All's Well That Ends Well? by Shock
“Firstly, I must tell you that centaurs are extremely gifted in the art of divination. Secondly, I must tell you that this is a building blessed by the moon…”
“Lily.”
“Huh? What? Oh…” Lily snapped out of her reverie by Alice, who had gently poked her wand into her ribs.
Lily turned a shade of bright red as she realized that the whole class was staring at her. Professor McGonagall was giving her a stern look over the rim of her glasses.
“I’m sorry Professor,” Lily muttered.
McGonagall shot her a look that plainly said “Pay attention Ms. Evans”, sniffed, then continued on with her lecture.
Lily gave a mental sigh of relief. It was a lucky thing that McGonagall hadn’t reprimanded her, for it had been the third time that week that she had been caught spacing out in the middle of class.
McGonagall’s laxness was no doubt due to the fact that Sirius had tried to fire a powerful Cheering Charm at Anne when she had started nagging about how Sirius couldn’t ever shut up. He had missed and ended up hitting Professor McGonagall squarely in the back instead. He had received a week’s worth of detention.
Even though it was N.E.W.T. year, and Lily knew that she ought to be listening to every lecture and taking extensive notes in minute detail, all of her thoughts could only remain in the classroom for so long before hovering out into the events from the mysterious night which had taken place a week ago.
Lily, Alice, James, Remus, and Sirius had been spending all of their free time whispering their thoughts and theories, but each idea was more confusing and made less sense than the last. They just couldn’t figure out what had happened.
James, in particular, seemed very keen to solve the mystery as soon as possible. He seemed to have taken the injuries the Manticore had managed to inflict on him very personally and spent every second he could spare pouring over books in the Restricted Section.
When Lily had mentioned this uncommon view to Remus, she had expected him to answer with an expression of surprise equal to hers. However, Remus had merely smiled and said, “He’s just disappointed in himself for not being able to protect you for the whole of that night, and he‘s trying to make up for it by solving this whole thing.”
Lily couldn’t remember a time when she had ever blushed more deeply.
James wasn’t the only one squeezing his brains out in the library or pounding the desk in agonized frustration though. All of them had re-traced their steps over and over again until Lily found herself revisiting the forest nearly every night in her dreams. But even though Sirius, Alice, and Remus had refused to tell why they had wandered out onto the Quidditch pitch that night, none of them could make a plausible conjecture as to how anyone could have managed to conjure such horrific things.
Peter had also been giving occasional help. The Marauders had told Lily and Alice that they couldn’t leave Peter out of such an important issue as this and had promptly spilled the entire story to him the next night. According to the Marauders, Peter had turned very pale and his hands had started to shake, but, other than that, he had been very quiet and less shocked than had been expected. He had dutifully been attempting to aid them in their search for more hints within the many dusty volumes in the library, but to no avail. None of them could find anything.
They had also been keeping a sharp eye on Bellatrix Black. There hadn’t been a spare second that passed that week without one of them furtively glaring at her while hidden behind a statue or a suit of armor a couple feet away. But so far, nothing of the slightest suspicion had surfaced except for the fact that Bellatrix looked slightly more pale than usual.
As agreed upon, they left Anne alone and didn’t bother her with anything in case they would upset her again. But then, after three days of silence and avoidance, Anne had startled everyone by suddenly confronting the whole group, apologizing for having acted so stupidly and emotionally, and pledging the rest of her free time to help them solve the mystery. She didn’t say much else about Bellatrix and everyone was too afraid for Anne’s sanity to inquire further about it.
Remus and Anne’s relationship had also returned to normal, although there was a sort of uncomfortable formality between their conversations that had not existed before.
Lily heaved a deep, stressed-out sigh. If they only had some sort of a lead to predicate their search on. Lily had told the others Firenze‘s hints, causing all of them to dig fervently through the restricted section for clues, but all the books, even the most arcane ones, came to a dead end, leaving them all more confused than before. It would be best to go and question Firenze once more in person, but they couldn’t go back into the forest for fear of their lives.
But everyone was even starting to wonder if they actually had been in the forest. All the events sort of seemed like a mere dream now, some terrifying nightmare.
But it had all been so real, so painful.
But then how, how had they all ended up on the Quidditch pitch when they had all split up. Perhaps Firenze had brought Sirius, Alice, James, and herself back out of the forest, but then how did Anne and Remus come to be on the pitch when they clearly had been trapped in some strange dark prison?
Lily stifled a groan and massaged her temples as all these “but’s” and “how’s” buzzed about inside her head like troublesome mosquitoes. She unconsciously waved at the air, as if trying to smack the invisible bugs down.
“Is something wrong, Ms. Evans?” Professor McGonagall asked, staring sternly at Lily once more.
“Oh, no! No, nothing Professor. Er, there’s flies…” Lily gave a nervous laugh, as she swiped once more at the nonexistent pests. She was saved from a sharp reprimand as the bell rang and the din of scraping chairs and chatter erupting from other classrooms within the hall drowned out all other noise.
Lily immediately stood up, shoved her textbook hastily into her bag, and made towards the door to join up with the others to continue their ceaseless flow on new speculations.
But before she had taken two steps, she felt someone tap her lightly on the shoulder. Lily turned around irritably to come face to face with Professor McGonagall.
Oh no.
Lily gestured to the others to go on without her. She exchanged glum looks with all of them as they exited the classroom. Sirius mouthed “good luck” before stepping out.
James, however, stood rooted to the spot, determined to wait and escort Lily. Lily signaled furiously at him to leave, but there was that obstinate look on his face that annoyed her to no end but, at the same time, made her want to laugh at his cuteness.
“Is there something I can help you with, Potter?” Professor McGonagall asked crisply.
“Yes. You can let Lily go so that we can leave together,” James frowned stubbornly.
Lily gave an exasperated groan and ran her hand down her cheek. James could be so damn tactless sometimes…
“You talk to me in that tone again, Potter, and I’ll make sure to separate you two every night for a week by detaining you in detention,” McGonagall replied in a matter-of-fact way. She had grown all too accustomed to James’s stubborn and persistent personality.
Over the years all her scolding had become almost routine, and it was unusual to have a class without her telling off James or Sirius for something or another. But even Professor McGonagall had to admit, both of them were maturing and were beginning to behave themselves more bit by bit over the years.
She stared down James when he continued to persistently look at her and succeeded in turning him away as usual. James grunted and walked out the door, glaring down at the ground and muttering something inaudible.
Professor McGonagall let out a deep breath, muttering, “I don’t know whether I’ll miss that boy or be relieved beyond measure when he graduates.”
She returned her gaze to Lily, who was wide-eyed with expectancy mixed with nervousness.
“Ms. Evans, I wanted to talk to you about your behavior along with your friends’ these past few days. I can’t help but feel that for the past week all of you have been very quiet, which is, I’m sure, very strange when we consider the fact that I also am speaking of Mr. Black and Mr. Potter,” Professor McGonagall said, frowning slightly.
“You are all very bright students, and I won’t hide it from any of you that I am concerned about your N.E.W.T’s. Wandering into space won’t be beneficial at all, especially if it’s been lasting a week,” she said firmly, looking into Lily’s downcast face.
“I know Professor. I…I’m sorry. I’ll tell the others that we should snap out of it.” She paused then said, smiling, “I’ll snap out of it. We’ve just been a little tired from coming back to school after a nice long break, that’s all.”
“Well, I suggest you all get a hold of yourselves, especially you Ms. Evans. The Head Girl can’t be seen zoning out in the middle of class.”
“Yes, professor.”
“Well, get going to your next class then, and I will see you tomorrow in better condition.”
Lily quickly took her leave and hurried down the hall, feeling a mixture of annoyance and guilt. She had almost forgotten the importance of her classes. McGonagall was right. As much as the events of the forest were important, she couldn’t just dwell in that place forever, or she might endanger herself in the present.
Lily gave a huff of frustration embedded with new-found determination as she hurried on to her next lesson.
Peter shivered slightly as a chilling draft of wind blew his cloak around, making it swish and swirl with the flow of the wind.
It was evening. The sun was setting in an ocean of shocking pink and orange. Peter’s small feet crunched across the floor of dry leaves strewn on the ground as he quietly made his way into the Forbidden Forest.
As he wound himself between the tall trees, he numbly thought of all the events that had happened in the past week.
Exactly a week ago, he had tracked down Bellatrix in order to soak in some more of her radiant beauty and charisma only to witness a side of her that he had thought unimaginable.
He started shaking just thinking about it. What she had done- or at least tried to do- was definitely against school rules. In fact, he thought as another shiver ran down his spine, he wasn’t all too sure whether it had been legal. He wouldn’t have been at all surprised if what she had done was worthy of a term in Azkaban. And the fact that she had been trying to do it to his own friends…
Peter shakily stumbled into a dark clearing. As he set foot on the soft ground, he felt himself relax a bit. He always felt himself relax in here. He breathed in deeply, filling himself with the crisp aroma of the pine trees and the cool air. His shoulders released some of the tenseness it had been carrying all week.
He pulled out his wand and waved it. A large raw steak appeared in mid-air and landed with a thud in front of him. He levitated it into the middle of the clearing then sat down on the ground to wait.
As he did, he reflected on how the others had approached him and told him everything down to the very last detail, never once guessing that the real reason the blood was draining from his face was because he already knew the whole story. In fact, he knew more than they could possibly imagine. They didn’t know that he had followed Bellatrix and witnessed everything. They didn’t know that he had snuck back from the forest into the dormitories well past two in the morning in the guise of a rat…
Day after day he had forced himself to be quiet and feign innocent ignorance, but it was becoming a lot harder to do. The guilt that he wasn’t giving all of them the key to the mystery was racking him every minute of every hour of every day. It haunted him in the nights and crept into his dreams. He felt as if he were slowly drowning in a sea of shame. As each day passed, he felt more and more ashamed at the thought that although his friends had put their complete trust and faith in him, he was continually choosing to ignore their loyalty and keep quiet.
Why was he not spilling the truth out? He had asked himself this query every time the guilt had swelled into him and each time he answered himself, even more shame filled him. The answer was simple- Bellatrix.
The memory of when he had fallen in love with her consumed him every time that he had tried to open his mouth and tell the truth. Deep down, he knew that if he told another soul about what she had done, he would lose her forever. If he played his cards right, if he kept quiet in front of his friends and then told Bellatrix that he had seen everything yet remained silent, he might yet get her to see him as the strong and loyal type of man he had always wanted to be seen as.
And if she still didn’t see him that way, he could even blackmail her into going on just one date with him, although that was the very last option he was willing to take.
But was he still willing to love her when she had tried to do something so cruel, so sadistic? Was he to choose the love of his life and the one chance he might ever get to woo her over his best friends?
He was saved the responsibility of answering himself when he heard a familiar rustling in the bushes to his left.
Now here’s someone who doesn’t care whether I’m tall, dark, and handsome.
“Hullo Tenebrus.”
A thestral had just emerged from the brambles and was walking serenely towards him. It twitched its glossy black tail and shook back its dark mane before nuzzling Peter on the cheek as a greeting and making its way towards the meat, stretching its long leathery wings on the way.
Peter always thought it a bit ironic that thestrals brought him relaxation and relief. Most people were nearly frightened to death by them, but he thought they had a gothic kind of charm that brought a strange calming effect. He loved everything about them, from their strange bony appearance, to their large, bat-like wings. It was queer that he, the most cowardly of the Marauders, could find the so-called living omens of death so beautiful. However, he couldn’t help but like them. The way people rejected them and misunderstood them reminded him forcefully of himself.
He had come to this clearing to meet the thestrals ever since he first saw them in one of his Care of Magical Creatures lessons some years before. It was a place where he could be alone from all the others and sit down and just think.
He heard another rustle behind him.
Thinking it was another thestral, he turned around to greet it. But when he had turned, he found himself looking directly at not a thestral, but Anne.
There was a stunned silence.
“Peter? What on earth are you doing here?” Anne asked in a voice that pronounced the astonishment she was feeling.
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” Peter said, closing his jaw which had dropped upon seeing her. He had always been a bit intimidated by Anne, and he found himself hoping that his tone of voice had managed to mask the wave of annoyance, fear, and surprise that had just washed over him.
“I- I wasn’t aware that anyone else cared to come to this place,” Anne said, recovering herself.
There was an awkward, stifling sort of silence.
Anne broke it by clearing her throat and walking over to Tenebrus to pat his mane.
“I came here to see the thestrals. Why are you here?” she asked again, this time more calmly and politely.
“Oh, well, I just…I dunno…just come here sometimes…” Peter mumbled. He was starting to feel stupid.
“Just come here sometimes, eh? Yeah, me too. The thestrals give me a bit of peace. Do they do that for you too?” Anne asked, smiling at Peter.
“Yeah…yeah, they do,” he answered, a bit surprised that he was actually able to connect with Anne on one level.
A silence passed once more, during which two more thestrals came into the clearing. Peter conjured some more meat and started to feed them.
“You know,” Anne spoke up suddenly, causing Peter and both thestrals to look up, “I think a lot of people would be surprised that you and I find thestrals so interesting. Well, maybe not me so much,” Anne added as an afterthought, slightly smiling to herself.
As Peter looked more closely at her, he suddenly noticed how very strained and dejected she looked. He wasn’t sure if it was the trick of the trees’ shadows but he thought he could see bags under her eyes, and there was definitely less luster in her spiky hair. All these characteristics didn’t fit her spit-fire personality at all, and Peter continued to stare at her until her voice brought him back to consciousness.
“But a lot of people seem to find you very cowardly, and I find that surprising. They‘d probably think that you‘re too scared to come near them or something stupid like that,” she said bluntly.
“Why does that surprise you? I am cowardly,” Peter muttered spitefully before he could stop himself.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Anne asked in a genuinely shocked voice, turning around to face Peter. “How can you say that? You’re one of the Marauders!”
“That doesn’t mean I’m automatically brave!” he shot back, surprising himself.
“Why? For God’s sake, I think anyone who can handle Sirius’s personality for more than two hours has more strength than any normal person.”
Peter laughed, surprising himself yet again in the process.
“But in all seriousness,” Anne said after their laughter had died out, “I know you must get stressed out from all the jokes and things Sirius and James do to you. I know I would,” she said quietly.
“How…how did you know?” Peter whispered in astonishment. “I didn’t think anyone…noticed me.”
“I notice a lot more things than you think. I have Bella to thank for that,” she said, a glimpse of sadness flickering across her face.
Peter stood still. He had never expected Anne of all the people in the world to take notice of what he was feeling.
“But you handle all of it very well. You’ve got to be strong to do that, and if you’re strong, I think you’re brave too.” Anne paused then added in a strangled sort of voice, “And… and you stay by Remus too. That’s brave.”
Peter didn’t know what to say. There was another long silence, broken periodically by the cracking of bones as the thestrals chomped through the red meat.
“I also wanted to thank you, Peter,” Anne said after a while. “Thank you for helping us try to solve this whole mystery thing. It means a lot to me and the girls.”
“No! Oh no, it’s nothing. We’re…” Peter looked deeply into Anne’s sharp black eyes.
“We’re all in this together.”
“Yeah. Yeah, we are,” Anne smiled.
Peter hesitated and then smiled back.
“Well, I’m sorry Peter. I must have intruded in on your quiet time! I’ll leave you alone now and come back myself a bit later,” Anne said.
“What? No! You weren’t intruding!” Peter said awkwardly, taken aback at Anne’s abrupt proposal to leave. Truth be told, he didn’t know whether he wanted her to stay or to go away.
“No, no. That’s quite all right. Well, I suppose I’ll be seeing you in the library since that’s where all of us tend to meet each other these days. Dear God, I’m telling you, it’s a damn good sight to see Sirius with his mouth shut for more than five minutes…”
Peter laughed as he waved good-bye and watched Anne’s black hair disappear behind the bushes. He stared at the spot where she had disappeared for a while then sat down on the cold ground once more. He buried his face in his hands and was quiet for a long time.
“So you haven’t noticed anything strange with Bellatrix yet?” Lily asked James, as they walked down the torch-lit stone walls, making their way through the castle as they always did on their night duties as Head Boy and Girl. As much as both of them had wanted to ignore their duties and continue their hunt for clues in the library, Lily had insisted that they fulfill their responsibilities upon having her talk with Professor McGonagall.
“No,” James said, letting out an aggravated sigh. “I just don’t get it. This is all so confusing, and it’s not like we can even tell someone. I mean, who would believe us? It’s not like we have any solid proof or anything,” he muttered. Lily nodded in agreement.
As she did so, she found herself glancing furtively at James. In the millions of times she had re-played all the events of the forest inside her mind’s eye, she couldn’t help but revisit all the times she had been worried to death about James and his safety.
If there was one positive outcome from the events in the forest, it was Lily’s new confidence about her feelings for James. She was sure of it now.
I love him. I love him more than I ever thought or thought I’d think.
Lily didn’t even blush as this thought re-occurred in her head. She had finally come to accept it with firm resolve. She had finally realized it even before entering the forest, but she hadn’t felt so firm about it as she did now. When all those horrible things had happened, the blow of realizing how precious he was to her had hit her hard. When they had finally reached the holy sanctuary Firenze had brought them to, her conversation with Firenze had helped her accept the truth with even firmer certainty.
From then on, she had decided it was time to really get a strong and quick move on with her relationship with James. Before then, she had been a bit fidgety about the whole thing, but now she was completely sure that she was ready.
“James,” Lily spoke up, her heart rate and blood pressure going up considerably due to the excitement beginning to bubble up within her. James looked at her.
“James, I… I don’t know where to start,” she said somewhat lamely. She halted in her tracks.
“Hmmm…it would be a bit strange if I just told him so suddenly. He’d probably have a heart attack if I just blurted out that I love him... Best would be to lead gradually into it,”Lily determined, as she looked into James’s innocently questioning face.
But Lily failed to think of what to start up as a nice conversation, so she decided to ask something about the happenings in the forest, since that was all they had been talking about that whole week.
“Er… do you… think that most of the stuff we encountered were things that could actually have happened? I mean,” she resumed walking once more, “I don’t think you‘re capable of suddenly transforming into a stag.” Lily smiled up at James.
They turned a corner and stepped into a long hallway. One side of it was lined with closed classroom doors set into a wall of bumpy stones. The other was composed entirely of clear glass windows. No torches were necessary here, for the moonlight was flooding the whole length of the hall in its pale blue shade.
The two of them walked steadily down the hall. Lily looked at James, hoping for some sort of an answer so that she could gradually come to the point she so dearly wanted to make. But, much to her disappointment, James remained silent.
As she looked more closely at him though, she thought that he looked as if he were struggling internally with some tough decision. As she continued to gaze at his face, which was pale with moonlight and had the shadows of the windows’ frames thrown across it, he seemed to reach some conclusion at last.
James stopped and slowly turned to face Lily. He stared deeply into her eyes.
Lily could only answer his gaze with a perplexed one. Then-
Lily gave an ear-splitting shriek as a large silver stag appeared on the spot where James had stood just seconds ago. Her scream echoed and bounced around the hallway.
She let out yet another loud screech as the magnificent stag took a step towards her. She unconsciously staggered backwards until her back hit the glass panes with a small squeak.
As she stared with a gaping mouth, the stag seemed to laugh playfully at her surprise.
Lily shook herself and placed a hand over her hammering heart. She gulped and unglued her back from the window.
She slowly and cautiously stepped towards the majestic creature. Its soft coat shimmered in the moonlight. A holy luminescent glow seemed to shine about him.
She approached him with the utmost circumspect, as if expecting him to bite off her hand any minute.
After a moment’s pause, she whispered uncertainly, “James?”
She gazed into his large, beautiful brown eyes. As she sank deeper into his warm eyes, she knew that she needed no verbal answer to know that this gorgeous stag was indeed James. He really was the brave stag that had risked his life for her in the forest.
“Prongs,” she murmured, just as she had done in the forest, except there was no Manticore ready to tear them both to pieces this time. Prongs seemed to beam.
She hesitated, then stretched out her hand and patted him gently on the head. His coat was as soft as silk. Lily giggled nervously, then petted him a bit more confidently as the shock of realizing that James really was an Animagus started to sink into her. He nuzzled her hand with his moist nose. Lily laughed.
She stared deeply into his soft eyes once more before swooping down and kissing him gently on the top of his head.
As she drew back, she felt a heat emanating from Prong’s body, as if he were blushing madly. She laughed as she perceived how very tense and immobile he had suddenly become. His eyes had grown wide and had transformed into two humungous orbs. He looked more in shock than Lily had been when he had transformed.
“If you turn back into a human, maybe I’ll even give you one on the lips,” she said, smiling cheekily.
But before Prongs had been able to register this through his stupefied brain, both he and Lily heard the sound of footsteps echoing speedily across the stone floor just around the corner. Before either one had any time to react-
“MS. EVANS! WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?”
Lily tightly shut her eyes.
She heaved a sigh as if to say “I knew something like this would happen”, re-opened her eyes, and slowly turned around to come face to face with Professor McGonagall for the second time that day.
A/N: What will happen to Lily and Prongs? What will Peter choose to do? Read and Review!!!