Red

The boy – the one with dark, untidy hair and hazel eyes, the one who had tried to trip Severus up on the train – grinned as Lily stepped into the common room, the last of the first years. The rest of them were now sitting themselves down awkwardly in the Gryffindor Common Room, having been led here by their prefect, Graham Reed. The older Gryffindors were chuckling with friends, some heading upstairs and a few lingering behind, in front of the flickering fire.

Lily recognised the other one from the compartment – something Black, she vaguely recalled – perched on the arm of a sofa, which was a deep red. She wondered briefly if Severus was now sitting on an identical sofa, of a green hue. The colour of Slytherin. She had expected to be sorted into the same house as him, wanted to, even. He was her only friend at Hogwarts. But she was a Gryffindor, apparently of a similar personality as the two boys that had called Severus Snivellus. Had the Sorting Hat made a mistake? She, Lily Evans, would never be so – so –

"You are now all in Gryffindor, I'm pleased to say," began Reed loudly. "Drew Heading, the other Gryffindor prefect, isn't here at present, since she has been involved in an accident and will spend a week or two in St. Mungo's. And so I've been asked by Professor McGonagall – that's our head of house, see – to, well, introduce you to one another. She doesn't want you all to get off on the wrong foot, or something along those lines."

It was too late for that, thought Lily darkly.

"So, er, why don't you start?" Reed had gestured to a small boy with watery eyes and mousey brown hair. The boy glanced up, looking thoroughly terrified.

"M-me?" he stammered.

"C'mon," laughed the boy from earlier, the one with glasses. "Don't be a wimp."

Irritation bubbled up inside her, and Lily felt herself standing up, glaring at him.

"Why don't you go, then?" she demanded. "Or are you going to be horrible to someone else now?"

"You're that… Evans girl, aren't you?" he said with a grin. "The one from that train, with Snivelly."

"Don't call him that," she shot back. "He's my friend."

"He's in Slytherin," he retorted, as if that were some sort of explanation.

"He's my friend!"

"We're in Gryffindor, he's in Slytherin, which, come on, is just the absolute wor–"

"SHUT IT!" bellowed Reed. "Right. Just… introduce yourselves. Be civil, but keep it short and simple."

"Well, I'm James Potter," said the boy, looking directly at Lily. "I love Quidditch, and can't wait to start properly learning. I'm really glad to have been sorted into Gryffindor, like my dad. And… I have a wicked sense of humour."

"That was great," said Reed, who was beginning to sound somewhat bored by this. "Next, you."

"Er… Oh, I'm Remus Lupin," said a quiet-looking boy with one or two scars streaked across his face. "I'm quite pleased to be in Gryffindor too, but apart from that, there's not really much to say." He glanced up, almost apologetically, at Reed.

The Black boy was next.

"Sirius Black. I'll bet anyone in here a Galleon my mum'll disown me, since my whole family were Slytherins, and I've gone and broken the tradition. Though I never really liked Slytherins anyway, least of all my family members." A grin broke across his face. "Reckon Gryffindor's a lot better."

Four others spoke about themselves, an Alice Longbottom, a Penelope Lewis, a Marlene McKinnon and a Peter Pettigrew. Finally, Reed turned to Lily.

"I'm Lily," she began, resuming her glaring at the two boys she hated most. "Lily Evans. I'm Muggle-born, and didn't know I was a witch until I was told by my best friend, Severus. He's in Slytherin and he's really nice, so–"

"Going to declare your love for him now?" teased James Potter.

She ignored him. "–I wanted to be in Slytherin too, but I'm sure Gryffindor will be alright."

"Alright?" echoed Sirius Black. "It's the best house there is! Well, so I've heard."

"Not from your parents, I'll bet," laughed James.

"I know a lot about Slytherin, and it's really not nice," said Sirius. "My family are awful. They're classic Slytherins. Pure-bloods and all that."

"If the Hat had put me in Slytherin, I'd leave," said James. "I'd rather go to a… a Muggle school than be in Slytherin."

"My mum would probably send me a cake," said Sirius, "with 'Well Done, Sirius!' or something equally awful written on it. She was never too sure about me, thought I was too nice for her liking, probably. Wanted me to be a bit meaner, a bit more of the Slytherin type, I think."

"She would send you a cake?" chuckled James.

"Now she'll probably just send a Howler," mused Sirius.

Lily squeezed her eyes shut and tried to picture Slytherin, the house which bore so much prejudice from the Gryffindors surrounding her. Two of the Gryffindors, she quickly corrected. That James Potter and Sirius Black.

A hazy image swirled into focus, a figment of her imagination, yet one which she yearned to be real. There, she sat laughing with people, Severus on her right, and nothing, not even the most infinitesimal thing, glittered crimson in the lights. Every square inch of her Slytherin was emerald.

Lily opened her eyes.

A common room of red stretched out before her. She felt a flicker of irritation with the colour, brought on, most definitely, by that insolent James Potter.