The Marauders; A Generation

The next day had been Christmas and so most of the school had gone home, including all the second year Gryffindors. Lily had locked herself up in solitude the whole time, not wanting to speak to anyone, not even her own parents. When the students finally returned back to Hogwarts, it was the second day of school that Lucius finally got up the courage to head up to Gryffindor tower when somebody blocked his way.

"Hello Lucius." It was Arvan, he'd taken the first day off school after Christmas - no one knew why. Perhaps he just liked to make an entrance.

"Hello Arvan," Lucius said, trying successfully to hide the bundle of nerves that he was.

"You know of the events that happened last week do you not?" the older boy asked him, narrowing his eyes.

"I do, and I just can't understand how it happened," Lucius said, looking the sixth year straight in the eye. Arvan looked back at him, without blinking.

"So it wasn't you then? Because someone let the headmaster in on our little plan, and they foiled us before we could even lay a finger on the woman," he said, looking at the younger boy pointedly. Lucius looked shocked at this accusation.

"Of course it wasn't! I've been serving our lord from the beginning! Do you think that I'd befriend a mudblood any other way?" he said, feigning disgust. Arvan regarded him for a moment.

"Possibly, if you started having unmentionable feelings for the mudblood in question," he said bluntly. Lucius stamped his foot on the ground.

"Arvan, it sickens me to have to touch that filth, but at least now I don't have to fake niceties any longer-"

"Actually. You're wrong. Since the plan failed, you are required to continue with your friendship until Ms. Potter has been ... dealt with," he said, narrowing his eyes again. Lucius take a deep breath. He hoped to the gods that Lily was speaking to him ... not just for the sake of their friendship, but also for the sake of his life.

When Arvan had finished with him, he walked ahead and turned around a corner, bumping into someone along the way. It was Lily.

"Lily!" he gasped. Oh gods, had she been listening?

"Uh ... when did you get here?" he asked. He didn't notice that she was clenching her fists, trying to stop the tears from coming, but she gave him a hard look.

"Oh you know, I just walked down about two seconds ago," she said, feigning airiness. He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh okay ... um ... how have things been?" he asked. Lily was still looking at him, her green eyes hard and devoid of emotion. He tried to ignore it.

"There was a Death Eater attack on James' mum. She's alive thankfully, but we're just trying to get to the bottom of it," she said. He gulped then chided himself. Malfoy's did not 'gulp'.

"That's horrible Lily ... I hope she's okay ... and uh ... Potter too, I mean, James," he stuttered. She was hitting very close to home. Lily herself couldn't even begin to believe that Lucius was lying so blatantly to her face. How could she have trusted someone so deceiving? Never again. But now was not the time to let him in on the fact that she actually knew what was going on. She'd made a promise to herself that when the time was right, Lucius would pay, and he would pay extremely badly. Taking a deep breath she tried to soften the look in her eyes and relax her stiff stance.

"Thank you Lucius ... we were all very worried ... how have you been?" she said. He seemed mildly surprised at her change of mood.

"I've been well, Christmas was good, how about yours?" he asked. She shrugged, and it didn't look like she wanted to say anything more. A few awkward moments of silence passed and Lily cleared her throat.

"I've got to go see Professor Dumbledore about ... about my grades, so I'd best be going, I'll see you around Lucius," she said.

"By the lake later?" he asked hopefully. She was silent for a while.

"All right. By the lake, see you," she said, and headed back up the stairs.

**********************

When she reached the stone gargoyle that guarded her trusted principle's quarters, she said the candy-named password and entered. Knocking on the door softly, she waited for permission before entering.

"Hello Professor," she said, her eyes downcast. Dumbledore looked kindly at the young Gryffindor. He gestured for her to sit down and she did.

"Professor ... I know that you've been wanting me to come and speak to you for a while now but ... it's just been really hard ... I um ..." she trailed off, sucking back tears.

"It's my fault that those Death Eaters attacked Mrs. Potter," she said quietly.

"Miss Evans. I forbid you to blame yourself. Young Mr. Potter has been in here already, a few times actually, since even before the start of term holidays, he told me what happened, and it is not your fault that some people have no regard for values such as trust, honesty and true friendship." She looked up at him, her eyes wet.

"He'll never speak to me again, ..." she whispered. Professor Dumbledore got up and walked around to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Miss Evans ... when Mr. Potter was in here, he made sure to tell me that Mr. Malfoy was the only one to blame in this situation ... his love for you goes beyond this Lily, and I think now that he has had the holidays to think, and spend time with his mother, he will be ready to talk to you about it ... you know ... he hasn't told anyone of what happened ... I take this to indicate that he doesn't want everyone to point their finger at you," he said. The tiniest glimmer of hope appeared in Lily's heart. The whole of the holidays had been spent thinking that this was it, now she had truly lost almost everyone that she had ever cared about. But maybe, just maybe, she had been wrong. A new spark of determination filled her and she stood.

"Thank you Professor ... I'll be uh, I'm going to go," she stated. He nodded.

"Thanks," she said again before rushing out of the door.

**********************

James sat in the common room by himself. In his hands he held a long, thin package and in his mind, he was thinking. He was actually remembering back to earlier in the term, before Christmas when he'd tried out for the Quidditch team. The events that had evolved since had put Quidditch at the very back of his mind ... it just hadn't seemed as important as it once was. But everything was different now. His mum was okay and he felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Closing his eyes he leant back against the soft couch and allowed himself a small smile.

It had been a cold cloudy morning. It didn't matter to James though, he was an obsessed Quidditch fan, and so, had played in every single kind of weather possible - some of them without his mother's knowledge. He and Sirius got dressed into the clothes and robes they usually played Quidditch in, grabbed their broomsticks and trudged down to the Quidditch pitch where the Gryffindor team were holding tryouts. Before they walked on though, James grabbed Sirius' hand and shook it.

"Good luck mate," he said. Sirius shook his hand back energetically.

"You too, although you won't need it ... it doesn't matter if you get on the team and I don't James. It won't change anything ... I just wanted you to know that," Sirius told him. James grinned and patted his friend on the back.

"Same goes here, best friends no matter what." They walked up the stands and sat down next to the other Gryffindor hopefuls, watching a current could-be chaser try to throw the Quaffle through a hoop. Unfortunately for the player though, Jonah Spinnet caught the red ball milliseconds before it would have scored. James and Sirius said hello to some other third-fifth years that were trying out today and they all watched as one by one the boys and girls tried for the position of chaser, beater or in Sirius' case, keeper. James watched his best friend fly. There was no doubt that he was graceful, quick and confident. They had grown up together after all! But he had to admit to himself that there was something there that Sirius lacked. Not so much by himself, but compared to Spinnet ... James stopped his musing when Sirius touched back on the ground and it was finally James' turn.

James picked up his broom and took a deep breath. This was it. This was the moment he'd been waiting for. He was just about to walk out of the stands towards where the Gryffindor team members had just dismounted when he saw Lily, Narcissa, Remus and Peter walking towards the stands. He smiled. He had his friends here ... he could do it. He knew he could.

James walked towards the middle of the field and said hi to everyone. Sirius gave him a pat on the shoulder and went to join their friends - he had told them he didn't want anyone watching him tryout, so they had respected his wishes and waited until he'd finished. Of course, to do this ... they'd had to have a LITTLE peek!

"Okay Potter, you'll be trying out for a chaser position correct?" James nodded towards the Captain.

"Right, well we're going to put you up there with Jeffries and Montan and I want you to not just try to score a goal, but to use teamwork and demonstrate to us your knowledge and skill at scoring maneuvers such as the Hawkshead attacking formation and the Parkin's Pincer, but not limited to them. Is that understood?" he asked. James nodded.

"Yes," he said.

"Good, let's go!" and they all mounted their brooms and took off.

When James began soaring through the air, he felt that familiar feeling of every trouble he had just fleeing from his body and soul, leaving him free and light and ready to go. He breathed in the fresh air and opened his previously closed eyes, smiling. They were playing against the reserve team who were actually short of a keeper but was being filled in by one of their chasers. The balls were released, and James caught the eyes of his two fellow chasers. Nodding to them he sprung into action. One of the reserve chasers had the Quaffle at the moment so James swooped towards him. The chaser, so surprised that one of the hopefuls actually had enough confidence to try and psyche him out, practically handed James the Quaffle when he went to knock it from under his arm. Wrapping the red ball under his own arm, James flew at an alarming speed, keeping Jeffries and Montan in his peripheral vision. There were oohs and aahs from the small crowd watching the tryouts at his amazing agility and speed.

The opposing chasers were coming towards, but he was ready for them. He perfected a Wollongong shimmy by zigzagging around them, throwing them off. When he was rid of them, he glanced to his left, saw the opportunity and sped up a little before throwing a Reverse Pass back to Montan. Montan in turn sped up as well but unfortunately the opposing chasers had recovered and pulled a Pincer on them. It was only a matter of moments though before Jeffries shimmied the Quaffle out from under them and was heading back towards their own goal. James made sure he was close to him, just behind. Jeffries, seeing this, threw him the Quaffle and James veered around him so that he was on Jeffries left. Glancing at Montan, he nodded, and Montan flew up to James' left, so that the three chasers were parallel. James pulled forward just a tiny bit and the three of them sped towards their goal, where the reserve team was currently all cluttered. Simultaneously speeding up they raced towards the other end, and the reserve team, scared of being hit, screeched out of the way, leaving the way clear for James to drop the Quaffle cleanly through the top hoop.

The exhilaration was running tremours through him and he was on such a high that the huge applause he was receiving was only a buzz at the back of his mind. He saw that both teams had dropped back onto the grass and realized that his tryout was over. He followed suit and waited. Johnson walked over to him, a huge smile on his face.

"Potter! Where the hell did you learn to fly like that? Montan and Jeffries haven't pulled such a brilliant Hawskhead Attacking Formation since Jaden left! No need to think about it, welcome to the team Potter, you're our newest chaser!"

James smiled again, remembering that day. He looked down at the package in his hands. There was a note on the top.

Dear James,

I am so proud of you for making the team. I wanted to give you this at Christmas, but you seemed so down that I didn't think it would be appropriate. Darling, I hope that you are feeling better, I love you so much, and I only wish I had been there for the tryouts. Can't wait to see you.

Lots of love,

Mum

James smiled, and taking a deep breath, opened the package.

"Oh mum ..." he said softly. It was a broomstick. And not just any broomstick, it was the one that he and Sirius had been ogling the previous year, still the latest as no other models had quite reached it's perfection. It was a Cleansweep 4. James swallowed with a gulp and looked towards the fire. Getting up, he went up to his dormitory and placed the broom in his trunk, locking it, saving it for practice later that evening. When he walked back downstairs, he was just sitting down when the portrait hole opened.

**********************

Lily hadn't seen James since the incident. Sure she'd seen his friends, but they'd been sort of indifferent. She flung open the common room door after yelling the password at a surprised Fat Lady and flicked her eyes around the room hurriedly. They rested on the familiar head full of messy black hair sitting in front of the fire. Alone. She breathed deeply and walked over to him. When he looked up and saw her, instead of maintaining her eye contact, he looked down.

"James," she whispered. He looked up again, and this time, he looked at her.

"I don't blame you Lily," he said quietly. Lily didn't think she'd ever heard something so beautiful in her entire life. She flung her arms around James and hugged him tightly. He hesitantly brought his arms around to her and hugged her back. They stayed that way for a while, before finally breaking apart.

"You have no idea how sorry I am James ... oh you have to-"

"No Lily. I know. I want to put this behind us. It wasn't your fault, I know that ... I'm sorry," he said. She looked incredulous, but he held up his hand.

"You've been there for me always, you've never let me down, even this time, Malfoy only took advantage of you because you're the kindest, warmest person anyone could ever meet, and that's why I care about you so much," he said. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes AGAIN, it seemed all she'd been doing lately was crying!

"I will always be here for you James ... always."

**********************

Soon, the second years were taking their mid-year exams, and nobody studied harder then Lily Evans. Of course, she managed to get top marks, as well as extra credit from helping out less able second years than herself such as little Peter Pettigrew and some first years from mixed houses. She had many meetings with Dumbledore and on one of these occasions; she finally brought up the subject of Lucius.

"I know that he's using me, but I don't think that he knows that I know," she said. "I want to continue this until I can get him back," she finished, her eyes narrowing.

"Mss Evans, don't you think that if you act on revenge you would be lowering yourself to his level?" Dumbledore said skeptically. Lily looked down sheepishly.

"But I think that it would be a good idea to continue your friendship with him, as long as it is suitable and all right for you, so that we may be able to gradually gather some kind of information on what these Death Eaters are up to." And this was when Lily became a spy.

It was on this particular occasion in fact, nearing the end of the year when two particular Gryffindor boys made a huge discovery. Over the past year, James had kept Remus' secret for him. He hadn't told a soul, not even Sirius, and that was saying something. But being the dangerously adventurous prankster that he was, young Mr. Black happened to stumble across this secret whilst on a prank escapade with Peter.

Remus had just left the tower to meet Professor Dumbledore so that he could take him to the train station. He was going home to visit his mother again. James had Quidditch practice - swept up as SOON as he kicked up off the ground at the try-outs, and so, it was left up to Sirius and Peter to cause chaos and catastrophe amongst the barren halls. They left not long after Remus had, and found that they'd reached a particular open hallway that opened out to the Forbidden Forest ... where Remus was being led by Madame Pomfrey!

"Oi, Peter, what's going on? Where's Lupin off to?" he asked his short friend. Peter strained to see in the setting sunlight but finally made out two ambling figures.

"I thought Dumbledore was suppose to take him to Hogsmeade!" he said. Sirius got a mischievous gleam in his eye. Peter shook his head.

"Oh no, Sirius I hate it when you get that look ... please tell me what your planning isn't going to get me killed?" he pleaded, referring to past escapades that they'd been on, narrowly escaping Filch's deadly punishment wishes. Sirius turned his look into a sore puppy one.

"Oh good lord, all right all right! Just wipe that look off your face!" Peter cried. Sirius smiled happily and the two of them (with the aid of James' invisibility cloak that he'd been handed down by his father which they had 'borrowed') made after their friend.

They reached the edge of the woods and struggled to see where Remus and Madame Pomfrey had disappeared off too. Finally, Sirius caught a glimpse of movement and they carefully made their way over to the famous Whomping Willow, which ... wasn't moving! Good lord! What was going on?

Sirius turned to point this out to his friend but Peter's widened eyes told him he'd already noticed. They waited nervously for a few moments before Sirius said they should probably get closer to have a look. Just as they were about to move from their spot behind a rather large bush, they saw Madame Pomfrey exiting through a medium sized hole at the base of the tree. She looked up at the tree again, before pressing something on the side of the tree and running away quickly. Before their very eyes, the famous Whomping Willow began it's terrorizing flailing once more. Sirius and Peter looked at each other quizzically.

"We have to find that thing that she touched to make it still," Sirius announced. Peter looked rather fearful but nodded.

"Better take off the cloak, here, put it in your pocket so we won't forget it ... James'd kill us!" Peter said. Sirius nodded and did so. They approached the tree cautiously, careful to keep just enough distance as not to get crunched. Sirius looked around him, thinking. There! He ran over nearer the woods and picked up an extremely long stick. He walked back over to Peter and reached the stick in, carefully to trail it along the ground. He positioned it at about the same place he thought he'd seen Madame Pomfrey do it, but nothing happened. He moved the stick around for a bit and kept doing this for ten minutes or so, careful to stay out of the tree's clutches, but still had no luck. Just as they were about to give up, the stick seemed to mount something slightly ... and the tree was still. Both boys' eyes bugged.

"Are you ready?" Sirius asked. Peter nodded hesitantly.

"I'll go first." Peter nodded again. Getting onto his hands and knees, Sirius slid into hole - it wasn't as small as they thought it had been, but would not have taken his full height. Checking to see that Peter was right behind him, he crawled further and further. Finally, after what seemed like hours (time was very short in Sirius' book) they reached ... a building! Of course! It was the Shrieking Shack ... oh NO! IT WAS THE SHRIEKING SHACK!

"Sirius! You idiot! This place is haunted!" Peter hissed fearfully, his small eyes flittering around quickly.

"Shut up you silly git, just be quiet and follow me," Sirius replied. He stopped and just stood for a moment, trying to listen. A faint movement came from upstairs.

"Let's go," he whispered. Slowly, so as not to make the stairs creak, they reached the second floor. Walking along the dust filled banister, they reached the closed door that Sirius thought he heard the noise coming from.

"Ready?" he whispered as quiet as he could. Peter couldn't even speak. He gave a tiny little nod. Sirius counted to three, and the two of them crashed opened the door, yelling blue murder.

The sight before them was one they had NEVER, expected to see.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!."