Previously: Marlene begins to be skeptical of Lily's relationship with Snape. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter meet Hagrid. Mary has a bully, Belvina Travers, but Mary is too shy to stand up to her. Lily and James's rivalry continue.


Chapter 11: Defining Enemies and Rivals

"Remus, are you all right, mate? You're looking a bit peaky," said Sirius as the Marauders sat under an old oak tree by the lake, watching a group of third years from Slytherin tickle the tentacles of the giant squid that was basking in the sunlight. It occasionally squirmed but nevertheless let the third years continue to give it some more attention.

James glanced over to his friend at Sirius's words. Peaky was right. Even in the bright daylight, Remus's skin was pale against the sun, his scars even more pronounced than ever. The shadows under his eyes were hardly ever noticeable, but now they stood out like black against white. If he had looked any worse than he already was, James would have kidnapped him and placed him at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to keep him there until the Healers discovered whatever was making him look so sick.

"I'm fine," said Remus, passing his illness off with a faltering smile that James did not believe for one second.

"Is that why you can't go to the Halloween Feast this week?" demanded Sirius. "C'mon! Hagrid is providing the pumpkins. It's going to be awesome."

Remus was silent for a moment as he stared down at the pages of Magical Drafts and Potions, his eyes not moving from his spot on the page.

"It's – it's my mother," he said hesitantly. "She's sick again, and I've arranged with Dumbledore to visit her on Halloween. Sorry, I can't make it to the feast."

His voice was such that James could not be entirely sure if he was lying or not.

"Didn't you say she was sick a month ago?" asked Peter blankly, looking quite confused.

Remus jumped a little.

"Y-yeah, she was, and her sickness has come back, and my dad says that – that she's always better when I'm around. Don't ask me, but I have to visit her."

James wanted to say something, to insist he tell them the entire truth, but as there was no way to press Remus if he did not want to, he decided to let it slide for that moment, instead turning his mind to the delicious feast the house-elves were preparing as he sat there – it had not taken them long to find the kitchens, and he was pretty sure that he and Sirius were becoming the house-elves' favorite customers since they were there so often – it was one of the few times that James always remembered to award them heaps of praise, which only ever earned him even more food.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Wow," whispered Lily as she entered the Great Hall with Severus.

Hogwarts had gone all out for Halloween. Great, floating jack-o-lanterns took the place of the usual candles under an inky black sky, and actual live bats fluttered around the ceiling. True to Mary's prediction, Professor Dumbledore had indeed booked a troupe of dancing skeletons, which were currently boogying near the Slytherin table at the spot where Mulciber currently sat, much to Lily's delight. Up at the teacher's table, Dumbledore was wearing long, flowing robes of black and orange to match the event.

"I'll see you later, Lily," said Severus, waving to her as he headed to the Slytherin table, though careful to stay away from the skeletons. Giggling, Lily ran over to where her friends in Gryffindor sat. Much to the amusement of Mary and Marlene, Alice had been trying to see how many Ice Mice she could fit in her mouth, and at Lily's arrival, she hastily gulped them down, choking a little until Mary thumped her on the back.

"L-L-Lily, y-y-you're h-h-h-here!" cried out Alice, her teeth now chattering from the overdose of Ice Mice she had swallowed. "W-w-we were w-w-w-wonde-de-dering when-n-n y-y-y-you w-w-would f-f-fin-n-n-ally-y-y sh-sh-sh-show u-up. Th-th-the f-f-f-food is ab-bu-bu-bu-solutel-l-ly de-de-delicious!"

She pointed to her own plate piled high with all sorts of goodies.

"How could I miss out on the Halloween Feast, A-A-Alice?" asked Lily teasingly, taking the seat next to her and scooping mashed potatoes onto her plate while Alice frowned at her. She glanced back at Mulciber and joyfully added, "Besides, I see that there's some prime entertainment here tonight."

The other girls roared with laughter at that – Alice's teeth still chattered, which made for a pretty funny giggle – and pretty soon they were chatting away about the latest gossip Marlene had uncovered from her magazines.

Lily took the time to sneak a peek at the Marauders who were sitting towards the back of the table – it looked like Potter and Black were having eating contests while Pettigrew timed them. However, Remus was nowhere to be found, which she found a little startling since those four boys had been together every time she had seen them. Shaking her head, Lily turned back to the conversation at hand.

"People aren't sure what's going on in there," whispered Marlene about the newest thing to talk about. "It's only started this year, but a lot of Hogsmeade residents think something bad is there. They're all too scared to try to get in, especially after Dumbledore told Madam Rosmerta that he himself thinks that it's haunted."

"N-n-not true," said Alice after taking a bit of her food, "I-I-I overh-h-heard that s-s-s-some Gr-gryffindors from f-f-fifth year t-tr-tried to get into it l-l-last weekend wh-wh-when they were visiting th-the village, but n-n-none of them c-c-c-could so much as s-s-sc-scratch the w-w-wood. It's s-s-sealed shut from any o-o-outsiders completely. Actually, I've h-heard that the p-p-p-people in Hogsmeade are st-starting to c-c-call it the Sh-Sh-Shrieking Sh-Shack."

Lily had no clue what the two were talking about as she had never been to Hogsmeade save the train station on the outskirts and had never even heard of the Shrieking Shack, so she just ate and listened in silence as the topics started to shift again until they were talking about some singer, Celestina Warbeck, more commonly known as the Singing Sorceress, who was recording a track to raise funds for St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. All in all, it was as good of a feast as the one that Lily had at the start-of-term, and it passed so quickly that Lily hardly noticed until it was time for them to head up to the common room.

"I-I was kind of disappointed that D-Dumbledore didn't g-g-get those singing b-b-banshees everybody s-said he was bringing," said Alice as they climbed the stairs to the common room where Lily knew her bed eagerly awaited her. Her friend's Ice Mice-induced stutter was finally starting to wear off.

Marlene tossed her hand in the air dismissively.

"They say that every year," she said. "At least there were those skeletons dancing right in front of Mulciber. That git deserved it."

"I couldn't have said truer words myself, McKinnon," said Potter as he seemingly appeared out of thin air right in front of Lily who backed up several steps, surprised. Behind him stood a widely grinning Black, who held some sweets he had swiped from dessert that had no doubt been preceded mere minutes ago by the food in the eating contests she had witnessed earlier, and a nervous Pettigrew biting his nails. Remus was, conspicuously, still absent.

"Potter, Black, what are you doing here?" asked Lily flatly, her tone leaving no room for questions as to how she felt about their intruding.

Potter looked at her with faked revelation, still offering her a brilliant smile full of whatever mischievousness the boys had planned next.

"Evans! Is that really you? Huh, I didn't even recognize you without that slimy little grease ball who's always sulking next to that pretty little face of yours – what's his name, Snivellus?"

Lily growled, but much to her displeasure, both Alice and Marlene were trying to stifle their giggles.

"You think you're so funny, Potter."

Potter beamed at her as if he considered her words a compliment, raising his eyebrows into that untamable mop of his black hair.

"Why actually – yes, Evans. Yes, I do."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, cut the hippogriff dung, Potter. Why you're interrupting our little walk – a walk, I may add, that was going very well until you and your thick head barged in – quite unwanted, that last bit."

Black cleared his throat from behind Potter and stepped forward. If Lily did not know better, she would he was trying to look mature.

"Believe it or not, ladies, but I do believe it's perfectly legal to walk the corridors when we want –" he started in a grand but entirely fake fashion, but Lily cut across him.

"Stop lying, Black – you four are always up to something, so why don't you just do yourself a favor and skip to the part where you tell me what you're up to," she said impatiently, which earned a scowl from Black and an even wider smirk from Potter.

"Fine," snapped Black, his grey eyes flashing at Lily, "Since you're here, we might as well do it now – we have a proposition for you."

While the first part may have sounded familiar, it was the last part that was something Lily never expected to hear out of Black's mouth, and before she could say anything else, Black pressed on.

"If we agree not to try to get back at you for everything – like almost knocking me out that other week for instance," – Here, he shot a glare at Lily who just smiled sweetly and pretended to blow a kiss – "then you agree to turn a blind eye to any prank for a full month."

"What?" repeated Lily, dumbfounded. She looked between Potter and Black with disbelief clear in her eyes, but it was impossible to tell what those maddening smiles really meant.

"Let me get this straight: you want me to completely ignore whatever shenanigans you two bullies," – Lily kept pointing between the boys, unsure if they understood or not – "come up with for an entire month?"

There was a moment while Lily ran through the – completely incomprehensible, by the way – offer in her head over and over, but before she knew it, she was soon laughing harder than she had ever laughed in her entire life. Potter and Black glanced at each other, both baffled by Lily's reaction, while she wiped tears away from her eyes.

"Merlin, Evans," said Potter as he watched her, "Did somebody slip you a Laughing Draught at the feast?"

"I'm sorry," giggled Lily as she wiped away some more tears of laughter. "It's just – it's too funny! If you honestly think I'm going to overlook all those awful things you do to Severus, then you're even stupider than I thought – and trust me, that was pretty stupid to begin with."

She sighed and straightened, finally getting over her little fit.

"Well, Jamesie-Boy," said Black after he shook away the obvious confusion both of them experienced, clapping Potter's shoulder, "Evans doesn't look like she wants anything to do with us fine men. I figure we've outstayed our welcome here."

Potter glanced at her one more time.

"I think you're right, Sirius. We should just leave these lovely young ladies to their own devices."

It would have been an unsuspicious good-bye had Lily not caught Peter glancing up towards the ceiling as if waiting eagerly for something. She followed his telling gaze to where a giant vat full of something Lily did not want to know started to tip. Rage rose in her, and Lily whipped out her wand and yelled, "Colloshoo!" just as it tipped over, spilling the contents onto the floor where the girls stood. Ice-cold water exploded onto all of them with enough force to knock poor little Mary to the ground. The Marauders, whom she had jinxed just in time, were not spared from the frigid wake-up call with Lily's Stickfast Hex operating on their shoes.

Now soaked from head to toe in the freezing liquid, Lily spat some water out of her mouth and snarled, "No wonder you tried that ridiculous offer – a trick! That's all this was, a trick?"

Potter shook the water out of his wet hair now plastered to his forehead before looking up at her.

"Well, we weren't supposed to get hit at all."

"You conniving, little –"

"Petrificus totalus!"

Lily spun on her heel just in time to watch Mary, who had been in the middle of getting back onto her feet, yelp in surprise as a spell caught her in the middle of the back, and she toppled to the ground once again, only this time it was from the force of the Full Body-Bind Curse.

"Mary!" cried Alice, and she ran forward for the girl who was now laying on the floor, stiff as a board.

Lily backed away quickly, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Potter, now free of the Stickfast Hex, leaped forward with his wand pointing at the unknown caster as he shouted, "Furnunculus!"

At once, Lestrange, whom Lily quickly deduced as Mary's attacker, broke out into an unexpected bout of rather severe acne before Marlene reacted as well to the ambush and swiftly finished him off with a neatly placed Knockback Jinx. It was nowhere as powerful as Lily's was, but it still enough to send Lestrange stumbling to a statue where he smacked his head against the marble fist and, now only partly conscious, slumped the floor.

Alice and Marlene scrambled back to the line where Lily now stood with both Potter and Black, all wands at the ready as they assessed the aggressors with Pettigrew cowering behind another statue. There were several Slytherins behind where Lestrange had previously been standing: Mulciber and Avery were easy to make out, and two more boys Lily remembered from her Sorting, Evan Rosier and Casper Wilkes, stood with them along with three second years Lily didn't recognize.

"What the hell are you all doing here?" demanded Potter angrily, arm still raised in a threatening position. "Isn't your common room in the dungeons?"

Avery sneered at the Gryffindors and snarled, "Why does it matter, Potter? This castle belongs to us pure-bloods more than any of your little Mudblood friends."

The results were instantaneous: Marlene gasped in shock, Alice called Avery a name she would not have dared say in front of Professor McGonagall, and Black yelled, "OI! Say that word again, and I'll curse off that ugly little face you call pretty!"

Lily could not help but feel touched as other Gryffindors leaped to her defense, but none of the responses compared to Potter, who rapidly struck back with a nasty hex Lily immediately recognized as a Leg-Locker Curse, which hit Avery in the stomach.

That was all that was needed for the fight to break out – and Merlin, was it a fight.

From then on, things were chaotic, what with everybody going to jinx everybody all at once. Alice took on the nearest Slytherin, Evan Rosier, with wildly swinging fists and every hex she had ever learned – which consisted of only three or four jinxes – causing Rosier to perform a kind of twitchy dance to avoid the Pimple Jinxes and Leg-Locker Curses while he covered his face with his arms to protect against Alice's intermittent swings. Marlene ran forward to engage in an aggressive round of flying jinxes with Casper Wilkes and another second year, and Lily's friends somehow merged to end up fighting a tag team duel. Potter and Black took on the remaining second years, and despite their age, equaled the two of them quite evenly in terms of talent.

That left Lily to deal with one and a half Slytherins: Mulciber and a still recovering Avery. They were pretty good duelers, not that Lily would ever say that out loud, but as they were all still first years and their knowledge of spells was limited, it was not much more than a show of pretty lights as the minor jinxes and hexes flew through the air.

"Flipendo!" yelled Lily.

This time, however, Avery ducked the blue streak from the tip of Lily's wand and retaliated with a jet of purple light that nearly hit her before she leaped out of the way just in time. The purple curse sailed past her and hit a painting of several old warlocks who hastily scurried into the next painting, though thankfully after the curse had struck, the portrait remained unharmed.

"Flipendo!" copied Mulciber, but while he managed to graze her, his own Knockback Jinx was relatively weak. Lily only stumbled back, and Mulciber raised his wand to take advantage of her distraction, but Lily was faster.

"Steleus!" she cried out.

Her hex hit Mulciber smack in the face to great results.

Mulciber started sneezing uncontrollably, much too preoccupied to aim well at any opponent, but Avery was not as incapacitated, and he raised his wand, wearing a very satisfied grin at the sight of Lily lying on the floor.

"Furn –" he started.

Her eyes widened at the jinx Avery was sure to hit her with, and Lily jabbed her wand towards him before he could finish, bellowing, "Flipendo!"

For the second time that year, there was a bang and Avery rocketed back into a painting of a pretty little girl who yelped and ran into the one of the left where several monks hurriedly made room for her. Lily winced as she heard a snap when he landed that was most likely his arm, which he had held out in an effort to protect himself from colliding with the painting, but there was nothing else as he slid to the ground, a trickle of blood on the corner of his mouth. He was out cold.

Mulciber, still sneezing like there was no tomorrow, pointed his wand at Lily to try to curse her, but all that came out was another sneeze before he managed to get in, "Fur –"

"Petrificus totalus!"

Potter was at her side now, and his perfectly aimed Full Body-Bind caught Mulciber in the chest. The Slytherin's arms and legs promptly snapped together before he reeled over backwards, stiff as wood. The second year he had been dueling was now covered in boils, and Black eagerly fought off the other, throwing both stinging red sparks and rather creative insults his way – unless Lily was mistaken, he was now calling the Slytherin something that sounded suspiciously like a "shit-filled bitch-pip."

"Thanks," muttered Lily.

He beamed cheerfully and said with a little bow, "Anything for the Firehead."

Lily rolled her eyes before they turned to the other two Slytherins remaining besides the second year Black dueled. Both Alice and Marlene were down temporarily from a pair of Freezing Charms courtesy of the second year, and while they had taken Wilkes, who now hobbled around uselessly, with them, it was Rosier and his second year partner that Lily and Potter took on, both of whom were on the same level as her and Potter despite being older. Not long afterwards, Black soon merged with the only other Gryffindors who were still standing, making it a single, even three-on-three battle until Lestrange struggled to pull himself up from the spot Marlene had knocked him out to join.

Once they had been backed up to a wall, Lily felt her limbs start to weigh her down, and she was about to get hit with a Tickling Charm she would not be able to avoid in time when something else miraculously interrupted them.

"What do you think you're doing? STOP – PROTEGO!"

A clear shield erupted in between the two sides, stopping all hexes in their tracks. The disruption was sudden but welcome, and Lily turned around to find herself facing a furious Gryffindor girl with short, spikey brown hair who was much older than herself or the Slytherins, and her wand was pointed straight at them – she must have been the one to cast the Shield Charm. Behind her stood a small group of about eight of her friends, including Emmie the Prefect who stared at the scene with surprise, all of them wearing the crest of the scarlet and gold lion on their robes. Lily realized with a start that they had brought their battle close to where all the Gryffindors passed to enter their common room, and this cluster of older students must have been coming up from the Halloween Feast before the duel had grabbed their attention.

"What in the name of Merlin's most baggy trousers is going on here?" demanded the girl who had cast the shield between them.

While Lily, Potter, and Black all lowered their wands at their approaching housemates, the remaining Slytherins tried to take off in the opposite direction – they most likely had not expected to face many older students as well, but now others were here, they did not want to stick around for very long.

"Oh, no, you don't!" yelled Emmie at the retreating Slytherins. "You're not getting away this easily!"

She and a tall boy both made identical lassoing motions with their wands, seizing Lestrange and the standing second year by invisible ropes back to where they stood. The first girl silently sent a jet of red light which hit Rosier in the back, and he toppled over while another boy, this one tall and lanky, threatened a second year with the wand in his hands. Potter laughed as the second year quickly held his own hands up in surrender.

"You!" yelled a burly Gryffindor to the Slytherins, all of whom flinched. "A week's worth of detentions for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin. Attacking unsuspecting first years? Despicable."

"You can't do that. Only teachers can!" whined the second year.

Lily had to admire the nerve of the second year as the husky boy just smirked and pointed at a silver badge pinned to his black robes with the initials HB before saying, "Ah, but as Head Boy, I have the special privilege of being able to take points as I please. Now do yourself a favor – shut up."

Others hurried to try to help both the Slytherins and Alice and Marlene while Pettigrew emerged from the corner he had been hiding in, and most students were revived upon the correct countercharm except Avery, who was still out cold from Lily's Knockback Jinx. The Head Boy conjured a stretcher for Avery which levitated in the air.

"Come on, you're all going up to Hospital Wing, and none of you are leaving until Dumbledore's been told about this," said Emmie.

She and the Head Boy guided all of them back to the first floor after Lily overheard them telling their friends to wait for them in the common room.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1971 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Ms. Vance and Mr. Wood have told me some interesting news. Do any of you wish to explain what happened?" asked Professor Dumbledore, his astonishingly blue eyes peering at James over half-moon spectacles, and he shifted uncomfortably under the headmaster's unyielding gaze while McGonagall stood, silent, to the side of his desk.

After they had reached the Hospital Wing and Madam Pomfrey had taken both parties involved under her protective wing, Emmie and her friend with the short, spikey hair – Madam Pomfrey had called her Ms. Hopkirk while her friends called her Alexandra, leading Lily to assume that her full name was Alexandra Hopkirk – left to alert Dumbledore to what had happened while the Head Boy stayed in the Hospital Wing to make sure nobody tried to escape until Dumbledore called him to his office as well to hear both of their accounts of what happened.

It did not take long for Madam Pomfrey to fix everybody up, but she had insisted all who were harmed during the attack stay the night in the Hospital Wing, albeit on different sides so as to avoid any further arguments. After that, the Head Boy, whom Lily quickly learned was named George Wood, had reentered to tell the group that Dumbledore wanted to see those who Madam Pomfrey would let leave in his office, and the Slytherins had gone first while James waited in suspense with Sirius and Evans – the only people to escape the clash unscathed – to be called to the headmaster's office.

So now here they were, each of them sitting in squashy armchairs Dumbledore had conjured with a flick of his wand while he and McGonagall waited for any of the three of them to answer Dumbledore's initial question.

It was the first time James had ever been to the headmaster's office, and it was by far the most interesting of any teacher's offices he had seen so far. Dozens of odd instruments whirled on ornately carved tables, and the entirety of the circular walls were covered with bookcases filled past their limit. Portraits of witches and wizards hung above the bookcases, some sleeping and others listening intently while, most curious of all, a strange but beautiful bird with striking scarlet plumage peered at the three students as intently as its master, Dumbledore.

"We were provoked, Headmaster," said Evans at last, and James looked over to her twisting her hands together nervously under Dumbledore's scrutiny. "They hit Mary with a Full Body-Bind, and after that we just sort of … broke out fighting."

Evans trailed off, and if he had to guess, he would say that she had just never expected to find herself reporting to the headmaster on the matter of discipline – actually, it surprised James too.

"After they called you the M-word," he added once he realized she had left that part out.

McGonagall gasped while Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, and Evans shot him a look. James ignored it. She may be his rival, but he would never even so much as think about subjecting her to such a demeaning and derogatory slur from anybody. Of that matter, James knew that he stood firmly with Sirius on the other side.

"Very well," said Dumbledore after a moment of silence. "Professor McGonagall will see to it that Mr. Wood's punishment for those involved happens, and I will assume that I need not tell you to avoid Mr. Mulciber and Mr. Avery in the future any more than necessary."

They all nodded and said, "Yes, sir."

Dumbledore gave them one last look before he said, "That is all. You are dismissed."

Evans darted for the door as if she could not get there fast enough after Dumbledore's discharge, but James and Sirius followed right behind her, much more relaxed than she was.

As the door closed and Dumbledore's gargoyle resumed its place, James kept his eyes trained on the mane of dark red hair bouncing slightly as its owner hurried up the ever-changing staircases. It would have been quite easy to let her go without acknowledging what had transpired, but James could not just act like the fight never happened and leave it at that. It did happen, and he had for once been on the same side as Evans, whether he liked it or not.

"Hey, Evans!" he called after a moment of deliberation, racing for where she stopped and turned to the sound of her name.

Beside him, Sirius looked at him as if he was wondering whether his friend was completely bonkers, but James shrugged it off, much more intent on the redheaded girl.

"What is it, Potter?" asked Evans, but unlike before, those eyes that sparkled like emeralds were not annoyed, merely questioning – she clearly had not forgotten the prank with the water, even in all this mess.

James finally reached the step that Evans stood on and stared at her while Sirius made a much wiser decision to hang back this time. It was infuriating to James that girls always started growing sooner and that she was taller by exactly one single inch, but nevertheless, he said casually, "You better not forget that we make a pretty good team, you and I."

Evans narrowed her eyes suspiciously, much like the other ninety-nine percent of the time she was looking at him when she was not yelling.

"And you better not forget that I don't like bullies."

His response was a chuckle.

"Ditto, Evans. I just meant that should you ever put away that goody-two-shoes persona, the Marauders could use a girl like you."

She studied him as if trying to decide if what James had said was a compliment or an insult before finally giving him a wry smile that was neither friendly nor unkind – just a contemplating, wry smile.

"I'll keep that in mind, Potter," she finally said, "If the world is blessed enough where you would finally mature enough to grow a brain, then I'll consider you offer."

And with that, she spun and ran for the Gryffindor common room.


I realize that it's pretty early for first years to duel each other, but since Voldemort and his Death Eaters are much more active than they were during Harry's first year, I wanted Lily and James to get a taste of the implications of war.