Chapter 24: Secrets
"Hey Zach what do you thin-" Lily started to asked Zach Turner who immediately froze and dove to cover the parchment in front of him, that he was working on.
"You can't take my story!" He said quickly, panicked when Lily looked at him with a questioning look.
Lily looked down at the first year Hufflepuff. "I don't want your story. I just need you to make a copy of this- if you can."
Zach looked at her- trying to decide if he should trust her or not. He smiled slowly and nodded and Lily hummed as she made her way towards the large table where Alyode and Danny sat. Danny sat up straight in his chair, his hair combed and eyes dead ahead, but Lily knew better. He was tense, and why shouldn't he be? Alyode was proofreading his paper and from what little Lily knew about Alyode, he spoke his mind on everything.
There was a resonating crash and Lily turned in time to see a bottle of ink heading straight for her. Her eye's widened, but her feet didn't seem to want to move. Then as if in slow motion, she felt herself being shoved to the side and Lucas Anderson taking the bottle of ink upon himself. Lily's eyes widened and she stood up. Lucas grinned. "Colorful ink-nice choice Lucinda."
Lucinda Gilmore scowled and turned to Damion Skeeter who was meeting her fierce glare by an equally intimidating one. Fights between Damion Skeeter and Lucinda Gilmore were nothing new, in fact if a daily fight didn't erupt between them then something was wrong in the entire clubs opinion.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked eying the colorful array of ink that now stained Lucas's dark robe.
He looked down. "This? Nah- I think I make a statement. Don't you think?"
"The boldest." Lily agreed, laughing.
"Not again." Irma shook her head and pointed her wand towards Damion and Lucinda so they were thrown back against two different sides of the room. "And don't you dare get up!" Her voice shrilled. Lucinda sighed and sat back down, her arms folded across her chest. "You too!" She said to Damion who rolled his eyes and instead walked out.
"Great!" Irma screamed, frustrated. "I've got N.E.W.T.S, internships, essays, and now I have to deal with this?"
"It's no easy task." Lily told her. "But I think you've handled it quite admirably." She blinked and looked up at Irma innocently.
"Yeah." Irma took a deep breathe. "You're right- I'm handling it well, right?"
"Definitely." Lily said. "I don't what we would do if you weren't here."
Irma smiled. "Yeah I don't know either." She set her things on the side. "Alright newbies," Irma had taken a liking to the term despite Lily and the others being in the club for a while now "remember your stories are due tomorrow- no excuses. Alyode I need your opinion on this piece since Damion's gone- and Lucinda no I'm sorry I can't allow your article to be published."
Lucinda stood up, mouth agap. "But I-"
Irma ignored her and continued. "Lily, Zach, Danny, Mary articles must be at my desk tomorrow at 8 am sharp-" she eyed them all and turned to Lily brow raised.
"She wasn't feeling- good." Lily said. She wasn't good at lying but somehow Irma nodded. "I'll make sure to just let her know then."
Lily couldn't shake the feeling that she had lied to a fellow prefect until she reached the common room. She took a deep breathe and collapsed on Godric's couch pulling out her edited draft, thankfully edited by Irma and not Aloyde this time. Another parchment fell from her bag and she looked at it blankly.
The only thing she had written on it was James Potter on a whim and circled it twice with a large question mark There was just something about the boy that was off. Suddenly looking at the parchment she realized to anyone else it would look like she had doodled his name. With a surprised gasp she threw the parchment in the fire watching it burn. She had ended up writing her safety story, a boring old piece about how the trophy room needed renovations because it was a preserved historic room in all of Hogwarts.
"-And then I was telling her that if she didn't go with me I would stay there all night- and she agreed!"
"She said yes?" Mary squealed skipping into the common room with Gideon Prewett. "That's wonderful, Gideon!"
"All thanks to you of course." Gideon finished. Lily could hear them quite clearly over the rest of the buzzing in the common room.
"Pff I wasn't there. I said nothing. You did it all- Oh hey Remus!" Mary smiled at Remus who had just entered the common room. "I totally forgot to give you this- but look we got an 'O'! Finally right? Michael could hardly believe his eyes when I told him."
Remus smiled. "I told you we could do it. You know this means-"
"That I owe you 4 galleons." Mary rolled her eyes fishing out the coins from her bag. "I know. I know."
"Mary!" Lily ran up to her friend and demanded to know. "Where were you? You didn't show up again. Irma was so mad!"
"She was?" Mary looked nervously at Gideon who replied easily. "I'll tell her you were with me."
"Thanks Gideon." Mary put a hand up to her forehead. "What would I do without you?"
"But where were you?" Lily demanded. "You weren't still looking for your necklace were you? It's been weeks, Mary!"
"I was busy!" Mary explained calmly. "And what if I was looking for my necklace-?"
"And our stories are due tomorrow- have you even started yours?" Lily continued watching her friends eyes widen. She waited for Mary to start panicking about how she hadn't gotten a story-
"I finished it." Mary said, her voice strained. "And you know what there are some things I do that don't involve you Lily."
Mary handed Remus the Galleons that he didn't look like he wanted and gave him a curt "Bye Remus." before storming up to the dorms.
Lily cocked her head at Gideon who was staring at her. "What?" She already hated the fact that she had ruined it again with Mary and the older boy was looking at her like she didn't quite understand what she had down wrong when she was actually perfectly aware-
"Have you ever wondered why she desperately wanted to join The Holy Grail with you in the first place?"
Lily was too stunned to answer. Thankfully Gideon didn't say anything further and walked away. Annoyed Lily trudged her way to Gordic's couch dropped tilting her head back and wondering what she was doing wrong these days.
"Am I allowed to sit here?" Remus asked cautiously approaching Lily nervously.
"I promise I won't bite." Lily said opening one eye as Remus took a seat and looked down at Lily's things that were strewn all over the couch. He politely pushed a few spare parchments away and took a seat.
"You read this stuff?" Remus was holding a book where an image of a pretty girl and a handsome albiet pale boy stood out on the cover. Glittering blood red letters spelled out the title; Forbidden Love: Marked.
"It's Mary's." Lily said quietly. "I don't know what to do anymore." She told Remus suddenly after a moment. "I'm just worried about her and I honestly just want to know whats wrong that she keeps missing all these meetings and just abruptly stops showing up, you know?"
Remus nodded thoughtfully. "I feel like that too sometimes with James and Sirius."
Lily looked up at him, listening. "Sometimes they do things and don't tell me. It might not even be something serious, just something silly but I can't help but be worried for them."
"Because you're a good friend." Lily smiled. "You know you are. To them, to me, to Mary, to everyone."
Remus blushed. "I don't know about that-"
"Oh hush Remus." Lily smiled then looked towards him hopefully her smile fading. "What do I do?"
"Just let her come to you," Remus said watching the flames rise and fall. "Sometimes when Sirius and James plan the pranks, they end up telling me like tonight they want us to-"
Lily froze. Pranks..?...Marauders.
Remus stopped talking and looked towards Lily. Lily looked at him and blinked. "I'm sorry what were you saying? I zoned out- you know thinking about Mary."
Remus let out a breathe of relief confirming Lily's theory. "I was saying you should give her some space, let her come to you."
Lily nodded. "You're right." she said truthfully. "I'll just let Mary come to me. She'll have to tell me what's going on sometime right? And I am her best friend."
"She'll come right to you." Remus smiled. "Don't force her. You know how Mary is, she can't keep in anything for too long."
Lily smiled and looked at the time. Remus too had noticed. "You know, it's late. I should get going." he said fidgeting. Lily pretended not to notice.
"Yeah." Lily smiled pulling a new piece of parchment towards her. "I ned to get started on this story. It's due tomorrow morning."
"Bye Lily."
"Bye Remus."
And when he left the common room in the dark hours of night when he thought Lily had fallen asleep, Lily followed him.
Remus walked around nervously, looking back frequently to check if he was being followed. This was a problem for Lily since she wasn't exactly the sneaky type and she didn't know how long she could keep this espionage stuff up. She was already nervous about walking around during the late hours at night but she figured if she did get caught at least the Marauders would be exposed...but why was Remus with them? Maybe he was going to try to stop them?
Lily froze and hit behind the nearest statue watching as James, Sirius and Peter emerged from around the corner!
"Ready?"
Remus nodded. "What took you so long? I was waiting forever."
"What took you so long?" Sirius asked. "We were waiting forever."
"Lily wouldn't go to sleep. And Coppin was watching me."
"Let's hurry- we don't have much time!" James finished. "We should be done with this one quickly."
Lily watched them leave and fumbled for the camera she had borrowed. All she would need was one snap and she could get back to the common room.
As she followed them, quite slowly as she was not at all sneaky or quick, she realized a few things. James Potter was the one behind the ''Great Chamber Pot incident' meaning he was the one who had caused her such embarrassment. He had also managed to enchant the toilet paper to chase everyone after they left the bathroom, and vandalize the trophy room, hence her trophy room story.
Lily was beginning to worry as she quivered with fear at every sound and creak she passed- how much farther did she have to go? The Marauders weren't stopping any time soon and she just knew she was bound to get caught soon enough. And then she realized that the Marauders had disappeared! Lily looked around quickly trying to figure out where they had gone when they re-appeared around the corner much to her surprise.
"So I got this idea," James, who seemed to be the ring leader, started. "from one of Remus's books." he jumped down from the statue. "This whole corridor will be a swamp. We'll set the stinksap here, and Peter will charm..."
Lily couldn't help but watch in awe as the four boys got straight to work with the charms and spells slowly but gradually transforming the hall into a swamp like area. There was a sudden creak and Lily jumped back, screaming. The four boys looked around wildly.
"Who was that?" Remus asked nervously.
"It's not a teacher." Peter started. "I-I checked for them."
"A prefect?"
"No they don't monitor this corridor at this time." James said confidently.
Lily mentally cursed at herself and snatched up her camera, snapping a picture. And with all the energy she could muster she ran. But to her delight she happened upon a spider on her shoes- and Lily was terrified so she screamed once again- falling back against a set of armor that too fell.
"Remus," someone whispered, possibly James-Peter? "what was that?"
"I don't know."
"It's probably Ms. Norris- she's always knocking over things." Sirius said easily. "Hurry, let's get this done and get back."
"You're right."
She heard four sets of footsteps leaving her and Lily with all the strength her legs could take her- ran.
"I'm sorry, Lily." Irma said. "This isn't enough proof. You 'claim' you saw them and that's why readers should believe you?"
"I even have a picture." Lily said slamming down the picture on the table to see. "To prove I did."
"It's blurry." Alyode pointed out first. "No clear faces, and the angle is all wrong-who is your photographer?"
Lily folded her arms. "I took it. And there were circumstances. But it's them- The Marauders. I'm telling you, James Potter, Sirius Black-"
"Black?" Aloyde asked, suddenly curious.
"Lily I'm sorry," Irma rubbed her head. "Alyode's right- the picture isn't clear. We can't be completely sure it was them- and it's got no story."
"But it's The Marauders. I'm telling you it's them-" Lily protested.
"Lily please." Irma said. "Just turn in the paper you have. All I can see right now is that you were out late and if I was in my right mind I would give you a detention."
Lily paused. She didn't want a detention. Future Prefects didn't get detention.
"Thank you." Irma said gathering all the strewn papers on the table in front of her. "We'll meet next week, same time, to discuss the viewers ratings..."
Lily sighed as she packed her stuff at the end of the meeting. She looked around the Holy Grail room wondering why she had thought she could do something here-
"Hey."
Lucinda Gilmore smiled at Lily. "I think you're story was great- the presentation was a bit sloppy but it's a story nonetheless."
"There were circumstances." Lily muttered.
"Oh I don't doubt that. There always are when the stories are worth telling." Lucinda smiled. "The way I see it- anything can be a story if told the right way." She looked at the picture Lily had thrown away. "May I?"
Lily nodded and watched as Lucinda unfolded the picture and set it on the table. "See you can put it this way 'The Marauders-boring. Or you could say 'Four boys wreaking havoc in charms corridor at night. Marauders- or their rivals?"
Lily looked up, amazed.
"And while the faces aren't clear in the picture- you can see that they're quite short so they're pretty young. It's unlikely all of them all short older students. But even if they are- our job is to sell the story. Make viewers see what we want them to see."
"Sell the story." Lily repeated, nodding. "Let's do it."
Lucinda's blue eyes widened. "What?"
"Let's do it. If they don't let us- we'll do it on our own." Lily said, more confidently this time.
Lucinda looked up surprised. "You mean-?"
Lily nodded. "We need to get this story out- even if Irma says no, even if it's too late. I didn't risk my life to sneak out and not print this story."
"You know what Evans," Lucinda smiled. "I might have underestimated you. You've definitely got the flair."
"Let's get started then." Lily said. And her heart was soaring. As impulsive as she was last night was- she had gotten a thrill, that she liked, that she wanted to do again.
"Indeed." Lucinda finished pulling a parchment towards her and throwing a surprised Lily a quill and ink. "Don't give me that look. We've got a ton of work to do."