Black-Eyed Nineties
Disclaimer and A/N: I'm not Jo-Ro, nor am Jewels5, no way in hell is my name billowsandsmoke and obviously I'll never be as talented as Pat Richardson. If you stumbled on this fic, please read it. It's my first fic after deleting Separatio Maris. Well, I just couldn't see any future for that one, sorry if I've disappointed anyone!
Main Inspiration: A fic called "I Know Not And I Cannot Know—Yet I Live And I Love" by billowsandsmoke. I recommend listening to Greensleeves piano solo by Pat Richardson while reading this… it's available on both YouTube and Spotify.
Prologue
1st September, 1991
"Bulstrode, Millicent!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
He shouldn't have expected anything else. Angus Bulstrode was a member of the Dark Lord's Inner Circle, a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, a hater of Muggleborns, and this was just another plump-faced member of his family. And well, the preferred house of almost all Death Eaters was Slytherin.
Bulstrode was followed by Crabbe Jr., a girl called Tracey Davis, and the son of Death Eater Goyle. Albus turned his head to give him a weird look which he pretended to not see.
The thing was, contrary to what people thought, Snape didn't relish in giving out detentions to those little dunderheads. It was as much a waste of his time as it was theirs. But the only emotions he'd allowed himself to feel in this decade were anger, bitterness, the occasional guilt, and loneliness. Anything outside this spectrum was something he'd use sarcasm to deal with.
"Greengrass, Daphne!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Unto the point where Minerva had reached the alphabet 'M', all the First Year Slytherins had been Purebloods. Obviously. He diverted his thoughts to Potter's son, and how uncannily he resembled his father. The only genetic anomaly was his green almond-shaped eyes which had belonged…
"Malfoy, Draco!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Snape sneered. Lucius' son. Where else would he go? Snape had been a close acquaintance of the Malfoys since his school days, especially of Lucius. But it had never gone further than that. They were nothing more than just very close acquaintances.
"Moon, Lily!"
A skinny, evidently impoverished girl nervously strode towards the stool. This one was of course not going to be in Slytherin, he'd never heard of a Pureblood family by the surname Moon. He tapped his foot against something under the staff table–probably some abominable dunderhead's cat–and waited.
The girl had dark red hair cut in a clumsy bob, falling around her face in oily clumps. If it was even possible, they seemed to be greasier than his own. The Sorting Hat had not spoken yet.
Meanwhile, the young Potter was staring back at him, his green eyes narrow with curiosity. Probably plotting his first assignment for the start of his illustrious career as Junior Marauder. The Sorting Hat had not spoken yet. What on earth was it doing?
Two… three… four minutes had passed. Exchanging a glance with Albus, Snape concentrated all his attention at the Hat from which the greasy hair cascaded down. It was as if he willed the Sorting Hat to speak when –
"SLYTHERIN!"
This was going to be interesting, this was perhaps one of those years when the Hat took mercy on him and sent a non-Pureblood in his house. Over the years, he had outgrown that foolish phase of bigotry which had turned his life upside down. Perhaps he still considered Slytherins to be slightly superior to all other houses…
…but he had his reasons for that. Anyway, the point is – he seldom had Half-bloods and never knew any Muggleborn to be a member of the Slytherin house during his tenure- both as a student, and as a teacher.
"Potter, Harry!"
If anyone would tell him that the Sorting Hat considered putting the son of the Potters in Slytherin, he'd think they had somehow lost their sanity. Well, people like Sirius Black did exist who turned traitor on their own family.
Drawing in a sharp breath, he overcame the sudden rage that had built up inside him upon the thought of Black. To think that the idiot had sent him to his death while still at school was one thing. But knowing that he'd betrayed his best mate and his only friend…
Those things were not worth a thought. Sirius Black was not worth a thought. He was currently rotting in Azkaban where he belonged.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
Seriously, he felt like the ridiculous Hat had only taken a long pause for some unnecessary drama. If there was one thing, Potter obviously was going to end up in the lion's den. He didn't have the option of choosing evil Slytherin. His life was irrevocably engraved as the words 'Boy Who Lived'. And of course, someone must've already told him about the Dark Lord being the 'evil' house's most famous alumnus.
The Sorting Ceremony didn't take much time to end after that. Snape mentally revised the names of his new First Years. Bulstrode, Crabbe, Davis, Goyle, Greengrass, Malfoy, Moon, Nott, Parkinson, and Zabini. All except Moon being the children of former Death Eaters.
"Your name is Lily Moon?"
It was the voice of Theodore Nott. The non-Pureblooded redhead was sitting between him and Malfoy. Snape focused on their conversation. It was a common topic – blood purity. What else did most Slytherins talk about?
"You're a Pureblood?" the Moon girl was speaking, her voice was had a cynical tone but by the look in her eyes, she seemed genuinely interested. Her eyes were deep black and hooded, not much different from how his looked at that age.
Malfoy sneered. "Of course we're Purebloods! Are you telling me you aren't?"
If the girl would have been anything like his childhood self, she would lie and say she was one. A Pureblood daughter of a lesser known family or something like that. But, apparently she wasn't.
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm telling you, Malfoy," she said. "I thought this house was known for its sharp wit and cleverness. I may be wrong though, since you seemingly lack both!"
That line was familiar. Sirius Black had said something like that to him on the Hogwarts Express. Insulting a Malfoy… that girl was utterly foolish.
Snape barely kept his jaw from falling open when he heard her next words – "I'm Muggleborn, the first Muggleborn Slytherin in history!"
Being a Half-blood in Slytherin was enough trouble. Being a Muggleborn- the experience would be excruciating. And looking at the time taken to Sort her. The implications were unimaginable.
Lily Moon had been a Hatstall. And the case with Hatstalls was that they were usually put in a house of their choice rather than the secondary one. Lily had desired to be a Slytherin, and must have desired it very intensely for the Hat to overlook her blood status.
It was a very hare-brained choice, indeed.
1st of May, 1998
Many of the students looked petrified. That was the precise moment when Ernie Macmillan of the Hufflepuff house stood to prove that he wasn't. "And what if we want to stay and fight?" he asked, and grinned at the amount of applause that followed his question.
Lily Moon sat between Theodore Nott and Draco Malfoy in the Slytherin table. In the years leading to this day, she had come across several occasions where one thing was clear. The House of the Serpents taught you endurance… it tested your survival skills, it tested your limits, your morals…
It challenged everything you've believed in until that point.
And if you won, then "Oh gosh!"
Lily hadn't won yet, but she was definitely close to victory. How she was still sitting between two prejudiced Purebloods during Voldemort's reign was a whole different story of endurance, but more on that later. At present, these point were to be taken into consideration.
Lily Moon was a Muggleborn Slytherin, sitting amidst a sea of prejudice, faking her identity as a blonde Half-Blood called Marlene Cattermole who had been home-schooled until that year.
"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.
"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"
"We have no time to collect possessions," said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get you out of here safely."
Marlene Cattermole (or at least the girl who pretended to be her) twitched. If she wasn't in present company, she would've surely stayed and fought. And being the foolhardiest of the Seventh Year Slytherins, Lily a.k.a. Marlene a.k.a. the new Half-Blood, just had to make her decision public.
"Where is Professor Snape?" she stood up and asked.
She'd lost all respect for the Potions Master ever since he murdered Professor Dumbledore. Yes, she wasn't a fan of Professor Dumbledore herself–but murdering anyone was simply unforgivable.
"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk, replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.
The Slytherin table had faces filled with loathing at the comment. But you see, fate works in funny ways sometimes. They loathed Professor McGonagall ever since she roasted a Death Eater.
One December morning, Amycus Carrow had used his liberty to teach the use of the Unforgivables in the Dark Arts class. The outcome of that abysmal half hour period depended on whether you were a Slytherin, a Muggleborn Slytherin, or the rest of the population of Hogwarts.
"I won't do it!" Neville Longbottom shouted in defiance. A single shout of defiance by a rebellious Gryffindor led to a formation of a permanent scar on him, a few shouts of protest from his housemates Seamus Finnigan and Lavender Brown, and a chill to be sent down the spine of Neville's partner for the class, who happened to be a new girl called Marlene Cattermole.
Minerva McGonagall was born to be a figure of authority. She interrupted the class by swinging the door open with a single Alohomora and glared at the ruthless excuse for a teacher in the eye.
The Slytherins wished that Professor Carrow would continue his punishment on Neville Longbottom.
The Muggleborn Slytherin wished that Neville should survive this abysmal class.
The rest of the class–Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws alike, wished for the same thing as the Muggleborn Slytherin, but they also wished that McGonagall somehow roast Carrow, also wished that the Headmaster come to his sense and fire both Amycus and his nasty twin, and also wished that You-Know-Who die immediately and that Harry Potter should return to Hogwarts to announce the news.
"I believe you think that these lot are a babbling, bumbling band of baboons, Amycus," McGonagall noted, her eyes travelling swiftly between Carrow's face and Neville's face. Neville's lightened at the familiar comment. The Professor had said the same thing before the Yule Ball in their Fourth Year.
"But I also believe that you stand here because you know how to deal with a band of baboons without raising your wand. How easily you prove me wrong, Carrow! How clear you make it to me that you're so weak!"
Motioning for Neville to follow her, the Lioness waited as he stood up and the two Gryffindors left the room, the door closing behind them with a bang. The most surprising fact was that the Dark Arts professor had not spoken a single word during this exchange, his eyes wide that she have such guts to speak so with him.
One thought consistently echoed in Lily Moon's mind in that moment. Clearly, the horrible Death Eater had underestimated the power of the Gryffindor lioness to a large extent.
If McGonagall hadn't gotten frustrated over her students and dismissed the class early, she wouldn't have been taking a stroll outside the Dark Arts classroom, and in turn, she wouldn't have interrupted the Dark Arts class or roasted a Death Eater or earned the dislike of most of the Slytherins present there. Fate works in funny ways sometimes.
"But he's there! Potter's there!" Parkinson was saying now in the present. She raised a shaking arm towards whom Lily recognised as Harry Potter. Seeing that the Hall's attention was divided between either grabbing Harry or protecting him, she heaved a sigh of relief and genuinely smiled for the first time in ages.
Harry Potter had returned to Hogwarts, there was going to be a battle at Hogwarts, Lily Moon was going to fight alongside Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, and everyone else against Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts.
"Thank you, Miss Parkinson," said McGonagall in a clipped voice. "You will leave the Hall first with Mr Filch. If the rest of the House could follow."
Beside her, Draco Malfoy, Theodore Nott, Parkinson and soon everyone else stood up. Lily remained seated. Almost none of her housemates noted this as they emptied out of the Hall one by one. When Parkinson turned her head, she raised her eyebrows.
"Come on, Cattermole! We've got to go," she said, evidently still annoyed that nobody had managed to catch Potter.
Lily tilted her head. "I'm aware that cowards like you who don't want to fight need to follow Mr Filch. Please, continue!"
Pansy Parkinson's face changed completely. She said the next word loud enough for the whole Hall to hear. "Traitor!"
Lily chose that moment to point her wand at herself. Her wand had been her only companion throughout her years at Hogwarts where her housemates viewed her as something disgusting because of her blood status and the others viewed her as someone not to be trusted because of her house. All the faces in the Hall had turned towards the end of the Slytherin table where this drama had unfolded. Whether they looked at the seated blonde in disinterest, support or anything else was not the point. Lily chose that moment to point her wand at herself.
With a swift moment, she cried, "Finite Incantatem!"
The long sheet of blonde hair turned into those oily dark red clumps cascading below her ears. Round blue eyes transformed into hooded black hooded ones. Her pale lost all colour and turned pale. Marlene Cattermole turned into her real self.
This led to several developments. The five or six Slytherins including Pansy Parkinson swore and cast all sorts of jinxes on the girl, before being disarmed by the rest of Hogwarts and pushed out of the Hall by Filch. "You'll be dead soon, Mudblood!" Nott cried before the door closed behind him and all the others.
Slowly the four tables emptied. Save for Lily, the Slytherin table was completely deserted. A few older Ravenclaws stayed behind, followed by a slightly higher number of Hufflepuffs and half of the Gryffindor table.
For someone like Lily who'd never had anyone–except probably Professor Snape–be loyal to her, this movement of the three other houses defending her against her housemates made her eyes hazy. She swiped her fingers against the tears that threatened to roll down her cheeks and took in the view of the Great Hall.
All around her were fighters, all around her were people who believed that her kind deserved to exist, all around her were the real courageous crowd of the school. They would all fight to bring Voldemort down, together. They would fight to ensure that she wouldn't have to keep turning her head behind her shoulder every so often. All around her were fighters.
In the moment, Lily knew that one day soon no one will have to fight for their life. It would be a day when a thousand splendid suns would shine and she would wait for it eagerly.
A/N: Reviews are the reason why the sun shines so brightly!
An enormous amount of gratitude,
S. Silver