The Calm Before the Storm

Chapter Two

Lily shook her head as she walked to the prefect's compartment. "Andrea" she whispered under her breath. She rolled the name on her tongue She had no idea who this girl was or what she looked like. Lily wasn't self-loathing in any sense of the word she knew she was beautiful, and that meant Andrea had to be as well, but other than that she knew nothing.

She saw a mop of blue hair and instantly realized it was Bao Li, the best friend that Frank had mentioned. Lily knew of Bao, but she didn't know them well she knew they could out flirt James, could probably go toe to toe with Marlene in a keg challenge, out read Lily and always had dyed hair. Last year it was purple. Bao was talking to a girl with bright ginger hair and sparkling Hazel eyes that swapped to yellow as she got excited. A Metamorphagus. 

"Lilys Evans," She heard Bao say, "Shes the girls Gryffindor prefect. Remus Lupin is the boys Gryffindor Prefect." 

"I know all this B I'll be fine." 

"I'm just worried Drea, your kind of timid and quiet meanwhile everyone can't help but turn to look at Lily when she enters a room and Remus walks through the halls as part of James Potters his entourage, they part for them like the red sea. Regulus Black is the most popular boy in our year and Lori Greengrass scares teachers." 

The girl Lily assumed by now was Andrea gave Bao a blank look, "Nice way of saying I'm a mouse in the lion's den or a snake pit." 

"No, you're a badger in the lion's den and remember Honey badgers can and will fight Lions and Snakes and they have been known to win. Don't let the push you around. And if all else fails remember stay close to Pandora and Gabriel," Andrea nodded with a small smile a Bao and walked into the compartment. Bao spun around, she already knew Lily was there, "You bother her in anyway, I'll eat you alive." 

Lily kept a blank up bothered look an only raised an eyebrow, "Why would I bother? She's of no interest to me." 

"Because all of James gifts end here." 

That genuinely confused Lily, "Gifts?" Her eyebrows scrunched and lip set in a confused pout. 

Bao scoffed, "you've very intelligent yet incredibly stupid, you think all the nice quills, extra parchment, Sketch books and expensive paint sets were the house elves doing. Everyone in School knows James spares no expense making sure you have everything you could need or want of the best quality he can find and asks for no praise. You were too hung up on his arrogant act to notice his attempts at being a society gentle man like he was brought up, even if you never treated him like a society lady in return." 

"What the hell are you even talking about?" 

They cocked their hip and folded their arms, "A gentle man make sure his lady is always happy and taken care of. In return a lady cares for the gentlemen and reciprocates this action no gender is lesser than another." It was as if they were reading from a book. "He takes care of you, yet you never even help him with his homework." 

"I never asked for any of that," she snapped back while suddenly freaking out inside.

"Nope but now that it's stopped, you're gonna see just how much quills, paints and parchment can cost. You're gonna see how much James gave you. He's rich what's a hundred Gallons a year on someone he cares about is nothing to him. And that's just what the whole school knows about, you can say goodbye to the books you said you liked once that end up in your room. You can say goodbye to the 3D puzzles you wanted to try or the African poison you heard about. It's all going to be going to Andrea and if you even think about have a go at her for it, I will kill you." They said refereeing to their early comment about honey badgers and lions. "Not to mention she's under Marauders protection." 

Lily's eyes widened; Marauders protection was the one thing that no one, not even the bigoted pureblood students, wanted to violate. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were powerful wizards even so young, they excelled in just about every class and knew how to not get caught. Breaking Marauders protection meant that the four would make your life a living hell for as long as they deemed necessary in accordance with the offence. Physically attacking someone under their protection pretty much guarantee it would only stop one you graduated. The teachers all knew it was them causing the moving food dishes, the disappearing inkwells, the animals following them around the missing ties and the dyed hair, but they couldn't prove it, so they never got in trouble. Lily was under Marauder protection, she only found out once Severus called her a mudblood and he was terrorized for months on end until Lily physically man handled James to get him to stop.

She claimed that she didn't need her help and that if they didn't stop, she would gather proof and tell the teachers thus ending Marauder protection as a whole, never mind the scrawny first year Slytherins bullied by the other houses. Never mind the nerdy Hufflepuffs that were seen as easy targets, and never mind that trans Ravenclaw boy that was attacked and couldn't fight back. She was, understandably, put under a lot of scrutiny by the other houses and her own alike for that. There was a list of about thirty kids from other houses and fifteen from her own that glared at her and didn't want to talk to her after the news got around of what she threatened to do. 

Even still it took a year for them to officially announce it. At the end of last year, Sirius stood on a table in the Gryffindor common room with a scowl etched into his features and announced that due to her threats Lily was no longer under their protection. Within a day the news spread like wildfire. It happened with in the last three day so there was no telling what would happen this year. The fact that Andrea had it was almost like a slap in the face, like they were replacing her with another pretty red head. But that clearly wasn't the case as Alizia had been under marauder protection since it started in fourth year (James was the only one allowed to kill her apparently) and when Lily was on the list, she hadn't replaced Alizia. As far as she knew the red head was still on the list. 

She saw Remus walking down the corridor and picked up her pride, she was a lion after all. "I don't care about them basically being her bodyguards. As long as she doesn't get in the way of me being head girl, we'll be fine." 

"Good because Andrea is the one person I have, and they know that better than you ever could." They jabbed a thumb to Remus. Without waiting from her to answer Bao started walking down the corridor sharing a nod and quick hug Remus before tuning into an empty compartment. Remus side eyed Lily giving her a curt nod before walking into the compartment. Much colder than the usual beginning of semester hug and summer book talk they usually have. It was pretty clear already that this year was not going to be as kind to her as she had hoped. 

Published: Oct 26th, 2022
Updated: Dec 18th, 2023