Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 10: Bad Moon Arising

Chapter 10: Bad Moon Arising

Even though, at Sirius' insistence, James didn't spend the entire holiday moping, he did think a good deal about what Lily had said to him that day in the hallway, and he grew more and more convinced that she had been right.

Unfortunately, she wasn't around so James could tell her.

He had found out from Remus after he and the others had come back from visiting Lily in the hospital wing that Lily would be staying with Marlene McKinnon for the holidays and was leaving the next day, as soon as Madam Pomfrey let her leave the hospital wing, in fact.

James was not as put out by this as he would have been before Bellatrix's attack. The mere idea of facing Lily Evans right now was galling. He did not share this information with his fellow Marauders, and if they were surprised by how well he was facing Lily's departure they did not say anything, even though they knew that James had planned to use this holiday to spend more time with her.

The holiday passed by as pleasantly as it usually did. Ever since they had learned Remus' secret in their second year, James, Sirius, and Peter had always made it a point to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays with him. Remus stayed because of the convenience of using the Shrieking Shack; he didn't like to burden his family more than he had to. So James, Sirius, and Peter kept him company. And this year, of course, they could keep him company the entire time.

The full moon wasn't until the last weekend of the holidays this year, but the four Marauders found loads of things to occupy their time, mostly pulling pranks on the students and staff who had remained at Hogwarts, planning new pranks to try once school began again, and, in Sirius' case anyway, snogging at least half, if not the entire, female population that had remained over the holidays. They also made frequent trips to the kitchens; they were longstanding favourites with the house elves, who had known the Marauders since they had found the kitchens in their second year.

James was having so much fun, in fact, planning and executing pranks and ribbing Sirius about being Hogwarts' reigning slut, that he wasn't thinking too often of Lily Evans, only a dozen times a day or so, which was a new personal best for him.

Which was why he was completely unprepared to see Lily at breakfast two days after New Year's Eve. 

James felt the bottom drop out of his stomach and his heart flip- flopped more violently than usual. It would seem that he wasn't getting over her after all.

Despite its nightmarish start, Lily had had a marvellous holiday. Being with Marlene had been very comforting; she could tell her what had happened and how she felt about it without having to explain anything about being a Muggle born witch to Marlene as she did with her other friends.

They had spent Christmas with Marlene's husband Andrew's parents at their estate in Yorkshire. Andrew's parents had had a large party and none of the witches or wizards present, to Lily's surprise, had thought any the less of her or Marlene for being Muggle born. Andrew's father and several of his Ministry friends had all gotten a bit tipsy on eggnog and had sung several rousing choruses of "God Rest Ye Merry, Hippogriffs" at the tops of their lungs, which had indeed been a sight to see.

Marlene and Andrew had hosted a party at their London flat for New Year's, which had been another marvellous time. Lily had visited with several people who were Marlene's age that she hadn't seen since they had been at Hogwarts, and she'd met a famous Auror from America who had been brought in to help in the fight against Voldemort.

Lily had told Marlene that she wanted to go back to Hogwarts on New Year's Day so she would arrive before the others and have some time to get used to being back.