Lily and Mary sat in the Common Room together for what seemed like forever. They had come down at around eight o’clock, Mary with every Charms note she had ever taken, and sat on the large red couch in the middle of the room. Lily had no idea where James and Sirius were at the moment, but that is what she spent most of those three hours thinking about, while Mary sat and pretended to be working on her final Charms essay of the year.
Occasionally, Lily would ask Mary if she wanted some help. After all, her friend was helping her out immensely with covering for her if Liam happened to come by. But, every time that Lily asked Mary would simply reply, “No, Lily. I’ll be fine.”
James and Sirius bounded into the room at about 11:15PM, surprised to see Mary scratching words feverishly onto a piece of parchment while Lily stared off out of the window. The sound of the portrait hole closing and the two Marauders coming into the room snapped her out of her trance.
She smiled. Lily gave a small wave to Mary, who gave her a knowing look, before standing up and walking out after the Marauders.
Mary laughed to herself as she heard the portrait hole close.
***
“Not backing out yet?” Sirius asked, somewhat threateningly.
“No,” Lily said confidently. “I want to do this.”
James laughed, putting his hands in his pockets. Lily smacked his arm as they walked.
“So,” Lily started, trying to get off the subject. “Where exactly did you hide the potion?”
“Second floor, girl’s bathroom. It’s a bit scary in there, but no one ever goes in,” Sirius stated matter-of-factly.
“Did you just say a girls’ bathroom?” Lily asked, looking between Sirius and James for confirmation. They both nodded and looked at her as if it were the stupidest question in the world. “Why didn’t you use the Room of Requirement?”
“Ah, Prongs, she’s so naïve!” Sirius replied.
“What?” Lily asked, turning to stare at James for an answer.
“Well, think about it Evans. All someone would have to do if they saw us go in there was ‘require’ to see what we were up to. Or if we put it in the room of random things, well, you do know how many people probably know about that room? This way, if anyone found it, well, who would guess that it was the Marauders that had put it there?” James explained smiling.
“You’re diabolical,” Lily said, a bit shocked.
“Why, Miss Evans, I’ll take that as a compliment,” James responded as he held the door to the girls’ bathroom open. “After you?”
***
Lily tried to keep her footsteps silent as she approached the Entrance Hall. Half of her really expected their carefully laid out plan to go down in flames within the next thirty seconds. How could James Potter possibly know where Dan McCulley, the current Head Boy, be at one o’clock on a Saturday night? Lily knew that if Dan wasn’t where James said he was, the potion would wear off of Sirius before she could find him on her own.
On the other hand, part of Lily thought that there was some way that James could know where he was. The night that Lily had gone with him to help plan, he had known that there would be no teachers or prefects on the path. But how had he known that?
She reached the bottom of the stairs leading into the Entrance Hall, and began to look around. She didn’t see Dan anywhere. Calling out his name seemed like an immensely stupid idea. Lily sighed loudly and swore under her breath; what was she going to do now?
“It’s one o’clock in the morning, what exactly do you think you’re doing?”
The voice startled Lily, causing her to clutch her hand to her heart.
“Lily Evans?”
“Oh, Dan! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Lily said in her most authoritative voice.
She walked over to where Dan was standing, which was somewhat intimidating. Dan McCulley was, in one word, gorgeous. Well over six feet, with dark hair that hung into his eyes, he could have easily passed for twenty, maybe even twenty-five, instead of eighteen. Lily flashed a smile at him on her way over.
“Why?” Dan asked, skepticism thick in his voice.
Lily put on her ‘concerned prefect’ voice, which she had perfected in the last two years.
“I just walked by the Slytherin Common Room, and this little first or second year was sitting outside crying. He can’t remember his password, he says he has been sitting there for hours and no one has come in or out. I don’t know the password so I came to find you, I mean you know everything around here,” Lily flashed what she thought was a flirtatious smile in his direction.
“Sure, no problem. The Slytherin password is 'Pureblood'.”
“Thanks, Dan! I’ll go tell him,” Lily turned around as fast as she could, smiling a bit to herself as she descended the stairs toward the dungeons.
***
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Mary looked up from her essay, peaking around the corner.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Someone was knocking on the portrait hole… at eleven o’clock at night. Mary put all her books onto the table in front of her before making her way to the portrait hole. She swung it open.
Oh, shit. Mary thought to herself in shock, as none other than Liam Burke pushed his way into the Common Room.
“Liam, hey, how is it going?” Mary asked, trying to sound normal.
Liam’s eyes swept the room as if he were in a mad trance. He didn’t answer the question.
“Where’s Lily?” he asked, not looking Mary in the eyes.
“Lily?”
“Yes, you said you were studying with her tonight, that’s why she couldn’t be with me, right?” Liam practically shouted in frustration.
“Right, of course Liam, she was studying with me,” Mary replied at a normal volume, keeping her voice calm.
“Then where the hell is she?” Liam asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“Sleeping, Liam, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s eleven o’clock. She was tired so I told her I could finish my essay on my own,” Mary answered, shrugging her shoulders as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Sleeping?” he asked and Mary could tell his was calming down.
“Right upstairs in her dormitory, as a matter of fact.”
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll go then,” Liam said, running his hand through his hair.
“You do that,” Mary said, relieved that that was over.
Liam turned, but as he was exiting the portrait hole he called Mary’s name again.
“Yeah?” she answered
“Lily wouldn’t lie to me, would she?”
Mary crossed her fingers behind her back, “No, Lily wouldn’t lie.”
***
“Where the hell is she, Prongs?”
“Give her time, Sirius, it’s only been thirty minutes since she left,” James replied defensively.
The two Marauders were sitting on the floor outside of the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room, James under the Invisibility Cloak, Sirius wasn’t. Instead, a small eleven-year-old boy with mousy brown hair sat next to James, visible to any passerby.
“You don’t think she turned us in, do you?”
“Not this again. She did not turn us in, she is not going to turn us in,” James clarified. “Cause there is no way in hell that she is going to kiss me.”
“Oh, I forgot that tiny little detail,” Sirius laughed.
“Ha ha, so funny Padfoot. Don’t forget, you are in the body of an eleven year old, I could kick your arse.”
Sirius stopped laughing.
“But seriously James, what do you think you are going to get out of this? She’s just doing it for revenge, not for you.” Sirius leaned his head back against the wall.
“Yeah, but at least she is talking to me. Actual talking, not yelling like she usually does.”
“Good clarification.”
They both laughed.
***
“Are you kidding me? Where’s Danny boy?” Sirius shouted down the hallway.
Lily walked purposefully down the hall. “Nice to see you too, Black.”
When Lily arrived in front of the large stone wall that was the entrance, Sirius Black was practically in a fit.
“He just told me the password, I didn’t have to bring him down here. It’s easier this way, now I can help,” Lily said matter-of-factly, shrugging her shoulders.
“So I stole hair from that second year, drank that disgusting potion just to look like this, for nothing?” Sirius gestured to his small frame. “Instead of remaining the stunning creature that usually stands before you?”
Lily put on a look like she was thinking, and then said, “Yeah, pretty much.”
James and Lily started laughing as he stepped out from under the Invisibility Cloak.
“It’s not funny!” Sirius exasperated.
“You’re right Padfoot, it’s not,” James said, pretending to sober up, but there was still a smile on his face.
“Let’s get this done before someone hears your cackling,” Sirius said, kind of impatiently.
“Okay, okay,” Lily stopped laughing long enough to say the password.
The three of them entered silently, looking around at the green décor, the gloominess sinking into them.
“Ugh, am I the only that can smell that? And why is it so dark in here?” Sirius added sarcastically.
“Let’s just get this over with before dawn, shall we?” James replied, pulling out his wand, which Lily and Sirius copied.
“Okay, I’ll do the girls’ dorms, considering neither of you would make it up the stairs, and we’ll meet back in Gryffindor Tower,” Lily suggested, to which both boys nodded.
“Don’t have too much fun, Evans,” James whispered with a wave as they each made it up their assigned staircase.
“Oh, don’t worry, I will,” she whispered back.
***
Lily closed the door to the first year girls’ dorm at around three o’clock in the morning. She crept down the dormitory stairs, pleased with herself at what she had accomplished without getting caught and smiling at what she would see tomorrow morning in the Great Hall.
She had just reentered the dark and gloomy Common Room when she saw movement and ducked quickly behind a large curtain near the staircase she had just exited.
“Snape, you need to realize. This is no different then what we have been doing, what you’ve been doing. It is just making your allegiance official, it will make you truly one of us,” a condescending voice said.
“I know, I know, it shouldn’t make a difference. It just feels darker, more sinister than what we have done before.” she heard Snape respond.
“No, it shouldn’t make a difference. This just means that he trusts you more, now that you have shown some allegiance through past actions. I will contact you before next term, sometime in early August.”
“Yes, I will be waiting.”
With that, Lily heard a faint pop as Lucius Malfoy’s face disappeared from the fire.
Lily’s breathing had gotten faster as questions rushed through her mind. She needed to get out of there, now.
She quietly crept out from behind the curtain, falling to her knees and crawling towards the exit. Lily saw Severus Snape, her old friend, with his head in his hands, sitting on the couch. Seeing this as what could be her only chance to get out of the dungeon without being caught, she opened the door and left.
She ran back to Gryffindor Tower, praying no one would catch her. When she reached her bed next to a sleeping Mary, her mind continued to run with question after question.
What was Sev doing? Why was he talking to Lucius Malfoy? What was he going to have to do?
Some of the questions, Lily didn’t want the answers to.
***
Even with her lack of sleep, Lily still rolled out of bed at seven, not wanting to miss a moment of the reaction of the Slytherins. She pulled on her skirt and shirt before throwing her robes on over it. While she was brushing her hair, Mary stirred, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“How was last night?” she asked through a yawn.
“You’ll see,” Lily said, smiling to herself.
Mary laughed and Lily waited for her to get ready. Mary kept asking questions as they walked to the Great Hall for breakfast, but Lily refused to answer them until she saw with her own eyes. Mary then told Lily about what had happened with Liam.
“Are you serious? Who does he think he is? Storming into our common room like that! As if he has complete control over my life! Where did you tell him I was?” Lily ranted
“I told him you were asleep, and he calmed down, but I would be prepared for him to approach you about it. He seemed really angry,” Mary answered, tucking a piece of her white blonde hair behind her ear.
They entered the Great Hall, and she was a bit disappointed, and a bit amused, when she saw that the Slytherin table was completely empty. She glanced at the Gryffindor table, occupied by a few early bird Gryffindors, among them James Potter and Sirius Black.
Lily smiled when James waved, causing Mary to give her a look.
“I guess it went well last night, huh?” she asked.
“Mary, it’s not like that,” Lily defended.
“Sure it’s not, sure,” Mary replied skeptically.
They arrived at the table, sitting opposite each other next to James and Sirius.
“Any sightings yet?” James asked Lily
“No, it is a bit disappointing, but it’s amusing as well. It must mean it worked, otherwise they wouldn’t be afraid to show their faces,” Lily smiled.
At that very moment, someone - or something - walked into the Great Hall, marching between the now filling tables, toward the High Table where Professor Dumbledore was seated.
Mary’s mouth dropped open.
“Why does she have cow ears and a tail, and why is her skin all black and white?” Mary said through peals of laughter.
Bellatrix had in fact, taken on many of the characteristics of the animal most like her: a cow.
“Professor! Professor! Look what they did to me!” Bella Black screamed at Dumbledore, which was followed by a loud moo.
More laughter filled the previously silent hall. James, Sirius, Lily, and Mary staring at their plates while sniggering.
“Who did what to you?” Dumbledore asked.
“Look at me! I look like, like,” she stumbled.
“A cow?” Sirius offered helpfully.
“Ugh! Black, I’m going to murder you with my bare hands! Professor, do something!” she screamed yet again, followed by another loud moo. “All the Slytherins are like this! I was the only one brave enough to come down and do something about it!”
“Brilliant,” James muttered, causing Lily and Mary to laugh harder.
“I want to see some punishment! You know who did this!” Another “moo”.
Another scream of frustration.
“Why, I’m sure that I don’t Miss Black, who do you believe did it?” Dumbledore asked calmly, his eyes twinkling.
“Them! Black and Potter, and Evans!” she yelled, pointing viciously at the Gryffindors.
“Lily Evans? Really?” McGonagall piped in.
The person in question started laughing, along with James and Sirius.
“See! See! They know that they did it! That’s a confession!” Bella accused.
“Mr. Black, Mr. Potter, Miss Evans? Did you turn the Slytherins into well, animals?” Professor McGonagall asked.
“You could say that,” Sirius confessed.
“But, you have to admit, she looks a lot better now,” James added while Lily laughed. She was laughing more than she ever had.
“Detention! All three of you!” McGonagall proclaimed.
“There is only three days of term left before final exams, when exactly would these detentions be?” Lily asked smartly, somehow not phased in the least that she had gotten her first detention.
At that, the teachers stumbled, before Dumbledore said, “I guess it will have to be the first two weeks of next term, then.”
Even with the prospect of detentions at the beginning of her seventh year, Lily couldn’t help but smile.
Bella Black stormed out of the Great Hall, and the conversation picked up.
Dumbledore looked down at the Gryffindor table and couldn’t help saying to Professor McGonagall, “You have to admit, the Gryffindors have got style.”
Learning To Live by MarauderWannabe
Chapter Notes: Hope its to your liking....as always reviews appreciated!
~kel aka marauderwannabe
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