Tears of Flame
Disclaimer – If you recognise it, it isn't mine…
I'm sorry you've all had to wait so long, I wrote myself into a plot hole, and have only just worked out how to get out of it. This chapter's quite short, and I'm sorry for that too. On a brighter note, while you're waiting for me to post the next chapter (*snaps on cheesy advertising smile*) why not check out A Right Royal Mix-up, my new fic… I'm not deserting you, promise! This is my favourite fic, ARRM is just easier to write… Don't kill me! Anyway, you've waited long enough, I'll let you actually read the chapter now…
Chapter 6 – Trifle and Tears
By the Friday of her first week at Hogwarts, Lily was disheartened and lonely. She longed more than anything to return to Arabella, and to feel loved. She had never felt as alone as she did now, among the crowds of students. Even the singing that had always kept her going echoed dismally around the dark corridors before falling into silence. Her meagre hopes of friendship had been dashed. Since the Transfiguration debacle on her first day, Remus had started to spend more and more time with James, the guy who had had sausage fingers, and less and less time with her. Lily supposed she should have expected it – no eleven-year-old boy she knew spent time with a girl if he had any choice. A younger girl at that. But this didn't stop it hurting. Remus had seemed different – he'd accepted her, bandages and all. But he had only abandoned her.
No one else talked to her, except to taunt her. The Gryffindor girls stuck there noses in the air and ignored her, but she heard them whispering about her when her back was turned. The boys weren't much better. Remus and James avoided her as much as possible. She thought that perhaps Remus felt guilty, but this was small consolation for his treatment of her. Sirius, who had paired up with the unlikely Peter Pettigrew (mainly as he was the only boy left) took every opportunity to annoy and torment her. Her name, due to Sirius's incessant teasing, was now irrevocably "Neffy" among the student population, after the Ancient Egyptian queen, Nefertiti. She had also fallen victim to several of his pranks – a hex that had made her write in Greek for a day, several snails in her bad, and the deeply unoriginal exploding quill.
The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs muttered about her in corridors. Even the teachers tried to avoid her gaze. Only the Slytherins were worse. Since Dumbledore had blocked her magic, she had been unable to master even the simplest spell, a fact that a particularly vindictive Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape had been quick to notice. Every time a Slytherin passed her, they insulted her background, ("Stinking Mudblood scum!") her looks, ("No wonder you have to cover your face – bet it'd petrify us!") and her, now nonexistent, magical talent ("Worthless Muggle, can't even send sparks at us"). Lily was outcast, and at her lowest ebb. Even with her father, she was able to fight, to defy. Now she couldn't even do that.
***
Remus felt a twinge of guilt as he scanned the common room and his gaze feel on Lily, curled up in the corner with a large novel. She had seemed so nice, and funny. But James was funny too, and he was a boy and wasn't considered 'weird'. He'd had great fun over the last week with James, pranking Sirius and playing exploding snap. But every time he saw Lily, his happiness deflated in the face of her misery. Remus sighed. If only they could all be friends… He grimaced as he remembered James's reaction to that particular suggestion. ("What? Friends with Neffy the freak? Have you gone loopy, Lupin?")
He averted his gaze from Lily before she noticed him, and headed out of the portrait hole to meet James in the empty classroom they had claimed as their headquarters. On arrival, he was greeted by the sight of James bending over a bucket, tapping it with his wand and cackling at his own evilness.
"OK, you're starting to scare me now," Remus said, advancing warily.
"Oh, don't worry, it's just a little something for Neffy. I need something better for our next prank on Sirius."
"Lily? You're going to pull a prank on Lily?"
"No. We are."
Remus started to stutter. "But… I mean, she's… she's not that bad…"
James snorted sceptically. "Come on! She's a freak of the first order. Anyway, why are you defending her? Come and help me with the prank."
Remus sighed, resigned. "All right. What are you planning to do to her?"
***
To say Lily was not surprised when, upon entering the common room the next afternoon, she was dowsed form head to foot in trifle would be untrue; but the fact she was unfazed was clearly evident. Most of the occupants of the common room – apart from several seventh years, (who rolled their eyes at the immaturity of the first years) and Remus (who seemed to be avoiding her gaze) were rolling around on the floor in hysterics, James Potter most of all, she noticed. Lily restrained from rolling her eyes also; instead, she lifted a custard covered finger, dipped it into the cream that coated her hair and licked it.
"Delicious," she remarked to no-one in particular, and she proceeded to a chair by the fire and opened her book, pausing every now and then for a bit more trifle.
Remus couldn't quite suppress his smile at Lily's reaction, but James was incensed; how dare she actually enjoy his prank! She was supposed to run off in tears or something. He turned to Remus. "Right. This is war."
Remus looked slightly alarmed. "Um…. What about Sirius?"
"Oh yeah. Well, we can't surrender; we'll have to get him too."
And so James embarked on a war on two fronts.
***
After three days, the prank war had mixed results. On the one hand, the fight against Sirius was proceeding satisfactorily; they were embarrassed and elated by turns as they pranked and were counter-pranked.
However, Lily seemed to be unprankable. After three more failed pranks, James was seeing red. She had smiled at him – actually smiled! – after he'd turned her hair blue, and thanked him! She liked it! The spiders in her bed were another failure; she had ignored them, while the other Gryffindor girls had shrieked and hidden in the bathroom until they'd gone, at which Lily had laughed, and enjoyed the free run of her dormitory for the evening. He'd transfigured her steak into a vampire bat last night, but she'd been delighted, and had named it Rufus and let it sleep in her hair. That had been the last straw – it was a very difficult bit of transfiguration, and James had been sure it would work. Livid, James was now plotting his worst prank yet. He had been saving a prank of this magnitude for Sirius, but now lesser pranks had failed, he'd promoted Lily to public enemy number one – she deserved the most diabolical plots he could come up with.
He'd get her this time.
***
That evening, after dinner, James disappeared off the face of the earth – or so it seemed to Remus. He searched everywhere but there was no sign of him. Eventually, Remus gave up and slumped into a chair in the common room, resigned to spending the evening doing his potions homework.
***
Meanwhile, James was in the library under his invisibility cloak – it wouldn't do for anyone to see him here, it'd ruin his reputation – avidly pouring through books in search of the perfect curse to use on Lily. Eventually he discovered a spell in "Diabolical Diseases – Curses and Cures for Ailments of the Anatomy". It was a very difficult hex – sixth year level – but James, determined to prank Lily, struggled with it all night. By four in the morning, he had managed it with some degree of success by practicing on his Quidditch figurines. He cackled evilly as he left the library, heading for the Gryffindor common room and Lily Evans's dorm…
***
Remus awoke the next morning and noticed at once that it would probably be an eventful morning. For a start, James had clearly been up very late, because he was sprawled on his bed still wearing his robes. When Remus attempted to wake him up, James – normally a very early riser – merely rolled over and snored on. James slept through cold water, a fanfare and cockroaches down his pyjamas. He only awoke when suddenly, a loud, high scream of anguish came from the girls' dorms. Remus winced as James jerked into wakefulness. The scream was still going, on and on and on.
As everyone in Gryffindor Tower was rudely awakened, along with the portraits for four corridors in every direction, Remus turned to James, who was grinning in triumph.
When he spoke, Remus's voice was cold enough to freeze Firewhisky. "What did you do?"
***
Oooh! Cliffy! I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. What did James do to her? I'll update as soon as possible, but my mumsi has more or less banned me from reading or writing fanfiction ("You should be doing your coursework" or "You should be researching current affairs for your interview") so I have to update clandestinely (is that a word?) so I might be even longer than usual… Sorry!
Frigid billy goat!