Previously: Alice and James try out for the Quidditch team. The Marauders try to figure out how they can help Remus, and Sirius comes up with the idea of becoming animagi. They realize that it would be a huge undertaking. Lily and Severus are having fun before Regulus Black interrupts them. Lily gets frustrated with Snape when he doesn't stick up for her and leaves. Lily runs into James, and she's confused by the flirtatious undertones of his teasing.


Chapter 25: Once a Marauder, Always a Marauder

"So Remus, we – meaning me, Sirius, and Pete – have been brainstorming some ideas," said James quietly as they sat in Defense Against the Dark Arts class one morning as the class conversed about different methods used in types of duels. The classroom was filled with chatter from the other students and even if somebody could hear them over the noise, they had picked the corner farthest away from everybody else.

"We've been thinking about some things that might help you out when it's … um, your time of the month." The last part was spoken with barely more than a whisper.

Remus sighed.

"I already told all of you, James: it's a waste of time. Madam Pomfrey already uses every potion and spell that helps both before and after those kinds of nights. Not that I don't appreciate your effort, but I don't want you spending your free time looking for other potions to 'claim' to help me."

"It's not something you would do, Remus. It's something we would do," whispered Sirius, giving Remus a very pointed and solemn look. It was an expression that Sirius almost never used.

Remus noticed this as well, and he wrinkled his eyebrows, acting unsure if he wanted to hear the idea or not.

"What exactly would you do?" he asked slowly. "Pomfrey doesn't let anybody see me in the hospital wing, and she's not about to change that rule anytime soon."

"We wouldn't do it when you're in the hospital wing," explained James, waiting for Remus to make the connection.

It must have happened because Remus's eyes went wide.

"No," he said obstinately, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "Absolutely not. There's a reason the Hogsmeade residents call it the Shrieking Shack. I'm not going to let any of you put yourselves in danger like that."

James, expecting and dreading a reaction like this, tried to calm his friend down.

"But Remus, if you would just let us explain –"

"Do you have something you would like to contribute, Mr. Potter?" interrupted Stoughton loudly. "I'm sure we would all love to hear what you've discovered in that book you're apparently too good to open."

That drew him back to the topic all the other students had been discussing. It was the first time James found himself hating being the center of attention as he felt his cheeks warm when everybody else in the classroom stopped their own conversations to stare at him and the other Marauders. He was confident that nobody knew what they had been discussing, but that did not stop Stoughton from calling him out in front of his peers in Gryffindor and Slytherin.

"Yes, sir," said James loudly after a couple of humiliating seconds had passed. His mind whirred to think of satisfying remark. "I was just telling my friends here about the hidden fireworks Sirius and I placed under the seats, which are set to go off in … nineteen seconds … eighteen seconds … seventeen … sixteen … fifteen … fourteen …"

Sirius had indeed slipped something under somebody's chair earlier, but even though Sirius had only slipped one little Dungbomb into Stoughton's desk, he still made a show of looking at his battered watch.

His classmates, however, did not know that. As one, they all started to stand up, yelping as if their chairs had stung them. Despite Stoughton's fruitless attempts to calm them down, everybody scrambled to force their various supplies into their bags before sprinting for the door. There was an ample amount of tripping and such, but that stopped nobody from racing for the safety of the non-booby-trapped corridors.

"We'll talk about this later," said James over the din of their fellow second years. He and the other Marauders gathered their own things at a leisurely pace, unconcerned for their welfare as they followed people out the door.

Remus scowled.

"There's nothing to talk about," he insisted, taking off to escape any further arguments once Stoughton had caught up with them to give James and Sirius a week's worth of detentions just as the students (fearfully waiting for the bangs and pops of Dr. Filibuster's Fireworks) finally heard the little pfft of a Dungbomb and smelled the bad stench that slowly filtered out into the air.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Those Marauders need to know that they can't just break the rules and get away with it," growled Severus under his breath as the two of them poured over Alchemy, Ancient Art, and Science in the Hogwarts library while Madam Pince prowled the shelves with her feather duster, searching for any students who dared break the silence in her library. "They're up to something, and I want to know what."

He and Lily had received quite the scare in their earlier Defense Against the Dark Arts class when Potter had announced that fireworks were about to go off under their chairs. It turned out to just be one little Dungbomb in Stoughton's desk, and both Potter and Black had earned yet another detention. After the initial shock, Lily had thought it was actually quite funny (not that she would ever admit that to Potter) even though it cut class short.

Considering that the Dungbomb prank and the annual Halloween prank (this time, the Marauders had enchanted the toilets to loudly burp in a ghostly voice whenever somebody finished flushing the toilet) had succeeded in humiliating several people, including Severus, her best friend felt personally insulted that the Marauders had managed to rile him up so much, even though Lily was certain that, unlike previous pranks, those two had no intended target.

"Potter and Black will always be up to something, Severus," said Lily casually, flipping through her textbook to gather information for the essay Slughorn had assigned them on the properties of nettles in all states. "Let's forget about them and think about more important things – I can't believe Slughorn gave us a whole foot to do since he's usually satisfied with half a page."

"It's hard to ignore them when they're right in front of you," said Severus, glaring at something over Lily's shoulder.

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, she turned around to see the Marauders, minus Lupin, huddled together just outside the entrance of the library – it would be too much if she had witnessed them in the library since this was the only Marauder-free zone she could retreat to (Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before Black figured out how to get into the girls' dormitory – she had yet to meet any boy so determined to get up there). They conversed with low voices that Lily could not hear, which was usual when they were plotting, but what was not normal were their shared expressions – they were all somber rather than impish and delightful.

Lily watched the scene unfold with a critical eye as Black whispered something to Potter who in return shook his head and made a slash through the air with a flat hand in a cut-it-out motion. Pettigrew said something to Potter and Black, and both of them jerked their heads around to stare at him incredulously, causing poor Pettigrew to blush and mutter something else before Potter gestured for his friends to follow him.

"Where do you think they're going?" she asked, still eyeing the spot the Marauders had just occupied.

Severus's lips pressed into a thin line.

"Something against the rules," he said. "And I'm going to be there to catch them."

Without waiting another second, he unceremoniously shoved his things back into his bag and took off.

"Sev, wait –" started Lily, but Severus was already gone.

She might as well have complained to the wall for all the good she did. Huffing indignantly, she grudgingly gathered the borrowed books to put away by herself under Madam Pince's watchful eye before rolling up her mostly finished essay and putting her things away.

Severus was nowhere to be found, and once Lily realized that she had no clue where her friend had gone, she sighed and headed up to common room alone. Since it was still the middle of the day, most students were out and about, meaning that the common room would not be nearly as crowded as it usually was when students were forced to retreat to their common rooms for the night. She passed the monk who now had regained full use of his tongue, but he was snoring and did not even twitch as Lily passed.

"Password?" asked the Fat Lady as Lily approached, slightly worn out by the long walk up from the library.

"Billywig Stings," answered Lily, grateful that the Fat Lady was not up for making access to the common room any harder than it needed to be.

"They most certainly do," said the Fat Lady as Lily climbed through the portrait hole.

There were a couple of people milling about, but her attention focused on the little ball that was a curled-up Alice on the sofa right in front of the fire. Two boys a little older than Lily watched Alice, unsure of what to say, so she wasted no time in crossing over to where her friend sat, muttering something unintelligible under her breath.

"Alice? What are you doing?" asked Lily, sitting beside the girl and putting a comforting arm around her shoulder.

"She's been like this for a while," said one of the boys hopelessly. "After she saw Riley put up some parchment on the bulletin board. I normally would just leave someone like her alone, but she's sitting on my bag."

Indeed, part of a brown shoulder bag stuck out from under Alice.

The girl in question did not seem to notice that she was currently crushing the boy's things as she was too busy rocking back and forth, muttering under her breath, "Jack … three catches so … Alexandra … advantage of … but she did … good tryout …"

Lily had seen Alice nervous plenty of times, but she had never seen her friend this bad.

"Alice – Alice!" said Lily as clearly as she could in Alice's ear, shaking her shoulder.

"What?" demanded Alice, finally looking up from her little ball. "I'm nervous about who Riley chose to let on the team. I just know I didn't get the Seeker position."

"You're sitting on Frank's things," interrupted the other boy of the pair.

He seemed unsure of what else to say, and when both girls stared at him, he whistled and suddenly seem very interested in the tapestries.

"Just so … y'know – you know."

"Oh," said Alice, looking down at the bag.

She leaped to her feet, nervously tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Um, oops. I didn't realize what I was sitting on. Sorry, I'm always in somebody's way."

Her cheeks were now a bright red compared to the paleness that had formerly been there.

"It's fine," reassured Frank, grabbing his bag. "You had more important things to worry about."

"Yeah, that …" said Alice, glancing back to the bulletin board where the roster was waiting to announce who had made the Quidditch team, biting her lip. "I'm not sure if I want to read it, Lily. I already know what it says: Alexandra Hopkirk is still the Gryffindor Seeker this year, and she probably will be the Seeker next year too."

"Relax, Alice," soothed Lily, and she put her hand on her best friend's shoulder to try to calm her down, "You're a great flier and Quidditch player no matter what Riley Wallows decides. Besides, even if you aren't on the team, Alexandra and her friends will be leaving Hogwarts soon, and then you'll get the Seeker position. Now let's go see who's on the team."

With a little more encouragement and a gentle push forwards, Lily succeeded in getting Alice to pluck up her courage to walk across the circular room. Frank gave them a thumbs-up, but even that friendly gesture did little to help Alice as the two girls approached the board where Riley's precise cursive came into view. They both inched closer, scanning the list silently.

Captain: Riley Wallows

Keeper: Mark Wood

Beaters: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Harper Johnson

Seeker: Alexandra Hopkirk

Chasers: Riley Wallows, Zach Ryans –

At the last name, Lily rubbed her eyes, positive that she was reading the name incorrectly. Surely … surely he had just been talking and bragging about something he actually had little talent for. Quidditch would always be a good sport to watch with friends, but if she had to see him every time she joined the hundreds of other spectators…. No, Riley Wallows must have been confused. Nobody in their right mind would make him a Chaser on their team, would they?

But there was no mistaking the last name: James Potter.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"I wish we could've gotten a picture or something to commemorate all of those fantastic reactions," said Sirius as they made their way down the corridor. "Imagine the caption: Here, we can see how terrified some students are about imaginary fireworks."

"You forgot to add: When it's only one little Dungbomb," said Peter.

"That's already implied, Pete," said Sirius, rolling his eyes. "Now, where d'you think Remus has gone too – he kind of disappeared after Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"I think he said something about thinking some things through. Maybe he's up in the dormitory," said Peter helpfully.

Shaking his head, James said, "No, I don't think he'd be up there – not if he's trying to avoid us. On the plus side, though, he'd have to come back to the dormitory at some point to sleep, so if we don't end up finding him, I s'pose we could just wait for him back in the common –"

James suddenly froze as a movement out of the corner eye caught his attention. It had been brief, but there was no mistaking the long, greasy black hair that had just darted behind a couple of suits of armor. Before his friends could ask what was wrong, James already had his wand out with a spell ready on his lips.

"Everte Statum!" he yelled.

There was a pulse of orange light that raced toward the suits of armor, and James felt an immense sense of satisfaction as the figure hiding behind the suits of armor was thrown backwards from his hiding place with an "oomph!" before landing in a messy heap of greasy hair and rumpled robes against the open doorway of the Armory.

"Didn't Mummy ever tell you that it's rude to eavesdrop, Snivellus?" asked James loudly.

His wand was still out and pointing at Snape as he quickly closed the distance between them. By now, Sirius had also noticed Snape and had his wand out as well, an eager look in his grey eyes. Peter glanced gleefully between James and Snape as the latter struggled to get to his feet. Snape reached for his wand, but by now, Sirius had invited himself to join the fun as well.

"Expelliarmus!" said Sirius.

The jet of light hit Snape before he could evade it. His wand flew out of his hand, spiraling high into the air before Sirius caught it with a grin.

"Give it back, Black," snarled Snape.

Sirius contemplated for several seconds before shrugging.

"Nah – think I'll keep it for now. Don't want you cursing us while our backs are turned or anything. Now – why were you following us?"

"I wasn't –" started Snape.

James rolled his eyes before flicking his wand once more at Snape with a whispered, "Mimblewimble."

Snape gagged as Tongue-Tying Curse took effect, but even though he was temporarily prevented from speaking, his eyes burned with hatred as he glared at the three of them. James did not care – he shared that hatred as well and would give anything to be able to be able to vent his feelings without worrying about retaliation.

"I'm not in the mood to listen to any of your poorly-thought excuses," snapped James. "I'm only going to say this once, so pay attention: if you try to follow any of us again, the hexes will be ten times worse than a little Tongue-Tying Curse. And don't think hiding behind you friends' robes will protect you either because we all –"

"All? I only see three," jeered Snape. "Where's your pet Lupin? Too scared to show his face, is he? Don't think that the rest of us don't realize he's always disappearing for one thing or another. You three are so scared when he's gone – it's pathetic."

James suddenly went cold at Snape's words. In their search for answers, they had not stopped to consider what the rest of the school would think of Remus if his secret ever got out. How much attention had they drawn to his disappearances already? When debating possibilities, James had only been careful about making sure that Remus did not overhear them – he had not given much thought to the other people around them. He was certain that after they had finally figured the puzzle out, their voices had been too low for any passerby to overhear, but what about before then?

Snape must have realized that he struck a nerve when James did not respond right away, and his sneer turned gleeful.

"Does that bother you, Potter? That other people realize something's up with Lupin? Although, that does beg the question – what does Lupin get up to every month –"

Snape was abruptly cut off when James's Full Body-Bind Curse hit him. His arms and legs snapped together before he fell backwards against the stone, stiff as the marble he now lay on. James approached Snape, and though the Slytherin's mouth no longer worked properly, his eyes portrayed everything that James knew Snape would be spitting at them if he could. James took Snape's wand from Sirius and dropped it over its owner, where it bounced off Snapes chest and clattered to the floor.

"You talk too much, Snivellus," said James in a voice so cold he barely recognized it. "A tip for next time: don't taunt your enemy when he's holding your wand."

Snape's eyes were full of loathing, but since all he could do was glare, James simply closed the doors of the Armory and walked away while Sirius and Peter hurried to follow him. James did not know how long it would be until somebody else found Snape – they were not in a well-used corridor, after all – but he did not care. That was Snape's problem, not James's.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

It was dinner time, but Lily still had not seen Severus all day. Initially, she had thought he was simply somewhere off with his Slytherin friends, but when he missed Potions, she knew something was up, and considering that the last time she had seen him, he was off to catch a certain group of boys in the act, she had a very shrewd idea who was responsible for his disappearance. Since Madam Pomfrey had confirmed that she had not seen Severus either, Lily only had one other option to figure out where her friend was – directly appealing to the source.

She barely paid attention as Marlene consoled Alice on losing the Seeker's spot to Alexandra Hopkirk. Instead, she was earnestly searching the Gryffindor table for a certain boy with untamable black hair – either him or his other, equally annoying half. At first, she was worried that they were not going to show up either since she had not seen any of them in Potions class, but she finally located them as they entered the Great Hall.

"I'll be back," Lily suddenly told her friends, and all three of them stared at her. Mary dropped her fork in surprise.

"What – no, Lily. I need you," said Marlene, urgently gesturing to Alice, who was still depressed over the results of the Quidditch tryouts.

"You've got this, Marlene – there's something I have to take care of quickly," said Lily, already out of her seat and unable to hear Marlene's response.

She made a beeline straight for the Marauders, barely pausing to apologize to the people she accidentally knocked against in her haste to reach them. Potter had just sat down and was getting comfortable when Lily roughly pushed Pettigrew aside to take the seat that he was hoping to get.

"Hey," Pettigrew protested, "I was going to sit there."

"Sit in that seat," ordered Lily, pointing to the seat across from them.

Her tone clearly indicated that she was in no mood to argue.

Potter looked understandably surprised to see her sitting right next to him, and Lily did not blame him – she usually went out of her way to avoid him. Beside him, Black glanced at her curiously before turning back to help himself to the chicken legs, though Lily could tell that he was listening intently. Remus was – again – conspicuously absent, though since the chances that he was the Marauder responsible for Severus's mysterious disappearance were slim to none, Lily pushed his lack of attendance out of her mind as she focused on the Marauder she was seeking out.

"Evans? What are you doing here?" Potter questioned, eyes wide and innocent-looking.

"What did you do to Severus, Potter?" she demanded.

Potter raised an eyebrow, though he neither denied nor confirmed Lily's accusation. Lily tried to keep her impatience hidden as he scooped up some mashed potatoes from his plate and ate them. He took several agonizingly long moments to swallow and took several sips of his pumpkin juice before responding.

"Why do you assume that I did anything?" he said slowly, but Lily noticed that he refused to meet her eyes as he speared some asparagus with his fork.

"Are you saying you didn't? He's been gone all day."

Though Potter remained silent, Black snorted before saying, "Serves the little git right, following us around like that. I say leave him there for a couple more days so that he finally learns his lesson."

"Absolutely not!" said Lily, working hard to keep her voice quiet enough to not attract too much attention. As it was, several nearby students were already staring at them.

"Tell me where he is – right – now!"

"Why do you care?" snapped Black, glaring at her. "We did you a favor, ridding you of that little slime ball."

Lily returned her attention to Potter, who was staring at her with a curious look on his face. The mischievous glint in his eyes was gone, and his expression was unreadable without it. Lily could not help a small shiver under his penetrating gaze, and she fought to keep her face neutral while trying to appeal to him.

"Potter, Severus has been gone all day. He's probably tired, thirsty, and hungry – and I'm really, really worried about him. Now please tell me where you guys left him."

Lily knew that angry outbursts were not going to get her anywhere, so she put on her most desperate expression, pleading to Potter with both her eyes and her voice. It must have worked because after several more seconds, Potter finally sighed and turned to Black. Lily could not see his face, but she could see Black's expression, which looked aggravated and annoyed – which was good news for Lily.

"Let's just leave him, James. A couple more hours won't hurt him," said Black intently.

Lily wanted to slap him, but she focused on Potter, who seemed to be waging a battle in his head. He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against his clasped hands that were propped up on the table, as if he were praying. When several more seconds passed without any decision, Lily added one more desperate "Please."

At last, Potter exhaled and opened his eyes, staring at her directly as he finally relented.

"On the third floor. Right behind the doors to the Armory."

"James!" exclaimed Black, but Lily ignored him.

"Thank you," she said quietly before racing out of the Great Hall.

It did not take her long to reach the Armory. She flung open the doors, nearly tripping over a frozen Severus in the process – apparently when Potter said right behind the doors, he literally meant right behind the doors. Severus's arms and legs were bound to his sides, leading Lily to suspect that Potter had placed him in a Full Body-Bind. His wand was laying roughly two feet away from him, and though Severus had been staring it, his eyes snapped upwards to Lily the moment she entered the room.

"Oh, Severus," she said, nearly sagging in relief.

She quickly performed the counter-curse, and Severus sprang back to life. He exhaled deeply and shakily sat up while Lily dropped to her knees and enveloped her friend in a giant bear hug. It only took Severus several moments to return it, and they just stayed like that on the floor for a while.

"I was so worried about you, Sev," said Lily. "When you didn't show up to Potions or dinner, I knew something was wrong."

"How did you find me?" asked Severus after several second of relieved silence.

"Potter told me, but it doesn't matter. At least I –"

"What?!"

Severus looked as if she had just told him that she had snogged Potter instead of asked him a question. Stunned disbelief was written all over the face he usually tried so hard to keep clear of emotions, and he leaned backwards so that he could look her straight in the face, forcing Lily to release him from her arms.

"I'm serious, Lily. How did you find me?" he repeated.

"Like I said – Potter told me where to find you."

"Why?"

"Because I asked him."

"This isn't a joke!"

"And I'm not joking – I asked a question, and Potter answered it."

Severus was still extremely dubious as he slowly asked, "And what exactly did he ask for in return."

By now, Lily was annoyed that he was more concerned with how she found him rather than that she did find him at all.

Rolling her eyes, Lily said, "Relax, Sev. It's not like I promised him my soul in return or anything. Black didn't want to tell me, but after a little bit, I finally convinced Potter to tell me where he left you."

"You can't trust them, Lils – they're the ones who did this to me in the first place! I know that we love each other, but you didn't have to … to indebt yourself to Potter or anything to find out where I was. I'm sure somebody would have found me eventually. The house elves come through here every night to polish the armor. You might not believe it now, but Potter's going to ask you for something in return eventually, and I can guarantee it won't be something you like."

"Are you hearing yourself right now, Severus?" exclaimed Lily, aghast.

Pushing herself away from Severus, she stood up and crossed her arms, giving him a hard glare as he himself rose to his feet.

"For your information, I didn't promise Potter anything in return. If he does ever ask me to do anything for him and I do agree to do it, then it will have purely been of my own volition, not because I felt … indebted to him or anything. Merlin's beard, Severus! You should know me better than that."

Severus shifted on his feet nervously, no longer as sure of himself as he had been a few moments ago.

"I only meant … I just …"

"You just what, Severus? Hmm? You just what?"

When Severus could think of nothing to say, Lily shook her head in disgust and stormed away.

"By the way – you're welcome."

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

Thankfully, Remus was already in their dormitory when James, Sirius, and Peter arrived. He was intently reading a book and did not look up when his friends entered. Awkward silence filled the dormitory, and James cautiously sat down on the edge of his bed, waiting for Remus to look up. Sirius casually leaned against the wall where he attempted to stare Remus down.

Remus, to his credit, did not take the bait and instead broke the silence with, "So … how was your day?"

"We came up with an idea to help one of our friends, but he's too stubborn to hear about it," said James pointedly.

"No – we are not talking about this, James."

"C'mon, Remus, just hear us out."

"No! I'm not putting my best friends in danger like that. This is not just some prank – this is serious – don't even think about it, Sirius!"

"You don't even know what the plan is," pleaded James. "Let us explain before you shoot it down."

"James, there is a reason why wizards fear the full moon and people like me," retorted Remus. "We're dangerous, we're infectious, we're –"

"You're human," insisted James stubbornly. "You're still human, Remus, and you are our best friend. I'm very sure Sirius and Peter agree with me when I say that we can't sit by and let our friend suffer when there's something we could do to help."

Remus snorted, but Sirius cut in before he could make any more objections to the plan.

"Mate, we're doing this whether you like it or not, so you might as well hear what it is."

It was a valid point, and though Remus clearly would not approve of any plan that involved him transformed, he stayed silent long enough for Sirius to continue in his usual blunt way.

"We're going to become Animagi."

Perhaps that was not the most tactful way to breach the subject with Remus, but James could not take it back either as he watched as Remus was rendered completely speechless, gaping at all three of them while struggling to find his voice again – whatever he had been expecting them to say, it was definitely not that. He opened and closed his mouth wordlessly twice before any sound came out, and even then, his words were not strung together in a coherent sentence that James could understand.

"That's … you're all so …"

"Cool?" asked Sirius. "Yeah, that's what I thought when I came up with the idea too, but hey, you know, it's just –"

"Mad!" yelled Remus after finally finding his voice, causing Peter to give a fearful squeak. "You all are completely bonkers if you think that should even be considered! First off, it's illegal, and I don't want to visit my friends in Azkaban. Second, it's supposed to be really hard to become one, and the attempts can go dreadfully wrong. Third, I'm still going to be a werewolf during the full moon, so how exactly is that supposed to help me anyways?"

James gathered that the last part was rhetorical, but he still answered with, "Transformed werewolves are only dangerous to humans. If we were animals, then you wouldn't be alone during those nights without having to worry about hurting anybody," he explained, carefully eyeing the slight differences in Remus's expression.

"Human or not, I'll still have teeth and claws," said Remus, looking between the three of them with hopelessness. "That's if you can succeed in the first place. I've read about the terrible things that happen to people who try and fail – no, you can't do it."

"We can, and we will," asserted James with an inflexibility that was unrivaled by most.

"So deal with it," added Sirius.

"Because we're not going anywhere," completed James once again, crossing his arms to finalize the decision.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1972 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Merlin, Ms. Macdonald! Next time, try not to singe Mr. Lupin's eyebrows," chided Stoughton with a sigh as he pulled out his wand to heal the newly-made, bright red blotch on Lupin's forehead, only a couple of centimeters from where his brown eyebrows had flinched away from the misfired Prick Jinx.

"I'm sorry," squeaked Mary, holding up her hands to show she meant no more injury than what her accident had already caused. "I swear I'm not trying to hurt you, Remus! I just … kind of missed."

"It's alright, Mary," said Lupin kindly, gently probing the irritated area with his finger and wincing. "Accidents are bound to happen – get it over with early, right?"

Class had picked up where the previous one had left off before the untimely interruption courtesy of the Marauders, and Professor Stoughton had paired them up to practice the new jinx while also giving them experience in dodging. Lily loved it when they were able to gain first-hand experience like this even though the assorted second years were still only allowed to aim below the chest. Unfortunately, Mary had proven she was simply no good at aiming below the chest – yes, she could hit her partner most of the time, but the spells were clearly landing willy-nilly.

But Lily would have still given a million Galleons to exchange partners with Lupin – because her own partner was none other than Potter.

Potter had always managed to get on her nerves, but ever since he had come down from the boys' dormitory – for whatever reason, he had somehow missed it the first time he passed it, but Lily knew that her good luck would run out eventually – to find that Riley had posted the Quidditch team roster, he had gone above and beyond unbearable, bragging to anybody who would listen that he was the only second year for the past four years who was able to make the cut, ever since Riley's rise to fame during her own second year.

"Now don't expect me to go easy on you, Evans. Doe-eyes only work once, mind you," said Potter, grinning and flourishing his wand as if he hoped to intimidate her.

Lily smirked and readied her own wand as she said, "I would never dream of doing that, Potter. With you as my partner, I'd say my chances of walking away as the victor are very high. I mean, considering that you can't beat anyone without your three mates behind you … well …"

Anger flashed in Potter's eyes.

"Expelliarmus!" he yelled, cutting off Lily before she could criticize him yet again.

The taunt must have really gotten under his skin if he had forgone the Trip Jinx they were supposed to be practicing, but Lily could not ponder that any longer as they had now started a duel. She quickly charmed the desk between them to leap in the air to absorb Potter's Disarmer, and Potter's eyebrows raised in surprise at the unexpected defense. Lily took advantage of his distraction to send him her own spell, not caring herself about the limits of Stoughton's current assignment.

"Flipendo!" she cried.

The steak of blue burst from the tip of her wand with hardly a sound, but Potter, with his annoying and overly-mentioned Quidditch reflexes, ducked behind his desk in time. He came up laughing.

"Is that all you got, Evans? Is that honestly the best you can do?"

Lily's temper flared.

"Colloshoo!" she yelled barely a second later.

Potter maddeningly ducked her jinx yet again. Once the Stickfast Hex had passed him, he paused to glance at the place where Lily's spell had hit the window. Fortunately, this gave her the opening she needed for effective retaliation. As he turned back to aim an unknown curse at Lily, another streak of blue made contact this time, sending him flying back into the wall. She had whispered the Knockback Jinx quietly enough that Potter could not perceive what was about to happen, but the results were just as wonderful as they would have been had she yelled it for all to hear.

"What was that, Potter?" simpered Lily. "Maybe I'll hear you better once you get off your ass."

"Expelliarmus!" yelled Black suddenly from where he had been practicing with Pettigrew.

Lily, not expecting Black's sudden attack in defense of his friend, stumbled backwards from the Disarming Spell and felt her wand fly out of her hand. Black caught it, grinning victoriously as he looked between Potter, who was now back up on his feet, and Lily, who was now wandless and left unable to defend herself except with lucky dodging. Black was apparently choosing to ignore the latter's deadly glare.

"It was supposed to be one-on-one!" she yelled angrily, looking between the two boys with a healthy amount of ferocity.

Potter mockingly looked mildly surprised at the accusations.

"All I remember is Stoughton telling us to pair up, Evans. He never said that other people being unable to help their friends. Isn't that right, Professor?" he asked innocently to Stoughton, who had ceased correcting Wilkes's stance while he dueled Rosier to watch the scene between the two competitors unfold.

After a moment of silence, Stoughton laughed a booming laugh.

"I suppose I didn't say that you couldn't help others. Very well, I'll let the deviating spells slide for now since it certainly was an entertaining show. Five points to Gryffindor, Potter and Black, for using the rules to your advantage so you had a way to beat young Evans here – and I see that we are out of time as well. Remember that I want a half-foot on the Trip Jinx and its uses other than duels. Class dismissed."

Lily was the first one out. Unceremoniously stuffing all her things into her bag, she then stormed past everyone else, ignoring Alice and Severus, both who had been separately trying to catch her attention after the interrupted duel.