Filch turned out to be the name of the caretaker, as they found on the detention slips they received by owl at breakfast the next morning. Getting post by owl was in many ways deeply exciting. The fact that it was a detention slip was considerably less exciting, but it did rather lessen the blow to an extent. At least that meant they would get to experience a magical detention at least once, Lily thought in an attempt to be optimistic. She also rather hoped that it would be the last detention she had for a while, ideally the entirety of her time at Hogwarts.
Their second day of classes involved actual spellwork, which was incredibly exciting for both Severus and Lily. They had both done magic before, and had read parts of their textbooks in eager preparation for their classes, but actually performing proper spells was different from the unpredictable nature of their accidental magic and obviously seeing the results were a world away from reading about how to flick your wand correctly.
Lily was extra careful to behave, which was not something she found difficult as such, but Potter and Black did not make it easy. She was glad that outside of class she was always a decent distance away from them, given that they ate at opposite ends of the Great Hall and were assigned to completely different Common Rooms. The separation into Houses also meant that with the exception of those two Gryffindors she, along with Severus, had in effect not exchanged a single word with anyone outside of Slytherin. Lily had also not exchanged many words with anyone in Slytherin, except Severus, but he didn't really count as far as she was concerned. She was extremely grateful that she had him, but talking to him didn't constitute a new friendship seeing as they'd been best friends for years. It was rather like comparing a pet hamster to a herd of wild deer, a comparison she wisely chose not to share with Severus. She wasn't convinced that he would be flattered to hear himself described as her pet hamster. In all fairness, he wasn't very hamster-like, mainly because he was far too skittish and liable to bite. He was more like some kind of strange wild animal that she alone had managed to tame, though once again she wisely chose not to tell him this.
She had managed to have the briefest of conversations with one girl in her dormitory, called Madeleine Hardbroom. Madeleine had a permanently frazzled look about her, which only seemed to increase when Lily had tried to talk to her. Unfortunately, not only had the conversation been incredibly short and lacking in substance, but Lily had also had the distinct impression that Madeleine had been unwilling to talk to her at all and was only prevented from escaping the conversation any earlier by impeccable manners. She had no idea if Severus had had more luck with the boys in their year, but she rather suspected not given that he appeared to be avoiding them in favour of spending as much time as was physically possible with her. She wasn't objecting to this as she was also keen to spend time with him. It was nice to have something comfortingly familiar in a strange new place, especially seeing as it seemed to be faintly unwelcoming. She wondered if it was harder for any other first years, who hadn't been lucky enough to go to Hogwarts with their neighbourhood best friend, but she also assumed that to virtually everyone else the magical world wasn't particularly new or interesting.
Lily and Severus found after approximately five minutes into their first Defence Against the Dark Arts class that they agreed with what the older Slytherins had thought about the chances of the teacher lasting the entire year. He didn't seem like he would be able to defend himself against anything, including a class of untrained eleven year olds. Given that the class, as all children can, could smell blood, they for the most part ignored his attempts at teaching. Lily and Severus struggled resolutely, despite the very animated discussion about the Quidditch season that was going on amongst the majority of the class, to pay attention to their teacher's almost hesitant lecture. They hadn't even been able to catch his name, either because he had muttered it to quietly for them to hear or, as was equally possible, he may simply not have bothered mentioning it.
Their notes consisted mainly of making confused annotations with question marks in their textbooks, constantly glancing across at each other's textbook to see if they were different. An awful lot of what their teacher was telling them, from what they could make out, contradicted the claims in their books. Had it just been Severus's book that contained different information they might have put it down to it being second hand and therefore out of date, but Lily's book had been bought new recently enough that she hoped it was correct. It was the textbook the school had instructed her to buy, so it made sense that it would contain the correct information. But it also made no sense that their teacher was wrong, so they both marked down the contradictory information with the resigned acceptance that they would have to locate the library and figure out from the resources there what to trust. One piece of information that he mumbled incoherently, regarding the kappa, was different from what was in both their books, which also contained vastly contradictory information, so they made sure to note down all three possibilities, underlined and accompanied by many question marks.
Luckily they did not do any practical spellwork, which was disappointing in a way but also meant that the class did not lock the teacher in the cupboard which Severus whispered seemed likely. He had been to a rougher primary school that her, so she assumed he had plenty of experience with that sort of thing and so trusted his judgement in these matters.
Lily realised she could probably throw pretty much anything her heart desired at the Gryffindor boys without being punished, but she felt no particular desire to do so. She giggled slightly as she imagined Severus's reaction to her throwing the chair she was sitting on at Potter, which resulted in him giving her a curious and slightly alarmed look. Admittedly, the topic that their teacher seemed to be talking about was either the ways in which the kappa killed people or maybe the ways in which the kappa could be killed, it was a little hard to tell, so Lily's amusement was rather strange without the context of her inner thoughts.
"Nothing," she said breezily, not concerned about talking in this class. If anything the only worry with talking to Severus was that he might not be able to hear her over the din behind them. Lily didn't know what Quidditch was, but she found that she didn't particularly care. He nodded in acceptance, letting it slide.
By contrast, their Transfiguration teacher was clearly not a woman to be crossed. She gave her name clearly in a voice that carried strongly as Professor McGonagall. She was the youngest teacher they'd had so far at Hogwarts, which given that one of their teachers had been a ghost wasn't necessarily a great comparison, but it was obvious from the first lesson that she was a strict disciplinarian. She taught clearly, enabling Lily and Severus to make clear notes. She also demonstrated to them that along with detention and losing points, there were other methods of punishment available to their teachers, much like there would be at any school.
While some of the other teachers had allowed for a small amount of levity in their classrooms, some through careful control and some through their clear inability to control their classes, she did not. This became apparent quite quickly when, after a boisterous Defence class, Black had continued joking around with Potter in Transfiguration. As punishment, she had delivered a couple of sharp lashes with a simple strip of leather to his palm. It had ensured the rest of the class was silent. It didn't seem to do much to dampen Black's spirits, though it did appear to quieten his tongue somewhat.
Lily and Severus exchanged looks, both glad that they had only received detention the day before and also somewhat dreading what detention might entail. There were no real guarantees that it would be any better or worse than the belt. Given that it was a castle with dungeons, it was entirely possible that detention involved some form of medieval torture such as being suspended by manacles. They had already figured out that while losing points was undoubtably the easiest punishment to receive on a personal level, it was also the one that was most likely to make them unpopular with their House.
Why anyone would want to do anything other than pay enraptured attention to their teacher followed by completely focusing on the spell they were practising was beyond Lily. Severus appeared to be in complete agreement with her, and they were both delighted when they successfully transfigured their egg cup into a small goblet. It was a glorious start, and they were both looking forward with a vibrating impatience to the later chapters of their textbook when they would be able to move on to more complicated spells like changing pincushions into hedgehogs.
As a consequence of the day, they spent a certain amount of Friday evening sitting on the floor in a corner of the Common Room, wondering what a magical detention could be like. The corner was nicely isolated from the rest of the room, as it appeared few other House members were willing to sit on the floor, and it gave them a gorgeous view through the windows into the depths of the lake. Sitting there gazing at the blue-green waters swirling in front of their eyes, it was easy to be charmed by the glory of the magical world regardless of the topic of discussion.
They hadn't had detentions at their primary schools, so all they had to go off were the tales that Petunia had told Lily. Petunia had obviously never had a detention in her life, as she had repeatedly told Lily rather smugly, but she had heard tales. They wondered how different it would be in a magical school. Both of them were glad that they had only received detention rather than a caning. McGonagall had used the belt herself, physically, but they both wondered if there were other, magical methods of striking children that the teachers might use. Logically it made sense that there would be, but neither of them were particularly keen to experiment with bad behaviour to discover what they might be.
"It's not like it were that bad," Severus pointed out, "It were just a knob of ginger…"
Lily sighed, fiddling with her detention slip, "I'm sorry though, I got us both in trouble,"
Severus was silent for a moment, watching a fish swim lazily around the dark green waters.
"I wish you'd used beetle eyes or something." He said suddenly, a slightly malicious tone flashing through his voice, "Then it would have splattered all over their faces…"
"Then it's your fault for not handing me beetle eyes," Lily said with a snort, looking up at him with a wicked grin as she likewise imagined the considerably more dramatic reaction that she would have received had she thrown something gooey. The beetle eyes would no doubt have splattered not only all over Potter's face and glasses, but also some would have hit Black too. A handful of beetle eyes would have been harder to aim with though, and there was a good chance that Slughorn would have been angrier with her.
Severus gave her a wounded look. As accusations went, it was a rather unfair one Lily had to admit.
"Don't tell Petunia," she asked him quietly and he gave her an incredulous look. It was a sudden change of subject, and one that he struggled to understand fully.
"She'll tease me," Lily implored miserable, well aware that her sister would definitely disapprove of her not only misbehaving but being given a detention so quickly.
"When would I have a chance to? We don't speak?" Severus said with a hint of annoyance. He and Petunia shared a mutual dislike, so they rarely spoke outside of a few passing words mainly focused around Lily. Lily didn't seem comforted by his logic however, so he reassured her with a sighing, "I won't tell her, ever,"
When Saturday morning came, they met in the Common Room fully dressed in their uniform black robes, determined to not be late for their first detention. They walked carefully along the corridors following a rough map that they had been sent along with their detention slip, both a little nervous. Lily was infinitely grateful that Severus had been given detention along with her, despite realising that it was unfair. She felt a little bad, but not bad enough to have in any way protested. She didn't want to be suspended from her ankles and whipped with a cat-o-nine-tails alone. Admittedly, she didn't think that was particularly likely, given that they had been sent to the caretaker rather than some kind of punishment or torture master. She wasn't sure if one of them existed.
"Sorry," Lily said, in what was possibly not the most sincere tone of voice she had ever used, "But I am really really glad you're here with me,"
Severus gave her a long suffering look. He didn't seem to be overly enthusiastic about the awaiting detention, though he like her had not protested against his punishment. The wounded looks he had given her did not count, as far as Lily was concerned.
The caretaker's office was dingy, though given the lighting in the school a lot of places were dingy. There was no electricity, Lily and Severus had been fascinated to realise, with everything being lit either by the sunlight through the windows or by candles. A lot of the candles floated in the air, and Lily had been so surprised by that realisation earlier in the morning that she had stopped dead in the corridors on the way to Transfiguration, causing Madeleine to walk into her, knocking them both over. Severus had turned round to see what had happened to her, having realised that his conversation partner had vanished, meaning that he had collided with one of the Gryffindor boys that Lily thought was called Petti-something and Severus had thought was a Hufflepuff. This had earned them all the exasperated glare of the prefect shepherding the Slytherin first years, though luckily no punishment except the indignity of having to scrabble around on the floor for their books.
The caretaker, a relatively young man compared to the average age of the Hogwarts staff, looked like he suited dingy places though. He reminded Lily somewhat of a mushroom, in that there was an air about him that suggested that he belonged in damp corners and might possibly be poisonous. He squinted at them in the insufficient light of the room, holding the detention slips they nervously presented him with up to best catch the sunlight that trickled in weakly through the window. As far as they could see, there were no floating candles in the office. Lily wasn't sure what it was that the wizarding world had against lighting, but she also accepted that it may well be the case that the caretaker had been lighting his office in some alternative magical manner she couldn't comprehend until they had knocked on his door. Lily smiled brightly at him, opting to be as cheerful as she possibly could be about the upcoming punishment. She hoped it wouldn't be too unpleasant. Severus, by contrast, was settling for stoic reluctance. He wasn't smiling, but neither was he glaring. He was simply standing beside her, waiting. He was probably more used to punishments than Lily, she realised, feeling slightly guilty once more for accidentally getting him involved.
Filch handed them each a variety of cleaning supplies and led them in what Lily suspected wasn't the most direct manner through the twisting and confusing corridors of the castle to a room that was at best dimly lit. The sole light source was the window, through which sunlight was not exactly streaming in as they were clearly on the wrong side of the castle to catch the morning light. There were a number of candle holders attached to the walls, like there were in a number of the classrooms and corridors in addition to the considerably more interesting floating ones. Filch walked round the room, lighting each one individually. To both Lily and Severus's deep disappointment he did this with matches rather than a grand flourish of magic. Neither of them found matches to be particularly interesting given that they were perfectly common in the muggle world.
"Polish the trophies," he said gruffly, the first words he had spoken to them, gesturing towards the assorted cleaning supplies they had brought with them. Lily and Severus nodded their understanding, rummaging through the supplies. They seemed relatively clearly labelled, even if the brands were all entirely different from the ones they were used to.
Quietly, they set about the task of carefully polishing the various trophies. A lot of them seemed to be Quidditch related, though given that the lighting was poor due to the candles being stationary and attached to the walls, it was hard to be entirely certain. It also made judging whether or not they were adequately polished to be a difficult task. Lily quickly realised that while Severus was perfectly capable of the mechanics and hard work involved with cleaning, his judgement in the matter was limited. She personally agreed with his assessment that it was ultimately irrelevant how much some trophies shut up in a remote room of the castle shone, and that the entire concept was utterly facetious, but she had at the very least grown up with her mother who polished the brass in their house every week so between the two of them they were able to produce some extremely shiny trophies. Or at least, they looked shiny in the dimly reflected flickering candle light. In proper electrical lighting or a direct hit from the sun, chances were that the trophies would look dusty, smeared and old. One of them was actually quite badly dented when Lily started polishing it, so she had very gently given it a cursory wipe with her rag and swiftly moved on to the next one in the hope that no one would notice, or more importantly, that she wouldn't be the one to receive the blame.
Severus had of course scratched his head part way through their cleaning session, smearing grimy dirt and cleaning fluid all the way through his hair. Lily had wrinkled her nose at this, but he'd just wrinkled his back. He had more nose to wrinkle with, so by Lily's logic he won.
"You've got grot on your face," he told her, which she accepted made perfect sense. It was hard to clean without touching yourself, and she had paused half way through to tie her hair back, which had presumably added a certain element of grime to her plait.
She made a unimpressed rasping noise at the back of her throat to properly express her displeasure, before commenting, "We'll both have to have a proper shower after this. I think I have dust in my eyes and nose…"
Severus looked glum but accepting of the truth of her words, rubbing at his own eyes and smearing a further trail of grime across his face. He froze, clearly realising moments after having done so the consequences of his actions before sighing in sad resignation. Lily giggled, before sneezing as she inhaled some stray dust.
With a reluctant sigh, they returned to their task, though they continued to share amused glances with each other as they noted the growing amount of dirt that was clearly transferring from the presumably rarely visited trophies onto them. As Filch was mostly leaving them to their own devices to focus on his own cleaning, which was disappointingly also by means of the muggle method of mopping, they felt somewhat relaxed. There was something similar to their playing in the scrublands and river banks of Cokeworth, where they would regularly get covered in mud and dirt. Reminded of this, when Lily accidentally managed to wrap an entire spider's web round her hand, she did as she would have done had they been playing amongst the nettles of Cokeworth and smeared it on Severus's face. He gave her an unimpressed look, wiping it off as best he could and smearing the remnants through her hair. They both stuck their tongues out at each other, though it was only Severus who consequently ended up spluttering as he got some old spiderweb in his mouth.
When they had finished their polishing, they stood proudly in front on Filch, who gave them a faintly horrified look.
"The point of cleaning," he said in a slightly strangled voice, "Is not actually to transfer all the dirt onto yourself…"
This demonstrated that he was clearly a lot more familiar with the concept of cleaning than he was with children. His pained expression reminded Lily of the look she tended to receive from her mother whenever she returned home covered from head to toe in mud after a fantastic day of playing outside with Severus. Her mother would always fuss about Lily traipsing dirt all over the house and sigh in reluctant amazement at the sheer quantity of filth that Lily had managed to cover herself in. Admittedly the time they went to the quarry she and Severus had rolled down a mud hill multiple times, shrieking with delight, but normally dirt just seemed to appear as if by magic. She never really noticed it until her mother caught her entering the house and invariably made her strip the worst of her clothes off in the porch.
"We won't get it anywhere else!" she reassured him brightly, hoping that he wouldn't hose them down as her mother had often threatened to do, "We'll go have a shower immediately without touching anything!"
Severus nodded his agreement furiously, an action that actually disturbed a small amount of the dust caught in his hair, but luckily Filch either didn't notice or didn't mind.
Filch looked at them suspiciously, before walking round the trophy room to inspect their work. They watched closely, hopeful for a show of magic, but he merely peered at the shelves in the dim light. They waited nervously, dust tickling their nostrils, but he merely nodded in acceptance at their work and blew out the candles fastened to the walls. They imagined that could have been done with a wave of his wand, but he hadn't even drawn his. They both assumed he must be a wizard, but in a way it was a decent punishment to make them clean in the muggle method without even showing them a hint of magical cleaning. That would have been exciting enough to overrule any suggestion of punishment. Maybe, Lily ruminated as they gathered up the cleaning supplies, he had chosen to make their punishment so very muggle because they had grown up in the muggle world, thereby ensuring that it would be in no way exciting.
Arms once again full of an assortment of now dirty rags, they waited for him to guide them back to the caretaker's office, from where they would probably be able to navigate their way back to the Common Room. Filch gave them a briefly confused look as they stood waiting for him, before shrugging and leading them through the school. Lily was convinced that it was a different route to the one they had taken to get to the trophy room, meaning that had Filch abandoned them they would no doubt have been hopelessly lost. Severus was a bit better at remembering routes than her, probably because he had been walking himself to school for years so he had been far more accustomed to exploring. Lily had always been a little envious of the way in which his parents left him to his own devices so much. It was only relatively recently that her parents had begun allowing her out without some form of accompaniment, possibly in part due to the fact that she and Severus had generally given Petunia the slip anyway, thereby wearing down her parents' objections.
After returning the cleaning supplies to their assigned place, Lily and Severus chorused "Thank you Mr Filch," to the slightly bemused looking caretaker who gruffly dismissed them with a cross between a warning and a plea to not spread the dirt they had covered themselves with around the school. Consequently, they walked very carefully back towards the Slytherin Common Room, doing their best not to shed too much dust or cobwebs in the corridors.