A/N: Hello again everyone. Hope you're all doing well, thanks for your continued interest in my story and here is the next instalment.
Saturday 30th November 1976 Lily looked at her invitation to Sirius Black's 17th birthday party. It was written on a plan piece of parchment. Graceful caligraphy flowing across it.
The Marauders cordially invite you, Lily Evans, to the party of the century.
To commemorate the occasion of Mister Sirius Black's birth and his entrance into adulthood please make your way to the seventh floor corridor with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy anytime from six o'clock in the evening of Saturday the 30th of November 1976. Once there you will receive your instructions.
Delectable finger foods and snacks will be available.
Dress in dark clothes that are ready to get messy and feel free to bring beverages you're willing to share.
We await your presence.
Lily was feeling a strange sense of both trepidation and excitement for the party. James had given them their invites as they left training last night and this morning on the way to breakfast they had seen that the corridor outside the room had been turned into a river. Filch had raged until lunchtime but being that it was the weekend and it was an impressive piece of spellwork it would be left until monday. The dress code was very ambiguous and no matter how much they had wheedled Remus and the others they received no clues. Lily had eventually settled on a comfortable pair of jeans, an old pair of tennis shoes and a dark t-shirt and cardigan. The rest of the girls were dressed similarly even Alice and Dorcas branching out to wear muggle clothes. Witches robes weren't very practical when it came to getting messy. It was half past six and they were about to leave. From what they had gathered at lunchtime almost all of the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw sixth and seventh years had been invited, along with a scattering of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff fifth years and you could sense the undercurrent of excitement in the common room and in the hall at meal times. Rather unwittingly the Marauders had become Hogwarts legends and were widely liked with a reputation for being just downright fun.
The girls grabbed their invitations and set off. The corridor was close to the entrance to Gryffindor tower so they didn't have to walk far. Lily stood with Marlene, Dorcas, Alice and Frank, who had joined them as they were walking out of the common room. She stood next to the river, looking around skeptically as she pulled out her invitation and unfolded it. It shimmered in her hands, the writing changing.
Please stand on one of the lily pads. The invitation directed. With a disbelieving laugh Lily moved to obey. We recommend you do this individually or in a pair. The parchment added, as if on second thoughts.
"Right Mar, come with me." She grabbed Marlene's wrist and together they stepped on to a rather wobbly lily pad. She just had time to see David, Diana and a group of Ravenclaws join her three Gryffindor friends still waiting before a wall of fog rose up, blocking them from view. The fog swept over them as the Lily pad floated along the river and with it came a strange sense of cheerfulness.
Lily was caught between scowling and laughing.
"I'm pretty sure they spiked the fog." She said to a shocked but slowly smiling Marlene.
The girls shared confused looks as some classical music began playing from somewhere. The tapestry with the dancing trolls rose in front of them and the invitation shimmered again.
"You should copy the moves of the troll in the middle." Marlene read out loud.
"Give it some attitude." Lily finished with a laugh. The girls shrugged before performing a rather unsteady plié accordingly, it was pretty hard on a floating plant. The lily pad span and floated the opposite direction.
Beautiful form. Her invite complimented as the music took on a dramatic turn. They were suddenly plunged into darkness. Marlene squawked in surprise and clutched Lily's arm as they wobbled dangerously.
Touch your nose, turn around, clap three times and touch your toes. Came the next command in glowing letters from the piece of parchment. The only source of light on the dark river. They followed the instructions laughing as they did so. The music changed again to a more upbeat, catchy tune with glowing orbs of multicoloured pulsing along with the music. The lily pad floated on as the music crescendoed and with a bang and a splash of glitter the girls found themselves ejected from the lily pad and standing on the… ceiling?
"What the hell is going on?" Asked a thoroughly amused and still confused Lily. The music had sped up again and her invite shimmered again.
Thirty second dance break.
We'll know if you're not dancing.
Sharing one last confused look Marlene and Lily began dancing, laughing all the while, surrounded by the flashing lights. The music decreased in volume and a final message appeared on the invite. Whilst the wall/ceiling in front of them gave way to a waterfall of multicoloured bubbles with a selection of coloured stones. There was purple, pink, yellow, red, green, blue or gold.
Almost there. Pick a colour. Once you've decided press the stone and come on down.
Lily pressed the purple stone and Marlene the pink. The waterfall of bubbles split revealing two slides, one purple and one pink, leading into darkness. The thumping of music could now be heard. Another confused smile was shared between the girls before they jumped into their respective slides, letting out twin whoops of glee. The slides were steep with several twists and turns, Lily could see Marlene's manic grin over the small wall separating the two sides as they raced down finally ending in what looked to be a tank of purple water, complete with bubbles, on Lily's side and a complementary pink one on Marlene's side. They were about knee deep and surprisingly warm. The music was loud and the room was sparsely lit. Lily looked over to see Marlene covered in neon paint with matching bubbles in her hair. The paint glowed neon in the dimness of the room, standing out on her dark clothes. Lily doubled over in laughter, Marlene laughing and pointing at her as well. What they'd thought were water tanks were actually tanks filled with bright paint. They exited the tanks and noticed James coming towards them.
"You made it!" Yelled James over the music.
His grin split his face. He was covered in a base layer of pink paint, two blue hand prints stood out on either side of his chest, gold paint flecked his face and hair underneath a Gryffindor tie he was wearing like a head band keeping his hair out of his eyes which were glinting behind- surprisingly spotless- glasses. He was wearing a black t-shirt and, to Lily and Marlene's surprise, drainpipe trousers. Which he was actually pulling off.
"This is insane!" Marlene said excitedly.
The party wasn't busy yet but there was about twenty people there and more sure to come. The room had been made to appear as a large unused classroom. The ceilings were high and arched and a few tables and chairs had been piled up against the walls, a separate table holding both alcohol and soft drinks and several large jugs of water with a few more tables spread out across the room holding a vast array of food. At the end of the room was a stage with speakers and a turntable on it, this was manned by muggleborn Calvin Morrow who was the year above them in Gryffindor. Lily and Marlene watched open-mouthed as he expertly scratched the discs before sliding seamlessly into the next track, his brother in fifth year acting as his assistant and passing him vinyls. There were various barrels of different coloured paint around the room and another platform holding drums which had been coated in paint. A group of Hufflepuff students were currently surrounding it whooping as a girl drummed to the beat of the song, splashing everyone in the vicinity.
"Happy Birthday Sirius!" Called Lily as he walked up to the two new arrivals covered in gold paint. He was wearing a huge grin.
"You guys are definitely not messy enough." He stated, bounding over to a barrel filled with green paint, he dipped his hand in it and flung it at the girls. Remus, Peter and James joined in and before long Marlene had Lily's handprint on her face. In retaliation Marlene slapped a paint covered hand on Lily's butt. Peter gave Remus a dashing, pink moustache. In turn Sirius squeezed Peter's 'boobs', Remus drew a smiley face on James' forehead and James turned Sirius' nipples into eyes and drew a smile through his bellybutton. Soon enough Alice and Frank arrived, followed by Dorcas and Diana and from then on there was a steady influx of guests. Lily's dorm made their way to the drinks and soon enough a happy and boisterous crowd were dancing the night away.
James didn't know how long had passed when he found himself in a dance circle with Alice's dorm, Frank, Linda Dearborn and her dorm and the entirety of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff quidditch team. The night had been a blur of colour with a liberal amount of drinks and James was having a fantastic time. The song changed and the muggle song Ballroom Blitz came on to the cheers of the marauders and the muggleborns. Frank and Alice were pushed into the circle and did a lively and surprisingly deft quickstep which was very impressive seeing how much alcohol had been consumed. However, both teens had been taught to dance from a young age, it was pure blood tradition. Sirius and Linda were pushed in next and most definitely did not do a quickstep, both Sirius and his partner were dancing wildly inappropriately with big, drunk grins on their faces. Dorcas found herself in next with David Rivers and they danced much more respectably. Sirius had shoved James in as Dorcas and David made their exit and to James' surprise and delight he found a certain Lily Evans opposite him. He took her hand and they engaged in a mock serious tango to the lively, high tempo song. Lily laughingly complied, she had always loved dancing, her dad had spun her and Petunia around their living room on his toes ever since they had been little girls. It turned out that James was actually a good dancer, even in such tight trousers and the jokingly intense expression on his face, mirrored by her as they strode across the circle had both of them bursting into laughter as they eventually left the circle.
"I'm gonna get some water." James said into her ear over the music, his breath tickled and she steadfastly ignored the increased thump of her heart. Instead she nodded and followed him to the drinks table where it was a bit quieter. They both chugged a glass of water before they began to speak.
"I'm very impressed." Lily said, gesturing to the lively party going on around them. James smiled, perching on the table.
"I'm just glad it was worth the stress of setting up."
"I'm guessing you're not gonna tell me how you did it?" Lily said, filling up her cup of water.
James smirked. "Maybe one day." James checked his watch. "Bloody hell it's almost 11." Lily grabbed his wrist to check for herself. The party had been properly raging since about 7.
Lily laughed. "No wonder I'm knackered."
"Tell me about it." James replied, in agreement. "I haven't even given Sirius his present yet."
"Neither have we." Said Lily motioning to her dorm.
"I reckon it'll start calming down soon." James said looking around at the room.
"What're you gonna do with the passed out people." Asked Lily, an amused smirk tugging at her lips, pointing at the various unconscious students dotted about.
"Leave them in the river." Was James' reply, an answering smirk on his own face. Lily laughed, waving to Alice, Frank, Dorcas and Peter who were making their way over.
She turned back to James. "I've been very surprised this year at how well you and Sirius pull of muggle clothes by the way." She stated. James laughed giving her a twirl and she forced herself to not look him up and down shoving down the drunk side of her brain that was insisting that not only did he pull them off, he looked really good. Their other friends made their way over to them helping themselves to water as well. They found some seats, chatting loudly over the music when a very mussed looking Sirius appeared. His hair was messy and his t-shirt was… ripped? James rolled his eyes at his mate.
"Linda Dearborn left then did she?" He asked teasingly.
"Yeah." Sirius said, collapsing into a chair with a cup of water. "Not without giving me a present though." He grinned rakishly.
"I fear you'll be disappointed when we give you your present Sirius." Said Lily sarcastically. Sirius was about to give a suitably indecent reply when he was distracted by Remus who had joined them. And to Sirius' delight was also looking mussed and on the side of his neck there was-
"You've got a hickey!" Exclaimed Sirius in glee. Remus' eyes widened and a furious blush filled his face as he adjusted his shirt.
"Nancy O'Connor finally saw sense then?" Asked Lily with a grin.
"Maybe." Remus said noncommittally burying his face in a bowl of crisps and refusing to answer any questions. They chatted among themselves, in a cluster of chairs, teasing each other good-naturedly as the DJ, sensing the mood, turned the music down slightly.
"I think it's time for some presents." Peter suggested, looking eagerly at James, who smirked.
"Ladies first." Marlene summoned the bag she had brought with her which contained the presents from the girls. From Dorcas he received a quidditch training set, complete with a new beater bat and two bludgers that were charmed to have adjustable difficulty settings to customise your training routine. Alice gave him a complete toiletry set with which Sirius was inordinately pleased with. Lily and Marlene, thinking along the same lines, both gave him records. From Marlene he received a Night at the Opera by Queen and Lily, of course gave him ABBA's greatest hits album. He thanked them all profusely, hugging each of them. Frank was next, he didn't disappoint, withdrawing Sirius' shrunken present from a pocket somewhere he enlarged and passed over a huge crate of Zonko's items making Lily groan playfully on behalf of all the prefects. Remus and Peter had teamed and handed him a gift bag containing an expensive looking leather jacket which Sirius loved. It was finally James' turn, standing up he summoned a bag, taking out a potion vial and an envelope and handing it to his best mate. Sirius laughed at the potion vial.
"Sleekeazy's is a much less impressive present when your dad invented it and you're entitled to a lifetime supply." Sirius teased. James smirked at him and told him to open the envelope. Lily's eyes widened, James' dad invented Sleekeazy's hair potion? That made Slughorn's pursuit of him make more sense, not to say he was bad at potions he could do a good job when he wasn't distracted.
Sirius tore open the envelope eagerly, his mouth dropped open as he looked at whatever it was. He turned wide eyes on James, gaping like a fish for a few seconds before he could speak.
"Prongs. No you didn't." Sirius stood up giddily. He turned the piece of paper he was holding around to show everyone the picture of the motorbike that was on it. Oh. Lily thought to herself, she grinned, that was the perfect present for Sirius Black. James grinned devilishly in reply.
"Please tell me you're not pranking me." Sirius asked desperately. James shook his head, still grinning as Sirius tacked him in a bear hug.
"You got me a fucking motorbike?" James laughed, hugging him back.
"I guess so." James said, voice muffled in the hug. "That photo is what it's gonna look like once we put it together."
"No way." Said Sirius, pulling back, clasping James' shoulders. "We get to put it together?"
"Yup. My parents have been trawling muggle garages for weeks. They finally found a motorbike that was unfortunately in pieces and a bunch of books and manuals and we may or may not be enchanting it and putting it back together. All the stuff is in the old dog house at Potter Manor."
"We're gonna make it fly?" Asked Sirius, his eyes watering in joy. James nodded again and Sirius crushed him into another hug.
"I've wanted this since I was 12, Prongs." Sirius said, voice cracking.
"I know mate." Came James' reply, returning the hug tightly. "That's why I did it. And that's what your leather jacket from Moony and Wormtail is for by the way."
"Fucking hell James, thank you so much." James grinned, eyes bright as Sirius finally released him to bring Peter and Remus into another hug.
"This is gonna be awesome!" Sirius crowed and Lily, not expecting such an emotional reaction, blinked back some surprised tears. Stupid drunk Lily she said to herself. Laughing as Sirius jumped up and down.
"Best birthday ever."
Wednesday 4th December 1976 The first Wednesday of December rolled around and James was tired. And also cold. After dinner he had been at quidditch practice on the magically lit pitch and it had snowed the whole time, and not nice fluffy snow. No, it was high velocity, soggy flakes of pure ice. Made even worse by flying a broomstick through the flurries.
Sirius' party had been a huge success. After they had done his presents they had got a second wind and it was well past midnight and into the wee hours of the morning when the last of the party guests snuck back to their dorms and 3 unconscious and unlucky students were left lying on their backs in a much reduced looking river in the seventh floor corridor. Saturday was spent recovering and trying to piece together all of the memories of the party. James remembered dancing until he got blisters, in particular he remembered dancing with Lily and groaned as he remembered his hand on her waist and hers on his shoulder. He remembered being close enough to kiss her and cursed himself for being an ass to her for most of their school career. He also remembered Sirius crying when James told him about his present, a fact Padfoot steadfastly denied.
Last night had been a full moon and they had all avoided getting cut or scratched, just very bruised. Remus was currently in the hospital wing recovering, Sirius and Peter were in the dorm, probably sleeping whilst James was sat by the fire, wearing his warmest jumper, thickest socks and a blanket wrapped around him whilst he read the latest letter from his parents and recovered from almost freezing himself to death on the quidditch pitch.
His mum had asked him how Sirius' birthday was, including a photo of the pile of grease and parts that was the motorbike Sirius and him would be fixing together. She had also rather pointedly asked how his friendship with Lily was going and if Alice had found the need to shout at him again. James had a piece of parchment and had begun penning his reply to tell her that the party was great, and no Alice hadn't told him off again (yet) and yes, him and Lily were- somewhat surprisingly- friends. However, she was also informing him that the Wizengamot were swiftly leaning towards a policy of 'neutrality' against Voldemort, a fast rising Dark Lord even though there had recently been another muggle baiting attack by the group calling themselves the Death Eaters. In Euphemia's opinion they were using muggles to practice dark curses on, something that almost made James feel physically ill. Euphemia was lamenting at what could possibly have happened in these people's lives to make them feel they could do something like that. Unwillingly, James' thoughts turned to Sirius. Would he have ended up joining muggle attacks if he had never been sorted into Gryffindor? It seems like Sirius' pathetic excuses for parents were rapidly forcing Regulus into doing so, breaking Sirius' heart in the process. Most of those pure blood bigots were nothing but bullies, forcing people with less money or less influence into line, their line.
Unwillingly, again, James began to think of a certain greasy Slytherin that he himself had bullied practically relentlessly since starting Hogwarts. He sat up straight as he recalled one of the curses Snape had used against him in The Incident. James was sure Snape had made it up because Slughorn had forced Snape to tell him the counter curse when he healed it. Had Snape made that up, because of him? Because of how much James picked on him? Was he indirectly responsible for Snape turning to dark arts? James sighed, leaning back and running both hands through his hair. He wasn't… was he?
Shit. But there had to be some level of personal responsibility on Snape's part, right? James sighed pulling his blanket tighter around him, almost protectively. He resolved to stop thinking about it and resumed the letter to his mum.
A week had passed and they were into the last week of term before the Christmas holiday. A week that had been filled with tests set by the cruel and heartless staff of Hogwarts. Despite all of the studying that James had been doing and the execution of a magnificent prank at the beginning of the week- the marauders had a tradition of pulling a big prank in every last week before a holiday, this time they had enchanted the entrance hall and the corridors to the dungeons to become a snowy winter wonderland. Complete with crazy snowmen who were always up for a snowball fight and constantly built igloos and threw snowballs at unsuspecting students. A rather fun twist to the prank was you had to be unsuspecting to be targeted by the ruthless snowmen, if you were prepared they didn't aim for you. Peter had been very proud of that as it was his idea. Despite all this, the nagging thought that he might have had some direct or indirect effect on Severus Snape potentially going dark would not leave him alone. The Thursday before they broke up for the holidays James found himself walking back to Gryffindor Tower after dropping off a few of the books he had been using in his studying back to the library when Snape swept past him. He was on his own for a change, instead of with his almost-definitely death eater to-be friends, and didn't hesitate to throw him a scathing glare as he walked past. An internal battle began to rage in James' head, he had stopped dead in the corridor. He wasn't going to do this. Was he? James squirmed. The side of him that was heir to the Noble House of Potter insisting he needed to take action to remedy his previous mistakes was fighting with the much more petty side of him that just did not want to. He sighed, knowing what he was going to do. His internal argument didn't last as long as it had seemed to in his head and he turned around, muffling a sigh.
"Snape." He called after the pale Slytherin. Snape whirled around, his wand in his hand and it was with an effort that James didn't grab his own. Instead holding his arms at his side, palms facing Snape to show he was unarmed.
"Potter." Came the scathing reply. "What?"
James could almost physically feel his pride in his throat as he swallowed it back down. But he was not going to chicken out, he was a Potter goddamit! Potters made a bunch of mistakes and almost always rushed into situations head first without thinking but they weren't ones to dig their heels in when they knew they were in the wrong, not like the Malfoys.
"I want to apologise." James said, drawing himself ramrod straight. Snape was so surprised his sneer slipped off his face completely.
"What?" He replied, looking almost confused.
"I mistreated you in the past. Victimising you and attacking you unprovoked, some of the time- well maybe a lot of the time. It was ill-becoming of me and I'm offering you an apology." James looked at his nemesis stoically, Snape's wand was still in his hand. The expression on the Slytherin teen's face slipped from confusion to shock to rage very quickly. He advanced towards James, wand pointing at him. James felt a surge of instinct rise up, begging him to grab his own wand. Something he refused to do, if Snape cursed him, James would take it, he clenched his jaw.
"You're apologising?" Snape said derisively, still advancing. "You're unbelievable." James was starting to feel confused but he kept his expression calm. "Your arrogance is truly remarkable."
"I'm not sure how-" James began but was cut off as Snape pressed the tip of his wand to James' throat underneath his jaw to which the Gryffindor stuck his chin out defiantly. James was only slightly taller than his counterpart and blazing, grey eyes almost as dark as coal stared furiously into bespectacled ones.
"You're full of shit Potter. So puffed up on your own self-righteousness. You probably think you're so noble trying to right your past wrongs. So entrenched in the goodness of the light you can't possibly do anything wrong."
"I did do something wrong, that's why I'm apologising." James said ignoring the wand tip that was warming up with it's owners fury.
"You're not good Potter! Your treatment of me was exactly the same as those purebloods treatment of certain people that you're so wary of. You're just like everyone else, using your own power to put other people down."
"Just like Voldemort then?" James asked coldly. Snape's eyes narrowed.
"Voldemort respects power." James began to shake his head, stopping as Snape jabbed the now almost burning wand tip further into his throat.
"You think you can offer an apology to me, your poor, helpless victim and every wrong will be forgotten because you're James Potter, so good and virtuous." Every word he spoke dripped with venom. "You put yourself on a pedestal but why would your apology mean anything to me?" James could feel the wand tip burning his skin but a further clenching of his jaw was his only reaction.
"I could kill you right now." Snape whispered menacingly. James kept his gaze locked onto Snape's.
"There's only so long you can play the part of the gracious, noble, oh so good heir to the god-forsaken House of Potter before it will all come crumbling down around you and everyone will know what you're really like. Especially her."
Snape spat the last two words before dragging his wand away, turning to return to wherever he was going before James distracted him. James winced when his back was turned only realising how hot the tip of Snape's wand was after he had removed it. James had no doubt what girl Snape had been referring to and he truly felt remorseful for his part in pushing Lily's best friend away. He'd apologised to Lily, he'd apologised to Snape, he'd done everything he knew his parents would want him to, but he still didn't feel much better. James gingerly touched the spot under his jaw, it was sore to the touch, it was a small but focused injury. He sighed, he wasn't going to heal it. God knows he probably deserved it.
James didn't notice a familiar looking tabby cat lurking in the shadows of a suit of armour as he walked back to the tower. Minerva McGonagall had been very close indeed to transforming back into her human body to break up the fight she had been sure was going to happen. She had held out though, observing from the shadows and it was with an odd sense of pride that she watched James walk away, hands in his pockets with his eyes on the floor seeming deep in thought, and with a deep sense of sorrow as she looked in the direction the Slytherin had stalked off to. It was sad to see a young man filled with such venomous hatred for another. The tabby cat padded away, resuming her evening stroll.
A/N: There we go. James is going through some tough introspection, Sirius is adorable but tensions are rising in the wizarding world. As always, please review, it's super encouraging to know your thoughts on the story and the characters and inspires me to keep writing. Also, please favourite or follow if you want to keep up with this. Thanks! :)