Ok hi everyone! I guess I should say that I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters! :) I want to thank my friend Shel (Aly) for helping me
decide to write this story and helping me come up with title (I'm bad with titles).
Oh and just a note...be open-minded! :) I decided to be original and put her in Slytherin...since everyone basically puts her in Gryffindor.
The World Isn't Perfect: ch. 2
Lily woke suddenly to the noise of someone yelling.
"Lily! Aren't you ever going to get up? I swear you sleep like a log!"
She quickly opened her eyes and jumped out of bed. Rebecca Smith, one of her roomates, was looking at her with annoyance. Giving her a small innocent smile, she looked around for her clothes and wondered how late she was. She wasn't used to getting up early. Hurriedly getting dressed, she checked the mirror and shuddered. Her hair was a mess. Quickly grabbing a brush and, in a frenzy, swiped through her hair. Finally she was satisfied with it. She ran down the stairs to the Slytherin common room.
It was almost empty, which means most people were already at breakfast. She had been there a month and still wasn't used to getting up when everyone else did. Looking around the room for someone she kind of considered a friend and found no one. Severus and his friends were nowhere in sight.
Other than Severus's group, she had made no more friends in Slytherin. Most people looked down on her, which she didn't blame them for after what the hat had told her. For the first time in her life she began to notice her faults. She was extremely clumsy sometimes, especially when there was a boy around that she wanted to impress.
After a moment's reflection, she decided to go down to the Great Hall alone. Hopefully she would find some of her friends from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. She had made friends with the girls from these houses relatively easily. Noone in Gryffindor, however, wanted anything to do with her, except for James, Sirius, and their two best friends, Remus and Peter. They were friendly to her, but she didn't see them very often.
She arrived at the table, however, seeing no one she knew. Quickly, she headed over towards the Slytherin table and found Severus. She sat down a few seats away from him since his friends took the seats directly around him.
Noone noticed her as she ate quickly and quietly. She was leaving the table, ready to hurry upstairs to get her books, when Severus called out, "Hi Lily!" She waved cheerily back, but continued to walk until she was back in her dormitory gathering her books.
She then scurried away to her first class, Potions, she took a seat next to the person Lily considered to be her best friend, Tara Richards, a Ravenclaw.
"Hi Lily," Tara said cheerfully.
"Hi Tara," Lily replied, slightly out of breath.
"The most exciting thing happened to me!" Tara said with a huge grin on her face. "Guess who smiled at me today?"
"Who?" Lily asked curiously.
Tara looked ready to explode with excitement. "James Potter! He is the most handsome second year in all of Hogwarts. Everyone I've told is so jealous of me...except of course youwon't be...he talks to you on a regular basis."
Lily rolled her eyes slightly. "That's probably only because he pities me, Tara."
Tara was about to answer when their teacher walked in to begin the class.
Potions passed as it usually did. It was slightly boring, but bearable. Lily picked up her books and bag and started of to her next class. Tara followed closely behind.
"I've just thought of something," she said, "Lily, you could get James to be friends with me! Oh this is so perfect...I can't believe I never thought of this before!"
Lily replied embarrassedly, "But...but...I don't really know him all that well, I can't do much good...I mean..." She turned to face Tara to plead her case and didn't notice that she had run into something until she was on the ground.
She looked up in surprise and saw in complete horror who she had run into. It was James. Her face went bright red and she began hurriedly trying to pick up all of her books.
He bent down and started to help her. "Don't worry bout it Lily, everyone does stupid clumsy things sometimes."
I'm stupid and clumsy! She thought to herself. That's what the most handsome boy in the whole school thinks of me!
She jumped to her feet, grabbed the rest of her books from James and ran all the way back to the Slytherin common room in tears.
Throwing herself into one of the chairs, she didn't even notice that she wasn't alone. Severus was seated in a corner, hunched over a book and hurriedly writing on a piece of parchment. When Lily entered, he looked up in complete surprise.
"Lily! What's wrong? What're you doing here?" he asked standing up and walking over to her.
Feeling mortified, Lily tried to wipe her tears away and make herself look normal. It didn't work very well. She decided to try to change the subject. "Well...what're you doing here Severus? Aren't you supposed to be going to some class or another?"
Looking away from her face he said, "Uh...well...yea...but I kinda...forgot to do my homework for Potions..." He broke off and then abruptly turned back to her. "Back to my question...what's wrong? What happened?"
Sinking deeper into her chair she said dejectedly, "I made a fool of myself, and...he...he thinks I'm a stupid clumsy idiot!"
He raised his eyebrows slightly and said, "Lily, he's the fool if he thinks something like that. Who is he? I'll go beat him up for you."
"No...no...I really was clumsy...and stupid...I deserved it...I mean James had every right..." she stammered.
"He did not have a right," he said and then brightened slightly, "James did you say? James Potter?"
She nodded looking miserable.
"I've been looking for an excuse to beat James up for quite a while lately. Thanks Lily," he said smiling. "Making a little first year cry, I mean you're no more than a child and..."
Her face reddened again, this time in anger. She jumped up and almost yelled at him, "YOU--You're no better! I am not little. I am not a child!" With that, Lily pushed past Snape and ran into her dormitory. She threw herself on her bed and started crying more than ever.
***
The next few days were the worst of her life. She spent most of her time studying or trying desperately to avoid Severus and James. The latter was not an easy task, especially since both of them were trying to find her.
Lily had never felt more alone in her life, and finally gave in, allowing Severus to sit next to her during lunch. She stared down at her plate hoping he didn't see how embarrassed she was.
"So you've decided not to run away from me today? Good, because I've been wanting to talk to you for some time." He looked at her to see her reaction. She gave none.
"Well..." he continued, "I'm sorry for calling you a child, it was awful of me...will you forgive me?" She risked a glance up at his face and saw him looking very uncertain.
She finally looked him in the eyes. "Ok...I suppose...if you really want me to be..."
He smiled at her, "Thanks Lily. Now, do you want to come with Lucius and me to beat up James and Sirius or not?"
Lily looked at him, horrified. "No! Please don't Severus...its really not that big of a deal. I'm over it...it was all my fault..."
"Lily, we're gonna fight them whether you come with us or not..." he said in an exasperated tone.
"But..." she said suddenly. "Why can't you be friends? I really don't see why you hate each other so much...I mean you have so much in common. You're both boys, and you're both stupid!"
Severus burst out laughing, "Good one, Lily." He stood up and said, "Well, see you around then." With that he walked off towards his friends.
Lily stood up as soon as they were out of sight and ran after them. She had to stop it, and even if she couldn't stop it she had to see what happened.
She caught up to them as they were walking down a corridor towards a group of boys that included James and Sirius. How was she going to stop this? It was all her fault.
Then a cocky voice, Lucius Malfoy's she thought it was, called out, "Hey Potter, what do you mean by calling our friend stupid and clumsy?"
Lily thought to herself, Our friend? Lucius barely even acknowledges I exist!
The crowd surrounding James and Ramius casually moved away down the corridor, leaving them standing alone except for Peter and Remus.
James looked at them as if he had no idea what they were talking about. "What do you mean, Lucius?" he replied calmly.
Severus spoke up in a voice even more haughty than Lucius's, if that was possible. "We're talking about Lily of course, James." He glared at him in a way that made Lily shiver.
An expression of recognition passed over James's face. "Oh," he said, "I was just saying that everyone was clumsy and stupid sometimes...it was only a joke..." Then he took on a haughty voice of his own, "But of course, you wouldn't understand that since you two have no sense of humor."
Snape smiled slightly, a smile that had no humor in it. "Lily didn't take it as a joke either, James, in fact she was quite upset by it...and I think, and I'm sure you'll agree, that anyone that tortures girls, especially ones that are younger than them, should be punched."
He's a fool, thought Lily, doesn't he realize he's hopelessly outnumbered? I have to do something, she decided.
She walked forward and stepped in between the two groups. "Really...its no big deal...please don't fight...can't we all be friends? I mean...what's the point of fighting anyway?"
All six boys looked at her as if she were insane.
"Um...Lily...maybe its best if you went back to the Slytherin common room," suggested Sirius.
"No!" she said. "I won't let you guys fight over something as stupid as this, especially when it has to do with me. I'm not leaving unless Severus and Lucius come with me." Her jaw set with determination as she looked from one group to the other.
Just then the Potions teacher rounded the corner. He said in a suspicious voice, "What's going on here?" He looked from Severus's glare, to James's clenched fists, and to Lily standing in the middle looking determined.
"Uh nothing," Lucius finally spoke up, "we were just going back to Slytherin common room with Lily...common Severus...Lily...common..."
So Lily decided to follow the retreating Lucius, and after a moment Severus followed even though he looked like he didn't want to.
Lily waited for him to catch up to talk to him. "Now, isn't this better than being in a huge fight that you couldn't possibly win?"
Severus turned his still glaring face toward her. Her eyes widened slightly with surprise. "I wanted to punch him..." he muttered.
"Yes..." she replied, "but what good would that have done?"
He shook his head and muttered, "Girls," under his breath and walked faster to catch up with Lucius.
***
Through the following months, Lily took care to make sure there were no more outbursts such as the narrowly escaped fight. When she hung around with James's group, she tried to forget the fact that she was a Slytherin. She tried to avoid the subject of Severus, and if it ever came up, she'd change the subject.
She did about the same thing when talking to Severus. She didn't even mention James or any of his friends. If the topic did come up, she would make some joke about how ridiculous their feud was and would find some annoying habit they both had in common to show how much they were alike.
When Christmas break came, Lily decided to go home. Even though she was having a much better time at Hogwarts than she had before, she hadn't seen her family in a long time.
Before she left, she said goodbye to James's group. For some strange reason, Remus wasn't there. When she asked after him, they seemed to avoid her question.
She gave them all a small hug and smiled. "Have a good Christmas you 3...and I'll send you all presents."
Peter, who rarely spoke, smiled greedily, and said, "I hope its something you can eat."
Lily decided then and there not to send him anything he could eat. He was already plump enough already. She smiled secretively, though.
"Well goodbye Lily," said Sirius.
"See you," James said smiling. "I've got a present to send you too."
She smiled and walked to the Slytherin common room to say goodbye to Severus.
He was easily found, and she walked up to him.
She gave him a small hug and said, "Goodbye Severus, have a nice Christmas."
His face showed complete shock, and he said a little embarrassedly, "Goodbye Lily, hope you have a merry Christmas too."
"I'll send your present to you on Christmas," she said smiling and picking up her bag she was taking home for the holidays.
"Oh yes..." he said sounding even more surprised. "I'll send you a present too," he smiled back and said, "Goodbye Lily, see you after the holidays."
She waved before she left the common room and from there went out the main doors of Hogwarts.