A Rosier by Any Other Name (Part 1)

It was a mid-November morning when Petunia's letter arrived.

Lily was eating toast, listening to Frank explain the elaborate date he planned to take Alice on, the kind-hearted Gryffindor having accepted his offer to go out. The letter landed in front of her plate and Lily reached for it, expecting another request from a student asking for help. But she caught herself from callously ripping the envelope open, immediately catching sight of her sister's familiar handwriting.

"Lily, are you listening to me?"

"Err," she said, looking up at Frank. He gave her a bemused look, pointing his toast to the letter.

"Who's it from?"

"My sister," she answered distractedly, tracing the lines of Petunia's cursive.

"Are you going to open it?" Frank asked. Lily hesitated. Petunia and her relationship was perhaps at its lowest, her older sister not even offering to help Lily get to King's Cross that past September. She finally ripped it open, scanning the contents.

"She's engaged," Lily said, frowning at her sister's uncharacteristically kind words.

"That's great!" Frank said, raising his pumpkin juice in the air as a toast. But Lily was silent, finishing the letter. "Is it?"

"Her boy- fiancè and I don't get along," Lily revealed. That was an understatement. Vernon had gone ballistic when he'd discover Lily did not in fact go to a school for troubled girls up north, but rather a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Lily fondly recalled the purple shade his face turned when he saw her receiving letters via owls last summer.

Lily walked towards class with Frank, the latter spotting Alice and waving to her.

"Do you think she'll like Madame Puddifoot's?"

"Oh she'll love it," Lily snorted, knowing that the romantic coffee shop would be just up Alice Prewitt's alley. A year ago it had been up hers, she and Remus had stuffed themselves into the too-small tables, knees knocking into each other, on Hogsmeade dates. She'd found it terribly romantic. Now Lily avoided Madame Puddifoot's like the plague.

As they entered the Transfiguration classroom, Lily paused at the sight of James standing by Professor McGonagall at the chalkboard, the older woman scribing out a complex diagram. Lily stared at them, wondering how James Potter had managed to befriend the stern older woman.

"He does extra review with her," Frank said in a low voice, reaching into his bag for a quill. "Black and Pettigrew were talking about it one night. Apparently Potter's something of a Transfiguration whiz."

"Go figure," Lily replied, recalling how the subject that vexed her to no end came to James with ease. Following an hour lecture on advanced human transfiguration theory, Lily followed her classmates from the room.

"Lily."

She looked to her left and saw that Eliza Rosier was standing by the door to the classroom, clutching her books to her chest.

"Rosier," she greeted, pausing at the greeting. Lily hadn't ever been acknowledged by the beautiful seventh year before, Eliza keeping company with Kate Fawley and Rose MacMillan, two of the other seventh year Ravenclaws.

"Can we have a word?" Eliza asked. Lily raised a brow at her, seeing her worried expression. "It's rather urgent."

"Mind if Frank joins?" Lily asked, glancing to her side at her companion. Eliza led them down the hall and Lily felt people watching them. It wasn't every day that one of the most popular girls at Hogwarts was seen in her company.

Eliza led them into a classroom and wrung her hands together.

"I'm being blackmailed," she revealed. Lily crossed her arms as Eliza pulled a stack of envelopes from her bag, tossing them on the table in front of Lily. Lily reached for one, frowning as a vial slipped out.

"What is this?" she asked, holding the vial to the light.

"That one's a pregnancy test potion," Eliza replied. "But they've started sending other things."

"Why would someone send a pregnancy test potion to you?" Frank asked. Eliza looked at them self-consciously as her cheeks turned red.

"Because I'm pregnant."

Lily looked at the startlingly thin seventh year with a frown and Eliza sighed, waving her wand at her abdomen. Lily watched as a small bump appeared.

"Disillusionment charm," she explained. "The only people who know are Kate and Rose."

"So someone's been blackmailing you over knowing you're pregnant," Lily assessed. Eliza hesitated.

"Started that way," she explained, reaching into her bag and pulling out another vial. "Then I got an abortion potion in the mail this morning with the instructions to take it before the end of the month or they'd tell the entire school I'm pregnant."

"Merlin," Frank said. "Why would someone do this?"

Eliza looked at them helplessly and Lily regarded her carefully, recalling that she'd seen Snape making a large cauldron of abortion potion weeks before.

"I'm desperate," Eliza continued. "My family can't know— they'd disown me. I need you to figure out who's blackmailing me."

Lily nodded.

"Are you sure Kate and Rose haven't told anyone?"

"Of course," Eliza insisted, nodding her head. "Neither would— they're loyal to the bone."

Lily looked at Frank and quirked her lips.

"We can help," she said. "Does the father know? Or would anyone else know about this in any way?"

"Why?" Eliza asked testily.

"Sometimes pureblood men don't like having bastards running around," Lily said darkly, recalling a case she'd worked on that past summer for another one of their classmates.

"He's not like that," Eliza replied. "Madame Pomfrey knows… She's the one who gave me the test and has been giving me nutrition potions."

"Nutrition potions?" Lily repeated, raising a brow.

"They're good for the baby's health," Eliza explained, before wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Taste vile though."

Lily paused at that, looking at Eliza with new consideration.

"I'll need to keep some of the letters and potions," Lily said. "Run some tests on the handwriting and samples to see if we can figure out who's doing this."

"Thank you," Eliza said, glancing at the door. "This means a lot, Lily."

The next morning, Lily opened the notebook she'd copied Snape's orders into. She ran her finger down the logs, scrawling down the names of those who'd ordered abortion potions or pregnancy potions in the past month.

"Got anything?" Frank asked, munching on an apple next to her.

"Emma Vanity, Mary MacDonald and-"

Lily's finger paused at the following name next to a pregnancy test potion.

"Who?"

"Remus," she said. "Remus Lupin."

She could feel Frank's gaze on her but her eyes remained rooted to her ex's name. A giggle escaped her lip, Lily never imagining in any situation that this is how she'd learn that Remus Lupin was no longer a virgin. For the duration of their relationship, she'd thought that they'd lose their virginities to each other. But now, she could see that he'd entirely moved on.

"You good?"

"Brill," Lily replied, seeing one final name on the list. "And hmm that's strange."

"What?"

"Elliott Stone ordered one as well," she explained. "An abortion potion."

"Who's that?"

"I've never heard of this student," Lily replied with a frown. "Might need to ask Pandora for some records…. But we've got three other leads to question in the meantime."

"I'll be home tomorrow," Frank said suddenly.

"You go home an awful lot," Lily replied. Frank's ear tips turned red as he sputtered for a response. "Relax Frank it's not an interrogation, just an observation."

The following day, Lily strode into Defense, taking her seat in the front row without Frank.

"Today we'll be doing things a bit differently," Professor Tonks announced, walking into the room with a wizard next to her. Lily's eyes caught on the badge he was wearing with a gilded A on it. "This is Auror Shacklebolt, a former colleague of mine, and he will be leading today's lesson on the imperius curse."

The classroom broke into conversation at the sight of the auror. Lily recognized him from issues of the prophet from the past summer. Kingsley Shacklebolt was considered a wizarding hero, having stopped a Quidditch stadium from exploding during a match in the World Cup. It was ruled to be some type of attack, with many blaming the rise in purists.

She idly watched as he led the class through a discussion on the theory of the curse, Lily's attention more on the letters Eliza had given to her as she parsed the threats written in them.

"Now we've been given special permission from the ministry to do a few demonstrations of the curse," Professor Tonks announced. "Each of you will take a turn experiencing the curse. Now I don't expect any of you to be able to throw it off but to make things interesting, whoever can last the longest fighting it will be excused from the 12-inch scroll I'm assigning for homework."

There was something that piqued Lily's interest. Between their impending midterm exams and Eliza's case, she could benefit from skipping an assignment. Lily joined the line of students at the front, watching as her classmates were unable to throw off the spell.

"Mr. Black," Professor Tonks said. Lily turned to see Sirius still lounging in his seat. "Join us at the front. You can excuse yourself from undergoing the curse but at least watch to learn how it works."

"I'm fine up here," Sirius answered. Lily looked at him and noticed that Sirius's skin was paler than usual, his eyes darting to the front of the room. He locked eyes with her for a moment and Lily was taken back to a conversation they'd had last winter.

"Excited for the hols Black?"

Sirius snorted. They'd been at one of the Marauders' parties in the room of requirement, the pair sitting together as their friends danced and snogged around them. Lily caught sight of James and Mary MacDonald dry humping on the dance floor, looking away to Sirius's gaze.

"That's the only place we get on Lovely," he replied, taking a swig from the bottle of firewhiskey between them. "Both of us are the only of this lot who dread going home."

Lily raised a brow.

"What makes you say that?"

"My father imperioed me when I came home first year for Christmas," he said darkly. "Made me hold my hand over the fire. All because he was peeved his heir was sorted into Gryffindor."

Lily inhaled sharply and Sirius caught her eye.

"You never get letters from home," he noted. "Mars and Prongs get them all the bloody time. Wormtail gets cookie tins from his mum and bloody Moony gets baskets of Mrs. Lupin's goods."

Lily's lips twitched at the memory of Remus's mother's monthly baskets, stuffed with enough chocolate to keep her boyfriend's pockets filled all the time.

"My parents never caught onto owl mail," Lily replied in defense of her parents.

"Here I was thinking we were kindred spirits," he said in a low voice. "Never caught onto picking you up from King's Cross either?"

Lily was silent, the alcohol sharply slipping from her as she flushed.

"More like they never caught onto magic," she admitted. "They're Catholic."

Sirius nodded, extending her the bottle.

"To shite parents," he said.

"Mr. Black."

Sirius broke her gaze, grabbing his bag and striding from the room without another word. Lily watched as Professor Tonks sighed, going to the front. Each of them underwent the spell, Lily unable to resist the wonderful sensation as it poured over her. To her surprise, James lasted through it the longest, making it nearly ten seconds before handing Kingsley his wand.

"Excellent job Mr. Potter," Kingsley said, slapping a hand on his shoulder. "It seems we have a winner."

When class ended, Lily packed up her belongings, sliding them into her bag and lifting it, only for all of her books to fall out. She looked at the bottom, seeing that someone had hexed a massive hole in it.

"Funny," she said dryly, looking up to see Cressida Parkinson twirling her wand at her and Cecily Goyle laughing. "Brilliant job Parkinson."

Cressida sneered at her as she walked by and Lily went to her knees, fixing her bag and picking up the parchments. She heard someone kneel next to her and extend a book to her. Lily looked up to see James next to her, his eyes wary as he held out the book.

"So now you'll acknowledge me," she noted sarcastically. He opened his mouth to say something but she scoffed, looking down.

"Right then," he said, rising. "A pleasure as always Evans."

She heard him walking away and continued shoving her belongings into her bag. Lily lifted it gingerly. She looked up to see Professor Tonks and Auror Shacklebolt talking. Both of them were speaking in low tones but Lily paused, hearing Professor Tonks say Marlene's name right as the older woman caught her eye.

"Yes, Miss Evans?"

"Nothing," Lily said, feeling both looking at her. "I was just leaving."

As she moved to the door something compelled Lily to stop.

"Professor," she said, turning her head and meet her teacher's gaze. "Sirius has been through a lot."

"I'll teach my students as I see fit," she answered, frowning at her. Lily nodded, turning as she left the room.

That weekend, Lily managed to corner Mary in their dormitory. Lily was in the shower when Mary entered the loo, brushing her teeth.

"Mary," she greeted, quickly washing the shampoo from her hair. She and Mary had never been close, despite being roommates for six years. While Lily and Marlene paired off, Dorcas and Alice had as well. Their fifth roommate spent most of her time with Lucinda Babbitt, a seventh year who'd seemingly made it her mission to sleep with as many people in their school before her time was up.

"Evans," Mary returned in a grunting tone. Lily finished washing her hair, turning the shower off, and twisting her towel around her body.

"I was wonder if we could have a word," Lily said, stepping out of the shower. She dried her hair with a flick of her wand and Mary made eye contact with her in the mirror.

"About what?"

"Well I'm late," Lily lied, watching the girl's reflection. "Was wondering if you knew where I could get a test."

Mary's hand went still by her eye as she looked at Lily in the mirror with a snort.

"Typical Lily Evans slut-shaming anyone she can," Mary noted sourly.

"That's not what I meant," Lily sputtered but Mary finished brushing her teeth, turning to glare at her.

"Everybody knows that Snape makes them," Mary snapped. "I bet you saw the bloody pregnancy test I took in the bin and just couldn't resist the urge to jibe me could you?"

"It was just a question," Lily reaffirmed, gawking as Mary sneered at her. "What's your problem with me?"

"Besides the fact that you just insinuated I'm a whore, there's honestly not much to like. At least the rest of the school's caught on to your hypocrisy now with Marlene gone."

Lily's mouth fell open and Mary nodded, clearly proud of herself.

"Fantastic conversation as ever MacDonald," Lily replied, exiting the loo. "Really respectful of the dead!"

She entered their dorm, seeing that Alice was inside, red-faced and staring at her.

"I suppose you heard that," Lily noted, hearing Mary start the shower. Alice nodded and Lily shrugged, changing into her underwear.

"She's just got a complex," Alice offered. Lily exhaled.

"About what?" she asked, pulling her bra on.

"You."
"Why? Mary's one of the most beautiful girls in our year," Lily said with a laugh.

Alice didn't respond and Lily looked over, catching her conflicted look.

"What?" Lily asked, shimmying into a pair of jeans.

"Well it certainly doesn't help when your arse looks like that in jeans," Alice admitted. Lily glanced in the mirror, recalling how Marlene always said she could bounce a knut off of Lily's derriere. "Besides that.. well you know that Mary was with Remus after you two broke up."

How could Lily forget?

Mary had gone through all four of the Marauders during their fifth year, starting with a pretty long fling with James, a brief hookup with Peter then Sirius, and concluding the year with her tongue down Lily's ex's throat for most of the spring.

"Supposedly one of them said your name— I presume it was Remus of course," Alice explained with a cringe. "During…"

Lily's lips quirked up in amusement.

"Ah," she said, pulling her sweater on. "Guess she's entitled to a little resentment then."

Lily watched as Alice looked at her reflection.

"Frank's beyond thrilled," she added. "About the date and all."

Alice's cheeks turned a slight red.

"He is?"

Lily nodded and watched Alice bite back a smile.

"Don't break his heart too much," she warned. Alice laughed, reaching for her cloak and heading out with Lily for the Hogsmeade weekend. Lily could see Remus with Delaney, the pair looking rather cozy, and was immediately thankful that Frank had volunteered to question him.

She watched as Frank appeared, linking arms with Alice and walking towards the carriages.

"Heading to Hogsmeade Lily?"

Lily smiled, meeting Pandora's light blue eyes.

"Need some quills," she replied. "You off too?"

Pandora nodded dreamily, flicking a lock of her fine blonde hair back.

"We could take the carriage down together?" Lily suggested, watching as the girl's eyes widened and a pleased smile stretched onto her face.

"That would be grand," Pandora answered. Lily joined her in a carriage, listening to the girl babble on about some holiday tradition she had with her elder brother.

"I was meaning to ask you," Lily said as they left the carriage for the village. She could make out the thatched roofs of Hogsmeade in the distance. "Have you ever heard of a student named Elliot Stone?"

Pandora frowned, quirking her head.

"No," she said. "That's odd."

"Reckon they might be a first or second year?" Lily pressed. Pandora shook her head.

"Why do you ask?" Pandora explained.

"Someone named Elliot Stone bought a pregnancy potion and an abortion potion off of Snape," she responded. "It's for a new case."

Pandora's frown deepened.

"I'll take a look at the student registry and see if there's any information there," Pandora replied. "Might be a first-year Hufflepuff neither of us has seen."

Lily nodded in agreement, following Pandora into Honeyduke's. She lost the girl in the rows of chocolate as Lily debated on how many chocolate frogs to buy.

"Lily."

Lily looked up to see that her ex was standing in front of her.

"Not surprised to find you here," Lily said, jutting her head towards the rows of chocolate. "Where's Delaney?"

Remus managed to give her a thin-lipped smile.

"By the toffee," he replied, leaning against the wood shelf. "Look I wanted… I wanted to apologize for the way I spoke to you the other night. It was out of line."

Lily regarded him carefully before nodding.

"Apology accepted," she replied, facing the chocolates again.

"Saw you come in with Lovegood," Remus commented, awkwardly shoving his hands into his pockets. "Interesting company."

"Pandora's kind," Lily said in return.

"Last year you laughed when Marlene called her a loon," Remus returned.

"Last year I was a bit of a cad," Lily replied, grabbing a handful of chocolate frogs. "At least I've changed. Can't say the same for you lot."

"So how was the date?" Lily asked Frank the following afternoon after she explained a new idea for catching Eliza's blackmailer, involving a series of tracking charms linked to his and her wands. "Woo her with that Longbottom charm?"

Frank cracked a grin at her, shaking out his wet hair.

"There's no Longbottom charm," he said, cheeks turning pink. "Actually it's the opposite— tripped over a root and fell into a puddle of mud. Took Alice down with me."

Lily looked at him with a sympathetic expression.

"Think it's fair to say that's over," he sighed.

"Chin up buttercup," she replied. "Alice was actually gushing about the date in our dorm last night."

"Really?"

Lily nodded, preparing to divulge all the details she'd overheard from her roommate, only to catch sight of Emma Vanity exiting the library.

"Excuse me for a mo," Lily said, darting up and following the girl out. "Emma!"

Emma turned, her cool expression turning to a slight smile as she nodded at Lily.

"Evans," she greeted. "Heard it was you that figured out what Wood did. Nice one."

"Thanks," Lily said, stopping in front of her. "Look I've got another case and I hate to intrude but I have to ask. You bought a pregnancy test potion from Severus Snape a few weeks back right?"

Emma's eyes flashed and she looked around the hallway before narrowing her gaze on Lily.

"Merlin you really have no chill," she quipped. "Not that it's any of your business, but yes I did."

"Did you lose it or send it to anyone?" Lily pressed.

"Now that would defeat the purpose of buying the damn thing," Emma said dryly. Lily looked at her persistently and the older girl nodded. "No… Amycus and I had a slip-up and I wanted to be safe."

Lily nodded letting out a sigh.

"I'm sorry for asking," she replied.

"Are you though?" Emma returned. "Heard you're making quite a few quid from this little side business gathering everybody's secrets. What's stopping you from spilling them?"

"Trust me I don't care much for the Hogwarts student body," Lily replied. Emma shrugged.

"Could've fooled me last year," Emma replied, crossing her arms. "Solving everybody's bloody problem isn't going to get you back in their good graces again. People here are shallow and vapid."

"Duly noted," Lily said dryly. Emma wasn't saying anything she didn't know already. She was more than familiar with her classmates' cruelty, having been tossed aside by all of them the moment she seemed to turn against one.

A few days later, the school was welcoming the start of December with Christmas decorations in full swing. Lily skirted some mistletoe as she entered the Great Hall, catching sight of Pandora sitting at the Ravenclaw table and joining her.

She could see Eliza sitting a few seats down the table and watched as an owl flew in, dropping a package in front of her. Lily slipped her wand up her sleeve, muttering a tracking spell and watching it hit the beast. Since Eliza explained the nature of the blackmail, Lily had been watching the girl at breakfast every morning, hitting any owl that dropped the girl mail with a tracking spell.

"Lo," she greeted, grabbing an apple and smiling at Pandora.

"I've got some updates on that thing you asked me to look into," Pandora said, shutting her book. Lily nodded eagerly. Every other lead they had turned out to be a dead-end, with Frank confirming that Delaney and Remus had used the pregnancy test potion. "Turns out there's no student here with the name Elliot Stone."

"So someone's using a fake name," she surmised. Pandora shook her head, gesturing to the Slytherin table. Lily followed her line of sight to a group of purebloods from some of the most elite families in England.

"But there is one Elliot," Pandora elaborated.

"Elliot Rosier," Lily realized, catching sight of the handsome Slytherin. He was Eliza and Evan's younger brother, a Slytherin in her year with a body count that matched Sirius's. He was also a member of Professor Slughorn's dinner club, attempting to snog her at one of his parties during their fourth year.

"Elliot Stone Rosier," Pandora said with a smile as Lily turned to face her. "Stone's their mother's maiden name."

Lily nodded.

"You're brilliant Pandora," she said, cogs turning in her head as she came up with a plan to confront the Slytherin. "Smashingly brilliant."

Pandora's cheeks turned a light red as the pair headed to Muggle Studies together. Lily listened to Pandora explain the basis for her upcoming presentation in the class.

"Really hit rock bottom socially haven't you?"

Lily looked up to see that Cressida was standing over the staircase, watching her snidely.

"Well I haven't begun to make friendship bracelets with you yet so I think I'm fine," Lily returned. Cressida scoffed.

"Lost all your friends and now have to hang around Loopy Loony Lovegood," she sneered, giving Cecily a smug look. Lily's hand twitched to her wand. "From Marlene to this pyscho—how the mighty Lily Evans has fallen."

Without thinking, Lily hexed her, her classmate stumbling back and screaming as she clutched her face, which now had tentacles growing from it.

"You can rip on me all you want Parkinson," Lily said in an unforgiving tone. "But don't insult my friends."

She could feel people in the hall watching them as she took Pandora's wrist and led the girl off towards the Muggle Studies Tower.

"You didn't need to do that," Pandora said softly. "All of them think I'm mad."

Lily stopped, turning to her.

"Well you're not," she assured. "if anything they're the mad ones."

Pandora's lips twitched up.

"You told her not to insult your friends," Pandora added. "We're friends then?" Lily looked at her in shock, realizing that perhaps Pandora had never had a friend at Hogwarts before.

"I wouldn't do a pre-Samhain ceremony with just anyone," she said with a laugh. "Of course we're friends Pandora."

Pandora smiled brightly at her, leaning against the wall and Lily returned the smile. The halls were quiet and she knew they were already late for class, but Lily couldn't find herself to care.

"There's something else I've wanted to mention to you," Pandora added. "When you first asked me for help, one of the Professors requested access to your permanent file and it was just left out… I might have taken a look."

Lily was silent, watching as Pandora wrung her hands together, sympathy in her eyes.

"I dunno if you have plans for Christmas," Pandora said.

"I'm staying here," Lily said, the idea of returning to London unappealing. It'd been a tight enough fit that past summer, with Petunia and her splitting the one-bedroom loft Petunia used to attend uni.

"My brother and I love having people around," Pandora explained. Lily knew that Pandora's parents, both being magi-zoologists, were off on a yearlong research trip in Cambodia from a previous conversation with the girl. "And I asked him— he'd be thrilled to have you over."

Lily smiled at her.

"That's very kind of you. But I'll be fine here."

"You shouldn't spend the holidays alone," Pandora said firmly. "Especially not after your parents…"

Lily felt her own cheeks flush heavily. Losing Marlene had been the numbing cream to losing her parents only a month later in a car crash. Lily could cope with their deaths, knowing the exact amount of alcohol her father had consumed that sent him and her mother to untimely deaths in June. The facts of their deaths had helped her grieve. She couldn't cope with Marlene's, still plagued by the missing information around it daily.

"Right," she said with a cough. "Thanks for the offer Pandora. I'll consider it."

AN: Had loads of free time and managed to write out a few chapters so my holiday gift to all of my dear readers is going to be some back to back chapter releases! All I ask in return is reviews- I really love reading all of your thoughts and theories on where the story is going. While there wasn't a lot of James in this chapter or the previous one, I promise that the next has a scene that makes it all worth it!

Next Chapter: A Rosier By Any Other Name (Part 2)

R&R