Previously: McGonagall is furious with the fourth year Gryffindors. They are all punished, and Sirius, who took responsibility for initiating the duel, proudly claims the title of worst troublemaker in Hogwarts. Minchum replaces Jenkins as MoM. Lily is trying to tell Snape about Mulciber chasing her down in the hallway, and when they argue, Snape yells that she's surrounding herself with a bunch of blood traitors.


Chapter 60: Divide and Conquer

"Guys, I have an idea," announced Sirius.

They had just finished making their final preparations for their end-of-term prank (which, the Marauders were pleased to say, would really raise the bar), and while James knew that he should be packing his things together to prepare for the train ride home tomorrow, he was not alone when he decided to take his sweet time, occasionally throwing a random jumper or textbook into his trunk but more or less just lounging around the dormitory with the other Marauders.

"This should either be really good or really weird," said Remus, who was currently reading a book on his bed – while he was the readiest of the four of them, at least half of his things were still scattered around the room. "Do tell, Sirius – what is this fabulous idea of yours?"

"I know that the Invisibility Cloak will do wonders for us once we get these Animagus transformations," started Sirius, "But wouldn't it be great if we had something else as well? A way to know when people – namely, Snivellus – are trailing us? Because, I don't know about you, but I think we should take every precaution available – Azkaban isn't ready yet for the greatness that is moi."

"Like what?" asked Peter blankly. "How could we possibly know where everybody is in the castle?"

Sirius shrugged in response while James reclined on his own bed, both hands behind his head as he stared up at the canopy. His friend was right – it would be useful to know where everybody was at the same time, especially if they were planning on breaking the law. But how could they keep track of everybody at once?

"We could make a map," said James slowly. "We've definitely wandered this castle enough that we know basically every corridor and secret passageway."

"It's not the map part that would be difficult," said Remus. "How would we get it to show where everybody is at every second? Not only are there a lot of students – we would need to keep track of the ghosts and teachers as well, not to mention Peeves. And besides, there are different ways people hide themselves – Disillusionment Charms, McGonagall's an Animagus, Invisibility Cloaks, Polyjuice Potion, just to name a few."

James gave a dismissive wave of his hand and answered, "You underestimate our abilities, Moony. I'm sure that if we tried, we could find quite a few spells that might work. I know the library at my home is chock-full of books on every kind of subject. I say we divide and conquer – if anybody wants to hang out with me this summer, we can get started on researching charms that we could use while everybody else starts drawing the actual map."

"I'm shit at drawing," mumbled Peter.

"So am I," said Sirius.

They all turned to Remus, who was staring determinedly at his book, but James noticed that his eyes were no longer moving. When neither James, Sirius, nor Peter said anything for a long time, Remus finally sighed and set his book down on his nightstand as he met their imploring gazes.

"Fine, I'll get started on what I can as soon as I get home – no promises that it will pretty, though."

"Isn't that how we always do things?" smirked Sirius.

Remus rolled his eyes.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1975 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Make sure to write me some more poems over the summer," said Lily as she wrapped her arms tightly around Terry's middle and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "Otherwise, it's going to be a very lonely summer for me."

"I don't know how you managed before you met me," said Terry with a grin. "But all the same, I find that it's rather endearing …"

He clearly was not satisfied with Lily's peck because he cupped her face with both hands before leaning down to press his lips against hers – a real kiss, which Lily eagerly returned, and it was not until Marlene arrived that she broke apart from Terry. With a giggle and one last kiss, Lily picked up her bags to join her friend while leaving Terry to join his own friends. Olly, in particular, looked impatient.

"Merlin, first Alice and Frank, then you and Terry …" muttered Marlene as she wrapped her beautifully manicured fingers around Lily's arm and guided her over to where Alice – who must have just parted from Frank – and Mary were waiting.

However, as they approached the other two girls, Lily realized that something was wrong – it was not like she had a sinking feeling in her stomach or anything like that, but from the way that Alice and Mary were frowning as they stared at the door handle to the carriage, Lily knew that there was something different.

"Why are you both standing there?" demanded Marlene, releasing Lily's elbow so that she could put her hands on her hips. "You both look like idiots just standing there."

"There's … a slight problem," explained Mary, who looked like she could barely contain her laughter. Beside her, Alice bit her lip as she squinted at the door – it was as if she was doing a particularly difficult problem in The Muggle Word.

"What?" asked Lily blankly – though she had no clue what sort of "problem" it could be, she had a very shrewd idea of who was behind it.

"See for yourself," said Mary with a shrug of her shoulders.

While Marlene looked torn between annoyance and curiosity, she marched forward to get into the carriage. However, just as her hand closed around the handle, there was a pop, and suddenly, Marlene was standing ten feet away. It was not just their carriage either – to both the front and back of them, students were forced to wait outside as their peers tried and failed to open the carriage doors. Some people were trying to cover their hands with the sleeve of their robes while others used their wands – but still no dice. No matter what happened, the person trying to open the door was sent several yards away from where they were previously standing.

"You know, if you guys were any slower, you'd be going backwards."

Lily rolled her eyes and turned around, only to find a smirking Potter standing so close that if Lily wanted to, she could reach out and touch him – not that she wanted to. The other Marauders were right behind him, all looking very pleased with themselves – Black winked at Marlene, who simply responded with a devious smile.

"You need to stop invading my personal bubble, Potter," she snapped, tearing her eyes away from Black attempts to seduce Marlene.

"And you need to stop invading my personal dreams, Evans. Why must you be so irresistible?" he countered without missing a beat.

"How do you get in the carriages, Potter?" said Lily flatly, hoping that nobody had noticed her blush – judging from the way Potter's mischievous grin deepened, he noticed. "I'm in no mood for games."

"That's because you have zero sense of fun," shot Black, briefly breaking off his unabashed flirting with Marlene.

Lily coolly ignored him; she raised one skeptical eyebrow at Potter, who, much to her chagrin, continued to smirk at her.

"I'll tell you the password to get into the carriage … if you let us ride with you to the train station."

She said, "No," at the same time that Alice and Marlene both said, "Sure."

Lily glared at her friends, but Alice simply shrugged as if to say, "Well, what else are we supposed to do?" while Marlene did not even notice – she and Black were back to both silently mouthing words to each other that Lily would have bet her entire book collection that were both highly suggestive and entirely inappropriate.

Potter shot her one more grin and a wink before tapping the door handle with his wand and saying, "I doth solemnly swear to recognize that the Marauders are among the cleverest students to ever walk this school."

Lily rolled her eyes at Potter's smug smile as there was a faint click and he successfully opened the door. Potter gallantly stepped aside like a footman, motioning for Lily to enter the carriage with a bow and wave of his hand as he said, "Ladies first, Evans."

At that, Lily grimaced, but since everybody was just as eager to reach the train station as she was, she decided to take Potter's offered hand and climbed into the carriage, quickly claiming the spot in the farthest corner. Next came Alice and Mary, who took the two closest seats opposite Lily. Marlene quickly claimed the spot next to her with Sirius right in tow. Remus and Pettigrew filled out Alice and Mary's bench. Potter was the last one to enter, closing the door behind him.

At first, Lily had hoped that he would fill the last remaining seat – the one that was farthest away from her but on the same side, which would enable Lily to neither look at nor talk to Potter – but to her extreme disappointment, Potter climbed over several people's legs, prodding Marlene farther over so that he could squeeze himself between Lily and Marlene. Lily was about to protest when the carriage jerked forward, signaling that there was now no way to change the seating arrangements – Lily leaned as far away as she could, but unfortunately, there was not any room to move over.

"Who do you think will take Bernie's spot on the Quidditch team next year?" Potter asked Alice, determinedly dodging Lily's attempts to elbow him for trying to throw his arm over Lily's shoulders.

"I dunno," admitted Alice, and she snorted when she saw that the two of them had entered a deadlock – Potter had caught Lily's elbow and was refusing to let her go. "We only have one Chaser spot to fill next year, and I'm sure Kingsley will only choose somebody who can work well with the rest of the team. To be honest, I'm more worried about our sixth year – we'll be losing both our Beaters, one of whom is Captain, our Keeper, and at least one Chaser."

Potter grinned at that.

"Don't worry, Prewett – I'll make sure that only the best will join our sixth year team."

Lily snorted at that, and Potter glared at her.

"What's the matter? Do you think I can't be Captain?"

"Not necessarily. I'm sure you could be Captain – the question is whether you'd be any good."

"I'm one of the best Chasers Hogwarts has. That says Captain enough, doesn't it?" shot back Potter. It was a mark of just how seriously he took Quidditch when he released Lily's elbow to fully look at her, and while his eyes never lost their mischievous glint, his face only showed determination.

"Merlin's beard, Potter. You might just be the cockiest son of a basilisk that I've ever had the misfortune of meeting – working as a team says Captain, Potter. How many times do you need your Chasers to help you out of a tight spot or your Beaters to take down the opposing Seeker before they have a chance to catch the Snitch? Quidditch is a team sport for a reason – I'd pay a fair amount of Galleons to watch you attempt to win a seven-on-one game of Quidditch."

For his part, Potter looked more thoughtful than Lily had ever seen him as he said, "I'll be honest, Evans – I didn't ever think you actually paid attention to Quidditch. Every time I see you in the stands, you're never looking at me."

Lily went pink.

"I pay attention to Alice, Potter – not you."

Potter simply shrugged.

"Baby steps, Evans. Baby steps."

Lily rolled her eyes as she started, "Oh, please. You know, one of these days you're going to wake up –"

"– with the sun streaming through the curtains and you curled up by my side after an absolutely incredible night of – ow! What was that for?"

Potter yelped in surprise as Lily cut him off with a sharp elbow to his side, adding in a healthy glare for good measure.

"It was for being an arrogant, disgusting toerag, Potter! You can't just go around saying those things," she snapped.

"Well, guess what, Evans – I just did."

"… uh, there something happening …" said Remus slowly. He motioned to try to get people to look out the window of the carriage, but nobody bothered to pay him any attention – Potter and Lily were too caught up in their current argument, and everybody else was busy watching said argument.

"Exactly! That's why I elbowed you, you ponce! And I have no problem doing that again, so you better watch that mouth of yours, Potter!"

"Guys, really – I think there's somebody out there …"

"Think about my mouth often, Evans?"

"Ew! Absolutely not – I have a boyfriend for that sort of thing, Potter."

"Who? Abbott? He's hardly up to par with me."

"Potter, you are possibly the most –"

"Shut up!"

Lily and Potter both fell silent, staring at Remus along with everybody else who had been watching their heated exchange. If Lily was being honest with herself, she had completely forgotten about the other people in the carriage. From the stunned expression on Potter's face, he was just as surprised as she was to see the seriousness in Remus's eyes.

That was when Lily realized that the Thestrals had slowed to a stop. She quickly glanced out her own window, expecting to see the familiar Hogsmeade station, but they were still surrounded by trees – clearly far enough away from their destination to warrant confusion.

"Why are we stopping?" Lily wondered aloud. Her earlier anger with Potter had evaporated.

"That's what I was trying to point out to everybody," said Remus, resuming looking out the window. "I think there's somebody out there. I just can't tell what they're doing."

Black, who, along with Remus, was closest to the door, quickly turned the handle to the carriage and clambered outside to get a better look. Lily was unsurprised to see that Potter was right behind his best friend, and Marlene had followed their lead as well. Alice stood at the doorway, one foot in the carriage while the other stood on the step and she balanced herself against the door. Lily stuck her head over Alice's shoulder to get a better look at the scene playing out before them while Remus, Mary, and Peter took up spots right by the windows.

As far as Lily could tell, there were at least three pairs of people going from carriage to carriage. Two of the pairs were too far away for Lily to make out any details, so she focused on the pair closest to her.

The pair, one of whom was a middle-aged wizard with a serious-looking mustache while the other, also a wizard, had short grey hair and a stern expression, were stopped at the carriage two spots ahead of them and wore identical silver badges on their robes. The occupants of the carriage were assembled much like Lily's carriage was, with several students standing outside while the rest stayed in the carriage. As the pair appeared to ask the occupants questions, and as the occupants spoke, the inspectors scribbled answers onto something that looked like a clipboard. They must have been satisfied with the answers because they allowed the students back into the carriages.

"Those are Ministry workers," said Black as the two wizards stopped at the carriage directly in front of Lily's and loudly knocked on the door.

"Judging from that badges, I'd say they're from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," said Potter, and he narrowed his eyes as a couple of second years spilled out of the carriage in front of them. Lily quickly noticed that they were one of the few carriages where the occupants had not already exited to see what was happening.

"What do you reckon they're doing here?" asked Mary from her spot beside the window.

At that, Marlene covertly shot Lily a worried glance, and Lily herself gulped nervously. She knew that her friend was remembering the article in the Prophet about the new Division of Muggle-Born Integration and the registry they were supposedly creating to "help ensure the smooth transition from the Muggle world to the magical one". After that announcement, Lily had scoured every article she could find about the registry, but since nobody mentioned it as being a requirement, she had not bothered to contact anybody about her blood status.

Now, though, she felt a nervous feeling bubble up within her stomach as she watched the Ministry workers tower above one of the second years who, judging from the Ministry workers' glares and tightly curled fists, had obviously not given a satisfactory answer. The second year visibly trembled with fear as the wizard with the mustache withdrew an envelope from the bag and all but shove it into her hands as he barked at them to get back into the carriage, which they all did without hesitation. When the door had been closed, Mr. Mustache turned to Mr. Buzz-Cut, and they both jotted down something on their notepads.

"Whatever they're after, it's nothing good. Nobody say anything – Potter and I should probably handle this," said Marlene as the pair turned and headed right for their carriage – while she did not look at Lily, Lily knew that Marlene was speaking to her more than anybody else.

As the pair stopped three feet in front of them, Lily was finally able to make out Division of Muggle-Born Integration on their badges. She shifted slightly behind Alice, but thankfully, the two had their attention focused on the three standing outside the carriage: Marlene, Potter, and Black. Neither of the wizards were smiling as the one with the mustache stepped forward and spoke.

"Good day. My name is Billy Hale, and this is Clarence Riles. We are both here from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and I hope you don't mind if we ask each of you a couple of questions."

While Hale's tone clearly indicated that there was no room for argument, Potter apparently had other ideas.

"I do mind, actually. You see, my friends and I were just enjoying an absolutely riveting conversation before we were interrupted by two Ministry dunderheads that are now standing in front of me."

Lily bit back a smile at that – "riveting conversation" was not the phrase she would use to describe their row.

Both Hale and Riles bristled at Potter's passive insult, but to his credit, he did not back down. He was almost the same height as the two wizards, and any trace of the Potter that she had just been arguing with had vanished. Rather than the casual stance that Lily had grown accustomed to over the years, Potter had drawn himself up to his full height and crossed his arms. Beside him, Marlene was equally imposing as she glared the pair down. The overall effect was rather striking for two fifteen-year-olds.

"Careful, young man," warned Riles. "The Ministry isn't as forgiving to backtalk as your schoolteachers are."

"What do you want?" demanded Marlene, deliberately ignoring the threat. "As James mentioned, we were quite busy with something."

Hale briefly glared at Lily's friend before angrily exhaled through his nostrils and replied, "As you might have seen the paper, the Ministry has requested that we start keeping track of students and their families, so my partner and I have been letting people know about their options depending on their family history, one of which is putting their name on a list so that the Ministry can provide any needed assistance in the future."

"Is it required?" demanded Potter.

"No, but –"

"Then thanks, but no thanks – we've scraped by so far without the help of the Ministry."

Hale huffed angrily.

"Boy, I don't think you fully understand the gravity of the current political climate."

"It's Potter to you, sir – and we understand perfectly. Minchum's just trying to stay on Voldemort's good side while at the same time, he's playing the hard-liner who'll stop at nothing to eradicate the 'evils of society'."

Both Hale and Riles froze. Whether they were more shocked to hear Potter speak Voldemort's name or realize that they were speaking with Euphemia and Fleamont Potter's son, both of whom were supposedly still very influential inside the Ministry of Magic, Lily could not be sure. All she knew was that whatever had caused the two their initial hesitation, it was enough to encourage them to move on to the next carriage.

"Very well," said Riles after several more seconds of intense silence. He looked like he had just swallowed something very unpleasant as he continued, "We'll – we'll leave you to it. Good day, Mr. Potter, Mr. Potter's friends."

It was a mark of just how serious the conversation was when Lily did not even bother to correct Riles's assumption that she and the other Marauders were friends. Instead, she carefully watched as Hale and Riles quickly made their way to the carriage after them, no doubt hoping that its occupants would be much easier to bully. It was only when Hale and Riles had started to talk to that carriage's occupants that Lily's group breathed a sigh of relief.

"Right," muttered Black. "Well, now that that's over – let's get the hell out of here, folks. I don't know about you, but it's been a long school year."


Ta-da! James and Lily's fourth year is officially over! Now on the infamous fifth year, folks! We're almost to the good stuff!

This is where the rewrite ends. I do have a sizeable chunk of fifth year done, but since there are a lot of plot lines in fifth year, I'm going to wait to finish more before I publish the next chapters.

I was going to try to finish fifth and sixth year, but since it's been so long, I figured I would upload what I have. Heaven knows you've waited long enough. I really hope you enjoyed the story so far (I'm particularly pleased with the chapter "Sirius Trouble" – I thought that was pretty funny, and hopefully you did too). While I expect that I lost a fair amount of writers during the time that I took to rewrite the story, if you have stuck with it so far, please leave a review. And if you're new, please leave a review. Basically: reviews, reviews, reviews!