Chapter 6: Family Lost
"You two are obnoxious." Lily sighed. Marlene was sitting on Sirius Black's lap, on one of the chairs in the common room, and they were making out. "You do know we have broom closets, right? That they don't have any brooms in them because this is a magical school, and everything is cleaned by the house elves that just magic it up. That broom closets that were blatantly placed there by Helga Hufflepuff herself so students could explore one another in a controlled environment? No? Are you even listening to me? Oh, Of course you aren't."
"Let them be, Lily." Dorcas chided her. "It's fine. They want to make out, let them make out. It doesn't affect you. Let them have at it."
"I have to deal with them somewhere in my field of vision."
"You know." James started. "If you don't want to look at them, I'm sure I could think of something to distract you." He flashed her a roguish grin.
Lily sighed and held her forehead in her hand. "Listen. We've been on two dates, and we're kind of maybe dating. I don't think we're quite at that stage yet."
"I don't know, we could always go to that stage." James smirked at her. Lily flicked a wandless stinging hex at him. He pouted, and then went back to his transfiguration essay with a goofy smile.
"Miss McKinnon – " the dour voice of Professor McGonagall called out into the common room. She looked around, saw Marlene snogging Sirius like it was her last day on earth, and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her dark red robes flowed around her as she walked over to them, and patted Marlene on the back.
Marlene spun around, wand coming into her hand from where it had been resting in her holster, the speed of her turn flinging some saliva across the room. When she saw the Deputy Headmistress, her face flushed a bright red.
"Miss McKinnon." McGonagall spoke softly, as she gently waved her wand to clean up the mess. "The headmaster needs to talk to you."
Marlene nodded, and extricated herself from Sirius's lap. She followed McGonagall with her head meekly, though her mood was betrayed by the unrepentant grin on her face.
"Cockblocked by the Deputy Headmistress." Sirius stood up, and then swooned. "Woe betide me."
"It's ok, Padfoot, old dog. She'll be right back, and you can get back to your depravity." James reassured him.
"At least I have depravity to get back to…" He nodded sagely. "Unlike somebody I could mention..."
"Hey guys." Peter came into the common room and headed right over to where the rest of the his friend group were relaxing. He sat down, and with a conspiratorial whisper, stated: "We can't do it tonight."
"Why not?" James asked.
"There's a Juvenile manticore on the loose in the forest, apparently." Peter informed them. "Wormy overheard a conversation between the Headmaster and Kettleburn."
"Hagrid, you reckon?" Sirius asked.
"I'd think so." James nodded.
"It's ok guys." Remus spoke wearily. "I'll go by my lonesome today."
"Sorry Moony." The chorused.
"Nah, it's all right." He conceded. "I wouldn't want any of you to get hurt."
Lily went back to her essay on Golpalott's eighth exception. The marauders were surprisingly bad about concealing their Lunar activities. She still thought they were crazy for going out with a werewolf on the full moon, but she really didn't ascribe them as having a lot of sense.
Her essaying was stopped by Marlene storming into the room. She could feel anger rolling off of her friend in hot, heavy waves, the magic simmering under the surface in responseto her emotions.
"Hey, Marlene." Lily called out. "What's wrong?"
"I'm gonna kill them." She hissed.
Sirius stood up and ran over to her. "Marlene?"
"I'm. Going. To. Kill. Them." She stressed.
"Kill whom? Marlene, what happened?" Dorcas came over and hugged her friend.
"My parents." She snapped out. "Are dead. And It wasn't pretty." Tears welled in her eyes, and the tip of her wand glowed with a harsh light.
"Merlin." Dorcas gasped. She came over and joined in the group hug comforting Marlene.
"Who killed them?" Lily asked flatly. She knew what she would want if her parents were killed.
"The Death Eaters." Marlene spat, referencing the extremist group by the name the newspapers had come up with for them. She seemed to deflate a bit, and rested her head on Dorcas's shoulder.
"Marlene." Alice's voice cut through the silence that had fallen over the common room. "I understand. You want revenge. But even if you got all of us onboard, it's unlikely that we'd be able to do anything. We're barely NEWT students. If we ended up in a confrontation with them, it would probably end up being twelve of them on six of us, and there is no way six students would survive that."
"I know." Marlene cried. "It's just-"
"Shhh." Dorcas hushed her. "We're here for you."
They held her for a few minutes, before Marlene stopped the flow of tears and straightened up.
"Sirius."
"Yes babe?" For once in his life, Sirius Black was deadly, well, serious.
"We are going off to a disused room. We are going to train in combat, and we are going to train until we can put those bastards down. Hard." Marlene's countenance was as hard as steel.
"Alright... I'll grab some stuff." Sirius answer.
Lily felt hot moisture welling up in her eyes, and blinked to clear the tears. Lily liked Marlene's parents, damn it! And now, they were gone. Dead. Killed by some pureblood maniacs for some sort of nefarious agenda.
And it didn't make any sense. Violence was bad, but senseless violence was eminently worse. Marlene was a pureblood! Her parents were both Purebloods! And yet, they were killed by people supporting the 'pureblood agenda'! If they weren't safe, then what would happen to her?
Fury seeped through Lily's veins, and her anger clouded her vision. She grasped her wand, which prickled in her hand, then stormed out of the room. Marlene had the right idea.
Lily had a better place to do it, though. She rushed through the halls of the school to the chamber.
After arriving in the dank, cavernous space, she transfigured some material into targets, and painted her anger along that canvas of humanoid shapes.
For hours. She put everything she had into each spell, the intensity of her fury burning through the pain caused by forcing that much magic out. Blasting curses, cutting curses, Dark Curses that made a macabre mess of whatever they might hit. Large, area-effecting curses that cast swaths of the chamber in fire, ice, or even acid.
The experience was meditative. There was no world outside the chamber, no war brewing, no extremist attacks, nothing. There was just her, her wand, and the constant, repetitive flow of curses from it into the wall, and the occasional mannequin falling apart in some new, creative way.
There was pain in such powerful magic, but there was also immense pleasure. The rush of power flowing through her body was as intoxicating as ever, but her sweet brew of magic was flavored with anger and darkness, her chaotic emotions seeping into her actions.
The fire whip she conjured curled around and struck her back, snapping her out of her reverie.
"§Impressive§." Tessie observed. "§I scented power and determination within you when you first arrived. I see the same power and determination I sensed without you§." Her deep yellow eyes bored into Lily. "§Conjure a mirror, Heiress§."
Lily tilted her head at the snake, but then did what she suggested. A quicksilver blob flowed out of her wand and shaped into a mirror. She looked at her reflection in it, and was shocked to see that she was glowing.
Well, not glowing exactly, but the air around her was hued with purple and red fluorescent, ethereal mist that seemed to emanate from her. As she moved, the cloud moved with her, vibrant in its luminous intensity.
"§Is this§…" Lily muttered to herself, shocked at the occurrence. "§Is this an aura§?"
"§It certainly scents like one. And I should know, I've seen several in my time§." Tessie gave her snaky head a nod. "§I wish for you to show Salazar§."
"§But I don't want to talk to Salazar§."
"§But I wish you to, and you will go with me on this, because I'm your favorite snake§." Tessie hissed amusedly.
Lily cocked her head at the snake, shook it in resignation, and followed her back into the sanctum. She climbed up the stairs and centered herself before the sleeping Salazar depiction in his frame. "§Hey, Salazar. Wake up§." Tessie hissed.
The painting stirred, and then stared at Lily. "Stars Above." It exclaimed.
"Yes?" Lily asked. "Tessie wanted me to present myself to you. Something to do with the Aura I've produced."
"Yes, the Aura. Remarkable. I didn't know that a mudblood could be capable of producing one. Yet more evidence that you're ancestry isn't what you think it to be, but so long as you persist in this delusion that you could be from the muggles, I will persist in my immense dissatisfaction with you. And who knows? Maybe you're an outlier."
"You say the nicest things." Lily drawled.
"I do try my hardest." Salazar nodded with false earnesty. "I'm so glad you appreciate all the trouble I go to."
"Shut up, you ancient canvas with an overblown sense of self-worth."
They stared at one another for a few moments before Salazar sighed. His face twisted into conflict, his internal desire to educate and share his vast repositories of knowledge conflicting with a personal distaste for the woman in front of him.
His desire to educate won out.
"Tell me, what does the world currently think to be the cause of an aura like that?" Salazar inquired.
"Nothing more than it's the mark of a powerful wizard in combat." Lily replied.
"An interesting, and not altogether wrong assertion." The painting pondered. "An aura, you see, is produced whenever a wizard channels large amounts of magic in a short period of time, and wastes some of it. A perfectly efficient spell will never contribute to the aura, because no magic is wasted. It is for this reason that high magic doesn't produce one, as efficiency is foundational to the field of high magic. But combat spells, on the other hand, tend to have some level of inefficiency to them. You have studied spellcrafting – you know of the excess movements cut from spells that only result in a minor drop in performance, but a major saving in time, do you not?"
Lily nodded in affirmation. "Some of the components are only there for marginal gain, and so they are cut away, like the triple spiral that starts out the full levitation charm."
"Precisely." Salazar looked at her. "Most combat spells, existing in a plane where time is of the essence, forego as much of the expanded movements as possible. Thus, they are inefficient. The magic has to go somewhere, and as far as we could tell in my age, it was drawn back into the body to places unknown. However, when the flow of magic out reaches a certain level, the body cannot draw magic back in through the metaphorical hole I mentioned earlier. This magic must go somewhere, so it clings to the body and produces the aura you see around you know." He explained.
Lily moved her arm, and the magic rippled around her. It was beautiful. "Interesting. What does it mean to you?" She asked.
"Merely that I find the circumstances of your birth deplorable and your reports of your parentage suspect in their veracity." Salazar replied.
"So… Nothing's changed?" Lily questioned. The painting nodded.
"Now, what compelled you to sling around these great quantities of magic?" He asked.
"My friend's family was murdered by the pureblood extremists." Lily explained softly, ice crawling through her veins as her temper began to abate.
"Most understandable. Are you worried that your family will also be targeted?" Salazar asked with a surprising amount of concern in his voice. Lily stared at him in disbelief. "Oh, get over yourself." He snapped. "I don't like mudbloods or muggles. That doesn't mean I can't empathize for loss of life when it is needless."
"Yes, but, but Marlene's family aren't muggles. They're purebloods. She's a pureblood." Lily explained.
Salazar had looked as if he had been struck. "What would compel them to kill their fellow wizards like that? I doubt there was much to be gained."
"I don't know?" Lily reiterated. "It didn't make any sense, and I just don't know."
"Who did you say the leader of this movement was? Looking into him might give you clues as to what his agenda is. As much as I am remiss to say it, you are an awfully crafty mudblood, and might just be able to discover something the rest haven't been able to. Even in my time most wizards were awfully poor at such logical deductions." Salazar remarked.
"I've heard he calls himself Lord – Vole of Morts, or something. I'm not sure…" Lily stared at the painting of Slytherin.
The painting was giggling softly, an uncharacteristically pleasant sound for a man with his reputation, the painted cheeks gaining a ruddy hue to them.
"Hey, Arsehole. What's so funny? We are talking about lives here!" Lily snapped at him.
"It's just… I didn't… think… he'd keep it…" Salazar remarked between chortles. He let out a long gasp, and then straightened himself out. "Miss Evans, my dear mudblood, 'Lord Voldemort' was the chosen pseudonym of the teenaged Tom Riddle."
Now, it was Lily's turn to recoil. "Really?" She had read his notebook on forms of magic, and while it wasn't entirely coherent, nothing indicated he was the sort of person to lead a pureblood movement. "Wasn't he a halfblood?"
"Indeed." Salazar agreed in a surprisingly jovial manner. "He is most certainly a halfblood, as far as he could tell."
"That is pretty humorous and ironic." Lily chuckled softly. "And an interesting revelation. Looks like Tommy wasn't happy with his status." She muttered. "I really ought to go tell the Headmaster. He might be able to do something with this." She moved to exit the chamber.
"STOP!" The painting shouted at her. Lily spun around to look at it.
"What?" She asked.
"Think about it, Miss Evans. Where is your cunning? Where is your forethought?" He chided her. "If you tell people you figured out Voldemort is actually Tom Riddle, what will happen? They will want to know how you know this! And where does this lead? How will answer questions about the chamber? You may find yourself under attack from the darker factions in society now, but you will find yourself reviled by the lighter factions for the simple fact that you can converse with serpents! What will you do when the 'Dark' reject you for your parentage, the 'Light' reject you for your dark abilities, and whatever amounts for a neutral faction rejects you for being bad for business?"
Lily considered this. "Why are you helping me?" She thought aloud, before cognizance flashed in her eyes. "As much as you don't like me." She accused the painting. "You would prefer it was just me visiting the chamber rather than everyone else that would come down into the chamber if I told others about it."
"Guilty as charged, Miss Evans." Salazar smirked at her. "That, and they most certainly wouldn't take kindly to some of the books I have down here, not to speak of how they would react to Tessie." He shrugged. "I may dislike you getting your filthy hands on my legacy, but that's far preferable to it being destroyed outright."
"Of course. You'd never do something to benefit me unless it benefited you to a greater degree." Lily sighed. "And why do you think the neutrals would reject me for being bad for business?"
"I am Salazar Slytherin after all. Everything I've done has always been to further my own interests." The painting shrugged. "And if there is one thing neutrals have been consistent on throughout history, in my experience of its passage, is that they never seem to care unless it eats into their bottom line."
Lily nodded. "I'm going to go check on Marlene, and make sure she hasn't killed Black yet."
"§You've seen her develop a full aura, invent spells, and use high magic, and she's not even graduated§." Tessie hissed once she had heard the Chamber seal. "§What more must she do to change your mind on her? Surpass Merlin? Surpass Rowena? Because at the rate she is going, she may very well do just that§."
"§Silence, Serpent§." Salazar hissed back at his ancient pet and longest companion. "§You know not what you are dealing with. The minds of snakes cannot fully comprehend the truths of humans§."
"§Perhaps not§." The basilisk ceded. "§But my mind can comprehend power, and those who wield it. She has great power and wields it with a core of iron§."
"§Foolish pet§." Salazar's sibilant hisses grew angry. "§For however much power she may have, she is a mudblood, and mudbloods will always be a threat to the wizarding world§."
"§And you shall find that if the wizarding world rejects her, she shall bring it to heel. What happened to bending morals for power §?" Tessie retorted with a deep, scratchy scoff. "§I thought I was the familiar of Slytherin, proponent of Cunning Pragmatism, but apparently, I'm actually the pet of Gryffindor, the brash and hardheaded§."
"§That is a low blow, and you know it§." Salazar scowled.
"§Doesn't make it any less true§." The snake replied smugly.
Lily descended the stairs from her dorm into the Gryffindor common room in the morning. She hadn't slept well, not after all of the revelations of the day before. The discordant sounds of a heated argument floated up the spiral staircase, and she walked into James Potter and Sirius Black yelling at one another. Potter was apoplectic, and Black for once was rather meek in his demeanor, especially considering his usual temperament.
This was odd.
They never did that.
"YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN ALL OF THEM KILLED!" Potter shouted at his friend. "MOONY'S OUR FRIEND, IN CASE YOU'VE FORGETTEN."
"It was just Snivellus." Black defended himself. His hair was in its usual perfect 'I just got out of bed and still look fabulous' style. "I'm just surprised you care."
James Potter looked like hell. His hair was a significantly more of a mess than normal, and he was covered in bruises and shallow cuts, and looked like he hadn't slept at all. There were bits of debris covering his clothing, and his knees and hands were muddy. Remus Lupin had nodded off in a chair behind him and looked like he had gotten into whatever Potter did. "Yeah." He growled. "I care. About my friends! Apparently, I seemed to have forgotten that you're a Black, and Blacks don't have them! They just have part-wizard playthings!"
"You Bastard!" Black shouted and slashed his wand. James pulled out his wand, but he didn't get it out in time. He flew across the room and crashed into the wall.
Lily sighed. She'd have to break this up before one of them killed the other, as amusing as that would be to see.
"ENOUGH!" She shouted. They both ignored her. James's wand flicked into his hand from his holster, and he flicked it, a bolt of energy forming on the surface. It oscillated violently, like it was a monster thrashing at its bindings. Dark, inky chain links formed on the tip of his wand.
Lily sighed again. If this became a battle between all of the destructive spells the Potters and the Blacks had come up with and horded…
She'd have to move to the chamber, for one.
"EXPELLIARMUS HORRIBILIS"
Her wand sung with power as a wave of red energy washed across the Gryffindor common room. 4 wands flew at her, Black's, Potter's, Lupin's, and Mary's. She tossed Mary's wand back to her.
"Listen up you two!" Both of them snapped their head to her. "I can't let you kill one another in the common room."
"Give me back my wand, Lily." James snapped at her. She shot a death glare at him, and he backed up in submission.
"No. Both of you! What happened?" Lily asked furiously.
"We can't talk about it in the common room." They both responded at the same time.
"Fine." Lily hissed. "Mary, go get Marlene. We are taking this somewhere else, then, if it's really that important."
Mary nodded, and ran up the stairs to the sixth-year girls' dorm. She returned three minutes later with a bedraggled Marlene.
"Yes?"
"Come on Marlene. Apparently, the boys we had the bad idea to date are trying to kill one another, and I'd like a bit of back up if things get hot."
"Coming."
Lily led them to an unused room just off of the main corridor that led to the Gryffindor common room.
"So." She stated once they had settled in the room. "What happened?"
"Black tried to kill Snape. I stopped him." James explained.
"That's unusual. I didn't realize that you were on good enough terms with Snape that you'd try to stop Black from killing him." Lily stared at James. She was tempted to legilimize them but decided against it.
"We aren't." James muttered. "The method Black used would have gotten Lupin killed."
"And why's that?" Lily asked.
Black shuffled his feet and then spoke up. "Lupin…" he paused. He mouthed something at James, and James mouthed something back at him.
"Are you talking about the fact that Lupin is a lycanthrope?" Lily inquired.
All three of them gawked at her. "How did you know?" James asked.
"I have a brain and a pair of eyes, which is apparently more than can be said for most of the students that go here. I've known since third year." Lily sighed. "That's beside the point. May I assume that Black tried to feed Snape to Lupin?"
Black nodded. Marlene frowned at him.
"Great." Lily pinched the bridge of her nose. "And I am then going to guess that James held him off long enough for Snape to escape?"
James nodded.
"And how the hell did you survive?"
"Well…" James started. Black made a jerky movement at him. James shrugged, and then explained. "I'm an animage, and my form is fairly beefy. I shifted into it and held him off, then ran with him in the forbidden forest until morning, like I normally do with Remus."
"You run with a werewolf in the forbidden forest every full moon?" Lily queried incredulously. "That's incredibly irresponsible." James winced.
"It's fine! No one's gotten hurt!" Black defended.
"That's impressive." Marlene remarked. "An animage? At your age? I don't care if you come from a line that regularly produces renowned transfigurers, that's impressive."
"Yes, Yes, regardless." Lily waved her friend off. "Black. You tried to kill Snape. Why?"
"I was angry." Black admitted. "Hell, I still am. Marlene lost her family yesterday, to the same crowd that Snape's always a part of, and there he was, asking about where we went on the full moons. I figured, if he wants to die so much, it's no great loss. I didn't think-"
"That much is evident." Lily muttered. "Marlene, get over here."
Marlene walked over to her, and she cast a privacy charm. They discussed the state of affairs for a while, before coming to an agreement. Lily dispelled the charm.
"Black. Go to the headmaster and explain what happened." Lily crossed her arms. "Your fate is in his hands. Be thankful that the headmaster is notorious for second chances."
Black nodded and held out his hand for his wand. Lily shook her head. "You'll get it back after you've seen the headmaster." He departed. Marlene held out her hand, and Lily gave her his wand.
"I don't know why I'm trusting you with this, but…"
"Don't worry Lils. I'll take care of it." Marlene spoke softly, and then departed the room.
Lily turned her head to James. "So."
"Yes?" He asked meekly. He was obviously exhausted and had sunk down to the floor.
"You did a good thing." She knelt beside him. "Let me take care of those wounds."
She pulled out her wand and set to work. The willow stick loved this part of its job and thrummed in what felt like happiness. She smiled at her wand. James's wound's knit together and closed, and his bruises faded, leaving mostly unblemished skin. With that done, she flicked her wand a few more times and cleaned him up of all of the debris and mud.
"Thanks." He offered. His hazel eyes had bags under them, and his hair was still a bit of a mess.
"Don't mention it." Lily smiled and tucked her hair back behind her ear. "Can I see it?"
"See what?" James gave a weak, dirty smirk. Lily rolled her vivid green eyes.
"Your Animagus form." She slapped him softly. James clutched his chest as if she had seriously wounded her. He nodded, and the stood up, before shifting into his form. A beautiful, majestic stag stood in front of her. She rubbed its coarse fur behind it's shoulder, and it nuzzled its snout in her hair, the soft, velvety fur around the nose tickling her ear. After a few moments, James shifted forms back to his human self.
"He's beautiful." She remarked.
"Thank you. He's me." James gave an exhausted laugh and sat down.
"I see that. Listen, James." Lily started, meeting his eyes, and kneeling down next to him. "You did the right thing. I know risking your life to save Snape might not have been the safest thing, but you did the right thing. And I commend you for keeping Lupin company on the full moons, even if it's reckless and irresponsible."
"Thanks." James smiled wanly at her.
Lily looked at the goofy, weary face of James Potter as he fought the sleep encroaching on his consciousness. She felt a warm feeling come over her and thought to what Marlene was going through.
With all this hate going on both within and without the castle walls, maybe the world could use a little more love. Lily thought to herself.
Summoning up her courage, she leaned in and kissed James. He tensed when it happened, then returned the favor, softly meeting lips.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you actually liked me, Evans." James laughed softly.
Lily looked down, and then gave a laugh herself. James's eyes closed, and he appeared to nod off.
Suddenly, his eyelids shot open. "Wait a minute, that bastard owes me a life debt!"
"Not how it works, Potter."
"Sure it is!"
"You weren't risking your life; you hang out with werewolves for kick."
"Snape doesn't know that."
"He's smarter than you give him credit for."