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Defending Lily


“That Veigler bloke is ruddy brilliant,” Sirius announced as they sat down to lunch after the class defeating the boggart. He snatched up an array of food, shoving a couple chips in his mouth as he filled his plate up. “Really knows what he’s talking about,” he said ‘round the food, spraying bits of it everywhere. Peter wiped his face with the sleeve of his robe with a look of disgust.

James nodded, “Best bloody Defense teacher we’ve had yet!”

“Apart from perhaps that auror, Moody,” Peter input.

“He’s even better than Moody because he’s going to stick around,” Sirius said, grinning. “We’ve learned loads more already in just two months from Veigler than we learned the whole of term last year with that Blythe woman.”

Remus sat quietly listening to them talk. They’d been going on about the boggart and the brilliance of Professor Veigler for at least ten minutes by now and he was worried that they might ask him to weigh in with his thoughts on the subject. He didn’t really want to tell them how he felt about Veigler until he had figured out what it was about the Defense teacher that bothered him so much. He just couldn’t put a label to the reason, though he knew that whatever it was felt rather instinctively like a very good one.

Frank Longbottom sank into the seat behind his wheel chair, and propped his arm up on one of the push handles, leaning over Remus’s shoulder, “Hey there, you lot, how’s the morning going so far?” he asked. He stole a chip from Remus’s plate, which Sirius had filled and passed over.

“Going well!” Sirius exclaimed from across the table. “Learned about boggarts with Veigler this morning.”

“Oh Veigler!” Frank said, a grin crossing his face, “He’s ruddy brilliant. Best Defense teacher we’ve had in four years, right Woodhouse?” he asked, looking up as the Quidditch captain lowered himself across the table, beside Peter.

“That’s what we said, too,” James agreed.

Andy Woodhouse nodded, “Best without a doubt,” he replied. “Although he hasn’t got a lot of stiff competition. I mean last year with Blythe being distracted mid-way through with that stupid probation, and the year before with Professor Tutman hauling off -- Moody only temporary. And in our first year the witch who taught it was this funny old woman who could barely talk. You’d think she was Professor Binns’s great-grandmother or something.”

“Blimey, I can’t imagine that,” Peter said.

Frank nodded, “She was terrible. She was probably brilliant in her time, but that time was long before we ever met her. Dunno why Dumbledore even hired her on. We heard later she was some sort of old family friend. Old being the keyword.”

Andy Woodhouse guffawed loudly, “You can say that again,” he said.

“So, how were the boggarts? Anyone afraid of anything funny?” Frank asked, looking ‘round at them. “When we learned about boggarts - there’s a girl in our year whose boggart was a flock of geese.”

“Geese are violent!” Peter squeaked, eyes wide.

Frank grinned at Peter, amused.

“Well they are,” Peter said, looking ‘round the others for some back up. “They’ll attack you as look at you.”

“And what? Peck you to death?” James snickered.

Sirius’s eyes twinkled, “Stupid peckers.” He winked at James, who snickered even harder.

Peter said, “Maybe, you dunno! They could do some damage if they beaked you.”

“Dunno if they could or not, but she made’em into a load of down pillows,” Frank said with a shrug.

“James put a daisy chain ‘round Voldemort’s head,” Sirius offered up.

Andy Woodhouse spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice. “For serious? What I wouldn’t give to see that!” he chuckled, “Must’ve been quite the sight.”

“It was great!” said Sirius, laughing.

Frank nudged Remus, “What about you, Lupin, what’d you do?”

Remus couldn’t come up with anything on the spot, he stared at Frank with a rather blank expression on his face as he tried to think of something to say besides turned the moon into cheese.

The others were just starting to give him funny looks when there came a shout from the entrance hall and all of them looked up in time to see Lily Evans come running through the door, an absolute mess of tears, followed closely by Severus Snape. “Lily wait!” Severus called, “I didn’t mean it the way you’ve taken it… Come back.”

But Lily ran across the Great Hall to the Gryffindor table. Frank pushed over to make room for Lily beside Remus, who she wrapped her arms around from behind, her head pressed into his sandy hair, crying. Severus ran over right behind her. “Lily, come off it, there’s no need for this - all I said was that Petunia doesn’t even matter and --”

James and Sirius had both stood up. “You aren’t wanted here, Snape,” growled James.

“Yeah, shove off grease-head,” Sirius snarled, drawing his wand.

Severus ignored them. “Lily! Please, I didn’t mean to upset you… it’s just that you were worked up over nothing -- it’s just a boggart, it doesn’t mean anything!”

“GET OFF ME!” Lily shrieked as Severus tried to touch her shoulder.

“Hey!” Remus barked up at him, “Don’t touch her. She doesn’t want to see you right now, isn’t that obvious?”

Severus, angry, looked at Remus, “And what exactly do you think you’re going to do about it, being all crippled like you are?” He reached for Lily again.

Several spells hit Severus at exactly the same time - knocking him to the floor several feet away as Sirius, James, Frank Longbottom, and Andy Woodhouse stared down at him. “DON’T YOU TALK TO HIM LIKE THAT!” Sirius bellowed.

“AND DON’T TOUCH HER IF SHE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO!” James added.

Severus stared up at them, shaking with rage.

“ENOUGH!” Professor Zosma happened to have been walking by and saw the lot of them fighting, “There’s to be no spellcasting at the lunch table!” She looked around at the Gryffindors, “Detention for the lot of you.”

“But Professor, Snape was harassing Evans,” James protested. “We were acting in self defense!”

“And Remus, too!” Sirius added.

“There’ll be no arguing,” Professor Zosma said curtly. “You’ll come up to the Astronomy Tower early for the Orionids to serve the detention, straight after lunch the day of the shower, and help set up all of the telescopes. Is that understood?”

The four of them looked positively perturbed. “Yes, Professor,” they chorused.

Zosma held a hand out to help Severus up from the floor and glowered at him, “And you - get to your own house table. Shoo!” Severus glared ‘round at them, cast a fleetingly sorrowful face at the sobbing Lily Evans, and departed below Zosma’s outstretched hand, pointing the way to the Slytherin table.

“What a load of tosh,” Sirius complained the moment Zosma was out of earshot. “That greasy-haired slimeball has the nerve to upset Lily and insult Rey and Zosma goes and gives us a detention. It isn’t fair!”

James was still half-standing, glaring across the Great Hall at Severus - and vice-versa - his wand still half raised. He looked over at Lily as Remus adjusted himself in his wheelchair’s seat to allow for her to squeeze in beside him, his arm ‘round her shoulders, hugging her close. Lily’s face pressed to Remus’s chest and James felt a burning pang of jealousy rise up in him as her fist tightened ‘round Remus’s jumper collar. He, James, wanted to be the one to hold her like that. He wanted to dry her eyes. Quickly, he reached in his bag and found a handkerchief. “Lily,” he said, “Here you are.”

Remus reached over for the handkerchief and handed it to Lily, who used it to cover her eyes. “Hey, there-there,” Remus said a bit awkwardly, “We’re -- we’re all here for you.”

Lily snuffled loudly. “I’m sorry you lot, I don’t mean to be crying like this but -- but it was just so horrid. I didn’t like that lesson at all. It was awful!”

“It’s okay,” Remus said, “I don’t like Professor Veigler, either.”

Lily looked up, shaking her head, “No, it’s not Veigler I don’t like, it’s boggarts! They’re terrible creatures, aren’t they?”

Remus, for a fleeting moment, had thought he’d finally found someone else that disliked Veigler, and he looked disappointed discovering he hadn’t.

“They’re terrible, but its a bit empowering, too, don’t you think?” Frank Longbottom asked gently, touching Lily’s shoulder, “I mean, now you know you can look your greatest fear in the face and make it seem silly. It’s not so scary anymore, is it?”

Lily shook her head. It was still terrifying to her.

“Do you reckon if I used the riddikulus on my parents, they’d turn out to be boggarts?” Sirius asked, smirking, trying to lighten the mood. “I could just see Father bumping about dank old Grimmauld Place on a pair of roller skates or some muck.” He snickered.

Lily couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculous question. “Your parents aren’t boggarts,” she said, wiping her eyes with James’s handkerchief.

“They’re scary enough to be!” Sirius answered. He reached over and nudged her, “And - hey - Evans, if you’re scared about your family deserting you, you don’t have to be. We’re sort of a family, the lot of us, aren’t we? And we aren’t going anywhere.”

James grinned at Lily, nodding eagerly. “You’re stuck with us, Love.”

For the first time it didn’t bother Lily so terribly that he’d called her that.

She swept the handkerchief over her eyes and then blew her nose with a little honk. Remus chuckled and petted her shoulder, “Such a lady,” he teased.

“Oh shut up,” she laughed.




That night, the boys were preparing for their first trip to Hogsmeade - Sirius and James were carefully making lists of things to get at the jokeshop they’d heard so much about, and Peter was trying to decide if he preferred chocolate cauldrons or licorice wands or chocolate frogs. “They say that the butterbeer comes right off the tap at the Three Broomsticks,” Remus reminded them, “Personally, I reckon that’s where all my money’s going.”

“I’m glad Zosma didn’t give us detention tomorrow morning,” James said, “You know McGonagall would’ve done, just to make it sting extra.”

Sirius replied, “Perhaps that’s because she knew it wasn’t entirely our fault. You saw the way she looked at Severus.”

Remus frowned, “I wish Lily had told us what he said. I hope she’s alright.”

“Seems Evans is always upset about something,” Peter said, rolling his eyes.

“Not always,” James said.

Sirius stood up and walked across the room to his desk and grabbed a fresh pot of ink, since the one he and James were writing with was running low. “She’s just sensitive, I reckon,” Remus said as Sirius handed James the inkpot.

James tore it open, “She just loves too damn hard is all.”

“Why she loves a git like Severus Snape is beyond me,” Sirius grumbled. He sat back down on the edge of his bed, lifting his box of records up from under the bed and flicking through them quickly, trying to decide what to play. “Especially the way he treats her!”

James nodded, “He acts like he owns her.”

“Well he’s a Slytherin,” said Sirius, “She’s a muggleborn - he probably thinks he does! That’s Voldey’s whole shtick isn’t it? Suppress the muggles! Own’em all like they’re a lot of house elves!”

Remus sighed. “They’ve been friends a very long time. I think he fancies they’re more than that. Or will be one day. And who knows, maybe they will.”

“I know,” James spoke up, licking the end of his quill before dipping it in the fresh inkpot and returning to the list he and Sirius were working on. “I already told you lot I’m marrying Evans.”

“We’ll see,” Peter said. “You say a lot of things, James.”

“But I mean this one,” James answered. He dotted the i’s over the last few words he’d written that he hadn’t finished yet.

Sirius smirked and he drew a record out of the pack, unsheathing it and walking over to the player with it. “Just gotta convince Evans of it, yeah?” He chuckled, “Shouldn’t be too hard, seeing as she basically loathes you.”

“Not hard at all,” James replied. “See, she says she hates me, but -- really, just give me time. She’ll realize she’s wrong.”

Sirius shook his head as he dropped the needle onto the record and soon the sound of The Guess Who filled the dormitory.