Okay so I have a lot to apologize for – well only one thing (MY LACK OF POSTING) but I have lots of making up to do. My life just got really hectic and then midsems came around and basically I had no time to even sleep. But here's another chapter. I really will try to be more regular (every second week max lateness – fingers crosses) but I don't want to make promises. This chapter is shorter since I wanted to remind you guys that I'm still here, but since I'm posting less regularly I will try to make them longer.
Disclaimer: you know the drill. Go JK Rowling.
LILY POV
Lily grabbed her wand from the table and rushed out the portrait door. When Potter – James she corrected herself – when James had said he couldn't make Thursday's patrol she's barely given it a second thought. Partly because she was frantic over her Transfiguration homework, but mostly because James had just made her so flustered. It wasn't like Lily to get so worked up over a boy, but here she was, so caught up in her odd relationship with James that she'd forgotten to reschedule someone to do patrols with her.
No she had two lonely hours of trudging around the school corridors. In a way it was a blessing that James wasn't here. Lily doubted she could survive two hours with him without blurting out something she'd instantly regret. When had James made her feel so self-conscious? But then again, if he were here, he'd help her pass the dreary hours. And you'd be able to spend more time with him, a traitorous voice inside her muttered.
After James had stomped from their common room Lily had instantly gone to check the patrols schedule. On her one she'd evenly marked out each full moon to make sure she gave Remus plenty of recovery time. When she first saw the small circle next to today's date, she wasn't even surprised to find out that Potter was skiving his duties on a full moon. I mean, what else occurred at Hogwarts during the night. Maybe the annual Gobstones party but that really wasn't James' scene. And if he was consumed with homework he would've just said that. Now that she remembered it, he hadn't even given her a reason.
Lily decided to start with the lower grounds, before making her way up to the Astronomy tower. From memory, a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw duo were allocated down in the dungeons and near the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw towers.
The grounds, as usual, were silent. In the distance Lily could see the Whoomping Willow thrashing and shoving in the breeze. Then beyond that, only a dark shadow, was Hagrid's hut and the dark forest. Lily had only ever been in there once for class, and that was enough. She remembered Remus once telling her that he'd had detention in there at night with James. No thank you.
A choir of low voices pulled her from her thoughts. All her worrying, and Lily hadn't even given an encounter with five Slytherins a thought. Sucking in a surprised gasp at the sight of them milling in the corridor, Lily ducked behind a corner. She gave herself three seconds before risking a glance at the group. She recognized Snape instantly, and the face of Avery wasn't one she'd forgot easily. Then there was Evan – a nasty, seventh year beater on the Quidditch team. She recognized Mulciber, but only because he was a prefect. The fifth Slytherin was a fifth year, also a prefect and a seeker to boot. Regulus Black slouched against the wall, his wand held loosely in his fingers, a grimace spread across his striking face.
"I thought you knew how to use it?" Evan hissed, staring squarely at Snape.
"I do," Snape drawled. "But it seems that we have company."
Lily darted back into the shadows, positive that he'd spotted her.
Evan cackled. "Look who it is," he said cheerfully, clapping his beefy hands. Lily could feel her heart pounding through her chest. Five against one weren't good odds. "Little baby Black and his croonies."
At that Lily frowned. She risked another glance at the group, her pulse soaring into her throat at the sight of two boys supporting a third in their arms. Sirius Black glanced up at that, his look of worry vanishing into one of annoyance. As if stumbling upon a group of five Slytherins was just an itch on his head. That was when Lily spotted James. Sirius had dumped most of his weight onto Peter, and since the boy was so small it was suddenly obvious just how injured James was.
"Looks like you lot have already found trouble," Avery drawled. He pulled his wand from his pocket.
"And we're not looking for anymore," Peter quipped, his voice breaking slightly.
"Looks like he's been mauled," Avery continued, pointing at the two, huge claw marks running down James' arm.
"It's nothing," Sirius said hurriedly. "A stupid dueling match gone wrong." He eyed the three Slytherin prefects – his eyes landing almost sadly onto his brother's blank face.
Evan brandished his wand from under her cloak, grinning manically. "I know some new spells that can fix him up easily." He edged closer.
Lily could almost feel the tension that radiated off Sirius as the deranged Slytherin inched closer. Evan was know for his tendency to turn maniacal with glee during a fight. Peter was still struggling to support James, his eyes darting nervously to the amount of blood that was now getting all over his hands. Lily knew she had to somehow get involved – that was her job – but you'd either have to be mad to jump between five Slytherins or completely insane.
"You really think you can take on five Slytherins?" Evan howled, glaring down at Sirius.
Lily almost fell over in shock when she noticed Sirius expression. He was gearing up for a fight – that was clear – but she could also so the far away look of helplessness. He knew he was going in way over his head, but he was still going in regardless.
"Piece of cake," Sirius said, grinning edgily. "You lot are all so greasy you end up slipping over each other."
Peter snorted involuntarily. Okay Lily. She thought firmly. You're a school prefect, and Head Girl to boot. She pushed aside the small nudge in her brain that told her why she really was about to jump into the train wreck of a situation. With one last nervous glance at James, Lily stepped out from the shadows, brandishing her wand bravely.
A part of her wanted to make some smart alec response, but she thought it would be smarter to constructively use her element of surprise. She pointed her wand at Avery – smiling pointedly at Sirius – before wordlessly hexing him. Avery crumpled soundlessly to the ground, causing the four remaining Slytherins to hurl on their feet. Evan relaxed visibly at the sight of Lily, but Snape kept his wand upheld, uncertain.
"Another Gryffindor baby out to play," Evan said cockily.
"Get off or I'll dock points," Lily threatened.
"Ohhh you got us," Mulciber sneered, pretending to surrender.
"If you lay a single hex on them I'll get Dumbledore," Lily continued, pretending to act bold.
"Leave the mudblood," Avery said, shrugging. "Let her watch."
Evan slashed his wand through the air, throwing Peter to the ground and hefting James into the air. Lily gasped as Peter hit the ground stone cold, his wand rolling across the cobblestoned floor. Dumbledore would've wanted her to resolve the situation without magic, but right now Lily couldn't care less. She sent a well-aimed stunner at Mulicber whilst Sirius advanced towards his cousin. From the corner of her eye she noticed as Regulus snuck away into the shadows, his expression torn. It was now one on one, but Snape stood on the sidelines, his eyes on her but his wand still tucked before his cloak.
"Now, now Black," Evan chanted. "Stun me and I'm not sure if Potter here will survive the fall."
Lily glanced up at James – blood was dripping from the slash marks onto the ground, his face a ghostly grey and his breaths short and shallow.
"I'll be here to catch him," Lily said.
Evan rolled his eyes, glancing towards Snape with an almost frustrated expression. The look left her eyes immediately, however, once she fully glimpsed Severus. His eyes were still on Lily, but his face was unrecognizable.
"Rotten lot of use you bunch our," he sneered. He lowered his wand, the movements mimicked by James' fragile figure. "You keep your eyes peeled. The rest aren't this useless."
And with that he rushed from the corridor, his black cloak billowing around his ankles. Lily rushed forward, dropping on her knees beside James.
"What happened to him?" She managed to gasp. Her fingers hovered uselessly over the deep gashes.
When Sirius didn't reply, she glanced up, watching anxiously as he revived Peter.
"We've got to take him to Pomfrey," Lily continued.
Peter groaned, rubbing his head as he sat up. Sirius, on the other hand, was still crouched on the groan, his eyes flitting between Lily and James. Lily had seen that look countless of times on James' face when he was trying to think up some excuse for being out after hours, or why transforming the entire dining hall into a jungle wasn't a plausible reason to give out two months worth of detentions. Peter looked distressed as he realised what had just happened. In the end Sirius just grunted.
"We'll take him," he grumbled, standing up.
"I'll come with you," Lily said. "You'll need a prefect to explain why you were out after hours. Plus, she'll be less mad if I'm with you."
There was obvious truth in her words, but Lily could tell that Sirius was growing more and more annoyed at her.
"How about you go back to being a good prefect and leave the trouble to us," Sirius said. "C'mon Pete, help me shift him."
Both boys hefted James up into their arms. His head lolled to one side, his eyes fluttering. Lily took a worried step forward, but stopped at the look on Sirius' face.
"We can handle our own shit Evans," Sirius growled. "I'll leave you to deal with these two." He pointed at the direction of the two unconscious Slytherins on the ground.
"Alright," Lily reluctantly agreed. "I'll drop in after my patrols to see how he is."
"Why do you suddenly care Evans?" Sirius said.
"C'mon Padfoot," Peter interrupted. He wiped more of James blood off of his fingers.
The two boys started off, Peter looking apologetically at Lily. Lily couldn't pinpoint why Sirius words hurt so much, but they did and as they swept past her, she couldn't find anything left to say.
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The next morning Lily wandered down to the Great Hall by herself. The past few days she's waited for James to emerge since she no longer had the girls, but she assumed he'd still be in the hospital wing. She found an empty seat halfway down. Grabbing a piece of warm toast, she dropped a few clumps of butter on top – waiting for them to melt – before adding a scoop of jam. It was seven thirty in the morning and the hall was almost empty. That meant no one to disturb her thoughts, no one to bother her –
"Hey Lily," a voice tumbled from behind her.
Lily almost fell out of her bench at the sound of James Potter's voice. He went to take the seat beside her, but recoiled at little at the expression on her face.
"What? Is someone already sitting here?" James questioned, his smile falling into pieces.
"No, no, no," Lily said hurriedly, ushering him to sit down. "Of course you can. I just wasn't expecting you."
"It's breakfast," James said, dropping down beside her. "Something I happen to do every morning."
"Yeah but considering the state of you last night I would've thought Pomfrey would have kept you for a bit longer," Lily told him.
He paused, his slice of toast caught half way between his plate and open mouth. "You were there last night?" James asked cautiously.
"Yeah, you know for that thing I do every night," she said. Catching his blank glance, she added. "Patrols, James."
"Oh right," James said, hurriedly shoving the piece of toast into his mouth. "Yeah, yeah Pomfrey fixed me up real fast. Should teach me not to mess with Padfoot again. Sorry about skipping out last night – seems like it wasn't everyone's best one."
Lily shrugged. "It certainly didn't make it to the top ten."
"Top ten, huh?" James said, winking.
Lily swatted her across the head. "Get your head out of the gutter, Potter."
"Ehh," James moaned, rubbing his skull. "Cheeky and frisky."
"If you're going to insist on acting twelve again…" Lily started, already on her feet, before she caught James' wide smile. She paused. Maybe Marlene was right and she did take James' stupid jokes too seriously. She flopped back into her seat. "You're infuriating you know that?"
"So my mum is constantly saying," James answered, reaching for another slice of toast.
Lily grinned, but pushed it aside as soon as James turned back to face her. For a split second, she was sure he'd noticed since an ear splitting smile run across his face.
"You busy this weekend Evans?" He asked. Lily knew she was over exaggerating the arrogance in his voice, but it was there regardless and it ticked her off instantly.
"Nupe," Lily said, standing up. "I'm off. Enjoy your breakfast Potter."
With that she stormed from the Great Hall, infuriated at herself for allowing herself to be so wound up by James' antics. He was just mucking around, Lily had to remind herself firmly, but it still annoyed her to great lengths. And how dare he just rock up to breakfast, unscathed and free from Pomfrey's iron grip.
She banged past Sirius in the corridor, knocking him to the side and causing a pile of books to tumble from his hands. They hit the fall with a scattered thud.
"Watch it," Sirius barked, dropping to the ground to gather his books.
Lily doubted he even realized whom he'd bumped into. "Sorry for getting in the way," she snapped, but she dropped to the ground to help him regardless.
At her voice Sirius glanced up. His face broke into a large grin. "Evans," he said cheerfully. Lily wasn't sure if the guilt in his voice was genuine or not. "No hard feelings right?"
"Other than the fact that I forgot to throw all your arses into a years worth of detentions?" She quipped. The power was in her hands – she still could dock points of Black's sorry ass – but when it came to Sirius house points and detentions never seemed to put a dent in his ego.
Sirius blinked. "So you'd rather we left Prongs' to bled to death in the common room?"
"Don't act stupid Black," Lily said. She passed Sirius' his stack of books. "You weren't even coming from the direction of Gryffindor. Besides, unauthorized duels are against the rules."
"Ergh," Sirius said, miming gagging. "Don't recite the rule book to me. I have much better things to do with my time."
He shoved around Lily, marching his way down to the Great Hall. Lily had only taken another few steps down the corridor when she ran into Marlene and Alice.
"Hey Lils," Alice greeted her.
Lily grunted back.
"Sorry Lily I dropped Troll in fourth year," Marlene commented sarcastically. "But luckily my divination is top notch. Let me guess, a rough encounter with my pea brain of a cousin."
Lily threw her hands up. "And I think I actually managed to piss of Black after."
"I always thought he was easy to piss off," Alice said.
"Easy there girls – this is my boyfriend you're badmouthing," Marlene said, her voice defensive but Lily easily heard the laughter behind her words.
Alice giggled. "I've always questioned your choices Marlene."
Marlene scoffed. "At least I'm not lusting after the same boy for over three years now."
The smile fell from Alice's face, but instead of looking angry she simply looked dejected. Lily threw Marlene a pointed glance, before rubbing Alice on the back. "I'm sure he'll catch onto how gorgeous and cool you are Al," she told her best friend. "Just give it time. And becoming friends first couldn't hurt, right?"
"He thinks I'm weird," Alice complained. "All the boys think I'm weird."
Unfortunately for Alice, her words rung of the truth. Her quirky habits and often mother like mannerisms had caused various stirs among the Hogwarts population. During fourth year someone – Lily had strongly suspected Black for this one – had started the rumor that she was a queer. It took most of fifth year to squelch it.
"You're different," Marlene said firmly. "I hate superficial stereotypes like Ruby Ancot."
"Yeah but look how many boyfriends she's had," Alice said sulkily. "Oh what am I doing? Complaining about my love life in a corridor. C'mon I'm starved. You coming Lily?"
"Already been," Lily said. "I'll see you lot in class."