warning: more cursing than usual.

The Gryffindor dormitories were seas of red clothes and stress.

"You have no idea, the first game shapes the entire season!" Alice yelled, trying to explain the significance of the game, as well as justify why all her clothes were on the floor.

"Ali, I know the importance of the game, not of the fact that I don't even remember what the floor looks like!" Lily laughed.

"Welcome to the rest of the year, huh?" Marlene walked over and placed an arm on Lily's head.

-

"Prongs I swear to G-d if you do not pick up your damn snitch boxers." Sirius Black was freaking out. Not because it was the first quidditch game of the season, not because he was nervous to commentate, not because his best friend was stressed. No. Sirius Black was freaking out because James's stuff was everywhere.

"I promise I'll clean after the game!" James yelled from the bathroom, where he was trying to style his hair to make it look like he didn't style it at all.

"James Potter, you lie like a rug." Peter laughed. Even James knew he never cleans. It doesn't bother him, but it drives Sirius batshit crazy.

"Yeah, but Padfoot will run over here and clean for me," James laughed as he exited the bathroom. It was true. Sirius would always clean up after James, like he's his mother.

"Kingston passes to Fortescue. Yes, Alice! Kick him in the balls!" Sirius's voice bellowed through the quidditch pitch. There was a moment of quiet when you could faintly hear Mcgonagall speaking.

Then,

"Would you have preferred ass?"

She was one person in the stands, but everyone could feel Lily roll her eyes. They could also feel James laugh so hard he almost fell off his broom.

"Look, professor! James thinks I'm funny! I just wish he wasn't laughing so hard that we lose this fucking game." It was a shock that Sirius still had this job.

Lily focused her attention on the actual game, which was very close. Gryffindor was trailing Ravenclaw by 10 points.

Which, in a split second, had been tied thanks to Alice. James was right, she was a perfect beater.
She looked small, but she was mighty as hell.
Emmeline was still able to effortlessly remain calm and collected, even while looking for a tiny ball on a flying broomstick.
And she had to admit James was doing incredibly. He was definitely one of the best chasers she'd ever seen (in all fairness, she hadn't seen many professional quidditch games).

Across the stands, something caught her attention.

Snape. Her best friend Severus Snape. She barely expected him to be at the game, Slytherin wasn't even playing.
But what didn't sit right with her was who Snape was with. A group of Slytherins come to every game to yell obscenities at mostly Gryffindors. Snape was with them.
Snape was hanging out, talking and laughing with these horrible people who, amongst other things, believe that Lily and most of her friends should be dead.

Ravenclaw was up. A groan from Marlene told her that much.

"God, this game is taking forever." Remus muttered.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Dorcas smirked.

It was true, the game had been going on for quite some time.

Lily wasn't focused enough to see anything that happened during the end of the game. All she could think about was Snape. Maybe her friends were right about him. If his friends are okay belittling people and calling them slurs, how long until those things were in his vocabulary?

"150 fucking points to Ravenclaw." Sirius announced, sounding defeated.
Gryffindor had lost their first game of the season. People were gonna lose their shit.
Then she had an idea.

Most people flood onto the field after a quidditch game, either to congratulate or console their friends. Lily instead ran back to the castle as fast as she could.

"Collywobbles." She gave the portrait the password and entered the dorm.

There were a few kids in the common room, studying or hanging out instead of going to the game.

"Hey guys! So Gryffindor just lost the quidditch game and a lot of angry kids are gonna storm in here if we don't do something so I suggest you either go to your dorms or help me set up." She announced.

A few terrified looking first years ran up to their dorms, but the couple fourth or fifth years stayed behind to help.

With a couple spells and some glitter, a "we lost but we can still party" party had been set up in the common room.

Just in time, too. They had finished only minutes before students started arriving.

Anger and sadness faded as they walked into the tower. Yeah, they lost. But Gryffindors can't resist a good party.

For the next fifteen minutes, students and athletes trickled into the dorm until everyone has made their way back.

The party had officially begun.

Somehow they got ahold of probably way too much firewhiskey, which was expected.

The next hours were spent getting tipsy, dancing, eating, and admiring how a little alcohol can make Remus a professional dancer.

Needless to say, everyone woke up the next day exhausted.

Walking to breakfast, Lily got a couple words of praise for setting up the party, but nothing compared to when she sat down.

"Here she is, queen of the party planning, decor master, our own little genius, Lily Evans." Sirius announced her arrival.

"I take it the 'we lost' party was not a bad idea." She smiled.

"Definitely not. Just please tell me why my entire left side is more sore than usual." Remus groaned, very very very hungover.

"Well, you may or may not have tried to do the Dirty Dancing lift." Marlene laughed.

"Was I Baby or Johnny?" He asked, causing everyone else to giggle.

"Baby, of course. I was Johnny." Peter said, smiling.

"We told you that you shouldn't do that with someone 8 inches shorter but did you listen? No." Dorcas exclaimed.

The group laughed at the memory before finishing breakfast and going to class.

Lily dreaded her first class. Divination. With James. Usually she doesn't mind classes with him but James would always snoop at all of her stuff to see if he was in her future.

"Good morning. Today we will be in partners, using crystal balls to look at your future, specifically your future with your partner. I put you all with your friends, so hope that you have a good relationship with them moving forward." The divination professor announced.

James and Lily were partnered up. Of course they were. None of their other friends were in the class.

"Hey Evans. Excited to see our wedding?" James smirked, sitting by his partner.

"I'm excited to find out what handsome man I'm marrying. I sure as hell don't know him yet." She messed with him back.

Class went on, and the ball showed them absolutely nothing. Until a baby appeared.

He was chubby, with rolls on his legs and arms, messy black hair, and shocking emerald eyes.

James pretended not to notice that he had Lily's eyes.

Lily pretended not to notice that every other feature of the baby looked like James.

—
The courtyard was sunny and warm, the perfect conditions for the group to hang out.

The girls walked outside, knowing the boys had already made their way there.

But what Lily walked out to shocked her.
The marauders were talking to Snape.

She heard Snape sneer something and then, instantaneously, he was upside down.

Snape was in the middle of the courtyard, hanging by his feet in midair clearly because of a spell cast by a marauder.

This was her first best friend being bullied. The marauders were bullying him, she thought.

So, she ran. She ran and ran until she caught up with the boys.

"Leave him alone!" She yelled, moving in between the furious Snape and even more furious marauders.
"Don't you dare hurt my friend." She spat, revealing her wand and pointing it at James.

Lily had expected the next person to talk would be James or Sirius, but they silently let Snape down.

However, he did not remain quiet.

"Lily, go away." He muttered.

"Are you okay?" She responded, not leaving.

"Go away."

"I'm trying to help you, Sev."

"I don't need help from a filthy mudblood like you!" He snapped.

Lily couldn't believe what she had heard. He called her a slur. An actual slur. And casually, too.

"What the fuck did you just call me?" She pointed her wand at Severus instead of the boys, who were equally mad.

"Nothing, Lily." It was clear he didn't think before he spoke.

"It was definitely something, Snape." Lily never called him by his last name.

"I didn't mean to, Lily. It slipped out." Snape attempted to defend himself.

"Words like that don't just slip out. It's clear that word is part of your vocabulary." One tear had escaped her eye.

"Lily, I'm sorry."

"No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to all of my friends who tried to warn me about you. They all were looking out for me by telling me you were bad news. I defended you, Severus. I defended you for years and years. I thought you were better than this. I thought you were on my side. I ignored my friends warnings for years. I defended you!" Lily yelled, hurt clear in her voice.

"You're different!" Snape exclaimed.

"No I'm not! You hate one muggle born, you hate all of them. I'm no different to all of the other innocent people you've tortured. I'm just as much of a muggle born. I may be different, or whatever, to you, but your poor excuses for friends still see me as less than. And I'm not even sorry to tell you that you're a hypocrite. A hypocritical, racist asshole. I can't believe you. I can't believe I ever called you my friend." She stormed off, sobbing.

"Lily, wait!" Snape tried running after her, not caring that she flipped him off as he walked away.

Sirius hexed him to stop him.

Lily's friends and roommates gave her some time alone in the dorms before seeing her.

Eventually she walked into the common room, where all her friends were waiting.

She looked a mess. A beautiful mess, but a mess none the less. Her mascara was pooled under her eyes, nose red and raw from blowing it, eyes bloodshot, throat sore.

"Hey baby." Emmeline said as she grabbed and hugged her friend.

They stood there like that for a moment, Lily sobbing and drenching Emmeline's shirt as Em rubbed her back.

Then, she sat down between Alice and Dorcas, who immediately grabbed her tightly.

"I'm sorry you guys." She whispered just loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Lily, don't apologize. None of this is your fault." Remus consoled her.

"Yes it is. You guys warned me about him. I stuck up for him, that dick. G-d, I should've listened to the red flags and the warnings. I'm so sorry." She sobbed even harder.

"Stop it. He was your best friend. It's okay to want to see the best in him. It's okay to be wrong about him. None of us knew he was going to do that. This is his fault, not yours." Marlene told her in a soft and soothing voice. She tried as hard as she could to conceal the fact that her blood was boiling.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Lily stopped crying momentarily to yell into a pillow.

Peter got up and went to go hug her.

"If you want, we'll go hex him into the year 2030." He whispered in her ear.

That was the first time she smiled in 4 hours.

a/n
i FINALLY finished this chapter!! this was such a piece of work, but i love writing snape hate cause he's such a FUCKING DICK. anyway, i hope you also liked the quidditch part. i always get so bored when every fanfic has gryffindor winning all of the games and also only ever playing slytherin (like what??? there are 2 more houses) so i'm really glad i got to do the exact opposite. on a separate note, WE'RE SO CLOSE TO 1K!!!! thank you so much!!!!!!
like always, please correct any mistakes in my writing that you happen upon.
i'll leave by asking one question: what do you think the marauders and snape were talking about before lily came? tell me your theory :))) love you guys, see you later.

~ brynlee