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"Hello, Malfoy.” Sev greeted him, “This is my friend, Lily.”
Sev has told her earlier that there was this prefect in his house called Malfoy who was really kind to him. Evidently, however, the kindness did not extend towards her.
"Let me guess: red hair, improper robes, you must be a Weasley. I'm Lucius Malfoy.", the Slytherin prefect said with a distinct tone of emphasis on his last name. It is clear that this Malfoy person did not like her, although she does not have a clue what a "Weasley" is supposed to mean. It sounded like some sort of insult though.
Regardless, Lily restrained herself and greeted him politely, extending her hand. "Nice to meet you, Malfoy."
Malfoy looked offended at the gesture, and chose to grab Sev's hand instead. "Come on now, Severus, I'll show you what I promised yesterday." And just like that, her friend reluctantly went away with the unfriendly Slytherin.
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A Hufflepuff girl a few years older than her was approaching her in the corridor.
"Hey, firstie!” Then she pondered her body for a second, before saying, “Oh, you’re another Weasley! I'm Bertha Jorkins.”
At the mention of the word "Weasley", Lily felt slightly uneasy - the tone that the Malfoy boy used when delivering the word surely suggested that the term “Weasley” is an insult. However, there is no trace of condescension or disdain in this Jorkins girl’s voice when she used the term.
Jorkins continued to speak in a bright voice. “Your brother Arthur, or is he your cousin? He was the Head Boy when I was a firstie, and he was really helpful with anything muggle. I always thought that he’s so nice for helping me with those things that I can’t believe he wasn’t sorted into Hufflepuff.”
"Um, sorry, but I don't have a brother or a male cousin. You must have got someone mixed up.” What is going on? Lily is getting more and more confused as to where these strange comments are coming from.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought that you must be ...... well now that I think of it, there are indeed many people who are Weasleys." Jorkins explained. "I shouldn't have assumed that you knew him. Have a nice day, firstie!” She hesitated for a moment, then turned around to speak in a much more hushed tone. “By the way, if you ever just need to share any new piece of gossip you overheard to the whole wide world, hit me up! I’ll make it happen.”
Lily is not exactly sure if she likes this seemingly overenthusiastic and gossip-prone girl, but that’s the least of her concerns right now. Just what in the world is a Weasley?
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Lily picked up the trash that a group of Ravenclaws left behind at their table as they exited the self-study session at the Great Hall. The charms professor Flitwick - that’s his name right? Lily hasn’t had a charms class yet - happened to walk by and saw her. “Thank you. Two points to Gryffindor."
The Head of Ravenclaw then went back to the high table, but moments later she spotted the professor's hand pointing at Lily herself, talking in a low voice with Professor Sprout, who sat beside him. Despite the low volume of the conversation, Lily was able to hear his words and notice the obvious tone of excitement.
"Oh, I can't believe it, Pomona! We finally got a Weasley girl."
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Later that night, Lily asked her new roommate Mary MacDonald the question that has been overwhelming her mind for the past few days. Mary is a fellow muggleborn, so Lily doesn’t exactly expects her to know the answer. Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt to try, and Mary is the only roommate that Lily has actually had a conversation with so far. “Hey Mary, do you know what a Weasley is?"
”Um, a what?”
"A Weasley. Several people have been calling me that but I’ve got no idea what it means.”
"Hmmm, interesting. I heard that there are some people here that don’t like people from non-magical backgrounds, people like us, so it’s possible that it’s an insult, but I haven’t been called a “Weasley” by anyone yet.”
Judging by the enthusiastic tone of Professor Flitwick earlier, Lily doubted that this term would be anything close to an insult. If anything, the way he said “Weasley girl” would indicate that Weasley refers to some sort of objective social grouping - Lily is just unsure what it specifically is.
—————
A set of short, redheaded twins, probably four or five years older than Lily, are approaching her. "Hey, you're another Weasley, right?” One said.
Lily hesitated for a second, not sure how to respond. She wanted to ask them about what a Weasley is, but she isn’t sure how exactly to phrase her question, since it seems like to the general wizard population, the definition of a Weasley is rather intuitive. Unfortunately, the other twin took her hesitation as confirmation.
"I'm Gideon Prewett, and this is my twin brother Fabian. How come we didn't see you at the party earlier in the year?"
"What party? I'm not sure what you're talking about." Lily, once again, is confused. Confusion seems to be a recurring theme for her in the last few days.
"Oh come on, surely you've heard about it? Molly and Arthur arranged a make-up wedding of sorts to satisfy their families demand of meeting each other and their newborn child! After their whole "eloping" thing happened, both our family and your family weren't having it." The other twin, Fabian, said rather matter-of-factly.
Bracing herself to finally ask something that she’s been meaning to ask for a while now, she blurted, “Excuse me, but what exactly is a Weasley? So many people seem to use the term when they refer to me."
“What is a Weasley you say?” Gideon responded.
Lily nodded.
“It’s a family of wizards. One of the oldest, in fact, but they aren’t that type of people to obsess over that. No, in the general public, Weasleys are known for having red hair, and well, having a lot of children."
“So, that’s it? Just because I have red hair, I am assumed to be a Weasley?” At this point, Lily is getting very irritated at all these wizards making assumptions and not following basic logic.
"Well, I mean, us Prewetts have red hair too, but we'd know if you’re one of us, there really aren’t that many Prewetts out there. Plus, for a first-year, you're far too tall to be a Prewett. You’re a muggleborn then, right?”
Lily was relieved that these twins are finally coming to the right conclusion. “Yes, I am. Why didn’t you consider that at first?”
“Well, well. It is nothing other than the fact that meeting any redhead that isn’t either a Weasley, a Prewett, or a muggleborn is considered shocking in the wizarding world, and typically first-year muggleborn students would carry a rather confused expression throughout their first week. No fault of their own, of course."
“Oh, that’s …… that’s probably because I had a friend before Hogwarts who’s a half-blood growing up in the muggle world, so I got to know a lot of the things before I came here.”
“Ah, that makes sense. Anyways, the last non-muggleborn tall redhead to arrive at this school was Lawrence Bones, the Hufflepuff prefect in our year.” Gideon said.
Fabian then elaborated, "People were even speculating that perhaps his mum had an affair with a Weasley or something. You wouldn't want to go around and spread that rumor so openly though, his older brother Edgar is the current Head Boy, and his sister Amelia is the Head of the Auror Department at age twenty-five. Neither of them are people you want to cross.”
Gideon then turned around and spoke to Fabian in a much lower voice, "Alright, cross that box out then."
They were apparently writing something on a piece of paper. Upon an initial glance, it seems like a list. Surrendering to her curiosity, she asked, "What are you writing on this piece of paper? Does this have anything to do with me or this Weasley family?"
“Our sister is making us recognize and remember the names of Weasley family members.”, Gideon explained, “When we went to the party and met about thirty or forty relatives of her husband all clustered in that field next to their Burrow, we had no idea who’s who, and apparently that embarrassed her.”
“Said that she’ll send us a Howler if we can’t remember all those names when we go to her newborn son Bill’s first birthday dinner.”
“A Howler?” Sev has once told her about Howlers, but he described it as a letter that parents send to their children when they’ve done something seriously and truly wrong. This …… does not seem like so serious.
“Oh, yes. I worry for the ears of her son when he grows up.” Gideon said in a slightly worrying tone.
“Son, singular?” Fabian turned around and replied, “Considering which family she’s marrying into, Gideon, I’d be surprised if she doesn’t have at least five sons to sent Howlers to.”