Chapter 14 Time Flies
In the weeks that followed, the sixth years were kept extremely busy in preparation for their NEWTs the following year and before anyone knew it, Easter holidays had arrived. Time flew when you were bogged down under a mountain of homework every week.
James and Sirius went to the Potters' estate in the countryside for the week. Ordinarily James spent this holiday at his family's home in London but his parents had decided that London was currently too dangerous for the boys. Death Eater activity still abounded and the Ministry still had no way to predict these attacks, leaving everyone vulnerable. The countryside wasn't actually any safer than London but there was less chance of the boys happening to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during a Death Eater attack.
Nevertheless, it was a good holiday. It was great fun for James to have Sirius with him constantly, but, though he didn't admit it to Sirius, James missed seeing Lily every day. To keep from thinking about it too often, James and Sirius played Quidditch almost nonstop, and in between Quidditch sessions Sirius kept James fairly well distracted.
Sirius had arranged for a few assignations with some members of his ever-devoted fan club over the holiday, which gave Sirius plenty of anecdotes to entertain James with and James plenty of ammunition for his merciless teasing.
Peter and Remus had visited at the Potters' nearly every day. Things had been more or less patched up between Remus and Sirius; James knew that Remus had been trying to forgive Sirius for some time but had been unable to get past it, truthfully. Remus was well aware of just how close he had come to having his worst fear realized: killing someone in his werewolf state, and all thanks to one of his best friends. He had gone off on his own a good bit over the winter. This time alone had done wonders for Remus' spirits and James privately wondered if there wasn't some girl Sirius could thank for Remus' new attitude.
Of course, things were a bit different; they had all changed from the incident, had all grown up a little, even Peter, who had had the least to do with it of any of them. They were themselves different, so naturally their friendship reflected that. But the dynamic was the same; the four of them were too close not to patch things up, really.
Consequently the Marauders felt more carefree than they had in quite some time during that holiday, playing Quidditch on the pitch in the Potters' garden, laughing over remembered pranks as they planned new ones and continued to eat their way through Sirius' still-large stock of Valentine candy while they caught up on each others' lives. It was amazing to James that he hadn't known that Annabel Abbott of Hufflepuff had asked Remus to go to the last Hogsmeade weekend with her and that Remus hadn't known about James' new broomstick or about his encounter with Lily in the library. And of course Remus and Sirius had all sorts of things to share with each other. It just went to show all of them how far their friendship had deteriorated.
Though it was sad to see the holiday end, James couldn't help but be anxious to see Lily again as he and Sirius entered Platform 9 ¾ to return to Hogwarts for the final part of their sixth year.
* * *
Lily's holiday had consisted in large part of helping to plan for The Wedding of the Century, as Lily had christened it. She had seen enough pink taffeta to last her a lifetime.
It seemed that not only must the eleven bridesmaids be swathed in pink taffeta gowns but the tables must be draped in it, the church must be decorated in it, and the flowers, china, cake, and linens must match it precisely. Even the invitations sported little pink tulle bows. All in preparation for Petunia to swear to love, honor, and cherish that dolt Vernon.
At her parents' insistence, Petunia had been civil to Lily, never overtly mentioning her newest resentment over the postponement of her wedding or any of the longstanding grudges she harbored. Even her usual hints, grumblings, and resentment seemed a bit less than normal. In fact, Petunia had been too complacent and self-satisfied over her own accomplishments to give much thought to anyone else besides Vernon or their all-consuming wedding. It was almost as though Petunia felt she had run some sort of obstacle course and had emerged triumphant, brandishing a large silver cup with a bow on. A cotton candy pink bow if her wedding colours were any indication. Personally Lily didn't see what there was to be smug about in having acquired a pompous, ignorant, narrow-minded, portly fiancé. She certainly wouldn't have given anyone a trophy for winning Vernon. But matrimony was the goal of her sister's existence; Petunia wanted nothing more than a life of comfortable normalcy and she deplored anyone who did not share these aspirations. Lily didn't like her sister but she at least understood her, which was more than could be said for Petunia.
To her own horror, Lily had discovered that she herself was to be a bridesmaid at this joyous occasion. The very thought of walking down an aisle in plain view of all of her camera-equipped relatives in a poofy pink taffeta dress with bows on gave Lily hives, but her parents had worked long and hard to persuade Petunia and were delighted that she had given way. Lily didn't really see how she could refuse; it would be terribly selfish of her and at the very least none of her friends would be invited to the wedding to see her.
Even with all of this, the holiday hadn't been a complete wash. Lily had gone to visit Dorcas for one of the days and then Dorcas and Alice had come to Lily's house for tea on Saturday, then stayed overnight and the three went to King's Cross Station together to get the train the next morning to return to Hogwarts.
The three girls had stayed up nearly half the night laughing over Petunia's elaborate wedding preparations and atrocious taste in both men and décor. Petunia had very deliberately chosen to spend the night with Vernon's sister Marge at Vernon's parents' home in Surrey in order to avoid being "descended upon by freaks," as she put it, so Dorcas and Alice had not been able to meet the subject of all of the wedding fuss and many of Lily's stories. Alice had seemed mostly relieved to not have to make polite conversation with such an unpleasant person but Dorcas was faintly disappointed.
After Lily had shown her friends all of the pink taffeta in the house and they had laughed themselves sick over Petunia's fiasco of a wedding, Alice introduced a new subject that made Lily and Dorcas almost forget about pink taffeta.
"So Frank came to my house this week to meet my family," Alice fidgeted with her pillow, not meeting the other two girls' eyes.
"What?" Lily exclaimed, sitting up.
"How did it go?" Dorcas queried, giving Alice her undivided attention.
"It went well, I suppose," Alice shrugged. "Frank came over for tea on Wednesday and stayed on to dinner, so I think they liked a him at least a little. My parents seemed all right about us anyway and my brothers didn't kill him or anything, although they did pull him aside after dinner so I think they may have threatened to castrate him if he broke my heart or something along those lines."
"Brothers will do that," Dorcas said knowingly. "But poor Frank, having to hear it from YOUR brothers." Alice's two elder brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, were highly talented wizards and had been known as such at Hogwarts. Now that they had left school they both had prestigious jobs at the Ministry, Gideon in the Department of Mysteries and Fabian in the Department of Magical Catastrophes. Both had also been known at Hogawarts as being highly protective of their younger and only sister, Alice. It must indeed have been intimidating for Frank to be threatened, subtly or otherwise, by these two brothers and it made Lily admire him all the more for announcing his intentions to Alice's powerful and rather intimidating family.
"Did you ask him to come or did your parents want to meet him?" Lily asked next.
"Neither," Alice blushed a bit. "Frank wanted to meet them. He said he was serious about me and wanted my parents to know it."
"That's so sweet," Dorcas sighed.
"I'm so happy for you," Lily smiled. "Have you met his parents yet?"
"Not yet," Alice said, then added rather hesitantly: "I hear his mum's right scary."
"Have you seen her before?" Dorcas asked, shifting on the bed to give herself more room.
"Yeah I did once, talking to Morwenna's granny," Alice remembered. "She was wearing a pointed hat with a stuffed vulture on," she added with a grimace.
"At least she won't be able to criticize your clothes with any authority," Lily snorted.
"Though you may have to worry about her stuffing you for her next hat," Dorcas grinned.
"I can't wait until it's you lot's turn to meet your boyfriends' parents and then we'll see how funny it is," Alice said indignantly, but she was smiling.
"Yeah, Lily'll have to meet the Potters, and they must be pretty near daft to have a son like James," Dorcas' moment of triumph was cut short as Lily whacked her with her pillow, inspiring a full-scale pillow war of epic proportions that put an end to any further conversation.
* * *
Students arrived at Platform 9 ¾ the next morning in various states of sleepiness. The Marauders, raring to be on their way and back to school, were at one end of the spectrum while Lily, Alice, and Dorcas, bleary-eyed after staying up nearly the entire night, were at the other, barely able to keep on their feet.
Bleary-eyed or not, James' heart did its usual gymnastics at the sight of Lily, leaning against the wall and yawning widely, her ponytail somewhat rumpled. James knew that he must have it bad if Lily was still the most beautiful girl in the world to him whilst she was slack-jawed from lack of sleep and fighting to keep her eyes open.
James turned away for a minute to greet Remus, who had just arrived, and when he turned round again Lily and the others had boarded the train. Damn.
Alice, Lily, and Dorcas slept for most of the ride and emerged from the train feeling much better. Lily left her friends in the castle's entry hall to go and do her Prefect duties.
Pushing through the crowds, Lily saw all of her fellow students that she hadn't seen on the train. There were the Marauders, loud as usual. Potter blew her a kiss as she passed and Lily returned by scowling at him. Sodding prat.
Continuing on, Lily saw a crowd of Slytherins. Lestrange was whispering in Bellatrix's ear, causing her to give her bone-chilling cackle. Avery, Wilkes, and Rosier lounged about, talking to each other in hushed voices, their grins malicious. And slightly apart from the others stood Snape, looking even grimmer than he usually did. Wondering briefly what was eating him, Lily found her fellow prefects and followed them to the antechamber adjoining the Great Hall, all thoughts of Snape leaving her mind.
* * *
It was done.
None of the concerns, the doubts, the fears that he wasn't ready or didn't want to no longer mattered because it was done.
In the privacy of his favourite study room near his dormitory, Snape charmed the door and wasted no time in pushing up his sleeve rather gingerly to study his left forearm. Despite the pain, it still seemed surreal that it was actually there.
The Dark Mark.
As Lestrange had forewarned him, Snape had been contacted on the first day of the holidays and told where he would find a certain Portkey in two nights' time. Snape had done the only thing he could do and followed the directions, leaving his house two nights later carrying a black hooded cloak.
That night he had donned a mask and his cloak and had joined his classmates and social peers, many of whom he had known for his entire life, in their Muggle torture. Then, later, they had gone to a house, Snape never did discover whom it had belonged to, where the Dark Lord was waiting. The others had formed a circle round him and Snape had come forward to meet his fate.
It was an experience that Snape would remember all his life with a chill down his spine and a prickle in his scalp. The forms around him and even the snakelike red eyes in front of him had faded to a blur in the face of the pain, a pain that was all-consuming and beyond anything Snape had ever known. It had almost broken him, to tell the truth, but Snape didn't have the luxury of breaking.
Severus had known since he was eleven years old that he was intended to serve the Dark Lord; he had known for five years what he would one day be. He just hadn't ever thought that he would become a Death Eater so soon.
But it was done. There was the red, swollen, soon-to-be-black mark staring at him from his forearm to prove it. He was one of them now, as he'd always known he would be.
Snape just couldn't figure out why he didn't feel as proud and triumphant as he'd expected to. He could feel nothing but shock and a faint repulsion over the Dark Mark on his arm.
And that concerned him more than he cared to admit.
* * *
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter's a bit short; none of the other events I have planned seemed to fit in so I left it where it was. The next one will be up soon though (like sometime this weekend). As you may have noticed, I changed the rating of my story from R to PG-13. I don't think I really need the R at this point and I can change it later if I end up needing it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially Ronald's Girls, anna, LavenderBrown, James Potter09, Willow23, LeiaQuartermain, and Four Stars (very clever, by the way ;-) ). Keep the reviews coming, I really do appreciate them!
In the weeks that followed, the sixth years were kept extremely busy in preparation for their NEWTs the following year and before anyone knew it, Easter holidays had arrived. Time flew when you were bogged down under a mountain of homework every week.
James and Sirius went to the Potters' estate in the countryside for the week. Ordinarily James spent this holiday at his family's home in London but his parents had decided that London was currently too dangerous for the boys. Death Eater activity still abounded and the Ministry still had no way to predict these attacks, leaving everyone vulnerable. The countryside wasn't actually any safer than London but there was less chance of the boys happening to be in the wrong place at the wrong time during a Death Eater attack.
Nevertheless, it was a good holiday. It was great fun for James to have Sirius with him constantly, but, though he didn't admit it to Sirius, James missed seeing Lily every day. To keep from thinking about it too often, James and Sirius played Quidditch almost nonstop, and in between Quidditch sessions Sirius kept James fairly well distracted.
Sirius had arranged for a few assignations with some members of his ever-devoted fan club over the holiday, which gave Sirius plenty of anecdotes to entertain James with and James plenty of ammunition for his merciless teasing.
Peter and Remus had visited at the Potters' nearly every day. Things had been more or less patched up between Remus and Sirius; James knew that Remus had been trying to forgive Sirius for some time but had been unable to get past it, truthfully. Remus was well aware of just how close he had come to having his worst fear realized: killing someone in his werewolf state, and all thanks to one of his best friends. He had gone off on his own a good bit over the winter. This time alone had done wonders for Remus' spirits and James privately wondered if there wasn't some girl Sirius could thank for Remus' new attitude.
Of course, things were a bit different; they had all changed from the incident, had all grown up a little, even Peter, who had had the least to do with it of any of them. They were themselves different, so naturally their friendship reflected that. But the dynamic was the same; the four of them were too close not to patch things up, really.
Consequently the Marauders felt more carefree than they had in quite some time during that holiday, playing Quidditch on the pitch in the Potters' garden, laughing over remembered pranks as they planned new ones and continued to eat their way through Sirius' still-large stock of Valentine candy while they caught up on each others' lives. It was amazing to James that he hadn't known that Annabel Abbott of Hufflepuff had asked Remus to go to the last Hogsmeade weekend with her and that Remus hadn't known about James' new broomstick or about his encounter with Lily in the library. And of course Remus and Sirius had all sorts of things to share with each other. It just went to show all of them how far their friendship had deteriorated.
Though it was sad to see the holiday end, James couldn't help but be anxious to see Lily again as he and Sirius entered Platform 9 ¾ to return to Hogwarts for the final part of their sixth year.
* * *
Lily's holiday had consisted in large part of helping to plan for The Wedding of the Century, as Lily had christened it. She had seen enough pink taffeta to last her a lifetime.
It seemed that not only must the eleven bridesmaids be swathed in pink taffeta gowns but the tables must be draped in it, the church must be decorated in it, and the flowers, china, cake, and linens must match it precisely. Even the invitations sported little pink tulle bows. All in preparation for Petunia to swear to love, honor, and cherish that dolt Vernon.
At her parents' insistence, Petunia had been civil to Lily, never overtly mentioning her newest resentment over the postponement of her wedding or any of the longstanding grudges she harbored. Even her usual hints, grumblings, and resentment seemed a bit less than normal. In fact, Petunia had been too complacent and self-satisfied over her own accomplishments to give much thought to anyone else besides Vernon or their all-consuming wedding. It was almost as though Petunia felt she had run some sort of obstacle course and had emerged triumphant, brandishing a large silver cup with a bow on. A cotton candy pink bow if her wedding colours were any indication. Personally Lily didn't see what there was to be smug about in having acquired a pompous, ignorant, narrow-minded, portly fiancé. She certainly wouldn't have given anyone a trophy for winning Vernon. But matrimony was the goal of her sister's existence; Petunia wanted nothing more than a life of comfortable normalcy and she deplored anyone who did not share these aspirations. Lily didn't like her sister but she at least understood her, which was more than could be said for Petunia.
To her own horror, Lily had discovered that she herself was to be a bridesmaid at this joyous occasion. The very thought of walking down an aisle in plain view of all of her camera-equipped relatives in a poofy pink taffeta dress with bows on gave Lily hives, but her parents had worked long and hard to persuade Petunia and were delighted that she had given way. Lily didn't really see how she could refuse; it would be terribly selfish of her and at the very least none of her friends would be invited to the wedding to see her.
Even with all of this, the holiday hadn't been a complete wash. Lily had gone to visit Dorcas for one of the days and then Dorcas and Alice had come to Lily's house for tea on Saturday, then stayed overnight and the three went to King's Cross Station together to get the train the next morning to return to Hogwarts.
The three girls had stayed up nearly half the night laughing over Petunia's elaborate wedding preparations and atrocious taste in both men and décor. Petunia had very deliberately chosen to spend the night with Vernon's sister Marge at Vernon's parents' home in Surrey in order to avoid being "descended upon by freaks," as she put it, so Dorcas and Alice had not been able to meet the subject of all of the wedding fuss and many of Lily's stories. Alice had seemed mostly relieved to not have to make polite conversation with such an unpleasant person but Dorcas was faintly disappointed.
After Lily had shown her friends all of the pink taffeta in the house and they had laughed themselves sick over Petunia's fiasco of a wedding, Alice introduced a new subject that made Lily and Dorcas almost forget about pink taffeta.
"So Frank came to my house this week to meet my family," Alice fidgeted with her pillow, not meeting the other two girls' eyes.
"What?" Lily exclaimed, sitting up.
"How did it go?" Dorcas queried, giving Alice her undivided attention.
"It went well, I suppose," Alice shrugged. "Frank came over for tea on Wednesday and stayed on to dinner, so I think they liked a him at least a little. My parents seemed all right about us anyway and my brothers didn't kill him or anything, although they did pull him aside after dinner so I think they may have threatened to castrate him if he broke my heart or something along those lines."
"Brothers will do that," Dorcas said knowingly. "But poor Frank, having to hear it from YOUR brothers." Alice's two elder brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewett, were highly talented wizards and had been known as such at Hogwarts. Now that they had left school they both had prestigious jobs at the Ministry, Gideon in the Department of Mysteries and Fabian in the Department of Magical Catastrophes. Both had also been known at Hogawarts as being highly protective of their younger and only sister, Alice. It must indeed have been intimidating for Frank to be threatened, subtly or otherwise, by these two brothers and it made Lily admire him all the more for announcing his intentions to Alice's powerful and rather intimidating family.
"Did you ask him to come or did your parents want to meet him?" Lily asked next.
"Neither," Alice blushed a bit. "Frank wanted to meet them. He said he was serious about me and wanted my parents to know it."
"That's so sweet," Dorcas sighed.
"I'm so happy for you," Lily smiled. "Have you met his parents yet?"
"Not yet," Alice said, then added rather hesitantly: "I hear his mum's right scary."
"Have you seen her before?" Dorcas asked, shifting on the bed to give herself more room.
"Yeah I did once, talking to Morwenna's granny," Alice remembered. "She was wearing a pointed hat with a stuffed vulture on," she added with a grimace.
"At least she won't be able to criticize your clothes with any authority," Lily snorted.
"Though you may have to worry about her stuffing you for her next hat," Dorcas grinned.
"I can't wait until it's you lot's turn to meet your boyfriends' parents and then we'll see how funny it is," Alice said indignantly, but she was smiling.
"Yeah, Lily'll have to meet the Potters, and they must be pretty near daft to have a son like James," Dorcas' moment of triumph was cut short as Lily whacked her with her pillow, inspiring a full-scale pillow war of epic proportions that put an end to any further conversation.
* * *
Students arrived at Platform 9 ¾ the next morning in various states of sleepiness. The Marauders, raring to be on their way and back to school, were at one end of the spectrum while Lily, Alice, and Dorcas, bleary-eyed after staying up nearly the entire night, were at the other, barely able to keep on their feet.
Bleary-eyed or not, James' heart did its usual gymnastics at the sight of Lily, leaning against the wall and yawning widely, her ponytail somewhat rumpled. James knew that he must have it bad if Lily was still the most beautiful girl in the world to him whilst she was slack-jawed from lack of sleep and fighting to keep her eyes open.
James turned away for a minute to greet Remus, who had just arrived, and when he turned round again Lily and the others had boarded the train. Damn.
Alice, Lily, and Dorcas slept for most of the ride and emerged from the train feeling much better. Lily left her friends in the castle's entry hall to go and do her Prefect duties.
Pushing through the crowds, Lily saw all of her fellow students that she hadn't seen on the train. There were the Marauders, loud as usual. Potter blew her a kiss as she passed and Lily returned by scowling at him. Sodding prat.
Continuing on, Lily saw a crowd of Slytherins. Lestrange was whispering in Bellatrix's ear, causing her to give her bone-chilling cackle. Avery, Wilkes, and Rosier lounged about, talking to each other in hushed voices, their grins malicious. And slightly apart from the others stood Snape, looking even grimmer than he usually did. Wondering briefly what was eating him, Lily found her fellow prefects and followed them to the antechamber adjoining the Great Hall, all thoughts of Snape leaving her mind.
* * *
It was done.
None of the concerns, the doubts, the fears that he wasn't ready or didn't want to no longer mattered because it was done.
In the privacy of his favourite study room near his dormitory, Snape charmed the door and wasted no time in pushing up his sleeve rather gingerly to study his left forearm. Despite the pain, it still seemed surreal that it was actually there.
The Dark Mark.
As Lestrange had forewarned him, Snape had been contacted on the first day of the holidays and told where he would find a certain Portkey in two nights' time. Snape had done the only thing he could do and followed the directions, leaving his house two nights later carrying a black hooded cloak.
That night he had donned a mask and his cloak and had joined his classmates and social peers, many of whom he had known for his entire life, in their Muggle torture. Then, later, they had gone to a house, Snape never did discover whom it had belonged to, where the Dark Lord was waiting. The others had formed a circle round him and Snape had come forward to meet his fate.
It was an experience that Snape would remember all his life with a chill down his spine and a prickle in his scalp. The forms around him and even the snakelike red eyes in front of him had faded to a blur in the face of the pain, a pain that was all-consuming and beyond anything Snape had ever known. It had almost broken him, to tell the truth, but Snape didn't have the luxury of breaking.
Severus had known since he was eleven years old that he was intended to serve the Dark Lord; he had known for five years what he would one day be. He just hadn't ever thought that he would become a Death Eater so soon.
But it was done. There was the red, swollen, soon-to-be-black mark staring at him from his forearm to prove it. He was one of them now, as he'd always known he would be.
Snape just couldn't figure out why he didn't feel as proud and triumphant as he'd expected to. He could feel nothing but shock and a faint repulsion over the Dark Mark on his arm.
And that concerned him more than he cared to admit.
* * *
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter's a bit short; none of the other events I have planned seemed to fit in so I left it where it was. The next one will be up soon though (like sometime this weekend). As you may have noticed, I changed the rating of my story from R to PG-13. I don't think I really need the R at this point and I can change it later if I end up needing it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, especially Ronald's Girls, anna, LavenderBrown, James Potter09, Willow23, LeiaQuartermain, and Four Stars (very clever, by the way ;-) ). Keep the reviews coming, I really do appreciate them!