Hey guys! Sorry about the gap between upates this time...as always :S
And as always I'm blown away by those who take the time to leave me a review! Like seriously, you guys are awesome and i 3 you all!!!
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"She's being completely unreasonable!"
"I know mate, I agree with you."
"I mean how can she blow up like that and not listen to reason?"
"Its ridiculous, I know."
"All up on her high horse, talking about snitching!"
"Yes James, we get the point!"
Sirius had been agreeing with his best friend for the past twenty minutes. They were now up in the dormitory and James had been pacing up and down since he stormed up there after Lily had disappeared.
"Well if she thinks I'm going to go grovelling to her again, and apologising then she's got a long wait ahead of her because I'm not saying sorry for anything!"
"Too right mate." replied Sirius in a bored tone, flicking through a motorcycle magazine. He understood why James was so irked by it, they never got teachers involved with inter-house disputes…but he thought James might have been going slightly overboard with the outrage. Every little thing just seemed to be amplified in regards to his best friend and Lily.
"She's leaving Dumbledore's office." muttered Remus quietly as he looked up from the marauders map.
James threw himself down on his bed and folded his arms in a huff. "Really, she is just being stubborn. There's no need to get Dumbledore involved. I hope he laughed her out of his office."
Peter leant toward Remus' bed from his perch on the floor and whispered, "At least he's stopped pacing...he was making me dizzy."
---
She stepped off the bottom of the spiral staircase that led to Dumbledore's office and let out a long breath. She had the feeling he was going to look into what the Slytherin seventh years were up to, but she also had the feeling he would be chuckling to himself now too. She hadn't meant to have a rant about James, she really hadn't. But when he had asked why James hadn't come with her to the office to relay the details she couldn't simply stand there lying about him being too busy, or it only needing one of them. Nope, she had to go into a long-winded speech about the whole argument they'd had, how Sirius was on his side and how she thought them silly, puerile and childish.
If anyone ever had been in a head-meet-wall situation then that would be it.
She felt justified in telling the headmaster though, because really what choice did they have? If James and Sirius wanted to look into it themselves then she wasn't going to stop them, in fact it was probably a good idea that they did, but they also needed someone of authority to step in too, someone who might actually make the Slytherin's stop and think about what they were doing…if not then to at least put the wind up them. She would have told James all this if he hadn't have acted so infuriating and final, like she was going to listen to what he said simply because he'd said it.
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It was very late in the Gryffindor common room and Lily had just sent two protesting first years up to bed; they were being far to rowdy and it was past midnight. After they'd disappeared she sat back down in her chair at one of the tables by the slightly ajar window and sighed. Her Transfiguration essay and all her reference books and notes were strewn over the table top in disarray and she pouted at it all; why couldn't essays write themselves? Why'd she have to waste hours and hours of her time bent over a table deciphering bits of text from mangy old books and cross referencing passages from her notes…
Her mind felt like it had been hit with a jelly-brain jinx.
She began to gather her things with the intention of heading up to bed but heard the portrait door open and someone climbing through. She kept still and silent backing into the shadows wondering who could be up and out at this time of night...
"Coast is clear."
Sirius Black strode in behind Peter who had been the first to enter the circular room. "Bloody sneaky gits, the lot of them! I'd give Padfoot's hind leg to know what they'd stolen from Slughorn's stash!"
"I know, me too…" added Remus with a grin.
"In fact I'd let 'em have Padfoot to know what they're doing!" added Peter, also grinning.
Sirius rolled his eyes but turned to James who was the last to enter, stowing something away in a bag slung over his shoulder. "What do your think Prongs?"
He ran a hand through his hair and looked tired. Lily hadn't talked to the guys since she stormed off to tell Dumbledore about the Slytherin's secret bridge meeting and could have guessed what they'd been up to.
"I think we might as well have been in bed."
"Yeah me too." agreed Sirius as he plonked himself on an armchair and yawned loudly.
"Me too."
They all whipped their heads round, and James even drew his wand.
"Woah James! I know we're not speaking but Merlin's beard I don't think I deserve that!" she had a hand to her chest; she wasn't expecting to have a wand pointing straight at her.
He quickly lowered his arm embarrassedly but his voice still sounded quite hostile. "You were lurking in the shadows, what do you expect me to do?"
"I was not lurking in the shadows! I was tidying away my stuff." she replied indignantly.
"Still Lily…give a guy a heart attack!" said Remus, attempting to lighten the mood.
She continued gathering her stuff together muttering, "If you weren't out till all hours, creeping back in after midnight, maybe you wouldn't be so jumpy."
There was a loud bang and Lily jumped out of her skin, letting out a squeak of shock. James had inadvertently shot something out of his wand and hit one of the vases on the windowsill to the right of where Lily stood. Instead of apologizing he growled, "Don't start Lily!"
She had a book in her hand and dropped it in the vague direction of the table, but she wasn't quite focusing on it. "Please don't raise your voice at me." she almost whispered.
"Well stop acting all high and mighty!" he replied angrily not lowering his voice and stepping forward though he put his wand in his pocket.
She automatically withdrew slightly as a gut reaction and shakily tried to gather her papers. "I'm going to be out of your hair in a moment, ok?"
Sirius was frowning and stepped towards her too. "Lily?"
She didn't reply though and concentrated on what she was doing.
"Lily, don't ignore me…are you ok?"
"I'm fine." she muttered, picking up her bag and stuffing her papers inside quickly. "I was heading to bed anyway."
"You don't have to go on our account."
She glanced over to where James was concentrating angrily on the fire in the grate and turned back to Sirius. "I don't want to start a fight." and with that she left them to it.
After a few moments James turned around and sighed. "Right well, I don't think there's much more we can do tonight, we'll just have to get back on it in the morning and…"
"You shouldn't have shouted at her like that your know." cut in Sirius seriously.
"What?!" asked James, then he rolled his eyes. "Padfoot spare me the lecture ok?! Now about the reconnaissance…"
"Did you see how much she jumped when the vase exploded?" said Peter in a small voice from behind his fingers.
"I'm guessing she never got used to loud noises from treading on eggshells around her dad." said Sirius flatly, his eyes not leaving James. "I doubt she'd ever get over angry outbursts."
A sudden realisation hit James and his stony expression drooped. "I didn't think..." He hadn't meant for the shot of whatever to shoot from his wand and hit the vase, it just had. Sometimes if his temper got a hold of him he'd unintentionally do magic like that…it was why he'd put his wand in his waste band. But Lily had looked…well; she'd looked scared. "Shit."
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Blearily Lily opened her eyes to the sound of shuffling about the room beyond her velvet curtains. She'd not slept well, tossing and turning all night. The look on James' face when he'd blown the vase up (whether by accident or not) wouldn't leave her dreams; he'd looked so angry for a split second. It took a few seconds for her to get the red folds of fabric surrounding her in focus.
"What's the time?" she said out loud, though her voice croaked slightly; hoarse from her crying through the night.
From the room beyond someone answered with an "Almost seven." and Lily sighed, rolling onto her back. She could sleep a little longer before she had to get ready for her school day…she didn't feel like breakfast anyway…
Something caught her eye and she turned her head to the left.
Sitting on the squished up pillow next to her head was an equally squished up flower.
"Oh…"
She sat up quickly, closing her eyes for a second to stop the slight dizziness in her head, before picking up the poor dishevelled looking lily, its petals all squished, pollen smeared across the white pillow case and crooked stem.
A lily on her pillow…
She sighed. It might have been a sweet gesture if she hadn't have woken up next to a flower which shared her name before…though when Severus had done it he had thought to put a shield charm round his, just in case she'd rolled over in the night and squashed it. Trust Severus Snape to think of the practicalities of conjuring a flower on a girl's pillow…
…and trust James Potter to not. "Bloody James Potter." she whispered beneath her breath as she sadly put her feet on the cold polished wooden floor and stood, swaying for second and padded towards the bathroom, past Mary who had just yawned widely.
"Lily, you've got yellow on your cheek."
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Putting a foot on the bottom step of the stairs to the boys dormitory that evening, Lily wondered if swallowing her pride was a good idea…and then after she'd swallowed said pride, whether they'd forgive her wrong doings too? Whether he'd forgive her wrong doings…
She lifted her other foot to the second step and hoped that her stubbornness hadn't caused any permanent damage. She'd not spoken to any of them other than a quick smile and "Hello" at Remus in Runes…she had the feeling they'd all been avoiding her all day, though she preferred it that way if she was honest.
James was obviously sorry for being in such a foul mood the previous evening; the flower on her pillow showed as much…but the problem lay with her going to Dumbledore to report the Slytherin 7th years, and she knew she'd need to be the one to apologise for that little spat.
Sooner than she was expecting she was stood before the wooden door to the boy's dormitory. The shiny brass plaque had been polished to within an inch of its life, and charmed too. Instead of only saying '7TH YEAR' as it was supposed to, it now held the word 'MARAUDERS'. A small smile crept across her lips as she went to push the door.
Locked.
"Dammit." she muttered under her breath, mentally grumbling. Why'd they have to be out when she'd finally mustered the courage to apologise? She huffed and pulled out her wand. "Alohomora." Nothing happened, though she hadn't really expected such an infantile spell to have been placed on their door. It was a good job Lily was adept at dealing with complicated wards.
She was inside the door in no time, clucking her tongue at the mess in front of her. She wondered whether they'd made a little extra effort with the housekeeping when she'd spent the evening with them. Robes were all over the floor…books…the odd pillow…she rolled her eyes; she knew she wasn't the tidiest person in the world, but this was a little excessive.
"Guys?"
No reply.
Sighing she walked over to the bed closest to her, which she knew belonged to Sirius and looked around for a spare piece of parchment in order to write a note…just a quick little 'Popped round, you weren't here…your rooms a pigsty, catch you later!' kind of a note…if she could only find something to write on…
There was a pile of scrap parchment lying haphazardly on the bedclothes though it all looked used. She wondered if she could rip off a piece from the bottom of one, she was sure Sirius wouldn't mind losing a bit off the bottom of one of his sheets of notes. Rifling through a few she saw what looked like a bit of Transfiguration…some random Potions jargon…an odd stack of parchment all attached together and written on…she picked up a piece of parchment half filled with Merlin only knew what! She ripped off the bottom and picked up a quill from the bedside table and was about to write when something caught her eye…
On one of the scraps of parchment there was something moving…it looked like an ant crawling along the surface. She pulled a face that said 'ick' and went to flick it off only to find it was actually ink moving across the page; an ink dot to be precise, and the dot had a name written next to it too: 'Regulus Black'.
Lily put her little note down now and focused her full attention to this little dot…it was moving up and down a…was that a corridor? She picked up the parchment and found it consisted of lots of folds…
"What the hell?"
As she turned it over in her hands more corridors were revealing themselves; staircases, statues and a lot more dots too. According to this, the dot labelled 'Josephine Thomas' and the dot with her boyfriend's name 'Karl Briggs' were alone in a little closet off what appeared to be the 3rd floor corridor.
"Merlin on a broomstick!"
She followed corridors, passageways and staircases all the way up to Gryffindor tower and knew then that this parchment was telling the truth. There were quite a few labelled dots in the common room, with the same names as those people who were in the common room now…and up in the very top room, in the boys dormitory stood a small dot labelled in a neat type she knew to be James' handwriting as 'Lily Evans' and there was a tiny little heart punctuating the name.
She slowly sat on the bed, mesmerized by this little dot with her name next to it. How did this map know where she was? She was never normally in the boy's dormitory. Alone. And the heart?
She flicked through the folds and came to what could only be described as the 'front' of this marvellous map.
Messer's Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs proudly present the Marauders Map.
She gasped. They had done this? They had created this map? With all these tiny labelled dots? With all these intricate corridors and passageways? She couldn't believe it! The genius of it!
Suddenly more writing appeared,
Mr Padfoot would like to know why you, Lily Evans, have been snooping around in my things?!
She nearly dropped it. Mr Padfoot? Sirius? Was he somewhere writing this? Was it automatic? Did it really know who was holding it? She looked around the room, wondering if the boys were watching her, laughing as they made the map talk to her. If that was the case then why weren't their dots in the room too?
Mr Moony would like to think that you haven't been snooping everywhere Lily… Leave my chocolate stash alone! I know how you girls can get!
She giggled. Well what could she do? That was precisely what Remus would say if he were there…
Mr Wormtail hopes you didn't go under my bed Lily…just don't. Nothing good will come of it…there's stuff under there that bites!
She shot a glance to the underneath of Peter's bed and laughed; it was absolute chaos! But she didn't pay it much attention as she was aware that a certain someone hadn't 'spoken' yet…it seemed forever for the words she was most interested to read to materialize…
Mr Prongs really hopes you find it in your heart NOT to hand this map over to the authorities…we're really quite attached to it…and what are you up to Friday night?!
Her laugh was loud then as 'Mr Padfoot's' handwriting scrawled underneath 'Mr Prongs'…
Stop pestering the poor girl Prongs! Cut her some slack!
She would have sat watching the parchment arguing with itself if she hadn't just realised that if it knew where she was…it could tell her where the guys were. Quickly she opened it and ignoring the scribbling that was going on on the front she scoured the castle for the dot that was labelled 'James Potter'.
She spotted Peter's dot in the kitchens, which didn't surprise her. There were what looked like hundreds of house elves dots in there too, each labelled with their individual names.
Remus was found in the library but he was deep in the library where people didn't tend to go, with Marlene McKinnon no less! Well, she hadn't seen that one coming!
It was a few more minutes of painstakingly searching the corridors before she'd found James' dot on the 5th floor…down a dark seldom used corridor. As soon as she saw it her heart might have stopped beating. If this map was right, and she was pretty confident it was, then she needed to get tot the 5th floor corridor, and to James, pronto.
Flinging the map to the bed she set off at a run through the door, down the stairs and through the common room with very little thought…
…The map slid from its precarious position on the edge of the bed to hit the floor with a papery 'thud' lying open at the scene that had made Lily act so impulsively. The dot labelled 'James Potter' was backed up against a seemingly harmless ink wall…surrounded by four others… 'Milton Ezra', 'Thaddeus Mulciber', 'Anthony Avery' and 'Severus Snape'…
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EEP!
So what do you think of that?!?
There is a reason why this chapter is smaller than recent ones...its kind of the first half of the ending :( I have had my epilogue written since the beginning...but the last chapter(s) have been in mind from the start too...
Please if you could be so kind as to leave a review I'd be so happy ^,^ reviews make me smile. And lord knows I could do with it xXx