The Middle

by onceintothelight

November, 1975

Marlene McKinnon played Beater for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. She was particularly adept at Arithmancy and enjoyed Care of Magical Creatures. She had baby blue eyes, wavy, almost curly blonde hair that reached her waist in messy tumbles, and was the tallest girl in their dorm. She often lazed, there was no other word to describe it. She could be found lazing on sofas, at Gryffindor table, in class, outside, on the greenery. She laughed at just about anything, even wildly inappropriate situations, and wore trousers as part of her uniform.

Mary Macdonald was the smallest in their dorm, with dark eyes and hair, and a pretty, naturally snooty face that intimidated just about everyone. She didn't enjoy classes, much, though she liked the ambiance of Divination, even if she wasn't particularly talented in that art. She wore her uniform skirt a tad shorter than everyone else and was never seen without a full-face of makeup. She had more confidence in her pinky finger than the rest of the Gryffindor girls combined, and she flaunted it.

Lily had never paid such attention to her other housemates until she'd unintentionally started spending more time with them this year. She couldn't say she was particularly devasted by this development. If anything, she was enjoying them both. Beyond all their quirks and interesting characteristics, both Mary and Marlene were remarkably friendly, much more than she'd expected. That was what mattered.

Tugging down the skirt of her mauve knee length dress, Lily self-consciously crossed her arms over her chest and took a sip of her pumpkin fizz. She felt very aware of herself, the fact that she had zero womanly curves to speak of and was growing like a weed so that she towered over a lot of the lovelier, more delicate girls also present. Sev stood at her side, dressed in dark second-hand dress robes, looking extremely bored. His weepy curtains of dark hair, usually covering his face, had been tucked behind his ears for the occasion; the effect was quite nice.

It was the second Slug Club dinner of the year, taking in place in the stuffily decorated space that was Slughorn's offices, and though the two of them were frequent attendees, usually attending together, neither was all that comfortable in social settings. Admittedly, Lily felt that her unsociability was only encouraged with Sev glued to her side, the two of them snickering behind their palms and sharing in quiet inside jokes.

"I realize I've been depending on you as my main source of a social life," Lily told Sev that evening, still fidgeting with the hem of her dress as they watched the other students chatting gaily and milling about.

Sev took a sip of his own drink. "What's so awful about that?"

"Nothing, really, except that… well, you're making friends in your house and I'm trying to do the same. It's only taken a few years."

"As long as you don't start palling around with the likes of Potter and Black."

"Well… it sure would make life easier," Lily sighed in mock-contemplation. At the look Sev shot at her, she laughed. "I'm joking."

"Not funny," Sev scolded, but he was smirking. "Anyway, you can do better than your year-mates…"

"Funny, I was about to say the same to you," Lily muttered.

"…Black, obvious reasons, filthy wastrel, that Pettigrew is utterly useless as a human, and Lupin…" Sev considered his drink carefully. "Well… you've noticed something… off about him, I'm sure?"

Lily glanced at him. She never quite liked this particular topic, and it seemed to come up often. "Yeah. You've mentioned."

Sev suddenly looked feverish, the color high in his cheeks, his black eyes bright. He only ever got like this for two reasons; when he was studying something in relation to the Dark Arts and when he was planning to pull one over Potter and his mates. "Well, I was following Potter and Black and Pettigrew in the library a few days back—"

"What?! Why?"

"What do you mean, why? All I need is one slip from them, one little something, to get them all permanently expelled." Sev looked very satisfied at this thought. "Less than they deserve."

Lily blinked. "Expelled? Isn't that a little…"

"Anyway," Snape cut across, still in the throes of excitement from the information he held. "Those degenerates were discussing something about a full moon and running around outside on the day of. What do you think it means, Lily?" He turned to her, looking thrilled. "I mean, there's really only one explanation, isn't there?"

"I-isn't there?" Lily asked, nervously. She wasn't stupid. She could guess what he was getting at, but felt that this sort of… discovery was much larger than the both of them.

"The full moon, Lily. I mean… I'm not sure how those other morons are involved, but it shouldn't be too difficult to figure it out, right?"

"Sev…" Lily started slowly. "I don't think you should pry into this."

Sev looked at her, dark brows furrowed. "Well, why not? This is my best chance to get that ignoramus arrested."

"Arrested?! A moment ago, you were talking about expulsion…"

Sev waved a hand and took a long pull from his drink. "Semantics."

"I just think you could get hurt," Lily said firmly. "It's not as though the four of them are totally helpless. They'll fight back against you, and knowing them… well, they'll probably-"

"Don't say they'll win," Sev responded venomously.

Lily gave him an apologetic look. "I just mean that they know how to play their cards right and I wouldn't be surprised if the one who ends up in trouble is you." He didn't look at her, so she focused on his side profile, the hair flirting with the collar of his robes. "I don't want that for you. Sev, come on."

Before she could say anything more, they were called to dinner, and Lily reluctantly followed her friend to the inner hall of Slughorn's office.

When Lily returned to the Tower that evening, she spotted Mary sitting by the window, painting her nails a soft gold and headed over. "Nice color," she commented with a smile, throwing herself into a chair near the sill. The fire crackled happily near them, throwing shadows over their corner of the room.

Mary gave her a smile. "Nice dress. Where were you?"

Lily ran a hand through her thick hair. "Slug Club dinner. It's awfully time-consuming, being a suck-up."

Mary let out an appreciative laugh. She offered her the nail polish bottle, which Lily considered for a second before twisting open and applying to her pinky finger. "So what's this I hear about you royally pissing off some Slytherin sixth years?"

Mary gaped. "How'd you hear about that?"

Lily laughed, now painting her ring finger. "Oh, I overheard some gossip in the corridors about Val Greengrass being on the warpath." She considered her completed nail. "Do you need a security detail?"

"Oh, definitely. I'm always getting myself into these situations, it's a curse. What happened was… I may have accidentally snogged that horrid bitch's more-than-friend-but-not-boyfriend and suddenly, I'm the devil."

"More-than-friend-but-not-boyfriend? Is that some sort of ailment?" Marlene had joined them, dragging a stool over with her foot; she was dressed in her Quidditch robes, and sweaty from a good workout, the rest of the team entering the portrait hole after her and filling the common room with raucous laughter. "And why do girls do that?"

Lily and Mary exchanged a look. "Do what?"

"Call each other bitches. It's so catty."

Lily broke into laughter as Mary rolled her eyes. "How else do you get the message across? She's a despicable human, I'm going to call her out on it. And it's not reserved for birds, I insult men just the same."

"Perhaps Marlene would be less offended by the usage of some other terms," Lily teased. "Berk? Blighter? Barmy Banana?"

"Banana?"

"It sounded insulting in my head," Lily explained, wrinkling her nose.

Before either of them could respond, a shrill screech and furious tapping at the window alerted them to an owl tapping at the glass.

"A letter?" Lily asked curiously as Marlene hurried to let the bird in. "Who from? Er… not that it's any of my business."

"No, it's fine, it's just my brother, I think," Marlene answered distractedly, tearing the envelope open.

"You have a brother?"

"Two. And a sister. My youngest brother is in Hufflepuff." Marlene scoured the contents of the letter and scoffed. "Oh, bloody hell. Wanker got engaged."

"What?" yelped Mary, nearly overturning the bottle of nail polish.

"Wow, congratulations!" Lily squealed.

"Hmph." Marlene crumpled the letter up and sighed, leaning forward on her stool and mussing her hair. "Mum won't be pleased."

"Why's that?" Mary asked curiously.

Marlene darted a glance at Mary and hesitated for a second. She pointed the hand that held the remains of her letter at both girls sitting with her. "Don't get me wrong on this, I promise I don't feel this way at all… but, well, Kieran… he's marrying a muggle. And mum…"

Lily and Mary exchanged a quick look. "Ah…"

"Like I said," she continued quickly, "don't judge me. We're not one of those orthodox pureblood clans or… or a family of muggle-haters, if that's what you're thinking. And I certainly couldn't give a damn. But I just think mum would have preferred him to marry a witch… anyway, it's none of her fucking business."

"Understood, Marlene," Lily said wryly, twisting the cap on the nail polish closed and examining her new nails. "I mean, that's the general sentiment, isn't it? Nowadays?"

Marlene grimaced. "Well, fuck that sentiment. Muggles are brilliant. My new sister-in-law will be brilliant, too."

"That's the spirit," Mary crowed, clapping her own newly polished hand on Marlene's back.

Lily arranged her notes on top of the library table carefully. Then, she rearranged them. Then, she placed her textbook in front of her and her notes surrounding, sorted by subject matter. Then, she reconsidered—

"Evans?"

Lily looked up with a nervous, beaming grin. "H-hi! Please! Sit!"

Emmeline set her bookbag on the floor and took the chair across from Lily, folding her hands in her lap and peering at her with very little expression. She had a very straight spine, Lily thought suddenly. It made her appear very sharp, even if her features themselves weren't so.

Despite her lack of emotion, she was clearly very attentive towards the redhead, as she blinked at her patiently, waiting for her next instruction.

"Right," Lily cleared her throat. "I thought I might ask you a few questions first, determine where exactly you're struggling and how best I can help you. Then we can move on to more advanced, more recent topics, like color-changing charms and the like…"

This was easier than she'd expected, and Lily was pleasantly surprised by Emmeline's willingness to set her pride aside and come forth with all her challenge areas. She'd always thought Ravenclaws a bit… vain when it came to studies.

The two spent the next hour reviewing banishing charms, which were a particularly tricky spell that Emmeline had been struggling with. Towards the end of the lesson, Lily beamed at her. "You're improving already! Soon you won't even need my help! Is that a Ravenclaw thing?"

"No. There are some really stupid Ravenclaws," Emmeline said bluntly, to which Lily laughed loudly. Madame Pince, passing by, gave her a sharp look.

Lily lowered her voice to a whisper. "Well, listen, if I'm not moving at the speed you like, or if there's anything I need to improve on, please let me know. I'm very new to all this, so I'm glad you're willing to put up with me."

Emmeline's pink mouth was pursed slightly. "I'm not putting up with you. Not at all."

"Glad to hear it!"

"I admire you," she added.

Lily felt herself flush. "W-what?"

"I think you're very kind and smart. Plus, you don't seem to care much about the rules of inter-house friendships. I admire you," she repeated, in her unusually candid manner. Lily's mouth opened and closed. She'd never received such direct praise to her face in her life. And this was from a fellow prefect, a talented student, at that.

"Thank you. That's… I really appreciate that," she finally responded, softly. Emmeline nodded.

After she'd left and Lily had spent a good ten minutes pretending to work on the rest of her homework whilst feeling exceptionally good about herself, a distraction appeared.

"Oh—sorry—"

Lily looked up from her notes and at the tall curly-haired Ravenclaw who'd charged into her corner of the library. This was the fourth time that this had occurred in the last two weeks, and she was starting to think that she and this boy had claimed ownership of this particular table and were fighting for time with it, only to be thwarted by the other. Luckily, he seemed to be a respectful sort of bloke and always left her to her devices once he saw she was seated there.

"Oh, did you—do you need the table—?" Lily stood from her chair cautiously. He'd been here so frequently, she was starting to feel bad.

"No—no, please, don't worry about it," the Ravenclaw said with a small smile. He made to leave but Lily spoke again. She was feeling charitable today, especially after Emmeline's sweet words.

"Listen, erm… I've seen you in here quite a bit and well, you're really quiet when you work. I mean, if you're okay with it… well… it's a big table, and I don't mind… sharing it."

The boy was scrutinizing her impassively throughout her speech, but softened just slightly towards the end. He knocked his books against his palm. "That's really nice of you."

Lily shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, I mean… Okay, sure," he said awkwardly, stepping forward. Lily felt slightly relieved but also uncomfortable. At least now with this understanding in place, there wouldn't be any more awkward run-ins. "Thanks," the boy said, sitting down with a smile. She noticed he had a slight gap between his two front teeth. She thought it gave him a really genuine look.

"Anytime," Lily replied with her own smile, looking back down at her notes and continuing her reading.

Monday morning, the Gryffindors and Slytherins were waiting outside of the dungeons, as the prior class, a group of sixth years, filed out. It was quite the sight to behold, Lily thought to herself in amusement. With the second Quidditch match of the season having taken place over the weekend, Hufflepuff vs Ravenclaw, and with Hufflepuff having taken the lead, the celebrations had lasted well into Sunday. Though neither of the houses currently stationed in the hallway were involved, they'd clearly partaken in a few of those celebrations, judging by their looks of drugged languor. Marlene's head was falling over her chest, jerking every once in a while, as she blinked the sleep from her blue eyes. Potter was leaning against the back of the stone dungeon wall, yawning, while Black was fully passed out on his shoulder. Lily chanced a glance at Sev, only to see him reading a book a short distance away. She considered joining him, but was distracted by the sight of Val Greengrass and her posse of Slytherin girls. Val gave Mary a vicious look, which Mary returned.

"Bitch," Mary mumbled.

"You mean, Beastly Barnacle," Lily said quietly, without thinking, glancing at Marlene. The girl in question smirked in response. Unfortunately, Lily hadn't realized the volume at which she spoke could still reach ears, and was confronted with the sight of Val Greengrass staring her down, her beautiful face pinched tight.

"What did you just call me, Evans?" she whispered dangerously.

Lily felt her face heat in shock. "Erm… not you, just…"

"I heard you calling me a name. Out with it," she spat, stepping forward. Her friends watched from behind her, looking remarkably unconcerned.

"Well, actually, I was calling you a non-name, to be precise," Lily spoke awkwardly. Val leaned closer, causing Lily to back directly into Marlene, whose hands came down on her shoulders, holding Lily against her chest. There were about two centimeters between Lily and Val's faces. "Listen, are you trying to threaten me or snog me, because you're just… you're much too close," Lily said in a panic. She felt, rather than heard, Marlene laughing silently behind her.

Val sneered at her. "If anyone here is beastly, Evans, it's you," she raged before turning so quickly, her thick sheets of blonde hair slapped Lily across the face. "Bloody twat," she muttered, storming off.

Lily stared after her in shock, her hand coming up to cup her stinging cheek. She turned to face Marlene incredulously. "What the hell was that?" Mary was fighting to restrain her own laughter. "Macdonald, this is the second time I've been targeted on your behalf. At this point, I'd say you owe me," Lily said waspishly.

The girl in question couldn't stop laughing. At this point, the rest of the hallway had woken from their half-slumber and were watching the proceedings.

"Do you want us to defend your honor, Evans?" Potter called from where he slouched against the wall. He grinned at her lazily. The other Marauders were alert now, and watching.

"How would that work, when you're the ones causing it the most damage?" Lily replied mock-sweetly. She turned away from him as she heard him give a sharp, surprised bark of laughter.

"I'm sorry. I'll give you chocolate, Evans," Mary said, still chortling. "Plenty of chocolate."

"Forget it," Lily said with a roll of her eyes. "Where the hell is Professor Slughorn, anyway?" She grew rigid as she felt an arm creeping around her shoulders.

"Listen, Evans," a mischievous, low voice spoke in her ear. She shuddered and tried to shake him off, but he didn't budge. "You've got to learn to rely on your housemates more. Don't you know how very willing we are to help you out? I could have half of Greengrass' hair spelled off and in your hand before the end of class."

Lily turned wide, alarmed eyes on him. He raised one of his dark brows, golden eyes twinkling. "Potter, please, please, for the love of Merlin, leave me out of your demented tomfoolery."

He laughed and Black joined, leaning his elbow on Lily's other shoulder. She sighed in irritation. She was suddenly reminded of the time in fourth year when Potter and Black had spent ten minutes tossing around her copy of Jeeves and Wooster until she was red in the face and cursing them out.

"If you're trying to test out new spells, Prongs, I'd suggest another cause. Something tells me Evans' wand is just too far up her—"

"Oh, go pick on someone else," Lily ordered, shrugging them both off angrily. She joined Marlene and Mary's side, glaring at them both.

Black and Potter exchanged a look. "She's right, you know."

"Our talents are wasted here."

"More importantly, we need a willing adversary."

Both boys turned, as though in sync, towards the end of the hall. Their faces, so very different in appearance, somehow broke into identical evil smiles.

"Up for a bit of sport, mate?" Potter asked quietly, his eyes on the dark figure reading a book at the end of the hall. Lily stiffened, realizing at once what was going on.

"You read my mind, Prongs," Black answered, sliding from his robes his wand. Both boys cast, causing the book Severus had been holding to fly from his hands. He whirled on them, enraged and plunged his own hand into his robes, pulling forth his wand.

"Oh, Christ," Lily moaned, her hands dragging at her face, as a full-out duel commenced. What she hated the most about these situations, inevitable as they were, was that she never felt that she could help out. She wasn't the best duelist by any means, a fact which everyone was aware of, and she wasn't sure that she could bring an end to their vicious fight when they were so single-mindedly determined to best each other.

"Potter, Black," she yelled. "Both of you, quit it." But they weren't listening.

She was a prefect for god's sake. There must be something she could do. She turned to Marlene. "Do you mind getting a Professor?"

Marlene nodded, her eyes lingering on the brawl, before sweeping from the corridor.

Potter hit Sev with a sponge-knee curse, causing him to wobble in place, and Black followed up with a stinging jinx which sent him toppling. Lily made to move forward, dragging her own wand out of her robes. Ah, well, at the very least, she might try to maintain the peace with a momentary shield charm.

Before she could, Sev looked up from the floor, his expression livid. "Levicorpus!" he screamed, his wand pointed at Potter.

The boy in question was suddenly turned on his head, dangling in midair, as though hoisted by one leg. His robes fell over his uniform, his glasses fell to the ground and shattered, and his shocked face was slowly turning red. The hallway exploded in a cacophony of noise and laughter.

Lily rushed forward, towards Severus, dropping to her knees beside him. "Sev, drop him! A professor will be here soon, I don't want you to get in trouble—"

But Sev was hardly paying attention, his expression enthralled, as he held Potter in place. Black had backed off, as he noticed the two tall figures hurrying towards them from the other end of the corridor.

"What is going on here?" It seemed Marlene had managed to run into a Professor; Professor Sprout. She hastened forward, pulling her own wand out. "Mr. Snape, release him immediately!"

Sev looked as though he'd been asked to chop off his own hand. With a surly frown, he flicked his wand. "Liberacorpus," he muttered. Lily hesitated, then grasped his shoulder.

Potter lay a crumpled heap on the ground. Black was shaking him with concern, making sure he was alright, using a quick 'Reparo' on his specs. When Potter finally looked up, they were all surprised to see his thin face full of mirth. He was laughing. And loudly, quite care-freely, at that.

"That was fun," he chuckled, running a hand over the sore spot of his jaw, from where he'd fallen hard onto it. He took his glasses from Black and slid them back on, glancing at Severus as he did. His eyes briefly landed on Lily, who sat beside her friend tensely.

"Levicorpus, was it?" he repeated slowly. "Nice one, Snivelly. I'll be borrowing that."

"I'm going to kill them," Sev said murderously as he and Lily strode through the inner courtyard, towards the Black Lake. He'd just been given a week's worth of detention for using spells on a classmate. Thankfully, Lily was able to testify to Professor Sprout on his behalf, and Potter and Black had ended up with and extra week as a result. "I'm going to—I'm going to send them to Azkaban, at the very least."

Lily sighed. "They're total pigs, I know."

"No, you don't know," Sev said fiercely, turning to look at her. "You don't—I'm serious about this. I'm going to do it. I'm going to find out what they're up to, once and for all, and get those bloody pillocks arrested and thrown out… and then, all four of them won't feel so powerful, will they? Locked up for all of eternity in a prison cell, having every bit of joy sucked out of you for the rest of your life…" He was breathing heavily.

Lily clasped his arm in alarm. "Sev, calm down."

"I will not calm down," he growled, shrugging her hand off. He seemed to regret this a moment later, and deflated slightly. "I'm just… I think I may have figured some things out about them and I just need a few more hints, and I can… I can get them once and for all..."

The way he was talking about it, the clinical way in which he spoke about things as plans, meant that he was serious, more than serious. "Sev, I've said this before, and I know how it's going to sound at this moment, but I mean it when I say you should leave them alone."

He turned to look at her, and his expression couldn't have been described as anything other than betrayed. "Lily, you…" Suddenly his expression shifted, his eyes flickering with anger. "Don't tell me they've gotten to you, too," he hissed.

Lily's eyes tapered to slits. "Gotten to me? What the bloody hell does that mean, exactly?"

"I mean you're suddenly on their side, don't tell me you've seen the light and you're now part of their stupid fan club," Sev responded in a low, angry voice.

"Wh—of course not! What are you even—? That's not what I'm saying! What I'm trying to say, no, listen, Sev—" She grabbed his arm, which he unwillingly relinquished to her, and dragged him over towards the lake, so that they stood in the shadow of a large tree. "What I'm trying to say is that you're painting them out to be some sort of… Masters of Evil, and they're absolute—" she searched around for a word that was strong enough, "—toerags, I'm aware, but they're just complete idiots who need to be straightened out with detention, maybe about fifty of them, but detention, nonetheless. Maybe an academic probation. But not expulsion, not Azkaban, and I don't want you running around trying to meddle with their mess. It's none of our business," she finished, crossing her arms over her chest, and hoping to God that she'd made her case.

After a tense second, Severus shook his head. "I can't believe you," was all he said, as he shrugged her hand off and stormed away, leaving her beneath the fall foliage.

The week resumed with little to no event. Sev seemed angrier at her than usual, and she couldn't seem to find him outside of classes, which concerned her. She ignored Potter and the rest as best she could, as usual. She spent time with Mary and Marlene in the dorms, when she could. She tutored Emmeline. She'd settled into some sort of rhythm.

On the morning of December 1st, Lily had opened her copy of the Daily Prophet, to work on their brain teasers, when she spotted Mary jogging towards her, an expression of concern on her face. Lily set her newspaper aside, her brows furrowing instinctively. "What's going on?"

"I thought… maybe… you didn't hear…?" Mary asked, attempting to catch her breath.

Lily shook her head. Mary looked up and gave her a look that was veering on apologetic.

"Snape… he's in the Hospital Wing."