To her surprise, Lily managed to sleep almost a full four hours after leaving Potter in the Common Room. September second rose with no clouds in sight and with birds chirping, cheerfully oblivious to the events that had transpired the night before. The castle was quiet as Lily woke, early enough to see the last rims of orange disappear beyond the horizon, and for a time Lily simply lay on her bed, listening to her own heart beating and the familiar cadence of snores and whistling that she had grown to love over the past five years.
Five years ago to the minute, Lily had laid in the same spot, wide awake and eyes round with anticipation. Eleven year old Lily had barely been able to keep herself from squealing with delight at the thought of finally being able to formally practice the magic she had spent the past few years experimenting with. Just like that day, Sophie Abbot was lying asleep in the bed next to Lily's, snoring peacefully. Sophie had been the first Gryffindor girl Lily had ever spoken to at Hogwarts, and they had spent the entire Welcome Feast discussing everything from the floating candles to the real-life ghosts that they could have full on conversations with. At first, Lily had assumed that Sophie was a muggleborn, like herself, but the small blonde girl eventually explained that her witch mother had died when she was only four, and she had been raised by her muggle father.
For a while, Lily thought that Sophie was going to be her best friend in Gryffindor. But then, Sophie found Cammie, and Snape had 'accidentally' tripped Sophie, and then Cammie tried (and failed) to hex Snape for it, and the room was awkward for about a week. Thankfully, Marlene got tired of the awkwardness and decided that the entire room needed some bonding. And while the usual gossiping and games of exploding snap ensued, Marlene had meant actual bonding, and had used a spell forcing all five of the Gryffindor girls to remain within six feet of each other at all times (making trips to the bathroom rather difficult).
The memory used to make her laugh, but when Lily turned to look at the bed on her left, it only left her with a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. Early July, Lily had received a tear soaked letter from Marlene explaining that Jasmine Lowe, who had spent bonding night in fits of laughter trying to see what would happen if she jumped on the bed too far from the other girls, would not be returning to Hogwarts. After the death of her uncle, Jasmine's mother had decided that England was not a safe place for their family, and took Jasmine and her two younger brothers to America to study at Salem.
Part of me is just so furious with Jasmine for agreeing to go, Marlene had written, but now I'm wondering why the rest of us haven't followed Mrs. Lowe's lead. Dumbledore might be the most powerful wizard there is, but that doesn't mean he can protect everyone all the time.
Lily had replied that she fervently believed Hogwarts to be the safest place for everyone, and that it was without a doubt the best place to learn how to defend ones self. After yesterday, did she still think the same way?
"Bit depressing that they'd just keep the thing here, isn't it?" Lily jolted as she heard Marlene's voice from behind her. The tall sixth year was leaning against one of Lily's bed posts, black hair thrown in a messy bun and eyes slightly red so that Lily wasn't sure if it was from being tired or if she had been crying. She was staring at the bed wistfully, and Lily imagined that Marlene was also remembering their friend's obnoxious laugh and tendency to lose her shoes.
"Maybe they think she'll be back," Lily said, doubtfully.
"Dumbledore's more of an optimist than I thought," Marlene scoffed.
"I think we saw enough evidence of that last night." Marlene went pale at Lily's words. Lily hadn't done much the night before besides say hello to her friends before leaving them for the quiet of the common room, so Lily and Marlene had yet to discuss the previous night's events.
"He looked angry when Mcgonagall told him," she sat on the edge of Lily's bed as she spoke, arms wrapped tight against her body, glancing between Lily and the empty bed next to them, " I don't think I've ever seen him genuinely angry before."
"Nor have I. At first I thought, because of what happened on the train, and all the Aurors-"
"That they were expecting an attack," Marlene nodded.
"But he didn't even mention You-Know-Who afterwards. For the past three years he's made sure to mention him, to make us aware and to prepare us, but last night of all nights he doesn't even mention that Higgins' death was a murder."
"It is strange… Maybe he was just too distracted, I heard that the body was pretty gruesome." Lily thought back to what Potter had said about poor Peter and cringed.
"Dumbledore, distracted? No.. I think.. well, maybe…" Lily looked tentatively up at Marlene. Marlene, who believed that seventh year Ashton Marvel was an experiment by the ministry to see how easily girls could become distracted from their studies. Marlene, who once set free all the frogs from the transfiguration room 'just in case they had been transfigured humans'. Marlene wouldn't laugh at her theory.
"What if Dumbledore doesn't believe that this has to do with You-Know-Who? Everyone just assumed that it had to do with him and with the war, but what if this is completely unrelated?" Marlene's eyes widened slightly, but to Lily's relief, she did not laugh.
"Who could it have been then? A teacher? Surely you don't think it was a student?"
"It could have been anyone. We don't know when he died, do we? We don't know anything." Lily sighed and turned to look out the window. Over an hour had passed since she had woken, which meant the Great Hall would soon be filling up with fresh eggs and perfectly cooked bacon. "Maybe Dumbledore will say something at breakfast."
"I doubt it. You heard what Mcgonagall said last night."
Professor Mcgonagall had lead the Gryffindor students to their tower, wand out and stony faced, at the end of the not so festive Welcome Feast. Once everyone had returned and the prefects had done a final head count, she had turned to address her students.
"We are all in shock after what has transpired tonight. You would do well to heed Professor Dumbledore's words and lean on each other for support. Marcus Higgins' death will be investigated by the ministry, but I suggest you put it out of your minds. Your time at Hogwarts should be spent studying hard and…" she had paused to clear her voice "making friendships and memories."
She had said no more, despite some of the older students shouting out questions.
"They can't tell us nothing. I mean, at the very least, it will be in The Prophet, won't it?" But although Lily spoke with hope in her voice, Marlene could see the doubt in her eyes.
Once the rest of the sixth year girls were awake and dressed, the four of them followed each other to the Great Hall to have their fill of egg and sausage, and to get their sixth-year time tables. Chatting along the way, Lily learned that Sophie had unexpectedly earned eight OWLs, including an Exceeds Expectations in Astronomy. Not so unexpectedly, Lily had earned nine OWLs , although she had only earned an Exceeds Expectations in Astronomy.
The Great Hall was as full and loud as it had been the night before. Lily guessed that then entire school had shown up with the same hopes as her, that they would get more information on what had happened to Marcus Higgins. Unfortunately for everyone, Dumbledore's seat was the only empty one on the dais.
Lily was sincerely trying to listen to what her friends were talking about. She truly wanted to know why Cammie was so upset over something about Care of Magical Creatures, and why Sophie was talking so much faster than usual. But back in the Great Hall, all she could think about was Dumbledore's face as he had discussed the death of a teacher they had never gotten to meet.
"…isn't that right, Lily?" Marlene was elbowing her.
"Of course!" Lily said quickly. Cammie and Sophie continued talking, appeased, but Marlene gave her a questioning look. Lily only shrugged in response. Focusing was not in her cards today.
Ten minutes later, the missing sixth year Gryffindors strolled in, minus one, and sat right down next to the four girls. Lily groaned as Potter sat across from her, but tried to smile at Remus in the seat next to him.
"So what do you boys think? Reckon that sixth year's going to make us all mad?" Marlene asked, passing the jug of pumpkin juice.
"Why's that?" Remus asked curiously.
"NEWT work, obviously. And we start non-verbals this year, too," she replied.
"Non-verbals are nothing, once you get the hang of them," Jame said, spreading jam over his toast.
Lily made a derisive snort but Sophie said excitedly, "You can do nonverbal spells already?"
"Well, he can make things explode without saying anything. Not sure if those count, Prongs." Sirius patted James on the back. The boys laughed as James made a face at Sirius and the girls smiled, unsure whether or not he was joking. Remus muttered something to Sirius that Lily thought mentioned something exploding again, and the two boys burst out laughing, causing James to frown.
Sophie, Cammie and Marlene went back to discussing Care of Magical Creatures, and Remus and Sirius continued their whispered back and forth with interludes of barking laughter from Sirius, which Lily was pretty sure was mostly to annoy Potter.
To her dismay, that meant Potter was left with only her to talk to.
"Still going to take Ancient Runes, Evans?" He asked, leaning over the table to make sure she could hear him. She leaned back.
"I think so." Only students with an Outstanding O.W.L were allowed to continued to NEWT level of Ancient Runes. Lily had earned the score, and Professor Garcia had sent her a note saying she was one of only four other students who had accomplished the feat in the entire year. Unfortunately, she was rather certain James Potter was one of the other three.
"You think so? Don't tell me you haven't gotten your scores yet? Not that you have anything to worry about."
"I have my scores." Why did he have to bother her this early in the morning?
"Then what's the problem?" he asked, ruffling his hair.
"I don't have a problem," said Lily, raising an eyebrow.
"I didn't mean you have a problem," he leaned back and put his hand to his hair again, "why don't you just say 'yes'?"
"Because," Lily started, putting down her fork, "I'm not sure yet."
"How could you not be sure, though?" James' voice had risen slightly, in volume and pitch, and Remus and Sirius had stopped their whispering to watch. "We're setting our time tables in two minutes!" He put up two fingers, as if to emphasize the point.
"I have made up my mind." Lily turned away from him, hoping to join in her friends' conversation, but Potter continued to gape at her.
"SO?"
"If you're going to act so harsh I'd appreciate if you'd at least keep down your voice, Potter."
"I'm only asking-"
"I don't know if I'm going to be taking Ancient Runes yet because it's not only our O.W.L score that matters. We also need permission from both our head of house and the professor of the subject. So no, I do not know whether or not I am taking Ancient Runes. And by the way, neither do you. "
Sirius chuckled and Lily was pretty sure she saw Remus kick him under the table.
"Professor Garcia loves me." James said, grabbing a piece of toast.
"Bully for Professor Garcia." Lily also took a piece of toast, turning away from Potter to force Marlene to talk to her.
Ten minutes later, Professor Mcgonagall had reached their seats and began to check their time tables.
"No, I'm sorry Miss Moreston, Care of Magical Creatures can't be taken if you wish to continue with Muggle Studies. The sixth year classes are at the same time, just like I told you last year." Lily thought Professor Mcgonagall sounded as if she had a head cold. Cammie pouted and took her time table from Professor Mcgonagall, and then set off for first period Charms with Sophie. Marlene set off as soon as she got her time table as well, and Lily sat waiting for her turn as Potter received his own.
"I was pleased with your Transfiguration marks, Mr. Potter. Very pleased. And Professor Garcia wished for me to express her congratulations as well. " James smirked, looking directly at Lily, who rolled her eyes and pulled apart her toast. Typically, Potter was taking the same six subjects as her.
"Professor, Peter Pettigrew was feeling ill this morning and we thought it best that he get some rest before classes."
At James' words, Sirius leaned closer to Lily and whispered, "That potion of yours worked a little too well. We could barely make him get up to shower this morning." Lily stifled a giggled at the image of the three marauders attempting to drag a snoring Peter to the bath.
Professor Mcgonagall nodded solemnly, "Let Mr. Pettigrew know that if he is too ill to attend classes today, I can write a note to his professors." The four Gryffindors were surprised at the condoning of skyving off classes by their usually stern head of house, but James accepted the offered time table graciously, and Mcgonagall turned to Lily.
"Miss Evans, excellent marks as usual. Professor Garcia wished for me to express her congratulations to you as well. Keep this work up, and I'll be recommending you as Head Girl without reservations." Lily could have sworn she saw Professor Mcgonagall smile at her. For a moment, she was too stunned to speak- Head Girl had been a dream in the back of her mind since first year- but after shaking her head and thanking Professor Mcgonagall, she sat up tall and looked the deputy headmistress straight in the eye before doing what she had resolved to do on the way down to breakfast.
"Professor Mcgonagall, I think it would really help if students were made aware of any progress on the investigation of Mr. Higgins' death," she said in one breath. James, Sirius, and Remus all stared at her before looking up eagerly to see Professor Mcgonagall's response. Professor Mcgonagall looked surprised as well, and for a moment, Lily worried that she was about to be shouted at by a professor for the first time in her life. But then, Professor Mcgonagall seemed to relax her shoulders, and she gave Lily a sad, all too understanding look.
"I understand that last night must have been very frightening, Miss Evans-"
"No, I mean, that's not why-"
"-but this is a ministry matter now. And ministry investigations are kept secret, for good reason." James snorted derisively at this, and Professor Mcgonagall pursed her lips, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Er… sorry. It's just that, The Prophet reports pretty regularly about ministry investigations, don't they?" James said, looking between Lily and Professor Mcgonagall.
"That's right!" exclaimed Lily. "And half of the time, The Prophet is convoluted with bias and ministry propganda. Students will be hearing the story, but they'll be getting The Prophet's messed up ideas about what actually happened." Professor Mcgonagall opened her mouth to speak, but Lily pushed on. "Besides, it's not purely a ministry investigation, is it? Professor Dumbledore is going to be helping as well. And-" Lily wasn't sure what else she wanted to say- and it wasn't fair that the students weren't allowed to know anything, and this was their home and they should know what was happening in it, and…"And it's important to know the truth," she finished, attempting to sound emphatic and sure of her own words.
Professor Mcgonagall sighed again, putting her hand up to her hair as if to fix her perfectly wrapped bun. "I am sorry, Miss Evans, but Professor Dumbledore will decide what he thinks is best for students to know. In the meantime, take your time table," she held it out and Lily took it dejectedly, " and go to Charms." Professor Mcgonagall turned away to discuss Remus' time table, but Lily couldn't let it end there.
"What about the prefects, Professor?" Lily asked. Professor Mcgonagall closed her eyes as if praying for patience, and turned to Lily once more.
"What about the prefects, Miss Evans?"
"Are we going to be able to do more rounds of the castle? To help increase protection." Perhaps it was the desperate look on Lily's face, or the fact that Professor Mcgonagall had had as little sleep last night as Lily herself, but she did not look angry and only seemed slightly frustrated, watching the sixth year with what Lily thought might have been pity.
"No, Miss Evans. The Aurors will take care of that." She said 'Aurors' as if she doubted their ability to catch a goat in a cage. "If you'd truly like more prefect duties, I suggest you speak to the head boy and girl." And with a note of finality, she turned to Remus and ran down his list of classes.
Lily tapped her fingers on the table, toast lying destroyed on her plate, and glanced around the hall for a distraction. Potter was staring at her. She glared at him, grabbed her books, and stalked out of the Great Hall.
If the students weren't going to be given information freely, they'd just have to take it.
"Thank Merlin Mcgonagall didn't decide extra prefect duties was a good idea. I'd have killed Lily." Remus took a last bite of sausage before standing with his two friends.
"Hmmm?" James mumbled, tearing his eyes away from the door through which the red head in question had just exited. "Did you say something about, Evans, Moony?" Sirius rolled his eyes and slapped James on the back.
"Snap out of it, mate, you're drooling." James shoved Sirius, who only laughed. Remus rolled his eyes.
"I'm gonna go give Pete his schedule, in case he decides to come down. Be in charms when I get there, yeah?."
Once Remus had left, Sirius grabbed a handful of sausage and the two remaining marauders made their way to the Charms Corridor.
"You know, Evans had some good points." James said, watching Sirius stuff his face with three or four sausages.
"Abou pwefes?" James had to wipe off a piece of meat that had flown onto his robes.
"Gross, Padfoot. No, about the students having the right to know what's going on here. I mean, think of all the first years whose first impression of Hogwarts is that a Professor can get burned alive here without anyone knowing who did it."
"Well, technically, their first impression would have been the lake, and then seeing the castle at night, and then Mcgonagall's face, and then Wormtail's vomit.."
"And then hearing about a dead body on the second floor." As they walked, James could see that the first and second years seemed to be sticking together in clusters of ten or even twelve students- as if walking in a group meant that Voldemort wouldn't be able to see them. In fact, it seemed not even the older students dared walk the Hogwarts corridors by themselves. James shook his head in disbelief, no one should be scared to be at Hogwarts.
"Are you suggesting we do a little digging?" asked Sirius, grinning.
"I'm not sure yet. But I think I'll be keeping the cloak on me from now on."
Sirius' grin widened. "We've never snuck into Dumbledore's office before," James couldn't help but grin at the excited expression on Sirius' face.
"This seems like a good time to figure out how."
The charms classroom was as cheerful as always, and on the first day back there were squeals of delight as friends from other houses who hadn't seen each other before hand hugged and exchanged greetings. It seemed as if nearly the entire year had decided to continue with Charms for NEWT level. James took his usual seat between Sirius and Lily, and watched as Ravenclaw Isabelle Tunkins positively screamed as she hugged her Hufflepuff friend Shannon Doyle. He noticed Lily rubbing her temples, and was about to ask her if she was alright, only to be distracted by Remus walking into the classroom trailed by a slow moving Peter.
"He lives!" Sirius exclaimed. Peter grimaced at his choice of words. "Cmon' Pete, cheer up. Listen, we're in the Charms classroom, I don't think anyone would frown on us casting a little cheering charm on you." Sirius waved his hand around, mimicking the wand movement for the spell.
"You know what, Sirius? I think we have potions after this. We could cook up a Euphoria Elixir there. What do you say, Wormtail?" James asked, looking excitedly up at Peter, who looked a little fearful.
"Although, that draft does tend to make Wormy sing, we'd have to make a deafening potion for the rest of us."
"What do you say, Wormtail? Fancy being around people who don't listen to you? And then in Transfiguration, we could-"
"I think I'm just gonna..mmph" Peter sat in his seat behind Sirius, and put his head on his arms.
"What a light-weight." said Sirius, shaking his head.
Professor Flitwick scuttled into class shouting hurried "Hello!"s and "Welcome back!"s. After congratulating them all on advancing to NEWT level, he gave a short lecture on the difficulty of the curriculum for the next two years and set them to work reviewing Summoning Charms, to be practiced for the first time non-verbally.
For the first few minutes, James watched as Sirius summoned various quills and ink bottles from a frantic looking Davey Hughes. James flicked his wand aimlessly, not thinking of any specific spell or charm. Instead, his mind was filled with plots and plans on how to best accomplish their new goal.
"We need a name," James said quietly.
"Hmmm?" mumbled Sirius, letting Hughes' glasses drop on an unsuspecting Hufflepuff.
"A name. For our new..er.. project." James glanced around them, making sure that no one was listening. Lily and Marlene were chatting as they waved their wands, and Holly Crumbles was concentrating so hard on not speaking that her face was turning purple.
"How about Operation Phoenix? Dumbledore has a bird, doesn't he?" Sirius leaned back in his chair, clearly bored with the Summoning Charm, and began to make torn pieces of parchment float in a ring above his head.
"Sounds more like we're forming a rock band. How about… the Transparency Defenders?"
"Sure, if you're starting a league of Wizengamot protestors." Sirius was pointing his wand behind him now, leading the string of paper two rows behind them, and then down towards the corner of the room,
"Fine." James watched the parchments' progress across the room. The two boys seemed to be the only ones who had noticed them. "But let's stay away from anything to do with slugs this time, okay?"
"You didn't mind slugs being in the name for the last two pranks we did." The papers stopped moving, and Sirius did a few final flicks with his wand.
"Yeah but you try and incorporate the name in everything we do. Last time we turned the Slytherin Common Room pink, you decided to leave slugs-"
There was a loud scream from the corner of the room. Severus Snape had jumped up from his seat, shouting and swatting at his hair where fourteen green, slimey, crawling bugs had just landed.
"-I couldn't get the muck out of my sheets for weeks," James finished. Half the room had erupted into laughter, although some of the people around Snape were similarly screaming. Professor Flitwick hurried over to Snape and made the dancing critters disappear from his head in one quick flourish of his wand. Snape was spluttering furiously and, unsurprisingly, was glaring at where James and Sirius sat. Flitwick attempted to calm him, but Snape practically pushed the dwarf-like professor away. He opened his mouth to shout-
"POTTER!"
-but the bell rang at the same moment, and Sirius and James ran out of the classroom before Flitwick could so much as look at them.
"What about Operation Cod Fish?" Sirius suggested as they slowed to a walk, a safe distance from the Charms classroom.
"Cod Fish? You're losing your mind, Padfoot. We used that one fourth year."
A/N: Thanks to everyone reading! hope you enjoyed the chapter. It's really important to me that I get some reviews, as a major reason why I'm writing this is to practice my writing, so notes on anything will be greatly appreciated!