Chapter 9
“Didn’t Potter lose?” Lily asked Remus, only politely interested, as they surveyed the mayhem evolving in front of them in the Common Room.
“I suppose that’s the best part about Gryffindor playing against itself. We get a party either way.”
Lily shook her head, suppressing a smile. She supposed it was technically her job to try to stop this, but that felt above her paygrade.
“Have fun, then,” she said, highly considering secreting herself away in bed while everyone else celebrated and finally getting some sleep. Remus snorted and she shot him a quizzical look.
“I don’t think you’re getting away that easily,” he said, and gestured to where Mary, Marlene and Robin were all gesturing for her to come over. They were dressed in an eclectic mix of muggle and wizarding clothes, jewelry glittering in the fire light. She looked down at the thick sweater she’d been living in and her faded blue jeans. She looked desaturated, compared to the rest of her cohort. She didn’t feel much better.
“Lily!” Robin greeted, moving to the side to make room for her. “I thought you might skip this one.”
“She would never,” Marlene said, already well on her way to being drunk.
“She would,” Mary argued, not looking entirely sober herself.
“Are they okay?” Lily asked Robin, who gave a dramatic sigh.
“Marlene and Noel are arguing again.” Marlene threw a pillow at her.
Lily, torn between being nice and being exasperated, settled for a sympathetic, “about what?”
“He was getting frisky with a fourth year,” Mary said, not sounding at all sympathetic. To her credit, she’d been listening to this all night.
“What?” Lily took a sip of the beer offered to her. “He cheated on you?!”
“He didn’t cheat on me,” Marlene said, pushing herself upright. “He just looked like… well, he looked like he might cheat on me.”
Lily was grateful Andi wasn’t here. Even she was having trouble being tactful in this situation.
“Marly, darling,” she said, leaning forward. “If you can’t trust him, why are you with him?”
Marlene had been dating Noel, on and off, for two years. He’d already cheated on her once. He was, by all of their estimations, the world’s biggest prat. Except, maybe, for James Potter.
“Because when he’s not being a git, he’s lovely,” she said, dejected. “He’s just… I really thought he was going to be different this time.” She gave a sad little shrug. “And it’s not like I have the whole school to pick from. I’m not like the rest of you.”
This, of course, garnered a chorus of denials.
“You’re gorgeous, Marlene,” Robin said, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.
“I’m hardly turning down suitors, you know,” Mary said. “We don’t all look like Robin.”
“Hey,” Robin looked at her in confusion. “What do I have to do with this?”
“Marlene,” Lily said, softly, “if you don’t feel beautiful, being with Noel Belby isn’t going to change that. Especially if he keeps doing this shit to you, I mean… What would you say if it was one of us?”
Marlene said nothing, just toyed with her straight, blonde hair, looking glum. The strange thing was that, in Lily’s opinion, there was no great gulf in their physical attractiveness, except, maybe, with Robin. But Robin was an outlier. They all looked bad next to her.
She couldn’t help but feel like the Marlene of two years ago, the Marlene who hadn’t dated Noel Belby, had felt happier within herself. She used to wear oversized t-shirts featuring muggle bands, she’d braid her long hair back to keep it out of her face when she was painting or reading. Lily couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen Marlene paint. It wasn’t something she’d been paying attention to. And she should have.
“Why is everyone over here so fucking grim?” Sirius interrupted, his arm slung around Peter’s shoulders, the latter chugging the rest of his beer bottle as they arrived. “It’s supposed to be a party, isn’t it?”
“Noel Belby is a tart,” Lily supplied, shrugging.
“Who’s Noel Belby?” Sirius asked, looking baffled.
“Pipe Cleaner,” Peter clarified, and Sirius nodded in understanding.
“Oh, him. Yeah, he is a tart. Why do we care?”
“Pipe Cleaner?” Marlene asked, her brows furrowed.
“He’s got weirdly hairy arms,” Sirius said if that was the only explanation needed.
“He’s also too tall,” Peter said.
They had a point. Noel Belby looked very much like a bean pole.
“He’s Marlene’s boyfriend. He cheated… Actually, maybe he didn’t cheat on her.” Lily looked at Marlene. “I didn’t actually get the whole story.”
“He’s started studying with Hazel Bagnold. And I found a note from her, it’s… flirty.” Marlene explained.
“How do you know she isn’t the tart?” Sirius asked, and Lily had to admit he had a point–even if she didn’t like it.
“If a girl was being flirty with you, wouldn’t you tell your girlfriend about it? Rather than letting her find the letters after you’ve just had sex for the first time?”
The rest of the group stilled at Marlene’s words. Lily had a feeling she had not meant to reveal quite so much in front of almost all of the Gryffindor fifth years. If Lily was surprised, it was only that they had not had sex before this. They’d been together a long time. She suddenly thought back to her brief relationship with Finn. They hadn’t had sex, but they had come close. Was she a tart?
“Hard to say,” Sirius said, finally. “Seeing as I would never have a girlfriend. Peter, what do you think?”
Lily couldn’t help but look at Robin, who was hiding her active interest in the discussion remarkably well.
“Probably not, to be honest, Marlene.” Peter shrugged. “How would you bring it up?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Marlene said, irritated, “something like, hello, girlfriend that I love, this other girl has been being flirty with me but I absolutely do not feel the same way and I definitely will not cheat on you again. How is that?”
Sirius mouthed Again? at Robin, who shrugged.
“I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” Marlene said, taking a large gulp of a drink that Lily wasn’t certain had been hers. “Someone do something.”
“We could play truth or dare…” Sirius said, grinning at the others as he sat down, motioning for them to form a circle.
“That sounds like my cue,” Lily said, squeezing Marlene’s hand in sympathy but unwilling to be caught in a drinking game with the Marauders.
“Evans isn’t going to have fun?” A voice said from behind her, sounding thoroughly sloshed. “Consider me shocked.”
The day she cared about what James Potter had to say about her was the day she dropped dead. She looked behind her and glared, ignoring the jeers of the rest of them. She was definitely too sober for this.
“I consider you a lot of things, Potter,” she retorted. “Shocked doesn’t make the top ten.”
“Oh?” He asked, and sat beside her with annoyingly graceful ease, leaning in towards her. “And what would be the top ten? Handsome? Funny? Irresistible?”
“Unable to take a hint would definitely rank,” she retaliated, and was awarded with a few snorts from the rest of their companions.
“Come on, Evans. One game.” He leaned in even further, that one stupid curl falling into his face. “I won’t even make you do anything too raunchy.”
A scrunched-up piece of paper hit the side of her head before she could reply, and she spun back around, glaring.
“Let’s play before they shag,” Sirius said, not looking even slightly mollified by her ire. Conversely, James’s cheeks darkened considerably with what she thought might be a blush. “You can go first, Evans.”
He pulled out a strange-looking gold bowl inlaid with rubies, then poured half a bottle of firewhiskey into it. Lily raised her eyebrows in confusion.
“This,” Sirius said, proudly, while James settled in beside her on the floor, “is an invention of my very own.”
“Oi!” James interrupted.
“Fine. Of our very own.” Sirius amended, then picked up the bowl, holding it like a massive cup. “This is what makes truth or date special. You drink this, you’re in the game. If you’re asked a question, it will compel you to tell the truth. If you’re dared to do something, it will compel you to do that, too, although, full transparency, that one is more hit or miss. If you want to leave the game, you just need to take a second sip.”
It was… Impressively complicated magic. She didn’t know of any potion that could encourage truth aside from Veritaserum, but it seemed like the charm was on the object, rather than the substance. She wasn’t even certain where to begin if she wanted to recreate it.
He offered the cup to her first, and she knew it was a challenge. Looking back, she wouldn’t have been able to say why she accepted it. But it had been a long few months. And she didn’t have all the answers anymore.
She took a large gulp, then passed it to Robin on her left, who gave her an appreciative look. Eventually, after a few minor gripes, they all drank. Even Andi, who had joined the party late and perched disdainfully on the arm of the sofa. Lily grinned, the firewhiskey hitting her faster than she’d expected. Andi was the only one who would hate this as much as she did.
“Andi,” she called out and got a well-deserved glare in return. “Truth or dare.”
She took less than a second to think about it. “Dare.”
Lily mused for a moment or two longer, taking a sip of her non-magical beer. “I dare you to… to arm wrestle a person of your choosing. If you lose, finish your drink.”
Andi rolled her eyes, clearly unamused by Lily’s lack of imagination. Lily had thought it was quite good. Andi chose Sirius, and soon the two were embroiled in an incredibly stubborn match of arm wrestling. Sirius eventually managed to force her hand onto the table, spilling several drinks in the process, which he magically cleaned up while Andi chugged a small glass of wine, resentfully.
Andi chose Mary, who confessed her biggest turn-off was scraggly facial hair. She chose Sirius, who challenged Peter to drink a drink upside down. Peter chose Marlene, who ended up cutting a small chunk of her hair off right at the root. Lily couldn’t help but gasp as the blonde strands fell to the floor, but Marlene was laughing wickedly.
She chose James, who, predictably, chose dare.
“Rank everyone here from most to least attractive.”
Peter, who had already finished several drinks, crowed with laughter. “This will not end well.”
“Come on,” James said, his cheeks dark. “That’ll take all night. I switch to truth.”
“Fine,” Marlene shrugged. “Just say who you think is the most attractive.”
It was clear James did not want to answer the question. But it was also clear that the spelled cup was not going to let him off that easy. After a pained pause, he looked up. Sirius was red with suppressed laughter, Marlene looked dangerously gleeful, and Remus was, for some reason, looking at her. That was when she realized.
“Evans,” he finally said, with none of his usual bluster.
She froze. It wasn’t preposterous, exactly. But it wasn’t expected.
“Oh,” she said, her voice low. “Thanks.”
“No problem, he said, swallowing hard. The rest of the group looked elated at the awkwardness.
“Sirius is a close second, though,” James said, his air just a little too casual. Still, his words had their desired effect, as soon enough the attention had shifted from them, as Sirius and Peter argued about which of them was actually next in attractiveness.
“He can’t lie, Pete,” Sirius teased, “it’s part of the spell. You know he finds me the most attractive.”
“Second most,” Peter retorted, crossing his arms.
“He can’t lie at all?” Andi clarified. “I thought it was just if he was asked truth or dare.”
Sirius shrugged. “Spells not that specific, actually. We all have to tell the truth while we’re under it.”
What kind of spell was this? She half expected them all to surge forward, trying to sip from the bowl again to remove the compulsion. But, instead, Sirius just turned James.
“Your turn, mate.”
James grinned at her, and she groaned.
“Truth,” she said before he could even ask. He mulled it over, languishing on the floor as if it was the comfiest chair imaginable.
“Have you ever hooked up with Snivellus?” He finally asked, looking triumphant.
Lily, on the other hand, felt all of her good mood vanish in one fell swoop.
“What is it with you two?” She snapped, not even trying to disguise her anger. “Honestly, you’re so obsessed with him, why do you have to take it out on me?”
“Not an answer, Evans,” James shrugged, not sounding nearly as uneasy as he should.
She got to her feet, done with all of it.
“Give me the fucking bowl, Black.” She commanded, reaching out for the stupid, gold bowl. “I’m done with this.”
“You have, haven’t you?” James said, also getting to his feet. “You’ve hooked up with him! That’s disgusting.”
Lily was momentarily speechless with rage. If she hadn’t been compelled to tell the truth, she might have lied just to bother him. But the charm had waited long enough for her answer.
“I haven’t fucked him, Potter,” she snarled. “And, you know what, I’m glad I have to tell the truth. Because now you know I’m being honest when I say I think you’re the most pathetic, arrogant git that I’ve ever met.” She looked around at their silent spectators. “See? I haven’t been struck down yet. I must be telling the truth.”
“Not really how it works,” Sirius said, and she turned her considerable ire towards him.
“What the fuck do you have to say?” She asked, and Sirius scoffed at her.
“Just that I never once thought you’d hook up with Snivellus. He’s much too easy for you. You have daddy issues written all over you.” She couldn’t speak. Both boys laughed at her apparent inability to retort, and she heard a strange ringing in her ears. “What’s the deal, then? Absent father? Did he leave to grab some smokes and never come back?”
The ringing turned to roaring, and she was speaking before she could think better of it.
“You know what, Black, you’re right. I do have daddy issues. One big one, actually.” She leaned closer to Sirius, and the ice in her voice was unfamiliar to her. “He died two months ago.”
She then grabbed the bowl and took a large gulp, storming out of the Common Room before anyone could call after her.