I started this story a couple of years ago, but recently decided to rewrite it because there was a lot more I wanted to include. The new and improved version will have more characters, more plotlines and more general amazingness!
The summer holidays had been relatively uneventful for Lily Potter, at least by her family's standards.
Nobody had encountered any near-death experiences, unlike last year when Dominique had decided to go canoeing over Loch Ness and run into an especially irritable kelpie. Nothing of particular significance had been blown up, not even by James and Fred, who, at nineteen and twenty respectively, usually made a beeline for anything flammable. And any arguments which had arisen over the course of the long, lazy weeks flitting between the Burrow, Grimmauld Place and the various other Weasley places of residence had been quickly smoothed over by Lucy, the family peacemaker, before any death threats could be issued.
This comparative harmony may have had something to do with the fact that, for the majority of the family, it wasn't actually the school holidays. Rose and Al had just completed their final year of Hogwarts and were planning a range of swashbuckling adventures for the months to come – getting Rose to shut up about her world trip with her boyfriend, ex-head boy Michael Gardner, proved a task almost equal to Dom's canoeing ordeal. So the only Weasleys who would actually be returning to school in September were Roxanne, for her seventh year, and Lily and Hugo, for their sixth.
Early July had brought exam results: six 'Outstanding' NEWTs for Rose, and a respectable mix of 'E's and 'A's for Al. Lily was pleased to discover that she'd received mostly 'O's in her OWLs, with the notable exception of Care of Magical Creatures, in which a rogue Fire Crab had set her hair alight and nobody had noticed for a full minute. In the examiner's defence, she did tend to look a bit like a flaming torch anyway, with her masses of deep, vivid orange waves – but she hadn't deserved the 'D' he'd given her, she thought crossly. Still, she'd done better than poor Hugo, whose panic over the exams had driven him to such obsessive timetable-making that he'd barely had time to actually revise for them.
Now, as the final days of the summer gained momentum at an alarming rate and the beginning of term sped closer, the three youngest Weasleys busied themselves with last-minute shopping trips to Diagon Alley and the mountains of homework they'd been ignoring for the past couple of months. Lily and Hugo found it impossible to start a conversation with anyone without ending up on the topic of NEWT options, receiving such conflicting advice from their various family members that if they'd listened to all of it they would be taking every subject the school had to offer.
"Of course, Neville would be thrilled if you went for Herbology –"
"I had Robins for Defence and it was brilliant, easily my favourite subject –"
"Take Potions, and please remember to give that Professor Calder my undying love –"
"Mum!" yelled Roxanne from the kitchen, "That's disgusting, he's, like, twenty years younger than you!"
"And mind-blowingly gorgeous," grinned Lily's aunt Angelina, winking at her husband George.
The day before they were set to depart, Lily and her cousins were greeted with some surprising news: Al and his band had a gig. And they were invited.
"Only you have to absolutely swear you won't embarrass me too much," he pleaded, staring at them all earnestly. "There's a guy coming from the Weird Sisters' record company and we really, really need to impress him."
"Al, we don't even feel the need to embarrass you any more," responded James, seizing the opportunity to take a dig at his brother's new haircut, "You do so well by yourself."
Evening came, and they Flooed themselves to an appallingly-lit venue, magically concealed behind some recycling bins in a dingy Camden alleyway. It wasn't a small place, but it was crammed: throngs of teenagers, many of whom Lily recognised from school, were standing around chattering excitedly.
The arrival of their group caused a ripple of murmuring. Lily was used to this, and so were the others – it was an occupational hazard of having the saviours of the wizarding world for parents – but it did get a little annoying, especially now that Victoire had her face on all the 'Sleekeazy's Hair Products' adverts and James was a professional Quidditch player. It wasn't that she resented her relatives' success, of course; but sometimes it felt like an awful lot of attention to live up to.
Lily blinked quickly, trying to make out her surroundings in the gloom. The ceiling was low, and a chalkboard beside the stage read, 'Performing tonight: CRUCIATUS' in large, careful lettering which changed colour every few seconds.
"Cruciatus," snorted Rose, "I've been trying to think of a stupider name and I just can't. There isn't one."
"Agreed," said Lily, struggling for a better view. The stage was empty so far, except for a technician who was pointing his wand at the instruments to adjust their volumes. "I thought the whole death-and-destruction thing was just a phase, I thought he'd grow out of it."
Rose nodded solemnly. "We all did."
"I think I could handle it if it weren't for the hair. Every time I look at him I just want to keel over laughing."
"Me too," said Rose, craning her neck over the crowd. "But there are lots of people here though, aren't there? I'd say a couple of hundred."
"Weren't they quite popular at school?" asked Victoire. "I mean, they've been playing for a while now."
"Yeah, that's true. People went wild when they played at the leavers' ball."
Someone squeezed in between Lily and Victoire, and she turned to find a young man with a shock of turquoise hair standing next to her. "Hi, Teddy. Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Your dad gave me the evening off. Couldn't miss Al's big night, could I?"
"You could have tried," she grimaced, as the drummer walked onstage dressed head-to-toe in black leather. Beneath huge quantities of hair and eyeliner, he was just about recognisable as Al's friend Benji Kirkwood, a cheerful boy with a passion for Gobstones.
Teddy smiled. "Don't be mean, Lily."
"I wasn't –"
"Sh!" He pressed a finger to his lips as the rest of the band came on. Al picked up a guitar shaped like a skull, which growled at the audience as he slipped the strap over his shoulder and played a single, screeching chord. This prompted such ear-splitting screams that Lily was forced to put her fingers in her ears, and saw Rose do the same beside her.
Centre-stage, Al pointed his wand to his throat, and Lily saw his lips form the word 'Sonorus'. Then he roared.
It was like having her brain taken out and used as a Quaffle by a gang of intoxicated goblins. Al roared, actually roared, with the volume of sixteen fully-grown dragons and, instead of running for the nearest exit as any sane person surely would, the audience screamed merrily back at him while behind him the drums, bass and keyboard crunched and twanged their way through the opening bars to 'Fiendfyre'.
Lily could see Rose trying to shout something to her but couldn't make out a single word. In fact, she was beginning to wonder if her eardrums had already been completely shredded and she had lost her hearing for good – when Al started singing.
Singing wasn't the right word at all. Vocalising the deepest, darkest corners of the human soul didn't even come close. About thirty seconds into Cruciatus' first song, Lily realised that the band's name wasn't supposed to be witty, cool or attention-grabbing. It was just a very frank description of what their music did to you.
"You will never escape,
Trapped in the inferno of my broken heeeeaaart!
Can't choose between love and hate,
The demons are tearing me apaaaart!" Al was snarling –
"So let's burn together now
On this nightmare pyyyyre,
I still don't know how
To put out your Fiendfyyyyyre!"
Gradually, the band played their way through 'Warlock of the Abyss', 'Manticore', 'Dementor's Kiss' and 'Murderous Horntail', Lily sneaking glances at her cousins to check that they were in as much torment as she was. Louis and Roxanne had their hands clamped over their ears and Lucy was clearly fighting very hard not to do the same. Molly was reading her book, having given up completely and cast a temporary deafness charm on herself. Victoire was cowering into Teddy' shoulder. Hugo was wide-eyed, frozen with terror, and Rose kept massaging her temples. Fred, James and Dom, however, seemed to be enjoying themselves: Dom had entered completely into the spirit of it and was yelling along with the rest of the room, and Fred and James appeared to be slow-dancing, to the aggravation of the audience members they kept bumping into.
After what seemed like years in purgatory, Al let loose one final, resounding death howl and left the stage. Lily cheered weakly and found herself being dragged towards the door by Hugo.
"Aah!" he gasped as they emerged behind a wheelie bin. "Freedom!"
"I didn't think my eardrums were going to survive that," said Lily darkly.
"I don't think mine did." Hugo cradled his head in his arms, breathing deeply.
Rose appeared beside them looking dazed. "That was... traumatising."
"Well, we're alive," observed Lily, feeling that it was important to count their blessings. "Do you think we should go and tell Al how, um, wonderful he was?"
"Nope, he's got about a million friends doing that already. And he did tell us not to embarrass him."
"So it follows logically that we have to embarrass him." Lily made for the door but was stopped by Fred, coming the other way.
Tall, and made even taller by his enormous afro, Fred Weasley was the sort of guy who just oozed coolness: he had always had the enviable ability of being able to befriend anyone who crossed his path. "Don't bother, we've already tried," he sighed. "It's no good. He's talking to that Malfoy kid."
Rose pulled a face. "Ugh, Scorpius? I can't stand him, let's leave now."
"I thought he was meant to be all right?" asked Hugo. "For a Malfoy, I mean? Al likes him, anyway."
"He is not all right," said Rose, "And since when do you trust Al's judgment on anything?" She gestured inside the building, where the stage and Cruciatus' macabre instruments were visible.
"At least he's not in the band," grinned Lily.
After a few minutes, she and Fred managed to turn Al a satisfactory shade of scarlet by discussing his childhood love for Celestina Warbeck within earshot of the man from the record company. Feeling that it was time for a speedy getaway, they Flooed themselves back to the Burrow, where Granny had prepared a fantastic end-of-holidays feast.
"All right, dears?" She bustled through the kitchen to the long dining table set up outside under a marquee, shepherding small army of dishes before her with her wand. "How was the concert?"
Lily and Fred exchanged glances, unsure quite how to describe the experience. "It was –"
"HUGO WEASLEY! If you so much as think about touching that cheesecake I will curse you from here to Timbuktu, you ungrateful little toerag!"
Hugo emerged from behind a tiered, strawberry-encrusted cheesecake, looking a little sheepish. Granny's expression softened.
"Good boy. Now go and wash your hands, there's a dear."
The others returned gradually, some stumbling shell-shocked from the fireplace and others appearing with 'pop's around the house, still looking severely shaken. When Al finally arrived – Lily and Fred making themselves conveniently scarce at the sight of him – they settled down at the table to tuck in.
"So. Triwizard Tournament this year, eh kids?" said Teddy, shovelling sausages into his mouth.
"Yep," said Roxanne. "And we're not kids."
"Of course not." Teddy smirked. "You thinking of entering?"
Roxanne shrugged: "Not my thing."
"What about you, Lily? Will you be old enough by then?"
Lily considered this. She supposed she ought to be concentrating on her schoolwork, but if the cutoff point was after her birthday – and she wasn't sure it would be – well, she had to admit there was a certain appeal to the idea of being champion. Of course it was dangerous, and time-consuming as well, but it was an incredible opportunity. And for somebody who'd spent her entire life in the shadow of her parents and older brothers... "I don't know," she said.
Dom leaned in from a little way down the table. "You should go for it, it's fun."
"Yeah, someone's got to prove that we're not all as hopeless as you were," sniggered James, earning himself a punch on the shoulder.
"Merlin himself would not have stood a chance against that Durmstrang girl," said Dom, rubbing her fist. "You saw her – biceps like Quaffles."
Lily sighed. The problem with being practically the youngest in such a large family was that whatever you did, you could be certain that somebody else had done it before you. Even if Dom had lost by an appalling margin five years ago after accidentally Transfiguring herself into a racoon for most of the final task, Lily's own father had still won the thing the very first year it was revived.
She turned her attention to the other end of the table, where Harry, Hermione and Percy were ranting about some Ministry official. "You should have reported him," Percy was saying, "That's what the anti-harassment policies are in place for, you know."
Hermione nodded. "I just don't feel like there's any point. We all know he'll worm his way out of it and we have more important things to worry about."
"Of course you do, of course. I just can't stand the idea that he'd ever be considered for Minister, that's all."
Harry grunted in agreement through a mouthful of steak and swallowed. "He's dangerous, I've been trying to convince Waffling for Merlin knows how long." He stuffed another forkful in and chewed viciously. "And you won't believe what happened the other evening. He invited himself over, totally unprompted, and then spent hours lecturing me on how I ought to be doing my job."
"Really?" Hermione raised an eyebrow. "And what did he suggest?"
"Oh... Arresting anyone who criticises the Ministry, going easy on people who practise the Unforgivable Curses as hobbies, that kind of thing... It was awful. It was like he was – just – waiting for me to agree with him!"
"He probably was," said Hermione. "He's probably looking for allies, and you can see why he'd want you."
"Well, he won't try again, that's for sure. I told him exactly what I thought of him and his nasty backstabbing politics."
"I bet you did," said Hermione, amused.
"And can you blame me? Disgusting man even had the house-elf in tears when he left."
Here Hermione pursed her lips. After years of campaigning for elfish welfare she had been forced to concede house-elves the right to work unpaid, but the merest whiff of mistreatment still drove her apoplectic.
Granny started bringing out the desserts and Lily jumped up to help clear the table. "Aaw," cooed James as she took his plate, "Look at little Lillikins doing everything without magic."
"Two months," she said, holding up two fingers threateningly, "Then I'll be able to hex you into next week, so shut it."
James's smile stayed fixed on his face but Lily noticed his knuckles tighten on his glass: her Tonsil-Twisting Hexes were infamous.
She moved down the table stacking plates: "Well, at least Waffling has managed to fob him off to Greece for the moment," Harry was saying. "Thanks, Lils." He mopped up the last of his gravy and handed her his plate before continuing, "He's out of the way for now."
Rose was holding forth about her trip again to Al and Lucy, detailing for the billionth time how she and her boyfriend planned to spend their fortnight in South Africa. "Michael's really interested in Witch Doctors, so we're going to do some research into ngoma while we're there. You know, it's fascinating, magic really isn't stigmatised there in the same way. Sangomas have always been an integral part of their communities."
Lucy nodded along with a patient smile and Al mimed hanging himself to Lily, which Rose saw and did not find amusing. She kicked him under the table and he released a howl not unlike the ones he'd been producing earlier in the name of music, prompting Lily to retreat quickly into the kitchen.
She found Dom at the sink, orchestrating the washing-up so that the brushes and sponges seemed to be performing some kind of complicated dance routine. She was humming along as she did so, flicking her wand back and forth in time.
"Nice," said Lily, dumping her stack of plates on the counter.
"Do you like it? I've been trying to choreograph all the Weird Sisters' songs. It makes chores much more entertaining."
Feeling that she'd rather avoid Rose until she'd finished beating her brother to a pulp, Lily picked up a sponge and started rinsing some of the cutlery.
"You should go for the Tournament, you know." She looked up. Dom's expression was surprisingly earnest. "I think you could be champion, I really do."
"Yeah..." She still wasn't sure. On the one hand, the prospect of thrilling adventures and eternal glory was, admittedly, appealing. On the other hand, it was also slightly nauseating and she did sort of value having the use of all her limbs. "So what are your plans for this year?"
Dom sighed at the change of subject but didn't push the issue. "Oh, nothing much. Managed to swing a part-time job at Eeylops, so we'll see how long that lasts..."
Lily rolled her eyes: "Good luck with that." Since Dom had left Hogwarts four years ago, it had become a family joke that she couldn't hold down a job for more than a couple of months. She'd tried her hand at practically everything: Curse Breaking, journalism, coaching an under-elevens Quidditch team, even a stint in Romania with Charlie and his dragons – but something always seemed to go wrong.
"Fred bet James five galleons I can make it till January, which is pretty generous considering I only managed a week in the last one."
"So maybe this time you try not hitting any of the customers with an Ear-Shrivelling Curse?" suggested Lily.
"OK, first of all, he wasn't a customer, he was stalking me–"
This was plausible. With her shimmering strawberry-blonde hair, Veela looks and impish grin, Dom found it almost as easy to attract men as her sister did – keeping hold of them being another matter entirely.
"– and second of all, they overreacted massively. All he needed was a counter-curse, they didn't have to take him to St Mungo's."
George and Roxanne struggled past under heaps of gently flapping butterfly cakes. "Great work, Lily," called George, nodding to her cutlery-rinsing, which looked doubly pathetic beside Dom's spectacular display of dancing utensils. "Keep it up and you might have another teaspoon done by Monday."
She stuck her tongue out at him and reached for a cake fluttering off Roxanne's plate, only to have her hand slapped away. "No touching before it reaches the table, on pain of death. Granny's orders."
"Fine." She turned back to Dom. "Still, Eeylops, that's good. I had an owl from there."
"Did you? What kind?"
"Screech owl, a lovely grey one. She came to a bit of a sticky end when we used her to fly Decoy Detonators into Professor Mottershead's office, though."
"I bet she did, sounds like a suicide mission." Dom Summoned some tea towels and set them drying the plates.
"All right, girls? Nearly there." Granny came bustling inside for the last few dishes, although from what Lily could see the table was already about to collapse under the weight of the desserts crammed onto it.
"It looks delicious, Granny," she said, giving up on the cutlery and drying her hands.
"Thank you, dear." Suddenly Granny's eyes narrowed and she emitted a furious hissing sound. "HUGO WEASLEY! WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE CHEESECAKE?"
So there's the new first chapter, I hope you liked it – please, if you feel so inclined, drop me a review/favourite/follow. Tell me what you hated, or want to see more of, and I'll see what I can do. Best reviews get... I don't know... virtual house points!
