Chapter 50: Vicious Slytherins

Alice, Marlene, and Lily had their wands raised and ready for a confrontation in case the Slytherin called Caden in front of them who had pointed them in anger did something.

"Caden, Mason that's enough, those two got what they deserved anyway and the teachers could be here any minute," said the 7th-year prefect wanting to avoid another conflict.

But the reality was that even though the things they were saying about the Malfoy's not backing Severus and therefore Evans were true, neither he nor any of the other prefects wanted to get into trouble with Severus.

They weren't afraid of him, but they also didn't want to be against him without a very good reason, and everyone in Slytherin knew that Lily Evans was all Severus used to think about, and even though it didn't seem to be the case lately, they couldn't be sure.

So best to avoid conflict.

"Fine..., our mistake, come on Caden," Mason said lightly.

" Alright, you can take them," said Caden reluctantly stepping aside so they could pick up Potter and Black who were being held by the other 4 Slytherins.

The three of them nodded without another word, the sooner this was over the better for everyone.

They quickly went over to help Potter and Black to leave, while the 4 Slytherins who were holding them back let them go without thinking too much.

Marlene went over to help Black while Lily and Alice tried to help Potter.

"Sectum" shouted Caden suddenly as he raised his wand and cast a spell at the backs of the three who were now trying to help Potter and Black.

"Diffindo" cast Mason seconds later with a nasty grin.

James and Black who were being helped up by the girls were the first to see the shameless and despicable actions of the two bloody Slytherins.

"Lily...!" shouted James with the last of his strength trying to warn her that these two had tricked them in order to attack them from behind.

~~~~~~~

Today Honeydukes was quite busy as usual with the visit of Hogwarts students.

Remus looked through the pile of sweets in the shop, picked up two packets of chocolate frogs, and continued to look for things of interest to him.

Along with him was Peter who was looking at the lollipops at the other corner.

James and Sirius had already rushed off to make massive purchases of supplies without even thinking about the value of the things.

Of course not everyone had that luxury, Peter and Lupin didn't have that much money.

One would think that Sirius in his current complex situation would be more careful with his savings, but the Potters were his new family so it was understandable that he had no such financial worries.

Remus could only sigh, the two of them were still so childish, immature, and greedy.

After walking through Honeydukes, Remus noticed that James and Sirius were no longer in the shop, which was unusual.

Remus walked over to Peter who was still looking at the different sweets.

"Where are Sirius and James?" asked Remus once he reached their side.

"They left" Peter replied lightly as he continued to look at the sweets he would select to buy.

"Huh?.... Left? Why and where?" asked Remus again intrigued.

Peter stared at him for a moment, before answering.

"Just think, what could make those two leave this place so quickly?" smiled Peter.

"Lily..." Remus answered automatically, maybe the only things that can distract James from Lily are pranks and sweets..., but it also worked both ways as Lily could also be a distraction for all these things depending on the day and the situation.

Peter nodded his head.

"Turns out the two of them overheard some 7th-year Ravenclaws passing chatting about Evans and her date with one of their friends," Peter explained.

"And they just went to check to see if what they were talking about was true," he added with a smirk.

" So, it was that..." Remus shook his head, sighing, he knew that James was sure to go mad with jealousy when he found out about this and drag Sirius along with him.

After all, he and Peter weren't interested in spending their day in Hogsmeade spying on Lily.

Remus and Peter were the two sanest and calmest Marauders, though both were also the loneliest of the group.

On the other hand, Sirius and James had always been chasing and flirting with girls, lately, they had both reached their hormone-fuelled period, and each was busier and more interested than ever in chasing their girl.

Well..., Sirius focused on chasing dozens of girls as usual and he succeeded.

James did too, but he always focused more on Lily, now the one thing that filled his mind and dreams was only Lily Evans.

Remus was sure that if James would have matured a bit, his intentions and attempts with Lily would have worked, but James was just immature, childish, somewhat arrogant and he got carried away a lot by Sirius's crazy/foolishness.

And it was a reciprocal thing as Sirius always got carried away by James as well.

'Those two can't stop pranking around with people' Remus thought, and he knew it was no surprise that Lily kept rejecting James when she made it clear that she didn't like men like that, she preferred an ordinary, polite, mature man who was natural and intelligent.

And James Potter still lacked the maturity to fulfil these requirements...

Despite this, Remus did his best to help James to be with Lily or to make a good impression on her.

James may have been immature but he was a good person and Remus at least managed to make Lily understand this..., it was difficult, but he did it.

It was the best he had been able to do so far for his good friend.

Remus and Peter paid for their purchases at the register and went out to browse the other shops.

Later, after leaving Honeydukes, Remus and Peter had gone to other shops as they slowly made their way to where James and Sirius were supposed to be, but they were in no hurry to interrupt them while they watched Lily.

When Remus and Peter left Zonko's Joke Shop, the sky was darkening outside, the weather was getting even colder and it looked like it was going to rain.

Remus told Peter that they had better go and find Sirius and James, so they both hurried on, but on the way, they both came to overhear the conversation between a Ravenclaw and one of the professors in Hogwarts.

The Ravenclaw student seemed to be telling him about the situation that some Slytherins and Gryffindors were going through.

Hearing what he was saying, Remus and Peter tensed immediately and ran in the direction of their friends.

The professor, who heard all this, also rushed to the scene.

But the heavy mist that had suddenly started to cover the whole town made things difficult for them... even so, they all tried to make their way to the alley.

~~~~~~~

After Lily along with Alice and Marlene crouched down to help the two marauders to stand up, the three of them heard Potter's desperate scream and turned to react to the sudden attack from the two Slytherins.

Luckily they managed to react in time to defend themselves, but their protegos barely managed to withstand the spells as they hadn't had much time to prepare them perfectly and this caused them to be pushed back by the pressure...

The two Slytherins did not waste the disadvantageous situation they were in and cast several spells that put the three of them in a difficult situation.

The other Slytherins saw these actions and also felt that they were despicable, but they didn't bother to say anything, many in their house did that sort of thing.

And they as prefects didn't usually do anything, they just didn't intervene unless they had no choice.

The third 7th year Slytherin who wasn't part of the prefects also decided to join in all the fun.

But despite the initial disadvantage, Lily and Alice were able to recover, but Marlene was not so lucky and when the third Slytherin interfered, she was overwhelmed by the pressure.

The three lionesses tried to support each other together against the three Slytherins, though the situation was far from good as the others could intervene at any moment.

And to make matters worse, they couldn't afford to dodge the spells the slytherins were casting because behind them were Potter and Black with barely any strength left in their badly treated bodies.

This exchange of spells went on for a few minutes until finally Alice and Lily got the upper hand, Marlene was still having a hard time but was holding her own.

But when the three Slytherins saw that things weren't going the way they had expected and both Alice and Lily were better than they thought they were, they quickly shouted orders to the 5th-year prefects to intervene.

Why the 5th-year prefects?

Because they were the ones they could actually intimidate.

The 5th-year prefects doubted whether to intervene, first, they looked at the 6th and the 7th-year prefects waiting for them to say something, but they didn't say anything...

Yes, it wasn't their business and they wouldn't interfere.

Reluctantly gnashing their teeth knowing that they were alone in this decision, the two 5th-year prefects had no choice but to act, it wasn't convenient to go against three 7th-year students who were even rumoured to be death eaters...

Yes, their actions were despicable, but in Slytherin that was the way things were and they couldn't change it on their own.

Quickly the two of them raised their wands and attacked Lily and Alice.

Now it was 5 against 3... and 2 dead weights that only made it harder for the Gryffindor girls.

Gradually the situation became more and more worrying, Alice and Lily began to suffer some bruises and cuts but they were still able to hold their ground...

On the other hand, Marlene looked even worse than them, it wouldn't be long before she would run out of strength to resist.

And the three vicious Slytherins didn't seem to have any plans to stop until they had left them in a similar state to Potter and Black.

While the two fifth-year prefects just obeyed and the other three prefects watched as no one came into the alley.

It was then that the weather suddenly started to get quite cold... the sudden grey clouds in the sky started to cover the whole town with a dense fog.

The three prefects who kept watching that no one was coming were worried and warned them to finish up soon and leave once and for all.

The three Slytherins nodded reluctantly, but they too knew that they had already taken enough time and if a teacher arrived and they were present it would be very problematic.

With that in mind, they decided to bully the girls in front of them by ordering the two fifth-year prefects that instead of directing their spells at Alice and Lily as before, they should now direct all their spells at Marlene along with Potter and Black.

This only made the situation even more difficult for Lily and Alice who didn't want to leave the others unprotected...

Trying to help them only ended up hurting themselves and they ended up taking even more damage for worrying about others.

When the three Slytherins felt that it was enough and that the gryffindors already had suffered enough, they decided to leave, even though they might not have been left in a state like Black and Potter, it was acceptable as they would understand not to mess with the Slytherins.

When the Slytherins finally left... the cold, thick fog finally covered the entire village and the sound of crackling breaths began to be heard.

But Lily and the rest were too exhausted to care about this.

~~~~~~~

Severus and Olivia continued walking for a few minutes through the different shops without mentioning again what was going on in the alley.

And although a part of Severus was very concerned and intrigued to know what happened, he decided not to intervene, he knew that those Slytherins would not risk killing Lily and that was enough to appease his inner Snape who was struggling to get out and go help her immediately.

When they left the scene of the conflict between the Slytherin and Gryffindor, only half an hour passed and the whole of Hogsmeade suddenly fell into chaos...

It started with the weather getting pretty awful, the sky began to be covered in thick grey clouds, moving quickly, covering the whole town.

Then several bolts of lightning began to strike, the cold wind began to blow with such force that Olivia buttoned up the elegant coat she was wearing and put her hands in her pockets as she watched the sudden change in the surroundings.

A great storm was brewing.

Severus was unaffected by the change in the weather, but he felt in the Force the sudden presence of the dark side...

The wind blew again and Olivia shivered.

Even Severus thought that the temperature had also become too cold even though cold weather was a normal occurrence at this time of year.

"Severus, how about going into some local? We can warm up there," Olivia suggested.

He agreed and they both walked over to one of the locals.