Chapter Five
February the Thirteenth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Six
"The dance is tomorrow and you still haven't asked them?" Remus asked skeptically as the boys all worked on their essays for Charms. "What if -"
"Timing, Moony," James said, clicking his tongue and shaking his head at his friend. "Like I always say, when the time is right-"
"There is no more time," Remus pointed out in amusement. "The dance is tomorrow, you two - I don't suppose you were just going to ask them ten minutes beforehand and hope to Merlin -"
"Well, I already know Davie's going with me," Sirius said haughtily, twirling his quill lazily between his fingers as he took a break from writing; he gave it one last twirling before flourishing it towards Remus' face. Truth be told, he was quite confident that after the kiss she had initiated in the Honeyduke's basement, there was simply no chance she would have accepted an invitation from anyone else. Just then, Lily and Davie walked through the portrait hole, and Sirius glanced at James. "But Moony's got a point. After you, mate."
James grinned lopsidedly and gave his hair another ruffle, striding over to the girls, adjusting his glasses smoothly onto the bridge of his nose and stepping in front of Lily, leaning across the way and resting on the back of an armchair. "Oy, Evans -"
"No."
"Pardon?"
Lily pursed her lips, exhaling through her nostrils. "I said no, Potter. Whatever it is, no."
Sirius chuckled at James being shot down - the fourth year girls on a nearby couch began chattering about it as if it were the scandal of the century. Sirius didn't notice that Davie was very pointedly avoiding his gaze.
"So, Davie," he asked, slightly mirroring his best friend's earlier stance and leaning lazily on the back of the chair closest to Davie with a wide grin, quite sure he would show James how asking a girl out was done. "What time d'you want to meet -" Davie muttered something almost inaudible, and Sirius paused, feeling a slight sinking in his stomach. "Come again? Don't think I caught that last bit quite right -"
Davie cleared her throat, looking up at Sirius hesitantly. "I, ah - Romnic already asked me last week and I said I'd go," she said very quickly. Sirius blinked in disbelief.
"Digby? Your ex-boyfriend?" he asked incredulously. "He's asked you - are you going out with him again?"
"I don't think that's any of your business but no, I'm not, I just said yes because he asked me in class who I was going with, and I told him no one had asked." Davie said quickly, her expression souring slightly. "You certainly didn't ask me first."
The girls on the couch tittered with laughter and whispers yet again - the two most sought-after boys in the fifth year were being turned down, publicly! Publicly! It certainly was a scandal as far as school-aged children were concerned. Lily and Davie retreated to another couch in the room, while the Marauder's gathered into a makeshift huddle.
"Oy, Wormy," Sirius said, elbowing the smallest in their lot. "D'you think you could convince her to give Digby the slip -"
"Why me?"
"Because you're the shortest, she'll feel bad punching you in the face," Sirius chuckled, though even the joking suggestion of being hit made Peter go a bit off-colour. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, go on!"
Peter glanced hesitantly at Sirius, but obliged, teetering across the room and to the other girls - when he approached Davie, she surprisingly allowed him into their midst. Secretly, Davie sympathized with Peter Pettigrew a bit, because they shared a bit of the same plight. Peter was hardly anything but a shadow to the other boys, in very much the same way that Davie had very little reputation besides being Lily's best friend.
"Alright there, Peter?" she asked politely. "Sorry to ignore you earlier -"
"Sirius wants you to drop Digby and go with him," he said in a quick, nervous voice. Davie's face went red all the way up to her ears, and the expression on her face made Peter flinch as though he believed her head was about to explode.
"I- I'll take that as a no," he stammered, scurrying back to James, Remus, and a very angry-looking Sirius Black.
The next day at the dance (Sirius and James had picked up the same pair of Hufflepuff twins as the previous year, as luck would have it, since neither of them had any second thoughts dropping their dates for James Potter and Sirius Black), Davie arrived just as she had stated with Romnic Digby. Digby was just as good-looking as Sirius, in most girls' opinion, with strong features, hazel-eyes, high cheekbones, and wavy brown hair that just brushed his ears. Sirius grudgingly had to admit that they made a handsome couple. A very handsome couple, as a cluster of gossiping sixth years did not fail to point out.
But even more scandalous was the fact that Lily Evans, the poster child for morals and perfection and manners, arrived at the dance accompanied rather awkwardly by Severus Snape - James Potter was not only sour. He was seething.
"They're just friends. Best friends - go back to what you were doing before," Davie pointed out to everyone chattering as she passed by on Romnic's arm, still doing damage control for her friend, though it pained her to describe Severus Snape as Lily's best friend when Davie really considered that to be her place. The fact that the pair of them had both come with Slytherins instead of James and Sirius, however, would not evade gossip no matter how they tried to play it off.
"You'll never get in with us if you keep hanging around that sort," said a slightly older Slytherin boy, striding up to Snape and ignoring Lily completely - Davie glanced over and recognized him as a boy by the name of Avery; Avery had been well-known for following an older boy named Lucius Malfoy around in previous years. Malfoy had recently graduated, leaving Avery as a bit of the top dog among the Slytherins. Snape flinched as though he were a bad puppy that had been thwacked upon the nose with a rolled newspaper, separating completely from Lily, who he had previously been dancing with.
"What's he doing?" Davie asked as she was dancing with Romnic, craning her neck to look at Lily. "That boy, Avery, why is he -"
"Don't mind it. You don't need to worry about it, Avery's got no issue with you. You come from the right sort. " Romnic replied uncaringly, trying to give Davie a spin so that she was facing away from the incident occurring on the dance floor. Davie bristled slight at the mention of 'the right sort', and Romnic shot her a charming smile."A joke, I'd wager. Probably just good fun-"
"That's better," Avery said, shooting a nasty grin towards Lily before turning back to Snape. "You have questionable taste in company, I must say. I wouldn't want to be friends with someone with Mudblood slime all over -"
"You take that back now!" Davie said, separating from Romnic immediately and pulling out her wand; James immediately did the same, yanking away from his date without so much as an apology. Lily looked all at the same time humiliated and horrified at being the center of the sort of scandal she took so much effort in avoiding. Angrily, she simply stormed out of the hall, with Davie following immediately after, shoving Romnic Digby away from her when he tried to stop her from leaving. As she left to follow her friend, she caught sight of a telltale grin on James' face. Avery was in trouble.
"Lily, come back!" Davie called out, glancing around the dark corridors for her friend, who she came across sitting behind a coat of armor, crying. "Lily, don't -"
"He's been my friend ever since before I came to the school, you know," Lily said sadly, sniffling and still slightly red in the face. "I don't know why he cares so much about getting in with people like them -"
"They're boys," Davie said soothingly, placing a hand carefully on Lily's back. "They can't help being complete idiots sometimes, it's in their nature. Would you rather have gone with -"
"-if you say James Potter, I'm going to hex your nose off," Lily interrupted quickly. Davie responded wordlessly, only making a strange noise. Lily looked up to realize that Davie was trying quite hard not to laugh, and that in and of itself was enough to make her grin. In moments, the two girls were shaking with laughter that echoed quietly down the corridors.
Mid-June, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Six
"How pathetic can you get?" Davie said shrilly, echoing the sentiment that Lily had earlier intimated at the Marauders. They had just completed the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL exam when James had quite harshly embarrassed Severus Snape by hoisting him into the air by his ankles, threatening to take off his underclothes. Lily had taken Davie along, insisting that they needed to help him, but very quickly had stormed off, after Snape quite surprisingly brushed off her help - he had even gone so far as to call her a Mudblood.
Lily had stormed off angrily, leaving Davie alone with the boys, who had resumed picking on Snape, who continued struggling though not as wholeheartedly as he watched Lily walk away - and Davie felt a twinge of guilt. Regardless of the fact that she was jealous of the fact that Lily considered him just as good if not a better friend than herself, the idea of Lily leaving and not forgiving him pained her.
With Davie's intervention, James had finally let up on Snape, who immediately seemed remorseful and went to chase after Lily as Davie nodded towards the castle. This left Davie alone with the Marauders, looking very upset with them indeed.
"Oh, it's just Snivellus," Sirius said, still looking amused by the situation - he was greeted by a hard smack across the face from Davie, leaving a bright red mark on the side of his face. The surrounding crowd gave a loud, colllective 'ooh' at the sight.
"You're going to defend him after what he just said to your best friend?" James said, stepping in and giving Davie a light shove away from Sirius, who in return responded by shoving James backward.
"Don't touch her like that, Prongs, or I might -"
"Don't defend me!" Davie said shrilly, shoving Sirius again - Remus shook his head and gave a small sigh, which would turn out to be a mistake, as it turned Davie's attention toward him. "And you!" she continued, jabbing a finger into Remus' chest. "What kind of prefect are you, letting them get away with anything they want just because they're your friends!"
Before any of them could say anything further, Davie ran off back to the castle. A bit of a way outside of of the Gryffindor common room, Davie ran into Severus, who was standing mutely, staring at the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"No luck apologizing to Lily?" she asked from behind him, causing him to wheel around and face her - surprisingly, he drew his wand on her.
"D'your boyfriend send you to finish the job on me -"
"You think Black is my boyfriend!" Davie said with a shrill laugh. She raised her hand, shoving the wand fearlessly away from her face - briefly, Severus wondered if she was sensible enough to be appropriately afraid of anything. "Are you alright?" she asked stiffly. "Where's Lily?"
Severus froze. The concern was surprising to say the least, considering that even Lily could muster nothing but anger for him at the moment. Davie, however, was not quite as closely attached to the situation and, as Severus perceived it, far too nice for her own good.
"I'm fine." he answered stiffly. "But I'd rather not speak with you. I'd rather not try your allegiances -"
"Allegiances!" Davie scoffed in a high pitched voice. "What is this, Parliament? The United Nations? You all take these stupid rivalries too seriously, the whole lot of you!" Davie said, throwing her hands up resignedly. "Merlin forbid I ever consider you my friend, who would want to be my friend when they could be friends with Lily -"
"Friend?" Severus asked in disbelief. He had never allotted much thought to Davie Maddux - he still thought of her more as Lily Evans's shadow, more than anything. He fit in with others quite well in that sense, as Davie was reputed around school for being very little else than Lily's constant companion. "Why would you be friends with me?"
"Dunno, didn't think you needed a reason to be alright with someone," Davie shrugged plaintively. "But I suppose you're sort of interesting, and, well - you know, you're real."
"Potter and Black seem fairly real to me," he sneered. "Real people full of skin, and bones, and hot air."
"But they're always pretending to be something they aren't - do you have any idea how exhausting it is to be around them?" Davie said honestly. "It's pathetic how hard they try to impress everyone."
Severus had no response towards this - she thought he was interesting? He thought back to his reason for remaining on decent terms with her in their second year: because she was Lily's best friend. Especially now, when it appeared that he had ruined whatever good opinion Lily had of him, it seemed beneficial to allow Davie to be his friend. She did, after all, come from a good family - Severus could speak to her about Lily without being insulted by the other Slytherin boys for associating with a Mudblood, at least until she forgave him. If she forgave him…
"Maybe if you give Lily some time," Davie said knowingly, giving Snape a nod as she swept off towards the common room - and quite quickly, he felt a strange sort of pity for the girl. She was so resigned to always being second best to Lily. The pity slowly shifted to sympathy - Severus Snape knew his share about resignation.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes. Would you stop asking?" Lily harrumphed, looking up from her Potions book at Davie, who was situated in the four-poster next to her as the pair sat in their dormitory, studying for more OWL exams the next day. "Honestly, I don't care -"
"I'm sure it just slipped out, Lils, he's really upset about it -"
"He's upset! Well, that makes everything alright, then! I hadn't any idea!" Lily scoffed shrilly, color rising into her high cheekbones. "Why do you care so much about him, anyway?"
"I feel bad for him - you've always been nice to him up until now," Davie pointed out, pulling a pocket of Chocolate Frogs sent by her parents from her trunk and ripping it open as she sat cross-legged in her bed, grabbing it before it jumped out of sight. "People say things they don't -"
"What about the dance?" Lily said, crossing her arms. "Asked me to go with him, and didn't even stand up for me! You and James Potter had to draw your wands on Avery, he sat there not saying a thing! James Potter stood up for me instead of my best friend!"
Davie struggled for a response, even though Lily was right - Lily was always right - but had no time to find one before the door to their dormitory opened, and their other roommate, Mary Macdonald, walked in.
"What are you doing out so late?" Davie asked with an impish grin. "What's his name?"
"Romnic Digby, if you must know -"
"Well, he moves on quickly. Good on you," Davie laughed, receiving a playful smack with a pillow from Mary as she crossed the room to her bed. "Only kidding! I hope you're happy together. Long life and prosperity. You know, the usual."
"Sure," Mary laughed, wrinkling her nose; Davie knew full well that Mary didn't last too long with one boy anyway either. "Oh, Lily, there's someone waiting for you outside the portrait hole. Snape says he's going to stay out there all night if he needs to, the Fat Lady's about to scream for Mr. Pringle."
Lily paused, reddening slightly, then sighing. "I'll make him leave," she said in a dark tone.
"Lily, don't be too -"
"I said," Lily said sharply, interrupting Davie as she put on a dressing gown over her nightclothes and moved towards the dormitory door, "I'll make him leave."
Davie watched remorsefully as Lily swept resolutely out of the room and down the stairs. When she returned a few minutes later, looking even more red in the face and mumbling about Death Eaters, and that Snape was 'on his own' now, Davie felt very bad indeed. She tried to talk to Lily about it, but the girl merely shut off the lights in the room, refusing to discuss it any further.
A/N's
Phew! New chapters two days in a row. I'm a bit proud of myself, I very rarely do this - mostly because I don't want to run out of chapters too quickly. But I'm starting to be a ham for all of the subscribers and reviews. More are always appreciated!
To cherryblossom2revenger, may I just say you area total angel! I thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to write a bunch of reviews for me all at once. As for Davie being boring - she's a little overly normal, I agree, but she develops a lot from here on out. I just am wary rushing character development. I see so many stories where things are a bit rushed along, and I guess in attempts of avoiding that, I might have gone too far the other way.
To Bathsheaba, I'm glad it's believable for you! I've been trying really hard to try and keep things realistic - you know, sounding like real teenagers and all, especially before the bad stuff starts happening and the Order has to form and all. Let kids be kids, I say! Heh.
Also, thank you to Rmeyer90 for subscribing!
In the next chapter, things get a bit more complicated - the gang is getting a bit older after all, and we couldn't well expect their lives to remain this fluffy forever, could we? It's not all going to go downhill for them all at once, but pretty close and pretty quickly still. Hope you'll all stick around for the next installment. Cheers!