Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Back to Hogwarts?

Author Note: WELCOME BACK! And Happy Birthday Lily Evans! <3

Part 2 is officially ready to go and - exciting news! - I'm going to be posting this on a quick schedule. You can expect a chapter from me every other day. Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading.

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"That's a lot of letters."

I look at all the parchment spread around my room. "So it is." Leave it to James bloody Potter to apparently have a whole barn full of owls at his disposal to send as many bloody letters as he wants.

Mum raises an eyebrow. "Let's talk, Lily."

I sigh and follow her out of my room.

I've managed to put this conversation off for two full days now. Friday night I was "already asleep" by the time my parents got home, and Saturday I "slept in" until my parents went out for New Year's, because they, unlike me, actually did have big fun New Year's plans. I stayed home, ate leftover wedding cake, read my new Charms book from Alice, and tried to ignore the barrage of owls flying in and out of my window all day.

But now it's late Sunday morning and I know the reprieve (from my parents, at least) is over.

"So." Mum takes a seat at the dining table next to Dad, already there reading the newspaper and sipping his morning tea. He sets both aside when Mum and I come in and folds his hands expectantly.

"So...?" I say, sliding into place across the table from them.

"Don't play dumb, Lily," Mum says. "We let you hide out yesterday, but your father and I need to know what's going on."

What's going on? Wasn't that a big, loaded question. Where to even begin? How much to conceal? Hmm...

Like she can read my mind, Mum sighs and says, "Let's start simple. Why, exactly, were you late to Petunia's wedding ceremony? I saw you not ten minutes before we were supposed to start."

Start simple, she says, and then she leads with that .

"Well..." I say, my mind scrambling to remember all the details and then phrase a magical attack in the least-threatening way possible. "Since Petunia didn't want me at the wedding in the first place, I was feeling a bit claustrophobic and went outside for some air –"

"What do you mean, since Petunia didn't want you at the wedding?" Mum says sharply.

Oh. Er... oops.

"I mean... well..." I look between her and Dad and sigh in resignation. "Petunia didn't want me to come. She tried to keep me out of the wedding entirely." I look down at the table. "I was never going to go to Alice's over Christmas. Tuney made that up."

"Why –" Dad starts, but Mum cuts across him.

"I'll be having words with your sister about this," she says, her eyes tight at the corners. "Unacceptable. Go on, Lily."

Some of my anxiety loosens. She doesn't blame me for the wedding mess, and the relief encourages me to keep talking. "Right. So, I went out for some air and right as I was heading back inside, a bunch of Death Eaters popped up and, er, you know, shot some spells around." I fumble through the sentence, trying to downplay the very real danger I'd been in.

"What the bloody hell's a Death Eater?" Dad had reached for his mug to take a sip but thunks it back down before it even reaches his mouth.

Seems I failed to downplay the danger. Nice, Lily. The term 'Death Eater' definitely isn't going to alarm them. "Ahh, well, they're just... you know... Dark wizards..." I trail off.