When James opened the door to his dorm again, his eyes landed on four expectant faces. "What?"
"So what were you and our little Lily doing?" Sirius asked, grinning like a weasel who had encountered an unprotected hen's nest.
"Nothing like what you're thinking, Black. She merely asked a question, on which I gave my opinon."
"She asked you to be the father of her child, didn't she?" Peter asked, laughing riotously, his friends joining in.
"No...not quite."
"It was a mere marriage proprosal, boys." Frank Longbottom, the fifth seventh year Gryffindor boy, suggested.
"Oh, would you imbeciles just bloody well can it? Stupidity isn't becoming."
"Didn't know you cared."
James growled menacingly, which didn't deter any of his roommates, they were all used to it by now.
"So what did she want?"
"She wanted to know what I thought was going on with Junior Crouch."
"Oh God...she went to a guy to ask about her boyfriend." Sirius groaned, letting Remus smother him with a large pillow.
"I knew she was on the naïve side, but I didn't know it was that bad." Remus added, deciding Sirius couldn't hold his breath much longer, and let go of the pillow.
"Would you two please step away from my private life....even though she isn't in my private life to begin with."
"But Prongs, you always step into ours."
"Jump off a bloody cliff!" James jerked the curtains of his bed closed, hoping for the end of the subject.
It was only a matter of weeks before Barty became among the handful of students expelled from Hogwarts.
The time the Marauders, Lily, Millie, and Amos grew up in what could be described as extreme unrest in the magical world. It was clouded by a nervousness that all adults held nowadays. A formerly safe world was anything but. Voldemort, a wizard with his priorities set on being number one had steadily struck fear in the magical community. Nobody was safe anymore. People were regularly tossed in prisons with only minor evidence in hopes of calming the violence. Students were being expelled from many schools for showing elevated interest in the Dark Arts, and that was what Barty was victim of.
It was a cumulatio of many things, sneaking out restricted books, being caught practicing dark spells, and abusing other students, that led to his expulsion. None of the students quite knew all of the details, and much of it was speculation. Only Dumbledore and the head of Hufflepuff knew the straw the broke the camel's back the resulted in Barty standing in the entryway with his trunk and owl, waiting on Bartemious Crouch Senior to retrieve him.
None of the students wanted to be him, standing there alone, especially when the scowl on his father's face came into view, looking nothing short of murderous. "Outside. Now."
Barty scowled and slammed his way out of Hogwarts, although it wouldn't be the last time. Crouch Senior shook hands gravely with Dumbledore, and nodded his head. "Sorry about this. I believe I can get this under control soon."
"Where will you be sending him?"
"Durmstrang. It's the only place that'll take him now.'
"It's a fine school in its own right."
"Sure it is." Crouch said sourly, and he shrank his son's trunk, and slipped it into his pocket. "I appreciate the notification."
"The rules apply to everyone. You might want to reinforce that with him." Dumbledore suggested.
"Don't worry. I will." He tipped his hat politely, and strode out of Hogwarts like the potential Minister of Magic he was.
~~~~~~~~~~~April 24~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No, no, no, this article is from the seventh, so it goes after the charity dinner." James pointed out, rearranging two newspaper clippings. The Head Students' lounge was cluttered with rows and columns of The Prophet strewn across the floor in chronological order to create a timeline of his mother’s actions. If Izzy, the Head Girl, decided she need the lounge, she would be resigned to a couch in a corner.
"That's a one, slick."
"It's a seven, Lily, get your eyes checked." James pointed out patiently, waving the article four inches from her face.
"I'm sorry, I've been staring at newsprint for so long I'm seeing double."
"Go take a nap."
"There is no way I'm going to let you figure this out without me, not after all this time I've put into this endeavor, buddy." Lily said, poking him. "So, I'm going to run and get my glasses, but don't discover anything without me, okay?"
"You wear glasses?"
"No. I'll be back." She jumped over a couple rows of papers and slipped on her shoes to go running down the halls. When Lily returned with a pair of silver rimmed glasses, James looked at her curiously, to which she answered, "Muggle thing, James."
"Muggles have magic to make your eyes better?"
"No, not magic, but something to temporarily counteract bad vision."
"Brill. What is it."
"It's hard to explain...I'll show you sometime, alright?"
"Okay. Promise? I really want to see."
"I promise. Now let's get back to the situation at hand. Your father."
They began examining each of the articles again, trying to find a similarity between them, looking for mentions of the same person. After over an hour, they both were frustrated, and decided to take a cookie break, careful not to get anything on the papers. Lily was idly reading one while munching, when she skimmed over something to make her drop her cookie. "Oh wow, look at this!"
"What?" James leaned over her shoulder, trying to see what she apparently saw.
"Look, she's been with this man here in three previous articles!"
"Lily. That's my uncle Edmund."
"Seriously?" Lily turned her face to look at him to make sure he wasn't joking, and she hadn't noticed he was that close. Very close. "That's...uh...inconvenient."
"Slightly." Apparently they had a case of Closing In Syndrome because they kept drifting closer and closer. And then, there was the kiss.
"I see I came at a bad time." And of course, the Head Girl would want to use her shared lounge.
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