#no sev in this chapter because he's at hogwarts :( but there's regulus! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

slyther-bi · 3 years

Text

Wings to follow

Chapter 1

This is on Wattpad it's also on ao3

Soulmate au

Main Pairing: Evan Rosier/Severus Snape

Other pairings soon to come: Lily Evans/Regulus Black🔹Mulciber/Mary MacDonald🔹Petunia Evans/??? (I haven't decided with who yet)🔹Lucius Malfoy/Barty Crouch Jr.🔹and others

Summary: Everyone is born with a specific mark that pertains to their soulmate. The mark itself takes form into whatever creature is to be their soulmates favorite and it is to turn into their favorite color once you both touch. It was because of this that led to Severus's fascination with caterpillars, why? Because his soulmate seemed to have fallen in love with butterflies.

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Severus thought it was odd to be born with a soulmate and even offer to already have a mark that unites the two upon being born. Tho he doesn't to mind it, he rather enjoyed his mark.

On his right arm was a group of butterflies flying around it. It went from his wrist and went around up to his index finger. He thought it looked rather lovely and looking at it made him smile.

With every passing day since he was born, he'd go out to the park and collect caterpillars. He wondered exactly what color his mark turn to once he found his soulmate, so he collected caterpillars inorder to watch them grow.

During one trip to the park to release a couple butterflies Severus came across a young girl. She had introduced herself as Lily, Miss Lily Evans. Her next words had caused his heart to flutter and nearly made him drop the jar he was holding.

"Are those butterflies? I love butterflies!! Can I see them?" She spoke with pure excitement. Severus couldn't help but blush or think that this girl with lively red hair and bright green eyes was perhaps his soulmate.

Severus simply nodded and handed her the jar he was holding. As Lily reached and took hold of the jar both their hands touched. Severus looked at his right hand but found that it was still a dull grayish color.

'So she isn't my soulmate' He thought and for some reason he felt happy about it. After that day he and Lily became friends. Together the pair would collect all sorts of caterpillars and watch them grow.

Soon enough Severus learned that Lily's favorite creature were rabbits. All because she had seen a movie called "Alice in wonderland" and because of it she followed any rabbit she find to wherever it went hoping to find wonderland.

"Lily were going to get lost, it's getting dark out!"

"Oh c'mon Sev, it'll be fine. I know how to get us home"

Severus let out a sight and continued to follow Lily through the trees. She had caught sight of a small rabbit and quickly went to follow it despite him telling her not to. After sometime the pair had come across an isolated area that looked like something from fairytale.

There was a giant willow tree that looked like something from a dream and a lake that was clear as day. There was several patches of flowers and mushrooms and it all felt like a dream. Especially with the moonlight shining over it all.

Lily quickly latched onto Severus's arm and jumped up and down excitedly "Can you believe it Sev!! We finally found wonderland!!!" She shouted out. Severus was shocked, he simply couldn't believe his eyes. He turned to Lily and smiled "No.." He said softly "You found wonderland" he spoke and Lily simply smiled before hugging him tightly.

"We should head back home" He muttered. Lily nodded and the pair made their way back home. He was thankful that they hadn't gotten lost. Time came and went with Lily and Severus spending time in wonderland collecting and raising caterpillars and learning about Hogwarts.

A school made of magic, the very school his mother had gone too. When his mother first mentioned it to him, he quickly went and told Lily about it. Lily was absolutely enthralled by it, even more so when Severus made a flower bloom from his hand, and then she exploded with pure bliss when she managed to do it as well. When they both turned 11 they had both received a letter to Hogwarts.

"Do you think we'll find out soulmates there?" Lily asked as her and Severus laid down in the soft gross within their wonderland. Severus grabbed hold of her hand and squeezed it gently "I'm sure of it, besides you found wonderland you'll for sure find your soulmate" He spoke while staring up the sky.

Lily smiled at his words and giggled softly "Thanks Sev" She said between giggles. The rest of the day was spent with them talking about how their soulmate may be like. Severus hoped that whoever it was that they were as kind and carefree as Lily.

Inturn Lily hoped that her soulmate was like Severus or as Prince charmin from the princess movies. Severus had called her crazy and Lily responded by throwing mud at him which resulted in a mud war. It also resulted in them both being grounded but neither of them cared.

Severus spent the rest of that day asking his mother about her mark. Her mark was on her shoulder, it was a an octopus colored in orange. His mother told him how she found her soulmate, his father, when she and two of her close friends went off to explore all the things muggles had created.

She had accidentally bumped into Tobias at the age of 17 in a small record store. If she hadn't worn a spaghetti strap dress that day neither of them had known they were eachothers soulmates. Why? Because his mark was on the bottom left of his back, it was a hippogriff and it had turned purple.

His father was confused upon seeing his mark but he figured it meant that his soulmate was special. He was absolutely correct because after the two dates and wedded, his mother soon got pregnant with him. She then revealed to Tobias that she herself was a witch, and the first thing he did when she told him that was ask her what the bloody creature was on his back.

His mother couldn't contain her laughter as he ranted about the damn thing. How he spent most of his time in the library trying to figure out what the hell is was. She quickly answered his questions and he finally let out a sigh of relief and then said "So you said something about you being pregnant?" this caused her to laugh again.

Finally at the age of 11 both Severus and Lily had received their Hogwarts letter. Petunia hasn't received one but they had promised her they'd take loads of picture and to bring back many things for her to try. They had even promised to look for someone with a jellyfish as their soulmark. At the train station Lily and Severus said goodbye to their families both stepping onto the train.

They quickly entered an empty compartment and Lily couldn't help squeal as she threw herself onto the seat "Oh sev can you believe it!!! We're finally going to Hogwarts!!! Oh I really hoped that Petunia could have come with us, this seems unfair!! We gotta write to her everyday ok? And take loads of pictures and buy all sorts of stuff to send back to her!" Lily ranted with excitement. Severus had stopped listening to her halfway and simply smiled.

He was finally going to Hogwarts, he wondered how it would be like. Maybe he'll find his soulmate their, hopefully they won't mind his appearance especially his nose. Severus was snapped out of thoughts when Lily waved her hand in front of his face.

"Sev are you listening to me?" She asked and crossed her arms. "Both yes and no, you lost me when you said Hogwarts" He spoke which caused Lily to let out a groan before she erupted with laughter which inturn caused Severus to laugh too. The pair spent the rest of the train ride talking about what house they would be and wondered what house they're soulmate was in too.

Their conversation had attracted the attention of two boys. One had messy brown hair, brown eyes and wore glasses. While the other had black somewhat wavy hair that almost reached his shoulders and sorta black grayish eyes. Lily and Severus learned that their names were James Fleamont Potter and Sirius Black.

James had quickly sat next to Lily while Sirius took the seat next to Severus. The four of them talked about what house they may get placed in and what house they suspected their soulmate's to be in as well. James was quick to ask her for her hand after the conversation. Lily looked like she wanted to slap him instead but simply said no.

It was clear that Lily didn't take a liking to James, he figured that out when he kept talking about how great Gryffindor was and how surely she would be one and that Severus probably won't fit in but hey he'll make a good Hufflepuff or something. Lily had glared daggers at him and Severus felt that she was gonna attempt to kill him.

Sirius seemed to think the same thing what with the way he was trying to get his friend to shut up and apologize. Tho James seemed to ignore him and went about trying to get Lily to shake his hand or make some form of contact. Well James got what he wanted cause after several minutes of asking Lily grabbed his hand brought it up to her mouth and bit him as hard as she could.

This caused James to yell and well...it also caused him to pass out. Luckily they had arrived to Hogwarts. "Yeah, he'll make a great Gryffindor" Severus spoke which caused both Lily and Sirius to laugh. "I'm gonna go find an adult" Sirius said as he composed himself and quickly left. Severus and Lily nodded before turning to eachother "Do we leave him here?" He asked in confusion "Yes" was all Lily said as she dragged Severus out of the compartment and out of the train.

They pair stopped in their tracks as they came face to face with Hogwarts. "My lord Severus it looks beautiful" Lily breathed out as she stared at the school with wide eyes "Yes it is" He muttered with awe. The pair were quickly led onto a boat and were quickly joined by James and Sirius. They all stared at Hogwarts with excitement and neither of them could wait to step inside.

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 123: Snape's Worst Memory

It finally happened, as it was bound to do. One of them took these continuous bad falls just a bit to hard.

Lily yelped in surprise to find herself on a branch, couldn't latch onto the trunk let alone another one for stability, and went crashing down so fast she couldn't guess at what was below. Her face was dunked into water, while her arm crashed into something much more solid, sending a white-hot shot of pain in all directions from her elbow.

She came up spluttering and gasping in pain, her hair plastered to her eyes leaving her blind, her wand arm throbbing so bad she couldn't have done anything even if her mind wasn't frozen in shock.

Only when she began whimpering at the movement but forced herself to use her other arm to push her hair aside did she suddenly realize she'd also lost her wand during the fall and she'd have no way to fix herself up, but then her eyes adjusted to see Potter was already leaning over her.

Even if she would have had the presence of mind to tell him to piss off she wouldn't have, her arm just hurt too bad and she'd be grateful for anyone to fix it. His wand tapped her arm so fast and lightly she didn't even feel it, and just like that the pain was reduced to a dull throb in seconds, and then a cool tingling replaced that, before she was flexing her fingers and rolling her shoulder like nothing had happened.

"I'm sure Madam Pomfrey would have you in the hospital wing overnight just to make sure it went perfectly," he told her with pure sincerity, "but it's not at that crooked angle anymore, so I think you'll live."

He just smiled at her. Not a grin, not a smirk, just a friendly smile as he offered both hands to help her up in a gentlemanly fashion.

She took a deep breath, and he was already lowering his hands in surrender, before she surprised them both by grabbing hold and hauling herself to her feet. Since he'd already started to pull back she barely had a good grip on his fingers as she did so, but she got back upright and released him all the same. His hands hovered for only a moment around her shoulders to make sure she was going to stay upright before he dropped them and took a step back, now with that familiar smug look firmly set in place.

For some reason it wasn't as grating as she remembered it should be.

She looked just as quickly away, and felt a swarm of feelings for recognizing every inch of this place. The little pond she'd landed in was ringed with four smooth stone pebbles that had broken her elbow, each had a different-sized handprint on them in a different color, the koi were all at the other end still. The rainbow awning gave shade to half the backyard, the sandbox on the opposite side of the tree nobody had looked at in years, and the kites left out, though long weather-damaged, gave a friendly enough sense of life. She was all too familiar with the tree she'd just fallen out of, because Petunia had once done the very same thing when she was seven and her collarbone had broken in three places. Lily had run over to help, placing her hands on her sobbing sister and easing her crying for only a moment, and her older sister had actually smiled at her in thanks, one of the very few times she'd seemed in awe of her magic rather than hating it.

She'd spotted that cat weather-vane from the roof of Snape's home. They were at her house. That tree had a direct view right up to her window, and while the branches didn't extend far enough for him to crawl over, he'd scaled it countless times with pebbles in hand to get her attention, and she'd ease open the window and bounce dangerously on the awning before bunching up the material and sliding the rest of the way down, landing just so over the table and the two ran free of the yard.

It seemed Potter may have done something of the same affect. Her window wasn't open, but the table was overturned like someone had landed on it, the glass surface had a crack down the middle.

A thrill of horror shot through her, the number of times they had shown up at someone's house was not a good omen for what was to come, and that was before she heard the chapter title, 'Snape's Worst Memory.'

Potter snorted and looked back towards the house where Frank's voice was coming from in surprise.

He spoke without thinking, "what would that be, his first bath?" Then he winced as he realized who he'd said it in front of, reminding himself too late she still wouldn't find that funny, and turning back to see her infuriated face meant he was still a pretty good judge of her character. He was unsurprised when she stormed into the house and slammed the backdoor behind her, and he sighed and gave her a few moments before following.

Walking in found a large, spacious living room. The ceiling was dark paneled wood and made it seem larger than he was sure it should be, and the floor was smooth marble tile in a wavy black and white pattern. There was an unlit fireplace with a brick hearth, with four different sofas along each wall. To his immediate right was an oblong table visible leading into the kitchen, across was the opposite front door, and to the far left was a hallway which probably led to stairs.

Longbottom was still reading, yet another ridiculous ministry decree, it was a miracle those weren't in the hundreds by now, and knowing he only had a fifty-fifty shot of avoiding whichever way she went and still trying to give her space, headed for the kitchen where he could hear his friends' voices coming from, she'd have more than likely avoided the same.

The kitchen was much more narrow, almost a hallway, with double doors at the end ajar. Longbottom was in there, leaning casually in a seat that squeaked in front of one of those machines that had electrocuted him last time. Alice wasn't anywhere to be seen, and it surprised him the guy was just apparently casually sitting around wherever he'd found the book to read, so close to Remus rummaging just feet away in one of those things that kept the food cold.

Sirius was unabashedly shoving cookies into his mouth and alternately flipping a noisy sounding device in the sink on and off for his own amusement, Remus holding his wrist protectively and James wasn't sure he wanted to know how close Padfoot had come to sticking his hand in that odd sounding machine before Moony stopped him. What would a Muggle even have blades down a sink for? Peter was at his back, presumably turning off whatever that thing was that made this whole place hot as an oven. It had four visible circles up top, each with little knobs above it, and though the door was closed, it seemed to be glowing on the inside.

Regulus was sitting on the counter beside Peter, looking around uneasily and chewing on his cheek as he eyed all of the available cupboards. If James had to guess, he'd almost say he was repressing the urge to open them all and have a look through, but something of this clearly Muggle house was still holding him back.

James had a very good idea whose home they were in, judging by Evans's face outside, and he was torn between encouraging this behavior to help loosen the kid up and giving her some privacy.

Lily went stamping up the carpeted stairs with so much frustration she expected dad to call after her any second to cool her temper. She was being ridiculous anyways, Potter's continued idiocies shouldn't surprise her any more than another fight with Petunia.

She reached the landing to see Alice holding a picture she'd very clearly knocked off the wall. It was the four of them on their first trip to the zoo.

She'd been sitting on her dad's shoulders, not even looking at the kind stranger as her eyes stayed trained on the multiple birds in the aviary. Mum had her arms wrapped around Petunia, who was giving a very posh smile that hid well how bored she'd been by that point and had been begging to go home.

"I bet your patronus would be that one," she told Lily as she glanced up, pointing at a red parrot, the blue and yellow plumage on its wings spread wide.

"I like to think it would be a bird," she agreed, "I've always loved them."

Alice immediately set the photo back on the wall, and looked to her in concern for the tone. She'd tried to sound happy about the easy topic, but it had clearly failed her.

"Want to talk about it?" She asked quietly, no judgement in her tone for whatever her answer.

Lily's automatic response wanted to be no, but that hadn't been doing her a lot of good recently, just bottling all this up. She still wanted to talk to Sev more than anyone, being back home only reinforced that. She hadn't come back during Christmas break this year, the two of them had stayed at Hogwarts to look after their newest pet project potion, claiming it as studying for the coming Potions OWLs, though they really needed no such thing. They could brew whatever happened next week by their fourth year, the two of them spent so much time looking, studying, and perfecting Eileen Snape's book.

They hadn't been interrupted once by any of those other horrible friends of his, it was the last good memory she had of him before the semester had kicked back in. It was always just the two of them during the summers here.

The chapter title still bothered her greatly though, even as that tosh about the Inquisitorial Squad was dumped on them, and Umbridge dragged Harry up to her office to interrogate him. The two stayed quiet and Lily began leading the way to her room as this went on, her hand tense on the handle until a massive BOOM interrupted all of her questions about where Sirius Black was.

Finally releasing a breath she'd deny she was holding, she pushed the door open and answered her just as quietly. "That chapter title, I'm wondering if his worst memory is meeting me."

"Oh Lily," she immediately stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug. Her clothes were still slightly damp, and she didn't even seem to be taking in the room. The walls were zebra-striped green and pink, there were posters hung all around of places she'd like to visit in the world and an old stuffed owl sat on her lions, and tigers, and bears bed sheets.

"He hates me so much in this future," she sobbed, sure Alice couldn't understand a word, her voice shook so much. "I think I pushed him too far, made him choose, and-" was that what his worst memory would be? Was Harry going to use Protego on him again and she'd finally hear of what she did to make him be such an intolerable person to everyone?

The fascinating description of Weasley's Wizard Wiz-Bangs did not distract her as she finally cried herself out, Alice just holding tight and rubbing her back until finally she had no more tears to spare and just fell onto her bed in exhaustion. Her face felt itchy and hot still from the dried tears, but as she kept swallowing and finally breathing normally again, she convinced herself she had to stop this. She wouldn't cry over him anymore. Maybe she'd find out and maybe she never would, but surely it didn't happen until far into the future. Maybe her finally agreeing to date Potter for whatever reason had done it and she'd fix this by that never happening, there was still time, right?

Alice still remained affable at her side, just sitting there like Potter had, it amazed her both of them had just instinctively given her exactly what she hadn't even wanted to ask for. She was inquisitively eyeing the room now, and when finally she caught Lily's eye again and she smiled, Alice was quick to grin back and say, "it still amazes me how opposite you two are in literally every way. I poked my head into Petunia's room, I didn't even know there were different shades of white. Felt emptier than the closed ward."

Lily wrung out her borrowed shirt, watching a few last droplets patter on the brown carpet, but forced herself to meet Alice's eyes when she answered. "It looked a little more fun when she was younger, but I think she started doing it on purpose recently, throwing out everything in preparation to move out as soon as she could. We've always been total opposites growing up, a lot like Sirius and Regulus." She frowned and realized she'd never retrieved her wand and got up to do that immediately, lest it get lost before this chapter was over, Harry was having another dream of that room You-Know-Who wanted in so badly. In fact, it was more elaborate than ever, even more rooms were being described as You-Know-Who got closer to his prize. She swallowed a very dry throat and kept addressing Alice instead of dwelling on what that could be.

"At least I've noticed they have some things in common," she continued to Alice as she opened the window. "I don't know though, after hearing all this, I don't think I can ever make up with her."

"I really can't blame you," Alice nodded, following her to the window, and leaning out in concern as Lily went over the side. She watched as Lily easily slid down the cloth, caught the end with expert skills, and swung to the ground, rummaging for a bit under the shade of a tree before finding her wand. Then, as if she did it every day, she propped a glass table back upright, tapped it to fix a visible crack, and jumped slightly to catch the edge, clinging easily to the material as she scaled back up, and happily took Alice's outstretched hand as she crawled back in her window.

She used a quick charm to dry her clothes, and tensed in unease as Harry went down for another Occlumency lesson. It was going to happen, she could feel it, and happily looking to stall she offered, "want to tell the boys to cool it and use the showers here while we can?"

Alice was distracted from answering by Cho stopping Harry on the way to said lesson, and the two having a pretty bad fight over Marietta.

Lily had forgotten her own question by the end anyways, she could see both sides to that. Merlin knew she spent more than enough time defending Severus's bad decisions, but Harry had nearly been expelled for that shite, she couldn't blame her son for not being as forgiving.

Then Harry arrived in a foul temper to find Sev putting memories into a Pensieve again, and she took an uneasy breath but prepared herself as much as she could. She had a feeling it would do no more good than preparing herself every time they were thrown around these insane timelines.

Then Malfoy barged in with some concern about a fellow Slytherin turning up in a toilet.

The roaring laughter from downstairs almost hid Lily's huff of frustration. She just wanted to get it done with now!

"I suppose you don't want to go down there and join them," Alice guessed, misinterpreting that annoyed expression, she'd had to bite her lip to stop herself laughing at the image herself.

Lily didn't really want to, but she also knew she couldn't just keep hiding away. They were all going to hear regardless, may as well suck it up and be there for them to gawk at when it happened, they all thought her a shrew anyways except Alice, Frank, and Potter, though Merlin knew why with him.

"Yes, alright," she agreed, the two going back for the stairs, but Lily scowled and sprinted down the rest so that she could stomp into the kitchen and blame Potter at what Harry did in Sev's absence.

"That's all your fault you know, nosey twat, you've no privacy."

"Don't be ridiculous Evans," Potter seemed delighted to be the rotten apple of her eye once more. "Yours is just as curious a nature as mine, smart as you are, like you could resist doing such a thing!"

"Have you ever heard the words private property?" She demanded back.

The two just kept going like that and Frank looked from the book to Alice, wondering if he was supposed to keep going while she was at least mildly distracted. She hadn't even seemed to notice James had been sitting at the table, not encouraging, but not joining the others either as the two Blacks went snooping through all sorts of Muggle kitchen things. Sirius had at some point put a strainer on Regulus's head, but froze that way to watch the show.

Alice finally waved Frank on, hoping the blow would hurt slightly less if Lily was already venting when it happened, but sadly all attention was diverted anyways as Harry jumped into the memory, and it started how nobody would have predicted.

James busted out laughing in surprise to hear, "his worst memory's the DADA OWL? What, does he find out later he only gets an E?"

He watched in concern though as Evans turned pale in shock and took an uneasy step away from him, she'd been so close during the fight her skirt had been covering his shoes, their knees almost touching. He bit his lip and decided there wasn't even a point in getting her to laugh for this next bit, as Harry easily spotted first Snape, then him in that hall.

What were the odds he wasn't going to be featured in whatever happened next to upset Lily? Admittedly he was still drawing a blank as to what that was, surely him and Snape having yet another fight after this test couldn't be his worst memory, considering this had been a weekly occurrence for years now. His son should get the enjoyment fixating on him now, before Snape departed for whatever reason.

At least Harry was excited as he got a real chance to compare the two, and he swelled with pride at his boy being all but the spitting image of him except with the best part. She wouldn't meet his eyes, but he'd memorized the beautiful green color long ago.

Sirius, then Remus, and finally Peter were all spotted in quick succession, and James sighed uneasily as he imagined this time next week. They hadn't been given their schedules for their OWLs yet, they wouldn't get them until that Monday morning, but he knew the next full moon would have been that Sunday night. Harry wasn't the best descriptor, but even noticing how pale Remus was made it a pretty good guess this had to be only a day or so later.

He didn't seem to spot Evans at all, but James felt an extra pang in his soul he didn't even recognize his mother's initials he scribbled on his paper, and he flashed said woman an innocent smile as she scrutinized him for that.

"Better than LP, I suppose," she finally huffed.

He just beamed at her flippant dismissal to hide the rest of his unease. Would Sirius still be avoiding them then, and Harry would wonder what they were fighting about?

The opposite in fact happened, as the four casually met up to begin discussing the exam! His heart soared as he wondered what had happened to change it then, had they won the cup and Remus and Sirius finally made up!

He met their eyes though, and knew that whatever the answer, this way was arguably better, and worse. He didn't know if the four of them would ever be able to do something so casually as just walk out to the lake again when they got back and really hang out, that was still really in the air, but at least the other four let out surprised snorts of laughter at Moony's self-deprecating joke.

He easily met Evans's eyes again and put up a mock-hurt face as he cried, "you think he's funnier than me! I can make plenty of werewolf jokes!"

"Shut up you idiot," she just rolled her eyes again, but not hard enough to suppress her still present smile.

"At least you now know to study for that question beforehand this time, I feel like I should be taking notes," Regulus offered sympathetically to Peter for that test fatigue.

Peter grinned at him, before giving Prongs an aggrieved look for the book's insult on him. "I'm sure I was too busy helping you study for Arithmancy you ponce, excuse me if I don't fawn over every detail of Moony's arse like Padfoot does!"

James grinned in surprise for the shot back like he hadn't in the book and finally decided maybe Regulus was a good influence if Peter wasn't going to take it all in stride anymore. He opened his mouth to retaliate, but stopped quickly when Evans snorted in disgust about him having the Snitch on him.

"You took a whole ruddy test with that in your pocket?" Longbottom asked him in disbelief. "I'd have gone mad, that thing messing around, distracting me."

"Guess we all can't be natural multi-taskers," he jeered, but then stopped laughing in surprise when Longbottom kept going, and Harry wondered why he didn't tell Wormtail to knock off the attention. He'd never told anyone to stop that, why would he? It was fun!

Peter didn't go as pink at Sirius's next jib at him, but he still looked mildly embarrassed at how obviously he was envying them. It really was no wonder to him they thought him an idiot, he didn't exactly hide it.

The Marauders actually left this group's center of attention though, when they got the crowd's notice of catching sight of Snape, again. The following back-and-forth of curses was familiar to even first-years by that point, Potter's crude sneer, and Sirius Black's twitching hands made it very obvious they wished they could have been doing this the whole time for as pent up and frustrated as they'd been for so very long now.

Lily cringed as she finally did make an appearance, though she'd apparently been there the whole time, just watching. She wondered what Harry thought of her defending him. He was not like his father, he didn't go around cursing Malfoy for his own pleasure, but she wouldn't be surprised if her worries came true now and he'd be upset at his own mother stopping his father's form of fun.

Potter interrupted his own crass comment of why exactly he was cursing Snape, she'd heard that too many times anyways and was almost grateful when he asked her, "I noticed that took two curses longer than usual actually. You two must be really fighting an awful lot to take so long to step in by next week."

She met his eyes with a blazing scowl, she did not need him analyzing her decisions!

He raised his hands in surrender and turned back to the book with open curiosity like McGonagall had just snapped at him to pay attention, then he flinched in surprise and covered his cheek when Snape finally got a curse back, and a dark one at that. Blood apparently went splattering around!

Sirius snarled in disgust and crumbled the last cookie up in his fist in disgust at that display, but at least Prongs got retaliation by stringing Snivellus up by his pants, and Evans even laughed at that!

They all looked wildly at her for that display, but she was already trying to quickly smooth her face out and pretend no such thing would make her laugh, that she hadn't wanted to do the very same to him the amount of times he'd been ignoring her since before Easter break.

James leapt wildly to his feet now, beaming at her and raising his fist to start shouting in glee he'd actually gotten her to laugh- when Frank had kept going, and Snape said it.

The rushing noise in her ear sounded as loud as thunder, but she knew that was all in her head for how deadly silent her house had gotten. She wanted to accuse Frank of lying, but there was no mistaking that ghastly look on his face for even uttering the word, let alone who'd just really spat it at her. She wanted to run up to her room, curl up in a ball and cry until he came over to her window and apologized, but that just wasn't going to be good enough this time.

It only left one available emotion to pour down on her, to drown her in tidal waves, and she acted on it purely from impulse, if she stopped to consider it, she'd explode. She turned on her heel and walked calmly to the front door, and while it opened, she couldn't even take the one lone step off her stoop. She was trapped in here still, encased in this bubble, and she couldn't go burn down their spot.

Then she snapped, and she screamed. She shouted every spell she knew at this thing, and when they all vanished with no visible trace, she dropped her wand and beat her fists against it until she was sure they'd come away bloody and raw. She just wanted out!

Alice knew there weren't enough kind words in the world to soften this blow, and a part of her mind branched off to wonder just what Lily had gone off to destroy next week. She'd mentioned her and Snape often brewed secret potions together, and she wondered if that would have been thrown through a wall somewhere in school. Then she went forward to stop her suicidal boyfriend in concern as he finally couldn't take seeing her like that any more than she could, and he came forward to grab her.

She reared back with a vengeance, headbutting his nose so that he was bleeding again, but he barely flinched as he half picked her up, half dragged her back inside and sat down on the nearest couch with her still trembling in his arms.

Alice darted forward and grabbed her wand, quickly pocketing it while Frank promised her, "just breathe Lily, you're going to hurt yourself. I'll hold him down while you kill him when we get back, but you can't keep that up forever."

She seemed to disagree, still pushing feebly at his arms and shaking her head over and over, still uttering through a now hoarse throat she wanted out of here. Alice's heart broke as she imagined Lily, all alone in the dungeons like this, and wanted to kill Snape herself.

Somewhere in the background, Remus had picked up the book and kept reading, though neither of them really thought the next location would make this feel any better. Then Alice's eyes brightened as she remembered something, but she bit her lip before she could act on it when the adult Snape finally appeared to drag Harry away.

This had been called Snape's Worst Memory, but what about it was the worst part? She wanted to believe it's what he'd called his best friend, but had it simply been Potter's arrogance once more in front of everyone like that? It's certainly what was implied when he actually shook Harry, and threw him from the room.

She wasn't sure if Lily was going to hit her for it, but Alice went over and hugged her as well, noting with relief her shaking was finally slowing and she was watching the wall separating her from the book. Alice didn't quite get a chance to register that expression as Harry's last line shocked them all, and they were torn away.

HPHPHPHPHP

To Sanne (Guest):

"Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, "Let him down!"

A quote from the book none ever seem to acknowledge that always fascinated me, Lily does get some sort of petty relish out of Snape's torment in this scene but doesn't ever let anyone see. Her reaction in this chapter is admittedly a fanon answer to this moment, but one I stand by, she did find it justifiably funny he never listened to her to stop fighting and this was his comeuppance.

No, I don't think James was a bully, as that statement involves malicious intent of someone else's pain on a repeated basis on a vulnerable other. I never for once believed Snape was vulnerable, let alone never retaliated with just as many horrible things back. As Remus himself said, Snape never left an opportunity to curse him. I imagine all manor of unsavory retaliation, but individually to them if Snape found them alone. Did Snape laugh while he did that to them? I personally think so.

Fighting from both parties is not mutual bullying, it's a recurring battle that one side had to stop to make it right. James stopped first. Snape joined the Death Eater's.

This lone memory is Snape's worst because of what he said to Lily. What James was doing was Harry's focus, but not even Snape's, as confirmed in Prince's Tale when the memory replays in conjunction with his other times with Lily, not all of what happened between him and James.

Considering Snape is a bully to the entire student population the past years already as a teacher I don't believe for a second he wasn't the same in his youth, and don't tell me it was to keep his cover as a Death Eater. That is a bull excuse for his behavior when he could have just been a passive nobody and kept his nose down to be in Dumbledore's good graces, hell it would make more sense for him to try to be the best teacher ever if his 'plan' was to infiltrate Dumbledore's school on Voldemort's orders. James' entire character should not be based around this sole instance as so many people do. Snape had years to change his behavior both before and after what he did to Lily; instead of hating a child for his parentage and making Hermione, Neville, and likely countless others feel tormented.

As always if you disagree I encourage you to tell me, I have no problems discussing differences of opinion and I hope you enjoy the rest of the fic.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #OotP #Snape's Worst Memory #anti-snape #HP #Jilly #Wolfstar #James Potter #Lily Evans #Remus Lupin #siruis black #Frank Longbottom #Regulus Black #Peter Pettigrew #Alice Smith

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aidanchaser · 5 years

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Everyone Lives

Table of Contents beta’d by @ageofzero

Chapter Eight Deathday Party

Dear Harry,

McGonagall wrote to inform us of your detention. You know we don’t approve of you dueling at school. It’s dangerous, and while we hope you��re feeling much better, we also hope you learned your lesson. We’ll discuss the situation and your Nimbus 2001 when when you come home for Christmas.

Love, Mum and Dad

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Sirius,

Please don’t come to our Quidditch game this year. It’s going to be awful. Malfoy’s the new Seeker, which really doesn’t worry me, except his father bought the entire Slytherin team Nimbus 2001s, and Mum and Dad won’t buy me one until summer (and that’s even IF they do because of the detention last week). It’s going to be so bad. And all our practices are going to be miserable because it hasn’t stopped raining for weeks. And everyone’s getting the flu. Even Ginny, and I’m afraid she’s going to give it to Fred and George. We’d lose our match for sure.

I even got in trouble coming in from Quidditch practice just because I was dirty. What was I supposed to do, shower in the Great Hall? It’s okay, I didn’t get another detention. I’m not sure I could stand polishing the trophy hall again, or another session addressing fanmail for Lockhart. Peeves dropped a Vanishing Cabinet, so Filch kind of forgot to assign the detention. Which wouldn’t have been a fair detention anyway. But now I’ve accidentally agreed to go to a deathday party. That might be worse than a detention.

I hope the weather’s better there. I’m getting really tired of mud and flying in the rain. And if you feel like sending our team a set of Nimbus 2001s, that would be pretty great too.

Love, Harry

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Harry,

Sorry about the weather. It’s been pretty gloomy here too. And I’m sorry to hear about the Slytherin team. I did look into buying brooms for your team, but it turns out my inheritance has shrunk a lot over the years. And then your mum found out and yelled at me for “undermining her and your father’s authority.”

But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. A Nimbus 2001 can’t make up for a terrible player. And if it took Malfoy buying the whole team Nimbus 2001s to get on the team, he can’t be a very good Seeker. You’ll be fine.

And I always wanted to go to a deathday party, just to see what it was like. The castle ghosts are pretty creepy-interesting, if you know what I mean. Let me know how it goes.

Love, Sirius

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Mum and Dad,

Okay, you don’t have to send me a Nimbus 2001, but what if you just sent the Gryffindor team three Nimbus 2001s? Just for our Chasers? Maybe one for Oliver Wood, too? He is team captain. It’s just totally unfair, and we’re going to lose the game all because Draco Malfoy’s family spoils him rotten.

We’re going to lose the match in two weeks and it’s going to be so bad. You guys probably shouldn’t even come. It’s not going to be worth it.

Love, Harry

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Harry,

You’re going to be wonderful in the Quidditch game. I’m sure of it. Your father and I can’t wait to see you, so of course we’ll go and support you. I’m sure you’re a much better flier than Draco Malfoy, and you’re a far more experienced Seeker, so you’ll do wonderfully.

It wouldn’t be fair of us to buy brooms for your team, just as it wasn’t fair for Mr. Malfoy to do it for Slytherin.

Love, Mum and Dad

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

October 2, 1974

Dear Narcissa,

Congratulations on your engagement! Mother wrote to me to tell me, and I was ever so excited to receive the engagement announcement. I’m quite happy for you.

I have some news that might sound unfortunate, but it’s actually quite humorous.

Professor Binns died today. But he just walked into class like normal — well, he floated in, because he was a ghost! And he just started lecturing as if nothing happened. We were all whispering to each other and he told us to be quiet and carried on with his lecture. I don’t think he even knew he was dead.

Barty went to get Professor Slughorn, and then Professor Slughorn didn’t know what to do. You know how he is when he feels like something’s out of his depth (which is a lot, isn’t it?). So he went and got Professor McGonagall, and then Professor McGonagall went for Headmaster Dumbledore. It was actually quite humorous to watch it all.

And then when Headmaster Dumbledore arrived, it was the funniest thing. He looked at Professor Binns, smiled, and said something like, “Well, he seems to be teaching just fine.”

Professor Dumbledore is a strange one, isn’t he? Mother and Father don’t like him much. Sirius seems to think he’s just fine, and last time I brought up something Mother said about him, Sirius got so defensive about it. I don’t understand why. What has Professor Dumbledore ever done for Sirius? And he was in such a foul mood today, fussing over his friend — the faint sickly one — and he kept giving me and Sev dirty looks. I don’t know what Sev did to his friend, and Sev didn’t seem to know either. He and Mother are both so moody I don’t know how to handle it.

But anyway, I presume they’ll still have funeral services for Professor Binns. I wonder if he will attend? That would be quite interesting.

Do let me know if there is anything I can help with for your wedding this summer! I’m so excited for you. And it’s nice to hear Auntie is happy. I think it will help her get over what happened with Drommie.

Love, Regulus

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Remus,

I accidentally accepted an invitation to Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party. It might have been the worst thing ever. It wasn’t a party, it was a funeral. What’s the point?

Was Moaning Myrtle there when you were in school? She’s the actual worst. Hermione said that one of the bathrooms is completely unusable because of her. I just ask because she was wearing school robes, instead of fancy medieval clothes like most of the other ghosts. What even makes a ghost? Not everyone becomes a ghost. so how does it work?

Love, Harry

P.S. You’re writing letters to Draco Malfoy? Why? Please don’t. He’s awful.

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Harry,

I’m sorry you went to a deathday party. I hope it was at least an educational experience on the social norms of ghosthood.

Upon one’s death, it is possible to become a ghost. But it is not very common. One must be absolutely unwilling to die, so terrified by the sheer thought of death that they consciously refuse to move on. I spoke with Sir Nicholas about this once, but of course ghosts don’t like to talk about it. He was very gracious with my situation and explained it quite kindly. It is not, to my understanding, a fate you would wish on someone. Ghosthood is a worse fate than death, and it is far better to move on past this life than to linger.

As for Draco, I can write to whomever I wish to write to. You should not be so quick to judge someone because of their Sorting or their blood — or which Quidditch team they play for.

Love, Remus Lupin

—————————— ✶✶✶——————————

Dear Sirius,

Please please please don’t tell Mum and Dad. I’m not in trouble, but I know they’ll worry and get upset and I don’t want them to.

But I’ve been hearing a voice at Hogwarts. It’s kind of a cold, deep, terrifying voice that says it wants to kill and is out for blood. No one else seems to hear it. And I think it has something to do with the Chamber of Secrets. Do you know what that is? Malfoy seems to know something about it. I think it’s a pureblood thing. But I’ve never heard Mum or Dad talk about it, and I’m afraid to ask them. You know how they get when weird stuff happens to me, and especially after that thing with the house-elf, I think they’re more worried than usual. So please don’t tell them. Or Uncle Remus, because he will definitely tell them. And I don’t want them to freak out. Just, tell me if you know anything about it or not.

Love, Harry

P.S. The deathday party was gross and you weren’t missing anything.

#harry potter and the chamber of secrets #harry potter #hp everyone lives #hp #hp fic

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amarauder · 6 years

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1. it’s a hate love thing | james potter x reader series

a/n; hey! this is the first rewritten chapter!

it’s a hate love thing

disclaimer: the wonderful j.k rowling owns the marauders and lily and snape and emmilene and marlene {who will be introduced next chapter}, you own yourself, and i own florence nightingale, prespherone lance, and martha nightingale {who will also be introduced next chapter}.

a/n; hello all! thank you so much for reading this story! i am currently re-writing it due to the fact that I am getting it ready for the 2018 wattys and I just want to make this book to the best of my ability! I decided i might as well try and perfect it. i hope you all like it! let me know your opinions in the comments!

casting; ben barnes as sirius black

andrew garfield as remus lupin

aaron taylor-johnson or blake stevens as james potter

jamie bell as peter pettigrew

sophie turner as lillian evans

louis garrel as severus snape

joseph gordon-levitt as frank longbottom

carey mulligan as alice prewett

jeremy irvine as regulus black

freya mayor as marlene mckinnon

naomi scott as florence nightingale

mariana santana as prespherone lance

katie leclerc as martha hartingwells

jacob robinson as kingsley shacklebolt

you as y/n l/n

"darling, you are all I ever want love to be."

Y/N L/N stared around Platform Nine and Three Quarters confusedly. The wind blew her hair around wildly as she gulped and checked her watch. The train should leave in 10 minutes. Panic seemed to light Y/N's brain on fire as she hurriedly tried to think of a solution.

"Honestly," she muttered to herself, "you would think with everything that they explained they’d have some room to fit in how to get onto the platform.”

Y/N pressed her lips together tightly and attempted to calm herself down by shutting her eyes and taking three deep breaths... and maybe praying to whatever's up there that she'll get some sort of sign to push her in the right direction.

"Are you alright?" A finger tapped her shoulder. Y/N turned around to see a boy that looked her age, he was looking a bit worried for her health, "You look a bit purple."

"Purple?" She cried incredulously.

"Were you holding your breath?" He asked and shoved his hands into his pockets. Realization dawned on Y/N, that's why her calming attempt wasn't working, she forgot to breathe.

Thankfully, Y/N didn't have to answer that terribly embarrassing question and their conversation was interrupted by two parents. "James Fleamont Potter! Where have you been? For the last time, you cannot just run off like that!" Potter? He’s a Potter?

A Mother came into view, followed by a Father who was currently rolling his eyes at his wife, "Euphemia, don't embarrass the boy. He's talking to a cute girl! This could be our future daughter-in-law! Remember this is how the Longbottoms met.”

Y/N met eye contact with the boy and looked at him up and down, he had crazy dark black hair that seemed to stick up around crazily and light brown hazel eyes which seemed to greatly resemble the brown liquor her Father used to drink. He wore glasses and gave her an overwhelming smirk, which as a result only lead her nose to crinkle up with disgust.

He looked to be the exact boy her Mother had warned her to stay away from.

“I think I’ll pass on that offer, thank you very much.” Y/N said and crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.

James looked at her weirdly, as if she were an alien from outer space. Her nose was crinkled up as if someone had stuck dung under her nose, in James’ opinion it only made her look more ridiculous. Her nose was stuck up in the air and she was turned the other way. Her hair was braided elegantly with a few pieces of curled hair falling down her face. She was quite pretty in James’ opinion, but her personality seemed to wipe that out.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” James cried indignantly.

Y/N raised an eyebrow up at him, “I just met you and you seem like a troublemaker. I don’t like troublemakers.”

“Well, you can’t just assume the worst out of everyone.”

“I would just like to know how to get on the platform, please.”

Euphemia bit her lip harshly in an attempt to cover up her laugh, “You see that wall, dear? Run through it and it will take you to the platform,” Euphemia stopped at Y/N’s not impressed look, “No, I’m not joking. James will go before you. It’s a portal.”

Y/N nodded in understanding and flashed the parents a grateful smile, she carefully walked up to the pillar and stuck her hand through it. A shocked smile made its way onto her face and she quickly grabbed her trolley and pushed her way through it.

A steaming train came into her view along with chattering families greeting their parents goodbye until their next encounter. Y/N looked around in wonder for a few minutes, then stopped herself. Her Mother specifically said to get on the train as soon as possible so she could find a suitable carriage with suitable Slytherins.

She squeezed her way through the crowd and handed her cart over to the man with a thankful nod. She entered the train and continued to drag her trunk with her. There was no way in hell Y/N was going to search for ‘Suitable Slytherins’. All Y/N wanted was the closest empty carriage of first years that she could dump her heavy trunk into.

Y/N reached a cubicle with two occupants, a girl with bright red hair and a boy with long dark hair and shabby clothing.

She was midway knocking when she realized something, these two people were probably the exact opposites of what her Mother expected her to befriend. For some reason, it only motivated her further.

The redhead girl opened the door, “Hello.”

“Hi, I was wondering if I could sit here? I would find another carriage but my trunk is very heavy and I don’t feel like c-”

“So you’re rude and lazy? What a wonderful combination.”

Y/N turned around to see the boy from earlier, “You.”

“Yes, me. Who else would it be?”

“There are 3.5 billion people in the world. I was banking on the idea of never talking to you again.” Y/N spat causing the boy next to her to laugh quietly.

Her eyes flickered over to him and she gave him a warm smile, “Oh! Where are my manners! I am so sorry. My name is Y/N.”

The boy held his hand out for her to shake, “Frank Longbottom. We’ve met before,” he trailed off to see if she remembered only get a confused cock of the head, “The Seasonal Sacred Twenty Nine Parties?”

“Yes! Sorry, Frank, I didn’t recognize you with that new haircut of yours,” Y/N said and turned to the redhead who was also looking at James with distaste, “Oh, and you are?”

“Lily Evans.”

“Oh, I love your name! It’s so pretty.” Y/N complemented with a smile and tucked a stubborn piece of hair that wouldn’t stay in her braid behind her ear.

Lily blushed, “Thank you. My whole family are named after flowers.”

“Why?” James asked with annoyance.

“Why not?” Y/N put her hands on her hips and glowered at him. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the boy in the carriage move and walk over to them.

The second James saw him, he scoffed, “You were really going to sit with him?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He’s Severus Snape. My Father’s told me about you and your Father. Dad knew your Mum personally and he said he’s never met a more disgusting woman in his life-”

Y/N drowned out James’ lecture and looked over at Severus. She had heard the story too. Snape’s Father is an abusive alcoholic. Y/N looked at the boy who’s ears turned red from the attention and his self-confidence slowly wash down to nothing.

“You know what James! Just because you have a perfect life does not mean you get to take it out on someone who doesn’t! Just go bother someone else.” Y/N spat.

James raised an eyebrow, “You’re really going to stay with him?”

“Yes, I am.” She said and hugged Severus from the side, causing him to stiffen under her touch, “Now go away your voice is giving me a headache.”

James glared daggers at them before stomping away with Frank following after him.

Y/N smiled sheepishly at the pair of them, having a feeling that they wanted her gone from all the trouble she’s caused, “I’ll just be going now. Sorry, for, erm, everything’s that just happened.”

Lily waved the comment away with a swish of her hand, “Nonsense, you are going to sit with us. Unless you don’t want to of course.”

“No!” Y/N said quickly then corrected herself, “No, I would love to sit with you both!” Y/N hurriedly grabbed her trunk and shoved it in the middle of the compartment.

“I know we have already done introductions, but we should properly do it.” Lily said with a grin and helped the h/c haired girl push the trunk into the upper shelving.

“Well, I am Y/N L/N.”

“Severus Snape,” Snape said boredly and looked at Y/N with a bit of impressment.

“Lillian Evans, but you can just call me Lily for short.”

“Can I call you Lils and Sev?” Y/N grinned excitedly and played with the string on the bench she was occupying.

The train ride passed by in a blur, the excitement of entering Hogwarts the first time was tangible in the air as the first years separated from the older students. Y/N stood next to Lily and Snape while checking out the rest of the first years. There was one boy who stood alone, his body was currently occupied in shabby robes that looked a bit too and scruffy hair that covered his ghastly scars which were haphazardly shown against the moon.

She observed him a bit more before she was nudged back into reality, “Who are we looking at?”

Y/N bounced on her toes, “Oh, no one. We should follow the others.”

Lily and Snape bobbed their heads together in sync and quickly stepped towards the few lagging behind.

Y/N paused in mid-step once she saw her friends around the corner, “Your obsession with me is getting to be frustrating.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you are an L/N?” James asked with curiosity.

Y/N’s eyes flitted upward, “I didn’t see how it was important.”

“Well, I think it is,” James whispered quietly, “Our Father’s used to be best friends in Hogwarts you know.”

“Potter, I don’t really care. Now if you excuse me I’d prefer to get a boat before they are all taken,” She said with a sarcastic smile, she quickly walked past the group with an air of portrayed importance. The second she was out of their peering speculating eyes she let her guard down. Y/N hated being known as an L/N, the daughter of the retired Minister of Magic.

“Oh! A few stragglers!” The bigger man announced the group, Y/N glanced at the man briefly before scanning the boats to find Lily and Severus. Knowing Lily saw, she didn’t bother to cover her hurt expression and instead looked at the other boats trying to find an empty seat. There were two boats left, Frank, James, and the other small boy took the one with the most room. In the boat, there was a boy with a buzzcut and a weird hat topped off with it, and the scarred boy from earlier. She shot a quick glare at the bespeckled boy only to get a rather cocky smirk back and hopped into the other boat.

A girl with a mischevious, but strangely intelligent looking grin peeked at Y/N, “I think James likes you.”

Y/N looked at the girl with thin lips, the girl had warm brown eyes and matching hair that was chopped chin length. She was rather pretty Y/N noted as she answered the girls comment to the best of her ability, “Well, the feeling is not reciprocated.”

The girl’s grin widened, “Good, I don’t know what I’d do if you liked him back.”

The girl in front of Y/n spoke up, “Why?”

“I’ve known him since I was little. He’s way too gross for me. I’m Alice Prewett by the way and the girl over there is Emmeline Vance.”

Y/N nodded kindly at the introduction, “It’s nice to meet you both. My name is Y/n L/n.”

Both girl’s eyes widened in shock, “Merlin, no wonder you looked so familiar! You are practically famous! Mum always told me it was rude to ask intruding questions, but I can’t help myself. Is your Dad just as stern as he looked in the newspapers?”

Y/N snorted at the peculiar question, “No, he’s such a dork.”

“Our Minister of Magic is a dork,” Emmeline repeated with excited eyes, Y/N’s eyes wandered over the girl’s form. She had golden brown hair and a quite small body structure. Her eyes were what looked to be a pale blue, it was a bit hard to tell in the moonlight.

“Our Ex-Minister,” Alice corrected with a pointed finger, “Do you know who’s your Father is going to promote?”

Y/n shrugged, “No, Daddy doesn’t really talk about politics much at home. But, personally, I want Gallant Hartswell, how far out would it be to have a woman minister?”

Both girls nodded taking sudden interest at the view behind Y/N with gaping lips, Y/N turned around to get a face full of water. Laughter erupted around the lake as kids giggled and pointed at the flushing girl. She met eye contact with James who’s mouth twitched in mischief as his eyes took in Y/N’s form. Y/n broke eye contact with James and glanced at Lily who was grinning at her on the boat next to James. Her hands made a pushing motion at the edge of their boat, which only fueled Y/N’s smirk larger.

“Hey, Al! Do you mind if I switch spots with you?” Y/N asked the girl already lifting her lower half from her seat.

“Umm,” Alice said as she looked tentatively at Emmeline who merely shrugged, “Sure.”

Y/n grinned and sat in the other seat, she made eye contact with Lily who made a shushing motion with her fingers and pointed to the curious boys in the boat who were looking at her closely.

Y/N sighed and looked away from them, she took in the calm vibe of the lake and the glowing castle before her. Y/N glanced at Alice and Emmeline who were looking at her with tentative glances, she merely smirked at them and checked on the boys who were immersed by the attractive view of the castle.

‘One,’ lily mouthed and hastily placed a lock of hair behind her ear. ‘Two,’ Snape and a girl with curly blonde hair switched to the other side with two other kids.

‘Three.’

Y/n pulled the gunwale of the rowboat down as they pushed, in a matter of seconds the whole class watched in awe while the five boys went overboard. Y/N shrieked with laughter and shook her fists up in triumph as Potter floated back up.

“Yeh, lads aren’ the only ones who’ve gottin’ yerselves stuck in da lake.” Hagrid said and watched patiently as the striplings coughed water up. Y/N glanced at a giggling Alice then at a confused Lily who was obviously sharing the same thoughts as her.

Why wasn’t Hagrid helping them get into the boat?

Y/n choked on air as she stared at the water in disbelief, swimming gracefully in the water were eight pinky legs, “Get-Get out of the water!” Y/N quickly stood up and was about to jump in the water to help them when they were all grabbed under causing Y/N to scream. Her heart stopped but then sped up again as if making up for lost time while the boys were thrown back into their respective seats.

Y/N’s shaken figure was pulled out of her trance when Alice tugged at her robes, “Hey, you might want to get down now. I think he’s going to start the boats again.”

Y/N quickly sat down and looked at the boys out of the corner of her eyes, “Oi! L/N, you got poor Frank all wet! He’s going to catch a cold!”

Y/N ignored the boy and decided to keep her distance away from Potter.

He really was the boy her Mother had warned her about.

James grinned merrily at an unamused Frank, “Come on, let’s go find that L/N girl and bother her.”

“Why?” Frank asked and peered up at the heavens, “Why am I friends with him?”

“Slytherin?” James asked with distaste causing Frank to cringe with regret, “Why would you want to be in Slytherin?”

“My whole family was in Slytherin, Potter.” Y/N practically spat out James’ last name, “Besides not all Slytherins are ‘evil’. I thought my Father proved that.”

“Fine, why not Gryffindor?”

“They are too loud and obnoxious. Besides, why do you care so much?” Y/N said with crossed arms and ignored Alice giggling at Frank.

“I am not loud or obnoxious!” James said and ignored her last comment.

“Are too!”

“Are not!”

“Too!”

“Not!”

“TOO!”

“NOT!”

“Potter, James.” The professor said calmly and looked at the pair with steely eyes. James pushed passed Y/N with a sneer and hopped onto the stool.

‘Ahh, a Potter. I’m guessing Gryffindor?’ the hat asked with a knowing tone.

‘Of course!’ James said confidently, his eyes peered out from under the hat to see Y/N giggling with Alice about something. Y/N is a definite Gryffindor.

‘Why’s that, Mr.Potter?’

‘Well, she’s… She’s just a Gryffindor.’

‘It’s a pity you don’t like her, Mr.Potter. You are destined to have quite an interesting future with the young girl. But that is not mine to tell. GRYFFINDOR!”

Light was flooded into James’ eyes as he bounded over to the Gryffindor table with giddy happiness, shoulders were clapped and high fives were given in welcome. James felt welcome and a sense of belonging. He was here, he was really here.

“GRYFFINDOR!” the hat shouted again, James started to whoop and clap which faltered after the rest of his house didn’t follow but one look at Y/N’s sentimental face for the boy got him going again.

The boy sat down next to James but didn’t say anything, his face looked rather pale James noted as his eyes flickered back and forth from the Slytherin table, “Hey, mate. I’m James Potter.”

James held out his hand with a grin and watch disheartened as the boy looked from his hand and back to James’ face, finally, he lifted his hand and shook it, “Sirius Black.”

James almost fell out of his chair in shock, a Black? There’s never been a Black in Gryffindor.

“Hey, James,” Frank greeted as he sat down next to his neighbor, “James? Are you alright?”

“Hmm?” James asked finally retracting from his thoughts, “Oh, yes, I’m fine.”

“I shouldn’t be here,” Sirius said solemnly and looked at the Slytherin table with a sense of longing.

James eyebrows furrowed as he looked at the squirming boy next to him, “Don’t worry, we’ll think of something.”

Sirius looked at him weird but James scanned the Great Hall looking for Remus, the boy had been strangely wise for the first year, he would probably be a Ravenclaw. James scanned the Ravenclaw table to see it empty of the boy, then the Hufflepuff table and even the Slytherin table.

“Hey, you’re the boy who thrown into the lake by that girl right?” Sirius asked suddenly. James nodded, “Well, she’s right there, now would possibly be a good way to get revenge. The whole school is looking at her.” The boy said and looked at James searching for a reaction.

James smirked dangerously, “Right you are, Black,” James paused as she got sorted, finally the crowd died down but James had no clue what to say.

Sirius quickly whispered in his ear, “You should declare your love for her or something.”

James looked at him as if he had grown two heads, “Eww, no.”

“Then why don’t you declare her love for Snape?” Frank joked as his stomach rumbled hungrily.

“Both of you are geniuses!” James exclaimed and stood up on the table after a Slytherin was sorted, “ATTENTION! ATTENTION ALL! I WOULD JUST LIKE TO ANNOUNCE THAT Y/N L/N, THE NEWEST RAVENCLAW IS IN LOVE WITH SEVERUS SNAPE, A GREASY HAIRED SLYTHERIN!”

James sat down and grinned at Y/N’s burning face and clenching fists, “I think I like you, Black. You should stay in Gryffindor.”

Sirius’ eyebrows rose, “There’s a way to get into Slytherin?”

“There’s always a way,” James said with a grin, “Hey! Remus come here! Oh, and Peter you too! That over there is Remus Lupin, he may be the smartest person I’ve met! He finished a whole book on the train ride here!”

Sirius laughed at James excitement, “Wow, that’s quite an accomplishment. Are you sure he’ll be able to help?”

“Oh! I already have a plan, I just need a smart person to foolproof it.”

Y/N played with her nightgown and looked at a snoring Alice, Y/N’s face flushed at the nagging thought about her pajamas. All the girls had comfy fuzzy night clothes, pants and shirts and socks. Y/N was wearing what she had been wearing since she was young, a flimsy nightgown with loose fuzzy socks, she looked up at the enchanted see-through ceiling, the stars twinkled at her daintily.

She couldn’t stand it.

Y/N shot up in her bed quickly and grabbed her robe to cover her up, Alice stirred lightly in her sleep causing her to stir in her wake. Alice’s eyelids quickly fluttered back down letting Y/N continue her escape. She opened the door hoping not to wake any of the other girls.

Florence turned around in her bed towards the streaming light, but Y/N quickly shut the door and sprinted out of the common room and out into the cool hallways of Hogwarts.

Her face paled as she realized what she had done, she was out on the grounds after hours. Y/N’s hands gripped the stone wall behind her as she panted slightly.

What would her parents say?

What if she got detention?

Could she get detention on the first day of school?

What if she got kicked out of Hogwarts?

Y/N shut her eyes tightly at her last thought, she was being silly. They wouldn’t kick her out of Hogwarts just for being out of her dorm. Light haunting footsteps forced her eyes open, “Come on, dearie. Let’s go find those four first years out.”

Y/N’s eyes widened, “Well, go on then. Run away from Filch.” The stone statue said, ushering away from the rather scary looking caretaker. Y/N took off in a sprint down the opposite direction, she ran past many yelling perfects and portraits yelling at her to slow down and come back.

She ignored them all except for one call.

“L/N?” A voice laughed in disbelief, “You are the last person I would expect to see at this hour.”

Y/N froze in her tracks to see James giggling with three other boys, she recognized each of them. There was the boy with scars covering his body, the small and plump one from the boat ride earlier, and Sirius Black, a boy she’s had plenty of annoying conversations with.

“And why does that matter?” Y/N snapped at the boys.

“It does, you- Woah, fancy, monogrammed robes. That’s something I haven’t seen in a while.”

“What are you doing out of bed?”

“I should be asking you the same thing, sunshine,” James smirked and placed a crooked elbow on Sirius’ shoulder.

“I asked you first.” Y/N demanded and placed her hands on her hips making her look dignified, which in reality her hands were shaking from nerves of getting caught.

“We are taking Sirius to his right house.”

Y/N’s brows knitted, “Right house? The sorting hat put him in Gryffindor,” Her eyes traveled over to a fidgeting Sirius, y/n’s eyes softened, “Umm, I know how where the Slytherin’s Quarters are. Do you want me to take you, Siri?”

James looked shocked, “You two know each other?”

Y/N nodded solemnly and gestured for the boys to follow her down to the dungeons, “How do you know where the Slytherin’s Common Room is?”

Y/N looked at the scarred boy, “My family has been in the Slytherin and Ravenclaw house for centuries. I’m Y/N L/N.”

He smiled faintly at her and thrust a hand out, “Remus Lupin.”

“I’m Peter Pettigrew,” Peter piped up.

Y/N grinned at him, “I like your shoes.” [a/n; i know, i’m sorry. I hate peter so much. But personally, i want to make this story as realistic as possible and i saw a post and it really hit me. peter isn’t useless and i wrote him as that in my last book and i just want to change that.]

“Thank you.”

“L/N,” James barked at her, hoping to grab her attention, “Why are your pajamas so fancy?”

“Why is your hair so messy?”

“It’s a Potter thing,” James puffed out his chest with pride.

“Well, it’s a very ugly Potter thing,” Y/N said and glanced over at a giggling Sirius.

“So, when’s the wedding?”

“Wedding? Who’s?” Y/n and James asked together then glared at each other.

“Yours,” Sirius answered with a grin matching Remus’ and Peter’s.

“EWW!”

“Ugh! I thought I liked you!”

Sirius’ light giggles turn into a full-blown roar of laughter, “Sush! I don’t want to get in trouble!”

“Of course, you don’t want to get into trouble.”

“What’s that’s supposed to mean?” Y/N hissed at James. It seemed at every growing second he started to get more and more annoying. She didn’t know how much more she could take of this before she used a curse her brothers had taught her.

“It’s just that you’re a Ravenclaw and the Minister of Magic’s daughter,” James said with a smirk. James felt more and more amused as Y/n’s temper flared up. Good thing she got prettier when she was mad.

Before James could even comprehend what he just thought, Sirius brought them back to the present, “Ahh, our favorite couple is fighting again.”

Y/N huffed childishly and turned away, she started to stomp down the hall viciously, scaring many portraits awake. She hated them. Sirius had always been annoying, but James’ presence seemed to provoke that. Stupid James Potter, always ruining everything.

It didn’t help that the Ravenclaws were giving her weird looks, goodness knows inter-house relationships could do, especially with Snape. Y/N shivered at the thought, even if Snape was a friend of hers now, she certainly would never date him.

Y/N wasn’t judgemental, she favored in getting to know someone first before forming an opinion. But that was for friends, in relationships you need to at least be attracted to the person. And she knew she was NOT attracted to Severus.

“Going to visit your precious boyfriend, L/N?” Y/N ignored James call and continued dragging Sirius along with the rest of the boys with her. She couldn’t stand another second with the dark-haired boy.

Too bad she had too.

A loud crash rang behind her, she spun around quickly to see a sheepish looking Frank Longbottom laying in a pile of armory. “Frank? What are you doing here?”

“Well, I heard you guys run out of the door and was curious on what you were doing so I followed you.”

“Oh, my Rowena! This just is getting worse and worse. First, I run into your four! Then, I’m forced to help Sirius get into Slytherin!” James opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it once he saw Y/N’s threatening look, “Now, you are going to get me into detention on my first day back!”

Sirius put his hands on his hips, making Y/N look at him weirdly. He looked like a sassy five-year-old girl, the sight was enough to make her pee in her pants laughing, “As much as I love hearing you drone on about how bad your life is-”

“RUN!” Peter yelled from next to him. There stood Filch and his ugly cat, Ms.Norris. As Y/N stared at the cat and the man from where she was running she wondered why Filch didn’t name her Mrs.Filch? They seemed to be married after all.

The corridors seemed to go on forever and ever, Y/N’s legs were starting to wobble and tremble when she turned around and saw no cat or man in the hallways.

“Hey! We lost them!” Y/N exclaimed and quickly sat down. Peter and Frank joined you quickly as the three other boys leaned against the wall for support.

“Does anyone know where we are?” Frank asked quietly. Y/N took a good look around the hallway, the portraits were unrecognizable, the stairs wound up in a circular hallways type thing. They must be in one of the towers.

“We’re in one of the towers,” Y/N said and let her body weight drift into the palm of her hands.

“How do you know?”

“The stairs are winding up in circles. Only towers do that,” She explained and looked up at James from her eyelashes. He looked annoyed that she was right and stubbed his shoe, purposely, on one of the stone tiles. Y/N’s eyes traveled over to Remus who was looking at everyone with a small fond smile, they met eye contact quickly causing her to blush but give him a big toothy smile. Y/N looked over at Sirius to see him doing the same thing, his smile was bigger though and she had never seen him so content and care-free in his life.

“Sirius,” Y/N called grabbing his wanted attention, “Are you sure you want to be a Slytherin.”

Sirius shook his head, “No, I’ve never had so much fun in my life and I think, I’d rather be a Gryffindor than a Slytherin.”

The boys cheered while Y/n smiled fondly at him, James clapped him on the shoulder and brought him into a side hug. Y/N saw Sirius quickly moving away from the hug, but James brought him in to fast.

“Now, how are we going to get back?”

Y/n tilted her head back and shrugged, she did not want to run anymore. In fact, she refused. Someone could carry her back to the Ravenclaw tower for all she cared, but she was not running again.

James seemed to be thinking the same thing, “Hey, Sirius. We need to somehow trick L/N into getting in trouble.”

Sirius grinned and whispered something in James’ ear.

The six of them were speed walking back to their original houses, Sirius and James were leading the pack and were constantly looking back at Y/N with mischievous eyes unnerving Y/N a little bit.

“Hey, L/N!”

Here we go, “What do you want, Potter?”

James grinned at her, “Nothing much. I just want to talk to you.”

“Yes, and I’m Dumbledore.”

“What?”

Y/N looked at him, “Oh, I thought we were naming impossible things.”

“Haha, very funny,” James announced, matching the amount of sarcasm Y/N had in her voice.

“I know, I- What?” Y/N looked around in a circle, they had all disappeared suddenly. She took a few steps back in shock before taking a few deep breaths and taking her wand out.

“Okay, Y/N,” she spoke to herself quietly, “Just do the circling motion, alright? You have done this before, you can do it again… Revealio!”

The only thing revealed was Filch and his bloody cat.

Y/N’s hands were shaking as she mounted her broom with ease, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Tryouts were taking place today and Y/N felt like she was going to pass out at any second.

“Alright! Chasers to the left side of the pitch! We already have a seeker, sorry! Keepers in the middle! And Beaters to the right!”

Y/N followed the rest of the chasers and got in line with the rest, “Get into groups of three and we’ll call you up, alright!”

Y/N joined a pair of Ravenclaw third year boys, one had dark brown hair named Mitch and the other had light brown hair named Archer. Mitch and Archer had been on the team last year and had hated the other chaser. Good thing she left last year.

“Mitch! Archer! L/N! Your turn! Good luck!” Y/N nodded at the coach and rose to the middle of the field.

After about seven goals from both Y/N and the other two boys, they mounted quickly. “Wow! Didn’t know we picked such a star player!” Mitch grinned at her and messed up her hair.

“Ya! You’re making us look bad!” Archer commented sarcastically.

“Oh, please. You were on the team last year and look at the other chasers. You both have a guaranteed spot on the team.”

They both looked over to see three boys fumbling with the ball and one almost slipping off. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

“You do too, L/N. We have the Cup in the bag this year!”

Y/N’s eyes followed James walking over to the Coach, “Actually, boys. I don’t think I’m on the team anymore.”

“What? Why?”

Y/n pointed over to the conversing pair and nodded sadly, “James? James Potter? What’s so bad about him?”

“He hates my guts and will do anything to make my life at Hogwarts miserable.”

Archer glared at him, “Well, let me go give him a piece of mind! No one messes with another Ravenclaw on my watch! Especially a pretty one like you.” Archer winked at the girl.

“Dude! She’s a first year!” Mitch said and knocked him in the bicep.

“What you’re a first year?”

Y/N nodded shyly, “Well, you are one good first year. Damn, I wish I was that good at Quidditch at eleven.”

“Thank you.” Y/N said politely.

“Everyone! Everyone! Gather around! I have the list for runner-ups and the team!” The captain announced.

“For runner-ups, we have Violet Clearwater, a chaser. John Asher, a beater. Star Smith, a beater. Paige Thompson, a keeper. Cal Venice, a chaser. And Y/N L/N, a chaser. But I need to speak to you after, Ms.L/N.”

Mitch and Archer came up behind her to ruffle her hair and give her a clap on the shoulder, “Don’t worry, that probably means you are going to be on the team.”

Y/N nodded solemnly and waited for everyone to slowly walk away, Mitch and Archer promised they’d wait for her outside. With a final wave, Y/N walked over to the Captain.

“You know you had a guaranteed spot on the team.” The captain said Chase Davies, a quidditch maniac.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you see, when I look for Quidditch players, I not only look for skill but how they act outside of the pitch and I’ve heard some interesting things about you.”

Y/N’s eyebrows furrowed, “What did I do?”

“Breaking someone’s nose, bullying others, the list could go on.” He stopped talking after seeing Y/N’s face.

“I swear, I didn’t do that. Whoever you talked to is making that up, promise!”

Chase sighed, “I really want to believe you. I do. But even if I did, you still wouldn’t be able to be on the team.”

“Why?”

“JAMES FLEAMONT POTTER!” the h/c haired girl shouted venomously, her heart beating furiously against her chest, “IM GOING TO KILL YOU!”

James looked up from his food, a piece of chicken hanging from his lips as he stared at Y/N nervously. James quickly ate the piece of chicken and ran around the Great Hall as Y/N followed him yelling at him.

“I don’t even know what I did?”

“Does Quidditch ring a bell?”

“Oh,” James halted in his steps to laugh at the memory, “Yes, I do know.” James’ eyes widened in fear, Y/N’s hand went back to slap him right on the cheek. She already regretted not punching him.

“Listen, Potter. I don’t know what I did to offend you, but you need to stop ruining everything for me! Classes haven’t even started yet and you are already tempting me to rip my hair out!”

“Name three things I have done to ‘ruin your life’,” James said sassily.

“First, you insulted my friends on the train. Second, you splashed water all over my new uniform. Third, you ditched me and I got a detention. Fourth, yes there’s a fourth, I am not on the Quidditch team that I have been working my bottom off all Summer to get on because you told the coach that I have been bullying you! Even if I proved that it wasn’t true I wouldn’t be able to get on because you banned Quidditch for all first years!”

“Okay, so… Minor mess-ups, but-”

“I can’t afford to mess up! I am the Minister of Magic’s daughter, I am already grounded all of Christmas break because of that stupid detention!”

James merely smirked at her deviously, “Sorry, things got a bit… out of hand. I’d watch your back if I were you, and your hair.”

Y/N’s eyebrows furrowed but she sat down next to Alice and the rest of her roommates.

“Umm, Y/N, you got something in your hair.” Y/N ran her hands through her hair to see feel it stop short about halfway through. He had cut her hair somehow.

“I really should have punched him in the face.”

#james potter x reader #its a hate love thing #James Potter #the marauders #fralice #blackinnon #the princess of magic

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badwolf256 · 6 years

Text

The Trip

Pairing: Severus/Lily

Rating: M

Genre: Angst, Fluff, AU-ish?

Chapters: 1/?

Word Count:

Summary: Distantly it occurs to her that whatever they are, they definitely shouldn’t be talking about it here.

Author’s Note: I had a hard time deciding if this was going to be put in as AU or not. Honestly? I personally have a hard time with something like this not happening at some point during the Marauders-era, what with all the field trips I had to take for school, so an event like this, even if it isn’t necessarily what I portray here, has always been canon to me. But I know that most people probably don’t have the same feelings about this as I do, so I’ve listed it as AU-ish. It’s up to you to decide.

She doesn’t know why he just calls it ‘the trip’. He’s packed meticulously for it, of course, Sev being Sev, organizing books and parchment and Potions’ ingredients into separate compartments in his trunk. She doesn’t see the point in all this needless preparation: She ends up throwing whatever she thinks she’ll need in willy-nilly, and when he comes to give her his ‘professional’ advice on whether she should bring her winter cloak or not, he wrinkles his nose.

“Like you’re one to talk.” She throws back at him, airing a pointed glance at his hair, earning a glower.

“Not all of us are gifted.”

“So what you’re really saying,” She picks up, three days later, “Is that not everyone’s mastered the complex art of shampoo?”

“Don’t you have other things to worry about? We’re leaving in a week.”

She takes her chances, flashes him a grin.

“Yeah. You should probably wash your hair first.”

And then she tears off across the courtyard, looking back to see him standing, sighing, with his head in his hands.

To be fair, they’re not the only ones getting ready for the trip. Ever since headmaster Dumbledore’s announcement that Beauxbatons would be hosting them to ‘aid in the understanding of different aspects of the wizarding world’(Or something equally academic and, by the students of Hogwarts, at least, equally ignored.) the castle had transformed into a frenzy of asking permission and getting ready and lamenting(Over what, Lily isn’t sure.).

One Sunday, a weekend after the announcement, a regal black owl deposits twelve- Twelve!- cardboard boxes from a high-end wizarding department store in London land in front of Lucius Malfoy at the Slytherin table.

“I don’t even know why he needs twelve. You should see his wardrobe.”

“Mm.” She hums contentedly against his chest, tempted to fall asleep in the warmth of him. “My parents didn’t even send me- You know what. Forget about it.” Then he does that Sev thing, the one where he looks down as if ashamed for having brought it up, and she takes it upon herself to do her own, distinctly Lily thing, and pulls herself up and embraces him. Tightly.

“Fuck them.”

His eyes widen. She feels it.

“Lily.”

“No, seriously. Fuck them. None of them are going to care one whit about Beauxbatons besides… I don’t know, besides, ‘look, there’s ice on the walls!’. I mean, it is going to be spectacular. But not because there’s ice on the walls. There’ll be like, a million books in the library for you, and probably a million different Potions recipes for you to try.”

“What are you doing in this scenario?”

“Besides annoying the fuck out of you? I don’t know. Reading up. It’s French, Severus! I’ll have an unprecedented opportunity to learn about French things, Petunia’s going to be so jealous.”

At this, he pulls back from her, and rolls his eyes- Literally rolls them.

“Of course you would think about that.”

(Dunderhead, he adds, silently. She hears it anyway.)

“Okay, though. It’s payback for last Christmas.”

“What happened last Christmas?”

“I thought I- Okay, so basically, my parents came and picked me up from the train station, and when I got home there were pentagrams drawn all over the door and salt lining the windows, and at the time none of us knew why, so we go inside, and find my sister performing some discount demon banishing spell she got off, I don’t know, a drug dealer or something. She sees me, and she screams, and then she turns to our mother and says, “I’m sorry, I thought it would work!”. And I was just standing there, right, and then I realize, I was the demon she was trying to banish. It was so Petunia, really, that I can’t even be mad at her anymore, but it… At the time, it hurt really badly.”

“She crossed the line.”

He is completely serious when he says it, and she gets the uncomfortable, burning feeling that he wants to go to her house and punch her sister in the jaw.

“Like I said, payback.”

She leaves it there, but she knows, when she catches him looking at her with this mix of… A lot of things, that it isn’t over for him. Not that she was expecting anything different- Sev projects. Acts like everything bad that happens to her is an end-of-the-world crisis, probably to distract himself from the fact that his entire life is an end-of-the-world crisis. It’s one of his coping mechanisms. His best coping mechanism, actually, outside of the Dark Arts, so she’s more than relieved to see him leaning on it. Still, she can’t help but wish he didn’t look at her like that-

Like. Like she’s something that needs to be protected. Like he’s sorry for her. He should be sorry for himself. But she’ll never tell him that, because even though she knows, he’s made it clear to her that she isn’t supposed to know, or, at least, she’s supposed to pretend that she doesn’t know.

She keeps silent.

Keeps an eye out at the Gryffindor table, instead. Watches as Sirius gets Regulus to send the permission slip to some obscure relative who’s not his mother, because there’s no way in hell that Walburga Black is going to let her son go to some foreign country when he can’t even behave in his own. Potter, meanwhile, is bent over a list of what she strongly suspects to be pranks, mainly, pranks he’s planning for the visit. Remus sits glumly, looking off to the distance at something only he can see.

In the end, Remus is the one that she feels the most sorry for her. He reminds her a lot of Sev, sometimes.

She doesn’t talk to him.

Ravenclaw, as a whole, has decided to organize a foreign trivia competition. Kingsley tries to get her to join, but she declines. She hardly knows any trivia, and she’ll be busy with Sev the whole time, so there’d be no use in it. Surprisingly, a few of the Hufflepuffs decide to join.

Then there are the Slytherin kids.

It seems as though everyone in Slytherin house(Other than Sev)(Hopefully)is gearing up to advance their Dark Arts knowledge over the five days they’ll be traveling. She sees Bellatrix Black chatting with a sneer on her face about all the good curses she’ll be taught that will help her ‘deal with the Mudbloods.’ She sees, too, the slight clenching of Sev’s jaw when she says it, which gives Lily something like hope to take with her.

It’s a lonely week, that week before Beauxbatons. Without Sev. A productive week, but a lonely one, still.

Thankfully, having a best friend means unspoken rules, and unspoken rules means the third to last train compartment. Unspoken rules also meant that, as usual, Sev was there before her, for some amount of time long enough to get unashamedly engrossed in a Middle Eastern magical theory book while she was still dragging her trunk down from Gryffindor Tower.

“I got you Every Flavour Beans.” He says, by way of greeting.

“Bad idea, Sev. They are every flavor.”

“Yes, well. Have fun with them.” He turns a page, and Lily decides that, since they’re going to Beauxbatons and all that, he shouldn’t waste a minute of the train ride reading. Especially not something as dry looking as Middle Eastern magical theory.

She takes his book from him.

“Lily…”

“Come on, Sev! You can’t just get me Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and not be prepared to be looped into a bean eating contest.”

“I don’t like Every Flavour Beans.” He says, as if he’s explaining it to an eleven year old- Funny, he explained it the exact same way when they were eleven.

“Then why did you get me any?”

Suddenly his gaze drops, and Lily curses under her breath. She’s landed on a we-don’t-talk-about it topic. She knows the answer already. Sev’s always done this, ever since he could. She thinks it has to do with the fact that nobody ever got him anything when he was young, that he feels like he has to get things for her.

“I’m sorry. I forgot- You’re right. I shouldn’t-”

“What’s the first one, then?”

“Sev-”

“The first bean. Hand it over, or forever hold your silence.”

Lily has the sudden urge to slap him for giving in so easily. Or do… Something. Press for more, maybe? See how far her luck will get her? But no. It’s never good to do that with Sev. She just has to take what she can get. And what she can get, she’s learned, throughout several years of playing this game with herself, is tricking him into eating a vomit flavoured bean, right off the bat.

“That wasn’t fair, Lily.”

“You’re a sore loser, Sev.”

“Oh, so I’ve lost now?”

“First one to give away the fact that they didn’t like the bean loses. It’s wizard, isn’t it?”

“No. And really, ‘it’s wizard?’”

“You lot say ‘Merlin’ all the time.”

“You lot?”

“Sorry. Our lot. Guess Petunia’s rubbed off on me.”

“Merlin.” Severus says, and she laughs, knowing that she’s won.

Years later, when she looks back on it, it’s the train ride she’ll remember. How they laughed. How they were Lily-and-Sev, and how neither of them knew at all that they wouldn’t be, soon.

#harry potter #fanfic #snily #magical field trip

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slyther-bi · 3 years

Text

Wings to follow

Chapter 2

There's gonna be a time skip. Pretend they're all the same age except for Barty & Regulus who are a year younger than them all. Plus they all have happy families. Don't question me about the houses they're placed in.

Gryffindor: James, Mary, & Barty

Slytherin: Avery, Mulciber, Evan, & Sirius

Ravenclaw: Severus, Regulus, & Remus

Hufflepuff: Lucius, Lily, & Peter

🔹

~6th yr~

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

Severus groaned and grudgingly woke up "It's Saturday, why are you waking me up?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes. Lily smiled and laid down besides him "Because today is a special day Sev! Do you know why??" She spoke with excitement. Severus couldn't help but smile at his friend "Why?"

"Because on this exact day 7 seven years ago, you and became best friends!!" She shouted out "So you and I must celebrate this joyous occasion!! So get out of bed you lazy bum that I love so much!!" She added as she stood up on the bed and began to jump "Get up! Get up! Get up!" She chanted as she jumped off the bed and jumped around the room.

"I'm up, I'm up" He said as he got out of bed "God how do you always have so much energy?" He spoke while looking through his dresser for clothes. Lily laughed "I have no idea but that doesn't matter, I'll wait for you in main room alright" She said to which Severus only responded by nodding.

He began to remove his pajamas the minute he heard the door close and began to put on the clothes he'd picked out for the day. Once dressed he grabbed a hair tie and tied up his hair. Some of it came loose but he didn't seem to mind. He then grabbed his wand and he went to grab a small box from his trunk. It was a gift for Lily something he'd obtain while out in Hogsmeade last weekend. Once he retrieved it, he made his way to the main room.

Lily leaped off the couch once she saw Severus and rushed over to him and engulfed him in a giant hug. Severus chuckled and hugged her back. "Come now, Let's go eat some breakfast" She said as she took his hand and began to lead him to the dining hall.

The pair walked hand in hand to the dining hall without a care in the world. Everyone knew they weren't together, nor were they meant to be together. Why? because Severus's mark never changed color and neither did Lily's. Severus's mark was on his hand so it was impossible to miss, Lily's mark tho was placed just above her hip. It was an owl and Lily had practically checked her mark whenever she came into contact with anyone.

She eventually went about asking anyone she met if they had a jellyfish as their soulmark. Tho sadly it seemed no one had one but that wasn't gonna stop her. Severus tried to convince her that maybe Petunia's soulmate was a muggle but for some reason Lily felt that that wasn't true. Nothing he said manage to get her to drop the issue and he too went about asking his housemates if they had a jellyfish soulmark.

To his surprise a boy, who was a year older and named Danny, had a jellyfish as his soulmark. Sadly Danny had already found his soulmate. Severus frowned at the revelation but he congratulated him none the less and left. He eventually told Lily and she too was bummed.

The pair soon reached the dining hall and stepped inside. They made their way to the Ravenclaw table but Lily stopped midway and squeezed Severus's hand tightly "Let's sit at the Hufflepuff table" She spoke nervously. Severus stared at her in confusion before he looked at the Ravenclaw table and then it hit him.

Regulus Black was there, he was talking to some friends of his while also eating breakfast. A smile appeared on Severus's face, he knew why Lily didn't want to sit there. It's because Regulus just so happened to be her soulmate. They had met during summer after their first year. Sirius had invited the two to spend the summer at his home.

Once the pair had gotten permission from their parents, they left to Black Manor. When they arrived Sirius was quickly greeted by someone who appeared to be a smaller version of him. Sirius eventually introduced the small boy as Regulus Black, his younger brother by a year. Lily was the first to shake his hand and then Severus. By the end of the day Lily had dragged Severus into the bathroom in panic.

She lifted up her shirt just a bit to show that mark had turned a greenish or teal color. Severus couldn't help but gasp. The rest of that summer was spent with Lily trying to avoid Regulus, she had always dreamt about meeting her soulmate. Tho she never expected to meet him at such a young age or that he would be younger than her.

Severus tried to muffle his laughter with his hand, this earned him a smack on the arm. He shook his head and rubbed his arm still smiling. "Seriously? Ever sense you found out Regulus was your soulmate you've done everything to avoid him" He spoke "Why don't you just go talk to him already" He added. Lily huffed and crossed her arms "I will, tho not now because today is our day" She said in a serious tone.

Severus sighed but then an idea popped into his head. He reached into his bag and pulled out the small box that held Lily's gift. "Here" he said and thrusted the box towards her. Lily looked surprised and uncrossed her arms to take the box. She stared at it for awhile before looking back at Severus with a questioning look. "It's a present, for our friendship anniversary" He stated.

Lily felt like tearing up "Oh Sev, that's so sweet. You didn't have to get me anything you know" She said softly. "Oh I know, but I felt like it. Now open it" He said happily as ever, Lily chuckled softly and quickly opened the box. She gasped softly, inside the box was a hair clip. It had a small crown made of gems attached to it and on the clip it obtained the word wonderland on it but it was hardly noticeable unless you looked really closely at it.

She looked back at Severus with tears forming in her eyes. Severus simply smiled "All hail the queen of wonderland" He said softly, Lily quickly engulfed him into the tightest hug ever. Severus couldn't help but laugh as he hugged her back.

"I take it you like the gift?" He asked

"Like it? Severus I absolutely love it!" She shouted out, Luckily only a few people took notice and none of them were Regulus. "But..." She muttered. Severus tilted his head "But what?"

"I didn't get you anything" She mumbled and Severus chuckled. He knew she didn't get him anything, they've never gotten eachother gifts before. They simply took turns paying for everything each anniversaries. So he was very lucky when he decided to buy her a gift. "Oh I know but I know how you can make it up to me" He said and Lily gave him another confused look "How? Do you want me to pay for everything today?" She asked.

He shook his head and grabbed her hand "Nope" he spoke and dragged Lily to the Ravenclaw table. It took her a few minutes before realizing what Severus wanted. She tried to remove her hand from his but was unsuccessful. There was no point in trying to escape they already arrived to the table and to the very person she was trying to avoid.

"Hey Regulus, you remember Lily right?" Severus spoke as he quickly sat down next to Regulus, luckily there was hardly anyone at the table, and pulled Lily onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her waist to avoid her escaping. Regulus turned to face the pair and stared at them weirdly, seeing as Lily was trying to escape. "Uh yeah, you guys are friends with my older brother Sirius. Why?" He said in a confused tone.

"Did you know her soulmark is an owl?" Severus asked and Lily wanted nothing more than to die. Regulus felt his eyes widen at that information "It is?" He asked and Severus made a humming noise in confirmation. Regulus felt stunned, he wasn't sure what exactly Severus was trying to say but it felt like he was implying that Lily was his soulmate. "What does that have to do with me?" He asked nervously.

Severus smirked "Not much, also her favorite animal is a rabbit and her favorite color is orange" He said and Lily hid her face with her hands inorder to avoid people seeing her blush especially Regulus. "Just thought you should know" He added and Regulus was stunned into silence. Why? Well cause his soulmark was a rabbit and it had turned orange a year before he was to enter Hogwarts.

Severus pushed Lily up and stood up himself. He then gently pushed Lily down to where he was sitting before. Lily was simply glaring at him the entire time her face completely red. Before Severus walked away to the slytherin table to talk to Sirius, he leaned in towards Regulus "Also her mark turned teal the day we first went to Black Manor" He whispered in his ear. He straighten up and smiled at the two "Welp I'm gonna go say hi to Siri, by you two" He said and ran off before Lily could attack him.

Severus arrived to the slytherin table and was happy to see Sirius sitting there half asleep. He quickly sat down next to him and grabbed hold of his arm which caused to jump out of his sleeping state in fear. "Sweet merlin Sev, what the hell" Sirius wheezed out, Severus merely smiled and pointed towards Lily and Regulus. Sirius turned his attention to where Severus was pointing and gasped in shock."Did she finally tell him?!" Sirius said a bit loudly as he turned to look at Severus for confirmation.

Severus nodded his head happily and Sirius cheered with glee "About fucking time!" He shouted and Severus couldn't help but laugh. Both he and Sirius talked about the new relationship forming between Lily and Regulus. Eventually they began talking about other things clearly no longer interested in their friends relationship.

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 80: The Unexpected Task

Lily's landing was actually not uncomfortable for once. She floundered in place upon her back, but it was soft material ruffling behind her whatever it was. Worry spiking if this was some sort of trap to compel her to get comfortable, she sat up abruptly, bunching the silk blanket in her hand suspiciously. She found herself in a luxury room fit for a princess.

The canopy bed was baby blue with pink lace, the pillow looked scandalously shaped perfectly for her head, there was even a thin film draping's that were almost see-through and felt cool as rain to the touch, but were blocking out almost all the light. The moment she pushed them aside, they glided away without a second thought, and she could see a window, leading out onto the Hogwarts grounds. She stood at it for a long time, seeing Hagrid's cabin in the distance, and got a strange guess of where she was, but wanted further proof. She got it almost immediately when she passed the trunk at the end of the bed wide open with Beauxbatons uniforms neatly folded inside, and The Book resting on top. They must be inside their carriage then, possibly with Fleur making a larger appearance in the coming chapter.

Inspecting the area just a bit more, she found a private bathroom that resembled a spa more than anything, and would have believed it if someone told her she spent a weeks worth of time just enjoying being by herself and not thinking of anything but how warm the water was, even if she couldn't read any of the french labels. Once she got out she swayed on her feet for a few moments with comfortable exhaustion, for once, deciding that as she'd landed in here and nobody had come to call yet, another good rest was in order. They'd all stopped plenty of times in the past with mutual sleep at hand. It took nothing else to convince her to crawl back into the strange bed and the slightest of tugs had the curtains back around her before she was out.

Frank dithered uncomfortably in the hallway. He'd grudgingly passed several open and inviting beds in the long, candelabra lit hallway just to find Alice, to assure she was alright and this wasn't some weird trap for Harry's next task, but he'd found her peacefully asleep. She'd even found a room with some muggle invention that had music playing from a big black disk she'd figured out how to work, it sounded like a nice string quartet in the whole room. However, he didn't want to assume just because they'd shared a bed together once she'd be okay with it again, especially in even more, ah, private quarters as all of these rooms seemed set for individuals. He'd just turned away and decided to just sleep in the room across, honestly the floor looked comfortable enough to nap on at this rate, when a giggle behind him made him twirl around to see she'd rolled over and was laughing herself silly at him before beckoning him to get in while wiggling to the far side of the bed.

"But Moony!" Sirius whined, managing to sound like an irritable six year old despite being ten years plus that. "Why not just take the opportunity while we can to not have to sleep in the same place as those two wankers, I quite enjoyed it last time."

"Because last time, we hardly slept a wink," he didn't need to elaborate, and was glad they hadn't found the other two yet as he couldn't quite suppress a blush. "We're finding them first you dolt."

They'd already passed several rooms containing their other quest members asleep, and Remus was just beginning to wonder if he'd passed them accidentally somehow when he came across a room with stripped bedding, and now sure at least they were thinking the same as him, he kept his hold on Sirius and dragged him along until he found what must be the equivalent of a living room in a mansion inside this pumpkin carriage. Peter was already curled up on the queen sized sofa, fidgeting with his school tie despite the fact it was loose enough to come off. James was upside down in a squashy armchair Maxime herself could stretch out in, his glasses placed carefully on top but eyes wide awake.

There hadn't been this much awkward silence between the four of them since their first year, those first few months before they'd even decided if they liked each other, let alone would become the best friends they were supposed to be. Both of them still grinned when they entered, and Sirius couldn't stop a small, albeit grudging smile as he shook his head at the lot of them, calling them sentimental fools as he snatched some covers from the floor and padded down in yet another available couch next to the purple lit fireplace that had wine goblets only half empty he'd save for breakfast. Remus barely had time to smile before he too passed out amongst the synchronized snoring, letting his feet tangle together with Sirius' but resting on the opposite arm of the couch.

Regulus stretched languidly as he awoke, still as disoriented as ever to find the light outside was exactly where it had been when he'd gone to sleep, but the comfortable bed had rivaled his own and who evers room he'd borrowed had good taste. There were posters of all of the French National Quidditch Team doing their signature move, the Blitzen Ballet, across several posters, which had been what had drawn him into the room in the first place.

He pulled some individually wrapped macaroons out of his pocket and began eating those as he went through the rest of this persons belongings, finding several textbooks all in French he couldn't follow, but not the book they needed. He didn't really fancy going through every room to find it, but he also didn't want to start until he knew everyone was awake- "The Unexpected Task." He crumpled a purple one up in his hand in surprise all over the blokes belongings. Well, clearly Evans didn't have those same reserves.

James startled awake with a yelp, flopping right out of the chair and confused for several long moments. Whoever would have thought waking up to the sound of Evans' voice would give him heart failure? The others were stirring with only slightly more dignity, he couldn't even blame Sirius when the first thing he did was reach up and snag those wine glasses to finish them off as her voice echoed around them before they'd even had morning tea.

"Evans does an impression of McGonagall telling off Harry too well," Peter groaned, trying to shove the blanket through his skull.

Remus looked like he was trying to burrow into the couch for more rest without comment, and James and Sirius woke up too hungry to really be paying much attention as their head of house held up Ron and Harry after class for something as silly as not paying attention. The two of them were busy trading a basket of fried fish back and forth and lamenting how fast it was vanishing when they simultaneously choked on the cold batter upon hearing no detention was being served, but quite the unexpected task indeed.

"Harry has to wha-?" Remus actually jerked his head free from his cocoon.

"Get a date, and dance her?" Peter repeated, inspecting the sleep he'd rubbed from his eyes as if expecting to find something else contaminating him.

"Or him," Sirius corrected with a suddenly wicked smile, "maybe he'll ask Ron, you don't know Wormy." The snide remark had slide easily from his tongue as he envisioned the fun of Hogwarts hosting something like a dance, it wasn't until he looked over to see his mate blush and stammer at the idea that he really, fully woke up. He wouldn't have believed it five seconds ago himself.

Peter was smiling to himself despite not able to look over at Sirius, and James swooped in to save the awkward silence. "Listen to this poor kid telling McGonagall he isn't going to do it! A books not good enough anymore, I'd pay money to see this in action!"

For just a moment, they all got a good laugh out of that.

They weren't the only ones, Frank and Alice were having their own fits of laughter still curled up in bed. Frank could at least sympathize with Harry though as he struggled to even conceptualize asking Cho out, he'd had a crush on Alice for months before he'd over heard her struggling with Charms and offering to tutor her. Asking her out, outright and to a dance, would have been insanity at that point. They both listened intently for any hint of what Neville would be up to during all of this. As much as they sympathized with Harry not being able to go alone because of his public dancing, they very much hoped Neville would at least be mentioned going with some friends rather than not at all.

Lily was giving herself a very hearty pat on the back for deciding to read this one alone. She was sure it wasn't just her imagination hearing the obnoxious laughter of the Marauders over this adorable idea, barely a teenager Regulus' pompous expression and possibly boasting he'd been trained to waltz before he could walk, and worst of all Frank and Alice's adoring looks at each other. She liked the both of them, more and more as they talked honestly, but her own life right now didn't leave her in a good position to be happy the only two people she could possibly count as friends during all this were dating and she felt like she was a third wheel half the time around them.

It was even more than that, if she were being honest with herself. While the idea of getting to dress up like that for the evening sounded nice in theory, she had about as much chance of going with anyone as Harry did Cho. Her heart sank for the poor lad as his crush admitted she was going with Cedric. Her prospects were even less endearing. Potter would ask her, of course, and anyone who proceeded to afterwords would likely end up in the hospital wing for one various reason or another until the offers stopped for a time again. And Sev...

She flipped the page hurriedly, it would be too obvious now if she stopped to stew over this, someone may come and see where she was and she wanted to actually enjoy this alone chance while she had it.

Regulus listened with the most absent of attention to these teenagers getting turned down left and right, the Marauders laughter echoing out into the hallway as he went exploring the rest of the carriage. Was he the only one who still remembered someone had put Harry in this tournament for more than embarrassing him? Nobody had even bothered to speculate on a suspect in ages, Regulus didn't really buy it was Karkaroff himself. It wasn't improving his mood he'd had no one to talk to in a while now, of course now that Peter had made up with his friends and they were all chummy again he'd go right back to being ignored. He should have known nothing about his life would ever really change no matter how much he heard.

He startled in surprise upon opening the next door as an orange cat came tottering out of the room, immediately twirling around his legs and purring in affection. Shaking his head in disbelief someone would bring their pet on this trip, he bent down regardless and gave a friendly scratch on the felines rump as he looked around once more, finding something new to wonder on. Why was it the pets were usually present? Magical animals as well, he reminded himself with a shiver of disgust at the basilisk. The paintings had all been present to, but he'd have never considered them as people. What was the criteria then for what was left behind as they were thrown around this place? It was something to ponder on at hand anyways, as he found himself sprawled on the floor, covered in cream colored fur while Hermione Granger dropped the surprise she'd gotten a date but wasn't telling who.

The chapter was finally coming to an end with everyone successfully getting dates, and Regulus snorted in disgust, was he the only one not obsessing with romance around here?

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #GoF #Marauders #Wolfstar #Jilly #Regulus Black #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #James Potter #Peter Pettigrew #Lily Evans #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 79: The House-Elf Liberation Front

Their landing seemed to be louder than usual, as Alice crashed into a hard floor once more, she noted how surprisingly cold and smooth it was, and the banging residing all around her as she tried to quickly sit up echoed, along with one person screaming in pain.

She reached up blindly, sensing more than seeing something on her left and trying to pull on it to help her to her feet, but then yelping in her own intense pain as something crashed onto her head. She released it and fell back to the floor, now wincing and cursing in even more pain as she rolled onto her back instead and looked up at a stove. She'd pulled it open on her head, explaining the deep painful throbbing that was occurring, but at least the screaming had somewhat stopped, so as she carefully raised it back up and scooted carefully away to try getting to her feet once more, she was much more careful about how.

They were in a kitchen, a very large one. There were four long islands all with steaming pots, simmering pans, and hot stoves piping away for a fresh meal, and they'd landed in the middle of it. Remus Lupin was across from her, eyes streaming in pain as he rubbed at his freshly burned arm, she winced in sympathy as she realized he must have landed on the overturned gravy dripping on the counter. There was a casserole with hash quickly turning brown in the oven she'd just collided with, and sizzling bacon grease wafted the whole area from the warm fireplace behind them Frank had almost landed in. She hurried to his side while he winced and cursed, brushing soot from his robes and saying how he'd be happy never to be near fire again after all this.

"Who on Earth has a need for this kitchen?" Lily asked in fascination, prodding at a pot full of nearly three dozen simmering eggs ready to be shelled not far away.

"You mean you don't know?" James Potter all but materialized behind her, that same smile back on his face they hadn't seen in quite a while now as he indulged himself in his favorite past time, harassing her.

She just looked to him in silent exasperation, clearly aware whatever she said he'd continue anyways, and so he did. "We're in the Hogwarts kitchen!" The grand gesture he used to say as much was actually worthy of the environment.

Alice had guessed as much, it was a Hufflepuff tradition to find the place without hints from anyone else because they were all told how close it was to their dormitory. So far she'd been slacking on that, but now she'd be the second in her dorm to do it.

"I didn't really think Hogwarts had a kitchens," Frank blinked in surprise. "I thought the food just, appeared."

"It's a Gamp's Law thing, that's not possible," Potter disagreed with a friendly enough smile that still looked superiorly smug to them as he finished, "you'll learn about that in Transfiguration much later."

Sirius Black, apparently deciding a kitchen wasn't dangerous enough he needed to stay as a dog, called out to him as a distraction and he took off with one last lingering look at Lily.

The three Marauders converged around Remus, who was still nursing his burning arm, but then as they looked around they realized once more someone was missing.

Regulus had found himself in what must be the pantry, more food in here than there had been wands at Ollivanders, he couldn't imagine an army going through this amount in several lifetimes. Still, he could hear the others conversations and even louder landings and was traversing the space curiously to get out when he came across the wrong kind of door. It was diminutive to him, but Kreacher would fit through just fine, and this curiosity beat out the others as he knelt down to pop it open. He poked his head in and smiled in delight upon what he found, and considered going in to explore more and keeping this to himself when he heard Sirius start calling out for him.

Hanging his head, but deciding it would be better to heed him than cause that idiot to get into a panic after the last one he just went through, he finally found his way to an almost human sized door and pushed it open instead and nearly ran smack into Sirius.

"You'll never believe what I found," he told him with repressed delight, as he spun back around and lead the way. They all followed him without protest, and had to nearly break their backs to get through the door to find the rows of beds in here.

Each was miniature, most were straight and uniform with a single blanket and pillow cleanly pressed, at least the few dozen rows they saw were. The one closest to them was the only one with a trunk at the end, and it was cracked open, the contents of which were socks of every shape and color neatly folded, along with an odd assortment of clothes in just as fine a state, and the book resting on top.

Lily poked her head in last curiously, finding it almost depressing this place seemed more jail-like than anything. She really felt for Hermione's campaign the more she heard of it, surely these house-elves had personalities they'd like to attach to the meager space provided for them, what was with the one oddball bed Sirius Black was attempting to break as he flopped down on top of with a laugh as it barely fit his rump.

"I'll bet that one belongs to Dopey," a quiet voice muttered behind her, and she whirled on the spot to find Remus Lupin surprisingly close to her, but eyeing his friend affectionately. She snorted in surprise to hear such a Muggle reference from him, quite the rarity in this school for even the populace that did know of such things rarely ever brought it up, as if that would just further define them.

Remus Lupin was now looking at her in just as much surprise, taking a quick step back and giving her a sheepish look. She smiled uncomfortably as she forced herself to meet his eyes, she'd been rather avoiding thinking of him, or rather realizing she now owed an allegiance to either Snape or these Marauder idiots. When they got out of here, would she- should she tell Sev that he'd been right all along...

She startled even harder as Alice had apparently picked up the book and began reading, while the Marauders had quickly grown bored and were now ransacking the kitchens in the span it took her to read out the chapter title, The House-Elf Liberation Front. Frank stayed behind and was eyeing the miniature beds with longing, as if he was contemplating shoving a few together and getting comfortable. She couldn't blame him as she yawned herself, but leaned back comfortably against the wall for now.

Harry was enjoying the company of both of his friends once more on their way up to the owlery, but she found herself to be quite grateful to be down here instead as she plucked a few grapes hanging nearby. It was nice to hear of something so relaxing once more, just Harry sending off a letter to his godfather about how he'd survived, rather than having to hear of him living through said dragon experience.

Invigorated by the fruit, and getting a chill in place from standing in the cool air around all this food, Lily began exploring the endless isles, plucking up jerkies, cheese, and and even ripping off a hunk of bread at her leisure from the schools kitchens as she tried to sort out her life while Harry actually enjoyed this party the Gryffindor's were throwing him in celebration.

Alice was smiling along at the events as well, Hermione getting the twins to tell how to get into the kitchens was the obvious lead up to how they wound up down here, clearly Hermione was going to take them up on that. Then she smiled even more broadly as Neville laughed along at those Canary Creams, ingenious little tricks she'd admit.

Frank was shifting about sluggishly beside her, and she wanted to cling to the good mood as long as she could, so she marked her place and the two began traveling the isles as well, coming across the pastries themselves not long after. The two had a very good laugh about thinking of the twins slipping in some Canary Creams into everyone's morning breakfast, it was certainly the kind of thing they could see the Marauders doing at least, as they helped themselves to a load. After they had their fill, they went back out to the kitchen proper, and she settled comfortably in Franks arms in front of the fireplace to keep going.

It was almost a pleasant experience again, maybe the two of them would invest in this being their studying spot in the future once they got out of this mess. Surely the house-elves wouldn't mind the company? The rest of the group was actually being pretty quite for once as well, likely pigging themselves out while they had the chance in the cupboards, the most chaos that was being caused was from the books and Hagrid attempting to get the Blast-Ended Skrewts to hibernate. It wasn't exactly encouraging, Rita Skeeter showing up again to cause trouble for Hagrid was now inevitable in this future, but thankfully nothing exploded at the moment.

Things even continued in a nice, calm pace as another Divination class was laughed through, Alice really hoped that was an option soon in Hogwarts time for just a nice layabout class. Then Hermione was back with a splash, dragging Harry through the castle, seemingly down to her common room if she wouldn't have guessed the destination already. "I can't believe it's so close," Alice pouted. "I've been a right idiot not to have noticed."

"Cheer up love," Frank kissed her temple, "I'm sure not every Hufflepuff's even found it, not every student sets out to find every secret place in this castle after all."

They all got quite a surprise though when Harry went in, and one elf in particular greeted him enthusiastically.

"Dobby's back!" Sirius said in surprise, nearly dropping the whole ham he'd been trying to shove into his bag.

"Yes Sirius, we heard," Remus rolled his eyes as he popped the last bite of waffle with jelly filling into his mouth.

"That's adorable," James grinned, juggling oranges purely for his own amusement, the peelings of the six he'd already devoured littered across the floor. "I'm glad that insane little house-elf is somewhere not with the Malfoy's anymore!"

Peter only hesitated a moment. Nobody had said anything against him following them down the cured meats isle, but nobody had said anything for it either. If they were just going to go on and pretend this had never happened, well, he could be game with that. "As long as he didn't bring along anymore insane Bludgers with him."

Remus gave him a forced kind of smile, Peter had seen Sirius give Regulus more friendly looks lately than he got, and James just looked sort of sad like he wasn't sure how to respond at all. Of course things couldn't be that easy, but at least they were all trying. They proceeded in subdued silence through the storages of food, stuffing every available bag and pocket silly. It quickly became apparent the strange trunk they'd seen full of clothes had been Dobby's, he worked here now like an actual member of the staff strangely enough. Winky too, well, sort of. They'd honestly forgotten about her, but her interaction was still less strange than Dobby's.

Regulus found himself fascinated at the juxtaposition of Dobby and Winky. He'd climbed up the food wracks carefully, so as not to needlessly squash or touch anything with his shoes, nearly up to the ceiling and casting the ground almost out of sight but found his own preference of delicacies the school only rarely served, including those odd peppermint humbugs. He chewed thoughtfully on the whole house-elf thing this Muggleborn Granger still wouldn't let go, Winky was behaving perfectly normally while Dobby was the odd one out here. He wouldn't lie though, as silly as the idea was of paying a house-elf, he was rather fond of the idea. Kreacher was so lively at just the smallest kind word said to him, was it possible he'd be even happier with a knut now and again? It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

He even found himself smiling as Harry got on so well with Dobby, now that the elf wasn't trying to kill him, and they had a nice chat. Harry found out something odd to do with Crouch even, though no details from Winky, and Regulus hoped the others really heard what had just happened as well, something he'd figured out long ago. Kreacher was a wealth of information on things his parents didn't like to talk about, he'd learned almost as much from chatting with his elf as he did from them. He hoped all the others listening realized they weren't just invisible servants like so many others seemed to think. The bite of leftover bouillabaisse he'd been sampling got stuck in his throat a bit as he realized this was once again something he'd been so different about other purebloods on, was it really just his fate to be different from everyone?

Sighing with distaste that had nothing to do with the foreign foods, he stored an extra can of kippers into his pocket and went back to mentally memorizing where in the castle the kitchens were, he'd definitely love to make a return visit.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #GoF #Jilly #Wolfstar #Marauders #Regulus Black #Peter Pettigrew #Remus lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Evans #James Potter #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 73: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang

"Holy hobknockers, this place is amazing!" Sirius couldn't stop the delirious burst of happiness that possessed him to start shouting and running around the deck. Of a ship. A pirate's ship! In the middle of Hogwarts lake?!

The air was fresh in his face, streaming his hair behind him as he whooped with enough joy to possibly even tantalize the mermaids at the bottom of the lake to come above and see. He began latching onto ropes and swinging about, trying to haul himself into a crow's nest, and then taking off down below to try and see through a porthole before anyone else could even get their bearings.

"Should we, stop him?" Remus asked in mild concern. "I certainly don't want to know what's going to happen when he figures out how to work a cannon."

"Why would they even have a cannon on here?" Alice asked in extra concern behind them.

"Why is it here at all?" Lily countered prodding the massive wheel in front of her, then flinching away as if fearing the slightest breeze would send the whole thing capsizing.

"Well obviously Hogwarts is going to be attacked by pirates, can't be the arrival of the other schools," Regulus rolled his eyes as he trailed up from below, rubbing his head.

They could all still hear Sirius shouting like a loon from below decks, but they all spread out regardless to find the book with extreme curiosity, not one of them had ever had this experience, and as nothing was trying to kill them, they'd at least enjoy it while they could.

Alice found Frank happily swinging from a hammock below decks, grinning with that smile she'd missed so much lately. He invited her up into it, and the two spent another few moments giggling at the feel of it, though unable to imagine sleeping in such a thing.

Peter had landed in what must have been the galley, sending a sack of potatoes rolling around and a half-eaten sandwich upon the floor. His stomach rumbled just a bit, and after only a few moments hesitation he shrugged and began collecting the fallen spuds and washing them in the basin.

James and Remus found Sirius in the cargo hold, which also seemed to be some sort of improvised classroom of sorts. Books were lined along the lower shelves, several instruments they could identify on the top portions. Remus glanced along the nearest paper, but frowned in confusion upon finding it in Bulgarian so had not a clue what could have been going on down here. The two exchanged a look before deciding to stay regardless, and instead waited patiently for Sirius to finish inspecting a porthole and the lake life beyond rather than acknowledge them.

Lily decided to stay up on the deck, shivering a bit at a gust of wind, but smiling regardless at the stars above and admiring a view of her school she hadn't properly seen since her first night here, riding across this very lake. Hogwarts castle was as imposing as ever, she could still flashback to riding that boat with Sev, the two in awe along with the rest of the first years at the sight. Out on the grounds, Hagrid's hut could be seen, and something odd in front of it. It almost looked like a carriage, and horses perhaps, but they must be quite large to be so easily spotted from so far away. She began pacing across the deck in fascination as she looked up at the sails and the wood creaking beneath her feet, it would almost be spooky if she were here alone.

Regulus found himself in what must be the captain's quarters. There was a grand bed in the corner and an open bottle of rakia half-drunk beside a book on the desk. Upon closer inspection, it was the exact book Regulus needed for this to continue, and with a curious enough feeling he flipped it open to find his chapter did indeed live up to his assumption.

"Beauxbatons and Durmstrang," Sirius nodded without surprise, finally turning around to acknowledge the two. "Want to take a gander who brought this?"

Remus rolled his eyes, of course Sirius hadn't taken a look at any of the papers or books with the language hinting at an answer.

They hovered in slightly awkward silence as Regulus' voice echoed around them of Harry writing a note to Sirius to try and dissuade him from returning to this very castle. Sirius was wrankled slightly Harry thought it a bad idea coming back, he would think it obvious he'd want to be around his godson to help and was more than pleased at James' reassuring smile saying he fully agreed with his best mate. Remus on the other hand looked very hesitant, and Sirius decided he'd rather have Moony get it off his chest now.

"Well go on Moony," Sirius sighed and waved at him. "I know you've got the reasons I'm an idiot listed alphabetically by now."

"And laminated," Remus agreed, ignoring his confused look. "I do wish you'd be more careful, I'm not going to deny that, but it's not as if anything I've ever said dissuaded you from doing anything regardless. Either of you." He hesitated, then added softly, "any of you."

Sirius and James flinched and didn't look at each other for a moment again, but Remus cleared his throat and continued with purpose, "look, you two need to work out what your problem is, then all three of us can go and talk to Peter. It's not as if we can avoid him the rest of our life because of this."

"I don't see why not," Sirius said petulantly, but for the first time not as if he meant it, the smallest kernel of pity finally lodging in him. He could still vividly recall how alone he'd felt when all this began, because he'd made a horrible mistake he still didn't know if Remus would forgive him for. Then, under the light of that Dark Mark, he could no longer deny it hadn't been entirely Peter's fault...he was at fault for the betrayal in some way...

"Well I do," James snapped back defiantly, and Sirius took a quick step back like he expected to be hit in the face again. His nose still looked a bit swollen from that. "We never even heard his side- our Peter's," James finished when Sirius opened his mouth. "That book, yeah alright that future guy said why he did it, but you know what our friend's been doing this whole time? Exactly what I asked, giving us some breathing space, just like you were for nearly a month Sirius."

Sirius winced and didn't deny that.

"I think it's high time we let him say his peace." James concluded.

"I don't know what you're hoping he's going to say, to make it better," Remus sighed. "Even if he promises he'd never really do it, how much can it mean? Now, well, we'll always wonder-"

"Are you going to spend the rest of your life afraid Sirius is going to send Snape into your den the next full moon?" James harshly shot back.

Remus answered immediately, "no, he clearly regrets that." He bit his lip for a moment before half lying, "that's, what we talked about back in the Leaky Cauldron. I forgive him."

"And Peter doesn't deserve the same?" He gently tried to cajole. "For a crime he hasn't even done yet."

The two exchanged an uneasy look, but Sirius would be lying if he tried to say he wasn't now looking for anger rather than feeling nothing but as he responded, "it's not the same Prongs! I didn't actually get anyone killed! He did, you!"

"You almost did though," James crossed his arms, but hesitated as he wouldn't deny, "you think I'm looking forward to talking to him? You think I've forgotten any more than you? I just," he swallowed uncomfortably as he heard the news Professor Moody would be putting the kids under the Imperius Curse for extra training, the miracle that was his and Lily's future child and what all he was having to survive through. "I'm willing to try."

With that he left, he couldn't force them to do the same.

Remus stepped closer to Sirius now that James was out of sight, hesitating only a moment before rubbing a hand up and down his back and leaning down to whisper for him alone, "I hope you really heard all that."

"Every word," Sirius sighed, shoulders still slumped in defeat, pressing his forehead into Moony's shoulder rather than having to look him in the face. "Prongs is too damned forgiving though," he muttered one last-ditch reprieve for getting out of this, he already knew it had worked. He'd...try.

"That's one thing he and Evans have in common, hell, it's why he continued to put up with you after the first day," Remus say with an almost cheerful voice. He stopped in surprise and sniffed curiously at the air. "You smell that?"

Sirius dragged his face away from the warmth, but did indeed scent the air, and wouldn't deny his grumbling stomach the pleasantness of it as he grabbed his hand and squeezed for a moment before dropping it and taking off.

They found Evans, Smith, Longbottom, and Prongs already in the galley with massive bowls of a hearty stew. The two were quick to join in, but the three Marauders were the quietest and slowest to eat, all eyeing the door and ready to drop the delicious meal the moment they saw a particular someone enter. They wouldn't deny this time they'd drag him off to finally have it out...whatever it turned out to be.

"There's stew down below," Peter told Regulus as he finally found him perched comfortably in a captain's chair, feet propped up on the table and a bottle of alcohol with a third of it missing.

"No thanks," Regulus shrugged without concern as he flipped the pages, finding in Harry's story the arrival of the foreign students was indeed upon them. He knew he'd regret this later, but he only had a mild appetite for now, it certainly wasn't enough to entertain all others who would be attracted to the same.

"Thought you'd say that," Peter shrugged, before setting down one of the two bowls he'd carried around. "Don't worry, I can eat both fine."

Regulus tried, and failed to hide a smile of delight. The only person who'd ever brought him food before was Kreacher. It didn't matter how sick he was, his mother had always fussed over his table manners during dinners more. He gingerly dragged the warm bowl to him and took a tentative slurp, then dug in with gusto while still reading with just a bit more of a quick pace now. He wanted to be done eating before Sirius or his rotten friends showed up to ruin this good mood he was in.

Peter ate quietly beside him, not adding anything, though he'd been all for laughing about all sorts of things Harry got up to when he'd been hanging around Sirius and their lot. Regulus still wasn't sure what he hoped to gain from avoiding them, but he couldn't claim to be any better as he was now doing the same. It was their turn to do something about this.

The two did exchange a very curious expression as yet another instance of the twins up to something was again passed along, neither of them would deny they were abundantly curious what those two trouble makers were doing, but neither still felt much of a need to speculate on it, the two redheads reminded them too much of James and Sirius, not a duo they wanted to linger on.

Regulus did stop in mild admiration of Hermione Granger trying to keep the attention of a whole house on the acts of what house-elves do. He liked the company of his own, more than most of the people in his home some days, and could almost see her point the ones at Hogwarts should be thanked more, but Kreacher loved his life and the family he served. This little Muggleborn was merely showing her ignorance of what she was trying to pretend they needed a better life, it's no wonder his mother and father thought ones like her shouldn't be associated with real wizards, they had no idea what a real wizards home was like.

Then Sirius wrote a reply back to Harry saying he was back in the country already and safe as could be, and Regulus couldn't deny the breath of relief. He chanced a side look at Sirius' friend who wasn't bothering to hide any such thing, pushing some now soggy potatoes around the bottom of his bowl and chewing on his lip. Neither of them still wanted Sirius dead after all the rotten things he'd done recently, but could he say the same about them?

Finally the chapter was reaching its end and the other schools were really arriving, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic landing first with apparently an impressive display. He supposed it might have been in person, but all he really felt was grateful they got to enjoy this cool ship rather than some smelly old horses for this experience.

He sat up properly in his seat as he reached the final section, and read rapturously of the magnificent boat arriving, and paused for several moments to wonder dreamily if this vast vessel could really take them away, anywhere they'd like. Sailing may even be better than flying...

He heard shuffling footsteps downstairs and rummaging around the deck and scowled, realizing the minute peace the two of them had achieved themselves was about to be interrupted, and he'd rather do that on his own terms as he hurried to finish. The last little shock indeed surprising that Viktor Krum the International Quidditch player had been aboard this ship and he hadn't even the chance to see his quarters before they all vanished.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #Marauders #GoF #Wolfstar #Jilly #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Peter Pettigrew #James Potter #Lily Evans #Alice Smith #Frank Longbottom

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 50: Snape's Grudge

Sirius at once lost his feet upon landing and face planted a puddle of foul smelling green sludge. No matter how much he tried to spit it out and wipe his face clean, the mess clung to him. By the time he'd at least cleared it away from his eyes and mouth, he got himself onto all fours and looked around to see what should have been a familiar site.

He was on the very outskirts of Hogsmeade, a place he and his friends frequented far more than the others of Hogwarts and possibly even the villagers themselves. He'd spent more times having adventures in every nook and cranny of this place than even doing homework, if one could believe it. This particular spot, and what it looked down on, meant more to them than words could express. The Shrieking Shack stood in the distance, the measly fence guarding it off, the sheer drop and magic bordering one from going inside through any of the blocked off windows or available door were quite powerful to one who didn't know what they were doing. There was melting snow upon the ground and puddles of mud every few adjacent feet, perfect for a prank to pull or vanish at a moments notice.

His friends were the ones he was having trouble recognizing.

They had not landed near each other at all, but each held the same expression of shock that was quickly growing into something Sirius had no desire to look at. His breaths were coming out in short, sharp little panting gasps, as if he'd broken a rib. He wished the Devil's Snare were strangling him again, or even better, a venomous tentacula. He'd rather be back in a dragon's cave than fight his blurry vision and see what he knew would be there on his real family.

"Sirius, you daft idiot, how is eating mud any solution to this?" Then there was a warm hand thumping him on the back, a kind voice affectionately telling him to stop being stupid, and James' hand hovering in front of his face.

"How the hell are you lot still," words wavered off, Sirius didn't know how any of them could stand to be around him after what they'd just heard. That didn't stop him from clinging to this while he could, taking Prong's hand and only staggering for a few moments before his feet steadied beneath him.

"I don't know what to make of the madness of this future," James brutally told him, expression defensive as he scanned around for the book, but he gave Sirius' hand a reassuring squeeze before dropping it. "I do know it hasn't happened yet though, so would you stop panicking about it every other second please?"

Sirius spat out one last glop of mud and still gave a slight grin. "Yeah, I'll try."

"If you manage it, Moony will owe me three galleons," Peter smirked. "We've a running bet you can't go longer than three days without freaking out over something."

"Define freaking out," Sirius huffed with an exaggerated pout.

"Shouting and your general presence are the commonly accepted terms," Remus shrugged. "He almost won last year actually, until you found out it was Wormtail who ate your Potions homework and our deer friend graciously played partisan and gave me the win."

"Aha!" Said Marauder had wandered off from their babble and managed to spot the book resting in a nearby tree. He scaled it the Muggle way for the onlookers.

"I will never understand those four," Lily muttered, shielding her eyes from the sun and waiting for Potter to fall from the tree any second. Maybe he'd land on his fat head and deflate it a bit. "They really can laugh off anything, even attempted murder on each other."

"The kind of friendship we should all aspire for," Alice shrugged.

Lily flushed slightly in unease, thinking if rolls had been twisted slightly and Sev had ever done anything of this scale to her, she couldn't forgive such a thing. The way he was acting now was inexcusable, and the chapter title Potter declared only promised things weren't going to get much better.

Regulus listened to the school in controlled chaos because of his brother and couldn't decide who he was more impressed with, the Sirius of the future getting in and out of that place undetected after a debauched murder attempt of his best friends kid, or his idiot brother smiling along at the events now. Chest out, hair swept over his shoulder, pride rolling off of him in waves for managing such a stupid move. Would they still be acting like this if that was the end of the story? If Sirius had really killed Potter's kid, would they all go back home and pretend none of it had ever happened?

He wondered, not for the first time, just what their most recent fight had been about. Something equally as bad as nearly getting an innocent killed? How many times would Sirius get away with this before his friends cast him out? Regulus knew, even if Sirius had done all those horrible crimes, at least he'd still forgive his brother. He never did anything without a good reason, and was continuously amazed the three he called his brothers seemed to feel the same. Would his friends do the same if he suddenly told them he was having questions about their future plans?

Frank listened intently to the kids interpretation of why they thought Black hadn't murdered Harry when he had the chance, and didn't take to the idea. If he was mad enough to be breaking into this school at all to exact these plans, surely his way out wasn't on his mind, just the murder itself. So either Sirius wasn't as mad as everyone was saying in this future, or they were still missing something.

He forgot everything else when he heard his poor son was in the most trouble for all this. His indignation at McGonagall's treatment of him grew with his fury, he had half a mind to get up to that castle and tell her off for this the second they got back. As if he was the first child to lose a password or let another student into the dorm, he shouldn't be punished for Black's doings!

When Hagrid's note arrived and they went to visit him, Alice huffed impatiently at those two forgetting about Buckbeak as much as they seemed to everything that wasn't a Firebolt lately. Just because it wasn't their responsibility didn't negate they'd offered to help. She was glad they had Hagrid in their lives all the more when he straightened them out about how they'd been treating Hermione, someone needed to tell them that sooner rather than later.

Hermione threatening to turn around and tell McGonagall about Harry's new found map wasn't garnering much sympathy though.

"What a snobby little brat!" Sirius huffed. "Can you believe this is the same kid who brewed an illegal potion last year."

"She's trying to keep her friend safe," Remus shrugged in some defense. "She's not going about it the right way, but I give her credit for trying." He didn't seem to have convinced any of his friends, but they were also the ones who ran around with a werewolf once a month. Safety wasn't often their first concern.

Alice and Frank were all the more unsympathetic to Harry's wanting to sneak out here again by trying to ditch Neville to do it. It was obvious their son was wanting a friend to be around and Harry was only thinking about what he wanted, couldn't he at least invite Neville along? He wouldn't be like Hermione and go tattling his first chance, of that they were sure.

James at least got some enjoyment of Harry's time through Hogsmeade now, especially his trip inside Zonko's. Then his son ended up here, on this very spot, and he looked around with fondness as he tried to imagine the scene. Him and a red haired kid instead just having a laugh, or him and a son who looked so much like him but with Lily's eyes as he told of the grand adventures and tails of the Marauders. He glanced at Lily and saw she was merely ignoring them, playing with her hair in agitation and clearly wishing he wasn't out there at all. He sighed and wondered what it would take for her to start daydreaming the same.

Then Malfoy arrived, and while his friends began muttering in frustration for that prat ruining their spot by his mere presence, James had the kind of grin that automatically had Lily narrowing her eyes at him once more for whatever nasty prank he was thinking.

She didn't have to wait long as Potter described the following fight with glee, along with Harry's invisible revenge. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and went as far away from them all as she could, beyond words this child kept resembling his father, always trying to solve every argument with underhanded tactics. She only listened with vague interest as Harry went off same as Malfoy for the castle and was still left wondering how Snape and a grudge of his would be involved even as he appeared and dragged Harry off to his office.

He belittle and accused him, but that was nothing unusual. He even brought up the same thing Dumbledore once had in his own light, about Potter supposedly saving his life, but now sharing more it had been some prank gone wrong. Her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed suspiciously when exactly this had happened. Surely it wasn't the exact same instance Snape had told her about only last month.

It wasn't until Lupin was called in that she got her first hint of what was coming. She knew Snape's suspicions about him and what the Marauders got up to and still laughed at Sev's crazy ideas, but his reaction to the same man now full grown almost made her want to laugh. If this was the grudge being referred to, it really was a bit pathetic he couldn't let an old schoolboy resentment slide for a fellow college. Lupin was acting the same in this future as he did now really, avoiding everyone given the chance, why did Sev care so much?

She wasn't getting an answer as Lupin talked Snape out of any punishment, but then proceeded to berate Harry himself.

Lily watched from afar as the Marauders shifted with further unease as one of their own invoked Potter's name. Seemed she wasn't the only one unhappy with the way their future friends were acting.

Hermione ended the chapter with the gory announcement Buckbeak's death had been sentenced. If only that were the worst thing going on right now.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #Reading the books #Marauders #PoA #Snape's Grudge #James Potter #Remus Lupin #siruis black #Peter Pettigrew #Regulus Black #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith #wolfstar #Jilly

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 44: Flight of the Fat Lady

It was an, interesting space, to say the least. They all recognized they were still in Hogwarts, a quick peek out the window confirmed it was a windy day on the schools grounds. None of them automatically recognized the room they were in though.

There was a tank sitting in the corner filled with murky water, though nothing discernible inside it. Remus went over anyways to peer in, Sirius following along so he could eye the books on a nearby shelf, all titled after Dark creatures. Frank went over to riffle through the desk, and found assignments already marked for DA lessons.

"Wow," Peter was turning slowly on the spot, taking it all in. The worn briefcase still sitting pleasantly on the edge of the desk, a chipped teapot and an empty goblet still steaming off to the side. "I think we're actually in Professor Lupin's office."

"Eerie," James muttered agreement. "Somewhere Moony's going to be one day, that we never are." They both shivered and went over to where their friends were for a distraction. Remus had found the book amongst the others and was continuing the tale. "Flight of the Fat Lady? How odd, where do you suppose she's going?"

"Don't know, she's never been known to dodder off before," Sirius said without concern.

"You've always threatened to chase her off when she pretends the password has been changed," James reminded with a laugh. "Maybe you finally go through with it." He had taken great comfort so far Sirius hadn't been mentioned anywhere near the castle, clearly whatever he was up to had nothing to do with Harry.

Sirius laughed in agreement, and to everyone else it looked like they hadn't a care in the world.

Alice tried to catch Lily's eye and see what she thought of this newest place, but she still seemed distant, playing with strands of her hair and looking everywhere, and no where. The narrative certainly wasn't helping this along, if anything it was making it all worse. The Marauders were yukking it up, hearing one of their own made such a great teacher that the students all loved. Alice was honestly quite pleased with Lupin and wished she could find some way to thank him for how he'd treated Neville, giving him a way to stand up to Snape, even a fake one.

"We don't have to talk about him," Alice said quietly as more of his bitter personality was highlighted. The red-head pulled even tighter into herself, as if trying to shield herself from the words. "It seems a little hard to get away from this though." She finished with as much sympathy as she could, admittedly it wasn't much, she didn't know anyone who was being such an arse to everyone around him.

"It's not him though!" Lily said at once with passion. "That's not my friend, never how I've known him!"

Alice bit her lip rather than respond, but then Potter whirled on the spot and snapped, "well it's high time you see the side of him everyone else has!"

Frank couldn't help but wince and step away from the lot, out of the line of fire.

This was understandable, as Evans predictably shot back at once, "just because you lot feel the need to curse-"

"No!" Potter snapped back, and there was none of his jovial tone, the light in his face showing how much he enjoyed her attention now. "You don't get to accuse my best mate of being a murderer never even knowing him, but still defend the biggest bully in this school! I've been trying to get you to see that for long enough!"

Lily just stood there, looking far more stunned than any spell could accomplish. Finally she flipped her hair and stalked away, but not before snapping, "good! Good riddance! It's what I've been hoping you'd do for the past five bloody years!"

Potter looked genuinely surprised at such a reaction, rocking back on his heels and turning to face his friends again in confusion. "For one second, I actually thought I'd gotten through to her."

"Shouldn't have made it sound so final mate," Sirius offered helpfully. "Now she might actually not be expecting you to start up again."

"Plan for a sneak attack," Remus offered quietly, causing the four to laugh again. The book thankfully took a turn with their mood, talk of Quidditch and Wood's even more persistent attempts at a winning year.

It was depressing Harry would be missing the first Hogsmeade trip, but Peter very, very quietly whispered, "hope he, ah, winds up there anyways," with a promising look at James. He nodded to himself, quite agreeing his son deserved to get in there no matter what means. It would make his day for a son of his to find a certain secret passage.

Arguments were lighting up everywhere, even in the book now as Ron and Hermione's problems with their pets was highlighted through a romp around the common room with Crookshanks and Scabbers. Peter in particular shivered for that, it had happened a few times by accident and wasn't something he'd wish repeated.

Hermione wasn't winning points back with any of the Marauders as the day went on and she was so callous about hearing of another kid losing her pet rabbit back home.

"I swear, Hermione seems like more of a self-centered prick than that Lockhart!" Sirius scowled in frustration for the sobbing kid. "Who picks now of all times to hammer her point home, can't she offer a bit of sympathy!"

"That's rich coming from you," Frank raised a mock surprised brow. "Considering the only emotion I've ever found in you was contempt, or juvenile euphoria."

Sirius scowled, his hand twitching for his wand, until, "just because you and that Muggleborn agree on the flimsy premise of Divination doesn't give you a pass to start acting like her Longbottom," Regulus called from the window, slumped down so far in the shadows he was nearly invisible. "I know for a fact you and Smith thought she was being too harsh a whole book ago, no need to over stew yourself and come out warped," he finished with a smug expression.

Frank rolled his eyes, unimpressed, while Sirius was beaming at him. Regulus was no longer looking at either of them, eyes back out the window and completely uninterested as Lupin stuttered Harry's way through an attempt to get McGonagall to allow him to go anywhere without a permission slip. Everyone knew how that was going to turn out.

The mood only grew worse about the room as Harry was left to himself as his friends departed. No one envied those who were alone, and Frank pushed past the group of four roughly so that he could join Alice giving a comforting chat to Lily. The two began sharing their favorite spots out in Hogsmeade, and after a little cajoling Lily finally opened up as well and joined in with a half-decent smile, effectively not bringing up Snape's name.

Sirius only hesitated for a few moments before waving Regulus over as well. His little brother looked pleasantly surprised, hesitated a few moments himself, before coming over to join them.

"So, I've been thinking about this from how you would Sirius, and perhaps what happened-"

"Oh can we not!" Sirius said at once, his tone cracking with well disguised strain. To anyone outside of this circle, it wasn't even noticeable. "I wanted to have a laugh about Filch! Come, please tell me you've some stories about snubbing him!"

Regulus rolled his eyes and already looked like he was regretting coming over here. Lupin coming into the story again and offering Harry to come into this very room only marginally improved his mood, he was hoping Harry would find some detail in here he'd missed about what was going on this year.

"Oh, it's a grindylow!" James said in surprise, turning back to the tank and now tapping it enthusiastically. "You've hid him too well Moony, I can't see him back behind all that seaweed."

"I'm sure I'm just letting the little thing be comfortable till class, then I'll likely take that out," Remus offered.

James smiled with ease that conversation between Harry and Remus flowed so smoothly. Well of course it would, any kids of his would get along with his friends! He was surprised he hadn't heard more about this! Why hadn't Moony gone and sought out Harry? Well, the same reason he hadn't for the past thirteen years...which James had no good reason for. Her pursed his lips tight and fought off the urge, again, to bring this up. He shook it off and instead enjoyed what transpired between Harry and Remus, until Snape came in.

"Gah! Can't go one bloody hour without wanting to hex him lately," Sirius scowled.

"Sadly, I'll have to agree with Black on this one," Frank muttered quietly. The guy had some rotten timing, Lily had instantly gone back to her reserved and stand offish self. She flared a bit at hearing Frank's mutter, but wavered at the look on his face. Clearly he didn't regret saying it, at all. She couldn't help but think, were they the ones missing something here, or was she?

They all stiffened and looked around the room suspiciously, until Peter nudged his friends and gestured to the goblet he'd previously noted. He no longer thought it housed tea.

Sirius licked his lips nervously, taking a step closer to Remus. "He, wouldn't really poison Moony with a witness about, would he?"

"I mean, who would believe Harry if he did?" James muttered. "Dumbledore already hired him knowing what he's capable of."

Lily's eyes grew wide in disgust at their minds, then narrowed in horror as her own mind trailed off in wonder. What on Earth had caused Lupin and Severus to become cordial? Possibly just time, the two actually growing up and maturity rendering civility? She could hope, but she wondered if it wasn't something else. Just last week Sev had once again been going on about the Marauders and how they were hiding something. Had he finally discovered what? Her friend clearly still hated Potter in this time though, why not Lupin? Then her mind again went to the rest of his friends, to Black. Who was now on the run for murder.

Her mouth went dry, she almost screamed but stopped herself at the last second. She'd previously suspected the two old friends could be in on something together but had tried to brush it off for one of them being at school, but how could Sev have been roped into it? Was he still just trying to know, or had he done more and figured it all out?

They were all left with more questions than answers as Snape departed as mysteriously as he'd come, and the fact that Lupin seemed even grateful as he drank what he himself described as a 'disgusting,' potion clued in no one. The Marauders knew something, the other four were all positive of this, but clearly not enough for an answer judging by all of their worried expressions.

Lupin was the most distracted of all, he kept glancing out the window so frequently it was as if he didn't even realize he were reading about the Gryffindor portrait being attacked until Peeves arrived, and then they were all wired with attention and worry until the name was given. Sirius Black had struck again.

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #Marauders #PoA #reading the books #Wolfstar #Jilly #Regulus Black #Sirius Black #James Potter #Peter Pettigrew #Remus Lupin #Alice Smith #Frank Longbottom

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halothenthehorns · 3 years

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All in the Family

Chapter 19: The Worst Birthday

While they had finally begun to accept, even anticipate, but still never quite get used to that soul wrenching feeling of being pulled through time and space because another chapter had finished, they'd taken that last one with a grain of happiness it would be their last!

Then they all groaned in misery to find themselves not back in their Potions class, not even back at Hogwarts, but back at Number Four, Privet Drive!

"What the bloody hell!" James howled in a temper at once, pulling his wand out and reducing the nearest bush to leaves and roots, then turning his wand on the next without thought.

"That should have worked, we should be back at school," Remus agreed, massaging his abused rib cage and genuinely not understanding why they'd still be trapped out here.

"Maybe, maybe we just got sent back to where we first teleported," Alice tried to offer, going to the back gate and trying it with actual hope again. It refused to swing open, Frank tried to hop it and found this impossible.

"Argh!" Lily snarled, running her hand so hard through her hair she came back with strands in her nails. "This is the last place I wanted to wind back up at, even if this bloody cycle had to continue!"

"I'm sure you're not the only one," Regulus muttered.

With a heavy sigh, though all feeling rather resounded to the fate they'd clearly be stuck like this longer, they began searching for the stupid bloody book, though honestly with no idea why. It shouldn't have anymore to say.

This was a spacious backyard, neatly mowed ruler straight and trimmed hedges all along the back fence, though now with the exception of a few smoldering and threatening to set the whole place alight. The sunlight above already made this a blistering heat of day, the grass dry despite it's clear care, even the garden shed was highly polished on the outside but seemed to gleam threateningly. James was distracted at once by stepping inside and losing track of what he'd been looking for in favor of studying all these odd tools, though this time refrained from touching anything with his fingers still sore.

Peter chose to scale the side of the houses decorative vines for a view, was unsurprised to find he couldn't get very far when on the slanted roof and couldn't even cross to the front of the property, but caught his eye on something he hadn't quite been looking for.

"I think I know what the problem is," he told them as he fished out of the gutters a book of pure green, only the little silver two on the spine distinguished it from the leaves. "We seem to be flashing through the rest of Harry's years."

"Please tell me that is a miserable attempt at a joke," Sirius groaned as he sagged onto the nearest bench, still rubbing at his bruised throat.

"Well, I've found his second year, so I'm guessing not," Peter sighed, making himself comfortable up here and reading out the chapter title to prove his point. Given where Harry was, he imagined all of the kids birthdays were the worst, but wasn't looking forward to finding out about this one in particular.

James hoisted himself up there with him for kicks, and the others just settled themselves resignedly in the grass. Evans went over to the concrete patio, but chose to ignore the chairs and instead crossed her legs on the warm ground and tied her hair up in the evening sun. Frank and Alice lounged against the wooden fences, holding hands and just hoping this one went by without anything closer to alive foliage beneath them. Remus sat himself beside Sirius on the bench and tipped his face back to the sun, closing his eyes and wishing he were back at the lakes edge rather than this place as his friend began.

Sirius couldn't help but notice how much he'd filled out this year, from the thin gangly teen. Not quite as much as the rest of them, Remus' health would always be rather stunted, but the warm light on his face actually highlighted the light brown of his hair rather than the few gray bangs he had, the scarring more shadowed than prominent for once. He grinned at just how relaxed Moony managed to appear during all of this, though his good mood wasn't destined to last.

It certainly didn't start much fun at all, no one wanted any further reminders of what those Dursleys constantly did to Harry, putting him down like this all the time. The argument was stupid, no way could they get rid of his owl, and the Marauders in particular were being restless for not even being able to wreck the Dursleys things in retaliation for it all this time. They suddenly weren't even sure if what they'd done to the inside of the house was still there, did the effect they have on the place they were in remain like it did to them?

"If they think magic is that bad a word, I've got some real headliner news for them," Sirius scoffed.

"You do need to keep in practice, you haven't had a chance to use them on your parents in ages," Remus agreed with a small smirk that dimmed the sun. Sirius couldn't help but lean in closer, grinning just the same, happily escalating this with details of what he would like to give them knowledge of.

Peter couldn't help shifting uneasily closer to James as Harry reflected back on all he'd learned of his previous year, as if they'd forgotten. It was as much news to them as learning of this boy's potential existence! He envied Padfoot and Moony down there, trying to chat their way through this bit!

Prongs, to his credit, tried to brush it off by plucking some leaves out of the gutter and enchanting them to float down on the others. He had the first few batches float down in the shape of a heart to land around Evans, who completely ignored him, which was just a tiny bit of improvement over shooting a hex back. He then spent the remainder of this recap trying to shoot them up unsuspecting noses, muttering all the while for Peter alone it was actually a shame Snivellus wasn't here, his was the largest target.

Peter managed an appreciative titter, James always had found every way to make things seem better, even helping along to ignore his own death sentence.

"Rotten, filthy Muggle, locking that kids things away," Regulus grumbled as he watched his brother and friend on the bench. The two had been quite chummy lately ever since they'd made up, leaning so close together they looked as likely to brush hands as Longbottom and Smith over there. Regulus had almost hoped for just a second Sirius would pull his head out of his arse and remember to agree with him back in this place what a waste the whole species was like he had last time.

It was clearly not going to happen, the two conspiring over there for possible further torment of them or anything else Regulus just hadn't a care to listen to. He burnt an incoming leaf to cinders and thought Potter should count himself lucky he didn't turn the spell on him next.

"I think at this point they don't even know Harry has a birthday," Alice scoffed in disgust of these people treating a kid like that. "I've heard of happier child hoods from-" she cut off when something went whizzing into her mouth, and she spat a leaf out in disgust.

"You arse Potter," she snapped, having already batted away three of them and quite done with his antics, ready to raise her wand in retaliation by now.

He merely hooted with pleasure and wound up for another one.

"You do realize you're only helping the Dursleys, cleaning that out for them," Frank pleasantly called back, at least causing him to freeze in his actions before finally lowering his wand and muttering in disgust.

"Thank you," Alice sighed, leaning back and giving his hand a gentle squeeze. "Maybe we should spend the rest of the time reading around these places, there must be a way to continue to throw that logic at him."

"One can only go so far in tutoring before it ends with beating their head against a desk," Frank disagreed.

"Also sound advice for him, so there's really no down side," Alice concluded lightly.

Lily couldn't help but crack one eye open curiously as Vernon announced it an important day, not that she could ever delude herself by now thinking he'd actually grown such a thing as a heart, let alone a brain about what should have been important that day. It didn't stop her wondering what he could deem important and how she could make sure it never happened for that disgrace on the animal kingdom. A ruddy business deal? She closed her eye again and tried to pretend that Pettigrew's nasally voice was non-existent again, just trying to enjoy the sunshine and not relate to how miserable Harry was feeling. How alone he seemed to feel all the time at this place, and it was all his own family's fault- no! She couldn't think about that now, or she'd burst into tears in front of these people, most of whom she couldn't stand. Sev wasn't here, so she'd just have to tough it out on her own and refuse to let her mind revisit her own summers in a place disturbingly similar to this one.

Those leaves were actually helping, though she'd never admit it to Potter. If she concentrated very hard, she could just be back in her forest, surrounded by trees, waiting for the world to return back to normal at school, just like Harry, where her real friend was...at least while she could still hang around with him, when he wasn't also trying to chat up with so many other terrible people, and she just couldn't understand how he-

"They what!"

She sat up so fast she created a mini-whirlwind of the leaves around her and barely noticed, wand drawn on Lupin's outraged face. "Hermione and Ron forgot his birthday? That's ridiculous, they'd never, not after all they'd been through!"

She almost would have laughed at his personal offense to this if she didn't honestly agree, and had to backtrack a bit to really hear what she'd been trying to block out, and then couldn't even blame him for the outburst. Merlin, no mail all summer, what had gotten into Harry's friends?

"Surely we're missing something," the elder Black pacified, looking more confused than anything. "Hermione wouldn't have an owl most likely, and maybe Ron's parents have to use theirs too often to let him borrow it..." the excuses were flimsy at best and they all knew it. It truly made no sense, and the swell of pity around all of them for this poor kid having no one to acknowledge his birthday, even worse humming the tune to himself! Even her home had never gotten so bad!

"Oh good, I needed a distraction," Potter said from above in an all to familiar tone, but for once in her life Lily couldn't even blame him. She detested the little birks attitude of taking his problems out on others, like her friend, by hexing anyone he felt like. Yet in this instance, she got it. She wanted to curse Dudley to, for being the embodiment of all Harry's troubles! She'd restrain herself of course if the little ponce was put in front of her, drawers dropping or not, but it was almost as much a revelation to her to feel empathy for Potter as to still wonder what Harry had seen in that bush.

Then the real jaw dropping moment came in for everyone else, that poor kid nearly getting his head bashed in with a frying pan. Regulus couldn't give it a second thought but for a bit of empathy, maybe that kid would learn to keep his mouth shut like he had. Instead he remained focused on the inconspicuous, lone little bush behind his brother, the only one Potter hadn't destroyed upon first arriving. Regulus had well learned his lesson from the last book, and he wouldn't again let himself be so easily distracted as everyone else so clearly was, throwing all kinds of abuse around about all the chores Harry was to do. Regulus would have thought at least Sirius could blow the whole thing off as well, they may not be doing chores at their own place but the treatment wasn't unfamiliar to the two, but no, he was just in much of a temper as everyone else.

It was pathetic getting so worked up over something that wasn't even happening, leaving Regulus alone to wonder what had almost happened to the young Potter in that bush. Another attempt at return of the Dark Lord? If so, should he even say anything about it, but instead actually try to find a way to help it along. After all, if this future did happen, if he found a way to help someone so powerful in fact gain another strength in a sooner return to glory, maybe he could stop little boys from ever again feeling afraid in their own home, because there wouldn't be any fear left. The Dark Lord would make everyone an equal, and filthy Muggles like this would be a thing of the past.

Pettigrew finally warned that the first bit of this ending was nigh upon them, and Regulus did all he could to brace himself for whatever good that wouldn't do, admittedly as intrigued as anyone by the final line telling him he may not be far off. Who would be in Harry Potter's bedroom in a place like that?

#Harry Potter #fanfiction #Marauders #Wolfstar #CoS #James Potter #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #Peter Pettigrew #Regulus Black #Frank Longbottom #Alice Smith #Lily Evans

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