Authors Note: I hope this chapter is believable...not that anything is really very believable as they are in a magical world and all....but anyway I have new characters and some new intrigue...so give me your opinions at the end! Oh, ps, all of the new characters I introduced (most of them at least, I think I made up one or two names...) were in JK's books mentioned like once obscurely in case u were all wondering...
Chapter 9
School Again
The next morning at breakfast was when the first really nasty thing happened that proved to Lily, as if she needed any more proof, that the Slytherins officially hated the Gryfindors. They had received their schedules for the week and were talking about their classes when Bellatrix Black walked into the hall, surrounded by a gaggle of Slytherin boys and girls, listening with rat attention to her story.
"So then," she said, "my aunt comes in in a towering rage and actually blasted his name from the family tree!" She said. There was a sudden outbreak of laughter at this pronouncement. "Why, my dear Sirius, here you are now. And to think, we were just talking about you." Bellatrix said innocently blinking her heavily lidded eyes.
She had thick eye shadow on, Lily never wore that much, and eye liner as well. That was the only makeup she was wearing, however. Her eyes stood out large and defined against the rest of her face. She had long black hair, the same color as Sirius's. Lily, much as she hated to admit it, could definitely see the family resemblance.
"Oh yes, my dear cousin. How nice to see you too." Sirius said, smiling broadly to mirror her own.
"Oh, I'm sorry, but we are no longer cousins." There were muffled giggles and barks of laugher at this. "You didn't hear? Your mother eliminated you from the family! This summer in fact. Didn't you know? She has transferred all of the inheritance you would have gotten in her will to Narcissa, Regulus, and myself." Bellatrix continued, smiling smugly, obviously pleased with herself. "Didn't you know? Oh, I'm so sorry, I hate that you had to find out like this." She said, putting a hand to her mouth in mock sorrow. She then turned her back, laughing loudly.
"Nasty little witch. I cannot believe that she's Andromeda's sister, can you?" Sirius asked incredulously after she had gone. James and Lily both shook their heads solemnly. "Oh well, just as well I got out of that family when I could, too bad I missed out on that lovely inheritance though. I suppose Bellatrix grows richer with every Black eliminated from the family tree." Sirius said. He was, for some reason, smiling.
"We have potions this afternoon with Slytherin, do you suppose they'll be that bad?" Lily asked dubiously.
"Yes." Sirius and James both said emphatically.
"They were always bad, now they've just gotten worse and more obvious." Sirius said. "It's not that big a change. Now everyone knows how lucky they are not to be in that house is all." He shrugged, although James could tell something was troubling him. They had been best friends forever, James always knew when something was on Sirius's mind. It was almost as if they could read each other's thoughts.
Lily turned to Caroline, who was sitting on her other side, and involved her in a conversation about herbology.
This year Lily's course load was jam packed. Although sixth year was usually the year in which most students dropped many classes and only took those that they needed an NEWT in in order to pursue the career of their choice, Lily, had to take potions, herbology, defense against the dark arts, charms, and transfigurations for becoming a healer. James was also taking a lot of courses, and had to have top grades as he wanted to become an auror. He was taking potions, transfiguration, charms, and, naturally, defense.
Potions arrived in due time, as Lily knew it must. The class was a mix of seventh and sixth years, all of whom were studying for their NEWTs in the subject. She had hoped that there would be the usual jovial conversations between the two houses. You could generally spot at least a few tables in which Gryfindors were sitting with Slytherins, but not this year. There was a wide gap between the tables. There was almost an invisible line separating the two houses.
Lily did not see one friendly exchange between a Gryfindor and Slytherin. She did not even see an exchange. No one called across the room, asking how someone else's summer had been. No one asked if anyone had any spare ingredients, and no one smiled at anyone else from the other house.
Lily could almost smell the enmity between the two houses. The tension had mounted so high that she felt it would snap. Until this year she had never really paid much attention to the Slytherins. She had, of course, dated Severus, but that was long over. And even when they had been together, she rarely spent time with his friends. When they weren't alone together he was with her friends, but never the other way around.
This year it was hard to ignore them. The Slytherins were being particularly awful. Although there was the invisible boundary, it was crossed to do damage behind enemy lines, so to speak.
She saw McNare, a slimy and rather sinister looking boy who was average height and very wiry, pass a Gryffindor table on his way to the supply cupboard and knocked over the cauldron of Gideon and Fabian Prewett, who were always together and always partnered with each other for their potions. These two were some of the smartest in the school, even rivaling Sirius and James sometimes in looks, Quiddich, academics, popularity with girls, and the ability to read each other's thoughts. Lily did not know those boys very well, even though she had been in classes with them for ages. All she knew was that Fabian and Gideon were gorgeous, exotic, Italian, and had wonderful accents. She only knew this, and not because she herself was interested in them, but because in their second year Holly and Alice had wanted to date them, and if they both married one two they would be sisters. Lily had never really been very interested in them, although she had to admit she would not refuse if one of them asked her out. She knew that Fabian played Quiddich with James, and that Gideon was more bookish. They were in the seventh year, one year above Lily and her friends.
Lily looked on with irritation at this disruption of the class. She looked across the aisle and saw Edgar Bones, a sixth year in Sirius and James's dorm. Edgar Bones was cute as well. He rather reminded her of Peter in some ways. He did, however, look rather young and naive. But perhaps that was part of his charm. Lily did not know what Holly had seen in him that made her decide he was cute so suddenly, or even if she still thought he was, but she did know that many girls did find him attractive. Lily noticed that he was having a little trouble with his potion as well.
Vincent Grabbe and Gregory Goyle, two big and beefy boys who were rather dull, Lily had never actually heard either of them form a coherent sentence, were partnered together in front of Marlene McKinnon and Emmeline Vance, who were also both in the seventh year.
Marlene was nice enough, although she was not the most interesting of girls. She came from a pure blood family that was well known for being sympathetic to muggles, rather like the Potters.
Emmeline Vance was beautiful, but not in the classic sense. She was tall and slim and had a dark, exotic beauty not often found. She was very intimidating, part of the reason that Lily had not gotten to know her very well in her time at Hogwarts, and at first sight appeared to be somewhat of an ice queen. She and Marlene were the complements of each other, and had been very close friends from the first year on. She was very good with a wand, and came from a half muggle half magical family. Her mother, or so Lily had been told, had deserted her pureblood family for love of her father.
Lily watched as Gregory kicked the two girls' table with his foot behind him, causing their potion to slosh, wetting their ingredients. Lucious Malfoy, sitting with Severus in the table across the row from Gregory and Vincent, laughed. Lily knew at once why he had partnered Severus. Severus was stooped low over the table, finely cutting the thyme, while Lucious was idly making eyes at Bridget Quan, an Asian girl from Slytherin who had a slight accent.
She had come to Hogwarts from China, and never came on the express. She had to take a port key to get here. It had been a big deal when she was accepted, Dumbledore had had to pull many strings with the Ministry of Magic. She was clever, like most Slytherins, with the obvious exception of Gregory and Vincent, but was not very nice. She was attractive, but very snide and rude. She had the expression of one who looked down on everyone else. She was partnered with Narcissa Black, Sirius's cousin, much to both their dismays. They had never been very close.
Lily felt angry as Lucious laughed at Marlene and Emmeline's predicament, but was satisfied a moment later when several things happened.
Marlene was mopping up the spilt potion and telling Emmeline to ignore it, but Emmeline had a temper even worse than Lily's. She shot a clever little spell at Gregory and Vincent's potion, causing it to change colors. She had not actually altered the potion, but if someone were to look at it, it would appear to be very wrong. By the time they had added all sorts of things to change the color back, the spell would wear off, and then the potion actually would be wrong.
Emmeline, satisfied with her handiwork, helped Marlene to dry the desktop by using another clever trick, causing hot air to blow out of her wand tip. Lily laughed as a moment later Vincent and Gregory were scratching their heads, looking puzzled, and throwing things into their cauldron at random. Lily then turned her attention back to Lucious.
He was haughtily tossing his platinum blonde hair, still making eyes at Bridget, when his hair began to tangle into knots. He looked around in surprise, trying to find the source of the knotting. Lily looked too, and discovered James pointing his wand at Lucious, muttering an incantation under his breath and twirling his wand in little circles while Sirius laughed quietly.
Lily glared at him. Although she did find it amusing, she did not think that it was appropriate for potions class, nor did it solve the obvious problems between the houses. She glared at James, who, noticing her at last after a kick from Sirius, straitened and smiled cheekily. He gave her a little wave, putting his wand away and whistling a little.
Professor Inkbeat was having an obvious problem. She did not know who to punish. She was the head of Slytherin house, and Lily knew she was a pure blood witch. Lily also noticed that she had not given Lily her usual friendly greeting. She was prowling among the students, snarling at Gryffindors and encouraging Slytherins, very much the opposite of how she had been in past years.
Lily sighed in frustration, it was not right, all this fighting. And she did not like the teachers picking sides, although she knew they must. Lily and Holly received full marks for their potion, even though both were distracted by the antics of the rest of the class.
Professor Inkbeat did lecture Gregory and Vincent on their potion, telling them that they should pay more attention to what they are doing next time.
Lily retired to the common room that night thoroughly disgruntled. Everything was so different. She was used to Hogwarts as a nice safe friendly place, not a place where the houses openly hated each other. To be fair, Hufflepuff got along with everyone, and the Ravenclaws were divided, and neither of the two were quite so open about it as the Gryffindors and Slytherins, but it was not what Lily had been waiting for all those weeks in the summer.
She saw a notice on the board when she entered the common room, and smiled happily.
Volunteers Wanted!
If you are a good student,
Willing to help,
Have some free time on your hands,
We need YOU!
If you are interested in helping as a volunteer tutor three nights a week in the library, to help your fellow classmates with homework or test preparation, then please help! Also, students falling behind are welcome to come to Madame Pince and sign up for peer tutoring. Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays at 8:00 PM in the main section of the library. See you there!
This was right up Lily's alley. She loved helping people, and she was a good student. She went up to her dorm.
Lily entered her dorm, and, thinking she was alone, plopped down on her bed with a sigh. Holly was in the common room, flirting her head off with Edgar, and Janette was off somewhere with Henry, the boy she had started dating the previous year. Lily did not even want to know what they were doing.
"What's wrong?" Asked a voice tentatively. It was Alice. Lily sat up quickly, looking dubious. She did not know what to think of Alice right now.
"Nothing really." Lily said, deciding that she could answer.
"Oh. Did you have a nice summer?" Alice asked hesitantly. For a moment Lily considered saying
'Yes, I spent it with the boy that used to date you, until he dumped your ass! So there!' But then she remembered herself. She was not that mean, and she and James had spent a totally platonic summer. Well, except for that last night, but the rest of it had only been as friends.
"It wasn't too bad." Lily said, she did not feel like going into the details of her father's kidnapping with Alice.
"Oh." Alice said.
"How was yours?" Asked Lily. She wondered what Holly would say to her and Alice having a conversation, and was glad that she was not there.
"It was nice. Frank came home with me for part of it. He met my parents." Alice said, she had obviously been dying to tell someone. Lily wondered where her now seventh year friends were.
"Oh?" Lily asked.
"Yes, they really liked him. At first they were totally scandalized about him being my teacher and all, but then they got to know him and realized that there was nothing I could have done. He's too perfect. And they agree that five years isn't that much, as long as we don't do anything until I'm much older. My dad threatened him with his shotgun." Alice said, giggling nervously. Lily laughed. Alice beamed and then continued on. "Do you know why he's not here Lily?" Alice asked feverishly, obviously very happy about something.
"Because he had to go back to the ministry, Dumbledore told us." Lily replied, a question behind her answer.
"No, that wasn't it." Alice said. "My mom absolutely refused to let us continue seeing each other if he was my teacher. She said it was immoral. And do you know what he did?" Alice asked. "He went straight to Dumbledore and quit." She said, not waiting for a response. "He said he loves me more than he would ever love a job, and that I was worth it. He said he would wait forever if he had to, but that he wanted to be with me forever." Alice said, pure bliss in her expression. Lily had to admit that, if this were true, it was a very nice thing for him to do. And very sweet.
"That was nice." Lily said, non commitally.
"Yes." Alice said, enraptured. "Lily, I love him. I absolutely love him. I would do anything for him. He's the sweetest, most adorable, considerate man I've ever known. I would marry him tomorrow if he asked." Alice said secretively.
"Oh?" Lily asked, surprised. She had often heard Alice say that she never wanted to get married, as that way she would be able to have as much fun as she wanted. This was after her plans to marry Fabian and be Holly's sister, of course.
"Yes. Lily you have no idea how much I've changed. I want to be better now. I want to be different. I'm going to be good, not such a little tramp. I promise. Frank makes me want to be better, to be good. It makes me want to be more like you, Lily. You were always such a good friend." Alice said, now crying.
Lily looked at her closer. She was not wearing any makeup, and her robes were not a size too small, as they normally were when she came back to school- and not because she couldn't afford new ones either. Lily noticed that she had cut her hair. It was still gorgeous, perhaps more so, but it was now only shoulder length, rather than the glamorously chic style she used to wear it in when she would let it hang elegantly to her waste. Lily looked skeptical. Alice made her seem so good.
"I was never that good of a friend, Alice." She denied modestly.
"Oh, but you were, Lily. You always stood up for me, and you were always there for me, even when I was such a stupid little whore." Alice said, her cheeks now soaked. "Lily, do you think you would be able to give me another chance?" Alice asked. "I miss you so much. The others too, but you more than all of them. I shouldn't care if they never forgave me, as long as you would be my friend again." Alice declared.
Perhaps this was why she was no longer hanging out with her seventh year friends. Perhaps also this was why she was not in the common room, flirting the way Holly was. They used to always, when they came back from summer break, take advantage of the easy conversation topics and scope out who they would date in the coming year. This was, of course, before they had their annual pow wow.
Authors Note: So tell me what you think will happen/what you want to happen with the Slytherins and the library! How do you like those new characters I threw out there for you? I decided things would get boring if I kept going on about the same ppl all the time...It was time to spice things up a bit. So give me your insight on Holly and whatever relationships she should have and whether or not she should forgive Alice...