Golden Years

The first few weeks of being back at Hogwarts were like a dream for Lily. But then, on the second weekend, the rest of the world hit her all at once. The first thing she saw as she sat down for breakfast was the newspaper.

“Deatheater attack on Cokeworth bridge kills 30”

Lily grabbed the paper, mind racing while somehow also being numb. Her dad used that bridge to get home from work everyday. She flipped through frantically, hoping to find a list of victims.

“Hey, hey, calm down Lils,” Marlene said, grabbing her wrist from beside her. “We already checked, no one with the last name Evans was even near the bridge. Your family’s fine.”

“Oh thank god.” Lily leaned into Marlene’s side. Marlene squeezed her wrist comfortingly and then went back to eating.

“Oh shit,” Dorcas said from across the table, looking at the paper. Lily’s mind was instantly on high alert again.

“What? What is it?” She asked.

“Well, it says, um,” Dorcas stuttered, then thrusted the paper at Lily. “Read it for yourself.”

Lily took the paper gingerly and scanned the page. She gasped when she found what Dorcas had noticed.

“What?” Marlene said, looking over Lily’s shoulder.

“Among the victims were Tobias and Eileen Snape,” Lily read quietly.

The three looked over to the Slytherins table. Snape sat quietly as some classmates expressed their sympathy. He didn’t look even nearly as sad as those comforting him.

“How is he ok? I mean, I hate the guy, but I feel badly for him,” Dorcas said.

“He hates his parents,” Lily answered. “And he loves the Deatheaters. Wouldn’t be surprised if he asked them to do it.”

“Christ, Lily. I know you two aren’t friends anymore but that’s a bit much,” Marlene said.

“It’s really not. Why would Deatheaters attack a small town like Cokeworth? What’s the point unless they had a specific target? And why only blow up the bridge? We all know Snape has Deatheater aspirations, maybe he asked for the attack as a reward for something he’ll do for them,” Dorcas mused.

“Merlin, could we cut it out with the theories? This is getting worrying,” Marlene said. Marlene usually had the most interest in these things, but she seemed nervous this morning.

“Sorry Marls. You ok?” Dorcas asked softly.

“Yeah, just a bit nervous for tryouts,” Marlene responded.

“I thought Potter said you didn’t have to try out again? That you were already in?” Lily said confusedly.

“Yeah, but if we don’t find good Chasers we’re screwed for the year. And this is one of my last chances to win the Cup,” Marlene answered.

“Hey, I’m sure it’ll be fine. You want us to come down with you, watch the tryouts?” Lily asked.

“If you want to, sure,” Marlene said, “but you don’t have to feel obligated-“

“Marls,” Dorcas laughed, “of course we’re coming. Gryffindor pride, right?”

“Yeah,” Marlene smiled. Lily looked between them as they continued to gaze at each other. ‘Why are they staring?’ she thought. She cleared her throat and the two snapped out of it.

“Well, if we’re going, I need to put on a coat. We’ll meet you on the pitch in ten, ok Marly?” Lily said.

“Yeah, sure.” Marlene was blushing a little bit.

“Great. Dorcas, come on,” Lily said, getting up. Dorcas followed her to the dorm room.

“Hey, do you think Alice will be there to watch Frank?” Lily asked as she went through her wardrobe.

“I’m sure she will be. She says Quidditch uniforms make people look at least 40 percent hotter. She kind of has a point, too,” Dorcas mumbled the last part.

“Oh? And what Quidditch player do you have your eyes on? It better not be McLaggen,” Lily teased.

“What? No, it was just an observation. I don’t, it’s not,” Dorcas stuttered.

“Relax, Dorcas. I’m just joking,” Lily said as she saw Dorcas blushing and shifting on her feet.

“Oh good, I was worried you thought I was trying to steal your man,” Dorcas sighed out.

“Wait, what? My man? I don’t know-“

“Of course you do. Potter,” Dorcas deadpanned, and proceeded to laugh when she saw Lily’s face turn from confusion to disgust. They left the dormitory and began the walk down to the pitch.

“Haha. Potter is the least attractive member of that team,” Lily said.

“You’d rather McLaggen than Potter? At least Potter respects women for the most part,” Dorcas responded as they reached the bleachers.

“Since when do you defend Potter? Unless,” Lily gasped. “Do you actually like him?”

“What? No, of course not. That’d be ridiculous. Besides, everyone knows he’s practically in love with you,” Dorcas said.

“Doesn’t mean you can’t like him. Plenty of girls do, not that I understand it,” Lily answered as they sat down. “And methinks the lady doth protest too much.”

“Fuck off,” Dorcas answered.

“Why are we telling Lily to fuck off?” Alice appeared and dropped into a seat next to Dorcas.

“She thinks-“

“I know-“

“That I have a crush on Potter,” Dorcas finished, shooting a glare at Lily for the interruption.

“Oh. Well, even if you did, he’s in love with Lily, so, not much to be done,” Alice said, never taking her eyes from the tryouts. She let out a piercing whistle as Frank blocked a goal from McLaggen.

“Potter is not in love with me!” Lily shouted frustratedly.

“Yes he is!” Marlene shouted back as she zoomed above their heads.

“Go Marls!”

“Fall off that broom and die, bitch!”

“Lily no!”

“Lily yes!”

“Don’t make me ground you!”

“Sorry mum.”

The three girls made their way to the locker rooms when tryouts were over. They had lasted until lunch, and they were all considerably hungry, which led to some minor impatience.

“Marly hurry the fuck up!” Alice pounded on the wall.

“We’re hungry you fool,” Lily said loudly. Marlene emerged from the locker rooms.

“Merlin, you people are vultures. Lily, did you tell me to fall off my broom and die?”

“Maybe,” Lily responded.

“Ouch,” Marlene said. “Betrayed by my own kinswoman. I can barely breathe. How couldst thou conspire to wound thy friend? A villain, you are, to be sure.”

“You sounds like Sirius,” Dorcas giggled as they walked into the Great Hall.

“How could you insult me by comparing me to Sirius? I’m better than him in every way,” Marlene said, making sure Sirius could hear her as she sat beside him.

“I’m not sure, Marlene. Sirius can do this thing with his tongue-“ Remus responded without even looking up from his book. Marlene coughed violently and Sirius blushed.

“Nobody wants to hear this!” Lily cut Remus before he continued. He smirked faintly.

“Yeah, that was so unnecessary,” Alice agreed.

“That’s unnecessary but a ten minute discussion about Frank’s abs was acceptable?” Sirius countered, having finally recovered from his bout of embarrassment. It was Alice’s turn to blush as Marlene, Lily, and Dorcas cackled.

“What’s going on?” James Potter asked as het sat next to Sirius.

“Alice was being homophobic,” Remus deadpanned.

“I was not, you jackass,” Alice responded. Marlene was laughing so hard she was leaning against Dorcas just to stay upright. Dorcas was laughing too, but she was blushing slightly as she did.

“Alice stated that we didn’t need to hear Wolfstar’s public foreplay, ergo, homophobia,” Lily clarified at James’s confused face.

“Ah.” James looked at Alice with a mock stern gaze. “How could you, Prewett? We all thought so highly of you.”

“Oh shut up Potter, I’ll ground you,” Alice rebutted.

“My mistake, mum,” James said quickly. Remus and Sirius snorted.

“There’s something wrong with this family tree. If Alice is everyone’s mum, Remus and Sirius are in an incestuous relationship. So are Peter and Mary,” Dorcas remarked.

“This is why we don’t overthink things, Cas,” Marlene responded, still leaning against Dorcas.

“Yep. Hey, anyone up for Gryffindor truth or dare in the common room tonight?” James asked.

“Frank and I will be there,” Alice answered.

“So will Cas and I,” Marlene said.

“I’ll join,” Lily said. “Hey Remus, until then, mind helping me with some Care of Magical Creatures homework?”

“Not at all,” Remus answered. “I have the feeling these knuckleheads will be causing chaos in the common room, so you want to head to the library?”

“Yes please,” Lily said. “Meet you in ten minutes?”

“Sure thing,” Remus said.

“Nerds!” Marlene mock shouted. Sirius laughed and high-fived her.

“Well, not all of us get good grades by studying at the last minute.” Dorcas rolled her eyes.

“Aw, Cassie, are you jealous?” Sirius asked mockingly. Lily got up to get her books. The last thing she heard was Dorcas telling Sirius to “fuck off, you stretched out meth ferret.”

Lily and Remus studied in the library for almost six hours, veering into other topics every once in a while.

“So what do you think of our Defense professor?” Lily asked Remus.

“I think he needs to be less worried about creating child soldiers and more worried about actually teaching,” Remus answered.

“Yeah. And he seems to think that the war will be over before we leave school.”

“If that’s not a delusion, I don’t know what is.”

“If he doesn’t teach us anything, what if we just teach ourselves?” Lily said, sitting up.

“What do you mean?” Remus asked, noticing her excitement.

“Well, we have access to a whole section of library books on defensive spells. If he won’t teach us any, he can’t stop us from finding them ourselves,” Lily answered.

“You have a good point. Alright, if he doesn’t improve, we’ll gather our friends and we’ll figure it out on our own.” Remus leaned back, smiling at Lily.

“Figure what out, Lupin? A way to be less of a disgrace?” A drawl came from behind him. Remus turned around.

“Ah, Severus, I was wondering when you would show up. I was sorry to hear about your parents,” Remus said.

“Not as sorry as I was to hear you were still alive,” Snape sneered. Lily’s hand crept closer to her wand in her robes. “And I see you’re in the company of the only thing lesser than you, a mudblood.”

Faster than Lily could blink, Remus’s wand was out and pointed at Snape’s throat.

“Don’t you dare call her that,” Remus said quietly, but his voice carried more of a threat than Lily had ever heard from him.

“Wand down, Lupin.” Snape moved Remus’s wand away. “Be careful when you threaten your superiors.”

“We’re both prefects,” Remus seethed.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” Snape responded condescendingly.

“That’s enough, Severus. Get lost before I give you boils for a month.” Lily stood and aimed her wand at Snape’s face.

“As you wish, Lily,” Snape mocked as he slinked away. Remus sat back down, only to shoot up when he noticed Lily shaking.

“Hey, are you ok?” Remus asked as he enveloped Lily in a hug.

“Yeah, I just, I just hate him,” Lily mumbled into Remus’s chest. “How could he talk to you like that?”

“Don’t worry, it’s ok. Let’s just get to dinner, yeah?” Remus said, pulling back to look at Lily carefully. Lily nodded so off they went.

“Hey Lils,” Dorcas said. Lily just grunted in response and dropped her head onto the table.

“Manners, dear,” Alice reminded her. Lily didn’t even acknowledge that.

“Are you alright, Princess?” Dorcas asked.

“There was an encounter with Snape,” Remus responded for her.

“Shit, Lils, you ok? Wait, that’s a dumb question, of course you’re not. Marls!” Dorcas called out. Marlene looked at her from a few seats away.

“Yeah?”

“After this, could you make a quick kitchen run? Ask for a bunch of chocolates and 2 gallons of fudge ice cream.”

“Sure thing. Is Lily ok, or are we getting into it after truth or dare?” Marlene called back.

“Just do it, alright? Thanks Marls.”

Lily lifted her heard from the table. “Thank you, Cas.”

“Anytime, Your Highness,” Dorcas responded, rubbing circles on Lily’s back.

After dinner, the whole group headed up to the common room, except Marlene and Sirius, who were chosen to make a run to the kitchens for snacks. They returned to find the group in a massive pillow fort lit with fairy lights that Peter and Mary had built, the radio playing softly in the background.

“Neat, right?” Peter smiled nervously as Mary kissed his cheek.

“It’s brilliant, mate,” Sirius grinned. “How’d you get it to stay up?”

“It’s got a few Charms on it, but for the most part, good planning,” Mary said.
Marlene discreetly handed off the ice cream to Dorcas, who ran upstairs to put a Cooling Spell on it and hide it in the wardrobe.

“Ok, the rules of Gryffindor Truth or Dare,” Peter began. Lily, who was sat next to James, started to protest.

“Shh, let him talk,” James said.

“But we all remember the rules,” Lily stated.

“Yeah, but it makes him feel important, so just let him talk,” James responded.

“Alright,” Lily replied.

“The rules of Gryffindor Truth or Dare. You have three truth opportunities. You can only choose truth if you refuse to do the dare, but once you use all three you can’t do that anymore, so use them wisely. If a dare involves another person, they must also consent to it. If they don’t, a new dare will be chosen. Everyone got it?” Peter saw everyone nod. “Ok. Alice, why don’t you start us off?”

“Alright. Remus, truth or dare?”

“Dare, obviously.”

“Hmm. Let Sirius put eyeliner on you,” Alice grinned.

“Ugh, fine. You wanna go get your kit?” Remus turned to his boyfriend, who was grinning maniacally.

“You’re gonna look so good, babe,” Sirius cried over his shoulder as he ran to get his makeup.

“I’ve made a mistake,” Remus moaned as the others laughed.

Five minutes later, Remus had some rather fantastic winged eyeliner on, and Sirius kissed his cheek.

“All done, Remus. You look so handsome,” he grinned.

“Yeah yeah,” Remus replied.

“You actually do look really good. Sirius, mind showing me how to do that so well?” Mary asked.

“Not at all, darling.”

“Ok,” Remus said. “Lily, truth or dare?”

“Dare you fool,” Lily responded, already in a much better mood.

“I dare you to wear James’s glasses until your next turn.” Remus smiled.

“Ugh. Potter, you mind if I borrow these?” Lily flicked his glasses.

“I’m going to be totally blind, but fine. Don’t break them Evans,” James said as he handed them over. Lily put them on and blinked rapidly.

“Jesus Potter, how bad is your eyesight?”

“Very,” he answered amusedly.

“Ok, Frank, truth or dare?” Lily asked.

“Dare, of course.” Frank responded.

“I dare you to make a circle around the entire room without touching the floor once.”

The group cheered as Frank jumped from pieces of furniture to pillows and groaned when he came close to falling or losing his balance. Eventually he made his way back to his spot next to Alice, who kissed him as he sat down.

“Ewww,” Sirius whined. The others laughed as Alice flipped him off when they broke apart.

“Dorcas, truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“Tell is the story of why you call Lily Princess and Your Highness,” Frank said.

“Oh, that’s a fun one,” Dorcas laughed. “So back in fourth year, whenever Lily needed to clear her head, she would lock herself in a room somewhere and just kind of hang out and do some easy spells until she had calmed down. Except one day she couldn’t unlock the door. She was also halfway up the Ravenclaw tower, which meant the only other entrance was a window.”

“No,” Sirius gasped. “You didn’t.”

“Yes, I did,” Dorcas answered. Lily groaned in embarrassment. “So I’m going to talk to Benjy, and I hear pounding on this door. I stop, and sure enough, it’s Lily, banging the door and yelling for help. I try to unlock the door, but it’s not working. So I notice this window next to the door, and I can see the window into the room, so I unlock that and climb out.”

“Jesus, Cas, you could have died,” Marlene said, pulling Dorcas a bit closer as if to make sure she wasn’t a ghost. Dorcas scoffed.

“But I didn’t. I climb out, and I’m clutching onto the bricks, my toes barely on this little ledge, and for some reason as I’m practically dangling from this wall, my brain decides it’s a good time to make a few jokes. So as I’m getting closer to Lily, I shout, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your goddamn hair.”

The group cackled at this point, and Lily buried her face in a pillow. A year ago, she and Dorcas had teamed up to teach the others about muggle fairy tales, so they all understood the reference.

“Lily is freaking out, so by the time I get to the window, she has it thrown open and is reaching out to grab me.” Dorcas continued through her laughter. “I get in to the room, and you know how we got out?”

“Do.... tell,” Remus gasped out between breaths. Lily hit him in the side.

“There was a key. On a desk. Ten feet away from the door.” Dorcas said. The group looked at Lily for a second, then burst into another round of laughter.

“It was a dark key, ok? It blended in with the desk,” Lily pouted as the others laughed hysterically.

“So ever since, she’s been Princess, because she got herself locked in a tower and needed rescuing,” Dorcas finished. Alice wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. Marlene had collapsed from laughter and had her head laid in Dorcas’s lap as she drew in shaky breaths. Dorcas had started stroking her hair without noticing what she was doing.

“I can’t believe this. Our genius prefect, a model of intelligence, locked herself in a room and couldn’t find the key,” James gasped out.

“Shut up, Potter, at least I was clever enough to not climb out a window.”

“Are you insulting your rescuer, Princess?” Remus asked mildly. The group laughed again as Lily’s face went as red as her hair. She pointed at him.

“Now you listen here, Remus John Lupin-“

“Excuse you? His middle name is Ophelia,” Peter interrupted.

“Oh Merlin, not this again,” Remus groaned as the group giggled.

Soon after Dorcas’s tale, the group disbanded to head off to bed. The girls took out the ice cream and chocolates when they reached the dorms, and Mary conjured up some bowls and spoons.

“Why are we having an ice cream therapy session?” She asked. This had become a tradition when one of the girls was upset, but she hadn’t heard why they were doing it tonight.

“Lily had a run in with Snape,” Dorcas explained.

“Oh boy,” Marlene said, sitting next to Dorcas. “I think that calls for jumbo bowls,” she said as she enlarged everyone’s bowl.

“Thanks, Marly. It wasn’t even that awful, but they way he talked to Remus was just horrid.” Lily dug her spoon into the ice cream Alice had served her.

“He insulted Remus?” Dorcas asked.

“This means war,” Marlene said. Remus was just about everyone’s favorite Marauder, as skilled and witty as Sirius and James, but with Peter’s heart and gentleness.

“He implied that Remus was lesser than him,” Lily responded.

“Fuck that greasy snake, Remus is worth twelve of him,” Alice said. “How dare he insult one of my sons?”

“Right?” Dorcas said, sketching flowers on Marlene’s back with her nails absentmindedly. Marlene shivered.

“Well, did you threaten him?” Mary asked.

“We both did,” Lily answered.

“Attagirl,” Alice said approvingly.

“Thanks mum.”

As the night got older and the girls got tired enough to head to bed, Lily stayed up. The day was an interesting one, if not one of her best. But she banished the thoughts from her mind in favor of going to sleep. She had time to figure life out.

At least she thought so.