The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Hufflepuffs Who Find Things

Lily was at least prepared for the jerk behind her nav this time as she transcribed the runes from Professor Laurie's books onto her own parchment.

"Evans, you want to be partners?"

"No."

"Please, Evans? I'll be a grand partner. I'm brillant at herbology."

"No, Potter."

"C'mon.. it'll be smashing. My mum does loads of gardening so I'm really great with plants. I have a bit of a green thumb, you know." He held up his thumb and somehow or another he'd actually turned it green. He cackled and his eyes lit up with humor, "See, look at that, Love."

"Don't call me love."

James Potter grinned in that obnoxious, unnerving way he had that made her simply want to slap his stupid face. She turned away, looking to spot if quite literally anyone else in the room was without a partner.

"C'mon Evans."

"No!" She pointed at the table a couple away where Sirius Black was heckling a Hufflepuff boy. "Why don't you go be partners with Sirius and you can both leave the rest of the world be at peace for a single bloody second?"

"Because I want to be your partner, love."

"Stop. Calling. Me. Love."

"No, but really Evans, I can really be great. I know loads. Like for instance, you're holding those trimmers wrong, see you're supposed to hold them like this --" he reached and Lily jerked her hands back.

"Stop it!" she snapped, but his hands were already on the shears and they moved funny and sliced right across her finger. A bright red line of blood broke out across her finger and she inhaled sharply at the pain of it, tears instinctively coming to her eyes, "Ouch! Look what you've done!" she snapped.

James stepped back, hands up, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to --"

"You didn't mean to be an overbearing toerag, you mean?" She snapped and, flustered and upset, her finger throbbing, she turned and rushed out of the green houses. She was out on the lawn of the grounds, clutching her finger and hot tears rolling over her cheeks in a moment.

She heard the door to the green houses open behind her and she half turned. Seeing a swath of black hair. "Isn't it enough you've sliced me open, you horrid beast, you have to come out here and torture me out here, too?"

"Sorry, Lily, I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

The voice wasn't James Potter's.

She looked up in surprise to see a boy very much like James at a quick glance - black hair, wide eyes with a high forehead and perfectly straight nose, a friendly grin and lanky body that seemed to have too many limbs or at least limbs of an unusual size for the torso or something - but that's where the similarities ended. This boy wore Hufflepuff robes, for one, and had squarer shoulders and a chin that sort of jutted out a bit more than James. He had bigger ears and his black hair was touseled in a more natural way - you could tell he hadn't been running his fingers through it every five seconds, that is.

It was the boy that had been being heckled by Sirius Black, she realized, though she wasn't certain of his name, only that she'd seen him on the pitch in Quidditch and that he was pretty good... Odair, maybe?

"Are you? Alright, that is?" he pressed, concern pinching his forehead.

Lily looked down, her finger was still bloody, but not actively bleeding anymore. It was more messy than anything but it was still throbbing a bit the way cuts do for a time, and she murmured, "Sorry. Yeah, I'm alright. I didn't mean to snap at you."