Summer Vacation Was Almost Here
The situation spiraled completely out of control. Neither side would back down, so Lily had no choice but to turn and go find Madam Pince.
Gritting his teeth, Snape continued to fight back, sending several fine streaks of black light at the two opposite him. James nimbly twisted aside to dodge, then flicked a Bubble-Head Charm back at him. Pink bubbles filled the air and plastered half of Snape's face, making him cough violently. Sirius seized the chance to circle around to his side and, with a wave of his wand, sent all the books on Snape's table flying. Pages fluttered through the air, filling the entire library.
"Everyone, stop!" Lily hurried back with Madam Pince.
James kept his neck stiff and glared at Snape. "He was the one who jinxed Remus first. We were just fighting back to protect ourselves."
"You were clearly the ones who deliberately took turns bumping into him first!" Lily turned and glared at James. She still couldn't understand why he harbored such deep hostility toward Snape.
Snape wiped the foam from his face and gave James and Sirius a cold glance. His shoulder was still aching from the elbow strike. He gave a low grunt. "Not once have they ever done it by accident."
The final punishment was fifty points each from James, Sirius, and Snape, who had fought the hardest. The three also had to take turns serving detention in Filch's office until the end of term.
Lily looked at the Gryffindor House hourglass, its points suddenly reduced by a huge amount. Ah, her heart hurt. It was all Potter and Black's fault. Why had they gone and picked on Severus for no reason?
After the clash in the library, Lily simply moved all her revision to the girls' dormitory. She knew perfectly well that Snape was frequently harassed by the Marauders because she always asked him to study with her. It was better to spend less time together in private for now. Once summer vacation began, they would have plenty of time to study Potions together.
Lily no longer appeared in public as often or spent time with Snape, which instead led James to mistakenly believe that she was deliberately avoiding Snape to stay away from him.
Meanwhile, Snape's situation grew increasingly difficult. One real fight after another rapidly honed his spellwork, and he fought with a calculated ruthlessness. Even four against one, he held his own completely.
Lily did everything she could to make up for the House Points the Marauders had lost while burying herself in exam preparation. The final Quidditch match of the season had long since ended, and Gryffindor had secured the Quidditch Cup. Thanks to her outstanding performance on the pitch, she had always received special attention from Professor McGonagall.
After the last feast of the school year, the sisters packed their luggage and boarded the express train back to King's Cross Station. Lily and Petunia sat on one side, with James and a thoroughly reluctant-looking Sirius directly opposite them.
James warmly invited the two of them to visit his home over the summer. "You can come stay at my place for a while if you have time."
Sirius slumped back in his seat. "The moment my mother sees me, she'll lock me up at home. I won't be able to get out at all."
James turned to Lily, his eyes full of anticipation. "What about you, Lily?"
Meeting his hopeful gaze, Lily hesitated, first shaking her head and then nodding lightly. "If I have time, I'll probably come."
James wasn't entirely satisfied with that answer, but he was still in high spirits, drawing Sirius into planning the Marauders' adventures for the whole summer. Beside them, Lily and Petunia chatted about their final exam results. Lily, who had come first in their year, was still a little dazed.
"I actually came first in our year. I always thought the top spot would go to a Ravenclaw student. Everyone in Ravenclaw is especially devoted to book learning."
"You work hard enough yourself. The professor for every subject praises you all the time, so first place in our year should have been yours anyway." Petunia answered calmly as she leafed through a third-year textbook.
"Of course I know I work hard." Lily leaned over and looked through the textbooks they would study next year with Petunia.
She was really looking forward to summer vacation. There were so many things she could do, oh, except use magic. But there was a loophole in that law: she could use magic wherever an adult wizard was present.
The express train pulled slowly into King's Cross Station. Lily and Petunia carried their luggage off the train and spotted Mr and Mrs. Evans waiting on the platform from a distance. "Mum, Dad!" Lily ran a few steps and threw herself into Mr Evans's arms. Petunia took her time saying goodbye to the schoolmates who had shared their carriage before walking slowly toward her family. "Petunia's back too. You must both be exhausted after this term." Mrs. Evans looked her two daughters over gently. "Mum, I missed you so much." Lily turned and threw herself into her mother's arms.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Snape carrying his luggage alone, intending to walk back to Spinner's End by himself. She hurriedly called out to him, "Severus, Severus! Come back with us. Have you forgotten our Potions workshop?" Snape stopped in his tracks, silently changed direction, and walked over to Lily's side.
He bowed slightly and greeted them politely. "Good afternoon, sir, ma'am." Mr Evans asked no further questions and led the three children to the car.
On the other side of the platform, James watched through gritted teeth as Snivellus got into Lily's family's car. Damn it, why did Snivellus get to ride in the same car as Lily? Sirius patted him on the shoulder in consolation. "Keep at it, James. Hurry up and beat that Snivellus." As soon as he finished speaking, a House-elf stepped forward, took hold of him, and Apparated away from the platform with him.
Inside the car, Lily began talking to Snape about potion formulas as soon as she sat down. "The Draught of Peace. A lot of injured Aurors at the Ministry of Magic rely on it to recover." "Yes, but the ingredients are hard to gather." Snape paused, then listed them in detail. "You need moonflower juice, powdered Unicorn Tail Hair, and dried salamander skin."
"You can buy all of those at the Potions ingredient shops in Diagon Alley. They're not exactly rare, are they?" Lily had recently restocked in bulk, and the workshop had ample reserves of all kinds of ingredients.
"Yes." A trace of satisfaction welled up in Snape at her words.
He now had a Potions workshop, and having joined Tales of Blossoms, he would soon receive his first quarter's share of the proceeds from their partnership. The substantial earnings would give him a better life. Of course, that had nothing to do with his alcoholic father or his mother, whose life had already been filled by his father. Keeping those two from starving to death was already enough to count as fulfilling his filial duty.
"There's another potion," he said, a hint of fascination in his voice. "Amortentia, recognized as one of the most dangerous potions. It smells different to everyone, like whatever they desire most deep down."
Lily's interest was instantly piqued, and she was eager to try it. "That sounds interesting. We could absolutely brew some, turn it into perfume, and put it on sale at Tales of Blossoms."
Petunia sat beside them listening to their conversation, her brows tightly furrowed. She could only feel that Snape was gradually leading Lily to focus all her thoughts on strange potions. "I can lend you my notes. They record the properties of every fourth-year Potions ingredient and the proportions in which they counteract one another," Snape offered. "That's wonderful, Severus." Worried that Petunia would feel left out, Lily put aside her conversation with Snape for the moment and turned to go over Tales of Blossoms' monthly turnover with her sister. She also discussed with her father a plan to expand the supermarket chain into a large department store.
The car soon reached the town of Cokeworth. Lily and Petunia went home first, while Snape also had to return to Spinner's End for a while. At dinner that evening, the sisters shared one story after another about the fun things that had happened during their year at Hogwarts. Mr and Mrs. Evans listened attentively, and whenever their father asked a question, the sisters always answered clearly and methodically. Their mother cared only about whether they ate well at school and slept comfortably in their dormitory.
The Evans family had never had a rule against talking at meals or in bed. They all felt that sharing their daily lives over a meal brought them closer together. "Petunia and I both placed in the top three in our year this time!" Lily didn't forget to take the opportunity to praise her sister. "Looks like we have two little top students in the family." Smiling, Mr Evans pushed a plate of pudding in front of Lily. The sweet dessert instantly caught her attention, and she set aside all thoughts of schoolwork and Potions for the moment.