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Lily

Alice Bell had an older brother on the Gryffindor Quidditch team who played chaser and was known around the school for being one of the best on the team. He scored points like crazy. He was built large, with broad shoulders and strong features. The sixth year girls of Gryffindor swooned as he walked by them to where his little sister sat with Lily Evans. He set his books down and gazed at Lily for a moment. "I heard you saw Potter's catch."

Lily frowned, "Yeah, I saw it."

"Honestly Derek," Alice protested, "She's been asked about this so many times - if she had a knut for every time, she'd be rolling in riches."

"I'm sorry, I just had to find out if it really was as impressive as everyone's made it out to be," Derek explained.

"It was not," Lily lied. "It was a red gum ball, even I could have caught it if I wanted to." Her voice was tense.

Derek looked no less impressed, but he didn't insist on continuing talking about it. Instead, he turned to Alice. "How are your classes going?"

"Well," she answered.

"Excuse me." They all three looked up. A second year boy with thin glasses and a nervous expression had come over.

"Oh hi Frank," said Alice. "This is Frank Longbottom," she said. "Frank this is Lily Evans and this is --"

"Derek Bell, yeah," Frank nodded vigorously. "I was curious when tryouts were. I heard Gryffindor needs a beater this year." He was staring at Alice, though, and appeared more interested in her than he was in Derek or the tryouts. Alice was oblivious.

Derek looked Frank Longbottom over. Lily didn't know much about Quidditch but she knew without asking that Frank was far too scrawny to play any position called 'beater'. But Derek was nice enough. "Next Friday afternoon," he told Frank, "On the pitch at 4:00."

Frank beamed. "Thanks," he said. He started to turn away, then turned back to look at Alice. "See you around the common room."

"See you," she answered, already concentrating on her dinner more than she was on Frank. Lily watched as Frank walked back down the table and sat down with the other second year boys.

“Everyone is really into Quidditch here, huh?” Lily asked.

Alice rolled her eyes, “Oh God yes,” she groaned, “And the season hasn’t even started yet! Just wait - it gets worse.”

As though to emphasize Alice’s point, a fourth year slapped Derek on the back and said, “Alright Bell?” as he passed by. Alice smacked her palm to her forehead in frustration.

Derek smirked at his sister’s annoyance. “As you can see, my sister is the exception to the rule around here. Everyone at Hogwarts is into Quidditch - especially the Gryffindor-Slytherin matches. Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff choose sides.” He grinned, “Usually Gryffindor. The stands get pretty loud… everyone cheering…” Derek’s face was taken over by a dreamy, sort of nostalgic expression, as though he were recalling the sound of the pitch, echoing with spectators.

“If I’m the exception,” Alice said, waving at Derek with her fork, “Then he is the epitome of the rule.”

A floppy grin crossed Derek’s face and he shrugged, “It’s a great sport. Excitement, blood, tension - the wind in your hair, the whistle of the flying quaffle, the crack of a bludger off the beaters’ bats…” he took a deep breath, and turned to Lily. “Do you play?”

Lily shook her head.

“Stupid, she’s muggle-born,” Alice reprimanded him, grabbing another potato jacket from the platter in front of her, “Muggles don’t play Quidditch.”

Derek said, “Well. Maybe you should try out. You’ve got an excellent build for a chaser.”

Lily looked down at herself.

“BELL!”

Derek looked down the Gryffindor table at the other members of the Quidditch team. Another sixth year was waving him over eagerly. “Gotta go,” he said, grabbing one of the chocolate eclairs that were on a platter in front of Lily. “See ya ‘round the common room later.” He ducked off, shoving the eclair into his mouth messily.

“Ugh,” Alice groaned. She grabbed a napkin and wiped the place he’d been sitting, where crumbs had fallen onto the table. “He’s such a slob!”

“What did he mean by I had the build for being a chaser?” Lily asked, frowning.
“Only that you’re small and probably can fly really fast is all,” she said, shaking out the napkin and turning back to her potato jacket. “Good for scoring.”

Lily had played futbol when she was little, until Tuney had decided that sports were for boys and their parents hadn’t wanted to separate the girls, so Lily had been made to quit the team, too. She’d always had a lot of fun playing, though. Some part of her was a little excited at the thought of it.

“He was trying to recruit you is all,” Alice said, not noticing Lily’s mild excitement.

“Well I’m only a first year,” Lily said, deflating a little bit. “It doesn’t really matter, I can’t try out anyway.”

Alice changed the subject and they started talking about silly things for a few minutes before Lily felt a heavy hand resting on her shoulder. She turned around in her seat and found herself face-to-face with Professor Slughorn. He had a big pocket watch in his palm and he was fingering it with his thumb thoughtfully. “Miss. Evans,” he greeted her, voice booming, “Might I have a word with you?”

“Yeah,” Lily said, getting up. She glanced back at Alice as Slughorn led her into the entrance hall, where students were milling between dinner and the stairs. Lily spotted James Potter and Sirius Black, sitting on the stairs. They were still covered with dirt from Herbology class and were tossing a fanged frisbee back and forth over Peter Pettigrew’s head as he read his Potions textbook. Lily scowled at them from the corner that Professor Slughorn had led her to. James responded to her scowl with a grin, then made a face at her, crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue. Lily rolled her eyes.

“Miss. Evans, I have been positively obsessed with your performance in Potions this morning,” Professor Slughorn said, “You are on the path to becoming an excellent potioneer… and, according to your other teachers, you’re quite exceptional all around.”

Behind Slughorn, James and Sirius were goofing off, jumping up and down, trying to distract her from what he was saying. She wished they’d go away, but the more perturbed she looked ,the more they did it.

“You’re muggle-born you said?” Slughorn asked.

Lily nodded, “Yes sir.” She wasn’t sure how else to answer.

“Remarkable,” he muttered. The way Slughorn had said it, it was a bad thing to be muggle-born, as though it was unbelievable she could be both muggle-born and intelligent. It made her feel the teensiest bit angry and defensive and she wished Professor Slughorn would just get on with whatever it was he was trying to ask.

“We may not be together
We may be far apart
But you’ll never be too far away
From my broken heart
I’ll see you in the bubbles
Of the potions in my cauldron
And in the full moon
When the werewolf is howlin’...”

Sirius was singing loudly as James lip-synced the words to a song Lily had heard in the Second Year’s dormitory by The Charmers, a wizarding band that Alice and her friends fancied. James, admittedly, looked somewhat like the singer, and now he was standing on the stairs, his palm splayed over his chest, wand held up as though it were a microphone as he walked down them theatrically, dancing as he went.

Lily’s mouth was a very straight line.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’ve extracted you from the Great Hall just to talk to you about your academic talents,” Slughorn said, chuckling, rocking on the ball of his feet as he continued to finger his pocket watch thoughtfully. “You see, I have a little group - sort of an honors club. It’s an excellent opportunity for networking, meeting the next generation of - er, gifted witches and wizards, see…”

“No matter how long we’ve been apart
You’ll for ever be in my memory
And I’ll see your face every time
I look into my pensieve…”

Sirius was belting out the lyrics to the song with great flourishing notes as James skid down onto his knees in the center of the hall. People were looking their way, whispering to one another, pointing and watching their performance. Even Peter Pettigrew had put aside his books and begun laughing uproariously from the stairwell.

Slughorn followed Lily’s gaze across the hall at the trainwreck that was Sirius and James. “Those boys,” he said, shaking his head, “Troublemakers. If they were in my house…” Professor Slughorn sighed, then turned back to look at Lily. “I’d be honored if you came by our next meeting.”

“Meeting?” Lily had only half heard any of what Slughorn had been saying.

“Yes,” he said, nodding, “The next meeting of the Slug Club. It could be a good opportunity for you to meet others at the school who are more --” he paused, rolling his eyes back toward Sirius and James as James flailed about on the floor dramatically, “-- your own academic speed.”

Lily looked up at Professor Slughorn. Had he just called Sirius Black and James Potter stupid, in so many words? Amusement snuck it’s way onto Lily’s face.

Slughorn took the expression to be his answer. “Excellent!” he bellowed.

Lily looked up in surprise.

“It’s next Thursday, after your flying club, in my office. I’ll send you an official invitation by owl,” Professor Slughorn said, slapping her heartily on the back. “I’ll see you in Potions, dear.” He waddled away, smiling and whistling to himself.

Lily wasn’t sure what exactly she’d gotten herself into, but she blamed James and Sirius for distracting her. She glowered at James, angrily clenching her jaw. He was taking a bow as the onlookers clapped and cheered for them all around the entrance hall. James caught her eyes and a smirking grin spread across his face and he winked.

Lily hated when he winked at her. She didn’t understand what in the world he could mean by it, but she was certain of one thing: Coming from James Potter, it couldn’t be anything good. Lily let out an exasperated sigh and turned, storming back into the Great Hall where Alice Bell was craning her neck to see what was going on in the other room.

“What was that?”

“James Potter being a toerag,” she replied.