Disclaimer:

This is my interpretation of the Marauders life at Hogwarts. I am planning on doing all seven years, but for now this is year one. I hope you enjoy it.

All rights belong to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 10 - Back to school

Lily met up with the four guys again on platform 9 ¾ and decided to join them in a compartment again on the way back to Hogwarts, the school she had missed while on vacation. They arrived late that evening and met up with all their friends at the Return Feast in the Great Hall. People were discussing what they'd done over the holidays, gifts they'd received and some of the higher grades already started speaking about getting together to revise for exams. Lily met up with Severus after the feast and was happy to find him excitedly talking about potions he had tried making over the holidays. He actually seemed happier than he had all year if that was possible and his happiness was quite infectious.

The next morning class started and school continued like normal. The professors managed to replace everything they'd lost during the holidays and when things did disappear again, they had become excellent at improvising. Truly, things were good. Hogwarts had returned to a state of normality after the holidays.

"How were your holidays?" Sirius asked Narcissa, his cousin who's in Slytherin when he met her in the corridor.

"Good." she replied shortly.

"How's Regulus?" Sirius was worried about his younger brother. He had left him alone with his blood-prejudice parents for far too long.

"Alright." Narcissa answered, "I've got to go." she said quickly."

"Okay." Sirius said as she left. Suddenly it hit him harder than it even did over Christmas vacation. He was the black sheep of the family and he realized that Narcissa might even be embarrassed at being seen with him. He hoped he could show her the light before it's too late. He hoped he could open not only her eyes but also his little brother's and maybe even his cousins, Narcissa's older sisters, Bellatrix and Andromeda. He really hoped that this generation of Blacks could change things. He didn't have a lot of time. Bellatrix was already in sixth year and Andromeda in fourth. He would have to change their perspective before they left to become part of the wizarding community.

That weekend Ravenclaw was playing Hufflepuff on the quidditch pitch. Lily and Severus agreed to skip this game as well and Severus promised to show her a new potion he was working on. A potion that had to be brewed for more than a month and required rare ingredients to be added at very specific times during the moon's phase. It was called Polyjuice Potion and had the ability to change the drinkers appearance to that of someone else if a piece of DNA of that person was added into the potion. It could be as easy as putting a hair from the other person into the potion.

On Saturday morning Severus led Lily down to the dungeons. Professor Slughorn had allowed him to use one of the cells as a lab where he could perfect his potion skills and leave his potions boiling without worrying that it would fall into the wrong hands.

"It's nearly done." Severus smiled, "Professor Slughorn has come to check the progress every now and then and he says he's never seen a student brew such a complex potion at such a young age. He's very impressed. When it's done and if Professor Slughorn allows me too, we could even see how it works."

"That would be really cool." Lily said, "You should show me how to make it sometime."

"I was actually thinking that we could work on the next one together. I want to try making something helpful, like wolfsbane." Severus said.

"Wolfsbane?" Lily asked.

"It's a potion that helps werewolves control part of his transformation during a full moon." Severus explained, "It gives them the ability to control most of the monsters within."

"Werewolves exist?" Lily asked.

"Lily, you've met wizards and ghosts and you know that multiple other magical creatures exist. Do you seriously think that werewolves don't exist?" Severus asked.

"Where do you find them?" Lily asked.

"Well, most werewolves don't like people knowing that they're werewolves because some people are quite judgmental." Severus answered, "There are quite a few recently transformed werewolves in St. Mungo's."

"St. Mungo's?" Lily asked.

"The wizarding hospital." Severus said.

"I guess there's a lot I still don't know about the wizarding world." Lily replied.

"So, are you interested in making the potion?" Severus asked.

"Yeah, that would be great." Lily replied and started inspecting the Polyjuice Potion again.

Lily returned to the Gryffindor common room later that afternoon where there was a lot of chatter about the quidditch game. Ravenclaw had beaten Hufflepuff but only barely and it had been a very close game. The students were betting on who the houses will be that go through to the finals. Most doubted Gryffindor would make it but some remained hopeful.

"Where were you this afternoon?" Marlene asked Lily, "Hanging out with Severus again?"

"Yes." Lily replied, " He showed me one of the potions he worked on this holiday and I'm going to help him make another one."

"That sounds...interesting." Marlene said.

"Why couldn't he show you tomorrow? Why'd you have to miss the Quidditch game?" Alice asked.

"What is it with all of you and Quidditch?" Lily asked.

"Come to a game for a change, then you'll understand." Alice answered.

"Maybe." Lily laughed.