Septième Amour
Intro:
...? There's nothing to say...
All characters here belong to JK Rowling (Except for the ones you don't recognize)!
Chapter Three: Mudblood and Filth
After a few moments of silence, Lily said, yawning, "Well I'm off then."
Before she could reach the door however, she heard James ask, "Why do you like Snape so much?"
"Huh?" Lily said, surprised. She thought for a moment and replied briskly, "I don't."
"Then why is it that you're so... bothered by the fact that we... sorta tease him?"
Lily snorted. "That's an understatement." Then added, "You could try being nicer. Stop picking fights with him for starters."
James opened his mouth to say something else, but Lily cut him off.
"Don't say you haven't cursed him since last year; I saw you turning him into a cactus on the train today."
She was halfway out the door when James said quietly, "You didn't stop me."
"Huh?
"Why didn't you stop me? From teasing him?"
"Because when I got there, Lupin had just turned him back."
"Oh."
The following day passed rather uneventfully. The talk regarding NEWTs issued as expected, arousing a shadow of panic in the halls.
Lily noticed many new faces grin or smile as she approached, and sometimes felt a flicker of arrogance stir within her, for her prefect's badge did give her a lot of pride, resting against the dark of her robes. Whenever that would happen, Lily felt immediately ashamed and even took her badge down as a way to scold herself for thinking in an arrogant way.
On Thursday, her third day since she arrived at Hogwarts, James approached her in the Great Hall during dinner, and announced himself –"Rather haughtily," Lily thought- quidditch captain, throwing huge grins at Lily and obvious winks to her friends.
With the exception of Gretle, who sometimes hung around the marauders and sometimes Lily ("acting rather like a happy, drifting cloud," Lily thought one night), all of Lily's other friends were quite taken with James. Lily thought he was a git, and Gretle just saw James as her quidditch captain (she played chaser) and a friend.
James also said that they wouldn't be able to meet at the Head Prefect's room tomorrow because he'd received detention from their Care of Magical Creatures professor, for attempting to set nifflers lose in the dungeons, in hopes that they would somehow manage to slip into the Slytherin common room.
Friday morning arrived, along with a howler for Sirius.
Lily wasn't paying much attention to the marauders when the smoking red envelope came, as she was too caught up in examining what was in her porridge.
It was only when Alana said suddenly, "Oh! Howler!" when Lily finally looked up (or rather, left) and saw a pale Sirius glancing nervously at the envelope.
James reached for the howler, looking troubled and then said something to Sirius, who laughed weakly. Sirius then took the envelope from James and opened it slowly. A shrill, loud, musty and horrible scream filled the Great Hall. Through the corner of her eyes, Lily saw Bellatrix Black from the Slytherin table snicker.
"SIRIUS YOU FILTHY DISGRACE OF A PUREBLOOD! IF I DIDN'T KNOW BETTER, I WOULD COME TO HOGWARTS RIGHT NOW, AND PERSONALLY TAKE YOU HOME! JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL THIS SUMMER! YOU MAY THINK YOU'RE GOING TO THAT OBNOXIOUS JAMES' HOUSE, BUT I'VE ALREADY SPOKEN TO HIS FOOL OF FATHER, AND HE'S AGREED TO LET YOU COME AND... "VISIT". YOU'D BETTER STOP LIVING AT JAMES' HOUSE NOW IF YOU EXPECT TO BE TREATED RESPECTFULLY IN THE BLACK HOUSEHOLD AGAIN! TO THINK, MY OWN SON, LIVING WITH A BUNCH OF MUDBLOOD LOVING FILTH! YOU TRAITOROUS DIMWIT! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY SIRIUS! WE'VE NEVER HAD THESE TYPE OF PROBLEMS WITH YOUR BROTHER OR ANY OF YOUR COUSINS! LOOK UP TO THE RIGHT PEOPLE!"
The howler burst into flames.
Lily looked at the Slytherin table. All of them were already roaring with laughter, and Bellatrix stood up and bowed, earning applause from her friends. Bellatrix saw Lily looking and mouthed something at her that she couldn't catch. Lily scowled at her and looked sympathetically down the table at the marauders.
Peter was staring at Sirius, wearing the same expression of pity as Lily. Lupin was frowning, and saying something to James, who was listening intently while glaring so fiercely at the Slytherins, that if looks could kill, half of the Great Hall would be melting, and Sirius was staring at his porridge, eyes unfocused.
Lily averted her eyes and instead looked around the rest of the hall. Her green eyes were flashing, and her lips slightly pursed, offended at the letter and angry at the Slytherins.
"Hey Lily..." Alana asked. "Are you okay?"
Lily nodded.
The Gryffindors were mainly eating now, trying to look as though nothing happened, talking in louder voices than necessary. The Ravenclaws and Hufflpuffs looked horrified at what they just heard, and kept on shooting expressions of sympathy towards Sirius.
Lily turned back to her porridge and kept on eating, though her appetite was gone.
How could Sirius' family be like that? She'd always thought Sirius was annoying, but, never, in a zillion years, would she have imagined him to be born to such a nasty family.
Then her thoughts involuntarily shifted to James. James had let Sirius stay in his house. For a second, Lily felt an upsurge of liking for the marauders, but then it became reduced to a size equivalent of a finger. No matter what, James and Sirius were still conceited and big-headed...
James was now looking at the Slytherins with murder in his eyes, not listening to a word Lupin was saying. Peter was now talking to a girl beside him, constantly shifting his eyes to Sirius and back. Lily could tell he wasn't really focused on his conversation with the girl. Lupin was still trying to talk to James, and Sirius was still staring at his porridge.
Lily thought that, if she was in Sirius' situation, she'd just get out of the hall before suffering further from embarrassment.
"Too proud probably. Apparently, marauders don't run from anything," Lily thought, remembering something James told her.
After a couple more minutes, the howler was driven from her mind when one of her friends, Shauna, told her that they had double Divination this morning with the Ravenclaws, followed by Astronomy with the Hufflepuffs and then lunch. Lily greeted this unpleasant news with a groan.
Apart from history of magic, Lily's least favourite subject is Divination. The teacher, Professor Grabinde, was a silly ancient man, almost as old as Dumbledore himself, who wiggled around the classroom, popping behind students, scaring them.
Lily followed Shauna, Alanna, Daniela, Shauna's boyfriend (Greg), and Alanna's boyfriend (Dean) upstairs to the East tower where divination is usually held.
Before leaving the Great Hall, Lily looked back and saw Sirius, laughing, pour his porridge on James. James looked surprised, but then joined Remus, Peter, and Sirius in their mirth, glad his best friend was back to normal.
On the way, Lily's friends began talking about Sirius' howler, looking constantly over their shoulders to make sure the marauders weren't behind them.
"Wow, that James sure is loyal, letting Sirius stay at his house." Shauna said after a while. Greg looked alarmed and practically lunged to hold her hand.
"Did you see the way he was looking at the Slytherins? It was so creepy!" Shauna breathed.
Alanna nodded. "Yeah... I have to say, that James can be very hot sometimes."
"Oh please!" Greg and Lily muttered as Dean tisked and wrapped his arm tighter around a giggling Alanna.
Daniela grinned and linked her hands through Lily's.
"We're all married here." Daniela said. Shauna and Alanna blushed. The boys grinned teasingly at them.
"Anyway Lily! What do you think about James now?" Shauna asked suddenly, breaking her gaze with Greg.
"He's still the same old James." Lily muttered, and then added as an afterthought, "I guess he's... nicer though."
Daniela beamed at her while Dean started clapping (but then stopped after an alarmed look as no one else was applauding their approval). For some strange reason, all of Lily's friends wanted her and James to end up together.
"I still think he's a stupid jerk though." Lily grinned and watched her friends' faces fall.
After climbing a couple more flights of stairs, they were joined by Gretle, who enthusiastically began to talk about the "hotness of Sirius".
Lily and her friends had heard zillions of times this talk, but Alanna and Daniela were always still interested. Soon after, "Lily's crowd" rearranged themselves so that Lily had her arms linked with Shauna instead, walking with Dean and Greg behind Gretle, Alanna and Daniela. It wasn't long before Lily and Greg began a heated debate about owl mail, Shauna occasionally commenting.
"Well now students... Today, we shall fully discover the finishing touches to the crystal ball. Who can tell me what the last change to the crystal ball was?" Professor Grabinde wheezed then pointed to Nathan who had his hand up.
"Yes Mr. Lovegood?"
"A hinkypunk once cross-breeded with a jellyfish, and came up with a new life form, called the hinkjelly."
Many students, including Peter, snickered. James and Sirius however, were looking at Nathan with just a little look of amusement, whilst Lupin fought to contain the urge to roll his eyes; he settled for just smiling encouragingly.
"He'd make a good teacher some day." Lily thought.
Nathan seemed not to be fazed. He was sitting beside his girlfriend, Merilyn, who was staring dreamily and unfocused into a crystal ball.
"The hinkjelly," Nathan continued, "produced a significant-"
"That's enough Mr. Lovegood." Professor Grabinde said irritably.
The rest of the lesson continued normally enough. No one seemed too eager to bring up the howler incident after seeing James' face.
A/N
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