Chapter Twenty-Five: Nothing Emboldens Sin So Much as Mercy

"So," Marlene said casually on the morning of Lily's eighteenth birthday, "are you seeing James today?"

"Yes. After breakfast," she said around a mouthful of hash brown. "We've progressed onto Cheering Charms, can you believe it? To think that this time last week he couldn't even levitate for thirty seconds!"

"He's a regular little genius," Marlene agreed, straight-faced. Lily frowned.

"You're mocking me, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't dream of it," Marlene said blandly and hurried on. "Do you think James knows it's your birthday?"

"Of course not," Lily said dismissively, although internally she was not so sure. Why shouldn't he know? Maybe Sirius had told him. They'd known each other long enough...

Still undecided, she swung her bag onto her shoulder and made for the Library.

"Say hello to him from me!" Marlene called. Puzzled – when had the two ever spoken? – Lily pushed open the double doors.

Since it was Saturday, the room was silent and empty, apart from the boy sitting at the very end table. He stood lazily when he saw her.

"Good morning, Lily-my-lily."

"Good morning," she said. Her palms were suddenly unaccountably sweaty. She discreetly wiped them on her robes and waited.

But James launched straight into another topic. "I've tried and I've tried, but this bit about the wand-flick just doesn't work for me. They've said specifically not to swish, but unless I do swish –"

"Which direction have you been flicking in?" she asked. Lily had to struggle to keep the disappointment from her voice – unwarranted disappointment, because why should he know or care when her birthday was? It wasn't as though it was her seventeenth, either. She had no right to expect anything.

A lock of his pitch-black hair hanging rakishly in front of one amber eye. Her fingers itched to tuck it behind his ear.

For the rest of their hour-long lesson Lily instructed James on the finer points of Charms as normal. He behaved exactly as usual, and soon so could she. But just as she was about to stand up and leave, he grabbed her wrist.

"Lily –"

They both froze as a sharp, almost painful shock seemed to spread out from his fingers. She jerked her hand back but with difficulty, since he seemed reluctant to let it go, regarding her with an inscrutable stare once she had freed it.

Lily cleared her throat. "Yes?"

He blinked and shook himself. "You haven't spoken to Sirius since he left, have you?"

"No," she said warily.

"Do you want to?"

She opened her mouth to say of course not, then was surprised to find that the words would not come out. Because the truth was... Lily did want to speak to him.

She hadn't missed him. Not really. He was wild and ruthless and utterly insane, but he was always loyal when it was truly needed and somehow his absence had taken something out of her world. Something like the sea – neither good nor bad, but powerful, and she felt its lack keenly.

"Yes," she said finally. "I'd like to talk to him. Only no-one knows where he is –"

James snorted. "Lily, really. We're Marauders. None of us could simply disappear on each other, not even him."

"Floo powder?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

He grinned. "Even better. See... this."

Out of his pocket, he took what looked like an ordinary, small square mirror and handed it to her. Lily gazed at her own reflection. Had her eyes always been such a poisonous shade of green?

"I don't understand."

Leaning close beside her, until she could feel the warmth of his lean body, James spoke clearly into the mirror. "Sirius Black!"

Lily's breath caught. The surface rippled, turning briefly opaque, then refocusing into an image of her cousin. Sirius looked gaunter than he had before. There were dark bruises under his eyes and his cheekbones cut sharply against his skin, but it only added to his handsomeness. Behind him she could make out unfamiliar Hippogriff-patterned wallpaper.

Instead of astonished, he looked disgruntled. "I knew you wouldn't be able to control yourself," he grunted. "You are so ridiculously besotted, Prongs. Does the word secret mean anything to you?"

"Sirius?" Lily breathed, disregarding his words. "My God, is that really you?"

"Who else would it be?" he asked irritably. "I knew he would do this for you. Compared to what he's already done, revealing Marauder secrets is nothing –"

"Padfoot!" James said sharply into her ear, making her jump, and cutting off that fascinating little fragment of sentence.

Sirius sighed and changed the topic. "So, my darling cousin, I hear you've done the impossible."

Lily raised a brow. "Have I?"

"Spoken to a dead girl," he said. "Otherwise known as Andromeda. No, Prongs didn't tell me," he added when Lily recoiled and turned a furious glare on James.

"How on earth do you know, then?"

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies, cousin. How well did that go for you?"

"Fine," she said stiffly.

Sirius smirked. "Oh, really? Shall I insult your intelligence by pretending I believe you? I trust she gave you only the most useful of advice. Come on, Lily. You can tell me. I can keep a secret."

"I would only trust you to keep my secrets if everyone else was dead. But I'll deal you an answer for an answer," she said. "Where are you staying?"

"I'm gone with the wind. What are your thoughts of James?"

"He's better than some and not as good as others. What are you doing?"

"Working on the aspects of might makes right. Have you made a choice yet?"

"Black and white. Sides of a coin."

"Y0u can't be both heads and tails," he said, and she smiled.

"I'm very good at balancing on tightropes."

"Alright," James interjected, glancing between the two of them. There was a faint frown on his face. "Padfoot, you have to go now. You know what happens when the mirrors overheat."

"So I do," Sirius said. "Farewell, my darling blood-traitor cousin. Remember, a Pepper-Up a day keeps the Healer away!"

Before Lily could reply, the mirror's surface turned smoky white again. When it cleared she was staring once more at herself. She looked drained, as though she had gone through a gruelling physical ordeal, rather than merely a short conversation with her own cousin.

"That was... interesting," she said, handing it back. "Where did you get it? How does it work?"

He winked a long-lashed eye. "We have our ways. It's a two-way mirror – you can contact whoever has its pair. I take it you liked your birthday present?"

"Birthday present?" she repeated, an odd corrosive happiness spreading through her veins. "I thought you didn't know when my birthday was!"

He looked at her. "I've known since first year," he said quietly. She fell silent at the intensity in his gaze, the gold of it erasing her bubbling joy and replacing it with something deeper. Darker. Somehow they were suddenly closer to each other. She could not even have sworn that it was he who had made the first move.

"Thank you," Lily whispered, almost soundlessly.

Their connection was getting uncomfortable – venomous though she might be, Black as she was, she couldn't breathe properly. She stepped backwards.

"I'll see you later, James."

"Later," he echoed, a promise and a threat, as he watched her leave.

AN: Welcome back to your regularly scheduled updates! The next one is pretty short, but it's the first one from James's POV, so I hope that helps. What did you think of this chapter?

Ellie - all good questions haha. I probably will keep Sirius and James's original character arcs when it comes to their respective darknesses! I hope you're getting enough sleep with the new job. Look after yourself xxx