Living A Legend
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 16- Secrets and Threats

One day during a particularly boring History of Magic lesson, Professor Bin's droning was cut short when a knock at the door interrupted the lesson.

Professor Bins, the oldest and most boring of all Lily's teachers, made his way to the back of the classroom at a leisurely pace and opened the door slowly.

After a moment, the teacher turned and with an agonizingly slow tone announced that there was a man to see James Potter.

At this announcement, many students gasped, wondering if yet another tragedy had struck the Potters and Lily felt her insides run cold. James stood up bravely and walked towards the back of the classroom with his shoulders held high.

"Do you think. . ." Brittany trailed off, "I hope it's nothing else bad."

Lily said nothing and bit her lip, hoping that James wasn't in for more disappointment. Life was much less fun without her least favorite Marauder to argue with.
James stood quietly, not trusting himself to speak as he greeted his brother's best friend. He had recognized Ryan at once, as the older boy, and Quidditch player had frequented James's house ever since he could remember.

"Hey James. It's nice to see you again, but in these circumstances. . . Are you doing all right?" Ryan asked with concern.

James nodded and averted eye contact with John's best friend. "I'm ok."

Ryan ran a hand through his messy blond hair. "It's tough, but I'm glad you're surviving it. We all miss him," he said quietly.

"I guess you'll just have to try harder to win that world championship," James tried to make light. "Britain's got to win. You can still pull through. John would have wanted it."

Ryan cleared his throat. "Yeah. I guess he would have. James I came here because, well, John left this behind and I know he would have wanted you to have it. He really cared about you James, he would have want you to be happy."

The Quidditch player thrust a brown package into James's arms. James caught it easily, surprised by the lightness of the bulky package.

"Don't open it until you are alone. You won't want everyone to see it," Ryan explained, his voice cracking and his eyes tearing up. "I want you to go and use it well. Get in lots of mischief and have fun with it, like your brother did. He would have wanted it"

James nodded, lost for words, and pulled the package close to himself, as if holding onto some part of his brother. "Thank you," he finally mumbled, and hurried back into the classroom to escape the pain of seeing Ryan, who reminded him so very much of John.
When Lily saw James return, he looked shaken but not shaken enough to indicate further disaster. She noticed that he had a package with him, but she did not choose to inquire. He sat down next to Sirius and she saw Sirius touch his wrist as if to inquire about his friends state. James smiled weakly and turned to face Professor Bins, pretending to be captivated by the boring old wizard's lecture on the goblin revolutions.

At one point, when Lily was trying her hardest not to nod off Sirius suddenly jumped atop a desk and animatedly began to swing about a rolled up newspaper as if it were a sword.

The entire class erupted in giggles and groans, and Sirius continued his strange charade. "Back fiends!" Sirius called to an invisible foe, jumping across to the next desk and waving his makeshift sword in Remus's face.

"Mr. Black!" Professor Bin's face looked as placid as ever. "Would you kindly cease your unusual display and allow me to continue with my lesson.

Sirius looked at Bins strangely, as if the old man had just announced his plans to quit the teaching business and become a male model. "Why, my dear old Professor, I am just reenacting the battle! I thought a little visual display might spruce up your lecture."

"I believe my lecture is adequate without any help from a young scallywag like your self. Now please, salvage some dignity and take a seat Mister Black!" Bins looked slightly irritated.

Sirius stood and took a bow. "Well dignity is my middle name after all. Sirius Dignity Black, so I suppose I will take a seat if I must, but to tell you the truth, I find my reenactment much more stimulating."

Then, James reached out and pulled on Sirius's cloak, causing the arrogant little boy to topple backwards into his seat. The class twittered with laughter again, but Sirius remained nonplussed. He only smiled, bowed his head and spoke again, "You see, dignity is my middle name."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Stupid Marauders," she said condescendingly to Dora, who was slumped in her seat, trying to hide her giggling. It was true that Sirius was always good for a laugh.
That night Lily lay awake, for some reason unable to sleep. She wasn't thinking of anything in particular, just mulling over events of the past year. It was strange being away from her family for so long. Lily missed her parents, but she loved Hogwarts. Still, Lily did not look forward to the summer, and seeing Petunia.

Lily sighed, remembering a day when her sister and her had been close. They hadn't really hated each other, until Lily was about five. She couldn't understand what it was that had changed their relationship so. Petunia was six whole years older than her sister, and Lily couldn't understand her a bit.

After much deliberation, Lily decided that lying in bed awake all night wasn't going to do her any good. She decided, against her better judgment, to go down to the common room and read. She had a book that she had been meaning to get to for ages, and hadn't had a decent chance for quite a while.

It was well past three when Lily heard whispers coming from the stairs. Lily slumped down in her chair, doubting that anyone would be able to see her if they were just passing through.

"Hey, Sirius! You're stepping on my foot. Scoot over to the left!" James's voice was clearly evident.

"Oh you mean like this?" Sirius whispered back, his voice muffled, as if coming from under a cloak.

"AHH" James cried out, and then hushed. "Wrong way you idiot!"

"James, do be quiet, you're going to wake the whole tower," came a third voice, belonging to one Remus Lupin.

"Guys, I really don't think it was a good idea to try and fit all three of us under one cloak," Peter whispered nervously.

Lily wrinkled up her forehead in confusion. Why would the four Marauders be creeping through the common room in the middle of the night, sharing a cloak? She knew they were weird, but she couldn't see why they would be eager to cram under one cloak. Perhaps it was part of some prank they were playing.

She heard them whispering conspiratorially, as they opened the portrait hole. Lily almost ignored them, but at the last moment she decided to go after them, she had no intention of allowing the Marauders to lose Gryffindor any more points than they already had. Setting a record number of detentions was one thing, denying Gryffindor of the house cup was another.

Lily hurried and threw open the portrait door, ready to tell them off in the strongest words possible, but when she left the common room, she was surprised to find that the boys were no where in sight. She knew that she was right behind them, so there was no way they could have gone out of her sight.

Giggling broke out from her left and Lily turned her head, looking for the four Marauders, but there was no one in sight.

She heard a muffled, "it works!", followed by a shushing sound.

Annoyed, Lily turned to go back into the common room, she had no intention of chasing the boys around the castle, but she noticed the portrait hole had been closed, and the fat lady was not at her post.

Uncharacteristically, Lily swore, and wandered off down the hall in the direction that she assumed the boys had gone.

At one point, Lily thought she heard some footsteps from behind her, but nobody was to be seen. Finally, Lily decided to go to the library. If she was to be locked out of her common room, she might as well be reading.

After picking out a good book, Lily settled on a couch, partially concealed from sight by three tall bookcases. Lily knew that she might as well take no chances of being caught, she could never live it down if she were the one to be caught creeping about after hours, when all she had been trying to do was to stop James and the others from getting Gryffindor in trouble.

Eventually, sleep found Lily, and she drifted off in her chair, only to be awoken a few minutes later by the sound of voices.

Lily almost jumped out of her seat, assuming she had found the mischievous Marauders, but then she peeked behind the bookcase and saw that the boys talking were much taller than they boys she was after, she recognized one of them as Barty Crouch, the Slytherin Quidditch captain which she had eavesdropped on earlier in the year.

"Oh no!" Lily whispered and sunk down lower in her chair, wishing to disappear.

"So you decided to join us?" Barty asked. "Wise decision. You can come to the next meeting. You will be initiated immediately."

The other boy laughed. "I heard how well your initiation went."

"Yes, indeed. I do think that I chose a spectacular target, although I still think that Longbottom would have better suited the purpose." Barty's voice went from cheerful to vindictive at the mention of the popular Gryffindor's name.

"Yes well, he really is not that great a threat to our lord," the other boy said softly.

Our lord? Lily was not sure what the boys were talking about, but she was getting a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt that she ought to tell somebody about this. She was positive that these were the same two boys she had overheard earlier in the year, and the things they said seemed to make Lily feel very uncomfortable for a reason she could not pinpoint.

"I suppose, but someday he will suffer at my hand. I promise you this," Barty laughed.

"Hello boys," a sinister voice interrupted.

Lily heard both boys audibly startle.

Barty was the first to speak. "Oh, hello Theodore. How nice of you to join us. I presume you have the goods."

"Yes," the new voice hissed. "It's all set up. I trust you will give it to the girl? It will activate precisely at noon on the first day of summer."

"A bit early to set it up, don't you think Malfoy? We haven't even picked a target yet." Barty's companion asked in a reverent tone.

"One can never be to early. The sooner we plant it, the less chance we will get caught. And call me Theodore by the way. All this Malfoy nonsense makes me feel like an old man," Theodore responded.

Lily grimaced, realizing the third person was none other than Lucius Malfoy's father. If the man's cold tone was any indication, it was clear that father was not any kinder than son. Lily wished desperately that she was somewhere else, she had no desire to listen to these people any longer. She did not understand what they were talking about, but their voices made her skin crawl.

"Well, it is almost morning Theodore, and it would be wisest if we get back to our dorms before dawn," Barty seemed eager to end the conversation.

"Yes, well, I must be going. In the morning I have a visit planned with the headmaster, the old fool. That is my pretense for being here. But yes, I agree, you must depart. It would not be good at all if we were seen conversing here. Good night Bartholomew, Devin. Until the next meeting."

The other boys muttered their goodbyes, and Lily held her breath until she was sure they were all gone. Then she gathered her wits and sprinted back up to the Gryffindor Common room.
Throughout the next few days, Lily debated whether to tell Dumbledore about the conversation she had heard. There was nothing in it that was explicitly incriminating, but the whole thing gave her a bad feeling and something urged her to get it off her chest.

But Lily knew that if she told Dumbledore the story, she would have to tell about her being out of bed, and she would have to tell about the previous conversation she had overhead, while also out of bed after hours. She knew that such a confession could have disastrous results.

In the end, Lily decided not even to tell her friends. She also considered confronting the Marauders about their late night exploits, but decided against it, as she was sure it would also incriminate her in her after hours traveling.

All in all, Lily was fairly preoccupied throughout the following week.

It was a welcome distraction when at breakfast one morning, several members of the Slytherin Table suddenly began spouting milk from their noses.

"I got the idea from Dora's messed up charm!" Sirius guffawed loudly.

However, it turned out that the charm was a bit general, and not only inflicted Terrance and Malfoy, but also ended up affecting most of the Slytherin house, including some of the bigger and more formidable of the bunch.

After Lucius had pointed out the culprits, two hulking seventh years, including the boy Devin, whom Lily had overheard talking with Barty in the library, approached the four Marauders, who were not intimidated in the least.

"Which one of you did this?" he asked, trying to look threatening, but not succeeding. It is a difficult thing for a person to look threatening, no matter how big they may be, when the person has a steady stream of milk pouring from their nasal cavity.

"Didn't your mother ever tell you," Sirius asked casually, "not to snort milk out your nose. It's terrible manners you know."

"And it does make you look like a stupid oaf, not that you aren't one already!" James chimed in.

The big Slytherin gazed back and forth at the boys, as if trying to choose which one to hit first. Finally his gaze fell to James, who was the smaller of the two. Devin reached forward and lifted James up by his shirt collar, delivering a terrific blow to the eleven year old's face.

James shouted and his glasses snapped in two, as a fountain of blood began to pour out of the Marauder's own nose.

By some instinct that she could not fathom, Lily stood up and pushed the big Slytherin as hard as she could, sending him sprawling, more out of surprise that anything. "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" Lily screamed at him.

"Go Lily!" Sirius cheered happily.

Devin turned on her, getting a good glance at her face, looking quite comical with milk all over his shirt and looked as if he might hit her.

Lily shrank back, but continued to glare menacingly, when Sirius, Remus and Peter began to pelt the Devin with various items from their plates.

"Here's some eggs to wash down with your milk!" Sirius called as he hit the seventh year straight between the eyes with a hard boiled egg.

Devin backed away, his face red with rage. "I'll get you for this!" he shifted his gaze through all the students, finally landing on Lily. Then he chuckled, "Yes, you'll be sorry you messed with Devin Goyle!"

With that, the older boy marched off, his companions going along with him, leaving the Gryffindors in fits of laughter.

Frank Longbottom came over to congratulate the Marauders. "Splendid prank boys! That was bloody brilliant. I'd never have had the guts to do that as a first year. You showed that git!"

Even James joined in the celebration, his good mood returning despite his broken glasses and possibly broken nose. The good cheer spread throughout the hall, with the exception of the few remaining Slytherins, that is until everyone suddenly went silent as a daunting figure approached the Marauders.

"Detention!" Filch called bitterly. "For creating a scene and a mess." The caretaker's gaze flickered over the Marauders. "The four of you will be cleaning up all traces of milk to be found in this school!"

James groaned, but his good mood remained, despite the sorry state of his face, and his impending punishment.
Early the next morning, the four marauders joined their fellow Gryffindors for breakfast, in a dreary state. James's nose and glasses had both been repaired, but other than that they looked much worse for the wear.

"Filch had us up all night! We had to clean everywhere! Even outside the Slytherin's dorm!" Peter whined.

Lily rolled her eyes. "It couldn't possibly be as bad as the time James and I had to clean out the dungeons by hand.

"It wasn't as bad, it was worse," James groaned miserably.

"No way!" Lily upheld.

"Yes way!" James defended, getting mad.

"Yeah right! You are such a drama queen James," Lily sighed.

"Drama queen? Look at you Miss Lily, who always has a problem with somebody! You're just jealous because you don't actually have a real life like me!" James countered, furious.

"I do to have a life! You're so stupid James!" Lily was getting frustrated to the point of tears.

The two continued their pointless grudge match while their friends watched in amusement.

"I swear those two will fight over anything!" Dora commented astutely to Remus.

"Look at them go. I'm not even sure what they're fighting about. Sometime we should lock the two of them in a room and just let them go at it until they have got all the arguing out of their systems and can finally get along," Brittany expanded.

"That's a great idea but I bet it would take years before they got it out of their systems. The two of them have some serious issues to resolve," mused Sirius thoughtfully.

"Thank you doctor Sirius!" Brittany laughed. "Just watch them. It's entertaining really."

Lily was in the process of calling James every horrible name that she could think of, and James was retaliating by flinging his hash browns at her head.

"I bet they wouldn't notice if we left," Peter said suddenly.

"Are you joking, they wouldn't notice if I lit my hair on fire!" Brittany said.

At this comment, Sirius began to get a strange gleam in his eyes and he suddenly withdrew his wand from his robe. "Are you willing to test that Brittany?"

Brittany screamed and took off running down the hall, with Sirius close behind her.

"James! You ignorant, self centered pig!" Lily continued without pause.

"Looks like her hypothesis was correct," Remus commented to Dora and Peter, who smiled and continued to watch James and Lily's unfolding drama.