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Chapter Five: Fallout

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Lily stomped up the stairs and spat out the password a bit more viciously than she had meant to. The Fat Lady put her hand to her chest and looked terribly offended before swinging open to let her through.

She had a nagging feeling that the whole disgraceful scene she'd just participated in had been put on for her benefit. Potter's face swam into her head, saying "I'm a bad, bad boy, Evans, but you can make me good." She pulled out her wand, conjured an empty can on the rug, and gave it a good hard kick. It hit the wall with a loud and satisfying clatter, making a group of second year girls by the fire jump. Lily apologized hastily, vanished the can, and hurried up to her room.

She flopped onto her bed and took several deep breaths to calm herself. How could Potter think that being desperate and nasty was attractive? And why her? There were plenty of girls who'd've been thrilled to go out with him, big popular Quidditch star that he was. Why couldn't he just pick one of them and leave her in peace?

She gazed at the ceiling for a few minutes, thoughts slowly drifting to Roger. She saw herself confiding in him about what had just happened, and him nodding sympathetically and saying "You deserve someone much better--me, for example."

The sound of the dormitory door opening jolted her out of her reverie. She watched Melinda, Abigail, and Serena file in quietly. They were all wearing expressions of mingled awe, disbelief, and perhaps a little fear.

"What?" Lily asked.

Melinda sunk onto her own bed, shaking her head. "They're really in for it now."

"Would someone like to tell me what's happened?" Lily asked when she didn't elaborate on this.

"Just after you left… well, Potter was really upset, and he--and he hung Snape upside down again." Serena sat down on the floor by Lily's bed, back to the wall and chin resting on her knees. "He asked… who wanted to see him--take off Snivelly's pants. Black took a poll, and apparently a lot of people did…." She trailed off, looking completely repulsed.

"So we'd got up to go," Melinda continued, "as none of us was all too chuffed at the idea. I guess he'd started to, I wasn't looking, but then… well, Professor McGonagall showed up."

Lily's jaw dropped. She remembered passing Professor McGonagall on her way in, but it hadn't really registered at the time.

"She was white as a ghost," Abigail whispered. "Shaking all over, she was so upset…."

"What did she say?" breathed Lily.

"Nothing. She just pointed at the castle and Black and Potter went. Even they didn't say anything. They looked terrified actually… I think this time they knew they were in it too deep…."

Lily slowly processed this information. So they had been trying to remove Snivelly's pants…. It certainly wasn't the first time they'd done something so appalling, but they'd never been caught before, not for anything this bad.

"D'you think they'll be expelled?" she wondered aloud. Nobody answered, but it looked like they were all thinking the same thing.

------

For the next two days, the boys' fates were the subject of much speculation around the school. Black and Potter did not turn up on Friday morning to sit the Transfiguration theory exam with the rest of their class. When they hadn't been spotted by dinner the following night, it seemed a foregone conclusion to many that they'd finally done it, finally reached the point of no return.

Pettigrew and Lupin, when they weren't sitting the exams themselves, stayed holed up in their dormitory. It was impossible to say what they knew because they weren't speaking about it to anyone.

Lily herself was subject to a good deal of staring and whispering wherever she went, but she refused to let it bother her. People she barely knew were coming up to her and asking for news of Potter and Black; not wanting to attract more negative attention, she just told them politely but firmly she didn't have any.

On Saturday she saw Sirius in the library talking to a handful of excited Slytherins--including Severus Snape--and knew that she was finally cracking up from stress of exams. On closer inspection, however, this turned out to be Regulus Black--who, except for being a few inches shorter, was the spitting image of his older brother.

She lingered at a nearby bookrack, straining to catch their conversation.

"Yeah, Dumbledore already wrote Mum and Dad, and they're furious," said Regulus happily. "They think the old man's really going to chuck him out this time." Lily's stomach dropped to her feet. Snape looked like his wildest dreams were finally coming true--which, come to think of it, they probably were.

------

"Have they been chucked out?" Lily asked without preamble as she and Remus made their way down the stairs leading to the dungeons.

Saturday night was their second scheduled patrol duty, and this time Remus had decided to come, though he once again looked a bit ill.

"No, they haven't," he said.

Lily felt immensely relieved, though she tried not to show it. James and Sirius annoyed her to no end, they always had, but she simply could not imagine Hogwarts without them.

"Then where've they gone?" she asked evenly.

"They haven't gone anywhere. They've just been returning to the dormitory really late at night. McGonagall's been watching them while Dumbledore decided what to do."

"But what about exams?"

"They sat them in her office."

"So then, what did Dumbledore decide to do?"

Remus looked sideways at her. "I don't know if they'd want me to say…" he answered slowly.

"Oh come off it," said Lily. "You know those two don't get embarrassed by punishments."

Lupin shrugged apologetically. "If they want people to know, they'll tell it themselves."

They continued along the damp dungeon corridors in silence. Lily was busy trying to work out what sort of punishment Dumbledore would have thought appropriate, short of expulsion. Potter and Black had, after all, been caught in the act of removing another student's pants for a circle of onlookers.

Having covered the lower levels and seen no signs of suspicious activity, Remus and Lily began to climb back up to the ground floor. The thought of suspicious activity reminded Lily of what she had meant to ask Lupin ages ago. She had just opened her mouth to do so when his arm flew out, holding her back. Lily had a distinct feeling of déjà vu.

"What?"

He just shook his head and pulled her back into the shadows at the top of the steps. Lily peered around him curiously and saw three people crossing the entrance hall, heading toward the great oak front doors.

She recognized Mr. and Mrs. Potter from King's Cross Station. Mr. Potter had the same unruly black hair as his son, though he at least made some effort to keep it in order. He and his wife had always looked so pleasant and cheerful before, always fussing tenderly over James and his friends. But now Mr. Potter's face was stony and Mrs. Potter had clearly been crying.

James was trailing several feet behind them, staring miserably at the floor. There was a large scar on his cheek where Snape's spell had cut him.

"Why are his--but you said they weren't--" Lily stammered, as all three Potters disappeared through the front doors, but Remus held up a hand to quiet her. "Not yet."

She waited, utterly perplexed, until James came back in alone. This only added to her confusion but Remus seemed to have been expecting it. He took off across the entrance hall towards James, and Lily followed tentatively, not sure what else to do.

"Prongs?" James was leaning back against the wall; instead of answering, he let out a sort of hollow groan and slid down it, burying his face in his hands. Remus sat down on the floor across from him.

"They saw it," James said miserably. "They saw the whole thing."

"I know, Padfoot told me," Remus said quietly.

"They weren't even angry," he wailed. "Just so--sad, and--and disappointed… like they couldn't believe I was really their son…."

Remus sighed heavily.

Lily was standing awkwardly to one side. Her anger at James was now battling both curiosity and her natural instinct to comfort people when they were down.

"What did they see?" she asked gently, kneeling next to Remus.

James looked up at her, eyes widening in shock. He obviously hadn't realized she was there. His hand twitched (but did not fly to his hair), and he suddenly seemed incapable of speech.

"Dumbledore has this--this memory thing…" Remus began.

"It's a big stone bowl," said James, finding his voice, "and you can take memories out of a person's head… put them inside, and then you sort of fall in…"

"And see the whole thing just like you were there," said Remus.

"Well you can guess what memory he got from… Snivellus," James snarled.

Lily frowned, but James became very interested in his shoelaces and didn't look at her.

"Right," said Remus, also frowning. "Right, well Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea for James and Sirius to watch this memory with their parents."

"How awful!" Lily exclaimed. The whole ugly scene flashed through her mind… those pink soap bubbles choking Snape, those graying underpants… she didn't dare think of how far they might have come off before Professor McGonagall had intervened…. She could only begin to imagine how mortifying it must have been for the Potters to stand there and watch their son do it all. "Oh your poor parents!"

James, who had looked up hopefully at her first words, now seemed slightly disappointed that the sympathy wasn't directed at him. "Yeah," he said dully, "I suspect it wasn't their proudest moment."

"How did Sirius's parents take it?" she asked Remus.

"Well, the Blacks are every bit as nasty as the Potters are nice," said Remus matter-of-factly. "And since they already think Sirius is a disgrace to the family name, they were a bit less disappointed and a bit more angry. Actually, his mum said she'd rather have had Snape for a son."

Lily wasn't sure she'd heard right. She knew Sirius didn't get on so well with his parents, but even so, this seemed like an odd thing for Mrs. Black to say. "Does she know Snape then?"

"Not personally," Remus replied. "But Sirius's cousin Narcissa and her fiancé think highly of him, and Sirius's mum thinks highly of cousin Narcissa and her fiancé."

Lily wrinkled her nose. She remembered cousin Narcissa rather well and did not quite share Mrs. Black's opinion of her.

Her very first night at Hogwarts, as the prefects were leading them from the feast to their dormitories, those two harpies had swooped down on Sirius, spitting poison at him for getting sorted to Gryffindor instead of Slytherin. The older students all had been too terrified of cousin Bellatrix to do anything; but a scrawny, bespectacled, eleven-year-old James Potter had marched right up and kicked her hard in the shins. True, he landed them both in the hospital wing before classes even started, but he and Sirius had been inseparable ever since.

James now seemed on the verge of saying a few colorful words about Mrs. Black, but glanced at Lily and bit back his tongue. Lily was feeling somewhat kindlier towards him, in spite of the very nasty look on his face.

"It's alright, he really doesn't care," said Remus, mistaking Lily's expression as pity for Sirius. "He was far more sick over what James's parents would think of him when they saw it."

James sighed. "Can't be much worse than they think of me, can it?"

"Well at least you two didn't get expelled," Lily said bracingly as she stood up. Remus stood too and extended a hand to help James.

"So how much longer are you stuck with McGonagall?" he asked as the three of them climbed the staircase to the first floor.

"We've got detentions for the rest of term," James said indifferently. "She's still hopping mad too--" there was now a hint of boastfulness in his voice "--said if it was up to her, she would've chucked us, and we're lucky the Headmaster's more forgiving…"

"Mr. Potter!"

The three of them jumped and turned to see Professor McGonagall herself striding towards them. James blanched.

"You do not have permission to be roaming the corridors," she said, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You were told to go straight to your dormitory, were you not?"

"S--sorry, Professor…"

"Don't sorry me, Potter," she said quietly. "Fifty points from Gryffindor."

Lily gasped. It had not quite hit her until now how angry Professor McGonagall really was. The way she spoke softly to James was much more frightening than if she'd been yelling at the top of her voice.

He must have agreed, because he slunk back without another word, turned, and hurried up the stairs as fast as he could.

"And you two," she said, returning to her usual brisk and snappish manner, "are supposed to be patrolling the halls, not standing about hobnobbing. Five points each from Gryffindor." Lily and Remus exchanged wide-eyed looks as she turned and disappeared back into her office.

They covered the rest of the first floor in silence, not caring to do anything that might be interpreted as hobnobbing so close to Professor McGonagall's office. As they reached the second floor, Lily found herself sincerely hoping there would be no run-ins with snogging Slytherins tonight. Then once again, the memory of her earlier patrol duty reminded her of something.

"Remus?"

"Yes?"

"Remember back at the prefects' meeting, when you mentioned Voldemort trying to recruit someone at Hogwarts? What was that all about? It's been driving me crazy for ages."

"How do you mean?" he asked with the air of a man who was stalling for time.

"What did you overhear exactly? Oh, I don't care why you overheard it, you idiot. But it's not fair to say something like that and not provide all the details."

"You're not going to give me a moment's peace until I spill this, are you?" Lily grinned and shook her head. "Oh, alright then. A couple days before the meeting…"

------

(A couple days before the meeting…)

"Are you sure there's none on the lower shelf?"

"I told you, I already looked," said James irritably. "And for the last time, yes, I'm sure there's no Ogden's here."

"Will you two stop bickering and just pick something!" Remus implored. He glanced nervously at Peter, who was standing guard with one ear pressed to the staff room door.

"Now do you want the currant rum or--"

"Oh, move over and let me have a look!" James threw up his hands and stepped back from the liquor cabinet. Sirius bent down to scan the lower shelves. "Elderflower wine?" he groaned. "Why are these idiots wasting space on rubbish like--"

"Guys!" Peter hissed urgently. "I think someone's coming!"

James sprinted to the door and put his own ear to it. "He's right, hide!"

Remus flung open the door of the old wardrobe. The others dashed over, James grabbing his Invisibility Cloak off the back of a nearby chair on his way. Somehow they all managed to cram themselves in, and they had just closed the wardrobe door when the staff room door was pulled open.

The four boys held their breaths. Through the thin slit where the wardrobe door met the side panel, Remus could see Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Dumbledore entering the room.

"But how would he get someone into the castle to do it?" Professor McGonagall was asking.

"He wouldn't need to get someone into the castle, my dear Minerva, if he could get someone who's already inside to do it," Dumbledore replied as he lifted a cushion off one of the armchairs, apparently looking for something.

"What color was it?" squeaked Professor Flitwick, who was peering under one of the low tables.

"Purple," said Dumbledore as he moved on to the next armchair and repeated the process.

"And you're still not sure which one he's after?" McGonagall asked, sounding slightly annoyed at the distraction.

"I have a strong suspicion as to why," said Dumbledore with a sigh, "and many guesses as to which. But no, I am not sure."

"Then what are we to do?" asked Flitwick. He was moving closer and closer to the wardrobe as he slowly scanned the floor.

Someone's elbow was jammed against the side of Remus's head and a moth-eaten robe was tickling his nose, but he didn't dare move.

"We shall of course take steps to protect all possible targets, in the manner that I have already explained to you both."

"But will that be enough?" McGonagall asked skeptically.

"We must also keep our eyes and ears open for any unusual activity around the castle," said Dumbledore, who was now rummaging through the drawers of the writing desk. "Even among the students, I'm afraid."

"Surely you don't think he would entrust this to a student?" Professor McGonagall exclaimed.

Finding nothing of interest under the tables, Professor Flitwick looked up and caught sight of the wardrobe.

"At this stage, he may only be watching, and for that a student would suffice," Dumbledore answered. Flitwick walked purposefully towards the wardrobe.

"But he may not yet know that I am aware of his intentions, and am taking the necessary precautions," Dumbledore continued. Flitwick reached for the handle on the wardrobe door. "Found it, Filius!" Dumbledore straightened up, triumphantly holding a purple sock. Flitwick let go of the door handle and turned back to his colleagues.

"We must take care not to do anything that would alert him," said Dumbledore as he held open the staff room door for McGonagall and Flitwick. "Though to some extent it may be unavoidable." He followed them through it and the door clicked shut behind him.

The boys waited a full two minutes after the teachers had departed before cautiously opening the wardrobe door. Satisfied that the coast was clear, they tumbled out and disentangled themselves.

"Close one," James grinned as he unfurled the Invisibility Cloak.

"Too close," Remus grumbled. They all hurried to the door.

"Wait!" Sirius ran back to the liquor cabinet and pulled out two bottles of elf-made wine before rejoining his friends.

They covered themselves as best they could with James's cloak and, trying not to jostle each other too much, made their way out of the staff room and back to Gryffindor Tower.

------

"…then they left, so we didn't get to hear anything more," Remus finished up.

Lily groaned inwardly; rather than answering any questions, Remus's story had only planted several hundred more in her mind.

••••••••••••

Please Note--Remus has very kindly consented to share the whole staff room incident with you from his point of view. However he warns that when he told Lily, he might have omitted certain details, like what the Marauders were doing in the staff room in the first place. He thinks he also forgot to mention the Invisibility Cloak. Oops.

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