Practically Perfect in Every Way by lilyevans91
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer: None of this is mine, except for that which is mine. Oh, and just so you know, the starred* line here was taken from Brittney Ryan's The Legend of Holly Claus. Thanks for reading (and reviewing!) ^_^
It really was a beautiful day, with the sun shining brightly, but not beating down like an oven, and the sky was a perfect, clear blue. It was only January 9, so by rights it should have been freezing with snow on the ground, but that winter had been an unusually mild one, with very little snow and the temperature always slightly above freezing. And even the muddy (yet frosty) ground could be modified to accommodate a large group of underage witches and wizards looking for a picnicking ground; Professor Cole, the herbology teacher, had supplied us with boxes of Instant Green-Grass Pellets: Perfect for Picnicking! that were really nice. It was a rather odd sight, actually, all of those islands of perfectly springy, dry (so as not to wet your arse), green grass surrounded by somewhat more dirty, er, dirt.
Anyway, Jackie and I were walking down to the lake to meet the Marauders for a picnic (surprise, surprise!) since classes had been let out for a few days’ worth of vacation. I had just showered, having previously been released from the infirmary after recovering from an embarrassing fainting incident. No need to go into detail about that.
As I was saying, we were walking down the hill in a companionable silence, wearing our Muck-No-More rain boots so as not to muddy ourselves. Although, just for the record, I have nothing against mud; just against eating when I’m muddy. And I was hungry, having not eaten for a full day.
“Hard-boiled eggs,” Jackie was saying. “And lemonade and fried chicken and cake.”*
I laughed, a warm happiness bubbling up inside of me that I always got when I was outside in the springtime. “And why are you so hungry, Jackie? If I remember correctly, I was the one who went a full day without eating or drinking or doing a single thing.”
“Ah yes,” Jackie said, attempting to look wise, “but if I remember correctly, I was the one who fasted as a protest against unconsciousness the day you were in the infirmary.”
“Right,” I said dryly, jumping over a long, shallow puddle, “I’m sure you didn’t eat a single thing.”
“You know it!” Jackie replied with a cheeky grin.
Passing by a small group of Hufflepuffs, I accidentally splashed up a puddle and sprayed a couple of them on their arms with some muddy water.
“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry,” I said, pausing for a second to apologize with a friendly but apologetic smile that only slightly wavered when one blond boy, a third year I think, glared at me and sneered,
“You should watch where you’re going, Mudblood!”
I blinked, taken aback though not that hurt (I had been called “Mudblood” too many times for it to affect me by then), and I could tell that Jackie was more surprised and angry than I. She only lost her temper once in a blue moon, though; her anger was a cold, tight fury, always kept on a tight rein, while mine got…carried away sometimes.
“And here I thought that Hufflepuffs were supposed to be nice,” I said sarcastically, trying to make light of the situation. “C’mon, Jax, let’s go.” I had only taken one step when the same boy called out from behind me,
“Walking away, are we? And here I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave.” I stopped suddenly, my foot frozen in midair. Being called a Mudblood I could take. But a direct insult to Gryffindor? That I wasn’t going to take.
I whirled around, and I knew my eyes were probably sparkling in anger in a face that was reddening with irritation. Jackie’s cool fingers on my arm and murmured: “just walk away, Lily, don’t lose your temper, let’s just go now,” did nothing to ease my anger. Oh, it was far too late for advice on not losing my temper; it had taken off with me barely clinging to the reins, and it wasn’t going to stop until it wanted to stop.
“Not that you would know anything about bravery,” I spat at the blond, freckled boy, “but the thing is, being brave means doing what’s right, not what’s easy. Now,” I continued, my face assuming a pleasant expression as I fingered my wand, “it would be incredibly easy for me to hex your little Hufflepuff arse into oblivion right now, but that wouldn’t be very morally right, would it?” his face darkened in anger, but his companions (two other boys, both with black hair, but one with blue eyes and the other with green, and two girls, both blond and brown eyed) were obviously trying to placate him just as Jackie was trying to”wait. Jackie wasn’t even standing by me.
Turning around and looking for her in confusion, I suddenly saw her jogging over towards a group of four boys who I reckoned to be the Marauders. She stopped a few yards away from them and yelled something at them that I couldn’t quite make out. They all stood up suddenly and followed Jackie as she walked back to where I was.
Smirking at her obvious exasperation with me (or rather, my temper), I smiled and shook my head in amusement, almost forgetting where I was and who I was fighting with. Until I heard the annoying boy yell out “sternumentum!”.
“What the”” was all I managed to say before I was hit full-on by the lovely little hex and started sneezing violently and repeatedly. Which is what the hex does, of course; it makes you sneeze. Violently and repeatedly. Not the most impressive hex, but after only fifteen seconds of sneezing non-stop…well, you get the idea.
“Merlin, Charlie,” one of the girls was saying to the blond boy fiercely, “you didn’t have to go and do that! There’s nothing wrong with muggleborns, how many times have we told you! And besides, she’s a prefect!”
Charlie, the nasty, arrogant, egotistical, stupid, prejudiced brat said to the girl, “Look, Emma, you’re a really good friend, and I don’t want to argue over this whole mud-blood business. So can we just let this go? Besides, she was about to hex me.”
I rolled my eyes as I covered my nose in preparation for another sneeze. I had not been about to hex him, but if he wanted to say that, fine. Let him lie if he wanted to. At least that would keep him from figuring out that I was about to attempt a nonverbal spell. I had begun practicing in the beginning of fifth year, and so had had about six months experience. While my work wasn’t perfect, I should be able to get it with a few tries. Now. if only I could remember how to do that counter-curse…
I saw the black haired, green eyed boy raise his wand in my direction and readied myself for the nonverbal protego spell to defend myself. “Sternumentum!” the boy shouted out, and I had time for only a moment’s confusion before I thought Protego! to ward off his spell.
I saw his eyes widen in surprise before he started sneezing. Too late, I realized that he had shouted the counter-spell. Oh, great job, Lily, I thought, you just hexed a little third year. Not that you meant to, but still; you should have remembered that the counter-spell for sternumentum is sternumentum. You should have remembered that it works like negative and positive numbers; say it once, and it hexes the person, but say it twice and it’s like two negative numbers being added together”they cancel the negativity out. Duh. You knew that.
Feeling utterly stupid, I soundlessly muttered sternumentum and my sneezes stopped. I looked up, my anger forgotten in my embarrassment, and found that the green eyed boy I had (accidentally) hexed wasn’t sneezing. Figuring that one of his friends must have undone it for him, I readied myself for an uncomfortable apology.
Suddenly, I felt James’ arm on my shoulder. Don’t ask me how I knew it was James; I don’t rightly know myself. But I looked up at him in relief and smiled gratefully at his presence. His face was stony as he studied the five Hufflepuff’s standing there. I looked around and saw Remus, Sirius, Peter and Jackie standing there too, their expressions varying from furious (yes, that would be Sirius, acting once again as the over-protective big brother) to slightly amused (Remus, the ever calm and slightly superior one) to relieved (Jackie; she was relieved I hadn’t killed one of the little third years) to confused (who else but Peter?).
Anyway, so we were all standing there, the five third year Hufflepuff’s versus us, the six fifth year Gryffindors. I opened my mouth to say something and couldn’t speak for the pain in my throat. James’ arm tightened around my shoulders and I glared up at him, trying to communicate silently with him through my gaze, and I think he understood I was mainly okay, just a bit scratchy in the throat, because his grip loosened once again.
“What happened here?” A voice suddenly interrupted our silence. All eleven heads turned to face Professor McGonagall. “What happened here?” she repeated impatiently. “I heard that there was hexing going on here, and I’d expect two Prefect’s to be capable of taking care of everything, but if you were participating in the hexing…”
Remus and I looked at each other and winced in a mixture of guilt and annoyance at these last words.
“You see, Professor,” one of the Hufflepuff girls said, Emma I think her name was, “our friend Charlie here decided to insult Evans there, called her a mud-blood and all that, and Evans got all mad and worked up and said something about bravery and then her friend Williams over there”” here Emma nodded to Jackie, who nodded back with a smile “”walked away and while Evans had her back turned Charlie hexed her with Sternumentum. So she was sneezing like crazy, and then John here was going to perform the counter-curse, but Evans didn’t realize that so she deflected it and John started sneezing like crazy, but then Evans remembered the counter-curse and performed it on herself and then Evans’ friends came over here and then you came. I think that’s about it.”
I blinked, blown away with her quick explanation. Goodness, but she could talk!
“Don’t be silly, Miss Thompson,” McGonagall sniffed at Emma, “how could Miss Evans deflect the counter-curse if she was sneezing as crazily as you say she was?”
“I did the nonverbal Protego, Miss McGonagall,” I croaked out.
She raised a single black eyebrow. That was all the emotion she could show despite being impressed with my progress in nonverbal spells. We weren’t even to start practicing them until next year. Merlin, but she was a strict one. “Well,” she said sternly, though perhaps not quite so sternly as she had spoken moments earlier, “I must say that I’m impressed, Miss Evans. But, despite the fact that you apparently acted solely on self-defense, you still attacked a student, and that merits some punishment. Namely, a detention.”
I groaned to myself as Charlie smirked at me. Did I really need a detention? McGonagall knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, I was sure of it. So why had she punished me?
“As for you, Mr. Purperen,” McGonagall nodded towards Charlie, “you shall be serving a detention as well, for lack of respect and for attacking a fellow student, not to mention a Prefect. What’s more, she was unaware of your intentions at the time. I will speak with your Head of House, Professor Cole, and arrange the detention with her. You will receive notice of the details later this evening.”
Merlin, she was like an avalanche! Just running over every little attempt at a protest made by Charlie until he just stood there sullenly staring at the ground. I silently applauded her for taking the wind out of his sails so efficiently.
“Oh, and fifteen points shall be taken away from Hufflepuff,” McGonagall added looking all the Hufflepuff’s in the eye. She inclined her head slightly towards them. “If you will excuse me, I need to be going. Miss Evans, if you would please follow me.”
She took off at once, leaving me no choice but to go with her. I followed two paces behind her and looked behind me to stick my tongue out and roll my eyes at my friends, who laughed and tried to look sympathetic. Suddenly, they all seemed to realize that our picnic had just been ruined, and their faces fell comically, making me burst out giggling.
McGonagall turned to face me. “Do you find anything amusing, Miss Evans?” she asked dryly.
“No,” I replied evenly, my face quickly becoming somber. She blinked at me once, gave me the tiniest of smiles, and turned back around to walk again towards the castle. I gaped at her, standing still in the mud while she got far ahead of me. Had she really smiled at me, of was it just my imagination? Or maybe she’d had a bit of an involuntary twitch in her mouth? I didn’t know, but it suddenly occurred to me that our Transfiguration teacher might not be quite as strict as she made herself out to be, and I resolved to try and get her to loosen up a bit during the detention. After all, she was only fifteen years older than myself, having graduated only thirteen years before. Okay, so that is a bit of an age difference, but hey...maybe she was just a kid at heart!
She turned around to see me nearly fifty paces behind her and made an impatient gesture to me. Sighing to myself (how could I have gotten a detention during vacations?), I hiked up my skirts (well, actually I was wearing jeans, but if I had been wearing a skirt, I would have hiked it up) and sloshed through the mud to catch up with Professor McGonagall and my upcoming detention.
This is going to be an interesting afternoon, I thought grimly, a detention given for no reason by my own Head of House, who by the way happens to be a slightly strict and wacked-out teacher. Hearing (and feeling) my stomach rumble, I suddenly remembered I hadn’t eaten since yesterday morning, and that I was absolutely starving. Yep, I said to myself sarcastically, this is going to be a great afternoon.