It was the morning after she returned when she saw Severus again, he was looking mulishly at the Gryffindor table. Lily sighed, there were two reasons why he would do that, either Potter and his friends did something stupid again, or Severus got in a fight with Alice and Frank. Sitting down next to her friend she decided to delicately approach the issues.
"What's wrong with you?" Poe squawked indigently, so she was less than delicate so what? Severus raised an eyebrow at her and pointed to Potter.
"Potter there managed to transfigure my experimental potion into shampoo, and when I told Slughorn-" and he said Slughorn with more malice than Malfoy says mudblood- " he thought it was a jovial joke, laughed it off! And I was going to try using a different cutting technique for the sopophorous beans," with a final huff he stabbed his plate of eggs.
Lily scowled at Potter, he seemed to think that using soap was the perfect way to mock Severus. It was quite rude, Severus is already self-conscious about his hair without the added incentive. Well, Lily decided, a perfect time to test Poe's new powers. With barely a mental nudge he flattened two-dimensional and hopped through people's shadows, Severus almost yelled when the bird disappeared but Lily clapped a hand over his mouth and pointed to the Gryffindors.
Poe popped out of Lupin's shadow, puffed his chest out, and cawed loudly. His voice echoed across the entire great hall. The closest people all jumped out of their seats hitting the table with knees and elbows, a bowl of porridge fell into Potter's lap, splashing Black as well. Severus cracked a smile while Lily loudly banged the table in laughter. Many Slytherin students looked at them oddly while the rest of the hall either laughed or looked embarrassed. Potter glanced around the hall attempting to catch the perpetrator, when he saw Lily she smirked and waved at him. He clenched his teeth but didn't make a move.
Lily went throughout her day holding that memory in her mind, it definitely kept her sniggering and she lost points in charm when she startled Potter again. During herbology she teamed up with Alice, leaving Severus to play nice with Frank, and told her what she did during winter break. Alice was interested in the familiar ritual and Lily promised that once Alice has found the right animal she'll perform the ritual.
It wasn't long till Alice found the perfect creature. It was during another prank war between the Marauders and Lily (she also dragged Severus along with her) when a small bird was caught in between a spell. The bird went unnoticed once McGonagall came upon the scene and gave detentions to everyone involved. As the group of students shamefully walked back into the building, Alice heard the weak chirps of the bird, looking around she saw a clump of feathers resting in the grass. The stray spell had startled the bird and caused it to crash, breaking a wing.
Alice took the bird to Madam Pomfrey, who told her that she was trained to heal people not pets but bandaged the wing and cast a very minor healing charm. She didn't know enough about the bird's bodily makeup for anything more powerful than that. Thus Alice tasked herself with caring for the bird and learning all she could to make it comfortable. She found that the bird was a male Crested Tit, Frank had snorted at the name but quieted with a glare, and it was nearing its old age. The bird bonded quickly for a wild animal, but Lily supposed it could have been old age or magic. And that got Alice excited, if the bird was influenced by magic then perhaps it could be her familiar. She wanted to make it happen right then and there but Lily made her wait until the bird was fully healed, after all, it wouldn't be a true familiar if it had no choice.
A week had gone by and the Marauders and Lily's detention had passed, resulting in another much more subdued war. And Alice's bird had healed. It was a teary moment for Alice as she removed the bandage and watched the bird fly about but to her pleasure, and Severus displeasure (he had made a bet with Lily, shouldn't have done that with a seer), the bird landed on her shoulder with a chirp of content.
And Alice got her familiar. It looked much more different than Lily's, who gave up her shadow whereas Alice gave blood, the Crested Tit size haven't changed much but it's appearance did; the brown of the bird was replaced with a blood-red color and its wings were shaped like zig zags. Having two witches with familiars caused a stir and soon many other people wanted one too, but Lily was frugal with who went through the ritual and the teachers breathed a sigh of relief once the hype faded away. It was hard enough having to deal with magical children but magical pets as well? That would cause most of the staff to retire.
Another unsurprising development for Lily was a new friend. It was after exams and everyone was winding down, celebrations were quieting, and homework lessened. Lily however wasn't joining in just yet, she had heard an older student mention runes and thought it the perfect addition to her arsenal. Which brought her to the library.
She dropped her books onto a cluttered table, not noticing another sitting beside her, and opened the first one up. A quiet cough made her look up and she realized she was sitting across from Remus Lupin. He was the quietest of the group, normally in the corner watching as the other boys messed around; Lily often wondered how he became friends with such polar personalities.
"Sorry, I can move," She whispered with a smile. Lupin looked surprised that she hadn't hexed him yet.
"Er no you can stay, but… I was wondering. Why are you reading books about runes? We aren't even getting to that until third year." Lupin was much nicer than his friends and politer.
"I wanted to see how they worked. An older student mentioned them in passing and it sounded interesting," she put the book down, "although, now that I'm looking at it, it doesn't make a lot of sense." Lupin scooched closer to her and looked at the book.
"I guess it would, you've started with the germanic alphabet. It's more developed and advanced than the early or common alphabet, plus if you don't know the first two then it can be difficult to understand why the runes mean certain things," he said nonchalantly as if he was talking about the color of the sky. Lily blinked at the boy.
"And why do you know about runes when you're not a third year?"
"Uh, er well…" He thumbed at his shirt, "my father was interested in them because of my- er- he had them in the library and I read them." Lily looked at him with suspicion, he definitely is hiding something but he had helped her so she decided not to pry, yet.
"That's nice, it must have been an interesting life to have magical parents," she smiled conspiratorially, "I bet you couldn't get away with anything."
Remus snorted and his tenseness dissipated. Lily's smile grew before she pulled the books to him and demanded he teaches her all he knew. The two parted ways, later on, both happy with another friend made.
Lily pushed her way through the crowded platform, grumbling at the over-emotional parents smothering their kids with hugs and kisses. Severus trailed behind her grumpily, he wasn't too keen on leaving Hogwarts. Poe jumped off her shoulder with a caw flying overheads and landing on her father's, Lily smiled. If there was one thing she learned after bonding with Poe was that he hated crowds, and waiting.
Her voodoo dolls pushed her trunk through the crowd making a path for Lily and Severus, she would have broken down laughing from all the looks she got if it wasn't for her father and sister standing by themselves looking quite distraught with a shadow raven and three voodoo dolls.
A tender feeling welled up in Lily as she watched her sister hesitantly pet Poe, who preened under the attention, her father pulled her into a hug and the four of them left the station. Back to Cokeworth.
AN:
UnnaVox: Guys! I did it! I finished year one! Whoop whoop! It's over… well not completely we've still got seven-plus years ahead. *ahem* Anyways I hope this was enjoyable and all the time-hopping made sense, lol. So this year was kind of an experiment for me, trying to see how things play out and I realized a couple of things. One, more voodoo needs to happen, two she's at a magic school and yet I barely mentioned the school part? And three, balancing the characters, I tend to focus too much on one person (granted this is a Lily center fic) and forget about everyone else, like Lily's voodoo dolls? Barely mentioned, her housemates, not even, what happened with Lucius? I don't know and neither do you. So yeah lots to work on and think about.
DuoAnimi: So far I believe the stories going smoothly! Hopefully, you guys think so too. If anything doesn't make sense or if you just want to let us know what you think leave us a review! Thank you to all those who have liked, followed, and reviewed! :D