Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Carol

Author's Note: Read [bracketed] text as struck-through. See you in two weeks! <3

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The portrait swings shut behind me. I lean against the wall and let out a big sigh, glad to be alone in the silence of the common room beyond. The sunset filters in dimly, barely illuminating the shapes of the furniture. I'm surprised to find a few tears leaking from the corners of my eyes, and I brush them away. It's my choice, and I don't regret it, and I think I've made the right one, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.

"Is it James?"

I start. I thought I was alone. But then a shadow shifts, and Carol pulls herself out of an armchair. She paces across the common room to stand in front of me, and I realize she's been crying, too.

"Uh, no," I say. I quickly wipe my own tears away. Somehow, even though we've both been crying, I feel even more uncomfortable talking to her than normal. She looks like a tragic heroine, and I'm just a mess. "But, uh, are you okay?" I ask awkwardly.

"Not hardly," she says, but her tone is far from weepy. In fact, when she says it, she glares at me like I'm to blame.

"Um... sorry?" I say, because I don't know what else to do. I would have already exited out through the portrait hole to get away from her but I'm afraid of running into Severus again.

"You should be," she says. "James gets smashed into the ground at the Quidditch match today, so bad he has to be taken to the Hospital Wing and Madame Pomfrey won't let me in to see if he's alright because you're already in there, and then no one even tells me what's wrong or if he's okay!" She's crying again.

That makes me pause. I suppose if I were in her place, I'd feel pretty upset too. I would have wanted someone to tell me if James was okay. Even if it would have had to come from Carol. So I'm about to open my mouth and apologize again, and let her know James is fine and already out of the Hospital Wing when she keeps going.

"This is all your fault," she says, her voice cracking with venom.

"My fault?" I repeat. "How do you figure that? I had nothing to do with James ending up in the Hospital Wing. Or you not being able to come in."

"I told you," she says. "I told you last term to back off and keep your filthy Mudblood hands to yourself, and if you'd listened to me, James wouldn't nearly have been killed at the match today."

"Again, Carol, what are you talking about? How does me dating James end with James getting smashed into the ground by some mad Slytherins?"

"Because!" she explodes. "They were only worried about you in the beginning! You were the one they wanted information on, you were the one they said they were going to deal with! James never had to be involved."

All the air whooshes right out of my lungs, and it takes me a moment to be able to respond. "Carol," I say, very carefully. "Are you the one who told Rosier about my sister's wedding?"

She glares at me with red-rimmed eyes.

"How'd you even know about that?" I'm still reeling. But then it hits me. The missing invitation off my desk. Not Emmeline. Carol.

"You're not as sneaky as you think you are, Lily," Carol says.

And suddenly a whole lot of things click into place. Seeing Carol with Regulus in the library, and her immediately telling me to leave him alone. The Slytherins knowing I was talking to Severus about them... I'd mentioned that openly a number of times in the dormitory, right where Carol could hear. Merlin, even her knowing I was spying on the Slytherins at all... hadn't she been there that day, on the grounds, the first time I followed them into the Forest? Had she seen me then and put it together for herself?