Author's note: I've taken a lot of this chapter from the book as I want to keep as much cannon in as I can. So I know conversations are as they appear in the books, but I've tried to keep a spin on them that's true to the story that I am trying to portray. Thank you to those that have kept going so far! I appreciate any feedback. :)
Morning arrived, Lily wasn't sure if she had slept at all, or if she had slept very well and that she had just had one very exciting and dangerous dream. She could have very easily convinced herself it was a dream. By the time she had made it down for breakfast, she was disappointed to see that Potter was not a changed man. Gryffindor table was a cheerful hum of laughter, every now and again a screech could be heard followed by another roar of joyful giggles. At the centre of the shaking shoulders and the crowd of grinning students, was James and Sirius, intently watching a group of green cloaked Slytherins. Hating herself for being curious, Lily followed their line of vision. Unsurprisingly, her eyes met Severus Snape, followed by his brute like friends. Each of them looked irritated and miserable, their noses red and inflamed. She watched as Mulciber, a short and stocky student with dark hair, raised his metal goblet to his lips. The moment he took a sip, his cheeks inflated, his nostrils flared and his face seemed to flicker through every colour of the rainbow before it settled on bright red. When he eventually opened his mouth to gasp for breath, green foam fell out and his tongue rolled out, looking blotchy. Another deafening cheer arose from her table. Instinctively, Mulciber reached out to a different glass for a drink to sooth his throat, to find that the reaction occurred all over again. She might have felt bad, if Mulciber wasn't such a horrid person.
She sat down on the bench, a few metres away from the howling students of her house. James removed his glasses and wiped away tears of laughter with his thumbs. His body shook as people patted his back admirably. She made eye contact with Snape who looked sadly back at her. His usually pale face contained a pink tint, suggesting he had already been a victim of the ridiculous prank.
"What's the matter? Drink got your tongue?" Sirius barely managed to wheeze out between gasps of breath. His curls bounced on his shoulders as he struggled to hold himself together.
Of all the Gryffindors at the table, it was Mary who was causing the most noise. She could barely stand on her own two feet she was laughing so hard. Her cheeks flushed red and her eyes twinkled. So used to being the quiet one of the group she looked genuinely proud to have been included in this moment, she leant into Sirius as they both collapsed across the table in fits of giggles. Lily's eyes flashed briefly as Mulciber knocked his goblet to the ground with a clatter and drew his wand under the table. Luckily, she was not the only one to notice this harmless prank get out of hand, McGonagall cleared her throat loudly, forcing Mulciber to settle his temper.
Due to the Quidditch match that afternoon, all morning lessons had ended early, allowing Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students to prepare themselves. This meant that the remaining students had been granted additional study time, which of course most students used to slack off and hang about the castle. Like most students, Lily headed to the courtyard with Alice and Dorcas, deciding to choose a quiet spot to people watch and chat. They passed through the familiar archways and were lucky to find a comfortable perch on the edge of the fountain. Lily's eyes scanned the uneven surface, the water was not quite cold enough to freeze over, but at the shaded areas, she could see creases where a thin layer of ice had formed.
"So you think that disrespectful pranks are funny do you?" A venomous voice spat, the majority of the nearby students stopped to glance between the branches of a low hanging oak tree. Mulciber was walking forwards, towering over somebody half of his size, his wand dangling by his side, "You ought to show more respect to the likes of us. McGonagall isn't here now to protect you."
"I-it wasn't me. I didn't mean anything by it!" A small voice cried out from behind the enormous torso, still edging forwards. "It was a harmful prank. That's all. Harmful. No need to over react."
The voice belonged to Mary, and her words were not met with kindness. Mulciber raised his wand to the defiant student before him. Outraged, Lily and Dorcas rose to their feet, Alice shortly behind. Mary's eyes widened and she retreated towards the trunk of the tree. The Slytherins, Snape included, closed in around the two combatants. Mulciber's voice was low and soft as he spoke now, clearly he did not want to be overheard, "Imp-"
"I don't think so Mr Mulciber." Flitwick's high pitched tone echoed across the courtyard, cutting him off mid curse. "That's 20 points from Slytherin."
The crowd separated and Avery quickly lowered his wand, Dorcas rushed to Mary's side. As quickly as they had gathered, the Slytherins swiftly parted into groups of threes and fours. Snape briefly made eye contact with Lily and then pushed passed her to continue his conversation with Avery. To most, it would have looked as though the two were complete strangers. There was a lot not said between their fleeting glances. Lily's eyes shot daggers at Snape's, they were narrowed, her lips were pulled tight into a scowl. Snape's own dark eyes flickered from Lily's and then quickly to the ground, ashamed and knowing that he would have a lot of explaining to do.
"20 points! 20 Bloody points!" Dorcas raged once the scene had calmed and they had all paused to rest in adjacent stone arch ways. Lily leant against the stone column, her back to Dorcas, but she knew that her hair would be flying from side to side as she gestured enthusiastically in the direction of the tree, where they had all just stood. "I've had more points deducted for coughing in class. 20 points. What an absolute joke."
"In his defence, I've never seen Flitwick deduct points. He must have been furious." Alice piped in, trying to throw a shade of light to prevent a full blown Dorcas melt down.
"In his defence!?" Dorcas' voice jumped an octave, "the idiot tried to use an unforgivable curse!"
"He will end up in Azkaban the second he hands in his NEWTS," Lily chimed in sadly, "I wouldn't be surprised if the lot of them end up in You-know-who's gang."
"I've seen them all planning. It's in the family business for most of them. I've heard Regulus tell the others that He Who Must Not Be Named has already approached the Black family house to recruit. That's what happened to Narcissa's sister, she was searching before they even left. They will all be there before we know it..." Alice stated this without displaying much emotion. Each school year began with the warning about the dangers of the outside world and spies, they often avoided speaking of it. Lily didn't know if she was more frightened or relieved to be from her background. To pureblood Slytherin's, the type that followed You-Know-Who, muggleborns like Lily were absolute filth, punishable by death and not worthy of a wizard's power. This meant that she, out of all of her friends, was in the most danger outside of Hogwarts. On a more positive note, Lily's parents had no reason to worry, as they did not understand any of the wizarding world news, they had no perception of the severity of the situation and she had no intention of telling them.
Alice's jab at the Black family stung Lily a little deeper than she thought it had tended to. Sirius' family had always been a sort of rough subject that everybody avoided. His whole family had been Slytherins. He came from a pureblood family, who were bred to be arrogant and cruel. To his relief, and his mother's disappointment, he brought instant shame to the family name when the hat sorted him into Gryffindor. Nobody saw it coming. Lily had never questioned his belonging to Gryffindor, well not until later that afternoon when she passed another whispered conversation between James and Sirius in the corner of the common room. It was shortly before they set off to watch the game, Lily was by the window, working out the whether she needed the hat as well as the scarf.
"What on Earth did you think you were playing at Padfoot?" James whispered. Lily was shocked to hear that he spoke in a cross tone, and seemed obviously very annoyed- and with Sirius of all people. She had never seen the two of them disagree, let alone argue.
"I didn't mean harm. He was being stupid. It was just a joke. No harm no foul," Sirius spoke quickly, expressionless. "The cocky git deserved it."
"Mate it's not a joke, someone could have been hurt."
"And?" Sirius sounded annoyed now, he hated being in the wrong, "Could you honestly say someone would have missed him if he had just disappeared?"
"We could have been in trouble. Serious trouble. We've already broken enough rules, we shouldn't be taking lives into our hands. Did you know Lily had followed him down too?"
"Evans wouldn't have dared leave after dark," Sirius tried to lighten the conversation.
"She was there Sirius, if she had got hurt I would have never forgiven myself," a warmth filled Lily's chest.
"Well, she's fine. And you get to be a hero. Soak it up. I'm sorry it happened, but I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt." It was surprising to hear Sirius, who usually spoke with a light-hearted tone, speak so coldly. Something had changed in him quickly and a bridge formed between the two friends. Sirius had done something intentionally to put others in danger. He and Potter were always up to silly pranks that go too far, hexing people and baiting people into trouble, but according to James, whatever Sirius had done could have killed someone. Much like Mulciber messing with dark magic earlier that day. Perhaps Sirius had more Death-Eater tendencies than she had though. He had been overlooked.
Either way, whatever unpleasantness had come between the two boys had been easily and swiftly resolved by the match that afternoon. The whole school gathered in the stands. Each member of the crowd dressed in their house colours, scarves billowing in the wind. Lily regretted the choice not to wear a hat. Her hair, which was tied back in a high pony tail, whipped her face, which was already pink and stinging from the harsh winter wind. Dorcas was stood beside her, rubbing her hands together and still scowling from the day's events. She was short tempered, but her heart was in the right place. Mary had already let the incident go, deciding that meddling further was more trouble than it was worth. Alice eyed Sirius cautiously. She had taken it personally that Mary got the punishment for his stupid prank.
The three boys were stood behind them, watching joyfully over the top of their heads. It had taken them twice as long to get to their seats as they had been making bets on their way. Sirius and James had already begun excitedly forming a commentary on the game before it had started.
"Ravenclaw is tactical..." Sirius began, "they learn their opponents well. They know that Grousher is ill so their benched keeper is a weak spot."
"Yeah but Hufflepuff have good chasers," James added knowledgably. "We underestimated them last time."
"Yes but have you seen the beaters on Ravenclaw. I don't feel safe stood in the stands, let alone the players." Sirius laughed- half joking.
The game seemed to go on for hours, both sides playing to the other's weakness. It grew dark before long and the pitch was magically illuminated to allow players to continue. Throughout the game, Lily made small attempts to look backwards at James. For the most part, his eyes remained fixed on the quaffle, occasionally his eyes would glance, meet hers and flicker away again. He would immediately disguise his attempt to ignore her by making a comment to Sirius and Peter about some clever, or stupid play that was made.
By the time the Snitch had been caught, it was almost 8:30 and the sun had fully set. the crowds of students piled into the great hall for a celebratory feast. The wave of pupils dragged their feet and clutched their grumbling stomachs, eager for something warm to help them regain access to their fingers and toes. Lily immediately reached for a warm mug of hot chocolate, a personal favourite of Dumbledore's to serve after a game, he often encouraged the house elves to add a dusting of the winning house's colour on top. The blue sparkles danced in the candle light and were soon floating at the bottom of an empty mug.
The following day, Lily took the opportunity to stroll around the grounds. It was nice on weekends, when students were too cold to go and so the landscape was completely empty. As she looked across the grassy hills, with the exception of the giant squid, she could have convinced herself that she was the only one there.
She had made it half way down the uneven steps, where she had stood the evening before when she had seen whatever lived in the Whomping willow, when she saw Snape advance towards her. As he moved closer, he became more hesitant and nervous. He was clearly feeling very sheepish about the events of the previous day and was hoping he could get away with it. She stopped walking and turned to look across the lake, absent mindedly watching the enormous tentacles lap the waves and stroke the surface of the dark water.
"Hey Lil," his tone was light and cheerful, he tested her mood carefully.
"Hey," she responded, unsure as to how she was going to let the conversation play out.
"It's cold." he stated, glancing sideways at her for a reaction, "Library?"
"Sure," she replied coldly, wondering who would be the first bring it up again. Without another word, the two of them headed back up the steps, shoulder to shoulder. She could hear his strained breathing, clearly he was anxious to talk. As they neared the castle walls, they passed crowds of students, some just heading towards their breakfast, others to quidditch and many just aimlessly wandering. Lily grimaced as they passed a small crowd of Slytherins, including Mulciber and Avery. The two of them were smirking at a young, blonde haired Ravenclaw, who had dropped her books on the ground and was scrambling to pick them up. It quickly became evident that Mulciber was the reason why her books were on the floor in the first place.
Once they were out of ear shot, Lily rolled her eyes in disgust, "I can't believe you actually choose to hang out with them. I don't think they actually share a brain cell between them."
"I can think of worse." Snape's voice was slow and strained, he knew he was heading straight for a conversation that he had been trying to avoid.
"They are completely despicable. I don't know how they haven't been expelled. These days, I'm not sure you're much better," she admitted, determinedly staring straight ahead, not wanting to watch Snape wince in pain.
"That's hardly fair."
"It's true. You've changed. You aren't the person I used to know when we started." Lily considered this for a moment, sensing Snape's shift. Since he had been taken in by the more popular Slytherins, she had seen the way he snuck around school. He would sneer at anyone different, picking on anyone who wasn't Slytherin. He was becoming a bully. "Actually, I'm not sure I want to go to the library." Lily slowed her walk.
"I thought we were supposed to be friends?" Snape's voice cracked. "Best friends?"
Lily turned, meeting Snape's eyes for the first time that day. Her heart sank a little to see how much her words were upsetting him, but maintaining a friendship across houses that hated each other was exhausting. If she spoke to him at the wrong time he would treat her with a scowl or a sneer and mock her friends, or her studies. She had sometimes heard him mocking her in class. "We are Sev, but I don't like some of the people you're hanging round with! I'm sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him Sev, he's creepy! D'you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?"
They paused and Snape shuffled his feet from side to side. She leaned against a nearby pillar, searching his face in hope that he would change his tune, admit he was wrong and set his friends straight. Of course, his pride prevented this, "That was nothing," he replied flatly, "It was a laugh that's all-"
This time it was Lily's turn to fly off the handle. Her eyes glowered and she raised her tone. "It was Dark Magic!" She angrily spat, "and if you think that's funny-"
Snape interrupted her, jumping quickly to his defence. His jaw tightened and his next words were spoken through clenched teeth, "What about Potter and his mates and what they get up to?" His brows knitted together and his cheeks flushed, she could see his whole body tighten, ready to battle his corner.
"What's he got to do with it?" she challenged back, refusing to allow him to blame his behaviour on Potter. She didn't always like him, but that didn't make his actions ok.
"They sneak out at night. I've seen them. And I've told you about Lupin- where does he keep going every month?" She knew he knew, but he didn't know that she knew. She was furious with him for trying to catch Lupin out. Out of everyone involved, Lupin didn't deserve any unwanted attention.
"He's ill," she responded quickly daring him to probe further, "they say he's ill..."
"Every month at the full moon?" Lily was quickly reminded of his assumptions, he had done well to find out. Before she had been reluctant to believe him... after the previous night, she had realised he might be right. Regardless, after trying to catch him out, Snape did not deserve to know.
"I know you're theory," she replied coldly and defensively. "Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they're doing at night?" She quickly drew the attention away from Lupin and pushed it on him. If he was trying to calm her down, he was doing a terrible job.
Snape was becoming desperate now, he was scanning her flushed face for a sign that she believed him, "I'm just trying to show you they're not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are." She could feel his eyes intensely searching her face, willing her to believe everything he felt about them. It left her feeling uncomfortable, reluctant to hurt her feelings, but angry that he was trying to put others down to make him seem more favourable.
"They don't use dark magic though." Lily bitterly responded through gritted teeth. Looking up at his face now, his cheeks flushed again and his deep brown eyes were a mixture of hurt and guilt. "You're being ungrateful," she continued, scolding him, "I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down by that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever's down there-" She chose to omit the information of her presence that night. It would only make Snape more angry, and it would prolong the argument.
Her attempt to reduce Snape's anger was futile. His pride had hit a limit and his pleading eyes were almost hidden by the shadow of his brow that furrowed instantly, his mouth opened, soundlessly at first in out rage, "Saved?" he spluttered for words. "Saved? you think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends' too! You're not going to-" he reconsidered his sentence, "I won't let you-"
Lily cut him off, "Let me? Let me?" How dare he think that he had any control over who she spoke to and what she did with her time. She glared down at him, her gaze unbroken, her green eyes glowering. Instantly, Snape's face softened and he took a step backwards, perhaps realising his mistake.
"I didn't mean-" he backtracked, his eyes searching her face for a weak point, "I just don't want to see you made a fool of-" with each bitter and selfish word that escaped his lips, Lily grew more furious. "He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!" As he spoke, she watched the pain contort his face. If he hadn't just insulted her so much, she might have felt sorry for him. She wasn't blind to the attention of Snape, but she mostly put it down to his inability to communicate with most girls in school- she felt she was more of a 'by default' kind of affection. "And he's not... everyone thinks... big Quidditch hero-" At this point, Snape was so angry and distressed that he could barely form together a cohesive sentence. Lily's face softened, she couldn't help feeling a little bad, knowing that his anger really just came from a place of caring.
"I know James Potter's an arrogant toerag," she relieved him from his stuttering, "I don't need you to tell me that." She couldn't risk anyone thinking that there was actually anything going on between her and James. Just because she didn't like Sev, that didn't make James the obvious alternative. "But Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humour is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand ow you can be friends with them." Snape shrugged, deciding that leaving the conversation was perhaps the easiest way out of the hole he had built himself.