Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Chapter 7: Patronuses

"And then Black says," I deepen my voice in a mock-serious imitation of Black's, at least the best I can in a whisper. "'You'll be the death of us, Evans!' or something like that, and stomps away after Potter! Like, what is that even supposed to mean?"

"I'm not sure... That's really all he said?" Alice whispers back.

"I mean, yeah, just that and something stupid about not caring about curfew, not that that's much of a surprise..."

It's History of Magic the next day. A quiet class, so not exactly an ideal one for filling your best mate in on the latest Potter drama, but the morning had been busy, with Potions and Transfiguration and a very dicey translation in Runes, and since I'd stayed right up until curfew in the library working on some other class work (and doing a lot of fuming too, I admit), I hadn't had anytime to tell my mates about the disastrous tutoring. Besides, it may be quiet in here, but everyone's zoned out under Professor Binn's droning, lost in daydreams, so mine and Alice's conversation goes unnoticed. Mostly.

Remus and Pettigrew are sitting in the desk in front of us. Pettigrew's not paying us any attention – actually, I think he might be asleep, the way his face is hidden and resting on his folded arms – but Remus must have been. He twists in his seat.

"Lily," he whispers patiently. "You know I'm your friend, but James is my friend too. And sorry, but he's my friend first. So, I'm going to speak for us all when we say you really need to stop accusing James for everything."

"Not you too, Remus," I sigh. I really don't need everyone lecturing me for not giving Potter more leeway. Not when he's as big a prat as he is. "He really was a terrible tutor last night."

Pettigrew now turns around in his seat, too. Apparently, I was wrong about his nap, and apparently, not even four students huddled up in a very obvious, albeit quiet, conversation can deter Professor Binns from plodding on about goblin warfare. "No, Remus is right," he says. "And so is Sirius. You've got to go easier on James, if only for our sakes."

Remus shoots him a look and a frown.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"I mean," Pettigrew says, clearly enjoying all our eyes on him, "James was all pumped about getting to... erm --" he shoots a look at Remus and seems to edit what he's about to say "-- tutor someone, exercise the Head Boy job, you know. And now you've gone and crushed him and he's been sulking all around the dorm since. Really brings everyone's mood down."

Binns taps the board at the front of the room, punctuating the date of the fall of Ugor the Malicious. We jump and hurry to take some notes, bent back over our own desks again. Well, Remus and I take some notes, anyway. I think Alice just pretends to, and Peter doesn't even turn all the way back around in his desk, just watches me while I scrawl some of the more gruesome details Binns has found it necessary we know. Really, with how many gory events the man covers, it's incredible this class is as dull as it is.

Once Binns has drifted back to his desk to read from his lesson plan, the four of us huddle up again. "Well, I'm sorry Potter's poor mood is throwing off your dorm's vibe or whatever, but it's not my job to keep him happy and allow him to continue pulling all his stupid stunts. You know he took my Transfiguration textbook from me during tutoring last night, right? And I still haven't forgiven him for your terrible cream puff demonstration."

Pettigrew's eyes sparkle. "Wasn't that brilliant?"

"It kind of was," Alice mumbles.

Before I can berate her, Remus cuts in quietly. "You know, Lily, even though we all helped execute the cream puff – er – debacle --"