"Miss Evans, I need to see you in my office." With that, she swished out of the Great Hall, followed by a bewildered and a tiny bit frightened Lily.
They reached her office, and Professor McGonagall ushered Lily into a chair. "Miss Evans, I heard about an occurence on the train that you did not inform a teacher of." She looked at the petrified redhead expectantly.
Lily cleared her throat several times. "Professor--I just felt a bit sick. Nothing really happened." She had the odd feeling that it wouldn't be the best idea to confess that she was being transported spiritually to another place, and the after-effects being rather strange. "I'm fine. Really."
Professor McGonagall nodded slowly, half convinced. "If you are sure you do not need to go to the hospital wing, you may go down to the feast. Madam Pomfrey is an excellent nurse, and I am sure that any illness you have will soon be gone."
Lily sprang up, her mind turning numb at the thought of James' comments if she had to go to the hospital wing. "Professor, I'm fine, really. The only thing I am now is a bit hungry--I'm not sick."
Professor McGonagall nodded again. "You may go down to the feast, then. I shall see you in third-year Transfiguration." She gave Lily a rare smile. "I am sure you will do well."
Lily sped out of the door, then, in the entrance hall, she decided she wasn't in the mood for taunts and headed for Gryffindor Tower.
With a bit of good luck, Lily ran into a prefect as he was leaving the tower.
"Password's Puritan hysteria."
Lily thanked him with a smile and slipped through the portrait hole he held open for her.
The common room was occupied by no one but the blazing flames in the fireplace, and, not in the mood for sitting in a common room soon to be bombarded with fully-fed Gryffindors, Lily took the steps up to the girls' dormitories two at a time. It took her a while to find the correct dormitory, since her room was now with the third years, but when the Gryffindors started spilling into the common room, she was lying on her four-poster, sending a note off home with Alisande.
Lily heard footsteps tromping up the stairs, and moments later, four girls stood inside the doorway, all looking rather curious. A chubby sort of girl with brown hair in plaits and eyeglasses stepped forward, holding her callused hand out to Lily.
"You must be Lily Evans. Professor McGonagall told us you would be here." Lily took the outstretched hand gratefully. "I'm Abigail. Welcome-" she gestured around the circular dormitory-"I hope you'll like it here."
Lily smiled. She had been terribly afraid that she might not fit in and would be shunned, and this girl was acting as nice as anyone could. Well, besides Petunia. Nice for Petunia would probably mean outright cruelty from this girl.
The other three girls moved forward from their posts near the door. A short, thin, rather shy-looking brunette with a silky blue scarf around her neck moved forward. "I'm Elspeth. Hi." She gave a small wave, and Lily, feeling a bit stupid, moved her fingers a bit.
The next inhabitant moved forward. A very pretty black girl, she wore long gold earrings and was chewing gum, smiling brightly. "Hi, Lily. I'm Diana. Say-are you coming to Hogsmeade this year? I'd love to show you that one shop they have there-"
Diana pulled out a sort of magazine from her robes. She jumped on the bed and sat down on the edge, but just as she was slipping the front page away, a sort of cough froze her and elevated her off of the bed.
The last girl was a tall blonde, with glittering blue eyes and a majestic air. Her hand, lifted airily to her mouth, was slender and delicate, just like the rest of her figure. But, unlike the other girls, there was no smile at her lips and no welcoming glance. Lily compared her silently to a Michelangelo statue stuck in the freezer.
"Girls, honestly, don't we have enough trouble without looking after a tiny twelve-year-old? I should have thought you had more class than that." She sniffed and moved to her bed, and Diana and Elspeth followed immediately, without so much as a glance backwards. A bit hurt, Lily sank back onto her pillow. She felt a tug at her sleeve.
Abigail was kneeling beside the bed.
"Lily, I'm sorry."
Lily was astonished. "Sorry for what? You didn't do a thing."
Abigail nodded regretfully. "I know, but Serena did this to me when I was in my first year here. I didn't like it at all, and I always kept hoping she would be my friend." She shrugged. "Serena only hangs around beauty queens. I'm not a good enough candidate." She sighed again and fingered her glasses. Then she perked up. "Say, Lily, now that we're here together, do you mind if I consider you my friend?"
Lily's mouth hung open. "Abigail-what on earth? Of course I don't mind!"
Abigail flushed. "You don't know how much that means to me. I haven't had a real friend in ages. Say-" she opened her eyes wide-"can we play chess downstairs?"
In answer to that, Lily jumped off of the bed and downstairs towards the common room, pulling Abigail with her, thinking, "She sounds nice, and right now I don't care what that Serena character thinks. Abigail's the nicest person I've met and I'm sticking to her."
Upstairs, Serena Sikora was playing with her long blonde hair and pondering. She was no dummy, and she had come to a conclusion already.
"If I want a shot at any of those five boys, that Evans girl better stay as ugly as she can be. And I know just how." A malicious smile crept around her cheeks as she flipped the page of Diana's magazine.
The first day of their new classes, Lily was coughing madly from the smoke surrounding the Divanation students. The class was held high up in the North Tower, and it reminded her vaguely of what Petunia would do to a room if she got the chance. Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher, was nowhere in sight as most of the students took their places on poufy armchairs.
On one of the shelves that lined the room, there were several steaming teapots and cups with tiny saucers. They were in two different colors: pink and greenish-white. As Lily sat down at a smallish table with Abigail and a girl whose name was Patricia Forster, she caught sight of a glitter in the shadows near the curtains, and something looking rather like an oversized dragonfly wearing a cloak came out of the shadows. As the thing came closer, Lily realized that this was a person, in spite of her appearance.
"Good afternoon. My name is Professor Trelawney. I shall be your Divination teacher this year." She ushered Sirius, Remus, and James to the table behind Lily, and ended up placing James right behind Lily, who was beginning to feel more than a bit claustrophobic.
"This art is not the king of magic one learns from books. We have in here several people who will fail hopelessly at their crystal art, although, if I have read the signs aright, the least successful student will have their wildest nightmares come to be reality." Her voice was light and wispy, sounding like an oracle, and many people looked nervous and fidgeted underneath the tabletops. Lily was coming close to ducking under the table to avoid the thick fumes from the incense burners on the mantlepiece.
Half of the class Professor Trelawney gave teacups with wide leaves, instructing them on how to read the leaves. Lily was among those assigned to the incense ashes.
Each ash-student was given a stick of incense, a holder, and was instructed to light their stick, tapping on it every twenty-nine seconds to make the ashes fall. "You will find your interpretations of the ashes on pages thirteen and fourteen in your books."
Lily sighed. Underneath the table, she pulled out "The Princess Bride" from her bag and flipped it open, turning to the passage about the visit of the Princess Noreena. In between, she pushed the ashes off of her incense stick and wished desperately for a drink of cold water.
At long last, the ashes were all on the tray, and she tilted it to the side, so that the ashes fell onto one of the greenish-white saucers. She flipped her book open and shook her head, muttering about how senseless this all was. "I would be doing something with more point if I were delousing my owl."
Her finger moved up and down the page.
"All right, where does it give me an explanation for a crumbly gray mess-oh, all right, fine, this thing looks more like a wand-ooh, hope I'm going to hex someone…here's something that could be a telephone-no, wait, a rat-I am going to have unexpected alliances and enemies. No surprises there…oh, there's something that looks like a rainbow thingy-pot of gold?-ugh, no…tears in my life-these ashes seem to hate me…"
Abigail heard her and snorted with laughter, attracting Professor Trelawney's attention. She had just been checking James' tea leaves, and his saucer was still in her hand as she flitted over, snatching up Lily's incense remains.
Lily made a face as her teacher knelt next to her, put James' saucer on the table next to hers for lack of space, and then let out a tinkling, death-to-all-ear-drums scream.
Half of the class jumped up, crowding around Professor Trelawney and asking what the matter was. For close to five minutes, her hand at her heart, she could only point to the two saucers in front of her. The class approached them tentatively.
Lily had taken each saucer in her hands and was examining them. Abigail was bouncing up and down on the toes of her feet, trying to get a good view.
"Lily, what do you see?"
Lily frowned. "A bunch of soggy green stuff and loads of crumbly gray dust."
At that, Professor Trelawney regained her strength. She shot up from her armchair as if she had been shot out of a slingshot. The two saucers she sntached from Lily and placed them far out of reach, on the highest shelf in all of her book-cases.
"My dear child, do you not see it? No-no, it is better you go unknowingly on your path. Do not ask it of me, dear child!"
Lily gritted her teeth at the 'dear child' part. "May I please know what my crumbly gray dust represents?-excuse me, my holy incense ashes."
Professor Trelawney guided her and James towards a sofa, pressing them down and grasping their shoulders forcefully, as if they would die if she let go. Lily lifted the hand off of her shoulder with the expression that conveyed the impression that she was trying to lift the corpse of a rooster off of her robes.
"My children, your fate is written in the stars!"
Lily wanted to say, "You mean, drawn in soggy wet stuff.", but this teacher seemed too loony to cross.
"Your fate is entwined, my dears, and you are doomed! Didst you not glimpse it in your fortunes? 'Exactly alike leads to doom'! Your fortunes read the same; they were shaped the same, they are fatal!"
Practically everyone in the room gasped at this. Lily was getting fed up.
"Are you trying to say that we're going to get married and that we'll end up killing each other because we're so alike? Professor, I stink at Quidditch."
Professor Trelawney looked somewhat miffed. "Be it so, then, child. Do not say I have not warned you." She rose, hand at heart, and stepped tremblingly to a high-backed chair that hid her completely from view. Her airy-fairy voice, however, still could be heard.
"You may leave off for today, children. Take my advice, and enjoy the company of your friends as long as you are able…"
"Oh, posh!" Lily kicked the trapdoor open and descended noisily. "That lady must be mad! I'm in perfect health, thank you very much, and have no desire for instant suicide. She's a regular loony."
James caught up to her. His face was worried and drawn; he had obviously taken the lesson seriously.
"Lily, don't you understand? We're doomed, we're going to die!"
She shrugged his hand off. "Death is the only great adventure. I wonder what it would feel like to be dead? Maybe I would become a ghost and remember, and then I'd write a book about it! I'd become the first author to publish works written after her death! Ooh, I can't wait!"
Smirking to herself at the stunned expressions running across James' face, she headed for Transfiguration.
Abigail and Lily were giggling about that day's Divination lesson in the common room after supper, and Lily was teaching Abigail how to play chess. She had the basics down pat, but she kept making rather stupid moves out of nowhere, and Lily was trying to fix that.
"Abigail, leave the knight there. He is protecting your queen."
"But I can move the queen, right?"
"No. That will put the king in checkmate."
"So?"
"Checkmate means you lost the game."
"Oh, right."
The portrait creaked and Serena, Diana, and Elspeth stepped in, chattering in a lofty tone. Serena stopped when she was looking over Lily's shoulder.
"You know, Evans, you don't need to spoil our good name by associating with someone from our dormitory. Go back to your pathetic little second-year friends and leave us third years alone."
Lily's pawn smashed Abigail's queen. "I am a third year, Sikora."
"What did you just call me?"
"What, Sikora's your name, isn't it?"
"My father is a great earl, descended from a line that was knighted by the Duke of Buckingham in the times of the Cardinal de Richelieu, and you dare call me simply by my last name, Evans?"
"My father is a grants manager for his business, descended from his ancestors, who were bestowed with the title of 'Person with sense who does not bow to nobles', and you dare to call me simply by my last name, Sikora?"
Serena's cheeks started to turn red. "You disrespectful little heathen!"
Lily's rook ran headlong into Abigail's remaining knight and flew off of the board. "You miserable old substitute chemistry teacher that plucks her moustache hairs in class."
Serena's chest started to rise and fall with rage, but then the portrait creaked again and revealed James and Sirius, laden down with cream puffs and chocolate eclairs from the kitchens. Serena changed her tone immediately.
"What-Lily, I did nothing to you, and you insult me like this? I have tried to be nice to you from the minute I learned you were to be in our dormitory, and now you treat me like I am cattle? What did I do to be treated like this?" She said all this in a pathetic whining sound, high-pitched, which wasn't intended to fail to catch the boys' attention and didn't fail. They immediately came over, Sirius half-buried in a lemon tart.
"Lily, what did you do this time?"
"I smashed a queen. Not to mention a knight."
Serena turned to James, wiping a tear away from the corner of her eye, almost pleading. "James, she learned that my ancestors had been knighted, and she has spared no chance of taunting me and making me feel terrible. I wish you could help me; if I have to keep on going like this for the rest of my time here, I just think I'll die!" Her blue eyes were filled with tears by now and her hair, perfectly arranged, had been drenched in the same tears. Her voice had a persecuted yet noble tone, and she was the very image of a maiden in distress. It was all Lily could do to keep from laughing out loud.
James frowned a bit. "Serena, come sit with us. I promise we won't insult you." He took her arm and led her away from Lily, who was curled up against the back of her armchair in silent laughter, where no one but Abigail could see her.
When Serena finally came up to the dormitory, it was ten o'clock and everyone else was in their night-gowns. She stopped by Lily's bed to sneer at the plain white cotton one she was wearing, then went to her trunk and pulled out something like a pair of dress robes. It was pale blue and shimmery, with a whole bunch of fluttery ribbons on it.
Lily stared in disgust. "What is that?"
"That would be my dressing gown."
"Looks more like your house-elf got in a fight with a snake and then you dumped the remains of what was once alive into the freezer until it turned blue."
Serena ignored this. Lily leaned over to whisper in Abigail's ear. "That was scary. Almost as if that was really what it was and she knew I got her secret."
"Or, probably, she couldn't come up with a nasty enough retort."
"That, too."
Lily was, at the end of the week, still at the top of her classes. She had been getting the best grades in her year, with hardly any work. Eva had scowled fiercely when she had found out that Lily could dump her homework for the rest of the year and still pass with an average of a ninety-two.
James and Sirius were giving her rather nasty looks, which were explained by the fact that they were spending lunch, breakfast, dinner, and lots of free time with Serena, Diana, and Elspeth. Lily was a bit beyond caring, thinking, "If they believe what that bubble-headed fanged bat says, they're honestly not worth my time.
It was Friday morning, and Lily was entering Potions. Professor Cauldwell, as usual, was asleep in his chair at the front of the room, having already put up their work on the board. Sighing, Lily sank into her seat and busied herself with writing down the Inflammatory Solution's recipe. Giving the last flourish to her bit of parchment and propping up the recipe on her books, she felt a poke in the arm.
Abigail was handing a note to her. Lily unrolled it and read:
Lily,
Since I know you're not on good terms with Potter and Black and them right now, I might be able to help with a bit of revenge.
Serverus Snape
Lily glanced up from her lap, where she had placed the note, and looked across her cauldron. Snape was looking over with a bit of a question in his eyes. Lily bit her lip and picked up her quill. She wrote only one word underneath his writing.
How?
When Abigail passed the note to Snape and he opened it, he started to shake a bit with silent laughter. He dipped his quill in the ink and passed the bit of parchment back.
Come to the Quidditch field this evening at about seven. The Slytherin team's practicing, and Malfoy's the team manager, so it's a bit natural that I should be out there. Want to come? I know James won't like that at all, but then, we're both fighting with him, so that's actually a good thing…
Lily shot a glance over to James and Sirius, who hadn't missed the note-passing. She smirked and gave her answer.
I'll be outside the Great Hall at six-forty-five.
True to her word, Lily, unaccompanied by anyone else, was waiting in the entrance hall on a bench after dinner, waiting for Snape. He grinned when he saw her as he was leaving the Great Hall.
"So, you're willing to do anything to make Potter mad?"
Lily laughed. "Just about." She walked out of the two heave double doors towards the Quidditch fields, laughing and Talking animatedly with Snape, as she had spotted James, Remus, Peter, and Sirius leave the Great Hall with her dorm-mates.
She kept it up until they were out of sight, then both of them practically fell on the ground, laughing.
"Did you see their faces? I could have simmered soup for an hour if Sirius were the stove!"
"I know! This is working!" They quieted down a bit as Malfoy came in view, looking puzzled at the sight of Lily.
"What's she doing here?"
Snape shrugged. "She's fighting with Potter and his gang, so I decided I'd help. It's working for me, too. You should have seen his face!"
Malfoy was looking at Lily with a new kind of face. "Well, welcome to the club!"
They walked out to meet the rest of the team, Lily feeling much better than she had since school started.
Their Keeper, Cathryn Clarik, a very pretty fourth-year with long, straight black hair and soft dark eyes, greeted Snape and Malfoy, but hung back a bit when she came to Lily.
"Serverus, isn't that James' little girl?"
Lily winced at that. "I don't belong to James Potter, I never have, and I never will. Serverus suggested this so as to made him livid. It's working pretty well, too."
"Oh." Cathryn nodded. "Well, welcome. You can sit over there while we practice-" she gestured towards the raised teacher's tent, devoid now of its coverings so people could see the field a bit better-"since Lucius is going to be watching us from there."
Lily smiled, nodded, and climbed the stairs to her seat. Malfoy was asking her a few questions.
"So, why're you in our Potions class now?"
"Oh-that, McGonagall skipped me into third year."
"Oh-We were wondering about that. So, how did you manage to get Potter and Black so mad?"
"My new dorm has someone called Serena Sikora in it, and she hates me. She has also managed to turn them against me, which, to tell you the truth, I don't mind so much."
"You don't? I thought you five were best friends or something like that."
"Were is right. I sort of gave up on them once I realized that they care more about what a girl looks like than what she's really like. I mean-you know what I mean, don't you?"
"Yeah, but I'm kinda surprised that you just noticed that."
She shrugged. "I felt really stupid when I found it out, too."
"I can imagine."
"Oh, shut up!" She hit him on the shoulder playfully.
The team practice went very well, and Lily was almost looking forward to the day when Slytherin would wipe the floor with Gryffindor. After the last disastrous match, when Hatcher caught the Snitch when Gryffindor was 160 points in the lead, the team had shouted at him so much that he promised several times over that if he didn't do better, they could have all the fun jinxing him as they wanted to. The team agreed hurriedly and with lots of enthusiasm.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Lily wasn't a spy for the Gryffindors when they walked back into the entrance hall and found the entire Gryffindor team standing there, glaring at Lily.
James lost no time pointing her out. "That's the girl. She was bragging to the girls in her dormitory that she was giving our team's secrets to the Slytherins. Anything to say, Evans?"
Lily retrieved her jaw. She had said no such thing, but she had an idea of where the accusation came from.
"Yeah, I've got something to say. Do you believe every stupid rumor that you hear?"
"This isn't a rumor. This is fact." Sirius, Remus, and Peter were also standing with the team.
"And how do you know?"
"Our source had no reason to lie. In fact, I believe she left off some things. Some things you wouldn't want put out in the open." James was looking at her as if she had just killed his parents. He reached behind Nigel and pulled Serena out. "Did you honestly think no one would notice?"
Lily gasped. Serena's left eye was swollen and red, with a nasty purple ring around it. Her face had a cut running from her temple to her chin; the blood running form it had partly dried and had matted her hair down, and she was fighting back tears.
"What-I didn't do that!"
James started to hiss at her. "Of course you did. She told you that she'd tell us what you were going to do, and you attacked her. We have witnesses." He nodded over his shoulder to someone, and Diana and Elspeth came forward. "Tell her what you told us."
Lily had had enough. She turned to Snape. "Do you mind walking me to Gryffindor Tower? I don't think I trust these lunatics. They'll attack me as soon as I'm alone."
Snape nodded. "Of course."
He took her arm and walked her out of the entrance hall, wand drawn.
Three corridors from Gryffindor Tower, Lily saw Eva rushing towards her.
"Lily! Where have you been? The whole darned Gryffindor Tower's looking for you-I got the impression that you'd killed someone! What happened?"
Lily took Eva's shoulders. "Eva, are you also mad at me?"
"What-Lily, of course not!"
Lily breathed again. "Good. At least I know I have two friends. Serverus-" she turned to Snape-"thanks so much for getting me here. I'll be all right now; at least I know that two people are still talking to me."
He smiled. "No problem. I'll see you tomorrow, then." He vanished down the corridor, and Lily pulled Eva into an empty classroom fast, because she heard the noise of feet coming from the direction of the entrance hall.
They slammed the door and locked it, and as soon as Lily was sure they were alone, she snake to her knees, silent tears running down her face.
"Lily, what's wrong?"
"Eva, I don't know. Serena hates me, and I suppose she got in a fight and used the fact that she was hurt and that I was going to see the Slytherin team practice to her advantage. They're saying that I betrayed all of the secrets to Slytherin, and I'll bet the whole of Gryffindor House hates me now!"
Eva sat down in front of her friend and offered her a handkerchief, which Lily took gratefully. "Lily, not all of Gryffindor Tower. I don't hate you. And neither do Vanessa and Amanda. Or Abigail. You'll be all right. Trust me." She smiled a bit as Lily stopped her tears for a bit, then broke out crying harder than ever, hanging on Eva's neck.
Thirty minutes later, Lily had calmed down sufficiently to allow her to climb into the common room and to not instantly be noticed that she had been crying. They left the classroom, opened the portrait (“Puritan hysteria“), and climbed into the common room. Lily closed her eyes.
Relief flooded her as she saw the empty common room, filled only with flickering flames.
Eva shook her head. "Lily, I'm not so sure if this is a good thing."
"What-why not?"
"That no one's in here. I'll bet they're all either looking for you so they can turn you into a corpse, or looking for your corpse."
"Oh."
"C'mon, let's get you upstairs. I'd hide if I were you."
"What do you suggest?"
"I have a very large closet in our dormitory. C'mon." They climbed the stairs as fast as they could, dashing into Lily's old dormitory. Her bed was still empty, Lily noticed with relief; there were only five instead of six trunks in the room.
"Lily, you'd better sleep here tonight. Want me to get your things?"
"No. I'll do that." Lily quietly tiptoed into her new dormitory to get her night-gown, then stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the Gryffindor team leading Serena to her bed.
"Serena, don't worry, we'll get her for you."
"I know. I'll bet she'll be transferring somewhere else at the end of the week." There was lots of laughter, and Lily slipped behind the door.
Serena's voice, weak and trembling, came from the bed. "Thank you so much, guys. I'll be-"her voice broke into an anguished whisper-"I'll be fine."
Slowly, the team trickled downstairs, and Lily saw Serena jump off of the bed as soon as Elspeth and Diana entered.
"Diana, I told you I could pull it off!"
Diana shook her head. "I didn't think they'd fall for it, but you did do a good job!"
Serena smirked. "I know. Help me get this off, will you?" She had moved towards a mirror that had a bowl of water and some tissues next to it. She took one of the tissues, dunked it in the water, and carefully started wiping her face. Lily had to bite back a scream of rage.
As the tissue was rubbed across the purplish ring around Serena's eye, the nasty bruise wiped off as easily as the flame on a candle blows out, leaving powdery yellow and purple residue on the tissue. Lily's eyes narrowed. She watched as Serena removed the cut from her cheek, the blood from her hair, and the ring from her eye. Then, with an evil smile on her face, she pulled out James' present to Lily, the makeup kit. Lily started to boil.
"You know, it's a good thing that Evans girl doesn't use this. It came in very handy today."
"Didn't it, though! And the best thing is, if she finds out-"
Lily had had enough. Clearing her throat, she stepped out from behind the door.
"If I find out what?"
Serena lazily dunked her face into the water, then came back up and dried herself on a handy towel. "Find out nothing; there's nothing to find out."
"Oh, yeah, right. And what about that?" She gestured to the makeup kit and dirty towel. "I believe that's mine."
"Don't be so silly!" Serena flung her clean blonde hair over her shoulder and started to french-braid it. "You gave it to me, don't you remember?"
"No."
"Oh, honestly, Evans. I came in this room to say hello to you the day you moved in, and you gave me this, saying you'd never use it. You mean you don't remember?"
"Remember what? There's nothing to be remembered."
"Evans, don't be an idiot. If I scream right now the whole of Gryffindor Tower will come running to beat you into the ground. Be wise and remember that you gave me the makeup."
"If you screamed right now, they'd see you were a fraud."
"How so? If you mean to tell them, that certainly won't go over very well."
"I know. Because they'll realize that I'm right. You wiped off your makeup." Relishing Serena's white lips, Lily went over to her trunk, pulled out her nightgown and change of robes, and left the room.
