Chapter Text
“Amicus curiae,” Lily announced tiredly. Undisturbed, the Fat Lady “snored” soundly. “Amicus curiae!” she repeated. In response, the Fat Lady only grunted in her sleep. “Come on! I know you’re just upset that I’m waking you this late,” Lily groaned with frustration. She knew the Fat Lady was not at all asleep- she had just seen her trying to flirt with a nearby portrait of a knight. “I’m sorry, but I’m tired and all I want is to sleep. I’ll apologize sincerely again in the morning if that’s what you want, but cut out the drama and let me in, please. AMICUS CURIAE!”
Finally, the entrance to Gryffindor's common room swung open revealing the warm fire and couches littered with forgotten books and blankets. “Thank you!” she huffed.
“I’ll be waiting for that apology in the morning,” spoke the voice of the Fat Lady, “and I expect it to be very dramatic!”
Rolling her eyes, Lily entered the common room and collapsed onto one of the armchairs. She rested her eyes, enjoying the quiet of the empty common room. Late nights at the library had become a ritual as the first year’s exams began. She had entered a world of magic and wonder, one where fiction turned into reality. The reality, unfortunately, is never untainted. The world of her dreams was one of love and celebration, but she had entered it in the midst of war and prejudice.
There are muggle-borns, half-bloods, and purebloods, Severus had explained. Purebloods are the best, of course. They have the purest form of magic and a fully untainted bloodline. Then there are half-bloods, they have a pureblood parent and a mud-, er, muggle-born or muggle, parent. Muggles are people without magic- like your sister- and muggle-borns are people with magic born to muggle parents. They say their magic isn’t pure, although if they submit to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, I hear they can be pure!
Severus held the idea of muggle-born impurity dearly, but as he spent more and more time with Mulciber and the other older Slytherins, he seemed to believe that muggles could never be pure. He never said so to her, but she wasn’t an imbecile. She could tell from how he spoke to other muggle-borns. She was determined to be top of the class within the first years, show him, all of them, that a muggle-born was the smartest among the class and better than any pureblood. Late hours at the library were just the cost of her ambition.
She sighed and relaxed her shoulders, she needed to rest if she planned on becoming top of the class. She heard a sound behind her- a quiet, broken sound, almost like a plea for help. Her eyes flew open and she desperately searched for the source of the sniffled cry. She traced the soft sound to an armchair near the fire. She reached gingerly towards the hunched boy whose body shook in tremors as he curled into himself, a fist in his mouth. Lily forced herself to be as silent as she could, took a step towards him, and whispered, “Sirius?”