"Was it something bodiless, only occupied by a soul–What is it, dear?" Lily jumped up, madness seemingly overcoming her at the chatter and noise Professor Trelawney was making. She dashed all the way to the trapdoor, kicked it open, and ran all the way down to the Great Hall, sliding into her seat as fast as possible, trying to forget those red, snake-shaped eyes, blasting fire and doom at her.
Lily refused to answer any questions that evening, and she went to bed as early as possible, trying to block out her last scene with Tom. She was awakened rudely, however, at about two in the morning, by someone shaking her violently by the shoulder. "Lily! Get up!" "Wh–who're you? Go back to bed and let me do the same."
"Lily!" The voice was a bit more urgent now. "Get up!" The person pulled her sheets away. "Get up now!"
"I want my sheets back!" "You'll get tem if you come downstairs with me. Come on!" "James? You lunatic. Two a.m. is early even for me." She stretched, yawned, stretched a bit more, and ed her sheets from his arms.
"You're coming downstairs right now or I'll dump a bucket of water on you!"
"Oh, right." He held up a large tin pail. "I wasn't bluffing. Come on."
"Oh, all right!" Muttering under her breath, she wrapped herself in her blankets and tramped downstairs to the roaring fire, curling up as close to it as she could without singeing her hair. "All right. You got me out of bed and into a bad mood, so now please get me back into bed."
"Huh?"
"State thy case."
"Oh. It's not a case. But anyway, did you ask her yet?"
"Ask who?"
"You know who!"
"Ask who about what?"
"Lily, stop being difficult!"
"All right, all right. But I do wish I'd demanded payment. What I put up with to get what I did get out of her cost me the front part of my tongue, a load of patience, and a lot of acting. I'm certainly going to get the lead role in any play I decide to try out for after this."
"Come on!"
"Fine, fine. All right, I did get from her that she did like Sirius last year, that she likes someone this year who is a third year, a boy, a Gryffindor…ooh, what was his name? It wasn't Longbottom, it wasn't Remus…ooh, it's on the tip of my tongue–"
"Lily, honestly!"
"Umm…it wasn't Sirius, at least not this year, I know him very well–let's see, could be Peter, could be-"
"Lily!"
"Could be Taylor Young, you know that redhead who never talks,–hey, she said he played Quidditch–it could be John, now, couldn't it? Or Nigel, or that Joseph DeVonn character, or–"
"LILY!"
"All right, all right, I give. Yes."
"Yes what?"
"Yes."
"YES WHAT?"
"Oh, James, it's just so much fun to make you mad, do you know that?"
"And?"
"Well, it is."
"Well? What about—what about Serena?"
"What about her?"
"Lily, please stop! What did she say?"
Lily rolled her eyes a few times. "Thank goodness I'm not into all this stuff. I'd be a walking stress model."
"Oh, come on. Lily, please!"
Lily looked at the tousle-headed figure in green and blue plaid pajamas, kneeling at her feet, begging for something. She started to laugh.
James jumped up quickly and clapped his hand over her mouth. "Do you want the whole Tower down here? Shut up!"
"All right." Lily shook herself loose, stretched out on the couch, and closed her eyes.
"What are you doing?"
Lily sighed. She reached for the quill, inkwell, and bit of parchment someone had left lying on the table, wrote something, and pushed it over to James.

You told me to shut up.
He read it quickly, frowned, and crumpled the note up. "Lily, honestly! Please, can't you see how important this is to me? I'm begging you!"
Lily's mouth softened into a ridiculing smile as she saw James kneeling at her feet, pulling at her blankets.
"All right. I give. Yes."
"Not that again! Yes what?"
"Yes. She told me she liked you. A lot."
His face lit up and he sprang to his feet, beaming all over his face. Lily thought to herself that she'd never seen him so happy.
"Truly? You—you're not lying?"
She smiled. "No. I'm not. I don't suppose I have to ask if you're satisfied, but I'm going to bed." She picked up her blankets and trailed up the stairs to her dormitory. James followed her and plucked at her sleeve."Um—Lily?" "What?"
"Do you mind doing me another big favor?"
"Ten Galleons."
"Really—That is, I'll pay you as soon as—"
"James Potter, you really have gone soppy over her, haven't you? Depends on the favor."
"Erm…" He looked very nervous and tongue-tied. "Do you think you can get her to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?" "We have a Hogsmeade visit?"

"The things I go through. All right, fine, but you're paying for everything I decide to buy in The Three Broomsticks. Don't worry, I won't intrude on any private conversations!" she added at seeing his rather horrified face. "I will do my best. But now go to bed!"
The next morning, Lily cornered Serena as they were stepping into the carriages that were to convey then to Hogsmeade.
"Serena, I need to talk to you."
"Why are–Oh, fine. What about?"
"James."
Serena pulled Lily into the carriage, slammed the door, and faced Lily. "What about him? You didn't tell him, did you?"
"What–No. I didn't. But he asked to talk to me."
Serena's eyes narrowed. "Proceed."
"It was last night in the common room, and he asked me if I could manage to get you to meet him in The Three Broomsticks today. I told him I would do my best. What time do you want him to be there?"
Serena laughed gaily. "Tell him I'll be there as soon as I can get out of these musty carriages."
Lily nodded. "I've become the regular messenger girl, haven't I?"
She jumped out of the carriage door and managed to get into the one James was in before the carriages started to move.
"Well? Did you ask her?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"And what?"
"Exactly. And what?"
"You're getting better at this." Lily wrinkled her nose. "She's meeting you in that pub as soon as she can get out of 'these musty carriages'. Quote unquote."
He smiled slowly, then stared out of the window for the rest of the trip, not bothering to acknowledge her presence.
When the carriages finally stopped, Lily had to stand back as a charcoal-headed blur raced past her out of the door.
"Anxious, are we?"
She stepped down, right into a blast of cold wind. She saw James leading Serena, who was clutching her cloak around her and looking the very picture of a maiden in distress, to the entrance of The Three Broomsticks. She shook her head and vanished into the joke shop.
A few minutes later, she re-emerged with bright red cheeks and a wish for the common room fire. Not wasting an instant, she stepped into the small pub.
It was welcomingly warm inside, and she didn't waste an instant ordering a large butterbeer and stepping over to the two tables pushed together in a corner, seating Sirius, Remus, Peter, Miranda, John, and several others.
"Hi, all!"
They looked up. "Oh, hi, Lily. Join us?"
Lily shrugged. "Precisely what I came over here to do." She slipped into a chair between Sirius and Miranda. "Did I interrupt an extremely important conversation?"
Sirius shrugged. "Depends on whose point of view you're looking at this. From James' view, yes, you interrupted something as important as life and death–"
"Pain and death. As important as pain and death. Without pain, this world would have severe problems. Proceed."
"This world does have severe problems."
"There is that. But go on."
"Well, from his point of view, as I said, you should be lying dead, even though he isn't here. From ours, you came at just the right time."
"I did? Oh, good. For once–How? For what?"
John jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Lily peered around he shoulder and caught sight of a very secluded table, with two occupants.
"Well, how was I on time?"
"You acted as their messenger girl, didn't you?"
"What do you mean?"
Nigel sighed. "You gave them their little messages for each other and got them here together, didn't you?"
"Well, yeah. So?"
"That was stupid."
"Sirius, shut up. How?"
Remus frowned, Nigel played with his nails, and Sirius sat there, pretending he had no idea of what was going on and why he was sitting at a table with absolute lunatics.
"How?"
Miranda scowled in James' general direction. "They're planning on ditching you as soon as possible."
"What–How–When and where?"
Jacqueline de Forté, the reserve Gryffindor Beater, patted Lily on the shoulder.
"Lily, it's not your fault, they're just a bunch of airheads. We just overheard them talking, and what they were saying basically amounts to this; 'She's done what we needed done, now we get rid of her.'"
Lily's eyes were open and wide, hurt and stunned. "So what you're trying to say is that they used me?"
Sirius flinched. "Yeah, pretty much."
He stooped down to glance at her face, which had drooped down to meet the front of her robes. "Are you all right?"
She snapped back up. "Couldn't be better."
"Really?"
"Truly. I'm all right. Need to be alone for a minute, though. Excuse me." She stepped away from the table, knocking her chair over, and walked out without bothering to pick it up. Sirius and Remus looked terribly worried. "Do you think she's all right?"

Nigel shook his head. "She should be. We didn't tell her the other half."
"Other half of what?"
"You remember what Serena hinted. They're going to try to turn the whole darn school against her when they make her wand slip and make one of the Quidditch players fall off of his broom at the next match."
"Oh, that. It better not be me!"
"John, it's going to be one of us. Me, Nigel, Anya, or Ashley."
"What about Joseph?"
"Are you kidding? The whole darned school'd applaud if she knocked him into the mud!"
Outside, a moody redhead was ambling down the lane, bumping into people and staring blankly at their "Excuse you!"'s. She had no expression whatsoever on her face, unless you counted, well, nothing. Which no one really did.
She made her way up to the Shrieking Shack, where she leaned on the top rail of the fence and stared dreamily out into space, jumping about a mile when she felt a touch on the shoulder.
"Lily?"
"Serverus–oh, hello." She turned back to wind-watching.
"Lily, are you all right? You left The Three Broomsticks in a sort of–well, twisted way. Like you were going to commit suicide is what your face looked like. Are you all right?"
Lily sighed and turned to her friend. "Serverus, I don't know what I did wrong."
"Neither do I. But then, I'm not sure of all the facts."
"Mmm."
"That was a not-so-subtle hint. You still haven't answered my question."
"Oh–I–"–Lily broke down. For the first time in weeks, her eyes started to fill with tears. Half blinded, she flung her arms around Serverus' neck, hanging onto him as if he were her lifeline. Very stunned and antsy, he patted her back a bit.
Lily regained control of herself fairly quickly. She pulled away, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand. "I'm sorry. I just needed a hug. Badly." Leaning onto the rail again, she clutched it so hard her knuckles started to turn white and Serverus had to detach them from the fence.
"Lily, you're gonna break the wood if you keep that up. Come on." He took her arm and led her back down the lane.
"Where're we going?"
"I'm taking you back. If you stay in Hogsmeade, you're very likely going to run into Potter, and right now I have a feeling that isn't going to go over so well."
"Back where?"
"They have a new study corner in the library, with couches and a fire. We can talk there."
Gratefully, Lily re-dried her eyes. "Serverus, thanks so much."
"For what?"
"I'm not sure. Everything."
They reached Hogwarts shortly afterwards, and Serverus took Lily straight to the library. He pulled her down onto one of the couches and sat down himself.
"Lily, tell me. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better once you get all of this out."
"All right." Lily was hiccuping softly and shaking a bit, but she tried her best to sit up straight and keep her face dry. Managing to stay somewhat in control of herself, she related the whole story to Serverus, hardly stopping for breath. At the end of her narrative, she shuddered, then leaned against his shoulder, he with a drawn and pinched countenance.
"Lily, I'm so sorry this had to happen to you."
"Don't be sorry. I was stupid."
"You weren't. It wasn't your fault, and don't you dare blame yourself for it."
"Yes, sir."
"Are you sick?"
"No. Overly depressed and hurt and dehydrated and weak and wobbly and tired, yes. Sick, no."
He searched her face, looking for something he didn't find. Then, with a sigh, he heaved himself up off of the sofa.
"C'mon. I'm taking you to Gryffindor Tower."
"You know where it is?"
"I have the general direction down. Yes."
"All right." Lily wiped her eyes one last time and submitted to being pulled gently out of the library. Two corridors away, Lily stopped.
"It's probably best you stop here. I know for a fact you're not allowed inside the common room." She turned away, but Serverus pulled her back.
"Lily, a word of advice. James can convert people pretty quickly into thinking what he does, and I'd not stay in the common room if I were you. Go to your old dormitory. I mean–that is–if you want to. Please don't think I'm trying to order you around. I'm not."
Lily half-smiled. "I didn't think so. Thank you so much. I–I don't know anyone else here at Hogwarts that has been a better friend to me than you. This year," she added. "I don't mean to sound all mushy, but you're the best friend I think I've ever had. Thank you." Her expression was sincere, and Serverus had no doubt that she meant what she said. Though it did take him quite a bit off his guard.
"Er–you're welcome. I didn't do anything, though, did I?"
Pushing her hair behind her ears, Lily grinned. "You did much more than you think you did." She rounded the corner, feeling more secure and loved than she had in days. Not love-loved, she told herself, pushing open the portrait door, just friend-loved. And with what she had been through, that was the only kind that mattered.
She didn't take Serverus' advice on one point; she headed for the fire in the common room. It was empty, as was most of the school except for a few second, first, and seventh years, who hadn't gone to Hogsmeade. Amanda was sitting by the fire with Eva, both of them immersed in a chess game.
"Amanda. Eva. Hi."
They looked up. "Oh, hi, Lily. Not going to Hogsmeade?"

"Already been? You couldn't have spent three hours there!"
Eva shushed Amanda with a movement of her hand. "'Manda, something's wrong. Lily, what happened?"
Lily sighed. Eva was right, there was something wrong, but she didn't know if it was best to tell her what had happened.
"Nothing."
"Liar. Lily, I know you too well. What's wrong?"
"I'm not telling anything this afternoon. Not today."
Eva looked worried. "Are you sure? You might feel a lot better."
"I've already told someone. I do feel better, but now I think that telling anyone else might bring everything back that I'm trying to forget."
"Well, can we go to that someone?"
Lily slowly nodded. "I don't think I'd mind. Yes. Go ahead."
"Well, who did you go to?"
"Serverus."
"Snape? You went to him, of all people? Why not to someone nicer or–well, more understanding, or at least friendlier. Why go to that overgrown bat?"
Lily's eyes flashed dangerously, and Amanda shrank back. "He's my friend, and I have a right to go to whomever I wish to go to for consolation. I'm going to bed." With that, she pushed herself off of her chair and stalked up the dormitory stairs, not so much angry as terribly tired. She didn't heed the calling of her old school friend behind her.
"To bed? Lily, it's not even three yet!"
She woke from her nap around six, and she found the dormitory empty. Shaking her hair away from her face, she slipped into her shoes and made for the Great Hall, where the rest of the school would be eating. The common room was empty, and she headed out of the portrait door as fast as she could.
Lily entered the Great Hall and stepped towards her usual seat for the past month; the one she had held at the beginning of last year, though Sirius was shooting warning glances at her not to come any closer. She therefore wasn't surprised to find Serena in her seat and Diana and Elspeth where Eva and Miranda usually sat.
"Hi! Any room left for me?"
James looked her up and down coldly. "No." He turned back to his food.
Lily pressed her lips together. "Well then. Someone's in a bad mood. What happened?"
He didn't pay her any mind, not even turning to look at her. Serena did, however.
"What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you that same question. You're in my seat."
"It's mine now. I got here first."
"You did. So?"
"So this is going to be my seat from now on. Go to your little second-year friends, and leave us alone."
Lily raised her eyebrows. "You're being a regular little fanged serpent."
"Yeah, well, you're being a rampaging cow. You're not wanted here, so leave, why don't you?"
"Because I'm already here, and because I don't feel like leaving just yet. I used to be wanted, or at least accepted, so what happened?"
"You don't deserve to be accepted among us."
"I used to be. James used to beg me to deliver messages to you. And vice versa."
"Exactly. Used to be. That was when you were useful."
James didn't look up. "You tell her, Serena."
Sirius frowned, but his comment was drowned out by Serena's spiteful remarks.
"You're not useful any more; you're a regular little Orc. Go somewhere else and amuse yourself with your rabble."
"Why should I?"
"Because I said so, that's why. Leave us in peace."
Lily shrugged. "I don't mind. I'd rather sit among a herd of asps than here with you. Goodbye. I go now to my rabble." She whirled, leaving Sirius and Remus behind with very relieved expressions.

Later that night as she sat playing checkers with Sirius, the portrait opened and James and Serena climbed in, both of them smiling and chattering excitedly. They stopped, however, once they got within three feet of Sirius and Lily.
"Sirius, what're you doing with her?"
Lily pushed Sirius back into his chair and faced James squarely. "He's playing checkers. Anything else you want to ask?"
"Yeah, what're you doing with one of my friends?"
"Playing checkers with him. I thought that was obvious."
"Watch your mouth, Evans."
"I can't. Not unless I stand in front of a mirror all day long, and I don't plan to do that."
"You're getting too uppity, and I suggest you shut up while you're ahead."
"Oh, I'm ahead? Thanks for admitting that."
"Admitting what?"
"That I'm beating you at retorts."
Serena pulled gently at James' arm. "James, you promised me you'd help me with my Defense Against the Dark Arts homework." Her musical tones made James turn away.
"Oh, right, I did. Come on."
Lily watched them go, with an expression Sirius was rather relieved to see. Disgust.
Over the next few days, Lily, to the relief of her friends, was seemingly untouched by the treachery of someone she had thought to be her friend. Serena everyone knew she didn't care about, so they didn't trouble themselves about her., and neither did Lily. But James was out of favor with half of the Gryffindors; the rest just didn't care. But out of those that did, he was quite the image of a traitorous worm, and they were all looking forward to the inevitable quarrel all couples had, sooner or later. To everyone's surprise, though, they showed no signs of quarreling at all, not even a friendly spat after two weeks, and the next Quidditch match was drawing near.

James was practicing almost nonstop, and Lily was attending every one of the Slytherin team practices. She was getting very good at fixing small injuries, which Edgar Hatcher was getting even better at inflicting. The team was considering looking for a new Seeker very seriously.
It was the morning before the Quidditch match; a Saturday, and breakfast time. Tired and stiff, wiping sleep out of her eyes, Lily walked down to the Great Hall, where the mail was being delivered. Sliding into her seat between Miranda and Eva, both extremely excited, she had to jump back as quite a thick letter splashed into the milk jug in front of her.
Eva drew back instantly, as did Miranda. Neither of them wanted to touch the envelope, which was bright red. Lily couldn't see anything wrong with it, so she was a bit surprised at her friends' reactions. She fished it out a bit tentatively and held it by one corner, waiting for something to happen. The next moment, something did, shaking the dust off of the walls and bright sky-blue ceiling.
A screaming voice burst out of the scarlet envelope, and Lily immediately understood why Eva and Amanda had stuffed their fingers in their ears. Ringing in her own was a voice she remembered from her first visit to Diagon Alley and last Christmas. Sheila. And, from the sound of things, she wasn't too happy.

Evans, you and me are taking this one outside. You've ruined practically all–

Lily had had enough. Whipping out her wand, she pointed it at the Howler.
"Percuquo!"
The whole of the Great Hall watched in astonishment as burning remnants of the Howler fell onto the floor and the voice faded away. Lily shot a triumphant glance over to the Ravenclaw table and slipped back into her seat, under the scrutiny of the whole school.
She was the first to leave the Hall after breakfast, thinking to herself that if she hated this attention, she'd hate even more being a sort of political ruler.
Quiet and withdrawn, she dressed for the Quidditch game (Gryffindor against Slytherin) afterwards, purposely pulling out the dark green cloak trimmed with black that she'd worn last winter for the snowball fight. It would come in handy, too, she thought, as there was a strong wind blowing outside. Stepping out of the dormitory and ignoring the amazed stares of the scarlet-clad Gryffindors, she met Severus down in the entrance hall, quite as planned.

"Lily! Well, there's no doubt who you're rooting for. You're honestly willing to go through with this?"
"I'm wearing a cloak. So what?"
"So…you're going against your House."
"If that's the way that works, I'd be going against them all the time unless I changed my eye color. I'm wearing the warmest thing I have, and I'm going to need it. Are we going?"
"Sure. Slytherin team's already in the locker room. Come on."
They set off across the grounds. But halfway to the Quidditch stadium, they were pulled up short by an explosion of magenta and blue sparks in front of them.
A voice echoed across the grounds, obviously not too happy.
"Snape, you can go. I need a word with Evans."
Sheila came walking across the lawn, taking her precious time.
"Evans, what did you do that for?"
"Do what? Put out your Howler? I didn't want to get my eardrums blasted out. I thought that was obvious."
"No. You know very well what I mean. It has to do with James and Sikora."
"Oh–getting them together? You have my word that I regret that as much as I regret ever being his friend."
Sheila's eyes narrowed, and Lily fully expected her to sprout a forked tongue and start slithering on the ground. "Do you know how much that hurt me?"
"To be honest, no."
"I need to speak to you. Alone." She eyes Serverus meaningly, and Lily sighed, but nodded.
"Serverus, that was a hint. I'll see you at the Quidditch match." She set off with Sheila towards the Forbidden Forest.
"Well? What did I do this time?"
"You don't know, do you?"
"No. I wish I didn't have to find out, either."
"Well, you're going to. Did you know, before you came into the picture, James and I were totally happy?"
"No."
"Well, now you do. That even continued up to the beginning of second year. Then something else happened."
"Let me guess. Serena?"
"He never showed any interest in her. Never. Even though she tried; I could see that. Then she started picking fights with you, and he immediately rallied to her."
"Oh, good."
"Oh, good what?"
"Finally, someone who doesn't believe that I beat the insides out of her."
"Of course you didn't. You have more sense than that."
"Erm–thank you?"
"Hum. Still, he was still normal around me, and then he begged you to do something. Probably find out what she thought about him."
"For someone who can't come inside our common room, your guesses are pretty darn good."
"I'm a jealous woman. We're usually right. But, anyway, when he got her answer, the first thing he did was come right to me. Three guesses as to what he said."
"You're not wanted any longer, go away and be happy that at one point in time you were favored by the Ultimate Conqueror?"
Sheila was stunned. "You're good. Did you hear him say that?"
"No. I guessed. I know him, and that's the kind of thing he'd say."
"Well, that about sums his speech up. It was really mean, and the last thing he was was gentle."
"I can imagine."