Lily groaned as she sat up once more, rubbing at her temple. This falling and crashing around every time still never felt any better. Her breath caught in surprise though, and she almost considered this one worth it for the place they'd landed this time. Though she'd never been to these surroundings either, banners hung along the walls along the multiple display cases proclaiming this as the Museum of Magical History.
She'd heard about this place a bit, Mary Macdonald had been here on holiday with her family nearly every summer, as her mother was a curator here. Of course there wasn't a soul in sight now, but the place certainly lived up to its grandeur her roommate had promised. The tiled floors seemed lit beneath with a golden light, every time she placed her foot down again it glowed even brighter. There were wooden columns polished so highly each item on display seemed to be doubled, and when her eyes flickered up she saw the ceiling was so high it was nearly cast in shadows. There was an odd flickering light drawing her eyes almost immediately to the plaque right in front of her, where a roughly hewn wooden cup sat. It would have been entirely unremarkable had it not been full to the brim with dancing blue-white flames, standing on top of an ancient wooden casket.
She didn't know the spell to activate the plaque into displaying the whole backstory as Mary had promised all the attractions here could, not to mention she was living through a vivid enough retelling of one story, so she merely leaned forward and read:
Created in the 13th century by Iolanthe Peverell, this Goblet of Fire has harnessed the magical energy of all names submitted to it to bring upon the next champion for the Triwizard Tournament in helping to create the next Champion of the Wizarding World.*
Lily arched a curious brow at being able to see this in person, though she was quickly more interested in wondering why she was the only one in here.
Standing up wearily as if she still half expected someone to demand what she was doing here, or for Black to jump out behind the item and purposefully scare her, she gazed around at the other exhibits as well as looking for a directory of where the others might be.
This seemed to be a whole section dedicated to the Peverell family, the next item she spotted as an original copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard which apparently had been written by the brothers according to one theorist who had it on display. She passed some odd diagrams about how to make an invulnerable invisibility cloak, and even a tapestry containing a family tree.
When she finally got to the end of the hall and found nothing, she sighed and ran a hand through her hair at the three corridors, feeling like she was in some sort of maze, though at least all the directions were of some little indication.
To the left promised yet more history of even farther back, a shiny new plaque beneath promising a new exhibit of possible Hogwarts Founders items being discovered. To the right progressed more linear it seemed, a wide banner halfway down in bright flashing colors promising the newest Quidditch World Cup paraphernalia on sale if you'd missed out before.
Straight ahead was yet another side corridor it seemed, even more dimly lit than the one she'd just left, and a bit of rope keeping it apart. It was clearly closed for now, but it seemed it was going to be an offshoot of more pureblood families, possibly they were building one for each of the twenty-eight.
Deciding her best bet of finding those trouble makers was in the bound off area, magic or their own innate ability would lead them there, so chose the left path instead.
James Potter's voice began echoing all around her, and she still automatically cringed at the idea of him being so near her even if it was only his voice. She had no idea if she'd picked the right direction, his voice stayed the same volume level as she traveled along. She wished it would grow faint after a few moments, if just for the relief of his nearly shouting about Harry going to school with an international Quidditch player. What was he hoping, that their son would drop out of school and join-
She stopped dead in her tracks as she realized what she was thinking, then continued walking on even faster, actually forcing herself to pay attention to her surroundings again as if she could outrun her own thoughts. At least no one was around to see the first time she'd acknowledged Harry as 'theirs.'
Turns out she'd only been leading herself right to the source of the problem, as she heard a wild hoot of delight that was now painfully familiar, and stopped just shy of entering a Quidditch exhibit archiving the whole of the sport, which was where the majority of the boys had somehow landed.
Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were the worst sources of the noise, they'd likely caused an alarm to go off for trying to pry loose the first caught Snitch according to its marker, and had trapped the lot without a care as they chased it madly about the room on a pair of ancient, likely the first made brooms. It was a curious quandary, how far they could go with the little ball before the clanking symbols chasing them caught up to them.
Potter stood underneath all of this, flushed in the face from excitement most likely as the book seemed to be stalling over the feast. Regulus Black stood nearest to her with an eager look on his face as if he wished to join, he was doing a terrible job of hiding this, trying to smother the expression with haughty indifference.
Frank was hovering at the far end, looking in fear of his life passing through the madhouse so she couldn't even get to him. She didn't spot Alice or Peter Pettigrew at all and sighed for the both of them also in here somewhere alone. She envied that now.
Slowly creeping back away before anyone noticed her, she wouldn't put it past Black to sick that device on her somehow, and went off in the opposite direction as fast as she could. She'd already made it back to her original landing spot when still the book seemed to be stalling more than anything, going in excruciating detail over several students from the other schools, foreign foods, and even more attendees at Hogwarts from the Ministry for the proceedings it seemed.
Trying not to flinch as she'd swear the blue fire had grown even brighter as she passed again, she quickly kept going past that room and tried to maneuver her way around while it felt like an idiot was chasing her around screaming this at her. It was a shame really, she would have liked to explore this place under other circumstances, she'd bet Sev had read all sorts of things as knowledgeable as he always was about the magical world. Five years in and she still found herself turning to him for those answers...though lately she was more likely to get a straight answer from a textbook.
He'd been so, evasive lately. With every passing week he drew farther and farther away from her. She wished there was some clear cut answer, and maybe there was if he'd just stop hanging around those disturbing elders in Slytherin-
As if her wandering feet had directed her, she'd apparently diverted at some point following a path without even realizing it and smiled as she found herself in The Hall of Potions. She immediately decided she'd like to try and convince Slughorn to take a trip here, perhaps they wouldn't have time when they got back before their OWL's, but maybe something extra credit for NEWT students?
She passed up Gregory the Smarmy (fl. 1189); a medieval British wizard and Potioneer, who invented Gregory's Unctuous Unction, a potion that makes the drinker believe whoever gave the potion is his or her best friend. She did stop in surprise upon finding almost a shrine built to Arsenius Jigger, she wouldn't be surprised if Sev had built that himself though, as many advances as he'd made in both Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts, his two favorite subjects. Still she kept browsing as Dumbledore finally called attention and began going over in detail this Tournament, that the Cup would be picking the champions, and that there was going to be an age limit, which admittedly was a relief to her. She liked to think she'd learned a bit about Harry by this time and he wouldn't have tried his hand at this, unlike James Potter, but now he didn't even have the chance.
Finally she came across the one she'd been so eager to find, Vindictus Viridian, her idol in Potioneers. She hadn't even known about him until she stumbled across his portrait one day off the Grand Staircase muttering about the bustle of the students just last month, and after returning several times and taking quite a bit an effort to charm him he'd finally opened his door to reveal to her the Room of Rewards. She'd invested many hours in the library since then finding every one of his achievements, even discovering he'd once been a Headmaster at her school himself.
Lily could sense the chapter was at least halfway over as the students were dismissed, there was a slight sidestep of Harry's own when the Durmstrang Headmaster even spotted Harry and took notice before Moody stepped in, but she realized she'd been fawning over this stuff and still hadn't found Alice with little time to spare. Hoping she hadn't too miserable a time apart from everyone, she didn't bother dragging her gaze away from some of his documented notes over a potion to turn literally anything green.
"You're positive?" Alice asked uneasily, with a faint blush.
"Absolutely," Peter assured, swinging his feet upon his perch with an uninterested look. "Every single time we've landed, it's the first thing Frank's done given the chance. That I've seen anyways."
Alice believed him, but she wasn't sure she liked talking to Peter even if he was reassuring a silly teenage crush. She hadn't really given much of a thought to him before his star roll, but apparently he'd been watching all of them. Now she hoped it was just his, ah, bad first real impression and she was trying to work past that feeling. Regardless, he was good at one thing, changing the subject.
She cast her mind about for some way to pull the conversation back to what she intended when she came in here. He'd been sitting astride a gargantuan stuffed creature, that was hairless with immense fanged teeth, as if some terrifying mixture of a saber toothed tiger and a naked mole-rat. Magic had it pacing about the room in an easy stride that could easily break into a running gate at any moment, though the lifeless eyes promised nothing so violent would happen. Peter was riding sidesaddle with a faraway look on his face, and didn't even flinch as a great winged boar shot past his head, ruffling his hair.
There were all sorts of other extinct creatures about, Alice was particularly captivated by the hippocampus swimming about near the ceiling that was on a nearly head-on collision with a great long-necked beast swimming merely through nothing. Across the room, a yeti was plucking berries from a tree that instantly grew them back and placing them in a basket that never filled, and an erlking seemed to be fishing for some other form of sea serpent quite poorly.
"You can go if you'd like, find him or Evans," Peter offered, she clearly hadn't been hiding her unease as well as she'd hoped. "You don't have to stay and talk to me just because you found me."
"But I want to," she insisted truthfully. "I was hoping to ah, be a bridge for you and your friends, help you lot along to some sort of, understanding."
"Why?" The truly baffled expression made his pointed features in his round face even more childlike.
"Because, I want to help," Alice said. "Isn't that reason enough?"
"You don't know anything about us," he said shrewdly, "you wouldn't know or care for any of this if you hadn't been dragged along."
"But I was," she readied herself, and then jumped up beside him upon the next creatures passing. She wobbled uneasily, before Peter reached out on instinct and grabbed her shoulder to steady her. "Thanks," she smiled, "and I think we had to have been brought along for some reason other than not getting to hear of Neville as much as I'd like. I don't even know if he's really my son."
"I saw the picture you and Frank have of him," Peter shrugged, "he's obviously yours."
Alice blushed quite vividly this time, but refused to be deterred again. "Well, until we meet up with them again, why don't you tell me what it is you want to say to them, maybe I can-"
"If I wanted to talk to them I would be," he spoke calmly, but there was finally a hard edge in his voice that had Alice regretting their proximity for the first time. "James asked me to give them some space, so I am, it's as simple as that."
"Doesn't seem fair," Alice still pointed out, "you haven't done anything, er to them, at this time," she couldn't help but finish awkwardly but with complete conviction.
Peter didn't answer, he clasped his hands in front of him and began kicking the poor creature in its ribs, she imagined if the beast were real it wouldn't be taking too kindly to that. Finally when he did answer, it was to the ceiling, "who knows what we'll really do in the moment, no matter what we're told of it."
"You still think you'll do it again?" Alice asked in surprise.
He squirmed uncomfortably on the ride now, then looked at her with a sharp glare. "Again, what's it to you?"
She didn't have anything to say to that, she really did just want to help. She always wanted to help all the new students be they in her house or not, but when she'd seen the Marauders fighting back in school she hadn't given a passing thought to their internal squabble and had not approached Sirius Black to talk to him about it. She hoped to help now simply because she had heard the story...but maybe she was just trying to be a part of something she didn't belong in.
Her silence seemed to have dragged more out of him than her questions though, he turned on the offense. "I don't know, okay? I've never had to think of it before! James and Sirius are the smartest, strongest blokes in that school, I couldn't even imagine what life would be like after we graduated before all this, but it bloody hell wasn't this future! If, You-Know-Who threatened me, my mother- would he, could James -?"
His voice cracked, he didn't look at her or anything anymore. The book had been droning on in the background this whole time, James Potter's voice echoing around them emphasizing the topic of this like nothing else could. Harry's life had continued on after this betrayal, he hadn't seemed to be dwelling on it at every opportunity as Halloween arrived, they spent time with Hagrid, and then the Goblet was spitting up names for each school. She wished she could think of something else to say, but began to admit to herself perhaps she was nosing in where she didn't belong. She hadn't a chance to say anything else regardless, as Harry's name came out of where it really shouldn't, straight from that cup as well, and they all vanished once more.
*The idea for the setting of this chapter was when I originally noticed The Tale of the Hopping Pot has an oddly similar story to this random person on the Potter Family tree in Pottermore. Go see Seamus Gorman's video for more details who elaborated on this much more.