Where Life Leads

Chapter Six

Lily hurried down the hall to Dumbledore's office and spoke the password. She was late for the meeting- and it was all James Potter's fault.

She thought that being Head Girl would have counted for something, but apparently, it didn't. She and Marlene had got up early on Saturday morning (they never had been able to sleep in the first few days back at school) and after breakfast they had gone back upstairs to look over their timetables and unpack their trunks. Lily had set some clothes aside so that she could take put them in the Head's common room before the meeting with Dumbledore. But when she had opened the door to the Head's Room a bucket of something green and slimy had poured down all over her.

For a moment she had just stood there in shock. Then, shock had turned to puzzlement and then puzzlement turned to rage. Potter was going to pay for this.

She climbed the spiral staircase to Dumbledore's office and knocked on the door. Even though he was expecting her, it seemed rude to just walk in. Dumbledore's voice bid her enter and Lily opened the door. Dumbledore was at his desk and James was sitting in one of two chairs across from him.

"Miss Evans, I am glad you could make it."

"Sorry, Professor," Lily said as she sat down. "I had a slight mishap."

"I trust you are alright?"

"Right as rain," Lily replied eyeing James, who had the nerve to sit there innocent as a flobberworm.

Dumbledore nodded, folding his hands on his desk. "Alastor Moody informed me that you were both present when the luggage shop in Diagon Alley exploded."

Lily and James exchanged a glace.

"I do not believe you were aware that the shop was owed by two Muggleborns who were very outspoken about their views. There are those who disagreed with their views and they are the ones responsible for the explosion."

"So it wasn't an accident."

"Correct, Mr. Potter. And neither was it the only incident to occur that day. The only reason no one else knows of the other is because the Ministry has been keeping it under wraps. They do not wish anyone else to know how out of control Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters have become."

"They're the ones behind all of this?"

"Yes, Miss Evans."

"But, why? I mean, it can't just be because of that pureblood nonsense they were spouting about before."

"I am afraid that that is the reason." Dumbledore sighed and leaned forward. "This year is going to be unlike any other we have seen. The students' loyalties are going to start dividing between their parents' beliefs and their own. We can only hope they will choose the right path. This is one reason the two of you were chosen as Head Boy and Girl. In the past six years you have proven your intelligence, leadership and overall fairness. The students listen to you- even when they disagree- because they respect you. You do not judge them by their bloodlines, or lack thereof, but by their actions. It is my hope that they will learn to do the same by following your example. Even though you have not got on in the past, this year you are proving that you can- and will- despite your differences.

"The wizarding world will be at war before the year is through. I mentioned last evening at the Welcoming Feast that measures have been taken to assure of the students' safety. Hogsmeade visits will be shortened- if we do not decide to discontinue them altogether, Prefects will be patrolling in groups of four instead of the usual two, and curfew will be at nine o' clock instead of ten. There will also be a suits of armour placed outside each common room entrance to prevent students from leaving after curfew."

Lily nearly groaned aloud. The students would not be happy about this. She wasn't happy about this. Dumbledore said the students respected her, but unlike James she followed the rules. Well... mostly followed the rules, but no one followed them all the time, except possibly Alice Walker (now Longbottom) who had been three years ahead of Lily.

James spoke up, "Sir, won't students be able to slip past the suits of armour rather easily?"

"Ordinarily they would be able to." Dumbledore smiled mischievously. "Therefore, I have instructed Professors Flitwick and McGonagall to add some protections on them. There will be an age restriction charm placed upon them. Anyone under the age of forty-five who tries to place any enchantment on them will receive a slight ... surprise."

Lily laughed inwardly. She imagined Dumbledore had thought up some extremely clever 'surprises'. She hoped James wouldn't warn his friends- she wanted to be able to rub it in when it backfired on them.

"Now," Dumbledore continued, "I know that having four Prefects patrolling at once will be difficult. It will put a lot of strain on them, so I ask that you try to space the shifts out as much as possible. Also, in the past the Head Boy and Girl have only had to patrol three times a week. With the situation as it is, I would like you to be patrolling every other night instead."

Lily and James nodded. It would mean a lot less free time in the evenings, but there was no way around it.

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair. "I believe we have covered all we needed to. You may, of course, contact me at anytime should you see the need and I shall do the same."

Lily and James stood up and turned to leave.

"Ah- one more thing," Dumbledore stopped them. They turned to face him. "Mr. Potter, I trust you will be keeping the mischief to a minimum this year?"

James smiled sheepishly. "Don't worry, Professor," Lily told the Headmaster slyly. "I'll keep and eye one him."

James glared at her as they left the office. "You can try to keep and eye on me," he said.

"Hmm. Just know that anytime you or your friends pull a prank, I'll get you back twofold." Lily smiled, looking over at him, and nearly choked on laughter. His face had paled and he looked incredibly nervous. "Anything you'd like to confess to, Potter?" she asked him sweetly.

He cleared his throat. "Nothing comes to mind."

"So the green slime that poured all over me this morning was just a coincidence? It wasn't well done of you. Did you forget that, aside from Dumbledore and McGonagall, you and I are the only ones able to access the Head's Room?"

James tripped going up the stairs.

"Unless you told someone ..."

"No!" James slapped a hand to his forehead. "I blew it didn't I? Should have said I told Sirius."

Lily shrugged. "I should cancel Hogsmeade."

"You can't! You promised."

"I know, more's the pity." Lily paused at the Fat Lady's portrait and spoke the password. James followed her through. "But don't worry, Potter. You'll pay." Lily smiled at him over her shoulder as she went up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, leaving him with a terrified look on his face.

-()-

Lily woke up to a period of double Potions Monday morning. While the other seventh years groaned, Lily smiled; she loved Potions. She grabbed clean underwear and shoved them into her school bag and went to the Head's Room to shower. It was nice having a bathroom mostly to herself. Her dorm mates were still asleep but she could shower as early or as late as she liked (not to mention as long) without having to worry about waking anyone up.

The water steamed around her as she shampooed her hair. The Prefects meeting the night before had gone well. She and James had written September's patrolling schedule yesterday afternoon with very little hassle. None of the Prefects had had to switch anything around, though there had been a bit of grumbling about four needing to patrol at a time, but everyone had understood the reason for it. Other than that, the meeting had gone very smoothly. She could only hope they would continue that way for the remainder of the year.

Lily put conditioner in her hair and was reaching for her wand to shave her legs when someone banged on the door. "Hurry up, Evans!" Potter called.

"What?" she yelled back.

"Hurry up! You've been in there twenty minutes already!"

Lily gave a frustrated sigh. Apparently she couldn't take as long as she wanted. She put her wand back on the shelf and rinsed her hair. She'd have to shave tonight instead. She shut the water off and pulled on her robe. She took a towel from the rack and wrapped it around her hair. James banged on the door again.

"What!"

"Could you get dressed out here? I don't want to miss breakfast," he complained.

Lily huffed, pulled clothes from the wardrobe next to the sink and opened the bathroom door. James was standing directly outside dressed in a red t-shirt and red and gold striped pyjama bottoms. His arms were crossed and he was tapping his foot impatiently. "Finally," he said.

Lily glared at him as she brushed past. She dumped her clothes on the sofa and heard the bathroom door shut loudly behind her. She huffed again and got dressed as quickly as possible. The water turned off ten minutes later and she sat on the sofa towelling her hair dry while she waited for him to finish. Another ten minutes went by and the door still hadn't opened. She picked up her robe and knocked on the door. "Potter? Will you let me in? I have to fix my hair and I need the mirror."

James opened the door and then walked back over to the sink to finish brushing his teeth. He was dressed in trousers and a thin white t-shirt, but his feet were bare and his hair was still damp from his shower and it curled softly at the nape of his neck. Lily forced herself to ignore him as she hung her bathrobe up and dried her hair with a charm. She brushed it into a ponytail- it wouldn't be good to have it down for Potions.

James rinsed his mouth and pulled on his shirt, school robes, shoes and socks. Lily stole glances at him while he tied a Gryffindor tie loosely around his neck, even though students weren't required to wear them. He made it look so easy and considering Lily had never seen him wear a tie before, she was surprised he could do it. The few times Lily had watched her father tie his it had always taken him at least three tries to get it right. He had asked Lily for help once and, well... it had been a disaster.

She walked back into the common room and dug in her bag for her Head Girl badge so that she could pin it to her robes. She checked to make sure she had her Advanced Potions book and enough quills and parchment for the class before heading out the door.

She had reached the top of the stairs when a voice called out to her.

"Hey, Evans, wait up."

She paused while James caught up to her and they went down to breakfast together. The Gryffindor table was mostly empty. It was only eight- most waited until quarter after before coming down. Lily and James sat down across from each other and Lily spooned eggs onto her plate.

"Do you always shower in the mornings, Potter?" she asked James.

He nodded and said through a mouthful of toast, "Is that a problem?"

"I suppose not. But we'll have to work out some sort of schedule. Taking turns going first or something."

"Or whoever gets there first, showers first."

"And if we get there at the same time?"

"We'll duel for it."

Lily snorted. "That won't work. By the time one of us wins, we won't have any time left to shower."

James shrugged. "I'm an early riser."

"So am I," Lily countered.

"So we'll have plenty of time to duel then."

"Why are you duelling?" Marlene asked as she sat down next to Lily and poured herself some pumpkin juice.

"We're not going to duel," Lily told James through gritted teeth, ignoring Marlene's question.

"Why aren't you duelling?" Sirius sat down next to James and bit into an apple.

"Duelling is brilliant. I bet you could beat Prongs any day, Evans." As he spoke bits of apple flung out of his mouth and hit Lily's cheek.

"Ugh, gross Sirius."

"Sorry, Lils."

"Don't call me 'Lils'." Her tone was so threatening they all looked at her in shock.

"Why not?"

"Because it used to be her sister's nickname for her when they were younger, before Lily got her Hogwarts letter." Remus had arrived at the breakfast table. "Now her sister only speaks to her when absolutely necessary."

Lily smiled at him gratefully. "Thanks for that Remus."

"No problem. I know you don't like to explain it." Remus sat down on Lily's other side gingerly. He looked like he was moving very carefully, as though he had pulled a muscle or something.

"You alright, Remus?" Lily asked him quietly so the others couldn't hear, knowing very well that there had been a full moon Saturday night. In fact, Lily was surprised to see him up at all.

Remus smiled at her wearily. "Fine, nothing to worry about."

"How does he know that?" Sirius asked, still on the 'Lils' subject. He turned to Remus. "How do you know that? And why didn't you tell me?"

"Lily told me when we were patrolling one night and I didn't tell you cause I never thought you would be stupid enough to call her 'Lils'," Remus responded.

"Oh... I suppose that makes sense then. Pass the sausage."

The conversation turned to lighter subjects and Lily forgot that she and James hadn't resolved the shower issue. When it was ten minutes before the first period started the group split ways. Marlene, Remus and Peter all went back to the common room- since they weren't taking Potions they had the first two periods free- promising to meet up with the others in Transfiguration.

The dungeons where Potions was held were poorly lit and dank- until you got the the classroom. Professor Slughorn might have been a Slytherin, being their Head of House, but he certainly had a taste for comfort. The classroom was brightly lit, he had charmed parts of the wall to be windows, which let in daylight and make it extremely easy to see. While the floor and walls were stained from exploding cauldrons, the room didn't smell of them. In fact, the room was filled with a variety of smells coming from three cauldrons dispersed throughout the room.

Slughorn started each year the same way- he mixed up several potions and gave the students a chance to compete to win a sample of one. Last year it had been a small bottle of Felix Felicis, the 'good luck' potion. Lily had won the potions the previous years, except for her first year, but Slughorn hadn't held a competition for them then. In fact, she had yet to use any of them, instead keeping them in secret compartment in her trunk.

Lily set her bag down next to Lizzie. N.E.W.T. classes were held for students of all houses because so many students had dropped subjects. Lily had partnered with Lizzie last year, and they worked really well together. In her first five years she had had to switch partners constantly- everyone had fought to partner with her since she was so good at Potions- though she mostly partnered with Marlene or Remus, who were both atrocious.

James sat directly behind Lily along with Sirius, and they immediately bent over the cauldron on their desk trying to figure out what potion was in it as the rest of the class came in and sat down.

"Evans'll know what it is," Sirius was saying. "Hey, Evans, tell us what's in this."

Lily tilted back on the bench and glanced into the cauldron. "There's nothing in it."

"Yes, there is," Sirius insisted. "It's like a foggy red colour."

Lily smirked. "What did you forget, Sirius?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah, what do you mean by that?" James asked. "I'm seeing a clear red colour, not foggy."

"It's a Remembering Potion," Lily told them. "The darker the red colour, the more important the thing you forgot is. It's similar to a Remembrall, only if you drink the potion, you'll remember what it is you forgot. It's not that difficult to make, but it's very time consuming. If you made the potion right, you won't be able to see it. But it you haven't, the potion will turn a milky blue colour, and you have to start from scratch."

"Wonderful!" a jolly voice called from the front of the room. Professor Horace Slughorn smiled broadly at Lily. He was a short man with prominent eyes and a large belly. His straw coloured hair was starting to thin and his enormous gingery-blonde moustache was streaked with white. He was wearing a lavish, old-fashioned robe over a waistcoat with large gold buttons. "Ten points to Gryffindor." He pointed to a cauldron two tables in front of her. "Can you tell us what potion is in here?"

Lily stood up so that she could see inside the cauldron. The potion had multiple colours swirling around each other and was giving off a fruity smell. "I don't know what it's called, but it reminds me of Fizzing Whizbees. Does it have Billywig stings in it?"

"Yes! Ten more points to Gryffindor! This is the solution in Fizzing Whizbees that makes you levitate. Made from Billywig stings and a few other ingredients that I'm sure you won't want to know if you enjoy the candy." He smiled brightly at Lily. "And tell us what is in this last cauldron."

Lily walked to the front of the room and looked inside the cauldron that was sitting on Slughorn's desk. There was a sickly yellowish-green coloured liquid inside that smelled faintly of petrol. Lily scrunched her nose and walked back to her seat.

"Well?" Slughorn prompted her.

Lily smirked. "It's not a potion."

Lizzie looked at her as though she were crazy, Sirius snorted, Severus Snape glared at her, and Slughorn burst into joyous laughter.

"At least," Lily amended as she continued, "not a true potion. It's diluted bubotuber pus that has been boiled at an extremely high temperature. It is very easy to make, but if the undiluted bubotuber pus comes in contact with your skin, you'll break out in boils."

Slughorn smiled broadly. "Ah, but you should have been a Slytherin."

"I would have loved having you as my Head of House, sir, but I don't think I would enjoy sleeping in the dungeons- a bit damp, you know?" Lily answered him cheekily.

Slughorn laughed at her answer and gave ten points to Gryffindor for Lily identifying the Potion correctly. He waved his wand at the chalkboard and a list of ingredients appeared. "These ingredients can be combined to make one, and only one, potion. By the end of class today, the person who is closet to correctly identifying and making the potion will be able to forgo taking one test of their choosing."

Half the class groaned, while the other grinned. Sirius spoke, "You mean that if we win, we can skive off a test?"

"Correct, Mr. Black."

"Wicked." He leaned over and whispered to James, though not so quietly that Lily couldn't hear, "Too bad Evans is guaranteed to win."

Lily turned around and smirk at him. "Too bad for you, eh, Black? But then, it's not as though it would have changed how you revise."

"Well," Slughorn asked the class, "why are you sitting around? Get to work!"

There was a flurry of movement while everyone gathered ingredients and shuffled through their Potions books, trying to figure out which potion they were supposed to brew. The only person not frantic was Severus Snape. He, like Lily, had calmly chosen what he needed from the shelves and opened his text to page 619 where the instructions for making the Blood-Replenishing Potion were.

The potion itself wasn't that complex to make, but it was easily confused with the Vampire Draught, a potion that resembled human blood, which Vampires used as a last resort. The only difference was that the Vampire Draught contained blood root and the Blood-Replenishing Potion didn't. In their rush to finish, most of the class had started brewing the Vampire Draught instead. But, by the time they realized their mistake, it was too late to start again.

Lily was about to give her potion a final clockwise stir when Lizzie, who was stretching next to her, accidentally jostled her elbow, causing her to stir anticlockwise instead. The potion turned bright green.

Lizzie gasped. "Oh, no... Lily, I'm so sorry!" She had a terrified look on her face.

Lily looked down at her ruined potion for a moment before she burst out laughing. "Well, now we know why we're supposed to only stir clockwise," she said.

"B-but..." Lizzie stuttered. "Now you won't win."

Lily smiled at her ironically. "We both know that I wouldn't have made use of it."

"Oh..." Lizzie fought back a smile. "You have a point. Oh, well. I'm sure whoever wins will be glad. They'll probably rub-"

She was cut off by Slughorn clapping his hands, signalling them to stop. "Stirrers down, books closed," he said. "Let's see how well you have done." He walked around the room glancing in their cauldrons. Every so often he would stop and point out what someone did wrong, or give a helpful tip on how to speed up the process. For those that had made the wrong potion, he advised them to read more carefully in the future and said that they should know better by now.

When he got to Lily's potion he gaped. "What happened here?"

Lily smiled ruefully. "I stirred the wrong way."

Slughorn looked at her suspiciously, as though he didn't believe her. "Hmph," he said before moving on to the next table.

Once he had finished look over everyone's potion, he grudgingly declared Snape the winner. Even though Snape was in his house and did almost as well as Lily in Potions, Slughorn had never favoured him the way he did Lily. Lily suspected that Snape was jealous, because in the past they had got along reasonably, but these last few years Snape had treated her with something akin to hatred.

When the class began gathering their things and emptying their cauldrons, Slughorn walked over to talk to Lily as she was packing up her bag. "I'm holding a small get together on Thursday evening. And I'll expect you to come. Doracus Meadows from the Charms Department at the Ministry is going to be there and I suspect you will want to talk with her."

Lily smiled. "I look forward to it, Professor," she told him before leaving with Lizzie for lunch.

The Slug Club, as the students called it, was made up of a select group of students Slughorn favoured. Sometimes the meetings were dreadfully dull, but, every so often there was someone there who made it all worthwhile. Lily had been a member since her second year. Slughorn had caught her improvising on a potion. He normally wouldn't have noticed, except for the fact that Lily had finished in half the time it took the rest of the class to. Ever since then she had been one of his favourites, and he constantly reminded the other teachers of that fact.

Lily walked with the other Gryffindors to Transfiguration and sat down next to Marlene in the seat she had saved for her. Professor McGonagall arrived soon after and spent the lesson reviewing what they had learned last year, before assigning a three foot essay on the dangers and restrictions of conjuring large objects. They all had a free period next and decided to make use of it by going to the Library to work on the essay until lunchtime.

After lunch Lily, Remus and Marlene went to Arithmancy while the other headed to Muggle Studies. Once the class was over, they went back to the common room for their next free period. Lily had more free time this year because she had decided against continuing with Ancient Runes, as she didn't need it for either of the potential careers she had decided upon.

When dinner rolled around, Lily came to the conclusion that she was glad that she had so many free periods. Professor Vector had assigned a four foot essay and even though it usually only took Lily and hour or so to write one that long, this essay needed to be so detailed that she had only finished a foot and a half. She was definitely going to need all her free time, and when she said so Remus nodded in agreement.

"I'm taking Ancient Runes and Professor Tomar warned everyone that the workload is going to be twice as much as it was last year, and if we don't make the effort to keep up, she'll talk to us about dropping the course."

Lily grimaced. Yes, it was definitely a good thing she hadn't continued with Ancient Runes.

"Of course," Remus continued, "we're all worried that she won't be able to keep up either. I mean, she's been teaching for more than one hundred and sixty years- she's ancient, older than Dumbledore!"

Lily burst out laughing and Remus looked at her quizzically. "What?"

"Sorry," Lily gasped. "Sorry, it's just that, you said-you said, that the Professor Tomar was ancient. The Professor of Ancient Runes is ancient."

"Oh." He paused and then shrugged. "Well, she is."

Lily rolled her eyes at him. Sometimes Remus just didn't see the humour in what was said. Like whenever someone would say they were 'serious' and Sirius said that they couldn't be because he was, Remus would always hex him. It had gotten old after a while, but even Sirius was smart enough to stop once Remus began learning more creative hexes.

The other three Marauders arrived at the dinner table and Remus turned to talk with them. The four boys put their heads together, whispering conspiringly. Lily and Marlene exchanged a glace as Ellen and Janice sat down next to them. It was nice to know that no matter how bad things got, there were some things you could always rely on. And the Marauders were one of them.

Lily parted ways with her friends when they got to the common room, instead going to the Head Room to finish her Arithmancy and write up some notices.

"You have to patrol tonight, don't you?" Janice asked before she went. "James mentioned it in Muggle Studies."

Lily nodded. "Yes, unfortunately we have to patrol every other night because of the situation outside of school. And remember," she said to Janice who had been made a Prefect this year, "you have to patrol in groups of four."

Janice groaned. "I remember. Do you think we could choose who we patrol with next month?"

Lily shrugged. "I hadn't thought about it. I'll run it by Potter and see what he thinks. If I forget make sure you bring it up at the next meeting."

Janice nodded and Lily waved good-bye to her friends, grimacing when she spoke the password for the Head common room. After that morning's incident, she would have to speak to James about changing the password. She didn't trust the current one to be sufficient enough to keep his friends out. They had been to Dumbledore's office so many times that it would be easy for them to guess it. Lily pulled the door open cautiously and when nothing was dumped on her head she breathed a sigh in relief. Yes, they should definitely change the password.

Lily sat down at her desk in the empty room and made a mental note to discuss it with Potter when they patrolled tonight. She pulled her notes and book from her bag and set about finishing her Arithmancy essay.