Quick update: Lily tries to convince herself that she is just a servant but James and the gang determined to make Lily realize how wrong she is, end up in a shouting match. Lily remembers her past life with Lucius Malfoy and decides that she needs to do something about it. First stop: Diagon alley for a wand.
…
A week later found James, Sirius, Marlene and Lily walking away from Potter Manor, towards the apparition point, in the snug warmth of the August sun. Lily and Marlene held onto James and Sirius, as they got apparated out of the boundaries of Potter Manor.
They all materialized at the apparition point in Muggle London and Sirius, slightly breathless, indicated right and said "This way! Follow me," his long strides were hard for even James to keep up with and they all panted a little as Sirius came to another stop. "Need to just work out the direction for the Leaky Cauldron," he muttered, mostly to himself.
Why is Peter not coming with us? Lily asked James, while they waited. James gave her a curious look and mouthed 'why do you ask'.
"Saw him this morning," she intoned.
It was Sirius who answered Lily's initial question.
"It involves walking and anything that requires exercise, that lazy git will just not do."
James chuckled at the accurate description.
"Doesn't he mind you two always making fun of him?" Marlene questioned suddenly entering the conversation.
Sirius and James both looked at her.
"It's only a joke, Marlene, Pete loves them."
Marlene wasn't completely convinced and Sirius nudged her in the ribs in a petulant manner.
"Honestly, I'm so hilarious- everyone says so."
"Everyone being you and yourself, Sirius?" Lily asked mildly.
James laughed heartily at that while Sirius scowled in her direction.
"Ill have you know, I was the funniest person at Hogwarts. People used to flock to me just to hear some fantastic belly-tickling tales."
"Craptastic, you mean," James added loftily.
This time Marlene and lily snorted with their uncontrollable laughter.
"Take that back, James Potter!" Sirius almost yelled in mock indignation, but he was smiling.
"Sirius, your jokes are lame. Just accept it." James told him in a matter of fact manner.
"Fine," Sirius huffed and with a dramatic sigh he slung his arm around Marlene.
"You're all bullies," he declared, and Marlene kind of struggling with Sirius' arm, giggled at him and pushed away.
For a few minutes there was no talking as Sirius, finally getting the direction right, using a point-me charm, made them walk through a couple of London streets.
Suddenly Lily exclaimed: "oh it's the leaky cauldron! I've been here before. I tried fire whiskey for the first time here," she was so enthusiastic at recognizing the place that she forgot about her company and started walking towards the entrance, ignoring both the muggles and her magical friends.
The others could only follow, Sirius wearing a bemused expression.
...
No one really knew Marlene and Lily, but James and Sirius were almost wizarding royalty. People gathered around them, as they tried to make their way to the back of the pub, to either say a quick greeting or generally gawp at the sight of them.
"I suppose being Aurors didn't take away the fun of getting a few drinks, eh?" A very familiar voice came through and was quickly followed by a tall, lanky and slim man. He looked to be about the same age as James and Sirius.
The girls were lost to who this was but clearly James and Sirius, both supporting grins, did know him. They both got up and clapped the man on the back.
"Good to see you Frank," James said sincerely.
"Or is it Healer Longbottom now? About time you finished training." Sirius added.
"Yup, just yesterday. Came in here to celebrate with Alice. She's just left to go home and I was about to head off as well when I spotted you two with your, uh, friends..." Frank finished a bit awkwardly; knowing whom Lily and Marlene could be but choosing not to say.
"Oh yes," James said. "These are Marlene Cullen and Lily Evans," he pointed to both girls who shook hands with Frank, when he held it out.
"They are family friends," Sirius finished.
"Lovely to meet you both. Are you here just for a day out or needing to buy something specific?" Frank asked them.
"I'm buying a wand," Lily said softly and smiled. Frank seemed like an easy-going chap, Lily though. And he was a healer. Healers were generally kind and non-judgmental.
"Well you've chosen a lovely day, but all the Hogwarts students are out today as well. You might be hard pressed to find room to walk."
At Frank's words, James and Sirius both groaned.
"Forgot that the new school year is about to start," Sirius sighed
"We better get a move on." James said, his neck stretched to look ahead at the exit.
The four bid Frank a farewell, declined drinks from Tom the bar man and finally made their way to the back of the pub.
This way to Diagon alley, James whispered dramatically.
He tapped a couple of bricks with his wand and to the surprise of both girls, the wall opened up to let them through.
As Frank had predicted, Diagon alley was bustling with families of Hogwarts students.
"I don't want pink dress-robes, mum!" A girl was saying.
"It says no Broom sticks, Nigel," a father was sharply telling his son.
"I've heard the new sweets shop has bogey flavoured beans, lets get some and see what they're like," a young boy was saying to another.
Sirius, Marlene, James and Lily all stood staring at the scene.
"Brings back memories, doesn't it," James said in a quiet voice.
Sirius hummed in response.
But Lily had a tight smile on her face.
"It sure does," she replied. Marlene, without the boys noticing her, gave Lily a soft shoulder squeeze.
"Malfoy can't spoil Diagon alley for you this time," she whispered and lily nodded back, her eyes bright.
Sirius led them through the crowds. The little group kept having to stop as Lily or Marlene would frequently stop and stare at various shops, just as enthusiastically as some of the first-year Hogwarts students.
"Are you sure this isn't your first time, here?" James asked teasingly as they stopped outside another shop. It was Eyelops Owl Emporium.
"Yes," Marlene replied distractedly. "But never like this." She was gesturing to her robes.
"Never worn black robes in public before,"
James bit his lip and looked at Sirius. Sirius had a blank look on his face. To others, the blank face would display indifference but James knew Sirius was just as affected at hearing Marlene speak in such a simple manner about something so fundamentally twisted and wrong.
It was the first time lily and Marlene had worn black robes. Black robes symbolized service. It implied you had a job, a protector from, typically of higher blood status or authority. The colour of the robes protected muggle-borns like Lily and Marlene from stares, harassment and comments. Without the obvious muggle born robes, Marlene and Lily were just normal wizarding folk, come to do their shopping. No one needed to know they weren't even half-bloods.
After all, even professors, healers and sometimes ministry officials wore black robes.
Silently James and Sirius decided that they would let Marlene and Lily stay and ogle all day at the magical shops, if that was what they wanted to do.
However, finally, they walked on. Sirius suggested that he and Marlene go and explore a few other places while Lily and James went to buy the wand.
"Meet outside Ollivanders, yeah?" James said.
"Kay. I have my mirror as well if you need to contact me," Sirius replied and off they went in different directions.
...
It was extremely dusty inside Ollivander's wand shop and James sneezed, then took off his glasses, wiped them but still couldn't see any better.
"Did someone die in here?" James muttered.
Lily nudged him to be quiet as an extremely withered looking man came down a set of very steep spiral staircase.
"Come to buy a wand?" he said in a thin voice, staring at Lily with his unusually bright blue eyes.
"Erm, yes." She replied.
"Hmm." The man replied and turned back round and went up the spiral staircase. Raising his eyebrows, James shared a look of incredulity with Lily.
"Is that Ollivander?" Lily whispered to James and as if Ollivander had heard her, he reappeared with a measuring tape, a notebook and an eerie sort of smile.
"Hold out your wand arm," he instructed in his nasally voice. Lily slowly put her right arm out.
The tape measure jumped out of Ollivander's hands and started measuring Lily's arm. It then measured her height. Her legs. The space between her eyebrows and even the size of one nostril.
All the while, Ollivander scribbled on his notepad. Tapped his fingers on his head for a while and went back to scribbling away.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lily could see James having a hard time not laughing. She tried to turn around him and get him to stop Ollivander doing this nonsense but just then the tape measure fell to the floor, lifeless.
"Hmm," Ollivander said again. "My family has been producing quality wands since the seventeenth century. As unique as your charms abilities might be, I am certain I can find just the wand for you,"
He gave her another eerie smile and in a swift moment had gone up the spiral staircase again.
James was smiling, she noticed. 'What' she mouthed. But he shook his head, a far away look on his face. Lily wanted to ask him more but Ollivander had returned, and with him, floating in the air were at least 50 wands.
"Here we are, these ought to do the trick. One, as strong as yourself in charms, must not use any wand except one made of cherry and maple wood."
Lily looked like she wanted to ask the details of how each wand was made but she was thrust with the first wand. She shook it slightly and immediately both James and Ollivander had snatched their wands out and erected shields around themselves.
Lily had managed to make sharp tiny pins erupt from the wand and shower all over the place.
"Sorry," she said hastily and took the next wand as Ollivander waved away her apology.
This was, also, however a disappointment. It made a strange hissing noise and Ollivander had swept it out of her hand before any accidents happened. She went through wand after wand. James got bored and wandered off near the window, from where he could see the rest of Diagon alley.
Twenty minutes and 32 wands later, another customer made his way in. The eleven-year-old boy, ready for Hogwarts, tried few wands and was done and out of the shop. Lily still hadn't found hers.
"Not to worry, not to worry," Ollivander said gleefully as he handed another wand over to her. The more wands Lily tried out, the happier he seemed to be getting.
Ollivander had to go and rummage around the back again and in the mean time, a small elf came around with teas and biscuits for James and lily.
"You sure are a unique witch, Evans," James smirked. Lily grimaced and flopped down on the chair next to James, who had gotten tired of standing. But she got up immediately, with a yelp. She had been poked in the back. She turned around to see what the object was, and to her surprise it was a wand.
"Err James? Do wands normally poke people?"
"Huh?"
She pointed to the wand and James' eyes widened in understanding.
"Ibs tewwi foo idd" he spoke around a mouthful of biscuit. He swallowed painfully and said, "pick it up, this might be the one!"
"You sure? I don't want to do anything that might anger Mr. Ollivander," Lily began.
But James rolled his eyes and stuffed the wand into Lily's hand.
At once, a warm burst of air hit her and she was lifted out off her chair. From the ground James' gasped, quickly clambering to his feet and getting his wand out in case he needed to rescue her. But Lily was glowing. Literally. Her skin was shimmering and her hair looked like real embers of a fire. In that moment, nothing could have been more spectacular or beautiful than the raw form of wand magic recognising and tethering to its witch's magical core.
Gently she swiped her wand down and softly landed on the floor once more. An audience of Ollivander, Sirius, Marlene and James applauded her.
Sirius and Marlene who had only just appeared were staring at her in astonishment. James was still smiling and Mr. Ollivander was crying, 'bravo! Oh jolly good!'
Some walkers-by even peeked in to see what could possibly be going on inside.
But it was nothing to what Lily felt. She was elated. Her fingers tingled with the magic that ran through them. Her eyes glinted softly, happily and with perhaps the slightest of tears, she turned to James.
"Thank you," she said in a soft voice, her emotions tumbling out and catching James off guard. Not knowing how to respond he simply stepped forward and hugged her. It was just an embrace, which ended when Ollivander, quite oblivious to what had just happened happily demanded 14 galleons from them.
Sirius sniggered and Marlene hit his arm. Sirius looked at her reproachfully before getting a glint in his eye and lunged after her as they playfully danced around each other.
Ollivander asked them to leave, displeased with the racket they were causing. Marlene declared that she would like to see the owls again so Sirius decided to take her there, leaving Lily and James with Ollivander, once again.
Just before Lily left the wand shop, Ollivander spoke up again.
"Of course we can expect many great things from you. Your power is really quite unmatched." He made Lily blush as she stuttered thanks. Then he said something rather peculiar.
"And Miss Evans, welcome back my dear. It is good to see you again."
Both James and lily left hurriedly after that, it was a known fact that too long in the wand shop could make ones brain go a bit funny. It was the combination of so many magical wands all in one place, apparently that did it. No one was sure how accurate this really was, but nevertheless neither Lily nor James wanted to take a chance.
Why did he say 'welcome back' to you? James questioned once they had left the little wand shop.
Lily shrugged her shoulders and said that she was just as confused as he was.
"Maybe he mistook me for someone else?"
"But he's known for his memory and he never forgets any wand he sells."
"Well I've never owned a wand before this," lily replied, definitely not as interested in Ollivander's strange behaviour as James was.
"It's just odd, I've never known Ollivander to make a mistake. But he is getting a bit senile- probably his age catching up!"
Lily giggled and delighted James tried to crack more, equally silly jokes for her sake.
…
It was once they were back at Potter Manor, and Remus and Peter had also joined them that Lily suddenly remembered something.
They had just finished dinner and were sitting idly in one of the smaller rooms. "James," lily began. James looked over from his conversation with Remus and turned his attention to the girl.
"Remember when Ollivander commented that I must be excellent at charms? Why were you smiling?"
"What?" James said, in almost an innocent voice. Unfortunately Marlene picked up on it.
"Aw now you're pretending you can't remember!"
Caught up with the game, Remus and Sirius also pestered James until he threw up his hands and said, "fine! Merlin! You're like a pack of gnats on rum!"
They waited in gleeful delight at having made James succumb to their game.
"I had a friend once," James began.
"Go on..." Marlene said in a singsong voice.
James smiled softly and Lily noticed he had that strange far-away look again.
When she got her wand, I was with her and I just remember that Ollivander told her to expect charms to be amongst her strengths. When Ollivander spoke to you, Lily it suddenly reminded me of her.
"So where is she now?" Lily asked curious
There was a long pause and finally signing James looked up and replied, "she died."
"Oh!" Lily replied and tried to make her way to him. But James got up before she could and gently maneuvered himself round her outstretched arms.
"I think I'll call it a night," he said quietly and made his way out of the room.
"I should probably go as well," Remus said, purposely avoiding the elephant in the room.
"Peter, you coming?"
Peter nodded and left with Remus, giving them all a weak smile.
"Did you know her?" Lily asked softly to Sirius.
A sad smile came to his face as well.
"Yeah. I knew her. Everyone knew the Brigants."
At that name, Marlene gasped and her face seemed to pale.
"I've heard that name!" She exclaimed.
Sirius eyes turned dark and his face seemed to be straining to remain calm.
"Not surprising really. When Tom Riddle's men killed the Brigant family, it made headlines worldwide. After all it's not everyday you massacre a direct and only royal wizarding line left in Britain."
Lily kept quiet. She didn't know who the Brigants were. She had never heard of this story and logically speaking she shouldn't feel anything about them. Yet, the fact that the girl had died. The fact she was James friend. And the fact that they shared a common enemy- Tom Riddle. It was enough for Lily to feel a burning rage on her behalf and before she knew it, she was crying.
"Isn't he the minister? How did he get away with that kind of murder?" Marlene asked.
"Because he is the minister. He has ways to make murders look like accidents."
The other two said nothing, understanding clear in their eyes. Once again, injustice and death and war seemed to plague their very existence. Whichever way they turned the memories of those lost and those living a deprived life sprang up and remained there until someone acknowledged them.
Lily went to sleep that night thinking of the girl who was killed. A life wasted, just like that.
She had cried again, and Marlene was there to listen and give her quiet support. At least it hadn't been her own friend.
James went to sleep that might and woke up 2 hours later, having dreamt the same horrendous dream of the girl running, running, running. Someone – Riddle's men – chasing, chasing, chasing.
He never saw his friend after that day. And he remembered it clearly as if it were yesterday.
He was shaking and sweating and as usual Sirius was there with drinks, cigarettes and a false smile. Cheering him up in a way that only a best friend could.
…
AN: This has officially become my favourite chapter :) Please review and tell me what you think of this chapter and what you think might happen next! Would love to hear your views! Also…I have a beta reader…shoutout to Grace Em. I'll post the edited version of the chapters soon.
Til the next time
-Vitzy-