1981 » The Marauders Era

three ; godric's hollow

Loud, joyful music blasted from a brand new record player in Godric's Hollow. It was a month after The Order of the Phoenix's meeting concerning Mary MacDonald's tragic death, and the group of friends had had time to heal and return to their carefree selves. Gathered in the living room, was Sirius, Remus, Peter, Lily, James and seven month old baby Harry. 'Spirit In the Sky' echoed through the cottage, with each of them bopping to the music.

Lily and James happily danced together, trying not to fall on Peter who was sat on the floor drinking from a bottle of gillywater, which was spiked with firewhiskey (one of the marauders' old concoctions from their Hogwarts days). Sirius, who's long black hair was tied in a bun and was wearing his signature black leather jacket, performed some spells to entertain baby Harry on the sofa. Harry giggled as small bursts of red, blue, purple and yellow light appeared from Sirius' ebony wand.  He had become quite the Godfather. Initially James was hesitant to give Harry a Godparent, let alone it be Sirius. At one point, he thought Remus would be better for the job, and at one point even Peter was brought into the question, since Sirius really had no experience with kids. But Lily trusted James' instinct to give Sirius this responsibility.

Remus entered the living room with a broken demeanour and a miserable face, compared to his friends. He had been struggling with his transformations lately, but being around the rest of the Marauders, Lily and baby Harry definitely helped keep his spirits high. He smiled as he saw James and Lily joking around but it quickly faded.

"You alright, Moony?" Sirius asked. Peter put down his half-drunken bottle and looked up at Remus.
"Yeah," Remus replied, sitting down next to Peter and taking a drink from his bottle, "Just, what do we do now?" he said. Lily and James stopped dancing to look at Remus. A small, sweet smile crept across Lily's face.
"Have a good time." James replied, pulling Remus from the sofa and encouraging him to dance.

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After what seemed like hours of dancing, drinking and joking around. Lily went to put Harry to sleep in his nursery upstairs. "I can't wait until he's old enough to start," James said excitedly, as he looked at the toy broomstick the Sirius had gifted to Harry for Christmas.
"Me too," Sirius replied, "I also can't wait to see the look on Minnie's face when she sees me at every Gryffindor match once Harry's on the team," he laughed.
"Merlin, I miss it." Peter added. Remus smiled and nodded, remembering the fun they used to have at school was a regular hobby of his.

Just as the boys were chatting about some of their finest pranks, like when they enchanted Professor Slughorn's cauldron to set fire every time he attempted to create a potion or when they melted all the ice and snow at the Yule ball in their third year, there was a knock at the door.

Lily hopped downstairs, after Harry had thankfully settled down, and opened the door. She could hear the boys talking about how Alice and Frank had decided to a throw a big party for a few weeks later. It wasn't too late into the night, so she wasn't worried about who it was. Probably just Frank stopping by, she thought. Or Marlene looking to have some fun with Sirius. But she never thought it would be who was really stood on her doorstep.

"Who is it, Lil?" James called from the living room. Lily froze as she gazed at the person stood before her. She snapped out of it, after James called out again.
"Um just Emmeline, she's drunk!" she said quickly before stepping outside and closing the door behind her.

Looking back at Lily were two tired, black eyes. They belonged to a thin man with sallow skin and the same shoulder length greasy black hair of an eleven year old Severus Snape, when they had first began Hogwarts together.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked, agitated. It had been years since she had last seen Severus. Why did he have to have come to her house? Today of all days when everything was going so perfectly for the first time in months.

He took his time to reply, angering Lily even more, before saying, "I just needed to see you."

Lily's beautiful green eyes, the ones he dreamt about since their argument in their fifth year at Hogwarts, glared back at Severus, "You needed to see me," she laughed, "What? To make sure I was safe?"

Severus nodded, "I know, but you don't understand th-"

Lily quickly cut him off, "I don't understand? Severus you are insane showing up here at my house at night, with James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all inside right now. Quite frankly it's you who doesn't understand. I gave you a chance, many times and don't worry, I've already heard about the things you're up to now so please spare me the explanation," her whisper was angry but heartbroken. A tear fell down both of their cheeks, almost in sync.

Severus stood up straight and looked at Lily with longing eyes. "I know you don't trust me," he began, as she looked down at the floor, "But I know about Mary's death, and why Tinworth was attacked." Lily paused at looked up, confused. "Dumbledore was meant to go to the Village to collect something important regarding Lord Voldemort, but he was at the Hog's Head. Lily believe me, it was extremely important and he wouldn't have stayed if it wasn't." Lily was lost for words.

"How?" she questioned. How could she know if he was telling the truth? Why was he even here and what was did this mean? "So you knew that Tinworth was going to be attacked? Now someone is dead," she said, "Too bad it wasn't you."

"Please just let me explain why Dumbledore was at the Hog's Head, Lily you deserve to know," Severus begged.
"Just go, Severus," Lily replied, "Go."