Chapter 3 - 1.3 or "Slytherins and Gryffindors"
There was only one way to describe it.
They were lost.
James had woken the next morning to a strangled swearword and a shove to the shoulder by none other than Sirius Black, who insisted they were all late for breakfast. Remus and Peter, who had also been unceremoniously roused by the shout, jumped out of bed at once, and it was only when James noticed that Goomer's bed was empty and the sun was high in the sky that he realized that Sirius was right and that breakfast was probably well underway in the Great Hall. The four had thrown on their school robes and had hurried from the dormitory as quickly as possible.
The only problem was that they were now walking down a windowless corridor that none of them had ever seen before.
"You know, they really should provide us with a map or something," said Sirius. His stomach rumbled a loud response. They turned down the next corridor, which looked frustratingly similar to the one they had just navigated.
"This is hopeless," James sighed, stopping to lean his back against a portrait of a milkmaid who harrumphed and scurried for cover.
"Well we can't just stand here for the next seven years," said Sirius.
"I'm hungry," Peter pouted.
"C'mon," said Remus, who had continued walking, "we can try this way."
James stood up straight again and made to follow Remus, but a second later, a spark of blue light suddenly shot right past his left ear. He whirled around and dug in his pockets for his wand, but it was too late – Severus Snape was standing at the end of the corridor, already aiming another curse at him. This time, James wasn't so lucky, and the spell hit him full in the stomach. With an "umph," he hit the ground, every muscle in his body contracting in jerky twitches. It was not a painful hex, James realized after a moment with some relief, though it didn't make the twitching against the cold stone floor any less uncomfortable.
The others swiveled around as well and watched in horror as James rolled on the floor, twitching and spasming as though he were having some sort of fit. Snape remained at the end of the corridor, a triumphant smile on his lips.
Sirius growled in anger and shot a hex at Snape, who blocked it easily. Snape retaliated, whipping his wand in a circular motion, and a spark of light jetted toward Sirius, who jumped out of the way, but the spell hit Peter instead. Peter cried out as his legs started dancing uncontrollably and he bumped into Sirius, who grabbed his elbow instinctively, trying to steady the smaller, wobbling boy. From somewhere behind them, the milkmaid's painting swung open and none other than the Head Boy stepped out from the passageway behind it. He froze for a moment and surveyed the scene in surprise before striding forward with his wand raised.
"What in the name of Merlin is going on here?" he said, his voice loud with authority. With a few flicks of his wand, both James and Peter were relieved of their jinxes at once. The Head Boy glared at Snape and turned his wand toward him. "You…what's your name?"
"Severus Snape," the boy muttered, contempt dancing in his eyes.
The Head Boy, who James now recognized as Frank Longbottom, a fellow Gryffindor, narrowed his eyes and lowered his wand. "Ten points from Slytherin, and I'm going to report this to your Head of House. There's no magic in the corridors…much less dueling. Off you go."
But Snape remained in place, glaring at James. "This isn't the end, Potter," he said, his lip curling. With one last glance at Frank, he turned and disappeared in the opposite direction.
Frank turned to the boys, who were all staring at the place Snape had been with a mixture of disbelief and disgust on their faces. "You all right?" he asked James and Peter.
They both nodded. "Thanks," Peter squeaked.
Frank's face softened. He looked at James and Sirius, his eyes narrowed. "You two…you're Potter and Black, right? The first years that –"
"– jumped in the lake?" Sirius finished for him. He met James's eye and they both bit back laughter. "Yeah, that's us."
Frank rolled his eyes slightly, but he looked far from annoyed. "C'mon," he said, starting down the corridor, "I'll show you how to get to the Great Hall for breakfast."
The four boys hurried to catch up. "How did you know?" James asked, taking a liking to Frank.
Frank chuckled. "You think you four are the only first years in the school or something? I've been helping lost students find their breakfasts all morning." He pulled a heavy blue tapestry from the wall, revealing a narrow staircase. "Through here, but mind the fourth step. It vanishes," he added, holding the tapestry back for them.
It wasn't until they were off the stairs and in a brightly lit corridor that looked much more familiar to James that Frank turned to him and asked, "Why was that Slytherin so intent on hexing you, anyway?"
James and Sirius exchanged a glance before James looked back at Frank innocently. "I have no idea."
Frank looked like he didn't believe that for a second. "Well, just be careful. That twitching hex he used on you was some N.E.W.T. level magic, believe it or not. I know some in my year who can't even pull that one off."
Sirius snorted as they turned the corner and found themselves in the entrance hall. "He probably spent all night trying to find a curse that would work on us after the train yesterday."
"You two need to work on your stories," said Frank, as they made their way into the Great Hall. "That doesn't sound like you don't know who that Slytherin was."
James smirked at him and sat down at the end of the Gryffindor table. "We never said we didn't know who he was. We said we didn't know why he was hexing us."
"Maybe it's you who needs to work on his interrogation skills," said Sirius, sitting down next to James.
Frank laughed and continued walking down the aisle toward a group of beckoning seventh years. "I'll get right on that," he said. With a wave, he called back, "Stay out of trouble!"
Remus and Peter sat down across from the pair, who were both already filling their plates with bacon and eggs. Remus stared at them, looking anxious.
"That was the Head B-boy, right?" he asked.
James nodded. "Frank Longbottom." He frowned at Remus's expression. "So what?"
"I don't know," said the other boy. "You were just…talking to him like..." He looked down at his empty plate and then mumbled a quick, "Never mind."
"We were just talking to him normally," said Sirius, shoveling a heap of eggs into his mouth. "Wha's 'here ooo be afwaid ahf?"
"Never mind," repeated Remus, his voice so quiet that the others had to read his lips to catch it.
James shrugged and looked around, spotting Goomer sitting about halfway down the table. "Hey, why's Goomer sitting with those girls?"
The others turned to look as well, but it was Remus who spoke up, his voice a bit more confident than it had been previously. "He knows the one with the brown hair. I think she said her name was Raeanne. The other one is Mary something. I met them last night at the feast."
Peter Pettigrew let out a shrill giggle and turned back to his plate. "Why does he want to sit with girls, anyway?"
James had known Peter Pettigrew for a total of fifteen hours and the boy was already grating on his nerves. Most annoyingly, he had yet to say anything of interest or consequence, and James had little patience for that sort of uselessness. He rolled his eyes and reached for the bowl of sliced bananas, piling the fruit on his plate and then offering the bowl to Sirius, who pulled a face.
"I don't eat that rubbish." And then, as if to prove a point, Sirius threw three pieces of bacon into his mouth at once.
James stared at him. "What – bananas? Since when are bananas rubbish?"
"All of that fruit stuff," Sirius said, waving his hand toward the banana bowl as if trying to shoo it away.
"You don't like fruit?"
"Why in Merlin's name would you waste perfectly good stomach space on bananas and grapefruit when there's bacon and eggs and sausage to be had?" Sirius said, looking at James as if he were the strange one. "I don't see any parents looking over our shoulders telling us to eat everything that is served to us without complaint, do you?"
"I happen to like bananas and grapefruit," James said.
Sirius shook his head solemnly. "You should learn to live a little, Potter."
James snorted. "And you should learn to chew with your mouth closed, Black."
To this, Sirius opened his mouth to show James the half-chewed contents within. Before James could respond, however, there was a sudden commotion above them. Hundreds of owls in variegated shades of brown, black, and white were swooping into the hall, each with a parcel or letter tied to its leg, searching for its owner. Peter had knocked over his pumpkin juice in fright when they had first flown in and was now trying to mop up the mess with his sleeve.
James's heart leapt when he saw his brown barn owl, Ari, flying towards him, a small parcel attached to his leg. He didn't often get post at home, at least not since his grandfather had died, and so Ari usually slept all day and hunted at night, sometimes taking notes downstairs for James when he was too lazy to go talk to his parents himself. Receiving post was quite a treat. Ari was helping himself to some cereal as James tore open his parcel to find a note from his parents, congratulating him on being made a Gryffindor, and some homemade fudge from the house elf Flora.
"Run for it, Sirius."
Startled, James looked up at Peter, who was staring at Sirius with an expression of utmost trepidation on his plump face. In front of Sirius, a solid black owl sat regally with a bright red envelope tied to its leg. James gasped. He had only received one Howler in his life, and that was when he was seven. He had been staying with his grandparents, who had caught him sneaking out in the middle of the night to play Quidditch in the garden. A bright red envelope from his parents had turned up the following morning.
Sirius, though, looked amazingly calm to James. He took the envelope from the owl with a steady hand and stared down at it, as if trying to decide whether to open it from the top or the side.
Peter had knocked over his juice again, but wasn't even attempting to clean it up. "Seriously, Sirius," he squeaked, "run for it. That's a Howler, and –"
"I know what it is," Sirius interrupted, but he didn't look remotely fazed. He looked up from the envelope and turned to glance around the Great Hall, his eyes resting on the Slytherin table. Several Slytherins were staring right back at him. Sirius smirked widely and, not taking his eyes off of the Slytherins, flipped open the envelope before propping his chin in his hand, looking completely relaxed.
James didn't know how he didn't fall off the bench, as the sound that exploded from the envelope made every dish in the hall rattle against the table. A woman's voice, brutal and rough, raged into the air, making his eardrums throb. Every student in the hall – and even some of the professors – covered his or her ears, cowering away from the thundering letter. Everyone except Sirius, that is, who simply sat smirking at the Slytherins, his elbow steady on the trembling table.
"SIRIUS BLACK! YOU LITTLE INGRATE! NOT TWELVE HOURS SINCE YOU DEPARTED LONDON AND ALREADY YOU ARE BRINGING SHAME UPON YOUR FAMILY! HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU CAN USURP GENERATIONS OF HONOR WITH YOUR SELFISH, INSUBORDINATE WAYS? THIS IS ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR PETULANT STUNTS AND WE WILL NOT STAND FOR IT! YOU WILL MARCH YOUR RECALCITRANT FEET UP TO THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE THIS INSTANT AND DEMAND TO BE RE-SORTED OUT OF THE HOUSE OF MUDBLOODS AND BLOOD TRAITORS AND INTO THE RIGHTFUL HOUSE OF THE BLACK FAMILY HEIR, OR YOU SHALL BE PUNISHED LIKE THE FILTHY LITTLE MUCK-WALLOWER YOU ARE!"
The letter burst into flames. Sirius had a rather serene look on his face, almost as if he were sitting on a tropical beach somewhere, listening to the lapping of the waves as opposed to a hysterical, berating envelope. Every head in the Great Hall was turned toward him, awaiting a reaction. He did not give them one. Instead, he turned to James, offering a plate of food.
"More bacon?"
Gradually, chatter broke out across the Great Hall again, and the students went back to their breakfasts, throwing occasional looks toward the end of the Gryffindor table. For Sirius's sake, James tried to bury his shock as the Howler's raging words rang in his head; he could not imagine any civilized woman who used language like Mrs. Black had used, much less toward her own son, and sympathy for his new friend reared up within him. For a moment, James considered what his father had told him before he had left the previous morning, and what he had overheard his parents saying about families like the Blacks, about how there were dark wizards and some of them had children at Hogwarts. But Sirius wasn't a dark wizard, Sirius was his mate. Sirius had made him laugh and had dared him to jump in the lake and had dueled Snivellus with him that very morning.
And above all, Sirius was a Gryffindor, and everyone knew that all the dark wizards came from Slytherin anyhow.
It was only a few minutes more before students started making their ways towards the entrance hall and their first classes of the term. Professor McGonagall had just been by to hand out the Gryffindors' timetables when a shadow fell over the boys, and James looked up to find a tall, beautiful Slytherin girl standing behind him.
"Sirius," the girl said pointedly. She had long brown hair that fell in loose curls around her shoulders, and something about the angles of her face gave James the impression that she was some sort of relative of Sirius's.
Sirius looked up from his eggs and greeted her with a cheeriness that bordered on contrived. "Hullo, Andromeda!"
"Can I have a word?" the girl named Andromeda asked, though it seemed less like a request and more like a command.
Sirius sighed down at the eggs that were left on his plate, but nodded all the same. He swung his legs over the bench, shouldered his school bag, grabbed a few more strips of bacon, and told James, "I'll meet you in the entrance hall." James nodded and watched as Sirius followed the girl through the crowd and out of sight.
James turned towards his two remaining companions. Peter Pettigrew was watching James as if waiting for instructions. Remus Lupin was studying his timetable so intently that he might have been trying to memorize it. Deciding that he would prefer to talk to Remus over Peter, James reached across the table and snatched the timetable out of the boy's hands.
"Hey!"
"Just checking," James said, holding the parchment up next to his own to inspect. Once convinced they matched, he handed it back to Remus. "The way you were studying it, I thought maybe it had all the exam answers written on there." A blush colored Remus's cheeks, but James just grinned and popped a banana slice into his mouth. "They're the same, anyhow, and we've Potions first thing. Wonder how long it'll take to get down to the dungeons?"
"Probably a bit of a trek," Remus said. "And unless you've managed to have a map drawn on the back of your timetable, I reckon it could make finding our breakfast this morning seem like a stroll in the park."
"I'll ask Stuart the best route to the dungeons, come on," James said, laughing as he stood up and motioning for the other two to follow him. "You're funny," he told Remus when they were halfway down the aisle. "You should speak up more, you know, I'm always game for a laugh."
If possible, Remus flushed even redder.
Lily Evans sat about halfway down the Gryffindor table, poking at a bowl of porridge and glancing distractedly at the Slytherins on the opposite side of the room. Severus could be seen slouching between two bigger boys, his eyes cast down at his plate and his black hair obscuring his face. He hadn't looked up at Lily since she had entered with Adin and Gin, nearly thirty minutes prior, but Lily was keeping a close guard, waiting for him to get up from the table. She hadn't spoken to him since before the Sorting and was desperate to do so.
Distraction came in the form of hundreds of owls, which swooped into the hall at once to deliver the morning post. It was a wondrous sight, watching the handsome birds circling near the enchanted ceiling (bright blue, with a few thin, wispy clouds), spotting their owners and diving toward them. As Lily had no owl, and her parents certainly had no owl, she was not surprised when no post was delivered to her, and she watched with only a tinge of jealousy when both Adin and Gin untied letters from home.
"From my sister," Adin said, holding up a long scroll of parchment covered in a loopy scrawl. "What in Circe's name does she have to tell me about already? I've only been gone a day!"
She began reading, and Lily busied herself again with her porridge, trying and failing to not think of Petunia. This endeavor only lasted a minute though, and Adin had just folded her letter up and pocketed it, when there was a sound like an explosion from the end of the Gryffindor table. A voice – a horrible, shrieking voice – rang out across the Great Hall, and the girls, along with everyone else in the vicinity, clamped their hands over their ears and cowered away from the terrible noise.
Apparently, Sirius Black's mother was none too happy that her son had been made a Gryffindor.
"Well!" Adin said, once the shrieking was over. She looked rather affronted. "I never…I mean, really! That was horrible language!"
"It's obvious now where he picked up his vocabulary," muttered Gin, almost to herself.
Adin whipped toward her. "What? Have you been talking to Sirius Black, then?"
"We sat together on the train," Gin said, shrugging awkwardly before going back to her cereal.
"Hmm," Adin said, craning her neck to get a better view of the boys at the end of the table. "I wonder if anyone's ever had to be re-sorted before?" Her gawking was rather obvious, and Lily, feeling suddenly quite awful for the boy whom she had liked when they first met and then staunchly disliked not long after that, decided to change the subject.
"What did your sister have to write, Adin?"
"Oh, just a whole heap of rambles." Adin rolled her eyes and took a sip of her pumpkin juice before continuing. "All about how the house elf Barton made her favorite plum pie last night, and how after they had returned home from King's Cross yesterday, she went off swimming with the Ridgebit sisters from down the street. As if I've ever cared about the Ridgebit sisters, but especially now. I mean, they won't be coming to Hogwarts for two more years. Kaia's just jealous because I'm here now and she's stuck back in Bath where the only thing to do is swim with the Ridgebit sisters."
She said all this very fast, and Lily thought privately that Adin's sister Kaia wasn't the only one who could deliver a 'whole heap of rambles.' Luckily, the moment was interrupted by Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor house, who was handing out timetables.
"Excellent," Adin said, peering at Lily's timetable over her shoulder. "We must have all of our classes with our houses. Your schedule is the same as mine."
Lily looked back down at her parchment and nodded. "Potions first, in the dungeons. This place has dungeons? Creepy. Why not just call them the torture chambers?"
"Where are you going?" Lily looked up, startled by the question, only to find Adin staring at Gin, who had already packed up her things and was standing behind the table.
Seemingly taken aback by the question, Gin frowned down at the other girl. "Erm, to Potions. Or the torture chambers, if you will." She said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "See you there." And without another word, she turned and walked away.
Adin turned back to Lily, her mouth hanging open. "She could have at least waited for us!" Lily just shrugged and took a bite of her porridge, which Adin apparently took as a sign to continue. "I mean, she's quite odd, isn't she? Genuinely odd," she added with a snort.
Lily laughed lightly but it faded as she turned to watch Gin's retreat between the house tables. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe she just likes to keep to herself." A movement over at the Slytherin table caught her eye, and with the thought that Adin would now consider she, too, to be genuinely odd, Lily sprung up and pulled her bag over her shoulder. Adin stared at her, confused.
"I'll meet you in the dungeons," she told her. "Just have to use the loo first."
She didn't catch up to him until he had made his way into the entrance hall.
"Severus! Hey, Severus!"
He paused next to a stone pillar that flanked the door to the Great Hall, but did not turn toward her as she approached. "What?" he asked impatiently once Lily had caught up with him.
"What do you mean, 'what?'" she snapped, irritated by his attitude. She glanced around at the other students mingling around the entrance hall. Sirius Black was having a hurried, whispered conversation with a tall Slytherin girl nearby. Lily lowered her voice. "I wanted to see how your first night at Hogwarts was. We're friends, remember?"
"Are we?" he asked with an arched eyebrow.
"What – of course we are! Why would you ask something like that?"
A pained expression took shape on his pale face. "You're in Gryffindor!"
"Well it's not as if I chose it!" Lily said, suddenly feeling anguished. She half expected Severus to hiss "Freak!" at her and stalk off. "And that doesn't mean we can't be friends anymore!" She paused, waiting for a response, but he did not provide one. Eyes filling with tears, she said in a small, trembling voice, "Does it?"
He finally seemed to notice her distress, and his face twitched, softening. "It doesn't –"
Something very heavy knocked into Lily from behind and she stumbled forward, grabbing the stone pillar to keep herself from sprawling onto the ground. When she had regained her footing, she looked up to see a thin, brown-haired boy brushing his robes off and glowering at her. Two others stood on either side of him, one stringy with a twisted face, the other beefy and beady-eyed.
"Watch where you're going!" the first boy commanded.
"I wasn't going anywhere," she said, pulling her bag tightly against her shoulder. "I was just standing here."
"And that's the problem with you Gryffindor trash," drawled the boy. "You think you're entitled to just stand wherever you wish, even if it's right in front of the bleeding door to the Great Hall."
Gryffindor trash? Lily felt her face grow warm, and she stepped backward instinctively.
"And that," said a loud voice from behind them, "is the problem with you Slytherin trash, Avery. You think you're entitled to tell others what they're entitled to."
Sirius Black had evidently finished his previous conversation, and was now standing only a few feet away, his hands casually in his pockets. Avery's eyes narrowed as his lips crooked into a sneer.
"'Slytherin trash?' Not even a full day in Gryffindor, and you've already turned blood traitor, have you Black? You're going to regret that when your mummy has you re-sorted."
"I'd rather leave Hogwarts entirely than be re-sorted into a house with the likes of you, Avery," said Sirius, and though his posture remained casual, there was a sharp edge to his voice. "I don't think I could stand the stench, you know."
"Sod off, Black!" snapped the boy with the twisted face.
"Ah, Mulciber, didn't see you there," said Sirius, smirking now. "It's been a while. Tortured any bunnies, lately? Tripped any old ladies?"
"Only the Muggle ones," said the boy named Mulciber. The entrance hall was filling up as more and more students exited the Great Hall and began making their ways toward their lessons, and Lily shifted uneasily, wondering if there was going to be some sort of fight and if there was a way for her to slip away unnoticed. She glanced at Severus, who was staring determinedly at his shoes.
"You know, it has been a while, Black," said Avery, his eyes glittering maliciously. "I'd say, it's been since – well, since April, hasn't it? I'm surprised your parents even let you out of the house to catch the train yesterday. We all figured you'd be locked up for a few more months, at least."
Sirius's face contorted and Lily stared, wondering if he was going to lunge at the other boy, or else be sick all over the entrance hall floor. The other boys laughed, as if this comment – which Lily didn't understand in the least – was the funniest joke they had heard all year.
"No wonder you're a Gryffindor," continued Avery, looking at Sirius with all the condescending spite it seemed he could muster, "Slytherin doesn't accept –"
"– anyone who's got two brain cells to rub together?" James Potter had arrived, emerging from the Great Hall with two other Gryffindor boys Lily didn't know trailing behind him. "Or were you going to say that Slytherin doesn't accept anyone who's not a slimy, twitchy, toe-licking git? Because that works too."
The conversation had escalated with James's arrival, and Lily was almost certain it would evolve into a fight. Not only did she not want to be involved in a brawl on her first morning at Hogwarts, but the animosity that apparently existed between Gryffindor and Slytherin was starting to become strikingly evident, and she glanced again at Severus, beginning to understand why he had been so troubled by their divisive sorting. This was about something more than not sharing the same common room or breakfast table.
Avery, though, didn't bristle at James's barbs. He surveyed the newcomer with something akin to interest. "Potter, isn't it?"
"That's right," James said, walking over to stand next to Sirius.
A beat of silence, and then – to everyone's surprise – Avery stepped forward and offered James his hand. "Marshall Avery," he introduced himself, as though James had not just dramatically insulted him and his friends.
James stared down at the outstretched hand, but did not take it. "I didn't ask," he said, his tone cold.
A dull flush dotted Avery's cheeks as he swung his arm back down to his side. "Well you'll learn soon enough," he said haughtily. He pushed back his shoulders and jerked his head at Mulciber and the beefy boy. "Let's get out of here." He took a step and then turned toward Severus, as if noticing him for the first time. "It's Snape, right?" Severus jumped at the address, and then nodded his head quickly. "Well, come on, then." Avery did not wait for a response before throwing one last glare at Sirius, pushing past the others, and stalking off through the entrance hall.
Lily wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but it was certainly not for Severus to turn and follow the other, horrible boys. She was proven wrong, however, and after a fleeting, torn look, Severus hurried after them.
"Well," James Potter said once they were gone, clapping his hands once and giving Sirius a crooked grin, "that was exciting. Let's get off to Potions, shall we? I've only just got instructions on how to get to the dungeons from Stu."
"All right there, Titchy?" Sirius said.
Lily steeled herself, met his gaze, and nodded confidently. "All right." He gave her a swift smile that did not reach his eyes.
None of them paid Lily any more attention as they turned and made their way through the entrance hall. Lily exhaled a trembling breath before following them, thinking it wouldn't do to get lost on the way to her first lesson. It wouldn't do to be a blubbering mess when she showed up to her first lesson either, so she fought back the prickling in her eyes. Petunia said she was a freak. Severus was in a different house. Severus thought they might not be able to be friends anymore. Slytherins and Gryffindors seemed to hate each other. And there had been talk of blood traitors and tripping Muggles that made Lily feel as if she was very far behind in understanding wizarding culture. And worse than all of that was the fact that Severus had left with those nasty, malicious boys.
James Potter and Sirius Black, she mused as she watched the pair talking animatedly ahead of her, were perhaps not so bad by comparison.
In the end, it took the group about ten minutes to find their classroom in the dungeons, though luckily everyone seemed to be at least a few minutes late. When Lily and the boys entered the dungeon, they found a rather round-shaped wizard standing in the front, smiling at them from behind an enormous silvery mustache.
"Take a seat now, take a seat," he said, indicating the wooden chairs set behind the tables. "No need to worry, you are not the last to arrive."
Lily sat down at an empty table and took out the Potions book that she had bought a few weeks prior. Her nerves were eating at her and her emotions had her jittery, but she focused on her excitement at the lesson that was before her. She had scanned her book a bit, and Potions looked easy enough. A minute later, Adin walked in and plopped herself on the chair next to Lily, who smiled brightly at her.
The professor had closed the door and was now examining them all like they were fruit at the market and he had to choose the best of the bunch. He even licked his lips.
"Hello class, I am Professor Slughorn, and unless you are exceedingly lost, I expect you are here to learn Potions." A few members of the class smiled slightly. "Now, I've –"
The door opened, and Slughorn cut off. Everyone in the room turned to watch as Avery, Mulciber, the beefy boy, and Severus Snape paraded into the room. Lily chanced a glance at James, who was sitting in the back with Sirius, both of them glaring at the newcomers. She then turned to Adin, confused.
"What are they doing here? They're in Slytherin!" she whispered, trying to keep any hint of panic from her voice.
"We have Potions with the Slytherins," Adin said, indicating the other side of the room, where a whole group of students Lily didn't recognize sat. "It was on the timetable."
Lily tried to grab Severus's attention, but Slughorn was talking again, and she didn't want to seem rude on the first day, so she forced herself to listen.
"…will be assigning each of you a partner for your first two years," he said, fingering the golden buttons that spread over his round stomach. All of the first years were listening intently to him, and he seemed to be reveling in the attention. "I find that the majority of young students benefit in their first few years of Potions if they have an ally of sorts, with whom they can train, study, and discuss their potion-making practices." Slughorn walked around his desk, to where a small bronze cauldron sat. He waved his wand at it, and two slips of parchment floated up from the cauldron and into his waiting hand. "I've taken the liberty of writing all your names on a slip of parchment. I will pick them at random and you will be asked to move to share a desk with your new partner."
He gazed down at the first two slips of parchment, pausing for dramatic effect. "Halden Wilkes…you are paired with Mary Macdonald." Lily turned and watched as Mary, noticeably trembling, stood up and walked to an empty table. The beefy boy who had been flanking Avery joined her. Mary smiled timidly at him. It was not returned.
Slughorn paused to look at Wilkes, a funny grin on his face. "Oho!" he said, and Mary visibly jumped in her seat. "Wilkes, eh? The son of Randolph Wilkes?" Wilkes nodded smugly. Slughorn beamed back at him. "Taught your father when he was in school. Personally recommended him to the Department for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures at the Ministry. You tell him old Sluggy says hello."
Wilkes nodded again and said, "Yes sir." Slughorn went back to his list.
"Adin," Lily whispered, suddenly needing verbal confirmation of what she had already witnessed with her own eyes. "Slytherins and Gryffindors…they don't get along, do they?"
Adin gave a quiet snort and shook her head. "Not usually, no. Slytherins tend to think Gryffindors are blood-traitor Muggle lovers, and Gryffindors think Slytherins are pureblood fanatic lunatics."
Nodding dejectedly, Lily turned back to Slughorn, who had two more slips of parchment in his hand. "Peter Pettigrew…" He paused and looked around the room until the plump little boy who had been trailing after James raised his hand in acknowledgement. "You will be paired with…Adin Balini. Ah, Miss Balini, of course. I taught both of your parents as well. You look strikingly like your father."
Adin grimaced as she went and took a seat next to Peter Pettigrew.
"Next we have Severus Snape and…" Lily caught her breath. "…Lily Evans." Of course.
Severus had not moved an inch when his name was read. Lily gave the professor a friendly smile, grabbed her books, and made her way over to Severus's table. When she sat down, Slughorn merely returned her smile before going back to his cauldron without comment. Lily looked over at Severus and, for reasons unknown to her, immediately felt guilty. He was slumped in his seat, his lank black hair distorting her view of his face, flipping through the pages of his Potions book. He was acting like a right git, but he was still the best friend she had at Hogwarts, and perhaps their good fortune at having been partnered together was some sort of sign from the universe that their friendship would not be so quick to dissipate.
She leaned in close and nudged him with her elbow. His head immediately snapped up, his dark eyes wide and slightly hesitant. Lily glanced at Slughorn, who was busy blubbering about Raeanne's family, and then turned back to Severus, smiling.
"Pretty lucky, being paired together, huh?"
"Would've been luckier for you if you had been paired with Potter or Black, I'm sure."
His voice didn't hold the malice that it had in the entrance hall; instead, it was laced with something much sadder. She glanced again at Slughorn before leaning in closer to her friend.
"Why would I want that? You're my best friend, Sev. Just because we're in different houses doesn't mean that will change."
"You've already made Gryffindor friends, though."
"So what if I have? We can have other friends too, you know. I'm not going to go through Hogwarts only talking to you, and I hope you wouldn't want to only talk to me. Right?"
Severus shifted uncomfortably before muttering, "I guess."
"It doesn't matter that I'm in Gryffindor and you're in Slytherin, not if we don't let it. And it doesn't matter how many other friends I have. You're my best friend."
He smiled slightly at her words, his eyes darting around the room before landing briefly on her face. "Promise?"
"Absolutely I promise," she whispered, grinning and returning her attention to the professor. Slughorn had evidently just paired Gin and Sirius together and was now reciting a list of Blacks with whom he had acquaintances.
"…went to school with your great-grandparents, I believe, Cygnus and Violetta, of course. And your grandmother Irma was Head Girl in her time here, taught her myself…dab hand at Potions…"
Sirius had both of his elbows on the desk in front of him and was gazing up at the professor with a look of utter boredom. Slughorn didn't even notice when Sirius started rapping his fingers on his desk in impatience.
"…and did you know that I'm the one who helped your Aunt Lucretia get her position at the Department for Magical Law Enforcement?"
Sirius sat up a bit straighter. Even from across the room, Lily wasn't fooled by the sudden innocent expression on his face or the cheerful lilt in his voice.
"No sir, I didn't know that," he said. "But I try to avoid my Aunt Lucretia as much as possible. You see, she has quite a problem with her body odor, and if I get too near her, I tend to have fits and pass out."
The class, with the exception of a few choice Slytherins, burst into laughter. Even Slughorn chuckled appreciatively. "Well let's see if your Potions prowess measures up to your cheek." He paused, the mirth fading from his face. "I have to say, Mr. Black, that I was surprised you weren't placed into Slytherin last night. I've known four generations of Blacks, and you are the first that hasn't been in my house."
"The personal hygiene gene must skip four generations then, Professor," said Sirius, in the same happily innocent tone. None of the Slytherins laughed this time.
"Moving on, then," said Slughorn, not even acknowledging Gin, "we have Remus Lupin partnered with James Potter."
Lily watched as James gathered up his things and went to sit next to the skinny Gryffindor who had also been walking with him after breakfast. The boy looked young for his age; he was wiry and pale and when he smiled at James, his smile was tight and nervous.
"James, m'boy!" said Slughorn, failing to notice the many eye rolls his repetitive prattle was garnering from his students. "How's your father doing? A most excellent potion-maker, of course, one of the best of his day! And your mother – I was sorry to hear that she had retired from St. Mungo's. Great Healers like her are rare to come by, you know. Be sure to tell them Professor Slughorn sends his regards."
James nodded, polite but uninterested. "Yes, sir."
There was something about him, Lily thought, as she really considered the boy for the first time since deciding that she did not like him. It seemed everyone – Adin, Avery, Professor Slughorn – already knew James Potter, and it seemed like he was unsurprised and unaffected by this knowledge. It didn't strike Lily as arrogance so much as some sort of casual magnetism. She tore her eyes away from him, hoping that no one, most particularly Severus, had noticed her staring.
The students were now all properly partnered – some looking happier with their companions than others – and Slughorn had replaced his name on the chalkboard with a list of instructions for their first potion. Only a half-hour later, Lily and Severus had managed to mix their very first potion: a bubbling blue concoction that supposedly helped to cure boils. Severus had remained quiet throughout the class, but Lily knew he was just nervous about messing up the potion. After a few failed tries at conversation, Lily decided to concentrate on the task as well, which she found to be remarkably simple. Adin, who was sitting at the table in front of them with Peter, kept turning around and asking what the secret was, as their potion was starting to resemble the porridge Lily had eaten at breakfast.
"I don't know," Lily shrugged, checking her book before adding six extra dried nettles. "Just follow what it says in the book. That's all we're doing."
Adin harrumphed and turned back around to help Peter, whose sleeve had caught on fire. Lily counted out twenty anti-clockwise stirs while Severus added the porcupine quills, and their potion immediately turned a translucent blue. Beaming, Lily double-checked the book.
"That's it, I think," she said, running her finger over the page. "That's the exact color the book says it should be…"
Slughorn made his way over to their table and took a peek in their cauldron. "Oho!" he said, clapping his hands. Most of the students stopped what they were doing to look over at Snape and Lily. "Quite remarkable! A perfect cure to the peskiest of boils! Five points to Gryffindor and Slytherin for each of you, and if you don't mind, I think I'll keep a sample of your potion for Madam Pomfrey."
As Slughorn dipped a beaker into Lily's cauldron for his sample, the peal of a bell signaled the end of the lesson, and the first years cleaned up as quickly as they could and made a mad rush to the door. Lily bade goodbye to Severus, who would be going to Charms, and left with Adin, following the group of Gryffindors through the corridors to Transfiguration.
And as she watched the group of boys in front of her laughing and joking and carrying on, Lily decided that maybe luck was on her side that day after all. Even if their houses hated one another on principle, even if their classmates were already at odds and firing insults, Lily and Severus now shared Potions. They were now not only friends, but partners, and successful partners at that.
A sign from the universe, indeed.
To Remus Lupin, Transfiguration seemed like quite a challenge. He had picked a desk next to Goomer, in the row behind James, Sirius and Peter. This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as Goomer spent most of the lesson in conversation with Raeanne on the other side of him, leaving Remus to regret the fact that he hadn't sat next to the other boys, as they at least had talked to him from time to time. He was, however, close enough to overhear Professor McGonagall assign detentions to both James and Sirius as consequence for their escapade in the lake. Neither of them seemed too upset about their punishment, though; in fact, they were the only students in the class to successfully transfigure their matches into needles, earning them a combined ten points from McGonagall. Remus, relieved to discover that he was not significantly behind most of his classmates in spellwork practice, had managed to make his match thin and pointed, though he couldn't succeed in getting the wood to become metal.
At lunch, Remus sat between a group of shrill fifth-year girls and a pair of third years who were bickering over a missing Gobstones set. He did not talk to anybody and tried his very best to blend into the wooden bench.
After lunch, Remus followed Adin Balini and Lily Evans to Defense Against the Dark Arts, where he found James, Sirius, and Peter already seated and waiting for the lesson to start.
"Remus!" The boy in question started at James's call. "Where've you been? Here…come sit next to me."
James indicated the empty chair next to him and Remus hurried to it, his stomach fluttering nervously. James wanted to sit next to him. Him.
"Got lost did you?" Sirius said, grinning at him.
"Er…I –"
"You know," interrupted James. "That map idea isn't a bad one."
Sirius snorted. "Draw them up and sell them to first years. Make a shiny Sickle to be sure."
Remus couldn't tell if they were joking or not, so he kept his mouth shut. In all honesty, he found James and Sirius to be friendly and entertaining, but rather intimidating as well. The discussion ended when their professor entered. She was an ancient woman called Professor Eldon, and she spent the entire lesson lecturing them about the dangers of knarls and their quills. Her face was so wrinkled that she had an unmistakable resemblance to a Shar-Pei, but what really stuck out to them about her appearance was that she only used her right eye and her left remained closed. Remus was starting to suspect that her left eye had perhaps gotten on the wrong end of a knarl quill – hence her paranoia – when she randomly switched eyes, closing the right and peering at them through the left. James and Sirius started sniggering loudly at this, although Eldon didn't seem to hear.
Their last class of the day was Herbology, which they shared with the Hufflepuffs. Remus ended up seated next to Peter Pettigrew, who spent most of the lesson stammering in his ear. Remus didn't mind, though; he liked Peter well enough, and decided that Peter would probably be his best chance to have a friend among his roommates. Goomer didn't seem interested in finding friends among the boys, and James and Sirius had been joined at the hip since Remus had met them.
He was therefore shocked that evening at dinner, when Sirius and James plopped down across the table from him.
"Where's Goomer?" James asked, pausing from piling potatoes on his plate to look down the table.
"He's down there at the other end with Raeanne and Mary," said Remus.
Sirius narrowed his eyes suspiciously as he spotted Goomer with the girls. "He sure does spend a lot of time with them."
"He and Raeanne are good friends, I guess," said Remus quietly, feeling guilty for talking about Goomer behind his back.
James rolled his eyes, his mouth full of potatoes. "Oh well," he said, swallowing hard. "We'll just have to do it without him, then."
"Do what without who?" asked Peter, who had just taken a seat next to Remus. He was out of breath, and Remus got the distinct impression that he had been hurrying to catch up to James and Sirius, but had fallen behind. There was a quick moment where James and Sirius exchanged a glance, clearly annoyed that Peter had invited himself into their conversation. James shrugged and Sirius rolled his eyes, which Remus understood to mean some form of reluctant assent.
"All right," said James, turning back to the pair across the table. "We're planning something."
"Planning something?" Peter echoed.
James nodded, a devilish excitement shining in his eyes. "Something good. So are you in?"
"In?"
James waited, looking back and forth between the pair of them. "Well…are you?"
"Yes!" said Peter.
"Oh. Okay, then," said Remus.
"Excellent. It's called, 'Operation: Get Snivellus,'" pronounced Sirius.
Remus choked on a parsnip. "Get what?"
"Snivellus," James repeated. "You know, that greasy Slytherin."
"Wh-what about him?" said Remus, worried.
"Well James and I were talking about how to get him back for hexing us – we can't just stand for that, obviously – and James mentioned something he found recently in his dad's old school stuff."
James's grin widened as he leaned in closer to the others. "Get ready," he said, "because we have a great idea, but we need your help."
A/N: Thanks for reading and please review! Would love to hear your thoughts.