Previously: James contemplates how to ask Lily out on a date. Lily and Severus decide to spend their first Hogsmeade visit together. At the Three Broomsticks, they run into the Marauders. James is furious when Snape indirectly mentions that he found the Invisibility Cloak, and they almost come to blows. Remus and Lily manage to separate them. Inside, Severus tries to thank Lily, but she quickly lets him know she's not happy with him either, and outside, the Marauders plan on how to get the Cloak back. At the feast later that day, the Marauders pull a prank on the Slytherin table, which is the first step in their plan to getting the cloak back.


Chapter 38: A Thief's Downfall

Lily barely watched where she was going as she exited the Great Hall, her mind too preoccupied with all that had happened that week.

The Hogsmeade visit alone was enough to make her want to call it – she had never seen Severus and Potter so close to an all-out duel. Those times when the Marauders and Severus were caught up in whatever back-and-forth hex war was going on at the time was different. They just took turns seeing who could manage the biggest, nastiest hex. Today was different: Potter and Severus had looked like they wanted to murder each other. It went far beyond the usual hatred between the two boys, but she was –

"Oomph!"

Lily had been so caught up in her thoughts that she had not even noticed where she was walking, and it was only when she felt herself fall backwards and land on the floor with a soft thump that her brain reprimanded her for acting so negligent.

"Merlin, Lily! I didn' even see yer there. Sorry 'bout tha'."

"Wha – Hagrid!"

Rubbing her elbow, which had hit the windowsill on the way down, Lily looked up to see that it was indeed Rubeus Hagrid standing over her with his hand held out and a warm smile on his face. While her friends – and several people who were not her friends – had returned from the summer sporting very noticeable differences, Hagrid looked as vast and wild as ever.

"It's been a long time, Lily. How've yer been doin'?" asked Hagrid as Lily took his offered hand to help her to her feet. He tried to help brush some dust off her shoulders, and Lily's knees buckled from the force of his pat.

Lily hesitated for a moment before answering with a, "I've been alright."

"Yer sure? You don' look alrigh' ter me," observed Hagrid.

"It's been a long week," said Lily evasively. "I'm just heading – what's that?"

She had only just noticed the large sack that Hagrid had slung over his shoulder. The outside was stained red, and unless Lily was mistaken, a buzzing of flies seemed to follow it. She had a sneaking suspicion there was some kind of meat in there, but a quick sniff of the air reassured her that at least whatever was in there had not gone bad yet – but none of that explained why Hagrid was hauling it around in the first place.

"This?" asked Hagrid, holding up the sack so that Lily could see it clearer – not that Lily wanted to see it or anything. "This is dinner – Thestral dinner, that is."

"Thestrals?" echoed Lily curiously. The word sounded foreign on her tongue.

Hagrid studied her for several seconds before offering, "Yer more than welcome ter join me, Lily. C'mon – it'll do yer some good to take yer mind off everythin'."

Lily was not sure how Hagrid could have possibly known everything that she was dealing with, but looking into his warm, dark eyes, Lily could hardly turn him down. Besides, for the first time in a long time, her inquisitiveness was peaked. It was rumored that Hagrid had his fair share of interesting pets, but since Lily had only ever dealt with Fang, who was currently trying to lick the sleeve of her robes, she was not sure just how much truth there was to the rumors – but she was curious to find out.

"Where are they?" she asked, glancing behind Hagrid as if expecting to see a couple of these mysterious creatures standing behind him in a single-file line.

"Not here if yer wonderin' – nah, I keep 'em down in a paddock just a little ways inter the Forest. C'mon, I'll show yer."

Hagrid took off, and while he was able to walk at a leisurely pace due to his enormous size, Lily had to compensate by pushing her legs into a light jog in order to keep up with Hagrid. The brisk autumn air was a nice change from the castle, and Lily found herself smiling as cool tendrils of air lightly brushed her cheeks and coyly fiddled with her hair. The sky was clear, not a single cloud in the sky, and though the sun had dipped below its peak, there was still plenty of sunlight to cast a rosy, warm on everything the light touched.

"So did yer do anythin' interestin' during the holidays?" asked Hagrid as they made their way past the Quidditch stadium where Lily was not surprised to see the Ravenclaw team hard at work. "I hear a lot of students discussin' all those foreign countries they visited. Anythin' like tha'?"

"No," admitted Lily meekly. She hopped over some hole that an animal had no doubt hollowed out. "No, my summer was actually pretty boring. Boring and quiet."

Hagrid chuckled.

"There's nothin' wrong with tha' at all. You'll be surprised how many people actually do tha' – ah, here we are, Lily. Thestrals."

The greenhouses were mostly empty with only a couple of older students tending to some projects, and the Whomping Willow stood serenely in the light breeze, and if Lily did not know any better, she would have mistaken the Whomping Willow for an innocent, odd-looking tree. At first, Lily thought Hagrid was taking her to his hut and was going to offer her some scalding tea and inedible rock cakes, but Hagrid led her right past his house – which was to be expected since, considering the size of his bag, the Thestrals would not fit in Hagrid's hut. However, before Lily could ask where exactly they were going, Hagrid had led her to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

A sense of anxiety crept up as Lily gazed at the looming trees, the forest dark and full of shadows despite the sun shining in a cloudless sky, but Hagrid, thankfully, did not take her into the forest. Instead, he led her to a small dirt trail off to the side of the forest. They had to pass a couple of scraggly trees before entering the enclosure.

That was when Lily gasped.

She could not help herself: Thestrals, as it turned out, were the name of the horse-like creatures she had seen pulling the carriages, the same ones that none of her friends had been able to see. Only this time, instead of several pairs, there was a whole herd of them. Lily tried counting – five, ten, fifteen … There were at least twenty-three that she could see, but she was not sure if there were a couple others hidden among the trees. Most of them appeared fully grown, but she spotted a couple of younger Thestrals stumbling around the clearing.

"Not too many people know much 'bout Thestrals – nor do they wan' ter know. Thestrals get a bi' of a bad rap, if yer know wha' I mean. See, only people who've seen death can see Thestrals, so usually there's a whole lot o' superstition surroundin' the poor fellers."

That was when Lily realized something else as well, and she returned her questioning gaze back to Hagrid, who was closely watching her with something that looked like a mixture of sadness and pity.

"Dumbledore told you about last year, didn't he?"

She had always known that Hagrid was as loyal to Dumbledore as anybody could be, and Dumbledore in return trusted Hagrid immensely. However, she had not realized that deeply that trust ran until now. As far as she knew, Dumbledore had only told select few people: Rawlings (so that she could teach Lily) and Millicent Bagnold (who, as the Head of the Auror Office, needed to know so that she could investigate the events surrounding Stoughton's death). Of course, there were likely a few others that she did not know, but it was still closely guarded information.

Hagrid nodded gravely and said, "I knew tha' you probably wouldn' know wha' they was since yer was only a third year, so when I ran inter yeh, figure I migh' as well show yer – yer got enough goin' on withou' worryin' whether yer was crazy."

Lily did not know what to say to that, so she focused on the Thestral wandering toward her. He – at least, Lily thought the Thestral was a he – nudged her shoulder, as if he was hoping that Lily also had food. Cautiously, she reached up and rested her hand on his nose. It twitched, and, dearly hoping that he would not suddenly bite her with his fangs, she slowly rubbed his muzzle. Lily could feel the bone as she slid her hand across the nose, but his skin was surprisingly soft under her fingers, like silk.

"It's hard," Lily finally admitted after several long minutes. "Every time I laugh at something funny or see something that makes me happy, I feel like … like it's wrong – like I don't deserve it. I was helpless that night – and now Stoughton's dead because of it."

"Yea … I fel' the same way after me dad died," said Hagrid, giving her a warm smile. "I was only twelve when he died, an' I tried ter convince meself tha' I should o' known 'nough magic ter cure 'em."

"Did you?" asked Lily quietly, keeping her eyes fixed on the Thestral in front of her.

With a sad smile, Hagrid shook his head and said, "Nah. There was nothin' I could o' done – an' yer woul' do well ter remember tha' too. Bellatrix was gonna kill Stoughton anyways, bu' at leas' he can res' in peace now – yer was able to warn Dumbledore 'bout You-Know-Who, so his death wasn' in vain."

He paused to glance at Lily, but when she said nothing, Hagrid said wisely, "Stoughton knew wha' he was getting' inter when he firs' started workin' fer Dumbledore. He wasn' gonna go any other way. Stoughton died protectin' others so they could go on an' live – yer best remember tha', Lily."

Lily remained silent as she stroked the Thestral, but inside she could feel a weight that she had not realized was there lift at Hagrid's words.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1973 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"I don't know what's taking them so long," said Remus in a low voice as the Marauders minus Peter, who was acting as the lookout, made their way from Transfiguration class. "I mean, I would have already hexed me into next week by now."

"Relax, Remus. They'll exact their revenge on us soon enough – or, well, they'll try to at least," said Sirius, much less concerned about the Slytherins than Remus. "Besides, wasn't this your idea in the first place?"

Remus was spared a response when Peter suddenly burst from a tapestry a couple yards in front of them, stumbling once over his feet and catching himself on the opposite window ledge. From the heavy panting and small amount of sweat, he looked like he had just finished running a marathon. Several portraits jumped at Peter's unexpected appearance, but neither James nor the other Marauders so much as flinched – indeed, James raced for Peter, closing the gap between them very quickly.

"What happened?" demanded James. "Do they have the Invisibility Cloak with them?"

"They're – coming," wheezed Peter as he tried to regain his breath – unlike James, he did not receive the benefit of the exercise Quidditch gave. "I just saw them leave the common room, and James – they are definitely out for revenge. Snape – he looked … he looked pissed. I'm not sure if this is such –"

Bang!

The rest of Peter's warning was drowned out when a surge of orange light burst against the window the Marauders had been standing right next to, showering all four of them with powered glass. With a squeak of fright, Peter stumbled backwards into the nearest suit of armor while James ducked, instinctively throwing up his hands to protect his face. Behind him, his friends attempted to avoid the falling shards of glass, and when James looked up finally, he saw a large, jagged hole in the pane.

"Fumos!" yelled James, whipping out his wand as he did so.

The results of the spell were instantaneous: thick, dark smoke filled the corridor. He heard several people suffering from coughing fits, and while James himself was not too fond of the drenched air, he pushed through it, slowly making his way over to where he could hear several Slytherins bumbling and yelling at each other. On both sides of him, he could hear Sirius's muttered swearing and Remus's growls of annoyance as they all headed over to where the Slytherins stood.

"Wilkes! What do you think you're doing?" shouted Snape's angry voice through the thick cloud. "We need to stick together! It can't stretch on forever, you know."

"Where are you? Is this you?" came Wilkes's nervous voice.

"Ouch! No, that's me, you idiot!"

"Oi! Watch the foot, mate!"

"I can't see! I can't see!"

The Slytherins' voices jumbled together, making it hard for James to discern which voice belonged to whom, but luckily he did not have to identify the Slytherins – he just had to find them. Finally, with his hand outstretched, his fingers brushed against a familiar material that slid across his skin like a river flowed over rocks, and heart ballooning at the feel of his father's Invisibility Cloak under his hands, James seized the cloak, wasting no time in swiftly ripping it away from the Slytherins who had tried to hide under it.

With the Invisibility Cloak now stuffed into the pocket of his robes, James held up his wand, still invisible in the dense smog draping the corridor, and shouted, "Flipendo!"

Though the Knockback Jinx partly pushed away the smokescreen, the blast of blue light also thrust Snape and Mulciber backwards with such force that when they smacked the stone wall, they both slid to the ground, equally unconscious. Wilkes noticed James for the first time, but before he could curse James, Sirius's own Knockback Jinx hit him in the back, and Wilkes was also down for the count.

"Ventus," came Remus's voice from right beside James, and the remaining tendrils of smoke dissipated into the air.

Sirius sneered at the feebly stirring Mulciber, and stepped over him carelessly as he spat viciously, "Serves you right, you little piece of slime, for messing with the Marauders."

Mulciber was still too out of it to even realize that Sirius was talking to him.

"Did you get it, James?" asked Remus.

In response, James withdrew the flowing, silvery material from where he had unceremoniously stuffed the Invisibility Cloak in his robes, displaying it so that the other Marauders could see it as well, and Sirius actually reached his hand to feel it, as if he had to make sure it was real. A great feeling of relief flashed across Remus's face as he exhaled slowly, and Peter's eyes went wide. James started to put it back into his pocket, but Remus held up a hand to interrupt him.

"Wait," said Remus, holding out his hand for the cloak. Mystified, James handed it over, and tapping the material with his wand, Remus whispered, "Geminio." An exact copy of the Invisibility Cloak materialized next to them, and Remus quickly laid it next to where Wilkes was out cold.

"While I'm kinda pissed you didn't come with us when we needed you back in McGonagall's office, I still have to ask – what exactly is that about, mate?" asked Sirius skeptically, eyeing the phony copy with suspicion.

Remus grinned broadly as he turned back around to answer, "Think of the possibilities if the Slytherins still think they have the cloak, Sirius – they won't expect us to be invisible, and their own cloak will no longer work."

"Brilliant," said James.