Lily Potter and the Shadows' Misfortune

Chapter Seven

"Because a knock needs a warning knock," Eli joked, causing an outburst of laughter.

"Sorry, Lil," Nora apologized once more with a lighthearted laugh.

Nora Nott, a fellow second year, who was in Slytherin, was the final member of Lily's tight-knit group of six, second year friends. Their friendship didn't come as easily as Lily's others. At the beginning of the past year, Nora felt nothing less than contempt for Lily, for Lily's father had arrested Nora's father, landing him in Azkaban. Empathetically feeling Nora's pain, Lily went to her father and begged him to allow Nora a visit to her father, whom she hadn't seen in three years; Lily's pleads succeeded. That kindheartedness spurred their friendship.

"Glad to see you guys," she said quietly. "Lil, would you mind putting my trunk up there?"

"Not a problem," Lily commented, grabbing the handle of her friend's trunk and swinging it up to the rack with everyone else's things. "Nora," Lily began, hopping back to her spot between Eli and Cecily, "this is Cecily Longbottom. Cecily, this is Nora Nott. Cecily's a first year, and Nora's a second year in Slytherin."

"Nice to meet you," Cecily smiled shyly, rivaling Nora's level of introversion.

"Same to you," Nora said, picking her brown rabbit, Roscoe, up off of the floor.

"A Slytherin with a bunny," Hugo commented with a laugh, shaking his head in awe. "Are we still positive that's not a snake in a bunny suit? Your house and your choice in pet still doesn't add up to me."

Nora rolled her eyes as she sat between Cassie and the compartment's wall, putting her rabbit on her lap, "You made that joke last year, Hugo."

"I know," he shrugged with a cheeky smile. "I still can't believe it. Are we positive that Roscoe isn't a snake?"

"I'm positive that you didn't get any new jokes over the summer," Nora muttered.

"So how were all of your summers?" Lily asked, wanting to diffuse the tension before Nora and Hugo would get into an argument. Despite their friendship, Lily knew that those two could behave like oil and water sometimes.

"Like I was saying before," the ever loquacious Cassie began, extinguishing any remaining angsy with her bubbly attitude, "Venice was so spectacular. It was just my dad, mum, and me, but it was a completely Muggle trip. There was no magic whatsoever, and although it was tough to get used to after Hogwarts, I enjoyed it."

"How can you even get along without magic?" Nora pondered aloud. "My entire house is run by magic."               

"You're a pureblood, Nora," Cassie shrugged, effervescent personality still intact. "I'm just a half-blood. My mum's a Muggle if any of you didn't know, so I was raised in a strange way- half in the Wizarding World and half in the Muggle World."

"There's nothing strange with being raised by Muggles," Rudolph defended with a laugh. "Although I'll back you on saying it's tough going back to a Muggle life after Hogwarts. I didn't realize how much I had become accustomed to it."

"How was your summer then, Rudolph?" Lily asked.

He shrugged, "It was alright, I suppose. Nothing too exciting. How about yours, Lil?"

"Yeah!" Cassie exclaimed. "Minister's daughter! Tell us everything! How is it?"

Nora nodded enthusiastically, "I've seen you and your family all over the Daily Prophet, Lily! What's it like, being famous and all?"

"She's been famous her entire life!" Eli interjected before Lily could get a word in. "Her dad's Harry Potter, the man who defeated Lord Voldemort in case you hadn't noticed."

Lily continued to try and get her two cents in but was having issues as her friends imagined what her fame would be like. She knew her friends meant well, but her frustration about her father's situation had been bubbling and brewing ever since that day.

"GUYS!" she eventually yelled over everyone, shutting them up. "It's terrible, really. We have journalists from the Daily Prophet outside of our house at every moment of the day, and do you think I want my father in a job where the last man who had it was murdered?"

"Lily, calm down. We were-"

"Shut it, Hugo," she snapped at her cousin. Before Lily knew it, her face was feeling hotter and hotter and her eyes burned and burned. "I need some air."

With that, she stood from her seat and walked out of the compartment, not listening to her friends' protests. She prayed that no one would follow her; Lily didn't like people to see her upset. She didn't want to be perceived as weak in the eyes of her friends. She was the fearless Lily Potter, and she'd have to stay that way in their minds.

There were more stares and jeering questions when she left the compartment from curious onlookers who had either extremely positive or extremely negative views of her father becoming Minister. There never seemed to be an in between.

Trying to block the questions and comments out of her mind, Lily walked with her head down in the direction of the bathroom but was stopped a compartment away from the door by a familiar figure.

The cocky boy was a young teenager with a lanky figure. His silvery blonde hair was slicked back in what Lily considered a conceited, ostentatious fashion. It was none other than the pompous Scorpius Malfoy, the rotten fourth year Slytherin, whom Lily had warred with the previous school year. Her blood was already boiling, and she knew that a meeting with the King of Pretension would only make her temperature rise.

"Out of my way, Malfoy," Lily growled, trying to step around him.

A haughty laugh escaped his mouth as stepped right back in front of her, "Was that an order, little daughter of the Minister?"

Before she could come up with a witty response, Lily had already spat out a confident, "yes".

"Your father had the position handed to him; the entire Ministry's gone to folly now," Malfoy sneered with a spiteful tone that Lily was not fond of in the slightest. "As if Potter wasn't powerful enough."

"Shut it, Malfoy," Lily said through gritted teeth. Nobody in the world could make her as angry as Scorpius Malfoy could; he deserved a medal. "Don't talk about my father or my father."

"But it's all the papers are talking about," he said, drawing out every word. His now condescending tone made Lily's tiny body shake with rage. "Why, how many times have you and your stupid family been on the cover of The Daily Prophet since Kingsley's murder? Speaking of that, I bet your father was the one who killed him in order to get the job. It was-"

"MY FATHER IS NOT A MURDERER," Lily's anger yelled out of her mouth; she could feel her entire body turning and burning a bright shade of red.

Her deafening words echoed off of the train's walls and caused a few curious onlookers to take a peek out of their compartment at the altercation in the hallway. Lily didn't even give them a glance.

"Way to keep your cool, Your Highness," Malfoy smirked, then sweeping a ridiculous bow.

Without another word to Malfoy, Lily stomped past him and off to the bathroom, letting the door slam repeatedly right behind her. He had intended to get her this livid. He had intended for her to throw a fuming fit of rage. He had intended for her to make a fool out of herself in front of the rest of the returning Hogwarts students. And he had. Malfoy had succeeded in making Lily look like an uncontrolled lunatic, and she had let it happen.

Before she knew it, tears began to spill out of her brown eyes as she gripped onto the sink, looking at her fire engine red face in the mirror. She didn't want this fame. She didn't want her dad to be the Minister for Magic. She didn't want to lose her father. She didn't want him to die the way Kingsley did. She didn't want him to be anything but her father. As much as she wanted to exhale that selfishness, she couldn't because she was extremely adamant about her father staying out of harm's way.