So, I was attempting to hold off on posting this chapter, as chapter four has been giving me the biggest pain. I can't get through it. I've changed it's direction a hundred times. I know what I have to write, but it's not coming out as planned. :( Poop. So, as I WAS planning on staying 2-3 chapters ahead, I'm currently ZERO chapters ahead, but wanted to get this one out to you guys anyway. Hopefully I'll get through chapters four and five tonight/tomorrow and I'll be back on track. :) PLEASE REVIEW! It's Halloween, and I have to work, which means A.) I wont be taking my baby sister out trick or treating (so I can't steal her candy), and I'm not even dressing up. (Though the boy and I DID contemplate going as Tonks & Lupin. I think that's our plan for the movie premier, now.) So review, It'll be like trick or treating, but better! - Jen
Everything about Hogwarts infatuated Lily. The food was so rich, so heavy - like the food her mother made back home. At Beauxbatons, everything was perfectly monitored for health satisfactory. Here, Lily could indulge in whatever she pleased.
She hadn't noticed at first, but the roof above them in the great hall apeared unexistent. A friend of the other boys, Remus Lupin, had pointed it out to her. It seemed as if it were snowing just above them, just out of reach. Every few moments throughout their meal, Lily would sneak a peek.
Their headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, seemed quite amazing as well. Before their feast, he had made a speech about the importance of unity in such hard times, and how delighted he was to have each and every student in the hall with him. He welcomed the newcomers with open arms and begged them to enjoy their stay at Hogwarts. Lily knew she would.
After the feast, Madame Maxime began to usher them to where they would be staying. Normally, they would stay in the carriage, but they had a few too many people, and so Dumbledore set up a place for them inside the castle. This exited Lily even further - she would be staying here!
She followed Madame Maxime through the halls, trying to memorize every painting, every stair, every turn. This place was many times the size of Beauxbatons. She glanced at every knight in shining armor - thinking that they occasionally moved to peek back at her. She tried to wave to each and every portrait, though some seemed unamused.
"This is amazing!" She whispered to Colette. Colette nodded, her eyes scanning each painting just as Lilys had. Finally, they came to a nearly crashing halt. Lily hadn't been paying attention, and didn't notice that they had arrived at their destination.
"Salut." Madame Maxime said to a large portrait of three very well dressed witches. One of the three, in a blue gown, nodded, and the portrait swung open, revealing a tunnel. Madame Maxime turned to the girls.
"I'll be staying in the carriage - do not assume that gives you free reign. Curfew is 9 o'clock at Hogwarts. Do not break it unless you wish to be sent home. Breakfast begins at seven. Goodnight." She turned on her heel and clacked down the hall. Lily's eyes were wide.
They could be out until nine!
Colette pulled her inside the portrait hole, and inside was the most beautifully decorated common room, the sky blue of Beauxbatons was glittering off many surfaces. A fire in one corner was burning brightly, facing two arm chairs and a sofa.
The students of Beauxbatons immeadiately began to fill the seats and explore the bedrooms. Lily raced up the stairs with Colette at her heels, eager to see what their room was like.
She quickly located the dormitory designated for 7th year girls. It had six beds, and four large windows. Lily jumped onto a bed near one of the windows, knowing it would be hers.
The pillows smelled amazing, like pine needles, maybe. She buried her head into them, feeling immensely relaxed.
"I'm in heaven." She mumbled into the softness. She heard Colette giggle. "No honestly! This is where I belong!"
Colette flopped onto her bed as well.
"Can we go explore?" Lily asked.
"Explore what? We'll get lost, and we've only got an hour 'till curfew!" Colette complained.
"We'll be back in time, I promise! I want to see the library - I bet they have an amazing Library." Lily smiled thinking about the stacks and stacks of books.
"No. Absolutely not. I'm staying here so I may enjoy my time without being sent home. I'll be sure to write you when you're gone." Colette crossed her arms, signaling the end of the conversation. Lily rolled her eyes and skipped from the room, vowing to enjoy her time how she pleased. She'd be back before curfew, she knew it.
She traced down the halls admiring everything, just as she had on her way to their room. She'd find the Library eventually, wouldn't she? Hogwarts couldn't be that big!
Lily was admiring a particularly ostentatious picture of a dainty witch and a muscular man when she crashed into a fellow student, causing them both to topple over, and Lily to lose her hat to the floor.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" Lily gasped as she rolled off of the boy she had toppled on top of.
"It's quite alright!" He laughed warmly. He pulled himself off the floor, and extended a hand to Lily. She made eye-contact with him as she did so, and realized it was Remus Lupin, one of the boys she had spoken with at dinner. She took his hand with a soft smile. "Lily, right?" He asked. She nodded.
"What are you doing, wandering about the school?" He asked as he scooped up Lilys hat from the floor, and wiped bits of dust from it.
"I'm... er... Trying to find the library." She admitted sheepishly, taking her hat from Remus.
His face seemed to light up as she told him this. "That's where I'm headed! I'd be delighted to take you."
"Thank you!" said Lily, and she followed him down the corridors.
"What are you studying?" He asked.
"Nothing, really. I'm just..." She blushed a bit. "Just really fascinated with books."
"Oh?" He asked, his smile returning. "I am as well. It's a love my friends have yet to seem to agree with." He laughed.
Lily nodded. "Mine also! I assumed Hogwarts has quite the library, seeing as how large it is... Beauxbatons, well, it's very... reserved. We're on a very strict curriculum. You'll be hard pressed to find anything in our library that doesn't fit said curriculum."
"Sounds tragic." Remus mused. "I can't even imagine... Books are my everything."
"Oh, believe me, I spend many a-summer reading." Lily admitted.
"May I ask you an odd question?" He asked, as he pulled open the library door for Lily. She nodded.
"It's just... your English is impeccable." He said oddly. "It doesn't seem like a second language. Are you taught English at Beauxbatons?"
"Oh, no! I was born and raised in England. A few months before school started, my father was transferred to France. I had only a few months to learn French." She shrugged.
"Ah. That must've been hard. Leaving all your friends as they went off to Hogwarts, and you to Beauxbatons."
"Actually, I'm muggleborn." Lily laughed nervously. "I didn't know anything of either school when I was told, except what I learned from Sev."
"Sev?" Remus asked as he pulled a particularly heavy looking book off the shelf. "I think you might like this."
Lily took the book from him. Hogwarts, A History. Her eyes lit up as she read the title.
"Who's Sev?" Remus asked, again.
"My only friend from England." Lily smiled as she pulled open the large book. "Severus. Severus Snape."
Remus didn't say anything for a moment. He paused, his hand half stretched towards another book, and his mouth slightly open.
"I... I see." He murmured.
"Why does everyone react like that? Severus is a very nice boy." Lily crossed her arms over the book, closing it again.
Remus sighed, pulled his book from the shelf, and dragged Lily to a table near the far end of the room.
"How often do you speak to Sniv- to Severus?" Remus asked, careful to shake the nickname he'd learned from his friends.
"A few times a year, why?" Lily asked, perplexed.
"He... well... he may not be the same boy he was when he was a child." Remus sighed. Lily took a deep breath.
"Why is it everyone reacts like him as so? He can't be that terrible! He was a delightful boy. A bit strange, but he ... well... he was very nice to me. He always has been."
Remus considered this for a moment.
"Does Severus know you're a muggleborn?" He asked. Lily nodded.
"Yes, of course."
"Has he ever... said anything towards it?"
"Well, no. I asked him once. If it would make a difference... he told me... he promised me it didn't." Lily shrugged, remembering their first meetings.
"What about your family? How does he feel about them?" He asked.
"He's not particularly fond of Petunia." Lily frowned briefly, remembering the time when they were kids, and Severus had caught Petunia spying on them. It wasn't possible that tree branch had scraped her on it's own... She sighed. "But really, who is? She's... well, she's hard to adore."
Remus sighed. "Just... be careful, alright?"
"I don't need protecting, Remus." Lily huffed. She threw open the book and immediately began to read.
Remus sighed, yet again, and did the same.
The words seemed blurred to Lily. She couldn't concentrate. While reading about the castle was infatuating to her, her thoughts were far off from the castle as a building, and rather the students in the castle.
Firstly, where was Severus, and why hadn't she seen him at the feast? She had looked for him after all. Secondly, why did everyone seem so put-off about him? What could possibly be wrong with her kind-hearted childhood friend - the young boy that had convinced her that she wasn't a freak...
She sighed and closed the book, instead burying her head in her hands.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked, pushing his book aside.
"Yes, yes I'm fine." She muttered, though her words were muffled by her palms.
"You don't seem fine." He laughed lightly. Lily heard him stand from his chair, and next thing she knew, he was sitting beside her.
"Listen, Lily." He paused and scratched his head. "I know you're only here for a few weeks... just... well... if Severus is your friend... if you trust him as you say you do... then don't worry about the words of my friends. They're... well... they're not the brightest when it comes to judging other people, sometimes. If Severus is your friend, then let him be your friend, Don't let other people mold your view of him."
Lily looked up at him, her green eyes meeting his sparkling blue ones. She noticed then how tired he looked.
"Thank you, Remus." She said quietly. "Is it rude of me to say that I think your friends were very... well, rude?"
Remus grinned. "Of course not. I tell them that daily. They can be prats."
"And here I thought I was going to like the boisterousness of English boys." said Lily.
"Ah..." Remus said awkwardly.
"Oh, not that you're not likable!" Lily corrected suddenly. "You're very nice, Remus. You've been very kind to me."
Remus shrugged. "No worries. We should be headed back, however. It's nearly curfew."
Colette, Ariele, and their three new roommates were gossiping excitedly when Lily returned, her giant book clutched in her hands.
"Where have you been?" Ariele asked acidly. Lily shrugged, knowing she could easily toy with Ariele.
"Off with a boy." She grinned, plopping the book on her bed.
"I see. And said boy gave you a book?" Colette raised an eyebrow and made her way to Lily's bed to observe said book. "Ah, Hogwarts, A History." She picked up the book to test it's weight. "Bit of light reading, hmm?"
"So you were off with a professor?" Ariele coughed slightly, trying to contain a laugh.
"Of course not. I was off with a boy called Remus. Remus Lupin. He was very very kind."
"He was one of those boys from dinner, wasn't he?" questioned Colette.
"Yes. But not the rude ones. The one who pointed out the ceiling - remember?" Lily gossiped to Colette.
"Ah. The sickly one." Ariele laughed.
"He's not sick! He's just... tired..."
"His robes were rather abused." Ariele shrugged. She fluffed the pillow behind her. Lily sighed.
"Yes, well, we don't all come from money, thank you Ariele." Lily fumed. Colette rolled her eyes.
"Not again." She muttered.
"Not again what, Cole? She's so... so rude!" Lily groaned. "She doesn't even know Remus, and here so goes, spitting her prejudice -"
"I'm rude? You've got no tact, Lily Evans! You've got no boundaries, and no stopping point. You're a spit fire." Ariele called from her bed. "You've got all these crazy ideas and notions about what you want from the world - but you don't understand the repercussion of your actions!"
Lily stared hard at the girl across from her, and then turned softly to Colette.
"Goodnight." She said quietly. Colette stared at her for a moment, completely in awe that she had nothing to return to Ariele, and then removed herself from the bed. In her doing so, Lily pulled the curtains around her.
What was Ariele, anyway? Just a stuck-up spoiled girl from a very prominent upbringing. She had all these silly ideals about being a housewife and doing close to nothing with her life. Lily, on the other hand... she didn't want to be a nobody. She didn't want to be some boys wife. She wanted to be Lily Evans. She wanted to be a name that people remembered. She wasn't about to sit back, as everyone at Beauxbatons expected her to, and become a housewife.
Jen Riddle
10-31-10
Please Review!