Friends
“Lils, Lils wake up." Alice gently shook Lily awake.
The redhead woke up in a confused daze, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she sat up slowly, letting out a confused little hum.
"You've slept in, love. I know that you don't like waking up late."
"Oh, thank you Alice."
"Of course, lunch is soon. I'm meeting Amelia, so I'll see you later, yeah?"
"Yep, see you later." Lily gave the girl a sleepy smile.
Alice left the room, leaving Lily to her own devices. She let out a quiet sigh, pushing her bangs out of her face, the rest of her hair tied in a particularly messy ponytail. Running her hands down her face, she groaned, contemplating going back to sleep.
She forced herself up and out of bed, pulling on some fluffy socks in anticipation of the chilly stone floor. She tiredly plodded to her bathroom, coming to a standstill in front of the mirror. Taking in her appearance, she reached up and let her ponytail down, her auburn hair now sticking up in an odd, tangled position.
"Bloody hell." She murmured, her expression bored as she began forcing a brush through the knots.
She got dressed, throwing on a cardigan last minute, and set off towards the great hall. The autumnal air bit at her once she left the warmth of the common room, and she quickly realized that she should've layered up a bit better. Lily pulled the cardigan tighter around her body, shivering and picking up her pace.
Once she reached the great hall, she sat down silently and began eating, daydreaming to pass the time.
Sometime during her meal, the owls flew into the hall, delivering everyone's mail. Lily, of course, received none. Her family only wrote her whenever they deemed necessary. That was only her parents though, her sister never wrote her when she was at school. Even when she was back home, they never really spoke, unless they were arguing.
The girls used to be close, although there had always been some underlying jealousy on Petunias end, but it all went downhill once Lily had gotten her Hogwarts letter. In Petunias eyes, it was just another thing Lily had that she didn't. Lilys parents were proud at first, but that pride quickly faded once they realized that her being away meant that it was harder for them to shape her into the 'perfect young lady' they wanted her to be.
Once Lily was nearly done eating, she was pulled out of her daydreams, feeling eyes on the back of her neck, she furrowed her eyebrows, spinning around to see. Her eyes scanned over the Slytherin table, and there sat Severus Snape, staring at her with an unnerving gaze, quickly averting his eyes once he noticed that he'd been caught, but then going right back to staring once her back was turned again.
Lily and Severus' relationship had gotten increasingly more complicated as of late, with some decidedly odd interactions, and Lily wasn't in no mood to deal with him, so she quickly tucked her book into her satchel and began quickly walking out of the hall.
Severus was quick to follow, darting up and into the corridor after her.
"Lily! Lily wait for me!" He called out after her. The shouting had peaked the interest of some groups scattered down the hallway and out in the courtyard next to them, one group being Mary Macdonald and her friends.
Hesitantly, the redhead turned around, offering the boy a tight-lipped smile. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Hi, Sev." She replied, staring down at the floor for a few seconds before forcing her eyes to meet his.
"Where have you been, Lily? I barely saw you all summer. I missed you." He asked, a somewhat desperate tone to his voice.
"I've been busy, Sev. I told you that."
"Right, well. Do you want to hang out now?"
"I have to study."
"But it's a Sunday, Lily? You never study on Sundays? You only study on Saturdays." He said, matter-of-factly.
"Yes, well, I didn't get all me work done yesterday."
"Oh, okay the. We can study together!"
"No, Severus." She took a deep breath "I want to study alone."
"Oh come on now, Lils. I wont even say anything, I'll be quiet. Lets go." He grabs her arm, trying to pull her away and towards the library.
Down the hall, Mary and the girls shared questioning glances, wondering what was happening.
Lily yanked her arm out of the boys grip. "No, Severus! I'm tired." She backed away from him.
"Nonsense, Lily. You'll be fine, now come on!" He insisted, smiling like nothing was wrong. He grabbed her wrist, dragging her down the hall.
"She said no you arse!" Mary shouted from down the hall.
Lily spun her head around, looking somewhat panicked with her wrist still in the boys grip.
"Be quiet, Macdonald!"
"Fuck off, let go of her!" She shouted, pushing off the wall, about to walk over.
"It's none of your business, really, is it?" He argued back.
"It becomes my business when you're hurting my friend!"
Lily's eyes went wide, her expression incredulous.
Marlene, Emmeline and Dorcas went quiet, staring in shock.
They were friends now?
Severus let out a grating laugh. "She's not your friend, Macdonald! Lily isn't friends with scum, are you completely delusional?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at Mary with a smug expression.
Lily seemed to snap at this. "I am too her friend! And she's not scum! Now let go of me." She tried shaking her wrist out of Snape's hold, but her efforts were to no avail, he only tightened his grip.
"Lily you're being stupid, come on, you aren't friends with freaks like her." He shook his head, trying to pull her away.
"Oh fuck this." Mary muttered, storming up to the boy and grabbing his wrist, twisting it down harshly.
He let go of Lily and let out a pained shriek.
"Touch her again and I'll hurt you much worse than that, I promise you!" She stepped back, taking Lilys hand gently. "Here, come with us."
The redhead stared at her in shock, nodding as if she was in a daze. The girls joined them, and they began walking down the corridor.
"What?! Lily!" He called out pleadingly.
"Ignore him." Mary whispered to her comfortingly.
Marlene and Emmeline moved behind Lily protectively, however Marlene being Marlene, she spun around and began giving Snape the middle finger, sticking her tongue out and making an assortment of insulting yet hilarious hand gestures, before Emmeline grabbed her shoulder and spun her back around, laughing.
The girls took Lily back to Mary and Marlene's dorm.
"You can sit wherever." Marlene smiled at her, before jumping onto her already messy bed. Lily sunk down onto a bean bag in the middle of the room, and Mary sat down next to her as Dorcas began rooting through a stash of alcohol hidden beneath Marlene's bed.
"You alright, babes?" Mary whispered to her.
"Uhh... yeah. I think so?"
"He's a prick, don't worry about him."
"Plus, apparently, you've got us now." Emmeline said, sounding somewhat rude, not that she meant it like that. "Oh my god, that sounded mean, I'm sorry!"
"Bitch!" Mary joked, grabbing a pillow and launching it at the girls head, turning to Lily. "Sorry about her, she has a habit of accidently being an arsehole?!"
"No, no, it's fine." Lily laughed.
"She's right though, you have got us now, and we're significantly better than that freak of nature." Dorcas said, sitting down on Marlene's bed. Marlene laid back onto Dorcas' lap.
"I just don't know what to do about him, he's been acting really weird lately." Lily muttered, biting her nail and staring down at the floor as if she was deep in thought.
"Enough about him, let's drink!" Marlene exclaimed, laughing as she threw a bottle of wine to Mary.
Mary yelped, jumping and fall back and off of the beanbag to catch it, now splayed out onto the floor in an odd, tangled position. "Marlene!" She yelled in shock, clutching the bottle close to her and laughing.
Marlene fell into a fit of laughter, the other girls laughing in disbelief.
"You lot are insane!" Lily shook her head and giggled.