6 A Dilema

{Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts}

{7:43 PM, 2nd Nov 1977}

{Lily's POV}

"Lily, what do you need the map for again, Are you okay?" she could see the confusion on James' face, it was last summer when he got permission from the rest of their troublemaking group to share some of its secrets with her. She liked that they were growing up a lot, their pranks were going down and he was very proud to show her their best creation/prank to date.

The Marauders' Map, the name of their boy-band group, was a masterpiece of charms work, although it did bug her a lot that she couldn't figure out how it worked, or how in the hell the 4 troublemakers managed to tap into the Hogwarts wards to get it to work. Beyond its impossibility, she didn't have any appeal to use it, or rather she didn't have any reason until now. This was the third time she had asked for the map since the incident.

She gave him an annoyed look and he held his hands up before rummaging through his bag and giving her an old parchment. "Now will you tell us how it went, did the auror say anything, how's the investigation going?" James asked, they were currently sitting around the fireplace, it was a cozy setting and Lily welcomed the warmth the fire provided as well as her current company more than she did in the past.

"Who among you was the one who started the rumors about Avery losing his memories?" her question was sharp, she has automatically changed to her prefect tone. Her eyes gazed at all 4 of them, well two of them because Peter was a little too cowardly to do anything like that, and Remus just didn't fit the profile to be the one spreading around rumors, and the sheepish look that appeared on Sirius' face gave her the answer.

After giving him a brief glare she continued, "Stop those rumors or distance yourself as much as possible from the source, since Avery got some leverage because he was attacked inside Hogwarts he asked the school to suppress any information regarding the fact that he had lost his memories. I will have to swear an oath soon to not reveal anything that happened, and while no one knows about you four I need you to distance yourself from the rumors unless the trail leads back to you... I need to warn Marlene so I need the map."

Lily felt just a twinge of guilt at using Marlene as a half-truth to get the map but her own guilt at the whole incident had been pressing down on her. She opened the map and looked around at the Hufflepuff common room before she quickly found her in there, James also quickly pointed out her location so she nodded to him then turned to everyone and said, "Alright, I'll go and warn Marlene, you guys behave and no messing around..." she hesitated for a bit before continuing, "...do a prank."

There was a shocked silence following her sudden proposal so she glared at Remus who understood her intention before she grabbed the map put it in her bag, and made her way toward the exit. It didn't take long for her to find an abandoned classroom that she locked down with simple spells and a simple alert ward before she waved her wand conjuring a bird that quickly flew away toward the Hufflepuff common room. Then she once again opened the map and spread it on a table before quickly scanning the Slytherin Dungeons.

She didn't really find him and only when she slowly started going through the whole map did she find a pair of shoes with the name Louis Avery hovering on the Owlery. She hesitated for a brief moment before she put down the wards in the classroom, and conjured another bird before she went in the direction of the Owlery after checking that the 4 troublemakers were still in the common room and not following her.

She wasn't sure why she was being sneaky, it wasn't like she was doing anything wrong, but on the other hand, Sirius hated anything related to his family, and Slytherin was a big part of that and Lily didn't blame him now that she was privy to some of the Marauder's secrets. But she had Severus as a friend growing up so knows that Slytherins aren't inherently evil. They are kids too but growing up in a toxic environment just twisted their morals and beliefs.

Even Severus had grown up in difficult conditions so she could initially accept his darker tendencies, but when he started hanging out with the likes of Avery and Mulciber, their friendship took a hit, more when they started acting out against other muggle-borns. And now somehow she ended up sneaking around to find one of those evil incarnate himself, maybe she did it just to see if he was still his evil self, maybe she then wouldn't feel guilty, after all, they all just tried to defend her and Marlene, didn't they?

She shook herself out of her thoughts as she approached the owlery, it wasn't difficult for her to hide her emotions after all these years, so she just assumed her stern face that she normally uses on rounds and walked into the top tower of the owlery. It wasn't a sight she was expecting to see but it was bizarre nonetheless.

Avery sat on one of the windows, not leaning against it, but sat on the edge with one of his legs dangling outside. His other leg was bent, resting on the bottom frame of the window upon which he rested his left hand.

An owl was perched on his arm, a family owl perhaps because it looked in far better condition than the Hogwarts ones she used to send letters back home. Her arrival alerted him as she saw his eyes scan her face for a moment before they darted across her figure and behind her before he went back to petting his owl.

"Miss Evans fancy seeing you here."

It was a simple statement and if it was anyone else it wouldn't have bothered her as much, there was no disgust on his face nor his tone, he almost had a teasing tone as he addressed her with her surname.

"Avery..." she started but stopped, her tone had instinctively turned a little harsher seeing him, "It's almost curfew..."

"Yeah... apparently I am a prefect? or something like that, and I am supposed to patrol around the castle looking for people breaking curfew for the next two hours."

He extended his hand outside the window and the owl flew away towards somewhere north. There was a brief silence which quickly turned a little awkward, at least for her, Louis didn't seem bothered with her presence which was a weird statement when she thought about it.

'It's so weird, what do I say, I mean I could be here, should I send a fake letter back home.'

Lily's thoughts were a jumbled mess before she collected herself and stepped a little closer as she spoke, "So you're not going on rounds?"

"Nah, seems like a boring thing to do when I could just stay here watching the stars and practice my spells, especially the warming charm, I mean we are somewhere in Scotland right and it's November, but I could just sit here and enjoy this view without wearing any bulky clothes..." his face twitched for a bit before he looked at her and asked, "Anyway enough of my ramblings, what are you doing here unescorted, you know the big bad wolf can be right around the corner right?"

'Did he just make a Red Robin Hood reference?'She thought.

Lily stared at him with confusion mixed with a tinge of surprise before she answered, "Uh- yeah no I think I can handle it, how are you doing though, I heard you were in the hospital just this morning." she cringed but stared at him with a straight face hiding her emotions.

"Yeah, apparently people like to play pranks by lighting each other on fire, apparently I burned a lot of bridges before I got hit by a memory charm or whatever, so it makes navigating things a lot harder. There are a lot of opinions being thrown around in the Slytherin house, apparently, I'm not supposed to talk with you, you being a mudblood and all that, plus there are talks going around the house about blood supremacy and 'the cause', it's a hot mess, to be honest, still I wasn't expecting you to talk to me considering... uh you okay there?"

Lily wasn't sure what face she was making, but the way he casually insulted her while also not giving a thought to some of the things he said was a little beyond her thought process, still hearing her being referred to as a mudblood did get her temper to rise, so she was subtly aware that her wand was in her hand but the utter lack of disgust in those dark eyes stopped her from firing a potentially dangerous curse towards Louis.

'This is so not going according to plan...'

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AN/ Hey there, On time today as I promised, for those of you who are mad about the marauders getting away with murder, I need them to calm down, they would each be used and manipulated by the MC to get something out of them, even if technically they won't face a legal punishment because it is really not a wise idea to go against Dumbledore when you are just a 6th-year student, future Lord or not.

I'm not too sure about the Lily/Louis pairing, cuz that just doesn't gel well with the setting but I'm open to suggestions, Yay or nay?