They never did end up finding the entrance to the kitchens. However, they did find the way to the Slytherin common room, and a secret passage that led to one of the girl's bathrooms. When they finally decided to stop exploring, Lily realized that it was 7:30, and they rushed to get to the Great Hall for brekky. The food was delicious, and Lily stuffed her face because she had only ever eaten Hogwarts food once (and she wanted to try all five flavors of Danish). As soon as the meal had gotten underway, a stern woman (Professor McGonagall, Lily recalled someone calling her) handed out timetables to the Gryffindors. Lily scanned hers as she poured herself some tea. Lily always drank tea; she preferred it to any other morning beverage. Always without milk or sugar. It helped her wake up.
"Oh bully, we have Potions with the Slytherins." Potter noted, making a wry face.
"But not until tomorrow, pity it's double Potions, though" Sirius said. Lily frowned.
"What is so terrible about the Slytherins?" she asked, picking up her cup of tea and taking a rather large gulp. Potter practically spat out his eggs at her question. He turned to Sirius, and shook his head.
"Sirius, didn't you tell your girlfriend about the evils of the Slytherins?!" he demanded, acting shocked.
"I am not his girlfriend." Lily hissed angrily.
"Red, the Slytherins are an evil bunch of slimy gits who would like nothing better than to ruin your day if she came across them and you were all alone. Didn't you read Hogwarts: A History? Slytherin has turned out the most Dark Wizards in all of Hogwarts. Voldemort was part of Slytherin."
"Whom?" Lily inquired, sure that she had heard the name before.
"Voldemort. Most people call him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. He's an evil wizard who is currently rising into power. He kills muggles for fun…he also kills muggle born witches and wizards." Potter explained, his face grave for the first time since Lily had met him. Lily was intrigued.
"Really? How terrible!" she said, sounding almost excited "And how long has he been killing people…how does he kill them…Why does he kill them? Oh, wait you said, it was for fun…Why does he kill witches and wizards?…Can't the Ministry of Magic do anything to stop him?"
"Ummm….He's been around for about a year and a half, he uses a forbidden curse- I'll lend you my book on them if you like-No one knows why. Maybe for fun. Maybe because he fears their power. The Ministry hasn't been able to stop him yet. We lost 5 Aurors in the last meeting with him." Potter told Lily.
"Don't worry, Lily, it's not as if he would dare to come to Hogwarts." Lupin told her. "Dumbledore is one of the most powerful wizards in history, as or more powerful than Voldemort."
"Who says I was worried?" Lily demanded of him, spearing eggs on her fork with force. "I was just wondering about him. You know how the saying goes 'know thine enemies' or something? My dad always says it."
"Well, well, well look at what we have here, some Grotesque Gryffindors!" a voice behind Lily dripping with repugnance muttered. She spun around, angry for the interruption and the rude comments.
"Do you mind?" she snarled, showing more tooth and fang than was necessary. (A/N I love that, tooth and fang, it's a great expression!)
"Not at all mudblood." A boy who was tall and pale spat, glaring at Lily as if she were roadkill.
"What did you call her?" Sirius demanded, standing up.
"A mudblood. M-U-D B-L-O-O-D" the boy spelt out for him, looking as if he was going against his best instincts and standing put instead of running. Sirius lunged. Lily grabbed Sirius' arm, and pulled him down into his seat. Then she sat down. Lily was not about to fight or be fought for. Especially not on her first day at a new school. If she ever wanted to fight these boys, then she would be doing so, not Sirius. She told him all this in hushed undertones while the two boys stood behind her, calling her every name in the book. When she had done eating, Lily got up and left the table, dragging Sirius with her. Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew followed them.
When they arrived in their first classroom, which was the Charms classroom. The tiny little Professor announced that they needed to pick someone to sit with, somewhere to sit, and stay there for the rest of the year.
Lily turned to ask Sirius, but saw that he and Potter had already settled into seats, and were talking happily. Lily sincerely wished she knew some hexes to throw at them. She looked around herself, and caught Lupin's eye. He smiled. Lily sighed mentally. Lupin was alright, but Sirius was irreplaceable. However, she sat down beside Lupin, and in front of Sirius.
"So Lily…" Lupin trailed off, looking extremely uncomfortable. Lily guessed he'd only attempted conversation to be polite. She was about to sneer, but a look at the pale face made her think twice. Lupin looked so fragile, it rather scared her. His face was pale, and he had dark circles under his eyes. In fact, had one not looked at his eyes, they would have thought Remus Lupin was the living dead. However, she could see something like compassion, friendship, and fear bubbling inside those eyes. It scared her, she rarely saw such a mix of emotions in one person.
"Are you excited about starting charms, Remus?" Lily asked, giving the pale boy her full attention.
"Yes." Remus' reply was surprised, and almost inaudible.
"Me too." Lily told him, smiling warmly. Some strange need she really couldn't explain had come over her. She felt very protective towards Remus, as if he was breakable or something. She snorted. Great, she was feeling maternal.
The tiny Charms Professor stood up, waved his hands, and began to call them to order.
"Let me take roll call. Liam Abbott (here) Vanessa Arling, (here)" the Professor began to call off the names of the students. Lily noticed that not many people were paying attention, so she turned around and tried to talk to Sirius. But he was too involved in talking to Potter about Quidditch I could talk about Quidditch with him Lily thought grumpily He could explain it, then we could talk about it. She sighed unhappily, and turned around just as the Professor called out
"Lily Evans!"
"Here." She mumbled, and had to repeat herself three times before she became loud enough.
When the roll had been called, the Professor smiled hugely, and began to explain how to do a cheering charm. Lily rather thought she needed it as she heard Sirius erupt into laughter over something Potter had said. After all, everyone needed to be cheered up when they had just lost their best friend.
Classes went about the same speed as Charms. Lily got snubbed by Sirius several other times, and each time, she got just a little bit angrier. If anyone else noticed, they didn't say anything, and by the time they entered their last class, Lily was ready to rupture a vein. It was Herbology, and Lily, who had never liked plants, was not in the mood to deal with anything organic that afternoon. Why should she bother learning about magical plants when she couldn't even take care of a that stupid cactus she'd had when she was nine which had died of dehydration? The Professor, who's name was Posy, was rather too cheerful and not very interesting to listen to. Sirius and Potter paired up for the lesson, as well as Remus and Pettigrew, leaving Lily all alone. She grumbled, and looked about her. The only person without a partner was a mousy looking boy who sported thick round glasses and pale blonde hair. She sighed, and went to sit next to him, mentally delivering crushing blows to the back of Sirius' head. The boy turned out to be named Frank Longbottom, and he seemed to know an awful lot about Herbology. The two worked silently for awhile, Lily fighting the urge to lob a bulb at Sirius' head and Longbottom working patiently, packing his bulbs in carefully, and at just the right depth and space. Finally, Lily gave up on her planting, and just shoved them in haphazardly. After all, how could the Professor tell if they were done correctly when the bulbs were buried in dirt?
When the bell rang, Lily got up, brushed her hands off, and stalked to the castle, not waiting for Sirius and his group of friends. She skipped dinner, and hung out in her room, morosely eating some chocolate frogs she had left over from the train ride. Her train of thought was directed at her ex-best friend, and she seethed with anger. Lily had never ever been shunned by anyone before, and it hurt a lot to have the one person she thought to be her best friend commit such an odious crime. What did James Potter have that she didn't? Besides being a girl, she was as intelligent, she knew exactly as much as she did, she was as much or even more fun to be around than him. It did not occur to her that perhaps Sirius needed male friends. Lily had never needed friends of the same sex, why should he? Eventually, she fell asleep, cursing Potter and all the rest of them, even her new found friend Remus, just because they all liked Potter, and none of them realized that he was the reason her and Sirius weren't best friends anymore.
A week flew by, and the following Monday, the Gryffindors had their first flying lesson with the Slytherins. Secretly, Lily didn't hate the house as much as her fellow Gryffindors. Her friends, who she had resumed speaking to because none of her other classmates were as funny, swore that the Slytherins were the epitome of evil, and were to be avoided at all costs. Lily really couldn't see this, she'd even talked to a couple of them, and hadn't been able to pinpoint any homicidal tendencies lurking inside them.
The sky was over cast and gloomy. Lily was fairly nervous, not only because she'd never flown alone before, but because it seemed that everyone else in her year had. Sirius was telling stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping bloodthirsty hang-gliders, and the way Potter told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the country side on his broomstick. Even Pettigrew would tell anyone who'd listen that he'd almost hit a goose on his brother's old broom. They were still talking about it as they walked out onto the Quidditch pitch, and waited for the teacher. Lily waved to a Slytherin girl who she'd been partnered with in Potions, and the girl waved back. Finally, the teacher arrived, and instructed them to stand beside the brooms laid out on the ground. Apparently, all they had to do was stand beside it, stick out their right hand, say "up", mount the broom, and kick off. Lily had only ever flown with Sirius, and only for a few minutes before they got in trouble. However, she put on a brave front, and held her hand over the broom.
Much to Lily's surprise, the broom jumped into her hand when she said "Up" and mounting it was easy enough. Then she kicked off, just a small kick on the ground, not one with enough force to take her very far. And suddenly, she was in the air, flying. She let out a shrill whoop, and looked around her. Sure, she was maybe 6 feet up, but the sensation of flying…it was more than she had ever dreamed of! She felt light as air and invincible. She was in the sky, and she could do anything! She looked around her, and saw that Sirius had also joined her in the air. He grinned at her, and waved. Of course he could do it, she'd seen him. Potter was also up, and he smiled at Lily happily. Lily didn't return the smile. She was so sick of Potter trying to be nice, she had decided to ignore him. Remus and Pettigrew hadn't managed to become airborne yet, but Remus was the closest of the two to achieving it. Peter still hadn't managed to get his broom off of the ground.
They spent the rest of the lesson skimming around, about four feet off of the ground. Lily, Sirius and Potter got into trouble for playing tag and flying too fast, Remus finally succeeded in joining them, and Pettigrew got a foot off of the ground before falling down again. At the end of the lesson, they trooped back up to the common room, where Lily found herself sitting between Potter and Sirius on the couch, instead of all by herself in an armchair. Sirius was congratulating her on her flying so well, and even Potter seemed impressed. Not that Lily cared if he was, it was just nice to have people admire her.
They stayed up, talking well past midnight. Eventually, Pettigrew fell asleep curled up in front of the fire, and Lily, upon looking out the window, made a comment about the waxing moon. Catching Remus out of the corner of her eye, Lily noticed how much more pale he looked in the firelight, and wondered if he was ill. But she didn't ask. After all, she had known the boy a grand total of one week; she hardly expected him to pour out his deepest secrets to her. Still, the color of his face worried her, she really hoped he wasn't sick.
"I don't feel too well." Remus muttered, confirming Lily's suspicions
"You don't look too well." Lily informed him.
"I know." Remus said, a battle raging inside his mind. He wanted to tell them, but how would they react? He liked all of them a lot, he wanted to be their friend, but would they want to be his friend? Who in their right mind would want to be friends with a monster?
Eventually, the silence was too much for Sirius to bear, and so he pulled Lily's hair, making her yell, and grab a fist-full of his own black locks, of which he was rather vain. Sirius had known she would do this, and so he grabbed another hand-full of Lily's hair.
"Hey!" Lily said angrily, as she grabbed hold not of Sirius' hair, but of his ear. They struggled for a moment, before Potter intervened, grabbing Lily by the back of her robes, and hauling her away. Unfortunately, Lily was still holding onto Sirius' ear, and Potter's efforts were rather painful for Sirius.
"OWWWW!" he hollered rather loudly. Lily let go, a look of disgust creasing her features as she rubbed her hand off on the back of Sirius' robes.
"Do you ever clean your ruddy ears?" she demanded crossly.
"No." was Sirius rather jovial reply as he messaged his ear with one hand.
"I figured as much." Lily told him, and stood up.
"Where are you going Red?" Potter asked, smiling crookidly.
"To bed."
"Doncha want to help us play a few jokes?" Potter asked. Lily struggled with herself. On one hand, her warm fluffy and very inviting bed awaited her. On another hand, if she left, then she would look like a sissy and drift further away from Sirius. The thought of loosing her best friend even more than she already had made her descision.
"On second thought, maybe I will stay up." she told Potter with some irritation.
"Great. Wait until you hear what we have planned." Potter said, motioning for her to resume her seat, and for Remus to wake up Pettigrew, and move in closer to their circle.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns everything to date, including a certain line I used in this chapter, with a few words changed. I own nothing, except for the plot, of course. I'll always have the plot!
Jennifer Longbottom: Lily was the baby they didn't know was coming. I prolly should have been more specific. :0)
Meg: S'ok, I agree. R/H is the best, but some of the other are good too.
x Goddess Eden x: Can I read your story? It sounds really cool!
UnforgivenChild: Really? I didn't know Faith called Will, Red. I didn't watch very much Buffy when they were in High School. I watched it sometimes. But for the past two seasons, I've watched it regularly. I was ready to kill them after the season finale. Grrrrr.
Thanks also to:
Little Witch
Lilly Potter
Angel of Music
Shampoo ul copt
Sakura
George and Fred
Anne winters
Ankita
Trina-k
And, a bit of promotion for my little sister, who just joined, if anyone wants to read her Harry/Ginny (with a bit of Ron/Hermione) story, then please, got see her story
