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An Invitation to Brunch


That night at dinner, Lily kept glowering over at James from across the table. She was so peeved with him that she even chose to forego sitting near to Remus while eating, which meant Remus had to keep leaning forward to look ‘round Frank Longbottom and Andy Woodhouse just to see her and hold a conversation. James stayed strangely quiet, pushing his chips about in their sauce.

There was a great shadow that cast over the table suddenly from behind James and he turned on the bench to look up at the form of Horace Slughorn, who seemed - if it was possible - even wider than he had the year before. James blinked up at him, “Professor,” he said, “Hi.”

“Hello, Mr. Potter!” Slughorn said joivally. He smiled about the table, spotting Lily and Remus and nodded to them each as well in greeting before turning back to James. “I’ve come over to ask you to a little get together I’ll be having on Saturday next. Just a little thing, a little brunch.” He looked over at Lily and Remus, “And of course you’re both invited as well.”

Remus looked as though he’d rather do anything else. Lily replied, “Thank you, Professor,” in a tentative sort of voice.

“I’d love to come Professor,” James said, “But it seems I’ve landed myself a detention with Professor McGonagall that day so I won’t be able to make it. My apologies.” He’d never been so happy to say the words in all his life. Detention suddenly seemed like a treat rather than a punishment.

Professor Slughorn, however, saw it otherwise. “Oh no! A detention already?” he asked, frowning deeply, “And how did you manage that so quickly?”

“I threw Evans into the lake,” James grinned, glancing back at Lily, who scowled, “Didn’t I, Love?”

Slughorn laughed and patted James’s shoulder. “Always a troublemaker!”

“Yes, sir,” Lily agreed sourly, “Always.”

James’s grin only widened.

Professor Slughorn chuckled and patted James again, his hand weighed heavily on James’s shoulder. “Well, Mr. Potter, we’ll just see what Minerva says about possibly letting you out of that little detention of yours so you can attend my brunch… I’m sure she’ll understand if I have a little talk with her… What say you? If she agrees?”

James could not fathom a universe in which Professor McGonagall would let him off - especially after how she’d gone on for half the morning about Not Throwing Girls Into Lakes. He shrugged, “Sure, have at it,” he said.

“Splendid!” Slughorn grinned, “And I’ll see both of you as well,” he added, nodding to Lily and Remus before walking away.

“Bloody hell,” Sirius said, “What am I? A chopped flobberworm?”

James looked ‘round at Sirius, “What?”

“He didn’t ask me to go,” Sirius said, “Didn’t offer to get me out of the detention, did he?”

Peter muttered, “He didn’t even look at me, so -- I s’pose I’m flobberworm droppings.”

“I’d rather be flobberworm droppings than go to a bloody Slug Club meeting,” said Remus shaking his head. “He’s got it in his thick skull that my dad is some great Ministry worker just because he was one the board that commissioned the Werewolf Act of 1967. I mean, sure, there were some great names on the board of that, but he hasn’t stayed in contact with them…” Remus sighed.

Lily leaned forward, “Cheer up! At least he’s got a reason for having you go! He makes me sit through it and listen to how wonderful everyone else’s connections are simply because I got a high grade in his class one time! I don’t fit in at all.”

James turned ‘round to face them again, “Well what do you suppose he wants with me then? I haven’t got any connections like that, and I certainly don’t have any high grades!”

“Maybe if you studied more --” suggested Remus.

“It’s because of your dad, I’ll reckon,” said Sirius, interrupting Remus quickly before he could suggest they spend all their time studying all term long. “He’s at the ministry and he’s done alright for himself with the Sleekeazy, hasn’t he? I’ve heard people talking about it - the girls, you know, they’re in love with that potion! And, plus, he was all over the papers wasn’t he? He’s rather famous for his work with the Resistance.”

James shrugged, “I s’pose, but --”

“I’m tellin’ you, mate, that’s what it is.”

James looked up at the faculty table, watching as Horace Slughorn lowered himself into the seat beside Professor McGonagall and leaned in to talk to her with one of his wide-faced grins and a check to his big gold pocket watch. James wasn’t certain he wanted the recognition for it with all the crafty Slytherin eyes that were sure to be at the Slug Club meeting. He knew a good lot of them had ties that led back to Voldemort.

“I just hope if Slughorn gets you out of detention, it springs me free, too,” Sirius said. “Especially seeing as I wasn’t the one that threw Evans in the lake.”

“You didn’t stop him, either,” Lily said, leaning ‘round Andy, Frank, and Remus to see Sirius, “You’re a conspirator, that’s what that’s called.”




Next morning, when the Gryffindors arrived to the dungeons for their first Double Potions with the Slytherins, James was quite disappointed in McGonagall. “Minerva said she was quite pleased to let you out of detention to attend my little get together!” Slughorn told James when he’d come bustling up to the desk with a wide celebratory smile, as though he’d sprung James from a life sentence in Azkaban.

When he’d turned away to start writing on the board, James turned to Sirius, “Bugger.”

Sirius murmured, “At least you don’t have to sit half the day alone in McGonagall’s detention.”

“I’d rather have done,” James hissed. “You want to trade? You go to the wretched Slug Club thing and I’ll sit cozy up in McGonagall’s office? You know it’s going to be all biscuits and tea with her.”



“And you’ll be having fat sausages and candied pineapple with Sluggy,” Sirius said back.

“I suppose they’re both terrible fates,” James admitted thickly.

“Will you both shut it?” Lily asked, turning about in her seat, “Some of us fancy getting a good grade, alright?”

“Sorry, Love,” James replied. Lily’s shoulders stiffened in annoyance and James grinned as Remus half turned and gave him a look that clearly said behave yourself. James knew the look well as it was a nearly permanent expression of his mum’s.

Across the room, Severus Snape was stealing glances of Lily, so much so that he accidentally cut himself while trying to chop one of the roots they were using and he had to toss the root out and start over after Slughorn had quickly mended the cut with a spell. “Pay attention, my boy,” laughed Slughorn, “I know it isn’t easy with a view like this, but -- we must all guard our senses at times!” He smiled and winked as he walked away.

Severus couldn’t help it, though. Especially when Lily reached over and started helping Remus with one of the cuts of the roots, her hands on his, guiding his knife through the chopping motion, a smile on her face and one on his as well. It was with great horror that he found himself appreciative of James Potter for but a moment when James used some of his parchment to create a spitball and pipe and shot a spittle soaked wad at Remus’s ear, distracting him, and making Lily turn back to her own work as Remus turned about to bark at James to stop being a pest.

When Potions was over and, as usual, Severus and Lily had tied for top marks and the others had been graded accordingly, Severus rushed to catch up with Lily in the hallway. “Pretty good class, yeah?” he asked, falling into step beside her.

“Yeah, it was alright,” Lily answered, hugging her textbooks to her chest. “The great prat Potter was fairly annoying throughout it, but I thought the lesson was really interesting.”

“Blast Potter,” Severus said. He reached out his arms, “Can I carry your books for you?”

“Um… I guess so,” Lily said, reluctantly handing them over. They weren’t very heavy, so she wasn’t entirely sure what the purpose of Severus carrying them was, but she could tell the way his eyes were that it was very important to him that he take them, and there wasn’t any harm in it. She walked along down the corridor, now unsure what to do with her hands. “What do you have next?” she asked.

“Divination,” he answered. “You?”

“Care of Magical Creatures,” she replied. “I think I have Divination later, though.”

“Oh. Right.” Severus was disappointed. They climbed the stairs to the entrance hall and stood awkwardly for a moment to the side of the dungeon doors.

“Are you taking Care of Magical Creatures this term?” she asked.

Severus made a face. “I’m not much of a Magical Creatures person.”

“Oh.”

“I’ve heard Kettleburn is a good teacher though,” Severus said, “He’s a bit of a doffer, he’s a Hufflepuff - I mean, aren’t they all doffers in Hufflepuff? - but he sure likes magical creatures an awful lot. Good thing, too, seeing as they’ve eaten half his fingers.”

Lily said, “I like the Hufflepuffs. And is that really true, about Kettleburn and his missing fingers? I’ve heard rumors about the Gryffindor table, but mostly from Bilius Weasley, and, well, you know how Bilius Weasley is.”

Severus made a face. He knew how the Weasleys were alright - blood traitors, for one, had been one of the adjectives used most frequently to describe the whole family. Poor was another, but, of course, being that he was also poor, Severus didn’t feel it right to criticize that. But he knew Lily really liked Bilius, so he didn’t say anything against him. “Yeah, it’s true,” Severus said, “He’s got quite an impressive collection of beasts, though, I’m told.”

“Good! I should like to see them.” She looked hopeful, “Do you think he has a unicorn?”

Severus shrugged, “I’m sure there’s some out in the forest so I wouldn’t be surprised if he does.”

“Are there really?” Lily asked, wide eyed.

“Supposedly there’s unicorn and centaur both,” Severus replied.

Lily nodded, “Oh there’s certainly centaur. I’ve seen them. In first year.”

“Right,” Severus nodded, unimpressed.

Lily looked about, the Great Hall was getting crowded and she noticed that the Gryffindor boys were standing by the doorway, as though keeping an eye on her, which made her flush. She turned to Severus, “Anyway, I had better go.” She held out her hands for her books, “Thanks for carrying these for me.”

Severus nodded, “Yeah, sure. Anytime.”

“See you,” Lily said, and she ducked away quickly, moving past the Gryffindor boys at top speed. Though they didn’t say anything to her as she went by, they hastened to follow her.

Severus sighed and headed off to his own table.

“What’d ol’ Snivelley want?” Sirius asked, dropping into the place next to Lily at the long benches.

Lily raised an eyebrow, “Is it your business?”

Sirius shrugged, “Just making polite conversation.”

“I saw you lot spying on me out there,” Lily replied.

“We weren’t spying,” James said, “We were just waiting for Peter to tie his trainers. Why does everything we do have to have something to do with you?”

“Why does everything you do have to do something with me?” Lily retorted.

Remus sighed and shook his head, “Why does everything turn into a fight with you two?”

James shrugged, “I’m not fighting. Are you fighting, Love?”

Lily grit her teeth, “No.” She promptly turned and went to sit with Annalee and Ali Prewitt further on down the table.

Remus looked at James pointedly.

“What?” James said, “I didn’t do anything. No really, I didn’t - don’t look at me like that.”