Chapter Three: The Whiskey Well
James faltered only for a moment before replying, "Are you here to seduce me or to kill me?"
"Which would you prefer?" asked the handsome stranger, narrowing his eyes and curling his mouth into a twisted half-smile.
"Well," said James, failing to be intimidated, "I suppose you are rather pretty." If the word pretty was supposed to insult the stranger, it did not work. Instead he grinned as James continued, "Unfortunately I don't think that your prettiness is really enough for me to let you feel me up. I have standards y'know? Maybe if you bought me dinner first, took me out dancing, connected with me on a deep emotional level, told me your name. That sort of thing."
"I could buy you dinner," he offered. "I don't dance though, or connect on emotional levels."
"Why not?"
"I would tell you but I'm afraid that might fall into the category of connecting on an emotional level."
James chuckled, saying, "Alright, this has been pleasant and all but I'm still sort of scared that you're hiding a knife in your coat or something so I'm just gonna close the door and go eat dinner."
James backed out of the daylight and back into the dark hallway but before he could do anything else, the boy had stepped into the house.
"Come in why don't you," said James dryly.
"Cheers."
There was a sudden clattering from the kitchen.
"James!" cried Angie from the other room.
"Yeah?" he called back.
"I could do with some help laying the table!"
James smirked and folded his arms.
"Hang on a mo. I'm not quite sure but I might be in a life or death situation."
The kitchen door flew open no more than three seconds later and revealed a very confused looking Angie Potter.
"What on earth are you on about?" she asked, using her hand to blow away the smoke that had followed her out of the kitchen and partially flooded the hall. "Who was at the door?"
Her question was answered, however, once the smoke cleared.
James looked from Angie to the stranger, not quite sure what to expect. Whatever it was he had predicted did not come true anyway.
"Sirius!" cried Angie with delight in her voice and her smile. "What are you doing here? I wasn't expecting you for dinner!"
The stranger, who had just been called Sirius, said, "Well you know me, Angie. I'm like the Spanish inquisition."
"And nobody expects the Spanish inquisition," she finished for him.
"Precisely."
"You need to watch less television and start interacting with people your own age," sighed Angie.
"Once they get interesting."
Angie acted as though she had not heard this comment and moved to put her arm around James.
"Have you met my nephew?" she asked.
"He has," said James, raising his eyebrows at Sirius who raised his in return.
After a moment, Sirius added, "Not properly."
"Well then, why don't you stay for dinner?" Angie inquired of Sirius.
"I've already had some."
"You didn't eat your mother's cooking did you?"
"Not since I was seven," he reassured her. "I ate at Mrs. Ludlow's."
James' eyes went from Angie and Sirius as she pressed him to at least have a bite to eat and take the chance to get to know James because, "You never know, you might like him."
For some reason, James could not shake the feeling that his aunt was arranging a play-date. Perhaps it was her determined state; perhaps it was that she had used the word 'friend' an abnormal number of times in the previous two minutes.
"James, what do you think?" asked Angie.
Finally the focus was back on him.
"What do I think about what?"
"Sirius has offered to show you around the village. You'd like that wouldn't you?"
"Erm…"
James didn't really know whether or not he'd like that. What he did know was that he would very much like to stop being treated like a five year-old. Tearing, his gaze away from his aunt's hopeful eyes, James saw that Sirius was once again wearing his unnerving grin. A murderous smile if ever James saw one.
"Yeah," said James, still taking in the grin. "I can't see why not."
Angie fussed over the boys for a few more seconds, but it wasn't long before she had flitted back into the kitchen with a fearful, "I hope the dinner's not burnt," and left them alone in the hall once again.
"Sirius, is it?" asked James. Sirius nodded. "Sirius, can you answer me something?"
"That depends on the question."
"Has my aunt just left me to certain death?"
And then what was once unnerving shifted into something that almost resembled comforting. The grin was replaced with a chuckle and a genuine smile on Sirius' part.
"Nah," said Sirius, "I reckon you're safe from me." He began to back out of the narrow hallway, still smiling as he added, "Anyone who pisses off my brother is no enemy of mine."
T
he boys of Sowsworth rarely stopped playing football. They would take breaks only to eat, drink, sleep, flirt, and excrete. Otherwise there were having a kick-about on the green. That day was no different.
"Which team are you rooting for?" Lily asked Cas, taking a seat on the grass next to her.
Dorcas looked up and gave a small smile to Lily and an even smaller smile to the pale boy beside her. Snape didn't smile back.
"The boys going into year thirteen," she replied casually to Lily's question.
Holding back a grin, Lily prompted her, "Any reason you're not rooting for the boys in our year?"
"None that I can think of."
"Nothing to do with the fact that one Colin Macdonald is going into year thirteen and he is currently acting as a topless goalkeeper."
"Nothing to do with that."
"Really? That isn't the whole reason you're watching football? You never watch football."
"Kenneth's playing," said Dorcas.
Severus tensed up at the mention of Kenneth but this went unnoticed by Lily who was too busy teasing Dorcas.
"What are you trying to say, Cas?" she inquired. "You fancy my boyfriend now and you're rooting for the opposing team to play hard to get? Is this what you're trying to tell me?"
"I just meant that's why you're watching."
"Not really. I like watching the boys play proper matches," said Lily with a shrug. "They're good fun. Anyway, where are the others?"
Dorcas held up three fingers and began counting them off. "Janine's got that big dinner for all the Richies, Polly's working, and Mary hates fun," she announced.
"Ah, yes, that accounts for all of them."
Dorcas giggled, asking, "Severus, aren't you invited to dine with the Richies?" S
he craned her neck to see around Lily and noticed now that the outfit Snape was shifting uncomfortably in was a little too formal for watching football on the floor.
"Nice new clothes," she noted. "I suppose you are going then."
"Yes I'm going," he replied, rather sagely. "But these aren't new clothes."
"They belonged to his dad," Lily explained.
"Oh."
If Dorcas had cared to investigate the matter further she might have noticed just how nice the clothes were for hand-me-downs from a poor father, but she didn't and so she drew her attention back to the football match.
If Lily had less faith in Severus she might have investigated further, but she trusted him too much and so she allowed her eyes to find her boyfriend.
Catching his eye, Lily waved at Kenneth. He immediately waved back and grinned. Unfortunately this distraction cost him; too busy staring at his lovely girlfriend, he received a football to the stomach.
"Kenneth!" cried Lily, jumping to her feet immediately, ready to run up to him.
He hadn't fallen though, he just appeared winded. After a brief thumbs up (and a hefty groan) Kenneth returned to playing (though somewhat slower than he had been previously).
Just as Lily was about to sit down again, Severus stood up.
"I should probably go, Lily," he told her.
She stared at him, confused for a moment before remembering.
"Oh!" she said finally, "Well have fun I suppose."
It felt weird for Severus to be the one abandoning her company. Usually she was the one having to dash off. She thought that she'd be used to him having other commitments by now, but she wasn't. She knew that it was selfish of her but she comforted herself with the thought that if Sev had chosen better friends than the Richies she wouldn't have minded half as much. Why him and Kenneth couldn't get along bewildered her.
Severus nodded awkwardly, "Yeah I'll try," he said, turning to leave.
"Wait! Are we still walking to school together tomorrow?"
He shot her a confused expression.
"Lily, I don't live in the village anymore." he reminded her.
"Oh, right. Sorry. So you and your mum are up in the big houses permanently now?"
Lily tried her hardest not to sound disappointed but it was incredibly difficult.
Then a boy with glasses was at Lily's shoulder.
"Mind if I interrupt the mother's meeting?"
"We're having a conversation," said Severus sourly.
Lily gave him a polite smile, a little forced perhaps, and asked, "What is it, James?"
"I just wondered if you were busy."
"She's talking to me," said Severus.
"So sorry," said James. "I meant, busy doing something important."
Severus' left hand curled into a fist, but he put it to no use. It went unnoticed by his companions and, with the way his nails were digging into his palm, it was doing him more harm than anyone else.
"James, what do you want?" asked Lily with a hint of impatience.
"Like I said I wanted to know if you were busy."
"Why?"
He shot Severus a sideways glance and then nodded in the opposite direction, indicating that he would very much like to answer this question in privacy.
"Fine," Lily sighed before turning to Severus. "I'll be two seconds, yeah?"
Severus shook his head and said, "Don't worry. I have to leave anyway."
"Yeah, right, of course," she replied, tucking her hair behind her ear and trying to act relaxed. Trying being the operate word. Lily didn't come off as incredibly relaxed. In fact, she looked about as tense as a person could be without being a corpse. "I'll see you tomorrow at school?"
It was only when Severus was gone that Lily turned her attention to James. He was smirking.
"What?" she demanded of him.
James chuckled. "Well aren't you just full of love today?"
"Sorry," she said, shaking her head free of Severus. "What is you wanted from me?"
"Your time."
"Well, my time is very precious, James," she said impatiently. "The more I give away the less I have for myself and if I run out of time then I'm cutting my life rather short don't you think?"
"I'd have to disagree with you, Evans," said James. "Time is given to be shared is it not?"
"Which is why you were so quick out of the jumble sale the other day? You were really up to sharing your time there, weren't you?" she asked him, placing her hands on her hips as she did so.
"Oh, so you're recording my every action now are you? I'm touched."
"Alright, Potter, what do you want?"
James looked a little taken aback by this question.
"I told you what I wanted," he said. "I would very much like some of your time. I seem to recall you promising to show me around."
"I don't think I promised anything of the sort."
"Too busy remembering my every movement to even take a little notice of anything you do yourself?
"Actually, I remember exactly what I said. You asked me to show you around and I,"
"Said that you had a boyfriend," he finished for her.
"And then you said I had small boobs."
"I think there was some other stuff in between that, Evans!" cried James. "You can't skip stuff out! It makes me look like some sort of insensitive prick."
Lily scoffed, "How exactly would you say you came off?"
"A charming rogue?" he suggested.
"A horny git?" she countered. That made him a chuckle a bit. James did have a nice laugh, she noted, nice enough to encourage a small amount of twitching at the corners of her mouth but not nearly nice enough for her to show him so much as the post office. "You know that I'm not going to be your bloody tour-guide, Potter. Why did you really want to talk to me? Do you just get off on bothering me?"
"Oh, come on, Evans, what else would you be doing? Hanging around with that slimy haired git," said James, nodding in the direction Snape had wandered off in. "Seriously, is he going for the world record for 'longest time gone without bathing?"
Perhaps he had gone just a little too far that time because Lily's mouth gaped at him in horror, as her eyes widened dangerously.
"You have green eyes," he said, just noticing this.
"I know I do."
"They're very pretty, Evans. You should get them out more often," he said.
James was gone before she could think of a suitable retort.
The Richies (as the locals referred to them) were big on dinner parties. At least once a month, all the families would get together for whiskey, wine, and sitting stiffly on expensive chairs. This month was the first in which Severus Snape was to be attending, and the first that his mother had been to for over sixteen years.
Upon arrival, Severus was dragged to a corner of the impressively large sitting room.
"Don't you look smart," Eileen Snape gushed, smoothing down the collar of her son's shirt and smiling.
"Mum, leave it alone it's fine," Severus grumbled. He looked anxiously over her shoulder to make sure that none of the others had seen. "Can I go and talk to my friends now?"
Her lips pursed. "You'll be careful won't you?" she asked, straightening his tie.
Severus jerked away, looking anywhere but at his mother.
"Stop it you're embarrassing me," he said. "They already tease me for being a mummy's boy."
He was looking over her shoulder again. Across the room he could see Mulciber and Rosier sniggering over something, and he desperately hoped that something wasn't him and his mother.
"You know, if they were really your friends they wouldn't tease you." Taking his chin between her fingers and bringing his gaze back to her face, she said seriously, "You won't forget who you are will you? Just don't get too friendly."
"You're the one who bought me the new suit," he sneered before pushing past his mother and making his way over to the other boys.
Sighing, Eileen Snape turned away from her boy and took the long walk towards her own circle.
"Eileen!" cried Katherine Mulciber, beckoning for Eileen to sit beside her on the dainty sofa. "I was just telling the girls about my plans for the new golfing club. It'll be fantastic to have one, and it'll be such a great bonding opportunity for the children, don't you think?"
"Definitely," agreed another.
"Sorry," said Eileen, confused, "But what golfing club?"
Katherine chuckled, handing Eileen a sherry as she elaborated, "I forget that's you've been a little... out of the loop" Which was putting it lightly. "You must've heard that the Prewett's can't afford to keep their farm going. My husband's going to take over the lease and make it into something useful."
"Like a golfing club?"
"Exactly." Katherine smiled.
"Oh," said Eileen, taking a sip of her sherry. "How delightful."
Later that night, Severus spotted a mousey-haired girl in a very bright dress who happened to be exactly the girl he was looking for.
"Janine," he whispered urgently in her ear, setting a small spray of spit free as he did so.
Janine turned her face to shoot him a disgusted expression, "Please stand further away from me, Snape." As though his last name were a curse word.
"I thought Lily told you to be nicer to me," he retorted, taking a step back from her nevertheless.
"I thought you had bollocks but apparently you need little ginger girls to protect you. Poor thing."
She gave an exaggerated pout before moving to sit in a vacant armchair. To her dismay, Severus followed.
Standing beside her chair awkwardly, Severus said urgently. "Has Lily spoken to you about that new boy? The git with the glasses?"
"Lily, Lily, Lily," Janine groaned, closing her eyes and lolling her head backwards. "I swear to God if you don't stop obsessing over Lily then I'll have to off myself."
"Janine, this is important," he pleaded.
She opened one eye and immediately laughed at his pained expression.
"You're really desperate aren't you? If it makes you feel better, no she hasn't mentioned him."
Severus visibly relaxed at her words.
"Oh, wait!" cried Janine, kicking her shoes off and tucking her feet under her. "Is this the complete twat?"
"Erm... I don't know."
"Well if he's the complete twat then yes she has mentioned him, but not very politely." She shrugged. "Hang on a moment! Why do you care who Lily's talking about? If you're going to try and shut her off from any interaction with the opposite sex then this might be a good time to remind you she already has a boyfriend."
He flinched at the word 'boyfriend' but otherwise ignored it.
"Look," he said, "this new bloke seems like bad news and when I saw her last she was talking to him."
"So?"
Tired of Janine's laid back nature, Severus leaned so his face was uncomfortably close to hers.
"This is serious, Janine."
"Jesus you're pathetic," she said incredulously. "I mean, I always knew you were, but it just gets more and more apparent every day. I'd be careful if I were you, Severus, it's only so long before it becomes so apparent that even Lily can't ignore it." She giggled at the way his face was growing paler. "I bet you anything that this twat is here to poison her against you!"
Janine took immense pleasure in torturing Snape, and when he began to fume she grinned.
"What have you got against me?" he asked.
She rolled her eyes. "Listen, mate. I've been stuck with these idiots my whole life." She gestured to the room full of gossiping rich people. "You've been stuck with them for –what?- a couple of months? Let your mum settle in, let the other families prepare their awkward chitchat, and suddenly you're one of them? Not only that but I think you like being a Richie. It makes you feel powerful and in my book that makes you an idiot."
Janine didn't even bat an eyelid when Snape rose once more and stormed off.
Just after dinner, James Potter received a rather cryptic note slid under the front door covered in what was probably the most untidy handwriting he had ever seen.
Mr Potter
Meet me by the war memorial in ten minutes
Tell no one of your whereabouts
"Hey, Angie!" called James from the front door. "Where's the war memorial? Oh," remembering the last clause of the note, he added, "By the way, that's not where I'm going."
Humming under her breath, Lily plopped herself down cross-legged on her bed. She flicked through the pages of the magazines before her for a few moments, still humming, before she reached one that pleased her.
Her right hand left the page and fumbled for the pair of scissors beside her. Positioning them ready for cutting, sharp metal ready to tear.
And then her bedroom door flew open.
In the loud crash that came from the opening of the door, Lily's hand faltered and she managed to nip at her skin with the scissors.
Her head shot up and she saw a very flustered looking Dorcas Meadowes storming into her room.
"I need some black clothes!" cried Dorcas.
Lily was left with no time to inspect her bleeding thumb. As Dorcas started pulling things out of her drawer, Lily quickly pushed the magazines down the side of her bed in the hope that her friend hadn't noticed.
Dorcas spun around holding a grey jumper. "What are you hiding?" she asked.
"Nothing," said Lily. "What can I do for you this evening?"
"Lily, if it's porn you don't have to be ashamed."
"It's not porn."
Dorcas sighed, "Fine then, don't tell me. You're so bloody secretive sometimes."
Promptly, she turned her attention back to Lily's clothes.
"What are you doing?" Lily inquired, still cross-legged on her bed, sucking on her thumb to stop the bleeding.
"Looking for something black."
"Why?"
"For stealth or something." Dorcas shrugged. "I dunno. It's what they always do on the telly though."
"Cas."
"Yes?"
"You're not going to break into someone's house are you?"
"Of course not!" she cried. "I'm going to climb up the side of the house and knock daintily on the window."
Lily's eyes widened in shock.
"You're knocking on Colin's window I presume?"
"Of course."
"I don't think you are," said Lily.
"Why not?"
"Because it's insane."
"Well how else am I going to get him to talk to me?"
"Walk up to him in the street?" suggested Lily with a shrug.
Ignoring this, Dorcas groaned and slammed a draw shut.
"Why don't you own anything black?" she asked grumpily.
"Because black's a sad colour."
"You're a sad colour," jibed Dorcas, sticking her tongue out.
"Why don't you wear something of yours?"
Dorcas frowned at her as though it were obvious.
When Lily still looked baffled Dorcas explained, "Because I don't want to ruin my clothes climbing walls."
"Cas, can you not hear yourself? Anything that involves climbing walls has to be a bad idea."
"Where's your sense of adventure?" she exclaimed, moving to rummage through the make-up that was strewn atop Lily's dresser.
"What are you looking for now?"
"Lipstick," she said. "If I'm not going to be stealthy then I should at least look nice."
"There's some right there."
"Where?"
"Right under your noise," said Lily.
"It's peach," sneered Dorcas, as though the word tasted bad in her mouth.
"What's wrong with peach?"
"Peaches look like hairy bums."
"That's ridiculous."
"Besides," continued Dorcas, unabashed, "I want red."
"Cas, when have you ever seen me wear red lipstick? Are you forgetting that I am oh so incredibly ginger."
Dorcas let out an overdramatic sigh and slid down onto the carpet. There, she remained silent for a few moments, which was never a good sign.
"Are you alright?" asked Lily, sliding off of her bed to sit opposite her on the floor.
"I was so stupid to think that an older bloke would be interested in a girl like me," she whimpered, hiding her face in her knees, her mass of blonde hair falling to cover her face entirely.
"Oh, Cas!" Lily cooed. "What are you talking about? He said you were better looking than Maureen Baddock and you've seen her."
"Yeah," she said in a small voice. "Her boobs are massive."
"Exactly."
Raising her face, Dorcas nodded slowly and blinked very quickly. For a second Lily thought she might cry and panicked, only having seen Dorcas cry a couple of times during the course of their five year friendship and didn't feel particularly prepared to deal with it.
"How did you get Kenneth to like you?" she asked, coughing her usual confidence back into existence.
"Well," said Lily, fiddling with her skirt so that she didn't have to look directly at her friend. "He sort of pursued me."
Dorcas grinned.
"Yeah, of course he did."
"What do you mean?" asked Lily cautiously.
Dorcas just smiled back at her.
James wasn't surprised when he was who was waiting for him at the war memorial.
"I was hoping for a nice-looking bird," said James, smirking at the shadowy figure leaning against a large stone pyramid who replied, "Well at least I'm nice-looking."
"Sirius Black, right?" asked James, taking the final few steps that brought the figure into light.
Sirius nodded in response, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. "Glad I made such an impression."
"Well, it's hard to forget when a dashing stranger turns up on your doorstep."
"You'll make me blush," said Sirius, his handsome face showing no indication of changing colour.
Shaking his head, James glanced at the stone pyramid once more. "I suppose that's the war memorial then?" he asked. "Either that or I've made a grave mistake and am in fact supposed to be meeting with a pretty girl. It would make sense. I wouldn't take you for a note-writer."
Sirius scowled.
"Notes are exceptionally useful and tragically undervalued," he said.
Before James could even being to formulate a possible response to this, Sirius shifted his weight from the war memorial back into his heavy boots. And then he was walking away, leaving James behind. After a moment, he glanced back over his shoulder at James.
"Are you coming or what?" asked Sirius.
It took seconds for James to catch up, barely glancing at the area Sirius' arse had just vacated, the words etched onto the memorial blurring as he jogged past:
'THE GLORIOUS DEAD. THEIR NAME LIVETH.'
"Where are you taking me?"
"What did I tell you about asking questions?" said Sirius, taking the time to stop and sigh.
James raised an eyebrow. This Sirius Black was rather odd, he thought. Nobody enjoyed a good show as much as James did but the lengths to which this bloke was going to remain mysterious were ridiculous. He had already led him through what felt like thirty acres of wood, only to meet a small hill.
"You know," said James once they were climbing once more, "for my own peace of mind can you promise me that this isn't your murder hill."
Sirius just chuckled.
They were at the top before James saw the well.
"Oh God," he breathed. "I'm going to die in a well."
Ignoring this comment, Sirius strolled over to said well and began to pull on the rope that James was surprised was still pullable. The well looked incredibly old. Common sense told James that Sirius could not possibly pull anything of value out of that well, and that served only as further evidence that James' common sense should be ignored at all times: a few seconds later Sirius was pulling out two very expensive-looking bottles of amber liquid.
"Whiskey?" said James.
"Whiskey!"
"Whiskey!"
In fairness to them, it was a better battle cry than most other teenage boys could come up with.
A few sips later they were both sitting on the wall of the well, passing one of the bottles between them.
"Why did you bring me here?" asked James, squinting in the darkness to try and make out the shapes moving between the trees.
"Because this is where I come to get away from my brother and his twatty friends." Sirius took a rather large swig of whiskey and handed it to James. "Well, them and everyone else. Y'know you're exceptionally lucky."
"Why's that then?"
"You're the only adolescent in this shithole of a village that has yet to piss me off," he said.
"Cheers."
"No problem."
They took another swig each, holding their liquor better than most other teenage boys would have, neither of them throwing up after two thirds of one bottle had gone. Their bladders, on the other hand, were not all that skilled at holding the liquor.
"I need to piss," announced James.
"Lovely."
"Do you think it would contaminate the well if I pissed down it?"
James glanced over his shoulder and down into the depths of the well.
"I will make this my murder hill if you contaminate my whiskey well," said Sirius.
James made a face but his trousers remained zipped nonetheless.
"Why do you have a whiskey well?" he asked.
"Because my dad will find out I'm stealing from him if I hide it in my room."
"Why?"
"Because my mum cleans my room."
James frowned. Something seemed wrong about that picture.
"You don't seem like the type to care what your parents think," he said.
"I despise my parents," said Sirius coolly. "But the thing is that they've promised to buy me a motorbike for Christmas if I behave myself."
This seemed like a reasonable enough reason to hide whiskey down a well so James didn't query it.
"I need a bush," said James, having decided once and for all to not piss down the well.
"Then go and find one!"
He didn't need much encouragement. I cannot emphasise enough the intensity with which James' bladder needed voiding. Luckily, there was a bush not far off.
"I've found one!" cried James. Sirius gave him a thumbs up from where he was still sitting on the well, but James didn't see this because he was pissing into a bush.
That's when he saw it: an animal moving in the shadows.
No, that was a human face.
James' eyes met the wide and worried ones in the bush.
"Hello," greeted James with a grin. "I don't think we've actually been properly introduced. I'm James Potter and this is my penis."
The person in the bush was then welcomed into James Potter's acquaintanceship with a gratuitous splash. Needless the say that they jumped up immediately, yelping and sneering all at once.
"Who the hell are you talking to?" asked Sirius, joining James just as he had zipped up his trousers.
Sirius recognised the person in the bush at once: "Snape!" he cried. "What the hell are you doing in the bushes?"
A slightly soaked Severus Snape stumbled out into the open.
"I was just walking, Black, what's it to you?" he asked. Then he turned to James and practically screeched, "Look what you've done to me!"
Sirius looked from the splash marks on Severus' suit to James' crotch, and then back to the splash marks.
"Hang on," he said slowly. "Is that what I think it is?"
"I am ninety-nine percent sure that it's my piss," said James.
Severus was seething.
"You'll have to pay for this!" he cried, tearing the spoilt suit jacket off of his body and brandishing it angrily.
"Before anyone pays for anything I think we first need an explanation of what the fuck you were doing in the bushes." snapped Sirius.
Severus tore his glare from James and met Sirius'.
"You were spying, weren't you?" said Sirius. "You slimy little git! Were you bribed by my mother to check up on me?"
"I'm not here for you, Black!" spat Severus.
That was when they both turned to James.
"What did I do?"
"Stay away from Lily Evans!" cried Severus.
The corners of James' mouth twitched.
"Or what?" he asked, taunting.
"Or you'll be sorry."
"Is that a threat?" James took a step closer to Severus. "Are you threatening me?"
"Yes!"
Nodding slowly, James swallowed.
"You know what," he said after some time. "I reckon I might've spoilt that suit of yours for good. How would you like me to make it up to you?"
Severus' mouth hung open a little, halfway between thought and speech, still clutching his jacket.
"How about," continued James, "I take it off of your hands!"
And with a shared glance between Sirius and James, Severus was left alone at the top of the hill, no longer holding a suit jacket.
"Black! Potter!" he fumed, chasing after the laughing boys. "I'm going to kill you both!"
The Evans' household was all too familiar with sulking teenage girls to even bat an eyelid at the sour-faced Dorcas Meadowes in the living room.
"Is Dorcas staying the night?" called Mrs. Evans from the kitchen.
Lily, who was sitting next to said Dorcas on the sofa, replied, "Yes, mum!" before promptly returning her attention to her sad friend. "Cheer up, Cas. We'll have fun! I'll even let you kick Brutus out of my room. You love doing that!"
"Your cat is evil."
Lily narrowed her eyes.
"My cat is beautiful. Anyway, we'll have loads of fun. We can watch Monty Python and make fun of people and absolutely not scale any walls!"
"Who can we make fun of?" asked Dorcas, brightening up.
"Anyone you want!"
Lily draped her arm around her Dorcas and allowed her head to rest on her shoulder.
"Mary's getting a bit chubby," said Dorcas hopefully.
"She's growing breasts not putting on weight!"
Before Dorcas could argue that growing breasts counted as putting on weight, there was a knock on the door.
"Who's knocking this late?" Dorcas demanded.
To answer the question, Lily had to hop off of her sofa, go into the hallway, and actually open the front door.
"Severus?" said Lily. "What are you doing here? And why are you so out of breath?"
There is nothing quite like the unquestionable smell of piss in the early morning. This fact was made clear to James as he clutched the stained clothing. He could feel the sweat from his hand mixing with what he had to keep reminding himself was his urine. Not that he particularly wanted to touch his own urine, especially not in this sober state of mind, but he could hardly just leave it to fester in his bedroom.
It did not take long for James to make his way across the road to his destination. Once he reached the dustbin, he was all set to dispose of the offending object when a voice interrupted him.
"James Potter!" cried Lily Evans, spotting him from across the green and rushing over to scold him.
"Morning, Evans," said James with a grin, in spite of the piss soaked fabric he was holding.
"Don't you try to smile your way out of this! I know what you did to Severus! That suit belonged to his father!"
This was a new level of angry that James had not witnessed. It scared him a little.
"How'd you find that out?" he asked.
"He told me for one," she snapped, not in the mood for letting James dance around the point as he usually did. "He knocked on my door last night in right state!"
"I don't think it's fair that you're just taking his word for it," said James.
Lily raised an eyebrow and glanced at the scrunched up jacket in his right hand.
"Alright, it does seem you've caught me with my figurative trousers down."
Scowling disapprovingly, she snatched the jacket from his clutches.
"Erm, Evans, you know that is covered in my urine," he warned, watching the red-head inspect the jacket.
She wasn't listening.
"Oh God," breathed Lily, freezing. "Oh God."
James just stared at her, not sure what to say or how to relieve the tension. He certainly wasn't going to apologise for her disgust when she had known what she was grabbing when she had grabbed it. He hadn't asked for her to touch his piss.
Just when he was going to relate all of those thoughts to her, James noticed something which made him realise Lily's sudden silence was not because of him. Even James wasn't self-centred enough to speculate that the tears welling up in Lily's eyes were his fault.
"Evans, what's the matter?" he asked, concerned.
She shook her head, still staring at that same spot on the inside of the jacket.
Finally, she said, "he told me that this was his dad's."
"Sorry?"
Blinking away the tears, Lily laughed bitterly and said, "The stupid git left the label in." She threw the jacket back to James who caught it against his chest. "Keep the bloody jacket. You stole it fair and square, and it's really expensive so enjoy."
Lily turned away from James and began the walk to school, feeling, in stark contradiction from how she thought she would feel, happy to be making the journey without Severus.
