Title: Blue October, Volume One – Chapter Thirteen.
Author: Woodland Goddess.
Rated: M
Author's Note: I figured I'd be nice and post the next one. Lol ^_^ I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. Feel free to let me know what you think ^_^
Chapter Thirteen: Get Him
"Hey, Severus," Lily called brightly, a happy smile stretching across her face as she came barrelling out the front door of her house. Two weeks had passed since the disastrous dinner affair at the Evans' household. After Petunia had been sent to her room, the kitchen had settled into an awkward silence which none of them had really been willing to break. Severus was glad the nightmare was over, though Lily often voiced that she wished Petunia would learn to keep her mouth shut if she had nothing nice to say.
Severus tucked a lock of his limp hair behind his ear and waved at Lily with his free hand. His friend had a brief break from school during the week of Halloween and Mr Evans had been kind enough to cut down Severus' workload for the week. He was neither pleased nor dissatisfied by the fact, but he found that he had a severe case of restlessness when he was not bent over his studies. Half the time, Severus had no idea what to do with himself but he did not want to bother Mr Evans by asking if he could have his normal workload back.
Lily hurried down the driveway towards him, linking arms with him as soon as she could. She had a satchel hanging off one shoulder. It was not as large as a man's satchel, but it was certainly big enough to carry a number of items. "What's in there?" Severus queried, an eyebrow rising as he eyed the bag. A minor bout of suspicion was coursing through him. With a girl like Lily, one could never be certain what they were planning; being honest was a perfect method of deception.
Lily grinned and squeezed his arm affectionately. "Always so suspicious," she teased, poking his arm. The corner of Severus' mouth quirked upwards, a familiar smirk that would, one day, become a trademark among his fellows. Always, he admitted to himself, though he said nothing in response to Lily's comment. Lily rested her head momentarily against Severus' shoulder; a gesture of affection that Severus held dear to his heart. "You should learn to loosen up, Severus, honestly!"
"If I was loose, I'd fall apart," Severus said, snorting in quiet amusement. He could not help imagining the loosening of all joints in the body, the bones and muscles tumbling to the ground, twitching but unable to move from where they had fallen. It was a morbid image and yet he found something hilarious about the whole thing. Lily playfully elbowed him, a bubble of laughter escaping her chest. He elbowed her in return, deliberately careful. He never really knew when he was being too rough.
The two of them started walking towards the playground, chatting as they did so. Lily informed him about her day at school. She went to an all girls' Catholic school - Cokeworth, despite the flourishing nature of the Church of England, had remained stubbornly Catholic for many centuries – where they had morning assemblies accompanied by daily prayers. Sometimes, the assembly hall would get so hot that a girl or two would collapse before the Sisters were willing to let them leave.
Nancy Cook, a girl in Lily's class, made it her daily task to give Lily a hard time, for no other reason than that she was a redhead. Severus thought it was an incredibly stupid reason to bully someone and did not understand how anyone could think being a redhead was a bad thing, especially when it was Lily's shade of red hair which he thought was particularly lovely. Nancy, as it happened, was decidedly better-off than the Evans' family, being the youngest daughter of a neurologist and a paediatrician who both worked excessive hours at the hospital, where Severus' broken arm had been treated two years previously.
"If you want...we can scare her into leaving you alone," Severus suggested, his voice barely more than a whisper as he leaned his head slightly towards Lily's ear. "All it would take is a little practice in controlling our Magic; a Leg-Locker Curse would do the trick!"
Lily turned her head and gazed at him, eyes slightly narrowed. "That wouldn't be very nice, Severus..."
Severus pursed his lips. "And pushing you down the stairs is somehow nicer than what I suggested?"
His friend frowned sternly, her arm tightened around Severus' elbow. "No, of course not, but that doesn't mean we should or have the right to use our Magic against her. It's such an unfair advantage, after all. Besides, scaring her would make us no better than she is and we are definitely better than that." The two of them fell into silence then, both of them contemplating what they had just discussed. Severus thought it was perfectly justifiable to use Magic against someone that was treating one like garbage.
Lily and Severus were half-way to the playground when they were forced to stop in their tracks. Peter and the gang of friends to which he answered were blocking their path to the playground. A girl, wearing a tailor-made frock of excellent taste, stood at the front of the group; she was clearly the ringleader of their little circus. "So, Evans, where are you off to?" the girl asked, her normally sweet voice destroyed by a vicious sneer. The girl's face, which should have been pretty, was marred with loathing.
"None of your business," Lily snapped, pulling away from Severus' side as she put her hands on her hips, an inner fire sparking in her emerald eyes. "I haven't done anything to you; why can't you just bugger off and leave me alone?" Though Severus was surprised at Lily's use of a curse word, he did not show it; instead he glared intensely at the crowd blocking their way and at Peter in particular. "You make my life abysmal in school, Nancy, why do you have to go overboard and bother me on the holidays?"
Nancy smiled and it was not the least bit appealing. "Oh, Evans," she said as though she were dealing with an absolute simpleton, "because it's fun!"
"I suppose a Neanderthal would find it amusing to push its own kind around," Severus offered, folding his arms across his chest as he eyed Nancy and her gang with derision.
Nancy's face went blank and the foolish girl stammered, "a...a what?" The girl had clearly never come across the term previously. A smug smirk pulled at the corner of Severus' mouth. It always filled him with satisfaction when he proved to be more intelligent than those that looked down upon him and Lily.
"He's calling you a cave man," Peter explained, stepping forward to stand next to Lily's antagonist. "Are you going to just let him speak to you like that – a gutter rat like him?" His tone was slightly demanding, designed to goad the girl into action. Severus stared at the round boy, wondering if his understanding of Neanderthal was an indication that he was much smarter than he seemed. Severus would never have expected a moron to understand the term and he had had no problem informing Lily that Peter was such intellectual slug on a previous occasion.
Peter looked in Severus' direction, watery blue eyes meeting Severus' obsidian gaze. There was something cruel, a secret malevolence in those eyes, despite their innocent rat-like appearance, and Severus found it unnerving. A wicked grin stretched on Peter's face when Nancy's face flushed with the heat of anger, her gang bristling at Severus' slight. "Get him," she snapped, her words falling from her lips like lead bombs, "and his ugly ginger friend, too." Her gang of cronies, ranging in height and bulk, stepped forward.
Lily released her hips, hands curling into fists as she took a defiant stance, clearly prepared to fight them until one or both of them were landed in the hospital with severe injuries. Severus, however, knew there was no bravery in fighting when one was dangerously outnumbered, only idiocy. Taking initiative, Severus' latched onto Lily's wrist, holding her in a vice-like grip, and turned tail and ran. Lily yelped as he dragged her along behind him, almost ripping her arm off before she managed to get her feet moving at a stable pace.
"Severus!" Lily cried, keeping pace with him easily. She glanced back over her shoulder. The bullies were thundering after them, Nancy in the lead. "We shouldn't run like cowards; we should face them head on!" The desire to turn back and slap Nancy in the face was evident in Lily's tone.
Severus let out a burst of laughter, sounding very rushed, if exhilarated. "There's no cowardice in self-preservation, Lily. We'll take them on at some other time, when we're more prepared! We've got something they don't!"
"Magic?!"
"No," Severus replied, "we've got brains!" Even as he said this, Severus made a sharp right, barrelling down the alley behind the real estate agency, pulling his red-haired friend along behind him. Severus dived behind an industrial sized bin, forcing Lily to follow him, though she let out an undignified squawk. His dark eyes flicked this way and that as he quickly formulated a plan, despite the thundering of the heard of human elephants behind them. Severus grabbed a broken hubcap, gripping it tightly with both hands.
He moved into a fighting stance, facing the edge of the bin, ready to strike the first person to come around the corner. A boy with a stocky body came around the side of the bin and Severus did not hesitate for a single moment. With a fierce battle cry, Severus swung his arms violently and the boy received a belt from the hubcap, right across the jaw. Lily gasped in shock and fright and Severus' arms shook from the shock of impact. Part of him was extremely satisfied as the boy fell backwards; sprawling hard on the ground with a groan of pain but another part of him was terrified that he would get arrested for assault.
"Hey," growled another one of Nancy and Peter's group as they came around the corner. Severus did not have a chance to lash out a second time; the hubcap was ripped from his grasp and flung aside. The second boy grabbed the collar of Severus' frockcoat and hauled him off the ground, slamming him against the wall of the agency. Lily cried out in fear for Severus, rushing forward, slapping and kicking at every inch of the boy that she could reach, which was not much; he was built like a tank.
Severus struggled against the hand pinning him to the wall, restricting his breathing. His legs were scrabbling, shoes trying to find purchase against the wall. Severus scrawled the back of the boy's hand, even as Lily was set upon by Nancy and Peter. Peter grabbed Lily's leg and yanked, hard, sending her to the ground, where Nancy pounced on her, scratching at her face and pulling her hair. Severus saw red; the bullies could do what they liked to him, but that was no way to treat a girl.
Severus' face contorted with the strength of his concentration. A telling tingle ran from the roots of his hair to the tips of his toes. He thrust his arm out towards Peter and Nancy and an explosion of undetectable energy shot out from his palm. The energy collided with Peter and Nancy, sending the pair of them flying, shouts of surprise escaping them as they hit the ground hard some distance away. Lily was left untouched by the Magic, staring at Severus in shock and gratitude and a multitude of other emotions that passed too swiftly for Severus to detect.
The boy pinning Severus to the wall looked back towards his friends and quickly released Severus, a look of terror crossing his face. "Stay away from me, Freak!" The boy fled, along with a number of others from Peter's gang of comrades, leaving Peter and Nancy to pick up the rear after vouching that they should mark their words for they would meet again. Severus, quite shaken, picked himself up from the ground and hurried over to where Lily was still sprawling across the ground.
"Lily," he enquired, reaching for her even as he stumbled to his knees at her side, "are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere? Did they –"
"I'm fine," Lily said, trying to assure him as quickly as possible that nothing life threatening had been done to her, before continuing with a soft stammer, "I'm just...I...Nancy scratched me." Severus was reaching for her cheek almost as soon as she said so, for a trickle of blood slid down her skin from a scratch near her right eye. Lily stopped him, however, pointing out the grime that was under his fingernails from touching the hubcap that had been amongst the rubbish. She gently explained her reasoning to him. "You can't touch an open wound with dirty hands; it'll get infected!"
Severus pulled back immediately, afraid to contaminate her. He stuffed his hands into his pockets as she started to get up from the ground. Severus rose to stand beside her. "You should probably go home," Severus said, ducking his head to avoid Lily's gaze. The faintest hint of a blush touched his cheekbones, which partially frustrated him. He had absolutely no idea why he blushed so much when he was around Lily. "I got you into trouble; they probably wouldn't have attacked us if I hadn't said what I said..."
Lily snorted and shook her head, her crimson mane bobbing this way and that. "Don't be stupid, Severus. They're bullies; they're going to lash out regardless of anything you say or do. Don't beat yourself up over it." She gingerly touched her cheek, checking to see how bad it was. She winced, but it did not seem to cause too much pain. Severus was glad; he would hate to have been partially at fault for something even more serious than a small scratch on her cheek. He felt no guilt for hurting the boy he had struck, however.
The boy had drawn it on himself, after all. If one was going to treat others like dirt, one should expect the same treatment in return. "Still," Severus replied, hesitating. "You're cut. We should, at least, get it seen to. Maybe we should go to the Pharmacy..."
"No," Lily said sharply, emphasising her disagreement with a violent shake of her head. "Dad can't know about this; he'd only start a drama over it, even though it's nothing..."
"It's not 'nothing' as you put it," Severus chided as the pair of them left the alley. "It is most definitely something! Those people are treating you terribly just because you're different. There's nothing wrong with being different to others; it just makes you more unique than they are!"
"Everyone's unique, Severus."
"That's just another way of saying that nobody is and I don't believe that." Severus' retort was sharp, but Lily was starting to decipher the different nuances that hinted at whether he meant to offend or whether he was generally angry about something or in reaction to someone that had bothered him. "Some people are just permanently ordinary; your sister is among them, as is that nasty girl, Nancy – I hope Karma gets her good, one day."
"Severus..." Lily began in a scolding tone. "Wishing harm on someone is no better than causing harm to them. On top of that, it usually backfires upon you. You need to start watching what you say; I don't want you to get hurt because of some Karmic justice."
Severus wanted to snap that his life was messed up enough already, but decided against it. She did not need to know how he was being treated at home; it would only upset her and he did not want that to happen. The only thing Severus wanted for Lily was that she be as happy as possible, despite his own dark attitude towards life and the world around him. He sighed and glanced at Lily, seeing that she was starting to get her normally bouncy attitude back now that the bullies had left.
"Come on," Severus said, releasing his pent up frustration with a sigh. "If you're not going to get your cheek treated, we should at least make use of the rest of the day. There's no point letting those hooligans spoil our day off." Lily smiled in agreement and the two of them left the alley, putting the real estate agency as far behind them as possible. Lily did not once express her gratitude for his help, but it did not surprise Severus – she had not wanted to use Magic against the gang of bullies in the first place.
Severus and Lily settled on the grass, lying side by side, and gazed up at the clouds together. Silence reigned for several long, comfortable minutes before Lily finally broke it. "Even though I don't agree with using it against Muggles like Nancy – even if she does bully us – I do think we should start practicing our Magic when and where we can. You can never know when it might come in handy – especially that apparition thing that you've mentioned before. It could save our lives one day."
Severus hummed his agreement, secretly thrilled that Lily wanted to share such experiences with him. He was not allowed to use Magic at home and he was technically not allowed to do so outside the house, though the Ministry turned a blind eye towards children. He relished the idea of sitting down with Lily somewhere and just focusing on bringing their Magic to a regularly useable level through constant practice and incessant determination. Severus knew that he and Lily would one day do great things, if they could master the act of using Magic on a day to day basis, without a wand...without an incantation...
To Be Continued.
Aw Sev; you never get a break, do you?