The train had arrived at the Hogsmede station and the students were filing inside the carriages. Lily, Hestia, Marlene sat in one carriage, along with Liam, much to the dissapointment of the three girls. Lily was wondering if he was going to stick around everyday with them. She wondered if he'll be sorted like the first years. The carriages stopped outside the castle and Lily looked up at the majestic towers and the small ochre lit windows. She felt more welcomed here than she did with her sister at home. Goes off to that freak school. Petunia's words echoed in her ears. She shook herself, got off the carriage, almost running into Liam.
"Er.. Sorry." she said quickly and before he could engage her in any conversation she darted off in another direction with an excuse for finding Remus.
She hated this part of coming back to Hogwarts. Last year she and Remus had been made Prefects. Which meant that right after arriving at Hogwarts she had to go look for the Marauders to find Remus. It was easier to look for him just by finding James and Sirius. They caused enough commotion to be easily spotted. And Remus was almost always with them. As if on cue she heard Sirius's bark like laugh from behind her. She turned around and saw Remus coming towards her, breaking away from the band of marauders. She sighed internally. She didn't want to engage with Potter or Black, not after they'd witnessed her being humiliated in public, by her own sister nonetheless.
"Hey Remus."
"Hello Lily. I never got to ask, where were you during the meeting?"
Lily was hoping he won't ask her that.
"I fell asleep, in one of the compartments that were out of order."
"We were looking for you. I think Sirius went to check that compartment. We were really worried when we couldn't find you."
"I was fine, really. Just needed some time to myself."
"They told me about what happened at the station. And honestly you shouldn't run off alone to deal with things when you're hurting. Talk it out with your friends. Makes things much more bearable. I'm speaking from experience." he smiled, ruefully at the last bit.
Lily had known that Remus was a werewolf. She had figured it out in their fourth year but hadn't breathed a word about it to anyone. When in their fifth year Remus started making excuses for the patrols he'd be missing, she had confronted him about it and told him that he needn't make excuse in front of her. She had seen panic, shame, relief, gratitude, all pass through his eyes in less than a minute. They had been more or less on good terms with each other since then and James had exploited every aspect of Remus and Lily's friendship for his own benefit of getting to talk to Lily which usually involved asking her out a hundred and one times in less than ten minutes. But Lily had resolutely stuck with Remus knowing that not many people would know about his problem and hang around to call themselves his friend. The other three marauders knew about Remus's secret. Remus had told her this when she'd confronted him that day about his problem. And while Lily would never openly admit it, she had grown just a little tolerant of the marauders, especially when she found Remus's bed in the hospital wing on the next day of full moon flooding with chocolates, with James, Sirius and Peter crowding Remus cheering him up. She had gone to pay him a visit but she returned without entering the hospital wing, partly because she couldn't have tolerated James asking her out so early in the morning and partly because she was tearing up at the sight of Remus being surrounded by people that loved him despite his disposition.
Lily and Remus guided the storm of unruly students through the Entrance Hall. While the fifth, sixth and seventh year students barely paid attention, the overexcited second, third and fourth year students were tactfully managed by the Gryffindor prefects quietly filing into lines. Once everyone had settled in Remus and Lily made their way to the Gryffindor table to find their friends. Lily took a seat between Hestia and Marlene sitting across from Remus and Peter. James and Sirius were sitting next to Hestia, trying to get her to come up for a title for Slughorn, their Potions professor and the Head of Slytherin house.
"What are they on about?" asked Lily.
"Hestia called Liam MACUSA's curse on Hogwarts." Peter answered from where he was sitting, to which Marlene scoffed.
"Speaking of where is MACUSA's curse on Hogwarts?" asked Remus, mildly amused, but tried to feign seriousness when Hestia shot him a glare.
"The curse has to be sorted first, so we could know which counter curse to use on him." replied James, snickering. Hestia tired of being teased, dropped a fork on James's hand muttering a sweet "Sorry" watching Sirius and James inch away from her, the latter nursing his hand where the fork had hit him.
Soon the sorting ceremony began. After a serenade of applauses from different tables at different times and a number of stumbling, clumsy first years making their way to their alloted table, the ceremony finally came to an end, at least for the first years.
"May I have your attention please. We have a transfer student among us from Ilvermony. He'll attend a term of his sixth year here in Hogwarts and I should hope that the students will do their best to make him feel at home. As the rule goes, he too has to be sorted. Bolte, Liam." announced McGonagall.
Liam stepped forward and sat down on the three legged stool. The seven Gryffindors who had met Liam before arriving at Hogwarts were desperately muttering under their breaths "not Gryffindor, not Gryffindor" glancing around at each other nervously. After a moment or two the sorting hat yelled "HUFFLEPUFF". The Hufflepuff table rose in roars as they got the transfer student. The seven Gryffindors looked at each other with marked relief and almost congratulatory glances. They looked over at the Hufflepuff table, as every student tried to shake Liam's hand and talk to him excitedly.
"I feel sorry that Hufflepuff has to bear the brunt of MACUSA's curse. It's such a nice house." pouted Remus, ignoring Hestia's pointed stare.
"Wait till the curse actually takes effect." piped in Sirius.
"I'll give it one day for the Hufflepuff folks to get tired of him." James replied.
"Nah, they're patient folks. A day and half." said Peter, putting 2 chocolate frogs on the table. On cue every marauder took out 2 chocolate frogs threw it on the table placing their own bets.
"Ladies, would you like to place your bets?" asked Sirius.
"One hour." Hestia said, her face straight as she took out a new packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans putting it on the table. The marauders raised their brows.
"McKinnon? Evans?" asked Peter.
"A day." Marlene replied, putting in three sugar quills.
"Oye Evans?" asked Sirius.
"Hmm?" replied Lily from where she was sitting. She hadn't been paying attention to what was going on. Her mind had wandered off to Snape who was pointedly looking towards their table and Lily was trying to avoid his gaze.
"We're placing bets on how long before Liam wears out Hufflepuffs' eardrums."
"End of this feast." replied Lily placing four chocolate frogs on the table.
Dumbledore had just finished announcing notices and food had appeared on their empty plates taking their mind off of Liam. Everyone discussed their summer holidays. For the first time students with magical backgrounds looked grim while discussing the summer. The muggle borns especially the younger ones were actively going on about their vacations, blissfully unaware of the grave condition the magical world was in.
"Marlene how was your summer?" asked Peter between mouthfuls.
"Yeah Marlene, did MACUSA's curse smother your senses?" asked Remus, as James and Sirius snickered.
"Liam didn't come over until Frank's father's funeral. In any case, I was busy being smothered by other curses in my life." replied Marlene curtly. Sirius spluttered his pumpkin juice all over the table.
"Merlin Padfoot!" said James, as he dried his pants where Sirius had spilled the pumpkin juice.
"Looks like the hufflepuffs have had enough smothering from MACUSA'S curse." Peter said, as the seven Gryffindors looked around at the Hufflepuff table. It was painfully evident that the very students that were, nearly an hour ago, hanging on to every word that Liam said, were now inching away from him. A very few younger girls and boys stuck around still, but everyone else was now pointedly ignoring the boy. To Liam it didn't matter much who was happy to have anything bobbing it's head at his words. Hestia and Lily collected the sweets and candies from the table triumphantly as the rest of the Gryffindors groaned making useless arguments as to how a few girls were still listening to Liam.
James and the other marauders plonked down on their four poster beds once they reached their dormitories. James couldn't get the upset face of Lily out of his mind. He had debated with himself if he should talk to her about this, but everytime he'd look at her, she just seemed to be so lost that James lost every bit of courage he'd mustered up to talk. He just wanted to wrap her in a hug and tell her just how much she matters and just how much she is wanted. James had always thought that the pureblood mania in the wizarding world alone made her feel as if she didn't belong here. But having watched Lily's sister looking at her the way Slytherins do, not touching her for the fear of being contaminated, made James feel sick to his stomach. Not too far away, lying on his four poster Sirius was thinking along the same lines as James. Neither discussed it. Soon Peter asked what they would do for the start of the term prank. The four marauders, hunched over Remus's bed started planning their first prank of the term. Their dorm mate Charlie McKellen used to their late night meetings drifted off to sleep.
Morning came too soon for the marauders who'd planned their start of the term prank till three in the morning and had to get up at five to make arrangements for it. They returned from the kitchens, still sleepy, as students in the common room were heading out for breakfast.
"Where have you guys been?" asked Alice suspiciously.
James had been hoping no one would catch them. They had decided not to use his invisibility cloak on their way back to the Gryffindor tower given that it wasn't curfew anymore. James looked at Alice. She looked pathetic. There were huge dark circles under her eyes and she was much thinner than he remembered her at the funeral. He could see a vein popping out on her temple. Her school robes hung over her frail thin frame, drooping over her shoulders. Her eyes were red and swollen.
"Alice are you okay?" asked Remus. He too James realised had noticed her pathetic state. Despite their own lack of sleep, the four marauders approached Alice, hovering over her worriedly.
"I don't remember seeing you yesterday at the feast either." remarked Sirius.
"I came straight to the dormitory. I didn't feel like eating."
"And I suppose you haven't felt like eating for nearly a month now? Look at you!" admonished Sirius.
"I'm fine!" cried Alice as she tried force her way out of the circle the marauders had formed around her. But almost immediately her knees wobbled. Sirius and Peter got hold of her before she could fall to the ground.
"That's it, you're coming to the hospital wing with us." said Sirius as he hoisted her on her legs, his arm supporting her.
"No please, that place depresses me. Madam Pomfrey would just tell me to eat more and give me awful potions." pleaded Alice.
"Well hate to break it to you Alice, but Poppy will be right if she does tell you that. I could wrap you in just one arm!" said Sirius, as he dragged a very reluctant Alice towards the portrait hole.
"Okay okay, you know what. I'll just eat a lot at breakfast." replied Alice, hoping this would work. The marauders seemed to consider this offer.
"Okay. But you're eating with us. And you'll have to eat as much as Sirius does." said James. Sirius made a show of rolling his eyes and looking offended.
"Fine! But don't you guys have to change?" asked Alice looking at their pyjamas.
"Er.. Right, we do. But wait for us here. We'll be back in ten minutes." James said hurriedly as they picked Alice up and broought her to sit in an armchair.
"Don't move or we'll find you and send you to Poppy." cried Peter over his shoulder, as the four boys rushed to their dormitory to change into their school robes.
Lily descended the stairs of her dormitory to find Alice sitting in one of the armchairs, looking exhausted. She walked over to Alice to ask why she wasn't going down for breakfast. Alice explained the entire episode with the marauders. Lily felt a twinge of annoyance as she thought taking Alice to the hospital wing would have been a sensible decision. But this doubt was soon wiped off her mind as she saw the band of marauders marching down, with James and Sirius hoisting Alice up to sit on their shoulders, walking with extravagant steps with Remus and Peter clearing the way ahead for 'Her Majesty'. Her perpetual exasperation for James and Sirius, who could be making Alice dizzy who was already in a bad shape, was battling with her heart that had warmed up at the sight of a hearty smile on Alice's tired and sad face. As they entered the Great Hall James and Sirius made their way to the usual spot and put Alice down making her sit between them as Remus and Peter sat across from their friends. Lily took a seat next to Sirius with Marlene on her right and Hestia across her, sitting next to Remus.
"What's happening?" asked Hestia, not looking up from her book.
"We're making Alice eat as much as Sirius." replied Remus, helping himself to some scrambled eggs. Hestia snorted but said nothing.
"What is it with everyone?" asked Sirius, feigning annoyance.
"Oh no." Peter said as he looked over their shoulders. Lily turned around and regretted her decision immediately. Striding towards them was Liam. The eight Gryffindors groaned.
"Hello people. Fine morning isn't it?" Liam greeted everyone as he squeezed himself in the little space between Marlene and Lily, putting his arms around their shoulders. That got Sirius and James's attention. Sirius pulled Lily towards himself so there'll be enough room for Lily and Marlene.
"So did you guys get your timetable yet?" asked Liam.
"Not yet no." replied Marlene, her face trying to form a polite expression.
"Oh, anyway, we've got Herbology together, first period, double lectures. I'll see you there, Evans?" asked Liam, his eyes looking hopeful. James's head whipped in the direction of Liam and Lily. He couldn't see Lily's face but he could see her inching away from him.
"Er .. Unless we'll be in different rooms, I guess yeah." replied Lily, with apprehension.
"Cool." chuckled Liam as he almost made to get up. But before he could Professor McGonagall came up to them with their timetables.
"It's advisable to dine at your own house table, Mr. Bolte. I hope you'll see to that." said McGonagall in a curt tone.
"Of course, professor. I just dropped by to say hi." replied Liam as he hurried off to his own table.
McGonagall handed over everyone's timetables and moved down the table.
"Aww, MACUSA's curse is crushing on instead of cursing dear Evans." teased Hestia, her face straight. Lily glared at Hestia but the latter couldn't be more at ease. Only Hestia was immune to Lily's death glare, before which, as Marlene had mentioned, even McGonagall might shudder.
James dropped his fork with much force than was necessary. Sirius looked around at a clearly annoyed James and decided it was time to put their late night hard work at display. He quickly made Alice gulp down the entire goblet of pumpkin juice and forced her to eat her eggs and toast as fast as possible. Once the marauders were satisfied that Alice had had enough for breakfast, they nodded at each other discreetly. Sirius muttered something under his breath and not a second later a grape in Lily's plate jumped up and sprouted two legs, two eyes, a mouth and two arms which started peeling the skin on the grape off. Once the skin was off, it climbed up the highest point on the pile of fruits kept in a big basket and took a swan dive in Lily's goblet of water, splattering it all over her school robes.
"What the hell was tha-" cried Lily as she moved away from the goblet. Soon the entire Great Hall was a mess, as fruits all over the tables sprouted arms and legs and peeled of their skins to take a dive in anything that looked remotely liquid. A bowl of porridge became a bath tub for a banana and a couple of oranges. Some students were horrified but most of them laughed. Once Lily had overcome her initial scare, she too rolled her eyes and allowed herself a chuckle as grape after grape took dive in water. Professor McGonagall and other heads of houses came over trying to contain the situation while Hagrid and Dumbledore shared a laugh as the former poked an orange which covered its "mouth" with its hand in indignation.
"We need to help McGonagall." stated Remus, half smirking, half looking apologetic, looking at Lily.
"Right. You don't happen to know how to make it stop, do you?" she asked knowing fully well he did. James and Sirius snorted loudly.
"I think Moony can stop anything he's capable enough to start in the first place, after all he's the brains of th-" remarked James under his breath but was cut off by a sharp blow to his head by Remus who was now walking towards McGonagall, Lily tagging along with him, looking confused.
Remus in fact did help in stopping the mess, feigning ignorance of the matter.
"I think it was more like a chain reaction. The first grape jumped in Lily's goblet of water and then every other fruit followed suit." he had said to McGonagall, who didn't look even mildly convinced that Remus didn't have a hand in this. Remus had let the professors come up with different spells to reverse a chain reaction until they had found just the one. McGonagall had then ordered the prefects to use them to finally "announce bath time was over, lest their fingers turn pruny".
The rest of the day looked pretty dull according to James. They had Transfiguration with Slytherins, Defence Against the Dark Arts with Ranvenclaws. However they had double lectures of Herbology in the very first period with Hufflepuffs and James couldn't help but feel uneasy. Liam, in James's view, couldn't be anymore insufferable than he already was. His sharp laugh and overly patient eyes triggered something in James that made him want to punch the patience out of his eyes. Usually, the marauders were the last to reach a classroom, however, James wanted to reach as fast as possible because he knew Herbology to be one of the classes where Lily paired up with someone other than Hestia or Marlene. Normally James would reach the classroom wishing she hadn't paired up with anyone else but today he'd rather have her paired with a giant squid if he couldn't reach in time, than that Bolte bloke. He was also trying to keep a calm face on lest the other three marauders start with their usual teasing and worrying over James's crush on Lily.
"Come on mate, she hates him too. Don't be jealous."
"I'm not being jealous!" defended James, "I just don't want him to spoil her mood." he said weakly.
As they reached the classroom James looked around. Mary Mcdonald and Jane Prewett were paired together as always, Hestia with her boyfriend and Marlene with her Hufflepuff friend. James let out a groan when he saw Liam putting his bag down next to Lily. But before anyone could take the spot behind Lily, James grabbed the marauder standing closest to him by the collar and dragged him to stand behind Lily.
"..we don't have herbology as a separate subject you know." James listened to Liam talking to Lily as James and Remus settled in their spots. "We cover plants and herbs as a smaller branch in Potions, that way we just filter and learn about the plants that are actually gonna come to some use. I don't see the point of having a separate subject. Herbology should be elective, you know, for those who want to specialise in it or something. Anyway, it's not like I'm in my school, right?" said Liam, as he smiled at Lily. Lily nodded her head rather stiffly.
"Say Liam, you don't happen to know when you'll be going back to that school of yours?" asked James and received a kick in the shins by Remus.
"He meant how long are you staying? Did you get any news from your father?" said Remus, ignoring James.
"Nah man, all I know is that he's crazy busy these days. Last I checked I was staying for a term. I'll only get to know anything around Christmas when this term ends. It'll be a shame to miss Christmas at Ilvermony. You know we have this huge bewitched Christmas tree.." James, Remus and Lily groaned as Liam launched into yet another one of his school stories. Soon they set off to work, trimming their Boom Berries and keeping them in ice cold water. The double lectures seemed to be passing doubly slow as James tried to hang on to every word Liam said, reluctantly, just so he could intervene if he tried making a move on Lily or tired asking her out. But to no one's surprise, Liam just kept on talking. The closest he came to addressing Lily was when he told her she'd really like it in Ilvermony. Thankfully the class came to an end.
"So Evans, what's your favourite subject?" James heard Liam ask Lily. Charms, James knew. Although she's more fascinated by Transfiguration.
"Lily!" cried Lily as she pushed her hair back with cold, wet hands.
"Er.. I'm sorry what?" asked a very confused Liam.
"Lily, my name is Lily." she said.
If anyone had looked in the general direction of James, they couldn't have missed the look of confusion, followed by horror, annoyance and hurt plastered over James's face. However, what they also wouldn't have missed was the irritation etched on Lily's face whenever Liam called her Evans. But James was as blind to this as a lover can be when faced to battle jealousy.
"Eh.. Yeah right, yeah, Lily." smiled Liam as if he'd just won the lottery. They began packing their bags.
"She asked him to call her LILY! LILY! Five years I've known that girl, one should think that's enough to credit being on a first name basis!" cried James as he met up with Sirius in front of the class to put their frozen boom berries in the cooling shelves.
"I don't know man, maybe she's got hots for blokes that rant."
"I can rant! I rant all the time about her to you guys!"
"Try doing that to her, maybe it'll work." offered Sirius as they walked back to pack up their stuff.
The nerve of him, thought Lily as she hurried out of the greenhouse, but almost got knocked off by James as he hurried past her, not looking back at her to drop an annoying remark about how wonderful her hair looked today, as he usually did.
So Evans, what's your favourite subject? Liam's words rang in her ears. It annoyed her beyond reason when he called her Evans. She could almost see the annoying smirk of James when Liam called her Evans but everytime she'd raise her head, Liam would be grinning down at her. And for some odd reason that made her angry and dissapointed. Her feet were thundering under her as she made her way back to the castle not caring to look back if Hestia and Marlene were close by. Her overthinking brain had just had got food for thought and it was chewing it mercilessly. Why did she feel angry? More importantly why did she feel disappointed to find Liam instead of James? Maybe because she could hex James and shout at him to her heart's content but has to behave when it came to Liam because he was a guest here and also because she was a Prefect. She can't go on behaving rudely to a transfer student, she reasoned. Her brain seemed to be considering her answering, but spat it all out in pure rejection. In that case she should only feel angry because she can't hex Liam. She felt disappointed for an entirely different reason than Liam. She felt disappointed because she wants James to call her that. And not in a way where she could tell James that they'll always be on a second name basis. But in a way that made her want to hear him say her last name just so she could finally listen to her name being said the way she's grown used to listen it. From James. With cockiness and arrogance wrapped around it. What?! Lily stopped dead in her tracks at that thought, making the students that were following her close behind stumble onto her. Remus fell down on Lily and Marlene and Sirius on top of each other.
"Please don't tell me you just remembered that you forgot your boyfriend in the greenhouse and were going back to walk with him. Who stops like that?" said Marlene she struggled to get up but her robes got stuck with Sirius's belt.
"I'm not complaining Evans. You should stop like this more often." remarked Sirius who lay flat on his back arms behind his head as he watched Marlene, lying on top of him, trying to avoid his gaze, struggling to pull her robe out of wherever it was stuck.
"Oh shut up Black you're such a dog." spat Marlene. Peter and Remus snorted.
"You've no idea." remarked Sirius.
"Aargh." cried Marlene as she pulled her robes in frustration. Her robe tore at the the sleeve, but she couldn't care less. She sat up straight, atop a smirking Sirius and got up swiftly, kicking Sirius in the ribs before taking her bag and walking with Lily.
Lily hadn't notice Marlene running towards her to catch up. She had continued pounding her feet on the ground, thinking even more thoroughly about what she had just thought. Did she like having her name taken with arrogance and cockiness especially by James sodding Potter? As they reached their classroom Lily saw James was the only one sitting there talking with McGonagall. As the class entered, James looked up at Lily and almost as if he didn't saw her walked straight past her to sit with his friends who were standing behind her. Lily didn't know what to make of it. Some unconvincing part of her was relieved he didn't make an embarrassing remark in front McGonagall but a huge chunk of her brain was working overtime to figure out why James's nonchalant behaviour was putting her off. Maybe she was looking forward to hear him call her Evans. She shook off that thought as quickly as it entered her mind and took a seat with Marlene. She looked around and couldn't spot Hestia.
"Where's Hestia?" asked Lily.
"She was walking with her boyfriend after class. She might be late, after all they're meeting after a week or two." said Marlene with a sly smirk.
"So if you'd meet your boyfriend after a week or two, you'd be randy?" asked Sirius as he poked his head around in their seat.
"Try staying away from James for a week or two and find out for yourself." replied Marlene as she shoved his face back to his seat.
The rest of the day went by rather uneventfully except when Liam came over the gryffindor table for lunch and Sirius spilled pumpkin juice all over him and Peter dropped scones on Liam's head while he was trying to teach a very reluctant first year to levitate objects. Liam had left soon after. And while James did look in better spirits after the lunch incident, he didn't so much as spare a glance towards Lily. And Lily being as stubborn as she was, didn't admit to herself that James ignoring her bothered her. The very fact that she said, "It's not!" out loud at one point during their dinner,
when James asked Marlene to pass the salt instead of Lily who was sitting right next to him, was enough of a proof that it was bothering her. She went to bed early, cursing the day and Liam and her wretched brain for making a fool of her at dinner, and hoping this urge to listen to James call her Evans would just go away with a fresh day.
It didn't.
A/N: I'm a horrible person for saying I'll update within a week. But I promise I'll start updating regularly now. Got my shit together.Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Thanks for reading. Leave a little review?
