Hello my lovelies!
I'm dreadfully glad everyone seemed to like the last chapter! SO GLAD. YOU HAVE NO IDEA. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for continuing to read this story *hearts*
This is the second last chapter before their fifth school year is done and that is just such a bizarre concept. This chapter is also the last one to have canon lines in it (just for the first scene with Lily).
Please leave a review and let me know what you think ;)
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Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, and only the story line and any OC's belong to me.
The news of the Black Lake incident spread like fiendfyre throughout the Castle: its tongues licked from ear to ear and from mouth to mouth—some tales a little taller and far more embellished than others—and by nightfall there was not a soul (dead or alive) that did not know what had happened.
Lily originally did not want to see anyone associated with James—with the exception of Hermione, whose arms she had been wrapped in for hours as she bawled her eyes out—but Mary had quietly entered the room and informed the girls that Snape was making quite the ruckus outside the Common Room.
Lily reluctantly untangled herself from Hermione's comforting embrace, "I should go and deal with this before Potter finds out he's there and goes for round two." The redhead's bitter and scathing tone was not lost on anyone in the room.
Lily walked as fast as she could through the Common Room—ignoring the hushed whispers that erupted as soon as she'd appeared.
Lily squared her shoulder, groaning internally when she thought how her eyes were probably red and puffy from all the crying.
She pushed open the portrait and cautiously stepped out through the portrait hole, stiffening when Sev—Snape jumped up hastily, eyes wide with a pleading expression splayed across his features.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm not interested."
"I'm sorry!"
"Save your breath."
Lily stood in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady and wished more than anything that she was on the other side of it, she folded her arms and hugged them to herself—her cornflower blue dressing gown shifting as she did so.
"I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."
"I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you a Mudblood, it just—"
Even apologising the word rolled off of his tongue so easily, so comfortably.
"Slipped out?" There was no pity in Lily's voice. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends— you see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?"
He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking.
"I can't pretend anymore. You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."
"No—listen, I didn't mean—"
"—to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"
He struggled on the verge of speech, but with a contemptuous look she turned and climbed back through the portrait hole.
Lily just knew that she wasn't going to sleep well that night, and when she got back upstairs all of the other Gryffindor girls were there waiting for her—and she burst into another round of tears, blubbering as she fell into Hermione's awaiting arms.
They all piled into Lily's bed that night, engulfing her in their protective and warm embrace, and somehow, somehow, she fell into a dreamless sleep.
"Albus, are you not going to punish them at all?" Minerva asked, a tick in her jaw and a furious spark in her deep green eyes.
"Minerva, it is not my place to interfere," Albus whispered, he was leant over his pensieve, fingers clasped around its edges and trusting it to support all of his weight.
"Not your place?" Minerva practically shrieked, she rarely lost her composure, but this was a gross injustice and all of students involved should be punished for their actions. "They need to know that there are consequences for their actions and they can't do whatever they bloody well feel like."
"Severus Snape knows about Remus Lupin."
"He—I beg your pardon?" Minerva asked, striding from her place a few feet away to stand beside the man in the sequestered corner of the Headmaster's office.
A bluish white glow swam from inside the pensieve and shone across their faces, only making Dumbledore's blue eyes seem paler, like a swirl of vapour caught in the dead centre of the sea of white that had tendrils of thin red lines travelling through it.
Dumbledore's face sagged with exhaustion—he found he hadn't been sleeping as well the past few weeks, and soberly he said, "I can't interfere because if I do I fear that Remus Lupin will have to leave this school."
Minerva quieted them, folding her hands in front of her and regarding Albus carefully, "So you're suggesting we do nothing?"
"That is exactly what I'm suggesting my dear."
The Full Moon was the day after the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam and in spite of the fact that Hermione was not speaking to any of the other Marauders save Draco at the moment, she still joined the lot of them in the Shrieking Shack.
It was a terse night, all of the animals sticking to separate corners and not interacting with each other in the slightest—well the massive black dog had warily trotted over to the fox but she'd growled viciously and he'd slunk back to the corner he'd previously been occupying.
As soon as the sun rose Hermione left, instructing Draco to heal Remus in her stead this month. Which only made her boys feel worse, but Hermione frankly didn't care at the moment.
A couple hours later she dragged Lily out of bed and told her that they'd go down to the Kitchens for some Breakfast instead of going to the Great Hall—which Lily readily agreed to, wanting to draw as little attention to herself for the rest of the school year as she could.
In fact Lily didn't leave their dorm for the entire weekend save for when Hermione dragged her down to the kitchen for some food.
Then on the Monday, the Fifth Years had their Transfiguration exam bright and early, and by midday their OWL examinations came to a poignant conclusion—Snape tried to speak to Lily afterwards, but she'd grabbed ahold of Hermione and strolled straight past him with her chin raised and her eyes fixed firmly ahead of her.
Just like that their Fifth year was well on its way to ending and Hermione couldn't wait for it to be over.
Tuesday, June 22nd, 1976
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
"Does this have to do with how I treated Snape that day?" James asked quietly, fiddling with his hands as he stared at his feet.
The waning moon was but a sliver of a crescent in the sky, its weak light skittering across the dark water that lay before them.
They were sitting on a log, a little ways into the Forbidden forest down by the Black Lake.
"No," Mary said.
James turned to her anxiously, words tumbling out of his mouth as intensely as a lightning bolt striking the ground, "I'm sorry about how I treated him you know. I realised how much of a tosser I was being after Hermione...well after."
"James," Mary said softly, but the boy was intent on finishing so he kept speaking, "I tried to apologise to Snape and everything, but he didn't even give me a chance before the end of his wand was pressing into my throat and he told me to fuck off."
"James," Mary murmured, twirling a lock of her long auburn hair between her fingers.
James gulped, pressing his lips together as he said, "yes."
"It doesn't have to do with that...not really—" his face crumpled and she paused, shaking her head adamantly as she took his hands in hers.
"—not like that. I've just realised…how much you love Lily."
"Sorry?" James said in confusion, as if he didn't understand what she'd just said, as if the words were strung together in a nonsensical, strange fashion.
"I know—know you love me…but you're in love with her."
James snorted, "Mary, that is ridiculous."
"James," Mary said seriously, leaning forward so their faces were inches apart, "I understand."
"Mary," James pleaded, taking his hands from hers to grasp her face delicately, forehead pressed against hers.
Mary began to shake her head adamantly, tilting her head forward just enough so that their lips ghosted over each other before she ripped herself from his grasp and left.
She left, bolting back to the castle, auburn hair whipping out behind her in the pale light until she disappeared into the darkness.
"Mary," James said sadly and buried his face in his hands. He'd mucked everything up in less than a fortnight, everything had collapsed and he didn't know what to do about it.
He sat there long after the sweet smell of caramel faded completely, with nothing but the stars to keep him company.