"Have you seen this?" Alice waved her copy of the Daily Prophet in exasperation. "They've practically taken out an advert in the Prophet. How is that allowed?"

Peter reached across the table and laid the paper in front of him and Remus. Sure enough, a double page feature with a masked Death Eater stared back at them with the headline 'Maniacs, or Just Misunderstood?'

Remus scanned the sympathetic article in front of him, his stomach dropping to the balls of his feet as he read over details of torturing and murdering muggles and the plan for a pureblood future. He pushed his half-eaten bowl of porridge away wordlessly. He doubted anyone in their right mind would have much of an appetite after reading that.

The students had been back at Hogwarts for almost three weeks, and all the Seventh Years were adjusting to less sleep, more stress and the unprecedented amount of homework. For the past few weeks, it had been easy to forget that a war continued to rage on outside the castle.

"Frank will be furious" Alice continued "he's barely been sleeping – his boss is convinced that attacks are going to be more frequent between now and Christmas. They've all been pulling double shifts to try and get more intelligence and it's just not working."

Peter didn't say anything for a few moments, trying to take in the contents of the horror in front of him. When he did speak, his voice was steady and quiet: "what can we do to help?"

"Officially? We need to keep the Slytherins in check" Remus was sure "any time they push the boundaries, we need to report it to Lily and James right away. Then they can push it up to Dumbledore. Unofficially, however…"

Alice allowed a small smile to ghost at her lips. "I always forget that you're the genius behind the Marauders, Remus."

Peter let out a small cough of indignation, relenting as his friend elbowed him in the ribs.

Raising her head from her hands, Alice sneaked a glance over at the Slytherin table, where most of the older students were pored over copies of the paper, laughing and pointing or, worse, in deep and serious discussion.

She accidentally locked eyes with Snape, who smirked in her direction and raised his goblet. She felt bile rise in her throat and swallowed it, not letting her facial expressions betray her.

When she turned back to the boys, Remus, ever the Prefect, had risen from his seat to reassure some of Gryffindor's new first-years, who were reading the same article with watery eyes and trembling hands.

"Must be hard" Peter remarked "being away from home for the first time and not knowing what you could go back to."

Alice had to agree. At least they'd grown up with a faint knowledge of the war. Every year, it had gotten worse – more families missing, more explicit threats against muggleborn students, graffiti of the Dark Mark appeared in textbooks, on exam papers and in toilet stalls. Gradually, the war had become claustrophobic and every Sixth and Seventh year in the school could feel the pressure building.

They were all just waiting for the inevitable explosion.

Lily couldn't face going to join everyone for breakfast.

She knew she should, she should be a leader, she was Head Girl for goodness sakes. And yet…

She hadn't been sleeping well, that was the truth of it. The self-proclaimed queen of the eight-hour reset had been too troubled over the past week or so, and she was scared that the cracks were starting to show. There was too much to do and so little time that sleep was fast becoming overrated.

It wasn't like Lily didn't usually work hard. None of this had ever come easily to her – not like Potter and Black, or even Doe – but she had a laser-sharp focus that she prided herself on. She was productive, had a thirst for learning, and could usually master a new spell, concept or piece of magical history after a bit of studying and some hardcore practice.

But this year, the year that it mattered most, it just wasn't clicking.

And that thought absolutely terrified Lily Evans.

Add Head Girl priorities on top of a never-ending load of homework, constantly trying to bargain with James Potter – who, admittedly, had been a little less heinous after their showdown before the first Heads meeting, and keeping up with what was going on with her best friends, Lily was starting to crumble.

She'd been up since five that morning, and she wouldn't have gotten to sleep much before 1am either, if Doe hadn't been sneaking back from her date with Emmeline Vance far too late, and seen that light from Lily's wand had trickled from under her heavy bed curtains and onto the floorboards.

Dorcas had whispered her name gently, before pausing and adding sheepishly: "I haven't interrupted a wank, have I?"

Lily drew back her curtains quickly in indignation, revealing to Doe that she was fully-clothed and surrounded by a sea of heavy textbooks and scrawled notes.

Dorcas grimaced and moved a copy of Hogwarts: A History to the bottom of the bed so that she could sit next to her friend. "Lil, what are you still doing up? You know you've got a full day of classes tomorrow."

Lily rolled her eyes, trying to play this off like it was a light occurrence. They both knew it wasn't. "Sorry, mum. I'm just catching up on some reading. How was your date?"

"You're not changing the subject, love. What's going on? Why aren't you sleeping? Is there something we can do?"

"I'm just too tired to sleep" a short, bitter laugh rolled off her tongue at the end of the sentence. "I know that doesn't make sense, but I just can't…"

"Shut your brain off?" Dorcas guessed "is it homework, Head Girl stuff, or do you just to let off some steam?"

"All of the above" Lily knew she couldn't keep talking about this, or the floodgates would open, and she was so fucking tired of feeling miserable when she should have felt like she was on top of the world. She couldn't keep crying on the girls every week.

"Does any of this" Dorcas gestured to the academic mess across Lily's bedspread "need to be done for tomorrow?"

Lily shook her head.

"In that case" her friend rose "we're going to pack this all up, so that you can get some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll see if Slughorn has any Sleeping Draught he can spare. If not, we'll make one. Then we can all sit down and figure out how to help with your workload and we can even tell Potter to pull his weight as Head Boy if we need to, he doesn't argue with me."

Despite herself, Lily let out a small smile. No-one really argued with Doe – she was the most powerful dueller in the school, and only reminded people when she needed to.

"And then" Dorcas smiled triumphantly "we're going to find you someone to shag. Trust me, it's the stress relief I didn't know I needed. Marlene's probably going to burst soon, and Alice has been taking much longer showers that usual. Sometimes, Lil, you just need to get physical."

Lily scoffed "with who? There aren't any eligible bachelors this year."

Dorcas started lifting the textbooks from Lily's mattress into her open trunk. "I'm sure Potter would give you a go if you asked him nicely" she stage-whispered.

"Doe!" Lily exclaimed.

Marlene's curtains pried open: "whatsappenin?" she croaked.

"Nothing" Lily hissed "go back to sleep."

"Mission in the morning, Marls" Dorcas explained to her best friend "we're going to get Lily laid."

Marlene grunted and turned her head back into her pillow, letting out a small yawn.

Dorcas leaned over Lily, having moved the last of her papers, and kissed her on the forehead. "We get through it together, remember?" she said. "Sleep, Lil, otherwise you'll be grumpy and Potter might not survive the day tomorrow."

Lily let Dorcas close her curtains and she extinguished her wand with a silent Nox.

In her head, she knew it wasn't going to make any difference. It was all too much. Her bones felt heavier, her body weight was living in the soles of her feet, and her head was a swirling mess. There was no way anyone would be able to make her see a logical way out of it.

And then, of course, there'd been the cherry on the cake.

After waking at the ungodly hour of five am, she'd laid in bed for fifteen minutes, listening to Marlene locate her Quidditch gear for one of Potter's pre-breakfast practices. Tryouts were this evening, and the existing team were expected to be in fighting shape to show the new recruits how it was done.

When she was sure her friend had cleared the room, stomping down the stone stairs in her boots, and that Dorcas and Alice were still asleep, Lily had risen and dressed quickly. She threw a load of textbooks and notes from the night before into her bag and slipped out of the dormitory in search of her own sanctuary: The Heads' Office.

It had changed a lot since she and Potter had taken it over. Shockingly, he'd had the great idea of making a large timetable on the wall for the two of them. It showed their goals at the top and what they'd be doing that week, both personal and professional, so that they could pick times in the office for peace and quiet when the other was in class or, in the Head Boy's case, at Quidditch practice.

He'd added things to his side of the room too – a Tutshill Tornados banner stretched over the top of his desk and a photo of the Gryffindor boys sat in pride of place near the window. He'd even taken to leaving his lucky Snitch in a small glass case when he was in the office, to stop himself from fiddling with it.

This week, he'd had swatches of upholstery delivered for the Christmas Ball colour scheme. Lily had never seen anyone look so intently at four different shades of the same basic colour, but she had to hand it to him, he was turning a corner.

Lily plonked herself at her desk and worked until the sun came up, shifting through papers about effective uses of Reducto, why the muggle printing press was still used across wizarding Britain, and the five most common number combinations in Arithmancy. She wasn't sure that any of it was making more sense, but it felt good to be going through the motions, like flexing her favourite muscle.

When she was satisfied that her head was about to explode, she put down her papers and stretched out on one of the long sofas. If she could just close her eyes before Herbology, she wouldn't mind skipping breakfast.

That was when Artemis' beak had knocked at the window.

Lily thanked her for her copy of the Daily Prophet and the hand-written letter that accompanied it. Greedily, she'd torn into the letter from her dad first, his spidery scrawl always a delicious code to crack. He wrote to her every week and, the more excited he got about something, the more unpredictable his handwriting.

Opening that letter had been the first mistake.

The second, of course, was opening the Prophet and seeing the blacked-out eyes of a Death Eater in front of her.

She was still trying to digest it all when James and Marlene burst in through the door, sweating and still clad in their scarlet Quidditch uniforms. "Have you read it?" James asked his Head Girl, trying to gage her reaction from her unusually vacant eyes.

Lily nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Are you okay?" James asked softly, crouching down in front of her. "You look shattered."

"I've had better days" Lily said measuredly, hoping that he'd just link it back to the newspaper article, and leave her alone.

James pursed his lips and Marlene reached around from the back of the sofa to rest a comforting hand on the muggleborn's shoulder. "I'm going to do a special edition of the Herald" Marlene explained hurriedly "today. In response. James and I were thinking you could write an opinion piece for it, and maybe we could set up a support group, for anyone who's worried, to go and talk to someone?"

"I can't imagine how shit this is for you, Lily. But we're going to take a stand against it. Hogwarts isn't about these values, and Marlene's going to help us show that" James promised "I've spoken to McGonagall and Remus to set up a support centre this afternoon during his free period, and I've put tryouts on hold so that Pete and I can take the evening shift, Sirius is going to have a nap and take the night shift, but I think we'll need more people so-"

"You've cancelled tryouts?" was the only thing Lily could focus on.

James frowned "there are some things that are more important than Quidditch, Lily."

Of course there were, but Lily didn't think that James Potter was capable of acknowledging that.

"I agree, but you shouldn't leave Gryffindor in a worse position than the other teams" she couldn't believe the words were coming out of her mouth "re-instate tryouts, excuse Marlene from them, and anyone who's trying out can get an afternoon slot at the support centre so their flying won't be too affected. I'll take the evening shift with Pete."

"If you're absolutely sure" James was hesitant.

Lily nodded "we should go now and catch the end of breakfast" she said sternly "if we announce the support group in front of the while school, it makes it easier for everyone. Marls, can I come and dictate my piece to you later? You know I'm not as good a writer as you are. You can make it work."

"Of course" Marlene agreed. "Can you announce that I'll need all staff of the Herald to report to me at lunchtime please? I've got second period free, so I'll start setting up the presses then."

"Fine. Potter, we'll gather the Prefects at lunch and ask them to split their patrol shifts – half out in the castle, and the other half in the support centre. Minus some of the Slytherins, obviously." Lily's brain was warming up now.

They weren't going to stand for this. Not now, not ever.

It was time for James Potter and Lily Evans to show Hogwarts exactly how they were going to run this school.

Marlene's hair was up in a stress-bun and her school shirt was covered in splatters of black ink by the time the staffers of the Hogwarts Herald made it to their dedicated workspace on the third floor that lunchtime.

"Right" the editor clapped her hands together. "Thank you for coming. We've got four hours to get this special edition of the Herald knocked together, and we've very kindly been excused from class to do it. Before I start, is anyone confused as to why we're here?"

There were a few titters from Slytherins at the back. Marlene smiled grimly "glad you think it's funny, gang.

"Let me make one thing clear to everyone here: what was printed in the Daily Prophet was, legally, freedom of speech. It's also hate speech and it's not what we stand for at this school or at this paper. Everyone is equal, regardless if you're a pureblood, a muggleborn or a Squib, okay? If you believe anything different, you can leave this fucking office right now and not come back.

"There are students today who haven't stopped crying, because this is the reality of what's going on outside Hogwarts. Maniacs want to hurt you and your family, maybe even kill you, for your blood status or for standing up for people who they deem unworthy. That's absolute horse shit. The strongest witches and wizards at this school are made up of all different birth-rights and backgrounds. You see them every day, you work alongside them, play alongside them in Quidditch, and party with them on the weekends. Every student at this school has the right to feel safe, and that's what this paper is going to be about."

She cleared her throat. "So, is anyone leaving this office, or are you all in here with me?"

Two young Slytherins stood up and promptly walked out.

"Good riddance" Marlene said. "Let's get started then: Coutts, Tintwistle, Smith, you're on support centre stuff please, head down there and get me some photos, some logistics of how to book, and an interview with Remus, who I think is running it at the moment. We can give anyone there anonymity if they want to speak about the impact the article's had on them, so please be mindful of those who want to remain anonymous appearing in photos.

"Kirksby, please sort out this cursed printing press for me, and then set up the photo studio and run production, or else we're never going to get out of here on time.

"Garcia, Nowak, Caster, I want you to go through the anonymous letters we had last year and pull out the stats for hateful behaviour against muggleborns, please, knock it up into something. Do we think we'll see a rise after today? What can people do to protect themselves?

"MacDonald, Patil - McGonagall has agreed we can set up a Duelling Club. She's approached Dorcas Meadowes to run it, so can you get some words from the two of them? Bones, can you see if we can get time with Dumbledore and see what he thinks about this? Is there anything in the Hogwarts Code of Conduct that we can pull out to help us?

"Cameras are at the back, sensitive photos only please, remember, this is a life-or-death situation we're talking about. If anyone needs me, I'll be looking through Daily Prophet stories about recent attacks on muggles so that we can tie this back into the real world and helping the Head Girl with our front page article. Let's get this issue done."

Sirius had woken up from his nap in a foul mood. To be fair, he'd been in a foul mood since reading the Prophet article this morning.

Add a whole day of walking past muggleborns in tears, Dolohov's lot setting off fake Dark Marks to scare people – and promptly being given detention by Slughorn for doing so – and a brutal, rainy Quidditch tryout without his partner Beater. Yeah, Sirius Black was running on anger, and there was still one person he needed to see about it.

Well, maybe two.

"Are you coming down for dinner?" Remus asked. They were the only two in the dormitory, with James still talking tactics with the new Quidditch players and Pete on duty at the support centre with Lily. "Rage eating will do you a good turn before tonight. Plus, the Herald should be done now, so I'm sure Marlene will be there."

"What does Marlene have to do with anything?" Sirius grumbled, throwing a jumper on over his The Damned t-shirt.

Remus gave him a knowing look "she'll want to hear all about tryouts, won't she? And you were in a foul mood that she wasn't there with you."

"Because it was cold, dark and raining" Sirius reminded him "she got to be in the warm, with lots of people to boss about, and all she had to do was write some words! I had to freeze my arse off. Plus, have you ever tried to demonstrate what a pair of Beaters do, but on your own? It's impossible, Moony."

"Uh-huh."

Merlin, Remus was infuriating.

The Great Hall was a calmer scene than it had been at breakfast. The support group had drawn some people out of the hall and others were serving serious detentions for their behaviour that day. Across each house table, copies of the Herald, with the headline 'Maniacs, actually…' had been scattered. Some students were reading them eagerly, others ignoring them until they got to a safer place and, predictably, some Slytherins were trying to catch Marlene's gaze as they set them on fire.

She wasn't about to give them the satisfaction. Everyone at the Herald had played a blinder this afternoon and, to top it all off, she'd personally sent fifty fresh copies to the Daily Prophet offices to show them how real reporting was done. She didn't doubt that Dumbledore would be getting an angry owl from the editor, but it was worth it.

"Well, look who finally showed up" James grinned, reaching out for a one-armed hug as Marlene sat down next to him at the table. "The paper looks great, Mar. Well done. Lily's piece is just…well, it's great."

"Thanks, but that was all her. I just wrote it" Marlene stuck a forkful of mashed potato into her mouth, suddenly ravenous. "How were tryouts?"

"Cold" her captain answered "Sirius was in a right grump without you, y'know."

"He's always in a right grump, he needs a shag" Marlene fired back, waving her fellow Beater over as he and Remus entered the room.

"Careful today, Mar" James warned her.

She didn't need to be told twice. There was always the unspoken issue whenever subjects like blood purity came up. It hit Sirius harder than most and, with Regulus sat a few tables away tearing the Herald into pieces as he ate, the distinction couldn't have been clearer.

"How was bunking off?" Sirius asked Marlene, swinging effortlessly into the free seat next to James. "I've lost three toes to frostbite since this morning."

"Diddums" Marlene cooed. "Did you find someone to replace me in anger, or…?"

"There was no-one even close to you, don't worry" James reassured her.

"Thanks boss" she winked at him, earning a dramatic huff from Sirius, who was enthusiastically loading his plate up with chicken and mushroom pie.

"This looks great, Mar" Remus joined them, holding several copies of the Herald. "Are you going to frame it?"

Marlene shrugged, fatigued at the thought of doing anything more with the special issue of the paper, even framing it. "Depends if it helps people, doesn't it?" she smiled weakly.

"Course it will, Lily wrote most of it" Sirius smirked, taking a copy from Remus to read as he scoffed his dinner.

Marlene kicked him under the table. "Git."

Sirius read in silence, which was unusual for him, because he was usually too busy doing stupid impressions or taking quotes out of context. Marlene smiled to herself, that was a good sign.

"Right" James slapped his best mate on the back "are you going to be good to relieve Wormy and Lily soon? I've got a few bits to do at the Heads' Office."

"Sure" Sirius popped his remaining green beans into his mouth and resisted the urge to lick the gravy from his plate like Padfoot would. "Just one thing I need to do first. Well, two."

James frowned. "And those things are…?"

"I need to tell McKinnon that this is a really good issue of the Herald and I won't deface any of the pictures like I normally would."

"Can I get that in writing?" Marlene asked, learning over the table with the Sugar Quill that she'd been sucking to clear her palate.

"Absolutely not, his reputation would be ruined" Remus teased.

Sirius took the half-dissolved Sugar Quill and stuck it in his mouth like a cigarette. "Thanks, sweetness. Now, just need to go and have a quick word with a man about a thing."

His three friends looked at each other, concerned.

"Padfoot" James said softly "are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Not here" Marlene added "do it in the hallway."

"And don't murder him, he's just a kid" Remus reminded him.

Sirius catapulted himself from his seat and made his way over to the Slytherin table, where his presence was met with howls of disapproval.

"Tell your girlfriend that her paper was shit, and she'll be hearing from my father about it" Nott yelped. "This is real hate speech."

"Shouldn't you be with your blood traitor friends?" Snape sneered.

Sirius blocked them all out. He locked eyes with his younger brother, who had been mindlessly making disgusting phrases with the cuttings from Marlene's articles. Regulus, who had always been so impressed by people with money and power and how he could use them to his own ends; Reg, the cleverest person he knew, who should have left that rotten house when he'd been given the chance.

"Hallway" Sirius said, not waiting to see if he been followed. He knew that he would be. There was still something there – a bond that couldn't be broken, even when they weren't talking, even when they were both on opposite sides of the fence. It drew them to one another.

That's family for you, though. Can't be with them, can't be without them.

"What do you want?" Regulus asked when the brothers reached the hallway, feigning boredom.

"You think this is funny?" Sirius hissed, throwing the Herald at his younger brother. "You think this is some sort of fucking joke for you and your sick friends? People are dying, Reg."

"Not here, they're not" was his petulant reply.

"I'm going to make one thing really clear, little brother" Sirius leaned down for effect, their faces so close they were almost touching. The pair had always looked alike, but Regulus' skin was getting paler as the days went on, the black rims around his eyes more pronounced. "I love you. You're on the wrong side of this, and I know one day you'll realise it. It's not too late."

"To what?" his younger brother snorted, recoiling as he did so "join a bunch of losers in a war you're not going to win?"

Sirius' mouth went dry. "You haven't-"

"Joined him? Not yet, but I will. He's on the right side of history here, brother, and you and your little mudblood friends are going to lose."

Sirius shook his head "you think any of those people care about you, Reg? You think anyone in there" he gestured towards the hall "is going to look after you when it all goes wrong? They're not your friends – they care more about the cause than anything."

"Severus is my friend."

Sirius' laugh came out like a bark. "Well, carry on with that, because he does great things to his mates, doesn't he? And, by the way, he's still chasing after Lily like a little lost puppy, wanting to be friends, so I have no idea how that fits into your fucking warped agenda."

"I'm bored of this conversation now" his younger brother announced. "When you've made the right choice about your priorities and you come home, I'm sure Mother would have you with open arms."

Sirius didn't have anything left to say. He knew it wouldn't make a difference, not today.

The Black brothers had chosen their sides, and he would just have to hope with all his might that Reg would see the smoke and mirrors for exactly that.

"You okay?" James was leaning against the doorway to the hall.

"Never better" his friend sighed.

"Come on, mate" the Head Boy muttered, clapping him on the back "you've done your best, and we've got some people to help. I'll walk you – I need to make sure that Evans gets off on time, she didn't sleep well last night."

Sirius nodded mutely, letting himself be guided, not for the first time, by James Potter through the hallways of Hogwarts.

Who needed bloodlines when you had real brothers, anyway?