Chapter Ten – Still Not a Saboteur, Redux

Lily groaned and rolled onto her side, hand drifting up to press against where she'd been injured. Her fingers settled on the unmistakable texture of gauze.

Sunlight streamed through the ladder hole leading up to the main deck, and she started to sit up, but winced and lay back down.

"Morning!" Marlene said from the spare bed next to Lily. She stood up, setting a piece of parchment on the cannon between them, and walked around to kneel by Lily. "Can I look?"

Lily's dress—or rather, Marlene's dress—had vanished, leaving only a blanket covering Lily.

Lily glanced around the room and, not seeing anyone else awake, nodded. Marlene pulled the blanket down Lily's torso, revealing a large piece of gauze stuck to the left side of Lily's abdomen. She gently peeled it off, drawing a hiss out of Lily, and set it aside.

"I'd be angry that my dress got ruined," Marlene said, brushing a finger over the sharp pink scar that ran along Lily's side, "but at least you tried to get revenge on the woman who did it."

"I hit her with a chair," Lily said, mostly to herself. "And she cast a spell at me."

"Yeah, nasty Slicing Hex there, but that's a nice clean cut, easy to take care of. The blood loss is what got you, though, and the shock. Drink this." Marlene offered her a vial out of her pocket.

Lily downed the potion, grimacing at the taste, and handed the vial back.

Marlene wandered over to her bed to dispose of it. The slight breeze from her walk knocked the letter balanced on the cannon askew, and it fluttered on top of Lily.

"I've left a few more potions with Caradoc that you should take when you eat breakfast," Marlene said.

Lily glanced at the messy writing covering the parchment, but moved it aside without reading it. Instead her fingers trailed along her scar, the skin slightly puckered, but cleaner than it ever would have healed naturally. "Thanks for fixing me up."

"Why wouldn't I?" Marlene rummaged through her trunk. "Mind, I'm not touching that Death Eater. She's got a nasty bruise from where you whacked her, but she can deal with it."

"Is that what her inking meant?"

"Yeah, that's You Know Who's mark. Puts it on people who've proven themselves to him."

"I don't have one."

"We did notice, actually." Marlene walked back over with a small jar in hand. "But that's not proof of much. Oh, sorry about that." She knelt down next to Lily and tucked the letter in her back pocket, smiling. "My brother wrote me some letters before we left – a new one opens up every week. Your scar doesn't hurt too badly, does it?"

Lily shook her head, and Marlene began smoothing a thick layer of paste onto Lily's scar.

"So, do you think…" Lily said. "Do you think I wanted that woman to get on board?"

"Do I?" Marlene snorted. "No. Does James? Probably not. Sirius and Dorcas—ugh, the two of them together."

"Well, then it's all back to the way it was before I left, then. Lovely."

"Except now we've got a real Death Eater to interrogate."

"I'm surprised I'm not still in irons."

"James said to take them off, and I wasn't going to argue."

"Bet Sirius did, though."

Marlene leaned in, inspecting Lily's wound, and sat back looking satisfied. "If we were still in Hogwarts, James might've listened to him, but these days…. Well, I think James is coming around to you."

"Because I got sliced open?"

"Because you hit that woman with a chair." Marlene placed fresh gauze over the paste and drew Lily's blanket back up.

"If I'd known hitting someone with a chair would've got him to trust me, I would've whacked Dorcas on day one."

"She wouldn't have let you get that far," James called from the ladder to the main deck. He let go and hopped down, skipping the last few rungs.

"It's okay," Marlene told Lily, "Dorcas has got a Deafening Charm on her right now."

James stopped at the foot of Lily's bed and smiled. "You're looking much better."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Not bleeding all over everything is my best look."

"Can she come up to my cabin?" James asked Marlene. "I think we need to talk."

Marlene shrugged. "Whatever Lily wants."

"I can come," Lily said, even though lying curled up in a ball in bed sounded infinitely more appealing. "I just need clothing, preferably."

"Don't get dressed on my account," James said, "but I'll be waiting upstairs either way."

Lily managed to stand up all right, but Marlene had to help Lily with her undergarments and trousers, and Lily's side twinged when she stretched her arms up to pull on a shirt. Considering the size of her scar, though, there was remarkably little pain.

Properly attired, Lily slowly climbed the ladder. Moving her arms stretched out her side, enough to pull at her new skin, but she pressed on and pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the hole.

She paused for a moment to catch her breath, and that was probably a mistake, she realized, when the full force of the previous night's events washed over her.

She'd been attacked. She'd passed out from blood loss. She could have died, if it hadn't been for Marlene.

She'd thought, rather foolishly, that she'd reached her nadir when Caradoc had found her crying, but things could always get worse, and they had.

The Death Eater's shadowed face loomed in Lily's mind, and Lily swallowed hard. It was difficult to believe, with the sun shining brightly overhead, that she'd been in such dire straits only the night before. If it hadn't been for James—well, if it hadn't been for James, she wouldn't have been in that situation at all, but he'd still kept the Death Eater from killing her.

Her eyes prickled, but she hurriedly swiped her palms over them and climbed to her feet, her wound twinging. She could cry later, when she was alone, and then move her limbs simply because she had that freedom and she'd never fully appreciated that before, but right now she had to get James to give her Veritaserum so she could leave his bloody ship and get out of danger altogether.

Except.

She was no longer the biggest threat on the ship. Lily wasn't familiar with how much Veritaserum was needed to properly dose someone, but James hadn't had very much in that vial. It might have been enough for only one person.

It didn't take very long to play out the possibilities of how the Veritaserum could be used.

Lily nearly did cry at her conclusions, but she took a deep breath and marched through the library anyway. There was no use throwing a fit over things that couldn't be changed.

When she crossed the threshold, Algernon jumped out of James's lap and bounded over to her.

"I'd pet you," she said, "but I can't really reach down right now."

"He understands." James stood up from his alcoved bench next to the window, his eyes skimming from her head to her feet. "Er, why don't you lay down and I'll pull up a chair."

He tugged his blankets and pillows into a rough semblance of order and stepped aside with one arm spread to welcome her forward. She gingerly lowered herself onto his bed, smiling when Algernon hopped up next to her. He curled up in a ball by her side, and she stroked his ears, his head lolling back, pleased.

"How are you feeling?" James asked.

Pained, frustrated, desperate, lonely, confused.

"Fine," she said, her throat tight.

He folded his arms over his chest. "Good. That's…good."

Lily contented herself with petting Algernon while James paced back and forth next to her.

He stopped mid-step and sharply pivoted back toward her. "I'm sorry you got hurt. I mean, obviously I didn't know she was on board or I wouldn't have left you alone, but I'm still…sorry."

She forced a smile. "I'm fine. Really."

"I forget—I forget sometimes what this is like for you. You're not a member of my crew, and I—I should've asked if you were all right, but everyone else on this ship would never hesitate to report their injuries, and I forgot you don't know those protocols—"

"I was in shock," Lily said, with an air of finality. "I didn't even really know what she'd done."

"We should've treated you immediately—"

"Trust me, Marlene worked wonders." She glanced around the room, avoiding James's eyes. "Where's the Death Eater now?"

"Down in the magazine." James dragged a chair over from his table, the legs scraping against the wooden floor, and sat backwards on it, one hand absently ruffling his hair. "Restrained, warded. You don't need to worry about her."

And even though she knew where bringing it up would take her, she asked, "What did you want to talk about? I mean, since you've got to use the Veritaserum on your new prisoner instead of on me."

He gave her a wry smile. "So certain, are you?"

"It's only logical. There's no question that she's a threat. But if I am what I say I am, some random Muggle-born, then you gain nothing from interrogating me."

"But if you were a saboteur, you'd have more information. She was sent in with a strong likelihood of getting caught – you were supposed to worm your way into the crew."

"If I were a saboteur, that could be true, yes. But if I'm not—and for the hundredth time, I'm not—then you've wasted your opportunity." She tried to sit up, but gave up when the motion wrenched at her scar. "Do you think this woman would have hesitated to kill you, or your crew?"

"Definitely not."

"And what've I done? I roughed up Sirius, and that—I needed you to come out onto the deck, and you know how he is, and—my point is, I didn't kill you, or even really hurt Sirius too much. I didn't do anything to you, but I could have. You know I could have."

He tapped his fingers along his forearm and stood up to pace again. "Why did you need me to come out onto the deck? Don't tell me you missed me."

"I wanted my things back."

"What, your hairpin and a bit of money? Although—you must've had the hairpin, unless you found some other way out of the magazine…."

Lily looked down at Algernon. "Some of the items have sentimental value."

James stopped in front of the windows, his hands behind his back. He didn't say anything for a moment, just stood there with his head tilted.

"What did you hit Sirius with, anyway?" he asked.

"A cannonball."

He laughed, sharp and hollow, and resumed his pacing. "I suppose we've plenty of those lying around."

"Please tell me you're not going to waste your Veritaserum on me. You can't risk your crew's safety like that. Or yours."

He regarded her strangely.

"Look," she said. "I don't have real secrets. My surname, probably, and that's it. You're a pirate – always on the hunt for a new opportunity, right? Surely you can see you've got better opportunities with that woman than with me."

James stopped near the end of the bed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And there it is," he said, readjusting his glasses. "How can you—I'm not—we've got a problem, you know."

"Obviously. God knows why, but for some reason What's His Face has sent his Death Eaters after a bunch of pirates. I assume you stole from him?"

He gave an exasperated sigh and swung the chair around to sit in it properly. "All right, Lily. I need to ask you: do we look like pirates?"

"I don't think anyone looks like a pirate unless they have a peg leg and a talking parrot. I assumed you traded out the parrot for a cat."

"Algernon's only on board because he insisted," James corrected. "But no. That's not…. What makes you think I'm a pirate?"

"You told me as much."

"But before that. Before you came on my ship."

"Oh. I saw a wanted poster, in Brighton. It had your face on it, said you were wanted for piracy."

Comprehension dawned on James's face. "Those things. And here I'd laughed them off."

"What?"

He strode across the room, flipped through some parchments in a desk drawer, and brought one back to Lily. "I kept one for myself," he said, holding it out. "Thought it was funny, really."

She took the poster and glanced over it. "Why would being wanted for piracy be funny?" She handed it back to him, and he set it on the table behind him. "People are hanged for that."

James shrugged and sat down. "It's just You Know Who trying to find me. They're not—we're not pirates, Lily."

"That sounds like something a pirate would say."

He raised his eyebrows.

He could deadpan with the best of them, but he didn't—

He wasn't joking.

Oh, the bastard.

Lily bolted upright in his bed, ignoring the spike of pain in her side. "I parleyed with you."

"And?"

She whipped his pillow at his head, but he caught it with both hands. "You complete and utter arse."

"You tried to steal from me." He let the pillow drop onto the ground.

"Because I thought you were pirates!"

"Well, we're not. You Know Who put those up because—he didn't like what I was doing."

The worst part was, even though James had lied to her, it wouldn't have mattered. She'd snuck on board and initially acted without him lying to her. That was all on her.

Her whole predicament would have happened regardless of James's lie.

She huffed. "This is ridiculous. I can't imagine why What's His Face would care about you."

"Oi, I'm a proper threat to him, I'll have you know."

"Well, clearly I've got the wrong end of the stick about What's His Face, if he's terrified of a boy with a ship."

"You think so little of me, do you?"

"Why shouldn't I? You're—" A pirate, she'd been about to say, but that wasn't true, as it turned out. "You've given me no reason to think better of you."

"You were perfectly willing to believe I was enough of a threat to the Royal Navy to have a wanted poster, but now you don't think I can scare the pants off of You Know Who?"

"Exactly."

"Well, fair enough, I'm sure he's not personally terrified of me. His pants are likely well in place. But he doesn't like what I've done, or what I could do."

"Like what, talk his cats into betraying him?"

He laughed and shook his head. "No, nothing like that. What, you think I've been mucking about the last two years, letting him have everything without a fight?"

"What else was I supposed to think? You told me you were a pirate."

A smile played at the corners of his lips. "You really believed me, didn't you?"

"Strangely, I don't usually doubt people who claim to be pirates. And besides, your cat had an eye patch. I'd seen your poster. Why shouldn't I have thought you were a pirate?"

"I'm glad I was so believable."

She scoffed. "Of the two of us, you're the one who's been lying about who he is."

Algernon stepped across her stomach, paws delicately avoiding her wound, and hopped off the bed to sit next to James.

"It was for your protection," James said. "If we let you go right away, I thought it would be better for everyone if you didn't actually know who we were. If you just thought you'd met some magical pirates, no one would try to interrogate you about what you'd seen and heard on board, and you wouldn't be—hurt."

"I'd say that's paranoid but then I've got a lovely new scar."

"Right. So. I thought it made sense."

"Of course you did. You're a lunatic."

He laughed, short and quiet. "I suppose I can take that eye patch off now, Algernon. Your part in my ruse is over."

He gently pried the eye patch off, and Algernon shook his head, blinking profusely, and leaped back onto the bed with Lily.

"That was just for show?" Lily asked.

"Well, I thought it was funny. And he'd just annoyed me, and then I didn't want to break the ruse, so…."

"I can't believe you made your cat wander around with one eye for more than a week just to convince me you were a pirate."

"I'm a very committed person, especially to ruses," he said solemnly. "But there's no need for it anymore."

"Does that mean you believe me when I say who I am now? Did my chair bashing and gullibility convince you?"

He nodded, standing up to pace again. "The final spell in the ward. I wouldn't—that wouldn't be my first thought, using a chair. And after seeing how you escaped yesterday…."

"Running away made you think I was Muggle-born?"

"No, that's to be expected, like you said. But you didn't take off my Tracking Charm, even though you had a wand."

"I didn't—when did you cast that on me?"

He turned back to her and frowned. "When you were in the water."

"The spell hit the water, I thought."

"Well, it did, but that doesn't stop the spell. It's not a wall. Light can move through water, at least if it's really shallow."

"Oh," Lily said sourly. "So I could've run all day and you would've found me."

"That's exactly what happened, if you recall. I lost my whole day in Oporto following you."

"If you're expecting an apology, I hear they'll be all the rage two centuries from now."

He almost smiled, but not quite. "Thought as much."

At least her escape attempt had had some benefit. He believed her now, finally. That was something. Too bad it wouldn't get her on land anytime soon.

"But I'm afraid," he said, "that I can't really fulfill the terms of our parley for a while. It'll be another month on board at least. We've got business to take care of before I can take you back to Portugal."

If Lily hadn't already concluded that herself before entering his cabin, she might've been outraged, or at least annoyed. Instead she bit back a sigh. The thought of a month on James's ship wouldn't have stung nearly as much if she hadn't thrown herself at him two days earlier, or if he hadn't looked so damned apologetic over having to keep her around. He'd wanted her on board, once, and spending weeks with him, knowing he wasn't interested….

But a month wasn't forever, she told herself, in a pitiful attempt to cheer herself up. She could read for a couple weeks and try to get other passage out of the Azores.

He was still watching her for a response, so she nodded, not looking at him.

"You feeling all right?" he asked.

"Marlene has some potions for me somewhere," she said vaguely.

"Then you should go take them. I've got to prepare to interrogate our prisoner."

Algernon headbutted Lily's chest when she sat up, and she stroked the softer fur on his head.

"I think you would've protected me last night if you could have," she told Algernon.

He let out a long, low purr.

Lily laughed, and caught James smiling at her, pleased and affectionate. He might've turned her down the other night, and she'd been stupid over men before, but she wasn't imagining the way he looked at her.

Maybe the weeks ahead wouldn't be so awful, if he believed her, and smiled at her.

She memorized the tilt of his mouth like that, and left him with Algernon in his cabin.

She managed to cross the library and the deck without too much pain, and found Marlene in the common room enjoying a late breakfast.

Lily sat down across the table from her. "You liar."

"Hrm?" Marlene said, mouth full of bread.

"You're not pirates at all."

Marlene swallowed her food and exhaled deeply. "Oh, thank Merlin that's over."

"Why did you go along with that stupid farce? I expect that sort of thing from James, now, but the rest of you…."

Marlene shrugged. "He figured you calling us pirates was a ruse, in which case he thought it'd be fun to play along, or he thought you really believed it, in which case he thought it'd be fun to play along."

"And you said all right, let's do it?"

"Well. Sirius and Remus persuaded us it would be a good idea."

"Sirius I can see, but Remus?"

"James—" Marlene's eyes flicked toward the door. "He's had a hard time of it lately, and he hasn't—he hasn't been himself. When he said he wanted to play at pirates—we couldn't say no. That's something the old James would have done, at Hogwarts."

"And you lot would do anything for him."

"Because he'd do anything for us. I mean, with Remus on the full moon, he and the others—well, that's James's secret."

"He told me they do spells in there."

"Right. Well, there's that, and then…. We were partnered together in Arithmancy one term. I was really upset one day because the professor had said something about our essay – he didn't mean it to be cruel, but I took it a bit hard, and James charmed his chair to buck him out of it whenever he tried to sit down. He's just—he's our captain. We agreed to that when we signed on, to listen to him, and we do. Sirius less than others, but that's them, though."

"Still don't know why you all had to lie to me," Lily muttered.

"Lily," Marlene said sternly, "you are not allowed to be angry with me for lying when you did nothing but lie to me when we first met."

"That was because—I thought you were pirates, and I didn't—that's just what I do, Marlene."

Marlene gave her one last sharp look, and then relented. "I don't like what you do, but I still thought you seemed nice. I thought it was strange, that someone so nice would be doing that."

"Life's a funny thing." Lily gave her a rueful smile. "But thanks for not holding that against me. I really haven't lied to you since."

"I did take all your belongings?"

"Yes. James is just crap at security."

"Oh, please tell him that. Please. As a favor to your friend, Marlene, who really needs to put James in his place after last night."

"What happened last night wasn't your fault."

"Well, not entirely. Dorcas should have been out there working, but she was—" Marlene stopped herself and looked down at her plate.

"You don't think…."

"I'm not saying anything."

"But Sirius was—he wouldn't need help fixing a broken chair—"

"Not a word."

Lily slanted a smile at her. "Yes, Healer."

The door swung open and Remus's head poked through, looking a bit ill. "We're going to interrogate the Death Eater. Marlene, can you take care of the tacking for a bit?"

"Of course!"

"You're wonderful. Thank you. Lily, I'm terribly sorry to hear about you getting attacked by Death Eaters."

"I'm terribly sorry to hear that you lot have been pretending to be pirates."

"Ah. Yes. Are we finally done with that ruse, then?"

"Fortunately, yes."

"That's how I prefer it. Well, rest up."

"Planning on it."

Remus ducked out of the door, closing it behind him.

Marlene slid her chair back. "That's me, then."

Lily followed her out of the common room while Marlene went on about how asinine it was to pretend to be pirates, but she hesitated by the ladder to the gun deck.

Marlene kept walking, pausing only when she saw Lily wasn't next to her anymore. "Oh, right, you should sleep," she said. "But first go find Caradoc and get some breakfast and potions in you."

"Right," Lily said absently. "D'you think they'd let me watch the interrogation?"

"Why would you….I mean, I dunno."

"Curiosity."

"Probably not. They've got—you don't know everything yet, I don't think."

"No," Lily sighed. "It's really apparent that I don't."

Lily had fallen into a light doze, her empty plate at the foot of her bed, when she heard someone climbing up from the orlop deck.

She sat up, wincing, and saw James storming down toward her. He was halfway across the deck before Sirius's head popped up through the ladder hole.

"James," Sirius called. "Prongs."

James whirled around, his arms stiff at his sides, his fists clenched. "Fuck!"

"Hold on, all right?" Sirius climbed off the ladder.

"Is everything okay?" Lily asked.

Remus came up behind Sirius, and they both walked toward James like they were approaching a wild animal.

"James," Remus said soothingly, "that's all she knows."

James's hand tore through his hair as he paced back and forth. Lily tried to catch Remus's eye for some explanation, but he was entirely focused on James.

"That's what they said would be useful," Remus continued. "It might very well be – we don't have enough information to judge the value—"

James spun to the side and viciously kicked one of the cannons, his boot connecting with a dull clang. "Shit!"

Sirius reached out to steady James's shoulder as he hopped on one foot. "Idiot."

"I'll go get Marlene," Remus sighed. He made for the ladder to the main deck while Sirius helped lower James onto the spare bed across from Lily.

James delicately stretched out his leg and grimaced. "All right, in hindsight, I'm willing to concede I shouldn't have kicked that cannon."

Sirius stood back and folded his arms. "And next you'll learn that things don't stop existing once they're out of sight. Well done, indeed, Captain Potter."

"What happened?" Lily ventured.

Sirius didn't even look at her. "Stay out of it."

"Fuck, Sirius, would you let up already?" James said. "She's not a bloody Death Eater."

"You don't know that."

"And you don't know she is, so shut it."

"Wasted our Veritaserum," Sirius muttered, with a sharp glance at Lily. "Knew we shouldn't have used it on that one."

"Ask me anything, Sirius," Lily said savagely. "What are you so desperate to know about me? Am I that threatening? My inability to know if someone's cast a spell on me? Real danger, that. Or maybe you're just sore that I beat you."

"That wasn't a fair fight."

"If I understand things correctly, you should be used to that."

Sirius's gaze dropped back to James. "What did you tell her?"

James was cradling his toe and pointedly didn't look up.

"Oh, for God's sake, Sirius," Lily said. "He barely told me anything. None of you do – I'm an open book compared to the rest of you."

Marlene almost slid down the ladder from the main deck and hurried over to kneel in front of James. "James Potter, stop hurting yourself!"

By now James's face had taken a turn toward green. Lily watched him curiously – he hadn't kicked his foot that hard.

"Let me just—" Marlene pulled out her wand and murmured a spell against his shoe. "Nothing serious, at least. Give me a moment. You might want to lie down for this, and hold onto something."

James nodded, the lines in his throat bobbing as he swallowed. Marlene eased his shoe off, and he let out a long, thin hiss.

"Such a baby," she muttered, and cast a line of blue light at his foot.

James swore under his breath.

"That's it." Marlene stood up. "I've got to take care of some things Dorcas asked me to do before she wakes up."

"In a minute," he said quietly, climbing to his feet. He stepped lightly on his newly Healed foot, and then again with his full weight. "I need to see you in my cabin."

"Oh," she said, voice sinking. "Right. 'Course."

"It won't take long. Come on."

Marlene sullenly followed him to the ladder and climbed up after him.

Sirius seemed stuck in place, a strange look on his face.

"You'd make an excellent pirate," Lily told him. "You're certainly ruthless enough."

He snapped out of his daze and threw her a disdainful look. "You'd know better than I."

Lily opened her mouth to reply, but he simply turned and strode over to the ladder. He wasn't halfway up before Lily was on her feet.

Whatever potion Marlene had given her with breakfast had worked wonders – her side ached half as much as it had when she'd first woken up. She still took her time on the ladder, but soon enough she joined Sirius and Remus in the library.

Sirius glared at her. "You're not welcome here."

"Fuck off," Lily said easily, and lowered herself into a seat at the table.

"I don't think he'll be too hard on her," Remus said. "It's partially my fault the shift schedule got so irregular—"

Sirius spun toward Remus. "Not another word. It's not your fault in any way."

"I didn't think until now—could the Death Eater have cast a spell on Marlene?"

"How could the Death Eater have cast it unless Marlene wasn't watching?"

Remus sighed and leaned his elbows on the table.

"What are you going to do with…the woman below deck?" Lily asked.

"It's up to James," Remus said, "and, well—other people."

James slipped out from his cabin with his mouth fixed in a grim line. He sank down into the chair next to Remus and propped his head up with one hand threaded through his hair.

"Death Eaters got Marlene's family," James said in a low voice. "All of them."

Remus's head snapped up toward the door to James's cabin, as though he could see her through the wall. "Marlene," he said softly, although he didn't seem aware that he'd spoken.

Sirius blinked. "Fuck."

Lily's vision went a bit blurry as a few tears sprung up, and she blinked them away. "Shit," she said, because there was nothing else to say.

"Mad-Eye told me earlier," James said miserably, "and I thought—I thought our Death Eater might know something—but she had nothing—fuck." He sat up and banged a fist on the table.

No one seemed quite sure what else to do, or say. There was nothing that could make Marlene feel better, nothing that could ease the sudden, wrenching transition to being an orphan.

Lily's heart ached for Marlene, sharp and raw.

"Remus," James said quietly. "I can't help but notice you're still here."

"Yes. I am."

They shared a brief look that Lily couldn't interpret.

"Right," James sighed. "Of course. Well, in that case, you should go in, Lily."

"Sorry, what?"

"Go in there. She likes you."

"I—I just met her."

"She needs someone. You think I should send in Dorcas?"

Lily nearly laughed at the flabbergasted version of Dorcas that appeared in her head when asked to comfort someone.

"Men," she said under her breath, and marched over to knock gently on the door. "Marlene?"

No one answered.

"Marlene, it's Lily. Can I come in?"

But still Marlene said nothing. No sounds penetrated the door, not even Algernon's meowing. Lily tried the handle, but it didn't budge.

"Did you lock it?" she asked James.

"No," James said slowly. He joined her at the door and wiggled the handle. "She's locked us out?"

Lily squeezed her eyes shut, pushing back the hint of tears that had prickled up. "She shouldn't have to be alone in there."

"But that's what she wants," Remus said.

Lily stared at the dark door blocking Marlene off from her friends for a long moment, then reluctantly sat back down at the table, feeling horrendously hollow.

"Well," James said, sinking back into a chair, "that can't be good."