Title: The Roman Society
Author: Jikie
Fandom: Harry Potter
Word Count: 3,392
Disclaimer: This is my version of the Harry Potter backstory with a twist. In no way are these characters mine.
Summary: AU: What if Voldemort had been defeated during the Marauder's time? Despite Voldemort's death, there are still plenty of problems. Blood feuds, birth discrimination, and the remaining Death Eaters who had escaped are all part of the world that Lily and James will have to make their way in after they graduate. Starts at the end of 6th year with Voldemort's death.
Notes: Second attempted Harry Potter fic. I've tried to make the information on Roman society as true as possible, though I will be taking liberties with it to suit this story.
The Roman Society
Chapter 1
"Evans, Evans!" Lily felt herself being shaken awake. Hands gripped her shoulders slightly painfully, and as she opened her eyes, she saw herself looking into the eyes of one very shaken James Potter. Seeing her open her eyes, James whispered quietly so others wouldn't hear, "Dumbledore's back with the other teachers, they're ok! He's gone!"
"He's gone?" Lily repeated, "You're sure of it?"
"Yeah, I just got an owl from my mum. She said Dad's back safely and that he gone!"
The person in question would be the now dead Lord Voldemort. His few years in power had been devastating to wizards and muggles alike. Albus Dumbledore and his Order of the Phoenix had been working tirelessly to bring him down, and finally they had succeeded. James's father, Harold Potter, was one of the few people not of the Order that had helped vanquish the Dark Lord. His position as head of the Auror Department and many connections made him useful in Voldemort's downfall, and James was proud of it.
It was 11 o'clock and in the Gryffindor common room, Lily Evans allowed James Potter to spin her around as they both rejoiced the death of Tom Riddle.
A few weeks had passed since Voldemort's downfall, but despite the initial celebrations in the wizarding world, all was not sound.
James Potter rushed past students leaving the Great Hall, hoping for a bite of breakfast before classes started. He heard snippets of conversations as he flew by.
"The Prophet reported eight people missing today-"
"-with all that's been going on, my parents doubt that You-Know-Who is really gone."
"Muggle borns are being targeted more than ever. The Death Eaters that haven't been caught yet-"
"Bellatrix Black is leading them, she was the Dark Lord's favorite. I hear she's getting-"
"-married. I can't believe it! These old pure blood alliances are cumbersome nowadays. Can't do anything without insulting the next cousin over!"
By then James had grabbed a slice of toast and was starting to run back to the common room to pickup his bag while fixing his tie at the same time. Forcing the piece of toast down, he gave up on his tie as he had almost strangled himself. Normally he fixed it with magic, but with running, he didn't want to risk accidentally tying his neck instead. If he ran down the corridors he would make it to History of Magic on time…
James slid in an empty seat next to Lily in the back of the classroom as Professer Binns started lecturing on Goblins wars. Hadn't they covered that in first year? Or was it third year? Now that he thought about it, didn't they cover the Goblins every year? He was yanked out of his thoughts as someone pulled on his tie and started straightening it for him. It was Lily.
"You know Potter, after almost six years of the uniform, one would think that you'd learn to tie your tie properly." She was grinning, "I feel so sorry for Remus and Pettigrew sometimes, being stuck with you and Black. One can't dress himself properly at age 16, and the other has the maturity of a 6 year old."
"Didn't you know Evans? These neckties are a cosmic conspiracy." He assumed Remus's 'Professer' tone as he began to talk. "It's actually an attempt to make the old saying 'Children should be seen and not heard' true. You see, these things are supposed to be tied tightly so we only get just enough air to breathe, not enough to talk with or laugh. I think it was-"
"Oh stuff it, Potter" Lily said in a good humored tone, "it's a well known fact that these ties are just to facilitate the dragging of fellow peers around when they get too annoying."
"Exactly, by dragging them around by the tie, it tightens around the neck so they're just concentrating on breathing instead of being annoying-"
"And with luck they'll stop talking too," Lily retorted, yanking on his now tied tie in an effort to get him off the topic. "Why are you back here with me anyway? I thought Black usually saves you a seat."
"I could ask the same thing. Why is it that you, Miss Evans, is sitting in the back row today instead of with the lovely Miss Marlene Andrews?"
"She's sitting with her new boyfriend, Andrew McKinnon."
"He's currently trying to figure out if he can make out with his favor of the week in the middle of class." James winced. "Otherwise he normally saves me a seat."
"Get back at him now then. I have no intention of being anywhere near Black when he's thinking of snogging a girl in the middle of class."
"Oh?" James's eyebrow rose up. "Is Miss Perfect Prefect telling James Potter to break the rules?"
"Better than my eyes being forever traumatized."
James took a parchment, crumbled it up into a ball and threw it at Sirius's head. At that moment, Sirius decided it would be a better use of his time to take a nap and proceeded to drop his head onto his desk as the ball flew over his head and went clear through Professor Binns, who took no notice and kept droning on about goblins in his monotone voice.
Some students however, did notice the parchment fly through their teacher and glanced behind to see who had thrown it. James took the moment to drop his head to the desk so the face almost everyone saw was Lily Evans. Many of them had shocked expressions at the thought that their resident Prefect would do such a thing.
Hours later found Lily and James in the Hospital Wing with Remus Lupin. The previous night had been the full moon, and once Lily had discovered Remus's 'condition' and gotten over the shock, she was happy to take extensive notes on their classes for him.
"So Lily," Remus began, "Rumor is that you threw a piece of parchment at Binns during class today. Growing rebellious in old age?"
"This is all your fault Potter!" Lily glared at James. "You were supposed to hit Sirius with it, not the Professor!"
"You wanted James to throw something during class?" Remus asked in a shocked tone. "Why?"
"Neither one of us wanted to watch Padfoot snogging in the middle of class." James cut in. "Didn't we come here for something?"
"Ah," Lily rummaged through her bag looking for something. She quickly found what she was looking for and held it up. It was a notebook. "I didn't get notes for History of Magic, I was…" she trailed off, "distracted."
Remus smiled. "S'okay. You take better notes than the rest of them anyways," he said referring to the other three Marauders. "James remembers everything he hears, Sirius has photographic memory, and Peter……well-" he trailed off thinking the state Peter's notes and the quality they had been in the one time he had decided to barrow notes from him. "You don't have to do this you know."
"But I want to, I don't know how else to help you with your condition. I can't just ignore the fact that's it's there you know."
"Yes, like the fact that you guys are ignoring me?" drawled James, "Glad to know that'd Padfoot and I have been of some use to you concerning your furry little problem." The two boys smirked while Lily rolled her eyes.
"I don't even want to know what they do to help him." Lily muttered under her breath.
After some more discussion, Remus decided it was time to send them away.
"You two better leave now if you want to make it before curfew.", he said.
"Who cares about curfew, I'm a Marauder." James declared arrogantly.
"And you're talking to two Prefects." Lily retorted.
"But Moony doesn't really count!" James protested, "He was a Marauder before he was a Prefect! We have first claim on his allegiance."
"There still is one Prefect who doesn't owe you anything." James still looked determined. "And", Lily continued on, "Madame Pomfrey probably will throw us out soon."
This argument continued while they were walking together to the Gryffindor common room. When they turned a corner, James stopped. Lily stopped with him, wondering what was troubling him until she stared straight ahead at the hallway where the Fat Lady was. Severus Snape was sitting on the opposite wall where the portrait hung on the wall, waiting for someone. He had heard their footsteps and had turned his head their direction.
"Snape." James said. If anything, it sounded more like a threat.
"I'm here to talk to Lily."
"You lost the right to call me by name last year." Lily Evans's expression was hard to read. Her voice was low and her tone flat, she stood rigid next to James.
"I'm here to talk to you, call Potter off."
"Anything you want to say to me you can tell me in front of him." James looked shocked at Lily's words. He hadn't realized that he had gained some of Lily Evans's trust, he thought her friendliness was part of a truce they had made in the middle of the first term.
For a moment, it was a silent match of wills as they each tried to stare the other down. Finally black ceded to green.
"I'm here to apologize," he said quickly and quietly, partially from embarrassment, the other part to prevent James from hearing much. James had to strain to hear what was being said, Lily however had taken a few steps towards Snape during their staring contest heard him clearly. "I was wondering if you could forgive me and trust me enough to re-establish our old friendship."
"You still haven't answered my question from last year," Lily said icily. "Everyone of my birth you call Mudblood, why am I the only exception? What do I have to gain from a friendship with you, unwanted stress?" She stared at him coldly. "My friend Severus Snape was gone the moment he let Lucius Malfoy take him under his wing our first year."
Snape looked at her incredulously. "I just want my friend back." he said simply. "I want her back now that I can."
"You mean now that the Dark Lord is gone?" demanded Lily. "Now that he's gone and it's safe to be seen with a Mudblood," she spat those words at him, "you think you can ask me for my trust? What about next time some dark wizard starts recruiting, how do I know that you're not going to drop me then? Tell me!" The nearby candles in the corridor spluttered out, overwhelmed by Lily's magic, which in her anger, she had lost control of. It left the trio in partial darkness.
"Please, Lily-"
"Don't call me that!"
"-take me back-"
"I don't want to hear it!"
"-you don't deserve to hang around arrogant bullying toe rags like Potter!"
There was a pause before Lily said, "And what does Potter have to do anything with this?"
"Everything." James's voice cut into the argument. "Now that he has directly insulted me to my face," he walked to where the two were standing, "the rules change." He looked at Snape. "You are aware of what you have done, don't you?" Snape visibly paled under the wan light, as if he just realized the weight of his words.
"Lily Evans is under the protection of Sirius Black, Susan Fawcett, Margaret Bones, Alice Penhallow, and James Potter. Sirius Black, despite being estranged from his family still carries weight in our society. Challenge her and you challenge us. I doubt your mother with all her Prince connections could help you even then." James was next to Lily, putting a hand on her shoulder, an oddly comfortable weight she noted before banishing the thought. His stare would have made lesser men cowering for cover.
"You don't scare me Potter." Snape grinded out.
"Then you should fear her at least. She's under our protection. Even without us, despite being a muggle born, she carries her own weight decently. People want the cream of the crop, and she'll be swamped with potential careers she'd be interested in working in once she graduates. And those people will be interested in her well-being." He too stared at Snape. "If she says to go away, I'd go away. You're in no position to take her on your own." Hazel clashed with Black, and though James turned away first, Snape was the one with the face of loss. "Come on Evans." He steered her away from Snape and whispered the password to the Fat Lady. Throwing one last look at Snape, he went through the portrait hole after her.
Inside the Common room, the two made their way through the slowly emptying room and made a beeline for the armchairs in front of the fire where their friends had seated themselves. Both Lily and James, pale, seated themselves.
"You guys look like you've just been through a meat grinder." Dorcas Meadows joked.
"I feel like it." said James, emotionless, trying to get a grip on himself.
"What happened to you, mate?" Sirius asked.
"Snape." Sirius growled, Peter squeaked, Lily closed her eyes tiredly, and James gave a huge sigh.
"What did the git want, Potter?" Alice asked.
"He wanted to talk to Evans."
There was silence as everyone took this in, until Dorcas angrily exclaimed, "The NERVE of that-" she sputtered, not being able to find the correct words to describe him. "After last year I can't believe that he'd…" She was fuming, "I want to shove his stupid wand up his arse."
"What did you do?" Alice asked. "What happened?"
"I pulled rank on him." James sighed again.
"What was out there about anyway?" Lily demanded, finally speaking. "It looked more like a power struggle. What do you mean I'm under your protection, and I carry my own weight?"
He glanced warily at her; Sirius looked away from them and gazed into the fire. Alice closed her eyes, thinking. Dorcas looked confused while Marlene looked like she understood the situation.
"It's……complicated." James started. "You are right, it was a power struggle. You know of Roman society?"
"Yeah," Lily replied. She explained for Dorcas's benefit for her friend had looked confused. "Roman society was like a pyramid, with the Emperor at the tip. Under him was the exclusive class of senators, and then the slightly larger class of Equestrians. The Equestrians were split into two different groups depending on wealth and position, the Upper and Lower Equites. The last class, the plebs, made up the bottom of the pyramid, they were about 75 of the population, and they were the poorest."
"Wizarding society is kinda like Roman society, without the Emperor. Pure bloods are at the top, half bloods and muggle borns in the middle, and the muggles at the bottom of the pyramid. Just like the Equestrian class, the half bloods and muggle borns are split. Like the Romans, it's very difficult to move between and of the classes, unless it's between the Upper and Lower Equites."
"Then explain what it means that I'm under the three of your," she said addressing James, Sirius, and Alice, "protection."
"Lets go back to the Roman analogy, shall we?" She gave Lily a small smile. "The patron-client system. When a master freed his slave, the slave became his client. As a client, the freedman had several obligations to fulfill. Such as supporting his patron publicly, working for him for certain amount of days and so forth. The patron also had his end of the deal to uphold though. If the client died, the patron would assume the guardianship of the client's children. The patron was also supposed to help the client in times of need, giving him jobs or setting him up in a business."
"That's what the wizarding society is like." Sirius said, still looking at the fire. "It's a bloody dance of politics where certain moves mean death. If the purebloods are the patrons, then the muggle borns and half bloods are the clients. In a sense, all your pureblood friends are your patrons. For me and James, just the fact that we've managed to gain your trust is enough for us to keep you under our wing."
"So if I'm following you, I'm the client. What do I have to offer to you guys?"
James spoke again. "Lily Marie Evans. Age 17 and of age. Currently 6th year Gryffindor prefect with connections in every Hogwarts house. Brilliant in charms and potions, top female of her year class wise. She is very likely to have many job recruiters after her when she graduates from school because of her many talents. Her trust in people breeds confidence in others. She is friendly and ready to help friends. That's what you offer us, your friendship, or trust. The protection and open doors that come with being associated with families such as mine is the least I can give back."
"How come we didn't know of this before?" demanded Doracs. "I mean, I'm half blooded and I didn't even think this kind of system existed."
"How far does your family extend back magically?" Marlene asked.
"My great-great-great grandparents were muggleborn," she replied, "on both sides of the family I think."
"Then they probably never had the opportunity. They were clients without knowing it. They couldn't take advantage of the system."
"Wait! This system is unfair to everyone who doesn't know how to take advantage of it! Why can't they change the system? So half bloods and muggle borns can also be patrons. That would at least be fair."
"You know how old this system is? It would be like trying to have daytime globally at once. You have to go about it slowly and the right way."
"But it is possible, right?"
"I reckon so," said Sirius, thinking about it.
"My parents and I won't mind sharing our position." offered James.
"And my parents definitely will," grinned Sirius. He said to James, "You thinking what I'm thinking, mate?"
"I reckon so", he said, looking at Sirius, sporting on identical grin on his face.
"I'll be the greatest prank ever on the Slytherins!"
"They'll never know what hit them."
"A club," Alice broke in. The two boys looked at her. "A club of like minded people, both patrons and clients, working together as a force. We'll all graduate in waves, making the change gradual and acceptable, but there. Eventually there'll be so many of us that we can't be ignored, those pro-pure blooded people will happen to listen to us."
Sirius and James stared at her, until Sirius threw his arms around her and cried, "You're bloody brilliant Penhallow!"
"Oh!" Dorcas caught the club spirit, "We'll need to find space to hold meetings, contact people, and organize-"
"-brilliant idea to put this idea into-"
"Bugger off Black, I already have a boyfriend who I'll gladly accept hugs from."
"-of how to keep this from the pro-purebloods, and-"
"-Slytherins will be so far behind on the times when this is over."
"-Longbottom, hurt little old me?"
"-if we want to tell the other pureblood parents about this-"
"The Roman Society."
James heard Lily whisper the phrase. "What did you just say Evans?"
All eyes turned towards Lily who repeated herself. "The Roman Society. We should name this club The Roman Society. We've been making comparisons of the Roman Society to the Wizarding Society. I think it's fitting that we name it after its predecessor."
Everyone thought about this for a moment.
"The Roman Society," said Dorcas, feeling the words run over her tongue.
"The Roman Society," James said, thinking about the patron-client system and where it sometimes led to in ancient Rome between a master and his slave woman when she was freed. It gave him hope.
"The Roman Society," Alice repeated, thinking of all the people she could help through this newly thought of club.
"Roman isn't a star is it?" asked Sirius. "Otherwise we'd have to rename it. It would be a shame to be a society of people for some pureblood frantic relative of mine you know." Alice gave him a look. "The Roman Society." he said, with a face splitting grin.
"The Roman Society." Lily said again, smiling.
It was done.
First posted: 8/2/2007