Another update? PERPOSTEROUS! Preposterous? Perpendicular? I dunnoh. But yeah. Hopefully this will put an end to your woes... Dont you just LOVE the title? PPP FTW!

I feel like the last couple chapters have been so short, and I'm really sorry, but I made up for it by having more than one update. Right? Right?

Chapter 7.2

Lily couldn't keep her mind off the dream all the next day. She kept an eye out for Sarah or (with the kind of flustered embarrassment you get when you're doing something you shouldn't be doing) Scorpius. This was hard to do, however, when your older brother was scowling at you all day. James had been tailing Lily almost everywhere, as though he knew everything and was determined to stop it.

Finally, on her way to dinner, she cornered James by a statue of a one-eyed witch. "What's your deal, James?" Lily snapped. James didn't hide anything. "Look Lils. I know you're a nice kid and everything, but you gotta watch who you hang around with. I mean, Parker is a Ravenclaw…" "Luna Lovegood was a Ravenclaw too, remember, and I was partially named for her!" Lily cut him off, fuming. "Yeah, I know, but Parker is a snobby, stuck-up Ravenclaw. And could you imagine what dad would say – hell, what the whole Wizarding world would say – if you started going out with a Malfoy?"

Lily flushed as red as her hair. "What… what're you… Malfoy?" She said in an unusually high voice. James glared. "See! Just… hang with the other Gryphs, okay? Stick to your own kind." He said dejectedly. Suddenly, Lily was furious.

"My own kind? What's that supposed to mean?" She said, her voice nearing a shriek. "I just mean that…" James started to say, putting one hand on Lily's shoulder. Lily would have none of it; she jerked away from her brother. "Means that I'm supposed to stay with 'my kind' so that it'll look good on the family? Well, what if I don't want to look good? You sound pretty snobby and stuck-up yourself, James. The whole Potter family does right now."

"Lils…" James tried to say again, but Lily spoke over him – rather, screamed. "I don't want to hear it! I can be friends with whoever I want, and if you're so conceited you're afraid of ruining the Potter's perfect name than maybe we shouldn't be friends." James looked utterly perplexed. "But we're family too, Lily..." He muttered. "Well I wish I wasn't!" Lily cried, hurling the words at her brother like daggers. And they seemed to hurt him like daggers as well – he visibly sank into himself. Lily didn't care – she was already stomping back to the common room with tears burning in her eyes.

Indy found Lily curled up in an armchair after dinner. "Hey." Lily muttered. Indy pursed her lips and sat in the other chair. "James told us about your little… outburst." She said. Lily's eyes flicked to her friend's face, searching for any signs of how she felt. Finding none she said, "And?"

"And… ah… I kinda agree…" Indy said tentatively. Lily sat up like someone had burned her, gripping the armrests with white knuckles and glaring. "What? How!" She exclaimed. "I mean, Gryffindors are supposed to be all proud and stuff… they're the elite of all the houses. Godric Gryffindor was the leader of the group, and he hated Slytherin. It's a legacy, Lily. Gryffindors, no matter how kind we are, just don't meddle with the others."

Lily's face was pale. "That sounds like Slytherin talk. All pure blooded and conceited." She said faintly, her tone expressing none of the white-hot fury she felt. "That's how we are, though. Gryffindors and Slytherins are very much the same – we both seek power, and the best of the best. Ravenclaw too. Hufflepuff… well, they just take the rest… but that's that." Indy said.

"I don't believe it." Lily whispered. "You don't have to believe it, but you have no real choice but to live it. You're Gryffindor." Indy concluded, looking as though she was glad to get it off her chance. Suddenly, Lily leapt to her feet. "No, I'm not! I'm a Slytherin! That's where the Sorting Hat put me, and I begged for a reprieve but I never realized that it was right! I never really wanted to be a Gryffindor, and I never will be!"

She ran then – ran out of the portrait hole, ran down the corridors and down the stairs. She didn't wait for the staircases to stop before getting on or off, she just took her chances and jumped while they were still moving. She tore through hidden corridors pretending to be tapestries or walls and flung open doors that really lead to rooms and corridors two floors below. She found herself running through Nearly Headless Nick – ignoring the unpleasant feeling – and sprinting down a faintly familiar hall.

"Parslemouth!" Lily cried in front of a brick wall. The wall shifted to form a door. Without really thinking what could possibly happen, Lily wrenched open the door and flew down into the Slytherin common room.

The green, underwater-y glow was a nicer sight to Lily than anything, but she didn't have time to look around – two dozen Slytherins were glaring at her from every corner of the room. "I'm looking for Scorpius Malfoy." Lily said suddenly, the words falling from her mouth involuntarily and surprising even herself.

"What do you think you're doing in the Slytherin common room, Potter?" It was Douglas Conrad, the Slytherin prefect. "I think I'm looking for Scorpius, Conrad." Lily said firmly, and the prefect looked a little taken aback. "You're in so much trouble, Potter!" Conrad said, ignoring her comment.

"Clearly he isn't here, so I'll be taking my leave." Lily said coldly, and turned and ran back up the steps. "Get her!" Conrad roared, and there was the sound of heavy footsteps behind her. Lily slammed the door right in the pursuers faces and kept running. She was tired, but she was also exhilarated.

Her next stop was the Great Hall. She was completely drained, but the Slytherins weren't chasing her anymore. She moved towards the Gryffindor bench, but saw her family and most of her friends sitting there. Albus met her gaze, but didn't say anything. His eyes were full of pity. Lily turned a little to the side, saw Sarah eating alone.

She walked over slowly. Just before she could sit down, the doors opened and Conrad came in. "Potter!" He bellowed. Right behind him was a livid Professor McGonagall. Lily's heart filled with dread, but that dread cleared her mind and gave her an idea of what to do. She waited, frozen in the stares of everyone in the Hall as they came closer. Just as Conrad lunged forwards to grab her, she leapt onto the bench and onto the Ravenclaw table. She darted around the prefect and Headmistress, landed on the floor again and broke into another run.

There was a stitch in her side and her breath was raspy, but she knew where she was going. "Potter, come back here right now!" McGonagall yelled. Instead of her voice scaring Lily into stopping, it only drove her forwards in an attempt to get away from her wrath.

Up the stairs again… up six flights of stairs. By the time she reached the seventh floor her legs were burning and her throat was raw. A little farther, a little farther, and this'll all be over, she told herself.

She reached a tapestry. She walked back and forth in front of it three times quickly, because she could hear footsteps. On the third time there was a door there, and she pulled it open and ducked inside.

Safety.

The Room was dark, like last time, and again there was the mirror and the Hat. Lily tried to stagger over to the Mirror of Erised again, but exhaustion got the better of her. Before she could get a chair, before she could even get the Room to get her a bottle of water, she sank to her knees, and then her side, pressing her face against the cool stone floor.

Everything went black.

Harumph.

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