A/N: Okay!  Okay okay okay!  This is ALMOST inexcusably late.  Almost.  However, there is a very good excuse, and I believe it can be summed up in two words:

EXAMS       VACATIONS

Thank you.

Disclaimer:  We own the plotline and some fishing line, and JK owns just about everything else. 

Lily

Chapter 62

Dear Miss Evans,

            Please report to Headmaster Dumbledore's office immediately.

Sincerely,

Professor McGonagall

Lily looked up from the letter, puzzled.  It had been deposited unobtrusively at the foot of her bed, between a large package of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and a colorful card from Sirius.  She moved her thumb a bit and noticed that the ink smeared; the note had just been written.  "Juno, what d'you think-"

"No idea," Juno said, holding up an almost identical piece of parchment, "But I've got one, too." 

Lily swung her legs over the side of the bed with a sigh.  "Guess we'd better be going, then."  She disappeared into the closet to find her robe. 

Juno looked wistfully at the pile of unopened presents at the bottom of her own bed.  "Maybe we could wait a little while?  Dumbledore wouldn't care, would he?  I mean, it's Christmas."

"Well, I guess we don't have much choice, unless we want to get detention.  C'mon."  Lily came back out of the closet, securing the light green bathrobe around her waist.

Throwing on her own robe and following Lily down the dormitory stairs, Juno grumbled, "Honestly, who in God's name would take the time to write those notes on Christmas morning?  Waste of perfectly good ink, if you ask me."

When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Lily almost forgot her confusion when they literally ran into…

"James!"  She hugged him immediately, unable to contain her excitement.  After about two seconds, however, she realized that not only Juno, but the rest of the Marauders as well had their smirking faces aimed directly at her and James.  She stepped back, blushing.  "What are you all doing down here so early?"

Sirius grinned.  "Ah, I believe the question is, what were you two-" he waggled his eyebrows at James.  "Doing down here so late?"

"Sirius?" Remus said, obviously not in the best of moods.

"Yes?"

"Stuff it."  He turned back to Lily.  "We all got Christmas presents from McGonagall – notes telling us to report to Dumbledore's office."

"Us, too," Juno said. 

There was a brief silence in the room.  Everyone slowly realized what must have happened…they fixed their gaze on the person who was to blame…and Sirius suddenly found himself in the direct path of five extremely angry sets of eyes.  His voice cracked, barely managing a weak "Erm…"

  "Is that all you can say???"  Juno screeched.  "That RUDDY motorcycle!  You just HAD to take it for a hover through the hallways, didn't you?  Did you even THINK that SOMEONE might have SEEN it?  NO!  And now I'm missing out on Christmas morning because of that sodding, bloody, quadruple-damned motorcycle!  Let's go, and do not even THINK about talking to me on the way there.  Or the way back, for that matter!"

When they got to McGonagall's office, there were three people waiting for them.  Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, of course, but to Dumbledore's right sat a very shaken-up Professor McBride, who had her spindly arms crossed sourly over her chest.  She leaped up upon their arrival, pointing a bony finger at Juno.  "That's 'er, it is!  That's the little toadspawn wot's allus makin' trouble in me class!  She'd-a done this outta spite, make no mistake, 'eadmaster!" 

Dumbledore looked calmly at Professor McBride.  "Francisca, I'll ask you to please sit down and stop making rash judgments without evidence."

As the old woman reluctantly sat back into her seat, Lily decided that she must have been the one who spotted them on the motorcycle.  But what had the Divination teacher been doing down that corridor at that hour of the night? 

"From the looks on your faces," Dumbledore began, "I have no choice but to assume that you all know why you are here."  Six heads nodded.  "I see.  Then I must also assume that you know you must be punished."  Once again, all nodded.  Dumbledore sighed and sat back.  "This is very disappointing.  But, of course, the individual punishment must fit the crime.  The only thing that now remains to be seen is which of you actually conjured that quintuple-strength Ellernec cloud." 

Lily snapped her head up from where she'd been staring at the floor guiltily and looked down the row at Sirius.  Peter, Remus, James, and Juno were doing the same.  Sirius shrank down in his chair and said in a very small voice, "Why is everyone looking at me?"

"Oh, come off it, we all know it must've been you!"  Juno barked. 

"What are you talking about?  You all were with me the whole time!  Lily's the one we should worry about."

Lily's jaw dropped.  "What??"

"Yeah!  You were the only one who wasn't with us, plus you're the best at Charms."

"You've got to be kidding me."

Remus adjusted his glasses and said a little hesitantly, "Actually, Ellernec clouds are Charms things.  No offense, Lily, but you're kind of caught red-handed."

Now everyone was looking at Lily.  Sirius started to grin triumphantly, but James spoke up.  "Come on, why would Lily do anything like that?"

"You're just ignoring the facts because she's your girlfriend!"  Peter accused. 

James grabbed Peter abruptly by the shoulder.  Peter cringed away as though James was going to punch him, and Lily was afraid that he was going to, but McGonagall had jumped to her feet, taken out her wand, and sent a tiny thread of lightning at James's wrist.  "Really!  I have never seen such a spectacle in all my years teaching at Hogwarts!  Roughhousing in the Headmaster's office – and a Prefect!  Mr. Potter, you should be ashamed of yourself!  Now, please…Mr. Black, why exactly couldn't you have conjured the Ellernec cloud?"

"Er…well, all of them were with me except Lily."

"You've made that abundantly clear," she said drily.  "But where were they with you?"

Sirius paled a bit, but quickly collected himself.  "After dinner, er…Remus was feeling sick.  Ate too much.  Lily…wanted to grab a bit more dessert, so she stayed behind while we all…brought him to the bathroom.  He thought he was going to toss his cookies, y'see.  J-juno came with us just in case things got nasty and we needed someone to keep watch outside and make sure nobody came in.  'Cause don't ya know, it took all three of us just to hold him up."  Lily felt embarrassed for him as the alibi just got lamer and lamer, but he seemed to have a death wish.  "And…well, he lost his lunch quite a few times…and then he passed out…so…er…we were there pretty late…then we brought him to the Infirmary…and, erm, that was pretty much it." 

While McGonagall was giving them her famous Stern Glare (patent pending) and Professor McBride looked sourer than ever, Dumbledore actually looked rather amused. 

"Stay here for a moment.  I'll be right back."  He left his office and returned in about ten minutes.  "Very nice, Mr. Black.  I admit that I'm impressed.  I've never heard a less believable story, and I've been hearing stories for a hundred twenty years next Tuesday.  It would be terribly unlikely, even if Madam Pomfrey had treated any students last night." 

"Oh…" Sirius's voice cracked.  "Did I say we brought him to the Infirmary?"

"Yes," McGonagall hissed.  "As a matter of fact, you did." 

"Well, I guess that I meant that we, erm, sort of went to the Infirmary without actually going into it.  We never really talked to Madam Pomfrey, because at the last minute, Peter remembered how to make an Anti-Nausea Elixir out of...miraculously enough, only ingredients in the student store-cupboard." 

There was no amusement on Dumbledore's face now.  "Save yourself quite a bit of breath.  You're only painting yourself into a smaller corner than you're already in."  He looked from face to face.  "I regret to say that I've given up on the pursuit of truth in this particular situation.  All of you have two detentions.  Fifty points from Gryffindor for the crime, and an additional twenty-five for lying about it.  Also, for that little display you put on just now, Mr. Potter, five points from Gryffindor."  He paused and took a deep breath through his crooked nose.  "Miss Evans…Mr. Potter…I seem to remember that your titles as Prefects had been put on probation."  Looking extremely let down, he extended a hand over his desk.  "Please turn in your badges." 

Lily felt her cheeks burning as she unfastened her badge.  James looked every bit as humiliated, but hesitated before handing it to Dumbledore.  "Headmaster, could you just please-"

He was interrupted by Lily gently taking it from him and putting both their badges in Dumbledore's hand. 

"You're all dismissed," McGonagall said while Dumbledore put the badges in his desk. 

Professor McBride stood by the door as they trooped out, looking ready to spit.  "Ehh…'tis students like ye wot made me quit, so 'tis!"

Dumbledore stood up.  "Mr. Potter and Miss Evans, would you please stay for a moment?  Minerva, you may go."  When the door closed behind McGonagall, and Lily and James were sitting in front of the desk, Dumbledore surveyed them, not with disappointment, but with curiosity.  "Now, what is this I heard about you two… 'going out,' to use the vernacular?"

Lily's blush deepened.  "Er…we are, Headmaster."

"As of when?"

"Yesterday," James answered, blushing a bit himself. 

"Ah.  You do understand that this complicates the arrangements for the summer holidays?"

Lily and James looked at each other with unpleasant understanding.  "We didn't even think of that."

"Well, I'm afraid that the current situation would be quite inappropriate.  I will begin looking for someone else for you to stay with, Miss Evans."  He never actually said it, but his tone made it apparent that they were dismissed.  As they left, Dumbledore quietly said, "Happy Christmas." 

The door slid shut behind them.  Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Juno were standing against the opposite wall of the corridor like a police line-up, and every bit as stone-faced.  They looked up as Lily and James came out of Dumbledore's office and paused with unsaid words thick in the air. 

Finally, Sirius cleared his throat.  "Sorry about the whole Prefect thing." 

"Yeah, sorry," chorused the other three. 

"Ah…it's no big deal," James muttered. 

Lily didn't say anything.  For one thing, it was a big deal.  It wasn't exactly something to grieve over, but the loss of the Prefect title was the worst blow to her dignity in a long time – especially considering that she hadn't done anything to deserve it.  For another thing, she was angry at Sirius for accusing her of casting the Ellernec cloud, angry at Remus for supporting him, and angry at Juno for not defending her.  She wanted her shame to weigh heavy on their consciences, or at least to bug them a little.  Everyone expected her to say something, though, so she said the only thing that would make no concessions, justify no wrongs, and give them all a major hint as to her feelings.  "Let's go back to the common room."

The rest of the Christmas holidays, relations were, to say the least, strained between Lily and Sirius, not to mention James and Peter.  Juno wasn't talking to Sirius, James, or Peter, but didn't seem to have a problem with Remus or Lily.  Sirius and James weren't quite as joined-at-the-hip as usual, Lily spoke to Peter even less than she normally did, and other than that, the "days of our lives" factor at Hogwarts was pretty low. 

However, close friendships such as these are seldom severed easily.  Juno's temper cooled down toward James and Peter in about three days, Lily forgave Sirius (after a week of his world-famous, detention-avoiding "puppy dog eyes"), and an interesting New Year's Eve incident involving a Dungbomb made Juno finally give in to Sirius's begging.  But that's a story for another time. 

The following Sunday, the holidays ended, and the Hogwarts Express rolled back into Hogsmeade station.  Lily, Juno, and the Marauders were in the common room playing a wizard's version of Knucklebones, an ancient Greek game, when the students streamed in through the Portrait Hole.  Quinn Baker, Brendan Christenson, Michael Daehn, and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team almost knocked James over with enthusiastic shouts of "when's the first practice?" and "we're going to slaughter Slytherin!"  Eva Sinclair sat down on the couch next to Lily and glared at her.  "Well.  Guess I'm not going to have to see you at games anymore."

She twisted away from Eva in annoyance.  "What are you talking about?"

"Harvey's back."  She gestured toward the stocky, blonde-haired boy walking into the common room.  "You know, Harvey Locksmire, the real Beater.  The one you replaced."    

Lily suddenly remembered that she had only gotten onto the team because Harvey had "shattered" his shoulder over the summer holidays, and hadn't even really tried out.  She was just a stand-in until he healed – so realistically, he was the one who should play the rest of the season.  Warily, she glanced over at James as Harvey bounded toward him, bellowing, "I'm back in the game, 'captain!'" 

Judging from the way the color left James's face, Lily wasn't the only one who had forgotten about Harvey.