Chapter 17: A Lazy Saturday

The next day, Lily arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast after Alice and Amelia, having run to the Owlery to send a letter off to her parents and Petunia before making her way down there. As she walked through the entrance, Lily glanced over at the Slytherin table and caught a glimpse of Snape, who was sitting beside Bellatrix. Across from him were LeStrange and Avery, another first year Slytherin that made Lily's skin crawl. She sighed, trying to reconcile the two images of Snape that she held in her mind. One was of Snape, laughing at Black and Potter after he'd thrown a poisonous snake in their direction. In that image, it seemed that what the Marauders said about him was true. That he was into the dark arts, that he believed that any who weren't pure-blood didn't deserve to study magic, and that he'd curse her as soon as say hello to her. And the way he hung around with Malfoy also seemed to suggest that he could be dangerous one day. She knew Malfoy to be a supporter of the dark wizard who had killed an auror and taken Frank's dad and was, even as she stood there, plotting…something.

And yet all of that was anomalous to the Snape that Alice had described. He had tried to stop Bellatrix and LeStrange from hurting Alice when they'd attacked her that night. Of course, it was under the guise of keeping Slytherin out of trouble that he had done it, but he had tried to help Alice, nonetheless. And of course, there was her encounter with Snape last night. She hadn't mentioned it to anyone when she returned to the common room that night, and it appeared that for once the Marauders were all exercising good sense, and had not told anyone about it either, as neither Alice nor Amelia had asked her what had happened. When she thought about him sitting in a deserted classroom, crying, she couldn't help but feel sympathy for him. When she reflected on this side of Snape, she sort of thought that they were both very similar in some ways--both targets of the Marauders' pranks and jokes, both trying to convince their friends to stay out of trouble. And failing, she thought with a grin as she watched Alice and Amelia chatting animatedly with the Marauders and Frank.

They were no doubt discussing their plan to seek revenge on Amos for refusing to accept Black's and Alice's homework assignments. She didn't know what they were planning, or when they were planning it for, and she didn't want to know. Talking them out of it was out of the question, and so Lily had decided that ignorance was bliss, and she was going to pretend that they weren't planning anything. Her smile widened as she thought about Alice and Amelia. She had never expected to find friends like them at this school. She felt so much more comfortable, so much more—herself—around them than she had ever felt around her friends in primary school. But then she herself had only just this year discovered who she really was, she reflected. A tap on her shoulder drew Lily away from her reflections, and she turned to see Andromeda Black smiling at her. "Knut for your thoughts?" she said with a smile.

Lily shrugged. "Nothing interesting," she said, beginning to walk toward the Gryffindor table, Andromeda beside her.

"You were smiling fairly wide for 'nothing interesting'," Andromeda said perceptively.

"Yes, I was," Lily agreed. "I was thinking about the friends I've made here, actually," she confessed. "I had friends in my primary school, but—,"

"Primary school?" Andromeda cut in. "What's that?"

"It's where muggles send their children to learn to read, write, and do mathematics," Lily explained, setting her tray down beside Alice, who looked up and greeted her with a smile.

"Do they really?" Andromeda asked, sitting down beside Amelia. Potter and Black both glared at her, and then scooted down the table, their backs toward her. Lily barely noticed them as she slid into her seat.

"What? Don't witches and wizards?" Lily asked, startled. It had never occurred to her where her friends who had grown up in the wizarding world had learned to read and write.

Andromeda shook her head and reached for the platter of pancakes. "No," she answered. "There isn't a wizarding primary school. In our case, there was a cluster of witches and wizards in our neighborhood, and James Potter's mum, well, she taught all of us that lived in the area." Andromeda grimaced. "My mum wasn't too happy about sending us to learn from someone who wasn't a pure-blood, but her only other option was to teach us herself, and she didn't want to be bothered with it."

"So that's how Potter and Black know each other," Lily mused. She turned to Amelia. "How'd you learn, then?" she asked, curious now.

Amelia grinned. "My mum taught me and my two brothers," she said. "She'll be done teaching soon enough, of course. It's just the youngest one at home now, and he comes to Hogwarts next year. Mum wants to get a 'real' job once he leaves."

"I went to a muggle school," Alice chimed in, before they could ask. "Since Mum's a muggle, the British government had a record of my birth, and of course, muggle kids are required to attend school. And it was just easier. Mum works in a lawyer's office, so she wasn't able to stay at home to teach Anna and me, even if she'd known how."

Lily took a bite of egg and pondered this. Whenever it seemed that she thought she knew just about everything there was to know about the wizarding way of life, a new aspect that she hadn't thought about popped up. She wondered briefly how many more surprises, big and small, would be in store for her as she continued her education.

Kaylie and Desdamona arrived at the table, Kaylie giggling and blushing as she said hello to Potter. Lily glared at her. "How can someone who is usually so intelligent and normal turn into such an idiot over him!" she said, motioning towards Potter.

Alice raised her eyebrows, grinning. "You know, Lily," she said meaningfully. "Amelia and I wonder that exact same thing whenever you're around him."

Amelia smiled. "Indeed," she said mildly, pouring syrup on her pancakes.

Lily glared at both of them. "Don't be ridiculous!" she said angrily, picking up her pumpkin juice and taking a drink. Alice and Amelia just laughed.

"Looks like he doesn't even need to be around," Amelia observed dryly. "Apparently we just need to be talking about him."

"What on earth are you two on about?" Lily sputtered, not watching as she set her pumpkin juice down, and setting it on the side of her plate. It fell over, sending pumpkin juice streaming all over the table. She jumped up, but it was too late, the pumpkin juice had already gotten all over her robes. "Great," she muttered, pulling out her wand and muttering "scourgify". In her haste to clean up, however, she didn't enunciate, and her robes turned white, the stain from the pumpkin juice now even more visible. Alice and Amelia laughed, and pulled out their wands to help her, but Lily had had quite enough. "I do not turn into an idiot whenever he is mentioned!" she said, glaring at them before turning and leaving the Great Hall. She hurried back to their dormitory to change before too many people saw her in her white, pumpkin stained robes.

After breakfast, Alice and Amelia found Lily in their room, writing another letter to Petunia. They apologized for what they had said at breakfast, but Alice, ever honest, couldn't resist adding, "but you have to admit that you do get worked up really easily when he's around."

Lily had not bothered to reply, deciding that she'd rather not spend the whole of Saturday arguing with her best friends. They headed downstairs into the common room, trying to think of something to do to pass the day. Apparently when they had been upstairs, someone had decided to get Gryffindor into the spirit of Valentine's Day, because there were pink and red flashing hearts strung all over the walls, the couches and wall hangings had been turned red, pink and white, and there was a mural of cupid hung on one wall that aimed arrows at passersby and said "you look like you need some love!". They glanced at the decorations, and took one look at all of the older couples cuddling on the couches and the sofas, and immediately headed for the portrait hole, trying not to gag in disgust. As they walked away, the fat lady yelled at them for interrupting her manicure, ranting that she would be visiting a portrait of a knight later on that evening, and was trying to properly prepare.

They headed toward the library, silently agreeing to avoid the common room at least until the older students had all left for the second Hogsmeade trip of the year, and preferably until the holiday decorations were removed. When they arrived at the library, they realized that they had left their books up in their dorm rooms, and not being able to think of anything else to do, they began to explore the castle. Alice and Amelia were quite keen to have Lily show them the passage that led to Hogsmeade, but Lily flat out refused. "But why?" Alice whined.

"Because," Lily answered impatiently. "We have no invisibility cloak to hide us, and there's no telling who else knows about that passage. The professors might patrol it regularly for all we know!"

Alice and Amelia groaned, but dropped the subject.  Alice said something about going outside, but Lily and Amelia quickly disagreed. It was freezing outside, and neither of them had any desire to lose fingers or toes to frost bite. They wandered around some more, and eventually ended up at the astronomy tower, gazing out the windows at the snow.  The grounds were fairly well deserted.  Here and there, some brave students had braved the weather.  Lily's gaze swept across the grounds and she spotted the five Gryffindor first year boys involved in a snow ball fight with some older Gryffindors, and a couple of Hufflepuffs.  She rolled her eyes, but didn't comment as she continued to look around.  "Looks like Malfoy and company are in trouble," she said, spotting Malfoy and two of his older friends engaged in what appeared to be a furious conversation with Professor Figg.  Both Malfoy and Figg were waving their hands around, and although she couldn't hear them, Lily felt quite certain that there was a fair amount of yelling going on as well.  After they had been up there for awhile, Lily felt her stomach growling, and realized that she had left the Great Hall before she had really eaten any breakfast. She rubbed her belly, trying not to think about the hunger pains.

Amelia noticed Lily rubbing her stomach and smiled. "Hungry, Lils?" she asked mildly.

"She might not have been if she didn't get so worked up over Potter," Alice said happily. "People who don't act like idiots at the mention of other people don't storm out of the Great Hall before eating," she added.

"In white robes," Amelia chimed in.

Lily glared at them both, wondering how long they were going to tease her about that. "I'm glad that the two of you find my hunger and embarrassment so amusing!" she snapped.

"I can see that hunger makes you crabbier," Alice commented lightly, "and since there's no telling whether or not we'll run into Potter today in the halls, we'd better get you some food so you don't act completely…irrational, if we do."

"I'm not sure food'll help that, Alice," Amelia interrupted.

"Well, it can't hurt," Alice responded. "Fortunately for you, when we were in the infirmary, Black told me how to get into the kitchens." Alice said, standing up from her position on the astronomy tower floor and heading toward the stairs.  Lily didn't move.

"Are you coming or not?" Amelia asked, following Alice.

"Couldn't we get into trouble if we're caught?" Lily said worriedly.

Alice and Amelia groaned, exchanged glances, and grabbed Lily by the robes. "We'll risk it. If you get any hungrier, you'll be literally biting our heads off!" Alice said, and they began dragging her toward the kitchen.

They arrived at a painting of a bowl of fruit, and Alice reached up and tickled the apple. Nothing happened, and she groaned. "Are you sure this is the right picture, Alice?" Amelia asked.

"Yes. I'm certain of it. And he said to tickle the apple. Or was it the orange?" She reached up and began tickling the orange, but still nothing happened.

"Are you sure you're supposed to tickle something?" Lily asked.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure it's tickling." Alice stood back and stared at the portrait. "Well come on you three, might as well tickle the whole thing." The three girls each selected a different part of the portrait to tickle and began running their fingers over it. Just as Lily was beginning to feel ridiculous, her fingers brushed over the pear. It giggled, and then turned into a handle. "Found it!" she exclaimed, pulling on the handle and opening the door. A hundred or more house elves all turned to smile at them as they walked into the kitchen. One with a round little belly and ears sticking out oddly from its head approached, grinning. "Miss Evans!" he said, bowing. "We is happy to see you miss!"

"Hi Alfie," Lily said grinning. "These are my friends, Amelia Bones and Alice Parker."

Alfie bowed politely. "It is nice to be meeting you, misses," Alfie said, standing up straight again. "Can Alfie gets you anything?"

"Well actually, Alfie," Alice said, bending down so she was at eye-level with him. "Lily didn't eat anything at breakfast this morning."

Alfie's eyes widened. "You wasn't sick, was you miss?" he asked. Lily shook her head. "Was something wrong with the food, then? Alfie apologizes if you didn't—," but Lily cut him off.

"No, no, Alfie. The food was fine. I just spilled some pumpkin juice on my robes," she explained, determinedly ignoring Alice's and Amelia's giggles. "And I had to go change before I finished eating."

Alfie nodded. "In that case, we will give you plenty of food to tide you over until lunch!" Alfie said, running off. He returned with a roast, a container of mashed potatoes, several bottles of butterbeer, and six cauldron cakes. "Is that enough for you, Misses?" he asked, bowing again.

Lily grinned. "It's plenty," she said, her stomach now growling louder at the sight of the food. "Thank you!"

They left the kitchens and wandered around for a little while, looking for somewhere quiet to eat. After they had wandered up and down the same hallway three times, looking for a suitable classroom, Lily opened a door she hadn't noticed before. Inside was a small round table, napkins, silverware, plates, salt and pepper shakers, and a variety of other items that looked as though they'd been nicked from the kitchens. "Alice, Amelia!" she said, calling them and wandering inside. "I wonder why we didn't notice this room before?" she said to no one in particular.

"Dunno," Alice said, sitting down and beginning to serve up the food. "But it looks like someone's set it up for some kind of romantic dinner, doesn't it? It'll do nicely for us right now, though!" Lily locked the door, and the three girls sat down, sharing an early lunch, talking, and laughing well into the afternoon, as only the best girl friends can.