Chapter 7: - Pureblood, Mudblood

Lily, Alice and Miriam were the last in the class to return to the Great Hall for lunch, And has they stepped through the huge oak doors the four long house tables burst into applause and cheering and complete strangers that Lily had never seen before rushed forwards to shake Miriam's hand and congratulated her. They had only been a few minutes behind the class but it was obvious that the story of what had happened in the flying lesson had already spread, Miriam didn't look very happy about all the attention that she was receiving from the other students and she tried twice to get away from the mass but unsuccessfully. The three of them where only saved by the appearance of Miriam's older Brothers Thaddeus and Jedidiah, both looking very concerned for their sisters welfare.

"Go on hop it!" Jedidiah scowled at a group of third year Revenclaws gesturing with is thumb, the look on Jedidiah's face told them that he wasn't joking and they slinked off back to their table along with the rest of crowd that had gathered.

"We're very proud of you sis" Thaddeus said putting his arm around Miriam's shoulder as he and Jedidiah escorted them over to the Gryffindor table,

"It was bloody stupid!" Jedidiah said gruffly startling Lily and Alice, out of all the words she could have used Lily would never have described what Miriam had done as stupid! Brave yes, Heroic definitely! But bloody stupid! Jedidiah didn't even seem to realise that he had said something out of the ordinary in fact Thaddeus was now even agreeing with him.

"Proud as I am Mi you shouldn't have done it!" Thaddeus said shaking his head

"You could have been hurt!" Jedidiah cut in, sounding angry,

"Mother would never have forgiven us if anything had happened to you" Said Thaddeus cutting across Jedidiah. As much as Lily found the concern of Miriam's brothers for their sister very touching Lily couldn't help but think that it was very strange, they were speaking as though Miriam could have been killed!

After persuading her brothers that she was fine and that she would never do anything like it ever again Thaddeus and Jedidiah left to go back to the Slytherin table. Lily, Alice and Miriam sat down at the Gryffindor table and helped themselves to food. Lily didn't feel much like eating, she kept going over in her mind what had happened during the Flying lesson, those mumbled words she had heard and the fact that when she had turned to look they had come from James and he was quickly hiding his wand in his pocket, she didn't want to think that James could have done something so malicious but even Alice seemed convinced that it was him. Miriam seemed to be thinking about what had happened too, she was prodding her pork chop with her fork and her face had that same thoughtful expression that it had worn the previous night.

"Why did you do it?" Lily heard Miriam say in a very audible voice, the first years fell silent and they all turned to look at her

"I don't know what you mean?" James said raising his head to look at Miriam, his expression was blank

"You're not some how implying that James and I had anything to do with that little display, are you?" Sirius Black said innocently, Miriam stared at them for a while and when she finally did speak her voice was calm and unwavering

"Did it give you some sort of pleasure seeing Severus humiliated like that? Or did you do it to get back at him for something he'd done to you?"

"I haven't a clue what you're going on about" James replied the corner of his mouth struggling to contain a smile that was threatening to brake free,

"Think its funny do you!" Lily found herself snapping at James "does it amuse you that you could have killed Severus"

"Feel sorry for him do you?" Sirius snapped at her "Well don't he wouldn't have felt sorry if it was you!"

"And that some how makes it right does it?" Lily retorted, her cheeks burning as red as her hair "I should only show compassion to people who would show it to me?"

"Believe me" exclaimed James "If that had happened to you this hall would have been filled with laughter not cheering and shouts of congratulations!"

"That's enough!" said the voice of Remus Lupin from next to James "Were all supposed to be friends aren't we?"

But at this particular moment Lily didn't even want to look at James and Sirius let alone be friends with them and by the looks of it neither did Miriam.

After Lunch the Gryffindors headed for the dungeons for their second class of the day with the Slytherins: Potions.

Potions class was just as bad as Defence against the dark arts the previous day. Professor Toll the witch that taught the Potions class was a substitute teacher, the real teacher Professor Inconstans, hadn't been seen at the school for over six months. It had been rumoured that he had gone into the forbidden forest last term to collect fungi for potion ingredients and had been eaten by werewolf's but some people Thaddeus Artemis for one (or so Miriam told Lily has they sat at the back of the class) believed that Professor Inconstans had just simply had enough of the students and had left the school one day in the dead of night. Professor Toll set them all an exam in their first lesson, saying that she wanted to see how much they had all learned from the set books over the summer, Lily was really nervous about this and was very surprised to discover that she had got top marks along with Miriam, Remus, Sirius, James and Severus. Alice was just happy that she hadn't failed because Professor Toll read out the names of all those who had at the end of the class,

"Mr Avery, Miss Rookwood, Mr MacNair, and Miss Black" Professor Toll said, Lily stifled a laugh, as Bellatrix's name was mentioned; unfortunately Bellatrix who was sitting at the table in front had heard her.

"You will all be expected to improve upon your marks for next lesson" Toll informed them "Others will have more room for improvements then most" she said this last part glaring at the Slytherins most of whom had all failed and just has the bell rang Toll set them their first piece of homework a three foot essay on the uses and importance of boil potions.

The Gryffindor first years sat separately at dinner that evening James, Sirius and the rest of the boys sat at one end of the long house table while Lily, Miriam, Alice, Dymphna and Amy sat at the other end. Dinner was very subdued for the girls and to Lily the hall seemed even larger then before she was also sure that Bellatrix Black kept glaring at her from the Slytherin table or maybe it was just a figment of her imagination.

It didn't take long for Lily and Miriam to tire of sitting in the Great Hall and after half an hour they and Alice decided to head up to Gryffindor tower before the rest of the students had even started on pudding, they climbed the marble staircase, passed the first floor and climbed the stairs to the second,

"I'm going to nip to the toilet" Miriam announced as they passed the girls bathroom on the second floor "I'll meet you up there" Lily and Alice nodded and climbed the stairs to the third floor and then the fourth,

"I hate climbing all these stairs" Alice said warily "who decided the entrance for Gryffindor should be on the seventh floor anyway?"

"Perhaps they wanted to give a fatty like you some exercise!" said a spiteful voice from behind them, turning Lily saw standing on the corridor below them the thin, dark haired, heavily lidded form of Bellatrix Black and her face was splitting into one of her trademark evil smiles has she raised her wand and pointed it at Lily and Alice.

"I heard you laughing at me" Bellatrix shot at Lily as she slowly climbed the stairs and again just like back in the compartment on the Hogwarts express Lily's legs refused to move.

"You think you're really something don't you?" Bellatrix continued, moving slowly towards them "But your guardian isn't here now is she?"

Lily didn't know what Bellatrix was going on about what guardian! Her brain was screaming RUN! But her legs felt weak and still refused to move.

"What are you jabbering on about?" Alice asked Bellatrix and Lily suddenly realised that she wasn't alone on the stairs after all, the appearance of Bellatrix had made Lily completely forget that Alice was with her.

"Do you really think that an Artemis would really want friends that are lower then themselves?" Bellatrix said her smile growing even more malevolent has she climbed the stairs closer and closer, Lily backed into the wall. So this is what it was all about then was it? Bellatrix Black didn't like the idea of Miriam being friends with Lily, but why?

"Your... Your just jealous that Miriam's our friend" Lily attempted to say but Bellatrix just laughed insanely,

"Jealous of a disgusting filthy Mudblood like you?" she laughed again raising her wand higher pointing it straight at Lily's face

"Oi don't call her that!" Alice yelled angrily and Lily understood that she had just been insulted,

"Protecting the Mudblood are you?" Bellatrix yelled turning her wand point to Alice "Your as bad as the Mudblood you filthy Blood traitor"

"I'd rather be a Blood traitor then a horrid hag like you any day!" Alice retorted, and Lily immediately whished she hadn't, Bellatrix screamed and was about to yell something when,

"Expelliarmus!" cried a voice from the bottom of the stairs, Bellatrix's wand flew from her hand landed on the step beneath her and rolled to the foot of the stairs and came to rest at the feet of Frank Longbottom. Frank had his wand raised and was looking extremely angry,

"Leave them alone Black" he called, advancing up the stairs his wand still raised and pointing at Bellatrix

"You've just made a very big mistake Longbottom" Bellatrix scowled,

"You made the mistake first" Frank said grinning has he finally reach the top stair, Bellatrix glared at him for a second than took off back down the stairs stopping only to retrieve her wand and then she pelted down the corridor.

Lily let out a sigh of relief and leaned against the corridor wall, she felt so helpless, and why did Bellatrix hate her so much? Surly it wasn't just because she was friends with Miriam! Lily sighed again but this time it was to try and fight back the tears that where swelling up in her eyes but she couldn't hold them back and now she was really crying, huge tears rolled down her hot red cheeks and she slid down the wall sitting on the corridor floor,

"Don't cry" Alice implored her, kneeling down next to her and putting her arm around Lily's shoulders "Please don't cry"

"Yeah Lily, Bellatrix Black isn't worth anyone to worry about" Frank said kindly trying to reassure her, Lily didn't know why she was crying, she tried to explain this to Frank and Alice but her mouth only flapped open and no words would come out it only made the tears come faster and harder.

"Never-" called a voice from the bottom of the bottom of the stairs "Ever use the toilet on the second floor" the voice belonged to Miriam she was climbing the stairs towards them when she suddenly stopped, staring at the scene in front of her

"What's wrong?" Miriam asked sounding extremely worried as she dashed up the flight of stairs to join them

"Bellatrix Black called Lily a....a filthy Mudblood" Alice said quietly

"She didn't!!!" Miriam yelled indignantly looking at Lily, Lily nodded tears streaming down her face. Below them they could hear the many feet of the other students climbing the stairs on their way back to Gryffindor tower,

"Quickly" Said Frank grabbing Lily under her arms and pulling her up, they all headed into the nearest classroom and Frank closed the door behind them and steered Lily into the nearest chair. Lily was very grateful to Frank for this she didn't want the rest of the school to know that she'd been crying and she most certainly didn't want to explain to them why.

"Here" Frank said kindly and he gave Lily his handkerchief, which Lily took trying to force a smile as she wiped her tears off her cheeks,

"What happened?" Lily heard Miriam ask the others as she sat next to Lily her arm around Lily's shoulder and Alice and Frank both explained what had happened.

"Lily you have to understand something" Miriam said after Alice and Frank had finished telling her what had happened and Lily had finally dried her eyes "There are some wizarding families like mine and the Blacks who think that their better then others, because we're, what we call ourselves, Pureblood. The truth is we're all just inbred cretins", Lily managed to laugh at this, she knew that Miriam was only trying to cheer her up and Miriam, Alice and Frank smiled

"Don't worry about it" Miriam reassured her "so what if she's inbred that makes you different from the rest of us doesn't it? It doesn't mean your not as good, did you see her in potions she failed that test didn't she but you didn't, did you!"

"It was only because I read the text book over the summer" Lily said her voice sounding very weak

"Precisely!" Miriam said as though what Lily had said solved everything "Bellatrix could have done that too but she didn't did she? And shall I tell you why" Miriam didn't even wait for a reply before she continued "It's because she thinks that because she's a Pureblood that it means she already knows everything and that she's superior to everyone else"

"You haven't got to let the likes of Bellatrix Black upset you Lily" Frank said squeezing her shoulder gently "there are people like Bellatrix every where even in the Muggle world! Just because over generations they have claimed to be different doesn't make them any better"

"Unless you're an Artemis" Miriam said grinning "Then you are different!"

"Yes" Frank said smiling at Miriam "Artemis' are different, their more gullible for a start" Miriam punched him playfully on the arm and Lily and Alice both giggled. Like in most cases when someone has done something really exceptional to help you Lily, Miriam, Alice and Frank all become very firm friends, in fact with the addition of Frank into their threesome there was much more fun and laughter as the four friends played off each others strongest characteristics.