The Potioneers of Damocles ✓ | JILY

Chapter One

Usually in the mornings all Lily could think about was what her breakfast would be, it was the most important meal of the day after all, a fact she loved reminding people of. Today, she'd chosen a simple white bread with a delicious strawberry jam and it should have been the only thing on her mind but her attention was currently elsewhere. Across the other side of the Great Hall, walking almost in sync, the Potioneers of Damocles had entered, all four of them sitting down at the Ravenclaw table despite the fact only Finola was a Ravenclaw. Still, nobody was going to tell them what to do unless you wanted to have something slipped into your early morning Pumpkin juice.

"Lily, what do you think of this dress?" Hestia piped up, jabbing her finger at a page in Wizard Weekly, "Because I rather like it but Sturgis thinks it's awful."

"Um, no. I never said, awful," Sturgis replied with a frown, "I just said I wouldn't wear it."

"You're a boy!" Hestia exclaimed, "You wouldn't wear it anyway?"

At this, Sturgis gave a small shrug, "I don't know, I reckon I could pull of a periwinkle blue silk dress quite well. I'd look dashing."

"Lily?" Hestia gave her a friend a nudge, "Care to weigh in..."

"No..." She replied, absent mindedly as she brought her glass of water to her lips. If she'd been paying attention, she would have realised the glass was nowhere near her face and would have avoided spilling it all over herself. Sadly the Potioneers of Damocles had made her so focused she ended up with water all over her skirt, abruptly standing up and cursing loudly.

"Lily, what's wrong?" Hestia asked, standing up to help her friend, "Hey at least it's not firewhiskey, that crap stains."

"You're telling me," Sturgis added, cocking an eyebrow, "Did a certain arrogant toe rag walk in?"

"What? No," Lily said, frowning at him before pulling out her wand to dry herself down, "I was just ... distracted."

Turning around, Sturgis followed Lily's eyeline, his eyes landing on Caradoc Dearborn who was trying to balance a strangely rigid slice of bacon on his chin, much to the annoyance of the other three. Sturgis gave a small smile, shaking his head slightly as he returned to his scrambled egg,  "Classic, I see what it is. She has a crush on those four."

"Who?" Hestia asked, eagerly.

"I don't have a crush on the Potioneers," Lily snapped, straightening her skirt and sitting back down. Thanks to years of dealing with James's antics, she'd mastered how to angrily eat bread and did so with gusto, "I just think that if I ever want to succeed as a potioneer or anything really, I need to get into the Potioneers of Damocles, everyone knows they always do well. I mean, look at Frank Longbottom, he started it and now he's a top Auror. Or Kingsley, Oni's older brother, they say he could be Minister of Magic one day, he's already earning more than most people earn in a lifetime."

She gave a small smile, furtively looking over at them, "Plus, they are really cool and I don't know, it looks like fun. Potions is my best subject so it would be nice to join them, maybe they could make me even better."

"You know they're responsible for like 90% of the school's illegal love potion trade?" Hestia replied, "Like, they are not good people."

"Shut up," Lily murmured, feeling strangely defensive over the awesome strangers who didn't even know her name.

Sturgis and Hestia exchanged a glance, raising their eyebrows in an irritating manner. Sturgis sniggered slightly before saying, "Defensive, thinks the sun shines out of their arses despite the fact they seem like twats... sounds like a crush."