Disclaimer... these characters belong to JKR
"So Snape came along and disputed Carrow's story?" Anna asked.
The five Gryffindor girls were up in their dormitory, studying. At least that was the plan. Anna had side-tracked Mary's lecture on the healing properties of Dittany to an in-depth discussion on the trial.
Lily dropped her favourite eagle feather quill on the quilt and picked up a sugar quill, sucking on the end contemplatively.
"Yup. It was pretty surprising" she said. She hadn't seen Sev since the trial, which had been a week ago. She hadn't seen much of James, either for that matter. But she wasn't too concerned. Everyone was buckling down for exams, and as she stared at her Herbology textbook, she was reminded she should be too.
"Wow" Marlene said. She stole Lily's sugar quill and bit off the end before handing it back. "You haven't talked to him all year, have you?"
Lily shook her head. He'd tried to, at Christmas, and Lily had run. Now she didn't know what she would say, even if she wanted to talk to him.
'Thanks for betraying your House'?, 'Gosh, that was sure brave, hopefully you won't be murdered in your sleep'?
There wasn't really anything she could say.
"I'm just glad Carrow's in Azkaban" Lily said vengefully, crunching on her sugar quill.
"He has a brother and sister – they graduated last year, I think" Mary told them. She had put down her Herbology notes and was frowning at them. "Can we please get back to studying?"
Camilla tossed her a toffee from their latest visit to Honeydukes and smiled at her. "Of course, Mar. Astound us with your knowledge"
Mary went back to telling them about Dittany and Lily dutifully started making notes, but her heart wasn't really in it. She'd had Prefect patrol until three in the morning last night, and her eyes felt very heavy.
Something hit her head and Lily reached up and found a toffee in her hair. She glared at Camilla.
"You were falling asleep" Camilla said unapologetically.
"Right, sorry"
Lily forced her eyes open, and concentrated on the page in front of her.
James and the other boys were plotting. Remus had drawn up complicated looking diagrams and was in the process of explaining exactly how they would keep the Squid alive and breathing. Peter was in charge of getting the Common Room password from an unsuspecting Slytherin and Sirius was in the middle of figuring out how to lure the Squid close enough to the Common Room window.
"Could we use sort of a reverse Bubble Head charm?" Remus wondered. "Fill it with water instead of air?"
"Where does the Squid breathe from?" Peter asked. "I mean, what exactly do you know about squid physiology?"
"I guess we're going to the library" Sirius said sadly, and James climbed to his feet.
James hadn't seen much of Lily, or any of Lark, and he'd nearly run into Snape one day in the hall and tripped over his own feet trying to avoid him.
He followed his friends through the halls absently. He was glad the trial was over. Afterwards, his dad had pulled him into a hug and his mum had dropped a quick kiss on his head before they left, and James and Lily had gone back to school.
They hadn't seen Snape or Yaxley, but James had assumed they Flooed back to the school just like them.
"This one…" Remus said, pulling a book off the shelf, "and this one…"
The other boys trailed after him as he plunked the heavy books on a table.
"It says that giant squid have gills in the mantle – that's like their torso – so I guess we just need a really, really big bubble"
"Will the Giant Squid fit in the Common Room?" Sirius asked curiously. "We don't want to kill it, after all"
"I always thought the Squid was a bit ridiculous" Peter confided, and James nodded.
"Me too, where did they even get it?"
"Australia" Remus told them, still leafing through his book. "It was a gift from the Australian Ministry"
"Huh" Sirius said. "Most people send fruit baskets. I guess squid works"
Remus kept paging through the books.
"Ok…" he said slowly. "I think we should be ok. We'll stay in the Common Room so we can put the Squid back in the lake if it starts to look dehydrated"
The next day, Sunday, the four of them snuck into the Slytherin Common Room with the password that Peter had gleaned from a suspicious first year girl that he bribed with a sack of Honeydukes sweets and a bottle of Butterbeer. They picked a quiet corner and huddled carefully under the cloak. Peter had transformed into the rat and was sitting on James's shoulder quietly as they all tried to pull their legs and arms back under the cloak.
James and Sirius started casting Summoning Charms, one after another in quick succession, hoping that together they would be strong enough to overpower the Squid. After a few minutes, James saw a long tentacle reach out of the gloom. The Squid was slowly meandering through the water, waving its tentacles happily at the Slytherins in the Common Room. A few of the students waved back, and one little first year hopped up next to the window to show the Squid a drawing. The Squid tapped the glass with a tentacle in an approving manner and the little boy beamed.
They had the Squid there. Now they had to get it into the Common Room. James had remembered the glass at the front of St Mungos that you walked through, how it kept the Muggles out but parted like water for wizards. He'd spent quite a few hours poring over books in the library to try to find a similar spell. He'd finally found one. It was immensely complex magic but James had spent the last day practising with Sirius and encouraging him to walk through a sheet of solid glass. He was fairly sure he had it down.
"Alright" he whispered, elbowing Remus out of the way so he had more room. "Everyone ready?"
The others nodded. Peter waved his tail.
James whispered the incantation, his wand moving in complicated squiggles as he pointed it at the window.
"Done" he whispered, raising his wand again.
"Accio Squid!" Sirius whispered loudly at the same time as James.
The Squid whooshed forwards, a few of the Slytherins shrieked, and then the Squid was sitting in the Common Room and Remus hastily cast a Bubble Head charm round its mantle and filled it with water.
The four of them watched with bated breath. The Slytherins didn't seem frightened, more concerned.
A group of older students were setting up a bucket brigade of sorts, conjuring buckets and filling them with water. The younger students were dumping the water over the Squid and a trio of tiny first years were clustered round one tentacle, patting the Squid comfortingly and singing lullabies.
One small boy offered the Squid a scone and it shoved the scone into its beak with a tentacle. Another little girl was earnestly telling the Squid about exams and classes, and pulled out a roll of parchment to show it.
Even some of the older students were patting the Squid absently while they chatted. A fifth year girl chased off a group of second years that were trying to braid the Squid's tentacles together, and a cluster of third years were scrubbing off some of the moss that had grown on the Squid's back.
Within minutes, the Slytherin Common Room had turned into a hive of activity as older students ordered around the younger ones, working on keeping the Squid drenched in water.
"Wow" Remus said, staring. "That was unexpected"
"Slytherins are so weird" Sirius said furiously. "Any other house would be running around, screaming their bloody heads off and the Slytherins are singing to a bloody Squid!"
Peter twitched his nose in dismay.
With a surge of amusement, James spotted Lark gently stroking the Squid's mantle and washing it with gouts of water from her wand.
"This is really peculiar" he agreed.
"What do we do?" Remus asked. "We can't just leave them with a Squid in their Common Room"
"We can" Sirius said mutinously. "Let them figure out what to do"
"How about we stay here for a bit and if it looks like they don't know what to do, we'll step in?" James suggested. Lark was still patting the Squid, but now she looked over her shoulder to one of the seventh years.
"I hope none of the Mer come to investigate" she said. "The Common Room can't fit much more"
"Someone must've enchanted the window" the seventh year said, prodding at the glass gingerly. His hand slipped through and he pulled it back hastily, dripping wet.
"Levitation Charms" Lark said, nodding firmly. "Just put it back through the window"
"I don't know how we'd turn the window back…" the boy said.
"Keep it" Lark suggested. "I think it'd be fun for the firsties"
"We could use Bubble Head charms and have field trips!" the seventh year said, brightening. "Good idea Lark, I'll get everyone who can do a decent Levitation Charm"
"Slytherins scare me a little bit" James said. "They're all … organized"
"How terrifying" Remus said dryly. "I guess that's why you're scared of calendars"
James shoved at him as some of the older Slytherins gathered behind the Squid and raised their wands.
Someone counted down.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" they all cried, and the Squid rose up, and shot back through the window where it disappeared into the gloom of the lake.
"That was pointless" Sirius said, and James shrugged.
"I thought it was kind of fun"
"Well" Remus said, starting to pull them all up. "We have studying to do"
"Right" James said grimly, still watching Lark.
She was helping mop up the Common Room, and laughing as the first years enthusiastically described the Squid. Her dark hair was pulled back in a loose braid and her smiling lips were dark red. She fit there, in the cool, dark Common Room, surrounded by green and silver.
James let himself be pulled to his feet and walked out.
Lily spoke to Snape in the last week of school.
It was a Monday, and she had just finished her Charms final. She thought she had done fairly well – but she had mixed up the strengths of her water conjuring charms and accidentally knocked her desk over. Aside from that, she was feeling confident about it.
Sev stopped her right before she stepped into the Great Hall.
"Can we talk?" he asked simply.
Lily started to shake her head, spotting her friends already sitting down for lunch. A smile quirked her mouth as she spotted James gesturing enthusiastically with a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Anna and Marlene were both cackling at something he had said. Despite everything, she thought, this year had been pretty wonderful. They had transformed from a year group into family.
And then she saw the desperate look in Sev's eyes and nodded. "Ok" she said slowly, following him.
He led her to a quieter section of the hall, where there was an uncomfortable looking stone bench shoved up against one wall. Sev sat down and after a moment's hesitation, so did Lily.
"Thank you" she blurted. "For the trial. You didn't have to"
"I know" Sev said. "But I wanted to"
There was a pregnant pause as Lily struggled to choose her next words.
"I hope it didn't get you in trouble with your housemates"
Sev shrugged. "It's a pretty small subset that supports … him. The rest of them are good people"
Lily thought of Lark, of the Slytherins that she'd seen with their Ravenclaw friends, their Hufflepuff romances, their Gryffindor partners-in-crime, and nodded.
"Still. If it makes it hard for you…"
"I managed to convince them that it was for the best" Sev said, staring at the floor. "I can be persuasive"
"How did you do that?"
"I pointed out that he would've gone to Azkaban with or without me and it was to our benefit that they didn't think all Slytherins were supporters of the Dark Lord"
"Yeah" Lily said, feeling herself begin to smile in an awful, sharp way. "But the difference is that you actually are a Voldemort supporter"
Sev flinched. "I just-" he said pleadingly, meeting her eyes. "-I just think that we shouldn't have to hide"
"I need to go" Lily said, breaking their eye contact and standing. "Maybe I'll see you later"
Sev didn't say anything, but let her go silently, watching the whole time with dark eyes.
A.N. Thank you for reading! I'm considering publishing this on AO3 after it's finished, and rewriting certain scenes and stuff. I think AO3 just tends to be more active. However, I won't do that until I've finished writing and publishing it on here.
