Lily quickly gathered her things and sprinted after the group of first year Slytherins. She pushed her way through the crowd of students. She made quick apologies as she went. Finally at the base of the stairs of the entrance hall, she reached him.
"Severus!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him back as he made to step up the stairs after the other Slytherins.
"Oi!" Called one of the Slytherin boys. "Come on Severus."
"In a minute," he called back. "Look Lily I got to go."
"Why don't I walk to class with you?" Lily suggested. She reached to link arms with him but he brushed her off.
"I have Charms with the Hufflepuffs right now." He turned away and huffed. "And I'm going to be late. Why don't you walk to class with your new friends Black and Potter."
He ducked his head and ran after the Slytherins.
"What?" Lily said confused and then called out again. "Severus!"
"What was that all about?" Jane Potter appeared next to her carrying the gift from her Father.
"I don't know," Lily said, looking a little hurt. "It's like he didn't want to talk to me…"
"Maybe he's just in a hurry," Jane suggested halfheartedly. But she looked like she didn't believe it. "Or… never mind."
"Or What?" Lily asked.
"I'll… explain later." Jane tried to shrug off. "We have transfiguration and we don't want to be late. I heard Professor McGonagall is really strict and I still need to go all the way back to the common room to put this away."
"That's the second thing you've said you'll explain later." Lily pointed out crestfallen. "Ugh I'm never going to keep up. I'm so far behind this whole magic thing."
Jane looked at the other girl apologetically.
"No you're not." Jane insisted. "You'll do great. It's just, how do I say it, it's just some odd wizarding culture things that are honestly more complicated than they should be. I'll explain, I swear but I have to put this away before I'm late."
"Oh you're right I'm sorry. I'll come with you," Lily said following Jane up the stairs. But Jane smiled and shook her head.
"I don't want to make you late," Jane said. "Besides you can tell the Professor where I am in case I don't make it."
"Ok fine," Lily agreed. "But at least let me take your bag. It'll be quicker for you that way."
"Good idea! Thanks!" Jane smiled and slid her bag off her shoulder and handed it to Lily. Then she took off in a light run with her long light brown hair dancing elegantly behind her as she went.
It turned out that Jane was right. Lily wasn't so far behind in magic. In fact she seemed to be doing quite well. In Transfiguration, they were asked to begin trying to convert matches into needles. And Lily for her part had been one of 4 people to make her needle change shape and color. The other three being three of the Gryffindor boys, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. Jane was quite frustrated that hers hadn't changed as much as she wanted to.
Lily has found Hogwarts to have exceeded her expectations. Severus's description of the place had not done it justice. He had told her that they would be going to school in a castle but she didn't know exactly how large it was. She thought that it had to be at least as large as Buckingham palace. There were seven floors and the staircases all moved. So did the paintings on the walls. Sure Severus had told her all of these things, but actually seeing was something else. The owls bringing in the letters was a beautiful sight to see. Though the red yelling letter still puzzled her. Jane promised she would explain what happened at breakfast and whatever it was she was going to say about Severus and wizarding culture but they had yet to get a chance to talk. During lunch both girls were distracted talking with the others about the classes they already had and their excitement for their classes in the afternoon.
Their last class of the day was potions. And Lily was happy to find out that it was with the Slytherins. When they had arrived in the dungeons Lily caught sight of Severus sitting by himself. She detached herself from the other Gryffindor girls' side and plopped herself next to him. He looked up in shock.
"You can't sit here," he muttered to her. Lily looked at him shocked.
"Excuse me?" She asked.
"Gryffindors and Slytherins can't sit together." Severus replied.
"Who said that?" Lily said. "Nobody ever said that. It's not in the rules."
"It's just how it is." Severus said quietly. "Gryffindors and Slytherins don't sit together."
"Oi Severus! This mudblood bothering you?" A Slytherin boy said. It was the one from earlier, Avery, who had harassed Sirius Black. "Want us to take care of her."
The Gryffindor girls were outraged. Jane had to stop Marlene Mckinnon from throwing her cauldron at Avery. Though she looked like she wanted to throw one herself.
"What?" Lily said, confused at what he had called her. That was the second time she heard the word mudblood today. And she had a feeling it wasn't a nice word. "I'm his friend."
The surrounding Slytherins started laughing. Which confused Lily even more.
"Severus wouldn't be friends with a—"
"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you," Jane had suddenly materialized behind Lily. She glared at the boy. Lily could practically feel the cold shooting from her eyes. And she almost flinched away in surprise.
"Ooo I'm so scared, Potter," Avery sneered. Lily thought he was probably lying because she was slightly terrified of the look Jane carried. Her icy glare was enough to paralyze someone. She didn't think Jane was capable of making such a look.
"Besides your too dumb to notice but there is an odd number of both Gryffindor and Slytherin first years this year." Jane said, ignoring his mocking tone. She continued to stare him down.
"So? Why should I care," Avery snorted.
"You shouldn't. That's the problem," she said. "But since you do seem to care as you're bothering Evans and Snape here with business that's not yours, you should know that this means a Gryffindor and a Slytherin will need to be paired up together. And if Lily wants to sit with her...friend. Then she should. There's no rule against it."
The Gryffindor boys arrived just then. James and Sirius immediately rushed over at the sight of Jane almost nose to nose with Avery.
"Is there a problem here?" James said. He pushed himself between Jane and Avery. Looking between the two groups. James was especially concerned with the look Jane had on her face. It rivaled his aunt Maggie's (Jane's mother's) face when she was particularly angry about something. James and Jane always knew to not push her buttons then.
"Not at all," Jane smiled sweetly. "Avery was just about to mind his own business."
"We'll talk about this later, Severus," Avery said with a glare at the greasy haired boy who looked like he was trying to shrink away.
Lily, for her part, was still incredibly confused at what had just happened. She kept trying to catch Severus's eye throughout the lesson.
Immediately after class Severus moved faster than Lily had ever seen him and rushed out of the classroom. Lily scrambled to follow him. He was not about to get away again. He weaved through students and went around some convoluted way. They went up some steps that led them to the first floor corridor. At the top of the stairs she heard someone call out to her.
"Evans Lookout!"
The next thing she knew her legs were locked together and she started falling backwards. She would have tumbled down the stairs if it weren't for Remus Lupin catching her.
She soon found herself surrounded by the boys and Jane in Mcgongall's office looking back and forth between the Gryffindor boys and Severus trying to figure out what had happened. All of her fellow Gryffindors including Jane were blaming her friend for starting a fight. Lily knew Severus and he wouldn't, he couldn't start a fight. Potter and Black on the hand, she had only known them for 24 hours and she knew that they could and would start a fight without hesitation. She didn't understand how Jane could possibly defend them.
By the time Mcgonogall had dismissed she was absolutely livid. Jane had been sent away with her to find another student. As soon as they left the classroom Jane tried to speak to her.
"Lily, are you alright?" The girl asked.
"I'm fine." Lily said shortly. "Shouldn't you be looking for someone?"
"I wanted to make sure you're ok first." Jane said. She was taken aback by Lily's harsh tone. "Are you sure you don't need to go to the hospital wing? I could take you there…"
"I said I was fine!" Lily shouted at her. "Why don't you just go and get whoever it is McGonogall asked you to get and he'll prove that Black and Potter aren't as innocent as you think."
"Is that what this is about?" Jane blinked in surprise. "I didn't say they were innocent."
"You said Severus started it." Lily accused.
"No, I said he threw the first curse," Jane tried to explain.
"That's the same thing!" Lily exclaimed.
"No it's not!" Jane insisted. But Lily didn't seem to care. She huffed and stormed away without saying anything leaving Jane to stare stunned at the other girl's retreating back.
Lily rushed back up to the Gryffindor tower and hid herself away in frustration in her dorm room. Hogwarts was turning out to be less magical and enchanting then she had been expecting. Well that wasn't exactly true. She had been fascinated by all the spells and charms she had been learning and seeing. But she could tell that there were plenty of things in the wizarding world that she just wasn't understanding. Jane Potter had made that very clear. It was like the other students, the ones who grew up in this world in some sort of secret club with a secret language. It was clear that Jane knew something that Lily didn't.
She didn't see Jane until dinner. When she finally made her way to the Gryffindor table she saw Jane sitting with the other Gryffindor girls. Jane looked up at her and scooted over to make room for Lily but She ignored her. Instead she sat on the opposite side of the other girls, far enough away from Jane to be able to ignore her attempts to talk to her.
After dinner all the girls went up to the Dormitories together. The four girls from the other Gryffindor girls' dormitory all joined Lily, Jane, Marlene, and Mary in their room. But it was clear to all of them that there was some tension between Jane and Lily and they couldn't figure out what could've happened.
"Those Slytherins are a piece of work," Marlene Mckinnon said with a grunt.
She threw herself on the bed. Alice Fortescue crawled on next to her. Jane, Lily, and Mary all sat on their beds as well, with the other girls, lounging on the floor comfortably in a circle in the middle of the room. Out of the girls from the other dormitory room, Jane only recognized Alice, who was a long time family friend of both her mother and father, and Lana Li. Lana was the daughter of a wizarding ambassador from China. She had met her a few times at the formal events her mother made her attend. But the other two, Dorcas Meadowes and Emmeline Vance, Jane had not met prior to attending Hogwarts.
"They aren't that bad," Jane insisted although secretly she agreed with her. "Gryffindors and Slytherins have just been at each other's throats for who knows how long. They uphold two very different ideals."
"I'll say," Marlene muttered.
"Such as?" Lily asked. She spoke in a tone that seemed to be very defensive. She eyed Jane with a bit of disdain. Clearly still upset from that afternoon. "They're just houses."
"Just houses!" Marlene exclaimed. Jane put her hand on her shoulder to calm her.
"Slytherins tend to care a little too much about tradition and blood." Jane said. "It's part of what I wanted to explain to you earlier today, on the staircase after breakfast."
"Excuse me, did you say blood?" Mary Macdonald cut in.
"Yes," Jane said. "As in blood status. Many slytherins think that if you come from a long line of wizards, you're inherently better than everyone else. It's an age-old ideal of the house since the time Hogwarts was founded. Salazar Slytherin wanted to only teach pureblood witches and wizards."
"But my friend said it didn't matter that I was a muggle-born." Lily said uncertainly.
"It doesn't." Marlene, Jane, and Alice Fortescue, said together.
"For most people." Marlene added.
"So slytherins and gryffindors don't get along because of blood?" Lily asked.
"That's part of it." Jane said.
"The other part is that Slytherins are inherently evil." Marlene said.
"Marlene!" Jane scolded.
"Ok fine, not all of them!" Marlene said. "Your Mother is decent."
Jane refrained from rolling her eyes (as it was unladylike according to her mother) and turned to a scandalized and offended Lily Evans.
"Look, not all Slytherins are bad and most certainly not first year Slytherins." Jane tried to reassure her. "If he told you blood status doesn't matter then perhaps he's alright. If he said that then probably doesn't care. The problem is the slytherins he seems to have made friends with, like Avery. That family is one of the ones I'm talking about. They are powerful and wealthy. If he wants to make it in Slytherin he'll ally himself with him, do things to impress him. The Avery's are extreme Pureblood supremacists. They believe that those who aren't pureblood to be lesser than them."
"It's why he keeps throwing around that awful word," Alice said with shiver.
"What word?" Mary asked.
She and Lily looked between the other girls. Jane and Lana managed to keep a neutral face. But Marlene, Alice, Dorcas and Emmeline winced.
"We're not saying it." Dorcas said.
"Mudblood," Lily said with a frown. "Right? That's what Avery has been calling me all day. And that screaming letter that Black had said as well."
Jane nodded with a grimace.
"What does it mean?" Mary asked
"It's a foul name for someone with non-magical parents. It's a slur. It means dirty blood. Common blood." Jane explained.
"But Severus isn't like that!" Lily defended.
"I never said he was," Jane insisted. "Just that who hangs around with does."
"And what about Black," Lily said. "His letter referred to Mudbloods and other things."
"The Black family is known for that too, dark witches and wizards who are all about blood purity," Dorcas Meadowes added in.
"But Sirius Black isn't like the rest of them," Jane couldn't help defend him. "I mean I only just met but he seems different from the rest of his family. And we shouldn't judge someone off of rumors."
"So you'll defend Black but accuse Severus," Lily huffed.
"No!" Jane sighed. "I'm not defending Black. I never said he was innocent. He has just as much fault in that as your friend does. I really am sorry about what happened earlier."
Lily didn't know what to think. She didn't wanted picture her friend as bad as Potter and Black. And she didn't want to think of him as someone who cared about all this blood status that the other girls were talking about. But Lily couldn't deny that they were right about many of the other Slytherins. She herself had been called a mudblood several times during the first day and not just by the first year Slytherins. She knew she had to talk to Severus tomorrow and she wasn't going to let him run away again.
An: hey so sorry for the long delay of this chapter. Tbh it was a difficult chapter for me idk why and definitely not my best work so bear with me. Thanks for reading!
