Chapter Twenty-Nine: O Judgment! Thou Art Fled

Lily woke up with a gasp.

For a moment she gazed around at her surroundings, disorientated. Where was she?

Then she saw the pile of ashes that had once been a table, before it had encountered James's Reducto curse. Of course. She was still in the Library. Unsurprisingly, James himself had disappeared.

Lily briefly considered going to Dumbledore, but almost immediately discarded the notion. What would she say to him? That she, the Head Girl of Hogwarts, had illegally brewed Veritaserum, then illegally fed it to the new Head Boy, and proceeded to engage in an illegal duel with him?

That would go down well. The part of her which had always sought out the approval of her teachers shied away from such a confession.

She looked at her watch, a gift from Narcissa for her seventeenth birthday. It was nearly time for dinner. Through the windows she could see the last light of sundown spreading blotchily across the sky.

What to do now? James was gone. Sirius was gone. She felt oddly lost. For nearly two years she had been fuelled almost exclusively by hatred, but that had fizzled out somewhere along the way, and now she was simply tired. A sudden fierce longing to see her sisters rose up in her.

But her sisters – well, the ones she was allowed to mention by name – were bad, bad people. Or so everyone kept telling her, anyway.

Lily brushed down her robes. She might as well go find Marlene and tell her the results of their little Veritaserum experiment. She'd probably be in one of the greenhouses; both Marlene and Frank seemed to enjoy the comfort of being surrounded by so many plants, though Marlene rather more so since Frank had Quidditch to distract him. Speaking of Quidditch: Lily realised vaguely that they had a match against Ravenclaw next week. It seemed surprisingly far away.

She wandered through the corridors and out to the grounds where the greenhouses were, casting a Warming Charm on herself as she went.

Marlene was in the fifth greenhouse, humming softly along with a Singing Bush as she pruned it. She smiled as she turned around. Her teeth flashed palely through the gloom: she had not lit any lamps.

"Lily! How did it go?"

"Shambolically," Lily said with feeling. "Well. Not completely. I did discover a couple of things. But if James has any sense, he's left Hogwarts by now."

"He never struck me as a boy with no sense," Marlene said. "Here, hold these."

She passed over a basket of tiny blossoms, of a purple so murky they were midnight in hue. The greenhouse was shadowed enough that all Lily could make out of her best friend was a slender shape in the dark.

"You'll strain your eyesight, working like this," Lily said. "Lumos!"

Her wand flared, illuminating their little corner of the greenhouse. She frowned. The presence of light had only made the shadows blacker, less welcoming; she found that she preferred it as it had been before. She was about to extinguish the glow when the light played over something unusual.

"Marlene?" Lily said blankly. "Is that… did someone hurt you?"

She dropped the basket with a clatter and stalked forward, grasping her by the shoulders and spinning her around. Marlene met her gaze unconcernedly.

"It's only a love-bite, Lily," she said, smiling slightly. "Frank likes putting them on me, you know that."

"Ah, yes," Lily said, releasing her. "Of course. Forgive the overreaction." In the dim light the bruise had looked horrendous, like someone had grabbed Marlene around the neck and squeezed like they meant it, but upon closer inspection it looked more and more innocuous. She was simply on edge. She opened her mouth to break the silence, then slammed it shut as the door to the greenhouse abruptly burst open and Remus Lupin raced in.

"Lily!" he snapped. "What's happened?"

"How did you know where I was?" she asked curiously.

"Never mind that," he said. His words came out as a guttural growl, and Lily saw for a fleeting moment the beast that lurked beneath the human skin, superimposed over his face. She blinked and it was gone.

"We have our ways, the Marauders," he continued, "and what I need to know is, what the fuck's happened? What have you done?"

"I haven't done anything," she said indignantly. Behind her, she was distantly aware of Marlene restarting her humming. Unease and confusion grew. This was not normal Marlene behaviour. Normally, she'd be right beside Lily questioning Lupin, not messing about with her plants.

She filed it away to deal with later and returned her attention to Lupin. "I suppose James has left, then?"

"That's not it," he said. "Or, that's not all of it. Actually –"

He froze, his gaze darting past her to focus on something in the background. Lily suddenly became conscious of the fact that Marlene had stopped humming.

Her heart pounding, she turned around.

"Evening, cousin," Sirius said casually.

A number of observations passed through Lily's head at the speed of lightning.

One: he was back. It was him. Looking gaunter and more tired somehow, but the hollowing of his cheeks had only added to his looks.

Two: he was clutching her best friend to his side, too tightly for her to struggle. Not that she was – Marlene was evidently frozen in shock, her gaze fixed on the boy holding her. There was a strange, mad glitter in her brown eyes, and in the dim evening light they seemed touched with crimson.

Three: Sirius's wand was pointing directly at her.

"Sirius," she said, her voice betraying nothing of what she felt. "I'm pleased to see that you remain among the living." Her own wand rose.

"As if that were ever in doubt," he said. "I don't die so easily, cousin."

"If you don't release her," Lily said evenly, "I will be testing the truth of that statement."

He threw his head back and laughed, low and husky and delighted. "Your claws! Oh, I do love it when they come out. It reminds me we're family and I shouldn't kill you. Believe me, you should be grateful of that, else you'd be on the floor already."

Lily's blood heated in rage. She tamped it down. "I don't die so easily either, cousin. This is your last warning. Let go of Marlene. Now."

She flicked a glance at her best friend and forced herself not to frown. Marlene stood passively, moulded to Sirius' body, and there was something odd about the way he was holding her; it was not the grip of an abductor on his unwilling victim, but more akin to the casual possessiveness of a lover. Her sense of unease, which had been simmering ever since she had entered the greenhouse, grew almost to breaking point.

"Or what?" Sirius purred. "What will you do to me, I wonder? The same considerations which stop me stop you too, you know. We could stand here all night with our wands at each other's throats and still be here at dawn."

Lily opened her mouth to reply but was forestalled when Marlene finally stirred in Sirius's arms. She looked up at him.

"Please," she said softly. "No more. Let's go now."

What?

Lily's head reeled. The steady aim of her wand faltered. Had Marlene – had she just –

"If that's what you want, love," Sirius said with obvious disappointment, but in a tone Lily had never heard from him in her entire life. His silky, menacing voice was speaking tenderly to her best friend, and she recoiled from the thought, her palms sweating.

"Goodbye, cousin," he added to her. "I've no doubt I'll see you again at some point. Moony – I shall be expecting you soon. Don't keep me waiting."

He whirled around, Marlene clinging to his arm, and disappeared with a pop. The last Lily saw of them was a fan of her chestnut hair whipping across the darkness of his cloak.

When they had gone she staggered backwards, breath coming too quickly. The fact that they had just Disapparated from Hogwarts barely registered; black spots were dancing before her eyes, and she was only vaguely aware of Lupin shaking her and repeating her name.

"Lily! Lily, snap out of it!"

AN: Just 5 chapters! Which includes a couple of interludes, so really not long at all. I hope you've been enjoying the updated version of the story so far! My key lime pie has somehow turned into cheesecake which I wasnt' expecting...

Ellie - tbh not much happens from this point in the original story which is probably why you don't remember it haha. By this point if I remember correctly it was 2016, which is the last time I updated this fic! I'm excited to show how Jily develops out of school, I have big plans for them :D Ooh what kind of cake are you making for your dad? Wow you made your own gulab jamun?! That's so impressive! I've had the storebought version before but sadly I don't really like Indian sweets :/ Haha didn't Jamie Oliver's restaurants all go bankrupt a few months ago? See you romorrow xxx