James slowly turned his head to look at Lily. “Lil?”
“It’s no use,” she sighed; “I know what you’re thinking. We’re not staying here; hand me the necklace.”
His eyes dilated. “What necklace?”
She swerved to meet him. “What?”
“Didn’t you have it?”
“I did—but I thought you had it—how else could we get all the way to here?”
”You’re asking me?”
“Yes, I’m asking you!”
He sighed, held out a hand to her, and helped her out of the water. “I don’t think fighting’ll be any use. It’s somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and unless you know how to Apparate and can teach me to do so within the next five minutes, we’re going to have a long walk back. Where is this place, Albania, I think you said?”
“A long walk back,” she agreed. “But we’re staying out of Tom’s way.”
James sighed. “I hate Hagrid’s pumpkins.”
Lily laughed as she stepped over a small rock. “They were messy, weren’t they?”
They were making for the forest that bordered the beach, and the instant Lily dissolved into the trees, she knew something was wrong. Well, maybe not wrong—but different. Noisy. The woods felt…well—crowded.
“James—hold on. I’ll be back.”
Stubbornly, he followed her. “Nope. Not leaving you alone.”
She sighed. “James—“
“’If you don’t learn to live with danger, you don’t learn to live at all.’ By Lily Evans.”
“Yeah, well, this isn’t danger. This is suicide.”
He grunted.
“Just stay here. No moving of muscles. Any muscles. Do not smile.”
“Yes, sir,” he shot back, snapping to attention. Without bothering to make a comment, Lily vanished towards the creaking leaves and branches; the whisperings and the dim sparks.
Quite unexpectedly, she emerged in a clearing filled with hundreds of wizards in dark robes; they were sitting around Tom, who was standing up, twirling his wand, and explaining something. Litharelen was sitting off to the side, curled up, her long, silver hair covering her gown like a cloak.
Lily stepped forward just as the Death Eaters stood up and dispersed to smaller groups; Tom spotted her immediately. Instantly, he was by her side.
“Lily! How’ve you been--we’ve not seen you for a long time here…say, did that Ministry rat get you into any trouble? I know I was harsh to you last time you were here—well, did you get into any trouble?”
Lily shook her head. “No.”
“Good.” He grinned, relieved. “Well—I wanted to talk to you about something else. It goes down to this. I need a spy near Dumbledore, in Hogwarts, and you’ve been offered a job there--would you be willing?”
Something was revolving inside her. She had always wanted to live an adventurous, exciting life, and this was what Tom was offering her. A life at which her heart could beat frantically at the danger, and relax for only millisecondsbefore being awakened again; the feel of wind whipping her face flowed past her again. But then, her mind flew to her family.
They were Muggles. She would probably end up aiding in their murders—she couldn’t, no matter how much she hated their ways of thinking. Slowly, Lily shook her head.
“Tom, I can’t.”
He was completely disconcerted. “You can’t?”
“No. No. Please understand. Please. I—er—I’ve got friends that are Muggles; it’s impossible for me to do this. I couldn’t make myself—and I’d fail you.”
He waved that aside. “Lily, you can train yourself so that doesn’t matter! This—this is adventure, riches, danger—you’ve always told me this is what you dreamed of!”
“No.” She squared her shoulders more firmly. “Tom, no. I don’t want anything to do with your moves in England. I quit. I don’t care if you can’t quit—I just did. I never joined your ranks; I was a sort of friend to you. I won’t, Tom—I won’t.” She stepped back, at the finish of the calm speech she knew could cost her her life; still, she remained as cool as if she had just informed him that ten potato pancakes wouldn’t be enough for thirteen people.
He eyed her quizzically. “Lily, are you feeling all right?” No trace of anger convulsed his features, and Lily was surprised.
“I’m fine. But do you understand, Tom? I’m through, I’m done with this! I quit. I’ve had enough. Understand? I don’t care if you don’t; I’ll make you. You’d better understand—My Lord.”
He closed his eyes. This sixteen-year-old would be a valuable ally—but if he said anything rash, any hope of making her join his ranks was out of the question. He’d have to approach her later, maybe a month or so in the future. Then—then, after the stuffy life as a citizen--
“I understand. You aren’t forced to come with me.”
She met his eyes, startled. ‘You’re not angry; you’re not anything?”
“I’m quite disappointed; you’re a valuable, smart girl, yes. You’d be useful. Very.”
“I don’t want to be.”
He sighed. “Then that’s all there is to it.”
Lily was more than disconcerted; she was amazed. This wasn’t like Tom; the Tom Riddle she knew would have made a gigantic fuss ending in a temper tantrum involving either the Cruciatus or the Killing Curse. But then her gaze fell on Litharelen, and she thought she knew why.
“Are you this lenient on me because I saved Lith back in fourth or fifth year?”
He turned rather pale; pale for him, that is. “Partly—Lily, this is in all honesty—I’m terribly in your debt. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there that day…”
He spun around. Some of the Death Eaters were running; a faint sound of voices reached his ears. Tom instantly whipped his wand out, pulled Litharelen to her feet, and backed into the darkness. On her part, Lily faded into the shadows behind her, almost frantic with worry. What was wrong?
She found out soon; James had grasped her arm and pulled her ear towards his mouth. “The Ministry’s here—those Death Eaters are outnumbered at least ten to one.”
“What?” Face pale, she gasped at his words.
“Don’t do anything stupid!” he warned her; but too late, Lily had already left for the now maniacally dangerous and murderous clearing.
Tom and Litharelen were cornered next to a smallish cliff by seven Ministry members; Tom, a nasty scowl knitting his eyebrows, was glaring at his enemies. Then, without warning, he attacked.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!”
Two Ministry members fell to the floor; the green light flashing out of each end of Tom’s wand had killed them both. It was the signal for the Ministry; they could go ahead and kill him; he had killed some of them.
All of them removed their wands from Litharelen and pointed them at Tom, who was ready for them. At the same split second, exactly the same two words burst from each of the five wizards’ lips, the Avada Kedavra that had killed many before them.
Something flashed; something white and silver flew through the air; an unexpected figure dashed towards the green beams of light. Litharelen.
Lily drew in a strangled breath of air quickly; her eyes couldn’t be functioning properly—something was wrong—Litharelen was all right; she was alive, nothing had happened—
The Ministry wizards were stunned. Nothing had prepared them for this; and, on his part, Tom was standing underneath the pillars of his crumbling and crashing world.
The limp, pale form fell into his arms; her fingers let go of the hold they had taken around his neck. Trailing on the ground, the silvery hair cloaked her face and his knees as everything started to sink in to his mind…Litharelen was gone…First one, then three, then streams of tears flooded his eyes and fell onto her moonlight gown and skin…onto the glazed, formerly dark green eyes with the mist flooding them…the mist that had died, that would never again flare in love, anger, frustration…Litharelen was dead.
All this had taken barely three seconds; the tears of rage and loss had stopped almost as soon as Tom raised his head again, this time in pure hatred and anger towards the Ministry wizards. He gently let Litharelen’s body fall to the ground, and, as he raised his wand, boundless fear entered the hearts of his opponents—
His eyes flared a frightening scarlet; it was but the work of a moment to lay his fiancée’s killers at his feet, lifeless. Heaving with grief, he let himself glare around the clearing.
Lily realized the mistake, the deadly error, she had made. Too late, she pushed James into the forest behind them; Tom had assumed the worst, that James had led the Ministry to him, and in his uncontrollable rage, he was worse than deadly.
For once, James didn’t hesitate. He broke through one of the bushes ahead of them and streaked for the shore—anywhere, anywhere, only to get away from Tom…
Thus began the wildest chase of their lives; following them was death; in front of them was the open wildness of the cove. Dodging behind every sand-dune only twelve inches high, they cleared two hundred yards in moments; yet Tom was gaining on them. They were avoiding every root and rock that might trip them; they were dashing over the sands madly, panting, yet not daring to stop, now leaping over the edge of a boulder, now ducking behind a small tree, now climbing one of the steepest hills they had yet encountered in their lives.
Never before had Lily wished for the necklace with such an intensity—she had brought James to his death—he would die, and it was all because of her! He would die, just like Litharelen; she’d never be able to meet his eyes again—
Tom was only two hundred feet behind them when they reached the top of a cliff—a cliff that reached five hundred feet over a maelstrom of raging waves. They couldn’t turn back—there was no way, not without running into Tom’s arms. Doomed, they stared at each other.
“I’m pulling a Litharelen,” Lily told him sternly, “if Tom runs up here. This is my fault…”
“It is not,” James contradicted; “and don’t you dare blame yourself. We’ll have to jump off of here, then…if we don’t want to be killed and/or tortured by him.”
Both of their gazes were drawn irrecoverably to the crashing waves below them, and, with an effort, James looked back up.
“Lily,” he shouted over the sharply whistling wind, “if we get out of this, I’ll never again doubt the power of miracles.”
“Miracles?” Lily laughed, terrified, but the next moment she was almost thrown off of the edge of the cliff as a figure appeared between both of them amidst the fait flashes of green light that Tom was shooting at them—a figure they both knew, and the one they least expected to see.
“Lora?!” both of them gasped.
It was Lora, grinning, yet a bit unnerved, she stared around them, holding Lily’s necklace in her hands. “What is this place?”
”No time,” Lily gasped; “hand me that!”
She didn’t wait for an answer; simply snatched the necklace out of Lora’s hands and hit it against James watch; holding onto each other so tightly their fingers were turning white, they were swept off in the relieving, safer, rescuing storm of darkness.
The last thing that was on their mind was the rather disgusting environment they landed in; well, at least, iit wasn’t on Lily and James’ minds. Lora, on her part, expressed her disgust of sitting in mushy pumpkin goo and lemon rinds and squash rests and such by the mere expression on her face.
Lily and James had collapsed next to each other; they had let go of each other’s wrists, but they were still breathing quickly, panting with their chase and the danger they had just escaped—Lily was still breathless at the sight of her friend dying in front of her. Like a child, she had buried her head in his chest, crying noiseless tears.
Lora broke the spell of relief that had wound its way over them by a loud, hacking cough.
“What was that all about?”
Exhausted, James tried to sit up but found he couldn’t; he was too weak. “Tell—you—later—“ he managed, before falling back down and closing his eyes.
Fifteen minutes later, Lily had cried out all her tears; she was still hiccupping gently, but the waterfalls had ceased to flow from her eyes. Their strength was returning, and they were explaining in intervals to Lora what had happened there—and the story behind it. She had informed them that she had a right to know, since she had dome something in the nature of save their skins, and they hadn’t objected. She was right—if it hadn’t been for her, they would have been lying at the foot of the cliff, broken and battered to bits.
When they had finished their story, Lora was glaring daggers at them--well, mostly at Lily.
“You mean that, ever since third year, you’ve been helping out a criminal whose followers killed my parents?”
James flinched; he stole a glance at Lily, whose control had completely returned. “That’s a rather harsh way of putting it, isn’t it?”
”No.” Lora folded her arms. “Lily, how could you?”
Lily had an edge to her jaw that James had hardly ever seen before; she only set her mouth like this when she was extremely angry.
“I am not responsible to you for my actions.”
“Oh, you’re not? For all I know, you killed them!”
James’ eyes widened. Holding out his arms, he split the two girls apart. “Hold on!”
They glared at him, and he quickly went on. “This is useless. Lora, you idiot, you know Lily didn’t kill your parents, and, for Pete’s sake, Lily, don’t be so offended. We’ve got bigger stuff to worry about.”
“Like what?” Lora asked flatly.
“Like the fact that Lord Voldemort is shortly going to be in England.”
“Oh.” Lora sat back on her heels. “I see.”
“Exactly. Good. Now, for Christ’s sake, stop jumping on Lil like that—she’s just lost one of her friends, okay? One of her friends was murdered. Don’t mess with her too much, okay?”
Lora sighed. “Okay.” She stuck a hand out towards Lily. “I’m sorry about the junk I said about my parents. I know you better.”
Rather unwillingly, Lily shook the hand in front of her.
“Good,” James said, sounding relieved. “We’d better go back and get cleaned up, then. It’s still raining bats and mice. Lora—come to think of it, how did you get to us?”
Lora shrugged. “McGonagall told me to get you two out of the rain when I was leaving Professor Flitwick’s office, so I went outside. You two weren’t there, but there was that odd necklace on the ground. I picked it up,” she related, “and then, owing to my natural grace, slipped on this pumpkin mess. Next thing I knew, I was there—and the second thing I knew, I was here. And I’m still here.”
“We noticed,” Lily said dryly.
James sighed. “Well, we’d better get cleaned up—Lora!” he added quickly; he’d forgotten something.
“What?”
“You aren’t planning on telling anyone about this, are you?”
”What do you think I am, stupid?” she scoffed. “They’d call me mental.” Her eyes twinkled. “No, I wouldn’t. It might get either of you expelled—or something in that area. I don’t hate you two that much?”
James grinned at her. “Thanks.” Holding out his hands to each of them, he helped them to their feet. “We’d better get cleaned up—I know we must look terrible.”
”We do,” Lily agreed, “and we’d better make sure we don’t run into anyone on our way inside. Goodness knows what questions they’d ask if we did.”
As luck would have it, the rain had chased everyone inside the staff room or the common rooms, so they didn’t bang into one of the Slytherins that would only have been too delighted to see the famous Gryffindor Chaser covered in leaves, twigs, dirt, and vegetable peelings, besides being soaked through and through.
Lily hailed the prefect’s bathroom on the third floor (the closest one) with a grin; she pushed James back as Lora and she entered it. “You go somewhere else. Have fun!”
She had never thought that getting rid of dirt could be so much fun, and one advantage of magical bathtubs was that the water never got dirty, and that the bits of squash and the leaves that came out of her hair dissolved instantly, without sticking around and being rather disgusting.
Along with the grime, her grudge against Lora disappeared, and the same went for Lora. When they walked into the common room, they were telling each other odd jokes they had picked up over the summer, much to James’ surprise and relief; he hadn’t expected them to come back at all—it would have been more realistic to expect two bodies to be found strewn around the prefect’s bathroom.
No one asked if anything was wrong at all, and Lily was relieved. She hadn’t any idea of what she would say if anyone did ask her, so she was putting all her effort into pretending that nothing was wrong, when in all actuality, everything was. The ‘shadow in the East’ had vanished without a trace, so the Daily Prophet reported, and the manager of an orphanage in London had died mysteriously, with no marks on him to show how he had met his end.
The Hufflepuffs went down completely before Ravenclaw in the next game of the season; they were out of the running for the Quidditch Cup; they had lost two hundred and ten to twenty. Slytherin bowled over Ravenclaw as soon as they got on the field; the new players were evidently much better than the old ones had been. There were only two games left—Gryffindor against Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor against Slytherin; those were to be held after Christmas break.
One afternoon, Sirius dawdled into his dormitory, with the intention of taking a nice, long nap. He flung himself down on his bed, but immediately looked over at the figure sitting on the four-poster next to him.
“James? I was wondering.”
”Wondering what?” James was turning something over and over in his fingers.
“Where you were. What’s that?” Sirius sat up.
James turned rather pink, and he closed his fist around the object. “Nothing.”
“Hey, I’m your best friend! Hand it over, pal. If you can’t trust me, who can you trust?”
James simply looked at him.
”Okay, so maybe that’s not such a good excuse. Just lemme see it a second.”
James sighed and threw it to Sirius, burying his head in his pillow immediately afterwards. “That was not a good idea…”
Sirius caught it. It was a silver band, intricately carved, with a sapphire set in the middle. “Nice ring. Who’s it from?”
A muffled voice came from the pillow. “It’s from nobody. It was supposed to be for someone, but now I’m not so sure.”
“You’re not sure? Who was it for?” Sirius was frankly curious, and also worried. “Go on.”
”Never mind…” James hit his head against the pillow.
“I do mind, though. Who for?”
“Er—“ he stumbled—“well, actually—“ He sat straight up. “You have got to promise never to tell anyone about this. Never.”
“Sure.” Sirius was surprised at his own nonchalance. “Shoot.”
“It—well, I actually meant this for Narcissa, but…”
“What, Serena?” Sirius felt relieved.
“Yeah—her—but I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?” A thought struck Sirius’ mind. “You’re not planning to get married, are you?”
”No—yes—no—I don’t know!” James was furiously red. “It’s just that I don’t know really what I’ll do out of Hogwarts…and I do like her a lot—I mean, she’s sweet…she understands me; she’s nice…she’s always there for me…and people get married all the time when they’ve left school! It’s not like it’s a new thing!”
“Let me get this straight.” Sirius was trying to keep from laughing. “You’re asking the daughter of the Minister of Magic to marry you? You’re a Marauder. You’ll have no freedom, for Pete’s sakes—she’ll always be after you to put the toilet seat down and to pick up your own clothes. Think, my friend, think!”
“I AM thinking!” James roared. “Why do you think I said I wasn’t so sure!”
“Oh.” Sirius thought about that. “Okay; go ahead.”
”I’m not sure about it, that’s all.”
“You mean you like to leave the toilet seat up?” Sirius grinned.
“Sirius!”
“Okay, okay…I’ll stop. But why’d you change your mind?”
”No reason.” The red that had started to recede from his cheeks came back full force, spreading to his ears and above his eyebrows.
“Oh, sure. No, really, James, just tell me!”
James glared. “I said there was no reason!”
“Sure, sure, there IS no reason in the idea of marriage…no, but come on!”
“SIRIUS!”
By the end of the day, all four of the Marauders knew about that afternoon, and they were teasing James beyond insanity, though they were more serious than usual—this was just another omen—they’d be broken up when they left Hogwarts. Remus wanted to teach or tutor students; Peter hadn’t any real plans, which probably meant he’d be working odd jobs; the same with Sirius—though he kept saying that he’d start selling flying motorcycles to the magical world—and James wanted to either play Quidditch for England—or—or—
He wanted to try the Ministry. Not a stuffy job behind a desk; after what he had seen of Lord Voldemort, he had become inclined to try becoming an Auror. It would certainly be interesting…he’d certainly like to try it…
Still, he doubted, privately, whether Serena would approve of his plans; she didn’t like anything dangerous. It annoyed him sometimes that she worried over him whenever he got on a broomstick, and that was on of the reasons he was hesitant about this. He wasn’t planning on getting married right away, of course—this was an engagement ring, and nothing else. Just because his mother and father had married right out of Hogwarts didn’t mean he had to…
On her part, Lily had gone to Professor Dumbledore and accepted the offer he had made her for a substitute and student teacher. She would be starting next year, filling in for teachers and acting as an aide; she would have her own office, and she would be allowed to leave Hogwarts for vacations.
Still, Lily didn’t like the idea of the life that was presenting itself to her. She didn’t want to spend her life cooped up inside an almost lightless castle—she wanted to [i]do[/i] something that would make her heart race, something that would awaken an interest in living…
Lily had heard the Marauders talking about what they wanted to do later, and one of James’ remarks had caught her interest. He had spoken of being a Marauder; one of his father’s friends, Alastor Moody, had already talked to him about that possiblilty. It was dangerous, but it paid well, and it should be fun, she mused…she wouldn’t have to do it for a long time to be able to support herself for the rest of her life, and if she ever wanted to stop, she could travel—travel to the savannas of Africa, the forests of India, and the Alps in Switzerland…the canals in Venice, the pyramids in Egypt, and the Acropolis in Greece—anything and everything she had ever wished to see…if she really wanted to, she could even act—
Before anyone knew anything at all, it was Christmastime, and most of the students had left Hogwarts. The Marauders were staying, as was Lily, however, practically all the rest of the student population was going home. Severus was leaving, Lucius was going on a vacation with his parents to Denmark, Eva and Vanessa were going to the wedding of their cousin’s in Australia, Amanda was simply going home, Lora was going with the Doylens’, naturally…
It was only on the morning of the first day of the Christmas holidays, when Lily entered the common room, that she found out that Elspeth and Serena had stayed behind, too.
It was a beautiful morning; Lily had woken to see patches of blue and gold shining through swirling bits of white outside the large window in the dormitory. She swung her feet into a pair of dark slippers and threw on a midnight-blue dressing gown she had been able to wear in her first year; however, it took hardly any time to lengthen it. It was a little tight around the waist, but Lily didn’t mind especially. She slipped her hand underneath [i]A Doll’s House[/i] by Henrik Ibsen and practically flew down the marble stairs.
Serena met her eyes when she appeared at the bottom of the stairwell, her hand resting on the banister. She was the only one that had seen or heard Lily; with a distinct, superior toss of her head, she turned back to the chess game between Elspeth and James that she was watching.
Somehow, Lily felt inferior to her in some way—it was something she couldn’t quite place her finger on. A bit pink, she turned to an armchair near the fire and drew her book close to her, pulling her plait over her shoulder to hide her face.
It wasn’t any use, though. Sirius spotted her and came over to her seat.
“’Lo, Lily! Merry Christmas!”
She had to laugh. “It isn’t Christmas yet!”
“No, but it’s the holidays. Come on over—sit with us.”
“No thanks,” Lily declined, “I’d rather not. I’d better go down to breakfast, anyway—“
“I’ll go with you. Come on, let’s go.” He picked her up and set her on her feet, heading for the portrait hole.
“Sirius—I’m not dressed,” she hissed, gesturing at the dressing gown covering the white nightgown and the flimsy, though warm, slippers.
He grinned at her. “You’ll be all right. You look nice. Come on, I’m in pajamas, too. You’ll live.”
She gave in with a smile. “Sure. I suppose so, then.”
“Good.” They climbed out of the portrait hole into the slightly colder passageway; Lily noticed with a grin that the Fat Lady had drawn a large, elaborate shawl around her shoulders.
Breakfast went quietly; only two owls flew inside at the usual time the mail was delivered; one with Lily’s Daily Prophet, and one with a letter for a Ravenclaw boy that had stayed behind. There was nothing new inside it today, which was a relief, but she caught Sirius eyeing her warily as he saw her checking the paper with an almost frenzied interest. He didn’t mention anything, which was reassuring, but she did her best to keep the conversation on the reason that Sirius liked motorcycles so much. It kept him busy for a good while, and when that was exhausted, the plates were clearing, and they were leaving for the common room.
There was quite a bit of homework for the students to do; the teachers were cutting one of the seventh years’ optional classes and sticking in one that taught them how to Apparate. It only lasted for half a term, and it was required to get an Apparition licence. They could take their test anytime afterwards, but the class itself involved lots of studying, as they were warned by the teachers. Still, it wasn’t an optional class, so they couldn’t exactly have exempted it.
One of their assignments before the class started was to write an essay on the inventors of the Apparition and Disapparition methods and the way they went about their experiments. Lily was looking up Ferdinand Frogdard in an encyclopedia that afternoon when she received an invitation from the other side of the common room.
“Hey, Lily! Up for a game of chess?”
It was Sirius that had called to her, and she shut her book as she stood up. “You’re sure I won’t be in the way?”
“Nah,” he called back to her, “what put that into your head? Come on—here, play James. He’s been bragging about how good he is. Get over here and prove him wrong, why don’t you?”
She smiled as she sat down at one end of the chessboard, wondering vaguely why James’ cheeks were a bit pink…
“What color you want, Lily?” Sirius was setting up the board.
“Oh—black, of course!”
Sirius grinned at her. “What else? Go ahead, James, wake up, it’s your move.”
James started. “What’s my color?”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “White.”
Lily beat James, hands down; he was acting too distracted to really be able to pay attention to anything. She had tried to find out exactly what was bothering him, but he only mumbled something about what he wasn’t sure about after Hogwarts, and it took her a good while just to decipher that. She gave up after she checkmated him in four moves, something he had never let happen before, since he knew those four moves. In fact, he usually used them when he was playing against Peter, who never really learned that he shouldn’t copy James’ every move; that would lead to his downfall.
Still, Lily was glad that he wasn’t paying attention; she would have lost otherwise. On her part, she was a bit disconcerted by the fact that he kept staring at her and then looking down at the board when she met his gaze, and then pushed in between the small bit of information that Serena kept her hand on his shoulder through the entire game…
She was confused. She stayed confused. She was not enlightened.
Christmas morning dawned beautifully. The snow was packed loosely, in flowing drifts, and the sky was free of clouds; a pale zircon blue streaked with shafts of pink and watered gold, it spread itself over the castle like a freshly-washed sheet flung over a mattress. Lily was the first in her dormitory to wake up, and she threw on her dressing gown instantly, ignoring the pile of presents at her feet and flitting over to the window, which she threw open, breathing in the soft blasts of cool air that flowed around her face and tousled her hair.
Lily watched the sun rise over the Forbidden Forest , and she stayed at the window, sitting on the sill, until it threw goldenrod beams in her eyes and one of the girls stirred in her bed behind Lily, who sighed softly and closed the window, then turning back to her bed and the pile of presents.
A mischievous grin spread over her face as she looked at them and at her watch, which currently read six o’clock. Before she could conjure up a bucket of ice, however, the four Marauders stormed into the dormitory, each carrying large caretaker’s pails filled with bits of broken ice from the lake and snowballs, which they started throwing at Serena, Lily, and Elspeth. Serena and Elspeth shrieked and tried to bury their heads underneath their pillows after getting hit in the face (courtesy of Sirius), but Lily started scraping snow from the windowsill and throwing it back at them.
They only stopped when they ran out of frozen material, and even then Lily had to be forcefully stopped by Sirius from conjuring up a large, cold waterfall over Serena and James’ heads. He didn’t accept the excuse “What’s Christmas without practical jokes?”
The boys had left their presents outside the door, and after drying off the dormitory with a quick spell, they tore into theirs, all piling on to either Elspeth’s or Lily’s bed, since those two were next to each other.
The first one that lay at the foot of Lily’s four-poster was from Eva, who had sent her a selection of differently colored socks she said she had bought in the Muggle department store section entitled For the Woman who has Everything. Of course, Lily didn’t have everything, but it was nice to get something other than Zonko’s joke supplies or the everlasting Chocolate Frogs that Peter had sent her.
Lora gave her a book that told her about how to find out if her jewelry really contained true emeralds and rubies or if the stones were just paste, which was an interesting read. Hey, Lily thought, if all else fails, I can give an expert opinion on the authenticity of precious stones for a living.
Remus had given her a set of Donald Duck cartoon books, each about five hundred pages thick, and all in German. Actually, he hadn’t given her the whole set, since there were about a hundred of the books, but he did give her ten of them. Lily laughed out loud when she opened it, and Remus flashed her a most werewolf-like grin when he saw that she had opened his present.
Sirius had given her a pair of slippers, since he had noticed that hers were growing too small. They were very nice; black brocade with the face of a cat embroidered in silver near the toes, they made absolutely no sound when she moved. He got a rather sheepish look on his face when she thanked him, which didn’t suit him at all, but she suspected she didn’t look any different when he unearthed a model of Professor Trelawney in one of his presents, with a card attached that read:Whenever you want to laugh, just look at her for a long time. You will find her glasses to become horribly funny.
She picked up a package wrapped in gold paper; scanning the card, she flipped it over.
To Lily Evans, care of Mr. Evans, until it can be sent to her. From Richard Walden.
Lily frowned. She actually felt rather guilty about not having remembered him since she returned to Hogwarts; curious, she slit the gold paper open.
Before she could open it, however, Serena snatched it out of her hands.
“Oh, looky here! Who’s this from?”
”No one,” Lily mumbled, “and give it back to me.”
“Hey now,” Serena taunted, “do we know a Richard Walden? James, looky here—someone’s got a secret correspondent!”
Lily crossed her arms. “Hand it over. He is not a secret correspondent. I met him at one of my father’s business parties. Give it to me.”
”No, no, now!” Serena was waving it around in the air, just out of her reach, and Lily wasn’t going to stoop to stretching for it. “Let’s just see what this contains, shall we?”
Taking Lily’s glare for an assent, she pulled the gold paper off of it.
Lily was sitting on her hands, mumbling something Remus could decipher as meaning: “Hitting people is bad. Do not hit people. People don’t like being hit. Hitting people hurts your hands. Hitting people is bad. Do not hit people People don’t like being hit…”
“Aww, now, wasn’t that sweet?” Serena, still laughing playfully, had uncovered a small dark blue box. Everyone seemed to think this was one gigantic joke, and only Remus was frowning a bit.
On opening it, Serena and Elspeth simply looked at each other, then started to laugh. They hadn’t shown anyone else what was in the box, and they obviously hadn’t an idea that Christmas presents that weren’t addressed to them, well, didn’t belong to them.
“Excuse me,” Lily interrupted frostily. Serena stopped her giggling, and the group swerved around to see the standing redhead, one eyebrow arched and her mouth set.
“I believe that isn’t yours.”
Serena frowned. “What; we were just having fun!”
Lily tapped her finger impatiently against her arm. “If you don’t hand that over immediately, I will have some fun, and it will involve my wand and lots of Latin words.”
“Oh, okay, okay!” Serena threw it over to Lily, whispering to James, “Can’t she just take a joke?”
Lily whipped her hand out and snatched the box, coolly opening it and sitting down next to the window. Her face didn’t portray her surprise at all, so the boys, who, naturally, were extremely curious, couldn’t deduce anything from her features.
“Oh, come on, Lily!” James grumbled. “We let you see our presents!”
She didn’t answer, simply slipped a small, golden ring onto her hand. Suddenly, as if someone had pushed a button, the boys started climbing practically all over each other to see the ring; it took much of overturning boxes and upsetting trunks and tables before they managed to get to her, though; they were in such a hurry.
It wasn’t anything special; a gold band with a small diamond set in the center of it, and there had been no note attached to the box, but everyone in the room jumped to a hurried conclusion.
“Lily!” You’re getting married!”
“Don’t be stupid, you prat, she wouldn’t get married at sixteen! That’s an engagement ring, isn’t it?”
“Is that guy a Muggle?”
“Yeah, is he, Lily?”
“Come on—she wouldn’t marry a Muggle,would she?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her! Lily, why’re you doing this? Are you giving up your wand and everything?”
“Lily, come on, even Peter here should be better than this Richard pillock! There’s still time to change your mind!”
“You’ve got a Muggle boyfriend?”
“You’ve got a boyfriend?[”
That last was from Serena, and it earned her several dirty looks, but Lily ignored all of this, though she was rather amused by the next few comments.
“Why didn’t you tell us, Lily, we’re your friends, for Pete’s sake!”
“No, we’re not!”
“Peter, that was in third year and stuff. This is seventh.”
”Oh. But—“
“Peter, shut up!”
“Lily, can’t you marry one of us instead of some Muggle idiot! Hey—we’d at least allow you to use magic, for Pete’s sake!”
“Sirius, who’d you have in mind for her to marry?”
“I dunno,” Sirius shrugged, “anyone! Lily, pleeeease!”
“You’re only sixteen!”
“But she’ll be seventeen when she sees him again—wait! ARE YOU DROPPING OUT, YOUNG LADY?”
“Oh, you genius! She wouldn’t do that, she’d just take her exams early. Hey, could you tell us what’s on them when you finish?”
“Yeah, Lily, wouldja? Then we wouldn’t have to study!”
“Lily, please!”
”What are we pleasing for this time?”
“We want the questions on the test, honestly, Peter, haven’t you been listening! Lily, please!!”
This came from all four of them at once. “PLEASE?!”
Lily couldn’t help it; she started to laugh. “I see you’ve got my whole future planned out for me?”
”Well—er—“ The boys, who had been tugging at the hem of her nightgown and her feet, looked suddenly embarrassed. “We just deduced…”
“Never start a detective firm.” She smirked. “This isn’t an engagement ring, for one thing, I’m not marrying anytime soon, I’m not taking my exams early, I have no intention of leaving school and giving up my wand, and you’re meddling with my business!” she snapped.
Every face, well, every face except two looked embarrassed and relieved at her words, and they quickly started getting wrapping paper off of the floor, when suddenly Peter looked around.
“Where’s James?”
“Nowhere,” a smooth voice came in from the doorway. “I’m right here.”
Peter frowned. “But—you were—gone…” He wrinkled his brow.
“Was." James corrected. “I only left for a while. Hey, Serena—“ he added, moving to the disapproving blonde, “come on—let’s get some breakfast; you look hungry—well, and I know I am—“
They left the room amidst several stares; mostly incomprehending stares.
“Er,” Sirius cleared his throat, “well, that was odd.”
Instead of the ice being broken, all heads swiveled towards him, and he flung out his hands.
“What? I’m no standup comic; don’t ask me to get you guys talking!”
“I beg to differ,” Lily said dryly, and the room erupted with laughter.
