Marlene and Hestia were yelling at each other, in the middle of a heated argument, while the other two girls sat quietly in their beds, Mary with a book, as usual, and Dorcas folding her Quidditch robes on the bed. When Lily swung the door open and walked in wordlessly, the shouting match stopped, and the two smiled at Lily as though nothing had happened.
"Lily!" Marlene squealed, running to attack her friend with a hug.
The red-haired girl seemed numb, and after disentangling herself from Marlene, she went over to the empty bed. It had acquired a layer of junk, from Honeydukes sweets wrappers and crumpled paper to what looked like—underwear? Lily didn't bother to investigate and swept everything out of the way in one smooth motion,
"Accio library books," she said, pointing out the window. If she remembered correctly, she'd left the window to her room open. She had, and the three books whizzed into the room and landed with three thumps on the bed. Lily sat down and picked up Secrets of the Soul, paging to the table of contents. She found a chapter on Patronuses, and flipped to that page.
Her friends watched her anxiously as she opened the book, and skimmed over a few pages, before stopping and reading something carefully. Lily let out a little shriek and threw the book onto the floor, before turning and burying herself under the covers.
Mary was closest to the book, that had fallen open. She picked it up and read "The Patronus and True Love." Handing it to Dorcas and Hestia to read, as Marlene had already gone over to Lily, trying to coax her out.
"What's wrong, Lily?" Marlene asked, peeling the covers back and brushing Lily's hair out of her face.
Lily mumbled something unintelligible and Marlene had to lean closer to hear. With little improvement in terms of clarity, she repeated it a second time, "myPatronusmeansPotterismytruelove," but Marlene had been waiting so long to hear it that she immediately let out a whoop of rejoicing.
"We have our Mrs. Potter!" Marlene shouted to the room, twirling around a bit.
"Shut up!" Lily yelled back, now wearing the covers around herself like a cape, so that her face was only barely visible.
"What's this?" Dorcas asked, looking thoroughly confused.
"'A Patronus can changed in times of great personal change. This change can be a negative one, as in the previously discussed case of a death or personal loss, but it can also be positive,'" Mary read from the book. "'It has been observed that in cases of what can be called 'true love,' Patronuses change to realign themselves with the other's form, as the representation of person in love's soul has changed along with their soul itself.'"
Marlene was grinning widely, and comprehension seemed to dawn on Hestia's face as well, as a mischievous smile began to bloom there. "Lily, d'you mean…?"
"Yes!" Marlene answered for her friend.
"Merlin's beard! Seven years we've been trying to get you to spit it out! And after all this time denying it!" Hestia exclaimed.
"It's a rather recent development," Lily called from her bed, but Hestia and Marlene were already talking over each other.
"The two Heads! They're the school couple!"
"And they're already sharing a dormitory! How convenient…"
They burst into uncontrollable giggles, and Lily looked at them sourly. "Mary and Dorcas, you two are the only sane ones…"
"But… James?" Dorcas blurted out, before adding sheepishly, "Sorry, couldn't help it. But now, if he's ever being an ass in Quidditch practice, I have leverage…"
Mary shook her head in surprise as well, and it seemed the entire Common Room had been temporarily seized by a wave of madness. Finally, Hestia and Marlene's excitement waned, and they sat back into their respective beds.
"Done?" Lily asked irritably, still under her mountain-like blanket.
"You have to tell us all of it," Marlene said.
Lily hesitated, but there was something in her that desperately wished to be carefree, and return to the days when the five of them would stay up all night and talk. She held the room's attention, and even Mary wasn't lost in books or schoolwork.
"Well, I suppose it started when James stopped being an arrogant prick…"
! #$%^&*
Remus was the designated note-taker, and he took a few minutes placing enchantments on the parchment. They'd perfected this sort of magic when they'd created their map, and Remus was, in a true professor-like manner, explaining the spells as he cast them.
"Now I'm going to do a counter-spell for any revealing charms… make it water and fire proof, while I'm at it… Let non-charmed inks write on it, then disappear in an hour, so we can pretend to do schoolwork on this…"
Finally, Remus muttered some incantations while tapping his inkwell and quill in turn.
"Right," James said grimly.
"What did you say the potion looked like?" Remus asked, dipping his quill into the ink resolutely.
"Dark green," James said, closing his eyes, "the smoke almost looked like… vines. And it smelled horrible."
Remus nodded, all while scribbling everything that James said. "Describe the smell."
James opened one eye. "I dunno, it smelled bad—" he started, but one of Remus' looks silenced him. "Pine… sap… tar… and something stronger, like… like fresh asphalt."
"Anything else?" Remus asked.
"No," James said.
The quiet Marauder surveyed the mess of scribbles that now adorned the enchanted parchment. "Well…" he started, and he sat there for a full minute, thinking it through. "It looks like he's used some plant ingredients… Venomous Tentacula, maybe? But he's added something else, something that kills indirectly by weakening the body and causing it to fail naturally… very clever work."
"This is Snape you're slobbering over, don't praise his work!" Sirius exclaimed.
"It's foul and loathsome, but that doesn't make it any less of an effective invention. Snape used his wits to create something that fit his needs and he did it well. Let's not underestimate our enemy," Remus said.
"Is there an antidote?" Peter asked anxiously.
"That'll be difficult to find without the original potion," Remus muttered, looking down at his notes. "I can try to create an anti-plant potion, but it would have to be taken before being poisoned, and there's no guarantee it wouldn't harm the person before they'd even get a chance to be poisoned…"
"That's it then. We've got to go to the Slytherin dungeons and steal the potion," James said.
"B-but—they're practically all Death Eaters now," Peter protested. "That'd be like walking right into You-Know-Who's—"
"It doesn't matter! Who knows who could be next? They're trying to get rid of all the Muggleborns, and no one is lifting a finger!" James exploded.
"Oh, of course this would be about Lily eventually," Sirius grumbled. "But he's right. We're Gryffindors, and Gryffindors don't sit around being afraid while people are dying."
"I'll get started on the anti-plant potion, then," Remus said. "And when we get the original, we can find an antidote." He muttered under his breath and the paper was wiped clean, like nothing had ever been written on it. Remus stored in a pocket inside his robes.
"And we're not even halfway through September," Sirius sighed, sinking down into his bed.