April showers bring May flowers was a saying Lily had heard many times, but the fact that she was serving a detention right now with Sirius made the rain extra saddening.

She always enjoyed the sound of rain. The way it pattered against the windows made her want to curl up with a good book by a warm fire. It also, usually, calmed her down.

Sirius tripping over a chair brought her back to the present. Seeing him sprawled out on the ground made her snicker to herself as she wrote out another detention card.

The pair were supposed to rewrite detention slips and had been doing so for the past two hours. It was quite boring, yet Lily and Sirius had made it more fun than other people could.

"Oh, look at this one! Cousin Cissy and Malfoy got caught after hours!" Sirius handed her the card he picked up and laughed with him.

"Do you ever wish your family was different Sirius?" He sighed and dipped his quill in the ink well McGonagall had given them. She had left the room fifteen minutes ago to 'check on something.'

"I used too, before I really settled into the Potter's house, ya know? If it could've been different, I would've loved that, it's all I could've wanted. Unfortunately, my family is deeply fucked up. For Reg's sake, I hope they have the sense not to involve him in that." He smiled grimly and looked at Lily with curious eyes.

"Something bothering you, Lilikins?" She sighed and placed down her quill.

"This whole going home thing. I mean I have to spend my entire break at this house my mum moved in with Henry and it deeply confuses me." Sirius arched an eyebrow.

"What does?"

"When I left home in September, my mum was perfectly happy alone, well, as happy as she could be. I just, she wasn't looking for anyone and constantly joked about being a crazy cat lady! With her dating Henry it's like she's a completely different person!"

"Well, during holiday if you need to, visit Potter Manor. Euphemia and Fleamont always want an excuse to have more kids over! Take it from my experience!"

"Alright Sirius, if I need to I'll come over there."

...

The next morning, during breakfast McGonagall walked over to the sixth-year Gryffindor table.

It wasn't specifically designated for them, but they sat there every single day for the past seven months. So, everyone else knew not to sit there or they'd have to deal with the Marauders and their pranks.

"Everyone's morning classes have been cancelled. The sixth and seventh year Gryffindors are meeting with me in the Transfiguration classroom directly after they finish breakfast. Mr. Black, please do try not to eat the entire feast by yourself."

McGonagall had been more mysterious than usual lately, but this really was confusing them. What was she hiding?

Flashback...

Minnie walks up the stairs to Albus's door for what feels like the hundredth time. It seems the information she receives every time she visits gets graver and graver. So, she had a reason to dread each and every single one of these visits.

Without knocking on the door, she entered and sat down on the chair, per usual. Minnie tapped her foot gently, steadily, against the wooden floors that were old and dusty. The dust looked like it would absorb itself if given the chance.

"I want you to cancel your lessons tomorrow." She didn't respond to what seemed like such a huge request, but waited for an explanation. "In fact, I want you to tell every professor to cancel their lessons. The head of houses will be teaching a mandatory lesson with their students."

Once again Minnie waited for further elaboration while he pet Fawkes. The phoenix cooed at his owner that treated him so well.

"You'll teach the first and second years about necessary shield charms. The third and fourth about boggarts. Fifth years will receive information on more jobs to do with the war efforts. Last but not least, the sixth and seventh years will practice the Patronus Charm."

There was the explanation. With recent dementor sightings around Hogsmeade, which is out of bounds for the creatures, Dumbledore has found reason to protect his students. And that's by whatever means necessary.

...

Here the eight sixth-years found themselves walking lazily towards the classroom, which they were originally going to go to later that day.

The room was milling with Gryffindor students. Some were chatting, joking around, anything that could take up time really. When the door opened and their head of house walked out everyone fell silent, the kind of power she had really showed now.

The Marauders opted to sit near the back of the classroom with the girls directly in front of them. Fellow sixth year students filed in around them occasionally mixing in a few seventh years. Everyone seemed to want to greet Sirius and James, which earned the two mocking laughter from the girls and the other half of the Marauders.

"Your headmaster has wanted me to, for the seventh years, refresh your knowledge on the Patronus Charm and for the sixth years, to teach you how to properly cast one."

James and Sirius shared a look with their eyebrows raised because when they were becoming animagi Remus taught them the charm over the course of a few weeks.

"The charm is very useful, especially now. Can anyone tell me why?"

Simultaneously, Remus, Rodger and Alyssa raised a hand to answer her question. The other students either had no idea what she was talking about, was too lazy to raise their hand or were preoccupied in a conversation with a friend to care.

Rodger and Alyssa reminded James, painfully, of how they tied the Slytherin team in the last match. Rodger because James could hear him announce Regulus catching the snitch every time he feel asleep, of course that was being dramatic, but it was haunting. Alyssa because she was the seeker he had chosen to be on his Quidditch team.

The professors still withheld the information for whether or not they had won the Quidditch Cup, which made James extra agitated.

Minnie called on Remus and he cooly replied with an answer that sounded like something Sirius would say, blunt but honest. Probably was something he would say to be truthful.

"The Patronus Charm is used against dementors, which have been found out of bounds recently. It's important to know how to cast the Patronus Charm, so you don't get your soul sucked out." Minnie nodded and took a seat at her desk.

"To be able to cast the charm you have to think of an extremely powerful memory that makes you the definition of happy. Let yourself become absorbed in the memory, thinking of nothing else as you say the incantation, expecto patronum.

"Say it once as a class." Minnie counted down on her fingers before the Gryffindors recited what she had just said.

"Expecto patronum!" You could hear the Marauders' voices over everyone else's, which made Minnie raise her eyebrows. Their confidence seemed to never waver.

"Very good. Now, practice the charm for the next hour and I'll check up on your progress."

...

Naturally, the Marauders had casted their patronuses within five minutes, each having done so before. This made every girl in the classroom swoon, which promptly made Marlene jealous and the rest of the girls gag.

The girls had had less success than them in completion rates. In turn each Marauder, minus Peter who had suddenly fell ill, took this chance to try to teach them how to cast it. Sirius was trying to teach Marlene, but was failing horribly because of unnecessary flirting and pick up lines. Remus was making progress with Mary and Alice since he was actually quite a good teacher. Lily was getting frustrated because James laughed every time she scrunched her nose up to concentrate, which caused her not to concentrate on the memory and on him.

"I'm not making fun of you Lily-flower! In my defense it's very cute when you scrunch your your nose like that." Every girl listening in on their conversation scowled and turned away from the pair.

"You're making me get all distracted! Stop laughing!" She said this with some humor in her voice until she saw McGonagall come up from behind James and start watching the two. "Now, shut up McGonagall's watching."

Lily scrunched her nose once more and thought of a different memory this time. James stifled his snicker without the pointed look from Lily, which he considered a win.

In the memory Lily was thinking of, she had just finished beating up Elizabeth White for her harsh words against her and her friends. Marlene had dragged her up the boys' staircase and James answered the door. For the next half hour Sirius and James praised her punching skills while Remus rolled his eyes and healed her bruises.

Although, she had not produced a corpeal Patronus, more wisps of white smoke jetted out of her wand than previously. James acknowledged this, but Lily still felt down about not being able to produce a "real Patronus."

"Miss. Evans, I would try a different memory or perhaps a collection of memories. Sometimes you have to think of a specific person, not just a memory, when you cast it. No worries, you'll get it eventually."

Minnie's words of wisdom left Lily and James confused as well as questioning her reasoning behind them.

...

Author's Note:

Surprise! I'm back with a quick update! After the last update I felt inspired to write and I hope that continues. Knock on wood!

I realized that I hadn't really addressed the Quidditch Cup, so I brought it up again and it seemed to work in this chapter.

Also, All the Stars reached 1k reads. My heart skipped a beat when I realized that because I simply could not believe it. I didn't come to Wattpad for the votes or reads, yet I still received so many. I thank you all for that!

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy🐋