Chapter 2: too good to be true

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Lily and Remus were made prefects. They both had stellar grades and records (Lily more so due to her lack of acquaintance with the trouble-making Marauders) and were the obvious choices out of all the other sixth-year Gryffindors.

That being said, both were equally determined to take the job as seriously as possible, albeit for slightly different reasons. Remus, with his furry little secret, was set on cementing his reputation as the 'responsible' Marauder and prove to all the staff that he could thrive in a leadership position even with his side career of being a werewolf every month. Lily, to put it plainly, was simply a perfectionist. So it came to no surprise to Remus when Lily requested they sit together on the Hogwarts Express to begin discussing prefect duties immediately.

Outside of school, the two had absolutely no contact, but during the academic year, they were often drawn to each other as study partners, with their respective friend groups being much less concerned than they were with schoolwork, and that had led to a close friendship, especially after the incident with Severus at the Shrieking Shack earlier that year.

What did surprise Remus, however, was what Lily said, soon as she had dragged him into the first empty compartment they could find.

"Did you know Marlene and Sirius were shagging?" she hissed, slamming the door and not even bothering to sit down.

Remus looked wildly uncomfortable.

"Um, yea, I suppose I did, actually," he muttered. "Everyone does, you know."

"Everyone?" Lily repeated.

"Well - most everyone. It's not exactly as if they've been hiding it."

"I never noticed."

Lily took a seat by the window at last.

"No offense, Lily, but you - you have a tendency to get wrapped up in your own business and forget about the people around you," Remus said softly. "Especially with the whole Snape affair."

Lily didn't respond to that, for she knew he was completely right, and she was feeling terribly guilty about having prioritized her own problems over her best friend's. She felt even more guilty for not having noticed a single thing.

She didn't say any of this. Instead, she asked,

"What do you make of it?"

"Sirius and Marlene?"

Lily nodded.

"I dunno." Remus shrugged. "I don't think it'll turn into any relationship. I mean - you know Sirius. He's more the sleep with a girl in a broom cupboard after class and never speak to her again type of bloke. Then again, it has been going on longer than any of his trysts have."

Lily had to agree completely with Remus's assessment of Sirius.

"Should I be worried?"

Remus laughed.

"Oh, no. Marlene's tough. Between us, Sirius is no match for her. Like I said, I don't think it'll be a relationship, but I don't think he'll hurt her. He can be a prick, but he's not a bad person."

"That sounds like someone else I know," Lily muttered before she could stop herself.

Remus raised an eyebrow.

"James?"

"James," Lily admitted, resting her head in her hand and looking out at the rolling countryside, not wanting to face Remus's inquisitive gaze.

"I think he means well," Remus said. "Of course, I don't know the whole story - only what's been made public. Sorry about that, by the way. He can be…persistent."

That's one word for it, Lily thought, but she genuinely liked Remus and wasn't about to insult one of his best friends to his face.

Instead, she said,

"What do you mean - you think he means well?"

She finally dared look at him.

He shifted in his seat uncomfortably and shrugged.

"I think he does want to be friends with you. But, you know, he always will have a soft spot for you, Lily. And that might come through ever so often. Just…go easy on him a bit."

Lily had a million biting retorts she could have given to Remus, but again, she held her tongue. She was frustrated by her sudden interest behind James's intentions.

"Let's just start going over schedules," she said, determined to put Potter out of her mind once and for all.

However, this was easier said than done.

—-

Lily, although thoroughly determined to track down Marlene and speak to her as soon as possible, was unable to find her friend before the train arrived at Hogsmeade Station.

She shuddered to think of what Marlene might be up to now that she knew what she knew. As best she tried, she wasn't able to shake the thought of Marlene and Sirius somewhere on the train together as she herself descended and began herding first-years together to lead to the boats awaiting them.

Thankfully, the task was exhausting, as were first-years, so she was able to put the thought out of her mind until finally she was seated in the Great Hall along with the rest of the Hogwarts population.

Marlene, still, was nowhere to be seen until well after the Sorting, slipping into the Great Hall inconspicuously with Sirius following her. Neither seemed to care very much about the fact that they were seen arriving together and the state that they were in.

"Hullo, Lily," Marlene said brightly, seating herself next to the redhead. "Quite a turnout, eh?"

Further down the Gryffindor table, Sirius and James were snickering together and shooting glances over at the two girls.

"So, Sirius?" Lily muttered to the blonde next to her who was busy serving herself potatoes as Dumbledore stood to begin his welcoming speech.

"No need to make a big ordeal out of it," Marlene said, muffled through a mouthful of food. "We're just sleeping together. That's it."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me."

"I can't believe you didn't notice," Marlene retorted at once. "Honestly, Lily, you're a good friend, but you could stand to look around yourself once in a while. There are other things more important than schoolwork and fighting with James Potter."

This stung, not because it was the second time in a day that someone had hinted at Lily being somewhat self-centered, but because Marlene was insinuating that Potter took priority over her.

"You're my best friend, Marlene," Lily whispered. "Potter is a git and I've got more things to worry about. I'm sorry I haven't been here for you."

"Yeah, well." Marlene shrugged. "I've - "

What she was about to say, Lily never found out, for the pair were interrupted by, speak of the devil, James Potter.

"Alright there, Evans? McKinnon?" He greeted cheerfully, clapping both of them on the back.

"Piss off, Potter," Lily said irritably, annoyed at being disturbed.

"It's great to see you too," he said, seemingly unperturbed. "Shove up, McKinnon," he added, sliding in between the two and grabbing a bread roll off the closest platter in reach. "Look, Evans, I - "

"Not right now," she interrupted. "I'm really not in the mood. I told you to knock it off with the whole asking me out business."

This seemed to hit a nerve, for his expression turned stony at once.

"I wasn't going to ask you out," he said irritably. "Get off your high horse."

"My high horse?" Lily asked, unable to help raising her voice. From where the rest of the Marauders were seated, Remus cast a curious glance over at the two. "That's rich, coming from you. Just because I said I'd think about giving friendship a try doesn't mean you need to be hanging off me every waking moment."

James shoved himself up from the table.

"I was going to invite you and Marlene to a game of Exploding Snap after dinner," he said coolly. "Seeing as we're supposedly attempting to be friends. But I presume you have more important things to attend to than kicking it with gits like me."

Lily realized he must have heard the end of her conversation with Marlene and felt a twinge of shame.

"McKinnon, you're still invited," he added. "See you around, Evans. Relashio." He directed his wand at a third-year who was just bringing his goblet up to his lips; the unfortunate third-year's grip loosened and the goblet tumbled to his lap, covering him in pumpkin juice.

"Potter!" Lily snapped, but he was already sauntering off. "Oh, the nerve!"

She turned back to Marlene, who had clearly been listening but was still focused on her dinner. "Can you believe him?"

Marlene shrugged noncommittally and Lily rolled her eyes. The year was off to a rough start.

—-

If there was one word to describe each of the five sixth-year Gryffindor girls, they would be as follows: Alice Prewett was the sweet one, Marlene McKinnon the attractive one, Mary MacDonald the innocent one, Dorcas Meadowes the tomboy, and Lily Evans was the overachiever.

Due to her naturally bossy nature and keenness on productivity, Lily had quickly assumed the role of 'leader' of their dormitory, and the girls were lucky enough to all get along quite well.

However, from their very first night at Hogwarts, it was clear that Lily and Marlene were going to be best friends, and this had been a source of uneasy conflict inside the dorm at times, the pair often being accused (mostly by Dorcas, who had a tongue nearly as quick and sharp as her wit) of isolating the other three girls. And Lily, for all her vivacity and charm, had an unfortunate habit of unintentionally isolating herself from others. The fast friendship with Marlene indicated this.

Thus, Lily found herself awkwardly getting ready for bed on her own that first evening of sixth year, as Marlene had disappeared along with the Marauders straight after dinner and Dorcas, Alice and Mary had locked themselves in the bathroom to reunite properly, inaccurately but reasonably assuming that Lily would be preoccupied with Marlene, prefect duties, or pre-reading.

So when they finally emerged from the bathroom at close to midnight, they were surprised to find Lily already laying in bed and Marlene nowhere to be found.

"Lily," Alice exclaimed. "You're here."

"I'm here," Lily confirmed. She was laying on her back in bed, hands folded over her stomach and refusing to look anywhere other than the ceiling.

"How was your summer?" Mary asked.

Spent it obsessing over James Potter, losing a friend and fighting with my sister, Lily thought, but of course, she said none of this, instead simply responding:

"Uneventful. Yours?"

"It was good enough. My family ran into Marlene's in France," Mary chirped, happy to talk about herself.

"That's nice," Lily said automatically.

"What's this we hear about you and James being friends?" Alice teased.

"You saw what happened at dinner," Lily sighed, as had the rest of Gryffindor table, but absolutely nobody had been surprised at the altercation. "I'm not sure how far it's going to go. I've got more important things on my plate."

Conveniently, Dorcas jumped in:

"McGonagall's brother was killed this summer," and a hush fell over the entire room. Lily sat up.

"He what?"

"I heard," Alice admitted, busy folding her covers down.

"In his own house," Dorcas went on grimly. "By a gang of Death Eaters, the bloody cowards. Things are getting worse."

Lily laid back down. The war had only been in the background the past five years, but this year had seen an increase in tortures and kidnapping of Muggles. This was one of the first pureblood deaths, which was extremely concerning, to say the least.

Lily knew she was safe at Hogwarts, but her future in the magical world seemed to be growing darker and darker everyday, especially as a Muggleborn. The death of a pureblood wizard indicated exactly that.

"Are you okay, Lily?" Alice ventured, for the redhead was the only Muggleborn in the dormitory.

"I'm fine," she responded, but her thoughts were whirling.

At least, for once, she wasn't thinking about James Potter.