Lily didn't fancy the idea of having all four of the Marauders at her house at the same time. At Hogwarts, there was room for them, and not physical space for them, they weren't too large to fit into the Evan's modest sized house. It just seemed like their personalities took up too much room and made Lily feel the need to stand against the wall, out of their way.

Sirius was lounging on the couch, with his feet resting on the coffee table, tossing chocolate candies into Peter's open mouth, James was having Remus explain to him just how exactly the television worked, while flipping through the channels at lightning speed. They weren't being particularly loud or obnoxious, and still Lily was nervous.

Both of her parents were getting on in years, her dad turning sixty next year and when you couple that with his weak heart, Lily worrying about the Marauders being a bit too... Marauder-esque was entirely warranted.

"I just don't understand," James was crouching down behind the television now, inspecting the electrical socket. "Why does it stop working when you take this thing out of the wall?" He pulled on the cord and marveled at the screen as it faded black.

"Didn't you pay attention at all during Muggle Studdies?" Remus asked, taking the cord out of James' hand and plugging it back in.

"Don't let him stick his fingers in the outlet." Lily laughed, only half joking as her boyfriend knelt even closer to the socket. She heard her dad's car pull into the driveway and her heart picked up. "He's here!" She said, rushing over to Sirius and pulling on his arms, forcing him into an upright position. "Peter, pick up those candies!" He complied quickly. She rushed over to James, and helped him to his feet.

Of course, Mr. Evans had already met James a number of times, but Lily was still worried that her dad would suddenly change his mind about him. She tried to flatten his hair a bit and James pushed her hands away from his head, ruffling it back up.

"It looks worse when you do that." He said.

"Trust him," Sirius laughed. "He spent almost three hours trying to get it to lay flat for yo-" Sirius was interrupted when a pillow hit him in the face.

"No!" Lily hissed, taking the pillow away from Sirius and setting it right on the couch.

"Lily! I'm home!" Her dad called out as he walked through the front door.

"Sit!" She pointed to the couch and James, Remus and Peter all promptly joined Sirius. Sirius even managed to sit up straight and look like a proper, authority fearing youth. They all did. Lily was quite proud of them.

She rushed out of the den and to the door. "Hullo, dad." She smiled, taking his coat from him and hanging it up on the coat rack. "Did you have a nice day at work?"

"Fine, fine." He smiled, giving her a gentle squeeze on the shoulder. "Now, let's go meet these friends of yours, yes?"

"They're in the den." Lily said, "And they're only staying for dinner. Then they're all off to James' house, they've got a Quidditch game to go to tomorrow."

"They can stay as long as you'd like them too, dear." Mr. Evans said with another smile.

They walked into the den and Lily was pleased to see that none of the boys had moved from the couch, though Sirius had gone back to slouching.

"Dad, this is Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and of course, you know James already."

"It's nice to meet you, sir." Remus said politely, standing up and reaching out a hand.

Lily didn't notice that something was wrong until she saw Remus return his hand to his side and clear his throat awkwardly. She glanced over at her father and saw that he had his gaze glued on Sirius.

"You've never mentioned Sirius." He said quietly. Sirius raised an amused brow at Lily.

"Yes I have," She said. "I can hardly mention James without bringing up Sirius." She said honestly. James and Sirius both exchanged looks and shrugged.

"Yes, of course, but you've never mentioned..." He shook his head. "I'm getting old." He declared. "It must have just slipped my mind."

"You know," Sirius said, standing up and offering his hand to Mr. Evans, who was now in the right state of mind to accept it. "You look a lot like my grandfather. Though, I promise not to hold that against you."

"Mate, we've talked about this." James sighed, "You can't lead off with joke bashing your family. Especially to someone who doesn't know what-"

"My family is a bunch of arse-hats." Lily closed her eyes and counted to three, a technique she had mastered to keep her temper under control when around the Marauders. "There. Now he knows." Instead of commenting on what Sirius had said, Lily's dad simply raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"Do we have tea yet?" He said rather abruptly, still eyeing Sirius.

"Wh- oh. I can go get some." Lily said, shaking her head. "It must have slipped my mind."

"Oh, that's fine, dear. I'll go and get it…"

"No, dad. You just got back from work. You sit down, I'll go and get the tea."

"You're an angel." He smiled, taking a seat in his armchair.

"Why don't I go and help." James said, taking a few steps after Lily.

"No, James." Mr. Evans said sharply. "I think you'd better just take a seat."

"Dad…"

"Well, I'm sure you can manage on your own." He said, his voice taking on a honeyed tone again. "Unless you'd like James' help." Lily knew this tactic. He was asking, but he wasn't. Lily and Petunia had only ever chosen the wrong answer once.

"No," She said, pressing her lips together. "I'll be fine." She walked out of the room after casting a confused look at her boyfriend. The boys hadn't done anything that would have upset her dad. James hadn't done anything that would explain the way her father had spoken to him. Curious, she chose not to go to the kitchen, instead, she stood outside in the hallway and listened.

oOoOo

"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Mr. Evans said, looking directly at James as soon as Lily had left the room.

"E-excuse me?" James stuttered.

"I was under the impression that you were intelligent. Lily always makes sure to tell me that you get the highest marks in your year and that your Head Boy and Captain of the Quidditch team." He took a deep breath and brought his hands up to his face, rubbing his eyelids. "Are you trying to get my little girl killed?" He sounded tired.

"Of course not!" James sounded outraged. "Mr. Evans, why would you even suggest that?"

"Do you care about Lily?"

"Of course I do."

"Then what is he doing here?" He pointed a finger at Sirius.

"Me?" Sirius's eyes went wide and he looked around at the other Marauders. "What did I do? I've been on my best behavior since I got here, I didn't break anything, and I didn't eat anything even though Lily said I could, and-"

"Shut up, Padfoot." Remus muttered.

"You're a Black."

"And?" Sirius prompted.

"Your family is a bunch of arse-hats." He said, as if by way of explanation.

"I know that," Sirius frowned. "I told you that."

"Well, you didn't need to." Mr. Evans sighed. "And I don't want you hanging around my daughter. I don't need people like the Blacks knowing that she exists."

James shook his head and stood up. "Have you been reading Lily's newspapers?" He asked, coming to the only conclusion that he could think of.

"Because Sirius isn't like the rest of his family." Remus said. "I know that his name has been in the paper a few times-"

"And not for good things." Peter added.

"I know he's not like the rest of them." Mr. Evans scoffed. "He's hanging out with a Potter, a Lupin and a Pettigrew. I put two and two together."

The den was silent for a moment while the boys processed the implications of what he was saying.

"Sir," Sirius said quietly. "Is there a reason you look like my grandfather?"

He let out a sharp breath. "Pollux always hated that everyone thought we looked alike."

"What the hell…" James fell back onto the couch and stuck both hands in his hair.

"Especially since I'm… not technically a wizard."

"You're Marius Black?" Sirius asked, looking utterly gob smacked.

"No. My name is Marcus Evans." He said sharply. "My father made it quite clear that I was no longer a Black when my Hogwarts letter never came." The boys were no longer looking at him, but a point over his shoulder, but he pressed forth and their eyes quickly fell to the floor. "I'm a squib. I'm an embarrassment to my parents and have been completely shunned from your world. Technically, yes, I am Marius Black, but that's not my point in telling you all this. My daughter wasn't supposed to be a witch. My wife and I were supposed to live a completely muggle life, we weren't going to have to worry about our children having to jump through hoops to be accepted. But Lily got her letter and she went off to school as a Muggle born…

"And then you come here," He spoke directly to James now. "Which in and of itself is a problem if you ask me. But Lily was happy and your parents were always good people so I let it slide. But now, you bring my nephew with you. You bring the very name that I've spent a lifetime trying to separate myself and my family from, and you're excuse is that he's different than his family? That's great, I'm glad you're not an elitist bastard, Sirius. Truly, I am. But what difference does that make? What are you parents, your aunts and uncles going to think of the Muggle born girl who you hang around? Do you think they're going to overlook the disgrace you're bringing to your name simply because you're different? Do you know what our family would have done to Lily if they knew who I was? Do you think Pollux would have been alright with his squib of a brother and my muggle wife having a witch for a daughter? Do you think he'd be alright with my abomination being friends with his grandson?"

"I would never put Lily in danger." James said sternly, setting his jaw and clenching his fists at his sides.

"So were you just not thinking of the consequences?" Mr. Evans let out a hallow laugh. "Did you not think that Lily associating with a Black, no matter how different he is, might put her in some sort of danger?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Evans, but have you met your daughter?" James asked, standing up again and taking a step towards him. "What exactly did you want me to do? Did you want me to explain to her that because she's a Muggle born that there are certain people she's not allowed to talk to? Did you want me to tell her that she has to be extra careful around people like Sirius because their families might not like her? Call me crazy, but that seems like something her father should have done." He pushed his glasses up his nose and stalked out of the room.

"For the record." Sirius said, trying his best to come off as nonchalant. "Lily and I were friends before she started dating James. You see, my brother is a dick who buys into the whole Pureblood shit my mum spews. And Lily's sister is a bitch and likes to pretend that she doesn't exist because she's jealous or whatever." Sirius pushed himself up off the couch. "We bonded over that." Then he followed James out of the room.

Peter and Remus sat quietly on the couch, both avoiding eye contact with the older man.

"Would you two like to weigh in on this?" He asked tiredly. He opened his hands, as if welcoming their opinions and sighed when they both shook their heads. "I was trying to protect her. That's the only reason that I didn't tell her the truth."

"Sir," Remus said quietly, looking nervous. "I think you should know that Lily was standing behind you the entire time." Mr. Evans's brought his hands up to cover face and sighed.

"Of course she was."

oOoOo

Lily was shaking. Her stomach was flipping. She couldn't breathe properly. Plus she had stupid tears falling onto her cheeks. She brushed them away angrily.

"Lily?" James knocked on the door of the bathroom she was hiding in. "Lily, open up." She continued to lean over the sink and stare at her reflection. She didn't look any different and it was pissing her off. Your entire existence can't be flipped upside down like that without some sort of physical evidence.

She was a Black. She was part of one of the most elite and horrendous families the wizarding world had to offer. She was related to people like the Crabbes and the Bulstrodes, the Gamps and Yaxleys. Their blood ran through her veins and it made her sick to think about. All of those horrible things that the Prophet had been reporting, her blood had been involved. People that she war related to had done those things.

She felt bad for going off at Sirius the other week now. It was strange that that's where her mind went in all this confusion. They had been in the common room reading the Prophet and he hadn't reacted how she wanted him too when she was trying to explain something about being a Muggle born so she had called him out and told him that he couldn't understand because he was a Pureblood. But this was almost worse. The guilt that she was already feeling, for things that she had no control over, weighed her down.

"Lily, are you alright?" James asked, knocking again. Lily sighed pushed her hair away from her face. It shouldn't matter. It didn't change anything. Not really.

"Hey cuz, open up." Sirius's voice joined James.

"Sirius," James snapped, and Lily heard a soft thud and an 'oomf.'

"Lily, your boyfriends is beating me up out here." Sirius said. Lily laughed without meaning too. "As we're family now, you're obligated to stick up for me."

"Oh please," Lily pulled open the door and shot Sirius a sly, albeit slightly watery, grin. "Neither one of us is a Black."

"You're right. We're both much closer to being Potters, no?" He said with cheeky smirk. James elbowed him in the gut again and blushed red. "Oi!" Sirius cried, pushing James away from him. "Enough with the elbows, you scrawny git." Both boys straightened themselves and looked tentatively at Lily.

"I should go and talk to my dad." She declared.

"My great uncle." Sirius nodded. "My fellow burn mark."

"What?"

"My mum burns people off the family tree when they're deemed a disgrace." Sirius shrugged. "Me, your dad, my uncle Alfred, some others who married muggles, supported muggle rights or married a Weasley."

"And Andromeda." James added.

"Yeah, well my mum counted Ted as a muggle so she was included in that list."

"But he wasn't a muggle, you wanker."

"Alright, fine. And Andromeda was burned off for marrying Ted Tonks." Lily giggled at his exasperated expression. His face softened when he looked at her. "I'm sorry we're related."

"Me too." Lily sighed, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from smiling. "Feel like I could have done better." Sirius winked and threw an arm around her.

AN: Not atypical, but I thought it was fun to write.

Leave me a review it you'd be so kind.

xx