Thursday 9 October 1976 Thursday rolled around and a smiling Lily was coming back from another potions lesson. She was in a good mood because at lunch Brendan had caught up with her and confirmed if she still wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him next weekend. She had of course, confirmed that she still wanted to go with him. She would be in the library with James that evening, she'd come to enjoy their library sessions, they actually got on well and they both made each other laugh which was good especially since transfiguration had a tendency to be such a tedious subject. Potions passed smoothly enough although as Avery and Mulciber walked past. Mulciber walked into her desk, almost sending her ingredients careening to the floor, luckily she was able to stoop and catch them just in time but it was a close thing. The two Slytherins were being as aggravating as ever so she'd been glad to avoid a confrontation with them as she left.
Lily was just walking along the second floor, looking for the perfume she usually kept in her bag when she realised that she didn't have her potions book with her. She stopped and cursed. Alice, who was walking next to her with Frank, stopped.
"Everything OK?" She asked her friend.
"I think I must have left my book in the dungeons." Replied a scowling Lily. "I need it for the assignment I was going to do tonight."
"You can borrow mine if you'd like." Offered Frank kindly, making Alice smile fondly at him.
"Thank you Frank, but I've got a bunch of notes in mine which are going to be super helpful for it, so I might just run down and get it now."
"Shall we come with you?" Asked Alice.
Lily shook her head. "I'll be two minutes, if you just wait here I'll be right back." She took off at a fast walk cursing her forgetfulness.
She knocked on the dungeon door and when she got no reply she went in. It was empty but the torches were still lit so she assumed Slughorn would probably be in the staff room or something. They had been the last class of the day but it wasn't on her desk where she expected it to be. She went over to Slughorn's desk hoping to see it sat there. She couldn't see it and a quick look through the drawers on his desk which were unlcoked confirmed it wasn't there. She sighed and straightened up. Maybe someone had grabbed it for her?
"Looking for this, mud blood?" Came a harsh voice behind her. Lily stiffened and turned slowly, carefully grasping her wand. Avery was behind her, holding her book gingerly as though afraid he might catch some kind of disease from it. Mulciber and Snape flanked him with Regulus Black slightly behind them leaning against the wall. Snape's face stood out pale in her vision and she tried to block him out. Lily held out a hand for her text.
"That's great Avery, thanks for picking it up." She said flatly, Avery laughed.
"You're amusing, Evans. Trying to talk to me like an equal when in reality you deserve to be kicked out on to those muggle streets you love so much."
Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. "I can do magic just like you Avery, we are equals." Avery snarled and threw her book roughly to the floor in the corridor behind him, Mulciber leered nearby and Lily's heart sped up. Snape shifted uncomfortably next to him and Lily's gaze flicked to his. She looked challengingly at him, was he actually going to just watch this?
"Go on then bitch pick up your book." Avery snarled mockingly. Lily didn't want to turn her back on them but she didn't know what else to do so she walked confidently between the hulking Slytherins with Regulus watching disinterestedly. As soon as she walked through the doorway she drew her wand and non verbally accioed her book to her, catching it and turning to face the four boys. Her heart thudded as she saw they had all drawn their wands as well.
"Tut tut Evans." Avery said, walking towards her. "Drawing your wand was a poor choice." Lily walked backwards, taking deep breaths. "You're hardly worthy of it." He spat before swiftly firing a disarming curse at her, Lily blocked it and tried to speed up. Mulciber fired another at her, she threw her book in the way of the spell and it flew down the corridor behind her, successfully blocking it. The two casters advanced with Snape and Regulus following behind. They cast again, Lily dodged and responded with a stinging hex to Mulciber's face. The resulting swelling was enough to cause a smirk to form on her face.
"For someone not worthy of magic, I seem to be better at it than you two pure blooded bigots." This was the wrong thing to say and she was soon faced with an onslaught of curses. She dodged and cast a shield which held for a short while but a spell soon hit her in the stomach and she slid backwards across the floor, winded and out of breath she got to her feet as soon as she could but a hex she hadn't seen hit her and she found herself immobilised. It wasn't like the petrificus totalus, she wasn't rigid, she just couldn't move. She looked furiously at Snape who was not looking at her, it had to have been him.
Mulciber laughed. "Nice one Severus, I was wondering when you were going to show us that one." He prowled furiously towards her and squeezed her face with a large hand, one eye swollen shut, the other leering at her. "You disgusting whore." He hissed, "tempting us real wizards with a provocative body filled with filthy blood." He ran a hand across the Gryffindor crest on the breast of her school jumper making Lily want to throw up. His breath was stale and his face centimetres from hers, his eyes dark as he looked her up and down. Lily was struggling with all her might against the spell holding her.
"Mulciber!" Shouted Avery, "enough!" Mulciber ran a hand across her chest once more before ripping the crest off her jumper, his hands rough on her body. Avery walked up to her, his cheek was bleeding from a diffindo Lily had cast at him. He slapped her across the face, Lily's head whipped to the side. Her eyes began to smart at the sudden pain and she clenched them shut before opening them again, willing the tears away. She was looking straight into Sev's eyes which were wide and shocked. Mulciber fired a pushing hex into her from less than a metre away, sending her thudding into the wall. Mulciber and Avery laughed whilst Lily's vision flashed dangerously. Regulus was wearing a thin smile and Snape still stood blankly.
"Shall we rearrange the whore's face?" Asked Mulciber maliciously, running his wand tip down her cheek.
"Yes." Avery said, grinning. "But let Severus have the first shot." Mulciber's face fell and he stepped back, disappointed. Snape, alarmed, looked towards the two taller Slytherins. He licked his lips nervously.
"Are- are you sure?" Snape asked, Avery nodded.
"And then Regulus can have a go after you." Regulus' smile had disappeared. Lily stared at Snape, the back of her head and her shoulders were sore and her stomach was turning after Mulciber's hands had been on her. She was trying to control her breathing. She was screaming 'finite Incantatem' in her head, trying to counter whatever immobilising spell she had been hit with. Her wand was still in her hand but she couldn't move and was panicking.
"Go on Snape." Said Mulciber. "A nice incendio should do." Lily's heart thudded against her chest. Snape was staring at her.
"Do it Severus." Said Avery harshly. Snape raised his wand and rested it on her cheek, it was shaking slightly. He wouldn't. Thought Lily desperately, he wasn't that far gone, was he? She struggled even more, she needed to speak to him, say something to throw him off. Tears were threatening to fall as she tried to say something.
"Swings." She managed to choke out.
"What?" Severus said under his breath, confused.
"How is she able to speak?" Demanded Avery.
"Swings. Summer. 1969."
"How is she speaking!" Avery shouted. Snape didn't reply, That was the summer they had first met, his wand fell slightly.
"If you don't do it. I will!" Growled Mulciber raising his wand.
"No!" Shouted Snape, his face drained of colour. "I'll do it." His wand raised again and he took a deep breath. Lily never found out if he was going to cast as his wand was blasted out of his hand. The curse was dropped and she fell to her knees, relief flooding her. A furious Alice had disarmed Snape followed by Frank, James and Sirius. The other Slytherins were swiftly disarmed as they had been taken by surprise. Frank fired an impedimenta at Avery whilst whatever James had cast had transfigured Mulciber into an incredibly large and extremely ugly slug, Sirius had Regulus by the collar against a wall and was shouting furiously at him. Alice stupefied Snape and rushed to Lily, wrapping her arms around her.
"Thank Godric we came looking for you." She gushed, "you hadn't come back and we got worried." Lily buried her head in her friends shoulder, trying to hold back tears. Frank was dragging an unconscious Avery and Snape into a nearby closet, distaste written all over his face. Mulciber the slug was slowly oozing away and James stood, fists clenched taking in the scene before him, his face was pale and he was fucking furious. A few tears leaked from Lily's eyes into Alice's jumper. Alice didn't notice or didn't say anything but whispered soothing words whilst she stroked her friend's hair.
Sirius slammed Regulus into the wall. "What did you do?" He shouted. Regulus looked at him, his face unreadable. "Is this what you want? Cruelty and bigotry? You want to help victimise girls?" Regulus didn't reply. "WHAT DID YOU DO?" Sirius yelled, pushing him roughly.
"I didn't- I hadn't-"
"You watched?" Demanded Sirius. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Regulus was lost for words.
"Sirius." Said Frank in a warning tone, he had finished locking Avery and Snape in a closet.
Sirius growled. "You need to decide who you want to be little brother." He said in a lower voice, not looking at him. He gestured to Lily and Mulciber the slug. "It can't be this Reg." He said, voice cracking. "Not this." He pushed him roughly down the hall, towards his common room and he started running. Sirius rested his head against the wall.
James kicked Mulciber the slug in the side. He was so angry, he had conjured a pile of salt and it would be so easy to chuck it on the wretched transfiguree in front to him. His hand was temptingly above the huge slug before he changed his mind and threw it furiously at the wall instead. He crouched and tried to get his anger under control as the slug made its way towards the Slytherin common room. His eyes then fell on to the ripped off crest on the floor and his heart clenched as he whipped his head around. If those bastards had forced themselves on her then God help him he would kill them. Lily had seemed to regain her composure and was stood, leaning against the wall, relaying to Alice what the hell had just happened. James took in her ripped jumper, the hole just above the curve of her chest. He scooped up the crest, he suddenly felt very cold.
"Lily." He said quietly, walking over to her.
Lily had managed to tell Alice what she could about her encounter with the Slytherins. James and Sirius were on their way to the kitchens and asked Frank and Alice what they were doing and they had begun chatting when Alice began to get worried so they had come for the journey, it was a good thing too otherwise the fight may have escalated even more. The redhead had just about mastered her emotions when James came back into her line of vision. He said her name and she looked up at him. He had sounded so… gentle. Potter was never gentle, she couldn't decide what the expression he was wearing was. She didn't know if he was sad or angry.
"Lily." He said again, her heart thumped a little bit louder. His tone of voice made her want to give him a big hug, he was making his way over.
"Did they-" He faltered and swallowed, his jaw clenching. He held out his hand with the ripped off crest in it. "Did they touch you?" His voice was almost inaudible and filled with dread. Alice gasped. Lily shook her head, she knew how it looked, her eyes pricked.
"Not like that." She whispered, shaking her head, the memory of how Mulciber had touched her filled her mind and she pulled off her ruined jumper throwing it down the hall, far away from her. She needed to shower. Alice swiped at the few tears tracing their way down her own face before wrapping Lily in another hug.
"We're going back to the tower now." Alice said firmly Sirius and Frank walked up to them and Sirius wordlessly handed Lily her potions book. In silence the five Gryffindors walked away.
Lily didn't make it to dinner and after she came back down from a scalding shower. Sirius' presence in the armchair by the fire indicated that the marauders hadn't either, although James and the other two were nowhere to be found. Her dorm mates had flocked around her when she came back, taking in her pale face and noticing how shaken up she was, they had fussed over her and cursed the Slytherins and sworn vengeance and had overall made Lily feel a lot better. Lily had insisted her friends go to dinner and they had told her they would bring something back for her but to be honest, Lily really didn't have much of an appetite. Sirius was staring moodily into the fire. Lily remembered how furious he had been with his brother and she empathised, she knew all the ins and outs of a rocky relationship with a sibling all too well. She dragged a second armchair next to him and plonked herself down.
"Hey." She said quietly.
"You OK Evans?" He asked, not looking away from the flames licking the fireplace. "You seemed to hold your own pretty well against four stinking Slytherins."
"Thanks." She said dispassionately. "Obviously not well enough though."
Sirius finally turned to her. "It was four against one, that was never going to work in your favour." Lily shrugged, it was going to have to if she was going to survive this whole death eater movement. They were silent for a moment before Lily spoke again.
"You and your brother." She started, "I get it, I know how you feel." Sirius scoffed.
"You know how it feels to watch your little brother become a death eater pushing a terrrorist's ideals? I doubt that for some reason Evans." A burst of annoyance flashed through Lily at his words, she felt her temper flare.
"I know how it feels to watch a sibling you love, drift so far away from you it's like you don't know who they are anymore. I know how it feels to be trying so hard to get them to listen to you that you feel physically exhausted. I know how it feels to miss them but not be able to admit it and I know how it feels to be so hurt by their actions it breaks your heart. So yeah, I can take a guess at how you're feeling right now Black." Sirius looked at her for a long moment after her little rant before letting out a low groan and resting his head in his hands. He murmured an apology, which Lily accepted quickly.
"I know, you know how I feel Lily." Said Sirius in a low voice. "I'm just mad." This wasn't the first time Lily and Sirius had bonded over the problems they had with their siblings, back in third year. Sirius had come across Lily crying over a letter in the owlery. It had been from her mother, informing her that her sister back home refused to write. Sirius had just been there and she had ended up spilling her problems to him while he patiently listened and she had been pleasantly surprised to find that he had something similar going on with him. That moment had changed their relationship which had been purely as class mates and fellow Gryffindors into something very different but they had never really talked much since. Sirius and Lily talked for a while longer, updating each other on their family life. About 20 minutes had passed when Lily smiled fondly at Sirius.
"I don't mind you, you know." She stated, making him chuckle. He punched her arm gently.
"You're not too bad yourself."
"We should talk more." Lily said bluntly. Sirius grinned.
"I could think of worse things." Lily laughed.
"Gee thanks." After a moments pause she turned to him again. "Are you still obsessed with motorbikes?" Sirius' face lit up in reply making Lily smile again.
"Bloody hell, you're like an eight year old. Wait here." She left and made her way up to her dorm coming back quickly. She handed him something, a magazine with a flashy looking bike on the cover.
"It's a bit tatty but it's relatively recent." Sirius looked at it in awe.
"How did you get this?" He asked, dumbstruck. Lily pointed at herself.
"Muggle, remember? My dad had it in his car on the way to the train station and I was bored so started reading it and ended up bringing it with me." Sirius began flicking through it, grinning.
"This is so cool, thank you!" Lily told him not to worry about it and they idly chatted for a while longer before her dorm mates came back from dinner, with some food for her. Marlene looked between her and Sirius, amused.
"Hi." She said, surprised to see them looking through a muggle motor bike magazine together.
"We have food." Supplied Dorcas holding a handful of napkins filled with food, pausing to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. On Monday night they had cut her hair, her waist long dark brown hair was now cut to her shoulders and she had a full fringe which she was loving. The shorter style allowing her hair to bounce with a more natural curl. Lily and Marlene had ummed and ahhed about cutting in a fringe before Dorcas snatched the scissors off them and cut it herself, feeling like a new woman. Lily thanked them and commandeered a nearby table to spread it on. The girls gathered around with Sirius still nearby enjoying his magazine. They had been eating and chatting for maybe just over half an hour when Remus and Peter walked in, obviously having come from dinner. Remus still looked tired but Lily made no mention of it. He walked quickly over to Lily.
"I heard about what happened, Lily." He said frowning. "Are you OK?" Lily smiled, returning the friendly side hug he had given her in. She nodded.
"I expect they'll be getting swift retaliation from the marauders." Peter said aloofly causing the assembled group to laugh.
'Where's Prongs?" Asked Sirius still absorbed in his magazine.
"He went past us, on our way to dinner and looked like he was going for a run or something." Peter replied. Lily wrinkled her nose at the mention of running.
Alice shook her head. "Honestly, who goes running when they're stressed?" She said, disgusted.
"Well actually-" Marlene began.
Alice swatted her arm. "Rhetorical question Mar." They laughed again.
"He's stressed?" Asked Lily casually.
"Annoyed and/or angry may be a more accurate description." Said Remus, sitting in a chair next to Sirius, "he threw some stuff around the dorm for a while before deciding to take it outside". Lily knit her eyebrows.
"You saw how he was after Patrick." Sirius said quietly, carefully setting his magazine aside. "This was basically another attack."
"Yeah." Chipped in Peter, eating a piece of bread from the spread on the table. "And it was you this time so imagine how-" He choked on his bread as Remus elbowed him in the stomach as he nonchalantly ran a hand through his hair. Sirius rolled his eyes at Peter.
"A Gryffindor is what Pete means." Sirius said. "It was a Gryffindor this time, it was a lot closer to home so yeah, James is angry." Lily looked thoughtfully at the flames, what did Peter mean when he said James was angry because it was her. She didn't have long to ponder it as the portrait hole opened, admitting the boy in question. He was wearing his quidditch trousers and a black T shirt. He was sweaty with his glasses pushed onto his head. He squinted slightly as he looked around the common room and made his way towards the fire when he saw they were gathered there, replacing his glasses on his face. He was either oblivious to or ignoring the longing glances directed at him by half the girls as he walked over.
"Look at you guys." He said, a teasing smile on his lips. "You should've told me we were having a team meeting." His eyes fell onto Lily. A more serious expression taking over his face. "You OK Red? Any injuries?" Lily shrugged.
"Nothing serious." She said, smiling half heartedly at him.
"Have you told Dumbledore?" Lily's smile dropped, the atmosphere in their little group suddenly wasn't as warm as it had been before. Lily leaned back in her chair. She shook her head firmly.
"No, I haven't and I won't be any time soon." A barrage of different protests and points ensued from the teens gathered.
"But you're a prefect." Came Peter's voice above the racket. "And this was serious." Lily turned to him, expression fierce.
"Yes, but what is Dumbledore going to do?" She asked passionately. "It's my word against theirs, you guys didn't see anything and who are the board going to believe? Three people from some of the most prominent families or a mud blood?" Another round of raised voices began. James stayed silent and Lily glared challengingly at him.
"Shut up!" Shouted Alice, calming the rabble. "Lily I saw Snape with his wand pointed at you. You were against a wall and surrounded. You have a bruise on your face. There was clearly foul play." Lily turned to her.
"He didn't cast, there's no proof. The board won't listen." She said matter of factly. Alice looked like she wanted to protest but much to her dismay what Lily said was true. There wasn't much to go on, as they would be unlikely to accept a memory and although Lily had a bruise no one had seen her get hit. Their group fell silent as they mulled over Lily's words.
"So you're just going to let this go unreported." Said James. His voice was level, but hard. "After they attacked you. You're just letting them get away with it." He ran a hand through his hair harshly.
"There's no proof, nothing will get done." Lily said, looking only at James, daring him to say something.
"You should still say something!" He shouted, Lily didn't flinch, her frown deepened.
"What so now James Potter is telling me I should tell a teacher?" Lily shot back.
"This isn't some prank Lily! This is a hate crime, they want to be death eaters, you were a target! Staff need to know."
"When have you ever respected staff Potter?" She spat.
"Lily." Came Alice's warning. Their fellow Gryffindors near them and also sat in the common room were watching with bated breath, it had been a while since Lily and James had had one of their spats.
"I'm not going to tell someone, because there's no point and I don't exactly want the fact that I was- was picked on spread around school." Sirius snorted at her word choice.
"Picked on." Said James disbelievingly. "Bloody fucking hell."
Lily scowled at him. "I expect none of you to tell anyone either. This stays between us."
James scowled right back. "Why are you being so stubborn?" He made his way to the stairs, kicking angrily at a footstool on his way past. "You know what?" He said turning around before he reached the stairs. "Fine. You want to pretend this never happened? Go for it. But if anything like this ever happens to you again, or to anyone for that matter. You bet your ass I'm telling every single teacher in this school whether it makes me a snitch, or a hypocrite or whatever. This is not okay." And with that he stalked up the stairs leaving Lily confused if he had been angry or protective or what, the other Gryffindors soon awkwardly made their excuses but Lily stayed sat by the fire wondering why she was so reluctant to tell a professor what happened. Severus' pale face danced in the back of her mind, his wand raised and Lily uncomfortably came to the realisation that she didn't want anyone else to know because that would mean making it a reality that Sev had truly been led astray. She stayed sat like that for a long time.
It was about nine and James was lying on his bed, he'd had a shower but wasn't ready to go back downstairs. He'd felt terrible about his fight with Lily but why did she have to be so damn proud? He had kicked about in the dorm, Remus, Sirius and Peter had gone to the library not wanting to be privy to his bad mood and he'd done the first paragraph of their next transfiguration essay which he had meant to do with Lily that night. He didn't expect her to do transfiguration after everything that had happened so had just got on with it himself. He frowned at the cover over his four poster bed. He didn't know why he had gotten so angry so quick with her. Yeah she had a tendency to get him angry, but he'd been much better about controlling it lately. He blamed it on stress for the upcoming match against Slytherin on Saturday. Sure James came off confident, but when it came to Quidditch he never failed to get incredibly nervous about it. He rolled over and looked at the Gryffindor jumper folded at the end of his bed. He'd picked up Lily's jumper in the dungeons with the vague intention of fixing it but was now doubting it. He'd dropped it off at the laundry and after a some kind words and a few requests to the house elves it was now clean and whole. He needed to clear the air with Lily before he fell asleep or he would be kicking himself all night. He rolled off the bed, grabbing her jumper as he left the dorm. He padded down the stairs, into the common room and was relieved to see that Lily was still in the chair he had left her in, reading a book. He took a deep breath as he walked over to her, hiding the jumper behind his back.
"Hi." He said. She turned, the dying fire bathing her in a soft light, making her hair look like tongues of flame. She frowned at him.
"Hi." She said coldly. James sighed and sat down in the armchair opposite her.
"Listen, I'm not going to pretend I understand why you won't tell anyone." Lily opened her mouth but James motioned for her to be quiet. "Just let me finish, please?" She relented and leant back, he'd had a shower and was wearing what looked like flannel pyjama pants and a jumper. HIs hair was still a bit wet and curling slightly at the ends. "I'll respect your decision to keep it quiet, but I cannot promise that if something like this happens again I won't flip my shit. Deal?" Lily thought for a moment before holding her hand out to shake his.
"Deal."
James grinned his familiar easy grin and Lily felt herself send him one in return.
"I have a peace offering." He said reaching behind him.
Lily perked up, "is it food?" James laughed and shook his head, pulling the jumper out from behind him. Lily took it. "Bloody hell, what did you say to the house elves to make them make it so soft?" She asked stroking the smooth material. James smiled, shrugging. Lily smiled a small, but genuine smile at him, it was such a small thing but it went a long way.
"Thank you." James stood and waved her off.
"Gryffindors don't let Slytherins wreck their stuff." He said simply. "I'm going to head up to bed, I did the first paragraph of the essay that we were meant to do tonight, so you can check it over or whatever and we can reschedule. Does Sunday suit? Tomorrow is the slug club and Saturday the Quidditch match so that's best for me." Lily nodded, telling him that was fine.
"Goodnight James." She said. James grinned.
"Night."
A/N: Hope everyone enjoyed and you're all staying safe and healthy during this pandemic. As always, feel free to leave some feedback or drop a favourite or a follow if you're interested in seeing where this is going :)