Praise Out of Season (HP fandom, Lily Evans, PG)

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Title: Praise Out of Season
Author: summerborn
Rating: PG
Fandom: Harry Potter
Warnings: None.
Prompt: 106. Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame.--Pearl Buck.
Summary: Lily Evans is unhappy with her marks.
Notes: I own nothing. A big thank-you to betas such_heights and softlyforgotten! ~1200 words.

Praise Out of Season

"Well done, my dear! Another inspired essay!" Slughorn set the parchment down on the desk in front of Lily and moved away.

She picked it up and scanned it quickly. O, and he hadn't made any comments on the part about using meadowfoam oil in place of calendula oil at higher altitudes. She turned to Severus, seated beside her, with a triumphant grin.

"Looks like we were right about—" She broke off when she saw the look on his face. "What's the matter, Severus?"

"Nothing." He moved a hand to cover his parchment, but not before she saw the red A across the top.

"Let me see that," Lily demanded, holding out her hand.

There was a pause, and then Severus moved his arms off the desk, crossing them in front of his chest. Lily took that for permission and snatched up the essay.

Not a bad theory, read Slughorn's handwriting in the margin. But in practice, meadowfoam oil doesn't hold the infusion of burdock root the way calendula does.

"But—" Lily looked down at her own parchment again, though she knew exactly what it said. "But he didn't make that correction on my essay!"

Severus shrugged and took his "acceptable" essay back. "Doesn't matter," he said.

"Of course it matters! If it's wrong on your essay, then it should be wrong on mine as well." She stood up and made her way to the front of the dungeon, past the other students bustling towards the door, and came to a stop in front of Slughorn's desk.

"Excuse me, Professor," she started, clutching her essay. "About my mark on this—"

"Hmmn, what? Oh yes, fine work, Lily, fine work." Slughorn beamed at her and got to his feet. "Still, you can't ask for higher than an O, can you?" He chuckled and patted her on the shoulder as he went by.

"Er—no, sir, it's just that—"

But he was gone, up the stairs and out the door before she could catch him and make him listen.

Severus was in the corridor when she emerged from the classroom.

"He didn't want to hear it," Lily said. Severus fell in beside her, and they headed up toward the main level of the castle.

"Of course not," he said. "Your work will always be perfect in Slughorn's eyes."

Lily made a strangled noise. "But it's not fair."

Severus glanced at her sidelong. "You'd rather have lower marks, just to make things 'fair'?"

"Yes! I'd rather get a mark I deserve!"

"Gryffindors," Severus muttered. Lily let it pass. He went on in a louder voice, "You're not going to be able to change him, so you might as well get used to special treatment."

"I'll talk to him before Thursday's lesson," she decided. "I'll show him both essays, then he'll have to change one of them."

Severus stopped then, and pointed a finger at Lily. "Do what you want with your essay, Evans, but you are not dragging me into this. My advice for you is to take what you can, while you can." He turned and headed back down the steps, leaving Lily on the staircase, a bit startled by his sudden vehemence.

-:-

Lily turned up early for the next Potions class, but Slughorn didn't arrive until the bell. She tossed a frustrated glance at Severus, who only smirked.

When she once again failed to get through to Slughorn at the end of the lesson, Lily decided that more drastic measures were called for. That Friday night, she and Severus met as usual in the library. When they were done with the Potions essay, Severus went on to the Defense Against the Dark Arts work while Lily began writing a second essay for Slughorn.

Severus rolled his eyes at her, but she was determined. One way or another, she was going to make Slughorn realize that she was not perfect.

She was scanning over the deliberately bad essay on Monday, while the class milled about waiting for Slughorn to appear. The essay was too short, it was based on incorrect assumptions and faulty reasoning, and to top it off she'd cast a Confundus charm on her spell-check quill before writing it, so that whole paragraphs were barely legible. There was no way Slughorn could give this anything more than a P, and that would be generous.

Class started, and Slughorn collected their essays to mark while they worked on this week's potion. Lily held her breath as her parchment went into the pile with the others. She had the real essay as a sort of back-up—in case Slughorn accused her of something dishonest, she could always say she'd turned in the first draft by mistake, and produce the other. After all, she wasn't trying to get detention or anything.

As the hour wore on, Lily found herself watching Slughorn more and more instead of concentrating on her cauldron. Surely he'd graded hers by now? Somehow she'd thought she would be able to tell, to see the disappointment in his eyes, or something.

Severus jogged her elbow. "If you don't add the dragon blood in the next two minutes, you'll ruin it."

Lily reached for the vial. "Maybe I should ruin it," she sighed. "Just to show him."

"Don't tell me you're feeling sorry for yourself because you're the teacher's pet?" Severus' lip curled.

"I am not—" She paused. She could hardly deny it at this point. "I don't want to be the teacher's pet. It's not fair."

Severus shook his head, eyes focused on his cauldron. "Life isn't fair, Evans. Good things happen to people who don't deserve them, and bad things happen to people that don't deserve them. If you can't change the one, why would you bother trying to change the other?"

The timer for the potion went off before Lily could think of a suitable reply. Slughorn was handing back essays and peering into cauldrons, and she was starting to feel nervous again. Just before he got to their desk, she ducked down to put her books away to avoid facing him.

"Gryffindor courage," she heard Severus say, and she stepped on his foot before straightening.

"Sorry about that," she said sweetly, and then picked up the parchment Slughorn had left on the desk.

E. For 'exceeds expectations.'

Severus was looking over her shoulder. "He must have pretty low expectations."

Lily shoved the parchment into her bag. "It's not funny, Severus. What am I going to do?"

"For the last time, Evans, what you are going to do is stop worrying about it. Slughorn doesn't grade the NEWT. You'll still have to work hard and study if you want to pass that, so who cares what he writes on your stupid essays in the meantime?" With that, Severus joined the crowd of students at the door.

Lily sat at her desk another long moment. Maybe he was right. It didn't make her feel any better about it, though. She picked up her bag and headed towards the hallway.

Maybe life wasn't fair. But that was no reason for her not to try her best, and maybe she could earn every bit of the praise Slughorn gave her.

Comments

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

An original idea, and very nicely executed. I enjoyed this - thank you!

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for your comment :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Nice one. You could perhaps imagine someone like Slughorn giving special consideration to his favourites, or at least skimming their essays and writing down a good mark almost before they started. (Although I'd suspect that Sluggy might drop a student like a hot potato if they suddenly became rubbish and didn't have a potential excuse or other reasons for him to be interested in them, like Harry.)

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Yep. I completely agree - it's just convenient for the purposes of my fic that he didn't really notice *this* time :D

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I really liked this - it's very in character for Lily, Snape and Slughorn. I liked the interplay of the two students, particularly: Snape quite sure that talent and hard work will win through, but accepting that favouritism is something that happens to other people; Lily outraged at the unfairness, feeling as if her work is undermind, despite it being to her advantage.

This situation happened to me in high school (though it was a woodwork class and the ancient teacher gave higher-than-deserved marks to the girls because he thought we were naturally disadvantaged at such things!) and a male friend and I took the confrontational route. He raised the boys' marks, but wouldn't alter the girls'.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

*undermind? What is that? Should be undermined!

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comment! It was fun to write the different ways Lily and Severus saw the situation :).

It never happened to me, but I've heard stories about similar situations.

[zoe-chan.livejournal.com]

I liked how you did this. Lily's outrage on her and Snape's behalf. I like that she's concerned with fairness, even when it's her that is recieving the benefits. And I liked how she tried to fake Slughorn out only to have it be completely ineffectual.

I, too, had a teacher like this, once. I turned in a final paper, which I later noticed to have been riddled with assorted errors, and recieved a 100% on it. There were no marks on the paper at all. It really does cheapen the work, even when it turns out to benefit you.

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to hear that people have had similar experiences! I think teachers often have preconceptions about the level of quality from different students.

Anyway, thanks for your comment!

[tree_and_leaf]

Interesting piece, though I have to agree with Snorcack Catcher. I think Slughorn would have initially been concerned about his star pupil - though I can quite imagine him favouring her over Snape - and then gradually dropped her if her marks didn't pick up again. He might well cut her some slack initially, but she doesn't have any family connections to compensate for any loss of potions brilliance. It's not even as if there's canon evidence for her being stunningly beautiful (as opposed to merely 'quite pretty'), so there's little to hint that she'd have the potential to make a good marriage that would increase Slughorn's contacts that way...

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, I think you're absolutely right. If she did it again, she'd probably find herself out in the cold, so to speak. I took a bit of a liberty for convenience :).

You raise a really interesting point about Slughorn. If I may be allowed to muse off-topic for a moment, I wonder how much "marriage potential" factors into his evaluations for collecting students. Of course, we don't get his viewpoint on anything, but it makes me curious. I definitely get the impression that physical appearance is a consideration...

Sorry, thinking out loud. Anyway! Thanks for your comment!

[tree_and_leaf]

Author's privilege! :)

I don't buy Pervy!Slughorn, possibly because he's quite a recognisable British type...† but yes, he likes students who are above average in any respect, and that includes looks. There doesn't seem to be much going for Zabini other than his personable mother. Though there are other strikes against Snape than his bad hair, such as his grotty personality. FWIW, I think Slughorn probably sees his favourites as being what he'd like to be, but isn't.

†And partly because there's no way I can see Dumbledore allowing someone with that sort of interest in children near any of his pupils for even an instant.

[sor-bet.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a friend in high school -- she turned in an English paper with something unrelated in middle. I can't remember if it was song lyrics copied out, or rambling on about something, but the teacher didn't even notice because of the previous good work she'd done.

But I also like the way you worked their characters into what might be a typical high school occurrence -- Lily's insistence on fairness and Snape mocking her Gryffindor sensibilities. Nice fic, and very plausible.

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Wow, someone else with a similar story. I feel like I really struck a chord or something :D.

Thanks for your comment!

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I liked the reversal of the situation we see with Harry and Snape--it's interesting to think that Lily might have struggled to prove that she really was as good as Slughorn thought she was, rather than trying to correct old prejudices as Harry does. History repeats itself in unexpected ways. Enjoyed! Maggie

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

That's such an interesting parallel! I wish I'd thought of it :D. Thanks very much for your comment!

[curiousqity.livejournal.com]

I've gone all melty. That last line killed me. SS/LE is my new ship. *bawls*

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Shh, it was supposed to be gen! XD

I just can't help getting Severus all tangled up in there. And I'm very glad you liked it, thanks for the comment!

[purple-ladybug1.livejournal.com]

I see Lily as so morally upstanding. And I like the cautious friendship between Lily and Snape.

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for your comment! :)

[dizilla.livejournal.com]

I love the camaraderie with Severus here. I also love that she does her best to make everything fair. I feel sorry for her as it's just as much an insult to have Slughorn favor her like that than to critique every single item. Wonderfully written. ^_^

[summerborn.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for reading and commenting! :D

Your story's been rec'd

[snuggle-muggle.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to let you know that I have rec’d your story and posted a link to it in the new HP community hpmssgmoments, or Harry Potter Missing Moments. Your story fits nicely into canon and makes a nice addition to our archives. Please feel free to come over and take a look at what we are doing and your entry (posted under "Undiscovered Beginnings"). We are a small group at the moment, but we hope to get your story some new readers and some new reviews as we grow.

REC: Praise Out of Season (Lily, Severus, Gen)

[livejournal.livejournal.com]

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