Before it Began
By. SkyQuill
Summary
James knew he was in love at first sight, but what would it take for Lily to love him back? Read their story leading up to their deaths and discover the dangers they faced and the loves and friendships they shared.
Disclaimer
I do not own most of the characters and places or anything else that may seem familiar. J.K. Rowling has the exclusive claim to this as well as the general plot that formed this fanfic.
Chapter 8: Times of Change
That morning, after leaving her dorm, Lily was greeted warmly by James who she thanked profusely for the beautiful bracelet. Cadence, although furious with Sirius at first even began to cheer up, due to all the festive activites taking place around the castle. This may also have been due to the fact that Sirius had managed to conjure a pair of beautiful earrings by lunch time.
Now that Lily and James were on speaking terms (and maybe a little more then that), the girls spent the majority of the day with the marauders. And it remained this way for the rest of holidays.
The day before term began again, Lily and her friends could be found lounging in the common room. They and the marauders were finishing off the last of their Christmas sweets and sipping on some Butterbeers Sirius and James had managed to nick from the kitchens, although Lily and the girls were unaware of this. Lily, Serena and Alice lay sprawled out on the large hearth rug before the fire working on Alice's wedding plans. They had already decided that Lily being Alice's oldest friend, would get to be the maid of honour.
"So I think that all the bride's maids should all wear yellow. It'll match the decorations perfectly!" Alice said thoughtfully, chewing on the tip of her quill. Serena and Lily nodded absently mindedly. Alice, being extremely excited about her wedding practically had the whole thing planned out already. She had written back to Frank on Christmas day ASAP with her answer and ever since she had been working ecstatically on her plans. Frank and Alice had already agreed that their wedding would take place on July the fifteenth.
"Alice, have you decided where the wedding is going to be?" Cadence asked from where she was sitting with Sirius.
"Of course she has, she's already planned out what time the food is going to be served and everything!" Sirius said sarcastically. Everyone ignored him.
"In a church in the town where Frank lives And he's already picked us out a house to live in nearby!" Alice replied brightly. Smiling Lily unwrapped a chocolate frog and popped it in her mouth. Seconds after she had swallowed she knew something was wrong. A numbness began spreading through her body from her toes. She began coughing furiously as she struggled to breathe.
"Lily?" she heard James voice, though it sounded very distant, "Lily are you okay?" But as she tried to answer her vision clouded and she blacked out. The last thing she heard was Callidora's frantic voice saying,
"Quick, we need to get her to the hospital wing!"
000
Lily awoke suddenly to a soft snoring. Looking around panickedly she recongnized the hospital wing's white furniture. Feeling weak and tired, she pushed herself up and spotted James sleeping in a chair, his head drooping onto the end of her bed. She watched as he slowly awoke, disturbed by her sudden movements.
"Lily you're awake!" James exclaimed hoarsely. She tried to smile but she winced at the pain this simple gesture caused.
"What happened?" she asked weakly.
"Madam Pomfrey said you were poisoned from one of the chocolate frogs. Cadence has been so worried, she says it's her fault for giving you them. She said Sirius sent them but Sirius told Dumbledore he didn't." James said hurriedly grabbing her hand and squeezing it.
"But then who sent them?" Lily asked, her brow furrowed slightly.
"Well, Dumbledore suspects Voldemort(Lily blinked unflinchingly) or one of his death eaters was trying to kill off muggle-borns and half-bloods. Cadence is half-blood right? But now all the teachers are putting extra security on the post and everything. So you don't have to worry!" James replied still talking in a quick, hushed voice. Lily gaped, she had never expected to be attacked in such fashion.
"I'm just glad you're alright." James added when she said nothing. "I couldn't stand to lose you when i'd just got you." Lily couldn't help but smile at his sweet sincerity.
000
Two days later Lily was released from the infirmary. Feeling much better she caught up easily with her classes. And as her health returned, months passed hurriedly with only one major incident. James' parents, who had been aurors, were murdered in their house one night.
Distraught, it tooks weeks for Lily to cheer James, who she was now officially dating, up again. Lily was able to relate easily for her parents had died only the last year. And eventually with her encouragement and empathy, Lily managed to get James out of his rut of gloom just in time for exams. NEWTS arrived unwelcomely in June, bringing with them much stress and frustration. But they too seemed to hurry past and Lily felt she had done her grades justice.
Proffesor Dumbledore had also announced that due to the unreliability of owl post these days(who knows if death eaters would intercept it and jinx it), the students would recieve their results immediatly, much to the dismay of the students.
Lily was ecstatic to find she had recieved an O in all her subjects except for Arithmancy in which she had managed an E. Cadence however was less happy. All the others had achieved results good enough for whatever career they were hoping to pursue but Cadence had failed Potions dismally. Unfortunately, she would now be unable to become an auror.
Finally one thing arrived that was bound to cheer her up. A Hogsmeade trip was scheduled for the weekend after exams as a treat to the seventh years who would never again attend there as students.
"This was a brlliant idea of Dumbledore's!" James exclaimed happily as he and Lily walked hand in hand towards the popular wizarding village that Saturday.
"Yeah, hopefully it cheers poor Cadence up." Lily agreed, looking back over her shoulder to see Cadence and Sirius walking a distance behind them, looking pleased. Remus and Serena were walking with Sirius and Cadence, chatting about the exams. Peter however was stuck in detention for being in possesion of some kindof map. This fact seemed to greatly displease the rest of the marauders although Lily was confused why. What was so upsetting about the loss of a stupid map?
Callidora was already in Hogsmeade, having left early to meet her boyfriend, Briac, as Durmstang let their students out early. Alice was walking beside Lily, looking very eager. Frank was meeting her at the Three Broomsticks.
They soon arrived at the village where they all split up. Lily and James agreed to go with Alice to meet Frank while Sirius and Cadence left to check out Zonkos joke shop. Remus and Serena set off in a hurry in an attempt to locate Calli' and Briac.
"Oh I can't wait to see Frank again!" Alice chattered happily as she led the way to Madam Rosmerta's famous pub. She was walking so fast Lily and James practically had to jog to keep up. Upon reaching the place, Alice pushed the doors open and hurried in. Lily squinted to see as she followed her friend out of the bright sunlight and into the comparedly darker room.
"Alice!" a deep voice boomed as they closed the door. They all turned to see Mr. Longbottom's tall figure rising from a table to meet them. He gave his fiance a quick kiss on the cheek and then shook hands with James.
"So Lily, I hear you're to be the maid of honour at our wedding?" he asked as he embraced her quickly. Lily knew Frank from sixth year when he and Alice had begun dating.
"Yes, I can't wait for the wedding. You two are perfect for each other." Lily replied earnestly. Alice and Frank beamed at her.
"Why don't we all have a drink?" Alice suggested cheerfully, taking Frank's hand as he led them to a bigger table. Soon the four of them found themselves in a happy discussion of their plans for the future during which James confessed he wasn't sure what he was going to do seeing as he had inherited a large fortune from his parent's death.
After finishing their bottles of Butterbeer, and James and Frank had finished their glasses of firewhiskey, they all headed back outside. They all decided to take a nice walk by the Shrieking Shack for old times sake. Lily was exceptionally interested in seeing the old, rickety building again as she had recently learned about Remus' ailment. He and James had confessed to her one night when she found James trying to sneak out of the castle.
When they arrived, they were pleasently surprised to find Serena, Callidora and Remus gazing at the house. Remus was looking at it with a look of mingled disgust and reminisensce on his face.
"Fancy seeing you here Moony." James called, grinning at his fellow marauder. Remus grimaced before returning a small smile tentatively.
"Calli' where's Briac?" Lily asked as the groups drew level. Calli' waved her hand in the air carelessly,
"He had to leave for a job interview. But its no matter." she said then turned to Frank, "Hey Frank, congragulations on the engagement."
"Thanks." he replied graciously, as he wrapped his arm around Alice. Lily turned to look at the old building, James followed suit and gave a long sigh.
"So many memories." he murmured quietly so only Remus and Lily, who were closest to where he stood, could hear.
"Hey, what is that?" Remus asked suddenly pointing to a figure standing near the shack. Lily narrowed her green eyes, trying to see who it was but he was so far it was hard to make out. Suddenly the figure gave a strangled yell.
"I think he's in trouble!" Alice gasped as she too stared at the figure.
"C'mon." Frank said leaping over the fence. "We might need to help him." He pulled out his wand as he ran, pulling Alice with his other one. Lily and James exchanged alarmed looks before they too charged towards the figure. Lily could hear Remus', Calli's and Serena's laboured breath behind her as she ran.
Just as they neared the man, who they now saw was cloaked, he turned tail and ran into the trees behind the Shrieking Shack. Lily's desire to help was becoming steadily filled with suspiscion as they chased him into the shade of the Beech trees. James pulled her to a halt once they were a few paces into the forest.
"What's going on?" Lily heard Calli' asked quietly. Frank had his wand out, a look of sheer alarm on his face as he directed the beam of light from his wand around frantically. Lily noticed the figure was nowhere in sight. She felt a great feeling of unease rise within her.
"Go back quickly, I think it's a trap!" Frank told them hoarsely. But it was too late. Within seconds, no fewer then ten cloaked persons, with white masks, stepped out into the small clearing. Their wands were all out and pointing threateningly towards the group. Paralyzed with fear, Lily heard one deatheater cry,
"Avada Kedavra."
A/N: Sorry about the large gaps in this story but nothing interesting was really going to happen until the end of seventh year so I made it a little jumpy. So yeah, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I know it was a little bit rushed but I wanted this chapter to be pretty fast-paced. Thought i'd end this one with a cliffhanger, eh?
So once again I hope you enjoy this chapter, I know I enjoyed writing it. And please review!