As first days of school went, that particular September the second was not particularly eventful. Lily's first class was Herbology, which was unfortunately with the Hufflepuffs rather than the Slytherins – she always worried about what might be happening to Verona when the two did not have classes together. Professor Sprout announced that they would be spending September studying the uses of mistletoe and asked them to get into pairs, which made Lily flinch. She was always the last to be chosen in anything that involved pairs.

Today, however, to her surprise, Jessie MacGregor came right up to her. "Do you want to work together?" she asked.

"I guess we could," said Lily.

Jessie smiled at her. "Great," she said. Let's go get some mistletoe."

Friendliness was a Hufflepuff attribute, Lily reminded herself as they took sprigs from the sample plant while Professor Sprout asked if anybody knew the magical properties of mistletoe. But all the same, she suspected that Jessie had only approached her because of their shared experience yesterday... and she turned out to be quite right. As soon as the students were busy hanging sprigs of mistletoe to dry and could talk among themselves, Jessie asked her about it.

"You were hurt yesterday too, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Lily.

"Did they tell you what happened?"

Lily shrugged. She frankly didn't want to think about it. The whole situation was too scary – especially the part where Alice had said they'd died. Was that why her memory was so fuzzy? The effect wasn't going away – everything she'd done since waking up last night was crystal-clear in her mind. It was only the stuff before that which she still seemed to be viewing through a fogged window.

But no magic could bring somebody back from the dead – that was one of those things you learned very quickly, even though it wasn't exactly something the professors took any trouble to mention. So what, then... no, she definitely did not want to think about it.

Jessie, however, did. "Did you have any funny dreams last night?" she persisted.

Lily jumped – the answer to that was a resounding yes, and now that she'd been asked, all of a sudden she desperately wanted to tell the dream to somebody. It seemed to be fighting to get out of her mouth. She, however, contained it, and just shrugged again. Talking about something so personal, and to a stranger, would be out of character for her. She was suddenly reminded of Verona's near outbursts at breakfast that morning...

"Because I did," said Jessie. "I had this dream... I think I was in China. There was this big palace with all golden roofs, and it was autumn – the trees were all red. I was in the garden and I was looking everywhere for something, and then I finally found this plate..." her voice trailed off and she gave Lily a goofy smile. "Dumb, huh?"

But Lily had gone cold. "No," she said, "no, I had a dream, too..." she couldn't keep it in any longer. "I don't know where I was, but I was in this big hall, like something out of Beowulf, and there was this big fire burning, and a sword in the fire that I had to pull out, but I was afraid of getting burned if I did..."

She and Jessie looked at each other. The dreams seemed very different on the surfaces, but yet they were so similar... in a foreign place, looking for some object that was very important. Or was it? "The plate was important, right?" asked Lily.

"Yeah," said Jessie. "I think there was something written on it, but I woke up before I could read it."

Lily nodded. "Did you... ask Nadia about anything like that?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," Jessie said. "I did. And she said she dreamed she was in Athens, trying to get down a staff that was hanging up in the Parthenon. So I wondered if you'd asked Verona."

"No," said Lily, who was now kicking herself for it. She'd been tempted to tell Verona her dream, but had decided against it just because she generally didn't discuss her dreams and at the time, it had seemed like something she shouldn't talk about.

"Do you have a class with her today?" asked Jessie.

"Yeah, potions next period," Lily said. "I'll ask her about it then, promise."

A giggling commotion on the other side of the greenhouse made the girls both look up – James Potter and his friends were running around with a sprig of mistletoe, pressing their attentions on various of the prettier girls. Lily quickly lowered her eyes and tried to hide behind their mistletoe sample, hoping the boys would not see her. But then, they never did – she was not pretty, and therefore a nonentity to them. At least, she told herself, she'd gotten over the ridiculous crush she'd had on Potter last year. He was nothing but a jerk... and a jerk who hopefully would never, ever notice her.

Talking to Verona in potions was going to be difficult, she realized as she took her usual seat in the dingy old classroom half an hour later. The potions master hated hearing students talk in class... they wouldn't have a chance to properly speak until after everybody had gotten started brewing whatever they were going to make that day, and even then, he sometimes chose partners for the students rather than allowing them to pick their own. There was a small chance that Lily wouldn't get to talk to Verona at all.

She could sit next to her, though, and give her a reassuring smile as the class began. Verona looked decidedly worried about something... Lily wondered if she'd had a similar conversation with Nadia Bell from Ravenclaw as Lily herself had just had with Jessie.

Professor Agrippa was there before any of the students, as usual, so there was silence in the room as everybody took their seats. He waited for everybody to arrive and settle down before he began, and such was the oppressive silence in the room that it didn't actually take very long.

"Good morning, class," he said quietly. "This year, as you may have noticed, we will be starting with a unit on basic alchemy. Hopefully, you will be able to master some of the basics, and I will be awarding fifty house points to each individual who achieves a negredo. I do not realistically expect anyone to go further than that. Before we begin, we need to familiarize ourselves with the materials and terminology of alchemy."

Lily groaned silently. This was going to be a lecture class. Talking to Verona would have to wait for Divination, next period.

"So," said Professor Agrippa. "Who has been reading their textbook? What is Aqua Regia?"

Lily knew the answer, because she had in fact been reading the book – alchemy had looked interesting. But she didn't put her hand up... she never put her hand up and certainly couldn't start now. After all, what if she'd mis-remembered? The rest of the class either hadn't done any reading or was just as nervous as Lily, because only one hand actually rose – that of Severus Snape, the only individual in the potions class who voluntarily sat in the front row. Professor Agrippa looked at him and smiled.

"Perhaps somebody other than Severus," he said. Severus was the only student Professor Agrippa called by his given name.

Lily looked around, but nobody was offering anything. It wasn't a difficult question – the more she thought about it, the more certain she was that she did know the answer and knew the right answer. Wasn't anybody going to say anything? Usually the only time hands did go up was after Professor Agrippa specified somebody other than Severus.

But there was silence. The potions master sighed. "Very well..." he began.

Lily couldn't stand it any longer – her hand shot up into the air.

Professor Agrippa's eyes widened. "Er – did you need a hall pass, Miss Evans?" he asked. Apparently that was the only reason he could think of why Lily would raise her hand.

"Aqua regia," said Lily, speaking very fast. "Is one part nitric acid to three parts hydrochloric acid and is the only substance able to dissolve gold and platinum."

"Ah." The professor's eyes widened further. "Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor."

Lily lowered her hand and smiled. She'd done it – she'd really done it! She'd actually answered a question and nobody had laughed at her! Professor McGonagall would have been proud...

"Better give her twenty, Professor," said a voice from the back of the room. Lily looked over her shoulder, and there was James Potter, sitting there grinning like a Cheshire cat and looking right at her. "She's obviously been brewing garrulous potions in her spare time!"

"A garrulous potion makes you talk nonstop, stupid," said Alice.

"Well, she said like six words," Potter replied. "That's her whole quota for the year!"

A few people laughed. Professor Agrippa wasn't one of them.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter," he said, "for talking out of turn."

The rest of the class continued as mostly lecture and questions and answers. Lily didn't dare answer again... but as the only one in the class besides Severus who appeared to have done any advance reading, she wanted to. And oddly enough, she wasn't even frightened about it. Just angry... angry at Potter for making fun of her and spoiling her moment of triumph.

Moment of triumph? What was she thinking? All she'd done was answer a question. If that was a moment of triumph, her standards were far too low.

When the class was over, she and Verona hurried out to start up to the divination tower... if they were ahead of the rest of the students, they'd be able to talk without being overheard. They weren't quite fast enough, though... James Potter and his cronies had left the room ahead of them, and as Lily stepped out, she found herself right under a sprig of mistletoe he'd apparently saved from herbology.

He grinned. "Oh, look. Mistletoe."

"Don't. Please." Lily stepped aside, but James stepped after her and leaned in. She had no idea what he was trying to accomplish... but she wasn't going to let him accomplish it. It was only after she'd slapped the mistletoe out of his hand that she realized she should have just run away. She looked at the little twig lying on the floor and wished to God she knew how to apparate. She'd just slapped a real wizard, a guy whose parents and grandparents had been witches and wizards...

James blinked, then leaned down and scooped it up again. "Oops," he said, once again bringing his face uncomfortably close to hers, "I seem to have dropped my..."

She kept more control of herself this time, trying to duck under his arm and get away, but he stopped her by grabbing her wrist... then let out a sharp shout of pain and let go of both her and the mistletoe. It dropped to the tile again where it curled and blackened as if exposed to great heat.

"Ow!" exclaimed James, shaking his wrist as if he'd burned his hand. "Sheesh! You could have just said no thank you."

"No, I couldn't!" snapped Lily. "Because you idiots think 'no' means 'yes' and 'go away' means 'screw me senseless'!"

Complete silence fell over the hall, and Lily clapped both hands over her mouth. Forget apparate. Lily wished she could die.

Professor Agrippa cleared his throat. "Ten points from Gryffindor for Mr. Potter's behavior," he said, "and ten more for Miss Evans' language."

Lily hung her head. Verona grabbed her friend's arm. "C'mon, let's go," she whispered, and the two of them hurried off up the stairs to divination.