A/N: Lily's first free time... please read and review!
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns what she created
When class got out, Lily waited for Severus. He stuffed his books in his bag and looked at her.
"Ready to go?"
"I think I'm going to stop by my room really quick and drop off my stuff. You can come, it won't take very long."
"Yeah, I'll just wait for you in the front hall. I might get killed if I tried to go anywhere near your common room."
"Oh, yeah. Ok, well, I'll see you in a couple of minutes."
She headed up to her room. Thankfully, she didn't run into anyone she knew. She had a feeling that they wouldn't be too understanding of her hanging out with Severus. She dropped her stuff on her bed and ran back down to the Great Hall. Severus wasn't there yet.
"Hey, Lily!"
She turned and saw Sirius and Remus coming towards her.
"Hey guys!"
"Glad we found you! We're getting some people together to play a game."
"What kind of game?"
"You'll just have to wait and find out," Sirius said with a wink.
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I already have plans to hang out with someone else."
"Just bring them along! The more the merrier!"
"I don't think that he'd want to play your game, Sirius."
"Ooohh, it's a he? Who is it, Lily?"
"None of your business. Uh, Remus, are you ok?"
Remus had turned quite pale all of a sudden, his eyes on something behind Lily. Her and Sirius both turned and saw Severus coming across the hall towards them. Lily groaned inwardly. This wasn't going to be pretty.
Severus stopped next to her and nodded, completely ignoring Sirius and Remus. Sirius's eyes were narrowed and he looked ready to attack. Lily grabbed Severus's arm and started to walk quickly away.
"This is who you're hanging out with? Snivilly?" Sirius exploded behind them.
Lily sighed, gave Severus a look telling him to keep out of it, and turned back around.
"Yes, Sirius, this is who I'm hanging out with. He promised to introduce me to some more Slytherins."
"And you took him up on his offer? Are you insane? He's probably planning to look you up somewhere and do- do who knows what to you!"
Lily started laughing. Sirius had slowing been turning red, and this comment pushed her over the edge.
"Sirius, you're ridiculous. I'll see you later. Have a good time with your game."
Sirius started to splutter, but Remus grabbed his arm and whispered something in his ear. He waved at Lily.
"Bye, Lily. We'll see you later!"
Lily waved back and turned back to Severus, who had an odd expression on his face.
"I could be, you know."
"Could be what?"
"Planning on locking you up somewhere."
Lily started to laugh again, "Oh please. Not you too!"
"It's happened before," he said quietly.
"What has?" said Lily breathlessly.
Severus began walking again, "People have disappeared and no one ever hears from them again. It's hushed up, of course, that's not the sort of thing Dumbledore wants getting out. He wants everyone to think that Hogwarts is completely safe and nothing strange ever happens. The teachers know about everything that goes on. Ha. You should watch yourself though. I happen to have better things to do with my time, but there are people who might... wish to harm you. People from all houses, despite what Potter may have told you. Be careful who you wander off with. Even girls."
Lily stared at him, "Ever since I've gotten here, people haven't stopped giving me warnings. What is with this school?"
He shrugged.
Lily looked around. She had no idea where they were.
"Where are we going, anyways?"
"Room of Requirement. It's where we meet in the school."
"What's the Room of Requirement? And do you ever meet outside the school?"
"It's a room that will turn itself into whatever we need it to be. And yes, we meet outside the school (during the school year) all the time. Mostly for classes."
"There you go with the classes again. I take it that you're not talking about normal classes?"
"Nope."
"You're not going to tell me anything else, are you?"
"Nope."
Lily sighed, "You're so helpful."
"You'll probably find out soon enough anyways," he stopped in front of an empty stretch of wall, "Here we are."
Lily looked around, "Uh, Severus? Are you sure this is the right place?"
He simply pointed in back of her. She turned and saw a door in the wall behind that had most definitely not been there before.
He walked forwards and motioned for her to go in.
"Don't say anything until I introduce you," he whispered in her ear as she passed.
As she entered the room, everyone in it looked at her and stopped talking. They seemed to relax a bit when they saw Severus come in behind her. Lily saw Bellatrix in the corner looking at her with narrowed eyes.
Severus ignored everyone and walked her over to the Head Boy.
"Augustus, this is Lily Evans. You remember her from the train." It was a statement, not a question.
Augustus looked her over, and then nodded once. Conversations started up again in the room and Lily guessed that she had just been accepted temporarily into their group.
Severus led her over to a group of four that included Evan and Emmeline. They stopped talking when they saw Lily.
Severus sat down and pulled Lily down beside him.
"Hey guys, meet Lily Evans. Go ahead and introduce yourselves."
"Hey, Lily," Evan smiled at her.
Emmeline nodded, "We've met," she said to Severus.
A rather startling looking boy that Lily had noticed earlier in her Potions class held out his hand, "What's up? I'm Rabastan Lestrange." He had a large, dark purple mohawk that swayed slightly at the tips.
"Lily Evans, nice to meet you. Love your hair."
He laughed, "Glad to hear it. Yours is not so bad either."
Lily touched her hair gently.
"I'm Antonin Dolohov," said the boy with a long, pale, twisted face.
"He's the only 7th year Slytherin besides Augustus," said Rabastan.
"There aren't any girls?"
"Nah," said Severus, "The Slytherin house is very depleted. Everyone 5th year and up is here in this room."
Lily looked around. There weren't very many people, maybe a little less then 15.
Evan looked around too, "Let's see, there are three 5th year girls; Bellatrix, Emmeline, and Narcissa. Actually they are the oldest girls in the house. Then there are a lot of 5th year guys; me, Severus, Rabastan, Regulus, and Lucius. The two 6th years are Rodolphus and Walden, and then Augustus and Antonin are the only 7th years."
"Why so few?"
"After 5th year, most of the house is pulled out to move on to bigger and better things," said Rabastan, "Only the smartest get to continue school, like Antonin here," he bowed to Antonin, who waved his hand graciously.
Severus stood up, "Well, we've got to go meet some other people. We'll probably come back at some point, but Lily hasn't met a couple of people in that group over there," he waved vaguely behind him.
Lily followed him to Bellatrix's group. Narcissa, who was also there, gave Lily a small, twisted smile. The tall boy with long, white hair standing next to Narcissa glanced at Lily.
"Hello, I don't believe we've met. My name is Lucius Malfoy," he bowed lightly.
"I'm Lily Evans, nice to meet you."
"What house are you in?"
"Gryffindor."
Lucius raised his eyebrows delicately, "Well, it's been a very long time since we've had a Gryffindor at one of out meetings. You must be very special indeed."
Lily wasn't quite sure how to respond to a person that talked like someone from a Muggle fairytale. Fortunately another boy spared her the necessity by introducing himself.
"Hi Lily, I'm Rodolphus Lestrange."
"Nice to meet you," She noticed a scar running all the way down the right side of his face, but decided against asking about it.
She glanced at Bellatrix, who, to Lily's great relief, nodded.
Severus motioned towards the last boy, "And this is Regulus Black. Sirius's little brother."
"Sirius has a little brother?"
Regulus scowled at Severus, "I could have introduced myself, you know."
Lily looked carefully at him. He had light hair and black eyes. He didn't look anything like Sirius.
"I would never have guessed that you're Sirius's brother! You don't like him."
Rodolphus snorted, "He works at that. That isn't his natural hair or eye color. He spends way too much time on his appearance."
Regulus sneered at Rodolphus," If you had an older brother like Sirius, you would do your best to distance yourself from him too."
Lily thought he had a fair point. She could imagine how Sirius would react to a younger brother being sorted into Slytherin.
"Wait, there are a lot of Blacks. Are you all brothers and sisters?"
Bellatrix laughed, "That'd be awkward. Nah, we're just cousins. Regulus and Sirius are brothers. Me and Narcissa are sisters, and we actually have another sister in Ravenclaw. Her name's Andromeda. We don't talk to her very much. Or rather, she doesn't talk to us very much."
Lily thought for a little, "I don't remember another Black. Is she in 5th year?"
"No, 6th year. We're all a year apart. Narcissa is actually a year younger then me, but was pushed into school early by my parents' request. They had business and couldn't take her with them"
"Dumbledore let her come in early?"
Bellatrix shrugged, but Narcissa spoke up, "That was the only way my parents would let me come, or at least that's what they said, and Dumbledore is really big on every child getting a proper education or some crap like that."
"Now, I don't agree with everything Dumbledore does, but that made sense. What does one year's difference make, really?" Rabastan said, rubbing his head next to the mohawk.
"Is your hair stiff?' Lily asked suddenly. She was fascinated by Rabastan's hair and the way it was constantly swaying, but still stood up straight.
"Nah, go ahead and feel it. I charm it up. That gunk you can put in your hair turns flaky and crunchy. Not exactly what I want on my head."
Lily reached out and ran her hand over the top of his mohawk. The soft hair bent quite easily under her hand and then returned back to its upright position.
"That's so cool! Do you think you could show me how to do that sometime?"
Rabastan shrugged, "Sure. Maybe sometime this weekend."
Severus coughed slightly, "Right, well, we still have one more person to meet: Walden."
"Have fun with that," said Bellatrix.
Lily found herself being led forcefully over to where Augustus was talking to a tall, muscular boy with darkly tanned skin. They stopped as Severus and Lily came up.
"Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but Lily hasn't met Walden yet."
"That's quite all right. We were just finishing," Augustus smiled, and turned to the other boy, "I'll see you later Walden."
Walden watched Augustus leave with no expression on his face, then turned to Lily.
"Lily, how nice to meet you. My name is Walden Macnair. I've been anticipating meeting you."
"You have?"
"Yes, you have?" Severus looked at Walden with a slight frown.
"Of course. Lily's a new Gryffindor with powerful friends in Slytherin. A rather unusual combination, don't you think?" he turned back to Lily, "You may have noticed, but we don't get along with Gryffindors very well."
"You don't seem to get along with anyone else very well."
Walden laughed, "That's not quite fair, Lily. Everyone else doesn't get along with us. Gryffindor is the only house that we are antagonistic towards. Not unfairly either. You may not have noticed, but they don't exactly go out of their way to make life pleasant for us."
Lily smiled, "Especially James and Sirius."
A very ugly look appeared on Walden's face suddenly, "It would give me great pleasure to have those two at my disposal for a couple of hours. I could finally break in that set I got from my uncle last Christmas."
The hairs on the back of Lily's neck and arms were all standing up. She realized that Walden was not the sort of person you wanted to be left alone with, unless you were sure he was on your side.
"Yeah, well, we're all best buds with those two. Don't want to take up too much of your time, Walden, just wanted Lily to meet you."
Walden's face cleared up and he smiled beautifully, "I'm very glad you brought her. Lily, fantastic to meet you. Hopefully we'll get a chance to talk more soon. Maybe this Saturday?"
Lily smiled back, and turned to Severus once he had left, "What's Saturday?"
"Class assignments."
Lily threw up her hands, "Classes again!"
Severus just smiled.
She looked around, "So, is this actually a meeting, or what?"
"Nah, just a place where we can get together and hang out, without being disturbed by others."
"Couldn't you just go to your common room?"
"Younger students."
"Ah."
"Hey Severus and Lily! Stop flirting and come play some cards with us!" Bellatrix yelled from across the room, where most of the students had gathered into a large circle.
Lily laughed and caught Severus's eye, "Cards?"
"Why not?"