Chasing Lily Evans

Letting off steam

The OWLs had descended on the fifth years, bringing with it notorious breakouts of constant quibbling and various ways of letting off steam. Lily and Severus drew into their shells and studied and ate quietly, half-unconscious. Mary and Alice took to shouting Lily's name thrice every time they approached, as once was not enough. The OWLs also brought strange alliances; for one, Mary had now become fast friends with Marlene McKinnon. 

"Marlene McKinnon?" Lily hissed to her brunette friend over dinner, viciously stabbing her meat. Mary looked around in surprise, "Well, well, it speaks!" She grinned, placing a hand over Lily's, to stop her from sawing her way through the delicate golden plate. "What about Marlene McKinnon, Lils? And I can feel you getting judge-y, so how about I explain before you start ranting?" 

Lily nodded mutely, gesturing for her to continue. Mary sighed, "Marlene's not as bad as you think, really. She was stupid till fifth year, but then Potter got her in trouble, so she pretty much hates him now." Lily chuckled, "We're talking about Marlene here, Mare. Remember how she paints his jersey number on her face every match? Remember how she hangs around those four like some sort of pathetic--" 

"Now, Lils," Mary said disapprovingly, "Don't judge her too harshly. Almost every girl in this school is pining after him and Black; and you can't really blame them. They are the most popular, good-looking boys in this pile of idiots." Lily sputtered, while Mary continued, "You don't even know her. I wasn't happy about you hanging out with Severus-- not that it matters anymore-- but I didn't say much against him and his rubbish friends, did I?" Lily nodded in defeat. "All right, you made your point. Perhaps we all can study for Transfiguration together." Mary laughed as Lily gave a small, watery smile and returned to the land of the zombies. 

However, Mary's friendship was not the strangest alliance among the fifth years, surprising as it may be, for Alice, usually out of the spotlight, now had a secret. 

"So, Alice," Lily said conversationally, during one of the few nights when she was not consumed by books or sleep, "How are you these days?" Alice looked at her innocent-eyed friend suspiciously, "I'm all right... you're clearly not though." Lily pretended to be offended. "For one," Alice continued, "You look like you haven't slept in a fortnight, which is probably true, in your case. And secondly, you're talking." Lily laughed hysterically, startling Alice. She looked at her best friend, who was clearly mental, and rolled her eyes. "Oh, Al," she said, using an abbreviation neither she, nor anyone in the whole school had ever used, "Haven't you been spending an awful lot of time with the Longbottom boy?"

Alice's whole face turned pink. "N-no, Frank's just a friend--" 

"We call him Frank now, do we?"

"Lily, come on--"

"Here's what I think," Lily said, giggling in a very un-Lily-ish manner, "I think you fancy him and you think he doesn't fancy you back." Alice gave up the pretence, "Well, maybe I do. But there's no way he'd ever fancy me. Besides, he is just a friend. We study together, much like you and that Lupin boy, I might add." Alice gave her friend a sly look, which caused Lily's cheeks to turn warm, when there was absolutely no reason to. "Remus is like my brother," she said firmly, her red cheeks lessening the impact of the statement. 

James and Sirius had found a drastically different way to cope, one that always earned them exasperated sighs from Remus and appreciative claps from Peter. "You know," Remus sighed, "You might make my duties as prefect easier; McGonagall doesn't like it when I let you off, scot-free, after you two do something stupid." Sirius grinned, ruffling Remus' hair, "Well, that's why we're glad you're the not-so-perfect little prefect, eh?"  

James and Sirius would find a way to pick on Slytherins, which would guarantee a nice little distraction and burst of adrenaline. The fact that they were protected by their fans all over the school made it that much harder for the Slytherins to torment them for long; sometimes they would find flobberworms in their beds and dead snakes outside the dungeons (which had caused McGonagall's burn to unfurl in a new, unseen level of anger). Peter usually chose to stay out of these fights, as he was prone to bursting into tears during uneasy confrontations, so he usually applauded his idiotic, reckless and careless friends' attempts at maintaining a reputation as bad boys. 

Though they usually picked on whatever lone Slytherin they could find, James still nursed a secret vendetta against Severus ("It's not that secret, mate," Sirius said matter-of-factly) and never missed an opportunity to hex him. Severus usually held his own and hexed James right back, with spells no one had heard of before, but were secretly picked up by the whole school ("Must be greasing up the books on dark arts in the restricted section," Peter said one evening, earning an appreciative clap on the back from Sirius). 

Lily knew about James' arrogance and the boys' tendency to hex Slytherins, but she was usually indifferent, unless it was Severus, but James was very careful to hex him when he was sure Lily wasn't around, trying to hurt him with insults, James thought, smirking. Lily's relationship with Severus was fragile and broken, and she knew that one more argument would shatter it, so she tried to avoid him as much as possible, which worked out very well for James' plan. 

Lily's friendship with Remus continued, a fact now noticed by Peter as well, but they were all careful to keep quiet around James, especially during such a crucial time. Remus and Lily were constantly in the library together ("It's, er, better here, more quiet than the common room," Remus said nervously), unappreciated by a tall, bat-like boy who found it particularly irksome, his displeasure mocked by his 'friends'. 

"Aw, Snape, you haven't got feelings for the Evans girl, do you?" 

Severus glowered at the cozy little pair a minute longer and turned towards the wild girl with a cold smirk. "Why would you assume such a thing, Bella?" His lips curled into a cruel smile as the girl flinched at the use of her nickname. "You shut your mouth or I'll shut it for you," she told him, twisting her wand. Severus smiled and leaned back, pleased to be surrounded by people of his kind, people who harboured a similar distaste against dirty, filthy little werewolves.