For Jilytober Fest 2022, Prompt #2: "You didn't have to do this…"
She could've done the nice thing. They'd all put in the hard work, they'd all spent hours together after their lessons, working on this, they'd all given up something to be here. She could've done the right thing. The polite thing. It only took four syllables.
"And lastly," Lily started, her voice magically amplified by the wand pointed at her lips, looking out at the crowd of witches and wizards and parents and schoolmates, "I'd like to thank my fellow team members, Glen Vane and Dorcas Meadowes, without whom we never could have achieved this. Thank you." The crowd burst into applause, and the chief judge, a wizened old wizard with a curly moustache, took control of the lectern and continued speaking. Lily slunk back to her seat. On the far side of the stage was a table draped in brown cloth, emblazoned with the Hogwarts crest. Behind it sat her teammates. She took the chair at the end, next to Glen. From here, the lights glowed so bright the audience turned to a sea of shadows.
"Four syllables." She turned her head. He leaned across the table from Dorcas' left, hair sticking up, eyes narrowed, glasses askew, fists balling the tablecloth.
"My name?" she asked sweetly.
"And James Potter!" James Potter hissed. Dorcas slid down in her chair. Glen grimaced and looked very intently at the judge. The muscles in Lily's neck tensed.
"Sorry," she said. "Whoops. I forgot."
"You forgot?" he demanded.
"I forgot," she said.
"Shush," Dorcas interjected, bringing a finger to her lips and then pointing at the judge. Lily and James both ignored her.
"How did you forget?" James asked, slamming both his elbows on the table. "Did you go blind? Did you get obliviated?"
"What, because you're so unforgettable?" She had, of course, not forgotten him. How could she forget him? He was the ever-present thorn in her side. Forgetting him would be a privilege.
"Yes," he said, exasperated. "Yes, I am unforgettable, actually!"
"Shush," Dorcas whispered. The judge looked at them pointedly out of the corner of his eye.
"You are so arrogant," Lily said furiously, lowering her voice, leaning past Glen. "You just can't believe that anyone could possibly forget you, because you're the centre of the universe, the sun we all revolve around-"
"And you are vindictive!" James fired back, speaking so animatedly that his glasses fell off his face. "You got up there and made us look like idiots because you're still mad about something that happened a million years ago. You need to get over it!"
"A million years ago?" she laughed darkly. "Oh, that is rich. Thursday. Was Thursday a million years ago? Is your brain so tiny and demented that you don't have a proper concept of time?"
"Oh, come on, Evans, now you're just saying what Snivellus would say," James said. Lily's hand jerked towards the wand in her pocket.
"Severus. His name is Severus. You don't even have the common decency to call someone by their name -"
"Neither do you! And – James - Potter! It's four fucking syllables!"
"Ahem."
The judge stared directly at them, eyebrows raised, and the dark ocean of audience turned to them, their faces like pools of moonlight as the light hit them on a new angle. In the front row sat their Head of House, Professor McGonagall, in tartan robes, a tall black hat, and a look of utter fury.
Lily swallowed.
"Well, I wouldn't have done that if Snivellus hadn't -"
"Snape, Mr Potter."
"So I get blamed for what Severus does? Yes, that makes sense!"
"Like you weren't in on it!"
"Would you believe me if I said I wasn't?"
"No, because you'd be lying!"
"Mr Potter."
"Well, maybe he wouldn't have done that if it weren't for the thing with the slugs -"
"And you just assume I did that!"
"I saw you and Black laughing at it!"
"We could've been laughing at something someone else did!"
"Oh, yeah, that's likely! Who else would it have been?"
"I don't know what muggle law is like, but in wizarding law -"
"Don't make up rubbish, Potter, and pretend to understand things beyond your -"
"Mr Potter! Miss Evans!"
Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared viciously. Lily and James lapsed into silence, Lily folding her arms across her chest and holding her chin in the air. James pulled a face and kicked the floor. Professor McGonagall sat back in the cushioned seat behind her desk. Their golden trophy, depicting a team of two witches and two wizards with their wands raised above their heads, loomed over them. Lily shifted.
"You have embarrassed not only yourselves, but your team, all of Gryffindor, and Hogwarts itself," Professor McGonagall said flatly. Heat flushed Lily's cheeks. "I could not believe it when Miss Evans did not say your name, Mr Potter," and she gave Lily a look that could've levelled London, "but neither could I believe it when the two of you proceeded to squabble like first-years in front of everyone! Mr Potter, you should have refrained from using such language and left it to myself to ensure the matter was adequately taken care of, and you should not, in any circumstance, take it upon yourself to push someone over while you are receiving a trophy!"
"It was an accident!" James protested, and Lily wanted to kill him. You idiot, she thought. If you could only shut your fat gob for a few minutes, you might not get yourself into so much trouble! "I forgot that she was there, Professor. Like how she forgot to say my name."
Professor McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You are fourth-years. I expect better of you than this. I am ashamed to have students in my house behaving this way. You are two of our most promising students and right now you're throwing that away over childish disputes." Lily chewed her lip. James pouted. You are a child, Lily thought, glaring at him. Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. "I want to see that the two of you can work together in the name of academic achievement and upholding school values."
"I can," Lily said, despite knowing she ought to be quiet. "If he wasn't so inflammatory -" Professor McGonagall raised one eyebrow, and Lily fell silent.
"I did not see that tonight, Miss Evans." Lily went redder and curled back into her seat. "As a consequence of your actions – both of your actions," she added, silencing James, "and as a reflection upon the escalation of these behaviours that has been witnessed in the previous weeks, I am going to, firstly, be forced to prohibit you from representing Hogwarts at any external events until such time as you prove yourselves able to conduct yourselves in a satisfactory manner."
James' mouth dropped open. "But – how will we win anything then?" Professor McGonagall blinked.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Well, I'm the best at Transfiguration in the year," he said. "And at Quidditch. And I'm pretty good at Charms and Defence too. If I'm not in the team, how will we win anything?" Professor McGonagall stared at him. Lily rolled her eyes and huffed.
"You think you're a prince," she muttered.
"I am certain we will manage, Mr Potter," Professor McGonagall said eventually, voice cool. "You will each receive a week's detention, and will lose twenty-five points."
"Each?" James asked.
"Each."
"Oh. Well, I've had worse," he shrugged. Lily shot him a filthy look. Inside, her heart plummeted, and it took all her grit not to cry. A week's detention? She'd never had that much before, nor had she ever lost so many points in one night. It was fine for James – everybody knew he was a troublemaker, and everyone liked him, more or less, except for her and the Slytherins. It was different for Lily. She could practically hear the sneers of the older students; "Not only is she muggle-born, but she's lost us all those points too. You know, sometimes I think…" And if she was getting detention, her parents would get a letter home. Petunia would be insufferable when Lily went home for Easter. And she could see her dad peering over the butter dish at her, a thoughtful frown upon his face, reminding her that school wasn't everything…she could come home, if she was having trouble. Lily's stomach flipped miserably. She would've done anything not to lose points and get a letter home.
"Finally, in our next Transfiguration lesson, I will be giving out your assignment. I intended for the class to choose a partner to work with. However, I think it's clear that the two of you need to on your ability to be civil and productive with people you don't like. Therefore, I will be partnering you for this upcoming assignment, and I expect the both of you to excel."
Almost anything.
"No! Professor, you – you can't! Take more points, give me a month of detention, please, you can't make me work with him!"
"I'll jump off the Astronomy Tower!" James said. "She's a dementor, Professor, you're sentencing an innocent man to – to death!"
Professor McGonagall raised her wand, and they both went quiet again. Her eyes crackled with disapproval.
"Miss Evans, I can do this, and Mr Potter, if you were to jump off the Astronomy Tower, you would find that we have warded the area to prevent students from falling to their deaths. We are not completely incompetent when it comes to ensuring students' safety, if you would believe it."
James narrowed his eyes. "So if you were to jump off…you'd just float?" Professor McGonagall looked down her nose at him.
"You would be lifted back up to the tower, and the Headmaster would be notified," she said. James nodded slowly, and got that plotting look on his face. Lily hated that look. It meant he was up to something. Of course, he was almost always up to something, so Lily almost always hated how he looked.
(Well, always, but for other reasons. For one, Alisha was wrong: he did not look 'hot' in his quidditch kit. He looked like an idiot. Just because his hair was all windswept and he was a bit sweaty and his uniform fit him perfectly and you could see the swell of muscles under his sleeves and he had a crooked grin and bright eyes did not mean he was 'hot'.)
"So we have to work together?" Lily asked.
"You have to," Professor McGonagall confirmed. "While you may see this as a punishment now, I would encourage you to look at it as an opportunity. You are both very talented. If you can set aside your differences, I am confident you will produce an exemplary piece of work, and your collaboration will be rewarded." Lily glanced at James, who appeared as uneasy as she felt. The fire in the hearth leapt with a gust of wind. Even with the window open, and the cool night sky glimmering beyond, the heat was stifling. Lily scratched under her collar.
Professor McGonagall sighed. "Do you understand?"
"Yes, Professor," Lily said meekly, shoving down the indignation bubbling in her chest.
"Yes," James said, glowering.
"Good." Professor McGonagall indicated the old clock on her desk with her wand. "Now, you have fifteen minutes until curfew, so you had best return to your common room immediately. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," they grumbled, leaving the office.
The corridor outside was empty, lit with lazily burning torches. This part of the castle was quiet; Lily could hear her own breathing. The wooden door swung shut, and James got a very ugly look upon his face. Uglier than normal, which was saying something.
"You didn't have to do this…" he said, running his fingers through his hair. "You couldn't've let it go, could you?" Lily scoffed, crossing her arms.
"What did I do?" she demanded. "If you hadn't pushed me, I would've got a telling-off and that would be that. You had to take it that step further!"
"You started it!" he accused. Lily was a second from screaming. Instead, she hurled herself around and stormed down the hallway. His footsteps pounded behind her. "Now you've doomed us, because you were too uppity to say my bloody name!" Lily ignored him, walking faster, but then a hand grabbed her shoulder. She spun around, pulling out her wand.
"Don't touch me," she growled. His face was barely two inches from hers. He let go, but his breath kept hitting her.
"We've lost points, we've got detention -"
"Don't pretend you care about that!"
"I don't, but you do!" She couldn't deny that. She bit her lip. "We're not allowed to represent the school, now we're stuck working together. There's a time and a place, Evans."
"So you chose the right time and place to have a go at me, did you? On stage?"
"I was being nice today! All you had to do was say my name. 'And James Potter'. Four syllables. Do you really hate me that much that you couldn't say it?" His voice cracked. She froze. His face softened around the edges, and his eyebrows wilted. For a moment, their eyes met, and a genuine question pulsed through his gaze.
"Fine," he said, looking away. "Whatever. Night." Head down, he barrelled past her. She pressed her palms against her head, thinking. What was that about? Why did he care if he hated her? And, she – well, she – it was complicated.
"Potter!" she called out. He stopped at the end of the hallway, in front of a portrait of Gregory the Gregarious.
"What?" he asked. She faltered, fidgeting with the clasp of her robes.
"If it weren't for Sev," she started quietly. James shook head.
"Whatever." He turned away.
"Wait!"
"No," he said, screwing up his face like she was stupid. "What's the point? I'm always going to hate that greasy git. So you're always going to hate me, and guess what? I'm always going to hate you." Lily deflated. She felt as though her heart had been punctured. "That's just the way it is," James said briskly. Lily was struck by the strange urge to cry. She was over-tired, obviously, and still upset from being told off by Professor McGonagall.
"Fine," she said, hugging herself. James sighed his, brushing his hair back.
"Fine." He started down the corridor. Lily swallowed hard. Just before he disappeared from view, however, he looked back. "Night, Evans," he said, and vanished into the darkness. Lily had never felt more alone in the big, empty castle.
"Night, Potter," she said to no-one, before heading in the opposite direction.
