Previously: Lily and Alice run into Mulciber, Cadmus Avery, Rabastan Lestrange, and Snape. After hexing Alice, Lily retaliates with a Knockback Jinx – it's pretty powerful considering that it was the first time she cast the jinx. Mulciber tries to get back at her, but Snape prevents him. Afterwards, Snape is able to come up with a good excuse so that Mulciber and Avery don't realize how deep his feelings are for Lily. Lily and Alice then run into James and Sirius, who mock her. She gets angry and uses the Knockback Jinx on them as well. Snape apologizes to Lily later. By now, Lily and James have developed a rivalry.
Chapter 10: When in Bloom
November was fast approaching, and Lily was stuck with her friends in the dormitory, trying a variety of charms that she had come across. After running across the Marauders too many times for her liking, she had taken to studying with Severus as many different spells as she could find. At first it was only something she did with her best friend, but after Mary had caught her trying (and failing yet again) to cast the Full Body-Bind Curse in the dormitory, she told the others in the dormitory, and their curiosity led them to ask to practice with her during some nights, which she agreed, though Crackerjack made his annoyance at their newfound activity abundantly clear and had recently taken to sleeping in the common room when they were practicing.
Lily had already mastered the Knockback Jinx, which Marlene had said would be learned later in the year for Defense Against the Dark Arts, so in between practicing other hexes, she would also help the other girls with the Knockback Jinx. Mary needed help with defensive spells rather badly, as evidenced by one notable occasion.
"Let's try some of these," Lily had said, dumping a very heavy book on Marlene's bed who appraised the thick library book with one perfect eyebrow raised dubiously, flipping indifferently through several pages before Alice seized it and greedily drank in the spells with Mary reading over her shoulder.
"Look, here's one: the Stickfast Hex," said Mary, pointing to a spell in the book depicting a man falling to the floor while his feet stayed, unmoving, on the ground. "It's says it's pretty simple… Wait, but what's to stop them from hexing us when they're stuck?"
"Run?" suggested Alice helpfully. "The incantation is 'Colloshoo'."
"Colloshoo!" yelled Mary, jabbing her wand Lily's feet, looking quite determined to get something right.
Lily looked down at her feet, which looked no different than before Mary had cast the hex. She tried to move forward, only to encounter surprisingly strong resistance; she would have fallen to the floor had Marlene not caught her arm before any more damage could be done. When Lily looked back at her shoes, there was some sort of green ectoplasm, stretching slightly from the bottom of her soles but still effectively preventing her from going anywhere.
"Hey! It worked!" said Mary brightly, looking mighty pleased with herself for her first successful hex.
"Where's the counter-jinx?" asked Lily, testing her firmly trapped feet.
"Umm," said Mary sheepishly, glancing at the page of the book that still had the instructions for the Stickfast Hex. She evidently could not find one since she glanced up and asked hopefully, "Marlene?"
"You don't even know the counter-jinx?" demanded Lily, aghast, and Alice giggled.
"Wait! I know it's here somewhere!" said Mary hastily as she desperately scanned the page. "I'm looking, I'm looking …"
After that disastrous but still memorable incident, Crackerjack had resumed napping as usual on Lily's bed, and Lily herself had returned to studying with Severus in the library and practicing in empty classrooms as she had before rather than risk anything any further incidents with the other three Gryffindor girls. At least this time, accidents were less likely to happen, and even if Lily did unintentionally set the whole of the desk on fire when testing her Honking Hex, nobody would care much except for Filch who, despite Lily's respect for authority figures, she did not like one bit.
"I still can't believe how many of those spells you already know," said Lily as they made their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. "You've moved on to creating spells of your own, and I'm still stuck trying to get that darned Tickling Hex."
Severus had started to read books about inventing spells over the past week, and though he had yet to do anything, he was totally engrossed in the subject.
Severus smiled.
"You're amazing, Lils. Don't ever think differently."
Before long, they found themselves in the entrance to the Great Hall, and Lily said good-bye to Severus as he left to join the Slytherin table, and she herself searched the Gryffindor table before spotting Alice's signature blond corkscrew curls and heading over to sit with her. Marlene and Mary were there as well, Marlene reading the latest issue of Witch Weekly and Mary staring up at night sky, which was unusually starry tonight.
"Lily!" said Alice in surprise, "We looked all over for you, but when we couldn't find you, Marlene said we should just meet in the Great Hall. Where were you?"
"I was studying with Sev in the library. You know that's where I usually am," pointed out Lily.
At those words, Alice gave Severus a quick glance and bit her lip as if she wanted to say something but was holding back for Lily's sake.
On the other hand, Marlene held no reservations and asked her rather bluntly, "Severus Snape? That boy in Slytherin?"
Her generally kind eyes were giving the Slytherin table a distrustful look, and Lily bristled in defense of Severus. Her friends had known that she was friends with Severus though the reason was still a mystery to them. Their expressions had always made it clear that they disapproved of the Slytherin, but this was the first time any of the other girls had acknowledged him out loud.
"Yes, Severus Snape," said Lily, her voice a little cooler than it normally was with Marlene. "He's my friend just like you three. Why shouldn't I hang out with him?"
Both Alice and Mary looked uncomfortable at the current subject, but Marlene was regarding Lily suspiciously, and when she spoke, her voice matched the coolness in Lily's tone. "I'm just saying the obvious, Lily. He's hanging around some bad people – Mulciber? Avery? In case you've forgotten the Pimple Jinx that Avery used on Alice, your 'friend' is getting pretty chummy with a bunch of –"
"He's not like them at all," interrupted Lily waspishly, her green eyes flashing. "You don't even know Sev, Marlene, so how can you judge him based on the people who he's unlucky enough to have to share a dormitory with?"
Unperturbed, Marlene merely shrugged.
"Fine, Lily, but don't say I didn't warn you when Snape turns out to be just like them," she said nonchalantly before returning to the magazine she held in her flawless fingers.
Mary, who had been as silent as Alice was throughout the two's exchange, looked nervously between them.
"You know, I've heard that Dumbledore's booked some dancing skeletons for the Halloween Feast," she said weakly, but that did little to help the tension.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
James strolled across the fresh grass, enjoying the moment as the Marauders – as Evans had dubbed them – lounged about on the grass. It was cooling off now; today was the last day to enjoy the outdoors before the quickly passing months turned into the winter season, so he and his friends were relishing the crisp air before it turned cold and snowy in preparation for the winter season.
While he lay on his back in the sunlight, Remus studied diligently with a quill between his teeth and a book propped open on his lap. For some reason unknown to James, he had refused to sit next to the Whomping Willow where the usual group of students gathered to play games near the threatening branches that waved dangerously in the breeze, so James had consented to spend time nearer to a small hut that stood close to the Forbidden Forest.
Sirius and Peter, meanwhile, were having a much vocalized disagreement about Quidditch. To be fair, the two had started out in a conversation about who was most likely to win the European Quidditch Cup that year, but what had started out as nothing more than pleasant debate between two friends had somehow turned into a quarrel that mainly involved straight-out insulting each other's favorite Quidditch teams.
"I don't care how much you support the Chudley Cannons, Peter, they still suck," argued Sirius loudly as they approached the pumpkin patch next to the hut.
"Ha! You're just jealous because the Cannons beat Pride of Portree, but the Ballycastle Bats lost to them – twice," said Peter defiantly.
James had never seen Peter this passionate about anything for as long as he had known him. Normally he just tagged along, praising him and Sirius whenever they managed to jinx Severus or pulled off any halfway elaborate prank, but here he was, standing up to Sirius of all people, though it was still funny as Peter was a full head shorter than Sirius.
"Chudley Cannons are second to last in the league – you do know that this is the last year they'll be using the 'We shall conquer' motto, right? Starting next year, their motto will be 'Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best,' which, in case you don't realize it, is just about the worst motto anybody's come up with," yelled Sirius. "Face it, Pete, they stink!"
"Do not!" squeaked Peter.
"James!" shouted Sirius, suddenly turning to the boy in question who was smirking at them as he sprawled on the soft bed of grass with his arm over his eyes to block it from the sun, "James, back me up!"
Rather than back either of them up, however, James just continued to smirk under his arm. He could have simply backed Sirius up, and that would be the end of it, but the opportunity was too tempting to pass up. Though knowing that it would only serve to incense his friends more, James simply could not help himself.
"None of your teams have anything on the Montrose Magpies. They're second by only twenty points. Beat that."
"Oh, shut up," said Sirius, waving his hand dismissively.
James cocked his eyebrow and lifted his arm away from his face to consider Sirius.
"What about McKinnon badmouthing any team other than the Holyhead Harpies? I never see you telling her to shut it, or is it just because she's a pretty girl? You know, I've always wondered about those longing looks of passion you're always throwing her way. Are you like that around all girls, or is it just her you want to snog senseless?" he teased.
Much to his delight, he watched as Sirius went bright red.
"I have no clue what you're talking about, James," he protested, aiming his wand at him.
Peter scurried out of the way while Remus hastily packed his things into his bag at the first sign of an oncoming duel and darted over to Peter's side so as not to get hit with any stray spells that may miss their mark.
Still laughing, James jumped up to avoid the Leg-Locker Curse Sirius had thrown his way.
"Who would have thought Sirius Black would be embarrassed by a girl? Does McKinnon know that she's the only girl you don't want to be seen with?" taunted James as Sirius started following him. He had his own wand out now, Jelly-Legs Jinx at the ready.
"You're being ridiculous – you know that, right? Furnunculus!" Sirius aimed yet another hex at James who effortlessly ducked. It sailed through the air and hit some Hufflepuff third year some thirty yards away who had obviously been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but Sirius did not seem to care.
"What kinds of spells do you cast on McKinnon?" yelled James, sending his Jelly-Legs Jinx at Sirius who had to throw himself to the ground to avoid it.
"Bad joke, Jamesie-Boy. You're losing your touch," said Sirius.
James scowled and sent another Jelly-Legs Jinx his way, which Sirius managed to avoid for a second time.
"James Potter, Order of Pranksters and Marauder Extraordinaire, has never and will never – ever – lose his touch. It's you who needs to reeducate yourself, Sirius, not me."
Sirius smirked. "Is that –"
"OI! What'd yer think yer doin', hexin' me pumpkins?"
All four of them jumped, quite startled at the voice until James suddenly realized that he and Sirius had unintentionally brought the friendly duel into the pumpkin patch that grew out from the borders of a hut – a hut that apparently was occupied. An impossibly large man emerged from little hut, wearing a flowery apron and waving a pink umbrella, which would have been funny if not for the man's alarming size. James instantly recognized him as the man who had led all the first years up to the castle by boat at the start of term after they had departed the Hogwarts Express – Professor McGonagall had called him Hagrid.
While he had sometimes seen Hagrid walking the grounds, fulfilling his role as gamekeeper at Hogwarts, as well as eating meals in the Great Hall, James had never spared him much thought besides silently remarking his remarkable size. Now, however, he recognized that they had just intruded onto Hagrid's pumpkin patch. Why else would he have emerged from the hut – in an apron no less – if it had not been his home? The others seemed to notice this as well and went pale.
"Sorry, Hagrid," said Sirius, quickly stuffing his wand back into his robes. "We were just … er … just having a friendly duel before we … we were going to ask you for a cup of tea."
James shook his head at Sirius's lie, which fell very flat by the way, while Hagrid looked at Sirius curiously for a long of time. James guessed that Hagrid was wondering whether or not this was one of their infamous pranks or if they were just being polite when trying to cover up the little match. James dearly hoped that Hagrid would not punish them for bringing their "friendly duel" as Sirius called it onto his pumpkin patch.
At long last he huffed, "'S long 's yer don' blow up me house."
James stared at Sirius open-mouthed who just shrugged and mouthed, any better ideas? He then followed Hagrid into the hut, leaving James and the other two to scramble after him. Never did James imagine when he woke up earlier this morning that he and Sirius would be lying their way into a giant's house for a cup of tea – and he could imagine some pretty ridiculous things.
"Mind the pumpkins now," said Hagrid as they scurried behind him.
Despite his intimidating size, Hagrid's hut was quite cozy. In the corner stood an enormous bed the size of James's entire dormitory with mismatched quilts, and there was also a merrily crackling fireplace in the corner with an armchair next to it. On the other side of the small hut was a kitchen made completely of wood: wooden cupboards, wooden counters, wooden chairs, a wooden table…. Basically just wooden everything.
"Back, Fang, back!"
At first, James did not know who Hagrid was talking to, but it quickly became obvious when a dog, a boarhound puppy, started barking at their entrance, and Peter squeaked with fright. Hagrid grabbed the collar of the dog, Fang, who had tried to jump on Sirius. Fang barked twice more, drool flying from his mouth, and tried again, this time successfully, to launch himself on James's friend. Sirius stumbled back onto a chair so tall, his feet dangled from the end like a little child. James smirked at a now slobbered-up Sirius who rolled his eyes.
"So, sir –" started Remus as the rest of them seated themselves on the rest of the chairs, but Hagrid waved hand the size of a trashcan lid.
"Call me Hagrid. Everybody does," said Hagrid airily as he busied himself with the kettle that was whistling on the stove.
"Right – Hagrid, do you grow all the pumpkins for the Halloween feast?" asked Remus in an attempt at a sociable conversation.
Sirius, meanwhile, was failing to avoid Fang's licks and drool. His hair was currently sticking up on one end, and his leg and robes were completely filthy. No matter what he did to push the boarhound away, Fang seemed to love him more with every attempt.
Hagrid beamed proudly at Remus's questions. "All by me self."
Remus nodded. "Well, thank you, Hagrid, for letting us into your house," he said graciously. "I'm Remus, and –"
Hagrid waved him down.
"Don' bother with names. Yer four are famous 'nough in this school ter give Dumbledore a run fer his money, and yer only firs' years. 'M worried 'bout what yer kids will cook up when yer know some good spells," said Hagrid, but his beetle black eyes crinkled kindly at them before he finally noticed Sirius and Fang having their current battle, which Sirius was losing by a drastic amount.
"Don' know why he's so inter yer.'S normally just other dogs he likes, but he mus' really like yer."
"Yes, I feel so loved," said Sirius sarcastically as he jerked his hand away from Fang's nose while James, Remus, and Peter roared with laughter at his misfortune.
The tea Hagrid poured them was scalding, and Peter nearly broke his tooth on the rock cakes Hagrid offered them, but other than that, the giant was quite pleasant company. Instead of scolding the Marauders for all the stories they told him about their exploits during both night and day like most teachers would have done, he instead found them quite amusing. Much to the delight of James and Sirius, he even had his own words to say about Filch, the newest but extremely cranky caretaker of Hogwarts. While the boys had been skilled enough to avoid Filch – the Invisibility Cloak that James had inherited helped an enormous amount – the few times they had run into him were not at all enjoyable, and he had taken a particular interest in catching the boys fulfilling their prank quota.
By the time Hagrid finally ushered them out the door with a final cheery wave, the Marauders left in very good spirits, promising him that they would visit soon. Of course, Hagrid's dog had his own farewell he wanted to give Sirius, and Fang managed to lick Sirius's mouth. He had to gargle water as soon as he could due to the fact he had opened his mouth to say his good-bye at the exact and unlucky moment Fang had reached up to lick him, and the dog ended up licking Sirius's tongue.
As they started heading back up to the castle that stood tall and proud as ever in the setting sun, James looked back over his shoulder to Hagrid's hut, which now had a closed door, but it still looked as welcoming as it had before as he wondered aloud, "Why didn't we make friends with him sooner?"
Remus shrugged.
"Because you're were too busy pranking Snape? I wish we had – Hagrid's really cool."
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
"Thank Merlin you already helped us with the Knockback Jinx," said Alice as they made their way across the beautiful green grounds after one particularly grueling Defense Against the Dark Arts class in which they had incessantly practiced the Knockback Jinx against dummies. Lily had come close to reducing her dummy to dust from all the times it slammed against the wall, but she was the only one who had come that far with it. Others still had problems, and she managed to earn five points for Gryffindor when she demonstrated to Professor Banks how far she was coming along.
"Yeah, you did a good job, Lily," congratulated Marlene in a civil voice.
"Thanks, Marlene," said Lily with equal politeness. While she still had not forgotten their earlier disagreement at lunch, Marlene had acted as if it had never happened, becoming cordial with Lily on the days following, and Lily, seeing no reason to correct this, followed suit. Though she still could not forget Marlene's words about Severus even if she tried, it was better than hating each other.
"You know, I've always wondered," started Alice as she bounced alongside the two girls, "Do you use Color Change Charms on your hair, Lily, or is it just naturally that red?"
It was a drastic change of topic, but as she had been doing that for the entire school year, Lily decided to just roll with the new trend of conversation. Blushing slightly, she reached up to flatten her long mane of dark red hair.
"No, not really. I've actually been thinking about changing it since I'm not as fond of red hair – it stands out a lot," she said.
"It's pretty and easy to change the style – what the hell?" yelped Alice suddenly.
Lily jumped at Alice's shout of surprise. She wildly cast her eyes around for anything that jumped out at her as abnormal, but there was not anything odd around them on that cool November day. That was, until she caught all three of her friends staring, flabbergasted, at Lily ... or rather, her hair. Fearing the worst, Lily cautiously caught a lock of dark red hair and peered at it. Only, it wasn't red anymore. It was green – a bright, neon green.
There was a moment of silence before: "POTTER!"
Lily rounded on the boys who were currently huddled behind a rock a little farther away and roaring with hilarity at her unwilling hair change. She stomped up to them furiously, eyes flashing and fists curled, before she stopped in front of the two ringleaders who were responsible for her hair.
"Change it back!" she yelled.
"Why?" asked Potter innocently between his fits of laughter. So help her, he had to nerve to wipe tears of laughter away from his eyes. "I like it. It matches your eyes – OI!"
Lily, growling with ire, had shot a Jelly-Legs Jinx at Potter with her now withdrawn wand. He jumped back and managed to dodge it, but Lily aimed jinx after jinx relentlessly, until, finally, her fourth one hit Potter who had not been quick enough to dodge. In spite of herself, she could not help the guilty satisfaction ease her anger as Potter uselessly hobbled around on his wobbly legs – that should teach him a lesson about jinxing people when their backs were turned, the scaredy-cat.
"Not so tough anymore, are you, Wiggles?" sniggered Lily as Alice hooted loudly at Potter after performing the countercharm herself on Lily to change her hair back to its natural red.
Potter scowled at Lily.
"Take it back, Evans, or I'll –"
"You'll what, Potter? Hex me ... again? Just like you do to Severus every day?" snapped Lily.
"You just watch your back, Evans –"
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Whatever else Potter was going to threaten Lily with, she did not know because just then a long, deafening scream interrupted him. They all jumped at the shriek of pain, and stared with horror over to the students who had been amusing themselves by taunting the Whomping Willow. One of the current group of Hufflepuffs playing Tag at the base of the trunk must have gotten too close because Lily, quite shocked, now found herself watching a small boy about her size fly through the air before landing with a sickening thud! Behind him, the Whomping Willow shook its branches.
Momentarily forgetting about Potter and the counter-jinx, Lily ran for the boy who was curled up on the ground, whimpering from the pain. As she dropped to the grass beside him, she recognized him as Davey Gudgeon, a Hufflepuff in their year, but he did not look healthy like all the other times she had seen him around school. Instead, bleeding cuts of various sizes scattered all over his body, and Lily was sure he was going to be black and blue all over from the bruises blossoming across his skin. She felt her stomach twist at the horrible mess that was Davey.
"Somebody help him!" yelled one of his friends from the rapidly growing crowd surrounding poor Davey.
Surprisingly, while Lily was busy trying not to vomit, it was Mary of all people who took charge.
"We should go get Madam Pomfrey," she said. Her voice was quiet and shaky, but as there was nobody better to obey at the time, no student protested.
"Somebody's already getting her," said a second year that Lily did not know.
"Gross," said Alice as she came to a halt behind the pale and nauseated Lily while Mary hastily tore a strip of fabric from the shirt beneath her robes and, balling it up and pressing it firmly against his face as if she hoped to ease the bleeding. No doubt Madam Pomfrey could fix Davey up in a jiffy, but Lily, along with everybody else gathered, did not dare try anything in case their attempts to help resulted in messing the Hufflepuff up even further.
"Madam Pomfrey's here!" cried out a student after only a couple minutes, pointing up towards the school.
Indeed, Madam Pomfrey was there. Lily glanced up to see the school's patron hustling over to where Mary crouched, her wand was already out. With her she carried a bottle full of Merlin knew what, and Lily wondered briefly how she had gotten here so fast, but she did not have much time to ponder as the motherly matron was already in full-on nurse mode.
"Away! Away!" she shooed the crowd.
Lily saw no reason to argue as she obediently followed her command, instead letting the nurse do her job. Madam Pomfrey performed a deft wave with her wand and a stretcher appeared out of nowhere before she whisked Davey off to the Hospital Wing.
The following minutes were silent.
"Well," said Alice finally, standing behind her and exhaling deeply, "That was interesting."
Lily did not hear Alice. Instead, she was studying Remus who was standing a little farther away, wearing an expressing that, if Lily did not know better, looked very much like it was guilt, as if Remus felt that he himself was personally responsible for the Whomping Willow and what happened to Davey, but after a moment, Lily shook her head to clear it of her wandering thoughts, sure that she was just seeing things.
"We should probably get out of here before they quarantine every single witness they can find," suggested Marlene, breaking the silence. She quickly took Mary's arm and slowly started to pull her back towards the castle, sending both Lily and Alice as meaningful look as she did so.
"Yeah, you're probably right," said Lily, following Marlene's lead and wrapped her own arm around one of Alice's free ones. "We should get going, Alice."
"But what about everybody else?" asked Alice. "Shouldn't we stay and make sure everybody else is alright?"
"We won't be able to do anything that Madam Pomfrey can't do," explained Marlene. Mary had finally realized what she was doing and wordlessly obeyed as Marlene pulled her further away. "Now come on. Let's get out of here before Dumbledore and McGonagall are told what's going on."
Alice finally relented and allowed Lily to lead her away. Her decision did not come a moment too soon because as they scurried away from the bright sunlight and into the castle's front doors, they passed both McGonagall and Sprout on their way to the scene of the incident. Judging from the terrified look on both the women's faces, they had already been alerted to what had happened. Thankfully, the teachers were too distracted to notice the four girls on the stairs.
"Do you think he'll be alright?" asked Mary, nervously biting her lip as they watched from afar the distant figure that was Madam Pomfrey conjure a stretcher and levitate a still unconscious Davey Gudgeon onto it. "I mean, do you think the tree did any permanent damage to him?"
"He'll probably be fine," said Marlene with confidence. "Madam Pomfrey's the best after all."
"Really? 'Cause I –"
A loud, high giggle suddenly interrupted whatever Mary was about to say, effectively cutting her off, and Lily whirled around to face the newcomer, the others quickly following suit.
The intruders were a group of girls around their age. Though she knew that it would be hopeless to try to remember their names, it did not take long for Lily to place their vaguely familiar faces – the four girls had all been among the first years who had been sorted into Slytherin at the same time as when the Sorting Hat had placed Lily herself into Gryffindor. She also noticed that the other two first year Slytherin girls were nowhere to be found – whether or not that was a good thing remained to be seen.
Lily narrowed her eyes at the gang of girls and took a protective step towards Mary. She might not have ever met them, but she had enough experience with bullies from her Muggle school days to know one when she saw one. On either side of her, her other friends must have known that the new group did not bode well at all for them as Alice frowned deeply at the girls and Marlene raised an unimpressed eyebrow as if silently challenging them to try her patience.
One of the two girls standing at the front of the group – a tall, gangly girl with billions of freckles splattered across her face – smirked at Mary, showing her rather toothy smile.
"Do you suppose Madam Pomfrey would be able to fix you up too, Macdonald? Or do you think it's your dear grandmother's fault?"
Mary's face went pale, and she was obviously grappling for anything good to say as she stuttered, "I – you … you should leave me alone, Belvina. Don't talk about Grandmamma like that."
It was a weak argument, and Belvina clearly knew it too as she and the other girls laughed loudly at that.
"Why not? What is dear little Grandmamma going to do about it? Oh, wait … that's right – your gran can't do jack!" sneered Belvina, placing both hands on her hips as she stared down poor, little Mary. "Don't you remember that lovely time when your gran was hauled in and warned to keep her mouth shut unless she wanted to be sent to Azkaban? Yeah, Father is still plenty willing to keep that on the table as an option."
The girls once again dissolved into laughter, and Mary could not come up with anything to say to that – but that did not mean that Lily, who was already incensed on her friend's behalf, had nothing to say either.
"Is he really? Would that still be the case if I … let's say … punched you in the nose right now?" taunted Lily, making sure Belvina heard the thinly veiled threat loud and clear.
That stopped that incessant giggling immediately, and Belvina's smirk quickly morphed into a scowl as she momentarily drew her attention away from Mary and fixed it on Lily. While Belvina was taller than Lily was and plainly trying to use the height to her advantage as she stepped toward Lily and stared her down, Lily glared right back at Belvina with as much detestation as she could muster.
"Who asked you?" growled Belvina.
"Why? Going to run back to Daddy?" snapped Lily.
Mary gave a nervous little cough and tried to pull Lily away, saying weakly, "Come on, Lily. I'm fine. Let's just get back to the common room – c'mon."
"Yeah. How about you pay attention to Macdonald here and leave," sneered the other girl who stood right beside Belvina. "You stink up the hallway enough as is."
"Mmm, I don't think that's us so much as what you track in on your own," Alice shot back at the girl, her glare almost identical to Lily's, but at Mary's pleading looks, she and Lily sighed and turned their backs on the gang of Slytherin girls, following Mary who looked anxious to get away from the other girls.
So I know that James turning Lily's hair green in horribly cliché, but I wanted to have a point of reference later on.
