Chapter 22 - Times Are Changing

"What the hell do I wear?" James asked, staring into his wardrobe with the expression of someone facing a life-altering decision.

"Prongs," Sirius said, "You do realise you're not going out for a fancy dinner or anything, right? You're literally just going outside and putting down a picnic blanket."

James' expression became yet more horrified. "I don't have a picnic blanket."

Struggling to keep a straight face, Remus put his hands on James' shoulders, turned him towards him, and said very firmly. "James, I realise this is a very stressful moment in your life, but try to remember that you are in fact a wizard."

"Oh, yeah." James grinned sheepishly. "It's just - it's Lily, you know? I'm actually fairly stunned she even agreed to go on another date with me after the Slug Club fiasco last time."

"I'm not sure that can be counted as a date so much as Evans messing with you," Peter put in, but when James scowled at him he quickly backtracked. "Which means this is technically your first date, so it's a fresh start! Just try not to punch anyone this time."

"Thank you for that reassuring pep talk, Wormtail." James dug through his wardrobe and pulled out a button-up shirt that wasn't too rumpled and a pair of black trousers that he normally wore with school robes. "Will this do?"

Remus shook his head. "It screams 'I'm trying too hard', I'm afraid. Go with jeans instead."

"Okay." He swapped the trousers and turned his back to them to start getting changed, which as usual meant he got his glasses caught in his t-shirt as he pulled it off over his head. "What do I do for food? Is sandwiches and stuff too boring?"

"Leave it up to the house elves, mate," Sirius said. "They actually know what they're doing."

One hour and a trip to the kitchens later, James met Lily in the common room, picnic basket in hand and a grin plastered on his face that he couldn't quite seem to get rid of. She was wearing a pink and blue floral dress with a white cardigan, and James had to admit she was considerably better at picking clothes than he was.

"Hey."

"Hi," James replied. They just looked at each other for a moment, unsure what to say. James reached for her hand but pulled back in embarrassment when Benjy wolf-whistled at them across the room.

"Bugger off, Fenwick," Lily said, determinedly grabbing James' hand and all but dragging him through the portrait hole.

James' hand was sweaty, and Lily was flushed as they made their way past the groups of other students still littering the corridors. It was almost time for dinner in the Great Hall, but the early summer sun was still high in the sky outside, casting a warm glow through the tall windows and into the castle.

"Did you make food?" Lily enquired curiously as they approached the entrance hall, but James shook his head, commenting with a laugh that thankfully he did not, as he didn't want to give either of them food poisoning.

Lily smiled back at him, bemused. She couldn't say she'd imagined herself going on another date with James, though an impromptu dinner in the grounds wasn't really anything especially formal. It was nice though, to take a leisurely walk down to the lake, instead of cramming themselves into a booth in a busy cafe or pub, where they were forced to make small talk over too-expensive drinks.

They came to a stop a few feet away from the water's edge and James set down the picnic blanket, putting the basket to one side and sitting down. Lily had considered him a friend for a few months now, had grown to know each of the Gryffindor boys better than she ever expected, and she and James had even fallen into a pleasant sort of repertoire. Now though, he seemed unsure of what exactly to say - afraid that he'd somehow break the spell that had managed to get them to a place where the idea of dating was plausible.

"I'm not going to bite, you know." Lily said, leaning over him to pull the picnic basket closer. "I have been hanging around you willingly for a while now."

"And it continues to amaze me," James said, helping her spread out sandwiches, salad, cold pasta, cheese and crackers, crisps, and cake. He'd been worried everything would get crushed when plates and bowls were packed on top of each other, but the house elves had put some sort of helpful charm on them to make sure that didn't happen. Lastly, he produced a bottle of sparkling wine and a pair of wine flutes.

"Very fancy," Lily said as they clinked their glasses together.

James handed her a plate and started piling food onto his own. "I hope there's enough of everything."

"Unless you invited another ten people on our date, I would imagine so." There was silence as they started digging in, though they kept exchanging glances and smiling. Eventually, Lily said, "Remus and Sirius seem to be getting on okay now."

"Yeah, things are pretty much back to normal," James agreed, "But it was really awkward for a couple of weeks, especially in the dorm. Even after they made up, there was a lot of tension."

"They seem much happier now they've smoothed things over," Lily commented, taking a bite of a cheese and cucumber sandwich. The evening air was pleasant and cool against her skin, and when James didn't immediately reply, she glanced up to see him staring at her intently.

"Are you listening to me?" she asked, smirking slightly. It had been light when they left the castle, but things were quickly growing dim and James' face was shadowed by the nearby trees.

"Of course," James said, sounding offended. "I can both listen and admire at the same time. I'm an excellent multi-tasker."

"Of course, you did a brilliant job of both mis-transfiguring your cup and looking embarrassed earlier," Lily said with a grin. "Not that I would hold it against you." She put down her wine and turned to James more fully, who was sat cross-legged on the tartan blanket. "Can I ask you a question," she said abruptly.

He froze with a forkful of pasta halfway to his mouth. "I guess?"

"We've been friends for a while now," she said, clearing her throat half way through the sentence, delaying. "Were we only friends because you were trying to get to here? Where I'd agree to go out with you?"

James' expression grew bewildered. "I hadn't really...thought about it that hard? Not that I haven't thought about it - I mean you - us - because I have. A lot. Not like obsessively or anything-" He stopped and forced himself to think before he let any more words escape. "I guess I hoped it would lead to this, but it wasn't like I was trying to manipulate you into going out with me or anything. I just thought...I've liked you for a while and it occurred to me that it's really stupid to want to be in a couple with you if we're not friends. You have to be friends to have a proper relationship, right? And I'm still rambling but my point is that yes, I've wanted to go on a date with you these past few weeks - and the past year, really - but if we try it and decide it's not working, I still want to be your friend, Evans. Lily."

Lily stared at him, her dinner completely forgotten, and couldn't help the grin that spread across her face at his serious expression.

"Good." She said eventually, reaching out to place her hand over James', "because I've actually quite enjoyed getting to know you - not that you can't still be an immature arsehole at times but - I suppose you're also kind of sweet." She squeezed his hand gently, suddenly very aware of their isolation away from the hundreds of people crammed into the great hall. It was growing even darker now, and Lily momentarily let go of James' hand in order to cast a quick incantation and produce a glowing bunch of flames that appeared, unwavering beside them with a bright orange glow and pleasant warmth.

"You," James said firmly, "are a pretty amazing witch. And a pretty incredible person. And I would very much like to kiss you right now."

Lily laughed. "Come here, then," she said, grabbing him by the shirt and tugging him closer, unintentionally pulling a couple of his buttons loose, which neither of them objected to.

It was a quick kiss, sweet and soft and cautious. When they pulled away, they stayed with their lips an inch apart, leaning over plates of food and getting too warm on the side nearest the fire. James had never been this close to Lily, where he could smell her coconut shampoo and taste her strawberry lip gloss. Her eyes were two different shades of green, light as grass around the pupil but darker, like a forest, towards the edge. She had light freckles on her nose that he'd never noticed before. But as much as he loved all that about her, what he loved most was that straight after their kiss, all either of them could do was grin.

[A/N:content/trigger warning for violence and blood in the rest of this chapter. If you don't want to read about the violence, skip to the very end and I'll put a summary of the scene so you don't miss any of the plot.]

With Lily off on a date, Mary had decided to sit with Alice and Dorcas at the Hufflepuff table at dinner, which was technically against the rules but so far none of the teachers who'd caught her at the wrong table had managed to present a good reason as to why she couldn't sit there - so she kept doing it. When they left the great hall, Alice was halfway through telling them about how Professor Kettleburn had nearly been impaled by a unicorn in Care of Magical Creatures, and to hear the rest of the story Mary had walked part of the way towards the Hufflepuff common room.

"I can't believe he spent the whole lesson telling the boys to be careful because unicorns prefer girls then ignored his own advice," Mary said, laughing.

"Exactly! I swear that man is going to lose his other hand if he's not careful."

"And maybe a leg too," Dorcas added.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Mary stopped as they reached one of the smaller staircases. "Now I'm going to have to love you and leave you unless I transfer to Hufflepuff."

"I wish you could!" Alice exclaimed, hugging her. "But then again, who would interrogate Lily about her date if you weren't in her dorm?"

"An excellent point," Mary said. "I'll make sure she tells you both everything in Herbology tomorrow. See you then!"

"Bye!"

"Go left at the top of the stairs and there's a shortcut behind the big painting of a giraffe," Dorcas advised her, and after another round of goodbyes Mary took the stairs two at a time, wondering if Lily would be back or not by now, and found the painting with the secret passage behind it.

When she got to the other end of the passage and pushed back a heavy tapestry, she would've been pleased that it ended in the part of the second floor corridor that was near the charms classroom, if it weren't for the group of Slytherin boys that were only a few metres away from her.

She recognised Snape immediately, even though she could only see the back of his head from where she was standing, but it took a moment for her to figure out who the others were. The two tallest boys were seventh years, she knew, and one of them was a prefect - Dolohov, that was his name. She couldn't remember what the other one was called, but she had once seen him use a hex to trip over a couple of first years. The last two boys were a bit younger, and while she didn't know who the blond-haired boy was, the other looked extremely familiar. It was only when he looked over at her that she recognised his grey eyes: remarkably similar to his brother's.

Defiantly, Mary started to walk towards them, keeping as far to the other side of the corridor as possible. They were peering into a classroom window and talking in low voices - obviously up to no good. Regulus was the only one who seemed to have noticed her, and had gladly turned his attention back to the older boys, so Mary was able to slip past them largely unnoticed - until she heard what they were talking about.

"It's a genetic defect." The seventh year Mary didn't know said, staring purposefully at the younger boys. "Mudbloods have no business harnessing magic that doesn't belong to them."

"They're a disease," Dolohov added, nodding reverently at his friend. "One day we'll be rid of them for good – mudbloods and muggles - they're weak, inferior."

"So -" Regulus said, raising his hand slightly as he spoke, as if unsure of how to interact with the older boys. "We should have power of them?" he asked, genuine curiosity evident in his tone. "How is that even possible?"

"There are ways," the seventh year said, and his name suddenly came clearly to Mary's mind; she'd seen him a couple of weeks ago at the Slytherin vs Ravenclaw match, when he'd knocked a muggleborn Ravenclaw clean of her broom for no real reason. Mulciber. From what she knew, he was cruel and fanatical, and now he was wrapping his arm around Sirius' brother, leaning down with a horrible grin as he said, "you'd be surprised how easy it is sometimes, to find ways."

She'd heard enough.

"What on earth is wrong with you?" she said loudly, walking back towards them. All five of them turned towards her almost in unison, but while the younger boys stepped back and Snape frowned, Mulciber and Dolohov exchanged a dangerous look. "Not only are you spouting completely prejudiced, hateful bullshit - you're trying to teach people younger than you to be just as terrible as both of you are. I happen to be a "mudblood" and I have just as much as right to be learning magic at Hogwarts as you do."

"Is that right?" Dolohov smirked, taking a step towards Mary, who held her ground. "You know sweetheart," he mocked, "you should really keep information like that to yourself, or you could end up getting hurt."

He drew his wand unexpectedly from the inside pocket of his cloak, pointing it at Mary's chest before she had the chance to register what was happening.

It was like being hit by a truck. The spell crashed into her full on, pushing her backwards into the wall. The impact forced the air from her lungs and her head cracked sharply against the stone, causing a trickle of warm blood to run down her neck.

She pressed her hands against the wall for support and managed to stay on her feet, but her vision had gone dark and when she reached for her wand, she found her pocket empty. As the blackness in front of her eyes began to recede, she looked desperately for her wand, and saw it lying by Snape's feet, where it must have rolled when it fell from her pocket. He slowly picked it up, and for the smallest moment she thought he might be about to give it back to her, but he just slipped it in his pocket. She was defenceless and outnumbered.

Mulciber came towards her, his pace leisurely as though he had all the time in the world, and when he reached her he stood over her and leered. Twirling his wand but keeping its tip pointed towards her, he said, "You see, you're really no match for purebloods. Magic belongs to us, and we know dark spells you could never dream of harnessing." The wand stilled in his hand. "For example..."

With a flick of his wrist, pain tore through her. She slid to the floor, staring down at the slash in her robes where blood was starting to seep out. Everything felt strangely distant, like her brain wasn't quite registering what she was seeing, but she was able to hear what Mulciber said next.

"And that, boys, is how you show the mudbloods that real wizards are superior."

A/N: For anyone who skipped that last section because of the violence/blood, basically Mary runs into Mulciber, Dolohov, Snape, Regulus, and Evan Rosier. Mulciber and Dolohov are telling Reg and Rosier about muggleborns being inferior and Mary stands up to them, so they attack her.