Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or Harry Potter, unfortunately, nor do I take credit for the absolute blessing that is Elvis. That is all.
Chapter One:
Mudbloods and Hot Chocolate
Lily Evans didn't have a smidgen of a clue why on earth she decided to agree to it, but if she had to guess she would say it was probably because she was very curious about what he had to say. Definitely not because she had any intention of forgiving the guy, because she absolutely loathed him. She was simply dying to know what could've possessed someone to do such a thing.
In fact, she was contemplating turning back around and heading right back home, into the safe haven that was her room, where she could curl up on her bed and listen to every single one of her Elvis vinyls one by one, the sound of his voice lulling her into a relaxed stupor.
The mere thought of that was so tempting, that Lily stopped as soon as the gravel beneath her feet was replaced by grass. I could still do it, Lily reasoned, glancing over her shoulder at the rows of houses behind her. It's not too late! Just because I've reached the hill already doesn't mean-
But that was when it hit her that she was at the hill already. She turned to gaze up at the hill, a place she frequented as a child, her heart thumping loudly. Memories of all the times Petunia and she played on this hill crept up on her, and she had the sudden urge to cry.
It also happened to be the very place where she used to sit and talk for hours with a certain black-haired Slytherin boy.
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Lily started to ascend the hill. There was no turning back, not now. Not when she so desperately needed to know why.
About halfway up the hill, a silhouette of a boy started coming into view, his back turned towards Lily. He appeared to be very entranced by the sunset, because he didn't seem to hear Lily even when she was standing right behind him.
"Severus." She acknowledged the boy curtly, and sat down next to him without as much as sparing a glance in his direction.
"Lily!" Exclaimed the boy, Severus Snape excitedly, moving as if to fling his arms around the tense female next to him, but then seemed to remember something, and suddenly grew sombre, placing his hands back in his lap. "I'm glad you came."
"Mmm," was all he got in reply.
A long silence befell them, and Lily instantly found herself regretting her decision to go there. She thought that maybe Snape would at least try to apologise to her in some way, some better way than he tried to last time, when he threatened to sleep outside the portrait hole to the Gryffindor Tower at Hogwarts last year, right after the 'incident'. She thought that he might've at least planned some sort of speech that would include him begging for her to forgive him, or lost sleep thinking about how on earth a friendship like theirs had managed to end over something like this. Lily thought that the least she deserved after what he had done was any sign of remorse or sorrow, but no; here he was, staring at the sunset, looking absolutely peaceful and content.
Lily almost managed to stop the tears from spilling out onto her cheeks.
Wiping at her eyes furiously, Lily shot up from the grass and choked out "This was a mistake. I'm going."
Panicking, Severus jumped up onto his feet, just managing to latch onto Lily's wrist, as she was already descending the hill, desperate to get away from him.
"Lily, wait!"
"What, Snape?!" Lily rounded on him, enraged, her eyes boring into his angrily, seemingly trying to incinerate him, or something of the like. Snape flinched at being addressed by his last name, by Lily no less. If there was anything in the world he desperately hadn't wanted to do, it was definitely to aggravate Lily to the point where she would stop calling him 'Severus'. In the end, she was the only person who called him by his first name. "What the hell do you want from me?! What could you possibly have to say that would make this any better?!"
Snape just stared at her, too stunned for words by her outburst, his lips forming words but never making a sound.
"That's what I thought," Lily scoffed, wrenching her arm out of Snape's grasp and wiping her cheeks aggressively with the palms of her hands, ashamed that she would cry because of Snape, someone who most definitely did not deserve her tears. "It's a good thing I wasn't going to forgive you even if you apologised, so at least nothing was lost."
Severus felt a sharp sting because of her words, but that was quickly replaced by rage.
"Oh, so that's it?" Snape spat, his face twisting into a chilling sneer, all previous regret wiped clean. "You come here, demanding apologies, while not planning to even think about accepting them?! Well that's fucking rich-"
"SHUT UP, SNAPE!" Lily yelled, and Snape flinched once more, recoiling slightly. The murderous look in her eye informing him that even though she didn't hear him say it, she knew that he was about to do it again. "Don't you think you've done enough?!" Lily shouted, incredulously. "I can't believe you were comparing not accepting an apology to calling someone a 'mudblood'! And not just anyone, your supposed best friend!" Her voice cracked on the last two words, and tears ran down her face once more.
"Lil-" Snape tried, but even he knew that the damage was done. If he hadn't attempted to call her a mudblood once more, then there might have been a chance at reconciliation, maybe not straight away, but it might have been a possibility in the near future. The fact that he had tried to call her a mudblood, showed them both that no matter what he said, he really didn't regret calling her that. The damage was done.
"Goodbye Severus." And with that Lily turned and started to descend the hill as fast as her legs could take her, and she didn't stop once she reached the bottom. She didn't stop once she rounded the corner either. She didn't stop until she was absolutely sure she couldn't see even a speck of that hill, and collapsed onto something that felt hard and very unpleasant to lean on.
Frowning, Lily spun around to check what the contraption was, to find herself staring at the park she used to play in as a kid. The very park in which she met Severus Snape, all those years ago.
Lily's stomach lurched, and she had a horrifying thought that if she did not get out of there this instant, she would find herself dearly regretting eating anything that day.
Marlene McKinnon was not someone who handled boredom very well. She was extremely energetic and went absolutely nuts when she had to sit in one place for over 5 minutes. It was a well-known fact that it was virtually impossible to get a hold of her during the summer holidays, as she was running all over the place, doing everything and anything she could think of.
Therefore you can imagine Marlene's surprise when she found Lily Evans sitting on her doorstep, cradling her head in her lap and rocking backwards and forwards.
"Lils, what are you doing here?" Marlene asked gently, dropping her bag onto the ground next to her. Lily instantly raised her head at the sound of Marlene's voice. She had clearly been crying a lot. Her eyes were puffy, her make-up smudged all the way down her cheeks and when she spoke, she hiccuped slightly.
"I knocked on your door." Lily sniffed quietly, wiping at her eyes with her sleeves, a pointless action, because new tears rolled down her face as soon as she was done. "You weren't home though."
"Yeah, I had a Quidditch date with the guys, I thought that I told you?" Marlene asked uncertainly, sincerely hoping that she had not forgotten to mention that.
"Oh, right," Lily mumbled sullenly, hanging her head. "I forgot."
"Lily, what happened?" Marlene questioned, sitting down next to the distressed redhead, although she supposed she already had a sound idea of what had happened.
"Snape." Lily choked out weakly.
Rage instantly filled Marlene. Because calling someone who was presumably his best friend a 'mudblood' clearly wasn't enough, Snape had done another thing to hurt her friend. It made no difference if he felt guilt because of it or not. Because Snape wasn't the one who heard Lily cry herself to sleep every night for weeks after what he had done. Snape wasn't the one who had done everything in his power to restrain himself from beating the crap out of the person responsible, on Lily's request. Marlene was. And therefore, that rotten Death Eater was dead.
"That bastard!" Marlene exclaimed, clenching her fists. "What did that slimy git do now?!"
Marlene thought she saw a tiny smile tug at Lily's lips, but she couldn't be certain because it was gone a second later.
"He… he called me a mudblood again." Marlene's eyebrows shot up, and there must have been something on her face that suggested she was about to shout more insults, because Lily was very quick to correct herself, not even taking the time to breathe in. "I mean, he didn't say it, not exactly anyway, he heavily implied that he was about to say it. If I hadn't interrupted him, he-"
Lily, swallowed, and looked at Marlene head on for the first time that night.
"It's over Marlene. It's truly… Over…" and she sounded so completely broken, that Marlene didn't know what to say. All she could think to do was to put her arms around the distraught witch. As soon as she did so Lily latched onto her friend desperately, and started sobbing into Marlene's shirt.
Marlene didn't know how long they sat there like that, but she knew that when Lily had finally calmed down enough to stop crying, her shirt had several mascara stains that were not there before, and her hand was numb from massaging Lily's scalp.
"Hey Lils?" Marlene whispered, careful not to startle Lily, who seemed to be in some type of trance.
"Mm?"
"Let's go inside. I'll make hot chocolate."
"Mmm…"
Marlene frowned. Clearly it would take more than her hot chocolate to cheer Lily up this time. It was time to bring out the big guns.
"And… I got a few new Elvis records to add to my collection…"
Marlene watched with a smirk as Lily straightened up eagerly, her eyes twinkling once more.
"Reeeally? You aren't shitting with me, are you?" Lily questioned, practically bouncing in excitement. Marlene swore that Lily almost tumbled off the steps when Marlene shook her head. "Oh, Marly this is excellent! Come on get up, what are you waiting for?!"
Laughing, Marlene got up and let Lily and herself in. Her entire family, comprised of her mother, stepfather and five brothers, didn't appear to be home, but Marlene already figured that out by the fact that Lily was waiting for her on her doorstep, rather than inside her house.
They headed straight up to Marlene's room, Lily not even bothering to take off her coat.
Marlene's room was large and spacious, but because of the ridiculous amount of stuff she owned, it was practically impossible to tell. She had three shelves filled up with books which were read more by Lily than herself, two large wardrobes, a desk that had 'L.E' and 'M.M' surrounded by a heart carved into the side, and a tiny burn mark from the first time Lily and she tried to smoke a cigarette, and Marlene almost set the desk on fire with Derek's lighter.
You didn't have to look far to see what Marlene's most prized possession was, because it was literally the only thing in the room that wasn't damaged in some way. The record player, placed on her dresser (because 'what do you mean two wardrobes are enough, mum? Have you seen how many clothes I own?), was already in use by Lily, who was removing the Aerosmith record that Marlene had carelessly forgotten to return to its sleeve in the morning, and turning to Marlene's bed, where her newest records had a tendency to reside.
Marlene had the largest record record collection Lily had ever seen, rivalled only by Sirius's, if what Marlene said was to be believed (Lily highly doubted that Sirius's parents would have been very pleased with a muggle-born at their house (to which Sirius insisted that that was more the reason why she should come), and now that Sirius lived with the Potters Lily felt even more reluctant to go for a visit). Wherever the walls weren't covered with posters of various bands, there were shelves upon shelves filled to the brink with records. It appeared that Marlene was in need of yet another shelf, because there were many more records piled up on the desk than usual, and Marlene's floor was barely visible.
"I'll go make the hot chocolate." Marlene said, shrugging off her jacket and chucking it onto the bed.
"Hmm…" was Lily's answer, who was clearly not listening, too preoccupied with staring at Marlene's newest records in adoration.
Chuckling under her breath, Marlene turned to the door, exiting out into the hall just as Elvis's hypnotising voice filled the room.
Humming along to 'Hurt', which was still mildly audible from downstairs, Marlene slid into the kitchen and got started on making the chocolate, all the while swaying to the music.
She was just starting to boil the milk when she heard a light knock on the window. She glanced up, and found nothing. Shrugging it off, she resumed her dancing and sliding around the kitchen.
That was when she heard another knock, this time on the front door. Sighing deeply, she slid out onto the entrance hall and swung the door open, expecting it to be her family, having forgotten that it couldn't possibly be them, considering they went to visit her uncle up in Scotland. But when she opened it she found… nothing.
Sighing deeply, she started to close the door when out of nowhere, Sirius Black pounced on her, enveloping Marlene in a tight hug and singing 'Oh Danny boy!' at the top of his lungs. She screamed, and was about to berate Sirius when another voice cut her off, with another 'Oh Danny boy!'. James Potter strolled into view, grinning widely.
"I love you soooo!" They sang together, bowing deeply.
"What the hell guys?!" Marlene demanded, crossing her arms, having pried Sirius off her, but the sincerity of her anger was questionable, as she was smiling broadly. "You scared the living shit out of me!"
Marlene waited for the two wizards to cease their laughter and then asked, calmly:
"What are you guys doing here?"
"Well, you see Marly, we were simply passing by-" Sighed Sirius dramatically, leaning on the wall opposite Marlene.
"Oh I'm sure you were." Marlene muttered doubtfully.
"And we happened to catch a glimpse of you dancing in the kitchen," Sirius continued on, ignoring Marlene, who looked like she was about to interrupt him once more. "And we thought that it would simply be a crime to let you have all the fun, so we decided that it would only be fair if we joined in as well. I mean, who wouldn't want to rock out to Elvis?"
Marlene raised an eyebrow, staring at Sirius in disbelief, because he was exactly the kind of person who wouldn't want to 'rock out' to Elvis. James maybe, but definitely not Sirius. When she voiced this, Sirius looked as if he had never been so insulted in his entire life.
"Marlene!" He exclaimed indignantly. "How dare you suggest such a thing! Of course I love Elvis! I'm especially a fan of that one song, 'Can't Stop Falling For You'!"
Sirius looked so incredibly proud of himself at that moment that Marlene almost didn't roll her eyes and sigh with exasperation. Almost. Looking over at James, who was leaning against her now closed front door clearly doing everything in his power to refrain from laughing, Marlene informed:
"Well, that's great and all, but you guys have to go." Neither one of them reacted in any way. Sighing, Marlene leaned in, lowering her voice as if Lily could hear her all the way from upstairs, over the music no less. "You guys have to go because Lily's here and she's really upset so-"
But Sirius had stopped listening after 'Lily's here'. "Lily's here? Oh this is wonderful, Marlene! I haven't seen Lily in such a long time!" He exclaimed, spinning Marlene around as he ran past her and up the stairs, not even bothering to take his shoes off.
"So I don't want either of you bothering her!" Marlene finished, glaring at Sirius's retreating back. "And you saw her like a week ago!"
But Sirius just continued up the stairs, ignoring Marlene completely. As soon as Sirius disappeared into Marlene's room, Lily's startled shriek and Sirius's laughter reached them.
Shaking her head with resignation, Marlene turned back to James, who had a very troubled look on his face.
"Marlene, why's Lily-" He broke off, scrunching up his face in disgust. "Marlene, what in seven hells is that smell?"
That was when Marlene noticed it. It was actually quite a great feat that she hadn't noticed it earlier. It was so incredibly strong and horrid, that she wouldn't even be surprised if her next door neighbour, kind old Mrs. Foster could smell it.
Recognizing at once what it was, Marlene swore under her breath and ran into the kitchen. As expected, the milk had finished boiling. More than finished; there was nothing left.
Swearing loudly, Marlene grabbed the burnt pan off the stove and chucked it into the sink, instantly filling it with cold water. Sighing heavily, she slumped against the cupboard and glanced over at James, who was leaning against the door frame and laughing.
"You really are quite an idiot, aren't you McKinnon?" James jested, walking over to her. Not having the energy to be offended, Marlene just smiled tiredly and ordered James to switch off the gas she had forgotten to turn off herself.
"I guess it's not so bad," Marlene sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "I mean, I would have to make more anyway, considering you two have insisted on staying, and Lord knows Sirius wouldn't speak to me for… about 8 hours if I didn't make him hot chocolate but did for Lily."
"Marls," James chuckled, placing his hands on her shoulders, waiting until she looked him in the eye to continue. "Calm yourself. It's just milk. Now tell me where the sugar is, I'll make the hot chocolate."
Marlene eyed him sceptically. "Lily's expecting the best hot chocolate there is, which would happen to be mine."
"Oh yeah?" James challenged, smirking, as he took a carton of milk out of the fridge and kicked it shut. "Just you wait until you try mine."
Still not entirely convinced, but too drained to argue, Marlene walked over a bit to her left and opened the cabinet above her, took out the sugar, placed it somewhere James was sure to see it, and sat down on the table behind him.
Marlene watched James in silence, and she had to admit that he might have been more of a hot chocolate expert than she, something she noted with dissatisfaction. She was trying to memorise what he had done so far, when she was broken out of her thoughts by James's voice.
"So, why is it that Lily requires hot chocolate?" James asked, clearly trying to sound nonchalant, but the slight waver in his voice when he said 'Lily' betrayed how worried he was.
"What do you think?" Marlene grumbled, glancing at James darkly, who had turned around to look at her by then. It was clear that James had understood her in an instant. He visibly tensed, and Marlene got the inkling that he was restraining himself from punching something.
"Snape." He uttered the word like it was poison, like it was something hideous and revolting and had to be wiped clean off the face of the earth at all costs, and never had Marlene in her life agreed with him more.
"He… he, um," Marlene started hesitantly, not entirely sure that telling James was a good idea. She sighed, scooped her hair out of her face and blurted out, without giving herself time to change her mind: "He as good as called her a 'mudblood' again."
James reacted exactly like Marlene expected he would. "That fucking bastard," He swore, pushing himself off the cupboard he was leaning on and starting to pace the kitchen. "That god-damned slimy asshole! At that time I could've… He would've deserved it… Should've let Moony… But then he would…" He stopped suddenly, and stared at Marlene as if he'd only just seen her. "Marlene! I've got to talk to Lily, I have to-"
"NO!" Marlene exclaimed, jumping off the table and standing between James and the door into the hallway, as if scared he was going to run out and to her room at any second. "You can't! And anyway, what does Remus have to do with any of this?"
"Remus? What… Remus doesn't…" James muttered distractedly, staring at the corridor over Marlene's head longingly. "Nothing, I just… I have to talk to her Marlene, I have to-"
"No, James! That is the last thing she needs right now! What she needs right now is hot chocolate," Marlene indicated the mixture that was still simmering on the stove with her chin. "Elvis, and people who care about her."
James glanced down at her, apparently having a hard time deciding between murderous revenge (the option he usually went with), and his desire to make Lily happy. At last he closed his eyes, sighed, and muttered: "Fine. Okay, fine, but when it comes to tearing Snivellus a new one, you've got to be doing the tearing right with me."
Marlene grinned. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
Soon the chocolate was done, and after a couple minutes of preparing everything (Marlene had decided to help James with this, but soon gave up because according to James she was doing everything wrong), James and Marlene were trudging up the stairs, four cups of hot chocolate in tow.
Once they had reached her door, Marlene shouted 'Put your clothes back on kids! We're coming in!' and, pressing down on the door handle with her elbow, shouldered the door open.
As soon as her room came into view, Marlene's gaze landed on a scowling Lily, who was laying on her bed diagonally, a grinning Sirius's head resting on her belly.
"Oh but Marlene!" Sirius pouted, repositioning himself so that his whole head now rested on Lily, ignoring her protests. "I look so good naked!"
"I assure you, Black," Marlene scoffed, passing one of the cups she was holding to Lily, while James passed one of his to Sirius. "That nobody in here wants to see you naked."
"You never were a very good liar, McKinnon." Sirius said simply, his eyes momentarily sliding over to Lily's face, who in turn was doing everything in her power to avoid Sirius's gaze. This went unnoticed by both Marlene and James, because Marlene was turning the record that had just stopped playing over, and James was placing his cup onto Marlene's desk.
"For the last time, Padfoot," sighed James, walking over to the bed and falling down on it face first. "MacDonald paid me 5 galleons to say that! Nobody thinks that 'Sirius Black has a heavenly body and everyone is desperate to see him naked'!"
Marlene snorted, whereas Sirius ignored him and turned to Lily: "Lily, dear, would you be so kind as to lift you legs very fast so that James falls off, preferably hitting his head very hard?"
But Lily wasn't paying attention. She was staring at James, who had in fact started using Lily's legs as a cushion, as if she only just noticed he was there.
"Potter." She finally uttered, after a somewhat tense silence. She seemed to making an effort to keep her voice friendly, and Marlene had to fight the urge to gawk. What happened with Snape clearly affected her more than she could ever know.
"Alright, Evans?" James grinned up at her, his hand already travelling to mess up his hair. Rolling her eyes, Marlene picked up James's cup of cocoa and made her way over to the others.
"This chocolate is even better than usual Marlene!" Lily said as Marlene sat at the foot of her bed, between James and Sirius. "You've really outdone yourself!"
"Actually I-"
"Hasn't she?" James interjected, lifting his own cup to his lips and said, before taking a long gulp: "I would even go as far as to call her the hot chocolate expert!"
Marlene looked at him quizzically, but he just raised an eyebrow at her over the top of his cup, as if to challenge her to admit she didn't do a thing to help him, not counting her attempts at decorating with cream.
She almost told Lily that, if just to spite James for trying to order her around with an eyebrow, but she figured James probably had his reasons for not wanting her to know, even if they were incredibly stupid and pointless. So instead, she leaned back, resting her head on Sirius's shoulder and sighed:
"Ah, yes, I am quite wonderful, aren't I?"
Sirius snorted, and Marlene reached over her head to push his face away, but because she couldn't see his face she poked him in the eye. She half gasped and half sniggered when he yelped. Glaring, Sirius tried to retaliate.
"Watch it, Black!" Shrieked Marlene, and Sirius halted. "If you spill my chocolate I swear on Merlin's hairy backside I will cut your hair off!"
Fear flickered in Sirius's eyes, and, sulking, he positioned his head back on Lily's belly, but not before gathering his hair onto his left shoulder, away from Marlene.
"Sirius Black!" Lily growled as her hot chocolate sloshed dangerously close to the top of her cup due to Sirius's movements. "If any of my chocolate spills you will be the one 'falling off, preferably hitting your head very hard'!"
"Aw, Evans," James smirked, glancing up at Lily. "It feels like you're defending me!"
"In your dreams Potter." Came Lily's icy reply, but Marlene was fairly certain that if she lifted her head, she would see a smile on Lily's face.
A/N: I've finally finished the first chapter! I'm not sure about the ending, it just seems like it gradually gets worse and worse, but I'm tired and I've been writing this chapter for weeks, so here it is! Yes, I know, it's quite short and most of it is about making hot chocolate, but I wanted to start off with some fluff, so there.
Hope you enjoyed, and reviews are kindly appreciated!
