Chapter 9: Meeting Nerds
This next morning dawned, nice and dark much to Lily's amazement. After a nice, hot shower, Lily changed into her new, Gryffindor robes and met the others down in the common room.
Lily walked down to the Great Hall in between Melody and Isabel. While walking down the millionth corridor that looked alike, when she looked at the people walking in front of them and one had black, messy hair.
"Ahh God! I'm seeing him everywhere!" Lily complained to her friends
"Seeing who?" Isabel asked her
"This guy I was dating in France before I moved here. You know, I really think I loved him"
"Sweetie, I know how hard it is to get over a boyfriend. Take it from someone who knows," Isabel said, shaking her head.
"Yeah, its just that he has the same messy, black hair that the guy in front of us has" Lily complained to them.
"Here, if I get you to see his face, will that stop you thinking that's your guy?" Melody asked, wanting to help.
"I guess..."
"Oi! James!" Melody yelled, which made Lily stand up straight, the name alone triggering her off, let alone the fact that he had the same hair.
The boy turned around and yelled
"What is it cousin?"
"HOLY SHIT!"
"Melody, you're friend really needs to wash out her mouth" Sirius joked, as he turned around too.
"Holy shit!" James exclaimed, after coming face to face to the person in question.
"Sirius, you're friend really needs to wash out his mouth" Melody joked back, but then they turned to see Lily and James staring at each other.
The corridor was silent, the others looked around at each other, wondering what the new student and the popular god had in common.
"You're a- you're a wizard?" Lily eventually gasped as James's mouth opened and closed like a goldfishes.
"You're a witch!"
"Okay, now that we finally sorted out that everyone here is, in fact, magically gifted, could you just enlighten the rest of us?" Sirius asked, a little annoyed at being left out of this secret.
"She's the girl from France"
"He's the guy I'm hung up on"
"You're hung up on me?"
"I'm just the girl from France?"
Lily was feeling hurt, by him thinking of her as just the girl from France and James was secretly ecstatic that Lily was hung up on him.
"No, I didn't mean it like that..."
"How exactly did you mean it then?"
"Hey, don't act all innocent on me; I'm not the only person that has to explain stuff. So how exactly have we never met before if we've both gone to Hogwarts?"
"I've never been at Hogwarts before, this is my first day!" Lily explained, silent tears streaming down her face at how James was reacting to her being here. It's not like she planned it or anything!
Light dawned on James's face.
"It WAS you who was sorted last night, wasn't it!"
"Yes"
"Oh my God. I made out with an eleven year old!" James exclaimed, thoroughly looking her up and down.
"No! James, I'm not eleven!" Lily stuttered, couldn't quite believe that James thought she could pass as an eleven year old!
"And the fact you LIED to me! You said you were seventeen! Ugh, come on Sirius, lets go" James said in disgust, turning around and continued walking away with Sirius following after him. Lily sank to the ground and began to cry. Just seeing James was enough of a shock, let alone actually talking to him and him yelling at her.
"Shhhh its okay sweetie," Isabel said softly, patting her on the back. A weird, gurgling noise made Lily stop crying for a moment and looked up. Melody had a guilty look on her face.
"I'm sorry, I'm stomach does that whenever its hungry"
"You know Lily, we really need to get to breakfast. Our timetables get handed out to us and we also need our daily fiber," Isabel said, standing up and offering her hand to Lily to help her up.
Lily calmed herself down, after all, she was being silly, crying over a guy. Melody waved her wand and a certain warmth built up inside of her, making her, sort of, well, happy.
"Don't worry, I use it on Imogen all the time" she whispered into Lily's ear as they continued walking down the corridor.
Once entering the Great Hall, they three friends headed over to the Gryffindor table. When they passed James and Sirius, James turned his head in the other direction, ignoring them as they walked past. Sirius shot them an apologetic look, before turning his back on them too as he had no choice but side with his best friend.
Lily nearly burst into a new batch of tears. Isabel and Melody hurriedly pushed her forward, away from James. They found some empty seats up near Kara and Melody and Isabel managed to sit down without groaning.
"Beautiful morning, isn't it? Its half eight and the sun is already shining!" Kara said to them in a sing song voice, but not total paying attention to them. Isabel piled a few pieces of toast onto their plates. Lily just stared at it until Melody finally forced a piece into her mouth.
The teacher that sorted Lily last night was coming down the Gryffindor table, handing out the time tables.
"Ahh Miss Evans, I see you entered my house, congratulations. It looks like I shall be seeing you after lunch. Good morning," she passed Lily her timetable, then passed Isabel and Melody theirs. She had to wave it under Kara's nose for a while as she seemed to be away with the fairies, literally.
"Awesome! I have Ancient Runes first!" Melody exclaimed happily, digging into the toast on her plate. Lily looked down at hers and discovered that she had Ancient Runes too.
"Well, I have Arithmancy so I'll see you guys in..." she checked her timetable "Potions. See you!" she shoved her timetable into her back pack, slung it over her shoulder and headed out of the Great Hall.
"Come on, we'd better head off too" Melody said gently, placing her timetable into her shoulder bag, picked it up and stood up. She offered Lily her hand to help her up. Lily picked up her bag and took her hand.
All through Ancient Runes, Lily was so upset that she could barely pay attention to Professor O'Dell's speech on Egyptian Runes. Melody had to keep nudging her to keep notes and pay attention, but she soon gave up and took the notes herself to give Lily later.
All she could do, was sigh.
-:-
"Dude, that was a little harsh" Sirius said to James when the girls walked away.
"God Padfoot, she deserved it! She's the one who lied to me, I can't believe I thought she was seventeen. I can't believe she's really eleven!"
"Yeah, about that. If she really IS eleven, why is she hanging out with Scott and Carmichael?"
"I don't know. I don't know how girl's minds work, their probably just looking after her because she's a new girl,"
"You don't really believe that?"
"Who cares? Just hurry up and finish, we've got Transfiguration." James snapped, picking up his bag and stormed out of the Great Hall.
"What was that all about?" Remus asked as he sat down in James's, now empty seat.
"James had a summer fling with an eleven year old"
"Wow, that's low even for James's standard"
"Yeah, well, he didn't know she was eleven, he thought she was seventeen"
"Oh. Well, why is he upset now? Why not last night?"
"Well, it turns out she's a witch and she attends Hogwarts. We ran into her on our way down to breakfast"
"How much longer do I have to wait for you to finish your conversation and take you're timetable!" McGonagall snapped and they hurriedly took their timetables off her.
"And make sure you finish you're conversation soon, or you'll be late for my class. Don't make me put you in detention on the first week of term!"
"Yes Professor" McGonagall left them and continued down the table distributing timetables.
"James is jumping to conclusions, isn't he?"
"Sure is"
"How do you think it will last this time?"
"Earliest, graduation"
"Great"
-:-
BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGG
The sound of books slamming and bags rustling rang through out the corridors before the sound of heavy feet and children's laughter.
"Lily. You. Have. To. Snap. Out. Of. It!" Melody said, shaking Lily by the shoulders quite furiously.
"In Potions, you are going to sit up, pay attention, and brew the potion correct. Do. You. Understand? I know that this meeting between you and pretty boy would be hard on you, but you have got to focus on your school work!"
"I know, I know!" Lily cried, and sank back down in her chair.
"Lily, come with me" Melody ordered, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the classroom and across the hall to the girl's bathroom. She filled a sink with water, cupped her hands, scooped out some of the water, and flung it at Lily's face. Lily spluttered.
"What was that for?"
"To wake you up. Are you any better?"
"A bit"
"That will have to do. Come on, I can't deprive Slughorn any longer of a new student"
"Huh?"
"Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough" Melody laughed, grabbing Lily's hand and they ran down to the dungeons. They arrived just in time, Slughorn's stomach emerged from the dungeon, followed by a stumpy leg and a large, round head. Melody and Lily managed to join onto the end of the line waiting outside the classroom before his tiny eyes turned to fix on his class.
"Morning Gryffindors! Please enter quietly" he asked, stepping out of the door to the dungeon and watched the students flow into the classroom. Lily had hoped to slip in unnoticed, but alas, his beady eyes spotted her almost immediately.
"Ahhh, and you are Miss?"
"Evans, Lily Evans,"
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Evans. I hope you enjoy attending Hogwarts, it's supposed to be the best magic school in Europe,"
"Yes, I'm sure it is"
"Well, now please sit down. I'm much looking forward to seeing your potion technique," he said. Lily nodded, then hurriedly entered the classroom, making a bee line for the table Isabel and Melody (who sneaked in when Slughorn was preoccupied with Lily) were seated at.
"Good morning class! Today, we will need the whole lesson to make this potion so don't let me keep you waiting. You're going to be brewing a potion called 'Anietta'. Now, who knows this particular potion is?"
Lily's hand shot up, as well as some other Gryffindors.
"Ahh, Miss Evans. What is it?"
"It's a type of love potion sir". Several girls made 'oooo'ing noises.
"Very good, 10 points to Gryffindor. Now, I trust you know what it does?"
"It entrusts the drinker to find love in their dreams"
"Yes it does! Another 10 well earned points to Gryffindor. I know love potions banned from Hogwarts, and for a good reason too, but I thought it would be a nice way to start of the term. Now-"
"Wow Lily, You're a nerd at heart, when your hearts not broken that is" Isabel whispered, opening her notebook an d started copying down the method.
"Yeah, well, its still broken, but I don't want to drown so I'm forced to pay attention," Isabel shot Melody a nasty look and she grinned guiltily.
"-you're ingredients are in the cupboard. You're time starts...now!"
Isabel jumped up and ran to the cupboard to get their ingredients, while Lily and Melody started their fires under their cauldron. Upon Isabel's arrival with the ingredients, Lily took a teaspoon of crushed rose petals and sprinkled it into her cauldron, on top of the boiling water already in there, turning it a whitish colour.
Lily followed the instructions carefully and finally it was pale pink. She looked up at the clock at the front of the classroom and realized she still had twenty-five minutes left. She decided that, because she had nothing else left to do, she blew out the flame and laid her head on the table.
"Miss Evans, I really didn't pick you as the type to slack off!" an angry Professor Slughorn woke her by saying.
"But sir, I wasn't slacking off. I finished the potion a good ten minutes ago and I was quite tired from the journey so I thought I might rest my eyes for a minute but apparently I seemed to have fallen asleep," Lily explained, and the old man's face softened.
"Well, lets see how you've done then," he said, taking a ladle out of his robes and dipping it into her potion. He raised it to his lips and took a sip.
"Mmm, Miss Evans! Why this potion is perfect! Flawless! And you did it with half the lesson to spare, what a fantastic achievement!" Slughorn exclaimed and Lily blushed furiously. She had never been praised about her potions work before.
"Mmm yes, I shall be notifying you're head of house about this of course, 50 points to Gryffindor! Now, Miss Scott, what have you got for me?" Slughorn continued to look around the other student's potions, but hadn't dared to pull his ladle again, and just as well, as a boy called Benjamin Smithson's turned from pale blue to ice.
The bell rung and the noises began again. Lily began picking up her books again, but this time with a smile on her face. She had almost forgot about James until they ran into each other when trying to enter the Great Hall. James sneered at her and pushed past her, his arm pushing past her elbow.
Lily looked nearly on the verge of tears again, but this time she tried to restrain them and enjoy her Shepherd's Pie without her 'ex' entering her thoughts. She also managed to get through Transfiguration, successfully transfiguring her cat into a sugar mouse, much to the delight of Professor McGonagall.
As it was Double Transfiguration, once the bell rung, they were to head down to dinner but McGonagall called Lily back.
"Miss Evans, Professor Slughorn approached me at lunch and told me of your fantastic effort in his Potions class. He also said that you might be happier in a higher class, and I am inclined to agree. It would be best if you had Potions with the 7th year Gryffindors, and since their Potions is the same time as Transfiguration, we think it would be perfect. Would you be happy to do Transfiguration and Potions with the 7th years?"
"I would be honored!" Lily exclaimed, her eyes shinning.
"Good, you will start the swap tomorrow. Now, its best if you head down to dinner. Good evening"
Lily ran out of the classroom and bumped into Isabel and Melody who were waiting outside the door.
"Guess what?" Lily exclaimed happily as they walked down the marble staircase towards the Great Hall.
"What?"
"I'm learning Potions and Transfiguration with the Gryffindor 7th years!"
"Awesome!"
"Nerd!"
"Isabel!"
"What? It's true!"
"So? There are nicer names to call smart people!"
"Like smart ass?"
"Hey, isn't James in that class?" Melody asked all of a sudden.
"WHAT? No! You're joking! I totally forgot!" Lily exclaimed while sinking down into a seat at the table.
"Lily, how could you forget something like that?"
"I was just so happy to be offered to go up a grade on my potions that I totally spaced! Damn, what am I going to do?"
"Hey Padfoot, look! It's the nerd!" James sneered nastily as he walked pasted, pointing at her and laughing. Lily turned red.
"You know what? I'm sick of this! If that asshole wants me to curl up in a corner and cry, he is gravely mistaken. He's going to get exactly what's coming to him and soon he'll be in the one in the corner!"
"Okay, I stand by my statement that she's a nerd, but she is a nerd with a fiery attitude"
"Damn straight I am!"
"This is going to be fun"
A/N: Yes! Another chapter finished, and I included the meeting too. Guess what? This story is officially 98 pages long so far! Hehehe. Thanks to blueholly, Gryffindor Pheonix, headoverheels4HP, saedis, crazylily, WhiteGreen, blondewivbrains, Juliette Fox, Hmphh, potterlady4691, Lil Enchantress, Lexi Granger, MissyBlackk, pheobesapphira, Isolde Eris, Mrs. Claire Potter, BrazilianPrincess, firewalker32, Penelope Richmond, SparklingEyesWithACrazyMind and Grey Mustang for their fantastic reviews! Please, if you have added me to you're favs or alerts list, could you please, PLEASE review this chapter to tell me what you think! Please! Btw, I've finished this one a while ago, the fanfic site is playing up and not letting me post it!