Chapter 7 Unexpected Prospects
November passed through Hogwarts without much incident. The Marauders continued to pull some rather astounding pranks and still no one knew exactly how they did them. Other than the upheavals caused by these jokes, life went on as usual. Even the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry, which had seemed so volatile a few weeks earlier, seemed to have reached some kind of standstill.
Finally December came with the promise of another Hogsmeade weekend and of course the Christmas holidays.
To none of her friends' surprise, Alice was once again going to Hogsmeade with Frank Longbottom. The two had been spending much of their free time together since their first Hogsmeade date. As of yet, none of the Gryffindor sixth year girls had dates to Hogsmeade, not even Kathleen, though Lily was secretly afraid that Gilderoy Lockhart would ask her again.
Lily had had a few offers, but she hadn't accepted any of them. None of the boys who had asked were quite what she was looking for, even though at least one of them was considered to be very attractive. Lily had been on a few dates, but nothing serious. In fact, something serious would have been very difficult indeed, as the Marauders tended to make the life of anyone who asked out Lily Evans a living hell.
* * *
The morning of the Hogsmeade trip dawned bright and beautiful, and as usual the Great Hall at breakfast was filled with excited chatter.
The Gryffindor table was somewhat more subdued than usual and several of the students had bags under their eyes and yawned constantly as though they hadn't slept well the night before, which was perfectly understandable under the circumstances.
Gilderoy Lockhart, who was still not apparently over his little crush on Lily Evans, had snuck out of the castle after hours the previous night and made his way to what he had believed to be the Gryffindor girls' dormitories. Convinced that Lily was merely playing hard to get, Lockhart planned to throw stones at the sixth years' window until Lily noticed and came to the window so he could ask her once again to go to Hogsmeade with him and confess his dying love for her in the moonlight, which was very flattering to his complexion.
Unfortunately, Lockhart had miscalculated; he was on the complete opposite side of the tower from where he had intended to be and was in fact throwing stones at Professor McGonagall's bedroom window.
Hearing the stones, an irate Professor McGonagall, in tartan dressing gown and hairnet, stuck her head out of the window to see who had the nerve to do such a thing. When she saw Lockhart standing there with yet another stone in his hand, she began to tell him off with enough volume to wake the entire tower.
"MR. LOCKHART!" Professor McGonagall shrieked. " WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING?"
"Er.That is." Lockhart stammered.
THIS IS ABSOLUTLEY DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOR!" Professor McGonagall began. At this point, all of Gryffindor Tower was awake and were sticking their heads out of the windows in order to better hear and hopefully see what was going on. Those who could ran to the other side of the tower and reported back to everyone who couldn't.
"..A MONTH'S WORTH OF DETENTION AND FIFTY POINTS FROM HUFFLEPUFF FOR YOUR LEWD BEHAVIOR," McGonagall continued her tirade. "YOU MAY REST ASSURED THAT I WILL SPEAK TO YOUR HEAD OF HOUSE AND TO PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE ABOUT THIS MATTER! NOW RETURN TO YOUR DORMITORY IMMEDIATELY, AND THAT INCLUDES ALL OF YOU!" McGonagall finished, including all of the gawking Gryffindors in this last statement before slamming her window shut. Lockhart fled, presumably to his dormitory, but it was quite a while before Gryffindor Tower settled down again.
In the sixth year girls' dormitory, Lily was mortified. The only thing she had to be grateful for was that Lockhart hadn't said he was looking for her. Still, she was not in the best of moods this morning, feeling very touchy about this latest Lockhart incident and boys in general, with bags under her eyes and a headache from lack of sleep.
Unexpectedly, James Potter with the Marauders in tow hadn't yet been over to taunt her about Lockhart, or in James' case, ask her out. Lily noticed that Remus was once again missing from their ranks; he was presumably sick again, and whenever that happened the Marauders seemed more preoccupied than usual. James, Peter, and Sirius were eating quickly and mostly silently, but whenever one of them did say something he would whisper it and the other two would lean forward and convene in hushed voices.
Lily's attention was drawn away from the Marauders' odd behavior as her friends began discussing their plans, or lack thereof.
"Who're you going with, Kathleen?" Morwenna asked, taking a bite of her eggs.
"No one," Kathleen shrugged a little too nonchalantly. The others looked at each other in surprise; this was the first time since third year that Kathleen hadn't had a date to a Hogsmeade weekend.
"Why not?" Dorcas asked carefully.
Kathleen shrugged again and fidgeted a bit before answering. "I suppose I thought Remus Lupin was going to ask me."
"But he didn't," Lily stated more than she asked.
"No," Kathleen admitted in a small voice. "That's what I get really, for putting all of my eggs in one basket."
"Well, I think he's ill again," Alice said kindly. "I'm sure he really wanted to ask you but was feeling sick and didn't want to ask you if he mightn't have been able to go."
"Or he just doesn't fancy me," Kathleen sighed.
"All the boys fancy you," Dorca said firmly. "You and Lily, that is."
"And I'm stuck with all the wankers," Lily pointed out, "so that leaves you all of the nice ones, which definitely includes Remus."
* * *
James, Sirius, and Peter rushed through breakfast in order to have time to visit Remus, who was in the hospital wing in anticipation of that night's full moon and feeling rather dejected about it. The others wanted to pop in and cheer him up a bit before going on to Hogsmeade.
Madam Pomfrey let them in with a stern admonition to be quiet and left them alone with Remus after shooting them all a rather stern look. Rather than risk being turned out of the hospital wing, James drew the curtains around Remus' bed an quickly put a sound proofing charm on it. Now they could devote their energies to cheering Remus up without worrying about the noise level.
Though he was just as pale and wan as he typically was during the full moon, Remus seemed more morose than usual and the other Marauders knew why. Remus, who had fancied Kathleen Kirkpatrick from afar for quite a while now, had been planning to ask her to the Hogsmeade weekend before realizing that it fell on a full moon. Though he had shrugged it off as philosophically as he did anything to do with his lycanthropy, his friends could tell it rankled.
"How you feeling, mate?" Sirius asked languidly from his seat at the foot of the bed.
Remus shrugged. "All right," he said unconvincingly.
"She didn't go with anyone else, you know," James said, understanding all too well the pain of knowing that the girl you fancied was on a date with someone else.
"She isn't?" Remus asked hopefully, not even attempting to feign indifference anymore.
"Nope," Sirius confirmed. "And she seems rather sad too. I think she was hoping you would ask her."
"Knowing Kirkpatrick, she heard it through the rumor mill that you were going to ask her before you even decided to," James put in. "That girl is all-knowing."
"Well, almost," Sirius grinned, and the others joined him. It was so satisfying to have a secret.
"How did it go asking Lily?" Remus asked, even though he knew the answer.
"I didn't ask," James said simply, surprising them all. "She still hates me and I really don't know what to do about it anymore."
"You're right about that one, mate," Sirius snorted. "Aside from locking her in a closet with you I don't know what to do about that particular bird either."
"Have you ever talked to Lily when you were alone together?" Remus asked.
"Er..once or twice," James answered hesitantly, not sure if he liked where this conversation was going.
"Well, maybe you should try to talk to her alone more often, show her that you're not a berk," Remus suggested. "From what I know of Lily Evans, she doesn't take public humiliation too kindly."
"And how exactly is Prongs supposed to do that, Moony?" Sirius was skeptical. "Girls always travel in packs, 's' practically impossible to get one on its own."
"They don't even go to the bathroom separately," Peter piped up. "I've seen them going in in packs."
"I s'pose I could try it," James said, feeling rather depressed about this newest course of action but just desperate enough to try, though he had mortifying mental images of himself trying to separate Lily from a pack of giggling females on its way to the loo.
"It's not like anything else has worked," Sirius shrugged.
* * *
For his part, Snape could not believe his housemates would be foolish enough to plan such an already potentially explosive operation in public, but nonetheless, there they were, sitting at a corner table in The Three Broomsticks with only a simple anti-eavesdropping charm on the table.
He, Evan Rosier, Erebus Avery, Seth Wilkes, Hera Mordred, Morgaine DuBose, Claudia Heston, and Rabastan Lestrange had been called together by Bellatrix and Rodolphus to finalize the details of their plan. Bellatrix had claimed that sitting in this crowded pub to makes plans would divert suspicion, but Snape wasn't so sure.
For one thing, the group gathered around this table was not one that was generally seen spending time together casually. Rosier and Wilkes were often together, as were Mordred, DuBose, and Heston with the addition of Arbor, and of course the Lestranges, especially Rodolphus, were often with Bellatrix, and Bellatrix would occasionally spend time with the other girls, but they were never all together. Slytherins did not generally spend much time in large groups; they tended to spend time in smaller groups, usually made up of those individuals who had come to trust or had at least grown accustomed to each other.
And then there was Bellatrix herself drawing notice to the group. A strikingly beautiful girl, Bellatrix was naturally memorable and noticeable in a crowd. However, combined with her very deep level of mental disturbance, which drew eyes to her like sailors to the rocks before the Sirens, Bellatrix was practically unignorable. Today she was especially so, her gleeful anticipation at the thought of inflicting pain particularly blinding. She sat next to Lestrange, the two of them being a bit more affectionate than was perhaps tactful in public, their mutual smug self- satisfaction glowing like a beacon as they led the meeting. No indeed, Snape had rarely felt more conspicuous in his life.
* * *
Also sitting in The Three Broomsticks, James, Peter, and Sirius of course noticed the odd behavior the Slytherins were exhibiting. As ringleaders in the longstanding rivalry between the two houses, James and Sirius were almost experts on all things Slytherin, and this was not typical. As far as they knew, the assembled group never socialized together, so why would they start having a few pints now? James' eyes met Sirius' in unspoken understanding: they needed to get closer.
Poking Peter to get his attention and alert him to the plan, the Marauders moved closer to the Slytherins as unobtrusively as possible. However, when they were close enough to hear the conversation, they could only hear buzzing. Recognizing an anti-eavesdropping charm when they encountered one, the Marauders retreated and began having their own hushed discussion.
"I don't like this at all," Sirius said bluntly, concerned for once. "Anytime I've seen Bellatrix look like that she's about to hurt someone, and who do we know that she'd have reason to be mad at?"
James frowned, understanding Sirius' meaning perfectly. "Evans. And Morwenna and Alice." Sirius nodded grimly.
Next to them, Peter was more uncomfortable and fidgety than usual. "She wouldn't really hurt them, would she?" he squeaked, frightened.
"Wormtail," Sirius spoke slowly and deliberately, "Let's get one thing straight, shall we? My cousin is completely twisted. Psychotic, even. Not only would she hurt them, she'd genuinely enjoy doing it."
"I think we should let them, Evans and the others, I mean, know that Bellatrix has got it in for them," James spoke quickly, his eyes and demeanor steely like they were going into a Quidditch match. "They need to be very careful. I think we should split up and go look for them right now. Peter, you go and find Alice, Sirius, you look for Morwenna, and I'll look for Evans. Then we'll meet back here in an hour. Oh, and keep it casual, we don't want to scare anybody"
Sirius and Peter gave James knowing looks but went along with his plan nonetheless. Determinedly, James went off in search of Lily. She might hate him, but she was going to hear this from him regardless.
* * *
After about ten minutes of combing through Hogsmeade's shops, James finally found Lily along with Morwenna and Dorcas just coming out of Honeyduke's laden with Christmas shopping.
"Oy! Evans!" James shouted, jogging up to them.
Lily sighed. Why now? "Did you want something, Potter?" she asked warily, attempting to keep her tone neutral.
"Besides you, you mean?" James returned smoothly, running his hand through his hair and smirking, thereby causing Lily to grit her teeth.
Seeing Lily's steadily rising temper, James added hastily: "I was in The Three Broomsticks just now and Bellatrix Black and Lestrange, along with practically half of Slytherin House, were having some sort of meeting. I don't know what about, there was an anti-eavesdropping spell on their table. I don't know if it was about you, but I'd say Bellatrix has got it in for you after what happened on Halloween. So I just thought I should tell you both to watch yourselves," James paused, noting that for once Lily didn't look as though she would as soon hex him into next week as look at him.
"I'll be watching out for you too," he added somewhat arrogantly, mussing his hair again.
"My hero," Lily said scathingly, flipping her hair back over her shoulder, green eyes flashing. "Look, Potter, I appreciate the warning and all, really I do. But I can look after myself, so find someone else to practice your knight-in-shining-armor fantasies on." Lily walked away, with Morwenna and Dorcas looking rather confused but following her just the same.
Watching them go, James was aware of the thought that whether she believed herself in need of a rescuer or not, Lily Evans was in very serious trouble if Bellatrix Black was indeed out for her blood, because with Bellatrix, the expression was literal.
* * *
Less than an hour later, James met up with Sirius and Peter in The Three Broomsticks. As it happened, Sirius had caught up to Lily, Morwenna, and Dorcas as well, but Peter, who had heard that Alice and Frank had gone to Madam Puddifoot's, had seen Alice but had not talked to her.
"She seemed a bit busy, what with trying to swallow Frank's head and all," Peter sniggered.
"I'm sure Lily and Morwenna'll tell her about what we said," shrugged Sirius.
Or if they don't, Frank will after we tell him," James added.
"Right," Sirius said firmly, and James had the distinct impression that his best friend was trying to cheer him up. "Shall we be off, then? It's nearly dark," Sirius observed as he rose from his chair.
"Wouldn't want to leave Moony hanging," Peter agreed, his watery blue eyes excited at the prospect of another full moon adventure.
"Let's go then," James added his vote, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that Bellatrix Black was planning something horrible for Lily Evans.
* * *
Morwenna waited until they were all gathered in their dormitory that evening and had told Alice about James and Sirius' warnings before confronting Lily about what had happened with James that afternoon.
Dorcas, Morwenna, and Lily had all been rather quiet after encountering first James Potter and then Sirius Black in Hogsmeade, and Morwenna hadn't felt that that had been the time to ask. Now that they were all ready to discuss it, Morwenna couldn't wait any longer.
"Lily," she began, "why were you so mean to James when he told us? He was just trying to help and we'd been thinking Black was out to get us anyway."
To everyone's surprise, Lily didn't automatically dismiss the thought that she'd been too hard on Potter.
"I didn't mean to go off on him the way I did, he was just trying to help," Lily admitted. "But then something about the way he smirks and struts and musses up his hair and thinks he's Merlin's gift to wizardkind just rubs me the wrong way until I have to take him down a peg or two or go mad. I really just can't stand him."
"You have to admit, the way he said he'd be looking out too was really arrogant, Morwenna," Dorcas defended Lily. "I myself wanted to tell the arrogant little berk to shut it. We aren't weak little damsels in distress."
"That's right," Alice said firmly. "We don't need protection from Potter or anyone and we can't let Bellatrix Black scare us. We're powerful witches in our own right."
"Speak for yourself," Morwenna said glumly. "The thought of that psychotic bitch on the warpath against me scares me to death. I'll hide behind anyone I can, thank you very much."
* * *
Later that evening, Snape returned to his dormitory thoroughly exhausted. After the disastrous and extremely irksome meeting in The Three Broomsticks, he had returned to Hogwarts and spent the next several hours in the library researching and completing various essays that were due during the week, then he had gone to one of the small private study rooms in the Slytherin dungeons in order to work on his private potion experiments, all of which were quite involved. Now he wanted nothing more than a few hours' sleep before facing another busy day.
It seemed, however, that his wish was not meant to be. When Snape opened the door to his dormitory, it was to a room full of people. Avery, Wilkes, Rosier, Heston, Mordred, DuBose, and of course Bellatrix Black and Rodolphus Lestrange, who were curled together on Snape's bed. The others were dispersed on the other four beds, giving Lestrange and Black plenty of space. Snape had no need to ask what this was in reference to. Everything else had become unimportant lately.
Bellatrix smiled at Snape, a slow, catty, yet strangely maternal smile. "Poor Severus," she cooed. "Can't sleep with all of the extra people in his room and on his bed. Don't worry pet, this won't take long," her smiled widened as though she knew how this entire set of circumstances annoyed him. Snape stayed where he was and forced himself to look mildly interested. He would avoid further provoking Lestrange if it killed him.
"Now that we're all here," Bellatrix cast another twisted smile in Snape's direction, "I'll come to the point. It has come to my notice that my esteemed cousin and his fellow performers in their ridiculous little band of show-offs will need to be..detained..during our little maneuver. They might feel the need to interfere, defense of womankind and chivalry and all of that shite they seem to thrive on. And we all know that Potter will want to protect his ickle Mudblood."
"It will be necessary," Lestrange broke in, "for someone to set up an unavoidable little diversion for them. Nothing too complex, we will need everyone present for the actual event. Any takers?"
"I would be happy to offer my assistance in the matter of Potter and his followers," Snape spoke up, not willing to let this golden opportunity to get out of this entire scheme pass him by.
"I'm afraid not, Severus," Lestrange spoke coldly. "You have so much to contend with already, we wouldn't want to overextend you." Nice try, Lestrange's eyes told Snape even as his words conveyed the message, but you aren't escaping so easily.
Suddenly Snape was overwhelmingly irked by everyone in the room and by every aspect of their pathetic little scheme. He wanted nothing more than for everyone who did not belong there to leave the room immediately and for Black and Lestrange, a couple who were known to frighten first years with their overwhelming public displays of affection, to get off of his bed before they realized that they were on a flat surface together.
Snape gritted his teeth and just tried to make it through the meeting, which fortunately concluded about fifteen minutes later.
As soon as all of the additional people had vacated the room and his roommates began preparing for bed, Snape did a quick Scourgifying charm on his bed before climbing into it and yanking the curtains shut for some much- needed sleep.
Unfortunately, Snape found that he was no longer tired. Sighing in vexation and cursing Black and Lestrange under his breath, he resigned himself to a night of insomnia.
* * *
Finally, the last week of classes before the holidays commenced had arrived and the castle seemed to hum with activity, everyone was scrambling to complete their pile of before-holiday homework.
In spite of the workload, Lily was glad to be at Hogwarts and even more glad that she would be staying there over the holiday. Her mother had written to her again telling her that Petunia was still blaming Lily for the near end of her engagement and postponement of her wedding, though now she was planning an even more extravagant affair for the following December. As Lily wouldn't be there over the holiday, her parents had agreed to accompany Petunia, Vernon, and Vernon's family to Majorca for Christmas, which Lily gathered her that her mother at least was not looking forward to. Lily couldn't blame her; she herself was counting her blessings that she had so narrowly escaped the trip.
Lily had had another letter, this one from her friend Marlene. Two years older than Lily, Marlene Markham had graduated from Hogwarts in 1974 and married Andrew McKinnon, and they had just learned that they were expecting a baby. A Muggle born witch herself, Marlene had always been very close to Lily during her years at Hogwarts and the girls kept in close touch now that Marlene had left. In fact, Marlene after Lily had written to her about what had happened with Petunia, Marlene had written this letter inviting Lily to stay with her and her husband for the holidays. Though Lily had been tempted to accept, she hadn't wanted to impose on Marlene. Besides, Lily had never spent a Christmas at Hogwarts and was quite looking forward to it.
She certainly wasn't the only one staying. There were more students staying for the holidays than ever, in fact, because of the amount of students whose families had been killed or were missing or in hiding. There were also those whose parents didn't want them to leave the relative safety of Hogwarts for the now very uncertain wizarding world.
Lily would have the dormitory to herself, however. Morwenna would be going home to the social whirl of her parents' many Ministry parties, Alice to her holiday in Edinburgh, Dorcas to her family in Dorset, and Kathleen to hers in Galway. Nonetheless, Lily knew lots of other people in other years and houses that she could spend her time with.
The week flew by as everyone was so busy, and finally it was Friday. The last class of the day for the sixth years was Double Potions, which suited everyone very well. Professor Colander would let them talk and there was always the possibility that she might even let them out early.
Following Alice and Morwenna to their usual places in the front of the classroom, Lily couldn't help but be aware of the fact that something was a bit odd with the Slytherins. As the two houses were notorious for their rivalry, they made it a rule never to sit together, and there was an invisible line in the center of the classroom. On their side, every single one of the Slytherins watched Lily and her friends come in and sit down, their smiles malevolent, but none more so than Bellatrix Black's.
Bellatrix's smile, if it could be called that, was so full of malicious, bloodthirsty glee that Lily felt a chill run down her spine. She looked away from Bellatrix, feeling rather sick.
Then it hit her, and Lily's feeling of nausea increased. Bellatrix's threats at Halloween came back to haunt her "You will pay dearly for that, Evans. You always have to pay the piper, Mudblood, and today's work has cost you very dearly indeed."
Lily realized with dawning horror that Bellatrix was planning to take her revenge on her then and now.
Author's Note: Don't worry, the next chapter is coming soon (tomorrow or the day after) so stay tuned. Reviews might help me write faster. (hint, hint) Thanks to those who reviewed, especially Ronald's Girl, Willow23, and Lily Rowling Potter. Thanks guys!
November passed through Hogwarts without much incident. The Marauders continued to pull some rather astounding pranks and still no one knew exactly how they did them. Other than the upheavals caused by these jokes, life went on as usual. Even the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry, which had seemed so volatile a few weeks earlier, seemed to have reached some kind of standstill.
Finally December came with the promise of another Hogsmeade weekend and of course the Christmas holidays.
To none of her friends' surprise, Alice was once again going to Hogsmeade with Frank Longbottom. The two had been spending much of their free time together since their first Hogsmeade date. As of yet, none of the Gryffindor sixth year girls had dates to Hogsmeade, not even Kathleen, though Lily was secretly afraid that Gilderoy Lockhart would ask her again.
Lily had had a few offers, but she hadn't accepted any of them. None of the boys who had asked were quite what she was looking for, even though at least one of them was considered to be very attractive. Lily had been on a few dates, but nothing serious. In fact, something serious would have been very difficult indeed, as the Marauders tended to make the life of anyone who asked out Lily Evans a living hell.
* * *
The morning of the Hogsmeade trip dawned bright and beautiful, and as usual the Great Hall at breakfast was filled with excited chatter.
The Gryffindor table was somewhat more subdued than usual and several of the students had bags under their eyes and yawned constantly as though they hadn't slept well the night before, which was perfectly understandable under the circumstances.
Gilderoy Lockhart, who was still not apparently over his little crush on Lily Evans, had snuck out of the castle after hours the previous night and made his way to what he had believed to be the Gryffindor girls' dormitories. Convinced that Lily was merely playing hard to get, Lockhart planned to throw stones at the sixth years' window until Lily noticed and came to the window so he could ask her once again to go to Hogsmeade with him and confess his dying love for her in the moonlight, which was very flattering to his complexion.
Unfortunately, Lockhart had miscalculated; he was on the complete opposite side of the tower from where he had intended to be and was in fact throwing stones at Professor McGonagall's bedroom window.
Hearing the stones, an irate Professor McGonagall, in tartan dressing gown and hairnet, stuck her head out of the window to see who had the nerve to do such a thing. When she saw Lockhart standing there with yet another stone in his hand, she began to tell him off with enough volume to wake the entire tower.
"MR. LOCKHART!" Professor McGonagall shrieked. " WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING?"
"Er.That is." Lockhart stammered.
THIS IS ABSOLUTLEY DISGRACEFUL BEHAVIOR!" Professor McGonagall began. At this point, all of Gryffindor Tower was awake and were sticking their heads out of the windows in order to better hear and hopefully see what was going on. Those who could ran to the other side of the tower and reported back to everyone who couldn't.
"..A MONTH'S WORTH OF DETENTION AND FIFTY POINTS FROM HUFFLEPUFF FOR YOUR LEWD BEHAVIOR," McGonagall continued her tirade. "YOU MAY REST ASSURED THAT I WILL SPEAK TO YOUR HEAD OF HOUSE AND TO PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE ABOUT THIS MATTER! NOW RETURN TO YOUR DORMITORY IMMEDIATELY, AND THAT INCLUDES ALL OF YOU!" McGonagall finished, including all of the gawking Gryffindors in this last statement before slamming her window shut. Lockhart fled, presumably to his dormitory, but it was quite a while before Gryffindor Tower settled down again.
In the sixth year girls' dormitory, Lily was mortified. The only thing she had to be grateful for was that Lockhart hadn't said he was looking for her. Still, she was not in the best of moods this morning, feeling very touchy about this latest Lockhart incident and boys in general, with bags under her eyes and a headache from lack of sleep.
Unexpectedly, James Potter with the Marauders in tow hadn't yet been over to taunt her about Lockhart, or in James' case, ask her out. Lily noticed that Remus was once again missing from their ranks; he was presumably sick again, and whenever that happened the Marauders seemed more preoccupied than usual. James, Peter, and Sirius were eating quickly and mostly silently, but whenever one of them did say something he would whisper it and the other two would lean forward and convene in hushed voices.
Lily's attention was drawn away from the Marauders' odd behavior as her friends began discussing their plans, or lack thereof.
"Who're you going with, Kathleen?" Morwenna asked, taking a bite of her eggs.
"No one," Kathleen shrugged a little too nonchalantly. The others looked at each other in surprise; this was the first time since third year that Kathleen hadn't had a date to a Hogsmeade weekend.
"Why not?" Dorcas asked carefully.
Kathleen shrugged again and fidgeted a bit before answering. "I suppose I thought Remus Lupin was going to ask me."
"But he didn't," Lily stated more than she asked.
"No," Kathleen admitted in a small voice. "That's what I get really, for putting all of my eggs in one basket."
"Well, I think he's ill again," Alice said kindly. "I'm sure he really wanted to ask you but was feeling sick and didn't want to ask you if he mightn't have been able to go."
"Or he just doesn't fancy me," Kathleen sighed.
"All the boys fancy you," Dorca said firmly. "You and Lily, that is."
"And I'm stuck with all the wankers," Lily pointed out, "so that leaves you all of the nice ones, which definitely includes Remus."
* * *
James, Sirius, and Peter rushed through breakfast in order to have time to visit Remus, who was in the hospital wing in anticipation of that night's full moon and feeling rather dejected about it. The others wanted to pop in and cheer him up a bit before going on to Hogsmeade.
Madam Pomfrey let them in with a stern admonition to be quiet and left them alone with Remus after shooting them all a rather stern look. Rather than risk being turned out of the hospital wing, James drew the curtains around Remus' bed an quickly put a sound proofing charm on it. Now they could devote their energies to cheering Remus up without worrying about the noise level.
Though he was just as pale and wan as he typically was during the full moon, Remus seemed more morose than usual and the other Marauders knew why. Remus, who had fancied Kathleen Kirkpatrick from afar for quite a while now, had been planning to ask her to the Hogsmeade weekend before realizing that it fell on a full moon. Though he had shrugged it off as philosophically as he did anything to do with his lycanthropy, his friends could tell it rankled.
"How you feeling, mate?" Sirius asked languidly from his seat at the foot of the bed.
Remus shrugged. "All right," he said unconvincingly.
"She didn't go with anyone else, you know," James said, understanding all too well the pain of knowing that the girl you fancied was on a date with someone else.
"She isn't?" Remus asked hopefully, not even attempting to feign indifference anymore.
"Nope," Sirius confirmed. "And she seems rather sad too. I think she was hoping you would ask her."
"Knowing Kirkpatrick, she heard it through the rumor mill that you were going to ask her before you even decided to," James put in. "That girl is all-knowing."
"Well, almost," Sirius grinned, and the others joined him. It was so satisfying to have a secret.
"How did it go asking Lily?" Remus asked, even though he knew the answer.
"I didn't ask," James said simply, surprising them all. "She still hates me and I really don't know what to do about it anymore."
"You're right about that one, mate," Sirius snorted. "Aside from locking her in a closet with you I don't know what to do about that particular bird either."
"Have you ever talked to Lily when you were alone together?" Remus asked.
"Er..once or twice," James answered hesitantly, not sure if he liked where this conversation was going.
"Well, maybe you should try to talk to her alone more often, show her that you're not a berk," Remus suggested. "From what I know of Lily Evans, she doesn't take public humiliation too kindly."
"And how exactly is Prongs supposed to do that, Moony?" Sirius was skeptical. "Girls always travel in packs, 's' practically impossible to get one on its own."
"They don't even go to the bathroom separately," Peter piped up. "I've seen them going in in packs."
"I s'pose I could try it," James said, feeling rather depressed about this newest course of action but just desperate enough to try, though he had mortifying mental images of himself trying to separate Lily from a pack of giggling females on its way to the loo.
"It's not like anything else has worked," Sirius shrugged.
* * *
For his part, Snape could not believe his housemates would be foolish enough to plan such an already potentially explosive operation in public, but nonetheless, there they were, sitting at a corner table in The Three Broomsticks with only a simple anti-eavesdropping charm on the table.
He, Evan Rosier, Erebus Avery, Seth Wilkes, Hera Mordred, Morgaine DuBose, Claudia Heston, and Rabastan Lestrange had been called together by Bellatrix and Rodolphus to finalize the details of their plan. Bellatrix had claimed that sitting in this crowded pub to makes plans would divert suspicion, but Snape wasn't so sure.
For one thing, the group gathered around this table was not one that was generally seen spending time together casually. Rosier and Wilkes were often together, as were Mordred, DuBose, and Heston with the addition of Arbor, and of course the Lestranges, especially Rodolphus, were often with Bellatrix, and Bellatrix would occasionally spend time with the other girls, but they were never all together. Slytherins did not generally spend much time in large groups; they tended to spend time in smaller groups, usually made up of those individuals who had come to trust or had at least grown accustomed to each other.
And then there was Bellatrix herself drawing notice to the group. A strikingly beautiful girl, Bellatrix was naturally memorable and noticeable in a crowd. However, combined with her very deep level of mental disturbance, which drew eyes to her like sailors to the rocks before the Sirens, Bellatrix was practically unignorable. Today she was especially so, her gleeful anticipation at the thought of inflicting pain particularly blinding. She sat next to Lestrange, the two of them being a bit more affectionate than was perhaps tactful in public, their mutual smug self- satisfaction glowing like a beacon as they led the meeting. No indeed, Snape had rarely felt more conspicuous in his life.
* * *
Also sitting in The Three Broomsticks, James, Peter, and Sirius of course noticed the odd behavior the Slytherins were exhibiting. As ringleaders in the longstanding rivalry between the two houses, James and Sirius were almost experts on all things Slytherin, and this was not typical. As far as they knew, the assembled group never socialized together, so why would they start having a few pints now? James' eyes met Sirius' in unspoken understanding: they needed to get closer.
Poking Peter to get his attention and alert him to the plan, the Marauders moved closer to the Slytherins as unobtrusively as possible. However, when they were close enough to hear the conversation, they could only hear buzzing. Recognizing an anti-eavesdropping charm when they encountered one, the Marauders retreated and began having their own hushed discussion.
"I don't like this at all," Sirius said bluntly, concerned for once. "Anytime I've seen Bellatrix look like that she's about to hurt someone, and who do we know that she'd have reason to be mad at?"
James frowned, understanding Sirius' meaning perfectly. "Evans. And Morwenna and Alice." Sirius nodded grimly.
Next to them, Peter was more uncomfortable and fidgety than usual. "She wouldn't really hurt them, would she?" he squeaked, frightened.
"Wormtail," Sirius spoke slowly and deliberately, "Let's get one thing straight, shall we? My cousin is completely twisted. Psychotic, even. Not only would she hurt them, she'd genuinely enjoy doing it."
"I think we should let them, Evans and the others, I mean, know that Bellatrix has got it in for them," James spoke quickly, his eyes and demeanor steely like they were going into a Quidditch match. "They need to be very careful. I think we should split up and go look for them right now. Peter, you go and find Alice, Sirius, you look for Morwenna, and I'll look for Evans. Then we'll meet back here in an hour. Oh, and keep it casual, we don't want to scare anybody"
Sirius and Peter gave James knowing looks but went along with his plan nonetheless. Determinedly, James went off in search of Lily. She might hate him, but she was going to hear this from him regardless.
* * *
After about ten minutes of combing through Hogsmeade's shops, James finally found Lily along with Morwenna and Dorcas just coming out of Honeyduke's laden with Christmas shopping.
"Oy! Evans!" James shouted, jogging up to them.
Lily sighed. Why now? "Did you want something, Potter?" she asked warily, attempting to keep her tone neutral.
"Besides you, you mean?" James returned smoothly, running his hand through his hair and smirking, thereby causing Lily to grit her teeth.
Seeing Lily's steadily rising temper, James added hastily: "I was in The Three Broomsticks just now and Bellatrix Black and Lestrange, along with practically half of Slytherin House, were having some sort of meeting. I don't know what about, there was an anti-eavesdropping spell on their table. I don't know if it was about you, but I'd say Bellatrix has got it in for you after what happened on Halloween. So I just thought I should tell you both to watch yourselves," James paused, noting that for once Lily didn't look as though she would as soon hex him into next week as look at him.
"I'll be watching out for you too," he added somewhat arrogantly, mussing his hair again.
"My hero," Lily said scathingly, flipping her hair back over her shoulder, green eyes flashing. "Look, Potter, I appreciate the warning and all, really I do. But I can look after myself, so find someone else to practice your knight-in-shining-armor fantasies on." Lily walked away, with Morwenna and Dorcas looking rather confused but following her just the same.
Watching them go, James was aware of the thought that whether she believed herself in need of a rescuer or not, Lily Evans was in very serious trouble if Bellatrix Black was indeed out for her blood, because with Bellatrix, the expression was literal.
* * *
Less than an hour later, James met up with Sirius and Peter in The Three Broomsticks. As it happened, Sirius had caught up to Lily, Morwenna, and Dorcas as well, but Peter, who had heard that Alice and Frank had gone to Madam Puddifoot's, had seen Alice but had not talked to her.
"She seemed a bit busy, what with trying to swallow Frank's head and all," Peter sniggered.
"I'm sure Lily and Morwenna'll tell her about what we said," shrugged Sirius.
Or if they don't, Frank will after we tell him," James added.
"Right," Sirius said firmly, and James had the distinct impression that his best friend was trying to cheer him up. "Shall we be off, then? It's nearly dark," Sirius observed as he rose from his chair.
"Wouldn't want to leave Moony hanging," Peter agreed, his watery blue eyes excited at the prospect of another full moon adventure.
"Let's go then," James added his vote, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that Bellatrix Black was planning something horrible for Lily Evans.
* * *
Morwenna waited until they were all gathered in their dormitory that evening and had told Alice about James and Sirius' warnings before confronting Lily about what had happened with James that afternoon.
Dorcas, Morwenna, and Lily had all been rather quiet after encountering first James Potter and then Sirius Black in Hogsmeade, and Morwenna hadn't felt that that had been the time to ask. Now that they were all ready to discuss it, Morwenna couldn't wait any longer.
"Lily," she began, "why were you so mean to James when he told us? He was just trying to help and we'd been thinking Black was out to get us anyway."
To everyone's surprise, Lily didn't automatically dismiss the thought that she'd been too hard on Potter.
"I didn't mean to go off on him the way I did, he was just trying to help," Lily admitted. "But then something about the way he smirks and struts and musses up his hair and thinks he's Merlin's gift to wizardkind just rubs me the wrong way until I have to take him down a peg or two or go mad. I really just can't stand him."
"You have to admit, the way he said he'd be looking out too was really arrogant, Morwenna," Dorcas defended Lily. "I myself wanted to tell the arrogant little berk to shut it. We aren't weak little damsels in distress."
"That's right," Alice said firmly. "We don't need protection from Potter or anyone and we can't let Bellatrix Black scare us. We're powerful witches in our own right."
"Speak for yourself," Morwenna said glumly. "The thought of that psychotic bitch on the warpath against me scares me to death. I'll hide behind anyone I can, thank you very much."
* * *
Later that evening, Snape returned to his dormitory thoroughly exhausted. After the disastrous and extremely irksome meeting in The Three Broomsticks, he had returned to Hogwarts and spent the next several hours in the library researching and completing various essays that were due during the week, then he had gone to one of the small private study rooms in the Slytherin dungeons in order to work on his private potion experiments, all of which were quite involved. Now he wanted nothing more than a few hours' sleep before facing another busy day.
It seemed, however, that his wish was not meant to be. When Snape opened the door to his dormitory, it was to a room full of people. Avery, Wilkes, Rosier, Heston, Mordred, DuBose, and of course Bellatrix Black and Rodolphus Lestrange, who were curled together on Snape's bed. The others were dispersed on the other four beds, giving Lestrange and Black plenty of space. Snape had no need to ask what this was in reference to. Everything else had become unimportant lately.
Bellatrix smiled at Snape, a slow, catty, yet strangely maternal smile. "Poor Severus," she cooed. "Can't sleep with all of the extra people in his room and on his bed. Don't worry pet, this won't take long," her smiled widened as though she knew how this entire set of circumstances annoyed him. Snape stayed where he was and forced himself to look mildly interested. He would avoid further provoking Lestrange if it killed him.
"Now that we're all here," Bellatrix cast another twisted smile in Snape's direction, "I'll come to the point. It has come to my notice that my esteemed cousin and his fellow performers in their ridiculous little band of show-offs will need to be..detained..during our little maneuver. They might feel the need to interfere, defense of womankind and chivalry and all of that shite they seem to thrive on. And we all know that Potter will want to protect his ickle Mudblood."
"It will be necessary," Lestrange broke in, "for someone to set up an unavoidable little diversion for them. Nothing too complex, we will need everyone present for the actual event. Any takers?"
"I would be happy to offer my assistance in the matter of Potter and his followers," Snape spoke up, not willing to let this golden opportunity to get out of this entire scheme pass him by.
"I'm afraid not, Severus," Lestrange spoke coldly. "You have so much to contend with already, we wouldn't want to overextend you." Nice try, Lestrange's eyes told Snape even as his words conveyed the message, but you aren't escaping so easily.
Suddenly Snape was overwhelmingly irked by everyone in the room and by every aspect of their pathetic little scheme. He wanted nothing more than for everyone who did not belong there to leave the room immediately and for Black and Lestrange, a couple who were known to frighten first years with their overwhelming public displays of affection, to get off of his bed before they realized that they were on a flat surface together.
Snape gritted his teeth and just tried to make it through the meeting, which fortunately concluded about fifteen minutes later.
As soon as all of the additional people had vacated the room and his roommates began preparing for bed, Snape did a quick Scourgifying charm on his bed before climbing into it and yanking the curtains shut for some much- needed sleep.
Unfortunately, Snape found that he was no longer tired. Sighing in vexation and cursing Black and Lestrange under his breath, he resigned himself to a night of insomnia.
* * *
Finally, the last week of classes before the holidays commenced had arrived and the castle seemed to hum with activity, everyone was scrambling to complete their pile of before-holiday homework.
In spite of the workload, Lily was glad to be at Hogwarts and even more glad that she would be staying there over the holiday. Her mother had written to her again telling her that Petunia was still blaming Lily for the near end of her engagement and postponement of her wedding, though now she was planning an even more extravagant affair for the following December. As Lily wouldn't be there over the holiday, her parents had agreed to accompany Petunia, Vernon, and Vernon's family to Majorca for Christmas, which Lily gathered her that her mother at least was not looking forward to. Lily couldn't blame her; she herself was counting her blessings that she had so narrowly escaped the trip.
Lily had had another letter, this one from her friend Marlene. Two years older than Lily, Marlene Markham had graduated from Hogwarts in 1974 and married Andrew McKinnon, and they had just learned that they were expecting a baby. A Muggle born witch herself, Marlene had always been very close to Lily during her years at Hogwarts and the girls kept in close touch now that Marlene had left. In fact, Marlene after Lily had written to her about what had happened with Petunia, Marlene had written this letter inviting Lily to stay with her and her husband for the holidays. Though Lily had been tempted to accept, she hadn't wanted to impose on Marlene. Besides, Lily had never spent a Christmas at Hogwarts and was quite looking forward to it.
She certainly wasn't the only one staying. There were more students staying for the holidays than ever, in fact, because of the amount of students whose families had been killed or were missing or in hiding. There were also those whose parents didn't want them to leave the relative safety of Hogwarts for the now very uncertain wizarding world.
Lily would have the dormitory to herself, however. Morwenna would be going home to the social whirl of her parents' many Ministry parties, Alice to her holiday in Edinburgh, Dorcas to her family in Dorset, and Kathleen to hers in Galway. Nonetheless, Lily knew lots of other people in other years and houses that she could spend her time with.
The week flew by as everyone was so busy, and finally it was Friday. The last class of the day for the sixth years was Double Potions, which suited everyone very well. Professor Colander would let them talk and there was always the possibility that she might even let them out early.
Following Alice and Morwenna to their usual places in the front of the classroom, Lily couldn't help but be aware of the fact that something was a bit odd with the Slytherins. As the two houses were notorious for their rivalry, they made it a rule never to sit together, and there was an invisible line in the center of the classroom. On their side, every single one of the Slytherins watched Lily and her friends come in and sit down, their smiles malevolent, but none more so than Bellatrix Black's.
Bellatrix's smile, if it could be called that, was so full of malicious, bloodthirsty glee that Lily felt a chill run down her spine. She looked away from Bellatrix, feeling rather sick.
Then it hit her, and Lily's feeling of nausea increased. Bellatrix's threats at Halloween came back to haunt her "You will pay dearly for that, Evans. You always have to pay the piper, Mudblood, and today's work has cost you very dearly indeed."
Lily realized with dawning horror that Bellatrix was planning to take her revenge on her then and now.
Author's Note: Don't worry, the next chapter is coming soon (tomorrow or the day after) so stay tuned. Reviews might help me write faster. (hint, hint) Thanks to those who reviewed, especially Ronald's Girl, Willow23, and Lily Rowling Potter. Thanks guys!