Professor Zimmermann, who was acting as referee, started to shriek at the Slytherins when she found them laughing and pointing at Anya.
"Fifty points to Gryffindor! I've never seen such a disgraceful tactic before! You'd better be certain Professor Dumbledore is going to hear about this. Fifty points to Gryffindor and twenty from Slytherin!" The joyful and amused looks on the Slytherin's faces dropped like dead flies as the scoreboard announced 'Slytherin 30, Gryffindor 140'. They started to shriek with indignation, but even their Head of Slytherin House didn't put in a word.
When the Gryffindor team got out of their huddle, a change in positions was announced. They had a reserve Beater, since Joseph DeVonn, the terrible Gryffindor Beater, was rather prone to injuries.
They had decided to place Joseph as the Seeker and the reserve Beater, Jacqueline de Forté, in his place as Beater, since Joseph was better than she at spotting small objects, and, those changes made, both teams took off for the second time.
"And they're off! Ashley Thomas of Gryffindor gets to the Quaffle, is blocked by Slytherin Chaser Clive Allen, throws Quaffle to Potter-wait, no, Quaffle intercepted by Slytherin Chaser Stephen Gregson, who flies up the field and-oh, come on, Nigel-ugh-ten points to Slytherin, score's one-forty to forty "
The match was getting dirtier by the minute, as the enraged Slytherins were resorting to any tactic to win the game. Soon Slytherin had earned twenty more points, placing them eighty points behind Gryffindor. Nigel Patil, the Gryffindor team captain, usually a superb Keeper, had received several Bludgers in his stomach and his neck which had practically finished him off; it was all he could do to stay on his broom. James called for a time-out.
"All right; we've got to do our best to keep the Slytherins and their Bludgers away from Patil. If he gets his one more time, I think we'd have to forfeit, since we don't have a reserve Keeper." Nigel sank onto the ground, massaging his badly bruised neck. Ashley and Miranda looked worried. "John and Jacqueline, one of you has got to stay near our goals."
Jacqueline shook a strand of black hair out of her face. "I'll do that."'
James nodded. "All right then. Patil, can you stay on the broom for that long?"
Nigel nodded, wincing. He stood up, a bit shakily. "I'll try."
"All right, then. Let's go!-Lily, what're you doing here?"
The tousled redhead had run across the field, wand drawn and panting a bit. "I think this might work. Nigel, come here."
He climbed off of his broom and limped over to Lily. "What-"
"Hold the talking. Show me your neck. "
Obliging, he bent over, pushing his hair out of the way, and revealed the nastiest bruise anyone on the team had ever seen. Lily pulled out her wand.
"I think this might work."
"You think? What if it doesn't?" Joseph was a bit angry.
Lily ignored him and flourished her wand. "Revivisco!"
Nothing happened for a few seconds, and John frowned. "Lily, are you sure about this?"
"I've been practicing this in Herbology. I'm pretty sure."
"Herbology? For heaven's sake, Lily, Nigel isn't a plant!"
Lily raised her defensive eyebrow. "All right, fine. I'm leaving." She whirled around, walking off of the field.
James turned to Nigel. "Hey, how are you?"
Nigel was still on his knees, but he was feeling his neck in wonder. "What did she do?"
"Performed some kind of plant charm on you. Are you all right?"
"Plant charm? Well, she's very good." He flipped his hair back. Not a trace of a bruise remained, not on his neck or stomach. "Let's go!"
The Gryffindor team looked at him in wonder. James was looking after Lily, who had regained her seat on the bleachers, looking satisfied and hurt at the same time.
The team rose into the air. Nigel played better than he ever had before, though Joseph still wasn't anywhere near catching the Snitch. The only thing he had managed to do was knock into Ashley and almost throw her off of her broom. With Nigel's new streak as Keeper, the score quickly rose to one hundred and eighty to ninety, with Gryffindor in the lead.
"And Potter's streaking up the field with the Quaffle-Quaffle goes to Thomas, Shaw-back to Thomas, Potter-Potter scores! Gryffindor leads with one hundred ninety to ninety!"
James easily beat all of the Chasers of the Slytherin team. He and Miranda were slaughtering Slytherin and having fun doing it. The score rose to two hundred and sixty to one hundred and ten, and the Gryffindors all had sore throats from cheering. The sun was setting over the forest, and Lily's eyes were drooping.
"Gryffindor's Patil pulls off another spectacular save, and there goes Thomas Quaffle goes to Potter-Thomas-Shaw-Potter-nice loop there, James,-and GRYFFINDOR SCORES!-hang on a minute-what was that?"
Joseph and Hatcher were both heading for the same gold glitter in the middle of the field. The whole stadium, noisy and raucous before, had fallen silent, watching the two Seekers hurtle towards each other with a small glimmering gold ball between them.
At the last minute, a Bludger sent by the Slytherin Beater Alton whistled in front of Joseph, who turned aside sharply, giving Hatcher the milliseconds that he needed. Hatcher's fist closed around the Snitch, and he rose into the air to tumultuous Gryffindor cheering.
In the stands, Lily and her friends collapsed onto each other, laughing at the first delighted, then dumbstruck face of Hatcher as he heard the announcement: "GRYFFINDOR WINS AND SLYTHERIN CAN'T ADD!". He sank down towards the ground, looking more and more lost until he plummeted into a pile of melting snow which had turned to slush. Hatcher didn't even notice how soaked and dirty his robes were as his teammates landed and started to yell at him, telling him all sorts of things not exactly appropriate, but since no teacher could discern anything of what they were saying because they were all talking at once, they weren't given a month's worth of detention, which was what would usually have happened.
Laughing herself sick along with the others, Lily and the rest of the Gryffindors swamped their team, tossing the Chasers in particular into the air and carrying them on their shoulders back to the dorms, Nigel holding the giant golden Quidditch Cup.
After piling into the common room, the party went on all night; literally. Around five thirty Professor McGonagall came in and told them, a bit sternly, to stop, but she never got past the, "Now, I know you won the Cup, but ", because she had caught sight of the enormous amount of food James and Sirius had managed to sneak from the kitchens. Her mouth dropped and she bustled out, muttering something about irresponsible house-elves.
By now, Lily's hair had partly fallen out of the rubber band and was, to put it lightly, a tangled mess. Her robes, along with those of the other Gryffindors, were a spectacle, and when she fought her way over to where James and Sirius were sitting, James' mouth dropped open.
"Who are you and what have you done with Lily?"
"What? Is it my hair?"
"That and your robes. What happened?"
"Why do you want to know?" Lily was starting to get offensive.
"Well, you used to look so so nice."
"And I don't now, is that what you mean?"
"Well, yeah, pretty much."
"Why, thank you. Is that the only reason you were being my friend?"
James didn't reply.
"You little-little-I'm not even sure what to call you. Have a nice evening." She whirled off and went to find Eva, who was looking for the amount of calories in a Fizzing Whizzbee.
"Eva, you were right."
"About what? Boys not falling over you if you don't care what you look like? Of course I was." She tore the wrapper open. "Why tell me that?"
Lily slouched in her chair. "Those people who I thought were my friends looked at me as if I were a nasty cockroach that needed to be stepped on fast. The first thing James said to me was: 'Who are you and what have you done with Lily!'"
Eva sighed, an 'I-told-you-so'' sigh. "Well, what are you planning to do?"
"I don't plan. I have an organizer programmed into my brain that does it for me. I'm not speaking to them. At all."
Eva shook her head. "We'll see how long that'll last!"
Lily started for her dormitory. "As long as it takes.
A month and a half later, Lily and James still weren't speaking. She maintained that she didn't need the friendship of someone who only liked her because she slept on knobby, prickly curlers every night and James wouldn't back down from his view that he didn't want a friend who didn't even care enough about herself to brush her hair once in a while. The last words she'd said to him were: "Of course I don't brush it. I own combs. Oh-I forgot-is that word not in your vocabulary? Not to be rude or anything, but you obviously don't own one." With a sickly smile on her face, she had reached forward, tousled James' constantly messy hair, pulled a rooted-to-the-carpet Eva away from the fire, and walked out of the portrait hole.
In front of the Great Hall, she had met Snape and Malfoy, and, with a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure James had followed her, she gave them a nice wave and a smile before burying herself in "The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One".
Sirius didn't try to talk to her after that, either.
It was the middle of April and the end of a particularly hard Transfiguraton class. The noise of the bell sounded through the corridors as the students scrambled for the door. Professor McGonagall held Lily back after class.
"Evans, I need to speak with you."
Lily was puzzled. "Of course, Professor. Have I er, done anything?"
"Of course not. Step inside my office."
Lily did so, still confused. She saw Professor McGonagall pull a folder out of her desk, open it, and put it on her desktop. "Evans, I'd like you to look through this."
Lily was a bit worried now. She stepped close to the folder and started to flip through the papers, all of which she recognized. "Professor, this is my work for this year."
"Exactly. Look at the grades."
Lily pushed a few of the papers aside. "One hundred, ninety-eight, ninety-seven, one hundred, one hundred, one hundred and three, one hundred and twelve, ninety-six-What about them, Professor?"
The usually stern teacher relaxed her face into a smile. "You are the top student in this class. Better, I think, than the top few for the last eight years."
Lily blushed. "Professor, I-"
Professor McGonagall held up her hand and Lily fell silent. "Miss Evans, I have spoken to the headmaster about your outstanding work in a particularly hard class. Your grades in the rest of your subjects are just as good as in this one, if not better. If you feel that you can do this, Professor Dumbledore is willing to let you skip into the third grade next year, providing your exam grades are sufficient."
Slowly, Lily's face lit up. "Really? I-I'm not sure what to say-"
"Would you like some time to think over such an important decision as this? I should suggest you communicate with your parents. Professor Dumbledore has already done so, but I think you might want to do so also."
Lily was grinning so hard that she had to bite her lip to prevent it from attaching to the other end of her mouth in the back. "Professor, I-thank you, Professor." On an impulse, she hugged her teacher around the waist and sped out of the door, running right into Eva, who had been waiting for her.
"Well, what did McGonagall want?"
"Eva, you'll never guess. If my exams are good enough, they're promoting me to third next year!"
Eva started to laugh. She was giggling so hard Lily had to pat her on the back as she choked on too much air.
"What's so funny? Aren't you happy for me?"
"Yeah, I am, but-Lily, I don't think you've thought of this."
"Thought of what?"
"You're going to be in the same classes as Sirius and James."
Lily's smile dropped as fast as she had during the last disastrous flying lesson.
"Oh no. Oh NO. OH NO! Eva, what'm I going to do?"
"I know. You'll have to start talking to them again!"
Lily humphed. "I will not."
"Well, how're you going to tell them that you're going to be having classes with them next year?" Eva was still choking a bit.
"I'm not. You are."
"I am what?
They entered the common room after dinner, which, as usual, Lily had spent with Eva, Vanessa, Amanda, and Miranda. Lily cast one glance at the fire, where James and Sirius were playing chess, and headed for the dormitories, turning back and hiding behind the doorway, unseen but able to hear all. At a nod from her, Eva came over to the boys.
"Hi!"
They looked up. "Oh, hi " James was obviously puzzled. "Sit down?"
Eva accepted with a smile. "Oh, thanks." She looked at the board. "Lily's helping me a bit with chess. James, didn't you teach her a lot of the game?" She hadn't been able to think of a better introduction.
James looked up, the pawn still in his hand. "Don't come to me talking about your friend. If she wants to hang out with the people she knows we don't like, then, fine, she's not going to hang around us. Anything else?"
Eva gulped; this wasn't going as well as she'd thought it might. "Um, yeah, look, I know you used to be friends."
Sirius interrupted. "Used to be."
Catching a warning glance from Lily, Eva went on hurriedly. "See, I don't really think you shouldn't be talking. I mean, you used to be all over her, so scared when that Snape-Malfoy-freeze-charm thing happened, and now it's kinda over."
James stood up. "I did not use to be 'all over her', and I don't want to hear anything else about that Muggle." His eyes were dangerous. "I'm going to bed." He started for his dormitory but was held back by Sirius.
"Hey, James, finish the game. I want to beat you once and I think I've go a winning game. Forget Lily. C'mon." He pulled his friend towards the chess board and made him sit down. Eva had in the meantime rejoined Lily.
Lily scowled. "That didn't go very well."
"Well, what did you expect me to say? Oh, hi, James, your enemy is going to be in your classes next year and desperately wants you to know about it and wants to know what you think about her skipping second year? C'mon, Lily, that would be a suicidal mission."
"How so?"
"Well, for one thing, you'd kill me."
"Oh. Good point."
"You're supposed to say: 'Of course I wouldn't do that, Eva!' Not: 'Good point'."
"Well, it is a good point. Help me study for exams?"
Eva snorted. "Since when does Miss I'm Going to Skip Second Year need help on her exams? I think I'm the one here who needs help."
"Good point."
Lily fled up the stairs, laughing as she ran away from her friend's wand.
Nothing eventful happened during the weeks preceding the exams. Lily had dug a grave for herself in the library and was enjoying her stay in the other realm, as Amanda put it. Edgy and picky about anything that took her away from her books, the only thing that had taken her attention was a letter from home:
Dear Lily,
I got your letter at exactly the same time I got Professor Dumbledore's. I'm so proud of you, sweet, I could shout. Of course I'd like you to skip second year, but if you decide not to, I'll support you just the same. Petunia, I think, would support you more if you stayed, preferably over the summer holidays, as she's going to have to do a major bit of cleaning up in your room. She had lots of motivation to get as far as she has-that Howler you sent her, besides blowing out our eardrums, has made her clear about five square feet in ten hours. Please don't send any more of those.
Darling, whatever you decide to do, your father and I'll support you. He wants me to add as long as it doesn't involve eloping at fourteen, but I know you have more sense than that. I love you and hope to see you this summer; actually, I'm going to see you this summer, as I'm not allowing you to stay at Hogwarts. We need to see a little bit of our favorite little witch once in a while!
Love, Mother
After receiving the letter, Lily had gone to Professor Dumbledore and told him that, if she passed her exams with ninety-eight percent, she would be happy to skip into third year. From that time on, she had snapped at anyone who tapped her on the shoulder to say that dinner was ready. Remus was edging away from her slowly, too. She would hardly let anyone talk to her and was getting dark rings around her eyes.
The morning of exams, Lily had changed her normal schedule and was walking towards the Great Hall for breakfast, a large "Advanced Herbology XI" clamped under her arm. She found her usual seat and slid into it quickly, tearing the hem of her robes as she did so. Amanda was already there.
"Three cheers for Lily! The queen hath emerged!"
Lily scowled. "Shut up."
"All right, all right. Listen, there are bad sides to skipping second year."
"Mhm-hm." Lily was trying to look politely interested, murderous, bite into a biscuit, and absorb sixty pages of her book at the same time.
"Why're you looking so odd? Anyway, one: you won't be with us, two:-"
"That's not a drawback."
"Gee, thanks. Two: you'll be picked on because you're the youngest, and three: you'll have a lot more classes. Good enough?"
"In exchange for those classes, I get to cut out some of the ones I'm taking right now. The first one I'm dumping is flying lessons."
Amanda sighed. "Oh, you're hopeless." She threw her hands into the air, knocking over a milk jug.
"Watch it! That almost went on my book!"
Instead of answering, Amanda took the Herbology volume away from where it had been situated three inches away from Lily's face.
"Hey! I need that book!"
"'Advanced Herbology, Volume Eleven'? How can you need this? This is a first year exam, my friend."
"I know. I'm dreadfully behind; I should be on Volume Fifteen by now. Excuse me." She pushed her chair back and left the Great Hall with several crumpets, banging into Sirius and James on her way out.
"Hey, Muggle, who hit you in the eye?"
"Sirius, that's two black eyes. What happened, got attacked because people got so revolted when they looked at you that it was either that or hurl?"
"Nah, it was probably Snape and them. They've just been getting so sick of having a piece of muck claim to be their friend that-Hey, where're you going? Can't stand the truth?"
The echoes filled the entrance hall, banging off of the walls and hitting Lily in her ears everywhere she went. Tears were slowly running down her cheeks as she headed for the dormitories.
Miranda hadn't left the common room yet, so she caught a glimpse of Lily's tear-streaked face as she headed up to her dormitory. Miranda followed.
"Lily! What's wrong?"
"I-I'm not sure. I was leaving the Great Hall-Miranda, why're James and Sirius being so mean? I don't think I could be that heartless if I tried."
"You mean you met up with them?"
Lily dried her eyes. "Yeah, when I was leaving the Great Hall."
"Lily, you and the boys have got to stop this. And you-" she forcefully pried the Advanced Herbology book out of Lily's arms-"you have got to stop this. This is ridiculous!"
"What is? Studying?"
"No, going off food for five days and not coming out of the library except to sleep. And remember, Minky had to wake you up one morning when you fell asleep in there."
Lily shook herself. "I remember. I was sore all over for days."
"Exactly." A bell rang through the corridors and Miranda jumped up, handing Lily a tissue. The blood had drained out of Lily's face and she resembled a fainting vampire.
"A-are you sure it'll be all right?"
"For the twenty-seventh time, Lily, the exam is not that hard. Trust me, I took it two years ago and studied for about an hour."
"What did you make?"
"Herbology? Um I think eighty-seven percent."
Lily looked a bit reassured. "Thanks, Miranda. I'll see you at lunch."
"You're going to be at lunch?"
"Well, I've been off food for five days and only had a few crumpets this morning. Let's go."
They grabbed their bags and set off for their respective classrooms; in Lily's case: greenhouse.
The exam in Herbology was partly essay, partly pruning and repotting a Devil's-Horn Bush; one that caused you to sprout tiny pairs of horns wherever it bit you; if you managed to get fifty pairs of horns, it would knock you out for approximately thirty minutes. Points were taken off for every horn that a student had, and points were added if a student was horn-free. In addition to that, the bonus was reviving a small Flutterby bush whose wings were drooping. Amanda's Flutterby Bush didn't swell up and burst this time, but it did start flashing different colors and whistling noisily.
To no one's surprise, Lily managed to prune and repot the Devil's-Horn Bush without sprouting little horns on her fingers and revive the Flutterby Bush on her first try. Amanda was flashing envious looks at her from across the greenhouse.
The essay bit passed in a flash; it only included a few bits from that Advanced Herbology XI book. Lily left the greenhouse a bit disgruntled.
At lunch, Miranda, to make sure that Lily came to lunch, had taken her by the sleeve and guided her to a full plate, heaped with chicken and baked potatoes and pieces of garlic bread.
"Miranda, I don't think I'm going to eat all of this."
"Well, don't think so much. Just eat."
By the time the second exam started, Lily had managed to eat half of the mountain on her plate. For the first time in weeks, she felt alive as she walked down the stairs to Potions.
Professor Cauldwell had assigned a Sleeping Solution to the first years. Lily breathed again. They were supposed to know the recipe by heart and make the potion from memory, and she knew this potion front to back. ("You should, after the hours you spent asking Cauldwell if you could fix up messed up potions in detention.") Breathing normally, Lily unsuccessfully tried to hide a large grin as Professor Groves called her to her office, with the good news that she had made a hundred and thirteen percent on the Herbology exam.
Stepping into the common room, she was smiling so hard that hardly anyone failed to notice.
"Hey, Muggle, what happened? Found out you're not going to be kicked out for terrible hygiene after all?"
Lily ignored them, stepping on one of their firecrackers they had put in her way and causing it to explode in Sirius' face, turning him into a nice, new brush. Under cover of the laughter in the common room, Lily ran up to her dormitory and wrote a hurried letter to her family, telling them that she had definitely passed the Herbology exam and the Potions one. Alisande was grateful for the mission, as she hadn't been used in about three or four weeks.
That night, the Astronomy exam was based on a meteor that had passed dangerously close to Mercury, and they were calculating the airspeed velocity, the mass, the speed, and the distance between it and Mercury. Grateful that she had looked up the formula for airspeed velocity, Lily fell into her four-poster, drifting off to sleep with a smile on her face as she remembered Sirius' face as he had the firecracker explode a half-inch away from his nose.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was held that morning. The professor still refused to do the traditional obstacle course, so a roll of parchment on one of five subjects written on the board was required. In her tiny handwriting, Lily covered two rolls of parchment and got a nasty glare from her teacher. He had always had problems with her writing. With an apologetic smile, Lily practically threw her essay down on his desk and sped out of the door.
Lily was in a good mood until she entered the Great Hall, where she passed within three feet of James and Sirius, sniggering at the messy braids she had tied her hair back in.
She slid into her seat, sighing.
Eva looked up. "What's eating you?"
"Who is eating me. Actually, I don't think they would, because I don't know if that tastes all that great-"
"What are you talking about?"
"James called me an electrocuted phoenix."
"Ah."
Amanda leaned over. "He called you a what?"
"Electrocuted phoenix."
"That's what I thought you said."
Lily sighed. "I give up. I don't know when the last time was that I said something mean to them, but lately I've just been ignoring them. It's not making this any better, and after all they've done to me, I'm not apologizing."
"But, Lil,-"
"I've got to go to Charms." Lily pushed her chair back and made her way out of the Great Hall.
She was the first one in the classroom. Professor Zimmermann looked up, a bit surprised, but then left her to her studying. The classroom slowly filled up, and James and Sirius still weren't there. The only empty seats were on the right and behind Lily, who suspected that Amanda had arranged that on purpose.
The bell rang, and James and Sirius skidded into the classroom, panting a bit. They looked around the classroom in vain for emptier seats, then, as if resigned to their fate, started a miniature scuffle about the desk behind Lily. Sirius won.
With a look on his face as if he were sitting next to a smushed and bloody corpse of a rabbit, James slid into the only free desk, his face dropping even farther as Professor Zimmermann teamed him with Lily for the exam.
"Don't look like that. I don't like this any more than you do."
"I'll bet you do. At least I know I like this less than you do."
"James, four words, ok? Shut. Up. Or. Else."
"Or else what? You'll start hitting me with a brush? Oh-sorry-I forgot-I don't think you know what that is-it's a handle with bristles on the end, and you use it to make you hair look nice-"
"James, if you supposedly know what a brush is, use one yourself."
"-and while you're at it, teach your boyfriend Servy how to use shampoo, if you aren't ignorant as to what that is. You are? Shampoo is a gooey substance..."
Grinding her teeth, Lily made it through Transfiguration without socking him. She suspected she'd have to get her teeth fixed, though, because it felt like she'd worn away three inches of teeth she didn't know she had.
Lily was sitting in the window of her dormitory that evening when the door creaked.
"Lily?"
She turned around. "Oh, hi, Eva."
"Do you know where I've been?"
"Obviously not."
"Trying to get James and Sirius to say they're sorry. I don't think I'm going to try any more."
"Why not?"
"It's hopeless."
"I knew that. But how did you find out?"
"They drew a comparison between your mentality and that of a cuckoo."
"A cuckoo?"
"Mm-hm. To the bird's advantage."
"It's a good thing I wasn't down there with you. I'd have done his upper maxillary a spot of no good."
"I guessed as much. Looking forward to Transfiguration?"
Instead of answering Eva's question, Lily sighed and looked out of the window. "Eva, I'm not so sure if I want to do this."
"What, skip?" Lily nodded. "Of course you do. C'mon, you need your rest."
"All right." Quickly, Lily changed into a clean nightgown and pulled the curtains shut around her, though she lay awake for a long while, thinking.
Downstairs, James was listening to a tirade from Miranda and John, who were getting fed up with the argument.
"James, what's the point of being mean to her?"
"She's not worth being nice to."
"She was at the beginning of the year." Miranda grinned and winked.
"Hey-I was just being nice to a new Gryffindor, that's all."
"A very pretty new Gryffindor. And you were nice to her before she was Sorted."
"Shut up." James turned around and curled up in his armchair, staring at the flames.
John turned the armchair around. "You thought the world of her. I know how jealous you got when she started spending time with Remus."
"Yeah. And now the only reason you're mad is because she said hi to Snape and Malfoy and helped them in Charms."
"Well, wouldn't you be?"
"No." Miranda was firm.
"John?"
He gave James a Look. "No."
James sighed, throwing his hands into the air. "Look, she used to be my friend before she started hobnobbing with my enemies."
"Oh, someone's using big words now. Hobnobbing. James, that one day after she got attacked in Transfiguration, you were so worried and anxious and mad I thought you'd hang Snape's and Malfoy's guts from the closest beam you could find. You were so mad when Sirius took her to the hospital wing that I thought you'd-"
"STUFF IT!"
"All right, all right. But you'd better make up with her. I met her right after she left the Great Hall for breakfast, before the first exam, and she was crying her eyes out. I mean, come on, how rude can you get?"
James looked stunned. "She was crying?"
"And how. You can't actually mean you're sorry for making her cry, are you?"
The soft look that had entered James' eyes vanished. "That Muggle-born piece of slime? Of course not."
Miranda left, rolling her eyes. "Liar."
