Living A Legend
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 12- Marauders and Aurors
Much to Lily's pleasure and James's disappointment, classes started the day after students arrived back, and all the professors seemed to be eager to assign as much work as possible.
While James and Sirius slacked off and spent their time working to find new ways to cause trouble, Lily and Dora spent every waking moment in the library.
"I don't understand how those two can get such good marks! They never study or do any work at all and yet they still are at the top of our class!" Lily fumed to her friend.
"You don't do so badly yourself," Dora replied glumly. "You have top marks as well, but I am barely passing."
But as devoted as Dora was, she was no match for Lily. At ten o'clock, when the library closed, Dora called it quits and agreed to meet Lily back in the dorm.
Lily refused to leave so early. "Just a few more minutes!" she begged Mister Bluff, the librarian.
Mister Bluff was a kind hearted elderly gentleman who judged a person's worth by the amount of time they spent engulfed in books. He deemed Lily trustworthy after seeing how devoted she was to her studies.
"All right Lily, but you must promise to close up for me and trip the alarm when you go. Don't stay up to late." He gave in easily.
It was a good three hours later when Lily finally braved a glance at the clock.
"Oh no!" she yelled and jumped out of her chair. It was well past midnight and if she were caught by Filch, the young and mean caretaker, walking around this late she would surely get a detention.
Lily hurriedly put away her books and locked up the library, not forgetting setting the alarm.
Holding her breath, she dashed up towards the Gryffindor common room, praying silently that she wouldn't be caught. All went well until she reached the statue of Sir Ector de Marys. Lily was about to round the corner when she heard voices.
Stopping dead in her tracks, Lily held her breath and pressed her thin body up against a wall, trying to flatten herself into nonexistence.
"No, it was for real! I really think he's going to do it this time." Lily heard a masculine voice whispering around the corner. It sounded like an older boy.
"Barty, are you sure? I mean Tom has the right ideas, but sooner or later he's going to get caught. People are beginning to suspect."
Lily wrinkled up her forehead in consternation. One of the boys she supposed was Barty Crouch, the Slytherin Quidditch Captain. The other boy she couldn't identify. Whatever they were talking about, she was sure was none of her business, but somehow it caught her attention.
"Who at Hogwarts knows?" another boy asked.
"Only five or six people. Only I have sworn loyalty to him." Barty spoke softly.
"You're crazy! What if you are caught? Think about it," at this point the unknown boy paused, seeming to survey his surroundings. Lily shrunk even further into the wall. This time he spoke in a whisper. "We have no idea what is going to happen next. I mean do you really think a bunch of kids, the oldest just out of school are going to be any sort of match against Aurors?"
"If people support us we could!" Barty. "Please Devin, just think about it. The next meeting is on Sunday. Tom is going to announce our next target. Think about it, all the people you hate, gone! You are never going to have another chance like this. The power we will have, it will be enormous! If you pass this up, you will regret it."
Lily listened intently, biting her lip in confusion. She shut her eyes as if it gave her a better chance of being invisible. It turned out it didn't matter anyway. The footsteps of the two boys faded down the hall, as they retreated.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Lily turned and sprinted back to the Gryffindor common room, relieved to be home free.
The next morning Lily told Brittany and Dora about the conversation she had overheard. Neither of them could figure out what it meant.
"I'm sure Sirius will figure it out," Brittany assured her friend.
Lily's eyes got so wide that it looked as if they would pop out of her skull. "No way Brittany! You can't tell anyone! This is our secret, understand? I don't want them knowing I was out past midnight, eavesdropping! Besides, if it got back to Barty or the other boy, I'd be so embarrassed!"
Reluctantly, Brittany agreed to keep her mouth shut. Dora didn't need telling, she wasn't the kind of girl who gossiped and told secrets.
During Potions, Ludwick decided to surprise the students with a back to school pop quiz. Each student and their lab partner were expected to come up with a potion to cure warts. Lily and James set aside their differences and worked hard to coordinate their efforts.
Most importantly they double checked the ingredients that the other had already added. When the potion was finished, Lily was pleased that it turned a dull yellow color, which meant it had worked. Ludwick couldn't possibly fail them now, not after the potion turned out perfectly.
Nonetheless, Ludwick found plenty of petty points to reprimand the duo for, such as the particles of Eloidea leaf which were still visible. "You should have sliced the leaves thinner! Five points from Gryffindor."
He found Terrance and Malfoy's potion perfect however, despite the fact that it was nearly boiling over.
"I hate Ludwick! They shouldn't hire teachers who only pick on the kids they don't like!" James complained later that day.
Lily smiled half heartedly. "At least he passed us. And he only took ten points from our house today, that's better than usual."
"Yeah, but he awarded twenty to Slytherin." James rolled his eyes. "I wish Lacy were so biased."
Just then Lily noticed that she was conversing with James and quickly found somewhere else to be.
The next morning at breakfast, Professor Ludwick came storming across the dining hall. He stopped next to the Gryffindor table, right next to James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who were all trying very hard to maintain straight faces.
"This morning I awoke to a most unusual sound. Can any of you boys guess what it was?" Ludwick spoke calmly at first, but by the time he reached the last word his face was purple with rage.
The boys shook their heads solemnly and the rest of the table looked on with interest.
"I HEARD CHICKENS!" Ludwick bellowed.
"I think he's finally lost it," Brittany whispered to Lily.
Ludwick stood still and shifted his gaze over to the girls. "So I got out of bed. . .and I saw chickens, hundreds of chickens in the Slytherin common room. I don't know who did this, but I swear I am going to find out. And when I do," Ludwick clenched his fist and shook it violently, "I will make sure that the individual responsible will be expelled, permanently."
When Ludwick was out of hearing range, four Gryffindor first years broke into hysterical laughter, and the older students all came by to congratulate them.
Lily tolerated the noise for a few minutes, and then she rose and approached the boys. James grew silent as she approached. "Hey Lily, come to congratulate me as well?"
"If you four are done marauding about, you might want to consider going to charms class. I wouldn't want Gryffindor to lose any more points on account of you!" She spoke tartly.
Sirius cackled and clutched his sides. "Well actually, we're not quite done marauding yet! Marauding, where do you get those big words Lily? You sound like a dictionary!"
"Humph. . .boys!" Lily wanted to say something else, but her vocabulary suddenly deserted her. She turned icily on her heel and hurried to Charms. She was the only one.
"It kind of has a nice sound to it. The Marauders. . . I can see it," James smiled winningly.
"Yeah, the Marauders. That sounds like we're celebrities," Peter mused wistfully.
"I don't know about celebrities, but it does have a ring to it." Remus decided.
None of them could guess just how long the name would stick.
What with mid terms from all of her classes, and Ludwick's insane investigation techniques, Lily did not have time to further examine the odd conversation she had heard in the halls a few nights before. Her natural curiosity was quenched with the sudden downpour of homework.
And Lily did study quite a bit. It seemed to her as if she did twice the work as everybody else. After she learned the material she would always work with Dora until she too understood.
By Friday all the students were relieved to have completed their mid term tests. Lily was relaxing in the Gryffindor common room, happy to be out of the library for once, when Lacy entered the common room.
"Attention Gryffindors! Tonight at seven o'clock there will be a special assembly. Tell all of your friends and make sure everyone attends." She announced.
"What do you think it is?" Brittany asked Lily.
Lily shrugged, "I dunno, probably just some dumb end of mid-terms thing."
The girls turned their attention back to the magical fortune tellers they were playing with. Lily gasped as hers predicted her tragic demise by crocodile.
Despite herself, Lily could not help getting excited before the assembly. Assemblies at Hogwarts were never boring by her standards.
But when she arrived, her excitement gave way to confusion.
Dumbledore was sitting in front of the students, in a semicircle including all of the Hogwarts teachers, James's father and brother, Frank Longbottom, and several people whom Lily didn't recognize.
She didn't seem to be the only one who was surprised at the solemn air that filled the Great Hall. James looked shocked as well, and attempted to communicate with his father and brother, but Dumbledore asked him politely to take a seat.
"All will be clarified in a moment," Dumbledore announced. "Kindly take your seats and wait for the rest of the school to get situated."
When all of the giggling and whispering finally subsided and when all of the students were safely in their seats, with their eyes fixed on the strange gathering, Dumbledore finally cleared his throat.
"Welcome Hogwarts students. I suppose many of you are wondering why you were called here today. No Sirius Black, I am not promoting you to Head Boy."
There was a tittering of laughter from the Gryffindor section.
"I am sorry to announce that we are gathered here on much more serious business," Dumbledore turned his gaze to the Slytherins. "As many of you know, Voldemort, a young and dangerous wizard has been found responsible for several recent killings, the first of which was Hogwart's very own previous head boy, Tom Riddle."
At this, Dumbledore bowed his head and the other students followed suit. Lily wondered what he had been like, it felt unreal imagining a Hogwarts student dead.
"Very soon many of you will be graduating, and entering the real world. Many paths are becoming open to you, and the choices you make will be of more importance than you know. The sad and frightening truth is that I believe that any one of you could find yourself victim to this Dark Wizard and his followers. Doubtless some of your parents will strongly disapprove of my telling you this, but it is my opinion that this Voldemort will be a bigger threat than any of us can imagine."
Pausing a moment, to look into the faces of the students, Dumbledore continued. "Tonight I would like to introduce you to the Council of the Right. As many of you may notice, all of the Hogwarts teachers are involved with this Council, as well as many Aurors and some young Aurors in training."
Dumbledore motioned towards John and he grinned and gave a mock salute to the crowd. Lily turned behind her and whispered to James.
"I didn't know your brother was an Auror in training!" Lily hissed.
James shrugged. "Neither did I. My father is an auror, but I never knew John wanted to be one." He looked a bit queasy.
Not wanting to be disruptive, Lily turned back around to listen to the others speak.
"The Council of the Right is here to try and protect the public and prevent further incidents involving Dark Magic. It seems that Voldemort is beginning to gain quite a following," Dumbledore let his eyes drift suspiciously towards the Slytherin's, "They call themselves the death eaters and are nearly as dangerous as Voldemort himself."
The others went on to introduce themselves. When Frank Longbottom introduced himself, several Quidditch fans screamed and cheered, and when it was John's turn, quite a few students went wild, including Lily.
Many of the older Council-persons looked cross, but Dumbledore's face showed a hint of a smile.
After the assembly was over, all the students had serious thoughts on their mind. For the first time ever, Lily began to see the horror of Voldemort. If the Aurors, trained adult wizards, could not stop him, Lily didn't know who could.
"He's very powerful, isn't he?" she asked Sirius on the way back to the common room.
Sirius seemed much more quiet and well, serious after the assembly. "Very," Sirius nodded gravely. "More than you know."
"And you know so much, I presume?" her voice turned defensive.
"I have my ways," Sirius insisted coldly.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't lie Sirius."
"I'm not!"
"Whatever," Lily sighed and turned away.
Just then Lily felt hands cover her eyes. She instantaneously resorted to her gut instinct. She spun on her heel and connected her knee with her attackers groin.
She felt bad when she saw John gasping behind her. After a moment he winced and grinned. "Oh John, I'm sorry!"
"Don't apologize, Dragons always have fangs. They wouldn't be any fun if they weren't dangerous. Are you making my brother's life miserable?"
Lily laughed and nodded. Then she sobered and reprimanded him, "I am not a dragon. Call me Lily. That is my name. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to learn it."
"And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that you are no lily. Sorry, but you are a dragon if I have ever seen one." John answered and then reached down and ruffled her hair.
"Hey!" Lily yelled and kicked him hard in the shins.
John bellowed and his little brother walked in.
James looked coldly at Lily, "What did you do to him?"
"Jamesie!" John called playfully and ruffled his brother's hair as well.
Brittany laughed, suddenly appearing from behind an armchair. "Lily! Your hair! You look like James!" with that she collapsed on the floor in a fit of giggles.
Lily glared at John and smoothed her hair as quickly as she could. James managed to look equally offended.
"John, why didn't you tell me you were going to be an auror?" James asked indignantly.
John shrugged. "I thought I'd wait until the assembly and let you be surprised. Don't be mad little brother, you know now."
"Are you going to stay at Hogwarts tonight?" Lily asked, still trying to hide her happiness at seeing the older boy.
"Nah, I'd like to but I've got Quidditch practice in the morning," John said impatiently.
Lily tried her best not to look too disappointed.
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 12- Marauders and Aurors
Much to Lily's pleasure and James's disappointment, classes started the day after students arrived back, and all the professors seemed to be eager to assign as much work as possible.
While James and Sirius slacked off and spent their time working to find new ways to cause trouble, Lily and Dora spent every waking moment in the library.
"I don't understand how those two can get such good marks! They never study or do any work at all and yet they still are at the top of our class!" Lily fumed to her friend.
"You don't do so badly yourself," Dora replied glumly. "You have top marks as well, but I am barely passing."
But as devoted as Dora was, she was no match for Lily. At ten o'clock, when the library closed, Dora called it quits and agreed to meet Lily back in the dorm.
Lily refused to leave so early. "Just a few more minutes!" she begged Mister Bluff, the librarian.
Mister Bluff was a kind hearted elderly gentleman who judged a person's worth by the amount of time they spent engulfed in books. He deemed Lily trustworthy after seeing how devoted she was to her studies.
"All right Lily, but you must promise to close up for me and trip the alarm when you go. Don't stay up to late." He gave in easily.
It was a good three hours later when Lily finally braved a glance at the clock.
"Oh no!" she yelled and jumped out of her chair. It was well past midnight and if she were caught by Filch, the young and mean caretaker, walking around this late she would surely get a detention.
Lily hurriedly put away her books and locked up the library, not forgetting setting the alarm.
Holding her breath, she dashed up towards the Gryffindor common room, praying silently that she wouldn't be caught. All went well until she reached the statue of Sir Ector de Marys. Lily was about to round the corner when she heard voices.
Stopping dead in her tracks, Lily held her breath and pressed her thin body up against a wall, trying to flatten herself into nonexistence.
"No, it was for real! I really think he's going to do it this time." Lily heard a masculine voice whispering around the corner. It sounded like an older boy.
"Barty, are you sure? I mean Tom has the right ideas, but sooner or later he's going to get caught. People are beginning to suspect."
Lily wrinkled up her forehead in consternation. One of the boys she supposed was Barty Crouch, the Slytherin Quidditch Captain. The other boy she couldn't identify. Whatever they were talking about, she was sure was none of her business, but somehow it caught her attention.
"Who at Hogwarts knows?" another boy asked.
"Only five or six people. Only I have sworn loyalty to him." Barty spoke softly.
"You're crazy! What if you are caught? Think about it," at this point the unknown boy paused, seeming to survey his surroundings. Lily shrunk even further into the wall. This time he spoke in a whisper. "We have no idea what is going to happen next. I mean do you really think a bunch of kids, the oldest just out of school are going to be any sort of match against Aurors?"
"If people support us we could!" Barty. "Please Devin, just think about it. The next meeting is on Sunday. Tom is going to announce our next target. Think about it, all the people you hate, gone! You are never going to have another chance like this. The power we will have, it will be enormous! If you pass this up, you will regret it."
Lily listened intently, biting her lip in confusion. She shut her eyes as if it gave her a better chance of being invisible. It turned out it didn't matter anyway. The footsteps of the two boys faded down the hall, as they retreated.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Lily turned and sprinted back to the Gryffindor common room, relieved to be home free.
The next morning Lily told Brittany and Dora about the conversation she had overheard. Neither of them could figure out what it meant.
"I'm sure Sirius will figure it out," Brittany assured her friend.
Lily's eyes got so wide that it looked as if they would pop out of her skull. "No way Brittany! You can't tell anyone! This is our secret, understand? I don't want them knowing I was out past midnight, eavesdropping! Besides, if it got back to Barty or the other boy, I'd be so embarrassed!"
Reluctantly, Brittany agreed to keep her mouth shut. Dora didn't need telling, she wasn't the kind of girl who gossiped and told secrets.
During Potions, Ludwick decided to surprise the students with a back to school pop quiz. Each student and their lab partner were expected to come up with a potion to cure warts. Lily and James set aside their differences and worked hard to coordinate their efforts.
Most importantly they double checked the ingredients that the other had already added. When the potion was finished, Lily was pleased that it turned a dull yellow color, which meant it had worked. Ludwick couldn't possibly fail them now, not after the potion turned out perfectly.
Nonetheless, Ludwick found plenty of petty points to reprimand the duo for, such as the particles of Eloidea leaf which were still visible. "You should have sliced the leaves thinner! Five points from Gryffindor."
He found Terrance and Malfoy's potion perfect however, despite the fact that it was nearly boiling over.
"I hate Ludwick! They shouldn't hire teachers who only pick on the kids they don't like!" James complained later that day.
Lily smiled half heartedly. "At least he passed us. And he only took ten points from our house today, that's better than usual."
"Yeah, but he awarded twenty to Slytherin." James rolled his eyes. "I wish Lacy were so biased."
Just then Lily noticed that she was conversing with James and quickly found somewhere else to be.
The next morning at breakfast, Professor Ludwick came storming across the dining hall. He stopped next to the Gryffindor table, right next to James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who were all trying very hard to maintain straight faces.
"This morning I awoke to a most unusual sound. Can any of you boys guess what it was?" Ludwick spoke calmly at first, but by the time he reached the last word his face was purple with rage.
The boys shook their heads solemnly and the rest of the table looked on with interest.
"I HEARD CHICKENS!" Ludwick bellowed.
"I think he's finally lost it," Brittany whispered to Lily.
Ludwick stood still and shifted his gaze over to the girls. "So I got out of bed. . .and I saw chickens, hundreds of chickens in the Slytherin common room. I don't know who did this, but I swear I am going to find out. And when I do," Ludwick clenched his fist and shook it violently, "I will make sure that the individual responsible will be expelled, permanently."
When Ludwick was out of hearing range, four Gryffindor first years broke into hysterical laughter, and the older students all came by to congratulate them.
Lily tolerated the noise for a few minutes, and then she rose and approached the boys. James grew silent as she approached. "Hey Lily, come to congratulate me as well?"
"If you four are done marauding about, you might want to consider going to charms class. I wouldn't want Gryffindor to lose any more points on account of you!" She spoke tartly.
Sirius cackled and clutched his sides. "Well actually, we're not quite done marauding yet! Marauding, where do you get those big words Lily? You sound like a dictionary!"
"Humph. . .boys!" Lily wanted to say something else, but her vocabulary suddenly deserted her. She turned icily on her heel and hurried to Charms. She was the only one.
"It kind of has a nice sound to it. The Marauders. . . I can see it," James smiled winningly.
"Yeah, the Marauders. That sounds like we're celebrities," Peter mused wistfully.
"I don't know about celebrities, but it does have a ring to it." Remus decided.
None of them could guess just how long the name would stick.
What with mid terms from all of her classes, and Ludwick's insane investigation techniques, Lily did not have time to further examine the odd conversation she had heard in the halls a few nights before. Her natural curiosity was quenched with the sudden downpour of homework.
And Lily did study quite a bit. It seemed to her as if she did twice the work as everybody else. After she learned the material she would always work with Dora until she too understood.
By Friday all the students were relieved to have completed their mid term tests. Lily was relaxing in the Gryffindor common room, happy to be out of the library for once, when Lacy entered the common room.
"Attention Gryffindors! Tonight at seven o'clock there will be a special assembly. Tell all of your friends and make sure everyone attends." She announced.
"What do you think it is?" Brittany asked Lily.
Lily shrugged, "I dunno, probably just some dumb end of mid-terms thing."
The girls turned their attention back to the magical fortune tellers they were playing with. Lily gasped as hers predicted her tragic demise by crocodile.
Despite herself, Lily could not help getting excited before the assembly. Assemblies at Hogwarts were never boring by her standards.
But when she arrived, her excitement gave way to confusion.
Dumbledore was sitting in front of the students, in a semicircle including all of the Hogwarts teachers, James's father and brother, Frank Longbottom, and several people whom Lily didn't recognize.
She didn't seem to be the only one who was surprised at the solemn air that filled the Great Hall. James looked shocked as well, and attempted to communicate with his father and brother, but Dumbledore asked him politely to take a seat.
"All will be clarified in a moment," Dumbledore announced. "Kindly take your seats and wait for the rest of the school to get situated."
When all of the giggling and whispering finally subsided and when all of the students were safely in their seats, with their eyes fixed on the strange gathering, Dumbledore finally cleared his throat.
"Welcome Hogwarts students. I suppose many of you are wondering why you were called here today. No Sirius Black, I am not promoting you to Head Boy."
There was a tittering of laughter from the Gryffindor section.
"I am sorry to announce that we are gathered here on much more serious business," Dumbledore turned his gaze to the Slytherins. "As many of you know, Voldemort, a young and dangerous wizard has been found responsible for several recent killings, the first of which was Hogwart's very own previous head boy, Tom Riddle."
At this, Dumbledore bowed his head and the other students followed suit. Lily wondered what he had been like, it felt unreal imagining a Hogwarts student dead.
"Very soon many of you will be graduating, and entering the real world. Many paths are becoming open to you, and the choices you make will be of more importance than you know. The sad and frightening truth is that I believe that any one of you could find yourself victim to this Dark Wizard and his followers. Doubtless some of your parents will strongly disapprove of my telling you this, but it is my opinion that this Voldemort will be a bigger threat than any of us can imagine."
Pausing a moment, to look into the faces of the students, Dumbledore continued. "Tonight I would like to introduce you to the Council of the Right. As many of you may notice, all of the Hogwarts teachers are involved with this Council, as well as many Aurors and some young Aurors in training."
Dumbledore motioned towards John and he grinned and gave a mock salute to the crowd. Lily turned behind her and whispered to James.
"I didn't know your brother was an Auror in training!" Lily hissed.
James shrugged. "Neither did I. My father is an auror, but I never knew John wanted to be one." He looked a bit queasy.
Not wanting to be disruptive, Lily turned back around to listen to the others speak.
"The Council of the Right is here to try and protect the public and prevent further incidents involving Dark Magic. It seems that Voldemort is beginning to gain quite a following," Dumbledore let his eyes drift suspiciously towards the Slytherin's, "They call themselves the death eaters and are nearly as dangerous as Voldemort himself."
The others went on to introduce themselves. When Frank Longbottom introduced himself, several Quidditch fans screamed and cheered, and when it was John's turn, quite a few students went wild, including Lily.
Many of the older Council-persons looked cross, but Dumbledore's face showed a hint of a smile.
After the assembly was over, all the students had serious thoughts on their mind. For the first time ever, Lily began to see the horror of Voldemort. If the Aurors, trained adult wizards, could not stop him, Lily didn't know who could.
"He's very powerful, isn't he?" she asked Sirius on the way back to the common room.
Sirius seemed much more quiet and well, serious after the assembly. "Very," Sirius nodded gravely. "More than you know."
"And you know so much, I presume?" her voice turned defensive.
"I have my ways," Sirius insisted coldly.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't lie Sirius."
"I'm not!"
"Whatever," Lily sighed and turned away.
Just then Lily felt hands cover her eyes. She instantaneously resorted to her gut instinct. She spun on her heel and connected her knee with her attackers groin.
She felt bad when she saw John gasping behind her. After a moment he winced and grinned. "Oh John, I'm sorry!"
"Don't apologize, Dragons always have fangs. They wouldn't be any fun if they weren't dangerous. Are you making my brother's life miserable?"
Lily laughed and nodded. Then she sobered and reprimanded him, "I am not a dragon. Call me Lily. That is my name. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to learn it."
"And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that you are no lily. Sorry, but you are a dragon if I have ever seen one." John answered and then reached down and ruffled her hair.
"Hey!" Lily yelled and kicked him hard in the shins.
John bellowed and his little brother walked in.
James looked coldly at Lily, "What did you do to him?"
"Jamesie!" John called playfully and ruffled his brother's hair as well.
Brittany laughed, suddenly appearing from behind an armchair. "Lily! Your hair! You look like James!" with that she collapsed on the floor in a fit of giggles.
Lily glared at John and smoothed her hair as quickly as she could. James managed to look equally offended.
"John, why didn't you tell me you were going to be an auror?" James asked indignantly.
John shrugged. "I thought I'd wait until the assembly and let you be surprised. Don't be mad little brother, you know now."
"Are you going to stay at Hogwarts tonight?" Lily asked, still trying to hide her happiness at seeing the older boy.
"Nah, I'd like to but I've got Quidditch practice in the morning," John said impatiently.
Lily tried her best not to look too disappointed.