's older sister, Rosie, sided with him, and so was rude to Lily. She didn't really cross paths much with anyone else.

Of course, Dominique was the one exception to all of this. She and Lily had continued growing closer, and now Lily could honestly say that Dominique was her favorite cousin. She couldn't quite name her as her favorite family member in general, though. Teddy still held that spot, and Lily doubted that would change.

Teddy had let Lily know that he had proposed to Victoire, and that Vic had accepted. He asked her to keep it a secret though, because they wanted to announce it to the family during Christmas. Lily was thrilled that her brother was getting married. She adored him so much, and she just truly wanted to see him and Victoire have an amazing life together. He deserved it.

Among the first year Slytherin girls, things had gotten as good as they were probably going to get. There was no more animosity between any of them. Ava and Rose still tended to bicker sometimes, but their words had lost their harshness, and everyone could tell they no longer meant what they said. All the girls were really getting to know each other, and Lily could confidently say that they were all becoming pretty good friends. Rose was definitely Lily's best friend, but she also was starting to count Ava, Melanie and Alana as close friends.

The girls got along as well as they could with the boys in their year. Gilbert and Ava were still cruel to each other, but that was something that everyone had accepted would always happen. Besides, they were both willing to back each other up if any Gryffindors tried to start things. Other than that, they all got along pretty well. The boys and girls sometimes liked to tease each other, and there was sometimes competition between them, but it was all fairly harmless. Lily herself had grown to enjoy spending time with Luke Goyle. He was the calmest of all the boys, and he knew a lot about Quidditch.

Lily, Rose and Ava also had started hanging out a lot with Lorcan, Lysander, Dominique, and Callie. Callie had become a lot happier since Dominique invited her into her friend group. She had started talking more, and she was smiling a lot now. Callie being a lot happier had somewhat of a calming effect on Ava, and made her more bearable to be around. The group would often meet up together in the library, to hangout and do homework. Scorpius would join them from time to time, since Ava and Callie were his cousins. He got along really well with Lorcan and Lysander.

One day, when Lily, along with Rose, arrived at the library, she saw Dominique speaking to a girl in Ravenclaw robes. She looked like she was older than them, and she had long auburn hair pulled into a pony-tail. Lily sat down at the usual table that their group hung out at. Lorcan and Lysander were already there. Ava and Callie had decided to just spend some time together that day, and get some sibling bonding. When Dominique saw that Lily was there, she said her good-byes to the girl, and walked over to their usual table.

"Who were you talking to?" Lily asked curiously.

"Oh, Marshall Ackerman. She's a fourth year in my house," Dominique answered as she sat down in between Lysander and Lorcan.

"Ackerman?" Lily was curious. "Is she related to Alexander?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Scorpius interjected as he arrived. "She's his twin sister."

That took Lily by surprise, and Rose as well. "Whoa, I had no idea he had a sister, much less a twin," Rose commented.

"Yeah, he's never mentioned her, and I've never seen them interact," Lily agreed.

"They just aren't close," Scorpius said with a shrug. "Alex doesn't really talk about her much. I think when we were all younger they used to get along, but I'm not really sure what happened."

"Well, from what I've seen, Marshall finds her brother to be annoying," Dominique commented in a slightly bored tone. "Anyway, enough about that. Which one of you third years wants to help me with my Herbology homework?"

"Not me, I only got an Acceptable last year. Plants are boring," Lorcan said.

"You think everything is boring if it's not related to Quidditch somehow," Lily teased her friend.

"Hey, that's not true!" Lorcan pretended to be offended. "I like lots of other things."

"Like what? And don't say pretty girls," Dominique interjected, staring at Lorcan and expectantly waiting for an answer.

"...Bro, help me out here," Lorcan whined, looking over to Lysander.

"Sorry, you're on your own here," Lysander told him, sounding amused. "I've always told you that you should develop more interests."

"Hey, not all of us can be a mega-nerd like you," Lorcan snorted.

"Dude, you're in Ravenclaw, how are you not a nerd?" Scorpius asked incredulously.

"Oh, you did not just stereotype my house," Dominique said in a flat voice. Scorpius looked a bit nervous. Lily couldn't blame him. Nobody should ever piss off a Weasley woman.

"I didn't mean it in a bad way!" Scorpius tried to defend himself. Dominique looked unimpressed with him. Scorpius then offered, "If I help you with your homework then will you promise not to kill me in my sleep?"

Lily's cousin considered it for a moment, and then shrugged. "I suppose that's a fair trade."

Lily and Rose exchanged amused looks. It was honestly entertaining to see the usually confident Scorpius Malfoy be in fear of someone. He could stand up no problem to her brother, who was older, taller and stronger than him, but he backed down when it came to her cousin, who was younger and smaller. Then again, James wasn't nearly as scary as Dominique, so Scorpius probably had it right.

As they all worked on homework, Lily's mind wandered a bit. In a few weeks it would be Christmas break, and she knew her parents would expect her to come home. In all honesty, she kind of wished that she could just stay at Hogwarts. She didn't think it would be a good idea to be stuck in the same house as James while they weren't getting along. However, she did kind of want to be at home so she could see her parents and Teddy. Besides, she knew all of her friends would be going home, so she would probably be bored if she stayed behind at Hogwarts. She would just have to do her best to avoid James, and any other relative that wasn't fond of her currently.

"Hey Dom," Lily got her cousin's attention. When the older girl glanced over at Lily, she asked, "Can I stay at your house for a couple days during break?"

"Yeah, sure. You wanna avoid everyone else, don't you?" Dominique guessed. "My house should be rather quiet. Vic lives with Teddy, and Louis is always visiting his friends."

"That's perfect." Lily felt relieved. At least she'd have somewhere to escape to once she inevitably got sick of James. She used to be able to go to Hugo's house, but that was no longer an option. She missed being friends with him, but at the moment she had no clue how to fix things. How could they be friends when he hated her for being a Slytherin? Until he could get over that, there was nothing she could do. She was glad that at least she still had another cousin that she could rely on.

"You could visit my house for a day at some point, too," Rose offered. Lily shot her best friend a grateful smile.

"And some other day we could all meet up and hangout at Diagon Alley," Lorcan suggested. "There's a lot to do there."

"That's a good idea. We should invite Ava and Callie too," Scorpius agreed.

They continued making plans, and Lily felt her anxiety start to dissipate. A few minutes ago, she had been dreading going home. Now, she was excited for Christmas break to come, so she could spend time with her friends outside of Hogwarts. She couldn't help but think that she was lucky to be in Slytherin. Sure, it caused tension between her and some of her family members, but it had brought her closer to another, and she had friends who were quick to make suggestions to make her happy. In fact, a couple of days later she got another offer to hangout during the break, though she was surprised by who approached her.

"Lily! Our favorite little Slytherin," Alexander Ackerman greeted her. He, as usual, had Zackary Tank by his side.

"Your favorite, huh?" Lily laughed.

"Of course. You're interesting," Zack stated. "We want to hang out with you during the break."

She looked up at them, feeling curious. "Really? I didn't think you'd want to spend time outside of school with a first year." While they liked to spend time with her once in a while, she just assumed that was only while they were at Hogwarts. She was honestly surprised that they'd want to hang out with her during breaks.

Zack shrugged. "Like I said, you're interesting."

"What he means is that we've honestly gotten kind of fond of you. You're like our little sister, except you're not annoying like most younger siblings would be," Alex explained.

Lily couldn't help but feel touched. They were both a lot nicer to her than her actual brothers. Not that Al was ever mean to her, but he never hung out with her anymore. James, of course, had always picked on his younger siblings, and it was a lot worse now that she was a Slytherin. Zack and Alex could never replace her actual brothers, but it was nice having two people who were looking out for her, and genuinely enjoyed spending time with her.

"Thank you." Lily smiled at them. "I'd like to hang out, but… I'm not sure if my parents are going to let me go hangout with two fourteen year old boys that they don't know."

"Shit, she's got a point," Alex sighed. "Who knows all the crap that her brothers have told her parents about us."

"You're giving up too easily," Zack disagreed. "We are both very capable of being charming, and showing our maturity, when we want to."

"I mean, if you guys want to try, go ahead." Lily shrugged. "Good luck, but don't expect too much."

"Just you wait. I always get what I want," Zack said, sounding very sure of himself. Somehow, Lily kind of believed that. He was a very determined person. She definitely hoped that the two of them would be successful in winning over her parents, but she wasn't going to completely get her hopes up. She would just wait and see what happened.

Now that she had all these plans, Lily found herself excited for the break. She loved Hogwarts, but all the homework and classes were getting tiring. Having a bit of time away from all that sounded amazing. Plus, she was looking forward to hanging out with her friends outside of school. She wished she could just fast forward a few weeks, but sadly that wasn't an option.

One thing that did manage to distract her from her impatience was Quidditch. Though she wasn't on the team yet, she could still go watch the games. The first game of the season happened to be Slytherin vs Gryffindor, and Lily was very much excited to see it. It was a little bit weird, since she had family members on the opposing team. A year ago she would have assumed she would be cheering for them to win, rather than hoping for the Slytherin team to be victorious. Still, Lily decided to just not worry about her conflicting feelings and just enjoy watching the game.

This time, she and the other Quidditch fans in her year managed to drag the others out to the stands. Even the ones who didn't care much for the sport still had enough house pride to want to see their team go against that of their rival house. Tensions had been high between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Lily's friends were eager to see the lions get put back in their place. Lily only hoped that their team really could win. As irritated as she was with her family these days, she knew it was undeniable that they all had a lot of skill. Al, especially, was a very talented Seeker. He had spent countless hours practicing. Lily would have to see if Blaine Zabini's extra few years of experience would be enough to counteract that.

Clarity Remway, a fourth year student from Hufflepuff, was the commentator for Quidditch matches. Lily perked up once she started speaking.

"Playing for Slytherin is Avery, Flint, Goyle, Malfoy, Nott, Greengass, and Zabini!"

Lily and her friends cheered as the Slytherin team flew onto the pitch. She was amused to note that Dominique and the Scamander twins were cheering as well.

"And for Gryffindor, we have Thomas, Potter, Grayson, Finnegan, Weasley, Weasley and Potter!"

Lily's friends booed the Gryffindors, but she couldn't bring herself to. She might not be cheering for her family today, but she didn't want to boo them either. She may be irritated and upset with them, but she didn't need to go out of her way to be mean to them. If someone started something with her, though, then she wouldn't hesitate to finish it.

The game quickly became intense, as Lily expected it would. Brad Nott and Kiah Greengrass, Slytherin's Beaters, both made it a point to whack the Bludgers towards Al whenever they got a chance. It was a smart move, since Al was such a good Seeker, but Lily still winced everytime her brother barely managed to escape being hit.

"Wow, your brother really is good," Rose commented to Lily after the third time that Al dodged a Bludger.

"Yeah, he is," Lily agreed absently, unable to take her eyes away from the game.

"Goyle passes the Quaffle to Malfoy, Malfoy aims for the right goalpost and then throws to the center at the last second! He scores, making it 40-30 Slytherin," Clarity announces. Lily had a feeling that this was going to come down to whoever caught the Snitch, because so far both teams were evenly matched.

Brad Nott and Kiah Greengrass seemed to realize they weren't getting anywhere with targeting Al, so they switched to targeting the Chasers. Brad got Gryffindor's captain, Allie Grayson, on her left shoulder, and Lily winced when Kiah's Bludger hit James on his back. To the credit of the Gryffindors, they kept on playing, even though they were in pain. Their injuries allowed Slytherin to gain a small lead, and now it was 70-40. But Lily's cousins, Fred and Roxanne, weren't content to just sit back and do nothing. They gave as good as the Slytherin Beaters, and managed to hurt Scorpius and one of the other Chasers, Misha Flint. Gryffindor slowly started catching up, and now it was 90-90.

"Zabini sees the Snitch! He's closer than Potter, but Potter is quickly catching up! Now they're even, and Zabini bumps into Potter, trying to use his bigger size to his advantage, but Potter manages to stay on course. They both reach for the Snitch… and Potter catches it! Gryffindor wins the match with 240 points!"

The Gryffindors cheered while the Slytherins booed. Lily wished she could feel happy for her family, but she honestly just felt disappointed that Slytherin lost. Her goodwill apparently only went as far as hoping her family members didn't get hurt. She'd known this was a likely outcome, but it still really sucked. The Slytherin team really was good, but the Gryffindors were too, for all that Lily wished they weren't. With her family making up half of Gryffindor's team, though, there was no way that they'd be bad.

"Stupid Gryffindors!" Ava complained. "I want to punch James Potter right in his smug face."

Lily looked over to the Gryffindor team, and her older brother did look very smug. She rolled her eyes. Al had been the one to win them the game, not James. Would a little humility kill him?

"Well, this was a waste of time," Alana sighed. "If I'd known we'd lose I would have just stayed inside."

"It wasn't a waste. Our team played really well. And I'm sure they'll work even harder now to do better in the next match!" Lily pointed out.

"You're just really into Quidditch, so of course you'd say that," Alana teased. Well, Lily couldn't disagree with that. Win or lose, a Quidditch game would always be fun for her.

As the first years trailed out of the stands, Lily cast one last look towards the pitch. As enjoyable as it was to watch Quidditch, it was even better to play. She felt a sense of longing as she looked at Slytherin's team in their green uniforms, brooms in their hands. She truly couldn't wait until next year, when she could be out there with them. She wasn't sure if she could beat her brother, who was older and more experienced. When they played games at the Burrow as a family, she did win occasionally, but those were just for fun as a family. Al was much different in a real game, as she could now see. She decided this summer she would just have to practice as much as possible.

For now, though, she would just focus on getting through the rest of this term.

Author's Note: Look what is finally being updated years later! I promised myself when I started this fic that I would finish it, and I intend to keep that promise.

I do want to address the fact that JKR has said and done a multitude of problematic things. I do not condone racism, transphobia, or any other hatred directed towards minority groups. I love the characters she created, and this franchise will always be something I will fondly remember as being a part of my childhood, but I don't support her as a person. With that said, I've been working on this story since I was in high school, and after a lot of debate, and a helpful discussion with Aviantei (who also has an HP AU she's been working on forever), I have decided to continue this story.

I will try to update this fic a lot more often. I'll do my best to avoid any more years-long gaps between updates. I'm already nearly done with the next chapter, though I don't know if I'll post that next month or the month after. I might keep jumping around between fandoms each month, but we will see. Ideally, once I have enough of a backlog, I'd like to start posting twice a month instead of just once a month. Here's hoping I can manage that soon!

Thank you to Aviantei for beta-reading this chapter. They're a great friend and a great writer, so please go check out their work! For all you weebs out there, I highly recommend their Demon Slayer fic, walk steady on this cruel world's path. I'm the beta reader for it, and I'm completely in love with it. The main character is a nonbinary OC, and they're a very entertaining and engaging narrator!

Okay, that's all for now. See you next month!