A/N: this piece was inspired by Ell Roche's story "Unimaginable, you and I." Also, there is internet Latin. If you are interested in correcting my grammar, send me a PM and I'll happily update.

One letter. All it took for a carefully constructed day to fall apart was one letter.

Lily Evans stared at the message in front of her and tried to calm the coil of nausea rising from her belly. The stationary alone would have caused her stomach to sink. The muggle paper felt rough against fingers used to the fine parchment of school and the writing looked childish when scrawled with a pen rather than a quill. But it was the content that dulled the bright sunlight of the Great Hall and cast a cloud over her already miserable day.

"Ooh! Letter from home?" To her right, Marianne Gibson, a half-blood girl of cheerful demeanor but shallow intellect, craned her head to look. Lily shoved the letter under the table before her gossiping classmate could get a good look, "My Mum just sent us word too. Apparently, my sister Sally's pregnant again and Mum's in an uproar because they don't know the dad. Might be one of the muggles from the village, Eddie thinks."

"Dating a muggle isn't a bad thing." Lizzy Brights piped up from Lily's other side. The only other muggleborn in Lily's year, the two girls had naturally drifted together during their first year of Hogwarts, but found that their heritage was the only thing they had in common. While Lily avidly devoured books on the culture of magic and excelled, Lizzy found the wizarding world unwelcoming of her inherit sense of fairness and became increasingly bitter about the state of society.

"Oh I know," Marianne replied pleasantly, "I'm not a Slytherin after all."

Personally, Lily thought that wishing to establish the paternity of your child, whether muggle or wizard, was a value that transcended any house rivalries, but she kept that opinion to herself and, instead smoothed her expression into one of mild curiosity. It was difficult, at times, to remain interested in the needlessly complicated lives of her classmates, but she took her responsibilities as prefect very seriously.

Severus might shake his head and make cutting remarks that if she was going to cultivate the society of fools, could they at least be well connected or wealthy? To which Lily usually replied that Slytherin seemed to have stolen them all away. Plus, her friends offered her a protection that Severus couldn't: marauder barriers.

"Letter from home, Lily?"

Speak of the devil himself.

Annoyance flashed through her as Potter took familiar liberties with her name; a favor she had not granted him and would never. But reminding him to call her Evans, only invited more conversation. In James Potter's world, any attention was proof of adoration. The hotter her hatred, the brighter her eventual love, in his deluded fantasy and Lily was positive that he annoyed her just for that purpose.

At least, she had her buffer of friends. With Lizzy and Marianne on either side, she could be spared Potter's appetite killing affections for one meal-

"Oh, Marianne," Sirius Black swung into a seat across the table and gave her classmate a soulful look, "I forgot that we had that quiz in charms. Since you're so good at them, be a sweet heart and sit next me and help me study?" Marianne, whose crush on Black began their first year, turned a deep red and scooted around the table while pulling out her painstakingly ordered notes. Potter immediately slipped into her unoccupied seat.

"So, Lily, good news in the letter?" He grinned at her with what he no doubt considered boyish charm and spooned some sausages on her plate before filling up his own. In his latest effort to prove their inherent compatibility, Potter had decided to learn all of Lily's "cute quirks and eccentricities" as he put it. Lily called it "stalking" and not very effective one at that. Last week, Potter had gotten it into his thick skull that her favorite breakfast food was sausage- despite Lily's personal aversion to the greasy dish.

Lily turned to Lizzy in desperation, but saw that Remus Lupin had taken the seat on Lizzy's other side and was speaking to her seriously about the last test in Transfiguration. The nausea in her stomach increasing, Lily looked across the table to see that Peter Petigrew had taken the only available conversational seat with a self-satisfied smirk.

Trapped.

Surrounded.

Lily bit down the feeling of panic and turned back to Potter who was grinning at her like he had just executed a brilliant Wonskey feint on the Quidditch field rather than made her bad morning into something miserable.

"C'mon, Lils, what did it say?" He leaned forward until Lily felt quite invaded, his hand reaching slowly for the letter on her lap. "I keep telling you I want to know all your funny muggle traditions. Since we're going to be family and all." He winked at her as his fingers grazed over her knees and then just under the hem of her school skirt.

Lily sat rooted to the bench as shock and fury battled inside her. She wanted to scream. She wanted to slap Potter's smug expression into tomorrow, then grab her wand and curse him much further. But what could she do? If she screamed, he'd pretend he was brushing away a spider. If she slapped him, he'd laugh and call her feisty. If she reported him to a Professor, he'd deny it and his posse would back up whatever lies he concocted no matter how ridiculous.

There was no one. No one she could turn to. The Professors turned a blind eye to the petty tortures masquerading as pranks, even when the Marauders were torturing her best friend-

"Get. Your. Filthy. Hands. Of. Her."

A familiar wand passed through her field of vision and Lily glanced up, relief rushing through her so intensely she felt light headed. Severus Snape stood there- white faced in anger and looking like one rash comment from plunging his wand through James Potter eye and into his skull.

"Oh, I don't hear her complaining." James grinned at her as if they were sharing a joke and Lily wasn't about to vomit from revulsion.

"She. Shouldn't. Need. To." Severus bit out, wand not wavering. Whatever insults could be thrown at the awkward Slytherin, weak wasn't one as James Potter seemed to slowly register. He raised his hands slowly to his shoulders, palms out in a show of mock surrender. Lily let out a breath that she hoped didn't sound as much like a sob as it felt.

"Big words for a boy with holes in his pants." Whatever rare sense James had been granted today, Sirius Black lacked. The handsome Gryffindor had pulled his wand and was leaning forward with the fire of challenge dancing in his eyes. "Maybe we should give the Great Hall a little reminder?"

It was times like these that Lily was humiliated to be in the Lion's house. Courage so easily became stupidity, while bravery could too quickly shift to cruelty. House pride could even become complacency. Her so called friends sat around as James reassessed her because they thought a Gryffindor could do no harm, but were now eager to see a rival Snake humiliated for the simple fault of defending her.

"Black-" She started, her hand going to her own wand in the pocket of her robe, but she was interrupted by a cool voice, unfamiliar on this side of the room.

"Oh dear. Is this an altercation outside the bounds of the Praeceptum?" Lucius Malfoy strode towards the table, looking as polished as ever. He radiated an aura of tightly enforced calm that made one straighten their posture and wonder if something was stuck in their teeth.

He cast a contemptuous glance over the Gryffindors, dismissed them, and settle on Severus. Slowly, Severus's arm lowered, until his wand was no longer pointed at James's face. Lily was shocked. Severus knew better than to give up an advantage against the Mauraders. But there he was, wand at his side and defenseless against any hex from Sirus. Lily tightened her grip on her own wand, ready to cast a shield.

"Absolutely not." The anger was still evident in Severus' voice, but he did an admiral job at masking his emotions, "I simply saw that my future Tutella Hebes was being molested and sought to intervene under Lex Tu-tutamen Famillia."

"Wh-" Surprise flashed over Malfoy's face, but was quickly suppressed by his normal calm. His eyes became speculative as he considered first Severus and then Lily. Under his silver gaze, Lily couldn't help but sit a little straighter and raise her chin. She might not recognize what they were discussing, but she would be damned if she was found lacking in poise by the Slytherin.

"That would be interesting," Malfoy mused quietly as he contemplated her, "And you, Ms. Evans, do you accept Severus's claim of Tutella Hebes?"

Lily didn't know what Tutella Hebes was, but she trusted Severus with her life. He would never do anything to harm her, so she nodded, "I do."

Further down the table, Alice Fawely gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. At her side, Potter's face had gone a sickly grey and his lips were a tight line.

"Don't be stupid, Malfoy," He spat- his voice tight and furious. "Tutella Hebes is an outdated and ridiculous law. Lily has no idea what she's agreeing to. It doesn't count via Lex Hebes Inscitia, so bugger off back to your own table." He reached down and grabbed Lily's hand. Giving it a quick squeeze as if to reassure her that he had saved her from some terrible calamity. Severus' eyes went white with panic and Lily made her decision.

"Don't presume to know my mind," Lily tore her hand from James's grasp and stood up. "If Severus wants to claim Tute- whatever. That's good enough for me." This time, it was Severus who let out a slow, shaky breath.

"Indeed." Lucius bestowed a small, cursuroy smile upon her as if she were a well behaved, though sometimes bemusing pet. He seemed bored by the proceedings and eager to return to his breakfast, "So by Lex Tutamen Familia, since Black still has his wand drawn, he assumes the role of Praesumptor unless he decides to sit down. Now."

Black's face had gone an ugly, molted red in anger. He opened his mouth to protest, but caught James's furious shake of his head and slowly sunk back to his seat. He didn't put his wand away though.

"Pity. I would have loved the chance to act as Iudex Suprema." Under Malfoy's silky tones, there was a feral strength that made Lily want to shudder. "The case is thus closed. Severus, you will meet with me after dinner." With one more contemptuous look at the shocked and silenced Gryffindors, Malfoy turned on his heel and strode back to the Slytherin table.

"Lily, I have some questions about Flitwick's charm homework," Though Malfoy's final words seemed to promise danger, Severus radiated smugness as he turned towards Lily. "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me to the library?" He held out his hand to her and Lily blinked at it in confusion. Severus had never been so polite or offered to escort her anywhere.

But as she nodded and bent to gather her bag, James Potter grabbed her arm. He was still deathly pale- his eyes seeming dark and furious. When he spoke, it was tight and, almost, scared.

"Lily. Don't go with him. You don't know what you've agreed to and Malfoy and his cronies are the last people someone like you wants to be around right now."

"Someone like me?" Lily felt her heart still in her chest. Pureblood bigotry was a daily fact of life, but Potter had never been so direct or obvious in his acknowledgement of her heritage. There were days that he almost seemed to see her as a peer, which was the only reason she hadn't hexed him to the infirmary and back already.

"I didn't- Lils I didn't mean it like that." For once in his life, Potter seemed to realize he had gone too far. "You know I think Muggles are cute-"

"Let go." Her voice was cold and hard, but when James didn't appear to hear her, she wrenched her wrist away, "I would hate to contaminate your pure skin with someone like me. Let's go Severus."

She very pointedly took Severus's hand and let him guide her out of the Great Hall.

A/N: Hello, dear readers. This is my first Marauder Era fiction! Normally, I don't find the era very interesting, but after reading Ell Roche's latest works, I was inspired to look into Lily's experience as a muggleborn on the eve of a war around Muggle/Wizard relations. It was supposed to be a simple re-write of "Unimaginable" but then I started over thinking it... So, this has become my attempt to add more nuance to Pureblood philosophy and culture. I don't necessarily endorse it, but I am interested by it. Characters will be OOC. There will be (terrible latin) references to things that don't exist in HP cannon. Let me know what you think!