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Something Has Changed


Hogsmeade was busy indeed. There was loads of people, loads to see, loads to do… Regulus felt overwhelmed by it as he came to a stop in the square by the big water fountain. He had his hands in the pockets of his jacket, his Slytherin scarf swooped ‘round his neck neatly, one tail thrown over his shoulder, the other hanging down over his chest. He smiled about at the people and vendors that filled the square - and breathed deep of the smell of popcorn and roasted nuts and chocolate from Honeydukes and warm butterbeer from the Three Broomsticks.

Suddenly somebody came to a stop beside him and he looked up and there was Maryrose Jenkins, her dirty blonde hair hanging over her shoulders. She’d opted to wear her glasses today and she wore her Hufflepuff scarf loose around her neck. “Hey Regulus,” she said.

“Hi Maryrose,” he replied. They stood there awkwardly a moment and he sort of smiled shyly. “I didn’t get a chance to… to explain… the other day…” Regulus said slowly.

“I didn’t really give you one,” she admitted.

Regulus gathered up all his nerves. “You could give me one now,” he said, “Over a butterbeer, perhaps?” He tried very, very hard to say it in a voice like he pictured Sirius would use in this sort of situation. Be smooth, be cool, be calm… he kept telling himself, his heart leaping about in his chest like a gazelle.

Maryrose smiled. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Regulus smiled back. Inside, he felt like fireworks were exploding all around his bloodstream. They turned toward the Three Broomsticks, and Regulus looked over at her, then, using the very last of his bravery, he reached out and took hold on her hand. “Don’t wanna get separated, he announced, lacing their fingers together.

Maryrose squeezed his hand.




James ended up going to see Madam Pomfrey when he got back to Hogwarts, his face red with fever. She gave him some pepper-up potion and a small vial of sleeping draught and kept him overnight. Sirius, Remus, and Peter went up to check on him later in the afternoon, once the other two had got back from Hogsmeade, but he was asleep and they went back to the dormitory fairly quickly. At dinner time, the three of them went down to the Great Hall to eat and they found Lily Evans sitting all by herself at the furthest end of the table, away from everyone else, staring at her plate with a sort of sad expression.

It was Peter that sat with her first, directly across from her. Sirius and Remus sank in next to him so the three of them sat in a row opposite her.

Lily looked up, a nervous expression to her features. “Where’s…?”

“Hospital wing,” Sirius said, “The idiot slept outside on the porch of the Shack in nothing more than his bleedin’ quidditch jumper. Caught himself a nasty cold. His nose is all dripping bogeys and the whole deal.”

Lily didn’t say anything to this, she just looked back to her plate, a funny expression on her face.

Peter reached into his pocket and withdrew a small handful of miniature raspberry cauldrons and he put them down on the table beside her hand.

Lily looked up again.

“I thought those might cheer you up,” Peter explained, “They’re your favorite aren’t they?”

“Yes,” she said, but she didn’t recall having ever told Peter that.

“I thought so, you buy them a lot at Honeydukes,” Peter said.

Sirius put his arm about Peter, “Pete’s got a weird talent of knowing everyone’s favorite sweets and snacks,” he said, reading the confusion on Lily’s face. “When it comes to food, Peter’s a bit of an expert.” Sirius poked Peter in the gut with a smirk.

“You’ve never once complained about it,” Peter said to him pointedly, “Especially not as long as you’ve a fair supply of licorice wands and firewhiskey to keep you busy.”

Sirius grinned.

Remus leaned against Sirius’s far shoulder, closing his eyes.

“Are you alright, Rey?” Lily asked.

“He’s just tired,” Sirius said. “Long night.”

“Tell me about it.” Lily scooped some of the roast veggies from her plate into her mouth.

“Longer for him,” Sirius replied. “He’s got us all beat.”

Lily chewed a bit of asparagus.

“It isn’t a contest,” murmured Remus, half asleep.

“Everything’s a contest,” Sirius replied.

Peter added gobs of butter to his plate. “At least it is to Sirius.”

“Gotta keep life interesting.”

Lily murmured, “Plenty interesting. I’m rather thinking I’d fancy a dull life about now…” she sighed.

Sirius’s eyes sparkled, “But, Evans, a dull life would certainly not include us.”

She said something that sounded a bit like that’s the point.

“You’d miss us if we were gone,” Sirius warned her.

Sirius started eating and he nudged Remus now and again to get him to eat a bite or two. “Try this, it’s delicious,” he’d say as Remus sort of half woke up and chewed on a bit of potato or a square of butternut squash that Sirius was feeding him. Sirius got nearly a full dinner in him bite-by-bite.

After a while, Sirius announced he was taking Remus up to bed, and he shook Remus’s shoulder until he woke enough to let Sirius escort him off from the table, arms around him. Lily watched them go until she felt the eyes of Annalee, Carly, and McKenna following the two boys as they walked towards the door.

Lily sighed heavily.

Still there, Peter looked up at her with concern.

“Do you ever find them exhausting?” she asked Peter.

“Everyday,” he answered. “Try keeping up with them. Especially when Sirius and James are both in a pesky mood, it’s damn near impossible. They get going and…” Peter shook his head.

Lily pushed her food about on her plate.

“Are you terribly angry with James?” Peter asked.

“I’m hurt more than angry,” Lily admitted. She speared a bit of potato, turning it over in the air, studying it a moment. “I feel rather stupid, honestly… I’m sure he made fun of me quite a lot for not figuring it out, huh?”

“Not even once.”

“Surely, he must’ve - you don’t need to spare my feelings, Pete.”

He shook his head, “Really, Lily. He didn’t even once. Just the opposite, really. He was very afraid you’d hate him if you found out. He wanted you to know, but he was scared, too. Always going on about how nervous he was, or else how excited he was to go and see you. Every night before he went down to sit in the common room to wait for you, he’d go on this long bout of pacing around and Sirius would offer to go and tell you himself and James would scold him because Sirius would be horrid at telling you and --” Peter stopped and he looked up at Lily with a red face. “He didn’t make fun, at anyrate.”

Lily put her fork down. “Really?”

Peter nodded.

Lily contemplated this a moment.

Peter finished his dinner and the desserts appeared and he happily scooped up several extras for Sirius and Remus and himself for later and he started to pocket some for James, too, but Lily shook her head, “I’ll bring James’s up...”

“Yeah?” Peter looked at her with one raised eyebrow.

“Yeah,” Lily said, trying not to make eye contact with him, trying to suppress the blush.

Peter got up after a couple moments had passed, saying he, too, was tired and ready for bed (“It’s very exhausting being a rat, you have to take like two hundred steps to every one of the dogs and Sirius is always bloody running,” he explained). So Lily bade him goodnight, and took up the little bag of tarts that they’d assembled for James. She stood and slipped out of the Great Hall… nervously climbing the steps, headed to Madam Pomfrey’s ward.




James was asleep, but only barely. He was staring at the blank darkness of the inside of his eyelids when he heard the ward door open and low voices talking in the main office. He listened as footsteps echoed through the ward, coming closer… “Only fifteen minutes,” Pomfrey’s voice said, “I mean it.” He heard her steps echo away.

James was certain it was Sirius there, so he continued on acting asleep, fighting not to smirk, planning to suddenly spring up and scare the bejebus out of Sirius…

But then he felt fingers gently push the hair from his forehead and he realized this was not Sirius Black. Those fingers were far too delicate to be any of the boys’ (even Rey’s, whose fingers were long and narrow, were not that soft). James stayed very, very still - impossibly still - he barely breathed.

There was a crunch of a bag being put down on the nightstand beside his head, by his glasses, and he heard the stool scrape across the floor as she sat down… She leaned forward and she took his hand. His heart nearly stopped as she felt it with both of hers, her thumbs running across the skin gently, feeling the bumps of his first knuckles.

She took a deep breath, “Potter,” Lily Evans whispered.

James feigned stirring… he let out a little breath and sniffed and shifted his weight a teensy bit… slowly blinked open his eyes. “Evans?” he asked. “What’re you…?”

“I’ve brought you some tarts from dinner,” she said.

“Thanks,” he murmured.

“You’re welcome…” she was quiet a moment. Then, “You musn’t tell anyone any of the things I’ve told you. Please.”

“I haven’t,” he said solemnly, “I wouldn’t…” James paused, then he said, “Nothing’s changed, Evans.”

She stared at him blearily a moment, squeezed his hand one last time, dropping it to the bed, and sliding of the stool, leaving as she said, “Something has changed, Potter.”