When Lily reached the portrait of the fat lady she said the password and
dragged herself in. She was completely exhausted and all she wanted to do
was climb in her bed. It sounded so tempting after all that homework and
studying she had just accomplished. As she walked into the room, she saw
James and Sirius at the couch. Remus was still at the hospital wing,
probably for a few more days. Peter was most likely asleep since it was so
late. She decided to say a quick hello and goodbye to the two on the couch
before she dragged herself up to her dormitory.
"Hey guys! What's wrong?" she asked, seeing the angry looks on their faces.
They both turned and glared at her. She widened her eyes in surprise. "It must be pretty bad if you're even too mad to talk." She said.
"How dare you Lily." James said, looking at her with a disgusted look on his face. "How dare you do that to Remus."
"What are you talking about? Do 'what' to Remus?" She asked.
"Don't pretend you don't know what we're talking about. We know it was you who told Malfoy about Remus' condition." Sirius growled at her.
"What?" she asked, astonished.
"You heard us." James answered coldly.
"G-guys. I swear. I didn't tell any-,"
"Save it. We know you told so don't lie" James said.
"Why would I tell Malfoy about Remus?" she tried to reason.
"Lily! Who knows what goes on in your mind? Maybe you secretly fancy him. Or maybe you just want attention. The fact of the matter is, you told him, and now we will never trust you again." Sirius said angrily.
Tears were now threatening to fall down her face as her skin drained of color out of shock. Her best friends. The people she trusted most in this world, didn't trust her enough to know she was telling the truth. "But I didn't-," she tried again, but was cut off again by James.
"Lily, we never want to talk to you again. You are no longer a fellow Marauder... or friend. Stay away from us. When we see each other in the halls, act like you don't even know us and we'll do the same with you... not like it will make much of a difference anyway. I mean, we never really did know you at all, now did we?" James gave her one final glare, along with Sirius, before they both made their way to their dormitory, leaving Lily to digest everything that had just happened.
Up in the boys dormitory, James was still fuming. He couldn't believe Lily would do something like that. 'Well I guess you can never trust some people.' He thought to himself. He still felt a little bit of guilt, though, seeing the pain and sorrow in her eyes when they confronted her about it. 'But, she always was good at acting and deceiving people. We used to do that all the time to get ourselves out of trouble.'
"James, do you think we went a little too far?" Sirius asked, unsure. As mad as he was at Lily, he still felt a pang of remorse at the end of their friendship.
"She deserved it." James replied angrily to Sirius.
~*~*~*~*~
Two days later, after Lily showered and dressed, she walked down the steps into the common room. She slept a little later than usual so the other girls in her dorm were gone before she even awoke. She learned that Malfoy had been given strict orders not to tell anyone at all about Remus' condition. That didn't give her too much relief, though. She was now friendless and alone, sort of. Remus still hadn't returned from the hospital wing, though when he did, she was sure that he would be just as mad as the other two. Peter had always followed James and Sirius around, so when they dumped her, he did as well, even though he didn't know why they did it. The rest of the school was shocked when they realized Lily was no longer friends with the Marauders. When the guys abandoned her, so did most of her fan club and admirers. It seemed like the whole school hated her now.
When she walked into the common room, she was met with a shock. Cassandra and her two friends were talking to James, Sirius, and Peter by the fireplace. It looked as though they were flirting. Cassandra had just linked arms with James and kissed him, and Stacy and Kelly did the same with Sirius and Peter. When they sensed someone else in the room, the six of them turned around.
"Aw. I guess you're not so popular anymore, huh Evans." Cassandra said snottily, hanging on the arm of James, who looked away from Lily, ignoring her. Stacy and Kelly added their own, 'like yeah' and 'totally'. Sirius and Peter looked away as well. Lily had tears in her eyes as Cassandra made fun of her. Though, what hurt the most was that the guys weren't even defending her. In fact, she had a suspicion that they were now going out with the three airheads to get back at her. And it was really working. Lily started to breath in ragged gasps as she tried to fight back the tears. She practically ran out the portrait hole so they wouldn't see her cry.
As she made her way to the Great Hall, shoulders hunched as though she were carrying the weight of the world on them, she received many glares and got called 'Mudblood' quite a few times. Her eyes were looking to the ground when she saw many pairs of feet in front of her. She gazed up, slowly, and saw a large group of students surrounding her, scowling. The leader of the group appeared to be Fletcher McDermott. He was a sixth year Hufflepuff.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Hogwarts own little Mudblood slut. Why don't you just leave here and do everyone else a favor?" he said, speaking with such hate that Lily was astonished that a person could go from having a major crush to despising the ground you walk on, all in a matter of one day. This guy had personally formed his own 'Lily Evans' fan club and now he was practically threatening her to leave. Lily looked at the faces in the group. All but a few she had helped out with their homework, or even comforted them in a time of need. This was not how people should be acting after how much she had done and sacrificed for them.
"Why are you people doing this?" she whispered.
McDermott leaned forward and said in a mocking voice, "Why not? After all, it's not like we're hurting your feelings. Scum like you don't have feelings." Someone from the crowd started to chant, "Mudblood." Pretty soon, everyone there started to chant. McDermott saw that she was about to cry.
"What, are you gonna cry Evans?" he said, continuing to taunt her with the rest of the crowd. Lily couldn't take it anymore. She ran back to her dormitory and locked herself in there for the rest of the day. She just kept crying, no matter how hard she tried to stop. She cried herself sick.
~*~*~*~
By the next week, Friday, Remus had returned and was noticing weird things. Lily hadn't been hanging around them at all. In fact, he barely ever saw her outside of class and occasionally in the Great Hall. When he did see her, she wouldn't go near him or the other three. She seemed a lot more skinny and pale than before. When she was in the Great Hall, she wouldn't eat. She would just stare into space or loose herself in a textbook. Whenever he would giver her a smile in the halls or in class, she would widen her eyes and pale.
The first time Remus noticed Lily's strange behavior, Remus asked James and Sirius about it. They denied anything out of the ordinary. They didn't want to tell Remus about Malfoy knowing and that Lily was the one that told him. It would just add more to what Remus was worrying about. So they just said that she had decided to become more withdrawn and focus all her attention to her schoolwork. Remus still seemed a little suspicious, but didn't press the matter further. Though, it did hurt just a little to know that Lily didn't want to spend any time 'at all' with her friends.
Now Remus was starting to get a little more worried about how Lily was acting. He and the rest of the Marauders were in the Great Hall for lunch and Lily had just dragged herself in, looking deeply troubled, depressed, and weak and tired. As she walked by them, Remus looked up and smiled at her while the others ignored her. She, once again, paled and hurried off to the other end of the table, sitting the nearest she could to the teachers table.
"James? Have you noticed how...unhealthy Lily has been looking recently." He asked. James, who was sitting across from Remus, looked up, avoiding Remus' eyes. Remus saw Sirius shift in his seat uneasily. Peter just looked at James, waiting for an answer as well.
"Er... no, not really. She usually looks like that when she's been studying a lot without taking a break." He stammered.
"True, but that's not all that's been weird around here." Remus said thoughtfully, "the other day in one of the halls, I heard Lily being harassed by a bunch of Ravenclaws. She ran away from them before I could help. But what really confuses me is that Lily used to be so popular with everyone, especially the Ravenclaws. Why would they suddenly just hate her like that?"
James really couldn't answer that because he himself didn't know. After all, the rest of the school didn't know what Lily had done. All they knew was that the marauders and Lily had broken off their friendships with each other. That shouldn't have affected them in this way. It would have been more common that all the male population would be thrilled that Lily was finally free so they could date her.
"-and the other weird thing is that... you three are dating the airhead patrol. What is up with 'that'?" Remus continued.
"Uh, we just thought we'd... you know, give them a chance. They're pretty enough and everything. Plus, we're not really all that close with Lily any more, so why not date them." Sirius said quickly, giving Remus more reason to be suspicious. But, once again, Remus dropped the subject, but still occasionally glanced at Lily, concerned for his friend.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Professor McGonagall looked over at Headmaster Dumbledore. He had a thoughtful look on his face for some reason.
"Penny for your thoughts, Albus." She said.
"The students seem to have acted differently around Miss Evans lately, haven't they Professor?" Dumbledore said, looking baffled. McGonagall looked at the Gryffindor table were Lily was sitting engrossed in her book. She noticed almost everyone in the Great Hall was glaring at her with the most disgusted look they could muster. She did her best to ignore them. What surprised her the most, though, was that James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus seemed to do nothing about it. That was very peculiar in itself
"Indeed, Professor." McGonagall answered. "What do you suppose is the trouble?"
Dumbledore shook his head, "I daresay I don't know. We'll just have to keep a lookout."
~*~*~*~*~
As Lily walked out of her last class of the day, someone tripped her on purpose and she lost all her papers she was holding. No one even bothered to help her pick them up. If there was one thing for sure, it was this.
Lily wasn't looking forward to the Qudditch game tomorrow morning. Especially since she was on it, along with Sirius, James, and Remus.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N- How'd ya like it? I know it's really sad. I had a real hard time writing this. Making the marauders be mean to Lily, but it's all part of the plot. Please don't hate me for doing this because the next few chapters are going to be a little sad. Well, anyway, please review. They really do a lot to motivate me.
* The minute she stood up and walked over, the black figure put
something in her drink.
* Lily noticed someone putting something in James' drink.
* The other two chasers weren't passing her the ball at all.
* Her eyes widened in shock. "JAMES, LOOK OUT!"
*Everyone held their breath as she continued to fall. James tried
racing his broom down, but it was too late.
* "Now I want to know what was really going on with you two and Lily!"
Remus shouted, starting to get real angry.
"Hey guys! What's wrong?" she asked, seeing the angry looks on their faces.
They both turned and glared at her. She widened her eyes in surprise. "It must be pretty bad if you're even too mad to talk." She said.
"How dare you Lily." James said, looking at her with a disgusted look on his face. "How dare you do that to Remus."
"What are you talking about? Do 'what' to Remus?" She asked.
"Don't pretend you don't know what we're talking about. We know it was you who told Malfoy about Remus' condition." Sirius growled at her.
"What?" she asked, astonished.
"You heard us." James answered coldly.
"G-guys. I swear. I didn't tell any-,"
"Save it. We know you told so don't lie" James said.
"Why would I tell Malfoy about Remus?" she tried to reason.
"Lily! Who knows what goes on in your mind? Maybe you secretly fancy him. Or maybe you just want attention. The fact of the matter is, you told him, and now we will never trust you again." Sirius said angrily.
Tears were now threatening to fall down her face as her skin drained of color out of shock. Her best friends. The people she trusted most in this world, didn't trust her enough to know she was telling the truth. "But I didn't-," she tried again, but was cut off again by James.
"Lily, we never want to talk to you again. You are no longer a fellow Marauder... or friend. Stay away from us. When we see each other in the halls, act like you don't even know us and we'll do the same with you... not like it will make much of a difference anyway. I mean, we never really did know you at all, now did we?" James gave her one final glare, along with Sirius, before they both made their way to their dormitory, leaving Lily to digest everything that had just happened.
Up in the boys dormitory, James was still fuming. He couldn't believe Lily would do something like that. 'Well I guess you can never trust some people.' He thought to himself. He still felt a little bit of guilt, though, seeing the pain and sorrow in her eyes when they confronted her about it. 'But, she always was good at acting and deceiving people. We used to do that all the time to get ourselves out of trouble.'
"James, do you think we went a little too far?" Sirius asked, unsure. As mad as he was at Lily, he still felt a pang of remorse at the end of their friendship.
"She deserved it." James replied angrily to Sirius.
~*~*~*~*~
Two days later, after Lily showered and dressed, she walked down the steps into the common room. She slept a little later than usual so the other girls in her dorm were gone before she even awoke. She learned that Malfoy had been given strict orders not to tell anyone at all about Remus' condition. That didn't give her too much relief, though. She was now friendless and alone, sort of. Remus still hadn't returned from the hospital wing, though when he did, she was sure that he would be just as mad as the other two. Peter had always followed James and Sirius around, so when they dumped her, he did as well, even though he didn't know why they did it. The rest of the school was shocked when they realized Lily was no longer friends with the Marauders. When the guys abandoned her, so did most of her fan club and admirers. It seemed like the whole school hated her now.
When she walked into the common room, she was met with a shock. Cassandra and her two friends were talking to James, Sirius, and Peter by the fireplace. It looked as though they were flirting. Cassandra had just linked arms with James and kissed him, and Stacy and Kelly did the same with Sirius and Peter. When they sensed someone else in the room, the six of them turned around.
"Aw. I guess you're not so popular anymore, huh Evans." Cassandra said snottily, hanging on the arm of James, who looked away from Lily, ignoring her. Stacy and Kelly added their own, 'like yeah' and 'totally'. Sirius and Peter looked away as well. Lily had tears in her eyes as Cassandra made fun of her. Though, what hurt the most was that the guys weren't even defending her. In fact, she had a suspicion that they were now going out with the three airheads to get back at her. And it was really working. Lily started to breath in ragged gasps as she tried to fight back the tears. She practically ran out the portrait hole so they wouldn't see her cry.
As she made her way to the Great Hall, shoulders hunched as though she were carrying the weight of the world on them, she received many glares and got called 'Mudblood' quite a few times. Her eyes were looking to the ground when she saw many pairs of feet in front of her. She gazed up, slowly, and saw a large group of students surrounding her, scowling. The leader of the group appeared to be Fletcher McDermott. He was a sixth year Hufflepuff.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Hogwarts own little Mudblood slut. Why don't you just leave here and do everyone else a favor?" he said, speaking with such hate that Lily was astonished that a person could go from having a major crush to despising the ground you walk on, all in a matter of one day. This guy had personally formed his own 'Lily Evans' fan club and now he was practically threatening her to leave. Lily looked at the faces in the group. All but a few she had helped out with their homework, or even comforted them in a time of need. This was not how people should be acting after how much she had done and sacrificed for them.
"Why are you people doing this?" she whispered.
McDermott leaned forward and said in a mocking voice, "Why not? After all, it's not like we're hurting your feelings. Scum like you don't have feelings." Someone from the crowd started to chant, "Mudblood." Pretty soon, everyone there started to chant. McDermott saw that she was about to cry.
"What, are you gonna cry Evans?" he said, continuing to taunt her with the rest of the crowd. Lily couldn't take it anymore. She ran back to her dormitory and locked herself in there for the rest of the day. She just kept crying, no matter how hard she tried to stop. She cried herself sick.
~*~*~*~
By the next week, Friday, Remus had returned and was noticing weird things. Lily hadn't been hanging around them at all. In fact, he barely ever saw her outside of class and occasionally in the Great Hall. When he did see her, she wouldn't go near him or the other three. She seemed a lot more skinny and pale than before. When she was in the Great Hall, she wouldn't eat. She would just stare into space or loose herself in a textbook. Whenever he would giver her a smile in the halls or in class, she would widen her eyes and pale.
The first time Remus noticed Lily's strange behavior, Remus asked James and Sirius about it. They denied anything out of the ordinary. They didn't want to tell Remus about Malfoy knowing and that Lily was the one that told him. It would just add more to what Remus was worrying about. So they just said that she had decided to become more withdrawn and focus all her attention to her schoolwork. Remus still seemed a little suspicious, but didn't press the matter further. Though, it did hurt just a little to know that Lily didn't want to spend any time 'at all' with her friends.
Now Remus was starting to get a little more worried about how Lily was acting. He and the rest of the Marauders were in the Great Hall for lunch and Lily had just dragged herself in, looking deeply troubled, depressed, and weak and tired. As she walked by them, Remus looked up and smiled at her while the others ignored her. She, once again, paled and hurried off to the other end of the table, sitting the nearest she could to the teachers table.
"James? Have you noticed how...unhealthy Lily has been looking recently." He asked. James, who was sitting across from Remus, looked up, avoiding Remus' eyes. Remus saw Sirius shift in his seat uneasily. Peter just looked at James, waiting for an answer as well.
"Er... no, not really. She usually looks like that when she's been studying a lot without taking a break." He stammered.
"True, but that's not all that's been weird around here." Remus said thoughtfully, "the other day in one of the halls, I heard Lily being harassed by a bunch of Ravenclaws. She ran away from them before I could help. But what really confuses me is that Lily used to be so popular with everyone, especially the Ravenclaws. Why would they suddenly just hate her like that?"
James really couldn't answer that because he himself didn't know. After all, the rest of the school didn't know what Lily had done. All they knew was that the marauders and Lily had broken off their friendships with each other. That shouldn't have affected them in this way. It would have been more common that all the male population would be thrilled that Lily was finally free so they could date her.
"-and the other weird thing is that... you three are dating the airhead patrol. What is up with 'that'?" Remus continued.
"Uh, we just thought we'd... you know, give them a chance. They're pretty enough and everything. Plus, we're not really all that close with Lily any more, so why not date them." Sirius said quickly, giving Remus more reason to be suspicious. But, once again, Remus dropped the subject, but still occasionally glanced at Lily, concerned for his friend.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Professor McGonagall looked over at Headmaster Dumbledore. He had a thoughtful look on his face for some reason.
"Penny for your thoughts, Albus." She said.
"The students seem to have acted differently around Miss Evans lately, haven't they Professor?" Dumbledore said, looking baffled. McGonagall looked at the Gryffindor table were Lily was sitting engrossed in her book. She noticed almost everyone in the Great Hall was glaring at her with the most disgusted look they could muster. She did her best to ignore them. What surprised her the most, though, was that James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus seemed to do nothing about it. That was very peculiar in itself
"Indeed, Professor." McGonagall answered. "What do you suppose is the trouble?"
Dumbledore shook his head, "I daresay I don't know. We'll just have to keep a lookout."
~*~*~*~*~
As Lily walked out of her last class of the day, someone tripped her on purpose and she lost all her papers she was holding. No one even bothered to help her pick them up. If there was one thing for sure, it was this.
Lily wasn't looking forward to the Qudditch game tomorrow morning. Especially since she was on it, along with Sirius, James, and Remus.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N- How'd ya like it? I know it's really sad. I had a real hard time writing this. Making the marauders be mean to Lily, but it's all part of the plot. Please don't hate me for doing this because the next few chapters are going to be a little sad. Well, anyway, please review. They really do a lot to motivate me.
* The minute she stood up and walked over, the black figure put
something in her drink.
* Lily noticed someone putting something in James' drink.
* The other two chasers weren't passing her the ball at all.
* Her eyes widened in shock. "JAMES, LOOK OUT!"
*Everyone held their breath as she continued to fall. James tried
racing his broom down, but it was too late.
* "Now I want to know what was really going on with you two and Lily!"
Remus shouted, starting to get real angry.