Over 3,500 words longest chapter yet! (hope that makes up for my inexcusably late postage!) really enjoyed this chapter, kept trying to cut it down and finish it earlier, but i just couldn't.

do not own

Lily and Alex attend their first class of the year and already there's drama, boys and shoe-swapping.


Chapter Four – An Encounter With The Enemy

"Come on Alice we'll be late for Potions!" Lily said hurriedly as she attempted to usher her friend out the door and off to class. "Marissa, Gracie, Alex we'll see you later!" Lily hurried her goodbyes, slinging her books over her shoulder practically dragging her friend away from her stolen toast (brought promptly to Alex at exactly 8:45 every morning by a suspiciously obedient house elf working in the Kitchens) and jam.

"Do we have to leave now?" Alex whined,

"Yes." Lily told her firmly.

"But…" Alex protested,

"No buts." Lily cut her off, the conversation staring to resemble something one might hear between a persistent mother and a particularly stubborn child. "Come on we have to go." Lily urged her.

Marissa, Gracie and Alex all waved half-hearted goodbyes before quickly returning to their conversation deciding which items of clothing should be designated 'Group items' and were available for the whole dorm to borrow. Marissa was currently trying to persuade Gracie to 'donate' (as they called it) her black ankle boots but Gracie was refusing, trying to convince Marissa to accept her red pumps instead. Emma had already left for class 10 mins ago and Lily was determined not to be late.

Pulling Alice away from the Gryffindor common room by her arm and juggling all her potions books in her free hand, Lily started walking swiftly towards the door. Well, as fast as she could while being weighed down by half a dozen spell books and pulling a 120 pounds 17 year old girl behind her. About halfway across the room Lily realised she wouldn't have enough hands to push open the portrait hole. Apparently someone else had the same thought for just as Lily approached the portrait hole another arm reached out in front of her and pushed it open for her. Lily turned to thank her mysterious Good Samaritan,

"Thank you–" she began nicely,

"No problem love, I'll always be here when you need me" Replied a thoroughly pleased-looking James Potter, "And probably when you don't as well." He chuckled, his brilliant hazel eyes sparkling under the fluorescent lights that lined the ceiling and the corners of his mouth sparkling with a smile that flashed his pearl-white teeth and gleamed. It was a look that many-a-girl would easily swoon over at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but it was one that Lily Evans was never excited to see, especially today, while she was trying to get to class.

"Oh, it's you." Lily said, her demeanour immediately shifting from grateful to annoyed.

"No thank you." James replied sarcastically, "I mean I don't just go around opening doors for anyone."

"Yes you do." Lily corrected him, in a very matter-of-fact manner and incredibly unenthused.

"Ah, well, maybe I do." James confessed, "But I like doing it for you the most."

"Was that supposed to be a complement?" Lily asked,

"Yes." James answered proudly; dumbly unaware of the fact that it had not achieved its desired result.

"Well it wasn't a very good one." Lily countered, "And I haven't the time for this now. I have to go to class," and with that Lily turned around and quickly swept herself out of the portrait hole, hauling Alice behind her.

"You know you don't have to be so mean to him, he's just trying to be nice" Alice said to Lily once she had let go of her arm and they were clear of the common room.

"We both know he not 'just trying to be nice'." Lily said firmly, walking so quickly that she was almost running,

"Aw, come on! Give him a chance," Alice pleaded, almost running to keep up with Lily.

"No. And we're going to be late to class if you don't start walking faster." Lily informed Alice as she rounded a corner.

Alice just rolled her eyes and began running after Lily who had disappeared down the adjacent corridor that took you to History of Magic and Charms classrooms.

The two girls ran quickly through the halls, narrowly dodging other students, who were all also late for class. Lily hated to be late, especially for the first class and even more on the first day of term. You could see the frenzied determination in her eyes as she scooted round the bends and evaded flying books and open doors. Alice was huffing and puffing to keep up with Lily, and was so focused on keeping Lily in her sight that she almost collided with Professor Wick (who taught Divination and was quite, well, interesting).

"Oh sorry!" Alice apologised quickly, glancing in front of her to make sure Lily didn't get to far ahead, she hadn't stopped and Alice was quite sure she didn't even realise that Alice wasn't right beside her anymore.

"What?" Professor Wick asked, glancing around as if she hadn't felt Alice run into her.

"Never mind," Alice told her quickly before dashing off to catch up to Lily. Having caught up with her not too much farther down the corridor, Alice reached out (literally) to Lily and managed to slow her to a quick walk.

A few minutes passed and the two girls were now walking briskly down the hallway that lead to the flight of stairs that took you down to the Dungeons, they sped up just a tiny bit (they were already a few minutes late) and quickly rounded the last corner before reaching 'The Death Staircase'.

'The Death Staircase' was the name given to the staircase that led down to the main entrance hallway for the dungeons. It was called this for two main reasons; One: no-body liked the dungeons, and Two: there was a surprising increase in the number of 'accidents' on this particular staircase, compared with others around the castle. The Marauders had named it thus three years ago when, in Fourth Year, a 6th Year Hufflepuff 'fell' from the very top down 6 stories and almost died.

The pair reached the top of the stairway and began running down them, taking the steps two at a time. "Oh Merlin! We're so late!" Lily moaned, as she and Alice ran down the various dungeon hallways looking for the right classroom (all the classrooms looked the same and no-one had thought to write the numbers on or above their doors).

"What does it matter if we're late?" Alice asked, clearly not stressing out as much as Lily was, "Professor Slughorn loves you; he'd never give you a detention." Alice argued, when Lily once again took up the approach of literally dragging her down the corridor after recognising the right classroom down the end of the hall and picking up speed in order to get their as fast as humanly possible (or faster, as Lily would have liked).

"True." Lily agreed, "But he might give you one." She argued back. Alice just glared at Lily in response, but she knew it was true.

Class had only been going for about 5 or 10 mins when the two girls finally broke through the door opening onto Potions Dungeon 3.

"Ah! Lily, so nice of you to join us, please, come sit." Professor Slughorn greeted her warmly, indicating a free seat at the very front of the desks. "We're brewing Draughts of Peace today, you should do just fine." Slughorn informed her, fully overlooking her tardiness and completely ignoring her companion, who had now taken a seat at the back of the class next to Mary Figgins, a 7th Year Ravenclaw. After Lily took her allocated seat Slughorn simply turned back to the board and continued his explanation to the class on exactly how to brew a Draught of Peace.

"About time you got here, I was getting worried," A slightly concerned James Potter informed Lily as she place her books on the desk and went about locating the appropriate page.

"How on Earth did you get down here so quickly? Alice and I came the fastest way and we left at least 5 minutes before you, and we didn't see you pass us on the way down here." Lily asked James, sounding a bizarre mix of confused, jealous and angry.

"I have my ways," James replied coyly, shrugging his shoulders tilting his head innocently to one side. This just made Lily scoff and vow to ignore him for the rest of the lesson, a task which became infinitely harder once Professor Slughorn announced:

"You'll be working in partners toady, pair up with the person sitting next to you."

James turned to Lily with a huge, silly grin spreading across his face, which Lily met kindly with a groan and a gentle wack on the head with one of the more threatening-looking potions textbooks.

"Ow!" James exclaimed, "What you do that for?" he asked angrily

"Oh please," Lily rolled her eyes, "That didn't hurt." At this James just winked at her, "Don't get cocky Potter, I'm only doing this cause I have to."

"Fine, fine, whatever you say." James agreed, "We're going to need some powdered moonstone, you should have that in your personal store, and some syrup of Hellebore, you'll find that in the cupboard." James began, "We're also gonna need some valerian roots, also in the cupboard." James rattled of 3 or 4 more ingredients, Lily nodding and 'mm-hm'-ing to each one, writing them all down on neat list to take with her into the cupboard to avoid having to take her whole potions book.

Lily returned several minutes later, after James had finished reading off the necessary ingredient for the recipe, her arms full of various jars and herbs and powders.

"Let get started shall we?" Lily suggested impatiently to James, who was currently leaning back on his chair, feet on the table, eyes closed and arms behind his head.

"Yes, let's," he relied half-heartedly, not moving or showing any indication that he would start working any time soon.

"Well…" Lily prompted, James still not moving, "Are you going to help me or not."

"Do you need me to help?" James asked, stressing the 'need' as an indication as to why he had not moved.

"No." Lily answered, "I'm sure I could do just as well, if not better, on my own."

"Do you want me to help?" He pressed further, trying to prove he was justified in remaining un-moving.

"No." Lily replied again,

"Then why should I help?" James asked rhetorically, "You'll do just fine on your own, and you don't even want me to. Ergo: I will not help. Everybody Wins!"

"You should help," Lily told him forcefully, as if the mere action of speaking to him was taxing and unpleasant, "because it's a partner thing, and you're my partner."

"Okay, okay, I'll help," James agreed, taking his feet off the table and sitting up in his chair, "But first:" James said, holding up his finger, before pausing for (intended) dramatic effect. Lily groaned; she found that these words were never followed by relevant, appropriate, wanted or even useful things. "Will you go out with me Lily?" James asked sincerely, looking deep into Lily's stunning green eyes, his own hazel ones reflected in the pupils by the dim, flickering lights of the dungeon ceiling. Lily held James' gaze for several minutes, briefly intoxicated by the overwhelming aroma of James' vanilla-scented aftershave, but broke it off quickly, shaking her head and looking to the front of the classroom and sighing.

"No Potter, I won't go out with you." She said slowing and deliberately, sounding almost as if she were exhausted by the question.

This was Lily's usual response to this question, which she was asked an awful lot by James Potter (who had been publically crushing on her for almost two years now). Sometime she responded with things such as; "I will never ever go out with you, you arrogant toe-rag", and "If you ask me that one more time I will curse you're head into oblivion". Other times she simply stalked off without a response or ignored it completely, acting as if she hadn't heard him. On one or two occasions she had even been known to slap him across the face before additionally refusing his proposal and continuing about her day as if it hadn't happened.

"Now can we please get to work Potter?" Lily asked James.

"Sure, sure." Replied James, brushing off Lily's cold refusal as if he had just asked her if she liked roast duck instead of something which some people would consider soul-crushing upon rejection.

The lesson continued much in this manner for the next hour and a half, as Lily work tirelessly away at the Draught of Peace, and James helped as little as possible (which he knew infuriated her to no end and would make it infinitely harder to get her to go out with him, her just liked messing with people sometimes).

By the end of the, exhausting, double-potions opener to the new school year, the 7th year students were all looking thoroughly dishevelled, but very few of the finished potions emitted the desired slivery vapour. Lily and James' was one of the few that appeared to have been brewed correctly.

Lily left the classroom as soon as they were dismissed by Professor Slughorn, who was (on the whole) rather impressed with the work of the day. No-one's potion bore a hole though the floor and everyone had retained both eyebrows by the end of class. Eager as she was to leave, Lily was first halted by Professor Slughorn's insistence to publically praise her and Severus Snape's perfect potions.

Once released Lily practically leapt to the back of the class, ushering Alice out as quickly as she could manage.

"In a hurry to get somewhere?" Alice asked Lily, quickly gathering up all her stuff before following Lily out of the classroom and back up The Death Staircase.

"Yes." Lily answered through clenched teeth, "Anywhere far enough away from Potter" she snarled as she said his name, "that I can't see him, hear him or talk to him."

"Something happen in class today?" Alice asked, confused at Lily's sudden shift from her normal, happy post-potions mood, to her sour James-triggered mood.

"Yes." Was all Lily answered, trying to walk as far away from the dungeons as she possible.

"You know the common room is that way." Alice told her, pointing back the direction they had just had just come from.

"What?" Lily asked, snapping out of her James-induced fury, lifting her head up from the ground which she had been intensely staring at the whole time since they left the Dungeons and looking around her. "Oh, right."

Lily loosened up a bit after that as she and Alice made their way down the right hallway, to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"So what did James do that's got you all hot and bothered?" Alice asked in her usual probing manner.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Lily answered, "We're you going to try out for Chaser again this year when Potter," she said the name with reluctance and a hint of anger, "organises trials?"

"Probably, I mean, Sydney Laurence from Fifth year has been practising, like, non-stop all summer apparently, and so I might not make the team, but I'll try." Alice sighed; she had been one of the three Gryffindor Chasers for three years now and was excellent but she hated the idea that someone else might take that from her.

"Don't worry." Lily reassured her, "You'll make it. You're amazing!" Alice just smiled.

"Don't forget we have the annual Gryffindor All-Out Truth-Or-Dare War tonight."Alice informed Lily importantly. Ever since Third Year, the first night at Hogwarts in a new year had been christened with, what Gracie had dubbed, an 'All-Out Truth-or-Dare War'. It usually involved awkward kisses, embarrassing stories, lots of firewhisky and a fake-gold plastic crown that James had engraved 'Truth or Dare King/Queen' on (yes he actually wrote a '/'), which was awarded to the person who the group,(James, Lily, Remus, Sirius, Gracie, Alice, Alex, Peter, Frank, Daniel and Marissa [basically; all of Gryffindor 7th Year minus Emma {who was "above such trivial, immature games"}]), agreed had played the best.

"That's on tonight?" She asked sarcastically, "Come on Alice, like I would forget?" She told her friend, "I hope Sirius can keep it to, at most, between a 15 and an 18 rating." Lily hoped earnestly. Sirius had a habit of introducing widely inappropriate topics, like who of their friend's parents would they shag and at what age did James start masturbating over Lily? (yes, he actually asked that [in that exact phrasing]). Needless to say James did not answer that particular question and Lily and James both tuned bright red. Failure to answer a question, fully, truthfully or at all resulted in immediate relocation to the box of shame (a large cardboard box Remus had charmed to be soundproof so that the person couldn't hear anything around them unless you were talking directly at them, but everyone else could hear you., so that they still had to play, but they couldn't listen to anybody else's responses. Also; there was no food or toilet, and the person was usually in there for several hours.).

Alice just shrugged, "I doubt it." To which Lily just shrugged back.

"You know, I honestly think that he just sits all summer in his room thinking up dirtier questions to ask." Lily proposed thoughtfully.

"I think he spends all summer having sex with random chicks and running around Diagon Alley setting off Firecrackers." Alice countered.

"On the topic of sex, but moving away from Sirius," Lily proposed, "Since you guys grilled me on the train about Potter," Lily still couldn't seem to say his name without growling, "I now get to grill you." Alice rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at Lily.

"What do you want to know?" She asked.

"Any boys in your life?" She inquired like the boy-crazy teenage she was underneath her hard James-hating exterior.

"No."

"Alice, I've known you since we were eleven." Lily argued, picking up on Alice's obvious (to Lily anyway) lie.

"Fine, I'm kinda crushing on Frank." She admitted.

"Frank Longbottom?" Lily asked, sounding slightly shocked. "From Gryffindor?" she asked dumbfounded.

"Do we know any other Frank Longbottom's" Alice replied.

"Oh Merlin!" Lily exclaimed looking down at her bare hands.

"What?" An utterly confused Alice asked, concerned for her friends.

"I left my books in the Dungeon." Lily explained, looking wistfully down the long corridor before sighing and beginning making her way all the way back to Dungeon 3. "Oh. And by the way," Lily called back to Alice, "Don't think I've forgotten about Frank."

Lily was about halfway to the Dungeons when she ran smack-bam into another student.

"Oompf." Lily groaned, I don't have time for this she thought, I'm not gonna have time to do any of my Potions homework before lunch as it is, I don't want to be late for lunch as well.

"Oh, Sorry Lily." Came the voice of Severus Snape, who was frantically picking up the books he had dropped when he ran into Lily.

"Oh Severus!" Lily exclaimed, "It's you." She smiled at him, before suddenly remembering why she didn't talk to him anymore and then frowning at him. "What do you want?"

"You were the one who crashed into me." Snape pointed out.

Lily just rolled her eyes and started walking off to the Dungeons.

"Wait Lily!" Snape called after her, holding onto her arm and pulling her back towards him.

"Let go of me Sev." She protested. It was funny how, after everything that had happened, Lily still called him Sev, like nothing had changed, like they were still eleven and he was still the little boy who told her she was a witch. But he's told her other things since then, called her other things, done other things, and now she avoids him. But she just can't seem to shake that nickname.

"Lily, please listen." Snap begged, Lily still struggling against his arm. For a somewhat nerdy Slytherin he sure had a strong grip. Maybe it's all that potion stirring? Lily wondered to herself.

"Let me go Sev!" Lily yelled.

"Just stop struggling and listen to me, please Lil" Snape pleaded,

"Let Her Go!" A voice shouted from a doorway just down the corridor Lily and Snape were standing in the middle of.

James Potter to the rescue! Yeah right,

"Go away Potter, I don't need you and I certainly don't want to." Lily told him, not looking at him, but continuing to struggle.

"Yeah Potter, Lil and I are fine." Snape added.

"We are not fine." Lily told Snape sharply, "But I don't need your help either." She told James equally as sharply.

Snape had still not let go of Lily so James ignored Lily's refusal of his help and walk angrily up to Snape anyway, pulling him off Lily and shoving him off against the wall.

Snape accepted defeat and walked off toward the Slytherin common room.

James walked over to Lily, holding her in his arms and looking into her bright green eyes. "Are you okay?" He asked, seriously concerned, "Did he hurt you."

For a moment Lily looked up at James and was momentarily caught by the same look that had temporarily paralysed her back in class, but Lily soon shot back to reality and ran off to the Dungeon leaving a concerned, confused and probably hurt James Potter stranded in the middle of an abandoned hallway.

Lily grabbed her books quickly and raced up to the common room, running straight up to the 7th Year Girls Dormitory and avoiding James completely.


R + R ?

Would really appreciate some feedback! will try to post quicker now. More on the way!

xx Merryn