Chapter 3: Lupin's Strange Behavior
The next morning, Lily tried to wake Alice and Amelia early, but had nearly been hexed by Alice who had insisted that today was "the same as Saturday" since they didn't have classes, and she was not going to waste it by getting up early. Amelia had concurred, and complained loudly about the noise that Lily was making. After a few more attempts at rousing them, Lily had eventually given up on her two roommates and wandered down to the common room to see if anyone was awake to join her for breakfast. "Good morning, Remus!" Lily greeted Lupin as she bounded down the last couple of steps and saw him sitting at a table, books spread around him. "Getting an early start on studying, then?"
Lupin looked up and gave her a sad smile. "Well, from the looks of things, I'll be working by myself this year," he said, a note of resignation in his voice, "so I thought it best to get as far ahead as I could."
Lily glanced at him inquisitively. "Why will you be working by yourself this year? Have Potter and Black decided to skip going to class altogether?"
She smiled, but he just sighed and set down his quill. "No," he said, reaching for a nearby book and opening it.
Lily sat down, unsure if she should get involved, particularly given her own volatile history with Potter and Black. After some thought, the silence between them stretched, and she decided to see if he wanted to talk about it. If not, then she wouldn't push. "I'm guessing from your reaction last night that you must know someone who's a werewolf," she said gently, "and I'm sure if Potter and Black had known that, they never would have-,"
"It's not that, Lily," Lupin said, coming as close to snapping at her as Lily has ever seen him come. "I've just been-I haven't been fair to them. They've trusted me, never been anything but honest and I-" he trailed off, and gazed at her intently. "I really don't want to talk about it, Lily."
Lily gazed piercingly at him. What on earth was he talking about? He'd been a better friend to Potter and Black than she'd have said that either of them deserved, so why would he suddenly feel that he hadn't been fair to them? She sighed. "Okay," she said. "I guess I won't pry, but if you ever want anyone to do homework with, Alice, Amelia and I would be happy to work with you. I'm sure Frank won't mind, either."
Lupin smiled. "Thanks," he said, and then turned back to reading the book that he had open in front of him.
Lily settled into a chair across from him, and reached toward one of the books scattered across the table. "Dark Creatures of Europe," she read off as Lupin made an anxious grab at the book.
"Yes," he said, a blush spreading slowly across his face. "We'll be starting them in Defense this year, and I thought I'd get a head start."
"Oh," she said, releasing the book into Lupin's hand just as Alice and Amelia came trudging down the stairs. Neither looked entirely happy to be awake.
"Good morning," Lily said, standing up with a last look at Lupin. "I thought you weren't getting up so early?"
"Didn't have much choice, did we?" Alice grumbled. "You made enough noise to wake the living dead this morning!"
Lily blushed. "Sorry about that," she said quickly. "I just thought the two of you would be more excited to be back at Hogwarts than that, is all."
"I was excited to be back at Hogwarts," Amelia said with a yawn. "More specifically, I was excited to be sleeping in my big comfortable bed at Hog-Oh! Good morning, Remus!" Amelia's cheeks turned bright pink. "I didn't see you there."
Remus smiled another tired smile. "I'm easy to miss," he said wryly. "I'm afraid that I blend into the walls around here rather easily."
Alice grinned. "Well, you are a bit easier to miss than Potter or Black," she agreed heartily.
"That's not a bad thing," Amelia said, her blush deepening. "Anyway, are you ready for breakfast, Lils?"
Lily nodded. "For an hour now," she said, "but I'll take what I can get with the two of you. Come on, let's go! Remus, would you like to join us?"
"Oh, no, thank you, Lily. I've already eaten."
"Are you sure?" she asked. "We don't mind the company."
He waved his hand dismissively. "No, no. I'll be fine. You three go on."
With a last glance at Lupin, the three girls turned and crawled out of the portrait hole. When they arrived at the Great Hall, they found that most of Gryffindor Tower was already there, including Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and Frank. Lily glanced at Alice and Amelia, certain that they'd want to sit next to them, but equally certain that she did not want to sit there. "Do you guys mind?" she asked tentatively. She knew that her ongoing feud with Potter was a source of great annoyance to both of her friends, and yet she wasn't quite ready to open herself up to the teasing that was certain to come from him this morning. She was also more than a little annoyed at all three boys for making Lupin feel as though he didn't deserve to be friends with them. What on earth had been said when they'd caught up to him last night?
As she had expected, Alice rolled her eyes. "You're going to have to face him sooner or later, you know," she said with an exaggerated sigh as Amelia shook her head in agreement.
"As noted last year," Amelia added, "we do have all of our classes with him."
"I know that!" Lily said, her temper flaring slightly at her friends' refusal to be sympathetic to her plight. "I'd just rather wait until tomorrow to deal with them if I can, that's all."
"Fine," Alice said, heading toward the opposite end of the table from where the boys were sitting. "But it's only going to be worse then. They'll have had more time to think of taunts and clever comebacks by then."
"So will I have," she retorted, following Alice. As they sat down, she looked around the Great Hall and noticed that a fifth table had somehow been squeezed in, and that the first years were all sitting at that, still looking as nervous as they had last night. "I'm glad this didn't happen our first year," Lily commented, piling a couple of pancakes onto her plate, and reaching for the syrup.
"Oh, I know!" Alice agreed, her curls bouncing this way and that as she nodded her head emphatically. "It seemed like an eternity that we had to wait as it was! And I'm not the most patient person in the world, you know."
Lily dropped her fork and opened her eyes wide in mock surprise. "Really, Alice? I would never have gotten that from you."
Amelia giggled, as Alice stuck out her tongue. "Hello ladies," a new voice said smoothly, and Lily cringed. "Evans," it added.
"Potter," she said cordially. "You might have noticed that we chose seats as far away from you as possible. We did this for a reason."
He grinned. "Yes, it was a shame that there were no open seats next to us when you arrived. That's actually why we thought we'd come down to say hello."
Lily grit her teeth, trying not to allow the boys to frustrate her. "Is there something that you want?" she asked.
"Now that you mention it, yes," Black said, shooing the third-year sitting next to Alice aside, and sitting down. "You might have noticed that we are shy one in number," he said.
Alice, Amelia and Lily nodded. "We had noticed that, yes," Alice agreed, smiling. For reasons that escaped Lily's understanding, a persisting friendship had grown between Black and Alice when they had both been hospitalized for several weeks last term.
"Well, we're wondering if you know what's bothering him?" Potter said, glancing at Black and Pettigrew, who both nodded in agreement.
"No," Lily said, "we don't. And if we did, what makes you think we'd tell you, anyway?"
Potter sighed in frustration. "Look, Evans, I know that you find this hard to believe, but we really do like Remmy. He's never acted this way before, and so, we are worried about him. As I'd think you'd be, Miss Perfect. It's the way that friends are supposed to act."
Lily's temper reached its breaking point. "Who are you to lecture me about friendship, Potter? I've never made any of my friends think that they didn't deserve to be friends with me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a letter to write." Lily stood up and turned to leave, ignoring the voice in her head that told her she'd be starving later on if she did.
"Wait, Evans-I'm sorry. What do you mean, he thinks he doesn't deserve to be friends with us?" she heard Potter call after her.
She sighed. "Now he says he's sorry," she thought in frustration as she swept quickly out of the Great Hall. Why did he need to push her past her tolerance point before apologizing? Couldn't he just stop before he got there? She turned the corner to the stairwell, and collided head-on with someone's back. The person she'd run into whipped around, and she gaped. "What are you doing here?" she asked, unable to control the dead fury in her voice.
Lucius Malfoy glanced down at her, with a look of intense dislike momentarily in his eyes before it was concealed by a polite look of interest. "Miss Evans," Malfoy said, "how nice to see you again."
"Miss Evans?" a second voice questioned, and Lily felt a tremor of fear at the sound. She knew that voice, and after she had glanced to the left of Malfoy, she had a face to match it up with. Lucius Malfoy's father had long white-blond hair that framed a face with cold gray eyes, and a long, regal nose. His lips formed a half-sneer as a spark of recognition came into his eyes. Lily's immediate instinct was to scream and run, but the rational part of her mind recognized that neither one was about to hurt her in the middle of the hallway, with Dumbledore eating breakfast a mere hundred yards or so away.
Lily steeled up her courage, and remained standing where she was. Drawing herself up to her full height (which seemed woefully short when compared to the two men standing in front of her), she gazed at them defiantly. "Yes," she said. "You may remember me. I'm one of the students that you had your son kidnap last term."
Malfoy, Sr. chuckled, but his eyes were not amused. "My dear child, you must be mistaken. As a governor of this school, I am bound to protect the children it educates."
Lily didn't blink. "I'm not mistaken," she said, "but as I've got no proof that you were involved, there's little I can do. What are you doing here, anyway?"
"You really ought to learn some manners, Evans," Malfoy said, his dislike for Lily showing through the polished politeness he had first demonstrated. "Do you have any idea the position and esteem that my father holds in the wizarding community?"
"Now, now, son. This is your first visit to the school on official business, after all. I would hope that your childish grudges would not compel you to embarrass the family name," Governor Malfoy said, smiling dangerously at his son. He leaned down so that he was eye level with Lily, and she saw a glint of malice in his pale gray eyes. "We are here because any time there is an interference with the normal operations of the school, the governors are duty-bound to make sure that it does not become a common occurrence. The postponement of classes for an entire day is a source of great concern for those of us who wish to see young witches such as yourself," his lip curled slightly as he said this, "get the best education possible. This cannot happen if classes continue to be cancelled at-,"
The elder Malfoy stopped as Professor Amos approached. "Young Mr. Malfoy, Governor Malchaiah! To what do we owe the pleasure?" Amos asked, holding out his hand for the two to shake.
"Professor Amos!" Lucius exclaimed, shaking Amos's hand enthusiastically. "It's wonderful to see you again." Professor Amos shook hands heartily with Lucius Malfoy before turning toward Malfoy's father.
"Professor Amos, good to see you," Malchaiah Malfoy said smoothly, also shaking Amos's hand. "I was just explaining that very thing to Miss Evans, here. She's quite a precocious little girl. I do hope that her curiosity does not get her into…trouble."
Amos turned his gaze to Lily, and there was little within it to indicate that he thought more of her than he did the speck of dirt on his shoe. "Yes, Miss Evans's prying has caused her difficulty in the past. We can only hope that she's learned to control the impulse, and that it won't happen again."
Lily, not liking the thinly veiled threat in Governor Malfoy's voice, and equally appalled by Amos's response to it, turned to leave. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you again, Miss Evans," Lucius Malfoy said mockingly, as she hurried away. "Professor, we're here as representatives of the Hogwarts Board of Governors…"
Malfoy's voice faded as she hurried up the stairs, a million thoughts swirling around in her mind. The Malfoys were here on official business for the Board of Governors, but that couldn't be the only reason. She'd bet her wand that they were looking to gather information for the dark wizard. Hadn't Malchaiah Malfoy spoken before about methods of gathering information at Hogwarts when she'd had her last confrontation with him. She shuddered as the thought of this last meeting brought to mind the image of Malfoy, hooded to conceal his identity, pointing his wand at Potter, and the screams of pain that had followed. Lily forced her mind back to the present. Dwelling on what had happened that evening wasn't going to help her determine what it was that Malfoy and his father were after, would it? Were they just trying to find out information regarding Dumbledore's continuing efforts to prevent their master from becoming immortal and purging the wizarding world of all muggle-borns, or was there another reason?
She arrived at the painting of the fat lady, panting and out of breath. "Brie cheese," she said. The painting swung open and she crawled into the common room, smiling as she saw Lupin still sitting exactly where he had been when they'd left, the books around him piled even higher than before. "Hi Remus!"
Lupin's head snapped up in surprise. "Oh, it's you, Lily. I wasn't expecting you back so soon. Where are Alice and Amelia?" Lily blushed a little, not wanting to admit that she'd once again lost her temper with Potter and left before she'd finished her breakfast. Hadn't Lupin lectured her before on trying to remain calm when he was around? By the grin on his face, however, she could see that she needn't explain. "Jamesy came and talked to you then?" he asked.
Lily nodded. "Yes, and I'm afraid that I was a bit short-tempered with him."
Lupin looked at her appraisingly. "I have to admit that I'd be shocked if you said you'd acted otherwise," he said mildly.
Lily heaved a sigh of frustration. "I'm not the one that starts it, you know-," she began, but stopped at Lupin's laughter.
"Oh, I know, Lily," he said, his eyes sparkling in amusement. "Amelia has told me all about how innocent you are-or think you are-when it comes to your feud with James."
Lily could feel her temper beginning to rise again, and decided to leave before she allowed Lupin the satisfaction of seeing how much the mere thought of Potter upset her. "I'll be upstairs writing a letter to Petunia," she said briskly, "if anyone's looking for me." Lupin shook his head, as she turned around and began walking up the stairs to her room.
"I'm sure he will be," Lupin said quietly before she climbed out of sight. Lily sighed, certain that he had not intended for her to hear it, but confused nonetheless. What in the name of Gryffindor was that supposed to mean?
**************************
After a relaxing afternoon in which Lily, Alice and Amelia did absolutely nothing productive, the girls prepared for the feast, and then hurried quickly down to the Great Hall. When they arrived, Dumbledore was speaking with Lucius Malfoy and his father, and Lily suspected that their headmaster was none-to-pleased with the presence in his school of either Governor Malfoy, or his son. "They're still here?" Alice asked, the dislike in her voice clearly evident.
"What I can't figure out," Amelia said, clearly irritated, "is how Lucius Malfoy is walking around free. Shouldn't he be in jail after kidnapping Lily and Potter last year? There has to be plenty of evidence."
"I'm sure his father bought him out of trouble," Alice said bitterly. "When you've got money like the Malfoys, the laws don't always apply to you."
"Well they should!" Amelia said huffily. "I mean if he's able to get out of a kidnapping charge-"
"The judge said that with only my word and Potter's word, they didn't have enough evidence," Lily said dully.
"But-what about Alfie? And the other-," Amelia sputtered.
"They weren't allowed to testify," she explained. "I got a letter from Dumbledore this summer. You can read between the lines. His father definitely bribed the judge who was handling the case." Lily still got angry whenever she was reminded that Malfoy was still running around free, and she wasn't particularly in the mood to listen to one of Amelia's long complaints about corruption in the ministry, so she tried to change the subject. "Anyway, I do wonder what it is they're doing here."
Amelia hesitated, looking reluctant to leave behind the current topic of conversation, but she finally relented, and answered Lily. "Well, they'll be wanting to get as much information on Dumbledore's activities as possible, won't they? Even if they're not working against him for the sake of their `Lord', Dumbledore is still the primary adversary to Malfoy's legislation in the Wizengamot." Alice and Lily exchanged blank looks, and then glanced expectantly at Amelia, waiting for her to explain. She sighed. "Honestly, do either of you bother to read the paper at all?"
Alice grinned. "I've explained this to you before, Amelia. It's much more efficient to allow you to read it, and then tell us the important parts."
Lily couldn't help but feel guilty at the look of exasperation on Amelia's face, thinking that maybe sometimes they took entirely too much pleasure in Amelia's frustration with their lack of knowledge about the contents of the Daily Prophet. On the other hand, hadn't Amelia just this morning been making light of her own frustration with James Potter? The feeling of guilt evaporated, and she giggled. "Alice is right, Amelia. I mean, we've each got our jobs. Yours is to keep us informed about current events."
Alice laughed. "That's right. And Lily's is to keep us from forgetting what, exactly, is so horrible about Potter and the other Marauders."
"No," Amelia corrected. "Not all of the Marauders. Just Potter and Black."
"Mainly Potter," Alice agreed.
Lily glared at both of them. "Are you going to explain what you're talking about, Amelia?" Lily asked, pointedly ignoring both of her friends' comments about Potter and his friends.
Amelia grinned at Alice before continuing. "All right, fine. Malfoy has introduced legislation which he claims is aimed at `protecting' the wizarding way of life." Amelia snorted, telling her friends in no uncertain terms her opinion of this claim. "It's basically a thinly-veiled attempt to force muggle-borns out of Hogwarts. He's the head of an entire group devoted to this goal, actually. `Pure-Bloods for the Protection of the Wizarding Way of Life' or something like that. Don't worry," she added quickly, "the bill has no chance of getting passed, but the thing that appalls me the most is that it's even up for debate. It used to be that bills like his didn't even make it out of committee for a vote."
"So do you suppose that's why he's there, then?" Alice asked. "To try to persuade Dumbledore to support him?"
"It'd be a fool's errand if he is," Potter said, walking over to them, followed closely by Black, Pettigrew and Frank. "There's no way he'd convince Dumbledore to join him."
"He'd have about as much chance of that as Evans has of dating Pettigrew," Black agreed. Potter laughed out loud at the thought as Lily and Pettigrew blushed. "Right, Petey?" Black continued.
"Right," Pettigrew said meekly, sitting down. "I think the sorting's about to start."
Lily glared at Potter and Black, but turned to sit down beside Kaylie and Desdamona without a word. "It was a joke, Evans," Black said, smirking. "By all means, date Pettigrew if you want." He cast a sidelong glance at Potter. "My point was that Dumbledore will never help Malfoy pass the legislation." He slid into a seat beside Pettigrew, and turned to Potter, the two of them quickly becoming engrossed in a conversation about quidditch try-outs.
"Honestly," Lily said to no one in particular. "They could be nicer to him!"
"Who says it was him they were being mean to?" Frank asked, also sitting down.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, confused.
"I mean, when they said that Pettigrew would never date you, you assumed they were saying that he wasn't good enough to date you. How do you know they didn't mean the opposite? That is, that you aren't good enough to date Pettigrew."
Lily was too stunned to even notice the uproarious laughter that had erupted from Potter and Black. "Good point, Frankie! You're a bit full of yourself, aren't you, Evans? How do you know that's not what we meant!"
"Was it?" Lily challenged, turning to face Potter and Black.
Potter shrugged. "Does it matter? The point is that the high and mighty Princess Evans never even stopped to consider that we might think she's not good enough for one of our friends."
Lily felt Amelia's hand on her shoulder, Amelia's signal to her not to rise to Potter's bait, but she didn't care. "Did I miss something, Potter? Have I ever done anything to make you feel inferior to me?"
Potter's grin faded. "Are you really asking that Evans?" Potter asked incredulously. "You spend every minute of every day trying to prove to us and everybody else that we aren't worth your time, and the minute someone turns it around on you, you start playing the victim. Honestly!" Lily could tell that Potter was actually angry now, a sight that she thought she'd never see.
"You know, Potter, I thought at the end of last year that you and I might be able to be friends, but I don't know why I was deluding myself. You'd never admit that every spare minute you had last year was spent making my life miserable, and that maybe, just maybe, there might be a rational reason for my behavior toward you. You're unbelievable!"
"I'm unbelievable?" Potter repeated, turning to look at Black and Pettigrew for support. "You've acted like you're too good to talk to me from the moment that you saw me on the platform in London, and I'm unbelievable?"
"Just what do you two think that you are doing?" Professor McGonagall's furious whisper interrupted them. "The sorting hat is in the middle of its song, and all anyone in the hall can hear is the two of you shouting! That will be 20 points from Gryffindor, and both of you will be serving detention this week. No arguing, Mr. Potter. The two of you have been completely inconsiderate to the first years. Imagine if someone had interrupted your own sorting in such a manner!" She strode off toward the head table, as the sorting hat reached the end of its song.
Apparently, something about her exchange with Potter had struck the other Gryffindor second years as amusing, because all seven that were sitting around them were now trying their best to muffle their laughter. This did nothing to calm Lily's anger, and she sat at the table, fuming, as the sorting hat began separating students into the four houses. Regulus Black's name was called shortly thereafter.
"I don't even know why I'm hoping he won't get sent to Slytherin," Black said, and when the sorting hat confirmed his suspicion, Black snorted in disgust. "He's always been a little mommy's boy." Potter gave Black a sympathetic smile.
Lily's attention was then drawn to Amelia. Her little brother, Jacob, had just put the hat on. A few minutes later, the hat was still trying to decide, and Amelia was becoming more nervous by the second. "He could be a Gryffindor, couldn't he?" Amelia said hopefully. "I mean, he's brave enough."
The tear on the brim of the hat opened and shouted out "Ravenclaw" and Amelia let out the breath she had been holding. "Well, it's better than Hufflepuff. There's one of us in every house but Slytherin, now," she said. "That's good, right?"
Lily and Alice nodded in agreement, and the sorting continued. When it had ended, Dumbledore stood up for his usual start-of-term words. "I'd like to welcome Mr. Lucius Malfoy and Mr. Malchaiah Malfoy, who are visiting us on behalf of the school's Board of Governors. They will be here through the end of next week, and I would expect that you would extend to them your utmost courtesy. And I daresay that all other announcements can wait until after dinner, so please, by all means, tuck in," he said, before sitting down. The plates in front of them magically filled with food, and the Great Hall was filled with students filling their plates and eating.
"They're staying through next week?" Frank asked incredulously. "Dumbledore can't be very happy about that!"
"I don't suppose there's much that he can do about it," Amelia said. "Like it or not, the Board of Governors has the ability to remove him as Headmaster if they so desire. But I'm sure he'll be keeping close tabs on them while they're here, anyway."
"Where's Lupin?" Lily asked, finally, breaking the silence she had kept since her disagreement with Potter prior to the sorting. She was tired of discussing the presence of Lucius and his father.
Alice and Amelia glanced at her in surprise. "Are you sure it's safe for you to start talking again?" Alice asked, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. "We'd hate for you to get detention for a second time tonight."
Amelia giggled as Lily grimaced. "I've calmed down. And I want to hear nothing about overreactions, or…"
Amelia grinned. "Not a word," she said. "Lupin's sitting down there, by the way."
"How long do you think this will go on?" Frank asked in concern. "It's just so weird to see him off by himself."
"I dunno," Lily said. "I talked to him this morning, and-,"
"You talked to Remmy this morning?" Black asked, turning to look at Lily in excitement. "What did he say?"
Lily glanced coolly at Black. "Nothing that bears repeating," she said. "Particularly not to the three of you."
"Lily, you might tell them. It sounds like they're just as worried about Lupin as we are," Alice urged quietly.
"If they're so worried about him, let them talk to him themselves. They're the ones that made him feel like he's not good enough to be their friend," Lily responded, just as quietly. Unfortunately, Black's wolf-like hearing picked up what she had said.
"That's the second time you've said that, Evans. What do you mean?" he queried. Potter and Pettigrew were also looking at her with interest.
"I mean just what I said," she said with a sigh of frustration. "Lupin feels like he's not good enough to be your friend. That's all I know."
The three boys glanced at each other, and without a word, stood up from their seats and practically flew down to where Lupin was sitting, pushing aside everyone within a six foot radius to make room for them to sit down. "Well, I do hope that he reconciles with them," she said after watching the Marauders for a moment. "For reasons beyond anyone's understanding, he's much happier when they're around."
"They're good friends to him, Lily," Amelia said simply. "I get the impression that he hasn't had too many of those before."
******************************
As Lily descended the stairs from her dormitory the next morning, the voices of the Marauders stopped her just before she turned the corner and the common room came into view. She paused, feeling slightly guilty about eavesdropping, but shrugged it off as Black's voice floated up to her. "Come on Remmy! You can't just quit the Marauders!"
"Look, Sirius, you don't understand. Please, can't you three just accept that I don't want to be your friend?"
"No," Potter said firmly. "No, we can't, because you haven't give us a good reason-"
"I don't owe you a reason," Lupin replied, exhaustion and frustration clearly evident in his voice.
"I'm afraid you're wrong about that," Black countered. "If we've done or said something to upset you this much-"
"You haven't," Lupin interrupted. "Honestly. I've just decided that I need to concentrate more on homework and school and-"
He was interrupted by Potter's and Black's snorts. "You tell us when we've ever been able to convince you to put off homework, Remmy!" Potter responded.
"Then why wouldn't you want to be our friend anymore?" Pettigrew whined. He sounded very near tears.
"Never mind that, Petey," Black said, and his voice sounded suddenly harsh. "If you're going to be like this, then fine. Just don't come running to us when you're stuck on Transfiguation. Let's go."
"Siri-," Potter said, but only silence answered, and Lily guessed that Black had left the common room. "We'll see you down at breakfast, Remmy, but don't think I'm not still waiting for an explanation."
Another silence followed this statement, and then there was sigh. "You're going to be waiting for awhile, Jamesy," Lupin said.
Lily waited a moment, so it wouldn't appear as though she'd overheard the entire conversation, and then continued down the steps into the common room. Lupin was sitting dejectedly on the couch. He looked up as Lily entered.
"Oh, hi, Lils," he said quietly. "I really don't feel like talking right now, so…"
Lily nodded. "I'll leave you alone, then," she said, just as Alice and Amelia bounded into the common room.
"We thought you'd left without us!" Alice said breathlessly. "Hi Remmy, are the Marauders still upstairs?"
Lupin shook his head. "No, they've already gone down to breakfast. I'm not feeling particularly hungry this morning."
Alice and Amelia glanced at Lily quizzically, but Lily shrugged. "You know what?" Amelia said, "I'm not feeling very hungry, either. Why don't you two go ahead, and I'll catch up to you in class?"
Lily and Alice nodded. "Sure," they said in unison. "We've got History of Magic first."
Amelia grinned. "Can't wait," she said, without the slightest trace of sarcasm.
Alice rolled her eyes and began crawling out of the portrait hole. "See you in class, Remus," Lily called as she followed Alice onto the landing outside the Gryffindor common room.
The girls were about halfway to the Great Hall when Professor Flitwick and a tall, very slim professor who was wearing burgundy robes and gold wrist bangles that clicked together as he walked, came into view in front of them. Their voices floated back easily to Lily and Alice. "That's what I thought as well," Flitwick squeaked, "but my source assures me it was the genuine article. The question is whether or not it's retained the gifts with which it was bestowed. I'd certainly like to examine it myself, but I've no idea to which student it belongs."
"Professor Flitwick!" Professor McGonagall had appeared from one of the classrooms nearby. "May I have a word with you?"
The wizard with Flitwick bid him good day, and then continued on his way down the steps. Lily and Alice greeted Professors Flitwick and McGonagall as they passed by, and then once they were out of earshot, glanced at one another. "What do you suppose that was about?" Alice asked finally.
"Well, apparently a student has something that Flitwick would like to have a look at," Lily said, pulling open the door to the Great Hall and following Alice inside. "I wonder what it is, though?"
Alice shrugged. "I've no idea," she answered, sitting down next to Kaylie and Desdamona, and beginning to fill her plate. "Probably something very old, and very, very boring… Something old Binns would like."
"Or Amelia," Lily said, reaching for a piece of toast and smearing on some jam.
A fluttering of wings accompanied by numerous shrieks told the girls that the mail had arrived, and they stopped talking momentarily to see if anything had come for them. A snowy owl that Lily did not recognize landed on her shoulder, and Lily untied the parchment attached to its leg. The owl shrieked, and then flew off again as soon as Lily had gotten its delivery.
"So what were you two talking about when you got here?" Kaylie asked, as Lily read her letter.
"Nothing important," Alice replied. "We just heard Flitwick talking to the Divination professor-I forget his name, but-"
"Professor Praevidi," Lily said.
"What?" Alice asked.
"His name is Professor Praevidi. I have a meeting with him next week," Lily answered. "Apparently he'd like to speak with me about `nurturing' my inner-eye. This is a note from Dumbledore," she added, indicating the note.
"That's great, Lily! Maybe if you work with him, one day you'll be able to see our tests before they happen and tell us what to study for!" Alice said with a grin.
Lily gave Alice a disapproving look. "I hardly think that would be fair to everyone else!" she said, as Alice rolled her eyes. "And anyway, I don't get to pick and choose when my visions come to me." She finished her last bit of toast, and stood up. "Are you ready for History of Magic, then?"
Alice giggled. "Am I ready for my nap, you mean?"
"Yes," Lily agreed. "Are you ready for your after-breakfast nap."
"Well, I have to say that I preferred last year, when it was an after-lunch nap, but I suppose this will have to do."
Lily wrapped up some muffins for Amelia and put them in the pockets of her robe, and then followed Alice, Kaylie and Desdamona out of the Great Hall to class.
Amelia was reading the paper and looking disgusted when they arrived for class. Lupin was not yet there, but the other three Marauders were sitting in the front, huddling over a piece of parchment. Lily glanced briefly in their direction, wondering what mischief they were now planning, and sat down next to Amelia, handing her the muffins she had brought from breakfast. Amelia smiled, as Alice slid into a chair beside her, but didn't pick up a muffin.
"Have you two read the paper today?" Amelia demanded, and Lily sighed quietly. Somehow, she had known that would be coming, but she had rather hoped that Amelia would be too distracted by Lupin's odd behavior to go off on her morning rant.
Alice grinned at Lily. "We've been over this, Meli," she said as Lily laughed.
Amelia glared at them. "Right, right, I forgot that you two are entirely too busy to pay attention to the newspaper. Well, you know that group that Malfoy's in charge of?"
Lily nodded. "Sure, the `Pure-Bloods for the Protection of the Wizarding Way of Life', isn't it?" Amelia nodded.
"See, we have been paying attention!" Alice said. Amelia rolled her eyes. "Anyway, what about it?"
"Well, Malfoy announced that he was stepping down from his position as the chairman of the group, in order to `focus on his other commitments', and they've appointed someone named Lord Voldemort to be in charge of it. Anyone ever heard of him?"
Lily felt an involuntary shiver run down her spine at the name. "Lord Voldemort?" she asked. "Does the magical world even recognize the idea of nobility?"
Alice nodded. "Sort of. A lot of pure-blood magical families count among their ancestors some of the better known aristocrats in muggle history. Nearly Headless Nick's proper title is `Sir Nicholas' so he must have served as a Knight to the throne of England during his life," she said, pausing and looking thoughtful. "It's unusual for most blood-purists to use the title nowadays, though. After all, titles of nobility were bestowed by muggle governments, even if those governments were filled with witches and wizards, and most blood-purists wouldn't want that kind of connection to muggles. And no, Amelia, I've never heard of him. I suppose that Voldemort is his last name? It sounds French to me, I wonder if he's not from England, then?"
Lily and Amelia shrugged. "I've no idea," Amelia answered. "All it says about him is what he hopes to accomplish, and it's no surprise that it's all the same nonsense that Malfoy spouts in all of his speeches. It's disgusting, honestly. I can't believe that people pay him to come and speak to their organizations. I mean, all he does is promote hatred. That's his job!" Amelia snorted in disgust, dropping the paper.
"That, and harassing innocent students at Hogwarts," Lily added. "We saw him in the hallway on the way over here, quizzing some first-years about whether or not the delay in the start of classes had `adversely affected their opinion of the school'!"
"As if delaying classes is going to adversely affect anyone's opinion," Alice said, grinning. "I'd love to go to a school where classes are called off every other day."
Lily sighed. "Honestly, Alice, if classes were called off every other day then how-"
The sound of an explosion interrupted Lily, followed by Black's shout of, "Bumbling bat bogeys!" The three girls glanced up to see him holding up the piece of parchment that the boys had been huddled around. The parchment was covered in a big splotch of maroon ink, and Potter and Pettigrew were both laughing wildly.
Alice raised her eyebrows. "Bumbling bat bogeys, Black?" she asked, snickering.
He blushed. "My mum says it," he mumbled defensively, and then his expression turned sour. "I'll make a note never to use it again."
Pettigrew was laughing so hard that he had fallen to the ground. Potter glanced at him, and then at Black, before bursting into laughter again. "Bumbling….bat….bogeys…" he said, wiping a tear from his eye. "Your face when that quill exploded was classic, Siri, but your expression was even better! I got you with your own creation."
Black glanced between Potter and the broken quill lying in a pool of ink on the desk, and his eyes sparkled mischievously. A split second passed in which Potter moved away from his desk before Black grabbed the ink-covered quill and tackled Potter, and the two began wrestling on the floor. Black kept trying to smear ink all over Potter's robes and face, and Potter was trying desperately to keep Black's hand away from him. Lily rolled her eyes and opened her History of Magic book while Alice and Amelia watched on in amusement.
Potter and Black were still wrestling on the floor when Lupin arrived. He didn't even blink as he passed by and chose a seat near the back of the room, but Lily noticed him watching the scene out of the corner of his eye, a small smile on his lips, as he was pulling out his parchment and quill.
Lily smiled and turned her gaze away from Lupin and back toward the boys. Both of them were now laughing, their hands, robes and faces covered in ink. Black's hair was also ink-streaked and hung in his eyes, leaving streaks of maroon on his forehead wherever it touched, while Potter's hair, also covered in ink, was sticking up more than usual, gleaming brightly in the light of the classroom. Their eyes were sparkling, and they were pointing at each other and laughing.
Not for the first time, Lily found herself utterly perplexed about what could possibly be so much fun about a wrestling match. She had witnessed Potter and Black wrestling before, and had felt the same sort of confusion, then. "Boys," she said under her breath, and Alice grinned at her.
"You have to admit that it's never dull with them around, though," Alice said.
The bell rang, and shortly thereafter, Binns floated through the blackboard into their classroom, seemingly not noticing the two ink-covered students in the front row. He called roll and then launched into a lecture on historical magical artifacts without even glancing up.
Roughly half-way through the lecture, there was a loud bang from near the back of the class. Binns did not notice, droning on about the myths surrounding many magical objects as every head in the class swiveled around to find out what had caused the noise. Lily quickly discovered that Lupin was inspecting his hands and his parchment, both of which were now covered in ink, and surmised that the Marauders had planted another of Black's exploding quills in his bag. Lupin looked torn, as though he was not sure whether to laugh or cry. Finally, he sighed, and pulled another quill and parchment out of his bag. Lily shook her head, feeling a swell of sympathy and wondering why on earth the Marauders thought that tormenting Lupin was going to convince him to befriend them once again.
She turned back to her notes, but a moment later, a white paper airplane fell to the ground beside her. She picked it up, assuming it was intended for her, and both Alice and Amelia leaned over to see it as she read "We told you that you can't get out of the Marauders that easily." The note was signed by Potter, Black and Pettigrew. She looked up and saw Potter motioning frantically for her to send it on, so she refolded it and pulled out her wand. "Wingardium Leviosa," she said, swishing her wand and flicking it. She directed the note back to Lupin before allowing it to come to rest on the new piece of parchment he was using for notes.
Lupin glanced at the note and picked it up, confusion registering on his face. He unfolded it and read it, and when he set it down again, he was smiling widely at the three Marauders. Lily turned around, and saw that all three boys were now laughing, and waving at him. Lupin waved back, and then picked up his quill again to take notes.
Lily laughed. "Boys," she said for the second time that day, and Alice and Amelia nodded their agreement as they joined in her laughter.
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