Disclaimer: How many Ravenclaws does it take to do the disclaimer? None, because it doesn't take a Ravenclaw to know that I don't own Harry Potter. Anything that seems familiar either directly or indirectly belongs to JK Rowling
Chapter 5: Divided Loyalties
POV: Lily Ann
"Slytherin? Did it say Slytherin?"
"Barking mad, it is."
Whispers somehow seemed to stand out to Lily Ann, making her smirk at the naivety of her peers as she walked with a slight bounce in her step towards the table that was roaring in approval at a volume that rivaled the Gryffindors'. Looking at Harry's peers, Lily Ann couldn't help notice their dejected look and remembered what Hermione had said on the train about the fierce competition between the two houses. Perhaps she could do something about that, having her own brother in Gryffindor. That did appear to be why the Sorting Hat had put her in Slytherin.
Sliding into the seat next to Draco, who appeared to have just shoved Gregory from the seat to make room for her, she smiled at the boy and said, "Fancy seeing you here. I was rather hoping to find you on the train."
"Yes well," the boy drawled, "I was rather preoccupied. Some fool decided to spread a rumor that the Potters were on board so I naturally had to search the train to make sure they were in good company."
"Oh how honorable of you," Lily Ann said sweetly, fighting the smirk that was slowly creeping up her face. "And it took you that long to search the entire train?"
"No," said the boy who had just been sorted as he sat down next to the reseated Gregory. "No, he was stopped by Jordan and the Weasleys. Apparently they heard about this quest of Draco's and decided he needed an extra eight eyes and legs for him to complete it so put a tarantula down his shirt to compensate. You should've seen the look on his face!" The boy looked off into the distance, lost in the memory.
"Nobody asked you, Zabini," scowled Draco, and turned to the feast that had just appeared in front of them, ignoring the laughter of his housemates.
POV: Harry
"I can't believe it!" Harry growled, glaring over at the Slytherin table. "She's schmoozing up to him! That filthy, arrogant, pompous, no good little git!"
"I know mate, I know. But don't take it out on your plate!" Ron said in what was supposed to be a soothing voice but actually came out sounding quite thick as Ron made his way through his third helping of fried chicken. "You can always get him personally later."
Harry had looked down at his hardly touched steak and realized he was indeed very close to shattering the plate beneath it if he continued to saw at it like he had for the past five minutes. When the hat had shouted out Slytherin, he had thought it was a mistake. Who in their right mind would put Lily Ann in a house full of evil snakes? Especially considering that it was one of those snakes that had tried to kill both of them when they were only one.
"Get who?" asked Hermione nosily as she emerged from a conversation with Percy about classes. "You better not be picking fights. You'd be losing points before we've even started!"
"I'm not picking fights," Harry argued haughtily. "It's my responsibility as a brother to make sure my sister isn't hanging around the wrong crowd."
Harry looked again at the Slytherin table where Lily Ann was animatedly talking to Malfoy, who looked smug and very pleased with himself. Lily Ann looked up and saw Harry looking at her, giving him a small smile, but continued talking as if nothing had happened.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Honestly Harry, do you really think that's going to work? She's in Slytherin; it should only be expected that she would be making friends in her own house. You can't expect her to ignore her house in favor of ours."
"I can," growled Harry, clenching his fork so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Everyone knows she should've been Sorted in Gryffindor." This made Harry wonder why she didn't ask the hat to be put in Gryffindor too. They weren't that different, were they?
"Besides," Ron interjected before Hermione could cut in again, "It's not about her making friends with Slytherins. It's about her making friends with that particular Slytherin."
"I hardly think that's fair," Hermione huffed haughtily. "What have you got against him anyways? Just because you had a bad first impression doesn't mean he's a bad person. My parents always told me to never judge a book by its cover."
"Does everything always have to be about books with you, Hermione?" Ron demanded. " Everyone knows that you never mess with the Malfoys; they're bad news. Besides," Ron added darkly, spearing a bit of potato and waving it for emphasis. "The Malfoys were all on You-Know-Who's side during the war. Dad reckons they only came back to our side when they realized it was either that or Azkaban."
"That's exactly what his aunt got," piped up Neville, but as if realizing he had just spoken, backtracked a little and added in a small voice, "At least, that's what I've heard."
Hermione relented a little, but huffed stubbornly, "Just because some of the family is bad doesn't mean all Malfoys are inherently evil."
"In his case, it does," Harry muttered darkly into his plate.
Hermione harrumphed and turned away from the boys, completely annoyed with their attitudes.
Harry was still plotting how to get at Malfoy the next morning when suddenly his scheming was interrupted by a whooshing sound from overhead. Hundreds upon hundreds of owls were flying in circles overhead, all bearing envelopes, packages, and newspapers as they searched for the respectable owners. Harry found himself ducking quickly as an owl flew down to Lee Jordan next to him, affectively spilling pumpkin juice down his robes.
As Harry gaped at the hundreds of owls overhead (and as a horrible stench wafted over from Lee's general direction as he, Fred, and George tore open the parcel and quickly stored its contents in the folds of their robes) Harry had an epiphany, and he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.
"Fred, George, I need your help settling a score."
Turning to him, they grinned wickedly.
"Ah, Fred. Look at him, our ickle Harrykins is already out for blood."
"I always knew he would want to follow in our footsteps."
"It only seems like yesterday that we left him alone on the train with ickle Ronnikins."
"I do believe that was yesterday, Fred."
"I do believe you're right, George. They grow up so fast, sometimes I forget."
"Though it's hard to forget because they so quickly come back groveling."
Ron rolled his eyes at his brothers, but Harry ignored their jibes; he had something more important in mind. Leaning closer to the twins, Harry said in a low voice, quickly glancing over at the Slytherin table conspiratorially, "What do you guys feel about going after Draco Malfoy?"
POV: Lily Ann
Lily Ann had never had such a good week before in her life – she had discounted any and all memories that portrayed the Dursley's in any positive light – and couldn't wait to tell her brother about her week during their afternoon tea with Hagrid.
Walking down the stairs to their first lesson of Potions, she couldn't help think of how her life had completely turned around from a month ago. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, Lily Ann had found people who like her – the real her – and even though Pansy Parkinson could be a little annoying and Milicent Bulstrode was somewhat of a bully to other first years, Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were wonderful people and were always willing to answer her questions. Lily Ann was really loving her housemates. Draco and sometimes Blaise Zabini would talk to her every evening after dinner while they were working on homework and would help her with her understanding of the Wizarding World. While she didn't necessarily agree with everything they had to say, she was grateful for her better understanding of things around her.
Becoming a witch was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Potions class took place in the dungeons, and was substantially cooler than the rest of the school. Not that Lily Ann minded, she kind of liked the way the cool air rested on her skin; it felt like being inside of a cool dark cave or the cool morning mist before the sun has hit it.
Entering the classroom and seeing Hermione Granger looking as ever ready to take on the world, Lily Ann suddenly realized that this was the first time that the Slytherins and Gryffindors had shared a class before, and as such Lily Ann had no idea what to expect from the two rivals.
Professor Snape on the other hand did, and as he swept in just moments after Harry and Ron ran in looking flushed and slightly out of breath and mere seconds before the bell rang, he called out "Settle down!" although it was already silent. Apparently he was used to at least some form of commotion, though Lily Ann really couldn't imagine Professor Snape tolerating commotion.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper to death."
His black, beady eyes scanned the classroom, daring anyone to interrupt, stopping momentarily on Harry as he did so. Lily Ann couldn't help notice that he avoided looking at her, just as he had when passing out the class schedules the first day. She frowned, unable to make anything of it, but shrugged; she was probably just imagining things.
"Mr. Potter!" Snape snapped, causing about half of the Gryffindors to jump. Poor Longbottom even fell out of his seat. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Harry looked at Ron, who looked just as perplexed as Lily Ann felt, before turning back to Professor Snape, "I don't know, sir."
Professor Snape's face contorted into something that Lily Ann didn't like, though made Draco chortle and Pansy smirk. Gregory and Vincent didn't seem to know how to react, so after a moment's hesitation, settled on silently laughing like Draco.
"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything. Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
Draco began shaking from the effort of not laughing, and Lily Ann looked at him quizzically, "Do you know?"
Draco began shaking even more and choked out, barely containing his mirth as he shook his head, "Of course not; we have servants to know how to make these. Father told me all about Professor Snape, and he's even better than I thought." He choked again and stopped talking as Harry again responded.
"I don't know, sir."
Lily Ann frowned as she saw Hermione with her arm thrust in the air. Professor Snape was pointedly ignoring her. He was clearly picking on Harry in the one way he could as a professor.
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"
Professor Snape looked as if he were going to further test Harry, but Lily Ann had had enough; it was time to turn the tables on her head of house.
"Professor?" Lily Ann asked sweetly as he opened his mouth. "Pardon me for interrupting, but what is the point behind this? If you were trying to teach, then shouldn't you at least tell us the answers so we could take notes? Or perhaps you were trying to test, in which case you should be asking random students without singling one individual out. But if you were merely trying to ridicule, I'd suggest you get your facts straight. It appears as if you are implying that because he is famous, Harry is less inclined to study and that as such, he has not taken the time to look through his school books. If you look at the name of his owl, you will find that he found her name, Hedwig, in A History of Magic. You will also find that while both Harry and I are famous, Harry took the time to read our textbooks while being more famous than I am – I did not read anything of the textbook.
"Of course if your only intention in your comments was to advise, both Harry and I are well aware that fame isn't everything. In our eyes, we've only been famous for about a month, though we thank you for your consideration."
Professor Snape blinked twice and seemed unable to figure how he was supposed to respond. Apparently he wasn't used to students from his own house standing up for the Gryffindors. In fact, Lily Ann wouldn't have been surprised if it was the first time he had ever seen it.
Lily Ann smiled sweetly and folded her arms patiently waiting for the lesson to commence, fully aware that every eye in the room was on her. Draco gaped at her in utter astonishment and Daphne hissed urgently, "What do you think you're doing; he's a Gryffindor!"
"And he still my brother."
In the end Lily Ann lost a point for disrupting the class and found she didn't care. She had heard that Snape played favorites and decided that that really needed to change. No teacher should openly show favoritism. Though, she mused, it was more like discrimination against all Gryffindors.
Sitting down at lunch, Lily Ann found to her amusement that whispers seemed to follow her even more than usual as the word of her showdown with Professor Snape spread. The Slytherins were somewhat perplexed and even annoyed, though some were good natured enough to be amused. On the other hand this single event seemed to make her rather popular among the other houses, especially so among the Gryffindors. Lily Ann even found herself being approached by members of the other houses to congratulate her, thank her, laugh with her, and other such trivialities so often that when Fred and George advanced from the Gryffindor table, Lily Ann had to put her foot down.
"Guys, if you're going to come over and tell me that I actually should be in Gryffindor, or any other house for that matter, save your breath. I've already heard," she, gesturing to the Patil twins who were walking away with Zacharias Smith and Justin Finch-Fletchly.
The two twins looked at each other in mock reflection, "Well it wouldn't be a stretch to say that it takes a lot of nerve to go up against Snape…"
"With a touch of insanity…"
"And it takes real ingenuity to silence that git…"
"Not to mention there was a lot of loyalty to Harry there…"
"But that was far to cunning for you to be anything but Slytherin." The twins nodded at each other as they finished listing the different house traits she had just displayed.
"Nah, we're just here to congratulate you that you've succeeded where we've failed in your first year to get Snape to take away points from his own house without a teacher witness," Fred said wistfully, making himself at home at the Slytherin table by leaning back and stretching out his long legs.
"She's become quite the little Marauder, she has."
"And as such, we would like to formally invite you to be involved in any way, shape or form in what we like to call business."
Smirking slightly at the image that "business" brought, Lily Ann shook her head. "While I appreciate the offer, at this time I have no need of the trouble that such "business" would bring. Although," she added with a mad gleam in her eye, "I may just take up that offer whenever Harry gets a bit annoying."
She shared an evil grin with the twins and they removed themselves from the table. As they whistled away, Draco took the place they had just vacated, looking rather sour.
"What did the weasels want? Surely they're above handouts," he glared at the older students who were now joining Lee Jordan at the Gryffindor table.
Lily Ann refrained from rolling her eyes as he muttered a string of curses under his breath, "Honestly, they're not that bad. And it's not a crime to be poor. Not everyone can be rich, you know."
Lily Ann never had a chance to complete her thought because at that moment, Draco let out a startled yell. Looking over at him she saw Draco staring at his plate with confusion. Ignoring her, he determinably took a bite of his pot pie until it vanished. Letting out a frustrated yell, he again attempted to take a bite before it again disappeared moments before it entered his mouth. Draco then began to shovel his food as quickly as he could, never managing to take a single bite before it vanished into thin air. Before long, his plate looked as clean as it had before Draco had loaded it.
Completely baffled, the two of them along with Vincent and Gregory, stared at the plate as the Great Hall slowly filled with laughter at Draco's plight.
Three o'clock found Harry and Lily Ann, along with Ron and Tracey inside of Hagrid's hut, which was small and cramped, though it somehow seemed suitable for him. Tracey seemed to doubt the wisdom of coming with Lily Ann, but seeing Lily Ann's begging face, had agreed to come "just this once."
Hagrid seemed quite content to sit back and listen to them talk about their week, Fang drooling all over his knee until Ron started ranting about Professor Snape.
"Can you believe that they actually let him teach here? I mean he's not actually very good, now is he? Fred and George say they've never actually learned anything from him and this is their third year!"
"Oh I'm sure Fred and George are a great well of information. I don't even know how they manage to pass their first two years. You sure know how to choose your sources, Ronald," huffed Tracey, thoroughly put out by the jibe at her head of house.
"I swear he hates me. He's taken points from me three times already, and I've only been to class with him once! I didn't even do anything that last time…" Harry pointed out. "And he always seems to be contemplating my death whenever he looks at me."
"Nonsense!" Hagrid exclaimed. "Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher."
"At least he looks at you," Lily Ann interjected, completely ignoring Hagrid. "Imagine, your own head of house not looking at you! Even when he was taking points from me, he looked anywhere but at me."
"Something everyone wishes would happen to them," Ron muttered moodily, taking a bite out of the rock cakes set before him and grimacing, setting it back down on the plate looking like it had never been touched.
Hagrid must've sensed an argument brewing, and loudly changed the subject, "Well that's all over with now, yeh must've done more than Potions, now hasn't yeh?"
Lily Ann's thoughts immediately turned to Draco and she glanced darkly at Tracey, whose thoughts seemed to be heading the same direction.
"I've been pretty occupied this afternoon," she said elusively, really not in the mood to retell the story. She had spent two hours helping Draco find something in the school that he could eat. After finding no success, they went to Professor Snape for help, who quickly cast a counterspell that immediately ended the forced famine. Both she and Draco were rather irritated by the simplicity of the cure, and Draco had stormed off to plan revenge on the culprit.
Harry and Ron both snickered behind their hands, and Lily Ann glared at the pair of them.
"It's not funny you two! It was actually rather mean," Lily Ann said indignantly. "If anything, I'll be helping Draco get back at those jerks." Tracey nodded in agreement.
Hagrid looked thoroughly confused at the argument that was beginning to form, "Hold up you four, what'd be going on in the castle?"
Still glaring at Harry, Lily Ann responded vehemently, "Some idiot decided it would be funny to vanish anything that Draco tried to eat. It took hours to figure out how to stop them."
Harry snorted into his mug and muttered under his breath to Ron, "And I'm surprised he even did stop them." Ron smirked.
Unfortunately for Harry, Lily Ann heard him and went into a towering rage as things all began to click inside her head.
"And what would you know of that, Harry Potter?" she asked in a menacingly low voice.
Catching his mistake, Harry quickly backtracked. "I, uh, nothing," He stuttered unconvincingly.
"Harry James Potter, I know you far too well to believe your stupid lies," Lily Ann threatened. "Now tell me the truth before I set Vince and Greg on you."
Harry flinched, obviously thinking of the incidents that had begun on their very first day. Nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of Crabbe and Goyle. "He really is a bad influence on you, you know," He said evasively, trying to avoid the question.
Lily Ann however knew her brother far too well and read that statement for what it really was. She wasn't an idiot and was rather furious with her brother. "So you've decided that you know better than I do when it comes to my friends. You decided to take it into your own hands to make sure I don't go off with the 'wrong sort.' So you go off and punish those who don't stand up to par, starting with Draco. And yes," she added, seeing him open his mouth to protest, "I know you couldn't actually perform those spells but I know that you must've been the instigator. You just got…" here she paused in thought and then slapped her forehead, "Fred and George! Of course, how could I have been so stupid! They were right there right before Draco sat down."
Lily Ann's words rang truth, and Harry seemed to be hiding from her wrath as he sank lower and lower in his seat, signifying to her that she was correct.
She was standing now, looking as if she were about to burst, though her next words were eerily calm. "You know what? I can't believe you would actually do that to me after what I did for you in potions. Next time I think I'll just let Snape grill you."
With that, she turned on her brother and said to Hagrid, "I'm sorry, Hagrid, but I believe it's time for me to go. I have homework that I need to finish and I'd like to get it done before the weekend's up. Please tell Harry for me that I don't want to see his face until he's willing to respect my life decisions."
With a finally glare at her brother, Lily Ann left with Tracey without another word.
Anything you'd like to see more of? Less?
What events/adventures do you want Lily Ann to be involved in? What should she just be an observer?
Review with your answers!
~HiddenReaderNinja
