Chapter Five
The time passed quickly, the brief autumn fading inexorably into winter as the days fluttered past like so many leaves as they fell from the trees. Even with the large amount of work that the fifth years were given in preparation for their O.W.L.s the only blot on Lily’s happiness was the continued existence and worship of the Marauders. Try as she might she could not stop them from mercilessly picking on Sev and, where once she had been able to restrain him, she now found him hanging around with other, unsavoury, Slytherins such as Avery, Mulciber and Yaxley.
“Please Sev,” she begged as Severus gazed out over the lake, its surface rippled by the chilling wind which blew in from the north, shaking the glassy water as if it were trying to dislodge its secrets. “Sev, please?” she repeated. “Just listen to me.”
“I am listening to you Lily,” he muttered resentfully, still refusing to make eye contact with her.
“Then why do you still hang out with them? They’re horrible Sev!” Lily cried.
“I don’t have a choice,” he mumbled to the ground, the waving blades of grass which he spoke to nodding in agreement.
“What did you say?” Lily asked as his words vanished into the wind.
“I don’t have a choice Lily!” he shouted, his eyes flashing as he turned to her.
“Don’t be ridiculous Sev, of course you have a choice,” Lily replied scathingly.
“They’re in Slytherin, I’m in Slytherin; what did you think was going to happen Lily?”
“I don’t know but you could at least make an effort not to stick with them quite as much as you do.”
“Well then who else should I ‘stick with’?” Snape asked coldly.
“Different people,” Lily replied, “nice people, me; you’ll always have me.”
“Yeah well you seem to have been very busy with people who aren’t me for the past few years.”
“Don’t be like that Sev,” Lily said sadly, “I’ve tried my hardest. I’m sorry if it wasn’t enough for you.”
Snape suddenly realised that he was very close to losing Lily and causing irreparable damage to their relationship; backtracking quickly he replied, “No honestly Lily, it’s fine. I know that you’re busy but really, would you rather that Potter and his friends attack me every day?” He tried to keep his voice level as he asked her but was unable to stop of his bitterness leaking into his voice like poison.
“Listen to me Sev; ignore them. If you don’t give them the satisfaction of fighting back then soon they’ll start to leave you alone.”
“Leave them alone? Leave them alone!” Snape sputtered in shock. “If I leave them alone then they’ll only torture me more! They’re not as perfect as you think Lily but you never listen to me!”
Lily flushed red, her eyes flashing as she glared at Snape, “I do not think that Potter and his friends are perfect Sev! James Potter is conceited and self-centred but you are being ridiculous!”
“But he-” Snape stuttered.
“But he what Sev? He’s unpleasant but I’m sick of you always turning everything back to him; my life doesn’t revolve around James Potter and neither should yours,” Lily said sharply as she stood up and strode away.
Gryffindor’s first Quidditch match started as the last days of October fled, chased by the groping fingers of autumn. Lily walked down to the pitch with Mary and Alice, excitement bubbling inside her like a cauldron coming to the boil; her four years at Hogwarts had opened her eyes to the delights of Quidditch though she was still wary of playing it herself and she could barely contain herself at the thought of the upcoming match against Hufflepuff.
Cassie had been keeping the three of them up to date on the state of their Quidditch team and it seemed as if they were in a very strong position to win the Cup. As they took their places in the stands Lily wrapped her red and gold scarf tighter around her neck while chatting to Alice about their chances of winning.
“It looks pretty good, I think,” Alice said. “Hufflepuff have a really strong Seeker but we’re better overall I think, and even if they catch the Snitch first, there’s a possibility that we might win anyway.”
“They might catch the Snitch?” Mary asked worriedly as she turned around from her conversation with another Gryffindor boy called Jamie Abbott.
“Doubt it,” he interjected cheerily, “we’ve got Tallie don’t we? She completely wiped the floor with Hufflepuff last year. They don’t stand a chance.”
“Well she is practically unbeatable,” Alice grinned as the two teams strode onto the pitch below, brooms in hand as the two captains shook hands, the Gryffindor team ranged behind Potter like a river of fire, the girl in question standing between the two Beaters.
The entire pitch went silent as Madam Marwick recited the rules to the teams, everyone leaning forward wordlessly, intent on the scene below. Suddenly a piercing whistle blow shot through the crowd and the players kicked off, into the air. “Come on Gryffindor!” Alice screamed as Tom Davies grabbed the Quaffle and began speeding up the pitch with it tucked under his arm.
Every time their team scored cries of “Roar roar Gryffindor!” rippled throughout the gathered students, the stands quaking under the onslaught of their enthusiastic feet; no matter who it was, be it Cassie or Potter, Lily still found herself shouting herself hoarse, beaming from ear to ear as the Gryffindor Chasers flew loops around the Hufflepuffs.
At the end of the match the triumphant Gryffindors spilled out of the stands, singing and cheering, their banners still waving as they leapt through the grounds like deer, their happiness making them so buoyant that their feet barely touched the grass beneath them. As soon as they reached the portrait hole they piled through, the Fat Lady rolling her eyes as she saw them, sighing, “Oh Merlin, another Quidditch victory,” and swinging open before any of them had the chance to utter the password, though whether it would have been heard over the raucous shouts of the house was questionable. Their shouts echoed throughout Gryffindor tower as they jumped up and down, embracing each other as someone, probably one of the Marauders, started shooting off fireworks which ricocheted from wall to wall, showering the assembled crowd with shimmering sparkles.
“Well done Cassie!” Lily cried as the team appeared after everyone else, throwing her arms around her friend as she entered the common room, still clutching her scarf in one hand. James grinned as Sirius nodded at him from the other side of the room where he was surrounded by a number of besotted girls whom he was trying to ignore. The crowd parted as he walked through them like a king, the captain of the victorious team and James Potter to boot. Girls who had normally restrained themselves, but only barely, now visibly swooned when he neared them, finding some excuse to talk to him and congratulate him then running off to their friends to giggle about how they had ‘talked to James Potter!’
Although Lily was ecstatic about their victory her mood was quickly dampened by this and she began to wish that she could leave, grumbling to her friends that “This is going to inflate his head so much more and it’s not as if he needs it in the first place. I wish people would just stop fawning over him and realise that he’s not that fantastic.”
“I don’t know Lily,” Mary muttered as she watched him laugh with Sirius, “he seems to be behaving quite well today and he was bordering on agreeable when I spoke to him earlier.”
“Not to mention the fact that Cassie told us he really does improve on acquaintance,” Alice added wryly, “and she was as set against him as we were.”
“Well if he’s such a paragon of all the virtues I don’t know why he can’t act a little better all the time,” Lily muttered. “It can’t be that hard for him.”
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The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)
Fanfiction(Companion piece to Dwelling on Dreams) James Potter has been Lily's enemy since the first day that they both started at Hogwarts. She has never been interested in his being his friend but, when they and their friends return for their fifth year at...
