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Our Evans


Remus clutched his wand and determination was on his face, but his knees were hindering him, slowing him down, and Lily was running ahead, unaware that Mulciber was going after her, keen on catching up to her before she’d gotten into the castle. Remus panted as he hurried along... they were headed over the grounds towards the Herbology greenhouses, which were empty of anybody today - Viridi had been in the Great Hall along with Flitwick, and Hagrid’s hut was dark. There would be nobody to see anything that happened once Lily got beyond the Herbology sheds.

Sirius saw it when Remus left. He ran after him, leaving James to his work of thoroughly embarrassing Severus Snape.

“Moony, are you alright?” Sirius asked, coming up beside Remus.

“Lily --” Remus pointed ahead, where Mulciber was disappearing around the corner of the Herbology shed, Lily already ‘round it…

That was the only explanation Sirius needed, seeing Mulciber; he raced across the grounds, running as fast as he could. Halfway across he realized that he would be far faster in dog form and he looked around quickly, saw nobody was paying attention that he could see, and he risked it, bursting into his animagus as he ran - throwing himself to the ground so that he was rolling as he changed and picked up the momentum from the roll when he’d finished, barely taking pause for the transformation, and he darted, twice as quick, covering the grounds in mere seconds.

The big black dog tore ‘round the corner of the Herbology shed to find Mulciber had Lily Evans caught up in his strong arms, lifted up from the ground, one hand over her mouth, his wand clutched between his teeth, hugging her tight to his chest, pinning her arms with his arm as she kicked, lashing, muffled shouts against his palm but the much taller, stronger boy had her too firmly. He was clearly intent on carrying her off some place…

Well that’s just a big fat no; you’re not having her; that’s our Evans, Sirius thought, and he ran for Mulciber, teeth bared.

“You ain’t goin’ to remember a bleedin’ thing of it,” Mulciber was saying, “...all in fun, you’ll rather enjoy yourself if you just... relax…”

Suddenly, great vicious teeth had laid into the back of his high.

Mulciber let out a shout and in his pain, he dropped his wand and also Lily, who tumbled to the ground on her hands and knees, tears streaming from her eyes - feeling broken from what Severus had said, fear because of Mulciber catching her up and attempting to carry her off to Merlin knew what, and, now, relief from the black dog’s arrival… She scrambled for her wand as Mulciber grabbed his up from the ground quickly and aimed at the dog and Sirius yelped and freed Mulciber’s leg as though he’d received a swift kick in the side, right in his ribs, that lifted and upended him.

“Expelliarmus!” Lily cried, sending Mulciber’s wand flying - it landed quite far off this time, in the freshly turned earth of a vegetable patch, and Mulciber turned to go for it and Padfoot scrambled back to his feet and grabbed hold on Mulciber’s robes, yanking him backwards, sending him to the ground. “Pugnus!” Lily said, and with a groan, Mulciber was clutching his groin, a shooting pain of agony going through him as Lily’s spell hit him directly, fiercely, right where it counted. She stepped up to his side as he moaned, hands over his crotch, tears in his eyes, “You’re just lucky the cockus deletus isn’t real,” she breathed. “It would do the world a favor to know you’re incapable of reproducing.”

The black dog barked at this as though laughing and Mulciber rolled, in too much agony to answer.

Lily said, “I’m telling McGonagall what you’ve done and I hope she expels you.”

“I’ll tell the Dark Lord what you’ve done,” hissed Mulciber - and perhaps it was Lily’s imagination, but his deep voice seemed higher in pitch than usual, “...and I hope he kills you.”

The great black dog growled and Mulciber stared at it, shaking, the long teeth bared at him, thick with saliva and just a hint of the blood he’d drawn from Mulciber’s thigh. “Don’t bite me again, please don’t bite me,” Mulciber whimpered, holding up his hands.

Suddenly Remus came stumbling around the corner into the scene and he stared, “Thank Merlin,” he gasped. “You’re alright.”

Lily turned on him, “YOU,” she said and she raised her wand.

Remus stopped walking.

“You promised you wouldn’t tell them. How dare you?”

“I didn’t. They already knew - or suspected highly, and --” Remus flushed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for any part I had in this. This wasn’t right, regardless of what happened. And I’m sorry.”

Lily stared at him, “Rey, I’ve kept so many secrets for you. And you only had to keep one for me. Just one.”

“They already knew, Lily,” he pleaded.

And then came James, breathless and panting, followed by Peter Pettigrew.

“And you!” Lily redirected her wand at James. “What sort of horrible sideshow were you running just now?”

“Relax, Evans, his pants stayed on, I just dropped him in the lake is all,” James replied.

The dog barked appreciatively. Somehow James just knew that bark meant good one James in dogese.

Lily’s eyes travelled to the black dog. “And you - helping him.”

The dog looked at Mulciber, then back at Lily and cocked his head.

“Yes, well, that you’re good for, but the rest of that rubbish by the lake…” Lily ceeded.

The dog whined and rubbed his face with his paw.

“You are not ashamed, don’t you do that, you great fluffy liar!” Lily scolded, but it was really hard to resist Snuffles when he had those big round eyes looking at you and he flattened his ears just so. “Ugh I’m not talking to you about this until you stop looking like that!”

“Incarcerus!” Peter said suddenly - the only one that had still been looking at Mulciber to see that he was thinking of crawling of to fetch his wand. But the ropes from Peter’s wand wrapped about him and the dream was lost as Mulciber landed belly down on the grass. Peter flushed as James slapped him on the back.

“Good one, Pete,” he said, smiling.

Peter was glowing.

“Mudblood! Filthy mudblood!” Mulciber shouted.

“Enough of that, yeah?” James aimed his wand, “Silencio, you nasty pig. And while we’re at it. Sopa!” and foamy bubbles streamed from Mulciber’s mouth as he lay there silently gagging over the soap.

But the word rang in Lily’s mind in Severus Snape’s voice - the final, most horrible dig he ever could have gotten in. She covered her face and started crying into her palms.

“How now, don’t blubber,” James pleaded, and he stepped toward her, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry… You aren’t a... you aren’t an M-word, Evans. You’re the smartest witch I’ve ever met… witch or wizard!!” he added.

Lily continued on crying.

“And I really am sorry for upsetting you back there by the lake… I just couldn’t stand knowing what he did to you had gone unpunished. I was going mad, Evans.” James tentatively put his arm about her and she didn’t protest. “You couldn’t expect me not to protect you?” he asked, voice lowered, gentle.

Sirius glanced at Mulciber to be sure he was looking the other way, and transformed back into his human form and rushed over to Lily and put his arms around both of them. “I couldn’t stand it either,” he said, and he laid his head a top of LIly’s. “You’re out bleedin’ sister, Evans, nobody lays a finger on you and doesn’t answer to us,” Sirius said thickly. “You’re our Evans!”

And then Remus and Peter were in on it too and soon it was a cluster of Marauders around Lily Evans.

But it was James’s arms holding her together in the core of it, his that had swept around her first, his whose heartbeat she could hear… whose scent was warm of nutmeg and fireplaces and the forest… of Old Spice and musk… comforting...

She both hated him and loved him for what he’d done and she didn’t know which of the emotions was stronger, so she just stood and let the four of them hug her while Mulciber struggled against the ropes that Peter Pettigrew had bound him with.




Severus Snape was climbing out of the Black Lake, soaked and shivering.

“You heard Evans, Snivellus, those pants need a good washing!” James had shouted before he had promptly released the levicorpus spell and sent Severus falling into the water, flailing and angry as could be. But James was gone by the time he managed to upend himself... He found a bottle of shampoo floating in the water, bobbling beside him like a buoy, and several people were still staring, though most everyone had gone - including all four of the Marauders and all of the Slytherin bullies.

Severus reached the shore to find Regulus Black standing there. “I saw what happened,” Regulus explained, holding up a towel. James had magicked Severus’s robes clear off and so he emerged with his arms covering his soaked grey pants, shivering, so the towel was most gratefully accepted.

Severus took the towel and wrapped it around himself as Regulus turned and fetched his robes from the branch of the tree James had hung them in. Not bothering to towel off properly - desperate to cover up - Severus snatched them from Regulus and pulled them over his head.

Regulus stared at him.

Severus walked away. He walked as quickly as he could, hugging his robes tight to himself, his cloak billowing with the speed with which he moved, his face burning as residual laughter followed him, like the wake of a boat in a sea, rippling about him… whispers and snickers and giggles, and his face burned as brightly as it was capable of doing. He could hear Regulus Black scampering after him, concerned, and he saw Avery and McNair waiting by the dungeons stairs for Mulciber… Amycus Carrow at the bottom, by the hall that led off to the empty dungeon rooms...

“Serves you right, mudblood lover,” whispered Avery as he went by.

“We’ll let you know how she is,” hissed Amycus Carrow.

“Pugnus,” Snape hissed and Amycus’s nose burst blood as Severus went past. “Let me know how that is, you good for nothing git.” And he rushed down the hall to the common room.

Regulus ducked past the three older boys after Severus, their footsteps echoing down the hall.

He followed him all the way to the dorms - where Severus slammed shut the fifth year dorm room door before Regulus could follow, and promptly locked it with some spell that even the alohamora wouldn’t undo.

Regulus stood outside and sighed. “I just wanted to help,” he called through the door.

Inside, Severus Snape paced, rubbing his hair dry with the towel, his heart hammering his chest. He had to talk to the Dark Lord before Mulciber and Avery and the others could. Before news of this got out, or else Mulciber was right, he would be punished for it. He shook as he paced. Punishment might’ve been worth it if he’d had a chance with Lily, but now that was gone. Any chance of it was gone. The way Lily had looked at him… his heart ached at the memory of it. She loathed him. She would never understand that he’d said those words to her because he was protecting her, saying the things that Mulciber wanted him to say. She’d never understand that he had to say them, he had to keep his cover of being dark.

Or maybe - and this occurred to him for the first time - maybe it didn’t need to be a cover anymore. Maybe the death eaters were the only family he would ever have, maybe they were his only choice, the only ones that would ever accept him. He couldn’t stop them, he knew better than to try. Voldemort would only get stronger, he wasn’t showing any sign of weakening. The Ministry would eventually fall, Dumbledore would eventually fall, and when those things caved, then Voldemort would rule.

What side of history do you wish to be on? He thought, The side that hates you or the side you hate?

Do you want to die or do you want to live? He added, Really, that’s what it will boil down to. Any half-bloods that are not fully dedicated to him will be targeted as much as the mudbloods will be.

And even with so little left to live for, Severus Snape was still afraid to die.

He turned to the door and yanked it open.

Regulus Black was just walking away.

“Wait,” Severus drawled lowly.

Regulus turned around to look at him.

“Summon your elf.”

“What?” Regulus seemed surprised by this, “What do you want Kreacher for?”

“I want to go to Malfoy Manor,” Severus said. “I want to talk to the Dark Lord.”