Previously: Lily has her first date with Terry. At first, James is complimentary of her when he sees that she's dressed up, but when he hears that she's going on a date, he accidentally insults her date in his jealousy. That only makes Lily angry at him. In the Three Broomsticks, James publicly snogs Silvanah, but rather than make Lily jealous (which was his intention), that only cements Lily's belief that he's just asking her out to get under her skin rather than because he's actually developed feelings for her.


Chapter 53: Interrogations and Interruptions

It was Halloween – and Lily Evans was furious.

The day had started off normally enough. Mary had headed down to the Great Hall to save them all a seat at the breakfast table while Alice and Marlene embarked on the dangerous mission of dragging Lily from her bed. By the time she was dressed and ready to head down for breakfast, most of the other students were already in the middle of their breakfast, but as promised, Mary had dutifully saved them three seats per usual.

The only difference was that somebody else was sitting next to the plump girl.

"Terry! I didn't expect to see you here – are … are you allowed to sit here?" said Lily, trying to erase her beginning-of-the-morning annoyance from her voice and face as she quickly took the seat directly to Terry's left. It was not as if she was not pleased that Terry broke the rules for her, but at the same time, she did not want to risk the possibility of somebody like McGonagall interrupting them at the worst possible moment.

"It's not really like anybody cares when it's just breakfast – Mary was just telling me what an adventure it is to get you out of bed in the morning," said Terry with a grin.

"Oh … you've heard about that, have you?" mumbled Lily, unable to stop the blush from creeping into her cheeks.

Marlene, who had decided to fill the spot across from Terry – Lily suspected that it was so that Marlene could look him in the eye while she interrogated him since she had not yet allowed Marlene to have a conversation with him for that very reason – snorted into her pumpkin juice.

"Lily, everybody's heard about that. It's hard not to when you scream 'Alice, you better give me back my pillow before I curse the living shit out of you' at the top of your lungs – I wouldn't be surprised if the first years fear you by now," said Marlene. She ignored Lily's glare as she helped herself to some pancakes and only gave Lily her sweetest, most evil smile as a response.

"Yes – well – there's nothing wrong with simply preferring to get up at a reasonable hour –"

"If you call twelve o'clock a reasonable hour," muttered Alice.

Lily glared at her.

"Just saying …" she said, showing her hands in a gesture of surrender.

Beside Alice, Marlene leaned forward, staring at Terry intently. She intertwined her fingers together so that she could prop her elbows on the table and rest her chin on her hands while she contemplated a rather nervous Terry.

"So … Terry … what's your story? What do your parents do? Siblings? Ex-girlfriends?"

"… Marlene…"

"Sorry, honey, but it's my job to ask … so are you going to answer my questions – because if you can't even answer the simple questions, then I don't know how you can expect to adequately answer my other questions. And if you can't answer those questions, then … well … I hope I don't have to spell it out for you."

"Marlene!"

"Lily, dear – trust me when I say that the only reason I'm doing this is because I care about you," said Marlene. She briefly held up one hand to silence Lily before she turned her attention back to Terry and, never once breaking eye contact, continued with, "Now – answer my questions."

"Marlene McKinnon, you have no right to –" Lily began hotly, but Terry placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

"No, no … it's alright, Lily – really. She's just looking out for you. I understand. In response to your questions, Marlene, you should know that both my parents work for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and I have one younger sister. Her name's Hannah, and she's ten-years-old – she starts Hogwarts next year, so as you can imagine, she's really excited …"

The rest of the breakfast continued like that. The only times when Marlene stopped her questioning was when she was giving Terry the chance to answer. While Lily was certainly annoyed with her friend for trying to intimidate Terry, she could not help but be amazed that Marlene was able to come up with so many questions, from "What do you want to be when you grow up?" to "When you say you've had a crush on Lily since the first train ride, how exactly did you come to the conclusion that it was a good idea to ask her out?" and everything in between. Lily was not sure if Marlene was coming up with them off the top of her head or if she had previously planned it out – she would not be surprised if it was a bit of both.

"So … have I passed?" asked Terry as he drained the last bit of his pumpkin juice from his goblet – honestly, Lily was shocked that he managed to squeeze in breakfast when Marlene hardly gave him extra time.

Marlene leaned backwards, crossing her arms over her chest and pursing her lips as she evaluated Terry. Her striking, dark blue eyes were unreadable, and Terry was not the only person waiting anxiously for her answer – Lily, Alice, and Mary were all leaning forward in anticipation.

"Terry Abbott – you are … not bad – a bit boring, perhaps, but nothing that I need to worry about on Lily's behalf," said Marlene after a long pause.

"Translation: You passed with flying colors," piped up Alice.

"Good," said Lily. "Since Terry's met your expectations – can he and I leave now, Marlene?"

She was still rather annoyed with the whole thing, but seeing that Terry was able to take everything that Marlene threw at him with surprising grace had helped calm her down – plus, Lily could not help but be a little proud of him. Marlene, who was still evaluating Terry with narrowed eyes and pursed lips, gave a sharp nod to indicate her consent when she caught Lily's eye. Relieved, Lily quickly stood up and waited for Terry to get to his feet as well before seizing his arm and pulling him from the Great Hall as quickly as she could. Only after she passed the double doors did Lily slow her pace.

"I'm so sorry about that, Terry. Marlene's always fancied herself as the final judge on boys – I know she can be intimidating, but I'm sure she'll warm up eventually. Just give her a couple of weeks, and you'll see …"

Terry laughed and grabbed both of Lily's hands and holding them up to his chest.

"Lily – it's fine. I know that if I'm ever to have a chance with you, your friends come with the territory – and I really, really like you. Honestly, I'm just glad that she didn't bring up … other things – it went a lot better than I was expecting."

"When you say 'other things' …" Lily started slowly, and she released his hands when she noticed that he had tensed up. "Are you talking about your … about your uncle?"

The smile had vanished from Terry's face, and Lily immediately regretted asking the question – but at the same time, she was insanely curious. Timothy Abbott was one of the three assailants during the attack on the Ministry several years ago, and while the Aurors had eventually concluded that they all had been under the influence of the Imperius Curse, that did not stop the rumors. Thankfully, most of the conspiracy theories had died down, but Lily had never had a chance to talk to Terry about the events.

"I'm sorry – I shouldn't have asked that – I was just –"

"No, no – it's … fine," said Terry, shaking his head. "I just … never really talk about it – I mean, I don't know what there is to talk about. He was forced to do a horrible thing, and he died doing it. Apparently right before everything … happened, one of the witnesses told my mother that Uncle Timothy snapped out of it enough to push her and two others behind the filing cabinets, but he got caught in the explosion before he could join them – do you suppose that makes a difference? Knowing that he died trying to do the right thing, even if it was only for a little bit?"

Lily thought back to Stoughton, right before Bellatrix killed him. He was also someone who had died fighting – he had died so that Lily might have a chance to live. Did it make a difference? In her mind, Lily could see Stoughton crumble to the ground and his lifeless eyes … Did it make a difference?

"Yes, it does make a difference," said Lily firmly. "You know that in the end, they were able to hold true to their morals. That takes a kind of strength that most people lack – and the world is in dire need of that kind of strength right about now."

"I suppose …" mumbled Terry.

He shot Lily a grateful smile, and Lily was surprised by how easily she could return it. As she stared into Terry's eyes, she could feel a warmth flutter through her chest. He was leaning closer … closer … closer …

Could this be it? thought Lily. Could this be the moment? Could she finally have her very first kiss?

She might have – save for one, tiny detail.

James – Bloody – Potter.

And that was why Lily Evans was furious on Halloween.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1974 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

It was Halloween – and James Potter was heartbroken.

The day had started out normally enough. The fourth-year boys' dormitory was experiencing its typical morning rush. Sirius hogged the bathroom for a full twenty minutes so that he could carefully brush his hair so that it fell in a glossy curtain. Remus scurried around the dormitory, tossing aside blankets and dirty clothes as he tried to find all his books. Peter was hastily finishing his Potions essay that was due during their first period. And James himself was simply trying to find a clean pair of boxers to wear.

Normal, right?

Wrong.

They had been held up by a couple of first years before reaching the common room, as the students had decided to try their own version of a Halloween prank. It was not a very good one, either, and it had taken a total of eleven different boys, including the Marauders, to work their way through the mess of orange goo (the first years had tried to use it as a material to decorate the stairwell with orange spiderwebs, but they failed in the most epic way possible). By the time the boys had managed to clean it off everything with several powerful Scouring Charms, they had a mere fifteen minutes left of breakfast.

So by the time James exited the Gryffindor common room, he was in a foul mood. Peter did his best to brighten all their spirits by chattering about the prank they planned to pull after breakfast (they had spent the past week crudely drawing stick-figure skeletons and hags and were planning on enchanting them to run through the Hogwarts portraits to scare as many occupants as possible – James was looking forward to Sir Cadogan's response in particular), but even though that did lighten James's mood briefly, whatever progress Peter had been making was soon crushed when James reached the Entrance Hall.

Lily was standing there – and it looked like she was about to kiss Abbott.

The jealousy he had felt when he watched Lily and Abbott hold hands in the Three Broomsticks once again reared its ugly head, and before he knew it, James had his wand out. He was not even sure what curse he was going to use – all James knew was that he wanted to hex Abbott into next week.

"James – don't," said Remus, placing a warning hand on his shoulder.

James shrugged him off and cast the first jinx that came to mind.

That was several hours ago – now James and his friends were waiting patiently in the Charms corridor, and James's mood had lifted considerably. He even took on a Golden Snitch and had started tossing it between him and his friends, using the well-placed Summoning Charm that they were supposed to practice for Charms class today when it slipped through Peter's fingers and started zipping away.

"You do know that she is going to kill you – right, James?" said Sirius conversationally as he chucked the Snitch back to James, who had to jump to catch it. "From the way it looked, I think you might have interrupted her first kiss."

James gave a noncommittal shrug before tossing the Snitch back to Remus, who fumbled for two seconds before he could get a firm grasp on the small, golden ball.

"Well, that was my plan, Sirius. I just didn't like the way Abbott was acting with her."

"And how was he acting, James? Like her boyfriend?" asked Remus as he threw the Snitch to Peter, who missed. "Accio! Because I hate to break it to you, mate, but they've been dating for a couple of weeks now – I don't think it's too far from the realm of possibilities to assume that they'll at least get a good snog or two in before they break up."

Remus chucked the Snitch back to Sirius.

"So you do agree – Evans and Abbott will probably break up at some point," said James, lunging to catch the Snitch that Sirius threw his way before tossing it back to Peter.

"I never said that – it's just a statistical probability."

"That's nerd-speak for 'Yes' – Accio – besides, I would think that she would be impressed, wouldn't she? That was a pretty advanced spell I just did."

"You're an idiot," snorted Remus after he caught the Snitch that James had thrown his way. "Jinxing her boyfriend and best friend are going to get you nowhere – except perhaps the Hospital Wing."

"When have I jinxed Alice Prewett?" asked James. He was momentarily distracted, and the Snitch that Peter threw his way started to zoom further down the corridor, but it did not get far before Sirius summoned it back to his hand.

"Not Alice – Snape."

At that, both James and Sirius stopped and stared at him. The Snitch must have sensed this because it suddenly made another bid for freedom. Peter, seeing that everybody else was distracted, attempted his own Summoning Charm, but rather than zooming back into Peter's hand, it simply stopped moving and dropped to the floor. Remus hastily pocketed it.

"How'd you figure that?" asked Sirius finally, and he looked torn between laughter and confusion.

"Because Lily told me back in second year," was the simple reply.

"I didn't know that you and Evans were so close," said James, but unlike Sirius, he was not laughing – more suspicious. "Did you also tell her about your furry, little problem?"

"No – but I'm sure she could figure it out if she really wanted to."

"Well … what else did she say? Moony, you have to tell me this stuff. I've been trying to get her to notice me for a year – but I'm getting nowhere."

"Oh, trust me – I think it's safe to say that she's noticed you by now."

"Moony."

Remus sighed at James's desperation before saying, "It's not my place, James. If she wants you to know, then she'll tell you."

"But she hasn't."

"And why do you think that is?"

That shut James up, and for a moment, there was nothing but silence between the boys until –

"POTTER!"

Each of the Marauders had different reactions: Remus closed his eyes and sighed in defeat; Peter started at the noise and took several stumbling steps backwards; Sirius rolled his eyes and hopped up on the windowsill so that he could be comfortable while he watched the fight that was sure to come; James, meanwhile, simply turned around to face the person who had shouted his name with one eyebrow raised and his hands in his pockets.

Lily was striding towards him, and James could tell, even with the distance between them, that her face was red with anger and that her hands were tightly curled into shaking fists. It did not take Lily very long for her to close the distance between them, and she stopped two feet away from James, her green eyes flashing dangerously as she took a deep breath – no doubt so that she would not accidentally kill James in her temper. At the end of the corridor, James could tell that the other three Gryffindor girls were hurrying to catch up with their friend.

"Morning, Evans!" said James cheerfully, ruffling his hair as he shot Lily one of his crooked smiles. "Excited for the Halloween feast later? We could sit together if you want –"

"Care to tell me why Terry's in the Hospital Wing with a pumpkin for a head?"

"Oh, is that his name?"

"Don't act cute with me, Potter – answer the damn question."

"He was holding your hand and looked like he was about to kiss you," said James with a shrug. "I didn't like that."

"Let me make something very clear to you, James Potter," said Lily as she leaned closer to James, her voice dangerously quiet.

Her hands were trembling, but James knew it was not from fear. For once, James did not laugh – he just stared at Lily. It was then that he remembered that Lily was not above hexing him into next week – unfortunately, her Knockback Jinx had only gotten more powerful since their first year, reaching the point that people would simply be knocked out cold – James himself had been on the receiving end several times.

"It is none of your business who I date and who I hang out with – you are not a part of my life, so don't try to change that. The next time you try to hex Terry, I will –"

"I hate to break up whatever conversation you two are having, but I'm sure Professor Flitwick is waiting for you – and I suggest you find your seats before I am forced to take points from Gryffindor."

Professor McGonagall, with her amazing talent to sniff out trouble from a mile away, had suddenly appeared in the corridor. She gave each person a very stern glare – Lily's friends, who had only just arrived at the scene, were not excluded. Lily glanced at McGonagall, whose lips were in a thin line, and after several more seconds, she relaxed and allowed Alice to guide her into the Charms classroom.

James watched her go, but he could not stop himself from calling after her, "Perhaps we could still –"

"Don't talk to me."

"But if at the Halloween feast, can we just –"

"Absolutely not. I can't even stand being around you right now."

"But I –"

"No."

"Can I at least talk to you about it?"

"What part of 'no' don't you understand, Potter?"

"But I want to talk to you about it."

"I'll talk to you when flobberworms fly. But right now, I don't want to be around you."

"Why?"

"Because you're contaminating my air – now go away, Potter."

And that was why James Potter was heartbroken on Halloween.


In case any of you lovelies forgot, the attack on the Ministry happened in Chapter 27 (Murder at the Ministry) and Stoughton's death happed in Chapter 30 (An Unforgivable Night).