Chapter Twenty-Six: Unfounded Vicious Things

"Never would have thought that. You don't think it's true, do you?"

"Possibly, you never know what she has in her head anymore. I never see her."

"Please, Evans adores Lupin, you saw, didn't you?"

"Well, I also heard rumours that she kissed Sirius Black under mistletoe. That girl doesn't intend to have anything to do with him, how cruel. Stringing him along like that, what a shame."

"I never thought you could put the words Lily Evans and harlot together without adding a 'is not' in between."

Rumours had flooded Hogwarts within the first week back and Lily found herself denying things much more than she needed to. Her kingdom had run amok while she was away and she only had the Marauders and herself to blame. The students of Hogwarts, it seemed, were not as devoted as she had left them. In fact, Lily found she had to continuously dry herself off from the sludge of filthy lies that had miraculously pooled around her feet.

"Girls, have you all something to say to me?" she asked kindly, but not without meaning, coming up to Patricia Ryerson, Emily Richardson and Samantha Greenwood, smiling at them expectantly. Of all the people in this school, this flock was, by far, her most devoted. If they fell, her entire rule was threatened to deceit.

Emily smiled cheerfully at Lily as old habits died very hard. "We were wondering of asking you, Lily, do you like Sirius Black or Remus Lupin? It's a very confusing question."

Lily merely smiled, this question, she had answered nearly thirty-times today with the same repetitive and ever so irritable response. "Honestly, Richardson, I don't really like either of them. Remus Lupin is simply not the kind of boy I prefer and Sirius Black has far too large a mouth for my preferences. Pity me, my knight is still missing."

At this comment, Emily went slightly pink—for it was not a well-known fact that Emily Richardson was dating Tom Jordan. Tom Jordan was of the loud-mouthed but considerate and considerably sweet variety—he just didn't have the breeding, for Tom Jordan, by no fault of his own, was muggleborn and thought to be a squib until the age of ten. Emily Richardson had confided this to Lily Evans—the only sure way of making sure it remained a secret—but last spring during their sixth year.

Patricia wavered slightly before smiling. "He'll come for certain one day, Lily, I'm sure of it! In the meantime you can always give us a grand show between Black and yourself. That's always been entertaining."

Lily smiled back sweetly at her, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "Count on it, to be sure."

Samantha, however, did not look as convinced. Samantha Greenwood had been one of Lily's largest advocates, however, her infatuations with Remus Lupin were more than enough to want Lily dethroned. "Really? I have been told, in fact, from reliable sources that you admire both and are simply playing along with them. That's a cruel game to play, don't you think, Lily?" she said, acid upon her words, saying Lily's name sparingly.

Lily's eyebrows rose innocently in a shocked—but practiced—manner. "Yes, indeed, it is. Who might have told you this? I can assure you, it's a lie."

Pursing her lips, Samantha shook her head and smiled. The case was closed to her and now nothing could possibly change her mind. "Well, well, perhaps Amy Pavonis is much more of a spider than we thought, for she is spinning tales—true or false are to be determined."

With that, Samantha took her leave, leaving Lily fuming in her wake. How dare she be so impudent. Lily remembered a time where the information of whether Lily knew what time of day it was were important enough to gossip about. Now this girl couldn't give two cents to care about the social well-being of a girl who was still queen of this school.

Someone was trying to dethrone her and had started to take an ice-pick to her crown and Lily was keen to find out who. The holidays had left her mind buzzing with dances and secrets and more mysteries to question. In this state of mind, Lily found that clear thoughts were scarce to come by without interference from stray ideas or wanderings. Lily had to once again immerse herself within this society, being the obscure queen of popularity as she once was—content to rule with partial authority and only partial minds to what was happening did not make the cut in this new season.

Lily did not know the latest gossip on couples, nor did she know enough information about anything anymore to pay even a half a cent to specific matters. The solid sheet of ice had slowly started to melt underneath her while she idled her time away skating over it with James Potter. She was the only Evans now, what was previous would simply not do for what was now.

"I haven't the slightest idea what Pavonis may have muddled up in her head, but whatever she is saying is not true, by all accounts. The only truth in any of these rumours is that, yes, Sirius Black caught me under mistletoe—as he does every year, I'm sure anyone would agree."

Emily nodded. "Absolutely. That boy is crazy about you. My, what a perfect match you two would make, don't you think, Patricia?" she said innocently, not realizing, it seemed, the full ramifications of that suggestion.

"Absolutely. A perfect Queen with a perfect King, don't you think? Shame on that silly Heads Curse into thinking that Lily would honestly pair up with that obscure boy!" she said laughingly, finding the thought, apparently, to be extremely amusing. The thought that Lily had once thought of this laughable matter, and given nearly the exact same response as Patricia did not miss her; in fact hitting her harder than a train ever could.

Lily merely smiled. "Well, girls, I can't promise you anything. Anyway, it's time I got this school set straight, everyone is in a tizzy from the holidays and the prefects seem to have all forgotten how to be one. I'll see you all at dinner and we can catch up on what happened over our breaks then, yes?"

The two girls nodded affirmatively and Lily took off, feeling a little more confidence fall in her stride than before. It would take weeks to repair what damage had been caused. Not only that, but she had to find the cause of all this mayhem that had assaulted her on the first day back from break. Chaos was not a welcome thing within her courts and she aimed to crush the problem or at least silence the cause. Wagging tongues were not very well taken with her.

As she headed towards the Great Hall, she realized that she passed by the secret corridors that she and Sirius excavated through on the night of the Yule. Glancing at the uninteresting and daily misinterpreted walls, she scowled at them, solely blaming them for that entire night's fiasco. Excuse upon excuse and fabricated lie upon truth had to be told to prevent the epidemic of that.

Lily sighed; Fiona Wethersett didn't have to do this much to keep her title; captain of the Quidditch team, one half of the Wicked Wethersett duo, sister to the only boy that Lily had avidly admired and also Head Girl to boot. With all that, Lily had a hard time competing and even harder time to keep her various titles.

Elusive, untouchable, untameable—all things she had earned over the last two years along with a varied number of nicknames including Firehead, of all things, by Sirius Black for her mean temper. It seemed that these might disappear at the drop of a flag or the flick of a switch—as if these were things that were only clinging to her by the barest bits of thread.

There was a sudden hissing noise coming from the wall and Lily frowned. Glancing around, she saw that no one else was here to verify her sanity—or insanity as the case may be—and came closer to inspect the hissing wall that seemed to have wanted her attention so much as to hiss at her.

"Hello?" she asked cautiously.

Not a moment after the wall swung open and a pair of hands grabbed either of her arms and dragged her through before slamming shut once more. Lily was so disoriented from the sudden rush that she took a few seconds to stabilize herself and realized that she was leaning very much on something very warm and very solid. Thankfully it was too dark to tell who had accosted her whom she was now leaning on for support.

"Lillian! My love, my angel, my—"

"—disgust," she said venomously, immediately knowing who she was so casually leaning against. "Who gave you permission to use my full name you worthless piece of trash?" she said, standing on her own two feet and an arms length away from the boy, since his hands were still holding onto her arms from the pull.

Sirius sighed and shook his head. "Ah, my love, you never cease to astound me at your quick wit and—"

"To the sharp and narrow point, if you please, Mr Black," she said dully, not wanting to waste time here with him.

"Ah, yes, of course. Moony, lights please."

A groan was heard. "What am I, your maid servant? Lumos," he said despite his comment. Lily had another flash of vertigo as her eyes had just focused to the dark only to be blared with a blinding flash of light. It was unhealthy and it was unheard of and it was completely characteristic of something Sirius Black would do to you. First he would blind you, then he would blind you again. Very typical.

When her eyes focused once more, she saw that the entire gang was here, all four of them—the last mystery member included, being Peter Pettigrew. Lily only scarcely knew about Peter because he had an unmistakable crush on Lily in second—when she was hardly considering ruling this school or even open to the option. However, she recognized him nonetheless and recognition from Lily Evans was good enough for anyone to escalate to higher grounds of social status.

"We are in need of your very Heady help, Lillian, would you be so kind?"

Shaking herself free of his grasp, Lily sighed, realizing somewhere in the back of her mind that she would have to hand-wash these robes now to get the taint and corruption out. "And what sort of service do you require from me that your other Heady help cannot accomplish?" she asked plainly, staring right past Sirius to James who merely looked on in amusement.

Pursing his lips before popping them, Sirius glanced at James for a moment before looking back at her. "James will not—er, I should say—cannot do it. This task, I'm afraid, Lillian, requires your very female expertise."

Lily lowered her eyes at him. "I should give you all detentions—Head Boy included—right now for even thinking of asking this of me. Whatever chaos you wish to create will not be with my aid, you menaces to society."

Remus held a hand over his heart and wiped away an imaginary tear. "Ah, Lily, such sweet words. We've never gotten such high praise before—except from ourselves, of course. You're an honorary Marauder, you have to help us."

Lily threw her head back and laughed. "I'm not stupid enough as to throw myself in with you lot. Now, tell me what you're intending to do so that I may inform McGonagall for a punishment tenfold what I would have given you."

Sirius sighed. "Well, it would get the rumour mill off your back. Our plan that is. What is the largest place to gossip in the school among girls?"

"The washroom," she replied plainly.

This, by far, was as common sense as remembering to breathe.

"Exactly. We will set up… various things in each of the washrooms. The foul-mouthed wretch of a girl that is spreading lies about you with this dog—" Remus gave an audible protest, "—and start more about you and I. Or simply stop altogether," he added quickly after catching her glare.

Folding her arms neatly, Lily cocked her head at him. "I have no need of your questionable help, Mr Black, to set things right with my school."

Sirius smiled. "Ah, but free help is given from both Sirius Black and the Marauding Marauders of Hogwarts to the girlfriend of Sirius Black."

Lily's eyes widened and she turned white, colour draining from her face. How had… who… in short, Lily was utterly confused—far too confused to feel the very real anger that was most likely building up like a volcano about ready to blow its top.

Seeing her reaction to this statement, Sirius waved a cautionary hand in front of her face. "Hello? Hogwarts to Lily? We kissed, remember, under mistletoe, yes, but we kissed nonetheless. You didn't seem not to enjoy it this time."

Lily's mind had shut down. It seemed that the one at fault for these rumours was this marauding idiot in front of her. "Black, you are the most vile, wretched, hapless and unfortunate pile of sludge I have ever had the displeasure to come in contact with," she said slowly, feeling that if she spoke too quickly she might burst out at him shrieking and thus lose her voice. "I am not your girlfriend, and I am nowhere near an honorary Marauder, nor do I wish ever to be one. Stop stuffing clouds in that empty head of yours as an excuse to always be up there," she said before turning on her heel and pushing the wall of the door open.

"Boys, scatter," he said quickly just as the wall opened.

When Lily walked out, she realized that all hope was lost as it was the lunch hour and the very sight of a wall opening with Lily Evans coming out of it and Sirius Black following closely behind was far too much to comprehend. Lily's mind instantly shut down and colour seemed to have permanently drained from her face. Worse yet, all who were here were her peers.

The floodgates had broken and there was no fixing them.

Sirius stepped nimbly past her and smoothed his hair back. "I'll see you around, Lily," he said smoothly before strutting off.

Feeling helpless and very much like a deer caught in headlights, Lily was unaware of the group of girls who had witnessed that scene come and swarm her. Flocks of questions flooded out their mouths and Lily found that her social reflexes came very much in handy at this moment as her brain completely shut down while only a fraction of her brain listened to and responded to the questions the way these girls would take it best—and that would be with the one and only Sirius Black.

It left a sick feeling in her stomach, that was certain.

To My Reviewers:

messyblackhair66: Well, I wish I could be accomodating to you in any way at all, but I simply can't. One of my main inspirations for writing like this and like that are Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Wonderful book, really. I definitely would recommend reading her work, including Sense and Sensibility, which I have yet to flip through. Also, I am imagining the time-line to be slightly further back in time than they originally were. A time-frame similar, but not similar enough, to that of Pride and Prejudice--where, really, the speech is a little less confusing than Shakespeare but more so than what I write. Truth be told, I enjoy writing my dialogue like that, as I am a fan of old-fashioned and traditional things. After reading Pride and Prejudice so many times it simply stuck. I truly am sorry for confusing you with what's happening. Thanks for your continued support, though, regardless of all this messiness with my impossible dialogue. :P

This story is ringing the end! YES! I say YES! Well, I am happy about it, I speak no word of a lie there. You've all been very wonderful to me and I can say you'll have one of two reactions once the next chapter is out. Heaven forbid it's not the last one. There's still a bit more of a stretch to go--but we're on the home stretch nonetheless. Once again, I thank you for all your kind support for me! It's been a long road from when I posted the initial chapters of Rain to now. Definitely a road I wouldn't have gone down if not for all your kind reviews!

Comments:

I didn't like this one particularly. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, but I felt if I fudged around with it any more it would be completely ruined. I feel like I missed something--something tragically important. Aw... poor Lily... but the character I feel most sorry for is James. On the flip-side, I am taking this opportunity to promote my newest inspiration: Your Choice of Flower, another story with our wonderful stars with another twist that can only come from the recesses of my mind. You'll either love it entirely, or hate it completely.

Please R&R.

- Minute Maid

Beverage of Queens.

P.S. It was exam season for me, so you all had to put up with the wait. I honestly wish I could say I am sorry, but, to be truly honest, I'm not. Anyway, I am now free as a bird to update the next couple chapters for you all in good time. Cheers. :P