AN:/ah...hello...
It's been a while, hasn't it?
But i have an excuse! The charger to my laptop broke and I only just got a new one a couple of days ago. I feel so bad for not updating:(
But here it is...The penultimate chapter of this story- ooooooh!
Enjoy:D
It was almost summer.
Exams were over and done with, the students and teachers alike finally able to relax in the practically tropical weather which had fallen upon the entire country. The sun never ceased to shine and it became a gruelling fight each day to see who would get the best spot by the lake, under the biggest tree which cast it's merciful shadows over the ground.
This particular day, the marauders and their female counterparts were the lucky ones. They had all brought their duvets out and had placed them under the tree, creating a comfy area to lie in the shade when it got too hot.
The lake was scattered with people swimming and having fun, the banks covered with girls and boys taking advantage of the rare sunshine.
It was a nice scene, Lily Evans thought as she cast her eyes around her; a scene of peace and happiness and laughter. It was far from the devastating goings on just beyond the safety of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Daily life was replaced with having to accept the inevitability of cold-blooded murder on your doorstep and the feeling of never knowing whether your own family were alive or dead.
She frowned.
As Lily stared at two seventh year's chatting in the shallows of the lake, she couldn't help but feel like it was all put on.
The pair were laughing and joking but the smiles didn't reach their eyes. If you looked hard enough, everyone had fear in the depths of their eyes these days. Others are just better at hiding it deep down where no one can find it.
Surely the two students who will be leaving school forever in just two days are utterly terrified, Lily knew she certainly would be. There is no job that can secure your safety, or your family's safety. No amount of planning and protecting can stop a Deatheater or two from simply pointing their wand at you and saying the two words that can make anybody's blood run cold.
Lily lay down and closed her eyes, breathing deeply.
She supposed, that what with everything going on, which some people had dubbed 'The Wizarding War', she and the others had grew closer than ever before. She found it easy now, to call James, Sirius, Remus and Peter her best friends. Because that's what they were.
In all of the terribleness, as bad as it sounded, Lily found herself finally truly enjoying her life at school.
Since Christmas, James and Lily had grown inseparable. They were with one another for most hours in the day, either with the others or alone. It was just so easy, simple. Lily just couldn't quite believe it had taken 6 and a half years to happen.
"Oi, Evans!"
Lily jumped slightly as she heard that familiar voice call her name. She'd had her eyes closed, been daydreaming for Merlin knows how long. Suddenly she felt something cold dripping onto her forehead. Her eyes shot open and she found James, approximately two inches away from her face. The coldness was water dripping from his hair, which was soaking wet.
"Stop being such a boring sod and come into the lake!"
He smiled his crooked smile and Lily laughed, pushing him away and sitting up. She pushed her hair over to one side and glanced over at James, who was sitting with his legs spread out in front of him.
"I'm not going into the lake!"
She looked down to see Alice, Sirius, Remus and Hestia splashing each other, shrieking as the cool water hit them. Marlene was lying a little away, facing the tree trunk. Her face was twisted in a permanent scowl, down to Sirius Black. Marlene seemed to hate Sirius more than ever, for no apparent reason. Well, no reason that Lily knew of. Sirius sort of ignored her too, though he tried a little harder to try and be civil when they were around each other. It was sad, but everyone just tuned them out. The constant tension between them didn't fair well for the rest of their friendship group. Though Lily and James knew that they couldn't say anything without being huge hypocrites, seeing as they used to act just like Marlene and Sirius.
Lily looked back at James, who was pouting. "Why not?"
"I don't want to get my hair wet."
James stared at Lily for a moment, before jumping up and pulling her in to him and lifting her feet of the ground, his head buried in Lily's hair.
Lily screamed as she felt his freezing cold-and dripping wet-arms around her bare shoulders.
"JAMES PUT ME DOWN!"
James laughed loudly into her ear. "I want you to come into the water!"
"ARGH NO!"
Lily punched his back as hard as she could and he flinched a little.
"Promise you'll come into the lake?"
Lily shook her head.
James took a step closer to the edge of the water.
"Fine!" Said Lily. James let her down, grinning. "Bloody arse." She mumbled, turning her back away from him and walking over to Marlene.
"Coming in?" She asked.
Marlene looked up at Lily and raised her eyebrows. She flicked her fringe away from her eyes.
"No." She said shortly, her tone sounding horrifyingly Petunia-esque.
"And why would that be?"
"Black is over there."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"So? Come on Mar, you'll have to make up with him soon."
"Why?"
"Because we're going to James's house in two weeks to stay and Sirius also lives there?"
Lily smiled, she had been delighted when James had asked them all to stay at his house for a week during the summer because his Grandparents were going on a Muggle cruise due to their fascination with Muggle engineering. They would be there, all eight of them, just having fun. And no one wanted Marlene to be sulking the entire time with Sirius trying to avoid her at all costs.
"I'm not saying you need to be best friends," she continued. "but I think you should have a chat with him."
Marlene glared at her. "Don't tell me what to do, Lily. You're one to talk about long term feuding with someone who you had to deal with at all times."
Lily nodded slightly. "Yes, yes I know, but James and I worked it out, didn't we?"
Marlene scoffed. "Okay, talk to me in six years time. I bet we'll be best friends by then!" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
Lily breathed out sharply.
"Just because you don't like Sirius, doesn't mean you have to be such a bitch to the rest of your friends."
She walked away and joined a bewildered looking James, who obviously hadn't heard a word of their conversation.
Hours later, they started heading back up to the castle. Marlene's absence was noticeable, though no one said anything. Lily wasn't guilty about saying what she said. It was completely true. Despite her and James's past differences, Lily honestly couldn't remember letting herself be rude to her friends, because it was unfair and they had nothing to do with it.
Obviously she'd apologise to her friend at the first opportunity, but Lily hoped Marlene had listened to what she'd said.
"I feel like a giant prune!" Peter said abruptly. Lily looked over and saw the boy staring at his wrinkled hands.
"And you look like one too." Sirius said. "And not because of the water, I might add."
Peter shot a glare at Sirius and puffed his cheeks out, though he also stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his sweatshirt.
Lily was walking with Alice and Hestia. They sort of had a silent agreement to wait to talk about Marlene when the boys weren't with them. Everyone was skirting around the topic and over compensating because of it. Sirius was being too loud, making jokes too often that just weren't funny. It was obvious to Lily that the whole thing was bothering him greatly.
When they reached the entrance hall, they parted ways, with the Marauders saying they were going down to the Quidditch pitch before dinner. Lily and the others headed to the common room, commencing their talk about what was to be done about Sirius and Marlene.
James walked beside Peter and Remus as they headed down to the pitch. Sirius was walking in front of them, his head cast downwards.
James glanced over at Remus, who rolled his eyes, gesturing to the back of Sirius's head. James chuckled.
Sirius's head spun around. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing." Said Peter.
Sirius glared at the smaller boy and looked at James. "Sure it was." He sighed. "Are you pissed off at me or something?"
James laughed. "Padfoot, you are aware of how feminine that sounded?"
Sirius laughed sarcastically. "Oh shut up, Prongs."
"I'm not annoyed at you, mate." Said James. "I just think you should have a chat with Marlene before school ends. Y'know, clear the air."
By now they had arrived at the sheds, which the school brooms were kept in. Sirius avoided the question by taking his wand out of his pocket and looking towards the general direction of their dormitory.
"Accio Nimbus 1000" He muttered. Moments later the broom zoomed into his hands. "No way I'm using those brooms. Wouldn't get a foot off the ground."
"Padfoot," Remus said sternly. "You're avoiding the question."
Sirius stared at him, and James noted that his hands were clenching the handle so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
"Merlin." Said Sirius. "I will, okay? Now can we all quit acting like soppy fourth years and play some Quidditch?"
"Well thank god for that!" James said dramatically.
No one replied, and James looked over at Remus who was smiling weirdly at him.
"What?" James said. "Is there something on my face?"
Sirius laughed loudly.
"You didn't say 'Merlin', you said 'God'." Explained Remus. "You've been spending too much time with Lily."
James blushed. "Oh, I didn't even realise."
Sirius hit hefted his broomstick onto his shoulder. "James Potter. You are blushing like a 1st year. Wormtail, you're acting even more needy than usual. And I have a sneaking suspicion that Moony over here has a secret stash of romance novels he reads at three in the morning. Are you three secretly girls because right now I wouldn't be surprised."
Sirius promptly flicked his hair with the back of his hand.
Remus snorted.
"Anyway, anyway," Sirius continued. "We are the marauders. We are men. And we do not blush." He eyed James, causing James to blush.
"Sirius gives up." Said Sirius, taking a step backwards.
"I see Sirius has taken to talking like a caveman." Remus remarked.
Peter snorted, picking up one of the school brooms.
"You're not actually using that lump of wood?" Sirius said in a rather deep voice. "You see this Wormy? State of the art broomstick I've got here."
"And here he goes," Remus said to James. "Talking about broomsticks. How very manly of you Sirius."
Sirius laughed statically. "Remus, you're so bloody hilarious, did you know that? I didn't reckon all of those love stories had any humour in them!"
"I don't read romance novels!"
"What was that book under your pillow then? 'Our love is spellbinding'?"
Remus blinked.
Sirius continued, now speaking in a squeaky, dramatic voice. "Lucy is a muggle working in a shop. David is a pureblood Auror. When their paths meet unexpectedly, it will take more than just a spell to break them apart."
James looked over at Remus and burst out laughing, bending over and setting his hands on his knees.
"Shut up Sirius! Hestia recommended it to me!"
Peter and Sirius began to laugh and after a while they all broke down into hysterics. After fighting to regain his breath, James looked over at Remus.
"How was the book then?"
Remus nodded solemnly. "It was a tragic love story."
James caught Sirius's eye, and that set them off for another 10 minutes.
"This is more like it!" Sirius said later when they were walking back from a rather heated game of the sport. "The marauders are back!"
Sirius wrung his hands together to stop them from shaking. He was being an idiot. Why was he so nervous?
He was standing in the Astronomy Tower, watching the half-moon shine dimly in the dark sky. Earlier, Sirius had instructed James to tell Lily to tell Marlene to meet him here at nine o'clock.
Whether the girl would actually turn up or not…well that was another matter.
He reckoned it was about five to nine. Sirius closed his eyes for a moment and tried to slow his breathing.
"Should I go?" Marlene said, her eyes wide as she stared at her friends for an answer. When Lily had told her earlier about Sirius requesting to meet her, Marlene had felt the urge to throw up. She had no idea why even she cared so much.
"Of course you should go." Lily said, her tone patient. Marlene bit her lip and glanced away from Lily. Everything she had said earlier had been true; Marlene knew she'd been acting horrid to everyone around her, and it wasn't fair on them. She supposed she just wasn't as good as keeping her emotions in check as Lily.
"You reckon?" Said Marlene, her voice shaking.
"I think so." Alice said from across the room. She was lying on her stomach with a book in her hands.
"Hestia?" Marlene looked to the other girl, who was sitting on the window ledge. "I don't think it would be a bad idea to talk to him, Marly."
Marlene rolled her eyes. As much as she hated to admit it, part of her really did want to talk to Sirius. She missed the fun they used to have. She knew very well that everyone thought all they did was snog in dark broom closets, but that wasn't true. They used to talk about the future, and the war and what they wanted to do to help defeat Voldemort. They had the same career ambitions; to become Aurors.
Sirius was unbelievably passionate about fighting against the dark arts, and talking to him about all of the terrors made it all seem a little bit less…terrifying.
Marlene pursed her lips, her decision already made.
"Okay. I'll go."
Sirius waited for about another 10 minutes before he heard someone tiptoeing up the stairs.
He nervously turned around and saw Marlene appearing a little at a time, her blonde hair (up in a ponytail), then her blue eyes which were wide open…her nose and her mouth, pursed as she clenched her teeth.
Marlene stopped at the top of the stairs, and Sirius became aware of just how awkward this was going to be. He'd chosen the quietest place in the castle for Merlin's sake!
"Hello." He said, hoping she couldn't hear his racing heartbeat from across the room.
She nodded. "Hi there." The girl took a step into the room. "What is it you want?"
Sirius gulped.
"Um, I think we should…we should talk about, about us."
"Alright…go for it." She put one hand on her hip and turned her head to the side. "I'm listening."
Marlene stared at Sirius and waited for him to start talking. She reckoned she was doing quite well so far in hiding her nerves…putting her hand on her hip had done well to stop her entire body from quaking.
After a brief moment, Sirius took a deep breath and began to talk fast and very un-Sirius-like. She listened.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group were in the common room.
Lily had her knees drawn up to her chest, her hands playing with a hair bobble she'd had on her wrist. James was sitting beside her, and she found it difficult to ignore his arm slung lazily around the back of the sofa. If she just moved her head ever so slightly backwards…technically his arm would be around her…
Lily told herself to shut up.
She could feel those feelings creeping back up on her…the feelings she'd first found at that horrific party at Melinda Doris's house.
She was being ridiculous…everything was perfect right now! The last thing they needed was for her to screw it all up by telling James she actually maybe did want to go out with him.
Lily stopped herself from thinking and tuned in to her friend's conversation.
Remus and Hestia were debating whether they should go up to the tower to check that a fight hadn't broken out.
"I think we should leave them to it." Said Hestia. "We'll only make it worse."
"But what if Marlene jinxes him or something!" Remus argued.
"Well, we'll just have to wait and see."
Remus shook his head. "This is ridiculous."
Peter was munching his way through a bag of Fizzing Wizzbee's on the other side of Alice who kept glancing over at the chubby boy with a look of distaste.
"I'm going to see Frank, okay?" Said Alice after a moment.
Lily nodded and smiled. "Have a nice time."
Alice jumped up and left the room.
Everyone knew that Alice and Frank were perfect for each other, that they would get married and buy a home and have lots of cute little children who would share their parents love for Herbology. And Lily was happy for her friend; she just wished it were as simple for her.
Frank was the year above them, and was going to begin his training as an Auror next year. Alice would find it difficult to be without him for such a long time, but Lily was confident they would get through the long distance. They'd been going out since fourth year after all.
Remus and Hestia's bickering soon stopped and the group slipped into a comfortable silence. As much as she hated it…Lily's mind kept coming back to the boy sitting just beside her, and for the first time she wondered if she'd made a mistake in being 'just friends'.
Marlene raised her eyebrows as she stared at Sirius. He had finished his speech and she had given up on trying to conceal her anxiety.
"So…what are you saying Sirius? That you like me?"
Sirius blinked and breathed in deeply.
"I don't know, okay? I've never felt this way before…I've never had the time to. And I stopped talking to you because you make me act like a different person! You make me act like James does when he see's Lily. And I don't want to act like that. I joke, and flirt and prank everyone. I don't mope about after a girl!"
Marlene looked down at her hands, which were sweaty.
"You're worried about your image?"
Sirius shrugged. "I don't want people to think any different of me. If I had a proper girlfriend…well that would change me. I don't know if I'm ready to take that step."
Marlene nodded. She paused before speaking.
"What if…what if we didn't tell anyone?"
She bit her lip after she'd said it. She'd practically just told Sirius she liked him.
"You think that could work?" Said Sirius, his eyes widening.
"Sure it could," Marlene replied. "We just pretend that we still hate each other. I don't want everyone knowing I'm actually going out with you anyway." She said playfully,
Sirius stared at the girl in front of him. Could they do that?
Could he be with her and still be Sirius Black?
He smirked.
"You like me then, McKinnon?"
Marlene laughed lightly. "Don't push your luck, Black."
"I'm really liking the sound of this plan." He said.
"Me too." She grinned.
"Well then…" Sirius laughed. "Marlene McKinnon, will you be my secret girlfriend?"
"I think I would quite like that."
"Fantastic." Sirius took a step towards her. "Now c'mere…I've been wanting to kiss you for months."
Marlene smiled and closed the distance, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Maybe, just maybe, this could work.
Lily didn't realise she'd fallen asleep, but the sound of shouting made her eyes jolt open. Her legs had fallen slack and were touching Jame's side and her head had been resting on his arm. Lily gulped and quickly moved away from him. James didn't notice, his eyes drawn to were the shouting was coming from.
"You absolute prick, Black. Don't talk to me ever again!" Marlene said, her back turned away from him
"Bloody psycho!" Sirius shouted back.
Remus stood up. "Wow…what's going on?"
"I hate him!" Marlene yelled. She stalked over to the stairs and stomped up them. Lily sighed, knowing she'd have to go after her friend.
"Bloody hell Padfoot!" James said, laughing slightly. "What the hell was that about?"
Sirius stared at them. "…It didn't go well. I don't know what you all thought was going to bloody happen anyway. I'm going to bed."
AN:/you've probably guessed that the things happening here will be leading up to events in the sequel...heheheh