CHAPTER 11

James and Lily stood in the great hall greeting students as they walked into the room. The Halloween feast had arrived very quickly and before they knew it they were helping Professor Dumbledore light candles on fire.

The great hall looked spectacular. Live bats hanging from the ceiling which weren't actually live, Dumbledore had confessed he'd tranfsigored specs of dust into them which could've been why the floor looked so tidy. Pumpkins of all sizes which Hagrid had grown himself littered everywhere. The tables, underneath, the floor, the walls and even random corridors. All the ghosts of Hogwarts were flying about above. Having some game of catch with a ghost pumpkin. James and Sirius had been surprised they hadn't been at Nearly Headless Nick's party but you know, I suppose it would be nicer up here than what the Marauders had stumbled upon to last year.

James and Lily had actually made progress with the Masquerade. They had sorted everything out apart from the food. There was to be gold decorations in a very dark room. With the great hall's ceiling as the night sky above. Lily had decided it needed to be more mysterious and the darkness would reflect that. They had booked a famous wizarding band called 142 Staircases which most people, who had somehow already heard, were very excited about. Posters had gone up all around the school after a long afternoon with Flitwick who had also agreed to help them with the decorations. Everything was well underway.

'You know,' Professor McGonagall stood next to James and Lily, also supervising them. 'I really do hate bats.'

'Errr professor,' James cut in. 'You do realise that the ones on the ceiling aren't real bats right, Professor Dumbledore confessed to us while he was tranfigoring them.'

'Oh I know.' McGonagall replied. 'I was the one who gave him the idea to-'

'PRONGS! OI James! POTTER!' Sirius came running over to them.

'Black you do know that shouting is rude! And how odd you happen to call James Prongs when his animagus is a Stag. How do you even know that? The tests were done privatly!'

'I'm sorry for shouting Minnie!' Sirius laughed slightly. 'And James' animagus is a stag? How curious I had no idea.' The lies rolled off his tounge easily. 'But you need to come to the hospital wing, it's Moony.'

'Isn't he a little early?' James instantly looked worried.

'Yeah, but you need come quickly, he'll probably have tranformed completely by the time-'

'Shhhh!'

'Oh I already know, and I daresay Miss Evans does too, Mr Lupin admitted to her in my lesson in fourth year right in front of me.'

'Wait really?' Lily looked amazed.

'Miss Evans I may be old but I'm not deaf or blind. Now go James, Sirius! Go and see Mr Lupin, now doubt he will be wondering where you are!'

They ran quickly to the hospital wing and arrived at five past eight. However, when they got there, Madam Pomfrey was tending to another patient and Remus' bed was nowhere to be seen.

'Quick, before someone see's us, he must've already gone.' Peter, who had stood up from behind a medicene cabinet, said.

They all hurried up towards Potions, where they knew they could get to the grounds. However, no sooner had the turned round the final corner did the bump right into Professor Slughorn.

'Hello boys,' Slughorn waved cheerily. 'How does the great hall look? I bet it looks spectacular doesn't it. Why aren't you heading there anyway?' Although he could be naïve, Slughorn wasn't stupid.

'We were just wondering-'

'-If you could brew up-'

'-A potion which takes off the pain-'

'-For our friend-'

'-You see, he's got a-'

'-Furry little problem.'

The lies had holes in them but Slughorn must've been in a good mood, either that or drunk.

'Of course my boys, I'll go and put it on now. I'll see you at dinner.'

And with that, he walked right back inside the potions classroom.

'Well that was easy,' Sirius hissed as the open the back door to the ground quietly and they slipped out.

'I know,' replied Peter. 'But where's Moony?'

'No idea.' Said James. 'He's probably still transforming a bit, let's go and wait outside the womping willow for him and then attack when he appears.'

'If he appears again. Do you remember that one night a last month where he escaped the shrieking shack and we had to chase him all the way around the forest?'

'Oh yeah,' Sirius laughed. 'Well come on then.'

The each began their walk forwards towards the tree, transforming into their animagi as they went. Sirius stepped out of the shadows as a big black dog, Peter as a rat and James changed into an elegant stag. It would've been painful, a few months ago but they'd soon got used to it.

Sirius nodded at James and Peter, signalling that Peter should go first. They had long since divised a system which was effective and quick. Peter would go first and freeze the knot in the roots. Then Padfoot would go in while James waited at the enterance for a minute or so unless Remus tried to escape. Most times they could be done within about eight hours. James took a dep breath, then followed Sirius and Peter.

Meanwhile, Lily settled in to roast chicken with gravy. There was excited chatter all down the four house tables. Even the slytherin's looked vaguely happy about something. Marlene, Alice, Mary and Lily settled in to talk of the holidays which began the next day.

'So what are you doing for the holiday Mary?' Lily asked, cutting up a roast potato.

'Oh my parents are taking me up to Wales to do some whale watching. I'm so excited! Although the weather doesn't look good.'

'Ooooh! Exciting!' Alice replied. 'Me and Frank are going on holiday together. We've rented a really cute log cabin in Devon. What are you doing Lily?'

'Oooooooh!' Lily whistled. 'But I'm just staying at home and then going to visit Emmeline a few times, turns out she lives about half an hours walk away from me.'

'Wait you mean Emmeline Vance? The ravenclaw girl that you used visit the slug club with?' Marlene broke in.

'Oh yeah. But don't remind me of the slug club, please.' Lily waved her hands defensivly in front of her face. 'I hated that thing.'

'Sure, sure.' Marlene ate a piece of chicken. 'Well I'm going to Spain with James and his family after going to see Hannah.'

She ignored the shocked looks from her friends.

'You're joking right?' Alice gaped.

'No, plus it's just lunch, we're going out and I'm going to see Hannah.'

'Not Hannah, you're going to Spain with James?'

'As in James Potter?'

Marlene looked up to 3 shocked face.

'Well yeah, that is what I said.' She returned to her dinner until it was pushed away by Alice. 'Hey!'

'Shut up! You, Marlene McKinnon are going on holiday with James Potter?'

'Yes. I got a message from my parents this morning, because they're heading off to the Carribbean and so they said Mr and Mrs Potter had offered to take me with them to Spain.'

'Is this what wizarding families do?' Lily asked, amazed. 'How rich are the Potter's anyway?'

'Are you kidding?' Mary turned to face her. 'The Potter's live in a mansion in near Godric's Hollow. That's got the most expensive houses around. I even heard,' she waved her fork. 'That Dumbledore used to live there before he moved full time to Hogwarts.'

'Wait, seriously?' Marlene interupted.

'Yeah. And are you kidding Lily? It's a universally know fact how rich the Potter's are. Both Mr and Mrs Potter are aurors, although I think they're quite old now and will probably retire soon. I mean, I've walked past their mansion and it's freakin' awesome! If you ask me Lily, you should've just said yes when he asked you out and then wait until he propsed to you. I'd be pretty chuffed if I had a family in law like that.'

'That's not funny Mary.' Lily frowned.

'Okay okay, I'm sorry but you see my point.' Mary apologized.

'It's true.' Marlene spoke for the first time since announcing her holiday. 'James literally has his own miniture quiddich pitch and his bedroom is about half the size of the great hall.' She tucked into her chicken. 'I've been there loads, and I used to get lost in his house. It's beautiful as well, not to mention the back garden. I mean, there's a swimming pool, a hot tub, I actually think there's an entire orchard out the back.'

They all stared at Marlene, surprised.

'How do you know all this, and how come James has never mentioned it before?'

'Come on Lily!' She laughed slightly. 'I know you've hated James forever, but although I pretended to for the sake of you, our parents are friends. And he's fiercly loyal, actually a really nice guy. I ended up staying there, like, for weeks on end when my parents were away on missons. We literally were like brother and sister.'

'So you're saying,' Alice interupted. 'That you pretended to hate James Potter, who verbally abused the words "Will you go out with me" and mentally abused Lily-,'

'-well abused is going a bit far-'

'-WHILE, you actually went round his house every holiday for sleepovers and pools parties.'

They all fell silent.

'Well,' Marlene relaxed backwards. 'I would've used a different vocabulary but basically, yeah. If you like someone as a friend, nobody can stop you from being friends with them.'

'Lily?' Alice turned to her crossly.

'It doesn't matter,' Lily shrugged it off, much to everyone's surprise. 'I kind of understand you. And besides, I kind of really want to go visit the Potter's house now.'

'Wow Lily.' Mary looked at her, rolling her eyes. 'But yeah, I kind of do too.'

'But nevermind his house,' Alice interupted them. 'You're going to Spain with James. That's going to be so awkward. The only time you ever go on holiday if you're a girl if you're a boy is if you're 1. brother and sister or 2. Having a romantic relationship.'

'Oh come on Alice,' Mary used a cake knife to cut off a slice of frozen alaska, which had just appeared in front of her. 'You don't seriously believe that magazine rubbish do you?'

'I see where she's coming from,' Marlene laughed, helping herself to raspberry ice cream. 'But I don't have a choice, plus I'm actually looking forwards to it, me and James went on holiday before. But that was with Sirius as well.'

'Jesus christ Marly!' Lily dropped her spoon on the table. 'Who haven't you been on holiday with?'

'Us actually.' Mary folded her arms. 'You've never been anywhere with any of us, but you go on a fancy abroad vacation with James freakin' Potter, who you've "hated" for years!'

'Yeah well it's not easy having parents travel around everywhere!' Marlene started nervously. 'This summer is the most I've seen of them and Mr and Mrs Potter are my god parents, they're my legal guardians if anything happens to my parents. They've even got a bedroom for my in their house, like, a bedroom which only I use. I don't really think you guys get it!' And with that, she wiped her eyes angrily and fled from the great hall silently.

'I feel terrible,' Alice bit her lip. 'Marlene barely ever talks about her parents. I shouldn't have pushed her.'

'It's not your fault,' Lily patted her on the back. 'Maybe you were right to start with. I mean, Marlene would obviously rather spend time with James Potter than us so maybe we shouldn't feel guilty.'

'I don't think we should feel guilty, but not defensive either.' Mary cut in, breaking them both off. 'I've been friends with Marlene for longer than you have, like, we were friends on the first train ride. And she was sitting with James until I asked her if she would mind helping me move my owl cage because I couldn't reach it. After that we just got talking and then the talk turned to family's and she just kinda went very sad and said "I don't really see all too much of them." She obviously has some unresolved issues with her family and I was the first to arrive at her pool party and I saw her and her mum talking, properly. She's trying to figure out who she is and in the process, we're making it harder for her so let's just lay off her okay?' Mary finished speaking, she'd been speaking quietly, but the message was said.

'She's trying to figure out who she is?' Lily asked quietly. 'Why?'

'Because,' Mary leaned forwards. 'She's thinking of becoming an, no I can't tell you that. I'm not really supposed to know. She'll have to tell you when she's ready.'

'I had no idea,' Alice put her head in her hands. 'Marlene's going through so much. I'd better go apologise!' She begun to stand but Mary pushed her back down.

'Not now,' she muttered. 'You know how much Marlene hates people seeing her cry.'

They sat in silence for about ten minutes. Each contemplating the situaton. Alice felt terrible, and wondered what she could do to make it better. Lily wondered about all the secrets Marlene had been hiding and wondered how she hid them. Mary thought about Marlene's secret, and what would happen with it. They all munched through pie, and ice cream, and marshmallows and fruit in a chocolate pot. They were all very sincere, amid the bubbly chatter of their fellow classmates.

At quarter to nine, they were dismissed and ran from the table, hurrying to the dorm room where Marlene was undoubtly upset.

Author's Note:
I'm sorry I haven't posted in like, a week, but you know, school sucks. Enjoy this chapter and next one will be up soon! ;)