Ch. 8: Mists and Shadows

Despite the warmth of the Spring evening the atmosphere in the Gryffindor common room was quite chilled from the events of earlier.

The Marauders, after their ordeal with the LAER in the Three Broomsticks, decided to cut their day short and return to Gryffindor Tower. There were only a few students there, the usual first and second year students with a few of the upper years lounging about, but they were not in the mood to be pulled into discussion with any of them. So off they went to their dormitory to confer further their current situation.

Once they were settled on their respective beds James spoke, "I'm going alone."

"What?!" Sirius and Remus cried.

"You can't be out late. If you get caught you'll be suspended!" Sirius said. "I'll go and give that scheming snake the letter."

Remus interjected, "No. You'll be too tempted to hex him, and you'll be greatly outnumbered."

Sirius puffed out his chest, "Aside from Roary I'm the best duelist at Hogwarts. I can take those blighters on with one arm tied behind my back."

"It's still no Padfoot," Remus said firmly. "The best thing for us to do is the three of us," he pointed to James, Sirius, and himself, "to go meet them. After they get the letter you and Prongs hide under the cloak so you won't be caught out of bounds by Filch. I'll have an excuse to be out in the halls because I'm a Prefect."

Peter looked at him with his watery eyes, "W-what about me?"

Remus turned to him, "You'll stay here. We won't risk you getting hurt again."

"But what if I followed in my animagus form?" he asked.

James shook his head, "They know about our forms, Wormy, and I wouldn't put it past ol' Snivelly to try and cast the killing curse at you."

When it looked like Peter was going to rebuttle Sirius stepped in, "Sorry Peter, but you're staying here."

With that the Marauders, minus Peter, made their way down the staircase, only stopping briefly to allow a distraught-looking Mary to return to her dorm, and continue their descent to the Great Hall for dinner. Little did they know that a little, dark brown rat was making its way into their shadows, stopping where they stopped and following close by.

"What do you think is wrong with her?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged, "Not sure Prongs. But if I know anything from my dating experience it's that when a girl cries you had best leave her alone for a while."

They had not even gotten to the great oak doors when the sounds of other students returning from Hogsmeade came flooding the halls. Among the sounds was that of the Slytherins and their Gryffindor guest.

"Would you care to sit with us at our table again Lily?" they heard Severus ask his girlfriend.

"No thanks. I'm still a little full from lunch. I think I'll just go up to the Tower and rest before tonight's session," she answered back.

At the moment the group came to the doors and there stood the Marauders. As they surveyed each other the tension between them was so thick a double-edged sword would have had a hard time penitrating it.

Finally Lily spoke, "I think I'll go now."

She gave Severus a fleeting kiss on the cheek and all but ran to the staircase leading to Gryffindor Tower.

Bellatrix, smiling coyly at the remaining Gryffindors, said, "We better go put our purchases up too. C'mon girls," she motioned to her group behind her.

Once the Slytherin girls had cleared off the LAER and the Marauders were the only ones left facing each other.

Severus, carrying a smirk from when Lily kissed him, said, "I assume that you haven't forgotten where we were to meet?"

James' hands clentched into fists but Remus quickly replied, "We remember Severus. However," he added, "we want something in return."

Grinning Snape scoffed, "I never imagined Gryffindors to be greedy. What else could you possibly want aside from our silence about your secret?"

"The antidote to the Ferox Water you poisoned James with," Remus answered.

"There is no antido-" Snape began.

"There is if you're involved Severus," Remus interrupted. "You're one of the best Potioneers Hogwarts has ever had, practically a prodigy, so someone like you wouldn't pass up an opportunity to make an antidote for a potion that doesn't have one. Besides, you wouldn't want to have gone through with any scheme unless there was a fail-safe of some sort in case it backfired."

Severus was silent for a moment, allowing his thoughts to wonder.

While Remus' words were flattering they were also true. No genius potion maker would dare make that type of elixir and not its counterpart. That would be foolish to the point of dangerous if it fell in the wrong hands or affected the wrong person.

However he was not so keen as to let Potter return to normal any time soon. If that happened what he had planned would be shot. This would leave him without his queen and would, in turn, put Lily in mortal danger when the Dark Lord came to power. A scenerio he had been working so hard to avoid.

He shifted his black eyes around and saw a small shadow near the staircase.

He grinned inwardly.

"Very well Lupin, you have your deal. Silence for silence, information for information. I'll have the notes for the antidote ready and will give them to you in exchange for the letter," he said, holding out his hand.

Cringing inwardly Remus shook Severus' hand and both groups went to their respective tables.

CD/CD/CD/CD/CD/CD/CD

As these events were transpiring up in the girls' dormitory of Gryffindor Tower Mary was sitting with her legs crossed on her bed when the door opened. She looked up and quickly looked down again when she saw Lily walk through.

Lily glanced at her for a moment then strode to her bed to unpack and arrange her purchases.

This continued on for a while until Mary could not take the silence any longer.

"Why did you do that?" she all but blurted. Then she faced Lily, "Why did you humiliate me in front of Slutatrix and those harpies?"

Lily, not even stopping what she was doing, replied, "It was no different than how Potter treated me, but at least I didn't break your wrist."

Shocked Mary went up behind Lily and placed a hand on her shoulder, "What's gotten into y-"

She was cut off when Lily turned around and pointed her wand at her jugular. Then Mary looked into her eyes and her own grew wide when she saw them.

Lily's eyes, though still shining emerald green, now had a red tint surrounding her pupil and seemed to be glowing a venomus garnet. It was both fearful and memorising at the same time.

"I've had enough of your excessive whining," Lily whispered.

Suddenly a rainbow-like mist sprouted from the red head's wand tip and Mary's worries seem to have vanished as a voice came through the blissful fog.

"You were no where near Lily Evans or her friends in the dress shoppe. If anyone asks of your distraught behavior from earlier you will say that you were more sad than you realized about your break up with Potter when you saw the couples out and about. But you are feeling much better now. You will also no longer interfere with Lily, Severus, or any of her Slytherin friends. Understood?"

"Yes," Mary answered.

Lily smirked, "Now, go lie down and never remember this conversation."

Like a sleepwalker Mary went to her bed and laid down on the covers. Only when Lily had lifted the spell did she wake up.

Stretching the blonde witch took in her surroundings and saw Lily placing the last of her things into her wardrobe.

"Lily?" she said groggily.

Lily smiled a little and turned her head to Mary, "Hey there Sleepyhead. Enjoy your nap?"

Mary shrugged, "I guess. Although I don't really remember laying down."

As the blonde stretched out some more Lily asked, "I saw you leaving earlier today. You looked pretty upset."

Something flashed in Mary's eyes and she replied automatically, "I guess I was more upset about my break up with James than I thought. Especially when I saw all of the couples scattered here and there."

"But you're feeling better now?" Lily gently coaxed.

"Much better. Thanks," she replied. Then she bounded out of bed and made for the door, "Are you coming down for dinner?"

Lily shook her head, "No. I think I'll stay here and take my own nap before meeting with Sev later. I had a big lunch in the village."

"Alright," Mary said, and just like that she went out the door.

Once she left Lily decided to make good on her word and lay down on the soft covers of her bed, never even noticing that another petal had changed on her necklace.

*Seven down, six more to go.

A.N.

Thank you everyone for your patience (again). This chapter gave me some trouble but hopefully it was worth it.

Next chapter there will be some cousin interaction as Bellatrix tries to play on Sirius' loyalty to James, as well what all Severus told Peter to do while at the Three Broomsticks.

For those wondering when the big rematch between Lily and Bellatrix will happen you will all have to wait a little while longer as I want to bring a special visitor back to Hogwarts first.

(*In the previous chapter I had it at nine petals with only eight remaining but I had miscounted.)