Chapter 8 “ Filthy Mud
The Slytherins hadn’t acted out of the ordinary at first. They had only sneered, snarled, and the occasional cackle had been heard as Lily and her friends had made their way to the Great Hall for dinner. They had all managed to ignore the Slytherins, that is, until they had advanced upon a rather nasty bunch.
Just when the three Gryffindor were finally feeling somewhat comfortable, the Slytherins seemed to appear out of nowhere. Ten minutes from the Hall now, the only thing that stood in their way was none other than the infamous Lucius Malfoy, Severus Snape, and Bellatrix Black.
“Well, well, well… What do we have here?”
“Nothing much Lucius, just some filthy mud on our turf we ought to get rid of.”
Talking as if the three girls couldn’t hear them, Lucius and Bellatrix, weren’t shy about showing sneers either. Severus was close behind the two, silent, but looking cruel nonetheless.
Fed up, Riley retaliated, “Oh sod off you three. We’re already in our sixth year and you haven’t matured in the least since first.”
“I agree,” added Lily. “These… encounters are getting quite repetitive. Nothing we haven’t heard before.”
Hoping that this would put an end to the reunion, they moved to continue on their journey toward dinner.
Lucius’s cold voice stopped them in their tracks. “So you’re saying that you’re bored with our conversations?”
“I think that we could arrange them to be more painful, if excitement is what you’re after,” continued Bellatrix.
Not waiting for an answer, they rolled up their sleeves revealing strange markings of skulls, snakes escaping through their open mouths. As they raised their wands, so did the Gryffindor, but they weren’t fast enough. With all of the other Slytherins lurking around them, they were overwhelmed. They never stood a chance.
Before they knew it, they were being cursed from every angle, by every green robed being. Not one of the three had the chance to fight back and before they knew it, they were growing drowsy from the pain. Losing more of their valuable consciousness with every passing second, they were sure that their wakefulness would end very quickly. No one expected to hear what was heard next.
The sound of the soft purring of a cat filled their ears, even over the loud cries of dark magic. It wasn’t the kind of purring that emitted from any normal house cat (or any cat for that matter). It was quite distinguishable and everybody recognized it at once. Looking for the source wasn’t necessary as she revealed herself immediately. Walking into the heart of the Slytherin circle, Mrs. Norris’s skeletal body easily mounted the heap of students who had crumpled to the floor.
All was silent as her lamp-like, yellow eyes scanned the crowd.
Coming to their senses the Slytherins fled, knowing that wherever the old cat was, Filch was close by.
Minutes passed but no Filch appeared. All three girls were in states of queasiness from all that had been thrown in their direction. On the other hand, the effects of the many spells were starting to ware off; they hadn’t been too serious. Riley was the first to rise followed by Charlie. Their movement unsettled the dust-colored creature and she darted off into the darkness.
Now standing, they repaired Lily’s broken chair and sat her back into it. Examining the damage that had been done, they found no evidence of their attack, for no wounds marked their bodies. Even though they could hardly bring themselves to move, the Slytherins had created not one scrape.
As they attempted to straighten their tousled appearance, not one word was said and an unspoken agreement was made within the silence. They would take matters into their own hands. For matters had just gotten serious. They were no longer dealing with the hotheaded rivals they had come to know, but with dangerous, reckless abusers of the dark arts. The Slytherins had just crossed the thick line between competitive and dangerous.
Slowly and stiffly, they headed off toward the Great Hall once again.
So now here they were, disheveled and unsatisfied, at the entrance to the Great Hall.
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Of course, all eyes were on them as they opened the doors and entered. The usual intense loudness of the Hall was nowhere near as deafening as the silence filling it now. Even with all of the experience they had gained throughout the day for this type of situation, so much attention still managed to unnerve them.
“Just pretend everything’s normal,” whispered Charlie.
“I’m trying to,” answered Lily through gritted teeth.
All three holding their breath, they tried to act “natural” as all eyes were on them. Once they were at the table, they allowed an intake of breath. At least now, they had their backs toward most of the school.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” said Riley sarcastically.
“It hasn’t gotten much easier, has it?” agreed Lily.
“Just give it time. In a week or so, no one will even take notice,” comforted Charlie.
Looking up Lily saw that even the talkative were mute. Almost diagonal from where she was seated was James. Noting the curious gleam in his eye as he gorged down his mashed potatoes, Lily felt the familiar twinge of annoyance from years past.
Well I haven’t felt that for a while, thought Lily. Actually, the familiarity of Potter’s annoyingness is a bit calming.
She smiled to herself without even noticing.
“What?” asked Charlie, smiling a bit herself.
“Oh… it’s nothing. Just thinking of Charms.”
“Sure,” said Riley under her breath.
She looked into the direction in which Lily had been looking and saw James.
Smirking, Riley picked up a golden fork and began some gorging of her own.
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The next morning came and went and in a flash, so had an entire week. Charlie had been right about one thing, and that was that by then things had pretty much died down about Lily being in a wheel chair. People were getting used to staircases unexpectedly turning ramp-like and even the Slytherins seemed to be back to their unpleasant, though harmless selves.
As a whole, the week had been uneventful except for an unpleasant message from Voldemort. It had seemed unoriginal to the girls and unworthy of Dumbledore’s time. The girls knew that many muggleborn wizards and witches like herself had received a message of the same kind at least once before. All contained the same threats (toward loved ones) and none had actually been carried through with before.
“Pass the pumpkin juice please,” asked Lily. She held out her hand, without a glance, to receive a pitcher from the person next to her. She was much too indulged in what a Third year was putting down a First year’s back. After seconds of no response, she spared a glance toward her left. The bloke hadn’t even turned to acknowledge. Leaning over Riley, she tapped his shoulder and he turned to look. It was the boy who always looked sickly, Remus Lupin.
“Pass the juice please,” she said with a friendly smile.
He slid it down toward her with long delicate fingers.
“Thanks.”
Half a smile was his reply.
After a second or two, he turned back and began talking with Peter once again.
Catching Lily off guard, he turned around again just a little while later. Her cheeks turned pink from embarrassment; she hated being caught while looking at someone.
He offered another boyish half smile and said, “Evans, a couple of us are going out to sit by the lake this afternoon. You girls want to come?”