Hidden Inside

She did not need to scour her brains for this. She hated him. It was a strong word, but that didn't matter to her. The frantic Gryffindor had been a second away from begging on her knees -- with sopping hair and robes heavy from the rain -- for anyone but Severus Snape, but Saint Abigail had been relentless.

Lily broke out of her miserable daze and the cauldron loomed back into her view. The heat exuded from the boiling liquid, nudging the nerves on her face as a reminder of her present situation. She sighed and took the vial of armadillo bile, tipping the bile into the mix to complete the procedure. No, wait, I already did that! She yanked her hand back, but she hadn't been quick enough; the bile splashed into the bubbling contents of the cauldron. A mass of grey steam rushed out with a loud hiss.

"Is everything alright back there?" came Professor Slughorn's call from the front of the room.

"Yes," Lily replied breathlessly as she fanned the steam and examined the table for a neutralizing ingredient. "Sorry, Professor, everything's fine."

She tried the fix the problem the best she could, and when the color and texture of the potion finally looked at least similar to the color and texture before she added the bile, the perspiring student checked her book to find where she was. Noticing that her blunder kept her several steps behind, Lily quickened her pace, not wanting to have an incomplete potion by the end of the class.

"Ah -- um...thirteen times clockwise..." she mumbled to herself. She grabbed the ladle and began stirring.

"It's for your own good." Abigail smirked, as if waiting for her to ask why.

"For my own good?" Lily squeaked.

"Well, let's put it this way, shall we? Why doesn't anyone hate you?"

The baffled Gryffindor blinked. "What do you mean?"

What was she thinking when she made that vow? And how did Abigail know the last thing Lily wanted to do? It was worse than she dreaded. And she had no alternative. Her grip tightened on the ladle. Honestly, she wouldn't have done something like that to Abigail if Ravenclaw lost instead. She didn't even have a plan for what she wanted Abigail to do for her if she lost. Lily mainly agreed to the bet to rub it into that haughty Ravenclaw's face once Warren, the replacement Gryffindor seeker caught the Snitch. But obviously, he hadn't, and that was what got Lily into this mess.

Lily was only subconsciously aware that she didn't keep count of her stirring. She barely even noticed that the smell lingering in the air was burgeoning from her own cauldron as she stirred the murky liquid. With glazed eyes, she noted that it reeked of...well, whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant. Lily tried not to smell the stench or inhale it through her mouth at the same time. It was like...old rubbing alcohol or something of the sort. And garbage. And...metal. And burnt leaves or...

A thick, green haze rose sinisterly and swam in the air before her as her hand continued to guide the ladle in a circular path, sleeves grazing the rim of the cauldron. Lily was too distracted to even notice that she had far exceeded the thirteen clockwise turns...

"Why doesn't anyone hate me -- is that what you said?"

"Yes, why are you loved by everyone in this school? Why does no one have a grudge against you?" Abigail babbled excitedly.

Wordlessly, Lily stared.

"That's right, Lily. You don't let them."

And she was determined to stay away from Snape as much as possible. But even as much as she hated him, she did not want to hurt anybody.

The moment Lily heard Severus Snape's name she knew -- even before a smug Abigail Bartleby went on about breaking up with James, getting Snape to notice her, dating the slime-head until the end of the year, and finally making a fool of him in front of everyone at the right time -- Lily knew that she would not enjoy a minute of it.

Standing to Lily's right, Mitchell Mallard straightened up and frowned.

"What the blazes is that smell?" he muttered to the air.

Lily, with her unfocused eyes fixed on a spot on the table, and hands still steering the ladle, didn't notice.

The color of the smoke had long past faded, but the smell became more pungent -- almost tangible. And it started to spread.

Lily found her voice.

"..and why would I want people to start loathing my guts?"

"Well, not to the point of loathing your guts, exactly, but -- well -- you have to show everyone that you're not quite the goody-goody they think you are. And what if you are? Everyone loses interest."

...but she couldn't throw away her pride. She had already injured most of it herself when she complained. No, from now on, she was going to pretend none of this bothered her one bit. From now on, she was going to win the greasy-haired freak's heart (at this, Lily nearly gagged) without hesitation. She was going to complete her task with ease and laugh with Abigail and her cronies at the end of the year and not regret a second.

"Somebody wake her up," a Slytherin girl begged in a muffled voice. Her robes, just like many others around her, were pulled up to her face.

"Professor!" another Slytherin student shrieked. "Mallard fainted!"

"..Then before you know it, you're not remembered for anything. Don't you want to be remembered for anything special after we leave Hogwarts? Don't you want to leave a mark of some sort?"

"Not for this, certainly," Lily answered stubbornly.

"Who gets remembered for being nice? Trust me, I'm doing you a favor, Lily..."

Oh God, the smell. Lily caught a slight whiff. That alone made her immediately smother her face with her robes.

"Finally!"

"What's up, Evans? Beffudling Charm still on you from the last class?"

Lily did not answer. By then, she had regained enough of her composure to take her wand from her robes and clear her cauldron. The smell stayed in the air, but faded slowly. Potions! One mistake and it's no use.

"Oh dear." Professor Slughorn in all his bulk approached the unconscious Mallard near Lily's feet. "A good shake will do," he said to the students hovering over his sprawled body. "He'll be fine without a visit to the hospital wing, I believe."

One of the students obediently shook Mallard awake.

"What happened?" the recovered Slytherin slurred groggily.

"I'm sorry Professor," said Lily. "I guess I was distracted. This won't happen again, I promise."

Professor Slughorn shook his head almost mournfully. "What could possibly distract one of my favorite students from Potions? Nevermind, I'll excuse you from this, I'm sure it was just a simple mistake -- many brilliant witches get distracted even -- class dismissed!"

Somehow, as they left, Lily caught a glimpse of Snape glancing at her as he walked by, looking smug. It was funny how much more noticeable a person became after he had been mentioned recently. Lily felt her face burn with rage and humiliation.

"Abigail, I don't..."

"Oh, please, Lily. You lost the bet. You can't cry now. Suck it up and accept what you've brought upon yourself. Besides, it's not like it's to anyone who doesn't deserve it. It's only Snape."

_______________

Get this right, Lily, she urged herself. "James." Lily took a deep breath. "I have to tell you something."

Don't let him talk until you've finished. Don't let him throw you off. Just keep going. Let it all out. You have one chance, Lily.

"I feel as if -- what we have right now...together...is not enough. I don't ask for much, James. Try to understand. What I'm trying to say is...well, where we are -- it's wonderful, it really is. But I feel as if we're not going anywhere."

She had a funny feeling somewhere inside her as she spoke. It was a realization. Her words were not just fabricated from thin air just to carry out her dreaded task. She wasn't pressured by command. These words were real.

"I'm not even sure of what's been keeping us together all this time. I'm looking for something more than what we have right now. I feel as if this relationship is missing something, and I don't know if you can give it to me."

Look at him, she reminded herself. She set her chin.

"So I'm going to have to end this. You can continue focusing on Quidditch. And I will continue abiding to the Dark Lord's orders as his most devoted servant and assist him in his grand plan to subdue the world -- dear God, I can't do this."

Lily sighed loudly, eyeing her hopeless expression reflected on the mirror before her. It was not easy. She could say it all now, but could she say it in front of James? How would he take it? True, he was her boyfriend, but before that, he had been her friend. A close and loving friend. And it was tugging on her conscience to hurt someone who had been so dear to her like that. But it wasn't like she had a choice. Even if she hadn't made the bet, the relationship just didn't feel right anymore. It would be an insult to their friendship to keep it up when it had lost its meaning.

She rested her forehead against the cool glass. How could one little unwise choice have the potential to damage her way of life? What if their friendship was ruined permanently? If the situation crashed with James, then remaining friends with the rest of the Marauders might turn awkward as well, even uncomfortable. And she could never bear that. Sirius always brought the chaos into her life. He had always been James' sidekick -- his first mate, but still, never an exact replica. He would occasionally give Lily the friend side that James would be missing at certain times. And when things were on the verge of getting carried away with those two, Remus always managed to calm them down. He had a way of simmering things -- not only James and Sirius, but frantic moments in Lily's life as well. Peter...well, he was just Peter. The fan. The admirer. And James. He had always made her heart tingle and sparkle. But now it just twitched. Lily sighed again for what seemed the umpteenth time. Just what was this bet going to do with her life?

Lily remained there like that for a long time, pondering, waiting, hoping for an answer.

________________

Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew stood on either side of a statue of a huchbacked hag. Peter whimpered softly with excitement in what looked like an exhilerating staring contest with the glaring eyes of the stone hag while Sirius stood back against the wall with the same bored expression on his face. With a slight suspicion as to what the two Marauders were doing, a passing Remus decided to ask anyway, in an almost tentative tone.

"What are you doing? Where's James?"

"Why hello, Moony," Sirius smiled at his friend. "For a second there, when you walked around that corner, I thought you were that Agnes Parkinson again (she won't stop tailing me, that annoying pugfaced twit), in other words, I'm glad to see you."

"Likewise, but that didn't answer --"

"James is nicking things from Hogsmeade," Peter Pettigrew responded, breathless with anticipation. "He's coming back any second and he told us to stand watch."

"Ah..."

"I think I hear him!" Peter pressed his ear against the hump of the statue. After a moment he frowned. "Or it could've been a mouse? I'm not -- AAUGH!"

A hole had appeared from the statue's hump and Peter was knocked to the ground as though something invisible had fallen on him.

"Whoops -- sorry about that, Wormtail." James appeared out of thin air as he flung a silvery cloak off to the side. He held a large, battered piece of parchment in one hand, and a wand in the other.

"Mischief managed -- here, Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony -- I can't carry all this back to the Common Room myself -- it nearly anchored me down on the way here."

Remus, with Zonko's products piled in his arms, frowned disapprovingly. "You know, Prongs, there's a line between mischief and crime --"

"Aw, save it Moony, if I wanted two Lilys in my life, I'd say so."

__________________

The four Marauders entered an empty common room (the rest of the Gryffindors were eating lunch in the Great Hall) and deposited the stolen loot onto the couch by the fireplace. Peter immediately tore at the sweets and hastily stuffed as much chocolate in his mouth that fit. With bulging cheeks and chocolate glistening on his lips, he smiled to himself, as if savoring the reward of clever theft, even though he had not performed it. Sirius merely examined a Zonko's product before tossing it aside, unimpressed. Remus stared almost pleadingly at the ceiling.

Thievery, he thought. If I'm not drawing a line here, where do I draw the line?

"I think Zonko's has come up with a new product if I hadn't missed it before," said James as he dug out what appeared to be an ordinary inkbottle.

"Supposedly, they appear to be regular school supplies, but the label says they actually make excellent --"

He stopped abruptly at the sound of a door shutting above them. The rest of the boys froze, eyeing the girl's dormitories.

"James?"

"Crap," hissed James, recognizing Lily's voice. Panicking, he gave his wand a spasmodic wave, and all the sweets and joke products leaped and wedged themselves under the couch cushion. He whipped around and straightened up immediately, hoping she wouldn't notice how the cushion seemed to swell from sheltering the goods. James raked a hand through his hair, this time, to disguise any sign of guilt in his movements.

"Alright, Lily?"

Lily stopped at a scarlet armchair and traced the embroidery with her fingers. There was a long silence.

"Actually, no. I...I want to talk to you James."

Remus headed toward the boy's dormitories, muttering about forgetting something from his room. At his urgent gesture, Sirius and Peter followed.

"It's hard," Lily began tentatively. "I really don't know where to begin..."

"Do you want to sit?" James offered.

"Oh. Yes, actually. "

Lily approached the bulging couch near the fireplace before James careened her toward one on the opposite side of the room. Lily sat down, but she noticed that James remained standing. She felt oddly uncomfortable this way; it reminded her of the times a professor would leer over her desk to ask her questions in order to set an example for the class, knowing she will answer correctly.

"You don't want to sit down?"

James shrugged nonchalantly. "I like standing better."

"Please sit. For now at least. I really want to talk to you."

"Lily, you could still talk to me like this. It's not that difficult, is it?"

Lily frowned. Did he just pick today to be so stubborn or had she missed that spot of detail the entire time she had been with him? "It just doesn't feel right when you're standing, James. I feel like I'm...it's as if you're waiting for this to be over! You're not, are you?"

"I'm not! I'm just standing, I hope there's nothing wrong with that!"

"James!" Lily took a deep breath. "It's probably not even about me sitting or you standing or any of that rubbish. That's not what this is about. I'm trying to be serious with you. But you're on your feet like that as if you're sure this wouldn't be important. As if you could just easily walk off and continue on with your own thing after this is over. So please. Could you just sit now? It's that simple. Just sit, and...and...stop fiddling with that inkbottle."

James smiled in a much cheerier degree than was called for. "Come on, Lily. This is what I call making a mole into a mountain. If you just tell me what's on your mind, then I'm sure --"

"I'm breaking up with you."

James dropped his inkbottle. It exploded before his feet. A smothering silence followed, as if to make up for the enormous burst of sound. Although startled by the explosion, Lily made relatively no reaction. Behind the smoke, she could only make out an outline of James. She had been given barely a second to see his face.

"Wormtail, you are damn lucky that bomb saved us, or I would've murdered you." Sirius hissed as he struggled to his feet at the bottom of the stairs. "I never thought walking down the stairs could be so complicated for anyone, you clumsy lump."

"Well, you weren't so slick yourself when you grabbed us to break your fall, Padfoot," Remus whispered vehemently.

"I tripped because of Wormtail! It was either that or letting my head get cracked open! "

Remus sighed, thought better of saying how he preferred the latter, and attempted to drape James' invisibility cloak back over himself and the others before the smoke cleared.

When Lily could see James again, he had donned a peculiar expression on his face. He appeared to be deep in thought. Then finally, as if the smoke had been silence itself, James broke the wait with a ponderous "huh."

Lily raised her eyebrows. Huh. Was that all? But then she saw James' face undergo several transformations, as though his facial muscles were experimenting. He went from thoughtful to blank, from a twitch of a smile to a disfiguring frown. Then slowly, his mouth expanded to a grin of realization. He burst out laughing. Lily was startled, but James did not seem to notice as he doubled over, guffawing like a hyena.

"Oh, Lily, that was really good," he managed to say after a severe bout of hysterics. "You honestly fooled me there, well done."

Her jaw nearly dropped in dismay. "What?"

"For a moment there, I actually believed you wanted to break up with me..."

James could not continue for he was choking with mirth. And in the corner of the common room, Peter smothered his mouth with his robes to stem his own laughter. "She's not serious," Sirius remarked, grinning himself. Remus remained silent and expressionless, not removing his eyes from the apparently ludicrous scene before them.

When her shock started to ebb away, Lily rose slowly from the couch. "What are you talking about, James?" she demanded quietly to disguise the quiver of growing rage in her voice. "I'm being serious."

"I love you, Lily," he sighed after calming himself again. "You really never fail to surprise me."

Shutting her eyes as if in immense pain, Lily shook her head. "You see? This is exactly what's wrong with you -- you think everything is a joke! I can never be serious with you!"

In a rage, she went on. "I would have expected you to at least ask why. Or where we went wrong, or what either of us could do to make it better. But this? You're laughing about it like it's nothing? I can't believe you!"

James' shaking began to subside, and his smile wilted the slightest at her words, but his light attitude still remained. He gently grasped her shoulders.

"Lily, I'm sure you wouldn't want to break up with me, even if you weren't joking. I suspect you're --"

She swatted his hands away, and with the same quiet, cold tone she used in the days she hated him, said, "I suspect you're still the same immature, narrow-minded scumbag. Good night, James. I'm going to bed." With that, she pushed past him and stalked across the common room.

"I'm too tired to even try to reason with you anymore," she concluded stiffly as she headed toward the girl's dormitories. And not another word came from Lily, James, nor the invisible Marauders until a good few tense minutes after the door shut upstairs.

By now all signs of laughter had disappeared from James' face. He huffed loudly, and continued to ponder, looking more confused than anything. He paced the common room, darting glances back toward the girl's dormitories, then to the windows and the walls, uttering incoherent noises every so often, and only growing more and more frustrated by a resilient puzzlement. Finally, after minutes of getting no answers, he sank into the couch by the fireplace with another slightly irritated huff. Two sherbet balls, a bag of Cockroach Clusters, and a balloon-like Zonko's device that farted loudly as it hit the floor, fell from under the cushion to the red carpet. James glared at the corner.

"I know you three are hiding there. I'm not stupid, you know."

The three Marauders threw the cloak off themselves, gladly welcoming elbowroom and fresh oxygen. Remus and Wormtail looked a little sheepish from being discovered, but Sirius walked boldly over to James and clapped a hand over his friend's shoulder.

"I'm sure it's just a mood problem, mate. She'll get over it in no time."

_________________

Lily stormed into the Potions classroom, her cloak billowing out behind her. She ignored all the pointed whispers and mutters that she knew were surely about the recent events in the Common Room. The Gryffindor girls and even some of the Slytherin girls were overjoyed to hear that James was now an eligible bachelor, much to the dismay of their boyfriends. Sylvia Plath was applying a fresh coat of mascara, sneaking glances at James every now and then, to which Lily irritably snapped, "Oh, for goodness's sake." Sylvia gave Lily an annoyed glance, ignored her, and promptly proceeded to the lip-gloss. The peeved Gryffindor resisted the temptation to shove the gloss up her pretty nose and made her way to her seat.

James was deliberately not looking at her but was seemingly engrossed in a highly entertaining conversation with a bemused Remus. Lily glared at the latter, as though it had been his fault she broke up with James, but he just gave her a helpless shrug as if to say What do you expect me to do? Lily couldn't sit next to James as she usually did after everything that had happened, so she threw her things with a huff onto the table behind them, scaring a sleepy Benjy Fenwick out of his chair. She sat down on her chair with another huff and spied, with irritation, Abigail out of the corner of her eye applying make-up as well. She probably set this whole thing up just so she could have a chance at James too, thought Lily nastily. But Lily was pulled out of her classmate-bashing trance with the slam of a door, announcing the arrival of Professor Slughorn.

"Ms.Plath, put those silly things away. Ms.McKinnon, really, you are better off without those unsightly sparkles. I have potions and brews that will have you throwing out that mess through the window in a heartbeat. But that comes at a later time because today," Slughorn paused dramatically for effect, "we're choosing new Potions partners!"

His words swept an interested fervor among the class. It wasn't the idea of actually choosing the partners that caught them; it was that once partners were chosen, they could begin work on their 7^th year research projects almost immediately. In 7^th year, Potions and other classes became optional, taken only by the most interested students who wished to pursue independent research. Sirius without delay dropped the course ("You don't understand, I've had it with hippogriff feces...") and Peter followed soon after ("Well, uhh...I've never been really good with that stuff..."). Remus and Lily, on the other hand, had signed up almost instantly. Lily had always had a natural talent for the subject and Remus...well, she wasn't sure why but he had mumbled to her once something about a cure for lynthracopy. James had just tagged along for the ride, not really caring because his Potions grades were acceptable enough for the course anyways.

"But we will do that at the end of class, so for now, finish up all remaining work from last class." The class let out a sigh. Slughorn continued, "I need two groups of two to go fetch some fresh ingredients." He pointed arbitrarily to Remus and James and then to two other students. "You two, go pick some fresh tulsi from the greenhouses. Be careful not to damage their roots while pulling them up." Remus and James left quietly to do as he asked. Slughorn turned to face the other two and told them to find something or other from Hagrid - Lily wasn't listening.

She frowned in disappointment as Remus left the classroom - she had wanted to ask him during class whether he would consider partnering with her for the semester project. She had originally intended to partner with James but that was now out of the question for obvious reasons. At the same time, she wasn't so sure that she wanted to do the same project as Remus did. Lily poked her Potions textbook in fierce irritation and glanced sideways to where Snape was working. He was scribbling furiously in his textbook, making cross-outs, glancing at his bubbling potion, and then editing what he had already wrote. She sighed. It was what she was supposed to be doing but her concentration had the fickleness of a befuddled boggart today. Lily gritted her teeth and went back to her potion. To her panic, the entire potion had boiled over and had started to melt the table legs. It took her almost the entire period to get rid of the mess and finish a somewhat decent attempt at a remake. And now it was almost time for class to end and tell Slughorn the decisions for partners but Remus and James hadn't come back yet. Most of the girls hadn't paired up yet, anxiously waiting for James so they could flood him with offers. But at Slughorn's insistence, whose patience was wearing thin, they grudgingly paired up.

Benjy Fenwick approached her cautiously, bewaring of her temperamental mood. "Um, Lily, if you don't have a partner yet, would you like to pair up with me?" he asked slowly, trying to predict her reaction.

Lily groaned inwardly. It was the last thing she wanted to do. It was true that Benjy was truly a nice person and his grades weren't too shabby either. But really, he slept all the time. She knew that she'd end up doing most to all of the work. "Well, um, actually - " she began but was spared the distress of rejecting him by the arrival of Remus and James running back into the classroom, heaving and clearly out of breath. James' glasses were lopsided and flecked with dirt. Remus' hair resembled James' after a particularly aggresive Quidditch match, and was dampened with sweat at the roots. With torn and disheveled robes, they struggled to explain amidst gasps for air.

"Sorry Professor, we - "

"- huge vines - "

"- huge Man-eating vines - "

"- nearly killed us - "

"- almost huff eaten huff alive - "

"It's all right boys, calm down," Slughorn interrupted. "Take a moment to catch your breaths and get back to me in a minute about your partner choices." He chuckled to himself and walked back to his desk. "I can't tell you how many times I would just barely escape those things..."

James straightened his glasses and stared after the potions teacher with disdain in his eyes. "So we just did your dirty work for you..."

Remus laughed quietly. "Just drop it James." He caught Lily's inquisitive gaze and motioned for her to come over. She did so quickly, wanting to ask him before things got awkward with James.

"Remus, if you don't mind, would you mind partnering with me for the semester project?" James froze as she asked. She avoided his gaze that was turning from her and Remus, back and forth.

Remus was also silent, clearly caught in the middle of his friends. He replied quietly, "Actually, I decided to do a year project instead." He paused before continuing. "And, I decided to do it alone." At Lily's and James's surprised faces, he went on. "I know, we're supposed to have partners. I already decided it a while ago with Slughorn, he gave me special permission." Lily and James were staring at him. "Sorry," he added tersely. The bell rang and students began to rush out.

"Students without partners at the front!" Slughorn called. James and Lily were desperately avoiding each other's eyes and Remus was just as desperate to leave. They both waved Remus on and walked up to the front, meeting none other than a smirking Abigail Adams and a frustrated Severus Snape, who was currently in a heated but doomed argument with Professor Slughorn.

"Why can't I work alone?!" Snape asked angrily. "If the werew-" he began.

"He is allowed because of special permission from the Headmaster," Slughorn cut him off, his patience ebbing away with each word. "Now, this argument is over." He faced the rest of them. "I want you four to make your final decisions now. You let me know once you're content with your partners." He left, preventing any of them from saying anything else.

The four of them stared at each other, two of them shooting daggers, two of them avoiding contact, and two of them thinking and calculating. While James and Snape were in a silent death match, Abigail raised an eyebrow at Lily and covertly flashed her eyes at Snape. Lily understood the message immediately but averted her gaze, having no desire to convey that. Abigail, though, knew what Lily was thinking and scowled at her. All of a sudden, Lily's right hand, the one she had shook on the bet with, was scorching hot and burning with pain. She cradled it impulsively and gasped in agony and the three of them turned to look at her. James immediately made a motion to soothe her but caught himself. Snape just looked at her and sneered.

It was Abigail who finally broke the silence. "Rock, paper, scissors, anyone?" she suggested merrily.

"Excuse me?" Snape asked derisively.

"Or we can draw for sticks if you want," Abigail continued.

"There's no way in bloody hell I'm working with you Snape." James said quietly, his voice oozing with contempt.

"Thank you for the obvious, Potter," Snape replied back, with just as much detest.

"Then it's either James/Lily and me/Snape or Lily/Snape and me/James," Abigail stated, with pointed emphasis on her preferred arrangement. She capped her message with a cheery grin at Lily. James had looked hopefully at Lily when Abigail mentioned them. Lily suddenly found herself entranced by a lumber knot on Slughorn's desk. She switched her gaze to the floor, kicking herself mentally for what she was about to do.

"Well, I guess it's decided then," Lily started calmly. "I'll pair up with Severus and you two can pair up together."

It was as if all the sound had been sucked out of the room by a vacuum. Abigail looked like her she was in a fierce struggle to maintain her composure, she was trying so hard not to jump up and down with glee. James and Snape just looked shell-shocked. It was silent.

Then, "WHHAATTT?!!"

"Are you insane?! You would rather go with that bastard?!" James exclaimed furiously.

"I don't work with Mudbloods," Snape hissed contemptuously.

"Don't call her that, you sonofa-"

"I can defend myself, thanks," Lily interrupted, shooting James an icy stare -- the first sign of eye contact since lunchtime -- before turning back to the other. "Listen, Snape. I don't like this any better than you do. But at least this way, we'll be on the same level of caliber. Unless you feel like lowering yourself all the way down to their level for the next four and a half months."

James looked like Lily had just slapped him. Abigail's estatic smile fell immediately. The three of them remained silent for Snape's response. He was staring murderously at the floor.

Abigail again interrupted the silence. "I'll go tell Slughorn then." She walked away from the group wrathfully. She was clearly angry over Lily's remark.

James was still staring at Lily in hurt but left the dungeon rapidly, the atmosphere suffocating him. Snape followed after seconds later, his eyes throwing poison-laced daggers at Lily. She stood there alone for a long while in the deserted dungeon.

"I hope you're happy," she snapped bitterly to the stone walls, to an absent Abigail, to God or whatever celestial being out there that was supposedly punishing her. And she waited, as if expecting a booming voice to respond, "Yes, I think I am, thank you."

But nothing answered except the stone walls that lashed back her grievances in haunting repititions. Lily did not move until every one of these voices faded away into silence.