Chapter 26: A Slug Club Christmas
"Lily... you look really nice."
"Thanks," I say. I look Severus over. He doesn't look much different than normal; his dress robes are black, much like our daily robes, just no Hogwarts crest or House colors to embellish them. He has, however, washed and brushed his shoulder-length black hair back out of his face and tucked it behind his ears. It makes his face look more open than usual, and I decide I prefer it to him hiding behind it. "You do too."
Severus and I met up on the landing of the fourth floor. Despite how adamant he was that this is not a date, it feels very much like a date as he offers me his arm and we walk down the corridor towards Professor Slughorn's quarters.
I'm wearing emerald green dress robes and had let Emmeline twist my long hair into a fancy updo. Alice is coming tonight too – with Frank! - but not until later. As it is, Severus and I are rather early. I can't help it – I like to arrive to events on time, and on time means not one minute late.
And then I can also watch everyone else arrive. Mainly James. Not like I'm hoping he really is coming but like... just in case. To watch for mischief. He and Sirius would only show to mess the party up, right?
But, oh Merlin... what if he does come? With Carol? I think I really will die if Carol shows. She's spent all week dropping hints about the party, and since she's not a member of the Slug Club, the most likely way for her to come would be James.
No. Calm down, Lily. Sirius won't let James bring her.
Also, I really don't care.
Right.
"Lily?" Sev says, and I realize that while I've been obsessing over James's potential attendance and date, Sev's been talking to me as we walk. About what, Merlin knows. Pull yourself together, Evans!
"Hmm?" I say.
"Christmas plans?" he prompts.
"Oh! Well, I'm not too sure..." I trail off. I don't want to mention Petunia's wedding; I haven't told anyone outside of James. Not like it's a secret but... well, it's kind of embarrassing that your own sister didn't invite you to her wedding, and, despite James's optimism that she'll have to make me come once I talk to her, I'm still not so sure. So, I haven't said anything.
Plus, Severus's and Petunia's history is... not great. So we don't really talk about her.
"Probably just going to be a quiet family Christmas at home," I say. "You?"
He makes a face.
"Sorry," I say quickly. "That was stupid of me."
"Not your fault," he says, looking away.
Sev's home life is not great, even less so than his relationship with Petunia, and it all comes down to his controlling and frankly alarming father.
"Why go home at all?" I ask quietly. "Why not stay here for break?" I know the castle is always quiet for Christmas, but lonely seems better than what Sev deals with at home.
"My mother," he says shortly. I nod and don't press. Even if she can't shield Severus from his father, he loves her anyway.
"Well," he continues, sounding eager to leave the topic of his parents behind, "I wonder, since we'll both be home for Christmas, you want to meet up sometime? Visit the playground for old time's sake?"
"That might be fun," I say. "It's been so long since I've been back there."
He smiles, finally. "It's a date, then."
I frown. Not a date. Why is everyone so concerned about dates?
But now we've arrived at Slughorn's office, and I get distracted by the extravagance inside.
The room is entirely lined with bare silver birch boughs and giant frosted spruce trees twinkling with fairy lights and great gleaming red baubles. The regular sconce light has been dimmed to a moody low-light and the dark ceiling is similarly decked with free-flying fairies, giving the impression of standing in a golden woodland clearing under a shifting night sky. In one corner, a small collection of house-elves huddles together, tuning instruments to each other, and I gape as one of them climbs up into a chair to handle a child's bass that still looks three times too big for him, carefully fiddling out a low-octave melody of "Over the River".
Meanwhile, several other elves bob around hurriedly loading several tables with refreshments. The room swims with the aromas of spiced cider, vanilla, and a fatty flaky smell that reminds me of sausage rolls.
"Lily, my girl!" Professor Slughorn booms. He leaves the table bearing the drinks and practically bounces across the room to greet us. The gold buttons on his crimson waistcoat sparkle under the fairy lights. "And Severus! Welcome, so glad you could make it!"
"Professor, you've done an incredible job in here!" I say, not able to hide that I'm impressed as he pumps my hand several times before turning to Sev to give him the same over-enthusiastic handshake.
"Thanks," he says. "Had to step it up this year, seeing as the Minister mentioned he might drop by later."
"The... the Minister? Of Magic?" I croak. Severus freezes next to me.
"But of course!" Slughorn says. "Harold and I go way back. I helped him get his first Ministry job, you know! And I need a favor, and Harold is perfect for it, you know how well-informed he is about security measures. My potion stores have been broken into more than once lately. Figured I could pick his brain for some ideas."
"Of course," I say. "Just having the Minister of Magic drop in for security tips. Why not."
Slughorn misreads my anxiety. "Oh, but don't you worry, Lily. I will of course introduce you! Head Girl, one of my top students, not to mention your other classes, Auror ambitions... of course he would love to meet you!"
"Meet the Minister. Right," I say faintly. "Sounds nice."
"Oh! Asa Sharp and Wren Fig just arrived. Must greet all my guests. You two, enjoy! I've set some firewhisky out for you older students, even." He gives us a conspiratorial smile before heading over to wring Asa's hand.
"Deep breath, Lily," Sev says.
"Minister of Magic," I say again.
"You're going to survive it," he says. "Here, let's get you some food, you look a little pale."
Severus steers me to the refreshments and we load our golden plates with a variety of holiday treats – sausage stuffed mushrooms, crackers with little wedges of soft creamy cheese and cranberry sauce, tiny pear tarts, sugared nuts, Turkish delight, slices of decadent chocolate cake...
"He never does do these parties halfway, does he?" I ask, biting into a biscuit so buttery it nearly melts in my mouth. Severus was right. Now that I have some food in me (and some firewhisky), potentially meeting the Minister of Magic doesn't feel quite as alarming. The mellow Christmas carols the house-elves strum help, too.
"What would be the point?" Severus asks.
"Too true," I say. "Why attend a staff-approved party past curfew with friends if there isn't live music and amazing food and drinks brought in from Three Broomsticks?"
"I only meant," Severus says, a smile pushing across his face, "that what would be the point for Slughorn to throw a party if he doesn't get to showcase all his fine tastes?"
"And I'm so glad he does! Have you tried the little hand pies yet? Divine..."
We stay like that a while longer, lounging in the armchairs set up in cozy clusters around the edge of the room, enjoying the food and celebrating the end of classes for the next couple weeks, watching other guests filter into the room – no Potter yet – and take to the center of the room to dance. Sev talks me into another round of firewhisky, and the drink warms me from belly out.
Finally I shove my near-empty plate away on a small side table. "I can't eat another bite. Let's dance."
"Really?" Severus says, looking startled.
"Yeah," I say. "It's a party. Everyone's dancing. It's fun."
"I'm not really the dancing type..." he mumbles, stacking his plate on top of mine.
"Neither am I," I say cheerfully. "Come on."
I grab his hand and he lets me drag him to where several other students sway and jump around to a jazzy rendition of "Jingle Bells". At first, he's all stiff and barely moves his feet. I take his hands, swing them back and forth, encouraging him to loosen his shoulders. "Relax," I tease. "I know you know 'Jingle Bells'."
"You don't know that for sure," he says, but he does as I say and adds a little more energy to his shuffle.
"There you go," I say. "Now get more than your feet into it."
Several songs later, and he's doing much better, letting himself get into it more. It helps that I'm such a bad dancer but don't care. It's hard to worry about looking stupid when someone else is already doing that. I even get him to chime in with the "five golden rings" bit of 'Twelve Days of Christmas'. But then I interrupt the last verse.
"Oh look! Alice is here!" I tug Sev's hand, pointing with the other at my friend, looking very pretty in deep purple and holding hands with Frank. They're standing by one of the spruce trees in the corner, chatting as the fairy lights flicker around them.
Sev follows my finger. "Nice," he says.
"Let's go say hi," I say.
"But I was just getting the hang of this dancing business," he says, resisting when I try to pull him across the room.
"We'll just be a minute," I insist. If I'm being honest, it's not just about saying hi. Once that whole James-fancies-you-Lily conversation over breakfast last weekend wrapped up, Alice had suddenly thunked her mug down and said, "Wait a second. You're going to the party with Snape?" And then just shook her head in disappointment.
But she's being silly! And Sev is being silly for always acting so cagey around her. All I need is for the pair of them to have just one good interaction, and then Alice can stop getting on my case about Severus, and Severus can stop avoiding my friends, too. It's win-win.
Just one good conversation.
"Please," I say, tugging his hand again.
He looks at me, looks at my hand on his, and rubs his face with a sigh. "Fine," he says. "Let's go say hello."
I don't give him the chance to change his mind. I keep a firm grip on his fingers and drag him across the room, weaving around the other students until we get to Alice and Frank.
"Alice! Frank! You made it!" I say. "Isn't this great?"
"Professor Slughorn really put a lot of work into this, didn't he?" Frank says, looking around. The fairy lights reflect in his eyes.
"Hi, Lily," Alice says, giving me a hug. "Nice to see you."
I hear the emphasis on the word 'you' and frown at her. No need to be belligerent right away. I pull Severus forward; he's been hanging back behind me like he's hoping no one will remember him. Hardly the hello he said he would give.
Alice and Frank look at him expectantly, but he says nothing for a painfully long minute. I nudge him as surreptitiously as I can. "Walker. Longbottom," he says, voice clipped.
Wow. Great job Sev. Very friendly – for a manticore.
Alice glares at him.
"Tried the pear tarts yet?" I ask, putting way too much enthusiasm into my voice.
"Haven't had time yet to make it over to the refreshments," Frank says, matching my cheeriness. Bless Frank. He's such a sweet, uncomplicated boy and I'm glad Alice has found him.
Except he doesn't seem to be rubbing off on Alice the way I wish, because Alice ignores my question to pose her own to me.
"So, Lily," she says. "Seen James here yet?"
I give her an annoyed look. She knows better than to bring up James around Sev. "No," I say. "I'm still not sure he's going to show."
"Well, he told me earlier he's definitely coming. Oh my goodness, he's going to die when he sees you. You look beautiful! His poor date won't be able to keep his attention, he'll be too busy staring at you."
"Uh, thanks," I say awkwardly. Who made her James's wingman tonight? It's weird and I don't know how to respond, so I just ignore it. "You look nice, too."
"Not as nice as you," Alice says. "James's eyes are going to pop when he gets here."
"Okay," I say, "would you stop –"
"You're right," Severus cuts in. "That purple is not your color."
"Um, excuse you?" Frank says.
I just stare between Alice and Sev, not sure who to defend.
"No, no," Alice says, locking eyes with Sev. "He's just agreeing with me. He's right, purple isn't really my color. Just like proper hair care isn't really his thing."
Severus smiles tightly. "Heard it all before, Walker. Look, if you don't like the color, just switch it." He pauses. "Oh - or is that magic too much for you?"
Alice glares and takes her wand out. "Wait -!" Frank says, but she just points it at herself, and her dress hue shifts seamlessly from purple to pale blue.
"There," she snaps. "Too bad you can't fix your appearance so easily. Not all the magic-"
"Oh, look!" I say loudly. "It's Professor Slughorn! I needed to ask him about the homework! Come on, Sev." To the others, I say, "We'll catch up with you later." Then, as forcibly as I'd pulled him over to Alice and Frank in the first place, I lock arms with Sev and steer him away.
As we leave, I hear Frank ask Alice in confusion, "Homework? Over the holidays? From Slughorn?"
"Lily always has been an overachiever," Alice answers.
I don't turn around to clarify. Instead, as soon as we're out of earshot, I turn on Severus. "What was that?" I demand.
"What was what?" he says, glowering.
"I thought you were going to at least try to be friendly with them."
"What about Walker?" he retorts. "I wasn't exactly getting 'friendly' from her, either."
I'm getting so frustrated I forget I actually did see Slughorn and nearly walk right into him.
"Lily!" Slughorn says jovially. "I was just looking for you. Harold, this is my student I was telling you about. Lily, Harold Minchum."
I blink at him, my brain scrambling to catch up and recalibrate after my irritation with Alice and Sev. I can't for the life of me think why this Harold character should matter to me.
"The Minister of Magic," Slughorn expounds after a moment.
Oh, Merlin.
"Right, right," I say. The Minister smiles politely, but it doesn't touch his eyes. He probably already thinks I'm an idiot. Don't dismiss me so quickly, Harold! It's just my air-headedness coming through, and some very idiotic mates. "Delighted to meet you, Minister," I say, extending my hand.
"Horace mentioned you're hoping to train as an Auror after school?" Minchum says, ignoring my hand. His steely eyes flit me over. He does not seem impressed.
"Yes, sir," I say. I pull myself taller, pushing my shoulders back, trying to exude confidence. I know Minister Minchum works pretty closely with the Auror department. He'd been elected during my fifth year on promises of aggressive retaliation to the rise of Lord Voldemort and the alarming frequency of Death Eater attacks. Standing next him, I can see why he'd been put in office. He's much younger than his predecessor Eugenia Jenkins, but rather than his youth making him seem inexperienced, he radiates intensity. The way he holds himself – head high, eyes scanning, cool and collected – he reminds me a bit of James Bond, actually. Dad got into the movies a few years ago, and occasionally I'd watch with him over summer break when I was in the mood for some explosions.
In any case, this guy looks like he could handle some explosions, no problem.
Maybe Professor Slughorn can also sense how unimpressed Minchum is by me, because he comes to my aid.
"Lily's top of her year. Professor Jarvis – you know Ethel? Took up the Defense Against the Dark Arts post this year? - was just telling me how wonderfully Lily did on the practical exam this last week, only matched by one other student."
"Wait, really?" I say, distracted. "Who matched me?"
"James, of course!" Slughorn says. He looks at Minchum. "Potter. Of course, you know the Potters. James, their son, is Head Boy this year. He should be here..." He trails off, scanning the room. "You haven't seen him yet, have you?" I shake my head. "Hmm," Slughorn says. "I did hope I'd convinced him and Mr. Black to attend...just once.." He looks at me hopefully, but I just shrug. At this point, I really don't know what to expect out of James for this party. It really rubs me the wrong way he'd tied my Defense score. I know when we practiced we'd been pretty well matched, but I thought for sure the extra study hours I'd put in outside of those practical sessions would give me an edge. Hmph.
"Matched with Potter?" Minchum asks.
"Oh, do you already know James?" Slughorn asks, delighted.
"Of course," the minister says, frowning. "We have dinner with the Potters time to time. Lovely family. From what I've seen, James is an exceptional wizard." He regards me with new interest, and I'm torn between feeling thrilled he's finally taking me seriously and annoyed that it has to do with James. "Well, then I look forward to seeing more from you going forward. Perhaps next term, I can arrange a time to come and observe."
"Of course," I say. I make my voice sound light, like I do magic for Ministry employees all the time, but inside, my brain is going AHHH!
"Fantastic!" Professor Slughorn says. "In fact, we can coordinate with Ethel right now, I know she's around here somewhere."
"Of course," Minchum says. "It'll be good to have a word with Jarvis, I haven't seen her since she retired last year..."
They wander away, leaving us alone in the middle of the now-crowded room, no good-byes to either of us. And dow that I think about it, neither of them had addressed Severus at all.
"Well that was... something," I say. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel after talking with Minchum. I feel both snubbed and yet eager to impress if he really does come next term. It's an uncomfortable combination.
"I'll say," Severus says. When I look at him, he's scowling again.
"Oh, Sev," I say. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything, I should have introduced you."
He rolls his eyes. "It's not that, Lily. I don't care about meeting the Minister of Magic."
No, of course he doesn't. That's Severus, always pulling himself out of the spotlight. So then what's got him all riled up?
"Wait, are you still mad about Alice?" I say, remembering that I'm irritated at both of them.
"No," Severus says shortly.
"Then what –?"
But Severus interrupts me before I can get the full sentence out, waving to someone I can't see. He's taller than I am. How nice to be able to see all the heads in a crowded room.
"Who are you waving to?" I ask suspiciously.
"The other Slytherins."
"What? No! Don't have them come over here!" I say, panic immediately pushing the irritation away. I've made a point to stay well out of Rosier's way since Hogsmeade, and I'm not looking forward to making small talk with him at a party. I'm convinced the only reason I've been able to make it alive through Potions is that I'm back to sitting with James most classes, and we sit way on the other side of the dungeons. That way, Rosier would have a tricky time getting a clear shot at me should he feel moved to point his wand my way. "They hate me! Sev, I really don't want to –"
"Oh, come on, Lily," Severus says. "I put up with Walker, didn't I? Now it's your turn."
"I'd hardly call what you and Alice did 'putting up with each other," I start.
"And it's not even just my mates, it's yours too! Vance is here too." Severus says over me impatiently.
That brings me up short. Severus takes advantage of my confusion to pull me through the crowd. "What... what do you mean Emmeline is here?" She hadn't said anything to Alice or me about coming tonight. "With who?" I say.
But then we reach Severus's Housemates and I have my answer.
Emmeline is indeed here.
With Rosier.
I stare at her, my mouth hanging as absolutely wide as it can go.
I have no words.
My brain freezes in absolute, utter shock.
Emmeline, for her part, avoids my eyes, choosing instead to be very interested in her drink.
"Hello, everyone," Severus says.
Rosier and Regulus Black eye me with disdain.
Severus nudges me.
"Hello," I say faintly. My brain is no longer frozen; instead, it's kicked into overdrive and whirls about in a frenzy, trying to come up with any sort of reasonable explanation for the scene in front of me.
"Having a good time?" Sev asks.
"Not too bad, right, Emma?" Rosier says, and my brain positively short-circuits when he puts an arm around my friend, smiling down at her.
WHAT IS GOING ON.
"Yeah," she says, finally looking up. "I've been excited to finally come to one of Professor Slughorn's parties."
I stare at her, willing her to look at me and explain why she is here, with Rosier, and acting like she's on a date. Like she knows Rosier.
She does not look at me, but I know she knows I'm watching, because her face is pink the whole time and the way she doesn't look at me is overly deliberate. But she raises her chin while she talks and, even though she won't meet my eyes, her whole demeanor exudes defiant pride.
But no, no, that can't be right. I'm definitely just reading her body language all wrong. Emma would not come here with Rosier. There has to be something going on that I'm not understanding, something sinister...
I can't follow the conversation at all; I'm too focused on Emmeline. She looks very lovely in silver dress robes and with her long pale blonde hair loose for once, a shimmering silver sheet down her back, nearly to her waist. Rosier keeps his arm around her the whole time, and I swear he's doing it to bother me. When he catches my eye and smirks, I finally shake off my shock.
"What are you playing at?" I say, glaring at him and talking right over Regulus Black's date Hilda Wilkes. Wilkes trails off in surprise. Severus touches my arm in caution, but I shake him off.
"What?" Rosier asks. His tone is innocent surprise but his eyes gleam. He's been waiting for me to snap. Emma chews a nail anxiously, her darting eyes not quite looking in my direction still.
"Don't give me that," I say. "I don't know what your game is but leave my friends out of it."
"Game?" Rosier says. "What are you going on about, Evans?"
"What'd you threaten Emma with to get her here?" I say. "If you have issues with me, take it up with me yourself! Don't drag Em into it!"
"Lily," Emmeline says quietly, finally acknowledging me. "This isn't anything like that."
"Isn't it?" I ask. "What'd he say to you, Emma?"
"Just 'Emma, want to go to Slughorn's Christmas party', actually."
"But why did you say yes?" I press. "What's the threat? Because I can take care of it, I promise. You don't have to put up with whatever it is."
"Lily," Emmeline says again. She looks down at her feet, hands sweeping over her dress robes nervously. But she looks back up again, and the defiance is back, unmistakable in the set of her jaw. "I'm here with Rosier because we're together."
I blink at her. "No," I say. "You're not."
"We are," she says, and takes his hand.
I stare at their fingers laced together for a long moment. Then I look up at Rosier.
"You slimy snake. This is worse than I thought. I can't believe you!"
Severus takes my arm. "Drink, Lily?" He doesn't give me time to answer, dragging me away so forcefully I stumble on the hem of my dress robes. He doesn't stop towing me along until we're free of the crowd and standing at the far end of the drinks table.
"Now who can't play nice?" he says sarcastically.
"This is so not about playing nice!" I shout. "That's my friend back there!"
"Yes," Severus says. "With mine."
"Sev. I know you're a smart bloke, so I don't know how you can't see what's going on here! He's using her!"
"How do you know that? All I saw were two people having a good time together at a party."
"Wait," I say, something occurring to me. "Did you... did you know about this?"
Severus purses his lips. "Maybe," he says.
"And you didn't say anything to me?!" I shout. "Didn't think to tell me one of my best mates is dating a future Death Eater?!"
"Of course I didn't tell you, Lily! Because I knew you'd be like this!" Severus finally shouts back. "They wanted to keep it private! Because of you!"
"How long has this been going on?" I demand.
"They've been talking since the beginning of the school year," Severus says. "They made it official back in October."
"OCTOBER?" Will the mental blows not stop coming? I count backwards. Three months! Emma has been dating Rosier for the last three months and hadn't said a single thing! How had she managed to keep quiet about this? How had we not noticed?
But as I run my mind back over this year, suddenly several things start to make sense.
Oh my goodness.
Emmeline hadn't been afraid of the Slytherins all those times I'd wanted to snoop on them. She just hadn't wanted to spy on her boyfriend.
I think I might be sick.
Or break something. That drink table better watch out.
But just as I'm contemplating picking up one of the wonderfully breakable flutes the house-elves poured the Butterbeer into, someone throws an arm around my shoulders.
"Lily!" he says. "Imagine seeing you here!"
I look around in surprise. "Potter!"
It seems impossible, but I'd quite forgotten to be anxious about when and with who James would be arriving to the party. Honestly, between all the Alice and Severus drama, and the Minister of Magic, and Emmeline, I'd more or less forgotten he was coming at all. But now that he's here I can be nervous all over again. Perfect.
But to my relief, he appears to be alone.
"Been waiting for me to show up?" he asks, grinning, still keeping his arm around my shoulder. His close proximity is doing nothing to help my anxiety. If Alice or Marlene were here, they'd be giving me suggestive eyebrow raises, like, 'See? He totally fancies you!' Nope, nope, nope. And, in any case, they're not here. Sev is, and his expression is tight as he looks at James with his arm around me. I've got to take care of all this – Severus's bad mood, Marlene and Alice in my head, and my own stupid emotions.
"You wish," I say, shoving him off.
"What are you doing here?" Sev says, black eyes glittering as he looks James up and down. "Isn't the Slug Club beneath you?"
"Slughorn invited me, actually," James says cheerfully. "Sirius, too. Thought we'd finally give it a try. We've disappointed Sluggy for far too long."
"You're supposed to bring a date," Sev says, inching closer to me. I side-eye him and take a tiny step away. We may have come together, but definitely only as friends.
"Oh, I know," James assures him. "I did."
This takes Sev back. Me too, actually. When he'd greeted us by himself, I assumed that meant he'd decided against bringing a date entirely. A sharp pang of jealousy jolts through me, followed quickly by panic. He didn't actually end up bringing Carol after all, did he? I really can't take that on top of everything else tonight.
"Who?" Severus asks.
"Ahh, here comes Sirius with our dates now," James says, looking past us.
Before I have time to turn around and see who he's looking at, Sirius breezes by, followed by Peter and Remus. Sev's eyes pop in disbelief as James slings an arm around Peter's shoulders. "Peter's my date," he says, grinning.
I snort into my punch.
"Don't forget us!" Sirius says, dragging Remus forward by the arm. "Remus and I came together."
Severus stares at the four of them, mouth hanging open.
"You're supposed to bring girls," he finally says.
"Now, now, don't be exclusive," Sirius says, wagging a finger at him. "Remus and I are very happy together."
Sev doesn't have an answer for that. Instead, he turns his back on Sirius to focus back on James. "And am I supposed to believe the two of you are happy together, too?" he says, his eyes like ice.
"Like Sirius said, don't be exclusive. Dates don't have to be romantic. There are no rules against coming just as friends." He flicks his eyes between Sev and me. "I mean, you're here with Lily. Same concept as Peter and I coming together, or Sirius and Remus, right?"
Severus glares at James, refusing to speak.
"Right." I answer James for Severus. "We're here as friends."
"Well, there you go!" Sirius says. "Looks like we're all good here then. Right, Professor?" he calls, and I turn to see Professor Slughorn pushing his way through the dancing crowd to get to us.
"Boys! You made it!" Slughorn's enthusiasm is unparalleled as he clutches first James's hand with both his, shaking vigorously, then Sirius's. "And what's this?' he says, looking at Remus and Peter in surprise.
"Our dates, sir," James says, and Sirius puts on his whole show all over again, putting an arm around Remus's waist and pulling him close. Remus rolls his eyes.
For a full ten seconds, Slughorn's eyes go wide and he stands speechless. Severus leans forward, intent to see how Slughorn will react.
And then Slughorn erupts into peals of laughter so deep, the decorative buttons on his waistcoat pockets bounce. He throws his head back, shoulders shaking, and others in the vicinity turn curiously to see the source of the noise.
"I shouldn't have expected anything less from you two!" Slughorn roars, wiping actual tears of laughter from his eyes. "Clever, too clever..."
I roll my eyes and Severus rocks back, looking extremely disappointed, but I'm not even surprised, honestly. I don't know what it is about these boys that makes even professor like Professor McGonagall look the other way when they're at their most mischievous. Of course Slughorn would get a kick out of their solution to the date invitation.
"Well, I'm glad you all made it," Slughorn says when he's regained his composure. "Do enjoy yourselves, eat, drink. James, the Minister is around here somewhere, I know he'd love to say hi..."
"Oh, yes, I caught Harold as I was coming in."
I have to stop from spitting out the sip of Butterbeer I'd finally decided to take. Leave it to James to be on first name terms with the Minister of Magic...
"Good, good," Slughorn says, bouncing on his toes. "Well, have fun."
"Yes, sir!" Sirius says, and I don't like the look on his face.
"Whatever you all are planning," I hiss as Slughorn walks away, "don't you dare."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Sirius says.
"I'm serious," I say.
"So am I," he responds, absolutely dead-pan. The other three boys crack up. "Never gets old," Peter says, nudging Sirius in the side.
"I can't even handle any of you right now," I say. "Just don't mess this party up."
"With both the Head students in attendance? And the Minister of Magic? Never," Sirius says. "Let's go, mates," he says, starting to walk away. "We've got... partying... to do."
James and Peter take off enthusiastically with Sirius, but I catch Remus's arm before he can bound away, too. "Remus?"
He looks at me, grinning. "Don't worry Lily. We've got this under control." Then he wriggles out of my grasp and darts away, too.
I scowl after him. I'm starting to realize I give Remus entirely too much credit. He is, after all, a Marauder.