A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews! Here is chapter two, as promised.
♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠
Chapter Two- A Confusion of Debris
There was a nagging feeling at the back of Lily's mind and it was taking the entirety of her concentration to keep it there. She truly disliked being wrong. This is absurd. You are not wrong. Besides, you cannot even remember being anything other than an Ausculto, can you? She groaned aloud, believing herself mad. Lily looked away from the book in front of her and focused her eyes on a bookshelf on the other side of the library.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Head Mudblood," she heard a cool voice sneer behind her, knowing without looking that it was Lucius Malfoy. That boy could freeze ice with a simple glance, yet he only seemed to encourage fieriness in Lily. She grumbled something under her breath, swallowed, and stated calmly to the page in front of her, "Malfoy, I suggest you complete whatever business you have here and leave, or I will be obligated to take House points."
"Oh, don't worry, Evans. I will be taking care of business this year."
Lily managed to keep her mouth closed as he swept past her, Severus Snape slithering along behind him, out the doors of the library.
She heard a commotion off to her left and glanced up again, sighing as she wondered if she would ever get any work done.
"I can't believe-"
"What was he thinking? We would have won this year!"
Sirius Black and James Potter were currently engaged in a loud banter. Madame Pince hushed them swiftly, and with only slightly softer voices, they continued their conversation.
Fed up with the continuous intrusions on her peace, Lily stood up abruptly, clasping a couple of books to her chest and leaving the others on the table, presumably for later. Her stomach gave an audible rumble, and after leaving the library, her feet turned in the direction of the Great Hall. She had left Selene and Kristen sleeping in their dorm earlier that day, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed for the library. Determined as she was to do an excessively brilliant job on this essay, Lily had been searching for books on the Cavillors for an hour or so. Somehow she felt that she had not quite found what she needed yet.
She entered the Great Hall and glanced around. Selene and Kristen were seated at the Ausculto table, as expected. Lily took a peek in the direction of the Cavillor table, noticing that Potter's other two friends were piling their plates. She did not fail to feel the cold glare sent by Malfoy from his place at the Slytherin table – the only House table left.
"Hello, Lily," Kristen greeted, taking a small bite out of her buttered toast.
Selene, who had been concentrating solely on her food, looked up. She grinned, her mouth full of food. Lily shook her head as she grabbed the orange juice.
"Did you see the announcement, Lily?" Selene was scowling unpleasantly, her blue eyes intense.
"Huh?"
"Dumbledore has officially called off quidditch this year! Because the Houses are not united. Why this year all of a sudden?" She grumbled and grabbed her drink, "So much for my plans to take the team away from the Cavillors."
It suddenly dawned on Lily what the Cavillor boys had been discussing…of course. James was a rather brilliant quidditch player, actually, but she refused to say it aloud.
Kristen smiled sympathetically at Selene, although she herself had never played quidditch. Lily would have liked to, as she enjoyed the feeling of the air rushing past her, but the Gryffindor team had been in the hands of the Cavillors since the groups began in their second year. Nothing had changed.
"I had a run-in with a Cavillor this morning," Kristen grumbled, suddenly looking cross. Her brown eyes flashed with annoyance.
Selene flipped her long black hair from her eyes and said, "Who do you want me to hex?"
Kristen smiled wryly. "No need to get detention so early in the year, Selene. No, I'm fine. Lupin is just a-an-"
"Arsehole?" Lily offered.
"Yes, I suppose that works," Kristen drifted off into silence, and Lily was left to listen to Selene's ranting with a slight smile on her face. Even if she had to work closely with a Cavillor this year, she intended to have some enjoyment in life.
♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠
After consuming a rather large lunch, Lily retreated to the library for a second time. Their first class that day was not until the late afternoon; potions again. Not only had she never been terribly fond of the subject, despite her good marks, but she had that class with the Slytherins in addition to several Gryffindor Cavillors. She would have rather shared the class with Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff Auscultos, but it was not to be.
Thus she found herself slightly harried as she dropped her quill and ink onto the same table from earlier and set off to search the bookshelves for whatever it was she was lacking. She scanned titles swiftly…A History of Hogwarts…Magical Disputes…There, this one will do… Cavillors and Auscultos. She reached up to take it from the shelf and found that there was someone taking it from the other side. Their hands brushed, and she jumped away, her eyes peering over the rim of the book to see a pair of chocolate brown eyes staring back in surprise. Their eyes locked for what felt like hours, as they both seemed to realize who they were watching. There was nothing fantastical about it; Lily could feel tangible enmity, although something else was mixed in.
James's voice, finally interrupting the silence, startled Lily. "Go on, just take it, Ausculto." It sounded almost…inadvertently considerate. She was not quite sure to say, but found that she would not need to respond.
"Back so soon, Mudblood?" Malfoy stepped behind her, and she could feel his presence. She opened her mouth to tell him to leave, but noticed that the pair of brown eyes had disappeared from the bookshelf. She frowned in confusion.
Another body came up beside her, and she heard James's voice. "Leave her alone, Malfoy. You are not wanted here. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Go slither along with your worthless friends," he glowered, and Lily suddenly realized that Potter could be nearly as icy as the Slytherin.
Malfoy sneered one last time, indicating that this feud was not over; it never was. He vacated their presence as quickly as he had come.
Lily frowned again, whipping around in surprise, the silent question on her face.
"We do have some common enemies, you know," James stated with relatively no emotion in his voice. He handed her the book silently and disappeared. She ran her fingers along the spine of the book and realized that she could not have said it better herself. She really was going mad. She glanced down at this book in her hands and realized that she had found that elusive piece of research she had been searching for.
♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠
Firelight sparkled in Lily's emerald eyes as she lost herself in the common room fire; for a September day, it was rather chilly. She reached behind her, gathered up her long auburn hair, and slid a quill through to keep the bun in place. Without moving her eyes away, she said out of the corner of her mouth, "What time is it?"
Kristen rustled about for a moment and then answered, "Almost time for class. You should probably run up to the dorm and grab your things."
"Alright, thanks," Lily finally managed to tear her eyes from the flames, and found Selene gazing at her oddly.
"Okay there, Lily?" She appeared concerned.
Lily smiled reassuringly, "Just a bit tired."
"Well that's your punishment for getting out of bed so early," Selene grinned, and Lily shrugged. She grabbed her parchment, upon which she had begun to write her essay for Dumbledore, and headed for the winding stairs.
She had not discussed her library encounter with her friends, nor did she intend to any time soon. She wasn't sure what she would say. That James Potter had been almost nice to her? It was impossible, and yet she knew it had happened. The whole event seemed rather cliché, and Lily seriously disliked clichés.
As she passed a group of Cavillors just before the stairs, she felt a pair of eyes follow her movement, and she frowned further. Surely he did not think his behavior was normal. What had possessed her to swallow her scathing comments and actually be less than menacing towards him? She was feeling slightly disturbed by the truth of what she had read the night before; the groups were only reinforcing Voldemort's wishes. Surely, however, this did not mean that she should be nice to Potter. No, and he could not have read the same thing, and therefore had no right nor reason to be nice to her.
She waved it from her mind with the resolution that it was a one-time occurrence; a lapse of judgment of both of their parts. She threw open the door to her dorm, dropped the parchment on her bed, and grabbed her potions essentials before turning away and descending the stairs more quickly than she had come up.
♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠
James Potter laughed hollowly at something Sirius said. It really was a shame that his sometimes four-legged friend was rather bright, because he picked up on James's lack of enthusiasm almost immediately.
"What's wrong, Prongs?"
James sighed. He wasn't up for sharing. He wasn't sure there was anything to share. "Nothing at all, Padfoot. I was only distracted by those girls over there, who happen to be looking at us. Whatever shall we do about it?" He ruffled his hair and gave said girls a lopsided grin; a sure-to-win bet.
Remus Lupin shook his head as he watched two of his best friends approach the group of giggling seventh-year Cavillors. He suspected that James would not have trouble getting a single date in his life, and Sirius was even more adept, to say the least.
For once, the werewolf was glad not to be either of them as one of Lily's friends, the one with blonde hair who had confronted him earlier that day, sent the two boys a hateful glance. Remus watched as the other, black-haired girl turned to see what her friend was looking at. That one looked conniving, he thought, and turned away before they spotted him.
Letting out a sigh of weariness, he turned to Peter. "Ready to go to Potions, mate?"
Peter glanced up, blinked, and nodded. The two boys set about gathering their things, and waited while James and Sirius said their dramatic, if temporary, goodbyes.
♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠
When Lily passed through the common room a second time, Selene and Kristen were standing and staring at the other side of the room. She followed their line of sight and scowled. James Potter was praising himself in front of a group of spellbound girls; his specialty. It wasn't until a moment later that she realized that his friend, Sirius something, was with him. This settled any questions she may have had before; he really was too full of himself to spare a thought for the rest of humanity.
"Come on," she said to her friends, pulling them away. Selene grumbled something, but Kristen followed with simply a sigh.
They arrived in the dungeons to be greeted by moderate chaos; it appeared that the Slytherins were having a rather lively argument with a couple of the other students.
Professor Jenkins strode through right behind Lily and her friends, and stopped at his desk. "Silence!" His voice was more sprawling and boring than authoritative, and the Slytherins continued their yelling.
Lily rubbed at her head; her headache was returning. "OH, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, SHUT UP!" She almost didn't realize that it had been her voice until everyone turned to stare at her. Potter and his Cavillor friends squeezed inside the room and Lily saw the nasty scowl he sent her way, while his friend Sirius was pretending to check her out. She frowned and felt Selene grab her arm gently.
"Er- let's just sit down."
Lily silently agreed, wondering what had set her off so suddenly, apart from the headache. No matter, everyone was quiet now.
"Right," Jenkins addressed the class, "today we shall be making a Refragatio potion for magic; meaning that whatever object we apply this potion to will resist magic."
Lily was sure that he continued lecturing, but she felt her mind slipping away. At one point, she laid her forehead in her palm and allowed her eyes to slip closed.
She heard Kristen whisper from beside her, "I don't know how you got Head Girl if you refuse to stay awake in class."
Lily shrugged. "You know I hate potions. And I always said you should have gotten Head Girl over me."
"Well there was a reason Dumbledore picked you."
Lily was about to respond when Professor Jenkins announced, "Well! Get your cauldrons out and heated, I want this potion finished by the end of class!"
Lily groaned, causing Kristen to shake her head and smile. "Just go grab the everte twigs, will you?"
The redhead nodded, and just as she was about to climb out of her seat, a deep rumbling began all around them. Lily froze, her gaze traveling upward as she felt a few specks of dust hit her face. She frowned and jumped out of the way, pulling Kristen with her. A large section of the ceiling collapsed into their cauldron, shattering into several pieces with a sharp noise.
"Um…" Kristen gazed dumbly at the mess. "What?"
Lily grabbed her friend's arm. "What the hell?"
The rumbling began again, this time a little further to the left. Selene shoved her Cavillor potions partner out of the way, and both of them narrowly missed the next part of the ceiling to fall.
A loud boom sounded from the other end of the room, and finally the professor spoke. "Everybody take cover!"
"Thank you for that bit of insight," Lily heard James mumble from their left. She gave him a funny look which he caught just before glancing over at Remus Lupin, who was digging underneath the rubble for something.
Selene motioned for Lily and Kristen to follow her, and the three of them hid beneath several cupboards in the back.
Lily glanced around and spotted Sirius mouthing to Potter something that looked suspiciously like, "It worked," and she noticed them share a grin. Frowning, she saw Lupin pull whatever he had been looking for out of the rubble. A crumpled piece of parchment? Lily snorted, they're all mad.
"Ahem," the students froze as they heard the loud and surprisingly calm voice above them, "this is Professor Dumbledore." A few more pieces of the ceiling caved in, and Lily thought she could barely make out the blue robes of their headmaster. "We are currently working to fix this dilemma, but it seems that magic is not working on the situation, so we shall resort to Muggle ways of…digging you out, so to speak."
Lily detected McGonagall's voice from just above her, "Whoever is responsible for this shall be punished severely!"
"Of course…when have we not been punished severely?" Potter smirked and ruffled his hair.
Lily frowned and pursed her lips.
"How ironic," Kristen said.
Selene was gazing at the ceiling. "What?"
"Well, it was the Refragatio potion."
"Oh…but we hadn't made it yet."
"Perhaps not, but Snape was already working on it when while Jenkins was still talking," Kristen indicated the greasy-haired Severus, who was hovering over his cauldron, looking relieved that the contents were okay. He seemed not to realize that his finished project was preventing them from exiting the dungeon by magic.
Lily sighed, and then felt a tinge of anger as she glanced at the four Cavillors, who were obviously pleased with themselves. She felt her face heat as the seventh-year Cavillor girls Potter had been talking up earlier approached the boys. I have things to do tonight, and Potter dares waste everybody else's time so that he can canoodle with silly girls with no brains.
She crawled out from where they had been sitting and glanced around. It appeared that everything that was going to fall was already on the floor, conveniently blocking all of the entrances. Her face hot, she walked up to James.
"How dare you," she hissed.
"What?" He glanced up innocently, and the girls standing around them gave her a quick once-over.
"What?" She asked mockingly. "How can you even wonder? You think it's okay to waste my time with your immaturity, don't you? I have bloody plans for tonight, Potter!"
"Plans for what, Evans? Plans to make out with a book? Or perhaps you really are a whore?"
She was so surprised that he could be so cruel that her mouth fell open. She was thankful for Selene's sudden appearance at her side. "If you dare insult Lily again, I swear to everything holy that-"
"If you're quite finished, I require assistance in my stock room, as everything is now mixed up on the floor," Jenkins interrupted Selene with a pointed look.
The raven-haired girl scowled, slapped James, and followed Jenkins. Lily stood off to the side, watching in disgust as the girls fawned over the handprint appearing on James's face.
Lily was almost surprised that Jenkins had not said anything to Selene, but then remembered that the potions master had no backbone. Nor do I, it seems. She bit her lip and followed Selene and Kristen into the stock room. I should have said something back...how dare he insult me. He barely knows my name, let alone anything personal…She shook her head, refusing to let this bother her any further.
The three Auscultos arrived in the storeroom and half-listened to Jenkins's instructions, before he disappeared and left them to do all the work.
"Hell if I'm doing all that," Selene grumbled, grabbing a few jars of something and throwing them on the shelf.
Lily sighed and rubbed her eyes, which felt like someone had thrown a handful of dust at her face. She felt Kristen nudge her and give her a small smile, which she slowly returned. "I'm sorry," Kristen said softly.
"For what? You've never done anything wrong."
"I know. I'm just sorry." Kristen shrugged and then looked over Lily's shoulder, where James Potter was striding towards them quickly.
Selene noticed as well, and made a move towards Lily, but the Head Girl held up a hand, "No, I'll handle it this time. He's going to think I can't handle insults, but I'll insult him back."
Selene nodded, and Kristen went to go help her place jars of yellowish liquids back on their shelves on the opposite side of the room.
James entered the storeroom a moment later. "You want to make this difficult, Evans? It was already bloody difficult enough, but if you're going to randomly insult me, this is going to be much harder for you."
Lily grimaced. "How can it possibly be harder for me? You're insufferable whether or not I confront you. I've only talked to you a few times and I already can't stand you. I hate you, Potter. And not because you're a Cavillor; I hate you as a person."
"How can you make that judgment, with the conversations we've had? I've barely said five words to you at a time, and believe me, that was intentional." James's brown eyes turned darker and he glanced up as the ceiling rumbled.
Lily noticed and refused to step out of the way, instead backing into the corner. This proved a very bad decision, she realized a moment later, as the rubble that fell surrounded them. She found herself enclosed in the corner she had chosen, with James Potter standing only a couple of feet away, the debris having only missed the tail of his robe by a few inches.
James glanced around in surprise, and then shoved a hand through his hair as he turned back to face Lily. She brushed dirt from her robes and tried to appear unfazed.
There was rustling from the other side of the wall of dust and stone, and she heard Selene say, "Bloody hell, are you okay in there, Lily?" She ignored her friend for a moment and instead focused on Potter's dark eyes, which were attempting to bore through hers, or so it seemed.
"I'm fairly good at judging people's characters, Potter. And so far, all I have seen of you is an arrogant, imposing, puerile little boy."
"Now is not the time, Evans. I am hungry, dusty, and generally in a bad mood, thanks to you."
"Oh yes, but I am in a terrific mood," she echoed his sarcasm from the other day, causing James to scowl.
James glanced down at his shoes and looked for a moment like he was going to punch something. They both fell silent.
Lily slumped into a sitting position again the wall, her hands on her knees. She sighed and leaned her head back, hoping that Dumbledore and McGonagall could get them out of here sooner rather than later. With her luck today, she expected to be here for awhile. Accompanied by Potter nonetheless, who was now staring at her again.
"What? Insulting me is not enough? After calling me a whore, you're going to stare at me so that I can't even close my eyes?" She glared at him and whispered, "Bastard." She set her head upon her knees and decided to stare him down until he looked away. For a few moments, their eyes met in a silent argument, chocolate against emerald. Finally, James looked down. He sat down carefully, and while still looking at the floor, said, "I'm sorry," so quietly that Lily thought she must have imagined it.
♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠ ♥♣♠
A/N: Okay…yes. I don't have too much to say at this point, unless you wanted to hear about how much I am sick of my family, but how happy I am that finals are over. I think you probably don't, and so I'll just thank you for reading.
Until next time,
Emily