Chapter 20
"Right, we need to finally figure this out," Lily announced. The four girls sat at the table in the Head's Common room where the Prefect meetings were usually held. "Let's start from the beginning - Marlene?"
Marlene inhaled heavily and let out her breath slowly. "I met Barry over the summer in Diagon Alley. We started going out, but when we came back to Hogwarts, we decided to keep it secret. I was afraid of what you would think and how you would react. And he felt the same about his friends." Marlene stared down at her hands. "That's why I haven't been around so much this year. We had to sneak off. We were going to tell you eventually, but then in the Hospital Wing - " Marlene broke off and looked at Mary. "Maybe you should continue?"
Mary's eyes remained hard and cold. "After the Quidditch match, while I was with Marlene was in the Hospital Wing, being a good friend, Mulciber came in. I thought he was visiting a Slytherin player who was also there, but after a few minutes he came over to Marlene's bed. I presumed he wanted to torment and sneer at me as he usually does, so I told him to buzz off and we started arguing. Then Marlene woke up and that's when I realised it." Mary's eyes welled up with tears.
"Mary," Marlene pleaded, reaching for Mary's hands. Mary jerked them back quickly.
Alice spoke for the for the first time. "Marlene, you do - you do remember what they've done, what they've called Lily and Mary. And what Mulciber nearly did to her last year?"
Marlene shook her head. "He's not like that, I swear. He's changed, he hasn't done anything of the sort all year."
"Marlene, you can do what you like. We're just not sure - " Lily glanced from Alice to Mary, " - that you're safe. You oppose their cause and they might hurt you."
"I'm perfectly safe hanging out with with my boyfriend Lily!"
"In that case, I think we've cleared this up." Lily stood, as did Alice and Mary, a hard expression on her face.
"But wait, are - are we still friends?" Marlene looked upset by the turn of events.
Alice sighed and looked to the others. "Of course we are," she said. "Just please make sure you're safe, Marly, we're only worried about you."
Marlene gave a small smile. "I'm sure," she said. "And I'm really sorry, Mary and Lily. I know what he has done on the past but he has changed. Honest."
Lily felt a stinging at the back of her eyes. The girls hadn't liked her friendship with Severus, but they had respected it. It was the least she could do in return. She nodded and gave Marlene a hug. "If you're absolutely certain he's changed," she said slowly. She had believed Severus was on her side, and then all of a sudden he had turned on her. Marlene nodded vigorously. Lily accepted it then. "Just don't expect me to be all buddy-buddy with him!" Marlene laughed and hugged her.
"Of course not!" she replied. The girls looked to Mary, who hadn't said a word since she explained her side of the story. She gave a ragged sigh.
"I'll try my best to accept it," she said. "It might take a while, or I might never. But I will try."
"It's going to take a while for everyone, I think! A Gryffindor and a Slytherin, who would have thought it, eh?" Alice said, making light of the situation. The girls laughed and linked arms as they made their way down to the Great Hall for lunch. As they left the room, Lily pulled Marlene back.
"Marlene, however much you like, or even love, Mulciber - just - just please, keep on your guard."
Marlene looked at her first in confusion, then understanding and almost pity. "I will, I promise."
James and Lily's friends remained ignorant of what had happened and so nobody batted an eye-lid when they continued to be as they had before. The week past slowly and they eased back into their slight friendship with very little awkwardness, although nothing even remotely related to Hallowe'en was mentioned by either of them. They hadn't been alone since, so neither was quite sure what was going to happen.
With the first, somewhat belated Hogsmeade trip of the year to take place the coming Saturday, James realised he had to take some sort of action. After running though a billion and one possible speeches in his head during Transfiguration while he should have been turning a house martin into peacock, he took Lily to the side on their way to potions. Frank and Alice were too immersed in each other to notice and anyone else who might have remarked their absence them had gone to their various other classes.
"Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?" James blurted, forgetting his carefully planned words.
Lily smiled. "That would depend..."
"Oh." James faltered, wondering if perhaps she thought it was all a mistake and she didn't want to .
"...On you."
Relief coursed through James and he beamed involuntarily. "So-"
"So, why don't we go down with the others and then slip away when nobody's looking?" Lily suggested. "I hate lying to them all, but you know what they'd be like if they found out. I'd like if we could have some time to ourselves.
"I'd never have thought I'd be having this conversation with you," James said, grinning like a maniac.
"I never thought I'd even have a civil conversation with you," Lily replied happily and James grinned as they made their way to Potions.
The Gryffindor Seventh Years met in the Entrance Hall on Saturday morning before heading down to Hogsmeade. The day was clear and bright, but the temperature had dropped significantly over the past few days and so they hurried to the village wrapped in thick cloaks and scarves. Though early, many students were already milling about, looking in shop windows, coming out laughing from Zonko's Joke Shop or carrying heavy bags of all sorts of sweets and chocolate from Honeydukes.
"So, where to first?" Peter asked, clapping his hands together.
"Sorry, I can't hang around, I'm meeting Barry. But I'll meet you all in the Three Broomsticks later!" Marlene said, leaving before anyone could say anything.
"Who's Barry?" Sirius asked, frowning.
Mary, Alice and Lily exchanged glances. The boys would find out soon enough anyway. Alice sighed. "Bartholomew Mulciber, Marlene's...er...boyfriend."
The boys' jaws dropped in unison.
"Well then, come on Frank, I've booked us a table at Madam Puddifoot's!" Alice said, dragging a stunned Frank away from the group. "See you later."
"Marlene's dating Mulciber?" Sirius spluttered. "Mulciber as in-"
"As in Mulciber the Slytherin who like to go around tormenting Muggleborns? Yes that would be him," Mary said, scarcely hiding the bitterness in her voice.
"Blimey!" Remus exclaimed.
"Yes, well, I'd love to discuss this some other time, but right now I'm supposed to be in Zonko's getting much needed supplies," Sirius informed them.
"And Benjy will be wondering where I am," Mary muttered, looking at her watch. Both she and Sirius disappeared into the crowd, leaving only Remus, Peter, James and Lily.
"I need some new quills," James announced suddenly. Lily caught his eye and nodded.
"I should really buy some spare parchment," she said, and the two of them slipped away without much notice.
Remus and Peter, coming to the sudden realisation that they were the last ones left, followed Sirius into Zonko's.
"Do you think they noticed?" Lily asked, leaning into James who had draped his arm quite casually around her waist.
"I don't think so," James answered, happily. He could smell Lily's flower-scented shampoo as the wind lifted strands of her hair past his face. "Where do you want to go?"
"I actually do need some more parchment," Lily said, sheepishly and the two made their way to Dervish and Banges.
"Okay, okay. Em...what about this one? Spells for the Morbidly Disorientated: Do you wish you had an extra leg, or four?" James snorted, waving a thick, dusty book at Lily. The two were down the back of the shop in the midst of a heavy competition of who could find the strangest book.
"That's pathetic," she said, trying to hold back her laughter. "And discriminating against the disorientated. Now, this one is-"
"Hi Lily."
Lily whipped around and dropped the book she was holding (365 Enchantments for Grating Cheese-One for every day of the year!) onto James' foot, but he was too busy glaring at Severus Snape and reaching for his wand to notice.
"What are you doing here, Severus?" Lily hissed.
"What are you doing here?" Snape retalliated, eyeing James suspiciously. "Or, more specifically, what are you doing here with him?"
Lily coloured in anger. "Where I go and with whom is none of your business Severus. Go away!"
Snape paled. "Lily I just-"
"You heard her! Go!" James said angrily, seeing Lily was upset.
"I don't take orders from you Potter," Snape spat, but turned to leave anyway with a last glance at Lily.
"C'mon," James said after a few moments. "I've got an idea. But we need to go to Honeydukes first."
Alice and Frank, happily installed at a table in a cosy corner of Madam Puddifoot's tea rooms, spent the morning discussing the NEWTs they would need to qualify for Auror training, pausing regularly to consume steaming mugs of hot chocolate. It was at one such interval that Alice was looking absent-mindedly out the window when she froze and exclaimed "Is that-"
"What?" Frank asked, craning his neck to see what had surprised Alice.
She turned back to face him, eyes wide. "Lily and James!"
He stared at her blankly. "Lily and James?"
"Yes!"
"What's so strange about Lily and James?"
"The were together, Frank!" Alice said, as though explaining it to a five year old.
"I still don't understand."
Alice sighed. "Come with me," she said, grasping his arm and pulling him out of the cafe. Before Frank could get a word in, she had dragged him down the street and was peering around the corner. "Look!" she squealed and he looked.
Lily and James, their backs facing them, were making their was down the narrow lane, but that was not what had excited Alice. Frank stared at them intently for a few minutes before seeing what he hadn't seen before.
"They're holding hands," he stated, turning back to Alice.
Alice squealed again. "We have to tell everyone!"
Frank rolled his eyes, amused. "Alice, we've still got an hour and a half until we're supposed to meet up in the Three Broomsticks. Let's at least finish at Madam Puddifoot's and then maybe a wander around?"
"Oh, alright then!" Alice conceded cheerfully and made to go back, promptly tripping over her own feet and would have landed on the ground had Frank not caught her in time. "Oops!"
James and Lily sat on their cloaks in front of the Shrieking Shack.
"I still don't understand why you wanted to have the picnic here of all places." James said, ruffling his hair.
"What's wrong with it here?" she asked, opening a Chocolate Frog, "I told you, I just find it strangely comforting." She shrugged nonchalantly and pulled out the card, gasping happily. "Finally!" she turned to James, waving the card in his face. "I got Wendelin the Weird! I've been looking for him since first year! I can't believe it, at last-oh!" A gust of wind had swept the card out of Lily's hand and was carrying it up over James' head. James, who had been laughing at her, reached up and tried to grab it but to no avail. Lily stretched over James as the card rose higher and higher. She went to stand up before tripping on the hem of James' cloak and falling straight on top of him.
James found himself looking into Lily's eyes as she flushed in embarrassment but didn't move. He could see little flecks of hazel in her green eyes. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her and bent her head closer to his own.
"Wendelin is getting away." He whispered in her ear and he felt her smile.
"I don't really mind so much," Lily replied boldly, in a quiet voice, shocking even herself. She blushed even more as James looked into her eyes again and grinned before cautiously pressing his lips to hers.
Lily's eyes fluttered closed as she kissed him back. It was different from the first one, slower. James smiled against Lily's lips, not caring that she was still on top of him. He felt weightless. All too soon, they broke apart and Lily scrambled off him, embarrassed.
"Okay," Lily mumbled, blushing again. "We should get going, we were meant to meet up with the others twenty minutes ago."
"I wonder where they think we've been?" James asked, taking Lily's hand and squeezing it.
A/N: Our sincerest apologies. We were both away on holidays and stuff and didn't get around to editing this but now we have and it's up! We promise the next chapter won't be such a long time coming.