Out of Desperation
by PiperPaigePhoebe01
Chapter Two
Lily groaned and rolled over, burying her head deeper under the covers. She had been having such a wonderful dream... she didn't want to wake up... it had been a dream about Hogwarts, becoming Head Girl, when a hoot had interrupted it—
Wait.
A hoot?
Lily sat up, pushing the covers away from her face. Sure enough, an owl was just outside her window, a letter attached to its leg. It was an extraordinarily handsome tawny owl, dark feathers gleaming. Lily smiled at it, walked over to the window, and opened it, allowing the owl to hop inside.
The owl held out its leg and Lily untied the thick letter. Glancing at it, she saw Lily written in spiky letters—very familiar spiky letters. Lily wondered why Potter, of all people, was writing to her, but sat down on her swivel chair to read.
Dear Lily,
Hi. How are you? I'm fine. Sirius, Remus and Peter all arrived yesterday, and they're staying for the rest of the summer. I got my Hogwarts letter a couple weeks ago, and don't even bother denying it, I know you got Head Girl. Incidentally, I know who got Head Boy as well, but you'll just have to wait to find out, because I'm not telling.
Lily made a noise of annoyance.
What a prat.
I'm not just writing to torture you, by the way. There is a purpose to this letter, and that purpose is enclosed.
You see, last night, I found this very interesting book on my bed. A book called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We decided to read it—and don't scoff, we actually do know how to read—and thought you might be interested. Now, when you read it, don't hex us, because it's not a joke. From us, at least.
Also, mum says that you're welcome to come and stay with us for a week or so, which I think you might want to do after reading the first chapter.
-James
Lily let out a laugh. Why would she ever want to stay with the Potters for a week? Honestly, she might be friends—acquaintances—with the Marauders, but she would sooner tear her hair out than stay for any amount of time with the Potters.
He had piqued her curiosity, however, so she took out the thick sheets of parchment. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the note that was scrawled at the very top of the page.
Don't let anyone else read this. We put spells on it to make sure only you can read it, but just to be safe. James.
"Okay, it's official," Lily muttered, staring at the title of the book. "Potter has gone off the deep end."
As she started reading, her disbelief grew, but nothing could have prepared her for the shock she received when she saw "Lily and James Potter" on the page for the first time. She blinked once and reread the sentence. And then blinked again and reread it again.
Following that, she stopped reading. Fury mingled with disbelief.
"What an idiot!" Lily stormed. "Like I would ever believe this tripe!"
She was of half a mind to Floo over to Potter's house and give him a piece of her mind, but stifled that urge. Instead, she swiveled her chair back over to her desk, grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill, and began to write.
Potter,
What in Merlin's name are you playing at? If this is some sort of sick joke to get me to go out with you, it's not working. You are such an idiot. Now, tell me what this is really about or I'll hex you into next year!
Lily.
Lily folded the letter. The owl was still there, so Lily tied it to the owl's leg. And, just like that, it flew off, leaving Lily alone to reflect on Potter's idiocy.
Just as Lily had finished reflecting on Potter's idiocy and went down to fix herself some breakfast, James Potter stretched and yawned. He stared at the ceiling, thinking. Was there something he was forgetting?
Ah, yes.
He stared at the book on his nightstand. He had wanted to learn more about his son, but Remus had said that they should wait until Lily was there to continue reading. They had all agreed, but James was reluctant.
He wanted to know more about his son. He wanted to know how he had defeated Voldemort, and how Lily's relatives were treating him. He wondered where his best friends were, where his parents were, and why they weren't taking care of Harry.
And yet he wanted to know more than that.
He thought that the book was from the future, but how could he be so sure? It was suspicious, a book just appearing like that, out of nowhere, in his bedroom and without any prior warning. Could it be a prank?
No. It couldn't.
Even if there was someone who could play a prank on the infamous Marauders—which there wasn't—the book seemed too real—too dark—to be anything but the truth. Sure, at the beginning, it was funny—a way for the Marauders to snark at something—but... now, it was too involving, too much like the truth.
James sighed and rolled over. It was too early to be awake, and yet he couldn't get back to sleep. His eyes were glued to the book on his nightstand.
If this book did tell of his son—
James was going to marry Lily.
The thought brought a smile to his face. Maybe—just maybe—this book would be enough to bring them together.
James stretched and closed his eyes.
He hoped so.
A few hours later, while James was shoveling bacon and eggs into his mouth at a record pace, his owl swooped through the open window. James untied Lily's response and read it; he had expected a response like the one she had given.
"What'd she say?" Sirius asked, though the words ended up coming out rather thickly due to the fact that he had just bitten into a piece of thick buttered toast.
"Just the usual," James said, folding the letter and putting it beside his plate. "She didn't believe it, of course, thought it was a prank, called me an idiot, and threatened to hex me into next year."
Remus nodded. "I knew it."
"How're you going to get her to believe you?" Peter inquired squeakily.
"I dunno."
"Well, at least you can prove it's not a prank," Remus said. "Now, at least. No one would think of pulling a prank like this."
"There are some Truth-Revealing spells," Sirius said. "They're not as strong as Veritaserum, but they can give you a pretty good idea about whether or not something is telling the truth or not. It's used for ancient scrolls and such, by wizarding archaeologists."
Remus glanced at Sirius. "How do you know that?" he asked.
"My parents," Sirius said, and his expression clouded. Ever since he had run away from the Blacks a year ago, any mention of his family made him look like he wanted to punch something. "They had a cousin who was a wizarding archaeologist, they learned a lot about those sort of spells from him, and I—well, I eavesdropped."
James grinned. "Of course."
"Can you perform the spells?" Peter asked.
"Probably," Sirius said. "Evans probably knows them too; she'll be able to perform them."
"Only one problem, Padfoot," Remus said. "There's no way Lily will come here. She's probably fuming right now."
"Yeah," James agreed.
A smile spread across Sirius' face. James, having known Sirius for six years, knew he was up to something—and so did Remus and Peter. Remus shot a curious, yet worried, look in Sirius' direction.
"What have you planned?" Remus asked suspiciously.
"Well, Lily won't come here out of her own free will, right?" Sirius asked. James nodded, feeling rather suspicious. "So... if she's not willing to come here, and you're willing to go over there..."
James' eyes widened, but didn't get a chance to speak before Remus beat him to it.
"You are an idiot, Padfoot," he said. "Do you know what Lily would do if we suddenly just appeared in her house?"
"Hex us, of course," Sirius said. "And then demand to know what we were doing there, which gives James a chance to win her over by an enthralling tale of how he is on a quest to save his son from an orphan's life and prove that the book is true at the same time."
Remus rolled his eyes. "That is the most ridiculous plan I've ever heard."
"But we need Lily," James pointed out. "How are we going to change things without her?"
"And she has to perform the spells," Peter added.
"And if Lily performs the spells, she can't claim that we were somehow skewing the result," Sirius added.
"We couldn't do that, anyway, Padfoot," Remus said.
"Yeah, but Evans might insist on believing we did anyway," Sirius said. He bit into the last piece of bacon on his plate, swallowed, and continued. "This way, she'll know we're telling the truth."
"We don't even know the book is telling the truth," Remus said.
James laughed. "Come on, Moony," he said. "You thought it was last night."
"I still do," Remus insisted. "I just don't think this is a good idea."
"Too bad," Sirius said. "Let's go now!"
He stood up. James followed suit, even though he knew that Lily would probably kill him when he showed up in her house. He had to do this, he had to know for sure if it was true. He could perform the spells, of course, but Lily was better at Charms.
And besides, you just want to see her again, a little voice whispered in his head, and he didn't bother denying it.
"Think we'd better Apparate?" James asked. "It'd be easier than using Floo powder and, besides, I don't even know if Lily's house is connected to the Floo."
"If you're insisting on doing this," Remus said, resigned, as he followed them out of the kitchen, "you'd better Apparate."
"All right, then." He looked around at his three friends. "Sirius, Remus, you can Apparate on your own, but Peter, you're going to have to Side-Along Apparate with one of us."
"He can Side-Along with me," Sirius said.
James nodded. "Good. I'll just go up and get the book then?"
And without even waiting for a response, he bounded up the staircase and back into his room. The book was exactly where he left it; James picked it up and bounded back down the stairs again.
"Got it," he said, rather unnecessarily, since the book was in plain sight. "Anyway, let's go."
The four Marauders stomped out of the house and toward the Apparating point, just on the outside of the small forest that concealed James' house from the prying eyes of Muggles. The Apparating point wasn't that big—if you weren't looking for it, it would be nearly invisible—but it was big enough for all four Marauders to stand comfortably.
Normally, the Apparating point surrounded the house, but with the war going on, James' parents had thought it would be safer if the point of Apparation was smaller. That way, there was less chance of an attack.
James grinned at his three friends, turned on his heel, and Disapparated. He appeared a moment later in front of a white house with brown shutters. He glanced around, but no one noticed his appearing out of thin air, and a moment later, Sirius, Remus and Peter appeared next to him.
"Right, then," he said. He ruffled his hair once, making it stand up on end, and made his way up the drive to the door.
He knocked once. The door immediately flew open, revealing a tall, willowy sort of woman with short, cropped red hair and kind hazel eyes. A streak of silver at the temple betrayed her age, but she smiled happily at the sight of them.
"Well, what a surprise," she said. "What can I do for you boys?"
"Is Lily here?" James asked.
"Yes, she is," Mrs. Evans said. "Who's asking?"
"James Potter," James proclaimed.
"And Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew," Sirius added.
To James' surprise, Mrs. Evans giggled like a little girl. "Oh!" she said. "Well, I'll go call her, then!"
She bustled off, but James could still see her, standing at the bottom of the stairs. She called Lily's name, who quickly appeared at the top of the stairs, red hair tied up away from her face by a green ribbon. She walked down the stairs and over to the door, her expression hardening as she saw who it was.
"Oh," she said darkly. "It's you. What do you want?"
"Why, Lily-bean," Sirius said, throwing his arm around Lily and steering her inside the house. "Aren't you so happy to see us?"
Lily gave a noise of disgust and ducked out of Sirius' reach. "Black, if you won't tell me why you're here, I'll hex you," she said.
Mrs. Evans laughed, apparently used to her daughter's fits of temper by now. "Okay, I think I'd better leave you alone. Tell me if you need anything, all right? Crisps, biscuits, anything." And she walked out of the room.
James, Remus and Peter entered the house, shutting the door behind them. James took over the conversation.
"I take it you've read the first chapter of the book," he said.
Lily turned and glared at James. "Yes," she said, "and I wonder why you didn't just answer my owl, instead of bursting into my house."
"Aw, there's no fun in that," Sirius responded.
"Fun? Fun?" Lily looked as though she were about to explode. "You are all insufferable. This is some silly joke—and you know what? I'm not buying it!"
"But it's not a joke!" Peter said, then swallowed thickly as Lily's glare was directed toward him.
"Or at least we think it might not be," Remus said hurriedly. "You see, Sirius knows of this spell that will be able to show us whether or not the book is true or not, and—"
Lily laughed. "Sirius knows of a spell? Like I'd trust him."
"And," Remus said, as though he hadn't heard her, "we'd let you cast it."
"Oh?" Lily looked skeptical and as though she wanted to say something, but at that moment, Petunia entered the room. She took one look of the group of boys and Lily, then narrowed her eyes.
"These aren't more school friends, are they?" she asked, lip curling derisively.
"Yeah, they are, Petunia," Lily said loftily, "and excuse me, because they were just about to go up to my room. We have spells to practice, after all."
Petunia looked apoplectic. "But you're not of age yet!"
"That hasn't stopped me before."
With that, she flounced up the stairs, leaving no choice but for the Marauders to follow her. They entered a room James assumed to be Lily's bedroom. James saw the chapter on her desk, the last page on the top.
So she at least finished it.
Good.
"So, are you going to tell me what in Merlin's name this is all about?" Lily inquired, jabbing a finger at the parchment. "And how can you even think it's true?"
"There isn't exactly any other option," James pointed out. "We know it's not a prank and—"
"So?" Lily asked. "We're in the middle of a war! This could be something to lure us out or something!"
"I think Voldemort has more on his mind than killing pranksters," James pointed out, ignoring Peter's flinch.
"But you don't know, do you?"
"Guys," Remus broke in. "There's only one way to stop this row. Lily, I know you don't want to believe us, but all the facts point to this book being the truth. I don't know how it got here, or what exactly we're supposed to do with this knowledge, but I know that we have to do something."
"If it's fact," Lily said in a tone of voice that proclaimed plainly that she strongly doubted it.
"Yes, if it's fact," Remus said. "Now, Sirius was going to tell you how to perform the spell, but since you're not yet of age—"
"I can still do it," Lily said. "Professor Dumbledore gave me permission, because I'm Head Girl, and we are in the middle of a war."
Peter squeaked, "So you're going to do it?"
Lily grimaced. "Unfortunately." Her expression hardened and she looked—more like glared—at James. "Don't think for one second that I believe that I would ever marry such an arrogant toerag like you, Potter."
"Good," Sirius said. "I think I remember how to do this."
"You think?"
Sirius laughed. "Come on, Lils, don't get your knickers in a twist." He didn't allow Lily to protest against the nickname before addressing James. "All right, bang the book right there." He pointed at the desk.
James placed the book on the desk, and Lily got out her wand. Sirius quickly ran through the spell and its wand motions, before letting Lily try it on her own. He warned her that it might be tricky, but Lily scoffed.
"I'm not the best in my year at Charms for nothing," she huffed. "Ostendo!"
She tapped her wand once on the book and it began to glow. Once more, and it began to shudder slightly.
"Veritas," she said, and moved her wand in a complicated series of swishing and flicking. The room began to hum, almost as if it possessed some sort of energy. Lily placed the tip of her wand on the book and combined the two spells: "Ostendo veritas!"
Her wand rose seemingly of its own accord, spelling out one five-letter word.
Truth.
Lily froze and let her wand fall to her side. The spell was broken, but the word—Truth—hovered in the air.
"I knew it," James breathed.
Even though he had known that the book being true was the only conceivable option, seeing the word form in front of his very eyes, knowing that it was the truth, took him by surprise. He tried not to let it show, but he knew that he wouldn't be out of place if he did.
Lily didn't even bother trying to hide her surprise. The grip she had on her wand was loose, and she looked as though she was going to let go at any moment. Sirius gaped, an odd mixture of surprise and sadness in his face. Remus kept his mouth firmly shut, but there was something visibly going on inside his brain. Peter simply looked dumbstruck.
"It's—it's true?" he squeaked.
"It has to be," Remus whispered.
"I can't believe it," Sirius said. "I thought, but—"
Lily sat down abruptly on her swivel chair. She let her wand fall to the ground, and the word "Truth" slowly faded away. James still felt like it was there, though, hovering over the book, imprinting itself in James' mind. He could still see it.
It seemed as though everyone was speechless.
"There's one mystery solved," Remus said after a few moments. "But now I have a thousand more."
"Like 'Where did it come from?'" Peter supplied.
"Well, it obviously came from the future," James said. "But who would send it?"
"Maybe one of us did without meaning to?"
"Wait," Lily finally said. She looked up at them, eyes sparking dangerously. "Do you guys seriously believe that I marry this cocky bastard?"
"It seems so," Remus said lightly.
"Then I have another question," Lily said, standing up. She was stiff, and her eyes were cold as she surveyed James. "What the hell did you put in my pumpkin juice to make me ever think of even dating you, let alone marry you?"
James winced. "Nothing?"
"Lily," Remus said. "I think you'd better calm down. We don't know what happens in the future—or at least not too much of it yet, anyway—and you've been getting on with James lately, so maybe—"
"Don't say it," Lily said harshly. "Don't say that 'things change,' because there is not a power on this Earth that will make me want to date an arrogant toerag like James Potter."
James winced. "Now, Lily—"
"But if the book's true, then doesn't that mean everything is true?" Peter asked. "In that case, you do marry James."
Lily snorted. "Sure."
"Maybe we should read more before—before coming to conclusions?" Sirius asked, for once acting the mediator. "Evans, just calm down. Maybe the book will have more answers."
Lily glared at Sirius.
"It better."
She didn't say anything more. She simply stormed out and down the stairs, leaving the Marauders alone.
Peter stared at his friends.
"What just happened?" he asked.
"I think Evans isn't taking too kindly to the idea that she marries you, Prongs," Sirius said. "Or to the idea that she apparently has a son with you—not that I like the idea either. To think of our Prongsie procreating!" He shuddered.
James rolled his eyes. "Well, maybe, but she knows she does. The book says she does, doesn't it?"
"It does," Remus said, "but it has to be a shock for her, don't you think?"
"How?"
"Well, think about it," Remus said logically. "She read a book that claims to be from the future, a book that says she's married to you, the most self-centered prat—her words, not mine—to ever exist, and has a son with you. And not only that, she finds out that she's dead by the hands of Voldemort." He ignored Peter's flinch. "And she learns that the book is apparently completely true. How do you think you'd feel?"
"When you put it that way—"
"When you put it that way," Lily said, returning. "I'd feel confused and angry and like I'm completely losing my mind."
She pushed past James and pulled her trunk over to the middle of the room. Sitting back on her heels, she grabbed her wand and flicked her trunk open. She muttered a few spells, and her books, robes, money bag, and numerous other items flew into her trunk and neatly folded themselves.
"Erm, Lily?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing?"
Lily huffed, blowing a piece of hair from her eyes. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
"Packing?"
"Oh, very good," Lily said sarcastically. "Fifty points to Gryffindor."
"Yes, but why are you packing?"
Lily huffed again. She Summoned the last few items she'd need and closed her trunk, then stood up and faced the Marauders.
"Do you think I'm going to just let you read the rest of the book without me?" she asked. "Especially now that we've found out it's true? If you do, you're much thicker than I thought."
"You're coming back with us?" James asked. "To my house?"
Lily made a face. "Unfortunately."
"All right, Evans!"
"Shut it, Sirius."
"Your parents said it's okay?" Remus asked curiously.
"Yeah," Lily said. "I was going to go to Alice's for the last couple weeks, but she'll understand. I just asked my mum if I could come with you idiots instead, and she agreed. Tuney's been having a cow over my being here for her engagement dinner anyway."
James exchanged a look with Sirius. So Petunia was getting married to that Dursley so soon, was she?
"All right." He nodded. "Are we going now, then?"
"Yeah," Lily said, but looked as though she wanted nothing more than to kick them out of her house and not see them until September 1. She tapped her wand, shrunk her trunk and put a Weightlessness Charm on it, and then stowed it in her pocket.
"You can Apparate, right?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"Either way," James said, butting in. "I think it would be better if you Side-Alonged with me, because you don't know where the Apparation point is, and I wouldn't want you to get Splinched." He gave what he thought was a winning smile, but Lily merely rolled her eyes.
"Fine."
She took his arm and they Disapparated, the rest of the Marauders a mere step behind them.
Two hours later, the Marauders and Lily were sitting in a circle in James' room, a pile of sweets (Chocolate Frogs, Cauldron Cakes, Bertie Bott's, several chilled bottles of butterbeer and even a covered pan that looked like it contained some sort of pie) in the middle. Lily had the book in her hands and was staring at it.
Strangely enough, it was warm, probably from the residual effects of the spell, and seemed to vibrate slightly as she held it. The boy on the cover did look a lot like James, she thought, messy black hair and all.
Yet she couldn't believe it was true.
She knew she had to—the spell said it was, and Lily trusted the truth of spells explicitly—it took a lot of power to turn a spell awry—but still, that didn't mean like she had to like it. She glared at the book.
"Stupid," she muttered.
"What's stupid?" Remus asked.
"This," she said, and didn't elaborate. She stared around the circle, deliberately not meeting James' gaze—god, I bet this book has given him such an ego boost—and decided enough was enough. "So. Are we going to read this or not?"
Peter gave her a tentative smile. "Go ahead."
"Yeah," Sirius said. "We're all waiting for you, Evans."
Lily had to stop her hands from trembling before opening the book to the page Remus had placed the piece of paper in the previous night. Clearing her throat, she began.
Chapter Two
The Vanishing Glass
"Weird," Sirius said. "I wonder what that means."
"Harry probably performed accidental magic," Remus said calmly.
Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front garden and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls.
"You wouldn't have thought a news report about owls would be fateful, would you," James said.
"It wasn't, really," Remus said. "It just signified that something important was going to happen."
Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets—but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.
James had looked like he was going to comment snarkily about the photographs, but he instead got a hard expression on his face.
"What did the Dursleys do to Harry?" he asked.
Lily huffed. "Are you going to let me read and tell you, or are you just going to keep interrupting?"
"We're going to keep interrupting," James replied.
Lily sighed. She didn't know what had possessed her to come here—except for a curiosity that seemed to come out of nowhere. She resigned herself to interruptions—snarky ones too, because that seemed to be the way the Marauders expressed their thoughts the best, even if the situation was serious—and continued to read.
Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.
Lily winced. Petunia's voice was shrill; she didn't know how many times she had been woken by the sound of Tuney screaming about one thing or another. More times than she could count, to be sure.
"Up! Get up! Now!"
"How rude," Remus remarked.
Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.
"Up!" she screeched.
"I don't think Petunia likes Harry much," Peter remarked.
"Of course she doesn't," Lily snapped. "She hates me, so she'd obviously hate my son as well."
Lily pointedly refused to call Harry "our son," as in her and James' son. She still didn't believe it, and it would take a lot more than a book to convince her of the idea that James actually could change.
Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it.
"He can remember that?" Sirius asked.
"Apparently," James said.
"Wow."
He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.
"And not only had the same dream," James said, grinning, "but lived it."
His aunt was back outside the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Nearly," said Harry.
Peter let out a little laugh. James shot him a curious look.
"I just think it's funny," he said. "That your son's first word is 'nearly.' It's just the first thing we've heard. I thought it might have been something more... interesting."
James shrugged. "I'm sure he'll be more interesting later."
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."
Sirius snorted into his bottle of butterbeer. "Duddy?"
James snickered.
Harry groaned.
"I'd groan too," James said.
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.
"Nothing, nothing..."
Dudley's birthday—how could he have forgotten?
"Because Dudley's stupid?" James asked. "And his birthday's not worth remembering?"
Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.
Lily stopped reading.
"You—you can't be serious." She stared at the book again. "My sister can't possibly allow my son to sleep under the stairs."
"Well, the book doesn't lie," Peter said.
Lily glared at it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid..."
On the other side of the circle, James was whispering quietly and quickly under his breath and, if what Lily was hearing was any indication, he was not saying anything suitable for a child's ears. Or really, for anyone who was under the age of thirteen.
"Shut up, Potter, and let me continue."
When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.
"What's a computer?" James asked. "And a television?"
Lily tutted. "Honestly, Potter, you should have taken Muggle studies," she said, but answered regardless. "A computer is a sort of machine used for making calculations and recording things—like a better version of a Self-Calculating Arithmaquill, or an Autowrite Quill—and a television is a sort of metal box where you watch moving pictures. Sort of like portraits, except they tell a story."
James still looked confused, but he nodded anyway. Lily was glad she didn't have to answer another of his questions.
Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise—unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.
"That's good," Remus reflected. "He must've inherited your speed, Prongs."
Lily looked curious. "Prongs?"
James stiffened and stared guiltily at Lily. "Nothing, nothing," he said hastily. "Just a nickname."
Lily didn't believe it for a second, but let it slide. Those nicknames, though—they had been referring to themselves by those names ever since their fifth year at Hogwarts, but they never explained why.
There was something odd there, but—
She shrugged. No use thinking about it now, because they weren't about to tell her.
"I can't believe the Dursleys let Dudley beat Harry up," Sirius said darkly.
"I can," Lily said. "They probably don't know, or if they do, they don't care. My sister and her boyfriend aren't exactly the nicest."
"We gathered."
Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.
"That's not fair," James muttered.
Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.
"Your eyes, Evans," Sirius noted. "And James' hair. If you needed any more proof, there it is. A perfect combination."
Lily glared at him. "Please don't remind me of the momentary lapse of sanity I must suffer in the future in order to marry such a git."
"Oh, come on, Lily," James said. "I've changed."
Lily laughed. "You don't hex Snape—" without meaning to, her throat tightened at the mention of her old friend—"but that doesn't mean you're not as much of a toerag as you were before, Potter."
"Yeah, it does," James said.
"No, it really doesn't," Lily said dryly, and looked back down at the book.
He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.
Sirius winced. "That hurts."
"How would you know?" Remus asked.
"Long story."
The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.
"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.
"Car crash?" Peter said. "But you didn't die in a car crash."
"That little—" James stopped himself from swearing. "I thought she was supposed to tell Harry when he was old enough!"
"I'm not surprised she didn't," Lily said. "She probably thinks she can stop him being a wizard if she just doesn't tell him so. Or if she keeps him miserable."
"That's a surefire way to make sure he is a wizard," Remus noted.
"And don't ask questions."
"That's like asking him not to breathe," Lily said. "Of course he's going to ask questions!"
Don't ask questions—that was the first rule for a quiet life at the Dursleys.
"He must not have a quiet life, then."
"Of course he doesn't! He's a Potter!"
Lily rolled her eyes and threw a bit of Chocolate Frog in James' direction. He caught it easily and popped it inside his mouth.
"Oh, honestly. Men are such pigs..."
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.
"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.
"That won't do anything," James said automatically.
About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut.
"Hey, your mum does that all the time, James," Sirius said. "Except she's nice about it."
James scowled. "That's what you think."
Without realizing it, he brought a hand up and ran it through his hair, making it stand on end. Lily glared at James for a moment—of course he'd never grow out of that—but sighed and averted her eyes.
Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way—all over the place.
"Just like James."
Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.
A collective shudder ran through the room.
"Ew," Peter summed up. "What a pig."
"I bet Tuney dotes on him," Lily muttered.
And sure enough—
Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel—Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
Everyone snickered.
"Pig—in—a—wig," Sirius choked out. "Classic!"
Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Thirty-six presents?" James said in disbelief. "I don't even get that many presents for my birthday, and my mum and dad practically smother me!"
"And he had thirty-eight last year," Sirius said, looking equally disgusted.
"I'm beginning to hate these Dursleys," Peter muttered.
"Beginning to? I already do," Lily muttered.
Even though it was ridiculous to feel maternal toward a son she wouldn't have for Merlin knows how many years and a son she didn't even want in the first place, especially not with the father, she felt like hexing her sister for doing what she did to her son. How dare he make him sleep in the cupboard while Dudley got more than thirty presents each year?
She shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. Get it together, Evans.
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."
Lily let out a soft hiss at the mention of Marge. Marge, Vernon's sister, had never liked Lily, and the dislike was certainly mutual. If Vernon was dull as drills, Marge was as pigheaded as... well, pigs, and too dedicated to her stupid dogs for her own good. Lily couldn't recall the amount of times she wanted to explode the wine glass she held in her grubby, stubby hands. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that she couldn't use magic outside of school... not that she had that excuse anymore.
A grin worked itself across her face.
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.
Lily's smile disappeared.
Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"
Lily scowled.
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.
The Marauders snickered.
"Of course it is," Sirius said, "with that great lump as a father."
Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty... thirty..."
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh, honestly!" Lily said. "How can a boy be eleven years old and not know how to do maths? Do they have no idea how to raise a child?"
"Yeah," Sirius said immediately.
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon chuckled.
"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.
They all looked disgusted.
"They treat him like he's like royalty," Sirius muttered. "I'd say they're worse than my parents with ol' Reggie, but that's a lie."
"They're still horrible," Remus said.
"Well, how could they not be?" Lily asked. "We're talking about my sister and her boyfriend, whose greatest ambition in life is to be the owner of Grunnings, a drill company."
They all snorted.
At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.
James and Sirius looked exceedingly confused.
"What are all those Muggle things?" he asked.
"Very expensive," Lily said curtly, and wouldn't say anything more. She did not feel like explaining anything more about the Muggle world—mostly because she thought she would start screaming if she did.
If she couldn't stand her sister before, she certainly couldn't stand her now. She fought to keep her distaste out of her voice.
He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Oh no," Lily muttered.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.
"Who is Mrs. Figg?" Remus asked.
"I don't know," Lily said. "I've never heard of her before."
"Maybe she's a witch, then!" Sirius said hopefully. "And she can tell Harry all about magic!"
Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies.
"What are—?"
"It doesn't matter."
Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.
James' hands clenched into fists.
"I guess that means she's not a witch then," Sirius said, looking rather crestfallen. "I can't believe the Dursleys."
Lily couldn't either. She knew that they hated her—for no other reason than she was magical—but did that mean that she had to hold a grudge over her son for no separate reason? Apparently so.
To think she even had a son. The idea was still taking some getting used to, but she felt maternal, more maternal than she ever expected to. She still couldn't quite believe it, but she knew she must. It was true, after all.
"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.
"Stupid woman," Lily muttered.
Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.
Peter snickered. "Those are the most ridiculous cat names ever."
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.
"Oh, no, you can't!" Lily snapped, surprising both herself and the Marauders. She took a bite of a Cauldron Cake to calm herself, then started reading again.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."
"Why?" James asked.
"Because she hates me too," Lily said. "She doesn't know the whole story, but she considers me a 'bad egg,' because I was never around, and Petunia spoke dreadfully of me. Not that it matters, because I hate her too."
James looked mildly shocked at Lily's venomous tones, but wisely chose not to say anything.
The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there—or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.
"Bastards," Sirius muttered.
"What about what's-her-name, your friend—Yvonne?"
"I remember her," Lily said. "She was my age, I think, and became friends with Petunia after I left to go to Hogwarts. They've been friends ever since."
There were so many things she knew about in this book... like Petunia and Vernon's relationship... Marge... Yvonne... and so many things she felt. She almost felt like she was going to explode from the pressure.
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).
Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.
"I bet she always looks like that," Peter piped in.
Lily snorted. "Yeah, she does."
Suddenly, she felt better. There was no use panicking or worrying or even thinking about the future right now. She just needed to relax. They were only two chapters in and she was already panicking, but it wasn't necessary.
Not yet.
''And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.
"He's not going to blow up the house!'' James yelled at the book.
"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.
They all turned to James.
Sirius grinned. "Like father, like son, eh?"
"No, I'd really blow up the house," James joked.
The Marauders laughed, and even Lily couldn't help a tiny giggle that escaped her lips. James looked approvingly at her, one of those extraordinarily cocky grins on his face. Lily huffed.
"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "...and leave him in the car..."
"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone..."
"It's not like he's going to get it into an accident," Remus said.
"They make it sound like he's some sort of dangerous criminal," Sirius said, looking rather angry.
Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying—it had been years since he'd really cried—but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.
"For heaven's sake!" Lily said. "I've never seen a boy as spoiled as Dudley! I think I'm going to have a word with my sister when I talk to her next..."
"You could send her an owl," Sirius suggested innocently.
Lily sniggered. "Yeah, and she'd kill me."
"Like she could," James teased.
"You'd be surprised at what Tuney's like when she's in one of her moods," Lily said.
"Really?"
Lily nodded distractedly as she found her place in the book. She glanced at the next words, then looked back up at the Marauders. A smile twitched her lips and she fought down the urge to laugh.
"Okay. Promise me you won't laugh at the next lines."
The Marauders shot looks at each other. "We can't promise that."
Lily stared hard at James.
"All right, we promise!"
Except he didn't look honest.
"Dinky Duddydums—"
It was an instant reaction. The Marauders immediately began laughing, James and Sirius the loudest among them all. Even Lily couldn't stop herself from giggling, and it took ages for her to stop once she started.
"A-all right," Peter wheezed. "C-continue."
Lily didn't risk saying the nickname again. She did smile at her sister—who knew she could be so ridiculous when it came to her son?
"—don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.
"Brat," James muttered.
Just then, the doorbell rang—"Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically—and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.
"I resent that statement!" Peter said indignantly.
Lily looked at Peter curiously. "Why?"
"Oh, no—no reason," Peter said quickly. Lily, however, resolved to keep an eye on him; he looked oddly nervous. Come to think of it, so did the other Marauders, but at least they tried to keep themselves together.
He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.
"Pleasant," James muttered.
"That's rich," Lily said before she could stop herself. "You did something of the sort when you were eleven!"
James looked personally affronted. "I did not!" he protested. "Sure, I might've hexed them... and insulted them... and done other things... but I don't hit people, or hold people's arms behind their backs while others hit them..."
"Potter, hexing is just as bad!" Lily replied.
"But I haven't hexed anyone in ages!"
"Really?" Lily said heatedly. "What about that Slytherin kid?"
James looked as if the answer was obvious. "He's a Slytherin!" he said, as though that should answer the question.
"So? Not all Slytherins are bad!"
"You said that about Snape too!"
James immediately looked as though he might like to take the statement back at the look on Lily's face, but Lily turned stony and didn't say anything. James opened his mouth to try and apologize, but Remus jumped in.
"All right, stop arguing," he said. "This isn't the time."
Lily huffed. How dare he? She had resigned herself to the fact that her friendship with Snape was a mistake—his continued friendship with Mulciber and Avery was proof enough of that—but that didn't mean she didn't regret it sometimes.
She shook her head and picked the book back up again.
Dudley stopped crying at once.
"Of course," Sirius said lightly. "He'd want to save face."
The atmosphere was tense, and Lily moved slightly away from the circle. Honestly, James disgusted her sometimes... She shifted to make herself comfortable, reclining against James' bed with a sigh.
Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.
"What's a zoo?" Sirius asked.
"It's a building where Muggles keep animals," Remus responded so Lily wouldn't have to. "Muggles go there to see rare animals they wouldn't see otherwise, like bears and lions."
"There are magical ones too," Peter added. "In America."
Sirius shrugged. "Weird."
His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.
"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy—any funny business, anything at all—and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"He's not about to do anything," James said.
"Not on purpose, anyway," Sirius said, eyes glinting. "But that doesn't mean he can't do something by accident..."
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly..."
But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.
The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.
"But he didn't make them happen," Remus said. "Or he did, but he couldn't help it."
"Yes, and my sister knows that perfectly well," Lily said. "But she's not about to tell Harry that. She'd sooner lock him in the cupboard for a year than tell him he's a wizard."
"She better not do that!" Sirius said.
"Oh, she'd do it in an instant," Lily responded. "I hope Harry doesn't get into any trouble."
Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking like he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."
"He can't help it," James said. "I bet his hair just grows back just as soon as it gets cut!"
"And he can't help his scar," Peter added.
Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.
James grinned. "I knew it! We Potters love our hair."
"You love your hair looking like it could hold several birds?" Lily asked under her breath, but James still heard her.
"Come on, Lily," he said. "You know you love it."
Lily raised her eyebrow. "I know nothing of the sort."
He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.
"He should already know," Lily said. "He's a wizard, and he should have been told by Petunia ages ago."
"But he should've been able to figure it out ages ago too," Remus said.
"But Muggles don't notice things like that," Lily said. "If magical things happen around them, they just pass it off as coincidence, or hallucinations, or something like that. Harry probably thinks something's going on, but honestly, who would guess you were actually a wizard if you lived with the worst sort of Muggles imaginable?"
Lily looked around at the Marauders, but none of them had an answer—because they knew she was right. Somehow, Lily got the feeling that she would be setting the Marauders straight numerous times during this book.
"You're right," James said. "They should have told him."
"But they didn't," Lily muttered darkly.
"He'll find out soon," Peter said.
"Yeah! He'll be getting his Hogwarts letter soon, won't he?"
Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).
"Ew," Sirius said.
"That sweater is revolting," Peter said. "My mum had one like that once."
Wisely, Lily and the rest of the Marauders chose not to say anything.
The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.
"Good."
"They should come up with explanations like that all the time," James said. "Then Harry wouldn't get in trouble so often."
"But they love getting Harry in trouble," Remus pointed out.
"They shouldn't," James said flatly.
On the other hand, he'd gotten in terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.
"How on Earth did he get on the roof?" Lily inquired.
James shrugged. "Accidental magic works that way. Sometimes you can do things when you're young that you can't do otherwise. Like you'd need a Hovering Charm to do that, or be able to Apparate."
Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.
James and Sirius couldn't help it; they started laughing. Lily shot a sharp look in their direction, and Sirius grinned.
"Come on, Evans," he said. "You have to admit, that would be funny to see."
Lily privately agreed, but glared at James and Sirius all the same. "Not if it means Harry's gotten himself in trouble."
The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.
"That's not a very good explanation," Remus said.
"'Course it's not."
But today, nothing was going to go wrong.
"How much do you want to bet something will go wrong?" Sirius asked.
"James' broomstick," Remus said.
"Hey!"
It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.
While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.
"He certainly likes complaining about Harry," Remus said.
"Did you expect anything different?" Lily asked.
"No."
"Neither did I."
This morning, it was motorbikes.
"How can you complain about motorbikes?" Sirius asked, looking shocked. "They have to be the best Muggle way of travel ever invented!"
"You'd be surprised," Peter said. "Lots of people are irresponsible with them."
Lily shot a look at Sirius. "Like Sirius?"
"Yes, like Sirius!"
"I haven't got a motorbike yet!" Sirius protested. "How can I be irresponsible with it?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "You make it fly."
"That's not irresponsible!"
"It is when you're involved," Remus said calmly. "Whenever you get that motorbike, make sure I'm nowhere near you, all right? I don't want to know what you'd do with a flying motorbike."
Sirius opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and finally shut it once more. He glanced at James, and Lily could see the plans forming in their minds. Lily hurriedly continued before they got too far in their planning.
"...roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorbike overtook them.
"I had a dream about a motorbike," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."
Lily winced.
"You shouldn't've said that," James muttered, as if Harry could hear him.
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers snickered.
"Prats."
"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."
"Except it wasn't."
Lily shot a look at Sirius.
"What? It wasn't!"
But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon—they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.
Lily felt fury rise up inside her, but she bit her tongue to keep it from escaping. So her son wasn't allowed to even be a kid, was he? He had to keep himself from mentioning anything magical, for fear of—what? That he'd turn them into toads?
Lily's hands clenched around the book in a grip even tighter than before.
It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.
"At least they got him something," Peter said brightly.
It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.
The Marauders snickered.
Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.
"Well, that answers that question," Sirius muttered. "The Dursleys know about Dudley beating Harry up, but they don't care."
"I told you," Lily said, but she was angry herself. It was only the thought that she couldn't exactly hex someone about something that hadn't even happened yet that prevented her from going back home and giving Petunia a piece of her mind.
They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.
"That's oddly nice of them," Remus noted.
"They probably just don't want to waste their money," James responded.
Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.
They exchanged looks.
"I knew something was going to happen," James said.
"Yeah, we all did," Peter said.
After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.
Lily shuddered. "I hate snakes."
"Aha!" Sirius quipped. "Finally you admit nothing good can come out of those things!"
"I don't mean Slytherin," Lily grumbled. "I only meant that I don't like the look of actual snakes."
Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but Lily talked over him.
Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can—but at the moment it didn't look in the mood.
"Wish it would," James muttered.
Lily rolled her eyes, but—and she would never admit this—she agreed with Potter. Judging from what she had heard of what happened to Petunia and Vernon over the next—she did some quick maths—decade and a half or so, she felt like she wouldn't mind if their car did get crushed.
At least they couldn't blame that on Harry—not that they wouldn't try—and they would get what they deserved.
In fact, it was fast asleep.
"Well, that's boring," Peter said.
"Maybe boring's a good thing," Lily said. She had a bad feeling about this...
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
"It sounds ugly," Sirius said.
"And big."
Lily looked at Peter and managed a small smile in his direction. It was nice to know she wasn't the only one afraid of the snake—Peter was sitting up, eyes alert, and looked rather frightened.
"Make it move," he whined at his father.
"Why would you want to make it move?" Peter asked.
Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.
"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.
"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.
Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself—no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on their glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.
"Yeah, but I doubt the snake minds," James said. "It probably doesn't know the difference between the wild and the tank."
The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes.
Lily would have bitten her lip if she hadn't been reading. She had a very bad feeling about this—Harry should just forget about the snake and go look at a lizard or something—
Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.
It winked.
Sirius, startled, looked at James.
"Why is a snake winking at your son, James?" he asked.
James shrugged, but his eyes had turned hard. "I don't know," he said, "and I'm not sure I want to know."
Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.
"Ooh, bad move," Peter moaned.
The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:
"I get that all the time."
James jerked.
"No," he breathed.
"What?" Lily asked. "What's so bad about that?"
James stared at Lily, then jumped up. "Blimey, Lily!" he said, his voice unnaturally loud and yet tight, like he was holding back a certain emotion. "How—how do you not understand what this means?"
He ran a hand through his hair and began pacing.
"I don't know!" Lily said. What did it mean? "But maybe I'd know if you'd tell me!"
"Don't you understand?" he asked. "Harry Potter can understand exactly what that snake is saying!"
Lily continued to look blank. "So?"
"So he can probably talk to snakes too," James said. "That means he can speak Parseltongue—snake language."
"Is that bad?"
James let out a yelp as if he'd been burned. "Is it bad?" he said. "It's the worst thing possible! I thought you knew! Parseltongue is one of the signs of the heir of Slytherin! Only one person has been known to do it, and that's Voldemort!"
Lily finally understood.
"So my son has a gift only the heir of Slytherin has?"
"Yes," James hissed. "If people found this out, they'd think he's a Dark wizard of some kind, because talking to snakes is what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent."
"But—he's not a Dark wizard," Lily said. "And you're an idiot if you think that changes anything about him—even though you're already one."
James ran a hand through his hair again. "It doesn't change anything," James said grudgingly. "I just don't know where he'd get it. If anything, my family has closer ties to Gryffindor, so—"
"Maybe we should just continue this conversation some other time," Remus interrupted. "Harry's a Parselmouth, but that doesn't change much. There are numerous ways Harry could've gotten that gift, so let's just drop it for now. I'm sure it'll come up again if there's anything odd about it."
"Of course there's something odd about it!" James said vehemently. "My son is a Parselmouth!"
"We've established," Remus said dryly. "Now will you let Lily continue?"
"Oh, all right then."
And James plopped back down on the floor and grabbed a Chocolate Frog.
"Besides, he hasn't said anything to the snake," Remus said. "He might just be good at reading animals."
Somehow, Remus looked as though he doubted it. So did the rest of the Marauders; Sirius especially looked as though he had smelled something disgusting just under his nose.
"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."
The snake nodded vigorously.
If there had been any doubt before, there certainly wasn't any now. There was silence as James bit into the head of his Chocolate Frog angrily, and Lily couldn't help being curious: How could her son be a Parselmouth, if there wasn't any history of Parseltongue in either of their families?
Lily shrugged to herself. She didn't know, but she was going to find out.
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"
"My son just asked if it was nice... in Brazil," James muttered, "and he expects a response from a snake."
If Lily wasn't still a little angry at James for the Snape-comment and the Parseltongue-rant (as well as numerous other things, the top item on the list being the fact that he apparently thinks she would ever marry him), she would have laughed. As it was, she simply peered back down at the book.
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.
"James, you were right," Peter said. "He doesn't know the difference between the wild and his tank, because he's never actually been in the wild."
"I figured."
"Oh, I see—so you've never been to Brazil?"
James shook his head. Lily herself couldn't believe what she was reading. Her son (she had to fight now to keep herself from saying 'our son'; the only thing that stopped her from doing so was the fact that she couldn't yet wrap her mind around the fact that she married Potter) had just asked a snake if it had been to Brazil...
Was it possible for her life to get any more out of the ordinary?
As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"
Peter jumped; Lily had actually shouted the last couple lines—and honestly, it felt good to shout.
Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.
"Which isn't that fast, that stupid cow," Sirius muttered under his breath.
"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened—one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.
"Cool!" James said.
"You have a great son, James!" Sirius said.
It seemed as though they had temporarily forgotten their anger—and confusion—over Harry being a Parselmouth, because they both grinned at each other and high-fived. James agreed vehemently with Sirius.
"Wish he'd fallen in," Peter muttered.
James laughed. "So do I, Pete!"
"That would have been hilarious."
The great snake uncoiled itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor.
"Oh no."
People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exists.
As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."
James shook his head without a word.
"I can't believe Harry just let a boa constrictor loose," Sirius murmured. "If that didn't mean he was a Parselmouth, I'd be impressed."
Lily sighed. "Oh, come on," he said. "It's not the end of the world if he is. Just suck it up; I'm sure things will be fine even with him being a Parselmouth. Now stop being bigots."
Thankfully, James and Sirius had the grace to look abashed. Lily was pleased to see that Remus was nodding along with her, and Peter looked as though he agreed. Maybe she was getting the hang of being around the Marauders after all.
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.
"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"
"You know, that's a good question," Lily said thoughtfully. "When you Vanish things, where do they go? And how do you get them back?"
James shrugged. "Search me."
The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber.
James seemed to be making an effort to forget Harry's Parseltongue abilities.
"Like they can do more than that normally," he muttered, and the Marauders laughed. Lily only pursed her lips and didn't say anything.
As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"
"Oh, he's in trouble now," Sirius said. "You just know what they'll do."
"Yeah, lock him in the cupboard again," James replied, eyes narrowing. "God, I wish I was there."
Lily privately agreed, but didn't want to say that if they were there, Harry wouldn't be there, and as a result, they wouldn't have anything too terrible to get their revenge against. She didn't think it was the time to bring that up, though, so she kept her mouth shut in that regard.
Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go—cupboard—stay—no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.
"They're just going to leave him in there and starve him, then?" James asked. "Wonderful."
Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.
Sirius grinned at James. "I see he's inherited your habit for sneaking, James."
"I just hope he's as good at it as I am," James muttered.
"Of course he is," Peter said.
He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash.
Lily opened her mouth to protest against "that car crash," but abruptly realized exactly who the book said were his parents, and shut her mouth. She read on, her voice shaking just slightly—she was probably the only one who could tell.
He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.
"He survived the Killing Curse," James whispered. "I expected it—but wow."
Remus shook his head in awe. "How did he do it?"
"I don't know," James said. "I can't even believe he can remember that far back. He must've been... what, less than two years old?"
"Something like that," Sirius said, and gestured impatiently for Lily to continue.
This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.
Lily read this with her thoughts racing: How did he survive the Killing Curse? Why couldn't he remember anything about his parents? Why did she want him to remember something about his parents? Why wouldn't her sister and her husband talk about her? And shouldn't there be photographs?
Lily could only answer a few, and even those were the questions she only asked for the sake of asking—she already knew the answer. Harry obviously couldn't remember her because he had been too young when she had—when she had died, her sister didn't talk about her because she thought witches and wizards were freaks, and there were no photographs because Harry might come across them and that was perhaps the last thing in the world Petunia wanted.
He knew nothing about their world. He knew only what his aunt and uncle had told him, he knew only what he learned in Muggle school. He didn't know that he was a wizard, didn't know who his parents were.
Lily chewed on her lip for a moment, trying to banish those thoughts. She failed rather magnificently.
When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.
"Where am I?" Sirius asked, an undercurrent of some strong emotion in his voice. "Why haven't I come to get him?"
"Maybe you got caught by the Death Eaters," Remus suggested. "But—where am I? And Peter? And your families?"
Lily and James didn't have any answer. Lily herself was wondering the same thing: What happened to her parents, her cousins? They couldn't all die... could they? And yet... apparently they could.
"I don't know," she said simply, in a tone that said that this particular conversation was closed, at least temporarily.
Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him.
"Obviously they did," Remus said. "He's the Boy-Who-Lived after all. Wizards are bound to come across him and recognize him."
"He's not exactly inconspicuous," Sirius noted and, when everyone stared at him, said, "I know big words! Just... not many of them."
James snorted. "And Remus taught him everything he knows."
"Of course," Remus said, grinning.
A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.
"And they probably reacted well to that," James muttered sarcastically.
After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily to him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.
"They'd Apparate," Sirius said. "They wouldn't want any Muggles to feel suspicious toward them."
"Oh, really?" Lily asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow. "It seems as though they're actually unconcerned whether Muggles notice them. They just wanted a chance to look at Harry, like he's some pet to be ogled at."
"That's understandable," Sirius said. "After all, he did save the wizarding world."
At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.
"So he has no friends," James muttered.
"Dudley's gang probably bullies anyone who dares disagree with them," Peter said. "No one wants to be his friend?"
"Apparently not."
There was a sigh, and Lily looked around the room.
"All right," she said. "That's two chapters in, and we still don't know much more about what happened than we did before. We don't know how we were killed—" she purposely did not say James and I—"or what else happened over the last ten years. Who else wants to read?"
"I will," Sirius said.
James grinned. "Sirius can read?"
"Oh, shut it," Sirius said, throwing the last bit of Cauldron Cake in James' direction. "I just want to know what happens to yours and Lily-bean's son, Jamesie."
"Don't call me that," Lily and James said at the same time.
"And it's not our son!" Lily said.
Sirius grinned. "Sure, Lily-bean, whatever you say," he said. "Now give me that book, will you?"
Lily threw the book in Sirius' direction. He caught it easily and began to read, an oddly amused gleam in his eye.
Author's Note: First of all, thanks so much for those people who reviewed the previous chapter! I appreciate it more than you guys know. I have a feeling this story will include a lot of character development (an element lacking in other "Marauders read Harry Potter" fics), just from Lily's reaction to the news she apparently marries James, so expect quite a bit of that. I am so excited about this idea, but it is going to be epic—just look at the length of the chapters for proof of that—so I need all the support I can get. Please review and tell me what you liked? Thanks!
By the way, in regards to the spells: "Ostendo" means "reveal" in Latin, and "veritas" means "truth." That means that "Ostendo veritas" basically means "Reveal truth" or "Show truth." It might not be proper Latin grammar, but—it was the best I could think of. Hopefully it works well enough.