Fourth Year, September
Thursday September 5th 1974
At Hogwarts news – whether true or not – spread like untamed wildfire. Hence, within the span of a mere couple of days, practically their whole year knew about what Mary had gotten up to with her boyfriend over the summer.
It had been her intention to do make sure this would happen; obviously. She`d planned it; telling just the people she knew couldn`t keep one bloody thing to themself.
Mary revelled in the thought of being the most experienced girl in their year. She liked the idea of being someone others looked up to. And maybe also of being the ultimate best at something. Marlene had her quidditch, Lily had her cleverness, so Mary could have this.
The fact that Mary was the only girl in their year who`d let a boy touch her, made that she`d somehow elevated herself to almost regal reputation. She pondered if this was how Sirius and James felt strutting around the castle. Because strut they did; there was no denying that.
It was their first Care of Magical Creatures lesson of the year and Mary and Marlene had entered the classroom earlier than usual. The class was mainly dominated by girls and Mary knew for sure that she`d be the centre of attention. Naturally, she had been right. As soon as one of the girls had dared to pose a question, they seemed to flood in. And this time, there was no Lily to shut it down. Lily still though it was disgusting; her loss in Mary`s opinion. Lily could be such a prude sometimes.
Mary had turned around in her seat so she could face the Ravenclaw girl that sat behind them. The other girls had scrambled up from their seats and sat around her in a sort of semi-circle.
`But, aren`t you Catholic?` a short plump Hufflepuff girl asked, indicating at the cross that Mary wore around her neck.
A few pureblood girls looked confused, not being familiar with muggle religion.
`Eh, well,` Mary fingered the necklace her mother insisted she`d wear. `The Bible is a bit inconsistent anyway.`
Someone snorted.
To be completely honest, Mary was a little bit worried about this. She was rather sure her mother would not - and she repeated not - approve of this. Even her older sister, Gabi, was quite strict when it came to abstinence. Their whole family was devout Catholics, never skipping Mass. And being with a boy before marriage was heavily frowned upon, even in this day and age. Mary thought this notion was complete bollocks, it was her body, now wasn`t it? And Jesus or God, or however, didn`t have any say in that; in her humble opinion. But her mother had, in a way at least.
The whole topic of religion had become a bit hazy to Mary. Ever since attending Hogwarts, she wasn`t sure anymore what to believe. What to hang onto. In the olden days she`d been burned at the stake by their church for being a witch.
It had been quite the culture shock to come to Hogwarts and discover that barely nobody was religious. There were some Protestants and Catholics, a couple of Jewish students and she knew Avni was raised with Hinduist norms and values. Lily`s family still attended church sometimes – though mostly at Christmas - but Mary knew she declared herself an agnostic.
Nobody seemed to pray at dinner and none of the Professors had even mentioned anything about it.
Mary glanced sideways at Marlene, who had been rather quiet for the past couple of days. She`d already asked all the questions she`d apparently wanted to ask, and was now watching with something close to respect as Mary held court.
In the meantime, Remus had elbowed his way into the group of girls to take his usual seat next to Mary, looking rather annoyed.
`And it didn`t hurt…?` the Ravenclaw girl asked, her voice held very low.
`Nah, it`s fine if you relax.` Mary answered, smirking and tossing one of her braids over her shoulder. Her mother had plaited her hair into neat cornrows just before she`d gone back to Hogwarts.
`Do you think you`re going to…you know…with Darren…?` another girl with a splash of freckles across her nose asked, her voice trembling with excitement and her eyes wide.
`Well, I…` Mary began self-assured. She`d actually had a fair bit of thought about this and was ready to give her mind on the topic.
However, just at that moment, Professor Ferox came into the classroom from his office and Mary quickly shut her mouth.
`Welcome back, class! Seats, please!` Ferox boomed. The other girls scampered back reluctantly to their respective seats.
Over the summer Professor Ferox` roguish good looks hadn`t faded. If anything, they`d only been enhanced. His face was bronzed by the sun, his nose red and peeling. His hair had grown out even more and had gotten a shade brighter, now twisted into a rough braid.
Mary stared at his tanned thick forearms that were revealed as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. Ferox grinned in her general direction and she sat up a little bit straighter, feeling her shirt pull tight across her chest. Remus was shuffling on his seat next to her, a sheepish smile across his face and Mary did a double take, but she could have sworn that he was blushing. Could`ve just been his sunburn though.
`Good summer?` Ferox asked gruffly. There went a general murmur of agreement up in the classroom and Ferox grinned again, clapping his hands loudly, startling Marlene. `Excellent! I hope you had a nice long rest, and you`re ready to begin work on XXXX rated creatures this term! First, let`s do a quick recap of last terms work. Let`s see who`s done their summer reading…`
Mary sighed inaudible as everybody started to pull their books out of their satchels. To say she`d done the summer reading was a little bit generous; she`d skimmed the text and Marlene had given her a brief summery just before class. She couldn`t help it if she`d had more important things to do over the summer. Weren`t summers for leisure?
Luckily, she wasn`t called on to answer a question. Next to her, Remus kept shooting his hand up into the air and responding to every question posed about the course material. Mary shot him a couple of curious glances. Remus always participated in class - he truly was a model student at that- but never was he as eager at making himself known as in Care of Magical Creatures.
She knew why she liked Care of Magical Creatures, and probably why a lot of other students liked the class. Maybe Remus was just really interested in Magical Creatures. Or maybe… Mary squinted her eyes at Remus, who had yet to take a note as Ferox started to draw on the blackboard with his wand.
Her train of thought didn`t take her much further than that, for the bell soon rang and the class was dismissed.
Leaving Marlene, Mary went up to the owlery. She hadn`t been there that often yet. Mostly because she`d never had a proper reason to be there. Last Monday, she`d sent her first letter to her mother by owl postage. She`d been incredibly nervous to do so, scared about how her mother might react at her sending an owl to their flat.
The note had just contained a short announcement about how she`d safely made it to Hogwarts and to expect to receive an owl at regular intervals now. Her mother hadn`t written back yet. Which wasn`t odd, seeing as Mary had forgotten to divulge her with the knowledge how to do so. Hence why she`d now written a short instruction as how her mother could sent a message back. She desperately hoped it would work.
If it did, Mary would finally be able to have a steady inflow of news from home. Something that she`d been desperately craving for; if only to give herself some peace of mind knowing that her family was still safe. Mary wouldn`t tell her mother the reason for deciding to disobey her wishes of not sending owls to the flat. There was no need to rouse sleeping dogs for the time being. Mary would try to keep her family separate from the horror going on for as long as humanly possible.
***
Tuesday September 10th 1974
Even though it was barely the end of summer, the air had taken on the distinct sweet scent of growing fungi and changing leaves. A constant golden glow draped over the hilly landscape; it was the start of what would become one of the most beautiful autumns that Marlene would remember in years to come.
It was the morning of her fifteenth birthday. Which, following the unwritten rules of their friend group, meant that she was allowed to choose what they would spent their time doing for the day. Marlene felt a somewhat uncomfortable doing so, not particularly enjoying being the centre of attention.
Luckily, she had a wee bit of time still to think it over, seeing as they had classes for most of the day. Marlene wasn`t going to risk bunking off those. She`d do practically anything in her power to avoid having to go through the agony again of being threatened by her mother that she`d have to quit the quidditch team.
During breakfast, the family owl came swooping in, bearing Marlene`s birthday presents from home. A couple of students, who were seated at the Gryffindor table, looked disturbed as the giant bird plonked down between the food, tailfeathers drooping into the porridge. Marlene flushed, uncomfortable with having all eyes on her.
`Aren`t you going to open them?` Mary asked, eyeing the parcels.
`Er...` Marlene faltered. `Aye, I just thought I would open them later.`
`Oh, come on, open them now!` Mary pressed excitedly. `I want to see too!`
Marlene bit her nails, feeling embarrassed at the thought of having to unwrap her gifts among all these other people, who would obviously gawk, or think she was spoiled. She shot a pleading look at Lily, hoping she would cajole Mary out of her determination, but Lily just shrugged grinning.
`I`ll start singing for you, if you don`t.` Mary chided teasingly. She already scraped her throat theatrically, getting ready to start belting out `Hap-`
`No, no, no,` Marlene quickly clasped a hand in front of Mary`s mouth, her hot breath on her palm. `I`ll open them. No singing, please.`
Mary grinned satisfied and Lily rolled her large green eyes. Gingerly, Marlene drew her hand away from Mary`s mouth, scared the latter might break into song anyway. She felt awfully aware of the lingering sensations of Mary`s lips on her skin.
Ever since the train ride to Hogwarts, she hadn`t been able to look at Mary the same way. She tried. But somehow she couldn`t shake the image of Darren touching Mary and how it must have felt like; for either of them. It utterly repulsed and fascinated her at the same time. She burned with jealously and some sort of odd respect.
Marlene had never met Darren; Lily had. Darren had apparently come along to drop Mary off at King`s Cross. Lily had told Marlene that he`d been incredibly polite and gentlemanlike towards Mary. And he was really tall; taller than Remus even. Secretly, Marlene was glad not to have been there to meet him. She didn`t know how she would have reacted if she`d come stand face to face with him. Not that there was anything inherently wrong with Darren. Not at all. She just didn`t know if her envy would have been able to bear it.
But that was something of the past; she resolved. She would not spent another year being jealous of the boys that caught Mary`s eye. This year would be different.
The owl was still hopping back and forth between the breakfast plates, looking a bit nervous and not ready to leave yet, so they let it be for the moment.
Reluctantly Marlene started tearing away at the wrapping paper of her first present; some very advanced-looking broom cleaning agent; no doubt from Danny.
`No, save that one for last.` Lily said, pulling a squashy looking parcel from Marlene`s hands.
Marlene knitted her brow together in confusion, but obeyed none the less.
After she`d unwrapped the presents her mother and stepdad had sent, she eyed the parcel Lily was still clutching to her chest with a wee bit of weariness.
`Here.` Lily thrust the last present into her hands.
`Alright.`
`No, turn it over, read the card first.` Lily instructed.
Marlene turned it over and noticed a small card stuck to the back. `To Marlene, from…Lily and Mary?` she read aloud, feeling confused.
Mary`s eyes started to glimmer and Lily was bouncing a on her seat as Marlene looked quizzingly from the one to the other.
`But…didn`t it come along with the owl?`
`Hm-hm.` Lily nodded. `We asked your brother to help us.`
Marlene`s eyes widened, those sneaky bastards had asked her brother for help without her knowledge! She felt her cheeks turn red.
`Open it, open it!` Mary chanted impatiently. `We haven`t even seen it ourselves yet.`
Marlene carefully untied the ribbon. Something slipped out of the wrapping paper onto the table and Marlene frowned. She had no idea what she was looking at. It looked like some sort of a giant piece of crumpled orange and black plastic with odd nobs on it.
`Erm…` she mumbled, unsure if she was supposed to know what it was. `Thank you?`
`It`s an inflatable boat!` Mary beamed.
`A what now?`
`An inflatable boat.` Lily repeated, explaining. `It`s a muggle thing. You blow it up and you can take it out onto the water.`
Marlene let the news hit her and stared wide-eyed from Lily to Mary; they`d given her a bleeding boat?!
`Yeah,` Mary chimed in. `And we asked Danny to perform some safety spells on it, that way it doesn`t break and you won`t drown! Along with some other nifty benefits.`
That explained why Mary and Danny had acted so familiar with eachother on Platform 9 ¾ the first day of term. Or maybe they just were that socially assured of themselves.
`We couldn`t do the magic ourselves – obviously - since we aren’t allowed to use magic…well you know that.` Lily waved a dismissive hand in the air. `Anyway, we sent Danny a letter and he was chuffed to help us out. Even tested it and everything.` she grinned.
Marlene was still gobsmacked, not knowing how to respond. They had given her a boat!
`We know how sad you were to move,` Lily went on, smoothing her hand over the orange plastic. `And we know how much it meant to you to be able to go out onto the Loch and all that. So we thought you`d like to have a boat here so you can go out onto the Great Lake!`
`We don`t know if it`s strictly allowed, but who cares!` Mary added cheekily.
`I… I`m-` Marlene stammered, feeling her throat start close up and her eyes well over. `Thank you.` she answered, her eyes fixed on her hands, her voice very small.
`Oh love, now don`t cry.` Mary put an arm around Marlene. `There`s already enough water in the lake.`
Marlene sniffed her nose, wiped it with her sleeve, and chuckled lightly. This was possibly the most thoughtful gift she`d ever gotten from anyone; her parents and Danny included.
After classes they lugged the inflatable boat out of the castle, onto the grey pebble beach. It was an absolutely gorgeous Indian summer day; for Scottish standards anyway. The sun was golden and warm, illuminating the tops of the evergreen trees surrounding the lake. A soft breeze rippled the water, sluggishly moving the leaves and twigs that floated atop the surface.
Mary and Lily both helped to blow up the boat; which was a real pain until Lily pulled her wand out, deciding the muggle way was too much of a faff. The black and orange boat was big enough to hold at least all three of them and even had a peddle strapped to the bottom.
Kicking off her shoes and tights, Marlene waded out into the freezing cold water until it was up to her knees and clambered into the boat; Lily following squealing, holding up her skirt. Mary didn`t want to get into the boat. Neither of them pushed her, knowing how frightened she was of water.
`Gives me a chance to work on my tan.` Mary winked at them mockingly, smoothing a hand over her dark ebony skin.
Marlene unleased the peddle and started pushing off at the muddy bottom of the lake until she couldn`t feel it any more. Mary was a small figure on the dock, peering at them with a hand above her eyes.
Pulling the peddle back in, Marlene let the boat float stationary, small waves sloshing against the sides, swaying it lightly back and forth. Lily looked somewhat peevish, but seemed to relax after a couple of minutes.
Marlene leaned over the edge of the boat and weaved her fingers through the clear water, drawing lines in the tight plane. Breaking the surface tension like she was breaking her own.
***
Late September 1974
To say that Severus was not in the least bit chuffed with the partner arrangements in Potions, was an extreme understatement. He had made that very clear by spending every Potions lesson glaring at Lily as she shared her cauldron with Remus, swapping notes and working on their concoctions together in an amicable fashion.
He hadn`t confronted her up front with it yet and Lily was waiting for the bomb to drop. Apparently he had been under the impression that without saying Lily would partner up with him again this year. Even though the two of them had barely spoken since being back at Hogwarts.
At the end of a long day of classes, Severus pushed his way forcefully past her and Remus, scowling as he left the dungeons. This obviously didn`t go unnoticed by Remus.
`Have you two fallen out or something?` Remus asked frowning, peering after Severus.
Lily sighed, hesitantly. To be honest, she didn`t know whether the two of them had fallen out. She was sure that at some point they`d make up; like they always did. `No, not exactly.` she hence replied. `He got annoyed when I had Mary and Marlene to visit over the summer, that`s all. Think they`re not the right `sort`.` she raised her eyebrows meaningfully. `I have to keep reminding him that I`m muggleborn too.`
`Why do you put up with it?`
`I don`t really.` she replied glumly, staring at her hands. `I always have a go at him when he spouts that pureblood nonsense, and sometimes he listens to me. But…well it`s not easy for him you know.`
She went on to pack her bookbag, shoving her books and notes to the bottom with more force than necessary. Logically, she knew she should be stricter when it came to Severus; he`d crossed too many boundaries already. But she just couldn`t bring herself to do so. He didn`t have it easy at home. With his father being a drunk and abusive, she could hardly blame him for thinking that muggles were bad, seeing as his father was the only muggle he really knew; save for Lily`s own parents and sister. He tended to put his mother up on a pedestal, seeing her as the woman who couldn`t do anything wrong. Lily was surprised that Eileen hadn`t taken Severus with her a long time ago and fled.
Severus truly believed that muggles and magical people shouldn`t marry and have children. In his opinion it would always end in a bloodbath. He was convinced that broken families brought forth broken people and those couldn`t possibly be decent wizard or witches. Same went for completely muggleborn wizards or witches; he thought that they were mutations, a fault of nature. Lily thought this was a projecting he had of himself, but it was too hard to bring this up. If she even scraped the surface of the topic, he`d get defensive.
Deep down, Lily truly believed that Severus was good. He just didn`t have it easy. Thinking that she could salvage him, was the reason that she hadn`t given up on him; no matter what everyone else told her.
What not in the slightest bit helped to ease Severus` resentment towards Lily, was the fact that this year Potter seemed to have completely lost his mind. When before, he had already been rather vocal and obvious about his supposed affections towards Lily, he now truly had dialled it up a notch.
And he was the opposite of subtle.
`Give us a snog, Evans!` James called to her over his cauldron one afternoon.
Lily`s eyes widened at the cheer cheek of him and she felt utterly appalled. Who was Potter to think that he could just shout at her and expect her to kiss him? This only confirmed her suspicion that it was all just some game for him. Get the goody two shoes to snog him.
Ferociously she swished her wand and flung his cauldron off the desk, giving him what he deserved. The bright blue liquid splashed over both James and Sirius, staining them both a lovely azure for an entire week. They reminded Lily a bit of the little blue men she`d seen on some comic books in French supermarkets.
Apparently the fact that she`d made him the laughingstock of the castle didn`t hold James back from trying it on with her again a week later. This time he appeared to have changed tactics.
Lily readied herself as she saw James approaching her desk, his hands shoved into his pockets, his glasses askew. She turned her gaze towards her hands, pretending to ignore him.
`I really like your hair.` he said, sounding self-assured.
`Mm.` Lily hummed.
`Yeah, it`s so…um,` James went on, apparently needing to back up his statement. `…ginger.`
Lily bit the inside of her cheeks and she clenched her jaw. Of all the words he could have possibly chosen to compliment her, he`d picked ginger? In primary school the other kids used to tease her for her hair. Asking if she only ate carrots. If they could use her as a lighthouse in their pretend play. Pulling on her braids and acting to have burned themselves. And of course, they`d called her ginger. She`d hated her hair; wishing she could have been born with blonde hair, like her sister. Or a lovely brunette. Just anything but ginger.
She`d only come to terms with the colour of her hair when she`d read similar tales about girls with red hair. Like Anne of Green Gables. She whished she had a blackboard to smack Potter with now.
`Like it that much do you?` she asked, raising her eyebrows. Sirius, who had been standing close, took a step back as she darted her eyes at him. James only nodded vigorously.
`Oh yeah, I think it`s-`
`Refusio!` Lily whispered, making sure Slughorn wasn`t watching, and pointed her wand at him.
Marlene and Mary grinned cheekily at her from across the classroom.
Immediately James` hair turned a shade of red not much different from her own, only more unnatural looking and awfully bright, almost as if it was immitting light. Sirius snorted so loud that it startled Lily and Remus gasped. James kept grinning that daft grin of his, seemingly unaware of what was happening.
`What?` he asked confused as Sirius was basically rolling around on the floor and Peter had turned a shade of pink that was rarely seen on a person.
Remus pressed his lips together and shook his head, looking at Lily with sparkling eyes.
`What!?` James asked again, now starting to get nervous as more and more students began laughing and pointing.
Eventually, Marlene hurried over and handed him the little compact mirror she always held in her bookbag.
Lily thought she`d never seen James looked as surprised as when he gazed back at his own appearance, mouth falling open and eyes popping out of his skull.
To Lily`s utter delight, the hair charm lasted an entire week and she had the pleasure of seeing James get harassed by the other students calling him names for his hair. Some only jokingly, others slightly offensive, a few to the point of getting rude. At that point, she had to slightly shut herself off, for she would start to feel the memories of herself getting called those names flooding back.
Yet, even after this, James didn`t give up his pursuit of Lily. He was truly adamant; she had to give him that. Not unlike herself in a way.
///