September 2nd, 1976: Alice Abbott
Alice guesses you could call her something of a peacemaker, and that'd probably be true. She hates conflict, but even more than that, she hates confrontation: if you don't have anything nice to say, for god's sake, help keep the peace for the people who aren't bitter and miserable, is that so much to ask? However, today isn't about avoidance; it's about making sure that classes are relatively civil, and judging by the awkwardness from yesterday—Marlene and Lily are both cross with Mary, for some reason, and Lily tells Alice she's wanted nothing to do with any of the boys since her parents died, for whatever reasons she has—that could prove to be a bit of a challenge.
Besides, after finding Marlene and Sirius at it again after Alice neglected them for barely ten minutes last night to talk to Remus, it'll take a lot of effort today to make sure Alice doesn't let that happen again. Can you imagine the field day Mary would have if the rest of the school started finding out about them? What kind of a negligent prefect would Alice look like if this got out when she's known about it for so long?
But she digresses. Her WWN alarm radio wakes her up at half past five, since she knows that Marlene is such an early riser, and even exhausted as she is (she hadn't gotten much sleep worrying about her mates last night), Alice hastens to shut it off before anyone else wakes up. Thankfully, no one is a light enough sleeper but Alice to be disturbed by it—that, and setting the volume on its lowest setting and placing the radio in her bed with her might have had something to do with it.
Blearily, she stumbles out of bed (and, unfortunately, on top of Aquarius) and checks inside Marlene's hangings to make sure she hasn't already snuck off to the boys' dormitory; luckily, she's still here and snoring away, which Alice would have been able to hear from her own bed if she weren't so tired. Shaking her head at herself (and nearly falling over in the process), she decides to wait down in the common room, where at least she can turn a light on and busy herself without risking waking up the other girls, particularly Lily—that poor girl more than anyone could use some extra sleep at this point in her life, especially after braving so many rumors yesterday.
To Alice's great surprise, though, the common room isn't deserted; James Potter is already awake and reading, sprawled across a sofa with his glasses askew. "G'morning, Potter," she greets him with a smile, sitting precariously next to him on the sofa once he's had a chance to straighten himself out.
He inclines his head, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Hullo, Abbott," he says in turn, tossing aside his book—a very worn copy of Quidditch Through the Ages, she notices—and blinking. "What're you doing up so early?"
"Waiting for Marlene," she says, sighing and glancing worriedly up at the girls' staircase, as if Marlene's going to sneak down any moment. "And you?"
James hesitates, then says, "Waiting for Sirius." After an awkward pause, they both laugh nervously and exchange a look. "You know about last night, then?"
Alice nods anxiously. "Everyone knows about last night—all of us girls do, anyway. She told Lily after dinner that she was meeting him, apparently; Lily let us know when I came up to the dormitory." She pauses, then adds, "I hope I'm not interfering too much by trying to intercept her. I know it's her business and her bad decision to make, if she wants to make it, but it's hard to just stand by and watch her get hurt."
"I know what you mean," says James. "They're only hurting themselves. Sometimes I feel like an arsehole for not chasing them down and trying to stop them when I know they're alone together, but I guess Sirius has to live his own life. It's harder now that we're in the castle and it's easier for them to get away—he was staying with me all last month, so anywhere he went, I went."
"What was Sirius staying with you for?" asks Alice. She'd heard that Sirius had moved in with the Potters, but Mary hadn't given Alice a clear answer as to why.
"His mum burned him off the family tree… something happened at home, but he won't tell me exactly what."
She nods. "I want to blame him for hurting my friend, but I guess I don't know what's going on in his head or his life, either, to make him choose to be involved with her in their on-and-off way. But it's hard—I know it's not good for her to be around him alone like that so often. It's unhealthy, since they're not in a real relationship. She barely looks at him in public…"
"And yet the whole house seems to know about them, somehow," says James darkly.
Alice tuts, shaking her head. "Anyway, if I can't stop them seeing each other, I figure the least I can do is try to catch Marlene when she's alone before they can track each other down."
"Yeah," says James, "same here, pretty much. Thank god you're already awake, else I might have fallen asleep again the second I came down here," she jokes, rubbing her eyes.
James takes a good look at her and laughs. "You look like you might have."
"Oh, thanks," she says dryly, now tying her hair out of her face. "I'm sorry that I look like such a mess, Potter, but I didn't think anyone else would be awake yet…"
He rolls his eyes, sighing. "Why do all girls apologize for looking awful all the time? For one thing, you look fine, I'm not much better myself—" Alice looks him over; he's gotten dressed, at least, but his robes badly need to be ironed, and his hair is just as sloppy as hers (not that that's out of the ordinary, really) "—and for another, girls don't suddenly turn ugly because they haven't done their hair yet or whatever else. Either you're ugly to begin with, or you're not; whether or not you're wearing makeup doesn't change that."
Alice laughs bitterly, running her fingers through her hair like a comb. "Unfortunately for us girls, most blokes won't agree with you on that count, James, but it would be great if you could spread the word to Marlene and Mary one of these days. God knows they waste far too much money on their looks."
"It's not a waste, Alice, it's an investment," comes Marlene's voice from the stairwell; they turn to see her glaring halfheartedly at the both of them. "Just because you lot are used to seeing me like this…"
"Morning, Marlene," says James, smirking.
She raises an eyebrow at him. "What are the two of you doing up so early, anyway? I would have expected this from you, Jay, but Alice—"
James and Alice swap a look. "Couldn't sleep, so I came down here to wait for someone to wake up a few minutes ago, and James was here already," she says—a half-lie, but Marlene buys it. "What do we have first?"
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," James replies, stretching—because McGonagall's morning today will be devoted to figuring internships for the Gryffindor seventh years, scheduling was done last night after dinner. "Should be interesting, yeah?"
"Professor Tonks… it rings a bell," Alice murmurs.
Marlene nods, plopping down on Alice's other side. "Sirius's cousin. She's estranged from the family, too—her husband's Muggle-born. You reckon she wants to keep an eye on him because of last August?"
"It's possible, but we'll have to wait and see in today's lesson," says James.
To both James and Alice's relief, Marlene doesn't try to see Sirius for the rest of the morning; they stay downstairs talking like that for a few hours, until students start trickling in and Marlene and Alice head back up to the dormitory to change. They tell James first that they'll find him again at breakfast, but he's in no mood to talk by the time Alice finds the other sixth year Gryffindors in the Great Hall: Lily is noticeably avoiding him, and he looks too upset by this to make decent conversation. Mary doesn't look especially reconciliatory toward Marlene, either, so Alice guides Marlene carefully over to Lily, shrugging helplessly in Mary's direction (she looks at Alice pleadingly, but Alice just tilts her head toward Em and shrugs again).
It doesn't help matters that the first period of the day is the one class that all nine of them are enrolled in. Scheduling worked out this year so that Gryffindors in Alice's year won't be divided up for any classes—and as such, the first (and only) class of the day is Gryffindor-only, throwing all of them, tensions and all, into one classroom with a relative of one of their number. From the looks of it, Peacemaker Alice will have to work overtime to keep everyone's cool today.
She's the last one to get to class—Marlene forgot her textbook up in the dormitory, and Alice lends her hers and goes back for the book herself, since she can use her prefect title as cover in case she's late. She's not—late, that is, though she barely makes it there with two minutes left—so she doesn't make any excuses as Professor Tonks lazily closes the classroom door with her wand. "You're Alice Abbott, then?" She nods, putting on her most innocent face. "All right—that makes all of you. I'd like to start today with something of a diagnostic assessment of your abilities. I'll have a written test prepared for your next lesson, but for today, I want you to duel one another—only using spells you've practiced in class before, I don't this to end badly, all right?"
Oh, lord. So much for keeping the peace… The boys immediately pair up together: James with Sirius, Peter with Remus. Tonks, though, stops them quickly—and considering that she's related to a Marauder, Alice can't blame her. "Did I tell you to start pairing off yet? There's an odd number of you, so—Sirius, you're with me. As for the rest of you—who are the prefects here? Remus and…?"
Alice raises her hand and steps forth, glancing at Sirius; he's enraged, shooting Tonks the dirtiest of looks he can muster. "I am, Professor."
"Alice, right?" asks Tonks; Alice nods in confirmation. "All right, Alice, I want you with James today. Remus and Peter, I want you separated, too."
Remus in particular blushes at this comment as he approaches Marlene; they don't talk much, but if Alice were him, she'd want to work with someone who earned an Outstanding O.W.L. in the subject, too (and Lily hasn't been too keen on him lately). Lily won't even look at Mary or Peter and pairs up with Em instead, leaving the former two together.
All right, maybe they can survive the next hour and a half without anyone getting hurt… on second thought, Sirius looks like he's about to kill someone, particularly Tonks.
Forcibly pushing Sirius out of her mind (given Tonks's assignments, it's not like she can stop him from doing anything rash), Alice walks up to James and smiles. "You're everywhere today," she remarks as they both bow and raise their wands.
"I could say the same of you," he mutters, grinning, as Tonks calls for silence.
"On three, all right? One—two—three—"
"INCARCEROUS!" bellows James.
Before she knows it, Alice is bound in ropes, unable to move. "Relashio!" she casts—her spellwork is much quieter than his—and in a great burst of smoke, the ropes fall to the floor. "Impedimenta!"
"You're good. I didn't think you were going to get out of it," he comments, sounding a little muffled, since the curse restricted movement in his jaw. "Your wand wasn't even pointed at the ropes…"
"Eh, well, it hit the ropes by my ankles and spread up from there," Alice explains modestly, Vanishing the fragmented ropes while she has a chance before resuming guard. Any second now, the curse should wear off… "Tarantellegra!"
He deflects it instantly, though she'd been expecting that. "LEVICORPUS!"
Even hanging in the air from her ankle, she maintains a steady grip on her wand. "Silencio. Furnunculus!"
Rendered speechless, he's unable to react to the boils sprouting across his skin. She's taken by great surprise, thus, when a Stinging Hex hits her in the chest, followed by the Conjunctivitis Curse—with her nerves temporarily on fire, she's unable to lift her arm and cast the counter-curse to the spell that blurs her vision and makes her unable to see (and attack) James. The one upside: the Stinging Hex knocked her to the ground.
Wandless magic, she realizes. They haven't studied it yet, but then, James is always ahead in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. Assuming (correctly, it turns out) that he's had time to cure the boils, she brainstorms spells as she waits for the hex to wear off, then casts the counter-curse and thinks, Incendio!
He's not the only one who's practiced wandless magic. Alice only feels a twinge of regret in knowing that his skin will blister, first from the boils and now from the flames—he knows the counter-curses, and Madam Pomfrey will have an antidote on hand. Barely before he's back on his feet: Petrificus Totalus.
Without having heard the incantation, he can't cast a Shield Charm or deflect it before he freezes and falls to the ground like stone. James is unable to direct his wand and stop the curse—Alice has won the duel.
With over an hour left in class, she frees him and helps him to his feet, suggesting another round. Tonks is too occupied with Sirius to notice that they've finished; Alice assumes that she'll look each partnership over in a Pensieve or something to that effect after class to assess them all. Alice notices vaguely that nothing comes to a head during class, to her relief—Sirius, though, is showing no respect for his professor, and Alice suspects that Tonks would be in the Hospital Wing within the first quarter-hour of class if she weren't such an experienced duelist. Indeed, when she calls time a few minutes before the bell, she tacks on after (wiping caked blood off her forehead), "And twenty points from Gryffindor for use of illegal spells, Sirius. A word after class?"
To no one's surprise, Sirius doesn't look happy. James is staring at him even more than he is at Lily, an obvious cue for intervention. "You fought brilliantly back there, Potter," Alice compliments him.
He glances at her, as if just noticing that she's in the room, and then flashes her a grin. "Same to you, Abbott," he says in turn, running a hand through his hair. "If anyone asks, though, I won more rounds than you did."
"Just keep telling yourself that," she laughs, hopping onto a desk. "I didn't realize you knew how to perform wandless magic."
"Yeah, well, I didn't know you did," James responds. Since his first nonverbal spell, the rest of their dueling had all been cast in utter silence. "If I hadn't, that would have been really creative on your part—that Silencio you cast, I mean."
She shrugs. "Not creative enough, apparently."
The bell rings, interrupting. Alice groans, glancing at the other girls—Mary is shooting dangerous looks Marlene's way. "If you'll excuse me," Alice says, nodding in Mary's direction; James laughs and lets her go, hanging back to wait for Sirius.
To Alice's great relief, the girls come to an unspoken truce during the free period (which she spends practicing her dueling more with Em) and are talking normally during lunch, as if nothing happened in the first place. James interprets this as a little too good of a sign and tries to approach Lily, and he almost looks to have pulled it off—Lily, at least, seems to have run out of the energy it takes to evade him—but Marlene is especially defensive of her and sees to it that James keeps clear away for the duration of the meal. It's like this for the rest of the day, girls against boys for Lily's sake, and while Alice isn't sure how long this will hold up long-term, she goes to bed that night with a clear conscience, knowing that she's done her part to keep heads from rolling.
There's no such luck the next morning, though. The day starts on a tense note when they fill out applications for what limited internships are still available with McGonagall in the Great Hall; judging by what she says, there are hardly any spots still left, and they leave breakfast low on both food and confidence alike. They aren't all enrolled in Potions, the first class of the day—there are six Gryffindors and four Slytherins, as they find out after walking together to the dungeons. Lily tenses up when she meets Snape's eyes, and judging by the look on James's face, the class won't end well.
Slughorn is delightedly oblivious—and that includes of Lily and Snape's split. "Partner up!" he says merrily, and he looks utterly shocked when Lily shuns Snape and turns immediately to Marlene. Alice partners Remus; though she's seen a lot of James lately, she knows Remus better from prefect duties, and James is bound to work with Sirius anyway (which he does, almost as fast as Lily seeks out Marlene).
Just as soon as he's given the instructions—they're brewing the Draught of Living Death today—Slughorn is quick to make his rounds across the classroom, asking after students' summers and giving out Slug Club invitations to a preliminary "supper" at the end of September. It's the same faces as always, often creating tension between partners: Alice but not Remus, Lily but not Marlene. James and Sirius are both invited, though, as are Snape and Belby (Carrow and Fletcher shoot them jealous looks from their cauldron, Alice notices through the blue steam filling the room).
Remus, at least, has the patience with Slughorn to immerse himself in the potion while Slughorn is talking to Alice; the conversation is a lot more explosive at Lily and Marlene's table. "I hope you had a good summer, then, Lily?" asks Slughorn, his eyes twinkling.
Marlene answers for her; Lily's face starts heating up, and she lets her hair fall over her eyes to hide this as she stirs her draught. "Her parents were killed in a car accident, Professor," Marlene says brusquely.
Slughorn gasps, visibly taken aback. "I'm so sorry to hear—I had no idea—"
Rolling her eyes, Marlene bites, "Yes, yes, she appreciates your condolences and would be happy to come to your party to ease her pain. If you don't mind, we're trying to brew a potion here."
Alice has never been close to Marlene—their personalities are too different, she's always thought—but she's starting to see why Lily's become so loyal to her in the past few months. High marks and prefect badges can't defend you, after all… even if having supportive mates sometimes means losing house points when said mates talk back to professors on your behalf. Lily, though, doesn't look especially grateful when Marlene throws in a bit too much sopophorous juice and blows up their cauldron all over Slughorn's robes.
"Perhaps it isn't the best idea to pair the two of you up," says Slughorn nervously after casting a quick cleaning charm on the surroundings. "I wouldn't want my most talented pupil failing on account of a poorly chosen partnership! No, I think it's best that you work with a student of your caliber… Severus, perhaps?"
They tell him no simultaneously—Lily sounds panicked, Marlene furious. "I'll work with her, Professor," volunteers James after an awkward pause, ignoring Sirius's glares and Lily's groans. "I wouldn't mind changing partners—"
"Well…" Slughorn looks torn, glancing between Lily and Snape.
"I'm sure you know that I earned an Outstanding O.W.L. in Potions, Professor," says James. He glances at Lily, who's looking anywhere but at him (but still seems miffed by this statement). "And Snape is doing just fine without her." Slughorn agrees hesitantly, and James and Marlene trade places—Alice wonders what Marlene and Sirius think about working together, since they usually avoid each other in public.
Class passes quickly from then on—though that may have more to do with Remus and Alice's immersion in their potion than today's social outlook. As soon as they're out in the corridor after the bell rings, James confronts Snape, shooting a Trip Jinx his way to detach him from his Slytherin classmates. "Have anything to say to Lily, Snivellus?" he demands.
"Potter, don't," says Lily softly, her eyes wide, but Snape doesn't spare her a sympathetic glance.
The rest of them lag behind—Remus pulls on Sirius's robes to stop him from joining in. "What, do I owe the Mudblood an apology now?" Snape sneers, whipping out his wand.
"So that's how it's going to be, then?" James says, dangerously calm. "You're not even going to give your former best mate the dignity of calling her a Muggle-born? Since Wednesday, I've been expecting you to try and win her back—not that you deserve her—"
Snape mutters something that spatters blood across James's face, but he hardly even notices, ignoring Lily's increasingly angry pleas to leave Snape alone. "Can't your ego even take one little snub from her before you run crying back to your little Death Eater friends? To you, she's just a—a—"
He can't bring himself to say it; as he stammers, Alice comes to her senses and interrupts before Snape can curse James again. She steps forward, brandishing her own wand. "Ten points from Slytherin for using magic in the corridors, let alone of this nature, Snape. Back to the common room, guys, there's nothing to see here…"
Lily smiles weakly at her as Alice brushes past Snape, dragging a stricken-looking James along with her. After a brief detour to the loo (where Remus heals James's face), they walk up to Gryffindor Tower in silence together and don't bring the fight up to the others, even when Mary raises her eyebrows in the way that suggests she's going to find out about it one way or another.
Alice figures it's be better that Mary find out from them than from the Slytherins, so after several torturous hours of waiting to catch her alone, she pulls her aside during the last class of the day. Neither of them has class—the Gryffindors are divided this period between History of Magic and Divination, neither of which Mary or Alice takes—so with most of the Tower empty, she figure it's the ideal time to mention it. "About earlier," she starts hesitantly after they bid the others goodbye.
Mary glances at Alice, her eyes alight. "What was that? I haven't seen James look that upset in, like, ages."
"He and Snape had a row," Alice explains, lowering her voice so that the seventh years at the other end of the common room don't hear. "He thought it was fishy that Snape wasn't trying to make up with Lily during class… it was fishy, considering how he was begging for her back after O.W.L.s, and he hardly even looked at her today. James confronted him about it, Snape cursed him and called Lily a—well, you know." She fidgets uncomfortably. "Lily looked distraught about the whole thing; I was surprised she didn't start yelling at them both, she's usually not this quiet. At least, not when she's around James… he pushes her buttons, you know?"
Mary nods, pressing her lips together. "There's something funny going on between Lily and the blokes. I'm not sure what, exactly… it's been a long time coming, though, don't you think? She was acting weird around Lupe and Pett when we got together before her sister's wedding, and now, like, with James and Sirius, too…"
"She wasn't even avoiding James later on," Alice confides. "It was like she had given up on getting rid of him… It's different with the others; you can tell she's upset with them, but it's different with James. She's different with James."
There's a pause, then Mary says, "I still think it's because she fancies him."
Alice closes her eyes and laughs. "Even if she does, I don't think it's about that… He was with her when she found out about her parents, wasn't he? He could have done something to upset her."
"Maybe," shrugs Mary, and the subject feels closed—oddly, Mary doesn't seem keen on discussing it.
"What happened between you and the other girls, anyway?" Alice asks while it's still on her mind, leaning forward slightly.
Mary laughs bitterly, relaxing into her armchair. "It was stupid, really—with Marlene, anyway. Apparently, Lily was staying with her uncle after her parents died because her sister wouldn't take her in, and I think Marlene moved out of her parents' house, too… anyway, she didn't tell me this, like, I found it out from some of the Hufflepuffs I was sitting with on the train. She didn't even tell me she'd moved out."
"And Lily?" Alice presses.
Mary blushes. Alice is taken aback; Mary never blushes, since she rarely has any shame. "She, like, might have caught us talking about her a few minutes after that…"
Alice sighs heavily and rests her head in her hands. Mary laughs in response, but it's nervous laughter, not the callous sort that Alice would have expected from her. "Don't stress about it, Mare. She looks to have forgiven you, at any rate."
"Yeah, well," Mary says quietly. "Maybe she shouldn't have done."
xx
A couple hours later, Marlene and Sirius both don't show up to the Great Hall for dinner. Thinking about it, Lily and James would have just been in History of Magic, and Emmeline, Remus, and Peter would have had Divination, which means that Marlene and Sirius were the only ones other than Alice and Mary who had a free period just before. "You think they went off together?" Mary whispers as she's looking wildly up and down the table, just in case she missed them.
"Oh, they definitely went off together," says Alice, drumming her fingers. "I just hope Marlene isn't too messed up by it today."
She has prefect patrols with Remus tonight, and she's not surprised that they eventually find Marlene and Sirius holed up in a broom closet a little ways away from the prefects' bathroom. Alice opens the door, then closes it again after they've broken apart to give them both a minute to situate themselves. She's caught them early enough that the sight of them isn't mentally scarring, thank god, unlike last time, but they're both still flustered enough that Alice gives them a chance to catch their breath.
She feels like a dumbarse. She only left Sirius and Marlene together for a couple of hours, but she knows that it doesn't even take that. Even just one moment is enough for them to go after each other when they're together, if you can call what they have a relationship; it always takes just a moment of the two of them locked up somewhere together before they're bound to find Marlene shut up in a broom closet with a bottle of Firewhiskey and her robes still half undone. She doesn't want to interfere past her bounds, but Alice still has Marlene's best interests in mind, and what's best for Marlene is certainly not Sirius Black.
After a painfully long minute, they come out together, both glaring and furious. "Ten points from Gryffindor from indecent exposure," Alice says, and even though neither was indecently exposed in there (let alone publicly so), they don't object. "Sirius, go with Remus up to the common room, will you?"
They depart, Sirius looking awfully disgruntled, and Alice turns to Marlene with a heavy sigh. "Again, Marlene? It hasn't even been two days."
"I know." She sounds meek and embarrassed, a far cry from her usual, vibrant personality. "It's just—"
"Easy?" She doesn't answer. Alice's harsh expression falls from her face; she's never been good at lectures. "You're worth more than a shag in a broom closet, Marlene," she says honestly, smoothing down Marlene's revealingly tousled hair and smiling back (with relief) when the corners of Marlene's mouth turn up. "Come on, let's get you downstairs to the library—we have a Potions essay on the history of Amortentia to write, remember? And Mary has a new deck of Exploding Snap to test out after we've checked out the books," Alice adds in response to the look on Marlene's face—she may be the studious one, but something tells her that coursework won't do Marlene any favors today.
Alice is usually a peacemaker, but she doesn't back down from a necessary fight… and she tries to pull through as a mate when she's needed, too.