So Far: Tally's been acting strange the entire year, which the various seventh year Gryffindors have been looking into; investigation stalled after Sirius and Remus followed her into the Forbidden Forest but couldn't tell what she was doing. Meanwhile, Dorcas came out as a lesbian, after she and Marlene made out last year. Also, there's a Wizarding War going on.

Chapter 36

Or

Of Happily-Ever-Afters

Dorcas woke up in the Library.

It was late, probably an hour or so before curfew, the lights had been dimmed, and there was nobody else in this section of the library. Dorcas realized, with a certain sense of horror, that the ink had smeared in her essay, and her left hand was covered in it; she would have to do it all over again. The words so carefully written were gone, and so was Dorcas' recollection of them. She'd have to redo all of her research.

Seventh year, Dorcas decided, was hell. She thought fifth year was bad – she'd gotten a stress rash twice that year – but she'd never been so tired as to fall asleep in a public setting before. Merlin, she must be exhausted – best if she work on this essay tomorrow. Maybe she could ask for an extension.

She had finished gathering her books and had begun phrasing the exact words she'd use when asking Flitwick for the extension when she stepped on a piece of parchment. Thinking it might be one of hers, she picked it up, but it wasn't – the writing was unfamiliar. She read the first line, thinking she might be able to figure out who it belonged to. What she discovered was a continuation of a conversation between two distinct handwritings.

and Tally in the forest, along with those other kids, do you think they're doing a good enough job? said the first line. The handwriting was blocky and large, nothing like the small, tight script of the second line.

It has to be. It happens tomorrow. If it's not done, who knows what might happen.

What happens tomorrow? Dorcas wondered.

I thought this was just a test, though? That he doesn't expect us to succeed?

He doesn't, the small script read. But that doesn't mean he won't judge us at all. We are expected to follow the plan to the letter. I provided the potions and the charms – now we must pray they work.

Tomorrow night then.

Yes, tomorrow night. Seven o'clock sharp. With any luck, Hogwarts will never be the same.

Dorcas thought of the past few months of Tally's sleepless incursions to the forest, and realized that it was something far more sinister than any of them had realized.

The doors to Professor Minerva McGonagall's office opened, and Lily Evans, Dorcas Meadowes, Marlene McKinnon and even Mary McDonald marched in.

"We think somebody's trying to bring down the wards around Hogwarts," Lily said, breathless. Dorcas had come to her earlier in the evening with the notes and her theory; Lily agreed, and so did Marlene and Mary.

McGonagall raised a brow. "Why would you think such a thing?"

"Ever since we came back this year," Mary explained, "Tally has been… different. We didn't want to say anything because we thought she was just sick, or lonely. But she was spending time with all of these – oh, I don't know. Odd people from other houses. A lot of Slytherins."

"That," Professor McGonagall said, "hardly leads to the conclusion that someone is trying to break into Hogwarts."

"It's not just that," Dorcas said impatiently. "We… uh… started looking for her in the evenings. She always seemed to go into the Forest, but we could never anticipate where, and by the time we caught up to her she was walking back towards Hogwarts."

"She was going into the Forbidden Forest?" McGonagall exclaimed. "Evans, you're Head Girl! You should've come to me with this immediately!"

Lily opened her mouth to explain, but Mary cut her off. "Lily didn't know anything about this until tonight," she lied. "We were trying to understand if Tally had a reason first, to see if we could help in any way. We knew Lily would come to you and didn't want to put her in that position."

"That doesn't excuse you young ladies," McGonagall said, as stern as any of them had ever heard her, possibly moreso.

"Of course not, and you can punish us – after we explain our theory," Dorcas said, still extremely curt. "We had no idea what Tally could possibly be doing – until I found this near my stuff in the library tonight." When she said this, Dorcas handed the piece of parchment over to the Professor, who examined it thoroughly.

"We think the he they're referring to is You-Know-Who, Professor," Lily said. "We think that for months, several upper-grade students have been attempting to weaken the wards. We think these kids are Death Eaters to-be, or kids whose parents or family are Death Eaters. And I, personally, think these kids need guidance. I think Tally is lost. And I think we need to get everybody to safety. Now."

McGonagall sighed. "I cannot do anything of the sort, not, at least, until I talked to Professor Dumbledore. So, if you may leave me office so I can – "

"Oh, James and the boys are already talking to him," Marlene interrupted. "They said they'd head back here afterwards, so we shouldn't leave."

A flash of amusement crossed McGonagall's features before she shook her head and said, "Regardless, I cannot believe you haven't told a professor about this until now. I will have to give the three of you detention."

"I don't think that's necessary," said Dumbledore's voice. Dumbledore's body followed it inside McGonagall's office, which was rapidly becoming rather cramped, as all four Marauders trailed in after him. "I do believe that the students did a rather smart thing by biding their time. After all, had these eight kids told a professor about Ms. Tallulah, perhaps they would have been far less careless about documents such as that one." Dumbledore gestured towards the parchment on McGonagall's desk.

"I do believe," Dumbledore continued, "that we built shelters exactly for a purpose such as this. Perhaps it is time we use them."

Dorcas and Lily bolted to the Gryffindor common room; James and Sirius headed towards Ravenclaw; Peter and Remus promised they knew where the Hufflepuff dormitory was; and Mary and Marlene followed McGonagall to Slughorn's office, who would guide Slytherin house towards their shelter. Dumbledore was to inform the other teachers, and soon disappeared from view.

Mary had trouble keeping up with Marlene and McGonagall, who had set a walking pace closer to running, and regretted not wearing comfortable shoes that morning. It had felt like forever, but they did finally reach Slughorn's office.

"I'm dying," she wheezed to Marlene.

"Take your shoes off, darling," Marlene suggested.

McGonagall knocked on the door, and a hesitant: "Who is it?" was heard through the door.

"It's Minerva," Professor McGonagall said. "It's urgent, open the door."

After a bit of shuffling, the door opened. Slughorn seemed to be taking up the entire entrance on purpose, as if hiding something. Suddenly glad for her heals, Mary stretched herself upwards, trying to see inside. There was a boy inside, and he looked familiar –

By the time she caught a glimpse of his face, McGonagall had finished explaining the situation to Slughorn, and the door slammed in her face again.

"Was that – " Mary whispered to Marlene, whose expression said we'll discuss this later.

"Girls," McGonagall said. "I think you might want to get to the Gryffindor shelter now."

Marlene opened her mouth to argue, but this time Mary was the one to shut her up: she bumped her elbow into what quite possibly was her ribcage. "Of course," she said with a smile. "Let's go," she said. It wasn't subtle, but it worked. Mary and Marlene began running in the other direction, and Mary suddenly remembered the ache in her step.

Then all hell broke loose.

Students. Everywhere.

An alarm started sometime, without Dorcas even noticing. Now that she noticed it, however, it was hard to ignore; the blood was rushing to her ears, her heart misplaced in her throat instead of her chest, as she knocked on every door she passed, hoping to wake up anybody and everybody she could.

"Is everybody alright?" she heard someone ask. They were running – they had to get to the shelter –

"I don't know," she heard herself saying. Her heart was running wild, and she had to physically stop whoever it was from running back – it was James – wasn't he supposed to be at Ravenclaw tower? – "they'll be fine, she'll be fine – " her voice kept going, she didn't know where her strength was coming from – "just get yourself safe, we want less people injured, remember?"

And then she was in the room, shivering in nothing but a thin layer of cloth. She looked around, counting the people she knew – one, two, three – oh, there's Mary, thank God –

Was everyone there? Where was Marlene?

"Where's Marlene?" she asked, her voice no longer detached but emotionless, as if only half connected to her body.

"She'll be here any moment, I saw her run for the desk to get something – " said a voice behind her. She turned around and saw Lily, and then they were embracing because that's what you do when you don't know what's going on, when you don't know how to face a world that's crumbling down around you, you hang on to the things you care about most. She noticed Marlene was wearing an inside-out robe; she decided not to say anything.

"I was just falling asleep," she heard someone say.

They were closing the doors as Marlene ran in, only just in time. Marlene was looking everywhere – she saw Dorcas, she was on her way –

James intercepted her: "Are you okay?" he asked. Lily was by his side – hadn't she just been hugging Dorcas? Everything was so chaotic – and Dorcas couldn't help but remember that Marlene and James had been dating, had had an actual relationship -

"I hope no one's hurt," Marlene said.

"I was studying still, I hadn't even gone up to bed," someone else was saying.

The enhanced, heavily enchanted classroom was crowded, but it grew quiet very suddenly at the sound of an unfamiliar, transmitted voice. Someone had brought a radio – maybe it was there all along – and it was now magnified magically so that the entirety of Gryffindor House could hear it. The voice was talking calmly, reporting a sighting of the Mark above a house in Hogsmeade, and Dorcas wanted to throw up inside her mouth.

They stay there. They stay there and there's all this noise from the radio and the people and her head, and then they open the doors and it seems like everything's fine, no one's hurt, everyone's okay. Everyone except for the people who died. Everyone except the people whose relatives lived in that house in Hogsmeade, their friends, even the people who said hi to them on the street every once in a while. Everyone who died because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was trying to break into Hogwarts. She did not think it was possible to feel sicker.

"You think we can leave yet?" said a small, scrawny student that Dorcas was pretty sure was no older than a second year.

A fifth year student with a badge on his robe huffed and said clearly, proudly, "The rules are that you – we – have to stay in the shelter for an hour. It's only been ten minutes or so."

Lily bent down and wrapped her arms around him. "Are you okay?" But Dorcas didn't need him to answer, because she already knew what it was. Nothing was okay. Nothing would really be okay until this War ended. When will it end? she wanted to scream. When will this War over nothing, the suffering, the pain and torment, when will it end?

Every day, the Daily Prophet bearing the names of the dead and the missing. Every day, they were living here, doing nothing, living their lives as if nothing's wrong, when everything was wrong, everything.

And it struck her then that she had just made a decision. She had made up her mind: there would be no more death, no more ruin, no more children waking up in the middle of the night at Hogwarts and running towards safety. Not if she could help it. This isn't what magic was for. Magic had endless potential to make things for the better, and these – people, if you could call them people – chose to use it to induce terror, to hurt, to kill. She couldn't believe she'd been part of the problem for so long, she couldn't believe she'd condemned her friends – Mary, Lily, even Marlene – for nothing more than a technicality.

She decided she was going to fight. She was going to be the damn best fighter this side had.

Marlene looked at her, and Dorcas knew – she just knew –

Maybe there was no happy ending. Maybe it was just her and her wand at the end.

But first, she was going to get through tonight. And tomorrow. And the day after that. And the one after that. And then she was going to learn to use her considerable brains and talents in a productive, fighting-the-bad-guys way.

And then –

Then –

Then, if they took her out, she would take as many Death Eaters with her as she bloody well can.

Despite protocol stating that only one hour was necessary, the students remained in the shelters all night. Classes were canceled the next morning, and Lily, who was far too wired up to possibly sleep, decided to spend the day outside, in the late winter cold, under her favorite tree by the lake, half-heartedly attempting to tackle the pile of homework she had dragged outside before giving up and resigning herself to spending the rest of the morning, and possible the afternoon as well, staring at the tiny leaves growing on the trees and at the slowly thawing lake.

"Aren't you freezing?"

"Merlin's beard, Sirius, you scared me!" Lily yelled, holding her hand to her breast, feeling her heart's quickened beat. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

He raised his hands. "I come in peace, my friend, and no scaring was intended. I was bored," he explained, "saw you from the window. Everybody else is asleep."

"Not everybody," Lily said, pointing to the path from Hogwarts, where two small figures, approximately Marlene and Dorcas-sized, were climbing down towards them.

"Oh great," Sirius sighed. "The sexual tension squad. Well, part of it at least."

"What?"

"Nothing. Hey, Meadowes! McKinnon! What are you up to?!"

The couple in question were significantly closer than they had been just a moment ago, but the closer they got, the more uncomfortable Marlene looked.

"Hey!" Dorcas said cheerfully. Yet another strange thing. "What are you two up to?"

"I was trying to work," Lily said, lying through her teeth, "until this doofus came and decided to annoy me."

"And I was trying to annoy her, although I haven't had much of a chance to, considering how quickly you left the castle after me. What are you two up to?" Sirius' grin sent chills through Lily; it seemed – sinister, somehow. What are you doing, Sirius? Lily thought desperately.

"Nothing, just taking a walk," said Marlene quickly, looking profoundly uncomfortable.

"Just a walk?" Lily was absolutely convinced of the sinister edge to Sirius' grin, now. It would be more accurate to call it evil, really.

Then Marlene said "Yeah," at the same time Dorcas said "No."

Marlene startled. "What does that mean?"

Dorcas stammered in reply, so Sirius – looking downright wicked – replied for her. "It means you should snog already."

Oh.

Yeah, they probably should.

It was now Marlene's turn to stammer.

"We – what – "

"Again, you mean," Dorcas corrected, looking horrified as soon as she finished saying it.

Lily couldn't help it; she gasped. "How did I not know about this? When? Where? What?"

"Almost a year ago, in Marlene's house, and nothing came of it. Well, I came out as a lesbian, so I guess something came out of it." Again, Dorcas looked horrified at herself, as if she couldn't control what she was saying. Lily empathized, even if she couldn't sympathize. "I'm going to stop talking now."

"No, please continue," Sirius said. "I'm actually mildly invested in this. Peter and I have been discussing when the two of you are going to get together."

"This maybe isn't the time," Marlene said, sounding slightly wobbly. Also, looking slightly wobbly.

"Why not?" Lily said, surprising herself. When everybody looked at her, she decided to continue in this vein, however: "I mean, the whole world is falling around us. Shouldn't we… Merlin, I don't know. Isn't this when we should spend our time cultivating and celebrating love, instead of squashing it? I mean – " She stopped, remembering that she wasn't, matter of fact, talking to herself. "What I'm saying is, it's sort of now or never, isn't it? We could all die tomorrow, couldn't we? So we might as well love today."

"Huh," Sirius said. "That's sort of beautiful."

"Thank – " Lily began, but she was cut off by the unexpected snogging of the two ladies in front of her.

And they continued snogging.

And continued.

"OY!" Lily yelled. "DO THIS SOMEWHERE MORE PRIVATE, MAYBE?"

Dorcas pulled away, giggling – giggling! – and said, breathlessly, "I thought it was now or never, mate. So I chose now."

Marlene looked breathless. And flushed. And happy.

"Gross," Sirius said.

"Oh, fuck off," Marlene replied, unexpectedly vehement, and then Dorcas and Marlene were kissing again, so Lily packed her stuff and left, because she was feeling a kind of ache in her chest she wasn't interested in exploring further right this second, and because she thought it would be appropriate to leave the two lovebirds alone.

Sirius waited for her, and they walked off together. After a minute or so of silence, Sirius broke it by asking: "So what do you think?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Sirius replied, sounding sort of frustrated, although Lily couldn't imagine why. "Do you think that's it for them? That that's their happily-ever-after, their true love, and – I don't know – that they're going to settle down and have children and grow lesbian babies?"

"Do you think Marlene's a lesbian?" Lily countered.

"I don't fucking know, Evans, answer the question!"

Lily stopped to think, but it took Sirius a step or two to realize it happened. He skidded to a stop, then came back to stand over her as she pondered.

"Well?" he prompted.

"Well," she said slowly. "I guess I'm not sure it matters. I mean – love is love, right? Love is who we choose, over and over again, who we want to fight for. Who we're willing to fight for. Like you and James and Remus and Peter. You're always getting each other into trouble, but you're always getting each other out of it, too. And you protect each other, and you make each other happy. Is that love, or true love? Is true love always romantic? Does love have to last forever to be love now?"

Sirius seemed at a loss for words for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "Ah, mate. I didn't mean for you to go all philosophical on me." He grinned, but Lily saw right through it.

"It's okay," Lily said. "I know you love them. Even if you can't say it right now."

"No, I can say it," Sirius said. "I love them. I'm not into that hyper-masculinity bullshit. You've taught me better than that. I just didn't – expect that, is all."

They walked along in silence after that. Sirius looked thoughtful. Lily's expression probably matched his; at the very least, she was definitely deep in thought.

She'd never thought about it before. Who she was willing to fight for. Right that second, she was emotionally exhausted, and she wasn't sure who went on the list.

She'd figure it out. She had the rest of her life to figure it out, she supposed. As long as she happened to have left.

A/N: I wrote the first draft of this chapter when I was in high school - I'm pretty sure 11th grade. Back then, Dorcas was going to be in love with Lily, and editing the parts that I kept to make them make sense for Marlene ended up being surprisingly easy. It's insane to see how much my writing has changed over the last four and a half years - insane to think that there's only one chapter and an epilogue to go, and that I've finished writing them.

You read that right. I'm publishing this only two days after the previous chapter because I have finished writing Of Three Times.

I'll publish Chapter 37 & the epilogue together, to finish it off, probably on Sunday. I said I wanted to be done with it before school starts in October. And well - it seems I've succeeded, with weeks to go before October 14th. And y'all, I'm excited. I'm excited for people to read the end, I'm excited to say I've idone it/i, I'm excited to put this behind me and move on to the next project (currently, the drarry fic I've mentioned all over social media, but don't take me at my word, because I am starting school).

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for putting up with my tenth grade writing "talent". Thank you for every favorite, review, and follow.

JustGail