A/N: Thanks again for once more joining me on this story and glad you've all got this far. I hope you enjoy this one as much as the others. And Merry Christmas for you lovely lot have had two updates this month. YAY!
And thank you to literally the best reviewer ever. Sophiecassiethalia you are my absolute favourite and thank you for commenting! I started this because TLAT didn't finish and I just kept going back to read it (cuz lets be honest, it's a gooooooood read) hoping the author would continue the story on for James and Lily to get together. It hadn't happened yet and this is kinda how I see it happening.
PS. MaddieMorganGoode007 you will find that the last chapter was one of the shortest chapters (there was just less parts) There is a long part in this though.
PPSS. Sorry but I had to steal (even though I'm already stealing) the coin idea because, lets face it, it is ingenious.
PPPSSS. It's a bit of an abrupt ending (apologises) but if I continued to some type of end it would have been another chapter length, and even I know that's too long.
Disclaimer: JK Rowling is The Night King and we are her Wights.
Chapter 10 - 'Who and where and why and when' - Young Fathers
(Herbology with a Ravenclaw)
Tonight was the night Lily would take her detention. McGonagall had cornered her outside the Great Hall, one week ago, the day after she used the Expomise spell on the two Slytherins, to discuss why she was getting the detention. "Students shouldn't use spells—-"
"Lily, are you listening?" James asked as they stood outside the greenhouses, away from the rest of the class.
"Huh?"
Potter's eyes filled with concern. "How much sleep did you get last night?"
"Er," She began as she tried to calculate the hours. Voldemort and his followers had been targeting muggleborns, and anyone associated with them, in very open, public places. It started with the car crash last week but since then, they've attacked a supermarket, a restaurant and a park. With each incident, a muggleborn student, at Hogwarts, had been affected. Lily couldn't help but feel an imminent doom for herself and her family, so of course she wasn't sleeping. "I think…er….an hour, maybe."
Lily could tell James was trying to word his next sentence carefully. "You can ask Slughorn for a sleeping potion or—-"
"No."
"No?"
"I'm not going to have a potion induced sleep, Potter."
"You need your sleeping, Lily." He shook his head. "I'm gonna ask McGonagall if she'll put back your detention."
"It's only cleaning cauldrons." She informed and then whispered with a glare. "I don't need you looking after me."
"Someone has to because you aren't looking after yourself."
"I'm fine, James. Worry about something else."
Potter sighed but didn't continue on the subject.
"What did you want me to listen to?" Lily asked him after a moment of silence.
"It was just a heads up."
"About?"
"Sophia."
Dippet hadn't remembered anything. She'd had a go at Sirius once more, like he predicted, and Lily had hoped they'd have their conversation again but it didn't happen. The last week had dragged with anticipation and Lily was almost giving up on waiting for Sophia to come to her. "What about her?"
"Remus told me—"
"He told you what?"
"That you and Padfoot haven't fallen out at all and have late night meetings in the Common Room."
She stuttered a few words before giving up. "Do you guys tell each other everything?"
"That's beside the point. And I'll let it slide that you didn't tell me about your little secret." James said. "I think, from what Sirius has told me, Sophia—-"
"Do you like her?"
Potter didn't respond straight away.
"You don't." Lily snickered.
"I didn't say that."
"It's an easy answer, you do or you don't. If you have to think about it then you obviously don't."
"Well, I've known her since I was young, she's easy to talk to and I see the appeal—-"
She rolled her eyes.
"Hey," James laughed. "Would you rather I'd lie? She's attractive. Everyone knows it."
"Whatever."
"Jealous?"
"No."
He smirked. "But, I don't really like what she made you and Sirius 'fall' out, she's not overly fun, she's spoilt—"
Lily gave him a look to shush for he couldn't see Dippet walking over to them, for his back was to her. Her hair was still the hideous red and gold colour but it did look like it was fading. Sophia wasn't the only student to have had their hair transformed. All of the Slytherin Quidditch team had fallen victim to the Marauders spell, a few underclassman spies and both Captains of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff team. James had got into trouble for altering students appearance but was also praised by McGonagall.
"Sophia, hi." Lily smiled, trying her best to not seem sarcastic.
"Lily, can we talk?"
"It's alright, I know what you are going to say."
"You do?" Dippet asked confused before she gasped. "Is that why I want to the pitch? Was I there to talk to you?"
Evans nodded.
"Do you know what I said?" She laughed. "That bloody amnesia spell hasn't lifted yet."
"That's the point." Potter said. "We don't want your Captain to know our game plan."
"I think Boot has learnt his lesson, James."
"We'll see about that after our next practice."
"I'll have to make sure I don't show up for that one. I might end up turned into a frog or something." Sophia looked worryingly at Lily.
Lily smiled and chose to remind Dippet of what she had suggested. "I also said that we should try to be friends because maybe that's what the issue was."
"Yeah, we can sit in Herbology together."
"What? Today? Now?"
"Sure."
"Don't we have to start a group project today?"
"Yeah, we'll be working on it until Christmas break."
Lily tried not to look shocked or seem reluctant at the suggestion but she couldn't think of anything worse than having to do a six week project with Sophia. They'd have to sit by each other for all their Herbology lessons, do homework together and write their thesis' together. That was too much time spent with Sophia fucking Dippet.
But it wasn't in Evans' character to be impolite and responded to Sophia, with a smile. "Sure. I'd like that."
Dippet did a little bounce. "Great. I'll go tell Sirius."
James snickered. "It's a good thing Sophia didn't notice your lack of enthusiasm."
"Shut up, Potter. Who are you going with?"
"I'd have suggested, maybe, you and I should of."
"Us?"
"How hard can it be to keep a plant alive?!"
Professor Sprout emerged from the greenhouse before Lily could say anything. "What are you lot doing? Come in, come in. Sit in pairs and open your books to seventy three."
"Why didn't you ask me then?" Lily asked as they walked into their class.
"I didn't think you'd say yes."
"Next time, just ask." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. Sophia waved at Lily, who was sitting right at the front of the class, and Lily waved back, humorously.
James smiled and walked to the back of the class. He sat down next to Sirius, before Peter could, which caused some sort of commotion.
Lily inhaled and walked over to Sophia with, Lily hoped, a genuine smile.
"This is going to be fun." The Ravenclaw whispered, excitedly.
Professor Sprout explained the task to the class, once everyone had quietened down. The pairs would select a plant each and grew it from seedlings, or off cuttings. They would then write their findings onto a five meeting length parchment, that would have date entries on the progress, graphs and various research from books.
"Class," The Professor bellowed with a grin. "I want everyone to have a plant pot with the right soil and a seedling in before the end of the class. If anyone has question, I'll be walking around asking you all which plant you have decided to grow and why. You may begin."
"So," Sophia said, urgently. "I'm thinking, because we both like Potions—-"
"You like Potions?"
"I'm not as good as you, Lily." The blonde smiled. "I want to be a healer, you see."
"You want to grow plants that would be used in a healing potions?"
"If you don't mind?"
"It sounds like a good idea."
Sophia clapped, thrilled. "Okay, okay, and then we can use the leaves, or roots, to make the potion and add that to our findings."
"I don't think we have to do that."
"How else will we know if the plants have grown properly?"
"By looking at them."
"Look, look. We'll grow 'easy' plants that don't take long to bloom and then we'll spend the rest of the time on the potions."
"I would rather be doing Potions than Herbology." Lily hummed as she started to contemplate Dippet's idea. "If we do this, we have to make sure we don't have to break a bone, or something worse, to see if the potion will work."
"Deal. I was thinking of growing dittany so I can make Essence of Dittany." Sophia nodded. Evans tried not the smirk for Essence of Dittany was one of the easiest potions to brew. "What do you want to grow?"
"Erm." She murmured as she flicked through her herbology book. "James says I should take a sleeping potion so maybe I should…..Here. I'll grow Valerian. How hard can it be? Hagrid grows them."
The two girls went on with tasks at hand. Lily fetched two small plant pots while Sophia went to tell Sprout what they had discussed. When the reconvened back at the table, Dippet was overly enthusiastic that the Professor had agreed. Lily wasn't sure if that was just Sophia or if that was how any Ravenclaw was when praised by a teacher.
Lily went to the back of the greenhouse to fill her pot with the correct soil. She was shortly joined by a grinning Sirius, who said. "Prongs told me you didn't mention the word near."
"I don't know what you mean." Lily replied with a smirk as she rummaged around in the unorganised boxes for the seeds she needed.
"You left it out, Evans."
"So what if I said, that she said, we could sit by one another. For all she knows, that is what she said."
Sirius' smile didn't falter. He edged closer to Lily and whispered. "Are we going to risk it?"
"I think you are risking it right now." She answered as she found the packet. "Its probably best if we just sit opposite each other or have someone in between us."
"I'll see you at Lunch, Miss Evans." He bowed and edged backwards to his table.
Lily couldn't help the smile on her face. Everything was fixing itself out, for once. And, even though, she had her scepticism about Dippet, the Ravenclaw was alright. She was a little too eager, and they had nothing in common, but she was easy to talk to.
(Prefect meeting with Slytherin)
After Herbology, everything went back to normal. Sirius and Lily sat opposite each other at meal times and Marlene and Sophia's friendship rekindled as if the weeks they didn't speak didn't happen. However, with the gang back together, it was clear Emmeline wasn't around. It was clear she was seeing someone. Even Dippet started gossiping about it, which made Mary very happy and forgiving.
"I'll have to keep an eye out to see if anyone comes back late to our Common Room." Dippet said as they stopped outside the Prefect meeting room. McKinnon and MacDonald came as well but Lily knew it was because they hadn't finished gossiping about Vance.
"It's got to be a Ravenclaw." Mary informed. "She's more Ravenclaw than Gryffindor."
"All I know is, it isn't Mateo."
Marlene whispered. "Your brother could be keeping a secret from you."
"No, he's interested in Sylvia Jones, at the moment."
"The Hufflepuff seeker?"
"That's the one. I'll ask Boot if he knows anything. He'll know if anyone sneaking out of the boys dorm." Dippet said. "Aren't you and Emmeline meant to be best friends?"
"We are." Lily nodded.
"Why hasn't she told—-"
MacDonald interrupted. "This is what you've got to understand about all these stupid idiots—"
"Is she including us?" Marlene asked.
"Of course, I'm talking about you and Lily. None of them tell me anything, Soph. And if you ask them anything they shove food in their mouth, they straight up ignore you or they push you away."
"But doesn't everyone already know about Lily and—-"
"Yes, yes we know about….that."
"Know about what?" Lily asked.
"It's nothing." Mary smiled and then went back to whispering to Sophia, as if Evans wasn't there. "We all know about her and….him but, as her friend, I want her to tell it to me. You know?"
"Okay, thats enough from you, MacDonald. You can go now."
"See what I mean. Pushing me away."
"Bye." Lily waved and pushed the two Gryffindor's away.
"Fine." Mary huffed and walked away with Marlene in tow.
Evans turned around and opened the door to the room. It was already full of all the prefects.
"Finally." James shouted as she walked over to him. He lowered his voice once she was stood next to him. "Where have you been?"
"Outside. I thought I was early." Lily admitted. "How did you get passed me? You were still eating dinner when I left."
"I know the castle, Evans." He smiled. "Shall we begin?"
She nodded and addressed the prefects. "First off, we haven't changed any of the prefect duties. You are still with the same person and the same days. Does anyone have a problem with it?"
No one said anything even thought it was obvious Olive Finch wasn't happy to still be stuck with Remus.
"Good. Now to the matters we discussed last time."
"Lily and I," James began. "Have figured out the charm we must use to connect objects together so that we can communicate."
"About that." Omar Abasi piped up. "Us Ravenclaws can't see how the two of you will be able to communicate to us all. We've thought that each House should allocate a leader, who will communicate with you, and will also talk to their fellow housemates separately through a different object."
"I—-" Lily started.
"We agree with you completely, Abasi." Potter said and gave her a look to shush. James had managed to pass out a note to the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff prefects that there would be an additional meeting, after this one, without the Slytherin House. Lily was informed that Abasi and Abbot weren't surprised, nor did they question why the additional meeting was necessary. Maybe Omar, and James, were keeping something back for later. "I would like to anoint Remus Lupin as the leader of Gryffindor House."
"Remus isn't here, James, you can't just pick him." Lily muttered as Lupin was seeing his sick 'mother' today.
"Why not? Me and you will be keeping tracks of everyone, we need someone to have full focus on our House." James smiled. "Does anyone from Gryffindor oppose?"
Silence.
"Remus Lupin is head of Gryffindor."
"I would like to lead Ravenclaw." Abasi raised his hand.
"Patricia for Hufflepuff." Douglas Macmillan shouted before she could say him.
Slytherin were the only ones to not say anything. They were huddled in the corner and talking in hushed voices. There seemed a little bit of an issue before they all fell silent and faced the front of the room again. "Snape." Helena Carrow grumbled.
"Okay, good." James said with a fake smile. "When you get back to your Houses, you need to all decide what one object you are going to use to communicate. Don't tell any other House."
"What are you going to use to communicate with us?" Abbot asked.
Potter twitched his neck as he tried to figure out how much of the information to tell. "We will use pocket mirrors so that we can talk face to face."
"Why?" Snape asked, intrusively.
Lily answered because she knew James wouldn't have worded it correctly. "They can closed easier if we just need to talk to one House, and if we are captured, or if we feel a House has been…compromised, then we can smash the mirrors quickly."
Tension flooded through the room. Slytherin knew they were the House Lily was referring to.
"Has anyone found any secret hideouts for their House yet?" James asked, trying to quickly get the attention back off her.
They all shook their heads. Great, she thought. It's a lost cause. Maybe I need to check that bloody map for myself.
"Can't we use one of the secret passageways out of here? We found one that leads to Hogsmeade." Archer Smith, a fifth year Hufflepuff, suggested, naively.
Potter looked at him as if he was the stupidest person he'd just met. "If you know about it, then Voldemort's gonna know about it. And we don't know who will be in Hogsmeade when we get down there."
"Should we learn the invisibility charm then?" Miraphora asked.
"Yes." Douglas nodded to his fellow Hufflepuff. "If we have to stay in a classroom we need to make sure we are invisible. We need to teach all the underclassman the spell."
"Which one?" Omar enquired as he wrote down in a notebook.
Lily spoke. "It has to be the Invisibility Charm. The Disillusionment Charm is too risky if someone moves. And Macmillan is correct, we need to teach anyone who doesn't know it. I suggest when you have your mentor meetings that you should do it then."
"Another question we wanted to ask you guys to figure out was, how are we going to wake everyone up without alerting anyone?" James asked the group.
"What do you mean?" Fenella responded with the same expression as everyone else did.
"Voldemort's not going to show up in the daylight." Lily said, quoting what James had said to her a few weeks back. "If it's after everyone goes to sleep, me and James aren't going to wake anyone up by shouting in a mirror."
Sophia smiled with a nod. "Each Common Room entrance has some kind of noise canceling spell on—-"
"I'd like to agree with you there, Sophia, but as passed parties have indicated, they aren't fully soundproof." Potter informed. "I'm sure Gryffindor isn't the only House that has had a party stopped because their Head of House has come in because of the noise."
"Okay, we need to sort out soundproofing our Houses." Abasi said as he scribbled more things down onto an already full page. "Could we use an intruder charm?"
"Yeah, that would wake anyone up." Peakes agreed.
James looked at Lily for help but she was already answering the question. "I'll have a look to see if we can do that. I'm not sure if we can place four alarm points for one intruder charm."
"If it doesn't work we will have to come up with a different way of doing it." James commented. "Gryffindor will try it out this Friday evening and we will send notes to the leaders of the other threes Houses with our findings."
"We want to help." Abbot smiled, who got a nod from all her Hufflepuffs.
"And us." A fifth year Ravenclaw, who Lily should really know the name of, nodded.
"Okay." James smiled. "Those that wish to help and can help, should meet in the Entrance Hall after dinner has finished. I'll talk to McGonagall about it and I suggest you talk to your Heads of House to just inform them that a school wide….experiment is going on. Ravenclaw, Flitiwck, might be able to helpful if he can think of anything that might help us. If there is anyone on prefect duty that night, you and a few others will be on Filch watch. He'll be the only issue."
"Good." Lily smiled the same one James had. "We'll see you all on Friday then."
(Prefect meeting without Slytherin)
"You're a git, do you know that?" Lily said. The two of them were eating chocolate while James glanced over the Marauder's Map. "Remus didn't ask for the leadership thingy you've given him. What's he going to say when he finds out?"
"Thanks, Prongs, it was something I've always dreamed off.'" Potter mimicked his friends voice. "Gryffindor need someone to take control if something goes wrong and he's good at strategy. Always bloody beats me at chess."
"What's going to go wrong?"
"I don't know." James shrugged. "I die."
Lily rolled her eyes but let the matter rest. "You know how you say you guys know the castle, what if you missed something?"
"Evans, you asked this last time. We spent nearly a year on the map, we couldn't have missed any-"
"What about the Chamber of Secrets?" Lily asked, curiously.
"We've…er…never found it."
"Is the Room of Requirements on your map?"
"Er…no. It's unplottable."
"So there could be more unplottable rooms in Hogwarts?"
"Yes." James pouted. "I knew them stubborn, old bastards were hiding something."
"What?"
"The portraits, Lily. They are all like the Fat Lady but I thought we'd managed to sweet talk them all into helping us."
"Weren't you guys like thirteen or fourteen?"
"Yeah."
Lily snickered. "You guys weren't very good at chatting up anybody—-"
"Hey!" Sirius' voice erupted into the room. She jumped out of her skin while James cursed and reached out into the air to grab something. He yanked his hand downwards to reveal Peter covering Sirius' mouth with his hand, but that didn't stop Black from making his point. "I think you'll find I was very charming and could chat up any of them paintings—"
"How long have you two been here?" Lily asked, with a glare.
"Does it matter?" Potter shrugged as he kicked the chair next to him for Peter to sit down in.
"Of course it matters, James. They aren't prefects."
"Love," Sirius said, flirtatiously, as he sat down on the table in front of her. "You were sensational—-"
"Flattery doesn't win you everything, Black." She grumbled and batted away his hand. "Why are you here?"
The three Marauders looked at each and James spoke. "The Map is something we all created—-"
"You're thinking about showing them the Map?" Lily interrupted, shocked.
"We don't know yet. They might not ask."
"Abase will, the sod." Wormtail muttered.
"But if they do, then we need to have a discussion together."
"Remus isn't here. He can't make his decision." Lily said.
James didn't clarify. Instead he folded up the map and quickly spoke. "Padfoot, Wormtail get back under the cloak….."
Knock…Knock. Knock….Knock.
James sighed as he made sure his friends were covered, and walked over to the door and opened it. "Abbot, that is not the secret knock."
"Fuck off, Potter, and let us in." The seventh year Hufflepuff smiled as she walked in with the rest of her House.
"You were all meant to arrive separately."
"Keep your knickers on, James." Phora laughed as she stood in front of him. "We made sure Slytherin wasn't around."
"How?"
"I consulted the crystal ball." She said, very seriously but then in the next breath casually asks. "Has someone opened a bar of chocolate?"
Ravenclaw and Gryffindor shortly followed, in the correct and informed fashion of arriving separately. But Lily wasn't happy. "Sanjay and Elspeth aren't you meant to be on duty tonight?"
"Yeah but isn't this more important?" Sanjay Patil, the sixth year Gryffindor, asked.
"We've got to make it seem like a normal night. If you guys are missing from duty, it's going to be obvious something is going on."
"Aren't you being paranoid, Evans?" Elspeth MacDougal, fifth year Ravenclaw, snickered.
James shook his head. "Lily is right. We've need to act like we aren't having this meeting. Sniv— I mean Snape — He will know if something is wrong. You're fellow House prefects will fill you in later."
"Go. We'll tell you later." Omar agreed.
The two reluctant prefects left for their duties.
"Okay," Potter exhaled. "Thank you all for coming to this. We feel it is very important."
"So do we." Omar agreed, once more. "Slytherin House aren't to be trusted."
The other prefects nodded their heads, including James, who said, on a different topic. "I agree that each House has a communication system with their House leader but I would prefer it if everyone was able to see what me and Lily suggest is the best..…tactic."
Only Abasi seemed to disagree. "You cannot communicate with everyone, Potter—-"
"True. That is why I'd be telling you, Remus and Patricia, through the mirrors, the whole strategy so you can sort out your Houses. But everyone needs to know the basics like 'Don't move' or 'Don't go to fifth floor' or 'Attack in the Great Hall' or something like that."
Sophia concurred. "Omar, they are the Heads. They need to talk to everyone."
Lily was grateful for Dippet in that moment. She was level-headed and brief, which seemed to sway the leader of the Ravenclaw House to agreement. "Okay. But what could be used?"
James shrugged. "I don't know. Something that everyone has on them and something that won't look suspicious."
"A watch, maybe?"
"Socks?" Someone said.
"Our school ties?"
"We could use a coin." Mina whispered into the distance.
No one said anything for a while as they thought it through. James smiled and pulled out a Sickle from his pocket. "That's not a bad idea." He laughing as he flicked it in the air. "All we need is to make hundreds of them."
"Easy." Hilliard Hobday spoke as he strolled over to take the coin and place it onto the nearby table. "We've just learnt about this in Transfiguration."
Hobday outstretched his wand arm and said "Geminio" at the coin. It erupted, like a volcano, hundreds upon hundreds of Sickle coins as they all clinked onto the floor. Everyone clapped and cheered at the incredible sight. Hilliard twisted his hand, put it back to his side, and the coins stopped.
"Mate." James smiled and patted the Ravenclaw on his back. "Nicely done."
Lily stepped forward and took two of the fake coins from the pile. She waved her wand around the two and spoke the incantation for the Protean Charm, while circling her wand towards the coin mountain, as well. It worked instantly. "These two in my hand will be the master coins that only me and Potter will have. When we communicate with you, the writing, on the tail side of the coin, will be the instructions."
"How will we know when you have changed it?" Fenella asked.
"The side effect of the charm is it will heat up the object when we change anything." She informed. "So, if you all take one and then pass them out to everyone in your Houses. They aren't to be messed with, they aren't to be used as money, and they have to be on you at all times."
"Do you think something will happen soon?"
"No but we cannot be certain." James shook his head. "We will test these out on Friday when we are testing out the sound issue."
"But aren't Slytherin meant to be helping too?" The fifth year Ravenclaw boy asked.
"If they show up, don't show them."
"How will we know—-"
"Lily said they will get warm so you'll feel it." Potter replied with a tad of condescension.
The room went quiet as the prefects collected their coins and the House leaders took, approximately, enough coins for all their housemates.
"How will you guys be able to know everything that is going on?" Omar asked, curiously.
James responded. "What do you mean?"
"How are you going to know where all of us are? What places are being attacked? Who needs to not move? Whether you break the mirror to Slytherin or not?"
"Give us one second." Potter said and ushered Lily away into the far corner, where she assumed the other two Marauders were standing.
"I told you he'd ask, the prick." Peter's voice muttered.
"What do you think we should do? If we say we have a map, he's going to want to see it."
Sirius whispered. "Bloody git. Why wouldn't he just take your word for it?"
"Padfoot, he's a Ravenclaw."
"What if you just show him and Abbot it?" Lily suggested.
"They will see we made it, Evans."
"Just cover the ridiculous 'Messr's blah blah blah'—-"
"We have names you know." Sirius grumbled.
Lily continued, ignoring Black. "—-and hide the Marauder bit and, then, they won't know."
"What about the 'I solemnly swear—"
"Have it working now." She muttered and faced James. "Do you trust me?"
He nodded, took the folded piece of parchment out of his back pocket and said the words to make the map work.
Lily turned around to the room and spoke. "This strictly stays between us."
They all nodded.
"Dumbledore has given myself and James an enchanted map of the school."
There was whispers throughout the room.
She spoke up louder. "It can see where everyone is—-"
"I don't believe you." Abasi stated. "How can a map know where everyone is?"
"It just does….Anyway, the Headmaster has entrusted us with this magical item and can only be used by the two of us, plus Dumbledore." Lily lied. "We will be able to see who is in the castle, where they are and if there is any trouble."
"Show us."
"I'm afraid we can't."
Sophia stuck up for Lily, again. "Omar, Dumbledore has given it to them. Even by telling us they are breaking a promise between themselves and the Headmaster. They are trusting us to do the right thing so we have to trust them."
Lily could of kissed her.
It was clear Abasi wanted more answers - he wanted to see this 'map' - but what Dippet said had worked. He agreed and the matter dropped, but Lily knew he'd ask again, and again, and again. There was one thing she was uncertain of, if Potter would actually show it.
(Detention is looking after a werewolf)
She wasn't alone in the Potion's classroom. Professor Slughorn was sitting at his desk, with an amiable smile, as he read his latest letters from his past students. There was also another student working in the background. Lily tried not to look at him because she could tell he was watching her.
"Lily, I do hope you write to me once you've left school." He said, at one point, while she was elbow deep in murky, disgusting water. "You too, Regulus. One can only wonder what amazing things you two will get up to."
"Yes, sir." The two students nodded, simultaneously.
"Did the two of you get the invite for our first Club meeting? It's on the first of November."
Again, they replied in unison. "Yes, sir."
With a pleased smile, Slughorn fell back into silence and continued to read his correspondences. Lily would normally reflect on her actions that got her in detention but this time, she didn't feel guilty for what she did. In fact, she'd do it again without a seconds hesitation.
"Lily." The Potions Professor spoke as he stood up and walked over to her. "I heard you are growing Valerian in your Herbology class."
She nodded. "I'm growing the plant to see if I can make a sleeping potion and to see how the growing process with effect the efficiency of the potion."
"Excellent." Slughorn grinned. "For the best results, I would suggest using some leaves from other Valerian plants. I'm sure Hagrid and Professor Sprout wouldn't mind. I certainly don't mind you taking some from the Potions cupboard."
"Thank you, sir."
"Have you ever made a sleeping potion?"
"Yes. We made the Sleeping Draught in second year."
"Yes. Yes." He nodded. "It's always best to test ingredients with a simpler potion. But, perhaps, in our next lesson together we should create the Potion for Dreamless Sleep. It does use Valerian."
"That would be very helpful, Professor." Lily smiled as she wiped her hand on the nearest towel.
"I will see you on Friday for our lesson." Slughorn beamed as he dismissed her from her detention. "Regulus, you too may leave."
Quickly, Evans picked up her bag and exited the room. But the younger Black had the same idea of leaving first and they met abruptly at the doorway. Regulus might look like his brother but he wasn't as confident, nor as mischievous, as Sirius. Normally, he had the air of a Slytherin but on that day, when she looked at him, something was off. He wasn't the pretentious pureblood; he was a sixteen year old boy lost and confused. Was it just what Sirius had said about his brother seeming different clouding her judgement or was Regulus Black out of sorts?
He seemed to read her mind and straightened himself. "You know nothing, Evans." He murmured as he walked passed her and out of the doorway.
Lily walked in the opposite direction, up into the castle, to get to the Gryffindor Common Room. It was fairly busy in the corridors which was strange. It was close to curfew, so Lily believed, but there was still first and second years running about the place with arms full of books.
"Miss Evans!" Professor McGonagall's voice boomed from somewhere behind her. Lily turned around on the stairs and saw the Head of Gryffindor House walk over to her. "What are you doing out of your detention?"
"Professor Slughorn said I could leave. I cleaned all the cauldrons he asked me to do, Professor." Lily answered, honestly.
"Horace is always too soft on you, Lily." McGonagall shook her head. "I'm sorry, Miss Evans, but your detention isn't finished."
"But isn't it nearly ten?"
"It's precisely twenty to nine. You still have a few more hours remaining."
"But—-"
"No buts, Miss Evans. You have used magic three times on members of the Slytherin House. The first two times you were let off lightly but a third time is is uncalled for, especially when they did not draw their wands." McGonagall explained in a stern tone. "You are to go to the Trophy Room and clean all of them."
The Professor of Transfiguration didn't let Lily walk on her own to the Trophy Room, McGonagall followed in tow.
Lily's heart sank when she walked into the room. She'd never been in there before and never in her wildest dreams had she thought about how many trophies the school had. Hundreds upon hundreds of different size trophies filled the room in a labyrinth of shelves and bookcases.
McGonagall gave her a look before closing the door.
Evans heavily sighed and picked up the cleaning equipment, that had been left in the back corner to sit amongst the cobwebs. She tried not to be grossed out by the dirty rag but Lily wasn't too keen on dust.
The enormity of the task at hand dawned on her when she first started to polish the first trophy. It was dated back to the thirteenth century and was awarded to a …. Lily couldn't tell. Not that she cared. She only cared about the date because if that trophy was the oldest one in the room, then there certainly was hundreds of trophies left to clean, and then she wouldn't get chance to hear the radio.
She needed to hear that radio broadcast or she wouldn't sleep at all.
There was no sense of time in the room. Had she been there for an hour? Two? Three? Lily didn't know but she felt like she'd be forgotten and that McGonagall wouldn't come back to release her.
Tap. Tap.
Lily spun around but there was no one in the room. Was she imagining it? Was it Peeves?
Tap. Tap.
She ignored them hoping they would go away.
TAP. TAP.
"For fuck sake." She swore as she turned around, again, and started to walk in-between the mountains of trophies. Yet still there was no one there.
Evans went back to polishing when an almighty crash erupted to the left of her. She ducked down, with her hands over her head, as trophies flew off their shelves in a huge cascade of metallic rain. Lily stood up with all the confidence she could muster, grabbed her wand and pointed it at the part of the room that had just been destroyed.
But it hadn't been destroyed. There was no hole in the wall but an open window that had been covered by a bookcase. Slowly, she edged her way over to the window and once she saw what caused the crash, she couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"What the hell, Potter?" Lily said, angrily, as she watched the boy fly into the room. He was carrying an extra broomstick and had a weird expression on his face. "Are you trying to kill me?"
"I was knocking on the window."
"I didn't know there was a window."
James dismounted from his broom and casted a spell to put the room back in order. "You can use magic to help clean these trophies."
"It's against the rules."
"No one is here to know." He pointed out and flicked his wand once more to animate the cloth to clean the vast amount of awards Lily hadn't gotten round to.
Lily waited for James to say something but he didn't. He stood there with a peculiar facial expression - she couldn't tell if it was worry, nervousness or doubt - but she knew something was wrong. He even looked a little pale. "Everything alright?" She asked, calmly.
He brushed a hand through his always unkept hair and sighed. "I need your help."
"My help?"
"We can't find Peter."
"Have you checked the map?"
"Of course we've checked the bloody map. He's not on it." Potter replied, a little aggravated. He closed his eyes and reached out to touch the nearest shelf for balance. "Sirius is out there looking for him right now but he's injured—"
"Injured?" Lily gasped and then pieced together James' unusual actions. "You're injured too?"
"It's alright, Evans."
"No, no." She said, adamantly and walked over to him. "Let me see."
"Honestly, Lily. It's okay. It's just a scratch."
"James, let me see."
Potter sighed, because he knew he couldn't win the argument against her, and lifted up his grey jumper to reveal a very bloodstained shirt. Lily didn't hesitate and pushed his shirt up to see the incredibly long scratch from the side of his ribcage to the front of his stomach. "You need to get to the hospital wing." She suggested as she continued to examine the wound with her fingers.
"Use that charm—-"
"This is from a werewolf, James. You need to have a potion to fix it."
"Use the damn charm, Evans, and I promise when the night is over, I'll go and get the potion."
"But—"
"There is no time." He winced. "Wormtail is missing, my best friend is injured and Remus… He's in a worser state than all of us."
"Sit down then."
"What?"
"Sit your arse down, Potter."
He obeyed and stayed quiet while Lily incanted Vulnera Sanentur over his wounds. She concentrated on the effected area because she daren't look up for she knew he was looking at her and she wasn't sure what would happen. Lily wasn't sure on anything related to Potter but, at the moment, the emotion she was feeling was alien and she didn't want to reveal it, to him, through her eyes.
"That's the best I can do," Evans whispered as she felt the scratch. It wasn't bleeding anymore and the skin had joined back together but it would never heal without the potion.
James looked down at his torso. Their heads were very close together. "Better than anything I could do."
Finally, she met his eyes and immediately regretted it, but couldn't look away. Something unspoken passed between the two of them and Lily knew something had changed. She could feel his hand move to her face.
"You're welcome." She said, quickly, and stood up faster than a whippet. "Your friends need you."
James laughed, as he stood up, still a little bit off balance. "Er, you're coming too. Why else would I carry an extra broomstick?"
"I can't—"
"Lily, I wouldn't ask if I thought you'd be in danger." He said, honestly and picked up the two broomsticks. James outstretched his arm with the broom for Lily. "Trust me."
"You have to tell me what happened?"
"I'll tell you while we fly."
"Fine." She muttered and grabbed the broom from his hand.
"And here." James smiled as he reached for his back pocket and produced his Invisibility Cloak. "You'll need this."
"No, you need—"
"I'll be a stag, Evans. No one is going to know its me."
Lily accepted the cloak and tucked it into her trouser pocket. She mounted her broom and kicked off the ground at the same time Potter did. (Lily wouldn't admit this to anyone but she had been practicing on a normal broom to make sure her posture was correct so, that if she did ever ride a broom again, she wouldn't fly off at light speed). As the daunting task of flying through a window became more obvious, Lily began to panic. "You might have to help me get out of the window."
Potter smiled and grabbed the end of her broom. She closed her eyes.
"You're going to need to open your eyes, Evans."
"I will when we get through the window."
"Why? Afraid of heights?"
"No. I'm afraid of hitting the wall and falling to my death from a massive height."
"I'd save you."
Lily rolled her eyes behind her lids as she felt a chilly blast of wind hit her face. "Sure, Potter."
"You can open your eyes now."
She did and felt the darkness swallow her whole. She couldn't see anything. No lights were on in the castle. No lights in the distance. Her whole being became clammy and jittery as the fear of hovering in the air enveloped her. "Okay, maybe I am afraid of heights." Lily whispered as she carefully reached into her pocket for her wand. "Lumos."
"We are going to fly straight to the Whomping Willow." James explained as he guided her in the direction.
"Aren't I helping you find Peter and use the healing charm on Sirius?"
"Remus—"
"I can't go near Remus, James. He's—"
"He can't hurt you, Lily." Potter whispered as the fly close to the Headmaster's office. "Something…weird happened tonight. I think he smelt something and he went mental. He attacked Sirius. I was trying to break them apart, so I don't know who the scratch is off, and I…. Basically, Remus is seriously injured and unconscious. I know, I know, he's meant to heal but Mooney isn't….."
"It's alright, James. I'll stay with him." She said, hoping it would calm James' worries.
"Promise me, you will stay away from him and you will put up a protective spell around yourself."
Lily nodded as they began to descend. The willow was peaceful until the pair got within ten metres of it. It's long armlike branches started to sway violently. James reached for a nearby branch and prodded the base of the tree. It took several attempts before he hit the correct knot. The tree stood still and peaceful once more.
James led the way through the tunnel. "Put the cloak on as soon as I leave and do not take it off until I get back."
"How long will you be?"
"Who knows? We have to get out of here before Madam Pomfrey or Professor Dumbledore help him back to the castle."
Lily had a sense of deja vu as she walked through the dark, damp tunnel. Last year, Snape had invited her to come see what lived in the Shrieking Shack. She never got to see Remus, nor did she get to see the other Marauder's in animagus form, for James had been in human form when he grabbed her and pulled her to safety. But the truth was out and they had to tell her, especially when Snape had seen everything.
The trapdoor, that led to the foyer of the Shack, loomed over them. "Will he remember any of this?" Lily asked as James pushed upwards.
"He remembers bits and pieces." He replied. James lifted himself up and held out his hand for her. She took it. "If he wakes up, do not go near him, Lily."
"Yeah, you've covered the 'don't go near him' part." She said as she brushed off the dirt from her uniform. It was hard to make out the room they were standing in. The flames from the floating candles, that seemed to light the way up a flight of stairs, didn't produce that much light, they seemed to make more shadows.
"I'm being serious."
"I know."
There was a creak from upstairs. James pushed her behind him as he listened out for more noises. The wind howled through the boarded up windows and pushed the walls from side to side. "It's just the wind." He exhaled. "I need to go check on Remus and then I'll come back down."
Lily nodded and stood frozen in her spot. She'd seen too many muggle horror films, that involved old houses, to know to stay still. She had her eyes peeled between the only exit and the archway Potter had walked through.
She could hear his two feet, and then there was the sound of four hooves clambering up a staircase. There was a slight pause. James had stopped to check on his friend. Two footsteps could be heard again. Lily was a little bit disappointed that she hadn't seen him as a stag because, she had to admit, it would have been impressive.
"Mooney is still asleep and I've put a protective charm around him." James spoke, a little more relaxed. "You are to put the cloak on, walk to the corner of the room, put a protective charm around yourself and stay put. Do you know the bewitched sleep spell?"
She nodded.
"Good. Now, put the cloak on."
Evans did as she was told and wrapped herself up in the smelly fabric.
"I will be back as soon as I can but—"
"I know, 'don't take the cloak off unless you come back.'"
James nodded and had the presence of someone who wanted to say more but didn't. He turned around, opened the trap door and disappeared.
Lily carefully walked to the staircase by following the candles. She tried not to think about how dirty or dusty the house was. She tried not to think about why the paper was peeling off of the walls or what had caused the floorboards to rot. She wouldn't think about all the germs and bacteria that riddled the place. No. She needed to think about her friend and what he needed. Yes, she promised James to stay away but how could she if Remus was in pain.
The room, James had referred to, was very disordered. Rags of cloth hung from the ceiling, every piece of furniture was broken and the mattress, in the corner Potter had suggested, was ripped beyond repair.
She didn't see Remus until she sat down and her heart sank. She didn't have time to realise he was a wolf. All she saw was her friend curled up in an uncomfortable position against a cracked wall. Two of his legs were sticking out in peculiar angles and his fur was completely covered in blood.
It's alright, Evans. She thought to herself as she tried to blink back tears. He's breathing. See. His chest is moving. In. Out. In. Out.
Lily calmed herself down by following his breathing pattern. They were shallow breaths, which she worried about greatly, but it wasn't alarming any bells for her. Once settled in her space, she incanted the strongest protection spell she knew and prayed that would be strong enough to hold back a werewolf.
Again, she was left in a room with no sense of time. There wasn't much to keep the mind busy so she practiced a few spells, played thumb wars against herself, daydreamed of nothing in particular and paced around for a little bit trying to keep herself warm. Occasionally she'd check to make sure Remus was still asleep, which he was.
But as the night progressed into, what Lily assumed to be, a cold October morning, Lupin began to shivering. All of James' precautions flew out the window when she saw her friend cold. She stepped outside of her protective barrier and began to grab every piece of cloth that was in the room. Lily draped them over Remus, from a safe distance, but still he was shaking.
Is he waking up? Her automatic thought was but it didn't move her back. Instead, she tiptoed nearer and gently placed a hand on his back. His fur was matted and dry but he wasn't cold to the touch. In fact, he was radiating heat.
Lily stayed stroking his back, as it lifted up and down with each breath, for what seemed like hours until a sound was heard downstairs. Quickly, and quietly, she moved back to her corner and waited.
It wasn't long before a cautious black nose sniffed the air in the doorway. It snorted and sniffed once more, this time it's whole face moved in to view. Sirius Black's grey eyes were fixed on Remus. His head was low as he continued to smell around his friend. Suddenly, the dog's head turned sharply towards where Evans was sitting. Sirius knew she was there. His head didn't waver from it's low position but Lily could see the mischievousness in his eyes, as he strolled over to her.
Sirius paced in front of Lily. She could see where he'd been attacked. He had the same type of scratch as James but Sirius had a few on his face and his front left foot seemed to be injured, as he seemed to be limping on it.
His head turned sharply to the doorway. His ears moved backwards and forwards. He lowered himself to the ground, ready to pounce. Lily reached for her wand.
Squeak. Squeak.
Lily tried not to jump out of her skin as she saw the rat. Wormtail scurried over to Sirius, who was growling, as another sound was heard in the house. The sound of hooves galloping up stairs.
The stag bowed his head to get his huge antlers through the archway but, once through, kept them low as he edged closer to where Sirius and Peter were. Lily was transfixed on the unbelievable beauty of the stag. So much so she didn't pay attention to anything else in the room. She didn't notice that Wormtail and Padfoot had changed back to their human selves. She didn't notice Peter backed up against the wall with his friend pointing a wand at his face.
Not until Sirius spoke. "Where the fuck did you go?"
"I found him near Hogsmeade." James explained and stood in front of Lily. She shuffled to get a better view.
Peter stuttered. He looked his normal self unlike Sirius. "I….I….I freaked, okay? Remus nearly got me and I—"
"He got all of us, you idiot." Black snapped. His left hand looked broken and the scrapes on his face had started to bleed again. "You weren't in Hogsmeade the whole time, Peter. I followed you."
"Followed me?"
"Come on, I'm a bloody dog, mate. I can track you."
"Then you should have smelt the other smell I was following."
Sirius stayed silent. He let his grip on Peter go and put his wand away. The adrenaline that had kept Black going was started to dwindle: the colour of his skin got whiter and he became unsteady on his feet.
"The one that Mooney smelt?" James asked.
Black nodded.
"Did you know who it was?"
"The only one who knows is Remus." He shook his head and winced. Sirius touched his neck as more bloody flowed from his wounds. "There's no point standing there, Prongs, I know Lily's there."
"Evans is here?" Peter asked, as he looked from James to area behind him.
"She's sitting on that horrible mattress. Can you not smell her perfume?"
"I thought it was on Prongs."
Lily scoffed as she let the cloak fall to just show her head. "I came to look after Remus, you gits."
"Is that why he's all covered up?"
"Who else would have done it, Wormtail?" James asked.
"I dunno. Sirius."
"For Merlin's sake, that was one time I put a blanket over Lupin when he was asleep." Sirius flinched once more when he spoke. "And, Evans, please. I'm practically dying over here."
Lily dropped the cloak as she stood up and hurried over to Black. He looked worser up close. She sang the healing incantation, he's skin started to heal, but she stopped at his broken hand. "I don't know if I can fix this."
"You must know some charm."
"Ferula." She said as she tapped his hand. Bandages spun around his hand. There was a slight inhale of breathe, from Sirius, as the bandages tightened and constricted. "It's not mended but it will ease the pain."
"Cheers, Love."
Lily smiled, sweetly. "Anytime."
"We've got to take you back to the castle." James said, urgently.
"I'm not going anywhere, Potter."
"Dumbledore—-"
"I'll be under the invisibility cloak."
"But—-"
"You brought me into this, James, so I'm seeing it through. Remus isn't leaving my sight until he's safely in a hospital bed."
Potter scowled. "Evans, we aren't supposed to be here. Dumbledore doesn't know we are Animagi."
"So you leave Remus here?"
The three nodded.
"Fine." She muttered. "But I'm going straight to the Hospital Wing afterwards."
(The smell)
"I can't believe you are making me do this." Evans said as she looked through the medicine cabinet. Herself and the three Marauders had waited patiently for Madame Pomfrey to leave the Hospital Wing, and they were now ransacking the place to look for a potion. "This is stealing."
"We do it all the time." Sirius admitted, casually. "No one's going to notice."
"That doesn't make it right."
"Can someone tell me why we keep her, the killjoy, around?" Black asked, rhetorically. "If we don't find it, you will lose your best friend—-"
"You are not my best friend."
"—-and your boyfriend—-"
"Potter is not my boyfriend!"
"—-in the same night."
Lily refused to argue because it was clear Remus had scratched them, and if their wounds remain unhealed, then it could be fatal. "How are you going to explain your hand?"
"I don't know." Black shrugged. "I'll say I punched the wall."
She rolled her eyes.
"I've found it!" Peter shouted from the other end of the room.
"Shut up, Wormtail." Sirius whispered, loudly and angrily, as he walked over to his friend. James and Lily followed. Black sat on the bed, rolled his blood drenched shirt and smiled to Lily. "Nurse Evans, can you do the honours?"
"Urgh." She said and took the vial from Pettigrew. She applied the silver and dittany paste onto Sirius' wounds. They began to smoke as the ointment did it's work. "Hurt much?"
"Don't enjoy my pain, Love."
After she'd finished with Sirius, she turned and looked at James, who seemed a little sheepish and flushed. "I'll do it myself."
Lily ignored Sirius and Peter's snickers. "I'll do it. Just sit down."
Potter listened and sat down next to Black. Lily tried not to acknowledge her touching James' skin. She tried not to think about it at all. But the monster inside of her, the one that seemed to crave him, made sure she applied it on tentatively and methodically. It made her inside flutter. It made her….
"Is he waking up, Poppy?" Dumbledore's voice asked as the Hospital Wing doors opened and closed. The four Gryffindor's panicked and rushed behind the pulled back partition as the two adults wheeled in Remus, into the bed opposite. If Dumbledore or Pomfrey turned around they'd see them.
"He shouldn't be." The Nurse of Hogwarts replied as James pulled the Invisibility cloak around the four of them. "Albus, I need to mend his arm and leg first."
"Yes. Yes." nodded the Headmaster as he got out of the way. Pomfrey used the bone-mending charm. Lily watched as a intrigued student because she knew she'd have to repair Sirius' hand. Once the nurse had done all her spells, Dumbledore said. "Don't you think he seemed more agitated than usual."
"He doesn't normally come back with broken bones."
"Can't we wake him?"
"It's best if he wakes up on his own."
Remus did wake up on his own. In that second, his whole body shook and then went completely rigid. Lily couldn't see clearly but knew her friend was frightened of something. Dumbledore picked up on this and placed a caring hand on Lupin arm. "Remus, Remus, you are in the Hospital. Everything's alright."
"No, no, I need to warn them." Mooney replied, hysterically.
"Who?"
"My friends."
"Why?"
"I smelt…..Everyone's in danger."
"Who? Who did you smell?"
"Fenrir...He's...Greyback's here."