CHAPTER FOUR
~ Detentions and surprising revelations ~
Two nights later, and it was time for Lily's dreaded detention. To her knowledge, she would be undertaking the detention alone, and she didn't mind in the slightest. Being alone was much better than putting up with Potter and his friends.
Since the little fight in the corridors, Lily had become more reserved towards Potter and chose to avoid him at all costs. Potter's comments had worried her, as he had hit frighteningly close to the truth, and she wasn't willing to hear any more observations on his part. Not to mention she didn't think that anyone would appreciate or approve of the words she was itching to say to him if she ever bumped into him.
What he had said had sunk her level of confidence to a new low and did little to help her situation with her sister. Yesterday she had sent a letter of apology to her parents and sister, and was anxiously waiting for a reply. Lily could almost imagine the smirk that Petunia would be wearing, knowing that she had succeeded in getting Lily in trouble. Like James, Petunia had always said that Lily acted superior to everyone, but Lily had never truly believed that she treated everyone inferior to her until now. She always tried to blend in with people, not stand out. Granted her marks were high, but the only reason they were so high in the first place was to prove that she belonged and fit in with everyone else at Hogwarts.
To her knowledge, she was the only muggleborn in her year, so her determination towards her studies was the only way to prove that the prejudiced purebloods were wrong about her. And the whole comment on nobody caring for her? Well James was right about that one. Not even her own sister cared for her, so what hopes were there of ever finding a guy capable of 'snogging' her or loving her, like James' girlfriends had no problem doing, not to mention having hoards of friends, which he seemed to always have around him.
The only thing that had stopped her from taking Potter's words too much to heart and going into depression was the fact that the past couple of days had been considerably more pleasant for her, than previous ones at Hogwarts. For one, people were still eager to bring up the incident in the Great Hall, which was now widely known to everyone as the 'prank that pranked the pranksters' or Bella's had joked, the 'foxy boxers' incident. It was pretty lame, but the second one had stuck more in the Gryffindor common room to Lily's delight, and it still hadn't been forgotten yet.
After all, Lily had to admit, never before had anyone dared to face up to the Marauders, much less actually triumph over, so it came as a shock to everyone to find that no one had owned up yet. It had made Hogwarts history in many peoples opinion, so it was only sensible to accept responsibility and 'reign the throne' as Lily had overheard Sirius grumbling reluctantly at lunch yesterday.
At first, rumours spread that a group of Slytherins, including Snape and his friends had been responsible, but Snape was no actor, and it was obvious to everyone that he was as dumbstruck as the rest of the school … so it remained a mystery to who pranked the Marauders, except the three girls of course, and the Marauders were not pleased.
In fact, Lily thought in satisfaction, they had become quite paranoid about who was behind it, Peter being the main example, by making sure he was never alone down the corridors or anywhere else for that matter. Lily had laughed last night after leaving the Great Hall, to find that Peter was walking quickly behind her. He had said that he had forgotten the password to get into the common room, but it was obvious that he was frightened. After all flicking his frightened eyes over to every shadow, and jumping at any moving ones had been an obvious giveaway. She had purposely changed her direction halfway, as if she had forgotten something, and it had amused her to find that Peter had hastily followed. He hadn't yet lived that down …
Grinning goofily, Lily tuned back into the conversation that her friends her having at dinner that night.
After noticing the grin, Arabella knowingly nudged Sionell who was in the process of spearing her potatoes. Because of the nudge, Sionell's fork completely missed its target. Instead, the sleeves of her robes fell onto the plate, and Sionell shrieked in annoyance as they became mushed with potatoes.
"Bella!" Sionell complained, desperately wiping her sleeves on the shoulder of Arabella's robes.
This would have started an all out food fight between the two, if it wasn't for Lily deftly interfering.
"So what were you about to say Bella?" she asked, shifting all available plates of food over to her side of the table.
Bella abruptly stopped flicking mashed potato on Sionell, and turned around smiling,
"I was just about to say that from that goofy grin you were sporting, you were obviously thinking about the prank again … right?" she guessed. Lily nodded in amusement. Her friends knew her way too well.
"Bits of it." Lily replied merrily. Sionell smiled in return as well, her attempt at strangling Bella forgotten before saying,
"Well think about the prank when you are in detention tonight. That would sure bring your spirits up."
Lily frowned, casting a spiteful glare towards the Marauders who were currently in the process of … well Lily couldn't say what exactly. It looked like a combination of eating then occasionally regurgitating mouthfuls of food whilst talking.
She stifled the gag of disgust as she watched their childish acts, and then silently fumed. While she had detention in the dungeons, those idiots would be back in the common room, doing nothing or stuffing their faces like they were doing right now! How unfair was that?
Bella snorted again, and Lily focused back onto her friends.
"I can't believe YOU of all people has a detention. It is only a month into school … it's like you've turned into this full rebel now Lil." Bella joked, laughing.
Lily scowled. "The day I become a rebel is the day that you actually grow up, Bella. It wasn't my fault anyway." she added in defence.
"Fine be that way." Bella retorted cheerily. "Actually, you seem pretty down a bit lately … and before you say its about this detention, let me warn you, if you deny it, I will make sure that you suffer for the rest of your life, got that? So spill." she continued on, waving her fork around menacingly, before clumsily dropping it to the ground. She bent down to pick it off the ground, flushing slightly, and not noticing that Sionell had put some more potatoes in her hair.
Lily laughed; it felt good to be around friends … friends that did care about her. Who needed dozens of friends or boyfriends when she could have two wonderful best friends who knew her like the back of their hands? Potter had to have been wrong, and he wasn't worth her time after all. She shook her head in wonder. How did she ever let Potter get the better of her? In the future she would just ignore him, she thought stubbornly.
"Nothings wrong Bella, just had a tough few days if you know what I mean." Lily answered in a convincing tone. Who she was convincing though, Lily wasn't entirely sure of.
~*~
After parting from Arabella and Sionell at the Great Hall, Lily started walking slowly towards the dungeons. Lily scowled at the thought of spending hours collecting armadillo bile. She could guarantee that by the end of it, there would be more than just armadillo bile available for her potions mistress to bottle up.
She turned into the potions room, and stopped dead in her tracks. It turned out Lily wasn't alone in detentions after all. Severus Snape, a Slytherin 5th year was snarling as he caught sight of her. Lily presumed she had a similar expression on her face as her heart sunk to the floor.
Like most Slytherins', Severus Snape had a definite grudge against everyone, especially Gryffindors. His hallow skin and hooked nose often provided problems for this bad tempered prefect, as well as his freaky aptitude for potions, and accustomed late night visits to the dungeons. Black, greasy shoulder length hair did little to improve his appearance, only adding to his fierce disposition.
Lily mused there were acceptable reasons behind his ill will towards nearly everyone of the human race, as it was a known fact that the Marauders constantly targeted him for pranks. It was also common knowledge that Snape along with his group of friends, Rosier, Lestrange, and Wilkes to name a few, had no problem returning the gesture. It was even said that Snape had known more hexes and curses than even the seventh years when he first started Hogwarts, so it was certain that he had only extended his knowledge over the years, guaranteeing trouble for anyone who crossed his path, which almost always included Potter and/or Black.
It wasn't hard to notice that out of all the Marauders, Snape especially held a great deal of animosity towards Potter, rumour being that he was jealous of Potter's natural and flawless ability to play Quidditch. (Potter was recently named Captain of Gryffindor's Quidditch team where he played Seeker.) Many times Snape and Potter would be found throwing punches, hexes and what not towards each other, and it would often end in a trip to the hospital wing and many, many detentions. Not that Lily minded of course, both of them got on her nerves, so it was no problem for her that they were punished continuously.
Shaking her head wryly, she brought her mind back to the present. Great, a detention with armadillo bile and a slimy Slytherin, she thought sullenly. Funny, it was impossible to determine which one was worse. She had never gotten along with any Slytherins' before, and had never had to work with Snape before either so it was definitely going to be an. . .interesting detention to say the least.
"So are you going to stand there all day, or are you actually planning on doing some work, Evans?" Severus snapped suddenly, proving Lily's suspicions to be correct.
Lily bit her tongue before replying sweetly,
"Now that I think about it, I'd rather just stand here."
A cough was the only reply from Snape, but to Lily, it had suspiciously sounded like 'Gryffindorks'. She pointedly ignored this as she walked over beside him, sighing in defeat.
Professor Resten walked in soon after that and pointed them towards about 50 empty bottles.
"I want you to fill up all these bottles with the armadillo bile that I collected today." was all she said before leaving them alone to do their detention.
They worked in silence for a while, Lily with permanent disgust planted on her face, as she gingerly poured the bile into the little, slippery bottles. Soon enough, her hands were covered with bile as well, making her mood even worse. She was good at potions, but bottling armadillo bile and having to work with other disgusting ingredients was something that was not normal for her. Back home, she would have never even seen these things before, let alone have to come into such close proximity with them. She groaned inwardly, she was bored and the silence wasn't helping … in fact the muggle saying was right, silence was deadly in this instant. Snape's lack of noise was making her feel slightly uncomfortable, but she wasn't about to say anything willingly to him, not if she could help it.
Surprisingly it was Snape who first broke the silence … with a chuckle. Lily looked over curiously, wiping her hands on a nearby towel. Seeing Snape doing anything other than sneering was a rare sight for anybody and she would be stupid to deny that she wasn't fascinated and slightly annoyed by his sudden noise.
"What?" she asked cuttingly. Snape shook his head, smirking; his eyes still focused on the bottles as he expertly filled them. To Lily's disappointment, Snape's hands were free of armadillo bile.
That was probably the reason for his chuckle, Lily presumed silently, wrinkling her nose in annoyance and glaring at her own sticky hands.
"Just wondering what you did to get a detention. Perfect Evans never gets a detention." He replied smoothly, if not a bit bitterly. Lily growled before answering.
"Potter and Black." Snape nodded his head in understanding.
"Ah, why am I not surprised. What did they do?" he asked.
"In potions the other day, when you were absent, they bumped into my cauldron, resulting in it spilling everywhere. The stupid prats, I can't stand them." she explained, noticing that Snape had raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I didn't know that you weren't one of their fans. Sure I noticed the arguments between you and Potter, who couldn't? But I never thought that you actually hated them." said Snape, dryly, reaching for another bottle.
Lily followed suit, trying to think of something to say in return. She began slowly, "Well I wouldn't say that I hated them, hate is too strong a word. I don't hate anyone really-"
"What about me?" Lily turned in surprise, splashing some bile on the floor. Her stomach churned at the sight of it, and she mentally promised to not step in that spot in the future.
"No, Snape, I don't even hate you. Annoy me occasionally sure, but I don't even really know you so how can I pass judgement." She replied honestly.
"Even though I'm a Slytherin?"
"Yes." Lily hesitated before continuing, "I've been brought up to never hate anybody, no matter their heritage or …" She trailed off uneasily. Why on earth was she telling this to Snape, a Slytherin who hated her kind?
"-Or blood right?" Snape finished knowingly, causing Lily to jerk her eyes away. Snape sighed.
"I don't care that you're a mu- (Lily cringed) -ggleborn." He said, without the usual sneer that would pop up during conversations. "After all, anyone who can tie with me in Potions has got to be proof that these discriminations and prejudices are just fabricated. So I guess your fine by me in that respect … not to mention that we do have some common ground."
This got Lily's attention, and she abruptly stopped working. She was genuinely touched by his thoughtfulness, and she could not believe that she was hearing this from Snape, of all people. He, like the majority of Slytherins', was pure blooded, so it was a very rare event for her.
"Thank you." Lily stuttered slightly, feeling slightly overwhelmed. "But what common ground?" she asked suddenly, the last words sinking in.
"Potter." He snapped impatiently, as if it was obvious.
"Oh right."
Another silence grew between the two of them, until this time Lily decided to pipe up.
"Why are you here?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Same idiotic gits." he replied angrily, turning to face her, "They deemed it suitable to arrange a prank for me, which would result in me getting a detention … all because they were angry at me for denying any responsibility for that prank the other morning."
A slight lump of guilt lodged itself in Lily's throat at the thought of someone else taking the blame for her prank.
"I'm sorry."
Snape frowned, "What for? It wasn't your fault Black and Potter have a stick permanently lodged up their-"
Just like with Bella, Lily did not want to hear the rest of that sentence, and abruptly cut him off, without thinking what she was saying.
"-Because it was me." she blurted out. Realising her mistake too late, her eyes widened, and she reluctantly turned to see Snape's reaction. To her astonishment, Snape was … laughing? Actually after a while, Lily realised it wasn't actually laughing, but just a longer version of his previous chuckle. Still, it didn't seem to fit him.
"It was you?" He spoke up eventually. Lily nodded shamefully, but the corners of her mouth were twitching slightly, remembering everybody's reaction to the prank.
Snape was almost talking to himself as he thoughtfully scratched his chin, "To think that these past few days, the Marauders have been frantically searching for the culprit and all along it was under their noses … A Gryffindor."
Lily flushed involuntarily, shifting her gaze to the floor.
"They were really getting on my nerves." she mumbled weakly in defence.
"With the whole cat episode?" he guessed, dryly.
"That topped it I guess," admitted Lily, nodding slowly. "Up until now I've refused to let them get to me, but I guess it got too much for me to handle anymore."
"I can't believe it was you … I mean nobody has even given you a thought, much less any suspicion …"
"I know, that's what so good about it, because I know its driving them nuts."
"Your different than I thought you'd be … you're not so bad for a Gryffindor, Evans." he said unexpectedly, smirking. Lily laughed. She was glad she had someone's approval, other than her two best friends.
"And you're not so bad for a Slytherin, Severus." She said, copying Snape slightly and smirking. "Just please don't tell anyone, I wouldn't want to ruin my reputation." she added, pleadingly, and Snape grudgingly agreed with a grunt.
The detention went rather well after that, other than the occasional gagging from Lily as she desperately fought to hold back her … disgust with the armadillo bile. Of course, Severus, as she now decided to call him, would still deliver his typical Slytherin comments, but it was without the usual edge and some were even rather humorous at times.
By the end of the detention, Lily could honestly say that she believed he wasn't as bad as everyone had thought him to be. It also took her mind off other … unpleasant thoughts, so she could even go so far as to say she was grateful in a way.
As they finally finished and bid their goodnights, Lily was too weary to explain to her friends how the detention went. All she said before she walked into the bathroom to have a shower was
"It was definitely a different experience …"
~*~
Remus cautiously approached James that same night in their dorm.
"When are you planning on giving Lily a proper apology?" asked Remus, watching James closely as he went to answer.
"It's almost impossible to apologise to Evans. I tried, and then she just … I dunno, she gets on my nerves and I can't help but say something back to her."
"Well, you gotta stop treating Lily like that." Remus said sternly. James head popped up in irritation.
"Your joking right?" asked James, his eyes narrowed. "I just told you I cant help it with her. She's no angel either." Remus shook his head.
"What you said the other night really got to h-" James cut him off in confusion.
"Hang on, how do you know what happened last night? You weren't there?"
"I was sneaking back from the kitchens after missing dinner…and then I heard something so I hid behind a knight." explained Remus, before sheepishly adding, "I didn't have the invisibility cloak, and it was right next to where you two were arguing. There was no way I was going to be involved in your little fight. I'm still recovering from last time, where you both decided to start a duel, ending me with jelly legs for the next hour."
James cringed as the image of Remus getting caught in the crossfire of Lily's and his duel, popped across his mind. Remus hadn't been too happy having to shakily walk back to the common room to find the counter curse, and James had definitely paid for it. When Remus was angry he sure could shout loud … and he didn't read all those defence books for nothing. James suppressed a shudder, and finally replied,
"I still don't get why it's so important to you. Hang on…" James broke off to fix Remus with an incredulous look, "Don't tell me you fancy Evans?"
"No, no James I don't." reassured Remus, hesitating slightly as he continued on, "But she is a friend."
James jumped up in surprise.
"How can you be her friend? She's such a know-it-all, good for noth-"
"James, she is my friend. You only see her as those things because of the way you antagonise her. She just naturally reacts to you in that way." Remus stopped and seemed to ponder something for a moment or to before going on. "… and I shouldn't be telling you this, but after you left I overheard her talking to herself. She agreed with what you said, meaning she actually believed that crap you dribbled to her about."
"Believed which part?" interrupted James, thoughtfully sifting through the comments he had made to her. There were quite a few of them, and he didn't want to incriminate himself anymore, as he wasn't sure how much of the conversation Remus had heard.
"The part where you said she had nobody and that nobody would want to 'snog' her." Remus answered promptly, glaring meaningfully at James as he emphasised 'snog'.
James gulped and managed a feeble, "Oops." as he remembered.
"Oops? That's all you can say?" Remus stood up in outrage. He began to walk out of the room, shaking his head and still mumbling, "Oops … how you get any girls is beyond me."
"Alright, I will apologise to her tomorrow … I promise." James announced loudly, turning back to his homework. "I will!" he insisted, catching a glimpse of Remus in a nearby photo who was smiling innocently back at him … too innocently, he thought grumpily.
~*~