Previously: James contemplates the revelation that Remus is a werewolf. Lily's in a bad mood: she has a run-in with Lockhart, followed by a run-in with James. Lily and James banter. All the Marauders know Remus's secret, but Remus is grateful when they insist that they're still his friends.
Chapter 24: Changing the Game
Alice had never been more nervous as she looked at her broom. It should not have been hard for her since she had been flying with a broomstick and chasing after thrown apples for forever with her cousins, but she had never been on an actual Quidditch team before. She had never faced rejection, but now she was up against people who were much older and more experienced than she. Perhaps Mary had been right: maybe she should save herself the embarrassment.
"What are you doing here?" asked Lily as she suddenly appeared in the doorway of their dormitory, breaking Alice from her thoughts. She looked mildly surprised to find Alice standing there with her broom instead of outside.
A nervous laugh escaped Alice's lips.
"Oh, you know … nothing," she said dismissively.
Her three friends had already said their good-byes and wished her luck during breakfast, so she did not blame Lily's confusion since they most likely assumed she was already on her way to the Quidditch pitch rather than still plucking up the courage to leave their dormitory.
Lily did not buy Alice's flimsy excuse, and her green eyes that had always been a source of envy amongst her other friends softened as she stepped closer, pulling her into a hug and saying, "Just think of it as you playing against your cousins. You're a great flier, Alice, and now it's time the rest of the school recognizes that."
Lily stepped back, rubbing her arm comfortingly, and gave her a warm, encouraging smile.
Alice took a deep breath.
"Okay," she said, "I'm ready."
"That's the spirit!" cheered Lily. "I'll walk with you."
As Lily looped their arms together, Alice faced the doorway she had previously been too terrified to go through and steeled herself before passing under it slowly and focusing her attention on her shaking legs so they would not fall out beneath her while she was on the stone steps.
The common room looked just as it did during any other Saturday, with happy first years aweing over some simple thing like a Fanged Frisbee and older students already working on the onslaught of homework their teachers set for O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, but it did not feel the same to Alice. By this time tomorrow, these same students would be either laughing at her for not making the team or interested in the newest reserve Seeker for Gryffindor. Either way, it would be completely different.
"C'mon," muttered Lily, pulling her past all the oblivious housemates and through the portrait of the Fat Lady and her friend Violet, who gave them a slightly slurred greeting.
Though the castle corridors were by no means empty, they were not as crowded as they usually were when students were racing to get to class before the bell rang. Alice and Lily's walk down the Quidditch pitch was relatively quiet, at least until she heard a familiar laugh echo from the corner. Lily's eyes narrowed, but Alice was curious and so she poked her head around the stone-covered junction.
"What are you laughing at, Potter?" she asked.
There was a small moment of satisfaction when she watched James Potter give a start. It did not surprise her in the least to see him wearing unmarked Quidditch robes and a broomstick sitting on his shoulder. After all, he had been one of the best fliers in Flying class last year, and he talked about Quidditch almost nonstop, much to Lily's chagrin. And as always, Black was right by his side, though he had no broomstick.
"Nothing, just a joke – are you going out for the Quidditch team, Prewett?" he demanded critically, sizing up her own broom while Black stayed quiet and simply looked skeptical by his side.
Alice snorted.
"Nope, I only spent the money on a racing broom to sweep the floor," she said, but the sarcasm fell flat. Her cousins always said that she and her babyish looks were never very good at behaving cynically, and the humor in Potter's eye told her that he and Black had noticed the failed attempt as well.
"Really think you can beat Alexandra Hopkirk?" he asked doubtfully.
While Alexandra was not as great as Riley when it came to games of memorable Quidditch, she was still considered to be one of the best Seekers since Professor McGonagall herself had played Quidditch for Gryffindor.
"Really think you can get off the ground when your pretty little head is full of fairy dust?" snapped Lily as she placed her free hand on her hip to glare down Potter, and as usual, Alice was glad that unlike herself, her friend had the cynicism and sharpness down to the twitch of her mouth.
Potter himself looked faintly uncertain at annoying Lily so early in the morning, especially considering it was common knowledge that Lily Evans was not a morning person.
"It's nice to know that you think I'm pretty, Evans," said Potter with a wink.
"And you haven't answered my question yet, Potter."
Potter drew himself up to his full height, which was not as intimidating as it would have been if there had been a larger gap between their heights.
"I think you'll change your mind when you see how good of flier I actually am, Evans," he said, both proud and condescending towards Lily. "C'mon, Sirius, let's go."
With that, he and Black turned and headed towards the Quidditch pitch.
"The day he joins the team will be a very sad day indeed," muttered Lily from her side. Looking back to Alice, she put on a smile and gave her one last hug. "Good luck, Alice. See you when you're done," she said before flouncing back down the corridor to meet up with Marlene and Mary in the courtyard.
The walk down the Quidditch pitch passed much quicker than it usually did for Alice, but that was to be expected when she could barely pay attention enough to watch out for trees. In what was seemingly no time at all, she found herself amongst the group of other Gryffindor hopefuls, all looking meaner than they normally were and carrying broomsticks. Some of the models were older – Alice even spotted some shabby Shooting Stars that were obviously borrowed from the school – but several students held sleek racing brooms with lustrous surfaces and unnaturally straights twigs. Potter had one of the best, a Nimbus 1001 that sparked jealousy in several people nearby, including Alice.
"Listen up, people!" called Riley from the front of the group. She herself had a recently released Starsweeper XI as well as a clipboard and quill. "I'm going to split you all into groups, and each group is going to take two laps around the Quidditch pitch. Understand?"
When nobody asked any clarifying questions, she said, "Good," and turned back to her piece of parchment to call people forward.
She called out names one by one, and the groups, which were comprised of six people each, took turns flying around the pitch. It turned out to be a pretty good idea since she eliminated at least two people per group, but the hopefuls who stayed were all clearly excellent fliers, and slowly familiar faces joined the group of still-eligible players, including Potter and several members from last year's team. Potter looked quite proud of himself and had the guts to chat it up with Alexandra, who simply shook her head and smiled with amusement.
"Zach Ryans, Sophie Dankers, Darian McDermott, Frankie Ottoman, Michelle Hauser, and Alice Prewett – you're up next," said Riley, continuing down her list with the quill checking off names Alice could not see.
It was a battle to keep her hands from shaking, but at least Alice was glad she had her own broom as she silently watched Riley explain to a Frankie Ottoman that he could not borrow another's Cleansweep to bypass the broomstick rule for first years. After another minute of fruitless arguing, Frankie finally left, looking very dejected, but Alice pushed him out of her mind as she gripped the handle of her broom.
I can do this, she thought, inhaling deeply.
The people left in her group took off, and Alice hurried to follow them. Zach, who had been on the team last year, was as good as he had always been. Both Sophie and Darian were clearly no beginners, but Alice managed to inch past them. On the other hand, Michelle, who looked to be about third or fourth year, started freaking out once she reached a good amount of height and careened straight back to the ground where she crashed and tumbled onto the sand near one of the hoops. Several of her friends ran forward to help the dizzy Michelle while Alice and the others glided to the ground once finished with the preliminary laps.
"You can go over there and join the rest of the group," said Riley as Alice dismounted. She was much too distracted by her little parchment to give Alice much more, so Alice simply walked over to the group.
By the time all groups had finished their laps, the size of the crowd reduced by half of the original assorted students. All returning veterans from the previous year were there, though Gale was nowhere to be found since he graduated the year previously. Potter was there as well, and despite his age, he was arguably one of the strongest fliers there, much to Alice's annoyance. She had seen him during Flying Class in their first year, but they had all rode Shooting Stars, which made everybody look bad regardless of skill.
The rejects slowly filtered out from the pitch, and soon only the real candidates were left. However, the smaller size only proved to increase Alice's anxiety. The initial assessment had simply been to weed out the people who tried out for the popularity that accompanied Quidditch.
This? This was when the real trial started.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
Never had James thought that he would be spending the Saturday afternoon hours following his flawless Quidditch tryouts in the library with Sirius and Peter while Remus was off sneaking some food from the Hogwarts house-elves in the kitchens, and Gryffindor girls were enjoying the relaxing sunlight by the Black Lake. In fact, he still could not believe it, and the only upside was that very few people would see him in the library at this time of day when everybody else was out enjoying the weather.
But here he was, pouring over books such as Hairy Snout, Human Heart and A Comprehensive Guide to Lycanthropy instead of exploring the Forbidden Forest or gluing all of Evans's parchment rolls together. Sirius had taken to picking out books at random while Peter nervously skimmed the pages, never once taking his stubby fingernails away from his teeth. Against Remus's protests that there were better things to do with their time, they had taken to searching the library for anything they could do to ease their friend's pain from the monthly transformations.
"Anything?" whispered Peter, breaking the silence for the first time in an hour.
He had the unfortunate luck to speak when Madam Pince was behind him, and she hissed at him to be quiet while she headed for a dusty shelf in the back, brandishing a feather duster. At first, the librarian had been highly suspicious of the threesome, never once taking her watchful eyes off them. After twenty minutes, however, she seemed to finally accept that they were not there to cause trouble and now only threw distrustful looks over her shoulder every couple of seconds.
"No," sighed James after Madam Pince was out of earshot, rubbing his eyes as he stared at the words. "It's all what Mama Poppy's been doing for the past year, nothing else. Isn't there any way humans can help during the full moon? It's got to be terrible for Remus, locked up in the Shrieking Shack all alone."
He groaned and turned back to the page he was currently on, which detailed a list of potions that would help after the transformation by easing the fatigue. It was one of many things that caused him frustration. Besides the fact that Madam Pomfrey no doubt already had plenty on hand, potion-making was not on his list of incredible talents. Sure, he was good enough to earn passing grades in Slughorn's class for the time being, but he was nowhere close to the level of his father.
More time passed slowly as if they had been suspended in molasses, though James was no closer to finding a solution. He was approaching his reading limit and ready to throw a book in frustration when the silent study period was interrupted in an unlikely way.
"That's it," said Sirius out of the blue, looking up from some nameless book with a spark of insight in his eyes that took James slightly aback as he had been expecting more defeat.
"That's what?" asked James blankly while Peter stopped chewing his nails, looking up in confusion.
"That's it!" exclaimed Sirius in excitement. "We can't help because we're human."
James blinked, both astonished and annoyed at the same time.
"Um, don't you get that we're trying to help our friend? I wasn't in this library for several hours just for you to give up, mate. If you don't think we can do anything about, then at least shut up so I –"
"No, you don't understand, James. We're human," said Sirius, lowering his voice to barely more than a whisper but still stressing the last word and looking at both James and Peter expectantly. When there were still no looks of understanding dawning on either of their faces, he continued: "Werewolves are dangerous to humans – but only humans. If we were animals though…."
Here, he trailed off, raising his eyebrows.
Realization dawned on James, and his eyes went wide.
"You mean like – really…."
"Yeah," said Sirius. "Really."
Peter was still lost.
"I don't get it. We don't start to learn human transfiguration for a very long time, and only an Animagus can come an animal at will…."
From Sirius's face, Peter finally understood, and he once again resumed chewing his nails.
"Animagi? But they're – it's really – if we get caught…."
He seemed unable to say anything more on that topic, instead staring at Sirius and James as if willing them to forget the notion.
"Since when do we get caught, Pete?" scoffed Sirius.
James chose to ignore Peter's hesitancy and addressing Sirius instead.
"Even if we succeed, I'm not sure if Remus would ever approve of us trying that sort of thing. This isn't a silly school rule we'd be breaking – this is the law. It would do not good if Remus still refuses to let us near him during full moons."
"Oh, that," said Sirius blankly.
"Yes," agreed James, closing his book to put it back up on the shelf. "That."
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
"Hey, you can't do that! It's against the rules," said Severus, throwing his arms up to try to avoid the flying water but still trying to hide his smile.
Lily giggled but that did not stop her arms from sweeping across the surface of the Black Lake, splashing Severus from head to toe with water that, while not exactly ice cold, was not warm either.
"No, it's not! When did we ever say we couldn't distract each other?" she chuckled, pausing just long enough to lunge forward and lightly tap Severus's wrist. "That is three points for me and one point for you."
"Oh, yeah?" asked Severus, an eagerly playful look in his eyes. "Fine. Take some of that! And how about some of that! Ha-ha! Gotcha!"
He splattered Lily with his own water at each word, and she stumbled back, still yelping and laughing but now going on the defensive until Severus managed to jab her own momentarily exposed wrist.
Lily and Severus had been strolling the grounds, sometimes just lounging in the sunlight and other times playing games along the sandy beach. They had started off with thumb wars, but it had somehow turned into a game of Ninja, which had always been a favorite of theirs when they were smaller despite the fact it was normally played with a group of people. In turn, Ninja ended up becoming a moving battle of who could hit the other's wrist that they had unknowingly dragged into the water itself, which now landed them in their current and – and rather wet – predicament.
"Is that all you got, Sev?" laughed Lily, shaking the dripping water from her clinging strands of hair.
The devilishly mischievous look that often sparked in her vibrant green eyes must have once again flared up again because Severus started backing up.
"I know that look. Lily, don't you dare. Don't you – gah! Lily!"
Severus was cut short as Lily jumped across the wet sand, kicking up water with every leap, and climbed on top of her friend before they both collapsed into the water, completely submerging their robes.
Severus sat up first, soaked from head to toe and gasping.
"That – was – not – fair," he spluttered, wiping at his eyes and pushing his hair back from his face.
However, there was an obvious attempt to hide the grin while Lily hooted from his side, and it was not even chilly enough to cause him discomfort.
"Severus?"
Lily fell silent at the new arrival, sitting up straighter and tucking her long, wet hair back to get a good look at the unexpected person who was standing only a couple of yards away. The speaker was a boy, no older than she, but unlike her, he wore the serpent crest of Slytherin rather than Gryffindor's lion on the usual black Hogwarts robes. There was something about him that struck hard at the cords of Lily's memory, but even though the memory was strong, the connection disappeared from her tongue.
"Who are you?" she asked as she trudged out of the lake, wringing her hair in her hands to squeeze some of the excess water from it. No amount of wringing in the world would fix her robes. That would be better left to some fancy charm work.
Though her tone was polite, the boy's eyes narrowed in dislike as Lily approached, not bothering to hide his disapproval of the Gryffindor.
"I hardly see why that's any of your business."
"Regulus …" whispered Severus, looking nervous under Lily's questioning gaze and Regulus's hard look. "She's okay. Lily's with me. What are you doing here?"
The tone may have been curious to the casual onlooker, but Lily detected the hint of forcefulness beneath Severus's well-hidden demeanor.
When Regulus focused once again on Severus, the dislike lessened though his eyes still betrayed the wariness he held towards Lily.
"They sent me to get you. Lycoris really wants you to tell him some more hexes – says he's running out of good ones to use. Wait – do they all know that you're getting chummy people like her?"
There was no doubt in anybody's mind who "people like her" referred to, and Lily did not appreciate his tone the slightest bit.
"Oi!" she shouted indignantly, drawing herself up and looking Regulus directly in the eye. "Who died and made you king?"
Regulus stared at her, repugnance written clear as cloudless sky above them across his features.
"How dare you speak to me like that, you little Mudblood!" he snapped. "I am descended from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and I will be treated as such. You and your people should know your place before talking back to someone like me."
Lily was fully prepared to tell (in fairly explicit and descriptive terms that McGonagall would most definitely not approve of) Regulus just what her "people" and her would do to him when anther, unexpected word stumbled past her ears and sank into her mind deeper than any of the insults, drawing her up short – the word was a name, as a matter of fact, a name that was by no means offensive but still carried similar feelings at its sound. It was a name she had heard many times before, and it was a name she herself often said.
"Black?" echoed Lily, momentary confusion covering her previous anger. "As in Sirius Black?"
She did not know much about Black's family, but that did not mean that she had not heard the rumors around Hogwarts and the little tidbits Black himself had let slip occasionally when the Marauders harassed her and Severus – and who could forget that howler Mrs. Black had sent her Gryffindor son at the beginning of their first year? Lily knew that Black did not get along with his parents who looked down on people like her, but she did not, however, know about his other family members.
"Think being friendly with Sirius is going to earn you points?" asked Regulus fiercely, cocking an eyebrow. "Well, think again, Evans. I am nothing like my brother."
"Even an idiot wouldn't believe Black and I are friends," snorted Lily – and wasn't that the truth.
"Okay, now that you've met …" interrupted Severus quietly, stepping between the two of them. Lily looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to leap to her defense, but much to her disappointment, Severus stayed silent on the matter. "Wait for me in the common room, Regulus. Tell Lycoris and the others that I'll be there soon."
Regulus looked like he wanted to add another scathing comment, but after a moment's deliberation, he just shrugged and walked away, apparently under the impression that Severus would soon follow.
When he had disappeared out of earshot, Lily gave Severus a dubious look.
"Thanks for sticking up for me, Sev," she mumbled bitterly, hurt at his lack of defense. "It really means a lot."
"I'm sorry, Lily," apologized Severus, making a begging motion for her forgiveness. "I really am, but Regulus and the others don't like it when I'm friendly with you. You need to understand – they're the only ones who make me feel appreciated. I can't just ignore my friends."
"But I'm your friend too, Sev," whispered Lily quietly. "Or is that only when other people aren't watching?"
"No! No, it's nothing like that. It's just…."
Severus trailed off, switching to nonverbal cues to demonstrate his meaning.
She gave a heavy sigh.
"It's fine. I get it," she lied, not at all fine with her friend's new arrangement. "Go do … whatever you do with your friends. I need to – Alice should be done with – um, see you later, Sev."
Without another word, she turned and headed up the slope that started at the perimeter of the sandy beach, trailing dripping water behind her as she went. The breeze was refreshing and the temperature pleasant, but Lily no longer paid attention to them as she crossed over the grass to where the cobbled sidewalk that led up to the castle's main entrance started. She was simply too wrapped up with her own thoughts to notice much else.
Friends were supposed to always be there for each other, not just stand by while another threw insults carelessly towards them without so much as a one-word protest. Severus would always be that one person who knew Lily better than anybody else, but she had hoped that he would realize that not everybody else did. Lily still – and always would – loved Severus as dearly as she loved her parents, but she wished he was brave enough to show the world just how precious their bond was.
The doors to the Entrance Hall were open, and most people were heading out to enjoy the weather, barely noticing Lily as she moved against the current. She did not care; she did not notice them either. They were the lucky ones, the ones who friends were not forced to choose what Severus was forced to choose between every day.
Lily was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she at first did not realize that somebody had noticed her – more precisely, an old monk who she faintly remembered as one of the old warlocks who generally occupied the picture near the hospital wing. He was following her, but only when she heard what he was saying did she realize he was talking about her.
" … you know, madam, I really do think you should have somebody take a look at you. Perhaps that Poppy Pomfrey – she is very good when it comes to curing horrible diseases like that one you are so obviously infected with," said an old monk, literally pushing other portrait subjects out of the way to keep up with her. "I've been watching you for other symptoms as well. Cursed hair and a temper, it's just not natural. In fact, a good friend of mine –"
"Shut up!" growled Lily, putting a hand to her red locks in a self-conscious effort to keep the monk from seeing and criticizing them.
That hardly deterred the monk from spouting the insulting nonsense, much to Lily's ire. A young wizard wearing a ruffled collar protested as he was knocked off balance when the monk sped to keep up with her, rambling, "Of course, you may simply be gifted with the Haverumblies or cursed with Erythromaninism. It's quite rare, but good thing I know a cure for that awful jinx operating on your poor head and –"
"It's not a curse – I have red hair!" yelled Lily before she broke out into a run to get away from that infuriating monk, but the monk just sped up his own legs.
"When combined with a temper, it –"
"I said shut – up!"
Lily jabbed her wand at the monk and shouted, "Langlock!"
She had never actually used the spell that she and Severus had invented during the Christmas season last year, but the results were beyond satisfying when the monk's eyes went wide with fear once he realized his mouth moved without any sound. The monk clasped his hands over his lips, giving Lily a look very different from the one he had only a couple of seconds ago.
"See?" snapped Lily fiercely. "That's what happens when you don't listen to me and do – what – I – say!"
Somebody started laughing. At first Lily was worried that her curse had not lasted long enough to be of any use until she realized that the person chuckling was behind her instead of occupying the picture in front of her, and that person was beyond infuriating, yes, but he was by no means an old monk. She whirled around, ready to curse him for having the nerve to incense her even more than the monk.
"Nice hex, Evans," said Potter, leaning casually against a pillar. At least he had changed out of his mud-covered Quidditch robes he had worn earlier for tryouts, but unfortunately that did not make him any less irritating. "I'll admit it: I haven't heard of that one. Don't suppose you could tell me how to use it?"
Lily rolled her eyes as she said, "Do you think I'm really that stupid, Potter?"
"Nah," said Potter with a shrug, "Clever, independent, pretty … sure – but never stupid."
Lily studied him, unsure if his tone was sarcastic or genuine. The glint in his eyes could go either way, and before she could think of a response, Potter continued as if nothing had happened.
"Though I am curious about something – why are you so wet?"
Lily glanced down at her robes, which were still soaked from her game with Severus, while she said, "Oh. Umm … it's kind of a long story actually …"
Now it was Potter's turn to roll his eyes as he took out his wand and, before Lily could even react, murmured an incantation that she could not hear. For the briefest moment, Lily tensed, expecting a hex similar to the ones Potter cast on Severus all the time, but to her surprise, there was simply a brief, gentle gust of warm air before her robes dried.
"Um … thanks?"
"Don't mention it – oh, and Evans?"
"What?"
"You might want to do something with the seaweed in your hair."
Lily automatically reached up to pat her head – which was also now dry – but as she combed her hair with her fingers, she encountered nothing foreign. She tried it a couple more times but to no avail.
"I can't find any," she said.
"Oops, my bad – I am known to have an active imagination, y'know," said Potter with a grin and a wink.
"Potter!" growled Lily, but instead of responding, Potter simply turned and walked away, laughing the entire way.
