A New Path forged
The remainder of the summer holidays between sixth and seventh year seemed to pass by in a flurry of bathing suits, melting ice cream and sunhats. Lily had only run into James and Sirius a handful of times since the dinner, and Lily was cordial, (and more polite than she would have been had she not attended the supper). The boys returned the sentiment, and were keen to continue their new leaf of compassion and integrity.
A week before school started, Alice returned from Greece and the three girls were reunited at last. Together, they bustled through Diagon Alley, swam in the sea, discussed classes and teachers, who had and who had not grown over the holidays. Their glorious summer days made Lily wishing she had the rest of her life to live in this carefree manner, and although she was no longer dreading her return to school as she had been at the beginning of the holidays, she wished these days would never end.
Remus' summer holiday was worse than usual, as he had become reliant on his friends to get him through his transformations since they had mastered their own transfigurations at various points throughout fifth year. He mainly stayed indoors and kept to himself, and as he had no way of being with his friends in person from his remote corner of Cornwall, he contented himself with their correspondence via daily letters. Remus had been kept up-to-date with the progression of James' despair through Sirius, disgust at Sirius and Marlene's shameless flirting through James, and the general absurdity of the two boys via Marlene. Although he and Marlene had never been particularly close, her growing proximity to Sirius, and of course her lifelong family friendship with James, had allowed them to slip into an easy friendship, and Remus greatly treasured her letters.
Remus had been the only of Lily's friends to receive correspondence from her in the holidays, although she kept the contents of her letters short and light, opting to discuss the lovely weather and the apple pie her mother had baked for dessert the night before. Remus was, of course, aware that Lily was avoiding her emotions surrounding the situation that had occurred on the third-last day of term, but Marlene informed him that she had not received any word from Lily, and that she had most likely shut herself in her room and was avoiding the world at large. Thus, Remus was immensely relieved when he heard that Lily's lack of communication had been broken and he received three different accounts of the relative success of the dinner from James, Sirius and Marlene. And so Remus managed to enjoy his holidays to the extent which can be expected from a teenage werewolf alone in his room, without the laughter and assistance of his friends to make it all the more endurable.
Peter's holidays were rather uneventful, and the majority of his time was spent complaining to his mother about his boredom, receiving a chastising reprimand instructing him to amuse himself, as she was busy with his seven younger siblings. He was a passive listener of the play-by-play account of the 'Lily Dinner' he received from Sirius, and desperately wished his mother would allow him to travel to see his friends, just once. Peter spent countless hours wishing for the beginning of term, when he would be reunited with the boys, who could always be relied upon for a constant source of entertainment.
Following the dinner, which had gone better than Sirius could have ever expected (at best, he expected to be ignored altogether, and at worst, served a not-entirely-unjustified tongue lashing from Lily), Sirius was pleased at the positive change that seemed to come over his best mate. His relief was palpable, and shared by Marlene, when they observed James' usual light and laughter slowly seeping back into his demeanour. Sirius encountered Lily once prior to their return to school, when she came to pick up Marlene for their Diagon Alley trip with Alice. They had a pleasant enough conversation (though it was mostly small talk) that Sirius, with his infinite social intelligence, deemed it appropriate and necessary to define the terms of their relationship as an 'alliance', which, to his surprise, Lily agreed to.
Secretly, Lily was relieved to have an explicit definition which gave her specific parameters of how to behave around Sirius. In the few times she had bumped into James around Potter Manor when she came to fetch Marlene for their various adventures, their dialogue was stunted and awkward, neither knowing how to behave around the other within their newfound lack-of-antagonism towards each other.
The dinner left James feeling as if the restraints of guilt and reproach which constricted his heart had been melted away by Lily's graciousness. Her gentle acceptance of his apology did wonders to quell the constant onslaught of admonitory thoughts that had plagued him since the start of the holidays, and he couldn't help but notice the complete turnaround of Lily's behaviour towards him since their violent confrontation at the conclusion of the year. She must have been doing some hard thinking as well, he surmised. Maybe they weren't so different as he once thought…
The beginning of term and return to Hogwarts was relatively uneventful, as everyone settled into their class schedules with ease. Lily, for the most part, was able to ignore Severus, always with Marlene and Alice at her side, ready to jump in should he get defensive or attempt a false apology. Similarly, James and Sirius also ignored Snape, and refused to bait the other Slytherins in the way they used to, but couldn't abandon their penchant for pranks or mischief. Lily didn't fail to notice this, and Marlene even caught her with a secret smile at a few of the harmless pranks that the boys set up.
Lily and Remus, as returning prefects, were often busy assisting the younger years and helped the teachers with any administrative tasks, James as new captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was in charge of organising and conducting trials, with Sirius as his second-in-command, as everybody else returned to the daily hustle and bustle of Hogwarts life.
The fresh truce between James, Lily and Sirius had yet to reach any road bumps, as the three had been so busy in their respective leadership roles they had little to do with each other and thus spent small amounts of time in company which prevented the usual explosive confrontations.
The rest of the student body was as surprised as their friends were, and indeed as the three themselves were, that they had not slipped back into their argumentative ways, and by the third week of school, they had grown used to their newfound peaceful dynamic.
At breakfast one Thursday morning, Lily was enjoying her usual cinnamon porridge, as James strode down the Gryffindor table to sit opposite her. They exchanged polite greetings, and she even passed him the jam to spread on his toast when he asked for it. He asked her if she had seen Amanda Jorgensen, a third year who was supposed to attend the tryouts for the position of chaser the previous night, but failed to show, and she said that she hadn't, but would keep an eye out.
He politely enquired as to how the new heads, Frank Longbottom and Jacqueline Morgan, were getting on, and she replied that they were still learning the ropes, but looked as though they would live up to the previous year's heads. They proceeded to go back and forth in a similar manner until Sirius and Marlene arrived, both looking suspiciously flushed.
Remus, Alice and Peter, who had been watching Lily and James' odd exchange silently, not wanting to interrupt what they thought could potentially be the start of a tentative friendship between their two most stubborn companions, were pulled from their revere by their disgust at their two most vulgar companions.
Of course they were all already aware of the "purely physical" relationship between Sirius and Marlene, but to have it presented so obviously, WHILE THEY WERE EATING nonetheless, was too much. Sirius threw Marlene an overtly sultry wink as they sat down opposite each other, and the rest of the group gagged in disgust.
"Blech, take it somewhere else, you two." Alice said as she gave the two a look which mirrored the others repulsion.
"Gladly, Fortescue," Sirius shot back, raising back out of his seat and offering his hand to Marlene, who simply laughed good-naturedly and asked Peter to please pass the tea.
Their little group, who had unwittingly been amalgamated during the first few weeks back at school, settled into familiar conversation, and Lily realised that it was the first time in a very, very, long time that she felt completely at ease, and comfortable among her companions. Her 'alliance' with Sirius was proving to be less problematic than she originally expected, and her friendship with Remus only blossomed further now she had given her tacit approval of his friends. The remaining hesitancy between her and James was slowly beginning to thaw, and she no longer felt that simmering sense of distrust whenever he sat across from her at breakfast.
Later on that week, as Alice and Lily accompanied each other to Herbology in the greenhouse, Alice posed a question to Lily. It was not the first time Lily had considered the question herself, but her endless mulling had not solidified an answer in her head.
"Are you friends with James?" Alice asked.
Lily thought about this for a moment. Despite the decided lack of verbal combat between the three, Lily's open and carefree relationship with Alice, Marlene, Remus and Peter was not tinged with the soft bitterness of the history between her and James. Her relationship with Sirius remained adequate, and their alliance proved to be a beneficial development for both parties- neither felt obligated to go out of their way to connect with the other, but they were able to settle into comfortable silence if they encountered each other one-on-one.
But with James, it was different. For years, she had yelled and screamed and hexed and threw a seemingly constant stream of insults towards him, and his arrogance and his entitlement. It had been challenging not to slip back into old habits once term had started again, but he had given Lily no reason to bear them ill will so far, and she wasn't about to be the one to rock the boat.
"No, I don't think so. But it's hard to define what we are in words. We're polite, and sometimes we'll laugh at the same things, or become exasperated with Sirius and Marlene at the same moment, or consider Peter with similar concern, but we don't really chat just the two of us, there's always someone there. It's hard to separate all the things he did in the past from how he acts now."
"I don't think he's acting, Lil. I know you've been busy, so you can't see all of the things he's doing to truly prove that he's turning over a new leaf. The other day at dinner one of the third years, Sarah or something, her name was, and it turns out he had been tutoring her in Transfiguration and had come to ask further questions. You should have seen how sweet he was with her. I would say that he's genuinely starting to lose some of the chip on his shoulder and growing up a little."
Lily considered what Alice had said, absentmindedly tugging at her left earring as she did so, and Alice knew to leave her with her thoughts as they walked. After a while, Alice realised Lily had come to no conclusion in her own mind, and broke through the churning of her friend's mind with;
"How about you give friendship a go, on a trial basis? You don't need to tell him or anything," she added, seeing the dubious look on her friend's face, "You label it a friendship if someone else asks, but you can silently observe him to see if he's worthy of that title or not. You can see for yourself if he's changed at all, and you can easily take it back if you decide he's not worth your time."
Lily decided this was the easiest and most simple way forward in her pseudo-acquaintanceship with James, and as the girls reached the Herbology classroom, Lily had made up her mind to casually observe to see if the James Potter she had known; arrogant toerag and shameless flirt, was becoming the James Potter that Alice seemed to see; one who was considerate and kind and willing to help others with no personal gain to himself whatsoever. Lily knew she would have to wait to find out his true nature.
