Chapter 2: Back at Hogwarts
Both Elizabeth and Petunia had been short-tempered and impatient throughout the week preceding Lily's departure for Hogwarts. When they had arrived home from their trip to Diagon Alley, Petunia had been telling Harry about the trip, and remarked that next year they'd be buying supplies for her, as well. "Now Petunia, you know it's unlikely that both you and Lily are gifted with magical ability," Elizabeth had admonished, sparking a huge row. By the end of it, Elizabeth had grounded Petunia for two weeks, and Petunia was refusing to speak to Elizabeth. Harry and Lily had tried to calm Petunia down, but Petunia had determinedly rebuffed all of their attempts to entreat her to reconcile with Elizabeth, leaving Lily to marvel at how stubbornly Petunia was holding onto her grudge. Elizabeth, in the meantime, was insisting that she was right to have discouraged Petunia's "false hopes", and steadfastly refused to apologize, leaving no doubt in either Harry's or Lily's mind from where Petunia had inherited her stubbornness.
When September first finally arrived, the family piled into the car and headed to the station, Lily's owl, Romulus sitting on the middle seat between herself and Petunia. About halfway to the train station, Romulus began hooting dolefully from his cage, and Petunia snapped at Lily to keep him quiet. "Girls!" Elizabeth admonished from the front seat.
"What?" Petunia responded churlishly, finally breaking her silence toward Elizabeth. "I've only just asked her to keep her owl quiet. Would you prefer it if I encouraged it to make noise, instead?" Petunia then began hitting her hands against Romulus's cage, startling him.
"Knock it off, Pet!" Lily said sharply, reaching her hand through the bars and stroking Romulus's ruffled feathers.
"Petunia, leave your sister's owl alone!" Elizabeth chastised.
Petunia turned to look at their mother, and Lily was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "You always take her side!" Petunia said suddenly. "In everything. Lily this, Lily that. 'Now Petunia, it's unlikely you'll be gifted with magic like Lily.' 'Petunia, why can't you behave in school like Lily?' 'Petunia, you should learn to control your temper like Lily'." Petunia's voice had been rising with every word, and even Romulus had turned to stare at her. "If Lily was so perfect, then why'd you even have me?" At this, Petunia's tears began to fall, and stunned, Lily turned automatically to gather her crying sister into her arms. Unfortunately, the owl cage was in the way, and so she had to settle for patting the sobbing Petunia on the back.
The remainder of the trip passed in silence, and when they arrived at King's Cross, Lily said goodbye to Elizabeth and Petunia at the car while Harry loaded Lily's things onto a trolley. After she had hugged her mother and sister and told them that she loved them, they began to walk toward the platform. "Petunia was pretty upset," Lily said hesitantly.
Harry nodded. "Yes, she is. But she'll get over it and bounce back to being the happy-go-lucky Petunia we all know and love. She's just a little anxious right now with you leaving for school."
Lily shrugged. "I suppose so," she said.
Harry stopped and turned to look at Lily. "Now listen up, young lady. You have enough on your hands with school and learning magic, you don't need to worry about your sister, too. That's me and your mum's job, understand?"
Lily began walking again, and nodded half-heartedly, knowing even as she did so that her father's reassurances would not make her worry any less. As she saw it, taking care of Petunia was also her job as an older sister. If Petunia was this angry and upset, then she obviously needed someone to talk to about it, and she, Lily, wouldn't be around. "That's your platform," Harry said, bringing Lily's thoughts back to the present.
She turned to greet Alice, Anna, and Mr. Parker. After Alice had finished squealing and hugging her, Lily gave Mr. Parker a hug and said hello to Anna. The two men shook hands, and then Harry gave Lily a hug goodbye. "Remember what I said. You worry about school, and leave Petunia to your mum and me. We've done pretty well at this parenting thing so far, huh?" He smiled, and Lily returned his smile. "That's my girl," he said, ruffling her hair. "Be good this year. I don't want to hear about any more trouble like last year."
Lily grinned. "That wasn't my fault," she said, automatically. Alice snickered.
"Well, just the same, be careful, and we'll see you at Christmas. I love you, Lily."
"I love you, too," Lily said, hugging her dad one last time before he merged into the crowds streaming by them in either direction, and disappeared. Lily heaved another sigh, still trying to shake off the feeling that she should be with Petunia right now, as Alice squealed again. Lily didn't have to look to know that Amelia was making her way toward them. When Lily finally spotted her in the crowd, she saw that Amelia was followed closely by her mum, older brother Edgar, and a smallish, dark-haired boy that she recognized from her visit to be Amelia's little brother, Jacob. Lily gave Amelia a hug, and then turned to greet Jacob, who stared at her wide-eyed and seemed incapable of speaking. He simply mouthed the word hi.
"He looks terrified," Lily commented, glancing curiously at Amelia.
"Well he should," Amelia said brightly. "Edgar and I have been telling him the type of tasks that you have to do in order to be sorted into a house."
Lily grinned, and then raised her eyebrows as she turned to Jake. "Yes," she said, faking a shudder. "I don't even want to talk about what we had to do last year!"
Jake uttered a small scream and hid behind his mother, as the three girls burst into laughter. "Now Amelia," Mrs. Bones said, but she was also smiling. "There's no need to scare your brother anymore. He'll find out what creature they face this year soon enough." Mrs. Bones turned to greet Mr. Parker, who embraced her like the old friend that she was.
"We'd better get going," Edgar said, pointing at the muggle clock above them. "We've only got a few minutes, and prefects are supposed to help the younger students get their trunks situated."
Lily raised her eyebrows and glanced at Amelia. "Prefect?" she asked.
Amelia sighed. "Don't get me started. He made prefect this year, and it's all mum and dad have been able to talk about since he got his letter. Come on, let's go, before she," here, Amelia nodded toward her mother, "starts tearing up again over her precious baby boy being a prefect."
The girls pushed their trolleys through the barrier at the same time, and then moved out of the way quickly to await the remainder of their group. Once the Parkers and Boneses were all through the barrier, the adults helped the kids get their stuff onto the train, and then with final hugs and words of caution, Amelia, Alice and Lily tried to find an open compartment in the now-packed train. After they had been from front to back twice, Lily thought she had found one, and motioned for the girls to join her. She slid open the door and walked inside, pulling her trunk behind her. "Oh!" she said, stopping short when she noticed that the compartment wasn't empty. Her abrupt stop caused Alice to bump into Lily's trunk, ramming it painfully against her leg, and she leaned down to massage her leg as she spoke. "I'm sorry, Severus. I didn't see you in here. Do you mind if we join you? There's no room elsewhere on the train for all three of us."
Snape glanced up from the book that he was reading, and nodded imperceptibly, so the three girls piled in beside him. "Hello, Severus," Alice said, choosing the seat across from him. He nodded again at Alice, and then turned back to his book. Lily settled in the seat next to him, and Amelia sat across from her.
Lily glanced over at the boy sitting next to her and wondered if either Alice or Amelia felt as awkward as she did about the current situation. Snape was friends with two people who had landed Alice in the hospital for two weeks last term, and he was enemies with four Gryffindors who, for the most part, Lily would consider friends of hers. In addition, Snape appeared to be utterly uninterested in making polite conversation with them, which was just fine with her, except that she wasn't entirely sure whether or not it would be rude to then talk to Alice and Amelia. She looked back at her two friends, trying to ask the question silently, and the shrug that Alice gave her indicated very clearly that she had understood Lily's question, but didn't know the answer. They sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment before Alice apparently decided that she had had just about as much of the situation as she was going to take. "Severus," she said, causing him once again to glance up from his book. "I just wanted to let you know that I know you tried to stop-,"
The door to their compartment jerked open, revealing a tall boy with longish black-hair falling into his eyes, and a second boy, slightly shorter and lankier with black hair sticking up in all directions. Both were grinning, however their grins changed to sneers as they noticed Snape was sitting with the girls. Sirius Black and James Potter walked inside. Two of their friends, Remus Lupin, a slim boy with light-brown hair and a tired face, and Peter Pettigrew, a brown-haired boy with a pointy nose and watery eyes, followed. Lupin looked weary and drawn, and Lily also noticed a bruise on his cheek, and a gash on his hand.
With the four boys' arrival, there was a sudden quiet in the carriage. As the silence grew louder, Lily glanced around. Lupin leaned heavily against the door frame, as though the very act of standing up was costing him all the strength that he had, Alice and Amelia looked very uncomfortable, Potter and Black looked murderous, Pettigrew looked scared, and Snape-the center of it all-sat reading his book, seemingly oblivious to the new arrivals. Lily, however, noted that Snape's hand had moved from where it had been resting on his book and into the wand-pocket of his robes, and she was certain that he was grasping the handle of his wand. The enmity in the compartment was palpable. "What are you doing in here, Snivellus?" Potter asked icily, breaking the silence.
Lily stood up automatically and turned to face Potter. "Knock it off, Potter," she said warningly.
"I could ask you the same thing, Potter," Snape said, ignoring Lily and not even glancing up from his book. "I'm here because this is my compartment."
Black glanced at the three girls. "It appears to belong to Evans, Bones, and Parker," Black said, turning his hard eyes back to Snape.
Snape finally looked up and grinned humorlessly. "It's my compartment," he repeated, glancing between Potter and Black, and the girls, "and Evans, Bones and Parker are here by Evans's request, and my consent."
Black glanced at Lily quizzically, and Potter's eyes flashed angrily between her and Snape. Lily was surprised at how close he appeared to losing control. His knuckles were white around the handle of his wand, which was just barely in his pocket. Lily pulled her wand out, just in case she needed it to stop Potter from hexing Snape, but for the moment, she kept it dangling loosely at her side. "Severus is right, Potter," Lily agreed. "I asked him if we could sit here, and he agreed."
"Well I guess that Severus," Potter said the name mockingly, "didn't realize that when he agreed to let you have his compartment, he was supposed to have left. You're not welcome here, Snivellus."
Lily had reached her tolerance point. "Oh, for Merlin's sake, Potter! You don't have the right to say who is and is not allowed to be in this compartment. Severus has been sitting quietly and reading. He hasn't done anything to us, or to you. In fact, it was quite pleasant until you arrived and started causing trouble, so if you can't be polite to our compartment mate, then I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Black glanced at Lily in amazement, while Potter took a deep breath and turned his glare to her. Snape chuckled. "That's interesting, Potter. From the way that Evans is talking, it sounds to me as though it's YOU, and not me, that's not welcome here. Now, if you'll be on your way? I would hate for you to get detention before we even get to Hogwarts because you were causing trouble on the train."
Potter and Black both glared, but Lupin set a warning hand on Potter's shoulder. "Don't start anything, Jamesy-Siri," Lupin said firmly.
Black heaved a sigh, and nodded. "You're right, Remmy. There'll be plenty of opportunities later. Let's go, Jamesy."
Pettigrew scrambled quickly out of the compartment, followed by Black and Remus. Potter turned to stare at Lily for a moment, an indiscernible expression on his face, before he turned and followed his friends out of the compartment, and Lily heaved a sigh of relief. "Well," she said, after the door had slid shut behind them, "am I glad that's over. I'm sorry about them, Sever-," she began, but stopped, noticing that he had stood up and was now pulling down his things from the overhead bin. "Hang on, where are you going?"
"Unless you three wish to deal with a similar scene when my friends come looking for me, I think it'd be best if I find them first," he said, pulling his trunk toward the door, and sliding it open before turning to glare at Lily. "And for future reference, Evans, I hardly need your apologies for, let alone your assistance in dealing with, those two little gits." The door slammed shut behind him, leaving Lily to stare at Alice and Amelia with a look of confusion on her face identical to the ones that they were wearing.
Shortly after the confrontation between Snape and Potter, their compartment door slid open again, revealing a witch
with the refreshment trolley, and they each got snacks to share with one another. As they ate their snacks, Lily played
absently with her locket, thinking yet again about Severus Snape. She couldn't quite decide whether or not she
liked him. Her mind traveled back to one night last year, when she'd found him crying in a classroom. Before
she'd had the opportunity to ask him what was wrong, the Marauders had shown up, and he'd taken off. Of course,
it was no mystery whyPotter and Black would hate him, she mused, as her thoughts then shifted to the night that Alice
was attacked. Once again, she saw Snape conjuring a snake, and taunting Potter and Black. She saw again the
bewilderment in Black's eyes;Potter asking Snape where he'd learned that one. Then the scene shifted, and she
was no longer at the lake, watching Potter and Black trying to figure out how to get rid of the snake. Instead, she was
in the Great Hall, however it was clearly not set up for dining. The tables were gone, and along one wall was a long,
golden stage. She was in the middle of a large group of students, who were forming a circle. Lily recognized almost
immediately that she was having another vision, and she glanced around, mildly curious as to what it would be
about.
In the middle of the circle, she saw a greasy-haired man who looked to be about her father's age whispering something into the ear of a pointy-faced, blonde-haired boy with a mean sneer that reminded Lily forcefully of Lucius Malfoy. The hair of the greasy-haired man obscured his face, but Lily assumed that he was a teacher of some sort. As she was wondering what class he taught, he straightened up, his gaze meeting hers, and Lily realized with a start that she was looking into the eyes of Severus Snape. As she wondered at the revelation that Snape would one day teach at Hogwarts, the blonde boy, who Lily now guessed was Malfoy's son, muttered, "Scared?" To the right of her, she heard a voice reply, "You wish," but when she tried to turn her head to see who was speaking, she found that she was unable to do so. Apparently, this was not a vision which she could control, she mused, wondering why that would be.
"Three-two-one-go!" another voice to the right of Lily shouted, and Malfoy's son raised his wand and bellowed, "Serpensortia!" A long black snake shot out the end of the wand, and coiled as though ready to strike. Lily automatically muttered a scream and turned to back away with the rest of the crowd, as a blonde-haired man came into view and shouted "Allow me!" He waved his wand, and the snake flew into the air and landed back on the floor, and then began moving toward a student standing near Lily. At that moment, a hissing sound came from the right of her, and the snake turned towards it, slumping to the floor, almost as though whoever had made the hissing sound had told it to stop attacking.
"What do you think you're playing at?" the boy who the snake had gone after said angrily, before turning to stomp off. At that moment, Snape stepped forward, and with a wave of his wand, the snake disappeared. He then looked over beyond Lily with an odd expression in his eyes, and Lily wondered if whoever it was that was standing on the side of the circle which she was unable to see had been the one who had made the sound.
"Lily! Lily!" Alice screamed as Lily's thoughts returned abruptly to the present. She felt a pain throbbing in her elbow, and as she looked around, she was utterly unsurprised to find that she had fallen from her seat onto the ground. Last year, Lily had had several visions like the one that she had just had. Most of them had gotten herself and her friends out of very dangerous situations, and all save one had ended with her tumbling onto the floor at the end of it. She rubbed her elbow with a grimace, as Amelia reached out a hand to help her up. "Are you okay?" Amelia asked, as Lily grasped her hand and pulled herself to her feet.
"I'm fine," Lily said, dusting herself off. "Just a little embarrassed." Alice and Amelia exchanged a glance. "What?" Lily asked.
Alice tried to force a smile. "Did you have another vision, then?" she asked, and Lily smiled. She had told them last year about her "inner eye" being more keen than the average witch or wizard's. Of course they would be curious.
"Yes," she said, settling herself back onto her seat, and picking up a chocolate frog.
Alice and Amelia exchanged another glance. "Well that-," Amelia paused, as though struggling to put into words the question that she wanted to ask. "I mean, didn't Dumbledore say that you only have those visions when a friend or family-member is in danger?"
Lily laughed. "Yes," she agreed, "he did say that, but unless I marry Lucius Malfoy or Severus Snape, I don'tthink we have anything to worry about." Alice's and Amelia's expressions changed from concern to confusion, and so Lily quickly recounted the vision to them. After she had told them about it, and they were certain nothing bad would come of it, Alice started talking about all of the training that she had done for her quidditch try-out this year. From the sounds of it, she had spent the entire summer on a broomstick, practicing.
As they talked, Lily found herself thinking. Despite the fact that she had convinced both Alice and Ameliathat there was nothing to worry about, the vision had been unsettling, but she couldn't figure out why. It obviously had not taken place any time in the near future, and nothing particularly worrisome had happened. And yet, there had been something about the voice coming from the person that she couldn't see. It had sounded familiar to her, though she was certain that she'd never heard it before.
As she pondered this, her hands strayed once again to her locket, and she was surprised to find it open. Her father had told her when he'd given it to her that it had been stuck shut as long as anyone could remember. As she reached her hand back to unclasp the chain, the clasp came open, and the locket fell softly into her hands.
"How strange," she murmured as she inspected the interior. There was something inscribed on the inside, but it was so faint that she could barely see it. She blinked, trying to bring the inscription into focus, but when she looked again, the writing had disappeared entirely.
"What's strange?" Amelia asked, now staring at Lily.
"This," she said, indicating the locket. "Dad said that my locket has been broken for as long as his mother owned it, but it came open just now. And I'm not certain, but I thought when I looked at it that I saw some writing inscribed in the inside of it, but it's disappeared now."
"Disappeared?" Alice asked skeptically. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head when you fell, Lils? Inscriptions in muggle lockets don't just appear and then go away."
"Don't they?" Amelia asked in genuine curiosity, causing Alice and Lily to laugh. "Do they do anything, then?"
"No wonder you get on so well with my dad, Amelia," Alice said, grinning. "Anyway, I'm sure it must have just been a trick of the light."
"Yeah," Lily said, as the compartment door slid open again, this time revealing Frank Longbottom. "But I would have sworn it was there," Lily thought silently as Alice let out an ear-splitting shriek and tackled Frank in a hug.
*****************************
The weather grew steadily drearier as the train lumbered northward, until rain finally began falling just as the girls were getting changed into their school robes. When they reached Hogsmeade, Lily performed a waterproofing charm on everyone's trunks to keep the contents within from getting wet and the three girls spilled out of the train and into the rain that was pouring down on the platform. Up ahead, Lily saw Hagrid calling for the first years, and she smiled as she noticed that he had his pink umbrella in his hand. She knew from experience last year that Hagrid's umbrella doubled as a wand holder for him. Amelia found her little brother, shivering either from fear, or cold, or maybe both, and directed him over towards Hagrid before they began making their way toward the horseless carriages that were waiting to take the older students to the castle.
"That's odd," Amelia said, stopping to glance at the carriages. "Where are the thestrals?"
Lily and Alice turned to glance at Amelia. "The what?" Lily asked.
"The thestrals," Amelia repeated. "You know-the animals that pull the carriages?"
Lily looked at Alice, who shrugged in response. "I didn't know that the carriages were pulled by thestrals," Alice said.
"Well of course they are," Amelia said, looking around. "I noticed them when we took the carriages to the train station at the end of last year. And they're all missing now, aren't they?"
Alice shrugged again. "Dunno," she said. "I can't see them. Hang on-you can see thestrals?"
Amelia nodded. By this time, all three girls were completely soaked, and Lily, who had no idea what thestrals were, or why Alice (and she assumed, she) could not see them, was beginning to shiver. "Can we continue this discussion inside the carriage?" she asked, as the door opened.
"Good idea," Alice agreed, and Lily climbed inside, followed by Alice and Amelia. In short order, the seats were soaked, however the inside of the carriage proved much warmer and Lily felt the shivers begin to subside.
"Now," she said, as all three pulled out their wands and began directing warm air at themselves to dry off, "what are you on about, Amelia? What are thestrals, and what do they have to do with the carriages?"
"Thestrals," Amelia said, as though reciting from a text book, "are creatures that look like horses with wings. They're often seen as omens of bad luck, but this is because they have the unfortunate characteristic of only being visible to someone who has witnessed death."
Lily stopped moving her wand around, and stared at Amelia. "Really?" she asked.
"Really," Alice answered. "But I didn't know that they pull the carriages."
"They do," Amelia said simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, which, to her, it probably was.
"And you can see them?" Alice asked again.
"Yes," Amelia answered, as the door to the carriage was yanked open, and Edgar stuck his head inside.
"You three," he said, "someone's let the thestrals go. They've gone back to Hogwarts, so we're going to have to walk to the school."
The girls didn't move. "We're walking?" Amelia asked. Edgar nodded. "In this?" Edgar nodded again. "You must be mad!"
"Afraid not, sis. By the time we got everyone across in the boats, it'd be quicker just to walk."
Andromeda Black's head appeared behind Edgar. "I'll get the last carriage, and then I think we've told everyone," she said, "so you can head to the castle now, Edgar." She trotted off toward the last carriage.
"You three had better get going, then," Edgar said, turning and running toward a girl just up ahead that Lily assumed was the other fifth year Hufflepuff prefect.
Lily, Alice and Amelia exchanged looks of dismay, but climbed resignedly out of the carriages. "Imagine walking! In this!" Alice exclaimed as they set off through the rain toward the group of students up ahead.
"They don't seem to mind," Amelia said, gesturing to a group of four students off in the distance. Although it was too dark to make out who they were, the group was running around, circling back, splashing water on other students, and in general, causing mayhem. As they watched, one of the figures launched itself at the other, and the two landed in a mud puddle, wrestling around, while the other two cheered them on.
"Leave it to the Marauders to enjoy this," a voice said in Lily's ear, and she turned to see that Frank had come up beside them.
"How do you know that's the Marauders?" Lily asked.
Frank shrugged. "Who else would it be?" he asked with a grin, and Lily had to admit that Frank had a point.
"So my guess is that it's Potter and Black wrestling," Alice said.
"I'd guess you're right," Lily agreed. She'd seen the two of them wrestling on several occasions.
As they drew nearer, they found that their hunch was indeed correct. Potter and Black were now rolling around on the ground, wrestling each other, and getting thoroughly covered in mud. Lily shook her head in disbelief as Potter stood up.
"Hiya Evans!" he said with a goofy wave. Lily ignored him. "Do you see that, Siri?" Potter asked, turning his back to Lily as he faced Black. "I saved her life last year, and she's already ignoring me!"
Lily grinned, a twinkle of mischief coming into her eye. She bent to scoop up a handful of mud as Black shook his head, water and mud flying everywhere. "You're wrong about that, mate!" he exclaimed.
"What do you--?" Potter began, as he turned to face Lily. At that moment, she flung the mud as hard as she could in his direction, hitting him square in the face. The girls and the Marauders burst into laughter. "mean?" Potter finished, reaching up and wiping the mud off his face. "You're in for it now, Evans!" he called, as Lily shrieked and took off.
She glanced over her shoulder just long enough to see that Lupin, Pettigrew, and Black were now tossing mud at Amelia, Alice, and Frank, who were returning fire. As she turned around to put on a spurt of speed, she slipped on the mud and landed, face down. She struggled back to her feet, and saw Potter drawing nearer. A thought came to her, and she sat back in the mud, laughing. She hadn't had this much fun since she was much younger, and she and Petunia had played in mud puddles. They'd gotten into a bit of trouble with Elizabeth for that one, but it had been worth it, as it was now. As Lily sat in the mud, waiting for Potter to arrive, she inconspicuously drew her wand. Potter slowed down as he approached, and grinned. "Not fast enough, are you Evans," he asked, c.ocking back his arm, and Lily saw his hand was filled with mud.
She lifted her wand, and as his eyes widened, she carelessly muttered, "caenum leviosa," and flicked her wand. The mud in his hand rose into the air, and with another flick of her wand, landed on the top of Potter's head.
"Apparently I am," she called out, laughing.
"I didn't know you had it in you, Evans," he said in appreciation, as Black, Lupin and Pettigrew arrived, followed shortly by Alice, Amelia and Frank. They all took one look at Lily and Potter, and burst into laughter again.
"Oi! You lot," Andromeda called out, striding quickly toward them from behind. "What in the world happened to you?" She glanced from one mud-covered face to the next before shaking her head in amazement. "Never mind, just get a move on. We've got to get to the castle. Let's go."
They laughed again, and then turned to follow Andromeda to Hogwarts.
When they arrived at the castle, the first-years were already huddling inside the entrance hall, dripping wet. As they walked quickly past the trembling students, the Marauders paused to talk to one of the first-years, a small, black-haired, dark-eyed boy who looked rather frightened of it all. "It's okay, Reggie, they've told us you're fighting a werewolf," Black said with a smirk as Pettigrew began laughing.
Potter nodded. "Yes, that's right. Don't try to outrun it, though. You'll be dead before you get five feet. Werewolves are wicked fast."
"You'll want to jab it with your wand, preferably in the eye. That's the weakest spot, and the stupid wolf won't even know what hit him."
Pettigrew began laughing even harder, but Lily noticed that Lupin had gone pale. "You think that's funny?" Lupin asked. She, Alice and Amelia all paused automatically to watch, as Pettigrew stopped laughing, and took a step back, looking scared.
Black glanced in confusion at Potter, who shrugged. "Listen mate," Black said, "We were just joking around with my brother. We didn't mean any harm by it. It's no different than all of us thinking we had to face-"
"There's not even a full-moon tonight! It's not like werewolves are monsters all the time! And you don't have to be stupid to be a werewolf," Lupin continued, apparently not hearing them, "some of the smartest wizards are-"
"You'd have to be pretty stupid to get bitten in the first place," Black whispered to Potter, who grinned.
Lupin clenched his fists. "There's nothing funny about that," he said seriously.
"No, of course not," Potter agreed. "We were only joking, Rem-"
"Did you ever stop to think that maybe not all of your jokes are amusing, James?" Lupin said, but before Potter could respond, Lupin had turned and took off running in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. Without missing a beat, Potter and Black glanced at one another and went running after him, Pettigrew trailing behind.
Lily, Alice and Amelia stood there staring at each other. "What in the world was that all about?" Lily asked the other two, as Andromeda yelled at them to get moving.
"Maybe he's got an aunt or uncle that's a werewolf?" Alice suggested.
"Maybe," Amelia said doubtfully as they entered the Great Hall and walked over to find seats at the Gryffindor table. "I do hope that Black and Potter find him, though. He looked pretty upset."
Alice grimaced. "Potter and Black are probably not the best choice to calm him down, then," she said, taking off her cloak and setting it down before settling herself beside it at the table. "They don't always know when they've crossed the line between funny and irritating."
"You mean there are times when they do know?" Lily asked with a smile, sitting down across from Amelia.
Her two friends laughed. "Quite frequently, Lily. The only problem is, when it comes to you, irritating you is what they find funny, so there is no line to stop them."
Lily's smile disappeared. "Why do they think it's so much fun to irritate me?" she asked seriously.
A loud shuffling at the door of the hall heralded the entrance of the first-years before Alice or Amelia could answer, and the noise in the Great Hall immediately quieted as Dumbledore rose to his feet. "Welcome, everyone, to a new year at Hogwarts! Traditionally, I would say a few words of welcome right now-which you'll realize I have already done-and then we would begin the ceremony wherein each new first year is sorted into the house that they will call home for the next seven years. I know that our new students have already waited eleven long years to discover which house they will belong to, and it is my regret to say that due to the-unique-circumstances of our older students' arrival at Hogwarts this evening, the first years will have to wait another day. Madam Pomphrey has informed that she does not have enough pepper-up potion for the number of colds that you would catch if I forced you to sit here through the entire sorting ceremony and start-of-term feast before allowing you to go upstairs and get changed out of your wet clothing, and therefore, the older students are to go to their houses and change. Dinner will be sent up, and you will eat in your common rooms before retiring to your dorm rooms this evening. The first-years will stay in the Great Hall for dinner and sleep in here tonight, and classes tomorrow will be cancelled. The start-of-term feast will be held tomorrow evening instead."
The cheers that had erupted at Dumbledore's announcement that classes would not be starting until the day after next gave way to the rustling of students standing up and trying to make their way past the first years, who were still standing in the pathway to the door. "Wonder if that's ever happened before?" Lily idly asked, as they made their way up the stairs to Gryffindor tower.
"Doubt it," Alice answered. "At least Black won't miss his brother being sorted, though."
"Speaking of my little cousin, where'd he get off too, anyway?" Andromeda's voice broke in, startling all three of them.
Amelia shrugged. "Dunno. He and Potter said something that upset Lupin, and he took off. They followed him."
Andromeda sighed. "Not that it bothers me," she said, "since I was the one who did it to them last year, but they're going to have detention before the week's out again, aren't they?"
"Probably," Lily agreed, before changing the subject. She had been the target of the practical joke that had landed them detention last year, and she didn't particularly want to talk about it. "I wonder if Black's brother will end up in Gryffindor?"
"Unlikely," Andromeda countered. "Regulus will almost certainly end up a Slytherin. Like my two sisters, Reggie doesn't have the strength of character that Sirius does. He'll be in Slytherin just like his dearest mother wants him to be."
Lily shook her head sadly, her thoughts inexplicably drawn to Petunia, as Alice asked Andromeda about Black's mother. She felt a sudden wave of homesickness unlike any she'd ever experienced at Hogwarts, and she reached down and began fiddling with her locket as her thoughts wandered. Petunia had been so upset when she left. She needed her older sister to talk to about it. And where was she? Away at school. She rather didn't blame Petunia for being upset with her. She'd probably feel the same way.
"Is something wrong, Lily?" Andromeda asked, bringing Lily's thoughts back to the present.
"Just thinking of my sister," Lily said with a sigh. "She was in tears when I left, fighting with my mum. The two of them haven't seen eye to eye since I came to Hogwarts, and I guess I'm just feeling…"
"A little guilty?" Andromeda asked as they arrived at the landing by their common room. Alice put an arm around Lily's shoulder while Amelia squeezed her hand. "I'm sure your sister will be fine."
"Password?" the fat lady asked.
"Brie cheese," Andromeda responded, and the portrait hole swung open for them to enter.
Lily had just hopped down from the portrait hole and into the common room when there was a flash of light. In the next second, Lily had the sensation that the skin on her face was crawling. It was a moment before she realized that the sensation was from the mud on her cheeks, which had been transfigured into what felt like an entire colony of ants. She screamed, and began brushing the ants off of her face, Alice and Amelia stomping on them as they fell.
Laughter erupted in the corner, and once she was satisfied that her skin was no longer crawling with insects, she looked over and saw Potter, Pettigrew and Black all laughing merrily. Unfortunately for the three Marauders, Andromeda had come in with Lily, and had observed the entire scene. "Detention!" she shouted. "All three of you. What were you thinking? Pulling a stunt like this on the first night!"
Black shrugged. "We didn't want to do it the first night," he explained earnestly, "but we figured that it was the best time to catch Evans unprepared."
"I had to get her back for throwing mud at me earlier," Potter added. Pettigrew stared at the floor.
"So you can clearly see, dear cousin," Black continued.
"That we had no choice," Potter finished.
"Then surely you three can understand that I have no choice but to give you detention. Professor McGonagall will let you know your assignments tomorrow." Andromeda gave her a sympathetic look, and then headed toward the girls' dorm.
"Why do you think it's so much fun to make my life miserable?" Lily asked, her eyes brimming with tears. Not waiting for an answer, she whirled around and followed Andromeda up the stairs toward her dormitory.
"It was just a joke," she heard Potter say as she turned the corner and disappeared out of sight. Lily heaved a sigh. She had desperately hoped that after what they had been through at the end of last year, she and Potter would be able to get along this year, but it looked as though he enjoyed tormenting her too much to let that ever happen.