Part Ten
***
Lily wished the ground would split and swallow her whole. It was bad enough to know that she had behaved like a totally irresponsible ditz, babbling nonsense about sex, insulting Slytherins, jumping off the railings (well, almost) and nearly getting herself killed, but being constantly reminded of the fact, by Hogwarts staff no less, was more than little disturbing.
"Do you feel better?" Madam Pomfrey asked her.
Lily cleared her throat; the Detoxication Potion tasted vile. "Yes, thank you."
"It's a good thing Mr Potter was with you," the nurse commented conversationally while taking the readings with the help of her wand.
No, it was not a good thing, Lily's spirits were dragged down with the burden of shame. What does he think of me now?How am I supposed to look him in the face? How am I supposed to help him in Potions?
The Gryffindor Potions practice would start on Monday. This evening she could hide in her room, and she could stay there all Sunday. She even could avoid talking to him on Monday morning, but she couldn't back away from tutoring sessions that late. Maybe she would call in sick?
"All right, you're back to normal," Madam Pomfrey diagnosed. "Off with you."
Here goes the chance of calling in sick. Miserably, Lily gathered several issues of 'The Healer' to have something to occupy her thoughts with in the evening, and left th Hospital Wing. Her next stop was at McGonagall's office; the Gryffindor Head of House required explanation. How was she going to explain? She had no idea what had happened! Sure, there was a moment she wished she could get drunk on the butterbeer, but wishing didn't make things happen, did it? She was not that powerful a witch. If this kind of trick worked, Muggle-borns like her would be wiped off the face of Earth by that Death Eaters movement...
Merlin, incredible how her mind could find a way to avoid dealing with the issue!
She was about to turn into the corridor leading up to McGonagall's office, when the call stopped her. A familiar voice. Too familiar in fact. Oh gods, not him, not now!
"Evans!"
She turned around. "Snape," she said sourly.
He stopped in front of her, his hands full of parchments. He handed her one of the scrolls.
"Raport on the state of the Potions lab." He handed her another one. "And inventarisation. Slytherin gives the lab away spotless and without one missing vial."
She greeted her teeth, accepting the scrolls. "It's Saturday evening, Snape. Couldn't you have waited til Monday?"
He smirked. "Touchy, aren't we? Potter got drunk and started to act more of an idiot than he already is?"
Lily thought she had misheard. "What did you say?"
"I asked if Potter acted more of--"
"No, earlier."
"That you are touchy? Terribly sorry to point that out, but you are, you know. Seems I came in the wrong time. Salazar forbid that I would stand in the way of the Head Girl... although she is a Head Girl and should have time for the prefects bussiness--"
"That part about getting drunk," she clarified, struggling to keep calm.
There was something resembling triumphant glint in his black eyes. "Don't tell me I actually guessed? Just like Potter, predictable like a trained monkey."
"No, you didn't guess," Lily said coldly, after considering briefly whether to tell Snape about the incident or not. She finally opted against: give a Slytherin an information and there's no way of knowing what use they put it to. "Anything else you need?"
For a moment he looked as if he wanted to say something, but it was soon covered by a shrug of indifference. "No, that's all."
"Good."
She resumed her walk, leaving Snape behind. Devious, tricky snake. His tongue dripped either sarcasm or false sweetness, but they couldn't conceal the sliminess of his personality. He knew much more than he let out, that one was sure. So she hadn't simply gotten drunk. It was more than little probable that she had ended up as an object of some kind of a twisted prank and that Snape had a hand in it.
It was well after dark when Sirius managed to convince James that the best place to talk would be a Quidditch pitch. Preferably with some little practice by the moonlight.
"I'm sure it was her!" James made a nice dive to avoid the Bludger Peter has thrown his way. "There's no other explanation! McGonagall made sure that Lily wasn't falling into insanity, and that there was no spell placed upon her. The butterbeer must have been spiked!"
"But... Leocadia Lowell?" Peter managed through pants. "She's way too... you know... too proper, too nice, too Hufflepuff!"
Sirius snorted. "Do you know any other Hufflepuff who gets along with Slytherins better than with members of her own House? She might as well be one of them!"
"She's not cunning enough," Remus injected, flying up. The full moon was not a week away so he was in the peak of his physical condition and served as the second Beater to their team of four. Usually he was asked to play a Seeker, but the dark prevented them from the full practice with the Snitch. "I don't think she would come up with spiking somebody's drink with alcohol, but she might have been asked to by--"
"Lestrange! Maybe he Imperioed her!" Peter exclaimed. "I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to kill all Gryffindors off!"
"We're talking about Slytherins here," Remus cut in, "so let's think who would benefit from getting Lily drunk. They never do anything if they don't have bussiness in it."
"Unless we're speaking about Snape," Sirius remarked, his broom in danger of getting out of control. "He needs no reason. He would do anything just to spite us."
James nodded. The brainstorm was proving successful in helping him understand what might have happened. "Good point. Not to mention that spiking someone's drink sounds like Snape."
"But what bussiness would Snape have in getting Lily drunk? It doesn't make sense," wondered Peter as he swung the club at the approaching Bludger.
Sirius barely avoided the heavy ball. "He wanted to piss off Remus, what else!"
Remus searched the air for the Bludger, looking like he needed to hit something. "I don't get pissed off and he has no reason to think it would affect me!" he cried in frustration. "Lily's no longer my girlfriend and Snape, of all people, was the first to see how the two of us really are!"
"Oh don't be obtuse, Moony!" James said irritably. "It did affect you. It affected all of us, Lily's our friend. Even if Snape has no idea what friendship is, he knows how to use it aganst us. Or did a year and a half dim your memory?"
By the time he finished the sentence, James was sorry he opened his mouth. Remus and Sirius both visibly clenched their hands harder on the brommsticks and flew off after the Bludger.
"You can't pretend that it doesn't matter to you!" James cried after them. He was sick of treating Remus like a fragile doll. "You were with her for over a year, so don't say it means nothing to you!"
Remus appeared by his side rather unexpectedly, emerging from the dark like a ghost. James pulled his broomstick upwards to avoid the collision.
"You're right," Remus said quietly. "It still means a lot to me. However, I'm not blind. I see what's going on. I can see that your concern for Lily's wellbeing is not so innocent or bussinesslike as you'd like us to think. I can see that you're interested. So don't shift all the blame on me, James."
James forgot his tongue for a moment. He was so careful trying not to give any indication of his feelings towards Lily, especially to Remus. He considered briefly on making Remus elaborate on the subject, but there was something else he wanted explained.
"Blame...? What blame?"
The werewolf steadied his broomstick, his face grim. "If I noticed that you're not indifferent to Lily, Snape probably also did. So who do you think he wanted to hurt? Me? He does hate me, but it's nothing in comparison to the hate he has for the life debt he owes you. It's highly likely that the target was you, not me. Lily got involved in our dealings with Slytherins by being with me and I feel awful enough for it, but I doubt this little incident had anything to do with me."
Before James had time to reply, Remus was on the other side of the Quidditch pitch, dismounting his broom and readying himself to leave.
"Great going," Peter remarked, as he flew up to James. "Next time, Prongs, would you consider thinking before talking? Every time the Shrieking Shack incident is brought up the temperature drops below freezing point, you remember that? You don't have to share a room with them, but I do."
"Sorry, Pete," James muttered, his mind racing.
"I honestly don't know what's wrong with you. You're usually more considerate than this..."
"I know. I'm really sorry, I had a couple of hard days..."
"Didn't we all?"
"Yeah, you're right."
Luckily, Peter didn't push the matter. Shaking his had and murmuring something about mean Slytherins and silly quarrells, he followed his dormmates. It took James several seconds to realize that they didn't come to any conlusion. Sighing, the Head Boy humbly landed by the trio, who were already on their way to the castle.
"I'm sorry, okay?" he said, raising his hands in a gesture of giving in. "But what do we do now? It's almost a sure thing that Leocadia spiked Lily's butterbear on Slythierns' order, and the reason was to hit us where it hurts most. And in case you have forgotten, Lily almost got killed."
"We have no damn proof," Sirius commented angrily. "Castor would crucify us if we dared to go to Dumbledore and say a word against his precious bastards without solid proof. After Shrieking Shack he's so damn outspoken... one would think he's a lawyer or something."
"Dumbledore might believe us, we have reasons to suspect them, " Peter said. "But without proof he will do nothing to punish them."
"We can punish them ourselves," Sirius remarked matter-off-factly.
"First things first, we need to save Lily," James pushed his glasses up his nose. "You're right Pete, our suspicions are justified. It can take Lily off the hook, certainly they don't believe that she had gotten drunk herself."
"Good idea," Remus conceded. "I will go to Dumbledore--"
"No, I will," James countered. "I was there, right? I saw Leocadia... oh shit."
"What?" Peter asked.
"A hole in our reasoning," Remus was the one to catch on immediatly. "We suspect Slytherins. Leocadia is a Hufflepuff."
"A more Slytherin Hufflepuff than most of the Snake House," Sirius barked, getting infuriated. "We know that..."
"But Dumbledore doesn't," Remus explained patiently.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Dumbledore knows everything."
"Oh, really, Padfoot?" Peter drawled.
"Dumbeldore is a good judge of character," James sumed up. "We don't have anything to lose. It's our fault that Lily got into this, and we must at least try to help her out. Besides, there's one more argument to our cause."
Remus frowned. "That is?"
James concentrated. This matter has been bothering him ever since he realized that Lily's drink might have been spiked.
"Nobody starts acting weird five minuted after getting a sip of alcohol and then jumps off the stairways without reservations. I doubt it's been just alcohol in that butterbeer."
"Potion?" hissed Sirius. "Snape!"
"Possibly."
"That son of a--"
"Calm down, mate," Remus nudged Sirius sharply in the ribs, his tone persuading. "You're taking it to extremes."
Peter winced. He has been called to the Headmasters office on several occasions before, along with his troublemaking friends, and he didn't enjoy the old wizard's soul-permeating gaze.
"Good luck, Head Boy."
James left Dumbledore in much easier state of mind than he was in when he entered his office. The patriarch listened to his accusation and suspicions carefully, but gave no indication whether he believed them or not. However, he did say that neither he nor Professor McGonagall held Lily responsible for the incident and that was enough to draw a relieved grin to James's face. He even awarded James ten points for saving Lily's life and mentioned that he regretted that he couldn't give more without risking uncomfortable questions. James didn't quite know how to feel about those points. He supposed he would rather do without them. It was not a pleasant thought to know what they were awarded for. Only when they parted, Dumbledore uttered a sentence that made James think.
"If what you claim is true... what do you think brought it about? Does this childish rivalry have to become a founding of hatred?"
James couldn't say that he hated Snape, but today he was begining to. On the adversary's side the rivalrly stopped being childish and turned to hatred already. James could even pinpoint the exact moment. It was in Dumbledore's office a year and a half ago, when Snape had to pledge the life debt to him. Before that time, the main focus of Snape's malice had been Sirius. Afterwards, it was all three of them, Peter being targeted only because of his affiliation with them. And now Lily...
Was Remus right? Was it his, James's falult that the Head Girl became exposed to the war that has been going on? Did the slimy git notice James's feelings and chose the object of those feelings to strike at?
Several memories flashed through James's mind. Snape's tirade that resulted in Lily's and Remus' breakup. Lily asking, "What do you know about love?" And Snape's quiet response, "You'd be surprised." Snape's face in the lab, softening at some thought. Snape's anger earlier today... James shuddered, apalled. Slytherins never do anything unless they have something to gain...
Has the cause of war changed? Was it still about Gryffindor versus Slytherin, or was it about... Lily?"
James suddenly found himself clenching his fists. He wouldn't dare!
Of course he would. He's a constantly scheming snake who would do anything to get what he wants, and if it's soemthing aginst me and my friends, then all the better. But if he thinks he's going to win, he's very, very wrong.
A/N: Lily as another Helen of Troy? That would be fun, wouldn't it? (I recall a plot bunny on FAPark, where we tried to make it happen, creating the war between Slytherin and Gryfindor and matching the characters of HP to those of Iliad. Pity nobdy decided to give it a try) But have no fear, Lily loves James (anybody doubted?). And yup, I'll explain a little more about the Potion Lily's butterbeer has been spiked with.