Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or settings from the Harry Potter series. JK Rowling owns them.
Unlike Lily, who was now sleeping peacefully, Severus had not had a good evening. After being sorted into Slytherin, he spent his meal next to Bellatrix, who was blabbing about who knows what.
He mostly watched Lily and James through narrowed eyes, contemplating how long it would take Lily to fall for James's good looks and charm. Not very long, considering that James would be wooing her every possible second.
Why oh why did her have to be put into Slytherin! Now James would have every class with her and study with her and eat with her...
Severus was interrupted from his depressing musings by Bellatrix coming up from behind and slipping her hands over his shoulders.
"What are you thinking about sweetie??" Bellatrix leaned down and whispered into his ear.
"How nice it was to finally get away from you!" Severus snapped, as he stood up abruptly.
"Oh, you can't possibly mean that! After everything I've done for you?" Bellatrix paused before continuing in a slightly lower voice, "After that Mudblood deserted you..."
Severus interrupted her loudly, "Shut your foul mouth! Don't you dare talk about her!" and turned and stormed off to his room.
Bellatrix watched him leave with a calculating look in her eyes, "You'll warm up to me... Just wait and see."
Lily was woken up the next morning by the sun
streaming through a window onto her face. She was disoriented by the
unfamiliar surroundings for a few seconds, but quickly recovered her
bearings and jumped out of bed.
Her roommates were still sleeping, so Lily dressed quietly and went down to the common room. She found James sitting broodingly in front of the empty fireplace. He turned when he heard her footsteps and jumped up when he saw who it was.
"Lily!" he came towards her quickly, but paused a few steps away, "I, um, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted yesterday," he stopped again, unsure how to continue.
"It's ok," Lily began, but James cut her off.
"No, really, it wasn't. And I just wanted to say that I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot, and I hope that you will give me another chance," he finished and waited nervously for her response.
Lily smiled and reached out for his hand, "Of course I will! Everyone makes mistakes!"
James exhaled, relieved, and smiled back, "You know, I wasn't really worried about what you were going to say. I mean, who could resist this?" he gestured up and down his body.
Lily rolled her eyes, "You are just as arrogant as ever. But it's ok, I still like you."
"Now that you two have made up, can we please go down to breakfast?"
Lily and James turned to see Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Arthur watching them with impatient expressions. They looked at each other and laughed, then headed down to the Great Hall.
Lily had barely settled into her seat when she saw her roommates come running in. They looked around, saw Lily, and came to sit next to her.
"Hey Lily! You were up early this morning!" greeted Heathcote, whose hair was tossed in all different directions. Sirius eyed her interestedly, and got a favorable look in response.
Lily noticed and introduced the two, "Heathcote, this is Sirius. Sirius, Heathcote." They promptly began talking, and didn't stop for the rest of the meal.
Lily was so involved with her new friends, that she didn't notice when Severus came into the hall. He sat down and watched her for a minute, noting the friendly manner in which her and James were acting towards each other. Already, she had given in to his charms.
"Hey Severus! How did you sleep? Well, I hope!" Bellatrix had sat down across from him, blocking out his view of Lily, "Could I see your schedule? I wanted to see which classes we have today!"
Severus groaned inwardly, but pulled out his schedule for her to look at. He noticed with pleasure that Gryffindors and Slytherins had quite a few double periods together throughout the week.
He got up abruptly and started out of the hall, ignoring Bellatrix's protests. Lily saw him get up and hurried over, catching his arm as he started up the stairs. James watched her go after Severus with an ugly look on her face that Bertha noted and tucked away.
"Severus!" Lily was panting with her effort to catch up, "You haven't talked to me yet today! Is something the matter?"
Severus shifted uncomfortably, "Well, I thought you were busy with your friends."
"You are one my friends! I will never be too busy to talk to you! That's a promise! Now c'mon, I think we have our first class together. Isn't it Transfiguration?" and they hurried off down the hall together.
Meanwhile, Bellatrix had waylaid James on is way out of breakfast.
"What do you want?" James eyed her warily, remembered the incident on the train.
"The same thing as you, I suppose," said Bellatrix silkily, "Lily and Severus to stay away from each other."
"Why do you care?"
"I feel the same way about Severus as you do about Lily. I don't want them hanging out together, and I assume that you don't either."
"That's right."
"So we need to make an arrangement. If you keep Lily out of my hair, then I'll keep Severus out of your's, hmmm?"
James thought for a second, then stuck out his hand, "Agreed."
Bellatrix took his hand gingerly and shook it, "Agreed."
They turned and went their separate ways, each smiling slightly to themselves.
A/N: Ok, a little shorter then the last one, but still exciting! New things developing! Please review and I will have the next chapter up asap!
P.S. Next week I will be able to put a whole bunch of new chapters up because most of my family will be gone! So if things seem a little slow this week, they will be picking up soon! Also, head's up, I will be gone from July 11-31 and I will not be able to update during that time because I will not have access to a computer! Hopefully I will still be able to write the chapters, though, and will post them as soom as I can!