Making Plans to Sneak Out at Night Again
The train pulled into the station, and Lily got off with her friends. "Lily, look! Why are those Slytherins all black and blue?"
Mary tugged at Lily's sleeve. Lily followed her gaze and saw a bruise on Snape's face. Her suspicious gaze drifted to James, Sirius, and the others. Their robes were rumpled and disheveled, and there was dust on their hems. The truth was clear: the Marauders and Snape had clashed again. She just didn't know what it was over this time.
It wasn't until the welcoming feast was over and everyone had returned to Gryffindor Tower that Lily heard the whole story from someone else. The Slytherins had insulted Sirius first. Well, then it was the Slytherins' fault.
Slytherin had provoked them first, but Gryffindor had struck first. Both sides lost fifty points and received two weeks of detention. Gryffindor's rubies had gone into the negative before they'd even begun to earn any. Getting the Marauders to earn points in class was harder than climbing to the heavens, so Lily had to earn as many as she could in every lesson. After a week, the points in the hourglass finally returned to positive numbers. Professor McGonagall watched Lily from the staff table with satisfaction. Wonderful!
Meanwhile, tensions in the outside world were growing. Voldemort went from one major pure-blood family's banquet to another, courting the Blacks, Malfoys, Rosiers, Notts, and other members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Walburga and Orion Black supported him wholeheartedly, and Bellatrix was a fervent admirer of Voldemort. Lucius Malfoy had already sworn allegiance to him in private as a teenager. Large numbers of older Slytherin students were brainwashed, spreading the idea of pure-blood supremacy in private and promoting Voldemort's views at school.
Snape was no exception. He often gathered with Mulciber, Avery, and the others to discuss it, and even experimented with all sorts of Dark Magic in private. Lily saw it all. Should she stop him? How? He couldn't possibly give up what he wanted to pursue just because she said something, so she might as well pretend not to see it. Once, while they were brewing the Draught of Living Death together in private, Snape spoke as though he were merely mentioning it in passing. "I've been studying advanced magic."
Lily didn't stop measuring out the ingredients. "Isn't that a good thing, Severus? I remember you've always wanted to learn advanced spells."
"It's not white magic." Snape didn't stop tending the fire, either. He merely stole a glance at Lily out of the corner of his eye, waiting to see her expression and her reaction. "If it's not white magic, is it grey magic?"
Lily really didn't want to lay it all out like this. Perhaps their positions had been different from the start; from the moment they were sorted, the two of them had stood on opposite sides. "I've been studying Dark Magic." A large part of why Snape could say it outright was that he wanted Lily to accept his ideas. He wanted to grow stronger, and he had taken action to that end.
"Will you distance yourself from me because of it?"
Lily fell silent. What could she say? That she wouldn't distance herself from him because of it? That wasn't in keeping with her original character. "Severus, you know I'm a Gryffindor. As we see it, studying Dark Magic should be an unforgivable thing."
Yes, she had double standards. At this, a certain someone whose Dark Magic puzzle was fully lit up nodded to herself.
"If I asked you to stop hanging around with those Slytherins, would you stop studying it with them?"
Snape knew the answer was no. Even if Lily tried to persuade him, he probably wouldn't listen. "No."
"Then you don't need to ask me. Everyone makes their own choices. I don't understand yours, but I respect it. I only hope you'll change your mind in the future." Lily continued sorting the ingredients.
Snape fell silent, and the two exchanged no more words for the rest of the brewing session. He didn't know how to begin, while Lily wondered privately why he had suddenly taken the initiative to tell her about it.
Not long afterward, the Quidditch tryout list was posted on the noticeboard. James confidently signed up with Chalmers. Chalmers naturally knew about James's flying skills: he was an impeccable genius, a sure bet to make the team, and the tryout was just a formality. "I knew I could join the Quidditch team."
James had just finished the tryout and become a Beater. Why did he want to be a Beater? Because a Beater's core duty was to protect the Seeker, and the Seeker was Lily.
Sirius had both hands tucked into his robes. "With your flying skills, if you couldn't make the team, I don't think anyone in Gryffindor could play Quidditch."
"Of course," James said, strutting along. Lupin and Peter followed behind the two of them. "We have to celebrate tonight, celebrate you joining the team."
Sirius suggested they all go to the kitchens that night, their newly discovered place to forage for food. By the time they entered the castle, it was already dinnertime. Before the four of them reached the Great Hall, they saw several Slytherins bullying a first-year Hufflepuff. "Is this textbook yours? Why do I think it's mine?"
Wilkes tossed the book with a wicked grin, while the Hufflepuff trembled. How could the Marauders, who loved punishing evil and promoting good, let people who picked on the weak get away with it? They quickly rescued the trembling first-year. "The Slytherins have been a bit too arrogant lately." James kicked Wilkes aside where he lay on the floor, displeased.
"Isn't it all because of that person?" Sirius impatiently stepped over Wilkes. Because he had rebelled against his family and grown close to Muggles, the entire Black family regarded him as a traitor. Everyone in the family stood on Voldemort's side.
Over the past two years, targeted attacks on Muggle-born witches and wizards and Muggle families had gone from sporadic to routine: late-night raids on Muggle-borns' homes, destruction of houses, threats against their families, public humiliation in the streets, and attacks on Mudbloods. Quite a few people had been maimed by curses. The Ministry of Magic deliberately played down the reports, and the Daily Prophet glossed over the attacks. Ordinary witches and wizards could only learn of the tragedies through rumors, and everyone feared for their own safety. Muggle-born students gathered into small groups, and Lily and her roommates walked to and from class together almost every time. The atmosphere between the houses grew increasingly tense.
Naturally, Snape and Lily's time together was affected as well. They spent less and less time brewing potions together in private, but remained on friendly terms.
The Quidditch season gradually got underway. Chalmers's frantic training made Lily think that, if he had been born in the next generation, he and Wood would surely have had plenty to talk about. Almost every practice left her aching all over. That was fairly normal, really; after all, Chalmers had been this much of a Quidditch fanatic since her first year.
Even someone as energetic as James was nearly exhausted. "Lily, have you seen Remus? I heard Professor McGonagall say he went home because of something happening with his family, but there can't be something for him to go home for every month, can there? And it's always on the fifteenth." James held his Nimbus 1500 in his left hand and casually pulled up his robes to wipe his face.
Lily knew it would soon be time for the Marauders to discover that Lupin was a Werewolf. "Maybe there really is something at home he needs to go back for. If he hasn't told you, that means he doesn't want you to know."
"But we're thinking of him too. What if we can help?" James had made up his mind to find a clue that night about what was happening at Remus's home. "Come with us. It's not like there's anything else to do tonight. We'll go outside the castle and see if Remus has come back."
"Let's talk about it tonight. Besides, not everyone has nothing to do at night." Lily didn't know whether she should get involved in the Marauders' internal affairs. She wasn't a Marauder.