my dear friends -
this chapte in Lily's life is arguably one
of the most important events in the history of Hogwarts. With Lily's arrival at
Hogwarts, a short era of unity and trust began, which was the only thing that got it
through those dark years when Voldemort was in power.
-Adiemus Evans
Chapter 4 - Strangers Like Me (from Tarzan)
I wanna know
Please show me
So much to learn
About these strangers like me...
A week later, Lily sat with Remus at dinner at the Ravenclaw table. "I cut back on the music to try to make friends, Remus, like you suggested. But the other first-year girls in Ravenclaw are all hopeless snobs! Angie even called me a mudblood yesterday. I've never heard it before, but I could tell from the other girls' faces it was pretty bad. They tolerate me, but they don't like me, and I certainly don't like them."
Remus swallowed his mouthful of turkey, then said, "The boys aren't so bad...most of them, anyway. Jack and Will and I get along great. But you're right. I really kind of wish I weren't in Ravenclaw. It seems like people here and in Slytherin think they're above the rest of the world, even though Hufflepuff's won the house cup three years running."
Lily didn't say anything, but it bothered her how true his words were. Why should she be stuck in a house full of snobs just because of some dumb old sorting hat? Making up her mind quickly, she piled her silverware onto her plate, and stood up, plate and goblet in hand. She looked around the room, caught a flash of dark red hair under the Gryffindor table, and quickly made up her mind. She walked across the room, suddenly afraid, and tried to look inconspicuous. It didn't work. First Ravenclaw, then Gryffindor, then the entire room quieted as she took a seat next to Marianne at the Gryffindor table. She felt the eyes of everyone on her. She stuffed a large mass of spaghetti into her mouth and chewed noisily. Everyone turned back to their own tables and the talking began again in earnest. Professor Aerit stood, but Dumbledore put a calming hand on her arm, and she took her seat again, looking upset.
"Lily, what the hell do you think you're doing?" asked Marianne.
"Oh...um...can't I sit with you?" Marianne looked at me for a moment, as though seeing a whole new side of me, and then burst into laughter.
"Good on you, Lily. You show the evil professors we won't be segregated." I blushed, but I smiled nevertheless. I ate the rest of my lunch with Marianne and her best friend James (a second year), and before long Remus came to join us. The four of us stuck together for the rest of the day, and instead of retiring to our common rooms after classes, we found an abandoned classroom and two chessboards and spent the rest of the day playing around. Marianne won every game; she took my queen in five moves the first time.
The next day at breakfast, Remus's friends Will and Jack joined the four of us at Hufflepuff table, where we had decided to sit with Marianne's sister Margarethe amd Peter Pettigrew, whom Marianne and I had met on the train. Most of the professors looked at us disapprovingly, but Dumbledore and Professor Rhys-Davies beamed whenever they saw us. During second period that day, Dumbledore took me into an empty classroom and asked flat out, "Lily, why aren't you sitting with the other Ravenclaws at mealtimes?"
I was taken aback by his directness; I hadn't gotten to know Dumbledore, so I didn't realize what a surprising individual he can be. "I - I suppose because I - um... - I don't think that I should be kept from making friends in the other houses just because the hat thinks our personalities are different."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful, but didn't say another word, simply waved me out the door. A very odd man. I was late to potions, but Annie, the potions master, didn't seem to mind much. She was never very strict with us. At lunch that day, I notice a few more people were moving around. Remus sat at Ravenclaw with Peter Pettigrew (a Hufflepuff), and James and Marianne and I decided to take a chance (I wasn't aware of what humiliation they were risking, since I didn't realize to what extent the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin went) and sit at Slytherin.
We stood at the head of the table, looking around uncomfortably for a spot to sit, and receiving less-than-welcoming stares from many of the Slytherins. We were on the verge of leaving when someone near the other end of the table called "Oy, Lily!" It was Severus Snape, the second-year I'd sat with on the train. We moved in his direction, and he cleared a space around himself for us. Marianne and I sat down on his right; James across from us.
"Severus, these are my friends, James Potter and Marianne Addams. They're Gryffindors." The smile on Snape's face was strained, but it was definitely a smile, and he shook their hands with something resembling friendliness."
"Nice to meet you both. This is my sister, Lavinia," he said, motioning to the first-year on my right, "and my mate Sirius Black," motioning to the handsome young man who sat next to James. Sirius, also apparently making an effort to be civil, shook James' hand and nodded to Marianne and I.
The conversation was strained at first, but we quickly warmed up to each other. Severus was a little like the Ravenclaw girls I had been avoiding, but he was allright. Lavinia was very quiet, and when she did spoke, she was always faintly rude; but I don't think it was intentional. It was clear that Severus absolutely doted on her. Black was better than Severus - he and James warmed up to each other immediately, and the three boys and Marianne spent the rest of the lunch period discussing varieties of broomsticks, a topic I knew nothing about. I tried to make conversation with Lavinia, but it was a lost cause, so eventually I just shut up and listened.
Remus and James and Marianne and I spent the afternoon in our abandoned classroom again. But this time, Peter Pettigrew was there too, along with Sirius Black and Severus Snape. This small group, which linked the four houses together for a short seven years, was the foundation of the first Order of the Phoenix.