Previously: James and Sirius are on the fast track to becoming best friends. Lily makes friends with her other housemates.


Chapter 8: Kablooey Classes

"Which classes do you have, Lily?" asked Alice as she loaded her plate with scrambled eggs.

It was the first morning at Hogwarts – and a beautiful morning at that. Lily had been the last of the girls to wake up, sleepily rolling out of her comfy bed as the Hogwarts-supplied alarm clock – which interestingly enough ran solely on magic – blared raucously into Lily's poor ear. However, Alice took so long to get ready for the day that both she and Lily were ready to head down to breakfast at the same time, which was where they received their schedules from Professor McGonagall.

"I think the Gryffindors have the same ones," said Lily, running her finger down the classes. There were a total of six classes on Lily's timetable: Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, and Astronomy, though Astronomy class was only once per week at midnight thankfully. She had always been a night owl, but it would be just cruel to stay up until that late every night.

"We have Herbology with the Hufflepuffs first, I think,"

"Marius says it's an amazing class," said Marlene as she surveyed her own timetable that was likely identical to Lily's.

Lily continued as if she had not said anything. "It says the teacher's name is Pomona Sprout – that's the person who planted the Whomping Willow here – and then we have Charms with the Ravenclaws after that with some bloke called Filius Flitwick."

"My younger sister Marina went to a camp for aspiring Herbologists that Professor Sprout was running a couple of summers ago, and she said that Sprout is a really good teacher. Marina liked her a lot," said Marlene before daintily taking a blueberry muffin, somehow not letting a single crumb fall to the table.

"When's Transfiguration?" asked Alice, swallowing her eggs.

"Not 'til later," answered Lily.

Just then, a large number of Slytherins entered the Great Hall, and Lily searched for that familiar black hair, but to her disappointment, Severus was not yet at breakfast. The only one of the large group she knew was Mulciber, whispering to a couple people of whom Lily could not see their faces, and the sight of Mulciber's face brought her much less pleasure.

After Marlene had finished her toast that had been slathered with copious amounts of jam, she decided to take another look at the rest of the classes for the day.

"Let's see, we've got Charms and Herbology … oh, dear, we have Potions with the Slytherins– Slughorn's their Head of House. Is it too much to allow the possibility that heads always favor their own house?" asked Marlene, looking off to some distant point.

"I've heard that Slughorn likes to play favorites – not sure if it's only in his own house, but Fabian said that he handpicks the students in the Slug Club," piped up Alice. "Some are really smart on their own, but some people he invites only because they're related to somebody else who's famous."

Lily groaned at that. She had enough practice with those kinds of teachers at grade school, such as that memorable tenure in band. It was not that she was the worst student in music class, but after she got angry with the band teacher who said that she should play the flute instead of the trumpet, Lily had somehow managed to vanish all the flutes by the next day. There had been no proof to accuse her of any wrongdoing, but after that incident, she was never any teacher's favorite again in Hartlem Primary School.

"Hello, ladies," a voice suddenly said from behind her, and Black plopped down next to Marlene, leaning very closely to her while Potter chose the seat right across from Lily. Remus talking to Pettigrew further down the table. "You ready for some fun times?"

"With you two here? Doubtful," muttered Lily, not looking up from her plate.

"What makes you think the classes will be better than everything else so far?" asked Marlene curiously, raising one elegant eyebrow. Unlike Lily, she did not have as much reason to dislike the four boys.

"Who said we were talking about classes?" asked Potter with an innocently serene smile that did not fool Lily.

"Oh, Merlin, Potter," groaned Lily. "I don't want to know what you two thugs are up to – actually, you should tell me what you're going to do. That way I can make sure McGonagall knows where to catch you two."

Potter smirked.

"Sorry, Evans, no can do. That's for me to know, and for you to 'dot, dot, dot'."

"Hey, look! It's the mail," said Alice suddenly from beside Lily.

She pointed to the ceiling that was currently a clear, azure blue, and Lily watched, amazed, as hundreds of owls flew into the Great Hall. Other students also looked up with the same astonishment Lily felt; she noticed that some owls dropped packages over the students for them to catch while some flew directly to their owners so as to nibble on some of their breakfasts. Marlene immediately snatched and ripped open the pages of a magazine that an owl had delivered, and Lily tilted her head to read the title: Witch Weekly.

As she did not have any Wizarding relatives to send to her owl post, it came as a bit of a shock when two different owls flew over to her. At Marlene's suggestion, Lily had taken out a subscription of the Daily Prophet; she had hoped that it might help her keep up with wizard news, though Lily did not realize that the Daily Prophet also came by owl. Nevertheless, the Tawny landed in front of her, neatly sticking out its leg to hand Lily the newspaper while the other owl had a letter with what looked like her mother's handwriting.

She set the furled up Daily Prophet to the side, and took the letter first. Under Alice's instructions, she gave the Tawny that had the newspaper a couple of Knuts, but the other owl required no payment and took off immediately. It was that owl's letter that Lily was more interested in. Unlike most people, this message was written on plain Muggle paper rather than the parchment she was still trying to get used to.

Dear Lily,

We were trying to figure out a way for us to talk to you, and then I remembered Jane (do you remember your friend Alice from Diagon Alley) telling me about the Post Owl Express that helps people like your dad and me keep in touch with magical family members. It was a little difficult at first, but I figured it out finally. We hope we're right in assuming that the owl we used knows the Hogwarts address since we can't find it on any map anywhere – but that's not from lack of trying, really. We can't find it.

Anyways, how are you? What house are you in? What classes are you taking? We've been dying for information since you left, and we're just so happy for you, Lily. Hogwarts sounds like it's a dream come true for you, and we would love it if you could write back to us ASAP. But don't let writing a long letter deter you from your schoolwork – that always comes first.

We love you so much!

Mum and Dad

"Who's that?" asked Potter as a smiling Lily folded the letter and tucked it into her History of Magic textbook.

The moment he spoke, Lily's eyes flashed, and she snapped, "Don't you have some rubbish to charm, Potter?"

Potter opened his mouth, no doubt to give Lily a sharp retort, but fell silent when, across from them, Marlene let loose an exclamation of surprise that caught everybody's attention. Marlene, who had borrowed Lily's copy of the Prophet while she was busy with her own letter, was staring, upset, at the second page of the newspaper before Alice jerked it out of her hands and read aloud:

STRANGE DISAPPERANCES: LINKED OR COINCIDENCE?

By Betty Braithwaite

As we reported earlier in the summer, the man calling himself the Dark Lord and his Knights of Walpurgis have declared their intention of fighting against the equality of Muggle-borns, Squibs, and Muggles. While much of the Wizarding world and the Ministry of Magic believed that this wizard was simply trying to gain his fifteen minutes of fame, the disappearances of several noted wizards and witches in the past year has sparked an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the missing but relatively well-known wizards and witches in our society.

Ms. Victoria Gobsworth, 52, has been missing since last Tuesday night, where she was reported to have been meeting up with friends from the Muggle Liaison Office for a dinner. Later, a witness who wished to remain anonymous claims to have seen several people escort Ms. Gobsworth back to her home. Sources close to the investigation confirm that Aurors from the Investigation Department discovered evidence of a struggle at her modest London flat, which appeared to have been broken into sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Her family and friends say that they hope she will be found alive and well, but Aurors say that forensic spells place at least seven individuals at the scene of the crime, and preliminary analysis shows evidence that indicates Dark magic was used. That, combined with the amount of blood at the scene and lack of a living Ms. Gobsworth, would indicate that Aurors should be searching for a body.

Many people remember Ms. Gobsworth as a talented Healer who rose to prominence as being the youngest person – and only Muggle-born so far – to take over the highly respected and revered position of Chief Healer-in-Charge of St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries two years ago. Her rise coincides with the unsuccessful end of the Squibs Rights marches, and many Muggle-borns and Squibs looked up to Ms. Gobsworth as a symbol of hope during a time when they were facing constant outside pressure from witches and wizards of proper heritage.

But while she gained heightened status, she also gained more opponents. Her executive post was met with countless outcries from many prominent wizards who promised to withdraw their donations if Ms. Gobsworth was not removed from her position immediately. Several of those protestors were among the many Ministry of Magic employees who resigned after Nobby Leach was elected Minister for Magic back in 1962. The board of directors, after reviewing all arguments during several months of hearings and inquiries, remained split down the middle, and as such, Ms. Gobsworth stayed on as the director for the prestigious hospital, but the resulting gridlock did not appease several of the strongest challengers.

"How am I supposed to trust somebody to heal magical illnesses when they [Ms. Gobsworth] don't even have magic blood in the first place?" asked Mr. Abraxas Malfoy, 56, several months after Ms. Gobsworth's appointment. He was among those who threatened to withdraw their contributions, but when Ms. Gobsworth still remained on as the director, he and others proclaimed they had grown weary when there were other, more serious issues to worry about.

Witches and wizards who knew Ms. Gobsworth before she was abducted believe that her disappearance had more to do with the office she held rather than anything in her personal life, as many who knew Ms. Gobsworth remember her as a fiery, vivacious, but kind-hearted Gryffindor alumnus who was not afraid to stand up for herself or her friends and never boasted once about achieving 'Outstanding' on all of her N.E.W.T.s or about becoming Head Girl over a Hogwarts class full of many already successful witches and wizards.

"You couldn't ask for a better friend," says Ms. Millicent Bagnold, 54, "She was a Gryffindor prefect in fifth year when I was Head Girl [at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry], and Victoria – those who were lucky enough to be close to her always called her the Vickster – would drop anything to help a friend in need, no matter the circumstances. She was one of the most caring, gentlest people I know, but she was also an incredibly talented and brilliant witch who has no problem dueling it out when she thought something wasn't right or somebody close to her was mistreated – she could become quite a fearsome adversary when the situation called for it, and if the group responsible hadn't done what they did, I would almost feel bad for those who attacked her several days ago because, as anybody who befriended her would know, she undoubtedly gave those cowards a duel to remember."

Those who were close to Ms. Gobsworth advised the inspecting Aurors to consider a political side rather than private reasons since not only was Ms. Gobsworth's position at St. Mungo's a debate, but she also frequently distinguished herself from other witches by firing back (as offensively and humiliatingly as she could) at those who opposed her because of her Muggle heritage, calling them "bigots who can't see past the end of their own stubby, broken wands that are obviously way too big for their titchy [expletive]" and saying that "those racists have cheap, jinxed Shooting Stars permanently rammed up their Horklump-covered [expletive]" at several different but memorable press conferences.

This case alone would not indicate the Dark Lord's involvement in the disappearance, as he and his followers have only participated in several protests and two riots Aurors were called in to break up, but some are fearing they may be escalating, as Ms. Gobsworth is not the only notable pro-Muggle defender to go missing: Mr. Bernard Thatcher, 55, a renowned potioneer and also previous prefect of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has not been seen since the second week of June; Ms. Magnolia Rears, 36, an accomplished Auror and previous Head Girl of Hogwarts, never reported to work after New Year's Day.

Will this Dark Lord claim responsibility? Or is there something else at play here, something much like it was in the time of Gellert Grindelwald? Only one thing remains certain: all is not right in our world.

"They can't really be linked, can they?" asked Mary timidly as Alice folded the newspaper up and set it on the table beside her bag of books. "I – I mean, the Prophet itself reported that the Ministry of Magic didn't have enough evidence to take all this stuff seriously, right? Right?"

Alice shrugged helplessly.

"There have been groups throughout history who've turned violent when Muggle-borns were still allowed to learn magic, but they've always died down. Normally most of the smart opponents of Muggle rights work behind the scenes – in politics, you know. If the Auror office hasn't found enough to label them a credible threat, then I'm not sure what will."

Black narrowed his eyes.

"No, but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything to uncover, Prewett. Gregory McMillan disappeared last year. He was getting pretty famous for speaking out for Muggles and Muggle-borns, but he was a pure-blood. These kinds of people prefer to deal mainly with what they see as the real problem – Muggles. Trust me, I know how those diehards think; I have to live with the biggest bunch to ever pollute Britain."

Lily shivered at Black's words, nervous about what that meant for her. Just like Victoria Gobsworth, Lily had no magical heritage herself, but would that mean others saw her as the inferior witch, the one who would always be the slightest bit behind the witches who had magical ancestry no matter how hard she tried? Alice had once told her about those pure-bloods who thought her lower than themselves, and she overheard Black mention his own family's views, but that was supposedly just talk of the outspoken minority, but this – the mysterious disappearances, the violent riots, the controversial employment – this was action, pure and simple.

What if Severus was wrong? What if it did matter that she had never come from a family of wizards? The others – Alice, Severus, even Black – they did not understand, none of them. They had the blessing of coming from a family where the magic ran thick, of knowing that they were meant to wield a wand and to cast a spell, but Lily? What if her magic was a fluke, a coincidental quirk of nature? She loved her parents dearly and always would love them, but Lily had not gotten her magic from them – her parents, and her grandparents, her great-grandparents … Muggles.

"Um … guys?" mumbled Mary from out of the blue, pulling Lily from her wallowing thoughts as she pointed at a large owl who had been a little later than the rest of the post owls. It was carrying a bright red envelope that it dropped right in front of Black who was looking at it with apprehension written all over his face. Lily could not see what about the letter made him so nervous, but everybody else around her – Potter, Alice, Remus, Marlene, Mary, and Pettigrew – were staring at the letter like they expected it to explode, as well as over half of the rest of the students in the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Is that what I think it is?" demanded Marlene, her deep blue eyes narrowed.

After what was already a bad start of the morning, Lily felt a feeling of dread work slowly work its way through her body, and judging by the looks on everybody else's faces, the morning was about to get much, much worse. She studied the red envelope that was now smoking around the edges. As Black leaned away from the letter, Lily suddenly realized, surprisingly, that she felt bad for him – the first and last time, she was sure.

That was when the loudest, most terrible screeching that Lily had ever heard filled the Great Hall, echoing and bouncing off every inch of the stone walls, sounding much like Lily expected a banshee on extra-magical steroids to sound as the letter screamed in a magically amplified voice:

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! HOW DARE YOU BRING SHAME ON THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS, ON THE NOBLE AND MOST ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK! DOES OUR HERITAGE MEAN NOTHING TO YOU? THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A GRYFFINDOR BLACK FOR SO MANY GENERATIONS, BUT YOU DON'T CARE, DO YOU – DO YOU?! YOU HAVE CAUSED EMBARASSMENT TO OUR ENTIRE FAMILY! YOUR GRANDPARENTS AND THEIR PARENTS AND THEIR PARENTS BEFORE THEM ARE ROLLING AROUND IN THEIR GRAVES AT THIS VERY MOMENT AS YOU SOIL YOURSELF IN THE GRYFFINDOR HOUSE! IT IS THE MOST DISGRACEFUL, OUTRAGEOUS THING POSSIBLE FOR OUR FAMILY! YOUR FATHER AND I COULD BARELY BELIEVE IT WHEN BELLATRIX WROTE TO US AND TOLD US YOU WERE IN THAT TERRIBLE HOUSE! YOU COULD TAKE A LEAF OUT OF BELLATRIX'S BOOK! POOR REGULUS WAS IN SHOCK!"

Lily sat there, wide-eyed and shell-shocked in complete and utter astonishment as the letter continued to shriek at Black, spewing out words like "filth", "stain of dishonor", and "Mudblood-lover". Though she had a hard time separating all the jumbled words, never once did she think that every single word the letter screamed to a red-faced Black was not a demeaning insult.

After almost a minute of nonstop foul language, the letter started to quiet down, but not before it sniffed the air, as if it could smell something around it, and before she knew it, the letter had turned to directly face Lily herself. She quickly shrank back in her seat next to Alice as the voice – Lily now recognized it as a woman – zoomed right up to Lily's face until it was almost nose-to-nose with her.

"Filthy, little Mudblood! How dare you track your muck into our world!"

Without so much as another word, the letter burst in flames in front of a silent Black. It took a moment for Lily to realize that Alice was tugging on her sleeve, whispering, "C'mon, Lily, hurry up! We have to get out of here."

Lily slowly got to her feet and mindlessly followed Alice out of the Great Hall, but not before she noticed that every single person staring at her and Black. Most of them seemed to be angry at the letter itself rather than her or Black; only the Slytherin house was grinning, and the woman who Lily had seen at the Sorting, the one who had been glaring at Black for becoming a Gryffindor, blew a fake kiss to Black.

"Screw you, Bellatrix," said Black under his breath. His snarl was so quiet that Lily almost did not hear it.

It was then that Bellatrix noticed Lily was looking at her, and her face hardened. Thankfully, Alice had managed to drag Lily out and away from the Great Hall, although it took Lily several additional seconds to realize that Alice was talking.

"… mean, really, you shouldn't listen to anything that horrible woman said. You're an amazing person, and I bet a talented witch too. She's just a prejudiced bitch …"

Alice babbled on until the entrance to the Great Hall was out of sight and Lily could barely hear the hundreds of students who were still eating breakfast. Mary and Marlene had apparently followed them as Marlene was soothingly rubbing Lily's arm.

However, there was only one word that held her attention – it had struck Lily as something she should have known but could not quite put her finger to it.

"What's a Mudblood?"

Alice stopped midsentence and went noticeably paler at Lily's question while Marlene stared at her.

"You shouldn't … really, Lily … it's just …" Alice trailed off, seemingly lost for words. Seeing Lily still looking keen for answers, she sighed and said, "It's a name – a really foul name – somebody like …"

Here, she just gestured helplessly, so Lily finished Alice's sentence for her. "Somebody like me?"

"It's a derogatory term that bigoted wizards sometimes use when talking about Muggle-borns. It means dirty blood – contaminated Muggle blood," explained Marlene, her striking eyes flashing with anger. "It's one of the worst things a person can say to anybody, but there are some people, like Black's family, who still use that word."

Lily swallowed. To wrap her head around the fact that the letter had screamed "Mudblood" out for all to hear was not just unbelievable, it was humiliating. Just what she had feared – dirty blood, tainted blood. Too magical to be a Muggle, but too Muggle to be a witch.

Would she ever fit in anywhere?

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

James was not sure what to make of his new home away from home as he and Sirius headed for the Charms classroom where he and the other first-year Gryffindors would join the Ravenclaws for their first Charms class.

On the upside, he had found an excellent friend in form of one Sirius Black as it became clear to James why Sirius had not initially divulged his surname when Professor McGonagall called him forward to the stool at the Sorting Ceremony. Having grown up with his father regaling him with stories of families like the Blacks and Malfoys, it could have been so easy for any eleven-year-old to reactively profile Sirius as nothing but a smaller, male version of Walburga Black, but after what James had witnessed on the train and in the Great Hall earlier that morning, it was now so glaringly obvious that Sirius was as disgusted with his family as everybody else was.

After the surprise Mrs. Black sent her, James had been at a loss for words. Sure, he had learned to stop being shocked by some of conversations he would overhear when his parents forced him to attend the more kid-friendly Ministry events and so forth – he by no means always liked what he would hear, but the Howler during breakfast was another story entirely.

Never before had James witnessed anything like that. Sirius had refused to talk about it, but James could tell that no matter how much he tried to shrug it off, Sirius was still pained by his mother's absolute rejection of him and guilty about how his mother had humiliated not only him but also the closest Muggle-born to hear her hateful words – in this case, Evans was the victim, though besides the shock that had crossed her face when the Howler first turned on her, he could not be sure how much she blamed Sirius for it since her friends had whisked her out of the Great Hall pretty quickly after that, and James had not seen her since.

Whispers trailed James and his friends following the incident with the Howler, and not at all in the way James liked – these whispers hinted at mixed emotions of anger, pity, and fascination. However, Sirius did not let that get to him. He walked the corridors with his head held high, pretending as if the only thing that mattered here was how soundly Sirius rejected his parents' beliefs, and James, eager to learn a way to keep his friend's mind off the Howler, quickly followed suit. Pretty soon, it was as if he and Sirius had just won the Quidditch World Cup, and as Sirius brushed off a couple of Ravenclaws' wide stares, James's respect he held for his friend quickly mounted.

The two other boys he shared a dorm with were by no means like Sirius, but Remus, despite frowning upon James and Sirius's little escapade during their first night at Hogwarts, proved that he did in fact have a sense of humor when asking Sirius how much time he would get in the bathroom between Sirius's hair care routine after Sirius himself had commented that James's intolerably messy bedhead looked no different than last night. Plus, Remus had allowed – after a warning to pay attention next time – James and Sirius to copy the notes they had missed during Herbology class when they had been distracted with taking turns prodding some random, quivering plant with their wands to see what would happen.

James probably would not have invited Peter to join them at the breakfast table, but as Remus always invited him to join whatever they were doing so as not to leave him out, he almost always ended up with James and Sirius. As long as Peter did not make a spectacle of himself or get in the way of all the mischief-making James had been planning forever, he did not see the harm in letting the little boy tag along with them, and Peter seemed perfectly happy to let other people (chiefly James and Sirius) lead the way.

So as it was, James found himself entering the brightly lit Charms classroom with all three of the boys and claiming a table with an excellent view of the Quidditch pitch. Most of the students were already there; many of the Ravenclaws were sitting as close to the front as they could, quills and books already out on the desks, waiting to be used.

Two tables over, James noticed that the Gryffindor girls in his year had just sat down at their own table. He had known about Prewett and her loquacity before Hogwarts, so it was not surprising to see her prattling away while Marlene McKinnon, a good-looking but reserved girl with long, dark brown hair who James had met briefly when they were children, only half-listened. He watched as she sighed fondly and bent down to help Mary Macdonald, the shy girl who had accidentally dropped her things onto the floor. Beside Prewett was the girl he met on the train, Lily Evans.

It was a mystery to James as to why Evans was Sorted so quickly into Gryffindor when her friend Snape went to Slytherin, at least it was until he overheard Evans saying she was a Muggle-born, which baffled James even more. But while Evans was an enigma, thankfully her friend was not. From what he had gathered on the train ride to Hogwarts, Slytherin Snape was a greasy git – plain and simple.

Shaking his head to clear it of that train of thought, he turned back to see a tiny wizard toddling up to the front, the same person James had seen at the teacher's table at the start-of-term feast. Sirius caught his eye and gave him a puzzling look while the tiny wizard who had to be Professor Flitwick began to take roll call and then start the class.

Flitwick proved to be an enjoyable teacher after taking attendance – he started off the class by putting on a little show of charming things around the classroom to dance. James eagerly watched as Flitwick flicked his wand at all the unused chairs and they soon began to twirl and bounce before making increasingly impossible pyramids with each time they reformed. The show continued like that for a while, and each act was met with enthusiastic applause from James and his other peers. After the first couple rounds, Flitwick started adding in dazzling fireworks and such.

James glanced over at Sirius at who gave him an impish grin that he returned as Flitwick ended the show and started the learning portion of the class with outlines of what they would eventually be trying to do and note taking of some simple elements of Charms.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Who's the DADA teacher?" Alice asked Marlene, peeking over her shoulder at the schedule as the girls made their way from the second floor corridor, which held the Charms classroom they had just exited.

Both of Lily's first classes, Herbology and Charms, had started off smoothly, seeing as they had spent both classes dealing with relatively easy topics. In Herbology, Professor Sprout had them taking notes on certain bushes found around Great Britain, which Lily had found to be a bit boring, but Mary seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Proving she had a surprisingly good memory for Herbology, she recited almost everything Sprout had told them about Flutterby Bushes once the class had finished. Lily was much more interested in Charms as Flitwick had decided to start them off with a little show of some spells that Lily found fascinating before giving them some general notes to copy.

"Professor Banks," said Marlene, tucking her schedule away into the pocket of her robes. "It's that lady Dumbledore introduced us to at the start-of-term feast, remember?"

Alice frowned.

"The one who looks like somebody killed her favorite pet – that one? Yeah, I don't think she looks like much fun."

They rounded the final corner of the corridor that held the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom when Lily spotted Severus standing opposite the door of Banks's room. He had not noticed her since his back was turned, and Lily barely gave the other girls a good-bye and left them to find their own seats in class as she took off running until she was three feet away, when Lily slowed so that she was tiptoeing as silently as she could so that she could slip her hands over Severus's eyes.

"Guess who?"

Severus turned and broke out into a – for him at least – wide smile.

"Lily! I was looking for you everywhere," he said as Lily gave him a hug that he enthusiastically returned.

"Then you should have come down to breakfast, Sev," she twittered. "I looked for you, but you never came."

"Yes, I did," said Severus. "It's just that I wanted to get an early start on Transfiguration in case I got lost. I know how you always hate getting up any earlier than you have to, so I figured I'd just wait for you before we had Defense Against the Dark Arts class together."

Lily wrinkled her nose.

"You're still insisting on rising at ungodly hours?" she asked.

During the summer, Severus had always gotten up early so as to avoid his father before Tobias Snape woke up, and Lily had thought that he would appreciate being able to sleep in once they got to Hogwarts, but evidently it had now become a habit for Severus.

Severus rolled his eyes and responded, "We don't all sleep like the dead, Lils. Now come on, we need to get a good seat."

Grabbing her hand, they entered the classroom together. Unlike Charms and Herbology, there were tables of twos instead of fours, and since there were no Ravenclaws to reserve all the seats near the front, she and Severus quickly claimed a table to the end of the front row while the other Gryffindor girls got a table several rows back.

It was not the most exciting classroom by any means, but it also was not the most boring either. On the other side of Lily was a bookcase full of volumes with titles like The Principles of the Common Curses, Theory of Dark Beings, and The Witch behind the Wand: How to Counter the Black Arts. There was not much in the way of decorating save the occasional poster and a skeleton of some creature with a smaller, human-like shape.

"Ugh," said Alice from her spot a little behind Lily, "This is the most boring classroom I have ever been in."

"Criticize my classroom again, Ms. Prewett, and I will take five points from Gryffindor," said a stern voice behind her.

It was the same woman who had stood up at the feast except that now she wore rather plain, worn brown robes instead of the navy ones she had last night.

"I am the teacher, and I will decide both the curriculum and the decorations. Now take your seats," she commanded, sweeping to the front of the classroom.

"Sorry," muttered Alice, not looking sorry at all.

Mulciber, who was on the far side of the room with a couple of Slytherin goonies that included Avery and a several others Lily recognized by sight but not name, sneered at Alice's warning, which she pointedly ignored. That was when the final bell rang at the exact same time the four Gryffindor boys in Lily's year ran through the doorway, earning a scowl from Professor Banks, but Potter just winked at the teacher before they claimed two tables directly behind Lily and Severus.

"Good afternoon, class. My name is Professor Bellona Banks," said Professor Banks as she turned to the blackboard and flicked her wand. Instantly, as if an invisible hand was writing across the chalkboard, short phrases appeared:

Course Aims:

1. Recognizing the Dark Arts and Creatures

2. Knowing the Proper Defense

3. Using Basic Defensive Spells and Methods

"Please copy this down," said Banks.

The rest of the class dragged on slowly with minimal interruptions save for when Severus twitched and slapped the back of his head every couple of minutes. At first, Lily had passed it off as an irksome fly before she realized that Potter and Black who were taking turns pelting little wads of paper at the back of her friend's head, using a regular Muggle straw that Lily did not have the faintest idea as to where it had come from – though it was not like she wanted to know how they got ahold of it either. Each time they hit Severus squarely in the back of the head, they would chuckle as if it was the funniest thing ever and high-five.

"Just ignore them, Sev," whispered Lily under her breath, giving the boys a fierce glare before turning back to writing down notes that were now regarding the differences between jinxes, hexes, and curses. "Ignore them."

They tried that until, twenty minutes into the class, Severus had finally had enough and whipped out his wand, yelling, "Furnunculus!"

Lily instantly recognized it as one of the relatively harmless offensive spells – the Pimple Jinx to be exact – they had tried before coming to Hogwarts, and even though she normally would have told him it was not nice to hex people, she did not bother telling Severus off this time as she watched Potter's eyes widen at the incoming curse, but it never hit him.

A hairy witch in one of the posters hastily ducked to avoid getting hit with Severus's curse, which had rebounded off an invisible shield that had erupted between Severus and Potter before leaving a sizzling hole above the hairy witch's head. Lily turned around to see Professor Banks with her own wand out, giving Severus a severe scowl. She lowered her wand, and the shield disappeared.

"Professor," said Lily quickly before anybody else could explain themselves. "It wasn't Sev's fault. Potter provoked him, see? Sev just wanted –"

She felt silent as Professor Banks held up her hand, not even glancing in her direction.

"Detention, Mr. Snape. If I catch you attempting to hex any student in this class again, you will be sent straight to the headmaster's office," said Professor Banks so sternly that Severus, who looked like he was about to burst with rage, said nothing, and it was not until when Professor Banks had once again turned her back to the two that Severus threw a filthy look Potter's direction – but that boy just smirked and aimed another spitball.

Unfortunately for the two of them, they were not able to escape Potter and Black when they finished their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class either. Lily and Severus raced to scoop up all their things as quickly as possible when the bell rang, but they did not get very far down the corridor before the Gryffindor boys caught up to them.

"Careful, Evans, or Snivellus here might spill some grease on you. We prefer to keep the ladies of Gryffindor as innocent and clean as possible," joked Black as the two boys knocked purposefully against Severus's shoulders before standing in front of them. Thankfully for Lily, she had already started her growth spurt while the three boys had not, and she happily noted that she was the tallest of all of them by exactly one half-inch.

Severus pushed his hair away from his face and said, "Do you mind? You two are blocking our way."

Lily could tell it was taking quite the effort for Severus to keep from pulling out his wand like he had in class, but that did not stop him from giving each boy a long look of loathing that Lily matched with her own scowl, hoping that they would get the message to back off Severus, preferably sooner rather than later.

Smirking, Potter looked to Black and said, "Can you believe it, Sirius? A Slytherin is asking us to move."

"Who would've thought it?" agreed Black spitefully. The both of them clearly were not over the Pimple Jinx that Severus sent their way in retaliation for the spitballs they kept aiming at him.

Lily wanted to smack them.

"Yes, he's asking you to move, so unless you're going to hide behind Banks again like the sniveling cowards you two air-headed buffoons are, then I suggest you move," she snapped.

"Cowards? Watch who you're calling cowards!" snarled Potter angrily, now glaring at Lily.

"You take that back, Evans!" and he reached into his robes at the exact moment Lily did, so she soon found herself pointing her willow wand at Potter while his own wand nearly touched her nose.

"Get out of our way, and I will, Potter!" retorted Lily, her voice rising, and they stood there for several seconds, glowering at each other with an equal amount of fierceness in both their expressions. It was a battle of wills to see who backed down first, but Lily, though she hated herself for it, finally lowered her wand when she realized that they were going to be late for Potions class if she kept it up any longer. Potter, still fuming at Lily's accusation, followed suit slowly.

"C'mon, Lily, let's get to class. We can worry about those two later – we're going to be late for Potions," said Severus as he lightly pulled her wand-free arm towards the entrance to the dungeons where they would be sharing a class taught by a Professor Slughorn.

Lily reluctantly followed, but not before giving the two boys one last glare.

The air grew noticeably cooler as Lily followed Severus to the dungeons, and she pulled her robes around her tighter. She had not yet been to the dungeons yet, but besides the lack of windows letting natural light in and an absence of moving portraits, it was not that different from the rest of the castle. Intermittent torches lined the walls, giving the stones an eerie glow by throwing relief into the uneven cracks covering the stones on the ceiling, floor, and walls. She experimentally exhaled through her mouth, and there was the faintest hint of a cloud before it evaporated into the air.

"The Slytherin common room is right down there," said Severus, pointing to an expanse of stone opposite a statue of a coiled snake. "You'd like it a lot. It's massive and covered in green rugs and sofas, plus there's this enormous fireplace on one side of the room, but you need a password to get in of course."

Lily shivered from the cold before answering. "Ours is inside of that portrait everybody calls the Fat Lady. It's quite cozy actually – it's password-only admittance too," she added hastily.

"The Potions classroom is right down here," said Severus as he guided Lily into a stone room.

The instant she stepped through the door, the air warmed around her, and she relaxed, much more at ease. There were several rows of tables, each with its own station. To one side of the wall was a door labeled Student Storage Room, and Lily quickly grabbed the stations next to it since she had always hated walking across entire classrooms to get supplies no matter what kind of class it was. Severus took the seat next to her and put his stuff down as the rest of the Gryffindors and Slytherins filed in.

Lily felt slightly guilty when Alice gave her a questioning look while she and Mary claimed spots in the middle row – Marlene was sitting at the table to Alice and Mary's immediate left, and though she was by herself, she did not seem to mind. The Gryffindor boys were there as well, but unlike Alice, Lily did not feel any guilt whatsoever when she saw them spread out in an entire middle row while Potter and Black took turns glaring at her and Severus. The Slytherins were there as well, all claiming seats in the front, no doubt hoping that their Head of House who reportedly taught the class would show favoritism towards his students.

The door opened yet again, and a great whale of a man who could only be Professor Horace Slughorn entered, preceded only by a gigantic belly wrapped in a strained velvet waistcoat. Lily recognized him as the very portly professor who sat next to Hagrid during her Sorting. Unlike Banks and Sprout, he was dressed much the same way as he was at the start-of-term feast, with rich colors that were several shades darker than they had been in the firelight of the dungeons.

"Jolly good," said Professor Slughorn as he waddled up to the front of the classroom, looking around at all the students with a good-natured smile. "It's so nice to see so many new faces, but now it's about time I put the faces to some names, eh?"

He took out a scroll and began to call off names, pausing once in a while to ask several students who had recognizable surnames, but when he finally finished with the relatively small list, Slughorn clapped his hands together and addressed the whole class.

"Today, I will just have you brew a simple Boil-Cure Potion. Please note that I do not expect any of you to be able to produce it on your first attempt. When it comes to the art of brewing potions, they can be fickle at times, but whichever student provides the best attempt, I will have a little treat waiting for you that I only give out once to each new group of students."

At these words, he produced a little bottle of golden potion. Other than the shiny color, Lily did not see what was so special about a tiny vial of liquid, and glancing around, she noticed that nobody else had the faintest idea either. Severus caught her eye, but he just shrugged. They had practiced brewing potions in her bedroom many times, one attempt filling the house with such an acrid smell that Petunia had stormed out and refused to come home for two days, instead staying at a friend's house. But even with that studying, Severus did not know what the vial was any more than Lily did.

"If you should win, I will let whichever brilliant potioneer who wins this Felix Felicis look up its uses. I can assure you that you will be quite happy when you discover what it does. A warning, it is banned from games, exams, and interviews. It is only to be used on an ordinary day. You will work in pairs, and you will start," – Slughorn flicked his wand, and the instructions appeared on the board – "now."

Lily and Severus went right to work, pouring over Lily's copy of Magical Drafts and Potions with a determined vigor and whispering to each other quiet directions. Most of the directions were good, but the potions process was one of the few things Lily and Severus was able to study in Eileen Snape's old books. Once in a while, either Lily would shake her head at something or Severus would scribble a note in his own book.

Sometimes, she would glance around to see that everybody else was just hopelessly mixing together random ingredients. Of the Gryffindor boys, Remus was the only one really making an effort while Black, Potter, and Pettigrew would occasionally make a half-hearted attempt to fix their potions, but they seemed at a loss since Pettigrew went to sleep on his potions textbook and Black had taken to trying to catch Marlene's eye. Alice was swearing under her breath as her and Mary's cauldron emitted gray puffs of smoke, and Mulciber and his gang seemed to have given up completely.

Lily peered into her own cauldron, curious as to what was so difficult for everybody else. So far, her and Severus's potion had progressed perfectly. As long as they understood why ingredients were needed, it should not have been hard. Really, it was just like when Lily always helped her mother with baking, but as Belvina Travers and Violetta Yaxley added flobberworm mucus to an already thick goo, she realized that the problem with her classmates was that they did not know what they were adding to their potion attempts – the whole point of flobberworm mucus was to thicken the potion. There was no point in adding it when the potion was already at a sufficient thickness.

Once the hour was nearly complete, Slughorn called for a stop from everybody, and all the students put down whatever they had been using, most of them frustrated at their pitiful potion attempts. Slughorn then maneuvered around the desks as best he could with his large belly and studied each student's potion, mildly impressed by some and ruefully shaking his head at others.

Finally, Slughorn stopped in front of Lily and Severus before peering into their pale pink Boil-Cure Potion. His eyebrows raised, and Lily quickly wondered what they had done wrong before Slughorn broke out into a captivated smile as he chuckled, "Only three times have I had a first year mix up that good of a potion in all my years here on their first try The first was a brilliant student when I first started teaching named Hector Dagworth-Granger, and then there was Damocles Belby and Tom Ri –" He stopped short, but covered up his slip almost effortlessly and smiled kindly at her. "– and Tom, of course. May I ask your name, m' dear?"

"Lily Evans, sir, and this is my friend Severus Snape."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Snape is in my house. I remember that your mother Eileen was also quite the potioneer in her time," he said, but then he considered Lily, looking thoughtful. "Evans? I'm trying to remember … hmmm – I'm certain I would remember if one of your parents would be that good … They did go to Hogwarts, didn't they?"

Lily shook her head. "No, sir. I'm Muggle-born, you see."

"Goodness, are you really?" asked Slughorn, looking genially surprised, but to Lily's relief, he did not say anything else about it even though all the Slytherin first years were scowling at her, obviously not happy that a Muggle-born Gryffindor would be favored by Slughorn, and only Severus beamed at her.

"Well, you definitely have a talent for potions," said Slughorn. He withdrew the tiny vial of gold liquid and looked between the two of them. "I'll leave you one vial of Felix Felicis to leave between the two of you," he said happily, handing the vial to Severus, who in turn gave it to Lily with a sincere smile, and she took it.

It would have been a good moment except at that unlucky moment, their cauldron exploded.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

James scowled at Evans as she and Snape huddled over the same potion he and his friends were trying to successfully complete. He had hoped that Evans and Snape would be having just as much frustration as Remus was having with their potion, but to his fury, they were the only ones in the class who were not frustrated with their potion. In fact, they were the opposite, growing more eager and excited each time they conferred with the book to evaluate their progress. He knew that his father would probably be disappointed at his half-hearted effort, but James had never been as interested in the intricacies and complexity that was potion-making as his father was.

Beside him, Sirius was also glaring at their hunched backs – he also was not too bothered by their average Boil-Cure Potion. Like James, Sirius did not appreciate being called a coward, least of all by a Gryffindor who would rather support a slimy Slytherin like Snape than back up a fellow housemate.

Somebody was kicking his shin, dragging him from his thoughts on Firehead and Greaseball, and James looked over to Peter who was pointing at something below the table. Following his finger, his stomach gave a lurch when he saw a strangely dressed man dressed in very bright colors that contrasted painfully. His smirking, pointed face was lit up with glee as he focused on tying together the fireworks he held in his hands.

He had grown up with his father telling his stories about Peeves, Hogwarts's resident poltergeist. The malicious trickster had been around since the creation of the school itself, intent on causing as much mayhem as he possibly could, and unable to keep the alarm from his face, James glanced over at Sirius, who had also noticed Peeves under their table, but unlike James, there was a familiar gleam to his eyes as he looked between Peeves and Evans and Snape's cauldron that Professor Slughorn was moving to.

That was when a wicked idea came to mind – a pretty risky idea at that, but a wicked idea all the same. James nudged Peeves with his foot, and the poltergeist looked sharply back at him. James motioned for the firework, and maybe it was the glint in his eyes or the curve of his grin, but Peeves seemed to realize that he had the makings of a fellow prankster because he suddenly smirked as well and handed James the firework.

James glanced one more time at Sirius: thumbs-up.

As Professor Slughorn was remarking about what remarkable potioneers Evans and Snape were going to be, James, knowing he had only seconds, lobbed the sparking firework into the air, and – with an accuracy he had honed with years of playing Quidditch against his father and other kids in his neighborhood – it flew across the room where it landed smack-dab in the middle of that frustratingly perfect Boil-Cure Potion.

Then the cauldron exploded.

Professor Slughorn was lucky as he had already been turning away from the potion when it blasted outwards and did not get much on him. Evans threw her hands up just in time, but, when the smoke finally cleared enough for James to observe his handiwork, he saw that Snape had received the exploding potion full-face. Evans still had her arms up, which made it look like she was wearing a pink, gooey cap.

Coughing, Professor Slughorn quickly vanished the mess, but Snape's face was covered in angry hives as it changed from the pale pink to a scarlet red that flooded his sallow skin.

"Who did this?" demanded Slughorn, looking around at all the assembled students. James could not contain himself any longer, and he burst out laughing along with Sirius, effectively admitting his guilt as Slughorn said, "A week's worth of detention for the two of you! Ms. Evans, perhaps you should take Mr. Snape to the Hospital Wing."

Evans hurriedly guided the humiliated Snape out of the classroom, but not before she gave James and Sirius the most menacing look she could.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"As soon the Gryffindors and Slytherins are done with their flying lesson, it'll be time for ours," whispered a first year Ravenclaw excitedly to his friend as Lily and Alice passed them. (Madam Pomfrey insisted on keeping Severus overnight for observation, so Lily had to bid adieu to her friend and leave the Hospital Wing. Thankfully, Alice was already waiting for her outside the Hospital Wing.) "I hope they let us actually try the brooms out on the Quidditch pitch."

"I heard they don't let us do much in the first couple of classes," replied his friend, a Hufflepuff.

The notice had been posted on the Gryffindor bulletin board earlier that morning, announcing to the first years that Flying class would be starting that afternoon, and the classes would be weekly. Almost everybody had been excited and could talk of nothing else but the upcoming class, which the Gryffindors would be sharing with the Slytherins on the Training Grounds while the Ravenclaws would learn with the Hufflepuffs – everybody but Lily that was.

It had been one of her favorite things as a little girl, to jump off swings at great heights. Even before she had met Severus, Lily had some degree of control over her magic, using it to influence her descent from the swings she was always jumping from – each time she could get a little higher and a little further. But that was her magic alone, manipulating the air around her to her will.

Now, however, it would graduate to zooming around on a broomstick a hundred feet above the ground. Of everything in her world, this was the thing she was looking forward to the least. Sure, she had talked to Severus about it and was not too afraid of heights, but the idea of being stuck high in the air with nothing but a stick of wood she could easily topple off of did not sound the least bit fun to her, contrary to Alice who could talk of nothing else.

Severus was not as excited as the others either whenever the subject was brought up, but he at least had been on a broomstick before. After the news, Severus had lent her Quidditch Through the Ages from the library, but Lily had stopped reading it the moment she realized it was the only book Potter, Black, and Pettigrew would ever read. The only thing she could do in preparation was listen intently to the stories Alice and Marlene shared with each other during meals, hoping to pick up some tips so that she would not go ker-splat!

"… but aren't you so excited? Lily, this is the one class I've been looking forward to more than anything," said Alice happily as they made their way down to where Lily would soon be mounting the Broomstick of Death. The entire way down, Alice had regaled her with the fascinating tale of when she had nearly collided with a hot air balloon, though she did not know the correct term and simply called them "those big bubble floating thingies."

"I don't want to fly," admitted Lily quietly. Each word her friend said added another butterfly to her stomach.

Alice stopped midsentence to stare at her like she had dropped out of the sky on a spaceship.

"You don't want to fly? Lily! It's – it's – well, it's flying!" she stammered, unable to find any other words.

"Are you serious, Evans? How can anyone not want to fly?" demanded Black from behind her.

Lily had not even noticed that those two boys had been within earshot. She turned around to face them, the frown on her lips plainly telling them that she had no wish to talk to them, especially considering the recent Potions incident, but they must not have cared that much about it because they did not leave. Black was absolutely flabbergasted at her words, and Potter was simply too stunned to even speak, his mouth moving with no sound coming out. Though she had wished Potter would be permanently mute, she knew that he would get over his astonishment soon, but for right now he gaped at her as if she had insulted his own mother rather than a simple broomstick.

Turning back to Alice, Lily expected her to help her out of here, but her friend was still the same as she had been when Lily had first made clear her attitude towards flying – staring at her as if Lily had grown a second head and not seeming to care at all that the two annoying Gryffindor boys had once again decided to intrude on her moments of peace.

"You must be out of your bloody mind!" stammered Potter, finally regaining his ability to speak – much to Lily's disappointment. "Flying's only the greatest thing ever invented! It's … it's freedom, Evans – you can go anywhere you want when it's just you and a broom. It's the most wonderful thing that will ever happen to you, mark my words, Firehead."

"I beg to differ," said Lily coolly. "I'm pretty sure that when Professor Dumbledore kicks the whole lot of you troublemakers out of school and I never have to see either of your faces again – well, that will be the greatest thing that will ever happen to me."

Potter shook his head, too insulted by Lily's lack of interest in flying to care much about her quip.

"It is the greatest thing that will ever happen to you – you'll see."

And without another word, both Potter and Black stepped close to her, one on each side, and grabbed her arms before she was even aware of what they were doing, dragging her towards where the flying lesson would take place.

"What're you – stop – hey!" stuttered Lily as they steered her to the closet exit, and she was nearly blinded by the sudden brightness of the sun. "Alice! A little help?"

But her friend did nothing, instead following Lily and her kidnappers as she shook her head and muttered something about people's lack of appreciation for the beauty in life. So in almost no time at all, Lily found herself unwillingly standing at the side of a broomstick with the words Shooting Star carved into handle in black writing that had clearly once been another color, which was no longer present due to the wear on the aged wood. Alice stood on one side of her while Mary and Marlene were there as well, two and three brooms down respectively. Both Alice and Marlene were excited, but Mary looked as terrified as she had during the Sorting, staring at the broom as if it was a death sentence.

They were not the only ones in that class. Potter and Black, after releasing her, headed over to where Remus and Pettigrew were standing – thankfully much farther away from her than her friends. Most of the Slytherins came a little later, but Lily had made sure to save the broom on her other side for Severus, and as he approached her, she gave him an encouraging smile – Severus had explained to her a long time ago that he had never been very comfortable on broomsticks.

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, strode in between the students. An intimidating woman with hawk-like, yellow eyes and closely cropped grey hair, she looked much younger than other students said she was. When she spoke, it was a barking voice that only issued commands.

"Welcome to your first flying lesson, class," she said crisply. "There will be no messing around here, or you will find yourself in detention before you can say 'Quidditch'. Now, I want you all to step up to the side of your broomstick."

There was not much room to argue, so Lily did, unable to take her eyes off the broomstick.

"Stick your hand over the broom and say, 'Up'."

The students had varying degrees of success. Potter was the first one to have the broom jump to his hand, and Black only required a couple more tries before he as well held the Shooting Star in his outstretched fingers with Alice and Marlene not far behind him. A minute in, Lily noticed that many students all held brooms in their hands – hers twitched on the ground for a while before it finally leaped to her hand. Beside her, Severus's broom tumbled on the ground, refusing to obey him. Further down, Mary was having the same problem, and when Madam Hooch finally called them to attention, Mary tried (and failed) to be inconspicuous as she pretended to tie a loose shoelace before simply picking up her broomstick on her way back up.

The class went much like Lily expected it to go. When Madam Hooch at last permitted them to try riding their broomsticks, Potter and Black took off, zooming around the class, laughing and unable to stop showing off. Hooch gave them a detention, but they hardly cared. Alice was also pretty good until one of Slytherin girls started to freak out and crashed into her, sending them both tumbling to the ground when Marlene glided down to help Alice up – both Alice and the Slytherin girl refused to apologize to each other.

Lily only allowed herself to hover a few feet above the grass for the remainder of the class, and Mary flat-out refused to rise above her solid ground. There were a couple other students like Lily, nervous and unwilling to get very far into the air. Severus's broomstick was giving him a rather hard time, and Lily could not contain her laughter, giving Severus a guilty shrug as he mock-glared at her.

Thankfully, the class ended pretty soon after that, and Lily bent down to help Severus, who had tried yet again to mount his rather uncooperative broomstick that resulted in him falling to the ground.

"Don't get too down, Sev," she whispered. "That's what practice is for, right?"

"Right," he grumbled.


Note: Voldemort's rise to power is portrayed differently because I was reviewing a lot of the information J.K. Rowling released and realized that I accidentally was deviating quite a lot when I first portrayed it.

So while I still have plenty of pranks for the Marauders, the ones in their first year at least won't involve as much magic since they're only just starting school. Plenty of the pranks will be front and center in the story, but when it comes to annual pranks such as Halloween and Christmas, some of them might just be mentioned in passing. The reason I'm doing that is because not all of them will warrant much attention. I want to make sure I devote plenty time to developing the characters and the relationships, but I still want to give the feeling that much of the Marauder's school career was about having fun, especially in their earlier years.