#he literally makes fun of james in front of lily after she insults james

[juniperpyre]

just saw someone call Sirius Black a people pleaser lord we have strayed so far from your word

[halothenthehorns]

PROFESSOR TRELAWNEY'S PREDICTION

Harry was in such a giddy mood after the last chapter that it took him a little longer than usual to settle down and try to read, putting all of his delays on this one feeling, and refusing to admit that now that school was coming to an end, he knew he should remember something that he'd been ignoring all year.

Harry's euphoria at finally winning the Quidditch Cup lasted at least a week.

"Can't believe it didn't last for months," James beamed, still unable to knock the pride out of his voice, not that he was trying.

The rest of the school was in exactly the same mood, the beautiful weather out every window leaving all the students with fantasies of lounging around.

"But of course that's the time exams are set," Sirius muttered in disgust.

They couldn't though, as student exams began, and they were forced to make their brains concentrate,

"You're starting to give me flashbacks," Remus sighed, rubbing his forehead in that remembered pain.

despite the summer fast approaching. Even the Weasley twins had been caught studying,

James spazzed and then pretended to faint in shock, while Sirius 'broke down' crying about how he was so disappointed in them.

Lily and Harry couldn't help giggling along at the pair of them, while Remus looked about ready to join in except he couldn't do anything to theatrical with the baby in his lap.

which was fair considering they were about to take their O. W. L. s.

"Alright, I'll give them a pass for that," James nodded, coming out of it.

"Yes fine, just this once," Sirius nodded in agreement as he wiped his eyes.

Percy was getting ready to take his N.E.W.T.s (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests),

"Really wish that was a joking title," Lily muttered in remembered disdain of how accurate it was.

and was now prone to telling off anyone and everyone who so much as made a peep disturbing him.

"Whelp, there goes that good mood of his, that he had for five seconds," Remus rolled his eyes.

He still wasn't as bad as Hermione.

"Oh bloody hell," James winced, remembering all over again the amount of tests that girl had to cope with.

Harry and Ron had long since given up asking how she was going to all of her classes,

"Still don't comprehend how you could give up on that," Sirius asked, knowing he'd pester the girl to no end until he got his answer.

"Don't I know it," Remus sighed, Sirius having pestered him to no end when he realized he'd been hiding something, and not having let up until he figured it out.

but they couldn't help but ask when they saw her schedule, which had two exams being taken place at once.

Lily went cross-eyed at the thought of one exam in the morning and one that evening, let alone double it!

Ron began the conversation very carefully, since she was known to explode when anyone spoke to her.

"Well can you blame her?" Harry asked with a bit of an edge, remembering those moments a little too well.

He asked if she was sure of these times, and Hermione had a mini freak out as she double checked them and said yes of course they were right.

"Right," Sirius said with a frown, drawing out the word past its normal syllable count. He wasn't questioning that part any more than before, just how she was bleeding doing it.

Harry asked if there was a point in asking how she was going to pull that off, and she told them no.

"That's when you ask again," James pointed out.

"And again," Sirius seconded.

"Until she's told you after the millionth time you ask," James concluded.

"Trust them on this," Remus said with a suffering sigh, "they have way too much experience on that front."

Then she asked if they'd seen her Arithmancy book, and Ron admitted he'd borrowed it for some fun,

"It's good he's branching out into subjects he isn't taking," Lily muttered, thinking he was quite brave to poke fun at her at a time like this.

though quietly enough she couldn't have heard. Harry got distracted by a note arriving via Hedwig from Hagrid.

They all perked up again, though without much hope. They all knew what was coming, as nothing had changed.

He read out that Buckbeak's appeal had been set for the last day of their exams.

"Guess that's kind of a good thing, you might could sneak out and see him," James muttered without any enthusiasm, knowing if they could they would have done it already.

Harry was still reading though, as the note said the Ministry was coming up here to do it,

"Ugh," Lily muttered in disdain, thinking that wasn't any kind of professional at all.

and they were bringing an executioner.

"Why, would Hagrid know that?" Remus asked, going just that little bit paler from shock at this blatant disregard of Hagrid's rights for his appeal.

"Maybe he does have a friend at the Ministry that warned him," Sirius said listlessly, the reason didn't matter, it still made him see red with anger.

"But, but that means," Lily tried to splutter, but she was so angry she couldn't get the words out. None of them needed her to, they all knew what this meant. The Ministry had set its mind, and that appeal had just turned into a literal execution, making it all the more ghastly that this was being done in Hagrid's house!

Ron was furious as he snapped they couldn't do that, just ignore all that reading he'd done for this appeal!

"You tell them that when they arrive," James nodded seriously, knowing this wouldn't be the only things he'd like to say to every one of those pompous, arrogant, gah he was so angry he was running out of insults in his own head!

Harry though had the strong feeling that they could, and would, as the Committee had already proven they'd do exactly as Lucius wanted.

"Sounds about right yeah," Sirius hissed, his hand starting to twitch like he wanted to curse Malfoy into oblivion right then. If Malfoy could get away with doing these types of things, what else did he have running for him at that Ministry!?

The younger Malfoy, who hadn't been nearly as public since that last game,

"Wish he'd stay that way forever," Remus snarled.

gained back some of his old attitude for this news.

"How, could, he, be, pleased, with, this!" Lily said slowly and carefully to stop herself from screaming at the top of her lungs, not with her infant still in the room anyways. It just blew her mind that he hadn't learned a damned thing, even after his cruel acts to Harry all year and her son had still won fairly, even after Hermione had taught him right how words could hurt and he'd gone right back to it! What would it take to make this boy see this wasn't okay?

He made it plenty obvious from his comments that he felt personally responsible for what was going to happen to the hippogriff, and couldn't be more pleased about it.

"I cannot begin to say just how wrong that is." James scowled, hoping against hope something could still be done, anything that would get this animal out of this putrid situation he didn't belong in. All this for a couple of scratches on his arm, when Malfoy had deserved that in the first place!

It was all Harry could do to stop himself imitating Hermione and hitting Malfoy in the face on these occasions.

"You have much more restraint than any of us," Remus nodded seriously.

"It vaguely helped he would most often do this with Snape around," Harry said morosely, his face making it clear that probably might not stop him again the next time he saw him.

The worst part of all was that because of the strict security still around, they had no chance to go see Hagrid, and couldn't sneak out because his cloak was still in the secret passage.

"You just going to leave that down there forever then?" James sighed, randomly wondering if the twins had come across it and perhaps taken it or anyone really, they couldn't be the only kids to know about it.

Harry did look like he was regretting this decision as well, he'd just been so upset and paranoid about being caught around that statue so many times that if anyone, Snape or at the time Lupin, caught him there again, he might lose something far more valuable to him then that Map, he couldn't have stood it if someone took his cloak away next. He still might have risked it though just to see Hagrid, but there was also the matter that he had no way of getting out of the castle with all of those securities, so it was a moot point in the end. Once he explained this to the others, they looked like they understood more, though as unhappy about it as Harry. Remus especially, though Harry had left his name out, Remus guessed it all the same.

Exams began and Harry's first was Transfiguration,

James couldn't help but perk up just a bit, wanting to know how his son had done in his old favorite class.

which didn't seem to go that well as the students came shuffling out comparing progress, asking if points were taken away for this or that.

"It didn't say what you did," James said swiftly.

Harry grimaced as he muttered, "mine had been the one to blow steam."

"Well that's not so bad," Sirius said bracingly, "if it had just waited another few seconds, no one would have even known and you'd have gotten full marks."

Harry gave him a friendly smile for the attempt, but his thoughts had been much like his fathers, and he'd been hoping that by now with his magic he may have gotten some sort of hint at what he might be best in. It certainly wasn't his father's old branch, which wasn't improving his mood.

Then there was Charms, where Harry put a bit too much oomph into his magic and accidentally used his Cheering Charm too strong on Ron, who had to be escorted out while he laughed himself silly and had to be calmed down to try his own.

Lily couldn't help a giggle herself, saying, "honestly I can't see you getting too bad off for that, at least you've shown you can do it."

Harry gave the expected laugh back, though still right on being annoyed that it clearly wasn't his mother's either. Despite how often they kept saying how much he was like them, he was still looking for some sort of connection to them back then even through these feeble means rather than possessions they'd once owned or even people. He had vividly remembered Ollivanders words about their strengths in magic, and the longer he didn't excel in one of these two the more it annoyed him.

Then it was off to study for Care of Magical Creatures,

"Well that one should be easy enough," Remus said lightly, noting like the others Harry's bad mood, but unclear why it was there. Since he wasn't saying it they assumed it had something to do with his memories, so he was still trying to keep things light as he finished, "all you did was study flobberworms all year, plus that one class where the fire salamanders came."

Harry nodded in agreement, forcing himself to shake away his problem which was probably just a stupid want, and focus on the here and now, where he could make plenty of connections to his parents.

which Hagrid made an ease of during the exam, since he was clearly preoccupied.

"Guess you can't rightly blame him," Sirius said in honest sympathy.

Their goal was to make sure their flobberworm was alive after an hour.

"Easiest exam ever!" Remus said with just a touch of envy, they'd never gotten off so easy in that class with Kettleburn, though upon reflection that may have been a good thing.

Since this creature survived fine when left alone,

"See, you did learn something in that class," James pointed out with chipper.

they had no problems with this and instead tried to comfort Hagrid. He was barely keeping himself together as he admitted that Buckbeak was starting to get restless from being tied down too long.

"That'll happen with any animal," Remus nodded sadly.

They didn't get long to think on it though as they had Potions next, which was a disaster.

"Can't even rightly blame you," Lily sighed. Harry couldn't help feeling disappointed in himself all over again, knowing that was his Mum's favorite subject now and wishing he could be better in it, not much he could do though with the teacher he had.

Harry's Confusing Concoction was far too runny,

"Does Snape make all of his exams an unintended joke?" Sirius couldn't help but demand, slightly amused as he remembered Harry's first year and his Forgetfulness Potion qualification.

and when Snape inspected it he wrote down what looked to be a zero.

"It's a bleeding miracle Harry hasn't failed every year with that kind of biased," James growled.

Then they had History of Magic, where Harry wrote as much as he could on all the information Florean Fortescue had given him on those witch-hunts,

"Always a good strategy," Lily nodded, "do the most with what you can, bullshit your way through what you don't."

Harry couldn't help a startled laugh, finding it more amusing as time went on his Mum was clearly relaxing and not being so uptight.

all the while wishing he could have some ice cream now in the boiling room.

"I wish they'd serve ice-cream with every exam," Sirius sighed, "it would certainly make me more willing to show up."

Their second to last exam was DADA.

That caused mixed emotions in all of them. They all still couldn't help but perk up whenever Remus was mentioned, he was clearly doing such a good job with the class and he had gone out of his way to take an interest in Harry's dementor problem. Then of course that lead to his more odd behaviors, and it left them confused all over again what on earth had happened to him this whole time. Had growing up alone and away from his friends really changed him that much? Twelve years was a long time, and none of them really felt like they had a right to judge if he had.

Remus was the only one who didn't agree with that last assessment, thinking that all the time in the world shouldn't have changed how he felt about Harry, wouldn't have done anything for his conviction of protecting and helping Sirius, but as they still had no new information on it, no one really said anything.

Lupin set up an interesting test for them, an obstacle course outside,

"You always did come up with the best ways to make that class fun," Harry told him fondly, his conviction that Professor Lupin was his favorite DADA teacher he ever had still holding true no matter what he learned of his personality on the side.

Remus offered him a wane smile for the compliment, before morosely turning back to the baby and half hoping he'd fade back out again soon, while still somehow trying to hold onto the flicker of hope that his future actions would properly be explained.

which Harry breezed through as he properly remembered every way to deal with every creature they'd learned about.

"Least I aced that one," Harry beamed, remembering his annoyance at his Potions, Charms, and Transfiguration grades again. So he hadn't blossomed in his parents best subjects, but he had in another. Their obvious praise at him now, as he'd clearly done that without Remus having given him any extra help, made them as proud as anything.

Ron had a little less luck, getting sidetracked by the hinkypunk,

"He got out alright though," he said unnecessarily, since Remus had still been around and had to get him out before he finished, "and he fought off the boggart just fine, so he still got really good marks."

and Hermione nearly got a perfect score as well, if it wasn't for her boggart.

Lily remembered back to when the boggart had first come up, and the girl's ire that she hadn't had a go. Lily had laughed then because this student didn't seem to need such practice.

She ran out screaming,

Then she blanched in shock along with everyone else at that reaction.

as she sobbed that McGonagall had been in there telling her that she'd failed every class.

They couldn't help it, all of the boys cracked up laughing. Lily tried to scowl at them, but then she remembered Ron's joke that this would actually be her boggart, and she couldn't help a light giggle of her own at how right he'd been. It still wasn't right to tease her, since she was stressed beyond all reason this year, but the fact that she really thought this still was laughable. Even with the extra workload, they'd still been under the impression she was top of her class in now literally every class.

Ron clearly wanted to laugh,

"Don't blame him," Sirius couldn't help but snicker one last time.

but he never got the chance as they left and went back around to the front of the school to find Cornelius Fudge.

"What's he doing there?" James grumbled, his despise of the Ministry nearly having reached the same level as Sirius'. First what had been done to his best mate, his brother, and now everything with Hagrid had put the justice system he'd been hoping to join at an all-time low.

He caught sight of Harry and greeted him, who responded back in kind while Hermione and Ron stayed hovering back, never having been on speaking terms with the Minister of Magic.

"Guess I can't blame them," Remus said with a wince, his own thoughts at the Minister being on the school grounds giving him his own spike of fear. He remembered back chapters ago about his worry of what he was getting let out, and possible retribution for his being around children. Would it reach all the way to the Minister of Magic, and Harry just hadn't heard about it because it had been handled quietly? He tried to keep himself calm by making a face at the baby, which worked effectively in making them both laugh, the others wondering why Remus' sounded so strained all of a sudden.

Fudge then explained to Harry that he was here as a witness for the Committee since apparently they were set to kill some hippogriff,

They may have already worked this out, but it didn't lessen their hatred of the situation any.

Sirius looked disgusted as he leaned back into the seat, grumbling, "I'm not even surprised at this point, bet they were all paid off to just skip that appeal."

Harry didn't want to believe it, but couldn't think of anything to argue the point either. No one even wanted to ask what the Minister was supposedly doing dealing with this low level type thing, the answer wouldn't make the act any better.

and since he'd had to come to Hogwarts anyways to check in on the Black situation, he offered.

And that didn't make anyone feel any better either.

Ron jumped in to ask if the appeal had happened, and Fudge looked confused as he told Ron it wasn't until later.

"Confused as to why anyone would question him," James said through clenched teeth, "or confused at how his own system is working!"

Ron pointed out that the hippogriff might not need a witness for an execution then, he could go free.

"I honestly want to cry at how sincere he's being," Lily ground out, looking the opposite of tears she was so frustrated by this wrongdoing.

Fudge didn't have a chance to respond as he was joined on the steps by an old wizard and a man fingering an axe.

"Merlin could they be any crueler about this!" Lily howled in outrage. Showing up to Hagrid's front door with that! At this point she wouldn't even be surprised if they didn't do this the humane way, and just simply lopped off the creature's head while Hagrid was watching and then walk away like that was okay!

"Can't believe the Minister himself is there, they're so blatantly-" James had to click his jaw shut to stop his own voice from rising in pure frustration of this continued mess.

Ron tried to say something, but Hermione cut him off by giving him a subtle kick.

"Please tell me Hermione isn't really going to stick up for this," Sirius asked with something remarkably close to hatred.

"No," Harry snapped back at once, "she'll tell in a second, but she'd never after all she did to try and stop it."

Sirius backed down at once, he'd still been unable to stop himself from drawing a lot of parallels to that hippogriffs situation and what he was envisioning as his own, but now when he replayed that, it had been crueler than he meant.

What really bothered him was that Harry kept watching him with a frown in place, and Sirius wasn't really sure why. Harry had been looking at him a lot like that through the whole book, it was that same plagued face that meant he really wanted to remember something. The fact that Sirius still feared for his own futures sanity and Harry couldn't answer that wasn't helping anything.

When the three had left, Ron demanded to know why she'd stopped him, and Hermione explained that as his Dad worked for Fudge, it wasn't a good idea for him to go yelling at his boss.

"Well, damn," Lily finally got out after chewing on that for a moment, "guess she's got a point."

"Guess it wouldn't have been worth it," James agreed with a suffering sigh.

Hermione tried to say that so long as Hagrid kept his cool, there wouldn't be a need for an execution.

Harry's tone as he read that made it clear that Hermione hadn't meant that any more than they did.

She didn't sound any more sure of it then they felt.

"Why does this crap keep happening to you at the worst of times?" Remus grumbled to no one.

Harry's and Ron's last exam was Divination,

"Least this should be another cakewalk," Sirius offered, anything to keep Harry from shooting him looks. Was it just him, or were those going up in frequency every time Buckbeak was mentioned?

and they made their way unhappily to her tower to find the other students trying to do some last minute reviewing.

"What are they even studying?" Lily asked in wonder. "All we've heard in that class is make it up as you go along."

Harry just shrugged, he'd tried his hardest not to take that class seriously after his first lesson, it hadn't always worked, but he didn't think that was going to change.

They found Neville looking down in confusion at his own book at the section for crystal balls and asked them if they'd ever seen anything in that class?

"Think I found a fly trapped in there once," Harry muttered without any enthusiasm, his skin starting to itch all over. Something, it was definitely that feeling rising up in him again. Something was about to happen...

Ron said no while constantly glancing at his watch, counting down the time to Buckbeak's appeal.

"If she's going in alphabetic order, the boys might not even make it down there in time even if they were going to sneak," James moaned, thinking Trelawney was probably going to take forever.

She was calling the students up one by one, and when Neville came back down from his turn and Harry asked what had happened, Neville refused to tell as Trelawney had told him if he did he'd have an accident.

"Oh for the love of," Lily huffed, more than at her wits end between the fate of Buckbeak and now this teacher on top of it was putting her in quite the foul mood. Now she was still picking on Neville on top of everything!

Ron scoffed that was convenient, and admitted that he was starting to think Hermione was probably right about their teacher,

"Starting to?" Remus rolled his eyes, even with the proof that he did know she was a Seer, she still annoyed him to no end, and didn't really think she should be indulged.

she was a fake. Harry agreed without any real care, still watching his own watch, now set at two.

"Least it's going faster than I thought," James muttered, Harry and Ron's actions clearly meant that this time they may really go for it and be with Hagrid right then, which was surely needed.

Parvati came down next, telling the boys that her's had gone wonderfully as Trelawney had told her she could be a real Seer,

"Don't," Sirius told Lily, taking great pleasure in cutting her off for once. "Leave the kid be."

She huffed but held her tongue, to his surprise.

then waltzed off to join her friend. Ron was called next,

They noticed that obviously this wasn't in any order, so they kind of wondered how she was picking, but it didn't really matter, she could have just been doing it randomly to keep them on their toes.

and Ron made a face as he left, leaving Harry alone.

"Why do I get a bad feeling about leaving him for last?" Lily sighed, thinking Harry may well spend an entire hour now trying to be convinced there was some death dog after him.

When he did come back down, Ron finally told Harry that all he'd had to do was look in a crystal ball, but he hadn't seen a thing so he'd just made something up on the spot, though he didn't know if she'd believed it.

"Well clearly you need some help from Lavender," Sirius smirked, now he clearly wasn't the only one watching Harry, whom the longer he read the more strained his voice was getting.

Harry couldn't help it though, he just knew something was about to happen, and it was making his headache like no other.

Harry said he'd meet him back in their dorm as he went up for his turn, going upstairs to find Ron's described setup.

"Well Ron had the right idea," James sighed, "I'm pretty sure all you've got to do is make something up on the spot and you might get away with it."

"Still can't believe you didn't drop when you had the chance," Lily muttered.

She greeted Harry and had him take a seat, telling him to take his time for something to come to him. Harry watched the white swirls within the glass, but nothing was happening.

"I think I'd be a little more worried if it did," Remus said honestly with a twitch of his lips, then frowned when Harry hardly reacted. He hadn't been this stressed in a while now, so for him to be acting like this meant something really big was about to happen...in Trelawney's room...

When the silence continued, she prompted him,

"Thought she said he could take his time," Lily rolled her eyes.

and Harry began describing the first thing that came to mind, Buckbeak. Trelawney was very interested, asking if this hippogriff still had its head?

Sirius couldn't help a little gag, what a horrid thing to ask him! They'd all said all they could on this matter though, so it really wouldn't do any good to keep at it now.

Harry said yes at once, and Trelawney tried to coax a different answer out of him, asking if perhaps an axe was hovering above him?

"Bloody hell I think she's enjoying herself." James groaned, starting to look a little green from that description, coupled with how much the teacher seemed to be enjoying herself trying to get Harry to picture this gruesome sight.

Harry snapped no, and instead wistfully said it was flying away.

Harry dearly wished this had been what was bothering him, it certainly gave him a seconds moment of relief which could possibly mean that he was right, but he got about as long to think on it before his headache returned with such a force he could hardly read the words, meaning he hadn't yet gotten to the part that needed saying to make this go away.

Trelawney was disappointed as she told him that would have to be all and excused him. Harry got up and turned to leave, when he heard from behind him a deep rasping voice say 'it will happen tonight.' Harry spun back on the spot to find his teacher sagged over in her chair, her eyes open but gazing on nothing, her mouth half hinged open.

"Is, she having a fit or something?" Lily couldn't help but ask with genuine worry, but Harry paid her no mind as the moment had come, and he read in a hurried breath.

Harry wondered if she was having a fit, she was twitching all over and growing color in her cheeks, but before he could think to do anything she said again in the same heavy voice she'd never used before:

"THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY HIS FOLLOWERS. HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS. TONIGHT, BEFORE MIDNIGHT... THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO REJOIN HIS MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANT'S AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS. TONIGHT... BEFORE MIDNIGHT... THE SERVANT... WILL SET OUT... TO REJOIN... HIS MASTER..."

The instant relief of pressure Harry finally got as he sighed at that memory being restored to him was ruined the second he heard the noise.

Sirius felt himself blackout for the span of a few seconds before he lunged off of the couch and looked like he was going to sprint out the door. James wasn't giving him a chance, lashing hold of his arm so tight Sirius yelped in pain, but it clearly didn't register as he sobbed, "oh god, oh bloody hell, oh Merlin, what did I do-"

Remus smacked him then, hard. It didn't seem to do anything though, Sirius was shaking so hard he was likely to bite his tongue off, and it wasn't too hard to picture what his eyes might look like in twelve years, they were just slightly tinged with madness now as he stuttered out, "twelve years! Who, who else could that mean, oh please just kill me now, I don't want to know what I did!"

He made such a horrid noise, like an animal slowly dying, as he tried to wrench his arm free and cover his ears, starting to curl in on himself. The one thing he'd ever cared about most in his life, and he had done something to get his family killed! He'd gotten James and Lily killed, he'd caused Peter to die, he'd been the cause of Harry's whole life turning into a raging shit storm every other month, all because he'd done something that he didn't think he could bear finding out about anymore. Whatever it was would never justify what that Seer had just called him. A servant, someone who had clearly made all of this possible!

How long he stayed out of it as his life literally felt like it was crashing in around him he didn't know. So many things he'd been trying to repress since he'd heard his bleeding name in that paper were drowning him all over again, and he didn't even care about how he'd been framed for murdering those people because he clearly deserved that sentence in Azkaban, it didn't matter why he left because he shouldn't have, he deserved every last second of it.

He'd thought it had been himself crying at first, but then something inside of him twitched as a new noise entered. Harry was wailing at the top of his lungs, and that same instinct that had driven him to comfort James and Remus through all of these horrid things they kept hearing about reawoke, drowning out whatever he was feeling and helping him to bottle it up and shove it far away as he looked around in confusion to the howling child who was being uneasily held in the arms of his future self.

That thought would give anyone's head a whirl, but that's what was happening. Harry stood tall and proud as his father, cradling his own infant self with clear unease, but that may have been because he kept throwing fearful looks over in his direction. Harry kept walking towards the stairs and back, like he wanted to leave and get the baby out of the room, but couldn't bring himself to do it because he kept circling back and watching Sirius with wide and fear filled eyes.

It took several thick swallows before the rest of the room came back into focus. James nearly had him smothered into his chest he was hugging him so hard, muttering over and over again that he could never blame him, while clearly trying to talk Remus and Lily out of putting some sort of spell on him that would force him to relax.

Both were shaking so hard it was a miracle they were on their feet, but they were watching him with such wide eyed concern it nearly shamed him as much as the aching hatred for himself had.

Here he was, making this all about him, when clearly there were more important things to worry about.

He tried to pull away, but James's arms only tightened all the more, so Sirius tried to muffle out, "I can't breathe," whereas in reality he was only really sucking in air because of the reassurance that through all of this, James still couldn't find it in himself to hate him. James had gotten everything he wanted out of life through the girl of his dreams and his baby, and still when it was shoved in his face that Sirius had been the cause of taking it all away his brother had refused to show him anything but insistence that he'd never believe it for a second.

It nearly reduced him to tears all over again, but he was being persistent now as he tried to wiggle free, now more determined than ever to save these lives no matter the cost to him. He'd find out what he'd done and take his punishment happily if it meant saving their lives. He finally got himself free only to meet the darkest of hazel eyes, making it clear Sirius had nearly scared the living daylights out of him, literally, but the moment he was out of those arms Lily had marched over and sat down beside him.

She grabbed his face and made sure he was looking into those ever green eyes as she told him with the utmost conviction, "it's going to be alright. We'll never let that happen to you." Personally she was still a little stunned herself, as she'd never seen him break down before. Sirius had always held himself as a proud man who only let the world see just how good he knew he was. While in the years that she'd fallen for James and gotten to know Sirius more properly as the brother he'd become, she still couldn't ever have believed he was capable of this severe a reaction to something he must know just wasn't possible.

He gave a sullen nod as she released him, gave him a quick kiss on the brow, then scampered over to her son/ sons and did her best to soothe both of them who were equally freaking out, one just more vocally than the other.

Remus flopped down in her empty seat and looked torn between wanting to kill Sirius for giving him a heart attack or hugging him and never letting him go like James had been trying. He settled on all of their fallback, making a joke. "Please give us a warning next time before you go into shock."

Sirius desperately tried for a smile he just didn't feel, because on the inside he was still a shriveled up mess. He may have gotten his emotions under control enough to save face, but he now knew without a shadow of a doubt that dead little part of him wouldn't come back. This was more proof than any he'd ever had before, and still he couldn't do anything about it. Feeling like a lost child, he unfurled himself but couldn't bring himself to lean away from James who still had his shoulder pressed into his. Remus copied that a moment later by leaning into him as well, and though feeling squished, it was pretty much all that was keeping him in place.

Lily and Harry walked properly back in then, Lily cradling her now much more complacent charge. She looked for a moment like she was going to hand him over to his Godfather, but Sirius couldn't help but turn his face away, feeling like he should never have the right to hold that baby again.

Lily would have vehemently disagreed and told him in alphabetical order how stupid that was, but while being squashed like he was he couldn't have carried on the act if he wanted to, so she relented, for now.

Harry looked the most sheepish of all, like he wanted to apologize for this whole mess and go give Sirius a hug himself to reassure him all would be okay, but the words failed him even before he could put them together. The more this carried on, the more he knew this day was the most important of his young life. Something happened on the day of Buckbeak's supposed execution, it involved Trelawney's prediction, and it involved Sirius Black. Whatever it was though would not sit in his mind for any length of time for him to understand how it all fit together, so he was sure if he began to start and try to do anything about it he'd pay dearly and the last thing his family needed was another episode.

Still he hesitated before picking up the book, like he was waiting for permission from someone to say it really was all going to be okay which came from Sirius himself, without any of his usual warmth. "Go on, get it over with."

Harry couldn't help a frown, he still sounded so desolate like at any moment an executioner was going to show up for him, but his friends on either side of him looked so fierce like they'd murder Voldemort himself before they let that happen, Harry didn't argue the point.

Before Harry could even think on that, Trelawney came back to herself with a start, muttering about how she must have dozed off for a moment.

Harry really didn't think at this point he could be any more surprised, the harsh reaction from his Godfather because of that mess left him with only an inkling of shock that she clearly had no idea what she'd just done, unless she was faking it, which Harry really doubted.

When Harry remained frozen in shock, and Trelawney asked what was wrong, Harry tried to tell her what she'd just told him about the servant of the Dark Lord.

Lily grimaced, to be perfectly honest when Harry had read out the return of the Dark Lord bit, that had been what she'd been caught on, until her brother began having a panic attack. Now no one even dared to venture what that could mean for their Harry. None of them knew how Seers actually worked, was it possible this was all wrong, or could somehow be stopped?

With Sirius' eyes closed and his head flopped back against the couch like he was still wishing he could start his gravestone, no one was going to linger on it.

Trelawney told Harry he was being ridiculous, she would never begin to try and predict such a thing.

Remus felt something twitch in his mouth, like he wanted to make a joke at her expense that she held that kind of restraint, but considering he was far more worried on making sure Sirius kept breathing it just wasn't coming out.

Harry stumbled away, his mind winding like the staircase, trying to figure out if his teacher had just made a real prediction.

'Oh, of that we've no doubts' James sighed, his mind still flying in every direction possible, and he wasn't going to stop until he landed on the proper meaning for that prediction which did not involve his best friend.

He tried to think of something else, like she'd been faking it for an end of year trick.

'Could explain why the other students were so freaked out and wouldn't talk' Harry couldn't help but think, trying desperately to put his mind on any more pleasant topic, but the horrible silence that still lingered wasn't leaving a lot of room, and Harry couldn't bring himself to be the one to break it. Plus he knew deep down that wasn't true, or he was sure he wouldn't have reacted so strongly to it.

When he did get back to the main castle he hardly noticed the people walking past him for the outside, laughing and joking about school finally being over.

'Once, just once, can't Harry have some peace in that place' was Sirius' first real coherent thought as he zoned in and out of the story lifelessly, still considering it a viable option to slink out of the house when no one was watching, which didn't seem to be happening any time soon.

He found his two friends in their normal place in Gryffindor tower, but before he could tell them what Trelawney had said, the words died at the look on their faces.

'How can something else have happened in the fifteen minutes since the last bomb?' Lily wanted to snap, feeling like her nerves were about to be frayed right out of her body as she cradled her son all the closer.

Ron explained that Buckbeak had lost.

"Oh," was softly echoed through the room with one glaring left out. It's not like they'd forgotten per say, but Sirius' plight had sort of made it fade back into their mind. Now that it was back in the foreground, they just didn't know what to say. What could they say? What had been done was wrong, and the government doing this wasn't encouraging. It started with the unfair trial of the hippogriff, but the corruption could possibly keep going up until someday someone else got an unfair trial and a beheading because the right bribe was paid off to get rid of a person. Harry hadn't thought it was possible to feel worse, and realized he was wrong as he forced himself to keep going.

Hagrid had sent another letter, explaining that the execution would take place at sunset, but he didn't want them coming down to see it happen.

"I don't want Hagrid to see it," Lily grumbled softly under her breath, the first real time someone had spoken up making them all give a little start, but the baby seemed to enjoy the voice again as he made a gurgling noise watching his mother's face.

Harry said he still wanted to go, he wouldn't just let his friend sit around on his own waiting for this to happen.

James made sure Harry could see his pride filled smile, knowing he'd do and say the same thing in a heartbeat. Screw the rules, his friend needed support. Since his own friend was acting vaguely comatose, James leaned into his shoulder with a little more pressure.

Ron pointed out they had no way to get there, and Hermione asked where he'd hidden away his cloak. Harry told her, then said he didn't dare go and get it because if Snape caught him there he'd be in serious trouble.

Harry paused expectantly, never having been more grateful for his choice of words, but there was no comeback. They were all growing more worried the longer this carried on, Remus even reaching over and pressing his hand into Sirius' nose just to make sure air was still coming out.

Sirius did respond by pushing the hand away, but he still wouldn't meet anyone's eyes.

Hermione asked for the spell that would activate the witch hump, and Harry told her but then tried to protest, which she ignored by walking out.

"What were you even going to say?" Lily asked, starting to feel a little jittery. She'd grown so used to the boys interrupting near constantly that the prolonged silence was starting to give her the creeps.

"But you shouldn't be caught there either," Harry responded, his own worry at the situation still at hand. Of course they both knew Remus and James were just at a loss for words, in no mood to be playful, teasing, or anything when their friend was acting the way he was, so until Sirius snapped out of it this could last for a bit.

Ron asked if she'd really gone to get it?

'Be a little worried if she went to the kitchens' James wanted to mock, though kept his mouth shut and still half hoping Sirius would say that instead.

Indeed she had, returning some time later with the cloak tucked down her front. Ron was in awe, saying first with Malfoy then Trelawney, now this, what had gotten into her?

'She's making sure no one messes with her friends without her doing something about it' Sirius realized, wanting to smile and praise the girl aloud, but the words got lost somewhere on the way out. He was torn between wanting to get the attention off of him, a foreign concept itself, and the beginnings of bubbling warmth that his family really was standing by him even through this foulest of revelations. If the way he could return the favor was getting the mood back to where it should be, then so be it. He now determined he'd have to work this out of himself at the next chance. He tried to sit up more properly but still being sandwiched all he really accomplished was giving the two half cautious looks as they eyed him hopefully for finally giving a real sign of life, but Harry may not have noticed as he'd kept going.

Hermione looked pleased at the praise as they went downstairs, hid themselves away in a room and waited for the last set of footsteps to scurry away and a door slammed before they were all clear.

Harry couldn't help a startled little blink, the smallest of feelings inside his gut telling him to pay attention to that, but he was far more focused on ignoring another mounting feeling. It wasn't fair it was happening so soon after the last one, but he never did get to decide when this happened, and as the sun continued sinking down, he was absolutely positive this night was an important one in his life.

They all tucked up under the cloak and made their way unseen down to Hagrid's, who let them in despite saying they shouldn't have come.

"I'll weep the day he does close the door in your face."

Maybe Sirius said that a little too loudly, maybe his voice cracked and he still looked more wretched than he had in his life, but the attempt finally gave all of them the release they'd so sorely needed that the vile escaping the room was nearly visible.

Hagrid was somehow acting even worse than before, though this time he wasn't crying, he looked so lost the tears had been easier.

Lily couldn't help her lip trembling a bit like she was fixing to cry for him. It just wasn't right, no matter how many times she said it or thought it she could never say it enough that what was happening to him shouldn't be. Between Hagrid and Sirius her maternal instincts were going haywire in wanting to comfort her friends, but unable to do anything she instead settled on smoothing out her sons hair and never growing tired of the way it stuck right back up.

He tried to offer to make them some tea while explaining that Buckbeak was getting in his last sunlight out in his pumpkin patch, then he dropped the milk jug which broke on the floor.

The others all thought that the strain coloring Harry's voice was because of his stress for Hagrid, which was a part, but they didn't know Harry was forcefully fighting back another memory blast already. How was this possible, happening twice in the span of a few minutes, but he had no control as a tempo began at his temple from the pain of a sharp memory fixing to be returned.

Hermione instead began to clean it up and replace it, while Harry asked if Dumbledore could do anything to fix this? Hagrid explained that Malfoy had set it up despite the headmasters try, and as Macnair was an old friend of Malfoy's no one could do anything.

'Macnair was a Death Eater,' that thought trickled through all of the Order members, as they tried their best to keep a roster and suspicions had been going on for ages about him implicated in several deaths. Well that didn't improve anyone's mood, as it only confirmed yet another Death Eater was still out and about in those times, working for the Ministry.

Dumbledore was coming down to be with Hagrid though when it happened.

"Aww," Lily coed, she was willing to put her suspicions and annoyances at the headmaster's actions aside momentarily when it came to her son and Sirius just for that moment that Dumbledore truly was trying to be there for his friend like Harry.

Harry promised they'd stay to, but Hagrid wouldn't allow it, saying Harry didn't need to be in anymore trouble.

Sirius was so sick of hearing that he was yet another cause of problem in his Godson's life, he considered trying to get up and leave again, but since he was basically a sandwich between his two friends who didn't look like they were moving any time soon, he just tallied that up to another thing he could use as his excuse later when he really did leave for good. He was already planning it out in his mind, the moment he got the chance he'd make a break for the door and he'd disappear before he caused this blight of events for his family. They may try to stop him, why he wasn't sure at this point, but he could throw these types of things at them and make a break for it while he was sure they'd be hesitating.

Hermione was crying over in the kitchen as she found another jug of milk, but then she screeched in shock and nearly dropped that one to as she exclaimed she'd found Scabbers.

"What?"

That was the most random thing that could have been said right then, that it actually distracted everyone in that moment from anything else. Harry forced himself to keep reading, to confirm Hermione was right, though everything in him told him she was.

They all stopped to stare at her, and she came over to the table and had to fight for a moment before the rodent came sliding out.

Harry made a funny rasping noise of disgust as James lit up with equal amounts of confusion and laughter as he praised, "oh that's great. Can't imagine what on earth happened-"

"Don't," Harry moaned, cutting him off and shocking as he clutched at his head, tears nearly streaming down his eyes as he pleaded, "don't say that, it's not right."

Lily turned concerned at once, wrapping an arm around him protectively as she asked, "Harry what's the matter?"

Remus couldn't help giving him an odd look mixed with the beginnings of fear for Harry, worried he was dealing with too much having such another painful memory returning so soon, as he asked, "yeah, you should be happy Ron's rat-" but then his own voice failed him, and he started blinking when something clicked. Since the very first time Scabbers had been mentioned, Harry got this odd little act around him about his best friends pet, frowning or something similar though he'd never been properly able to explain why. The description of that particular rat, bloody hell it did match the same one he looked at more than any other rat in his life, and Scabbers had a missing finger, just like...

"Oi, Moony," James was waving his hand in front of his friends face, saying, "yoo-hoo, blanked out on us mate. You figured out Harry's problem. Quite the show that Crookshanks never did, eh?"

Remus had to clear his throat hard for a moment before forcing a goofy smile onto his face, he was being ridiculous of course, it was a coincidence. Which, which he didn't believe in... shaking his head hard he said, "err, right, no sorry, ah, let's keep going."

Lily looked utterly annoyed at that, as she felt they were brushing this pain off a little too lightly, but then she took a good look at Remus' lined features, and how the momentary news had already worn off and Sirius was right back to being lackluster, and she also knew better that Harry couldn't have explained what was really bothering him anyways without suffering for it, so she didn't argue the matter, only increased her hold on her son as he flickered through a few pages as he'd lost his place. He seemed less eager than anyone to go on though, because while that had been the memory return his brain had been warning him about, the pressure still hadn't fully left! What about this day could be causing him more pain from this one afternoon then he'd felt any times previously? Now he knew it had something to do with Scabbers...and Buckbeak, and Trelawney's prediction, and Sirius, but the puzzle pieces refused to fit together, and he had no more of an idea for the ending then anyone.

Ron was just as shocked as anyone as he asked his rat what he was doing here?

"That's a very good question," Lily grumbled, finding this more unbelievable the longer she heard about it. Scabbers was alive this whole time! That fight between Ron and Hermione should never have even happened! It was odd though, that the little pet had pulled something like this off, since he was sick and usually was never mentioned anywhere but in Ron's pockets. How had he wound up in Hagrid's of all places?

He snatched up the squirming rodent, who looked terrible. He was thin as could go, with very large bald spots,

Remus couldn't help but wince, having heard a few tales about animals looking for somewhere to burrow up to die, had Scabbers just been doing that? His physical description clearly meant he was living towards the end of his life, obviously he was just being paranoid, it was just fate being all the cruller to him that he had tried to see his absent friend in a common garden rat.

and still he was trying to fight away from Ron, who held tight trying to convince his pet there were no cats around.

They all frowned at that, finding Scabbers bound of energy kind of sad, like maybe he was trying to put up one last fight before his old body gave out. It was rather odd he seemed so insistent in being away from Ron of all people, shouldn't he recognize his owner's voice?

They didn't get any time to think on it when Hagrid glanced out the window and saw the others approaching, and he told them they had to leave now. He opened up the back door and led them out to where Buckbeak was clearly on edge as he watched them all and flapped his wings in agitation.

That caused a shiver in all corners of the room, it wasn't too hard to imagine that the poor beast did get a feeling for what was coming for him, as intelligent as he was.

The three tried to give one last protest, saying they'd tell what had really happened, but Hagrid wouldn't have it and told them to go.

The combination of Hagrid doing his damndest to keep them out of trouble even while his beloved pet was about to be murdered in front of his eyes gave all of them a ball sitting tight in their throat, wanting to argue on the side of the kids and say this couldn't be true, more grateful than ever Harry at least had someone like Hagrid who wouldn't let them stick around to see it.

There was nothing more they could do, and despite it being the last thing they wanted, they all tucked back under the cloak and began to leave, Ron slowing them down slightly. Hermione begged him to hurry, she couldn't stand to watch this.

"You and me both," Lily nodded, bringing her son up to lay up on her shoulder like she was going to burp him, but really just keeping him as close to her as possible. He soon began amusing himself by grabbing hold of her thick red hair instead, and Lily almost enjoyed the momentary distraction of untangling his good grip while forcing herself to keep listening.

Ron though was having some issues, they were only halfway back to the castle but his rat was still forcing its way with all of its might out of his pocket, now trying to bite the hand Ron was using to keep him in place.

This was so random that no one could really think what could be going on anymore. The emotional turmoil of the group felt like they'd been going chapter after chapter about Harry nearly dying all day again, when really they were all just exhausted mentally from hearing about all of these bad things happening around Harry.

Below them they heard the sound of men talking, and despite Scabbers loud squeaking protest, they heard quite clearly the thud of an axe.

Harry didn't really get that out without nearly stuttering himself into silence, closing his eyes hard for a moment and trying to process what he'd just read, while something else in him told him to keep going. Sucking in a deep breath, he looked around to find the others looked just as shocked as he did, the build up to that unfair act having finally been carried through not making it any easier to hear. Unwilling to let himself freeze up now though, Harry finished.

Hermione's knees began shaking as she whispered she just couldn't believe they'd done it.

Then he closed the book and put it aside, indicating the chapter was done, but needing a moment before he could keep hearing anything. He wasn't the only one.

[jilytho]

Fools in Uber Pools Ch 4

Hello!! Here is the 4th and final part of my Uber fic! Thank you to everyone who has read and said so many lovely things I appreciate you all! 

Read Ch 4 below or on AO3 or read from the beginning here

**Wednesday, November 11th 8:52PM **

Your Uber Pool is arriving. Please meet your driver, Leonardo, at the predetermined pick up location. 

Wednesday night was Lad’s Night. Tradition. Food and beer and movies and the occasional board game. Then, Remus and Sirius got together which was fantastic. So exciting, true love and joy and pure happiness for his two best friends in the world. Consequential to their happiness, however, meant that James’s beloved Lad’s Nights frequently became him crashing Date Night. Even though they did their best to keep his third wheeling to a minimum and keep it Lad’s Night, it frequently became Lad’s plus a lot of PDA. Tonight was one of those nights.

Sirius picked a horror flick just for an excuse to dump popcorn on James’s head during jump scares and to curl up on top of Remus. James had plenty of practice ignoring their canoodling but apparently they were feeling especially noodley tonight, nonstop noodley really. 

Remus had made it clear that he would drive the both of them home that night but each passing minute made it more and more clear that Sirius would be spending the night and James had the option of sleeping on the couch or Ubering himself out of there. Once Sirius flung his shirt and jeans off and onto James’s head in one motion about three quarters of the way through the movie, he settled on calling his second Uber of the day.

Not only his second of the day, but his ninth of the week simply because James is pathetic. He knows this, he feels this, and anyone who looked at his Uber ride history could prove it. But he couldn't help himself. How was he supposed to deal with the fact that he had met possibly the most amazing woman in the world and then he just stood there and watched her drive away. Correction, slammed the door in her face and then watched her drive away. 

Half of him wanted to just go stand outside of the building they had dropped her off at that first Uber trip and just pray she actually lives there and he could stage a run in, but he felt that was likely to get him a restraining order instead of a girlfriend. 

He stopped himself from doing that (barely) but wasn’t able to stop himself from taking an Uber every day since then. Pathetically paying for a $10.60 Uber ride to work, and then another to go to lunch, and then another to get to the coffee shop closest to that apartment they had dropped her off at, and just one around the block. But no. No Lily. Not even any other passengers except for that very morning when a lady rode with him to the bookstore holding a very large lizard on her lap. 

Lizard Lady was the final blow that pushed him back to reality and to take Uber’s strictly out of necessity, instead of desperation. 

And as much as he loved Sirius and Remus, and loved them being happy, seeing them so happy was certainly a desperate situation. 

He jumped in place on the sidewalk, running his hands together for warmth waiting for Leonardo and his SUV to pull up and looking over his shoulder, still on edge from the horror flick. 

The car pulled up and before James could approach the driver and check for his name, the backseat window came down and a smirking red head was peering out of it. Suddenly the whole night began to look up. 

“Well, look who it is!”

“Lily! It's you! Again!”

“James, it's me! Again!” His entire chest felt bubbly as she slid across the seats so he could come in next to her and watched her smile nearly match his in excitement. He said hello to Leonardo passingly, all without taking his eyes off of Lily, sliding in as close as he could without being considered publicly indecent.

“Wow, of course you would be here right now.” She shook her head admonishingly, leaning back and rubbing at her eyes with her hands. 

“What’s that mean? You manifesting my presence?”

“You wish, Breakfast Boy.” She poked him in the arm, “I’ve just had the worst night ever and was just thinking I needed ice cream or something equally as yummy to cheer me up.”

“So I’m yummy, am I?” His grin split his face wide open, those bubbles in his chest started to feel more like roaring lions now.

“Mmm, something like that. Maybe yummy isn’t the right word. Dashing, handsome, half decent car ride entertainment. Dealer’s choice, honestly.”

“I think I’ll stick with yummy, but really love to hear more about this whole ‘dashing’ thing. Is that like a Prince Charming vibe? That’s really the one I’ve been trying to put out. Prince Charming could make a better nickname than Breakfast Boy.”

“Please, much more like a hungover bumbling idiot than a Prince Charming, don’t you think?.”

“The abuse! I swear, you sign up for an Uber pool, count your blessings that you’ve been lucky enough to ride along with the most stunning redhead in this half the hemisphere not once, but three times, only to find that she’s five feet of beratement and insults.” He leaned back in his seat, mockingly shaking his head.

“Only in this half of the hemisphere? What stunning redheads does Antarctica have to offer?” 

“I’ve never been to the southern hemisphere, I just feel I can’t accurately make a statement about the redheads there. Happy to pop down south for a few days to get some proper research. I’m sure after proper investigation you will be conclusively proven to be the most stunning redhead in both halves of the hemisphere.” 

“Quite the pragmatic answer. I appreciate your commitment to well researched compliments. Truly, the dedication is admirable. Unnecessary though, I feel validated enough. I’ll just stick to this half of the hemisphere to avoid any possibility of losing my title.”

“Probably smart. Wouldn’t want to pop down and come back to find Ed Sheeran has gotten a six pack and has overtaken your spot.”

“Excuse me,” her jaw dropped lightly, “you think all Ed Sheeran would need is a six pack to magically become more attractive than me?”

“Lily, look. I didn’t want to insult you and please don’t mistake me, you’re perfect in literally every single way, like designed by the Gods perfect. But Ed Sheeran is a ginger that can sing and plays multiple instruments. And again, goddess that you are, are you really telling me you can top that?”

“Never in my life have I been so confused if I should be flattered or disgusted.”

“Lily?” Leonardo was turned around to face them. “We’re here.” James whipped around to see they had somehow ended up in front of the same apartment building they had dropped her off the first time. He had barely noticed they started moving, nevermind stopped moving to pull in front of her destination. 

His heart sank as he watched her gather her belongings and unbuckle her seat belt. Who knows when the next time they’d take an Uber together would be. He might not see her for days, or weeks, or God forbid never. 

“Lily, wait!” He blurted the words out, not even slightly knowing what he’d say next. 

Green eyes snapped to his, one hand on the door handle prepared to swing out of the car. 

“Yes, James?”

“CanwegoforanUbertogethernexttime?”

“I’m sorry, James, what was that?” Lily’s eyes wide and mildly concerned. Even Leonardo was turned around looking at him like he had just pulled the pin out of a grenade and suggested they all sit around and watch it explode from real closeup.

“What if,” he worked to speak slowly, feeling his entire face flush scarlet, “the next time we take an Uber together, we get out at the same place.” 

“Like a carpool?” Her eyebrow rose up slowly, corner of her mouth sliding up.

“Like go somewhere. Like go somewhere together, like get in the same car on purpose. And then get out at the same time and go somewhere. Like dinner.”

“You want to get a ride to dinner together?” She was fucking with him. Of course, she couldn’t make this easy when his entire body was turning red. 

“Yeah, erm dinner as like a date, if that’s not super weird or doesn’t make you uncomfortable.” Her grin didn’t slip, and he felt his whole body tense and the rambles coming on, “like get a ride to go to dinner together but like at the same time. And then eat together. And get a ride home. But maybe not home together. Because erm first date and I wouldn’t want to pressure or be too forward. So just dinner. Like a dinner date. Or a coffee date, if that would be okay. Of course not if you’re uncomfortable or think I’m being insane but I think you’re fun and I have fun in the car with you and I think we could have even more fun if it was a meeting on purpose and I’m going to stop talking but Lily, will you go out with me?” His voice rose dramatically to the end until he was practically shouting at her.

“Yes, James.” He felt his entire body let go and those lions started to fire up again,.“Yes, I would love to go out with you. Been waiting for you to ask actually.”

He very suddenly felt like the Uber could run over him and he wouldn’t even feel it. “You should have said!”

She swung the door open and stepped out, looking down at him, red hair swinging around her shoulders. “It wasn’t like I was being subtle. You’re just entirely too thick to pick up on signals. But yes, I would love to go out with you James.”

“Brilliant! Fantastic! We’ll do that then.” He smiled brilliantly, cheeks beginning to hurt.

“You know,” Lily leaned back into the car to whisper, “this is usually the time where a normal bloke would ask for my phone number. You know, so we could set this up later and let Leonardo get on with his evening,” she looked pointedly towards Leonardo who was, watching them both with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. 

“Right! Sorry, Leonardo.” He ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. “Could you please put me out my misery and let me have your number?” he begged.

“Lucky for you,” she dug around in her massive bag once more, “I came prepared. Been prepared actually since our first ride together.” She slid a slip of paper with a number, her number(!), across the seat and into his hand. 

“Use it and let poor Leo go home, alright?” She smiled one last time and slammed the door. 

He sat back in his chair, dazed and overwhelmed, and disgustingly pleased with himself.

“Sorry about that, Leonardo.”

“No worries mate.” He pulled away from the curb slowly, winking at James in the mirror. “Wasn’t expecting her to agree if I’m being honest. Good for you, mate.”

Damn right, good for him. 

[maraudersftw]

Of Screeches And Dates

This one’s dedicated to @myloveluna because she’s the absolute sweetest, and never fails to make me feel all warm and loved even when the world is literally burning all around me.

PS - Happy Birthday, Lily Evans aka everything good in the world (other than James Potter).

(Please ignore the quality of writing, it’s trash and I wrote it in half an hour, but my loving sentiments for you remain, Clara! xoxo)

She’s quietly reading by the fire, a worn out copy of Pride and Prejudice placed gently on her lap when she hears the loud screeching noise. 

At first she frowns, staring towards the portrait hole from where the sound is emanating. She’s just about to get up and inspect the chaos, because her head girl duties literally demand her to, no matter that the couch is incredibly soft under her ass, when the noise abruptly stops. 

She shakes her head, thinking it’s probably a couple of first years messing around, before going back to her book. She’s just reached the part where Mr. Collins arrives at Longbourn when the screeching resumes with a fervor, and soon enough, the portrait hole is thrown open violently. 

She jumps up, ready to reprimand the kids, and instead finds her boys, the idiotic fools who call themselves the marauders, tumbling inside. They’re being led by a euphoric James Potter, who is the head boy alongside her and that title should really mean something to him and god she’s going to kill him because is that...?

“Oh my god, James, what the fuck is that?!”

His eyes are immediately on her, hazel orbs widening with something akin to apprehension because he clearly hadn’t expected her to be there. 

“All right, Evans?”

She doesn’t answer him, continuing to stare at the abomination in front of her. 

“It’s an elephant, Lily,” Sirius grins madly, looking immensely proud. James at least has the decency to cringe at this, and Remus has entirely faced the other direction so as to not make eye contact with her. 

Oh, she’s livid.

“No, Sirius,” she grits out slowly, “That. Is a student whom you’ve transfigured to look like an elephant!”

The subject in question lets out a pitiful wail (the screech she’d heard earlier), and she wishes there was something distinct about this student because she cannot for the life of her figure out who the person is. 

“Turn him back this instant!” She growls, throwing her book onto the couch, and the boys know she means business. 

“But the ponce deserved it!” James puts in unhelpfully. 

Her glare is enough to silence him. Honestly, she’s a little bummed and a lot disappointed. He’d gone almost all of sixth year and the beginning of seventh without hexing anyone. She’d really started thinking that he was over his bullying days, and now all she can do is sigh heavily, letting him know just how much he’s let her down. 

Because her James wouldn’t have hexed someone for the fun of it. 

And when the spell wears off after a reluctant grumble from Sirius, and Lily sees exactly who the student is, she realizes he didn’t do it for the fun of it. 

Her heart skips a beat. “Calum?”

Calum Hopkins was a sixth year Gryffindor who’d asked her to Hogsmeade just the week before. Only, after Lily had waited for him at the three broomsticks for two hours and realized that she’d been stood up, she found him making out with a Hufflepuff against Zonko’s when she was returning to the castle. 

She hadn’t been much into the bloke, not this particular bloke anyhow, but it had still hurt to have been treated so crassly. He’d never even apologized. 

She wasn’t a vengeful person by nature, and had brushed off the insult once she’d gotten it off her chest, but she was a fool to have forgotten that her best friend would have gotten vengeance on her behalf.   

A stupid, besotted fool to think of the word ‘best friend’ with a tinge of bitterness. 

“Well?” James turns to Calum now, “What did we agree upon, Hopkins?”

The sixth year looks at the head boy fearfully, touches his face for reassurance, and then turns to her. “I’m sorry, Lily.”

“Sorry for...?” James goads.

“Sorry for standing you up and being a dick in general. I just wanted to make Valerie jealous.”

“No harm done,” She shrugs, unable to bring forth any anger because all she feels right now is a giddy sort of bubbling in her chest. 

Hopkins doesn’t waste another two seconds before rushing away from the common room, and the Marauders thankfully let him. 

She turns to them then, her eyebrows arched high and green eyes sparkling. She wants to reprimand them, yell at them, because it’s still foolish, still wrong, even if they did it for her, even if he did it for her. 

But all she can manage is a soft, “I can fight my own battles, James.”

The other three boys take this as their cue to scatter around and make themselves comfortable on the couch she’s just vacated, assured enough that she’s not really spitting fire anymore. James gives her a soft, tilted smile, the one that does weird things to her stomach. 

“I know you can, Lil, but I also know that you’re kind to a fault.”

“That’s not--”

“You would have never confronted him about it, and I’m not okay with him treating you like that.”

“I just don’t care enough about him to be too bothered, James.”

“But I care enough about you to be. Too much.”

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh,” He stalks closer to her, and she isn’t sure if the world has suddenly gone silent around them because she cannot hear or see or sense anything other than James and his smile and his stare, which burns as brightly as the fire in the common room. “Do a bloke a favor and have some patience, would you?”

“I--what?”

“I didn’t say anything when you agreed to go out with Hopkins,” He’s whispering now, “but I hope you didn’t damn well expect me to sit quiet after what he did.”

“No,” she sighs, “I guess not.”

“Good,” he grins, tapping her nose, “You better know how important you are to me, Evans. I’d have shown you more properly if you’d just waited until the next Hogsmeade trip. I had this whole thing planned and everything--”

“What?” She’s certain that her heart is no longer beating. 

“Just don’t go accepting dates from anymore idiots until then,” he winks, “I’m disaster enough for you.”

With that said, he jumps over the armrest of the couch to land perfectly on top of Peter, an action which is followed by a disgruntled ‘oof’ from the boy in question. 

And all she can do during this exchange is stand there and gape, wondering how smoothly she’s just been asked out, and how she’s accepted to go on the date without even uttering a single word.

It’s only when she realizes that she really doesn’t mind it that the grinning starts.

And then it never stops. 

[marionetteblues]

dungeons dark and deep

literally forgot to post this one. happy christmas. thank you, as always, to the amazing people who read my work for me - @gryffindormischief​, @araniaexumae​, @ginnyweeaslxy​ and @linabelina, i don’t even remember when you guys read this for me but here it is. I love you all. 

In the dead of night, it wasn’t hard to be heard, but the two boys took no extreme measures to be quiet. They had spent too many nights roaming the emptied halls of Hogwarts to fear discovery. The Invisibility Cloak that they were huddled under was not much more than tradition by now, though even they knew that it was a necessary precaution for their journey back. They couldn’t risk someone finding them. Not this time.

Once they were clear of the Entrance Hall and standing in the dark, narrow stone passage that led deep down into the dungeons, Sirius Black shrugged the Cloak off of himself and shook out his shaggy black hair.

James Potter folded the Cloak carefully over his arm. “Lumos,” he muttered, and held his wand far out in front of him, the staircase flooding with light until it took a sharp turn to the left. The light illuminated their faces and the glint in Sirius’ eye.

“I still say we’d have a better shot if we went to the greenhouses,” he said lightly. Sirius walked with his hands in his pockets. No one would have believed that these boys had any goal other than traipsing downstairs for another potions lesson.

“Are you mad?” replied James, one eyebrow quirked. His chin turned in the direction of his best friend, but he kept his eyes forward and listened intently. It wouldn’t have been the first time they’d been ambushed by a group of Slytherins doing their best to get as close as possible to being real Death Eaters. “Risking your life and your Quaffle-catching fingers is only worthwhile when there’s someone else around to impress. Trust me.”

“Well, I told you, there may not be any left at this stage,” Sirius said. “Mandrake leaves are popular ingredients, we use them at least once a week.”

“Which is why Slughorn is bound to always keep enough of them around,” James countered with an easy shrug. “They’ll be there.”

“Alright, alright,” grumbled Sirius, rolling his eyes with one hand thrown up in surrender. “Not that we took a vote or anything. Remus definitely would have agreed with me,” he added on a grumble.

“We don’t need to tell him every detail,” said James sharply. “And he’d just tell us we weren’t allowed to steal mandrake leaves from anyone. That wouldn’t help us much.” The corner of his mouth tugged up in a satisfied smile. “Besides, I’m not even sure Sprout has Mandrakes this year.”

“Of course she does, the second years take care of them every year,” Sirius said. “Seems like caretaking of Mandrakes is absolutely essential knowledge for a bunch of twelve year olds.”

“Well, I don’t think anyone anticipated that two fourth years would steal a bunch of mandrake leaves when they were contemplating their inclusion in the curriculum. Besides,” James went on, just as they stopped at one of the doors that led to the different chambers of the labyrinthine dungeons, “I don’t fancy trying to chop off Mandrake leaves from the real thing.”

“Why not?” Sirius barked a laugh. “It sounds like fun.”

“Because I don’t look good in earmuffs,” James said simply. “And apart from that, you remember what Sprout said? If you’re not trained, they’ll cry for hours and hours. And as amusing as it was to see Colin Dinsmore pass out when we were in second year –” Sirius snorted at that again at that, much louder and much more obnoxiously, “We’re not murderers.”

“But who knows how long these leaves have just been lying there?” Sirius pointed out. “I’m not looking forward to walking around with that in my mouth for a month. Remus had better appreciate this.”

“He will,” James said confidently. “It’ll be wicked if we can finally manage it.”

“Yeah. How many other fourth years can turn into animals?”

Sirius moved to unlock the door of the classroom, muttering, “Alohamora,” before throwing James a grin. They waited for a click, but none came. Their brows furrowed, an exact mirror of the other, before Sirius shrugged, and wrenched the door open with ease.

“Well, we can’t tell anyone,” James muttered.

Sirius threw him a glance, a mixture of doubt and amusement. “I know that,” he said slowly, his tone defensive. “I wasn’t going to.”

“You know we could actually be expelled for this, right?” James said cheerfully.

Sirius didn’t get a chance to answer - there came a smash from the middle of the room, and the two boys stopped dead, raised their wands in identical movements, shoulders squared.

“Oh, bollocks.”

Two separate crashes came next, a heartbeat apart, and tiny shards of smashed glass rained down on the boys’ feet. James raised his wand a little higher, letting its light reach every corner of the room.

“Evans?” Sirius eyed her suspiciously.

Lily Evans was not a girl that they’d had much to do with, apart from when she was with the other girls in her dorm. She was mates with Snape, and she never really joined in when a fight got started, but she seemed to be there, hovering in the background, drifting in and out of the scene like a ghost.

She was a Gryffindor, and fiercely proud of it - she screamed louder than anyone at their Quidditch matches and was always eager to win them a few house points. James supposed that was why she never bothered with him or his friends about Snape. Things were bad enough without making enemies in your own house, especially for a Muggleborn.

And that was really all James knew about her.

“Oh, it’s just you,” she muttered when her eyes finally focused on them, adjusting to the beam of light from James’ wand.

Her expression was just a flash of surprise and indignation before settling on a scowl, but there was no real heat behind it. She seemed content to assume - accurately - there wasn’t much chance of these boys turning her in for sneaking around, after all.

James took her in, strands of her dark red hair falling loosely from the bun tied at the back of her head and curling on her neck, making her features softer. He realized belatedly that she was in her dressing gown - not exactly proper attire for skulking around the castle in the wee hours of the mid-morning, but not everyone could have perfected it the way they had.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, jutting her chin out with a challenge in her tone. Looking like she belonged there, in a nightgown and slippers, and they had no right to interrupt.

“We could ask you the same thing,” James retorted, his hand jumping to ruffle his hair a little, skin at the back of his neck prickling with heat. He didn’t like the suspicious glint in her eyes; she may have been a Gryffindor at heart, but her best friend was a nasty piece of slime, and if he heard anything about what James and his friends were up to … He needed to look normal.

“I asked you first,” she said coolly, her eyebrows raised and a delicate flush rising up her neck. In her hands, she balanced a few vials and jars against her chest. James thought he saw something move in one of them. He squinted in an effort to identify the ingredients she held - you didn’t grow up in the house of a famous potions mogul without getting something out of it.

But it was too dark, and she kept moving, shifting her arm to balance everything without dropping anything else, and he couldn’t get a good look.

“Yeah, but there’s more of us than you,” Sirius countered. The three were silent for a moment as that sunk in, Lily and James both staring at Sirius with a look of bewilderment, James with a hint of embarrassment.

“Well, it’s none of your business, so I’ll stay out of yours if you stay out of mine,” she told them with a coy smile, her movements exaggerated as she gathered up her things like she was telling them, just let me be on my way.

James scrunched his nose up, eyeing her suspiciously. Sirius snorted. “You’re up to something, Evans.”

A smile played about Lily’s mouth as she surveyed them, blinking rapidly. They just stood, sizing each other up.

“Well, I’m not doing anything that will get me expelled,” she remarked. Her eyes glinted with triumph and intelligence, and when they landed on James, it made his face burn. He darted his gaze elsewhere, clearing his throat and shifting his weight between his feet. “You’re not going to hurt anyone, are you?”

“Of course not,” Sirius snapped, which made James frown. When his patience was wearing thin, there was no hiding it, and usually there was nothing James could do but watch, the way he would watch a rope fraying more and more before it snapped. “What are you talking about?” Sirius added.

Lily quirked one eyebrow, distinctly unimpressed. “You said you might get expelled when you walked in, genius.”

There was a pregnant pause of utter silence before Sirius broke it, his shoulders hunched and voice clipped, but striving to sound normal. “That was a joke. If McGonagall didn’t do it for the thing with the frogs, she’s never going to kick us out of here.”

James bit back a laugh, shaking his head.  

He wasn’t quite sure what he’d expected from Lily, maybe an insult or a threat, but she almost looked amused, perhaps intrigued, and oceans away from looking like any kind of threat.  He turned the matter over in his mind, and found it really wasn’t that different from his previous experience with Lily, however minimal it was. In fact, it was sort of the way James had seen her look when he’d dramatically weave wild tales between classes and dare the gathered crowd to guess the truthfulness.  None of them had much success - even Maddie, who had spent enough time with him on the Quidditch pitch for James to consider her a friend.

Or the times Lily would congratulate him after a particularly hard won match and thank him for winning her a few galleons.  He’d even noticed it in class, when they fell into competition and fought to hide their smiles but not the desperation in their eyes to beat the other. There were no identified stakes and no enumerated rules - it was a rare occurrence, and neither of them had an understanding of what losing meant, or even who they were up against beyond just another of their classmates, just the knowledge that one had to win.

Always a plain smile, but with something so strong in her gaze it seemed like sparks should have been flying off her, something that warned of an electric shock if his skin touched hers. It seemed to brighten up even the darkest corners of the room, but even as James watched it dimmed.

He didn’t know if that look always slipped away, but this time, it didn’t last. Before long, Lily’s face turned to a scowl, and in a moment, the boys had schooled theirs from cautious expressions to that carefully practiced aloofness that they carried with them so often it was like a mask to be slipped on at a moment’s notice.

“Unless she caught wind that we apparently tried to jam a broom up Bryan Macmillan’s arse,” James said lightly, punctuating his words with a roll of his eyes, hands jammed in his pockets.

“Threatened to,” Sirius corrected him immediately. “We didn’t actually do it.” His face turned dark when he spoke - it was easier to be accused of things when you actually did them. “Not that anyone could tell the difference,” Sirius went on, waving a hand dismissively. His smirk was back in an instant. “Someone stuck a massive stick up there.”

James just smiled, indulging his best friend - but Lily coughed out a surprised laugh before she dissolved into peals of delighted giggles.

“She agrees,” James remarked flatly.

Sirius grinned appreciatively, nodding before taking a step forward. “Evans! Shh! You’re going to wake up the entire dungeon!” James was quite sure that no one in the room considered most of the people in the dungeons to be spectacular life-forms, but the dungeons were still inhabited, technically.  

“Sorry,” she hissed, sobering up to the best of her ability, though she still smiled.

“Some people,” Sirius remarked, shaking his head.

“Amateurs,” James chimed in, not even a heartbeat later, his mouth quirking up at the corner.

Lily folded her arms, watching them with an eyebrow raised and the tiniest wisp of a smile playing about her mouth.  

“I know what you’re doing, you know.”

She took a step towards them so they were no more than a foot away - her voice lowered when she did, and she started to place her supplies on the nearest table one by one. One of the vials slipped out of her hands, and James caught it on instinct, fingers curling around the jar carefully.

“Oh, you do?” Sirius was saying cheerfully, carrying on like nothing had changed. “Maybe you could fill us in.”

“You think if you keep talking enough shit that I’ll just get annoyed and drop it,” Lily said, her mouth quirking up at the corners.

James blinked as he turned the tiny container over in his hand, staring at the words scrawled on the label. Something felt heavy on his chest and his breath came shallower and shallower as his eyes traced the spiky scrawl.

“Well, you’ve certainly been paying attention,” Sirius remarked, making Lily scoff. “What?” Sirius laughed. “You know all our moves, and you don’t seem to be fed up quite yet, no matter how much we do it.”

“That’s because I go straight past fed up to blind rage.”

Sirius just clicked his tongue. James wasn’t looking at him, he couldn’t see his expression, but he did register when Sirius leaned in and delightfully replied, “At least we provoke a strong reaction.”

They continued to snipe, even though it was very clear there was no real heat behind the words. Just a little irritation, maybe at being inconvenienced on a night time errand on Lily’s part. Maybe at not being adored on Sirius’.

“It’s not my fault that the rest of the school is stupid enough to think you’re both so terribly amusing. But I’d hate for you to think that I was that dense as well.”

“Well, I did. But I didn’t realize you were one for letting people put words in your mouth. Sounds like you’ve been listening to your Slytherin pal a little too much.”

Lily clicked her tongue, clearly put out. Her smile had turned sour, clearly rattled by the turn in conversation. “You think I need him to tell me what to think of you?”

“No, but you let him do it anyway.”

“Did you follow me down here to interrogate me on my friendships? Is this the part where you tell me none of it’s true, and you’re just innocent victims in his campaign to smear your good names?”

“What do you need mandrake leaves for?” James demanded suddenly, finally tearing his gaze away from the jar in his hand and cutting short the straying conversation.

The more that they dwelled on Snape, the more the warmth in the air would seep out of the room. He had that effect; James could see her freeze them out when Snape was around. She stepped away from the easy-going, friendly atmosphere they all enjoyed when she was with the girls in her dorm, from the warmth of it. She ignored that it was good a lot of the time. And James would wonder what it was Snivellus had told her about them. It was probably true in technicality, but he wished she didn’t know so much. Not the way Snivellus told it, at least.

Sirius had started to say something else, but he went quiet when James spoke, snapping his head in the direction of his friend. “What?” he hissed.

Lily’s cheeks flamed, noticeable even in the dim light, which gave James a fierce sense of triumph that he really couldn’t trace.

“What’s it to you?” she said, with a tiny little smile and a dangerous gleam in her eyes. She had only pointed her wand in his direction once or twice in four years, but it wasn’t exactly a secret that Lily Evans was so good with her wand it was downright dangerous to be on the other end of it.

She reached for the jar, and without thinking, James jerked back, holding it out of her reach. She was just about as tall at him, her narrowed eyes level with his. He could hear his heartbeat starting to hammer in his ears, and his grip tightened on the mandrake leaves.

He threw her a smile, tempted to take a step back as her expression grew stormy. But he stood his ground. His nonchalance was starting to fray at the edges, and that simply would not do.

“Is there any left?” he asked her casually.

She paused, long enough so that James knew the answer before she even opened her mouth.

“Why?” she asked instead of answering his question.

“Because we need it,” said Sirius with a little huff of impatience. They needed it badly. They were running out of time, and with each full moon, Remus came back a little paler, with a little less fight in him.

Lily said nothing, her gaze falling on the tiny glass vial that James still held in his hand, his arm stretched out behind him to hold it away from her. “That’s the last of it. And I had it first,” she said, lunging forward to grab it.

James jerked backwards like she’d clawed him, her shoulders squared opposite his as she tried to get around him, his reflexes too quick for her. He wrestled with her arms for a few seconds, batting her away and laughing in surprise. “Calm down, Evans!!”

“Don’t make me hex you, James.”

“You wouldn’t,” he muttered, a small smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. It was easy to smile if it kept Evans from growing suspicious, but inside, he felt panic rising up his chest and to his throat.

Sirius was looking at them grapple with his eyebrows raised - he was a little taller than the other two, so he held out his hand for the jar, which James willingly gave up and took a step away from her.

“Come on, Evans,” Sirius said then, in his best tone for negotiation. “We’re not Slytherins, we don’t go around hexing people who don’t deserve it.”

Lily snorted derisively. “I’m not sure you can say that about yours-”

“I said people who don’t deserve it,” he repeated with emphasis, but her expression still rankled.

“Anything we’ve done, they’ve done ten times worse,” James said with a firm nod.  

“At least we haven’t attempted to string someone by their ankles in one of these dungeons,” Sirius continued, his tone purely conversational. “But that’s not even important. I’m sure whatever it is you’re cooking up is important, but not more important than this.”

Lily folded her arms, leaning back on her heels with her hip popped to the side and her head tilted the other way, watching them. “Tell me what it is, and I’ll decide.”

The two boys shared a nervous glance and said nothing.

Lily shifted her weight. “It must be really wrong if you’re not even going to brag.” She grinned a triumphant grin at the silence that met her words, and she held out her hand. “I will hex you, Black.”

She drew her wand, and Sirius drew his, and in the light from the tip of James’ they stood, forming a triangle with their wands held in front of them.

James huffed after a second, his lips pursed forwards with annoyance. “Right. I have a better idea. There’s a fair way to do this.”

She raised her eyebrows, but tilted her chin and relented, holding up her hands in surrender. “By all means.”  

Slughorn’s store was disorganized and unruly, his handwriting barely legible, but eventually James’ hand closed around what he was looking for. Leeches.

Sirius placed the vial of mandrake leaves on the highest shelf of the bookcase beside the door, and casually stood between Lily and the exit.

Leeches were kept in a separate vial each - James had three in his hands, juggling them as he turned back to look at her. “Right.”

She blinked at him for a second and then rolled her eyes, failing to fight an amused smile. “Come on, Potter. I want to get to bed.”

He caught them all with ease, carefully extracting the first leech from its prison and placing it on the desk. “Just across the desk.”

Lily caught on quick, and she laughed, so suddenly and loudly, like it was drawn from her without her knowing it. “Alright, Potter. You’re on.”

She walked over to where he stood, leaned in close - James went very still, watching her as she surveyed the two leeches in his hands, skin tingling a little, from the attention he supposed - and eventually she selected one of the leeches, before she paused, pointing to the other.

“What’s that for?”

“For Sirius.”

She scowled at him, but there were bright red patches of excitement on her cheeks and a gleam in her eyes that was unfamiliar. “No. It’s you two against me. I’m not going two on one. You said this was fair.”

She stared back at him resolutely and the two of them squared off in a silent argument for several seconds before James relented, ducking his head and dragging his fingers through his hair. “Fine.”

It would have been a first, if a teacher had walked into the potions classroom at that moment. Two boys fully dressed and a girl in her nightclothes, all yelling at the top of their lungs as they watched two leeches slowly crawl across the desk, meandering and zig-zagging as they want.

“Stay on target!” Lily yelled at her own leech, before she swore and turned away, hitting James’ chest as a result.

“Ow! Watch it, Evans!” he yelped, rubbing the spot she’d punched him.

She tried to scowl, but she was smiling. “I’ll watch it when you control your leech,” she replied, flaming red patches on her cheeks. “He’s playing dirty.”

James blinked between her and the leeches, a strange, unfamiliar warmth seeping through him from his chest as he shot back, “It’s not like I can control him. What makes you think he’s a ‘he’?”

“I have ways,” she told him with an air of mystery.

He blinked at her silently for a moment with his lips curving into a smile that he found strangely forceful, and she just stared right back, her own mouth in a wry smile of her own, her chin jutting out defiantly.

And then Sirius cleared his throat. “Your leeches are shagging.”

The moment broke, and Lily and James tore their eyes away from each other sharply, attention darting back to the desk.

James cleared his throat. “Little Fleamont wouldn’t dare -”

“Fleamont?” Lily repeated, spluttering as she pulled out her wand, poking at her own leech with the end. “Get a move on, Mildred!” Mildred didn’t move. Sirius may have still had his wand in his pocket, but James had heard him whisper a stunning spell aimed at the poor leech.

It may have wounded James’ sense of honour, but this was one game he couldn’t fight fair. They couldn’t wait any longer, which meant they couldn’t afford to lose.

James started to laugh, a gentle but uncontrollable bubbling from deep inside him. “Yes, Fleamont. Named after my father.”

“I wish you’d stop trying to make everyone believe that’s actually your father’s name,” said Lily with a snort.

James’ eyes just flickered to Sirius’ for just a moment and they both smiled, but they said nothing.

“And Fleamont takes the day! He takes after his father, we never lose a match,” James roared with triumph, holding out his hand for Lily to shake.

“Fair play, Evans, good game.”

She pouted dramatically, but he could see the mirth in her eyes. He liked it. It made him go quiet for a moment longer, until she was poking her finger into his chest.

“You -” she said pointedly, “are responsible for finding me some more. Deal?”

James blinked, swallowed hard against a sudden tightness in his throat, and extended his hand further. She took it and shook.

“Deal,” he told her, winking, and was rewarded with a tiny pink glow in Lily’s face.

Relief washed over him as the three of them made their way back up to the dormitory, walking in companionable silence. Lily wasn’t bad at sneaking around, and James and Sirius were more than happy to keep quiet.

With the mandrake leaves safely tucked away in James’ trunk from the time they got back to the dorm, the three of them arrived at breakfast the next morning with crinkled eyes and dark circles under them that betrayed a lack of sleep. But they were smiling, all of three of them, the boys from triumph, especially when they caught another’s eye.

News travelled fast in Hogwarts, and all anyone could talk about was the leeches - curled up and spitting all over Slughorn’s desk - and what that meant. Sirius and James shared a glance at breakfast and raised an eyebrow each in one identical motion, before James looked over at Lily, looking utterly innocent as they walked down to the dungeons.

He frowned a little to himself as he fell into step beside her - he meant to speak, but he was quiet for a few seconds, surprising even himself. How did he ask someone if he could expect to be in trouble for the leeches - what Slughorn had dubbed “a deep personal attack” - without it just sounding petty?

Lily seemed to be one step ahead of him. “Don’t worry. My lips are sealed.”

He nodded quietly, a little awkward as he shoved his hands in the pockets of his robes. Her friends were walking directly in front of him, so he kept his voice low. “What were you trying to do, anyway?”

“You first,” she said teasingly, looking at him expectantly.

He felt his face flush and kept his gaze away from hers. “Something for a friend,” he told her, cryptic and mysterious, but with none of the usual bravado that would have accompanied such a line.

To her credit, she seemed to accept that with a small sigh. “I was trying to make my own Sleekeazy’s,” she told him with a reluctant expression. “I ran out, and I can’t get more until I get to Hogsmeade.”

They came to a stop outside the potions classroom, waiting to be called in, and James started laughing, a gentle and warm laugh, but one he couldn’t control, bursting out of him and filling up the entire corridor.

“What’s so funny?” she demanded, with a nervous little laugh of her own, like she didn’t know if she should be laughing too, or if his amusement was at her expense.

He just shrugged his shoulders. From the end of the corridor, he could see her best friend enter through a door that came from the dungeons, so he took a step back to his own friends but he threw her a small smile.

“There’s no mandrake leaves in Sleekeazy’s, Evans.”

She raised her eyebrows. “You know that, do you?” she grinned, though her eyes went a little rounder when he nodded. “How would you know?”

He just blinked at her, his lips barely curved into a smile.

“What’s in it, then, Potter?” she said.

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you,” he said lightly, taking a step back towards his friends. She spluttered wordlessly in indignation, making him laugh again. He returned to his friends, his own side, even if he hated to think of it like that, and she only shook her head, letting out a breath like she couldn’t believe what had just happened, her lips pulled into a smile.

He met her eyes once more, just before they entered the classroom. She shot him a playful scowl, shaking her head as she passed him. She held his gaze for just a moment, a heartbeat longer than normal, making him grin.

And then Sirius had his attention again as they sat down, grumbling, “What did they even have these dungeons for when they built the place? The students?”

[princesse-de-ravenclaw]

The Kissing Booth- Part 3

Word Count: 1,753

The next few weeks rolled by quickly, and Y/N found herself thinking about Sirius more often than she ever had before. She actively avoided him around school, another thing she had never done before, but she felt so guilty every time that she saw him that she couldn’t help but turn the other direction. Yet he still crossed her mind throughout the day. She wondered why he constantly stuck up for her, and why he was so nice to her even though they rarely spoke to one another. Up until the night of the party, the two hadn’t had a real conversation since Y/N was 11. The more she thought about it, the more she realized he had always been nice to her. Sure, they each threw a playful insult here and there, but subconsciously, Y/N always knew that Sirius had her back.

Quidditch practices had picked up, and classes had assigned a little more homework, so Y/N was seeing Regulus a little less than normal, but for the first time, she was okay with it. Ever since the party, she had felt slightly guilty whenever she was around him. Sure, nothing had happened between her and Sirius, but she had lied about where she was. And she would never admit it out loud, but her feelings for her best friend’s older brother had shifted, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty about that as well.

Before anyone knew it, the night of the festival arrived, and everyone was restless. Some were frantically trying to perfect everything with their booths, others were excitedly waiting for the festival to begin. “Reg, is everything in place?” Y/N called. “I believe so, everyone is here,” he called back. Y/N burst through the curtain to join Regulus and all the people working the Booth. “Brilliant. Remember, you will all be blindfolded, so you can’t be prejudiced about who you’re kissing. We want as little drama as possible. Plus, it adds a little mystery, which could be really fun. Lucius, we’ll start with you, then you, Marlene. Then Davey, then Emma, and then Lily, you’ll finish up the evening. You don’t all have to wait here all night, go enjoy the festival and just make sure you’re back here for your shift, okay?” Y/N announced. Once everyone agreed, Y/N stepped out to take a look at the rest of the booths, since she would be working the booth for the majority of the night.

“Looks good, huh?” Sirius’s voice next to her made Y/N jump. “Merlin, Sirius,” she sighed as she tried to catch her breath. “But yes, it looks amazing. I’m sad I won’t be able to participate much,” she admitted, refusing to look at him. “You think you’re gonna be at the booth all night?” He raised an eyebrow. “Somebody’s gotta make sure everything runs smoothly,” she shrugged, “And I love Regulus, but I don’t think he cares enough to make sure it’s perfect.” “Maybe I’ll swing by to see it,” Sirius offered. “Go for it. However, if you pay to kiss Emma Vanity, I will have to hex you into next year. You’ve been warned,” Y/N told him. “Nah, I wouldn’t. She’s not my type. Plus, I see the way Regulus pines after her,” Sirius shrugged with a slight shake of his head. “Well, um, good. I’m glad we have an understanding, then,” Y/N nodded once. “I’ve got to get back to my booth,” she decided, quickly turning and making her way back to the kissing booth.

“Regulus, Emma’s shift is about to be over! Are you gonna get out there and kiss her or what?” Y/N asked frantically. “I don’t think I’m gonna do it,” Regulus admitted. “Regulus Arcturus Black! That is literally the whole reason we put this booth together!” Y/N whisper-yelled at him. “I know! But she and I were talking about it the other day and she said she was happy to help the club, but it felt weird to be kissing so many people at once, and I don’t want to contribute to that,” Regulus explained. “You we’re discussing the kissing booth at Quidditch practice?” Y/N asked, raising a disapproving eyebrow. “No wonder you lost to Ravenclaw last week..” “I’m going to ignore that comment because we weren’t discussing it at quidditch practice.” Regulus told her. “We had a study date in the library after dinner on Tuesday,” he said sheepishly. “On Tuesday!” Y/N exclaimed. “It’s Friday! Why have three days gone by and this is the first I’m hearing of it?”

“I don’t know, I guess I just wasn’t sure where it was going, so I didn’t want to talk about it and get my hopes up,” Regulus shrugged, unable to hold back his smile. “Well, I’m proud of you, Reg,” Y/N grinned and squeezed Regulus’s shoulder. When they were kids, rule number 18 was “always be happy for your bestie’s successes,” and that had always been the easiest rule for Y/N to follow. “You should ask her to the festival when she’s done with her shift,” Y/N suggested. “Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you alone at the booth...” Regulus trailed off as he watched Emma kiss her last patron. “There’s only a little bit left. I’ve got it,” Y/N assured him with a smile. Emma thanked the crowd for participating, and then made her way backstage. As Y/N walked onstage to announce Lily, she noticed Regulus and Emma heading off into the festival and smiled to herself.

A little while into Lily’s shift, Regulus and Emma returned to the kissing booth. “Y/N/N, would you mind if Emma and I went back to the castle?” Regulus asked Y/N. “Of course not, you two go have fun!” Y/N smiled. “You are amazing,” Regulus planted a grateful kiss on Y/N’s cheek before taking Emma’s hand and leaving the booth. Y/N watched them disappear with a proud smile, only to be interrupted by Lily rushing backstage. “Y/N!” Lily exclaimed. “Yeah, Lily, what’s up? Is everything alright?” Y/N asked, alarmed that Lily had left the stage. “Is someone behaving inappropriately? Did someone make you uncomfortable?” She asked frantically. “No, no, not really,” Lily shook her head. “Not really?” Y/N raised an eyebrow. “It’s just that, Severus is next in line, I can hear him, and I’m just not comfortable with kissing him,” Lily admitted.

“Okay,” Y/N nodded, pondering her options for how to solve the issue. “Okay... what if... what if I went out there? Yeah. I could go out there, and either he’ll not want to kiss me and leave, or I’ll do it, and you won’t have to,” Y/N suggested nervously. “Are you sure? I don’t want you doing anything you aren’t comfortable with,” Lily assured her. “No, it’s alright. Severus and Regulus are friends, so we hang out occasionally. It’ll be fine. If he even ends up staying in line,” Y/N replied, trying to convince herself more than Lily. “If you’re sure...” Lily sighed, handing her blindfold to Y/N. “It’s just one little kiss,” Y/N mumbled as she made her way onstage. So, maybe it’ll be Severus, maybe I’ll never know who my first kiss was. It’ll make a good story, though, Y/N told herself as she prepared for the next person in line, whoever it was, to come up.

Meanwhile, as soon as Y/N stepped onto the stage, Snape scoffed. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he muttered, rolling his eyes and walking away- leaving one James Potter next in line. “Well that’s not my girlfriend,” he commented as Y/N took Lily’s position on the stage. “Hey, Padfoot,” James called to Sirius, who was beginning to wander away. “Hm?” Sirius asked, not taking his eyes off of the festival in front of him. “You wanna take this one mate?” James asked with a smirk. “Do I wanna what?” Sirius whipped his head over to see what James was talking about. “Well, I’d imagine it would be wrong, seeing as she isn’t my girlfriend, and extra wrong, seeing as my best mate is pining after her,” James gave Sirius a smug grin. “You know what, why not? Sure, I’ll give it a go,” Sirius decided, laying down a sickle and making his way up the steps to the stage.

Y/N could hear the person’s steps approaching her. “Hi,” she spoke up nervously. “I know you’re probably expecting Lily, but her throat got really dry, so she went to get some water really quick. I hope you don’t mind that I’m having to take her place,” she rambled. “And I’m sorry if I’m bad at this, I’ve never really kissed anyone before, and-“ Y/N knew she was procrastinating, but she wasn’t expecting the person to cut her off by gently grabbing her waist and pulling her into a kiss. Wow, okay. This isn’t so bad at all, Y/N thought to herself, it’s pretty nice. Not that I have anything to base it off of, but he’s a good kisser. A really good kisser. Wait a minute... something seems... familiar... Y/N’s heart started racing as they pulled away. She had to know who it was, so she pulled her blindfold off-even though it was against the rules. Y/N couldn’t conceal her surprise. “Sirius,” she breathed, unable to think of anything other than him. Sirius leaned down to kiss her again, and Y/N didn’t hesitate in kissing him back.

When they finally pulled away, Y/N and Sirius couldn’t help but stare at each other in awe for a moment. “I thought you were very selective when it comes to the women you kiss?” Y/N asked him, trying to hold back a smile. “I am. I paid a whole sickle and everything,” Sirius grinned. “A sickle? Is that what you think a kiss from me is worth?” Y/N teased. “I’m worth at least ten galleons,” she smiled. “At least,” Sirius agreed. He leaned down to kiss her once more, but realization hit Y/N and she pulled away quickly. “Oh my godric, Sirius,” she gasped. “We just did that in front of everyone.” Sirius looked over to the crowd watching in awe. “It appears we did,” he agreed. “Your brother is going to kill me,” Y/N told him. “We’ll take care of that later. Right now, just smile and take a bow,” Sirius replied, eyes flirting over to the crowd. Y/N nodded and the two of them turned and bowed. “I’ll meet you backstage,” Sirius said quietly just before Y/N made her way back to where Lily was waiting behind the curtain.

A/N: aaaaaaand the actual kissing booth is here! Feedback is always appreciated! 

Tagging: @argentinemango @kbaille92 @allertonn @espressoo-patronum @themarauderstheoutsidersandpeggy @rhyxn @magical-spit @obscurilicious @thecurlyhairedwinchester

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[marlmckitten]

Love your writing!! Could you write sirius and marlene getting ready for their first official date?

Yes pretty Nonnie I can~ And thank you so so very much!! (As for everyone else I promise I have not forgotten, just the holidays are busy but I’ll get there!!)

Lily was laying on her bed, no longer paying attention to Marlene as she changed her outfits more times that she could even remember. She was tired of explaining to her that she looked fine in each and every single one. And even more exhausted from Marlene showing off her lingerie and asking which one she should wear, before insisting that she would NOT be another girl Sirius Black gets to shag on their first date. “I’m not a one-night stand.” She said confidently, behind her curtains, changing back into more comfortable under garments. “I mean.. I have been. But I won’t let Black just list me as another one of his conquests. I’m better than that and it’s not my fault he’s an arrogant whore.”

Lily groaned, “You really should stop insulting him. The whole, ‘I hate Sirius Black’ facade kind of fell apart when you agreed to go out with him!”

Mary’s head popped through the door, looking at Marlene, stripped down to her black panties. “You’re still changing?” She questioned. “It’s been hours!”

“See,” Lily sat up, “You like him, I’ve never seen you actually prepare for a date before!”

“I’ve seen you forget about dates before…” Mary cut in, joining Lily on her bed, the two of them sniggering at Marlene now.

She scowled at the pair before pulling on a black dress with an open back and lace sleeves. “I look like I’m going to a funeral,” she sighed, taking it off again.

“She’s said that every time she has put it on,” Lily explained to Mary. “It’s been three times.”

“You two could stop talking about me and help, isn’t that what friends are meant to do?” Marlene snapped, going through her tower of clothes.

Mary got up and stepped forward pulling a red dress from the pile, “This is mine!”

“Yeah, I thought it might be nice, but it was way too slutty.”

“Too slutty for you?” Mary questioned, eyebrows knit together.

“Well.. Too revealing for my first date with Sirius at least, I can’t look like a complete hoe.”

Both of the other girls rolled their eyes in response, but Mary could tell that Lily was done with attempting to help Marlene at all, so she went to he closer and pulled out a top for her. “Don’t get all dressed up, You know Black is going to end up leading you through some secret, probably dirty, passage and the two fo you are going to end up drunk, just wear those jeans you like that make your ass look nice and this.”

Marlene frowned and took the shirt, holding it up in the mirror. It was a loose fitting black blouse with a low v that fell almost to her stomach. The silkiness of it made it so it still looked at least semi-classy and not like she was just trying to throw her body in his face. Pulling it over herself she checked the mirror and nodded, “This might work.”

“It will,” Lily said finally, not leaving room for her to change again. “Especially since you’re going to throw your leather jacket over it. Like Mary said, jeans will be comfortable and you can wear those black booties that you always wear and he’ll be drooling over you since you’re apparently not having sex tonight.”

Mary laughed, earning another dirty look from Marlene, “Right, what Lily said, you’re not having sex with him tonight anyway, so he’s going to be checking you would over your clothes, your butt will look good, your boobs will be out, it’s perfect now put it on and leave already.”

In response, Marlene mocked them back but put on the rest of her outfit and sighed, “Yeah, it’s fine, Lily you have to do my hair now?”

Huffing loudly, Lily got up and forced her friend to sit down while she curled her hair ever so slightly to give her the effortless beach waves that she loved so much. “Congratulations, Mar, you’ve officially spent three hours to look like you spent five minutes,” Lily said sarcastically once she was finished with her hair.

But Marlene was wearing a large smile as she applied her red lipstick and looked to her friends, “Not like it matters anyway right? It’s just Black!”

At the same time both of the other girls quite literally dragged Marlene out of the dormitory to get rid of her before she changed her mind again. When Lily saw Sirius she sighed in relief that he was actually ready and she pushed Marlene forward. “Fuck, Lil, calm down!” She complained, before turning to see Sirius in front of her. He was wearing jeans and his favourite leather jacket, unsurprisingly. His hair fell expertly in front of his face and his grin faltered only for a second when Marlene arrived. Eyes peering at Marlene, he offered his hand to hers, “You look nice, McKinnon.”

Everyone else was surrounding them, clearly making them uncomfortable. But it had been a long time in the making to see these two finally going on a proper date. Marlene looked at everyone else before back to Sirius, “So let’s leave to get away from them, yeah?” She begged, quickly walking forward.

Mary nudged Lily telling him to look at Sirius’ eyes as they watched Marlene’s butt impressively. With a slight smirk he took off after her and Lily moaned, “Finally!”

James walked over to Lily and wrapped an arm around her, not noticing the look of disgust she gave him as he did so. “It took me three hours to get Sirius ready. He re washed and styled his hair four times. Paced and tried to back out for about an hour. Then went on about how annoying she is until I reminded him that he was the one who asked her out. That of course was followed by him grinning stupidly to himself and going on about how beautiful she is, of course he told me I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone. But I think he used the words, beautiful, elegant, witty, fun, sexy and perfect. Many of which I would have agreed with had it been about you. Except I would have added radiant,” he wiggled his eyebrows at Lily, to which she only escaped his grasp and turned on her heel.

“Don’t even try, Potter.”

“So, you don’t want to watch our friends from a safe distance? It could be like a cute double date, Evans!”

She looked to Mary for help who only pretended not to hear the whole thing and act very interested in a first years paper suddenly. “No date, today, or ever.”

“Hm, what about yesterday?”

“Bye Potter.”

“See ya, Evans. I’ll let you know how their date goes later!”

At this Lily turned, eyebrows pulled together, “Are you actually going after them?”

“Absolutely!”

For a moment, Lily was sure she was still going to walk away, but watching Marlene’s date with Sirius was something she wasn’t sure she wanted to pass up. “It’s not a date,” she said surely, before pulling Dorcas’ sweater from her seat and marching towards him. The girl hardly noticed, since she was so absorbed in her book, but only the duo left the common room together, her book dropped and she looked after them, then to Mary.

“Did they just…?”

Mary’s mouth was open, but no words were coming out.

It was Remus who broke the silence from his studying in the corner. “I think he just managed to trick her into a date.”

The room fell silent before the remaining friends scrambled towards the door to chase after the two couples.

A/N: Oops this turned into Jily too? But who’s complaining? I hope this is okay~

complete list here

[dorianegraye]

Jily X Wolfstar

@alohcmoras request with a twist 🎉✨

sorry it took so long😭😭

ok so what if the Marauders studied in Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts?

I mean, James, Sirius, Peter and Remus are far away from obedient students, so their first priority will still be Hogwarts

But when Remus’ parents had to move to France because his father’s boss decided to transfer him to the French Ministry of Magic during their 3rd year, Remus has to leave Hogwarts to attend Beauxbatons

Sirius would yell,”WE’RE COMING WITH YOU MOONY!” and James would agree and Peter would clap

Eventually Remus gave in to his friends’ begging, and it became his turn to beg his father

When the news of the Marauders leaving spread throughout the school, not many expressed it but they all know that they would miss them terribly

The boys saw that James was spending more and more time with Lily, being much less of a show-off during the last month before the holidays

Remus knew that his best friend would miss Lily Evans badly and needless to say, the kind werewolf felt extremely guilty

So he straight up told James one day that he could stay if he wanted to, but he merely replied with, “I’d be lost without my fellow Marauders”

GRYFFIN-HUG

The four mischief makers eventually found themselves in the Pyrenees in the middle of August

“Ugh!! Look at the uniforms Moony! They make us look like some kind of goodie-goodie two shoes!” “I happen to like the design, Sirius.” “Thank Godric I brought my leather jackets, at least I can be myself on weekends!”

Never mind the uniforms, the boys couldn’t believe that they had to take flying carriages led by pathetic white horses you find in fairy tales (Sirius’ words) to get into the castle, leaving Wormtail into a fit of nerves

But neither can deny that behind the fog, the creamy white castle looked absolutely magnificent

And they were absolutely stunned by the dining hall

It looked like a friggin ballroom

And it was huge

A grand staircase dominated the back of the room, with corridors stretching to unknown hallways on the stairway’s either side

The wall behind it bore blue wallpaper imprinted with flowers that looked like they were really blooming (MAGIC!), the Beauxbatons sign hanging proudly on the wall

There was a small golden stage in front of the staircase, and their were three long tables in front of it, not unlike the one at Hogwarts, except they have these elegant carvings on those soothingly—not blaring, mind you— white wood. Remus was practically bouncing at the artwork so he didn’t catch Sirius staring

The school was quite thoughtful, there were seats at the side of the hall so the newcomers didn’t have to stand at the side while they wait for their sorting

The ceiling was not disappointing either

It was way higher up than the one at Hogwarts

It was built flat, but with a few charms, the ceiling took the shape of caving upwards, much like a temple’s

The night sky that was twinkling with stars became more and more visible as the turrent like ceiling stretched further upwards

It was as if the students were having an Astronomy lesson and using a gigantic telescope

So it was no surprise that the boys were practically gaping at the ceiling, forgetting their too-tight new robes and staring all the way as they reached their seats in the front row

To their disgust, the house they were sorted into by shooting a silver arrow across the room burst into the colour green, and they only breathed a great sigh of relief when their peers told them that Bellefeuille was, in fact, the house of bravery

In the following week, the Marauders found that everything in Beauxbatons was better than expected

The school was big, there were Wood Nymphs dancing around, singing sweetly every time they had meals at the dining hall, and the girls were unsurprisingly, very pretty, according to a bashful Peter Pettigrew, who timidly admitted such a thought. There was even an extra Quidditch match within each house in November, which made Sirius and James squeal like babies

The only two things that weren’t as good was that there were no risky places that could kill you (unless you count the Quidditch stadium that was only about 15% smaller than the World Cup Stadium, in which you would totally break your neck if you fell off from your broom during a Quidditch match) and the headmistress

For some stupid reason, she despised boys

And to make matters worse, Headmistress Dochar (A/N: that means biased) had to teach the subject the boys hated and sucked at the most—Potions

Potions was the most important subject apart from DADA in Beauxbatons, so lessons were frequent and the recipes were complicated

After two weeks of continuous bullying by the Head, Sirus and James finally leapt up from their seats one lesson and openly yelled at the prejudiced woman, ignoring the pleading looks from Wormtail and Moony and the startled faces of the Beauxbatons boys

That earned them 3 weeks’ worth of detention from insulting the one with the largest power within the school

However, the Beauxbatons boys couldn’t help but shoot the Marauders admiring looks every time they passed by since they were the first to stand up to the harsh Headmistress and they soon became the newest celebrities of the school

To double their luck, a young Ms Bellerose replaced the originally dull teacher in DADA in about December

She was the playful type that always got students out from the claws of the Headmistress

And needless to say, she immediately grew fond of the boys’ mischievous personalities 

She told them that she would like to start a project on a magical device that could show the location of everyone in Beauxbatons during the Christmas holidays when all four of the boys stayed on the school campus

Remus immediately came up with the idea of a map, and offered to make the map to show the location of people in different magical schools

Sirius had never been prouder

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Vulpis (A/N: Vulpis is fox in Latin), are proud to present to you, the Marauders Map

From then on, their DADA professor became more of their fellow adventurer than a teacher. And by March, they had discovered two secret passageways—one towards the highest tower in Beauxbatons, which had a very nice balcony for them to smoke and chill, the other was towards a little street that sold delicious food at the foot of the mountain. Messrs Vulpis seldomly hung out with them since she was still a professor no matter what, but they had great fun every time they did  

 It was during their fifth year, before the winter hols, after they lit the librarian’s chair on fire, when things started to get even more interesting

The school decided to open up to other wizarding schools by implanting a pen pal project

“YASSSSS THIS WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!” The boys literally threw a party when they learned that they were assigned with Hogwarts students so that they could catch up on everything that was now happening in their old school

And because of sheer, dumb luck, James was assigned to none other than Lily bloody Evans

Prongs was basically sweating all over when he received the news, afraid that things had changed between them because he had tried contacting her tons of times and she hadn’t responded at all

She claimed that she was busy with schoolwork while Peter bluntly informed it was probably because she was upset with Prongs leaving school or finding another guy to pay attention to

When James arrived back at school from the hols, he received Lily’s reply and was fuming more than ever when he saw that most of the content was about Severus Snape

Turns out Peter got it right

Prongs spent a whole day ranting on and on about how slimy Snivellus Snape was to touch his precious little redhead when he was 

The letter he sent afterwards was too aggressive and it made matters worse 

He didn’t talk to the Marauders for a whole day after he received Lily’s rant about how he would never be better than Severus Snape

His friends understood him more than anyone else, and knew that he wouldn’t shut them out no matter what, so when James returned from the Black Lake that night with bloodshot eyes, he found his fellow Marauders sitting there waiting

His tears soaked Peter’s jacket as he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed that night

Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot had never seen their friend so vulnerable 

The following Sunday, Sirius and Remus spent their whole day in the common room thinking up plans for their friend and the boy in question didn’t show it, but he couldn’t be more grateful

The loudest high-five in history was created by Moony and Padfoot when James received a reply the next week, the Marauders could basically see Lily smile when they read the letter replying to James’ overly-enthusiastic description of Quidditch matches, Professor Bellerose and the Marauders Map

Sirius and Remus’ plans got better and better in every letter

They witnessed their friend falling hard and fast over again, unaware that they were also falling deep deep deep when they plotted and planned

Peter was having the time of his life watching James using every trick in the book to woo Lily Evans and hearing Moony and Padfoot ramble on and on about each other whenever the other wasn’t there

Everything was going along the flow. Apart from having a professor just as mischievous as them, it was just like old times, only better

Things, unfortunately, went downhill when the calendars flipped to the month of April

Girls had actually started fawning over Sirius, some flirted and some went as far as stalking or throwing themselves at him

It was no surprise, the disowned Black had naturally gorgeous looks

But that didn’t stop anger and jealousy bubbling inside Remus’ chest whenever he saw anyone, let alone a girl (well, aside from James and Peter) touch his darling Sirius Black, although he was in denial of such emotions

The change in their relationship was abrupt and obvious

They still huddled together to plan, for the sake of Prongs, but Remus always disagreed with Sirius on purpose, even if the idea was wonderful

Padfoot himself didn’t know what went wrong with the boy he loved so much, (but he didn’t know it at the time, did he?) and was actually hurt every time Remus started a war with him and never stayed to cuddle with him in the common room anymore

Remus could only stare when Marsha Earl, the most eager of Sirius’ “admirers”, asked Padfoot out openly in the dining hall, both blushing furiously

He lost his appetite immediately when he felt like he was being stabbed in the heart

He left the hall abruptly, terrified that Sirius had such an effect on him, too caught up in his emotions to notice his friends staring after him, with Sirius boring the deepest holes into his back

He didn’t care when he learned that Sirius didn’t agree to the French beauty’s invitation the next day. He stayed as far away from Padfoot as possible, not wanting to get hurt again.

James and Peter both felt really bad whenever Remus joked playfully around them but stayed completely silent around Sirius

James secretly told Lily about the situation in his letters to her, and she replied that she would bet anything that they were in love

He called her bollocks, but Lily’s little challenge was far from the most of his worries

Peter reported quietly to Prongs one day that the girl population were trying harder than ever to get Sirius to like them, and the poor black-haired boy was now having to deal with their constant fawning 24/7

Remus’ behaviour towards Sirius had escalated from ignorance to yelling at each other, calling each other names and sometimes even fighting like they were born enemies

Padfoot had erupted in Potions class once about how pathetic Remus was when he started an argument with Sirius over some stupid herbs that lasted 15 minutes

Peter swore he could hear Remus sniffling in his sleep that night

“Hey Moony, you ok?” “Y…yes, I’m totally fine” “I don’t think so mate, wanna talk about it?” No response

At the end of the month, Remus, panicking as he did every time he was soon to reach the full moon, trembled even more as he approached James and Peter and told them not to tag Sirius along when he transformed this time

The two were shocked as hell, and yelled at him to spill what in the name of Merlin was going on between Sirius and him, a question they had been dying to ask for months

Remus merely shook his head and looked at them with sorrowful and pleading eyes, begging them to listen to him in his own ways

James would have jumped back hollering and rushing towards Sirius if it weren’t for his self-control—he had never seen Remus so broken 

Prongs and Wormtail couldn’t bear the thought of their best friend undergoing his transformation alone, so they gave in and everything went according to Remus’ plans

Only it didn’t, the pain the werewolf went through this time was doubled, dare I say, tripled without Sirius’ soothing wet nose of his Animagus form and forehead kisses after the tormenting morphing

Matters became worse when Remus learned that James had spilt the beans that he drugged Sirius that night so he could stay in his dormitory and not follow them to the Whomping Willow 

The pain on the werewolf’s body grew more painful when he saw Marsha Earl skipping joyfully into the hospital wing to visit her friend and squealed that Sirius had finally agreed on going out with her the day after

“Sirius!” “Yes, Peter?” “You sure you wanna go out with that Earl girl?” “Of course, she’s gorgeous enough!” “You’re gonna ignore the fact that Remus’ hospital stay had lengthened into 2 weeks after your date today blurted the new out in the hospital wing?”

Padfoot ignored Wormtail and sauntered out the Bellefeuille common room with Marsha, though his heart was aching all over when his friend told him the truth that he had been avoiding with all his might

Marsha was extremely sweet and they could’ve great fun in the Three Broomsticks if Peter words weren’t ringing in Sirius’ head the whole time

So while Marsha was busy partying at said bar, Sirius slipped away at 5 pm, desperate to visit his old best friend

Moony was asleep in the hospital wing when he visited

But he was definitely not sound asleep since he was trembling madly

At the sight before him, Sirius shakenly walked towards the bed and got down on one knee

“Remus, Remus, Moons…please don’t shut me out again…” the voice that came out was hoarse

Remus’ eyes flew open, for he could recognize Sirius’ voice anywhere

“So,” The werewolf’s mouth pulled into a tight smile despite the pain his heart was going through, “enjoyed your date?”

“I mean, I just want you to be happy Pads, you don’t have to care for me, I love you, you know..” “Shut up.”

The two pairs of lips that have been aching to connect crashed together, stronger than a hurricane and firmer than an earthquake shaking the Earth

“He loves me…” was all that was on Sirius’ mind when he pulled at Remus’ bottom lip, coaxing a groan out of both of them

The kiss was an energy-drainer, and the two had no choice but to pull away to gasp for air

“I’m,” kiss “so,” kiss “so sorry Sirius,” long kiss “me too Moony,” they dived back into their own sea

“Can anyone, anyone at all, PLEASE explain to me what the fuckity fuck is happening!?” James bellowed loud enough for the whole dining hall to hear after Remus somehow miraculously healed all at once yesterday, earning himself lots of shushing from the forever graceful girls and professors. (except for Bellerose, of course)

However, the boys were staring at the pair that had just entered the hall, too alarmed to curse

In walked Remus and Sirius, in all their glory, whispering into each other’s ears like they had made up and went a level higher than best friends over a sodding day, which both James and Peter were sure they didn’t meet, like they haven’t for two weeks

The girls, noticing the expressions of the boys, turned towards the couple. Some of Sirius admirers, especially Marsha, went beet red

“Too bad for you mate,” Sirius smirked as he plopped down next to James, pulling Remus down with him, “Evans’ too smart for your own good, she won her little bet fair and square.”

One kiss to the werewolf’s forehead was all it took to confirm the black-haired boy’s statement, and all the boys who had, like Lily, betted with their friends that the pair was bound to get together soon, erupted into cheers 

The two Bellefeuilles in question merely tolled their eyes and shook their heads

The school soon accepted the gay couple like any other couple, Professor Bellerose being the largest supporter of them all

During the hols, James sneaked Lily into the Beauxbatons school grounds, chilling on the balcony that the boys loved so much, their long-distance relationship firmer than ever

Messrs Vulpis tagged along once, and she and Lily immediately became the best of friends 

Peter blushed as red as a tomato when Lily, ever the accurate match-maker whispered to all the Marauders in the dining hall during the Christmas hols that Peter had a crush on the pretty Marsha Earl, which was quite ironic since he always taunted her for getting in the way of Sirius and Remus’ relationship

The Marauders all persuaded him to ask her out, and he made the excuse of not knowing how to kiss

The consequences after such a statement was disastrous—Moony and Padfoot snogged in both public and private more than ever, saying that they were teaching their ol’ pal Peter how to display affection

In the end, Peter’s single status was also thrown out of the window, and Marsha, now officially Peter’s girlfriend, joined their little balcony gang

And because of the blonde, Wormtail didn’t turn to the Dark Arts, remaining a loyal friend after graduation

Padfoot practically squealing like a baby was an understatement, he was clinging on his husband and sobbing joyful tears when Harry James Potter was born to this world

When Harry turned 11 and it was time to choose which school he should go to, Mr and Mrs Pettigrew merely smiled at each other while Marsha bounced their baby daughter Aquila on her lap, smiles which spoke volumes

Sirius and Remus started arguing, an alarming contrast to the Pettigrew family. Padfoot kept hollering that Harry should go to Hogwarts and Remus trying to glare daggers at his husband (but to no avail) and repeating his statement that Beauxbatons was the best choice

The rest of the people in the room, including Harry and a 2-year-old Aquila, could only watch the two quarrel like 5-year-olds

Harry found himself on the platform 9 ¾ though, despite his Uncle Moony, Uncle Wormtail and Aunt Marsha’s protests

“Of course I’d like to study in the place where Uncle Moony and Padfoot fell in love,” he had said, grinning mischievously, “but Hogwarts is the place it all started, ain’t it?”

ϟ as usual, pls pls pls DO NOT REPOST, I spent three weeks or four writing this so plzz don’t break my heart. Thank you so much to those who’ve read this k baii ϟ

[vexedbuckbeak-blog]

♫In2 (Kehlani Remix)- WSTRN// Marauders Era: Remus x Reader

Request:  Could you do an imagine where you go clubbing with the marauders???(please let Sirius help pick out her outfit because I feel like that would be so cute and funny) and you (usually pretty innocent) Starts dancing with some other guy and Remus gets extremely jealous and ends up telling the guy to leave and Remus admits he fancies you???

''Not that one,'' Sirius shook his head at Y/N, as she turned around and raised an eyebrow.

''I don't recall asking for your opinion,'' she retorted, hands resting on her hips.

''Then you're lucky enough to get it anyway,'' a childish smile spread across his face, ''Not that one.''

''Why not?'' she took another look in the silver edged mirror placed in her dormitory, trying to see what was so wrong with the long sleeved, dark blue dress that hugged her hips.

''Because it's got a massive bow on the back. It's a club, not a bloody wedding,'' he reminds her, and surely enough, she sees the silk bow gracing the back of blue velvet as she takes a glance over her shoulder.

''I forgot that was there,'' she sighed, stepping away from the mirror and back into the wardrobe, charmed to be about three times the size it looks.

Slipping out of the soft velvet, she scans the hanging clothes for another option, frowning at the lack of inspiration in her head. Finally, she spots a dark crimson dress, surrounded by the dark fabric of her uniforms. She slides it on and steps out again, positioning herself in front of the mirror.

''Nope,'' the forgotten presence of her best friend makes her let out a little groan, only met by a chuckle coming from the boy leaning on the headboard of her bed. ''I don't own and endless supply of dresses, you know,'' she turns around, frowning at him before she looks over her shoulder in the mirror.

''It's silk. It's too fancy,'' he explains, matter of factly, his smile never vanishing from his face.

''Maybe you're just not fancy enough,'' her remark is followed by her tongue being stuck out at the lounging boy, who then put a hand over his chest, feigning a hurt gasp as she rolled her eyes and entered the closet once again. 

Vexed by the process at this point, she grabbed the first thing she touched when her hand reached for the hangers, putting it on without even noticing what it was. She stepped into the room again, not even managing to take a peek in the mirror before Sirius gave her an approving nod: ''That one. I like that one.''

Turning around to look, she found herself in a y/f/c dress, slipping gracefully from her waist to her hips, just barely reaching the middle of her thigh.

''It's so short!'' she exclaimed, looking at her friend, who gave her a simple shrug before paraphrasing his earlier statement: ''We are going to a club, not church.''

Finally dressed and ready, Y/N made a descent into the Gryffindor common room, her hands constantly at the hemline of her dress, tugging it down, and the continuous smack of Sirius' hand on hers, reminding her that, it's alright because we are going to a club.

When they reached the bottom of the staircase, she finally gave Sirius the smack he'd been skillfully avoiding all the way down, prompting a loud, ''OUCH'', to fall from his lips before she turned to face her waiting friends. 

The scene before her seemed pretty standard: James stealing glances at Lily, green velvet cascading down her slim figure as she smiles kindly at Peter, who seems to be in the middle of explaining something rather riveting. She notices Remus rolling his eyes at the absentmindedly nodding James, who clearly was not listening to a single word coming out of his mouth, and soon his glowing brown eyes land on her, widening slightly. 

Remus Lupin could feel his heart pounding in his throat at the sight of her, a slight stutter appearing in his voice as he muttered a, ''Hello,'' to the beautiful girl.

She smiled widely at the group, about to walk over to the gesturing Lily, when Sirius exclaimed: ''Let's GO already!'' with the excitement of a five year old child off to a theme park.

The muggle fascination with discotheques hadn't taken long to find its way into the wizarding world; of course, the wizard clubs were much more fun, enchanted drinks floating around, waiting to be grabbed and a  dance floor that expanded as much as it needed to to make space for absolutely everyone were just two of the many things that made 'The Phoenix Tail' far more fascinating than the muggle club it used as a disguise.

Y/N walked in, fascinated at the flurry of colours, followed by Lily and James, now proudly holding hands, a confused looking Peter, and a seemingly indifferent Remus, who had barely taken his eyes off her as they made their way over. Sirius, who had strolled in last, was already making eyes at a pretty, black haired girl at the bar, and swiftly made his way over before anyone had the time to notice.

The blue light gave Y/N an ethereal glow as it shone on her silky skin, her y/h/c hair moving gently as she walked further into the place, soon joined by Lily, who grabbed her arm and whispered: ''This is incredible, isn't it?'' into her ear, her soft voice audible even through the loud music.

''It really is,'' she couldn't hide the massive grin on her face as she looked around, chuckling at the sight of Sirius chatting up the girl at the bar, clearly doing quite well.

''Come on, let's dance,'' Lily said, excitedly, trying to drag her out onto the dance floor.

''I'm not much of a dancer Lil,'' the y/e/c eyes suddenly gained a hint of worry at the thought that she might actually have to dance at the disco, a factor she had completely forgotten until that moment.

''Don't be a spoilsport,'' her friend pouted at her, and with a groan, Y/N grabbed a martini from the air, downed it rapidly, and followed her friend out onto the dance floor.

She looked around for guidance on how exactly this dancing business was supposed to be done, observing the way some girls moved their hips and others simply stepped from foot to foot. Deciding to choose the latter approach, she began dancing next to the red haired girl, who had chosen to actually dance. Feeling extremely out of place, she looked around, scanning the space for a friendly face, finally finding Remus who just happened to be looking in her direction. She gave him an enthusiastic wave and was met with a faint smile before hearing her name.

''Oh, for Pete's sake, Y/N, loosen up,'' Lily called out to her over the music, causing her to sigh loudly before grabbing a floating shot of tequila and tipping the small glass upside down before attempting the alluring hip movements she saw around her. 

I'm not so bad, she thought to herself as she carefully moved her hips from side to side, her hands in mid air, an occasional hair flip added as she began letting herself relax on the dance floor. Whether this was a consequence of needing to let loose or the hard liquor running through her veins, it was impossible to tell. That is, until she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning around to see a handsome black haired boy, his dark skin glistening beautifully under the blue lights.

''You're a good dancer,'' he gave her a shy smirk, despite obviously not being shy at all, ''Do you reckon you could teach me?''

Y/N couldn't imagine what her face looked like at this question, a mixture of surprise, nerves and terror overflowing her as she found herself nodding at the boy. He gently placed a hand on her waist, beginning to guide its movement, slowly but surely pulling her closer to him as they danced to the beat of the booming music. The discomfort of the act soon began to fade as she relaxed, even allowing herself to laugh at some of the friendly stranger's jokes that he whispered in her ear, his hot breath sticking to her neck.

In the middle of a story about his little brother, the boy's hand left her waist, and as she looked up to see where it had gone, she found Remus holding him by the wrist, fuming, almost literally, as he glared at the stranger. 

''Just sod off, alright?'' the harsh words left Remus' mouth, and her newfound friend raised both his arms defensively before walking away, shaking his head.

Y/N met the angry boy's eyes for mere seconds, fury seething inside her as she stepped towards him, only to see him walk away and towards the club's entrance. Without a second thought, she followed him, removing her high heeled shoes as she walked after him and meeting Lily's confused look on her way towards the door.

Stepping out into the cold air was a slight shock after the warmth of the inside space, especially with nothing but her tights separating her feet from the cold cement, but she didn't care. As soon as she caught a glimpse of the familiar chestnut haired boy, she placed a hand on his shoulder, an excessively peaceful gesture compared to the whirlwind of emotions she was feeling on the inside.

''What's your problem, Moony?'' she demanded, watching while the boy turned around and faced her, still frowning.

''Do you like him? That guy you were prancing around with?'' his voice was low and raspy, almost angry, but his eyes glimmered with a slight sadness that she didn't fail to notice.

''Firstly, prancing? I find that an insult to my superb dancing skills. And secondly, of course not, I just met the guy. I don't even know his damn name.''

Exasperated, Remus swung his head backwards, placing both his palms on his face. As he brought his head forwards he shook his head, his palms slipping from his face.

''He was perfectly nice, though, and I don't see what prompted you to drag him away like you're my mother. In fact, you acted a lot like my mother,'' she continued babbling as his frown faded and a small smile spread across his face.

''You look really beautiful tonight,'' he stopped her chatter with surprising words, and she looked at him, completely baffled by the statement.

''Thank you, Remus, but that still doesn't explain--''

''I was jealous, alright? Happy?'' he lifted his arms in a gesture of surrender as she tilted her head to the side.

''If you wanted to wear this dress, all you had to do was ask,'' she shook her head lightly, her joke luring out a laugh from the boy.

''I've had these feelings for you for a while now. It doesn't seem like they're going to go away, so I thought I might as well tell you now that I've made a complete fool of myself--''

She presses her lips to his, the warmth of his body against her making the cool air around them disappear, as her fingers tangle in his hair and his palms find their way to the small of her back. Too soon she pulls away smiling at the lovely being in front of her as she whispers:

''As I was saying, all you had to do was ask.'' 

[halothenthehorns]

All in the Family

Chapter 107: Professor Umbridge

There was no chance for anyone to have a kind landing this time, what with the owl droppings all around and several more being deposited upon them at their abrupt arrival.

Lily found herself crashing against the window and had to scramble madly not to fall right through down to Hagrid's Hut below. James found himself face to face with Hedwig once more, who screeched at him all puffed up like a giant angry snowball.

Worst of all, rain was pouring down from above, rising the smell of hay and feces right to their faces even as they did get to their feet, water was slapping against their necks from the windowless eve even with the door closed, and Peter blanched in disgust to be spying more rat skeletons along the floor. He hadn't liked being in here even before he'd become an animagus, all the birds cooing and glaring down at him, now it just felt like a bad omen. He was more than happy to get out of here as soon as possible, and around cold shivers already creeping into him, he summoned the book which came zooming down from one of the top rafters just to add insult to injury. The soggy chapter title was somehow the worst bit of all though.

"A whole chapter dedicated to that toad-faced woman?" Sirius asked in disgust, leaning around Peter to double check for himself. Peter only wished he were making it up.

Seamus Finnigan only kept the mood in dreary levels by the reminder of how he, and likely the majority of the school, was going to be treating Harry this following year.

At least the twins were always a good distraction. Peter read almost fanatically about their poster and any form of fun and mayhem they could be sharing. Hermione of course had to go and kill that mood too.

"Oh don't," Lily snapped as she glared at the Marauders, particularly Potter as usual, though she was side-eyeing Lupin with some disdain instead of Black this time. "It's her job to be doing this as well as Ron's."

"No one's paying them to do it," James scoffed.

She rolled her eyes and most definitely was not going to get into it with him, it would fall on deaf ears how those eleven-year-olds had no idea what they'd be getting into to volunteer for anything.

Frank shifted uncomfortably as talk of Hagrid not being there came and went again. He kept telling himself he was being ridiculous just like Alice did, he'd already spent six years in this castle with Hagrid and Lupin the werewolf and literally nothing had happened but some odd rumors, half of which the Marauders themselves apparently started going by their commentary, and there weren't even any mysterious deaths or disappearances.

Telling himself that and his heart still accelerating without permission were two very different things.

Instead he was more than happy to smile along with Alice when Keeper tryouts were mentioned, even having no particular liking for the sport himself, he would sit through a dozen games just to watch Alice react to it.

Then even that was spoiled by having to listen to Harry's schedule for that Monday!

"I thought torture was banned at Hogwarts!" James yelped at that madness.

"It's, almost a good thing," Frank couldn't keep all the patheticness out of his voice for how he felt of this. "Get them all out of the way at once."

"No!" James snapped back for anyone trying to make this a good thing.

"We don't know that Umbridge woman is going to be a bad teacher yet," Alice sighed and defended her boyfriend more out of obligation than anything, nobody believed otherwise after what little they'd heard of her so far.

Peter just ignored her.

Even talk of their OWLs coming up helped settle no one, as the fifth-years still had those to look forward to when they got back! Even Frank, Alice, and Regulus grimaced along with them at imagining taking exams the coming Monday after having lived through this nonsense.

At least Sirius got a laugh out of the twins putting bulbadox powder in someone's pants, he was mentally writing that one down, though not yet determined who he'd use it on, present company not exactly excluded.

"It's nice to be ahead of Hermione on something," Regulus muttered for himself as she and Ron began to wonder where the twins had gotten their money for all their joke shop talk.

Harry semi-managed to change the subject at least, and the book droned on a bit into one of Binns's always 'memorable' classes, and the following spat between Ron and Hermione. Peter found himself almost starting to relax at least with these familiar patterns, he'd been expecting Umbridge to do something much worse by now what with her name being front and center.

Instead Harry went through a whole embarrassing bit with Cho, a nasty but predictable bullying of Snape, and an entire sleep-worthy lecture by Trelawney about dreams.

The rain was still lashing around them, Pig was now hooting and hopping along to his seventh spot, and they were all shivering miserably, but despite all of that and their continued mental assurances Umbridge wouldn't even bother to acknowledge Harry, they all felt a chill go up their spine when Harry first went into her room.

She certainly didn't impress anyone with her continuing to treat them like toddlers doing a morning greeting, but at least the worst she seemed to have them doing that first day was copying what they'd be doing for the semester, a standard enough approach.

Peter frowned however and Regulus glanced over his shoulder to read that for himself when it really sunk in what they were hearing.

Sirius had been pacing for warmth and James had been picking at his ears in boredom, but they looked up sharply as well.

Remus scrutinized the book in confusion and Frank opened and closed his mouth but decided to wait and hear this out first, surely they were jumping to the wrong conclusions here.

Lily and Alice exchanged a wordless look that spoke volumes, something was off there.

Things only got worse, as Hermione instigated a question they'd all like answered, why was there nothing about using spells on her chalkboard?

Only after Hermione refused to be deterred several times and even Harry jumped in did Umbridge finally say it in plain English, she didn't think there was a need!

Harry wasn't the only one who would have lost his temper at this notion. Never, in all their bad teachers, had they actually heard of someone coming into the school and refusing to teach!

They half expected the toad woman to slap shackles onto Harry rather than just writing out a note for McGonagall to read, this was just so out there.

Instead, Harry found himself with detention for a week, and McGonagall telling him to mind his temper.

"If that was her first class, what other levels of hell could the rest of this year be like?" Peter grimaced before promising the others at least this chapter was done while finishing the last line and at least getting them away from this dismal place.