The Seven Year Itch

Chapter 2

When Lily woke up the next morning, she didn't know why the hell she felt so bad about getting up... but then everything came rushing back to her. Moaning, she drew her blanket over her head.

"What's the matter, Lils?" Dorcas asked.

Julie snorted. "Must you ask? She doesn't want to meet Potter again."

"Oh, don't worry, Lily. When he picks on you or treats you unjust, you just go to McGonagall or Dumbledore," Dorcas said reassuring.

"Great," Lily murmured.

At breakfast, Lily pointedly avoided looking at the High Table. When Professor McGonagall gave her her timetable, she said, "Miss Evans, the first prefect meeting is on September 12th. Could you tell the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff prefects? Mr Fenwick will tell the Ravenclaw and Slytherin prefects."

"Of course, Professor," Lily said, smiling pleasantly. Professor McGonagall gave her a tight-lipped smile before going on.

"Uh."

"What?" Lily asked, looking at the timetable. Then she groaned. "Defence Against The Dark Arts in the first two periods! I have-"

"-the worst luck in the world," Julie and Dorcas finished in unison. Lily scowled at them.

"Well, we'd better get going then," Julie said. "Potter will probably have a fit when we are late, especially you, Lily."

Lily nodded and hung her bag over her shoulder. She felt like she was going to be sick any minute. She also couldn't refrain from thinking about the things Potter could do to her now that she was his student. She bit her bottom lip. Come on, Lily, she told herself. You can do this! Or do you want to let Potter know that you're afraid of him?

"I'm not afraid of Potter!" she exclaimed indignantly. The people around her looked at her strangely. She turned to Dorcas.

"Did I just say that aloud?" she asked her in a hushed voice.

"Erm-yeah," Dorcas said, her eyebrows raised.

Lily shook her head. "I'm going insane. Let's go."

***

They arrived at the classroom as the first. Slowly, the room began to fill. Lily waved at Helen and Sally and a few other friends of hers. A few minutes after the bell had rung (Too late! a little voice in Lily's head screeched spitefully), James Potter turned up.

"Good morning, class!"

The class murmured a greeting. Potter threw his books on the table and pulled a register with the seventh years's names out of a folder, beginning to call out their names to make sure everyone was here. When he arrived at E, he grinned maliciously.

"Edgecombe, Sara!"

"I'm here."

"Evans, Lily!"

"Present."

"I'm so glad to hear this," Potter said sarcastically, leering at her. She ignored him, staring at the blackboard behind him.

When he had finished, he thew the folder on the table as well and stood up, facing the class.

"I'm sure all of you know me-" he was interrupted by cheering, but-

"Yes, unfortunately," Lily said loud enough for everyone to hear. Including Potter.

"Do you have something to say, Miss Evans?" he snarled, slowly approaching her desk. Dorcas stomped her foot to stop her from saying anything stupid.

"No, nothing," Lily answered, her face contorted in pain.

"No, sir," Potter said, clearly enjoying the situation. "Or: No, Professor."

"No, sir," Lily mumbled through clenched teeth.

"Sorry, Miss Evans, didn't hear you," he said.

"No, sir," Lily said loudly, feeling the strong urge to reach out, grab his neck and strangle him.

"And," he continued, putting his hands on her desk and leaning towards her, "I prefer students who raise their hands if they want to say something. Have I made myself clear, Miss Evans?"

"Yes," she said. Under her desk, she was clenching her fists so hard that her finger nails dug into the skin of her palms.

"Yes, sir," Potter said in a dangerous, low voice.

"Yes, sir," Lily repeated, resisting the urge to punch his face now that he was so close by. What a shame to let such a good opportunity pass.

"Good. Five points from Gryffindor for your cheek," he said, turning around and striding up to the front of the classroom. Lily was slowly breathing in and out to calm herself down.

"Now, can anyone tell me how far you are in Defence Against the Dark Arts? Yes, you?" he said, pointing towards a tall, lanky Ravenclaw boy called Andrew Tristan.

"Well, last year, we did the Unforgivable Curses and started to practice dueling," he answered.

"All right. Well, who can tell me the Unforgivable Curses and what they do to their victims?" he asked. A lot of people raised their hands, among them Lily. Potter threw her a short glance before he said, "What about... Helen Kirwin?"

"The three Unforgivable Curses are Imperio-the Imperius Curse-which makes the victim do anything what the caster wants. Then there is the Cruciatus Curse-Crucio-which causes the victim incredible pain. And the last is Avada Kedavra-"

"-which is very useful to get rid off idiots like the one up there," Lily muttered darkly, making Dorcas and Julie giggle. Luckily, Potter hadn't heard her.

"-Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. The victim is dead at once. There's no counter curse," Helen finished.

"Very good, Miss Kirwin. Five points to Ravenclaw," Potter said. "Now that I know that you know about the Unforgivable Curses, we can move on to Dueling. That's the main thing we're going to do this year. You all know about Lord Voldemort and his followers-" there were a few gasps, because recently, people had started calling Voldemort 'You-know-who' because they were afraid of his name. Lily thought this was rubbish, she only feared that she would burst into laughter when she said his name. Honestly, who called themselves Voldemort?

"-and it's very important to know how to defend yourselves in a duel," Potter continued as though he hadn't heard the gasps. "You will learn useful spells and you will practice them in duels with each other. Any questions so far?"

Nobody raised their hand.

"All right," Potter said. "Then let's see how good you are at dueling. What about-" he looked at the register, then smirked, "-Lily Evans?"

Oh Lord, this lesson wasn't going to be fun. Lily got up and made her way up to the front.

"All right, Evans. First we bow, then I count to three and we start. Right?"

"Yes," Lily said, trying not to sound too nervous. She bowed forward like he did, and then gripped her wand very hard.

"One-two-three! Expelliarmus!"

Lily repelled the spell, ducking behind a table as he tried to stun her. She got up, stumbling backwards as she tried to curse him, which he parried.

"Impedimenta!" he shouted. She ducked behind a table again, and even before the spell hit it, she scrambled further back and got up suddenly, calling, "Petrificus Totalus!"

This time she hit him sqarely in the chest. With a THUMP, he fell to the floor. She walked up to him, flicking her wand casually to take the curse off him. He grabbed his wand at once and pointed it at her, and after a flash of red light, she was the one lying on the floor, paralyzed.

"In a real duel, Evans," he sneered, "it would probably cost you your life if you took your curse off your enemy." He took the curse off her. She got up the floor, glaring at him.

"Not bad," he smirked, "but don't forget that Voldemort and his followers don't use curses like Impedimenta in a duel. And if you've been hit with Crucio a few times, it's hard to duck the curses 'cause you're rather shaky. You may sit down now." Smirking, he added, "And stop scowling at me."

Fuming, Lily turned on her heel and stormed to her seat in the back.

"Well, as we just demonstrated, the best way to get rid off your enemy without killing or hurting them is to stun or to tie them up. Does anybody know the incantation for tying somebody up? Yes, Miss Edgecombe?" he pointed at a tall, brunette Ravenclaw girl (who was, by the way, his ex-girlfriend).

"It's Bondario," she answered.

"Correct. But don't use it for any sex games," Potter said, smirking. There were a few giggles, but Lily rolled her eyes.

"Does that asshole think he's funny or does he just love being annoying?" she said.

It went very quiet. Lily swallowed.

"Did I just say that aloud?" Lily asked for the second time this morning, and Dorcas answered for the second time, "Erm-yeah."

"Oh, I think I might have a little problem keeping my thoughts to myself," Lily muttered. Julie gave a nervous giggle.

"What did you call me, Evans?" Potter said. Lily eyed him warily.

"Nothing."

"Oh, I think I just heard the word 'asshole'."

"You must have heard wrong," Lily said, putting on an unconvincing expression of surprise and innocence. She saw Potter clench his jaw.

"Detention. Tonight, six p.m., my office. And twenty points from Gryffindor," he barked.

"Anything else?" she said, trying to sound nonchalantly but failing miserably.

"Yeah, get out. You're getting on my nerves."

"Excuse me?"

"Get out!" he said again, pointing towards the door.

Lily shook her head, throwing her books in her bag and storming out of the classroom.

Who did that man think he was? She hurried to the next bathroom, throwing her books in one of the sinks and looking into the mirror. She had to be careful. She had already gotten herself into a detention and it was only the first day of term. She heard the bell ring and sighing, she picked up her books and went to her next class, Charms.

"Potter's a prick," Dorcas said sympathetically as she sat down beside Lily.

"I know. What do we have after Charms?"

Dorcas looked at her timetable. "After lunch, we have a free period and then...Transfiguration. Well, isn't that nice Lily... First Potter and then McGonagall."

Yes. And detention with Potter..."

"Yeah, well... maybe it's not going to be so bad." Seeing Lily's sceptical look, she quickly said, "Yes, I know... Potter's probably going to make it hell."

Lily sighed. This day was definitely not going to be fun.