first year - cat died
“Today boys and girls” Slughorn announced as he wrote on the board “You’ll learn all about the antidote to common poisons” he turned around and beamed at them all “so that we can begin brewing it in our next lesson”
Almost the whole class groaned, and rightfully so Lily thought.
Professor Slughorn chuckled in response “I know I know, you’d rather get stuck in straight away, trust me I’m the very same, but I’m afraid that with the more important potions such as this antidote it is compulsory to have a complete theory lesson on it”
Fair enough, an antidote to poison was something you’d need to save a life.
“I want you to start off by discussing the ways the potion would be useful in every day life, should be very simple, you have two minutes”
Lily turned to Mary sat to the right of her who answered sarcastically “Tricky question don’t you think?”
“I think Slughorn’s overestimating our abilities” Lily replied
“Seriously though, is there anything else a poison antidote can do other than stopping poison?”
“Probably not” Lily shrugged “You know what I did find interesting though?”
“Ooh go on”
“The other day when I was doing potions homework with Remus, we-”
“Is that where you went?” Mary exclaimed “I can see why it was interesting” the other girl smiled coyly and Lily could feel herself blush
“No! Not that” she leaned in closer to Mary and changed her voice to a whisper so no one else could hear “He’s just a friend anyway”
Suddenly there was a voice from Lily’s left “Why are we whispering?” It was Marlene, eager to join in as always
“Lily do you want to answer that?” Mary smirked
“Shut up the both of you!” she lightly slapped Mary’s shoulder “I was saying that Remus and I”
“Remus and I?” Marlene grinned, eyes-widening “Is that why you were whispering?”
“Ignore her Lily” Mary laughed “We’re only teasing, what happened?”
“I just found out that the antidote to poison isn’t the quickest and easiest antidote there is, in replacement you could just shove a bezoar down the poisoned persons throat”
“Riveting” Marlene rolled her eyes
“You’d find it interesting if you actually liked potions”
“Jokes on you though because potions is my third favourite subject”
Lily snorted and then the noise started to die down as Slughorn signalled to them to stop talking
“So, who can tell me?” he clapped his hands together “Miss Evans?”
“Well it’s in the name, it’s an antidote to poison meaning that it counteracts most poisons and could probably save someone’s life”
“Excellent Lily! Five points to Gryffindor! Mr Snape anything to add?”
“The antidote to common poisons does not counteract every poison, only the ones you see more often”
Hm. Lily had said that when she’d included the word ‘most’ in her answer.
“The antidote to uncommon poisons is a more advanced potion that prevents more potentially lethal and lesser seen poisons”
“Wonderful Severus! Especially well done for referencing the other antidote which you won’t be learning until year three” the professor beamed happily “Five points to Slytherin”
“Sir I think we have a better explanation” Sirius Black’s voice from behind, announced.
Lily could tell a headache was coming, because of course Sirius Black was sat right next to James Potter and they were probably going to say something stupidly head-ache worthy. Lily twisted around in her seat to look at them.
“Oh ho! I’d like to hear it then” Slughorn looked at them, amused
“Well” Potter started “Imagine it’s a beautifully sunny day right? You’re thinking brilliant! Maybe this is the perfect time to have a nice long Quidditch session”
“But as James here always says you can’t start your day without breakfast, so you know you drag your friends out of bed” at this Sirius pointedly glared at James “And the four of you sit down for a lovely meal”
“What if I don’t have three friends?” Marlene asked, eyebrow raised, obviously enjoying this little story being told
“Well then that’s just sad McKinnon” Sirius stated, and Marlene snorted in reply, leaning in to whisper in Lily’s ear
“Little does he know, I’ve got more friends than he’ll probably have in a lifetime”
Lily smiled a little at Marlene’s comment and continued listening to Potter who had now taken over from Black
“You pour out a refreshing glass of pumpkin juice for all your friends because you’re kind like that and the friend sitting opposite you takes the first sip”
“But something is amiss”
“Your friend goes pale”
“His mouth starts frothing”
“And he starts thrashing around, like a fish on dry land” Potter gave a little demonstration to which a few people in the class, including Mary and Marlene, giggled at.
“‘It must be poison!’ You say”
“And then you think to yourself, hang on, Old Professor Slughorn here taught us the antidote!”
“You reach into your pocket, and pull out the glass vial, fresh from yesterday’s lesson”
“And without a second of hesitation you pour the sweet sweet liquid into your friend’s frothy gaping mouth”
More people laughed. Lily refused to.
“And voila! Your friend stops thrashing”
“His mouth stops foaming”
“And he returns to a perfectly normal colour”
“And afterward, you go to your flying session feeling satisfied because you successfully saved a life”
“And that is the purpose of a poison antidote”
Slughorn started clapping, as even more people laughed. Honestly, Lily thought, what a pair of idiots
“Excellent! That is the perfect example of a real-life situation where the antidote can be used, five points to Gryffindor each, oh and let’s chuck another point on there for your excellent storytelling”
Slughorn chuckled again and then waved his wand, making the textbooks from the cupboard fly out
“Ah, open your books to page seventy eight and have a quick read” he flicked his wand again and the textbooks were distributed to each pair
“Oh but before you do that!” Slughorn cried “Can anyone answer this question for me? Is there a better or should I say quicker way to prevent poisons?”
Lily’s, Severus’, Marlene’s and another Gryffindor girl's hand shot up.
“Hmm let’s see, Miss McKinnon what about you?”
“You can use a bezoar” and she grinned, turning her head to look at Lily with a smug expression.
Lily kicked her in the shin.
“You know Lily” Mary started “I thought you hated the marauders”
“Why do you call them that?”
“Because it’s what they’re called”
“It’s what they call themselves”
“Lily you’ve got to admit though” Marlene started “It’s catching on”
“Only within our year” she scoffed "I don't think you'd find an older student anywhere calling a group of a eleven year olds by a silly name that they've given to their little club they've seemed to form"
“Hmm I’m not too sure about that actually” Mary hummed “I was speaking to Grace in Hufflepuff the other day, she’s in second year, apparently they’re becoming more and more well known by the second”
"Oh because a second year is sooo much older than a first year" Marlene sniggered
"I'm just saying!" Mary put her hands up "Their popularity is on the rise"
“Why?! They don’t need their egos inflated anymore than they already are!”
“Hmm” Marlene agreed “Especially Potter and Black, although you must admit Lily, they are quite funny and you can see why they're well known”
Lily just sighed and went back to Mary’s earlier question “I do hate them Mary, why do you ask?”
“Remus is a marauder and you don’t seem to hate him”
“Well no, that’s different”
Lily only really had a problem with Potter and Black, they were the ones who irritated Severus and caused unnecessary havoc therefore irritating Lily as well. And don’t get her wrong she got why the ‘marauders’ and Severus had some sort of silly feud, she had been there when it had started and she understood that her friend could be unreasonable at times and said things that came out a little wrong, but Severus was her friend, he wasn’t a bully, he had always been kind to her and so Lily felt the need to defend him, everyone had their flaws and Potter and Black didn’t need to be so annoying about them.
The other two were fine. Well she didn’t quite know about Peter, as they hadn’t really spoken but she had heard good things about him nonetheless and he looked like the type of person to live up to those things despite his friend choices . However, Lily did know about Remus. Remus she got on well with, and she’d even go as far as to say that they were friends, their potions lessons together were always enjoyable and they had even started doing the odd bits of homework in the common room together, helping each other out here and there. Remus was always quite calm around her, and was different enough from her usual two friends to create a nice change of pace and dynamic but also similar enough to them to mean that she felt comfortable around him and had a good time. The only bad thing about him? The company he kept. But Lily didn't bring it up and in her mind it had been pushed aside for now, because she was enjoying having made a new friend who she could productively complete work with.
That brought her to Mary and Marlene, who she loved to bits but sometimes they got distracting when she was trying to concentrate and sometimes they did have a difference of opinion when it came to certain subjects, Lily didn’t mind this though because it was completely normal in a friendship.
“How?”
“Well Remus is less…” Lily struggled a bit “He’s just a better person than Potter and Black”
“Honestly Lily, James and Sirius aren’t as bad as you make them out to be” Marlene replied “Sure they’re arrogant, and they’re boys who are always a little bit blegh in my professional opinion, but I think everyone can be arrogant, me you and Mary included and I don’t see you being repulsed by either of our presences, nor your own”
“Not to mention that Lupin hangs out with them, and he seems like a guy that chooses his friends wisely” Mary added, nodding her head
Lily snorted and then shook her head, smiling a bit “I get what you’re saying, trust me, but I think my dislike for them is a bit more complicated” she then sighed “Honestly I don’t know, can we just talk about something else?”
“I’d love to!” Mary said eagerly “I’ve been dying to tell you guys about what I heard about the Ravenclaws this morning…”
5th March 1972
Dear Felicity.
I haven't written in quite a bit, so sorry about that :) Noth My life hasn't had any major turns. So I guess I'll just tell you the little things. I wrote a letter to Petunia the other week in the hopes she’d reply after mummy and daddy told her off over the christmas holidays, but no she still think’s i’m awful for leaving her behind.
Today we played quidditch again. I don't mind flying. But Id rather not do it you know? I can’t wait until second year where we no longer have to do flying lessons. Potter accidentally called Mary Marilyn today for god knows what reason and I swear I almost burst out laughing at his stupidity. Remus was as usual nice to work with. I don't know why he hangs around Potter and Black. I was talking about this very thing with Mary and Marlene today about how he's the total opposite of them. Potter is a pompous prat who makes Sev's life living hell, and just disrupts everything. He keeps hexing him in the corridor when Sev has never even done anything to harm him. Well that's what he told me anyway. I don't know if it's true. Probably is true judging from the impression Potter has made on me so far. And don’t get me started on his other half. Black's one of those people who are like annoying little fly's that are too dumb to fly out the wide open window. You know when they just keep buzzing around the very obvious exit but keep slamming themselves into the smallest sections of wall and never actually get out. Potter is definitely like that too. So yeah Remus is better, he does sometimes seem to have anger issues but overall he’s a good friend. Maybe anger issues is a bit of an over exaggeration, but he can get snippy. That reminds me it is Remus’ birthday soon, maybe I’ll get him a chocolate frog or something, i’ve noticed he eats them quite often when we do homework
Nothing much else happened today to be honest. Slughorn gave me 5 points. We got a piece of homework from McGonagall. I think that's the most boring thing i've evr told you but I have no clue what else to write.
Marls started her period.
Mary got sent a very nice jumper.
I lost my biro pen. Using a quill right now. It’s awful.
Neighbours cat died.
Goodnight. Lily xx
ps. You won’t believe what Mary told me about the ravenclaws, will tell you next time, i’m tired
pps: hand has cramped up verryyy badly from trying to writ ethis so fast . Being stupid dwriting this
ppps. Cramp has gotten worse.