I don't own JK Rowling's Harry Potter, but I own this fanfiction. ;-)

Chapter 3: Purple Acid & Obnoxious Singing

The sixth years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were already settled into their new lessons, in which there were longer lectures and a considerable amount of homework, aimed to help them achieve the top grades in their NEWT's. They were definitely used to the ancient castle and its going-on. By late October, the sixth years were quite comfortable with life at Hogwarts. By then, they had come to terms with that fact that less time in class did not mean that they had less work. In fact, they had gotten used to handling the large amounts of homework.

Lily Evans was one of those girls who'd manage to spend her free time both studying to maintain her top grades and chatting with her friends, forgetting schoolwork. Sure, it was a lot more work than fun on some days, but she took it all in stride. She also had Prefect duties to consider, but her time at Hogwarts was always fun.

One rather chilly day just before Halloween, she was walking up from Advanced Potions when she heard a commotion from a far, unused corridor of the dungeons. She walked toward the end where it was brightly lit. Frenzied whispers were reverberating throughout the walls of the hallway. Finally, Lily stepped into the light and gasped. For a second, she was too shocked to speak.

James Potter had been pointing his wand threateningly in the direction of what seemed to be a very large Hufflepuff third-year. The brown-haired boy already had what seemed to be a bloody nose, but purple, acrid slime had replaced the blood. The purple slime was smoking a little bit and it was giving off a revolting smell. "Just give me the money or it'll be your eyes streaming purple, next, Margate!"

The boy, who was on the verge of tears, now looked desperately at Lily, whom James still hadn't noticed was there. Finally, Lily yelled shrilly, "Potter!"

James turned with his mouth open. Upon seeing her, he automatically ran his hand through his hand. Grinning, he said with a deep, obviously fake voice, "Evans, what a pleasant surprise!"

Feeling anger rise in the pit of her stomach, she cried, "James Potter! What do you think you're doing?"

James smirked as he looked at the boy in a sinister way. "Margate and I were just have a friendly conversation about, er, business. Weren't we, Margate?" The boy looked as if he might cry.

Lily was enraged. "And your idea of a friendly conversation is to threaten someone with a curse! Look at what you've done to his nose." She pointed to the bleary eyed third year. The bottom half of his face was absolutely covered in the steadily streaming purple slime. Lily could actually hear the sizzle of the acidic slime as it was slowly burning the boy's face. She looked at him sympathetically. "Here. Take this to Madam Pomfrey immediately." With a wave of her wand she conjured a small piece of parchment and a quill that already seemed full of ink. She wrote a hasty note on the parchment and handed it to the boy.

Margate didn't seem to think twice about taking the note from Lily. He ran out of the corridor to get away from James.

Lily spat at James, "Do you have any reasonable excuse for this. Potter?"

James shrugged and said pompously, "Margate owed me a few galleons. I had to get through to him somehow."

Lily stomped her foot. "And you think that cursing them is a way to solve that?"

James shrugged again and replied, "A wizard's got to do what a wizard's got to do."

Lily now looked dangerous. She said vehemently, "I see no wizard here. Just a pompous prat who thinks he's too good for the rules or even decent behavior!"

James grinned, "Awe, you don't mean that!"

Lily yelled, "Oh, yes I do!"

"Come on, Evans. You had to have though my curse was pretty impressive."

Lily's face turned as red as her hair. "What?"

James nodded, "Yes, yes, that was all me. My own creation, you see. I was having trouble finding a curse that would truly impress on to others how serious I was about paying debts. I know some rather special people here at Hogwarts who seem to forget that all too often! I had to make sure that they got the message, you know." He added haughtily, "If you want, maybe I could teach you my Acid-Slime Curse."

Lily replied in a very ice tone, "No thank you Potter. I'd rather have tea with the entire Slytherin House than learn one of your stupid spells! You must think you're really great! Really original, too!" Before James could agree, Lily declared, "20 points from Gryffindor. And if I see purple acid anywhere in this school, I'll go straight to Dumbledore. Goodbye!"

She walked away quickly leaving James open-mouthed in defiant shock.

Lily spent the rest of the day, still angry about her encounter with Potter. She kept quiet about the incident, even though it was bothering her. By dinner, she felt that the worst of the anger had worn out as she walked with her friend Alice into the Great Hall.

"Do you think that we'll need to make Patronus on our NEWT's next year?" Alice asked her.

Lily smiled ruefully. "I definitely think so, Alice. They're probably going to be very important, and if you want to be an Auror, you'll have to be pretty good at it."

Alice frowned. "Well, I guess we could, you know, practice occasionally in one of the empty classrooms in school every once in a while. I know that we've already practiced them in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but I still think that my Patronus isn't up to par. We could practice all the complex spells every once in a while until we get them down." She and Lily seat themselves across from each other at the center of the long, wooden Gryffindor table.

Lily exclaimed, "That's an excellent idea, Alice! This way, we won't have to worry about getting the spells down at the last minute!"

Alice smiled gratefully, as she began eating her dinner of mashed potatoes and steak. Lily began dinner, too. After dessert, Alice decided to stay and chat for a little bit for they went up to the Common Room. Someone walked up to Alice and politely tapped her on the shoulder. Frank Longbottom was fairly short for a 16-year old. He had short, dirty blond hair, a very prominent chin and warm blue yes.

Alice turned around and instantly her round pale cheeks reddened upon seeing him. But instead of acting shy, she smiled and said cheerily, "Hello, Frank!" Clearly, she was very pleased that he had come over to talk to her. Lily looked like she was very interested in her Charms notebook all of a sudden.

Frank asked, "How have you been lately?"

Alice answered, "Oh I've been fine. Classes have been so much harder this year, don't you think? Lily and I were just discussing how we should practice spells on our own together in an empty classroom every week of so. That way, we won't panic so much next year when our Practical NEWT's come along."

Impressed, Frank nodded. "That's a very good idea!"

Alice blushed. "So what have you been up to lately?"

Frank shrugged dramatically and answered, "Well, in between these large amounts of homework, I finally managed to get myself into something that I've been expecting for the past six years."

This time, Lily looked up curiously. Alice raised her eyebrows and asked, "What?"

Frank held back a chuckle and said, "I've got a detention with Sirius Black and James Potter tomorrow night!"

Lily's fists clenched and she scowled.

Alice shook her head, though she didn't look half as upset about it as Lily did. Frank went on quickly. "It wasn't really my fault," he said to both girls. (There was a quick exchange of skeptical glances between Lily and Alice at that comment.) "It's just that that Slytherin bloke, Wilkes, started yelling at this wee little first-year girl for being Muggle-born. And, you know, he didn't exactly call her that. He used a rather rude words with her. He was yelling awful things and his friends were all laughing and jeering. So there you go. Black, Potter, and I sort of just lost our tempers. Wilkes is in the Hospital Wing now. The poor girl was still hysterical, even ten minutes after McGonagall came and sorted things out and assigned us detentions. She was a Ravenclaw, I think. I think her name was Nena Abassi."

The gazes on Lily and Alice were a bit softened now. Lily said quietly, "I know where you're coming from, Frank, but you didn't have to hex Wilkes you know." Alice nodded, agreeing.

Frank smiled. "I can't say I was completely right, but I don't regret it. That girl needed help and Wilkes wasn't going to go away just because we told him so. And who knows what he could have done to her if we had gone off to get a teacher? I think it was ok to hex him in that situation." Look at the expressions on the two girls' faces, he said, "Let's just agree to disagree, ok?"

Lily shrugged. Alice changed the subject. "Anything else new, Frank?"

Frank shuffled his feet. Look at the hem of his robes, he asked, "Well, I was wondering if you'd come with me to Hogsmeade on Halloween." He looked up, grinning widely. "I promise I won't hex you!"

Alice laughed. "That would be very nice, Frank. Thank you."

"Excellent! See you later, then!" He winked as he walked away. This time, Alice really blushed.

Lily burst into a fit of giggles as Alice gushed over Frank Longbottom and his upcoming date with her.

"I don't know, he isn't bad looking, is he, even if he is a bit on the short side. He's always nice to me and –"

Alice was cut of by a sudden uproar of laughter from the end of the long table.

Lily look around to see what the commotion was all about. Standing on the top of the table was Sirius Black, holding his wand out and swaying his hands around like an orchestra conductor. A few feet from him James Potter was on the table, standing there as if he was in a trance. His eyes were wide, and he was singing at the top of his lungs. His voice had been magnified so every person in the Great Hall could hear him:

Champions, Gryffindors, Champions are we.

Better, brighter, than those other three.

(James actually pointed to the other three Hogwarts Houses at this point.)

We can't help being so bold and so brave!

We're not like Slytherins, those ugly knaves.

We'll win the Quidditch Cup, of that we are sure.

Come see our matches, they're never a bore.

Oh, come see me, Potter, Chaser with Charm.

And go out with me Evans, it'll do you no harm!

Some students, mainly Slytherins, booed at the song. Some people ignored James and Sirius, but most of the Gryffindor table was laughing and applauding.

Lily, somewhat appalled by the song, rolled her eyes at both James and Sirius. Sirius looked proud of the song. James had a slightly bemused expression on his face. Lily whispered, "Let's go, Alice. I have a giant essay to write about Veritaserum. Let's just go."

Alice nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's."

And both girls walked out of the room calmly and quietly, knowing full well that hundreds of eyes were upon them. Sirius called out to them, but Lily paid no attention. She was now focusing on Veritaserum.

Who in the hell did Potter think he was, pulling a loud, obnoxious stunt like that? Lily was thinking of ways to use Veritaserum on him. She half wished that she had a cauldron right in front of her so she could mix up the potion then and there.

Oh, the questions she'd love to ask Potter! What is your most embarrassing moment? When did you stop wetting the bed? Have you ever tried on lipstick?

Knowing that she'd never want to be asked some personal questions after sipping a bit of Veritaserum, Lily savagely thought of all the embarrassing answers she could elicit from James Potter with it. Her blood was still boiling, so she took great satisfaction in imagining his little stupid secrets and how the school would react after they had heard about it. Lily thought to herself bitterly, he wouldn't be so cool, then, would he?