Lily was sitting alone at the Gryffindor Table for breakfast a few mornings later. In front of her sat a plate with only a small plain muffin with a few nibbles on it. Her eyes were eerily down cast at her plate, despite her straight-back posture. She had transformed into a loner within a matter of days, hours even and there was no wonder as to why. In her frustration over those awkward teenage years they were all stuck in without her she shied away from all contact with her fellow students as if they were poison. In turn, every one of those awkward teenagers also chose to ignore her.
This morning, an argument between two Slytherins was raging on behind her back. Lily was listening in on every bit, whether it be from curiosity or boredom.
"Bugger off Lucius," a girl said in a rather perturbed way.
"Come on Lizzie dear, you know you want a real Slytherin man to be with you, maybe I'd change your opinion of Slytherins," replied a callous sounding seventh year.
Lily rolled her eyes. She knew how the Slytherin girl felt, having an obnoxious guy after her heart. If this boy, Lucius apparently, had any sense he'd back off from the girl lest he end up like James.
"Lucius, you're a real JERK."
"You know you don't mean that honeybunch."
"If you think that then you know nothing about me, wait, of course you don't understand me, you're an insensitive git!"
Lucius reached out to and put his hands on her shoulders pulling her in closer to him.
"Get OFF!" she screeched as she pried his hands off of her and pulled away causing her to knock into Lily who was still listening in. She regained her balance and glared at Lucius threateningly
"You're so cute when you're mad my dear, well if you want me to leave I will," he said with a smirk as he backed away off to the Slytherin table.

The girl turned around to face Lily and apologized, "I'm really sorry about that, Lucius is just an idiot."
"Oh, its alright, I know how you feel. There is a guy I used to be friends with, but lately he has just been, well, acting like a pig," Lily smiled discreetly at her own words, imagining James with the nose of a pig.

The girl held out her hand to Lily and said, "My name's Elizabeth Creeks."
Lily took the hand and gave it a good shake before dropping it and saying, "Mine is Lily Evans, its nice to meet you."
Her eyes were drawn to the Slytherin patch on Elizabeth's robes. Apparently Elizabeth saw that because she told Lily, "Oh, don't worry. I'm not like them." She glanced back at the Slytherin table.
Lily smiled. Elizabeth seemed believable.
"In fact, I really don't even know why I got put in Slytherin, well, besides the fact that I'm pureblood."
"I swear sometimes the sorting hat does make mistakes."
"Yeah really," she said with a sigh. "I just wish that I could be in Ravenclaw or something, anything besides Slytherin. Hell, I'd take Hufflepuff above Slytherin."
Lily giggled. "Yeah I guess I'd rather be in Hufflepuff too."
Lily wandered off into her own thought, "Wow, this is amazing. I'm actually talking to someone, and gasp, she's not a repulsive! Maybe there is hope for this school."
"Yeah, well I got to go. I got an early Care of Magical Creatures to get to."
"Have fun, Elizabeth. I'll see you later."
"Yeah, maybe I can sneak into the Gryffindor table during lunch." She laughed along with Lily. Then she waved good-bye and walked out of the Great Hall.
An innocent smile grew across Lily's face. "Perhaps there is someone with maturity in this school," she thought to herself.

Later that day, James could be found sitting in his usual circle of friends, but something was different. He seemed to be detached from the group. Sirius and Remus were chatting about the latest History of Magic lesson and debating whether or not the class really mattered. Peter was listening intently to them, leaning in to hear their every word.
James, however, was off in his own world. His head was fixedly facing the roaring fire and was propped up upon one hand. His other hand was busy combing through his hair, although James was most likely not aware of it.
"What are we going to learn in a class where all we can do is sleep? I tell you, the class is bloody boring. So what if trolls rebelled in the year six hundred seventy-two? Guess what Remus. No one cares."
"Sirius, your chances of graduating are rather bleak."
"Thanks!"
Remus just sighed. He wasn't in the mood to put up with Sirius's occasional incompetence. His attention was drawn to James as he finally realized James hadn't been participating in their argument.
"What do you suppose he's thinking about?" Sirius asked, apparently he had noticed too.
"Cheesecake." Peter said dumbly. The two boys gave him an exhausted glare. "What? That's what I usually think about.."
"That and Lily," he added in his own thoughts.
By that time James had noticed that the three were all staring at him. "What? Did I miss something?"
"Yeah, a whole conversation," Sirius declared.
"What's on your mind, Prongs?" Remus asked concernedly.
James thought for a moment, apparently debating with himself whether or not to tell them.
"I miss Lily..."
"James Potter? The king of dating three different girls every week? Misses a girl?"
"Yeah its crazy, I know, but see I think that maybe all that stuff about there being more to liking someone than their looks, I think maybe that might be true."
"But I thought that was just a myth made up by greeting card companies to sell cards." Sirius said rather dumbly.
"Yeah, so did I, but there's this horrible feeling in my chest. I can't believe it. She hates me."
"Don't worry, Prongs. I heard that girl Daniel Pierce fancies you quite a bit. She's not bad looking either."
James sighed and fell back into his own thoughts. Sirius rolled his eyes at him and went back to his argument with Remus.
The discussion continued until dinnertime when they headed down to the Great Hall, all of them with the exception of James. He continued on his contemplation in front of the fire for a good deal of time.
Eventually the trio returned from dinner caked in all kinds of foods and drinks.
"James! You missed it! There was a completely crazy food fight at dinner. Started by the Slytherins, I suspect. But the good thing is, we didn't get blamed for it and I nailed a first year twerp right in the forehead with my mashed potatoes," Sirius came bouncing over to James and exclaimed over-joyously.
"I do have to admit James, it was very invigorating," Remus added.
James threw them a half-hearted grin. He earnestly wished he had been able to enjoy the fight, but for the first time in his life, James Potter didn't see the amusement in various food goods floating through the air.

The day after, James, Lily, Sirius and all the other sixth year Gryffindors could be found sitting, once again, in the dungeons accompanied by all the Slytherin sixth years. Professor Rochester presided over the class in her usual manner, strictly but fairly.
"-And who here can tell me a few of the many purposes of Lacewing Flies?"
A hand shot up from the front of the class.
"Yes, Miss Taylor."
The girl smiled proudly and said, "Lacewing flies are the key ingredient, along with a bit of a person's hair, in polyjuice potion and is less known as an ingredient in a simple warning potion."
"Very well. Now, I want you all to get working on your potions. You'll find the exact recipe on the board." She waved her arm in a showy fashion at the board. Long, flowing writing seemed to leap from somewhere behind the board. "You'll also be working in partners. Mr. Miller, join Miss Getsy please. Mr. Potter, you may go with Mr. Douglas. Miss Evans, hmm, I'll put you with Mr. Snape."
Lily groaned lightly from her seat in the middle left of the classroom. She had tried to be gentle with Severus before in order to make him a bit more humane, but she had failed. The doubt that this time would be any different was overwhelming. Grudgingly, she lifted her books and shuffled to the back of the classroom.
"'Ello Evans. I expect you'll need quite a bit of help with this, but it's all right. I know how being a mudblood can be difficult. Oh wait, I'm a pureblood," he cackled at his own not-so-funny pun causing greasy stands of hair to flop around his forehead unattractively.
"I'm going to let that comment slide only because I know you didn't believe a word of it," she replied in a nonchalant tone. She then swung herself down into her seat and inspected the ingredients placed before them.
Severus glanced over at her with a perception that seemed to look past everything. "Evans? You never did know about any of Potter and Black's schemes, did you?"
"Of course I didn't," she said with full sincerity as she picked up the instruments she needed for crushing the Lacewing flies.
He nodded solemnly in response and gathered up the wings, a smile eventually showing in his lips.
About ten minutes later their wings were crushed and stewing in a pewter pot over a fire beside them. The fire lit up Lily's face, restoring her recently absent glow.
"That was surprisingly easy," Lily said.
"Who knew making something into powder could actually be interesting?" Sirius laughed at himself in his own mind. He wasn't being sarcastic for once in his short life.
Lily smiled innocently at him before pouring the contents of the cauldron into a jar marked "Snape & Evans."
Professor Rochester dismissed the class several minutes later with a promise of some more class time to work. The partners gathered together their books and walked back to their respective worlds.
Before Lily even had a chance to set one foot out of the classroom, Sirius came bounding up to her with a smirk on his face.
"So, Evans, how was it working with everyone's favorite grease ball?" Sirius inquired.
Lily's eyes glanced at him with a glaring hatred. She quickened her pace in an attempt at avoidance.
Sirius put on a false look of betrayal before giving up on the stubborn girl and drifting off to his regular crowd.
After Sirius, came a more welcome visitor. Lily's new acquaintance, Elizabeth Creeks, called to her from a few feet behind, "Lily! Wait up!"
Lily stopped in her tracks and spun around to face Elizabeth. "Lizzy! Hey!" She turned back around and continued walking as Elizabeth caught up to her. "Where you headed?"
"Just off to the Slytherin Common Room to do a bit of homework before I have to get back to class. What about you?"
"Me? I'm off to the wonderful world of transfiguration. One of my best subjects actually."
"You have a best subject? I thought you were just good at everything."
Lily smiled, "I wish, its called s-t-u-d-y-i-n-g."
"Studying? What's that?" Elizabeth said playfully. "So, anything new? I saw you were stuck with Severus for Potions class. Musta been dreadful. He's an outcast even in his own house, you know."
Lily shrugged, "Its really all just a matter of getting to know the real Severus Snape. He's a nice guy beneath his exterior."
Elizabeth nodded in agreement, "That's the spirit, Lily. Faith in mankind. We don't get too much of that around here."
The girls turned a corner together. "Well, to be honest, Lizzy, I am losing faith in a large part of our species."
"Yeah, having James and Sirius on your case every other minute can't be helpful. At least I only have one obnoxious guy determined to make me either his or miserable for the rest of my life."
"James seems to have backed off, but I don't know."
"Lily? I was thinking, if not hating Snape is all a matter of getting to know the real him, what if not hating James and Sirius is all a matter of getting to know the real them."
"Then I'll just have to regret never taking the time to dig beneath their surfaces, because I refuse to get lost in the muck that coats them on the outside."
Elizabeth observed her friend for a moment before realizing she had passed the hallway to go to her common room. "Whoops, sorry Lily but the common rooms is back that way. I'll see you at dinner ok?"
"Yeah, sure. See you later."
Lily wandered off down the hall to the transfiguration room, occasionally gazing out the window at the sun reflecting brilliantly off the snow. It would be Christmas soon, Lily would go home to a warm abode filled with relatives and fruit cake. A traditional muggle Christmas was just what she needed. Lily, however, had no way of foreseeing that she'd be visiting her home a bit earlier than Christmas.

It is done! Finally! After all this time. It wouldn't have taken me quite as long but I changed around the entire ending and I like it much better this way, but then again I always like it when I'm done writing it, it's the days after that I become frustrated with it. But that, my friends, is a different story. If you liked the story, or even if you didn't please review. I could always use the extra encouragement for getting around to Chapter five.