Chapter 137

With Friends Like These

Lily Evans reread her letter, pointless though it was. She already had it memorised. She could quote the whole thing from memory, though in her head it was always read in the stern transfiguration teacher's voice. Her parents had been so proud of her when the owl plopped down on their coffee table and Lily read the letter out loud. Prefect was one of the few things in her school they could understand. She was proud of herself, a muggleborn prefect in the middle of a war against blood purism. It was a beautiful irony and she loved irony.

Petunia had, of course, done everything she could to dampen her mood, calling her the top freak in a school of weirdos and telling her she only got it because she was the strangest one there. Lily was used to it but it still hurt.

Lily glared at the chain of the swing she was on, the squeaking had interrupted her train of thought.

"Wow, you're early." she heard a voice approaching just before the speaker planted himself in the swing next to her. "How did our lovely, well-maintained, swingset offend you this time?"

She turned to Severus, a smile on her face. She hadn't seen him all summer, he'd been over at a friend's house. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't ask what friend he'd been visiting, as she didn't really want to know, but the moment she saw him she had to refrain from asking that very question. It worried her that he spent all that time with the kind of people he hung out at school. They'd already gotten him in trouble several times yet he continued to follow them down their dark paths. She was exasperated by his wilful ignorance of their evil ways and she knew it wouldn't be long before their ways were his ways, and she wouldn't stand for it much longer. He'd been using that foul word to describe people of the same magical heritage as her own. He never did it when he knew she was around but her friends had caught him at it and sometimes when he didn't know she was there she'd watch him and she'd caught him at it more than once, though he didn't know that. It broke her heart.

He'd promised her that having muggle parents didn't matter, but how could it not matter for her if it mattered for everyone else. But until he pressed that final button, put that last straw on the camel's back, she was still his friend and she would always hope for a day that he'd change his mind and turn away from his dark magic and death eater friends. That was all she could do since he wouldn't listen to her pleas.

"It's squeaking," she complained, pushing those thoughts aside in order to better enjoy her friend's company.

"And it doesn't every other time you sit on it?" he asked, a laugh in his voice and a smile on his face. It wasn't often she saw him this happy anymore, there was always some kind of mask of apathy or anger on his face for his friend's sakes nowadays. She always liked him better when they weren't at school.

"Doesn't mean I can't complain about it," she pouted putting her letter in her pocket and pushing the swing into movement, emphasising the annoying squeaking.

"Have you gotten your school books yet?" he asked his eyes watching her as the little piece of wood she sat on took her back and forth, higher each time. "Maybe we could go together."

She slowed the swing to properly respond to him, "My parents got them by Owl. They started getting the Daily Prophet a while ago and they heard about the attack in Diagon Alley. They didn't want me going somewhere so dangerous."

"Oh yeah, I heard about that. They say a girl died." He sounded a lot more excited than he should have. "Actually, I think there was another one the other day. I heard werewolves were involved this time."

The look he gave her made her suspicious, he knew so thing, something she didn't and something he wanted her to know but didn't want to tell her.

She ignored his look, she knew that look and it always involved Potter and she was sick of talking about the git.

"I don't think werewolves are as bad as people say." She told him finding what she thought was the safest thread of conversation. She was wrong.

"They're killers, Lil. Cannibals even, everyone knows it." He argued and she refined from rolling her eyes. It seemed like every conversation they had lately ended in a fight.

"Everyone knows they're cannibals huh?" I was under the impression most people didn't consider them human and don't you have to be human to be a cannibal?" She asked disregarding the irritated look on his face when she didn't agree with him. She didn't know why he bothered anymore.

"You know what I mean," he turned away from her and glared at the ground instead. She wasn't all that interested in this conversation. She wanted to tell him her big news, but she didn't want him to pretend to be happy for her which is exactly what would happen if she told him in the middle of an argument.

"I feel bad for them," she started and ignored any of his attempts to interrupt. "I mean at first I was scared of them and all, but when I mentioned something to Alice she wouldn't hear anything against them. It made me curious so I did some research on my own. Sure they're still scary, but..." she paused now looking at the ground as well her mind's eye was focused on one book in particular of all the books she'd read on the subject. It had a small picture of a young boy in the middle of his transformation into the creature. The pain on his face had brought her to tears. "It's not their fault they are what they are, and it's so painful... we should be helping them, not casting them out. They're not animals they're people just like us, except they spend their entire lives in constant pain."

"They're monster's Lily," Severus argued, his temper appeared to be flaring up. Why it mattered so much to him she had no idea but she wasn't going to bend on what she believed because of his flimsy arguments.

"They're monsters because we treat them like monsters. If we would just help them maybe..." she tried but this time, he forced the interruption.

"its instinct nothing we do will stop them from being killers and anyone who denies that will only end up their pray," he argued but he knew how stubborn she was and she could already see the dejected look on his face. This was about more than just some incident in Diagon Alley.

"That's a lie, there have been plenty of werewolves who have been able to have a semi-normal life. Since when do you care who's a killer or not. I'd bet money that those Malfoy twins have blood on their hands and Lestrange isn't much better, and don't even get me started on Macnair." her glare was fierce and he couldn't hold her gaze.

"They're not that bad. You don't even know them." He argued pulling himself off the swing and attempting to replicate her glare but his was much more feeble. "They're just having a little fun."

"Oh, so when your friends send someone to the medical wing bleeding and bruised it's just having fun, but if someone with no control over their own bodies, someone who's very instinct betrays them does it it's evil. Your friends are no better then they are, worse even!"

"Did you ask me to come here just so you could insult my friends?" he asked there was hurt on his face but he'd already made her mad and it wasn't enough to soothe her.

"No, I asked you to come3 here because I wanted to tell you that I'm a prefect now and I was hoping you'd be happy for me! But all you ever do anytime I talk to you is rant about your political views, your stupid friends, and James Potter! You're the one that brought it up!" She hated yelling at him, part of it was just because they were friends but most of it was that she knew what his family was like. As predicted he flinched away from her.

"You're a prefect?" he asked, his voice was small now and he looked apologetic so she managed to force her tone down.

"Yes, I got my letter a few weeks ago and wanted to tell you."

"That's great, congrats Lily." He tried to smile as though they hadn't just had another row but she could see the regret in his eyes. She'd forgive him, she knew she would, but now wasn't the time. He wasn't going to learn anything if she always forgave him the moment he tried to patch things up, and it didn't help that his views on werewolves were so awful that she wanted to yell at him again. He was such a hypocrite it made her sick.

"I'm going home," she said through the tears that were openly streaking her face. There was no point in hiding them, all that did was make her feel worse in the long run, and besides she didn't care who saw her crying. She was confident enough in herself that it didn't matter what everyone else thought.

"Wait!" he called after her jogging to catch up. "Wait, Lily. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Stop apologising. It means nothing when you make the same mistakes over and over again," she growled, even angrier because of his inability to understand what he'd done wrong. He was always apologising for upsetting her or hurting her feelings but never what he'd done that caused her to be upset or hurt. He wasn't really sorry, he just wanted her to stop being mad at him and she wasn't going to be manipulated like that.

"But Lily," he whined but she only walked faster until he stopped and she was storming away. She'd rather spend time with her sister then with him right now.

"Lily Ann Evans!" She heard someone scream a the top of their lungs and turning around. Alic was running up to her with a grin.

"What? That's not my middle name." The sight of her friend brought a smile to her face, just as seeing Severus had, except this time it was liable to stay there.

"Well I don't know what it is, so I made it up. I've been calling after you for five minutes now," the pixie girl giggle. "Who caught you on fire? You were pouting so loud you couldn't even hear me, and you know I'm not a quiet girl."

"Sorry Alice. I was trying to tell Sev about my badge and he started on one of his rants before I could." Lily shook her head wiping her eyes though they were already dry.

"Aw, it's alright, baby doll. Don't worry that's why you've got friends like me to make up for friends like him." Alice reminded her giving the fuming redhead a hug.

"What are you doing here, Alice? You don't live anywhere near Cokeworth."

"Are you crazy? My best friend just told me she got made a prefect! Where else could I be? We've got to celebrate, girl!" She cheered her energy was contagious and Lily had never been more thankful for the pixie's presence in her life.

"You came all this way? What did you do ride the train?" Lily asked she couldn't imagine Alice on a muggle train. It was like seeing a unicorn in a supermarket or something. Alice didn't belong in the muggle world like Petunia didn't belong in the magical one.

"Of course not, silly." She giggled, unlike Petunia, Alice was perfectly happy to stay out of the muggle world. "FRank's cousin lives in the next town over, I floo'd over to his place and he drove me to yours, but your mum said you were out. I've been searching for you all day," she said the last bit with a pout that made Lily laugh.

"Thank you, Alice. You didn't have to go through so much trouble, we could have celebrated at school."

"Oh yeah, let's celebrate at Hogwarts. We could go to the kitchen and get warmed by well-intentioned house elves or get your new badge taken away by sneaking out to Hogsmeade." She rolled her eyes, grin still in place. "C'mon, I brought muggle money. jWe can go shopping and get something to eat. There's this awesome coffee shop just a few blocks from Frank's cousin's place."

Alice yammered on as she pushed Lily back in the direction of the latter's home intent on spending all day doing silly pointless things that she swore they didn't do enough of. Lily was perfectly happy to listen and follow because Alice always knew how to cheer her up. Lily never had to worry about arguing with Alice, not about the same things she argued with Severus about anyway. Alice had her head on straight, that was for sure.

A/N) The one shot I mentioned is up. Started reading the Cursed Child, not too impressed so far but I'm only on like Act 3 or 4. Albus is kinda annoying and I was hoping for more James.