Author's Note: AGH! Please, hold back your weapons, I swear, I didn't mean to take this long to update. My internet is being such a…well…you know. Anyways, it's here now!! Make sure you read the A/N at the end, it has a few explanation about some stuff in the chapter you may not get at first. But maybe you guys are just so smart that you'll get everything!! Okay, well, read on!
HELLOOOO! Look here please!!! I am skipping the Sorting and the Welcome Feast (whatever you call that thing—oh well, they eat, that's all I know). I took a few stabs at writing but couldn't come up with one decent thing. (Who really cares anyway? Lily and James are already sorted, so is everyone else important in the story.)
The next day was an interesting one. Lily and James were both asked to help hand out schedules, and unfortunately most of them belonged to Slytherin students. As Lily walked up the table, she received quite a few sneers from them.
The worst of it was that more than a few called her a Mudblood under their breath. She'd grown used to it by now, but it still inflicted a twinge of pain every time it was directed at her. However, it was heartening (for some unexplainable reason) to see James' face grow red with fury when he happened to hear them.
When she received her own schedule, it was disappointing to see that she had Potions first thing that morning. Why did I even bother doing well on my Potions O.W.L.? She thought miserably, slinging her book bag over her shoulder.
"Where're you headed off to?" Anna asked as they walked through the corridors.
"How does N.E.W.T. level Potions sound to you on the first day of the year?" Lily asked.
"It sounds like something that I'm definitely not going to be doing," Anna replied, "I still don't understand how you managed to get an 'Outstanding' in Potions."
"Luck," Lily said simply.
"I call it being really, really smart," Anna said, "Have fun in Potions." She left Lily, turning left into a separate corridor and heading for Arithmancy.
When she entered the ominous-looking Potions class, most of those already in there were Slytherins, as could only be expected. In fact, she didn't see anyone she knew anywhere in the class. Finally, she sat down in a seat as far back as she could find.
Then, a miracle happened—or, at least as much as Lily could say having James walk into the class was a miracle. She could barely contain her laughter when she saw the Slytherins' malevolent faces fill with dislike and fear when they saw him. He saw Lily, and, with one last glance around the room, came and sat down next to her.
"Well, this looks like it's going to be loads of fun," James said darkly, leering at the Slytherins, who had started whispering among themselves.
"How did you get into this class?" Lily asked him.
"It's all up here," He replied, tapping his head, "You doubt me too much. I'm so offended I just might have to go sit with the Slytherins."
"I have a hard time believing you'd do that," Lily said.
"Come to think of it, I have a hard time believing it myself."
"Well, you must be smarter than I thought, then. Anyways, at least you didn't get in here on favoritism," She said, casting a disgusted glance across the room.
"Yeah it's a—" James began, but Professor Liechter had just entered the room, so he stopped mid-sentence.
"Bellatrix Black," The Professor said briskly, looking around the class. His eyes fell upon a dark-haired, heavy-lidded girl sitting at the front of the room. Lily thought she looked rather familiar, and was surprised to see James glaring with great dislike at the girl. He continued to look at her like that for a long time.
"Lily Evans," He called with a contemptuous sneer on his face. He looked straight at her, his cold, hard eyes staring right into her, and then moved on. He continued reading through the sheet.
"Rodolphus Lestrange."
The black-haired girl from before smiled in a slightly deranged way at the boy next to her. He read further down the list.
"Ah—James Potter is here?" He asked with a rather evil tone. He finally saw James, and stared at him with a great deal of hatred, and (rather bravely, in Lily's opinion) James stared right back at him. He eventually moved on and finished calling all the rest of the names.
"Today we will be reviewing the basic principles which are needed to make various potions. I am not going to give you any directions but which potions you will be asked to make, and you will have to do the rest yourself." Professor Liechter said in a sinister voice, "This assignment is not to be taken lightly—anyone who does not make their potion exactly as I have taught you in previous years will suffer the unfortunate consequence of receiving a 'D'. You may begin."
By the end of the class, Lily had finished the assignment, and had done pretty well on it, or at least she thought she had. Nobody in the whole class had finished faster than James, who had leaned back in his chair in a lazy, arrogant way. Finally, the bell rang and everyone in the class left.
As she walked towards the door, she ran right into the dark-haired girl from before. For a moment, they looked right into each other's eyes. Lily could see a maniacal glint in them, like she was slightly insane.
"Watch where you're going," She snapped viciously, before striding out of the classroom. Lily watched her go, feeling strangely unnerved.
"Are you okay?" James asked, coming up behind her.
"I can handle myself fine, Potter," She told him, walking towards the door. He followed her.
"You might think so," He said, "But you don't know Bellatrix."
"And you do, I'm sure," Lily snapped at him.
"You don't have to listen to me," James said, "But just…well, be careful around her. She's not exactly the type you'd bring to dinner."
He turned the corner and left her, but his warnings stayed with her. The part that shocked her the most was that he had said, "You don't have to listen to me." James normally would have made her believe him, would have been convinced that he was right and that Lily needed to follow his advice.
Smiling in spite of herself, Lily
couldn't help remembering… "Are you okay?"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"So, how was the smarty-pants Potions class?" Sirius asked as they sat down for lunch.
"Filled with Slytherins," James said,
"That would actually be more fun than it sounds. After all, you could always dump something toxic on them and make it look like an accident…"
"Not with Evans in there," James remarked, pulling the pitcher of pumpkin juice towards him.
"Oh. Well then, it is as bad as it sounds."
"And your dear old cousin Bellatrix joined us," James said, causing Sirius' face to cloud over.
"On second thought, it's even worse than it sounds."
"Seen the Prophet this morning?" Remus said. He and Peter had just joined them.
"No, what's up?" James asked.
"Two other people disappeared last week," He said, throwing the newspaper down on the table and sitting next to Sirius.
"Who?" Sirius asked, unfolding the paper and scanning the headline.
"One of them was a Muggle; they won't say who. The other one was Jack Longbottom," Remus replied.
"Isn't that Frank's dad?" Peter asked in hushed voice. Sirius nodded, and James looked down the table. Alice, Frank's girlfriend, was normally always sitting with Frank. Today she wasn't, and she looked very upset. James wondered how he hadn't noticed that Frank was gone.
"Anyways, full moon is next week…" Sirius said. James stopped paying attention to what he was saying. There was a clenched feeling in his stomach; looking down at Alice. He couldn't help feeling horrible about Frank's dad. In fact, he was almost wishing that Remus hadn't told him at all.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lily sat in the Common Room that night, trying to make a start on her Potions homework. It wasn't due for a week, but she desperately needed to put her mind somewhere else. The only problem was, there was something clouding all of her thought & bothering her more and more with every passing moment.
She had heard about what had happened to Frank Longbottom's dad after lunch. Thought she had never been the best of friends with Alice or Frank, it made her feel horrible inside. As soon as she could, she had gone to find Alice and tell her how sorry she was. After talking to her, it had only made everything worse.
"They aren't sounding very optimistic at the Ministry," Alice had said, looking ghostly white, yet her voice sounded strong, "But Frank says that he knows his dad is still alive."
"Have you talked to him lately?" Lily asked her, and when Alice had spoken next, her voice was shaking, and so was she.
"The last I heard from him was four days ago," She said, and had apparently reached her breaking point. She cried for a good ten minutes. Lily sat there with her, trying to make her feel better. Finally, Lily suggested she go write a letter to Frank. Still sniffing, Alice had gone up to the dormitory.
It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to concentrate, and she rubbed her eyes tiredly. Giving up, she closed her book and rolled her parchment back up, placing both of them on the ground at the foot of the chair.
"Giving up already? That's not like you, Lil," Anna said, smirking.
"It's not due for ages, Anna," Lily replied, "And besides, I can't concentrate."
"I remember when you once said, 'Anna, the O.W.L.s are only three months away, that goes by way faster than you think!' I'm glad you've gotten a hold of a good sense of time now," She said, "And what's bothering you so much anyways?"
"Nothing." Lily cast a sidelong glance out the window.
"Oh please, that's the worst job of lying you've ever done. And I've seen some bad ones, too."
Lily sighed. "It's Alice. She's really upset."
"Oh. Did you talk to her?"
"Yeah."
"What happened?"
"Well, she seemed okay at first, but she finished the conversation in tears, so…"
"Yikes."
"No kidding."
Both of them didn't speak for a few minutes. Anna's hand was flying along the page, and soon enough she was finished with her homework.
"Oh no…" Lily said.
"What?" Anna said, looking up.
"It's Alice."
"Oh good, then she must be feeling better, right?"
"If she is, then she won't be for long. She's talking to James."
And it was true, he had stopped Alice at the foot of the stairs and was speaking to her. As much as Lily thought he was probably being completely insensitive, he looked very sincere…not to mention apologetic.
"Put a little faith in people for once," Anna said, gathering all her books together.
"Excuse me? I do put faith in people—or, at least those people that deserve it," Lily said indignantly.
"What did he ever do to be so undeserving?"
"I'm not starting this conversation again," Lily said, crossing her arms.
"Lily."
Anna stopped everything she was doing, and looked straight at Lily.
"Do you want to know what I think?" She asked.
"Not really, because whatever you say is going to right, and it's probably going to make me lose sleep."
"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway."
Lily braced herself. Whatever Anna said was always so obviously right that she didn't really want to hear her opinion on this.
"Though I feel terribly, terribly sorry for Frank and Alice, I don't think your lack of concentration is because of that issue. Did you ever even think that somewhere deep inside you, a little piece of you is jealous of her? I mean, she has somebody who's in love with her, and vice versa. I'm not saying that you need a boyfriend or that your life is ruined without one, but it's hard to look at someone like her and not feel a little bit envious from time to time."
"Anna, that has nothing to do with it," Lily said sternly.
"No, YOU don't think that has anything to do with it—Lily, all I'm saying is that you don't have to be jealous. You can have that yourself. And, in my opinion, you're passing up a great opportunity."
"I'd hardly call it great."
"All right, I never could get through to you anyways. Just try not to be so stubborn all the time. Some things are better when you go against your best judgment."
She picked up all her things.
"Oh, and by the way, did you notice that you used his first name for the first time?"
Lily opened her mouth to speak a few times, but before she'd even realized it, Anna was going up the steps to the dormitory.
Okay, so she was a little bit stubborn sometimes—but that didn't mean that she was wrong. And maybe Anna's advice wasn't all it was cracked up to be. After all, she'd been wrong about a lot of things before.
"Lily."
She turned around in her chair and saw Alice standing there, smiling faintly.
"Are you feeling better?" Lily asked her.
"Loads. The letter really helped."
"I'm glad."
"Listen, I'm about to pop up to the Owlery to send this off, and I just wanted to thank you before I go. You've been really helpful, and you didn't even need to."
"You're welcome," Lily said.
"Everybody's been so supportive, it's really great."
"Speaking of that, what did Ja-I mean, Potter say to you?"
"He was just being nice, that's all. He just said that he was sorry and to send my apologies to Frank as soon as I spoke to him next," Alice said, "Well, I've got to go, but thanks again, Lily."
"Yeah…no problem…"
Lily sat there, trying to think what reason in the world he would have for being nice.
"What did he do to be so undeserving?"
Anna's voice kept interrupting her thoughts. The worst thing was, everything she had said seemed so sensible, so rational—but Lily still wouldn't believe her.
Finally, Lily decided to go to bed. As her head lay back on her pillow, the only thing running through her mind was still Anna's words.
Great, Lily thought, Now I'm not even in control of my own brain.
And, feeling more confused than she had all day, she eventually drifted off to sleep.
Author's Note: Haha! I told you there'd be one at the end! Just
to clarify two things:
1) There's still going to be a while before our lovely couple gets together. Yes, Lily is beginning to face some facts…but not her own feelings
2) This "Jack Longbottom" I'm talking about would be Neville's granddad married to his batty old grandmum. (He must have been insane…)
Thanks a ton for reading, and it would be so great if you reviewed…after all, it fuels the fire that is this fanfic. So, be a sweetheart, take a few minutes of your time, and tell me how much you liked (hopefully you didn't hate it) my story.
Until next time!!!
