"POTTER, GODDAMNIT, I SAID NO!"
That sure as hell made him shut up.
Woops.
Lily had not sworn in twelve years. She had only ever said bloody once, and she picked it up from the large, obnoxious, and quite frankly disgusting Greek man who lived next door to her when she was four. He was a butcher, and would hang his bloody (as in blood, red blood) aprons on the line to "air out". He never washed them.
She had only sworn once, in 16 years of being a human, four of being a teenager, and six of which she lived in a world where someone could set her behind on fire in a million different ways. Without her noticing.
Obviously, that "someone" had just opened up a bursting tin of beans. He should've started running before he got severely off-smelling tomato sauce all over his black cloak, let alone his spiking, ruffled hair.
"Potter, you miscreant, put her down this INSTANT!"
She was starting to get a little hysterical. Of course, he was levitating a first-year Slytherin over the Lake. Stupid whelk. So what if the little kid was talking to Snape, and laughing with him. Potter could obviously deal with that without taking his wand out. Stupid dunce.
People were already converged around them in a tight, sweating circle. Lily was quite certain people would just follow her and James around all day, looking for some action. Action as in fistfighing.
"But Lily, she was getting grease into her hair! She's ugly enough as it is without having but-ugly Snivellus hair!"
As usual, girls from the ages 12 up whimpered and simpered and twittered at his awesome humour. They followed him more than he followed Lily. Which quite pissed her off actually.
"I don't care if she has "Severus Snape" tattooed across her backside, Potter, she is only eleven years old for Merlin's sake and she has been crying for seven solid minutes! She is a first-year, and she doesn't deserve to be treated like a murderer on her second day of school! Now put her down!"
Lily was quite out of breath. James made her get like that.
James lowered the girl down, only letting her be jostled around a little bit before her feet felt solid earth. Lily stormed back up to the castle. She would be late for her first Charms lesson, and she'd rather have boils on her bum than miss that. It took Potter two minutes to catch up with her, though, and she was trapped in an empty corridor with only forwards the way to go. She ignored him, and instead focused on the end of the corridor. Thirty feet, maybe less.
He followed her, not even saying anything. It infuriated her. He never just didn't say anything. He was always laughing with his mates or prodding some little first year or turning Slytherin' heads into clown faces, with big, shiny red shoes that stuck out of their black cloaks. Obviously not funny.
So she stopped walking, and just listened. It didn't take him long to realise, and he stopped too. They halted there, and neither spoke for a few moments.
She broke the silence. She always did.
"Potter, she is only a first year. How could you be so cruel?" Lily didn't sound spiteful. She didn't feel that way though. She felt ashamed. Of him. For him.
"She's a Slytherin."
"So was Slughorn, so are a quarter of the wizards in London. Do you hate them all?"
"She was talking to Snape. Laughing with him."
"Do you know what about?"
" . . . no."
"Then why did you fly her around over the lake? It's her second day. You can't possibly know what she's like, who she'll come to be! You didn't even stop to think of her, all because she's a Slytherin. Have you any idea how she would feel right now?"
"Does it even matter? She was probably making some joke about muggleborns, or something!" He was shouting now, passion was bouncing over the four walls, and off the roof.
She spun to face him, anger nearing on with rage making her hair bounce around, shaking out of her ponytail. Prejudices. Oh, how she hated them.
"Merlin, Potter! You are prejudiced against an eleven year old girl! For your information, she never knew she was a witch. Her parents are both magical, but they never told her. Didn't want her to be exposed to the "evil" of our world! She comes here, expecting a fairy tale, and you won't even give her a chance! She's in Slytherin because she's ambitious, not because she's an agent of the Devil! And you treat her like she is the devil! Not once have I seen you sink so low."
Lily's nostrils flared. her arms shook, weakly hanging by her side.
"What about Black?" She crept on in a whisper. "What about him? He comes from a family littered with Dark, and full of malice! Yet you never leave his side. You never will. He's your brother. And Peter. Everyone thinks he's too much of a dunderhead to understand the word 'friendship', but he is still a 'marauder', he is still one of your best friends. And Remus."
An intake of breath on both sides.
"Remus is a werewolf and you trust him implicitly. Not that you shouldn't." - she continued, never letting him open his mouth - "He is an amazing person. The most loyal friend. Because you gave him the chance to be yours. If him or Peter or Black were in Slytherin, you'd laugh and scorn at them, too. Don't you dare deny it. You'd ridicule them, and they'd never have a chance to be loyal, to live how they should. You discriminate people on their house, and you loath people who do so on blood. What makes you and Snape so different, Potter? What makes you the honorable one, when you see as little as him? You need to give people the chance to be who they are meant to be! You can't judge them on their house or their blood or even their family, because that's not who they are! You can see it in Remus and Black! How you can be so blind to others, I'll never know."
She walked away slowly. A little late for Charms.
He raged at her for ages. Not to her face, of course. That would be as stupid as challenging Dumbledore to a riddle. He thought about all the things she said, and had started taking to whispering under his breath.
He'd wonder if that 5th year Slytherin had any sisters, and if he loved them. Wondered if he had any pets, and if he tortured them or fed them each night. He heard another Slytherin, 4th year, crooning about her new Baby Sister. Ivory, her name was. Did she sing her to sleep if she cried?
And what about Remus? How did Lily know about that? And why hadn't she said anything before?
A/N: Hello World! This is my first fanfic, and Iwould really like some pointers. If you review I will send you some Spice Girl stickers. Thanks!