A/N: Hi everyone, this is my first attempt at publishing in years, since I can't to much anyway during Corona quarantine. Do stay home though, everyone of you, problem isn't the virus per se, but the capacity of our hospitals, never mind where you're from.

Having said as much, another information: This story is marauder time. It is AU however. I tried to write characters with realistic strengths and flaws, and a more adult variation of the story, not (only) for corporal aspects, but rather for talk subjects, relations etc. I tried to make my own world building, don't know where I'll take it yet - perhaps it'll be a bittersweet thing ending with Halloween 1981, perhaps the story will develop its own dynamic and Halloween won't happen. Depends on my mood by the end. I'll probably write three 100k stories till that decision though.

That said: Everything you recognize is from JKR, the rest is mine. No Cross-Over.

Thanks for reviews.

Chapter 1: Just your ordinary problems

Lily Evans sighed. It was raining outside. Of course, she loved the rain - always had since she had been a child. Today it failed to unleash its soothing magic on her though.

The reason for her frustration lay right in front of her, written in ink on parchment, as it had now for several hours. She had written, erased, and rewritten the paragraph in front of her at least a dozen times and yet it just didn't feel right. Everything she and Professor Flitwick had tried had pointed at the very thing that her numbers now told her too. And yet it didn't make sense.

"It should work!" she murmured angrily. It was supposed to work, and everything in her intuition said that it had to be possible and this was the way to do it.

Mathematics, however, said 'no' and she was ready to throw her books out in the pouring rain.

So perhaps that was the point where she was supposed to leave things be for the moment and go down to have a cup of tea with her father, or write a letter to Marlene or even Remus – he was rather good with runes himself – or perhaps Flitwick? But then again she didn't want to disturb the professor during his holidays – and also she did want to find the solution by herself.

Lily sighed again, twirling one of her long auburn strands around her finger and leaned back in her chair. No chance of getting anywhere at the moment. With rather more force than strictly necessary, she closed the drawer of her bureau and got up, sending her leather office chair rolling through her room, wincing when it softly hit the table with the aquarium on it.

"Dad! I need a cup of tea!" Lily called, as she got downstairs, a pout on her face. "Work doesn't want as I want it too! You want one too?"

Her father smiled at her, nodding. "Sure, why not. I made some scones yesterday."
Lily perked up "Plain ones?"

"Sure – oh and I guess we should have some clotted cream and Meyer lemon jam in the fridge."

It was because of moments like that, that Lily Evans had the best father in the world. Benjamin Evans was the chef de cuisine at Inverlochy Castle Hotel, a restaurant that had gained two Michelin stars under him. It was also that job, that had been the reason that the Evans family had moved from Edinburgh to Fort William a year after Lily was born. And one of the perks of having one of the most renowned chefs of Great Britain as a father was that you always had delicious food in the fridge. Even if it were just simple things like scones and jam.

"Dad, I love you, you just saved my life." Lily said in total sincerity, setting up the pot of tea. "Okay, okay – perhaps my day, but still!"

Her father laughed looking at his daughter fondly. "I mean, whatever we humble mortals can do for magical scientific prodigies such as yourself, my dear daughter."

A grin tucked on the corner of Lily's lips. "Oh, you have your own kind of magic, Dad!"

"Smooth!" her father laughed "I wonder where you got the sweet-talking from!"

Lily grinned dishing up four scones, some clotted cream, and the jam. "Oh when you listen to mum, you were rather good at sweet-talking yourself!"

Her father held up his hands in surrender "Well okay, maybe I had my way with words, but I wouldn't have stood a chance with your mother otherwise."

"That might probably even be true!"

"Oh come on, from your talks with your friends when they come over here, we both know, you are not exactly holding back on sweet-talking the boys."

Lily reddened somewhat. Her parents had always been rather open about how the world and life worked and yet she still shuddered when she thought back to the moment last year when her parents had walked in on the group, coming back from an evening out themselves, Marlene being rather friendly with Remus and Lily herself sitting on Sirius' lap giving him an eye full of cleavage and making a rather lewd remark. Of course, nothing untoward had happened but it had still been one of the most mortifying moments in her teen years. Right up there with the Benny incident. Okay, maybe not completely up there, but still.

"Daaaad! I thought we agreed to not talk about this again!"

"Naah, I remember you agreeing for all of us that we would not talk about it again. I never said I wouldn't bring it up." he grinned "Especially since it is my job to make my teen daughter uncomfortable!"

Lily stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah! Love you too, Dad!"

She walked over and set down the tea, the plate with the scones and two mugs on the table by the couch, then sat in her favourite armchair, the one just close enough to the fireplace to be warmed and yet far enough in order not to get too hot.

Her father let himself fall into an armchair too, taking a scone and lading it with lemon jam and clotted cream then proceeded to put way too much sugar in his tea. Lily wrinkled her nose.

"I still can't believe, Benjamin Evans, star chef of the highlands, calls the syrup he drinks a proper English tea."

"We're Scots, not English my dear daughter!"

Lily rolled her eyes, leaning back in the armchair and enjoying her cup of tea, which was perfectly balanced between bitter, sweet, and sour, as it should be, thank you very much!
"We might be Scottish, not English – you're still a chef! How on earth do you enjoy something, that so overloads your taste buds with sugar?"

Her father grinned "It's the magic of nostalgia, Lily it just feels right this way – in some cases that's a more powerful tool than perfect balance!"

Lily paused, cocked her head in thought and smiled "Actually that does make a lot of sense. I mean I told you about my theory on magic …"

Her father nodded "Exactly. I mean I won't ever be able to put it in numbers and runes and whatnot like you seem to be able to, but I am quite able to understand what you mean when you say, it is only right when it feels right."

Lily nodded "Exactly – and there's where the problem lies. We are working on lasting enchantment, and generally speaking, cursing an object is enchanting it with malevolence, most of the time with a draoidophysical specification of the outcome."

Lily's father held up his hands "Wow wow wow, what?"

"Generally speaking you could, in our, my, theory, curse an object, or anything really, without being specific as to what the outcome should be. Like you don't have to say: if you touch this ring, your hand will fall off. You could just infuse it with malevolence and something bad, or really bad, will happen to someone that gets attached to it. Be that physically or even emotionally."

Her father nodded slowly "So it's an abstraction of the concept. Like if you're good at cooking you don't have to say pesto is made from the following fixed ingredients, but rather you abstract it and say it is a cold sauce, that has the characteristics stemming from nutty, green and umami ingredients."

Lily nodded "Exactly. However most of the people don't get that – they believe they have to have fixed ingredients, or in my case, a fixed draoidophysical outcome, that is the physical manifestation of magical intent. But that's not the problem, of that we are pretty sure and have run tests over the summer, which, Professor Flitwick informed me, show promising results."

Her father shook his head. "Sometimes you astound me, Lily! What is the problem then? And what tests did you make?"

"The tests are simple. We took rats putting them in two enclosures and cursed one, with a specific curse, so that they don't want to eat anymore, and the second one with malevolence focused on their well-being. At first, nothing happened, both stopped to eat, the second one actually wanted to hurt itself physically, which we prevented – but then interestingly the second one began to eat after a few weeks, not much, just enough in order not to die. Because it got so miserable, that furthering the life, especially drawing out the starving phase by just eating enough to not die, was harsher for it, than simply die."

Her father looked at her with wide eyes. "And pray tell, why would you do such experiments?"

Lily wrung her hands "There is no ethically correct way to experiment with cursing. Especially not if the truth behind it is so broad and therefore much more terrifying than simply focused curses. And we have to be able to counter it, because if we don't then chances are, someone much darker will find the truth, and that's bad. Really bad."

Her father hummed "I don't like it anyway."

Lily smiled grimly "I don't either. But war is drawing up, and the bad guy is frighteningly talented and intelligent. I am part of the resistance's hope, I, we, have to find a solution. Or hope Voldemort won't come to the same conclusion. Which is possible, but no given!"

"A solution to cursing?"

"Exactly. Enchanting seems to be the solution, as you infuse with a positive draoidophysical outcome in mind. And abstracting that to infusing the object with benevolence has, of course, occurred to us, but if you look at the numbers and runes, then it simply does not work. And that's what feels wrong. It should be doable. But infinity divided by infinity is not defined."

Her father sat there, deep in thought, munching on his scone and drinking his tea, that was way too sweet.

"I mean, it is true: it feels right, that infinite good should be stronger than infinite bad, love is stronger than hate, I'm sure it is. But you haven't found a way to apply that fact if I got that right."

Lily nodded and sighed. "I will just have to think about it, think outside of the box again. And I have to remember that magic is more than mathematics. I'm sure we will find a solution – we are a good team, the Professor and I. And if things get dire, we can always ask the headmaster to help – but I want to be the one to find the solution."

Her father smiled knowingly "As you have always wanted, Lily! Just remember, that sometimes we have to accept help."

"I know!" she shrugged her shoulders "I don't like it though!"

Her father grinned getting up from the couch "Yes, yes, I know! You have always been too stubborn for that! Look I have to get to work – late shift and all that!"

Earlier he had had to work much, as was usual when one climbed up the ranks in a kitchen. After becoming chef de cuisine his work was mainly to write the menu, the recipes and work two hours in the morning, to brief the team for the day and then four hours in the evening during dinner time. The restaurant had its cleaning staff, so the cooks were there to cook, and the cleaning staff to clean – thus the movie scenario of cleaning the kitchen until two in the morning was just that: fiction. This was also the reason why he had had a more active role in the education of his daughters, than his wife.

Lily got up too, giving him a kiss on the cheek "Thanks, dad! I needed that! And I will do something else now. You have a good shift!"

…..oOoOoOo…..

Dear Sirius

How are you doing? I hope you are spending a fine first month of your holidays in Cornwall, and I guess you have more sunshine and less rain than we have here in Fort William! Perhaps I will come by for a stop at one of James' pool parties, I'd love to have an opportunity to try out my newly bought bikini!

Okay never mind, I didn't simply write you to tease you – even though you know I love to do so. Actually, I have to ask you for input, I was wondering if I should ask Remus, but I can't deny that you are our year's authority on DADA besides Severus, and I don't want to speak to him ever again.

What do you say? Lunch date at the Castle on Saturday? I'll ask my father to reserve a table – try to look good, I will certainly put effort into dazzling you.

Love,
Lily

Lily grinned to herself as she closed her letter, giving it to Aelios, her raven – one of the
things in the magical world she loved the most. For her first five Hogwarts years, she had had no own post owl, relying on the school owls or Marlene's owl to send a letter. When she had developed her interest in runes and what she referred to as 'old magic' by the end of the third year, Marlene had jokingly begun to sometimes call Lily 'the druid'. This joke had spread to her other friends and resulted in the joint gift of her roommates of a trained Breton raven and a Celtic knot necklace for her sixteenth birthday.

Of course Lily had a two-fold interest in writing Sirius – their flirting had been escalating quickly over the last year, and while she was undoubtedly also attracted to James Potter, a fact she would never have admitted a year ago, Sirius was just easier at the moment – also because she did not want to commit herself to anything.

Also, Potter had told her last year, that he was most smitten with her, but that he could accept if she fell for Sirius because her open attitude probably went better with Sirius' fooling around at the moment. But that he would be there and probably always interested if she wanted anything serious – which was when she kissed him and told him that he was much sweeter than she ever thought, but that he was right in assuming that she loved to be free for the moment.

And he had smiled a rather teary smile, straightened his shoulder, got up, messed up his hair in his infuriating manner and parted with his signature "See you around, Evans!" Lily had to admit that the boy had style even in defeat.

But never mind, the bigger reason than being able to flirt with Sirius Black, she wanted to get his stance on the subject she had discussed with her father – dark intent vs light intent was after all the core of DADA and Sirius was the best of their year, easily besting her. And somehow she trusted his intuition more than the set ways of the older witches and wizards.

As the headmaster had put it once "Most of the time experience is a helpful thing, and yet it sometimes stands in the way of innovation."

She stroked Aelios' feathers with affection. "Go find Sirius for me, will you? And please wait for an answer, I would love to get his response."

Aelios cawed in answer, which Lily took as a yes and took flight. Not for the first time, Lily wished she could fly too as she looked after her raven, the dark spot soon being invisible in the dark that spread slowly over Loch Linhhe as the sun had set a few minutes ago, it was vital that she only sent her letters after it got dark; it would not do, that someone saw her sending off ravens with letters – statue of secrecy and all that.

She let herself fall on her bed and made a quick calculation in her head: It was probably around 700 kilometres to the Potter manor near Mousehole, Cornwall, where Sirius stayed over the summer. With a middle velocity of 55 kilometres per hour, plus resting time, Aelios would probably reach his destination in fifteen hours, he would then stay there for a few hours because tradition dictated to let owls (and ravens) rest a little after making a delivery and come only back then. So she should get his answer the day after tomorrow, early in the morning. Seeing as that would be on Thursday, there was the time to ask her father for a table only after getting a response from Sirius.

Nodding to herself she tucked her hair behind her ear and contemplated getting back to work. However she didn't feel like it at all, and it probably didn't make too much sense working on it anyway, without getting Sirius' input first, so she shrugged, changed into her casual outfit, consisting of grey wide sweatpants, and a loose and too big black t-shirt, relishing in the feeling of having taken off her bra and went downstairs to join her family in their evening routine of drinking a glass of ale, eating some snacks and recounting their day while waiting for her dad to return from the late shift.

"- and then he looked at me, and said, and actually said, you know what, Petunia? No matter what, I will see to it, that you can have the future you want!"

Okay, so they were at the usual subject for the last two weeks. Vernon Dursley. Entrepreneur extraordinaire, loyal subject to the Queen, English man and dream catch. That's what Petunia called him. Lily had seen him once. She called him the walrus.

Her mother smiled at her sister and Lily could see that she really tried to be happy for her oldest daughter, but even from the ten meters, she could see that the smile was forced and did not reach her eyes in the least.

"That's very interesting and sweet of him." She interrupted with the polite smile she knew would enrage her sister because her mum couldn't see the fakeness in it. Or chose not to, but Petunia didn't know that. "And I guess the future you want is in London suburb?"

Lily congratulated herself for accentuating her Scottish accent just enough, to make the underlying insult clear.

Petunia didn't rise to the bait, however, which Lily had to give her credit for because it meant that she was capable of learning.

"Of course, Lilian, I mean the Scottish highlands are very beautiful for a weekend house or our childhood, but I rather think a successful businessman needs to be close to the biggest city of our country."

"Well I guess, that would be a little tricky as a question – is that Glasgow for its industrial supremacy, or Edinburgh as it is after all Scotland's capital?"

"Hello Lily," her mother cut off her sister's retort with a hidden smile "had a productive day?"

"Yes, hello sister," Petunia said, smoothing her blouse "Enough abracadabra for today? Finally put on your evening shirt and joined us mere mortals?"

Petunia hated Lily's tendency to walk around with nothing but a t-shirt and sweatpants, which was one of the reasons, why Lily loved to do it even more.

"Oh, yeah, I mean I love the feeling of finally freeing my boobs, perhaps you should try it too, but then ag-"

"Again there is not much to be freed. Haha, very funny, and astoundingly intelligent of an insult for someone with your mental capacity."

"Girls! Can for once start the evening without the usual rounds of insult, so that I do not have to leave in a huff in order for you to calm down!"

"Sorry mum!" the two girls said in unison and smiled sheepishly at each other. After all, while they were certainly not close, the bickering was also somewhat of a game to the both of them. Because even though both knew they didn't agree on anything at all, they could respect that they were quick-witted and the exchange of insults was mentally stimulating. It was something like the British parliament debates to the two sisters, even if they wouldn't ever say as much out loud.

And therefore Lily took especially care to drink her ale out of the bottle as no proper lady ever would and put her wand behind her ear and Petunia made sure to roll her eyes exaggeratedly and spread her pinkie finger while sipping on her Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape and their mother just sat there watching their antics with a little exasperated smile.

"Anyway, as I said, we are thinking about moving together, with Vernon and I guess I will be visiting often, but first we have to settle in."

That was news to Lily. "Oh? Congratulations I guess I didn't know you were that serious. What is it now -"

"Two and a half years. Long enough I think. And thank you, Lilian."

"No problem, Tuney!"

"Petunia!"

"Fine, Petunia, but I'm Lily!"

Her sister smirked. "Whatever, Lily."

"And what do you mean by you have to settle in?" their mother tried to engage them in an actual conversation again and this time it worked and Lily tried very hard not to make any snide remarks and so when her Dad returned around ten o'clock with four portions of today's menu, it was a rather peaceful family gathering that evening.

…..oOoOoOo…..

On Thursday morning, Lily woke up when Aelios tapped on her window, a letter in its beak, and thoroughly wet from the thunderstorm that raged outside.

"Oh my!" Lily jumped out of bed, almost falling on her nose from having her leg entangled in the sheets and hurried to open the window for her raven. "Poor bird! I mean that's even a bit much for Scotland!"

Aelios cawed, jumping on her shoulder and nuzzling his head, that was much to wet against her cheek.

"Oh gosh, get off!" Lily shrieked, not in the mood to have a wet raven in her face. "And gimme that letter."

Aelios cawed again, a triumphant glint in his eyes, as if he was happy, that he wasn't the only one that had to endure the weather outside now.

"Yeah, yeah, you're a very tricky bird!" Lily said rolling her eyes, taking off the letter. "Thank you for the delivery."

Aelios took flight, circling her head once, heading for the kitchen, where he knew would probably be some bread for him lying around.

Sometimes she wondered how much of human language the bird understood. Of course, it was clear that he understood basic communication, but probably it was intent-based communication, as there was no way he knew who Sirius was, or that the boy was with the Potters in the summer. It probably had something to do with the connection between a familiar and a witch or wizard, and her knowing where Sirius was. Perhaps some form of legilimency, she wondered.

Shrugging, she opened her letter, letting herself fall onto the bed again to read it comfortably.

Dear Lily-Flower

I am indeed a better address than both Mooney and Snivellus. Remus sure knows his share, but it does have certain benefits to be raised a Black, even if the negative aspects outweigh them by far. And while Snape does probably share some of my knowledge I would rather not let his propaganda cloud your, surely uncloudable, mind.

On another note, I am available and will happily enjoy lunch with your gorgeous self and solemnly promise to turn up in an attire befitting such a lovely dinner!

Also, what kind of bikini do you have? Could you send a picture, just so I can match my bed sheets for the next pool party? Prongs says "it's gonna be next weekend you are quite welcome, with bikini or without" (sic!). I don't think he meant it as lewd as it sounded, as he was quick to correct himself, saying that he meant to say you were always welcome.

Looking forward to Saturday,

Love,
Sirius

PS: Prongs says hi

Lily smiled. The boy surely was cheeky, but then again, that was part of his charm. Shaking her head in mirth she wondered what he would do if she sent a picture in return, with no further comment – probably faint in astonishment, that one of his lines actually worked.

When she got downstairs, her mother was sitting at the table, reading her science journal, and looked up, just as Lily entered the kitchen.

"Hello sweetheart, slept well?"

Lily yawned and nodded, going for the coffee machine as quickly as possible. "Aelios just woke me, the poor bird had to fly through … that." she said, gesturing to the rain stricken window that was just in that moment illuminated by a lightening somewhere over the Loch.

Her mother chuckled "Good timing there. Poor Aelios though! That would explain his cawing and your shrieking."

Lily reddened. "Well, he nuzzled my cheek!"

Her mother laughed. "Well, I guess that works as well as a morning shower."

"Haha!" Lily stuck out her tongue.

Her mother took a sip of coffee "Benjamin told me you had a scientific problem?"

While Lily's father had always wanted to be a cook, her mother, Rosemary Evans née McCaulley, had devoted her life to science, working in a biochemical laboratory in her early days and now at the universities of Edinburgh and Liverpool as part of an international research team. She was Lily's main go-to source when she needed actual scientific input.

Lily hummed. "Yeah, I doubt it's something for you though."

Her mother cocked her head "Try me."

And so Lily explained the whole thing again. Infusing, abstraction, malevolence, benevolence, and the most frustrating of everything: calculations that didn't add up.

Her mother sighed. "Well you are right, I am no mathematician."

Lily shrugged her shoulders "No problem -"

"I wasn't finished. I can still give you some inputs. From what I gathered, you are trying to describe magic by science. By doing so you make certain assumptions, and I would at first test them."

Lily frowned "What do you mean? We made experiments, many in fact in the last two years."

Her mother nodded "I am sure you did. However your professor does not have a scientific background, and you don't have a magical one. Have you ever thought about the possibility that there are fundamentally different laws and physical quantities to magic?"

"Well laws for sure, that much is obvious, but I haven't thought about quantities other than magical power, nope."

Her mother nodded. "Exactly. Perhaps magical power is no quantity, but rather the product of different quantities. Is love a measurable quantity? Belief? Intention? Perhaps power is a quantity. Perhaps love plays no role. Perhaps souls exist, probably even, seeing that there are ghosts. Perhaps there is no such thing as a mass continuum. Thing is, you are in a new world, perhaps some things are the same, perhaps almost everything is the same, perhaps almost nothing … you just don't know."

Lily looked at her mother, mouth open, coffee forgotten.

"You are a very intelligent young lady, Lily. But you haven't got the experience in the field that I have – you just started research, and frankly, I envy you, if you do it right, you are going to make a name for yourself in that world, because there is so much to be discovered, written down, laws to be named. But you can't assume physical laws apply to magic." she took a sip of coffee, leaning back in her chair. "You know what I would do? You got to a point where the mathematics and laws don't add up. Usually in science that is the point where every belief has to be challenged and something big happens. Start with the basics, make research, form a hypothesis, test that. Go to the next basic aspect, work yourself up. And if you advance well – you are working with a world-known professor after all – perhaps you can answer your question at the end of the year. Because it does seem like the type of problem with a facepalm kind of solution if you got the basics right."

Professor Dumbledore's words echoed in Lily's mind. Most of the time experience is a helpful thing, and yet it sometimes stands in the way of innovation.

"That does make quite a lot of sense actually, thank you, mum!" Lily said standing up excitedly "I don't think there is such a thing as a magical theory at all. Of course, there are laws in the various fields. Like you can't conjure food or money. But no reason as to why not, just that it doesn't work. And of course, there is no general theory on magic per se. Well – I think not at least. I'll have to write another letter."

Dashing up the stairs again, she left her mother behind, who smiled fondly.

Dear Professor Dumbledore,

I am most sorry to disturb your vacations, and I do realize that this letter must come to you as quite a surprise. As you probably know I am a research assistant to Professor Flitwick since my fifth year and in this capacity, I made some startling and puzzling discoveries towards the end of last year.

Discussing my frustration with my inability to find a solution to said discoveries with my mother, she asked a very helpful question concerning the existence of a general magical theory.

Does such theory exist, and if yes where can it be found? If no, is there a reason for that?

I thank you most sincerely for your time,

Lilian R. Evans,

Seventh Year Gryffindor prefect

Happy with her letter she ran down the stairs, kissed her mother on the cheek and took a scone out of the fridge to bribe Aelios into not being angry with her for having to deliver the second letter within two hours.