Sorry for the delay on this one but I think it is worth the weight. I think this might end up being one of the longest chapters I have ever written so be prepared. It is quite epic.
On a similar note, besides updating this story, I also published the first of the oneshots in regards to the relationship between Olivia and Regulus. It's titled Worlds Apart and it is on my profile page if you want to go check it out. There will be more to come with additions to that story about every two weeks. This story is going to be updated in the next week because I only have one more week left of summer and I want this story done before I go back to school.
Since this chapter has a scene that I'm sure you will all recognize, I am going to put the disclaimer out there that I own nothing you recognize. Everything you do belongs to JK Rowling. I only own my OCs and certain plot lines.
Three days before the OWL exams began, a lone student stood outside the Great Hall, simply looking up at the doors. Elyse couldn't believe that what would happen inside of that room in the next two weeks would determine her future. She was so used to be in control of the future, being able to see what she wanted and when she wanted. But recently, it seemed that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't call up a vision nor could she see the outcomes of these tests. It seemed that whenever she tried, she simply gave herself a headache that would last for days. She attributed it to the stress but there was something else that she couldn't identify that made her uneasy.
Since it was very early, not a lot of students were up and about. So far, only one Ravenclaw Elyse didn't recognize passed by her.
That was how she stood for fifteen minutes without interruption. That is, until faint footsteps gradually grew louder from behind her. She turned and was mildly surprised to see James practically storm past her and glare up at the wall next to the door.
"I'm surprised yeh're up this early," Elyse commented.
James seemed to not hear her and continued to grow angrier and angrier the longer he stared at the wall. His fists clenched and unclenched a handful of times; his tell that he was fuming.
"James?" Elyse questioned worriedly, now greatly concerned for her friend.
"Damn, I guess you can't sneak up on a seer."
Elyse screamed out in shock. The voice came from behind her. James may have responded but it wasn't from the James she was looking at. She spun around and saw a perfectly disheveled James walking up to her.
"James?" She said incredulously, unable to believe what she seeing. She grabbed his arm and roughly threw him towards his doppelganger.
She gasped when James – no Harry – turned and looked down the hall, facing the same way as his father. She had seen Harry as a toddler before but seeing the same age as his father… The only differences she could see were James's slightly longer nose and their differing eye colors. Elyse took a few steps closer looking between the pair in awe. That was when she saw the scar on Harry's forehead.
"Um, Lucky, what are you looking at?" Trying to figure out what Elyse was looking at. He turned his head at where she was staring only to see thin air. There was nothing there.
"Yeh look so similar," she said in awe, gently tracing where the scar would have been on James's head.
"Who?" James asked exasperatedly. There wasn't anyone in the school who looked anything remotely like him and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why Elyse was tracing a zigzag on his forehead.
"Yer son," she said so softly, James wasn't sure he heard her correctly. Just then, for Elyse, the second Potter disappeared, fading into nothing.
"My what?" He demanded, gripping the top of her arm tightly
Elyse was saved from answering by the arrival of Ben, Peter, and Remus. Once they saw the duo, Ben pulled out the mirror Ursula had given him to use and said, "We found her. She's already down here." Ursula responded by grumbling something back about leaving notes.
"Woot's that aboot?" Elyse asked.
"Muse was worried when you weren't in your room this morning. She couldn't find you but she had to get ready so we got sent on a reconnaissance mission."
"Ursula worries too much," James complained. "Why didn't she just check the map?"
Ben gave James a dead panned look, "We thought of that. But someone has the map."
James looked confused until he reached into his pocket and realization dawned on his face. He still pulled out the map and handed it to Ben. "There you go."
To say Ben was not amused was an understatement. He rolled the map in his hands and when he walked past James to go into the Great Hall, he wacked him over the head with the paper.
"Oi! That was uncalled for!" James complained, rubbing his head as he followed his friends into the hall to eat.
The rest of the day was quite stressful. It was the last classes before OWLs started the next Monday. In addition to the normal amount of stress of the OWLs weighing down on them, the added problem of Remus's full moon falling right in the middle of testing. It had been a subject of debate between all of them, some of the debates turning into arguments which then continued to escalate into screaming matches.
Later that night, they were sitting around the fire. James was lounging on the sofa, his feet on Sirius's lap and his head resting against Elyse's shoulder. Remus was sitting on the ground, a book resting on the small table that most people usually kicked their feet up on. It was the perfect height that when he was sitting on the ground, he could rest his books there and be able to read without straining his neck. Peter was in the armchair, his legs folded so he was resting his own book on his knees. Ben was sitting on the ground as well, his back resting against the sofa on Elyse's end. Ursula was sitting between his legs, her back resting against his chest. Ben's arms were wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him while her own hands rested on top of his.
"So what are we going to do about our problem?" Sirius brought up out of the blue.
They all groaned, knowing that this would just lead to another loud argument.
"What?" Sirius complained at their reactions. "We need to figure this out. We sure as hell can't only go with one or two of us."
Remus disagreed completely. "No." he said adamantly. "You're OWL scores are much more important than spending the night with me. I've spent enough of them alone. I can deal with one on my own."
"That's exactly why we should go," Elyse countered. "We've noticed that yeh haven't been as violent lately. If we leave fer one moon, we'll've ter restart from teh beginnin'."
"Does anyone know which OWL is the next morning?" Ben asked out of curiosity, realizing that that had somehow never been brought up in previous arguments.
Remus pulled out the schedule and after quickly scanning it said, "History of Magic."
James snorted and said, "That settles it, we're going that night. No one gives a rat's ass, no offense Wormy, about History of Magic."
Peter flushed red and stuttered something about it being okay, fidgeting in his seat.
It seemed that Elyse had different ideas, "I don't know. I'm not gonna go teh same route as teh rest o' yeh. I need as many OWLs as I kin git." She argued.
"Lucky, tell me right now that you think you have a realistic chance of actually passing that test. Because, honestly, I don't think you do."
"Sirius!" Ursula yelled at her brother, glaring at him.
He held his hands up in defense, "I'm just saying what's true. Binns didn't teach anyone anything. The only people I think will pass are you, me, James, and Ben. Maybe Remus, but that's it. And the only reason is because we're from pureblood families that taught us most of this stuff since we were able to talk. Hell, half the people we'll be tested on either caused and/or prevented the event in question!"
"Passing OWLs isn't the point of this," James said, bringing everyone back. "It's that we all agree that we are going with Moony during OWLs week."
"I don't think you should," Remus argued.
"Why don't we just vote? It's an odd number so there can't be a tie." Ben proposed.
James sat up and clapped Ben on the shoulder, "See! There's the politician's son we all know and love! Alright, all in favor of going?"
He raised his hand, as did Ursula, Ben, and Sirius. "All in favor of being a baby?" This time Remus, Elyse, and Peter raised their hands.
James smirked cockily, "There you have it. We're going."
"But it's not fair!" Peter whined.
Thus the argument started up again, this time everyone speaking all at once. James was running this hands through his hair agitatedly, Ursula's hands were flying through the hair as she passionately spoke about staying, Ben and Sirius were locked in a fierce debate with Remus, while Peter's higher voice carried over everyone else's as he complained about he simply couldn't go.
Elyse felt her head begin to pound horribly from the noise. She massaged her temple but that didn't alleviate any of the pain. Finally unable to take the pain any longer, she stood up, careful not to knock into Ben or Ursula. In her trunk upstairs, she had some muggle medicine that helped with her headaches. That and it would be quiet up there. None of them seemed to notice her departure.
She had maybe gone up four or five steps when suddenly all the shouting ceased to exist except for James shouting, "REMUS'S FURRY LITTLE—" He froze when the entire common room turned to stare at him. "—problem." He finished lamely, looking like he wished the floor would swallow him whole.
"Remus's what?" Lily asked, just walking in the portrait hole along with Alice and Marlene. The six of them by the fire stared at the trio in panic and fear. For the most notorious group of pranksters getting out of trouble with a twist of words, they had all frozen. That is, until James caught sight of Elyse peaking around the corner of the stairwell, out of sight of the others, and most importantly, Lily.
Winging it, he opened his mouth and said, "Yeah, Remus's furry little problem. You can't tell anyone because it could get him into some trouble."
Lily's eyes narrowed, "Why?"
The rest of them stared at James unbelievably as he leaned back casually, seemingly confident about the lie he was about to tell, "He brought his rabbit from home. Poor guy couldn't bear to be separated from…Clover for long. She likes to escape out of her cage and when we came back from dinner, she was gone. Poor Remus has been distraught after losing his beloved pet."
He shot a look over at the stairwell and Elyse immediately understood what he wanted her to do. Promising herself that she would get back at James for this, she checked to make sure no one was coming up or going down the stairs, before morphing herself into her animagus form. The second it was compete, she bolted down the stairs and hopped around the room, moving at a fantastic speed, scaring the students.
The Black twins, James, and Ben were all laughing while Peter was nearly wetting himself at the sight. Remus was trying to fight a smile but the corners of his mouth twitched up as he watched her display. She hopped over to Lily, who was looking at her like she was the cutest thing in the world, thumped her foot on the ground a couple of times before bolting over to the sofa. She hoped up and landed on James's head, bopping him in the head before nestling herself on Remus's lap.
Lily, Alice, and Marlene were laughing at James, who was now glaring at Elyse. Now it was Remus's turn to smirk and he gently petted Lucky's back. "Good Clover," Remus praised her, shooting James a look.
Lily walked over and knelt down to sit by Remus, "Can I hold her? Anything that does that to Potter is good in my books."
Remus picked up Lucky and handed her to Lily. "Behave," he said in mock seriousness, keeping up appearance of Lucky, no Clover, being his pet.
"Does she do stuff like that often?" Alice questioned.
"Only to James," Remus answered.
"Good Clover," Lily cooed, petting Lucky's head. Elyse's nose twitched and she snuggled her head into Lily's hand. She smirked victoriously when she felt James's glare on her back. Serves him right, she thought. The prat…
The first OWL was Charms. After months and months of preparation, Sirius and James were greatly disappointed with the lack of challenge on the tests. They finished their tests well within the allotted time and were able to squeeze in a quick nap. Ursula, Ben, and Remus faired much the same, though Ben accidentally shrunk the phial instead of making it grow. Remus assured him it wasn't that bad since he had misspelled the cheering charm incantation on the written portion.
The next day was the test that no one was necessarily looking forward to but knew they would pass with flying color – potions. With almost all of their pranks, they used potions so they were well versed in a lot of different areas of the subject. There was not a single question on the entire test they didn't know and they were able to perfectly execute all of the assigned potions. Elyse however, struggled a fair deal when it came down to the nitty-gritty details, able to give the basic gist of the effects of certain potions but not able to fully explain them. Panic then settled in and she started to draw more and more blanks. Just as she was on the verge of tears when she couldn't remember for the life of her any of the twelve uses of dragon's blood when Sirius discretely motioned for her to take a few deep breaths, seeing her panic building. Elyse closed her eyes, fighting away yet another headache, and took three deep breaths. When she opened them and reread the question, she calmed considerably and wrote down all but one.
"Did anyone else almost lose it at question fifteen? 'Please a) describe the main use of animalis humana and b) list the three main ingredients .'" James said arrogantly. "I could have answered that question in my sleep."
"You probably were sleeping," Remus said dryly.
"Nah, he was sketching a picture of Evans on his spare bit of parchment like a little first year with a crush." Sirius ratted out his friend. James flushed and shoved Sirius into a group of oncoming Slytherins. They glared at the pair but didn't say anything since there were professors all around.
Peter hung his head sadly, "I think I forgot one of the steps."
They all looked at him gob smacked. Ben was the one to respond, "Wormy, for the love of— you're an animagus! We made the potion together! I went over the ingredient with you nine times!"
"I forgot, alright," Peter snapped back insecurely.
The next test was much simpler. Herbology was the class that they all did fairly well at but not spectacularly. It was Alice who would lead the study sessions in the library, knowing everything about the subject that they needed to know plus some.
It was during the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL when everything changed.
The morning of the test, Elyse knew that it was going to be a horrible day. Her head was pounding and when she got up, she stumbled and stubbed her toe on the edge of Marlene's trunk. After hobbling to the bathroom, she proceeded to somehow accidentally poke herself in the eye with her brush. After stumbling down the stairs, tripping down the last step, she finally made it where the rest of her friends were standing. They were all looking at her in concern. She waved them off, "It's nothin'."
"Lucky, you can barely walk straight," James pointed out.
Elyse was about to argue but she tripped on the edge of the rug and would have painfully introduced her face to the side table next to the sofa near the fireplace if Sirius hadn't grabbed her around the waist and kept her upright.
"That's it. Get on my back." He ordered her.
She looked at him like he was crazy, which he probably was. Sirius rolled his eyes and turned around and grabbed her arms over his shoulders, "Come on, we have seven flights of moving staircases with trick steps randomly throughout. If you walk down on your own you're going to end up killing yourself."
Conceding to his point, Elyse hopped up onto Sirius's back, making sure to not wrap her arms around his throat but a little lower while also wrapping her legs around his waist. To keep her steady and to keep her from slipping, he held onto her thighs, holding her tight as to not risk any injury for either of them.
One hour later, Elyse was sitting in one of the hundred or so desks in the Great Hall, listening to Professor Flitwick as stacks of the test booklet floated past, one of them coming to a rest in front of her.
Once everyone got a test, Flitwick turned over the giant hour glass in the front with a levitation spell and said, "You may begin."
Elyse turned the paper over, scanning the front sheet quickly before going back to number one. 'Describe a boggat's natural form and a) explain how/when it changes and why and b) name the charm that combats a boggart.'
She immediately remembered the day back in third year, Clarke making them all face their deepest fears. She smiled, that was easy. She put her quill down on the parchment to begin writing when her hand wouldn't move. She couldn't remember anything about it.
Remembering that this exact thing had happened during the potions exam, she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. When she opened them, she reread the question. She wrote 'Unknown, changes into what a person fears when they are standing in front of it,—"
That was all she could remember. The charm to get rid of it was on the tip of her quill but her hand wouldn't move to write it out. She wracked her mind, trying to remember. Nothing came to mind. She knew that she knew, she just forgot.
Figuring that it would come to her later, she moved onto the next question and found that she could not spell the word for the charm used in duels to make green sparks. She had just reread those notes two days ago and she was sure that she had gone over the spelling then. Panic began to swell in her chest and it felt like her tongue was made of sand paper. She couldn't remember anything. Flipping frantically though the test, question after question, she had no idea what the great majority of answers were.
Panic level was at about a five when she got to number fifteen and could only think of one feature of a werewolf even though she spent the last three full moons with one. The level jumped to ten when she got to number forty-six, 'Write a) the incantation used to summon an spirit guardian to protect from dementors and lethifolds b) the emotion needed for the incantation and c) the wand movement.' She knew the spell. She had performed it dozens of times. Hell, she had saved her entire village from Dementors when she was only in second year! But no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't recall any of the answers.
Elyse found her friends' desks and looked to see that they were doing fine. James was already finishing up essay portion, as was Ben. Sirius was doodling on the side of his parchment, Ursula was just starting the last essay, Remus was about half way through double checking his short answer questions, somehow finding more to add to his answers that were so thorough that he had no space left between questions, and Peter was nervously looking at his neighbor's paper, trying to catch a hint here and there.
"Five more minutes," Professor Flitwick called out from the front. Elyse's hear jumped to her throat, her hands became clammy, and her head began to pound painfully. Five minutes and she had been able to barely answer any of the questions.
All of a sudden, a figure nearby flew past her desk, through the one in front of her, and down five more rows.
Elyse wanted to sob when she saw Harry staring at his father in awe. A myriad of emotions crossed his face; joy, longing, excitement, pride, and just a hint of sadness.
James yawned and ruffled his hair and after making sure he wouldn't get caught, he turned and grinned behind him at Sirius. She watched as Harry's face seemed to become more excited and thrilled. Sirius returned James's grin with a thumbs up as he leaned back precariously in his chair.
Then a thought seemed to occur to Harry and he began searching around the room for certain faces. She watched as his smile grew when he found Remus, now reviewing his essays. He then found Ben next. He looked at him almost in confusion until he spied Ursula sitting adjacent to him, the pair silently communicating through their eyes. Then Harry's eyes filled with a similar emotion, not unlike the one he had on his face when he first saw his father. It seemed like a mixture of shock, delight, and grief.
Elyse didn't have much time to dwell on that. No, she found it much more concerning that when Harry found Peter's face, his own morphed into one of pure loathing. No doubt had Harry been solid, Elyse honestly thought he would try to kill Peter.
Then Harry turned back to his father, watching him doodle. Elyse didn't have to be a seer to know it was something to do with Lily's initials. Then Harry's head snapped up, like he felt her eyes on him, and stared at her in awe. Her pale green eyes met his emerald green for an antagonizing ten seconds. The level of surprise and shock on his face was nothing compared to before. It wasn't even that. He looked surprised that she existed.
"Quills down, please," squeaked Professor Flitwick. That broke their staring contest. "That means you too, Stebbins. Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"
Her paper flew towards the front of the room, along with the rest of her year mates' parchments. The force of all the parchment flying towards the tiny professor sent him toppling backwards. Some students laughed while a few in the front row went to help him get up.
Despondent after the horrible test, Elyse faked a smile as she joined up with her friends outside the entrance hall.
"Did you like question ten, Moon?" Sirius asked in jest.
"Loved it," Remus briskly responded. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.' Excellent question."
"D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" James asked his usual sarcastic tone of mock concern. Ursula rolled her eyes and cuffed James on the back of the head before moving over to walk next to Ben, their hands magnetically latching on to each other.
"I think I did," Remus said seriously. At this point, they had joined the masses that were crowding around the front door, ready to get out into the sunlight, at least for a little while before they had their practical later that afternoon. "One: He's sitting in my chair. Two: He's wearing my clothes. Three: His name's Remus Lupin…"
They all laughed at Remus's dry sense of humor. Internally and externally, Ursula was beaming. For Remus to be openly joking about his condition, no matter how sarcastic, was fantastic, considering he had barely been able to tell his closest friends about his condition without having a nervous breakdown.
Peter was the only one who remained despondent. He kicked a pebble on the stone path, his hands stuffed into his pockets, "I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, and the tufted tail," he said anxiously, "but I couldn't think of anything else."
To say that James and Sirius were extremely annoyed was an understatement.
"How thick are you, Wormtail," said James impatiently. "You run around with a werewolf once a month—"
"Keep your voice down," Remus said imploringly while Ben shushed him and Ursula covered James's mouth with her hand. She yelped and wiped her hand frantically on James's arm, glaring at him the entire time.
"You licked me!" She shouted at him.
While James and Ursula argued like they always did, Elyse placed her arm around Peter's shoulder. "Don't sweat it Pete. I forgot aboot all five o' 'em."
Peter didn't have a chance to express his shock that she hadn't been able to answer a single one as they were now outside, following after James and Sirius across the lawn towards the lake.
"Well, I thought the paper was a piece of cacke," Sirius said arrogantly. "I'll be surprised if I don't Outstanding on it at least."
"At least? What's more?" Ben jokingly asked. Sirius turned his head to glare at the boy, his black hair falling elegantly into his eyes, giving him a dark look about him while he glared. Then he just rolled his eyes and plopped down on the ground.
"Me too," James said, choosing to ignore Ben's rhetorical question. James reached into his pocket and pulled out something golden and Elyse near about tackled him when she recognized it.
"James!" She shouted at him, wincing as the pain in her head increased tenfold. "Woot teh hell're yeh doin' wit me snitch!?"
James shrugged, catching the snitch after letting it float around a moment. "Nicked it after our last practice. We won't need it for finals so I took it." He said casually.
"You're not even a seeker," Ursula pointed out. "You're a chaser."
He rolled his eyes, not at all bothered by her accusation. "So are you but I see you like Keepers. Why can't I like my snitch?"
"That makes no sense," Ben argued.
"Doesn't matter if it makes sense. I'm captain and I wanted a snitch so I took one. End of story," James said definitively.
Elyse decided it would be best if she ignored his arrogance. Usually, she would try to keep it in check but her entire body felt drained after that test. It also didn't help that Harry was still standing there, his eyes going between someone sitting a bit away while also trying to keep a close eye on James.
She looked at her friends. James was still playing with his Snitch; letting it fly farther and farther away each time to ensure his catches would be that more impressive. Every so often, she would see him look down towards the lake where Lily, Alice, and Marlene were dipping their toes into the water, and then ruffle his hair even more to make it messier. Peter was watching James with rapt attention, applauding after every catch as gasping every time it almost made it past his fingers, feeding James's ego an exorbitant amount. Sirius was lounging on the grass, looking broodingly bored. Ben was leaning against the tree, reading a transfiguration book while Ursula's head rested on his lap as she lay down on the grass, reading a muggle book she borrowed from Lily. Remus was also leaning against the tree, his nosed buried in the same book as Ben.
"Put that away, will you," Sirius finally complained finally, sick of heaing Peter squeal like a girl every time James caught the snitch. "Before Wormtail wets himself from excitement."
"Yeah James, we can't have your ego getting too big can we?" Ursula asked sarcastically, not even looking up from the book.
James, as it has always been in regards to the Black twins, gave into their requests and stuffed the Snitch back into his pocket. "If it bothers you," he said sullenly.
"I'm bored," Sirius complained. "I wish it was the full moon already," he said wistfully looking up at the sky as he rolled onto his back, moving his right arm behind his head to act as a pillow.
"You might," said Remus darkly. "We've still got Transfiguration, if you're bored you can test me and Ben…Here.: He held out his book for Sirius to take and Ben closed his own.
Sirius snorted, "I don't need to look at that rubbish. I know it all."
"And you're so humble aboot it," Elyse said in a snarky tone. Sirius didn't take it personally and sat up halfway and winked at her.
"This'll liven you you, Padfoot," James said quietly. "Look who it is…"
All of their heads turned, minus Remus who had gone back to reading. Sirius and Ursula had become very still, like dogs that had just found the rabbit it had been hunting forever.
"Excellent," he said softly with a slight snarl. "Snivellus."
Snape was now walking back towards the castle. James, Sirius, and Ursula were on their feet, walking towards him. After a moment's hesitation, Ben sighed and placed his book on the grass and followed after his girlfriend. He knew something had transpired between her and Regulus that night a few weeks ago and that it somehow connected back to Snape. While Ursula was not a cruel person, she seemed more lax with her moral compass when it came to James and Sirius doing something to Snape.
Peter was looking between the quartet and Snape like a tennis match, switching back and forth to see who would make the first move. It was then that Elyse realized that for some reason, she was still seeing James's son watching this. The look of confusion and slight horror at what he expected to happen sent off panic signals in Elyse's mind. She knew that James was not a bad person and that he would love his son to death. Literally; he would die for his son at a young age. Elyse knew that. She knew Harry would never know James. She couldn't bear this being his only memory of his father. She stood up and tried to make it through the growing crowd to the future Gryffindor.
"All right, Snivellus?" James asked loudly.
Always on edge, Snape reacted so quickly it was if he had known this would happen. He reached into his pocket for his wand but James disarmed him with a brisk, "Expelliarmus!"
Snape's wand went flying in the air, far out of his reach. Sirius let out a bark of laughter while Ursula sniggered behind her hand, feeling none of her usual remorse at James's cruel behavior towards other students.
"Impedimenta!" He said, pointing his eand at Snape, who was thrown off his feet. By this point, a large crowd had congregated. Some were simply there to watch, some were apprehensive about it, looking like they wanted to stop this but not sure how, and the rest looked entertained.
"How did the exam go, Snivelly?" James taunted.
Sirius then chimed in. "I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment," he said viciously. "There'll be grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word."
"You—wait," Snape panted as he struggled to get, bound by invisible ropes. "You—wait…"
"Wait for what?" Ursula sneered coldly. "For you to rub your dirty, greasy nose all over us? Or better yet, ring out the grease from your hair?"
Snape let out a string of swear words and hexes directed at Ursula. Ben pulled her back and stepped in front of her, his own wand out ready to protect her. But since Snape was far enough away and wandless, nothing happened.
Sirius didn't take the insults against his sister kindly and neither did James.
"Don't speak to her that way. Wash out your mouth," James said coldly. "Scourgify."
Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape's mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him—
"Leave him ALONE!" A familiar, furious voice shouted from behind them.
Elyse took this chance to move next to Harry who was watching the scene with disgusted horror.
"I swear ter yeh Harry, yer father's a good man," she whispered as James spun around the see a livid Lily storming up towards him.
Harry looked at Elyse for just a moment in shock before he seemed to realize that the red head approaching was his mother. Then he only had eyes for her.
"All right, Evans?" Although James had just said those exact (well, almost exact) words to Snape not even five minutes ago, his inflection was entirely different. Now his voice was calmer, deeper, and more debonair. He ran his free hand through his hair as he asked the question.
"Live him alone," Lily repeated again. If looks could kill, James would have dropped dead that very instant from the look she was giving him. "What's he done to you?"
"Well," James said as he tapped his chin as he faked debating different points. "It's more the fact he exists, if you know what I mean…"
The majority of people around James laughed, including Ursula, Sirius, and Peter. Ben tried to hide it but the corner of his mouth twitched into a half smile while Remus continued to just read his book.
"You think you're funny," she said coldly, hate burning every word. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone."
"I will only if you go out with me, Evans," James said quickily. "Go on…go out with me, and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."
With him distracted with Lily, his impedimenta jinx was slowly wearing off. Snape slowly began to inch towards his fallen wand.
Lily glared at James with all the passion in her fiery, red headed heart, "I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid." she growled.
Sirius hissed in sympathy and placed his hand on James's shoulder, "Bad luck, Prongs." Sirius said.
Out of the corner of Ursula's eye, she saw Snape grab his wand and point it towards James. She reacted quickly, pushing James forward just as a flash of bright light from Snape's wand. Suddenly a gash appeared on the side of her face, splattering Ben and James with blood. James, with fury Elyse had never seen his eyes before, turned his wand on Snape and less than a second after Snape cast his spell, the Slytherin found himself hanging upside down, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.
Ben had gently guided Ursula to the ground, checking on the wound on her face. It stretched right across her cheekbone and was thankfully very thin. Ben didn't think it would scar but they would have to get her to Pomfrey to be sure. Sirius stood in front of the pair, guarding them from any sort of danger that might become them. James turned and looked at Ben with a question in his eyes; was she okay? When Ben nodded, James turned back around with a twisted sneer on his face.
Lily, for a moment who looked like she wanted to laugh but held it back, said, "Let him down!"
"Certainly," James said grimly and jerked his wand upward. Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. He quickly rose to his feet and the second he held his wand out, Sirius shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Once again, Snape was keeled over on the ground once again. Elyse didn't know what else to do. This was spiraling out of control and Harry seemed to grow more and more distress as the seconds passed. She turned to him and once again said, "Please Harry, believe me, yer father's a good man. Don't judge him because o' this."
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily shouted, holding her own wand out at James and Sirius. Ben reached into his back pocket, hoping that he wouldn't have to use it against his housemate and friend but if she harmed Sirius or James…
"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," James said with honest sincerity.
Lily seemed to realize that and she struggled to remain as angry as she had been before. She gestured at Snape helplessly, "Take the curse off him, then!"
James sighed, knowing that no matter what, he couldn't deny Lily anything, even if it meant helping the Slytherin he absolutely loathed. "There you go," He said as she Snape got back to his feet, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus—"
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" He spat angrily at Lily. Ursula was instantly on her feet and went to lunge at Snape but Ben wrapped his arms around her waist and held her back. James
Lily blinked once. Twice. "Fine." She said coolly, with no emotion behind her words. "I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."
James reacted for both Ursula and himself. He pointed his wand threateningly at Snape's face. "Apologize to Evans!" James roared with so much anger and unadulterated hatred in his voice that some of the bystanders jumped back in fear. They were use to the cool, devil may care attitude James never seemed to drop.
"I don't want you to make him apologize," Lily shouted, rounding on James. "You're just as bad as he is…"
"WHAT?" James yelped. "I'd NEVER call you a – you-know-what!" He shouted back, unable to believe that Lily thought that of him.
Lily shook her head, his disgust. He just never understood; he was too thick headed and arrogant to understand. "Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can—I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!"
He turned and hurried back towards the castle, Marlene and Alice running after her.
"EVANS!" James shouted after her. "Lily!"
But she didn't look back.
"What is with her?" James asked, trying to make it look like the answer didn't matter to him when it actually meant the whole word but failing.
Sirius, ever the blunt one, said, "Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited mate/"
"Right," James said to himself while nodded. The fire grew back in his eyes and he looked furious again. "Now—"Snape was hanging upside down again. "Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?" He asked with a sneer.
Elyse looked away only to see an adult Snape with his hand on Harry's shoulder. The older Snape looked absolutely furious, though he kept the rage bottled up, expressing it only though his eyes.
For just a moment, they met each other's stares. Snape looked at her in what could only be described as horror for just barely a moment before his face was back to its emotionless mask. Elyse finally found her voice and said, "I'm sorry."
He didn't say anything. Then he and Harry just disappeared.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped when she saw a ragged Remus standing there. "Ben and I are taking Ursula to Pomfrey. Want to come with us?"
Elyse knew that Ursula didn't need three people to help her to the hospital wing for a cut on her cheek but she knew what she was being offered; an escape. With one look at James and Sirius still taunting Snape with Peter cheering them on, Elyse nodded and walk over to where Ursula and Ben were standing.
"Ready?" Ben asked her.
She nodded and they all started the trek up to the hospital wing. While they were on their way, Elyse thought that maybe while they were there, she could get something for her headache before the practical portion of the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL.
The practical went better than she expected. She was magically able to remember the spell to get rid of a boggart and while her shield charm wasn't as strong as it could have been, she made up her points when her examiner asked her if she could produce a patronus for a bonus point. Apparently, Pod had bragged before the holidays that he had a group of fifth years that could produce corporeal patronus. Without even thinking, she said the proper incantation and the hare began to fly around the room. It was quickly followed by James's stag; both of them were in the examination room at the same time with their names being close in the alphabet.
It was later that night when Ursula walked down from the boy's dorm to the common room. She had been listening to Ben practice his violin to help her relax. Her cheek still stung a little bit but Madame Pomfrey had healed it for the most part and said that the cut would fade so she didn't have a scar. She didn't voice her concerns but Snape had done that to her nonverbally and under duress. And Sirius had just spent the last three hours researching it; there was no spell that would do that.
When she saw the figure pacing in front of the girls' staircase, looking worried out of his mind, Ursula stopped. "James?" she questioned.
James's hair was a complete mess, even by his standard. His clothes were rumpled and his eyes were half mad looking. He was tapping his fingers against his thighs as he paced.
"Ursula, you have to help me." He begged her, once she was close enough.
"What's wrong?"
James ran his hands through his hair a few times before he kept them in there, pulling at his roots a bit. "Lily. She's up there crying and I can hear her and I just need to explain to her. I need her to know—I can't lose her—I just can't!"
Ursula placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'll go see what I can do."
James physically deflated, his agitated demeanor melting away. He nodded and pulled her into a hug. "Thank you."
With a quick smile in return, Ursula bound up the stairs and knocked on the door once before opening it. "Lily?" she questioned into the dark room.
A sniffle was her only response. Ursula sighed and with a flick of her wand, the candles were lit, giving the room a warm glow. Lily was curled up on her bed, pitifully sniffling.
"Oh, Lily," Ursula said sadly as she walked over and climbed onto the bed, facing Lily. She grabbed Lily's hands in hers comfortingly. "What's going on in that brilliant head of yours?"
"I knew. I knew," she said in disbelief. "I've watched Sev fall farther and farther into Dark Arts but I thought that if I just stayed by his side, it would be enough to keep him from joining them. Do you know what I mean?"
Regulus's young face flashed to the front of her mind. Ursula squeezed her hands tighter and nodded. "I know exactly what you are going through. It's like you think it would be enough and you never give up. You give them chance after chance after chance but they still let you down. But that's okay because you love them. But then one day, you realize that no matter what you do or say, you can't stop what happening to them. And it hurts."
Lily cried out again, "It hurts so bad, Ursula! He was my first friend! I loved him like a brother and he betrayed me! I've lost him!"
"I know Lily," Ursula said, gathering Lily into her arms, rocking the distraught girl back and forth as she fought back tears of her won thinking of her own brother. They stayed like that until Lily's sobs quieted down.
"Was I not good enough? Am I not worth it?" Lily questioned softly, as if she truly believed that Ursula would agree with her statements.
Ursual instead reacted the exact opposite. She roughly grabbed Lily by the shoulders, careful not to hurt her but strong enough to pull her into a sitting position. "Now you listen to me Lily Evans. You are good enough. Actually, you're more than good enough. And to even question if you're worth it is preposterous. Lily, my entire family raised me to hate people like you and I can confidently say that I would betray my family for your friendship. And I know someone else who thinks you are worth it and more than good enough."
"Who?" Lily asked through her tears, her heart lifted by Ursula's confession about their friendship.
"Right now, James is pacing back and forth in front of our stairs scared and worried out of his mind because he heard you crying. You may butt heads all the time but Lily, he cares more about you than Snape ever will. Please, go speak to him. He wants to apologize about what happened earlier. And I can say there have been few times I've seen James show actual remorse and I swear to you on the House of Gryffindor, he is truly sorry. Please, give him a chance."
Lily was silent a moment, he head bowed. Finally, she nodded minutely. "I'll go speak with him." She agreed.
Ursula smiled widely and climbed off the bed. She offered her hand to Lily and walked arm and arm down the stairs. When James heard footsteps, he ran forward and stopped a few feet back when he saw Lily standing there next to Ursula. Lily let go of Ursula's arm and took a few steps towards James. She stopped a few feet in front of him, her sad green eyes staring into his unusually serious hazel ones.
"Tell me right now James Potter, am I worth it?"
James shook his head slowly, taking a cautious step towards her, "Always and forever." He solemnly swore. With that, Lily choked back a sob and collapsed against James's chest, unable to handle everything that had happened that day. James wrapped his arms around her but didn't say anything. He rubbed a small circle on her back, trying to comfort her, whispering that she was worth it a million times over and he would never hurt her and that he was so, so sorry.
Ursula felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Mary standing there. "Um, Snape's outside the entrance and he said he won't leave until he sees Lily. What should I do?"
A surge of anger rushed through Ursula's veins. Snape had made Lily feel like she wasn't worth it and had broken her heart. No one, no one, hurt her friends and got away with it.
"Let me deal with it," Ursula growled before storming over to the entrance. She threw open the portrait and saw Snape sitting on the ground looking pitiful and despondent. That just infuriated Ursula more. How dare he try to act like he was the one hurt when he was the one that caused the pain kind, sweet, forgiving Lily was feeling right now. She yanked him to his feet and violently shoved him into the stone wall.
A sick satisfaction spread through her stomach when she heard the painful crack of his head against the stone. She placed her forearm forcefully against his throat and with her other hand she placed her wand underneath his chin.
"I swear on my brother's life, I you ever even think the name Lily Evans again, I will destroy you." She growled at him, her top lip curling up in hatred and disgust.
"Please," Snape's raspy voice begged, "Just let me talk to her."
Ursula leaned forward, causing Snape to choke more, "You had more than enough to say today. What you said is unforgivable," she moved her wand and painfully pressed it against his left forearm. "And you decided to play with fire. This is your reward."
She shoved him back before she disappeared back into the common room. Not yet done, she turned around and glared at the teary eyed boy to add salt to the wound, "I want to thank you, actually. Lily's inconsolable right now and you want to know who is comforting her right now? James. And you won't do anything about it because Lily doesn't know about that tattoo on your arm. One slip up, one attempt to sabotage James and Lily's relationship and don't even think for one second that I won't tell her."
Ursula was about to walk back into the common room, but Snape was unable to let Ursula have the last word, "You would have made a great Slytherin." He said breathily, his breathing labored from being choked.
She shook her head, "As that may be, I only do what I do out of love. You do what you do for empty promises of power."
With that, she turned and disappeared back into her common room, leaving the heartbroken and lost Slytherin gasping for breath on the floor. She honestly didn't care what happened to him; she had a transfiguration exam in the morning and there was no way in hell she wasn't going to be at the top of her game for her best subject.
So there you go. Also, just a little tidbit of information, if you thought Ursula's and Snape's interaction seemed familiar, it is. If you go to chapter five of this story there is a vision about halfway through the chapter of this happening. There are going to be a lot of what Elyse said/saw coming true so I'll try to make sure I give a reference at the bottom of the chapters it happens so the big pictures starts to make a little more sense.
Some comments/notes about reviews:
Livestrong617 - A lot of what Regulus believes/really means will be revealed in his own little spin off. The first chapter for that is already up and I plan to do the next chapter in Regulus's point of view. I think it will be interesting because it is going to show the true evolution of Regulus; not the one that he makes others see. I hope you liked the ending of Snape and Lily. This is officially it for them and the beginning of James and Lily finally becoming friends and eventually onto something more.
Kerreb7 - It's perfectly alright if you haven't reviewed in a while! Thanks for keeping on reading this story! I hope that you liked this chapter.
10-15 - Yeah, if you thought last chapter was long, this one is a bit longer. Sorry about that. I just like writing longer chapters for the most part because I feel like I want to include as much as possible in the story. Also, the first oneshot is up and I hope to have the next up by the end of this week. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I actually get it done. We'll see. But don't worry, that story is basically written out in my head so all I have to do it actually type it out.
Laveycee - I actually don't know who the new Doctor is yet. I don't want to know! It's terribly hard to avoid any pictures and names but so far I've made it this far. You know what would be ab extra-awesome-terrifying prank for April Fool's day? Getting little robotic angles that move when someone isn't looking at it, king of like those snazzy phones that pause movies and stuff when there isn't eye contact. That would scare the living daylights out of me and simply be a wonderful prank for all whovians.