Chapter 3:
Dear Lily,
Have you ever laid your eyes on a person and thought, this is someone I want to be close to in every way.
That sounds like a vulgar sentence, I know, but I actually don't mean it that way. I mean, have you ever admired someone so much that you'd do anything to be nearer to them,maybe glean some of their outlook on life? Their thoughts, feelings... I wouldn't even mind sitting in complete silence with him, and you know what a chatterbox I am!
I know I sound lovestruck, Lily, but this, I think mainly stems from admiration of his dedication and talents and a desire to improve so I can be worthy of someone like him.
Alright, I just reread that sentence and concede painfully, that I have a huge crush.
Lily laughed out loud. Alice was, by far, the most adorable of her friends, for her tendency to talk about whatever caught her fancy until either a great epiphany had been reached... or nothing made sense anymore, and her insufferable love for puns, and the way she always pointed them out as if no one had noticed them. Which was what made her letters such a pleasure to read. She continued reading with a smile teasing the corner of her lips.
His name is Frank. That's all I'll give you, as his surname is frankly (please note the pun, Lils), disappointing.
I can practically feel you scorching this letter with your enviably green eyes now (in the future for me, the present for you and ...I'm stopping this tangent before it grows any longer)
Alright, it's Longbottom.
To get saddled with a surname like that is something one has to consider very seriously before marriage. (Not that I'm thinking of marriage, oh no missy, I wouldn't do that) But he is just the perfect person for me. A year above me and top of the recruit list. He'll be a full-fledged auror next year now that they've reduced the training period to two years.
Training is going as well as could be expected. I've forgotten what dinner is, because every night I come home just to collapse. I'm looking forward to lunch with you and Mar, I suppose it will be my first non-Ministry outing in weeks. Has Marlene sent you Curses and Hexes by Martin Malformik? The only reason I survived longer than three minutes in a mock duel against Frank this Wednesday was because of that book. It's apparently a huge deal for a new recruit to last that long against a second year trainee. Sarah Fowles, my duo partner ( partner for mock double duels, where one does the attacking and the other shields against another duo), nicknamed me Frost Biter, because I lost when Frank conjured a sheet of ice behind me as I ducked to avoid a stunner. I lost my head when I slipped and fell right on my bottom- which isn't very long, thank you very much!- and somehow threw out fire from my wand. It wasn't a conscious decision. But it slipped my unconscious mind that water, which had melted by then, is slippery too. (note the pun!) So I consequently, went down after a very quick body bind. Frank has unbelievable reflexes.
Well, now they won't stop calling me that dratted nickname!
Enough about me, though, Lily. I can tell you more when we meet.
Do give your mother my regards.
All my love,
Alice
Lily looked up from the letter and sighed. She'd thought a lot about what she wanted to do after Hogwarts. During counseling with McGonagall in third year, she'd expressed an interest in becoming an Auror. McGonagall had then directed her to Alice, who was sure about being one, and they had become fast friends. In fifth year, she still was interested, but wondered if she'd do well in such a physically demanding profession. She wasn't weak, but the idea of an academic life, experimenting with charms, held appeal too.
OWL results had arrived. She'd gotten ten owls, with O's in Charms, Potions, Runes and Defence, E's in all the rest except History of Magic, in which she'd got an Acceptable.
The defence marks were only that high, she had to admit, because of Severus' teaching and love for the subject. She wasn't a natural duelist like, say, Potter was. He probably could practice spells as much as he wanted in the summers, she thought bitterly. If any being was granted with all the good things in life, knew it and still made utterly stupid uses of its good fortune, it was Potter.
...
"James, could you please get me a pain relief potion from the cabinet?"
James, who had been intently listening to the wireless, sighed and looked at his aged mother, who was lounging back on their quilted sofa.
"Can't you get Tizzy to do it?"
"I gave our elf a well-deserved day off, remember? Now please?"
"Alright, alright, tell me when the transfiguration pop quiz comes on, mum."
James dragged himself off the armchair and performed an exaggerated inferius-walk ( James had discovered that muggles called them zombies, courtesy of Remus), to the sound of his mother's giggles.
His parents were old, he'd known that, but he'd retained the childlike view that they were indestructible from his early days, so it was jarring to see his mother's suddenly weak form this summer he got back from school. She'd had 3 hospital visits in the last two months for increasing pain, and now had a potions medication routine.
His father, Fleamont Potter, was as sprightly as ever, but as he had retired and sold his company, spent his days with them, and the occasional curiosity-inducing meeting with Dumbledore. He'd asked, several times, what they discussed in those meetings, but his father always replied with a, "When you're older, son."
He'd even resorted to following them under his invisibility cloak once, but when Dumbledore had turned at the door to the study and looked right at him, he'd lost his bravado and scampered off.
As he rummaged around in the cabinet, he reflected that if he'd had someone to go about it with, like Sirius, he'd have tried again. But Sirius was always cut off from them in the summers and had only stayed at his house twice, both during Easter hols. He sent letters, sure, but they were strangely reticent. It was after much badgering that Sirius haad finally admitted that his parents only let him use the owl once a week, in an effort to control his rebellion.
Remus had visited twice, once for help engraving runes on some magazines disguised as notes, and another time with an idea for improvement of the Marauder's map. They would soon be able to detect people on it too, based on rises in ambient magic tied to magical signatures. He'd apparently got the idea from Lily in one of her letters.
Imagining Remus and Lily traipsing around a muggle town caused a weird mixture of guilt and jealousy in him, so tried not to think about Lily too much. His success in that endeavour was, of course, questionable.
If he had to compare Lily to a potions ingredient (It was her best subject), it would be a bezoar.
A bezoar, when dropped into a cauldron of any simple poison, would make it churn like a vortex, absorbing all harmful components, and then turn it, whatever poison it was, a deep red. When he was around her or even thought about her, his mind became a churning vortex, every part screaming for her to notice him, like he always noticed her.
He trudged back to the wireless, handed his mum the vial, and was just about to collapse on the armchair, when the fireplace flared green and someone stumbled through. It was eight at night and his father wouldn't be back until nine.
It was the last person James expected to see .
Sirius looked even worse than he had when Dumbledore had asked him if he'd meant to kill Snape by using Remus' werewolf form.
He'd collapsed onto the rug and was shivering uncontrollably. James looked closer, and thought with dawning horror, that it looked more like twitches.
James ran to help him up, but Sirius shoved him out of the way with surprising strength and said," Grimmauld Place, Number Twelve, password: le sang noir est du sang pur", while throwing half a pinch of floo powder in, then shouted," ACCIO TRUNK".
James and his mother, who had hobbled in, had a glimpse of Walburga Black's screaming visage, and Regulus huddled near the staircase with gruesome elf heads, before the trunk zoomed through with frightening speed and the floo shut off.
For a while, the only sounds in the room were Sirius' panting breaths, before a vase lost balance, tipped and fell off a shelf on the opposite wall, where the zooming trunk had struck it.
Their heads all swivelled comically around to look at the splintered vase on the floor, when Sirius took the opportunity to huff, "Sorry about that. A bit overpowered, I reckon."
"Mate, what happened?"
He now slowly moved towards Sirius, who was still twitching, though less violently, and pulled him into a sitting position.
"I've run away, couldn't take it anymore, after the hundredth Merlin-forsaken thing they made me do. I came here because... I need a place to stay unti I can figure things out and rent my own place. I have enough, I think."
Euphemia stepped forward at that and said in a high voice, "Nonsense, you'll be staying with us for however long you need, Sirius. Answer this, is the twitching because of a certain u-unforgivable?"
Sirius gave her a long look, as if debating the necessity of answering her, and finally said, "Yes."
James' mum's eyes widened and she barked out a series of orders.
"James, get a pain relief and nerve-regenerating potion. Tizzy!", there was a loud crack, "I'm sorry, dear, we need you right now-"
"Tizzy is happy to be needed, Missus Pheemy!"
"-good, go set up a guest room for Sirius here, and then repair the shelf, please."
James reappeared with two vials of potion and bent down to help Sirius with the first. When he turned to retrieve the second, Sirius caught his hand and whispered croakily, all the adrenaline seemingly gone, "Thank you, Prongs".
"Anytime, Padfoot. We've got you now."
...
A/N: To people who have read this far, thank you
These first few chapters were sort of 'setting the stage', for what I want to do with this fic. Expanding on Lily's home life and inner workings was something I felt was important to get a feel of her as a character.
Second, I've made Alice and Marlene two years older than Lily. I just can't believe that a secret organisation poised to fight dark wizards would primarily be composed of members barely out of their teen years. Two years was a reasonable gap.
That said, she still is close to them. It makes sense that people got recruited to the Order on a 'recommendation' basis, since they should be highly selective about who they trust. (The fact that Lily and James were Head Boy and Girl is also significant.)
Like, Moody recruits Frank, who suggests Alice, who vouches for Marlene and later Lily.
Let me know if you agree!
le sang noir est du sang pur : French for : black blood is pure blood.