Previously: Under the Cloak, James eavesdrops on a conversation between Minister Jenkins and Rawlings. James is confused when Rawlings agrees to be Jenkin's spy in Hogwarts. After the Minister and her entourage leave, Rawlings reveals that she knows James is listening in and that it was all an act for the Minister. She tells James to keep quiet about what he overheard.
Chapter 40: The First Time
Lily could hear her friends bumbling throughout the room, words jumbled together as they worked their way through Lily's ears and into her still half-asleep brain, but Lily paid them no attention. She was having a wonderful dream about a Chocoball tree and Buckingham Palace, and she had no wish to interrupt the dream – however, the bliss that she enjoyed did not last. She could hear somebody fumbling for her curtains surrounding her four-poster, and a couple of seconds later, a blinding beam of sunlight was pounding her face, drawing her from the dream where she was inches away from taking a delicious bite out of the Chocoball, and Lily turned her head away from the intrusive light, growling.
"No," she moaned, draping her arm across her face and refusing to open her eyes. "Go away."
"C'mon, Lily! Up, up, up!" piped Alice's voice, and she felt somebody shaking her shoulder. "It's the last Hogsmeade visit before Christmas."
Very reluctantly, Lily twisted her neck and squinted up at the blurry shadow that was Alice standing over her, not budging from her position which she found to be particularly comfortable at the moment. However, she quickly rolled back, pained by the sunlight still glaring at her, and she could hear Alice click her tongue in disapproval.
"None of that, now. You need to get up."
"What time is it?" groaned Lily, still refusing to move a single inch.
"Ten o'clock," said Alice promptly. "Now c'mon! The carriages are leaving in an hour."
"No," came Lily's stubborn reply.
"Yes."
"No!"
"Yes!"
"NO!"
"YES!"
"SHUT UP!"
An incredibly annoyed Lily shot straight up into a sitting position on her bed, growling at Alice, who she could not believe had the nerve to interrupt her lovely dream, as she reached for her wand, perfectly willing to jinx Alice if it meant she could have a couple of more minutes of undisturbed sleep – however, when she stretched out her hand, she only met the wood of her bedside cabinet. Glancing over, Lily quickly realized that her wand was nowhere to be found.
"Where's my wand?" she demanded suddenly, desperately ripping aside her blankets and feeling for the warm stick of wood anywhere it might have fallen. Worry started to replace her sleepiness as she repeated, this time more loudly, "Where's my wand?"
"Relax, you little redhead, it's right here," said a rather bored voice, and Lily glanced across the room to see that Marlene, though silent through the exchange with Alice, was leaning against her own four-poster and twirling a wand etched with a pattern of flowers elegantly between her exquisite fingers, a wand that Lily immediately recognized as her own.
"You'll get it back when you join us at the Gryffindor table for lunch – and you completely missed breakfast by the way."
Lily gritted her teeth.
"Why in the name of Merlin's saggy trousers would you take my wand? And I'm not little!"
Marlene giggled as if it was the most obvious thing in the world before she said, "Because, Lily, the task of getting you out of bed ranks higher than a duel with a couple of Death Eaters on the danger scale, so of course we're taking your wand – we'd be idiots not to."
"All right, all right, I'm going," grumbled Lily, finally accepting defeat – and the brief onslaught of anxiety over missing her wand had also helped wake her up. "By the way, where's Mary?"
"She thought it would be safer to be down in the common room when 'Operation: Get Lily Evans Out of Bed' commenced," shrugged Alice.
"Yeah, well, she's the only smart one of you bunch," Lily muttered angrily.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1973 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
James eagerly watched the doorway out into the Entrance Hall as he and the Marauders finished up their breakfast in the Great Hall. True to his word, he had not told his friends about the meeting he had overheard in Rawlings's office, but Rawlings need not have worried about that because now that he could stop worrying about the Invisibility Cloak, James had allowed his attention to drift to somebody else once more – Lily Evans.
There was just something about that girl … James could not quite put his finger on it, but for some reason, every time he saw her chatting happily with her friends by the fire in the Gryffindor common room or passed her in the corridors, his stomach would do a little somersault. Maybe it was the way her vibrant green eyes sparkled even when there was no sunlight, or perhaps it was the way her laugh and smile could light up an entire room. Whatever the reason, James just could not take his mind off her.
"How much longer do you think she'll be?" James whispered to Sirius, who was currently preoccupied with a large plate of bacon. "I'm gonna ask her to Hogsmeade."
"Who?" asked Sirius absentmindedly, not really paying much attention.
"Evans."
"Oh, she'll be – wait, what?!"
Blank shock crossed his expression as he started to comprehend what James had just said. Sirius gawked at his best friend as if he had never seen anything quite like him before and stared at James for another moment before finally spluttering out, "I hoped that – I thought you were joking about that, mate! Aren't you over that yet? Tell me you're over that already!"
Beside him, both Remus and Peter seemed to be of the same mindset, with Remus staring at his friend with a look of complete and utter astonishment while Peter started babbling, "Evans? But she doesn't like you much though – I mean, the Potions incident in first year is only one reason why she hates you, and there's other reasons too: you turned her hair green back in first year, um … let's see … oh, yeah! You –"
"Thanks, Peter," interrupted James, struggling not to roll his eyes. "Really. The vote of confidence means a lot to me, mate."
"James," said the ever-concerned Sirius slowly, acting as if they were sitting in the psych ward at St. Mungo's rather than the Great Hall, "Evans gets pissed off enough whenever you flirt with her – the moment you ask her out, you do know that she will punch the living daylights out of you, right? And that's the best of options – after the little confrontation in Hogsmeade, I'm pretty sure she hates your guts right now, mate."
"And that, my friend, is the reason she secretly adores me," said James happily, leaning back in his seat and taking a bite out of his muffin.
Remus, who had been silent up until now, choked a little on his pancakes as he stammered, "Um … you didn't really just say that, did you, mate? How exactly do you figure that – because didn't she compare you to a Dementor or something like that just a little while ago when you ran into her at the Three Broomsticks?"
James ruffled his hair before he said, "Yeah, well … I'm sure she'll come around – aren't you?"
"No," said the three other Marauders in unison.
"She's gonna hex you –"
"– punch you –"
"– probably scream some too –"
"Go for it, James!" squeaked Peter.
His friends probably would have said more on the subject, but at that moment, a disheveled Lily entered the Great Hall, dressed casually in a Gryffindor hoodie and jeans while her hair hung slightly damp around her shoulder. Judging from the irritated look on her face and the fact that McKinnon held two wands in her hands, she must have just woken up. James was not the only one who had heard the Gryffindor girls trying to get their friend out of bed in the past – the whole common room could hear it during several memorable occasions.
James glanced back at his friends with a grin on his face – he was the only one smiling – as he said, "Now's as good of a time as ever, right?"
Sirius adamantly shook his head, looking legitimately concerned for both James's well-being and sanity. "No, now is not as good of a time as ever, mate. If you're gonna really ask her out, how 'bout you wait for her to not look so pissed."
Sneaking in one more bite of his hash browns, James shrugged and said, "See you in a bit, mate."
Sirius raised an eyebrow skeptically as he assessed Lily from afar before warning, "Hate to tell you this, but you might actually not."
"C'mon, Sirius, you actually believed McKinnon when she said talking to Evans right after she woke up is worse than tickling a sleeping dragon? Sure, they're loud, but that's a little exaggeration, don't you think?" snorted James, already heading over to where Lily's friends were practically dragging her to the Gryffindor table.
"Well, not really …" whispered Sirius, but his voice soon disappeared into the air as James walked over to where Lily stood.
"Hey, Evans," said James, giving her a wink.
At James's voice, Lily ceased her struggles with her friends, instead choosing to stop and stare at James as if she had never seen anything quite like him before, which, James reminded himself, was technically true considering that she had yet to get asked out. Beside her, Prewett was trying to shake her head at him, but after a quick moment of deliberation, James decided to pay Prewett no mind – after all, she was not the one prompting the butterflies to fly.
"Can I help you, Potter?" asked Lily as he approached her, not looking very impressed with him.
"Yes, actually, you can," said James, and he leaned forward a little bit more towards Lily, who did not move an inch – which James took as a good sign.
"I can?" repeated Lily. Her tone and impressively raised eyebrow implied that she seriously doubted what James was telling her as she added with an edge in her voice, "Enlighten me then, Potter: what exactly can I help you with?"
Taking a deep breath, James replied, "You can go out with me, Evans. Hogsmeade does have some lovely spots after all."
For ten whole seconds, Lily did absolutely nothing. She simply stared at James like he had grown a second head … and then a third head, and finally a forked tail to top it off. Her jaw had dropped well below the floor by now, and those green eyes that he admired had never been wider. Lily moved her mouth a couple of times, but no sound came out at first. For the briefest moment, James hoped that she would accept – this was Lily Evans after all, and James had a hard time imagining anyone better to date a guy like him – which only widened his smile.
That was when Lily stomped on his foot – hard.
"Ow!" yelped James.
Grabbing his now-injured foot, James had to hop around to keep his balance as he looked up at Lily, completely baffled by her rather painful response.
Without another word, Lily strode past him down to where Mary Macdonald was sitting quietly, watching, wide-eyed, as the whole spectacle played out right in front of her and the rest of the Great Hall. Prewett, still shocked by the exchange she herself had also witnessed, scurried after her friend – but not before she shot James a what-the-hell-were-you-thinking look.
Toe still smarting from where Lily had stomped on it, James grumbled as he sulkily joined his friends once more, and even though he picked at his hash browns that were no doubt delicious, they did not taste quite the same as before.
"Well…" said Sirius slowly as he looked between James and Lily, who had now joined her friends at their place on the Gryffindor table for her own breakfast, "I'm gonna go out on a limb, mate, and say that was one big, epic fail."
"Oh, shut up," snapped James.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1973 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
Needless to say, Lily's day did not get better after Potter, for some reason so ridiculous Merlin himself could not even begin to comprehend it, had seen fit to take the challenge of embarrassing her to whole new level by asking her out to Hogsmeade, which had been the last thing Lily had expected to hear out of the Marauder's mouth when he had stepped in front of her on her way to the breakfast table – and he had asked her out in front of the entire school no less.
If that was not bad enough, Marlene had waited another hour before she was 100 percent sure that Lily would not just take her wand back and curse them, and by then three different girls – who, by the way, she had never met once in her life – went up to her in the corridor while she and her friends were on their way back to the Gryffindor common room to complain about her response to Potter's newest form of torture and how she had to be more careful in the future not to damage any part of his body for "many reasons" including but not limited to: "he's so gorgeous" and "Quidditch team needs him."
"What is it? Piss-Off-Lily Day?" grumbled Lily as she spotted a group of second year girls who had been huddled together, whispering in the corner of the common room, each give her a glare when Lily came down from the dormitory, ready to enjoy the day in Hogsmeade with her friends, all of whom had stayed quiet during the debacle down in the Great Hall.
"Relax, Lils. Soon enough they'll find news that'll be much more interesting to gossip about," said Marlene casually. Here, she sent a stern look at the second years, and when faced with Marlene's intimidating warning look, the girls hastily looked away from Lily, and Marlene continued talking as if nothing happened. "Anyways, I'm sure you're overreacting."
At those words, Lily stopped in her tracks and stared at Marlene.
"Overreacting?" she echoed. "Marlene, Potter just asked me out in front of the whole school! How exactly do you expect me to act?"
"Well, I wasn't expecting anything, but I'm sure Potter…" started Mary innocently, but when she noticed the other three gaping at her, Mary, who had started off in her usual tactless fashion, hastily remedied her words by saying, "Potter was – yeah, you're right. He was just trying to get under your skin."
They did not say much more on the topic of James Potter, though Lily suspected that her friends certainly looked like they would have spent all day talking about that particular issue – but Lily's expression was more than enough to keep the girls quiet. So instead, the four of them simply made their way down to where the carriages stood, waiting to take them to Hogsmeade, and none of them made a single peep the entire way, save of course for the spontaneous hiccoughing fit Mary somehow got, which Marlene had to cure with a muttered healing charm and a casual flick of her wand.
The trip to Hogsmeade seemed to take quite a while to Lily, but then again, it was probably just her. Alice was the first one to break the silence, and even though the four of them were still on the subject of boys, thankfully they were not talking about Potter anymore – no, they were now talking about Frank Longbottom, whom Lily suspected Alice secretly had a crush on.
"… but it wasn't like he was just ignoring me because he didn't want to look uncool in front of his friends or anything. He actually stopped to say hello to me – and not in that flirty, jerkish way either – and everything." Here, Alice, gazing dreamily up at the sky, gave a great sigh and said with a wistful voice, "How many other fourth year guys do you see doing that, huh?"
Marlene caught Lily's eye briefly, giving her a knowing smile before she tried to Alice and said, "You know, Alice, you should ask him out if you think he's so great."
At those words, Alice instantly reddened and stuttered, "I don't think – he probably – no, that's too much –"
"Do you need help?" teased Marlene lightly.
"Yeah!" said Mary excitedly. "We could trick him into running into you – you know, I think I have just the –"
"How about not," said Alice, eyeing Mary cautiously. "Let's just focus on Hogsmeade for right now."
The snow was falling heavily when Lily and her friends disembarked the carriage, and Mary was unlucky enough to get a blast of wind blown into her face just as she peeked her head out of the door, causing her scarf to flutter up in her face. Mary clawed for the scarf, not even realizing that she was starting to fall. Lily was not the only one to leap forward to try to catch Mary, but none of them were fast enough. With a surprised yelp, Mary went rumble-tumble into the ground – thankfully the snow was still freshly white and fluffy, and Mary popped up from the little hole she had unintentionally created after a moment, unharmed from her unexpected shortcut to the ground.
"Brrr," rattled Mary, shivering and holding her arms close her torso to try to keep the warmth close to her body. She may have been uninjured, but she was completely covered in the snow now.
"Oh, Mary," said Marlene fondly. Leaning down to help Mary to her feet, she said, "Come on – upyou get. Hopefully the Three Broomsticks will be able to warm you up."
As Marlene led a trembling Mary up towards the main road, Lily and Alice followed them, both trying to helpfully brush excess snow off Mary's cloak and hat. Along the way, Lily already spotted several faces she knew from Hogwarts, including Emmie Vance with a couple of her friends inside Honeydukes (she did not notice Lily) and Kingsley Shacklebolt inside some restaurant Lily had never seen any reason to enter (he looked too preoccupied with the girl sitting across from him to notice the third years either), but there also appeared to be an influx of visitors whom Lily was certain she had never seen before.
When Marlene pushed the door to the Three Broomsticks open, the warm, musky air greeted Lily, and all four of them quickly stepped inside. It was very crowded, even more so than usual, and Lily had to yell to make her voice heard above the din.
"I'll go get some Butterbeer, shall I?" she said loudly.
Marlene glanced around at everybody before turning and yelling in an equally loud voice, "We'll try to find a table."
It was a battle to squeeze through everybody, but soon enough, Lily managed to wiggle her way through to the bar, where Madam Rosmerta, the pretty barmaid who – Lily knew this for a fact based on some the conversations she had overheard – was the object of several Hogwarts students' affections, including Sirius Black.
"What can I get you, honey?" asked Madam Rosmerta, noticing Lily waiting quietly beside some rather raucous old warlocks.
"Um, can I have four Butterbeers?" asked Lily timidly.
"Of course, hon," said Madam Rosmerta. "It'll just be a little bit of a wait – is that okay?"
Lily nodded, and as Madam Rosmerta left to quickly deal with a couple of students who were starting a Kneazle-fight for a reason unknown to her, Lily pressed herself against the pillar so that she would stay out of people's way while she waited. She would have stayed there for the entire wait too, except that something had caught her eye – and it was not a couple of hormonal teenagers either. No – instead, it was the mirrored reflection of a sliver of light leaking through a back door that led to Merlin only knew where.
Her interest was piqued and after glancing around to ensure that nobody else was watching her, Lily softly slipped away from the main room with hardly a second thought. She crept along the hallway, the din disappearing behind her as she did so, and eventually, she came upon the door she had spotted. It was not open very wide, only a crack. As Lily pressed herself against the wall to get in a better position to spy through the crack, a horrible feeling pricked her spine, sending shivers through her body when Lily realized that she had been in the same situation less than a year ago – Stoughton's murder.
Over the months, Lily had been making progress when it came to putting those events behind her, but as she peeked through the crack, the memories resurfaced once again: she was behind a door with only the smallest crack to peer through, and she had happened upon a scene that most students never saw during their time at school. It was horrible, and for a moment, Lily was right back in that dungeon, watching as Stoughton was tortured right in front of her … twisting and screaming just as she twisted and screamed when Bellatrix decided to turn her wand on Lily herself …
Lil suddenly shook her head to clear her mind of such thoughts – no, this was not like Stoughton's murder. Not even close. For one thing, it was just two of her teachers, Sage Rawlings and Minerva McGonagall, and for another, there were no screams of agony or last insults. It was just two women who Lily knew well and even liked, talking and … were they arguing?
Lily leaned a little closer, intrigued by the exchanged words between the two professors, and she heard Rawlings's voice say in a low voice, "… is going to convince Caradoc of anything else, Minerva, and quite frankly, I don't think I would want to try to persuade him anyways – death by chimera wouldn't be kind enough for those people."
Both women were visibly upset, though whether it was with each other or something else, Lily did not know, and neither witch looked willing to back down. While McGonagall was certainly a fearsome opponent by most people's standards, Rawlings stood her ground, never once dropping her gaze, and at that moment, Lily was not sure which one she would pick to catch the Marauders breaking the rules. McGonagall had the stern glare and the threats of a detention honed to perfection, but at the same time, Rawlings, despite her stature, was closely on par when it came to letting others know that she was not one to be trifled with.
"I'm not arguing with you on that point, Sage," said McGonagall, and there was an urgency in her voice that Lily had never heard before. "But even Dumbledore's concerned about him. Caradoc's been focused on nothing else since Jack's murder – and if he doesn't stop this … revenge streak, he's going to end up dead himself."
Jack … Jack Stoughton?
The image of his dead eyes flashed in her mind, and her curiosity burning hotter than ever, Lily leaned closer so that she would not miss any part of Rawlings's response.
"That only means that we should help him more," asserted Rawlings firmly. "Minerva, it's not like you want Jack's killers any less dead than Caradoc or I do – he was your friend."
"Don't you try to turn this around on me, Sage. Jack was as much my family as any of us," snapped McGonagall, and her eyes were the closest to sparks that Lily had ever seen them. "It's suicidal is what it is – what would you do if it was Shiloh in Caradoc's place?"
"You leave Shiloh out of this, Minerva," warned Rawlings, her tone suddenly cold. It was sometimes hard to remember that Rawlings, who looked about as young as the students she taught, had already graduated from the Auror Academy and had faced the real world, but when she sounded as dangerous as she did now, Lily could only imagine what kinds of horrors she must have faced to harden her teacher so much.
"Why?" asked McGonagall, sounding much like she did whenever the Marauder's would try to convince her to believe any of their ridiculous stories. "Because you wouldn't be acting like you are now if Shiloh was the one hunting Bellatrix down?"
"I'm warning you, Minerva …" hissed Rawlings, her fists clenched. "You know as well as I that Caradoc is much more capable of handling himself than Shiloh ever will be. I don't need you to remind me of why Jack's dead in the first place. Now I mean it, Minerva – stop right now."
"But Caradoc doesn't even know what he's up against, Sage!" argued McGonagall. "All I'm asking is that you try to reason with him – get Caradoc to take a moment and think. It's either that, or soon those Death Eaters will have another body on their hands. You can't be so blinded by rage that you can't even see it yourself, are you?"
There was a very long pause that filled the alley, broken only when Rawlings gave an enormous sigh and said, "Fine. I'll talk to him – but what would I tell him about what the plan would actually be?"
"It's obvious, isn't it?" said McGonagall, once again back to her usual brisk voice. "Take down Bellatrix Black – just not go about it in such a foolish manner as Caradoc is."
Realizing that she had heard all she needed to hear, Lily quickly and quietly slipped back further into the inn before her friends got worried and went looking for her.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1973 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
"Can we please go to Three Broomsticks?" whined Peter as the Marauders exited Zonko's Joke Shop with their pockets full of Dungbombs and Stink Pellets – his nose was still red from when Sirius had tricked Peter into drinking some pumpkin juice from a Nose-Biting Teacup.
The temperature had dropped well below freezing by now, and Peter was not the only one that the cold was getting to – both James and Sirius were rattling from the tornado of subzero winds. James held his gloves up to his face, breathing heavily into them in an effort to trap the warm air close to his face, and Sirius bounced up and down in hopes of using the energy to heat up his body. Even Remus, who was the best of all of the Marauders when it came to putting up an unaffected front – James highly suspected it was an unrealized effect of lycanthropy – was shivering where he stood.
"Well, I'm going to Three Broomsticks," said Sirius. He glanced between his friends before adding, "If you three idiots want to wait around to be Yeti food, go for it, but I'm sure as hell not joining you. Besides, who knows what that lovely barmaid would do if she's denied the chance to witness the greatness that is moi."
"I'm sure she's managing, Sirius," remarked Remus rather drily as the four of them started to make their way to the warm and inviting inn. "I doubt she even remembers you."
"Nah, we can't have that now, can we, Sirius?" teased James lightly with an easy grin. "If Madam Rosmerta doesn't remember us, then I suppose we'll have to fix that little problem, don't we?"
The Marauders approached the Three Broomsticks, and James could not help but notice that the number of Hogwarts students was conspicuously dwindling as more and more caved to the will of Mother Nature and headed back to the carriages so that they could once again enter the much warmer corridors of the castle. However, there will still a fair number out and about – enough that James had to fight his way through the large group just exiting Three Broomsticks.
When the four finally stepped across the threshold, they were met with a welcome relief of heat, and James ruffled his hair to shake away the snow that had fallen on it during their short walk. Sitting at the table closest to the door, a couple of fourth year Hufflepuffs debated and traded with each other over their impressively large pile of Chocolate Frog Cards, and a little farther down – James did a double-take when he noticed – a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin, both looking to be about sixth or seventh year, held hands and stared into the other's eyes like it was only the two of them in the crowded little inn. As the four of them passed the unusual couple, Sirius went so far as to mimic gagging when the Slytherin leaned forward to kiss the Ravenclaw girl.
James felt a leap in his chest when he spotted Lily sitting with her other friends in a booth in a far corner, but she did not notice him. Instead, she was preoccupied with whatever the topic at her booth was, smiling and nodding along with whatever Prewett was saying with vigorous hand movements – though from the strangely distant look in her eyes, he had the nagging feeling that Lily was not really hearing what her friend was saying any more than James was, but seeing as she had only stomped on his foot a little while ago, he thought it might be better to wait a little bit before talking to her again.
"Uh-uh," interrupted Sirius, abruptly pulling James from his thoughts.
Unlike James, he was not as willing to forgive Lily for the throbbing toe she had given James mere hours ago.
"I did not come here just to watch my best mate ogle at some girl who has yet to grasp the concept of a joke."
"I wasn't ogling at her," defended James.
"Mate, she stomped on your foot! Remember?" said Sirius, pushing James towards the bar that was much farther away from Lily than he would've liked.
"I know, but she's just so … Evans," said James longingly. "At the beginning of the year, I didn't realize, but now I know – mate, I gotta get that girl on a date."
Sirius rolled his eyes at those words and said in undertone, "And here I was only worried about your sanity – good luck finding your balls after she's through with you."
James ignored the jibe at Lily – and his balls – for the moment, and it did not take long for Madam Rosmerta, the curvy, attractive barmaid, to come over to them. It was very easy to tell when Sirius noticed that she was approaching them because the moment his friend heard the signature click-clack of Madam Rosmerta's sparkly high heels, Sirius's eyes darted around to the woman several years their senior, his grey eyes suddenly wide and eager as opposed to the disgusted look he shot a couple of sixth year Slytherins.
Though Madam Rosmerta kept her hands busy with wiping a glass clean, she still managed a cheery, welcoming smile as she politely asked them, "What can I get for you four?"
"You know," started Sirius just as Peter opened his mouth to answer. His whole demeanor had suddenly become much more seductive and alluring. "If they had told me there were Veela in Hogsmeade, I would've snuck down here much sooner."
Here, he waggled his eyebrows suggestively at Rosmerta.
Rosmerta, whom James suspected had been hit on many times in the past, simply chuckled at Sirius and repeated, "Start with something to drink, I assume. Mr. …"
"The name's Sirius – Sirius Black," said Sirius, leaning forward and giving her a charming smile that made several female Hogwarts students who had been sitting across from them at the bar giggle quietly, and one with dark brown hair tried to covertly flash Sirius a dazzling smile, though Sirius did not notice – not that he would act any differently if he had noticed it, save perhaps an extra wink and a cheeky grin.
That was enough to draw James away from Lily – he and Sirius were pranksters after all, and where there was one, there had to be the other. James was not going to let Sirius have all the fun of the bunch, so he quickly leaned forward to join the scene as well.
"Ignore him," he teased, placing his elbow on the table and turning himself so that there was no mistake he was also in the conversation. "He's all talk, but myself on the other hand … well, let's just say there's a reason people are always yelling 'James Potter' at the top of their lungs."
The girls who had previously been focused only on Sirius's voice noticed James as well. James sent a nod and what he hoped was a sexy grin the girls way – well, it must have been a sexy grin because one particularly pretty Ravenclaw with curly blond hair gave James a little wave back, daintily fluttering her fingers and batting her eyelashes at him. She looked to be around his age, but James did not care what year she was – those girls were flirting with him!
James might have been falling for Lily … but at the same time, those girls were hot.
Rosmerta's eyes glanced back and forth between the two of them, both highly amused and slightly unbelieving at the same time, and after a couple of moments, Remus, who also happened to be smiling at his friends' antics, leaned forward to interrupt the silence and order, "We'll take four Butterbeers to start off with, please."
"Sure thing, boys," chuckled Rosmerta, and she left to the get them their drinks.
After Rosmerta was out of earshot, Sirius gave Remus a pointed look and said, "See, Moony? I told you I'd make sure that lovely Rosmerta would remember moi."
Remus opened his mouth to respond, but when the full effect of Sirius's words registered with him, he did a double-take and anxiously cast his eyes around the vicinity to ensure that nobody else had been listening before he whispered in a low voice, "What did you just call me, Sirius."
Sirius grinned, seemingly unperturbed by Remus's sudden nervousness, and said, "Do you like it? I was reading in this weird Muggle magazine that spies used secret aliases, and Moony sounded fitting – in fact, I was thinking we should all get codenames for when our … efforts finally pay off."
"Codenames?" repeated Remus blankly. He contemplated that for a minute, but eventually must have not minded his new name since he merely shrugged and turned to graciously accept the Butterbeer than Madam Rosmerta had just returned with. "I s'pose that makes sense, though it's not the name I would've –"
"Snake alert!" hissed Peter suddenly, and the other three gave a start at the sudden interruption. Sirius was just about to open his mouth to say something James knew would not please Professor McGonagall, but Peter did not give him the chance as he repeated, "No, Sirius – really. Snake alert: six o'clock."
Shifting his now wary eyes away from Peter, Sirius turned around in his chair, and both James and Remus followed suit, all now fully aware of the small group of Slytherins making their way towards where the Marauders sat. The group comprised of Mulciber, Avery, Snape, and – much to his surprise – Regulus Black. James spared a glance Sirius's direction, but Sirius's cold, unmoving expression betrayed no hint as to his true feelings at seeing the younger Black. Suspecting that Sirius was not going to be as willing to put up an unconcerned front for the Slytherins as he usually was, James made a split-second decision to take over the meeting.
"Is that really you, Mulciber?" asked James with a cutting edge to his voice as the Slytherin gang approached. "I barely even recognized you without that lovely black eye you've been sporting for a rather long time – I must say, mate, it's not much of an improvement."
Mulciber growled.
"Funny," he said coldly. "I was about to say the same thing to you – oh, wait. No, you didn't have a black eye, just a bruised toe you let some Mudblood bitch give you."
At that word, both James and Sirius suddenly leaped out of their seats. However, Remus was faster and quickly stepped in between the three to prevent a full-fledged fistfight from breaking out, and though he knew better than to try reasoning with Mulciber, that did not stop Remus from placing two firm, restraining hands on his friends, one on each of their shoulders.
"Don't," warned Remus in a low voice, and though his grasp was not going to loosen anytime soon, he did send James a warning look that was somehow stern and sympathetic at the same time. "He's not worth it."
People were starting to stare now as the conversation started to unfold in plain view of everybody in the pub, but James remained focused on the Slytherins. After all, they were the ones with the history of cursing anybody who did not agree with them, not Ms. Table Three and her giggly group of friends, and it was Wilkes whose hand was slowly reaching for his wand, not the old warlocks sitting farther down at the bar.
Mulciber smirked at the site of Remus restraining the two of them, and he taunted, "Not so tough anymore, are you, Potter? What's the matter? No smoke for you to hide in now, is there?"
"Says the one who's got as much nerve as trolls do brains," snarled Sirius.
"Sirius, mate, don't you go insulting those lovely little trolls now," James snidely added.
Most people would have encouraged everybody to simply walk away before things got any worse, but neither party was willing to do that. Mulciber must have run out of comebacks because just then his hand shot for the inside of his robes, which probably held his wand, but before he or any of the other Slytherins got much farther, there was a bang, and Mulciber instantly reached up to cradle his nose, howling with pain and completely forgetting that he was about to engage in a full-on duel with the Marauders.
James, who had his wand out too, glanced at Sirius, expecting his best mate to look triumphant at beating everybody else to the punch, but Sirius was just as confused as James was. However, it did not take long for everybody to figure out who the culprit was.
"You son of a basilisk!" yelled Mulciber, glaring at somebody standing behind them.
James turned and, much to his surprise, saw Peter determinedly pointing his wand at Mulciber, lips trembling and a terrified expression on his face.
"Nice job, Pete!" cheered Sirius.
"Are you all out of your bloody minds?" yelled Madam Rosmerta suddenly, and James jumped slightly at the sudden vehemence. She withdrew her own wand and started chasing after them, yelling, "I'll not have any of this foolishness in my pub! Now out – out – out!"
The Marauders wasted no time in heeding her warning.
So I know that James will pretty soon be head-over-heels in love with Lily, but I always imagined James and Sirius behaving a bit like womanizers when they were younger. To compromise, James will still have a crush on Lily but will not actually realize just how much he loves her for another couple of years. Just in case any of you were like, "What?! James is supposed to love Lily and only Lily."
