9th March, 1972
The end of term was months away, but the gears were shifting in the atmosphere at Hogwarts. The teachers were getting more serious in their lessons, dropping hints of which bits of information would be the most important for our end-of-year exams. Many students who were excited for the summer began talking about the plans they were making for when they got home.
The boys and I had just left the kitchens, our bags full of different foods, when a dark blur came at us from around the corner. It wasn't until it collided with Remus that I realised it was Severus Snape. He slammed head first into Remus, and they both went sprawling to the floor, Remus' books flying every which way with almighty thumps as they hit the flagstone floor. The Slytherin must've been outside in the rain, because water was pooling around him on the floor from his soaked robes, mixing with some of the butterbeer bottles that had spilled.
"Watch where you're going, you greasy prat!" James said, scowling and rushing forward to help Remus up from the floor. Peter stood a few feet away, looking around at the broken bottles around him, aghast.
Severus scowled, "He could've done, too."
I was scrambling to pick up the bottles that hadn't shattered. "You're the one that came barrelling along like you're the only one in all the world," I said, rolling my eyes as I scooped up a couple of dropped tarts as well.
Severus glowered, "What are you lot doing down here anyway?" He demanded, suddenly suspicious.
Peter's ears went quite pink and he shoved the bag of sandwiches and food behind his back. But Severus' eyes were quick and he spotted the food and scowled, "Been stealing from the kitchens, have you?" He sneered, "Quite the little thieves, aren't you?"
"Are you suggesting something in particular?" Asked Sirius, eyebrows raised challengingly.
"Only that you're in a place you ought not to be, with food you ought not to have," replied Severus lowly as he dusted himself off.
"And are you where you ought to be?" James glared at him, wand raised and pointing directly at him.
Severus looked at James' wand and, keeping his face quite straight, he pushed the tip away from his chest with his index finger, staring right into his face. "Seeing as my common room is down this way...I'd say so," he replied lowly. "Move your wand before you do something you'll regret."
"Go on," James said thickly, "Give me a reason to do it." Peter was looking quite wide-eyed, his eyes flickering between Severus and James as they faced each other in the dim light of the hall.
I put my hand on James' shoulder. "C'mon, mate, it's not worth it."
Severus took James' brief pause to shove his way past us, pulling his robes tight around him as he turned the corner and swept away from us.
James dusted off the back of Remus' robes. "Are you alright, then?" He tucked his wand into the pocket of his robes.
"I'm just fine," Remus replied, turning and taking the bottles from me. "Doesn't look as though all our drinks are though, eh?" He shook his head, "The house elves would be most disappointed." He kicked aside a bit of the broken glass at his feet. "Reparo," he muttered. The glass flew back together, but was woefully empty of its contents, which was still sinking into the cracks on the flagstone floor.
I stared back over my shoulder in the direction Severus had gone, then turned and followed the other four up the stairs.
We were on our way out onto the grounds, and I laughed at the rain fogging up James' spectacles. We had another run-in, this time with a rain-soaked Lily, who nearly collided with James. He caught her by her shoulders. "Woah, there, Evans," he said jovially. "Nearly knocked you down,"
I smiled at Lily, then I saw the wetness on her cheeks wasn't merely from the rain, but also from tears that reddened her eyes. "Hang on, Lily, what's the matter?"
"I'm fine," Lily replied, tugging out of James' grasp.
Remus asked, "Are you sure? Only we've just seen Snape and he was rather upset, too…"
"You didn't tell him, did you?" I asked hastily, remembering Severus' vehement tone when he had called us thieves.
"Of course not. Not on purpose anyway. We were just talking and I mentioned summer, and he said he was going to be hanging around Lucius. Then we had it out over whether Bilius deserved the attack or not, and I told him it wasn't Bilius, told him a lie and said I'd been eating dinner with him when it happened, and he got all...odd...and suddenly had to leave." Lily sighed, "I didn't say anything about you lot at all!" Lily looked near to tears, "I'm sorry!"
Sirius shook his head, "It doesn't matter, Evans." She still looked so woeful, though, Sirius looked like he wanted to prove to her that we weren't angry. He held up one of the bottles of butterbeer and a bag full of tarts. "You want to come with us and have a snack?"
Lily sniffled, "What?"
"We've got loads of tarts and pasties," Remus expanded, catching on where Sirius was going with his offer.
"We're going to have a little picnic," I added.
"It's pouring outside," Lily said, "Absolutely miserable. I've just come from 'round the greenhouses."
James smirked, "Are you going to melt in the rain, Evans?"
"No, of course not, but I-"
"Well then," James said, pulling Peter along with him toward the door, "Are you coming?" Peter stumbled over the steps as James walked out into the rain with a big grin on his face.
Lily watched after them as Sirius and Remus scurried to follow James and Peter. She turned to me, "Are we really going to go have a picnic in the rain?"
I smiled, "Actually," I said, "We are."
James and Sirius were shouting and running across the rain-soaked grounds, their crowing laughter echoing off the castle as Lily, Remus and I followed along. Peter stumbled halfway down the hill and rolled along on his side shouting until he'd caught up to where Sirius and James had come to a stop beneath the shade of an old tree by the edge of the lake. Looking back, I could see the castle looming above us in the misty grey light, the spires hidden by low clouds. I shivered as James pulled out a blanket, which I think was one of his bed duvets. "Go on, Sabrina," he said, holding it up.
I cleared my throat and pointed my wand at it, "Impervius."
"What's that spell do?" Lily questioned as James and Peter spread the duvet out over the ground.
"Makes it water resistant!" I explained with a grin.
"We had to do that to all of Peter's sheets," joked James, smirking.
Peter punched his arm, "Shut it! You did not!" He looked at Lily, "They did not."
Sirius meanwhile had climbed the tree and was perched on one of the lower branches that hung over the water, straddling it, facing the forest on the far side. He cupped his hands 'round his mouth and shouted, "HULLO!" The echo that came back was magnificent and reverberated several times before fading off. He grinned, "Brilliant!" illiant, illiant, illiant…. "I could bloody do this all day," he laughed.
"Well you aren't," I said, "We've got food. Get down here, silly."
Peter had opened his bag up and started pulling the sandwiches he'd nicked as James dumped his bag of pasties, and I helped Remus arrange the butterbeers. "We had more butterbeers," Remus said apologetically, "But we dropped a couple coming up from the kitchens." He didn't go into detail, and for good reason. "Luckily we've got seven left so we each have one and we'll have to split the last."
"Or fight to the death for it," Sirius said as he swung down from the tree, hanging by his hands over the water for a moment before dropping down onto the edge of the grass, only just keeping his balance from falling in.
James said, "Fight to the death? I'd win a duel against you any day, Black."
"In your dreams, Potter."
"Well I wouldn't win, that's for sure," Peter said, twisting the cap off his bottle as Remus handed them 'round. "I should think it would be either Sabrina or Lily."
I laughed, "Well I'm not going to be in the running, I'm fine with just the one. So I guess that makes you the winner, then," I held the extra bottle out to Lily.
She took it, but said, "I doubt that! I wouldn't win against you lot."
"You're the brightest one in the whole school," offered James, "Of course you would."
"I might give you a go if I get thirsty enough later," Sirius joked.
Lily smiled, "Oh really? And you think you could beat me?"
Sirius' eyes twinkled, "No, I doubt I could, but I'm just stupid enough to try anyway."
We then ate and laughed and talked about the teachers of Hogwarts. Remus did a marvelous impression of Professor Slughorn, while James had heard quite a lot of exciting stories from his father by owl about Professor Moody's work as an Auror. "I think Moody's bloody fantastic," James said enthusiastically, "Being an Auror must be the best job in all the world. I should like to catch dark wizards myself one day…" he stood up, brandishing a breadstick as a wand, "I'd do a little of this and a little of that...I'd fill the walls of Azkaban with their ruddy hides."
I chortled, "Make a bear skin rug of ol' Voldey, would you?"
"Damn right, I would!" James grinned, "One day...I'll be remembered as the reason You-Know-Who is dead!"
"He's a very powerful wizard," Lily said, "You'll have to study hard if you want to be the one that defeats him."
James looked at her, a grin slowly spread over his face, "Maybe you could help me, Evans. Give me a spot of tutoring." He winked. "I'll be sure to mention you helped me when I'm giving my interviews."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh please."
"Perhaps with your help I could take him out by the end of term!" James boasted.
"You can't even face the bloody mirror," Sirius accused, smirking.
James said, "You couldn't defeat You-Know-Who with that thing anyway, could you?" He said with an eye roll, "Bloody mirror's useless!"
"Of course you would think a mirror that doesn't show your reflection is useless," Lily said with a laugh.
We all laughed, but James didn't, his mouth quirking up a bit at the corner. "Oh and I s'pose you have a better idea what to do with the mirror, then? How would you defeat the Dark Lord with it, oh wise and all-knowing one?"
Lily nibbled her sandwich for a moment, thinking of the answer, then said, "I'd use it to trick him into apparating into an ambush."
James opened his mouth to argue but found he didn't know what to argue about. He looked at Sirius. Sirius, too, looked at a loss for words or argument, a grin slowly spreading across his face, "That's rather brilliant actually," he said.
Peter was shaking his head, "Oh no you don't. No. I know that grin. Stop planning right now."
"I'm not," Sirius said, but he clearly was. He turned to Remus and I, "What if we did that? Got the Dark Lord to apparate right into an ambush? All of us hit him with a stunner at the same time and-"
"You can't apparate onto Hogwarts grounds," said Remus, "Don't you think he would've done it by now if he could? Or that Lucius would be apparating back and forth, rather than talking to him with a mirror in the first place?"
James shrugged, "So we go off the grounds, then."
Lily's eyes widened with horror, "Okay, you lot are mad. You can't be serious."
"What better way to shut Malfoy up than to see his precious Dark Lord behind bars in Azkaban? Let the bloody Dementors deal with him," Sirius said, excitedly.
"Perhaps they'll like him so much they'll want to give him a little kiss," laughed James, puckering his lips up and smacking one onto the side of Sirius' head.
"Gerroff, I'm serious!" Sirius said, shoving James off him. "We'd be ruddy heroes!"
Peter was worrying his hands, "That would never work, ever, ever, ever…"
"Stop being such a dandy, Peter," Sirius snapped. He looked to me, "Certainly five stunners simultaneously could do the trick, yeah?"
I raised my eyebrows, "Lily's right, you have gone mad."
"Mad or brilliant?"
"Mad," Lily, Remus, Peter and I all replied simultaneously.
Sirius looked at James. "You don't think I'm mad, do you?"
"Of course I do, but not because of this," James replied. "It's an insane plan and it shouldn't be attempted by first years by any means, but honestly that's exactly why it might just work. You-Know-Who wouldn't ever suspect…"
"Don't go encouraging him!" Lily trilled. "You're likely to get yourselves blasted out of existence if you try it!"
James turned to Sirius, completely ignoring Lily, and asked, "Where would we have him apparate to? Where could we go that's off the grounds enough he could?"
"The forest is off the grounds isn't it? At least part of it?" Sirius suggested.
"Do the walls go all the way around it?"
"I doubt it."
I interrupted, "One problem. The forest you're talking about? It's strictly forbidden. Remember? It's literally called The Forbidden Forest!"
Sirius waved this fact off. "So why's it called that? It's a stupid rule anyway. What's so awful about a load of trees anyway?"
"I think it's more about what lives among the trees than the trees themselves," Peter chirped.
"Aw bloody hell, who gives a damn about all that?" James inquired, "If we're going to defeat the Dark Lord, we'd be able to handle whatever it is hiding out in there! Obviously!"
Lily said, "Will you stop with the inflated ego already? You're a ruddy first year and you struggle enough with your homework already!"
Remus nodded, "Defeating whatever's in the forest - not to mention He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named - is going to be a lot tougher than your Transfiguration assignments."
Sirius shrugged. "Transfiguration isn't that hard."
"Says the one whose rabbit tea kettle hopped out of the classroom the other day," I scoffed.
"Actually, that was mine," Peter supplied.
"See?" Sirius said, "Mine broke when James knocked it off the table."
"It still had ears, though," Lily pointed out.
"We could actually do this," Sirius insisted, turning to James, "We could be the ones that defeat the most powerful wizard in all the world."
Fed up with them not listening, Remus stood up, "You are not doing this. You are not risking all our necks for this. You're mental!"
Sirius looked up at him.
"I agree. I'll bloody break the mirror in half before I'll let you do this!" I added, also rather furious.
James shrugged, "Breaking it doesn't stop the reflection from showing up, remember? We had that little bit and this is just a little bit of the whole thing we saw before. Obviously even if you broke it up we'd just be able to use the smaller parts."
"Then we'll blast it to smithereens so damn small you wouldn't ever find it!" Remus added.
"Blimey, Re," said James, laughing, "Relax. You don't have to go with us."
"You shouldn't be going at all!" I said.
"Yeah," Lily agreed, standing beside Remus and I and dusting off her robes, "I'll tell Dumbledore before I'll let you."
Sirius' eyes were wide. "What are you three, secret dark magic supporters?" He demanded. He pointed at Lily, "This was your idea! And you three are probably the worst off if You-Know-Who gets to power! Muggleborns and halfbreeds will be the first to go!"
Remus' face paled and he glanced wildly at Lily a moment before snapping, "You bloody git!" He turned and rushed up the hill toward the castle.
"Halfbreeds?" Lily asked.
"Ignore him." James said, rolling his eyes, "Sirius is being an idiot. It's a joke we have." He hit the back of Sirius' leg with his palm and gave him an imploring look.
Sirius' nostrils were flared with anger, but he said, "Yeah, just an inside joke is all. Bloody hell. I need a walk." He turned and stomped off across the grounds in the opposite direction.
I sighed. "I better go after him." James looked at me and Peter. "Can you two clear this up?"
We nodded, and the bespectacled boy jogged off.
I looked at Lily, as I began to scoop up the butterbeer bottles. "Well, in any case, this was lovely, Lily, thanks for coming on with us." I smiled weakly.
I was fast asleep, starlight being the only thing illuminating the bedroom, when I awoke to the feeling of something jabbing at my shoulder. I started and looked about, breathless, to find a little house elf crouched in the dark beside my bed, his great floppy ears bent low across his head. He wore a little pillowcase, embroidered with the Hogwarts coat of arms on the chest. He stared up at me timidly. "I's is sorrys, misses," the elf croaked just above a whisper, "I is being sent to wake you both." He gestured to Lily who was also awake, and we exchanged confused looks.
"Sent to wake us?" I asked, "By who?"
"The Potter boy and his friends," the house elf said, "They is finding Libby in the common room, miss, and they is telling me to come and tells you to come and sees them in the common room, by the fire, you two misses." Libby hobbled foot to foot. "I is been stroking it, misses, so it is warm for your toesies." He smiled at us, wide yellow eyes quite pleasant once you got past the shock of how huge they were compared to the rest of Libby's face.
"Thanks," Lily said, and we got ready to head downstairs. Lily put her feet into a pair of bunny slippers and tugged her pale pink bathrobe 'round her shoulders, while I chose to remain in my blue pyjamas and grabbed my grey fuzzy slippers. Libby disappeared with a crack.
Carefully, Lily and I snuck down the steps to the common room, where we found the four boys sitting 'round the fireplace, looking very serious.
"What's all this?" Lily asked.
Sirius motioned for us to sit. He was the only one standing. Remus and Peter were crammed side-by-side on the couch, James opposite the two chairs that Lily and I sat in. Sirius took a deep breath once we'd been seated and cleared his throat. "Okay, I know we've had a row between us this afternoon about this idea that Lily had for what we could do with the mirror, but-"
"We're not still on that ruddy topic, are we?" Groaned Remus, "Sirius, c'mon now mate. You can't have thought this all the way through. There's no way you're serious."
"As serious as my name," he replied, "Guys. This idea is crazy, yes, I'll be the first one to admit it's crazy, but that's exactly what might make it work. It's really a brilliant idea, given to us by the brilliant Lily."
Lily stared with wide eyes, "I was joking when I said it. It wasn't a real suggestion."
"Nonetheless, it is brilliant," Sirius said.
I sighed, "You're going to be killed if you even try it."
"I won't," Sirius said, "None of us will. We're going to stun him before he could even get half of the killing curse off his mouth."
Remus said, "Sirius. We. Are. First years! Our magic is not as powerful as his. Peter can barely do the stunning spell. Even you can resist it."
Peter turned pink.
"That's why all of us...as many of us as possible… stun him all at once. The combination of all our stunners will be enough!" Sirius said.
James said, "And his guard will be down, he won't be expecting it, remember." He looked around at us, "Guys, this can work, Sirius is right. We could be famous! Famous for saving the entire world. Don't you want to be famous?"
Lily said, "Of course it's not don't you want to save the world, it's all about being famous and feeding your ego. You're willing to risk your life and all the lives of everyone around you for being famous!"
"I said we'd be saving the world, too," James said, "Famous is just what we'd get out of it is all."
"I don't want anything to do with it," Lily said, standing up, "Or you, at all," she added, looking into James' face. "You're all mad if you do it." She looked at Remus and I. "And you two know it." With that, she stomped off up the stairs to our dormitory and a moment later I heard our door close.
In all honesty, I was quite relieved that she'd left. That meant that Lily, at least, would be safe in the Gryffindor common room, and protected. Something very deep in my stomach was glad for that.
Sirius' voice shook only slightly as he said, "I'll do it alone if I have to. If you lot don't do it with me, that's fine, it's up to you, but I'm going. I can't not give it a go. I feel like...like this is my destiny. It's what I'm meant to do. But we've got better odds of it working for every additional stunner that's shot at him. Me alone...that really may not be enough. I don't know. But I've got to try."
Peter's eyes moved between the four of us nervously, shifting from one to another.
"I'm with you, mate," James said solemnly.
I gave a dramatic sigh. "We need to plan this as much as possible. This is suicide, it is, but I guess I'm in. I'm not a bleeding Gryffindor for nothing."
Remus was rubbing his forehead, "Oh bloody hell," he groaned. "This is a terrible...awful...ridiculous...stupid idea." But even as he said it, his tone gave in. He looked up at Sirius, "Fine, alright. I'll help."
Sirius ran over and clapped his arms 'round Remus in a hug.
All four of us turned. "Peter?" Sirius asked.
Peter's face twitched. His lip quivered. His spine shivered. It took nearly a minute before he squeaked, "Alright…. Okay, yes. Okay."
