At lunch, they met up with Emmeline and Dorcas. Emmeline (uncharacteristically pale) told them that Joey Jenkins' parents and younger siblings had been attacked by Death Eaters, and that only her father and little brother survived.
"Caradoc told me," said Emmeline shakily, "Joey was on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team last year, and was apparently very good… He—Caradoc—said it was weird when you knew the person, you know? Not well—she was a third year—but wow, that's something…" Emmeline fell silent. Lily stared into her soup, at a loss for words. She wanted to talk these things over, but how? Joey had been rushed to St. Mungo's to visit her father and it didn't seem proper…
"I heard they haven't been able to bring her brother round yet at the hospital," said Marlene, practically echoing Lily's thoughts. The entire Ravenclaw table was quiet, ashen-faced and sad. Even Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were subdued. The only table to even make an attempt at acting ordinary was the Slytherin group. Dorcas sat facing Slytherin today and constantly threw contemptuous looks at the joking students. Emmeline didn't say anything. Lily nodded to Marlene, realizing that this was neither the time nor place. Maybe later on, with James—
James, thought Lily with a jolt, her eyes automatically flicking over to the messy-haired Head Boy, who was listlessly changing the color of his bread with his wand. He was still talking with Sirius, Remus, and Peter, but all of them were speaking in undertones. Now why did that name pop into my head? Lily wondered. Maybe because we got on so well last night, false sense of security you know…
"Well," said Emmeline heavily, standing up from the table. "I'm meeting Caradoc and we're going to Potions together. We'll see you lot there?" Dorcas nodded and Emmeline went over to the Ravenclaw table to retrieve her quiet boyfriend. Moments later, Dorcas finished her roll.
"C'mon, we'd better go too." The girls started over to the dungeons. Dorcas entered the class first and Lily heard a loud snort. She and Marlene followed to find Dorcas with her face etched in wry amusement, looking at a blushing Caradoc and Emmeline. The four friends and Caradoc were the only ones there.
"Sorry, Dearborn, but Emmeline's got to partner with me today so we can finish the Babbling Beverage."
"Right," said Caradoc quickly, "'Lo Dorcas, Lily, Marlene." He released Emmeline and moved his cauldron to another spot. Emmeline sneered at Dorcas but couldn't contain a little grin as she took her place next to her. Dorcas rolled her eyes and pinched her friend good-naturedly.
Lily stood with Marlene and began laying out her ingredients as the rest of the students filed in. Professor Slughorn was last as usual, wearing robes of resplendent mint. The attacks had temporarily broken Lily out of her James-induced daze, and she scrutinized the other members of her Potions class.
She was surprised to see that most of the tiny class were Gryffindors. They were herself, her girlfriends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and James Potter (Who, incidentally, thought Lily, has very nice hands from this angle—). The only Ravenclaw was Caradoc Dearborn and the rest were Slytherins. Severus Snape and Evan Rosier, working together on one cauldron. N.E.W.T.s Potions taught here were quite difficult, and although anyone who wanted to be in this class had to be good at Potions, Lily and Severus Snape were the runaway best. She noticed that Peter Pettigrew obviously hadn't made it this far.
Professor Slughorn cheerfully greeted the students and informed them to continue with their potions from the previous class. He waddled around, taking notes and making comments here and there.
"Boys, boys!" cried Professor Slughorn genially, swishing past Lily to the Marauders. Remus was working with Caradoc Dearborn; the two were chuckling into their solution and talking about something. They, however, were nowhere near the level of Sirius and James, who were practically wrestling over their cauldron.
"What seems to be the trouble here? I—Mr. Black!" Slughorn exclaimed, just as Sirius succeeded in shoving a bit of something into James' mouth.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black," said Slughorn sternly, which Lily thought made him look a bit like an ugly puffleskein. Sirius just smirked widely and shrugged. He caught Lily looking and winked, gesturing with his head at James.
"James?" asked Slughorn. All at once a rather stupid look came over James' face. He stared vacantly, his eyes barely focused on the squat professor.
"What do you have to say for yourself?" queried Slughorn, dusting a bit of lint off his robes. James didn't respond.
"Well?" he demanded. James swayed in place before he burst into a wide grin.
"I love you!" shouted James, embracing Slughorn in a tight squeeze.
"Well, I…er…this is most irregular," exclaimed Slughorn from somewhere around the height of James' chest. Both Caradoc and Remus snorted into their potion and Sirius began sniggering. A quick observation of their cauldron revealed a potent Elixir to Induce Euphoria.
"And I love you! And you! And you!" exclaimed James, racing over to hug Sirius, who struggled forcefully.
"Geroff me Prongs, come on—"
"And you! I love you lots! What a marvelous day!" cried James, hurrying over to clinch both Dorcas and Emmeline. He patted Evan Rosier on the head before skipping over to Lily. A vital organ tumbled in her rib cage as James mashed her to his chest, squashing her face into his robes. Lily thought she heard Slughorn saying something before James boomed,
"And Lily Evans! I love you! I—" Strong arms yanked James backwards. Breathless Lily saw Sirius and Remus on either side of James trying to pin him down. Professor Slughorn was shouting something about a remedy and hurrying into the storeroom. Everything was in chaos. James was belting out a drinking song and giggling. Sirius and Remus were having a time of trying to get him to calm down ("Wow! D'you know, you guys are my best friends ever? Honest!"). Slughorn came running with a small bottle of pink liquid. Things got only worse as James elbowed Remus in the face while trying a merry tap dance. Caradoc lunged just in time to stop him from overturning their Exploding Fluid, which fizzled dangerously. Slughorn raced to Lily and with some difficulty she wrenched her eyes away from the scene.
"Lily! I'll need your—"
"Sure thing, Professor." Lily deftly zapped her bubbling potion into a bottle and Slughorn dumped the antidote into the clean cauldron. She heated it with her wand and, as an afterthought, poured in some powdered moonstone (James was aiming to waltz with Caradoc, who was not taking it so well).
"Excellent idea, Lily!" cried Slughorn, delighted. "The moonstone is exactly what—" Lily gritted her teeth. At a time like this, she didn't think she'd be able to handle another tickling compliment from the aggravating professor.
Luckily, James chose this moment to accidentally throw his spellbook at Emmeline, who ducked. The book smacked Snape upside the head and he whipped out his wand. Slughorn winced and dipped a beaker into the glutinous brew. "Now, boys, if you could just bring the afflicted over here, we'll settle this right up. He'll be set to rights in no time."
Between Sirius, Caradoc, and Remus, James' mouth was wrenched open and Slughorn managed to dribble in the curing draught. All at once, James stiffened. His smile sagged and the vacant look left his eyes. He swayed, staggered once, and (supported by a panting Remus) managed to stand on his feet. James groaned and rubbed his head, massaging his temples furiously.
"Wonderful, wonderful," cried Slughorn. "Thank you, boys. Now Mr. Potter, how do you feel?"
"Like I just fell into the Whomping Willow from twenty meters up," groaned James.
"Well, the sudden mood swing can do that to you. I assume that was an Elixir to Induce Euphoria, gentlemen?"
Sirius nodded, James gagged.
"I must say, I've hardly come across such a very potent creation in quite a while…perhaps too much juice…yes…but so very fast-acting…" Far from being mad, Slughorn appeared to be muttering to himself over Sirius and James' cauldron of potion like it was a clinical puzzling.
"Yes…yes…and no doubt you didn't wait for the steam before adding the next ingredients—could've been dangerous, lucky he wasn't hurt—but yes, I still must say, very fast-acting…" Lily noticed that Severus Snape, still clutching his wand, had narrowed his eyes and was looking with extreme revulsion at the Gryffindor boys; a muscle was bulging in cheek. Sirius also caught his look and made a very superior face back at Snape, which Slughorn didn't notice. Snape's mouth curled into an evil scowl and the hand gripping his wand was turning white.
"And were it not for Miss Evans," said Slughorn loudly, straightening up from the cauldron with a wide grin at Lily, "you might've gone on with your hysterical euphoria for quite some time, James."
"Ah," said James, looking relieved that Lily had been responsible for the cure. "So Lily made the antidote, did she?" He glanced sideways at Snape and Rosier. Lily thought she understood what he meant; the way the Slytherins were glaring, she wouldn't have ingested anything from them either, whether they said it was a remedy or not. Slughorn continued animatedly,
"Oh yes! Well I had the antidote concentrate, but she graciously volunteered her cauldron to fix it up, helped it along a bit too—" Slughorn winked brashly at Lily, making her redden slightly.
"It was nothing," she mumbled, somehow unable to meet anyone in the eye.
"But it was!" exclaimed Slughorn enthusiastically. "Ingenious to add the moonstone right then, really…I had no idea so many Gryffindors were so skilled at potion brewing! Although, in Lily 's case, she knows what I think of that!"
"Professor," she said flatly, "I've told you before that I don't belong in—in Slytherin." Lily had been about to say something nasty before she remembered that Slughorn, Snape, and Rosier were all connected to Slytherin House.
"Ah well," he said fondly, "Nonetheless, the occasion does call for me to take points away from Gryffindor. So five points away for you, Mr. Black, for testing out your potion on your partner. Although it reminds me of an occasion with your cousin Bellatrix…"
Sirius wrinkled his nose in aristocratic distaste. Bellatrix Black had graduated a year ahead of Lily, and it was well know that Sirius wanted as little to do with his family as possible. If the rumors were true, Bellatrix had married Rodolphus Lestrange straight off Hogwarts and they had vanished from common knowledge.
"…but you lot are clearly very capable," he carried on, oblivious to Snape's eyes widening in fury, "and I'd be hard pressed to find a faster response to a well-created problem. So I'm giving ten points to Gryffindor for a most potent potion and an inspired antidote. Miss Evans, you never cease to amaze me!"
"Me neither," mutter James audibly, looking straight at Lily, who blushed. There was a small snick as Snape plunged his silver dagger directly into the desktop. Slughorn ignored it.
"But I'm afraid I can't let you partner together anymore. You are a most potent combination yourselves, you know—" Sirius and James grinned wickedly "—and so Mr. Potter, you will work with Lily on the next assignment. Miss McKinnon, if you would be so kind as to work with Mr. Black—"
"Yes! A might sight prettier than James, I must say…" Sirius tossed an appraising smile at Marlene, who turned a faint pink. James rolled his eyes. Slughorn moved on.
"Come on now, gather your ingredients. The rest of you, I'm coming to check your potions. I know at least the Euphoria potion works very well—" Lily helped Marlene quickly assemble her belongings so she could levitate them to the other table.
"Bye, Marley, and good luck," muttered Lily with a pointed nod at Sirius. Marlene looked nervous.
"Thanks, Lily, you too."
She left just as James plunked his cauldron on the table and summoned his textbook from across the room. He smiled widely at Lily, who was concentrating only that musk-and-soap smell wafting on the air,
"So then, Lily," said James presently, arranging his mortar and pestle, "does this incident make us friends?"
He was trying to sound offhand, but Lily knew that there was another tone in the question. She also knew what her answer would mean to the both of them.
"I suppose we can be friends now."
James' head whipped up and Lily looked away into her lacewing flies. She was very warm all of a sudden.
"Well all right then," he said with such an energetic grin that Lily felt a pang of something in her chest; did her friendship mean this much to him?
"Can't wait for patrols tonight," he added. Lily's cheeks burned as the class was dismissed.
Ah, the cliff-hanger! Well, not so much "cliff" as, say, "curb" but something will happen with them next chapter, I promise.
Right, so then, I just discovered that there are reviews for individual chapters in addition to the "all chapter" ones (hey, it is my first fanfic!) so I apologize for anyone who I didn't respond to who might have felt left out. Unless no one cared and I was just overeacting—I'll halt my rambling. Anywho, I think I'll just respond to direct questions or super-outstanding things here.
THANKS FOR ALL REVIEWERS, and especially a certain person who made this story a delightful (and verbally sound) anecdote all its own!