Red Tag
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A/N: Woo! J/L love/hate! How original can you get? This story is based off of Hana Yori Dango, for those of you who know what that is. For those of you who don't, watch more anime. ;-P
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or situations of Harry Potter. Nor do I own the situations of Hana Yori Dango. These belong to JK Rowling and Yoko Kamio, respectively. I do, however, own any unrecognizable characters.
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Chapter One: In Which Lily is Tagged
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Lily glanced at the passers-by, feeling awkward and out-of-place. Her best friend, Kelly Garcia, chattered excitedly beside her as they walked down the hall to Transfiguration.
"…Don't you think so, Lily?" Kelly was saying. Lily made a sound of agreement (if you could call it that) and then continued to tune Kelly out, thinking.
It had been five years since she had started attending this school, and she still felt distant from the rest of the students, besides Kelly, of course. Her face darkened, unnoticed by the chipper brunette beside her. She and Kelly were a minority in the school, two of five Muggle-borns in their unusually large year of 60 students. Being such, they were often disregarded by the other pureblooded students, and thus had made a tight bond with the other three.
"Hey, Lils, Lollie!" Lily grinned as she looked up. Kevin Garcia, one of the five Muggle-borns and Kelly's twin brother, had come up behind them, grinning like the maniac he was. Kelly made a face at the nickname, cuffing Kevin upside the head.
"What was that for?" Kevin asked, pouting.
"Your tie isn't straight, nitwit," Kelly said, fixing Kevin's blue-and-bronze tie. "And how many times have I told you not to call me Lollie?"
"Uh… 27,562?"
"27,563," Kelly corrected, sniffing dismissively. Lily chuckled, before waving to the other two of their minority, Kezia Liu and Daniel Zhang. Both were oriental, which made them even more of a minority.
"Hola," Daniel said in his quiet way, grinning.
"Hi," Kezia chimed, frowning at Kelly as the brunette towered over her. The other three greeted them, and then the group made their way to the stairways, from where they would proceed to Transfiguration. Or they would have done, had Kezia not had another one of her klutz attacks and tripped on the stairs, falling… right… into… James… Potter.
There was a collective gasp as all activity in the stairway chamber stopped.
Kezia immediately jumped up, looking for all the world like a deer in headlights. Potter got up as well, glaring at the small Asian girl.
"What," he asked, barely concealed rage making his voice shake, "did you think you were doing?"
"I-I'm sorry, I—"
"Did you think it would be funny?"
"No, sir, I—"
"Are you mentally challenged, or something?"
"No, sir—"
"Get out of the way, Mudblood," Potter hissed. The five Muggle-borns flinched at the word he used— well, make that four. Any normal person would be sensible enough to just move aside, to let James Potter and his group of three friends, the Marauders, pass through.
God damn the stereotypical redhead temper.
"Take. That. Back," Lily growled, gliding to the front of the group, metaphorically a furious queen, causing Kezia to back up and Potter to stare at her incredulously.
"What did you say?" Potter said, taking a step towards Lily menacingly.
"You heard me," Lily replied. "I said, take it back."
"Who's gonna make me?" Potter sneered. "A mudblood like you?" Emerald eyes met blue, and an unseen jolt of angry energy passed between them.
"You asked for it," Lily said. In a moment, Potter was holding his nose, trying not to show any other signs of pain, and Lily's hand was balled into a fist, bloodied from the injury she caused James' nose. She turned to the other four. "Come on, you guys, let's get out of here."
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Detention. It wasn't even her fault! Okay, maybe it was… a little! Besides, she was a prefect, and prefects did not get detention. It just wasn't done! Lily was currently storming back to the Gryffindor common room, where Kelly and Kevin awaited her.
Lily looked at them strangely, confused by the expressions of clear apprehension on their faces. "What's wrong?" she asked. The twins exchanged a glance.
"There's been some talk, Lils…" Kevin trailed off, looking torn.
"They say that the Marauders are going to tag you," Kelly finished, glancing around at the other people in the common room, as if they were all about to jump her.
Lily paled, in spite of trying to look unworried. Of all of the bad things that could happen to you at Hogwarts, the tag was the worst. As the Marauders were the most popular and rich boys in school, they could get the school as a whole to do whatever they wanted them to do. A red tag gave the school a license to haze. A red tag meant that her own classmates would soon drive Lily out of Hogwarts. A red tag meant everyone would hate her. Lily took a deep breath and forced a smile. It looked more like a grimace.
"Let them," she said. Kelly and Kevin exchanged a look that clearly said, "Lily Evans has gone mad. Let's just humor her, shall we?" Suddenly their faces donned a look of shock, and then of fear as they looked over Lily's shoulder.
"Well, well, well," Potter drawled. Lily spun around, furious. "What have we here?"
"Get your ugly mug out of my face, Potter," Lily snapped.
"Ouch, I'm hurt! But seriously, Evans," Potter said mockingly, "I'd watch my back, if I were you. You never know when you'll get hurt." He walked off, laughing, followed closely by his best friend, Sirius Black, and his faithful follower Peter Pettigrew. Remus Lupin trailed behind, sending Lily what could have been an apologetic look, had he not been part of the Marauders in the first place.
"Bastards," Lily muttered.
~*~
No one sat with her at breakfast the next morning. Lily had warned Kelly and Kevin to stay away from her. It was just as well, because as soon as Potter entered the Great Hall, he strolled over to her and slapped a blood-red strip of cloth on the back of her chair.
There was silence.
Lily delicately raised an eyebrow at Potter, who was standing beside her expectantly, possibly waiting for her to burst into tears. Lily shrugged, turned away from him and continued eating.
Now there were whispers. Apparently, Lily Evans didn't care that she was now the main target of pranks, slander, and hazing in the entire school.
Potter frowned, obviously trying not to show his disappointment of the lack of consequence this situation had on the Target.
"You're as good as dead, Evans," Potter sneered, before walking over to the opposite end of the table, where sat the other Marauders.
As soon as he left, Lily felt a slimy substance smack her in the back of her head: scrambled eggs, catapulted across the hall while the teachers weren't looking. Lily rolled her eyes at this blatant act of immaturity. Calmly, she removed the scrambled eggs from of her auburn hair, ignoring giggles from those in the immediate vicinity. How juvenile, she thought, continuing with her daily routine as though nothing had happened.
Breakfast passed without further incident, but as soon as she left the Great Hall, she was surrounded by a group of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff girls, lead by the illustrious Emma Deschênes of the fifth year Gryffindors, Lily's year.
"Evans."
"Deschênes. Figg, Remington, Lucas, Thomas, Simmons, Jenkins, Bennet," Lily acknowledged impassively.
"Come on, Emma, Abby, we're going to be late to Charms," Charlotte Remington whispered to Deschênes and Arabella Figg. All three were Gryffindors, though you wouldn't have guessed Remington was one, judging by her avoidance of confrontation rather than the acceptance of it that was typical for a Gryffindor.
"We'll make it on time, Charlotte, but I'm not so sure about Evans, here," Deschênes said, giving Remington a fake smile. Remington cringed and backed away slightly, to the back of the group. "Now, Evans, I believe you did something to offend my dear Jamesie, yesterday?" Lily snorted.
"Jamesie? If you mean Potter, he got what was coming to him." Deschênes slapped her. Lily glared, touching her cheek with her hand, trying and succeeding not to flinch at the pain. "Bitch," Lily growled, attempting to walk away. The girls suddenly attacked her, pain exploding in her mind as she was punched, slapped, and kicked. She tripped and fell to the floor, crying out as her wrist snapped under her. Her robes were torn as the girls grabbed at them, her nose bloodied and her face scratched. She was kicked in the stomach several time and heard several cracking noises as her ribs fractured. She curled into a fetal position as the beating continued, enduring the rain of fists and school-issued loafers. After what seemed like an eternity, they stopped.
"That should teach her a lesson, for now," Deschênes' laughing voice said. "Let's go, girls, or we'll be late for class."
Lily was left alone on the floor, trying to hold back tears and willing herself to move, but to no avail.
A cool hand rested on her forehead. Lily whimpered as it touched a sluggishly bleeding cut received when on of the girls (she thought it was Simmons) scratched her face.
"Shhh, Evans, it'll be all right. Can you stand?" Lily looked up into concerned blue eyes. Remington.
"What do you care?" Lily croaked. Remington's expression turned from concern to hurt.
"Of course I care," Remington said quietly. "You're part of my own house!"
"So if it was Kezia lying here on the floor, you wouldn't give a shit?"
"I never said that—"
"No, but you implied it."
"But I didn't mean it that way. If they deserved it, like Snape or Malfoy, then I'd just let the others do what they wanted. But people like you and Liu? No."
"That's not very Gryffindorish, if you ask me." Remington recoiled. Neither spoke for a moment, and then Remington nodded.
"I know," she admitted. "I'm not very Gryffindorish at all. I'm only in Gryffindor because I asked to be, because Abby was Sorted into Gryffindor. We've been friends since we were very young, and she was the only person I knew here, since my parents moved here from France."
"Abby?"
"That's what I've called her since we were babies, because I couldn't say Arabella. The name just stuck," Remington said, smiling at the memory. Her mood abruptly changed when she remembered that Lily was injured. "Oh my God, what are we talking about this for? I need to get you to the Hospital Wing! Here let me help you up. Tell me if it hurts too much, okay?" Remington reached down and looped her arm under Lily's, slinging the other arm over her shoulder. They rose slowly, Lily wincing as her ribs gave a twinge of pain.
"I feel ill," Lily mumbled as her stomach roiled.
"A concussion, maybe, or a fractured collar bone. I've heard those can make you nauseous," Remington said. They began to hobble through the castle in the direction of the Hospital Wing, where Madam Pomfrey took one look at Lily and nearly had a coronary.
Pomfrey fussed over Lily, setting up a bed for her, while Remington hovered nearby, startled.
"Is she all right?" Remington murmured to Lily, staring at the school nurse as if she had two heads.
"Oh, yes, this is normal," Lily said. Remington gave her a questioning look. "Kezia can be a klutz sometimes, and contrary to popular belief, she is not indestructible." Remington nodded, still unconvinced.
"Here you are, Miss Evans," Madam Pomfrey said, hurrying Lily to the bed. She then turned to Remington. "Out with you, Miss Remington, my patient needs bed rest!" Remington nodded meekly as Madam Pomfrey went into her office.
"'Bye, Evans," Remington said.
"Lily," she responded automatically.
"Then call me Charlotte." The girls smiled at each other, and Charlotte left the room.
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A/N: What do you think? Let me know!