Hello lovelies! Chapter two - Smoke and Suitcases - has arrived.

Thank you to TrueHomiePiP, abuu, MsChanify, and the guest reviewers for your kind words and feedback! It meant a lot. Hopefully this chapter is as good as the last!

To any new readers: thank you for reading! Please leave your feedback at the end, it is always appreciated 3

Summary: Lily spends her first summer at home in a long time following her father's death. James is spending his in Saint Malo, France, and happens upon Ambria and Marlene in his trip. Everyone prepares for their sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Disclaimer: Not the ridiculously famous and ridiculously fabulous J.K. Rowling, sorry.

(Smoke and Suitcases)

James didn't know when he next expected to see Sirius, but he did know that it wasn't on his arrival home from France.

"Bloody hell, finally!"

It always surprised James a little how Sirius Black look so completely haggard sometimes, but still possess an air of eternal, rebellious youth. He found his friend sitting on the front porch steps of the Potter family home, his foot propped on a large trunk beneath him. Sirius' dark hair was matted in wild curls, as usual, and the dark circles beneath his eyes had grown considerably. Despite this, and his clearly three day old clothes, Sirius was grinning at him.

"A bloke could freeze to death sitting out here all day."

James raised a skeptical eyebrow. "In July? That's a bit dramatic."

"I'm a sensitive soul, me."

"We weren't expecting you, Sirius. How lovely." Euphemia Potter had been following her son up the path and was seemingly delighted at the sight of his friend.

Euphemia was a short woman, which was surprising given James' height, but she carried herself with grandeur. She had grey hair pulled tightly into a bun at the nape of her neck and was dressed in light salmon silk robes. Her eyes were hazel, just like James', and they were alight as she fussed over Sirius.

The recipient of said fussing looked up at her a little sheepishly. "Sorry I didn't let you know. Things were a bit… tense at home."

"How long have you been sitting out here?"

"Eh," Sirius scratched his head. "Only a few hours or so."

Tutting, Euphemia patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, get your trunk and come inside. We'll have the house elves fix us something to eat." She gestured to her son. "James dear, help your father with our luggage and get Whimsy to turn down the guest bedroom for Sirius."

After his mother had bustled her way into the house, James looked to Sirius and raised an eyebrow. "How was the wedding?"

Sirius' face darkened. "I'm not nearly drunk enough to begin with that tale, mate."

"That bad?"

"Abysmal." He pushed himself up off the staircase, and suddenly grinned. "Good to see you, though. How was France?"

James shrugged. "Probably not as eventful as whatever happened with you." From behind him, Fleamont, his father, called his name. "Ah, I better get to it. Don't want Mum biting my head off already. You know what room Whimsy will make up for you, just dump your stuff in there. I'll come find you in a minute."

With a salute from Sirius, James turned and went to meet his father at the bottom of the path.

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon, Petunia worked a six hour shift at a small cafe in London. The cafe - called The Lilac Tea Room - was a popular spot for the wives of highly paid business men, armed with credit cards and a week's worth of scandal and secrets to share. It was perfect for Petunia who not only aspired to be one day join the ranks of these ladies, but it was also useful for her to hear the ins and outs of London's business society. Plus, she lived for gossip.

What was not perfect for Petunia, however, was being held against her will in a car with her younger sister. Perhaps held against her will was a bit of an embellishment, but she certainly didn't appreciate being forced by her mother to drive Lily into London.

"Tuney, please," said Eileen. The older woman was on all fours on the kitchen floor, flustered. She had a wet rag in one hand and a scrubbing brush in the other as she cleaned the oven. "I'm terribly busy and it would be a huge help. I've got a lecture at eleven, lunch with Linda McKenzie at two, another…"

"It's honestly fine," Lily interrupted. There was nothing worse than her mother's failing attempts to rekindle their sisterly friendship. "I'll take the train."

Eileen huffed. "You will do nothing of the sort! Did you not hear about poor Mrs. Benzie's son down the road? He was mugged on the way to the train station and lost almost fifty pounds!" She shook her head in indignation. "No, Petunia, you'll take your sister on your way to work and that'll be the end of it."

And it had been the end of it, indeed.

Petunia drove an olive green Austin 1100, a car that was about ten years out of fashion. It was an easy motor to drive, however, and small, and Petunia was rather proud of it. It had cream leather interior seating and chrome plated finishings. Lily picked at a torn part of the leather in the passenger seat absentmindedly.

"Don't pick that," Petunia warned, flicking her eyes briefly to her sister's fidgeting fingers. They had been driving for about half an hour and those were the first words that had been said. Lily's fingers curled into her palm and she sat her fist in her lap. She muttered somewhat of an apology, and looked out of her window.

The drive from Cokeworth to London was a reasonably lengthy one, but it took them on a tour through the countryside and the small villages that dotted the distance in between. Petunia was used to the drive having done it every Wednesday morning and Friday evening for the past year (she often stayed with her friend Barb in the city overnight), but Lily still marveled in the delicate beauty of the little cottages that they passed.

After another few minutes (and therefore precisely thirty-six minutes of silence), Lily let out a quiet sigh and turned to her sister.

"How was your date?" she asked. There was a new voice Lily used whenever trying to interact with Petunia. It wasn't like the voice she used six years ago (the Loving voice), and it wasn't like the voice she used one year ago (the Betrayed voice). This voice (the Diplomat voice) was the sort of voice one might use on the phone to the dentist, or maybe to a very distant relative. It was quiet and unassuming and all in all, was good for nothing much but small talk.

Petunia stiffened for a moment, not unnoticed by Lily, but answered: "It was lovely, thank you." There was a pregnant paused before she added, "No thanks to your ridiculously loud radio nonsense."

"He wouldn't have known the difference," argued Lily, though Lily knew that yes, in fact, he probably would have noticed something strange about the news discussion of Pepper Up Potion benefits.

"Well, I for one will be glad when you're back at Hog… your school. It means I can bring Vernon home for dinner without the risk of you exposing yourself."

Lily pressed her lips against a smile. The idea of her exposing herself in front of Vernon conjured a rather amusing image in her head, one that Petunia probably wouldn't join her in laughing at. Petunia's ramblings on about her secret identity had gone from concerning to rather hilarious a long time ago. Besides, she was somewhat inclined to agree - Lily, too, would be glad when she had returned to school.

"What did you do then? What was he like?"

Her sister pursed her lips together in thought. "Well, he was charming, like I said before. We went for a drink and he paid for everything - as he really should have, but it was nice to know I didn't even have to offer to go dutch. He says he should be in the works for a promotion soon which is terribly exciting."

"Terribly," said Lily, nodding.

"All in all," Petunia continued, having not noticed Lily's rather apathetic nodding, "if all goes to plan, you might be hearing wedding bells come next year." This is where Lily's apathy ended and her eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Oh, don't give me that look. I'm nineteen, nearly twenty. Mum and Dad were already halfway to married by my age."

Petunia's voice caught ever so slightly when she mentioned her father, but she pressed on. "Vernon is an especially good catch. If I don't lock him down soon, some other girl surely will."

Not sure whether or not the feminist movement had ever occurred to Petunia - or the fact that they were now living twenty years out of the 1950s - Lily simply cleared her throat and put her Diplomat voice back on. "Well, he sounds great."

"He is," Petunia agreed, although Lily was sure she would have insisted that regardless of Lily's opinion. There was another pause before she spoke again. "What about… you?"

This surprised Lily. The last time Petunia had taken an interest in her love life was when she seven years old and Ricky Michaels from Beasley Avenue tried to kiss her on the cheek. "What about me?" she asked.

She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I haven't seen any of that boy around this summer. You know, the odd one."

Lily did know, and she suddenly wished this conversation would cease altogether.

"Yeah, you're right. He hasn't been around."

"How come?"

"We grew apart, I suppose."

With a snort, Petunia said, "Grew apart? That boy followed you around like a lost puppy. You were probably his only friend. I highly doubt you just 'grew apart'."

Lily ignored the pull in her stomach. She would not feel guilty about this. Sure, Severus did struggle to make friends but he clearly also struggled the keep them. Maybe there was a reason that she was his only friend - and it had everything to do with the fact that she was a naive pushover and, on more than one occasion, in complete denial.

"We had conflicting beliefs. It happens." Conflicting beliefs meaning he'd used a word that implied he believed her life was worth very little, and she was rather inclined to disagree.

"Mm," But Petunia clearly wasn't convinced. "I suppose it's a good thing. Nothing good has come out of Spinner's End in the past forty years."

Stiffening, Lily trained her focus onto something else other than her intense desire to defend Severus. It was a bad habit of hers that she had procured over the years and she was doing all she could do break it. It was a new rule of hers: no more standing up for Severus Snape. After all, it had hardly done her any favours last time.

She thought about the letter that she hadn't bothered opening. She wondered that if she had maybe she would have changed her mind. However, she'd already sworn never to defend him again and Lily hardly ever broke her own rules.

(Well, at least not yet, anyway.)

"You've got to be bloody joking."

This was the third time James had said those words, and for a third time, Sirius nodded gravely.

"Mad, isn't it?" the latter said, leaning back against the window with his legs out in front of him, ankles crossed. He had spent the best part of the last fifteen minutes recounting the events of the illustrious Malfoy and Black nuptials, which had evidently factored into the reason he was sitting there on James' bedroom windowsill. "It was meant to be a joke - a bloody funny one, at that - but she lost it, Prongs. I've never seen Walburga hit the roof like that before. She said, and I quote, that I holding any claim on the Black name was a travesty and that she couldn't believe she'd spawned such a traitorous fool."

"Blimey, your own mother…"

"Only by blood," Sirius reminded bitterly.

"I've got to agree though, charming a raincloud to follow Malfoy wherever he went was an excellent idea."

"Wasn't it? You should see the pictures! Narcissa was livid, of course - but to hell with her, she's the one that signed herself up for a lifetime of misery."

"How did they know it was you?" asked James.

"Well, s'pose the only Gryffindor at the party was bound to get blamed. It wasn't exactly the sort of Regulus would have come up with, was it?" Sirius tapped his head. "Doesn't have the wit about him."

"So, what now?" James pressed on. "Is that you gone for good?"

"For good. She's burned me off of the tapestry so I don't think I'll be thrown a welcoming party if I go back. If it was up to her, I'd have 'blood traitor' emblazoned across my forehead for the rest of my life."

James let a breath out between his teeth. "Shit."

Sirius simply nodded.

"Well, obviously you're staying here," James continued, matter of factly. "It's only a couple of weeks until we go back to school and Mum will be thrilled at having another mouth to feed."

His friend said his thanks, but added, "I'll sort myself somewhere else by Christmas."

"Oh, don't be a prat, Padfoot. I trust you living alone just about as much as I'd trust my own mother with an ironing charm - which you will know by the state of my second year Quidditch robes is not at all."

"What makes you an authority on living alone? Last time I checked, you didn't even fold your own underwear."

"Exactly," James grinned, "but I'm not the one having mad ideas about finding my own place."

Sirius shrugged. "S'pose I needed to move out at some point."

"Yeah, but most people do that after school, not with two years to go."

"Like my mother said, I'm a vexatious and tiresome rule breaker."

"Vexatious?" With another grin, James shook his head and pointed an adamant finger towards Sirius. "You're not going anywhere, right? At least for now. We can reevaluate at Christmas."

"Alright, boss."

The pair of them continued to chat, discussing their summers - more of Sirius' family terrors and a rehash of James' summer in Saint Malo. It went on for an hour or so - Sirius family terrors were excessive - before it finally came to the topic of school.

"D'you get your letter then?" Sirius asked. James affirmed. "Moony got prefect again, you know."

"I know," said James, "what a swot. Do you reckon this will be the year he's going to start deducting points from us?"

"And risk us telling Patricia Prewett that he was the one who accidentally set her prized Herbology project on fire? Doubtful."

With a laugh, James agreed. "True. He's just as bad as the rest of us, even if he doesn't think so."

"Eh, bad is a relative term."

"I wonder who else got it," said James, though his statement was rather redundant. Of course he knew who had continued in the female prefect role. With the third highest marks across their year group, it was a given.

Sirius rolled his eyes a bit. "Evans, but as if you didn't know that." With a skeptical look, "Your obsession didn't have a timely death over the summer then."

"It's not an obsession." James scowled.

He raised his hands in a lazy defense. "If you say so, mate. I thought that after that scene with Snivellus that might have been you finished with it all."

James had hoped that too. In fact, James was rather annoyed at the fact that being further down on the list of dateable people (by Lily's standards) than the Giant Squid hadn't put a damper on his feelings towards her. Surely sane people took a bloody hint.

Shrugging, James said, "I'm working on it." And he truly did think he was.

For the seventeenth time that year, Sirius told him, "She's bad for your spirit, you know."

James knew.

By the end of that car ride, Lily was grateful to find herself standing on the pavement down the road from the Leaky Cauldron. Petunia had refused to drop her outside the door, fearful of the fact someone might spot her. Why Petunia was worried about that, Lily didn't know. It's not as if any other Muggles were aware of the Leaky Cauldron's existence.

Nevertheless, she was happy to free from the tense presence of her sister and began to make her way towards the pub.

When she arrived, Lily was caught rather off guard. It seemed as if the pub was swarmed with patrons, with bodies pressed up against the windows. She managed to squeeze open the door, narrowly missing the back of some poor man who had managed to step out of the way. It was packed in a way she had never seen before.

Confusion buzzed through the air as the patrons muttered between themselves. It seemed that a large part of the Hogwarts student population and their respective families had chosen today to do their school supply shopping, and they were equally puzzled by the masses. Lily pressed herself up onto her toes, scanning the heads and shoulders of the group in an attempt to find her friends. With a brief look at her watch, she concluded it was twenty-eight minutes past ten - slightly early, but she was sure they would have arrived already.

She gently shouldered her way between the people, giving the occasional greeting and wave to some Hogwarts acquaintances. Julie Murray, a seventh-year Hufflepuff, reached out and stopped her in her path.

"Lily!" the older girl greeted, giving her a smile. "How was your summer? You're looking lovely, by the way." She gestured to the room. "This is madness, isn't it?"

"What's happened?" inquired Lily, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the bustling crowd.

Julie pointed vaguely towards the Diagon Alley entrance. "The brick wall is blocked! Nobody can get through, which is ridiculous on a day like today. You'd think the Ministry would have sorted something out by now - it's been almost forty minutes!"

"Do you know why it's blocked?"

She shook her head. "No one will say. No one can find Tom to ask him. The whole thing's a mess."

Lily was inclined to agree as a gentleman stepped past her, spilling his drink on her a little. She jumped back a bit, dodging the most part. Julie made a loud tutting noise and looked after the man, who was blissfully ignorant.

"Honestly, some of the manners in here…" Julie began, before looking back to Lily. "Anyway, I better get back to my parents. It's my little brother's first year and they're freaking out."

Lily nodded. "Alright, see you." The Hufflepuff turned to leave just as Lily quickly piped up, "Oh! You haven't seen Marlene or Ambria have you?"

"McKinnon and Stretton?" Julie asked, nose wrinkled. She begun to back into the crowd again. "Can't say I have, but you're bound to see Ambria with her blue hair!" The last comment sounded much more like a judgemental dig than an innocuous statement.

Turning to continue her search, Lily started again through the sea of bodies, and - despite Julia's clear contempt - began to look out for a splash of cobalt blue. It wasn't long before she found them.

"Lils! Over here!" Ambria Stretton bounced up and down having stood up on a chair and was waving frantically in Lily's direction. Julie Murray's comment about it being hard to miss the young witch had had some merit. Despite being a mere five foot two inches, Ambria's presence demanded attention. She was eccentric and free-spirited, which attributed to her shockingly coloured hair. "Lily!"

"I can see you," she said, but she grinned nonetheless. With a final squeeze past a pair of bickering siblings, she found her two friends either side of a claimed table. Ambria jumped down from her perch above the chair and threw her arms around Lily.

"I've missed you! It was so strange not seeing you this summer!"

Lily patted Ambria on the back and laughed, while Marlene said, "I actually thought the change was rather nice."

Ambria pulled a face at Marlene as she released Lily from her embrace, "That's not very nice, Marlene. Stop saying things like that or else Lily will want to spend every summer at home."

"Not likely," the witch in question replied, plopping into a seat next to Marlene. "Even Marlene on a Monday morning has nothing on Petunia on a… well, all the time."

"Sounds awful," said Ambria, genuinely concerned. Marlene, on the other hand, rolled her eyes and muttered a curse word under her breath. Giving Lily's hand an excited squeeze, Ambria went on, "How was the rest of it? How's Mama Evans?"

"She's surviving. We managed to whittle down the hoarding to only thirty percent on my dad's old things."

"That's… positive." It sounded like a question.

Lily gave an odd smile, part sad, part amused. "It is. At least now I won't have to worry about coming back to some morbid shrine at Christmas."

"And you? How are you doing?"

"Surviving, too."

"Was it weird?" Marlene asked, leaning forward. "Being home without him?"

"Marlene," Ambria snapped, as if her question had been inappropriate. Lily didn't think it had been.

She shrugged. "Sort of. It's always weird going back there - something's always different."

Her friends nodded solemnly for a moment.

Changing the subject, Lily asked, "So, why are we stuck in here?"

"Merlin knows," Marlene complained with a huff. "No one will tell us anything! I'm starving too and there's no one about to serve."

"You've just eaten breakfast," reminded Ambria.

"I didn't ask for your dietary evaluation, Amby."

To diffuse the situation, Lily started rummaging in her handbag and produced a chocolate bar. "Here."

"Oh, you're a lifesaver, Lily!"

Ambria rolled her eyes. "You weren't going to die."

Her mouth full of chocolate, Marlene did not bother to respond. As she chewed her way through it, Ambria set off in an excited ramble regarding the year ahead. She squealed when Lily announced that she was prefect (though it had been expected), she voiced her disapproval at the Hogwarts staff taking on another Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and she started to comprise a list of potential Hogsmeade dates for the three of them.

She was halfway into her justification that, yes, Marlene should give Bernard Bones a chance when there was a sudden uproar from the crowd. The girls looked up at the noise to see everyone's attention turned towards the Diagon Alley entrance.

Then there was smoke. Everywhere.

What was the buzz of confusion before turned into panic. People cried out in question as parents hurriedly pulled their children back from the billows. Lily, holding her sweater over her nose, craned her neck to see the source.

Emerging from the black smoke, a rather official looking woman stepped into the Leaky Cauldron, her wand pressed to her neck.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to have to ask you to remain calm and follow the instructions I am about to relay." Her voice, formal and stiff, carried through the room, over the heads of the writhing group. The noise did not lessen. "I'm going to need quiet please!"

Another man, clad in a similar style of robe, joined her side and murmured into her ear. She nodded once, abruptly, and continued.

"Please arrange yourselves into an orderly queue, and follow either myself or Mr. Gavell through to Diagon Alley. Do not be alarmed by the smoke. Keep your heads low and continue to follow the instructions until we are safely through the wall."

She repeated the same statement again as the crowd began to merge.

Ambria coughed. "I wonder what it is… it smells ghastly."

"Probably just a practical joke gone haywire," Marlene mused. "Some silly school kids getting overexcited."

Lily hoped she was right, but the delay implied that it was something much more serious. The three of them moved to join the shuffling queue, covering their noses and mouths with various parts of clothing. The process of moving everyone through was slow, and accompanied with the repetitive drone of the Ministry Witch, Lily was sure they wouldn't see Diagon Alley before lunchtime.

The counter was cool beneath his fingertips which he thought was strange for early August. His hand was splayed flat, the white of his skin stark against the black finished timber. Hovering just above the centre of it was a ring dangling from a chain.

"Don't move," said the wizard standing on the other side of the counter. It was he who held the chain above Severus' hand. His voice was both a warning and a tease. "Don't move, or you might very well end up dead."

"Is this going to take much longer?" Severus said, through gritted teeth. His wrist ached.

The other wizard, a tall, older man with a wiry grey beard shook his head. "Not much longer now."

The older wizard wasn't lying, it would only take a few more minutes. The muscles in Severus' arm pulsed gently - he didn't know if that was because of the magic or simply his own nerves. He breathed in and out slowly, attempting to ease his erratic heartbeat.

"Finished," the wizard said, bringing the chain up into his closed fist with an audible chink! A shudder went through Severus' arm and he pulled it quickly to his side, shaking it a little. The man disappeared down behind the counter for a moment, before returning with a small, black velvet bag. "Take this."

Slipping it into his robe pocket, Severus went to turn towards the door before the older wizard spoke again.

"Remember," he said, this time the teasing in his warning gone, "this is important for you. You want to impress them, don't you?"

He didn't turn to look back at the man, but nodded once, then slipped out of the door.

It was precisely 10:42am when the Potters' morning tea was interrupted.

A small, sharply pointed levitating memo shot into the parlour directly towards Fleamont Potter and skidded across the coffee table. Sirius, James and Euphemia paused in their conversation – James was in the midst of discussing the pros and cons of the newest Cleansweep broom – and stared expectantly at him.

Pressing his teacup to his lips, Fleamont took his free hand and unfolded the memo. In a matter of seconds, his demeanour changed, his face paling. He dropped his tea cup and got to his feet.

"Whimsy!" he called. "My coat, please!" There was a quiet pop after a few moments and the small house elf appeared with the requested jacket. Fleamont shrugged it on quickly as he hurried to and fro in the room, scribbling on various bits of paper and slipping things into his pocket.

"Darling, what's happened?" Euphemia asked, while the boys stared on.

Fleamont let out a laboured breath. "I've been called to Diagon Alley. There's been an incident with Tully's Tandem Emporium."

"Siegfried Tully's shop?"

Her husband nodded. He did a quick pat down of his pocket, his lips twitching as he mentally checked off his list of required goods.

"Siegfried's wife, Viola, she's a muggle born, isn't she?" Euphemia's comment seemed to have a heavy significance as Fleamont's face darkened considerably, and he responded with another nod. Euphemia let out a hushed gasp and her voice lowered. "It's getting worse."

Dropping a quick kiss to his wife's forehead and muttering a quick farewell to both Sirius and James, Fleamont left room. A loud popping noise indicated that he had Apparated away.

The boys shared a look, and James turned towards his mother. "What did you mean, 'it's getting worse'?"

Almost as if she had forgotten they were there, Euphemia startled slightly in her seat. She shook her head gently and began to pour another cup of tea. "Oh, nothing for you to worry about, dear. Simply some Ministry business your father has been working on."

With another look shared between them, Sirius countered, "Is this about Voldemort?"

The too-casual mention of his name gave Euphemia another start. Her hazel eyes flicked between her son and Sirius urgently. "Where did you hear that name?"

"We're not stupid, Mum," said James, rolling his eyes. He leaned forward and looked at her pointedly. "Do you not think we haven't heard the stories?"

Sirius gave a grave look. "Some are closer to home than others."

The pair of them watched as Euphemia thought for a moment, clearly weighing her options on how easily it would be to explain this away. Sirius and James kept their expectant gazes on her, and James could see it wearing down her resistance. After a few moments of silence, she shook her head again gently.

"We wanted to keep you out of this as much as possible," Euphemia explained. She tapped her fingers around the edge of her teacup as she cradled it in her palms. She sighed wearily. "We wanted… He was just a radical at first, and your father was quite adamant that the Ministry had it under control."

"Don't they?"

"Of course they do, or at least… no, they do, but it… it's just a bigger problem than they had initially expected."

"How much bigger?"

Euphemia gave James a sharp look. "Not big enough that I want my pair of sixteen year olds getting involved."

"But big enough that they need to call Dad in?" pressed James. "He's a specialist in the Ministry, he hardly ever gets called in for emergencies. What's so different that normal Aurors can't deal with it?"

"It's complicated, James. Just leave it at that."

But of course, James would not. "You know, it's unfair to keep your pair of sixteen year olds in the dark like this. Especially when we're off to school next week – what if you're withholding vital information I need to keep safe?"

"James…"

"Honestly, we could be walking along the platform and poof – disintegrated on the spot!"

"James, darling…"

"And just imagine the guilt you and Dad will feel at the thought of losing your one and only prized son…"

"Oi, she mentioned me too, mate," Sirius cracked.

James gestured pointedly between him and his friend. "And your honorary adoptee…"

"And resident squatter," added Sirius.

"Think of the funeral. Such wasted youth, such sorrow…"

"This isn't some sort of joke!" Euphemia snapped at him. His eyebrows shot up at the raise in her voice. James was rarely scolded, let alone disciplined. The panic subsided in her eyes when she caught James' surprised expression, and she softened her voice again, "At the end of the day, regardless of how… mature you think you are, you're a child. You're my child." She looked to Sirius. "Both of you. And I will not have you messing about in adult affairs."

"But…"

"Leave it be, James. Please."

Suddenly, Euphemia seemed to have no interest in her tea. She pushed her tea cup and saucer on to the coffee table and got to her feet. She called for Whimsy again.

"I have to go write some letters." Her voice was stiff and James felt a slight stab of guilt at upsetting her. Her age always began to show when she was upset with him. She rubbed her fingers against her left temple. "I'll… I'll be occupied for quite some time." Turning to the summoned elf, she added, "If the boys need anything for lunch, please make them something. Otherwise, I'll be in my study."

With that, the older witch turned and left the room.

When the door was firmly shut behind her and Whimsy had made her leave, Sirius blew out a breath between his teeth.

"Blimey," was all that he said.

James nodded, but there was not much more to be said. Instead, he gripped his chin between his thumb and index finger, and rubbed it (a habit of James' when it was thinking very, very hard). He had been telling the truth when he said they had heard the stories, but to some degree that's all he ever expected them to be – just stories. Especially the sort that claimed a dark lord was rising with control over a medley of beasts and the ability to recruit followers from within the walls of Hogwarts itself. Hogwarts was the safest place in the Wizarding World and even if Dumbledore was a bit barmy, he would never have allowed that sort of thing to go on behind closed doors.

He suddenly got to his feet, causing Sirius to yelp. "Oi, what are you doing?" James didn't answer but crossed the room to the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back in a minute," he promised, and he was.

James returned with a small object, folded beneath a piece of cloth. He dropped onto the sofa next to Sirius, and unfolded the material to reveal a small, handheld mirror.

"Remus Lupin." When there was no response after a moment, he tried again, "Oi, Remus Lupin."

Another moment passed before the requested individual's face appeared, albeit disgruntled, in the mirror's surface. Remus looked a little more dishevelled than usual, his hair needed a cut.

"What do you want?" His voice was groggy.

Sirius leaned over James towards the mirror. "Are you still in bed? It's nearly eleven!"

"That's still the morning, last time I checked."

"Barely." Sirius grinned. "Merlin, look at you. One summer at home and you're a bona fide slacker. They're gonna rip that prefect badge from your chest the moment you step off the train."

This didn't amuse Remus. "Shut up, Padfoot." He rubbed his eyes. "I'm assuming there is an actual reason for your call."

"There is," James confirmed. Remus looked expectantly up through the mirror at him. "I don't suppose you've heard the news about Diagon Alley."

"Considering, I've been asleep for the past ten hours, I'd say not."

"Well, if you had a normal sleeping pattern, that might not be an issue." Another stern look from Remus. "Anyway, there's been some sort of… drama."

"What kind of drama?"

"The dark magic kind."

Remus was suddenly alert. "What?"

"Dear old Monty was just called away to an emergency," explained Sirius, "to do with Tully's Tandem Emporium."

"That weird bicycle shop?"

The boys nodded.

"But who would want to cast dark magic on a bicycle shop? Surely there are grander targets like, I don't know, Gringotts for example?"

"You would think so," James said, "if it was just a simple burglary gone wrong. Dad wouldn't have been called out to that though."

"No," Remus agreed. "So, it's something worse, then?"

"Much worse. Like… that Voldemort bloke, worse."

Remus' eyebrows disappeared into his (currently too long) hair. "Voldemort?"

James nodded. "Yeah, that tosser. Anyway, Mum got into a right tizzy when I mentioned it. Starting going on about the two of us not getting involved in 'adult affairs'."

"She probably has a point."

"When has that ever stopped us?"

"True." There was a pregnant pause. "Then what do you plan on doing? We're hardly equipped to take on some manic dark wizard."

"Don't be dense, Moony. I'm not asking you to take on the bloke yourself," James said, rolling his eyes. "I'm just saying, maybe it's something we keep on our radar."

"Why? Do you think something's going to happen back at school?"

Sirius shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if he'd managed to convince a couple of Slytherins to do their dirty work. The way my cousins were going on about blood purity at Narcissa's wedding, I half expect them to be self-confessed followers."

"Dumbledore wouldn't let that happen, surely."

"Maybe not," said James, "but think of the stuff we've managed to get away with before."

"We weren't trying to eradicate people, Prongs."

"But we've still kept secrets that no one but us know about." James finished his sentence with a pointed look at his friend. "Such as your…"

"Yes, yes, I get it."

"So, it's completely reasonable to assume illegal activity might be happening at Hogwarts," continued Sirius, "and how could we call ourselves Gryffindors if we didn't have the courage to foil their evil plans?"

"Exactly, Padfoot," grinned James. "Couldn't have said it better myself."

"You lot fancy yourselves quite the detectives," muttered Remus, still uncertain.

Proud at the implication, James and Sirius shared another grin.

"But we're just keeping this in our radar, right?" said Remus. "We're not going to anything too stupid."

"'Course not," Sirius said.

James added, "When have we ever done anything too stupid?"

But the list was too long for Remus to recall.

She tried to ignore the smell in her hair.

Marlene, Ambria and Lily sat around a bar table in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, mulling over their sundaes. The sugar rush had been a suggestion of Marlene's, both given as a solution to her hunger and as a mood improver. All three of them had been rather quiet since they came through the portal.

Lily dragged her spoon through her Clotted Cream ice cream, turning it to an indistinguishable, beige mush. She had no particular appetite and she had been thinking too much about the scene they had walked past not an hour before.

She had never seen a building on fire before. The thought of that was strange, as it was such a mundane feature of stories and films she had seen, but she had never seen it in real life. It hadn't been as exciting as she had expected. Instead, it was rather slow and sad, a delayed demise of someone's home and livelihood.

Tully's Tandem Emporium had been a strange shop just by the portal through to the Leaky Cauldron. Tucked in the corner there, it was an innocuous little building, with bright orange door and window frames, and a piccalilli yellow sign. Siegfried Tully, the owner, was a lovely man in his fifties with a daughter two years below the girls in school. He had married his wife Viola, the very woman who had introduced him to the Muggle bicycle and enabled him to start his magical bicycle business.

"It's so sad," Ambria lamented, swirling her own Fudge and Peppermint concoction around in her glass. "Those poor people."

"At least they're alive," said Marlene, though even she didn't sound convinced. Diagon Alley still buzzed around them as if it hadn't happen at all. The blaze had now been controlled and all that remained of the incident was the blackened corpse of the Tandem Emporium and the lingering smell of burnt wood.

"Who would have done such a thing?" Ambria's voice quivered with a little anger. "Siegfried has always been kind to me! How could someone have been so spiteful?"

"Some people just want to watch the world burn," said Lily. "Even literally."

"I hate those people," said Ambria, and with that both Lily and Marlene could wholeheartedly agree.

Uncertainty had been tugging at Lily's gut since the incident, tempting a question that had been so far unspoken. Ambria was right – it was unusual for someone to have committed such a malicious act without a prior motive, and it was so difficult to believe the Tully family would have had any enemies.

"You don't think…" But Lily decided against it, shaking her head. "Never mind."

The door of the parlour opened, triggering the jingling bell above it. Lily looked up reflexively, only to wish that she hadn't at all. Her heart jumped into her throat.

Severus, dressed in a shabby black robe atop of his normal street clothes, had stepped into Florean Fortescue's, a scowl already written across his face. As he walked in, a group of boys – Slytherins – seated at a booth on the other side of the parlour looked up, one of them waving him over.

"Hey, Sev!" he – who Lily recognized as Sal Carrow - called. It wasn't a friendly sort of summon, it was filled with urgency and force. The group of Slytherins all looked at him expectantly for a moment, before they turned back to their conversation.

Lily felt slightly sick, and she couldn't decide how much of that was to do with the stench of smoke in her air. She kept her eyes on Severus, half-willing him to look her way.

He did – for a brief moment – and he froze. His dark eyes narrowed on her in surprise, and for a moment, Lily thought he might approach her. Then, Sal Carrow called again – this time disgruntled – and Severus turned away.

She let out a shuddered, quiet breath. All of a sudden, she felt teary – as if she might burst into crying in a moment. She trained her gaze on her ice cream mess, determined to will the feeling away.

It was silly of her to be upset about this minor encounter with him – after all, she was the one who had distanced herself from him (with good reason, but she ignored that for the moment). But watching him so easily choose a group of people that despised her existence was still a betrayal, and it still hurt.

"Honestly, Florean needs to start screening who can come in this place," muttered Marlene, her eyes set darkly on the group of Slytherins. "For all we know, it could have them messing about that caused the fire."

"Don't say that," Ambria admonished. "You can't go throwing around accusations just because you don't like someone."

"It's hardly an unfounded claim though, is it? They're the sort of people who inflict suffering onto others recreationally."

"Yes, but this is a serious matter. You can't just say stuff like that – someone might hear you, and you'll get into a whole lot of trouble."

Marlene shrugged. "I'm not the one terrorizing the inhabitants of Diagon Alley."

"Marlene."

"Yes, Ambria?"

Ambria let out an exasperated sound. "You're such a worry sometimes."

Lily thought so too, but didn't say. Instead, she decided that it was probably time to give up on what was now a sad excuse for an ice cream.

"Didn't you say you wanted to get some new robes?" said Lily, pushing her dish away.

Marlene groaned. "Yes, but after this, I'll be three sizes bigger than usual."

Smiling gently at her friend's dramatics, Lily stood up. "Come on, I'm sure Madame Malkin knows better than to be fooled by a Fortescue food baby."

In agreement, her friends also abandoned their desserts and they made their way out of the shop.

Lily didn't look back to see Severus' gaze, quite surreptitiously, follow her out.