As the four miscreants took their place at the table, the feast had already begun. They felt the Slytherins staring at them and they tried to ignore them. Brushing off questions by fellow Gryffindors, all of them started digging into the food. Sirius immersed himself in conversation with Peter, who eagerly answered his questions. Remus ate quietly by himself.
James's mind was still spinning from the most recent incident, when he realised someone was looking at him. His eyes were met with piercing green ones, filled with contempt and curiosity. She opened her mouth as if to say something but stopped when James's lips formed a charming smile. His vulnerability caught her off-guard and she had found herself considering if she had been too harsh on him, when his face morphed into that stupid expression. Oh, well.
James found himself intrigued. He liked the challenge she presented and though her glares and snide comments might have been impossible to deal with for a lesser man, they added to the appeal. He immediately knew he wanted her, to be subject to her smiles and laughs, not her contempt. And what James Potter wanted, he got. Brushing aside the fact that he had just admitted fancying Lily Evans, he reveled in the warm feeling it induced.
"Lily-- LILY!" The red-haired girl awoke from her reverie. "Have you been listening to a word I've been saying," Mary MacDonald laughed, "Or have you been occupied elsewhere?" Her eyes swung to James's well-groomed hair. Lily said, hotly, "Are you out of your mind? I despise him, that disgusting, arrogant--" "All right, all right," her friend grinned, "He is terribly handsome, though. I heard Marlene asked him out." Lily's eyes widened, "Marlene McKinnon? Ugh, how pathetic. This is hardly the age to be even thinking about all this." Mary agreed with her.
"Did you hear about the killing in Edinburgh?" Mary asked in a hushed voice. The spoonful of soup that Lily had been attempting to drink was suspended in midair. "Yes, but I thought that was a stray snake?" Mary made a derisive sound, "Snakes? In Edinburgh? Obviously, this was the work of You-Know-Who. You know he has that dreadful snake." Lily looked confused, still. "Lil, you do know what's been happening outside of Hogwarts, right? In the wizarding world?" She shook her head, embarrassed. Mary sighed, "You need to subscribing to the Daily Prophet, because that's the only way we'll know what's going on. There's a lot they don't tell us," she jerked her head in the direction of the teachers' table, "And these aren't times to be blissfully ignorant." "I will subscribe," Lily promised, wanting to appease her friend. "What is going on, though?" she whispered.
"There's a really evil wizard, Lo-Lord--" she glanced around, afraid, as if the Dark Lord himself was listening to her stutter. "The Dark Lord," she said finally, "He's got these followers called the Death Eaters, who wear these masks and everything. Well, they kill people for fun and You-know-who wants to take over the world." Lily's eyes bore a horrified expression. "I need to go," she said suddenly, jumping up.
"Lily, I--"
"It's OK, Mary, I'm just going over to the Slytherin table to talk to Sev."
As Lily walked with purpose to the other end of the Hall, her resolve shook. She felt the teachers' eyes boring into her back as she searched for Severus's face. "Sev. Hey, Sev!" A greasy-haired boy stumbled towards her, his friend watching him carefully. "I need to talk to you," she said in a rush and he looked as if his birthday had come early.
"What's up, Lil?" he asked, a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "I need to know about-about You-know-who." His smile vanished, being replaced by a moody expression. "Well, what do you want to know?" he asked, a little scared. "Why is he killing people?" she asked, her voice barely audible, "Why is he doing such horrible things?" "He wants wizards to go back to how they were before," he said, "You know, when it was all pure-bloo--" He bit his tongue but the damage had been done. "Is he targeting specific people?" she asked in a low voice, not using the very words but Severus heard them, clear as day. "N-no, of course not!" he stuttered, "They're random killings, people he doesn't like, or someone who's offended him." "He sure has a lot of enemies," she snapped. "I-" he flailed around helplessly, "I don't--" "He's killing people like me, isn't he?" she said, tears rolling freely down her cheeks, "Muggles and-and other non-magical folk." Severus barely had time to appreciate her tact for not using the word 'Squib' when she turned on her heel and ran towards the girls' bathroom.