Chapter 15: Facing Fears
Sunday, September 18, 1977

"I can't believe you locked us out," Sirius said, again, at breakfast. He already stated it several times and was stabbing at his sausage. We found him sitting next to the portrait that morning, looking rather irritated.

As soon as we woke up that morning James went back to his room to shower and get dressed and I was able to do the same, then went directly to the common room to gather up the casualties of the night before. We finally climbed out into the hallway at around ten o'clock and have been getting the question from Sirius ever since.

"If you were that hungry, you could have gone down without us," James was telling him now.

"That's not the point!" Sirius exclaimed. "You locked me out!"

"You are two seconds away from a Silencing Charm," I mumbled, taking a bite of eggs.

"We had the night alone, you weren't invited," James said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but-"

Sirius couldn't finish. Remus had his wand pointed at him, saying, "Silencio," never looking away from his waffles. "Well, that's better," he said.

I nearly choked on my eggs.

Sirius glared at him while we laughed.

"Thank you," Dorcas said. "That was beginning to drive me mad."

I turned to Sirius. "If you promise to let it go, I will remove the charm. Otherwise you're stuck like that."

He glared at me a moment before his shouldered slumped in defeat. He nodded. I waved my wand and muttered the counter-charm. "Thank you," he mumbled. Then he hit Remus on the back of the head.

"You had it coming, Padfoot," Remus told him, rubbing the back of his head.

"Anyway," Marlene interjected to change the subject, "Dueling Club tonight!"

"Count me out," I said. Everyone turned on me at once.

"What?" Dorcas asked.

"You're an amazing duelist!" Marlene exclaimed.

"You kicked Snivellus's arse last time!" Peter stated. Remus leaned back to smack the back of his head around Sirius.

"Are you insane?!" Sirius exclaimed.

All that happened at once.

"Why not? Are you still shaken up from last time?" James asked me gently, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"Have you ever been on the receiving end of one of Sev's 'Sectumsempra' curses? It sucks. And I didn't even get the worst of it! Then the whole thing with Avery and Mulciber on my rounds? Don't think that wasn't a coincidence. Yeah, no. I'll pass."

"Look, try just one more time. I don't think they'll try anything after what we did last time. Maybe Slughorn, or even McGonagall, banned them from Dueling Club," Dorcas told me, her hand on my shoulder. "Please, one last try?"

I looked at her, then each of my other friends. They all had the same hopeful look on their faces, their eyes pleading.

"If I wake up in the hospital wing again..."

Dorcas squealed and hugged me. "I'm so happy you're coming!"

James patted my back. "We'll protect you. Promise."

"I blacked out last time. What was the final score of the day?" I asked the group, continuing to eat my breakfast.

"Ravenclaw is in the lead with fifteen," Emmeline said.

"But we're right behind with fourteen," Peter added.

"Hufflepuff is in third with ten, and Slytherin trails with eight. But that's because Robertson took away five points for what happened," Emmeline finished.

"Well, we'll get the lead tonight. The gang's all together!" Marlene exclaimed, holding up her pumpkin juice glass. We all took her cue and clinked glasses.

"Speaking of teams," Dorcas said, turning to James. Her question was asked with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Not saying anything," he said, eating his oatmeal. "Besides, I'm still waiting for McGonagall to approve or deny the roster."

She leaned closer to me. "So, if you hear anything..."

"No. Even if I did hear something, I won't tell you a bloody thing."

"She won't know until you all do," James said between bites of oatmeal. He turned to me and said, "no offense."

"None taken," I replied with a smile and a quick kiss.

"Really, guys?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "While we're eating?"

I threw a strawberry at him. "That was nothing. Why do you think we locked you out?" I winked at him.

"I will never complain about being locked out, again," he said flatly.

We were sitting by the lake under the tree on a blanket and enjoying the weather while we can. It was actually not raining today, and the weather was cooling off every day.

I had my Defense textbook in front of me. I already finished my Transfiguration and Potions essays, and only had another eight inches of parchment to go on this one.

"You think Robertson assigned this one because of what happened at Dueling Club last weekend?" I wondered aloud.

"Wouldn't surprise me," Dorcas said, staring at her own Defense paper.

I was writing about how it was important to know spells like "Periculum" and "Verdimillious" in case you need to signify people to your whereabouts when a second-year Gryffindor ran up to us.

"James Potter?" he asked, looking at James. James nodded. "McGonagall's looking for you."

"This must be about Quidditch," he said, grinning. He turned to the second-year, "Thanks, kid. I'll head there now." The second-year was beaming and ran off. James turned back to us, "Well, I'll be seeing you." He kissed me and then looked at Sirius. "If you leave this spot, use the mirror." He ran off towards the castle.

"Mirror?" I asked Sirius. I pulled my Jammie Dodgers out of my bag and took out a biscuit. I offered around the package, everyone taking one.

"James and I were tired of being bored in Detention, so we each have a mirror. We can talk back and forth through them in separate Detentions," he answered, biting into the biscuit. "Wow, this is amazing!"

"You guys have thought of everything, haven't you? And yes, it is amazing," I replied. I finished up the remainder of my paper. "Yes! All done and ready for tomorrow!"

"I think you're the only one," Peter said, staring at his Defense and Transfiguration textbooks.

"I'm going to go my to my room, then. Rest up before lunch so I can actually perform at Dueling Club," I said as I was standing, grabbing my satchel. "I don't want to end up in Hospital Wing again."

"Nudge at Prongs a bit," Sirius said, looking up from his Defense essay for a moment. "See if you can weasel out some information out of him for us."

"I can't believe you lot are asking me to spy on my boyfriend!" I said, placing my hand on my chest and using on a tone of mock-shock. I switched my tone back to serious, "Not a chance. Patience is a virtue."

"Not with Quidditch!" chorused Sirius, Dorcas, Emmeline, and Marlene.

"Look, not spying on James for you. End of story," I said, turning my back on them.

I felt hands grip my ankle, "Please?" Marlene whined, her grip like a vice.

"You have a grip like that and you need me to figure out if you got Seeker?" I told her, shaking my foot free. "Not going to happen, guys."

With that, I headed to the dorm, a plethora of obscenities thrown at my back.

"They're driving me nuts," I told James, my head in his lap. I was laying across the couch with him sitting there, stroking my hair over his lap.

Since leaving the group under the tree, I've gotten a baker's dozen of deliveries from various owls, about fifty calls through James's mirror (which would cause him to say, "Why is Sirius asking for you?"), and we've just resorted to locking the portrait hole again after kicking out one or more of them out of the Head's Common Room five times. I could hear Sirius and Marlene outside the portrait hole, as well as Remus telling them to go back to the Gryffindor Common Room.

At least one of them is sane.

"They're just excited," he said, eyeing the study desk where the piece of parchment he was going to post overnight in the Gryffindor Common Room rested. "You have what I asked for, right?"

I nodded. Little did my anxious little friends know, the reason I left in a hurry after finishing my homework for Monday's classes was because I had to go to the Potions classroom to whip up a simple Sleeping Draught. Remus was in on it as well. We were going to sneak a little into their pumpkin juice at dinner, just to be sure that they sleep overnight so James can sneak into the Gryffindor Common Room to post the Quidditch Active and Reserve Rosters without them watching him like a hawk. We had to get Remus in on it in case any of them needed assistance getting to their dorm.

"They asked me to spy on you, did you know that?" I asked him.

"You didn't mention that but with the way they're contacting you, I had a feeling."

"I should stick my head out there and tell them that you actually charmed the parchment. No one but you and McGonagall can see it until one of you remove the charm."

"Why tell them that?"

"Because you did and it would get them off my back." It's true. The parchment lying on the study table looked blank to me but you could still smell the ink. McGonagall is a smart woman, that's for sure. She knew most of our group tried out, and those are some of the students she knew best.

"How long until Dueling Club?" he asked me, still stroking my hair.

"We should leave in about five minutes. Maybe we should see if the gang's at Gryffindor Tower, walk together. Can't avoid them forever."

"Well, if we have five minutes," he whispered, leaning down and kissing me.

oOoOoOoOo

We were all in the Great Hall, the same set up as last week. There was a huge commotion around us all because of two little words Professor Robertson just stated.

Team Dueling.

We were to split up into teams of four, so the eight of us decided to try and get a strategy together. We decided with one team consisting of Remus, Marlene, Peter, and Emmeline, while my teammates were James, Dorcas, and Sirius. We all had our strengths and weaknesses but we made up for each other.

Because we're in teams, we're doing a "winner take all" battle. You stay on the stage and fight until you're defeated or you win three matches.

So far Hufflepuff beat Ravenclaw, so they're now tied for second alongside us because we're playing for four points rather than one. The next match was Slytherin versus Hufflepuff, who fell this time. Now Gryffindor is up to bat.

I noticed that Severus, Mulciber, and Avery were nowhere in sight. Looks like Slughorn wouldn't let them compete. Or they realized they had better things to do. Either way, things are looking up for me. My chances of ending up spending the evening with Madame Pomfrey are going down drastically. I can't go tonight. I have to help James with his plan.

McGonagall walked up to us, the eight of us sitting only about three rows up on the bleachers. "You eight are my strongest duelists," she tells us quietly. "Which team wants to take these four on?"

Sirius immediately stood, my guess is because Regulus is on the stage within the team. Brothers...

"Well, it looks like Padfoot chose for us," James said, standing. Dorcas and I followed suit. We had a plan and we're pretty sure it was fool-proof.

We got up on stage, brandished our wands, bowed, then went to our positions. We followed the plan with James and myself behind Dorcas and Sirius, ready for action.

Regulus struck first. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Lucky, one of the reasons we wanted Dorcus in front was her speed. "Protego!" she yelled, the curse not affecting any of us.

Sirius struck next. "Ventus!" A strong blast of wind came from his wand and knocked Regulus into his teammates. We heard cheering and laughter from the stands.

The Slytherins struggled to their feet. James looked at me, "Ready?"

I nodded. "Lets do this."

Sirius and Dorcas ducked, right on cue. James pointed his wand at the other team. "Avis!" A flock of canaries flew from his wand.

As the murmurs of confusion flooded the Great Hall, I pointed my wand. "Oppugno!" The flock of canaries suddenly all turned on the Slytherins and attacked.

They all dove for cover, some jumping from the platform. Robertson sent sparks towards our side.

Cheers erupted from the stands, while the Slytherins were moaning. James picked me up and spun me around, kissing me.

"Perfect! I knew that would work!" Dorcas said, jumping up and down in excitement.

"Lily Evans, you brilliant girl!" Sirius said, dipping me. I started laughing, latching onto his arms.

"Padfoot, you're going to drop me!" I told him.

"Oh, so you call me 'Padfoot' now?" he asked me, still tipping me backwards.

"I'm picking up habits from James, I guess," I said with a shrug. "Can I stand up, now?"

He stood me up, laughing. "Better those habits than others," he said. "I'm never going to forget the look on my brother's face when he was attacked by a flock of canaries," he said with a dreamy grin on his face. He turned to James, "James, I could kiss you right now for coming up with that idea."

"Save the bromance," Dorcas said. "Here comes Ravenclaw's next team."

We continued dueling, playing out our three matches. The others won their three as well. At the end of the evening, the scores were Gryffindor with 38, Ravenclaw with 23, Hufflepuff with 22, and Slytherin still trailing with 20.

We decided to celebrate in the Gryffindor Common Room after dinner, which made things easier on James, Remus, and myself. We were able to put a few drops of the sleeping draught in each of their Butterbeer bottles while Remus was distracting them. I was able to get Alice, the girls' roommate, in on it as well. She said she would signal me with the three were asleep. Remus had use of Sirius's mirror, so we charmed a couple of parchments with a Protean Charm. We made hers look like a love letter from her boyfriend, Frank Longbottom. We wrote things on mine like "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" and the alphabet, as well as a few random theories from different classes. All she had to do was transfigure the letters on hers and I'll get the same message. We also cast a charm on them to keep the parchment from burning, just in case it heated up too much.

After celebrating (and watching our friends drink their spiked Butterbeers) James and I returned to the Head's Common Room to wait. We laughed at how much easier the plan was than we thought it would be, trying to make the time go by.

"I'm getting so tired of waiting," I said, staring at the parchment in my hands. "I hope Alice didn't fall asleep."

"I feel the same," James said, sitting on the other end of the couch, facing me. We were both leaning on opposite arms of the couch. He was clutching the mirror like I was the parchment. It was closing in on twelve-thirty in the morning.

"I know that was a good Sleeping Draught," I said. "It's the same one I make when I can't sleep. I've made it enough to make it in my sleep."

"Have problems sleeping often?" James asked with a laugh.

"I did before finals and the O.W.L.s. Also when Sev and I had our falling out."

James reached out and rubbed my knees and calves but didn't say anything.

The parchment in my hands suddenly grew hot. I squeaked in surprise, dropping the charmed parchment. "It's Alice!" I exclaimed, nearly jumping out off the couch. I picked up the parchment and read it aloud for James.

"Lily
All three girls finally asleep.
I even checked them, no one even stirred.
Common Room is empty, too. Boys went up after
us at some point.
This is fun! I feel like I'm on a secret spy mission!
-Alice"

"Awesome! That's three down. Now just to wait for-" James started.

"James? You there?" I could hear Remus's voice over the mirror.

"Yeah, I've been waiting for you! What took so long?" he asked the mirror.

"Sorry, Padfoot wasn't settling down easy. You could tell he was fighting it. He knew someone spiked the drink, he just doesn't know who. Going to keep it that way, I think. But he just passed out mid-rant. It was actually quite comical. Wormtail threw some balled-up socks at him, and he didn't even twitch. He's down for the count."

"Brilliant. We'll be there shortly. Got word from Alice, too, the girls are also sound asleep," he said, putting the mirror on the table. He turned to me. "Shall we?" He offered his arm.

"We shall," I said, hooking my arm through his.