Comedy/Tragedy: The Story of a Doomed Existence

Chapter Seventeen: Idiocy and Campaign

The common room that night was a subdued affair. Even the squealing girls who normally flocked around Lily had lessened their noises and placed looks of great sorrow on their faces. Lily herself, though as irritated as any sports-hating Gryffindor could be, was glad for the lessened amount of activity. It meant that she could study in peace for the Charms quiz Professor Flitwick had hinted of in the last class.

Truth be told, there wasn't very much to study - Lily had mastered the levitation spell the day Flitwick had introduced it, and had studied the theory behind it while in the library on Halloween afternoon.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Lily said for what felt like the hundredth time. The inkbottle she was pointing at floated, directed by Lily's wand, seven feet up in the air. Keeping her hand as steady as possible, Lily brought it back down to the table in front of her pouf. It landed with a soft thump and the cap - which Lily hadn't realized was loose - fell off with a clunk. The ink, a glittering pink color, belonged to the girl sitting next to Lily. It sprayed all over the table.

"Oops!" Lily gasped, bringing a hand to her mouth. "Sorry about that!" She'd meant to levitate her own ink, not someone else's.

"It's okay!" the owner of the pink ink turned to Lily and smiled brightly. She had a rather stocky build and long, blonde-brown hair. Lily recognized her hair from somewhere.

"I'm Clara - Clara Hanson," she told Lily, smiling at the girl. "And you, you're Lily Evans, first-year genius!"

Choosing to ignore Clara's genius comment, Lily voiced something she had realized the moment she saw the girl's long hair.

"You - you're a Beater!" she said before she could stop herself. This was the girl she had seen at the Quidditch match, the one who had used her broom handle as a club.

A very ugly look passed over Clara's face. It did not suit her at all, and Lily felt a pang of regret for mentioning the subject.

"Was a Beater," she told Lily, gray eyes glittering menacingly. "Or would like to be a Beater. I've tried out for the team every year since I've been here - I'm a sixth year," she told Lily's confused countenance. "But of course, I never get on."

"Dasting," Lily said knowingly.

"You've got it. He never accepts anyone under fifth year, let alone a girl. You know...we're too emotional, we care too much about physical appearance - like we'd try out for the team if we were afraid of practicing in the mud!"

"Why doesn't he accept anyone under fifth year?" Lily asked, curious.

"Oh, you know...the stupid 'tradition' of not letting on younger students. It's so idiotic...the people never get to know the members of their team when they have so little time to work with them. People learn better when they're young, and teams work together better when they learn together. And Captains..." she let out a noise of disgust. "Don't even get me started on Captains. Not one of the Captains, in all the years I've been here, has been lower than seventh year. How're they supposed to know what they're doing if they've never done it before! Year after year..." Clara's voice trailed away, and the angry expression on the girl's face converged into sadness. "I love to play," she told Lily, changing the subject.

The redhead nodded, though her mind was elsewhere. This discrimination, against both girls and younger students, should not be acceptable! Clara was right, people learned better when they were young, people learned to be a team better when they were young.

"It ends here! The discrimination, the control, it's got to stop! There is going to be a change in the way Quidditch is played at Hogwarts, I'll see to it!"

Lily suddenly realized that she was standing up, fist in the air, and had shouted her words to the entire common room. Too inspired to even blush, the redhead gathered her things and headed out of the common room, ignoring the surprised cheers that had burst into the stillness of Gryffindor Tower.

But, as much as she hadn't wanted to announce her intentions to all of Gryffindor, Lily agreed wholeheartedly with what she had shouted. She hated to see the needless suffering of talented people like Nafeesah, and Clara, and even a few third-year boys whom she remembered from the practice and who had been quite talented in their positions.

Filled with new purpose and light, Lily decided to go to the library and study information that might help her to win her case against - well, against whoever opposed her. She always made sure that she knew what she was talking about before she argued vegetarianism with people. Why should this be any different? Thinking back, Lily also remembered her father reading through heavy law books for some of his cases, so she decided that this was probably the universal system of proving a point.

She could not just stride up to Professor Dumbledore and start telling him how wrong it all was - if he were at all a decent man, he would know that it was unjust. She needed reasons for why she knew the discrimination was unreasonable, ways to solve the undeniable problem, ideas of how to sway the opinions of students, male and female.

The room was very dark, and empty except for the librarian. The only light source was a lamp on Madam Pince's desk. She crouched over the wooden surface with a quill in her hand, the writing implement flying across a very long piece of parchment as she wrote. The light from the single lamp lit her features and those of the near parts of the library in a very eerie way. Everything appeared much longer, not to mention contorted. Lily felt, somehow, as though she were stumbling upon something secret and dangerous.

As the slightly spooked first-year shut the door behind her own footsteps, Madam Pince looked up. All of Lily's imagination-spurred thoughts of horror and deceit dissipated as the young woman smiled.

"Miss Evans, how good to see you again! Is there anything I can help with?"

"Yes, thank you," Lily told her. She stepped forward and walked toward the desk Madam Pince was still leaning over. "I'm looking to books on Quidditch, Hogwarts, and discrimination," she said proudly.

"Very well, wait just one moment." Pince began flitting about the shelves, taking down volume after volume.

Only a few moments later, she returned to Lily with a cart filled to the brim with books. Had Lily bothered to count, she would have discovered that there were more than thirty.

"I presumed you only wanted books that involve all three of those subjects?" Madam Pince asked, giving Lily a rare smile.

"Yes, this is great," Lily told her, inwardly laughing. "More than great."

"Wonderful. Would you like to check these out, or read them here? If you want to check them out, I can't let you take more than ten books at a time."

"No, I think I would prefer to stay here," Lily assured her, thinking of the way people acted when she was in a room. "Much rather."

"All right then," Pince said briskly. "I normally close the library after eight o'clock, but I can stay if there are students working."

"Oh - really, you don't have to stay if you don't want to!" Lily exclaimed. "I can check out a few of the books and come back tomorrow for more."

"It's no trouble at all. I'm happy to stay here for the benefit of someone who loves to read so much."

And with that, she gave Lily a curt nod and retreated to behind her desk. Lily stood there for a few moments and watched Pince pull out a giant encyclopedia and begin to read. It really was convenient that Madam Pince had taken a liking to her. She pulled on the cart and discovered that it was quite heavy, but nonetheless managed to drag it over to a corner of the library that had a few couches and chairs. She lit the lamp on one of the end tables, pulled a book entitled 'Quidditch in Hogwarts - a history of early teams and began to read.

A few hours later, Lily bent over a volume entitled Finding the Golden Snitch, which was apparently a treasury of Hufflepuff Seekers, squinting her eyes at a page. It had caught her attention because the name on it, Calliope de Forte, sounded familiar. Thinking for a moment, she remembered - this was the Seeker Alice had mentioned, the day before Lucy had tried out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

Lily felt a pang of anxiety, sadness, and dread pass over her heart. Lucy and Alice. She wondered what they thought of what she was doing. Would they thank her, for taking an interest in something Lucy cared so much about? Or would they get even angrier with her for trying to regain their trust, never mind that that wasn't Lily's goal?

Lily shook her head so that her curls waved back and forth. She couldn't think about them right now. Not if she wanted to succeed, to help everyone to be able to play Quidditch. She turned back to the task at hand, carefully observing the paragraph through exhausted eyes.

The most talented and renowned Hufflepuff Seeker to date was Calliope de Forte. Born in 1701, Miss de Forte came from a line of very prestigious wizards. Her father was the best Head of the Department of Magical Catastrophes anyone can remember, her grandfather was the Minister of Magic for the longest known period (1652-1755), and both her mother and her older sister were Miss Magic at least once.

But de Forte did not take an interest in the political involvement of the male half of her family, nor the beauty competitions her mother and sister found so important. No, Calliope wanted to play Quidditch. Though her family was very disappointed in her entering Hufflepuff, de Forte saw the opportunity differently. She had learned the sport of Quidditch at a very young age, and wanted more than anything to play on a House team. Hufflepuff had never received much glory for their sporting skills, and Calliope wanted to change that.

And change it she did. Easily beating out everyone at team tryouts, Miss de Forte never failed to win Hufflepuff a match. Not only the best Hufflepuff Seeker ever, de Forte soon exceeded even the achievements of Gordon Gryffindor, a direct descendent of the founder himself and one of the youngest players to join the Wimbourne Wasps. She was probably the best player Hogwarts ever saw.

The team de Forte played on (consisting of Lila Macmillan, William Standerford, Peter Surrideo, Claude Hoover, John Smith, and Michelle Arrivele) soon grew as talented as she. Their never-ending teamwork and support reflected into their games; they once achieved the highest victory in Hogwarts history: 1290 to 10. The game lasted for three days, but Calliope did not rest once.

De Forte was headed for obvious fame. Even the other Houses at Hogwarts, though still resentful toward Hufflepuff's superiority, admitted that de Forte was the best. In her seventh year, Calliope received no less than twenty-seven offers to play on some of the most prestigious Quidditch teams, including but not limited to Ireland, Italy, Borneo, Japan, and Kenya. She could have had her pick of any team she wanted to play on, but once she had graduated, she did something that many would call too daring. She applied for a Seeker position on Greenland's team.

In that day and age, Greenland was the most amazing team in the Quidditch world. They won the World Cup title eleven years in a row before Calliope applied to them. However, unlike the other teams, many of whom would do anything to get de Forte on their team, Greenland would not accept her. They had never accepted a female player, and they never would. Few teams, other than teams organized just for women (ex: Holyhead Harpies), did have women in those days, but most wouldn't care if she were particularly talented. Greenland was a different story. They sent Calliope a rejection letter, which has never been found but is known to have contained very offensive refusal. Miss de Forte swore that she would never play Quidditch again. And she didn't, for six years.

Finally, however, a close friend convinced her to try out for a team closer to home: Italy. But Calliope was in for a nasty shock - it appeared that Greenland's opinion had swayed many others as well. No one wanted a girl any more, even if she was one of the most amazing players to ever exist. After receiving rejection from Italy, Montrose, and Mexico, Miss de Forte abandoned Quidditch. She married an old Hogwarts sweetheart and died young, never touching a Snitch again.

Lily stopped reading and looked up at the darkened library. It was strange to see the contorted shadows of thousands of books, when images had been flying through her mind of Calliope de Forte's short-lived Quidditch career and the sad life she had led afterwards. Lily blinked and brought herself back to Earth. Many thoughts had been running through her mind over what she had read.

First and foremost, she realized that this was perfect - what she had read would be an essential part of her campaign to eliminate discrimination. Too tired to write much of anything, Lily jotted down a note containing the page and chapter of the information she had just read. Once she had finished this, she sat back, with the intentions of thinking more about what she had read. However, before she had time to so much as consider the book's pages, a cough interrupted her musings.

Lily turned around to see Madam Pince standing in the middle of the library. She walked over to where Lily was sitting.

"Miss Evans, it is nearly eleven o'clock. I am afraid that I am simply too fatigued to keep the library open. Would you mind terribly if I kicked you out, so to speak?" She stifled a huge yawn.

"Oh, no, Madam Pince, that's fine," Lily told her quickly, jumping up. "I'm tired, too. Might I check out a few of these books first?"

"Of course, but not all of them. It is against library rules, and I wouldn't want you to damage your back carrying the entire library up to your dorm."

Lily smiled weakly and followed Pince to her desk. The cart moved, unaided, in front of the librarian. Lily wondered why she hadn't thought of doing that earlier. She still had a nasty pain in the small of her back from dragging the cart across the floor.

"Any ten, or are there particular books you wanted?" Madam Pince asked her once they had reached their destination.

"Oh - well, I wanted that one," Lily indicated Finding the Golden Snitch. "But otherwise, it doesn't matter."

"Ah, Finding the Golden Snitch!" Pince exclaimed delightedly. "One of the best books ever written about Hufflepuff, if I do say so myself! By Alphic Sneeder, the best treasury writer of the early twentieth century. He did a whole series on Hufflepuff, not to mention those books about Egyptian traitors. But anyway, in Finding the Golden Snitch, if you have time, you should really read the passage on Hubert Nicholson, it's fascinating - he was so uncharacteristically Hufflepuff, but then he did something so reminiscent of the House traits that he was looked at in a whole new light..." Lily let the voice wash over her as she watched Madam Pince's hands gather books and go through the process of checking them out.

"...and if you don't bring them back on time, this little doohickey will squeal shrilly. It's new technology, really superb, though we don't yet know how to turn it off..."

"Thanks," Lily assured her hurriedly, suddenly wanting nothing more than to escape the library and be with her own thoughts.

"See you tomorrow, Miss Evans?" Madam Pince called.

Lily nodded curtly before turning around. Truth be told, she did not really want to return - Madam Pince's attachment to her was more than a little frightening. But the library remained the only place she could study without being constantly interrupted, so she decided it was probably a fairly bright idea to do her best to stay on Pince's good side. When she reached the door, she gave the librarian another tiny wave before turning into the hallway.

She walked quickly through the halls, stopped only from running by the heavy books in her arms. She wasn't supposed to be out at this time of night, she knew, and one of the teachers, particularly Dulcissa, Hurley, or the caretaker, Pringle, would not hesitate to give her detention, not to mention taking a number of house points. As annoyed as she was with the attention she received, Lily knew that she needed to stay on the good side of many people if she wanted her Quidditch endeavors to be successful.

"Evanesco!" she told the Fat Lady hurriedly, berating herself silently for not figuring out what that spell was, as she had promised herself she would do.

"Dear, dear, why are you out so late in the night? And good heavens, all of the books?" the Fat Lady gushed, but Lily ignored her and shoved through.

Amazingly enough for eleven o'clock on a Saturday, the common room was completely empty. Lily presumed that her housemates had retired early, probably still upset over the results of the Quidditch match. But this was not a bad thing. Lily preferred being free of their annoying comments, anyway. She crossed the common room quickly and hurried up the stairs, again thankful to see no one. However, when she burst into the first-year dorm, she wasn't so lucky.

Alice and Lucy were sitting together on the former's bed, each talking in low voices and with dark, angry expressions on their faces. When Lily shut the door, they both looked up. Their heated countenances darkened further.

"So, Evans," Lucy spoke coldly. "Thought you'd try a new tactic to get back on our good side?"

"Well, it didn't work," Alice told her promptly. They had clearly rehearsed the conversation.

"In fact, the only thing it did was make us hate you more," Lucy continued.

"There's no way we'll go back to being friends with someone who is so duplicitous," Alice told her, carefully pronouncing the syllables of the final word. Lily wondered if the round-faced girl even knew what it meant, or if instead Lucy had simply told her to say it.

"And especially not with someone who, apparently, doesn't even know what they did wrong."

"So you can give up now, Lily Evans, and go back to your popular friends."

"Because we don't need you."

"What, did you rehearse that before I came?" Lily asked angrily. She did not need this right now. "Don't tax yourself, girls. As thaumaturgic as it may seem to you, I don't squander every living moment dwelling on your abhorrence of me and my theoretical desire to convert that hatred to friendship. I don't need the camaraderie of people who are so obviously erroneous. I worry about other, more exigent issues than what you two - or anyone, for that matter - ascertain of me."

She shoved past the two girls and set her books down in her trunk, changing quickly into a simple cotton nightgown. She was fully aware of the other girls and the knight watching her carefully, but she ignored the burning sensation to turn around.

"What did she say?" Lily heard Alice clearly whisper, and felt a spasm of satisfaction cross her face. She normally kept her more complex language out of her conversations, so that she didn't have to explain herself numerous times, but she had forgotten in this instance.

She grinned again and hopped into bed, finally feeling the eyes leave her person. On her right, she saw the two girls climb into their own beds. The knight's gently wheezing snores soon permeated the dorm. It was as she watched Alice clamber into the maroon sheets of the nearby bed that Lily remembered something from the book.

Surrideo...Lily thought carefully. Peter Surrideo. He was one of the players on Calliope de Forte's Hufflepuff Quidditch team. She wondered if perhaps he and Alice were related. After all, the round-faced girl had explained about some of her family being in Hufflepuff, and she had known about Calliope.

However, Lily's musings were interrupted for the second time that night, when something hard and painful bit down on her toes. Lily extracted her foot from under the covers and pulled with it a very small turtle - a snapping turtle, Lily realized as the small creature bit down on her foot again. She herself bit her lip to refrain from yelling and carefully stepped onto the floor. A soft snickering was coming from Leanna's bedcovers, so Lily tiptoed over there and dropped the animal onto the foot of the brunette's bed.

Then she quickly tiptoed back to her own four-poster and leapt inside, waiting for the screeches that would come soon.

Sure enough, Lily did not have to wait long for Leanna to start screaming like a madwoman. She leapt around the dormitory, half-singing, half-shouting "get it off, get it off, get it off!" Finally, the girl kicked the animal off of her foot and dove back toward her covers, sobbing irrepressibly.

A fourth-year girl with large glasses and an overbite, among one of the many people who came to investigate Leanna's noise, rescued the small turtle from where it lay unmoving on the dormitory floor. After she left, the other girls retreated as well.

As the noise from Leanna's predicament slowly dissipated back to silence, Lily grinned. Maybe Amelia was right. It had been quite an interesting day.

"So, Lily, how's it coming?"

"Yeah, yeah, are we going to go yell at Dasting yet?"

"You are soo smart for doing this!"

Such comments followed Lily all through the weekend and into the next week. She was glad that she still had the support of some people, but it was beginning to annoy her how much her peers would peer over one of the books she was studying, or rifle through her notes, or even tell her to hurry up so that they could go and kick Sir Dasting in a very unpleasant place.

Maybe she was being paranoid, or irritable, but Lily couldn't help but grow angry over the constant interruptions. She didn't see them spending every waking moment on the campaign! As the redhead learned slowly, there must be much preparation before even the smallest of actions can take place.

One afternoon, Lily sat in the library, trying to ignore the person next to her and trying to stay awake long enough to finish an incredibly lengthy and deeply boring book by the name of Quidditch Problems - what can go wrong in everyone's favorite sport. She stopped focusing for one brilliant moment and instead thought about her campaign, and the actions that she needed to take, or not take, to get the results she wanted.

No matter what she told herself or anyone else, Lily was getting thoroughly annoyed with all of the reading she had to do. This surprised her greatly, for she had never grown tired of reading before. But the fact remained that, just like everyone else, Lily wanted it to be over with. She wanted to walk up to that stupid git, Dasting, and tell him everything she had learned about Quidditch, along with a few good curses and spits-in-the-face.

But she restrained herself. It was a strange thing to realize that she did have an ounce of common sense and self-control. As she told herself constantly, day after day, she had to keep from doing exactly what she wanted. Had to restrain herself, because if she lost her temper, everything that she was working so hard for would be wasted.

The evening of November 13^th found Lily sitting in the common room, leafing through her notes and in a rather bad mood. She had just finished reading through a two-thousand-page volume on the tactics of Quidditch referees and was unable to keep from yawning every few minutes. The book had easily been the most boring she had ever read. It seemed almost as though Lily's very existence had been betrayed in the fact that there was a book that was so incredibly pointless and dull.

She rifled through her papers again. Where were her notes on female beaters? She had taken three long rolls of parchment worth...

Looking up, Lily saw Clara the beater-girl standing in front of her, holding all three of the scrolls and reading one. Feeling Lily's eyes on her, the stocky girl looked down and smiled.

"Wow, Lily, these are amazing," she said, voice filled with praise and awe. Lily bit her tongue against a scathing retort. This was one of the girls she was trying to help, she told herself silently.

"I didn't know any of this information!" Clara gushed again. "This is truly amazing. You really have a talent for explaining the details."

"Thank you." Lily bit her tongue harder. "May I please have those scrolls back? I need to reread something for my notes on the Ballycastle Bats."

"Certainly." The sixth-year had not even noticed that Lily was speaking through clenched teeth. "Maybe I could have another look, sometime?"

"Sure," Lily told her. She felt her tongue give way slightly and the acrid taste of blood fill her mouth. Swallowing in a rather disgusted way, Lily picked up the notes and read over her tiny writing.

"There...Barney Gable..." she muttered to herself. Placing her finger where the name was written, she turned to another piece of parchment and began taking notes. A few more minutes passed in this fashion before a giggle and a 'Hiiii....' distracted Lily.

Completely taken by surprise, the redhead shuffled her paper. She accidentally tore another paper, this one dedicated to the discrimination of the American Apple-pickers, in her haste to see who was disturbing her now.

"Ye-es?"

"Hi Lily," the girl giggled again.

"Can I help you?"

"I was - I was wondering - well, see, it's like this - if you wouldn't mind," the girl smiled at Lily, stumbling over her words.

"What?" Lily bit her tongue again.

"I was wondering - would it be okay if, if I read over your notes on the Gryffindor Quidditch teams? I'm really, really interested in them." She blinked down at Lily, still smiling so wide Lily was sure it must hurt. She found herself wishing that it did.

"I was using those, actually," Lily told her. She snatched up the hidden parchment, which she hadn't looked at in over a week, and pretended to start reading.

"Oh - oh, okay..." the girl looked at Lily in a forlorn sort of way and walked off.

Rolling her eyes at both herself for what she was about to do, and at the girl for being so, so - Lily couldn't even find a word for it, the redhead took a deep breath.

"Salina," she called, amazed that she remembered the second-years name. "I guess you could use it for a few moments."

A brightly faked smile later, the girl named Salina was happily squealing in her corner and Lily could get back to her work - or so she thought.

With a deafening bang and a lot of smoke, the section of chairs behind to Lily's couch exploded. Or at least that's what they seemed to do; Lily couldn't see anything but thick gray smoke for a number of minutes. When all of the grayness had disappeared, the common room remained dark. The smoke had, in fact, taken out all of the lights. Shaking her head in exasperation, Lily reached over and lit the candelabra next to her with a few flicks of her wand.

Still wondering vaguely what the commotion had been about, Lily reached down to pick up her cardinal-feather quill. She had dropped it in surprise over the exploding sound. However, as Lily bent down, she heard more loud bangs, though they seemed somehow more distant. She snatched at her quill and sat up.

In the empty air above the sea of Gryffindor students, brightly colored fireworks were exploding with tenacity. The students around Lily 'oohed' and 'aahed' at the display, particularly amazed by a firework that looked like a rainbow. Lily blinked as an incredibly neon explosion occurred, spraying her and a few others with lime green sparkles.

Lily looked behind her, toward the half-circle of chairs from which the explosion had come. And there was the cause: James Potter and his three closest friends were doubled up in laughter, standing next to the charred remains of a crate. The nearest piece of this had a label on it, florescence equal to the neon firework whose sparks still littered Lily's hair. Squinting somewhat, Lily could decipher the words 'Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks.' Lily glanced up at the three boys. Sirius caught her eye and grinned; Lily couldn't help but return the expression.

The fireworks lasted for a very long time. Lily wasn't sure how many had been set off, but it was quite apparent that there had been a lot. Some managed to explode more than once, which Lily could not explain through the laws of physics. She decided to satisfy her doubting opinions by inwardly explaining that she didn't want to know.

Lily would have liked to continue studying, and would have found great pleasure in staying in a bad mood, but it was impossible to frown or to focus on a book when so many fireworks were exploding in the air above her head. So, despite what she wanted to be a bad mood, Lily's feelings soon turned to being happy. The redhead felt much happier than she had been in weeks.

Maybe, a small voice inside of her head suggested, Maybe it will all be okay. I can make new friends...these people aren't that bad! A few girls next to her began screaming hysterically as a particularly loud firework burst over their heads, purple sparks continuing to explode as they alighted in the air near the girls' heads. Lily chose to ignore them; there were other people she could get to know! However, she wisely avoided observing anyone else; inwardly, she knew she would be just as displeased.

Lily glanced up at the fireworks, one of which looked a lot like a watermelon. Before she could watch it disappear in more sparkles, the portrait slammed open and two people stood there, looking livid. The common room fell silent instantly; even the fireworks seemed to realize that they should stop exploding. There was no sound except for the slight crackle of sparks still in the air. Everyone in Gryffindor Tower stared, alarmed, at the doorway.

"What - is - going - on - in - here?" Professor McGonagall shrieked. Her hat fell off and her black hair, which was normally tied back into what looked like a very painful bun, had popped out of its pins and framed her face haphazardly.

"Just having a little fun, Professor," James said amiably - bravely, Lily thought. If McGonagall had been looking at her like that, she would have strong inclination to dive under something for protection.

"YOU!" Professor McGonagall was so mad it seemed painful. "I've never been more disappointed in a set of Gryffindors! Our new first-years are hopeless, hopeless! First you can't manage to win that Quidditch match -" a pained look crossed her face, "And now this!"

James grinned in what he must have thought a winning way - to Lily he looked cheeky and false. Professor McGonagall apparently agreed with Lily; she didn't take James' action so well.

"Seventy-five points from Gryffindor, Potter." I'll let Mr. Pringle deal with your detention," she gasped, breathing heavily. Apparently, keeping her mouth so thin had an affect on her lungs as well. "Whatever you want, Apollyon, Merlin knows he deserves it. I'm going to go make some strong tea."

"And whiskey," James added loudly, adding a bright smile to his pert comment.

Minerva McGonagall gave him a look that would have made even the brassiest knight retreat. James blushed horribly and backed away. Lily was suddenly very jealous of her Transfiguration teacher.

"Someone is going to clean this up," she told the common room. It was obvious to everyone what she was suggesting; James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter suddenly received a set of angry glares. "I expect far better behavior from the Gryffindor first-years, not to mention everyone else. And please put your trouble-making efforts toward the Quidditch team, instead. It's your fault we lost, I expect." She turned on her heel and exited the portrait.

Lily stood up suddenly. She walked toward the portrait hole, unaware that a determined look had passed over her face.

"Lily, what are you doing?" Amelia asked, but Lily pushed passed her and kept walking.

What was she doing? This was a horrible idea, she needed to turn around right away! Completely unaware of the fierce orders Lily was giving them, the redhead's feet continued to the portrait hole. Lily's arms pulled the portrait aside carefully, and Lily's legs carried her into the corridor outside.

"Professor McGonagall!" Lily's mouth called, a mixture of anger and steely purpose in her completely uncontrollable voice.

"Yes, Miss Evans?" the Transfiguration teacher looked very weary and the spots of color in her face had not faded.

"I just wanted to say: it's not the first-years' fault that we lost the Quidditch match!" Lily's mind even seemed to have betrayed her. She wanted nothing more than to be back in the common room, reading up on information for her Quidditch conquest. But yet here she was, defying the stiffest teacher in the school, and she couldn't even do anything about it.

"I really don't want to talk about this at the moment, Evans," Professor McGonagall had an irritated note in her voice.

She was looking curiously at Lily; the same expression adorning her face that Lily was sure she herself would have if she still had the ability to control such instincts. McGonagall looked bemused and slightly worried, for Lily never did anything to defy the rules, not since her eventful first day. And yet here the first-year was, almost picking a fight with one of her professors.

"It isn't even Gryffindor's fault!" Lily plunged on carelessly. "Or - or Slytherin's!"

"Miss Evans, I am warning you, my temper should not be tried at this moment!" Professor McGonagall glared at Lily.

"No, none of the houses are to blame!" Lily shouted over the teacher's voice. What was she doing? She asked herself hopelessly. "It's all the stupid staffing decisions here! Does no one else notice that Sir Dasting is controlling every team in the whole stupid school? Does no one else realize his bias against girls and students younger than fifth year? Does no one else see that he is the reason we lost so horribly?"

"Miss Evans, that is enough!" Professor McGonagall told her quietly.

This tone of voice did what shouting would not: Lily's sensibility was returned to her body. She stepped back from the teacher, a horrified expression on her countenance.

"Do not talk to me right now, and do not complain against the staffing decisions of Albus Dumbledore! He knows what he is doing, and you do not! Twenty points from Gryffindor, and good riddance!" She stormed away, leaving Lily standing in the middle of the corridor and a few faces peering out of the portrait hole to see what the commotion was.

"What - what's going on, Lily?" asked the girl named Salina, whom Lily had allowed to borrow the scroll on Gryffindor Quidditch teams.

"I - I just lost Gryffindor twenty points -" Lily told her inattentively, running her hand through her hair.

"WHAT?" Michel Vasquez, captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, bellowed. "WE'VE LOST ONE HUNDRED POINTS BECAUSE OF TWO STUPID FIRST-YEARS?"

"Ninety-five, genius," Lily told him coolly. She fought to gain control over herself and her temper. "And I don't see you yelling at the Quidditch team, where they as good as lost us fifty points!"

"Don't you bring the Quidditch team into this!" someone else yelled. "Genius." The last remark was clearly meant to be sarcastic.

The faces disappeared from the portrait hole, and Lily was an outcast...again. She stared despondently at the portrait that normally held the Fat Lady; the woman had probably fled in all of the noise and confusion. A moment later, however, the empty portrait burst open again.