Chapter 1
Mary had something big planned for tonight. Afterall, it was her birthday. She was officially seventeen, and it seemed like all of Gryffindor Tower was in the common room drinking, dancing and celebrating the birth of the “Cassanova of Gryfinndor Year 1978.” She felt an enjoyable haze over her brain as the alcohol she had been drinking made her feel fuzzy and warm. One more drink and she may be too gone to make her plan come to fruition. She put her drink down.
She got off the couch, ignoring a fifth year Hufflepuff boy who was trying to talk to her, searching the crowd for a certain bespectacled and untidy-haired boy. He was phase one.
“Oi, James!” Mary called out after seeing him. But James didn’t hear her, he was too busy dancing on top of a table, two drinks in hand, singing along to the music as his many adoring fans looked up at him laughing. He was very much in his element. Even though he never tried to take attention from the main event, attention couldn’t help but take to him. Mary usually hated men like that, but she didn’t think anyone could actually hate James. Well, actually, where was Lily?
“James!” Mary yelled again, louder. Finally, he made eye contact with her and smiled, like he was the one looking for her. Jumping down off the table, and setting his drinks down, he staggered towards her. Damn, I may not be the only one who had one too many. When he reached her, he lazily swung his arm around her shoulders, beaming down at her.
“Birthday girl! How are ya? Doing okay? Need another drink? Woahhh, easy there,” he said as he stumbled against her, almost knocking them over.
“Oh, get yourself together, you bloody lightweight,” she said giggling, as she leaned them against the wall. “Listen, where’s Lily?”
“How should I know? It’s not like I keep track of her” he said defiantly. But one stern look from Mary and he cracked.
“Alright fine, she’s in the library. She said she’d be here after she finished her Charms homework, so I tried to help her by, ya know, disappearing her Charms homework. Then, well, she hexed me, that fox.” he said with a soft smile and so much adoration in his eyes, Mary would have thought he said she kissed him instead of hexed him.
“Well, I hope that millionth rejection didn’t break your spirit too much, I have a mission for you.” she said. His eyes grew wide and his smile glinted with an air of mischief. She could always count on James to break a rule or two with her.
“I need you to get her from the library. Tell her a third year set off Dungbombs in their dorm and that McGonnagall expects her to take care of it and wants her to grab Dorcas for backup along the way.”
Dorcas was currently not at the party because she had Prefect Duty. But Mary suspected that wasn’t the actual reason she wasn’t at the party - it’s not like she hadn’t skived off her patrols in the past. Mary scanned the room and saw Marlene slumped on the couch like she had been all night. A less trained eye would think Marlene had drunk too much and passed out, but there wasn’t much that went on with her friends that Mary didn’t know about. It was extremely obvious that Marlene and Dorcas had a fight and weren’t speaking. This, in Mary's opinion, was stupid and could easily be fixed. It would be fixed in just a bit, actually.
“Aye, aye captain,” James said, pulling away from her to do a drunken salute. She noticed his lack of questioning, he never needed much convincing when it came to secret missions or Lily Evans. Her eyes followed him as he briskly headed towards the exit.
Okay, Lily and Dorcas are on the way. Now it was time to initiate phase two. They weren’t hard to find. Remus was leaning against a door frame laughing, as Sirius was telling a grand story, talking so animatedly with his hands that Mary was surprised Remus wasn’t ducking for cover. As she walked over, Remus made eye contact with her over Sirius’ shoulder.
“Hey MacDonald, having fun?” He asked with a polite smile as Sirius turned around to face her as well.
“Of course she’s having fun, Moony. I bought her a bottle of 18th century firewhiskey that we finished before the party even started,” Sirius said, winking at her. It was true, Sirius had been hellbent on ensuring her coming of age birthday was filled to the brim with enough alcohol to kill a whole bank’s worth of goblins. He always was Mary’s favorite ex-boyfriend.
“Yeah, yeah it’s been great. Listen lads, I need you to do something for me,” she said leaning in so no other party goers except the three of them could hear what she was saying.
“Remember those fireworks you all and James set off for New Years? Do you have any left?”
“Oh no, no way. I had detention for two weeks after that, no way I’m setting the rest of those off” Remus said with a groan.
“So there are some left?” Mary said with a devious smile. “C’mon Lupin, you can’t turn me down on my birthday,” she said, fluttering her lashes in a way that usually makes all men (and some women) do whatever she wants.
“That doesn’t work on me, love,” Remus said, laughing at her attempt.
“Sirius!” she said, moving on from trying to sweet talk Remus, to her ex, who she knew that used to work on.
“Oh stop your grumbling, you know I’ll do it,” Sirius said, leaning his back against Remus as he rested his chin on Sirius’ shoulder. “But what are you planning, MacDonald? I know that look,” his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“You’ll find out soon enough, babes,” Mary said while reaching into her pocket for the vile of powder she had spent the previous night making. “Once you get the fireworks, bring them outside the tower and sprinkle this on top of them,” she said, handing Sirius the powder. “Whatever you do, don’t light them until I say so.”
“What’s the powder do?” He asked.
“Oh, you’ll see. Just a little something I’ve been working on. Maybe I’ve even been inspired by you Marauders,” she replied cheekily.
“Well who’s going to get everyone outside? No point in fireworks if no one’s there to see them” Remus said, grabbing the vial from Sirius’ hand, inspecting the mystery powder inside it. Not even he would know what it is, Mary thought with satisfaction.
“Leave that up to me. Trust me, we’ll have an audience, plus a bit more,” she said, winking at the two of them before turning away, liking the idea of them watching her leave.
-
An hour later, all the pieces had come together. James had come back with a frantic Lily Evans, who rushed to the dormitory stairs to stifle a dungbomb disaster before Mary pulled her back and let her know, with her most charming smile, that it was all a ruse to get Lily to the party.
(Another reason was that she didn’t want Lily in the castle alone tonight. Not with what she had planned. Lily didn’t need to know that part, though).
Lily only looked like she was going to kill her for a second before she sighed, “You’re lucky it’s your birthday, MacDonald.”
Mary smiled, also realizing that the birthday exception wouldn’t apply to James, who undoubtedly would be facing Lily’s wrath later for tricking her. She made a mental note to offer an early morning quidditch practice with him as an apology, that would make all things right.
Marlene and Dorcas didn’t even take the fifteen minutes Mary thought they’d need to make up. It was quicker. As soon as Dorcas came into the common room with Lily and James, Marlene lifted her head and Dorcas went right over to her. They didn’t speak for a second, and then Dorcas leaned in to whisper something in Marlene’s ear. Marlene started to laugh and then she started to cry and then Dorcas brought her in for a hug and spoke to her in hushed tones. After a minute they were snogging ferociously on the common room couch. Christ, those two are intense.
Mary and Lily were downing a shot of muggle vodka when Sirius got back from setting up the fireworks with Remus. He strolled over to them with a cocky grin that let Mary know all went as planned. At this point of the night, many people had gone to bed, or were slumped on the couches. There were only about ten Gryffindors left in the common room. This was perfect, less people to herd
“Okay, we’re all set. Should we get everyone outside?” Sirius asked.
“Oh God, what did you two do?” Lily said with an exasperated sigh that Mary ignored as she climbed onto the table in front of her. Straightening herself up, she cupped her hands to her mouth, preparing to quiet the raucous common room. Before she even spoke, the whole crowd was already shushing each other and beginning to pay attention to her. It didn’t make her feel self conscious though. Mary wasn’t a stranger to people looking at her, she commanded attention and she liked that about herself.
“Alright, you lot, ” she started, “I know we’re all having a lovely time, but I’m gonna need us to move this party outside - it may be my birthday but I have a surprise for you all.” She said with a beaming smile as the crowd murmured below her excitedly. She jumped off the table and Sirius started leading the group of drunk teenagers down the stairs to the courtyard. She was a little worried they’d bump into Filch, but Sirius assured her that Filch was on the opposite side of the castle. How he knew Filch’s exact location, she didn’t know, but she did know not to question Marauder Special Intelligence.
When everyone was finally outside, Mary and Sirius walked over to Remus who was standing in front of the set up fireworks. He had a mischievous smile on his face, his original hesitation about the fireworks seemingly completely forgotten about. Everyone liked to say James and Sirius were the biggest pranksters, but Mary couldn’t help but think Remus loved this shit just as much as they did.
“Right, they’re all ready to go off. Shall we light them?” He asked, the tip of his wand igniting a small flame
.
“Actually,” Mary said quickly, lowering his wand arm and raising her own, “I should probably do it. My idea and all,” she said casually. What she didn’t say was that she wanted to be the one responsible if anything went a bit… out of control. She wasn’t scared, but Mary was never going to let a friend go down for something she did.
Before anyone could argue, she leaned down and lit the fireworks. Sirius pulled her back quickly, and everyone looked up as a string of fire shot through the night sky, erupting in a rainbow of colors. Finally, the fireworks began to take a form, red and gold lights becoming distinct, a lioness. The lioness leapt through the sky, regal and larger-than-life as the crowd ogled over it from the ground. It lasted for a while, the fireworks far more vibrant than anything the Marauders had ever set off. Finally, the lioness sat still and began exploding in a million sparks. The sparks turned into words:
XOXO, MARY WAS HERE
The crowd began buzzing in excitement and laughter. She wished she could take in their reactions, but she needed to make sure it was working. The words in the sky were just a distraction, after all. It was time. This had to work, and there! There it was,
A spark, a particularly bright spark, shifted away from the letters. It floated for a second, as if mapping where it needed to go. Then, it zoomed off towards the castle, the dungeon, to be more exact. Holy shit, I think that actually worked.
Before she could think about it for another second, she felt herself being grabbed by her friends. James and Sirius lifted her on top of their shoulders, as the rest of the partygoers circled around them, speaking excitedly over one another.
“That was amazing, Mary!”
“You must have bewitched those, those couldn’t have been normal fireworks.”
“Fucking legendary, MacDonald”
She didn’t even know who was saying what. All she could see were her friends beaming around her, even Lily looked like she was having a great time. She felt so much love for these people. These people who accepted her, laughed with her. Who would fucking fight for her. And maybe that’s what she was doing for them. Especially the ones that were like her and Lily. This night was really about them.
Whatever happened tomorrow, she could handle it. She was Mary bloody MacDonald, after all. She was strong and brave and not afraid of leaving her mark. Literally.
–
Down in the dungeons, a group of Slytherins were speaking ferociously into the night.
“It had to have been Black and his lot,” Crouch Jr. said, staring at the new mark on his skin with disdain.
“I say we get them back tonight. Lure them out of their dorms somehow and-,” Rosier added.
“How the fuck do we get this shit off?!” Mulciber interrupted, ferociously scrubbing at the words on his arm, the skin growing red and hot, yet the mark not moving at all. Each of them had something different, but they were all variations of:
Fuck Blood Puirty
I <3 Muggleborns
Proud Blood Traitor
The words were tattooed on their skin after a glowing spark exploded while they slept. It wasn’t painful, but nothing was working to get them off. The tattoos were located on their left forearms, where they were all saving space for a very specific dark mark they hoped to get after school.
“It wasn’t Potter and Black,” said a boy with greasy hair, speaking for the first time since the explosion.
“What do you mean, of course it was!” Crouch Jr said.
Snape had been in the potions lab when the fireworks went off. Looking out the window, he had seen the lioness pounce through the night and the sign off Mary left in the sky. But mostly he saw the spark fly past him and shoot towards the dungeons. He knew it reached its destination when he looked down and saw the words marked on him
I love a Muggleborn
It was true of course, but Snape would never admit it. He hadn’t spoken to Lily much since 5th year, and since then, he had been working endlessly to discourage the rumors of his acceptance of mudbloods. He wouldn’t let this slide. He couldn’t let this slide. He was so close to being accepted. From being chosen by the Dark Lord.
“It was that mudblood MacDonald. I saw the fireworks she set off, she must have bewitched them,” Snape said.
The sound of glass breaking made him look up. Mulciber had squeezed his glass of firewhiskey too hard, it shattered in his hand. His face was red and his eyes dilated, Snape could feel the hatred radiating off of him.
“A mudblood did this? A fucking mudblood?” He was shaking in rage. “I swear I’ll fucking kill her.”
“Don’t be stupid, we wouldn’t be able to get away with it, not under Dumbledore’s nose,” Snape replied.
“Of course you don’t want to do anything, you’ve always had a soft spot for mudbloods,” Crouch Jr. spat.
“I didn’t say we shouldn't do anything,” Snape replied coolly, “We need to be smart. We need to make people scared. We need to make an example out of her.”
“How do we do that?” Rosier asked, the rest of the boys looking at him expectedly.
Snape smiled insidiously.