Title: If It's The Last Thing I Do (Well, It's True That We Love Each Other ...)
Chapter: 6/? ["This Is A Chapter Title"]
Author: Pooki Ze Great
Fandom: Harry Potter - Marauders Era
Email: his_stupid_girl@hotmail.com
Summary: Chapter Summary: "She and Rose stood under a tall sign, which, looking up, Lily saw read 'Sub Conchesse Alley'. Weird name." Okay, that's not a great quote, but there's a really funny quote in here ... really. *sighs* Full Summary: This is my version of how Lily and James got together. [From the humble beginnings of Jamie bullying Lil, to Lily's short time spent in The Canadian Institution Of Witchcraft, Wizardry, and The Arts, to her moving back to the UK to attend Hogwarts (le fateful reunion), and all through memories, hate, resentment, fear, crushes, and finally love (awww), this is gonna be a damned long story and a damned good one so ya better read it!!!]
Warnings: Over the course of this story there will be Het, Slash, Rape, Violence, Language, and probably other offending stuff I don't consider offending but someone else does. Bleh.
Archiving: Ask first (already on ff.net and my LiveJournal [pookizegreat])
Disclaimer: Any and all things and people you recognise in this fic belong to JK Rowling [author of the Harry Potter series] or some other person. I am only responsible for the original characters in this fic. I am making no profit from writing this fanfiction, I am only having fun.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Throughout the course of this fic there will be the following pairings [Lily/James, Remus/Sirius, Sirius/OC, Peter/OC, OC/OC, Severus/OC and the list goes on ...]
Feedback: Yes please. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM is welcome. FLAMES will be laughed at.
Category: Romance/Humor, with some angst thrown in
A/N: This chapter is absurdly long. It is roughly 5 times longer than the average chapter. Enjoy. NOTE: Not all of these reviews are for 'If It's The Last Thing I Do'. I just use THIS fic's A/N to thank all the reviewers, whether they reviewed this fic or not. Savvy? Great. honerlovesfrank (who is under the delusion that I could outdo JK Rowling *squee*), artemisofluna (who enjoys the fact that Sirius cannot cook. At all. James: *moans and nods in agreement, holds his stomach* Sirius: *throws frying pan at us* Hehhh ... -.-*), _papillon_, slytherinslife, shedreamsin_red, nuklear_firefly, ghostwalker, meltedcrayon (my idiocy and ineptitude at coming up with titles seems to entertain her), asuka_unit02, kitsune_aka, geminigoddess25, jiffy_spiffy (who has the fucking sexiest icon ever. EVER.), broken_trust, orlandosonlyluv (who moved to GJ. *sniff*), toffeeokim, kaufee_cake, kelmedren, gratchafoxa, faeryglitter, edgefire, kitsuchi, tensai_megami, bellslave, Tove. [the following are all FictionAlley reviewers: Brittney, Sarefine Snape, magdellin, HoGwArTsISrEaL007, Caitie Klein, aidenfire, Astraea de Saa, Fantail100, MrsDracoMalfoy] {the following are all www.fanfiction.net reviewers: Jade-Jaganashi, Cole-Lover, DayDreamer42, chewy1, Cornpuffs, LilyE, pan weasley kent, wicherwill, Dragon Faere, Werewolf-Luva} Also, I tried to make this as close to Canon as I could using my plotline, okay? And I wouldn't expect the next chapter to show up soon, as it'll most likely be every bit as long as this one, which had to be saved as two separate files in Notepad. -.-
Chapter 6
This Is A Chapter Title
Lily walked stiffly out of the bus, which had come to a very sudden stop; knocking everyone forward a couple rows, even, Lily noticed with a twinge of malicious pleasure, Magaran.
She and Rose stood under a tall sign which, looking up, Lily saw read 'Sub Conchesse Alley'. Weird name.
They waited for everyone else to get off the bus and soon most of the students had left with various guides Sage had greeted cheerfully and sent groups of 3-4 kids with, so that only Lily, Rose, and Sage stood under the sign. The beautiful girl whose name Lily had overheard to be Faith and Magaran stood a few metres off, at the edge of the sidewalk, and a boy with wiry, poofed-out black hair, overly white skin, and unusually broad shoulders for such a gangly form stood in between them, chewing mechanically on his lip and shooting furtive glances all around.
"So!" Sage exclaimed cheerfully, clapping her hands together and looking around at the five. "I'll be taking you all, then."
Magaran snorted. "I can take Faith, sister."
Sage raised her eyebrows. "I dunno, Mags, it's customary for Muggle-born first years to be taken by a proper adult, and -"
"'Proper Adult'?" Magaran sneered. "If I'm no 'proper adult' why'd you drag me along with you, huh? W- YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, WOMAN!" she yelled as Sage began to speak.
Sage did as she was told, looking highly indignant.
"Fine then," she said in a waspishly short tone. "Have it your way."
Magaran spat onto the sidewalk. "Damned right I'll have it my way, stupid bitch, only her first year n' she's'already tryin' t'order me arou-" she stopped her mutterings as Faith put a friendly but firm hand on her shoulder.
"Lay off, Mags," she said quietly.
She smiled charmingly up at Sage, hand starting to steer Magaran away. "We'll take care, Miss Landry, don't you worry yourself about it. We'll be back here at 3."
The four people left behind stared after the pair as they walked away, the three childrens' mouths slightly agape, and Sage looking quite stung.
Finally, the strange boy spoke. "That girl's in the first year?" he exclaimed increduously, voicing the surprise of his peers at Faith's age.
"Aye," Sage said softly. "Faith's barely 11, just like the rest of ye. She's ... she's a bit of a special case," she ended lamely, turning away.
She pasted a smile on her face. "C'mon, all of ye, we gotta go get that money exchanged," she said, nodding at the assorted bills and coins the boy, Lily, and Rose held and breaking into a swift walk.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before suddenly the boy turned to walk backwards behind Sage, facing Lily and Rose, and grinned, holding out his hand for a quickest girl to shake.
"I'm Jack," he said brightly. "Jack Kirkus."
Lily, seemingly the less shy of the two, took his hand and shook it, noticing his long, strong fingers with an involuntary twinge of something altogether unfamiliar.
"I'm Lily Evans," she said slowly, green eyes slightly narrowed and mouth slightly quirked as she took in his face.
He had a broad, square-ended nose and wide, almond-shaped eyes like hers, but larger, with irisis every bit as black as his hair, which was slightly below chin length and stuck out at the sides. He had a wide, devilish mouth, with full cupid's bow lips which moved in a smile to reveal rows of shiny, white, and strangely pointed teeth.
Rose took his hand and introduced herself, her bright brown eyes flashing over him in a manner Lily knew with a slight flush was probably uncannily similar to the way hers had.
He gave the two a dashing smile and pulled a top hat out of nowhere and placed it carefully upon his messy hair, somehow looking like a fine gentleman, though he appeared no older than his age and was otherwise clothed in a black t-shirt, black jeans, and black, highly-polished shoes.
Lily felt slightly weak in the knees, and had the fleeting vision of him sweeping her up and holding her in his unusually well-muscled arms, an image she quickly pushed away.
Lord, what was wrong with her today?
Suddenly Lily realised they were in a large, marble hall. She looked behind her to try to spot a name, but couldn't find a sign in sight.
But as she returned her gaze forwards, such trivial thoughts were replaced by the sighting of an altogether strange creature.
It was about a head shorter than Lily, and had a rather cunning-looking face, a pointed beard, and unusually long fingers. That was about all she could see of him, as he was behind a desk. She blinked as Rose whispered softly in her ear "Goblin." From the confused, yet interested look on Jack's face, Lily was guessing Rose had whispered it to him as well.
Lily blinked a few times, realising that the goblin, Rose, Jack, and Sage were all watching her expectantly.
"Sage said to give her your money," said Rose in a quiet whisper.
Lily blinked yet again, then, grinning embarassedly, handed over the money she'd gotten for her birthday. Her parents would pay her back later. Er, hopefully they would, anyways.
The goblin, after giving the young redhead a look which plainly told her he thought every bit as strange as she thought him, handed her back a small bag full of gold, silver, and bronze coins.
"The bronze ones are Knuts, the silver ones're Sickles, n' the gold'uns are Galleons," said the goblin boredly, obviously having explained this many multiple times before.
"Oh!" exclaimed Jack brightly. "So, 100 Knuts to a Sickle and 100 Sickles to a Galleon, then, right?" Lily nodded along with him, identical, rather proud grins on their faces.
The goblin broke into a fit of wild snickers and Sage looked at each of them in turn as if they had three heads, while Rose smacked her forehead.
"Er," said young girl mumbled, "no, not quite." The grins slowly dissolved from Lily and Jack's faces. "Twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, and seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. It's easy enough, once you've had to deal with Wizard money for a while," she said, trying not to laugh at the deeply bewildered looks on her new friends' faces.
"Oh," said Jack, blushing faintly, giving a tinge of pink to his unhealthy white skin. "Well ... let's go, then."
They went to many places that afternoon.
First, the Apothecary, where the three huddled together, Jack being the brave one and telling the cock-eyed clerk what materials they needed, whilst Sage, apparently undisturbed by the strange things cramming the store (not to mention the smell), tutted over the apparently absurdly high price of Boomslang Skin. Next, they headed over to be fitted in their robes (Jack squirmed, he felt like he was "being encased in a ruddy dress, dammit!" Sage merely raised an eyebrow and he fell silent). Then to a bookstore where Lily managed to buy a large collection of hexes while Sage's back was turned. After that they headed over to a place called Ollivanders, which, according to Sage, had only two branches in the world, the other being in a place called Diagon Alley, away in London (Jack asked why they had two branches so near each other, and Sage had to kindly explain that she didn't mean the London in Ontario).
There was a rather frightening man in there named Mr Ollivander, who explained to the three while he took their measurements that he only came himself to this store once a year for the months of June and July, to get all of the Canadian children their wands. Lily had asked why the Canadians in other provinces didn't have wand stores of his own, and Mr Ollivander had fixed her with a stony stare and told her that they did, but there was no wand store so fine as Ollivanders. He then began rambling about how people even came from the United States and Mexico to see him, and that his family had been making wands since 382 B.C. That was when Lily started tuning him out, instead concentrating on how silly she felt waving the wands around.
Finally, a wand she waved actually did something, sending warm orange and red sparks and ribbons of mist out of the tip, and Mr Ollivander smiled. "Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow with a single Unicorn hair. Should be good at Charms work, this one."
Jack's chose him considerably sooner, shooting out blue, white, and yellow sparks and stars. Mr Ollivander raised an eyebrow. "Fir, 13 inches, strong, with a Phoenix feather core. Ideal for Transfiguration."
Rose's took by far the longest, and when finally Mr Ollivander said "Larch with phoenix feather core, 9 inches long, thin with a good spring to it. Should be wonderful for any and all protection spells," eyed Rose carefully, and finished "this is a very powerful wand," handing her back her wand, they'd been all too eager to get out of there.
Now they walked through the crowd mulling about in the street, the trio continuously peering in their bags to fascinate at the day's purchases. Suddenly Rose stopped, looking longingly at a very dark store to their left. It had no title, but Lily could see dozens of sets of eyes inside, glowing amber.
Owl eyes.
"Sage," Rose said slowly, turning to face the older woman with her eyes still fixed on the store's tinted window. "My old owl died a few months ago, and I have some money left over, d'you think I coul-"
"A'course!" said Sage brightly, taking Rose's hand and walking swiftly towards the store. She shot a glance back at Jack and Lily, narrowing her eyes.
"You two!" she called over her shoulder. "DON'T. GO. ANYWHERE!"
And with that Rose and Sage disappeared into the store.
Jack and Lily looked slowly to each other, identical mischevious grins lighting up their faces.
"So," Lily said casually, "shall we -"
"GO!" Jack yelled, grabbing hold of her hand and breaking into a fast run.
***
Lily clutched onto Jack's hand, looking around slowly.
"Where are we?" she asked quietly, looking around the dark alley they'd wandered into. It was like something out of a movie, there were clouds of thick smog coming from chimneys which varied from one to four per dark-brown brick building.
There were all sorts of strange people - and, Lily was sure, non-people - walking by, and they all either leered at them or bumped unnecessarily into them as they passed by.
Jack, feeling it was his duty, moved Lily in front of him and held her from behind, shooting comically threatening looks at people twice his size.
Suddenly the two of them were spun around by a man who had to be well over 300 pounds heavy and 6 feet tall.
he was fearsome, with but a few large, sharp teeth, a shaved and tattooed head, and mean little slits of eyes.
His voice came out a fierce growl as he spoke. "How much for the redhead?" he spat at Jack.
The young boy stuttered, looking pale and stricken. "P-P-P-Pardon, sir?" he finally choked out.
"How much fer the pretty little thing?"" he muttered, eyes roaming up and down Lily and making her recoil.
Jack looked at quite a loss and merely stared, open-mouthed, at the man, until suddenly a shout came from further down the street.
"Oi, YOU!" Faith yelled, running up, many dark-colored paper bags in her hands and a deeply amused-looking Magaran and two girls she didn't know in tow.
"Back away, you sick fuck!" the dread-donning girl said, stepping in between the man and the pair.
Had Lily not been so frightened she would have laughed. While Faith certainly was taller than the other two, at around 5'8", that still left her a good foot shorter than the man, and she certainly didn't look strong enough to fight him, despite the fact that she was practically bristling with anger.
They stood there, Lily and Jack cowering, the general crowd watching with detached curiousity, Faith glaring up at the man, fists clenched, and the man looking rather taken aback, until he started laughing.
It was seemingly not a wise move, as the next moment Faith was on top of the man, whose eye was already selling shut as blood poured out of his freshly broken nose.
Faith continued to make mincemeat of the man's face for a few seconds before Magaran and one of the unknown girls got ahold of her and pulled her off, calming her down.
The unknown girl helped the shocked man up while Magaran helped Faith re-gather her bags and put them in a shopping cart the other unknown girl was dragging behind herself.
With a few waves of her wand, the first unknown had the man healed up in a snap, and then, as the other three girls began pulling Jack and Lily along, she smiled up at him, said "Goodbye," she muttered "Obliviate" at which the man's expression mysteriously went blank.
With a pointed look at the crowd, she, too, joined the rest of them in their hurried exit.
"That was a close one," she muttered in a slightly hoarse voice with something reminiscent of a New York accent.
"Too close," piped up the other, who looked remarkably alike to the first, but many years younger.
"What were you all doing over here?" shot Faith at Lily and Jack, ignoring the reproachful glares of her fellows.
"Er," Jack said, saving Lily the necessity of having to look the furious girl in the eyes. "We just ran off here. Sage told us not to go anywhere, but -"
"DO NOT disobey my sister," Magaran hissed. Lily felt this was a very hypocritical command, but did not say so, settling instead for the flitting smirk that passed Faith's lips at her friend's words.
Suddenly the young unknown spoke again, in a chirp which, unlike the older one, was purely Canadian in accent. "Cover their eyes," she said, and at that Faith stepped behind Lily, and Magaran behind Jack, both putting their hands over the youngsters' eyes. Lily caught a fleeting glimpse of a sign which no doubt showed the street's name, and she would have protested, but the unfamiliar feeling of Faith's arms resting on her shoulders and her breasts lightly brushing against Lily's back was an altogether pleasant one, so she remained silent.
"Sorry 'bout this, kidsies," came the throaty drawl of the first unknown. "But if you knew the street name and we ever got on your bad side, you might feel inclined to rat on or blackmail us, and we couldn't have that."
Lily almost began swearing she would never betray any of them, but, thinking that was not the proper thing to do if she wanted to make friends, instead changed the subject.
"So, what were you guys doing over there?" she asked.
She heard Magaran cough slightly and the young girl giggle.
"We go there to buy lingerie and other purchases of a purely naughty nature," came the first unknown's laughing reply.
That shut Lily up for a while.
***
Roughly 3/4 of an hour later, the seven of them sat in the very back of the bus, Rose having rejoined the group as soon as they'd gotten back to Sub Conchesse Alley, with a lovely tawny owl she'd named Isis.
Sage, though she was still shooting deeply suspicious glances at the group every few minutes, had after 10 minutes' convincing accepted the group's reassurances that they had not run off to anywhere far away (during these explanations Lily gave Rose a secret glance and mouthed "I'll tell you later.").
After that, they'd gone with the rest of the students and guides to a large but cozy tea shop/chocolatrie where, to Lily's great relief, unlike the majority of the girls there, the table where Lily and her new friends sat had happily pounced on and devoured the chocolate, and occasionally threw a treat or two over to the tables where girls spoke fretfully of their various diets while no one was looking, and then would burst into silent laughter when, inevitably, one of them would snatch and eat it while the other girls' eyes were elsewhere.
Lily found out a lot about her new companions at that table.
Faith Jones was born on October 30th, and had had a twin sister named Fiona, who had died of pneumonia at the age of 2. She had a younger half-sister named Ember, the dark-haired beauty they'd seen before, and her birth mother had died when she was 3, leaving her alone with her abusive drunk of a father named Jerry. Soon after, he'd married Bunny, a then-26-year old porn star, who, after much begging, had birthed Ember. She was Muggle-born, like Lily, but had been friends with magaran since she was five. Said redhead was only too happy to inform her of the world most girls in her situation would have never suspected, and had been teaching her spells ever since she'd started going to The Institute (which gave Faith a good three years' experience more than the other first years).
Magaran, on the other hand, was from a Pureblood family, Sage was her older sister, and together they took care of their mother, who hadn't spoken in five years, merely sat all day in a rocking chair in a sunroom staring straight ahead until the girls carried her to her bed when the sun set, at which point she would instantly fall asleep. Magarn thought that, for the most part, humans were useless, liked old music and movies, and her biggest life goal was to get bitten by a werewolf, something which Lily thought rather strange after quickly being informed that the transformations were extremely painful, and they were shunned in most parts of the world (and killed in the remaining parts).
Rose was a half-blood, with a witch for a mother and a Muggle father. Her mother was very busy working at her job as an Auror for the Ministry of Magic (Lily was shocked at the discovery of both such things), and had so requested that she be sent with the other Muggle-borns to pick up her things. She openly admitted to being a girly-girl, liking romance novels, pink things, and perfume. Her favorite flower was, naturally, the rose.
Jack was also Muggle-born. He had an older brother Dan who had blacked his eye and called him a queer when he'd gotten his letter (Lily had tentatively placed a comforting hand on his shoulder for a second upon hearing this before remembering herself and taking it away, bright red in the face, although the rest of the table noticed Jack didn't seem to mind much at all). he liked showtunes, dancing, and thought that Audrey Hepburn was the perfect woman (Lily suddenly found herself despising Audrey Hepburn, despite the fact that she didn't really know who she was).
Then, there was Amanda and June Avern.
Amanda was going into her seventh and final year at The Institute, but had been friends with Magaran and Faith for a good three years (since Mag's first year). She'd moved, along with June, to Toronto from (as Lily had suspected), New York, having been kicked out by her Muggle father when he'd found out what she was (Lily noticed Amanda's voice went extremely quiet and toneless when she spoke of her father). June, for self-preservation, had trained herself to speak like a Canadian, but Amanda had merely hexed everyone who made fun of her accent until they got the idea and learned to respect her. She liked corsets, stilleto boots, and snakes, and had long ago decided she would be a showgirl when she got out of school, and work on her true passion - painting - when she had the time. She'd explained that she'd rather just do the Starving Artist thing and concentrate solely on her works, but, she'd said with an affectionate look at June, she had a little sister to take care of. She had tightly-curled hair which was somewhere around chin-length when let straight, and wide chocolate-brown eyes which were slightly hooded, with the premature beginnings of crow's feet at the edges, and they slowly traveled up and down the length of the table, taking in everything and having an oddly calming effect on everyone who met them. Her nose was long, with a slightly square, up-turned end (Magaran smirked and said that it had used to be pierced until Amanda had gotten bored with it), and she had a shininy layer of pure red lipstick. Looking at her vintage clothing like a 1920's flapper, with the slightest of enticing smiles gracing her world-weary face, Lily definitely thought she looked the type to be a showgirl.
Then there was Jane, who was oddly extraordinary in a plain-looking way. She had straight, shoulder-length hair and thick bangs which went just over her eyebrows. Her wide eyes were similar to her sister's, although they had an unusual hint of purple and looked rather mystical. She rarely spoke, but when she did it was always exactly the right thing at exactly the right time, and everyone at the table who knew her happily asserted that she far outsmarted them all, and she wouldn't ever need to study: she remembered EVERYTHING.
They explained that at The Institute, there was the building where the classes were taught, another in which they ate, and three others for living in: one for the male students, one for their female counterparts, and one for the teachers.
These living buildings, at least the students' ones, were divided up into 7 sections; one for each year.
They had many classes, and ran on a bi-weekly schedule. They all took 14 classes for their 7 years there, those being:
-Astronomy (interesting enough, and beautiful, but it could get very complicated)
-Transfiguration (it was all very interesting, and funny at times, but difficult, and tended to be monotonous and aggravating for your first few years)
-Defense Against The Dark Arts (a favorite among the students, definitely one of the most popular and interesting classes)
-Charms ("Useful, verrrrrrrry useful," said Magaran with an altogether evil grin.)
-History Of Magic (Amanda and Magaran chorused a yawn in unison)
-Care Of Magical Creatures (Faith and June's faces both lit up at mention of the class; they apparently were both greatly looking forward to it, being of the opinion that Chimaeras and Hippogriffs were just about the most aodrable things in the world, and this time it was Rose who gave Lily an "I'll Tell You Later Look")
-Divination ("An utter load of rubbish for the most part, unless you're an actual Seer, which is highly rare," sighed Amanda. "But it's an easy grade when you make things up, so that's alright.")
-Arithmancy (which apparently made University-level Algebra look like 1st-grade math)
-Herbology ("It sounds boring, but some of those plants are positively vicious. It'd be a laugh to give a Muggle one," snickered Magaran, earning a reproachful glance from Amanada, who was unusually fond of non-magic folk, especially considering what her father had done.)
-Potions (Faith winced. Apparently, Magaran, who thought Potions was just about the best subject in the world, had attempted to teach Faith said subject, and she had proved to be awe-inspiringly adept at melting cauldrons.)
-Ancient Runes (Amanda held up a charm bracelet which apparently, thanks to the Rune charms dangling from it, would protect her from all evil so long as she wore it. She swore up and down that she was always decorating something with runes.)
-Muggle Studies (which was apparently vastly amusing for anyone who had ever had prolonged contact with Muggles, and was a definite easy grade for them)
-Quidditch (Most magic schools didn't have a class dedicated to the sport, especially in North America, but Catkin Enders, the Headmaster, was apparently a Quidditch fanatic and thought it essential that his students be educated in both the practical and theoretical facets of it)
And finally,
-Art Of Choice (The Institute offered further education of various arts, those being singing; dancing; guitar and bass; drums and percussion; piano, organs, and keys; violin, cello, and the like; a class for the various other instruments (including but not limited to accordian, bagpipes, and the harmonica); art; photography; and acting.)
"So basically it's a bunch of fucked-up art fags with wands," said Amanda proudly, sending the table into another fit of laughter.
And so here Lily was, with six new friends when this morning she'd had none, laughing and chatting animatedly as if they'd all known each other for years.
Lily blinked as the bus jolted to a stop and Jack got up. She waved sadly as he stepped off, his new purchases in tow.
Faith sighed, staring mounrfully at her hands. "I don't reckon I'm gonna fancy going home," she said quietly, thinking of Jerry and his hard hands.
Magaran snorted. "Nor I. Mom's off at the hospital being checked up and Sage's goin' out with that foul boyfriend of hers, so I'll be sitting alone in the house staring at the wall and waiting for it to move," (she'd earlier disclosed that her house was haunted by a particularly violent pair of ghosts).
Amanda snorted. "Like we wanna go back to our apartment and listen to the neighbours beat each other up," she quipped, gesturing at June, who nodded solemnly.
Rose, too, showed signs of great displeasure at the idea of returning home. "Mom and Dad are both off on business trips so it's sittin' on the couch watching TV and eatin' soup out of a can for me," she sighed.
Lily grinned hesitantly. "You guys could all sleep over at my place, if you'd like," she said quietly.
"Are you serious?" demanded Magaran, leaning forward and looking rather desperate.
"Er, yes," Lily said, smiling a bit.
The girls all cheered and Faith literally leapt on her, making Lily think that regardless of how angry her parents might be with her for inviting 5 strange girls over for the night without getting permission, it was worth it.
***
**the chapter is continued, kids. Notepad just wouldn't let me save it all in one file. So move on to the next chapter! w00t!**
Chapter: 6/? ["This Is A Chapter Title"]
Author: Pooki Ze Great
Fandom: Harry Potter - Marauders Era
Email: his_stupid_girl@hotmail.com
Summary: Chapter Summary: "She and Rose stood under a tall sign, which, looking up, Lily saw read 'Sub Conchesse Alley'. Weird name." Okay, that's not a great quote, but there's a really funny quote in here ... really. *sighs* Full Summary: This is my version of how Lily and James got together. [From the humble beginnings of Jamie bullying Lil, to Lily's short time spent in The Canadian Institution Of Witchcraft, Wizardry, and The Arts, to her moving back to the UK to attend Hogwarts (le fateful reunion), and all through memories, hate, resentment, fear, crushes, and finally love (awww), this is gonna be a damned long story and a damned good one so ya better read it!!!]
Warnings: Over the course of this story there will be Het, Slash, Rape, Violence, Language, and probably other offending stuff I don't consider offending but someone else does. Bleh.
Archiving: Ask first (already on ff.net and my LiveJournal [pookizegreat])
Disclaimer: Any and all things and people you recognise in this fic belong to JK Rowling [author of the Harry Potter series] or some other person. I am only responsible for the original characters in this fic. I am making no profit from writing this fanfiction, I am only having fun.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Throughout the course of this fic there will be the following pairings [Lily/James, Remus/Sirius, Sirius/OC, Peter/OC, OC/OC, Severus/OC and the list goes on ...]
Feedback: Yes please. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM is welcome. FLAMES will be laughed at.
Category: Romance/Humor, with some angst thrown in
A/N: This chapter is absurdly long. It is roughly 5 times longer than the average chapter. Enjoy. NOTE: Not all of these reviews are for 'If It's The Last Thing I Do'. I just use THIS fic's A/N to thank all the reviewers, whether they reviewed this fic or not. Savvy? Great. honerlovesfrank (who is under the delusion that I could outdo JK Rowling *squee*), artemisofluna (who enjoys the fact that Sirius cannot cook. At all. James: *moans and nods in agreement, holds his stomach* Sirius: *throws frying pan at us* Hehhh ... -.-*), _papillon_, slytherinslife, shedreamsin_red, nuklear_firefly, ghostwalker, meltedcrayon (my idiocy and ineptitude at coming up with titles seems to entertain her), asuka_unit02, kitsune_aka, geminigoddess25, jiffy_spiffy (who has the fucking sexiest icon ever. EVER.), broken_trust, orlandosonlyluv (who moved to GJ. *sniff*), toffeeokim, kaufee_cake, kelmedren, gratchafoxa, faeryglitter, edgefire, kitsuchi, tensai_megami, bellslave, Tove. [the following are all FictionAlley reviewers: Brittney, Sarefine Snape, magdellin, HoGwArTsISrEaL007, Caitie Klein, aidenfire, Astraea de Saa, Fantail100, MrsDracoMalfoy] {the following are all www.fanfiction.net reviewers: Jade-Jaganashi, Cole-Lover, DayDreamer42, chewy1, Cornpuffs, LilyE, pan weasley kent, wicherwill, Dragon Faere, Werewolf-Luva} Also, I tried to make this as close to Canon as I could using my plotline, okay? And I wouldn't expect the next chapter to show up soon, as it'll most likely be every bit as long as this one, which had to be saved as two separate files in Notepad. -.-
Chapter 6
This Is A Chapter Title
Lily walked stiffly out of the bus, which had come to a very sudden stop; knocking everyone forward a couple rows, even, Lily noticed with a twinge of malicious pleasure, Magaran.
She and Rose stood under a tall sign which, looking up, Lily saw read 'Sub Conchesse Alley'. Weird name.
They waited for everyone else to get off the bus and soon most of the students had left with various guides Sage had greeted cheerfully and sent groups of 3-4 kids with, so that only Lily, Rose, and Sage stood under the sign. The beautiful girl whose name Lily had overheard to be Faith and Magaran stood a few metres off, at the edge of the sidewalk, and a boy with wiry, poofed-out black hair, overly white skin, and unusually broad shoulders for such a gangly form stood in between them, chewing mechanically on his lip and shooting furtive glances all around.
"So!" Sage exclaimed cheerfully, clapping her hands together and looking around at the five. "I'll be taking you all, then."
Magaran snorted. "I can take Faith, sister."
Sage raised her eyebrows. "I dunno, Mags, it's customary for Muggle-born first years to be taken by a proper adult, and -"
"'Proper Adult'?" Magaran sneered. "If I'm no 'proper adult' why'd you drag me along with you, huh? W- YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, WOMAN!" she yelled as Sage began to speak.
Sage did as she was told, looking highly indignant.
"Fine then," she said in a waspishly short tone. "Have it your way."
Magaran spat onto the sidewalk. "Damned right I'll have it my way, stupid bitch, only her first year n' she's'already tryin' t'order me arou-" she stopped her mutterings as Faith put a friendly but firm hand on her shoulder.
"Lay off, Mags," she said quietly.
She smiled charmingly up at Sage, hand starting to steer Magaran away. "We'll take care, Miss Landry, don't you worry yourself about it. We'll be back here at 3."
The four people left behind stared after the pair as they walked away, the three childrens' mouths slightly agape, and Sage looking quite stung.
Finally, the strange boy spoke. "That girl's in the first year?" he exclaimed increduously, voicing the surprise of his peers at Faith's age.
"Aye," Sage said softly. "Faith's barely 11, just like the rest of ye. She's ... she's a bit of a special case," she ended lamely, turning away.
She pasted a smile on her face. "C'mon, all of ye, we gotta go get that money exchanged," she said, nodding at the assorted bills and coins the boy, Lily, and Rose held and breaking into a swift walk.
They walked in silence for a few minutes before suddenly the boy turned to walk backwards behind Sage, facing Lily and Rose, and grinned, holding out his hand for a quickest girl to shake.
"I'm Jack," he said brightly. "Jack Kirkus."
Lily, seemingly the less shy of the two, took his hand and shook it, noticing his long, strong fingers with an involuntary twinge of something altogether unfamiliar.
"I'm Lily Evans," she said slowly, green eyes slightly narrowed and mouth slightly quirked as she took in his face.
He had a broad, square-ended nose and wide, almond-shaped eyes like hers, but larger, with irisis every bit as black as his hair, which was slightly below chin length and stuck out at the sides. He had a wide, devilish mouth, with full cupid's bow lips which moved in a smile to reveal rows of shiny, white, and strangely pointed teeth.
Rose took his hand and introduced herself, her bright brown eyes flashing over him in a manner Lily knew with a slight flush was probably uncannily similar to the way hers had.
He gave the two a dashing smile and pulled a top hat out of nowhere and placed it carefully upon his messy hair, somehow looking like a fine gentleman, though he appeared no older than his age and was otherwise clothed in a black t-shirt, black jeans, and black, highly-polished shoes.
Lily felt slightly weak in the knees, and had the fleeting vision of him sweeping her up and holding her in his unusually well-muscled arms, an image she quickly pushed away.
Lord, what was wrong with her today?
Suddenly Lily realised they were in a large, marble hall. She looked behind her to try to spot a name, but couldn't find a sign in sight.
But as she returned her gaze forwards, such trivial thoughts were replaced by the sighting of an altogether strange creature.
It was about a head shorter than Lily, and had a rather cunning-looking face, a pointed beard, and unusually long fingers. That was about all she could see of him, as he was behind a desk. She blinked as Rose whispered softly in her ear "Goblin." From the confused, yet interested look on Jack's face, Lily was guessing Rose had whispered it to him as well.
Lily blinked a few times, realising that the goblin, Rose, Jack, and Sage were all watching her expectantly.
"Sage said to give her your money," said Rose in a quiet whisper.
Lily blinked yet again, then, grinning embarassedly, handed over the money she'd gotten for her birthday. Her parents would pay her back later. Er, hopefully they would, anyways.
The goblin, after giving the young redhead a look which plainly told her he thought every bit as strange as she thought him, handed her back a small bag full of gold, silver, and bronze coins.
"The bronze ones are Knuts, the silver ones're Sickles, n' the gold'uns are Galleons," said the goblin boredly, obviously having explained this many multiple times before.
"Oh!" exclaimed Jack brightly. "So, 100 Knuts to a Sickle and 100 Sickles to a Galleon, then, right?" Lily nodded along with him, identical, rather proud grins on their faces.
The goblin broke into a fit of wild snickers and Sage looked at each of them in turn as if they had three heads, while Rose smacked her forehead.
"Er," said young girl mumbled, "no, not quite." The grins slowly dissolved from Lily and Jack's faces. "Twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, and seventeen Sickles to a Galleon. It's easy enough, once you've had to deal with Wizard money for a while," she said, trying not to laugh at the deeply bewildered looks on her new friends' faces.
"Oh," said Jack, blushing faintly, giving a tinge of pink to his unhealthy white skin. "Well ... let's go, then."
They went to many places that afternoon.
First, the Apothecary, where the three huddled together, Jack being the brave one and telling the cock-eyed clerk what materials they needed, whilst Sage, apparently undisturbed by the strange things cramming the store (not to mention the smell), tutted over the apparently absurdly high price of Boomslang Skin. Next, they headed over to be fitted in their robes (Jack squirmed, he felt like he was "being encased in a ruddy dress, dammit!" Sage merely raised an eyebrow and he fell silent). Then to a bookstore where Lily managed to buy a large collection of hexes while Sage's back was turned. After that they headed over to a place called Ollivanders, which, according to Sage, had only two branches in the world, the other being in a place called Diagon Alley, away in London (Jack asked why they had two branches so near each other, and Sage had to kindly explain that she didn't mean the London in Ontario).
There was a rather frightening man in there named Mr Ollivander, who explained to the three while he took their measurements that he only came himself to this store once a year for the months of June and July, to get all of the Canadian children their wands. Lily had asked why the Canadians in other provinces didn't have wand stores of his own, and Mr Ollivander had fixed her with a stony stare and told her that they did, but there was no wand store so fine as Ollivanders. He then began rambling about how people even came from the United States and Mexico to see him, and that his family had been making wands since 382 B.C. That was when Lily started tuning him out, instead concentrating on how silly she felt waving the wands around.
Finally, a wand she waved actually did something, sending warm orange and red sparks and ribbons of mist out of the tip, and Mr Ollivander smiled. "Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow with a single Unicorn hair. Should be good at Charms work, this one."
Jack's chose him considerably sooner, shooting out blue, white, and yellow sparks and stars. Mr Ollivander raised an eyebrow. "Fir, 13 inches, strong, with a Phoenix feather core. Ideal for Transfiguration."
Rose's took by far the longest, and when finally Mr Ollivander said "Larch with phoenix feather core, 9 inches long, thin with a good spring to it. Should be wonderful for any and all protection spells," eyed Rose carefully, and finished "this is a very powerful wand," handing her back her wand, they'd been all too eager to get out of there.
Now they walked through the crowd mulling about in the street, the trio continuously peering in their bags to fascinate at the day's purchases. Suddenly Rose stopped, looking longingly at a very dark store to their left. It had no title, but Lily could see dozens of sets of eyes inside, glowing amber.
Owl eyes.
"Sage," Rose said slowly, turning to face the older woman with her eyes still fixed on the store's tinted window. "My old owl died a few months ago, and I have some money left over, d'you think I coul-"
"A'course!" said Sage brightly, taking Rose's hand and walking swiftly towards the store. She shot a glance back at Jack and Lily, narrowing her eyes.
"You two!" she called over her shoulder. "DON'T. GO. ANYWHERE!"
And with that Rose and Sage disappeared into the store.
Jack and Lily looked slowly to each other, identical mischevious grins lighting up their faces.
"So," Lily said casually, "shall we -"
"GO!" Jack yelled, grabbing hold of her hand and breaking into a fast run.
***
Lily clutched onto Jack's hand, looking around slowly.
"Where are we?" she asked quietly, looking around the dark alley they'd wandered into. It was like something out of a movie, there were clouds of thick smog coming from chimneys which varied from one to four per dark-brown brick building.
There were all sorts of strange people - and, Lily was sure, non-people - walking by, and they all either leered at them or bumped unnecessarily into them as they passed by.
Jack, feeling it was his duty, moved Lily in front of him and held her from behind, shooting comically threatening looks at people twice his size.
Suddenly the two of them were spun around by a man who had to be well over 300 pounds heavy and 6 feet tall.
he was fearsome, with but a few large, sharp teeth, a shaved and tattooed head, and mean little slits of eyes.
His voice came out a fierce growl as he spoke. "How much for the redhead?" he spat at Jack.
The young boy stuttered, looking pale and stricken. "P-P-P-Pardon, sir?" he finally choked out.
"How much fer the pretty little thing?"" he muttered, eyes roaming up and down Lily and making her recoil.
Jack looked at quite a loss and merely stared, open-mouthed, at the man, until suddenly a shout came from further down the street.
"Oi, YOU!" Faith yelled, running up, many dark-colored paper bags in her hands and a deeply amused-looking Magaran and two girls she didn't know in tow.
"Back away, you sick fuck!" the dread-donning girl said, stepping in between the man and the pair.
Had Lily not been so frightened she would have laughed. While Faith certainly was taller than the other two, at around 5'8", that still left her a good foot shorter than the man, and she certainly didn't look strong enough to fight him, despite the fact that she was practically bristling with anger.
They stood there, Lily and Jack cowering, the general crowd watching with detached curiousity, Faith glaring up at the man, fists clenched, and the man looking rather taken aback, until he started laughing.
It was seemingly not a wise move, as the next moment Faith was on top of the man, whose eye was already selling shut as blood poured out of his freshly broken nose.
Faith continued to make mincemeat of the man's face for a few seconds before Magaran and one of the unknown girls got ahold of her and pulled her off, calming her down.
The unknown girl helped the shocked man up while Magaran helped Faith re-gather her bags and put them in a shopping cart the other unknown girl was dragging behind herself.
With a few waves of her wand, the first unknown had the man healed up in a snap, and then, as the other three girls began pulling Jack and Lily along, she smiled up at him, said "Goodbye," she muttered "Obliviate" at which the man's expression mysteriously went blank.
With a pointed look at the crowd, she, too, joined the rest of them in their hurried exit.
"That was a close one," she muttered in a slightly hoarse voice with something reminiscent of a New York accent.
"Too close," piped up the other, who looked remarkably alike to the first, but many years younger.
"What were you all doing over here?" shot Faith at Lily and Jack, ignoring the reproachful glares of her fellows.
"Er," Jack said, saving Lily the necessity of having to look the furious girl in the eyes. "We just ran off here. Sage told us not to go anywhere, but -"
"DO NOT disobey my sister," Magaran hissed. Lily felt this was a very hypocritical command, but did not say so, settling instead for the flitting smirk that passed Faith's lips at her friend's words.
Suddenly the young unknown spoke again, in a chirp which, unlike the older one, was purely Canadian in accent. "Cover their eyes," she said, and at that Faith stepped behind Lily, and Magaran behind Jack, both putting their hands over the youngsters' eyes. Lily caught a fleeting glimpse of a sign which no doubt showed the street's name, and she would have protested, but the unfamiliar feeling of Faith's arms resting on her shoulders and her breasts lightly brushing against Lily's back was an altogether pleasant one, so she remained silent.
"Sorry 'bout this, kidsies," came the throaty drawl of the first unknown. "But if you knew the street name and we ever got on your bad side, you might feel inclined to rat on or blackmail us, and we couldn't have that."
Lily almost began swearing she would never betray any of them, but, thinking that was not the proper thing to do if she wanted to make friends, instead changed the subject.
"So, what were you guys doing over there?" she asked.
She heard Magaran cough slightly and the young girl giggle.
"We go there to buy lingerie and other purchases of a purely naughty nature," came the first unknown's laughing reply.
That shut Lily up for a while.
***
Roughly 3/4 of an hour later, the seven of them sat in the very back of the bus, Rose having rejoined the group as soon as they'd gotten back to Sub Conchesse Alley, with a lovely tawny owl she'd named Isis.
Sage, though she was still shooting deeply suspicious glances at the group every few minutes, had after 10 minutes' convincing accepted the group's reassurances that they had not run off to anywhere far away (during these explanations Lily gave Rose a secret glance and mouthed "I'll tell you later.").
After that, they'd gone with the rest of the students and guides to a large but cozy tea shop/chocolatrie where, to Lily's great relief, unlike the majority of the girls there, the table where Lily and her new friends sat had happily pounced on and devoured the chocolate, and occasionally threw a treat or two over to the tables where girls spoke fretfully of their various diets while no one was looking, and then would burst into silent laughter when, inevitably, one of them would snatch and eat it while the other girls' eyes were elsewhere.
Lily found out a lot about her new companions at that table.
Faith Jones was born on October 30th, and had had a twin sister named Fiona, who had died of pneumonia at the age of 2. She had a younger half-sister named Ember, the dark-haired beauty they'd seen before, and her birth mother had died when she was 3, leaving her alone with her abusive drunk of a father named Jerry. Soon after, he'd married Bunny, a then-26-year old porn star, who, after much begging, had birthed Ember. She was Muggle-born, like Lily, but had been friends with magaran since she was five. Said redhead was only too happy to inform her of the world most girls in her situation would have never suspected, and had been teaching her spells ever since she'd started going to The Institute (which gave Faith a good three years' experience more than the other first years).
Magaran, on the other hand, was from a Pureblood family, Sage was her older sister, and together they took care of their mother, who hadn't spoken in five years, merely sat all day in a rocking chair in a sunroom staring straight ahead until the girls carried her to her bed when the sun set, at which point she would instantly fall asleep. Magarn thought that, for the most part, humans were useless, liked old music and movies, and her biggest life goal was to get bitten by a werewolf, something which Lily thought rather strange after quickly being informed that the transformations were extremely painful, and they were shunned in most parts of the world (and killed in the remaining parts).
Rose was a half-blood, with a witch for a mother and a Muggle father. Her mother was very busy working at her job as an Auror for the Ministry of Magic (Lily was shocked at the discovery of both such things), and had so requested that she be sent with the other Muggle-borns to pick up her things. She openly admitted to being a girly-girl, liking romance novels, pink things, and perfume. Her favorite flower was, naturally, the rose.
Jack was also Muggle-born. He had an older brother Dan who had blacked his eye and called him a queer when he'd gotten his letter (Lily had tentatively placed a comforting hand on his shoulder for a second upon hearing this before remembering herself and taking it away, bright red in the face, although the rest of the table noticed Jack didn't seem to mind much at all). he liked showtunes, dancing, and thought that Audrey Hepburn was the perfect woman (Lily suddenly found herself despising Audrey Hepburn, despite the fact that she didn't really know who she was).
Then, there was Amanda and June Avern.
Amanda was going into her seventh and final year at The Institute, but had been friends with Magaran and Faith for a good three years (since Mag's first year). She'd moved, along with June, to Toronto from (as Lily had suspected), New York, having been kicked out by her Muggle father when he'd found out what she was (Lily noticed Amanda's voice went extremely quiet and toneless when she spoke of her father). June, for self-preservation, had trained herself to speak like a Canadian, but Amanda had merely hexed everyone who made fun of her accent until they got the idea and learned to respect her. She liked corsets, stilleto boots, and snakes, and had long ago decided she would be a showgirl when she got out of school, and work on her true passion - painting - when she had the time. She'd explained that she'd rather just do the Starving Artist thing and concentrate solely on her works, but, she'd said with an affectionate look at June, she had a little sister to take care of. She had tightly-curled hair which was somewhere around chin-length when let straight, and wide chocolate-brown eyes which were slightly hooded, with the premature beginnings of crow's feet at the edges, and they slowly traveled up and down the length of the table, taking in everything and having an oddly calming effect on everyone who met them. Her nose was long, with a slightly square, up-turned end (Magaran smirked and said that it had used to be pierced until Amanda had gotten bored with it), and she had a shininy layer of pure red lipstick. Looking at her vintage clothing like a 1920's flapper, with the slightest of enticing smiles gracing her world-weary face, Lily definitely thought she looked the type to be a showgirl.
Then there was Jane, who was oddly extraordinary in a plain-looking way. She had straight, shoulder-length hair and thick bangs which went just over her eyebrows. Her wide eyes were similar to her sister's, although they had an unusual hint of purple and looked rather mystical. She rarely spoke, but when she did it was always exactly the right thing at exactly the right time, and everyone at the table who knew her happily asserted that she far outsmarted them all, and she wouldn't ever need to study: she remembered EVERYTHING.
They explained that at The Institute, there was the building where the classes were taught, another in which they ate, and three others for living in: one for the male students, one for their female counterparts, and one for the teachers.
These living buildings, at least the students' ones, were divided up into 7 sections; one for each year.
They had many classes, and ran on a bi-weekly schedule. They all took 14 classes for their 7 years there, those being:
-Astronomy (interesting enough, and beautiful, but it could get very complicated)
-Transfiguration (it was all very interesting, and funny at times, but difficult, and tended to be monotonous and aggravating for your first few years)
-Defense Against The Dark Arts (a favorite among the students, definitely one of the most popular and interesting classes)
-Charms ("Useful, verrrrrrrry useful," said Magaran with an altogether evil grin.)
-History Of Magic (Amanda and Magaran chorused a yawn in unison)
-Care Of Magical Creatures (Faith and June's faces both lit up at mention of the class; they apparently were both greatly looking forward to it, being of the opinion that Chimaeras and Hippogriffs were just about the most aodrable things in the world, and this time it was Rose who gave Lily an "I'll Tell You Later Look")
-Divination ("An utter load of rubbish for the most part, unless you're an actual Seer, which is highly rare," sighed Amanda. "But it's an easy grade when you make things up, so that's alright.")
-Arithmancy (which apparently made University-level Algebra look like 1st-grade math)
-Herbology ("It sounds boring, but some of those plants are positively vicious. It'd be a laugh to give a Muggle one," snickered Magaran, earning a reproachful glance from Amanada, who was unusually fond of non-magic folk, especially considering what her father had done.)
-Potions (Faith winced. Apparently, Magaran, who thought Potions was just about the best subject in the world, had attempted to teach Faith said subject, and she had proved to be awe-inspiringly adept at melting cauldrons.)
-Ancient Runes (Amanda held up a charm bracelet which apparently, thanks to the Rune charms dangling from it, would protect her from all evil so long as she wore it. She swore up and down that she was always decorating something with runes.)
-Muggle Studies (which was apparently vastly amusing for anyone who had ever had prolonged contact with Muggles, and was a definite easy grade for them)
-Quidditch (Most magic schools didn't have a class dedicated to the sport, especially in North America, but Catkin Enders, the Headmaster, was apparently a Quidditch fanatic and thought it essential that his students be educated in both the practical and theoretical facets of it)
And finally,
-Art Of Choice (The Institute offered further education of various arts, those being singing; dancing; guitar and bass; drums and percussion; piano, organs, and keys; violin, cello, and the like; a class for the various other instruments (including but not limited to accordian, bagpipes, and the harmonica); art; photography; and acting.)
"So basically it's a bunch of fucked-up art fags with wands," said Amanda proudly, sending the table into another fit of laughter.
And so here Lily was, with six new friends when this morning she'd had none, laughing and chatting animatedly as if they'd all known each other for years.
Lily blinked as the bus jolted to a stop and Jack got up. She waved sadly as he stepped off, his new purchases in tow.
Faith sighed, staring mounrfully at her hands. "I don't reckon I'm gonna fancy going home," she said quietly, thinking of Jerry and his hard hands.
Magaran snorted. "Nor I. Mom's off at the hospital being checked up and Sage's goin' out with that foul boyfriend of hers, so I'll be sitting alone in the house staring at the wall and waiting for it to move," (she'd earlier disclosed that her house was haunted by a particularly violent pair of ghosts).
Amanda snorted. "Like we wanna go back to our apartment and listen to the neighbours beat each other up," she quipped, gesturing at June, who nodded solemnly.
Rose, too, showed signs of great displeasure at the idea of returning home. "Mom and Dad are both off on business trips so it's sittin' on the couch watching TV and eatin' soup out of a can for me," she sighed.
Lily grinned hesitantly. "You guys could all sleep over at my place, if you'd like," she said quietly.
"Are you serious?" demanded Magaran, leaning forward and looking rather desperate.
"Er, yes," Lily said, smiling a bit.
The girls all cheered and Faith literally leapt on her, making Lily think that regardless of how angry her parents might be with her for inviting 5 strange girls over for the night without getting permission, it was worth it.
***
**the chapter is continued, kids. Notepad just wouldn't let me save it all in one file. So move on to the next chapter! w00t!**
