Disclaimer: All the characters that you recognize belong to J. K. Rowling.
Author's Note: Thanks to MissMrprk, little-angel123452000, Pranks Are So Siriusly Padfoot, J.E.A.R.K.Potter, RawBean, alli8, Denise, and vid for reviewing! You guys are the greatest!
Denise: Okay, you asked if Sirius and Zoë would ever get together, well, I'll just say I have plans for them. I'm not saying they will get together, but I'm not saying they won't get together. All I'm saying is that I have plans for later chapters.
Once again the Gryffindors found themselves in their least favorite class, with their least favorite House, and with their least favorite professor. They were in potions class first thing in the morning.
"Okay, class, today you will be brewing the reverse potion for the speech deficiency potion that was made last week," Professor Rander told the class. "And, if you can manage it, we'll be testing it out on students."
The students stared at their teacher, waiting for her to tell them what to do next.
"What are you still doing at your seats? This takes an hour to brew!" Rander yelled.
At once the entire class jumped out of their seats and headed toward the cabinets, trying to find the ingredients needed.
And unfortunately for Lily, by the time she had gathered her ingredients, there was only one seat left. And that seat was next to Roscoe Jamison, one of the meanest people in school.
Roscoe had done almost as much hexing as the Marauders, although his was much more serious. He had been known to pick especially on muggle-borns, and had a family of well known supporters of the Dark Lord.
Lily remembered that on more than one occasion he had been awful to her, all because of being born into a muggle family. Her most vivid memory occurred in the beginning of fifth year-
Lily had been sitting with Marissa and Gracie one day in early October. The three girls were outside that Sunday afternoon, enjoying the crisp autumn air.
"So, Lily, has Potter stopped asking you out yet?" Gracie asked.
"Not yet, that prat," Lily answered.
"When will he learn?" Gracie asked.
"Hopefully sooner than later," Lily replied with a laugh.
As the three of them were getting into a discussion on the new Quidditch captain for the Gryffindor team, who had grown into a very handsome man that summer, a group of Slytherin boys had started to linger near by.
And those boys were known other than Roscoe and three of his little sidekicks. All four of them were about the same height, around 5' 11", and all had a wickedness look to their faces.
They were huddling together, about ten feet from where Lily and her friends were sitting, when she heard a tremendous laugh from them. No doubt they were up to no good at all. And Lily was prepared, as prefect, to deduct points from the Slytherin House.
"What do you think they're talking about?" Marissa asked as she pointed over to them.
"No clue, but ten-to-one it involves the embarrassment and hurt of another student," Lily replied, a disgraceful look in her green orbs.
"Yeah, do you remember last week, when they hexed that poor first year from Ravenclaw?" Gracie asked.
"How could I forget? She was in the hospital wing for two days, poor kid," Lily responded.
"I know, and that little boy from Hufflepuff. They really shouldn't have pushed him into the lake last year, I mean, it was December, he could have frozen to death," Marissa added.
"Yeah, thank God that one of the Marauders had the decency to levitate him out," Gracie commented.
"Yeah, Remus has always been the only one of them that was responsible," Marissa responded.
"Can we stop talking about the Marauders?" Lily asked as she eyed the troublesome Slytherins nearby.
"Of course, I know how much they piss you off," Gracie answered.
"Thank you," Lily said calmly.
About five minutes later, Roscoe approached the three girls, and said, "Evans, I think that you should know, the Marauders are off playing a prank on Snivellus again."
"Oh, well, thank you for telling me," Lily replied graciously. She was a bit surprised that Roscoe had told her this; he was known for loving mischief, and anything else that involved hurting and humiliating another person. And, he didn't even like Snivellus that much, so why would he possibly tell her if he was getting hurt?
She went anyways though, abandoning her friends behind her.
'I swear, if they hurt Snivellus again, they'll be in big trouble this time,' Lily silently told herself.
And as she went to where Roscoe had told her to go, she was shocked at what was there.
Absolutely nothing.
There were no Marauders, Snape, or for that matter, anybody at all. Lily turned around in shock, wondering why Roscoe had sent her this way in the first place.
She saw him at once, Roscoe standing there with his three best friends. They all had smug looks on their faces, as if knowing something that she didn't.
"What's going on?" Lily asked, trying to force her voice to be demanding instead of timid.
"Oh, just a bit of fun, Evans. Just a bit of fun," Roscoe told her. And then added, "For us that is."
Lily saw his smile increase as he took out his wand and pointed it in her direction, "Expelliarmus," Roscoe loudly said, forcing Lily's wand to fly out of her pocket and into his hand.
"Give me my wand," Lily demanded.
"Why? Mudbloods like yourself don't deserve to have a wand," Roscoe retorted.
"Give me my wand," Lily repeated.
"And what fun would that be?" he asked.
"Give it to me!" Lily yelled.
Roscoe and his friends let out a laugh, which just made Lily angry. All she wanted was to have her wand back, and for them to stop hassling her. But, unfortunately, that was not in their plans.
"Fiano!" Roscoe said deeply, pointing his wand at Lily's long skirt.
Lily looked down instantly, and saw that her skirt was on fire. Her skirt was on fire!
Lily screamed, knowing that she couldn't put it out with her wand. She began to furiously pat at it, hoping to reduce the flame. Unfortunately, it only made it worse, and the flame began to spread.
She could feel the tears coming down her cheeks now. She was so worried about getting the burning flame off of her.
She did the only thing she could think of, she quickly discarded the skirt. Knowing very well that it left her in only her top and her panties. But she had to get away from the spreading flame!
Roscoe and his friends looked at her with wide eyes. They had never expected that to happen!
Lily felt her face redden as she ran into the Forbidden Forest. She knew it was wrong, but she had to get away from those monstrous Slytherins. Plus, she wasn't about to run back up to the castle, not without her skirt anyway.
And then she saw it: Marissa, Gracie, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were coming toward the laughing Slytherins.
'Great, just what I need, the Marauders here!' Lily silently told herself sarcastically.
"What the hell are you doing Roscoe?" James asked.
"Nothing that concerns you, Potter," Roscoe spat.
"Oy, Prongs, it looks like somebody's got two wands in his hands," Sirius commented.
"You know what Padfoot, I think you're right," James said while glaring at Roscoe.
"Where's Lily?" Gracie asked as the boys started to walk close to the Slytherins.
"How should I know?" Roscoe asked.
"Where is she?" James asked, his voice was deadly.
"I don't know," Roscoe answered coolly.
And in an instant Roscoe was pinned to the ground by James, who was pointing his wand at Roscoe as if to say, 'go on, just try me.'
"She ran into the forest," Roscoe blurted out, not wanting to be on the receiving end of James' wand.
"Lily wouldn't do that, it's against the rules," Marissa sternly said.
"She did," Roscoe sputtered.
The group was glaring at him hard, especially James.
And then Gracie said, "Look, its Lily's skirt! And it's all black."
Somewhere along the line, the fire had been put out, so only parts of it were destroyed.
"What did you do to her?" James asked as he pounded Roscoe's head against the dirt.
"Nothing."
"Bull shit. What'd you do?" James said as he jammed Roscoe's head further into the ground.
"It was just a harmless joke," one of Roscoe's friends named Mike said.
"What happened?" Marissa asked, her voice strong and dominant. She knew she couldn't take on Roscoe, but this Mike kid would be no problem.
When he didn't answer, Marissa looked sternly at him. Her eyes were pressing into his, a dangerous look to them.
"Her skirt caught on fire, and she took it off and ran into the forest," Mike said. Clearly he didn't respond well under pressure.
Then Marissa grabbed the skirt and ran into the woods to find Lily, leaving the Marauders to officially hex Roscoe and his friends to pieces.
That memory stung at Lily hard whenever she saw Roscoe. She hated remembering how weak and defenseless she was. She never wanted to feel that way again. And she hated that the Marauders were the ones to come to her rescue. She had hated it then. She hated that she had to say thank you to her enemy at that time, James Potter.
"Hello Roscoe," Lily said politely, yet with a tint of distaste in her tone.
"Evans," he said coolly.
…
James watched in disbelief as Lily took a seat next to Roscoe Jamison. He hated Roscoe, hated him even more than Snape. He had hated Roscoe ever since he was three years old, ever since Roscoe had broken his toy broom at a party.
But that was beside the point. James would never forget that day when Roscoe had put Lily's skirt on fire. He wasn't there to witness it, but he sure gave Roscoe a piece of his mind afterwards. No one touched Lily Evans and got away with it, no one.
Ever since James had started asking Lily out at the end of their fourth year, no one was allowed to touch her and get away with it. Everyone knew it. Everyone knew that James would hex them like no other if anyone had touched the girl of his dreams.
And now, seeing Lily being forced to sit with that bastard, it made James furious. He knew he was being protective, and that Lily could certainly take care of herself, as he was told many times before, but he still hated seeing them at the same work bench.
"Wormtail, look who Lily's sitting with," James mumbled as he began to chop his rugenburg.
"What's she doing sitting there?" Peter asked, following James' stare.
"I don't think there were any seats left," James explained.
"Well, don't get too mad about it James, "Peter said.
"I'm not mad," James replied sternly.
"Then why are you chopping that like a madman?" Peter questioned while pointing down to James' sloppily cut rugenburg.
"Okay, fine. I don't like it," James admitted.
"I knew it," Peter replied with a smile. "You're just concerned about your girlfriend, mate. It's perfectly normal."
"Yeah, yeah," James said.
"Oh, and why isn't mine as deep red as yours?" Peter asked while glancing down at the cauldrons.
"You didn't add enough mintle leaves," James automatically said.
"Oh, how many were we supposed to add?"
"Three large ones," James explained.
"But I did that," Peter said while looking down at his own concoction.
"Try putting about half of that small one in, see if it makes a difference," James advised.
"Prongs, are you sure?" Peter asked.
"Yup, and if I'm wrong, I'll trade with you," James assured.
Peter smiled at his friend. James had always been so nice to him, like a true friend. And was always willing to help him with whatever he needed. Whether it was homework, girls, or even pointers in Quidditch.
And just as James had expected, once that extra part of a leaf was added, the potion turned into the deep scarlet color that it was supposed to look like.
"See, Wormtail, what'd I tell," James said happily as he looked over at Peter's potion.
"Yes indeed, Prongs, you are the master of Potions," Peter said with a smile. He admired his friend so much, and didn't mind giving James the confidence and ego booster every now and then.
…
Little did James know, but Lily had been watching him the entire time. She watched as James gave his friend helpful advise about the potion.
And James wasn't the only one being watched, Roscoe was indeed keeping an eye on Lily. He kept on glancing her way, and occasionally toward James. He wanted to make sure that he wouldn't be seen by either Lily or her dreadful boyfriend.
And when the coast was clear, a smile emerged on his face. He would teach that mudblood a lesson or two in potions. And number one was, always keep your eyes on the cauldron.
When Lily was truly not looking at her work space, Roscoe slipped in a few dashes extra of Dragon's Fire extract. The potion called for one quick dash, but with almost a teaspoon of the extract, it could do horrors. And the most discreet thing about it was that it was undetected by color, texture, or smell. So there would be no way in telling if it was wrong.
"Evans," Roscoe said once he was finished.
Her attention immediately went to him, and away from James.
"Yes," she said patiently.
"You might want to stop staring at lover-boy and pay attention to the potion. If you don't stir it at a constant speed it could go awfully wrong," Roscoe informed her.
She looked at him for a second, unsure if he spoke the truth or not. After all, he just couldn't be trusted.
Lily glanced down at her text book, reading the directions clearly. She was surprised to see that 'stir at a constant speed' was written in bold lettering.
"Thank you," she told him.
"Don't mention it. I just didn't want to catch on fire if it exploded," he told her with a smirk.
Lily's face went into a deathly glare. There was always a reason for Roscoe's words, always a reason to humiliate her.
…
By the end of class, Lily was quite satisfied with her potion. It looked great, even better than Snape's and he was only third to James and Sirius in the class.
"Alright, this potion will be tested by… Lily Evans," Rander said as she looked at her list. Each class she had a different student test a sample of their potion in front of the entire class. Well, as long as the potion could do no harm, that is.
Lily smiled as she brought her potion forward.
"Now class if Miss Evans has done this correctly, her speech will come back to normal after I charm it to do otherwise," Rander told the class.
She then pulled out her wand and muttered the charm to make Lily not be able to speak at all.
Lily opened her mouth to try, but no words came out. So, she took a glass of her potion and took a giant gulp of it, letting the liquid ooze down her throat.
Lily's eyes immediately went wide; she felt something wrong in her mouth. Something was wrong with the potion! Her hands went up to her mouth in an alarming manner, and her heart began to beat faster.
"What is it, Evans?" Rander asked when she noticed what was happening.
Lily opened her mouth to talk, but no sound came out at all.
In fact, it looked as if her tongue was disintegrating. The potion was burning her mouth, literally!
Rander's eyes went wide when she realized what was happening. And she snapped, " Dalton, take her to the hospital wing, and hurry for god's sake."
James watched as Scarlett took Lily by the arm and led her out of the dungeon. He couldn't believe what was happening. Lily had never failed to mess up a potion before, never. And there she was being rushed to the hospital wing to see Madame Lingwood.
"Now class, let that be a lesson to you all. Never, ever, put in more than a small dash of Dragon's Fire extract in your potion," Rander told the class.
Author's Note 2: Okay everyone, here's chapter 28! I hope you guys like it, and please review! Oh, and also, I know I haven't updated in a few days, but I had a mini-writers block! I know what I'm doing next though! Oh, and just as a head's up, I start school next week, so I won't be able to update nearly as often. Sorry!