Chapter 45 Common Views
The weeks following their engagement proved to be very eventful for both Lily and James. They'd both agreed very early on that they didn't want to wait to get married, and, at Lily's insistence, they'd decided not to have a big wedding. Neither Mrs. Potter nor Mrs. Evans was precisely pleased when they heard that, but both absolutely put their feet down when their children announced their intention of getting married next month. Mrs. Evans thought that they ought to wait and have "a proper wedding" next June, and she and Lily had rows on the subject until they compromised on an October wedding.
Even with October only two months away, Mrs. Evans was still determined to convince her daughter to have a larger wedding and had taken to leaving bridal magazines on Lily's bed and enlisting the help of any and all of Lily's friends to persuade her to change her mind. But Lily, visions of Petunia's pink-swathed fiasco of a wedding still dancing in her head, was adamant, and Mrs. Evans was forced to relent.
And both Lily and James continued to keep busy with their new jobs. James and the others were still in a very intense stage of their training, and Lily was completely immersed in her work for the Classified Charms and Spells Division. Still, both were excited about their wedding date and saw each other nearly every day to plan. James had asked Sirius to be best man, and Lily finally decided, after much debate, to choose Alice as her maid of honour. Both Alice and Sirius were very pleased to be asked; Sirius just accepted the role of best man as his due, and Alice was delighted at the idea of experiencing a wedding, since she hadn't had one of her own.
Kathleen had begun her new job with The Daily Prophet and was finding it a bit less exciting than she'd thought it would be. Instead of writing exciting exposes and gossip pages, she was mostly working on the obituaries, a job that depressed her enormously. Remus still hadn't had any luck finding a job, which made him even more morose than Kathleen. Theirs was not a happy flat, and Sirius strongly advocated sending Peter over to live in quarantine with them so that they wouldn't depress the rest of the population. Of course, he had to make this statement when Alice and Lily weren't around as they tended to shoot him filthy looks (in Lily's case) or kick him in the shins (in Alice's).
On Wednesday afternoon, Lily was at work; she had been in the experimentation area helping to revive Bilius Weasley after yet another partially successful attempt at the Spiraling Spell they were still working the kinks out of and had just returned to her desk when she saw it. A perfectly ordinary and commonplace envelope lying on her desk that bore her name and no other direction. The odd thing about it was that an owl carrying the inter-office post had arrived a short time ago and Lily was certain that this envelope hadn't been in the bunch.
"Jane?" Lily leaned over to address her neighbour. "Did you see an owl drop any post on my desk?"
"No, dear, I didn't," Jane, a kind middle aged witch, replied. "Are you expecting something?"
"No, I was just wondering when this envelope on my desk had come," Lily replied, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was beginning to look more and more like a secret admirer, and the last time Lily had had one of those, the whole nasty business had culminated with Gilderoy Lockhart serenading her in the Charms corridor.
Resigned to her fate, Lily tore open the envelope with a feeling of dread then breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized the handwriting. Dumbledore. Thank Merlin it wasn't that git Lockhart or any other git expecting her to swoon because they'd written her an anonymous note.
As she scanned the letter, however, Lily's feeling of relief gave way to curiosity and apprehension.
"Lily – "It read.
"I am writing to you because there is a sensitive and important issue that I wish to discuss with you. Perhaps we could meet this coming Friday evening at ten PM in the Hog's Head Tavern in Hogsmeade. Just inform the bartender that you wish to speak with me and he will be able to direct you.
"I would be very much obliged if you could refrain from mentioning this to anyone.
"Sincerely,
"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore"
Lily read the cryptic message through a second time, and then a third. Why would Dumbledore want to speak to her about a "sensitive and important issue"? It almost sounded as though Dumbledore was in some sort of trouble and if so, what could she, who had always depended upon the Headmaster as a source of all wisdom, possibly do about it? Not that Lily wouldn't do everything in her power to help Dumbledore of course, but said power seemed very week indeed compared to the legendary Headmaster of Hogwarts.
The only thing to do, Lily reasoned, was to wait and see and in the meantime, do as Dumbledore had asked and not say anything to anyone about the letter. But the week dragged by as it never had since she'd come to work in the Department of Mysteries, and by Friday Lily thought she'd go mad before she ever even met with Dumbledore.
Had Lily been a bit less preoccupied with her own concern for Professor Dumbledore and the burning curiosity mixed with dread with which she regarded their coming meeting, she might have noticed that James and the majority of their friends were acting much the same. But nobody said anything to any of the others, and whether they were being discreet or were simply preoccupied was anybody's guess.
The now-weekly Friday night dinner with everyone in The Leaky Cauldron felt like it went on forever, though actually it broke up earlier than usual, and finally at five minutes to ten, Lily Apparated to The Hog's Head's front door.
Rather dodgy place Dumbledore chose for a meeting, Lily reflected as she pushed the heavily scarred door open to reveal a dimly lit and decidedly dingy pub where a lone barman was swiping half-heartedly at the grimy bar with a rag. There were a few extremely questionable-looking patrons in the tavern but no sign of the professor; apparently Dumbledore was running rather late.
Remembering the note's instructions, Lily approached the bar a bit cautiously. "Excuse me, sir?" she inquired hesitantly. The barman looked up, and Lily fancied that there was something rather familiar about his long nose and blue eyes.
"Yeah?" he replied, running an appraising eye from the top of Lily's head to her shoes. She had the feeling that he was a good bit more observant than his irritable expression and ragged appearance implied.
"I'm looking for Albus Dumbledore," Lily almost-whispered, glancing the bartender over with a new respect. "He asked me to meet him here and said that you would be able to tell me where he is."
"Follow me," the barman gestured curtly, putting down his rag and striding off. Lily hastened to follow him, not at all anxious to be alone with the pub's other patrons.
The barman led the way through a back room that was apparently used for storage and stopped in front of a pile of crates that were stacked against the back wall. He flicked his wand and muttered something Lily didn't catch, and the crates swung to one side as though on a hinge, revealing a door. The mysterious barman unlocked the door and turned to Lily. "Straight on down," he grunted, nodding toward a set of stairs. "Just wait there with the others."
"Others?" Lily asked sharply, but the barman was trudging back towards the main room; clearly he wasn't disposed to answer any more questions.
Taking a deep breath, Lily lit her wand and gripped the rickety banister firmly to make her way down the pitch-black stairway, not at all sure what would be waiting for her at the bottom.
It turned out that there was nothing more dramatic than a dim hallway with a wooden door at the end of it. Lily tightened her fingers round her wand and turned the latch, her heart pounding in her ears.
Several dark-cloaked figures sat at round tables placed throughout the rather large, though poorly lit, room, all talking quietly with each other. Several of them turned when she entered but soon turned round again, apparently disappointed.
"Lily?" said a familiar voice, and there was James coming toward her.
"What's going on here?" Lily asked in a low voice, following James back to the table he'd been sitting at.
"I was just about to ask you the same question," James replied, frowning. "None of us seem to know." Lily glanced then at the others seated around the room. Most of them were unknown to her, but Lily could spot a few familiar faces. There was Sturgis Podmore sitting at the table next to James'; Sturgis had graduated two years before them and had been Head Boy in his seventh year as well as James' predecessor as Quidditch Captain. At the table next to his was the red-haired wizard Lily vaguely recognized as the one who'd come to her aid that night she'd gone to warn Dumbledore at the Ministry, and next to him sat a short and rather round red-haired witch. Then there was the Auror Edgar Bones, and across the room sat the Head of the Department of Mysteries himself, Caradoc Dearborn.
"Hello, Lily," he greeted, spotting her. He stood up and made his way over.
"Hi, Mr. Dearborn," Lily responded, startled.
"And you must be James Potter," Dearborn went on, smiling at James. "I've never met you, of course, but you are the very image of your father. I'm Caradoc Dearborn; I work with Miss Evans here."
"Er, nice to meet you," James responded, clearly surprised. He shook hands with Dearborn a bit warily. "Any idea what all of this is about?"
"None whatsoever," Dearborn replied with a little shrug. "Knowing my old friend Albus as I do, it could be absolutely anything."
Before Lily or James could question him further, the door opened again to reveal Emmeline Vance, Lily's boss, and Dearborn excused himself to go and talk to her. Emmeline Vance waved at Lily, who waved back, then she bent her head close to Dearborn's, the two of them in earnest conversation.
"Who's that?" James wanted to know.
"Emmeline Vance," Lily replied. "I work with her too." Before James could comment on the growing number of people in the room that Lily seemed to be acquainted with, the door opened again and Peter walked into the room.
"Peter!" James exclaimed, shocked that Peter had apparently been able to successfully keep a secret. Peter spotted James and hurried over.
"Hi!" he exclaimed in his squeaky little voice, his watery eyes bright and excited. "Isn't this brilliant? It's like some sort of secret club! Why ARE we here, by the way?"
"Er – "before James could think up a suitable response, he was distracted when a vaguely familiar and very male voice called "Lily!" from across the room.
"Gideon!" Lily exclaimed delightedly, looking up as Gideon Prewett crossed the room and took the chair next to hers. "You here too! Don't suppose you have any idea what Dumbledore wants with what seems like half the Ministry?"
Gideon shrugged, shaking his blond hair out of one eye. "Not a clue. I expect we'll find out only when Dumbledore's good and ready to tell us. Oh, but I meant to ask: are you all right after today's – er – incident?"
James' ears perked up. How dare this blond, young, good-looking wizard ask his fiancée if she was all right? How dare he know something about Lily that James didn't?
"Oh, I'm fine," Lily said, waving away Gideon's concern dismissively. "It's Bilius I worry about. That poor man seems to land on his head practically every other day."
"I think he enjoys it," Gideon smiled. "Don't worry on his account. It's you I was concerned about."
Peter shot James a look, clearly convinced that James was about to do something rash, and James was just deciding what rash course of action he ought to take when he was distracted by yet another arrival.
"..........really necessary?" a voice James would have known anywhere grumbled as the door opened yet again and Sirius entered the room, clutching his head and looking thoroughly disgruntled.
"I'm sorry!" Alice said in a tone that suggested that this wasn't the first time she'd apologized. "It was dark in there and I just reacted!" Sirius snorted in derision at this statement.
"Oh, come off it, Sirius," Dorcas grinned as she entered the room behind Alice. "You were screaming as loudly as either of us."
"I was NOT screaming," Sirius corrected them indignantly. "Wizards do NOT scream. I may have – exclaimed in surprise – but I definitely did not scream."
"Call it whatever you like, but you were being awfully loud," Dorcas teased.
"Not to mention shrill," Alice piped up, and she and Dorcas sniggered.
Muttering under his breath about daft witches, Sirius glanced rather pointedly away from his giggling mates and scanned the room until he caught sight of Lily, James, and Peter.
"Oy!" he called, striding over. "Looks like all of us can keep a secret, eh? Even Peter."
"Alice!" Gideon exclaimed, spotting his sister. He jumped out of his chair next to Lily's and hurried toward Alice, and Sirius, after a perceptive glance at James, quickly slipped into Gideon's seat.
Dorcas joined them as well, and everyone compared stories. Alice and Dorcas had found each other in the tavern and had literally bumped into Sirius when they were making their way down the hidden staircase. He'd startled them, and Alice had walloped him with her handbag, which had sent Sirius tumbling the rest of the way down the stairs.
Once everyone, especially Peter and James, had finished laughing at Sirius' expense, Dorcas, Sirius, and Alice, who had joined them by then, admitted that they had no idea why they'd been summoned. Nobody was really surprised when Frank, Morwenna, Kathleen, and Remus all arrived soon after.
And they weren't the only new arrivals. Fifteen minutes later, nearly every seat had been filled and the room was buzzing with avid conversation. James was just beginning to wonder if he'd ever know why he'd been asked here along with half of Dumbledore's acquaintance when the door opened yet again and Professor Dumbledore, followed by Professor McGonagall, Hagrid, Mad Eye Moody, and the barman, entered the room.
Dumbledore was his customary implacable self; he smiled mildly at the roomful of people and made his way to the front. The buzz of conversation, which had reached a fever pitch when Dumbledore had stood in the doorway, died away abruptly as he came to stand in the front of the room.
"I have little doubt that you are all avidly curious to know the reason why I have asked you to meet me here this evening," Dumbledore began, his keen blue eyes making their way slowly round the room. "And why I insisted on such a degree of secrecy. These two questions have only one answer: Lord Voldemort." A ripple of shock made its way around the room; in the past year or so the wizarding world had almost uniformly referred to Voldemort as You Know Who, afraid to speak his name for fear of who might be listening.
"As many of you are aware," Dumbledore continued calmly, completely unperturbed by the sensation he had created, "despite the best efforts of the Ministry of Magic and our excellent Aurors, Voldemort is gaining both power and followers. The number of attacks on Muggles and Muggle borns has increased dramatically in the last year, and the Ministry has virtually no idea who is responsible. To be quite frank, we are losing the fight against Voldemort and his Death Eaters."
Lily shifted in her chair, surprised by Dumbledore's words. This was very unlike the wise, optimistic headmaster she'd known for the last seven years. In the past, Dumbledore had always been counted upon to inspire hope and courage in anyone who listened to him, yet here he was, depressing them all with a starkly bleak version of reality.
"This dire state of affairs, I feel most strongly, cannot be allowed to continue," Dumbledore's tone was no longer quite so bland. "So I asked you here, witches and wizards whom I trust implicitly and know to share my views, to see if we cannot do something about it."
"Wait, Albus," came an elderly voice from the back. "What makes you think that we'll be able to succeed in defeating You Know Who where trained Ministry officials have failed? What precisely are you proposing?"
"I am proposing, Elphias," Dumbledore replied, "to form a secret order, dedicated to bringing about Voldemort's downfall. A very great part of the problem, as I have discussed with many of you, is that the Ministry is limited by its corruption and bureaucracy, its need for diplomacy and concrete evidence. This order will fight Voldemort using unofficial channels, free of bureaucratic process and the need to avoid stepping on important toes. It will seek to discover who Voldemort's followers are, protect those who need protecting, and ultimately to put a stop toVoldemort's reign of terror over the wizarding world.
"I invite all of you present this evening," Dumbledore went on more solemnly, "to join this order, the Order of the Phoenix, as I call it, and help in that fight. But it will not, I warn you, be an easy fight, nor free from danger. Of course, I will take as many precautions as possible: our list of members will be absolutely classified, we will place as many defensive spells as possible on any meeting place and on all of the members. But I cannot guarantee that you will not be forced to give your lives to this cause. The witches and wizards we are fighting have no scruples about injuring and killing; they even take pleasure in it. Each and every one of you has the right to refuse my offer, and I beg you to consider very carefully before agreeing, because there can be no half measure in a conflict of this kind. Consider your lives and families; no one will think the less of you for refusing, least of all myself. But if you feel that you are ready to dedicate your time, your devotion, and possibly even your life in pursuit of peace and prosperity for the wizarding world, then I ask you, and welcome you, to join the Order of the Phoenix."
For an endless moment, the room was absolutely still. Then suddenly, the sound of a single chair scraping back from a table interrupted the silence.
"I'm with you, Professor," James said quietly, standing up. And then witches and wizards all over the room stood slowly as well. None of them said anything, but then none of them needed to. Dumbledore and James had said everything that was necessary.
Lily stifled a yawn as she stood at the front door of the Prewetts' house, waiting for someone to answer her knock. Last night's meeting had gone on late into the night as the new Order of the Phoenix members had begun to plan their campaign.
Lily had never been so proud of anything or anyone in her life as she had been of James as she'd stood next to him last night. She'd slipped her hand into his as she got to her feet, and James had squeezed her hand and smiled at her before they'd both returned their attention to Professor Dumbledore.
James had looked so fearless and so invincible, ready to face anything that Voldemort might be able to throw at him, and glancing round the room, Lily had seen many faces like James,' so young and yet, it had seemed to Lily, so aged. And somehow, looking around the room at them made Lily feel infinitely safer and more frightened at the same time. It wouldn't be anonymous Ministry members who fought Voldemort and the Death Eaters any longer, it would be Lily herself and her friends and classmates, and other witches and wizards that she would come to know. As a Muggle born, Lily felt infinitely safer knowing that she and her parents had the protection of people that she knew and trusted, but on the other hand, it would be endlessly more difficult to lose them in the fight. The idea of losing some of the people who had been in that room – especially James – made Lily feel sick with cold, sweat-inducing terror.
"Lily!" Lily glanced up to see Gideon Prewett standing in the doorway, looking at her rather curiously, and it occurred to Lily to wonder just how long he'd been standing there trying to get her attention. "Have you come to see Alice?"
"Er – hi, Gideon. Yes, I came to help Alice get ready for tomorrow," Lily replied awkwardly.
"Not that you can ever really be ready for someone like Mrs. Longbottom," Gideon observed wryly. He and Lily exchanged a glance of mutual understanding. "Alice is upstairs with Morwenna and Kathleen," he added finally. "I'm just now on my way out, but go on and show yourself up; third door on the left."
"Thanks," Lily replied, smiling at Gideon as she passed him and mounted the stairs.
An odd noise became audible to Lily as she reached the landing, a noise that sounded distinctly like shouting. Hesitantly, Lily started down the corridor; the noise was becoming distinctly louder as she went, and just her luck, it was indeed coming from the third room on the left. Reluctant to walk in on a marital spat, Lily paused outside.
".............being very selfish!" Alice was saying heatedly.
"How can you call me selfish?"
Lily did a double take; instead of fighting with Frank, as Lily had assumed, it appeared that Alice was arguing with Morwenna.
"My parents were MURDERED by these people, Alice!" Morwenna continued, her voice rising passionately, "murdered trying to defend their guests, home, and family from attack, and I won't repay their sacrifice by putting myself or what's left of my family in danger!"
"My parents were murdered too, Morwenna," Alice's voice was flat. "By the same people. That's why I joined the Order; I don't want anyone else's parents to be killed! You know what it feels like to lose your family; how can you sit by and let Voldemort and his Death Eaters have the opportunity to make someone else feel this way?"
"It's not that I don't support the Order," Morwenna sighed, sounding weary. "I've already talked to Dumbledore; I'll pass along any useful information that I hear, and hide people, and give him as much money as he needs. But that's all I'm willing to do."
"And it's not enough!" Alice exclaimed.
"Alice!" Kathleen exclaimed sharply. "Don't say something you'll regret!"
"No! It isn't enough to stop him! You have to be willing to make sacrifices, Morwenna! Stop being so cowardly and do the right thing!"
Lily was utterly shocked; Alice, the sweetest, most compassionate person Lily knew, was railing at Morwenna like some sort of intolerant fanatic. Firmly, Lily knocked on the door; this had gone on long enough, and it certainly sounded as though Kathleen could do with some reinforcements.
"Who is it?" Alice snapped
"It's Lily; may I come in?" Lily replied determinedly. She pushed the door open to reveal Alice, whose face was a brilliant shade of scarlet, facing a white-faced, tight-lipped Morwenna with her fists clenched. Kathleen stood in the middle; she too was a bit pale from the strain of trying to play peacemaker.
Alice sighed deeply. "I suppose you heard all that?"
"Of course I heard," Lily replied baldly. "As did the whole street."
"I think I ought to go," Morwenna said stiffly, moving to gather her things.
'No!" Kathleen and Lily exclaimed in unison. "No one is going anywhere until the pair of you have sorted this thing through," Lily stated flatly.
"AND apologized to each other," Kathleen added menacingly. This statement was met with an ominous silence from the two warring parties.
Lily sighed. "Would anyone care to tell me what exactly all of this is about?"
After a few moments of strained silence, Morwenna finally spoke up. "Alice is angry with me because I didn't sign Dumbledore's member list," she stated flatly.
"I'm angry with Morwenna because she refuses to inconvenience herself to help stop a mad sociopath," Alice returned heatedly, her normally friendly face hostile.
"That's not exactly fair, Alice," Kathleen put in timidly. "I mean, I didn't sign the list either, and it's not because I 'refuse to inconvenience myself.'"
"What?!" Alice began, but Kathleen cut her off before she could go on.
"I didn't sign," Kathleen continued, raising her voice to drown out Alice, "because Dumbledore suggested that I not do it."
Alice and Lily regarded Kathleen with no small bit of astonishment.
"Well, he did," Kathleen defended herself uncomfortably. "He said that as a reporter, I'm bound to come into contact with loads of useful information. But Dumbeldore also said that a news office is also the first place that any suspicious or secretive behaviour would be noticed, and that he thought it would be best for me to pass information to the Order. He seemed to think that being an active member would be too much of a risk."
"I wonder why," Lily mused, glancing over at Alice, who seemed even more surprised by this information than she was.
"He didn't give me a reason," Kathleen replied. "But I think that Dumbledore suspects someone at The Daily Prophet of being a spy for You Know Who."
The three other girls digested this information in silence for a few seconds, nobody wanting to be the first to venture a comment.
"Please try to understand, Alice," Morwenna said finally, her voice a bit desperate. "It's not that I'm not willing to make sacrifices, I'm going to be involved with the Order, and I'll do everything I can to see to it that Voldemort and his Death Eaters don't hurt other people. It's just that I'm not cut out to be some sort of secret agent."
"I know," Alice sighed, and suddenly it seemed as though all of the fight had gone out of her. "I know you want to help, Morwenna, I just - overreacted. Forgive me?"
"Of course," Morwenna squeaked, her eyes suspiciously moist. "You've been under loads of stress with this whole reception thing."
"Yeah," Alice smiled lamely. "Would you lot mind starting without me? I think I need to go and – lie down for a bit."
"Sure," Lily replied. "We'll just go and make ourselves useful." Alice gave Lily, Morwenna, and Kathleen another lame little smile as they filed out, then shut the door behind them.
"I hope she's all right," Morwenna fretted, glancing anxiously back at the closed bedroom door.
"Of course she is," Kathleen soothed. "Once she's had a bit of time to cool off, everything will be back to normal."
"Alice just needs to cool off right now," Lily seconded, but privately she had her doubts about whether things would ever be back to normal again.
Severus Snape needed air. The potion he'd been brewing for the last five hours gave off particularly dizzying fumes, and despite his best efforts, Snape was beginning to feel a bit light-headed.
Deciding that he couldn't go any longer without getting some air, Snape made his way out of the cellar room where he spent the majority of his days brewing potions and climbed the stairs to the ground floor of the house. Snape then opened the kitchen door that led to a rather large walled garden and stepped outside, breathing the fume-free air in deeply.
In the months since he'd left Hogwarts, Snape had spent all of his time here, in one of the Dark Lord's many safe houses, brewing potions and conducting experiments. Officially, Snape was at the Durmstrang Institute in Eastern Europe furthering his Potions studies, but unofficially he was here, dedicating all of his time to helping the Dark Lord toward his ultimate goal: eternal life.
Lord Voldemort spent as much time as he could with Snape and the rest of the Death Eaters lodged in this particular house, talking with them all incessantly about their work and participating in as many experiments as he could. In fact, whenever anything was proven or even only strongly believed to be a step in the right direction, Voldemort would insist upon trying it out for himself. Snape shuddered to recall some of the things his master had willingly done in pursuit of immortality.
Of course, Snape wouldn't stay here forever; in fact, his current project would be his last in this house. Within the next month, Snape would be rejoining the outside world when he "completed his studies at Durmstrang and returned to England." Snape wouldn't be sorry to put an end to this training period. Not that he particularly missed the outside world or anyone in it, but because he was growing increasingly more weary of his companions in the house, and, privately, of the Dark Lord's ever-increasing irrationality. His obsession with disposing of Muggle borns had reached alarming proportions, and these experiments were doing things to the Dark Lord that Snape didn't like at all. Sometimes it seemed to Snape that Voldemort's sanity had slipped away in his quest for immortality and power.
Yes, it would be better to be away from it, Snape reflected, still taking deep breaths. The distance would help him to make sense of things, reconcile himself to the unfamiliar. Snape admitted that he'd been unprepared for the harsh reality of what being a Death Eater actually meant. Seeing his familiar circle of associates and having other concerns in his life once again would help Snape to adapt to his new life.
"Are you coming after all, Severus?" Snape snapped out of his reverie and turned to see Igor Karkaroff, a fellow Death Eater, regarding him questioningly.
"I beg your pardon?" Snape returned coolly, embarrassed that he'd been caught unawares.
"Are you coming to the village tonight after all?" Karkaroff repeated urbanely, watching Snape closely. "Several of us were planning on visiting the Muggle town for a bit of innocent diversion. I have it on good authority that a few giants intend to come as well, so it should be most entertaining."
Snape sighed, struggling to hide his irritation. He could think of few things less appealing than spending an evening baiting the Muggle townsfolk along with a horde of rampaging giants. Still, he knew that Karkaroff and several of the others thought that this was a lack in him and the last thing Snape needed was more Death Eaters questioning his loyalties. He'd never survive another round of doubt.
"Yes," Snape replied finally, seething to himself. "I thought the fresh air and change of pace would be beneficial."
It was almost worth the sacrifice of his evening to Snape just to see the dumbfounded expression on Karkaroff's face. Clearly he'd only been looking for a source of further gossip and hadn't actually expected Snape to agree. "Indeed it would," Karkaroff managed to say. "We leave on the hour."
"I'll go and fetch my mask," Snape replied, turning abruptly and striding back into the house.
Things would improve once his stay in this house was at an end, Snape repeated to himself as he went. In the meantime, he'd try to open himself to new experiences and learn to enjoy these Muggle baiting sessions. They were, after all, bound to form a regular part of his life from now on.
Snape realized just how miraculous his second chance had been, and he did not intend to squander it.
Frank and Alice's reception went off very well for the most part, Lily thought. Nothing exploded, no Death Eaters attacked, and nobody enchanted the entrée to chase the guests. Positively tame compared to most of the wizarding parties Lily had attended.
Lily arrived at precisely 4 PM on Sunday and was directed round to the back of the house where a large queue of witches and wizards was waiting to greet the Longbottoms and pass through into the garden. Apparently no one else had dared to be fashionably late to a party given by Mrs. Longbottom either.
"Lily dear!" Lily looked round to see Mr. and Mrs. Potter waving to her enthusiastically.
"Hi," Lily said as she came up to them and kissed each of their cheeks in greeting. "Where are James and Sirius?"
"They're just coming," Mrs. Potter replied. "They – er – weren't quite ready."
Before Lily could ask Mrs. Potter what she meant, James and Sirius appeared with almost simultaneous pops.
As they exchanged greetings, Lily couldn't help but notice that James and Sirius were a bit more subdued than usual; apparently even they were not unaffected by Mrs. Longbottom.
"Let's get this over with," Sirius muttered to Lily as they approached the receiving line.
"Humph," Mrs. Longbottom snorted at Sirius as though she'd heard him, which, Lily supposed, she could have. "Sirius Black. Some things never change."
"Hello, Mrs. Longbottom," Sirius shot Alice's mother-in-law his most charming grin. "How very lovely to see you again."
"You can save your toadying for someone else, young man," Mrs. Longbottom retorted frostily. "I've already established to whom I'm leaving my money, thank you very much."
Seeing the expression on Sirius' face, Lily very nearly giggled. But as she looked up to find Mrs. Longbottom staring at her, she suddenly didn't feel like laughing anymore.
"And this I suppose is you son's fiancée," she said to Mr. Potter.
James hurriedly stepped in. "Yes, ma'am, this is – "
"I am acquainted with Miss Evans," Mrs. Longbottom cut him off crisply, turning to Lily. "It is nice to see you again, my dear."
"Er – thank you, Mrs. Longbottom," Lily stammered, completely flabbergasted.
"May I present my husband, Mr. Longbottom?" Mrs. Longbottom continued majestically, the vulture atop her hat trembling slightly. "MAGELLAN!" she snapped, nudging the wizard standing next to her none too gently.
By the time they made it through the receiving line, Lily, James, and Sirius felt as though they'd come through a gauntlet unscathed and immediately made their way to a corner table to collapse.
Frank and Alice, along with Peter, Dorcas, and Morwenna, joined them a bit later, all of them ribbing Lily about the apparently lasting impression she'd made upon Mrs. Longbottom.
"'MAGELLAN!'" Sirius exclaimed in imitation of Mrs. Longbottom, "'Come and meet the witch I'm leaving you for!'" Lily's assorted friends, minus Frank and Alice who'd moved on by this time, and James, who seemed unamused, collapsed into giggles.
"Ha bloody ha, you arse," Lily snapped at Sirius.
"Sorry, Lils," Sirius quipped. "I didn't mean to offend you. No worries, though: when Mrs. Longbottom establishes that she's leaving her money to you, I'll be put in my place." This inspired a fresh round of laughter.
"What'd we miss?" Remus asked as he and Kathleen joined them.
"Mrs. Longbottom's great love affair with Lily," Sirius replied before anyone could stop him. "Ouch!" he added as Lily ground her high heel into his foot.
"So where have the pair of you been?" James asked hastily before the situation could escalate.
"I couldn't drag Kathleen away from Alastor Moody," Remus explained. "He was telling her about his Death Eater spies theory."
James, Sirius, and Dorcas all groaned. "What?" Peter asked, looking back and forth between the three of them like a particularly avid observer at a tennis match.
"Mr. Moody has this theory that Death Eaters may have infiltrated the Ministry as spies," Kathleen explained, "and he believes that these spies fit a certain pattern of behaviour."
"It's one of Moody's pet topics," Dorcas cut in. "There's no stopping him once he gets started."
"I thought it was fascinating," Kathleen defended Moody. "And that it made a lot of sense."
But before Kathleen could explain further, Alice came rushing over and skidded to a stop in front of them. "You've got to help me," she gasped. "I was holding Frank's Uncle Algie's toad for him and it leaped out of my hands and into the buffet."
Several hours later, Lily and James Apparated in front of the Evans house, still in their wizarding dress robes. Normally they'd have been more conscientious about such a thing, but both were rather distracted at the moment, laughing over their triumph in averting a crisis.
After Alice's warning, Sirius, James, Lily, Dorcas, Morwenna, Peter, Remus, and Kathleen had immediately made their way to the buffet to conduct a covert search for the missing toad under the guise of wanting more food. James and Sirius had spotted the toad and were so engrossed in cornering it that they hadn't noticed Mrs. Longbottom's approach until she was almost directly behind them. Fortunately, Sirius managed to pluck the toad out of the treacle tart and stuff it into his pocket at the last minute, but Mrs. Longbottom had spotted him and immediately began to tell Sirius off for playing pranks.
"I've never seen Sirius speechless before in my life," James gasped, clutching his sides.
"I think my favourite bit was when Mrs. Longbottom started in on him for trying to 'drag Alice into his childish antics,'" Lily said reminiscently, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
"No, the best part was when she started screeching at Sirius for stealing Uncle Algie's toad," James disagreed, his grin widening. He and Lily immediately relapsed into laughter.
"I suppose we should take this as a lesson for our wedding: no toads allowed anywhere near the buffet," Lily managed to say finally.
"Or better yet, no buffets," James added, experiencing a profound sense of relief that he hadn't eaten any treacle tart.
"It really hasn't been Sirius' week," Lily observed. "First the incident with Alice's handbag, and now this."
"Yeah," James said slowly, a truly Marauder-ish smirk spreading across his face. "Let's go and give him crap about it."
An answering smile spread across Lily's face, and the pair of them Disapparated, once again experiencing an unmistakable meeting of the minds.
Author's Note: Ducks various projectiles thrown by readers I know it's been a really long time since I've updated, and I'm truly sorry it's taken this long. Chalk it up to a combination of technology problems, writer's block, and just being busy........
Anyway, thank you as always to everyone who reviewed; I'm always happy to hear what people like and dislike about Priori Incantatem. Also, thanks to those of you who sent me emails asking me when I was going to update; you helped me to keep this story on my priority list.
For those of you who are interested/didn't know, Cecilia Orechio has reposted The Time Guardian and the Prophecies, which features Morwenna, Alice, and Dorcas from Priori Incantatem. Read and review her story when you get a chance.
Till next time! =)