A rather large and dramatic event occurred on Halloween of that same year, but this was important mainly for Lily. The events preceding that time indicated nothing of the sort would happen, but still they did.
One week before Halloween, Barty located her in the library with James. Surprisingly, he had dropped the subject of James all together, and they avoided possible conflict.
"Lils, I need to talk to you for a couple minutes."
"Sure. Excuse me." Lily had nodded to James and followed Barty to a far corner of the library where they could converse quietly.
"I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be gone for a week. My grandfather died…the one with the Axminister."
"I'm so sorry." Lily reached to hug him, even though he didn't seem particularly devastated.
"Don't be. He was a hard old man, worse than my father. But my mother was fond of him, even though he was her father-in-law, so I'll act sad for her."
"How courageous." She said dryly.
"I'm a Hufflepuff for a reason." Barty laughed, not offended in the least. "I'll see you on Halloween, okay? I better not have to beat Potter away with a tree branch."
"I sincerely doubt you'll have to even ask him to move."
"All the same…Anyway, I've got to go pack now. I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you too, of course." They said goodbye with a parting hug and kiss. When she sat down James had a sardonic smirk on his face.
"Did you have to do that in my line of vision?"
"We weren't in your line of vision."
"What do you call that?" James rose from his chair so she could sit down in his perspective.
"I guess you're right, I'm sorry, it wasn't for your benefit."
"No doubt about that one."
"Shut up." Lily rolled up a newspaper and hit him with it, just to be yelled at by Madame Pince. "Why does this always happen?"
"Because you can't behave like a proper young lady in the library." James answered matter-of-factly.
"And I suppose you act like a proper young man."
"Not all the time, but I don't question it when I get in trouble."
"Just read the blasted paper." Lily demanded, knowing she was beat.
*~*~*
Barty returned on Halloween, as expected, only Barty didn't return. He wasn't the Barty that Lily knew, he was an entirely different person. Upon his return, it was very obvious things had changed. When he came in the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Lily fully expected him to sit by her at the Gryffindor table for a moment or two to say hi. When that didn't happen, she went to sit next to him, and received a nasty sneer for her efforts.
"How was the funeral?"
"My grandfather died. I thought even a dense Muggle like yourself could figure that one out."
Lily looked at him strangely, and put her hands on the table to propel herself into a standing position.
"Are you going to go to Hogwarts' favorite accident?"
"What has gotten into you, Barty? That's really awful of you to say that sort of stuff about him."
"I suppose you're right…people can't control their birth. You two would deal well together, a bastard and a Mudblood."
"What is wrong?"
"Nothing, everything is right."
"I don't believe it is!"
"I think it's time we parted way, Evans.
"I would say so!" Lily was appalled at his behavior, and even more so at it's abruptness. She commented on it to Millie and Amos, and both politely said they had no idea what was going on, which left her only once choice: Go to the most brutally honest person she knew.
*~*~*
Lily stood outside the seventh year boys' dormitory, waiting for the door to be answered after her knock. Granted, it was against the rules and she didn't normally break rules, but she felt this was a very important situation that required an answer immediately. She was slightly worried, but this was due the sounds coming from inside the room, not the smirks of the other boys as they passed by her to get to their rooms.
The door finally opened, probably about three minutes later, but it was Peter who appeared, looking flushed.
"Is this a bad time?"
"Uhhhh….about as g-g-good as any, I guess."
"Is James here?"
"Yeeaaaahhh."
"Is he busy?"
"Ummm, not, uh, r-really."
"Can I se him, please?"
"Ummm, l-let me a-ask."
"Peter are you okay?"
"N-Yes!" Peter quickly disappeared behind the slightly cracked open door. Lily took this opportunity to take just a little peek inside. She was met with a view of entire black, which ended up being James's shoulder.
"Like what you see?"
"I decline a comment. Can I ask you a question?"
"You know, I really despise such lead-ins as can I ask you a question and would
you do me a favor?"
Lily sighed, wondering why God made such impossible people. "Alright then, I will just jump in."
"Can we do this somewhere else? Somewhere not in front of my dorm, because I'm not sure Hogwarts can handle the thought of it's Golden Boy and Golden Girl sleeping together, and that is what they will think."
"I'm not about to argue." Lily said, immediately working her way down the stairs.
"Of course not. I couldn't even imagine the words Lily Evans and argue in the same sentence."
"Oh shut up!"
"I thought you wanted to ask me a question."
Lily took a deep and hopefully calming breath. "I do." Once they were in the common room, Lily was ready to ask away. "If someone left for a week or so and came back, and was really very mean and cruel to someone he used to like, what would that be a sign of?"
James started backing away. "I am not getting into this. I want no part of your angsty little relationships."
Lily lunged for his arm to keep him running away and safely blocked his exit. "I just want an honest answer, and I assumed you were the only person who either had the guts or lack of politeness to tell me the truth."
"What a way to win me over."
"I'm serious! I just want to know what you think."
"Why do you think I would know."
"Uhhh….I just thought that a…uh…person such as yourself would understand that sort of darkness."
"I am nothing like him."
"Of course not, you're much nicer than he is being at the moment. I think. But I'm not sure. So why is there a complete change?"
"The Dark Arts."
"What?"
"A change like that is generally caused by a sudden or intensified interest in the Dark Arts. It's been happening a lot recently. He called you names?"
"Uh, yeah."
James nodded as if it were obvious. "Dark Arts. Most likely a follower of Voldemort. You do know who-"
"Yes, I know who he is. Is that what you really think?"
"I have better things to do than make up lies about Junior Crouch."
"But-"
"Hey, you asked, and I gave you what I thought."
"Thank you, James. Thanks." Lily turned away from him, and she heard him walk up the first few stairs, then pause.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"Yes. Fine."
"Okay, then, goodnight."
"Goodnight."
When James opened the door to his dorm again, his eyes landed on four expectant faces. "What?"
"So what were you and our little Lily doing?" Sirius asked, grinning like a weasel who had encountered an unprotected hen's nest.
"Nothing like what you're thinking, Black. She merely asked a question, on which I gave my opinon."
"She asked you to be the father of her child, didn't she?" Peter asked, laughing riotously, his friends joining in.
"No…not quite."
"It was a mere marriage proprosal, boys." Frank Longbottom, the fifth seventh year Gryffindor boy, suggested.
"Oh, would you imbeciles just bloody well can it? Stupidity isn't becoming."
"Didn't know you cared."
James growled menacingly, which didn't deter any of his roommates, they were all used to it by now.
"So what did she want?"
"She wanted to know what I thought was going on with Junior Crouch."
"Oh God…she went to a guy to ask about her boyfriend." Sirius groaned, letting Remus smother him with a large pillow.
"I knew she was on the naïve side, but I didn't know it was that bad." Remus added, deciding Sirius couldn't hold his breath much longer, and let go of the pillow.
"Would you two please step away from my private life…even though she isn't in my private life to begin with."
"But Prongs, you always step into ours."
"Jump off a bloody cliff!" James jerked the curtains of his bed closed, hoping for the end of the subject.
*~*~*
It was only a matter of weeks before Barty became among the handful of students expelled from Hogwarts.
The time the Marauders, Lily, Millie, and Amos grew up in what could be described as extreme unrest in the magical world. It was clouded by a nervousness that all adults held nowadays. A formerly safe world was anything but. Voldemort, a wizard with his priorities set on being number one had steadily struck fear in the magical community. Nobody was safe anymore. People were regularly tossed in prisons with only minor evidence in hopes of calming the violence. Students were being expelled from many schools for showing elevated interest in the Dark Arts, and that was what Barty was victim of.
It was a cumulatio of many things, sneaking out restricted books, being caught practicing dark spells, and abusing other students, that led to his expulsion. None of the students quite knew all of the details, and much of it was speculation. Only Dumbledore and the head of Hufflepuff knew the straw the broke the camel's back the resulted in Barty standing in the entryway with his trunk and owl, waiting on Bartemious Crouch Senior to retrieve him.
None of the students wanted to be him, standing there alone, especially when the scowl on his father's face came into view, looking nothing short of murderous. "Outside. Now."
Barty scowled and slammed his way out of Hogwarts, although it wouldn't be the last time. Crouch Senior shook hands gravely with Dumbledore, and nodded his head. "Sorry about this. I believe I can get this under control soon."
"Where will you be sending him?"
"Durmstrang. It's the only place that'll take him now."
"It's a fine school in its own right."
"Sure it is." Crouch said sourly, and he shrank his son's trunk, and slipped it into his pocket. "I appreciate the notification."
"The rules apply to everyone. You might want to reinforce that with him." Dumbledore suggested.
"Don't worry. I will." He tipped his hat politely, and strode out of Hogwarts like the potential Minister of Magic he was.
*~*~*
"No, no, no, this article is from the seventh, so it goes after the charity dinner." James pointed out, rearranging two newspaper clippings. The Head Students' lounge was cluttered with rows and columns of The Prophet strewn across the floor in chronological order to create a timeline of his mother's actions. If Izzy, the Head Girl, decided she need the lounge, she would be resigned to a couch in a corner.
"That's a one, slick."
"It's a seven, Lily, get your eyes checked." James pointed out patiently, waving the article four inches from her face.
"I'm sorry, I've been staring at newsprint for so long I'm seeing double."
"Go take a nap."
"There is no way I'm going to let you figure this out without me, not after all this time I've put into this endeavor, buddy." Lily said, poking him. "So, I'm going to run and get my glasses, but don't discover anything without me, okay?"
"You wear glasses?"
"No. I'll be back." She jumped over a couple rows of papers and slipped on her shoes to go running down the halls. When Lily returned with a pair of silver rimmed glasses, James looked at her curiously, to which she answered, "Muggle thing, James."
"Muggles have magic to make your eyes better?"
"No, not magic, but something to temporarily counteract bad vision."
"Brill. What is it."
"It's hard to explain…I'll show you sometime, alright?"
"Okay. Promise? I really want to see."
"I promise. Now let's get back to the situation at hand. Your father."
They began examining each of the articles again, trying to find a similarity between them, looking for mentions of the same person. After over an hour, they both were frustrated, and decided to take a cookie break, careful not to get anything on the papers. Lily was idly reading one while munching, when she skimmed over something to make her drop her cookie. "Oh wow, look at this!"
"What?" James leaned over her shoulder, trying to see what she apparently saw.
"Look, she's been with this man here in three previous articles!"
"Lily. That's my uncle Edmund."
"Seriously?" Lily turned her face to look at him to make sure he wasn't joking, and she hadn't noticed he was that close. Very close. "That's…uh…inconvenient."
"Slightly." Apparently they had a case of Closing In Syndrome because they kept drifting closer and closer. And then, there was the kiss.
"I see I came at a bad time." And of course, the Head Girl would want to use her shared lounge.