Lily landed outside her childhood home.
So much for never looking back.
A light in an upstairs window signified that Petunia was home, but Lily hadn't come for her first traitor. She turned to walk down the street. In the darkness, a mass of uniform homes with their neatly-trimmed hedges stood at attention.
In what should have been a still night in the simple English town, anticipation brewed.
The wind stung wildly at Lily's face—tangling her hair, refusing to be tamed. In the distance, the sky abruptly rumbled. And Lily shuddered. James's sweater could do little to protect her when the elements themselves were making it quite obvious that they would show her no mercy.
The moment she'd left the Marauders' home, Lily had known she was sacrificing her safety. But however different theory was from actually being exposed and without backup in the Muggle world, Lily tread on, enduring the affront. Her heart was pounding, rational thought eluding her. Anger swelled within her, and for once, Lily squashed her conscience.
"Expecto patronum."
How Lily was able to cast a corporeal patronus in her maddened state she didn't know. But it must have been the reserve of laughter from her Hogwarts days that Lily knew would never cease to fill her.
Lily willed the gentle doe to deliver her message as she approached the deserted park. The hour may have been dark and thunderous but not any less than Lily.
Good, she thought. If any Muggles look outside, they'll mistake the duel for lightning.
Alert enough not to sit on the swings, Lily drew out her wand, lit at the tip, and waited.
As seconds turned into minutes and impulsive intoxicated Lily took pause, the certainty turned to smoke. The rush came to a complete stop.
This was a mistake. Actually, it was single-handedly the stupidest thing Lily had ever done. Snape might not come alone... he might bring his fellow Death Eaters... they could capture Lily, or worse. As a member of the Order, Lily hadn't put just herself in danger by taking this little excursion. She was threatening their entire operations.
But the deed was done. James was gone, and if she got hurt or taken, maybe she didn't care.
He didn't, so why should she?
Lily sensed the air shift behind her. It was too soon. She turned carefully, wand at the ready, Expelliarmus at the tip of her—
"Oh thank Merlin!"
Sirius launched himself at Lily, engulfing her in a forceful hug that knocked the breath from her lungs and warmth into her frozen limbs.
"Let me go, Black!" She broke free from his hold to look at his partner. "What are you doing here?"
Remus's stance remained guarded.
"Stopping you from engaging in destructive behavior," Sirius grinned, looking more relieved than he'd ever been, even when their most complicated pranks went to plan. "We know Prongs is a first-class idiot, but you don't have to stoop to his level you know."
"Leave," Lily seethed.
She was in too deep. Sirius and Remus were saving her ass quite literally. She knew she desperately needed her brothers by her side, but why was she being so stubborn?
"Lily," started Remus. "We can not be here."
But it was too late.
"Well, well, well. Look what we have here." The voice did not belong to Severus Snape. "A werewolf, a Mudblood, and a blood traitor."
Two hooded figures emerged from a clearing adjacent to the park and into the light owed partly to the moon and partly to the streetlamp. The trio simultaneously aimed their wands at the speaker.
Sirius met his brother's eye for the first time in four months.
"Who shall we teach a lesson first, huh Severus?" continued Regulus Black, seemingly unfazed by his older brother standing inches from his face. "Poor werewolf can't help it can he? Nor is it the Mudblood's fault she was born scum. I say let's go for the ungrateful little—"
"Regulus," began Sirius, unwavering at the remarks that had been so callously thrown in the air.
"Don't you dare speak my name with that filthy mouth. Merlin knows—"
"Enough," came the fifth voice that night. Snape now spoke directly to Lily with his characteristic enunciation, "You summoned?"
But Sirius spoke for her, "It was a mistake. Forget it. Good night."
Sirius grabbed Lily by the shoulder's, attempting to turn her around, when a bolt of red light was countered by Remus.
Remus, who hadn't moved towards either Snape or Regulus upon their arrival and was instead waiting to see how Sirius would react, had just now saved Sirius from being Stupefy-ed by his real brother. Curses streaked through the air thereafter, and who of the five sent which curse soon became muddled.
Severus rebuked Regulus once a short stalemate was reached, but it was Lily who responded with mirth in her eyes.
"Why stop him now Snivellus? We're all here. Why don't you let your friend finish us off, and you can both hop along to your master, wagging your tails, and show him what good boys you've been?"
"You're not well, Lil—"
"Shut up, SHUT UP! I am perfectly damn well! And I don't need to hear any more misogyn—"
"We did not come here to attack you, nor to cajole you," started Sirius's voice of reason once more. Regulus raised his wand but Snape raised his arm in front of an advancing Regulus. "Let's save this fight for another time, shall we? I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities."
The firsts this night didn't show signs of stopping for who could have imagined Sirius behaving so diplomatically in front of Snape? Then again, in what world would James have left the Marauders without so much as a letter? But Remus knew equally well that while they might win the fight here and now, losing Lily in James's absence was not a risk Sirius was equipped to take.
Snape stared long and hard at Lily, and then Sirius, before responding. "Take care of her."
Lily and Regulus protested at once.
"What is it with you people? I can sure as bloody hell take care of myself!"
"What are you doing?! All three of them are here; let's f—"
"Let it go, Regulus," but once again, it was not Snape who spoke. "This is not your fight."
"Let me have at you!" charged Regulus, into Snape's restraining hold. "Not my fight? This is what I... what we were raised to do! And what did you do? You just bloody left!"
"It was the right thing to do..." started Sirius, sensing something other than a proclivity for the Dark Arts and blood order in Regulus's words.
"I stayed! I stayed and—"
"You know as well as I do what is darkness and what is light," Sirius interrupted with a solemn finality.
Nodding to Snape, Sirius turned away from his blood once more and towards his chosen family. Lily, who was still fuming, was at a loss for words, but Remus understood what had just passed between the brothers.
Huddled together, the trio was about to apparate when Regulus, now free of Snape's grasp, decided to hit another nerve.
"Where's your beloved Potter tonight anyways? Moose got run over by a car now did he?"
Sirius gained his composure in the same second he lost it, but Lily would have collapsed if it weren't for Remus's and Sirius's arms around her.
"Think you're the only ones with spies," scoffed Regulus.
"Regulus!" snapped Snape suddenly.
Regulus paid no attention and walked right up to the Marauders; he was now breathing on both Sirius's and Lily's necks.
"Even if I did know where your prince was, I don't kiss and tell."
At this, Sirius flung himself at Regulus, smacking his wand out of his hand in the process and grabbing him by the collar. Their boyhood wrestling days long over, the two young men now stood heaving at one another's throats.
"Leave him, Sirius! It's not worth—"
"Listen to your furry friend, Sir," Regulus looked far from afraid.
"Now you listen, you punk," Sirius bellowed, not playing games and tightening his hold on Regulus's (also leather) jacket. "You do not utter James's name with your cowardly, uninspired—"
"Sirius, LILY!" shouted Remus, losing his cool for the second time that day—the first being his bout with Dumbledore at the Order meeting only hours before but one that felt like eons ago.
Sirius dropped Regulus at once and went to Lily who had a wand out at Snape.
"It's because of YOU that he—and you two! Let me go! I'm not a child!" Lily exclaimed, struggling against Sirius and Remus.
"Choose them... over your own brother, Sir," projected Regulus, now backing away towards Snape. "This is how they repay us?'
Grave personal loss was by now an old acquaintance to them all, and Regulus it seemed was not to be excluded from this sum.
"You know as well as I do that that's not what this is about." Sirius glanced over at the figures now retreating into the clearing and, upon feeling a cautionary hand on his shoulder from Remus, spoke to the younger of the two: "This is far from finished."
Thunder tore apart the sky once more and under its bellows, Sirius, Remus and Lily vanished into the night.
—
Back in the King's Road flat, a yelp startled the trio.
"AH!" gasped Romey the house elf who was cozied up in a rocking chair by the fireplace. It looked like she was startled more by their sudden arrival than were they by her. "Young ma'am and masters have arrived! Shall I heat up dinner?"
"Yes, please," replied Sirius, resuming his role as head of the house. "Sorry for scaring you."
"No problem Master Sirius, sir. I'm happy to serve until Master James is back."
"Please, you don't have to call me Master," smiled Sirius.
Romey bowed pleasantly and proudly walked back to the kitchen. Back in his mother's reign, Sirius's kind affinity with the help had even softened Kreacher. That is, until Kreacher took a preference to Regulus for being the prodigious Black son, it not helping that Sirius left.
Now turning to Lily, who stood expectantly looking at Sirius, he cleared the room.
"I am not going to say 'What were you thinking?!'—although, be clear, that is what I'm thinking—under the assumption that you weren't thinking. No need to be embarrassed; today you get a pass, Lils. It's been a rough day—hell! A rough weekend for us all."
The warm and well-lit atmosphere of their safe flat had lightened the mood and being back had thus lifted Lily's sunken spirits. Sirius continued.
"There's no chance that idiot will be able to stay away from us for long. And if he dare tries, we'll find him. Get some rest, and by morning, I want Lily back. Deal?"
Lily nodded. "Thanks fam."
Remus cracked a smile, nudging Lily. "Awww, look how responsible and mature this one can get. If this is what it takes, we need to have James GTFO more often."
At this, even Lily let out a shaken exhale that could pass as a laugh, and Sirius put on his classic smirk. "Shut up, Moony. And please start using those eye masks I got you."
For now, without James, things at the Marauder pad were as normal as they were going to get.
