Chapter 13: The Snake's LAER
"'Gets transfered to Slytherin House'," James Potter repeated to his fellow Marauders at dinner.
The Marauders were back to being friends again, much to James's surprise and delight. After what happened in Slughorn's classroom his friends saw the look of sadness and defeat in his eyes, and decided to make amends with their friend.
"James may lose his temper from time to time, but he is truely sorry about whoever gets caught in the crossfire," Remus thought when he saw what happened, and came to his aid along with Sirius and Peter, who were all too happy to be friends with him again.
"How can Minnie make that bet with that old slug?" Sirius asked, food flying everywhere as he slammed his fork down. "I mean, does she expect our champ to lose to the first opponet that comes his way or something? Not a chance!"
"I agree," Remus nodded, putting his fork gently on the table. "If we want to keep our favorite lioness in the den, then we need a plan."
"Good annie-al-loggy, Moony," Peter said.
"It's pronounced 'an-al-lo-gee'," Remus eunciated, shaking his head.
Laughing for what felt like forever, James said, "Okay, now that the English lesson is over, we need to do what Moony suggested and keep Lily in Gryffindor."
"Here's a plan," Sirius said in-between mouthfuls, "we enter the prelims, beat the competition, and win for Gryffindor. Then we win the Hogwarts Champ title and Red stays."
"There's just two things wrong with that," James said in a serious tone. "One, I can't enter because that damned ban, remember? Two, what's with the 'we' stuff? You guys might be able to enter, but you can't all fight in the semies."
Swallowing his mouthful, Sirius replied, "No, you can't enter, but that doesn't mean you can't coach us. Look," he said, drawing their full attention toward him as he whispered, "we each have our own strengths in certain areas of spellwork. If we teach each other what we know than whichever of us moves on to face off against our witch opponet will be ready to claim the House title. Get me?"
Smiling at this James said, "Yeah, I got you, Padfoot! If one of us makes it to House champ, we'll coach him and he can take the main title from the other House chump."
"That might actually work. Nice idea, Messr. Padfoot. Maybe you ought to be the new brains in this little group of ours," Remus said coyly as he thumped his friend on the back, a little too hard, since said friend's fork went flying out of his hand and into Peter's drumstick.
"Hey!" Sirius cried, and grabbed another fork from an unoccupied plate before he started shoveling more food in his mouth.
As that end of the table was consumed in laughter, the other side was anything but. This time Lily was sitting alone, picking at her food and glancing every now and then at the staff table where Professors McGonagall and Slughorn were eating their meals with somber looks in their eyes.
Lily knew she should not be angry with them, but she could not help it. She recalled what happened when McGonagall told her about the wager.
"A transfer to Slytherin House!" Lily exclaimed. "Professor McGonagall, how could you and Professor Slughorn do that? Should a student decide for herself whether or not she wants to transfer to another House?"
"Yes, Ms. Evans," McGonagall said, looking distressed. "But I have made a Wizard's Deal with Horace. I can't back out of it, and neither can the Gryffindor Champion."
"A Wizard's Deal?" Lily asked, confused through her shock.
"A Wizard's Deal is almost like making an Unbreakable Vow," Severus explained. "But instead of dying if you break it, you're to be the victor's servant until you die. Once the bet has been set, nothing can break it. It's severly frowned upon, especially if you're gambling."
Nodding McGonagall explained further, "Since we made this Deal both of our House Champions must fight each other, but they cannot lose to another House opponet on purpose, nor can they make a draw of the duel."
"So," Lily slowly said, comprehending, "even if I don't become House Champion, someone else will have to uphold the bargain. Even if the Gryffindor and Slytherin don't make it to the finals, they still have to duel each other?"
"Exactly. Now, you both go on your way and practice to the best of your abilities," the professor said before leaving her seat and leaving a very thunderstruck Lily looking at the floor.
"I can't believe that old crone and that fat slug did this to me!" Lily thought angrily, stabbing her baked potato so hard it broke in half. "The tournament hasn't even started and already I'm a Slytherin!"
She remember the slip ups both of them had said, nearly calling her a Slytherin whenever they talked to her. That kept happening the rest of the day, and many people were starting to get the gest of what was going on. Except for the Wizard's Deal part, everyone else had heard what went on between the two Heads of House.
"You make it sound like that's a bad thing," her other half whispered. "What would be so bad about going from ruby and gold to emerald and silver anyway? Sev made it clear to you before Hogwarts that you would make a good Slytherin. Besides, it would make your relationship easier to grow if you were in the same House as him."
Lily shook her head at the thought, but it would not leave. She could just see the both of them on a deep green couch in the Slytherin common room, books opened but laid forgotten. They had their arms around each other like they did in that dream they both had that previous summer, and kissing fiercly with only the snake banners watching them.
"Stop it!" Lily thought as she continued eating. "You're NOT going to be in Slytherin. You are going to win the GRYFFINDOR Championship, and you're going to win the Hogwarts title for GRYFFINDOR. So forget about the professor's wager and start practicing your dueling!"
With that thought in mind Lily ate her food with much more confidence than she had before.
On the other side of the Hall, at the Slytherin table, five boys had their heads together in a whispered conversation. These boys were the members of the rumored Lily Evans Fan Club, only instead of consisting of the other Houses, Gryffindor excluded of course, it only comprised of Severus and four other boys.
This club was called "The LAER (Lily Aurora Evans Rehousing) Group". Bellatrix may have had orders from the Dark Lord to bring Lily over to the Dark Side, but what she did not know was that the Group had been established just for that purpose since first year.
What she also did not know was that Severus, himself, was the one who started The LAER Group, which consisted of only the Slytherin boys from his year. There was Avery, who liked Lily for her spunk; Mulciber, who secretly lusted after her more than anybody else in the school; Karkaroff, who took immediate interest in her due to the superior aura she possessed; Rookwood, who admired and respected her for her dueling skills, and Severus, who loved and longed for her since he was only nine years old.
When he told the other members of Slughorn and McGonagall's Deal they were overjoyed.
"This is better than we thought," Avery whispered.
"Indeed," Karkaroff agreed. "Vith Lily in our House, ve vill not only have achieved our goal, vut ve vill have a capable vitch to join the Death Eaters."
Rookwood achknowledged this with a nod in-between bites of food, but Mulicber's eyes wandered to where Bellatrix was sitting with Rudolphus before he whispered, "But what about Trixie over there? Even if she keeps up her performance, it's only a matter of time before she goes back to trying to curse Lily to oblivion."
"That can be easily remedied," Severus said with a smirk. "I just got a message from the Dark Lord himself, courtesy of Lucious Malfoy, and he stated 'Once Ms. Evans has renounced her parentage and accepted my offer, I shall give you, Mr. Snape, permission to do what you see fit to Ms. Bellatrix Black.' Apparently the Dark Lord will have no further use of Bellatrix once Lily joins us and her mission is complete."
"So he is only using Trixie to get into Lily's goodbooks, and is planning to brush her off later," Rookwood stated, smiling mischieviously at the Group president. "What do you plan to do with her, anyway, Severus old buddy?"
"Simple. I will leave that for Lily to decide. She never really liked Bellatrix, even after the 'kindness' she has shown, and she is still wary of her," he explained. "I've seen the look Lily gives our House slut behind her back, so, I can guess, once she is officially one of us, she will make her life a living Hell."
That last part ended with quiet laughter from the others as they each imagined what Lily would do to her rival. They never liked Bellatrix in the first place, and when they found out that they would have a better witch in exchange for the sleep-around sorceress, that only increased their determination to have one of them win the Slytherin Championship and make Lily an official Slytherin.
The next few days had flown by due to the excitement of the upcoming Dueling Tournament. Every student in their fifth through seventh year has been seen in the library, checking out books on advanced dueling techniques, proper wand movements, and other relative topics. Some could be seen in empty classrooms with friends practicing the spells, and others were busy trying to create banners and badges for their soon-to-be House Champion.
Finally, the day had come for everyone in the four Houses to see who would be the first sixteen witches and wizards to duel in the preliminary rounds. The Gryffindor Preliminaries were to be held on that Saturday in the Great Hall, from nine in the morning to twelve noon. The other Houses Premilinaries were to be held the same time for the next three Saturdays.
The first three of the Gryffindor contestants were easily expected. They were Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Lily Evans. What was unexpected was that Peter Pettigrew, Mary MacDonald and Sheila Finnigin had also signed up.
"You girls are entering too?" Peter asked as they departed their common room for afternoon classes.
"Well of course, Pete," Mary said.
"Lily can't always be our Champion. We have to learn to take care of ourselves, and we can't do that if we're always standing behind her while she defends us," Sheila added before looking at her auburn locked friend before concluding. "She may be the one who will need defending if we ever separate."
"Why do I sense a double-meaning to that?" Lily thought, then shrugged it off as she went her way to double Ancient Runes.
When she got there she took her usual spot behind where Severus sat, in front of the class, but he was not there.
"Where could he be?" she asked herself as his seat was being taken by another occupant from Ravenclaw.
It was one minute until class began when Severus finally showed up, completely red in the face and panting from the long run to beat the bell. He flopped into the first empty seat he could find... right next to Lily.
"Hey Sev," Lily whispered as the bell rang and the professor walked in. "What happened?"
Taking a few minutes to regulate his breathing he whispered back, "I had just finished posting the names of the Slytherin House contestants and dueling schedule when everyone came rushing into the common room to look. I had, somehow, got under a mass of feet and had to crawl out from between the crowd's legs, even after I held yelled my Prefect status and tried to stand up.
"After that incident, I had to run back to my dorm and grab my books. But when I opened the door I saw Rudolphus and Bellatrix...actting inappropriatly on my bed," he blushed a deeper shade of red at that, as did Lily.
"To make a long story short, they were furious that I walked in on them and I had to summon my bag while dodging hexes and thrown pillows before I closed the door and ran for it," Severus said, the blush on both their faces ebbing away.
"You deducted points off, of course?" Lily asked raising her eyebrows.
"Yes of course," Severus said, giving her a small smile. "Despite what others may say, I don't play favorites, even if the offenders are my friends and Housemates."
"I wouldn't expect nothing less from you Sev," Lily said smiling back and turning to face the professor, who was just starting the lecture.
"Nor I from you, my love," he thought as he took notes along with everybody else.
"Now then class," Professor Periwinkle said after a thirty minutes of note taking, "we are going to be practicing writting and translating messages to each other in mixed runes. Using your notes and textbooks, begin writting your messages to the person sitting next to you. When you both have perfected using and translating mixed runes, I want you to combine your writtings as a joint-written letter to your Heads of House. I also want you all to reference what texts you used in writting it.
"But be warned, the letters must not be inappropriate and they will be handed to me before class ends. Whatever thoughts or feelings you have about your Heads of House, kindly keep them amoungst yourselves. You may begin."
Turning to Severus's textbook and Lily's notes they both started writting their mixed runes messages to each other, Lily's being first. Afterwards they swapped and began translating them on separate pieces of parchment. This took another good thirty minutes, since Lily and Severus loved to challenge each other, but they finally finished and swapped back their papers to check to see if the other was correct.
Lily's message to Severus was translated:
"Dear Sev,
I still can't believe Professors McGonagall and Slughorn made that wager! I mean, who do they think they are, using a person's House placement like a meaningless poker chip? Didn't they even care what position that put both of their Champions in?
But, despite all of this, I am going to try my hardest to win the House and Hogwarts Championships. I just hope you are willing to do the same. I would rather face off against you than anybody else from Slytherin.
You're a better duelist and a better wizard than anyone else I have ever known or met.
Lots of luck,
Lily"
At this Severus had smiled, and handed Lily his response, which was translated:
"Dear Lily,
I agree with you one hundred percent. They should have know better than to try to take somebody else's destiny and use it like a gambling bit, as though it was worthless. We are under enough pressure as it is, what with OWLs, the tournament, Prefect duties, and the upcoming Yule Ball, we don't need the fate of our Champions hanging in the balance.
I am honored, by the way, that you consider me a worthy opponent. However, if I am the Slytherin Champion, and we do face off against each other, I will not hold back either. So I hope you are prepared for the tournament as well.
You are also a more than capable duelist and witch than anyother I had known or met. I knew that the moment we first met six years ago, and I still stand by it.
Best wishes,
Sev
P.S. Just out of curiousity, what will you do if it's Bellatrix or another Slytherin that you face off against?"
Keeping her face expressionless, Lily wrote a response to the post-script and handed it to Severus, who translated rather quickly because it was short.
When he had finished it was translated:
"Dear Sev,
If it's another Slytherin, I'll just duel them like usual- fast and bored. If, however, that Slytherin is Bellatrix... well, let's just say that it will make quite a show.
I don't like her, even after she's shown such 'kindness' to me, and I know it will only be a matter of time before she lets her true colors come out again.
Besides, won't that be the only reason why anyone would want to come out and see her make a bigger fool of herself than she already is.
Eager for the chance,
Lily"
Finished reading it both of them made eye contact, and Severus saw a sight that made him very happy and scared- not for himself, but for Bellatrix- because it was the same look she held at the beginning of the year.
It was Lily smiling at him wickedly and her eyes were glittering with exciement of the thought of showing up Bellatrix in front of the whole school.
"Just as she had looked when we conspired against Potter."