A/N: Thank you for your kind words! Now the first ever Lily-centric chapter, which is really kind of part one of two. Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all HP characters are owned by Jo Rowling and not by me.
Chapter 31 - 3.10 or "A Difficult Person to Deny"
It was a Tuesday morning, Lily's first lesson had not even begun, and things were already going poorly. Not only had she spilled syrup on herself at breakfast, but her attempt to Scourgify it off resulted in a hole the size of a plum right in the middle of her top. Forced to abandon her half-eaten waffles, she grabbed her things, tugged her robes across her chest, and made her way out of the hall, pausing only to throw the dirtiest look she could muster at James Potter when he wolf-whistled at her from the end of the Gryffindor table. Securing her robes as tightly as she could, she crossed her arms and hurried up to Gryffindor Tower to find an unsullied top. It followed, then, that by the time she reached the Ancient Runes classroom on the second floor, she was not only the last student to arrive, but she was also rather out of breath.
And there was somebody sitting in her seat.
"Rosier," she said, skidding to a halt in front of the table she normally shared with Severus and gaping at the Slytherin boy in confused surprise. "You're in my seat."
"My seat today, Evans," Rosier said with a casual shrug. Then with a smug glint in his eye, he nodded toward the empty chair he usually sat in, several desks away. "You can go sit with Burke."
Lily turned to Severus, who was giving her a look that clearly indicated he wanted her to just go along with the abrupt change. She frowned at him before glancing around the classroom. Several people were staring at her.
"You can't just –"
"Miss Evans," said a stern voice from the front of the room. She spun around to find Professor Kermann giving her a disinterested look over the rims of his round glasses. "Find a seat so that we can get started, if you will."
With one last confused glance at Severus, Lily navigated the rows of tables and chairs and slumped into the seat that Evan Rosier normally occupied next to Darlene Burke. She tried to give her new desk-mate a tentative smile, but Darlene remained staring forward at the professor, her arms crossed and her pursed lips betraying the otherwise impassivity of her expression.
"Fix your top, then, Evans?" came an amused whisper from behind her, and Lily did not have to turn around to recognize the voice of James Potter.
"Sod off, Potter," she said out of the side of her mouth as Professor Kermann began handing back their homework papers from the week before.
"Pity, that. It was a good look."
At this, Lily spun halfway around in her chair to glare at him. "And the only way you'd ever get a look is if the girl has a hole in her top," she snapped, feeling the heat rise in her face. "Now sod off, Potter!"
She thought she heard Darlene Burke muffle a snort, but when she looked back, neither the other girl's expression nor her position had changed in the slightest. James just grinned at her, completely and aggravatingly unfazed as usual, so Lily spun back around in time to take her paper from the professor. She had received high marks on it, which raised her otherwise dour spirits marginally.
"All right," began Kermann once he had finished his distribution. He was a middle-aged man with closely cropped grey hair and a polished, exacting demeanor. Lily had always thought there was something very un-wizardly about him, though she had never mentioned that impression to anyone, unsure if it could be taken as some sort of prejudice. "Now before we begin, I want to address your second-term projects, which were mentioned to you at the beginning of the year, but which you will now be responsible for completing. These assignments will make up a significant portion of your marks for the year, and will be turned into me the week after the Easter holiday, which is to say –" He consulted a piece of parchment that sat on his desk. "– Tuesday, the 16th of April."
There was a good deal of grumbling at the gall of the professor to remind them of their assignment. Kermann held up a pacifying hand, a twitch of a smile on his lips.
"Yes, I know, it's terrible that I should ask you to work, I understand," he said, nodding sympathetically. "But I think that you may find your assignment to not be so strenuous. I am asking you all to select a well-known children's story to translate into runic text for me. Two rolls of parchment, no less." He looked around at them all, undeterred by the general lack of excitement staring back at him. With one last sigh, he smiled. "All right. You got me. If it's that terrible, I'll allow you to work with your desk partner on your assignment."
At this, the students shifted and brightened, many turning to the person next to them and whispering something or other. Darlene Burke glanced at Lily out of the side of her eye. She appeared decidedly unimpressed, but said nothing.
"I'll give you all a few minutes at the end of the lesson to discuss the assignment with your partners," Kermann went on after a brief pause. "But for now, I'd like you to all open your textbooks to page two hundred, and we shall start the ways in which suffix translation can affect the root verbs…"
The lesson after that was fairly standard, and although Lily attempted to take her usual copious notes, her eyes kept drifting to the table at which she normally sat and the way Rosier would lean in to whisper something in Severus's ear. Of course, of course, they would be assigned partners on the day when Lily had been forced to sit at a table with a stuck-up Slytherin girl instead of her best friend, who had suddenly, inexplicably, become chummy with Evan Rosier, of all people. Despite her best efforts to be happy for Severus, it didn't add up.
A few minutes before the end of class, Professor Kermann finished his lecture and the classroom was filled with the unencumbered chatter of twenty students who had just been granted permission to talk freely. Lily turned to the girl sitting next to her. She had never had much of a conversation with Darlene Burke before, and though the Slytherin seemed intent on maintaining that particular status quo, Lily needed to at least figure out how they would be approaching their term assignment.
"Er," she began, wishing desperately that she had been sitting with Severus or Adin or anyone else in class that day. "So I guess we need to get together at some point to choose which children's story we want to use."
Darlene made no indication that she had heard Lily at all. Indeed, she continued her pursed-lip glare toward the table in front of theirs, where two other Slytherin girls – Zelda Carmichael and Lelita Aubrey – sat, whispering and giggling with one another. As Lily watched, Aubrey hissed something in Carmichael's ear, and they both turned brazenly around to look at Darlene before erupting into a fit of tinkling laughter.
"Erm, Darlene?" Lily tried again, after a moment of awkward staring. Her experiences with these three Slytherin girls had informed her that they were close friends, though clearly Darlene was on the outs with the other two at the moment.
"What?" Darlene responded at last, not removing her gaze from the back of Zelda Carmichael's head.
"Oh," said Lily, caught off-guard by the response. "Should we…I dunno…get together at some point to choose a story?"
"If we must."
"Okay. Er, how about tonight?"
Darlene flicked a piece of invisible lint from the sleeve of her robe and then shook her head idly. "I can't tonight."
"Tomorrow, then?"
"No, I'm busy tomorrow as well."
"Don't you know, Evans?" came a sharp voice from in front of them. Zelda Carmichael had obviously overheard their conversation and had turned around in her seat to interject. "A slag's schedule is always full. I'm sure Darlene will be busy every night for the next month with one boy or another."
Lily felt her mouth fall open in shock as Darlene narrowed her eyes and said coolly, "You would know, Zelda, wouldn't you, the way you follow me round and watch my every move?"
"How is it to be the class joke, anyway, Darlene?" Zelda bit back.
"How is it to have no life of your own, Zelda?"
Zelda's response was a haughty smirk and another snide whisper in Lelita Aubrey's ear. Perhaps fortuitously, the tension was cut by the pealing of the bell, which signaled the end of the lesson. As the rest of their classmates got to their feet and moved toward the door, Darlene looked back at Lily with the casualness of someone who had certainly not been just called a slag by a former friend.
"How about Sunday, then, Evans? The library? After dinner?"
"Oh…sure," said Lily, relieved to not have to raise the subject again herself. "That works."
Darlene gave a half-hearted shrug and then moved to join the throng of third years at the door, unbothered to say anything else on the matter, apparently. Lily stared for a moment and then looked around for Severus, but he was nowhere to be seen. With a sigh, she finished packing away her notes and hurried to catch up to Adin, wondering with a niggling worry in her stomach why Severus could not have even been hassled to wait for her after class.
Lily's day only marginally improved from there. In Transfiguration that morning, she managed to turn her tortoise's shell porcelain, but was unable to master the full spell to change the whole animal into a teapot. Afterward, during morning break, Adin could not seem to talk of anything else other than Lily's new Ancient Runes partner.
"I can't believe you're going to have to work with Darlene Burke," she whispered as the two of them huddled in a dry corner of the courtyard. The wind whipped their robes around them and Lily shivered, suddenly regretful of their decision to spend their break outside instead of in the library.
"What's Rosier doing sitting in my seat, anyway?" Lily muttered, still annoyed by that morning's chain of events.
"Yeah, I mean – no offense – but who in their right mind would want to partner with Snape?"
"Adin!" Lily scolded.
Adin just raised her eyebrows in pacification. "I said no offense! He's so weird, Lily, and he's not even nice. I don't get why you're friends with him."
"Because I am," Lily said stubbornly.
"Whatever," shrugged Adin, tossing her hair against the wind. "But anyway, apparently Rosier broke it off with Burke, so it's no wonder he didn't want to partner with her."
"I guessed as much."
"Word is," started Adin, leaning in as she always did when she had scandalous gossip to report, "she wanted him to take her to Slughorn's party on Saturday night, but Rosier got everything he wanted out of her last Hogsmeade visit, so he had no use for her anymore."
Lily stared, disgust pulling at her features. "So why's she arguing with her mates then?"
"She's arguing with her mates?" Adin asked, eyes suddenly alight with curiosity.
"Certainly seemed like it. Carmichael called her a slag right to her face, it was horrible."
Adin snorted in laughter and waited until a group of first years had wandered past them before answering. "I hadn't heard they were rowing, but if Carmichael thinks she's a slag, it must be true. They've been friends for years, even before Hogwarts."
Lily shrugged, the entire conversation starting to make her uncomfortable.
"I wish I had an invite to Slughorn's party," pouted Adin. "I think you and Rosier and Snape are the only third years who got one."
"Nancy Robards usually goes to his get-togethers," Lily told her, happy that the discussion had moved in a different direction. "I'd imagine she got an invite."
"Oh yeah, her dad's high up in Magical Law Enforcement."
"And she's really smart," added Lily as a dreary drizzle started falling from the grey sky. "Come on, let's go inside, it's rotten weather out here."
The girls moved back into the castle, Lily immensely thankful that the topic had veered from the dramatics of the Slytherins' interpersonal relationships, as it was always a difficult task to pull Adin out of her gossip once she got going. Nevertheless, Lily did a fairly adequate job, and spent the rest of the day tuning out any new talk of Darlene Burke or Evan Rosier or any of the third-year Slytherins. Despite the Ancient Runes assignment looming ahead of them, it was none of her business, really.
By the time Lily made it back to the common room that evening, she was in higher spirits than she had been all day. She and Mary had just been to a Charms Club meeting, where they had learned a nifty little charm that would allow them to scan through books or notes for a specific phrase, and Lily was itching to try it out for her latest Potions assignment. As she climbed through the portrait hole, however, she was thoroughly distracted by a large group of people milling around the Gryffindor notice board.
"What's going on?" Lily asked, pulling a chair up to the table that Adin and Kaia Balini were currently occupying.
"Hmm?" Adin asked, distractedly looking up from her copy of Teen Witch.
Lily indicated the group of people amassed in the corner. "Another Hogsmeade weekend?"
"Oh, no, James Potter's starting an Arcana tournament."
This, of course, meant nothing to Lily. "Arcana?" she repeated, when Adin did not offer any additional information.
"The card game," Adin said with a wave of her hand. "The one that boys play to win gold off each other." She nodded toward a nearby table, where a quartet of fourth-year boys sat, staring intently at the hands of playing cards in front of them.
"It's not just for boys," said Kaia, looking up from the essay she had been working on to roll her eyes at her sister. "Girls can play too."
"Yeah, but girls never play Arcana."
"Do too. Fiona Beal's already signed up for Potter's tournament."
"Fiona Beal's Quidditch Captain, though. She's not like a real girl."
Lily only half-listened as the sisters bickered, her attention on the nearby card game, a familiar loneliness taking up residence in her stomach. Another aspect of the wizarding world that remained a mystery to her, another wall between her and her classmates who had been raised in magical households. As she watched, Andrew Adamsly threw a triumphant pair of cards onto the table and then reached in to swipe the entire pile, earning various groans and disbelieving laughs from the other players. Apparently he had just won something.
"…doesn't make her not a real girl, Adin. Merlin, you're so judgmental…"
"…don't get your knickers all in a twist, I didn't mean anything by it…"
"How do you play?" Lily asked abruptly, interrupting the Balinis' back-and-forth.
"Huh?" said Adin, turning back to Lily almost as if she had forgotten she were there. "Oh, Arcana? I don't know all the rules. There's tricks and hands and rounds and trumps. It's all very complicated."
"It's not that complicated," countered Kaia.
"It's not as if you know how to play," Adin shot back.
Kaia rolled her eyes once more. "Well, no, but they say once you get the hang of it, it's all pretty straightforward."
Despite this, despite the fact that she had absolutely no idea how to play the game, Lily had a sudden, desperate urge to learn. As Andrew Adamsly collected what appeared to be a decent bit of gold off of his friends, she asked, "How much do you win?"
"In the tournament?" Adin clarified, frowning slightly. "Dunno. I think the buy-in's two Galleons, and there's already twenty or so people signed up, so I'd reckon you'd get a fair bit if you actually won the thing, but…Lily…you're not thinking of entering are you?"
"What?" Lily said, finally turning her gaze back to her friend. She shook her head, snapping herself out of her own daze, falling back down to the reality that told her that she didn't know the first thing about the card game whose name she could now not even recall. "No…no, of course not. I don't even know how to play."
But when a new game started up later that evening, Lily once again could barely pull her eyes away.
For the days leading up to Professor Slughorn's party on Saturday night, the school was abuzz with talk of little else. The older students who had not warranted an invite all seemed to suddenly have much more interest in those Slug Club members who had yet to find dates. Word in the corridors was that Caliban Gumboil, lead singer of the popular wizard band Deathday Champagne, would be making an appearance. The rumor that he might have even agreed to perform a song or two inspired a frenzy among the students to garner an invite the likes of which Lily had never witnessed. Interest in Slug Club gatherings, in her experience, was generally fairly limited.
Having only heard a few Deathday Champagne songs emanating from Raeanne's wireless in the dormitory, Lily's excitement for the party did not quite hold the ardor of her classmates'. Indeed, as she awkwardly walked by herself into Slughorn's office on Saturday night, her temptation to go hide in the library for two hours was quelled only by the thought of what Adin would do if she found out that Lily had blown off such an opportunity. Swallowing her nervousness, Lily gazed around at the office in awe. While she had attended many of Slughorn's luncheons and afternoon teas, she had never been to one of his evening soirees before, and the transformation of his office for the event was sensational. There had clearly been some sort of Extension Charm placed on the space, as it was at least three times its normal size. Gone were the polished mahogany desk and cushy armchairs, replaced instead by several dozen small round tables and golden-spindled chairs, haloed in the light of floating, white orbs. The grey stone castle walls were completely obfuscated by alternating shimmery blue and ivory drapery, and in the corner, a massive crystal fountain in the shape of an augurey streamed jets of a light pink concoction that Lily could only assume was some sort of punch.
She had been worried that she was too early, but the room was already full of mingling guests, and with a breath of relief, Lily spotted Severus sitting on a chair against the wall, alone and clearly uncomfortable.
"Fancy meeting you here," she said, sliding into the chair next to him. "Not a bad set-up, eh?"
He glanced quickly at her, looked around at the lavish room, and then glanced back at her again. "Extension charm, I'd imagine. He must have got a permit from the Ministry for it. Can't have been difficult, there's already about three of the Minister's junior secretaries here."
He nodded to a group of stodgy looking young wizards chatting in the corner, all dressed in black and white pinstriped robes that seemed ridiculously uniform. Lily bit back a snort at the sight. "Well they look like a bucket of laughs. Too bad there's no dance floor for them to cut up later on."
Severus shrugged. "Political types. There'll be a fair few of them here, I'm sure."
"You talk to anyone yet?" asked Lily.
Severus, though, had become distracted as Didina Murphy, a fifth-year Gryffindor looking stunning in silver dress robes, walked by on the arm of a Ravenclaw boy Lily did not know. "Huh?" he asked, after a moment.
Lily laughed and flicked his ear. "I asked if you'd talked to anyone yet?"
"Oh," he said, turning red and looking down at his fingers. "No, I only got here a few minutes before you." He glanced back up at her awkwardly. "You…er…you look nice tonight. Different, I mean."
"Oh, thanks," said Lily sarcastically.
"No! I mean, er, you always look nice, but you look…er…did you do something differently tonight?"
Adin had for days been begging Lily to wear dress robes to the event, but as Lily had no dress robes, nor any gold to buy dress robes, and as all of her friends were significantly taller than her, Lily had settled for her standard school robes. She had, however, allowed Adin to curl her hair properly for the occasion.
"Not really, just, you know…" She waved her hand absentmindedly toward her hair. Severus nodded and went back to studying his fingers. "No dress robes," she continued, shrugging. "And I imagine if I did magically come into some gold, I wouldn't spend it on dress robes."
"No," said Severus, a wry smile playing at his lips. "I imagine I wouldn't either."
Lily laughed. "What would you spend it on, then?"
"Books," he said at once. "Maybe a new cauldron."
"There's a shocker," Lily said, nudging him in the side.
"Well what about you, then?"
"An owl," she said without pause.
"That'd be nice," he nodded thoughtfully. "Then we could use it over the holidays to decide when to meet up. I'm sick of walking all the way to your house only to discover you're not home."
"And I could use it to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world when I'm at home," said Lily, her thoughts turning to that familiar sense of seclusion she felt in Cokeworth. "So we're not so isolated, you and me."
Severus's expression turned sour, but a swell of noise by the door drew Lily's attention away from him. A tall, dark-haired wizard wearing robes made entirely of artfully ripped black leather had just entered, and Lily assumed based on the crowd's reaction that this had to be the much anticipated Caliban Gumboil. A small group of Ravenclaw sixth years immediately swarmed him, holding out quills for him to sign various slips of parchment, and Lily watched in awe as one girl even had him autograph her forearm.
"Stupid girls," Severus muttered, his lip curling at the sight of them. "As if being able to strum a few notes on a guitar is an actual accomplishment."
"Have you heard their songs? Raeanne says they're quite good, and she listens to all sorts of music."
"Oh, well, if Raeanne says they're good…"
"Don't be rude, Sev, I was just saying…"
Severus scowled and went back to studying his fingers, so Lily took the time to gaze around at their fellow party-goers, curious as to how many of them she knew. Nancy Robards, looking very pretty in robes of deep blue, stood in the opposite corner chatting with two older Hufflepuffs who Lily didn't know. Andrew Adamsly was sampling some of the punch alongside an older, white-haired witch who had to be one of Slughorn's former students. Evan Rosier was huddled nearby with Rabastan Lestrange and Regulus Black, and Lily watched them for a moment until Rosier looked up at her, and she had to avert her eyes quickly and hope he hadn't noticed her staring.
"We could sell potions," Severus said abruptly.
"What?"
"You and me," he continued, still gazing at his fingers, but now with a thoughtful expression on his face. "To earn some extra gold. We could brew potions and sell them to students."
"That's…that's against the rules, Sev," Lily said, surprised.
"So? That Babbling Beverage you made was against the rules. Didn't seem to stop you."
"But that was just for me and my mates…"
"Still, though. I'd bet we could make loads of gold. Concentration Concoctions before exams. Dozeless Draughts to help people stay awake. Hydration Tonics for when the dunderheads drink too much firewhisky and can barely get off the common room couch the next morning…"
Lily considered it. There was something unsettling about the way he was speaking, as if he had been sitting on the idea for a while, as if Dozeless Draughts and Concentration Concoctions were not all he had in mind.
"Why do you think anyone would buy any potions off of us? I mean, we're good, Sev, but we're only third years. You really think the upper years would trust our brewing abilities?"
He shrugged, his eyes now focused more on his knees than his fingers. "So we start with the lower years." He hesitated before continuing. "Evan offered to pay me for the potion I'm brewing for him, but I told him I'd do it as a favor."
"Oh. Right. The mystery potion."
"I can't tell you what it is, Lily."
"But it's been months now, Sev. It must be something very complicated. Maybe I could help."
"You can't help, and I can't tell you. So just drop it."
"Yes, Evans," said a voice from above them, and they both started and looked up to find Evan Rosier, dressed in very expensive looking robes of black silk, standing above them with a curious expression on his face. "You really should just drop it, you know."
Lily felt herself redden, but straightened her back anyway and said, "Eavesdropping, are we Rosier?"
Rosier rolled his eyes, looking entirely unapologetic, before ignoring Lily and saying directly to Severus, "Sorry to pull you away from your date, Snape, but I need a word."
"I'm not his date," Lily retorted at once. "And we were in the middle of a conversation."
"Yes, a conversation about what is and isn't your business, if I heard correctly Evans."
"It's fine, Lily," Severus said in a low voice before Lily could respond. He stood and had already slouched several paces away when he turned back to her. "I'll just be a minute."
Left with no alternative, Lily crossed her arms and sat back in her chair, trying not to be too obvious as she watched the two boys cross to the opposite corner of the room and speak in hushed, hurried tones. She didn't know what Evan Rosier was up to with Severus, but something in her gut told her that it couldn't be anything good. As much as she wished Severus would find friends outside of her and the Slytherin boys who bullied her, Evan Rosier had an air about him that simply gave Lily the creeps.
"Miss Evans!" boomed a voice from near the augurey fountain. Lily turned to find Professor Slughorn, who was standing with Andrew Adamsly and the white-haired witch she had noticed before, beckoning her across the room.
With a quick glance at Severus, who was not paying her any attention at all, Lily rose and approached the group. "Good evening, Professor."
Slughorn beamed at her. For the occasion, he had donned a velvet green waistcoat with gold embroidery and jeweled buttons. Suddenly, Lily felt entirely out of place in her everyday school robes. "Ah, Miss Evans! What are you doing sitting over there all by yourself?" This was apparently a rhetorical question, as Slughorn did not give her time to answer, before waving a glittering chalice of punch toward the unknown witch in some sort of introductory gesture. "I wanted to introduce you to Fernandina Cosgrove, who is the Healing and Medical Arts Potions Master at St. Mungo's!"
He finished with a final wrist flourish that caused a bit of his punch to slop out over his chalice and splatter onto the floor, but either Slughorn didn't notice or pretended not to. Andrew Adamsly closed his lips together tightly in an apparent attempt not to laugh, and Lily just smiled up at Fernandina Cosgrove, who appeared much younger than her shock-white hair had indicated at first glance. "How do you do?"
"Lovely," the witch replied in a deep, rich voice. She smiled warmly at Lily. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Evans."
"Lily here is the top potion-maker in her year, and one of the brightest I've seen come through in ages."
"Oh, you're kind, Professor, but I'm not sure about that," Lily said modestly, her face burning.
"Nonsense! Only a third year and already able to brew a perfect antidote to a Befuddlement Draught. I've never seen anything like it."
"Impressive," nodded Fernandina, her thin eyebrows raised in regard.
"Indeed," agreed Slughorn. "And Gryffindors are usually far too impatient to be great potion-makers! I always said she should have been a Slytherin."
"I am impatient, though, Professor," said Lily, eyes wide in mock-seriousness. "The Sorting Hat went through the houses in alphabetical order, you see, and Gryffindor was first, so I just told it, 'I'll take that one!'"
Both Andrew and Fernandina laughed appreciatively, and even Slughorn chuckled. "You've got cheek, Miss Evans, that's for certain." He looked like he was going to say something more, but became distracted by the sight of a nearby Ravenclaw. "Oh, Mr. Greengrass!" he called, guiding Fernandina away by the elbow. "Come, Dina, let me introduce you to our esteemed Head Boy…"
And with that, they disappeared in the crowd to assail Miles Greengrass, leaving Lily rather suddenly alone next to the punch fountain with Andrew Adamsly.
"Well," she began, plucking a cup of punch off the nearby table just for something to occupy her hands, "that was…" She trailed off, noticing that Andrew was looking at her with a peculiar smile on his face. "What?"
"Do you always talk to professors that way?" he asked, his smile broadening.
"Oh," Lily took a sip of the punch and then had to force herself not to gag. It was sickeningly sweet. "Well, only when they ask for it by saying I should be a Slytherin."
"Brilliant," said Andrew, laughing a bit and shaking his head as if in disbelief.
"How'd you get roped into that conversation, anyway?"
He shrugged, glancing toward where Slughorn and Fernandina had wandered off. "Fernandina's my aunt," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "It's probably the only reason I ever get invited to this sort of thing. I'm no great Merlin at Potions, I'll promise you that."
"Your aunt?"
"Yep, my mum's older sister."
"Oh," said Lily, unsure of what to say. This was, after all, the first time she had ever spoken to Andrew Adamsly. "She seemed…nice."
"She's cool. Always sends me a Galleon for my birthday." He paused and rocked back on his heels before saying, "Are you here with someone?"
"What?" asked Lily, caught off-guard. "No, why?"
"You keep looking round as if expecting someone to come whisk you away at any minute."
Indeed, Lily realized she had been unconsciously trying to spot Severus through the crowd, but he was still nowhere to be seen. She blushed and turned her attention back to Andrew. "Sorry. I'm not here with anyone, was just wondering where a friend got off to. What about you?"
He shrugged again and gave her a smile. He had a very nice smile. "My date fell through at the last minute. Long story."
Again, Lily did not know the best way to respond to this. She was suddenly very aware of how awkwardly she was holding her arms, so she took another sip of her punch just for something to occupy her hands, forgetting that she did not care for it at all. This time, she couldn't help but grimace at the overwhelmingly saccharine flavor.
"Disgusting, isn't it?" Andrew asked, noticing her expression.
Lily tried to arrange her face in a more pleasant countenance as she set the cup down on a nearby table. "It's like someone liquified Sugar Quills and then added some syrup."
He grinned at her, and she felt herself inexplicably redden. "I reckon it'd taste better if someone snuck some firewhisky into it, but it doesn't seem like that type of crowd, does it? Too bad James Potter doesn't come to these things, I'd imagine he'd find a way to liven it up."
She snorted in a very undignified way, but the mention of James Potter had reminded her of something. "Are you playing in Potter's card tournament, Andrew?"
"The Arcana tournament over Easter holiday? Yeah, I've put my name in."
"Is it difficult to learn, Arcana?"
He seemed to ponder this, biting his bottom lip and squinting down at her before saying, "You're a Muggle-born, right?"
This was not at all what Lily had expected. She took a small step backward and crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes."
"No need to get defensive, Lily," he laughed, showing his palms. "I'm half-blood, myself. Dad's a Muggle. And the thing is – and don't tell the purebloods this secret – Arcana isn't so hard for those of us who have learned Muggle maths."
"Really?" she asked, fascinated not only by this information, but also by the way this good-looking, fourth-year Quidditch player had just called her by name.
"Sure." He shrugged again. "Part of it's luck, but the rest is just maths. And I was pretty good at maths in Muggle primary. I can teach you how to play, if you'd like."
"Really?" she asked again, trying to conceal her utter breathlessness. "You'd do that for me?"
"If you'd like," he repeated.
She grinned, regaining some of her wits. "But what if I turn out to be a much better player than you, and win all your gold in the tournament?"
It was a wonderful feeling, really, to make him laugh.
"I'll tell you what," he said. "If you win Potter's Arcana tournament, you can pay me back my two Galleon buy-in. Sound good?"
"Deal," said Lily, and she reached and shook his hand right as Severus appeared as though from thin air.
"Lily." His eyes flickered over her, over Andrew, over their handshake. "There you are."
"Here I am," she said happily. "Are you done with your top-secret conversation then?"
Severus ignored the question, his expression closed. "They've started passing food," he said in a voice low enough that he might have been trying to keep Andrew out of the conversation entirely. "They've those pasties you like over on the other side of the room."
"All right," said Lily. The thought of eating something that would rid her mouth of the syrupy taste of punch was mighty appealing. She turned back to Andrew. "I'll talk to you later, then, Andrew?"
"Sure," he said, giving her another brilliant smile. "See you later, Lily."
With that, she allowed Severus to pull her off toward the congregation of house elves that had appeared with silver serving trays stacked high with delectable food. And though she was not able to speak to Andrew again that evening – every time they would meander close to him, Severus would somehow steer them to the opposite side of the crowd – she could not help but let her eyes wander toward him more than once.
Lily spent much of Sunday hiding in her dormitory, simultaneously terrified of and thrilled by the prospect of running into Andrew Adamsly if she lingered too long in the common room. Their brief interchange the night before had made it difficult to concentrate on her homework, and by the time she entered the library after dinner that night, she had not finished very much of her work at all, though she was not entirely concerned about her lack of progress. The Transfiguration essay was not due for several days, and her Potions paper would be a breeze. Her focus, now, would be on getting through this first meeting with Darlene Burke.
"Evans," said Darlene by way of greeting ten minutes later. The Slytherin threw her bag onto the table Lily had been quietly seated at and slid into the chair across from her. "It took me five minutes to find you all the way over here."
Lily gave her a tentative smile that was not returned and shrugged genially. "Habit, I guess. I like the tables a bit out of the main stacks. It's quieter."
"Whatever," Darlene muttered, pulling a few books out of her bag. "Let's just get this over with."
"I was looking into some children's tales to choose from," began Lily, but Darlene cut her off.
"We should stay away from the Beedle stories," she said matter-of-factly. "Everyone's going to be using them, and they're rubbish, aren't they? I pulled some options for us. We should go lesser known."
Lily stared as Darlene flipped her books open to previously earmarked pages. Whatever she had expected from the other girl, this level of preparedness had not been it. "All right."
"I was thinking a good option might be the one about the little witch in the red robes that gets eaten by the werewolf on her way to her granny's house. It's pretty short and shouldn't be hard to translate." She flipped one of her books around for Lily to look at and pointed out the page titled 'Little Red Riding Hood.' "Or," she went on, throwing a different book on top of it in a similar fashion, "we could stick to those Grimm wizards' tales, like the one where those two awful Muggle children try to eat the witch's house made of sweets, and then when she catches them at it they end up boiling her in her own cauldron."
Lily frowned at the drawing under the heading, 'Hansel and Gretel,' at once both fascinated and horrified by the depiction of the titular pair as horrible little imp children with wide eyes and drooling mouths. It seemed that wizarding versions of classic children's tales were far different from the ones her father had read to her as a child.
"Er," she said, moving the top book to look again at the one underneath it. "Let's go with 'Little Red Riding Hood.' You're right in that it at least seems fairly short."
Darlene snapped the other books shut and threw them back in her bag. "Fine by me. Do you want to take the first paragraph and I'll take the second, then?"
"Okay," said Lily, peering around at the shelves. "Do you think there's another copy of it available?"
Darlene pointed to a section on the other side of the library. "I got this by the Magical Myths section over there. There were other copies if you want to check one out for yourself."
Thus, Lily spent the next ten minutes craning her neck at tome after tome containing myths and legends, finally spotting the book that Darlene had and plucking it off the shelf in relief. The idea that the stories of her childhood had been told from such differing perspectives for generations and generations was unsettling. She was curious to read the story in full, to see what Darlene Burke and countless other magical children had been read as they drifted off to sleep many years ago. As the story was short, only five pages with small illustrations, it took Lily several moments to locate it in the book. She leaned against the shelf and began reading.
"Once upon a time there lived in a certain village a young witch, the prettiest witch in all the area. Her magic was evident at an early age, and though her mother was excessively fond of her, her grandmother doted on her still more. This good woman had conjured riding robes of red, with a little hood just for her. The robes suited the girl so extremely well that everybody called her Little Red Riding Hood…"
"It's taking too long, Snape!"
A cold voice, emanating not too far from where Lily stood, interrupted her reading and she jumped as if scalded.
"I told you," hissed a second voice that Lily knew all too well, "it should be complete in a few weeks. Now that you've finally procured the Vipertooth blood, we can proceed at a faster pace."
"That Vipertooth blood is a Class B non-tradable material, you're lucky I was able to get it at all. You said that the salamander blood would work…"
Cautioning to move as little as possible as to not draw attention to herself, Lily peered through a gap in the books toward the sound of the voices. Craning her neck just marginally, she could spot the haughty, blond profile of Evan Rosier, staring in the opposite direction at what Lily knew to be Severus Snape, though she could not see her friend from that particular angle.
"I'm not sure 'lucky' is the word I'd use for it, Evan," said Severus in a tone Lily had never heard him use before, low and measured and oddly intimidating. "Perhaps it will be lucky for Burke, if anyone, as the salamander blood when mixed with the monkshood and Ashwinder eggs could have caused bleeding from the ears, and the Vipertooth blood won't have such an effect."
"I don't bloody want her bleeding out of her ears," snapped Rosier. "What fun is that?"
"And thus the need for the Vipertooth blood."
From Lily's limited vantage point, she could see the look of impatience on Rosier's face. "How long will it take?"
"I added the Vipertooth blood last night after Slughorn's party. It's brewing undetected in the alcove next to my bed. If everything goes as planned, it will be ready to administer in two weeks."
Rosier sighed, but nodded. "It's handy having you around sometimes, Snape, you know that?"
Though she could not see him, Lily could hear the little twinge of pride in his voice when Severus responded, "Though it hasn't moved as quickly as you would have preferred, the outcome will be what you're looking for, I guarantee it."
"It better be," said Rosier, and though he said it affably, it was impossible not to detect the threat underneath.
This seemed to be the end of their conversation, as Rosier moved out of Lily's line of sight, and she was unable to hear anything else from her side of the shelf. She crouched down, clutching the book to her chest and hoping that they were not coming her way, her mind racing and her mouth dry. The potion that Severus was working on, the one he refused to tell her anything about, was something that Rosier wanted to give to Darlene Burke. But they had been working on it for months, since Burke and Rosier were thoroughly disgusting everyone by wrestling underneath the mistletoe at every opportunity. Now, though, they were no longer even talking, and Rosier still wanted the potion, still wanted to give it to his former girlfriend. And it contained Vipertooth blood, which was something far too dark and volatile for Slughorn to ever permit them to use in his lessons.
Lily lost track of how long she remained crouched like that in the stacks, trying to sort out what exactly Severus had gotten himself into. At length, she realized that she was supposed to be working on her Ancient Runes assignment with Darlene, and pulled herself back up to her feet. When she stumbled into her chair at their table, Darlene looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What took you so long? I'm almost finished with my paragraph already."
"Oh," said Lily, shaking herself out of her stupor. "Sorry, I had trouble finding the book."
But before Darlene could reply, a snide, high-pitched voice cut across them. "Slumming it with Gryffindors now, Tart-lene?"
They both looked up to find Zelda Carmichael and Lelita Aubrey approaching their table, identical wicked smiles on their faces. Darlene rolled her eyes at her fellow Slytherins and gestured toward the books and parchment laid out in front of her.
"We're working on our Ancient Runes project, Zelda, which you could probably have figured out for yourself if you had a brain in your head."
The insult didn't even seem to register, as Carmichael only tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and widened her grin. "Oh that's right!" she simpered in a voice dripping with condescension. "You got stuck with Evans because no one in your own house wanted to be anywhere near you anymore, isn't that right, Tart-lene?"
"I'm working with Evans because that's who I was assigned to work with," Darlene replied, unruffled and cool.
Carmichael evidently decided to change tactics and turned to Lily. "How does it feel to have to work with Tart-lene, Evans? Do you worry some of her slagginess might rub off on you?"
Something told Lily that it would be prudent to not antagonize these girls, but prudence rarely won out when insults were being fired. She said loudly to Lelita Aubrey, "How does it feel to have to work with Carmichael, Aubrey? Do you worry some of her thickness will rub off on you?"
There was a sound almost like a choked laugh from across the table, but when Lily glanced at Darlene, her expression was as cool and aloof as ever. Both Aubrey and Carmichael looked entirely affronted.
"Don't you dare call me thick, you bitchy little…"
"What?" asked Lily, leaning backwards in her chair and crossing her arms. "Can't come up with a clever nickname for me, Carmichael? Too bad. You know, if I had the sense of humor of an eight-year-old, I might think it's funny to come up with one for you. 'Cow-michael,' perhaps?"
"You think you're so clever, don't you, Evans?"
Lily, though, had noticed a figure stalking around a nearby bookshelf, so she smiled brightly and waved. "Hello, Madam Pince!"
Both Aubrey and Carmichael spun around so quickly they nearly toppled over as the vulture-like librarian marched to their table and glared around at them all. "What are you girls doing, skulking around like this?" she hissed at the two standing Slytherins. "Either sit down and get to work or get out."
With a huff and a simultaneous roll of their eyes, Carmichael and Aubrey hurried off through the stacks. Madam Pince sent another suspicious glare toward Darlene and Lily, but seemed to find nothing to scold them for, and she, too, disappeared between nearby bookshelves, leaving the two girls in an awkward silence.
"Cow-michael?" said Darlene after a moment. She was looking at Lily with a strange, closed expression and an arched eyebrow.
Lily could not suppress a sheepish grin. "The entire time she was over here, all I could think was that she's a cow. It just kind of slipped out."
And, for perhaps the first time since Lily had known her, or perhaps for the first time in her life, the corners of Darlene Burke's lips twitched upward in what was unmistakably a small smile. It was gone a second later, though, and as if looking for something to distract Lily from the entire encounter, Darlene said, "That's a nice quill."
"What?" said Lily, looking down at the deep blue and gold-flecked feather that was lying on the table in front of her. She plucked it up and examined it. "Oh, thanks."
"It's smaller than most quills, but it's really pretty."
"It's homemade. It was a Christmas gift from a friend."
Darlene stared at the quill for a brief moment before saying, "Must be a good friend. Now let's get back to work so we can get out of here."
Lily recognized the dismissal and did not push for additional conversation, but flipped open her book to begin working. The pair worked in silence for nearly an hour, and though they made good progress, by the time the torches dimmed to signal that curfew was nearing, they had only gotten through about half of their story. After making plans to meet up again later in the week, Lily crept over to the well-tread aisles of the Potions section, grabbed a few books she would need, and then made her way back up to Gryffindor Tower, her mind full of Darlene and Severus and Rosier and the thought of how cruel friends could be to one another.
She had only just sat down at an empty corner table in the common room and began researching when someone slid uninvited into the chair across from her.
"Evening, Lily."
Her stomach seemed to recognize him before her brain did, and it somersaulted two or three times before she was able to find her tongue. "Hi Andrew."
He did not look quite as polished as he had the night before, but the fact that his robes were a bit rumpled and his brown hair was not neatly combed somehow worked to make him even better looking to her. He was shuffling a deck of cards through his fingers and grinning at her with the same bright smile he had thrown her the previous evening, the same bright smile that made her face glow warm.
"Fancy learning a bit of Arcana? Or are you too busy with, er…" He craned his neck to get a better look at the book she was reading. "…Plucky Picks for the Most Potable Potions?"
"Oh!" she said, probably too loudly. She threw the book and the three that were stacked below it into her bag and gave him a timid smile. "If you're willing to teach me, I'm willing to learn."
"Brilliant. I was looking for you this afternoon, but couldn't find you. Then I saw you at dinner, but you were gone so quickly, I didn't get a chance to have a word."
He was looking for her? She clasped her fingers together under the table, unsure of what else to do with them. "I had to meet someone in the library after dinner, so I was in a bit of a hurry," she explained. "Ancient Runes project."
He raised his eyebrows and began dealing the cards one by one. "The children's tale one? I remember that from last year, it wasn't too bad. Just don't go with one of the Beedle stories. They're all so long and everyone chooses them so it's harder to get away with mis-translations."
Lily nodded and kept her eyes focused on the cards as he finished tossing them into two piles. "We decided on 'Little Red Riding Hood.'"
"Ah, a little different, I bet for you, the Muggle version versus the magical version?"
"Did you…" She hesitated, not knowing if this was too personal a question to ask someone she barely knew. "Did you grow up with the Muggle or magical versions, being a half-blood?"
"Both," he answered. "But I preferred the Muggle versions, usually. Less…gruesome, somehow, which is saying something." He flipped the newly dealt cards over and laid them out so that they both could see the hands. "Anyway, Arcana…"
"Right," said Lily, scooting her chair in and leaning forward as to get a better view of the cards. "Less chit-chat, more of you showing me how to win dozens of Galleons in a few weeks."
He chuckled lightly. "Do you know anything about the game, or are we starting from the top?"
"Er, I know it's called 'Arcana.' And it's played with cards. And you told me it has to do with maths. That's about the extent of my knowledge."
"All right, then, from the top it is," he said easily. "The goal of Arcana is to get to seven points before any of the other players, and you generally get a point for winning a round. To win a round, you've got to win four of the seven tricks, which is why you've seven cards to start." He gestured to the hands on the table. "If you win six or seven of the tricks, you get two points, but that almost never happens. You with me so far?"
He said all of this fairly quickly, and though it did not seem too overly complicated, the nearness of him was distracting her somewhat. Add that to the fact that Sirius Black and James Potter had just passed by their table and the latter had given her a very confused look, and Lily was starting to think that she was going to come off as rather thick to this boy.
"Er," she said, shaking herself slightly and refocusing her attention. "Seven tricks, have to try to win four in order to get a point. Get seven points to win the game. Okay, I got it. How do you win a trick?"
"Well that's where the maths comes in, and it's the beauty of Arcana. Here, let me show you…"
Lily was the very last person awake in the common room that evening. She and Andrew had sat in the corner for hours discussing Arcana tactics and playing test hands with one another. It was close to 11:00 when he decided to turn in for the night and Lily, too wired by their time together to consider going to sleep, remained in her seat until well after midnight, poring over the Potions books she had taken from the library and at last coming to the disturbing realization of what, exactly, Severus was helping Evan Rosier brew in their dormitory.
She did not sleep much that night, plagued with worry over what was becoming of her best friend. Sure, Severus had always been quiet and somewhat sullen, but with the exception of a few encounters with James Potter, he had never been malicious. (And to be fair, the James Potter animosity was always provoked.) But if Lily was correct in her theory, what Severus and Rosier were planning to do to Darlene Burke was unconscionable, and the use of the Vipertooth blood made it fairly clearly Dark Magic.
She was not one to sit back while her best friend made bad decisions that would not only hurt other people, but were likely to get him expelled as well. So, after breakfast the next morning, and despite the near certainty that she would be late for Charms, Lily caught up to Severus near the History of Magic classroom, where he was walking a pace or two behind Avery and Mulciber.
"Sev," she hissed, pulling at his elbow to slow him down. "I need to talk to you."
Unfortunately, she was not quiet enough, and Avery turned around when Severus stopped walking. "Wanting a quick snog before History of Magic, Evans?" he said loudly enough for several passersby to stop and stare.
"Sod off, Avery," Lily snapped, attempting to pull Severus farther away.
"I'd offer to take a turn after Snape here," Avery sneered, "but it'd take me months to wash off your Mudblood germs."
"Leave it alone," Severus mumbled, though whether he was talking to Lily or Avery was difficult to say.
"That's too bad," Lily replied sardonically, ignoring Severus and glaring at Avery. "Though I imagine I'd get more satisfaction out of snogging Nearly Headless Nick than I would out of you."
And with that, she finally succeeded in pulling Severus around the corner and into a nearby alcove that was, thankfully, deserted.
"He shouldn't have said that," Severus muttered, his face a blotchy puce. "About…about you and me going off, you know…"
"I don't give a piss about Avery," said Lily, glancing around once more to ensure they were truly alone. "I need to talk to you about Rosier's potion."
"Rosier's…? Lily, I told you to drop it. It's none of your business!"
"I know what you're making, Severus," she said, the thought of it making her voice shake. "I know what Rosier wants to do to Darlene Burke and it's disgusting and it's Dark Magic and you shouldn't have anything to do with it. Do you hear me? Anything."
He stared at her for a moment, his lips thin, the blotchiness of his face fading to a ghostly whiteness. "I don't know what you heard, but you're mistaken…"
"What I heard?" she repeated, resisting the urge to smack him. "What I heard was you and Rosier in the library last night – talking where anybody might overhear you, may I add – and you mentioned Vipertooth blood in place of salamander blood, which would only work in a behavioral potion, and you mentioned Ashwinder eggs and monkshood, which when combined create a type of euphoric state of mind –" She cut off when he grabbed her wrist.
"Lily." He spoke lowly, and for a moment she had the urge to back away from him. "I don't care what you think you know. You need to leave it alone…"
"You're making a potion so that Evan Rosier can do whatever he wants to do with Darlene Burke, Severus." They stared at one another, her breath coming in short bursts through her nostrils and his jaw set stubbornly. "Tell me I'm wrong."
She hoped he would deny it, would explain it away, would tell her that of course there was another explanation, of course he would not be wrapped up in something so heinous. But he just continued staring.
"You disgust me," she spat, moving to push past him, but he still had a grip on her wrist and he pulled her back, glancing around at the passing students and exhaling slowly.
"It's not so he can do whatever he wants with her," he said at last. "It's just an inhibition minimizer. The idea was based off the modified Babbling Beverage you –"
"Don't you dare compare what you're doing with that stupid Babbling Beverage," she hissed at him, wrenching her arm free. "All that did was make us chatty. A real inhibition minimizer makes people do things –"
"– that they want to do in reality but are too uncomfortable to do –"
"One of the books I read compared it to the Imperius Curse in potion form! Severus, listen to yourself. The Imperius Curse!"
"It's not, Lily. It's not that bad, I swear…"
"Dump it," she commanded, folding her arms across her chest and giving him the sternest glare she could muster. "Dump it down the drain today."
He actually had the nerve to scoff. "I can't do that, you know I can't. And look, I'm just making the potion, it's not my business what people do with it after…"
"Not your business?" she repeated, incredulous. She shook her head, at a loss, and decided to change tactics. "Please, Sev. Please get rid of the potion. Don't let him do this to Burke. No one deserves something like that. What if someone gave that to me, how would you feel?"
This, it seemed, made him falter. His eyes flickered from her face to the passing throng of students in the corridor to the floor and then back to her face again. "I…I'll think about it. I'm going to be late to class, Lily, I've got to go."
And then, without waiting for her to respond, he turned on his heel and hurried through the corridor toward the History of Magic classroom. Lily, however, was not so easily brushed off. He had only gone a few steps when she caught up to him again, bumping into a few Hufflepuffs as she went. "You will? You promise you'll think about it? You've got to, Sev, you've just got to –"
"I said I'll think about it, what more do you want?" he snapped, his gaze fixed straight ahead as he walked.
She wasn't sure what it was – the words coming out of his mouth or the look on his face – but she did not believe him. Despite what he may tell her, he would not consider getting rid of the potion, no matter how much she yelled or pleaded. The young boy she could cow with a withering scowl or wide puppy-dog eyes was now a stubborn fourteen-year-old wizard, with more important people to impress than the plucky Muggle-born girl from down the street.
The interaction might have stunned her, might have brought her to tears, might have infuriated her or induced a shock wave of nostalgia unlike what she had ever known. But she did not have time to weather any of those particular sentiments, because the next moment, a loud, unwelcome voice sounded close behind her, and an even more unwelcome arm was tossed casually over her shoulder.
"Evans!" exclaimed the cheerful, aggravating voice of James Potter. "What are you doing up here? And with old Snivelly to boot."
Both Lily and Severus froze in place, so James did too, grinning at them like a cat that had just caught a particularly tasty mouse. Behind him, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew lingered, watching the proceedings with an air of cautious amusement.
Lily suppressed an actual growl and, with two repulsed fingers, plucked James's arm off of her shoulder. Being pestered by James Potter was the exact last thing she had the patience to deal with at the moment.
"Potter, if you ever put your arm around me again, I promise you'll wake up the next morning with it no longer connected to your shoulder. Got it?"
"So violent, Evans," James said, tutting. "What are you doing all the way up here, anyway? You're going to be late for Charms, you know."
"It's none of your business, and you're going to be late for Charms too."
Despite James's easy countenance and gleeful smirk, Lily could tell that he had noticed the wand that was now grasped tightly in Severus's hand. She stepped between the two as he said, "We're late on purpose every now and then to keep Flitwick on his toes. It helps the bloke see over desks, you know. Besides…" He pulled his wand from his pocket and spun it between his fingers, clearly readying himself in case Severus decided to strike. Lily stood her ground. "I saw you pop out from that alcove over there and remembered that I heard you signed up for the Arcana tournament."
"What's it to you?" Lily said, feeling Severus sidestep her and moving instinctively between them again. "Leave me alone, Potter."
"Just making pleasant conversation," he shrugged. "I'm the one that set up the tournament after all." And then he did something that told her, irrefutably, that the entire purpose of his little aside was not to pester her at all – it was to pester her in order to infuriate Severus. James winked not at her, but at the Slytherin who was slinking around her.
It happened in the blink of an eye, and had she not been readying herself for it, she may not have acted as quickly as she did. From behind her, Severus shouted a hex she did not recognize, James and Sirius both raised their wands simultaneously, Peter squeaked and shrank back behind Sirius, and with all the deftness she could muster, Lily flourished her own wand and yelled, "Protego!"
Whatever Severus had cast and whatever James had retaliated with disintegrated under the force of her Shield Charm. She spun on her heel, placing herself between the two once more, and looked directly at Severus.
From somewhere behind her, Sirius gave a low, impressed whistle. "That was some Shield Charm, Evans."
"We are not dueling in the corridor right now," she snapped, ignoring Sirius entirely. "Go to class, Sev."
"Yeah, Sev," mocked James. "Listen to Evans and run along, will you?"
"Shut up, Potter," she snarled, putting her hand atop of Severus's when he moved to raise his wand again. "And get out of here. We didn't ask for you to come and bother us."
James smirked and raised one pacifying palm, his other hand still gripping his wand. "All right, all right," he said, backing away. "Looking forward to the Arcana tournament, Evans. Though if you're getting cozy with Adamsly, I reckon we'd all better watch out for your card skills, eh?"
And with that, thankfully, James, Sirius, and Peter ambled off around the corner, leaving Lily with Severus in the now deserted corridor. They were late.
"What's he talking about?" Severus said.
"Nothing." Lily tried to temper the blush that was creeping up her cheeks. "It's a card tournament the Gryffindors are having in a few weeks." He said nothing, so Lily changed subjects. "Look, we've got to get to class, and you've got to dump that potion, all right?"
"I'm not sure…"
"Dump the potion, Severus," she said as he backed toward the History of Magic classroom. "Please."
He nodded. "Yeah…all right…"
She stood frozen as he departed, eyes unfixed on the place he had been, wishing that she could believe him.
Over the next several days, Lily found herself unable to have a proper conversation with Severus. In their brief times together, he was terse and dismissive, and when she continued to press him, he insisted that he had heeded her advice and had gotten rid of the potion. She watched him closely during these instances and said little, her disappointment in him flooding her and crippling her ability to negotiate or persuade him. He was lying to her. And whether or not he was a passable liar to others did not matter, for she knew him better than anyone, and his lies were transparent.
She was therefore in a rather morose mood when Sunday evening found her once again at a table in the library, waiting for Darlene Burke to meet her to work more on their Ancient Runes project. Darlene was late, very late, and Lily was just starting to become annoyed by it when the girl in question slid into the chair across from her, pale cheeks speckled with pink and eyes very red. Lily's annoyance vanished at once.
"Er…"
"Sorry I'm late," the Slytherin muttered, not meeting Lily's gaze and focusing on unpacking her things from her bag.
"That's…that's okay."
"Where are you in the text?"
Lily stared. Despite her dismissive demeanor, the unflappable, icy cold Darlene Burke had clearly been crying. "Erm, third page, second paragraph down," she answered automatically. "Are you all right, Darlene?"
"What? Yes, yes I'm fine. I'll take the next paragraph."
And that, apparently, was that. Darlene flipped open her book and began her meticulous translation, and Lily, slightly disconcerted, followed suit. They worked in silence for several minutes until there was an unmistakable sniffle from the other side of the table. Lily's head jerked up. Darlene's red eyes were now very wet as well, though no tears had yet fallen.
"Darlene?"
Darlene sat back and looked up at the ceiling of the library, as if trying to will the tears not to fall. "If you tell anyone about this Evans, I'll hex you into seventh year, got it?"
"I'm not going to…" Lily looked around. Aside from a group of fifth years studying for O.W.L.s several tables away, their corner of the library was deserted. "I won't say anything to anyone. Are you quite sure you're all right?"
"It's just…" Darlene took a deep breath, still not looking at Lily. "I mean, it's not my fault she fancied him too. It's not as if she told me before he asked me to Hosmeade, and what was I supposed to do, anyway? Tell him that I couldn't be his girlfriend after all just because Zelda decided she liked him as well? That wouldn't be fair to him or me, would it?"
It seemed to be a rhetorical question, because Lily didn't even have the time to open her mouth before Darlene continued.
"And, really, he's the best looking boy in our year, isn't he? I'm sure that loads of girls fancy him, and he fancied me, so even if she liked him, she should have been happy for me. She's supposed to be my best friend, we've been best friends for ages, and now she's just been horrible and it's all because she's jealous and because he told everyone that we did…stuff…that we didn't actually do. And so she thinks I'm a slag now, when all I did was snog my boyfriend, who, apparently, she's in love with."
The pink spots on Darlene's cheeks had reddened, but the tears brimming in her eyes had once again disappeared without falling. She seemed to be in some sort of trance. Lily wasn't sure she was even aware she was speaking to anyone, much less to a Gryffindor who she had only ever interacted with on a few occasions.
"And you know what the worst part is? I broke it off with him. I didn't want to do all that he wanted me to do, and then when I told him I didn't even want to snog him anymore if he was going to act like that, he made up all those lies about me and all my friends abandoned me and now everyone in the year thinks I'm a slag, even though I'm not. And you'd think Zelda, at least, would be on my side, but she believes everything he said about me, or she's at least pretending to because she's cross that he fancied me and not her."
"Evan Rosier is a jerk," Lily told her, not sure if she was trying to comfort or reaffirm. "It's good that you're not his girlfriend anymore, Darlene."
"He's not that bad." The wet eyes were back. "I'm awful, aren't I? I still fancy him after everything he's said about me."
This, apparently, was not a rhetorical question, and Lily wavered, her guilt-leaden mind on the potion that was currently brewing away in the third-year Slytherin boys' dormitory. She could not tell Darlene, though, not without getting Severus into trouble. Would he be expelled from Hogwarts if she were to alert someone? As angry as Lily was with him, it was not a risk she was willing to take.
"You're not awful," Lily said.
"I am though." Darlene's face was earnest, and at last she met Lily's eyes, vulnerable and lost. "Why do I fancy someone like that? Why would I give up my friends for a boy who spreads awful lies about me?"
"You're not," repeated Lily. "We all do stupid things for the people we care about, even when they're being stupid themselves." She paused, her stomach churning with self-reproach, before adding with a touch of humor, "And he is quite good-looking."
"He is, isn't he?" Darlene said with a trace of wistfulness. "Those blue eyes…"
Lily smiled sadly. "But he's not a good person. And you deserve better than that, Darlene."
It was an awkward moment, and an awkward location, and an awkward conversation to be had between a Slytherin and a Gryffindor who barely knew one another. Darlene seemed to realize this and with a deep breath, composed herself once more. Lily watched her, mystified, as the red disappeared from her eyes and her cheeks went pale again, as if under the enchantment of some sort of beautifying spell. Smoothing her brown hair down around her shoulders, Darlene straightened her back and arched an eyebrow at Lily – a much more standard look from the Slytherin.
"Thanks Evans," she said, her normally stoic tone returned but laced with gratefulness all the same. "We should get back to work or we'll have to meet back again next week."
Lily nodded, recognizing the dismissal of topic, but for the rest of the evening, she was unable to focus on anything other than the thought of Severus's potion and its intended purpose. No, she did not want to get him expelled, and she would do everything in her power to ensure that did not happen, but she also could not sit idly by while a snake like Evan Rosier did something as malicious and disgusting as drugging and taking advantage of Darlene Burke.
The question was, how could she protect both Darlene and Severus at the same time? Pleading with Severus had gotten her nowhere, and she did not expect him to suddenly change his tune. Going to a teacher was not an option, for Severus would be expelled. Confiding in any of her friends was out of the question, for she would be breaking not only Severus's trust, but also Darlene's.
And so, she researched. Once again, Lily was the last person awake in the common room that evening, her tired eyes glued to various Potions books, her hand cramped from the hasty notes she jotted down every few seconds. As long as she could diagram the exact alterations Severus had made to his brew process, she would be able to figure out a harmless way to manipulate the effects of the potion on the drinker. Luckily, Lily had spent nearly three years working on Potions assignments and tricks alongside Severus, and she knew the way his brain worked. Discovering a way to counteract the potion so that it would not produce its intended results on Darlene Burke took her a few hours, but was easy enough. The difficult part, then, was coming up with a way to mix the extra ingredients into the existing potion, which was currently simmering somewhere in the Slytherin boys' dormitory.
There was no getting around it. Lily knew of only two non-Slytherins who knew how to sneak around in other houses' dormitories, and, lucky for her, they were both Gryffindors in her year. Unlucky for her, one of those two people annoyed the living daylights out of her on a regular basis. The other, she reasoned with herself as she rubbed her bleary eyes in the wee hours of the following morning, would have to do.
"Black! Hey, Black!"
The wet, mud-logged April grass squelched under his feet as he strolled out of the Herbology greenhouse, looking for all the world like he was not just scolded and held back by Professor Sprout after class to be assigned a detention. The amusement in jinxing a Tibetan Turnip to sing inappropriate limericks was evidently enough to justify a night's worth of cleaning out soiled flower pots.
"Morning, Evans," said Sirius, looking only slightly surprised as she hurried to catch up to him. "Aren't you going to be late for class? This is turning into a habit, you know."
"It's fine. I've Care of Magical Creatures, and Kettleburn won't mind." This was not entirely true, but Lily had more important matters concerning her, and finding a time to speak to Sirius Black when he was alone had been surprisingly difficult. "I wanted to ask you something."
Sirius reconvened his stroll up the muddy hill toward the castle, and despite the fact that Lily was now going in the exact opposite direction from where she was supposed to be, she followed.
"Well this is new."
"I wanted to ask you for a favor."
He stopped abruptly to turn and look at her, and they both slid down a few inches in the mud. "Are you yanking my wand?"
She gave him a look. "I wouldn't dream of it."
"I would," he quipped, smirking.
She ignored him, taking a moment to gather her courage before blurting out, "I need you to tell me how to get into the Slytherin common room undetected."
A second's worth of surprised silence passed before Sirius let out a breathy laugh and looked around, as though trying to see whether someone was playing a trick on him. "What makes you think that I –"
"Because I'm not thick," Lily cut in. "So let's not even waste time debating the point. I know you know how to get in there, and I'm asking you to tell me."
He narrowed his eyes at her, sizing her up. "Why?"
"I can't tell you."
"Not going to cut it, Evans," he said, turning and starting to make his way toward the castle once more. Lily slipped a little as she made to follow him. "You want my help, you tell me the details."
She had worried about him having this reaction. "I can't, it's…" she repeated, faltering. "Someone could get hurt."
From the castle, the sound of the bell echoed across the wet grounds. They were both now officially late to class. Sirius glanced at her out of the side of his eye and then shrugged, seemingly unconcerned, before extracting a piece of parchment from his pocket and flipping it through his fingers with casual distraction. "You know what's great about Sprout?"
"What?" she asked, caught off-guard by his abrupt change in topic.
He flipped the piece of parchment once more and grinned at her. "Even when she's assigning me a detention, she writes me a note to give to Professor Lumpkin, so I don't get another detention for showing up late to Muggle Studies."
"Bully for you," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "Now will you help me or not?"
"You're a difficult person to deny, what with that cheery attitude," Sirius said, snorting as they reached the castle. He held the heavy stone door open for her. "Why don't you just ask your mate Snivellus? I'm sure he'd like nothing more than to sneak you into his dormitory."
"Shut it, that's not true," snapped Lily, starting to rethink this whole grand idea of asking Sirius Black for help in the first place. "And I can't. But it's really important, Sirius, I wouldn't be asking you if it wasn't."
He sighed and paused to lean against a pillar in the empty entrance hall, propping his foot up behind him so that it left a muddy smear along the stone, which he did not seem to notice.
"I can't help you," he said at length. "I can't get into the Slytherin common room –"
"Bollocks," argued Lily. "Of course you can, you –"
He held up a hand to silence her. "Merlin, Evans, let me finish, will you?" There was a pause as he looked around the hall, clearly debating what to tell her, before saying, "I can't get into the Slytherin common room alone. But James can. Ask James."
This was not the response she had expected. She stared at him. "I – What?"
"Ask James to help you," repeated Sirius, shrugging and shoving his hands in his pockets. The mud from his raised shoe was now dripping onto the castle floor. "He's the one that can get in there whenever he wants. It's…a particular skill of his."
Lily gaped, horror pooling in her stomach. Asking James Potter for help was right up there with asking Marshall Avery to go to Hogsmeade with her on the list of things she never, ever wanted to do. Sirius seemed to realize her conundrum, and a devilish smile crept up his face.
"He won't bite, you know. And he might actually help you, if you're nice."
"Nice?" Lily echoed stupidly.
"Nice. As in, don't shove your wand in his face. Don't threaten to hex him. Don't bite his head off. You know, nice." He laughed at the look of dismay on Lily's face and pushed himself off the pillar, turning to walk through a side door that led to the basement stairs. "Anyway, that's all I've got for you, I'm afraid. Good luck, Evans."
She stared after his retreating form for a moment before calling, "Black!" He paused and turned. "I thought you had Muggle Studies? Isn't it on the fifth floor?"
"Ah," he said, waving the note from Sprout at her. "I've got an excuse to be late, see. I'm off to the kitchens for a bite. Want to join?"
"I'll pass," Lily said weakly, her thoughts on the inauspicious task ahead of her. "Just don't…er, don't say anything about this to anyone." He gave her a look. "Please?" she added, in the nicest tone she could muster.
"That's the spirit," he said. "And your secrets are safe with me, Evans. Ta."
And with that, he disappeared, leaving Lily quite alone, quite late for class, and quite dreading the prospect of asking James Potter to help her destroy a potion brewed by Severus Snape.