Chapter Text
“How’s everything going with Prongs, Evans?”
Lily Evans was peacefully reading when three of the marauders sat down in front of her, she could easily say they were up to something -or maybe just Sirius, yeah, probably just Sirius- when she saw Sirius’ smirk, although all her attention ended in the curiosity Peter and Remus had in their eyes.
“What?”
“C’mon, Evans, don't be shy. We all know it! Nothing to be embarrassed of!”
“Black, I really don’t have an idea of what you are talking about.”
“You know,” Peter shyly said. “James sneaking out of our room and of the tower to see you.”
Lily, of course, knew that James Potter was acting strange and a lot of students had seen him sneaking out of the common room after dinner and not returning until everyone was in their rooms, but she had nothing to do with that. Actually, the last time she talked with him was a week ago when he asked her to pass the pumpkin juice.
But the other marauders seemed to not know that.
And they were staring at her, waiting for an answer.
“Oh…” she bit her lips, closing her eyes, you owe me one, Potter . “Yes, we meet, but it’s not a big deal.”
“Not a big deal?” Sirius asked incredulously before laughing. “Girl, he goes out every fucking night and you want us to belive it’s not a big deal? Don’t make me laugh.”
“Shut up, Black. I have things to do, that was everything you wanted?”
“Okay, okay. No reason to be mean, Evans, we’re going.” he got up with an arrogant smile and Lily wanted so badly to tear it off of his face, Remus and Peter also got up. “Just one more thing, please tell me you’re using condoms, I’m too young to be Uncle Pads, though I would spoil that child to be the favourite uncle.”
Sirius ran before Lily could hit him with her book, he would not have that luck the next time she saw him.
“Sorry for that, you know he is an idiot, see you later?”
“And he is a big one,” Lily sighed, smiling a bit. “See you later, Remus, Peter.”
You owe me a big one, Potter.
(...)
“Potter!”
The next day, Lily was on her way to the library, she had an essay to do for Binns, when she saw James running to the opposite side she was going and probably if she did not shout he would never have known she was there.
“Evans!” he smiled at her. He looked a little nervous, looking to the left and then to the right as waiting for someone to appear, but the corridor was alone except for them. “Hi! Nice to see you, can I help you with something?”
“Actually yes, you can. Maybe you can tell me why you told Black, Pettigrew and Lupin that we meet?”
“Oh…” he whispered, looking about to faint. “I- I didn’t!”
“You didn’t? So why did they ask me how everything was going between us?”
“They did?” James had to lean against the wall to not fall.
“Yes, they did.”
“Fuckfuckfuck. And what did you tell them?”
“That everything is fine, that we are meeting, something that we actually don’t do.”
And before she could ask him again why the fuck he lied to his friends, James was hugging her as if she had just saved his live and maybe she did .
“Oh, thanksthanksthanks, Evans! You are the best!”
“Yeah, right. Now, Potter, you will take two steps back and tell me what’s going on.”
He did take two steps back but stayed in silence, looking like she had just taken out of his shoulders the weight of the world.
“So?”
“Ahh… Yes, Evans, look, I can’t tell you anything but thank you very much for saving my ass…Eh… I have to go.” and then he started running again, minutes later he stopped and turned to see her. “This it’s too much to ask, but, can you don’t tell them you and me meeting is a lie? I know it is too much to ask and I swear I will pay you with what you ask.”
Before she could even think about it, she said, “Yes, Potter, but I would need an explanation.”
“One day, Lily, one day you will have it I swear but now I have to go, thank you.”
And he disappeared in the corner of the corridor.
(...)
After that, Lily started to look at him closely.
James was acting as a complete weirdo; in the middle of the classes he started to look at nothing and sigh as he was in love, his gaze was always lost when he was in the Great Hall and he used to disappear every time he had the opportunity.
But still with him acting like that, there was no clue of why.
No, Lily corrected herself, the question it’s no why he is acting like that, it is who is making him act like that?
And for her bad, everyone was thinking James Potter was truly into her, something that -after that day- was clearly not the case, though no one knew it.
Lily was reading in front of the Black Lake when Mary Macdonald sat down next to her.
“Hey, Lils”
“Hi, Mary, how is everything going?”
“Pretty good! Didn’t make my chauldron explode in Potions so today was an excellent day.”
Lily chuckled. “Well, I’m happy that the chauldron did not explode, you could have ended up hurt.”
“You say it like I didn’t end in worse scenarios.” Mary said with a smile, but then, as if she remembered something her smile disappeared. “How is everything going with James? Peter told me he was sneaking out to see you.”
“Oh, yeah, everything is fine.”
Whenever someone asked her that, Lily had no problem with lying, even with Marlene, Dorcas, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Frank and Alice, but with Mary it was different, it tasted too bitter, she did not want to lie to her.
“You know what? Fuck off.”
“What?” Mary was pretty confused.
Lily did not have a reason to keep her promise to James, no with Mary. “I am not meeting James, I knew that he was sneaking out of the common room, but I did not knew he was using my name as excuse until Sirius asked me how everything was going between us and then I lied because something on me told me it was the best, it felt right to say I am hooking with James when I am not. And the next day I found James running through all Hogwarts like he was late for a date or something and I asked him what was going up and all he told me that I saved his fucking ass lying to Sirius and then I promised him I would not tell anyone that he is lying about with who is hooking.”
“Oh, wow, I-” Mary was looking at her with shock, still trying to find sense in what she said. “I really don’t know what to say.”
“You don't have to say something, it’s just- I have been looking at him closely but I still don’t find why he is acting like a weirdo and why he is lying to Remus and Sirius and Peter, everyone else is okay, but them? The four are like one, what is so serious that he cannot tell them?”
“Well, that is pretty strange, are you sure you didn’t find something?”
“Yeah, he just looks too in love but that’s all, no clues of who and why he is lying.”
“Have you tried to follow him when he is sneaking?”
“Ye- wait, I actually didn’t even think about it!” Lily did not think too much before hugging Mary and burying her face in her neck. “You are a genius, Mary!”
When Mary’s arms wrapped around her in a weird way, Lily realised what she was doing and threw herself back, feeling her cheeks burn.
“Sorry,” Lily whispered looking at the lake.
“Don’t worry,” Mary’s voice trembled.
After a minute of awkward silence, Lily finally had the courage to return her gaze to Mary, she was staring at her, flushed and biting her lips.
“Well, I- I have an essay to do.”
“And I- I need to finish my book and make a plan.”
They just stared at each other in silence, none moved, not even a centimetre.
“Sooo… See you later?”
“Eh… Yes, Mary, see you later.”
When Lily was completely alone again, the only thing she could do was scream.
Dumbdumbdumbdumb.
Congratulations, Lily! You messed up a lovely moment with her!
(...)
Lily actually did try to follow James.
But somehow he always caught her, fortunately she always had an excuse, though her luck, of course, will not be there too long, James was starting to suspect her.
That night Lily and Alice were at the astrology tower, doing their homework with the lovely night sky as background.
“Sooo, you are lying for James when you don’t even know why he is lying?”
“Yep.”
“And you are in love with Mary.”
“I did not say that!”
“Come on, Lils! That’s obvious!”
“It is not!”
“So you are .”
“Shut up, Fortescue!”
“I think Mary is also in love with you,” Alice said with a humble smile.
“She is not.”
“And why are you so sure about it?”
“I mean, she has a lot of people wanting to be on a date with her, why would she even look at me?”
“Do not say that, Lils, you are beautiful and kind and intelligent and a lot more. She would be the one losing if she does not like you, something I know she does.”
Lily needed someone to tell what was (not) happening between her and James after the mess her talk with Mary ended. Marlene and Dorcas were her friends but they also loved the gossip, Remus or other marauder was not even an option, James -should- had a reason -and it probably was a pretty good one- why he was not telling his best friends whenever he was hiding, Frank Longbottom was of trust but they weren’t too close and it would be weird, so that left Alice.
“You should tell her.”
“What if she doesn’t feel like that and I ruin our friendship?”
“That it’s bullshit, Evans.” Alice started to save all her things in her bag. “I am leaving you here so you can think about all the silly things you are saying.”
And Alice left, leaving Lily alone in the middle of the night. Lily sigh while she started saving her stuff in her own bag. She was on her way to the Gryffindor common room, actually thinking about Alice’s words, when she heard a voice before she turned the corner.
“C’mon, let's do it!”
That voice sounded familiar to Lily and she was about to have a look so she would know who was there when another voice did the work for her.
“No, absolutely no, James,” that was the voice of a boy, maybe her age.
James. James Potter. James Potter was there and he was with someone, probably the one he was hooking with.
“Please? I want to have something yours with me”
No, no probably , James was with who he was hooking with. He was hooking with a boy. That was why he didn’t tell the others the truth of who he was meeting? There was no way. Sirius and Remus were dating over a year and James was the first one defending them when someone said something, he should know that they would accept him.
“So I will give you something else, not my tie.”
“We have a lot of ties! What if we exchange some? We can hide ‘em in our rooms.”
“We two have roommates, what if they find them?”
The boy’s voice was elegant and it had an accent, it also was familiar, but as much as Lily tried to recognize it, she couldn’t.
“You can invent an excuse!”
“Oh, yes? Like what?”
“Don’t know, maybe you could say you stole it from a child from first year!”
Lily was about to have a look to recognize the boy, James’ words were weird, when the boy’s voice made her stop.
“Stole it from a child? That is the image you have of Slytherin? That we stole ties from children? That is worse than what I thought.”
Slytherin? James was hooking with a Slytherin?
No, he hated them, she was sleepy and her talk with Alice didn’t help too much, she was imagining things. But…
“C’mon, Reggie, he would believe you!”
Reggie? Who the hell was called Reggie?
“No, he would not, although, what would you do if my brother or Lupin or Pettigrew found a Slytherin tie in your stuff?”
Brother?
“Can tell them I stole it from Snivellus.”
“What do you have today with stealing things? And for sure Sirius will make you burn it.”
And then everything connected. Lily finally had a look, praying for it to be just how sleepy she was.
But no, she was looking at James Potter kissing his best friend’s little brother, Regulus Black.
They were in front of a classroom and Lily guessed they were inside minutes ago, the two were still wearing their uniform, and how they were talking seconds ago, the tie around Regulus’ neck was not the green from Slytherin, it was a Gryffindor one, James’ one. And James had Regulus’ in his hand.
“Stop it,” Regulus laughed between kisses. “Someone can catch us.”
“Yes?” James asked. “Like who?”
And Lily took a decision, it was too late to act like nothing had happened. “Like me,” she mumbled, coming out of hiding.
James and Regulus suddenly parted ways, looking at her horrified.
“Lily!” James yelled while Regulus took out of his pocket his wand and pointed her.
“No reason to scream, James, or to point at me, Re- Black.” she said, not sure if she was allowed to call him Regulus, probably no.
Regulus made no move to lower the wand, James had to put his hand on Regulus’ with delicacy and move their hands down.
“I am not saying anything to anyone, I can swear it, but maybe you wanna talk about it.”
(...)
Regulus and James did want to talk about it, the three entered the classroom and James and Regulus went to one corner to talk in silence, Lily waited for them far enough to not listen to most of the words they exchanged.
Minutes later the three were sitting together.
“Okay?” she said.
“I don’t trust you.” Regulus said with no hesitation.
James looked at him, frowning, his eyes were saying something like ‘we have talked about this’ and maybe they did minutes ago.
“It’s okay, James, I wasn’t hoping for him to do it,” she said, thanking Regulus for being honest. “You don’t have to trust me your life, Black, but you can trust I would never tell anyone, now I know why James was lying about he sneaking out of our common room, and you two are in all your right to not tell anyone of whatever your relation is unless you want them to know… But if you want no one else to discover it you should be more careful.”
“First,” James said. “You can call him Regulus. Second, he is my boyfriend. Third, we don’t want anyone else to know. Fourth, yes we will be more careful, we have learned our lesson. And fifth, thank you, Lily.” James was smiling at her with joy, he seemed too happy.
Regulus bit his lips. “I agree with him,” he sighed, looking at her like he was not sure of say what he was thinking. “After this, I think we are in a kind of agreement, Eva- Lily.”
“I think so, Regulus.”
“Well, now that we are in an agreement, we should go to our common rooms, too much information to analyse,” James got up as Lily and Regulus.
“Yes,” she agreed, leaving the classroom before so they could have some space.
When they came out, the two were flushed.
“Good night, Regulus,” Lily said.
“Good night, Lily.”
James and Lily started walking one way while Regulus walked to the other.
“Oh, and Lily?” Lily and James stopped and turned to see Regulus, he also stopped walking but he didn’t turn.
“Yes?”
“If you say something you are dead.”
James looked about to yell to his boyfriend but Lily just smiled. “I know.”
“Great.” and he was turning the corner.
(...)
James and Lily entered the common room together and the other three marauders were sitting on the couch with Marlene, Dorcas, Frank, Alice and Mary.
“There is our favourite couple!” Sirius yelled as they sat down with them.
“Shut up, Pads.”
“Prongs?” Peter asked with curiosity.
“Yes, Pete?”
“Where is your tie?”
James just smiled, “It could have been stolen by someone.”
Lily just laughed, praying for Regulus to hide it before he got to his common room.
While everyone was laughing, Mary was looking at Lily with her lips pressed and a sad gaze. At least she looked happy, even if it was with James and not with her.