Atop the Popularity Scale
By Dimantrien
AN – Thanks to those who reviewed and…to the anonymous person who didn't write a name on his/her review…it's still not finished…(says to self, "Well duh it isn't, Dimantrien…"-_-) Forgive my insanity. That is all.
Chapter 2: A Waking Nightmare
~~~MeMoRy SeQuEnCe (and will probably be until the end of this story)~~~
The first day of classes, Lily knew, was always the worst. It was proven when she woke up super-early because of a damned bloody git of a poltergeist that flew into their dormitory and pelted her with small balls of parchment dipped in a liquid substance that stinked horribly. Then she was forced to take an extra-long shower at the break of a freezing-weather dawn to get rid of the smell, left only with two more hours of sleep (and awarded with a brand new cold to boot). As if that wasn't enough, she slept late and was drenched by a bucket of ice-cold water by Chase Tarlise, which worsened her cold. Chase must have apologized ten times to Lily, saying that she wouldn't wake up any other way, and Lily, grumpy though she was at the state of being woken up that way, couldn't help but think that being thrown with water in the middle of bed was certainly a better option than being late for her first ever class. But that didn't stop her from feeling cantankerous.
First class was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall gave her a lecture on punctuality and promptness in front of the whole class that humiliated her to no end. When she was sent to her seat, she dropped down on it feeling worse than ever, and it collapsed. More laughter rang through the classroom as—her face burning with embarrassment—she picked herself up.
"Off to a bad start, Miss Evans?" Sirius Black said in a fake-Professor McGonagall tone, sniggering.
James Potter, who appeared to have developed a friendship with him overnight, grinned amusedly too. "Gee, I wonder how much you weigh, Evans. You must be really heavy for that chair to collapse so fast," he tried to say with a straight face but failing miserably.
Lily gave them her best death glare, which, as luck would have it, only made them laugh more. Celeste Schoharie was throwing her a patronizing look. Chase Tarlise rolled her eyes at James and Sirius and went back to the sketch she was drawing.
"This is not a laughing matter, students!" Professor McGonagall called to the class, but she couldn't suppress a chuckle as she did so. "Now, will whoever brilliant student who dared play a trick on Miss Evans please admit it right now."
James raised his hand and waved it in the air. "I did it, Professor!" he shouted to the class. Not a trace of guilt or conviction was in his voice.
"And I bet you thought it was highly amusing, didn't you," Lily told him scathingly.
James gave her a blank look, just for the act. "Why, Lily dear, I thought you were smarter than that. Of course I didn't do that purely out of spite, everything has a reason you know."
"And what reason do you have for ruining my day on the first day of school?!" Lily said angrily.
"Why, for entertainment, what else?" James answered matter-of-factly in a smug tone. Lily shook with rage and started to retort when McGonagall stepped in.
"That is enough, Potter. You'll get a detention for your credit. Miss Evans, you may sit down."
"Sit down where?"
"On this chair." Professor McGonagall conjured one from thin air, and Lily willingly sat on it.
That left Lily with unvented fury until the end of the class. There was one thing in her mind that very moment.
She hated James Potter. And she always would. She would swear it until the day she would stand at his grave, laughing. She would show him—and everybody else—that there was more to Lily Evans than a geeky, bookworm boring personality.
*****
"Are you OK, Lily?" Chase asked in concern. They were currently sitting in their next class, which happened to be Herbology with the Ravenclaws.
"Fine," Lily said sourly, staring daggers at James Potter, who smirked back. It annoyed her to no end.
"Ookay," Chase answered sarcastically. "Anyway, as I was saying since you were too busy concentrating on attempting to kill James Potter with those glares you keep throwing at him, Sprout just wants us to plant these tiny little boring seed things that are shaped like cubes."
"What? Oh, OK," Lily replied distractedly.
"Partners, everyone!" Professor Sprout called out. "I'll call them out. Boot, you go with Miss Raine. Pettigrew and Moon. Miss Schoharie and Kimball…"
"Next, Miss Evans and…let's see…" Please pair me with Chase, please oh please don't pair me with—"Potter."
"NO!" Lily instantly said loudly.
Professor Sprout looked startled. "Well. Miss Evans, I do believe that I am the teacher in this class and not you. You don't have to worry about Potter, he's not going to eat you or anything…" she chuckled at her own joke as she continued calling the names.
It's a better option than working with him, she thought darkly, starting to walk toward James in a sulky manner.
"We meet again, Lovely Lily!" James said brightly. There was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.
"Oh, shut the bloody hell up, Potter," Lily mumbled, grabbing a handful of seeds and throwing them into a pot. She reached for a sprinkler and was just about to water the seeds when—
"Uh, Lily, I don't think you should do that…" James said uncertainly.
"What? Is this another one of your jokes? Do you take me for some fool, Potter? I'm not thick enough to believe anything that you say," she shot back at him, tilting the sprinkler and letting water fall onto the plants. Nothing happened.
"See?" she said triumphantly, turning away from the plant. But James was already ten paces away, over at Remus' and Sirius' table, whispering something to them. "I told you s—"
Suddenly a jet of water hit her on the back, sending her flying forward and falling to the ground. Spitting out soil, she tried to stand up, only to be hit by another gush of liquid. She stood up quickly before another water attack could hit her. To her horror, half the class was already laughing and pointing at her while the other half was throwing her pitiful and sympathetic looks. Sirius and James were laughing the hardest.
"Don't say I didn't warn you!" James gasped between sniggers.
She felt the pressure of water on her back again and tripped. She held out her hands to break the fall, and she felt pain on her palms. She had thrown herself right into a thorny bush of some kind.
There was a voice behind her. "Impervius!" She recognized it as Chase's, and when she looked back, the water continued to attack her but she seemed to be repelling it. She was still wet, but at least there wasn't any more damage.
"C'mon, Lily, I'll take you to the hospital wing," she muttered. Lily's eyes suddenly stung as the sharp pain in her bleeding palms came back. They were starting to feel a little numb, lessening the pain. Great. Just what she needed. A thorny plant that had numbing poison.
She felt the tears threatening to fall as the class continued to laugh. Two public spectacles in one day—how bad were things going to get? She saw Chase glower at James, who immediately stopped laughing.
What would she do without Chase? She was always there for her when everybody else wasn't, and she wasn't even her friend—yet. Why would such a popular and confident girl like her waste her time on a geek like Lily?
Chase and Lily entered the hospital wing. While Madame Pomfrey mended her wounds, Chase excused herself and went back to Greenhouse 1.
*****
When she got back out of the hospital wing, it was already lunchtime. She dreaded going into the Great Hall, knowing that word would have probably spread like wildfire about her "acts." She thought of skipping lunch and just going back to Gryffindor Tower.
"Lily!"
Lily rammed her eyes shut. Oh no, not him…
"Hey Lily! Lily Evans!"
Lily didn't turn around and started heading for the Hall. "Just leave me alone…" she muttered, almost to herself.
She felt something heavy on her shoulder and looked up. It was Sirius Black.
"Oh, it's just you," she said, trying to cover up her relief with a detached expression.
Sirius looked slightly surprised. "'Course it's me—why? Were you expecting someone else?" he asked, flashing her a sly grin.
Lily turned beet red. "N-no. Why were you calling me anyway?"
"Oh yeah, that. Celeste told me that Chase told her from Remus whose message was passed on from Peter that you go to the Gryffindor Tower ASAP, and since all the lazy people I just mentioned are currently too busy pigging out in the Great Hall, they told me to be the one to tell you, as told to me by Celeste who was doing a favor for Chase who got the message from Remus who heard it from Peter—"
"Sirius!" Lily said exasperatedly.
"What?" said Sirius innocently.
"From which person did the message actually come from?"
"Well, I don't really know, since Celeste told me that Chase said that Rem—"
"Sirius!!!"
"What?!" Sirius said, annoyed.
"Shut up!"
"Oh. Fine. Just go to Gryffindor Tower, OK? All this explanations about message-passing made me really hungry. Ciao!" Sirius bounced back into the Great Hall.
Lily sighed. She certainly didn't know who Peter whatzisname was, but he must be a Gryffindor then. But why did he, whoever he was, pick lunchtime to be the time for this impromptu rendezvous? Didn't he have the same way of thinking as all eleven-year-old boys, where meals were practically the most essential parts of their life?
When she got back to the common room, it was deserted. She rolled her eyes and had half a mind to go back to the Hall, when she heard a set of footsteps thundering down a staircase.
"There you are! I've told Peter to look for you! I was wondering if he got stuck in the spiral fourth floor staircase again, he always gets himself lost…"
Lily turned around and realized that it was James Potter who was talking behind her. She gave him the most withering glare she could muster and started to stalk back out of the portrait hole.
"Wait! I have to talk to you!" he cried, running after her.
"Leave me alone! Why don't you just run off and ruin somebody else's day? Haven't you done enough already?!" she yelled.
"Come on, Lily…I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
Lily stopped short. She hadn't expected that.
"See, it's just my and Sirius' nature to play pranks on people. But I'm really sorry that we got off on the wrong foot, and I admit that it's my fault. I promise never to do it again, since I know that it really upsets you badly. I just thought that you would find them funny."
"Well, maybe you should think first and consider a person's feelings before pulling a prank at them," she retorted.
"If I did that, then none of the Slytherins would have a dose of their deserved medicine," James protested.
Lily's mouth curved into a small smile. "And what medicine is that?"
"Well, lots! Like, pastel-colored hair, toads invading their common room, rigging their brooms during flying class…"
Lily laughed. "OK, I forgive you."
James extended his hand. "Good! Friends?"
Lily took the hand and started to shake it. Hers turned green, and the nails became dark blue. "JAMES POTTER!!!"
James darted off with Lily chasing after him. "Sorry, sorry, couldn't help it!" he shouted.
He went around a corner and Lily followed, but when she got there he disappeared. There were no sounds of footsteps on the stone floor. Where did he go?
Sighing, Lily took out her wand and fixed her hand using a spell that she read from her Charms book the other day. "Boys," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
AN – Six words: JUST CLICK THE DAMNED GO BUTTON!!!