CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Skirmishes

Remus could feel the beads of sweat gathering on his brow as the Gryffindor third-years marched toward Hogsmeade. Everyone else was calm: Sirius joked around with Peter, Lily and the girls were deep in conversation, and James walked awkwardly ahead, Diana giggling at his side. Only Remus had something to fear, and said object was looming around just a few more bends.

Of course he was overreacting. He often did. After all, who in his or her right mind would see a dilapidated-looking shack and immediately conclude that it was the monthly hiding place of an underage werewolf? No one. Only problem was, Remus knew plenty of Hogwarts students out of their right minds. Three were walking in front of him.

He had nothing to fear from James, Sirius, or Peter. He knew his secret was safe with them. But what if someone else found out? What if a Hogwarts student managed to undo all the protective spells, break into the shack, see the scratch marks, correlate the howling noises with Remus’s absences… The list of paranoias went on and on, and Remus looked around with palpable trepidation.

“It’s near here, isn’t it?”

Lily’s voice made him jump. She had managed to extricate herself from Gwendolyn, Marlene McKinnon, and Artemia Goldsmith and had crept up on poor Remus. He swallowed and nodded as he looked at her. “You should be able to see it in a few minutes.”

“Can we go visit?” Sirius asked from Remus’s left, making him jump again.

“Um… I’d really rather we didn’t, if that’s OK,” he said, wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. “Don’t want to arouse suspicion and all that, you know.”

“Oh, come on, mate! No one’s going to piece it all together. I’d love to have a look at it!” Sirius was�”as always�”indefatigable.

“Yeah, we want to see it, Remus!” Peter chimed in. He at least looked more supportive than Sirius, as if he wanted to see the shack out of concern for his friend, not novelty.

“Guys, give him a break. Would you want to go there during the days you weren’t… you know…” Lily said, frowning mainly at Sirius.

“It’ll be a whole new perspective!” came yet another voice. James had entered the conversation, and for a moment Remus panicked, sure that he would have Diana in tow. “Relax,” said James, picking up on his friend’s sudden mood swing. “She’s walking by herself up there. Lily, you wanna go keep her company?”

Lily snorted. “Nothing would please me more.”

“Great!” he said, totally missing her sarcasm. “I just need a break…”

“James, I’m not going to go baby-sit your girlfriend because you finally realized what the rest of us learned so very long ago: Diana Denham is annoying as sin.”

“A little sin never hurt anyone,” Sirius said, eyeing Diana’s bouncing blond curls.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Gross. Maybe you should go walk with her, Sirius.”

“I would, love, but I’ve got to stay back here and convince good ol’ Books-for-Brains to let us see his hut.”

“Not going to happen, friend,” Remus said, with surprising conviction. He inhaled slowly, closing his eyes as he did so.

“Fine, fine,” Sirius relented, apparently giving up the game. “Guess we’ll just have to be satisfied with Zonko’s.”

“Hey, that’s not too bad, Sirius. We need to restock on Dungbombs, and it couldn’t hurt to pick up some other stuff,” Peter said, his eyes aglow with thoughts of untold pranking glory.

“Uh oh,” James muttered, breaking Peter’s trance. “The hen is returning to the roost.”

“What?” Peter asked.

James nodded a few feet ahead of them, where Diana had turned and started walking toward them, her hands on her hips.

“‘The hen is returning to the roost’? What kind of saying is that?” Lily asked, raising an eyebrow in scorn as she crossed her arms.

“I’ve been experimenting with animal metaphors recently,” James explained with a grin, and the four boys laughed at their private joke. Remus felt a pang of guilt for not telling Lily, but he had a hunch she would find out about their Animagi trials before it was all over…

Meanwhile, Diana was drawing ever nearer. Lily apparently shrugged off James’s farm reference: “Well, that’s nice. And I’d love to stay and chat but�”oh wait! �”no, I wouldn’t.” She veered away from the group and meandered back toward Gwendolyn, but was still in earshot when Diana reached the boys.

“James, you silly goose! You totally left me up there! I had no idea you were gone until I realized I was talking to myself! Don’t you leave me again!” She batted him playfully on the arm and James managed to eke out a sheepish smile.

Remus couldn’t see the expression on Lily’s face, but he would bet good money that it was a smirk.

***

“It’s just… of all the people in the world, he has to go out with her?” Lily’s face was twisted in disbelief, and she couldn’t stop shaking her head. They had been in Hogsmeade for about twenty minutes and Lily and Gwendolyn were in Gladrags Wizardwear.

“I though you didn’t like him, Lil,” Gwendolyn asked, one eyebrow cocked though she hardly looked up from the dress robes she was inspecting.

“I don’t. Gwendolyn, I really don’t. But he is my friend, and I have no idea what he sees in Diana Denham.” Lily wasn’t much for fashion, so instead she stared blankly at a wall, picturing Diana and James together. It was not a pleasant thought.

“I have an idea: cute face, blonde hair, painted fingernails… Sirius raves about her like there’s no other witch on the planet.”

“Ugh,” Lily shuddered. “It seriously makes me sick sometimes. She’s just so… fake. Everything is about her. She’s not funny, she’s not smart, she’s not even nice. The only thing she’s got going for her is that she’s a Metamorphmagus. And if that’s all James is interested in, then I’m glad I…” She stopped short.

“You’re glad you what?” Gwendolyn asked, her all-too-familiar mischievous grin on her face.

Lily blushed. “Nothing. I’m glad I don’t like him. I’m glad they’re together. Whatever, it’s out of my hands. May they have a happy life and a hundred babies.” She hastily rifled through a box of broaches, turning her eyes away from Gwendolyn’s grinning face.

Gwendolyn snorted. “I think you’re taking it just a bit too far, Lily. One Hogsmeade trip does not a relationship make, much less a marriage. I give the whole thing three weeks, tops. He’ll get sick of her. He’s too clever for someone like Diana. She’ll get annoying and he’ll get back to his unrequited love for you.”

Lily’s blushed deepened, but she furrowed her brow, idly running her hands over the silver and gold pins. “Even if he had a crush on me at one point, it’s over now, that’s for sure. And I don’t care, anyway. He’s a stupid, arrogant toerag with messy hair, and if he wants to chase blondes all day long, he’s more than welcome to in my book. Come on, let’s go to Zonko’s.”

Gwendolyn just shrugged and followed her out of the store.

***

Despite being safely ensconced in the library after the Hogsmeade visit, Lily still couldn’t shake what was irking her. She jumped in her chair as she looked up and saw a person sitting across the table from her, but relaxed as she saw it was Severus.

“Hey, Sev,” she said, absentmindedly massaging one shoulder, her eyes closed.

“Hey, Lily. Are you all right?” His pale face was filled with genuine concern, and for the briefest of moments, he inched his hand forward to touch her arm, before yanking it right back.

She opened her eyes and inhaled deeply. “I’m fine. It’s just… ugh,” she groaned. “It’s just stupid James Potter.”

“Has he done something to you?” In an instant, the concern became anger, and his nostrils flared at the end of his crooked nose.

“No, no, it’s nothing like that. He’s just being particularly annoying today. Did you know that he and Diana Denham are going out?” Lily wasn’t even sure Severus knew who Diana Denham was, but she could tell Gwendolyn was getting tired of hearing about the whole situation. Lily’s rambling diatribe had carried on from Gladrag’s to Zonko’s to Honeyduke’s and beyond.

“That Metamorphmagus?” Severus asked, looking up from his book. “She might be the most annoying person in our entire year. Maybe even the whole school.”

Snape’s voice was dripping with disdain as he returned his attention to his book, not caring to give Diana a second thought. Lily felt a surge of happiness swell inside. Severus’s instincts about people were rarely wrong, and if he could see through Diana’s phoniness, maybe there was hope… Hope for what? she thought to herself, though her self did not answer…

But it was time to stop thinking about James Potter.

“I didn’t see you at Hogsmeade, Sev, did you go?” Lily asked across the gnarled table from Severus, who looked up sharply.

“You went? Did you go with anyone?” he asked, his dark hair falling around his face. Lily nodded, and a look passed over Severus’s face, at once panic, worry, and anger. “Who?” he demanded. “Was it Potter or the traitor Black?”

Lily furrowed her brow and sat backwards in her chair. “Whoa, Sev, calm down. I went with Gwendolyn. And what makes Sirius a traitor?”

Severus regained what little color he had and looked away, twitching his quill around in his hands. “Nothing, never mind. Sorry. Let’s just get to work.”

“Ugh,” Lily repeated for the umpteenth time, running a hand through her thick red hair. “I’m getting pretty tired of this tablet. I don’t think we’re ever going to crack it. Not until we’ve had a lot more practice with Ancient Runes, anyway.”

Her friend frowned. “Do you want to give up?”

“No…” she said haltingly. “It’s just�”and I know you’re against this�”but it’s just that I think we should ask Professor Montgomery about it. I’m sure he can help us!”

“We don’t need his help,” Severus scoffed. “Anything he could tell us is in these books, so why bother?”

Lily pursed her lips and blinked, turning her head to the stack of books towering over Severus. “I guess,” she said, reaching across the table to grab the topmost of the pile and pulling it down to the table, which it hit with a dull thud, raising a cloud of dust in the process. Lily coughed as she pried open the ancient book.

“Lily, if you want to stop the project…” Severus began, but Lily knew he couldn’t finish the sentence. He certainly didn’t want to stop researching the complex carvings on the tablet, and Lily didn’t yet have the heart to make him, though she was increasingly creeped out by its eerie silence. It simply refused to yield its secrets, and Lily didn’t know how much more she could take.

“No, no,” she reassured him. “Let’s keep going. At least for a few more days.”

Across the table, Severus looked pleased.

***

“Anyone up for an adventure?” Sirius asked a bit too loudly Saturday morning, a week after the Hogsmeade visit.

The Gryffindors were arranged in their usual corner of the Common Room, doing their usual Saturday morning activities. Any break from the usual would be welcome relief. Remus noticed many heads shot up at Sirius’s question, and James looked visibly relieved to stop working on his Potions homework.

“What’s the adventure?” Gwendolyn asked, sounding a bit suspicious, and with good reason: the last “adventure” Sirius had promised turned out to be a bit of a bust: the Prefect’s bathroom�”while quite nice�”was hardly the gold-plated wonder chamber that Sirius had promised.

“It won’t disappoint, dear Gwennie. And this adventure is tailor-made for the Quidditch enthusiasts among us,” he said with a wink.

Gwendolyn rolled her eyes. “Just so you know, most of us have already seen the pitch, Sirius. Prepare to be underwhelmed, everyone…”

Sirius strolled over to Gwendolyn’s chair and leaned in until he was mere inches from her face: “Trust me,” he said with a wink.

It only took a few more minutes of convincing before Remus, James, Peter, Gwendolyn, and Lily had “signed up” for the adventure, and soon they were bundling up in the Common Room, climbing out the portrait hole, slipping through the front doors, and marching toward the Quidditch pitch. When the stadium loomed only a few feet in front of them, Sirius stopped and threw up his hands. “Prepare, friends, for your adventure.”

He turned around and thrust a hand into each of his jean pockets, emerging seconds later with two huge bags of Dungbombs and a wicked grin. “Shrinking Charm,” he said by way of explanation. “Never thought I’d have to use that one�”bigger is better, after all.” He winked again and Gwendolyn groaned. Remus chuckled. If Sirius weren’t an actual wizard, he would have made a wonderful Muggle “magician.”

“Wow, Sirius: a freezing cold day, Quidditch pitch, and two dozen Dungbombs. What an adventure!” Gwendolyn said dryly. “I think I’d rather be doing my Charms homework.”

“Will you please be patient?” he chided. “I’m about to explain the plan!” Gwendolyn raised her hands in agreement, then folded them across her chest. “All right,” Sirius continued. “I have found out, thanks to a tip from our dear friend Peter Pettigrew, that today the Slytherins are holding emergency Quidditch tryouts to replace two fallen members of their team. Members fallen�”I might add�”thanks to the mighty Beater’s bats of the Gryffindor Quidditch Squad.”

James burst into applause. “Here here!” he shouted gamely.

Remus smiled: an earlier scrimmage between Gryffindor and Slytherin had indeed sent two Slytherin players to the infirmary, but he had been told they would make a full recovery…

Sirius seemed to read Remus’s mind: “While those dumb snakes will make full recoveries, their darling mothers believe the rigors of the game are just too demanding for the less-than-human creeps. Therefore, the powers-that-be at Slytherin have been forced to tap into their reserve of dim-witted peons.

“Our mission,” he continued after a brief pause, “is simple: sabotage.”

It was mildly amusing to see the spate of different reactions to Sirius’s words. Remus himself was wary�”as he was with most of the boys’ plans. James and Peter, of course, looked game as ever. Even Gwendolyn seemed excited, her earlier doubt quashed. Only Lily reacted with trepidation. “Come on, Sirius. Just let them have try-outs,” she said. “It’s freezing out here anyway.”

“Oh, come on, Lil. We can have a little bit of fun. They’re just Dungbombs!” Gwendolyn was speaking to Lily though her full attention was on Sirius, who grinned.

“That’s the spirit, Gwen! Just Dungbombs. All we have to do is sneak into the stands and wreak a little havoc. We’ll be back by the fire in half an hour�”I promise.”

Lily sighed but made no move to return to the castle, so Sirius drew the gang into a huddle and whispered instructions: “We’ll split into three teams. James, you and Peter go to the north side of the pitch and Remus and I will cover the south. Girls, you’re lookouts for now�”” Gwendolyn let out a cry of protest, but Sirius continued: “For now. Take some Dungbombs if you must, but it’ll work best as a two-front attack. James, follow my lead. Girls, red sparks if you see something fishy. If the plan goes to pot, it’s every man for himself. Got it?”

All present nodded in agreement, then Sirius made them stick their hands into the circle. “One, two, three, GRYFF!” he chanted softly. They lifted their arms and then separated into the teams and flanked the stadium.

Remus followed at Sirius’s heels as they stole up the stairs and into the pitch. Crouching low behind the seats Remus could just barely make out the Slytherin team and potentials, currently having some sort of meeting on the ground far below the goal hoops. In the stands, close the ground, Professor Slughorn�”head of Slytherin�”slumbered gently.

“Is Slughorn going to be a problem, Sirius?” Remus asked, nodding in the professor’s direction.

“Doubt he’ll even wake up,” Sirius whispered, opening up one of the bags. “And we’ll be in and out so quick, there’s no way he’ll notice. No we have just enough time to get set up.” He withdrew a Dungbomb from the bag and Remus was surprised to see it was bright gold instead of the usual brown. “I made some adjustments,” Sirius said by way of explanation, and Remus grinned. If the Dungbombs were gold, they would look exactly like Snitches zooming around the pitch.

“Brilliant,” he said, genuinely impressed with Sirius’s plan.

“Thanks, mate,” Sirius responded, his dark eyes intently focused on the action below. “Now all we need to do is wait for them to take flight�”oh, here they go! Get ready.”

Remus withdrew a Dungbomb and his wand and waited for Sirius to make the first move. As soon as there were a good number of players in the air, Sirius tossed his golden bomb in the air and whispered, “Wingardium Leviosa!” It flew out of the stands and into the fray, zooming left and right as Sirius jerked his wand. He held up a hand to steady Remus: “Not yet. Give it a minute.”

As soon as a potential Seeker had caught sight of this “Snitch,” Sirius nodded to Remus who sent his own Dungbomb zipping into the air. Sirius grabbed another and chucked it out toward the field, catching it with his wand and making it fly in tandem with the original. Soon, Remus saw that James and Peter had caught on, as three or four more small objects glinted in the sun from the north end of the pitch. Remus kept his eye trained to the middle where Gwendolyn and Lily were on lookout duty, but no red sparks flew.

The Quidditch try-outs quickly descended into chaos as the boys kept adding to the number of balls in the air. Soon the Dungbombs vastly outnumbered the people. A wicked grin spread across Sirius’s face as mayhem erupted in the air. “And in just about ten seconds, phase two of the attack will begin.”

“What’s phase two?” Remus asked.

“Just cover your nose, mate,” Sirius said, bringing a piece of his robe up to shield his face.

Time-release Dungbombs. Of course, Remus thought. Sirius had planned this well.

“Three… two… ONE,” he chanted under his breath. Sure enough, no sooner had the words escaped his mouth then Remus was able to detect a faint odor and the telltale foggy gas of the Dungbombs as they exploded in the air, sending Slytherins careening in all directions. A few unlucky players found themselves unable to avoid collision and Remus watched as one tumbled toward the ground, pulling up just in time to save himself. However, the force of his maneuver was too strong and he came rocketing toward the stands, right where Remus and Sirius were crouched. In a matter of seconds, he had flown close enough to stare the two boys right in the face, and Remus paled as he saw that the boy on the broom was none other than Severus Snape. This will not end well.

Sure enough, Severus’s eyes widened in frenzy and he whipped his broom around to the still-panicking Slytherins, shouting and pointing in Remus’s direction. “IT’S GRYFFINDOR!” he yelled with maniacal rage. “BLACK AND LUPIN. THEY’RE UP HERE!”

Remus sat bolt upright as he and Sirius nearly twenty Slytherins change direction mid-air and come flying toward them, wands at the ready. He gripped his own wand and racked his brain to come up with any plan that would get them out of the situation as anything but fertilizer for the Quidditch pitch. It gave him a moment’s cheer to see Peter and James tearing around the stadium coming for backup, but still, four against twenty? The outlook was grim.

The mêlée began soon enough. Some Slytherins dismounted their brooms and attacked the Gryffindors in the stands, some flew in tight circles around the battle. Remus had no idea what jinxes, curses, and hexes were flying from their wands, all he knew is that no one was getting out unscathed. Jets of green and red flew all around them, and Remus was amazed to see how many Slytherins were stumbling.

He had no idea how long they were fighting before they all heard a booming voice and saw the imposing figure of Horace Slughorn shooting loud bangs into the air with his wand. “STOP! CEASE AND DESIST, GENTLEMEN!” he shouted, his face a mixture of rage, panic, and… was that pride?

Slughorn waded into the crowd and started pulling the Slytherins away from Remus and his friends. A few last spells bounced off the stadium benches before Slughorn quieted everyone down and turned on the Gryffindors. “Masters Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Rarely in my tenure have I seen behavior like this. Thirty points from Gryffindor for each of you, and two detentions a piece on top of that.”

“That’s not fair!” Remus heard from somewhere over his shoulder, but the voice belonged to an unexpected source: all the boys whipped around to see Lily and Gwendolyn standing a few rows behind them. Lily was glaring at Slughorn, her hands on her hips. “Professor,” she continued, “the Slytherins were equally at fault! In fact, they were the ones who started the brawl!”

James smiled at Sirius, but Remus’s attention was diverted to a look that passed between Lily and Severus Snape, and Lily seemed to lose a bit of her boldness. He didn’t have time to think about it, though, as his train of thought was interrupted by Slughorn’s stammers. “Miss Evans! I’m surprised to see you here… but, well… hrm… I suppose the Slytherins should not be without punishment, right you are as always, but it is hardly fair to say that they were the instigators! And�”might I add�”any accomplices will also lose points!”

“We’re not accomplices, Professor,” she said hastily. “Just witnesses.” Gwendolyn nodded at her side. “Anyway, perhaps their punishment shouldn’t be as severe, but they’re at least partially to blame!”

Slughorn nodded and reluctantly docked points from members of his House and the whole thing was over as quickly as it started. The Slytherins gathered together and headed back toward the castle with Slughorn leading the way and Severus bringing up the rear. He turned back toward the Gryffindors and Remus could see a shallow gash on his cheek. Remus felt Lily tense beside him, but Severus’s glare was directed only at Sirius and James.

“Nice flying, Snivellus,” Sirius whispered, and Snape made a move toward him, but must have caught the pleading look in Lily’s eyes, for he turned around and hurried the rest of the Slytherins along.

The Gryffindors waited a few moments before speaking, and it was Lily who broke the silence. “Well done, boys,” she said. “Really great adventure.” Her face was the picture of disappointment and she shook her head at Sirius and James.

“Oh, come off it, Lily. They deserved it,” Sirius said, scoffing at her.

“Yeah, and they wouldn’t have even known it was us if Snape hadn’t nearly fallen off his broom,” James added.

Lily’s frown deepened but she said nothing more.

They silently wound their way down the long staircase to the ground and trudged toward the castle. Remus saw Gwendolyn look at her wristwatch and smile. “Hey, at least Sirius kept his promise: the whole thing took less than thirty minutes!”

Peter laughed and Remus managed a small smile, but the other three said nothing the whole way back to Gryffindor Tower.

***

A few hours after the Quidditch debacle, Severus met Lily in a small courtyard off the Great Hall. Madam Pomfrey had apparently mended the cut on his cheek, for hardly any trace remained. Lily wondered for a moment about the boys’ injuries, but realized it was harder than usual to feel any sympathy for them.

She twitched the corners of her mouth into a smile of greeting as Severus leaned against one of the great stone columns. The bitter November wind howled around the courtyard, kicking up bits of dust and leaves that swirled around the bottom of Lily’s robes. She shivered against the cold and rubbed her arms.

“Severus, I’m sorry about today�”” she started, but the pale boy held up a hand to silence her.

“I don’t understand why you’re friends with Potter and Black, Lily. They don’t deserve you.”

Lily blushed, startled at his words, and unsure how to respond. She had expected him to be disappointed in her for her encouragement of Slytherin punishment, but this was disappointment of a different kind, and it caught her off guard. On the one hand, there was no denying that James and Sirius were awful to Severus for largely undeserved reasons. On the other hand, despite their flaws, Sirius and James were her friends. For better or for worse, right? But how much ‘worse’ can it get’? she couldn’t help but think.

“Listen, Sev,” she started. “I don’t know why they’re so awful to you, and I wish you could just ignore it and not retaliate�”not that I blame you for what happened today�”” she added quickly. “But the fact remains that they’re in my life, and I can’t just cut them out. We’re together all the time, and they’re good friends with Gwendolyn and Remus, and I’m not going to… I can’t just stop spending time with them.”

“Well,” Severus said, a strange smile playing at his thins lips; “I guess it’s lucky for us that familiarity breeds contempt.”

Lily smiled back, though she didn’t mean it. Something in his expression was deeply troubling to her, and she kicked the ground nervously, eager for a change of topic. He was still leaning calmly against the pillar, his black eyes intensely searching her face. She blushed again and broke his gaze.

An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, its call borne on the back of a fierce wind that stung Lily’s cheeks. “Let’s go inside,” she suggested. “It’s getting really cold out here.”

Still Severus stared. After a few too many seconds, he spoke. “No, I’m going to stay out here for a while longer. You can go in.”

“Oh, OK,” she said. “Well… see you later.” She hesitated before turning on her heels and heading for the warmth of the castle, acutely aware that his eyes remained trained on her until she vanished from his sight.