Title: Glass Hearts
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: All books.
Genre: General, Romance, Humor.
Era: 1970-1981.
Main Characters: MWPP, Lily.
Ships: James/Lily, Remus/Marlene McKinnon, Sirius/OC
Summary (for chapter): An arrogant Head Boy is in charge this year, and a Slug Club meeting ends with one of the first of many fights between James and Lily.
A/N: This is a brand new version of my previous Glass Hearts story (I only posted one chapter before - this one, but this time, I've added things). I have more than 35 chapters already, and I plan on finishing it.
Remus was grateful that Lily had saved him a seat and he wouldn't have to sit next to someone he didn't know or didn't like or someone who didn't like him. Lily's long dark red hair fell down her shoulders and she was chewing on a quill thoughtfully, looking at the new Head Boy and Head Girl.
Head Boy was Bertram Aubrey, a boy even Remus thought had a head much too big for his body. Head Girl, Melissa Warbeck, was a soft-spoken, timid Hufflepuff. The match couldn't be more off. "All right," Aubrey said. He stood up and shut the compartment door. "Let is get down to business. I do not want any fooling around during this meeting, but I suspect we will not have any of that, as we are all prefects. Melissa, take role."
"Role?" Talia Deradt, a seventh year prefect asked. "Can't you just look around and see if we're all here?"
"No," Aubrey said shortly. "Melissa, hurry up."
Melissa looked down at a sheet of parchment on top of a clipboard. "Bertram Aubrey?" she called.
"Here," Aubrey said. "I'm 7th year, Ravenclaw."
"Regulus Black?" she said quietly.
"Here," Sirius's younger brother said from his corner of the compartment.
"When she calls your name, please state your year and house," Aubrey said loudly before Melissa could continue.
"5th year, Slytherin," Regulus said dryly. He looked, talked and acted like Sirius. Remus was usually very disturbed by the likeness.
"Talia Deradt?" Melissa said.
"Here, 7th year, Ravenclaw," Talia said, smacking on her gum.
"Lily Evans?"
At the end, Melissa called, "Melissa Warbeck? That's me. I'm here, obviously. 7th year, Hufflepuff."
After she finished, Aubrey lost no time in his lecture. "All right, I'm Head Boy this year, as you all know," he said. "This year will not be like previous years. I expect only the best of you all. There will be tighter rules about curfew, about magic in the corridors, about fooling around in class. If any of you fail to enforce these rules, I will talk with you personally, and then I'll go to the Headmaster. It is your responsibility as prefects to keep your fellow students in line and under control. If you fail to do this, you are failing me, Melissa, the other prefects, the – well, in short, everyone. I will not tolerate any horseplay, even if it is from my own house. You must learn this and learn it quickly – your responsibility as a prefect comes before any relations you have, be it siblings, best friends or boyfriends –" He looked at Regulus, Remus and Lily respectively.
"Boyfriends?" Lily thundered.
"I was very disappointed to find out that last year during the incident in the field with a few lovely Gryffindor pranksters and Severus Snape, both of the Gryffindor prefects were present and did nothing from stopping it!" Aubrey exclaimed.
"They did, too," Liam Gertram objected. "That's why none of us had a view of what was under Snape's underpants." A few people snickered.
"It should have been stopped before that," Aubrey said, looking livid. "If anything as horrible as that happens again, the prefects that did nothing to stop such a thing would be taken from their prefect post!"
"You can't do that," Jonathon Smith argued.
"Yes, I can," Aubrey said.
He continued on for about thirty minutes, pointing out everything that previous Head Boys and Girls had done wrong and how he intended to correct them, never once mentioning Melissa. He had multitudes of notes on his clipboard and they seemed never-ending. He went over proper ways of punishment, and the chain of command. Every time Talia blew a bubble, he tensed and at last he yelled at her, "If you pop a bubble one more time, I will make gum not allowed on the Hogwarts Express!"
"Aubrey, we've really been going at this for a long time," Melissa said. Aubrey looked at her, surprised. She looked across the compartment. "You've all been real patient. Hopefully we'll be able to improve from last year and years before that. Fifth years will be on patrol until lunch, then sixth years until four and then seventh years until we get to Hogwarts. Have a nice train ride."
As people started to get up, looking relieved, Aubrey stared at them all in horror. He looked at Melissa, looking as though he couldn't decide whether to be angry or admiring. All of the prefects left with a new sense of respect for Melissa.
Despite how well Melissa quieted Bertram Aubrey's big mouth, however, she was not always present. Whenever Aubrey saw a prefect slacking on his or her duty, he would yell up a storm, taking points away from the delinquent student foolish enough to disturb his peace and from the house of the nearest prefect. Unfortunately for the students at Hogwarts, everything you did in the corridors was breaking the rules. Giggling too loudly, holding hands, hugging, swearing, having a book bag that could be considered a weapon . . . you name it, and Aubrey could probably find a problem with it.
"I'd like to use my book bag as a weapon," Mary MacDonald scowled, "on his big fat head."
Mary was a sixth year Gryffindor, one of Lily's roommates. She was not very nice; she always spoke her mind. But people liked her because she was fun to be around. Her dad had been a famous Quidditch player on the Falmouth Falcons, and she did Quidditch commentary. She had lots of different friends, and jumped from group to group; person to person. Although she was very flighty, Lily liked her.
"Something needs to be done about him," Lily said as they walked to lunch. It was the third week of school, and Lily was tired of Bertram already. "The last prefect meeting lasted for two hours. Melissa, thank gods for her, finally wrapped it up. I'm really beginning to like her."
"You say she's the only one who can shut him up?" Mary asked. "Maybe we should all have a flask of Polyjuice Potion ready so we can bail our friends out."
"If only it weren't illegal," Lily said. "I would start brewing it right away."
They turned a corner and walked into Professor Slughorn, who was talking with James Potter. Before Lily could make an escape, Slughorn caught her. "Ah, Miss Evans!" he exclaimed. James turned, a delighted look on his face. "It's been so long since we've last talked!"
"Three days," Lily said fairly. To her horror, she realized that James, Sirius, and Remus had been the only Gryffindors in her Advanced Potions class, and the only people she knew in the least bit. She had sat next to Giles Stone over the last few days, trying to ignore James and Sirius berating Severus as much as she could. It was a challenging class so far, and Lily was satisfied to see that for once Sirius and James had to put some effort into a class to receive good marks.
"So long!" Slughorn reemphasized. "Well, I was just inviting James to our next little meeting."
Lily avoided James's eyes. She used to like the Slug Club meeting, getting to know new people and hearing Slughorn's stories, but it was getting old.
"Our next party will be on Saturday," Slughorn continued. "I was thinking of a nice lunch or something."
"That sounds really nice," Lily said, nodding. She glanced around, and noticed Mary had left her. "Oh, professor, I've got to go, my friend's just left."
"Two o'clock at the usual place!" Slughorn called after her.
Lily waved at him over her shoulder and saw James following her. "So, what exactly are these parties like?" James asked, walking quickly to catch up with her. "I've heard a lot about them from Sirius. You know, I don't think he's been invited to this one yet."
"Is that the only time you two were ever apart?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows. "When Sirius is at his parties?"
"No," James said. He stuck his hands in his pockets. "There are plenty of things we do apart. . . " he trailed off, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Like. . . "
Lily let out a small laugh. "You can't think of anything," she said. The two of them walked into the Great Hall. Lily saw Mary saving a seat for her at the Gryffindor table.
"Yeah, I swear there's lots of stuff. . . " James said fervently. "I'll tell you when I think of one."
"I can't wait," Lily said dryly, walking ahead and leaving James with his friends. Tossing her red hair off of her shoulder, she sat down next to Mary. "Thanks for leaving me with James and Slughorn."
"Anytime," Mary said dismissively. "Oi, Bernard, pass the potatoes!" Once her plate was half-full of potatoes, she looked at Lily. "So, Potter's still hitting on you?"
"Yes," Lily said, dishing up some roast beef. "I was hoping over the summer he would have gotten over it, but apparently not."
"He's in Advanced Potions, yeah?" Mary asked.
"Yeah, but he's not too bad in that class," Lily replied. "There's only three to a table, and I sit with Giles Stone, you know, the Hufflepuff. I mean, a few comments every now and then, but he's too busy being a jerk to Snape."
"So, the two of you aren't on a first-name basis anymore?" Mary questioned.
Lily rolled her eyes. Why did everyone care about her friendship with Severus? Well, she knew why. He wanted to become a Death Eater, and she was a Muggleborn. "Not really," she said shortly.
Mary looked at her as though she wanted to hear more, but Lily left it at that. All the Gryffindors in her year knew what he had called her that day of the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL; they all had been there. There had been an awkward silence in their dorm room when the girls had come in on Lily sniffling into her pillow. She didn't want to talk about it.
There was a commotion farther down the table. Bertram Aubrey was yelling, yet again. James and Sirius both stood up and took out their wands. Lily sighed, looking around to see if any other prefects were going to do anything. "I'll be back," she told Mary.
She walked over to the boys as Bertram sputtered about the outrage of two boys having their wands pointed at the Head Boy. "Is this really necessary?" she asked in cold tone.
"Sod off, Evans," Sirius exclaimed.
"Twenty - no, thirty points from Gryffindor!" Aubrey squealed. He eyed their wands suspiciously, having seen one too many spells from the rambunctious boys.
"Aubrey, calm down," Lily said.
"Evans, you have done a horrible job at being a prefect!" Aubrey exclaimed. "I suspect I could get your post taken away."
"Don't talk to her like that!" James exclaimed.
Professor Flitwick reached them. He looked around sternly. "Boys, put those wands down," he said.
Sirius and James grudgingly obeyed. "You know there's no dueling on grounds," Flitwick said. "What's this all about?"
Aubrey pointed at Remus. "He's not doing his prefect duties!" he exclaimed. "His friend spilled pumpkin juice - and -"
"Come," Flitwick said, taking Aubrey's arm. "Let's go talk about what it really means to be Head Boy." Melissa watched after them worriedly. She glanced around, then made her way back to the Hufflepuff table.
Sirius turned to Lily. "How about next time you keep your nose out of other people's business?" he snarled.
Lily shot him a look of anger. "I was trying to help!" she exclaimed.
"That git deserves to be hexed," Sirius said.
Lily glared at him, lost for words. She glanced at Remus, but he was looking down at his plate. "You can't just go hexing people, Sirius," she said. "We're at school, and there are rules."
Sirius sat down. "And we follow the rules," he said. Lily opened her mouth, but he waved his hand at her. "Just try not to spoil everything, okay?"
Her face aflame, Lily stomped back to her seat. Spoil everything? Sure, he had to make her look like the spoilsport, like she was wrong, when she was a prefect. Normal people didn't just hex everyone who annoyed them or insulted their friends, couldn't they see that? How old were they, anyway?
In Advanced Potions, Remus marveled at the outrageous hormones of sixteen year olds. For a moment, he wished he was thirty years old, far away from a depressed James Potter, an angry Sirius Black and a moody Lily Evans. Maybe it was only Gryffindors. Perhaps he should have asked the Sorting Hat to be Sorted into Ravenclaw. Then he'd be sitting with Kingsley Shacklebolt and Rupert Harris.
They were brewing a Euphoria potion, but it didn't seem to be going very well for any of the Gryffindors. James's potion was a murky gray, Sirius's was boiling beetles and Lily's was an angry red, almost the color of her hair. Remus's own potion seemed to be doing all right, except for the alarming amount of steam coming from his cauldron. It was filling up his table and Sirius batted the steam away with his hand every few seconds, cursing under his breath.
Finally, he turned on Remus and said angrily, "Bloody hell, Remus, what the hell did you do to your potion to make it like this? I can't see a bloody thing."
"I don't know," Remus said grudgingly. "I suppose I could have put too many beetles in there –"
"Well, take them out, you prat," Sirius said. "How are we supposed to do anything with your steam all over the place?"
Slughorn bustled over to their table. "Ah, this is a common mishap for the Euphoria Potion," he said to Remus. "You've stirred it clockwise too many times. If you stir it counter-clockwise a few times, it'll slow down. Mr. Snape gave me that piece of advice."
This last bit seemed to only anger Sirius more, even if it did mean he no longer had steam clouding his vision. He looked back at Snape viciously, whose potion seemed to be far along in the process as the Slytherin wrote in his book, as he had done for the last three weeks.
By the end of the class, Snape and Remus were the only ones who had managed the potion, though Lily Evans, Helen Snortian and Rupert Harris were close to finishing.
"Well, this day wasn't our best," Slughorn said at the front of the class. "But, that's all right! Nice job, Snape and Lupin. See you all next class – no homework!"
The class started to clear out. James looked like he had just had the most miserable day of his life as he watched Lily leave the class. As soon as they were out of the classroom, Sirius went straight for Snape.
"Hey, Snape," Sirius called, catching up to the Slytherin. "How is it that you've always got everything perfect in Potions?"
Snape cast Sirius a vicious glare, drawing his wand. "It's called studying, perhaps you should try it," he said.
Sirius drew his wand as well. "I reckon you're cheating," he said.
"Sirius, come on," Remus groaned. He was not looking forward to another lecture from Aubrey if he heard about this.
"You, shut up," Sirius snapped.
"Is this because that Mudblood spoiled your fun?" Severus asked in a low voice.
"Don't you –" James began.
"Tantellegra!" Sirius yelled. Boils started growing on Snape's sallow skin and he hurled a leg-locker curse at Sirius. Sirius's legs locked together and he fell to his face on the ground. James joined in, cursing Snape with Jelly Legs.
"Oh, bloody hell," Remus said. He took out his wand, but before he could mutter the counter-curses, Snape had cursed him as well with a fungus charm.
Slughorn came bustling out of his classroom at the noise. He gave them all detention and took points away from Gryffindor and Slytherin. Remus thought about telling Slughorn that he hadn't done anything, but he didn't know if he would survive Sirius's wrath, so he accepted the Saturday night detention.
James examined himself in the mirror. Hair sticking up in the back. Slightly messy button-up shirt. Glasses no longer crooked from wrestling with Sirius. He looked at the clock. He had two minutes to get down to the dungeons for the party Professor Slughorn had invited him to.
He jogged out of his dorms, Sirius making fun of him as he left. He ran down to the dungeons. He didn't mind being fashionably late, but he did want Slughorn to invite him back.
After knocking twice, James pushed open the door to a crowded office with ten or so students. "Nice of you to join us, Potter," Slughorn said, winking. He was passing around a platter of sandwiches. "Welcome to the Slug Club."
James sat in the only free spot; in between Evan Rosier, whom he detested, and a 4th year Ravenclaw. He took a turkey sandwich, then passed the tray to Rosier.
Lily had ignored sixth year Gryffindor boys since Sirius had gone off on her for interfering when they had their wands at Aubrey, and James had decided he'd much rather have Lily yelling or making sarcastic comments at him than pretending he didn't exist. Her red hair was up in a fancy bun-type thing and she was wearing weekend clothes.
Next to her sat Marlene McKinnon. Marlene had made the Quidditch team two weeks ago; she was their new Chaser. James could understand why Slughorn had invited her. Marlene's dad was a famous Auror, and her mum worked for the Magical Law Enforcement Department. Her two older brothers were Aurors as well. James was friends with Marlene mainly for that reason. He figured she could put a good word in for him.
There were a few other students James knew, although he was sure they all knew him. Melissa Warbeck, Regulus, and the rest were younger. Slughorn told stories about all the people he knew as they ate their sandwiches. He took out some butterbeer, passing it around, and they drank while they talked. It was actually quite fun. Sirius usually made them sound like no big deal, but he made everything sound like no big deal.
Lily still ignored him the entire hour, managing a feat which was lost on James. She didn't laugh at his jokes while everyone else did or look at him at all. James asked her a question about Muggle school, but she didn't acknowledge him. Rosier snickered next to him.
After Professor Slughorn let them out, James caught up with Lily, pleased to see she was walking alone. "Hey, Evans," he said.
She continued walking. He grabbed her elbow, saying, "Hey, Lily."
Lily jerked away from him. "What?" she snapped.
"You didn't answer my question," James said.
"What question?" Lily asked. She stopped walking and crossed her arms. That was never a good sign. Crossing her arms meant she was listening, but only out of pity or courtesy or perhaps because it meant she had the opportunity to hex him after he said something stupid.
"About your sister's school," James replied. "I was just wondering how Muggle school worked."
Lily rolled her eyes. "It's really none of your business," she said.
"I was just curious," James said incredulously.
"Take Muggle Studies," Lily snapped.
There was a moment of silence as James stared at her and she glared right back. "Take Muggle Studies just so I can know the answer to a question you could easily answer," James said. "I'm hearing this correctly, right?"
Lily let out an exasperated noise. "I have better things to do than this," she said. She started walking.
James threw his arms up in frustration. "What is your problem?" he called after her.
Lily whipped around, her hair nearly falling out of her bun. "You!" she exclaimed. "You just went off on me the other day -"
"That was Sirius!" James exclaimed.
"You didn't stick up for me!" Lily yelled. "You're always begging me to go out with you - Evans, Evans, I'm not that bad - but you don't have any respect for me!"
James, genuinely confused about why she was angry, threw his arms up again. "What?" he asked. "Why do you think that?"
"Your best friend made me look like an idiot in front of all of those people!" Lily said angrily. She looked on the verge of tears. "You think I don't know Aubrey deserves to get hexed? I was saving your neck - and Gryffindor points! He doesn't have to treat people like that! You never do anything! He thinks he's so much more important than other people, just because he's a Black, but he hates Slytherins for doing the same thing."
"Slytherins are pureblood-fanatics," James said. "They're into Dark Magic. Sirius would never do that!"
"Why does he hate Snape so much?" Lily asked. "He's never done anything to you!"
"Yes, he has!" James yelled. "He's always trying to get us expelled! Why are you always sticking up for him, anyways? He hates us, and he has no reason to!"
"No reason to?" Lily repeated. "You two are the most arrogant prats I've ever met. You think you own this place - I feel sorry for Remus and Peter, the two of them just get dragged along with every stupid thing you do -"
"They do not! They're our friends!" James yelled. Lily Evans may have been the love of his love, but not the Marauders. No one messed with them. Ever.
Lily let out a mirthless laugh. "Right!" she exclaimed. "Remus is a prefect, I can tell he hates being with you -"
James glared at her. "We're his best friends!" he said. He know he had already said something similar, but it seemed important to get across to her.
"You're always getting him into trouble! You've given him a reputation."
"Did you hear this from him? Did he tell you this? Because if he didn't say that he hates being with us, then you need to just shut your mouth. You have no idea what you're talking about! You have no idea what we've done for Remus. You have no idea, Lily. Maybe Sirius was right, maybe you should stay out of other people's business. You don't know Remus at all -"
"I don't know Remus at all? I'm a prefect with him, he's the only decent one of you lot! I'm friends with him, I don't know how he can put up with the three of you – even Peter, who follows the two of you around like there's no one else who exists – he idolizes you and you just push him around like he's nobody!"
James was almost too angry for words. He clenched his fists and let out a cry of frustration. "Evans, if you weren't a girl and if you weren't. . .I would hex you right now," he said.
"Is that a threat?" Lily asked.
"No, it's a fact," James said. "You don't know anything about us - you can't stand being around us, and yet you say all this stuff like you - like you're some Marauders-expert. I. . .am so. . .pissed right now. I'm leaving."
Lily stared at him, still angry. James paused, then turned and began to walk away. He could feel Lily's eyes on him. What did she know? She didn't know how many hours it had taken studying Human Transfiguration. She didn't know how many sleepless night had gone into conquering Animagus powers. She had no idea what they did every month, risking their lives to be with their friend. She didn't know how they had hexed Rosier into oblivion for insulting Peter. She didn't know a bloody thing.
As James jogged to the Quidditch pitch for a fly to get his aggression out, he realized this was the first time he had walked away from Lily Evans.
The next chapter up . . . Sirius has a few unexciting adventures, hormones continue to rage, but in the end, someone apologizes.