To Stitches: I completely agree with everything you said. There is a one-hundred percent chance James used some of his more, hospital worthy, pranks on anyone he heard asking Lily out, and though he fixated on her a bit and declared her his love, we're never actually given a reason why. They're more like Ron and Hermione than Harry and Ginny. They're two very obviously different people, so if they did stay married they would have had to work at it. Would it have lasted? I like to think so, but it's more than fair to assume otherwise as well. Thanks so much for all your commentary!
Their landing seemed to be louder than usual, as Alice crashed into a hard floor once more, she noted how surprisingly cold and smooth it was, and the banging residing all around her as she tried to quickly sit up echoed, along with one person screaming in pain.
She reached up blindly, sensing more than seeing something on her left and trying to pull on it to help her to her feet, but then yelping in her own intense pain as something crashed onto her head. She released it and fell back to the floor, now wincing and cursing in even more pain as she rolled onto her back instead and looked up at a stove. She'd pulled it open on her head, explaining the deep painful throbbing that was occurring, but at least the screaming had somewhat stopped, so as she carefully raised it back up and scooted carefully away to try getting to her feet once more, she was much more careful about how.
They were in a kitchen, a very large one. There were four long islands all with steaming pots, simmering pans, and hot stoves piping away for a fresh meal, and they'd landed in the middle of it. Remus Lupin was across from her, eyes streaming in pain as he rubbed at his freshly burned arm, she winced in sympathy as she realized he must have landed on the overturned gravy dripping on the counter. There was a casserole with hash quickly turning brown in the oven she'd just collided with, and sizzling bacon grease wafted the whole area from the warm fireplace behind them Frank had almost landed in. She hurried to his side while he winced and cursed, brushing soot from his robes and saying how he'd be happy never to be near fire again after all this.
"Who on Earth has a need for this kitchen?" Lily asked in fascination, prodding at a pot full of nearly three dozen simmering eggs ready to be shelled not far away.
"You mean you don't know?" James Potter all but materialized behind her, that same smile back on his face they hadn't seen in quite a while now as he indulged himself in his favorite past time, harassing her.
She just looked to him in silent exasperation, clearly aware whatever she said he'd continue anyways, and so he did. "We're in the Hogwarts kitchen!" The grand gesture he used to say as much was actually worthy of the environment.
Alice had guessed as much, it was a Hufflepuff tradition to find the place without hints from anyone else because they were all told how close it was to their dormitory. So far she'd been slacking on that, but now she'd be the second in her dorm to do it.
"I didn't really think Hogwarts had a kitchens," Frank blinked in surprise. "I thought the food just, appeared."
"It's a Gamp's Law thing, that's not possible," Potter disagreed with a friendly enough smile that still looked superiorly smug to them as he finished, "you'll learn about that in Transfiguration much later."
Sirius Black, apparently deciding a kitchen wasn't dangerous enough he needed to stay as a dog, called out to him as a distraction and he took off with one last lingering look at Lily.
The three Marauders converged around Remus, who was still nursing his burning arm, but then as they looked around they realized once more someone was missing.
Regulus had found himself in what must be the pantry, more food in here than there had been wands at Ollivanders, he couldn't imagine an army going through this amount in several lifetimes. Still, he could hear the others conversations and even louder landings and was traversing the space curiously to get out when he came across the wrong kind of door. It was diminutive to him, but Kreacher would fit through just fine, and this curiosity beat out the others as he knelt down to pop it open. He poked his head in and smiled in delight upon what he found, and considered going in to explore more and keeping this to himself when he heard Sirius start calling out for him.
Hanging his head, but deciding it would be better to heed him than cause that idiot to get into a panic after the last one he just went through, he finally found his way to an almost human sized door and pushed it open instead and nearly ran smack into Sirius.
"You'll never believe what I found," he told him with repressed delight, as he spun back around and lead the way. They all followed him without protest, and had to nearly break their backs to get through the door to find the rows of beds in here.
Each was miniature, most were straight and uniform with a single blanket and pillow cleanly pressed, at least the few dozen rows they saw were. The one closest to them was the only one with a trunk at the end, and it was cracked open, the contents of which were socks of every shape and color neatly folded, along with an odd assortment of clothes in just as fine a state, and the book resting on top.
Lily poked her head in last curiously, finding it almost depressing this place seemed more jail-like than anything. She really felt for Hermione's campaign the more she heard of it, surely these house-elves had personalities they'd like to attach to the meager space provided for them, what was with the one oddball bed Sirius Black was attempting to break as he flopped down on top of with a laugh as it barely fit his rump.
"I'll bet that one belongs to Dopey," a quiet voice muttered behind her, and she whirled on the spot to find Remus Lupin surprisingly close to her, but eyeing his friend affectionately. She snorted in surprise to hear such a Muggle reference from him, quite the rarity in this school for even the populace that did know of such things rarely ever brought it up, as if that would just further define them.
Remus Lupin was now looking at her in just as much surprise, taking a quick step back and giving her a sheepish look. She smiled uncomfortably as she forced herself to meet his eyes, she'd been rather avoiding thinking of him, or rather realizing she now owed an allegiance to either Snape or these Marauder idiots. When they got out of here, would she- should she tell Sev that he'd been right all along...
She startled even harder as Alice had apparently picked up the book and began reading, while the Marauders had quickly grown bored and were now ransacking the kitchens in the span it took her to read out the chapter title, The House-Elf Liberation Front. Frank stayed behind and was eyeing the miniature beds with longing, as if he was contemplating shoving a few together and getting comfortable. She couldn't blame him as she yawned herself, but leaned back comfortably against the wall for now.
Harry was enjoying the company of both of his friends once more on their way up to the owlery, but she found herself to be quite grateful to be down here instead as she plucked a few grapes hanging nearby. It was nice to hear of something so relaxing once more, just Harry sending off a letter to his godfather about how he'd survived, rather than having to hear of him living through said dragon experience.
Invigorated by the fruit, and getting a chill in place from standing in the cool air around all this food, Lily began exploring the endless isles, plucking up jerkies, cheese, and even ripping off a hunk of bread at her leisure from the schools kitchens as she tried to sort out her life while Harry actually enjoyed this party the Gryffindor's were throwing him in celebration.
Alice was smiling along at the events as well, Hermione getting the twins to tell how to get into the kitchens was the obvious lead up to how they wound up down here, clearly Hermione was going to take them up on that. Then she smiled even more broadly as Neville laughed along at those Canary Creams, ingenious little tricks she'd admit.
Frank was shifting about sluggishly beside her, and she wanted to cling to the good mood as long as she could, so she marked her place and the two began traveling the isles as well, coming across the pastries themselves not long after. The two had a very good laugh about thinking of the twins slipping in some Canary Creams into everyone's morning breakfast, it was certainly the kind of thing they could see the Marauders doing at least, as they helped themselves to a load. After they had their fill, they went back out to the kitchen proper, and she settled comfortably in Franks arms in front of the fireplace to keep going.
It was almost a pleasant experience again, maybe the two of them would invest in this being their studying spot in the future once they got out of this mess. Surely the house-elves wouldn't mind the company? The rest of the group was actually being pretty quite for once as well, likely pigging themselves out while they had the chance in the cupboards, the most chaos that was being caused was from the books and Hagrid attempting to get the Blast-Ended Skrewts to hibernate. It wasn't exactly encouraging, Rita Skeeter showing up again to cause trouble for Hagrid was now inevitable in this future, but thankfully nothing exploded at the moment.
Things even continued in a nice, calm pace as another Divination class was laughed through, Alice really hoped that was an option soon in Hogwarts time for just a nice layabout class. Then Hermione was back with a splash, dragging Harry through the castle, seemingly down to her common room if she wouldn't have guessed the destination already. "I can't believe it's so close," Alice pouted. "I've been a right idiot not to have noticed."
"Cheer up love," Frank kissed her temple, "I'm sure not every Hufflepuff's even found it, not every student sets out to find every secret place in this castle after all."
They all got quite a surprise though when Harry went in, and one elf in particular greeted him enthusiastically.
"Dobby's back!" Sirius said in surprise, nearly dropping the whole ham he'd been trying to shove into his bag.
"Yes Sirius, we heard," Remus rolled his eyes as he popped the last bite of waffle with jelly filling into his mouth.
"That's adorable," James grinned, juggling oranges purely for his own amusement, the peelings of the six he'd already devoured littered across the floor. "I'm glad that insane little house-elf is somewhere not with the Malfoy's anymore!"
Peter only hesitated a moment. Nobody had said anything against him following them down the cured meats isle, but nobody had said anything for it either. If they were just going to go on and pretend this had never happened, well, he could be game with that. "As long as he didn't bring along anymore insane Bludgers with him."
Remus gave him a forced kind of smile, Peter had seen Sirius give Regulus more friendly looks lately than he got, and James just looked sort of sad like he wasn't sure how to respond at all. Of course things couldn't be that easy, but at least they were all trying. They proceeded in subdued silence through the storages of food, stuffing every available bag and pocket silly. It quickly became apparent the strange trunk they'd seen full of clothes had been Dobby's, he worked here now like an actual member of the staff strangely enough. Winky too, well, sort of. They'd honestly forgotten about her, but her interaction was still less strange than Dobby's.
Regulus found himself fascinated at the juxtaposition of Dobby and Winky. He'd climbed up the food wracks carefully, so as not to needlessly squash or touch anything with his shoes, nearly up to the ceiling and casting the ground almost out of sight but found his own preference of delicacies the school only rarely served, including those odd peppermint humbugs. He chewed thoughtfully on the whole house-elf thing this Muggleborn Granger still wouldn't let go, Winky was behaving perfectly normally while Dobby was the odd one out here. He wouldn't lie though, as silly as the idea was of paying a house-elf, he was rather fond of the idea. Kreacher was so lively at just the smallest kind word said to him, was it possible he'd be even happier with a knut now and again? It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.
He even found himself smiling as Harry got on so well with Dobby, now that the elf wasn't trying to kill him, and they had a nice chat. Harry found out something odd to do with Crouch even, though no details from Winky, and Regulus hoped the others really heard what had just happened as well, something he'd figured out long ago. Kreacher was a wealth of information on things his parents didn't like to talk about, he'd learned almost as much from chatting with his elf as he did from them. He hoped all the others listening realized they weren't just invisible servants like so many others seemed to think. The bite of leftover bouillabaisse he'd been sampling got stuck in his throat a bit as he realized this was once again something he'd been so different about other purebloods on, was it really just his fate to be different from everyone?
Sighing with distaste that had nothing to do with the foreign foods, he stored an extra can of kippers into his pocket and went back to mentally memorizing where in the castle the kitchens were, he'd definitely love to make a return visit.