06.
Spreading Darkness continued...
As Lily slowly began to wake up, she felt like her head was going to explode and her mouth was so dry it was like she was stuck in the middle of the desert instead of England. She didn't want to open her eyes because she knew that meant she would see what time it was or Ivy waiting impatiently at the door, reminders that she had to get up and go to class before she could come back to her room and relax. She rolled over, scrunching her eyes closed even more.
"Yo, Evans, you do realize that we have about twenty minutes until our first class, don’t you?"
Why is James in my room? Lily wondered, keeping her eyes shut.
"What did you do to her last night, Prongs? It looks like she won't wake up for a few days."
Wait, how did Remus get into my room? Lily's eyes sprang open quickly, looking at her surroundings. She was lying on a bed just like her own, but she was in a different dormitory, one less clean and fresh than her own.
"Where am I?" Lily asked, pushing herself up and attempting to rub the sleep out of her eyes and wake up a little more so she could remember what had happened the night before.
Remus and James were sitting next to each other on the bed across from her, trying to keep her calm but failing.
"You're in our room. Don't you remember anything from last night?" James asked.
"What are you talking about? All I remember is the party and then... um, I don't remember anything else." Lily's nose wrinkled up as she tried to remember if there was anything else in her memory that was just hiding from her until she pushed hard enough. If only she could remember! She didn't want to rely on James to help her piece together her memory - he would probably lie to make things sound worse than they were or just to make himself look good.
"Well, you were really tired so I told James he should take your back to the common room and when Sirius and I showed up later you were asleep in James' bed and he was lying on Peter's bed. Not sure where Peter went, come to think of it, but he disappears like that sometimes, not sure where he goes..." Remus broke up, contemplating where his fourth friend could be.
Lily turned to James. "And how did I get to your dormitory in your bed?"
James looked nervous, looking everywhere except at her face and Remus'. "Well, you were really tired and I figured if you tried to walk up to your own room you would fall right back down the stairs so I picked you up and brought you to my room, since I technically can't go into your room."
"And that was all that happened?" Lily asked, disbelieving.
"Well, not exactly, but I think I'll let you remember yourself," James said with a mischievous smile.
Lily glared at him but then grasped her head, groaning in pain. James got up and came over to her, placing his large palm over her forehead, enveloping it completely. "Got a killer hangover, huh?"
"How much did I drink last night?"
"About a glass and a half of champagne."
"I never want to know what it'd be like if I had more to drink," Lily groaned again. James chuckled and got out his wand.
"Come on, look at me for a second," he gently urged. Lily looked up, her eyes partial slits.
James muttered a spell under his breath, aiming his wand at her. Lily felt her headache begin to subside - it was still there, but it was weak and Lily felt as if she was quickly getting better and the pain would be gone in less than an hour.
Lily stared into James' eyes, a weak smile on her face. "Thanks for that."
James smiled in return and placed his wand back in his pocket.
"Did Super Potter save the day again?"
Lily groaned again, this time from frustration rather than pain as she looked to the door, where Sirius was standing, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he leaned against the doorframe, a smirk on his face.
"I thought you went to look for Wormtail, Padfoot," James said, not even bothering to look at his friend as he continued looking at Lily, apologizing for his behavior silently.
"Oh, I found Wormtail all right."
"Where was he?" Remus asked, trying to change the conversation to an easy one that wouldn't annoy Lily even further.
"Oh, he was curled up on the floor in the corner of the common room. Wormtail sure loves curling up in small places, doesn't he, Prongs?" Sirius had a strange smile on his face, and Lily gave him a questioning glance while James and Remus glared at him.
"So, did you have a good night's sleep, Evans? Potter's bed is very comfy, isn't it?"
"And this is why we got rid of Padfoot," James muttered under his breath.
"Why don't we head off to class?" Remus interrupted quickly in another attempt to stop any arguments.
"Sounds good," Lily said as she got up slowly, determined not to fall over as dizziness clouded her mind slightly.
"Don't we have time to get some food first," Sirius whined.
"We're already strapped for time as is, sorry Padfoot," Remus said as he grabbed his bag off of the ground next to his bed.
"Wait, I need to change first," Lily said, indicating to her mussed outfit from the previous night.
Sirius groaned as he banged his head against the doorframe. "This is why the Marauders has a strict 'no-girls' rule."
"You just made that rule up with one of your girlfriends wanted to hang out with us and you didn't want her to be too clingy," James pointed out wearily as he yawned slightly. Sirius merely frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting quietly.
"Fine, you can stop by your room quickly, Evans."
Lily changed as quickly as possible before catching up to the three boys, all heading to their NEWT Potions class together. Peter had been the only Marauder not to make the class, something that might have surprised some people, but not Lily. The rest of the Marauders might get on her nerves but she knew that they were really smart when they actually tried. Sirius only used his smarts when he was trying to pick up girls, James used it to seem cocky, and Remus was just smart in general.
"So what happened last night?" Lily tried again as they speed-walked to the dungeons, aware that there was only about five minutes to get there.
"Yeah, Prongs, I'd love to hear what happened," Sirius said with a smirk on his face. "Please enlighten us - I've been wondering that since Remus and I showed up in our dormitory last night and founds little Miss Evans here in your bed sleeping."
"I told you, Evans - I thought you were too tired to walk all the way up to your dormitory yourself so I brought you up to my room. And you fell asleep fairly quickly."
"Fairly quickly? And what exactly happened before I fell asleep?" Lily asked, though she was aware how Sirius was hanging onto every word.
"I'll tell you later," James muttered, glancing at Sirius. "I can tell you when we go on our library date tonight."
"What?" Remus asked in disbelief. "You got Lily to go on a date with you?"
"Okay, that's something I actually remember, and it wasn't a date - I told you I'd be willing to go to the library with you to research that secret room you found. I never used the word date to describe it."
"Fine," James grumbled, muttering something under his breath that sounded like a curse followed by, "figures that's one of the things she remembers."
Lily rolled her eyes and pushed James to the side, knocking him into Sirius while she and Remus walked ahead, leaving the two boys behind them in a bit of a shoving match.
"So, you don't know anything about last night?" Lily asked, slight hope in her voice.
Remus shrugged. "I suggested to James that he take you back to the common room - I never said anything about taking you up to our dormitory. But I wouldn't worry about it too much - if he had done something bad he probably would be walking around with a bigger air of cockiness, not to mention telling us while you slept. He didn't mention anything, so I figure it wasn't a big deal."
"Thanks. Did you get Ivy back to our room okay?"
Remus rolled his eyes at that. "I think she had too much to drink, too - she spent the entire time flirting with Sirius and pretending to be tipsier than she really was so that Sirius had to keep 'helping her.' That wasn't a very fun walk home."
"Sorry about that - I guess we should both keep from drinking ever again. And now we'll have to deal with Sirius being even fuller of himself for the next few days, and I'll be stuck listening to Ivy go on and on about it for the next few weeks. Maybe I should spend more time away from her for that time..."
"And you'll spend that alone time with James, I suppose?" Remus said with a knowing look.
"Hey, if I'm willing to give those two a trial period of being my friends, maybe it'll be worth it. But they're just friends," Lily said, returning the knowing look.
"OK, but if I have to put up with being the third wheel with you and James like I did last night, I might have to hex you."
"I'll keep that in mind," Lily said, laughing, as she and Remus entered the Potions room a little earlier than James and Sirius, who were still having a fake fight amongst themselves.
Ivy wasn't in NEWT Potions, so Lily normally sat with Remus, sitting in front of James and Sirius. Some days it was entertaining, but some days it could be pretty annoying.
Lily put her bag on the table in front of her, getting her books out as she sat down. Remus sat down next to her and pulled out his own books and quill.
"So, Evans, will you be spending another night in our dormitory?" Sirius asked loudly behind them. Lily whirled around to bite his head off when she saw why he had asked: Severus was walking by their two tables and his face immediately soured when he heard what Sirius had said. Lily tried to shoot him an apologetic look but then she remembered that she was no longer friends with him. Instead she waved her wand at Sirius, an ink bottle in front of him exploding and coating him in black ink.
"Oy, Evans, next time try to aim that a little better," James chuckled as he cleaned off the small spot on his hand with his wand, managing to miss Sirius' expectant look as he pocketed his wand once again.
"Thanks a lot mate," Sirius grumbled as he got out his own wand and tried cleaning it up himself, although he had a little trouble since his hands were slippery.
Lily shot him a smug look and merely turned around, smirking when she heard Sirius mutter, "I wish she still wore her hair in braids like she did in our first year - then I could pull it to get back at her."
Slughorn walked in before Lily could think of a comeback, and class began. Lily took plenty of detailed notes in the first twenty or so minutes of class, but it was all on autopilot - she wasn't really listening, wasn't really aware of what she was writing down. Instead she was thinking about the latest attack on Muggles in London, something she had heard people whispering about for the past couple of days. Apparently a young woman in her early twenties had disappeared about a month ago and her body had just been found. The Muggle authorities couldn't figure out what had happened to her - it wasn't obvious that she had been tortured or anything and she didn't seem to have any medical problems, and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with her except that she was dead. But the Ministry of Magic knew what had happened - she had been killed with the dreaded Killing Curse, probably after being tortured with the Cruciatus Curse. The only thing they couldn't figure out was why - they didn't know if the attackers had ulterior motives or if it was just a game for them. That was what worried Lily the most.
When everyone started to stand up and gather in groups, Lily looked up in confusion at Remus.
"What's going on?"
"I thought it looked like someone wasn't home," Remus chuckled quietly. "We're getting together in groups of four to work on making some Lucky Potion."
"Groups of four?" Lily asked weakly as she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders and a hand pat her on the head, two signs that the final two of their group had been decided without her.
"Well, Evans, it's certainly your lucky day!" James said, squeezing her shoulder.
"You don't need the Lucky Potion when you have us," Sirius said as he continued to pat Lily on the head, careful not to hit her too hard so that he didn't have to dodge her wand again.
"I may not need it but we still have to make it," Lily sighed as she slowly flipped through her Potions book, looking for the section about Felix Felicis. The pages suddenly flipped by themselves, settling on the correct page with a recipe for the potion. Lily glared at James, who stuck his hands in his pockets as he whistled and stared off into the distance, rocking back and forth and trying to look innocent but failing miserably.
Remus quickly began gathering all the ingredients, trying to keep Lily from getting more annoyed. Lily joined in helping and soon all four were working away, cutting up different objects and mixing them in the large black cauldron positioned in the center. Lily's bright red hair had been pulled back to keep from getting in her way, plus their workspace seemed to be getting hotter as a fire simmered underneath the cauldron.
Soon, though, Slughorn was getting up in front of the class and clapping his hands to get their attention.
"Class, time's up! Step away from your cauldrons and I'll check on your progress."
Lily and the boys stepped aside, waiting as Slughorn wound his way through the five other groups.
When he came to their group, there was a great big smile across his chubby face. "Perfect, as always. You certainly did the best. I'm sure you had something to do with that, Ms. Evans," Slughorn said with a wink in her direction. Lily gave him small, uncomfortable smile as James elbowed her.
"And for your reward, you four all get a small bottle of your own finished Felix Felicis," Slughorn said as he pulled four tiny bottles out of his pocket and passed them out to the group. "Remember, you can't use them for school events. Including Quidditch, boys," he said with a look at James and Sirius, who gave him their best 'who, me?' looks.
Slughorn walked away, leaving the group behind to clean up their desks before class was over.
"Figures he praises you and ignores us," Sirius said bitterly as he leaned against the table, conveniently leaving the clean-up for the others. "I did work, too!"
Lily scoffed. "Oh yeah, your contribution of turning on the fire was very helpful, we couldn't have done anything without you here."
"Hey, the fire's important!"
"It took you about five seconds to light it. You spent the rest of the time criticizing us."
"That's work, too - how else are we going to win if you guys don't know that we're doing something wrong?"
"Telling me that I'm slicing with the wrong-colored knife isn't very helpful, Padfoot," James pointed out as he used his book to hit Sirius in the back of his head. "Now help us clean up before I get Evans to teach me a new hex to use on you when you're sleeping."
"That's sounds like a great idea," Lily said sweetly as she flicked away the mess on her desk with her wand.
"You wouldn't do that to me, would you, Evans?" Sirius said as he reached down and mussed up her ponytail, earning a small kick to his shin which he pretended caused a lot more pain than it really did.
"No, but I'm sure Potter wouldn't hesitate to hex you," Lily pointed out as she redid her hair.
Sirius considered it and probably decided that it was true because he began cleaning the cauldron.
They finished cleaning as soon as class ended, and Remus and Lily left Sirius and James, who had a free block, to head to their NEWT class of Muggle Studies, something that the Marauders liked to tease Remus about for taking.
The rest of the day went by quickly as Lily's small pile of homework once again grew higher. She sighed as she knew that her weekend would once again be full of spending time trying to do her homework.
"So, Evans, are you ready to head to the library?" James asked Lily hopefully as she sat down across from him in the Great Hall.
"I just got here, and I'm hungry. You'll just have to wait," Lily said as she reached across Ivy for the plate of turkey.
"Why are you going to the library?" Ivy asked as she massaged her temples, still feeling the effects of the previous night.
"I told James I'd do some research with him last night."
"Oh, was that before or after you spent the night sleeping over?" Ivy said wryly.
"Ha ha. I already told you at lunch - nothing happened, I didn't even want to go up there. And at least I wasn't throwing myself at a certain Marauder..." Lily trailed off, using her current trump card.
"Stop it! I told you that I was drunk - I don't even remember anything. I've managed to get away with not facing Black so far and hopefully it'll stay that way."
"Won't last much longer," James said as he watched his friend walk down the aisle between the tables, heading in their direction.
Ivy groaned and immediately stood up, placing her hand on her forehead once again as she waited a few seconds for her sight to return to normal. "I'm outta here," she said quickly as she walked away, her head down.
Lily smirked and shook her head as she began eating her food, making sure to eat slowly to annoy James.
Sirius plopped down next to James, immediately grabbing everything in his range. "Was that the lovely Ms. Parks that I caught a glimpse of?" he asked with a glimmer in his eyes as he stuffed his face. "Too bad she didn't wait around for me - I'd love to get a chance to talk to her when she's not full of alcohol."
Lily rolled her eyes. "She's avoiding you because she knows you're going to make fun of her."
"Who says I'm going to do that?" Sirius asked innocently.
"You've made it your mission to tease both her and me for the past six years - I really doubt you're going to stop once you have some new ammunition to use against her."
"Don't you hate it when she uses logic against you," Sirius asked as he turned toward James, who just shrugged.
"Personally I like smart Evans - she tends to come up with wittier comebacks when she's being smart."
"Well, since you're the only one who gets turned on when you're in an argument with her, I don't think your opinion really counts."
James blushed slightly while Lily laughed.
"Just shut up and eat your food, Evans," James said bitterly as he roughly elbowed his friend.
"I don't think I've ever seen you in such a hurry to get to the library, Prongs," Remus said as he sat down next to Lily, Peter following behind him.
"Oh, I don't think it's the books he's excited about," Sirius said with a wink in Lily's direction. Lily rolled her eyes and purposely ate even slower while James groaned.
After another ten minutes of the Marauders making fun of James, Lily was finally done eating. She tried to slip away before James noticed her but he had too keen an eye and he quickly caught up, a spring in his step as he walked next to her.
"You thought you'd get away, huh, Evans?"
"I hoped."
"What, you don't want to spend some time with me in the library?"
"Well, I'd much rather be doing some homework since I got loads today, but you might have something to do with it." Lily said with a smirk.
"Hey!" James said as he pretended to be hurt. "Why don't we have another homework date this weekend?"
Lily scoffed. "One, the last time wasn't a date, and two, all of the homework I currently have is due before the weekend."
"Well, we could always do some while we're in the library. After all, it is a library - aren't you supposed to do homework there?"
"How would you know - you never go there unless it's to annoy me while I'm trying to do homework."
"True, but I've seen you doing homework in there loads of time so I know that that must be one of the purposes of a library."
"Good deducing, Sherlock."
They spent the rest of the walk arguing about homework, until Lily relented and agreed to allow James to help her with her homework after they were done. Lily found herself happier as she got closer to the library, ready to do some research, even if it weren't for school. Maybe it was a bit nerdy - okay, definitely nerdy - but she loved surrounding herself with books and trying to figure things out.
When they walked into the library, they headed to a back table, the only students currently in the library since everyone else was in the Great Hall feasting on the food rather than stuffing themselves with new knowledge.
"So, what was this magical room of yours like?" Lily asked as she sat down across from James, putting her bag on the chair next to her.
James thought for a moment. "Well, it seemed to be a storage of some kind, like I said."
Lily nodded as she got up once again to head for the bookshelves, looking for the section about Hogwarts. She found the book she was looking for, Hogwarts, A History, and went up on her toes to reach it. The shelve was just about an inch or so out of her reach, though.
"Need some help, Evans?" James asked with a smile evident in his voice as he came up behind her quietly, standing right behind her.
Lily rolled her eyes before sighing and answering. "Yes, I need some help."
"What's the magic word, Evans?"
"I know plenty of different magic words I would love to use on you, but some of them are illegal," Lily said through gritted teeth.
James snorted. "Well, I guess that works." Then he reached up for the book, leaning over Lily's head. He held the book before her, his arm brushing against her own.
Lily grabbed the book and hurried back to her seat, glaring at James.
"What? I got you the book - you should be thanking me!"
"Why thank you, Potter, for making a bigger deal out of it."
"Well, at least you said thank you," James trailed off. "So, what's the book for?"
Lily ignored him as she flipped through the book, searching for something that could work. Then she saw it.
She read the words before glancing back up at James. "Where did you say you saw this room?"
"Um, I thought it was on the seventh floor by that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy but like I said, when I went back it wasn't there so I must have been wro-"
"You weren't wrong," Lily interrupted, turning the book around so he could read it.
"'The Room of Requirement?' You think that's what I found?"
"It sounds like it - it's a room that you can only find when you're in great need of it. You needed a place to hide - I'm not going to ask why - and you happened to pass it so you got it to appear, but when you came back you didn't really need it. So, if we were to go back to it, we might be able to find it, as long we go back and forth three times in front of it. At least, I think that's what the book said." Lily leaned forward to double-check, the same time as James leaned forward to point out the section.
"Ow," Lily cried as she sat back in her seat, cradling her head. "Your head is like concrete."
"Shoot, I'm sorry," James said as he came over to her side, moving her hand aside to examine her forehead.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Lily exclaimed as he gently pressed on the tender spot where their heads had collided.
"Hmm, it might bruise a little, but I think it's not too bad." James said. "You'll survive, Ms. Evans."
"Thank you, Dr. Potter," Lily said wryly.
"You're welcome. And since I'm such a perfect gentleman, I won't charge you for my docterly advice. Now come on, why don't we check out that room? What was it called?"
"The Room of Requirement. And we can't go now - I have tons of homework."
"We'll worry about that later. We can pull an all-nighter or something. But I want to check it out now."
"Fine, but if I fall asleep in class tomorrow I will hex your arse until your own mum won't recognize you."
"Fair enough. Now come on," James said as he grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her along. She barely had time to grab her bag before she was pulled out of the library and into the hall.
Soon enough they found themselves on the seventh floor. Lily leaned against the wall beside the tapestry while James paced in front of the opposite wall three times, muttering under his breath. After the third time, he stopped and watched the wall, Lily coming up beside him.
After a few seconds, a door suddenly appeared out of nowhere. James looked down at Lily and shrugged. "What do we do now?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "We open it, Potter."
She reached for the doorknob as James pointed out that, "Curiosity killed the cat."
"Well I'm not a cat and I have my wand ready so I think we'll be fine. And shouldn't you be the one who's willing to take risks?"
"Yeah, that would be what would normally happen, huh? But that's risking my neck, not yours."
"I'm touched. Fine, then you open the door."
"With pleasure," James said as he opened the door, his own wand held out in front of him as he stepped forward.
"So, is this it?"
"Yep, down to that pot of dead flowers right next to the door," James said as he stepped into the room, pulling Lily in after him.
"Yay, we found it, now can we go back to the common room?"
"Where's your sense of adventure now, Evans?"
"It tends to disappear when I have a mound of homework to do."
"Again with the homework - is that all you think about?"
"Of course not."
"What else do you think about, then?"
"What?"
James grinned as he turned around and looked down at Lily. "Come on, no one else is here - you can tell me, I won't let it out of this room."
"What are you talking about?"
"Come on, a sickle for your thoughts."
"Is that all my thoughts are worth?"
"Well, since that's all I have right now, yes."
"Well you can forget it - I'm not telling you anything."
"Come on, I'm not going to make fun of you! You secretly fantasize about me, don't you?"
"You wish."
"I do," James said with a cheeky grin on his face.
"I won't tell you anything if you don't tell me first."
"Hmm, quid pro quo, eh? Well, my thoughts tend to revolve around the Marauders, Quidditch -”
"Typical"
“- and you."
Lily's eyebrow rose. "And that's something new?"
"Hey, I didn't say you didn't already know about what I think about. Now your turn."
"I'm not telling you anything."
"Hey, fair's fair! I told you now you tell me."
"What exactly do you want to know? I'm not about to tell you any deep dark secrets."
"Fine," James paused for a few seconds, thinking. "Explain what you meant last night."
"What are you talking about?"
"Last night, right before you fell asleep, you mentioned your sister. Tell me about her."
"Why?"
"Because you never mention her, and I'm curious. Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"
"You tell the Marauders everything I said and I'm stuck listening to Sirius and Peter mentioning my sister about every five minutes."
"But I swore that I wouldn't tell."
"And why should I believe you?"
"Fine. I'll tell you how I get up to the girls' dormitory if you tell me. And if I tell anyone else, you can tell my secret to McGonagall and then you can both punish me."
"Hmm..." Lily pretended to remain unsure, causing James to groan. "Fine, I'll tell you."
She sat down in the couch near them, folding her legs against her chest with her arms encircling them. James sat down on the cushion next to her, his own long legs stretched out before him.
"Well, Petunia is two years older than me. She's not magical at all, but it wasn't that big of a problem when we were little since I didn't really know about my own magic. That was, until we met Severus."
A look of anger crossed James' face but Lily ignored it, wanting to get everything out before she chickened out.
"I guess I was about nine or so when we met him. He lived near us, and Petunia wanted nothing to do with him."
James seemed to perk up at that.
"But he told me about magic, and we became friends. Petunia hated that, and she became slightly distant. Then my letter came, and that nearly ruined things. Petunia felt left out, and she secretly wrote to Dumbledore, asking to be admitted to Hogwarts. Of course, he wrote her back telling her that was impossible since she wasn't a witch, but that destroyed any love Petunia still had for me. She hated me after that. Every summer, I try to change her opinion and make her my friend again but she refuses to even listen to me. Summers means two months of the silent treatment or snippy comments. At this point, I don't think there's any chance that we're ever going to repair our relationship." Lily sighed, unable to continue.
James reached out for her hand, giving it a squeeze. "Don't worry; I'm sure things will work out someday. She can't hate you forever - you're sisters, family."
"Thanks, but that doesn't mean anything to her. Besides, look at Sirius and his brother - they've never really been friends, and I really doubt they ever will be."
James remained silent and Lily nodded before getting up, stretching her legs before heading back to the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I promised you a story about my sister and that's what you got. But now we should head back to the common room."
"Wait up," James said as he too got up and joined her at the door.
The two stepped out into the hall, looking both ways to see if anyone else was around. Then they headed back to the Gryffindor common room, both silent.
The Gryffindor Tower was also on the seventh floor, but it was a long walk, one around many corridors winding through the school. Just as they were turning around one of the last corners, Lily stopped in her tracks. James looked down at her and then followed her gaze towards the opposite wall:
Another message, yet again written in what appeared to be blood, was smeared across the brick, this time spelling out the words, 'Not even these walls can protect the Mudbloods from Justice.'