Hello everyone! So glad to be back and I'm hoping to post more chapters soon (I have the next three roughly written out and so am hoping to unload all of those at once to give you some reading for the time being). Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for reading!
"So, how's this cinema thing work?" James asked as he walked up the muggle street accompanied by Sirius and Peter, as well as an uncharacteristically enthusiastic Lily Evans. Remus was feeling sickly preceding the full moon, so he hadn't joined them.
"They use light to project a bunch of still images together on the screen and then it sort of comes together like it's right in front of you. It's called video." Peter tried to explain.
When his father was in his first year at Hogwarts, he had become fascinated with wizarding photographs. He had tried a few experiments incorporating reels of film into the potion which brought pictures of wizards to life with limited success. However, his love for films remained, and Peter had been dragged along to festivals and forced to endure endless lectures on the subject throughout his childhood.
"But how do they get them into the screen?" James always had a difficult time understanding inventions which used technology rather than magic. Sirius rolled his eyes as Peter tried to explain for the fifth time.
"We talk to enchanted paintings all the time, Prongs. Is it that far-fetched that a muggle box can put a picture to paper?"
"I told you, it's all to do with light." Peter tried to continue, but at that moment they arrived at the theater's entrance and James was no longer listening.
"What's it called again?" James asked Lily, who had stepped forward with muggle money in hand to purchase tickets for the group.
"Star Wars, it's supposed to be quite good." She said, handing the bills to a bored-looking teenager in an usher's uniform.
Needless to say, it was good. James and Sirius fancied themselves the next Han Solo while Peter admired Luke's ability to run into danger despite his background. Lily, of course, was most impressed by Leia.
"She carried the entire revolution on her back. Han only came in at the last second." Lily argued, but Sirius was not backing down.
"He was always going to come back. Plus, without him she would have been stuck on the big Death orb thingie. Come on Prongs, back me up." He said.
"Why didn't they just give Han the lightsaber?" James said, having not been listening.
"Because it was an heirloom from Luke's father. Han didn't even believe in it." Peter argued.
As the group continued to bicker over which character was superior, they heard a young man's voice slurring from an alley down the street from the theater.
"What's the matter?"
James' sensitive ears perked up at the threatening tone, and he glanced to his left bringing the rest of the group to a halt as he caught sight of two tall figures encroaching in on a smaller one.
A girl's voice spoke next, "No, please."
"We're just trying to show you a magic trick. You'd think your kind would love that sort of thing."
The sound of a slap followed, and James rushed in with Lily and the others close behind.
"What's all this?" James called out in a strong voice, his wand slipping out of his sleeve as he took in the scene.
The unfamiliar boys turned around, and Lily noticed that they wore mismatched muggle clothing of the punk variety. The taller one had a spiked blue mohawk and the shorter one had a long mop of greasy hair that dangled in stringy curtains around his face. They were also both unmistakably holding wands.
Upon spotting the group of approaching wizards, having seen James readying his wand, the aggressive boys tensed up slightly. Mohawk glanced back at his buddy with a look that said, "I've got this", and approached James.
"Come on bruv, we're just having a laugh. You understand?" The boy tried to grab James' shoulder in a friendly manner, but he shrugged him off.
"Leave the girl, and I won't harm you." James said, eyes flitting to their victim who was still cowering against the wall, clutching her cheek as it burned crimson red.
"I know you," Mohawk said after a moment, eyes turning to Lily then back to James with a laugh.
"No wonder you're defending this muggle. Hanging out with a mudblood will soften anyone's resolve, even a Potter."
James realized after that comment that he recognized the boys, two Ravenclaws about a year younger than him.
"You know me as well then, and so you must know that you're in the presence of a prefect," Lily said stepping forward to stand at James' side. "You wouldn't want to be expelled before the school year even begins, would you?"
The young girl was shaking, back to the alley's brick wall, eyes shifting between the people before her. It didn't help that the mohawked Ravenclaw wasn't backing down, the alcohol spurring him forward with a false bravado that his greasy friend didn't seem to share.
"Troy, maybe we should just-" Troy put a hand up, silencing his friend.
"A couple of kids messing around in some random muggle town or a prefect using magic in front of one of them." He spat out the word them with venom, jerking his head towards the terrified muggle girl. "I wonder what headline will garner more attention?" He said, taking a last swig from his flask and shoving it into his back pocket, wand arm fully extended now, eyes dangerous.
Before Lily could come up with a response, Sirius stepped forward.
"Personally, I think the bigger headline will be two wizards who got found so beaten and bloodied they couldn't remember a thing as to the identity of their attackers, not that anyone particularly cared. They were a couple of arseholes anyway. Still, it was so sad to see them spend the rest of their miserable lives in Ward 49 of St. Mungo's."
Even the taller boy was looking nervous now as Sirius pointed his wand straight at his heart, nothing but darkness behind his eyes.
"Last chance, leave the girl or you're going to have bigger problems than expulsion." He said.
"Come on Troy, let it alone." The shorter boy spoke up, a dark mirror of Peter who was shaking himself behind Sirius' bold and straight-backed form.
"Whatever, come on." Troy said, slinking out of the alley and leaving the girl to glance between the teens who had saved her, although there was still a calculated mistrust behind her eyes.
"Are you ok?" Lily tried to step forward, but as soon as the danger had passed the girl sprinted past the group into the dark night.
She kept glancing back, as if expecting them to give chase, but they remained still, just watching as she disappeared around the corner. None of them blamed her for not wanting to stick around and chat.
Lily glanced up at James, trying to meet his eyes as he did his best to remain stoic. Sirius was busy berating Peter for "sniveling in the back like a bloody coward".
"It's getting worse, isn't it?" She said, so quietly that only James could hear her.
He didn't answer, instead putting an arm around her shoulders as she leaned into his touch. They returned to their respective homes that evening with a solemn air. Peter was restless, tossing and turning in his bed as flashes of green and red light filled his dreams. James, as was usual when he was restless, lay straight on his back, eyes wide open, tapping his bare foot against the bed with nervous energy. Sirius slept fitfully, used to getting rest in less-than-ideal circumstances. Lily, in a bed not her own, was not unlike James although she showed her restlessness by rolling around in her sheets until she lay in a tangle of cotton and silk. Huffing with frustration, she removed herself from the bed of knots and made her way downstairs.
Lily wandered in shortly after James, who had decided after a frustrating hour and a half that he wasn't going to get any rest out of staring at the ceiling. He was sitting at the kitchen table fiddling with a snitch as he so often did. Lily tried to turn around before he caught sight of her, but his ears never failed him.
He tried to act casual as he spoke up, alerting her to his knowledge of her presence, "Can't sleep?"
"Not really. Sorry, I just came down to fix myself some tea."
"Don't let me stop you." James said, inviting Lily into the kitchen and helping her begin to set the kettle up on the stove.
As they waited for the tea to steep, James grabbed two cups along with the kettle and the two young wizards sat back down at the kitchen table. After a few moments of silence, James, tapping his fingers like a discount drummer, spoke first.
"Not the first evening we've spent like this."
Lily smiled lightly. "As I recall last time you were rather bothered about quidditch."
"Can't say that's completely gone away," he said with a smile that sunk as his mind drifted back to the events of the day, "but I guess you could say priorities shift. Don't let the team know I said that though, gotta keep morale up."
"Oh of course." Lily said, joining James in keeping the tone light after the emotional events of the evening.
They ended up sitting in the kitchen for far longer than either of them had intended, their tea having long ago become nothing but leaves in the bottom of their cups as the sound of a third set of footsteps greeted the two young wizards.
"We having a party?" Sirius said, voice still laced with sleep in the early hour.
"May as well, not like any of us are going back to bed at this rate." James said, treading lightly into his father's study to grab a bottle of his good whiskey to share with the others.
The man himself descended the stairs on his way to work shortly after this decision was made, and he chuckled at the boys' antics informing them politely that their mother was coming down the stairs in just a few minutes and they would be ill-advised to remain in the house with the booze when she arrived.
This encouraged the group of them to make their way out onto the lawn, quickly roping Lily into a game of drunken quidditch before passing out in the tall grass, sleeping the remainder of the afternoon away following their sleepless night. James couldn't help but gaze at Lily's peaceful smile as her eyes remained closed, soft breathing coming from her slightly parted pink lips. His own eyes began to close as he allowed sleep to take him, his snoring pulling Lily from such a deep slumber that she and Sirius had no choice but to drag James' sleeping body to the edge of the lake on his family's property and throw him in all at once.
James came up from underneath the water, spluttering and putting on a grand show of fury as he chased the others around the lawn attempting to return the favor. The antics continued for the rest of the evening until James had long since dried, nothing but grass stain left with which to threaten the others. While the group basked in the joys of being young, the itch of what was sure to come played in the back of their minds. After all, just the night before they had witnessed a horrific crime, a crime which reminded them of a certain dark wizard who remained at large with plans to end the lives of countless innocents just because of his distaste for their blood.
Walking into the house for dinner following the afternoon of revelry brought the teens a stark reminder of that reality.
James' parents whispered voices in a kitchen normally so full of noise created confusion in the young man who couldn't help overhearing his father speaking the dreaded pseudonym that wizards everywhere had begun to fear.
"What about You-Know-Who?" James called out, his parents looking up in shock, having not noticed the arrival of the group amidst their troubling conversation.
Mr. Potter looked more tired than James had ever seen him as he did his best to deflect the question with his usual charm.
"It's nothing, James, nothing for you to worry about." He said.
"It's going to affect us soon enough, isn't it?" James countered.
His father paused, glancing at his wife, who nodded solemnly. "A ministry man, a good friend, was caught working for him." Mr. Potter said, sliding a special edition of the evening prophet across the kitchen table.
James looked at the paper, Sirius approaching in order to read over his shoulder. Lily watched the whole thing unfold, remaining silent in the background. The headline read:
Breaking News: Marcus Fawley Convicted in Recent Spying Scandal
"Mr. Fawley?" James said, not bothering to read on at the sight of the familiar name. "But, I mean, I know he was less evolved on blood purity than us, but he was never-"
"They caught him torturing a pair of muggle children, on You-Know-Who's orders. Their father was a wizard and I suppose the genes didn't take. He said it was a waste of wizarding blood to exist in someone who couldn't even do magic. Life in Azkaban."
Horrified, James just gaped at his father.
"It is getting worse." He said, eyes flitting to Lily who had stayed silent throughout the conversation.
"It's been bad for a while James." Mr. Potter said, running a hand through thinning hair which only remained due to the nature of the potions he created. "They're getting bolder that's for sure, but You-Know-Who has been growing his power quietly for years now. And we're all paying the price for not paying enough attention."
"How much power do you think he has in the ministry?" James asked.
"That's hard to say. There's the imperious curse of course; they've discovered a couple of those already," James glanced at Sirius, having a hard time believing forbidden magic was being practiced right under the ministry's very nose. Sirius looked away from his far more naïve friend, memories drifting back to the feeling of electricity coursing through his veins cast upon him by his own mother.
Mr. Potter continued, "honestly, son, it's becoming almost impossible to tell these days, and with Fawley of all people-"
Mrs. Potter stepped forward, eyes on Lily who had still not spoken.
"It's a few bad seeds, that's all. How many pureblood families do we know who are fighting against this rubbish? The Weasleys, the Prewetts, and even the Bones family, stodgy as they come."
"And how many more do we know that are involved?" Sirius spoke up. He had remained silent like Lily, brooding within his own mind before he couldn't remain silent anymore.
Mrs. Potter turned to him, "Sirius, we can't seriously give up on our belief in respectable wizards because a handful of radicals…"
"A handful? There's at least twenty-eight families I can point you to Mrs. Potter. Believe me, I've had dinner with them. They might be too cowardly to organize this rubbish on their own, but every one of them would be eager to get in line behind someone saying they'll make a change. They've just been biding their time waiting for someone to say all the stuff they've been thinking in the shadows for years."
"Be that as it may, the number of purebloods has drastically decreased-"
She tried to argue again, but Sirius wasn't backing down.
"It's not just purebloods; that Ravenclaw bloke we saw in the village is halfblood, and so are a lot of people I know who I wouldn't trust to keep their heads on straight the minute someone more powerful sticks a wand to their throat. How can you not see what's happening right before your eyes?"
"Sirius Black," Mrs. Potter interrupted his tangent, and Sirius winced as the sour name came off her tongue.
Even still, he stepped forward, not noticing Lily shaking behind him as James did his best to bring her some subtle comfort with a light graze at the small of her back. He didn't notice Mr. Potter's glare of warning and he flat out ignored Mrs. Potter's fury.
"All I'm saying is I think I know a little bit more about pureblood mania than the Potters."
And with that, Sirius shoved past Mrs. Potter before she could speak another word, and James chased after him.
Lily remained in the room with James' parents for a beat before muttering "pardon me" with a sniff of her nose as she made her way up to the guest room.
"Padfoot, what was all that about?" James called out to Sirius who was sitting on the steps of the mansion staring blankly ahead.
"I found a flat in London." He said.
James almost reeled back with the shock of this revelation. "You're not serious?"
"I think we've established that by now," but James didn't laugh at the old joke.
Sirius took a moment to think before speaking again.
"I can't stay here Prongs."
"I don't understand. If this is about my mother, she's not gonna kick you out because of some politics, although an apology wouldn't be out of place."
"I know, but that's not it. You know I went to Alphard's funeral last week?"
"Yeah, sure." James said.
It had been a solemn occasion, but Sirius had insisted on going alone. He made a sly comment about James getting to have some alone time with Evans before flooing away with an easy-going smile.
"No one was there except for me and Andy." James waited for Sirius to elaborate, but he just sat there for another moment, allowing that thought to be carried away on the breeze that passed over the Potter's front lawn. "Anyway, he left me a lot of gold Prongs, more than enough to get myself settled. So, I figured it was time to leave the nest."
"Yeah?" Sirius didn't reply to the question, and so James held every feeling welling up inside within his chest and sat next to his best friend on the edge of the mansion steps. "Well, alright. London's only a floo away, isn't it? It's not like it'll change anything."
Sirius didn't look at James, but his best friend knew him well enough now to see the subtle ease of the tension in his jaw at James' calming words.
"You do have to apologize to mum though." James said next, eliciting a chuckle from Sirius.
"Yeah, whatever, beats being cast out from two families I suppose."
After one more morning of Mrs. Potter's delicious cooking and about a thousand insistences on returning for Sunday dinner, Sirius glanced back one last time at the place that he had managed to call home. Family life wasn't for him, he had reasoned, and although he felt good about striking out on his own, he supposed showing up once a week for Mrs. Potter's cooking couldn't hurt. He smiled brightly at the thought as he apparated from the country back into the city that, although holding a number of bad memories, was far more familiar than the empty spaces that surrounded the Potter mansion.
Within that home, the sound of an old door's creaking hinges brought James out of his stupor.
"You alright?" Lily said, entering James' room for the first time since the beginning of her stay.
He was staring at a book, although it didn't seem like he was taking in any of the words on the page.
She glanced around the area, curiosity overtaking her. She took note of the Puddlemere United posters adorning the walls, along with the quidditch handbooks lining the shelves. None of this surprised her, but she was surprised by how neat the place was, not a sock on the floor or a speck of dust atop the shelf. She would credit the house elf if James had one, but he had told her on her first day that, much to her surprise, his family saw the practice as outdated. The mystery of James Potter increased in this moment, but she only had a second to take it all in before he spoke up.
"Yeah, it'll be good for him, being on his own."
"What's good for him doesn't have to be good for you." She replied, and James thought it was a very wise thing to say.
"I know that. I just want what's best for him." He winced at the fact that his response didn't share Lily's grace. "I just got so used to the idea of being real brothers, somehow I forgot." He finished.
"I know what you mean."
She didn't elaborate and James didn't ask.
"Ok," Lily clapped her hands together, and James glanced up to give her his full attention. "I'm still here at least for a few days. Let's do something fun all right?"
"Another movie night?" James said with a smirk.
"No. Maybe Diagon Alley? You could see if Sirius is up for it."
"I'll have to see if he can take time out of his busy schedule." James joked.
James and Lily who had over these past few weeks of a rather strange summer grown closer to the concept of friends than anyone had ever deemed possible in the previous years, shared a sincere laugh for the first time either of them could remember. Lily grew bashful at the realization, and although James remained cool on the outside, his stomach was tumbling over itself with the understanding that he had spent three whole weeks with Lily Evans without chasing her away.
"Well, I'll see you at dinner." Lily said, exiting the room without her initial grace which James didn't mind one bit.
He went back to staring at his book, but although it was for different reasons than a few minutes before, he still didn't read a single page.
Sirius Black, meanwhile, arrived at a studio flat in London. He was a solid three miles from the place he had once called home, a must when he was looking for new lodging. He was also living in a heavily muggle-populated neighborhood, not something he had intended but not something he was opposed to either. As he stuck the key into the lock and turned it, he paused for just a moment realizing that he was truly on his own now. He entered the room as this thought raced through his mind, shedding his enchanted leather jacket, and tossing it to the floor. He sat on the edge of an empty mattress, and on the one piece of furniture in the room, a bedside table, he set two pictures side-by-side. One was of a dark-haired boy with glasses and an encapsulating grin. The other was of a dark-haired boy with a haughty smirk and darkness in his eyes. No, he wasn't alone he supposed, even in the current emptiness of the apartment he knew that soon enough the raucous laughter he had grown so accustomed to would return.