Illusions of Reality

Illusions of Reality
Bargaining on Invisible Evil

Kids are very interesting. The way they have unboundless energy, the way they can find answers, and questions, to seemingly everything, and above all, the way they interact with each other. I never expected to get married, or have kids, or be the family man at all. Just to work for the ministry, play the bachelor, and more or less, raise hell all over the world. I got as far as Spain; Barcelona, Spain to be exact. At that time I was Minister of Foreign Affairs, and so was Alajandra. Small, dark, beautiful and sharp tongued.

I knew enough of her language to be able to understand all of her witty remarks about me. Unfortunately, I was also smart enough to realize I had, as Muggles say, "fallen head over heels." Which is the most accurate thing to describe that since the first time I laid my eyes on Alajandra I lost my footing and the world turned upside down as I fell all the way down the Ministry's stairs. She tried to help me up, not a smart thing to do when you are laughing as hard as she, and wound up "falling" also.

Our courting was a strange one. We had that Love/Hate relationship, and then add on the distance. I was in London and she was in Spain. But somehow ... it just clicked. And during one of her visits to London, I slipped a ring into her chocolate frog. She laughed until she cried and then cried into my shoulder. I was nervous as hell and having her crying wasn't exactly comforting. But she said yes. She kissed me and said yes.

After a little debating, we decided to stay in London. It had the largest Ministry base and she was longing to leave Spain. Neither of us particularly wanted kids, which was strange because my new job was Minister of Student Affairs, and I was now in charge of a ton of ... children. Not that I minded much; the little tykes were interesting, to say the least.

Then Alajandra announced to me that we were pregnant. She was bleeding radiance as she told me and had never looked more beautiful. At that moment I wanted that child more than anything in the world, because it was coming from inside her. And anything that came from Alajandra had to be perfect.

He was. On March 30, our son, James Potter, was born. His hair was Alajandra's black.

He had her piercing black eyes also. His skin was fair, like mine, and his hair was unbelievably messy for a newborn. By the time he was two he was already wearing glasses. I guess he had my eyes after all.

We moved to a new village around James's third birthday. One that had many kids James's age. He fit in right away with a young ... rambunctious child named Sirius Black. The two of them looked remarkably alike: small, dark-haired and with fair skin. Sirius was taller, though, and his eyes were a clear sort of pale. Like water.

Soon after, two more boys fell into the group. Chubby, blonde-haired Peter Pettigrew and brown-haired, golden-eyed Remus Lupin. Once in a while Remus's twin sister, Gwyn, would join in and wreak more havoc among the four than I care to recall. And that was life. The life I had never wanted, but now couldn't bear to live without.

I learned to observe my son and his friends, their little group which they called "the Marauders." My fault, really. I had caught them sneaking out of my house on brooms to try and raid Gwyn's room. I called them a bunch of marauders and sent them all home. The name stuck and now they have "Marauder Robes" and "Marauder Meetings" and ... well ... it's kind of intriguing.

Finally, it was time for my son and his friends to go to Hogwarts. Only a few more weeks. James was wondering what Muggle-born wizard would be staying with us this year. I replied there wouldn't be. It would be a Muggle-born witch. I doubt he's forgiven me. Personally, I don't see how anyone could dislike Lily Evans. James seems like the only one. She and Gwyn have formed a fast friendship, which is good. Gwyn needs female companionship.

It's time for Diagon Alley. Lily is practically bubbling up excitement, Sirius and Remus are discussing what sort of jokes to buy, Peter was finishing breakfast, Gwyn was trying to plait and coil Lily's red hair and having much difficulty, and James ... my James was sitting in a corner glaring at Lily. I smiled at him and turned to look at the wired-up Lily Evans, wondering if one day she would be my daughter-in-law.

~*~

Diagon Alley... no place like this. Except maybe Hogsmeade, but that's only what I've been told. Never actually been there. But I will, before I'm a third year. There have GOT to be secret passages there. Well, I know there are secret passages. Remus told me that they planted a Whomping Willow over ONE of the passageways so that he could safely get in and out of Hogwarts on Full Moon nights. So, there have to be ways.

Peter says to just be careful. I say, "Peter, dear, dear Peter. I am Sirius. Careful is not in my vocabulary." Which it isn't. James would usually be with me on this, but, alas, James is too busy moping over that Evans bird. So Remus is helping me plan. For the voice of reason, Remus is pretty wicked. Gwyn must have rubbed off on him a little. Some of the ideas he said I would have never thought of. And that's saying something... I mean, placing dungbombs in every toilet and having them go off in such a way that would sound like "Ode to Joy" is quite fascinating...

Ah, Mr. Potter has decreed that we are ready to go. Peter is done pigging out, Gwyn has succeeded in coiling Lily's plait around her head, and James has not stopped shooting Lily daggers. All is right in the house of Potter. Hand me the Floo powder, sir, I'm ready to fly.

~*~

Ha! She doesn't even know how to use Floo powder! Stupid girl. She thinks she's so great, that everyone loves her. That she's so beautiful, with her blood red hair and catlike sparkling green eyes ... ugh. Girl ... stupid girl. I bet she doesn't even make it to Diagon Alley, like, she goes to Knockturn Alley instead. Serves her right. Stupid girl.

There she goes, coughing and sneezing and gagging into the flames, as green as her eyes. Not that I notice, of course not. Stupid girl. I guess I better go next, see if she was smart enough to find it.

"Dad, me next."

"All right, see if Lily made it there in one piece, okay son?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I mean it, James. If she's not there, you and Sirius go look for her. If you still can't find her, do not let Sirius go to Knockturn Alley. All right?"

"Whatever you say, Pop."

Dad rolls his eyes and holds out the pot. I grab the powder and throw it into the flames.

"Diagon Alley."

~*~

I don't think I'm in The Hillock anymore... I don't even think I'm in Diagon Alley. Where's Sirius? He was supposed to be here waiting.

"Sirius! Where are you?!"

I'm whispering, so I doubt he can hear me. I don't want to yell in this place. It's dark, and creepy. Someone's here; I've got to hide.

"Good evening."

"Good Evening Mister Malfoy, young Mister Malfoy, and, young Snape, is it not?"

A tall man with silvery blonde hair is standing by the counter. A boy who looks like a miniature clone of the man is looking about the shop, while another boy with oily black hair examines a book on potions, extremely nasty ones I bet, by the look of the book. Oh gross, is that blood on it? Human blood? That's just disturbing.

"Excuse me, Miss, can I help you?"

I jerk my head away from the book and stare up at a man with a hump on his back and a patch over one eye. The silver-haired man is staring at me intently; so is his clone. The oily-haired boy is raising an eyebrow and smirking at me. Slowly I pick myself up off the floor and straighten the robes Gwyn let me borrow, the ones too small for her and slightly too big for me.

These people must be bad wizards, the Dark Arts. Gwyn had explained it all to me. Okay, all I had to do was pass myself off as one.

"I'm looking for an invisibility cloak. My father told me I could find one here. Do you have one or will I have to search elsewhere?"

I was surprised. My voice sounded extremely cold and authoritative. If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was evil. The others looked surprised as well. The silver-haired man looked at me curiously. "Who's your father, girl?"

His voice was cold and made shivers tickle my spine, like sharpened nails on a blackboard. Match the tone, the stare. "What makes you think I'm going to tell you, sir?"

My eyes met his and I stared at him. He raised an eyebrow at me and looked at the shop keeper. "Well, show her the cloak. What are you waiting for?"

~*~

Where is she? Lily was supposed to be here before James, and she's not here.

"James, where is she?"

"How am I supposed to know where she landed?"

"I bet it's Knockturn Alley. We have to go get her before she runs into something unpleasant."

"Let's not get caught, Sirius. My Dad said not to."

Sirius raise his eyebrow's at me, and I realized what I had just said. Shrugging, I drew my cloak tighter around myself and glared at Sirius.

"Let's go."

~*~

"Here's the cloak miss. Try it on."

Wow ... this is one gorgeous cloak. It feels like water. Quickly, I slipped it on and turned to stare into the mirror. I wasn't there. This was amazing.

"How much?"

The shopkeeper turned around from where I had been to where my voice was. "Well, invisibility cloaks are extremely rare, and hard to come by. I've had this one here for many years. It's unbelievably expensive. Nothing less than 1,000 galleons."

My jaw dropped, and I was grateful for the cloak covering me. Mr. Potter had exchanged all my Muggle money yesterday and explained what all the Wizarding money was. I knew I had plenty, but not 1,000 galleons. "You expect my father to pay 1,000 galleons for what you all but told me was an 'old cloak'. I mean, I could just slip on a silver cloak after drinking an invisibility potion and say it was an invisibility cloak, couldn't I? And that would cost much less then this piece of enchanted cloth."

Thank you, Gwyn. I owe you everything.

The shop owner turned again to stare down the hall where I was lazily flipping through the potions book and trying not to gag. He was about to respond when James and Sirius burst into the room. The owner and silver-haired man turned to stare at them, greatly annoyed at being interrupted. Hmmm ... this could be interesting. I took a breath and tried to imitate the silver-haired man's voice again, to sound evil and authoritative. "Ignore them. You're in the middle of a discussion. Unless, of course, you want this old cloak to grow even older in your back closet?"

I could see James and Sirius looking around the room. They didn't recognize my voice.

The shop keeper seemed to struggle with a decision "900"

"In another world. This thing isn't worth more than 300."

"You're daft. 800,"

"400,"

"700,"

"600,"

"500."

"Deal."

The man seemed to smile, then realized his mistake and turned as red as my hair. I threw the potions book at the oily-haired boy and slipped off the hood of the liquid cloak, leaving my head to seemingly float in midair. James grabbed Sirius's arm and tried not to scream. Sirius raised an eyebrow and came over to me. His voice was a hiss in my ear.

"You don't have that much to spend on a cloak!"

James smiled and reached into his bag, pulling out 500 Galleons. "I do. And I've always wanted one. This is a steal. After all, I already have all my supplies. Dad got them for me free."

I slipped the rest of the cloak off and handed it to the hunchbacked man. James placed the money on the counter and the angry shop owner placed the cloak in a black cloth bag. James took it and turned to smile at Sirius and me. "Let's go."

I turned to follow them when someone grabbed my shoulder, holding me back. The grip was hard and felt like ice melting down me. I tried my hardest not to scream and shiver as I turned around. It was the silver-haired man.

"Not so fast, girl. I am Magnus Malfoy, this boy," he gestured at the small clone, "is my son, Lucius Malfoy. That is his friend, Severus Snape. Who are you and your friends. This time it is not a question to be skidded."

I took a collective gasp deep inside me and gathered my strength. I appeared to be offended and angered as I shook his hand off my shoulder and backed away. "I thank you for the introductions of your own, but you will receive none from me. Only when and if I wish you to know whom I am and my friends are, will you find out. Do not presume to order me to do anything Mister Malfoy. We will be on our way now. Good afternoon."

I knew I could not stop to look back. I pushed the door to the shop open and grabbed James's robe with my other hand. Sirius hurried after us as we all but ran down the dirty street.

~*~

"Lily, what the hell do you think you just did? Do you have any idea who that man was, or where we are, or what I just bought?"

"Let's see, I got you a steal on that invisibility cloak. And no, no, and yes."

I glared at Lily and tried to hide the cloth bag under my robes. Sirius was rolling his eyes and clapping his hand on Lily's shoulder.

"Yes, you did. Magnus Malfoy, an extremely rich and important wizard. Knockturn Alley, a very dangerous place. And an unbelievably rare invisibility cloak."

Lily turned to Sirius and smiled, her hands trying to smooth the coiled plait around her head.

"Thank you Sirius. I don't presume to think that James will thank me for getting that cloak down to 500. It's just not in the cards."

I turned down the alley marked "Diagon Alley" and started to look around for my father and the rest of the gang. I shot Lily a look for an instant and kept my voice monotonous. "Thanks for bargaining down the owner, Lily. I've always wanted a cloak."

"Gee, you sound grateful."

Sirius laughed and threw his arm around my shoulders. "Don't push it Lil. Take what you can get."

"Oh, I will Sirius."

Again I turned to throw sharp daggers at the two with my eyes. Lily and Sirius tried to cover up smiles with looks of mock-fear before dissolving into muffled giggles behind their hands.

In truth, I was extremely grateful to Lily. I had been saving up to buy an invisibility cloak for years for as long as I knew about them. I had reached 600 galleons, and now I was down to 100. But I had my cloak. And while I knew I would probably have to share it with Lily, unfortunately and that I was more than willing to lend it to the Marauders, and maybe Gwyn, I honestly didn't mind. I had my cloak.

~*~

"There they are, Mr. Potter!"

Honestly, how could Lily loose herself in Floo powder? I've heard of it, but never actually thought that someone as smart as Lily could actually do it. Well, I hope I taught her enough that if it was Knockturn Alley she could bluff her way out of it.

"Lily Evans, how did you get lost and where did you end up?"

"Ooh, well, I guess I didn't say it clearly enough..."

"Uh-huh..."

"Oh come off it Gwyn, I've been raised by Muggles."

"Ah, forgiven. Now, let's go get you robes and supplies. We'll see you later boys!"

Mr. Potter placed a hand on my robes and drew me back. "Just a second, ladies. Lily, are you okay?"

Lily smiled and twinkled her odd jade-colored eyes. "I'm just peachy, Mr. Potter. No unimaginably awful things happened to me."

"All right then ... have fun and don't spend all your money."

"I won't! Bye!"

I grabbed Lily and proceeded to drag her away from the group. "Tell me everything now."

Lily laughed low and smiled evilly. "My dear Gwyn, where to start..."