The Dark Mark Strikes Again
Another member of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement has been reported missing. Angelina Walker, a known Muggle Born, has not been seen since this past Saturday; anyone with any news is urged to come forward, as her family is incredibly concerned.
What is now being called the 'Dark Mark' was found above her home on Sunday morning. This case is assumed to be related to the previous missing persons cases where the mark has been spotted. The Ministry is urging people to not be out after dark, and to always travel in a group, until the person who is responsible is found. They are especially urging Muggle Borns to be extra cautious, as all the previous missing people have also been Muggle Born.
Lily put down the Prophet and looked around the hall, taking in all of the concerned faces. This was the third disappearance this month, and the Ministry did not seem to be any closer to find who was behind it. Lily looked back at her friends all of them mirroring her terrified facial expression, but none looked more troubled than Adaline's. None of the girls knew what to do with the information, or how to process it.
"I think I've seen this mark before…"Adaline said, scrunching up her nose as she was deep in thought, "it was on my father's desk, in his study, placed under a stack of papers…it was just a loose sketch, but I swear it was the same drawing…"
"Do you think this has to do with Tom?" Adrian asked, fear was evident in her voice when talking about their families friend.
"I think it might, he did a lot of talk about calling into action this past summer, talking about how it was time that we started to purify the Wizarding World…He started talking about how to do this, but nothing was concrete when I left; at least not that I had heard. They wanted to create a mark that would instill fear in everyone; and by the looks of it, they succeeded…"
"Do you really think this is going to work?" Alice asked, her eyes widening slightly.
"I think he's going to do everything in his power to try and make sure that it does…" Adaline said, "He's committed to the cause. He's even starting to change his name to Voldemort…claiming it's a name that will instill fear into people."
"What, was Tom too casual for him?" Adrian said, trying to lighten the situation slightly, but she instantly shut up after Adaline glared at her.
"I'm just concerned because if this is him, it's only the beginning. None of you heard him talk this summer; he is very convincing. I think he could convince most people in the group to do anything he wanted, and they would follow without a second thought. It's actually terrifying; and if this is him targeting the Muggle Borns that means that they are starting to pick them off, and he will not stop until he's dead or has succeeded."
"The Ministry will catch him though, won't they?" asked Gemma, knowing the answer, but trying to be optimistic regardless.
"I think that they will try, but he is going to make it extremely difficult…" Adaline said, not sounding so sure, "These followers are obsessed with him, I don't think anyone will turn...and I don't have enough information to help."
Lily just felt sick to her stomach, knowing that there were people out there who wanted her dead, people who thought that she shouldn't practice magic. She could feel her insides going cold, because deep down, she knew this was only the beginning. Lily knew that there were going to be more tragic, more horrific things coming, and she knew that there was very little that she could do to stop it. Lily had a feeling that if he wanted her dead, she would be dead. Judging by Voldemort's past few targets, it was only a matter of time until she was one of them. Lily could feel her throat closing in, and the panic taking hold. She instantly stood up and grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder.
"I need to go to the bathroom," she said, and without waiting for anyone's response Lily was making her way quickly out of the hall.
Lily knew that her friends were going to be concerned, and that it was taking all of their willpower not to follow her. However, they understood that Lily needed her alone time to process this information, no matter how much it killed them.
Lily was trying to calm her breathing, not paying much attention to where she was going. Her only thought was that she needed to get away from people. People who knew, deep down, that one day she would be a target. One day, people would want her dead because her blood 'wasn't pure'. She almost threw up walking past the Slytherin table, hearing their snickers at her horror struck face, getting amusement from her pain.
Lily was momentarily snapped out of her thoughts when she bumped into someone, "Sorry," she mumbled, only briefly looking up to see that she had run into Remus.
Lily kept moving, not waiting to hear what he had to say. She needed to get away, even if it was just for a moment. She needed to be able to collect herself before class, to process the news that she had received. She could hear footsteps behind her, but she didn't stop. Just as she reached the girl's bathroom a hand grabbed her shoulder.
"Lily," the voice said, "Are you alright?"
Lily turned, blinking back the tears that threatened to fall and responded, "Yeah, sorry, there's just something in my eye."
Remus looked down at the shorter girl, not quite believing her. However, he knew better than to argue with Lily and he could tell she didn't want to talk, especially not with him. They weren't friends anymore, so why should she?
"Alright, I just wanted to make sure you were alright we were worried about you," he settled on saying.
"Thanks Remus, I'm okay. I'm just going to run to the bathroom quick before class…"
"Alright, just know that you have friends if you need anything…."
Lily just nodded and made her way into the bathroom, feeling a little calmer. Lily walked over to the sink and gripped the edge, trying to steady her breathing. She splashed her face with some cold water, squared her shoulders and with her head up high she walked to class.
She was going to be okay, she told herself. She was in the safest place in the world, no one would dare touch Muggle borns at Hogwarts. Besides, Lily was the brightest witch in her year, if they wanted to come and attack her, she was going to make sure that she gave them hell.
With a smile on her face she walked quickly towards Charms, as the hallways were starting to thin out, and people were heading into their classrooms. Lily walked into the room just as the bell was ringing, and walked towards her seat next to Adaline; for the first time in a very long time she was the last one in the classroom.
Her friends all watched Lily nervously. She had come in with a small smile on her face, but Alice knew she wasn't fully alright. How could she be? But, she knew that her friend would talk when she was ready. She watched Lily pull out her supplies for class, and turn her full attention to Professor Flitwick, and Alice tried to do the same.
That following Wednesday night was spent in the Library working on the Potions essay that Lily had put off until the last minute. This was very unlike her, (as she normally does things right away to avoid this very stressful situation) but she was too drained on Monday, and on Tuesday night Remus and her had patrol, leaving her very little time to do it. Especially with all the other course work she had to do last night.
Adaline had been with her earlier, but she had started her essay yesterday so she had finished an hour ago. Lily was so close to being done, but she could not for the life of her figure out how to write the conclusion. It didn't help that she could hear the Slytherins sitting a few tables back and snickering; and Lily knew that Snape was watching her closely (and a bit creepily). She was wondering what the chances of him not coming to talk to her were. Lily was thinking not high, because luck was just not in my favor this week. She figured she had a half an hour before he was over and pestering her to forgive him.
The Slytherins didn't stay much longer (thankfully), a few of them 'bumped' into Lily's chair on their way out, but that was nothing (they had attempted much worse). However, Lily did not see Snape leave with them though, and knew that nothing good would come from it. She was dreading the moment he would come over and try to talk to her.
It only took Snape five minutes to come over; he was probably waiting to make sure that his Slytherin friends wouldn't come back in and see him talking with Lily. Honestly, she was really not in the mood to deal with him right now; no matter how many times he tried to apologize it wasn't going to make a difference. They were never going to be friends because Lily knew that between her and his friends in Slytherin he would always choose them. She wasn't going to be someone's second choice friend, or someone he could only see 'behind closed doors'.
"What?" Lily said (a little rudely) as he approached her table.
"Can we talk?" he asked, looking slightly wounded and wincing at Lily's harsh tone (and honestly, she couldn't blame him, most people cringed at the sound of it-the exceptions being the Marauders who had heard it so many times that they were no longer phased).
"About what?" Lily asked, trying to soften her voice slightly.
"What happened….you know I'm sorry Lily…can't you just forgive me?"
"No. This is not something that a simple apology can fix Severus, you hurt me in one of the worst ways possible…that's not something that will just go away."
"Lily, I called you an awful name because I was being tormented by Potter and Black and I took my anger out on you. I know that wasn't fair, but I said I was sorry, why can't you just forgive m? I don't see you completely ignoring them."
"No, don't go blaming this on them. They are bullies, but this was your own doing! I was trying to help you, and you completely shut me out and called me the one thing you promised you never would. You are too much like you friends in Slytherin, too focused on blood purity, for us to ever be friends again. I'm sorry. Besides, I don't talk with them either; unless you count yelling, which is a daily occurrence."
"Come on Lils, it won't happen again…I swear…."
"No, now if you don't mind, I am trying to do my work…"
"I could help you?" he said looking hopeful, "I just finished my essay…"
Thankfully Lily was saved from having to respond when Frank showed up and said, "Sorry mate, she asked me to help her earlier. You ready to finish your essay?"
"Yeah, thanks so much for agreeing to help me," Lily responded, shooting her friend a grateful smile.
Snape took the hint a sulked away; part of Lily felt bad, she did miss her friend. However, she knew that if she gave him a chance she would end up getting hurt. She couldn't go through that again. She was sick of being betrayed by friends.
"So, what are you working on?" asked Frank, taking the empty seat next to her.
"Just finishing my Potions essay," Lily said, "What are you working on?"
"Finishing my Transfiguration essay…"
"Sounds like loads of fun…" Lily said, chuckling.
"Oh, don't you know it!"
After that little exchange they worked in silence for the next 30 minutes both finishing their essays (the conclusion finally coming out how Lily wanted it to). At that point her brain was turning to mush and she knew that it was time for her to call it quits for the night.
"Are you ready to go back?" Lily asked packing her stuff back into her bag.
"I will be in about 5minutes if you want to wait?"
"Of course!" Lily said, "I feel like I haven't seen you much this year…and Prefect meetings don't count, since we don't get to talk a lot!"
"Yeah, I've been spending a lot of time with Julie…" he said, as he finished writing his essay.
Ten minutes later they were walking out of the library doors, both very happy to be done with their work for the night.
"So, how are things with Julie?" Lily asked, curious about the girl who was taking up so much of their friend's time.
"We're pretty good, I mean she's absolutely great…" he said, smiling (though it looked a little forced).
"I'm sensing a but…" Lily said, giving him a knowing look.
"But…I don't know if it will go anywhere, she's always asking me to spend time with her, so I barely have time for my friends…and she doesn't want to me be an Auror because it's too dangerous, but that's what I want to do…that's all I've ever wanted to do…" he said, "Now, don't get me wrong, she's great, she's sweet and kind, plus she's funny. I mean, she's everything that I could want…"
Lily had a lot of thoughts on that, and how she knew Alice would be encouraging of his dreams. She also wanted to mention that a relationship shouldn't take away from friendships, sure it would shift things, but it shouldn't cause many problems. However, she also knew that was not what he needed to hear. She had no doubt he was getting an earful from Tyler and Candice for not spending enough time with them.
Instead, Lily said, "I'm sure she's great, she sounds really nice, but I definitely think that you need to tell her that you need time with your friends. This is your last year together, and our last year with you. We all need our Frank time…"
"I think you're right…so I heard that you finally said yes to James," Frank said laughing, and changing the subject, "Gemma was almost in hysterics when she told me, something about his face changing to pure shock…"
"Yeah, people tend to get a very sarcastic Lily before I've had my coffee in the morning…" Lily said, smiling.
"God, I imagine…you are not someone I would want to make angry…" he said, laughing, "I know that you could kick my ass if you wanted…you are the brightest witch of your year…"
"Awww thanks Frank, you flatter me…" Lily said, laughing, "I don't think I'll ever have a reason to be mad at you; so I think that you're safe. Potter on the other hand pisses me off on a daily basis…so I'm just always mad at him."
"Good to know!" Frank said, "Though, I never did figure out what he did that made you hate him so much…one day you were inseparable and the next you are insulting each other."
Thankfully, we had reached the common room, and Lily didn't need to answer his question. That was the one question she had become very skilled at avoiding; it was one that very few people would ever know the answer too. How did James and Lily go from being best friends, to hating each other almost overnight?
Lily pulled out of my thoughts when she saw Adaline get up and do her happy dance from across the room.
"They must be playing Exploding Snap," Lily said, laughing at Adaline's antics.
"She always wins…" Frank said laughing and shaking his head.
"I don't know why people bother trying to play against her," Lily added chuckling as they walked over and sat down.
"Hey Tyler, hey Candice!" they said, sitting down.
"How's it going?" Frank said.
"Wait…hold on a second…are we all here? At the same time?" said Candice, feigning shock looking between Tyler and Frank.
"I think…I think we might be…" Tyler said, playing along, dramatically placing his hand on his heart..
"What is happening? The world must be ending!" said Frank.
Adaline and Lily laughed at their antics before they headed back up towards their room, deciding that the three of them needed some quality bonding time. Candice had just been telling them the other day that she had barely seen either of them because they were always off with a girl (well, Frank with his girlfriend and Tyler with the girl he was casually seeing).
Both Lily and Adaline were thinking that they needed a girls night in their room, one where they sat on their beds gossiping and staying up much too late.
The rest of the week and the weekend flew by in a blur of homework, and soon enough it was a Tuesday night and time for Lily and Remus to patrol again. Lily made her way down into the common room, and stood by the portrait door, where they usually met.
"Hey," Lily said when he joined her.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked, a slight smile on his face.
"Not at all…" Lily said, and then they were on their way.
Most of Lily and Remus' patrols were done in silence, neither knowing what to say. Lily wouldn't talk to him by association with Potter and Remus never knew what to say to Lily for her to understand that they could go back to being friends. So, they patrolled in silence, looking around for anything out of the ordinary.
Thankfully, they rarely found anything. Occasionally they would find a couple in a broom closet, but that was it. As the night wore on, they had only found one couple making out (which was really quite scandalous as she had a boyfriend), but otherwise the patrol was thankfully boring.
"I am sick of the silence," Remus finally settled on saying, "We used to be such good friends, and now we barely say 5 words to each other."
"It's crazy how things can change…" Lily said, in a slightly wistful voice.
"I miss talking with you Lily, despite what you might think I don't dislike you."
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I can generally tolerate you and Peter…it's just the other two that I can't stand."
"Is it because you were always so close with them when we were younger?"
"No, it's because of who they became, I was always equally as close with all of you!" Lily said; which was true, she had never had any favorites when it came to three of the boys (James had always been the exception…oddly enough).
"Okay, fine, you were equally close with all of us expect James. You two were at the point of barely being seen without each other, and then it just switched."
"I have tried to block out those memories…"
"Why? Even if it's not the same now, they were good memories," Remus said (and Lily wanted to hit him for being so wise-the memories hurt too much to think about).
"I know that, they were great times, some of the best; but they will also not happen again…people change. I changed and so did he, and honestly, we both changed into such different people that I don't think we could ever be friends again."
"I don't think either of you changed as much as you both think you did…" Remus said, giving Lily a knowing look, "But, I have a proposition."
"You do?" Lily said, cracking a smile at his wording.
"Yes, I propose a friendship between us."
"A friendship?" Lily said, "Good heavens. This is all moving so fast."
"Because, you see Lily Evans, we need to work with each other quite often, and I don't like working in silence; with my friends that normally means I need to be very concerned. And since we both 'tolerate' each other, I don't think that there would be any harm in changing that 'tolerate' to friendship. It will make these patrols go much faster than they did last year."
"You know what Remus Lupin, that might just be the best proposition I've heard all evening…" she said, smiling at him, "So, friends?"
"Friends," he said, "Now, see how much faster that last half of our patrol went? I think that this just proves my point."
"You Remus Lupin must be a genius!" Lily said, laughing as they entered the common room.
Lily was happy with the way the patrol had gone, she knew of the four of them, Remus had changed the least since they had been friends all those years ago. However, it would still be a long time until she trusted him. She knew that between Potter and herself, his loyalties were to Potter.
Her happiness, however, was short lived. As the two of them walked into the room still laughing, James Potter glanced back from putting the Quidditch tryouts up on the board. He felt a wave of jealousy and sadness roll through him at the thought of them being friends, before his anger took over.
When Lily looked up and met his eyes, she was met with a cold look, one colder than she had seen in years.
"So, are you going to come and try out for the team this year Evans?" he said, smirking.
Lily knew that whatever was coming next, it would not be good. She saw Remus tense from next to her. He could sense his friend's anger.
"Of course, that way I can be closer to you Potter…" Lily replied, as she made her way towards the girls' dormitory; praying that he wouldn't take this the way that she thought he was.
Hoping that he wouldn't bring up her mother. In all of their years of fighting, that was one thing that they avoided.
"That and you just love flying don't you? I mean in first year you wouldn't have minded joining the team," James said, hating himself for taking this too far, but he was unable to stop himself, "But then again, aren't you afraid of heights?"
He and Lily both knew that it was not a fear of heights that kept her from flying.
"I mean, I would have a fear of heights too, if my mom died flying…" he broke off, and for a minute Lily could have sworn she saw regret flash through his eyes, but she was too angry to care.
"That is a new low…even for you Potter," Lily said, giving him such an icy look that he actually visibly flinched, "Congratulations, you are officially the biggest asshole to have ever attended this school. I'm sure your parents are so proud of the man they raised. Insulting those who are beneath him or those he feels he can push around."
With that Lily turned and quickly made her way towards the dorms, blinking back the tears furiously. She had never despised anyone as much as she despised James Potter. He knew that she didn't fly because of what happened to her mother in their first year, but he didn't seem to care. He watched as she was heartbroken over losing her, and he was there to comfort Lily when she needed it, and he still took it and threw it in her face.
He used one of the few things that they never talked about, that they never threw out when they were angry, like it was nothing. He knew how much of a sensitive topic it was. Lily knew that talking about his parents was a low blow as well, because she knew that was all he wanted to do was make his parents proud (and he normally succeed because Lily knew his parents thought the world of him), but after bringing up how her mom died in a plane crash, Lily just didn't care.
Lily took deep calming breaths as she walked up the stairs, cursing the day that she had met James Potter.
Yeah, I know, that was low. James is a huge jerk. He will grow as a character. What do you think about Remus and Lily's friendship? Think it will last?