Hey guys, I'm back, with Shades of Gray: Year Two.
This story is dedicated to SnufflestheInsane, my 100th reviewer of Year One. Thank you Snuffles, and to everyone else that reviewed!
For any new readers, this is the sequel to Shades of Gray: Year One, so read that first.
I'm feeling really nice right now, so I'm going to give you a few hints as to what happens in the Marauders' second year of Hogwarts:
1. One Marauder loses a close family member.
2. Lily's threaded into the story more.
3. James and one other Marauder make the Quidditch team.
4. A character from Year One will die over the summer.
5. Sirius finds out something disturbing about his father.
6. Remus' secret is uncovered.
7. Sirius has the answer to Remus' problem... the illegal answer.
8. A menacing plot is brewing involving the Marauders...
9. Benji isn't enrolled in Hogwarts anymore...
There you go, guys! In your reviews, you're more than welcome to guess at the hints (like who loses the family member, who makes the team besides James, where's Benji, etc.).
Happy guessing!
Also, this story is told from all angles. This first chapter is from all four Marauders' and Lily's POVs, then it will mainly be Sirius and James' POVs afterwards, with some Lily thrown in there.
Shades of Gray: Year Two
Chapter One:
Sinister Plots and Tough Choices
by PotterScar
June 26th, 1972
The sun rose quietly over the suburbs just outside of London. Cozy-looking houses lined the streets, with green lawns and lived-in looks. One house, for example, had a little plastic toy car that a child could ride in, and another had a football (A/N: Not an American football, a British football, or a soccer ball for Americans). One house had a bike laying in the front yard, and inside of that house slept a young, redheaded girl.
Sunlight streamed through the uncurtained windows, and the petite girl sleeping peacefully in her white-blanketed bed stirred restlessly, and soon, her emerald green eyes opened slowly.
The girl groaned, squinting in the sunlight and dragging herself out of the bed at the unheard-of hour (seven o'clock). She looked out the window at the already beautiful-looking day.
Lily Evans grinned happily. "Perfect day to go for a morning bike ride, right Muffin?" she said to the tabby cat that still laid curled at the end of her bed. The cat mewed sleepily, opening one eye and peering at her, before the eye fluttered shut.
Lily quickly dressed, pulling on some mesh shorts, a tee shirt she pulled from somewhere out of the closet, and a light jacket, before pulling on socks and stuffing her feet into some shoes and dashing down the stairs, picking up a few pounds from her dresser along the way.
She entered the Evans' quaint little kitchen, to find her mother, Rosa Evans, sitting at the round table, reading the newspaper and sipping some tea.
"Hey Mum," she said cheerfully, going right to the refrigerator and digging through it, pulling out a carton of orange juice and pouring herself a glass, before setting about making herself some toast.
"Lily, dear, you're up early," Rosa remarked, looking over the top of the newspaper at her daughter. "When you're done making your breakfast, come over here, I'd like a word about a story I read in today's paper."
Lily looked over at her mother, confused, but she nodded, throwing her toast on a plate and carrying her breakfast over to the table, sitting in a seat.
"Honey, I read a homicide story in the paper, a murder that occurred on the other side of London," she continued.
"Okay..." Lily said, waiting for her mother to go on.
"Well, Lily, the strangest thing is, the bodies didn't have any hint of being anything but healthy, other than being dead. They also found a wooden stick near them, and the way they described it sounds like the wand that you use. Is there something you're not telling me? I've been reading these stories all year, and your father is just as mystified as I am."
Lily sighed. Her father, Lewis Evans, was a police officer for the surrounding area, and Lily knew that he must be completely frustrated about these murders. "There's some nut going around murdering people. He's a wizard, Lord Vandermot or something like that," she said. "It will probably pass over soon..."
An awkward silence fell as Lily began to munch on her toast and Rosa continued to sip her tea. After about ten minutes, Lily couldn't take it any more. She threw out the remainder of her toast, said to her mother, "I'm going out for a bike ride," and left the kitchen.
"Be careful!" her mother called after her as Lily shut the front door and jogged down onto the lawn, picking up her bike helmet from the porch and jamming it on her head, clicking the chin-strap shut as she crossed the lawn. Picking up her bike, she took a deep breath of the morning summer air, and boarded the bike, rolling down the rest of the lawn and onto the sidewalk.
She pedaled, picking up speed as she traveled down her quiet little street. Emerging onto another one identical to hers, Lily crossed the street after making sure a car wasn't speeding down the road.
She already knew where she was going; the small shopping center near her home. It was where she went frequently in the mornings, as it opened early. Lily liked to go around seven-thirty or so, because, for some strange reason, that's when a lot of people liked to go, and she liked being around people.
Parking her bike in the bike racks that stretched across the already crowded parking lot, she locked up and put away her helmet, sticking her hand in her pockets to make sure her money was still there.
Weaving through the crowd of people, she made a beeline for her favorite store: the book store.
Stepping into the little store, she breathed in the scent that she'd missed while she was at Hogwarts. Lily greeted the cashiers, before racing to the back of the store, where her favorite books, the classics, were kept.
It was good to be back again.
"Dad! Dad!" James called, racing after his father, Daniel Potter. The brown-haired man slowed, turning around to look at his son.
The Potters had been making an effort to pull together their family again. Both Mr. and Mrs. Potter took more time off work and stopped working overtime, and Mrs. Potter was home on Mondays, Thursdays, and the weekends all day.
James felt a pang of guilt at keeping his father from work, as the man was already late and he'd been making such an effort to stay home with James, but the young Potter felt this was an important matter.
"DadIwannatryoutforQuidditchthisyearanewbroom'soutcanIpleasepleasepleasehaveit?" James said in one big rush, panting slightly.
"James, I didn't understand a word of that," Daniel said, rolling his eyes at his over-excited child.
"Dad, I'm gonna be a second year and try out for the Quidditch team, and there's a new broom out–" James started hopefully, but he was cut off.
"James, I don't have time to take you to Diagon Alley this week or next week, but we'll go before school starts," he said. James grinned from ear to ear, thanking his dad profusely and running off to write a letter to Sirius.
Pulling out some parchment, a bottle of ink, and his eagle-feather quill, James busied himself with writing to his best friend.
Sirius,
Dad said yes! I'm getting the new Cleansweep sometime next month, maybe you'll be over here then? I hope everything's alright at your house, Regulus sounds like a prat.
James
Folding up the parchment, he whistled softly to his owl, who was sleeping on his perch in the corner. Godric awoke blearily, fluttering over to James the second he saw that the boy had a letter for him to deliver.
"Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place," he told the owl, who fixed him with amber eyes to show that he understood, before sweeping out the open window.
James followed the owl, watching it become a black speck on the horizon. He stayed there, letting the wind ruffle his hair as he watched garden gnomes tip-toe into his mother's begonias. Watching the potato-like creatures venture through the garden, James let his thoughts wander absently.
He was really worried about Sirius. After Christmas, he'd wondered what Sirius' home life was like. It couldn't be pleasant, if Sirius was slapped for getting into a house that his parents disliked...
James sighed, rubbing his sore eyes, before crawling back to bed for a few more hours of sleep. The sun wasn't even properly up, after all.
"Boy! Get down here!" came the screech of a woman from the drawing room of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. The "boy" she was referring to winced, looking up from the letter he was writing to one of his best friends, Remus Lupin.
Heaving himself unwillingly out of his chair, Sirius Black trotted across the length of his large, gloomy room and unlocked the door, emerging in the hall.
Sirius scowled; he could barely see three feet in front of him, it was that dark in the hallway, and it was nearly noon! Sirius smirked, dashing over to a few windows and throwing open the curtains, letting sunlight spill into the hallway. The portraits on the wall squealed, shielding their eyes.
Hurrying down a few flights of stairs, Sirius soon entered the dark drawing room, where his mother and father were regally sitting. A small bundle of robes was at his father's side, and Sirius barely noticed them before his mother began speaking.
"Sit, Sirius," she said with an affection in her voice that Sirius had not heard since before Regulus was born. Slightly suspicious, Sirius took a seat across from his parents, his eyes flickering from each of their faces.
"Sirius, we have a... proposal for you," Orion started. Sirius furrowed his brow, watching his parents, still silent.
"As you know, there's a man out there who has taken a stand and is defending the pureblood right. Now, you are certainly not old enough yet–" Orion started, and Sirius' eyes grew wide. Was his father asking him to–?
"No," Sirius said rather simply, staring down his shocked parents.
"Sirius, perhaps you heard me wrong. He is defending our right as purebloods! Sirius, the Black family would be more than happy to welcome you back into our ranks if you agree to join our Lord at age seventeen."
"'Our Lord'?" Sirius said, raising an eyebrow, but he went slack-jawed when he realized what the small bundle was.
Orion handed the black robes to Sirius. "He accepts junior members for a short time. You would be trained in the Dark Arts. Consider. We would welcome you back to the family."
Once Sirius took his leave, still holding the robes, he ran up the stairs to his room as fast as he could, ignoring the portraits reprimanding him for opening the curtains.
Unfolding the robes on his bed, he ran his hand along the silky black material, looking at the crest on the chest; a skull with a serpent emerging from his mouth.
He felt torn. As much as Sirius didn't want to admit it, he wanted to be accepted by his family. But this was wrong, wasn't it?
But what could it hurt? Sirius found himself thinking, and he hit himself. It could hurt a lot. It wasn't him. If the school found out, Gryffindor wouldn't trust him. If his friends found out, they would desert him.
Sirius sighed, turning away from the robes. Since when was being twelve so hard?
"Remus, honey? Are you awake?" called a sweet female voice from the kitchen.
As Remus stirred, he got a strange feeling of deja vu that he couldn't really shake. Shivering, he pulled on a sweatshirt over his pajamas, stuffing his feet into slippers and shuffling down the small hallway of the Lupins' one-story home.
"Morning, M-M-Mum," Remus said, yawning in the middle of his sentence. Sarah Lupin giggled softly, placing a plate of bacon, kippers, eggs, and toast in front of her son, who dug in.
"Remus, dear, you never told me much about how your school year went," Sarah said, sitting at the table and moving the newspaper that she had been reading out of the way. A photograph took up a good bit of the page. It was of a house that was burning to the ground, and a ghostly looking skull with a serpent as a tongue was drifting above it. The headline blared, "ZAYTON FAMILY KILLED IN DARK LORD ATTACK". Remus frowned slightly, as the name Zayton rang a bell, but he answered his mother.
"It was really good," he said honestly, and Sarah smiled.
"Did you make lots of friends?" she asked, masking the slightly hopeful tone in her voice.
"Yeah, I made three really good friends; Sirius Black, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew," Remus said, before taking a large bite of egg.
"Oh, your father knows Daniel Potter," Sarah said, smiling again. The name Black rang a bell in her head, but she couldn't quite place it. She would have to ask her husband, Blake, who worked at the Ministry. "So, how's the schoolwork?"
"I placed in the top two in my year on my exams," Remus said, grinning. "First boy."
"Oh, Remus, dear, that's wonderful!" Sarah gushed, smiling broadly. Her son was having a great time at school, apparently.
"The work isn't that hard, Peter has a bit of trouble with it. Somehow, Sirius and James can get top grades and barely study."
"I knew those type of people at Hogwarts. They're the kind that will go on to do some impressive things," Sarah commented, and Remus smirked inwardly. "Do you like your teachers?"
"Yeah, most of them are really nice, especially Professor Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall dislikes James and Sirius because they're always joking around, but she's a really nice teacher. She's the Head of my house."
Sarah leaned over, kissing her son on his forehead and picking up her newspaper. "Well, Remus, dear, it sounds like you've had an impressive year. You have summer homework, I take?"
"Yes, I'm nearly through," Remus said proudly, and Sarah grinned again, ruffling his hair.
"That's my boy," she said, opening her newspaper and reading the front page.
The next few minutes passed in silence, save the scraping of Remus' fork and Sarah's soft sighs as she read the headline story.
"Horrible, just horrible," she finally said, folding up the newspaper again.
"What?" Remus asked, looking up. Sarah sighed again.
"That madman, Voldemort, killed a family in west London last night. The Zayton family. They had a daughter, Grace, that was your age. She was a Gryffindor..."
Remus paled slightly. Grace Zayton had been a Gryffindor first year girl. She'd been fairly pretty, with dark hair and dark eyes, but Remus had never payed much attention to anyone but James, Sirius, and Peter. A shiver passed through him.
"Remus, dear, are you alright?" his mother asked, concerned.
"Yeah, Mum, I'm fine," Remus mumbled, pushing around the remaining eggs on his plate absently. "Look, I... I still have homework to do..."
As Remus walked to his room, a sick feeling grew in his stomach. All this time, Voldemort had seemed like an outside threat, something that couldn't touch him. But the Dark wizard had killed off a child his age, and suddenly, Remus realized that nobody was safe from this man.
Shivering, Remus walked into his room and closed the door.
"Peter, dear, go to the store for me, will you? We're low on bread," June Pettigrew said, leaning over the counter in the lobby to hand her son a few pounds.
Peter sighed. He'd wanted to go up and work on his homework before he forgot, but apparently, he wasn't going to get to do that. "Yes, Mum," he sighed, taking the money and stuffing it into his jeans pockets, turning away from the stairs he'd been about to climb and instead walking across the lobby and out the thick glass-and-wood door.
The normally quiet suburban London streets were unusually restless, and Peter took notice of this, frowning to himself as he hurried down the sidewalk toward the corner grocery store. Something didn't feel... right.
Peter continued down the long, long street, growing increasingly nervous. Every alleyway he passed, he thought he saw a dark, robed figure in the shadows, but when he stopped to get a better look, it was gone. He figured it was his imagination.
In his panic, Peter barely noticed what was happening around him as he passed a smoldering house with police officers and crowds of Muggles around it. The officers looked puzzled as they combed through the rubble. Lurking around the edges were oddly dressed individuals – Aurors.
Finally, still rather panicked, Peter reached the small grocery store, rushing into it and closing the door behind him, not seeing the three dark, menacing figures lurking next to the store, watching his every move.
"That's the boy's friend, Pettigrew," one hissed to the other two.
"If we track his letters, it should lead us right to the brat," another muttered, and the three looked satisfied with themselves as they Disapparated.
(Okay, guys, this was originally the end of the chapter, but I thought it seemed rather short for the first chapter of a new story, so I continued it... enjoy!)
"Checkmate, Dad," James said, grinning as his knight moved a few spaces. Daniel sighed. That was the fifth straight game he'd lost.
"Let's start over," Daniel said, as the pieces zoomed back to their spaces. James grinned wider. Finally, some quality time with his dad!
"Daniel? You there?" Green flames had flickered to life out of nowhere and the head of Jamie Prewett appeared.
Daniel frowned, standing up and going to the fireplace. "Yeah, Jamie? Today's my day off," he said off the bat. He didn't exactly want to go into work today.
Jamie looked apologetically at James. "I know, Daniel, but you know Chris Zayton? He and his family were... were murdered last night," Jamie started. Daniel's eyes widened.
"Crap... and that means I have to come in and file a few murder reports in the Department of Homicides, doesn't it?" Daniel said, looking over his shoulder at James, who wasn't looking at him.
"Yes," Jamie sighed. "Look, Daniel, all of the other Unspeakables are either on vacation or already working on the Zayton case. I would get Rookwood, but his wife just had a child, Augustus, so I don't want to drag him away from home."
Daniel sighed again. "Alright, I'll be there soon," Daniel said, standing up. Jamie nodded, his head disappearing from the fire place as the green flames died.
Daniel turned to his son, who just looked up blankly at him. "James–" he started, but his young son cut him off.
"It's alright, Dad," James said quietly, his voice flat. Daniel started to say something else, but James had turned and left the room.
Daniel sighed once again, exiting out a different door to change into his Unspeakable robes and to leave to go to the Ministry of Magic, where he was needed, yet again.
Well, I think that's a decent first chapter! Review, PLEASE!
Coming up in Chapter Two: Sirius meets the Dark Lord and makes a decision, Daniel Potter has an interesting run-in with his colleague, Orion Black, a mysterious plot is unfolding, and we are introduced to a few Death Eaters who will play a vital role in the story. The chapter will most likely be longer than this one.
Okay, guys, if you haven't figured it out, this story, unlike the last, will be less about feelings and the Marauders' friendship and more about Voldemort, Death Eaters, and Sirius' family... plus this one will have A LOT of action!
Well, I'm out for now! My friend Sarah's coming over! YAY!
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PotterScar