Disclaimer: I'm the great owner of Harry Potter!!! *evil laugh* and, unfortunately, I'm also a big liar.

A/N: Thanks for bothering to read.

Chapter 4

The feast was over, and the prefects were ushering their houses to their respective dormitories. At least, they were trying to. The hall was chaotic, as students kept shrieking and giggling at the sight of their much changed friends. Lily stood watching as a group of girls group-hugged and cried as if they hadn't seen each other for years. She would feel awkward if she were one of them, she thought.

A swarm of chattering and giggling girls were approaching her way. She noticed that two of them were the girls from the train earlier, Olivia and Courtney. And she also noticed that they kept throwing mocking glances at her before exchanging knowing looks with each other. They were at it since she returned from Dumbledore's office, and Lily was starting to get irritated.

As the girls eddied around her, Courtney bumped Lily on the shoulder, hard. Then, sneering, she turned to face Lily.

"Hey, watch it!" She looked at Lily from head to foot, like she was something unpleasant she had just stepped on. "You're new, aren't you?"

The Queen of Hogwarts, aren't we, Lily thought. She kept her cool, though, deciding to play along. It would be entertaining to see where this was going.

"Yes, I'm new," Lily replied coolly. "And you ask because…?"

"Oh, no reason, no reason at all. Just thought it would be nice to warn you to get out of my way if you don't want me to make you're life a living hell."  The other girl, Olivia, snickered loudly—that set Lily's blood boiling.

 "Then perhaps I should return the favor and warn you to leave me alone if you want to live at all." With that, Lily gave her a chilling stare and left her wondering about what she just said.

How dare they?! How dare they judge her when she hadn't even said a single world to them yet?! Inside she was fuming, raging at such pathetic display of immaturity.  She headed out with the other Gryffindors, who seemed to be oblivious to what just happened. Just as well, she said to herself, she already attracted enough attention as it is.

Her anger slowly ebbed away as they walk on the corridor. At the back of her mind, she knew shouldn't have threatened her like that—it could have given her away. Besides, there was no truth in it. She never killed if she didn't have to. That is, if Voldemort didn't order her to.

"Hungarian Horntail."

Lily was snapped out of her thoughts as the prefect announced the password. She wondered why they were stopping in front of a portrait of a fat lady, then she realized that this must be a hidden passage way. True enough, the portrait swung open to reveal a door, and all first years oohed and ahhed as they enetered.

The first words that came into her mind when she saw the room, were 'warm' and 'cozy'. It seemed comfortable enough, with the fire crackling merrily. Instinctively, she scanned the room with narrowed eyes. There was a niche just beside the window, almost hidden.  There was a chair and a coffee table big enough for one. It was perfect for her. However, she had to check it later, as all the ladies are already being led to their dormitories.

***

Lily was lying on her bed, which was the nearest to the window. She has been staring at the darkness above her for about a few hours now. Obviously, sleep wasn't coming to her tonight. She turned her head towards the crescent moon. This would be a perfect night to kill. Dark, so she wouldn't be seen prowling on the streets. But it was bright enough to let her see what she's doing.

She shook her head. For the enth time, she wondered how her life's going to change now that she's in Hogwarts. She grew up learning nothing but the wonders of the Dark Arts. Voldemort himself drilled her on the Unforgivable curses when she was only ten. She learned how to kill when she was eleven. But every night since then she was haunted by nightmares that mostly consisted of her victims' eyes. In the morning, she couldn't look at herself in the mirror, for fear of what she may see. She was a stained thing, stained by the blood of the innocent lives she took. Yeah, it was a living, breathing hell, alright.

But it was still her life, and now it was taken away from her. She's in an unfamiliar environment, one that is ruled by the person she was fighting against. She's lost. No wonder she couldn't sleep.

Making up her mind, she sat up and quietly got off her bed. It was dark, but that didn't hinder Lily as she headed for the door. This would be the best time to check out her niche.

Still very quietly, she padded across the stillness of the common room. The fire was already out, and it was very cold and dark. But then again, when did cold and dark ever bother an assassin? So she sat there, surrounded in darkness.

She tried not to think about her last assignment. She tried to push it out of her mind. Heck, she even considered putting the oblivion spell on herself. 'Cause with out doubt, that was the shittiest assignment she'd had in her whole life. She knew it was useless to mull over it, but she also knew it was stupid to not think about it. Gods, she just killed her family, of course she would think about it.

Slowly, she forgot her surroundings as their cries echoed in the silence. She would never forget the look on their faces that night. The shock at seeing her again, the wistful and reluctant happiness in her mother's face, then the mortification as she delivered them to their deaths. But one thing she would never ever forget is the look on her little sister Rose's eyes. It was innocent, ignorant, and full of life. But she had to end that life. After killing her, she knew she could never kill Petunia. They were so close once, and she was the only one who cried when their parents kicked Lily out of the house—

Lily snapped out of her thoughts as she felt another presence in the room. Then there were shuffling of feet and whispering, and four boys came bounding into the common room. They lit a lamp, and the darkness immediately vanished. Lily could see the four boys properly now—James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Thankfully, she wasn't easily seen in her place.

James was holding a piece of parchment, and he had a bright look in his eyes. The others looked sleepy and highly annoyed.

"James, you better have a good reason for waking us up in the middle of the night," Sirius growled. Others mumbled their agreement.

"Oh, don't worry, Padfoot, I have the perfect reason for this meeting. And I'm sure you'll like it."

"Pray tell," was the flat reply. At this, James started to talk animatedly.

"Well, you all seen Lily Evans, right?"

"Evans? Don't know her," Sirius said, with a huge yawn.

"No, idiot, she's the girl from the train! She's new."

"Yeah, I remember her. She's weird," Peter said.

"Exactly! Not only that, she's the perfect target for the next prank." At once Sirius and Peter looked interested.

"Now you're talking. It's just right to give her a …warm welcome, don't you think so, Wormtail?"

"Yeah! James is always such a genius."

"So it's settled then," James said. "We're gonna do it tomorrow evening, so you better hurry up with the Dung bombs, Si—"

"Why don't you ask me what I think, James?" Remus cut in quietly. He gave James a hard look.

"What do you mean, Remus?"

"What I mean is that I think it's a stupid idea."

"C'mon, Moony, it's perf—"

"Lily is my friend, and I'm not doing this. James, this is cruel. Yes, she's…different, but so am I, and I don't see you doing pranks on me."

They all stared at him.

"Look, why don't you guys give Lily a chance first? You still don't know her, and for all we know, she might be cool." He looked at their faces. James snorted.

"Really! I'm serious. Please, James."

"Lupin, do you by any chance, have a crush on Miss Evans?"

"What? No—"

"And are you, by any chance, blushing?"

"I'm not, now cut it out, ok? And I don't have a crush on Lily. I just thought it would be human of me to give her the chance you guys once gave me!"

The room rang with silence. At the back, Lily wondered what he exactly meant by that. Chance? Well, she could see James relenting.

"Fine, let's give Lily a chance." James said grudgingly.

"Yeah, and besides, what choice do we have? Lupin here isn't going to do it, and we agreed to agree before doing a prank," Sirius said.

"I'm glad you realized that," Remus said somewhat smugly. "Now we better turn in. I'm sleepy."

Darkness once again ensued as they put out their lamp. Lily could still here them mumbling and bickering, but their voices were fading away already.

As she's told herself, this was a strange environment, so she figured she shouldn't expect much maturity from students here. Perhaps this was how the world of adolescents ran; the strong will survive while the weak shall perish. Well, at least it wasn't that far off from the world she grew up in—survival of the fittest, as they goddam say.

James Potter. It'd be best to avoid him and his crowd. 'Cause she just didn't trust herself around spoiled brats. Well maybe not Remus, but she still wouldn't take chances.

And what did Remus mean about James once giving him a chance? But that would have to be dealt with later. Right now she had enough things in her mind.

So she's weird, huh? Well, they don't know just how. She smiled to herself and went to bed.

***

A/N: hehe…. I know there are a lot of grammatical mistakes. Not exactly know, but I can feel it. Sorry it took me so long to update. I'm extremely busy. Please review.