9Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, except for Lily's friends, who are based on me and my best friends! I also don't own the places, or some of the speech, the parts of speech I don't own are taken from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (book).
As those of you who have finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will know, Lily's feelings towards Snape in this story aren't completely accurate, neither is the fact that Snape has called her Mudblood before (at least not to her face!). But, please remember, I wrote this before the release of book 7! Now... on with the story!
Lily's Worst Memory
"Five more minutes!" squeaked Professor Flitwick's voice from somewhere in the middle of the hall.
Lily Evans was sitting at the front of the great hall, desperately trying to think of something else to write in the last few minutes of her Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. Exam. With no inspiration coming to mind, she glanced around the hall. Snape was still scribbling away, but that was typical, he always did have a strange fascination with the dark arts. Looking further around the hall, Lily noticed Remus Lupin. Remus (whom she rather liked, compared to his friends) was absorbed in his exam. She also couldn't help noticing that he was looking rather more tired than usual, but then again they all were, they had been sitting O.W.L. Exams for nearly a week. Upon seeing Remus, Lily decided she would see what his friends were up to. The first one she saw was Peter Pettigrew. Peter was normally anxious, but that was nothing compared to how he looked now. He was chewing at his fingernails as though they provided oxygen, and every now and again, Lily could have sworn she saw him glance at his neighbour's paper. Her eyes were next drawn to Sirius Black, who was lying back on his chair, making it tilt onto its back two legs giving someone a thumbs-up. Following his gaze Lily realised that he was looking at James Potter, the last of the four friends.
Lily despised Potter, he was everything she hated, arrogant, rude and conceited. And those were his good qualities.
"Quills down, please!" said Professor Flitwick, Lily turned her eyes away from Potter to find Flitwick standing just to her left at the front of the hall. "That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"
Around 200 pieces of parchment flew through the air and into Professor Flitwick's open arms. Although, Flitwick being so tiny was knocked over by the force of so many papers, landing in a heap on the floor. The rest of the hall burst out laughing, but Lily and her friend Amy – who was sitting next to Lily – immediately got up and helped him back onto his feet.
"Thank you... thank you. Very well, everybody, you're free to go!" said Professor Flitwick, panting a little.
Lily gathered up her things, and went with Amy to the back of the hall where their three friends; Claire, Hannah and Sarah were waiting for them.
"So, how did it go?" asked Claire.
"I think I did alright," replied Amy confidently. "I think I got one of the werewolf signs wrong, but apart from that-"
"Not the exam!" Claire interrupted. "I meant, how did it go with Sarah; sitting next to Sirius Black. Did you last a whole five minutes before you started drooling all over him?"
"I do have an ounce of self control!" replied Sarah. But her friends weren't buying it, they knew all too well about Sarah's infatuation over Sirius Black.
"Yeah, but just an ounce." laughed Hannah. Even Sarah laughed at that.
That was what Lily loved about her friends, they were all similar, but just a little bit different, and they all had qualities that could help the others out.
Amy was the smart one, you could always count on her if you were stuck with homework, but she wasn't a book-worm, she knew when the time was right for studying, and when to have fun.
Claire was the kind and helpful one. You could always count on her.
Hannah was the funny one. If you were ever down, she was the one to go to.
And Sarah, she was the girl who could always be counted on for the latest gossip, which made for great conversation, as well as allowing the others to avoid things they may not want to encounter, or prepare for things they did!
By this time, Lily and her friends had walked out of the school, and gone over to the lake, taken their shoes and socks off and begun cooling their feet in the water.
"Just one more exam," breathed Lily. "Just one more."
"Yeah, but it's Transfiguration, that's supposed to be really hard." said Amy; did I mention that she was also the rational one?
"You'll be fine, don't worry about it," reasoned Claire. "You know that stuff back-to-front."
"Claire's right," said Hannah, in the tone they all knew as the one she used when they were all about to laugh. "I mean, it's not as if you're Pettigrew, now he's got something to worry about. He doesn't even know the stuff front-to-back!"
The five friends started laughing again, it was a few seconds before Lily realised that they weren't the only ones laughing. Turning around, Lily realised that a huge crowd was forming around three people. It looked like there was about to be a two-on-one fight. She recognised the mess of greasy hair on the one as Snape, so she immediately knew that the other two must be Black and Potter.
"Great, they're at it again!" she said, exasperated. "Why do they always have to pick on him?"
"Because he's a jerk and he deserves it." replied Sarah, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "The real question is, why do you always have to bail him out?"
"I'm a prefect, and what they're doing is wrong. Besides, half the time when they do this, they're only looking for an excuse to be bullies," answered Lily, putting her shoes and socks back on. "I'll be back in a bit."
She got up and started walking towards the group. She knew her friends thought her silly for helping out Snape, she wasn't too happy about doing it herself. But, she was glad for any excuse to tell off Potter, and this was the perfect opportunity.
She reached the group just in time to hear Potter yell "Scourgify!" and see Snape's mouth fill with bubbles.
"Leave him ALONE!" she yelled.
Potter and Black both looked around, upon seeing Lily, Potter immediately ruffled his hair, making it even more messy than it already was. Lily rolled her eyes in annoyance, 'why did he always have to do that when he saw her?'
"All right, Evans?" said Potter, in a voice that was unusually mature for him.
"Leave him alone." Lily repeated, giving him a look filled with as much loathing as she could master. "What's he done to you?"
"Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean..." Potter said pointedly.
Most of the surrounding students laughed, Black included. Lily didn't.
"You think you're funny," she said cruelly. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."
"I will if you go out with me, Evans," said Potter, the words coming out of his mouth in a rush, as though he had been dying to say them for ages. "Go on... go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."
"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid," said Lily.
"Bad luck, Prongs," said Black, using those annoying nicknames they had for each other. He turned back to Snape. "OI!"
Looking around, Lily realised that Snape had grabbed his wand from the floor, and aimed it straight at Potter. Before anyone had time to register what happened; there was a flash of light, and a huge gash appeared on the side of Potter's face, leaving his robes splattered with blood. Potter twirled around, and a second flash of light left Snape hanging upside-down in the air, his robes fell down over his head, revealing two very skinny, pale legs, and a pair of greying underpants.
Much of the crowd roared with laughter, Potter and Black included.
Lily couldn't help it, it was quite funny. She was about to smile, luckily she caught herself just in time. She was not going to give Potter the satisfaction of knowing he had made her laugh. Instead she said, "Let him down!"
"Certainly," said Potter, jerking his wand upwards; Snape fell into a heap on the ground. He quickly got to his feet, raising his wand, but Black was too quick for him, "Petrificus Totalus!" he said, watching as Snape keeled over, rigid as a board.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily screamed as she drew her own wand, she noticed Potter and Black eye it nervously.
"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," said Potter, almost in a begging sort of tone
"Take the curse off him, then!" she ordered.
Potter sighed deeply before muttering the counter-curse so quietly, Lily had to strain her ears to hear it.
"There you go," said Potter, watching Snape get to his feet. "You're lucky Evans was here Snivellus-"
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
Lily blinked. Snape had called her a Mudblood before, but it still hurt every time he did.
"Fine," she said coolly as though he had not just insulted her. "I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."
"Apologise to Evans!" Potter bellowed at Snape, his wand pointing threateningly at him.
"I don't want you to make him apologise," shouted Lily, disgusted as she rounded on Potter. "You're as bad as he is."
"What?" cried Potter. "I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!"
"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've 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 turned on her heel and hurried back to where her friends were still sitting by the lake, desperate to get away from that pathetic excuse of a human being.
She heard him shout after her, "Evans! Hey, EVANS!" but she just ignored him and sat down with Claire, Hannah, Sarah and Amy again, panting slightly as she did so, both from the yelling, and from the hurrying.
"Are you OK?" asked Claire. Looking up, Lily noticed that all four of her friends had a look of deep concern on their faces.
"I'm fine. Seriously, I am," she assured them, for they still looked doubtful. "It's just, that James Potter is so annoying. When is he going to learn that I will never go out with him in a million years!"
"Don't worry, we all know how much of a pig he is!" said Amy.
And so, the girls spent the rest of their lunch time criticising James Potter, which made Lily feel considerably better. And when the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, and the start of the fifth years' Transfiguration exam, Lily couldn't help re-entering the Great Hall with a slight smile on her face.