When You Wish Upon a Star

Author’s Note: I am in need of a beta reader. If anyone wants to help me out here, email me at [email protected] or on AIM my sn is Brodwystr2b88. Either way would be great.

Chapter Four: Of Snape and Slapping
By Christabell

As soon as Lily got back to her seat, James cracked a huge grin.

“I was getting nervous when you were up there. And then the hat couldn’t decide... that’s never happened before. What did it tell you?”

“Well, it told me that I would do great in any of the houses, but there was something holding me back in the other three. Slytherin it was that I was muggleborn, Hufflepuff was that i needed more excitement, Ravenclaw was that, well.... I wanted to be with the guys, and you of course. Plus, it said that I would fit into Gryffindor perfectly.” she smiled at him, but as soon as he opened his mouth to reply, Lily put a finger in front of it. She picked up his hand and slapped it lightly, whispering “Bad James. Hush. Don’t be rude. I would hate it if everyone had been chatting during my sorting.”

James just stared at her. Lily was so different. She was one of the most unpredictable girls he knew. Not that it was a bad thing. He loved that about her. All the other girls he had dated, and there had been quite a few, had never left him thinking. They had all been mindless and superficial and had only liked him because of his looks, or his popularity. And strangely enough, it had never bothered him until today. When he met Lily. She had opened up his eyes and made him see that there was such thing as a pretty girl who was nice and smart and...... he stopped himself there. Just thinking about her made him want to kiss her and hold her, which could have been a bit awkward, as they were sitting next to the professors, in front of the whole school.

Several minutes later, the sorting was over, and Dumbledore stood up again and began to talk.

“Welcome to our new first years and Head Girl. I would like to go over a few school rules. First, the Forbidden Forest is just that. Forbidden.”

He said this and glanced briefly at Sirius, Remus, and Peter over at the Gryffindor table, and then at James behind him, who looked away sheepishly.

“And I would like to also add that you should stay away from the Whomping Willow unless you want to be severely hurt.” He again looked at the four boys, but added another one in the glance. One of the older Slytherins, with long, greasy hair and a smirk on his face.

T‘he boys didn’t tell me anything about the tree... or that Slytherin. I’ll have to ask them about that,’ Lily thought to herself.

Dumbledore continued. “I guess that is it for now.” He clapped his hands and food appeared on all the plates. “Let’s eat. Lily, James, you two can go over to your table now. And Lily.... Congratulations on getting into Gryffindor. That was my house when I was a student here.”

They walked down to their table to the two empty seats that Sirius had managed to save for them. At once, everyone started talking to Lily. As she made conversation with all the older Gryffindors, a new voice drifted over to her.

“Hello, Lily. Too bad you were put here in this awful house with all these people, huh? If you were in my house, we could have been great together.” Lily looked behind her to see the same Slytherin that Dumbledore had been talking to before.

“Who are you? And why do you want to bug me?” she asked, annoyed at his rude manner.

“My name is Severus. Severus Snape from Slytherin.” Lily began laughing as everyone shot confused looks at her.

“It’s alliteration!” she giggled. “Except that you need to add more. You could make one of those TV ads. It can be... He’s Slimy, Slithering, Sour, Scandalous.. you guessed it... it’s Severus Snape from Slytherin!” She collapsed on Peter, laughing like mad, as Snape glared at her. When she finally regained control of herself, she turned to look at Snape.

“I suggest that you take that back, Evans. You know you want me. Everyone does.” With this, he slowly placed his hands on her ass, and grabbed her in an attempt to bring her closer to him. Lily had had enough. She stood up, aware of the whole school now watching them.

“Who do you think you are? You come over here, insult my house and everyone in it, try to hit on me, and piss me off. And donm’t you even think about grabbing my ass again... that’s not your job. That’s for someone else to do,” she said, glancing sideways at James. She continued on. “You know what they say about redheads having horrible tempers? It’s true. When someone acts like this around me, they should know what’s coming for them.” A loud SMACK was heard by all as Lily slapped Severus with all her might on the cheek. A large red hand print and a look of astonishment formed on his face and the hall filled with laughter. “You deserved that,” Lily said as she pushed him over to his table and sat down to hear the praise of her house mates. “And I am throughly sorry to all of you professors. I wasn’t planning on doing that until later on in the year once you actually knew me.” She laughed and sat back down at her table.

“Lily... that was awesome!”

“You were fabulous!”

“God, I wish you had been here before to do that... it’s about time he had a girl put him in his place. I’ve never had the courage to stand up to him, knowing that he could hex me into the next century, the slimy little creep.” The last comment had come from a pretty black-haired girl with a pixie cut, sitting next to Sirius. “I’m Arabella Figg,” she introduced.

“Yep, soon to be Black,” interrupted Sirius, throwing an arm around her, which she shrugged off. Arabella glared at him, and then turned back to Lily.

“He wishes. Anyway, I’m a seventh year too, so we’ll be sharing a dorm. The other girls are Tiffany, or Tiffy,” she said pointing to a short girl with sandy blonde hair flirting with Remus. “And then there’s Melissa, or Mel,” she said of a tall brown haired girl. “And last there’s Mari. We don’t really talk with her that much. We tried a couple of years ago, but it’s hopeless. It seems like she would be a great addition to our group, but she doesn’t seem to agree.” Arabella pointed to a girl on the end of the table with pink hair sitting alone. Lily knew how she felt. That had been her at Durmstrang. Well, minus the pink hair. But being the only redhead, she had stood out enough. She felt the need to help Mari. Perhaps she would let her because she understood.

“Thanks Arabella. I’ll be back.” She got up and sat down next to Mari who looked up, then quickly looked away.

“Hey. I’m Lily. I guess you’re Mari?” The girl nodded. “I love your hair. It’s so awesome that you have the confidence to do that.” Mari looked at her as though she had three heads.

“Why the hell do you like it? Everyone else just thinks I’m a freak. Why would you be any different? You wouldn’t understand.” Lily sighed.

“I understand a lot better than you think I would. You might have heard that I transferred from Durmstrang. The reason of that was because I didn’t fit in at all. Everyone made fun of me for being smart, how I looked, how I acted, everything. I finally couldn’t stand it anymore, so I talked to Amadeus Maloney, our headmaster. He agreed to let me start over here. And people like me here. It’s strange. I have friends. And that’s never happened before.”

“Wow. You? People made fun of you?” Mari asked.

“Yeah, it got pretty bad. And my sister convinced me that I was a freak and that I was an ugly, fat, horrible nobody, so home wasn’t any better. She attacked me constantly, and beat me up.... actually she still does. But Remus helped heal me on the train ride here.” Mari sighed.

“I can relate with most of that. But I can’t bring myself to change who I am for others. I would really love to have friends and fit in, but I need to be liked for who I am.” Lily grinned.

“Well you got one friend here, Mari. Why don’t you come over and sit with me and some of my friends. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind. Why, Arabella told me that she would love to get to know you and that you seemed like a really cool person, but it was just hard to get you to talk to her.” Mari looked shocked.

“You mean that one of the most popular girls in our grade thinks I’m cool?” Lily laughed.

“Yup... lucky you, huh? Come on.... come sit with us. Please? You know you want to...” Lily persuaded, grinning.

“Fine. I will.” Mari finally agreed. “ By the way, Lily, nice job with Snape.” The two of them got up, and went over to James, Arabella, and the rest of the students from their year. They sat down, and Arabella smiled kindly at Mari.

“Hey Mari. It’s awesome that you’re gonna sit with us.” Mari blushed lightly, making her whole face glow.

“Thanks Arabella. Hey everyone,” she said softly. As everyone talked around her, she silently thanked Lily for bringing her over. She didn’t fit in yet, but now she knew it was possible. As she looked at Lily, she wondered why everyone at her old school hadn’t likes her. She was such a charismatic person, and she had gone out of her way to make sure everyone was included. What wasn’t to like?

Soon after, the feast had ended, much to Sirius’ dismay. Lily chuckled just thinking about how much that boy had eaten. He had protested furiously when Dumbledore told him to leave and go to his common room, claiming that he hadn’t even begun to be full. He took out his wand, and transfigured a sign, and started running around the hall.

“More food, more food,” he started yelling. It had taken James, Peter and Remus to drag him away from the table, while Arabella, Mari and Lily gave in to their laughter.