Chapter 6: Deep in the Midst
"Great job yesterday, Potter!"
"How long was the game, about ten minutes?"
James basked in the praise of the House as he took his seat at breakfast. They had all been up late celebrating Gryffindor steamrollering Slytherin in the Quidditch match yesterday, and James had brought his first game to a quick end. Azalea had pulled off a stunning save from Slytherin's one attempt to score, and the result had been 180 to zero.
It was a good day.
"Think you're pretty impressive, don't you Potter," said a soft, sibilant voice behind him.
James turned around to see the greasy-haired Slytherin boy standing behind him.
"Snape, wasn't it?" he said coolly. "Well, not precisely…but then again, I think that compared to someone smashing into a hoop headfirst, even a first year that managed to kick off the ground would look pretty impressive, don't you?"
Snape looked livid, and color stained his sallow cheeks. "Just you wait, Potter," he hissed. "Sooner or later, I'll be able to deflate that head of yours…then we'll see what you're worth…"
James didn't even deign to reply, and Snape stalked off. A few minutes later, Azalea and Sirius came up and sat down next to him.
"What did that greaseball want?" Sirius mumbled as he began loading his plate.
"Just to bug me," James answered. "Think he's jealous or something."
"He makes my skin crawl." Azalea shuddered as she spread jam on her toast. "I've seen him staring at me in Potions. He's nasty."
"You've got that right," James muttered. "Bet the hoop he ran into is still infested with fleas."
That afternoon in Potions, Sirius made sure to sit next to Azalea, and kept her engaged in conversation with him as they worked on their Shrinking Solutions. He used the time and the fact that she was distracted to observe the rest of the classroom. Sure enough, Snape was watching Azalea out of the corner of his eye, glancing her way when no one else was looking.
Sirius stifled a shudder. If that git was fancying Azalea, he knew that he and the rest of the Gryffindor second years would have something to say about that!
"Remus is ill again?" Lily stared at Lucy as they met in the library to work on their essays for Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"That's what Professor Castor said…" Lucy lifted an enormous book onto the table, and started flipping through it. "You know that he and I have been partnering on those Annoyance Charms we've been doing, like the Sneezing Charm."
"Yeah, I saw that you were with Professor Castor today. You did a good job," Lily giggled. "I thought he was going to blow holes in that handkerchief!"
"Well, I asked him about Remus," Lucy continued, "and he said the same things that they always say whenever we ask about Remus being ill…"
"He's in the hospital wing…"
"…and can't receive visitors," Lucy finished. "Exactly."
Lily looked mystified. "He gets ill all the time. I hope he doesn't have some permanent condition or something."
"They'd be able to help him, wouldn't they?"
"Either that, or they'd send him to St. Mungo's or something," Lily agreed.
Christmas was quickly approaching, and the seven friends held a conference about the holiday one night in front of the fire, over more thick meat pies from the kitchens and a particularly difficult Potions assignment.
Lucy sighed as she started looking through yet another enormous book. "I think I'm going to have to go home. I'm an only child, and my parents don't like me being gone so long."
"Me too," Peter agreed. "I'm Muggle born, you know…they don't really understand why I'd want to stay here…"
"We might stay," said Lily. She glanced over at Azalea. "I think our parents would be all right with it."
"Us too," said Sirius, including James. "Our parents all know what it's like here, they'll understand us staying."
"What about you, Remus?" Azalea asked. To her amazement, he looked uncomfortable.
"Oh…well, I think I'll be going home as well," he mumbled.
"What's wrong?"
"Bad timing, that's all…" Remus's voice trailed off, and he hastily grabbed his parchment and quill. "Someone pass the ink…I think I've just had an idea about this…"
"Lily," Azalea whispered, late that night as they prepared for bed. Lucy had already fallen asleep.
"What?" Lily was neatly folding her robes and placing them in her trunk.
"Do you know what's on Christmas Eve?"
Lily shrugged. "Christmas Eve?"
"Lily…it's the full moon."
Lily dropped the robes she was folding, and stared at her sister, who was nodding slowly.
"And last week…I remember, that night he was sick…"
"Was a full moon too," Azalea finished. "I remember when he's been ill, because I usually say something about it when I write in my diary. I checked the dates, Lily. He's always ill on the full moon."
Lily's hand flew to her mouth, and she sat down heavily on her trunk. "It can't be. Not Remus."
"Should we tell Sirius and James?"
Lily shook her head. "We're not sure yet. Let's wait till after the holidays, and then we can ask him straight out. He's always avoided the questions before, but if you're right, and we show him that we know the truth and don't care, maybe he'll admit it."
"Good idea."
The night before the holidays began, Sirius managed to get everyone but Peter to meet in the common room. He had the perfect chance, as Peter had forgotten his cloak in the library and had gone to get it.
"Look, you all know Peter's not well off," he began, "and he really wants an owl…and if we all chip in two Galleons, we can get one of the professors to get one for us from Hogsmeade…it'd be a really nice thing to do."
Lucy instantly dug into her pocket, and pressed two Galleons into Sirius' hand. "Here you go, Sirius. You're right, it'd be a really nice thing to do."
The rest of them added coins to the collection, and Sirius counted them after adding his own. "That should be plenty," he announced. "Once he's left, I'll ask Professor Kettleburn to pick out one for us when he goes into the village. I heard him say in the hall yesterday that he'd be getting a shipment of fire crabs over the holidays."
Azalea woke up on Christmas morning, instantly sneezing loudly, and glared at Sirius, who was leaning over her bed with a very fluffy feather in his hand. "You know I hate that."
"Presents, Zia!" he grinned, pointing at the pile at the foot of her bed. Lily was glaring at James, who had woken her in the same manner.
It was impossible to stay angry for long when it was Christmas and there were presents to open. Azalea gasped as she opened a sapphire blue silk scarf from Sirius. "Wow, Sirius!" she exclaimed, looking over at him. Sirius grinned self-consciously, stuffing his hands in his pockets. At the same time, Lily was opening a similar scarf in emerald green, and James looked similarly embarrassed.
The girls exchanged glances, and quickly draped the scarves around their necks, then left the subject alone. Azalea had received a new deck of Exploding Snap cards from James, and Sirius had given Lily a book on performing tricky small charms. Remus had left chocolates for both of them, and Lucy had bought blue and green quills with elegant gold tracing along the shafts. In addition, they had received a few extra Galleons each from their parents, and thick sweaters that their mother had made.
Well satisfied with their Christmas, Lily and Azalea pulled on their dressing gowns, and the four students trooped downstairs to the empty common room. James was already preparing to go down to the kitchens and make use of Lily's Christmas present, which was a bag with charms laid on it so that it would hold limitless amounts of food, as well as keep hot items hot and cold items cold.
Sirius added extra wood to the fire while James was gone, bringing it to a roaring blaze. Azalea was unwrapping her new cards in preparation to break them in, and when James returned, they toasted bread over the fire and made cheese sandwiches for breakfast, as well as gooey browned marshmallows.
A snowball fight occupied most of the afternoon, which the boys decidedly won. They headed back upstairs as it grew dim outside, and into their respective dormitories to change into dry robes for the Christmas feast that evening.
Lily tied James' green scarf around her neck, adjusting it in the mirror, and glanced shyly at Azalea. "Zia?"
"Hmm?" Azalea was in the process of knotting her own blue scarf.
"These are really nice," Lily observed, stroking the soft material. "They're real silk."
"Yeah…" Azalea stepped in front of the mirror, making sure she'd tied the scarf correctly. "They are really nice."
"Do you think…" Lily bit her lip and looked down, then back up. "Do you think Sirius and James…"
"…like us?" Azalea finished. "Well…I don't know…but Sirius is cute, isn't he!"
"Not as cute as James," Lily answered playfully.
Azalea giggled, stepping into her shoes. "You can have James. He's just a fellow Quidditch player as far as I'm concerned."
"Good, because I think I will take him!"
Laughing, the girls descended the stairs to meet the boys in the common room, and they all went down to the Christmas feast together.
The group assembled was relatively small, but still filled up most of one of the House tables. Dumbledore was seated at the head, and the table was filled with dishes that smelled absolutely delicious, along with stacks of wizard crackers.
"Oh no." Azalea elbowed Sirius as they sat down. "Look."
Sirius followed her gaze along the table, and sure enough, sitting next to one of the boys that Sirius recognized as a Slytherin Beater, was Snape. Reflexively, he scooted closer to Azalea. "Relax, Zia," he muttered into her ear. "It's not like he's going to come to the tower looking for you."
Azalea soon forgot about Snape, as they all loaded their plates and began tugging apart the wizard crackers between bites. Sirius was not amused as a live dove flying out of one of the crackers attempted to make a nest in his hair; however, Azalea and Lily squealed with delight as they opened one to find a new wizard chess set. James was wearing a black silk top hat adorned with red feathers sticking out of the band, which made him look rather dashing.
With James still wearing the hat, and Sirius attempting to extract another dove from his hair, the four got up from the table as the feast drew to a close, and prepared to head back to the tower. As they turned from the table, however, they stopped short; Snape was standing in front of them, wearing a rather nasty smile.
"Need directions to the bathroom, Snape?" James asked, moving slightly in front of Lily. Snape, however, ignored him.
Instead, he held a package out to Azalea, who was partially hidden behind Sirius. "Merry Christmas," he said. As she hesitantly took it, he turned and strode away.
"What do you make of that?" James said in a low voice, as they ascended the stairs to the tower. Azalea was holding Snape's package at arm's length.
"Dunno…" she answered, continuing to look warily at the package, which was square, heavy, and wrapped in bright green paper tied with a silver bow.
"Maybe we should open it outside…it might be Dungbombs or something…" suggested Sirius.
They gained the safety of the tower, and Azalea put the box on the floor in front of the fire, where they all sat staring at it for a good five minutes.
"Oh, enough," she finally said, grabbing the box and tearing off the bow and the paper. It was an unremarkable plain brown cardboard box underneath the wrapping, sealed with Spellotape.
The other three backed away without realizing it as Azalea used her wand to split the tape. Opening the box, she pulled out handfuls of tissue paper, then stopped. With a puzzled expression, she pulled out five crystal bottles of different sizes, all with tight corks, and all seemingly empty.
"Whaaaaaaat…?" James stared at the bottles, lying twinkling on the rug.
"They're potion vials," Azalea said, tossing the emptied box into the fire. "They're nice ones, too."
Lily picked up one of the bottles and examined it. "Maybe you should have Professor Venom take a look at these…"
"Might be a good idea," Sirius agreed. "I'm going to try and find Professor Kettleburn tomorrow, why don't you come with me and we can stop by Professor Venom's office?"
"Okay." Azalea glared at the bottles lying on the rug. "As much as these are going to come in handy – assuming Snape didn't hex them or something – I think I'd rather not have them…"