Chapter 11

Lily Evans's day started off on a wrong note.

After spending the whole of last day with Severus after what felt like years, she had gone to bed rather pleased and happy. Considering this, one would expect her to have nice dreams. But she had seen strange and garbled nonsense instead - one fragment even included her being the one who had sneaked down to the Shrieking Shack and saw Potter and Remus of all people, arguing over who had drunk the bigger bottle of firewhiskey. Then they both turned into wolves, howled furiously and attacked her and she woke up, annoyed with herself for her ridiculous imagination.

The reality was not much better - Mary and Alice were having a screaming match. Groaning, Lily flipped over in her bed and pulled her pillow over her head.

"-time, I didn't do it!"

"You borrowed it yesterday! Who else could have done it?"

Giving up on sleep, she rubbed at her eyes and sat up, poking her head around her curtain. "What's going on?"

Mary, red-faced, turned to face her, and Lily realized the problem: Mary's damp hair, normally a rich, dark brown, was Slytherin green with silver streaks.

A chuckle threatened to escape her; she settled for clearing her throat. "Ehm. How did this happen?"

"Alice borrowed my shampoo bottle yesterday! She must've-"

"I wish I could say I did, it's creative!" Alice said, snickering. "What with your new obsession over Crescent- but I didn't, I swear-"

Lily swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood. "Did you leave the bottle lying around, then?"

Whatever Alice was going to say died on her lips. She frowned, a look of concentration on her face, before she said, "I don't think so, but I gave it back to Mary in the common room. She didn't bring it up immediately - it was on the table for a few hours."

"That settles it, then," Lily said decisively. "Everyone knows about your fangirlish attitude, Mary. I think Black or Potter did it."

Mary groaned, her face buried in her hands. "How am I supposed to face everyone now?" she said, her voice muffled. "I don't want anyone to see me like this!"

Lily stifled a yawn behind her hand. "Go to Professor Flitwick," she said. "He'll set it right."

"And how will I get there without anyone seeing-"

"Wear a headcover until then," Alice suggested.

"Yeah," Mary said, looking dejected.

Shaking her head, Lily went to wash up.

After breakfast, Lily decided to take a stroll around the Greenhouses. She found Aerith there, conversing with Professor Sprout.

"Hi, Lily!" she said, smiling.

"Hi, Aerith," she said. "Hello, professor."

Professor Sprout smiled at them both. "Good morning. I think I'll leave you to talk," she said. "My Mandrakes need tending to."

As she hurried away, Lily turned to Aerith to see that she was beaming. "She gave me the most wonderful advice on how to care for my plants," she said. "My Plangentines are almost about to bloom, want to see?"

"Sure," said Lily. Aerith led her to the back of the greenhouse, where the plants were gently swaying in the cold wind. Several of the buds were slightly open.

"They're great, Aerith," she said, touching and tracing a leaf. "But aren't they supposed to be planted in the summer? Who planted them?"

"I did, of course." Aerith was tugging at one of the buds, checking something.

"You were at Hogwarts this summer?"

"Yes, me and Sephiroth." She was frowning. "I think they need the temperature to drop a little more. This is only my first time planting these… I'll have to ask the professor…"

Lily watched her with wide eyes. "But… why did you stay at Hogwarts during the break? You weren't even a student then!"

Aerith straightened and blinked repeatedly. "Oh," she said quietly, looking as though she deeply regretted letting this information slip. "I don't really have a home here, except for this school. My parents died last year… it's just the two of us now."

Lily stared at her, astonished. "Aerith, I - I had no idea! I'm so sorry."

"Thank you," she said, her eyes on the ground. "Of course you didn't know - we don't really talk about it. It was rather horrible… " she looked up, offering a little smile. "But we're okay now. Professor Dumbledore was very generous. He offered to let us stay at this school."

Lily was feeling rather rotten for having brought this up. But really, how could she have known? Aerith had always seemed so happy and carefree to her, and while Sephiroth was stoic, he never seemed sad, and she had never guessed that there could be trauma in their past.

She wanted to ask what had happened for her parents to have both died in the same year, but at the same time, she didn't want to pry and make her even more sad. Perhaps she could ask Sephiroth instead…

"You said you were growing Dittany in the back garden when we first met," she said. "Is that at Hogwarts too?"

Aerith shook her head. "Oh no, that was in our home, back in the USA. When we shifted, I gathered the essence from those plants and brought it with me."

"That's nice," said Lily, forcing a smile. "If you don't mind, Aerith, why did you move?"

Aerith's eyes turned a shade darker. "Lily, I don't mind answering," she said. "But this is about Sephiroth, too, and I can't answer without asking him first."

Lily flushed. "I understand," she said quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"It's alright." Aerith brightened again. "Hey, I saw you talking to Severus yesterday. Everything's sorted out, then?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "You noticed we weren't talking?"

"It was hard not to, with storm clouds hanging over the heads of you two whenever you saw each other," she giggled.

"I didn't realize we were that obvious," Lily said with a chuckle.

"Not that much," said Aerith, still smiling. "But living with Sephiroth, you learn to pick up on subtle cues."

"I guess you'll have to," Lily agreed. "I don't think I've ever seen him with any expression on his face!"

"That's overstating it a little," Aerith said doubtfully. "He smiles plenty of times, but I guess you wouldn't have seen it."

"Guess not," said Lily. "Speaking of, here he comes. I'll leave you two alone..."

"No, no, you don't have to," said Aerith. "You're his classmate, aren't you? There's no reason why we can't all three talk!"

Feeling awkward nonetheless, Lily fidgeted with her hands as Sephiroth came to stand a few feet from her. "Hello, Lily," he said, an improvement over the nods he used to greet her with. "I see you've found Aerith's favorite place."

Aerith giggled. "He's right, actually," she said to Lily. "I spend a lot of my time here."

"They're wonderful," said Lily, referring to the plangentines. "She's got quite a talent."

"Gardens spring up wherever she goes," Sephiroth said, smiling. Lily couldn't help but notice that his eyes had softened noticeably.

"Right before my brother treads all over them," Aerith said, mock-scowling.

Sephiroth snorted. "You're never going to let me live it down, are you?"

"Never," Aerith said cheerfully. "You destroyed my dandelions."

"I stepped over two."

"Still plural."

"I apologized, didn't I?"

"Doesn't bring back my dandelions!"

Laughing, Lily said, "I didn't know you were so persistent, Aerith!"

"Well, now you know," said Aerith, lifting one shoulder in a shrug. "I'm very protective of my flowers."

"You've got a right to be," said Lily. "They require a lot of time and effort."

"You hear that, Sephiroth?"

He made a show of looking away in exasperation. "Now you're just being a pest."

Aerith put her hands on her hips. "You take that back."

"If I don't?" Sephiroth challenged.

"I'll set Nigel on you."

Sephiroth's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

"Who's Nigel?" said Lily, looking from one to the other.

"Her owl," said Sephiroth.

"He's fascinated with my brother's hair," Aerith said, grinning.

"You send him to me, and he's going to be missing a few feathers," Sephiroth threatened.

It was Aerith's turn to narrow her eyes. "You wouldn't."

Sephiroth held her gaze, looking deadly serious. Stifling a laugh behind her hand, Lily said, "I declare myself not a part of this battle. In fact, I think I'll be leaving the war zone."

"Good luck on your duel, Lily!" Aerith called after her as she headed for the castle.

"Go get him, Lily!"

"You go, Evans!"

"Show him what Gryffindors are made of!"

Cheers followed Lily as she faced off with Regulus, waiting for Flitwick to count down from three. Regulus looked calm but far from relaxed, his wand held in a steady grip.

"Three! Two! One! Begin!"

Her spell met Regulus's; both ricocheted off at different angles. Lily shouted, "Bombarda!" which was blocked by Regulus's shield. She put up one of her own as Regulus cast a Stunning Spell. The shield held for his next two attacks while Lily tried to come up with a rapid strategy. As the shield dissipated, she cried, "Glacius!"

Regulus dove out of the way. As an athlete, he was naturally nimble and agile. Rolling to his feet in one smooth movement, he yelled, "Incendio!"

Lily couldn't put her shield up in time; the edge of her robe caught fire. Water gushed out of her wand tip, extinguishing the flames. But that small moment cost her; Regulus's next spell, the tickling Charm, hit her in the chest and made her erupt into laughter. Barely ducking from a spell, she somehow managed to gasp, "Finite!" and stood straight.

"Aqua Eructo!" she called.

Water jet flew out of her wand; she directed it straight at Regulus. Taken aback, he was hit in the face. Reflexively, he tried to bring his hand up to protect his eyes, which resulted in his wand almost shooting out of his hand. Getting a grip on himself, he cast a shield to stop the water flow.

A plan had formulated in Lily's head. She pointed her wand upward. "Avis!"

Birds shot out of her wand, circling overhead. She twisted her body to the side to avoid a curse from Regulus before pointing her wand at him. The birds dived towards him, clawing at every inch of him they could reach. He shielded his eyes with one hand while Vanishing the birds one by one, but there were too many, he just couldn't get them all before-

"Expelliarmus!" cried Lily.

Regulus's wand flew from his hand. Lily hastily Vanished the remaining birds and handed him his wand back, smiling as she heard Aerith's voice among the cheering.

"Good show, Evans," said Regulus, nodding at her. His face had a few shallow cuts, but other than that he seemed fine.

"Thanks," said Lily. "Not bad, yourself."

She could see Severus up there, giving her a thumb up. She returned it, making her way back to stand next to Alice to watch the next duel, who smiled at her.

"Well done, Lily!" she said warmly. "That was NEWT level, wasn't it? Avis?"

"Yes," Lily said, blushing. "It wasn't easy."

"Congratulations, Evans."

Lily turned, her face going stiff. "Potter."

James Potter smiled at her. "Hey," he said. "Listen, the first Hogsmeade weekend's coming up-"

"No."

"I wasn't asking you," said Potter, and he rolled his eyes. Lily gritted her teeth. "I was saying," Potter went on, this time pointedly not meeting her eyes, "If you'd just ask Mary for me? I'd like to go with her."

"Ask her yourself," Lily snapped.

"Okay, I will." Potter looked supremely unconcerned. "Who are you taking, then?" he asked, looking as if this was a question of no real importance to him.

Lily didn't know what made her say what she did. Perhaps it was anger at Potter's lack of manners, or perhaps it was the strange twinge in her stomach when he said he was not asking her but rather Mary. Whichever it was, she answered coolly, "Sev."

"You can't be serious!" Potter exclaimed.

"Oh, I'm perfectly serious," said Lily, and turned her back on him, to hide her blush as much as anything else.

Why had she said that? And would Severus even go with her?

Well. She would just ask and see.

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Guest: Thank you! You're right in that Severus is letting his emotions get the better of him. For being such a stoic person, he can be remarkably emotional, especially when it comes to the negative emotions. And from what we read of him in The Prince's Tale, I drew the conclusion that he was very quick to lose control when he was a teenager.