troubled - the marauders

Chapter 3

„Just take all your gryffindor courage and talk to her, its not that hard", Marlene said. Sirius laughed at her comment.

„Yeah like you are so daring." The sentence dripped with sarcasm. Marlene smiled knowingly and got closer to Sirius' face, almost touching his nose.

„Would you like me to be, Black?" After that she abruptly backed off, took her bag, got out of the carriage, that had just stopped, and walked up to the entrance of castle. Sirius was left sitting there, still able to smell her vanilla scent and didn't move.

James smirked as he gave him a knowing look. „And I thought you'd never get laid, Padfoot!"

(Lilys PoV.)

4 September 1975

Lily climid up the steps to the owlery. After searching for a while until she found the grey owl that carried a letter from her family. They tried to write at least once a month and Lily frequently answered to let her parents know she was fine at Hogwarts. 

Her hands were shaking taking out this particular letter. In her letter prior to this one she had put another one for her sister. 

Petunia and her hadn't talked or written each other for almost all her time at Hogwarts. Last summer when Lily came home over the summer, Petunia had left the day she arrived to go on vacation with her boyfriend Vernon. 

When Lily stumbled into them in the driveway, she almost looked surprised that Lily had came this early. They didn't speak a word, her and Vernon just drove off. Lily had cried a lot that day. 

Since she could remember Petunia had always envied her for her magical abilities. She used to try to teach her when they were really little, but after some time Petunia came to the conclusion that Lily didn't what her to be able to do these things. That resolved into Petunia calling Lily selfish or a freak whenever she did magic.

Lily unfolded the letter from her parents first. It was the typical family letter: something about their jobs, are you ok, hows school going, we miss you, love you. Their exchanges were simple but she appreciated that they stayed in contact and that they cared so much about her life at Hogwarts. 

There was a small piece of paper that had her name written on it, clearly in Petunias handwriting. The note wasn't long.

„I don't know what you wanna talk about at this point Lily, we haven't been sisters for a while, just accept that we're not compatible. You make your choices so accept my reactions to them."

Lilys eyes filled with tears as she read the words on the note. She had known Petunias opinion for a while know, but seeing it written down on physical paper felt like a she had been hit in the stomach. When she stumbled out of the owlery her eyes were filled with tears.

-

The dungeons were dipped in green light as the students entered the room. Lily shivered and got a cardigan out of her bag. Professor Slughorn greeted her with a friendly smile as she put it on and went over to Severus. He was talking to Avery, who gave her a dirty look as she approached them. She looked back at him, equal dislike in her eyes. Severus noticed her and turned around. They sat down next to their cauldron and Slughorn started to give the task for the day.

„Today we are going to talk about the Befuddlement Draught, please open your books at page 276. There you will find a recipe and the materials you'll need." 

Lily began gathering her ingredients and Severus started talking about the task ahead.

„This potion is not that hard, I brewed it last year as an extra homework. The only part I couldn't quite figure out was the stirring, it took ages to get it right."

Lily nodded and began to read the instructions: Add scurvy grass, lovage and a unicorn horn  and then stir clockwise 20 times. Your potion should turn to a dark blue color. After that add 2 ounces of sneeveswort and let it boil for 6 minutes. 

„Unicorn horn reacts better to stirring counterclockwise doesn't it?", Lily wondered.

„Thats actually right", Severus gave her an impressed look and proceeded to cut his scurvy grass in little pieces. 

Lily tried stirring counterclockwise twice and the potion turned to a deep blue as it said in the instruction. He wrote down a little note in his book, like had done many a times before, whenever Lily or him figured something out to make the potion better or faster to brew. No-one could beat this duo at potion making. Severus still had this head in his book when Slughorn came to their table. „Excellent job you two. But what did I expect, right? Would you two please join me for a minute after class." 

„What do you think he wants", wondered her friend. 

Lily didn't have much of a clue. „I don't know, maybe we've done something."

„Come on, you know he adores you, you're in his little club after all. Must be something else."

The rest of the lesson went by pretty fast and by the time Slughorn announced the homework, she and Severus had already but their potions in vials and were packing up their things. 

„For homework you will be writing an essay on the properties of the moonstone  and its uses in potion making. Class dismissed."

Slughorn waited until all the students were out of the classroom.

„So Miss Evans, Mister Snape, I've got very exiting news for you. One of my friends and former students, just like the two of you, has offered to give away one free ticket for his exclusive potions study course. He works at the auror office and is very influential. As I understand it you want to become an auror, right Miss Evans?"

„It is a job that is of great interest for me, yes", she answered, blushing because she noticed Severus giving her the side eye. She hadn't told him that.

„And you, Mister Snape, probably wouldn't mind some great connections to the ministerium as well, right." Severus just nodded but Lily noticed that he was exited. This could mean finally being independent. Financially and life wise.

„Right, I thought, that this would be of interest for you two, although I did ask a talented potion maker from every house, but I think only you two have a real shot. Unfortunately there's only one spot so you and the other contestants would be participating in a contest for it."

„We would be competing with each other?" Severus asked.

„You don't mind a little friendly competition right?"

as always some feedback or a vote would be greatly appreciated and I hope you enjoyed this, next chapter will be out tomorrow and I've got something exiting coming up :)

love, elmakat