Author's Note: Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favorited this story I'm so glad you like it! I'm trying to get updates out as fast as possible and also trying to make them a little longer. Hope you enjoy the chapter!


Lily felt herself being shaken and she moved to rub her sleepy eyes before burying her face in the sheets.

"Five more minutes, Tuney," she whined.

"Who in the bloody hell is Tuney?" Marlene's voice shouted. Lily whipped around and found herself staring at Marlene's dark eyes. The other girl merely grinned and shook Lily's shoulder again.

"Rise and shine, Evans!" she chirped. "It's the first day of classes and seeing as you deprived me of the fun of interrogating you last night, we have to do that this morning."

"Marls" Alice's sleepy voice drifted over. "It's six o'clock in the bloody morning."

"But we have so much to learn about Lily!" Marlene cried, leaping onto Lily's bed and snuggling up to the groggy redhead. "We have to hear the whole story about her summer with James. Is he a good snog?" she directed the question at Lily. "Did you do anything really cheesy like write you a song? Did he meet your parents?"

"Marlene," Lily groaned into her pillow. "Go back to sleep."

"Absolutely not," the dark haired girl sat up, pulling Lily with her. Lily yelped as the cold air assaulted her and moved to regain the safety and warmth of her covers, but Marlene grabbed her shoulders and held her upright.

"I let you sleep last night. Now it's time for you to talk."

Lily sighed and leaned back on her bed. "Fine," she muttered, crossing her arms. Marlene grinned.

"Excellent. So, first, tell us everything about you and James."

"Er—what exactly do you want to know?" Lily asked tentatively.

"Well—" Marlene deliberated for a moment before her grin grew even broader. "Is he a good snog?"

Lily flushed and hid her face. "Yes," she squeaked from behind her fingers. She looked up to find Marlene smirking.

"Excellent and how did this little romance start?"

"Er—" Lily hesitated. She wasn't entirely certain how it had started. "Well, I ran into him outside a shop in town one day and he mentioned he was staying in Cokeworth for the summer and didn't know what there was to do. And I said I would show him around a bit. And then we…well we just spent the rest of the summer together after that."

"I see," Marlene's eyes danced with humor as she smiled at the furiously blushing Lily. "And did he do anything silly and romantic that I can tease him about mercilessly?"

"No!" Lily cried, wishing to defend James from any teasing, though she couldn't explain to herself why.

"Oh come off it, Lily," Marlene pressed. "He must have done something to have you blushing this much."

Lily paused, wanting to tell her new friend about the time James had told her to get dressed up and then taken her for a picnic in the park, or the rainy night he had insisted they dance out in the street even though there was no music. She remembered how he had dipped her and planted a kiss on her lips before whispering "You, Lily Evans, are the most magnificent girl I have ever met in my life."

She shook her head violently, banishing the memories. "There wasn't anything particular," she said to Marlene, not meeting her eyes. "But he was sweet. He listened. He just always seemed to understand."

Marlene nodded and wrapped an arm around Lily. "He's one of the best blokes I know. We've been friends for ages, since we were babies. Our parents are friends, you see."

"Merlin, what are you two doing up at this hour?" a groggy voice from across the room asked. Lily looked up and saw an unfamiliar girl with flaxen blonde hair and brown eyes staring at her.

"Oh," Marlene said. "Right. Well, Sarah, this is Lily Evans, the new girl. Lily, this is Sarah Carroll."

Lily raised her hand in greeting. "Nice to meet you," she called.

"You too," the blonde replied, turning over onto her stomach and resting her head on her pillow. "What are you two up talking about?"

"Just Lily's summer romance," Marlene said, turning back to the red haired girl. "And how James is apparently quite the sweetheart to girls he fancies."

There was no reply from the blonde, as she had fallen back to sleep. Marlene shrugged and turned back to Lily. "He sounds like he was incredibly sweet," the brunette admitted, sitting up cross-legged on Lily's bed.

"Mhm," Lily mumbled, twirling a piece of hair around her fingers and staring down at her sheets. "Except he's not like that here. Severus told me about all the horrid things James and his friends would do to him."

Marlene paused and peered at Lily, chewing her lip. "Listen, Lily, about Snape—"

"Severus."

"Right, well about Severus. Lily, I know you said he told you it doesn't matter that you're muggle-born and honestly it doesn't. Or it shouldn't. None of us here care. Mary's muggle-born too." She pointed to a bed occupied by a snoozing brunette. "But there's some people in the wizarding world, and some at Hogwarts that, er, believe that muggle-borns don't deserve to be a part of all this. They think they're dirty and less than other wizards."

"What?" Lily asked, perplexed. "But how? Why does it make a difference? We're all magical, aren't we?"

Marlene shook her head and sighed. "I don't know. I don't understand it. But, er… well, I suppose you'll find out at some point so we may as well tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"Well, there's a group of students—there's always one—who are all about the blood purity nonsense and have, er, rather dark ways of showing their support for it—" Marlene faltered. Lily's eyes went wide.

"They use dark magic?"

"They try to," Marlene grimaced, turning away from her. "This group, they're slytherins. Mostly boys, though Merlin knows I'm sure the girls are all demented as well. There's Mulciber and Rosier, who both have gotten in trouble for harassing muggle-borns. There was this one bloke Lestrange, scary one he was, and his girlfriend Bellatrix Black, she was a nutter. They both left last year, though. And then there's Urquhart-"

"And Severus?" Lily asked tentatively. Marlene gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Yes, Severus is part of it."

"Well," Lily deliberated, disappointed to hear about Sev's friends but also unwilling to believe him capable of prejudice and practicing dark magic. "You said it's most of the Slytherins, right? I'm sure Sev is just friends with those people for the convenience of it. You know, it would be a bit difficult to go through school being on bad terms with your roommates."

Marlene's mouth hung open. "But—Lily, were you listening?" she gaped. Lily ignored her and continued talking.

"And even if some of the others practice dark magic, which I agree with you is terrible and they should be stopped, Sev has never said anything about it. I'm sure he doesn't do it with them. And he's not the one harassing muggle-borns. It's probably just unfortunate circumstances."

"Un—unfortunate circumstances?" Marlene choked out, her eyes as wide as galleons. "Lily, Snape has a reputation for knowing more curses than anyone else in the entire school! I would bet my broomstick he's practicing dark magic with the rest of them and planning on joining Voldemort as soon as they're done here!"

"Voldemort?" Lily asked, the question distracting her from thinking about Marlene's accusations. "What's Voldemort?"

"Not a what, a who," Alice answered, apparently having been listening in on their conversation. She sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed before shuffling over to Lily's bed and climbing in next to Marlene.

"He's a dark wizard," the blonde continued, her face stony. "They say maybe the darkest wizard in history. He started all this pureblood mania and he's quite dangerous—attacking muggles and muggle-borns who he sees as a threat. They say his ultimate goal is to slaughter all of them and have wizards be the only people in Britain."

Lily paled at this information. Her mouth hung open as she sucked in air.

"And—and there's people here at Hogwarts who want to join him?" she whispered, staring at Marlene and Alice who both looked more than a little disturbed.

"Yes," Marlene answered, moving her hand place it on Lily's knee. "It's terrible and they're awful, twisted people. But we thought you should know since you said you're friends with Sn—Severus."

Lily nodded. "Thank you for telling me," she said quietly.

"You deserve to know," Alice said, reaching out to hug her. "And don't be scared, Lily. I know this is a lot to throw at you all at once, but you're safe at Hogwarts. They say Dumbledore is the only wizard Voldemort is scared of and as long as he's here, nothing can hurt us."

"Okay," Lily choked out, squeezing her new friend tightly.

Marlene leaned back against the pillows and checked her watch.

"Merlin!" she shrieked, jumping up. "It's nearly seven! Oy, you lot!" she yelled to Sarah Carroll, who had fallen back to sleep, and the two other girls in the room. "Wake up!" Marlene shouted. The three girls rustled around and sat up, bleary eyed.

"It's seven," Marlene told them.

"You didn't have to yell," the girl who had been identified earlier as Mary MacDonald grumbled. Lily looked at her; she had light brown hair which fell down past her shoulder blades in loose waves and blue eyes which were puffy with sleep at the moment. Mary caught her eye and Lily flushed, hoping she hadn't been too obvious in her staring.

"Your name is Lily, right?" Mary asked in a much nicer tone than she had used with Marlene.

"Er, yes," Lily answered. Mary smiled kindly at her and moved to get out of bed.

"Nice to meet you," the brunette said. "I'm usually much nicer, but you see, I don't appreciate Marls here screeching at me to get up at the crack of dawn."

"It's not the crack of dawn!" Marlene said indignantly. "It's seven o'clock and you're always the one complaining whenever we're late!"

"Oh, shut it, McKinnon," another unfamiliar girl spoke up from her bed. She had black hair which fell in straight sheets down to her collarbone. Her face was very angular, with high cheekbones and a sharp chin. She had dark green eyes that looked almost brown at first.

"I'm Emmeline," she said, turning to Lily. "Emmeline Vance. Nice to meet you. I heard you're a muggle-born."

"Er—" Lily stammered, taken aback by the girl's abrupt manner. "Yeah, I am."

"And you were homeschooled until now?" the girl narrowed her eyes as she stared at Lily, as though daring her to lie and say it was untrue.

"Yes," Lily said, snapping her jaw shut and staring back at this abrasive girl. "My mom was ill and didn't want me going away to school but she died in June so now I'm here."

"Oh, blimey, Lily," Marlene said, covering her face with her hands. "You didn't tell us your mother had died! And here I was asking silly questions about James and telling you all these horrid things about Voldemort!"

"It's okay," Lily said quickly, not wishing to start a discussion on her mother. "Really, it's fine, Marlene. Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure?" she asked. "I feel awful."

"Really," Lily reassured her before turning to her trunk and searching for her tie.


Lily's first class of the day was potions, which came as a relief to her both because she enjoyed potions and because the Gryffindors had that class with the Slytherins, which meant she would get to see Severus.

Lily felt as though she were floating on a cloud the entire morning. Everything about Hogwarts felt so surreal, from the stone corridors to the floating candles which lit the castle, to Professor McGonagall coming around and tapping her wand to a blank sheet of parchment to instantly produce Lily's schedule. She still couldn't quite believe she was really there, at Hogwarts, surrounded by hundreds of other young witches and wizards who were learning the very same spells as she was. Dori was a wonderful tutor but Lily had always sorely missed the companionship of classmates. Now she had hundreds of them.

She tried valiantly not to think about James as she followed Marlene and Alice down to the dungeons, where potions class was held. She couldn't stop thinking of what Marlene had said about him being one of the greatest blokes she knew.

But she's biased, isn't she? Lily argued with herself. She's known him since they were babies, of course she thinks he's wonderful.

But she also would be quick to tell you to watch out if he were trouble, she reasoned. After all, if she's known the bloke for years she knows all the ugly bits.

"Lily?" her internal debate was interrupted by Severus, who stood outside the dungeon door waiting for her.

"You two go on," she said to Marlene and Alice, who had turned to look at her with raised eyebrows. They both nodded and entered into the classroom, choosing a table to sit at.

Lily walked in with Severus and they sat at the table across from Marlene and Alice.

"How's your first day going?" Severus asked.

Lily shrugged. "Alright, I suppose." She had to ask him soon; it was killing her not to. And now was a perfect time, with none of his friends hanging around to overhear.

"So, uh, Sev?" she started nervously.

"Yeah?" he asked, glancing at her quizzically. Lily swallowed. What if he was angry? No, she had to ask. She had to hear his side.

"Well, uh, I heard a bit about your friends…" she trailed off. Oh no, his face had gotten paler. No, no, no—

"Oh." Was all he said. He turned his attention to the table before quickly turning back and looking her in the eye. "Whatever you heard is rubbish. Some of the people I talk to aren't goody-two-shoes like Fortescue or insufferable, talentless purebloods like McKinnon, but there's nothing wrong with them." The venom in his voice shocked her, she had never heard Severus speak so nastily about anyone. Well, except for—"and just because they aren't fit like James Potter doesn't mean they're bad."

"I didn't—" she sputtered, wishing she hadn't raised the issue.

"It doesn't matter," he muttered angrily, looking at the floor.

The door burst open then and Lily saw out of the corner of her eye James and Sirius stroll into the classroom lazily. She snapped her attention to the front of the room, determined not to look at James. She wouldn't meet his eye; she wouldn't let her eyes wander over how his shirt clung so effortlessly to his chest; she wouldn't let herself think about how his hair was sticking up as it always did in the morning. She heard the two boys muttering about the lack of seating options before, to her horror, sliding into the seats directly behind her and Severus.

"Good morning, Lily," James said quietly. She ignored him.

"Good morning, Future Mrs. Prongs," Sirius called out loudly, drawing sniggers from around the room. Lily felt her face grow hot as she fought the urge to turn around and smack him. Beside her, she could see Severus' hands twitch towards his pocket where his wand was sticking out.

"Good morning, everyone!" a man who Lily guessed was the professor strode into the room. He was a jolly looking fellow, with a big silver mustache and a plump, protruding stomach. He glanced around the classroom before his eyes zeroed in on Lily.

"Oh ho!" he cried, walking over towards her. "I don't recognize you now, m'dear."

"I'm new," she said quietly, wondering how many times she would be forced to give this monologue. "I was taught at home until this year."

"Oh, well we're pleased to have you then," the professor said. "My name is Professor Slughorn and I am the potions master here. What's your name, dear?"

"Lily Evans," she answered, smiling at Slughorn's genial manner. She decided she liked this man.

"Well then, Miss Evans, welcome to Hogwarts!" he exclaimed merrily, turning back to the front of the room and addressing the entire class. "I certainly hope you've kept up with your potions work. To start off, everyone's going to brew me your best attempt at a pepper-up potion, just to see where you all are. The instructions are on page five of your book. Whatever you have completed at the end of the class is to be turned in to me. Understand?"

There was a rumbling of assent throughout the class. Slughorn beamed and rubbed his hands together. "Excellent, impress me!"

Lily set to work immediately beside Severus, cutting up her lacewig flies into bits. They worked in silence, both concentrating on the precision of the potion. Lily adored potions; she loved the order and precision it required. Living in a muggle neighborhood with no previous knowledge of magic or any of its nuances, spells and wandwork didn't always come easily to her as they were so foreign to anything else she had learned. But potions made sense; it was just like cooking or doing a math problem. If you followed the instructions carefully, you would succeed. And so Lily worked diligently over her cauldron, weighing crushed beetles and counting revolutions as she stirred.

She was almost halfway done with the potion when she heard a soft whirring sound. Glancing up, she spotted a flash of red before something landed in Severus' cauldron and boom! The cauldron and all its contents exploded. Severus had leapt back but still ended up covered in his half-finished pepper-up potion, which was bubblegum pink in color. Lily started forward to help him siphon the potion off when she heard James and Sirius howling with laughter behind her.

Her pulse quickened and her face grew hot as she spun around and glared at James, suddenly furious with him.

"You did this, didn't you?" she snapped, pointing at him angrily. James smirked at her and ran a hand through his hair.

"What can I say, Evans? Class was getting a bit boring; we thought it was lacking a certain explosive element."

"Well next time why don't you blow up your own bloody potion," Lily snarled, narrowing her eyes. "Instead of ruining someone else's just for an immature laugh!"

James was no longer laughing. He was staring at her with a mixture of hurt and anger.

"Why are you so upset about it, Evans?" he asked coolly, turning back to his own potion. "If I really wanted to be entertained I would've thrown it in your cauldron."

"Now, now, what's happened over here?" Slughorn appeared by their table, frowning at the remains of Severus' cauldron.

"Potter and Black thought it would be funny to throw a filibuster firework into my potion, sir."

"Potter? Black?" Slughorn turned to the two boys, his arms folded over his chest. Sirius smiled brightly at the teacher.

"We reckoned the first day could use a little excitement, Professor."

"Detention, both of you," Slughorn said. "And ten points each from Gryffindor."

James and Sirius both groaned. Lily smirked to herself and returned to her own potion, which was bubbling happily in her cauldron. Severus grumbled about his ruined concoction and angrily began to start over. Lily seethed inwardly over her doubts that morning. James had just proved what Severus said to be true. He was a bully and a prick and she couldn't believe she had allowed herself to be duped over the summer.

Yet somehow the image of his hazel eyes gazing into hers as they danced together in the rain would not leave her mind.

Lily squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to focus only on her potion for the remainder of the class. When she filled a vial up and took it to Slughorn he held it out in front of him and bellowed, "My my, I can see we've got talent in our new addition! Miss Evans, this looks wonderful! Is this your first time brewing a pepper-up?"

"Yes, Sir," she said. Slughorn smiled kindly at her.

"It's excellent work, dear. Five points to Gryffindor!" Lily flushed with pride and hurried back to retrieve her things and make her way to lunch.

Marlene and Alice had waited for her outside the classroom and Lily hurried out to meet them.

"Old Sluggy likes you," Marlene said happily. "I reckon you might get invited to a Slug Club party or two."

"What's the Slug Club?" Lily asked.

"Slughorn's little club of favorites," Alice told her as they rounded a corner. "He invites all the people he likes the best—or the ones who have the richest parents—and throws these parties. Usually there's at least one famous person there as well. They're quite the to-do."

"And you get invited just if he likes you?" Lily asked, thinking she would quite enjoy meeting a few famous wizards.

"Yes, but don't get your hopes up too high," Marlene warned her. "He's picky."

"Marls!" Alice swatted her friend on the arm. "Don't be rude! You weren't invited until last year!"

"I was just telling her," Marlene grumbled, rubbing her arm. "Don't want her to be all disappointed if she doesn't get invited to the first one."

Up ahead of them, Lily could see James and Sirius walking with the kind boy from last night, Remus and the smaller boy she remembered was called Peter. All four moved confidently but James and Sirius seemed to waltz down the corridor. Apparently detention didn't bother them. She watched James walk arrogantly through a crowd and cast annoyed glances at a girl near him, who looked no older than thirteen and was talking rather loudly to her friend about how she had lost a bracelet. Lily watched as James, without so much as a look back, flicked his wand towards the girl, whose mouth clamped shut forcefully. The girl seemed to be struggling to open it and Lily stared in horror as the young girl tried and failed to open her mouth and began to wave her arms in front of her friend and soon after burst into tears.

"That's horrible!" Lily cried as she watched the girl run into a nearby classroom.

"Yes, James has a habit of hexing people who annoy him," Alice said resignedly. "We've told him a thousand times he's going to get a detention one of these days and he just doesn't care."

"It's awful," Lily said, anger rising inside her once more. "I can't believe it."

"Oh, don't be angry with him, Lily," Marlene said. "It's just James being stupid. And he never does anything really bad."

"Right," Lily said, clenching her jaw and walking the rest of the way in silence.


After lunch the fifth year Gryffindors went to transfiguration, which was taught by Professor McGonagall, the stern witch who was head of Gryffindor house. She gave them a brief lecture on the O.W.L. examinations they would all be sitting at the end of the year and then set them the task of turning a tortoise into a teapot. Lily sat with Marlene, Alice and Mary MacDonald and watched as all three of her companions struggled to change their tortoises. Lily concentrated hard and said the incantation while waving her wand. Her tortoise simply sat on her desk and stared at her, completely unchanged.

"Here," a voice from behind her said, and without warning James' large, calloused hand covered her own on her wand. "It's not so much a wave as it is a jab. Like this." He guided her hand through the air in a short jab motion. Lily wrenched her hand from his grasp and turned around resolutely.

"I don't need your help," she said tonelessly, taking care not to look at him.

"Fine," he said curtly and turned away. Lily's body betrayed her and her head swiveled to follow him. Her eyes landed on a perfect teapot sitting on his desk.

Damn him, she thought. He's smart too.

She turned back to her own tortoise with a new resolve, determined to succeed in the day's task even though she knew transfiguration was one of her weakest subjects. Once more she said the incantation and concentrated hard, her hand jabbing instead of waving. Before her eyes, the tortoise shifted into a green teapot.

"Well done, Miss Evans," McGonagall said, walking over towards her. "Five points to Gryffindor. You too, Mr. Potter and Mr. Black."

Lily turned to see James and Sirius grin at McGonagall, both their teapots sitting in front of them. James caught Lily's eye and smirked. She flushed and looked away angrily.

"…and she's a muggle-born!" Lily heard the whisper and spun around to see Sarah Carroll engrossed in a conversation with her desk mate, unaware that Lily could hear. "I heard Marlene talking to her this morning about a summer romance and they mentioned James. I think they meant James Potter—"

"No!" the girl next to Sarah gasped. "I don't believe it. I mean, there's nothing wrong with her, she's pretty enough I suppose, but James?" Sarah nodded, glancing around the classroom. Lily hurriedly looked down at her teapot, pretending to search for any imperfections.

"I'm not sure if I believe it myself," Sarah said in the same carrying whisper. "Why would a bloke who can get any girl in the school settle for an unknown muggle-born? And she was homeschooled too! There's something odd there." Lily felt her face burn as she kept her eyes glued to her teapot. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to be in bed.

"Lily?" Marlene asked quietly. Lily forced her face into an almost-smile and turned to face her new friend.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Could you help me with this?" Marlene pointed to her tortoise, which was still not transfigured into a teapot but had started to blow steam. Lily giggled and took hold of Marlene's hand.

"It's more of a jab than a wave, you see."

McGonagall dismissed them soon after, though not before assigning them a fifteen inch essay to be turned in at the next class. Amidst the grumbles, Lily shoved her books in her bag and hurried out the door. She had placed one foot into the corridor when a hand latched firmly onto her upper arm.

"Hey!" she cried, moving to free herself. "Let go!"

"Lily," James was pulling her into an empty classroom. "Be quiet. We need to talk."

"Let go of me!" she demanded, wriggling her arm furiously in an attempt to loosen his grip. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Which is why I can't let go of you," James said shortly. He shut the door of the classroom and moved so he was between her and the door. He let go of her arm but placed both hands on her shoulders.

"What do you want?" she spat. James sighed and the corners of his mouth pulled down into a frown. He suddenly looked much more like the boy from the summer, his face open and free of the arrogant smirk which seemed to be plastered on since they had arrived at the castle.

"I just want to talk," he said wearily. "Things aren't good between us and I don't exactly know why—"

"You know why," Lily said angrily. "You lied this summer. You're a bully who has made my best friend's life miserable, you're arrogant, and you're a stuck-up prick who thinks he can get away with anything."

"Lily, please," James said, taking a step closer to her. "Please, I didn't lie. Really, I didn't. Just give me a chance to prove it to you."

"Why should I?"

"Please, I'm the same guy, I swear!"

"Really?" she cried, willing herself not to break down in tears in front of him. The last thing she needed was to have him comfort her right now. "Really James?" she asked, hoping he couldn't hear the quiver in her voice. "The boy I knew this summer wouldn't throw a firework into someone's cauldron just for a laugh. The James I knew wouldn't hex younger students just because they were annoying."

He gaped at her, his eyes pleading.

"Lily, look. I know I can be kind of a berk sometimes but, please, you have to—"

"I don't have to do anything," she said coldly, ducking out from under his arms.

"Just give me a chance—"

"James!" she screeched, reaching for the door. "Stop. I don't want to talk to you, why can't you understand that? You're not the same person, not at all. You're a prick and you're a bully and the boy I fell in love with this summer wasn't either of those things." And with that she threw open the door and ran outside, leaving a dumbstruck James Potter standing in the empty classroom wondering if he could possibly have heard that right.

Lily stumbled through the portrait hole and pounded up the stairs to the dormitory where she promptly threw herself on her bed and dissolved into tears. She let her bag drop to the floor with a muffled thud and curled herself into the blankets while the tears poured out of her.

She had told him she loved him. What was she thinking? What in God's name had possessed her to say that? It was true, but that wasn't the point. He didn't have to know it, even if it was the truth.

At some point, Lily wasn't sure how long it had been, Marlene and Alice returned to the dormitory and found her curled up on her bed, her hair sticking to her face and tears racing down her nose.

"Lily! We've been looking all over for you—oh, Lils what's wrong?" Marlene asked, climbing up onto Lily's bed.

"Tell us what happened, Lily," Alice said gently, taking Lily into her arms and rocking her. "Tell us why you're crying. Are you homesick? Or is it Severus?" Lily shook her head and continued to sob into Alice's robes.

"Is it James?" Alice whispered into her hair. Lily nodded and made herself sit up. Between sobs she poured out the whole story, everything that had happened that summer, the picnic in the park, the dancing in the rain, her silly hopes that he would wait for her. She told them all about Severus and how they had been best friends since they were nine and for so long he was her only connection to the magical world and how he had been telling her for years about the group of boys who regularly tormented him. She told them about seeing James hex the young girl in the corridor and about their conversation on the train the day before. Finally, she told them about James pulling her into the empty classroom and asking her to listen. She told them how she had blurted out she loved him before running away.

"Oh Lily," Alice said sympathetically, pulling her into a tight hug. "You must be all muddled up right now."

Lily nodded, her tears subsiding. "I have to forget about him," she said as firmly as she could. "I have to. I can't keep seeing him after knowing what he's done to Severus."

Marlene nodded, biting her lip. "I love James," she said. "Honestly, he's like my brother. But—you're right, Lils. I don't understand it, really, but if Severus is that important then—James needs to mature a bit, I think."

Alice nodded in agreement. "I'm so sorry, Lily," she said, squeezing the redhead. "This will all work itself out, I promise."

"I hope so," Lily gave a watery smile, feeling enormously relieved at having finally told someone all her troubles. She gave a watery chuckle that quickly turned into another sob. "Sarah Carroll was talking to a girl in transfiguration about me," she said quickly. "They were talking about how I'm muggle-born and they don't believe James could have liked me because he can have his pick of girls here and they don't understand why he would choose a muggle-born who nobody knows."

"Don't listen to Sarah Carroll," Marlene said firmly, reaching out to stroke Lily's hair. "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

"And nobody who matters cares that you're muggle-born," Alice added. "And I think James would choose you over Sarah Carroll any day."

Lily laughed at this and curled up further into Alice.

"Thank you both for being so nice to me," she said finally. "You've only just met me, you really have no reason to—"

"We like you," Marlene cut her off. "We want to be your friends."

Lily nodded and smiled at the two wonderful, kind girls who had taken her under their wing. "Thank you," she said.

"Don't worry about it," Alice answered before releasing Lily and lying down on the bed. "Should we have a sleepover, Marls?" she asked. Marlene grinned and laid down on the other side of the bed, leaving room in the middle for Lily.

"I think we should," the dark haired girl answered before pulling Lily down to lie between them. "It's been a long day, girls."

"Hear, hear," they all agreed.