Mrs. Parker wrote a letter to Aurora explaining what had happened with the tickets, but the reply was a generic letter that read:
Dear Mrs. Parker,
We are very sorry to hear about your incident, but all we can do is offer to refund the tickets at half-price, seeing as you did not pay for the tickets yourselves. Have a lovely New Year’s.
Aurora Beam & Management
Right. That was a fat lot of help.
New Year’s came and went and when the holiday ended, Lily’s skin was still green. It had been the cause of a great deal of mirth for Petunia, to the point where Lily just shut herself in her room on the last day before she left to go back to school.
She was so angry, she could barely find the words to do her feelings justice. She had never imagined that anybody would be that mean…true, she didn’t like James. She thought he was arrogant and pig-headed, but not that cruel. Now she would have to go back to school looking like a red-headed Martian, and she wasn’t happy about that at all.
She filled up pages and pages in her journal over the last few vacation days, spilling out her thoughts, covering the pages with insults and ways to get revenge on James. But none seemed quite right. None seemed severe enough to console her. She wanted to do something that James would never forget. Something so humiliating that nobody would ever forget.
When she boarded the train to return back to Hogwarts, Lily was still fuming. When she heard James call out her name, she deliberately picked up her pace and dove into the nearest compartment she could find, not eager to talk to him.
It just so happened to be a compartment filled with Slytherins. And not just any Slytherins-Sirius’s nasty cousins. The sight of Bellatrix leering at her reminded Lily of the prank they were planning to play on her. That reminded her of Sirius, which made her burn with a new wave of fury.
“Look, it’s Sirius’s little Mudblood friend,” sneered the pale-haired Lucius. “How nice of you to drop in.”
“Look at her,” Bellatrix cackled. “Look at her skin! It’s green, for heaven’s sake!”
“Merlin, what happened to you?” asked Lucius.
Lily got to her feet. “James Potter hexed me, and he won’t take it off.”
This was met by loud bursts of laughter. Lily ignored it and started towards the door, but Lucius barred her way. “Wait just a minute,” he said, pushing her backwards. “Do you want to get some revenge on James?” he exchanged a glance with Bellatrix.
“I, uh…” she did, of course, but she didn’t want to work with the Slytherins. “No. Let me out.”
Lucius crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t want revenge? You don’t want to get James back for what he did to you?”
“I, er…no! Now move!”
It was clear that Lucius had no intentions of moving. “You’re planning your own revenge, I suppose. With your little friends.”
“No, I’m not,” spat Lily. “Now I’m serious. Get out of my way!” she vainly tried to push him out of the way, but the fourteen-year-old boy had quite an advantage over the eleven-year-old girl. He grabbed her wrist and held it tightly.
“Look, you little Mudblood. Our nasty cousin Sirius is planning something against us, isn’t he? Against Bellatrix?”
Lily inhaled sharply. “Um. No. What do you mean?”
Lucius squeezed her wrists tighter. “Come on, Evans. I saw you in Bellatrix’s bedroom. What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lily retorted, trying to wriggle out of the older boy’s grasp. “Let me out of here!”
Lucius released Lily’s wrist and pushed her to the floor. “You dirty Mudblood, tell us what he’s planning, or you’re going to get it.” He held his wand up threateningly.
Lily scrambled to the other end of the compartment, but there wasn’t exactly much she could do. She fumbled for her wand, but she hardly knew any magic. What could help her right now? Even if by some bizarre twist she somehow beat Lucius, there were five or six other Slytherins waiting in the compartment.
Just then the door burst open and somebody yelled, “Rictumsempra!” Lucius fell to the ground, writhing, laughing, gasping for air. Lily looked up in amazement. It was Chris!
“Chris!” she gasped, getting to her feet and stepping over Lucius. “I am so happy to see you.”
“Lily, what in the world happened to you?” was his reply.
Lily rolled her eyes. “One word. James.”
Chris grinned knowingly. “I see. And why were you in there? I saw you since the door is clear, and thought you could use some help.”
“Could I ever,” said Lily gratefully. “I don’t know what Lucius was going to do to me, but it wasn’t going to be good.”
“Why was he threatening you, anyway?”
“Well, see…Sirius is planning to play this prank on Bellatrix, but apparently Lucius saw us sneak into her room, so he wanted me to tell them what Sirius is going to do.”
“What’s he going to do? Did you tell them?”
Lily shook her head. “No, I didn’t. He’s going to make copies of her diary and spread them around the school. She wrote some really nasty stuff in there.”
Chris frowned. “That’s just going to create more problems, you know. After that, Bellatrix will want to get Sirius back, and she’ll do something much more sinister than read his journal.”
Chris’s words unsettled Lily; she hadn’t thought about that. “You’re right,” she said. “But…it was Alex’s idea in the first place. She wanted revenge because Bellatrix hit her with a hex a month or so back.”
“Revenge seems sweet, but it just makes your conflict bigger,” said Chris wisely. “Trust me, I know.”
Chris’s words stirred something inside Lily. Maybe she should forget about James and the tickets and the green skin…
But then she glanced back down at herself. Ugh. No, she couldn’t just forget about it. She’d at least have to scream at him.
“Thanks for saving me, Chris. But I have to go find James now and get him to turn me back to normal. See you later!” Lily scampered down the corridor, peeking into every compartment until she found where James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were seated. They were sitting in a sea of candy wrappers, chatting. Lily barged right in.
“Well, hello, Evans!” said James pleasantly, sweeping away a boatload of candy wrappers so Lily could have a place to sit. “Please, sit down.” He patted the newly uncovered seat invitingly.
“James, you had better take this spell of off me right this instant, or I swear, I’ll-”
“Manners, Evans,” James cut in, his hazel eyes twinkling. “How was your holiday?”
“You should know exactly how my holiday was,” she retorted, “as you messed it all up. How could you steal our tickets?”
“We needed money to buy you that lovely ring, and then it just blossomed into something bigger. Funny how that happens, isn’t it?”
Peter sniggered and Lily shot him a dirty look. “Oh, shut up,” she said, “and get my skin back to normal. NOW!”
Sighing, James muttered an incantation so softly that Lily couldn’t hear it. It did the trick, however; the green pigment, and purple dots, faded away, leaving Lily’s skin a normal color.
“Thank you,” she said stiffly. “Now where was I. Oh yes. How DARE you steal our tickets? Our own posessions? And sell them! You’re the lowest, foulest, slimiest person I have ever met, James Potter. You’re such a worthless worm! You deserve to be trampled by elephants and dragged through the mud by pigs, and eaten by a giant snake!” then she turned to Sirius. “By the way, your cousins know about your prank on Bellatrix, and they’re not very happy about it. Don’t expect me to help you, though.”
As she stepped out into the corridor Lily wondered if she’d overdone it a bit. James hadn’t even replied, which surely indicated something. Probably intense anger, but maybe sadness? Regret? Remorse? Passing up a chance to insult people wasn’t very James-like, and as Lily looked around for Alex and Cadrian she began to feel a tiny bit bad about her harsh words.
Finally she located her friends, sitting alone in a compartment. As she walked in they jumped to their feet. “Lily! You’re normal again!” Cadrian exclaimed.
Lily laughed. “Yes, I am.”
“Where have you been?” asked Alex sternly. “We looked all over the bloody train for you.”
“Well…it’s a bit of a long story. Sort of.”
“And it’s a bit of a long ride. Tell,” Alex ordered, sitting back down.
“Okay.” Lily unwrapped a Chocolate Frog and examined the card, but she already had it. She bit off the frog’s legs so it couldn’t hop away then began to tell her friends what had happened.
”When I was getting on the train I heard James calling my name. And I didn’t really feel like talking to him, so I just went into the first compartment I saw. Unfortunately for me, Sirius’s cousins were inside.”
“Ooh. Bad luck,” commented Alex. “So what happened?”
“When we went up into Bellatrix’s room, Lucius saw us. But he didn’t know what the prank was. He asked me about it but I wouldn’t tell him. And he was going to hex me, or curse me or something, but then Chris busted in and saved my butt.”
“That was lucky,” laughed Cadrian. “And then…?”
“So then I went to find James and make him get my skin back to normal. He did and I yelled at him for a bit. That was about it.”
Alex waved Lily’s story aside. “So. What are we going to do about James?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” asked Lily.
“We have to get him back for everything!” said Alex. “The tickets, and the ring, and everything. We just have to!”
Remembering Chris’s words, Lily slowly shook her head. “No…we don’t. Can’t we just…let it go and move on?”
Cadrian looked plain old puzzled, and Alex was looking at Lily like she was crazy, but Lily didn’t back down. “Seriously,” she insisted. “If we do something back, then they’ll just get us back, and then again, and again, never-ending. So wouldn’t it be better to just end it now?”
“Not really,” said Alex, but Cadrian shrugged and said, “Maybe Lily has a point.”
“Look, Alex. If you want to do something to James, go ahead, but I’m not helping.” Lily crossed her arms resolutely. “In the long run it won’t change anything.” Thank you Chris, she added silently.
Alex stared at her bewilderedly for a couple seconds, obviously not believing what she was hearing. Then she shrugged and said, “Fine. No revenge on James, then.” A grin spread across her face, a sure sign of upcoming trouble. “But the Bellatrix thing is still on, right?”
“As far as I know, Sirius is still going to do it,” replied Lily.
“Cool. I can’t wait to see what she does!” Alex giggled.
A couple of hours, dozens of Chocolate Frogs, and hundreds of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans later, the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogwarts and the three girls pushed their way into the bustling crowd. They made it out into the inky night, climbed into a horseless carriage, and set off for the start of the new semester of learning magic.
* * * * * * * * * *
After the Christmas feast, Lily was so full she felt that any movement more strenuous than walking might cause her to burst. She lay in bed quietly late into the night as Alex, Cadrian, Danielle, and Jeniece slept peacefully, thinking. About Adam the Squib, and James’s nerve, and Chris’s wise words, and any other thoughts that wormed into her head as she fought to get to sleep.
She found that the more she thought about it, Chris was right. Sure, maybe revenge on James seemed like a really good thing now. Humiliating him brutally for what he’d done to her. But undoubtedly he would want his own revenge after that, and Alex would never give up after that. No, better to head everything off right now and not blow the whole situation out of proportion. Besides, in the long run, would it really matter?
Finally Lily drifted off to sleep. She dreamed about green-skinned Squibs and a diary with all its pages falling out. And for some strange reason, a long, skinny, slimy worm with James’s head kept popping up.
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A/N--please review!! thanks :)