Anything that rings a bell belongs to JK Rowling

Chapter Thirty Nine: A Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love

Lily couldn't believe she was willingly helping someone get ready for a date with Sirius Black. What was a greater surprise was that she was happy about it. She's not sure what happened, but these past few weeks Sirius seemed to stop walking around as if he was Hogwarts prize peacock, and it made him ten times more tolerable.

She was currently searching for her scarlet cardigan that she had left in the common room some nights ago. She thought it would go well with the little black dress she and Jude had picked out for her date tonight. She spotted it behind her favourite armchair, enjoying the unfamiliar serenity of the usually bustling communal space as most of everyone was down at dinner.

As if her thought had taunted the universe into retaliation, at that precise moment a cacophony of activity dismantled the pretty picture she found herself in.

The portrait swung open to reveal one of her best friends, Aiza Shafiq, who clambered in and hurtled through the room towards the boys dormitory, swinging the door open before Lily could even say a word.

She was further surprised into silence by the charging of a large black dog through the door her friend now held open, who took the room in three great strides and was out of the portrait hole which had been slowly closing itself.

Lily was flummoxed.

She didn't have much time to be though, as following thunderous footsteps and shouts, Remus and Peter surged into the common room, "Padfoot!"

The boys looked desperately around and Lily groaned, cottoning on what happened, "You snuck a dog in! You know they're not allowed! I expect better from you, Remus!"

The sandy haired boy didn't seem to care a stitch about what Lily thought of him at this moment, his hazel eyes roving the room, taking deep breaths, helping him both calm down and recover from his sprint down here, "Where…where did he go?"

"That's not important, where is James!" Aiza snapped out of her stunned state, "Remus, I need James."

There was something in her voice that made them all forget about the large black dog which was now loose in Hogwarts.

"He's… he's busy." Remus looked desperately at the portrait hole, clearly conflicted between running after that dog or staying and helping Aiza.

The girl made his decision for him by closing the distance between them, clutching his arm, "Remus, please, it's important, you need to tell me where he is, right now." Lily had such empathy for the boy in that moment, as he took in the expression of the girl he clearly still had great feelings for, and for the thousandth time she pondered why her friend would ever break up with a boy who seemed to love her so well.

"The…the portrait of the star-crossed lovers." This seemed to be the wrong answer, as Aiza let out a sound that was half-squeek and half-growl and thundered out of the room.

They all followed, "Why do you want Potter?" Lily asked as the boys next to her were whipping their necks back and forth in search for their canine friend, they were annoyingly distracting in this state, "The dog's probably headed for the Great Hall!"

"Why would he do that?" Peter asked, gobsmacked.

"Well it's dinnertime, I imagine it wants food!"

"But today is fish and chips, he hates fish and chips."

"You've fed your dog fish and chips!" Lily stopped running, they were almost at the end of the corridor, glaring at Peter, she didn't know what was worse, that they snuck a dog in, or that they were not properly caring for it.

Definitely the latter.

"Good Godric is that Black!" Aiza's hands found her mouth as she stared down the corridor in front of her, she was leading their little pack and had come to a 'T junction', she in the centre, "Merlin, he's naked!"

This seemed to be the stimulant that Remus and Peter needed and they rushed forward to where Aiza was looking in varying shades of dread.

Lily followed, more out of curiosity, and a little amused. She knew she accused Sirius of treating this castle like his own personal playground, but walking around in his birthday suit was taking it a bit far. Just when she thought he was behaving a bit more like a normal person, he does this!

Remus reached the painting first, which must have been where Aiza saw Sirius. It was a vertical landscape of the night sky, and he used his forefinger to swipe a star across from one constellation to another so quickly that Lily was annoyed that she didn't have enough time to conclude which constellations were involved when the portrait flung open.

"STOP!" A girl's voice shrieked.

"Mate, what the hell! Sirius! Pad-" Potter's words were cut off by Sirius who had him pinned against the wall, his hands about his throat.

For the second time today, Lily found herself conjuring clothese for Sirius Black, this time black track pants that she made wrap about his bottom half, whilst Remus practically flew across the room to seperate his feuding friends.

Lily made to help, but became completely distracted by Aiza who launched herself at Azura Carmichael, who was clad in the tiniest nightie known to man, her fake red hair in dissaray as she sat gaping on the large bed. It looked like Sirius had interrupted something, and Lily glanced about the room, catching the half eaten food at the table, the large vase of red roses, the champagne flutes, the lit candles…

"You sick bitch!" Aiza had slapped Carmichael right across the face, and then grabbed her by the hair and yanked her to the ground, successfully snapping Lily back to attention.

It was complete and utter chaos.

Remus looked desperately at the new fight that emerged, subsequently loosening his grip on Sirius who he had just managed to pull off Potter.

With his friend distracted, Sirius roughly pushed Potter against the wall, "Don't you dare touch her! Her scent's all over you! What were you doing!"

James returned the shove with added aggression, a vein in his temple throbbing that Lily had never seen before, "Touch her! She's MY girlfriend! Azura belongs to me!"

Sirius snarled, "SHE'S MINE!"

The girl in question had just recieved another slap from Aiza, who had her pinned on the ground.

Remus looked for Peter, who had been cowering in a corner, "Seperate them!"

The shorter boy stood to command, and rushed toward the other fight, but caught a sharp elbow to his face from the girls whose long arms and legs were flailing everywhere.

Lily shook her head, and these lot were all meant to have grown up in the magical world!

"Alarte repellendum"

All three boys were pushed away from each other.

"Petrificus partialus"

She placed the partial body bind on Sirius and James, and the image it produced, surprisingly, made her feel sick to her stomach. Their faces frozen in fury and hatred for the other, arms now unmoving, but outstretched as if they were about to start brawling again.

What on earth was going on?

With the boys seperated and frozen in place, Remus had managed to pull Aiza off Carmichael, the slender girl much easier to restrain than his friend who was half a foot taller than him.

"I will fucking kill you!"

"Aiza!" Lily scolded her friend who was practically feral, her legs thrashing about as if to kick any part of Carmichael she could reach. Lily just realised that the seventh year's lip was cut open and and her upper arms had long scratch marks down them.

Whatever look was on Lily's face seemed to calm her friend down, as Aiza slackened in Remus' arms, a defensiveness in her almond orbs, "She's got James on a love potion!"

"What!" The room thundered in unison.

"Yeah! She's been duping him for weeks!"

"No, Sirius checked." Remus looked dazed, glancing at the stationary statues that were now his best friends. "He had that theory and he has been eating some of James' food for…" He stopped talking…and let out a sound as if he had been punched in the stomach, his eyes widening as something dawned on him, "Peter knocked over Sirius' shampoo this morning. Sirius just had a shower… he must have used James'… you put it in the shampoo?"

"That's not possible." Lily folded her arms, growing angrier as what Carmichael may have done was slowly sinking in, "Any good love potion would require ingestion. And Potter hasn't shown any signs of being enchanted, Sirius, sure, but… oh God." Lily was running the calculations in her head, "Actually, I guess there is entry into the blood stream via hair follicles, and skin…but that would be an incredible amount of alterations for any known love potion to actually work, you'd have to subsitute ingredients as well since the mode of entry is different." She narrowed her eyes at the girl who was still sat on the ground, remaining very still as if she was prey that could evade predators by doing just that, "And you don't even take Potions for NEWTs…there is no way you could have come up with something like this."

"She didn't." Aiza spat, wriggling in Remus' arms and the boy tightened his grip. Lily had never seen her friend lose her cool like this, and she was quite surprised. She knew that she and James had grown up together, that their parents were best friends, but neither of them acted like they liked each other very much, but it was clear that the girl had great feelings for the boy. Lily wondered how she would feel if she found out that someone had been drugging Severus, and she suddenly understood her friend's rage. "It was Snape."

"What?" That cut through Lily's thoughts like a sword through her back. "Sev helped Carmichael brew this?"

Aiza scoffed, "Helped her brew it? He sold it to her, he has been selling illegal potions all year."

"What!" Lily physically stepped back, repelled by the news.

"Polyjuice, love potions, Felix felicis, draughts of the living death, you name it, he sells it. How do you think he knew the antidote to that gender changing potion Jude got attacked with last year, he was the one that brewed it!"

"No." She muttered, "No, no he would have told me. We went to him…He would never…he wouldn't… if he's caught he wouldn't just get expelled, it's illegal to brew those for non-academic purposes, you need a license…they're regulated!" Lily advanced on Carmichael who scampered away and she questioned for the hundredth time how this girl was placed in Gryffindor, "Did you get this from Severus?"

Her fake green eyes flickered to a frozen Potter, and she swallowed, and Lily could almost see her cogs turning, "Yes."

Lily's nose was burning as she felt a rush of emotions flood through her but she kept her tears at bay. She didn't know how Sev managed to find new ways to hurt her, to constantly put her in these predicaments where she kept having to choose between what is right, and him. They'd have to tell McGonagall, they can't keep this from her, Carmichael deserves to be punished, there needs to be repercussion, but in doing so, Sev would be found out, definitely expelled, possibly arrested…

She jumped as they heard a loud thumping at the door, they all looked at each other. Lily was closest, and walked over and opened it a fraction to send the person away, but it was pushed open forcefully and Jude ran into the room, Mary behind her.

"James!" The petite girl clutched her tummy as if she was going to be sick, a wild look in her sparkling eyes, and Lily frowned, she and Potter were not close, were they? "Sirius!" Jude rushed forward to the boys who stood like soldiers frozen in battle, "What's happened?"

"They're okay, we had to freeze them. Azura's drugged them with love potion, it was in their shampoo." Remus' delivery was swift and plain, and Jude blinked a few times, processing his words, and then turned to Carmichael, so many emotions flickering on her face.

"It's not even the worst thing she's done!" Lily noticed that Aiza was no longer squirming to untangle herself from Remus, she actually had her hand on his forearm around her waist, almost as if they were cuddling, but she thought neither of them realised this, "She's taken a fertility potion. She was planning on getting herself pregnant tonight."

The room fell silent, and somehow Lily only just registered a wireless was playing, but she couldn't even process the lyrics, focusing only on what Sev had done.

"Why?" Jude's voice cracked, "Why would you…why would you do this to him?"

Azura shot up, holding herself defiantly, "I'm not standing here and listening to you lot. Take that spell off Jamie!"

Lily rolled her eyes, what kind of pathetic adult witch can't cancel a spell, "You don't get to make demands, Carmichael!"

"Oh shut up, Evans!" The girl spat with venom and Aiza launched at her again, but Remus flexed his arm and contained her in his iron hold. Never good at not getting her way, the girl grabbed the champagne bottle next to her and threw it across the room, missing Carmichael by a foot but shattering against the wall impressively.

"Okay! We're going to McGonagall!" They had to get Aiza out of here before she ended up getting in trouble as well. The girl was never this reckless, Lily didn't know what was going on with her!

"Fine. But if we go to McGonagall, I'm telling her everything."

Lily's lips quivered, could she really get Sev in this much trouble? No! He got himself into this mess…but nobody actually got hurt… will the punishment fit the crime? He always lamented at the fact that these boys got away with everything, and it was true that they did to an extent. Dumbledore was always soft on them, but would he be the same way for Sev, who was hanging out with the wrong crowd and didn't have influential parents to protect him?

Sensing Lily's hesitancy, Carmichael continued, "I'm telling her how I caught Mary MacDonald buying a love potion off Severus Snape at the start of the year. One she was planning on using on Sirius Black. And she begged me not to say a word, and then convinced me it would be a good idea to prank Judalia Devon with Gender Changing potion, something that almost caused her death through an allergic reaction."

They all turned to their mousy friend, who had been suspiciously quiet these past few minutes.

"Mary?" Aiza's voice was soft, and unsure. "What?"

The girl backed herself up against a wall, looking from Lily, to Aiza, clearly only caring about their response to this news, "I… I…I caught Snape stealing from Slughorn's potions stores during a remedial lesson. He begged me not to say anything, and I didn't ask him for the love potion, he gave it to me, told me he'd brew me more if I kept his secret and…" She then looked at Sirius, and slumped against the wall, almost sliding down to the floor in defeat, "I just wanted him to notice me…"

"Oh Mary." Lily couldn't understand why the girl would do this! Aside from the moral implications, she ought to know that what she was procuring was just a fantasy, why would she want that?

"And I didn't convince her to hurt Jude!" She looked pleadingly at the girl, who was still stood between James and Sirius, almost protectively, but Lily couldn't tell who she was protecting from whom. "Carmichael told me she wanted to prank her to impress James and she just told me to leave the room door unlocked for the night. I had no idea what she was going to do!"

"But you knew it wouldn't be something good." Aiza stated, disappointment leaking off her lips.

"Anyway," Lily turned away from her friend, there was only so much disenchantment she can take, and didn't like the idea that Carmichael thought she could get away with this, "Mary just received the potion, she didn't use it, and she left our room unlocked, big deal! She's not going to get into any significant trouble, so your ploy to keep our mouth's shut won't work."

"Or did she use it? Did she maybe put it in a box of Sirius' favourite chocolates that Peter got into a few weeks ago? Snape knew the potion was meant for Black, everybody know's she's obsessed with him, and how smart of him to use a mule for his work, tell the silly girl that it was a love potion and sneak him poison instead."

"NO!" Lily shouted, affronted at every brushstroke the girl was painting with her words.

It was one thing to think her friends were meddling with regulated potions, but plotting murder?

Mary shook her head profusely, "I…I…I didn't! I would never!" Her brown hues met Lily's, pleading for her to listen, "I…I mean I did put them in chocolates. But it smelled like Sirius, his shampoo, his cologne, his favourite chewing gum… it smelled like love potion..I think." She looked around, confusion falling on her features.

"Oh Godric." Lily settled into a nearby chair, suddenly feeling faint. So not only did Sev almost ruin James' life by forcing him to have a child with a girl who was drugging him, but he also tried to kill Sirius. She knew he loathed the boys…but to this extent? "Peter. Peter the note you found with the box of chocolates…the writing didn't match anyone in the school, right? So no, it couldn't have been Mary."

The boy's face scrunched up, using all his power to remember… "Actually…now I think about it. It was Sirius' favourite chocolates… and I found them in the pile of owl post we got that day. Mrs Potter always sends us loads of snacks at the start of term. I had looked through the cards that accompanied the packages, but they weren't attached to them…so I could have swapped them… that note really could have been from anyone, and I don't know for sure if it was attached to that box." He scratched his head, stressed and bewildered.

"Well, we just have to go upstairs and look through them then!" Lily added, "If we find Mary's chocolates and note then we'll know it's all fine."

"Well they took all of that into evidence." Remus said, "Actually they inspected it all, and there were no traces of anything in any of the other packages. So if you're saying that you did put a potion into chocolates and sent it to Sirius at the start of term… then it can only be the one that Peter ate…"

"I…I had no idea!" Mary was distraught, "He said it was a love potion!"

"It wouldn't matter." Remus looked at the girl with shades of pity in his fury, "We'll have to tell Mr Potter. He and Dumbledore have increased security because of this incident. The amount of ministerial resources going into this, it would be the height of negligence not to say."

"But Mary wouldn't just get expelled, she'll have to be put to trial. She may be arrested for this!" Aiza was observing Remus very closely, trying to guage his response.

"I'm sure they'll be lenient." He said curtly, but Lily, as disappointed as she was in her friend, didn't think they should be rash.

"This decision isn't urgent. What is, is getting these boys an antidote, I have no idea how long this will be in effect. I'll go to S…" She couldn't even say his name, "I'll get the antidote. You stay here and keep an eye on things, just don't do anything yet, please, Remus."

He nodded once, "I suppose Sirius and James should have their say as to how this gets handled, and we'll need them in their senses."

"I'll come with you, I know where they are." Jude walked quickly over to Lily, and both girls descended the castle in record time.

"Regulus told me that he and Severus are working in Slughorn's classroom tonight. He lets the Slytherin's use it when its empty."

She pushed through their potions classroom, and thankfully it was empty save the two.

Sev snapped up, and Lily knew instantly he was brewing something he wasn't meant to be. Regulus got to his feet, openly surprised.

"Lily?"

"Jude?"

Suddenly seeing Sev, noticing his clenched jaw, the way he held himself, ready for a fight as he hovered over the cauldron, Lily didn't even have to ask him, she could see it all over his face, "You did it. You sold those love potions. I can't believe you'd do this to them."

He blanched, "You can't believe I would do this to them? Are you so blinded by your new affection for Black that you have forgotten how they have tormented me these past six years!"

"And you respond by ruining their lives! If we didn't stop them, James would have gotten Carmichael pregnant! A woman he doesn't love! You bring a child into that! An innocent child!"

"If Potter is dumb enough to get duped into having unprotected sex, then it's not our problem." Regulus had the audacity to cap that sentence off with a dark chuckle.

"You think this is funny?" Jude's voice was ice made lyrical, "I would think someone who laments about the lack of control they have over their own life, would appreciate how important agency is, and how wrong it is to steal that from someone."

Regulus' lower lip trembled, "It was just a joke. Severus has already stopped supplying Carmichael with love potion, Potter would have come to his senses and well, it's pretty easy to get a Termination Draught."

If there wasn't this large table in front of them, Lily would have slapped the boy. He spoke so flippantly about life, not that she was against Termination Draughts, but by magical law, the mother had final say on whether to consume one, and if she knew Carmichael, she plotted to get Potter for so long, for whatever reason, she wouldn't throw her chance away. And Lily knew Potter, as immature, and selfish, and arrogant he may be…he was also noble, and fair, and would never abadon his responsibility.

"Look, Lily." Sev had put his wand down, holding his hands up placatingly, "It was just a prank. I just wanted Potter to see how it feels for a change."

"See how it feels? When's the last time someone manipulated you and… and…tried to kill you!"

Sev seemed to recoil into himself at her accusation, his lips curling, neck shrinking as he seemed to struggle to compose himself, "When! When! WHEN!"

He didn't elaborate though, just repeating the word with growing fury and Lily couldn't imagine what he was taking offence to. Yes, Sirius and James were awful to him at times, terrible bullies, and Lily had stood up to them on countless occassions in his defence…but they never went so far as to risk his life, or ruin his future. What concerned her far more was the fact that he wasn't even denying any of this.

"I want the antidote for James and Sirius."

"James and Sirius?" Sev didn't seem to comprehend what she requested, focusing on all the wrong things. "It's James and Sirius, now?"

"Yes!" Lily said firmly, "Go and get it, I know you at least know better than to brew without reversals at your disposal."

Sev opened his mouth twice, and closed it both times. He took a deep breath, "Of course." He swallowed, and what little colour he had was coming back to his face, "Lily, please. We've just made up. We've just-"

"We're not talking about this now! Go and get the ANTIDOTE!" She shouted, raising her voice like she never did to her friend before.

How…how could he do this?

He backed away from her as if she slapped him, and turned, running to do as she commanded.

"What do you mean tried to kill you?"

"What!" Snapped Lily, annoyed by Regulus' presence and not in the mood for his questions.

"You said Severus tried to kill them, he didn't, he gave them love potions, and yes, clearly the ramifications of such enchantments may not have been thoroughly thought through, but I don't see how that could have killed them?"

"Well shows how much your little friend tells you. He didn't give Mary love potion, he gave her poison, knowing she was going to give it to Sirius."

"What!" He snapped, "Severus wouldn't do something so stupid. He'd get caught, there'd be an investigation!"

"He clearly thinks he is above such things." Lily's lips trembled, feeling like every fact had become fallacy… she had spent so much energy fighting everyone, insisting she was right about Sev and they were wrong.

"You knew that Severus was going to do this to Sirius?" Jude looked close to tears, and Lily couldn't tell if they were angry ones, or sad ones.

Regulus' eyes widened as they took her in, "Jude, it was just a joke. I only found out afterwards, but, yes I knew. Don't you think he deserves that? He's so reckless with other people's hearts. He should feel how all those girls who he toys with feels, understand that his actions have consequences. I thought it would be good for him."

"No you didn't." Jude shook her head, and Lily watched the tall boy shrink in front of her eyes, "You've created some narrative between you two, explaining away your actions. But at the end of the day, you wanted to hurt him, because you felt like he hurt you. But at least when Sirius and James swing their fists, they face their opponents." She blinked and one lone tear trickled down her cheek, and Lily stepped toward the girl protectively, just as Severus returned, "Do not speak to me again."

The statement was simple, but it felt like the incantation to an unbreakable vow, unbending and firm.

Lily grabbed the bottles from Severus, not having the strength to talk to him right now, hoping her glare conveyed what her mouth could not. There were wet streaks on the boy's face, and something told her that it had nothing to do with the trouble he may be in…he knew, just like she did, there was no coming back for them from this.

They ran back up to Sirius and James. Lily was quite done with this night of unpleasant surprises, only just remembering that the evening's events began with trying to catch a great black dog… but possession of prohibited pets were so low on their totem pole of problems right now that all she could do was hope that Mrs Norris was sleeping safely in her quarters.

A/N: Quite an intense chapter! What do you think they should do ? As Remus stated, what seemed like just 'school boy pranks' has had very serious ramifications - the school's security has been increased, not to mention that Hogwarts has been made to feel less safe with Peter's 'attack'. Mary has really gotten herself into some pickle!

Also, did you catch on to the exchange between Lily and Sirius where she says that the boys have never manipulated him and tried to kill him…canonically we know this isn't true, but Lily isn't privvy to that information right now but it does, to some degree, give some perspective of where Snape is coming from.

Anyway, thank you for reading!

Theories/reviews/feedback will be so welcome!