Disclaimer: Anything that rings a bell belongs to J.K Rowling
Chapter 5: Stranger
The midday sunshine beamed through the window, highlighting the little specks of dust that danced across classroom 3C, tossing blonde tresses into golden halos, and chestnut flecks into honey spun strands and raven locks into sandy browns that reminded Lily of the Littlehampton beach that her family visited every summer.
Her eyes fell on inky black strands so stubborn that it remained unchanged, even as the sunlight crowned it, churning the hazel specks of his eyes into a warm golden brown that made her think of autumn leaves and her mother's bed of sunflowers that welcomed her home every July.
"Miss Evans."
Lily's eyes snapped to the front just as the hazel orbs flickered in her direction. Professor Trimble held a scroll of parchment in her olive toned right hand.
Her hair was a wild combination of bronze and greys amid pale blonde that was tucked away by a large black barrette, similar to the way Petunia styled her brown locks whilst hammering at that typewriter their father had bought them last Christmas.
Professor Trimble's cool brown eyes perused the paper, in the same sort of detachment Lily now associated with her teaching method. "Professor McGonagall requests your presence in her office."
Lily tried to appear unfazed, even as Marlene's dark brows curved into each other in confusion as she stared at her on her left, it was not often that their head of house would disrupt a lesson and she tried to ignore Aiza's questioning brown eyes that were glancing at her from the right as she rose from her seat.
She placed her finished assignment on nonverbal spells on Professor Trimble's desk and made her way out of the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, ignoring an insistent pair of onyx eyes from the last row.
It was an unfortunate twist of fate that the Gryffindors had been paired up with the Slytherins for the shared lessons in Charms and Defence. Lily was grateful for Professor Trimble's theoretical approach to the subject so far, sure that allowing the hostile classroom the use of wands could never lead to anything positive.
Lily fingered the irregular gemstone that lay in her pocket, as if it's calming green colour could settle her anxiety as to why she was being summoned to the Transfiguration Mistress' office. She remembered when her sister had gifted her the stone on her tenth birthday, saying that it matched her eyes. Back then Petunia was always looking for things that brought out Lily's eyes, dresses and earrings and their mother's eye shadow which they always used to steal.
She made her way down to the ground floor, positive that she was not in trouble. She knew Professor McGonagall was fond of her, even though Lily wasn't the best in the year for Transfiguration thanks to Potter and Black; the deputy headmistress seemed to care more for her diligence and politeness rather than Potter and Black's strange affinity for the subject.
Its why Lily was still mortified at Professor McGonagall's words as she chided her for her conduct in the Great Hall during the incident with Mary and Black.
It didn't help matters that Selina Selwyn had managed to answer all of the questions posed in Transfiguration on Tuesday due to Lily distractedly staring out at the sky in anticipation.
She knocked at the door and straightened her back, forcing the unnecessary anxiety away as she heard the cool voice chime 'come in'.
She did so, walking briskly to the figure in olive green robes which made the square rimmed eyes glow a deep green, "Professor McGonagall, Professor Trimble received a note stating that you wanted to see me."
"Yes Miss Evans." The older lady glanced away from the assignment she had been grading and looked up at Lily with the kind of paradoxical stare unique to the teacher, a stare of sternness but concern, "Is everything alright Miss Evans. You seemed distracted during our last lesson."
Lily quickly licked her lips, unsure how to respond.
What should she say? That she was distracted because she was desperately awaiting a response from her older sister. A response from the letter Lily had spent one week perfecting, just to wish the older girl a happy birthday, enclosing a hand chain Lily spent months saving up for.
A response that never came on Tuesday, nor did it come yesterday or today, yet Lily still stared hopefully up at the delivery owls each morning and glancing out of windows… always expecting…
What would the Deputy Headmistress know of strained sibling relationships?
The only person Lily could ever talk to about it was now a stranger to her, a stranger who wore the face of her oldest friend, her dearest friend…
"It's nothing Professor. Just a little start of term jitters I suppose."
Professor McGonagall let out a small sigh, "I understand. The sixth year is probably the most imperative academic year of your educational career… I did warn you about your subject load."
"No, no I am managing Professor." Lily had taken on eight subjects, and even though she seemed to be constantly writing essays and answering assignments she enjoyed the distraction.
Professor McGonagall leaned forward and there was an unusual conspiratorial gleam in her eyes, "Miss Evans, I do know it is your ambition to become Head Girl."
Lily stilled, recalling how Aiza had offhandedly stated that she was obsessed with becoming Head Girl. Aiza didn't understand, she could leave every holiday and feel like she returned home, not like she was an alien that resembled the girl framed on her parents' mantelpiece.
Professor McGonagall didn't wait for a response and continued, "Whilst you are most definitely the most qualified candidate for the position and the decision is months and months away… I must remind you that these matters are very, very political."
The teacher pushed the stack of papers together and allowed Lily her full attention, "All of the staff and the governing body have their say in the matter, and even though they are just four candidates, it would be naïve of us to ignore the fact that the McDougals', the Fawleys' and especially the Selwyns' are all very old and very formidable families with many ties in the school."
"Do you think because I'm a muggleborn… that I won't have a fair chance."
Lily couldn't help the bitterness that leaked into her tone. She didn't pay much attention to the fact that the other prefects in her year were all purebloods, it never seemed to matter before. She was always the top of the year. The hardest working.
Was all that effort for naught?
If she was an outsider here and an outsider at home… where did she even belong?
"We are living in temperamental times Miss Evans, the climate of the Wizarding World is indeed grave, I am sure that I need not remind you."
It was true, Lily required no reminder. Every day she opened the newspaper she was reminded of the target tattooed on her back just because she was born different. Every day when some green tied bigot whispered the m-word in her direction she was reminded of the mad man that shook the foundation of the world she had grown to love.
"What do you suggest Professor?" She knew her house mistress did not dare suggest she give up and Lily would not think it. If anything, just to spite all those prejudiced prats she'll try that harder. She won't let them be right. She won't let that despicable man's beliefs flow into the sanctity of this school.
"The position of Head Prefect has always been notable considering it very much weighs the outcome of future leaders. There hasn't been a Minister of Magic that was not Head prefect in their time at school. Considering we do not have tertiary education like muggles, the achievements we hold in school very much contribute to the chances of employment post-Hogwarts. I know you wish to be a Healer Miss Evans, and I told you I would do everything that I can to help you with that, and having this on your application would definitely affect your acceptance considering how exclusive St Mungo's are in their selection. Now, your academic script is impeccable, the best in the year by far, but the Head Girl is more than a knowledgeable figure. Both Miss McDougal and Miss Selwyn are on their house quidditch teams, Miss McDougal is even the captain of the Hufflepuff team. Miss Selwyn is the captain of the Gobstones club."
Lily bit her lip, she had no extra-curricular activity. Nothing. She couldn't play quidditch, she never understood Gobstones no matter how many times Sev tried explaining it to her and she joined the wizard chess club for a brief period in her second year, but she left because she just couldn't make herself love the game.
Well… there was the Slug Club but that didn't count for anything, it was practically a dinner party club, and it held no proper relevance to any sort of enhancing skills or academics.
"So, I should join a club?"
"No. I think any reason to join a club in school should be passion. Not just a need to serve an agenda. Though Miss Evans, nobody could deny that you are a leader. You take initiative in matters that reward you with no certifications. You are always the most helpful student, to your peers and those in the younger years. I am of course speaking of the idea you broached with me a few weeks back, a…get together of sorts for the first years in the Common Room. I do think this is a great idea and shows that you take an interest in the culture of the school rather than filling up your own credentials."
Lily smiled slightly, "So you'll allow it."
"Of course. Though I trust you understand that you are completely responsible for those students in your care. I won't have them running around with lions branded on their bald heads." She muttered and Lily laughed.
"Of course, Professor. I already spoke to Potter, and he promised to behave. I won't even let them near the children."
"I did let slip to Professors Akita and Trimble of your initiative; they were in Ravenclaw so it will take a bit of convincing to win them over. Filius, as much as he adores you, has to be supportive of his house candidate."
Lily nodded, feeling slightly at ease about her odds but she was curious why McGonagall chose now to speak to her, surely it could wait. "Is that all, Professor?"
She smiled, a rare smile, "Seems my competitiveness has gotten in the way of the matter at hand. Here."
She handed Lily an envelope which she took curiously. "It arrived by muggle post and the Hogsmeade Post Office sent it over, as is customary it came to me to re-direct it to the necessary student. I thought… perhaps it might be important?"
Lily couldn't convey in words how important the writing on the envelope was to her, she instead nodded a thank you at the deputy headmistress and walked out of her office, stopping just outside where she tore the envelope open with trembling fingers… she saw the familiar script… a script she used to try and emulate when she was four years old and could barely hold a pen.
Lily
It was quite an elaborate surprise, I must admit, and I could tell it didn't have anything to do with your freakishness because I saw them growing all through the summer but today was the first time I saw them from your bedroom window.
Gill and Patty are absolutely jealous, they think that Vernon has done it, and I'm inclined to let them believe that it was him. He bought me a diamond tennis bracelet by the way, three months' pay he says.
Your hand chain is too big, I've given it to mum.
Daddy insisted on taking pictures, which I've enclosed.
Thanks.
Petunia
Lily frowned, too confused to even be distressed that the hand chain didn't fit, and that Petunia didn't even mention the letter she wrote.
She searched the envelope and found the photo, flipping it over to the glossy texture displaying an unfamiliar scene.
It was part of the garden seen from her own bedroom window… but where mum usually grew hydrangeas, a blossoming of white petunias sat, arranged systematically to spell…happy birthday…
But why would Tuney think it was her?
She glanced at the photo once again and then she found her answer.
A single pink lily amidst the fair flowers and her heart constricted, deaf to the pattering of feet as lessons ended and classrooms emptied, and she was bustled as students rushed down for lunch.
She snapped her head up suddenly as sound became audible once again and she hastened down the stairs and crossed the Entrance Hall, straight to the dungeons as she quickly singled out the head of black, "You did this?"
It was a redundant question…that was his trademark. That pink lily. She'd find it on her doorstep when they were children, signalling that she should go to the park. That he would be waiting.
He kept the habit as they started Hogwarts, leaving it around the school, always bringing a smile to her face when she happened upon it.
His black eyes flickered to the photograph Lily held out to him, as he moved out of the way of the surge of students making their way from the potions classroom and he stepped to the left, closer to the wall and into the shadow of the Statue of Mopsus.
He didn't respond to her question, after months of begging for forgiveness, after even a desperate visit to her house in the summer, he was suddenly rendered silent.
"She hadn't responded to any of my letters in six years." Lily swallowed back tears.
"I'm sorry." His voice was so familiar to her, it was as if there were special receptors in her ears attuned to just that.
How many times did he reassure her with that voice? Console her. Humour her. Advise her.
"What for?" Lily glanced down at the picture, "It was a brilliant idea… when did you plant them?"
"The day you left for Littlehampton. There was a chance there'd blossom before her birthday, or she'd glance at them beforehand… it's why I thought it better to arrange them outside your window."
"She says thanks. By the way." Lily didn't really know what to make of it. Petunia and Severus despised each other.
"I didn't do it for her, Lily. I sent her the note saying to look out your window and I knew she would think it was from you the same way you knew it was really from me." He glanced at the pink lily in the photo, "But none of this was for her. You know that."
It was probably the best gift Severus could ever give her. He spent years telling her to ignore the fact that her sister hated her, that they would never be close again.
To give up, that yearning for her affection was belittling and fruitless.
But this.
This was more than an apology.
This was Severus putting aside his ironclad opinions.
Severus digging into the dirt when he hated gardening.
Severus giving her hope.
"Sev… I-"
"Severus!"
Red and black snapped around and Lily's lips held a firm line when it fell on the raven-haired curls.
There was something inhumanly beautiful about the porcelain skin, cold hard lines that grouped together to form something pretty yet harsh at the same time.
"Oh. Well, this is interesting."
Bellatrix Black's voice made a shiver run up Lily's back, but she would never show it, holding her chin up at the seventh year Slytherin as a boy who looked like her younger brother trailed behind her as she walked towards them.
Lily knew who he was. Regulus Black. Sirius' brother. It was startling how alike they looked yet such distinct differences in the way he held his lips and his wrinkle free face as if the boy never smiled nor knew how to.
" I thought we had finally cured you of your mudblood affliction, Severus. What's that? "
In the kind of completely impolite way that only Bellatrix Black could accomplish, in a way so distinctly rude and brash that Lily was not prepared to combat it, the dark girl flicked her wand and Lily felt the letter leave her hand and she took an involuntary step forward as if magnetically attracted to the floating envelope, "A love letter?"
"Give it back, Black!" Lily had chanted those words a thousand times. Sirius stealing her charms assignment. Sirius pulling out her hair tie. Sirius tossing her pencil case over her head to James. Yet never did she convey the words with such hatred.
"I'd watch your tone if I were you." Her black eyes shone like the tinted glass of a limousine Lily once watched drive past her house, poised and elegant and stinking of superiority.
Lily snapped her wand to summon the envelope, but Bellatrix was quicker and with a puff of smoke she watched the white envelope curl into itself.
"Bellatrix!" Snape hissed, grabbing the burning envelope with his bare hands as Lily's vision distorted with red rage. She turned her wand in anger at the girl.
"You-"
"Ah. Lily."
Lily took a deep breath as she heard Professor Slughorn and she mechanically lowered her wand, "What a surprise. And Bellatrix and Regulus. I suppose you're here to find out when's our first meeting."
He pointedly averted his eyes from Severus in an attempt to not address the hippogriff in the corridor which was that even though Severus was the best student in potions, he was not a member of the Slug Club.
McGonagall's words from earlier rang in Lily's head and she willed herself to find control, to restrain herself as Bellatrix answering Slughorn became background noise as Lily hastened down the corridor.
"Lily." It was Severus, he rushed towards her as she hovered at the foot of the steps to the Entrance Hall, "I'm sorry."
He repeated the words he said before five minutes ago, but unlike before she didn't feel like he had nothing to apologise for.
The envelope was half burnt, and she didn't even care for the red welt on his palm as he handed it to her.
Suddenly that baritone… that voice of reassurance and consolation disappeared.
Replaced by the biting bark of mudblood reverberating in her mind.
And she walked away from the stranger wearing her friend's face, her sister's words sprinkled ash in her hand.
A/N: This is a little bit of explanation as to why Lily has been in such a terrible mood lately. I think she's feeling a lot of confusion about her place in life, especially with everything going on in the Wizarding World and she really feels Petunia's indifference now that Severus is absent from her life.
I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing, do let me know what you think!
Kalina