Attack, unicorn, attack.

"Hey, Potter."

Lily stared over the edge of her book. She could see three pair of stocking-ed legs. Her eyes travelled upwards to see the sneers of a trio of girls known to give her trouble. Lottie Carol was a b!tch. And her cronies, Cassie and Nell, were just as bad. Lottie hated Lily because Lily had dated Thomas Gavin, and Thomas was Lottie's cousin. So when Thomas had set about ruining his life, Lottie had been the closest at hand. It had been two years since Thomas had graduated, and Lottie's mission hadn't finished.

"I'm talking to you, Potter!"

Lily dropped her eyes back to the page, pulling her gloves farther down her wrists. The long coat was beginning to get stifling hot. A moment ago, it had provided her shelter from the cold of the courtyard. Now, as her stress levels rose, so did the heat within the jacket. She began to unbutton the coat. She had to block Lottie out. The girl's attention span wasn't long. She'd leave soon enough.

"Oi. Ginger."

Lily gritted her teeth.

"Oh, so the famous Potter girl doesn't listen to peasants anymore?"

Lily turned the page of her book, refusing to listen to the girl, nor the giggles of her cronies. People in the courtyard were watching now.

"I wanted to compliment you, Potter, if you'd listen! You look good. What diet are you on again? The one where you eat whatever you want... and then puke it up?"

Lottie threw her head back, laughing. When she opened her eyes again, Lily was right in front of her. "What are you do-"

"Huh!" came Lily's grunt as her fist connected with Lottie's nose.The girl fell over and Lily immediately jumped on top of her, the jacket catching the wind and flaring out around her. Nell was shrieking for a prefect, and Cassie was pulling on Lily's hair. Lily didn't let up. Blow after blow landed on the girl who had finally crossed a line.

Blood caught Rudolph's focused eyes and withdrew them from his studies, dragging them in a sweeping motion towards the pair who had fallen to the stone beneath his feat a mere yard away, appearing the image of a whirlwind of hair as they struggled. And to his left, Rudy cocked his head as he observed the assaults which the redheaded student proceeded to rain upon the other, and permitted himself a curious smirk. She has a marvelous swing on her, that one.

He made to slowly close his book, marker slotted between his previous and present page so not to lose his place. And he rose, "Excuse me," He proposed kindly as he came to stand a foot away from the pair, his gaze trained on the dominant of the two. "I don't mean to intrude, but you may want to stop. I think you might have broken her nose. It doesn't take much to fatally harm a person that way."

Lily was hitting Lottie everywhere she could, completely oblivious to everything else around here. Fate had done something lovely, and shielded her from the outside world. Someone had started up the classic, if terribly cliche, chant of the word 'fight' but she did not hear. Cassie continued to tug at Lily's shoulders and hair, attempting to pry the redhead off of the snarky Slytherin girl, but to no avail. Lily was latched on to her target.

A small voice was what took to get her attention to divert. It was the quiet and kind that stood above the loud and callous. Her eyes found a kind face, but a Slytherin badge gave it away, and her eyes narrowed. "Just trying to protect your housemate." She dealt a blow to Lottie's ear, and the girl shrieked, tears and snot trailing over her face. "STOP IT, YOU B!TCH, YOU'RE A FREAK!"

"Shut. Up." Lily whispered, kneeing her in the stomach. Her hands were shaking, her vision was spotting. She must be going crazy, because Lottie still hadn't suffered enough,

Rudolph surely would have sold his soul for an opportunity such as the one which the redhead before him had seized. To release such pure rage upon a deserving individual sounded a great deal like his idea of a personal heaven. Thus, he was transfixed by the trickle of crimson that slithered along the line of the Slytherin girl's nose and the dark gleam that had stolen the redhead's eyes. She was lost. Rudolph resisted the urge to sigh in admiration.

"Excuse me?" Rudolph spoke up again; never prying; always deceivingly patient, no matter the circumstances. "L-Lily, right?" Came his intentional stutter as he deduced from the Slytherin girl's previous shouts the redhead's name. "Lily? I'm not protecting anyone." He offered her a hesitant smile and gave the hem of his hat a firm, downward tug."Please stop. I think you might regret it if something irreversible happens," He concluded bashfully.

Lottie hasn't stopped, but Cassie had. Lottie's cronies had backed off in fear, and Lottie was shrieking, "Get her off me, you idiots! Get off of me, Lily!" Lily moved her knees so they were pinching Lottie's elbows down onto the cobblestone. She squirmed and Lily's expression remained unchanged. The only evidence of her rage was the punk flush in her cheeks. Her eyes were focused, her lips pursed.

The boy spoke again and Lily didn't look up at him, but she listened. There was some calm, uncertain compassion in his voice that reminded her of Albus, and she wondered how he would react to such a situation as this. He would probably yank her off and then speak to her like that, yes. Only her brothers were brave enough to really stop her in a situation such as this.

She snapped her head up, looking at the boy, trying to decide if he was lying or not. "I wouldn't regret if she lost the ability to speak," Lily said, shrugging her shoulders. That was almost a joke. She looked at Lottie. "I'm going to get off you. Stay down until I leave, or I'll hit you again." Lottie stared, silent.

Lily stood, shaking her hands out. The crowd was still cat calling, but she ignored it... Now where did she go? Her hair was mused, blood stained her hands, and she still looked thunderous.

"Lottie? Lottie! What the hell? Hey - you b!tch! Get off of her!" Another soul emerged from the House of the Cunning, decked in a parade of greens and grays that contrasted wildly with his orange hair, and had consequently betrayed his approach long before he had spoken. Thus, Rudolph should have anticipated the inevitable assault that was to be made against him. And hadn't the young lad been so particularly preoccupied with his analysis of the damage that Lily Potter had inflicted upon her victim from his position a seemingly safe distance away with twitching lip-corners and morbid intrigue, he surely would have.

"Diffindo!"

Rudy watched from his respective perch within his safe haven, the confines of his thick skull, as his body was thrown across stone and well out of reach of the pair of tussling women. Heavily, he fell upon his shoulder, the side of his face ground mercilessly against rock. And as his jolted limbs settled against one another, the smell became apparent. His lover from affair; the object of his affection. Blood.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Fingers coiled in Rudolph's knit sweater and he was heaved to his feat by the boy who Rudy had reasoned was a dear friend of the Slytherin girl whom Lily had beaten to a pulp. The taller boy jerked Rudy and he stumbled, adorned in a slender gash that trailed from his collar bones and over his eye to rest in a bloodied splotch across his brow. But Rudolph had eyes only for Lily. "You - you - uh have a bit..," He informed her with a small gesture of his hand towards her face.

"I am going to destroy you, you ass. You get off on attacking girls? Huh, prat!?"

Rudolph smiled politely and he tugged down his hat.

Once Lily was able to get away from the scene - even putting a few paces between herself and her victim (if Lottie deserved the term) was enough - she was able to get a bearing on what had happened to her Voice of Reason, which she supposed the boy had been. As her own seemed dangerously absent, strange as she was typically so rational, it seemed the universe had arranged for the boy to be a temporary vessel for her fleeing logic.

A boy towered over the smaller Slytherin, blood dripping from a wound the smaller seemed to have inflicted. Lily felt another flare of anger, this time at herself. She had attacked Lottie to level a score for herself. She did not like involving other people, because she liked to deal with things on her own. If someone was hurt for being involved with her in anyway, it struck her. She'd rather shoulder on alone then be responsible for the pain of others.

She had to stop this right now.

She walked up to the boys, reaching up to wipe a small fleck of blood from her brow. She inserted herself between the boys, their bodies close on either side. She stared up at the larger boy and his attention shifted to her. She took a step forward, stepping on his toe. He drew back. Then she broke his nose, flipped him over, broke his wrist and was arrested like a badass. "Take your snake girlfriend to the hospital wing, or I'll take you both to a morgue."

It was dark, even for her, but it was enough to shut him up, and it was enough to stop the cheering of the crowd. It was suddenly quiet- she had crossed a line, and cheering for a fight no longer seemed prudent. She turned to the boy that had assisted her- she couldn't walk off and leave him to this pack of hungry dogs. She waved a hand. "C'mon. Go with me to the greenhouses. They have a sink there to wash up in."

The wand in his right hand weighed heavily against his palm in spite of its true mass as Rudolph withdrew it from its respective pocket in his denims. His smile wilted in anticipation of his broken resolve to remain good tempered, and he lunged.

"Sectum-"

Lily Potter.

Rudolph simultaneously cursed and praised the name.

His wand trembled with the fury that pulsated alongside the warm blood of his every vein. And he concealed it from view in his traditionally controlled and animalistic stance, holding the weapon off behind his thigh. "Sorry for the noise," Rudolph apologize to those of the crowd who stood near enough to catch his murmured words, "Just a misunderstanding," he spoke in fragmented sentences. And after Lily, he followed; steps poised and heart rocking his slender frame to an erratic beat.

He was silent.

She could hear the start of the word, of that forbidden almost-unforgivable spell, ringing in her ears behind her. She was close enough to him that she could practically feel the word, and she was glad to hear it interrupted, mainly because she was now in his way. She didn't feel like dying of blood loss today.

She stepped away and she could hear him performing minor damage control, something she had too much vain pride to do. Lily never apologized, even if she was wrong. Especially if she was wrong.

They fell into step but neither spoke. Lily simply led the way to the Herbology greenhouses, opening the door to the one they took first years in and leading the way to the back supply room, where there was a small sink. She ran it and dipped her hands underneath it, glancing up at the boy. "Do you need healing? I can do minor cuts."

Sam had been sitting alone, peacefully in the first year greenhouse. He liked the smells in there... most of them, that was. Sitting near the stinkpods was never going to be a good move, however it was one of the few greenhouses where you could easily find a spot to sit, think, and not have to fight off the creepers of some gnarled green plant as it attempted to strangle you.

So he was a little surprised when, for the first time ever, he was interrupted in his musings with the arrival of a pair of students - a Gryffindor girl he'd seen around the common room, and a Slytherin boy he didn't recognise.

He was going to ignore them (returning the favour they'd bestowed upon Sam) when he heard something about healing. Which probably meant trouble.

Sam was a good healer... bugger.

And so with a grunt he pushed himself up and followed the pair into the back storeroom and leaned in the door frame. "You two alright?" He asked, noting the fresh-looking blood on the two of them.