Lily and her parents went to the town's New Year's Eve party which was held at the local hall. There were paper party hats, plastic champagne glasses, little blocks of cheese with cocktail sticks and a very questionable live band.
Petunia and her boyfriend Graham had long since snuck out round the back and Lily was left to chat with some girls from her primary school, which was made distinctly more difficult by the fact that she had absolutely nothing in common with them anymore.
"We all thought you'd start talking all posh like." Georgia Roberts said in an accusatory sort of voice. "Y'know, now you're at boarding school."
"It's in Scotland." Lily explained. "If anything I should sound more northern." Of course 'northern' and 'posh' weren't exactly opposites, but she didn't want her old friends to think she'd forgotten her roots.
"I bet they teach you Latin." Emily Morris said in the same judgemental tone as Georgia. "All the posh schools do."
Lily shook her head. "They don't." Though she wasn't sure if ancient runes might be the magical equivalent.
"That's good." Stephanie Davies said who, of the three of them, didn't seem to be launching an interrogation on Lily's middle-class midlands loyalties. "It sounds very difficult. I'm behind enough with French as it is and that's a language people actually speak! What's your favourite subject, Lily?"
"History." Lily said, inventing wildly. "But will you excuse me? I need to find Sev."
The girls gave her the same tolerant sort of smile they always gave her when she left them for the boy and she hurried into the main party to try and find her friend.
He'd promised Lily he'd be at the event, even though she knew it wasn't his thing at all. But it was New Year's Eve and surely celebrating in the dingy town hall was better than sitting at home with Mr Snape.
"Sev!" She cried on spotting him over in a corner with his mum.
Eileen was hunched over on herself and looking around the party with a half hopeful, half anxious sort of look on her pale face.
"Hello!" Lily greeted them both enthusiastically.
Mrs Snape smiled at her. "Hello, Lily. Thank you for the Christmas card."
"You're welcome." Lily smiled back. "My parents are at the bar." She wondered if Mrs Snape might like to join them. She didn't seem to be talking to anyone else here.
The woman looked a little anxious. "I'll take you to them if you like?" Lily said and led the pair over to where her mum and dad stood with a small group of friends.
"Hello, Eileen!" Lily's mum greeted warmly on seeing the woman. "Come and join us. It's lovely to see you."
Lily smiled. Her mum was the best.
She turned back to Sev. "Let's go outside."
Avoiding Petunia and Graham Barnard, who were snogging unashamedly, she led Sev over to the swingset.
It was dark and no one else was around. She suddenly felt a little awkward. She'd never felt like this when she'd been alone with Sev before. "Er, swing?" She said, indicating the apparatus.
Sev nodded and the two of them sat down, lacing their arms around the metal chains and looking at one another.
"You're being weird." Sev said.
Lily laughed and the spell was broken. "Maybe I am." She said. "I dunno… it is weird. Our lives at home are so different from our lives at school. I sometimes wonder which one's real."
Sev shook his head. "I never wonder that." He said darkly, looking at his feet.
"Sev?" She said quietly. Her friend looked up. "Are you… happy at Hogwarts?"
Sev looked back at his shoes again. "I'm happier there than I am here."
Lily felt her heart break for her friend. What could she do to help him? He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve any of it. It wasn't his fault his father was a bully and it wasn't his fault Black and Potter made his life a misery at school either.
"They won't bully you next term." Lily promised him. "Black and Potter I mean. I'll make sure of it."
And, sure enough, next time the two Gryffindor boys targeted her friend (flicking dung beetles at the back of his head in the first potions class of term), she marched right over to them, picked the jar of doxy eggs up off their desk and tipped the entire contents into their cauldron.
"Miss Evans!" Slughorn cried, forcing himself to his feet and waddling up the aisle to the source of the commotion.
"Sorry Professor." Lily said, turning from where she'd been glaring at the boys to her stunned potions master. "But Potter and Black were picking on Severus again and I'm afraid I didn't have time to grab my wand."
She knew she was about to get detention but she didn't care. These idiots had to know they couldn't treat Sev like dirt anymore.
But Slughorn, instead of telling her off, burst out laughing. "Didn't have time to grab my wand… oh you've got a nerve, girl!" He chuckled, banging a hand against Sirius' desk and causing the boy to jump in alarm. "Oh very good. Well, knowing what these two are like I doubt they didn't deserve it. But perhaps you could return to your table for now. Time's a-ticking and I am very much looking forward to sampling yours and Mr Snape's pepper-up potion!" He peered balefully into James and Sirius' cauldron. "Perhaps it might be worth starting again, boys?"
And so, leaving the stunned and outraged Potter and Black at the back of the classroom, Lily made her way back to the front and her cauldron with Sev.
It didn't take long before they sought revenge.
"Oh those pigs!" Lily cried, entering the common room that night to find that someone (and it didn't take much to guess who) had stuck a large (and very unflattering) caricature drawing of her and Sev on the common room notice board.
Lily Evans and Severus Snape - "Snily"
The worst idea ever.
And, beneath that:
Hogwarts' ugliest couple
The picture (presumably drawn by Peter as neither Potter nor Black were that talented) featured the pair of them stirring a cauldron together. Sev's nose was at least three times as large and Lily's freckles were so exaggerated it looked like she had leprosy.
"Hilarious." She snapped at the boys who were lounging by the fire looking thoroughly pleased with themselves. "Is making fun of people the only way you idiots know how to communicate?"
"I dunno, freckle-face. What say you, four eyes?" Black said, turning from Lily to Potter.
"I think it's quite likely, blood traitor." Potter said. "What do you think, rat face?"
Lily threw her hands up in exasperation and stomped over to her girl friends, whose conversation was, unfortunately, hardly any better.
It was being led by Sylvie who, giggling madly, appeared to be ranking the boys in their year in order of attractiveness with Mary and Bessie making suggestions for improvement here and there.
Lily scowled at the list, grabbed a quill and crossed Black's name from the top of it.
"Sirius Black is so hideous he doesn't deserve to be on the list at all." She snapped.
Sylvie glared at her. "That's my list, Lily!" She said, quite as cross as Lily had ever seen her. "And if I want Sirius on it, he's going on it." Glowering mutinously at her friend, she wrote his name back at the top.
"Sorry about the picture, Lily." Mary said, indicating the poster on the noticeboard. "We tried to take it down but they must have put a permanent sticking charm on it."
"It's quite advanced magic really." Bessie said, sounding, to Lily's annoyance, decidedly impressed.
"Isn't it wonderful?" Sylvie said dreamily. "A boy with brains and beauty." And she turned to gaze at Black in a way that made her look (to Lily's mind) entirely brainless.
Lily couldn't stand the attention Potter and Black got in the castle from the other students.
The pair of them had made themselves famous at the Halloween feast by orchestrating a prank whereby they spiked all the jugs of pumpkin juice on the Slytherin table with belching powder.
It had greatly amused everyone (except the Slytherins and Professor McGonagall) and Black and Potter had been school heroes since then.
If they hadn't been so popular, perhaps it wouldn't have mattered so much that they bullied Sev because someone other than Lily would have told them to stuff it.
Unfortunately, the fact that Black and Potter didn't like Sev meant that the rest of the year (outside Slytherin) didn't like him either.
Poor Sev. And he'd wanted to come to Hogwarts to get away from being treated unkindly.
Lily, deciding not to stoop to the level of the boys, responded to the rude poster of her and Sev by reporting it to Professor McGonagall who had made Black (as the one who cast it) undo the permanent sticking charm before giving him detention.
"Bloody Pettigrew was the one who drew it." He muttered after McGonagall had left.
Pettigrew, sitting innocently by the fire, said nothing.
…
January 30th was Lily's twelfth birthday. She woke up to find a little pile of presents at the end of her bed, which she opened eagerly, the other girls in her dorm gathered round in their pyjamas to watch.
"The Secret Seven." Sylvie said, holding up the hardback book Lily had received from her parents with a frown. "Who's Enid Blyton?"
"Oh she's wonderful!" Lily said, smiling at the gift which she would enjoy reading very much. "She writes all sorts of adventure stories."
"She needs to write The Fantastic Four." Bessie said. "Then we could pretend it was us. We'd have to spend more time with the other girls to be The Secret Seven."
None of them ever spoke about the other girls.
Lily was happy to see Petunia had sent her a gift too. It was wrapped in pink tissue and there was a little card as well.
She unwrapped the present and opened the box. It was a vase. She frowned. What would a twelve year old want with a vase?
She read the card.
Dear Lily,
Happy birthday! I hope you like the present. Now you just need to get yourself a boyfriend to buy you flowers to fill it with! Graham buys me petunias all the time but lilies are nice too.
See you at Easter.
Love,
Petunia x
"That's nice." Sylvie said not very convincingly. "Here, open ours!"
The girls grinned eagerly as Lily took the present from Sylvie and undid the wrappings.
It was a Gryffindor scarf with matching hat and gloves.
Lily took hold of them delightedly. The wool was soft and so very warm. She rubbed it against her face. "They're wonderful." She said, smiling at her friends.
At breakfast, wearing her new scarf, she wandered over to the Slytherin table to speak to Sev. She knew he'd want to see her on her birthday and he never liked coming over to the Gryffindor table.
"Hello!" She said, smiling at him and taking a seat.
Roma Lestrange and Gaia Bulstrode both raised their eyebrows at her as she sat down but she ignored them.
Sev glanced at the girls before turning back to Lily. "Hi." He smiled. "Happy birthday." He put a hand in the pocket of his robes. "For you." And she thought she saw his cheeks colour a little as he handed her the gift.
It was a small, square shaped something. She unwrapped it curiously and her heart soared as she saw what it was. A little silver necklace with a small flower pendant. A lily.
"Oh Sev, it's perfect!" She cried, throwing her arms around the boy's neck and hugging him tightly.
"Eugh!" Came Roma's Lestrange's haughty voice and Lily looked up at her.
"Stop it, please." The girl said, tossing her dark black hair over her shoulder. "You're putting us all off our breakfast."
Her eyes fell on the gift, still in its box on the table. "What is this?!" She cried, pulling it towards her.
Lily felt her heart sink.
"It's a necklace!" Gaia Bulstrode said in malicious delight. "On a silver chain! Mucliber! Come over here and get a load of this!"
Lily watched in dismay as Mulciber turned his squashed face their way, a dark eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Look what Snape's given Evans!" Gaia cried, holding up the necklace in glee.
Lily tried to take it from her, but she was holding it out of reach.
Mulciber arrived, his piggish face alight with spite as he took the gift from Gaia. He grinned from Lily to Snape. "So. It's official then. You do love this Gryffindor mudblood."
Lily's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't really just said that, had he?
She turned to Sev, waiting for him to defend her, waiting for him to retaliate, to say something, anything. But he didn't. He was staring down at the table looking wretched.
"Give it back." Lily said, turning furiously to Mulciber. "It would look silly on you."
Mulciber dropped the necklace in Sev's glass of pumpkin juice. "Go fish." He said. Then he turned to Sev. "Don't try and sit with us in defence." And he stalked back off up the table.
Lily rounded on the girls. "You cows!" She said. "What did you do that for?!"
They were both eyeing her malevolently. "You ought to know your place. Mudblood." Roma said.
It took Lily a long time to calm down after the altercation with the Slytherins. She complained about them all the way to transfiguration, but to her annoyance her friends were not particularly sympathetic.
"Well what do you expect? Going to sit at their table like that." Bessie said, rolling her eyes. "You were literally walking into the viper's den!"
"But Sev lives there and he's not a viper!" Lily protested.
Her friends exchanged slightly awkward looks.
Lily cheered up in transfiguration when Professor McGonagall awarded her twenty points for being the first student to turn her mouse into a snuffbox. She did well in charms too, successfully levitating her teacup and making Mary laugh when she managed to catch it between her teeth and pretended to take a sip.
Her favourite subject was potions. She wasn't sure if this was more because it was one of the few classes she could sit by Sev in or because she seemed to have a natural aptitude for it.
She and Sev worked very well together, both following the instructions on the board but also adding in additional ingredients that they thought might help the potion along. It reminded Lily of cooking. Her mum was always very good at knowing just what a stew or soup needed, and maybe she'd passed that onto her daughter.
One day, Professor Slughorn surprised Lily with an offer.
"The Slug Club?" She repeated, looking back at her teacher in surprise.
Slughorn chuckled. "I know it's a bit of a silly name. One of my old students coined it and it's unfortunately stuck. But it is what it says on the tin. It's a group of students, handpicked by myself of course, who I see future potential in. And I should be most honoured if you would join us, Miss Evans." He smiled warmly at her.
"Professor Slughorn, is this another attempt to convince me to ask the hat for a re-sort?" Lily said cheekily.
The potions master had been bemoaning the fact that Lily wasn't in Slytherin since her first brilliant potion back in September.
Slughorn chuckled. "You've caught me out." He said. "If I can't have you in Slytherin, I'll have you in the Slug Club. I really won't take no for an answer, my girl. We're meeting tonight at 7 o clock. My office." He winked at her and then walked off.
Sev wasn't at all happy. "Why didn't he ask me?!" He said crossly. "I'm just as good as you at potions and I'm certainly better than Potter, Black and Lestrange."
It transpired that Lily wasn't the only student Slughorn had invited to join his little club. Potter and Black however, had declined the invitation.
Lily was glad of this. There were enough arrogant prats in the Slug Club already, as it turned out.
"Yes, our parents are most satisfied." A boy called Lucius Malfoy was telling Slughorn around a mouthful of pheasant. "Of course Narcissa's parents wanted to meet mother and father first. We had dinner together over Christmas with Narcissa's charming sisters and charming cousin."
"Ah yes!" And now Slughorn turned to Roma, who had taken a seat on the opposite side of the table from Lily. "I hear your brother Rodolphus and Narcissa's sister Bellatrix are engaged to be married!"
"It's important that old families like ours stick together." Lucius said, clearly unwilling to let the conversation drift too far from himself. "Of course Narcissa and I are both still focusing on our studies at present, but I am most grateful we have made one other's acquaintance." He smiled at his girlfriend in a way that made Lily want to throw something at him.
The conversation continued in the same vein. Slughorn making or suggesting connections, Lucius Malfoy showing off and everyone chipping in with comments clearly designed to make them look witty or intelligent.
Slughorn oversaw it like a city sentinel, eyes roving from student to student as they said their piece.
There was a little hourglass in which the sand ran quickly or slowly depending on how engaging the conversation was. It was very clear to everyone those student Slughorn preferred and those he found less interesting.
To be fair to Slughorn, it didn't seem to be just the showing off that he favoured.
"You say your family's the wealthiest in Britain, Malfoy?" Dorcas Meadowes, a prefect in Gryffindor, said. "Because I'd have thought the muggle royal family held that title. Although I suppose the muggles' recent switch to decimal coinage could affect the exchange rate between pounds and galleons. What do you think, Professor?
Slughorn beamed at her as if she'd just presented him with a box of crystallised pineapple. The sand in the hourglass raced beside him. "Well well, Miss Meadowes!" He said delightedly. "It would appear defensive spells are not your only forte. How do you have time to keep abreast of the muggle news with all your other extra-curricular activities?!"
"I've always taken an interest in muggle news, sir." Meadowes said with a pointed look at Malfoy. "I think we could certainly learn a lot from what's happening in Ireland at the moment."
"Ah, yes." Slughorn said sadly. "A difficult state of affairs indeed."
"What do you think about the current situation in the wizarding world, sir?" Another Gryffindor prefect Lily thought was called Sturgis Podmore asked him. "Jenkins is saying it's nothing to worry about, but you can't deny muggles are dying and wizards are behind it."
"Oh Podmore, must we talk about this?" Slughorn said, waving his wand so the plate of pheasant vanished and was replaced with an enormous trifle. "Why don't we enjoy some dessert?"
Lily glanced at the little hourglass but it was flowing just as fast as ever.