Chapter Twenty Five
The rest of the term passed uneventfully for Lily: Cassie and Rob had broken up and Sirius had started talking to Cassie again so there wasn’t much for Lily to do except wonder when they would get together and work. She had a much easier time than expected with the latter because James had stopped talking to her unless they were in a very large group; even then he refused to address her directly and she had the odd feeling that he was avoiding her. It had taken her a while to notice it but every time she entered the common room he would leave; he always left a few minutes after she had arrived and he was careful to make it seem like he had a genuine reason for leaving but, after a few weeks of this, Lily had started working in the library to avoid the sinking sensation in her stomach every time it happened. She only returned to the common room in the week before the beginning of the Easter holidays because she knew that Gryffindor had a Quidditch match the day before they started and that he would be busy nearly all the time in the run up to that. The only good thing about it was that it had got Cassie off her back; just after she and Rob had broken up Lily had asked her about Sirius and Cassie had retaliated by saying that it was obvious how much Lily fancied James. With him refusing to speak to her, or even be in the same room as her, Cassie could hardly pester her about it now and Lily was glad of the break; it had started to seem like the only thing anyone cared about was boys.
Match day dawned cold and clear and Lily, sitting alone in the common room, told herself that she had way too much work to do to go and support. It was nothing to do with the fact that the Captain had stopped acknowledging her and everything to do with the two foot essay on Infatuation Incantations that she had promised Flitwick. She tucked her feet up under herself and tried to focus on the parchment in front of her, a task which she found very difficult what with the distant shouts that she could hear coming from the Quidditch pitch; the temptation to listen in just to hear how Gryffindor were doing was very strong and the cheers of the assembled crowds rippled over the grounds, seeping through the thick glass and thicker stone walls of the tower.
Her work was interrupted by an enormous shout which swelled from the pitch and exploded. It was so loud that Lily could hear it clearly from where she was sitting and she felt her stomach sink as she heard what they were crying. “Go go Gryffindor! Go Potter! Yes Potter!” The cries disintegrated into whoops and cheers. Lily smiled in spite of her mixed feelings towards the Chaser and went back to her essay with a sigh.
She was still sitting there when the match finished and she ran up to the dorm before the house returned; Quidditch was such an important part of life at school that not to watch matches, especially when your house was playing, unless you had an inescapable reason was tantamount to blasphemy and Lily knew that being too scared to see James in his element was nowhere near a decent reason. Any Gryffindor who heard that would have had a fit and kicked her out of the house. As the traditional party started Lily slipped back down the stairs, her arrival passing unnoticed by most people gathered in the common room.
She didn't really feel like celebrating but the noise invaded all of the dorms and she couldn't escape it. As she searched for her friends she saw Cassie grinning at Sirius; not far away from them she saw James fielding the attention of a gaggle of girls and Lily squeezed her eyes shut, hoping he hadn’t noticed her staring. Lily moved away quickly and pushed her way through the hot bodies, moving desperately towards Mary and Alice. As she fought her way through them she hit one body that didn't let her go; when she looked up she saw Remus looking at her kindly. “I didn't see you at the match today.”
“Didn't go,” she shrugged. “I had to finish an essay for Flitwick. Not the best reason, I know but there it is.”
“It's fine,” Remus laughed, “I, unlike my friends, understand that sometimes schoolwork has to come before Quidditch and utter destruction.”
She chuckled and said, “I thought that might be the case! Their dedication to it is... admirable.”
Remus’ face broke into another smile. “Don't worry I won't tell them. I don't think any amount of adoration could stop even James from crying if he found out that you'd committed one of the cardinal sins.”
“Oh dear, that bad eh?”
“Oh yes,” Remus replied, “I was nearly put in four detentions the first time I tried it.”
“What happened?” Lily gasped.
“Oh nothing too serious. Sirius bewitched a Quaffle to bounce off my head constantly and James tied me to my bed saying that ‘if I couldn’t go to Quidditch then I couldn’t go anywhere.’ It took me about an hour to get free and I missed almost a whole morning of classes.”
“That's horrible! I can't believe you let them do that to you!”
Remus shrugged, glancing over at where Sirius was pouring what looked like a bottle of Firewhiskey into the pumpkin juice and over to James who was still surrounded by girls. “Nah it’s not Lily, they’re great friends really, just a bit passionate about trouble. And they’re unbelievably loyal – there’s no way anyone else would get away with doing it.”
“No I can imagine that they wouldn’t be happy,” she stated dryly, knowing full well that anyone who tried to do that to their friends would likely end up in the Hospital Wing once James and Sirius were finished with them – that was, if there was any of them left to send there. Lily had had enough experiences with them hexing people who had threatened them in the past to know that they were ferocious when provoked, especially when friends were involved.
“That they most certainly would not,” he chuckled. “They’re morons,” Remus said as Sirius swigged from his bottle of Firewhiskey and flailed at Peter in some sort of approximation of a wave, “but they’re better friends than I could ever have dreamed of. You never approved of their actions, and frankly neither did I, but I did always have the advantage of seeing the reasons behind them whereas you were just stuck with the consequences. And I suppose I never tried as hard to stop them as I should have done because I knew they were doing it for the right reasons, even if their actions were wrong; course I should have done but I didn’t. And they’re so bloody unswervingly loyal that it felt wrong to turn around and tell them to stop hexing anyone who said a bad word about any of us or to drag them away when they wanted to stop first years being bullied.” Remus sighed and Lily placed one hand on his shoulder.
“Hey it’s okay Remus, you shouldn’t feel bad about it. It’s not like you didn’t try. And they seem to have grown up a bit anyway which is probably due to you. They’ve definitely stopped hexing people so that must count as something.”
He let out a shaky laugh and said, “I wouldn’t be too sure about that; they’ve managed to avoid any of my ‘good influence’ for the past six years and somehow I doubt that it’s changing now. Anyway I’m sorry to bring the mood of the party down so much; it must be the Firewhiskey Sirius slipped into my drink. Quidditch always did bring out the worst in him and the parties afterwards are doubly as bad.”
“It’s nothing Remus really; I’d never dream of not listening to you. We are friends after all,” she smiled. Remus had never had a smile quite like Lily’s directed at him so fully and that, coupled with her previous statement of them being friends and the Firewhiskey which he had been drinking earlier, froze him to the spot; as he stared at her he realised why James had spent so long chasing her – just one smile from her was enough to make the world seem so much brighter. Of course James had never really succeeded in getting that one smile until this year which was, Remus thought as he stood mere inches away from Lily, almost definitely one of the reasons he had spent so long making an arse of himself in front of her in an attempt to get her attention. It worked with others so why wouldn’t it work with her?
Remus, of course, knew Lily much better than James did but, funnily enough, his advice had almost always gone unnoticed in favour of James making a fool of himself once again.
“I’m glad I have a friend as good as you Lily,” he finally managed to say as she pecked him on the cheek and wriggled through the crowd to where Cassie, Mary and Jessica were chatting on the sofa.
James looked up from one of the girls who was damn near clinging onto him to see Lily and Remus talking; he wouldn’t have paid it any attention had they not be standing so close together and he couldn’t quash the surge of jealousy which rose up in him even though he tried. Remus had always been closer to Lily than the others and she had made it very clear in the past that he – and perhaps Peter – were the only members of the Marauders that she thought were worth her time. He thought that it might have changed after their friendlier conversations this year but he was clearly mistaken. Lily stood on her tiptoes, pressed a kiss to Remus’ cheek and James’ hands clenched into fists. He had tried so hard for so long and only been rewarded with glares whereas Remus did nothing, didn’t even care, and he got a bloody kiss. Had James been thinking logically at that moment he would have recognised that his standing with Lily had improved dramatically since last summer and that it was him who wasn’t talking to her; however he wasn’t so instead he seethed at the sight of Lily and Remus being so friendly.
“Is everything alright James?” one of the girls asked, disturbing his thoughts. James blinked and looked down at her, suddenly realising that he was fairly certain she wasn’t even in Gryffindor.
“Yeah I’m fine, why?”
He caught the surreptitious glance towards Lily. “You were staring at that girl.” Somehow she managed to make it sound disparaging and James frowned instinctively.
“Nah I was just staring into space,” he said.
“Oh good…” she paused and glanced around, “because this is going to sound horrible but I really don’t see what the fuss about Lily Evans is.” James’ eyes snapped to hers and by the way she quailed he knew he had fixed her with the dirtiest stare possible. “Sorry I don’t think I got your name,” he said.
“O-Olivia,” she stammered.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you here before.”
“I’m… um…”
“I’m fairly certain that this party is in the Gryffindor common room isn’t it?”
“Yes?”
“Well that would suggest that it’s for Gryffindors wouldn’t it?” She shrank away from him and from the eyes of the other girls around him who had started to watch their conversation. “Are you a Gryffindor?”
“No,” she admitted. “But I didn’t think it would matter, I mean I know other people have joined the party and I was supporting Gryffindor in the match-” she babbled.
“Get out.” He’d never been that blunt with anyone before, let alone a girl, and it surprised him; as she scurried away and dived through the portrait hole he had half a mind to call her back and apologise for his actions. Moments later he thought better of it: he had no patience for anyone who tried to recommend themselves to someone by putting someone else down and even less patience for someone who insulted Lily. It didn’t matter that he and Lily had a very volatile relationship; he would have acted the same way had it been any of his friends, or anyone in Gryffindor. Or at least that’s what he told himself.
Once Olivia had made her hasty departure James found that the girls gave him a little more space and, to his utter relief, Sirius appeared. “Thank Merlin you’re here Padfoot,” he said as Sirius stumbled over to him.
“I’m your guardian angel eh Prongs?” he replied, wrapping one arm around James’ shoulders and leaning heavily on him.
“How much of our Firewhiskey have you drunk?” James knew the answer before he even asked the question: he could smell it on his friend.
“A bit. Okay a lot.” Sirius’ eyes were slightly unfocused and he stumbled forwards with an uncharacteristically high-pitched laugh. “I’m sorry Prongs, I know we’d said we’d share it. Only I got thirsty. And we won!” He emphasised this final statement with a cheer, punching his fist into the air. “Okay I’ll get off you now. I’m sober. It’s all good.”
“Nah it’s fine Padfoot. I think we should go up to bed.” He gasped and began to struggle away from James’ iron grip.
“No Prongs I want to party! I need to party it off! I’ll be fine in a minute! I want to talk to Cassie!”
“No you definitely don’t want to do that.”
“Yes I do. I love her Prongs,” Sirius breathed.
“I think it might be alcohol that you love mate. Come on, we’ll go to the dorm and party there.”
“Is Cassie coming?”
“Maybe. If we go up then I’ll come down and tell her that we’re having a party up there and she’ll come and join us there later,” James said as they began to move crablike towards the dormitory stairs.
“And then I’ll tell her that I love her,” Sirius nodded.
“Yeah you do that Padfoot.”
“And you can tell Lily that you love her and we can all get married and have loads of children,” he slurred.
James pushed his glasses up his nose with his free hand and rubbed the bridge of it for a tiny moment. “Yes Padfoot,” he sighed, “then I’ll tell Lily that I love her and we’ll have loads of children.” He was practically carrying Sirius now and Sirius’ weight was pushing James’ left shoulder into the cold stone wall; he could barely manage one step, let alone all of them, and James was sorely tempted just to let go of him and let him sleep in one corner of the common room. It would be far easier than this.
“Good. Don’t want to let her get away. She’s amazing. Not as ‘mazing as Cassie but great.” His hands were flailing randomly through the air and his head was lolling on James’ shoulder. “Ugh I feel sick.”
“Yeah well maybe that’s why it isn’t a good idea to drink two bottles of Firewhiskey you moron.” James propped Sirius up with one of his hips while he opened the door and they stumbled into the dorm. At the sight of his bed Sirius collapsed onto the covers and thus having discharged his duty to his friend James grabbed an old cauldron sitting in one corner and put it beside him then crept back out again to the sound of Sirius’ loud snores.
“I see you dealt with Padfoot,” Peter said as he reappeared.
“Probably the best thing,” Remus said. “He was beginning to make a fool of himself. Not that some people minded but… he was becoming a menace to others.”
“Oh dear, who?”
“I saw him talking to Cassie for a while,” Peter answered as James pulled a face. “No it’s fine she was laughing… but I think she was laughing at him.”
“I was,” she said as she appeared out of nowhere, “the stupid sod was hugging me and telling me how much he loved me every other sentence. Can’t say I thought that would ever happen… Still I saw you drag him upstairs. Where did he even get that Firewhiskey from?”
“Oh Rosmerta loves us,” James said airily, only half answering her question. “He wasn’t too annoying was he?”
She shrugged and said, “No it’s fine. He’s not exactly in the right state of mind so I just laughed at him and let him keep saying ‘Do you love me Cassie? Because I love you, I really do. You’re the best.’ Wasn’t much else I could do anyway.” With that she wandered away to talk to Alfie and the remaining Marauders sat on a sofa chatting until the party started to break up an hour or so later.