chapter 11

Hogwarts, 1973

"Ah… I can't go on like this anymore" said a girl while planting her head between her arms.

"Mary, stop trying to evade your studies and concentrate. Look at Gilderoy, he is a first-year, but he is more diligent than you" intervened Lily, sending a look of disapproval to her friend, Mary cooper.

"It is exactly because he is in his first year that he still has that much passion for studying. Moreover, all your friends except me are geniuses, who always rank on top when it comes to school" protested Mary.

"You were like this since your first year" stated Lily making her friend pout.

Christmas holidays were approaching and Gilderoy had been further developing his friendship with Lily.

He had also met her other friends such as Mary Cooper, Alice Griffith and Pandora Fox, who he had gotten the chance to meet again.

"You can't expect everyone to be outstanding Lily, for some people an average life is enough" said Gilderoy.

"Hey, what do you mean with average life?" asked an offended Mary.

"If you don't like it than just study" said Gilderoy, and Lily laughed after seeing Gilderoy finally convincing Mary to keep reading.

"You are two years older, but you still get played by Gilderoy" said Lily, while covering her mouth to hold back her laugh.

"The little guy is more of a Slytherin than a Ravenclaw" protested Mary.

"Don't you dare question little Gil house. He's clearly a Raven like me!" intervened Pandora, who also sat at the table.

He had gotten to know Pandora better during these months and he could say that she was indeed a genius too.

It isn't difficult to see how she got to her level.

It was mostly thanks to the challenge she issued, that worked also as a trial for herself to keep improving.

Moreover, she also liked to hang out with other talented people to exchange opinions and that was how she first became friend with Alice and then she also approached Lily when she noticed the talent of the latter.

"Anyway, why are you using Lily's notes? You could have asked for mine. We are in the same house." Asked Pandora referring to the notes Lily had given him about charm.

"I thought that Ravenclaw usually doesn't share notes" explained Gilderoy.

"Really? Why is there such a rule in your house?" asked Lily surprised by the information.

"There is a lot of competition in Ravenclaw when it comes to grades, and they don't want to give the enemy an edge. You don't have to worry about that little Gil, I don't really care about those things" said Pandora, but Gilderoy could feel a great pride coming from her statement.

He had learned from Allanon about how to read others emotions during this time, as he thought it would be useful.

"No, I don't think you don't care. Rather, I believe you are just confident enough that even if you were to give an advantage to someone else, they still wouldn't be able to catch up to you" stated Gilderoy and Pandora face morphed into a dark smile.

"I don't know what you are talking about" replied Pandora.

"Really? Then, give me your charm notes" said Alice Griffith, joining the conversation.

"You don't need them you are already good in charms" said the Ravenclaw girl.

"But I would still like to have an edge over you. You don't have a problem with that right?" added the Hufflepuff girl.

Alice was also good with charms, and she happened to be in the same year as Pandora, so they competed often over grades.

"Fine I admit, little Gil was right. I too am competitive, so don't even think of ever getting a single peek at my notes" said Pandora and everyone started laughing.

"You don't mind me joining, right?" asked suddenly a tall boy with glasses, and behind him stood other three guys.

A handsome guy with long hair, an average boy with a nerdy and embarrassed face and lastly a short and ugly fellow.

From the way the guy in the front looked at Lily, Gilderoy could tell he had a crush for her and quite deep going by the emotions that he could sense.

The same couldn't be said for Lily, who only felt disdain and anger for the guy in front of her.

"You are not welcome" replies Lily with a cold expression.

"Why? You always said that this was a study group only for girls, but now you have a guy here staying with you" exclaimed the guy.

"Lily always tried to put nice, but it seems that if she doesn't tell you directly that she simply doesn't like your presence you won't give up" intervened Pandora maintaining a smile.

Suddenly the handsome man behind came up.

"There is no need for all this coldness. We are going if you don't want us here" he said trying to calm down his friend and bring him away.

The average guy apologized and then together with the small one he reached the other two, who had just left.

"Who are they?" asked Gilderoy, while Lily rubbed her temple to calm down.

"They call themselves the marauders and they are the worst kind prankster. James Potter, the one with glasses, has had a crush for Lily since the first year. Not something new, but differently from the others James took his anger on Severus, who passed a lot of time with Lily" explained Pandora.

Gilderoy had never met Severus, since the latter didn't seem to like hanging out with Lily's other friends, but he had an idea of the kind of guy he was.

An idiot.

Someone who is clearly in love with Lily, but hangs out with death eaters, which go around killing muggles and believe in blood purity.

It's like he doesn't realize that he is trying to live at the same time in two worlds that are fated to clash.

Only one thing is sure. Snape will eventually lose Lily forever and it will be totally his fault. For Gilderoy this was certain, rather he was surprised at the fact that this friendship had not ended yet.

Lily is clearly trying to evade noticing the fundamental problems with her childhood friend, but one day she will be forced to open her eyes.

Maybe it will be the day when Severus officially becomes a death eater, maybe it will be the day she heard he killed a muggle, or maybe it will be the day she'll see him going around with other death eaters murdering anyone in his way.

That's also why Gilderoy doesn't really care about that guy. Why bother himself with such an idiot? He may be talented, but talent is not enough.

For example, if Gilderoy had really abandoned any subject he was not talented in, no matter how talented he was in the mind arts, he would have still turned into a useless fraud, who needed to use little tricks to fake his abilities.

Even a genius can get ruined if he takes the wrong choices.

Gilderoy also believed that James wasn't much better, as he decided to take his frustration for not being able to get closer with Lily on Severus.

This too had revealed itself to be a wrong move, that made Lily hate him.

"Maybe right now she even faults him for making Severus more desperate and push him further into his Death Eater career. At the same time, I think she also fault herself for being the cause that made James target Severus" though Gilderoy and his hypothesis would also explain all the guilt he could feel from her whenever Lily spoke about things related to this.

"I think you are right. These kinds of thoughts aren't really healthy, the best advice I can give here, would be to always affront things head on and don't let them become a weight. Procrastinating or evading to resolve a problem would just make it get worse" said Allanon.

"You also suggested me to find a friend, but seeing this scene, I can say that friendship can also ruin people" said Gilderoy.

"Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. This was written by a poet during my time. Love and Hate, two opposite feelings, that can coexist at the same time and torment the victim with the most horrible pain, that of the heart. When you open yourself to someone, you must also be ready get hurt, it is then your choice to succumb or not. Friendship is a precious gift that must be treated with care, as long as you take care for it, it will last" said Allanon to the boy, but the latter had difficulties to understand precisely the meaning of Allanon words.

Gilderoy's conclusion is that he like where he is and doesn't want to give up on this friendship, so he just concentrated on Pandora's words for now.

"Just before this summer James stole Severus potion book and found a spell on it that Severus created, it is called the dangling jinx. He then passed it to everyone and later often used it on Severus himself. Can you imagine what it feels to have someone rob your spell and use it on you. I too invented some spells and ward and if someone did that to me, I would have killed him. Since then, Lily made sure to stop every type of contact with the marauders. She sits on the opposite side in every class and doesn't reply to even a normal greeting." Said Pandora ending her presentation about why Lily hates them so much.

"What about the others?" asked again Gilderoy.

"Sirius Black was the handsome one, he is a total playboy, who goes around having one night stands with everyone, you can read about many of his conquests on the newspaper written by Skeeter. The one who apologized is Lupin, he seems to be a good guy, but he always gets dragged by the others. As for the short one… he is called Peter Pettigrew, he is just a pervert who hangs out with the other three to ger some support." This time it was Marie who replied, trying to get away from her studies another time.

"Sirius also tried to hit on me once, but I only let intelligent guys inside my room" said Pandora this time.

"Can we change subject? I don't want to talk about them more than what is needed. Let's speak about our Christmas Holidays. Do you have any plans?" asked Lily.

"Cinema, no study and relax" said Mary with a smile on her face, looking forward to having a long pause from school.

"I'll keep working on my wards" replied Pandora.

"I'm going to Greece with my family" replied Gilderoy. He had convinced his mother to bring him there, since Allanon said that he could find there the technique he mentioned at the beginning of the year that could allow him to improve his body.

"Wow, that sound great. As for me, like the others, I am just going to pass some time with my family. Remember to send me some letters, while you are there" said Lily.

"A great Holiday for a great man" thought Gilderoy, eager to finally find the solution that will allow him to increase the power of his spells.