"It's really not that hard to understand, just don't touch it!"
"If it's coming at my face, I'm going to catch it!" Harvey Stebbins yelled back at Lily as she raised her hands to halt their budding game.
Peter and Lily stood with their hands on their hips, scowling at their rag-tag group of 3-a-side players. Remus and Marlene were red-faced and bewildered. Moira Price and Harvey Stebbins, two Hufflepuff students who had been roped in, were getting increasingly frustrated. Harvey at the rules of the game and Moira at Harvey's shoddy play.
It was Friday, and lessons were over for the day. Peter and Lily had spent the walk back up to the castle reminiscing wistfully about evenings after school spent playing football in the back alleys. It was only when Harvey had overheard them complaining about the lack of footballs and had let them know there were plenty of old quaffles relegated to training due to their age, that they had begun excitedly assembling their teams.
Unfortunately for Peter, James had outright refused to join, reminding him that Friday afternoons were for him and Sirius to practise for the upcoming Quidditch tryouts. This had left Remus vulnerable and, with no real excuse, forced to play a game that he had only occasionally watched on TV.
Harvey had been his next victim, given that he had made the mistake of joining in the conversation and looked much more likely to have foot-eye coordination than Remus did. This had left Lily with the promising addition of Moira (a fellow muggleborn who had, at least, kicked a ball before) and Marlene, a quidditch lover, but not a football fan.
They had met, as agreed, back on the school grounds after dropping their bags and changing out of their uniforms. With two goals signified by sticks stuck into the ground that Lily had charmed purple and an old quaffle as a ball, Peter and Lily tried to re-construct their muggle past time with a very unlikely line-up.
It was October, and bitingly cold outside. The chilly wind stung their faces and the ground was springy with recent rain. The knees were stained green and muddy and despite the mixed ability on show, the shouting was friendly and the missed kicks and own-goals from Remus, Harvey and Marlene were easily forgiven. No one was keeping score.
"McKinnon?"
Someone was calling out over the grounds, walking towards them. Lily stopped the ball and squinted into the wind.
"Sathyan?" She shouted back.
Surita ignored her, finally reaching the group and flipping her hood down. Her long, dark hair was immediately captured by the wind.
"I was looking for McKinnon," she insisted, looking from their sweaty faces to the quaffle on the ground. "Are you playing football?"
"Didn't know a Slytherin would know how to have fun," Peter remarked, ignoring Lily's indignant 'oi!' and raising his eyebrows. "McKinnon is busy, aren't you, Marlene?"
Marlene pushed her sweaty brown hair out of her eyes and looked Surita over carefully.
Lily didn't know what to think of her. On the one hand, she was a Slytherin and, as much as she was ready to defend Severus, she wasn't fool enough not to notice that plenty of the Slytherins had some worrisome opinions. On the other hand, she had been the one to question Severus saying 'mudblood' last term.
Marlene huffed. "Can't it wait?" she asked.
"But I'm here now." It wasn't necessarily rude. Just blunt. She had a dark, emotionless gaze and her face was quite blank.
"Well, since you're here, keep score for a while. Then you can have McKinnon for whatever you want. Lord knows she's not adding much to the team."
"Oi!"
Moira grinned cheekily and winked at Remus, who looked bemusedly back. After all, he was just as bad as Marlene.
Surita didn't leave, which Lily and Peter took to be as good as an agreement, and they resumed play. Lily was elated. Peter had a touch more skill than her, but in her defence, he had a family of brothers willing to be his teammates and was allowed to play in school. Her primary had only allowed boys to join.
She had gained all of her experience of playing in the backlanes with Ben. A world that always seemed to feel much further away than 300 miles. Still, it felt like a rush of home to watch Remus tripping over his own feet and Moira doing unnecessary slide-tackles. If she squinted hard enough, they were just children she'd met in the streets that day. Nameless children who were best friends for an evening, being too loud and too familiar.
She tried not to think too hard about the life she'd never see again.
"Four three to the boys." Surita shouted from the sidelines, calling time (from Lily's muggle watch which had been handed to her). Remus flopped onto the ground in exhausted relief and Peter laughed at him.
"We did it, though I thought you might die trying."
"I thought I was going to break my ankle," he complained, panting in the grass. Moira put her hands on her hips and scowled at Surita.
"Can't believe you didn't wait a couple of minutes for us to even the score - are you not a feminist?"
Lily snorted. Surita looked down at the watch, then back at Moira, perplexed.
"Time is time," she said simply. "There's nothing feminist about it-"
"Yeah, but you must know that we're at a disadvantage because we can only have casual experience, whereas the boys can play on school teams-"
Peter interrupted them, finger in the air. "No, because it evens out! Your team has two players who know how to play, but mine only has one. And Marlene can play quidditch. I've got Remus."
"Thanks, mate." Remus muttered, still lying on the ground.
"Whatever. Can I have McKinnon now?" Surita handed Lily back her watch and stared expectantly at Marlene.
She looked at Lily and shrugged, picking up her jacket from where it had been discarded on the grass and following after Surita.
"See you later, then!" Lily called. She turned to Moria and bumped their shoulders together.
"Nice tackle."
Moira grinned. "Maybe in a few years, I can be on the England team," she suggested, puffing out her chest.
"There is no women's England team," Peter pointed out. Moira actually stuck her tongue out at him.
"Yeah there is, Idiot! And they're playing Scotland next month!"
"Really?" Lily asked, surprised by the news. Secretly, she had also had no idea there was a women's England team, but she wouldn't admit that to Moira.
"Yeah! And it'll be the first international Women's football match! Shame we'll miss it, since we're at school."
"Maybe they'll have it on the wizarding wireless network?" Harvey suggested, leading the group up towards the castle doors.
Lily had never heard of it. Moira seemed to catch her confusion and explained it briefly.
"But I don't think they would," she mused. "They don't report much on muggle stuff. No wonder wizards don't know much about anything."
Harvey grumbled, but didn't really argue. Once they reached the Great Hall, he and Moira made excited arrangements with Peter to play again next Friday before turning off down the stairs to the Hufflepuff common room.
Peter looked expectantly at Remus, who sighed, looking put-upon. "You don't want me!" He reasoned. "I'm not even good."
"Yeah, but it's fun, right?"
Lily elbowed him, playfully. "Yeah, you had fun. You can't deny it!"
"I hated every moment of it, please never ask me again," Remus said, trying valiantly to hold back a smile. Lily was concentrating so hard on giving him her best 'puppy-dog eyes' that she tripped into the trick stair.
Peter and Remus took an arm each and dragged her out.
"I'll be in reserve, alright?"
Peter punched the air. "Yes mate!"
They rounded the corner to the seventh floor corridor to the sound of hushed voices. Marlene and Surita were standing by the portrait hole and immediately went quiet at the sight of the other Gryffindors. Lily caught the Slytherin's eye, and she immediately looked away, blushing at the floor.
"Are we interrupting something?" Remus asked, politely.
"It's fine," Marlene said, stepping away from Surita. "It's not a secret-"
"Yeah it is."
Surita was still looking at the floor. Her hands were balled into fists at her sides.
Lily stepped forward. She was starting to feel undeniably frustrated with Surita. Why was she so insistent on being secretive, but also so obvious about it? It was as though she was being teased. That, or Surita was completely ignorant to her own actions.
"Look, Sathyan, I don't dislike you or anything, but you're winding me up now. If you want to talk privately, find an empty classroom and send an owl. Don't stand in front of the common room if you don't want people to walk in on you. Spill it or drop it."
All eyes were on Surita, and it seemed she could feel it, apparently wilting under the spotlight. She angled her head so her hair obscured most of her face from them, and Lily was reminded of Severus. She hesitated under their gaze for a moment, before barging past them and hurrying off down the corridor.
Peter shrugged at Marlene. "She's so weird."
Marlene was still looking off down the corridor to where she'd vanished.
"I don't know, she's alright - I think."
"Are any of you coming in, or are you just holding up my social life? I'm late for Violet."
Four heads snapped up to the Fat Lady, who was looking down at them with her arms crossed.
"Right, sorry," said Marlene. "Petrichor."
The common room was busy and a wall of chatter hit them as soon as they climbed in. Remus waved goodbye to them and dragged Peter along with him to James and Sirius, who were equally muddy having beaten them back. Lily was left with Marlene, who caught the hint and led her up to the dormitory.
"What was all that about, then?" Lily demanded, the second they were in the privacy of the dorm. Marlene sat down on her bed.
"Same as last time, really. Going on about your Severus. And Lestrange, too."
"Lestrange?" Lily wasn't sure she really knew which one of the Slytherin boys that was. They didn't hang around long enough to speak to her.
"Rabastan. The dark haired one. He's obsessed with me, apparently. Keeps banging on about me hanging around with you. That's what Sathyan was saying, anyway."
Lily quirked an eyebrow. "Obsessed?"
Merlene smirked, humourlessly. "Not like that. He's a blood purist. Well, his family are. He's obsessed with that whole idea of pure-bloods staying together and all that. Doesn't like that we're mates."
"What's it got to do with him?" Lily sat down on the lid of her trunk, opposite Marlene. It seemed there never could be a day where the way she was born wasn't a problem for someone.
"Well, nothing. But that's not how Sacred 28 families work-"
"Sev mentioned this to me, once." Lily vaguely remembered that he'd been warning her about Malfoy. "What's up with that? He wouldn't go into it."
Marlene sighed. "It's a bit long," she warned. "Get comfy."
Lily crossed her legs and sat primly. "School me, then!"
"Right, so you know what a muggleborn is - that's you - what a half-blood is - that's Remus and Severus, and what a pureblood is - that's me, Potter, Peter, etcetera."
"And Black, right?"
"Well, that's the thing. Black, Malfoy, Lestrange… They're a different kind of pureblood. It's all ridiculous, really, but since we're getting into it… Most wizards believe that if you have a full set of magical grandparents, you're essentially a "pureblood" wizard. Your immediate family is removed from muggle culture and you know most of the important traditions, right? For most people, it's just a way of describing someone's cultural heritage. It's handy to know if someone's half-blood, because they probably have some connection to the muggle world, right? Same with muggle borns.
"The problem is, some wizarding families have never integrated with muggles, going back centuries, and they think that makes them better than others. A bunch of those families made this list called the "Sacred 28." The point of it was to have a list of marriage options which wouldn't "dirty" their bloodline, if they all married within it."
Lily twisted her face in disgust. "How long has the Sacred 28 been going?" She asked, dreading the answer.
"Oh, centuries," Said Marlene, waving her hand dismissively. "Anyway, it wasn't always 28. There were more. The Potters were on there, but they were removed. I'm pretty sure it was for mixing with muggles and refusing to submit their historical marriage certificates or something. I don't remember. Pettigrew is a long pureblood line, but his brothers are all squibs, so they'll never get on-"
"How do you even know all this? Does everyone just know each other's business in the wizarding world?"
Marlene shrugged. "The wizarding world isn't that big, compared to the muggle world. I mean, look at Hogwarts. This is almost every magical child in the UK and Ireland. In one school. It's hard not to know each other's business. Also, my family is pureblood too, remember?"
"Anyway, some Sacred 28 families think that mixing or "diluting" blood with muggles, muggleborns and sometimes even half-bloods is what weakens magical power in a family, and leads to things like squibs. Some of them are a bit weirder, and think that wizards and muggles should be completely separate - and by wizards they mean pure-bloods. They think half-bloods shouldn't exist and that muggle-borns are a fluke and inferior. Sorry, this is pretty grim."
Marlene looked sympathetic, so Lily supposed her disdain must have been showing on her face. She forced herself to look as neutral as she could manage. "So that's what Rabastan thinks, is it?"
"Yeah. Him and Malfoy, probably Mulciber and Rosier too. Most of the Blacks are like that as well. It would have been a big deal that Sirius ended up in Gryffindor. I suppose he gets a lot of flack for going around with Remus and Peter. None of the Slytherin boys speak to him."
It was a little surprising to hear. She had always found Black to be insufferable in the things that he had said last year about schooling and his general attitude towards the Slytherins. She supposed she hadn't known then how low the bar was.
"His little brother went to Slytherin, didn't he? I remember in the sorting. They look alike."
Marlene laughed. "Yeah. Bet his parents are happy they had two kids. First one's a dud, as far as they'll be concerned."
Lily took a moment to consider the implications of what Marlene had just told her. If Severus' new friends were these kind of blood purists, what did he think of her?"
"Seems like everyone has such an issue with people hanging out with me," Lily muttered, bitterly. "I didn't realise I was going to be such a problem."
Marlene got up from her bed and sat down next to Lily on her trunk, forcing her to shuffle over a little so she could wrap an arm around her.
"It's only a problem if you're an idiot. So we'll just see who comes out in the wash."