Atop the Popularity Scale

By Dimantrien

Chapter 4: Friends?

The Astronomy Tower was the perfect place for staring at the skies all night, and was usually left alone by students who dreaded memorizing differences in the light-year distances between planets, which consisted of pretty much the whole of the student body.

It was for this reason that all couples in Hogwarts have at one point used it as a make-out place, especially when it was a full moon. At one such day, however, this wasn't the case.

Lily was huddled in a corner of the tower. For the past hour, she had calmed down long enough to stop crying. The wind that flew into the open-windowed tower seemed like it was sharing her sorrow; it was whistling in a depressing sort of way and droplets of the slight drizzle outside were blown into the room.

She stood up and looked out at the setting sun. She had missed a Transfiguration class, and she knew that she would get more than a reprimand for it from McGonagall tomorrow. But she didn't care. Her only concern was how Sirius and his other friends could possibly twist even that against her and her already ruined image.

She checked her watch and stared at the entrance to the room. In less than an hour she should be going to the Great Hall now, but she wasn't in the mood to have another round of people laughing to her face tonight. Slipping down the stairs quietly, she decided to go to the common room while everyone else was still stuck in class to avoid being mocked some more, and maybe she could just turn in earlier than usual.

Lily was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize where her feet were taking her until she looked up and saw that she was in a wide, brightly lit hall that she wasn't familiar with. Paintings of food lined the walls. She was sure that she had never been to this part of the castle before.

While she was staring longingly at a painting of a Thanksgiving feast to her left, a cold windy thing passed at her right. She looked up and saw Peeves the school poltergeist.

"Well, well, well. Already tired of the lessons your dear teachers have worked so hard over to teach you, Evans?" he said wickedly, grinning in an eerie sort of way.

"N-no, Peeves. I just went to the girls' bathroom and got lost on the way back," Lily lied quickly. "Um, if you could just tell me how to get back—"

"Oh, don't worry. You don't have to lie to me. I promise not to tell any of the professors about your playing hooky. Scout's honor." Peeves put up his right hand in mock-pledge, pretending (without much success) to look solemn.

"Please, Peeves, don't call anybody…please—"

"ATTENTION TEACHERS! LILY EVANS IS SKIPPING CLASS! SHE CONFESSED HER RULE-BREAKING UNKNOWINGLY, AND IS PREPARED TO FACE WHATEVER HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCE THAT HER HEAD OF HOUSE IS WILLING TO GIVE—"

"Shut up, Peeves!" Lily hissed, hearing Peeves' voice reverberating through the whole hall. Peeves ignored her and glided away, shouting at the top of his lungs.

Panicking, Lily ran in the opposite direction. She heard footsteps from where Peeves had gone and looked back, but no one had seen her yet. She collided into a painting of a bowl of fruit and slipped on the newly waxed floor.

Getting up with stars in front of her eyes, she reached up a hand at the large painting to right herself. Her fingers slid over the pear in the painting and she could feel it turning into a green doorknob. It was the perfect time for a secret passage, so without hesitance she wrenched the hidden door open and dived into the room, as the footsteps following her seemed nearer.

She got up and found herself staring at the most peculiar-looking creatures she had ever encountered in the wizarding world.

"Yes? What is Miss doing here at this time, at this time? Isn't yous supposed to be in class, Miss?" one of the weird creatures squeaked in a high-pitched voice.

"Er—" Lily started to say, but the footsteps outside were getting louder and heavier by the second. "I can't explain right now! Just—hide me! Please!" A moment later several of the creatures were pushing her into a cabinet and shutting the door. She looked around at the dim space and saw that she was surrounded by all forms of bread that were neatly stacked on shelves. The cabinet was magically expanded, so she hid in a corner, behind a particularly gigantic basket brimming with French bread.

There were muffled voices outside, including that of the creature who had given her an unusual greeting at the door. A human voice—an adult's, more specifically—was speaking angrily. A few minutes later the yelling died down and Lily figured that the adult had left. A stream of light pierced the darkness in the cabinet and a creature stepped inside.

"Miss…the caretaker has left now, miss… Dipelfis thinks miss can be comings outs now." Lily sighed in relief and stepped out. The smell of bread still clung to her.

"Thanks. I really owe you one," she told "Dipelfis" gratefully. Then she looked around, realizing that she was actually in an extremely large chamber with hundreds of stoves and five long tables all in it. Four tables were positioned just like the House tables in the Great Hall, while the other table was in the same position as the High Table. This must be the kitchen.

Lily's stomach rumbled and she checked her watch. "Seven already…hey, do you guys mind giving me some food? I don't think I can go to the Great Hall now…"

A few of the creatures eagerly pushed a small table and a chair out of a corner of the room, and laid all sorts of food on it. All the others were piling food onto the long tables, which disappeared and must have been transported to the real House tables.

Another creature pushed her onto the chair and when everything was done, they all looked at her expectantly.

"Er…thanks," Lily said. The creatures all looked pleased and just watched her.

"Uh, I mean, I don't mean to be rude but…what are you?" she asked uncomfortably.

"We is house elves, miss," squeaked Dipelfis. "It is our jobs to keeps the Hogwarts Castle clean and neat, and to cooks for the students and teachers' foods, miss."

"Oh." Lily picked up her spoon and fork. She had barely done so when one of the house elves took a bowl of roast beef and put a serving on her plate.

"Thanks," she said, smiling at the elf. The elf just bowed low and went back to the line of others who were eagerly watching Lily.

Lily enjoyed eating in the kitchen; there were no students here who could bother her or make fun of her, only industrious house elves who attended to her every request. She was a bit uneasy when she was eating and they were all just staring at her. She wasn't used to people—er, creatures looking at her all throughout a meal. But they were there, waiting for her to ask for something so that they could accomplish it.

"Well, thanks again," Lily said brightly to the house elves when she was back outside the kitchens. The "door" was wide open and the house elves were all beaming at her from inside. "You guys are really nice. You won't tell anybody that I skipped class, would you?"

"No, miss. If that is miss' wish, then we will keep our silence for her," some house elves chorused.

"But what if the Headmaster asks you about it?" she asked. By now she knew a lot about house elves and their lifestyle.

Dipelfis, the door elf, scratched the back of his neck. "We cannot disobeys our master," he confessed to Lily. "But we shall say so only when he comes and asks. We respects miss' secret, miss, and we hopes miss will not be mad if our master comes to question us."

"If that's the way it has to be, then go ahead," Lily assured. "I just feel a little guilty, though, asking you to do something for me when I owe you so much."

The house elves all looked shocked, but Lily figured this was because they said they were never treated like equals by wizards. She couldn't see why people degraded them. They were so nice. "We-we thanks miss for her kindness," Dipelfis stammered. "If miss wishes, she can go to the kitchens when she wants."

"Really?" Lily said. "I'll find some way to give back what I owe you." The house elves all bowed again, and she closed the door.

She headed back to the Gryffindor Tower. It was completely deserted, to Lily's relief, and she went up to the dormitory.

***** 

Lily knew that the next day, she couldn't hide anymore. But she wasn't going to let everybody push her around again. She was going to give James and Sirius a piece of her mind.

Waking up far earlier than the others, she prepared for school. She then went down to the common room. Just when she was going down the stairs, she heard voices.

"Sirius, you should say sorry," Lily recognized the voice of Remus.

"Why should I? I was simply stating—er, singing the truth!" Sirius' voice exclaimed.

"But you hurt her feelings, Sirius. She didn't even come back to Transfiguration yesterday! She wasn't in the Great Hall at dinner either." Lily was surprised to hear that it was James talking.

"Me? What about you? You were probably the one who laughed the hardest."

"Next to you. I only laughed harder than you because your mouth's too tied up with singing insults at innocent people. But fine, if you think you're too popular to say sorry to Lily, then I'll do it myself. Just don't blame me when she stays mad at you."

"No James, he has to apologize. He was the one who directly hurt Lily. It won't be enough if it's only us who do it," said Remus reasonably.

"I'm not going to apologize! No way in hell!"

James sighed. "Sirius, stop acting like a child—"

"But I am a child!"

"No, you're childish. Grow up," James said.

"Duh, like I don't grow older everyday," retorted Sirius.

Remus shook his head. "Sirius…"

"You're being a prat," James finished.

"OI!"

"But it's true," Remus agreed with James. "Come on, all you have to do is say 'I'm sorry.' Is that too much to ask?"

"Jeez! You sure make me sound like a major jerk, don't you?! You know what I think?"

"What?" both James and Remus said in unison.

"I'll do it."

*****

"You will?" James asked, amazed.

"Whatever. Just don't call me a prat! Come on, let's go to the Great Hall and eat. I'm beyond hungry."

"You're always hungry," Remus commented.

"Damn straight. You should know that well by now. Besides, I have a reason of being hungry. It's time for breakfast."

"Which breakfast? The one at seven AM, the one at seven thirty, or the one at quarter past eight?" James asked sarcastically.

"James. You are eleven years old, and you don't know how to read time? You should be ashamed of yourself," Sirius replied in a pretend shocked voice.

James rolled his eyes. "I was merely stating the fact that you have three breakfasts a day, and you have just added another one to the list by scheduling a quarter to seven into your meal agenda."

"Are we going to eat breakfast or not?" Remus interrupted, breaking their bicker session. "Not that I'm particularly hungry, but since you were the ones who made the suggestion…"

"Sirius made the suggestion," James corrected, and sauntered over to the portrait hole. "Let's go."

"Since when do you give in to Sirius' hunger-caused orders?" Remus asked him. For all the days he had known James, he seldom agreed with Sirius about something or other and they argued all the time. But they still considered themselves friends.

"Since I found out that it's pointless to hinder the bottomless pit from his various feeding times," James said matter-of-factly. The three boys' voices became gradually softer and more distant as they left.

***** 

When it was safe to come out, Lily entered the common room and flopped onto an armchair by the fire. Well, no use going to the Great Hall now. Without somebody accompanying her, she would probably be the marauders' first victim of a new prank. Then again, she wondered if having a person walking beside her would stop them from getting on with their practical jokes…

She just couldn't believe what she heard. Sirius Black, the most popular first year boy in school, agreeing to apologize to her? And she thought all kids who had fame in their heads were too full of pride to bow in a duel. It would be nice to finally get the apologies she deserved from certain people.

Of course, sorry wouldn't be enough.

Lily's mouth stretched into a wide grin. After yesterday, she couldn't lose again. She would think of something—even breaking the rules, yes—that would make the marauders regret that they had ever messed with her. Something that would always pop into their minds whenever they thought of making another prank on Lily. Something that would keep them from bugging her until the rest of the school year.

Other students started pouring into the common room, and thankfully, none of them took much notice to Lily, nor were reminded of yesterday's public spectacle. She needed to go somewhere else to formulate a plan.

"Hey, you. Where were you yesterday? I heard Peeves shouting something about playing hooky…" Chase said from behind her.

Lily was startled. "Oh, good morning," she greeted, slightly hesitant if this girl was going to act nice to her throughout or if she was just playing an act that she could turn later into a mocking session. The former stood much more apparent than the latter. "I…just wasn't feeling well, so I went to the hospital wing. I came out a few minutes earlier than the end of class but I got lost, and I found that boisterous poltergeist gliding out of nowhere," she lied. Wait, when did she start lying to people? She never did that.

"Really…" Chase looked like she didn't believe a word of what Lily said, but she didn't comment on it, to Lily's relief. Lily supposed it was because she never really was a good liar. "Do you want to go downstairs and eat?" she asked finally.

"Sure," Lily said, happy that now she had at least one person who wasn't embarrassed of being seen with her in public. "I mean, if that's OK with you…"

Chase smirked. "Silly, why would I invite you if I didn't want you to come with me? Come on, we have to get to class early anyway, our Potions teacher is the most vindictive we have so far. He'd probably bite my head off again like last time if I was late even just a single second…"

The two chatted for a while as they walked to the Great Hall. Chase did most of the talking, but in a way that didn't make Lily feel like she was a chatterbox. Lily was mostly the listener because she had a feeling that if she said something wrong, Chase would think she was lame and go on her merry way without Lily to find better, more articulate friends.

"Why are you always so quiet?" Chase voiced the question out loud when Lily didn't realize she had stopped giving a blow-by-blow account of how she purposefully flung a dragon liver at one of the Slytherins that caused him to knock over a cauldronful of a sleeping draught. The whole of it had spilled onto their professor's head, causing him to fall into a deep stupor that ended the class an hour early.

"What? Oh, I just don't like talking very much," Lily said quietly.

"Don't like talking, huh? Then I guess I bored you with my mindless chatter all the way here."

Lily shook her head. "No, not really. I just…I have a lot of things on my mind."

Chase was silent for a moment. "Thinking of a way to get revenge on those creeps?" she guessed.

Lily stopped in her tracks, goggling at Chase. "How did you know?" she asked, amazed and having a sneaking suspicion that the girl could read minds.

Chase laughed. "You just look all serious, like you were plotting someone's murder or something. And I figured that the only people you would like to plan homicide on would be them," she answered, gesturing across the Great Hall, where the marauders were gobbling up on bacon and eggs.

"Am I that predictable?" Lily asked, smiling slightly.

"Hmmm…let me think, yes, you are," Chase deadpanned. "But don't give it away or they'll notice. You have to know when to act neutral. It's like poker. Bluffing is key."

"You must know a lot about being neutral," said Lily offhandedly, noticing that some people were starting to look at them and whispering.

Chase followed her line of vision and rolled her eyes at the people watching. "Why don't you go buy a life? Find something else to do other than gossiping about innocent people who haven't done anything wrong," she snapped at a particularly interested Hufflepuff boy. The Hufflepuff immediately returned to chewing his pancakes.

"Thanks," Lily said. She was really starting to like this girl.

"Don't mention it," Chase said carelessly. "People today are so superficial. Unless you show a mask and stay indifferent of whatever they think of you, you'll turn into a basket case." They reached the Gryffindor table. Chase sat down three chairs away from Sirius Black.

"Ei Chse," Sirius said through a mouthful of eggs. "Whffs fp?"

"In English, please. I'm not a Martian," Chase replied, serving herself with the plate of bacon that was almost empty after Sirius was through with it.

Sirius swallowed. "Never mind," he said, noticing how Chase wasn't going to get along with him in good terms, not with Lily beside her, completely ignoring Sirius.

Lily saw Remus nudge Sirius with his elbow and knew what was going on.

"Just say it, Sirius, you insensitive git," James hissed at him, avoiding Lily's eyes.

"Why me first? I'll follow you guys. Come on…"

"Why you first? Because you were the one who did most of the insulting, stupid. Now if you don't apologize, I'll hex your hair—"

"Nooooo, not my beautiful hair," moaned Sirius. "OK, OK, I'll do it…just don't touch my ha—"

"Stop acting all dramatic," James said, rolling his eyes.

Sirius stood up and went over to Lily, who looked like she was trying to hold in laughter. Sirius looked like he was more willing to pee in his pants than ask for forgiveness from her. Chase, who was watching, was smirking. She averted her eyes from Lily's, fearing that once she made eye contact, both of them would burst out laughing. Which was always true, in these cases.

"L-lily, I-er- I—"

"You were saying something, Sirius?" Lily asked in a taunting tone, looking amused.

"Um…it's just that…I mean, I can say this is rather…er, compulsory…"

"Amazing. He actually knows what compulsory means," Chase muttered to Lily, who couldn't help it and cracked a smile.

"And…don't get any—uh…anyway, I just…" Sirius continued stuttering.

James threw up his hands and looked skyward. "Oh, for the love of—Sirius, stop acting like a retard."

"He probably is one," Chase said in a bored voice, waiting for Sirius to spit out an apology.

"Well, I… er, Lily, I just want to-to say…that I—I'm s-s-s-so-rry," Sirius finally said, looking pleased with himself. Chase caught Lily's eye. Lily understood.

"Hmmm, what did you say, Sirius? I didn't quite catch that last part…" Lily teased, almost giving in to the wickedness of Laughter and giggling.

"Noooooo….don't make me—say it again—"

By then, a lot of people had started listening in, trying to see what was going on.

"Come on, Sirius, act like a man," Chase said, smirking still.

"FINE! I'll shout it if I have to! LILY EVANS, I'M SORRY!!!"

Spectators were shocked. A few girls who had a crush on Sirius were open-mouthed, and some were merely bewildered. Others were starting to whisper like what they did when they saw Chase with Lily. The hissing and murmuring spread around them like wildfire. Sirius was beet red with embarrassment.

"Did you hear that? Sirius Black, apologizing to the geek…"

"Impossible…My ears, I couldn't have—"

"Man, I never thought he'd actually do that. I mean, look at her! Nobody would want to apologize to a nerd like that…"

"Maybe his friends made a bet that if he could do it—"

"This is the most unbelievable thing I've ever witnessed…"

Lily heard all of it, but wasn't willing to give in to it now. She remembered what Chase had said. "Unless you show a mask and stay indifferent of whatever they think of you, you'll turn into a basket case." Somehow, it made her feel better.

And somehow she knew that Chase Tarlise was going to be her friend. After all, she had proved to be one in more than one case already.

Things were finally looking up.

***** 

AN – Oh no…I'm late again, aren't I? I still have a dumb fable to write, and I don't want to waste my holidays for a school project. I hope nobody forgot about this story just yet, though I don't blame you if you do. Then again, if you're reading this right now, then you remembered. I'm so happy! You actually did! Anyway, this chapter wasn't focused on Lily's revenge because she had to develop a friendship with at least one person…and Chase was the only one who seemed suitable to the role since she's so indifferent of how the rumor mill works. Next chap (which will probably be in after I update my two other stories) I'll start with getting even. It's crazy of me to do three stories at once! I guess I really am a lunatic…oh yeah, and review. I'll be needing it to keep sane.