Author's note:
As a total Sherlock fan as well as Harry Potter, and also because I was watching the last episode of season two just then and was crying my eyes out at the end, I've thrown in a Sherlock quote in this chapter just to make it more interesting – and because I love Sherlock :D
"I can't take this much longer!" Sirius groaned while they were eating lunch.
"What?" Remus glanced up from him chicken drumstick.
"This stop to Quidditch, it's killing me!" He head butted the table in protest.
"Sirius it's been six a week" James looked at him confused.
"EXACTLY" everyone just chose to ignore his whining.
"So, anyway" Remus attempted to change the subject "How's everyone's first week back gone?"
"Rubbish" James moaned "I got a detention with Sirius tonight for repetitively enchanting paper fighter planes to attack the Slytherins, Lily's gone home because of 'family issues' apparently, Peter's gone missing, lessons are boring as ever, and there's no more Christmas pies"
"What was that about Lily?" Sirius left the depths of Quidditch related despair to ask.
"She got a letter yesterday evening saying she had to go home urgently because of something to do with her family" James explained.
"Oh gosh, what if something terrible has happened?" Sasha and Kara looked concerned.
"I haven't heard back yet so…" James tailed off looking upset.
"And what about Peter?" Sasha quickly said before James got too sad about Lily.
"No-one knows" Sirius butted in "The last time we saw him was when he was heading down to the kitchens, which was just before we bumped into the Slytherins yesterday"
"Great, so we're down on numbers and everyone seems upset" Sasha seemed to sum it up perfectly.
Everyone was lying in silence in the common room that evening around the fire when Lily strolled through the door looking traumatised.
"Lily! Lily what happened!" Sasha charged up to her and hugged her, James was quick to follow.
"I…I" She started before the rest of the gang ran up and hugged her too.
"It's ok Lils, you can tell us" Kara looked her in the eye.
"My sister's getting married" she announced, everyone went quiet for a bit.
"Petunia?" Sirius piped up "That sorry excuse for a sister?" Sirius had heard enough stories about Petunia to know that she was not fit for a family of her own.
"Yeah she, well mom, made me bridesmaid" Lily muttered.
"I bet it's going to be one of those traditional weddings, you won't be able to see past the pink frills and poofy sleeves" Sirius laughed.
"And that'll just be your dress" Kara added, everyone laughed, then Kara and Sirius made eye contact, realised they'd just made a joint joke, and it stopped abruptly.
"Anyway… I'm allowed to bring a date, I can tell my sister added that just so are family don't look totally sad" Lily scorned.
"When is it them?" James asked.
"Who said you were going?" Sirius piped up laughing.
"The fact that I'm her boyfriend?" James slapped Sirius "I'm going"
Lily laughed at their play fighting "It's going to be in the Easter holidays, sadly I'm planning on being ill that weekend…"
"No, Lils it's your family, no matter what you can't leave family" James went serious "You never know what might happen to stop you from seeing them"
Knowing how much family meant to James she decided to leave it instead of explaining how if she never saw the newly horrible Petunia again it wouldn't be enough.
"Ok then, we'll go" Lily sighed. Sirius looked like he was about to start talking "We being me and James Sirius, why do you want to go so much?"
"Just something I want to avoid during then that's all" he muttered. The truth was that before he had left his family and that God forsaken house he had overheard his family talking about a big initiation: the death eaters were all meeting with their newest members/captives to sign them up and he knew his family weren't going to stand for their first heir to not be there. They knew where he was as well.
"Soz pads, the ladies mine" James interrupted his thought and slapped him on the shoulder laughing.
"Well I am shattered" Sirius couldn't be cheered up by a slap on the shoulder "I need to sleep"
"But it's nine; you're normally up at midnight singing whole hearted versions of 'My Heart Will Go On'? What's up?" James looked over worriedly.
"Nothing's wrong" He snapped walking up the stairs "Can't a guy go to sleep early without being interrogated?"
"Yeah, something's wrong" James said plainly.
"You don't say?" Remus rolled his eyes.
"Why has he gone home again?" Lily asked the Marauders at breakfast a week before the Easter holidays.
"Like we said" Sirius sighed "James got a letter sent through our dormitory window last night from his parent saying he should come back for the weekend, that's all we know"
"Well why wouldn't he tell us?" Lily was starting to get worried, they all just shrugged. "Fine, I'm going to find out" She marched out of the room and ran up to the Headmaster's office.
"Great, what was the code?" She asked herself "Uh, flying saucer? Rhubarb and custard?" She was annoyed that she couldn't remember what it was after the last time she went up there to receive a commendation from him. "Cola bottle was it? Ah! Cola cube!" The staircase spiralled into sight and she marched up the stairs, ready to question Dumbledore when she reached the top.
There was a reply on the first knock "Please, do come in" Dumbledore called and Lily strode into the office.
"Uh, headmaster? I have a question"
"I'm guessing it's about James?" Dumbledore smiled at her.
"How… How did you…"
"Ah, miss Evans, It's always been an interest of mine to keep in touch with the school gossip chain" He chuckled "I see you and Mr Potter have recently, how would you put in, 'hooked up'?" Lily tried not to laugh at Dumbledore's attempt at relating to her.
"Well, yeah" she stammered "So, could you tell me where he's gone?"
"Miss Evans I would love to tell you, but I'm not sure myself. I got a message from the ministry saying an ex auror needed the presence of his son, and I couldn't argue. Normally if it was a parent I would need to know before I could allow it, but it was the ministry"
"Do you know when he'll be coming back, say, before the end of the Easter holiday?" Lily anxiously thought about her sister's wedding but felt guilty for putting herself before James' dilemma so she immediately slapped her hand over her mouth and Dumbledore chuckled again.
"It's alright, miss Evans, he'll be back before then"
"Thank you Dumbledore, sir" Lily nodded and left the room in deep though.
"One more thing, Miss Evans" she stopped dead in her tracks and turned around. "I think you and James are a lovely couple" He smiled and Lily breathed a sigh of relief and ran down the stairs.
The gang turned around to fits of coughing to reveal James stood in the doorway Monday evening.
"James!" Lily cried as he ran over to hug her and abruptly stopped, putting his hands in front of him.
"Don't" Was all he said.
"What?" Lily looked at him quizzically.
"Don't come near me, Lils, it's important"
"Has something bad happened?"
"I don't know. But it could be so you can't come near me" James edged around her then ran up to his room, coming back down a couple of minutes after with a large bag stuffed full of his belongings.
"Guys this is going to sound like the weirdest thing but I need you to keep away from me for a couple of days, don't come near me, I'm being taken to a side room that Madam Pomphrey's given me"
"Oh my gosh James it sounds bad" Sasha stood up and scanned him over looking for signs of injury.
"Really guys, I just need to go"
"Wait, how long are you going to be James?" Sirius asked getting serious.
"A month apparently bu…"
"My sister's wedding" Lily muttered.
"Oh God, Lils, yeah, I'm so sorry I can't make it, if it were any other time then I wouldn't even question going, but considering the circumstance, which I can't tell you" He added glancing at Kara who looked like she was about to beg for an explanation "There's nothing I can do"
"James, if it's important to you, it's important to me. Go on then" Lily shooed him out the room smiling for him, when he'd left she turned and sighed to the rest of the group "What on earth am I going to do now?" Sirius stood there wiggling his eyebrows at her and she sighed.
"Sirius, would you do me the honour of accompanying me to my sister's wedding?"
"Oh, I don't know if I can squeeze you into my jam-packed diary…" Sirius pretended to think about it before Lily slapped him "Ok, Ok, I'd love to come, thanks Lils" He smiled "Besides, I'm sure I'll be a much better looking date then James would" He dramatically flicked his hair back but Lily just raised her eyebrows and went up to her dorm to sleep.
"Stop moving!" Lily's mom stabbed her with a needle for the millionth time that afternoon.
"I'm not moving! You're shaking" Lily looked down at her mom who was rushing to get Lily's dress pinned into place because Petunia was lying nonchalant on the settee giving out orders and her mum had to run around after them.
"Sorry, Lily, I just really…" Her mum put down the needle in preparation to hug Lily but was interrupted by Petunia squealing.
"Mother! You can't stop working! We have a day to get Lily's dress altered before we have to book the flowers in the same colour just in case the alteration doesn't work and we have to change the shade of pastel pink we're using, and then we need to ring up the printers with the invitation specification, not forgetting that we need to return the table centre pieces because they don't go with the bouquets!"
Lily had been listening to this rubbish all day and it was slowly eating her up from the inside.
"Petunia SHUT UP" Petunia and her mum just froze and stared at her open mouthed.
"Excuse me?" Petunia raised her voice and it was like being stabbed with a knife on each word "You, freak, do not have the right to tell me what to do, I've done you a favour by inviting you to be my bridesmaid, stop being so ungrateful you spoilt little girl!"
"You can't speak to me like that!" Lily was furious.
"GIRLS!" Her mum's voice cut through the air and silenced the two of them immediately; she was always there to stop their arguments. "This is pathetic. Stop this arguing, please. Petunia – Lily isn't a freak, she can't help the gift she's been given!" Petunia laughed when she said 'gift' "And Lily, Petunia's getting married! This is huge! The least you could do is cut her some slack" Lily sighed.
"Fine" She turned to Petunia.
"Whatever. Now get on with the pinning" she scowled and returned to her magazine.
After another half an hour of awkward silence Lily was all pinned in place and she turned to 'admire' herself in the mirror. The dress was a horrific mass of pink satin and frills. Lily stood there and stared open mouthed in the mirror.
"You look gorgeous" Her mum assured looking her up and down and stroking the material.
"It'll do, I suppose, I still think it would have suited Wendy a lot more, but if Lily's got to be a bridesmaid…"
"Petunia, she's your sister" her mum warned.
"Sirius Black is going to see me wearing this" Lily moaned to herself as she stared in the mirror. Her first year self would see this as the worst nightmare ever, to be honest it still was.
"Do I look sharp?" Sirius spun around theatrically in front of Remus.
"Oh God I need the others to come back quickly, I'm now having fashion talks with Sirius" Remus said out loud to himself.
"Hey, I have never really had a meeting with just me and muggles before with no other wizards, it's important that I blend in"
"The wand sticking out of your pocket doesn't really help, but I can't see how that would give away any signs of you being a wizard"
"Dammit" Sirius quickly threw his wand out of his pocket under the bed.
"Such a safe place"
"Quit the sarcasm, Moon, what do I look like?" Sirius spun on the spot.
"You look fit for a muggle wedding" Remus smiled.
"Thanks Moony, if it helps you certainly look fit for breakfast" Remus just sighed and left the room to go to breakfast.
After combing his hair for the tenth time exactly Sirius left the room and met Lily outside Dumbledore's office, she was holding a massive dress bag closely to her chest.
"Hey is that the bridesmaid dress?" Sirius asked as he walked over "Come on, let me see!"
"No!" Lily pulled the dress bag away just before Sirius could grab it.
"Why not?" He pouted.
"It's a, uh, surprise" She quickly excused whilst tucking a pink frill back into the bag.
"Well it better be worth standing next to this" He gestured to what he was wearing and striked a cat walk pose.
"If I only had to live up to that I could have save fifty pounds and just bought a bin bag"
"Wow, Lilypop, you hurt" Sirius pretended to cry as she said the password and they walked up the headmaster's office in silence because Sirius was pretending to be in a strop and was staring into the mirror he had in his pocket to check it was definitely a joke.
"Ah, Miss Evans and Mr Black, you're late" Dumbledore strolled down the steps on the other side of his office, a burst of flames came from behind him.
"Uh, sir? I think your bird just set on fire" Sirius pointed over of the spot where the fire came from.
"Oh no, it's fine, that's just Fawkes. He does that, beautiful things phoenix's are, you know, a new one will rise from the ashes of the old one" Dumbledore said it as if he'd said explained before he walked over to Sirius and Lily "I will take you to the wedding, if it's alright with you, as the rules are that you can't leave school grounds unless accompanied by an adult"
"We can't walk all the way to Hogsmeade now to apparate, sir, it'll take too long!" Lily quickly glanced at her watch.
"Well, Miss Evans, there are some perks to being headmaster you know" He smiled holding out both hands to Sirius and Lily. Just before they left Lily remembered to whisper to Sirius:
"Don't embarrass me" He gave her a hurt look and they were gone.
"AHH" Petunia fell backwards on her chair and the three of them appeared in the dining room and her mum dropped her toast on the cat who charged out the door whilst knocking over a vase full of flowers and water which then spilt onto only the very edge of Petunia's wedding dress: an awful white version of Lily's dress but with poofier sleeves and a long train.
"Hi" Lily stood there awkwardly as the chaos happened whilst Dumbledore chuckled to himself.
"Enjoy yourself, you two, I must be off. Although I wouldn't say no to a slice of cake when you get back" He winked and then apparated out of the room so Petunia could fully let rip.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THIS YOU INCONSIDERATE…" Her eyes glanced over at Sirius who was attempting not to laugh – to Sirius doing that was harder than Peter not eating any pies when they went down to the kitchens. "Who's this?" She waggled her finger over at him.
"I'm Sirius Black, pleased to meet you" He flashed her the Marauder smile and held out her hand.
"Wow Lily, three boys in a year, Lily. This is a new low" Petunia completely ignored Sirius' out-stretched hand.
"Oh I'm not dating Sirius, believe me that's not going to happen" Lily laughed.
"Hey! I bet your family would be very happy if you had me on your arm" Sirius joked.
"Oh God it tells bad jokes too" Petunia sighed "I bet you're another freak?" She stood up boldly with her nose in the air.
"I beg your…" Sirius was about to go into full blown wizard defence mode but Petunia saw that Lily wasn't wearing her dress and practically threw her up the stairs to change.
"Come on Lilypop! Your sister won't stop screaming from the car!" Sirius shouted up the stairs "It can't be that bad!"
"I wouldn't make that joke until you've seen it" Lily said flatly as she waddled down the stairs trying to keep any bows from catching on the banister. This time Sirius couldn't help but laugh and Lily gave him a death glare.
"Uh, what I meant by that was, haha, how silly of you to think you would look silly…?" He smiled hopefully but Lily just shook her head and brushed past to get into the cars. They spent the wholel journey in stoney silence apart from when Lily's mum offered everyone a mint.
"Are you prepared for torture?" Lily whispered into Sirius' ear before they got out by the church.
"Ready as I'll ever be…"
"Peter get your ass over here now" Lucius snarled from the bushes by the gates.
"I'm coming, I'm coming" He groaned and he hobbled over to the rest of the Slytherins "Surely this would have been easier if we'd left for the Easter holidays…"
"Shut up you idiot we're waiting" Bellatrix hissed.
"Bu…"
"Peter I'm this close to sticking your wand where the sun don't shine" She turned and gave him evils which shut him up.
"Look, there!" Rodolphus pointed at a cart which rolled up to the gates with the new delivery of books for the potions department "What idiots, all of those spells pointless when a delivery comes"
As the cart entered the Hogwarts grounds the Slytherins plus Peter ran out of the grounds and charged down the path to the edge of the forest by Hogsmeade where they went into the safety of the trees and followed them around to the other side of the town where an old abandoned shack lay.
"This must be it" Lucius whispered, and gave the signal for them to run across the street and do the secret pattern on the door with his wand so it flung open.
"Ah" A tall scruffy looking wizard with a lot of scars marched over to them inspecting them thoroughly "I'm guessing you're here to join the master?"
"Of course we are" Lucius held his head up high.
"Ok then, into the room at the end" He growled nodding his head to the end of the dark mould ridden hallway. As Peter walked past he thrust the staff he was holding against the wall"
"You're Peter Pettigrew" He looked him dead in the eye.
"Um, yes" He whimpered looking up at him.
"We have no use for you, get out" He shoved him with the staff towards the door.
"But why?" Peter squeaked.
"You're a Gryffindor, one of the so called angels of wizards, you're not worthy of becoming part of the master's army of true and loyal Slytherins"
"I may be on the side of the angels, but don't think for one second that I'm one of them" Peter looked him back in the eye for a second before pulling away again.
"However true that might be you will be of no use to he who shall not be named. Out" He ordered, and Peter scurried out.
Authors Note:
Did you see the quote? Hope you liked the chapter, please please please please please review :-)