A/N: Hello again everyone. I apologise that it's been so long between updates but I just hadn't been feeling very inspired lately. However, this is a nice big chapter so I hope you enjoy.
Monday 3rd February 1977 "Remus." James said in a low voice. He was sat on a chair by his friend's bed, he'd just finished a rushed breakfast and had received a quick check over from an unhappy Madam Pomfrey who had complained loudly about him not coming in the previous night.
Remus stirred, turning to James and propping himself up gingerly.
"James." He said in a croaky voice, before coughing. James frowned and passed him the glass of water that sat on his bedside table. Remus nodded gratefully, draining the glass.
"What happened last night?" He asked in a lowered voice. James sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Did we- did we fight? I've got some weird injuries this time and I'm trying to make sense of it… I don't remember Padfoot or Wormtail coming down either, but there was someone there."
"Something happened, Remus." James said quietly. "Something bad." The already pale teen paled even further.
"Oh god." His voice was hoarse. "I bit someone? Oh god. Oh shit. Fuck." James, alarmed by his panic, motioned with his hands to calm down.
"No. No. Sorry. You didn't, don't worry but-" James swallowed, running a hand through his hair, he just needed to get it out and say it. Remus was looking at him with wide, terrified eyes. His scars standing out against the pallor of his skin. "Sirius told Snape how to get past the willow." James clenched his eyes shut. "He saw you-" Remus gasped, his breath beginning to speed up. "-You didn't do anything to him, I got there in time to stop that but Prongs had to fight you. I sorted it with Dumbledore and Snape won't be saying anything." James opened his eyes, his friend was aghast, he didn't know what to feel. James squeezed his arm resting on the sheets in an attempt to comfort him. "And Lily saw me come in with Snape. She knows about Prongs and Moony. But she doesn't care, she'd guessed it years ago apparently." In the midst of the maelstrom of emotions James felt a burst of fondness for the compassionate redhead. "But you're ok Remus, you don't need to worry about any repercussions or anything."
Remus gaped for a few moments, he wasn't sure what to feel. "Your face, Prongs?" He asked. "That was me?"
James cringed. "Yeah… we fought, I've got a few scrapes and bruises. But it was Prongs so you don't need to worry about any other effects. Lily er- she fixed me up." James fought down a blush and another burst of affection for her, he'd been basically half naked and crying his eyes out last she saw him.
Remus' face morphed to an expression heartbroken sadness. "Sirius… Sirius told Snape about me?"
James ran a hand through his hair again. "As good as… he didn't explicitly tell him about you but he did tell him how to get past the willow."
The werewolf's eyes still with some dregs of amber from last nights transformation shone with unshed tears. "But why?" He choked out.
James' voice cracked too. "I don't know mate… I just don't know what he was thinking. I punched him in the face and have told him to stay away from me. It was inexcusable." Anger and sadness warred for domination on Remus' face and he looked pensively into his bedsheet, James' tired eyes watching him anxiously. "I'm with you Remus, however angry or sad you feel… I've got you." James squeezed the shoulder of his friend gently, he received a conflicted smile in return.
Wednesday 5th February 1977 Lily stood with her hands in the pocket of her hoody, leaning against one of the leather sofas in the Prefect's office- a medium sized room on the second floor. There was a fireplace, bookshelves, a notice board, various comfy chairs and sofas and two long tables where Prefects could sit and do homework. It was 11 at night and she was on the schedule to patrol with Remus, he had seemed as if he had wanted to talk to her several times but he was yet to do so and Lily had decided that tonight she was just going to talk about the elephant (or more appropriately- the werewolf) in the room. Remus came in and offered her a timid smile.
"Hiya Remus, are you ready?" Remus swallowed and nodded at her. They walked out into the corridor to make their way to the fourth floor where they would begin their patrol. The Heads typically gave Gryffindor or Ravenclaw Prefects patrols of the fourth to seventh floors and of the towers whilst Hufflepuff and Slytherin prefects would patrol from the dungeons up to the third floor. They walked in silence for a few minutes, Lily giving Remus a chance to speak. He wasn't forthcoming so Lily just went for it.
"So, I'm guessing James told you that I know about your furry little problem?" Remus started and whipped his head towards her, as if he was afraid she would attack him or run away screaming.
"Oh, for Merlin's sake Remus." Lily said holding back her anger as she crossed her arms, stopping in the corridor and staring defiantly up at him. "I'm not afraid of you, I don't hate you and I don't think you're a monster." He opened his mouth to reply before realising she had just addressed all of the things he was about to say. "I've known for years and not once did it affect our friendship nor my regard for you."
Remus seemed to deflate a little. Whenever the marauders had first confronted him about his condition, he'd thought their acceptance of him had been too good to be true- he had hardly believed them. Lily's tolerance of him seemed to be one he could accept slightly easier, after that barrier had been initially broken by the Marauders.
"Are you sure?" He asked Lily in a small voice. "You don't need to lie to me." Lily huffed before stepping forward and wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. Due to their height difference she rested her head on his chest, her ear over his heart.
"Remus you bloody idiot, you're one of my best friends. I don't care if you turn into a wolf with some issues every month, I love you and this doesn't change that."
Remus' breath hitched as he finally wrapped his own arms around her to return her hug. "You don't know how much that means to me, Lily."
"Just don't start thinking you're not worthy of my friendship because that's bullshit. You are a person and a good man and you're worth something, Remus."
A sob choked its way out of Remus' throat as they hugged in the corridor. Remus would have never thought that someone as admirable as Lily Evans would ever accept him, but she did. The warmth Remus felt for her emanated from where they embraced and spread all throughout his weary, scarred body and he felt his heart swell with contentment.
"Thank you." Lily said nothing in reply, she just squeezed him tighter before eventually letting him go. She looked up at him, tears tracked their way down his cheeks from his green eyes and he ruefully chuckled as he swiped at his nose. Lily's own eyes were bright.
"Right, I'm glad we got that out of the way." Lily said, clearing her throat, Remus laughed. Lily linked their arms. "Now let's go on this patrol and chat about normal things like the pair of great friends that we are. Give me a conversation topic."
Remus thought for a second as they resumed their patrol before smirking at her. "Ok, so how about this- if a fish is underwater do you consider it wet? Or is it only considered wet once it's out of the water and on dry land?"
Saturday 8th February 1977 Marlene McKinnon watched curiously as James and Remus walked into the Gryffindor Common Room and sat down- on the opposite side of the room to Sirius Black. Sirius Black raised tired eyes to look at his friends with a tortured expression before shaking his head and returning his gaze to the parchment he was writing on. James and Remus didn't look at Sirius. James twitched as he felt Sirius' gaze and he ran a hand through his hair, Remus on the other hand settled for glaring at the wall, his expression tight. The fourth marauder- Peter Pettigrew- was nowhere to be found. It had been a very strange week in Hogwarts. Something had happened between the marauders- the iconic quartet- where before, classes had been filled with lighthearted banter between the marauders; their classmates and the staff, now the boys sat quiet and sullen. Remus Lupin and Sirius Black seemed to be refusing to spend any time together; Peter Pettigrew flitted between Sirius and Godric knows where, whilst an increasingly stressed James Potter stuck to Remus' side stoically. James had been running himself ragged dodging questions, completing homework and attempting to train up a replacement beater to replace Sirius who had seemingly been banned. Finding a new beater was a problem considering Dorcas and Sirius had been playing together for the last three years- the reserve who seemed likely to replace Sirius was a short and stocky fourth year called Simon Baggley, who was 5"5 with an extra six inches of attitude, and whilst he was talented in his own right, getting his talent to mesh with Dorcas' was proving a challenge. James, as captain, had been running extra practices for them during lunches, although on the bright side- it had given a still-grieving Dorcas something to focus on and seemed to be slowly pulling her out of the depression she had been dealing with since her father's death.
Lily sank into the seat next to Marlene, textbook in hand.
"Watcha thinking 'bout?" She asked her blonde friend.
Marlene moved her thoughtful gaze from the marauders to Lily. "I'm trying to figure out what's up with the boys." Marlene replied simply.
Lily deflated slightly, her own gaze fixing on the aforementioned teens, lingering a second longer on a certain bespectacled someone. "…Yeah, it doesn't quite feel right around here, with them in a fight, does it?"
Marlene acquiesced, they had met for their usual Friday night defence training with the notable absence of Peter and Sirius. At the questioning of Remus and James, Remus remained impassive and silent with James uncomfortably explaining they'd fallen out and not to expect either Sirius or Peter any time soon, complete with a plea for them to leave the Marauders to it. It had been strange without their full group. Marlene's thoughts were interrupted as Alice and Dorcas sat down also. They chatted for a few moments on the Hogwarts-wide speculation on what had caused this historical falling out, the whole school had noticed, the castle had been much quieter lately. The most popular rumour- and surprising, for the Hogwarts rumour mill, on its accuracy- was a prank gone wrong between the friends. Although one young Slytherin insisted that Sirius Black had had an affair with James' mother and Remus was upset because he had previously had his eye on her.
Lily began reading ahead in her arithmancy text book for her next class, but watched curiously as Sirius seemed to resolve himself and move over to James and Remus. He said something in a lowered voice, James looked away, running a hand through his wilder than normal hair, a flash of emotion across his face; Remus didn't even look at Sirius but spat out something, presumably insulting if Sirius' hurt expression was anything to go by. Sirius turned away and walked out of the Common Room to the whispers of other students. Lily chewed her lip in thought, her sympathy for Sirius won out and she soon followed behind him. She understood their fight and whilst she was on James' side- with anger and disapproval towards Sirius- she felt bad for him because he was so obviously hurting right now. As an 'impartial' bystander she could at least give him someone to talk to. Lily discretely followed him as he briskly walked down the corridor, he seemed to be making his way to the east tower and she paused a moment at the foot of the stair case of the tower, she hoped he wasn't going to meet with a girl. Sirius was well known in Gryffindor for 'playing the field' as it were, she followed him up the stairs. There were a few classrooms branching off the tower, Lily peeked inside them but saw no sign of Sirius. Eventually the stairs emerged at the top of the tower to the wide walkway that wrapped around it, it was windy and cold and Lily cast a quick warming charm on herself, crossing her arms to keep warm. She came across Sirius on the other side of the tower, he rested his elbows on the wall as he lazily smoked a muggle cigarette, looking out across the grounds sullenly.
"Sirius?" Lily asked, raising her voice slightly to be heard over the wind.
He jumped slightly and turned to her. "Alright, Evans?" He asked listlessly, turning back.
Lily stood next to him, leaning her shoulder on the wall. "That's a filthy habit, you know. Cigarettes can kill you."
"I'm counting on it." He said flatly.
Lily was brought up short at that and it took a moment before she gathered herself enough to reply and she decided to get straight to the point. "I know what happened." She said simply, joining him in looking out at the grounds over the wall that came up to her chest.
Sirius gave herself a careful look as he took another drag. "Are you sure about that?"
With a flick of her wand Lily cast the privacy charm she had seen Severus use. Sirius raised an aristocratic eyebrow at her paranoia. "I saw James turn into a stag as he raced to the willow and saw him carrying Severus back up. And I've known about Remus' condition for years." Lily said finally. "I was in the greenhouses collecting ingredients for some potions that night."
"So you know I fucked everything up because I'm a pathetic piece of shit, then."
Lily looked at him resolutely. "Severus didn't deserve that. He can be an asshole and a real douche to you guys… but he could've been killed." Sirius said nothing as he blew a smoke ring. "And Remus sure as hell didn't deserve that, Sirius."
He winced, studying his cigarette. "I know." He said in a low voice.
"Why did you do it then?" He sighed, shaking his head.
"I was pissed and I wasn't thinking. I didn't think Snivellus would do it, which was stupid of me because of course he would." He stubbed out his spent cigarette on the wall, flicking the butt over the edge before turning to Lily and leaning against the wall, mimicking her earlier pose. "Why're you here Evans?"
Lily shrugged, matching his stance. "You're miserable, Sirius." She said bluntly. "And I'm here if you wanna talk."
Sirius looked at her intently, grey eyes meeting green. "Why, though? I ruined everything."
"You really messed up." Lily acquiesced. "But I think you know that. And I think that in time, you guys will sort everything out."
He scoffed and shook his head sadly. "I'm not so sure."
Lily shrugged and they stood in companionable silence for a time. Lily eventually lured him into a conversation about music and as much as Sirius tried to deny it he was immensely grateful for Lily treating him like normal and he managed to forget, just for a short while, about how crap things were and he gladly chatted before they returned back to the Common Room.
Friday 14th February 1977 It had been a remarkably quiet valentines day, there were no customary pranks from the marauders and the staff looked torn between relief that this was the case, dread it was all a ruse for a huge prank and concern over the pall that had fallen on the ever jolly marauders. Frank had been very sweet, gifting Alice with a bouquet of red and white chrysanthemums, they had spent most of the day together whilst Lily and Dorcas spent the day trying to distract Marlene from thoughts of her ex, who had been coming up as a regular topic of conversation in the few days leading up to Valentines.
Lily had finished dinner and was sat in the common room killing time before they met for their defence training, she had been quietly watching as the marauders imploded. Remus had maintained a righteous anger at the betrayal of Sirius and Peter and James had stayed by his side. Peter had seemed to be distancing himself from Sirius and was hardly seen around Gryffindor Tower anymore. Sirius had stopped trying to force his company onto Remus and James and had instead been spending time with an increasing number of witches and engaging in various activities to release some of the frustration he felt. James had been looking increasingly ragged and as Lily had made her way back up to the tower after dinner he had passed her in the corridors with his broomstick on his shoulder and a distracted 'hello'. Lily looked out of the window it was a typical February night- windy and rainy and downright miserable. Lily's attention shifted as Dorcas sank into a seat next to her, she smiled in greeting. Dorcas had come a long way since the New Years Disaster. For weeks after her father's funeral she had been morose and unreachable but recently she had been starting to come back to herself and had been pouring herself into her studies, quidditch and their defence training on Friday nights. Dorcas was furious at herself and had vowed that the next time she came across death eaters she would be the one who emerged victorious.
"Hey Lils." The taller girl said in greeting, Lily returned it in kind. "Don't suppose you've done the transfiguration essay? I figured I'd get a start on it before we train tonight."
Lily nodded and they chatted about McGonagall's evil essay setting skills. "Say, Cas." Lily said. "Have you not got Quidditch practice?" Dorcas shook her head. Lily frowned. "I swear I saw James walking out of here with his broomstick."
Dorcas shrugged. "Maybe he's just gone for a fly, he does that a lot when he's stressed." Lily sent her a questioning look. "We bump into each other sometimes, he's not the only one that does that."
Lily frowned and there was a moment of silence before Dorcas spoke again. "Does he talk to you?"
"Huh?" Dorcas shifted to look at Lily more intently, dark eyes meeting green.
"Does James talk to you, like properly talk to you? Like, about real things?"
"I… I guess so?" Lily frowned, she had tried to make a point of talking to each of the marauders since they'd fallen out and had thought she'd been fairly successful with all of them except Peter who she could never seem to pin down. She'd spoken with James several times that week, attempting to bring him out of his newly formed shell.
"Because if he talks to you about things that matter, maybe you should go find him." Dorcas suggested. "He tries to hide it but he basically wears his heart on his sleeve and he's really struggling right now. I've tried to talk to him with Mar during Quidditch and all but I'm not getting anywhere." Dorcas looked insistently at Lily, if anything, her red-headed friend was kind, down to her very core. Dorcas had lost count of the amount of times during her friendship with her that Lily had offered her comfort, support and advice. She was just good. And if James needed anything right now it was some goodness.
Lily chewed her lip as she looked out at the miserable grounds before nodding to herself.
"Ok, I'll see if I can find him, let me just get a coat."
She walked briskly up to her dorm not looking forward to going outside in the horrific weather. James was so going to owe her one. She marvelled somewhat at the fact that James Potter, the obnoxious boy she swore would probably never change, was now a dear friend. He was smart and funny and in the old-fashioned ways of the wizarding world he was a bit of a radical. Discussions during their History of Magic lessons this year had shown her that there was more to him than she had once thought and his views mostly aligned with hers, he'd told her on occasion of his family's work to bring about muggle-born support acts and block anti-werewolf legislation, he was fascinating, and despite herself, they had now grown fairly close. Lily grabbed her yellow raincoat and a wizarding cloak, with a hood for good measure, and swapped her plimsoll pumps for a pair of boots before heading out.
In the entrance hall Lily cast a warming charm on herself along with an impervious charm, finishing her preparations by creating an umbrella of magical force, holding her wand like the handle of an umbrella. This was a nifty spell she had learnt in fourth year from an American exchange student and she put it to good use in rainy Scotland.
Lily walked quickly and as she neared the Quidditch Pitch she could see several floating balls of light hovering in place and a figure on a broomstick darting this way and that. Lily ducked onto the pitch the stands sheltering her from the worst of the rain as she waited for an opportunity to catch his attention. James was clad only in a black t-shirt and his quidditch trousers, Lily guessed he had used a warming charm on himself. His feet in the stirrups of his broom were covered by a ratty pair of high top converse and his hair was soaking and stuck to his forehead, he wasn't wearing his glasses, it must be a contacts day. He dived, rolled and span in a mesmerising display of acrobatics. Lily could fly but she wasn't amazing on a broom herself. She had thrown herself fully into the broom sports of the wizarding world since the day she had found out that the cliche of witches and broomsticks was true in a hilariously unexpected way. She watched as James climbed above his floating lights and hovered, his broom struggling a bit in the wind. He sat and seemed to be catching his breath when all of a sudden he rolled off his broom, into open air, Lily's mouth fell open. With a jerk as he fell he held his broom to his side vertically, as he fell head first and straight as an arrow to the earth. Lily jerked, her eyes widening as he plunged and quickly cancelled her umbrella spell. She was aiming her wand desperately, about to slow his fall, when he manoeuvred his broom back underneath him and levelled out at great speed, his toes inches from the grass of the pitch.
Lily amplified her voice. "James Potter!" James almost slipped off his broom again as he started and turned towards her.
"Lily?" He said in disbelief. He dismounted and squelched towards her. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to find you, you git. What are you doing?"
"Flying?" He swiped his hair out of his eyes.
Lily resumed her umbrella spell and crossed her arms, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. James held back a smirk at the picture she made. Her adorable yellow muggle raincoat was visible underneath a thick cloak while she looked at him askance.
"More like, plunging to your death."
James shrugged. "It's just a thing I do. Let myself free-fall off my broom, it gives a great adrenaline rush. Helps me forget about stuff." Lily belatedly realised he was wearing the tee she got him for Christmas and she let herself relax at his explanation, she couldn't stay mad at him when he so obviously had so much on his mind. He led her over to the stands and ducked inside the struts of the commentators tower, a flick of his wand directed one of his floating balls of lights into the tower, Lily followed him in. It got them out of the rain and the wind and she leant against a wooden column as he reached for a bag he had obviously stashed in there.
"So how come you're down here?"
Lily hesitated for a moment before she settled on just being truthful with him. "Dorcas thought you might be looking for some company." James had retrieved a towel from his bag and was vigorously drying his hair. His expression was soft as he hung the towel around his neck after he finished.
"You don't have to, you know."
"You're a good friend, James. Despite my best efforts." She bestowed a smile on him, which he returned with a small laugh. His exhalation shifted the hair on Lily's cheeks and she very suddenly realised how close they were in the confines of the skeleton of the stands. She shuffled backwards and perched herself in the vertex of the x-shaped strut behind her, with a bit of distance between them she could breathe easier. James cast a drying charm on himself crossing his arms as he leant against a support.
"I've been better…" He said quietly, his voice almost inaudible over the roar of the elements. "I guess I just didn't think it would hurt this much." He shrugged. "Me and Sirius were friends first, out of all of us. We just clicked… he's like my brother." James cast his eyes around as he spoke, he couldn't seem to bring himself to focus on Lily's gaze.
"And I love Remus and Peter, don't get me wrong. I'm thoroughly on Remus' side and it wasn't Peter's idea he was just complicit and I'd try and talk to him if he hadn't made himself so scarce lately, I barely see the bloke." Lily nodded sympathetically. "I just can't decide what to feel about them." James sighed and fell silent for a moment, the only sound the gentle rumble of the rain on the stands; the wind whistling through the canvas covering the stands and the pitter-patter of lone raindrops making their way inside the struts.
"One second I'm furious at them for doing this to Remus, the next I'm on the verge of forgiving everything and just trying to get back to normal… It seems like the only things I'm capable of feeling right now are love and rage." Lily looked at him in silence as she absorbed the depth of his sentiment.
He scoffed and shook his head slightly. "Ignore me, that got way deeper than I thought it would."
"This too shall pass." Lily said quietly, she nudged his leg gently with a foot. "You're gonna be ok." James finally met her eyes, it might have been a trick of the light but they seemed bright and his small smile was full of emotion.
"Thanks, Lils." His voice was deep and sincere in the confined space and she smiled back as a small shiver made its way down her spine. James reached in his bag for a jumper and a cloak. As much as he wanted to stay in the small safe space they'd found underneath the Quidditch stands, they did have a defence training session they should get to.
"Talk to me about something, Lily?" James said as he weather-proofed himself and held aside the canvas for Lily to precede him out.
"Like what?"
"Anything. Anything at all."
James dismissed his lights and shouldered his broomstick as they walked back up to the castle in the dark. And Lily talked, she told him about her latest letter from her mum describing the adventures she was having with a close family friend who was redoing a house. Her mother's friend had brought a fixer-upper back in October and Rose Evans had been drafted in to help. James made a surprisingly attentive audience as Lily described the benefits of investing in housing in the muggle world.
"So people just buy these dilapidated houses on the cheap, 'do them up' and sell them on for a profit?" He asked.
Lily nodded. "Or rent them out for a steady income. Although that takes a bit more responsibility. A lot of the time now though you can get estate agents who'll manage the property for a cut of the rent."
"Estate agents?" And so it went, they chatted amiably away as they made their way to the Room. James explained how he had to make a business proposal for his dad this year and after hearing Lily's descriptions and explanations he had just added the muggle property business to his potential ideas.
Soon enough they entered the room, Remus, Frank and the girls were already there and James and Lily discarded their soggy outer garments on a handy coat rack that appeared to the left of the doorway.
"We need to come up with a name for this thing." Marlene had said as they customarily got their greetings and chat out of their systems before they began. "We've been doing this for months and I've no idea what to call it." There was a ripple of agreement.
Frank laughed. "Sirius said we should call it the Life Drinkers to oppose the Death Eaters." There was a collective wince at the mention of Sirius and Frank paled as he began stuttering apologies, unable to meet Remus or James' eyes.
James waved his stutters off. "We do need a name, that's for sure."
They thought for a few moments a few suggestions rejected by the majority as people thought them up.
"We should be like 'The Order of something'" Lily suggested. "Like the Queen's Order of the Garter." Remus explained what that was to the mystified magic folk.
Alice nodded. "Yeah, I like that. It's nice symbolism as well when we look at the chaos of Voldemort. It's like we're his opposite, well, opposite to his views anyway, I'm not going to pretend any of us would stand a chance against him if we met him in a duel." There were more ripples of agreement as the teens decided they would be called 'The Order-' of something, what they were the order of was up for debate. Not long later they cracked on with their training. Over the Christmas holidays James had managed to obtain an old auror training manual from his mum. It was her personal copy from her training days, filled with her own annotations and notes. After they had finished working through all the spells they had found on their own they began tackling some of the easier content, many of the spells were very advanced and although James had been studying the manual on his own and conferring with his mum he wasn't yet confident in his strength or ability to try and learn the advanced things NEWT graduates would be learning, they were only sixth years after all.
Today they were focusing on stealth and using their environments to their benefit during a fight, towards the end of the session they had one final task where they attempted to put to use what they'd been learning. They had drawn names out of a hat to form three teams: James was partnering with Lily; Alice with Dorcas; and Remus, Frank and Marlene made up the group of three. The room would simulate an environment- in today's case it was an industrial looking scene with pieces of wood and metal; struts, pipes, ladders and walkways littering the room. They weren't to use any offensive spells on each other, instead using a fun spell Marlene had dug up from somewhere that launched the equivalent of a muggle paintball, each team had a specific colour and they were allowed to use any spell they wanted to manipulate their team or their environment for them to sneak up on each other. Two teams would go against each other with the winner staying on; the two groups of two had a handicap of a one minute head start on the group of three; the number of hits from the paintballs would be counted up at the end of the fight and each 'battle' would last for 12 minutes. First up was the group of three against Alice and Dorcas, and Lily and James made their way to a tall walkway which overlooked the whole battle field where they diligently discussed tactics.
"I'm thinking disillusionment charms." James began in a muted tone of voice. Lily considered this, she had only mastered the charm 20 minutes ago.
"We'd lose track of each other though." She objected. "What about a smokescreen?"
"That could work, we'd want to get on to some of the walkways to get an advantage of higher ground."
"That just as easily makes you more visible to the opposition. Sneaking around on ground level might be better."
Their conversation continued in this vain for a few more moments before it petered out as the competition below them began.
"I'll try and watch Remus' group you try and watch Alice's?"
Lily nodded. "Deal."
Their spot on the walkway didn't offer as good a vantage point as originally thought. Members of each group frequently disappeared into the maze that the room had made and it was difficult to keep track of them but James and Lily supposed that probably was a good thing as they didn't get as big an advantage by going second and watching the other groups.
Dorcas and Alice were surprisingly aggressive and kept up a steady stream of paintballs on where they thought their opponents were, the group of three seemed to split up and Marlene soon disappeared from view. Remus conjured a fog bank whilst Frank began collapsing pieces of the environment seemingly at random, it was a few moments before it became apparent to James and Lily, watching from above, that Frank was attempting to trap Alice and Dorcas. There was a shout of surprise from Alice as a paintball smacked her right on the arse, the laugh of the attacker revealed that Marlene had come up on Dorcas and Alice from behind, successfully getting off a few shots. Both Alice and Dorcas whipped around and began a barrage of paintballs, a squawk of dismay and several paint splodges floating in midair showed Marlene hightailing it away, back to the safety of her group. While Alice and Dorcas had been distracted by Marlene, Frank had clambered atop a walkway and whilst lying down was sniping their position. Alice swiftly constructed a makeshift roof from several nearby structures and Dorcas, with deadly accuracy landed a hit on Frank's forehead, he yelped in pain. James and Lily let out a round of applause at Dorcas' aim, thoroughly enjoying the entertainment.
"Here's an idea Lily." He said to her as she whooped and hollered. "I've been working on animating spells lately." Lily frowned at him. "You know, like transfiguring a dog or something and ordering it to attack someone for you." She nodded. "We could maybe send out a few constructs to defend us? It's pretty tiring though so you'd have to take charge of the offence while I maintain the spell, I've only been practicing a few weeks."
Lily deliberated this as she carried on watching the display, she finally nodded. "That would be useful, especially against Marlene's team seeing as they outnumber us, but if it's really draining I would save it for our second battle, maybe?"
The fight below them raged on with James and Lily proving to be an attentive audience cheering at appropriate moments like when Alice spilled Marlene off a walkway by collapsing it or when Remus' fog bank finally dissipated to reveal him, Frank and Marlene behind cover, strafing Alice and Dorcas' positions mercilessly. Once the buzzer sounded James and Lily descended and began to assess the damage, with James going to count the hits on Alice and Dorcas and Lily to the opposite team. Alice's team were peppered with blue paint whilst Marlene's team were a lovely salmon colour.
"I'm gonna have a whopping great bruise on my ass!" Exclaimed an irate Alice. "Thanks Marlene."
"At least you didn't get pelted right in the centre of your forehead!" Frank shot back. "How am I meant to explain that."
"Congrats Remus." Lily said genially, grinning at their banter. "You got hit the least out of your team."
"Alright Lils, what's your total?"
Lily turned from Remus' smirk to a grinning James. Glad that he seemed to be genuinely having fun at least. "I've got 22 hits in total. Remus only got hit twice."
James let out a hearty laugh as he turned to Frank and Marlene. "So you two both got hit like ten times each?" The accused grumbled good-naturedly.
"Alice and Dorcas have got 26 hits between them, their accuracy was better than the Blue Team though, and considering they were out-manned I think they did a damn good job."
Lily had procured some refreshments and there was a five minute water break which Lily and James spent discussing tactics in hushed whispers accompanied by an occasional laugh. Their one minute handicap began and they ran in, James leading the way with Lily close behind. James turned this way and that before he found a good spot they had a wall behind them and a raised walkway a short distance away, there was another wall flanking one side and a half wall on the other side. Walls of various heights led away from them and they crouched down next to each other waiting in anticipation. The buzzer sounded again and Lily immediately conjured a thick fog bank, with this specific spell, once casted you didn't have to hold it- you could cast other spells whilst it simultaneously used your magic to power it in the background, it naturally dissipated or could be cancelled by the caster. It provdied relatively long-term cover with the drawback of weakening your other spells as it used your magic.
With the fog securely in place Lily then cast a Protego physica over both of them, the bronze tinted shield enveloped them in a dome and would effectively stop the paintball spells from contacting them, however it did mean James would have to dart outside the spell's protections if he wanted to get a shot off. With the shield in place they then clambered on top of the half wall and from there, perched on top of a full height wall. This allowed them to see into the fog bank from above but still be partially hidden by it. They walked carefully along the top of the walls, neither wanting to fall off. It worked well at first with James able to get hits on both Remus and Marlene however when Frank dissipated their fog bank with a Ventus they quickly became sitting ducks they were pelted on both sides by paintballs. The projectiles making a sharp thud as they hit Lily's shield, with James not wanting to leave the shield's protection to return fire. A reducto fired from Remus hit the wall in front of Lily and she stumbled back into James as she tried to avoid the crumbling wall. The pair wobbled and her shield flickered and went out with a few paintballs making contact with them before James wrapped an arm around her waist and turned their floundering into a semi-controlled jump to the floor, muttering a hasty 'bend your knees' before they landed. Lily's feet tingled at the impact but she wasn't injured and they retreated from the spellfire.
"We should go offensive I reckon." James said to his partner as they crouched behind a wall.
"They do say that's the best defence." Lily agreed.
"How about if I disillusion myself and follow you from on top of the walls?"
Seconds later a disillusioned James clambered on top of a nearby wall, relying on his natural balance to see him through. A harsh whisper to Lily let her know that he was in position and she set off. James soon spotted Frank who was on a walkway and send a barrage of sunshine yellow paintballs towards him. He didn't wait around to see if they hit, jumping instead to the wall that made up the other side of the alley Lily was running through before Frank could return fire on his position. They stumbled upon Marlene by chance around a corner and James transfigured the floor beneath her to turn to ice, she slipped over and Lily pelted her with a few shots before running on. James grinned in appreciation at her fast and furious strategy and followed her as fast as he dared, clambering over struts and occasionally moving to different walls. Lily frequently attempted to circle back around after she pelted the opposite team to try and catch them off guard for the second time. Her ruse only worked for a limited amount of time and on one such pass, Frank blasted a nearby wall to distract her. Frank was, however, unaware that the wall was the current wall that a certain James Potter was stood upon and he took a painful fall as it crumbled beneath him, inadvertently taking a paintball intended for Lily in the small of his back as he fell. Frank was surprised to see his projectile impact a disillusioned James but recovered quickly. James cancelled his invisibility and collapsed the opposite wall to block Frank before Lily and him legged it away. They settled on a much more spontaneous tactic after that, simply running around, taking turns in providing cover or doing the shooting with the occasional bright idea making an appearance such as Lily firing gouts of their yellow paint in random places to catch out anyone sneaking up on or running into them. Marlene found this out the hard way, her top half now resembled a stick of butter. Eventually the buzzer sounded again and a sweaty and exhilarated James and Lily emerged from the battle field and Alice came over to count how many times they'd been hit. Dorcas announced that the blue team had been hit 18 times.
"I counted Marlene's new paint job as 5 hits, I didn't really know how much it was worth." Marlene mock glared at Lily who returned with a grin and a cheeky wink that almost made James' knees buckle.
"Wow." Alice breathed. "That means James and Lily win, I only count 13 hits between them."
"Alright!" James crowed, giving Lily an enthusiastic double high five.
"We make a good team! Nice work Bambi." Lily grinned and added the second on in a lowered tone of voice, making James shake his head in fond exasperation. Remus had raised his eyebrows and gave James a pointed look. His wolfy hearing must have heard and James gestured at him that he'd fill him in later.
After another water break, team yellow and team salmon pink went back in for the final showdown and after another exciting battle with James debuting his animated wooden stags made out of rubble around them- he used them to attempt to corner Alice and Dorcas and him and Lily got a few shots off before Dorcas blew the legs off the defenceless deer and they rolled back to James throughly covered in salmon paint. James and Lily emerged as the narrow victors over Dorcas and Alice with eight splodges of yellow against seven splodges of salmon pink.
"Victory is ours!" James pumped his fist, laughing, Lily pulled him in for a side hug. Her laughter quickly turned to an exclamation of surprise as James tightened his arm on her waist and lifting her off her feet spun her around, crushed into his side.
"That was actually so tiring." James announced, sinking to the ground and lying down, his neck and the side of his face were splattered in pink paint. There was a murmur of agreement from the group as they all assumed similar positions and began discussing what they thought of each other's tactics. James laughed along with the group but his smile faded slightly as he began to wonder what tactics Sirius and Peter would have used. Peter probably would have thought of something suitably sneaky whilst James was sure Sirius would have been typically gung-ho. He shook his head. Bloody hell it's not even been two weeks since we've fallen out but it feels like months. They eventually stood up and began to make their way back to the tower. James drifted towards the back of the group with Remus and explained to him in a quiet voice with a slight blush about Lily's new nickname for him. He laughed loudly, and it was good to hear, it was a good, genuine laugh. James punched him in the arm when Remus confirmed that Bambi was indeed a cute animated deer and Remus thought it suited James perfectly.
A/N: So, what do you think? I'd almost forgotten to write Lily and Remus confronting the werewolf in the room which is crazy because I think it's a really important interaction. Do you think Lily reacted how you thought she would? We also had a moment between Sirius and Lily.
What did you think of their Order meeting? I wasn't happiest with some bits but you guys deserved an update. And they've finally named their defence group. I've decided that these guys came up with it and Dumbledore jumps on the bandwagon rather than the other way around because it seems like a lot of the Order were really young and I wonder why that is if it was Dumbledore's idea…
As always please follow or favourite and drop a review if you enjoyed. Thanks for reading :)