Chapter 4: Mudblood
Lily woke up with a smile on her face, she didn't know why, but she had the feeling that today would be a new start on her life as the first day of her seventh year. She rushed to the bathroom and showered, brushed her teeth and dried her hair. Once she put on her school uniform she went to the Great Hall to have breakfast.
She didn't have any friends. Well, she was friends with Alice and Margaret (if helping each other with their homework was considered being friends), but it's not like they ever had breakfast together. She always sat alone. She did everything by herself. She had a tough time letting people in her life and didn't mind keeping it that way. But today, she saw Cristina, the new girl, sitting with Remus and Peter and wanted to greet her. She didn't mind being around Remus, Peter and Sirius, James had always been the only problem to her. She couldn't stand being near him, but after last night, she figured it might change.
"Hey!" said Lily as she sat next to Peter, in front of Cristina and Remus.
"Hello!" They greeted her.
"I'm Lily Evans" she introduced herself.
"Nice to meet you, Lily. I'm Cristina Hernandez" the other girl said with a smile plastered in her face.
"I hope yesterday's fight in the train between me and James hasn't made you think badly of me" Lily blurted out, hoping Cristina never got the wrong image of her.
"Don't worry, I don't usually judge people without getting to know them first" Cristina admitted. "If I'd been in your shoes, I'd probably act the same way towards James."
Lily laughed and shook her head in disbelief. At least this girl knew what it felt like to be around James.
"Give the boy a break" Peter interfered. "He's just trying to be nice to everyone this year."
"Well, yesterday he wasn't that nice to me" Lily stated.
"But it was you that started screaming at him like you were possessed" Remus said.
He had a point. It was her that started screaming at him when Lily found out he was Head Boy and it was also her who'd been rude when he picked up her book. But he always teased her and he made her go through hell the previous school years.
"Buenos dias!" Sirius said with a bad accent, sitting right next to Cristina and kissing her cheek.
"Buenos dias, Sirius" Cristina responded in her perfect Spanish accent and rubbing her hand on the cheek Sirius had kissed as if trying to clean it.
Lily rolled eyes at him and focused on her plate.
"You jealous, Lily Bean?" Sirius asked with a mocking grin on his face. "I can give you a good morning kiss to if you want to" and winked at her.
"No need to, Black" she answered and ate her eggs. "So, Cristina, where did you live before coming here?"
Cristina's body tightened. She went completely pale and it looked like she was having an argument with herself.
"I uh... I lived in l'Escala. It's a small village on the north-east coast of Spain. Close to the frontiers between Spain and France. I had to get a train from Figueres to Barcelona and from Barcelona to Madrid to get to Los Santos."
"Nice" Peter said. "How's your family like?"
Lily noticed how she hesitated before saying anything, but when she opened her mouth, someone interrupted her.
"Good morning, people!" James Potter sat next to Lily and food appeared in his plate.
"Uh oh..." Sirius, Remus and Peter muttered, looking back and forth from James to Lily.
"What?" Lily asked them.
"Please don't start fighting during our first breakfast from our last year, guys" Remus sighed. "I'd like to have a good start during my first day."
Lily couldn't help but chuckle and James did too. They both looked at each other and smiled for a brief moment, before turning to their plates.
"Wait" Peter broke the silence. "What's going on? You haven't even sent a death glare to each other!"
"Is this the apocalypse?" Sirius said in a fake horror and made Cristina laugh.
"Guys, could you cut this please?" James asked them. "Lily and I decided yesterday to start from anew, ignoring our past fights between each other as it is our last year and we don't want to spend it yelling at each other. We have to start cooperating because we are Head Boy and Head Girl and we have to live together so we better stop fighting. Right, Evans?"
"You said it, Potter" she agreed and looked at the others.
Cristina's mouth fell open and bacon fell from it to her plate. She then leaned closer to Sirius and whispered "I think they both are on drugs."
Sirius chuckled and agreed, both of them getting hit with eggs and bacon from James and Lily.
"Eww! Stop it, I just showered!" Cristina screamed. "I don't want to smell like bacon on my first day!"
They all started laughing and headed to Herbology, their first class.
The day went on, and when the last class had come to an end they all headed to Gryffindor's common room. On their way, Cristina felt someone's hand grab her arm and pull her into another corridor. Not one of her friends noticing it.
"What the-" before she could end the sentence, someone covered her mouth with one hand.
It was the boy from yesterday, Malfoy.
"Look who we have here..." he muttered while pressing her back into a wall. Cristina tried to scream but Malfoy warned her, "make a single sound, and I'll hex you to death."
She remained silent, her hard breathing the only sound her body emitted. Her back started to hurt from the strength Malfoy had pressed her into the wall.
"See, I don't like when people make fun of me, and you did yesterday. I also don't like mudbloods, and you are one. I can't change the fact that you're a filthy mudblood slut, but I can make you stop making fun of me" he threatened her.
Her eyes opened wide in horror when she saw him taking his wand of his pocket. She closed her eyes, wishing to not feel anything when she heard someone yell.
"Expelliarmus!"
Malfoy's wand fell to the ground and he looked puzzled.
Cristina and him turned their heads to see Sirius standing there, an angry look on his face, with James, Lily, Peter and Remus behind him. Wands in their hands. Cristina looked relieved as Malfoy let go of her. She tried to move towards their friends but Malfoy stood in her way.
"Well, well, look who we have here, the heroes of the day and Lily mudblood Evans" he whispered.
Lily took a step back, hurt by his comment and James approached her. "Take that back, Lucius!"
"Why should I? It's the truth. Truth is ugly and it hurts sometimes" Lucius Malfoy said in a calm tone.
"The only thing that hurts in here is your ugly face, Malfoy!" Sirius snapped.
"Are we still in third year, Black?" Malfoy commented. "Now I see why your family doesn't want you back home. You're a shame to them because you were sorted in Gryffindor and not in Slytherin, and you're a shame to them because you're too afraid of hexing your enemy and instead you use such lame comments to try and hurt me."
An angry look came up Sirius' face and his hand tightened around his wand. Cristina wanted to use this occasion where Malfoy was too distracted on Sirius to escape but, apparently, Malfoy was also focused on Cristina's movements and pushed her so hard she hit the wall with her back and smacked her head on it, falling down to her knees, unable to move.
"Accio!" Sirius screamed, making Malfoy's wand go straight to his hand. "I can't believe you just hurt a girl. I'd hex you, but I want you to feel the pain right from my own hands!"
And with that he charged towards Malfoy and started beating the shit out of him.
"You fucking bastard!" Sirius screamed. "How dare you touch her!"
Malfoy fell to the ground with Sirius on top of him punching his face like crazy. James and Remus grabbed him to stop him, but he was just too full of adrenaline. Peter ran next to Cristina, helped her up, and carried her with Lily to their bedroom.
Lily knew a charm or two to make the pain go away and used it on her, while she was laying on her bed. Peter looked inside his bedside table for one of his chocolate bars and gave on to her.
A few minutes after the door swung open and a trio of bruised and beaten up boys entered the bedroom. Sirius was the one looking worse. Lily didn't understand how Remus and James got hit too.
"What happened?" she asked and ran next to the boys.
Sirius ignored her and walked towards Cristina's bed, where she was sitting with Peter right next to her.
"Regulus and Thomas joined the fight when they saw Sirius beating the crap out of Malfoy. McGonagall saw us and gave us a week of detention" James explained and winced when he tried to sit down on Peter's bed. Lily helped him and sat down next to him.
Remus laid down on his bed and Peter approached him as Sirius sat on the edge of Cristina's bed.
"Are you okay?" He asked her.
"Me?" Cristina said bewildered. "I should be the one asking you this question! You look like hell!"
He just smiled and looked anywhere but at her. "I'll be fine as long as you are."
Cristina blushed at his comment and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you" she whispered.
"You're welcome" he answered.
That night Peter took Remus, who thought he had a pair of ribs broken, to the infirmary and both of them spent the night in there. James and Lily went back to their headquarters together in silence until Lily decided to speak.
"Thank you" Lily whispered as they approached the entrance.
"For what?" James said, snapping out of his daydreaming.
"For standing up for me before" Lily stated and muttered the password to their common room. They both stood in the short corridor, as the portrait closed, not saying anything, just looking at each other. "But you know there was no need to do so."
"But he called you a- a- a you know what!" he said, leaning back against the wall of the entrance.
"I've been called a- a mudblood many times before" Lily whispered, choking on the insult. "It may affect me at the time, but after a few minutes I don't care anymore. You see, James, during this past years you and many others made me go through a lot of shit, and I learnt to just put up with it. I don't need anyone to save me from the stupid names people call me."
James smiled and looked directly at her.
"What?" she asked, puzzled.
"You called me James" he said, getting closer to her. "It's the first time I hear you say it in my whole life. I like it. You should do it more often" by this time, he was a few inches from her face, looking down at her.
"Then you should call me Lily too" she said.
"Okay, Lily" James whispered in her ear. The way he said it sent shivers down her spine. It made her blush like crazy and she didn't understand why, but she liked it, and she liked it a lot. He bent down to kiss her cheek but she moved away and made her way towards her bedroom.
He looked rather confused and it made her feel great.
"Good night, Lily" James said and made his way towards his bedroom.
Before Lily could think about it, she was on her way towards him and kissed his cheek.
"Night James" she said, and with that, she disappeared in her bedroom, leaving James completely stunned and shocked right in front of his bedroom.
Sirius was woken up by a scream in the middle of the night. He looked at his alarm clock, it was 2:23 AM. He saw Cristina kicking and screaming on her bed, tears running down her face. He ran towards her and tried to stop her.
"Cris! Cris wake up!" Sirius begged, trying to grab her arms so she wouldn't hit him. "Wake up please!"
"Make it stop!" Cristina screamed, her eyes still closed.
She was having a nightmare. One she usually had. She kept hearing a voice in her head saying Eres la siguiente, sangre sucia! [You're next, mudblood] and her family's screams right after. He felt someone grab her arms and finally, she woke up and sat up, feeling someone's arms around her. Sirius.
"Hey, it's okay" he kept muttering while rubbing her back and kissing her hair. "No need to cry."
It wasn't until he said that that she realized she was crying. She sniffed and leaned more into Sirius' arms, as if they were an armor and protected her.
"Please don't go" she begged between her sobs, grabbing his shirt and pulling him closer.
Sirius didn't say anything; he just lay down next to her and covered them up with her blankets. He let her cry a little bit more into his chest before grabbing her chin and kissing her forehead. He brushed the tears from her cheeks with his thumb and wrapped her in his arms.
"Come on, sleep or you'll regret it tomorrow" he told her and she nodded.
Five minutes later, she was asleep and he kept thinking that he didn't want her to get the wrong idea of him. He was just doing it to be a friend to her, although deep inside, he felt like doing it for another reason he didn't want to know about.