"Peter! Why didn't you tell us?" James demanded, bursting into Peter's room with Sirius and Remus on his heels.
Peter, who was sitting at his desk looking over some numbers and figures on a roll of parchment, started and jumped to his feet in surprise. He relaxed when he saw it was James, though his jaw was still clenched and his shoulders were still tense.
"Uh..." he managed, his throat dry.
"About your father's shop," Remus clarified.
"I didn't... I..." Peter started. "It was the full moon," he said finally, meeting Remus' gaze evenly. "I assumed you were... busy."
Remus gave a wan smile. "We still would have liked to know," he said. "You should have told us, we would have come sooner."
"Do you need anything, mate?" James asked. "Does your father need anything? We'll help any way we can."
Peter shook his head. "I think... my father is taking care of most of it." He gestured towards the parchment on his desk. "I was just going over some finances for him. It should be... everything should be fine." He was stumbling over the words, not able to say them right. His nervousness was making him practically incoherent.
"Was anyone hurt?" Sirius asked.
Peter shook his head again. "No. Everyone was lucky."
"Well, thank Merlin for that," Remus said. "Are you sure there isn't anything you need? I can help out with the repairs and restocking when I'm not at the bookstore." He looked at James and Sirius. "We all can."
Peter forced a smile, trying to show the gratitude that he didn't feel. He should feel it - should be thankful that they were here, offering to help him. But the emotion eluded him.
"Thank you," he said, "but I really think... we've got everything taken care of."
"Do they know what happened, what caused this?" Sirius asked, his tone dark and tight. It was clear to everyone in the room what he was really asking - was Avery behind this?
Peter shrugged. "No. No one knows," he lied.
The smirk on Eliza Greengrass' face was enough to send shivers down Lily's spine, and she tensed in anticipation of whatever hurtful thing the blonde witch was going to say. Eliza saw this, and her smile grew as she approached Lily's work station.
Emma paused in what she was doing and looked up, exchanging a worried look with Lily.
"So you've finally realized that you're worthless on your own?" Eliza commented, twirling one strand of perfect blonde hair around her finger. "You need a Potter to do everything for you?"
Lily frowned. "What are you on about?" she demanded. "Potter isn't doing anything for me."
That wasn't entirely true - James was helping her with the potion. But she was still doing most of the work, and she'd read the regulations of the program several times just to make sure there was no rule against asking for support. As long as she wasn't paying James and he wasn't an official Healer or potioneer, there was no reason why he couldn't help her.
Eliza laughed lightly. "Of course he's not," she drawled. She leaned forward, dropping her voice to a hushed whisper, and said, "It won't work. Potter's money can't buy you a spot in the next round."
"What?" Lily asked sharply. "What does his money have to do with anything?"
"Stop being so optimistic, Evans," Eliza retorted. "You're going to fail. Then you'll fall back down into the mud where you belong." Her gaze slid sideways to Emma, and she added, "Pick your friends more wisely next time, Vance."
Emma bristled. "I think I've done a good job of picking my friends already, thank you," she said coldly. "I don't need your input."
Eliza shrugged. "We'll see," she replied, her tone a half-threat, half-promise. She tapped her fingers twice on the wood of Lily's work bench. "Tell Potter to take his money and invest it in someone a little more worthwhile."
Lily felt her temper grow. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she snapped. "So either explain yourself or go bother someone else."
Eliza snorted. "I doubt that," she answered enigmatically. "The Potters might be blood traitors, but even they aren't stupid enough to try something as politically foolish as buying your success unless they get something out of it." Her eyes traveled up and down the length of Lily's body before she asked, "So tell me, what did you offer James Potter in return for his help?"
Lily flushed at the insinuation.
Eliza gave one final smirk, then turned away and practically flounced back to her work station.
Lily slanted a brief glance at Emma, expecting the other girl to look exasperated by Eliza's baseless accusations. But instead, Emma was giving Lily a puzzled and slightly accusatory stare. It took Lily a moment to correctly interpret the expression, and when she did, her own eyes narrowed angrily.
"You don't actually believe her, do you?" she demanded.
Emma shrugged. "She believes it," she defended herself quietly.
"I would never do something like that," Lily spat. "It's cheating."
"Would James Potter?" Emma asked cautiously.
"Of course not," Lily retorted automatically. Then she hesitated before adding, "And even if he was a cheater, I didn't ask him to do it, so why would he?"
"Does he know that you're worried working on the Wolfsbane potion will prevent you from getting to the next level?" Emma asked. "Maybe, if he knows how important it is to you, he would do it without you asking."
Lily pursed her lips. "James would never try to buy me a spot in the next round," she said coolly. "He has integrity. And he knows I would hate it if he did something like this."
Emma sighed, eyes darting towards Eliza. "Look, the idea of Potter interfering in an independent review, using his money to bypass the rules and regulations of a program as well-respected and prestigious as this one… that's a serious allegation."
"Oh, please," Lily said dismissively, "the wealthier families use their money to buy influence all the time. It can't be that serious of an allegation if everyone does it."
"They do it subtly," Emma responded, "and they don't get caught." Lily still looked skeptically, and Emma frowned. "I'm not saying that you asked the Potters to do this for you. I'm just saying that… this is serious. It is the Potters. I just don't see Eliza Greengrass taking a chance at making this kind of allegation against someone with that much influence unless she was sure of her facts. I don't think the Greengrasses can afford to face the retribution of the Potters unless they have proof on their side."
Lily glanced over at Eliza. The blonde was no longer paying attention to her, but was instead focusing on her own potion. She seemed completely unaware of the turmoil her words had caused.
Lily chewed her lip worriedly. She had certainly never asked James to do this for her, and she wanted to believe that he wouldn't do it of his own initiative, either. But Emma seemed convinced that this was not an accusation Lily should just ignore, and that left her apprehensive.
She pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.
Emma cleared her throat. "Maybe you should just ask Potter? If it isn't true, you can at least warn him that the rumor is out there."
"You what?"
The sound of Lily's voice lifted in rage reminded James so much of Hogwarts that he nostalgically smiled at the memory. But she wasn't smiling, not even a little bit, and that dampened his own amusement. The fury and fire burning in her eyes was a sign of just how angry she was, and his own temper flared in defense.
"It's not what it sounds like, Evans! I'm not trying to buy you a spot."
Lily's lips flattened into a thin line. "Then what exactly are you trying to do?" she snarled. "Ruin my reputation? Destroy any chance I might have of being taken seriously as a potioneer?"
"I just wanted you to get a fair review. That's all."
"That's all? That's all?" Lily shook her head, red hair flying. "You can't just use your money to get whatever you want, Potter. That makes you just like the Malfoys and Greengrasses and…"
"I am nothing like them!" James seethed. Lily scoffed and moved away from him, and he reached out immediately to grab her arm. "Don't compare me to them."
Fire sparkled in her eyes as she retorted, "Then don't act like them." She wrenched her arm out of his grip and said, "I don't need your help on this potion anymore. You should leave."
His eyes widened. "How can you think I am like them?" he asked softly, disbelief coloring his voice. He had thought that they were making progress. Just a couple days ago she had declared them friends. And now she was implying that he was no better than Malfoy?
Why couldn't she see the difference between them?
"You don't get it, Potter," Lily said in a quieter tone. "If this gets out, it will completely ruin my reputation. No one will think that I can make anything of myself on my own. I will always be that girl who took the Potter's charity. I don't want that." She sank into the nearest chair and rested her elbows on the kitchen table. "I never wanted that."
"I wasn't trying to make you into that person," James answered honestly.
"Yeah… but you did." Lily blinked up at him. "You should go," she said again.
"Right," he said, feeling a mixture of annoyance and disappointment. Lily was no longer looking at him, and there didn't seem to be anything else to say, so he turned and walked from the room, silently letting himself out of her flat.
It came as a column in the section reserved mostly for society gossip. The journalist, one Rita Skeeter, was young and ambitious and known for the scathing and scandalous articles she wrote.
She was also known for stretching the truth.
But no one seemed to care if her stories were full of falsehoods. They were still read and discussed, and the gossip still spread.
Interference in the Master Medicinal Potioneer Program?
The Master Medicinal Potioneer Program has long been known for its rigorous standards and the excellence of its alumni. The independent program is successful in part because it maintains its autonomy from the Ministry and St. Mungo's, and it is therefore able to escape political influence and the power of trends and fads. But can it escape the influence of money?
Charlus Potter, the current patriarch of the Potter family, has used the substantial Potter wealth to manipulate matters at the Ministry. Although Potter holds no official position at the Ministry, this has not stopped him from forcing through legislation that he supports, and neither has it stopped him from buying jobs for his friends - even against the wishes of those who actually work at the Ministry. Many qualified witches and wizards have lost out on career opportunities because of Potter's whims.
Commenting from his estate in Norfolk, Cyrene Nott expressed his frustrations, "I didn't want Laurel Harvin anywhere in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, let alone in the Auror Division. But he had Potter's money, and now he's filled the Division with pointless bureaucracy, making it nearly impossible for anyone to be efficient. How are the Aurors supposed to protect the public if they are too busy filling out paperwork?"
Margaret Mead, a vivacious and brilliant young Healer at St. Mungo's, agrees. "And he's taught his son to do the same. Just this week, James Potter used his money to take a hospital room away from a young girl who had been severely burned by dragon fire and was in critical condition. He wanted one of his friends to have the room for treatment of superficial lacerations that could have been easily treated at home. The poor girl was suffering horribly, but the young Mr. Potter didn't care."
How long will the Potters continue to exert their undue influence? And just how far will their arrogance spread?
Just this week, Charlus Potter attempted to buy a spot in the second round of the Master Medicinal Potioneer Program for one Lily Evans, a friend of James' from Hogwarts. This reporter has it on good authority that Miss Evans would never make it to the second round of the program on her own merits.
"We were all surprised when Evans was even accepted into the first round," says Portia Parkinson who attended Hogwarts at the same time as Miss Evans. "She was never good at potions. But Potter has been infatuated by her for years, so it's not a surprise that she'd be able to convince him to help her."
Such cheating will, of course, compromise the integrity of the Program, and no doubt the Ministry and St. Mungo's will want to investigate the accusations.
There were three more paragraphs, but James couldn't bring himself to read them. He snatched up the Daily Prophet and flung it into the fireplace, watching with only a tiny bit of satisfaction as the newspaper went up in flames. He wished he could do more, wished he could destroy every copy of the column ever printed.
He wished he could destroy Rita Skeeter's career.
In less than a page of print, she had managed to slander the Potters and destroy Lily's reputation.
James had a feeling Lily wouldn't be speaking to him for a very long time - if ever.
But this wasn't what he had wanted, and he couldn't understand how it had happened. His father had been using money and prestige to influence events at the Ministry for years, and nothing like this had ever happened. Besides, Mr. Potter had said he was going to ask about this particular topic discreetly, and James just didn't think his father would be careless enough to get caught.
It didn't make sense.
His father had left earlier, apparently heading to the Ministry to do damage control. James could only hope it would be enough - but he had his doubts.
The flames in the fireplace suddenly flashed green, and Vanessa's head appeared floating within them. She smiled when she saw him, but the smile did not reach her eyes. "Can I come over?" she asked tentatively, a hint of hesitation in her voice.
James nodded and waived his wand at the fireplace, lowering the wards and allowing her to step through.
She came through gracefully. Most people tumbled out of fireplaces, or had to stoop and bend at awkward angles to make it through the odd mode of transportation. But she stepped out of the flames casually, easily lowering her head to avoid hitting it against the chimney, and dusted the soot from her clothes.
She gave him a scrutinizing look, and said sympathetically, "I take it from your expression that you've seen the Prophet this morning."
James nodded, lips pursed. "I did," he snapped, biting off the words. The anger was still bubbling inside of him, threatening to explode, but Vanessa didn't flinch away from his wrath. James ran a hand through his hair and turned away from her. He started pacing.
She asked, "How much of it was true?"
He froze, then spun on her. "You really think we use our money like that?" he demanded viciously.
She met his gaze steadily. "Yes," she answered evenly.
James hadn't been expecting such a blunt answer, and the defensive words caught in his throat before he could spit them out.
Vanessa narrowed her eyes, apparently reading in his expression the things he hadn't said. "Slytherins aren't the only ones who know how to play this particular game, James," she said softly. "Did your father get Laurel Harvin a job at the Ministry?"
"I don't know, why don't you ask him?" James retorted mulishly.
Vanessa gave an exasperated sigh. "I'm trying to help you," she said.
James opened his mouth to reply, then stopped and shook his head. He let out a long breath and muttered, "Sorry. It's just… been a really lousy morning." He walked over to the kitchen table and pulled out one of the chairs before collapsing into it.
"It's not going to get better," Vanessa stated flatly. "You're really in this now, James. So you've got to know who your friends are."
"Would that be a subtle way of telling me to stop snapping at you every time I'm upset?" James asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
Vanessa quirked a smile. "I didn't think it was all that subtle," she replied.
James nodded absently. "I don't know if my Dad got Mr. Harvin a job at the Ministry. He's a friend of my Dad's from Hogwarts, but I don't know him all that well," he said. "I did get Remus a room at St. Mungo's, but no one told me that I was taking it away from anyone." Guilt twisted painfully in his chest and stomach. He wanted what was best for Remus, but could he really use his money to help his friends if it came at the cost of an innocent child's prolonged suffering?
Vanessa laughed. "Don't be ridiculous, James. Of course you didn't take the room away from anyone. It's St. Mungo's, do you really think they would run out of places to treat people?" She smiled bemusedly at him. "It's just Rita Skeeter being… well, herself."
"Do you know her?"
"Not well," Vanessa replied. "We met last year at the Daily Prophet Christmas Party." She paused, then said delicately, "It didn't go well."
"Oh?" James prompted.
"She thought we were similar because we both published scandalous stories about famous people," Vanessa said wryly. "I… disagreed."
"What did you say?" James inquired, amused despite the gravity of the current situation.
"That I was a real reporter who wrote stories based on facts and actual investigating and she was a cheap hack who made up scandal because she wasn't good enough to do actual reporting."
"Hm… I can see why she might not have liked that," James remarked casually.
Vanessa's nostrils flared. "She gives the rest of us a bad name," she said angrily, a flush rising in her cheeks. "I put time and effort into my stories. But because of reporters like her, everyone assumes that I'm just in it for the scandal, that I'm willing to do anything to sell my articles. Even lie."
James nodded slowly, then asked, "If St. Mungo's never runs out of rooms, why would this Skeeter woman write that? Wouldn't she know that people would know that she was lying?" He paused, frowning. "Did that make sense?"
"People don't care. They see an accusation of an innocent child suffering and stop thinking rationally," Vanessa replied. "It's one of the first things you learn as a journalist - children sell, and injured children sell best."
"That's… horrible," James breathed.
"Yeah. It's also true." Vanessa took a seat across from James and eyed him warily, then asked, "Are you trying to buy Lily Evans a spot in the next round of the potions program?"
"No!" was James' immediate response. Vanessa raised an eyebrow at him, and he took a breath, calmed down. "No," he said again, his voice softer. "I just…" He paused, trying to think up the right words. "I just wanted to see if it was possible to… counter… the prejudice she was going to face. Both as a Muggleborn and because she was working on the Wolfsbane potion."
Vanessa pursed her lips. "That sounds an awful lot like buying her a spot," she said.
"It's not the same thing," James protested, but he was starting to doubt that assertion. Was there a difference between what he had actually done and what the article was saying? He was only trying to buy her fairness, but he was combating the prejudice she faced by exerting his own pureblood influence, and somehow it just seemed wrong.
"Maybe not, but it will still look like it," Vanessa replied pointedly. She leaned forward. "This is serious. They have proof, James. A lot of it is lies, but some of what is in this article has to be real or those quoted would never take the chance of saying it."
"Proof?"
"Someone knows that your father is doing this. Maybe someone he spoke to?"
"That doesn't make any sense," James said. "My father wouldn't… he wouldn't get caught. He would know the right people to speak to."
"Who else knows?"
"No one," James answered immediately. "I mean, I mentioned it to Sirius and Peter, but no one else."
"And neither of them would tell?" Vanessa asked gently.
James' first instinct was to deny the possibility, but he hesitated, contemplating the question. Sirius wouldn't tell anyone intentionally, but would it accidentally slip out? It seemed unlikely - Sirius had to know how important silence was on this particular issue - but sometimes his temper got the better of him. Particularly when Regulus was involved.
Eliza Greengrass had been the one to mention the entire thing to Lily, and she was dating Regulus. Could she have learned it from him?
James shoved the thought away. It wasn't possible, Sirius wouldn't be that reckless. He'd done stupid things in the past, but he'd learned from them, learned that his actions had consequences and he had to be careful. Right?
And then there was Peter. James was certain that Avery was still after him. And Peter had been distant lately - or maybe it was that James had been distant from Peter. The friction between the group wasn't gone, but James thought that it was mostly between Sirius and Peter. Maybe he should have done more to fix it, but Sirius wasn't someone that could be rushed into things. He had to reach conclusions at his own pace and in his own time. And Peter…
Well, Peter didn't seem all that eager to fix anything.
But neither of them would do this to James.
"No," James said finally. "Neither of them would tell." He rubbed at his eyes, then said angrily, "I'm done with this."
"With what?" Vanessa asked, surprised and bewildered by the sudden change in topic and tone.
"This using money to buy what I want," James said. He shoved his chair back, jumping to his feet again. "This behind the scenes influence, this… this politics. I'm done with it."
"You're always going to have influence," Vanessa argued, resting her chin on the palm of her hand, her elbow propped on the table. "You can't stop being who you are, James, and who you are is a Potter. The Potter heir."
James gave a dark chuckle in response, but said nothing. He might be a Potter, but he didn't see why he had to play these games. It suited his father, and maybe every single one of his ancestors, but it just wasn't James' style. He was far too much of a Gryffidnor for that. He preferred everything to be out in the open, preferred public arguments to private manipulations.
Writing the Daily Prophet article… that was the sort of thing he liked. He'd used his money and his influence to get it published, he could admit to that much. But he'd also put his name on it, made sure everyone knew what he had done. He was willing to take the consequences of that. At least he had stood up for what he believed in, at least he hadn't hidden his actions.
It was better to allow people to confront him about his actions and beliefs. It avoided any suspicion of impropriety, avoided the chance that he'd be viewed like the Malfoys and Lestranges and their legislation banning Muggleborns from the Ministry.
Vanessa was staring at him with a calculating look in his eyes, but when she saw him staring back at her, she smiled tightly.
"I'm done with this," he said again.
"Can you believe him? Can you believe he would do that?" Lily muttered furiously, pacing back and forth across the length of the kitchen floor. Mary was seated at the table, watching her with an amused gaze, but Lily couldn't find anything funny in the situation.
James had done more damage to her reputation than even she had originally realized.
The table was piled with letters. A few particularly nasty ones came from some Slytherins that had been in her year at Hogwarts. But most were from people she didn't even know, names she didn't recognize. And they didn't know her, but they still felt the need to tell her just how despicable they thought she was for using the Potters' legacy to advance her own career.
"No one will ever take me seriously," Lily bemoaned. "All because of Potter. Can you believe him?"
"Well… yeah," Mary said.
Lily stopped her pacing and gave Mary an incredulous look. "What?"
Mary shrugged. "I can believe that James would do something like that," she said. Lily continued to gape at her, and she sighed. "Come on, Lils. It's not like he was trying to hurt you. This article," she glanced towards the Daily Prophet with a grimace of distaste, "was never his intention."
"Well, obviously," Lily snapped. "The article hurt him, too."
Mary tilted her chin up. "We've had this conversation before," she said quietly, "with Emmaline Vance. You're jumping to conclusions and prejudice too quickly… again."
Lily paused. The part of her that was bubbling with anger wanted to ignore Mary's words, but Mary was far too good a friend to be blown off. If she had something to say - something she thought Lily really needed to hear - she wouldn't give up until she'd made her point.
Lily leaned against the wall of the kitchen. Emma's opinions on werewolves had bothered Lily, but Lily's response - to compare Emma to Slytherins like Eliza Greengrass - had been prejudiced as well. Could she also be too hastily judging James?
"I'm not saying what he did was smart," Mary continued softly, "or even the appropriate thing to do. But…" She leaned forward intently, fixing her gaze on Lily's face, "Lils, are you going to move on to the next stage of the program? Are you going to get a fair review?"
Lily felt her insides clench as she answered truthfully, "I really doubt it."
"You're being discriminated against because you're a Muggleborn, and you're being discriminated against because you refuse to believe that werewolves are monsters," Mary pressed. "James is just trying to fight that prejudice with the weapons that he has."
"I don't want to be that girl," Lily said. "I don't want to… I want to succeed on my own merits, not because someone with money, influence, and pure blood bought success for me."
"Was James really trying to buy success for you?" Mary questioned. "Or was he trying to buy you the chance to succeed on your own merits?"
Lily slumped further against the wall. "He just doesn't get it," she murmured. "He doesn't understand what it is like to be looked down upon, to be considered filth. I want…" She stopped, the words getting stuck in her suddenly dry throat. "I want to prove that I am good enough, that I don't need a pureblood to fight my battles for me."
"Yeah," Mary agreed, "I know the feeling." Her lips twisted into a bitter smile. "You're not the only Muggleborn in the room." She got up and crossed the kitchen quickly. Squeezing Lily's shoulder, she said, "But the world isn't a perfect place, and sometimes… as much as you don't want to… you have to ask people for help."
"It's not the help I don't want to accept," Lily muttered, although that wasn't entirely true. It galled her to have to rely on anyone, especially someone as annoyingly brilliant, wealthy, and pure-blooded as James. But the real problem was that it didn't feel like help.
It felt like cheating.