Thank you, my wonderful reviewers! Sorry for the long update, this chapter was really long and my newest story, "An Unlikely Rescuer" has been eating up all of my free time lately, so this took a bit longer than I had originally intended (if you like HarryxSnape mentor fics, I recommend it wholeheartedly). A special thanks to Talon3 for one of the ideas in this chapter (see your chapter two review if you don't remember).
Disclaimer: I WANT to own Harry Potter, but my name isn't JK Rowling, so I suppose i can't :(
"Riddikulus!"
The frightening figure of Tobias Snape immediately evaporated into nothingness, leaving behind the terrified Gryffindors and none other than Albus Dumbledore. The three boys all jumped simultaneously at the sound of the old headmaster's voice, but calmed down at the disappearance of the boggart that had nearly left Severus bald from the vast amount of hair it had so torturously ripped out of his head.
"Professor Dumbledore?" James asked incredulously, looking dumbstruck by the unexpected appearance of the headmaster. With a quick glance at Sev, who was still trembling uncontrollably, he darted his attention back to Dumbledore. "Sir! It…it wasn't…"
"It wasn't us, I swear!" Sirius cut James off with an equally panicked expression on his face. Both boys looked back and forth between themselves, Sev, and Dumbledore, worrying whether or not the headmaster would blame them for torturing Sev. What if they were expelled? It was only their third day here, they couldn't leave now!
"Sir, we honestly…had no idea…we would never…" James gasped out every word as though he were fighting for his chance to stay at Hogwarts with every single thing he said.
Before Sirius could dive into another lengthy speech about how he and James were innocent, Dumbledore held up his wizened hand to silence both of them. His calm blue eyes twinkled sadly as he glanced over at Sev; the unnaturally pale boy was now staring petulantly out the window, not quite able to hide the fear that seemed permanently etched into his face.
Motioning for the boys to stay where they were, Dumbledore silently walked over to the miserable boy and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Severus," he whispered tenderly, not wishing to upset him further, if that was even possible at this point. He didn't budge at Dumbledore's touch, but remained standing there; his eyes were rigidly fixated on a crack in the glass, mulling over the memories of his childhood…
Never, in all his eleven years of living with the man, had Sev had a positive experience with his father. Not once.
He had tried unsuccessfully for years to live up to his old man's wild expectations, failing miserably at every attempt. It had gotten so bad to the point where Sev had committed academic suicide when he dropped out of Muggle school when he was just eight years old, much to his father's infuriation. At the time, only Eileen and Sev were aware that he would probably be going to Hogwarts in three years anyways; Tobias, however, was forever unforgiving about Sev's dropout.
He was utterly wretched at his father's newfound hatred of him for quite some time…and then one miraculous day he found a savior: a red headed girl that was doing unusual things in the park, much to her older sister's fright…
Once he had met Lily, everything changed. It no longer mattered that his father hated him more than taxes. It didn't matter than everyone made fun of him for being so stupid that he was supposedly kicked out of school just three years into it. Nothing in Severus's world mattered but Lily Evans. She was the light in his times of darkness; the only person who could bring joy to his life without having to do or say anything. Just her presence was enough.
Her magical abilities made her even more special to Sev; once his father had snapped his mum's wand, she gave up everything having to do with magic, including teaching her son about the Wizarding world. Taking what little scraps of information he knew, Sev was able to share his enthusiasm for magic with someone else who was just as excited as he was.
Thinking about Lily made Sev feel slightly better. He turned away from his position near the window and stared up at Dumbledore. His piercing blue eyes seemed to go right through him, but Sev knew that even wizards couldn't read minds…right?
"Who was that, Severus?" he asked in a curiously apathetic manner. Emotionally drained to the point beyond caring, however, Sev didn't notice this, and instead replied almost inaudibly: "My…my father…"
Dumbledore's forehead creased, appearing to be deep in thought. James and Sirius were still waiting behind them; uncharacteristically exhibiting displays of self-control for once in their lives. They didn't hear Sev's answer to the headmaster's question, though they had a pretty good idea of who the man had been.
"Sir…?" James finally felt it was acceptable to speak now. "What…what was that?"
"We didn't make it do that," Sirius added quickly, giving James a fearful look.
Dumbledore slowly turned around, pulling Sev along with him to face his housemates. He was smiling serenely, as though nothing had happened at all.
"It was a boggart, Mr. Potter—"
"What's a bog—"
"Please allow me to finish, Mr. Black," Dumbledore gently scolded the boy. "A boggart is a shape-shifting creature. Unfortunately, as Severus just learned, they form into one's worst fear when released."
"Worst fear?" James repeated, shooting a look of horror at Sirius; we released a boggart!
Their panic was exceedingly obvious to the veteran professor, but he merely smiled lazily at them.
"Sir…?" Sev suddenly broke through the silence in a small, raspy voice, making all three heads turn towards him at once. "How did you know we were in here?"
Dumbledore's eyebrows rose in amusement. "I was once a student here, too…you three should be more careful in your little adventures around the castle, of course, but there will be no further punishment, as I do not wish to appear hypocritical."
"Even though we ditched detention?!" Sirius blurted out without thinking. James glared at him for reminding the headmaster of this and jabbed him painfully in the ribs.
Dumbledore nodded. "I would hope you won't try that again, however…I may not be as agreeable the next time this happens."
James and Sirius blew out collective sighs of relief, and then looked tentatively over towards Sev, who was still standing next to Dumbledore. James almost smiled, but decided against it; he wasn't exactly keen to being friends with the strange boy just yet, but he at least managed to mumble a low apology.
Sirius followed the suit, and Dumbledore looked down at Sev once more. "You were very brave, Severus. I believe the Sorting Hat was indeed correct in placing you into Gryffindor."
"I still got scared though," Sev muttered awkwardly under his breath, not wanting to meet Dumbledore's gaze again…it made him feel very uncomfortable, looking into those intense blue eyes…gave him the impression that his innermost soul was being x-rayed…
Dumbledore firmly clasped him on the shoulder once more. "But you still managed to face that fear. And that makes you a true Gryffindor…"
A true Gryffindor. Sev repeated the headmaster's words in his head several times as he desperately tried to find sleep an hour later in the boy's dormitory. So, barely being able to withstand the torture of a boggart that looked like his father made him courageous? Sev didn't understand the connection at all.
Why hadn't Dumbledore acted sooner anyways? If he was hiding in the shadows most of the time the three of them were in there, then why did he force Sev to suffer through all of that? There was no way he couldn't have noticed Sev's screams for help…but then what could be a logical explanation for his inaction? Did he think he could fool the boy into believing he was a 'true Gryffindor' instead of the Slytherin he knew he was supposed to be, just by praising him for his nonexistent gallantry? Would he even go as far as to hope they would all be friends after that? Seeing a housemate in a position of ultimate submission, scared out of his wits, was certainly one way to make Potter and Black feel sympathetic towards him.
But I won't let them, Sev thought defiantly as an angry monster roared up inside of him. As much as he wanted to trust Dumbledore and believe he was truly looking out for his best interests, he felt somewhat betrayed. He knew that he was probably imagining it all; using Dumbledore as a scapegoat to hide his embarrassment from the other two seeing him lose his cool. Still, if it made him feel better, he figured there was no harm in blaming Dumbledore for now…
xXxXxXxXx
Two days actually managed to go by uneventfully for the house of Gryffindor. Nobody around them could understand why Black and Potter had let up all of a sudden, but nobody dared to ask, in fear that they would become the two troublemakers' new target.
"You okay?"
Sev looked up from his seat at the private desk towards the back of the common room to see Arthur Weasley approaching him with a worried look on his face. Sev had been trying— unsuccessfully— to finish his latest Defense essay for hours, but was finding it next to impossible, since what Chapluck wanted them to write about had nothing to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, but rather how to coerce a Leprechaun into telling you the location of the end of a rainbow. The first day had been decent, but now she was falling into the trap of teaching only what she wanted to teach, which clearly wasn't Defense.
Sev scratched his head and relaxed his shoulders, trying to wake himself up enough to pay attention to this new visitor. "Oh, uh…I'm fine, yeah…"
Arthur watched him dubiously for a moment before proceeding forward and sitting in an empty wooden chair next to Sev. Normally Sev despised talking to other people when he could avoid it, but right now, he was too exhausted to care.
"Potter and Black…are they bothering you again?"
Sev hated how friendly Weasley sounded. It made him feel uncomfortable, probably because he was simply too used to others tormenting or teasing him, rather than attempting to have a pleasant conversation with him.
"They're fine," Sev muttered, not wanting to say anything, because really, they had been a lot better-behaved lately. He looked over Arthur's shoulder to where the two were rowdily playing wizard's chess by the fire. Remus, as always, was quietly reading a book in a comfy chair behind James.
"Good to hear," said Arthur encouragingly, patting Sev on the back. After a few moments of silence, Sev turned back to face him. He was grinning at him with that ridiculous smile that all Weasleys seemed to possess. Sev knew he was just trying to be supportive of a fellow Gryffindor, but after a while, his presence started to annoy him. Not wanting to lose a possible ally, however, Sev figured he'd tolerate the third year for as long as possible.
"Working on Chapluck's crazy homework, huh?" Arthur glanced at the two-inch long essay that lay incomplete on the desk. Looking back up at Sev, he grimaced. "First years don't have it all that bad…us third years have to write a twenty inch essay on the important of rainbows to goblins. I personally don't think goblins really give a damn about rainbows…it's due tomorrow, but I honestly can't think of anything…"
"Well, goblins like treasure, don't they?" Sev offered. "Maybe rainbows are symbolic of a goblin's greed?" Noticing the mystified expression on the other boy's face, Sev added quickly: "I dunno, it sounded better in my head…"
"Hey! That's actually pretty good!" Arthur said after the idea processed in his mind. He now looked back at Sev with new sense of admiration. "I was thinking of just turning in a blank essay, but Chapluck's so nutty that maybe if I make it sound realistic, she'll give me at least an A, right?"
Sev shrugged, not really caring one way or the other.
"So, uh…do you want any help with that?" Arthur asked hesitantly, gesturing to the nearly-blank parchment in front of Sev. It seemed odd that someone was offering to help Sev for once, rather than leaving him on his own because he was too antisocial or unwilling to talk. He usually avoided face to face speaking at all costs, but Arthur made it easier to talk without feeling embarrassed or inferior.
"I'm fine…" Sev mumbled. "But thanks."
As Arthur departed to find another desk to work on his essay, Sev inwardly wondered if he could ever teach Defense someday…he knew loads of Dark magic already and if the qualifications were so easy that someone like Chapluck could get the post…then he should have no problem getting the job.
Then again, Sev absolutely hated being in the spotlight; he usually allowed Black and Potter to hog all the attention because he loathed it when everyone was staring at him. Perhaps teaching wouldn't be such a good idea after all…
xXxXxXxXx
On the third morning after the boggart incident, Sev found it very difficult to wake up. Almost impossible, actually. He hadn't taken any sleeping potions the night before as far as he could remember, but his eyelids felt heavier than lead as he desperately tried to open them. Off to his left, he could hear James snickering, making Sev wonder if he had placed some sort of curse on his eyes while he slept. If that were the case then Potter would pay dearly for this…
Finally, his eyes managed to flutter open, and after blinking a few times, Sev saw that the sun hadn't even risen yet. Glaring over at Potter's outline as the blurriness from his vision disappeared; Sev realized with a jolt that the other boy was standing and pointing a wand directly towards him. It wasn't Potter's wand, but why did it look so familiar…?
He rummaged around his bedside table, looking only to where he always kept his wand. It wasn't there. He checked his pocket in his pajama bottoms. Not there either. He looked up at Potter, who was still twirling the wand with great interest. Oh, surely Potter wouldn't…
"Is that my wand?" he asked warily, just to make sure it was before he stole someone else's wand and hexed the other boy with every curse he knew. "Give it back."
James continued to spin it lazily in his hands and his stupid grin widened. "Aw, Snivvy, you didn't think I would be that sickeningly kind to you forever, did you?"
Sev blinked sleepily and sat up. No, he didn't think that Potter's supreme arrogance had permanently gone on holiday; though he couldn't say that he didn't enjoy his quiet two days of solitude after James and Sirius decided to lay off him for a while. Why must all good things always come to an end? Sev thought sourly.
"I said 'give it back,'" he repeated, wanting nothing more but to get his wand back and go back to sleep. James, of course, had no intentions of returning the wand; not without a fight, at least. He'd nearly gone mad from all the kindness he had shown Sev the last two days…now he wanted things to return to normal before he ended up in St. Mungo's from compassion overload…
Remus and Sirius were still sleeping on either side of the room; blissfully unaware of the growing tension between their two housemates. Seeing Sirius's wand laying out in the open on a bedside table nearby, Sev subtly inched his way over to the bed, trying to keep James distracted long enough to allow him to retrieve the wand…
"So, uh…why'd you take my wand? Figured you'd use it to blackmail me into doing your Potions homework? I heard that you almost got a 'T' on your last assignment, Potter…are you really that bad at Potions?" Sev casually mocked him, though in reality, he was hurriedly trying to buy himself more time to get the other boy's wand. Just a little closer…
James scowled and twirled Sev's wand more swiftly. "Not everyone has the brilliance you seemingly possess, Sir Snivellus. Maybe Potions is a useless subject anyways, so why bother trying in the first place?"
Sev was just mere inches away from Sirius's wand now. His feet almost tripped over Sirius's trunk as he backed his way to the table and closed in on the wand; carefully sheltering it behind his back as Potter continued ranting about Potions.
"…sorry I don't get my head all absorbed in the fumes like you, but like my dad always said: 'Potions is about as useful as Divination.'"
Tired of Potter insulting one of his favorite subjects, Sev slowly brought the wand to his side; hiding it just so James couldn't see it. The sun was now rising steadily over the mountains, flooding the dormitory with sunlight through the vast windows around them. Sev could now see James much more clearly, thus making him an easier target.
James held out Sev's wand threateningly and smirked. "Whatcha going to do anyways, Snivellus? Want your wand back or…OY!"
Just as James said that awful nickname, Sev whipped Sirius's wand out and slashed it through the air before James could even utter a single spell. He was sent flying backwards and crashed painfully into one of the empty four poster beds on the far end of the room. The noise immediately awoke the other two boys, who yelled for the other two to stop and tried to go for their wands. Sirius, now wandless, cried out in rage at the sight of Sev running past him, brandishing his wand.
On his way over to Potter, Sev saw the boy's own wand lying carelessly on his pillow on the bed. "Accio wand!" he cried; James' wand instantly zoomed into his hand, much to his delight.
His ecstasy lasted for all of two seconds, however. He looked up at a very irate-looking James, who was standing once more with his wand pointed directly at Sev.
Sev paused, thinking how ridiculous they all looked, fighting in their bed clothes. He didn't have time to ponder this strange scene, however, because James was ready to attack, and cleverly used Sev's moment of distraction against him.
"STUPEFY!" James roared, and Sev, too, was blasted off his feet, much like James had, though James's spell had more force behind it than Sev's had. Luckily, it was a soft landing for him as his body bounced on someone's bed before he rebounded onto the solid ground behind it, banging his head on the stone-laden floor with a deafening crack as he landed.
From the place where he cowered behind the bed, Sev could hear Remus shouting for James to stop, and Sirius yelling at nobody in particular for his wand back. Meanwhile, James was silently fuming, waiting for Sev to reappear for his next round of attacks.
Reaching up, Sev felt an enormous bump swell up on his forehead, but there was no time to quit now. James wouldn't give him his wand unless he put up a good fight, so Sev was determined to do his best.
For some reason, he was oddly glad that Potter decided to give up the nice guy act and return to normal. As annoying as he was when he acted like himself, Sev found it a lot more awkward when people acted sympathetic to him, rather than treating him as they did the rest of their housemates. Even if the person in question was Mr. Arrogance.
Leaping over the bed with the two wands aimed at James, Sev immediately yelled "Expelliarmus!" just as James yelled "Protego!"
The force of Sev's double spell almost managed to break through Potter's well-cast shield, but he wasn't Disarmed. By now, Sirius had forcefully stolen Remus's wand, and had it pointed at Sev, though with his attention solely focused on James, he didn't notice this until too late.
"Stupefy!"
The force of Sirius's rage-powered Stunning Spell hit Sev directly in the chest, launching him in the opposite direction once more. Serious déjà vu.
Not wanting to lie on the ground any longer than he had to, Sev achingly pushed himself onto his feet and whirled around to face his opponents. James had somehow disappeared from the room, and Sirius was busy wrestling Remus over the wand off to the left.
Where's James hiding? Sev wondered silently as he tiptoed closer to the middle of the room. Just as he passed the open doorway leading to the common room, a jet of red light came— literally— out of nowhere, and he was blasted out of the dormitory. With a fleeting look of desperation, he was flung over the top of the stairway, and remained in freefall for all of a second before hitting the ground of the common room with a thunderous boom!
Everything seemed to fade away as hot white spots clouded his vision. His head throbbed more than it ever had in the past, and he felt a trickle of blood oozing down from his upper lip. Over to his right, he saw a terribly smug expression on Potter's face as he swaggered down the stairs with Sev's wand waving carelessly in his right hand.
"How'd you do that?" Sev demanded, but Potter ignored this question and haughtily marched over to where he was lying in a submissive position on the ground. Sev vaguely noticed something silvery hanging out of his pocket, but he didn't get a good enough look at it before Potter hastily shoved it completely out of sight.
Expecting Potter to come over and continue beating him up, Sev was in for a shock when the boy held out his wand. He stared at it for a few seconds, wondering why the boy had just given up like that. Stranger still: Potter offered him a hand and pulled Sev to his feet, firmly placing the wand back into its owner's hand.
"Why…?"
"That—" he said, referring to their earlier fight, "—was for Evans's interference the other night…I don't like losing," he added with a lopsided grin.
"So…we're even then?" Sev asked cautiously, not quite believing it unless Potter said so.
"For now," he smirked devilishly as he spun on his heel and headed back up to the boy's dormitory with his and Sirius's wands.
xXxXxXxXx
"Good afternoon students!"
"Good afternoon, Madam Hooch," the group of students replied, anxiously ready to get a move on with their first flying lesson.
"I know that some of you have a good idea of what Quidditch is—"
"Chudley Cannons, woohoo!"
"Thank you Mr. Pettigrew," Hooch eyed the odd boy with a look of contempt before continuing: "But for those who have no prior knowledge of the sport—"
"Only Mudbloods don't know what Quidditch is," Laika muttered under her breath so that only Narcissa, Lily, Peter and Melika could hear. Narcissa and Peter snorted; however, Melika looked infuriated by this, so she inched her way over to a group of Hufflepuffs. Lily managed a strangled laugh, just as she was trying to remember what Sev had told her about Quidditch the previous summer…
"Stand by your brooms and on the count of 'three' say 'up!' One…two…three!"
"Up!" Lily commanded the lifeless object, feeling quite absurd when it lay limply on the ground from her lack of confidence. Across the line from her, Sev was also having difficulty, but Potter got it on his first try. Black also got it after his third try or so.
"Pettigrew! What are you doing?!" Hooch shouted from the opposite end of the line as the young Slytherin began mounting his broom, too impatient to wait for everyone else to get ready. "Get down here this instant or I'll deduct fifty points from Slytherin!"
Peter looked as though he was trying to come down, but the broom was beyond his control by now, as he rose higher and higher in the air.
"Help!" he cried feebly, realizing that he had taken on much more than what he could personally handle on his own. His once brave appearance was now contorted into an expression of terrible fear; his screams above the crowd of first years were probably heard throughout the grounds of the entire school.
"Peter!" Lily cried out as his broom suddenly took charge and darted towards the school at top speed. She barely knew the boy, but he was in her own house, and he was picked on so often by the others that she couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for him.
All of the other students hooted and jeered at him as he erratically soared over the top of the castle and out of sight, screaming at the top of the lungs all the way.
"Stay here!" Madam Hooch hollered over the explosive laughter of the students as she grabbed Laika's broom and launched into the air, flying with much more control and grace than Pettigrew could ever hope to have on a broomstick.
The laughter quickly died off once the first years realized they were alone, without even one teacher around. Lily quickly ran over to Sev, who looked as though he was trying to hide something on his head.
"Sev?" she asked, her voice full of concern as she tried to move his hand away from his forehead, but he stubbornly refused to let go. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing…" Sev tried pushing her away gently, but this just angered Lily more, and she rebounded, managing to pry his hand away at once.
"Sev!" Lily yelped when she saw the enormous black and purplish bruise on his head. He tried to hastily cover it with his hair, but seeing that it still had some growing out to do since the boggart's attack, it was hardly enough to hide the shiner.
"What happened?" she demanded at once, giving him a no-nonsense look.
"Nothing…really…"
"Sev."
"I…well…James and I had a scuffle," Sev murmured quietly, not wanting the others to look at his head and start mocking him too.
"Potter hit you?" Lily cried incredulously.
"No! Well…he…knocked me over the stairs I guess…"
"SEVERUS!" Lily couldn't believe why the boy wouldn't just stick up for himself for once. He hadn't yet told her about the boggart incident, nor did he have any intentions on telling her though. It was bad enough that Potter and Black knew…
Behind Sev, James and Sirius were on the ground, laughing uncontrollably. "What a little git!" they cried, nearly in tears over the hilarity of Pettigrew's great escape. "He's trying to steal all of our flying time!"
Sev looked back over his shoulder from his housemates and looked at Lily. Her fierce green eyes were flashing dangerously, and she looked angrier than he had ever seen her.
"Lily?" he waved a hand in front of her face, trying to break her gaze from the two dunderheads behind them, but she ignored him. In fact, after a second of waiting, she shoved Sev aside, pulled out her wand, and stomped over to Potter and Black.
"YOU TWO!" she shrieked at them as she pointed her wand dangerously close to Potter's head, making him freeze at once.
"What is this, Evans?" James asked, clearly annoyed that his fun had to be ruined by the Slytherin girl.
"This?! Do you even realize what you've done to your own housemate?!" she screamed at them as she gestured towards Sev's head. He blushed furiously and tried ducking out of the way, but by now it was too late: everyone was looking at him.
"Huh, let's see…payback?" James replied thoughtfully after he appeared to have mulled it over for a few moments.
"Payback?" Lily repeated, wanting to throttle James Potter with every ounce of hatred she possessed. "For what?"
Sirius muffled another snort of laughter, but he too, froze and nearly went cross-eyed when Lily's wand went from James's head to his.
"Aw come on Evans…there's no need to threaten us," he taunted her, standing up and drawing himself to full height. Turns out, Lily was taller than him, much to his embarrassment.
"Yeah Evans," James added. "We're just here for a friendly flying lesson. No need to pretend you want to duel…"
Sev could sense that Lily's aggravation with the two boys was increasing to dangerous levels. If he didn't break it up, Lily would undoubtedly break someone's nose instead…
"Lily, he's right," Sev jumped in front of her, blocking her from hexing either of the other two Gryffindors behind Sev. He handed her a broomstick, which she surprisingly took, lowering her wand as she frowned at Sev. Her eyes were still glaring hatefully towards the others, but at least she didn't look ready to kill them anymore. Still, her attention lingered on Sev's massive bruise, something even basic Transfiguration hadn't been able to cover up that morning…
"Then again, you can always settle for dueling if Quidditch doesn't work out, Evans," Sirius joked. "Girls aren't really known to be good at sports after all…"
Uh-oh, Sev thought, as Lily spun around and charged at Sirius, much to the boy's complete shock. She didn't even give him time to finish his sentence…
Back in Muggle school, Lily had been the best soccer player in the entire school of over nine hundred students, including the boys. She helped the teams win every game, and while Sev would have normally been picked last, Lily was always the team captain, and always picked him first. Unfortunately for Sirius, Lily was about to show him just how good she was at kicking balls…
The high-pitched scream was earsplitting, and Sirius crumpled to the ground just after contact. Lily stood and watched her own "payback" unfold. She was breathing hard, but looked immensely proud of herself for teaching Black a little lesson about how girls react to blatant sexism. Never insult a girl's sports skills, all of the first year boys thought at the same time.
"Amazing," Narcissa whispered enviously as she stared at her cousin. "I've been wanting to do that for years…"
Sev, Remus and James were still standing there, utterly appalled by what Lily had done to their housemate. Once he snapped out of it, James kneeled next to Sirius and quietly whispered, "Oy, you kind of deserved that, mate."
Then, he turned back up to face Lily. Now all of the Slytherins were laughing, much to Sirius's humiliation. "Nice kick, Evans," James commented over the hysterical gasps of pain that were still coming from Sirius. Frowning, he added: "But I don't appreciate little Slytherin girls beating up my best mates unless there's a good reason to…just 'cause you can kick doesn't mean you're good at sports. Care to prove me wrong?"
With a great smirk on his face, he handed her a broom. Losing all her composure at once, Lily looked back over her shoulder at Sev for support. He looked back with equal horror, but nodded for her to take the broom James held for her in his hand.
James snickered as she shakily took the old broom and straddled it with the grip of a novice. "Surely your mum taught you Quidditch Evans, yes? Then here, try getting this past me."
He handed her a Quaffle and nodded for her to join him in the air. James was a pretty good flyer, Sev noted with a hint of displeasure. He was more worried for Lily, however, who struggled to remain steady on the broom as it very slowly made its way up to James's level. Everyone gasped as she wobbled hazardously on the side of the broom, almost to the point where she dropped the Quaffle. Luckily, Lily had played goalie in soccer back at Muggle school, and was used to handling the ball with her hands as well as her feet.
Sev didn't realize it, but he, along with everyone else, was holding his breath in anticipation. He desperately wished that Lily could have rejected Potter's offer, but the way he had said it in front of the entire group of first years made it impossible for her to back down without admitting she wasn't good at sports. To witches and wizards, her prodigious soccer skills meant nothing, therefore, she was only good at sports if she could manage to play Quidditch.
She had no idea what Potter intended for her to do, but once she was up to his height—a frightening forty feet up from the ground— she took in a deep breath and threw the Quaffle towards Potter, who was holding his arms out like a basketball hoop, though it was sideways.
Just as the Quaffle was ready to go through the hoop, James moved his arms away, letting the ball miss the hoop entirely. At once, Lily felt consumed with rage towards this idiotic boy.
"That was going in, Potter!" she yelled at him. Grinning devilishly, he dove to retrieve the Quaffle before it hit the ground, but Lily followed after him. She wasn't much of a flyer, but she somehow managed to stay on and dive just as sharply as he had. Everyone screamed as the two swooped dangerously close to their heads before pulling up once more into the open air.
"Oh look, Evans likes to race," James mocked her as he crouched lower on his broom, thus making it race past Lily at top speed. Lily imitated his posture, and sure enough, she was soon gliding along right next to Potter in perfect harmony.
They couldn't tell how high they were off the ground, but Lily was pretty sure she didn't want to know. The cold wind whipped in their faces, and to her left, she heard James laughing. For a moment, the two actually made eye contact. Her fierce green eyes locked onto his, and for the first time since she met the conceited prat, she realized that his eyes were a dazzling hazel color. He smiled playfully as they raced along; the stillness of the scene made it seem as though they were merely sitting at a table, looking at each other, not flying along in a mirrorlike dance at several kilometers per hour.
As they flew, James weaved back and forth in front of her, almost taunting her to go even faster. She was already uncomfortable enough at this speed, however, so she shook her head, but continued smiling at the sheer joy of flying. Nothing seemed to matter in the air; her Mudblood status and half-blood lie were nothing but distant memories, tossed into the breeze. The stress of homework and learning new spells were forgotten along with the rest of the anxious first years that were watching the two from down below. Even the worry of how much trouble she'd be in when Sirius told a teacher about her soccer stunt couldn't bother her up here.
Flying was Lily's ultimate freedom, something she had never experienced before. It was like seeing the world in a different light: the shimmering lake, the vast beauty of the castle, Hogsmeade in the distance…
Out of nowhere, James came onto her right side and gave her a lighthearted shove. She wobbled precariously for a moment before regaining her balance. It was strange: all rivalries seemed to be forgotten when one was flying at top speed on a broom. Although she and Potter had never really hated each other— heck, they hardly knew each other— it still felt incredibly odd to be flying next to him without feeling some sort of hatred for the boy. He was a Gryffindor, and she was a Slytherin: that's how things were supposed to work.
The way he flashed his big, goofy grin at her, she almost felt as though she had known him for much longer than just a couple of days. The sheer excitement of soaring through the afternoon sky stripped them of any prior negative experiences. If only this feeling of impossible joy could last forever…
Feeling rather elated herself; Lily cut left and shoved Potter just as he had done to her. It was supposed to be a light push; however, apparently it had been much stronger than she had intended.
The entire fantasy world seemed to move in slow motion: one second, James was flying blissfully next to her; the next, Lily saw him lose his grip on the broom handle. She didn't have enough time to understand what was happening, though it unfolded soon enough. His body lost control of the broom and it sliced extremely hard to the right on its own accord. Not prepared for this, James desperately tried regaining his balance, but was unsuccessful. Just before he slipped off entirely, the two made eye contact. Horrified beyond words, Lily saw the whites of his eyes behind his handsome glasses, but something else: there was a cry for help within those mysterious hazel pupils. She reached out her hand and screamed for him to hang on— nearly catapulting herself off her own broom in the process— but she was too late; her broom was too far away to turn back and save him.
So he fell. And fell. And fell.
After what seemed liked a lifetime of falling, he hit the ground.
To be continued...
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