Chapter Eleven
As the fifth years enjoyed their new freedom Lily noticed that Cassie was becoming more and more frustrated. At first it had been because she had finally discovered that it was Sirius Black who had been annoying her throughout their classes – something Lily, Alice and Mary had decided not to tell her, preferring to laugh at her angry expression when her books constantly disappeared or tiny parchment birds fluttered endlessly around her head with no visible culprit; Lily had been disapproving at first, especially since it was Sirius Black, but after a while the funny side showed through and they chose to keep it a secret from her – but then he stopped and she became even more irritable and jumpy.
It had been a sunny afternoon when Sirius had approached Cassie and asked her out, receiving in return not the answer he had been hoping for but rather an ear splitting and terrifying lecture on how he had been too mean to her for her ever to go out with him. When she had told him the girls had laughed at first but Lily could see that it had really bothered her friend – she was too insecure to say yes to anyone who approached her, especially if it was one of the Marauders who were known to delight in making fun of people and with whom none of the four girls had ever been friends. The fact that the number of boys who had asked Cassie out stood firmly at about two did nothing to aid Lily’s attempts at convincing her that she was beautiful and worth going out with.
Still for some unknown and mysterious reason, once Cassie had yelled at Black and told him to leave her alone, he had and this sudden cease of any interaction with him seemed to be taking its toll on Lily’s friend.
“It’s obvious that she likes him,” Mary said one day over a game of wizard’s chess.
“Pawn to C6,” Lily said. “I know but she’ll never give him a chance; I mean he’s annoying, he’s arrogant and he’s nearly as bad as Potter but he would never have actually done what she told him to if he didn’t like her. Those two don’t even listen to Lupin and Pettigrew sometimes so it must be serious.”
“No he’s Sirius,” Mary interjected dryly. “Bishop to A3.”
“I’d rather have her going out with Black and happy than moping around like she is,” Alice muttered.
“She spends nearly every lesson staring at him in a daze… it’s actually a little disturbing,” Mary added.
“We need to intervene,” Lily said decidedly. “Something has to happen. They need to talk to each other or it’ll get ridiculous.”
Alice looked at her as if she were insane. “I never thought I’d live to see you set your best friend up with the best friend of your mortal enemy. But then again Cassie and Sirius aren’t exactly the best of friends either so it’s a bit of a shock there too,” she said with a chuckle.
“Oh shut up. I just want her to be happy and if that means getting her and Sirius Black together I’ll do it,” Lily answered as she directed her knight across the board.
“You’re such a saint Lily Evans,” Alice said sarcastically.
“Check Lily,” Mary interrupted.
“Not quite.” Lily made a small adjustment to her bishop. “Checkmate.”
The next day Lily leant over to Cassie in Charms and began to work on her. “You have to talk to him Cassie,” she said, repeating herself over and over again throughout the day as she wore down her friend’s defences. It was hard work but eventually, with Alice and Mary’s help, she managed to twist Cassie’s arm into agreeing to go and talk to Sirius.
“This had better work Lil,” Mary muttered as they watched Cassie walk over to where he sat, under the same beech tree as always, the one where Sev-
“I’m sure it will,” Lily said hopefully as Cassie approached the group of boys. “He can’t be all that bad if she likes him and it’s not as if they haven’t done some good things with their time.”
“Not many surely,” Alice smirked.
“Well… he can’t be entirely bad; even Potter has a couple of positive attributes… Don’t you dare tell anyone I said that,” Lily threatened as her eyes strayed over to where he was laughing with Sirius, Remus and Peter, his long legs spread out over the grass and black hair as unruly as ever.
“Of course we won’t,” Alice smiled as a gust of wind blew in through the open oak doors. “It’s a bit chilly here… Should we go up to the common room?”
“Yeah, I don’t think Cass really wants us to watch her grovel on her knees before one of her old enemies,” Mary laughed, “even if we are offering moral support!” With merry giggles bubbling out from behind their hands they watched as Sirius’ hunched shoulders and hostile expression, which managed to combine looking extremely pained with looking as if he wanted a stray fireball to smite Cassie down, change to one which was practically incandescent with happiness.
“Blimey,” Alice breathed, stopping in shock and facing the distant group, “he really does like her. I didn’t believe it was possible but look at that; I have never seen him look like that, not even after a successful prank or a Gryffindor Quidditch win. He’s almost glowing!”
Lily sighed as she watched the four Marauders perk up; Alice was right, Sirius had never looked like that and it was a little irritating. Why should he, one of Potter’s friends, of all people, be the one to realise how fantastic Cassie was; she didn’t begrudge her friend her happiness, if Sirius made her happy then she would put up with him for Cassie’s sake, but the knowledge that she would have to spend time with Potter made her nose wrinkle in disgust. A small part of her subconscious, a tiny voice at the back of her mind, piped up and pointed out that she didn’t hate him and nor did she dislike every aspect of him – some of his heroic antics, though often misplaced, had even merited a reluctant admiration of his talents – and that perhaps her dislike of him was now founded on mere habit rather than any actual wrong that he had done her, but the principle was still there and she would be damned if she didn’t stick to her principles.
All she was able to think about for the rest of that afternoon was Cassie and Sirius’ conversation; she had retreated to the comfort of her favourite book and armchair in one corner of the common room and she hadn’t seen any of the others in a while – she had long ceased to notice anything they did and they had learned years ago not to interrupt her while she was reading. This afternoon, however, she found it peculiarly hard to concentrate on the story and every so often she found her mind wandering to her best friend. She was torn up about it and she found herself wishing rather spitefully, and she hated herself for it, that it had been someone else who had caught Cassie’s attention. Still, she supposed, it had been destined to happen ever since they were second years and she had developed an unrequited crush on the young Master Black – Lily knew as well as the next person that the loves which were never realised were far harder to get over and far more likely to resurface later on. Oh Cassie had never breathed a word of it but even then it was obvious – they weren’t best friends for nothing and she was too easy to read when you knew her well. Perhaps, she thought wryly, that was why Potter still insisted on asking her out even though she had rejected him so many times; perhaps it was the rejection which spurred him on, making him even more eager to finally ‘win her over’. She huffed and returned to her book, trying to calm herself down before the anger that Potter’s arrogance inspired in her could ruin her mood for the rest of the day. She wondered absentmindedly what would happen to her if Cassie and Sirius did start going out; would she be forced to spend more time with Potter? Would she eventually come round and discover that they were actually decent people? She scoffed at this one. No, far more likely that she would finally succeed in convincing them to grow up a bit and actually work for what they wanted, an event which was just as improbable as the former.
Just before dinner the three girls reappeared once more and Lily lowered her book, having only just succeeded in immersing herself properly in the story.
“You are never going to believe this Lily,” Mary said, her voice cracking slightly, as if she wanted to giggle but was also mourning the loss of someone dear to her. “It’s… the strangest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“No Mary that’s not fair!” Cassie pouted. “Far stranger things have happened and I just thought that, what with us all being more mature now, we could maybe try to… at least tone the feud down a bit. I felt awful too, you know I never meant to hurt his feelings – I mean, I’ve spent years disliking him but I didn’t-”
“Cassie what happened?” Lily interrupted finally.
“Sirius and I have agreed on a… kind of truce. We’re going to be friends,” she replied.
“Friends?” Lily exclaimed incredulously. “Well… I suppose I mean… good for you but I mean-” she broke off confused. “But how is that going to work?”
“Well it’s actually rather simple,” Alice replied, “you see they have civil conversations, spend time with each other and get to know each other until eventually they start to enjoy each other’s company.”
Lily rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Yes I know that thank you very much Alice. What I meant was… I mean you two have never really got on. How did you… decide this?”
Cassie shrugged and pulled Lily up from the chair saying, “We’ve never hated each other as much as you hate James. I actually got on surprisingly well with the three of them when we first came here and you left with- left the carriage.”
“You can say his name, you know,” Lily said dryly as they ducked through the portrait hole. “I’m not about to have a mental breakdown.”
“But Lily he called you a-” Alice stopped herself and shook her head.
“Yes I know thank you,” she said before shrugging and pattering down the stairs towards the Great Hall. “But I think I’ve come to terms with it.” Behind her the three of them shook their heads and exchanged knowing glances before following Lily. “So you were saying?”
“Oh! Well they seemed… decent then and there must be some small bit of decency left in them so… I’m half convinced I just disliked them because I didn’t know them.” Cassie caught Lily’s eye and quickly amended herself. “And also, obviously, because of the horrible stuff they did to people.”
“Oh come on Cass,” Lily replied, “you know as well as I that the only person they really hexed without any cause was Snape and that you really didn’t like him. I know perfectly well that you only hated them because I did – which was really nice of you… so thanks,” she laughed.
“Well that’s true I suppose,” Mary said, “they did save me a couple of times.”
“Although I must admit that I didn’t like a lot of the pranks they did and their arrogance was… overwhelming,” Cassie added. “So it was kind of… disapproval from afar.”
The four of them dissolved into laughter, completely unaware that two of the four boys that they were talking of were watching them enter the hall interestedly. “Also the name was ridiculous. ‘The Marauders’,” Cassie mocked, waving her fingers around in the air as she searched the Gryffindor table for a place for them to sit.
“Oh God not by Potter,” Lily hissed as he waved at them to come over and join his group, forcing some second years to move up and make space for the four girls. As they walked past Lily glared at him before turning away conspicuously and sitting down resolutely next to one of the other girls in their year. “Hi Jennifer,” she grinned before beginning to help herself to supper.
“Lily, James Potter keeps waving at you,” Jennifer muttered as she handed her the potatoes. “Oh Merlin, now he’s sending you evils which could shrivel a mandrake.”
“I’m sure he’ll get over it eventually,” she said blithely before digging into her meal. “It’s not like I’m that important to him; if he’s that desperate for affection it shouldn’t be too hard for him to find an adequate replacement.” As Lily said that, Jennifer eyed the room surreptitiously and smiled. Lily was absolutely right, perhaps half the girls who were sitting in the hall would shoot glances towards Potter and Black without even realising that they were doing it, all of them looking almost like they wanted to eat them alive, an expression which was frankly rather alarming and even the first and second years could be seen to whisper amongst themselves and gaze in admiration at the two fifth year boys. The sixth and seventh year girls were far less infatuated by them, some deeming them ‘too young’ and ‘too immature’ for their taste but others were less worried about the age gap and could be seen openly eyeing them up. Even she could feel the familiar burst of jealousy which everyone felt for Lily Evans – it was no secret that she loathed the four boys and yet, despite that and the numerous times she had yelled and screamed at James Potter, the times she had threatened to hex him into oblivion or to give him so many detentions he would still be serving them long after his death, even despite the numerous times she had, in no uncertain times, told him that she was not in the slightest bit interested in him she still had him trailing around after her like an abandoned puppy. This strange phenomenon had some of the more desperate girls doing the exact same thing, except they had the original problem of Potter taking no notice of them whatsoever which meant that they were forced to drop pencils under his chair, books in front of him or even – if their other strategies were failing – have a friend push them into him and then glare at him and saying nothing. A couple of them had tried to start arguments with him – one particularly memorable one being between him and a Hufflepuff in the year below – but these all inevitably failed when Potter placed his hands on their shoulders, told them to be very, very quiet and then moved them out of his way. There were stories too of some of his most fervent admirers trying to sneak into the dungeons late at night to make, or illegally obtain, Amortentia and slip it to him in his pumpkin juice.
“Girls have always been tripping over themselves trying to get to him and you’re the only person he’s ever looked at,” Jennifer pointed out wistfully.
“That’s because she was the first person he ever tried to get and he still hasn’t succeeded,” Cassie chuckled.
“You have to hand it to him though, he sure is persistent. I mean… what other boy would still be trying to get you to go out with him not only four years on but also after nearly hundreds of full on rejections?” Alice asked, her eyes drifting to the other end of the table where Frank Longbottom was sitting. She smiled shyly at him and her friends, seeing this, smiled at each other.
Lily sighed before saying, “It’s probably just his boneheaded persistence which keeps him going. I think he might be stupid to understand the word ‘no’.”
“If dogs can understand it then I’m sure he can,” Mary muttered as she stirred her soup.
“Well that’s the question isn’t it? Is James Potter more or less intelligent than the common dog?” Lily deadpanned. She jumped as she felt some hands on her shoulders and a voice mutter in her ear, “I suggest you pose that question to one Sirius Black.”
“Ugh go away Potter. What do you even want? Can’t I do anything in peace?” she growled.
“Remus would like to remind you that you’re both on Prefect Duty tonight. He requests your presence in the common room at precisely 20-hundred hours and asks politely, as our dear Moony always is, whether that’s alright with the Honourable Lily Evans.”
Lily shrugged his hands off her and replied coldly, “Yes that’s perfectly fine but tell him to ask me directly and not send his dim messenger to do his dirty work.”
“Ah he would have loved to have the pleasure to deliver the message himself but he is… a little tied up at the moment.” Potter glanced over to their end of the table, where Sirius had somehow bewitched his spaghetti to be super strong and wrap itself in unbreakable loops around Lupin. “Also I may have… begged on bended knees for the honour of doing his… ‘dirty work’,” he added.
“What’s your stupid nickname?” she asked.
“Stupid nickname?” he cried, placing one hand on his chest in mock offense.
“Yeah, Remus is Moony so what are you?”
“I, my fair lady, am known as Prongs.”
“Right well then… Prongs,” she said, shaking her head at his utter stupidity, “go away.”
Hi everyone, I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to upldate this but I've FINALLY finished Into the West and got my mojo back for this so hopefully (HOPEFULLY) I should be updating this a little less sporadically over the summer! If there's anyone who's actually still reading this then please please please vote and comment and tell me what you think :)