Even hours later, Marlene was still sneaking glances between the two, only deterred from doing so when Sirius caught her eye, sending back a smug wink. Rolling her eyes, she turned back to her potions essay, scribbling another sentence about the uses of powdered occamy shells before finding herself looking towards the other end of the table.
Unlike her brother, Lyra made no move to acknowledge the fact that she was being inspected. There was no doubt in Marlene's mind that her curiosity went unnoticed by the eldest Black. Lyra had the uncanny ability to know about everything that was going on around her, she'd simply mastered the art of not letting that fact show. Marlene allowed herself to take in the concentration that was pinching the girl's brow before forcing herself to return to her work.
The twins had walked into the Great Hall halfway through lunch both looking rather miffed. And between all the enquiring looks sent throughout the rest of the group, no one had yet discovered what had taken place between them. Things had been tense, ever since they came back from the Christmas break. And with all that had happened to them, she would have expected them to be thicker than thieves right now.
What was frustrating her most of all was that any attempt at trying to get to the bottom of it by asking either of them directly. She knew better than that by now.
'Alright, I've had enough of this!'
Marlene jumped as Sirius' chair scraped loudly against the library floor. The fact that he'd managed to sit quietly for the past fifteen minutes was a true sign of the strange times they found themselves in. Apparently being so close to NEWT's hadn't managed to pass anybody's notice, not even those of whom had never studied a day in their life before.
Waving off Madam Pince as she came to reprimand them for the noise, Sirius gathered his rolls of parchment into his satchel, smirking as he squeezed Potter on the shoulders. Marlene tried to hear what Sirius whispered before he let go of James and waltzed out of the library.
Predictably, James was up not thirty seconds after Sirius had left. Unpredictably, Lily followed along with Peter.
'You coming?' She whispered to the rest of the table as she stood up.
Marlene looked around quickly, Peter had already hurried off, the only indication Lyra made that she'd heard Lily was the brief halt in her scratching quill on her parchment. Marlene, sick of the mountains of homework she'd already done since the day started, didn't need to be asked twice. As she cast a drying charm on her parchment, she focussed her attention on Lupin who had been sitting across from her.
He'd been watching the table empty just as she had. But Marlene thought she saw his eyes flicker across to Lyra, almost as if in question. It was subtle, no doubt about that, but Marlene had ben observing the two for a couple of months now, trying to prove a theory she'd been developing.
'You lot go ahead,' Remus said. 'I still got a lot to do.'
Lily nodded. She thought nothing of it, because it was Lupin who said it and such a thing was relatively in character. If any of the other boys had said that then no one would have believed them. But Lupin was the studious one, the seemingly responsible one. Or so he would have them believe.
As she followed Lily out of the library, Marlene cast a backwards glance, smirking when she noticed that Lupin was leaning across to talk directly to Lyra, who had finally stopped writing.
Marlene frowned. Growing up in a big family meant many things. It was often noisy, the house was cluttered, with her mother often charming the pots and pan to wash themselves, the clothes to fold themselves. And there was no such thing as privacy. She was not used to not knowing.
'What're you frowning at?'
Marlene gave Lily a side glance, trying to stifle her growing frustration. If what she suspected was true, then one of her best friends was keeping something enormous from her. Now, Marlene was very sued to Lyra keeping things to herself, it was something that everyone had come to expect, and something they'd accepted about the girl. But she couldn't help but think, if Lupin and Lyra were together, and they were indeed happy, then why would they want to keep it from everyone?
A loud, barking laugh echoed throughout the corridor. Marlene glared at Sirius. There was no doubt that he knew about this whole thing. Which was strange, considering she would have expected Sirius to have beaten Lupin to a pulp, but as far as she could tell they were still as close as ever.
'I have a theory . . .' Marlene started, knowing that it was time for her to enlist some help if she wanted to prove it. Before she could say anything else, however, a booming voice erupted from behind them. Turning, the group found Professor Slughorn striding towards them, attention entirely focussed on Lily and James.
'Ah, Miss Evans, Mister Potter, I'm so glad I found you,' he said, grinning widely. 'I've been putting together a little party for the end of the year, and would be most pleased to see you both there.'
While Lily nodded enthusiastically, James stared at the Professor. Lily Evans had been a favourite pupil of Slughorn for years now, it was a constant source of amusement to Marlene to watch Lily practically fawn over the Hogwarts Professors. James was still getting used to the attention that had gone hand-in-hand with the badge pinned haphazardly on his shirt collar.
Marlene shot an exasperated look at Sirius, who returned it with a smirk and a good-natured eye roll. Both of them could have turned into chickens on the spot and it would have gone entirely unnoticed.
Noticing a little bit of hesitation from the pair, Slughorn surged ahead in his appeal. 'There's quite a guestlist already! Plenty of very influential people within the ministry.'
'Uh-' James spluttered, looking to Lily desperately for guidance. Unfortunately for him, Lily merely shot him an annoyed glance, clearly trying to tell him to shut up and nod along. Which is exactly what James did.
'Of course, we'd love to go, Professor,' Lily said.
Marlene imitated gagging to Sirius. He stifled a laugh.
'Brilliant!' Slughorn said, clapping his hands together. 'You should receive more formal invitations by the end of the week. Well, you all best be getting along to your common room, wouldn't look good to have the Head Boy and Girl wondering around the corridors after hours.'
'Of course, sir.' Finally, James had managed to untie his tongue.
'Good lad.' Slughorn clapped James on the shoulder before making his way past them down the corridor.
After he disappeared from sight, Sirius couldn't hold in his amusement anymore. His barking laugh rang out as he pushed into James' side.
'Of course, Professor!' He said in a high-pitched voice. 'We'd love to, Professor!'
'Shut up!' James ground out, running a hand absentmindedly through his hair. He turned to Lily. 'We don't really have to go, do we?'
'Of course, we do!' Lily said, starting off again down the corridor. The others trailed after her as she continued speaking. 'It'll be good to make some connections to the ministry before we leave Hogwarts. It'll certainly make it easier to get a job there.'
James, still trying to ignore Sirius's taunts, scoffed. 'I don't want to work at the Ministry.'
Lily stopped so suddenly that Marlene almost walked into her.
'And what do you want to do after Hogwarts?'
James's hand was in his hair again as he looked away from her, shrugging as he took hold of Sirius' robe, pulling him along down the corridor. Marlene caught Sirius' eye as the two went past, raising her eyebrows at him. The look she got in return told her that this was a discussion he'd heard before. This display didn't surprise Marlene in the slightest. When Lily and James first got together, it made sense to her. There was far too much history of tension between the two for them to remain supposed enemies. They were always destined to be much closer than that.
But no matter how many pins Dumbledore stuck on him, Potter would always remain a troublemaker, a joker, a marauder as he liked to call himself. And no matter how Potter influenced her, Lily Evans would always remain more than a little uptight when it came to her career in and out of Hogwarts.
Going to a Slugclub party sounded like the last thing Marlene would have considered fun, and not for the first time, she thanked Merlin that Slughorn had not deemed her worthy enough to join his little group.
As Lily started walking again, mumbling something about 'useless Quidditch fantasies', Marlene internally groaned, realising that Mary was also part of Slughorn's little achievers. And if history was anything to be relied upon, then this would mean countless hours of Mary holding her own little investigation into which boy would be accompanying her. No doubt Lily and James would be taking each other, although she wouldn't be surprised if, in an attempt at discretion, Slughorn would allow them to bring a "plus one". As if anyone else would want to go, especially with people who were a known couple –
She shot a handout to grab hold of Lily's robe, pulling her to a halt. Ignoring Lily's protests, Marlene stared straight ahead, grin growing as a plan started to take shape in her head.
'McKinnon, what is going on!'
Marlene's grin reached it's apex as she finally looked to Lily.
'Remember that theory I was going to tell you about? You might be able to help me prove it.'
ooOOoo
It was relatively early when Lily walked into the Great Hall for breakfast the next day. Only a handful of students were scattered throughout the house tables. No doubt, the majority of the students were having a lie in to celebrate the start of the weekend. The hall was bathed in a pale, cool glow from the charmed ceiling that reflected the early morning light that currently washed through the castle grounds. A deep frost had taken hold throughout the night, keeping the temperature low, despite the sun that was slowly rising. The brief glimpses through the windows that Lily had managed to get on the way here had her smiling, it was as if the world had been covered in crystals, the frosted grounds shimmering.
Lily had gone to sleep and had awoken this morning thinking about Marlene's shocking allegations she'd revealed last night. The pair had talked in hurried whispers as they made their way back to the common room. Marlene did most of the talking, keeping her voice low enough that it didn't travel to James and Sirius who had walked on ahead. Lily had scoffed at first.
The idea that Remus Lupin and Lyra Black could have been having a relationship and could have been hiding it from them was absurd.
Surely, if it was really going on, then she would have perceived something by now. She realised that Lyra Black was an extremely private person, she had never truly opened up to Lily, no matter how hard she'd tried to get closer to her.
But she was much closer to Remus. Would he really keep something like that from her? She remembered in sixth year when she'd confronted him about his being a werewolf. He'd stood in shock for a full minute after she'd told him to cut out the bullshit, that she knew, that she'd known for some time, that she didn't care, that she was curious. She might have been a little hurt that he expected her to abandon him when she found out, but she never held any malice towards him from keeping it from her. It was a difficult and painful topic for him.
But if he was going with Lyra, if they had been for a while and if they were happy, then why keep it from them?
As Lily scanned the Great Hall again, she quickly avoided looking too long at the Slytherin table, where she noticed two dark haired figures sat close together, talking quietly. It was too early to try and fathom what would have Severus Snape and Regulus Black chatting so raptly. Instead, she turned her attention to the Gryffindor table, eyes narrowing on the lone figure at the far end of the table.
Lily rarely came down to breakfast so early, especially on a Saturday. But there was one person who never failed in arriving and leaving before almost everyone else in the school, no matter what day of the week it was.
Lyra had her head down, attention seemingly fixed on a letter held before her. It wasn't until Lily got closer to her, that she realised that every few seconds Lyra would glance across to the Slytherin table.
Fleetingly, Lily wondered if Lyra had talked to her youngest brother since Christmas.
Trying to catch her off guard, Lily huffed as she dropped into the sear opposite Lyra. She didn't say anything after that, but just watched the dark-haired girl across from her fold up the letter, and carefully slip it back into its envelope. Try as she might, Lily couldn't see who it was addressed from. Without acknowledging Lily at all, Lyra reached for her goblet, taking a long sip.
When she went in for a second sip, Lily gave in.
'You came up late last night.'
Lyra lowered the goblet, looking vaguely at that morning's copy of the Daily Prophet that lay spread out on the table.
'I suppose.'
'Spent a long time in the library with Remus after we left?'
Lyra raised her eyebrow, suddenly getting the distinct impression that Lily was doing her best to imitate Marlene.
'Well, we left when Pince kicked us out.'
'We were all still in the Common Room then.'
Lyra could hear the suspicion build in her voice.
She was going to kill Marlene.
'We went for a walk.'
Now it was Lily's turn to raise an eyebrow. 'Just the two of you?'
'I would have preferred it to be just the one of us,' Lyra muttered, turning to the next page of the Prophet. 'But ever since Christmas, the boys have taken it upon themselves to ensure I'm never alone.'
That did it. Lily's face fell instantly, and Lyra tried to control her triumphant smirk.
Apart from the brief conversation they'd had on the train, neither girl had discussed what had happened in Grimmauld Place. Lyra knew that Lily had wanted to, she'd caught the redhead staring one too many times for it be a coincidence. And while it was true that the boys had become infuriatingly more protective of her, it definitely wasn't the reason Remus had escorted her back to the Common Room last night. Not that she's ever admit that to Lily.
Thankfully, she knew the girl's weakness all too well.
Sympathy.
Maybe it made Lyra a horrible person, for locating it and using it against her so quickly and so well. And maybe the absence of any real guilt made her a more horrible person still. But lack of guilt meant lack of hesitation. And lack of hesitation meant lack of suspicion, which made her tactics worth it.
For that's what her world was. And it's what it would most likely only ever be. And whether it would break her, or all those around her – she would keep it that way.
'I'll see you later. Enjoy Hogsmeade,' Lyra said politely, getting up from the table and making her way out of the hall. It took all her willpower not to turn and look over to Regulus. A voice that sounded suspiciously like Sirius surfaced in her mind.
If he wants to ignore us, then we'll ignore him, good for nothing little shit.
Lyra frowned. She really needed to stop listening to him.
ooOOoo
The Three Broomsticks was positively humming, full of excited Hogwarts students, taking a break from their mountains of homework, and regular patrons, obviously disgruntled at having to share their daily watering hole with a bunch of over-eager teenagers.
Sirius and James had managed to secure a table in the far corner of the inn while Lily went to get their drinks. From this angle the boys could see everything. At the next table a group of Hufflepuff third years were recounting loudly their trip to the Shrieking Shack. James had nudged Sirius, both trying not to laugh too loudly when one of the boys had proclaimed having heard something in the shack screaming out.
Sirius choked when he turned his attention to the far side of the tavern. Annoyance quickly eating through his amusement. James, who was still in fits of laughter, missed the fact that Sirius had stopped, that the grin had completely fallen from his features. He was oblivious to the fact that Sirius was now glaring across the room at the couple in the corner.
Sirius never realised until that moment how much he disliked Bertram Aubrey.
'Sirius, stop staring!'
Sirius jumped as Lily dropped his butterbeer on the table in front of him with a bang. She gave him a pointed look as she took the free seat next to James, sliding his butterbeer to him.
Having spotted what Sirius had, James sat up a little straighter.
'Blimey, Aubrey's braver than I thought,' he said, chuckling as he took a swig.
'Anyone willing to ask out McKinnon would have to be,' muttered Sirius.
'Oh, hush!' Lily said, pinching James arm, which only made him laugh harder. Lily looked across the table, her eyes narrowing.
'I've noticed you get a might huffy whenever Marlene involves herself in someone, Sirius,' she said inquisitively. 'Why is that?'
Sirius rolled his eyes. 'Because it's more evidence that Hogwarts lets just any simpleton in.' He scoffed, 'I mean, why would you voluntarily spend your free time with McKinnon.'
He took a deep mouthful of butterbeer so as to avoid the look of scepticism on Lily's face, and the raised eyebrows of James'.
Thankfully Peter's sudden appearance before them, panting and wide eyed provided an immediate distraction.
'What the hell's up with you?' James said, earning another pinch from Lily.
Peter wheezed as he tried to form words. The joviality of seeing him struggle vanished when the words 'Slytherins' and 'explosives' were heard in quick succession.
They were out of their seats in a heartbeat, wands in hand, following Peter out the door and up the high street.
Even from a distance, Sirius could spot at least three small figures lying in the middle of the street. As they got closer, he could see that bits of the road had been blown away, some of the windows of the nearby shops were cracked.
'It's a body-bind curse,' Lily said once they'd reached the students in the street. She bent down and removed the blindfolds they'd been wearing over their eyes as James muttered the counter curse.
Sirius surveyed the area, looking for anything else out of the ordinary, of anyone else lurking nearby. But there was nothing. No doubt whoever had done this had fled the scene immediately.
'I'll be right back,' he said over his shoulder as he ran over to the closest alleyway, ignoring James and Lily as they told him to wait.
The alley was deserted by the time he reached it. Still holding his wand aloft, he began to walk blindly into the streets beyond, growing more and more frustrated as each street turned up nothing of interest.
After what could have fifteen minutes, or fifty, Sirius found himself in a street that ran parallel to the High Street. He was about to turn around and try a different route when something caught his eye. The flurry of a black robe caught in the wind as its wearer vanished between two buildings.
Sirius ran after them into a narrow laneway, stopping halfway down. Panting, he looked around him. The street offered no form of protection, there was no where they could have hidden. There were no side doors, or windows they could have escaped through.
Yet there was no one in sight.
'Fuck!'
He was so sure he'd caught them. So sure that he'd be able to have something to show for his troubles. Growling he turned to leave the alley.
He was five strides away from reaching the street when a sharp-nailed, iron-clad grip closed around the hand that held his wand.
Spinning around in alarm, he was met with an extremely old looking woman. The potted skin on her hand and arm that peaked out from beneath her long, tattered robes, were nothing compared to her face. Sirius was immediately struck with the image of an Inferi as the woman's skin was sunken, clinging to her bones like wax dripping down a candlestick. She was smiling, mouth full of yellow, rotting teeth. Sirius instinctively wrinkled his nose, she wreaked of mothballs, excessive amounts of cheap perfume and something metallic he couldn't quite place.
'And what brings such a young, handsome boy down this lane?' She crowed up at him in a would-be silky sort of voice had it not been so gravely and false. Looking around the alley, her wretched smile grew when she realised just how sparse this part of the alley was.
'What's it to you?' Sirius sneered.
The woman raised a thick eyebrow, looking Sirius up and down slowly, her grip on his wrist never slackening. 'Pity,' she muttered. 'I get the scabbard but not the blade, how disappointing.' She looked at him again. 'But what a fine scabbard it is.'
And then she was pulling him with a strength that momentarily stunned him. Recovering quickly, he dug in his heels, trying to yank his arm free.
'What the hell do you think you're doing, woman? Let go of me!'
She ignored him. Panic was well and truly setting in now as they neared closer and closer to the end of the alleyway when a voice rang out behind them.
'Sirius?!'
Thank fuck.
'James!' Sirius called over his shoulder. 'James, over here!'
As soon as he'd called out, the witch's grip vanished. Wand now free, Sirius whipped around and had it pointing down into the shadows by the time James reached his side.
'Sirius! You find anything?' James said.
Not looking away from the where the witch had disappeared, Sirius slowly lowered his wand. 'No, nothing,' he turned away. 'Let's go.'