4- Fast Forward
A/N: This chapter has not been beta read yet! Everyone got too busy for me, haha.
*---First Year---*
It was the third day of classes, and Lily was miserable. Oh, the classes themselves weren't hard at all. She hadn't had any trouble with them so far… Well, except for that little mishap with the Venomous Tentactula. But Professor Huxleford had sorted that out quickly enough.
No, it wasn't the difficulty of the classes that was bothering Lily. It was the fact that she had no one to talk to. Lily had thought that she and Severus would be together, learning magic and talking and laughing, without having to endure Petunia's stony glares. But Severus had been sorted into Slytherin, and she was left alone.
'Well, it wasn't Severus' fault; the sorting hat put him in Slytherin,' Lily thought. She remembered how the sorting hat had told her she would do best in Gryffindor and, sensing no reply from her, belted out where it would place her.
When Severus had gone to the stool, she had closed her eyes and crossed her fingers.
'Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor…'
But it was to no avail. Severus was put in Slytherin, and Lily was left alone.
As Lily waited for her Charms class to start, her thoughts grew more and more melancholy as she dwelled on her lack of friends. Sure, Severus was there at Hogwarts with her, but he had a different class schedule (except for double potions, the one class they shared) and it wasn't as if he could join her in the Gryffindor common room. And sure, no one had been outright nasty to her, but no one had made an honest effort to be her friend, either.
Lily contemplated how horrible it would be to go through her seven years at Hogwarts with no friends at all. She thought of what it would be like to give up and return home. She imagined how Petunia would sneer at her, "So, you couldn't keep up with all the losers at that freak school? How pathetic!"
Lily cringed.
Then, out of nowhere, a voice asked, "You're in my dormitory, right? I'm sure there aren't many girls at this school with hair like yours—well, with hair that's naturally like yours, anyway; it's quite conspicuous. Would you mind very much if I sat with you?"
Then, without waiting for an answer, a girl with bright, hazel eyes sat herself into the seat next to Lily, her dark-brown hair swinging wildly in front of her face. She began chatting away immediately as she removed items from her book bag.
And that was how Lily Evans met Elizabeth Owens, her best friend.
The months passed by in a blur for Lily. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was the best thing that had ever happened to her, and she couldn't believe that she had thought about leaving it all at one point. She and Elizabeth were now practically inseparable, and often times Lily, Ellie (for that was the nickname that Lily had bestowed upon Elizabeth), and several other students, including Severus, would all get together and hang out down by the lake.
As the school year neared its end, Lily grew unhappy at the thought of leaving her new friends.
Some people, however, were overjoyed by the conclusion of the academic year and the prospect of a long and lazy summer holiday, and these people often chose to display their delight in an excessively uncivilized manner.
"How am I ever going to show my face with hair like this?" Lily fretted to Elizabeth. "I used to complain about my hair, wishing it was blonde or brown or something other than red. Now I absolutely--"
"Calm down Lily. We have wands. Your hair will not be like this forever. Just shows how you should be careful what you wish for. Come on; let's get you to a teacher… Oh, what the heck, we'll just take you to the hospital wing so that new nurse can fix your hair." Elizabeth paused as she considered Lily's distraught appearance, fingered a piece of her friend's newly colored hair, and continued, "It's not exactly a medical emergency, but we don't want anyone in a classroom to see you."
Elizabeth led Lily into the corridor. The two friends walked speedily across the castle to the hospital wing, but they were not quick enough. They had to pass the Great Hall on their way and just as they made their way down the stairs, the stragglers who had just been shooed from breakfast by Professor McGonagall, as classes were about to begin, herded out of the Great Hall.
It was just Lily's luck. It was a Monday, so there were more people eating breakfast later than usual due to the exhausting events of the weekend (there had been a Hogsmeade visit on Saturday and on Sunday night some rambunctious seventh year Hufflepuffs had thrown an impromptu party in the secret passageway on the third floor).
"Hey everyone, look at Evans!" Sirius Black called out gleefully as he left the dining hall. The whole corridor turned to stare at Lily, whose normally flaming red hair now bore a strong resemblance in volume, texture, and color to cotton candy. Everyone began to giggle and whisper around her. .
"Nice 'do, Evans" said an arrogant voice Lily had come to despise.
"You did this James! You put something in my hair this morning! I know you did it!" Lily shouted angrily at him. Her thoughts flashed back to the first day she had seen James and Sirius… On the Hogwarts Express when Severus found her upset over Petunia's nasty remarks. If only she had known… 'If only I had offed him right then and there,' Lily thought sourly, 'and spared myself the misery.'
"Why, Evans! I haven't the faintest clue what you speak of! But I must say, the look suits you well! You're looking absolutely tickled pink this afternoon!" James continued in an infuriatingly frivolous manner. Lily cringed at his ridiculous joke.
The entire corridor burst out laughing now. Lily was desperately fighting to hold back her tears of anger and frustration. She didn't understand why everyone thought James' remark was so funny. She thought it was rather predictable. Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore. She walked as fast as she could out of the snickering crowd, head held as high as she could manage. Elizabeth followed her for a while, but before she made her way into the next corridor after Lily, she turned back to let the boys have it.
"What did you have to do that for? Screwing up her hair wasn't enough, was it? You just had to embarrass her in front of everyone, didn't you?" Elizabeth yelled furiously at Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter.
"We were just having a bit of fun!" Sirius shrugged.
"You have a sick and twisted sense of fun," Elizabeth sneered at them. "It's not even that clever of a joke. You four shouldn't call yourselves the Marauders! You should be called the Imbeciles!" Her hands were on her hips and she was giving the four troublesome boys a death glare.
"Hmmmm. The Imbeciles. I think it fits, don't you Remus?" James asked his friend.
"Maybe it fits you three but not me!" Remus Lupin said sternly. He had played a part in turning Lily's hair into something that would look at home within a circus tent, it was true, but he had not planned on James making it worse by teasing her in front of so many students.
Peter Pettigrew, who had been laughing before, was now standing cautiously off to the side, making sure he was out of range of Elizabeth's wrath. His eyes darted back and forth between James and Elizabeth, eager to see who would prevail in the battle.
"You're all pathetic. Get a life, "Elizabeth said scornfully, and with that she hurried off after Lily, but not before giving the Marauders one last fierce look.
James turned and smiled smugly at Sirius, Remus, and Peter. "Good work, all. That went better than I expected. No teacher intervention, and Owens and Evans didn't do anything but screech at us, so I'd say—"
"Diffindo!" came two shouts echoing around the corner. There was a ripping sound, and James and Sirius found themselves with pants that had ripped down the middle, revealing two sets of boxer shorts, one red-and-white striped (Sirius') and one in a sort of green plaid pattern (James'). The whole corridor burst into laughter again.
"Bugger, these were my favorite pants!" Sirius howled angrily. Remus and Peter were laughing together off to the side.
"Would you still say it went well, James?" Remus asked as he smirked at his friend, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Quite. No permanent damage. And we'll get our revenge on the girls somehow," James said, surprisingly indifferent for someone who had just suffered the epitome of the adolescent embarrassing moment. He twisted around in order to observe the damage.
"Remus, help me out here, will you?"
"Sure. Reparo!" Remus chanted. He flicked his wand, but nothing happened.
"Maybe Peter should give it a try," James said.
"Reparo!" Again, nothing. "They must have done something to make them irreparable," Remus realized, laughing again at the fact that James and Sirius would have to wander through the crowded halls back to Gryffindor tower in their present state.
"Well then, let's beat it before McGonagall gives us detention for indecent exposure." Sirius said.
"Again," Peter added.
"Aah, good times," Sirius sighed. He looked back down at his pants, shook his head, and said again, "Bugger!"
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*---September, Third Year---*
"Lily, look." Elizabeth nudged Lily's elbow with her own, 'causing Lily to pull her hand back from the delicious looking eggs and bacon in front of her. It was the first full day of their third year, and Lily was overjoyed to be back. Petunia's nagging had only grown worse over the past two years.
Lily followed Elizabeth's gaze and saw a girl who looked about their age sitting alone a few spots down from them at the Gryffindor table. This was odd; if the girl really was their age, but Lily and Elizabeth didn't know who she was, that meant she had just started at Hogwarts. It was unusual for a witch or wizarding student to transfer schools.
Lily glanced back at her friend and saw that Elizabeth was greatly perplexed, though Lily correctly guessed that it was merely because Elizabeth had made it her personal mission in life to know and be known to the entire population of Hogwarts. Lily could predict what her friend was going to do before Elizabeth had even made up her mind to do it.
"Let's go introduce ourselves, shall we?" Elizabeth got up and walked towards the girl. Lily followed after her, smiling to herself.
"Hello, I'm Elizabeth Owens," Elizabeth said cheerfully. As the girl turned to face Elizabeth, her straw-colored hair, which was pulled back into a pony-tail that reached most of the way down her back, swung wildly around.
"Hello," she said, grinning happily. "No one else has introduced themselves yet. Then again, I did only just arrive late last night, after the sorting and after everyone had gone to bed."
"No one else is as friendly and charming as us," Elizabeth told the girl with certainty. "And this is Lily Evans."
The girl turned to Lily, who found herself gazing into a pair of big, dark grey eyes. "It's a pleasure," Lily said, holding her hand out. The girl shook it warmly, and as she drew her hand back, she exclaimed,
"Oh! I've forgotten. I'm Summer." Her eyes crinkled at the edges as she laughed at herself for forgetting to tell Elizabeth and Lily her own name. "Summer Lee."
"Quite an appropriate name," Elizabeth said, glancing at Summer's golden tresses. "So what brings you to Hogwarts? That is, if it's all right of me to ask."
"Oh, no, it's perfectly all right. My parents are Aurors. Two of the most advanced, actually. So they travel around every few years or so, working for whatever magical ministry needs them the most."
"What does it mean that the British Ministry of Magic is in need of a pair of highly skilled Aurors?" Lily asked, frowning.
"Oh, never mind that now, Lily," Elizabeth said, waving a hand dismissively. "Tell us, where did you live before your family moved here?"
"Well, we spent a good bit of time in Russia, Iceland, and Columbia, but there were times when we—"
And that was how the duo of Lily and Elizabeth became the trio of Lily, Elizabeth, and Summer.
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*---October, Fifth Year---*
"Come on Evans! You know you want me!" James taunted Lily by the lakeshore. Lily turned away from her conversation with Summer and Elizabeth to look in James' direction. She tilted her head, considering, and then finally got up to walk towards him.
"Ah, coming to your senses, Evans?"
"Yes. I--I should have done this a long time ago," she said as she walked shyly towards him. James grinned at her.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to crack".
Lily merely smiled. She reached out to hug him, but at the last moment she shoved him hard and he toppled into the lake. James surfaced, sputtering madly.
"Yes, I should have done that a long, long time ago," Lily said amusedly. James' jet-black hair looked even more ridiculous than it usually did, plastered to the sides of his head, and his glasses were wildly askew.
"Is that a no?" James asked her, quirking one eyebrow upward.
"Of course!" Lily said scathingly. "I would never go out with an arrogant prat like you! After all the things you've done to me and my friends, especially Severus, I'm surprised that you have the audacity to even look at me, let alone pursue me!" She then turned to storm back up to the castle. She didn't have to turn back around to know that Summer and Ellie were rushing to catch up with her.
"You have to admit, Lils, he is pretty cute, especially when he's all…damp, like that," Elizabeth said with a grin as she caught up to her friend. Summer nodded in agreement with Elizabeth's statement.
"You can have him then, Ellie!" Lily muttered, looking back at the lake and shooting Potter one last glare. But to her surprise, he was still sitting in the lake, looking pathetically dumbfounded and completely dismal. For a split second, Lily felt sorry for him.
But then all the misery Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and even Lupin, had put her through the last several years returned to the forefront of her mind, and she turned away with a contemptuous sniff.
Potter deserved what he got. And more.
Severus, with a little bit of reluctance, turned his gaze from the idiotic spectacle that was James Potter and watched as Lily and her friends made their way back up the sloping green lawns to the castle. He and Lily had grown apart over the years. She was always needling him about his choice of friends. "They're malicious and loathsome! I don't understand why you want to be around them," Lily often said with vehemence. But Lily didn't understand. Lily, who was so widely accepted and loved, could never understand why Severus could not pick and choose his friends. 'And regardless of what Lily thinks, Mulciber and Avery and the others have the right idea,' Severus thought to himself.
Severus often lamented the fact that Lily had drifted away from him. However, in the back of his mind, he felt that he had known this would happen for a long while. Ever since the first time he had seen Lily happily bounding into the Great Hall for lunch with Elizabeth in first year, he had somehow realized that Lily would not always be as close to him as she once had. Oh, she was still his friend. She would smile brightly at him from across the hallway from time to time, and he would joyously return the gesture. But Lily was wary of him now. And their friendship could never go back to the way it had been before she had chosen Gryffindor.
Or was it that he had not chosen Gryffindor…? No, Gryffindor could never have been an option for him.
Still, Severus held resolutely on to the hope that some day he could return to the easy friendship he used to have with Lily, or perhaps it could go even further than that…
Gryffindor or not, he still loved her.
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*---June, Fifth Year---*
Lily dashed up the stairs to he dormitory, where Summer and Elizabeth were waiting for her.
"Well. What did he say?" Summer asked.
"He said he's sorry about ten times. And he said he never meant to call me a Mudblood." Lily narrowed her eyes at the memory of what had happened that afternoon after the Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.
"He calls everyone else of Muggle parentage a Mudblood," Elizabeth said disgustedly.
"I—I just don't understand why he's become like this. He was my best friend." Lily turned towards the window and crossed her arms. "And now he's one of those Death Eater wannabes!" she said furiously.
A single tear of frustration escaped the corner of Lily's eyes. How had Severus changed so much?
Or maybe it wasn't that he'd changed. Maybe he was only now showing his true colors…
Severus stood in front of the portrait hole to the Gryffindor common room, unable to move, still imagining Lily's fierce glare, still seeing the way the dull blaze of the fire in the room behind her had made her auburn hair glimmer with golden highlights as she turned furiously away from him, just a moment before. What had he done?
What had he done?
He had been so full of anger and rage when Potter had mercilessly tortured him. And then, to top it all off, Lily was there to bear witness to his total humiliation at the hands of the boy who so fervently sought her affections. But no, it got worse. He had to be rescued by her… As if he was weak…
His rage had turned on all in the immediate vicinity.
And it had cost him Lily.
Severus' rage intensified as he thought of the reason the whole episode had begun in the first place. Potter.
*---February, Sixth Year---*
"I can't believe he broke up with me!" Lily moaned in a chair situated the corner of the common room.
"Shhhh! It's okay! He was a git anyways!" Summer said soothingly. She paused and said, as an afterthought, "And to do it by owl, too! Of all the immature and cowardly ways to break up with someone… Lily, you're obviously too good for the likes of him!"
"Well, I know that now," Lily said with a sniff, "but it still hurts!" She grimaced as she buried her face in her hands. 'At least it hasn't come to outright sobbing yet,' Lily thought to herself with some satisfaction.
"And to say he needs more time to concentrate on his studies… What a selfish idiot, he should have thought of that before he got involved with someone! Come on Lils. Lets get you up stairs!" Elizabeth said, grabbing Lily by the arms and helping her out of her chair.
"And after we get you settled, we'll go down and bring you up some lunch," Summer said with concern.
As they disappeared up the girl's dormitory steps, James followed their retreating forms with worry in his eyes. When the edges of Summer's school robes vanished as she pushed Lily gently up the stairs, he turned and asked his friends:
"Why's Lily so upset?"
He wouldn't have been surprised to find out that none of them knew the answer, but he got what he wanted from the person he would have least expected to know.
"That bloke from Ravenclaw broke up with her this morning" Sirius informed him.
"How do you know that?" James said, staring at Sirius dubiously.
"I was studying with Leah Bradshaw. She told me all about it when I walked her to class".
"Right. You were studying with a fifth year," Remus said, staring shrewdly at his friend. "Because, you know, we have the same classes, and everything…"
"Hey, she's a Ravenclaw! She's a freaking genius," Sirius said nonchalantly. "And that's how she knew about Riley and Lily in the first place. His whole house knew before he even sent the owl, thanks to his bigmouth best friend. Big news, it is. So, when we were through studying, she mentioned it to me." Sirius smirked mischievously.
"Hmmph," Peter snorted skeptically. "Studying, my arse."
"Ah, I'd advise you to keep your arse to yourself, Wormtail."
"I'd advise you to follow your own advice," Remus countered. Sirius crossed his arms defensively.
"Now just what are you—"
James had blocked out the inane banter of his friends long ago. He was focused on one thing: vengeance, on the loathsome Riley Connor.
'What the hell kind of a name is Riley Connor, anyway…?!' James thought to himself disgustedly.
The next day, Riley didn't turn up for class. In fact, he didn't show up until two weeks later in the girl's toilet. He was given detention for messing around in the Vanishing Cabinet, even though he claimed he was attacked and forced into it. However, when asked who the supposed attackers were, he merely stammered uncertainly, "I couldn't exactly—I—Well, um--See, they were…invisible." The professors scoffed at this, as no one but them and some highly advanced, and highly dependable, seventh years could achieve invisibility in any form, and Riley served his two weeks worth of detentions grudgingly. However, Riley was a slightly paranoid boy, and he did leave Professor Slughorn's many muck-filled cauldrons sparkling, just in case the mysterious force that had subdued him was some sort of spirit of vengeance that would unleash upon him more of his cosmic share of bad karma. This turn of events made Elizabeth, Summer, and especially Lily, enormously satisfied, which made James quite satisfied in turn.
A/N: This chapter has been re-edited. :)
I still have to decide whether I want to change to write the rest of the story in first person or keep it in third (As I *think* I said before, the rest of the story will be pretty much focused on Lily.) and I cannot make up my mind!!!! I'm so indesicive. If you have some thoughts on this decision, let me know!
Reviews are VERY much appreciated, and thanks again for reading!!! I love you all!!! :D