Lily Evans turned a corner and saw just what she was looking for – a black-haired figure sauntering nonchalantly down the hall, as if he had nothing to do with the chaos that was now the Charms classroom.
“Black!” she shouted menacingly, running up and grabbing him by the shoulder. “You think you can just leave – ” She stopped when she got face-to-face with the boy and realized that it wasn’t, after all, Sirius Black.
“I beg your pardon?” he said, grey eyes cool as he regarded her.
“I’m sorry,” Lily stammered, her face flaming. “I thought you were Sirius. You look the same from the back...”
He looked slightly amused. “It’s true. We do.” One eyebrow raised, he continued. “What has my rapscallion brother done this time?”
“The Charms classroom is a disaster,” Lily informed him. “Orange and black paper all over.”
“Fitting the theme of Halloween,” the boy said, nodding.
“That’s not the worst of it!” Lily interjected, marveling that she was actually having a conversation with the infamous Regulus Black. “Everything is covered with slime! I’m not sure, because when I left the lights were still working, but it looks phosphorescent and I’m positive it’s not safe.”
“Come now, Miss Evans,” Regulus said, tossing his hair back in a way rather reminiscent of his older brother. “My brother would never do anything to hurt anyone – surely that’s against some Gryffindor code of honor you have?”
Lily bristled. “Don’t take that tone with me, Black. It’s clear you know neither your brother nor Gryffindor very well, and if you continue making such gross assumptions I shall have to remove points.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Miss Evans,” he replied, extra polite in the face of her rudeness. He flashed his badge at her. “Prefects can’t dock other prefects.”
“Oh.” Lily had forgotten.
“Besides,” Regulus continued, “I have known my brother a lot longer than you have. I have observed members of Gryffindor House for nearly four and a half years. I assure you, I do know both of them better than you might think. Therefore, the trouble is not in what I do not know, but you.”
“What?” Lily gasped, not sure how the conversation had switched to accusing her.
“You can’t pretend to know me if in response to my teasing you threaten to take away points.”
“I’ll concede that,” Lily said finally. “I don’t know you at all. And – ” she glanced meaningfully at his Slytherin badge – “perhaps it would be better if it stayed that way. Good day to you, Mr. Black.” And she began walking off.
He made a noise as if he were about to tell her to wait, but when she looked back he simply nodded to her. “Good day, Miss Evans.”
As soon as she was out of sight, Lily slowed her carefully measured steps until she was nearly stationary, pondering that strange conversation. She didn’t know very much about Regulus Black, only that he was Sirius’ little brother and Sirius didn’t think much of him at all – something about him actually being an obedient child or some such nonsense.
Now Lily wondered if she knew more than the rest of Sirius’ friends – not that she counted herself among his friends, she corrected hastily. He had a sense of humor and was so unfailingly polite; it made Lily ashamed that she’d been so quick to jump on him when he was only making a joke, and responded so nicely to her. Spending so much time around Potter and his friends had made her too hasty a judge of people’s motives, it seemed.
When she thought of Potter, she jumped. The Charms classroom! Meeting with Regulus had taken the incident completely from her mind. With renewed determination, Lily quickened her step. Sirius Black would not get away with this.
***
School was completely normal for Lily – that is to say, it was alarmingly busy – until near the end of the term. It was the last Quidditch match before the Christmas holiday, Hufflepuff against Slytherin, and Lily was on her way back from the library. She’d had to finish some homework before going because some second-years had been causing a riot and as a prefect she’d had to sort it all out. She was still fuming from the incident, and now because of it she was almost late.
And she wasn’t the only one.
“Why hello, Miss Evans.”
Lily jumped. “Regulus! Black! You startled me.”
He smirked at her. “Did I? I’m not surprised; you were remarkably unaware of your surroundings. My brother and his friends must have done something quite unforgivable, the way you were muttering.”
“It wasn’t them,” Lily said tersely. She remembered how polite Regulus always was and made an effort to speak pleasantly. “I was the only prefect around when some younger students got...out of hand,” she continued lightly, she hoped. She eyed Regulus’ school robes. “Are you not playing today?”
“Oh, I’m playing. I’m running a little late myself.”
“Oh?” Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.
A smile crept over Regulus’ face and Lily wondered what was so amusing. “Miss Evans, you may not have the power to remove points from a fellow prefect, but you could still report me to the Headmaster if you found that I was doing something too blatantly against school rules. I don’t think I’ll tell you why I’m late.”
Lily’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Then she realized he was joking and grinned. He smiled back and they shared a moment of companionship. Lily was about to say something about how perhaps she shouldn’t be talking to a rule-breaker when someone called her name.
“Lily!” Remus Lupin ran up to her other side and grabbed her arm. “You’ll sit with me at the match, won’t you?”
“Yes,” Lily replied, brow quirked at the question.
“Okay, let’s go!” Remus dragged on her, never once looking at Regulus.
“I...suppose I should run to the pitch so my captain doesn’t get worried,” Regulus said, polite smile in place.
“Good luck!” Lily called impulsively; Remus dragged even harder.
“Thanks, Lily.” And Regulus sprinted ahead of her and Remus, down toward the Quidditch pitch.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Remus, stop pulling me!” Lily snapped, shaking her entrapped arm. “I know we’re late, but we won’t miss anything important!”
“All right, I’ll stop pulling.” Remus threw down her arm. “Come on; the others are waiting in the entrance hall.”
“I hope you’re not expecting me to sit by them,” Lily said, rolling her eyes at Remus.
“No, you can sit by me,” Remus said, a trace of a grin on his face. “I’ll sit by them.” His smile disappeared; something was clearly bothering him still.
“It’s not like you all to be late to a Quidditch match,” Lily observed, hoping to make him divulge whatever was wrong.
“James is saving us seats, Sirius and Peter are waiting in the entrance hall. We had some ... things to take care of.”
Lily narrowed her eyes. “I can’t take points off prefects,” she said, falling immediately into a reverie about her previous conversation with Regulus Black, “but the rest of your friends are fair game.”
“Oh, don’t they know it!” Remus said, trying for lightness when it was clear that Lily’s glazed eyes were disturbing him even more than he already was.
They were at the entrance hall now; Sirius and Peter were bouncing impatiently and as soon as they saw Remus and Lily they rushed forward and hustled them out the doors.
“What took you so long, Remus?” Peter asked.
“I found Lily and asked her to come with us,” Remus replied. “I thought you wouldn’t mind.”
“James won’t,” Sirius replied with a grin; Lily buried her face in her hand.
“Maybe I should find somewhere else to sit,” she said, even though she knew (hoped, at least) that Sirius was joking about how happy Potter would be to see her.
“Oh, don’t be that way,” Sirius said, winking. “Remus will protect you.”
This seemed to remind Remus of whatever was weighing on his mind. He abandoned Lily to walk with Peter and grabbed Sirius’ arm, walking more quickly with him.
Lily didn’t like the looks Sirius and Remus kept shooting back at her, and she was glad when they got to the Quidditch pitch and had to pay attention to where they were going to sit.
“There’s James.” Peter pointed at someone sitting near the front of the Gryffindor section. They made their way over to him. Lily did not take it as a good sign when he beamed at the sight of her.
“How are you doing, Lily?” Potter asked happily. “Sitting by us today?”
“No, I’m sitting by Remus,” Lily said firmly. She couldn’t prevent James from sitting on the other side of Remus, though, nor Sirius sitting right behind him.
“You guys got here right on time,” Potter remarked, eyes glued to the field as the two captains shook hands and play began. “I was beginning to get worried I’d have to watch Hufflepuff’s formations all by myself.”
“Sorry, mate,” Sirius said, but it was pretty obvious his mind was anywhere but what Hufflepuff was doing. Lily, who was actually trying to watch the game, kept getting distracted by his constant fidgeting.
Finally, he leaned over and poked her. “Lily,” he said.
“What?” Lily turned around and glared at him. “Honestly, Sirius, what is up with you?”
His grey eyes – a lot like Regulus’, Lily noticed suddenly – were angry. “Is it true you were talking with my brother?”
“Is that what this is all about?” Lily whipped her head around to fix Remus with an accusing stare. He resolutely avoided her gaze. She looked back at Sirius. “Yes, I was talking to him. Is that suddenly against the rules?”
“Well, not exactly...” Sirius said. “But you have to understand that my brother is not someone you just talk to.”
Lily shook her head. “It’s not like I went and sought him out! We just happened to meet outside the library. It was just a conversation. Do you only talk to your particular friends? It’s polite to talk to someone who talks to you.”
“He talked to you first?!” If Sirius’ eyes had been angry before, they were furious now.
“Just a hello.” Lily was starting to get riled. They were making such a big deal about this.
“Lily.” Remus decided to put in his two Knuts. “I’ll talk to Slytherins. I’ll talk to anyone that talks reasonably to me. But chances are I won’t smile at them. Not the way you were smiling at Regulus.”
Potter looked away from the game, distracted by the conversation going on. “Who was Lily smiling at?”
“My brother,” Sirius told him, making it sound like she’d smiled at a troll. “While they were having a conversation.”
“What?” Potter leaned around Remus to stare at Lily. “You need to be careful, Lily. Regulus is dangerous.”
Lily opened her mouth to tell him what he could do with “dangerous”, but Sirius overrode her.
“Just stay away from him, Lily.” He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Trust me.”
Lily shrugged off his hand. “I can take care of myself!”
“Lily, he’s a Slytherin!” Potter was so bothered by this he stood up. “It would be like me befriending Snape!”
“All right, that’s it.” Lily stood up as well. “I can’t sit by you lot today.” She strode away, biting her cheek very hard to keep from railing on the boys. Looking around, she saw an empty row up near the top. She went and sat there, ignoring the glances from the second- and third-years surrounding her chosen seat.
They must think I’m a child! she thought fiercely. I’m pretty sure I know how to be careful. I know better than to go looking for danger. Which is more than I can say for any of them. She pounded her seat and frightened the third-years.
“Sorry,” Lily said. “I just ... got a little into the game.”
“It’s okay,” one of them said, clearly not convinced.
Lily smiled tightly. How was the game even going? She craned her head to look at the score: Hufflepuff 20, Slytherin 30. As she swept her eyes over the field, she caught sight of a green-clad flyer not involved in any of the other ongoing action. She knew that it was the Seeker, Regulus. She watched him fly a couple laps around the field, then looked down at her hands.
She knew that most of the Slytherins on that team were aspiring to be Death Eaters, but she’d stopped paying attention to them once she and Sev – well ... she’d been busy enough with her own life without logging the new recruits to the cause. Whether or not Regulus was one of those evil ones, Lily didn’t know. The reactions of Potter and Black (Sirius – was she going to have to start referring to them both by their first names?) seemed to indicate that he was, but she wanted to find out for herself. After all, that bunch didn’t usually try to carry on a civilized conversation with a Gryffindor Muggleborn like she was.
There was only one thing to do. She’d have to watch for herself, observe who he associated with, the way he treated others like her, the sort of books he read. That way she’d know for sure whether or not to keep up an acquaintance with him; it shouldn’t be too hard to cut him off if he was evil, she’d already – but she really shouldn’t think about that.
It was decided, then. Lily would start spying on Regulus Black.
***
Spying was both easy and difficult for Lily. It was unexpectedly simple to go to the library at the same time as Regulus and choose a table at the perfect distance for glancing up every few minutes to stretch and rest her eyes and see what he was doing. Usually he was doing the same thing the rest of the students were doing: studying for exams. Once or twice he caught her eye and nodded politely. Lily couldn’t stop the flush from rising to her face, but hoped the rather dim lighting in the library hid it from him.
On the other hand, it was unexpectedly hard to observe Regulus at mealtimes, the obvious time for watching. She couldn’t look over there without seeing – well, someone she’d rather not see – so didn’t look over as often as she should. Luckily, Regulus never seemed to be doing anything extraordinary. He rarely talked to anyone, let alone the Death Eater Slytherins. Lily decided to take this as a good sign.
Lily had been at this about a week when a further opportunity came up. Exams were over, it was the night before Christmas vacation, and McGonagall called one last prefect meeting. Remus insisted on walking with her to the meeting.
“Thanks for the gesture,” Lily told him. “I promise nothing bad’s going to happen to me. I won’t run off after any Slytherins or anything.”
Remus smiled slightly. “I know,” he said. “I just wanted to spend time with you, because that’s what friends do.”
Lily grinned. “I do appreciate it, as long as you don’t go tattle on me to your friends.” She looked slyly at him. “I think you should spend some time with Rachael, if that’s what you do with friends.”
Remus blushed. “I don’t know if she thinks of me that strongly, Lily,” he demurred.
“You’ve been prefects together for a year and a half now,” Lily stated. “I’m sure she’d be happy if you walked her home or something.”
“Ravenclaw Tower’s pretty far from Gryffindor,” Remus said, and Lily knew he was grasping at straws.
“I’ll go back with Aubrey or something,” Lily said. “I really think that you should wish Rachael a Happy Christmas.”
“Why did I let you walk with me to the meeting?” Remus exclaimed, rubbing his face in defeat. “All right, fine! As long as you’re sure you’ll be all right without me.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “Yes.” They were at the classroom now, and Lily, satisfied with her slight bit of matchmaking, got set to focus on her ulterior motive. She’d never paid much attention to prefects other than fellow Gryffindors or those in her year, like Rachael the Ravenclaw. There really were a lot of them, she realized. Fortunately for her, the seat Regulus chose was just ahead of hers, leaving her view of who he talked to and how he acted pretty well unobstructed, while he couldn’t know that she was watching him.
She had a difficult time paying attention to the meeting, which was mainly about the importance of maintaining order on the Hogwarts Express even though it was Christmas. Lily signed up for a shift without paying much mind to what time she’d signed up for. She spent most of her time staring quizzically at the back of Regulus’ head, trying to decipher what he was doing. His behavior was much like it was at meals: he was completely silent, bowed over a piece of parchment this time instead of over his food.
When the meeting was over, Lily saw Remus go, stammering, ask Rachael if he could escort her home and beamed when a soft smile lit her face. Lily waved as they left, but Remus didn’t even see. Gathering up her things, Lily was about to follow the other Gryffindors as they went when Professor McGonagall called to her.
McGonagall wanted to commend her for being so efficient in routing troublemakers that term, which was nice – the professor so rarely complimented – but the main point was to tell her she’d been a little wild with point-taking – she should leave the bulk of that to the teachers.
All it took was McGonagall saying “Prefects really shouldn’t take points...” for Lily to immediately start thinking about Regulus. She absent-mindedly bid the professor goodnight and wandered out, pensive.
She’d watched him for a week and come to no solid conclusions about whether or not he was as “dangerous” or “evil” as Potter and Black (Sirius! She really would have to start calling him by his first name) seemed to think. I’ll just have to let the subject drop, Lily had just decided, when she noticed someone walking slightly behind her.
Lily’s wand was out and pointed at her follower before she’d even properly turned round to look.
“Miss Evans, I assure you that tonight is not the night for me to take you out to the forest and cut you into pieces! Please stop glaring so terribly.”
Speak of the devil, Lily thought, lowering her wand. “I beg your pardon, Black,” she said stiffly; after watching him all week it was awkward to actually talk to him again.
“If my presence is alarming you, I can go some other way,” Regulus said.
It didn’t occur to Lily to ask where he was going, she just smiled and said of course he wasn’t alarming her – I’m being polite! she yelled at Potter in her head – and matched her pace with his.
“Do you have any interesting plans for the Christmas holiday?” Regulus inquired politely.
“I’m just going home. I’ll try to avoid the death glares of my older sister as much as possible and wait to come back to school.”
“That sounds much like my usual Christmas vacation,” Regulus said, a little ruefully.
“What?” Lily said. “Oh...” Without thinking, she reached out to him. “Your home always sounds so dreadful to me, I shouldn’t complain about mine.”
Regulus stopped stock still, watching with wide eyes her outstretched arm. Lily stopped, too, facing him. She dropped her arm, now very self-conscious.
“Did you...” he began, then cleared his throat. “Did you discover anything while watching me this week?”
Lily blinked. “What are you talking about?” she said, stalling. How did he find out??
He stepped closer to her; she backed away. “You’ve been watching me ever since the last Quidditch game. I want to know if you found anything out.”
“I think you’re imagining things,” Lily said nervously, as he stepped closer again.
“No. I’m definitely not. One thing that I have, as a Slytherin, that you do not, as a Gryffindor, is stealth.”
Lily had been looking side to side, seeking a way to dart out from his advance, but she was too near the wall, and on the word “stealth” Regulus’ hand snaked out and landed on her collarbone, pushing her against the cold stone.
“Um,” Lily tried, so frightened her voice wouldn’t work – not that she could think of anything to say.
“So tell me, Lily,” Regulus said, lingering slightly on her given name. “What did you see this week?”
She gulped. “N-nothing. I couldn’t find anything out about you.” She still had her wand out; could she lift it and blast him away without him noticing the movement?
“I didn’t think so,” Regulus said, as polite as ever. He lifted his fingers and brushed her throat; goose bumps rose on Lily’s skin from the chill of his hand. “Lily, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, his voice neutral. “I just wanted you to get a taste of what you’re dealing with when you try to mess with a Slytherin.”
“I wasn’t messing with you! I was just spying!” Lily exclaimed – it came out as barely more than a whisper, her mouth was so dry.
“For all the good it did you,” Regulus said, smirking. His hand moved up from her collarbone, sliding around her neck toward her nape. Lily shivered; it was like ice across her skin. “Ah,” he murmured. “So this is what Severus is missing.”
Instantly, anger boiled inside Lily at the sound of that name. Completely forgetting about her wand, she raised both arms to push him away, but Regulus was quicker than she was. She’d aimed for his shoulders, but he’d ducked under her hands, causing her to push against empty air. Lily would have toppled, but suddenly Regulus’ other hand was on her shoulder, keeping her firmly against the wall. Her arms were dangling over his shoulders, she’d dropped her wand, and the hand that had been on her neck was tangled in her hair.
“How dare you,” Lily hissed, but she couldn’t ignore the fact that Regulus’ face was barely two inches from hers, so close that his featured blurred. Her heart was pounding wildly and the sensation of his warm body in front of her with the cold stone at her back was muddling her thoughts.
Regulus inhaled deeply, then let it out in a sigh. Lily could feel his hot breath against her lips and froze. Then, suddenly, he let her go. He disentangled his hand from her hair, stepped out of her “embrace,” and picked up her wand.
“Many apologies,” he said, handing it back to her. “I overstepped myself greatly and – ” he backed away – “I definitely shouldn’t have done that.”
Lily stared dumbly at him, still in shock, wand held limply.
He stared back at her, then turned away abruptly. “Have a good Christmas holiday.”
It took Lily all the way back to Gryffindor Tower to slow her heart, but she couldn’t get rid of the strange feeling still in her heart even after it was beating normally.
Good Things by Cinderella Angelina
Chapter Notes: Written for ElectronicQuillster for her hprarepair exchange back in September or something. Except now I have to split it into two chapters. It was originally one, but I will admit that it's really too long.
*-*-*-*-*