This is the last chapter in which everybody plays nice... LOL

The library mistress had been glaring at him for a good hour as he pawed through the pages of Lily's books. Thankfully, it wasn't his hair that the old woman focused her stare on – it was the questionable pile of books towering beside him.

Even he had to admit that Lily's choice of reading material was – interesting, if not fascinating. Standard Book of Spells read like the textbook it was but Revenge – A Sweet Thing was quite an experience that had him enthralled.

The afternoon was waning, as was his reading light. He had already wasted time delivering the parchment on which Lily had transcribed the mysterious stones. They were a shattered mess now, strewn across the lawn where they would probably stay for the next thousand years.

With his last class ages away and not wanting to face the great hall for lunch with his new look, he had chosen to investigate the library while he waited for Lily to be released from the hospital wing.

Reading the next heading and its subtitle, Severus couldn't stop a smirk ripping the corner of his thin lip up.

'Slow revenge that's safe, easy and suitable for beginners.'

He shook his head, disturbing his mane of pink fur and then risked a glance at the librarian. She narrowed her eyes and he averted his back to the page.

'Requirements: 1 wand, 1 victim, 1 cauldron-'

So it was a potion... thought Snape quietly, and read on.

'2 pts of salt water, 1 large dragon scale, 2 mice and the gel of 1 fresh water eel.'

It all seemed perfectly obtainable – maybe not easily but in a place like Hogwarts, there were sure to be stores of potion ingredients lying around for the easy taking.

"Not how I planned on spending my first day," said a voice above him.

Snape looked up to see Lily's slightly pale face half-glaring, half-mocking as she held up her bandaged wrist for inspection.

"Three hours and it's still all tingly and sore. Though, as Madame Pomfrey pointed out, it's better than bleeding to death."

"That bad?" Severus discreetly closed the book, but left a finger or two inside to mark the page.

She shrugged, her eyes dazzling and that ferocious grin of hers returning as she descended into the chair opposite. "Apparently."

"Look on the bright side," said Snape, nudging all but one of her books toward her, "we escaped detention."

"I'm sure I would have earned it if Sir Wormius hadn't prevented me – quite persistently. Which – reminds me..." her tone dropped, changing into a form of hush so that the few students scattered through the library couldn't hear. "Do you still have those frog-cards I gave you?"

She must want them back, thought Snape, but dug into his robes and produced them anyway, laying them flat on the table for her.

"Gosh!" she exclaimed, snatching one of the cards up in her tiny hands. "I thought I had imagined it." Snape patiently waited for her to elaborate. "I mean, it's him, isn't it?"

Lily flipped the card over and held it so that he could clearly see the words, 'Olaus Wormius' glisten and the old man's form move slightly. He was on old man, clutching onto his wand like a walker, unwilling to give up.

Snape narrowed his eyes at the old man on the card, leant forward and retrieved it from her.

"1588?" he could not help his eyebrows climbing in doubt. "Wizards live longer than muggles, but I've never heard of one making it close on four hundred."

This did not faze Lily in the slightest, presumably because her understanding of magic was limited.

"What about magic?" she retrieved the card and once again stared into the eyes of old wizard. "I swear – it's him."

"Our teacher is probably a relative," Snape offered. "Have you seen the Weasley's? A hundred generations of clones – for sure. The ones – " he continued, "with the red hair..."

There were two Weasley brothers still in attendance at Hogwarts, one of them was a third year that Lily had seen playing Wizard Chess in the common room that first night but she hadn't spotted the other one yet.

"Why don't we ask him?" Lily said. "Sir Wormius will probably –"

"Not yet..." Snape interrupted her. "This card says that he was banned from the Wizarding world – that's really serious. I doubt he'd want to talk about a disgraced ancestor. We could always look up the registers, see if we can find out if Wormius has any living relatives."

Snape finally felt useful. He'd been in the library long enough to have a basic idea of where to find things – the official public records were all snuggled together on a long reference shelf. Each book sported identical red leather bindings and gold embossed text with their only differences coming from the alpha-numeric symbols on their spines.

Lily watched curiously as Snape departed the table and headed for the rather official shelf of books, carefully craning his neck as he browsed through them until coming to a stop. With a satisfied smirk, he slipped the heavy book from its home and carted it back to Lily.

Births, Deaths and Banishments 1550-1600 W-Z

"Looks promising," she said, shifting her chair around the table until she was next to him, peering over his arm as he hastily flicked through the book.

"Woraanii – Woraby..." his finger travelled faster as he muttered obscure names under his breath and finally came to, "Wormwood?"

Lily shook her head and moved his hand back up a few spots, "You missed it," she giggled, and suddenly his finger was on, Worm, Ole. "Also known by Olaus Wormius, son of muggle Willum Worm. Banished 1628, disappeared August 31, 1655. Survived by: None." Lily read aloud, swallowing heavily. "You see," her eyes flared. "I told you."

*~*~*

The librarian rose from behind her heavy oak desk, set the Daily Prophet on a pile of books, and strode over to the two young students moseying about on the cusp of the Restricted Section. She'd been waiting for an excuse to give them a detention for a while and now she'd spied her chance. They had – however innocently they protested, touched a Restricted Book.

"You're kidding..." frowned Lily, subconsciously rubbing the bandage around her wrist. "She can't do that."

Snape was pretty sure she could. Detentions were up to the discretion of the teacher, even the nasty, bored ones.

"Not even a day," Lily continued with a scowl. "Not even one. All I wanted to do was look up Unicorns in-"

"A restricted book..." Snape finished her sentence and she huffed her disapproval.

*~*~*

Lucius Malfoy, all silver hair and crisp blue eyes, noted the empty seat at the lunch table. The new Slytherin was troubling – his absence even more so when combined with that of the red haired Gryffindor.

All in all, it was not a perfect start to his career as 'Prefect' but it was tolerable – he was certainly going to re-double his efforts to ensnare the alluring sixth year, Lorcan d'Eath. Lucius was hoping that she lived up to her reputation.

Lucius, so intent on his prey, failed to see another set of eyes focused just as firmly on himself. A female Slytherin sixth year, equally pale as himself, had been staring at him since the start of lunch – like she had done all last year, and the year before that. Narcissa fiddled with her flaxen hair, curling it around her finger as she watched the boy.

At the staff table, Olaus Wormius looked very distressed, prodding rather than eating his food. His beautiful robes seemed to sulk around him as a sigh hissed out of his lips. Minerva leant over, nudging him gently with her shoulder.

"Cheer up," she instructed, "nothing happened that couldn't be fixed."

Olaus blinked slowly, "I nearly killed two students on my first day. I should have just given them the damn detention in the first place. Leniency leads to more harm..."

"Well they received their detention anyway," she held up two small notes that had flown into the hall a few minutes ago. "Consider yourself lucky, by the end of the day I suspect half my house will be in detention. Oh, don't look now, but here comes Rolanda – fresh from her class of first years. Every time she comes back with all students and their limbs accounted for, I am utterly impressed."

"Is this the purpose of this chat to comfort me?"

Minerva shrugged, "No – if it's comfort you seek, try Sybill, she's always looking for comfort in one form or another."

Olaus couldn't help but cock and eyebrow at Minerva, "Pass..."

"Ah yes," Minerva swished her wand over her goblet and it filled with cool water. "Ablus said you were the quiet, lonesome type."

"Did he? That is, I fear, a tad unfair. Not all of us are alone due to choice."

She was about to reply when a small commotion caught her attention. Her gaze was just in time to catch the sight of Slytherin's prefect being flung across the room by a well aimed spell. The boy was thrown on top of Gryffindor's table where, in a storm of goblets and crockery, he came to a stunned halt.

"What in the...?" Lucius muttered, feeling a sharp nip of pain. One moment he had been innocently staring at the vampire and the next he – wait, wasn't that – "Narcissa?" he asked, as the girl approached, wand held aloft in a threatening manner.

The eyes of the entire dining hall were upon them now.

The young witch opened her mouth as if to say something, her hand shaking around her wand, when she thought better of it and suddenly burst into tears. She heaved a few times before fleeing the room leaving everybody in shocked silence, especially Lucius Malfoy.

"Un-bel-iev-able..." he said, trying to sit up. There was a hoard of displeased Gryffindors crowding around him, returning to their seats and chaos that was once their table.

"He probably deserved that," whispered Minerva to Olaus. "You may be genuinely unaware of it, but your house is made up of –"

"Yes, thank you," Olaus glared.

*~*~*

"We should definitely leave this alone," said the smallest boy, eyeing the whomping willow with an air of caution. Peter, Sirius, James and Lupin had wandered down during lunch to inspect the great tree. It was actually – rather pitiful... After the frightening résumé the headmaster had given it, the children had been expecting something a little more sinister than the idle, sparse branches drooping toward the lawn.

It had already lost its leaves in preparation for winter leaving its bulbous knots looking more ugly than a gargoyle wart.

"Maybe we should just go..." Peter, the closet to the tree, backtracked, scurrying away like some form of rodent.

"It's actually rather boring," Sirius drawled, wondering where that cute group of Ravenclaws had vanished to.

James was the only one curious enough to persist.

"Oh," he said, pushing his jet back hair behind his ear, "it's here for a reason. Probably hiding treasure of some kind."

"Not everything Bernard Weasley says is true..." Sirius cautioned. "He once sold my younger, regrettably more schooled, brother some very ill hex repellents."

"Ill?" Lupin had his hands inside his endless pockets, keeping them warm.

"Suffice to say he paid the hospital wing an extended visit."

James's grin was widening. "Yes," he said, "but that's because Weasley did it on purpose. There's no cause to doubt his opinion. If he thinks there's treasure under there, then there probably is."

A light wind made the willow's branches twitch – rather unnaturally – in the wrong direction. Lupin's sharp watch caught it and he pointed.

"What do you think?" James asked, risking a step closer.

"I think that we should get to our next class..." was Lupin's firm response.

"You are absolutely no fun, Remus."

"Count me out of whatever it is you're about to do. I may not be quick, but I've finally learnt my lesson."

"And what lesson is that?" Sirius turned to the smaller boy.

"Don't partake in any of your hair-brained schemes."

"You hurt me, Remus," Sirius mocked, "you've hurt me real bad."

*~*~*

Lily's feathered quill hovered over Severus's head, dangling in mid-air. Ollivander had been right – charms were Lily's natural gift. It didn't seem to matter what Professor Flitwick asked her to do, she seemed to manage it with a lazy flick of her wand.

Severus wasn't inept – it just took him a little longer to master the art. At least his quill wasn't on fire, like Lupin's. Poor Lupin was the only member of the horrid quartet present and looked very lonely cramped on the edge of the bench.

"That's it – that's it, Miss Evans. Would you like to try something more challenging?" Professor Flitwick hopped off the enormous box he occupied during lessons so that the class can see him. He was a very young professor, a bit too eager to see how far his new students could go with their magic.

Like what, thought Snape, levitating the building?

Flitwick motioned for her to come to the front of the classroom and – to Snape and Lupin's surprise, Lupin to come as well.

"Come, Mr Lupin, you're looking very put out. Time to enjoy yourself a little – you are in fine hands with Miss Evans, never fear."

Professor Flitwick couldn't have been more wrong. It would have been safer to ask a dragon to mind the owls.

Lupin scrambled through the room, not looking particularly thrilled in his new role as, 'Lilly's lab rat'. He had the sinking feeling that she would curse or hex him.

"Stand here, if you please," the professor pointed and Lupin followed. Then he turned to Lily, who was already holding her wand aloft in a menacing manner. "Now, Miss Evans, just as you did before, but you're going to have to flick it a little harder this time."

She nodded, aimed and whispered the charm with a strong flick of her wand.

Lupin yelped as his feet left the ground.

"Very good," Professor Flitwick commented, giving her permission to lift Lupin higher.

Lily did so, gradually raising her wand up until Remus Lupin was hovering several metres above the floor.

"As you can see, class," the professor began his lecture while Lily held Lupin steady, "this simple charm can be used on any object be it living or not – exempting those with magical protection. Remember, the larger the object, the more effort it will take to perform. Theoretically there is no limit to what can be levitated except by the power of the individual witch or wizard. Now –"

One of the levitating quills in the audience suddenly exploded in a green flash of light and loud, 'bang'.

Lily startled, completely losing her concentration for a moment. As soon as she had lowered her wand, Lupin had followed, slamming into the ground with a growl. This time Lily squeaked.

"I'm so sorry!" she gushed, then realised how much she hated him, and bit her tongue.

"Ow..." Lupin rolled over onto his back. This was such a bad start to school life.

"This very clearly demonstrates," continued Flitwick, apparently unconcerned, "the importance of concentration. You cannot let your mind wander."

Lily blushed and quickly turned her attention to the crowd where she found Severus's eyes with – no ... with a casual cloud of smoke wafting into the air. He winked at her, and she winked back. This was merely a prelude to the revenge he had planned on Lupin.

*~*~*

Sir Olaus Wormius frowned at the rather large collection of students in the dungeon. It had been a long time since he'd been in a school and the last detention he had attended had been in the capacity of 'miscreant'. In all honesty, he wasn't quite sure what to do with them all.