Snape’s wand was halfway into the air when James shouted, “Expelliarmus!”
Snape’s wand flew twelve feet into the air and fell with a little thud into the grass behind him. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
“Impedimenta!” he said, pointing his wand at Snape, who was knocked off his feet after trying a dive towards his fallen wand.
Students stopped what they were doing, whether it be talking or studying, and turned to watch. Some were trying to get closer to the commotion. Some were apprehensive, others were entertained.
Snape lay breathing heavily on the grass. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands ready to let out more hexes and humiliation. James glanced over his shoulder as he went, trying to see if Lily was watching him from over by the lake. He hoped she was, because that would mean she was WATCHING him, but she also might get a little angry. Maybe a little bit more than that.
Peter climbed to his feet, and was watching with vivid anticipation and excitement as he edged his way around Remus.
“How’d the exam go, Snivelly?” said James.
“I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment. There’ll be grease marks all over it, they won’t be able to read a word.” Sirius said viciously.
Several of the people watching laughed: none of them liked Snape very much. Peter sniggered shrilly. Snape was struggling against the still- operating jinx, trying to stand up, but kept falling back to the ground as if bound by invisible ropes.
“You- wait,” he panted, glaring at James with utmost loathing etched across his face. “You- wait.”
“Wait for what?” Sirius said coolly. “What’re you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?”
Snape let out a tumble of swear words and hexes, but his wand was to far away for anything to happen.
“Wash out your mouth,” James said coldly. “Scourgify!”
Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape’s mouth immediately, the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him-
*
Lily sat by the lake with Alice and Alex, dipping her toes in the refreshingly cool lake. “So, how do you guys think you did on the Charms OWLs?”
Alex groaned. “Don’t remind me. I was doing fine until, well, we started.”
Alice giggled. “Did you remember the Baking Spell?” She teased.
Alex smiled blissfully. “How could I- hey! What do you mean?”
Lily said, “Well, as I remember, at the time you were learning the spell- argh!”
Alex had tackled her to the ground and was covering up her mouth. “Not another word. Merlin, you guys are impossible. Just wait until you have boyfriends, I’ll have so much fun torturing you. Wait till you see what it’s like.” She let go of Lily, who stood up and surveyed the grounds.
“How come everyone’s just standing around?” She wondered out loud. A faint cry of ‘Impedimenta’ and peals of laughter reached her ears. Lily frowned. “I’d know that voice anywhere; I’ve heard James yelling at me too many times not to. I’ll bet you my bottom Galleon he’s torturing some poor Slytherin.” She slipped on her shoes and started jogging over to the gathering of students.
“Lily, where are you going?” Alex cried after her.
“I’ve got to stop him; I’m a prefect.” She yelled over her shoulder. Lily forced her way through the mob of students surrounding the spectacle. Snape was on the ground, gagging. “That Potter.” She hissed under her breath. “Leave him ALONE!”
James and Sirius turned around, and James’s free hand automatically jumped to his hair.
“All right, Evans?” said James.
Lily furrowed her brow. His voice was deeper, more mature than it usually was. She pushed the thought aside. “Leave him alone,” she repeated. She glared at James with as much dislike as possible. “What’s he done to you?”
“Well,” said James, pretending to deliberate the answer. “It’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean.” Sirius and Peter laughed along with most of the surrounding spectators, not including Remus and Lily.
“You think you’re funny,” she said coldly. “But you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone.”
“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said James quickly. “Go on… Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.
Lily was taken aback. Potter!? Her sworn enemy asked her out!? Was this some new way to humiliate her? Out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see Snape beginning to inch towards his fallen wand, spitting out pink soap suds as he crawled. Apparently, the Impediment Jinx was beginning to wear off.
Lily finally said, “I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid.”
*
James was devastated. He had followed Sirius’s advice and asked Lily out, but she said no. No. For the first time in his life, a girl had rejected James Potter.
Sirius, evidently not noticing how James was feeling, said briskly while turning to Snape, “Bad luck, Prongs. OY!”
Snape had reached his wand and had it directed straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’s face, splattering his robes with blood. James whirled around; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.
Some people in the crowd cheered, while the three participating Marauders roared with laughter.
Lily’s furious expression twitched for an instant as though she were holding back a smile, and said, “Let him down.”
“Certainly,” James said and he jerked his wand upward. Snape fell in a crumpled heap on the ground. He disentangled himself from his robes and quickly got to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said, “Locomotor mortis!” and Snape keeled over once again, rigid as a board.
Lily was disgusted in the way that the Marauders continued to publicly humiliate Snape. “LEAVE HIM ALONE!” She shouted. She grabbed her own wand out from her robes, and James and Sirius were eying it warily.
“Ah, Evans, don’t make me hex you,” said James more earnest than usual.
Lily snorted to herself. ‘As if he could hex me. I’m not the best in Charms for nothing!’ “Take the curse off him then!”
James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the countercurse. “There you go,” he said as Snape scrambled to his feet once more. “You’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-”
“I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!” Snape shouted.
Lily was stung. She had gone out of her way to help him, and Snape insulted her. “Fine,” she said coolly. “I won’t bother in the future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.”
*
James’s tolerance with Snape had reached the breaking point. Being the kind, sympathetic person she was, Lily had helped someone the rest of the school despised, and Snape had said the most insulting word he knew to her. “Apologize to Evans!” He roared at the offender, raising his wand threateningly.
To his surprise, Evans appeared to be mad at him, not Snape. “I don’t want you to make him apologize,” she shouted. “You’re as bad as he is…”
James was shocked. As bad as a future Death Eater?! Him!? “What?” He yelped. “I’d never call you a… you- know what!” he tried to explain to her how wrong she was to be mad at him. He was just trying to help.
“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can- I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.”
James tried to convince himself that she wasn’t yelling at him, or that it hadn’t happened, but it wasn’t working.
She swiftly turned on her heel and hurried away.
“Evans!” James shouted after her, “Hey, EVANS!”
But she didn’t look back.
“What is it with her?” James asked, desperate to look as though this was a throwaway question and he didn’t really care what the answer was. But he really did.
“Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate.” Said Sirius.
“Right,” James said, now furious. “Right-” He was angry, angry at Lily, at Snape, and at himself. He WOULD get her to like him.
There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.
“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?”
At this moment, Remus put down his book and walked over to James. “Do you really like Lily?” He asked.
“Of course. That’s what I said.” James answered, confused.
“Then I don’t really think hexing and utterly humiliating the person she told you to lay off on is going to help her like you back.”
“Oh, right,” James said. “But, I mean, can’t I at least-”
“What do you think?” Remus said exasperatedly.
Sirius moaned. “But look at him… He’s a sitting duck. We can’t do anything because James has a little crush?”
Remus raised an eyebrow at him. “I don’t think Alex would be too happy with you either.”
Sirius’s eyes widened. “The last thing I want is Alex giving me grief. Have you seen her when she’s mad?” He shuddered. “Merlin help anyone who falls into her bad graces.”
*
Lily stalked up to the castle, forgetting about her friends by the lake. ‘POTTER! He is so INFURIATING! When will he leave me ALONE! And REMUS! He’s a prefect, and he doesn’t even have the guts to stand up to his friends! How dare he just sit there. And SNAPE! I help him, and he INSULTS me! This school is full of SELF-ABSORBED, CONCEITED, HATEFUL JERKS!’
Needless to say, by the time she reached the castle, she was seeing red. Peeves, the unfortunate fellow, was attempting to set up a bucket full of water above a door.
“PEEVES! Stop that IMMEDIATELY! Even YOU should know better than to do something like that during TESTING!”
Peeves grinned at her. “Looks like the little redhead’s temper is catching up to her. Ohhh… I’m so SCARED!”
Lily fumed. She saw a broken tip of a quill lying on the ground. “Waddiwasi!” The tip flew up from the ground and (painfully) wedged itself in Peeves’s right nostril. “DON’T mess with me.” She stormed away, leaving behind a shocked and moaning poltergeist.
A corridor away, a voice stopped her in her tracks. “That’s a nice trick. Could you teach me?”