Summary: The story of a key, influential character from the Half Blood Prince film - Francis the Fish!
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to any recognisable characters, names, places or objects from the world of Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros own pretty much everything. This is just my idea about the hidden story of such a key and influential character :P
Little Things
Lily chased down the corridors after a certain pair of seventh year Gryffindors, needing her help with a little idea she had planned. "James! Sirius!" She called after them. "Please! Wait up!" James glanced over his shoulder and paused when he saw Lily but Sirius, as usual, ignored her and continued on his way.
"Oh, leave us alone, Lily," He sniped. "We're on our way back to the common room. There's another ten minutes till curfew falls. Save your lectures until then," He carried on his way, ignoring the fact that James had stopped dead.
Her eyes pleaded with James, looking for understanding. "I wasn't going to lecture," Lily sighed, a little hurt. She only ever yelled at Sirius when he stepped way out of line when he was breaking the rules and actually hurt someone or badly humiliated them. Most of the time she left it to Remus to keep try and keep him in line, it was easier that way. "I just needed your help," She confessed to James.
James looked genuinely shocked at this. Normally, Lily was so independent that she wouldn't ask anyone for help, even with homework. She wouldn't even ask her friends for help. "What can I help you with?" He asked politely, his heart racing at the sight of this girl that he'd never really been able to get over his attraction to, no matter how many times he'd tried. "Is there something wrong?"
She sighed and looked a little nervous, like she was unable to believe that she was actually about to say what she was about to say. "I need you to help me break into Slughorn's office." She said flatly, looking at out the nearest window, at the portraits on the wall, anywhere but directly at James. She couldn't quite meet his face. She'd broken rules before, sneaked out after curfew, hexed a few people in the corridor when they'd annoyed her on one of her bad days when she literally had no patience what so ever and even sneaked out through one of the secret passage into Hogsmeade with one of her past boyfriends one school night, but breaking into a teachers office was a whole different ball game.
"You want to break into Slughorn's office?" James repeated sceptically, looking like he wasn't sure if he'd heard her right. Lily Evans wanting to break into a teacher's office? What on earth was the world coming to.
Lily bit her lip and nodded. "Yep," She smiled. "Can you help me?" She asked, looking down at her feet, feeling a little foolish. Well, not just a little bit foolish, very foolish and she half expected to hear James fall about with laughter.
"Are you feeling okay, Lily?" He asked thoughtfully, taking a close look at her that made her feel a little bit uncomfortable for a moment, especially when she felt the blood rushing to her cheek, staining her skin with a rosy blush.
She sighed. "I feel fine, James. There's nothing wrong with me and I'm not someone else masquerading as Lily Evans,"
"You could be someone who's brewed up a good Polyjuice potion," James pointed out.
She rolled her emerald green eyes in exasperation. "Considering the only people in this school with the skill to properly brew that potion are Professor Slughorn, Severus and myself, I think that that would be highly unlikely," She pointed out logically. "And no one can smuggle the stuff in school under Dumbledore's nose," She gave him a small smile, hoping that might charm him into helping her.
A twinkle of mischief appeared in James's eye. "I bet Sirius and I could have nicked some from Slughorn's cupboard," He pointed out.
"Well, seeing as your currently stood in front of me, that rules you out as using Polyjuice Potion to impersonate me and as Sirius just disappeared, apparently back to the common room but I'll take that one with a pinch of salt," She joked lightly.
James nodded for a moment, the twinkle spreading and small smile quirked up his cheeks. "What about Remus? Or Peter?" He suddenly pointed out, linking his arm through one of Lily's, turning to lead her back down the corridor towards a handy secret passage that would allow them to hide from the caretaker, who made a habit of patrolling the corridors around the Gryffindor common in the hope of catching a certain group of trouble makes rule breaking after hours. "We could have passed it on to them,"
"Slughorn only keeps a vial of Polyjuice Potion for the first NEWT class in sixth year for an example. After that he destroys it," She pointed out, falling into step beside James, letting her lead her to wherever he was heading. "And Snape would never brew a cup of tea for you guys,"
James cocked his head. "I guess so," He agreed with a grin, looking like he was trying to suppress some serious laughter.
"What's up?" She asked concernedly.
James shook his head. "The thought of Snivellus walking round in drag wearing a bright red wig," He admitted quietly. "It's the perfect idea for a prank."
She glared at him. "James!"
"What?" He asked innocently. "It's the perfect way to get up the Slytherin's noses, having one of their own dolled up to look like the most popular, most talented and intelligent Muggleborn in the whole school! Just think of the expressions on their faces,"
James, Lily decided, could tempt the devil into sin. The image his words painted in her mind was a tempting one and she tried to fight the grin that was trying to form on her cheeks. The thought of Snape walking round, humiliated like he'd humiliated her at the end of fifth year appealed the darkest parts of Lily's mind where her pride was still stinging a little from his public rejection of her and her background.
He took one look at her face and saw the battle going on inside her head. She finally gave up the fight and allowed the chuckle to escape her. "See, agreeing with me just once on something like this doesn't make you a bad person," James said seriously. "It just means I have genius ideas,"
He opened the portrait that led to a secret passage that could take them down two floors without the risk of meeting the caretaker. He placed his hands on the bottom of the gap and hauled himself up, the muscles built from so many years of playing Quidditch coming in handy.
Lily snorted. "Technically this one was my idea," She pointed out, trying to boost herself up after him but wasn't strong enough to manage it. James had to reach down, wrap his arms around her waist and pull her up. "So the only genius here is me," She smiled up at him, trying to hide the fact that she was feeling more than a little awkward being so close to him in the narrow confines of the passage as James helped her to her feet.
"So much of a genius that you need my help to break into a teacher's office," James joked, reaching around Lily to close the portrait behind him, smiling a little in the gloomy light at the smell of spiced apples that was the perfume he knew Lily used. Secretly, it was one of his favourite smells in the whole world and he reckoned that he could find Lily out of a crowd of people in the dark or blindfolded, simply by that smell. Not that he'd ever admit it to anyone, Sirius would never let him live it down if he ever found out about this little gem of information.
With the portrait hole closed, he turned and led the way down the corridor, a quick flick of his wand lighting the way for them. "Breaking in requires a different quite of genius," Lily shrugged, following him down the passage, admiring the view from behind. "My brand of genius of genius requires a subtle blend of intelligence and charm,"
"Oh?" She could hear the amusement in his voice. "And what would my brand of genius require?"
"Brute force and good luck," She joked teasingly. "Basically, the perfect mix for someone needing to break into an office and then get me back out of it without getting caught or leaving any sign that we've broken in,"
James rolled his eyes. "Of course we're the right people to go to." James shrugged, reaching a flight of stairs and pausing, lighting the way so that Lily didn't trip or fall on the narrow steps. He wasn't sure if she'd use this passage before and he wasn't about to see her hurt while he was with her. "We're experts at this kind of thing, especially with Slughorn's office,"
In the wandlight, she raised her eyebrows at him. "James! Why would you target old Slughorn? He's a harmless old man!" She challenged him, feeling genuine affection for the potions master. Despite the fact that most students found him a little creepy and biased towards his favourites, but Lily genuinely liked the old man. He was head of Slytherin, the house that filled with more pureblood extremists than any other Hogwarts house and yet the fact that she was a Muggleborn didn't seem to register with him. He respected her for her skills and talent and helped her make the most of them so that she'd have the best possible chance when she left the school in a world that was becoming more and more anti-Muggleborns as the years went by. "What's he ever done to you? He quite likes you and Sirius,"
They reached the bottom of the first lot of steps. "He's okay, I guess," James shrugged. "But he's the head of Slytherin and on principle, we can't target his house without targeting the head of the house its self,"
"That's just wrong," Lily condemned the idea straight out. "He's nothing like some of the members of his house,"
"That's why we only go in to move items around and hide a few things," James shrugged. "We do the same to every teacher."
She shook her head. "You're incorrigible,"
"Well why do you want to break in then?" James pointed out. "You're just as bad as us if you want to illegally enter his office,"
Lily blushed. "I want to leave him a little gift in thank you," She shrugged as they reached the next set of steps. "Every time I try and thank him he waves it off and tells me that I can pay him back later when I leave school," She sighed unhappily. "I just can't leave it though,"
James understood. Lily was one of the kindest witches he'd ever met and found a special way to thank people for the tiniest of things. "What did he help you with," They reached the bottom of the second flight of the stairs and headed towards the end of the passage where another portrait hid the exit. He pulled an old piece of parchment out of his pocket and tapped it with his wand, muttering something under his breath that Lily couldn't quite hear.
She didn't know what to tell him, didn't want to James to know just exactly how scared she was of the threat of the Death Eaters and Voldemort, especially towards her family, who she felt guilty for putting them in the kind of serious danger with no way of protecting them. Professor Slughorn had arranged to get one of his ex-students who was now extremely high up in the Auror ranks to visit her home and perform some of the best defence spells and wards available. It gave her piece of mind about it all while she was so far away from home.
"He helped me deal with my worries about my family," She told him, not exactly lying but not telling the whole truth either. The world saw her as a strong independent girl who didn't need anyone's help and could deal with anything the world and life threw at her. "It's being weighing on my mind for a while know and he talked things through with me and listened to me without making false promises or patronising me," She couldn't quite keep her voice steady but James didn't seem to notice, which she thanked Merlin for. The last thing she wanted was for James to start pushing her for more details.
Unfortunately for Lily, James had heard the slight quavering in her voice, but knowing from past experience that if she didn't want to talk about something there was no way anyone could make Lily tell them, he left it, scanning the Marauder's Map for Slughorn. He was currently sat in Flitwick's office and from past experience and knowledge of the teacher's routines, James guessed he'd be there for a while as they were probably playing chess while discussing every little bit of gossip that went floating round the school. The teachers were almost as bad as the students when it came to gossip, a fact that had surprised James when he'd first realised it.
"Okay, so the coast is clear," He admitted, folding the parchment and shoving it back inside his robes before pulling his invisibility cloak out of another pocket.
"How do you know that?" Lily demanded, curiously.
"Trouble maker's intuition," James shrugged, feeling a little guilty for lying to her but unwilling to reveal the map's secret to anyone outside the Marauders. "Still, just in case McGonagall or someone appears, we're going to have to use my invisibility cloak in order to keep out of trouble, so the minute we step out of here, keep your mouth shut until we get to his office," He felt a little thrill course through him, partly the old thrill of being able to show off in front of Lily by doing something no one else could and partly because of the idea he was going to have a the chance to huddle up close to her under the cloak without her getting upset at him because he was harassing her or something.
"You don't have an invisibility cloak! They aren't real!" Lily argued. She'd been reading up about them in the library sometime in third year and the only reference she'd been able to find to them was a brief reference in Magical Creatures and Where To Find Them where it claimed some rare magical creatures fur was used to make them and an obscure reference in one of the stories in Tales of Beedle the Bard which was a book of magical fairy stories which could hardly be relied on for cold hard facts now, could it?
"I do have an invisibility cloak so therefore they must exist," James sighed in exasperation.
"But the books say…" Lily started.
James rolled his eyes and sighed. "It pains me to tell you this Lily, but books aren't always right," He said firmly. "Now shush or you'll get us both caught,"
"I thought you didn't mind getting caught," She couldn't help but make that comment, as if someone else had taken over control of her voice for a moment. She could have kicked herself and wished there was some way to go back in time and take it back.
"Sure," James shrugged. "What's another detention to my long list of them?" He pointed out. "I just figured you wouldn't want to blemish your perfect record by being caught out of bounds after curfew and being put in detention. Now shush, I'm about to open the portrait hole," He ordered, dropping his voice to a whisper.
He pushed the portrait open and jumped down into the fifth floor corridor, landing with as much grace as a cat and almost as quietly. Lily took more care, carefully sitting on the edge of the hole and lowering herself down. As soon as she had both feet on the ground, James tugged her to his side, wrapping his arm around her waist, covering them both with the cloak. Slughorn's office was on the third floor, quite a trek from the potions classrooms which were down in the dungeons but Slughorn was known to like his creature comforts and was often heard to complain that the dungeons were just a little too cold and damp for him to want to be permanently based down there. In order to get there they had two more flights of stairs to make it down before they got anywhere near the office.
They set off, walking awkwardly down the corridor, their hips often bumping against each other as they tried to moderate their different strides for the others comfort. James, with his long legs was used to taking quite long, fast steps was having to focus hard on shortening and slowing his steps down a bit so that Lily could keep up in an attempt to distract his mind from the lovely creature walking beside him. Lily herself wasn't as immune to James's charm as she'd like the world to think and could feel the heat of his arm burning through her robes. Her heart was beating so fast she was amazed it didn't burst out her chest and her breaths became faster and faster. She was so scared about being caught out of bounds, but it was so exciting, especially with James here who she trusted to keep her out of trouble.
It seemed like an eternity to poor Lily, whose senses seemed to be on hyper alert, and she had to steel herself not to jump at every moving shadow or sound that echoed down the corridor, but in reality it only took them a few minutes to reach Slughorn's office. With a quick flick of the wand and a muttered Alohamora, James had the door open and they slipped inside, James carefully shutting the door behind them.
The minute the door was shut; Lily threw off the cloak and turned to glare at him. "A simple unlocking charm was all it took?!" She demanded in annoyance. "You could have just told me that that was what I had to do!"
James nodded in agreement. "I could have, but then I would have missed the adventure and the chance to see Lily Evans, rule breaker extraordinaire, in action," He teased her softly.
Lily just shook her head at what she thought was his idle flattery and got to work, pulling a small bowl out of her pocket, ignoring the urge to look around her at the fascinating interior of the office. It was a plain, clear glass bowl that she'd placed an unbreakable charm on earlier to stop it from being broken if someone bumped into her in the corridor or something. She crossed over to the desk and placed it carefully in the middle, right in front of Slughorn's chair where he couldn't miss it. She applied a quick engorgement charm to it until it was the right size for her plan and then filled it with water with a quick circular flick. Next she pulled out a pure white lily and removed a petal from it, laying it carefully on the surface of the water so that it wouldn't sink just yet. She knew that the lily would tell Slughorn who exactly had left the bowl there for him, it was completely intentional so that he would understand just how grateful she was to him. One final swish of her wand had the petal glowing brightly for a moment before the light faded and the charm was complete. A simple charm that she had invented back in her fourth year that combined some simple charm work with some more advanced transfiguration that she'd spent hours perfecting. It was a beautiful little charm and Lily knew how much the potions professor loved beautiful things.
She turned to smile at James, "Okay, I'm done now," She said with a smile. "Let's get back to the common room before we get caught,"
He raised his eyebrow in surprise. "That's all you wanted to do?"
Lily nodded. "What? Did you expect something much bigger and extravagant?"
"I guess so," He admitted, throwing the cloak over them.
"It will be," Lily smiled at him as he wrapped his arm around her waist again, taking the lily that was still in her hand and placing it inside one of his pockets. "It's just not for you to see," She shrugged.
"Why not?" James whined, trying to sound endearing but in reality sounding like a little boy, which, Lily figured, was rather cute and endearing in his own way.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's just a little spell I came up with a while ago," She told him honestly. "Nothing flamboyant or big. Just something pretty and hopefully very elegant,"
"You write your own spells?" He asked, shocked. Normally, only the most advanced witches and wizards tried their wands at spell crafting.
She shrugged modestly. "A couple," She admitted. "Sev and I used to work on them in the evenings when we finished our homework,"
James snorted. "To be honest Lily, I can't imagine Snivellus working on a spell to do something pretty and elegant," He said sourly, remembering once when he'd been hit by one of Snape's own spells. Pushing the memory aside he started leading her towards the door.
Lily frowned at the tone of his voice but decided to let it drop. Some people where just never destined to be friends and James and Severus were two of those people. "Well, Sev focused more on defensive and offensive spells. He said he'd need them more in the outside world than my silly little charms," She shrugged, a hint of an old hurt in her voice that her best friend would dismiss her work like that. "I just wanted to find a way to brighten up people's lives a little, I guess," She muttered, so quietly that James barely even heard it.
He paused and put his finger under her chin to raise her gaze to meet his. "Lily, you brighten people's lives just by being the kind and loving person that you are," He whispered, reaching down to brush a soft kiss on her lips.
Her eyes glistened a little with an unshed tear. "You really think so?"
He nodded firmly. "Now come on," He said, opening the door. "Let's get back to the common room before we get caught," He smiled, a hand reaching up to trace the line of her lips as they quirked up into a little smile, a secret smile only for him.