A/N: Sorry for the delay. Enjoy!
Chapter 32 - 3.11 or "Black and White"
"Let me get this straight. You, Lily Evans, need a favor from me, James Potter?"
It was, Lily supposed, the worst time she could have chosen to talk to him, but as she had put off the unpleasant task of having this conversation until the last possible evening, she had been forced to pull James Potter aside during the boisterous party that followed the Gryffindor Quidditch team's win over Ravenclaw. Potter himself had scored five of the team's eleven goals and was, thus, standing in front of her in all his smug glory – arms crossed, red and gold banner thrown over his shoulders like some sort of ludicrous cape, self-satisfied smile pulling at his lips.
"Don't get used to it," Lily told him, swallowing her pride.
James's grin widened. "And what exactly would I, James Potter, be able to offer you, Lily Evans?"
"Will you stop talking like that?" she snapped. "I know our names, Potter, and I'm aware of the irony in my having to ask you for anything, so you don't have to point it out anymore."
"Ah, but I'm just surprised, is all, Evans. Last time we spoke you threatened to dismember me in my sleep, if I remember correctly."
"And right now I'm tempted to rip off my own arm, just for something to throw at you, Potter."
"But you'll restrain yourself, because you need a favor." He paused before adding gleefully, "From me."
Lily had the urge to walk away right then, but there was the unavoidable fact was that tonight was the last night that her modifications to Severus's potion would be possible; if the extra lacewing flies were added any later, they might make the potion unsafe to drink. She calmed herself and looked the boy straight in the eye.
"It's serious, Potter. I wouldn't be coming to you if it weren't."
Something in her tone must have gotten through to him, as his grin faded just a bit and he put his hands in his pockets, surveying her closely.
"All right. Let's hear it, then."
But Lily barely had a chance to respond before Jeremiah Peakes, a sixth-year Beater, had appeared from nowhere to sling an arm around James's shoulder and tousle his hair affectionately.
"C'mon, Potter!" he said, grinning down at James and not acknowledging Lily whatsoever. "Walker's lining up teams to play Imbibing Snap with some Agrippa's Ale that Beal smuggled in. We need another lightweight to offset Gudgeon. You in?"
James looked over at the boisterous group of Gryffindors by the fire who were unabashedly passing around brown bottles of ale and Exploding Snap cards. For a second, Lily thought he would brush her off, rush to join the center of the festivities, boast about being the only third year invited to join the group in their game. But he surprised her.
"Not tonight, mate," he said, ducking out from under Peakes's arm and giving him a jovial shove to the shoulder. He threw Lily a strangely surreptitious glance before adding, "Find Adamsly. I'm sure he's more lightweight than me."
"Next time, yeah?" Peakes said, giving a similar shove to James and disappearing to find a suitable replacement. James turned his attention back to Lily, who suddenly felt inexplicably awkward.
"What's Imbibing Snap?" she asked him.
He shrugged. "No idea." They both turned at the loud swell in cheering as Fiona Beal finished one of the brown bottles all in one go, a pile of smoldering Exploding Snap cards lying in front of her.
"Let's go in the corridor where it's quieter," James suggested, already moving toward the portrait hole.
"But it's after curfew!" The words had barely escaped Lily's mouth before she realized how stupid they sounded.
James just grinned at her and kept walking. "Exactly. So no one'll be out there but the Fat Lady, and she won't shop us out."
Lily had no choice but to follow him, and once they were safely in the seventh-floor corridor and the portrait hole had swung closed to block out the music and party from within, she felt moderately better. At least he was taking her seriously.
"All right," James said, leaning his back against the wall in front of her. "What's it that you need, then?"
"I –" She paused to make sure they were truly alone in the corridor. The Fat Lady was watching them curiously, but other than that, there was no one in sight. Nevertheless, she whispered when she said, "I need your help sneaking into the Slytherin dormitories."
She said it very fast. James stared at her for long enough that she wondered if he had comprehended her question. Then he frowned.
"Why?"
"There's a potion," she told him, trying to block out the thought of what Severus would do if he ever found out about this conversation. It would be the end of their friendship, undoubtedly. "There's a potion brewing there…and we've got to…I mean, I've got to mess it up. Keep it from its intended purpose."
James snorted, but it was humorless and dry. In fact, all traces of his previous good humor were now gone. "A potion?" he repeated. "Let me guess…it's the work of your dear friend Snivellus?"
"No," Lily lied quickly. "And don't call him that. It's…it's one of the other third-year boys, but I don't know which one. I just know it's being brewed in their dormitory."
"Then why don't you ask Snivellus to get rid of it for you?"
"He can't," she said, trying to keep the panic at bay. This had been a terrible mistake. There was no way James would do this for her, and even if he did, he would not keep it quiet. James Potter never kept anything quiet. "It doesn't matter about him, okay?"
James was no longer leaning against the stone wall, but was standing straight with his arms crossed once more. He still had the Gryffindor banner tied around his neck, but he may have forgotten about it, for all the attention he paid it. She thought absurdly of Muggle comic book heroes and their elegant, costumed capes. He raised an eyebrow and said harshly, "It doesn't?"
Then, for a moment, Lily was reminded of how angry James had become during their first lesson back after Christmas, their first lesson after the Fallen Five, when Lionel Marigold had tried to defend Voldemort's followers in Defense class. She swallowed hard and broke his gaze.
"No. It doesn't. It doesn't have anything to do with Severus, Potter. I just found out about it accidentally. I overheard something in the library that makes me think that someone is going to get properly hurt –"
"So go to a teacher."
"I can't go to a teacher. I'm…I'm not sure if I'm right about it or not." He remained staring at her, eyebrow raised. "Look," she said, about to admit defeat, "I came to you because I thought you could help me. There's a chance there's some really Dark Magic going on and I can't go to a teacher and I don't know anyone else that can get into the Slytherin dormitories like you can, but if you don't want to help me then just say so and we can forget this conversation ever took place and I'll –"
Something she had said made his eyes widen behind his glasses. "Dark Magic?" he interrupted. "It's Dark Magic, this potion?"
Now Lily faltered, wondering if she had said too much. "I…I don't know. It seems like it could be, yeah."
But James had straightened and steeled himself as if preparing for something. "Okay," he said easily. "What do I need to do?"
His sudden change in countenance had thoroughly discombobulated her. "We…what?"
"To get rid of the potion. Do you want me to just dump it?"
"Oh!" She bit her lip. "Well you can just show me how to get in and I can take it from there."
"Nope," he said quickly. "I'll help you with the potion, but I'm not giving you all my secrets, Evans. Tell me what I need to do and I'll do it…alone."
It had been a leap of faith, to trust James Potter with this information at all, but the idea of trusting him to carry out her plan entirely on his own was almost too much. Lily weighed her options. She could not get into the Slytherin common room without him, that much was clear, and if she waited any longer to act, her entire plan might be worthless and Darlene Burke would be the one paying the price.
"Okay," she said slowly, meeting his eye. "I have a vial full of boiled lacewing flies in my bag ready to go. All you need to do is add them to the potion before sunrise tomorrow morning. It'll make the effects of the potion harmless, for all intents and purposes." And Severus won't ever know that anyone tampered with it, she added silently to herself. He'll only think he miscalculated the timing of the lacewing.
"Before sunrise? Merlin, Evans, we're in the middle of a party here!"
"I know and I'm…" She swallowed. "…sorry…to pull you away from your celebration, Potter, but it's got to be tonight."
"It's got to be?"
"Yes."
"You're certain?"
"Yes."
He didn't seem annoyed. On the contrary, something about his face now hinted at his amusement. "Oh all right."
Lily stared. "I can trust you, Potter?"
"Trust me to add lacewing flies to a potion in the Slytherin dormitories?" James repeated, frowning as if seriously pondering the question.
"And to keep it quiet?" He grinned now and Lily once again fought back her panic. "And to not – I don't know – transfigure all their floors into ice or some rubbish like that while you're in there?" His grin widened. "Potter! Promise me that adding the lacewing flies is all you'll do when you're in there tonight."
James chuckled but nodded all the same. "I'll save the floor transfigurations for next time, Evans, you have my word."
"Thank you," she told him, meaning it, wondering why James Potter couldn't always be this…decent.
He shrugged as if it was no big deal, but looked rather pleased with himself nonetheless. They stood awkwardly for a few moments, both gazing around the corridor as to not look too much at the other, before James said, "Shall we go back in, then? You can fetch me the lacewing flies."
"Right," Lily nodded, making to follow him as he started to move back toward the portrait hole, but then a sudden recollection took hold and she blurted out, "Abracadabra!"
James froze and turned to look at her as if she were mad. "Huh?"
"Abracadabra," Lily repeated. She had meant to use it as some sort of trade or truce, if he had been difficult to convince. His willingness to help her sans bribery, however, had caused her to almost forget about the password completely.
His expression told her that she had just confirmed his previous suspicions about her sanity. "Are you trying to use a Killing Curse on me, Evans? Because you've got the incantation wrong."
"What? No. Abracadabra. It's the password to unlock the Sticking Charm on your Arrows posters. I got it from Gin earlier today."
"Abracadabra?"
"Yes. You've only got to point your wand at each poster and say it and they'll unlock."
"But there's about a hundred posters in there!"
"Well I never claimed it'd be a quick process, did I?"
"All right." He paused, looking her over. "You didn't have to give me the password just because I'm doing you a favor, you know."
"I know," Lily said, wondering again why she felt so inexplicably self-conscious. "But it's just…it's a nice thing you're doing for me, Potter. I reckoned I could do something…nice…in return."
"All right," James said again.
And as she followed him back into the common room, Lily could not fail to notice how red the tips of his ears were, nor how warm her own cheeks felt.
"There you are!" said Sirius, as James pulled him out of a crowd of Gryffindors several minutes later, the boiled lacewing flies now securely in his pocket. "Where've you been? Walker just had to down three bottles of ale in about a minute. Gudgeon's started taking bets on who'll get ill first." He lowered his voice. "I was thinking we could put money on Adamsly as the underdog and then –"
"Not tonight," James said, navigating to an out-of-the-way table. "And I wouldn't put money on Adamsly for anything…"
"Okay," Sirius shrugged, entirely unconcerned as he collapsed lazily into one of the study chairs. "Let's grab Moony and Peter, then, and take a spin with the rest of that firewhisky you've got stowed in your trunk from Boxing Day."
"Can't." James sat down next to Sirius and leaned in conspiratorially. "We're going out tonight. Need our wits about us."
This seemed to spark Sirius's interest. "Oh? Going out where?"
"The Slytherin dormitories. Evans has asked me to do her a favor."
Sirius stared at James for a moment before letting out a bark of laughter and shaking his head. "I'm not doing that with you. Are you mental?"
"Why not?" said James, taken aback by his friend's reaction. Sirius never turned down an opportunity to mess up the Slytherins' plans.
"Evans asked you. Now's your chance to…you know…impress her, or whatever."
"Impress her?" James repeated, dumbfounded. "What the bloody hell do I need to impress Evans for? And why does it seem like you already knew about this?"
"Because I did." Sirius tilted his chair back and grinned at James. "And you need to impress her because you bloody well fancy her, so stop pretending you don't."
"I don't fancy…"
"And she came to me asking about the Slytherin common room…"
"She came to you? When did this hap…"
"…and it was the perfect opportunity, wasn't it, to have to send her your way…"
"…could have at least given me a head's up…"
"…and you've got the cloak anyway…"
"…completely blindsided by the whole thing…"
"…so it's not as if I could get in there without you…"
"…and even if I did fancy Evans…"
"…which you do…"
"…it's not as if I would need your help to impress her…"
"…and so it completely defeats the purpose if I go along with you tonight. You're on your own for this one, mate."
James glared at Sirius, annoyed and not entirely able to discern what was annoying him so.
"You're an arse, you know that?"
Sirius's grin only widened.
Lily had thought that she was in for another sleepless night of tossing and turning and worrying, and though she had planned on going back down to the common room after the party ended to wait for James to return, she surprised herself by falling asleep and not rousing until the next morning, long after the sky had brightened into a dull, rainy day. She dressed quickly and waited in the common room for her fellow Gryffindors to make their ways down the dormitory staircases, but seeing as how the reveling the night before had continued well past midnight, the common room remained fairly deserted until late in the morning. When Adin finally appeared and insisted that Lily venture to the Great Hall to find some breakfast with her, Lily had still not caught sight of James.
In fact, she did not see him at all until that evening, when she was making her way from the library to the Great Hall for dinner and spotted him climbing one of the moving staircases near the trophy room. Abandoning her thoughts of the hearty beef and celery stew that was no doubt waiting for her at the Gryffindor table, she pivoted toward the staircase and hurried after him.
"Potter!"
He paused and turned to watch as she took the steps two at a time to catch up to where he stood toward the top of the flight, his broomstick thrown over his shoulder. Now that she was closer, she noticed that he was dripping water and mud across the stone stairs. Evidently, he had just come in from the Quidditch pitch.
"Where have you been?" she demanded stupidly once she had reached him. Her senses had apparently gone on to dinner without her.
James quirked his head and gave her a slightly mocking look. "I thought you had to be observant to be so good at Potions, Evans." He dislodged his broomstick from his shoulder and poked her arm with it. "Clearly I've been sweeping out the courtyard in the middle of a storm, just for the fun of it."
"Funny," said Lily, batting away the broomstick. "I meant, where have you been all day? I've been trying to find you since breakfast."
He shrugged. "Missed breakfast in the Great Hall because I was up late doing someone a favor, wasn't I? Had a late meal in the kitchens instead." For a second, he looked around, as if trying to detect a far away sound, and then without warning, he turned and hopped up the remaining stairs and onto the fifth floor. Lily stared at him but remained frozen.
"You better hurry," he said, looking down at her. "The stairs are going to move any minute now, and then you'll be stuck in the History of Magic corridor."
She heeded his advice and had only just stepped into place next to him when a loud creaking and groaning alerted them to his accuracy – the stone staircase was indeed moving away from where they stood, replaced by a common stone balustrade.
Lily tried to conceal just how impressed she was. "How did you know that was about to happen?"
James feigned a casual shrug and said mysteriously, "I can sense these things, is all."
For a moment, she was tempted to continue questioning him, but then she decided she had more important matters to get to, as it were.
"Did you do it, then?" she whispered. "The potion?"
"Of course I did it." He did not bother to lower his voice as she had, and she looked around the corridor in alarm, half-expecting to see Severus skulking by. "I told you I would, didn't I?"
"And you added all the lacewing I gave you? The whole vial?"
He nodded solemnly. "Every last poor little boiled bugger."
"And you didn't add anything else? And you didn't – I dunno – stir it or anything?"
"Just the flies, like you ordered, Sergeant Evans." He saluted her.
"And you didn't put any Dungbombs in anyone's socks or…I don't know…stink pellets in anyone's nostrils?"
"You've got a hard time trusting people, don't you, Evans?"
Only as of late, thought Lily somewhat resignedly. But instead, she responded, "Just making sure. I haven't got a clue how your mind works, Potter, but…thanks. Again, I mean. For helping me."
"You're welcome. Again," he said, smiling slightly. "And I'm off to wash up. I'm soaking wet and bloody freezing here, after all."
She nodded as he began to walk away, his broomstick once again propped against his shoulder, and she watched him for a moment before he turned back to her.
"Oi, Evans. You have got a clue, you know."
"What?" she replied, caught off-guard.
"How my mind works." He grinned and tapped at his temple with his index finger. "Transfiguring the floor to ice? Stink pellets in their nostrils? They're not bad ideas…not bad at all."
And then he turned down an adjacent corridor and was gone, leaving Lily all alone with an unsettled feeling in her hungry stomach. All she had to do now was wait for the potion to finish brewing. Only then would she know just how truthful James Potter was in helping her. But despite their history, despite his penchant for annoying her to no end, despite his hatred for Severus Snape, Lily found herself – against her own better judgment – trusting him.
And so she waited. As the Easter break began, she distracted herself by refocusing on her schoolwork and by actively avoiding both James and Severus, which was much easier when they did not have lessons to attend. It was not as though she felt guilty for destroying the potion that Severus had spent months brewing; in fact, she felt a righteous satisfaction that he and Evan Rosier would be so unpleasantly surprised by its results. She did, however, feel a certain twinge of guilt for who, exactly, she had recruited to help her in her plan. James Potter was a prat. It had been black and white to her for over a year. She did not like James Potter at all. He did everything he could to aggravate her, even going so far as asking her to Hogsmeade once, just to get under Severus's skin. He was arrogant, immature, and mean to her best friend. And yet he had been so willing to help her, so willing to trust her, so willing to do his part to foil Dark Magic when it was brought to his attention.
No less fuzzy were Lily's feelings toward Severus, whose actions of late she certainly did not agree with. He was no longer the boy who used to laugh and play with her at the park, no longer the boy whose eyes had lit up as he told her all about a new, magical world, no longer the boy who would let her win at chess from time to time, feigning ignorance when she called him out on his tactics. Now, he spent his free time messing around with the dark arts, brewing disgusting potions for sadistic, selfish boys like Evan Rosier. But he was still her best friend, and despite what Severus might claim otherwise, Lily knew he had always wanted to belong. She only wished he had tried to fit in with a more pleasant group of students. She was angry with him, but part of her knew that she could not blame him for the actions of his classmates.
Lily's nerves and patience were tested, then, when Severus pulled her aside in the corridor on the Friday of Easter break. She had been walking back from lunch with Adin, who rolled her eyes and waited for her halfway down the corridor.
"Meet me in the library in an hour," Severus told her, without so much as a greeting.
Annoyed, she was about to retort with a quippy remark, but faltered when she noticed his anxious expression. Instead, she asked, "What's wrong?"
"I can't tell you now," he said, glancing around at where Adin stood, examining her fingernails. He was paler than usual, his eyes darting about like a cornered animal. "An hour. In the Potions section, corner table."
"All right," said Lily, but he had already released her arm and swept off in the opposite direction.
Adin did not bother to ask what Severus had wanted as they resumed their walk, and Lily spent the following hour fretting that Severus had somehow deduced her role in destroying his potion. But that was impossible, she told herself as she waited at the specified corner table one hour later. Severus had no reason to think she was able to sneak into his dormitory, and had even less reason to believe that she would ever stoop so low as teaming up with James Potter. Her stomach squirmed guiltily at the thought and she tried to keep her expression innocent when Severus arrived, placing several old, moldy books on the table in front of her.
"I need your help," he said, sitting down himself and flipping open one of the stained covers to begin poring over.
She stared at him. "With what?"
He looked up at her now, stubborn yet vulnerable. His voice shook when he whispered, "I bungled the potion I was working on. The one for Rosier. I know you wanted me to flush it, but I didn't and it all went wrong. And I've got to figure out what mistake I made."
She breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't suspicious, though he was, apparently, pretty daft when it came to her views on this whole thing.
"You're joking, right?" she said, raising an eyebrow. "Why would you think I would want to help you with anything to do with that potion? Like you said, I told you to dump the bloody thing weeks ago."
He turned his gaze back to his book before muttering, "Rosier was just discharged from the hospital wing and Burke's still in there."
Lily's insides went cold. "Wh – what? Are they all right? What happened?"
He still did not look at her. "They drank the potion yesterday evening. Both of them. And it didn't work as intended."
She calmed herself with a breath. She had guaranteed the potion would not work as intended. Glancing quickly around the vicinity to ensure that no one was near, she whispered, "There's no way it could have poisoned them, Sev. A behavioral potion like that… Only the Vipertooth blood…and the monkshood should counteract… Even if you mis-brewed somehow, it wouldn't have been anything terrible…"
"It wasn't. But they both went…odd. Avery found them on the grounds, unable to stop laughing. Their lips were blue, but it wasn't cold out yesterday. Supposedly, they told Madam Pomfrey they had been practicing Cheering Charms on one another, though I'm sure she didn't believe them."
"Rosier drank it too?" Lily asked, confused.
Severus shrugged and flipped a page in the book, though he clearly hadn't yet read anything. "I told you, it's not my business what they do with it after I brew it." He paused before adding, "Avery says Rosier is out for my blood."
"And that's why you wanted to meet in this back corner instead of at our usual table?"
"I'm not scared of Evan Rosier, if that's what you're saying," he said brusquely. "But I need to know what went wrong, and I need to know fast. You're the only person who can help me."
Lily shook her head, amazed at his audacity. She crossed her arms, partially to hide her fidgeting hands from him. "I'm not helping you with this. No way."
"But –"
"No way," she repeated. "You got yourself into this mess, Sev. And I told you it wasn't going to end well, and thank God it ended up how it did, eh? No one got hurt terribly, and Darlene Burke didn't get taken advantage of, and…" She paused, hoping, praying, that she was a good enough liar that he would not see through her words. "…And I'm glad you bungled it. Maybe it'll teach you a lesson about fooling about with Dark Magic for snotrags like Evan Rosier."
Severus drew his lips into a thin line, and Lily knew the expression to mean he was angry with her, though she could not be bothered at the moment to care too much. After a moment, he said in a low voice, "I had started brewing a potion for Rabastan Lestrange –"
"Another one?" she interrupted him. "What kind of potion?"
"Hydration Tonics. For Quidditch training. He was going to pay me five Sickles a vial."
"Was?" she echoed, feeling the stirrings of guilt despite herself.
"Well he's not going to pay me anymore, is he? Why would anyone want to buy one of my potions now if they don't work as they should?"
Lily shifted in her chair. She hadn't wanted to mess things up so badly for him. "Well," she said slowly, her mind at work. "Well…what if you don't charge people for the first few vials, then. Let them see that they work?" She shrank back at the look he threw her. "No? Okay, well what if you sample them first, then, witnessed by whoever's buying. You can demonstrate the effects yourself, so they know they won't turn up after with blue appendages."
He glared at her before turning back to his book, and Lily allowed him to sulk in peace for a few moments.
"Hi, Lily!"
The sensation of her stomach flipping over alerted her to the owner of that particular voice before she had even turned in her seat. "Oh! Hi, Andrew."
From the corner of her eye, she saw Severus jerk his head toward her, but she kept her focus on the boy who now stood in front of her, a few library books under his arm and a broad smile on his face.
"I was looking up some books for a Slughorn essay when I saw you over here," Andrew said, indicating the books in his hand. "Thought I'd say hello."
"Hello," she said, grinning at him.
"Hello," he echoed, his own smile broadening.
"Hello," Severus said coldly. If Lily had been turned the other way, she would have kicked him under the table for his tone of voice.
"Oh." Andrew's grin faltered a bit as he nodded at Severus. "Hello, there, er –?"
"Snape." Severus's expression was venomous. "And you are?"
"This is Andrew, Sev," Lily cut in, hoping her cheerful voice could defuse some of the tension. "Andrew Adamsly. He's helping me learn Arcana, remember?"
"Charmed," Severus muttered, but Andrew's attention had already gone back to Lily.
"Helping you learn?" Andrew laughed. "You're playing circles round me these days, Lily. I'll be asking you for help in Potter's tournament tomorrow."
"I don't know about that," said Lily. "You're still loads better at the counting than I am, Andrew."
"Well how about one more lesson, then? Tonight after dinner?"
Lily's face was surely on fire but it did not prevent a wide smile from taking up residence. She tried not to sound too giddy when she said, "All right. See you then."
"See you then, Lily," Andrew said, starting to move away from their table. Then he paused and said awkwardly, "Uh, bye…" He seemed to have forgotten Severus's name.
"Snape," spat Severus again.
"Right. Bye, Snape," he said, but his eyes were still on Lily when he rounded the corner out of sight.
There was an ugly, lingering silence at their table, but Lily barely noticed until Severus's coarse voice broke it.
"He doesn't want to just be teaching you cards."
Lily looked up at him. "What do you mean?"
"That bloke. Adam or whatever."
"Andrew," Lily corrected. "Andrew Adamsly."
"He wants more than just to be your Arcana tutor. And why are you playing in Potter's tournament anyway?"
She ignored the accusing nature of his question and shrugged casually. "I'm good at it, Arcana. And if I win the tournament, I'll win enough gold to buy myself an owl, maybe some new robes, maybe a decent Christmas present for you next year," she said, nudging him.
He did not respond, but turned back to his book and began reading. Knowing how much energy it would take to attempt to cheer him up when he was in this sort of sour mood, Lily sat back and fiddled with the hem of her robes, her thoughts turning back to Andrew and the way he had smiled at her…
"You can go," muttered Severus after five minutes or so.
Lily broke out of her daydream and sat up straight. "I know, but I don't mind –"
"If you're not going to help me, you should go," Severus told her. "Your sitting here isn't doing me any good, and your fidgeting is distracting me."
Not in the mood to argue with him, Lily rose and grabbed her things. "All right," she said. "I've got someone I need to go talk to anyway. See you later, Sev."
He ignored her, his eyes locked on his book. She hesitated before reaching out and squeezing his shoulder as she passed by, allowing her hand to linger there even after she felt his flinch.
When Lily arrived in the hospital wing a little while later, she was surprised to see who was already present next to Darlene Burke's hospital bed – none other than Zelda Carmichael and Lelita Aubrey, Darlene's former friends.
"Evans," greeted Darlene, somehow looking as pristine and unruffled as ever, even while confined to the infirmary. Her lips were no longer blue, Lily noticed.
"What are you doing here?" snapped Carmichael.
Lily gave a nonchalant shrug and gestured toward the bag on her shoulder. "I brought you the finished Ancient Runes paper, Darlene. I thought you might want to review it one more time before we hand it in on Tuesday."
Carmichael narrowed her eyes at Lily and looked as if she were about to say something, but Darlene cut her off.
"It's all right," Darlene told her. "You can stay."
There was a sniff from Carmichael, who rose from her chair and dusted nonexistent lint off her skirt. "We'll just be going then, Dar." She jerked her head at Aubrey, who sprang up from her own seat at once. "I get enough of Ancient Runes in lessons. I don't need to witness the two of you prattling on about it during hols."
"We'll come back after supper," Aubrey assured her. She then added with a giggle, "If Evan isn't visiting you, that is."
"All right," said Darlene. "See you then."
"Bye!"
"Bye, Dar!"
Lily watched the two Slytherin girls exit. The door to the hospital wing had barely swung shut when she turned back to Darlene, who was watching her with a somewhat smug expression.
"'Dar' is it, now?" asked Lily, moving toward the hospital bed but not assuming one of the now-vacant seats. "What happened to 'Tartlene?'"
"We've made up," she said simply. "Zelda's going out with Marshall Avery now, didn't you know? She no longer cares about me and Evan."
"Is that right?"
Darlene raised an eyebrow. Lily sometimes forgot that that particular eyebrow was not permanently elevated in a skeptical arch. "I'm perfectly fine," Darlene said, straightening one of the sleeves on her robes. "If that's why you're really here. I'm sure Adin Balini sent you to get all the gossip on me, is that it?"
"No," answered Lily honestly.
"No?" Darlene repeated, the eyebrow traveling farther up her forehead. "Well someone's talking about me, then. How else would you know where I am?"
Lily did not look away. "I'm glad you're all right," she said. She extracted the Ancient Runes essay from her bag and handed it over. "And I did bring you the paper to take a look if you want. I've already reviewed it, but I may have missed something. I only just found that we had mistranslated 'hood' for 'foot' in the first paragraph."
"'Little Red Riding Foot?'" Darlene asked dryly.
"Sounds painful," nodded Lily.
There was a beat of awkward silence before Darlene said, "It was Snape, wasn't it, who made the potion for Evan? That's how you know?" Lily said nothing, which Darlene must have taken as tacit assent, so she went on. "I reckoned as much, though I didn't think he'd ever mis-brewed a potion in his life. Too bad, I guess, though my lips are back to normal and I'm not giggling like a mental person any longer."
Lily considered sitting down next to the bed, but thought better of it. Despite what they had learned about each other over the past few weeks, sitting next to someone's hospital bed suggested a level of friendship that Lily was certain they had not, nor would ever, reach.
"You knew what you were taking, then?" she asked.
"You mean did Evan try to lace my pumpkin juice?" A flash of a rare smile crossed her lips. "No, I knew what I was taking. We were both going to take it. For fun, you know?"
Lily stared. Everything – all the fretting and researching and plotting with James Potter had been entirely unnecessary. Darlene Burke had never been in any danger of being taken advantage of at all. In fact, she had been a willing participant. Lily had destroyed both Severus's prized potion and his reputation among his classmates for no reason. She suddenly felt rather ill.
"It was Dark Magic, though, wasn't it?" she asked, trying to justify her actions in her own mind.
This time, both of Darlene's eyebrows shot up. "Was it?" she said, entirely unconcerned. "Maybe a little, I guess. But not everything's so black and white as that, is it?"
Lily shrugged, feigning casualness when she really wanted nothing more than to get out of that room. "Take a look at the paper, though, will you? Before Tuesday?"
Not even batting an eye at the change of subject, Darlene nodded her response.
"See you later, Burke," said Lily, shifting her bag higher on her shoulder and moving toward the door of the hospital wing.
"See you later, Evans," she heard Darlene say, but Lily did not look back before pushing her way into the corridor.
She remained subdued for the rest of the day, and even her practice session with Andrew Adamsly that evening did little to cheer her up. It hadn't been her business, what Severus had been concocting with Rosier, and sticking her nose in had done nothing but mess things up for her best friend. Not to mention, if Severus ever discovered that it had been she who had engineered the ruination of his potion – much less, her involving James Potter in such a betrayal – their friendship would be over.
The only thing that was finally able to bring her out of her dour mood was the arrival of Potter's much-anticipated Arcana tournament the following evening. Such was the popularity of the card game (or, perhaps, of Potter himself), that Gryffindors of all ages had handed over the two Galleon entrance fee for a chance to be crowned winner. And as much as Lily longed to win the sackful of gold that awaited the champion, something was driving her fervor for the game more than just her desire to buy herself an owl. Arcana was an old wizarding game, prized by purebloods despite the general lack of magical power inherent in playing it. To beat her classmates with generations of prized magical ancestry behind them – and to beat them with the help of some Muggle maths as Andrew had taught her – felt oddly serendipitous. She wanted to show them, once and for all, that she belonged as much as anybody.
The first game moved quickly, and Lily emerged victorious after just nine rounds, which was the fastest of any of the concurrent games. While she waited for the others to end, she watched Andrew's game, and had difficulty not cheering aloud for him when he threw down the Miss to steal the winning hand out from right under Davey Gudgeon's pair of knaves. Davey was a good sport, and took to commentating on the later-round games in much the same way he commentated the Quidditch matches.
Lily's next two contests were harder fought. In the first, she took out a fourth year called Sturgis Podmore along with Fiona Beal, who growled low in her throat and stomped away angrily when Lily's triple eights took the win. In the next match up, she found herself face to face with Garrison Walker, a sixth year, and Sirius Black. Garrison grimaced down at his hand for the entirety of the game and ignored Sirius's incessant quipping. When Lily bested them both by waiting for Sirius to overplay his ace, Garrison merely shrugged and Sirius let out a bark of a laugh.
"Does this mean I get to watch you go up against James, then?" he said, looking around at the other matches that were still in play. "Brilliant. Where's Gudgeon? He's got to have some side betting going on…"
Lily watched as Sirius got up in search of Davey, who was indeed playing oddsmaker while commentating the final hand of a nearby game.
And thus, Lily found herself playing for the championship against none other than James Potter, Andrew Adamsly, and a fifth year called Barrett Merriweather.
"Merriweather's not as seamless of a player as his brother Linus was, but he's tricky with the Miss if he gets her," Davey was detailing to the group of Gryffindors who had gathered around their table to watch. Andrew started the deal. "Of course, no one's surprised Potter made it this far – good at everything, he is. Adamsly's been taking all our money at Arcana for years…why should this be any different? And then we have Lily Evans, like a dive-bombing thestral, no one saw her coming. Don't give me that look Evans, it's just an expression! And Potter leads the first round with a measly six…clearly trying to dump his useless cards early…Evans and Adamsly follow suit…you'd think Merriweather would want to steal this one, but he cedes it to Potter…unusual to win an opener with a single six…we're in for a good one, lads…"
James Potter had a competitive spirit. He liked to win, and had rarely experienced any other outcomes in his fourteen years. He was a natural at near everything – from flying to Hogwarts lessons to making friends to chess – and Arcana had been no exception. But he had never played against Lily Evans before.
She was very distracting.
He didn't know if she was doing it on purpose, that thing with her lip, but he had lost an early hand because he had been so busy actively trying to not look at her that he had failed to notice when Merriweather overtrumped him. Adamsly seemed to be managing better, the git, but James reckoned he had a fair bit of practice playing against Evans, as he was the one who had been training her for weeks. The injustice of this fact lingered in the back of James's mind, and he was so rankled by it that he nearly threw his kings too early.
Merriweather wasn't quite on the level of the other three, and Adamsly had been dealt several unlucky hands early that had almost certainly doomed him. Evans, though…Evans was good. She seemed to be better at counting or something than James was, though James, as per usual, had more natural talent, and was a bigger risk-taker with his cards than she was. He had been able to focus long enough to steal a hand out from under her with a pair of trump threes, and had kept his senses long enough to throw a useless eight when he knew she had to play the Miss. He only needed one more point…
But now she was doing that thing with her lip again and he couldn't remember for the life of him if the knaves had already been thrown…
They hadn't. She took the hand and won the round.
"Ha! Evans swipes it with a pair of knaves to keep the game alive!" said Davey Gudgeon from somewhere to the left of James, who chastised himself and kept his eyes glued to the cards that Adamsly was now dealing. "And Merriweather will lead them off. Tally is Potter, 6; Evans, 5; Adamsly, 2; Merriweather, 1. And it's still anyone's game…"
You're fine, James told himself. You still just need the one point and you've won. Evans may take the first trick – yep, there she goes – but you've only got to take four…oh bloody hell…has her neck been exposed like that all night? Is she doing that on purpose?
"If that was on purpose, that was brilliant," said Davey, and James's head snapped up to look at the self-appointed commentator. He was sitting atop one of the nearby tables, a head taller than the rest of the gathered crowd, his eyes glued to the cards thrown on the playing table. "Evans somehow knew Adamsly doesn't have any trump left and took the trick with trip-fours."
She took the next trick too, and the crowd was starting to grow louder in its support of her, but James stopped the bleeding and won the following. Merriweather looked for a moment like he might steal one out from under them, but Lily bested him with the Miss to take the hand.
"If anyone ever questioned whether Evans should be a Gryffindor, that should put your curiosity to rest," said Davey, who was now standing on the table in his excitement. "Throwing the little lady against a trump five takes goolies…which is ironic, I reckon, since she's the only one who hasn't got any…"
"Have you checked personally, Gudgeon?" called Sirius from somewhere behind James, and there was a swell of laughter.
It was all well and good for them, making jokes, thought James, as he tried and failed to avoid looking up at the redhead across from him. They weren't trying to win a bloody tournament against a witch who had clearly cast some sort of magnetic spell over them…
"And Evans takes the next to make it five-up," shouted Davey, much to the interest of the onlookers. James could feel the crowd push in around him. All he had to do was block her from one of the final two tricks and he'd still have a chance…
But James knew what was about to happen before it did. Adamsly led with a pair of eights and he had to follow suit with his tens. Lily was able to easily overtrump them both, leaving her to lead the final trick…
Lily threw her final card, a trump seven, and grinned triumphantly. Merriweather rolled his eyes and folded. Adamsly laughed and tossed a useless four atop the seven. James cursed. The queen in his hand was useless against her trump.
There was an uptick in noise as the gathered Gryffindors cheered and commented to one another on the game. Davey was upping the drama by waving his arms and hollering, "Evans wins, Evans wins! Evans takes the crown!" over the rest of them. Sirius was trying to pull Davey off the table to get him to pay up on his side bets. Merriweather muttered a gruff, "Good game," and then stomped away, while Adamsly was buoyed off by a group of laughing friends.
James and Lily were left for a moment at the table alone. For the first time since the match had started, he allowed himself to meet her gaze. She was grinning victoriously.
"How'd you know?" he asked her, reaching across the table to gather the strewn cards.
"Know what?"
"That I had busted trump."
"Ah." She leaned back in her chair and narrowed her eyes mischievously at him. "Probability, I guess."
"Probability?" he repeated, amazed. "You were counting from the start?"
"It's not cheating…"
"I didn't say it was."
"I was just being observant. I had the final two trump after Merriweather threw the five. That's why I brought out the Miss so early. I pay attention to these things, you know."
James stared at her for long enough that her cheeks reddened. This pulled him out of his daze and he reached under his chair for the bag of Galleons that he had stored there at the beginning of the evening. He slid it across the table to her.
"Forty-two Galleons," James said. "You can do the maths, if you want. Apparently you're good at it."
"That's all right," said Lily, taking the sack and standing up from the table. "I trust you."
"You do?" he asked, surprised.
She paused, as though mulling her answer over, as the Balini sisters, Raeanne, and Goomer all made their ways over to congratulate her. "Not really," she told him over her shoulder. "But I'll at least wait to count it until I'm in the dormitory."
And with that, she was ushered off in a swell of chatter and laughter, and James knew, without a doubt, that he had to admit what Sirius had been telling him for months…
That he, James Potter, had fallen (painfully, desperately, hopelessly) for Lily Evans.
It was strange, but after all the drama and worrying of the last several weeks, winning the house-wide Arcana tournament caused Lily to feel, not happiness, exactly, but relief. As her friends congratulated her, she felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she didn't believe it had anything to do with the sackful of Galleons that had just been handed to her.
"…amazing, the way you knew exactly when to throw trump," Kaia Balini was saying to her over the general din of the common room. "You'll have to teach me, Lily!"
"You can't teach good luck," said a male voice from behind her, and Lily spun around, her stomach dropping a bit. Andrew was standing very close to her, grinning from ear to ear. "And clearly that's the only way you could've beaten me that badly…pure, dumb luck."
Relieved to see that he was only joking, Lily tilted her head and said with feigned sincerity, "If only I had had a better teacher to impart their knowledge on me, perhaps I could have beaten you all in fewer hands."
This caused Andrew to laugh deeply, his eyes twinkling as they watched her. "Congratulations," he said, dropping the joke. "In all honesty, I didn't stand a chance that round. I'm glad you won."
"Thanks," Lily said. From the side of her eye, she noticed Adin and Kaia sneak away, giggling. She shifted the bag of gold awkwardly between her hands, and then remembered something. "Oh! I almost forgot…"
From inside the sack, she extracted two gold Galleons, which she held out for Andrew, but he did not take. "Your entrance fee," she reminded him. "I told you if I won, I'd pay you back your entrance fee, though I reckon you deserve a lot more than that for spending so much time helping me…"
He still did not take the gold from her, but grinned and shook his head. "Keep it. It's been fun, spending time with you."
Lily felt herself go red. "Really," she said, trying again to give him the money. "A deal's a deal…"
"I tell you what," he offered, raising his hands in submission but still not accepting the Galleons. "Buy me a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks during the next Hogsmeade visit, and we'll call it even."
"Oh," said Lily. She awkwardly dropped the coins back in the bag, her head suddenly feeling rather light. "All right, then."
Andrew's grin widened. He looked down at the floor momentarily, and then back at her again. "And, I reckon, if you're going to be buying me a drink, it'd probably make sense for me to buy you lunch."
"I reckon so," Lily replied, her voice a bit faint. She wondered if this was some sort of dream.
"And," he continued, "if we're having butterbeer together and eating lunch together, we might as well, you know, walk down to the village together. Maybe go round and visit some of the shops together as well?"
Her nerve caught up to her. "Andrew…are you asking me to Hogsmeade?"
He chuckled a bit and shrugged. "It makes logical sense, what with you having to buy me a butterbeer and all. I mean…if you're feeling…logical…"
And with that, she couldn't help but laugh as she nodded. "All right. I'll go to Hogsmeade with you. Who am I to resist…logic…after all?"
"Brilliant. I don't think the next visit's been scheduled yet, but I'll see you round before then, yeah?"
"Sounds good," she replied, completely unprepared for what came next. Though, to be fair, nothing could have prepared her for his lips brushing against her cheek, nor for the electricity she felt at the contact. When he straightened back up, he was also blushing, and Lily was almost glad when he walked away, as she was worried that her legs might not hold her up for much longer.
And with that, she knew that, she, Lily Evans, had fallen (wonderfully, magically, hopelessly) for Andrew Adamsly.