Hello, everyone! After a long time here am I! Wishing you all a very nice 2019 and much happiness. Hope you enjoy this short story!

P.S.: reviews are always welcomed :D

It was just so stupid. All of it.

Severus Snape and how he had most definitively gone to the wrong side.

James Potter and that ridiculous hair of his.

The rest of the Gryffindor's fifth year boys – Peter Pettigrew for laughing, Sirius Black for encouraging Potter, and Remus Lupin for doing nothing to stop the other three.

All of the Hogwarts students who had laughed at Potter's idiotic antics.

But the most stupid of all, Lily thought, was herself for feeling so rotten about it.

It was not exactly news that Severus leaned towards the Dark Arts. She had desperately watched as her childhood friend listened more and more to the rubbish that the likes of Mulciber and Avery babbled all day, and less and less to her warnings.

He spent more and more time with those Slytherins, plotting against people like her, and then saying to her, 'it's just for a laugh, Lily, I'd never do that to you'.

Until he did.

She had been quite happy just a few hours earlier. Enjoying the end of another O.W.L., when summer was nearly there. Mary MacDonald told her to stop fretting a bit about the exam and relax, proceeding to take off her shoes and socks, and cooling her feet on the lake's water. Lily saw the other girls doing the same, so she shrugged and imitated her friends.

Lily really was content. They were laughing about nonsense, anxious to get home and free from that terrible year. She worried a bit about going home and rowing with Petunia, but the thought of seeing her parents was overwhelming.

And the fact that she would not have to deal with James Potter and his shenanigans was also a silver lining.

She had noticed him and his friends on the edge of the lake; he was showing off with a snitch (how and why had he gotten it anyways? Wasn't he a chaser?) to Pettigrew while Black acted like he was God's gift to humanity, and Remus read a book.

She was, however, quick to return her attention to her friends, ignoring the immature group.

And then they made her notice them.

Well, he made her notice them. The second the nickname 'Snivellus' loudly came out of his mouth, Lily looked at the commotion and cursed.

"You're going there, aren't you?" Mary asked, resigned.

"Of course I am. Honestly, couldn't the prat leave Sev alone for just a couple of days? Then I'd be free of them," Lily replied, huffing impatiently as she put her shoes back on. Mary sighed and followed her.

It was not that she hated her fellow Gryffindors. Remus was a perfectly nice bloke. Peter usually kept to himself. Sirius had that arrogant air on him, but was funny to talk to. Potter… well, he was funny – when he was not humiliating other people, that is. Unfortunately, it happened quite a lot, which made Lily furious.

Sev was choking on soap ('Really, Potter?') when Lily got near the boys. There was already a group around them, watching excitedly another session of humiliation by James Bloody Potter.

"Leave him ALONE!" Lily exclaimed angrily. Potter and Black turned immediately, the former automatically running a hand through his hair.

"All right, Evans?" Potter asked her. Had she not been so incredibly annoyed at the situation, she might have noticed that something had changed in Potter's voice when he addressed her.

"Leave him alone," Lily asked again, glaring fiercely at Potter. Why, oh why, was he such a prat? "What's he done to you?" She asked instead.

"Well…" Potter said, making a scene of deliberating the subject, "it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…"

Many of the students surrounding the group laughed, like it was actually funny. It was so not funny. The joke Potter had told four days ago on the Common Room about the troll on a bar, when she came back from round with Remus – that had been funny. This was just plain cruel.

"You think you're funny, but you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone," she said again, which was not completely wrong, but was very close to the truth.

"I will if you go out with me, Evans," Potter said quickly, like he had not even thought about it. "Go on… go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."

Shock was the first of the emotions that hit Lily by then. Was that boy even real? She could have sworn he liked him as much he she liked him – which was almost nothing at all. Why all of a sudden was he asking her out? And like this? Was he so caught up on his own little world to think that she would be blackmailed to go out with him? While he humiliated her best friend, no less?

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," Lily spit back. And she meant it. How delusional could that boy be?

"Bad luck, Prongs," Black replied instead. Potter still looked directly at her glare, and they did not notice Sev regaining his controls until Black screamed, "OI!"

But it was a bit too late – the seconds of distraction facing Lily resulted in Sev managing to hit a spell on Potter, and a bloody gash appeared on his cheek. The next second Sev was upside down, robes hanging over his head and his underpants showing for the whole school to see.

To be honest, the whole situation would be slightly funny (which the rest of the students agreed, seeing as they were all joining the Marauders in their laughter), and even Lily had to hold back her smile – because it would be slightly funny if done to a friend, not with the sole intention of demeaning the other person.

And intentions counted so much to Lily.

"Let him down!" She ordered them, angrier by the minute.

"Certainly," James complied, and Sev fell to the ground in an awkward fashion. He had barely put his wand up when Black pointed his wand at Sev again, paralysing him.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She shouted, drawing her own wand and pointing to Potter and Black. She was losing her patience, and the wary glance the boys gave to her wand showed they remembered how she had hexed Potter the previous week for a similar stunt.

"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," Potter pleaded. She knew he was good too; he had a lot of practice, and would probably be capable of getting one hex past her. But she knew he also had been raised by older parents, who taught them not to hex girls.

"Take the curse off him, then," she replied. Potter sighed deeply (he had to be so dramatic at everything he did?) and freed Sev.

"There you go," Potter said, watching Sev fumbling to get up, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-"

The rest of the threat was clear – Lily knew Potter and Black could be downright cruel. It made her crazy. It made the professors crazy. It made anyone on the end of their wands crazy. As Sev was constantly on that position, his hatred for Potter and Black (and Remus and Pettigrew, come to think of it) was well founded, and Lily knew that. She fought for Sev against the bullying.

And that's why it hurt so much when he did it:

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" He said what he promised to never say about her.

Lily blinked. Had he just…? It could not be. Not when she was… defending him! She could not believe it!

But he had.

And instead of being transferred, her anger simply doubled – directed at both Potter and Snape now. She registered quickly the shocked look that Potter sported, but quickly shoved it aside.

Mudblood.

"Fine," she said with the coldest tone she could muster. She could not – would not – cry in front of him, "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

Mudblood. Years of friendship, and he still thought this of her. The blood was pounding in her ears, anger stopping her from losing it right then, right there.

"Apologise to Evans!" Potter shouted angrily, pointing his wand at Snape.

Lily snapped.

"I don't want you to make him apologise," she screamed. No one should have to make him apologise, much less Potter, "you're as bad as he is."

"WHAT?" Potter had the audacity to sound outraged, as if he had not been the one to push Snape to the edge, to make him call her- "I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!"

She ignored that he was right – Potter could be a lot of bad things, but blood prejudice was not something he possessed. She just wanted to hurt the people who had hurt her.

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can – I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!"

She screamed everything she always had wanted to and even more. Maybe it was uncalled for, since Potter had tried to defend her on the final bit. But she felt her anger diminish, and what came after was hurt and pain and tears.

So she simply ignored Potter calling her name and headed to her dorm, slightly conscious of Mary following her. She was so stupid to care, but she just could not stop caring.

Mary said soothing words and even offered to bring her food from lunch. She thanked, but she had lost her appetite. She arrived at last minute on the practical DADA exam, successfully ignoring the entire student body.

She pretended not to see Remus's worried glance and Potter's weird face (was that guilt? Pity? Worry? She did not care at the moment) – she was not fine, and her red eyes showed it. At least she did not see Snape, and she left as quickly as she could.

"So how was it?" Mary asked when she arrived at the dorm, a plate of food on her hands. Lily smiled her thanks – she was a bit hungry, but not enough to go down and eat supper with the rest of the Hogwarts population (which, as aforementioned, she judged to be stupid).

"How was what?" Lily asked, eating some bread.

"The exam!"

"Oh," she replied with a shrug, "it was fine, I suppose. Guess I'll get an O."

Mary shook her head in disbelief.

"Only you could get an O after what happened earlier."

Lily raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat, while Mary grimaced.

"Sorry, that was rude," Mary apologised, "wanna talk about it?" She asked, and Lily shrugged in reply. It meant a lot about how great of a friend she was, considering what she thought of Snape.

"It's just… we argued just the other day, not about this, exactly, but… he was complaining about us not being as friends anymore, and I said that it was because of the company he kept…" Mary nodded. She did not need to be remembered who Snape was friends with, "and he wasn't actually listening to me, y'know? He was more worried about trashing Potter and the others…"

"Well, there's history there, Lily. It's not the first time he complains about James and the rest."

"I know that. It didn't surprise me either, and I always overlooked some of the stuff Sev did…" Lily sighed. "Not now, tho. Now he's crossed the line. I won't tolerate it anymore. I'm done with him."

She watched in confusion as Mary grimaced again.

"He's down there. At the portrait. He wants to talk to you."

Lily blinked and gaped.

"That's not gonna happen."

"I told him that already, I swear I did!" Mary replied. "Well, after giving Potter and Black a good shove so they wouldn't try anything with Snape… he says he's gonna sleep outside the portrait hole to wait for you to come out tomorrow."

Lily sighed. Maybe she should get it over with?

The Common Room was already deserted at the time she put on her robe and decided to end it. She expected not to feel anything, but anger quickly came back when she saw Severus. Her former best friend, now gone to the Dark Arts – excited to join the Death Eaters.

It killed her to know that, but – as she told him – she was tired, so tired of making up excuses for him.

And even when she went back to the Common Room, swearing she would not care about it anymore, the tears could not be stopped. She climbed on a couch and hugged a cushion, keeping her sobs quiet.

She did not know how long she spent there until she heard a noise from the boys' dorm. Quickly she tried to erase all traces of tears from her face and prepared her glare – if it was Potter…

However, the shadow that accompanied the steps told her it was not Potter – not because she knew Potter's shadow, but because it did not resemble a human's shadow in any form. It was a bit pointy on top, and it had… projections on the bottom? What the actual…?

"You said you'd pick the squid over me, so I had to turn into it to leave you with no choice…"

Then the thing came to her vision and could not believe her eyes.

James Bloody Potter had fashioned himself a squid costume, tentacles included! She could see his face where the squid's eyes should be, and he wore a smirk.

The ridiculousness of the occasion was too much for Lily – she laughed, and hard. For a few minutes she could only laugh, allowing Potter to come closer and stand near her (she figured he was not able to sit, which only made her laugh more).

"You're so stupid!" She said (also an aforementioned fact). James grinned.

"Well, I think you made that very clear, thank you."

"Well, you deserved it, so welcome." Lily shrugged. She did not regret what she said earlier. "What are you doing here, Potter?" Lily asked, with a tired edge on her voice.

"Heard the git had threatened to sleep outside and had to make sure he wouldn't – well, at least not unscathed, that is…" He replied smirking. Lily sighed.

"Why do you have to be such a toerag?" Lily asked.

"Because some people deserve it." He replied simply. "Not you, tho. I'm just really stupid around you."

"You didn't even know him when you started with him," Lily remembered him. James raised his eyebrows.

"He insulted Gryffindor. Really, Evans, what else did I need to know?"

Lily decided she would have laughed any other day, but not tonight.

"So you were planning on scaring him on this?" She asked instead, gesturing to his ridiculous outfit. Looking at his face, she noted a distinct blush. What in the world…?

"Well, no. I noticed you were down here and I came to… y'know…" he trailed off. Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Ask me out?" She asked.

"No! Well, yes, a bit. If you say yes, that is."

"Really, Potter. I'd rather the squid."

Potter glared.

"I'm a squid. That's the whole point. Or you only take the giant ones?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking. Lily blushed at the innuendo and shook her head.

"And you wonder why I keep away from you…" She mumbled. Potter sat beside her (so he could sit!) and sighed.

"Look, actually I wanted to say I'm sorry." He said. Lily narrowed her eyes. "I mean it. Not for what I did – that git deserves it and more – but because you lost a friend, even a lousy one like Snivellus. He's rotten company, Evans, and I'd say, 'I told you so', but I won't, because losing a mate's bad enough."

Lily was a bit confused and surprised. She considered to pinch herself to make sure she was not dreaming. Potter saying he was sorry for her and Snape's falling out?

"And you needed to wear… that?" Lily asked in a whisper. Potter smirked.

"Oh, no. This was to make you laugh, which I did."

Lily could not hold her smile. Had Potter come down to check on her?

"I think I'll save this, tho. Maybe next term, when you're free from his greasy and toxic presence you'll see reason and go out with me…" Potter said, a silly grin on his face.

"Yeah, well, the head's still too fat for my liking…" she replied with a shrug. Potter laughed and backed away.

"We'll see, Evans. We'll see."

Only years later she would admit to stupid James Potter how much him dressing as that squid had meant to her, which caused him to do it again on the Hallowe'en of 1980, just for her laugh, which lead to some kisses and some moans, and in July of 1981, lead to a new Potter.

But that is a whole different story.