Authors note: Emily: Hey guys! Eva: Yo Emily: not you again… Eva: Sings The phaaaaaaantom of the opera is heeeeeeere, inside your miiiiiiind! Emily: riiiiight….Answers to reviewers!
Ashley J Potter: Thanks for your enthusiasm! And I would love to read your fanfiction!
Emily dragged the comb through her unruly brown hair and looked at herself in the mirror. Pale blue eyes, long brown hair, spots. Eugh. She pulled out her tube of concealer and tried to cover up the large areas of pimples that popped up around her forehead and cheeks. The end result was that she now looked like an orange. Bright orange. She must have packed the wrong tone…she wiped it all of and pulled out her eyeliner pencil, she could at least try to draw attention away from her chronic acne…
She had chosen to wear her purple sweatshirt and blue jeans; she pulled her hair back and wrapped it up in a red bandana. She looked alright. Not great. But alright.
She jumped the last few steps into the common room and saw Lunesia sitting by the fire reading.
"You ready?" she asked her. Lunesia nodded and put her book into her shoulder bag. Her long black skirt swayed as they made their way down to the Entrance hall, and her golden hair shone in the sunlight. Emily felt rather jealous of Lunesia, she was so pretty compared Emily, she couldn't believe no one else noticed it.
Severus was leaning against the castle wall when they walked out onto the grounds, he smiled at Emily and nodded to Lunesia who gave him a weak smile back.
Lunesia pulled out her Ravenclaw scarf and wrapped it around her neck, even though it wasn't even cold, Emily decided not to question her.
On the way down the path leading to Hogsmead they heard shouting and laughter behind them. Lily Evans sprinted passed them, she shouted a greeting to Emily then carried on running, closely followed by James Potter. He ran passed and shoved Severus to one side, "Out of my way Snivellus!" he shouted.
Severus stumbled into Lunesia and knocked her over, "Asshole!" he shouted after Potter, he reached out to help Lunesia to her feet. "Sorry," he muttered.
"No problem," she replied, brushing dirt off of her skirt.
They walked the rest of the way in silence, when they reached Hogsmead Severus showed them where the Ice-cream stand was, they chose what they wanted and he insisted on paying. Emily was glad of that, she was absolutely skint…
They sat on a low wall on the far side of Hogsmead looking over to the Shrieking Shack.
"I wonder who lives there," Emily wondered aloud.
Lunesia snorted, "No one lives there silly, its haunted by evil spirits!" she said that as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Emily raised her eyebrows and looked back at the shack.
"It doesn't look very haunted."
"That's because they only come out at night," Lunsesia stated matter-of-a-factly.
Emily realised that Severus had suddenly gone very quiet, he was glaring in the direction of the shack and his ice cream was dripping all over his hands without him noticing…
"What's up?" she asked, pulling a tissue out of her pocket and offering it to him.
His head snapped up as if he hadn't noticed she was talking, "What?" he saw the tissue and realised his ice-cream was going everywhere, "oh crap…" he took it and wiped his hands, throwing the rest of his melted ice-cream into the bin next to him. "Thanks."
"Well? What's wrong?" Emily persisted.
"Nothing, just…I've had bad experiences with that place…"
"Well, well," came a sneering voice from behind them, "isn't this a pretty site boys?"
Emily turned to see James Potter, Sirius Black and two other boys she didn't recognise, approaching them, all wearing identical evil grins…
"Son of a…" Severus hissed under his breath.
"I'm quite shocked Sniverllus," Potter continued, "attempting to take advantage of one so young and venerable, tut tut tut." He smiled nastily, "Hey New Girl, have you any idea what you are sitting next to?"
"Yes," she replied coldly, "I'm sitting next to a friend, now could you kindly clear off, your big head is blocking the sunlight."
Lunesia's eyes widened and she leaned over and hissed to Emily, "Emily! Do you have any idea what those guys are capable of? You'll get us all killed…"
Potter scowled and glared at Lunesia, "You should listen to your freakazoid of a friend and learn to respect your betters New Girl, or I can make your life very hard for you around here…"
"James! Stop it's not her fault!" Lily came running out of a shop nearby and came to stand by James, panting and trying to regain her composure. A thought suddenly struck her…James Potter was Lily Evans's boyfriend…that's why Severus doesn't like her…
"James, she's knew, she doesn't know anything yet," Emily's jaw dropped and she raised her eyebrows, she was about to object to this blatant insult but was unable to as Lily cut in again.
"She's alright really James, she's just fallen in with the wrong crowd, don't worry she can hang out with me and Katie now,"
"But I don't want to-" Emily tried to object to this too, she wanted to stay with Lunesia and Severus, she liked Lily well enough, but she didn't understand why liking them was so wrong…but Lily grabbed her arm and pulled her away from her friends and over to the boys.
"Come one, lets go Emily," she lowered her voice and whispered, "I'm sorry I left you with those two, I knew I should have looked after you properly…"
Looked after?…she wasn't a bloody child, and she didn't like the way Lily was just dragging her away from the others like they had some sort of disease she may catch.
"Look, Lily I want to stay with-"
"Evans just leave her alone! If she wants to stay with us she can stay with us-" Severus had jumped down from the wall and had advanced on them both scowling, but he was unable to finish as Potter leapt foreword and punched him hard in the stomach.
"You bloody well stay away from my girlfriend you bastard!" he yelled, his friends joining in, kicking him to the ground.
Emily covered her eyes when she heard a crack as Severus's nose broke, she cried out to Lily to make them stop, but she either didn't hear her or just didn't care as she stood their and watched with absolutely no emotion showing on her face.
When they finally stopped and Emily took her hands away from her eyes, there were tears running down her face and Severus was lying crumpled, bleeding on the floor, his face screwed up in pain.
Lily grabbed her arm again and pulled her down the road, following Potter and his gang as they hurried back up to the school.
She looked back as she was quickly dragged away and saw that Lunesia was now crouched down beside Severus wrapping her Ravenclaw scarf around his neck to form a sling for his broken arm, and handing him a wad of tissues to stem the flow of blood pouring from his nose and lip.
They turned a corner and they were blocked from sight, only then did Emily manage to wrench her hand out of Lily's grasp.
"Lily! What the hell do think your doing!" she shouted, causing passers by to stop and stare at them. Lily obviously noticed this as she turned bright red and pulled her into a nearby alley.
"What the hell am I doing? What are you doing Emily! I just saved you from the most horrible fate that can befall you at this school and ask what am I doing!"
"And what, exactly would this terrible fate be?" she was so shaken, she had just seen one of the few friends she had ever had beaten up, and now Lily was saying she had been doing her a favour? Her mind was so messed up, were Severus and Lunesia supposed to be the bad guys here? But if so, what did that make Potter for beating Severus up…
"Being unpopular!" Lily cried as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Emily suddenly had visions of Lily wearing an American cheerleaders outfit saying, "Like, duh!" as if she were a jock from one of those bad muggle movies her old friends liked to watch.
Emily stood there, her eyes were now dry, no emotion showed on her face and the light behind her eyes that she had had when she was with Sev and Lune, was no totally gone.
"Fine then Lily, if being popular means I cant be happy then I want to be unpopular, I am not going to stand and watch your boyfriend kick the shit out my friend while you just cheer them on!" her voiced cracked as she got more and more upset, "I just cant believe you did that Lily!" she turned and ran out of the alley and into the sunlight, ignoring Lily's calls and hurrying back to where she had left Sev and Lune.
But when she got there they were gone, Lunesia's melted ice cream cone was the only indication that they had even been there.
"Oh no…" she dropped to her knees as the knowledge hit her like a oil truck, she had blown it, allowing herself to be pulled away by Lily had instantly wrecked any chance she had of ever being friends with either Sev or Lune, now she was left alone…no friends, no where to go, no chance…
And the world just keeps turning…