Hypocrites Always Fall in Love
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling.
Chapter Ten – Weaving a Tangled Web
Just as Lily was about to be convinced that she was going to die in this bloody corridor, her day got worse.
In Lily's world, it just happened to be the icing on the cake.
As she stopped for a moment, she heard footsteps behind her. Running footsteps. They seemed to be getting closer to her, when she hesitated, just turning ever so slightly…
She was thrown forward as someone collided into her, landing her magnificently on the floor…Not even. She gathered herself together, picking up her books and straightening her robes out. Lily stumbled to her feet and watched as James Potter ran by her.
This, of course, wasn't the worst part.
As Lily reached down, to grab her bag, which was lying there so innocently, it burst into flames. Bright red flames engulfed the brand new school bag her parents had bought her especially for Hogwarts.
The bag was turned to ash in a matter of seconds.
Some prank, Lily thought, glaring in the direction of James' retreating figure. I hate him.
What she didn't notice (or hear, rather) as she walked dejectedly through the hall, soon after finding her class, was that a invisible little man was tipping his hat to Lily, crackling at his joke.
Eventually, she stumbled upon the Transfiguration room, where she received a very stern look from Professor McGonagall for being so late.
"I'm very sorry, Professor for coming so late but..." she trailed off, noticing that everyone in the class had their eyes upon her.
As she slipped into the only seat open, next to Remus Lupin, the professor addressed her.
"Please see me after class, Miss Evans," she said simply, looking very grave to Lily. She just gave her a once-over glance, as if to say she expected better of her.
At this, Lily felt like bursting into tears. It had been an absolutely horrible day...and it was not even half over yet. She felt salty tears welling up in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. No one was going to push Lily Evans around. She made it a point to remember to confront James Potter at the end of all this.
"Are you alright?" Remus Lupin asked; his voice was full of concern in having seen the horrible look on her face.
"I'll be quite fine," Lily said, forcing a smile, "But thank you for asking."
"Well...okay then," Remus replied, wondering about her, "Hey...Where's the book bag you had earlier?"
Lily glanced at him, very surprised that he would notice such a thing. He seemed very observant to her though, so she figured it shouldn't be that much of a shock.
Then, she looked back at Professor McGonagall before responding. She was sure that if she was caught talking she'd get a detention or something of the sort. And Lily couldn't afford any more trouble.
"He burned it to bits," she whispered, making a long story short and pointing to James, who sat two rows ahead of her with Sirius.
"James?" Remus questioned, appearing to be thoroughly shocked, "I wouldn't think he'd do such a thing..."
He seemed to be pondering his thoughts some more, as Professor McGonagall went on about the type of class she would be teaching.
"Now, I except no nonsense and it shall not be tolerated in this class. Goofing off and playing games will not help you to pass this course, so I advise you not to take part in it..."
Right in front of her, it seemed, James and Sirius could clearly be seen laughing with one another.
"...Obviously taking no heed to what I just said, Mr. Potter?" The teacher asked, coming up to the foot of James's desk. She looked very angry with him, "First you are late and then you decide to not listen to a word I say? Ten points from Gryffindor."
This left James mouth hanging, as he just sat, amazed by Professor McGonagall.
Soon enough the class ended, with everyone in low spirits. They had found out very quickly that Professor McGonagall knew exactly how to suck all the fun out of magic.
After a brief conversation with McGonagall after class on the excuse of their being late, Lily and James were free to go.
On the way out, she went to talk to James about her bag. The only snag in that plan was that before she could get the words out, he disappeared down the hall, chasing after Sirius.
She sighed in exasperation, as she went to her desk, and picked up her large pile of books, draping them in her arms.
Unexpectedly, she was met at the door by Remus Lupin.
"Hullo," she said dully, moving past him, "Why didn't you go on with James?"
He began to walk with her, smiling.
"Because I didn't feel like it," he stated simply, looking at her so very sincerely. "Besides, I was wondering if you wanted help with those books."
He gestured to his own barely-filled pack. She glanced at him in disbelief, and he took this to mean that she thought he was pulling a joke on her.
"I've got plenty of room," he said, looking thoughtful, and trying to get her to smile.
She pondered it for a moment.
"Thanks," she said, handing over a couple of her books, "If you could just..."
"Uh, yeah..." he replied, grinning and reaching out to put the books and heaps of parchment in the empty spaces of his pack.
"Thank you, again," she grinned.
"No problem."
And with that, they headed to their next class.
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The Charms room felt mighty stuffy, even if it was the beginning of September. The Gryffindors were greeted by the Sytherin first-years, all of whom looked fairly annoyed to see the Gryffindors.
"What a nice looking lot," Lily heard Sirius whisper, as she and Remus reached the edge of the group. It appeared that the Charms teacher hadn't shown for class yet, as the door to the classroom was locked shut.
James snickered, as his eyes fell upon a Sytherin boy who had just tripped over his robes when approaching the classroom's door.
"That's not very nice of him," Lily murmured to Remus and Lexy, who appeared on her other side with Catalina, "If he had fallen, he could have gotten hurt."
She smiled at the boy, whom she recognized to be Severus Snape.
Before Severus even had time to smile back, a short, funny man had reached the door of the Charms room. After he unlocked the door, and told the class to sit where ever they wanted, he addressed the students. He said the usual, in comparison to McGonagall's words.
"My name is Professor Flitwick, and I'll be your Charms teacher for the next...well for quite a while," he said as he stood on his podium. Lily secretly thought that he only should there so that he was actually taller than his seated students. She supposed it must be discouraging to have so many first-year students even towering over you in height. But anyway...in her eagerness to learn about Charms, she was forgetting to listen to the professor.
"...Now," he went on, rubbing his chin, "The first thing you shall learn is the most important of all things."
The teacher looked so very serious and oddly surprised to see so many children staring at him intently. He didn't exactly seem to demand attention very often.
"...You shall learn the proper way to cast a spell," Pr. Flitwick smiled knowingly, "I find that a simple 'swish and flick' works best. So for now, you will practice just that. 'Swish and flick'..." he demonstrated on his own wand, waving it gracefully. "'Swish and flick'..."
Lily concentrated completely on trying to do this correctly. Surprisingly enough to her and her partner seated next to her, Lexy, she seemed to master it in very little time at all. So then Lily took that time to help Lexy, while Flitwick continued to prance around the room calling, "Swish and flick, it's all in the wrist!" to anyone who did it wrong.
"Swish and flick," Lexy muttered, "Honestly...there's got to be something more than that...OH!"
As Lexy flicked her wrist down, her wand, unfortunately chose a different path. It was flung right into Sirius's face.
"...And flick the wand across the room, Lex, that's the way to go." Lily laughed, but then called, "Are you alright, Sirius?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sirius grumbled as James just laughed. Lily felt herself wondering if that stupid boy found everything funny. Sirius just glared at James. "It's not that funny, mate."
Then he sauntered over to Lexy and Lily's table to hand the wand back.
"Now, you ought to be more careful with this thing," he grinned, placing the wand in Lexy's hands as she blushed.
"Sorry, then," she said, and Sirius walked away, rubbing his forehead.
"I get hit an awful lot around here, don't I?" Sirius muttered to himself as he went back to his own table.
"Somehow, I don't think that's going to change anytime soon," James said, grinning as his friend sat down next to him.
"Watch out, or you'll be next," he replied, his hand still on his forehead, "What comes around, goes around, James."
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Lunch soon came, and all the students had gathered themselves in the Great Hall. As much as Lily would have loved to talk to James about her burned bag, she couldn't seem to find him anywhere at the Gryffindor Table. This annoyed her greatly.
She watched as Sirius shoveled down food like no tomorrow, barely stopping to take a breath.
"You haven't seen James, have you?" she asked Sirius, trying to appear casual.
"No, not recently…why?" he questioned, taking a rest from eating for a moment. He seemed a bit puzzled as to why Lily, of all people, who appeared to be avoiding James (thank God, because no one wanted a repeat of what almost happened at Platform 9 ¾ ), would want to speak to him.
"Because," she said impatiently, still looking around for him, "He burned my book bag."
"Why would he do a thing like that?" Sirius asked, looking (if possible) if more confused than before.
"Never mind, Sirius," she said, getting up, and deciding to go look for him herself, "I won't bother to explain it. I'll see you all later."
She gestured a good-bye to Remus, Sirius, Catalina and Lexy, and headed out of the Great Hall.
By the end of that day Lily never did get a chance to talk to James, she of course, saw him in the last class of the day; Potions. Unfortunately for her fury, the most she could do was glare incessantly at the back of his head.
A week went by, progressing very much the same, except for a few minor mishaps. Remus disappeared, to Lily's surprise, for a few days at the start of their second week at Hogwarts. Rumor had it that his great-aunt, of who lived with his family, had taken seriously ill. It made Lily upset to think of the sadness the poor, kind boy could be experiencing while she and everyone else were enjoying the light-hearted feel of the Hogwarts halls.
Another thing that seemed to be popping up everywhere was the news of some dark wizard in southern England that was gaining power among his supporters. Lily had managed to overhear snippets of a conversation between two of her teachers while walking the vacant corridors with moving armor, during a lunchtime trip to the library.
As Lily heard the voices approaching, she crouched down behind one of the suits of armor and searched through her bag for the book she needed to return.
"Did you here about the four people that died this morning because of that...that-- man?" McGonagall asked Pr. Kindley, the Herbology teacher. As she held the Daily Prophet in her hand, Lily noticed that she looked like she was in distress.
"Yes...That did happen to reach my ears. Now isn't that tragic?" He replied, glancing at the paper briefly.
As he looked more closely at the headline, Professor McGonagall glanced up, only to spot Lily looking through her bag.
"Best hurry along, Miss Evans. There's only ten minutes left of your break," she said, smiling thinly at Lily from over the newspaper.
"Yes, Professor."
Then Lily headed off to the library to do some serious thinking.