Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
[Season 8] - Finals: Ding Dong, You're Wrong
Team: Chudley Cannons
Position: Beater 1 - Your character must assume everyone holds a certain belief
Prompts:
2. (quote) "Don't waste your time with explanations. People only hear what they want to hear."- Paulo Coelho
6. (word) immature
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Written for Chudley Cannon Team Challenge
Prompt: You must enjoy writing your story
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Thanks to Fire the Canon and insertcleverandwittytitlehere for betaing!
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Word count: 1949
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Lily was practically shaking with anticipation. Severus had told her about Hogwarts many times, yet she still wasn't prepared for how massive it actually was. And even though she had known she was a witch for a few years, she hadn't been prepared to be around so many other sorcerers.
She also hadn't been prepared for how amazing it would feel to do magic. The feeling when she made the little feather fly couldn't compare to anything. It was surreal.
Potions Class was funnier than she expected; after all, it appeared to only be mixing and stirring ingredients. Though, she had to admit, it was rather satisfying to watch the blue potion in the cauldron and the pink smoke rising from it.
Their potions professor — Professor Slughorn — walked over to admire it.
"That's quite impressive for a beginner," he said, smiling slightly to himself. "What was your name again?"
"Lily Evans, sir," she said, smiling brightly.
"Evans…" He stood in thought for a few moments. "I haven't heard that name before. Tell me, what do your parents do?"
"They're accountants." A few other students, Gryffindors and Slytherins, were watching their interaction, and Lily felt her face heat up. Slughorn frowned. "Er, it's a Muggle profession."
Slughorn nodded as if he now just remembered what an accountant was. "So, they're both Muggles, your parents?"
"Yes."
Slughorn nodded approvingly, then continued walking between the tables, muttering under his breath. "Impressive."
Suddenly, a clock on his desk began ringing. Slughorn quickly walked up to turn it off, explaining to his first years that he had to leave to stir a potion brewing in his office for Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse. He would be right back, but in the meantime, he wanted them to give him a small sample of their work and place it on his desk.
Lily poured some of the Potion into a little vial and did as instructed, though on the way to Slughorn's desk, she tripped over someone's foot, dropping the vial and causing the content to spill on the floor.
"Serves you right, Mudblood."
She turned around quickly but didn't see who spoke. A small group of Slytherins snickered — along with two Gryffindors who sat further back. Black and Potter, was it?
Her face grew hot. She wanted to say something, but then Slughorn came back into the room. He easily sent her back to her table to get another vial and used his wand to clean the mess.
Lily had a bad taste in her mouth, and she didn't even know why.
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"I dare you to… kiss Potter before Summer Holidays."
Lily rolled her eyes. Marlene was known for her devious dares, but this one was lame. It was their sixth year at Hogwarts and practically everyone in their year had dared Lily to kiss Potter at least once, though she never had.
"No!"
Marlene sighed loudly. "You can't say no to a dare."
"I can, and I will." Lily crossed her arms. "If you want me to do the dare, dare me something you know I won't refuse."
"I agree with Lily," Alice chipped in. Lily smiled smugly at Marlene who glared. "I wouldn't want my first kiss with the boy I like to be a dare either."
All the girls laughed, except Lily; however, she couldn't help but smile. She glared at them anyway, knowing it was all in good fun. Marlene, Dorcas, Alice, and Mary were her best friends in the entire world, so of course, they would be comfortable teasing each other.
"You're saying you don't feel anything at all for him?" Mary asked.
Lily snorted. "He's the most arrogant and immature boy at Hogwarts. Why would I?"
Dorcas who was currently sitting in Marlene's lap shrugged. "He's kind of attractive. As far as boys go, that is."
"You can't deny that he is," Mary said, and the other girls nodded their agreement.
Lily rolled her eyes. To her, it didn't matter how good looking he was or how often he asked her out; he only did that to humiliate her anyway. Potter was a pureblood, and Lily knew exactly what they thought of muggleborns.
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"Apologize to her. Right. Now!"
She heard yelling from around the corner and sped up. As Prefect, it was part of her duty to resolve conflicts between students. Though, the sight made her groan. Of course Potter would be part of the trouble — he always was.
He held Evan Rosier by the collar of his shirt.
"Let go of him!" Lily said, with her sternest and most Prefect-y voice.
Potter's head snapped, staring at her wide-eyed. He dropped Rosier because his hand flew up to ruffle his hair. Lily didn't even try to hide the eye-roll.
"Evans!"
She ignored him. "What's going on here?"
Rosier quickly spoke. "He attacked me—unprompted."
"Did not!" Potter crossed his arms.
Lily held back another eye-roll. He was so childish. At that moment she was more likely to believe Rosier, despite the rumours. Plus, his story was believable as Potter and Black always took any chance they got to try hexes on Slytherins.
"Then what do you think happened, Potter?"
He stared at her a few moments, then pointed at a little black-haired Ravenclaw girl Lily hadn't noticed till now. She couldn't be more than twelve. Her name was Mary Williams if Lily wasn't mistaken.
"He called her a… you-know-what."
Lily glanced at the little girl. Mary Williams was an awfully common Muggle name. She sighed, though tried smiling reassuringly to the girl before turning to Rosier.
"Ten points from Slytherin."
Potter stuck his tongue out at him.
"And five from Gryffindor."
He stared at her. "What? Why? You can't just take points from your own house."
Lily narrowed her eyes. "I can take points from anyone who breaks school rules, and that includes my own house, and you, Potter, attacked and threatened another student."
"To defend someone else much smaller than him!"
She hesitated a moment, baffled by his reasoning. "That might be true, but you resorted to physical violence, and who's to tell what you would've done if I hadn't shown up?"
They stared at each other a few moments, till Potter threw his hands in the air and strutted away. Lily kneeled to be at eye-height with Williams.
"If he — or anyone else — is bothering you again, you can tell me. Or any of the other Prefects, okay?" Lily smiled her most reassuring smile, though knew it was little help.
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Lily had just entered the common room after being in her dorm for the last few hours. It was close to curfew, so the common room was filled with students who weren't quite ready to go to sleep yet.
She scanned the room for Remus; they were supposed to do rounds together. Lily spotted him by the fireplace with his friends. With a long sigh, she walked over there.
"Remus?"
He had been reading a book, though looked at her when she spoke. Black was sitting next to him, leaning slightly against him. Pettigrew was writing an essay. Potter had been reading a textbook, though that had been forgotten when she had walked over. Now, he was staring at her. His eyes were wide open, and he was grinning stupidly at her.
"Just one more page."
Lily nodded, even though Remus hadn't seen, his nose already back in his book, and sat on the armrest. Potter hadn't taken his eyes off her yet. She refused to meet his gaze, pointedly ignoring him while she waited for Remus.
After what felt like forever, Remus carefully put down the book and stood up to follow Lily out of the portrait hole, leaving a pouting Sirius Black behind.
They small-talked as they walked along the hallways, looking for students and telling them to get to their common rooms before curfew.
"The other day—" Lily said after half an hour, though trailed off. Remus glanced at her, pulling slightly at the collar of his shirt, probably subconsciously. He always wore it a little too tightly, to make his uniform look as neatly as possible.
"Yeah?"
"Potter defended a Muggleborn girl from Rosier."
They stared at each other for a few moments. Remus raised his eyebrow as if inviting her to continue. When it became clear she wouldn't, he spoke.
"Okay? He does all the time."
Lily frowned. "Why?"
Remus shrugged. Then opened and closed his mouth a few times. He loosened, then tightened his tie. "I'm not sure what you mean."
"It's just…" She wasn't sure how to phrase the question without insulting his friend. Remus stared at her, expectantly. "He's kind of an… he's a pureblood, so why does he care about Muggleborns?"
"Oh." Remus' eyes widened. "I suppose… I thought everyone knew, but I guess it's only really purebloods who—" He shook his head and hesitated a few seconds. "A pureblood can be a blood traitor if they don't value their blood status or is friends with Muggles and Muggleborns. James and Sirius are both, by that definition, blood traitors. The entire Potter family is."
They walked in silence a few minutes as Lily processed the information.
"Has he always defended them?"
Remus nodded. "Every chance he got. It didn't usually go well for him back when we were eleven, but—" He smiled wryly. "James is… he's not like most purebloods. He's very accepting of… you know, people. Always has been."
Silence washed over them again. Could she have been mistaken? Maybe Black and Potter hadn't laughed at her back in first year. Thinking about it, there had only been that one incident. Or perhaps they had laughed but had grown since then.
Lily snorted. What was she thinking? James Potter maturing was as unlikely as she was to agree to a date with him.
"I don't care what you say. He's still an immature jerk."
Remus burst out laughing, though quickly covered his mouth to stop himself. He coughed a few times and wiped a tear. "True."
She smiled wryly. "You're okay with me insulting your friend?"
"He would probably agree—"
Remus was cut off as there were suddenly three loud voices howling with laughter. They stared down the hallway as the sound steadily grew louder. Something big turned around the corner, it was— no way. Surely it couldn't be true.
Potter, Black and Pettigrew were all sitting on a flying bed and it was coming their way. Potter waved his wand and it slowed down, stopping in front of them.
"Moony, your spell is amazing!" Potter exclaimed.
Lily whipped her head, staring at Remus who had trouble stifling a smile. "You did this?"
Remus glanced at her, his face flushed. "Er, no. Clearly, they're responsible."
Black rolled his eyes and moved to the edge of the bed, offering a hand to Remus. "Your ride is here, Moons."
Remus grabbed his hand and was pulled onto the bed. Lily's mouth was open and her eyes were wide. She couldn't believe Remus wanted to join in on their shenanigans.
"You want on too, Evans?" Potter asked, ruffling his hair.
Her face grew red with anger. "No, I do not want on." She turned to Remus. "And you shouldn't either. You're a Prefect. I can't believe you're encouraging them to break school rules."
Remus smiled innocently. "Which rules?"
"No students out of…" she trailed off, frowning.
They all stared at her with satisfied grins on their faces. Then Black instructed Potter to get going and soon they were flying down the hallway.
Lily glared their direction. Potter and his friends were unbelievable. Though it wasn't surprising. Potter was, and always would be, an immature jerk.
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A/N I wrote subconsciously correctly in first try B)
This was fun to write. I would love to hear what you think :D