Chapter 2: Just your ordinary scholar talk

Lily laughed sitting up in her bed and stretching. The day promised to begin splendidly, the sun shining brightly, bathing the landscape around the Evans Manor in golden summer light. It was one of those days that just felt right from the beginning, where she didn't have to change between outfits because nothing pleased her, where the shower had just the right temperature from the beginning, one of those days were you descended the stairs and your father had already made scrambled eggs with bacon, his famous breakfast rolls, baked the home-made croissants he had prepared yesterday, sorted the lemon jam, and the odour of freshly mowed grass and summer flowers filled the kitchen air.

"Morning sweetheart!" her mother called from her place by the coffee machine "Want a cup?"

Lily nodded happily "Thank you! And good morning to you too!"

Her father smiled "You look rather chirpy! Looking forward to tonight?"

Lily stuck out her tongue "I told you it's not a date - "

"- just your ordinary scholar talk in a Michelin starred restaurant" her father cut her off grinning.

"Darling, be nice to your daughter, she can call her date whatever she wants!"

"Muuuuuuum!"

Her parents simply laughed as Lily mock pouted and served herself an extra big portion of scrambled eggs, a croissant, lemon jam, and two breakfast rolls.

"No, but seriously – I might find Sirius a nice guy, and not too bad on the eyes, but tonight is going to be all about science!" Lily said, pointing the fork at her mother "I even finished my list of questions."

Her mother nodded smiling, handing her a piece of paper. "Perfect – I also finished a list with properties I think you should test for, even if some of them seem rather obsolete."

Possible quantities:

- Imagination

- Love, Hate

- Intelligence

- Intellect, Knowledge

- Belief, both in yourself and in the feasibility of a spell.

- Tradition

- Empathy

- Emotions: anger, joy, jealousy, etc

- Power

- Skill

Questions:

- Are there magical fields, like there are in natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, geology, etc)?

- If so, are they as interlinked as they are in natural sciences?

- Is there a golden formula, like physicists have been searching for centuries? Maybe even spanning the different fields, not only within a field.

- Do Healing and Medicine follow the same rules?

Lily furrowed her eyebrows. "Good list, thank you! I wrote most of them down myself, didn't think of tradition and empathy and I included knowledge as a negative parameter into imagination."

Her mother shrugged "Fair enough."

"So you came to a solution then?" her father asked, loading his breakfast roll with scrambled eggs.

"Rather we found all the work that has to be done before the solution can be found." Lily replied, "But that is just as good as a solution to me."

Her mother nodded "Even better, I think, seeing as some additional questions will be answered on the way."

Lily smiled. It seemed like she had her project for next year. And if that went well enough, she couldn't see how Professor Flitwick would not want to continue the work afterwards – after all who wouldn't want to have his name written on the first book on general magical theory. Especially if it would be as groundbreaking as she thought it was going to be.

Speaking about next year – school letters would be coming within the next month and Lily thought she had the best chances out of the four female prefects to be named head girl. Not to be arrogant of course but Amelia and Jeanne were nice but no head girl material and Vanessa Carrow, well, she couldn't see how Dumbledore would make a Slytherin head girl in times like these.

…..oOoOoOo…..

"You clean up nicely, for an ordinary scholar talk, sister!" Petunia's voice cut through Lily's mustering of herself in her bedroom mirror. She loved the dark green summer dress, that so promoted her emerald eyes – and she was sure Sirius would like it too.

Lily rolled her eyes, meeting her sister's over the mirror. Petunia smirked, her eyebrows lifting slightly at her sister's choice. "What? Can't I look nice, discussing science?"

"Mhhhm, let's just see whether your vis-a-vis can concentrate on the subject at hand!"

Lily mustered herself again, frowning. Of course Petunia was rather conservative as far as décolletés were concerned, but perhaps it was a little over the top, seeing as she was, in fact, planning on discussing science.

"Baah, never mind!" she shook the thought of with a shrug "I'm sure he will be able tocope, it's not the first time he sees me in a dress."

"He's a seventeen-year-old boy." Petunia smirked "But sure, do as you wish. Actually, I came here with a brooch if you wanted to style your hair, but now I would recommend letting it fall loose to preserve at least some modesty!"

Lily rolled her eyes, a reaction her sister provoked often. "Thank you, Petunia. But you are right, I'm going to have loose hair tonight."

Petunia looked at her some more "You really do look good sister! But take care, will you!"

"Thanks. Yeah, I will – and he won't do anything I don't want him to. He might be a seventeen-year-old boy, but despite his cheekiness he has good manners." her face darkened at what she knew about Sirius' family. "Comes with his last name."

"Oh, care to explain?"

Lily shook her head "Not really – suffice to say that his family has a certain self-image, and manners are taught, one way or the other."

Petunia had the grace to look sympathetic. "Well manners are important, but family should be family."

"Indeed." Lily nodded. She looked at herself critically one more time, the dress would be fine, even if perhaps somewhat showing off. But Sirius hadn't complained last year either about her cleavage when she had sat on his lap.

"Naah I think I'm fine with the dress. And I'm sure Sirius will like the view. Thanks for your offer though, Tuney."

"You're incorrigible, Lilian!"

Lily flashed her a grin and stuck out her tongue, dashing down the stairs "Of course I am!"

Downstairs she almost ran into her mother that took a quick look at her and nodded with a grin. "Well then Lily, have fun discussing science!"

Lily ignored the jibe and smiled "Thank you, mum!"

"Lily!" Petunia called from upstairs and she turned to look at her sister, who held two pieces of paper in her hand. "You forgot your lists to discuss science."

Lily reddened as her mother tried unsuccessfully to hide her laugh behind a hand, snatched the lists from Petunia's hand, mouthed a thank you, sprinted outside and ignored her mother's laughter behind the closed door.

…..oOoOoOo…..

"I'm going to kill my father!" Lily said her face as red as her hair. Not only had they received table 121, the most secluded table with a prime view over Loch Linnhe, but the whole niche was decorated way over the top with red roses, the light was dimmed and two white candles illuminated the table with flickering golden light and to top it all off the background music in the restaurant had changed to a romantic saxophone and violin playlist coincidentally tonight.

Sirius shrugged, looking torn between being amused at a well-executed prank and embarrassment at the situation he was in.

"Well, you have to admit, at least he goes all out." he smirked, "Never play pranks half-way."

Lily shook her head. "I swear, he's going to die! I even thought he wasn't teasing me as much as I thought he would be."

"Good on you there! Fleamont and Euphemia, that's Prongs' parents, didn't let me hear the end of it, for the last three days." he shook his head, grinning. "Totally worth it though, you do look great!"

Lily smiled, smoothing her dress "Thanks, Sirius, I thought you would like it! I love the suit – and of course the Potter crest, it's so – yourself – to put that on there!"

Sirius grinned roguishly, brushing his long black hair behind his ear "Well, what can I say? Once a rebel, always a rebel."

Lily laughed. "Yes yes, that's you. I was half surprised you didn't turn up with the motorbike and the leather jacket." Thinking to herself she wouldn't have minded a bit if he had, the anti-look did him good. Very good indeed.

Sirius shrugged "Well, you know, I can't get predictable – would take the rebel out of me."

"Of course." she shook her head in mirth "How could I have missed that."

Sirius leaned back lazily, somehow even managing to look elegant doing that. Curse that boy and his genes. And of course his parents for probably punishing him for years whenever he forgot to keep a straight back. "Well, Ms Evans, I do believe you asked me to come here to discuss a scholar question. Not that I mind sitting here for dinner with you," he let his eyes flick over her with a warm smile "quite a lovely prospect, but the Potter's will tease me for weeks if I have to admit we didn't do anything scholar!"

Lily nodded, turning all business "Of course, so I wondered – hmm, how do I begin?"

Sirius said nothing, taking a sip from his glass.

"So, assume you have a cursed object. But the curse doesn't have a specific instruction besides being a curse."

Sirius' eyebrow furrowed "That's not-"

"That's not important, let's just say you have that in front of you."

"Well, I would for sure confiscate the thing and try to break the curse. Is that one of Voldemort's things? I haven't heard no such thing though."

"I have no reason to think, that Voldemort has such an object." Lily paused, waiting for his reaction "But if I can create it, he probably can too."

Sirius' eyebrows rose under his hairline. "What on – Why would you do such a thing?"

"Science."

"And you're looking for how to break it I assume?" he shrugged his shoulder "I guess Dumbledore would be your address, not myself – that's way out of my league."

Lily leaned forward "That's just the thing. I don't think it is. Of course, we have less knowledge, Sirius, but that might be a good thing."

Sirius set to answer, closed his mouth again, thought, and then made to answer again when the waiter turned up, bringing them their first course. Tartar from Scottish salmon with orange mayonnaise and thyme.

"Thank you, sir, could you recommend any wine with the course?"

"I'm afraid we cannot sell wine to minors, sir" the waiter looked apologetic, "The chef told me to recommend the house-made lemonade. Else we do have a fruity ale from a local brewery, which, in my personal opinion goes well with the tartare."

"Dad's lemonade is great, let's pick that!" Lily said.

Sirius nodded. The waiter nodded. "Certainly, I'll bring it right away."

Sirius looked at Lily, his lazy posture gone. "So you think I can help you, what – thank you, sir – what can I do?"

Lily took a sip from her glass and loaded a piece of toast with her tartar.

"I would love to have your view on malevolence vs benevolence. Good vs bad. It seems to be a DADA sort of question."

"Well, my aunt -" Sirius paused "She always said there were no good spells or bad spells. Only good or bad intentions. Of course to her good intention was to use horrible curses on people she thought not deserving of life. But, well for me she got something right. I mean I could kill someone using a lifting charm, or use a killing curse to end suffering."

Lily nodded. "So it's all about intent. But that's about the classification of dark curses, a political debate. What about what's stronger, bad or good intent."

Sirius swallowed his bite. "I would love to answer that with 'good intent' … thing is – I'm not sure. Often the caster with the good intent wins because good intent is often linked with stronger founded emotions. But look at Voldemort – he seems to have hate, mindless hate, but strong hate, and he tends to win his duels."

Lily scrunched up her nose. She had hoped Sirius would tell her what the mistake in her formula was, the secret ingredient that could be added to good intent.

"You don't seem happy with the answer," Sirius observed. "Understandable I guess. That's just how I see it."

"No no" Lily hurried to say "It's just exactly what my formula says. My goal was to trump malevolence infusion with benevolence infusion. Yet none seems stronger and in the limit – well infinite divided by infinite is not defined."

Sirius nodded, smiling at her "Yes – well thing is, in my opinion, it makes sense that the mathematics come out this way – well if you do them, I would probably find a solution that says throw it in the river and the water shall wash it clean -"

Lily grinned, Sirius' mathematical abilities, or lack thereof, were well known to her.

"But I'll ask Mooney tomorrow. He actually wrote an essay on intent in spell casting some time ago, I remember because I found it an astoundingly non-dull subject for Remus to pick, perhaps he'll have something to add."

Lily smiled "Perfect thank you." At least that was a new lead. "Another question, kind sir?"

Sirius smirked, "I'm happy to enlighten you with my wisdom!"

"Oh thank you, oh wise one, to help this damsel in distress out" she exaggeratedly fluttered her eyes and leaned forward suggestively "Whatever can I do, to thank yourself properly?"

Laughing Sirius leaned back. "Well, I still was not able to match my bedsheets, for the lack of a photo."

Lily stuck out her tongue "You're a cheeky prat."

"That's part of my charm."

Lily shrugged and grinned "Perhaps."

He looked at her mock outraged. "Perhaps? Perhaps?! I'll have you know, that you are actually swooning at my cheekiness!"

Lily giggled. Damn it – she never giggled! She reddened and cleared her throat. "Anyway, my potential swooning aside: Do you know anything about magical theory. Like general theory."

"As in theory on magic per se?"

Lily nodded.

"Not really. Magic just is, and for some reason, we can use it. I mean there was a ritual kind of magic once, but we were always told, that the invention of the wand made that obsolete. Spellcrafters probably have some idea as to how spells have to be created, something about matching syllable counts and logical names. Why do you mean?"

"No reason – my mother made an interesting remark. Nothing of consequence as of yet, potentially a big subject for my work with Professor Flitwick." she pondered upon the spell crafting remark – perhaps she should talk to the Professor about that too, she knew he had made his own spells, as had Severus but yeah.

Sirius nodded "Well keep me updated if you make any discoveries, I'd love to kick my cousin's ass with seemingly impossible stuff." He drifted off, probably imagining himself getting revenge on his craziest family member.

"Well, I'll be the first one to help you with Bellatrix." Lily nodded fiercely, she hated the girl with a passion, ever since running into her in her second year. Bellatrix had been a fourth-year student herself, having somewhat of a better arsenal of spells.

"Well enough about my crazy cousin – how about: how was your summer besides discovering a potentially lethal mass weapon and trying to figure out how magic works?"

All in all, it had been a very agreeable scholar talk, Lily thought to herself, when she lay in bed three hours later, grinning to herself. Even if she would have to find a way to get back to her father – the icing on the cake had been when, after everything, he had thought it necessary to serve them their strawberry tiramisu on a joint plate in the form of a big heart.

But then again Sirius had taken it rather lightly, smirking at the whole scene and, when they set to go, asking the waiter to bring the chef his congratulations on a thoroughly successful menu.
And then, it might not have been part of the scholar talk, but his simple good night kiss, in the end, was a nice finishing touch to the evening. Even if it shouldn't be that special, after all, they had made out once at the end of year party a little more than a year ago.

…..oOoOoOo…..

"So? Found a solution?" her father asked, his face the epitome of innocence. "And had an enjoyable evening?"

"You are so incredibly stupid, Dad!" Lily said though the mirth in her eyes belied the words "I thought I would die from shame!"

Her father chuckled "That was the idea."

Lily glared at him.

"Oh come on, Lily! It was fun. And I didn't do all that I wanted, actually, I wanted to put a violin player next to you!"

Lily glared at him.

"I'm sorry my beloved daughter, I will never again turn your scholar talk into a mushy candlelight dinner!"

Lily glared at him.

"Oh come on! What can I do?"

"Oh nice of you to ask so nicely!" Lily said sweetly, smiling up at him "You know those chocolate chip croissants you make from time to time."

Her father laughed. "Okay, okay, chocolate chip croissants it is then."

Lily smiled and placed a kiss on his cheek "Thanks, dad! Oh and another thing – nothing to do with your idea of a funny prank."

"Yes?"

"I'd like to go to a pool party at a friend's house next weekend."

"Alright."

"Alright?" Lily smiled, she had expected to have to persuade him harder. Her parents didn't like it too much when she went away, seeing as she was only home three months a year.

Her father shrugged "You've been here the whole summer, and I remember that meeting friends was very important to me as well in your age. Plus you're seventeen, you're already of age in your world, in our, you'll be so in half a year. I'd love to be able to say that I have a very active role in your life, I certainly hope that you'll listen to my council because you know that I will always be looking out for your best. But there is no denying, that I do not have as much say, as any parent of any daughter, that does not go nine months a year into a world which I can't even begin to understand."

Lily opened her mouth to say something, anything really – she'd love to tell him that that was non-sense, that he was, of course, the one person most responsible for how she was today. But the truth was, that while she still had her personality from the way she was raised as a child, there was no denying that most of the thoughts, most of the problems she had, she could simply not bring to her parents. Even though she loved them, and even though they loved her – simply because they were not able to be there, because they could try to understand, but realistically wouldn't ever completely.

"So, yes – I'd love to have you here that whole weekend too, but as I said – I was young once too, and I do get it that you'd love to be there. So sure, go ahead – just be responsible, or as responsible as a Scotswoman can be!"

Lily laughed and hugged her father tightly. "Thanks, dad! I swear I won't do anything, I'll possibly regret afterwards. Two more things: usually everyone brings something to eat."

"Yes?"

"Can we make your seafood salad together?"

One of Benjamin's most celebrated creations was his antipasti-style salad, consisting of prawns, crabs, mussels and squids, all from local fishermen, that was then left to marinate in local herbs for two days, cooked sous-vide and infused for another 24 hours with an olive-oil and whiskey vinegar dressing. The result was a "gourmand's journey through Scotland's finest culinary traditions" when you asked the chief editor of one of Great Britain's biggest culinary newspapers.

Her father looked at her earnestly. "I know I have said that a million times, I'll still repeat myself -"

"Whatever they say, don't give out the recipe, it's very important that it remains in your hands, and yours alone. I know Dad, I promise!"

"Fine." Her father mustered her "I guess you remember how to do it?"

Lily nodded.

"Perfect! Then I think I'll make some calls to get the fish by tomorrow morning."

"Thanks, Daddy!" Lily smiled "You're the best!"

He smiled and kissed her on the front "Sure, honey! What was your second question?"

She fidgeted her hands "I now feel bad for asking, but, well the pool party is at the Potter's home in Cornwall. Marlene is going to be there too, and I'd love to stay for the weekend."

He cocked his head. "You'll be going by apparition, I take it? Oh and Sirius is going to be there too?"

"Yes, but I won't – I mean, it's a plus point that's for sure, but I really want to stay for Marlene."

"I'll repeat myself, just be responsible. I know you're an intelligent young lady, and I know I have to let you make your own decisions. But I don't want to see you hurt."

Lily beamed. "Have I told you, you're the best?"

It would be an interesting weekend, Lily mused, as she walked to her favourite tree in the garden, leaning against it and overlooking the Loch.

On the one hand, she could talk to Remus, who had written her a short note saying, he could show her the essay if she came over – that might bring new inputs, on the other hand, she would see Marlene again – of course they had exchanged a letter or two over the break but it was not the same.

And then there was the whole Sirius/James issue. Seeing both of them at the same time had always been strange since, well since the whole thing had begun to develop a dynamic on its own since the Potter heir had been too damn noble and somehow managed to turn Lily's turning him down into a situation where she wasn't sure whether she actually wanted to have him turned down.

And it certainly didn't help that the two of them were like brothers. Of course, for the moment it was fine, as she was good being single, but when she wanted a relationship again, she couldn't just choose one of them and not see the other anymore.

Lily sighed. Somehow she was strange: finding a solution to these kinds of problems always seemed far less possible to her than write a whole new theory on magic. And her mother always assured her it was nice to be in her age. She wasn't so sure about that.