Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter.
This chapter is less set-up and more plot driven, hope you like it!
Lily Evans was nosy. It was a trait most of her classmates chose to overlook due to her kind, loving nature but they always kept their cards close to their chest where she was concerned. James Potter knew this better than anyone as it had been her mission since their unfortunate meeting on the train first year to crack all of his rule-breaking secrets.
It was in sixth year that he lost the grip on his hand and one-by-one, his secrets were revealed.
Smoke billowed from the cauldrons lined along the tile, aromas clashed violently throughout the space as though they wanted to overpower each other. Each cauldron was a different color, bubbling at a varied degree to each of its brothers.
Sirius' hair fell into his eyes as he leaned over the burgundy one at the end of the line, his bottom lip sucked into his mouth as he skimmed the notebook once again. James was beside him, stirring vigorously at the emerald potion to his left.
"I don't think it should be any of these colors." Remus looked up from his potions textbook, surveying their work.
"I thought you were supposed to be the helpful one." Sirius grumbled flippantly, his hair become frizzier the longer he stood over the potions.
"We don't even know what we're doing."
"Again, very helpful you are, Moony." Sirius barked. "Where's Wormy with those hairs?" He wondered and James shrugged. They had sent Peter to Slughorn's private stores to pick up some particularly rare ingredients and he had yet to return.
Remus sighed and shut his copy of Advanced Potion-Making with a distinct snap. "This is silly. Your father's notes are a mess," He gestured to the looping scrawl across the pages, ingredient after ingredient was documented and only a few circled. "It's clear that he noted the ingredients that do work but that's not enough to make a potion. He must have used a base."
"We know that, Moony. We've already discussed this, what do you think we're doing right now?" James scowled, his hair even more ridiculous than Sirius' and that was without the heat radiating from the potions.
"We're wasting supplies and being quite careless as we do. At the rate we're going, Slughorn and Sprout will notice what you've taken by Thursday." He warned gravely.
"Do you have a better idea?" Sirius hissed sharply.
"Yes, of course I do." James rolled his eyes, and he was the one who was called arrogant? James gestured impatiently with his hand for Remus to continue.
"We do more research before you just barrel into experimentation. I doubt the base of this concoction you father created was a Pepperup potion, James. We're wasting time and energy on this. We'll find a potion that makes more sense before blindly brewing." He insisted.
James rubbed his hands over his face tiredly. "Fine," He huffed and Remus' eyebrows shot into his hairline, surprised that he had actually taken his advice. "It's clear that process of elimination is not the most logical way to crack this." Sirius glared at James incredulously, his eyes flitting around irritably at the mess they had made for no apparent reason.
"I've got it!" Peter scrambled through the doorway of the bathroom triumphantly, vial raised above his head, ready to tell the tale of how he had managed to narrowly escape Filch but he was cut off. "We don't need it anymore apparently." Sirius grumbled and Peter lowered his arm in a huff, debating whether he wanted to protest. He decided against it, shrugging the vial into the pocket of his
The boys each gathered a cauldron and dumped the contents unceremoniously down a toilet. James was unlucky enough to have poured his down the stall Myrtle was inhabiting and she burst from the toilet bowl as though the potion had burned her.
"You think this is funny, do you?" She shouted from where she settled above the sink area. Sirius popped his head out his stall, "You know I do, Myrtle." He winked at her and if it were possible for a ghost to blush she would have. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking." James apologized half-heartedly, only to ensure she did not decide to follow him into the other bathrooms in the castle for the remainder of the week. There was only so many times a lad could handle an audience as he did his business.
"You boys are always up to something." She sniffed.
"You boys? I would have hoped you'd have learned our names by now." Sirius piped up, swirling his wand around the empty to cauldron to clean the caked sides. That had apparently been the wrong thing to say as Myrtle had theatrically dove into one of the toilets, weeping louder than a banshee as she did.
They quickly packed up the rest of their things, some into their bags and the rest into the unoccupied stalls. Remus reviewed the Map quickly before they made their way out into the hall, studying it carefully as they progressed and advising them which routes to take back to the common room.
There were only a handful of students still awake at that time of night, each raising their head to look at the group hurrying through the portrait hole. None of them were surprised to see the four boys.
"And just where are you lot coming from?" Lily asked nosily from her spot in a nearby armchair, her Charms book open on her lap as she worked on an essay.
"Ah Evans, how I wish I could tell you but I'm afraid I think there must be a bit more mystery in our relationship to keep it from going stale." James smirked and her face grew red with anger.
"Why are you carrying books?" She pressed, her eyes falling on the assorted books in their arms. She was right to be suspicious considering Remus was the only one in the group to ever be caught with a book in his hand outside of classes.
"We're teaching Peter how to read." Sirius deadpanned, grabbing Peter by the sleeve of his robes and pulling him up the staircase with him, shouting all the way up for James and Remus to follow suit. They attempted to do so, or at least James did, but he was blocked entrance by the fiery redhead.
"For someone who claims to hate me, you sure are always in my business." James crossed his arms over his chest and stepped closer, effectively towering over her. She wasn't intimidated by their difference in height, or at least she pretended not to be.
"I don't know what you're doing with all this," She plucked the two books out of his hands all too easily, scanning over their titles. As she suspected, they were from the restricted section. "But stop it. Now." She commanded and she bristled when he laughed and proceeded to walk around her and up the stairs.
"I'll find out what you're doing soon enough, Potter!" She called after him, like a villain in a muggle sitcom.
"Because you sniffing around me is my worst nightmare." He retorted without turning around, disappearing into the dormitory. Remus shrugged at her apologetically before racing after him to avoid her questioning.
Some people saw Lily's interest in the Marauders' shenanigans as an offhand way of flirtation but that could not be more untrue. It was practically programmed in her being to thwart their half-baked antics before they could come to fruition since she had herself often been the victim to many of their pranks. This, however, bothered her more than usual. When she had seen the boys enter the common room at such a late hour, she at first did not care as they never did show up until well past curfew (which she had eventually decided she must ignore for the sake of her own sanity) but she recognized the book in Sirius' hand as one Severus had taken from the restricted section at the end of fourth year when they had wanted to do some experimental brewing.
She had been excited to explore more advanced potions until each time she turned a page she came face-to-face with darker and darker potions. She had demanded Severus return the book and pushed away her grandiose brewing ideas for that time.
To say she was shocked to see the book in Black's arms would be putting it far too lightly. Though her distaste for the group of boys was well-known, she knew they were not interested in dark magic of any sort. So that begged the question, what were they doing with that book?
The next morning, she watched them closely at breakfast. It wasn't as though she was hiding, seeing as she was only seated one student down from them but she observed nonetheless. They talked of stupid things like quidditch stats and their favorite house elf for chores they should have been doing themselves.
"I prefer Bitsy for bed making." Peter had said and three other boys conceded, agreeing that she was, in fact, the best because she was the only one to leave chocolates on the bedspread.
Marlene, her friend of six years, was sitting across from Lily and snapped her fingers in her face to gain her attention. "I don't know what you think they're going to talk about but they're not going to do it with you staring at them like monkeys in a zoo." She told her irritably, picking at her eggs.
"They're up to something." Lily said, her eyes narrowed.
"I'd be worried if they weren't." Marlene scoffed as James slid a plate of cut strawberries across the second year that was unlucky enough to sit between them.
"What'd you do to them?" Lily asked shortly. James rolled his eyes, "Nothing, Evans. Eat. Spying on us is extremely labor intensive, you'll need to keep your energy up."
Without taking her eyes off him she told a deliberate bite so she could see the guilty look on his face when whatever he had done took effect but nothing happened. She kept her face neutral as she continued to eat, trying not to show she was pleased with the way he remembered to sprinkle them with sugar.
After a few moments, the boys stood from the table and exited the Great Hall. Lily moved to follow but Marlene caught her wrist. "Want to tell me what this is all about?"
"Not really." She grumbled but Marlene just raised her eyebrows expectantly.
"I saw them with a potions book from the restricted section last night, one that Severus showed me before. It's bad news and they won't tell me what they're doing with it."
"Did it ever occur to you that it was none of your business?" Marlene quipped.
"Of course not, I'm nothing if not inconsiderate." She snapped irritably.
"Just let it go." Marlene told her, turning back to her breakfast.
"I can't, they're up to something dark. Their hair was frizzy and their robes were dirty, they were clearly brewing whatever they found in that book."
"Look, Lily. They're annoying but they aren't bad people, they're not doing anything dark. You know how much they hate the dark arts."
"That's what I thought but now they're up to something—"
"You don't have to save everyone, Lily. I'm willing to bet this is all just a misunderstanding." Marlene reasoned.
"What if it's not?" Lily insisted.
"Fine, if you're worried so much, then confront them." She settled.
"I did! They're so secretive!"
"Then catch them in the act and then confront them. In that order." She said and Lily could tell she was growing frustrated with the conversation.
"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Lily hissed.
"Are you daft? You just said they were brewing something secretive!" Marlene hissed, attempting to keep her voice down despite her impatience.
"Is that supposed to help me?" Lily barked and a few people turned in their direction.
Marlene lowered her voice. "They're not going to light up their cauldrons on the breakfast table, Lily. There's only one place in this castle to brew if you don't want to get caught." Realization dawned on Lily and with this information she tucked into a biscuit, planning the night ahead.
Lily sat in the common room all evening, her eyes periodically drifting to the stairs of the boys' dormitory. She did not see them emerge until past nine o'clock. They made no noise or eye contact as they filed out the portrait hole.
She waited thirty minutes before following, carefully making her way through the corridors. She looked around each corner before proceeding, changing her path twice to avoid Peeves.
She heard the rumble of their voices as she passed through the threshold, their backs were facing her as they hovered over a cauldron.
"I thought this had to be it, it's the only known potion using alihotsy." Remus murmured, scooping a ladleful to inspect more closely.
"It didn't alter the coloration at all." James noted, gesturing blue colored flames and looking back down at a notebook.
"What are you doing?" Lily cut in and the four boys started, whirling to face her.
Sirius was the first to speak. "Bloody hell, Prongs! Tell your girlfriend to sod off!"
"I am not his girlfriend!" She all but screeched.
"What do you want, Evans?" He seethed and she blinked. James Potter was not always a nice bloke but he had never snapped at her so harshly and she was ashamed to say that a part of her was startled, not that she would ever outwardly show it.
She stood there for a moment in uncomfortable silence with four pairs of eyes glaring at her. For perhaps the first time Remus' eyes had regarded her with an anger she did not know he was capable of.
They were snapped out their reverie when the potion in question began to spurt violently and Remus quickly extinguished the fire below it.
Lily approached them slowly as though they were going to physically restrain her but they made no move to stop her. Her brows were drawn together as she knelt with them around the potion.
"This isn't what I was expecting." She said finally, scanning the recipe for Alihotsy draught and deciding it wasn't an evil brew as she had thought.
"Oh yeah? What did you think we were doing? Braiding each other's hair, drawing dark marks on our junks? Honestly, what did you expect?" It was Peter who growled at her much to her chagrin.
She ignored his question. "What are you doing with that book?" She pointed to thick leather bound book that laid open on the tiled floor.
"What people usually do with books, Evans." James grumbled.
"That's not a good book." She told him and he shrugged unabashed.
"Neither is Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six but we still read it." She thought it was debatable whether he read it but kept the thought to herself.
"What are you doing?" She asked again instead.
"Making a potion, obviously." He told her, gesturing to the multitude of ingredients laid before them.
"I can see that, but what potion are you making?" She pushed.
"Does it matter—"
"Filch is coming!" Peter squeaks, looking down at something that Lily cold not see as the cauldron blocked it from her view.
The boys began to scramble furiously to hide their potion and strewn ingredients into the stalls.
"Are you sure he's going to come in?" Remus asked, snatching a piece of parchment from Peter. He groaned. "Looks like Myrtle didn't take to us in her bathroom again, she must have told Peeves." His eyes glided along the page like it was moving. Before Lily could think too much on their odd behavior, she was shoved by James into a stall, demanding she stand on the toilet.
She did what she was told and stifled a gasp when she heard Filch enter the bathroom. He was gruffly sniffing about as the scent of the potion still lofted in the air. Lily's heart was racing violently in her chest as she noticed his footfalls approaching her stall. She was on the way to being Head Girl next year, the last thing she needed was to be caught out late at night brewing mysterious potions, with the Marauders no less.
She heard him begin to press his weight into the stall but as soon as it started to open, it shut again with a hearty bang and the caretaker screamed. At first she didn't know what caused it, when she dared to look over the top of the stall she saw a rat chasing him from the loo. She wasn't even aware rats did such things.
It was a few moments before Remus gave the go ahead but as soon as he did she barreled out of the stall.
"Prongs, take Lily back to the common room." Remus commanded him and James blanched at the order.
"Why do I have to do it?" Lily resented that he spoke about her like she was a chore. Remus' only response was a brief look towards Sirius and James conceded.
"C'mon, Evans." James grumbled, walking past her and into the hall. She followed behind him glumly, noticing he clutched a small leather notebook in his right hand.
"Where's Peter?" She wondered.
He didn't respond, continuing to walk several paces ahead of her. She jogged to keep up with him.
"I'm sorry." She said suddenly and it was strange for it to fall from her lips but she meant it. For once, it had been her who had caused the tension between them, not him.
"You should be." He said shortly and she mashed her lips together.
"Severus uses that book." She confessed, scurrying quickly to keep up with his strides but failing miserably.
He stopped walking, causing her knock into his back. He turned slowly to face her. "I am not Snivellus." The name fell off his tongue in disgust. She almost corrected him but at this point in time she didn't think much better of the Slytherin.
"I know that." She said quietly and he raised his eyebrows as if to say he was unimpressed. He began walking again.
"What were you doing?" She asked again, her voice softer—pleading. He looked at her face and immediately wished he hadn't, his anger seemed to melt away.
As soon as he let his guard down she lunged for him, unsuspecting he allowed her to pull the notebook from his grasp. Before he was able to get his bearings, she had the notebook open and read the inside cover flap.
"F. Potter? This is your dad's?" She asked excitedly, turning the pages much too quickly for James' liking. He was about to snatch it back from her when she had pulled her wand out deftly and immobilized him.
"Sorry." She whispered to him and to her credit, she did actually look remorseful. She continued to flip through the pages and it wasn't long until her eyes fell upon the notes they had been pouring over. Her mouth gradually fell open until it was completely agape, stunned by the complex contents on the pages. James could do nothing but stare at her as she reviewed the notes hungrily, taking in every scratched word and diagram like it was a forgotten ancient language.
"I want in."
A/N: Hope you enjoyed it! I'll be honest I didn't proof read it much so hopefully they're aren't too many errors. Please, please leave a review and let me know what you think!