Of Marauders and Mass Destruction
Glass crunched under Lily's feet and every hair on her arms stood on end.
The common room was cold. The fire was out and the windows shattered; it was eerily quiet, as all the portraits were conspicuously empty. Feathers were falling, cushions ripped. The chandeliers were unlit.
"What-?" Remus whipped his wand out, mouth set in a hard line. Sirius bounded through the portrait hole and Lily saw the moment the spark in his eyes faded and a warrior took the place of the boy.
"By the stairs," he muttered. Lily gripped the wand she didn't remember pulling out and squinted. A prone figure was visible though the dim destruction.
Remus grimaced and stepped forward to investigate, gesturing for the two of them to wait. Lily did, scanning the rest of the room to look for other casualties. A noise of shifting debris on the other side of the room made her jump and her free hand shot out to grip Sirius's. She didn't let go.
Remus swore and Lily gripped Sirius's hand harder, abandoning her search and whipping around to see what Remus had found instead.
"Are you dating me for my brother?" James asked mock-indignantly, blinking owlishly and holding his shattered glasses. Blood trickled from the bridge of his nose.
Lily let go of Sirius's hand. She could feel the pleasure at the term "brother" rolling off him as surely as he'd been radiating anxiety moments before.
"You idiot!" She cried. "I thought you were dead! What happened?"
"Peter," James said grimly. "No one else was in here. How do the walls look?"
"Undamaged," Remus reported as he scanned them. "Where's Wormtail?"
Lily pointed to where she'd heard noise. "He's not got the hang of "bombarda" yet, then?" She asked, trying to swallow a hysterical adrenaline-fuelled giggle.
"I'd argue that Mister Pettigrew has exceeded expectations with that particular spell," Professor McGonagall's tart voice cut in. She stood in the portrait hole, surveying the damage critically. A horrified squeak preceded Peter out of the shelter of an overturned armchair, held firmly in Sirius's grip. He was shaking.
"I d-didn't mean to," he snivelled.
"I am sure," Minerva said dryly. "I recommend you all stand very still for a moment."
A slow sweep of her wand had shards and feathers dancing in a potentially deadly but elegant airborne choreography that culminated in a roaring fire and the room looking, once again, like home.
"There are classrooms designed for practising such spells," she told Peter sternly. "If I hear of you attempting such damaging magic in a communal space again, you will be in detention for the rest of term. Five points from Gryffindor for needlessly endangering your peers."
She left, but beckoned Lily with her.
"I suggest," she said quietly, "that you take Mister Potter to the hospital wing to be checked. Veela respond differently to injury, and he will now feel threatened due to his reduced vision. You remain the least affected by his nature, and you are his partner - his Veela knows that too. He will want to be near you."
Lily's face registered surprise that the Professor knew of James's Veela inheritance, and of their relationship, and she longed to know how Minerva knew so much about Veela, but she asked no questions. She had her orders.