iKloudz: I'm glad you're finding something interesting in Snape. I find him really fascinating because he clearly had some level of influence within his own house, but the situation was so wildly different outside of it that it makes for a lot of interesting possibilities. I'm really enjoying exploring him. I also just love the sarcasm opportunities he creates - definitely a weakness of mine. As before, thank you for the review - your comment gave me so much motivation to write! - and I hope you enjoy the update!
Rage (Guest): Valid. There certainly isn't any James/Lily yet! However, it's going to be a long work and I wanted to give readers an idea of what they were getting into when they started, especially given that the title could be misleading otherwise.
Please enjoy Chapter 4! As always, not mine, and as always, look for a new update next weekend.
Chapter 4
"Excuse me?" Lily's sharp voice was filled with indignant anger. "I'm quite sure I didn't hear you say what I thought I did."
"No, your ears are perfectly fine. It's your mind that needs fixing, my dear Evans," drawled Black. Lily had come to a halt halfway across the Great Hall, stopped in her tracks by Black's sardonic voice from behind her. She'd turned to see him ambling in her direction, affecting a disinterest that his stormy eyes belied. Black stood now a few feet from her, rocking back on his heels, thumbs hooked in the pockets of his robes.
"And you know all about my mind, do you?" she snapped.
"I know enough."
"Right," Lily said after a pause. "Right, well. If you'll excuse me." She turned to go.
"You haven't answered my question, Evans. Don't you think you owe James some gratitude? I hadn't taken you for the ungrateful type."
"Ungrateful?" Lily flushed with anger. "What on earth would I have to be grateful for? All Potter did was stick his nose where it didn't belong and make things worse!"
"Worse than being alone in a cupboard with Severus Snape? Not bloody likely!" There were titters from the students seated nearby and Lily noticed for the first time just how many eyes were on them. Remus, perhaps noticing the same thing, rose from his seat at the Gryffindor table and placed a restraining hand on Black's shoulder, speaking into his ear in a low voice. Black quickly shook him off.
"No, Remus, I will not 'lay off.' Prongs put himself on the line for her, again, and this is the thanks he gets? This one nattering on over breakfast about how 'arrogant' and 'self-important' he is? He deserves better than that. He deserves better than her." He advanced on her until they were quite close, too close, close enough to touch. Lily was acutely conscious of the way he towered over her, a thinly-veiled threat in his casual bearing. He all but slapped Remus' hand away as the boy attempted again to divert him. A few feet away, Pettigrew watched, wide-eyed, along with a hundred other silently-staring students as Black spoke again at last.
"Go back to your Slytherin boyfriend. May you have joy of him. I reckon you two deserve each other. For my part, I'll be making sure that James never so much as glances your way again."
"You'd be doing me a favor if you did, Black. Now, step the hell back from me before I make you." Sure enough, quicker than breathing her wand had appeared in her hand, angled in the scant inches between them. Black's eyes flicked down and arched his dark eyebrows, a half smirk appearing on his face. He raised his hands in a mockery of surrender, canting backward until gravity caught his weight and he took a casual step back. Remus was between them at once, talking Black back to the table, but over Remus' shoulder, Black's grey eyes never left Lily's green ones. In the end it was she who broke his gaze, stowing her wand again and strolling from the Great Hall as casually as she could manage.
§ § §
Not particularly wanting to return to the Dovecote and rehash the conversation that two of her three roommates had most certainly overheard, Lily passed the rest of her morning developing the film copied from the camera contraption she'd hidden down in the Slytherin hallway. Marlene had taught her some time ago how to develop film in the wizard way, so that the resulting pictures would move. She had also shown Lily the darkroom set up for the purpose, and that was where Lily was now, pulling the finished photos gently out of the developing solution and casting both drying and animation charms on them.
The photos told a clear story. The left-hand wall of the Slytherin hallway, all the way at the end, was actually a door of the same ornate styling as the one off the Entrance Hall. The door revealed itself to each approaching student a second or two after his or her arrival before it. The students made no movements to draw out the door, which left Lily with only one possible conclusion, and not a very heartening one: like the Fat Lady's portrait, the black door required a password. With her camera installed in the wall opposite the door, Lily was unable to see the entering students' faces. She couldn't attempt to read the password from their lips. Even if she had been willing to break the rules Dorcas had set down and make changes to her setup today, she was out of film for the camera. Things were looking grim.
She was an eternal optimist, though, and never one to back down from a challenge. If there was a clue to be had, she would have it. If there was a game to be won, she would win it. Gathering up the stack of photos, Lily moved to a sunny windowsill she frequented near the Charms classroom and began to page through in search of anything she might have overlooked.
§ § §
Meanwhile, Mary was having troubles of her own. She was currently seated in an empty classroom around the corner from the Hufflepuff hallway, with Snarfy perched on a desk nearby. She'd successfully summoned the plant from its stone planter to the end of the hallway and had conferred with it. (She could hear Dorcas scoffing in her head at her use of the word "confer," but what did Dorcas know? Herbology was Mary's domain.)
The plant had given her some useful information. It seemed that it had, as she had hoped, learned to mimic some common movements of the students who passed by it. The one it performed the most often was a sort of knocking: tap-tap tap-tap-tap. That, she thought, must be a secret Hufflepuff knock. But where to do it? There was no door in the hallway that she had ever seen, only an assortment of barrels. Clearly she was in need of more data. So she set about replacing Snarfy in its planter to continue its surveillance.
§ § §
Marlene, on the other hand, was spending her day on the grounds, lying on a blanket with a book. The late summer sun was shining, the last of the pollen-laden bees were buzzing, and she was taking it easy. She had her answer ready for Monday. To get out of a dark room, you just had to open the door. It was funny, really, how easy riddles were when you looked at them from a normal person's perspective. If the Ravenclaws thought this sort of thing was hard, it must be because they were overcomplicating things with their genius brains. It was lucky their greatest rivalry was with Hufflepuff House, whose denizens were not generally disposed to do much pranking, because these riddles offered Ravenclaw Tower no real security at all.
Warm with sunshine and self-satisfaction, Marlene continued to read.
§ § §
Lily's close examination of the photos had paid off. She had noticed something from camera's perspective that she hadn't been able to see from the ground: a small ventilation shaft, really just a gap in the stones, high on the wall across from the black door. If her estimations were correct, the other side of that wall would be somewhere near Slughorn's office. That meant it would be legal, more or less, to look for the other end of the shaft, as she would be able to find it without actually entering the Slytherin hallway. Plus, after all, her decorations had led her to this discovery. And, more to the point, if she did happen to overhear a password upon finding the ventilation shaft, nobody would ever know that she had been eavesdropping, because none of her friends ever entered the dungeons unless they absolutely had to.
Investigations, though, would have to wait until after dark when the hallways emptied of students. For now, though her workload was light, it wasn't nonexistent, and she had some catching up to do. Transfiguration reading, two feet of parchment on the fair and legal use of protean charms, and a number of runic translations awaited her, not to mention the letter she had promised her father. Deciding to start with the most straightforward, Lily gathered her things and went off in search of a studymate for Ancient Runes.
After passing through an oddly quiet Gryffindor common room, she found Dorcas once more seated in a straight-backed chair at the Dovecote's wooden desk. The other girl raised a hand in greeting as Lily walked in, but did not look up from her work until reaching the end of a paragraph a few minutes later. Then, laying down her quill, she turned in her chair to look at Lily straight on.
"So, my fiery ginger friend, what happened at the breakfast I slept through this morning? Rumors have been flying around all day; I had to come up here to escape the madness in the common room earlier," she said with an air of mild exasperation.
"Oh, God. That would explain why everyone downstairs got quiet when I walked in. Nothing really, just Black being a git and scolding me for not thanking Potter after he rescued me from Severus' evil clutches. Why, what did you hear?"
"Take your pick; what didn't I hear? The fourth-year girls are a veritable font of gossip, you know, and Mary's been in and out as well and you know what she's like. I've heard that you and Snape duelled and Potter gallantly stepped in to save you when you were overwhelmed, that Snape and Potter duelled for your favor and Potter lost, that they duelled for your favor and Potter won but you chose Snape anyway, that Potter walked in on you and Snape shagging, that Snape walked in on you and Potter shagging, that you and Snape and Potter were all three shagging-"
"Oh my God, no more!" Lily cut her off, hands firmly over her ears. "What the hell is wrong with people? Why does every rumor end in shagging?"
"You have to admit that, of all the places to get caught alone with Snape, a locked storeroom with no torches was not the most innocent you could have chosen."
"People suck, Doe. People just suck."
"I'm glad you're starting to see things my way."
§ § §
The other party to the rumors flying around was as yet unaware of them or, indeed, of the events that morning in the Great Hall which had set them off. Potter had skipped breakfast in favor of a late-morning run, and his friends had met him outside, keen to keep him from encountering anyone in the castle until things had settled down a little. But Black had been called inside to serve a detention from McGonagall and Remus had had to go and supervise his first study group as a prefect - Defense Against the Dark Arts for the second years - leaving Pettigrew the sole chaperon.
Pettigrew, unfortunately, believed entirely too strongly in free will to be a good chaperon. When Potter suggested heading to the kitchens for a snack, seeing as how he had missed breakfast and they were both now too late to eat a proper lunch, Pettigrew agreed, thinking that at least the lower floors would probably be relatively empty of students on such a nice day.
He was proven unexpectedly wrong as they rounded the last corner before the kitchens. Potter suddenly flung out an arm, catching Pettigrew in the chest and throwing them both back out of sight. Mary Macdonald crouched behind a barrel a few feet away, wand out, brows furrowed in concentration, covered from head to toe in specks of dirt. The rest of the hallway was similarly filthy and, as they watched, the reason soon became apparent.
"Infodio," muttered Mary frustratedly, aiming her wand at a planter down the hall and then flicking it toward the ceiling. Clods of dirt flew out of the planter in response. "Infodio!" she tried again, sending more dirt soaring skyward. "Infodio, infodio, infodio!" With every incantation the hallway became more and more soiled and Mary became more and more desperate.
"She's gone mad," Pettigrew whispered.
"She's getting there, for sure," Potter whispered back. "What say we give her a hand?" With a murmured incantation, he returned the soil to the planter; then, with a downward flick this time, he cast infodio to dig a perfectly round hole. Smirking to himself, he whispered over his shoulder at Pettigrew, "I knew someday I'd be glad I helped my mother with the garden-"
"Look out!" Pettigrew hissed, pulling Potter back around the corner by the shoulder as Mary turned round in confusion.
"Hello?" Mary called. When the boys made no reply, she took a few hesitant steps in their direction. They backtracked hastily up the hallway and reached a somewhat concealing statue just as Mary's head peeked around the corner. "Is someone there?" Still there was no answer. Deciding at length that it must have been the wind, Mary shook her head bracingly and wondered aloud, "How on earth did I manage that?"
The boys barely stifled their snickers.
Unfortunately for them, they were still concealed around the corner when the following ensued: a whispered incantation ("Wingardium leviosa"), followed by the settling of roots into soil; a sequence of taps on a particular barrel (Hel-ga Huf-fle-puff), followed by the opening of a door; a disbelieving exclamation ("Gulping gargoyles!"), followed by the shrieking of one delighted Gryffindor. Snarfy the snarfalump had reached one waving tentacle across the narrow hallway and come through for Mary Macdonald.
By the time Potter and Pettigrew reached the hallway, caution thrown to the wind in light of the strange noises, their curiosity, and Mary's extreme reaction, the girl was gone.
§ § §
"Is everyone ready for tomorrow?" Dorcas asked the girls that night as they lazed around the Dovecote after dinner.
"Yes," chorused Mary and Marlene.
Lily nodded. She wasn't, quite, but she wasn't going to let anyone else know that. They'd spoken further and agreed to push the starting line to 11pm on Monday. Each girl planned to enter her respective common room while Disillusioned, but they would have to reveal themselves when they took their photos (using muggle Polaroid cameras borrowed from the Muggle Studies teacher, with whom Mary was quite friendly) as proof of their success. The fewer students were still awake at the time, the better for all of them. As a result, Lily would have all of tonight to try to learn the Slytherin password.
Lily closed the hangings around herself at nine with the excuse of a headache brought on by the tense atmosphere at dinner. Potter had apparently managed to pass the entire day without overhearing a single whisper of her encounter with Black this morning, but that had ended the second he sat down to eat. One of his many younger admirers had taken it upon himself to express his sympathy for Potter's plight in dealing with, in his words, "cheating bints." Potter had looked at Black, expecting to exchange looks of puzzlement, but finding instead an expression of irritation, tinged with guilt.
"Padfoot, what's he talking about?"
Remus had glared Black into submission before serving Potter the barest of explanations, promising more detail later when they were alone. The rest of the meal had passed in near silence, with Black sulking stormily at being muzzled and Potter burning hot with unasked questions. The girls had made their escape from the awkwardness as soon as possible, retreating to the Dovecote. And now Lily waited for her roommates to go to sleep so she could complete the final part of her plan in secret.
At long last, around half past ten, Dorcas closed her textbook, put out the desk lamp and climbed into her four-poster. Lily waited a long fifteen minutes, counted out in the soft snores and small movements of the other girls. Then she made her move.
She hadn't changed out of her school clothes, so all she had to do was slip into her shoes and out the door. The stairs to the common room were dark and empty, quiet but for the murmurs of voices behind doors where students had not yet turned in for the night. Passing the fifth year boys' dorm, she could hear Potter and Black in the middle of the discussion that had been put off earlier.
"I think it's time to give it up as a bad job. Move on to someone else. Plenty of fish in the sea and all that."
"I'm not the giving up type, Padfoot. I'm just not. Maybe it doesn't make any sense, but I can't give up on this."
Dear Lord, the melodrama on these two, thought Lily with a roll of her eyes. Just because I don't fall all over myself panting after him, he's got to treat it like some big challenge. Can't move on without chalking up a win. Well, I guess he won't be moving on, then. She sighed. ...I hope Black can persuade him. It could be a long three years to graduation, otherwise.
Eleven o'clock found her ensconced in the shadowy corner of a new storeroom, a few feet from the scene of her supposed tryst with Severus. This one was less well-kept, housing only some spare cauldrons and archived textbooks, and less popular with couples and mischief-makers. The floor was covered with mildew, which accounted for the comparative lack of popularity. But the ceiling had one important feature: the other end of the ventilation shaft which opened near the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Lily was hoping against hope to overhear the password she needed. Losing was never much to her taste, especially in a game of her own devising. She just needed one straggling student to speak loud enough…
A long, tedious two hours later, she got her answer. Tradition. Some two or three students, by the sound of it, had just returned to their common room and the word had echoed with perfect clarity to the little neglected storeroom. Finally. Now off to bed with you. Cautiously, Lily peeked both ways down the dark hallway. It remained as deserted as it had been all night. She stepped out and tiptoed toward the west side stairs, easing the door open and ascending as quickly and silently as she could. Just one more flight of stairs, then a secret passage and a back staircase up to the hallway adjacent to Gryffindor Tower. Surely she could make it.
Suddenly, Lily heard ringing footsteps. In a panic, she realized these stairs were too narrow for her to hide on, even if she could cast a Disillusionment charm without whoever it was overhearing and discovering her. She glanced up, looking for an idea of how long she had to think of a plan, and nearly groaned aloud in dismay. Coming down the stairs above her was, not just any straggling student, but the head boy himself. He was only two flights away now, giving her no time to retreat to a wider space. He was going to pass right by her.
There was nothing for it. She made a mad dash for the entrance to the secret passage, praying Emery didn't know about it to chase her into, hoping his echoing footsteps would somehow cover the sound of her running ones. Through the false wall and up the spiral staircase she ran like the deer from the hunter, and she didn't stop until she reached the exit four storeys above. Even then, she spared no more than a cursory glance for the hallway outside, certain that danger behind was far more likely than danger ahead. She tore on tiptoe, holding her breath against the sound of her winded panting, down this hall and up the other, until she reached the portrait hole and dove inside.
Thankfully, the common room was empty. Completely winded, unable to go a step further, Lily collapsed spread-eagled to the floor, focusing on nothing but the feeling of air returning to her lungs and stillness returning to her muscles.
Safe.
And successful.
Yet another mission accomplished.
Lily Evans, you. are. awesome.