Lionhearted: The Moon Ascendant
Chapter 23
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For anyone still here years later, Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and support as always!
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It was the second-to-last week of March in the days leading up to Easter break and Lucius Malfoy had not spent the last month being idle. While the identity of his malicious 'prankster' was still yet unknown, he'd decided on a new approach to drawing them out.
His main priority in the first place had been to secure a method to prevent further attacks upon his person and on that score, he'd been successful. There have only been a few attempts since February but each of them had thus far been thwarted due to the Imperturbable spell he'd learned from Narcissa.
He'd been so grateful that he'd agreed to do anything she wanted for that weekend, even when it had meant having to swallow his pride, and finally let her drag him to that tacky pink little tea shop that he'd always refused to step foot into. It had been humiliating, sitting under all those fluffy pink hearts and flying cupids throwing confetti down upon him, and he questioned Narcissa's taste in decor when she'd been enchanted by it all, but she was happy which was the main goal, and now they were even as far as he was concerned.
His second order of business had been to go to Professor Slughorn and 'Strongly encourage' their Head of House to investigate the other Slytherins. However after the search, headed by the potions professor and the Bloody Baron who he'd convinced to help had yielded nothing overly damning of any of his peers, Lucius decided to take matters into his own hands.
With the help of the closest members of his inner circle, Milos Gibbon and Zander Higgs namely, Lucius went about eliminating the largest possible suspects, starting with the individuals that Lucius knew to harbour grudges against him in his own year, and those that had been found with other magical prank supplies.
He thought that perhaps it was Marius Kostas with whom he's had a rivalry since their first year, possibly an escalation of the nasty hexes they've thrown each other over the years, or even an act of late revenge for that time in Second Year when he'd tampered with his broom and eliminated him from the Quidditch team tryouts. However, the other seventh-year wasn't very good at subterfuge and was adamant even under the threat of a curse that he wasn't the culprit.
There were others in a similar position of harbouring a vendetta against him, however, when all these avenues led to nothing he then directed his focus on the other years. He'd thought perhaps it was a younger student desiring to increase their popularity, but then through all his intimidation, cajoling, manipulation, and small amounts of bribery, he'd eliminated the rest of the seventh years, then the sixth and fifth and so on until now, leaving Lucius only to conclude that the culprit was no one in his own house. Many of them had alibis, or through confrontation or other evidence have been able to convince Lucius that they had nothing to do with it.
His investigation hadn't been entirely useless, however– He'd put enough fear into those he'd interrogated, that the previous whispers of mockery amongst the Slytherins had turned into renewed respect as it was spread to the other members of their house what would happen once Lucius found those responsible.
Still, the fact that he'd not found the culprit so far was deeply concerning. It meant a student from another house, and therefore someone less easy to get to via his realm of influence has somehow figured out a way to bypass the security of the Slytherin common room without detection.
Lucius already had far too many responsibilities on his plate between Quidditch and Prefect duties, and with only three more months left for preparing for N.E.W.T.s, he'd already invested far too much time and mental energy in investigating this problem, especially with the threat significantly diminished.
But he simply could not allow whomever it was to get away! The panic he'd felt at the beginning of his mess had given way to cold anger and now on top of his pride refusing to let such insolence stand, he'd also developed too much curiosity about his assailant. He wanted to know exactly how they'd managed to sneak up on him, and if they had somehow discovered a means of getting past the common room as an outsider, well, he would be a fool not to want it for himself. With his plans for after Hogwarts being what they are, it is important for him now to start gaining whatever tools he can at his disposal.
That is why he'd decided that while he could no longer afford to directly keep a hand in finding the culprit, it was still a worthy enough investment if he were to delegate the task to others. He still had allies amongst the members of his house, and a few even in the others, and the lower years especially had more time on their hands, and the desire to prove themselves. It was about time that he put those alliances to use.
This is how Lucius found himself seated in one of the high-back chairs in front of the common room fireplace, able to look across towards the lake roiling in the darkness against the windows as he steepled his hands in front of him, and regarded the group of younger students he'd gathered, seated on the couches across from him.
It was a late Monday night after most of the other Slytherins had gone to bed, and the quiet but for the crackling of the fire and the waves hitting the windows set the common room in a treacherous mood. There was Warrington and Prott from sixth year who were eyeing each other with distrust, Silverhorn and Wolpert from fourth with distaste, Scablor and Ileen from third curiosity, Guzmon from second who looked more confused than anything else, and finally Pyrities and Snape from first year, the former scanning the rest of the upper years, sizing them up, but the latter sending a look of loathing towards his classmate. It would have seemed a strange group to the rest of their house, but Lucius planned this assortment of Slytherins to be to his advantage.
These were the students that he'd hand-chosen either for being those Lucius could trust to be discreet, or whom Lucius knew were keen to ally themselves with him if they wanted to increase their standing with the others in their house, or–and he looked at Snape out of the corner of his eye– they wanted to get back within his good graces.
Since before the thwarted Gryffindor duel, Lucius had thought that the half-blood first year had potential, and so he'd taken him under his wing so to speak. Since starting at Hogwarts, he'd displayed some ability in collecting allies and even gaining recognition from Professor Slughorn. Their Head of House had many faults, including his disinterest in fighting to keep some things sacred for those with pure wizarding blood, but Lucius couldn't deny the man also had a knack for picking out the students who would go on to do big things. After all, this was the man who'd mentored the Dark Lord when he had gone to school…
Furthermore, Snape had proved himself useful: beyond Slughorn inviting Severus to join his little Slug Club, the first year had also started building a reputation for himself with the Potions Club, which was especially interesting to Lucius. He understood the use of having someone adept at the craft in his back pocket.
There was just one hitch; Severus seemed to be suffering from the same affliction as their professor by his determination to continue running around with that little mud-blooded redhead girl. An affliction that Lucius had been prepared to dismiss as naivety until it had proven itself detrimental when Severus came to ask for his help in stopping the Griffindor duel. When Severus had come to him with the request, saying it would be his revenge to get back at the Gryffindors, but especially Black in trouble, Lucius had seen right through him.
His justifications of hating Sirius and wanting to get the other boy expelled were mostly true as far as Lucius could tell; Severus had been delighted to do his bidding of spreading gossip against that annoying little muggle-lover for him in the past as well. But while Snape was a decent liar, understanding how to earn credibility by mixing deceit with truth, Lucius was much better and he had even more experience. And it was clear to him that any thoughts of vengeance were second to whatever misplaced concern and affection he had for the mud blood. It was concerning.
Lucius suspected that even if he'd advised Severus' against it, the boy would still have gone and thwarted the duel himself no matter if it would have pulled the rest of the Slytherins into trouble. Lucius wanted Slytherin to win the house cup for his final year at Hogwarts, and he'd have loathed wasting house points over such a matter.
That is why Malfoy had chosen to go along with it, spreading to his fellow Slytherins that they shouldn't break curfew that night while Severus went to McGonagall, and accepted the small loss in gold as a bad investment. But he had not forgotten. Since Snape had chosen to prioritise his friendship with that little Mudblood, Lucius had simply chosen to redirect his focus and prioritise fostering his other alliances.
Pyrtites was one of the other first years who he thought had potential. For one thing, he was a Pureblood, although not from any of the Sacred families, and while he was softer-spoken, there were whispers from the other first years that suggested a quiet popularity. He surrounded himself more with Lestrange and the Carrows, both from respectable families, and he tended to stay out of the limelight and therefore out of trouble. But the thing that gave him pause was the fact that Slughorn didn't seem to think quite as much of him.
This wasn't a good sign to Malfoy, but Lucius wasn't the sort of man to put all his gold into one vault; It would be much better for him to foster both in the hopes that at least one of them would benefit him. And that is why he was willing to give Severus one other chance. It was the carrot and the stick. To his satisfaction, it seemed Severus was earnest to redeem himself. So he had the opportunity to use this little Dungbomb problem to test their mettle and kill two gryphons with one stone.
Smirking at the brilliance of his own plan, Lucius reached into his robe and leaned forward to place the stack of galleons on the table between them.
Five galleons, while a pittance compared to his own sizable fortune, was still nothing to sneeze at for the average wizard and was a verifiable bounty for a first or second year.
He scanned each face across from him, pleased to see he had all of their attention.
"Good evening everyone. I appreciate your responding to my invitation so promptly. There is a proposition I have for you…"
. . . . . . . . . . .
While many students saw Easter break as a good chance to escape from school and see their families, with the amount of homework from the teachers, and many of the upper years starting to feel the stress of exams, a good amount of them tended to stay at Hogwarts instead. This was a good thing for Remus as it meant that it wasn't strange at all for him to stay at school with the next full moon set for right in the middle of the break, but also good because his friends had decided to stay over too. After all, they still had to celebrate James' upcoming birthday.
James was bursting with excitement. While his parents had always thrown him dinner parties and showered him with gifts, those were mostly catered to their own family friends since James hadn't had anyone his own age to invite. But now it was finally his chance to throw one with the friends of his choosing, and he was all too excited to share it with the rest of the Gryffindors who'd stayed, especially after having such a glum and stressful second term so far.
"I've seen Mum and Dad organize them often enough, it's not so hard," he'd said after Peter had asked where to even begin before going around and employing help from their other housemates for various tasks.
Fabian and Gideon had agreed to help them procure a case of butterbeer for a fee, while sixth-year Charsley agreed to let them borrow his wireless for the common room while he was away. He liked to listen to the results of the unicorn races or the international wizarding sports but could be tuned in to the muggle stations for music since James thought anything was better than just Celestina Warbeck which was what his parents played at the parties back home.
He'd convinced Marleen and Mary to help them come up with games, and even offered to trade anything the house elves wanted for fairycakes, but the house elves refused to take anything in return before shoving platters of deserts at them.
"Are you crying?!" Sirius said with a double-take as they left the kitchens to the elves' warm goodbyes, holding their loot.
"T-they're just so n-nice," James blubbered, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses, "It's r-really going to be the b-best birthday ever!"
Sirius rolled his eyes before steering him up to the tower stairs.
Remus and Peter knew very little about organizing a party, although between them they amassed a large hoard of candy and helped the girls come up with fun things to do. Nor really did Sirius for that matter, although he had some idea what they should not look like from all the ones he'd attended. He, therefore, took over the decorations, festooning the Gryffindor common room with lots of red and yellow bunting and banners and streamers, flooding the ceiling with non-explodable luminous balloons.
"Maybe I should make a Pin the Nose on the Snivellus game?" Sirius murmured so Evans couldn't overhear, scratching his chin with his wand as he eyed his work. Remus gave a snort and pocketed his wand, having just finished sticking little painted broomsticks along the walls, because it couldn't be a party for James without something Quidditch.
While Marleen and Mary had been happy to help and join in the fun, without Dorcas' calming presence around as a buffer, Evans seemed nervous and mainly avoided the common room altogether for most of the break, leaving to go elsewhere in the castle. But she acquiesced to staying for the party after the other girls had begged her to come and play cards with them. She'd even brought a set of marbles which was a different game to Gobstones since they didn't spew gunk in your face when you lost, and had joined Mary in explaining about different muggle birthday games.
With everything set up, and the radio playing the muggle rock music in the background, the other Gryffindors were starting to stop and gather around, playing along the exploding snap tower building tournament, miniature Quidditch, Wizards Chess, and indoor Skittles while chewing on sweets and finger sandwiches. Fabian and Gideon were in one corner playing liars dice along with some of the older students, while Alice and Frank were playing a magical All Fives nearby the windows and trying to pretend they weren't seeing any gambling going on.
"It's brilliant!" James said, striding up and throwing his arms around Sirius and Remus' shoulders and squeezing them. He was just radiating happiness, hazel eyes wide behind his glasses. "Thanks a bunch!"
"Yeah, well, don't expect it every year," Sirius said throwing his arm to catch James' head and ruffle his hair mercilessly, "You get one big party and that's it!"
James laughed good-naturedly before being accosted by Podmore and Lyoun who'd seen the rough-housing and wanted their part. Sirius took that opportunity to grinningly disappear in the direction of their dorm. Peter was watching the older boys playing Liars' Dice with interest, and before long James had escaped the older boys and chatting with Alice and Frank, gesturing wildly about.
While he was distracted, Sirius appeared back from their room, keeping an eye on James as he grabbed Remus and Peter, shoving party poppers into their hands before they all snuck up on their roommate. With a loud crack that had James jumping in the air and all the others turning and laughing, they shouted Happy Birthday before Sirius shoved one of their silly party hats on his head.
"I should have seen it coming," James laughed, picking a handful of confetti and party string off his glasses to throw back at Sirius, while Fabian and Gideon took that as their cue to break out the butterbeer. Soon the Gryffindors were eating cake and making merry, the common room feeling full even with so many gone for the break.
Remus watched as the girls, Yves, and McLaggen were racing to build a card tower, watching with amusement as Marlene and McGaggen attempted to sabotage the other's work, while the radio blared. It was loud and rowdy with the cheers of the others playing, or the dogpiling to give James birthday bumps, but Remus could see the appeal as Sirius and Peter had started a war of setting off their Gambol and Japes things before pulling him into it as well.
He and Sirius had stopped to catch their breath, leaning against one of the armchairs for support after escaping from James who'd finally turned the tables and was now chasing Peter, a party popper aimed at him. Remus laughed at the glitter now covering Sirius' face, while Sirius laughed and pointed at his hair which was now turned white from one of their Hair-Colour Changing Cartridges.
"All you need is a beard and you could be Dumbledore!" he said, dodging as Remus tossed the package of Chameleon Cream he'd used on James, whose skin was now bright orange, at Sirius. They both grinned as they watched the other two running around the common room, nearly running into the indoor Skittles game the girls had moved on to, Lily giving James a slightly cross look as he went.
"This is going excellent," Sirius said. His usual arrogance was softened by the warm smile on his face as he watched everyone enjoying themselves. This was the kind of thing he'd wished for when he was younger, surrounded by this buoyant feeling of carefree happiness, away from talks of war or disparaging remarks about muggle things. He wondered what it was like to have this all the time. Perhaps if his parents were different, or maybe if the rest of the wizarding world wasn't in turmoil. He wished Regulus was here to experience it.
Remus smiled, then gave a laugh as James finally tackled Peter and set off the party popper in his face. "Yeah, it came together well. Nice one on the decorations," he said, glancing up at their floating banners, "I suppose I can see why he'd enjoy something like this."
Sirius' smile slowly turned mischievous as he directed it at him.
"Really? That means we'll have to throw you one next year after all."
"Absolutely not!" Remus shook his head vehemently.
Sirius put up a hand to call the others, "Oi, James, guess what Remu—"
"No!" Remus panicked, trying to clap a hand over his mouth, but Sirius ducked his arm laughing as he darted away towards a bemused James and Peter, Remus chasing after him desperately. "James! Don't listen! Whatever he says he's lying!"
After another bout of rough-housing, sparked by Remus having to tackle Sirius before he could say anything stupid, the party hit its peak when Sirius and James retrieved their Zonkos Clown which they deflated right in the middle of the common room, causing a huge stir of shrieks and laughter as it went zig-zagging about the room. With that, the buzz of butterbeer, and the crashing sugar high, soon the party was winding down as the other Gryffindors began drifting off to their rooms or their usual haunts.
Alice was kind enough to help them vanish their non-explodable luminous balloons while they put away the banners, Sirius wondering out loud if he should take them home for his room and wondering how long until his mother would notice and throw a fit. Marlene and Mary helped to put the games into one of the corners for others to play with through the rest of the break, while James and Peter brought candy down as a thank you for the house elves and to return their platters.
Soon enough the four boys were back in their own dormitory feeling pleasantly cheerful as they gathered to watch James open his presents and eat sweets.
Sirius had given him an undetectable extendable pouch so he'd stop smelling up his pockets with their pranking things, while Peter had given him a miniature kalimba he'd found in a catalogue, which James immediately started plucking away at to Sirius' annoyance. Remus had given him a sculpture puzzle that looked like a miniature lion, the puzzle being his attempt to keep James occupied on something other than putting exploding balloons in his bed until term started up again.
Remus spent the two days after James' party cramming a lot of his homework in before the full moon since he wasn't in any shape to leave the tower. This one was just as bad as the other, but Madam Pomfrey healed him easily with a flick of her wand, and Remus tried to suppress the same uneasy feeling at the memory of the wolf trying to claw its way to some imaginary something beyond the Shack.
After that, with most of the Gryffindor team still around during the break, and having no interest yet in finishing their own schoolwork, James and Sirius had taken to visiting their practices, usually dragging Remus and Peter along.
Sometimes the older students even let them borrow a broom afterwards, provided the weather wasn't too bad and they had to rush back inside. James had taken to practising corkscrew manoeuvres he'd seen in his Quidditch magazines, and trying to convince Sirius was learn with him. The days were beginning to get longer, the rainy weather lighter, and soon it would be spring.
They'd started wandering the castle corridors trying to find any secret passages and such, but so far with no luck. For their trouble, they'd discovered most of the cupboards and closed classrooms to be warded and had to run from Peeves or Filch or Mrs Norris on several occasions, so most days they spent in their room.
"I need to get one of these," Sirius said as he sat back on his four-poster, listening to the wireless. He'd been enjoying having the radio and being introduced to muggle rock properly. "Mum and Dad hate anything they call 'Muggle noises.' They even charmed the house so we can't hear them passing by outside," he mentioned bitterly.
"I wish we could get a telly up here," Peter said forlornly, as James unpacked the lion sculpture puzzle and was trying to figure out how to build its head. Peter'd been disappointed to learn that James and Sirius had never even seen muggle films before, although Sirius had seen posters back in London. Remus had only seen a few with his mum when he was younger, most notably the one with the witch with a flying umbrella.
James and Sirius teased him for the rest of the week after he mentioned it after he and Peter had tried to describe what it was about. The two started jumping off their beds, pretending to hold an invisible umbrella, or one particularly rainy day they were passing by Hagrid's hut from the Quidditch pitch when they saw the giant man coming back home from the grounds, sporting a large pink umbrella. Upon taking one look at it they roared with laughter.
"Look Remy, your new nanny's arrived!" James cackled.
"Oh shut up," Remus grumbled, elbowing them both harshly. At the noise, Hagrid had looked up and beamed, waving to Remus.
Remus waved back, smiling before wandering over and pointedly ignoring James and Sirius' sniggers. "Hullo Hagrid, Happy Easter!"
"Remus, Happy Easter! An' how're yeh holdin' up? Takin' care of yerself?" Hagrid asked with a slightly nervous glance at the other two boys who had finally managed to get a hold of themselves.
"Yes, thank you!" Remus smiled but was nearly bowled over as James and Sirius took up to leaning their elbows on Remus' shoulders, craning up at the groundskeeper curiously.
"Oof! Sorry Hagrid, these two are James Potter and Sirius Black," he said gesturing to each.
Hagrid waved genially, but they didn't miss his slightly more wary glance at Sirius, who infinitesimally straightened in defiance. Remus realized Hagrid would have encountered some of his family members. Sirius had said his cousins only left Hogwarts not too long ago. But Hagrid took in the scarlet scarf with an understanding look and brushed over the unease with a friendly smile.
"Nice ter meet yeh! An' what're yeh doing ou' here anyways? No' good enough weather fer a stroll ye'," he asked, glancing up at the cloudy skies that were steadily darkening, and joining their trek towards the castle.
"We were watching the Gryffindors practice," Remus explained, and Hagrid nodded.
"Good, good. I'm no' supposed ter pick sides an' all but it'd be good ter see 'em win."
"Here here!" Piped up James, while Remus and Sirius shared a grin; If there was one way to get into James' good graces it was by supporting Gryffindor.
"Just glad yeh weren' gettin' close ter the forest, the way firs' years're wan' ter do."
Sirius and James perked up like two dogs picking up on a new scent.
"Now what would we want to go into the Forbidden Forest for?" said James with an innocent smile that Remus knew with a sinking feeling to be anything but.
"I shouldn'a said that," Hagrid realized out loud, "S'nothin. Nothin' much in there, just a few animals and creatures tha' migh' get a bi' territorial is all..."
"What sorts of creatures then?" asked Sirius adopting the same innocent tone as James although it was slightly ruined by the smirk tugging at his mouth.
"Erm, well, unicorns an' centaurs mostly…" said Hagrid nervously.
"Sure, we've heard of those," said James with a dismissive wave, "but word around the castle is there's more than that!"
"Yeh shouldn' be listin' to everythin' tha' spreads aroun' the castle…" Hagrid was wriggling his umbrella in agitation.
"Right, of course," Sirius nodded reasonably, "But that's why it'd be better to ask you wouldn't it? After all, who would know better about the Forbidden Forest than you Hagrid?"
"Right, you must be an expert, being the groundskeeper and all!" said James infusing his voice with awe, and Hagrid puffed up, looking torn at being called an expert.
"And you wouldn't want us being left ignorant and misinformed, would you? That would just be irresponsible," Sirius tutted.
"I wouldn't– I'm not really–" Hagrid suddenly looked relieved as they approached the castle steps, and hurried them in, pushing the large oak doors open with one large hand.
"S'like I said. There's nothin in there to go worryin' about, just give it a wide berth an' yeh'll be fine! Now, it was nice meetin' yeh all, but I go' ter go see Dumbledore! Enjoy yer break!" Hagrid said before getting away rather quickly for someone his size, the few students in the hall moving out of his way.
"Nice bloke. But he's clearly hiding something," Sirius said with a sniff.
James nodded sagely. "'Nothing' he says, Rubbish! The Forest wouldn't be forbidden if there was nothing in there."
"Now I'm more interested to know what it is they're hiding. Remember the Prewett twin's Halloween stories?" said Sirius.
"Please tell me you don't really want to go in do you?" Remus asked.
"What's the matter, Remy? Aren't you the least bit curious?" James said, throwing an arm around his neck, but Remus shook his head.
"Not really, no," he said flatly.
"Are you scared? Surely there's nothing we all couldn't handle," said Sirius, folding his arms behind his head.
"...I'm not scared—"
"Good! Then that means you'll have no problem coming with us if we decide on a little expedition!" James said with finality. Remus opened his mouth to argue but was cut off by Sirius.
"Right! After all, haven't you been telling us all about how your dad goes exploring looking for magical creatures?" said Sirius, leaning on Remus' other shoulder slyly.
"Exactly! You can just think of it as following in his footsteps!"
"I— That—It's not—" Remus stammered while James and Sirius exchanged grins.
It was a foolish, idiotic, silly idea, but the worst part was, somehow their wheedling was starting to work! The idea that he was scared rankled because he wasn't! Surely it was no different to exploring the woods at home— He just found it… off-putting is all… And he had every reason to after Fabian and Gideon started putting ideas in his head about finding werewolves in there. But he'd decided a while ago that it wasn't true, so why should be afraid? It was just a forest…
While Remus was brooding, James and Sirius had moved on from exploring the forest and were instead discussing Hagrid.
"I've noticed it before, but did you see how massive he is?" Sirius remarked as they approached the Great Hall where Peter was meant to meet them, "He must be part giant or something!"
James shook his head, "No way! They wouldn't have allowed him to work here if he was. Shame that, I think it'd be fun having a giant for a professor!"
Sirius looked dubious, "Maybe you're right… He might be too friendly to be one. They're known to be violent, giants—Last time there was a giant attack they had to tell the muggles it was a hurricane didn't they?"
James shrugged, "Sure, but they mostly keep to themselves at any rate."
"What do you think Remus?"
Remus addressed the flagstones. "I think… Hagrid is nice, whether he's a giant or not, so maybe it doesn't much matter."
Sirius and James looked taken aback as they approached the sparsely populated Gryffindor table, where Peter had surrounded himself with all of his textbooks and was clearly trying not to panic at the different scrolls of parchment in front of him.
"Yeah, sure… If you say so…"
"You're right, I suppose it doesn't matter…" James said quickly, before dropping the subject to grab Peter around the shoulder, "Alright there Petey? Looks like you have a fair bit of homework there! Good thing your three favourite heroes are here to help!"
"Oh thank Merlin! Would you?!" Peter begged, and Remus had to fight back a smile at the look of hope shining through his eyes.
Shaking his head, he sat down and pulled Peter's Defence essay closer, while James and Sirius went to grab his Transfiguration and Potions work which he needed help on the most.
"You boys finally hitting the books, aye?" Marlene said in greeting as she and Mary were packing up after lunch, peering over the stack of books.
"Just helping poor Petey here," said James, waving the parchment in front of him.
Marlene nodded sympathetically. They'd all experienced Peter's track record in lessons.
"I swear, with all this what's the point of a break?!" Mary asked crossly, gesturing with her own sheaves of parchment in hand.
"You're just angry you haven't figured out how to transfigure a bird yet," Marlene teased, while Mary tried swatting her arm and nearly dropped her scrolls.
"You haven't figured it out either!" said Mary.
"At least yours is starting to look like one, mine just keep turning into eggs!" Peter piped up miserably, to the other's laughter.
"Don't worry Pete! I'm sure you'll get it right… eventually…" said James.
"Have you finished then? We're going to the library. Dorcas went home so we wouldn't mind a second pair of eyes if you're up for revising?" asked Mary over her potions charts.
"Nah, haven't done it," said Sirius, planting a cheek in his hand in boredom, "Remus is the one who finished early. Such a responsible student," he teased.
James shed an invisible tear, "It does my heart good seeing his dedication to learning! How noble! How infinite in faculty! How admirable!" he mocked while ruffling his hair.
"Oh shut up," Remus muttered, face hot as he tried to bury it behind the wall of tomes.
"Well, if you're finished you're welcome to join us sometime," Marlene said while Mary giggled at James' theatrics.
"Thanks," Remus mumbled as the girls dispersed.
"Ugh! This is boring!" Sirius, who'd been going over Peter's calculations dropped his head to the table, his voice muffled by the wood and parchment.
"We're doing this for Peter," said James, frowning at the chart in his hand.
"That still doesn't mean it's not boring," Sirius grouched.
"Sorry…" Peter said in a small voice, wringing the quill he'd been using for his history assignment.
"See what you did? You made him feel bad," James hugging Peter's arm protectively.
Sirius threw up his arms, "I didn't say it was his fault!"
"Then stop complaining," James threw a piece of parchment, which Sirius stood to return.
"Maybe we could go exploring the castle after this? That's sure to be interesting," piped up Remus before the other two could keep fighting, both turning on him.
"And run into Peeves again for our trouble?"
"Well if you haven't got any better ideas?" Remus shrugged.
"... Urg fine!" Sirius flounced back into his seat.
"Brilliant!" said James not looking up from scribbling out one of Peter's lines. "Why don't you figure out where we should look around next? Wasn't much on the seventh floor beside that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy."
Sirius perked up, the idea of getting to choose breaking him out of his bad mood. He tapped his chin in thought before declaring, "I pick the dungeons!" crossing his arms smugly.
Peter paled. "The d-dungeons? Why?"
"Well, why not? It's an old castle, if it's secret tunnels and passageways you're looking for there's bound to be something down there!"
"It's bad enough having potions and the Slytherins down there…"
"Ah, but that's also why we'd be better off searching now–Not as many around during the break right? Besides, James said I get to decide, and I decide the dungeons."
"Sorry Peter, looks like it's decided. Better to just get it over with," said James.
"Well, if we're planning on roaming around the dungeons then we'd better finish this up while there's still daylight. Before the Hogwarts ghosts start getting more active at night," said Remus looking down at his writing.
The other boys shivered, thinking about running into the Bloody Baron.
"R-right, let's finish this then!" Sirius picked Pete's transfiguration assignment back up, quickly returning to work.
. . . . . . . . . . .
"What are they doing here?" Severus hissed, and Lily looked from her defence essay, then waved in relief as Marleen and Mary entered the library.
"Be nice!" Lily said in warning, "I invited them!"
"Don't you see enough of them in your own house?" Snape muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Lily asked with a glare.
"Why here?" Snape said through gritted teeth, making Lily roll her eyes.
"Because we're doing homework anyway, and Mary wanted help on potions." She looked beseeching at him, "Come on, you like explaining potions to people."
"Tsk! I only enjoy explaining it to those who have the mental capacity and appreciation potion-making arts not just any old—"
"Don't you start that again," Lily cut him off before smiling as the other girls came to set down their books.
"Hullo Lily! Snape," Mary said more reservedly as she took the seat next to Evans. Marleen nodded, eyes sharp as she took Lily's other side. For his part, Snape barely acknowledged them at all which at least was better than making snide remarks, but Lily had to suppress a groan.
While Lily has been working on trying to convince the other girls that Severus wasn't so bad, he was making it very difficult when he refused to be polite when they were around. She'd tried explaining that he was just being grumpy and feeling left out since they were all in the same house and he wasn't, and at the same time trying to split her time with Severus evenly so he would stop feeling so off about it, but it was hard having to mediate between her friends like this.
"Here, we brought you lunch! Although if Madame Pince catches you I had nothing to do with it," Marlene whispered, looking out for the librarian as she passed a handkerchief of rolls and pheasant Lily's way.
"Thanks a bunch!" Lily beamed, stuffing a pinch of bread in her mouth. She offered one to Severus but he just sneered it down and she hid it in her bag.
"Ooh, and you'll never guess who we saw while we were down there!" said Mary in a teasing voice.
"Hmm, let me guess, was it Peeves?"
"Nope! It was Potter and the rest of them, but get this, they were actually doing their homework!"
Lily looked cross and scratched out something with her quill with more force than necessary, while Snape perked up at the mention of Potter with a look of hatred.
"You mean their finally not taking over the common room with their loud noises or running around so nobody else can any work done?" Lily asked waspishly.
"Oh come now Lily, they're not that bad! You had fun with us at Potter's party didn't you?" said Marlene.
"Potter threw himself a party?" Snape demanded in a mix of scorn and disbelief.
"Technically he threw it for all the Gryffindors. We didn't even know it was his birthday until Black brought out the party hats," Mary said with a giggle.
"And the party poppers, and that horrible clown thing," Lily muttered over her essay.
"You have to admit it was funny, it gave everyone such a fright!"
"Hmph! I'll admit no such thing! It's a wonder where they get all that stuff! Constantly pulling pranks on each other with those silly little balloons or hair-changing foam."
Snape froze in his seat, blinking his black eyes. "What did you say?" he said so softly it was almost a whisper of shock.
"I said they're always running around pulling out prank things or chasing each other and exploding something, which is very annoying when others are trying to finish their schoolwork. It's a wonder how they do so well in lessons when they hardly spend any time studying at all."
"Oh, Lily…" Marlene said patting her shoulder consolingly. "I thought you made up with Black at least, but are you still mad that Potter got all those house points from Slughorn?"
"Don't you 'Oh Lily,' me! I just don't appreciate his blatant favouritism! Just because they're a bunch of purebloods doesn't mean—"
But Snape wasn't listening as Lily ranted about her hatred of the entire blood system, instead, he was staring down at his essay deep in thought.
