AN: To all those people who put this on alert, my greatest love for you! To those who have already put it on favourites…just wow! And to those wonderful few who reviewed…this chapter is up only because of your motivation to me and willingness to read more. See you at the end.
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No one dared to break the silence as it enveloped everyone in the room but finally Sirius turned towards the girl.
"Excuse me?" Sirius asked, an eyebrow raised and mouth hardening. But his cold demeanor did not intimidate this girl.
"Don't pretend to be something you can't attest to," she spoke quietly. And as Sirius turned to fully stare at her, the double meaning of her words was clear.
And Sirius Black was not amused. And usually, when something or someone displeased Sirius Black in someway, it didn't end well for the other party.
"Are we forgetting our place?" he spoke quietly but the room was so silent that an eavesdropper could have heard quite easily.
The girl's eyes flashed and she shook her head and raised her own eyebrows, "I'm simply reminding you that it is highly inappropriate of you to come in here and act as a vampire when you are clearly no such thing."
There were three sharp intakes of breaths, but the girl held Sirius' gaze – or rather – his glare.
His grey eyes glinted and all of a sudden he was towering over her, invading her personal space and daring her to say more.
It was only when a throat was cleared that it was remembered that in fact someone else had also entered the room with Sirius. James strolled up to Sirius with calculated calmness and stared curiously at the girl who was seconds away from facing the wrath of an enraged man. She held up her chin in a defiant and defensive pose, her emerald green eyes sparkled with something more than just challenge. It was like looking into a life-reviving potion. Her red wavy hair tumbled down in fiery disarray, very much symbolizing the girl's very personality.
And for some bizarre reason, James felt as if he must save this girl from Sirius' inevitable retaliation.
If you were to ask him a few months later, what possessed him to act the way he did, he and his mates would give you thousands of excuses. James would later on claim that actually Dementors had possessed him. Sirius would say that actually Peter Pettigrew, their good-natured but idiotic friend, had polyjuiced himself into James just to attend the auctioning. Because no one in the room could have anticipated that James would suddenly swing his arm around and land a well executed punch, with all the strength of an ex-Quidditch captain, to Sirius' face.
For a moment there was a shell-shocked silence but then Marlene and the other giggly girl screamed and scrambled backwards. Mallory let out a string of words in some Asian language, excited that maybe a brawl would start out.
And then Sirius spoke, his face a confused and furious contortion to normal. "What in Agrippa's name was that for?"
James shrugged and caught those sparkling emerald eyes before turning back round to Sirius who was working his jaw to see if anything had been broken. He touched a finger to the hurt area, delicately and glared at James and in turn the servant-girl who James had just defended, when he found his finger reddened. "Why did you just do that? I'm bleeding ,you prat," he added through clenched teeth, obviously in pain.
James shrugged again.
"The girl is right. You were pretending to be a vampire when you really were not." Again the double meaning wasn't lost on Sirius. He got the message: Don't act like a friend to the girls when you are clearly not one. Sirius pointedly looked away and the girls stood around, not quite sure how to proceed.
The door opened and closed and if it were possible to be, Marlene looked even more frightened than she had a minute previously. Ludo Bagman and a tall, lean man with straight, waist long, blonde hair, tied in a ponytail, walked in.
"Potter. Black," the blonde acknowledged with false charm and a sneer hidden in the tone of his voice.
"Malfoy," came the answering snarls.
"Twenty-one, already boys? My, my, it does seem like just yesterday that you were merely silly little Gryffindors, pulling pranks on school prefects," Malfoy said in a teasing tone for the benefit of Bagman and the girls. But the hidden malice and his attempt at humiliation did not go unnoticed by James or Sirius.
Ludo hurried over to James and Sirius and got a gleeful look in his eyes as he saw the men extract their coin bags.
"Well, have we decided?" Ludo asked.
Sirius was the first to speak. He did a quick scan of the four girls and settled on Marlene if purely because she was the first girl he had spoken to. The transaction was quick and Marlene (Cullen, she later told him) stood by Sirius, shaking like a leaf until he put one strong arm around her shoulders and told her to 'just relax.'
James was a bit unsure of who to pick. Not buying a servant was not really an option. His father was the head of the department of Magical Law enforcement and therefore needed to keep up certain appearances. It would not do for his son to not abide by an important law like this.
"Why are you here anyway, dear cousin-in-law?" Sirius asked loudly.
Lucius' back stiffened but he remained silent.
"Is your dear wife too much of a prude? Need another girl to elevate the boredom of celibacy?" Sirius continued jeering.
Nevertheless, Lucius had had enough and for the second time that evening, Sirius sported a bleeding jaw.
"Narcissa is twice the person you'll ever be, Black," Lucius hissed but Sirius just grinned. He jerked out of James' hold on his arm but didn't move forwards. "It's a shame Lucius, that you can't see how we work. She's a Black. Deep down maybe but she is just as twisted as the rest of us."
Lucius whipped his wand out and immediately James and Sirius had theirs pointed towards the older man.
"Now, now, no need for a duel," Bagman said tersely but no one was listening.
"One more word, Black. One more word about my wife and I'll hex you," Lucius' growled.
"Really, Malfoy? You're challenging us to a duel?" James asked, almost incredulously.
"You're not at Hogwarts anymore, boys. No silly little fan-girls or your usual sidekicks. Speaking of which where are Lupin and Pettigrew? Still alive?" Lucius said viciously.
Simultaneously, two red light flashed and reinforced each other as they travelled through the air but Lucius deflected it with a lazy flick of his wand. James' clenched the fist not holding his wand and Sirius gripped his harder.
"Dear, what has happened to the infamous Marauders? Can't even hex someone without failing. What? Is the real world too much to handle?" Lucius said with a snide smile.
From somewhere behind them Marlene or maybe Mary gasped in recognition of who the Marauders were, but the men only had eyes for each other.
"Are you really willing to do this here, Malfoy? In front of two Aurors who could have you sent to Azkaban for numerous cases?" James said quietly and seriously.
Lucius snorted. "Merlin must have died and made you two idiots Aurors but it wouldn't be wise of you to threaten me, Potter."
"Are you threatening us, Malfoy?" Sirius said his eyes glinting dangerously.
"And what if I am?" Lucius replied, his blue eyes getting a steely edge.
But Ludo Bagman had seen enough. He wasn't going to stand and watch this go any more out of control. "Gentlemen, gentlemen really now, I must insist that you take this outside, if you cannot control yourselves. It was a desperate attempt to avoid a full out battle from breaking out.
"Don't get your robes in a knot, Bagman. We're adult wizards now, we know better than to start a duel publically." Lucius sneered.
"Wouldn't want the public to know the extent of your illegal curses usage, isn't that so, Malfoy," Sirius snapped.
"Drop it mate," James muttered, starting to lower his wand.
Encouraged by the drop in tension, if only briefly, Ludo shuffled towards Lucius, who was still holding his wand in an offensive position.
"Mr. Malfoy, let us carry on with the business shall we?" Ludo said, stepping up to the man and strategically blocking the other two men's view of Lucius. For the first time since his entry, Lucius swept his gaze around at the four girls. His disdain at Mallory's attire or stance was quite clear as he barked at her to get out of the way of the girls behind her.
Mallory pursed her lips but the cheek she had displayed earlier with Sirius, was gone.
Lucius' slow gaze finally landed on the girl furthest to the right. Cold blue eyes locked onto a pair of horrified green eyes. "Ah," he leered, his voice like that of a predator about to pounce. "I thought I would find you here, girly." She said nothing and Lucius carried on talking. "Aren't you lucky I chose to pick you today?" he slowly walked right up to her. His hand found its way into her hair and he rested it against the hollow of her skull, twisted in the thick red waves.
She looked away defiantly and James had the sudden urge to encourage her.
Lucius' fingers raked her skull and he jerked his hand and she yelped. "Answer me!" he spoke with sudden volume to his voice.
The girl trembled a little but her voice was steady, calm, almost monotonous.
"I'd rather drown in a lake infested with inferi before counting myself lucky to be anywhere near you, Master Lucius!" she said heatedly.
Marlene actually fell to her knees in horror and a thoroughly amused Sirius had to help her up. Mary stared between Lucius' livid face and her friend's calm one. Mallory actually laughed out loud and again Sirius wondered how this girl could ever be a proper maid.
"What did you say, you ungrateful wretch?" Lucius snapped, pulling harder on her hair.
She actually had tears in her eyes but her words were even more defiant than before. "Buy me if you want Sir, but I never did nor ever will belong to you. Not if I can help it."
Quick as lightening, Lucius smacked her with a resounding slap on her cheek and she cried as she fell sideways, away from him.
At once, Mary and Mallory rushed to help her up. Marlene tried to but Sirius held her back. Marlene looked up confusedly at Sirius but reverted her eyes at the thunderous expression on his face.
"Enough," James said quietly and every face turned in his direction.
"What?" Lucius snapped.
"Enough with the female dramatics, Malfoy. Either bid on her or leave her alone."
"Think you can bid more on her, do you?" Lucius challenged.
James glared at Lucius until finally extracting two bags of coins and placing them on the table. "As a matter of fact, I think I can."
"What?" Sirius hissed into James' ear. "What are you doing mate? You do remember her insolence towards me don't you?" he continued.
"Naturally," James replied as Lucius extracted three coin bags and put them up on the opposite side to James'.
"She doesn't have respect for authority. She'll be uncontrollable," Sirius whispered, trying to dissuade James.
"Sod off Padfoot, I can make my own decisions."
"You're getting challenged by an idiot Slytherin!" Sirius said finally, exasperated with James' attitude. James just smiled and shrugged, not bothering to really correct Sirius. After all, he himself was not quite sure what made him accept Lucius' challenge in the first place.
The coin piles grew steadily higher. Eventually James came to his final bag and a triumphant Lucius leered in the slave girl's direction. Ludo began to gather Lucius' money.
"Going once, Going twice…G…" Bagman spoke the words as empty formalities, not really expecting anyone to bid anything higher. Lucius stalked up to the girl, grinned evilly and grabbed her hand unceremoniously.
"Wait," drawled a bored voice. It was Sirius.
Despite his obvious distaste in James' choice of servant and his current annoyance with said man, he was still his best friend. Therefore he felt compelled to extract his last four bags of coins and silently levitate them to James' bidding pile.
A smirking James flashed a quick grin of appreciation to his best mate and deftly and firmly took the bewildered girl from Lucius' hand and into his.
Lucius stood frozen for a moment. Frozen at the audacity of someone daring to outweigh his decision, before he roared. He turned blazing eyes towards James and his newly acquired servant.
"You'll regret this Potter!" he spat with vengeance. "You and your precious mudblood will remember this day as the last of any calm."
If anything James hand squeezed the girl's hand a little in a small comforting gesture.
"I will have you back where you belong!" he seemed to be speaking directly to James' servant but Ludo looked a bit distressed as well.
Without a backward glance, he swept past everyone and slammed the door shut with a wandless and non-verbal spell. The cabin shook slightly with the aura of anger than surrounded Lucius.
"Right then, Mallory, Mary get back into the kitchen. We have a meal to prepare." The Asian and the blonde girls nodded their heads slowly and with one last, final looks at their girlfriends, they scurried off; thankful that they were spared for one more year.
Ludo Bagman turned to face the young men and their girls once more. For the first time in his life, he looked old and perhaps it was pity or maybe it was just a gesture of goodwill that Sirius and James both left the man's cabin soon after and without any further fuss.
Once they were finally outside, the street was considerably emptier and the four found it relatively easy to walk through the twists and turns of Knockturn and then Diagon Alley. Reaching the official apparating spot, Sirius went first with Marlene.
It was once James and the girl were alone that he finally spoke to her directly.
"Have you ever done side-along apparition?" He was studying her intently, genuinely curious about the answer.
She gave a slight nod but spoke not a word. Apparently her previous courage and defiance was gone. James grimaced at the irony of his situation. Most people wanted their personal servants to be compliant and scared of their masters, but he had chosen her because her brazenness and witty remarks had been refreshing for a want of a better word. James knew that her current meekness was something to do with Malfoy. It always is he added in his head as he remembered the number of detentions he had received from the slytherin prefect and later head boy.
He gently took her hand and tugged on it so that she was walking with him, rather than being pulled by him.
"Thank you," she said suddenly. She spoke so quietly that if he hadn't been looking at her then, and seen her lips move to form the words, he would have thought that someone was wandering around, talking, with the disillusionment charm on themselves.
He nodded and gave her a tiny smile, which she returned, albeit hesitantly.
"I am afraid, I still don't quite know your name," he said as a way to distract her from the obvious discomfort of disapparation.
But not on Godric's life did he expect to hear that name ever again.
"Lily Evans," she said quietly but firmly, almost daring him to contradict.
However, if he had actually recognized the name, the events that were about to take place would have been different. This story would take on a completely different turn because Lily Evans, as you, dear reader, may have guessed becomes a vitally important part of this story.
As it was, James did not recognize the name and other than appreciating the beauty of it, he thought nothing more of it. After all, what was so special about a Muggle-born witch named Lily Evans?
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AN: Well, James my boy, quite a lot is special about this particular Lily! Anyway, hope you enjoyed this next installment. I am very eager to hear your views on this. If something is not quite right or confusing you or alternatively if something is really working, please let me know through a review. Thanks for reading.
Peace,
Vitzy
xxx