Overall, lily evans was overjoyed to be back at hogwarts with her friends learning more complex magic, and merlin the food sure was great, but right now, at six thirty AM trying to wake up and get down to the great hall for breakfast that joyful feeling was nowhere to be found.
She groaned and rolled over, burying her head in her pillow. On the count of three. She told herself.
One… you have to get up, lily
Two… get ready you miserable sap
Three… oh my god that was worse than i thought it was going to be can i get back in bed?
Lily teetered on the balls of her feet but refused to fall back over onto her bed because she knew if she did that she would never get back up. She would just lay in under the warm, inviting covers that she loved so much… no. it's time to go learn magic and shit.
She rubbed her blurry eyes and pulled of her pajamas, shuddering at the cold. All she wanted was sleep. She lethargically pulled on her hogwarts uniform, strangely satisfied at how familiar it felt.
"Marlene," she shook the shoulder of the sleeping girl in the bunk next to her "marlene you have to get up."
"Says who?" mumbled marlene incoherently
"The ministry. There are aurors here right now with their wands pointed at me and they said if i don't wake you up they'll send me to azkaban."
"Nu-uh" marlene moaned
"Fine, you caught me, but you do have to get up."
"I'm seventeen. I'm of age. I don't have to do anything unless i wanna." lily sighed at this and leaned in close
"Marlene," she cooed "marlene, there's food downstairs."
"Food?"
"Yes, an entire banquet hall full of biscuits. And eggs. And nice cool pumpkin juice."
"Pumpkin juice?"
"Yes."
"Alright." marlene slowly sat up looking like she had just returned from playing the zombie in a horror film. She tossed the blankets back and stood "i'm up."
"Good." lily turned to leave
"Which way is the washroom, again?" lily turned back around and saw marlene standing with her eyes practically closed and a hunch back to rival quasimodo's. She grabbed the girl by her shoulders and gave her a light push towards the bathroom door.
"Thanks." marlene gave her a slight wave with the back of her hand as she stumbled towards the bathroom.
"No problem, mars." lily called, a smile on her lips as she closed the door. She bounded down the stairs towards the gryffindor common room and saw first years looking about wide eyed. Their robes were crooked and they hung in small clusters like if they didn't all share a life force they would immediately shrivel up and die. She had a twinge of nostalgia remembering being a first year herself. She had sev as her best friend, which was good, or so she thought, but she also had a jealous petunia hating her guts. Well, that much hadn't changed. Basically in the last six years james and sev had just traded places. Now she wanted to talk to james whenever something went wrong and she enjoyed being with him, and she hated severus with a burning, fiery passion. Nice.
Lily walked down the halls a smile on her face the whole time at the fact that she was finally back at her home away from home.
"Hey, evans!" called a cruel voice from behind her. She kept walking
"I'm talking to you!" a wild haired girl appeared beside her and lily kept walking, paying her no attention
"Oh, the mudblood thinks she's too good, is that it?"
"I don't have time for this." lily stated simply, finally giving in.
"Make time." she snarled and grabbed lily's arm. Lily's mind flashed back to last year when that damned curse had flowed through her veins.
"Get off me." lily snarled back with a ferocity that even scared herself a little bit. She hadn't meant for that to come out but she wasn't exactly sorry it had.
"Ooh, feisty little thing. Is it the hair? I've heard people with red hair are particularly feisty."
"The hell do you want, bellatrix?"
"That's no way to speak to a blood superior, now is it?" she sneered
"I don't give a shit how much your family is into incest, bellatrix, just leave me alone." lily tried to pull away but her grip was much stronger than she had expected and lily didn't end up going much of anywhere. She felt something press into her side and instinctively knew it was bellatrix's wand. Lily froze.
"Not so tough now, are we?" bellatrix leaned in close
"Do you have a point, bellatrix?" lily choked out
"Little red's scared. Well that's too bad." she sang with a laugh. Lily felt the wand move up her side and bellatrix whispered a word she couldn't quite make out. Suddenly she felt a horrible sensation in her ribs and fell on her knees because of the intensity of it. Even breathing hurt. Lily looked back up at bellatrix, except now the dark skin and hair was nowhere to be seen. Normally lily would have been curious as to how she simply disappeared without being able to apparate but right now the blinding pain that was happening in her ribs was demanding all her attention. She gasped and grabbed at her sides. So far her first day back was going really great.
…[...[]...]...
About an hour later lily was lying in a bed in the hospital wing. She was the only person there in need of medical attention. Shocker. It wasn't even eight o'clock on the first day back and she had already managed to land herself under the watchful eye of madam pomfrey. Apparently bellatrix had managed to break lily's ribs. All of them. Simultaneously. Lily would have been impressed if she wasn't the victim and this wasn't a hate crime.
The moment lily had come into the hospital wing madam pomfrey had pushed her into a clean white bed by a window and muttered various spells and charms on lily.
Sadly, lily hadn't been able to get there by herself and the only person who had stopped to help her had been charles landson, who couldn't seem to stop talking about how sure he was that he was going to land the position of ravenclaw seeker this quidditch season the entire walk across the castle and lily couldn't muster the concentration to tell him to shut up. Her only consolement was the fact that james had been the quidditch captain since his fifth year and the gryffindor team was strangely good. She was excited to see ravenclaw get their arses beat by them.
"Here," madam pomfrey bustled over breaking lily's fantasy about charles getting hit by a rogue bludger handing lily a thick, gray liquid in a vial that she was not all all excited to take from her "drink this." she commanded and lily had no choice but to raise the glass vial painfully to her mouth and drink it in one gulp. It burned her throat and lily coughed at the potion that tasted strangely like dirt.
Yes, it certainly was a great first day back.
