CHAPTER THREE
~A never-ending bad day for Lily~
Although the events of that morning were more than hilarious for Lily Evans, the rest of the day wasn't. Double potions had been first, and Potter and Black decided it would be funny to accidentally crash into her potion, resulting in it crashing to the ground, and a detention for her, the first one she had ever had as a prefect at Hogwarts. She was to report to Professor Resten (the Potions mistress and all time Slytherin fan) in two nights time to collect armadillo bile.
This little incident caused Lily to discard her previous thoughts on Sirius and things reverted back to its original place; Lily hating ALL the Marauders with a passion, and vice versa. Well except Remus, he still hadn't done anything personal towards her, so she kept her hostility towards him at a bare minimum.
By the time Potions class had finished, Lily was definitely on the verge of crying. But to her dismay, her day wasn't finished yet. After lunch was transfiguration, where Potter found it amusing to accidentally (there's that word again she had thought bitterly) miss his target and transfigure her into a peacock. That was definitely an experience she would rather forget. It was even worse when Black decided to make some smart comments about how feathers suited her more than the fur did. He became the next peacock, five minutes after Lily was transfigured back.
In Lily's defence, she insisted it was because her arms were still feeling wobbly because they were recovering from being wings. James had also received a murderous glare from Lily's direction at that comment, to which he had swiftly snickered too. That didn't go well with Lily, not at all.
Still more was to come for Lily. In Divination, her teacher, Professor Vasilkus predicted her death, saying to beware of black-haired men for they would be her downfall. Black and Potter were suffice to say, smiling smugly the entire lesson, for once believing their nutty professor.
Lily had cracked again, and had artfully predicted the most horrific deaths for these black-haired men using her teacups, earning her an appraising glance from Vasilkus, and no homework for her, which made the day slightly better.
The worst part of the day came at dinner though. Whilst Lily had finally unwound from the day, and was enjoying her favourite dinner of spaghetti Bolognese, her owl Nefertiti (I luv Egyptian stuff so sorry) unusually delivered a late letter to her. Lily disregarded this as she read the letter, absentmindedly stroking her owl.
Her eyes brimmed with tears as she skimmed through the content and she resisted the urge to burn the letter right there and then.
James and the others had also noticed this letter, and James felt it was his duty to speak up.
"Whatsa matter Evans?" he asked, not sounding concerned in the least. Lily fixed her gaze on him, and James saw the unshed tears in her eyes.
"It's none of your business." Lily said softly, her voice almost sounding defeated.
James, either was incredibly dense, or just downright foolish, but he ignored her soft tone, and continued to taunt her.
"What? I can't hear you Evans. Speak up, your beak is still muffling your voice."
Lily snapped and the letter dropped from her hands as she suddenly stood up and shouted dangerously,
"I said it was none of your damn business Potter so just butt out you insensitive git! Thanks to you and Black, I have had the worst day, so why don't you quit now while your ahead, before I do something I'll regret."
When Lily had finished, she noticed with embarrassment that the Great Hall had become completely silent. She lowered her head down to look at the floor, before walking out of the Great Hall.
It wasn't until she reached the safety of an empty classroom that she finally let out all her anger. There her red-headed temper was released, and desks and books went flying via her wand, only to be immediately repaired by the very same wand (cant have Lily leaving everything broken now can we?) after they had been broken.
~*~
Meanwhile James eyes were still fixated on the door that Lily had exited from. He only returned back to Earth when he received a hard whack on the head. Turning irritably, he faced an equally irritated Bella.
"You really have no compassion for anyone at all do you?" she exclaimed.
James shrugged, rubbing his head, "Not for Evans I don't."
This was the wrong thing to say Bella, and soon enough James found his face squished into the spaghetti. He came up spluttering indignantly and was about to retaliate, but stopped as he noticed that Bella had shifted her attention to the letter that Sionell had discreetly picked up. Bella's murderous expression softened into pity, as did Sionell's.
"What letter?" Bella demanded in confusion after she had finished reading the letter.
"I can't believe she would do that …" breathed Sionell, shaking her head at Bella. James curiosity was piqued and he couldn't help but ask,
"Who do what?" whilst wiping the remaining spaghetti sauce off his face.
Arabella gave a bitter laugh, without bothering to face him, "Don't you think you should take Lily's advice, and mind your own business, you self indulgent, nosy lit-"
"Bella don't, we need to find Lily. She must be devastated." Sionell broke in firmly, her voice cracking slightly at the last sentence.
Bella sighed in defeat, "You're right, who knows where she's wreaking havoc right now."
With that the two girls followed Lily's example and exited the Great Hall, intent on finding Lily and stopping her from doing … whatever it was she was doing.
They of course, like Lily, had inconveniently forgotten to take the letter with them, and it didn't take long for the Marauders to notice.
~*~
James was fighting an inner struggle to listen to what the girls had said, or take the letter, but thankfully was saved by Sirius, who snatched up the letter eagerly. He read the letter for a few moments, before his expression turned sympathetic.
"What is it?" Remus blurted out concernedly. Sirius frowned, before saying slowly,
"I don't really get everything … but I kinda get the gist of it. Lily's parents are angry with her for a letter that she sent to her sister. They expressed their immense disappointment in her for sending it. Here listen to this part …
Lily, we are still unable to accept the letter that you sent to Petunia a couple of weeks ago. She has been gracious enough to send you weekly letters, and you respond to her in such a manner that disappoints us. Petunia showed us your latest letter and we are ashamed in that you have learnt such vulgar language at your school. Although we are proud of your studies, we are not happy that you are choosing that over keeping in contact with your sister. Surely she is more important. We always thought that Petunia was the reason behind your differences, but now we have finally realised the extent of jealousy that you hold towards your sister. So we will not be sending you any extra money for the rest of the month, and you will send a letter of apology to your sister immediately. It is too late to take back what you said in the letter, but not to re-mend your ties with your sister …"
Sirius looked up to look quizzically at the other boys, all of which were looking equally as confused. Peter was the first to speak up.
"Vulgar? … Lily? Are they sure they have the right person?"
James missed the comment, as he was too busy thumping his head on the table.
"No wonder she was so upset at me." he mumbled miserably, emphasising each gap by a thump on the table. Sirius stopped him, by wrenching his head up by the collar.
"Well, losing brain cells over it isn't going to make things any better," he joked weakly.
James jumped up as a cute Hufflepuff girl caught his eye and smiled at him. He immediately lost his train of thought as he smiled back, and the girl giggled, turning back to talk with her friends.
"Yeah, she's not really worth losing anything over …" he said haphazardly,
his eyes still fixed on the Hufflepuff girl. Remus cast him a disapproving glare. "What? I'll apologise later or something."
"Nothing." Remus answered curtly, shaking his head before he continued to eat.
~*~
It didn't take long for Bella and Sionell to find Lily, they could hear the crashing noises all the way down the hallway. When they finally entered the room, they were surprised to find Lily sitting on one table, and another table zooming past their heads. Sionell ducked automatically, pushing Bella down to the ground.
Lily broke out of her trance to cast them an apologetic look.
"Sorry." she mumbled softly, levitating the table back to the ground, and mending one of its legs.
Arabella casually pulled herself up from the ground and dusted herself off, but not after throwing a dirty look at Sionell.
Lily was too busy to notice that, as she retreated back into her own thoughts. The only question that was running through her mind was what letter? Petunia never sent her letters, and ditto. If anything, Petunia always steered clear of owls and Lily's 'freakish' life.
"Lily?" Sionell's coaxing voice broke her thoughts, and Lily turned her face to look dully at them. Her eyes had lost their twinkle, and were noticeably darker than usual. Lily knew by her tone that they had read the letter, so she automatically began to defend herself.
"I never sent Pet a letter … I never even knew about it." she said helplessly. A reassuring arm was placed around her shoulders, and Lily smiled gratefully as Sionell hugged her.
"We know Lily. Your sister must have forged a letter from you because she wanted to get you into trouble." spat Bella who had spread herself across one of the desks.
"You know what I can't believe?" Lily began.
"What?"
Lily took a deep, steadying breath before continuing on,
"That Pet would go this far, just to get me out of her life. What have I done that was so bad to her? I don't understand it."
"You have done nothing Lil, and you shouldn't dwell on it. Petunia is not worth your worrying. She obviously does not worry about you in the slightest."
Sionell nodded her agreement.
"Bella's right Lily, your better than her and you shouldn't waste your time on her."
It was a hesitant moment when Lily thought about her parents.
"What am I going to do about my parents though? They think I wrote that letter." she said cringing.
Arabella raised an eyebrow and asked in the most cheekiest tone.
"Got any frogspawn?"
They all couldn't help but crack up laughing, but Bella sobered up as she added.
"We could always say that it wasn't from you, but from someone else."
Lily gasped. "I can't tell them that Petunia faked the whole thing."
"No, no, I didn't mean it like that. We could just say that there was a mixup in the mail, and Petunia didn't get the right letter. That she maybe got a letter from the … Marauders or one of the Slytherin's."
"I can't do that," refused Lily, "I'll just have to apologise gracefully, and throttle Petunia when I see her next …"
And throttle her I will, Lily thought bitterly.
~*~
Lily strode furiously down the halls of Hogwarts, every now and then aiming her wand at couples snogging in the corners. It was three hours after Arabella and Sionell had found her in the classrooms, and she had finally decided to vent all her frustration out into her duties, rather than the 'poor desks and ickle bookies', as Bella had said so compassionately before she left.
"Honestly, what is everyone's problem tonight? Has everyone but me gone mad?" she exclaimed to no one in particular.
"No, you're just the only one who doesn't have a social life other than ruining others." James appeared from behind a knight, a giggling Hufflepuff in tow.
Lily sighed. All she needed now was a confrontation with Potter, the guy who had practically single-handedly snogged every girl at Hogwarts (as evidenced by the boxers incident). Except her (and her friends) of course, Lily reminded herself, straightening slightly.
"Do you have to annoy me now? Didn't you have enough at dinner?" she asked, her eyes flashing dangerously.
James shook his head ashamedly, "I didn't come to annoy you Evans, I was just joking. I never meant to upset you. Sometimes things just slip out, like just before."
It took a while to sink in that Potter had actually come close to an apology, and Lily nodded mutely before her senses came rushing back to her.
"Hang on, why the sudden change in attitude?"
"Do I need a reason?- Ok, ok fine, you … left your letter at the table, and I uh … happened to-" Lily interrupted angrily.
"Stick your prying nose into the letter and read it?"
"Well I was going to say skim my eyes over it by accident … but I guess your way was fine." James added hastily, as Lily had taken a menacing step forward.
"Why must you be so meddlesome?" cried Lily, "You are always prying into other people's lives, especially mine. We can't even stand each other and you have to know about my life!"
James lost his temper, and forgot about how he was trying to treat Lily nicer.
"Aren't you the hypocrite?" he muttered sarcastically, and continued on before Lily could respond, "What do you think your doing right now by coming down here and taking points away from everyone? I'd say you were doing the same. Interrupting people's lives and meddling in their private business."
"This is my job as a prefect Potter, yours too I might add." Said Lily, impatiently tapping her foot, anxious to leave his obnoxious presence. "You weren't supposed to be joining in."
"Oh I forgot, Lily Evans always follows the rules. Never strays from the line of the rules. Well if you ask me, I just think it's all an excuse." He smirked, crossing his arms smugly.
"Excuse for what?" demanded Lily.
"That you can't get anyone who would want to snog you."
Lily gasped and lost her grip on her wand. It clattered to the floor but Lily was too busy glaring at James as if her life depended on it. She was aghast at what he had just said. It was more hurtful than James could have realised. She opened her mouth to reply before she had even thought about what she was going to say.
"It's not my fault that everyone's snog-crazy, and it most certainly does not give you an excuse … to attack me like this … I never mention your nightly escapades or doings." Lily retorted angrily, casting a meaningful glance at the now red Hufflepuff girl.
James stiffened and Lily was too charged up to cheer her success. Without meaning to, she had struck him where it hurts.
"You think your so smart don't you Evans?" James barked angrily, pushing away her thoughts. "Always holding it over everyone that your top student … prefect … most likely to be Head Girl … That's your problem, your too damn big-headed and conceited to have anyone who could care about you. Who do you have that actually cares about you?"
At that comment, Lily lost all her strength, all her adrenaline that usually popped up whenever James turned up. Figuring that this conversation was over, James haughtily pushed past her, his hand gripping the girl's hand tightly.
It took all of Lily's remaining strength to shakily bend down to pick up her wand. There was nothing left to say to Potter. He was right, nobody could care about her the way that they cared about him. James always had hoards of girls after him for his good looks and all the guys were envious of him for everything else.
And who did she have? Lily answered the question aloud after James had stalked off.
"Nobody …"
She never noticed the shadow flicking behind one of the knights as she wearily walked back to the common room.
~*~