I stood on the platform. It was the summer before the seventh and last year I was a student. A small sigh escaped from me. It was going to be my last year of Hogwarts. My last year! What would I do once I left?

Sorry, maybe I should back up a bit. Hello. I'm Lily Evans. I have long, red hair, and (people tell me) stunning bright green eyes. I'm seventeen. I'll be eighteen soon. I'm also a straight-O student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Right then, I was standing on the Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, the only stop of the Hogwarts Express. That train took me, my friends, and my classmates to and from school every year. And this, unfortunately, would be my last trip to school on it.

Oh, well. I'd live. The magical world was so full of wonders, I was sure I could find something that I loved doing. My grades left several possibilities open for the future. I just had to pick which one appealed to me most.

"Oi! Evans!" I groaned. The one future possibility that seemed least likely was me getting with the annoying James Potter. The one who, despite my obvious scorn of him, would never, never, ever leave me alone. I mean, I think if I walked around with a neon sign that screamed "I'm never going to go out with James Potter as long as I live!!!!!" He'd still ask me out at least once a week.

I turned. "Yes, Potter?"
"Did you sign up for the pen-pals program?"
"Yes. The one where we find out who we write next year. But don't get your hopes up. Everyone signed up for that. The odds of you getting me is like, one hundred to one."
"Yes, what is your point?"
"Then what's yours?"

We continued to fight all the way through the barrier back to the muggle train station. I was relieved to see my parents beckoning from a little way away. "So out of here, Potter."
"See you, Evans." He walked towards to people I was pretty sure were his parents.
"Or not."

"Who was that nice boy you were talking to?" Mum asked me as I walked my trunk over to her and dad.
"James Potter? Really, Mum, he's not that nice. He is really annoying, and he won't leave me alone."
"Well, maybe you should give him a chance." Dad suggested as he helped me with my bags. "It's what your mother had to do for me."
"Dad, right now a chance is the last thing I want to give him is a chance. I'd rather give him something like a punch."
"Next year, think about it."
"I've got two and a half months until then. I'll figure it out then."

"Anything interesting you've got planned for the summer, Lily?"
"Not really. I said I'd hang out with with my old friends this summer. I also signed up to do a pen-pal thing at school. We're not supposed to say who we are or anything. We'll find out in september who we were writing to all summer."
"When do you start?"
"Professor Dumbledore told you if you were supposed to write first, and then if not, you'll get a letter by the end of the week. So, what's Petunia been doing?"
"She's spending most of her time with that Vernon boy she met last year."

When we got home, I found Petunia sitting on the porch.
"Hello, Petunia." I said, knowing the kind of response I would probably get in return.
"Don't 'Hello' me. I intend to spend as much time away from here as possible this summer, or at least as long as you're here too."
"Now, Petunia-" I walked into the house as my parents began to lecture my sister. This happened the first day of every summer. Petunia skipped of to a friend's house most of the summer. But not before reminding me what a 'freak' I am. Fun fun fun.

Once in my room, I shut the door and flopped unceremoniously onto my bed. That night, I would be spending the night at Sarah's house that night with a couple muggle friends, but other than that I was free. Free to contemplate if this was the year when I finally told my 'normal' friends who I really was.

When I'd started attending Hogwarts, I'd been almost forced to lie to my friends about most of my life. I couldn't really tell them 'Oh hey guys. Yep, I'm a wizard. I'm going to a school for magic.' And since I hadn't told them all along in the last five years, I have a feeling they'd be kind of mad at me for lying that long.

A tapping noise on my window jolted me out of my thoughts. It was an owl. I didn't reconize this one, so that threw out the possibility of it being from Allison, Ellie, or Hannah, my three friends at Hogwarts. It was probably from my new pen-pal.

Dear Flower-of-the-Valley,
Hi. My name is Qudditch Boy. From the name, you probably guessed that I'm a boy. I'm seventeen. That's about all this program will let me tell you.

This summer, I'm in a little town outside London, spending time with my three best friends all summer. Is anything interesting happening with you? I hope you have a great summer vacation.

Yours Sincerely,
Quidditch Boy

I giggled. Maybe I'd show these to my friends. They might be able to help me with what I should write back to him. Quickly, I wrote a reply:

Dear Qudditch Boy,
Hey. Thanks for your letter. I think we may need to use your owl, because I don't have one. I'm a muggle born. Are you? This summer, not many interesting things are happening to me. My sister, who isn't a witch unfortunately, is going to spend a whole lot of time and energy trying to convince me that I'm a freak and not worth anything. But that's more depressing than interesting.

I also have three really close wizarding friends, as well as two great non-magical ones. We all hang out, but it's kind of hard sometimes. I hope you have an easier time with your friends than I have.

Well, I better get going. I've got a sleepover tonight with some of my friends. I've got to go get ready.

For now,
Flower-of-the-Valley

My phone rang just as I gave my reply to the owl waiting for me. "I'LL GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed. Grabbing the phone, I said "Hello?"
"Lily?"
"Yes."
"Hey! It's Sarah."
"Hi Sarah! What's up?"
"Not much. I was just making sure you could come to the party tonight."
"Of course I can! We always have a party on the first day of summer."
"Yeah. Hey, I was wondering, could you invite your friends from school?"
"Ellie, Allison, and Hannah?"
"Yeah. They're nice, and we never see them except in the summer."
"I don't know. They may be busy, but I'll call them and ask."
"Okay. Call me back when you find out."
"'Til then."

I couldn't exactly call my magic friends on the phone. We used this thing like a mirrior, but you could see each other in the mirrior instead of your reflection. It's actually pretty cool.
"Ellie? Allison? Hannah?" Three faces (Allison: Her dark blonde hair pulled back and her smile huge. Ellie: Her brown hair and brown eyes sparkled with mishchief. Hannah: Her black hair and dark skin screaming her mysterious air.) appeared.

"Hey, Lils." said Allison. "What's up?"
"Well, Sarah, you know, my muggle friend, is having a party tonight. Can you guys come?"
"Sure!"
"Of course!"
"We'll be there."
"Great! Apparate at my house. we'll go over together. Be here by five-thirty."
"Alright!"
"Bye, Lily!"
"See you then!"

I called Sarah back. "Hello?"
"Sarah? It's me, Lily. They can come."
"Great! Lucy can too. I'll see you tonight!"
"Bye!"

I smiled out my window. At last, things were looking up.


Hi. I hope you like my fan fiction. The feedback link is in my signature. Please tell me what you think.

I know I just posted chapter 1, but I'm bored.



I was completely packed. I had been since around two o'clock. Now All that remained was to wait for five to roll around. I heard another tap on my window. Surprised, I looked up. My friends were going to see me in an hour or so. And even if they wanted to talk, we had the mirriors. Why were they writing to me?

When I looked out the window, I was pleasantly surprised. Quidditch Boy's owl sat there. It tapped the window for a second time. Wow. That guy writes fast.

Standing up turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it should have been. I had been flopped on my bed for the last two hours, and I was really stiff. After a certain amount of groaning, I managed to drag my body over to the window, unhook the clasp, and let in the hyper bird. It dropped the letter onto my bed. Instead of leaving, the thing flew around my head and started pecking me.

I ran, but it persued me around my room. "Okay, okay!" I cried. "I'll read the darn thing! Just get off of me!" The thing seemed to understand my meanings, and it settled down and looked at me expectantly like 'Well, go on. I've got nothing better to do.' So, begrugdingly, I opened the letter.

Dear Flower-of-the Valley,
Yeah, um, sorry about the bird. His name's Archimedes. He's a good owl, never looses a letter or anything, but he loves his work to much. If he pesters you too much about writing me back, just shut him in a wardrobe or something. He'll pipe down in about three minutes.

No, I'm not a muggle-born. Both my parents are wizards. Don't worry, I'm not one of those wizards who think that all muggle borns are trash. I'm one of those wizards that hex other wizards if they call people 'mudbloods'. I've gotten into a bit of trouble for that, but it's kind of worth it.

Me and the guys have always gotten on great. We get into a bit of trouble now and then, but nothing serious. And it's usually something like we got into a fight defending someone, or pranking someone who really deserved it. I promise you, we rarely prank anyone over nothing.

Right now, my best mate's over for the summer. His parents, well, aren't that great (He just punched me while I wrote that. He says he doesn't want me to mention him or, moreover, his 'whomping willow of a family'. He's got some poetry to him, doesn't he?) so he's spending his time here. My parents are awesome, and they don't mind.

Hope you have fun at that patry of yours tonight. Write me and say how it goes. You can keep Archimedes until you want to write back.

Yours Sincerely,
Quidditch Boy

P.S. Ask around to see who Chaser Gurl, Creatures Witch, and Shy Seer are. Those three are writing to three of my friends.

He liked to write. Okay, maybe it had taken him two whole hours, but he didn't have to write me a novel. A simple paragaph would have been perfectly fine.

Taking Quidditch Boy up on his advice, I threw a few dead mice (potion ingredients) into my wardrobe and locked in tight. He had food, so if I didn't let him out to go hunting at night he wouldn't starve for one night. He was true to his word. After about three or four minutes after muffled hooting, he piped down.

Quidditch Boy seemed much more human then any other boy, with the exception of Remus, I'd ever met. I could write what I really thought and felt without feeling awkward. After two letters, I'd felt closer to him than I'd ever felt to Potter.

I heard another tap on my window. What? Did Quidditch Boy have more than one owl? I glanced over to the window. No, I reconized this one. It's name was Andriana. She belonged to Remus Lupin, the only one of the Marauders who I could really talk to. James was a pain, Sirius was a show-off, and Peter was a bit of a wimp, content to just sit in the background and watch James and Sirius wreak havoc.

I opened the window and let the black owl in. She dropped an envelope on my bed and flew off. At least the owl was less annoying then Quidditch Boy's had been.

Dear Lily,
Hi. I was just writing to wish you a happy first day of summer vacation. Did you sign up for the pen-pal thing at school? I did. Don't worry, I know I don't have you, because my partner's name has to do with being a chaser. You aren't that into qudditch, so I figured I was safe.

Have fun at that beginning of summer party you told me you and your muggle friends have. And write me if you find out about those false names.

~Remus


I sighed as I read the letter. Remus was being slightly stupid, even though he was a great student. He shouldn't be telling me anything about his pen-pal. For all he new, it could have been me faking it. Thank some higher power it wasn't.

Getting up, I wrote Remus a quick reply.

Hi Remus,
I hope you are having a great summer vacation. Sorry I can't write for that long, I've got that party to go to. Petunia's probably going to marry that Vernon bloke, so I'll need some company. I can't really talk to my muggle friends about some of it. They wouldn't understand. and the girls are great, but I'm not sure how they'd handle it. You're really easy to talk to, and a good friend.

Write back soon,
Lily.

As soon as I sent the letter, I heard a 'pop' and Ellie appeared, Sprawled on my carpet with a backpack, pillow, and sleepingbag. She looked up at me from between the pieces of long brown hair in her face.
"Hey, Lils."
"Hi Ell. How was your first day?" She grimaced.
"You know my brother. 'Oh, you should go into herbology like me!' He's so annoying. He, like, wants me to be his partner or something! No matter how many times I tell him that I like Magical Creatures better, he ignores me."

I always felt sorry for Ellie. Her brother Jonathen was six years older than she was, and he was very pressuring when it came to what he thought she should be when she left Hogwarts. She was too nice to tell him what she really thought.

I had no more time to think about this, though, because Allison apparated right onto my bed.
"Hey, Allison."
''What's up?"
"Not much. We're just waiting for Hannah."
"You're waiting for me?"

Hannah walked out of the shadows. She had moved here from the U.S.A. when she was about six months old, and was a Native American or something similar, and she was perfectly camoflaged in the dark corners of rooms. She was really kind of shy, so that suited her fine.

The realization of what was going on hit me over the head like a bucket of icey cold water. Oh, God! Chaser Gurl, Shy Seer, Creature Witch! They were sitting right in front of me! Chaser Gurl was Allison, of course. She was the only female chaser in the whole of Hogwarts. It had to be her. Creatures Witch was Ellie. She loved anything that moved and had fur, feathers, or scales. That left Shy Seer. Those were Hannah's two distinguishing traits. Her shyness, and her love for Divination!

I didn't tell them, just kind of asked "So, did you guys sign up for the pen-pal thing at school?"
"Oh yeah. I'm Creatures Witch."
"Chaser Gurl. Girl spelled with a 'u'."
"I'm Shy Seer."

Oh yes oh yes oh yes! This was like, too perfect to compute! I'd have to tell Quidditch Boy as soon as I got a chance. This was just soooooooooooo perfect. Beyond perfect.

"Come on. Let's go over to Sarah's. Everyone ready?" Allison jolted me out of my dream.
"Oh, yeah, right. Let's go."

We had a pretty normal reception over at Sarah's house. When we came up to the top step and rang the doorbell Sarah practically ran us over and hugged us. We all hugged back. I'm not sure If my wizarding friends felt as bad as I did about lying about the magic and all, but they sure enjoyed spending time with my muggle ones.

After the greeting, we got down to the real sleepover business. We watched THE WIZARD OF OZ and some cartoon about a moose and squirrel that I'd never heard of. After watching the movies, we played a game of truth or dare.
"Sarah, it's you're party! You start."
"Okay. Allison: Truth or dare."
"Dare."
"This is harder in the summer when there's no school." Sarah sighed. "Ok. I dare you too ask the guy you like out as soon as you go back to school." She turns to us. "You guys need to hold her to it. Write and tell me if she chickens out."
"I won't." said Allison, slightly pink. "I'll do it."

"Okay. Lily: Truth or dare."
"Truth." I knew what could be on the recieving end of an Allison Dare.
"Okay. Who would you go out with next year?" I took a deep breath.
"This may sound stupid, but my pen-pal."
"OMIGOSH!!! Details!!!" screamed Ellie.
"Well, you know that pen-pal program at school? I got this really sweet guy. I don't know his name or anything, just that he's on the team at school. He's nice. At least, I think he is. He's been really sweet in the letters."

That night, I began to wonder who Qudditch Boy was. Who could he be? Lots of boys played quidditch, and several more just loved watching it. It could be any number of guys. I'd figure out who he was later. Right... After... I...Rest.



The next morning, I was woken with a jolt as a pillow hit me over the head.
"Earth to sleepy head! Come in, sleepy head! Wake up! It's time for breakfast!"
"And if you don't wake up we'll go eat without you and take all of your pancakes, so there!"
"Alright! Alright, Already! I'm up!"

Crawling out of my sleeping bag, I squinted over at Sarah's purple and red alarm clock. 7:47! Oh, come on! It was summer vacation. Did they really expect me to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed before eight o'clock? Sighing, I got up and pulled on some jeans, a white tee shirt with a red telephone booth on it, and my trainers.

"What's the big deal? It's not even eight o'clock! Why'd you wake me up so early?" They were all grinning.
"Because if you slept in any more, we'd be late for the pancake breakfast we planned." said Allison.
"You guys are taking us to a pancake breakfast?" I asked, bewildered.
"Allison and I stayed in touch during the school year." Sarah explained. "When I told her we had a sleeepover every year, we set it up so both of our groups could be there. And we pooled our money for a trip to Jeremy's Pancake Emporium. It was a surprise for you!" Lucy turned to me.
"Are you mad?"

I laughed. "Why would I be mad? Surprised, maybe, but not mad. How are we getting there?"
"I got my license this spring." said Lucy. "And Sarah got hers in May. One of us'll drive. We can use Sarah's family van. It's the only car that will hold all of us." So we all piled into Sarah's old family mini-van (when I say old, I mean I remember being carpooled to pre-school in that thing) and we were off!

Once there, we were seated and a girl a little older than us took our order. "So, what is this place?" I asked Lucy and Sarah.
"They moved in last winter. Isn't it great?" It was a pretty cool little resteraunt, I'll give it that.

My friends had more problems than I did. I had to give them looks to remind them they weren't going to find pumpkin juice on the drinks list and stuff like that. And Allison asked what crisps were! But other than that, everything went pretty smoothly.

We ordered our breakfast. Their service was pretty good, so our food was to us in about fifteen minutes. I sat there easting pancakes with my friends. We were talking, joking, and laughing. Both of my worlds had come together, and I hadn't had to do anything. I was pretty sure nothing could ruin this morning.

That is, until I heard a boy's voice.
"Lily!"

I slumped farther down in my chair. Oh no! Not him. Why now? Nick Feattherstone, a boy from my old class, walked over to me. Why did he have to be here now/ It was just like having Potter back, only I'd actually dated this Potter.

"Hey Nick." I said resignedly.
"Hello. What are you doing here?"
"Just hanging out. Was there something you wanted?"
"Lily, I was wondering while you were in town, if you would like to-"
"NO, Nick."
"But Lily, we dated last summer, and-"
"And you went out with another girl as soon as I left for school!" I exclaimed. He was such a loser.

He drew back like I'd slapped him. "Lily, I missed you." He said. "I wasn't thinking-"
"Yes you were! You were thinking 'Lily's out of town. She'll never know.' Unfortunately for you, my friends are great, and they told me what happened. I've learned from my mistakes."
"Lily, oh Lily. I promise, this summer will be different."
"Yes, you're right. It will be different. I won't be going out with a two-timing jerk!"

"Lily, please, let me explain-"
"You don't need to explain anything. I understand: You were a jerk. You loose when you cheat. And now, you seek redemption. Nice try. I don't forgive that easily." I looked over at my friends. "Are you guys done?" They all nodded meekly. I guess I was in a bit of a temper. "Good. Then let's go."

They payed the bill, and then we left. I sulked in the front seat. I had been in a great mood until five minutes ago. Why did Nick have to come and ruin everything? I mean, it was a pleasant summer morning until his gray cloud of doom came in.

"Lily?" Ellie asked in a kind of timid voice.
"What?" I snapped.
"I know you really don't want to talk about this, but, um, well-"
"She, and all of us who don't spend their whole summers here, want to know who that jerk was that you just blew up at." Hannah said. When she got through being shy, she was very forceful and almost blunt.

"Lily?"
"I'M NOT DEAF!!" I realized I'd just yelled at my best friend, or one of them. "Sorry, Ellie. That was Nick. He and I went out for a few weeks before school last year. He seemed nice enough. And of course, I believed everything he said."

I choked a bit, but continued. "Then it came time for us to start school again. He was really sweet, walking me to the train station, saying he'd write and he'd wait until next summer for me. But it was all an act. He started term at some other school, and immediately started dating another girl."

"He forgot one thing that could see him with her, though."
"What?" asked Allison, and Sarah elbowed her in the stomach.
"Sarah and Lucy. They were in the same school, and saw him with her. So they told me. And boy, was that boy sorry." I smiled at the thought. My friends knew better than to ask.


When I got back to my house, I sat on my bed sulking. I knew I probably shouldn't have left my friends like that, but they could all take care of themselves. My wizarding friends were all of age, and they could all apparate home and stuff. I wasn't worried. I was worried about what might happen to me if Nick caught me alone.

I really felt bad. I needed someone to talk to. Someone I could trust... I was an idiot. There was reason for the pen-pal program, and for a second while I really needed it.

Dear Quidditch Boy,
Thanks for the tip with your owl. Sorry if you needed him for anything. I figured it would be easier to write you if I actually had an owl I could use.

That party I told you about went pretty good, as far as slumber parties go on this earth. The bad part came at breakfast the next morning. My friends, muggle and witch alike, pooled their money (I have no clue where they got the muggle money) and took us out to a great pancake house for breakfast.

But, after we get our food and stuff, this jerk who dated me last summer came over. He two-timed me, and I think he actually expected me to agree to go out with him again. I refrained from slapping him with some difficulty. We walked out as soon as we payed and I told the guy to get a life.

I don't know why I'm telling you this. I just needed someone to talk to about it. I hope you don't think I'm to weird or anything for what I did.
For Now,
Flower-of-the-Valley

P.S. Chaser Gurl, Shy Seer, and Creatures Witch are my three best friends! Weird, huh?

I saw the owl off, and actually found myself anticapating the reply.

"Lily? Honey, are you hungry?"
"Yeah, Mum. I'll be down in a second." Silghtly regretfully, I put down the paperback I was reading and went downstairs to eat dinner with my parents. To my great surprise, Petunia sat there as well. To what did we owe this pleasure? Figuring I'd be told in a minute or two, I sat down and tried to look everywhere but my sister.

"Lily." My mum started. "Your sister has some big news."
"What's that news?" I asked innocently.
"Really, Lily, must you be so naive?" Petunia snapped. "I'm getting married to Vernon this July. July twentith, to be exact. Whenever he comes over, I expect no 'magic' to occur. None. Despite your abnormalty, I intend to live a normal live, and You will not mess it up."
"Yes, Petunia. Anything else you want that is required of me that's verging on impossible that you want to ask of me?" I said sarcastically. "A beautiful girl to jump out of the wedding cake? Everyone to actually look good in the tacky outfits you pick? Any more demands?"
"Don't you dare-"
"The Pasta's ready!"

Mom obviously cut into our arguement tot try to break it up. But it wasn't going to work this time. It's not my fault I'm a witch, and Petunia treated me like I was the scum of the earth. No, nix that. I was the gum on the bottom of the scum's shoe. As soon as I finished with my dinner I left.

An tawny owl was sitting right outside my window when I got there. Archimedes was back! Quickly I grabbed the pesky little thing and opened the letter.

Dear Flower-of-the-Valley,
Ouch. Sounds like you had a really fun morning. Sorry I wasn't there to help you out.

As for the friends thing, that is so weird! My three best mates are writing to your three best mates! We should find out who's writing who. I am beginning to formulate a plan.

I know it's kind of against the whole rules of this program, but would you consider meeting me in Diagon Alley on, say, next Saturday? It's the earliest I can get away with my parent's permission and my best mate not noticing. (He's meeting someone in one of the rooms of the Leaky Cauldron; all I want to know is that we won't run into him) Write me back as soon as you find out if you can meet me there. I'm sorry, but I can't tell you who I am until then. I break enough rules as it is.

Yours Sincerely,
J Quidditch Boy

Was he serious? Maybe he was more of the rule breaker than I was, but could he really want to do this? Still, I did want to meet him. I wanted to know who he was. I wanted to be friends through more than parchment and a really, really annoying owl. To actually talk to the guy occasionally before you decide to befriend him really isn't a bad idea.

Right then, I was ready to slap myself. Here a guy was doing something for me, and I was chickening out because of a rule. It was stupid. More than that, it was selfish.

I've got a feeling my mind was made up before this, anyway. I knew what I was going to do, even with the internal battle about breaking the rules going on inside of me. Of course I was going to take him up on his offer.

I practically flew down all the steps from my third-story room to the first-floor kitchen. When I reached the kitchen door, I pause briefly before entering. What if Petunia was still in there? How could I face her after the shouting match we just had?

I squared my shoulders in a preperatory way. Do? I knew what I'd do! I'd make up a lie about wanting milk and cookies before bed, of course! Ok, maybe it wasn't the bravest thing in the world, but I was doing pretty good going into the kitchen as it was.

Opening the door, I was immediately relieved to see that, wherever Petunia was, it wasn't in our kitchen. She had probably gone to Vernon's house, or her friend Kelly's to spread the 'good news' of her marriage. I cringed at the thought. Something told me I wouldn't get to be a bride's maid.

To my pleasure, Mum stood in the kitchen alone. I think she was making brownies, but I wasn't sure. All I needed to know was that Mum was in here, Petunia wasn't, and there was no one to laugh with scorn at the thought of me going to a wizarding neighborhood, or tell me what a freak I was.

"Hey, Mum?"
"Yes, Lily?"
"I was wondering, um... Could I go to Diagon Alley, like, Saturday?"
"Yes, I suppose so. Any special reasoning?"
"Not really. I want to get some new books. Maybe I'll meet up with a couple of my friends. Nothing special. I just kinda want to go."
"Alright. You're old enough to take care of yourself. Will you be appar-whatsits-"
"Apparating, Mum."
"Right. Will you be apparating, or using the underground?"
"I was thinking apparating, if that's okay?"
"Yes. That's fine."

She looked at me with concern. "You know, Lily, your father and I don't agree with Petunia on everything. We love you, and we don't think you're a freak, or anything similar." My head snapped up. Did she really think I thought I thought like that?
"No, Mum, of course I know that. Just because Petunia and I have communication issues, doesn't mean I think we do. Or that we do."

This seemed to please Mum. I really did mean it. I loved my parents more than the world, and I knew that they would never hurt me the way Petunia had. That all being true, I really think my mum needed to hear it come from me to know that it was true.

"Lily... I'm sorry I thought that." she said. Her voice wavered slightly with emotion. "It's just, with Petunia, I wanted you to know that there were non-magic people who really did care about you. Who didn't think you were a freak." I hugged my mum, tears streaming down my face.
"Oh, Mum, I know that. I've got you and Dad, and I've got my friends. We've been friends since preschool. That's enough proof for me. I promise I'll always love you." She hugged me back.
"I know, Lily, I know."

After a long period of hugging, I broke apart from my Mum with a feeling of happiness pulsing through me. I loved my Mum and Dad. I really did. If it wasn't for Petunia... If she didn't treat me like the gum on the scum's shoe... Then my family life would be practically perfect in every way. (Yes, I was feeling slightly disney-ish right then.)

When I reassured my Mum and Dad, who came in after the whole hugging scene, that I would always care about them, I went back up to my bedroom. All of the stairs up to my room take a long time to climb when you're deep in thought. How could my parents think I didn't love them just because Petunia's a royal pain whenever I'm around?

Well, maybe they didn't think that. Maybe they were just worried about me because Petunia's such a pain in the neck. Maybe they just wanted to be sure that I knew they loved me. And maybe, just maybe, they were afraid of loosing me as a daughter. Loosing me so soon after Petunia was leaving.

A loud and annoying owl greeted me when I entered my room. "Get... Off... Me!!!" I screamed. But the darned bird ignored me, pecking and flapping and generally being really obnoxious.

Knowing full well that it was a sort of cowardly last resort, I ran over near my wardrobe and stuck my head in precariously. Archimedes overshot and flipped into the wardrobe. I quickly slammed the door and slid down the oaken door. The flapping and hooting continued for a few minutes and then stopped. Thank heaven.

The owl, as annoying and loud as it was, reminded me of the reason I'd gone down to see my mother in the first place. Quidditch Boy's suggestion. I wasn't quite sure why I hadn't told Mum about our meeting. It was just a feeling I'd had. Like, I doubted she would approve of me meeting a guy I barely knew. Especially when I didn't even know his name.

Sitting down at my desk, I started to write the letter. It wasn't very long, but it said all I need to say quite clearly.

Dear Quidditch Boy,
I talked to my mum and dad. They said I can meet you on Saturday. Want to meet outside Florean's Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor at ten-thirty? Or is that too early?

You have a plan? Does it in some way involve finding out what our friends think of each other and setting them up?

Please write back soon and tell me the answer to my questions.

For Now,
Flower-of-the-Valley

With a certain amount of difficulty, I wrestled Quidditch Boy's owl out of my closet. As soon as he saw I had an envelope in my hand, he snapped to attention like a soldier. He stuck up his left leg and gave me a look as if to say 'Well? You going to give that letter to me?' With an exasperated sigh, I tied the letter to his leg.

"Now, I know this letter says 'Quidditch Boy', alright? But take it to whoever you belong to, please." The tawny owl gave one hoot, I hope of understanding, and he flew off into the dimming evening.

I don't know how many hours later it was when I got the reply for my letter. All I knew was it was A.M. and it was still dark outside. I heard a tap on my window that woke me up. When I managed to to roll out of bed, open my eyes, and find my alarm clock, I was awake enough to to be mad about the time.

All I can say is, that the letter had better be one heck of a letter, or I was going to have a few things to say to Quidditch Boy. Starting with his 'brilliant timing'.

Dear Flower-of-the-Valley,
Hi. Uh, sorry It's about midnight. I think my owl got lost or something, unless you wrote this at ten o'clock or later.

As to the meeting on Saturday, great! Ten-thirty works for me if it works for you. I'll be there. (I really don't want to know what my mate's doing, but it seems to be taking up most of the day.)

And, addressing the part where our friends are concerned, yes, I may be planning something along those lines. But you have to promise that you won't mention any of this to any of them. I don't want them to know about anything. For one thing, one of my mates might tell someone. He's got a bit of a mouth for blabbing. (and you are under no condition to tell any of them that I said that.)

Sorry again about the time,
Quidditch Boy

It wasn't as good as I was hoping for something more spectacular at this hour, but at least there was some explaination for the time and some valued information. I'd write him back in the morning. No, wait. Technically, it's morning. I'll write him back when it's morning and it's light outside.

I awoke sometime when it was much lighter outside. I felt really drowsy, and I didn't really remember why. All I kew was that my bed was soft boardering on heavenly, and I didn't ever, ever want to get out of the comfort. Everything was in a sleepy haze.

Right now, all I wanted to worry about was going back to sleep and staying alseep for the rest of the summer. No parties, no work, no Petunia, and no Diagon Alley. I'd just lie right here for the rest of my life, safe, comfortable, and happy.

After a few minutes of blissful happiness, I sat up like a shot. OW!! I hit my head on the beadpost. Oh, well. I'll worry about that later. I had a much more pressing issue on hand.

Diagon Alley! Oh no! That's today! I totally forgot all about that. I glanced at my clock. Ten-fifteen! I was supposed to meet Quidditch Boy at the Ice-Cream parlor in fifteen minutes!

Halfway through pulling on my jacket over my pajamas, I glanced over at my calender. I liked to mark off how many days I had until Hogwarts. The next day without a 'X' through it was today. The day without a 'X' through it was a friday. Today was a Friday. Not Saturday. Not when I was supposed to meet him. Whew.

I sunk back onto my bed and laid my head on the pillow. Dang. My heart was beating about a thousand beats per second. I'd been so stressed in the last couple of seconds I thought I was going to pass out.

Wow. If I was this stressed today, what would I be like when I actually went to meet him tomorrow. Would I be able to remain awake? Would I faint?

For what seemed like hours I just laid there. I waited for my heartbeat to return to what might be considered normal. How's that for a incredably fun first five minutes of the morning? I think that wins first place.

Slipping of my jacket, I donned a pair of sweatpants and shirt. They were probably better suited for going someplace then in my pjs. I fingered my forehead. There was a bump where I'd hit my head when I shot out of bed. Now it was about the size of a robin's egg, and it felt like it was still swelling. Groaning, I climbed out of my room and went downstairs.

The rest of the day passed quickly and in a haze. I re-read several of my books, went shopping with Sarah, and watched some TV. There was nothing really special that I did all day. I was saving up energy for tomorrow.

In less than twenty-four hours, I would be meeting Quidditch Boy. In about fourteen hours, to be exact. Why did the prospect of this meeting hold so much for me? I mean, it was just a guy. Why did I relish the meeting with him like chocolate whenever I thought of it?

This was just so different from anything else I had ever thought about any boy. I admired some qualities in him, and I really trusted him. I felt like I could trust him with anything. I trusted Remus too, but this was different. Stronger, somehow.

I wrote a quick letter to Quidditch Boy.

Dear Quidditch Boy,
Hi. Okay, tomorrow's the day we're going to meet at Florean's. Just one thing so we can find each other. If you get there before me, sit at the table with the red umbrella. There's only one of them. Since we're meeting right when things open, we should be able to get the table.

Until tomorrow,
Flower-of-the-Valley

There. That should make it easier to find Quidditch Boy tomorrow. I watched his owl wing off into the setting sun, then sighed contentedly. I really couldn't wait for tomorrow.

Sleep. I think that that is honestly the most beautiful word in the entire english language. At and, I kid you not, one a.m., my phone rang. Once again someone's trying to contact me in the early hours of the day. This better be one heck of a phone call.

"Hello?"
"Lily?"
"No. It's the Queen. Of course it's me!"
"Yeah, um, hi. This is Lucy."
"Hi Lucy. Any particular reason you're calling me now?"
"Well, tomorrow morning would have been to late-"
"What's tomorrow?"
"Lily, do you want to hang out? There's been a ton of things going on, and we just haven't been able to hang out. Want to go see a movie or something tomorrow?"
"Sure, I-"

Oh, dang it. Quidditch Boy. I was meeting him in the morning tomorrow.
"Listen, I've got to go get something for school tomorrow morning, but I could meet you at the mall in London at noon."
"That would be great! See you then."

My friend hung up. Sighing, I reached over and set my alarm clock for nine. I was going to need it.

BEEP!!!!! BEEP!!!!! BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Officially, I need to get a way less obnoxious alarm clock ring. For a while I just snuggled back down into my pillow and blankets. Then I shot up again, this time narrowly but sucessfully missing the bedpost. Quidditch Boy!

I looked through my closet trying to decide what to wear. I didn't want to go too fancy. After all, I was going to the mall with Lucy afterward. But I didn't want to look like I just came from work on a farm or something. I wanted to look presentable. In the end, I settled on a green tank-top and a denim skirt.

"MUM? What's for breakfast?"
"Gourmet cereal and toast."
"Excellent." I sat down and filled a bowl with cheerios.
"So, what are your plans for today?" Mum asked as she grabbed the toast.
"Well, I was going to spend the morning in Diagon Alley. Then I said I'd meet Lucy at the mall at noon. We were going to have lunch and see a movie."
"A regular action-packed day."
"Yeah, pretty much."

At 10:26, I showed up at Florean Fortescue's. The red unbrella table was still vacant, and there were no boys around my age there. I ordered a scoop of ice-cream and sat down to wait.

I pulled out a book to help me pass the time. I just started to get really into the plot when I heard a cough. The kind of cough you use when you are trying to get someone's attention.
"Ummm... Are you Flower-of-the-Valley?"
"Yes, then you must be Quidditch B-" I started as I looked up.

A stunned silence followed. No. No Way!

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. But he was standing there, right in front of me. The boy I'd been waiting to meet for almost a week now stood in front of me. I was completely speechless. My book fell to the ground in a clatter, but I didn't retrieve it. The only thing I could do was sit there, frozen with shock.

"Lily?" His voice jolted me out of the fog. I couldn't believe that James Potter stood there, looking slightly concerned about my vacant, paralized expression.
"Uh. Uh. Lily. Yes. That's my name. Y-y-y-you're Quidditch Boy?"
"Yes."
"But, you're POTTER."
He smirked. "Yes. And you're Evans. My first name's James. My friends call me Prongs. Ring any bells?"
"Yes. But Quidditch Boy was NICE."

He gave me a look close to loathing. "Thanks so much, Evans."
"No, it's just, you always try to annoy me. He-"
"We're the SAME PERSON." He said in a slow, obvious voice.
"Yeah. Ok, you in the letter was understanding and didn't try to make fun of me."
"Look back. I asked you out every other day, but did I ever make fun of you?"

Hmm. Now that I thought about it, he really hadn't. He'd annoyed me half-way out of my mind, true, but it was being an arrogant tow-rag who liked to ask me out daily, but he had never been mean. Right then I decided on something I'd been denying for five years. I liked James Potter. I liked him a lot.
"No." I said in a small voice.
"What?"
"You're right. Maybe I should have given you more credit."
"Correct me if I'm wrong: Did Lily Evans just say I was right?"
"Yes. Because you are. I'm sorry."
"It's ok."

He smiled in a slightly slanted and off.
"I know this is kind of cliche considering the past six years I've known you, but would you like to stay? We could have ice cream. Talk this out."
"I'd like that." I smiled back. He looked shocked.
"Really? You're serious?"
"No, I'm Sirius's brother, Regulus. What, after six years of disappointment you can't take yes for an answer anymore?"
"No. Just give me a minute to defrost out of shock."
"I think that can be arranged. You want some ice-cream or something?"
"Thanks."

After I ordered a sundae with choclate frogs for James and another scoop for me, I sat across from him at our planned table. He was staring at me.
"What?"
"I- I just can't believe it's you. I mean, you didn't once call me an arrogant tow-rag in any of the letters!"
"Maybe I have been hard on you." I reflected. "Sorry."
"I'll forgive you if you forgive me for annoying you out of your mind."
"It's a deal."

"So... Let's just be Flower-of-The-Valley and Quidditch Boy again. What do you want to talk about?"
"Our friends? You wanted to set them up or something similar."
"Yes, I still do. I just haven't quite figured out the right way to do that yet."
"Shouldn't we establish who we're setting up with who?"
"Well, If I'm to assume that Chaser Gurl is Allison, Creature Witch is Ellie, and Shy Seer is Hannah-"
"You hit the nail on the head."
"Then Allison's writing Remus, Ellie's writing Peter, and Hannah's writing Sirius."
"Wait! Don't you understand? Allison's always crushed on Remus, Ellie has always been too scared to ask Peter out, and Hannah's to shy to ask Sirius out, but she loves him. I think the only one who didn't notice was Sirius."
"Then our job's that much easier."

"Urmmm..." James stammered. I gues it was a kind of an awkward topic. I braced myself for whatever was coming. "Look, what you said, about that guy, I really am sorry. I hope you know that, well, I may be an annoying tow-rag, but I'd never do anything like that to you."
"James, that means a lot to me, I guess. But does this mean you're asking me out?"
"Sort of. Does this mean you are accepting the offer?"
"You know what?"
"What?" This was the most excited I'd seen him since second year when he'd made the quidditch team. No, I think he was more excited now.
"I think I am."

Suddenly I remembered what I said to Lucy.
"Oh, dang it. I need to call one of my friends really quick."
"Wait! Lily, I want to hang out today. Just be together. Talk. Have fun."
"I do too. But I made other plans and I need to coordinate them. How'd you feel about going to a muggle mall? Maybe, say, for lunch today with a friend of mine, and maybe her boyfriend."
He gave me that kind of lop-sided smile again. "If it's with you, I'm game."

We walked through The Leaky Cauldron and out into a busy London street.
"Uh... How are we going to get a hold of your friend? She's not a witch, and a letter would take way to long."
"A phone." I said in a 'duh' kind of voice.
"This is probably going to sound like the dumbest question you've ever heard-"
"Try me." Allison had asked what crisps were, after all.
"What's a phone?"

Ok, maybe his did win first place with that question. I guess it came from the growing up as a wizard, not an everyday boy, but come on! How could you honestly not know what a phone was? I took a deep breath, counted to ten, and reminded myself that I was being nice to James now. As soon as I'd figured out I kind of liked (LIKED, not friend liked) James, I resolved to be nicer.

I stepped into the nearest telephone booth, paid, and dialed Lucy's number. After about two rings someone picked up the phone on the other end.

"Hello?"
"Lucy? It's Lily."
"Lily? You know we're not supposed to meet for another hour?"
"Yeah, uh, I had an idea for lunch. Maybe a-"
"Lily, what's the idea?"
"Well, how about a double date?"
"That's a great idea. I've been wanting you to meet Ben since you got back!"
"Great. I'll see you in an hour, then."
"Great. Meet us outside Tony's."

"Well?" James asked as I stepped out.
"How do you feel about Italian food?"
"That being..."
"Oh, come on. I've seen you eat. You'll eat anything." And I dragged him back into The Leaky Cauldron.
"We've got an hour to kill before I's said we'd go meet my muggle friend at the mall. Anything special you'd like to do?"
"Whatever you want."

Jeez, coming from James mouth, that was really nice to hear.

Awwwwwwwwwwww... Aren't James and Lily cute?
Sorry there's no letter in this chapter this time, but I didn't really think I needed there to be one.

I spent most of that morning walking on sunshine. James and I spent our time just sort of walking around, staring in several shops. I continued to eat my ice cream as we walked. When we got to Quality Quidditch Supplies, James started talking on familiar ground: Quidditch.

"Have you ever actually played Quidditch, Lily?" He asked. I blushed.
"Not exactly. I haven't flown since those lessons in first year. Remember that?"
"Yep. I seem to recall you fell, twisted your ankle, and I... Um... Well... I don't really remember this part." James said awkwardly.

"You finished spectacularly, did a double flip off your broom, and laughed in my face." I reminded him.
"Oh yeah. That was the first day you called me a 'arrogant tow-rag.''
"It had to start sometime."

"Hey, why don't you come over to my house sometime next week? I could teach you to fly and stuff. If you don't mind Sirius being around."
"Sure. Maybe I can bring Allison. After I can, you know, stay above the grass, we could attempt two on two."
"Attempt?"

"Meaning it probably won't work if I'm playing." I admitted. The whole me falling off wasn't just a story, unfortunately. I was horrible on a broomstick. Come to think of it, I wasn't to hot at anything involving physical activity. I could probably crash a tricycle.

"It's not a big a deal. Sirius will make some smart remark, but we could always hex him if he does."
"You'll definately be hexing him then."
"I have no problems with that." James flashed his famous 'Marauder Grin'. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what's going through his head right then.

"Ok... Don't want to know." I eyed James. He looked normal enough. By normal, I mean 'muggle normal' not 'wizard normal'. He was wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, so he fell under 'muggle normal'. Wizard normal would have been a cloak, which he thankfully wasn't wearing.

"Alright. Ready to go to lunch?" I asked.
"Sure." He beamed down at me, and I smiled back up. Dang, he was cute.
"Ok. Come on, let's go to the mall." James looked kind of confused.
"What's a mall?" I laughed.
"Come on. I'll show you." And for the second time that morning, I lead James Potter out into the busy London street.

"I guess this would be a mall." James said.
"Yep." He was kind of in shock, but I knew what was going on. I grinned. He was so clueless, it was almost cute. "Come on. I think I see Lucy and Ben over there."

Tony's was a small little Italian place in the middle of the mall. It had been there since I was a little kid, and it had always been one of my favorite places to eat. I saw Lucy standing outside like she'd said she would be, waving frantically at me. I waved back.
"Hi, guys. This is my boyfriend, James Potter."





Hi. Sorry it's kind of a short chapter.

I was floating on happiness for the rest of the day. I hadn't realized how much I liked James. I'd been denying a fact that could have made my life a whole lot happier for so long. And it was all because my stupid pride wouldn't let me see past the 'I'm arrogant' sign that seemed to float over James head. Ok, I made up the sign, but it was very pronounced in my mind.

I don't remember much about the first date I had with him. I know that's what all those old couples look back on with watery eyes and say they remember everything, but I was just so happily bliss that I couldn't think of anything else.

James was sitting next to me, holding my hand. He was right there. SIIIIIIIIGGGGHHHHHHH. I was melting into a way-to-romantic-mushy-but-really-happy-anyway puddle of Lily. Hey, I was a very very very happy puddle, even if I was a puddle.

After lunch, James walked me home. I was coming back to an empty house, but I didn't care. I just walked up the stairs of my house. I was finally totally happy. I got to the den and switched on the television. I was just going to relax this afternoon.

Officially, I was horrible at vegging out in front of the TV. After about fifteen minutes, I got distracted. I got out my homework and a headset playing a CD some Ravenclaw kid had been handing out. He was convinced his band, 'The Weird Sisters', were the next big thing. I had to give it to them, they were pretty good.

I had listened to the whole thing twice and written two essays when I heard a giggle and a gasp from across the hall. I dropped my headset and cocked my head. I heard a groan and another giggle fit. Oh, dang! It was coming from Petunia's room.

Who did my sister think she was? I mean, yes she thought she was better than me, but was she playing at? Bringing her fiance into our house and having a heavy make-out session when Mum and Dad aren't home? Oh, gawd, the thought of it just made me sick. I made a mental note never to do something like this with James. At least, not for a few years and not here. Not my parent's house. Ugh.

Well, she couldn't call me a freak anymore. Even people who can levitate objects and turn animals into cups ranks above her.

Carefully, taking extra care not do disturb the 'passionate lovers' (mega ugh), I untwisted my legs, picked up my stuff, and rose. Saying a quick prayer that no one would here me, I twisted the doornob and exited into the hallway.

It was worse then I planned, but better then it could have been. The door was open, but I was determined not to look. Quickly and silently, I crept up the staircase to my room. Only one stair (thankfully one near the top) squeaked. I got to my room safely and shut the door.

Leaning against the door, I let out a big sigh. I's been holding my breath the whole time. How could my sister do this? I really needed to distract. Slowly, taking calm steps, I walked over to my bookshelf. There, I kept all my spellbooks. But I also had a wide variaty of muggle fantasy books. Made up stories.

Muggles weren't bad at all. I know my parents made me biast, but it was true. They did have some good ideas. And I loved all of the fantasy books they had written. It left so many chances to slip into a totally made-up world.

After about an hour of reading a random fantasy novel, I heard a impatient peck at my window. Instantly, my plus jumped up about sixty beats per second. I dropped my book without a second thought and leaped up to go get the owl. It was from who I expected. Qudditch Boy.

But, just as I locked up Archimedes and got my hands on the letter, I heard my mum yell "LILY!! IT'S TIME FOR DINNER!!! COME ON DOWN BEFORE YOUR FOOD GETS COLD!!!!!" I decided that, having just seen James this morning, I could wait until I ate dinner with my family.

My parents, of course, were already sitting in the kitchen by the time I got downstairs. Mum was finishing up making the chicken we were going to eat for dinner. My dad, since he works for the Minister, was reading the paper. He never has a chance to read any more than the headlines before he goes to work. Petunia wasn't there. She was probably at some fancy dinner with Vernon. I thought about this afternoon and shuddered, glad she wasn't here.

"Hi, Lily. How was your day?" My dad asked me from behind the London Prophet.
"Not much. I went shopping. Met a friend." I wouldn't describe James as a 'friend', but it was the easiest way for the sake of my short summary. And I didn't want to make a big deal about it. He was just a nice guy who asked me out. And for the first time, I took him seriously, didn't call him 'Potter' or an 'arrogant tow-rag' and said yes.

"Did you have fun with Lucy over lunch?" My mom asked. She liked to know that I had fun with my muggle friends. It makes her happy to know I haven't taken Petunia to hard.
"Yes, Mum. I brought a friend, she brought a friend, we ate at Tony's, you know. You're average good lunch."

I sat there with my family. On a lot of days, especially days when Petunia had been given me a really hard time, it's been hard to remember what my family was when I wasn't a witch. And then, nights like tonight, I remember how my family can be. Sometimes I wonder if magic's worth it.

And, in all of this, in all the happiness, just talking to my parents in a happy family dinner, I almost forgot I had James's letter waiting for my upstairs in my room. Almost.
(Archimedes was also pretty hard to forget.)

How'd I do? Hope you like it! Feedback link is in my siggie, so please tell me what you thought.

That day I spent with Lily was phenominal. She was so nice. She's always been beautiful and amazing, but today was different. Today she actually looked at me like a person. After she defrosted from shock, we had a nice coversation. No one called the other by their last name, and I didn't get called an arrogant tow-rag or have a comment made about my big head. All in all, a pretty good talk.

She 'called' one of her muggle friends on a 'phone' (I didn't really understand this part, but it wasn't that important) and set up a double date for our lunch. I don't remember the name of the restaurant. All I remember is Lily sitting there, laughing at me as I struggled with the muggle stuff. But it was a nice laugh. A 'he's funny I like him' laugh.

When I got home, Sirius had already come back from the Leaky Cauldron. I was about to ask him what he'd been up to, but then I remembered what little information he'd given me, I decided I didn't really want to know.

"Hey, Prongs." Sirius said. I sat down on his guest bed.
"Hi, Padfoot. Hade a good day?"
"Pretty. Yeah, I'd say good."
"There's no chance of you telling me what you were doing?"
"None."
"Right. That's what I thought."

"So, how was your day?" Sirius asked me.
"Not telling."
"Awwwwwwwww. Come on Prongs." I guess it was because of his animagus was a big dog, but he did a MEAN puppy-dog pout.
"Hey, Padfoot, If you don't have to tell me what happened to you, then I don't need to tell you what happened to me."
"You're no fun."
"We settled that in second year, remember?"

"So, if neither of us are going to talk about our days, you want to go play quidditch or something?" Instantly, even at his own suggestion, Sirius perked up. I couldn't help but do so also. We were both completely and totally obsessed with quidditch. I was a chaser, and he was a beater. "What do you say, Prongs? I keep for you, you dodge for me?" He knew perfectly well that my jobs were more dangerous, but he didn't care.

Well, to be perfectly honest, I didn't really care either. I liked quidditch so much I kind of forced myself to forget about that stuff and focus on the game we were about to play. In the back of my mind, my great day popped into my head.

"Oh, hey. Give me a minute to change and get my broom. I'll be right back." Before my friend could protest, I rocketed out of the room and up the stairs to my bedroom.

I wrote Lily a quick letter.

Dear Lily,
Hi. I had a great time today, and I hope you did too. Listen, when do you want to come over for that flying lesson? Any time that works for you works for me. I hope you and Allison can come over sometime soon.

Listen, I'm sorry I can't write much, but I've gotta go. Sirius is waiting for me outside. I really need to get going, or he'll come in here snooping. And then he'll see this. And that might be kind of bad, considering.

Write back soon,
James

I sent the letter with Archimedes right before Sirius burst in.
"Hey, hurry up, mate! Are we gonna play or what?"
"Uh... Yeah. Sure. Give me just one more minute." A very annoyed Sirius backed out. I threw on a makeshift uniform, grabbed my broom, and raced down the steps before Sirius could complain again.

Sirius, being seventeen, could do magic outside of Hogwarts without getting a warning from the ministry. He enchanted an area to keep in the bludgers, and we got down to playing.

We practiced with scoring first. Sirius kept the goalposts for me while I took the quaffle. Flying easily, I streaked down the field, intent on the goal-posts. Sirius circled them, ready for anything. He knew full well what I could do, even when faced with the best keepers. And he, to be honest, was no keeper.

Veering to the right, I pulled even with the nearest of the goals. I cocked my arm back, aimed, and perpared to fire at the goal I had chosen. I was taking a big risk, bating Sirius in an almost mean way. But would my friend take the bait? Would he fall into the trap he'd watched several opposing keepers fall into?

I was in luck. He took the bait I'd set out for him. He wasn't the first. As he zoomed to protect the right goal, I flew past him toward the left. It wouldn't be easy for him to recover from that burst of speed. I dunked the ball in the middle hoop easily, Sirius streaking of towards the right, still trying to pull around. I laughed nicely at my friend.

Sirius didn't find any of this nearly as funny as I did.
"Not fair. You faked it."
"Since when is that a rule?" I asked skeptically.
"Since now." Sirius retorted, crossing his arms.
"Oh come on. You've told me that was a brilliant move when we used it against Slytherin."
"Hmph." Said Sirius, although I could tell he was acting now.
"Come on. You practice for a minute."

This perked him up. If you ever needed to energize Sirius, a good idea is to let him practice his beater skills on you. You may wind up with a lump on the back of your head the size of an ostrich egg, but I for one find it sort of worth it.

After a couple hours of quidditch, my mum came out and told us it was time to come in and eat dinner. Now, I don't know if you know this, but Sirius and I have the appitietes of elephants. Maybe sperm whales. I don't know, some very big animal.

"How was your day?" Mum asked.
"Good." I said. "Went up to Diagon Alley. Looked at Quality Quidditch Supplies. Had an ice cream over at Flortescue's. At lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. You know, nothing special." Sirius raised his eyebrows and gave me a 'There's something you're not telling me' look. I grinned.

At this happy family dinner, I almost forgot I was waiting for a reply from Lily. Almost.

Ok, I wanted to try a chapter from James's point of view. Please tell me how I did. Feedback link is in my siggie.

Over the next few weeks, me and James became really, really close. It was like there was this whole side to him that I'd never even known about. Everything was going perfectly. My family (excluding Petunia, of course) was great, James was great, life was great.

I was still myself, though. And, being myself, I still made a few mistakes. Like when Allison and I went over to James's house for the two-on-two quidditch game and I (somehow) managed to save the quaffle from Sirius, then also managed to fall of the cleansweep Alli lent me. But James swooped down and caught me. Totally romantic, right?

But then, there were a few things I could help James with too. I was very good at making sure he got everything right in his homework. (He's smart and all, he just doesn't like homework.)

We were having a blast. Hanging out, flying on brooms, watching Filibuster's fireworks, going to Diagon Alley for an ice-cream at Fortescue's. Just did your average wizard-witch boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, you know.

That is, my life was great until July twentith. You see, that was the day of Petunia's wedding. Major gross-ugh-day. So, to hopefully help, I invited James to come. His first letter had been something along the lines of:
If your sister thinks your a freak, what will she make of me? So I wrote back and said:
I couldn't really care less. The invitation says 'bring escort' so you sound ok to me. So he said:
Ok I'll be there.

"Do I look ok?" James asked. I surveyed him. He had, somehow, managed to find a muggle suit. His hair was, as always, messy and slightly wind-blown. His hazel eyes sparkled down at me from behind his glasses.
"You look great. But Petunia might go nuts over your hair. She's one of thos people who thinks if you look dirty, you should be thrown in jail."

"I thought you said you didn't care what she thought." He inquired.
"I don't. I'm just warning you. Vernon's even worse than Petunia." And, taking his hand, I walked into the church.

I don't really remember much of the service. To be honest, I kind of tried to forget it. It wasn't one of the 'top ten best moments of my life.' What really stuck with me that day was my Mum in the front row next to me. She was crying happily. But she also kept giving James and me approving looks.

I also remember James almost cracking up at several times during the course of the cerimony.
"Quit it." I whispered in his ear.
"I thought you didn't care what your sister thought." He pointed out again.
"I don't. But I do care what my parents think." He quieted down at that.
"Oh, right. Sorry. I'll be good."

The reception was decent. James got up and asked me to dance a couple of times, and I always excepted.
"Come on. Let's go congradulate the 'happy couple'." I air-quoted happy couple. He laughed.
"Alright. If you say so."

Petunia didn't take it as well as she might have.
"Go away!" She screeched. "You're embarassing us!"
"Petunia, dear? Oh, it's those freaks you've been telling me about." said an extremely pudgy fellow. He was the fattest, most out of shape person I'd ever seen. His belly was even bigger than Professor Slughorn's. But this guy seemed a lot less friendly than Slughorn.

But the 'freak' comment registered in my head. I rounded on my sister.
"What does he mean, freak?" I asked.
"Well, you go to a special school. You're never around. You're not normal, see? That's usually what freak means." Vernon shot us a look worthy of a venomous tentacula.

James tensed up.
"We aren't freaks." He said, his voice slow and controlled. I could tell he was keeping in his temper in check.
"Yeah? Prove it."
"James, no." I pulled on his arm, the arm that was reaching for his wand. "Come on, let's just go."

I was nearly in tears. My sister talked to her husband about me like that? "Mum, we're going." And we left. But James's hand was still clasped around mine. And that helped. A lot.

Over the next week or two, James and I spent more and more time with each other. He tried to teach me how to fly (and I put the enfusis on the world try; me flying is not the pretty sight James flying is) and I helped him with his summer homework. We went to lunch in Diagon Alley multiple times. We even went back to Tony's once or twice. Turns out that James loves Italian food.

On July twentith, the school letters came. I'd never tell James, but it was kind of nice to get an owl that wasn't Archimedes. There was a whole lot less scraping, pecking, and general noise when there was a school owl. And they were a whole lot less feathers left in my room after the bird actually left.

As a not very surprising bonus this year, I got the head girl badge in my school letter. Along with the badge, there was a letter from Dumbledore. It was instructions about what me and the head boy (my guess is Remus) would do. It also requested that we meet him in his office after the start of term feast.

I did a little happy dance around my bedroom. If you're wondering, that includes me hopping up and down. Then I spin while still hopping, saying "Oh yeah, I did it! It's my birthday! Oh yeah.." And so on and so forth.

Well, I mean, my sister's wedding had completely and totally sucked. The only good thing about it was that James had been there. If he would have blown Vernon into a balloon, It would have totally made the whole thing worth it. But he would have been carted off to Azkaban if that had happened, so I was happy with the current outcome.

But since then, my life had gotten steadily better. For starters, Petunia wasn't around anymore. I'd gone to the mall a couple times with Lucy and Sarah. There'd also been several trips to diagon alley with my mates from Hogwarts. We'd all gotten together a couple times as well, and that had been fun.

And then, of course, there had been James. He was like the sun now. It was thoughtless to think of living without him. (Like it? Thoughtless to think?)

Just as my mind crossed James, I heard several excited sqeaks and hyper pecks on my window. I splumped down on my bed slightly. Well, this was great. The demon owl (AKA Archimedes) had returned to my room. And I was thrilled.

The pecking and squeaking increased. "Alright, Alright!" I said resignedly. I got up and opened the window. He dropped the letter and flew into the wardrobe. I grinned. That owl learned well.

I opened Jame's letter. Here's what it said:
Dear Lily,

Hey, Lily. You're the new Head Girl, right? Of course you are. Who else could it be? I mean, it could be someone else, of course. But you're the most obvious choice. But... Ok, now I'm just rambling. Moving on.

Guess who your head boy is? Yeah, ok, I know, Remus right? Well, you'd think that, wouldn't you? But in truth, you would be wrong. Guess what? It's me! Cool, huh?

Remeber at the beginning of the summer, when we talked about setting our friends up? Well, maybe we could throw a party or something when school starts. We could try to set them up then. Are you game?

Write back and tell me soon,
James

I smiled. Quickly, I found a quill and penned the following reply:
Dear James,

No, you're wrong. I'm not Head Girl. It's Bellatrix Lestrange! Ha ha ha ha! Good luck with that!

Ha! Bet your heart skipped a beat when you read that, didn't it? Sorry, just kidding around. No, it really is me. As to the planning the party, hows about a Halloween ball? Could you possibly come over to my place in two days, and we'll plan it then? Sound good to you?

Yours,
Lily

I watched Archimedes wing off into the afternoon sun. I found myself day-dreaming about James. Hanging out with him, talking to him, dancing with him... All of these flitted in and out of my mind. There were even a couple fantasies of kissing him. Sigh.

I was woken very reudely by the telephone on my bedside table. I sighed again. Oh, well. Can't spend all day dreaming about some guy, now can I? Sooner or later, I've got to come back and re-enter reality. That would include answering the phone, if you're curious.

"Hello?" I asked the mouthpiece.
"Hey, this is Lucy. Could I speak to Lily?"
"Hi, Lu."
"Oh. Hey, Lily! Sorry about that."
"No big deal. What's up?"
"Not much. How are things with you?"
"I got Head Girl at my school."

There was a happy little squeal on the other end of the phone. I held the reciever at arms length.
"I take it this means you're happy for me, then?"
"Happy? Lily, I'm bursting! This is great! I'd knew you'd have some seniority! You're so smart, and you follow the rules, and well, you're just brilliant!"
"Thanks! Really, thanks, Lucy."
"You're welcome, Lily."

"Was there any reason you called? Or did you jut want to hear the sound of my beautiful voice?"
"I had a reason." Lucy laughed. "You want to go to the mall with Sarah and I?"
"Yeah, that'd be great! Where do you want to go?"
"I don't know. Maybe go shopping at Macy's or something? We could have dinner at Tony's afterward if that's ok with you. Or would you rather fo someplace else?"

"No, no. Tony's is great. And Macy's sound pretty good to me too. Were you in the mood for a shopping spree?" I bet you anything that Lucy was smiling on the other end.
"Oh, you know it."
"Great. I'll see you there then."
"Perfect! Meet me and Sarah outside the store in about twenty minutes."
"I can't wait. See you then, Lucy!"

"What do you guys think?" I posed, on hand on my hip and extended the other. I was showing of a pretty green halter I was thinking about buying. I also tried on a knee-length jean skirt and silver strapy heels. I turned around, then clasped my hands and held up one leg. My friends laughed.

If you didn't know, we were in Macy's trying some different stuff on. I'd found an outfit I really liked, so I showed it off to my mates. Apparently, they liked it. They were clapping and giving me a thumbs up. Lucy wore a pair of capri pants and a lavender short-sleeve shirt. A sliver belt matched my silver heels and her silver flip-flops. Sarah wore a pale brown parchmenty colored tank-top and black shorts. Yellow flowers and flip-flops advertised themselves proudly.

"Well, it's my opinion that we all look absolutely fabulous." I declared. The others nodded, smiling.
"Oh totally. Now, let us beautiful people change back into our street clothes and go check out, shall we?" Said Sarah. Laughing, we changed back into clothes that we already owned. We were lucky that Sarah and Lucy convinced me to try on a lot of stuff, or we would have gotten caught in front of the store. And right at that moment, that sort of meant certain death at that moment.

"Attention all shoppers! Attention all shoppers!" A man's voice blared over the loudspeakers. He was probably addressing the entire mall with his announcements.
"He must be talking to the whole mall." Lucy appeared to read my mind.
"But why do you reckon he-" Turns out, I didn't need to ask that question. The guy on the loadspeaker said it all.

"We have a code red security breach. Calling all units. I repeat; we have a code red security breach in front of Macy's department store." Sarah, who was walking in the middle, caught me and Lucy's arms. We stood stock still as we listened to the person on the PA system. I didn't know what my two friends were thinking, but I was thinking something along the long the lines of 'Well, this is going to suck'.

"Armed persons are located at the entrance of the Macy's department store. Please exit immediately through through the nearest emergancy or standard exit. All units please report to set up a perimeter. For those in Macy's, please do not try to exit. You will be to high off the ground. Lock yourselves somewhere secure and wait until we give the all-clear. Thank you."

Sarah's nails inserted themselves into my arm. Quickly, I ran over to to the window. The dark mark was hanging over the mall. Great. Why couldn't it be a normal, muggle psycho?

"Come on, Lily. We've got to go! Or, at least, we got to hide spmeplace!"
"Come on!" Echoed Lucy. "The dressing rooms!"
"Guys, look!" I sighed. "Look, he's a wizard. I'm one two. I've, like, got to go stop him before he kicks major normal-policeman butt!" I pleaded.
"Lily, I think the cosemtics have gone to your head. We've got to go."

This was going to take some explaining. But now wasn't the time. "Expecto Patronum!" I called. My dove patronus fluttered around happily. "Believe me now?"

They nodded and went to hide. I pulled my communication mirror out.
"Guy's, Voldemort's at the mall. I need some kind of backup, pronto!" They nodded and vanished from the screen, appearing around me.

Well, here's our odds: Four teenagers against a crazy but exceedingly powerful wizard.

Oh, just heck.

The battle we were about to run into was no doubt going to be ugly. Picture the ugliest thing you can think of. Bugs, dead flowers, roadkill, whatever. Now times that ugliness by ten or fifteen. That's we were running towards, not away from like any sane person would. Oh, the fun of it all.

"Where are they?" Ellie asked.
"I don't know." I peered around expectantly. We were all waiting for You-know-who to jump out at us, but he didn't.
"Where should we look." Allison questioned, wand at the ready.
"Um, let's listen for gunfire."

"Lily? Not to sound dumb or anything, but what's 'gunfire?' Some sort of flame? You can't hear fire, you know." Oops. I'd forgotten none of my friends were muggle-borns.
"Well, it's-"

Two sharp blasts fired into the quietness. A few more followed the first ones, and then a vanquished scream followed that. Dang. Double dang. Total and complete dang.
"I'm guessing that's gunfire." said Hannah.
"You bet. Come on!" We raced off at the sound of another scream, this one accompanied by a purely evil laugh.

"Spread out!" Allison said. She was a natural leader. "Lily, get all the muggles out! Ellie, go to the ministry tell them what going on! We're going to need help! Hannah, you and me rush him. Pray it's only him. If it's not, we're all dead meat."
"Nice plan." I commented sarcastically. "You're real optomistic."
"You got a better plan?"

"Not really. But do you need more backup?" A guy's voice said from behind me. Scared, we all whipped around. Behind us, all sporting matching grins, were the Marauders. No, not all of them. Just Peter was missing. But it felt great to have them here.

"James! Remus! Sirius! Oh, thank God!" I said. I flung my arms around James. He smiled for the briefest second, then looked serious.
"I'll help Lily get the people out. Moony, you go with Ellie. Padfoot, you take Lord Voldy-thing with Allison and Hannah."
"Gotchya covered, Prongs." responded Sirius, rolling up his sleeves.
"Right. Move, move, move!"

It had begun!


I watched in horror as we turned the corner. Muggle police officers lay strewn everywhere, all in varying degrees of pain, injury, and and death. Voldemort and a couple of Death Eaters were showering curses on those muggles still standing.

"Everyone leave! We'll take it from here, you go!" James started screaming. I was covering his back as best I could as he worked.
"Are you kids crazy? We're not leaving you alone!" One woman screamed.
"Yeah! You guys will get creamed if we don't help you out!" One man, only a few years older than us, said.

"You'll stand not much of a chance as it is. We will. we know how to fight him." James continued. I deflected a curse with difficulty.
"Not to be rude, James, but could we pick up the pace here?"
"There is no way we're going to leave a handfull of teenagers on their own to fight-"
"Listen to them!"

My dad, a policeman in our little suburban town, had fought his way over to us.
"Dad!" I called gratefully. Tears were starting to stream down my face. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, sweetie." He turned back to the others. "Listen to my daughter and her friends. They can help."
"You're sure, John?"
"They have my total trust and confidence."

One by one, the police officers left. I looked happy, but inside I was worried. What would happen when they were all gone? We couldn't hold up on our own. Once the numbers started to go down a lot, Ellie and Remus returned.

"The Ministry will be here in five minutes! Can we hold up until then?" Remus called, hexing a Death Eater expertly.
"We'd better be able to!" Hannah yelled back.
"Dad! Get out of here! Impetimenta!" I called.

My dad's eyes, green ones exactly like mine, were set and determined.
"I'm not leaving you!"
"Didn't you just tell the others to high-tail it out of here? Why aren't you going?"
"You're my daughter! I'm responsible for you!"
"How to I tell mom if you get it!"
"Tell her I died protecting all of us!" He took aim and fired.

Maybe Gryffindors aren't only wizards. And maybe it ran in my family. James and I, back to back, fought the Death Eaters. We each took out two or three of them with Noverballs. But there were more of them coming all the time.

"Mudblood!" Called a witch, and she ran at me, spells flying.
"Lily, no!" I heard a voice scream. It was my dad, running towards me. I almost knew what he was going to do.
"Dad! Don't do it!" I sobbed. But it was a vain attempt. By the time the words had left my mouth, he had jumped in front of me, taking the full blow of some curse or jinx.

Everything fell into slow motion. It took my father an absolute age to fall to the ground. When he did finally touch the ground, I saw his face. It looked peaceful, eyes closed and mouth in niether a smile nor a frown. I fell to my knees and placed my head on his chest. Was there a heartbeat?

I'd never been sure if I'd believed in a God, but at that second, I prayed with all the might in the world. Oh, please, God, please let my dad not die. We need him, Mom and me. We just couldn't go on without him. Please don't let him die!

A hideous cackle jolted me to me senses. Peering through my hair, I saw the accursed witch who had hurt him standing over me.
"Oh, dearie, did you're daddy die? Filthy mudblood! If he'd have been a wizard, that wouldn't have happened, would it?"

Fury blinded me totally. I jumped up and began to curse her mercilessly. Finally, I pinned her to the wall. All of her power was gone. Her wand lay on the floor some feet away.
"You listen to me. My dad is a great man. He was far more worthy to have magic than you. But that's not the way things worked. But he's much more of a person than you are. You don't deserve the wand you carry!" I walked over to her wand and snapped it in half with my foot.

"You dare to stand against me, you filthy mudblood? Me, within who the pure blood of the Blacks run?"
"The blood of the Blacks is as black as there name, Aunt!" A voice called from behind me.

Sirius stood there. Usually he looked kind of happy, go lucky. Occasionally he looked unhappy, but it was usually fleeting and faded when the next meal was served. Now he looked absolutely livid.
"Lily, go on. I'll handle this." I nodded. I knew how much he loathed his family; it was a bad idea to stand between the two.

I ran back to my father. He lay just as I had left him, still and peacefull and unmoving. Again I tried to find a pulse on him. Finally, when I put my hand to his neck, I felt it. Oh, thank God. I just lay there, hugging him.

"Lily? Lily, are you alright?" James said. He was shaking me. "Come on, the ministry are here! They need to take your dad to the hospital." I climbed off him, brushing away my tears of releaf. A man in white robes stood next to James.
"Is he...?"
"No, he's alive. I think he'll be ok."
"I hope, for your family, that you are right, Miss." The man smiled. "Please permit me to examine him."

James took me up into a hug. "He will be alright." James whispered into my ear. "I know he will."

Thanks for all the feedback you guys have given me. The feedback link is in my siggie.

"Mrs. Evans? You're husband-"
"Yes, yes, is he alright?" My mother asked worriedly. She'd only asked every other healer who had passed us about him. Now that the healer who actually knew something had shown up, and mom looked ready to go through the roof.

If you hadn't guessed, we were sitting in the tea room of St. Mungo's hospital. We had been standing outside Dad's room for a couple of hours, but a healer had come and said that Dad wouldn't be coming out any time soon, so we would probably be more comfortable up in the tea room.

"You're husband is John Evans?" the woman asked. She had blond hair pinned back in a bunn with a claw and a nice face.
"Yes. My name is Ann Evans. How is he?"
"He's still very weak. Some unknown curse of dark orgin hit him, one that made him extremely faint and he doesn't yet have enough stregnth to go back to everyday life. But I think he would be up to seeing you and your daughter, if you wish."

"Thank you very much, Healer-" My mum only just realized that she didn't know the woman's name.
"My name is Healer Janet Malicar. Please, follow me." I followed her, almost dying of not knowing. My Dad was like, dying, and I had to just wait and be a good girl! It was killing me, totally and completely murdering me from the inside out!

"Here is his room." Without even stopping to let my brain register what room dad was staying in, I flung myself through the door.
"Dad! Dad, are you alright?" I saw him laying on the bed, staring at some book they had given him. When he saw Mum and me rushing towards him, he smiled weakly.

"Oh, John. John, dear, are you alright?"
"Yes, Ann, I'm fine. Just a little tired is all. I'll be much better soon."
"That's a relief. When will you be able to come back home? Did one of the healers tell you?"
"They say that it will only be a few days. I just need to take some 'strength replenishing' potion once an hour, and they say that should fix things."

"Dad, I'm so sorry." I said, taking his hand in both of mine. He was a big guy, and it took both of my hands to hold one of his. He looked at me questioningly.
"Why are you sorry? You aren't the one who hit me with whatever that was."
"No, but you were protecting me from that witch! I should be the one in that bed, not you. And if me and my friends hadn't been stupid enough to rush into a battle way to big for us. You thought you had to stay and help us fight them off!"

"Now, Lily." Mum put her arm around me. "Niether of us blame you for what happened today."
"But I do! He was protecting me, that's how he got hurt!"
"Lily, listen. You never asked me to stay; in fact, you told me to leave. You never asked me to save you; I made that decision for myself. The people here said that a child or young person wouldn't have servived; only an adult would have. If I hadn't done what I did, you would be dead. That's a much worse prize than me being stuck in bed for a few days."
My dad was, without a doubt, the bravest man I knew.

"We're going to be back tomorrow. Get better soon, Darling." My mother stroked my father's head.
"Yeah, Dad." I added. "And I'm sorry."
"Don't be, sweetie. I'll see you tomorrow. Try not to get attacked by any more Death Eaters while I'm stuck in here, alright?"

Tears ran down my face. My Dad. Oh, I was so grateful to whatever saved him. He was injured, and he was worrying about me. I bent over his bed to hug him. "Don't worry about me, Dad. Just put all your energy into getting better. I'll be fine."

As we walked out of the hospital room, I glanced back at my father. Only then did I fully understand how much the spell had taken out of him. He was already sleeping like a baby. He must have been fighting to stay awake the whole time we were there with him. A fresh wave of tears made their way down the already beaten paths their formers had taken.

"Lily! Oh, Lily, is he alright?" Allison flung her arms around me. I staggered slightly under her wait. After I got my balance, I was crushed by a massive 'My-friend-needs-to-be-cheered-up' Allison hug. I kid you not, the air was being squeezed from my lungs.

Ellie understood that I was otherwise detained (AKA stuck in Allison's arms) and turned to Mum. "Is he alright, Mrs. Evans?"
"Yes, dear. He's just very weak right now."
"They say they'll let him out in a couple of days, once he's strong enough to go back to work and stuff like that." My friends and I gave each other high-fives.

My friends! I'd left Sarah and Lucy back at the mall!
"Uh, guys, I've got to go. I left Sarah and Lucy right when Voldemort's cronnies showed up."
"Do you want us to come with you and back up whatever story you tell?" Hannah asked helpfully. I laughed.
"No thanks, Hannah. Thank you for the offer, though. I think I owe them the truth."
"i'm sure they'll understand, Lily." My mum said. "I'll see you tonight at dinner, right?"

"Yes, mum. Don't wo-whoa-worry." I hadn't slept all night, and I was really very tired. But I had to find them. I checked my watch. Eleven-thirty, good. They should be awake by now.

"Hello?"
"Yes, this is the Fortunatas's home. May I ask who's calling?"
"Lucy? It's me, Lily." I stood in one of the clasic red telephone booths, one just outside the Underground exit nearest my home.
"Oh. Hi." She sounded really happy that I called.
"Look, I'm sorry I left you guys back at Macy's. But my dad was on his deathbed. Can you cut me a little slack?"

All the hostility melted away from Lucy's voice.
"Your dad's on his deathbed? Omigosh! What happened? Is he alright?" She didn't wait for me to answer her question. She just plowed on. "Of course he's not! Well, he's not like, dead or anything, is he?"

There was a shuffling noise on the other end. "Lily?" A different person's voice said into the reciever.
"Sarah? Is that you?"
"Yes. Please tell me your Dad didn't die, or I will bop Lucy here over the head."
"Hey!" I heard Lucy exclaim on the other end.
"Don't worry, Sarah, my Dad's fine. You don't have to hit Lucy or anything."
"Thank you! Hey! Sarah, she said you didn't have to hit me!"

I laughed along withmy mates. "Hey, guys, I'm really sorry about yesterday, and I'd like to explain things proberly. Could I maybe come over in an hour or so?"
"Of course, Lily. And we're sorry we got mad at you yesterday."
"It's not a big deal. And I'm sorry I lied to you for five or six years."
"No big deal, right back at yo- Hey, wait, you've been lying to us for six years? Since when?"
"She's been lying to us for how long?!?!" I heard Lucy screech. I laughed.

"You are in some serious trouble, Missie!" Sarah said. I was pretty sure she was joking, however. She didn't sound mad or annoyed anymore. And Lucy chuckling in the background. Sarah was probably smiling or making some kind of goofy face while she yelled at me.
"I promise, I will explain everything in an hour. Deal?"

I heard both Lucy and Sarah, at the same time, say "Deal." Well, let's go break the biggest wizard law ever, right?

As I left the telephone booth, something heavy and paper fell at my feet. Curious, I picked it up. The thing appeared to be a letter. When I flipped it over, iI saw the addresse's name. It was my own. I was pretty sure it was from James.

Dear Lily,
I hope your Dad is ok. He looked kind of beat up yesterday. Remus got a bad jinx in the stomach, but he's doing fine now. Me and Sirius suffered no major damage. How did your friends do?

Tell me everything at my house, or write me if something really serious happened.

Yours,
James.
Yep, it was from James.

Dear James,

Your owl is really good. He managed to find me on the way home from St. Mungo's on a muggle street! I'd give him an extra mouse or something if I had one.

My dad's ok, or at least he will be in a couple of days. No one knows what that death eater hit him with, or at least if the healers know they won't tell Mum and me. He said he just needs to get better and he'll be home in a couple of days. You want to come over tomorrow?

~Lily.

P.S. Sorry about the ink spots. I stayed up all night with dad and I'm really sleepy.

I sent Archimedes off with James's letter. He hooted briefly and flew away. I stretched sleepily and considered taking a nap. But as good as that sounded, I couldn't go to sleep just yet. My friends were coming over in fifteen minutes, and I had to be ready for that.

I dragged myself down three flights of stairs. Normally having my room on the top floor was a good thing, but now I thought it was kind of tiresome. I made some Peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches, cut in little triangles and stuck down the middle to make it look fancier. I filled three large glasses with pumpkin juice and placed them on a tray with the plate that bore a heap of the PB & J's. I brought that up to the den, and then took a deep breath.

Should I really be doing this? Everyone knew that muggles couldn't know about magic. Everyone knew that, from the little kids who collected the choclate frog card about a witch who went to Azkaban multiple times for showing magic to muggles to the seventh years at hogwarts to the old men at the ministry of magic. It just wasn't done. And I had broken one of the oldest wizard taboos on earth. What fun.

But before I could cave into paranoia, the front doorbell rang. Knowing that was Lucy and Sarah, all the sleepiness left my body and I rushed downstairs. Sure enough, both of my friends were huddled on the front porch, looking excited and happy. Of course they were excited. Who didn't want to hear magic really exsisted. Doing my best to smile, I let them in.

"Hi, guys. I've got some snacks and stuff up in the den. You want to talk there?"
"Sure. I'm a little hungry, anyway." Sarah said as we climbed the steps.
"Sarah. You're always hungry. You just had an apple before we came over." Lucy shoved Sarah.
"Well, I'm hungry again." Sarah managed to cross her arms and run up stairs at the same time.

I didn't have to try and smile now. I laughed readily with my friends, happy that they weren't mad at me. I opened the door to the den, and we all walked in and plopped down on various kinds of chairs. Sarah finished two sandwhiches in the time it took Lucy and me to get comfy and pick up a first sandwhich.

"Ok, so. You guys." I started kind of brokenly. "Remember when we were little, and I would do all of those weird little tricks that no one else could and that Petunia hated?"
"Oh yeah." Lucy recalled. "Like those times you did the monkey bars without holding on to anything and made the flower petals dance around us without any wind?" I had only done cutesy stuff when I was little.

"Yeah, those things. And how, when we went off to our different schools, all of that stopped?" I pressed on.
"You said you didn't know how you had done that stuff, but you couldn't figure out how to do it anymore." Sarah said. At least, that's what I thought she said. Her mouth was stuffed full of sandwhich, so it sounded like 'U set u didn' no ow u add on dat fuff.' We all smiled, even Sarah.

"Well, I did know what that was. I still do. I didn't go to that special writing school I told you about. I went to this school called Hogwarts. It's a school that teaches you how to use magic."
"Magic? You mean where you wave a wand and say 'abra cadabra' or 'bibbity bobbity boo?'" Sarah teased.
"No. More like Lumos!" I took out my wand and showed them how the wand tip lit up. My friends' faces made it look like Christmas, Easter, and their birthday had all come early, on the same day.

"So... why tell us all of this now, Lils?" Asked Lucy as she took a sip of the juice. "This is good. What is in this?"
"Oh, that's pumpkin juice." I said airily. "I couldn't tell you because-"
"Wizards and witches make juice out of pumpkins?" Sarah asked. One of her ebrows raise up, making her look curious and weird at the same time. But she took a sip too and smiled. "Hey, not bad."

"Yeah, well, you haven't lived until you've tried Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans or a goblet of butterbeer." I said. I really wanted to explain all this stuff to them. I could tell them about the food we had up at school later. "I couldn't tell you back when we were eleven or twelve because of this-"
"They make beer out of butter?" asked Lucy. "Weird!"
"They let kids drink beer at your school?" Sarah asked. "Weird!"
"Can I tell you guys why you're not supposed to know all this and get back to the food later?" I asked. I was beginning to feel a little on the tired side again.

My friends piped down. They looked a little sheepish for interupting me. "Alright, Lily. Go ahead." said Sarah. "Why is magic this big old secret that we normal people aren't supposed to know about? Would we all want magic to do every day stuff, like work and driving and walking and all of that good stuff?" Hannah wasn't the only one of my friends who was good at being blunt.

"Yes, that. But this isn't just some taboo that says muggles, normal people, can't know about magic. It's against the law. If they knew I'd told you guys about this, I'd be in so much trouble it wouldn't even be funny. I'd be arrested and taken to Azkaban, wizard's prison. And Azkaban, it's... not a nice place." I shuddered.

"Wizards have laws?" Lucy said curiously. Almost at the same time, Sarah said
"Wizards have prisons?" They turned and looked at each other. They nodded and said at the exact same time "Weird!" We all laughed.

This whole concept of muggles liking magic was completely new and different for me. My parents thought that the stuff I could do was amazing, but I always assumed that was just because I was their daughter. They would always like what I did. But I fully expected everyone else in the muggle world to react like Petunia did, shunning me because I was different.

Now, I sat face to face with proof against that theory. My two best friends from when I was a kid sat there, wandless and magical powerless, but they still took in all of this stuff I was talking about with happiness and a child-like sense of wonder. Maybe my parents were the normal muggles, and Petunia really was just jealous, like Severus had said.

No, don't think about Severus. I had barely spoken to him since owls, and I didn't want too. I wanted to be happy with the friends I had. Like Lucy and Sarah, for example. I brought myself back to earth and came to the head of the issue with the two muggles I was very proud to call 'friends'.

"You guys, I can't change the fact that I'm a witch, or that you guys are normal." I started.
"And we don't want you to. Not for a second." Lucy said quickly and seroiusly.
"I'll write to you guys every day when I go back, and I still want to hang out with you guys as much as possible."

"Not yet, Lily. We want to ask some more questions." They looked fiendish.
"You do?" I was slightly scared of the look my friends shared. Their eyes had lit up, and they both had roguish grins on their faces.
"Oh, yeah. You've been living in a world for seven years that we didn't even knew exsisted. Come on, you have to know you wouldn't get off with just 'I'm a witch.' Are Allison, Ellie, and Hannah witches as well? do they go to school with you?"

For the rest of the afternoon, my friends asked me questions about the wizard world, my friends, and my school. It's like they had prepared a three or four page test about wizards. The questions were everything from 'Are dragons real?' and 'Can people really fly on magical broomsticks?' to stuff like 'Are fashion styles the same in the magical world?' and "Are wizard boys as cute as muggle ones? Or are they way cuter and we're stuck with the ugly kind at our school?" (That last one had really made me laugh.)

When my friends finally had to go home, I waved as they walked away. They were coming over tomorrow morning to talk some more. My mum came up behind me and put her hands on my shoulders.
"Did you tell them the truth?" Mum whispered in my ear.
"Yes." I replied. The sun was setting in a red and yellow glow. "Do you think they'll arrest me?"

"You're friends will never tell anyone what you told them. They've been your friends since you all were toddlers. Why would they stop now? And besides, no wizard or witch will ever know about your friends, except Allison, Hannah, and Ellie. And they care about those girls as much as you do yourself." My mum always gave me great advice, advice that made me feel better. She was always there for me.

"I know. I just don't want to go to prison for doing the right thing."
"Lily, honey, doing the right thing is always right, no matter who will disagree with you. Never forget that. I know that you will do what needs do be done."

"I will, mum." Tears were beginning to find their way down my cheeks. "Can we go visit dad tomorrow?"
"Of course." She smiled sadly at me. I looked a lot like her. "Did you eat dinner with your friends?"
"Yes, Mum." I grinned. She was a mother through and through, no doubt about that.

"Alright. I'm going to go eat, then." She turned around and we walked back inside.


Later that evening, I sat alone in my room working on a history of magic essay. Professor Binns is our most boring teacher. He's probably the most boring teacher that anyone had ever seen. Even before he was a ghost he was boring.

I was about to finish my report when I heard a tap on my window. After a month and a half, I'd begun to reconize that annoying little sound as my next letter from James.

Dear Lily,

I'm glad about your dad. As for coming over to your house tomorrow, that's fine with me. When should I come over?

James

It wasn't much, but I fell asleep thinking about the fun I'd have with James tomorrow. How wrong I was.


Sorry it took me forever to post this chapter. I had exams at school, and I only had time to come on the computer every now and then.

The next morning, I was shaken awake well before dawn by my mother. She seemed tense. I mean, being a mum, she always worried a bit about something, but now she was in a right state about heaven knows what. I didn't know what was bothering her, and I doubted I wanted to find out.

"Lily!" Mum shook me harder now. "Lily, honey, wake up. An owl just came."

"Was it from James?" I asked groggily. I didn't think he would write this early or late, but it was possible. After all, who else sent my family owls? Everyone else either was a muggle and used the telephone or was one of my best friends and used the mirror.

"No, sweetie. The owl's from St. Mungo's." Tears started to inch their way down my mother's cheeks. "It's about your father." Every organ in my body dropped about three feet and twenty degrees.

"Dad? What happened? Is he getting worse? He's not..." I let my voice trail away, unable to say the word 'death' when talking about him. The man who raised me... dead? It couldn't be.

"Not yet, Lily." I let out a big sigh of relief. He was still alive! "They said that his oxygen level dropped hugely overnight, and he's having trouble breathing. That spell, whatever it was, is tampering with his organs. They aren't functioning properly."

"Can we go see him? Like, now?" I sprang out of my bed and immediately began to get dresssed. I didn't know what I was pulling on, but I didn't care. My father was dying!

"Lily, calm down. You need to eat something before we go-"

"Mum, I care more about Dad than my stomach." I said firmly. "I want to see him... I want to be there if..." I was not going to cry. I was going to be brave for my dad. And, I was going to find out what happened.

"I'll take the underground and meet you there in twenty minutes. Be safe." My mum smiled sadly. She knew I'd be apparating. But that wasn't all I was going to do. I was going to help my dad somehow, I just needed five minutes in a bookstore in... urg... Knockturn Alley. As soon as Mum left, I sprang into action.

"Hannah! Allison! Ellie!" I practically screamed at the mirror. One by one, my friends' faces appeared on the mirror. Most of them looked reasonably sleepy. When they saw the pained look on my face, however, they were immdediately wide awake.

"Lily!" said Ellie. "What's wrong?" They all muttered in agreement. It took a lot to scare me, or at least a lot for me to show others I was afraid.

"Guys, it's my dad." They all tensed up when I said that. "He's not dead yet, but it sounds like he is dying. Can you send James a letter, explaining what happened? He doesn't need to be there or anything, it's just we were going to hang out today, and..."

"I'll take care of it, Lily." Allison said. She looked like she was trying not to cry as well. "I hope you the best for your dad."

"Yeah, Lily. We'll come by later today, after you and your mum have a chance to be with him." said Hannah. She was as quiet as ever, but she looked very sad. "Give him a hug for us, will you?"

"I promise. I'll see you guys later." Then, I put down the mirror and apparated into the bookstore I'd hoped never to set foot in again. It was the dingiest place, on the dingiest street on earth.

I'd been to the store once, by mistake. I'd apparated wrong, and instead of coming out in Florish and Blotts, I wound up in 'Madame Atrum's books for the bad.' Naturally, I'd apparated right back out, but before I did, I'd seen a couple of the books' titles. And, I wasn't sure, but one of them might have been able to help me with what I needed.

"Here it is." I muttered, running my fingers down the binding of a new book. "Experimental Dark; New Spells and Hexes To Foil the Good Guys." It didn't sound like a great read, but it did sound like it might have the spell that had hit my dad in it. I wordlessly paid 'Madame Atrum' seventeen sickles and four knutts for the book.

I apparated into the main lobby of St. Mungo's. It must have been less then twenty minutes, because Mum wasn't there yet. Thank goodness that had been a short trip. I sat down in a chair where Mum was sure to see me, and opened the book.

There were some of the most horrific spells I'd ever read about in that book. All sorts of muggle torture and stuff that transfigured parts of your body into something that didn't work, and... well, just horrible junk. I was only glad I'd gotten it and not, like, Severus.

Once Mum arrived, we were shown to Dad's room. I had to admit, he looked pretty bad. He seemed to have lost at least ten pounds in the last two days and was paler than the white sheets that covered him. His breathing was ragged and labor-intense. He still managed to smile when we walked in, but it was a very weak smile.

"Oh, Dad!" I almost broke into tears right then and there. "What's wrong with you?"

"John." Whispered my mother brokenly. He smiled again, but he didn't seem to have the energy to talk. For the longest time, we just sat there, with Dad, not wanting to ever leave.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Evans, Lily. We need to run some tests on John here." said a middle-aged man, a healer. "We're trying to find out the cause of his current state. Go up to the Tea Lounge. We'll send someone to get you when we're finished and tell you the results."

"Is there any chance that he won't..." My mum couldn't think of Dad dying any more than I could. Her hand wouldn't leave his.

"We don't think it's as serious as all that." Said the healer with a comforting smile. "It's just a test. Nothing more."

"That's what the teachers up at school told us about the O.W.L exams. Those are some of the biggest tests you are ever going to take." Even Dad smiled at that.

For an hour I paged through the Book of Sickening Spells. That seriously should have been the title of the book. Finally, I found something that might have matched the curse that had hit Dad. The red-orange jet of light, that was the same. And the crumpling on impact, that was there too. What was the effect?

Oh, no. It said that, immediately, the spell had hardly any effect. But then, the spell got into your blood and slowly shut down your organs, starting with your liver and... It sounded like the worst poison ever. I'd heard enough. How could the death eaters put something like that to another person?

I flipped to the next page, where it showed a very nasty diagram. I checked under it. So far, under the picture, there'd been some sort of complicated remedy, like bathe in lacewing flies and water for forty-five minutes and then dry off with hippogriff feathers. But no, that would have been way to easy. Under this one, there was only four words written.



Before I could marvel at this horrific news , the healer came back. He looked far from what could be described as happy. "Evans? Is the Evans family somewhere around here?"

"Yes, that's us." My mother said weakly. "Ha-How is John doing? Can you stop whatever's wrong?" Her eyes pleaded for the healer to say 'Yes, he can go home tomorrow', but the man only shook his head gravely.

"We don't know what to do." He said. "Some of his organs have just stopped working. No cause. There was nothing wrong with him yesterday, except for the fact that the curse hit him."

"I think I know what happened." I said quickly. "There's something like that described in this book, maybe if you looked at it, you could figure out what's wrong." 'And you could tell me that the book is lying.' I added inwardly. 'You could tell me that there is a way we can help Dad.'

"This is highly advanced Dark Magic, Ms. Evans." He said. "St. Mungo's has never seen a case like it. It's not likely that the solution lies in one of your school books. We'll come back and tell you what we shall do soon." He left the tea room, oblivious to my cries for him to listen to me, just for a moment.

My Dad died within a half-hour.



I cried and cried. Even with the war against Voldemort and everything, I'd never even thought of this happening. My Dad was a police officer, big and strong and brave and... just, he seemed safe. We all seemed safe when he was around. There was no way a simple jet of light could kill him. But, whether I chose to believe it or not, Dad was dead. He was gone, and he wasn't ever coming back.

James rushed in about five minutes after one of the healers had broken the news to Mum and me. He saw the tear paths that were already well beaten down my cheeks and assumed the worst. He was right.

"Allison's letter just came. She said you were here." He sounded very out of breath. "You're dad, is he..." But he already knew the answer. He hugged me tight and I just cried into his shoulder.

"James, I knew what was happening, I knew what was wrong with him!" I wailed pathetically. Lots of people were staring, but I didn't care. My dad was dead! "I tried to tell the healer, but he just shook me off! I knew what was happening, but I couldn't do anything! It's my fault he's dead!"

"No, Lily. It's not your fault." James said softly. His arms were strong around my shoulders. "You tried to help. Your dad was dying, he must have known that. He wouldn't blame you for this. Did he blame you for what happened at the mall two days ago?"

"He didn't." I said softly. I'd stopped crying, for the most part. "He said it was his choice, and he was glad he saved me."

"Exactly." Said James softly. "Your dad loved you, from the little I saw of him, I could tell that. If you had been in his place, and he hadn't dived in front of you, he never would have been able to forgive himself. You did everything that you could to help him."

"I want you to promise me something." I said to James. I had gotten over crying pathetically, and now I was thinking about who had really caused Dad's death.

"Anything." James replied. "What do you want?" His eyes looked at me, praying for trust and help. For some reason, I now trusted the boy I had once loathed above all others.

"Promise me that, when the war breaks out, you'll help me fight." I said viciously. James's face broke out into a Marauder grin.

"I promise you that. And here's proof." He titled my tear-stained face upward, and brought his down. I didn't think about the fact that Mum was nearby, or that there were tons of people I didn't know around me, or anything. I just let it go.

When my best friends walked in, I was kissing James Potter.

I don't know when my friends entered the Tea Lounge, expecting to find me waiting to give them news about Dad. I don't know how long they stood there, looking at me, wondering why I was covered in tears, probably crying about my father, and kissing James Potter at the same time.

But, right now, I didn't really care about what people, even my friends, thought of me. Dad, my dad, was dead. I was never going to worry about something as minor as gossip around the Gryffindor common room ever again.

I wasn't thinking about much at that moment, to tell you the truth. My mind had sort of, well, short-circuited when I had begun to kiss James. I couldn't believe that this was the boy I had positively loathed a few months ago could be the same guy I was kissing right now. James was there for me when I needed him, like now.

I also didn't know how long I stood there with James. It was the best feeling in the world, standing there, my arms wrapped around James, kissing him full on the lips. It might have been a couple of minutes, or a few hours, or even just a couple of quick seconds.

My mates did manage, however, to defrost out of shock pretty quickly as soon as my mouth had parted from James's. I rested my head on his shoulder a second longer, but in that second I had made a very important decision. I wasn't going to spend all of my time dwelling on my Dad.

Dad didn't save me from that witch to let me throw away my life crying about him. I'd miss him deeply, and that would never, ever change. But I would take that grief inside of me and use it to fight those who had caused my dad to die when he did. I would fight so people out there wouldn't have to go through the burning agony I felt now.

"Lily. You're dad's dead." Hannah said. It was a statement, not a question in any way. I nodded confirming it. Now Allison, Hannah, and Ellie joined in hugging me. I thought James would find it awkward, but he didn't say so if he did.

"I'm ok, guys. Really, I am." I said, trying to wriggle out of an Allison hug. "I just want you guys to help me with something."

"Anything." Said Allison. I hadn't manage to get away from her grip, and she had me thoroughly stuck in a headlock. "Just tell us what you need."

"I want to start learning how to fight Voldemort as soon as school starts up again." I said. I fully expected them to tell me that it was a stupid idea; in a couple years, sure, but now we were just a bunch of kids. What could we possibly do against such a freak of nature, the most powerfully evil man on earth?

"Duh." Said Hannah quietly. "I mean, we always said that we were going to fight the devil, so what's the big deal in starting a little early? We could start right now, if you like." She had a certain fire in her voice that told me she was serious.

"We could make, I dunno, a club out of it or something." Ellie said, a gleam in her eye. When she got into things, she could be good at organizing and getting people to work together. "I'll send Alice and Pearl owls, see if they want to help out."

"I'll get the guys into it." Said James. "How about meeting us at my house tomorrow to plan everything. Can you guys meet us at my house tomorrow at one?"

"Deal." I said. "I've got to go know, if it's ok with you guys." Even to me, my voice sounded small.

"Getting ready for tomorrow? We don't need plans made up or anything, Lily." Allison looked skeptical. That's what I would have done, but I was a little distracted right now.

"No." I said quietly. "Mum."



I may have decided not to wallow in self-pity over Dad's death, but Mum had made no such promises. We saw Dad one last time, laying in the same bed as before. She cried and cried. I was just as sad, but I had already decided what I was going to do.

When we made it home, I wanted to sleep, and do absolutely nothing else. My day had been totally and completely draining, and the last thing I wanted to do was talk to my sister about what had been happening over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, that's what I got to do.

"Hey! You!" I heard an all too familiar voice call from the front door as we walked onto the front yard. When I looked up, her face was livid and distraught.

"Lily, when I got back today to tell my mother about my honeymoon, and I found this letter from My mother." She tossed a crumpled up sheet of looseleaf into my face. "It says that my Father is dead, and one of the people like YOU killed him. I demand an explanation!"

"Explanation?" I said, starting to get angry. "For what? Dad's death? There was nothing I could do. I tried everything that was possible, but I couldn't do anything for him."

"Oh, you tried to help, did you? For god's sake, you're a freak, a wizard! If you really wanted to, you could have saved him. I always knew you were one of the evil witches!"

"Excuse me?!?" I screeched almost as high as Lucy did. "You were out of town! Like you did anything to help Dad."

"I couldn't- You were the one who was there, you-"

"You know what? I'm tired of you looking and talking to me like I'm the scum of the earth." I said calmly, but with every ounce of hatred that had boiled up since my eleventh birthday.

"Lily, she doesn't mean-" My mum stood between us, trying to block each of us from the jets of hatred coming out of our eyes. She failed, needless to say.

"Oh yes she does!" I Said. "She's meant it since we were kids, when I first found out that I could do all of this! She's never said anything remotely nice to me since I can remember! She thinks that I'm a piece of filth at the bottom of a grotto."

"All I know is my father's dead, and her lot had something to do with it!" Petunia shoved me to the ground, and I caught myself by flinging my hands behind me. It hurt, but not as much as her words did. How could my own sister do this?

"What's all of this 'my father' and 'my mother?'" She had been mean in the past, true, but that wasn't normally how she talked to me. It was normally 'you freak'. But then again, she'd said the 'you freak' line as well. This was just getting better and better.

"As far as I'm concerned, as of right now, you aren't my family anymore. I'm not associating with freaks!" And there she goes again with the whole 'freak' line!

"Look." I said, climbing back to my feet. "I cared about Dad. I didn't ask him to rush into my fight and get hurt. But he did, and he knew what he was doing. He was protecting all of us."

"But it was-"

"All wizards and witches aren't bad! My friends and I were trying to stop some evil people, and Dad was there. We told him to run for it, but he wouldn't listen."

"But-"

"I don't care what you think anymore!" I took out my wand and held it at her nose.

"You dare to point that... that thing at me?" Her eyes crossed to watch the point of my wand with both of her eyes at the same time.

"Yeah, Petunia, I dare. I only wanted to be your sister, to have you be happy for once. But you never cared about any of it, about me! Well, I found out there are some people who like me for me." But don't pretend like you're the only one who cares about this family, or for the people who live around here." I looked

"If you want to distance yourself from me because of my talents, fine. I've done all I can, but you made the choice. Goodbye." And, walking past my sister, I went into my house.



My mum opened the door to my bedroom a couple of hours later. I'd stayed up there, alone, since Petunia and my fight. I'd skipped dinner because Tuney was still downstairs.

"Your sister seems to have had a lovely honeymoon trip." Mum started. I didn't want to hear about my 'sister' and her idiot 'husband's' trip, but I didn't want to offend Mum either. To cover both, I said something really intelligent like 'Yeah'.

My mum just sat there and let me lean on her and hug her. She knew that we, Petunia and I, would never make up with each other. And she loved both of us, so she couldn't say something like 'Oh, she's such a jerk'. But, just sitting there, she made me feel better.



"Order! Everyone, please, come to order!" Said serious in a mocking commanding voice.
"Oh, yeah, Sirius." I said jokingly. "You really love when there's order, everyone's calm, no trouble..." I stopped talking when Sirius shuddered. Everyone laughed.

My three best mates were there, Allison and Hannah of them jammed onto the couch with Sirius. Ellie sat cross-legged on the ground. Remus was perched on the arm closest to Allison. James was on one of the armchairs, and I was on his lap. Peter, the last Marauder, was on the ground next to Ellie.

Our two roommates, Pearl and Alice, had squeezed together into the other chair. Pearl had medium length red hair, like me, but hers was a lighter shade than mine. Alice had short mossy brown hair. They were best friends, like us.

Frank and Jeff were in the boys room, but they weren't part of the 'Marauder Club'. I guess it was a good thing that they were such good friends, then. Jeff had red hair and was the tallest guy in our year. Frank was shorter, but not a midget by any means, with slightly longish black-brown hair.

"Seriously, though." Said James. "You guys are all up for it, right? Taking on Voldemort?" Everyone shuddered at the name except Sirius, Allison, and me.

"Are you kidding? That's why we're here, isn't it?" Alice said excitedly. She sounded as eager as Allison had when when she was made Chaser of Gryffindor.

"Of course." I said. "I think we should elect a sort of leader, someone who keeps things going and all of that good stuff." I glanced around at my friends. "Any nominations?"

"James." Said about three people at the same time. James sort of blushed and flashed his 'marauder grin' around the room. We all nodded in agreement. James was a natural leader, and a good one at that. He should be in charge.

"Fine with me." James said with another grin. "But I think we should have these little committees too. Lily, you head the research team. Look up defense methods, potions, and spells. You lead Ellie, Remus, and Jeff." I nodded. Books and facts; my niche in life.

"Hannah, you and Pearl deal with magical bugging and concealment." James rambled on. "Tail the mini-death eaters" AKA those Slytherins "And try to figure out what's up." Hannah was quiet and could be very sneaky, and Pearl was an excellent inventor of magical tools. I bet she could come up with a spy gadget in no time.

"Sirius, you and everyone else take the practical side of things. Learn the jinxes Lily's group digs up, and then teach them to everybody." He looked around, apparently satisfied with his work. "Is there anything else we need?"

"A name." Hannah said quietly. "I was thinking, The Song of the Phoenix. We could talk about it at school and no one would know what we were talking about. It doesn't sound like a Defense organization, does it?" Hannah actually looked proud of herself.

"Brilliant." I pronounced. Everyone else agreed whole-heartedly. We immediately started work. The Song of the Phoenix had officially kicked off, and nothing was going to stop us.



I hope you like this chapter. It's a little sad again, sorry. I'm going to camp, so this might be the last chapter for a couple weeks. It depends on if I can get internet from the camp!

Sorry it's been forever. I just got back from camp, and have been writing like mad trying to make a nice, long, interesting chapter. I hope you guys really like it! Sorry no chapter for three weeks!




Dear Lily,

Well, this is it. This is our last letter of the whole summer. It seems like everything went by really quickly, doesn't it? But so much has changed that sixth year seems like ages ago. Funny how time works.

In two days, the train will pick us up and take us to our last year at school. And I'm head boy! Dumbledore must either a ) be going crazy or b ) be in the knack of appointing idiots as head boy. One of those two. Sirius just punched my arm and said 'You're not an idiot!' Well, if I'm not, than he's a liar!

Once we get to school, do you think we should ask some other kids to join TSP? (The Song of the Phoenix) I mean, it can't hurt to have more and more people against Voldemort, can it? We won't ask many Slytherins, of course, but some Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, or even younger Gryffindors might be able to help out. What do you think?

I've got to go. On top of head boy, I'm also Qudditch Captain this year. I'm trying to put together a try-out program.

-James



Dear James,

Don't worry, Dumbledore always knows what he's doing. He must have a reason for making you the head boy, even if it isn't the most obvious on earth. And even if you aren't a brilliant student, you are a good leader, and that's very important in the head boy.

As to inviting some of the other kids into the TSP, (nice acronym by the way) I have no problems with it. You're the leader, after all. But I think we should be sure that the person you're offering to is a trustworthy person, not likely to turn us in to the mini-death eaters. Or the teachers. I'm not sure they should know yet.

I'll see you tomorrow on the train, James. Don't let Sirius hit you with a bludger too hard before then, ok? I know he likes moving targets.

Your Lily



Between James, my meetings with The Song of the Phoenix, explaining the magical world to Lucy and Sarah, trying not to think to much about Dad, spending time with my mum, and avoiding Petunia, August went by very fast. One morning, the morning I had to go back to school with my friends, I woke up to a storm.

That was perfectly ok with me. I'd always loved rainy weather, especially really heavy rain. I just wasn't sure how my friends would take to going out in the rain. Ellie and Allison really didn't like the rain that much. Not as much as me and Hannah, at least.

I waited outside Hannah's house with my mum. We lived pretty close to each other, and her parents didn't have a car, being a witch and wizard. We had decided to meet up and drive together. After giving her parents hugs, she pulled her stuff down the front porch to my family's car. She wore simple muggle clothes, jeans, T shirt, and trainers, like me.

"How bundled up do you think Ellie and Allison will be because of this little shower?" Hannah asked as we drove. It wasn't raining much harder than a drizzle right now, but knowing my friends they'd be wearing heavy rain coats with rubber boots and carrying three umbrellas a piece. You know, just in case it started to pour suddenly. They normally didn't even go out in heavy rain. If it's storming really bad, they'll just apparate from building to building. Wimps.

"Probably so much that it will be impossible to recognize them." I said. "Also, they probably won't be distinguishable from the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man." I caught Hannah's skeptical look. Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten she'd grown up as a wizard. Without movies or stuff like that. "This really puffy guy. You know, all poofy like a marshmellow is."

"Oh. In that case, you're probably right. Let's go see." Hannah said. Mum put the car into drive and we set off. A small smile spread across her shy face. Happily thinking of my friends as poofed-up coat people, I stared out the car window and day-dreamed happily about the new term.

This was going to be a good year, I could just sort of tell. Even though Dad was dead, in many ways, I was happier than I'd ever been before. I had lots of good friends, I was working on something worthwhile with good people against bad people, and I had a boyfriend who wasn't a two-timing jerk. Life, as far as I could see it, was pretty good. But, being smart, I knew that this feeling couldn't last.

Not that I didn't love my mother, my home, and my muggle friends to bits, but I needed a break. I needed to get away from the reminders of what could possibly be described as the worst summer I'd ever had. Petunia being even worse than usual and seeing Nick again had been bad enough, and that with Dad's death threatened to make me cry with desperation. But I was done crying. I was ready to help.

"Aw. No Stay Puff Marshmellow Men." I said in disappointment. Hannah nodded, looking let down. I watched Allison and Ellie walk through the barrier ahead of us. We couldn't make fun of them for anything. They were just wearing normal, pretty thin cloaks (although I was pretty sure they were made of something water proof, they still looked relatively normal) with the hoods pulled up.

"Oh, well. Come on, we're going to be late if we don't hurry. The train leaves pretty soon." She pulled her trunk along after her, through the barrier, and out of sight. I put my luggage onto a trolley and prepared to follow her.

"Write, Lily. With your sister and father gone, I'll be missing you a lot over these next few months." My mum embraced me. "Don't forget to come home over Christmas break, even if you have to drag some of your friends along with you. The more the merrier."

"I will, Mum. Don't worry. If I send you the letters for Lucy and Sarah, can you pass them on?" 'Without reading them thoroughly?' I finished pleadingly in my head. Mum noticed that look on my face and smiled warmly. Man, I love my mother.

"Don't worry, honey. I will. See you soon!" I hugged Mum, gave her a cheery wave, and set off through the barrier after my mates. Once I got across, I was attacked. Not by death eaters or Slytherins or anything like that. No, homesickness flooded over me, threatening to tear down the promises I had made.

But I had changed this summer, in more ways than one. I was no longer the bookish, geeky, and slightly wimpy person I had been last year. I'd never done anything really scary before. The most dangerous thing I'd ever done was stand up to a couple of Slytherins. But now all that had changed. With the... unpleasant happenings, shall we say, a certain amount of bravery had been thrust onto my skinny shoulders.

No, I had been through it now. And it had been much worse than missing mum and my cozy bedroom. I'd promised that I was done wallowing in self pity, and I meant it. Taking a moment to collect myself, I walked over to where Hannah, Ellie, and Allison had met the rest of the Song of the Phoenix.

"Hi, Lils." said Alice as we walked up. I'd never been close to her or Pearl before, but now we'd all gotten to be really good friends. Fighting an evil, psycho, magic dictator will do that to people when they work so closely together as we had.

"Hey, guys. Is everyone ready?" I noticed the boys turn around abruptly at my voice and hide something behind their backs. James seemed to be holding it, with all the other guys clustered around. He grinned mischievously at me.

"Lily." Was all he said. He brought the thing out from behind his back. There was a cage, and in it was a small screech owl sat. When she woke up and saw me, she hooted slowly and sized me up.

"She's for you. A western screech owl, they said she was. I figured, since you didn't have a pet, and your Mum has no other way to write to you, that you could use her." His grin was warmer now.

"James, thank you!" I said, taking the little cage from his outstretched hands. "Hello, little one. I think I'll call you Jemina. Do you like that name?" She hooted twice and rubbed her small, brown head against my fingers. "I'll take that as a yes." I laughed.

"So, you do like her?" James inquired, breaking me out of the little trance the cute, tiny owl had cast. He looked hopeful and eager, his eyes begging for me to tell him yes. Well, he didn't need to beg.

"Of course I do. How could I not, with her cute little head, feathers, and beak?" I said, stroking her again.

"Uh, yeah, about that. The woman who sold her to me said that she will, out of affection, occasionally-" I cut across James with a low gasp of pain. My finger had strayed too close to Jemina's beak, and she had nipped me. "-bite."

"You couldn't have told me that, like, thirty seconds ago?" I said crossly, shaking the hand my knew pet had bit. "Oh, well. At least she's quieter than Archimedes ever was."

"Hey!" James was immediately on the defensive. Yep, the great James Potter, defending a loud, obnoxious bird. "He's not that loud! And he doesn't hoot or squeak or whatever all the time!"

"You're right." I said after a minute of mock thought. "He doesn't. He usually pipes down when you stick him someplace dark, like in the closet. Then he's nice and quiet."

"They'll never stop bickering, will they?" I heard Remus ask Allison behind his hand, in faked hushed tones, someplace behind my back. The answer, obviously, would be no. Everyone knew that. Remus was just asking out loud to tease us.

"You and I both know they never will." Allison replied with a laugh. Even though those two were friends, you could tell Allison had a real thing for Remus. "That's one of the reason's we hang out with them. Watching their arguments can be extremely entertaining."

"I heard that!" James and I exclaimed at the same time. My friends all started to crack up. "Come on James, let's go talk to the prefects, shall we?" I said in a mockingly stuck-up voice.

"Heheheh... Yeah. Sure." He barely contained a laugh, trying to copy my attitude. I sighed inwardly. He was totally ruining the mystique of the entire effort! Boys. "Yes, Lily, let's go. We'll see you lot on the train. Later." There he goes!

But the others didn't fall for it one little bit. They were doing there best not to roll all over the station, laughing their heads off.
"Yes, go on, you two must get to the prefects' carriage! Those two have more important things to do than hang out with us, now that they're head boy and girl!" Ellie taunted. As soon as she finished speaking, she broke into a giggle fit.

"Yes, now we're just lowly students like everyone else at this school." Peter laughed. "I'll be surprised if they continue to grace us with their presence, now that they're all powerful and stuff."

Man, I hated being teased. Suddenly, I had a stroke of what must have been genius. "Well, if you guys don't want to hear about the ball, than that's fine with us." I called over my shoulder. In a second, maybe even less than that, every single one of them stopped what they were doing. Now they were all staring after us with something close to envy.
"A ball? Did she say a ball? I think that's what she said!"
"Yeah, she did say that!"

"Oi, Lily!" Allison called. "Wait up! We want to hear about this ball! When's it going to be? What's the theme?"
"Come on, Prongs!" I heard Sirius call out indignantly. "Make your girlfriends tell us what's going on. We wanna know!"
"Oh, this is so not fair!" Alice shouted. But their voices were getting fainter as we walked away from them down the corridors. "Lily, James, stop! You guys can't just leave us hanging like this!"

"Watch me." I muttered under my breath. No one but James could hear it. He smirked.
"Brilliant. How do you plan to loose the screaming, begging mob?" Our friends were following us, trying to get the answers to their desperate questions.
"Lily!!!"

"Guys, tell you what. Save us a seat, and after we brief the prefects and do our patrol, we'll tell you a little about this ball, ok?" I might as well have promised them tickets to the quidditch world cup, the way their faces lit up just then.
"Ok, Lils! Don't worry! You guys will have spots!"
"We'll make sure you guys have spaces, mate, even if we have to jinx someone to keep them out!" That last comment was Sirius's, of course.



"Lily, you are, without a doubt, the cruelest human being to ever walk the planet earth." Pearl said, arms crossed.
"You made us wait a half-hour through prefect briefing and you patrolling-"

"Although, you have to admit, her catching Rockwood hexing that first year and giving him a detention was totally worth waiting through." Jeff said thoughtfully, biting off the head of a chocolate frog.

"Ok, so that delay was worth it." Allison consented. "But now we have to wait for you to finish eating! And it's already been fifteen minutes. Honestly, Lils, how much candy can you eat?"
"Spill!" Said three or four people at once.

"Mumf..." I grunted, swallowing a jelly bean. The bean was flavored as grape jam. (terribly ironic, isn't it?) "Ok, ok! We don't know all of the exact details yet, but we're planning to have a Halloween ball, on, naturally, Halloween. Everyone will be required to wear costumes and stuff, and their will be decorations, and the holiday feast. We still need Dumbledore's permission, but we're pretty sure he'll say yes. What do you guys think?"

"I think it's a great idea!" Hannah said. She was loud and excited for once. Sirius smiled at her as though seeing her for the first time. A smile and the little happy light that currently flamed in her eyes changed her whole persona, into one of an actual seventeen year old girl.

"Well, maybe you guys could help us out with the planning and decorations and stuff." James offered to a bright-eyed group. "You could be the party committee."

"Great! We could..." Everyone broke out in discussion of the dance and how it would work. Hannah, an amazing artist, was sketching quickly, occasionally holding up her notebook so we could give her criticism.

I looked over the chaos of our compartment with something between weariness and amusement. We had one of the smaller compartments, only meant to hold seven or eight people at max. If we had been back in first or second year, all twelve of us might have fit. But now we were all stuffed into a much-too-small room.

By stuffed, I do literally mean stuffed. Jeff and Alice were sitting on the ground, cross legged. I sat on James's lap again, and Remus leaned up against the window. Every so often the train would give a lurch and he'd get thrown onto the lap of either Allison or Sirius. Allison would blush, smile and look awkward whenever that happened, but Sirius would just shove Remus off of him and shoot Hannah a rueful grin.

Soon we had a lot of pieces of paper with ideas floating around as well, which just sort of added to the clutter of everything. Archimedes had also screeched for a bit at first, but I through a cloth over his cage and he shut up. I made sure to give James a look that said 'I told you so'! He shrugged back at me, as if to say that 'Ok, sure. Whatever. You can't win them all.'

After several hours of madness (fun, prouctive madness, but madness nonetheless.) the Hogwarts express pulled up to the train station in Hogsmeade. The castle we all knew so well, but couldn't help gawking at. Hogwarts. We were home.



"...Now, that is all I will say for now. Let the feast-" Dumbledore flicked a long, graceful hand and food appeared down all of the house tables. I watched all of the Marauders turn toward each other and say "Cool!" Before digging in to the epic feast. I never heard Dumbledore say 'begin', so I'm assuming the boys drowned him out.

"You two, despite whatever doubts you may have-" I shot James a knowing look. "-Are the right people to lead our students. No, Mr. Potter." Said Dumbledore over his glasses. "I did not give you the badge because of your Qudditch skills. You and Miss Evans are both ready to lead this school in the event that Lord Voldemort comes to our school."

"Is that likely, Headmaster? That Lord Voldemort will come to Hogwarts, that is." James inquired. He was trying to look brave, strong, noble and all of that, but I had come to know him better than that in the past two months. He was just as scared as I was, possibly more.

"Not as likely as all that." Dumbledore smiled. "But he did certainly enjoy his time at Hogwarts, more than most students." Was it possible to love Hogwarts more than I did? "Oh, yes, Ms. Evans, that is more than possible." I officially hate mind-reading.

"If he attacks, I want your support and help. I also would like to request the alliance of that society of yours, The Song of The Phoenix." James looked at me in shock. I found my voice before he did.

"An alliance, sir? What do you mean? How did you even find out about TSP?"
"TSP? Is that what you nicknamed it? Very interesting. Yes, me and an organization I have set up, The order of the phoenix, would like you to be sort of a junior segment of us. You would aid us in our fight against Voldemort as well as maybe getting young people involved in the cause, and we would train you for what you need. What do you think?"

There was no competition. We gave our answer in dead unison. "Yes."
"Excellent. Now, this year, you too will have your own dormitories. There will be a common room and all needed supplies, and you will each have your own room. This room is behind the tapestry of Zeus Mistofilees on the fourth floor. You are allowed to have your friends over on weekends for slumber parties. You may go."

As we left the headmaster's office, I felt a weird mix of happy, excited, serious, and scared. I was happy about being back, but there was a strange sense of warning and fear starting to well up inside the castle. One thing was for sure; Life at Hogwarts was about to change. Forever.

Ok, here you go. Please leave feedback, the link's in my siggie. Thanks!

"Ok, ok. So the decoration colors should be pink and green, right?" Alice said excitedly.
"Alice? It's Halloween." Hannah said bluntly, continuing the sketch she was making of how the Great Hall should look on the night of the dance. She was our best artist, by far, so we let her doodle as the rest of us discussed. So far, no one had been disappointed with her work.

"So?" Alice jokingly crossed her arms and looked the other way. That was Alice for you. She'd never stop goofing off.
"So Halloween's supposed to be spooky!" I said, leaning over Hannah's shoulder to watch her draw. "The colors should be like black. Maybe some silver."
"And orange, for pumpkins." Ellie piped up.
"Purple. It looks so mysterious." Pearl cut in.

"What's wrong with Pink and green? They go well together, especially if it's pastel shades." Alice, ever the crusader, wasn't ready to give up just yet.
"Nothing's wrong with the colors in general." I said slowly. "But to have that as the decorations for a party is so..."
"Springtime baby shower." Hannah supplied without looking up. Her pencil didn't even stop.
"I was going to say 'Easter', but that works." I conceded.

Alice stuck out her bottom lip in a fake puppy dog pout. We all made little 'aw's and whimper-like noises, but it just made her assume the pitiful face more. At last Pearl, who was a decent artist herself, put her arm around Alice.
"You know." She said. "Pale pink and green would look really good with your hair. Here, you want to help me sketch it out? You know all those sewing spells, you could make your own gown!"
"Really?"

Happy with the prospect of that, Alice abandoned her seat on top of a would-be banner draped over the arm of the chair and sat on the ground next to Pearl. They immediately began to plan her dress out, with much talking and laughing.

We were all sitting in chaos. No lie, I thought the train two days before had been bad. My bedroom had been decorated in the Gryffindor colors with a large violet armchair, mahogany trimmings, a four-poster bed, and a blazing hearth. Now the fire was out and decoration samples, Jack-o'-lantern face plans, and sketches of different aspects of the party were tacked on every bit of wall. Cloth carpeted the floor. There was at least one of every color. Sometimes we'd hold a piece up to another scrap and say something like 'Yes, that could be the table clothes' or 'no, the napkins should be a darker shade'. Some people were starting to think about costumes, too, and were envisioning possible costume choices.

"Hmm... Purple banner here... Silver curtains there... And then orange and black across there!" Hannah stuck the pencil she'd been drawing with behind her ear, a sure sign that she was done. She wiped the pencil access of her left hand, the one she drew with, and turned her pad around for us to see.

The Great Hall looked amazing in her notebook. Different color banners hung absolutely everywhere; there were long rectangular black ones and dark purple U shaped ones spanned the distance between the black cloth. Orange and Black crepe paper were in clusters under the candles on the wall.

The room was lit in two main ways. There were the fixtures on the walls, each holding three candles, like there normally were. But the lanterns that hung down were all extinguished and draped in more orange and purple crepe paper. The Jack-o'-lanterns suspended in midair also had light coming from them. Aside from the floating faces, there were also four humongous pumpkins, one in each corner. These glowed very brightly and had enchanted faces that, according to a small note, should change expression every now and then.

"Wow. That's amazing!" Allison said. "The best I've ever seen you do, Hannah."
"Yeah, beautiful!" Ellie agreed. "I wish I could draw like you do."
"Does everyone like it and think that's how we should do it? Like in Hannah's sketch?" There was a loud chorus of 'yes!' in reply to my question. "Great. Should we run it by the guys, just in case?"

This time there was a big groan and several of my friends slapped their foreheads.
"Come on, Lils! We had to kick them out because of their... um, sense of roguish humor." Pearl chose her words carefully.
"Their what?" Said Alice. I sighed.
"She means their trouble-making and stupidness." Hannah said. She had already taken out her pencil and was sketching something else.
"Hannah, have you ever tasted the delights of subtlety?"
"What?" Predictably, that was Alice.

"She means do I ever say something without being so darn blunt." Hannah continued to draw. "And no, I don't."
"Seriously." Ellie came up and put her arm around me. I got the feeling I was about to get some sort of 'sympathy' reel. "Lily, the guys are nice, but they're guys."
"Which implies..."
"That their focus time is five minutes tops and they'll trash your bedroom in ten." Hannah turned her notepad around and showed us her idea for the black banner patterns (which is really hard to say quickly). "But we should show it to them, just in case..."

"You can draw like this?" Sirius was dumbfounded.. "You could easily be the best artist in the entire school, and you've never drawn me?"
"Get over yourself." James said, giving him a shove. We were all perched in different places around our 'common room', which looked like a mini version of the Gryffindor common room.

"Come on!" Said Sirius, not one to be ignored. Or left in the dust. Or not thought of for five seconds at a time. "I'm smart, hot-"
"Modest." James interjected. Everyone cracked a grin or a laugh except the Marauders. They'd probably heard this debate before.
"Yeah. And I've gone out with almost all of the girls in school." Sirius said.
"Except us." Pearl examined her nails. "Everyone in our dorm seems to be immune to you."
"Ok, but still! You've got to have a picture of me!"

"All right, hotshot." Hannah took a piece of paper and pencil. "Turn your head a little. Yeah, like that! And hold still, alright? I need to concentrate."
"That's like asking me to give up quidditch. It simply can't be done." James said tiredly.
"Not true!" Sirius exclaimed. "I'll have you know I can stay still for ten minutes straight! Take that!"
"Sirius?" Hannah said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"You're moving!"
"Oh."

"Ok, so what are these plans?" Remus asked, trying to concentrate. He was about the only one trying to follow us.
"What we've got so far is the main layout of the great hall, the designs for banners, color choices for the banners, table clothes, and napkins, and idea for jack-o'-lantern faces." I handed the papers to my friend. Remus nodded as he flipped through the sketches and cloth samples.
"These look great. Really thorough."
"Thanks! What did you guys come up with. You know, for the menu?"

Us girls had banished the boys and retreated to my room a while back. We had told them we would handle the decorations. In turn, we had asked them to come up with some kind of menu we could serve. I figured that food, a favorite topic and hobby for all of them, would have kept them on task. From the looks of either boredom or guilt I saw, my guess was it hadn't.

"Well?"
"We decided to serve pumkin juice." Jeff called from his chair. He was doing something on a sheet of paper with Frank. I think they were playing hangman.
"Like we do every meal." I muttered under my breath. Remus shrugged.
"Oh, and don't forget the butterbeer! We agreed on that one, too." Peter piped up from where he was laying in front of the hearth. I think he was working on charms homework.
"Like we do at every school feast." I murmured. Remus was starting to look really uncomfortable.

"I like beef!" Sirius called from his seat over by Hannah. She paused, turned his head back into position, and continued drawing.
"Beef is good. Steak is better." James said. He took out a snitch and began playing with it absentmindedly.
"Did you guys get any work done whatsoever?" I asked. Remus shook his head resignedly.

"Lils, with these guys, you're kind of fighting a loosing battle." Allison said reasonably. "I mean, did you expect them to do anything productive?"
"And what's the big idea?" James inserted. "The house-elves will make you anything you want."
"Look, just make up a list of foods you'd like to eat and give it to me in an hour, ok?" I hope I sounded as exasperated as I felt. "We're going to go work on homework."

Once we were in my room, Alice turned to me. "Lily, do we really have to do homework?"
"No. I want to, but you don't need to. I just wanted to get away from the supreme idiots."
"By 'supreme idiots'," Ellie did air quotes around 'supreme idiots'. "Do you mean those lovely gentlemen in the other room, probably blowing stuff up?"
"Now what would give you that idea?"

Hannah was even quieter than usual. She just sat staring at her notebook, smiling. Once the others started doing something, I sat next to her on the bed.
"What's up, Hannah?"
"What-nothing!" She looked up sharply, closing her book. But not before I noticed that it had been open to the picture of Sirius.
"You really like him, don't you? Sirius, I mean." Slowly, shyly, my friend nodded.

"Don't tell anyone yet, but he asked me to go to the Halloween Ball with him." Hannah sounded a little timid, but very pleased with herself.
"Han, that's great!" She immediately shushed me, reducing me to whispers. "Sorry, sorry, but why don't you want anyone to know about it. Sirius is a great guy, and you've had a crush on him forever-"
"I think if I announced that fact, the female population of this school would murder me. What do you think?"

I laughed. "Oh, yeah. That could be a problem. But, um, won't they kill you anyway, once you're seen with him."
"I intend to live as long as I possibly can, Lily Evans. Once everyone knows I'm dating him... I'll just carry a bezoar around in my pocket."
"Exactly how do you plan to get a bezoar? Do you have a goat or something as a family pet?"
"No. I was planning to swipe one off Professor Slughorn."

"Hannah."
"What?"
"Remind me that next time I bag on you for being blunt, that I love you the way you are."
"Alright. And, um... You promise you won't say anything to anyone about Sirius? Not to anybody?"
"My lips are sealed."

"So." James asked me as we worked on homework later, after all our friends had left. We had cleared away the mess that was, wishfully, called 'planning' and 'working'. "Did you guys actually do any homework earlier?"
"Well, I did. Hannah and Alice did a little. Most of the time we just sort of talked and played around. How about you guys? You at least got me that list."
"Honestly? We pulled that together in the last ten minutes. All we had before that was Pumkin Juice, Butterbeer, steak, and Sirius's 'I like beef' comment."

"Well, at least you got it done. I'll give it to Professor Dumbledore in the morning-"
"Lily?" James cut me off.
"Yes?"
"Will you go to the ball with me?"
"Of course I will. Did you even have to ask?" The grin on James's face was the cutest thing I'd ever seen.

That night, when I lay in bed with the fire blazing nearby, I dreamed of myself at the ball. I was dancing with James, who was wearing a Robin Hood costume. There may have been other people around, and there may not have not been. I was too immersed in James to notice anything.

All the decorations we had labored over that evening, all of the food the boys had sort of worked on, everything, the costumes everyone else were wearing, it all just sort of faded away from my comprehension. All that mattered was James.

After a while, I noticed my own dress. The skirt was long and there was a V down the middle, splitting to show a different color. The skirt was mostly crimson, with gold in the V. The shirt part was off the shoulder, with bell-like crimson sleeves and tight yellow ones underneath. The rest of the shirt was crimson, too. A red flower was in my hair. It was totally medieval, but totally beautiful. I knew I was supposed to be Maiden Marian.



The next day, I told my friends that a Hogsmeade trip was planned for next weekend, to give us a chance to by dresses and of that stuff. The boys wouldn't need a whole day, like us, but they could spend the rest of their time in Zonko's joke shop or Honeydukes. That would keep them happy enough.

"So, I take it that means we're all going dress shopping together?" Hannah said sourly. She, like me, wasn't all that found of shopping, and went along just to humor the others.
"Of course!" There was a gleam in Pearl's eyes. She was a champion shopper. "We'll brake into pairs and shop together. Then, after an hour, we'll meet by the east dressing rooms and show each other what we picked out. Then we'll..." I stopped listening; on Saturday, I could just follow wherever she went.

"I call you as a partner." Hannah muttered under her breath.
"Done and done." I whispered back. "The thought of being in the company of one of these guys-" I jerked my thumb at Allison, Ellie, Pearl, and Alice, who were excitedly talking about dress ideas and fashion in general. "for an hour is just madness. 'Look at this!' 'Oh, that's gorgeous!' 'Try it on!' 'Oh, these are so cute!' Can you imagine?" I buried my face in my hands. Hannah chuckled in a small voice.

"Listen, I had this idea for a dress. Can I borrow a sheet of paper?" I asked after a while.
"No offense, you can't draw all that well. Let me." As best I could, I described the dress I'd dreamed about. When she turned around her pad, it looked perfect.

"Hannah, that's it! It's amazing! That's perfect!"
"Here. Keep it for when we go shopping in a couple of days. Knowing what we'll find then, you might want to make the dress yourself."
"Sounds more fun than shopping. I'll have to wok on that."

James came up and sat next to me. "Lily, will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"
"In the afternoon." His face clouded over.
"What are you doing in the morning?" He muttered darkly.
"Getting a dress for the ball we've been planning. Meet me for lunch at the Three broomsticks?"
James was smiling again. "Don't worry, I'll be there."

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"Lily! Come on, show us what you got!" I sighed. Shopping was not one of my strong points at all. I hadn't even picked out a dress like most of my other friends had. Hannah, my 'shopping buddy' (A term neither of us cared much for) had spent the two hours the others had spent in a glamorous girl's robes store chilling at the Three Broomsticks. In the last fifteen minutes, we bought material to make the costumes and ran back to the store. We figured that since we both had great ideas for costumes, why not make them so that they could be perfect?

I had given Sirius and Hannah the idea for their costumes a day or two ago. I'd been ranting about one of my favorite movies, Zorro, and they loved the plot for some reason. So they decided to go to the ball as Zorro and his girlfriend (who, depending which version you've seen, has a couple of names.) I'd seen Hannah's design; it was a red and black flamingo dancer costume. She would look amazing in it.

Pearl and Jeff, who had been going steady since last year, were going as the two most famous magical people of all time: Morgan le Fey and Merlin. Pearl had spent hours deciding what colors would best capture the 'aura of Morgan', days on jewelry planning, and a solid night worrying about shopping before we'd even left early today. Jeff had just bought a set of midnight blue dress robes and a hat, then called it good.

Alice and Frank, a first time couple, were also going to the dance together. Alice loved 'Cinderella' when I told it in our dormitory years ago, so she had convinced Frank to go as Prince Charming while she dressed up as Cinderella. Personally, I think Frank didn't mind at all going as someone who's first name meant 'good looking'. His ego certainly wasn’t being bruised there.

My other friends, however, were still being either woefully shy or annoyingly ignorant. Or possibly both, in the case of Peter. Ellie had a major crush on Peter, and Peter really liked Ellie, but neither of them could tell that the other one liked them and Peter was way to shy to ask Ellie out. Remus and Allison had some definite chemistry, but they were both to shy and, more in Allison’s case, stubborn to take things any further than close friends.

"Well, you guys? Come on, we didn't see you at all the whole morning." Pearl asked again, jolting me out of my daydreaming. "You must have found something."
"You guys wouldn't-" 'understand why I didn't buy a dress.' I finished pointlessly in my head. Ellie had already cut me off.
"Lily, Hannah, we won't laugh at you or anything."
"Yeah, we all showed you what we got." Alice said, holding up her pink, ball gown-like dress up again. I shuddered and mentally promised myself to never wear anything that fluffy as long as I lived.

"Come on, I told you guys this already; I'm making my costume." I replied. "Look, all I've got is material right now." I opened the bag, and they all peered in disappointedly. All they saw were three bolts of cloth, one garnet, one sapphire, and one emerald. "I'm going to make it tonight."
"Oh." Pearl seemed disappointed that I chose making an outfit over spending all of my time in the packed store. It was such a hard decision. And, yes, that was sarcasm. "Hannah, what did-"
"I'm making mine too." She cut off the question bluntly, in the refreshing way that she did. She held up some bright crimson and jet black material. "Can we just go meet the boys for lunch?"
"Sure." Allison said, and we all walked out. I was glad that I only held material in my bag. They're purchases looked heavy and bulky. Not the kind of thing I wanted to carry around on a date like I had this afternoon. "What do you guys want to do this afternoon?"

"I have a-" I started, but Ellie hadn't heard me. She was flashing a bright green brochure in the other's faces. 'Date after lunch!' I finished pointlessly.
"I got this from a Ravenclaw sixth year up at school!" She said proudly. "Look at this; Je Ne Sais Quoi; exclusive wizardry spa." Ellie read aloud. "Manicures, pedicures, the works!"
"Oh, with the ball in three weeks! That's perfect!" Alice said, looking over Ellie's shoulder excitedly. Everyone except for Hannah and I crowded around her expectantly.

"This looks amazing!" Pearl declared. "Everyone in favor?"
"Guys, I'm sorry, but I'm busy this afternoon." I said after the chorus of 'Ayes' subdued.
"What?" Ellie asked, eyebrows raised. "You're busy? But Lily, what's more important than spending time with each other?"
"Aw, Ellie." I said, hugging her in a cheesy way. She wriggled out of it, smiling a huge grin. "Nothing is. I just said that I'd hang out with James this afternoon."

Alice, Pearl, Ellie, and Hannah all looked at me with sympathy, like I was going to be missing out of something really fun. Hannah was staring at me with wide eyes, as if I was the luckiest person on earth. Personally, I was with Hannah. All of that spa stuff just felt weird and uncalled for to me.
"To bad, Lils." Allison gushed, and then everyone went back to the brochure. Well, everyone except Hannah, who stayed next to me at the back of the group. She shot me a dirty look.

"No fair." Hannah pouted. "I'm so getting a date with Sirius at lunch today."
"I thought you were keeping the fact that you were dating him a secret, as to not be murdered by the-" I did a quick mental count. "-Nine girls who have already asked him to the dance?"
"I'd rather die a quick death by their jealous hands than a slow one at that spa they're going to later." She shuddered. "Where are you and James going?"
"Honeydukes. Zonko's. Just kind of walk around and admire the red and yellow leaves." I reeled off.
"Excellent. Is a double date ok with you?"
"You bet."

"How did shopping go?" James asked me playfully as I entered The Three Broomsticks for the second time today. I stuck my tongue out at him as I took my place next to him at our table. We had easily one of the biggest tables.
"What do you think?"
"My guess is that you and Hannah kind of sulked on the way there while the others talked about dresses and jewelry. Then, once they were in the store, you two made a break for some place that had more sanity, like here or that bookstore. Then, you ran back at the last second and bought something." James gave me a confident grin as I stared at him in awe.

"What did you do, stalk us all morning?" Hannah demanded from the seat next to me. She turned to Sirius, who was on the other side of her. He grinned.
"No. We just listened to you rant about how much you hate shopping last night. You said that's how it always happens."
"Oh." I said. "So, what did you boys do all morning? Aside from laughing at the thought of Hannah and me shopping?"
"We tried to get into the Shrieking Shack." Sirius said with another grin that made it hard to believe him. It looked too much like he was joking around. "We wanted to say 'hi' to the ghosts."

"Yeah, right." Allison said, standing up. "I'm going to go get some drinks. Butterbeer all around?" We all nodded. "Awesome. Remus, will you give me a hand?"
"Sure thing."
It was an innocent enough exchange. They both looked a little tense, but they usually did whenever they were around each other. Allison's face was firm, as if she had just made a decision and was going to go through with it. She started talking to Remus as they waited for drinks.

Only then did I remember the sleepover we had gone to with my muggle friends at the beginning of the summer. It seemed like such a long time ago, but I remembered it pretty well. And the game of truth or dare blared in my mind as well, and I smiled. I couldn't hear the two very well over the small mob in the pub at the moment, but I overheard most of it.

"Remus, I want to ask you something." Allison said in an unnaturally quiet voice.
"Sure. But why over here?" Remus glanced around. "Couldn't you just ask me at the table?" I sighed. Were all boys this oblivious? I looked at Sirius and James, and a simple answer came to me; yes.
"If we were back at the table and I said this out loud, Sirius, Pearl, Alice, and Jeff would probably laugh so loudly that the whole pub would here, even in this mess." Allison was blushing.
"Oh. It's like that." Remus's face was deeper than Allison's.

"I... I really like you." Allison said in a whisper, like it was almost embarrassing for her to admit this.
"I... Me too." Remus smiled. He had a couple scars on his face, but it didn't stop him from being insanely cute.
"Great!" Allison practically screamed. Madame Rosemerta looked around, and she quieted her tone. "So, er, will you go to the ball with me?"

"Ha! Got you, sucker!" A particularly loud boy from the next table shouted, pelting his mate with a roll. The other guy through one back in his general direction, and I had to duck way down to avoid getting it full in the face. I looked back over at Remus, anxious to see what his answer was. I think I missed the actual words, but Allison was hugging Remus fiercely around the neck, so I felt pretty good about the whole thing overall.

After hugging for a few moments, Rosemerta brought the butterbeer out, so they composed themselves and collected everyone's drinks. Satisfied, I turned back to my other friends. They were all laughing at some story Sirius had just finished telling.
"James, I totally spaced out." I muttered. "What just happened?"
"Sirius was recounting his glorious defeat over his brother and cousins when they were picking on that third year."
"Isn't that the one with the boils that he told last night? And the night before that, and the night before that?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, it is. Sirius likes to brag."
"You could say that."

"James?" I asked.
"Yeah?"
"Could Sirius and Hannah maybe double date with us this afternoon?"
"Sure, it's fine with me. But aren't the girls all doing something together after lunch is over? Some kind of spa thing?"
"That's why I'm asking you. Hannah likes getting a French manicure about as much as she likes going shopping with everyone."
"Not at all?"
"You said it."

James laughed. "It's fine with me. Sirius and I wanted to show you guys this place we found the other ni- The last time we were here." He finished kind of awkwardly.
"What, in sixth year?" I asked sarcastically. James just grinned back.
"Yeah, something like that."
"What-"

"Lily." Hannah whispered, hitting my shoulder twice with the back of her hand. I sighed. I’d find another time to question James.
"Yeah?"
"Well? Did you ask James about later?"
"Yep. He's alright with it. Apparently there's this one place they've been wanting to show us, anyway."
"They being..."
"Sirius and James. It's probably some Marauder hideout that they dug up last year." I didn’t want to share my suspicions with anyone yet, but there was something up with James and the other Marauders that went past pranks. And I was going to be the first person to crack a Marauder secret.
"Anything's better that pedicure central." Hannah said with an involuntary shudder. I smiled in a small but friendly way.
"Go on." I encouraged. "Go ask him."

"Sirius?" Hannah asked as we dug into our food. No one was listening, save James and me. We both wanted to see how Sirius would react. James told me that Sirius had always kind of thought she was beautiful, but he couldn't be around someone so quiet. Now that she had opened up to some people other than Allison, Ellie, and me, Sirius could see who she really was. And he liked what he saw.

"Yeah?" He asked around a piece of meat in his mouth. He swallowed as Hannah giggled in a very un-Hannah like way. "What's up?"
"You want to go on a double date with Lily and James this afternoon?"
"Sure!" Sirius looked thrilled. He was still getting used to this bolder Hannah. "What brought this on?"
"The other girls are going to the spa after lunch."
"Ah, I get it! You'd rather spend time with my perfect self than with a bunch of squishy pastes that are supposed to make your skin soft? I don't blame you. I'd have chosen the same thing."

"Shut up, Mr. Ego." Hannah said, playfully whacking Sirius.
"Hey! Gimme a break!" Sirius said, throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "It was a joke!"
"You're still Mr. Ego!" Hannah didn't quit with the whacking.
"If I say I'm a worthless lay-about, will you stop?" Sirius was laughing now.
"Maybe." Hannah finally relented.
"I'll take that as a yes."

"Man, don't you love the free entertainment?" James whispered in my ear.
"I know." I murmured back. "We should have introduced them to each other sooner, even if it was just for the amusement of their arguments."
"And what about us?"
"What do you mean?"
"Should we have been introduced sooner? I mean, passed the 'Potter' and 'Evans' and 'arrogant toe-rag'?"
"You know it." I leaned in closer and closed my eyes.

A small giggle escaped from one of my friends.
"They're all staring at us, aren't they?" I muttered to him without opening my eyes.
"Probably." He whispered back. When I actually opened my eyes, his hazel ones were still closed. He was still cute, even though his eyes were really beautiful too. I let go of his shoulders and sat back down in my chair. James retreated into his as well. Hannah was looking at us with a sort of grim satisfaction. Everyone else was attempting not to laugh.

"Have you paid already?" I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then let’s get out of here.” I dropped the galleons for my lunch on the table and stood up, grabbing my jacket. James and I mumbled none to cheery ‘good-bye’s and ‘see you later’s and ‘meet me at Honeydukes’s. Then, as soon as we could, we ran out of The Three Broomsticks like Lord Voldemort himself was chasing us.



“James, this is beautiful!” I stared around me in awe. We were sitting in a cave on a mountain just outside of the village. It didn’t go in very far, but what we could see was breathtaking and very sparkily in wand-light. When you looked out the mouth of the cave, you could see the entire castle, the village, and even some of The Black Lake and the Forbidden Forest.

“I was hoping you liked it.” His grin was slightly eerie in the dimness, but it still dazzled me. “Me and the guys have been coming here since we-” He stopped, realizing he was talking about something private. And that bugged me.
“James, what’s going on? You’re great, but every so often you start to tell me something and then just totally backtrack! I’ve told you everything I could about my life; you know everything about me. But you’re hiding something!”
“Lily!” He breathed harshly. Only then did I realize that my voice could be and probably had been magnified by the cave walls. Hannah and Sirius were talking softly somewhere nearby. Oops.

“Not here, ok?” James looked frazzled and slightly distracted. “If the other guys find out you know anything, you’d be in some serious trouble.”
“James, I’m scared.” I touched his arm with my free hand. I lowered my voice. “Three nights ago, I heard a thump in your room. By the time I got my wand and got into your room, you weren’t there. It scared me to death. The next morning, I asked you where you went last night, and you gave me a weird look and said you’d gone to bed, no where else. I’m not stupid; something’s up.”

“Lily, you’re not wrong. But it’s not just my secret to tell. Actually, most of it’s not mine to tell.”
“So you’re not going to tell me anything?” My voice rose again. James made shushing gestures, and I quieted down. “James, I’m serious!”
“Me, too. But this is about the guys too.”
“The guys? All of the marauders are in on whatever this is?” I grew worried (actually, just more worried) at the thought. “Exactly how big is this? One of you isn’t in trouble, are you?”
“No.” James said. His voice rang with truth, if that’s possible.
“You’re not doing anything illegal?”

“No.” He answered a second time, but this time with less conviction. My worrying picked up again.
“James, tell me!”
“Here, let’s do this; you try to figure it out. You’re right, you aren’t stupid. If you think about it for long enough, you’ll probably come up with the right answer. And if you do, or at least most of the answer, I’ll tell you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”

I talked to James about something else through the rest of the date. I wanted him to think that I’d forgotten about the whole thing. But inside I was thinking it over. And the gears were starting to turn…



When I got back to my room, I shut myself in. I lay down on my bed, flat on my back, thinking. What did I really know about the Marauders, as a group?

1.) They were the best pranksters in all of Hogwarts. They were as revered as Robin Hood and his merry men, or perhaps Zorro, had been. But that wasn’t going to help me; this thing, whatever it was, was much more serious than a prank. On to the next resolution.

2.) They all had those stupid nicknames. The ones know one else could figure out. James was ‘Prongs’, Sirius was ‘Padfoot’, Remus was ‘Moony’, and Peter was ‘Wormtail.’ That wasn’t any good either. Everyone in our house had been trying to figure them out since they started using them in fifth year.

3.) This wasn’t the first time they had snuck out. I knew two nights last year when they’d been out of the dorm. Hey, was something I could really use! If I could find a pattern of sorts in the dates, maybe I could figure out the cause.

I got up and looked at my calendar. The three days I had were September 27, May 3, and February 4. I started add the numbers up, looking for patterns in words, and looking to see if it was the same day of the week. Nothing was adding up! I stared at the most recent day, looking for a sign. The only thing I saw was a little circle in the top corner.

That could be it! That was a clue, I was sure of it. I flipped back to the two earlier dates, and saw that there was the same little circle in the corner. A circle that indicated that these dates were all full moons.

“Ok, full moon.” I muttered. Why sneak out on a full moon? I mean, sure it might be majestic and mysterious or whatever, but why sneak out during the week and risk getting caught or falling asleep in class the next day? It just didn’t add up. Ok, it did add up, but the sum I was getting didn’t make sense.

Wait! It must go back to the nicknames! Remus was called Moony. That must be related to the fact that they sneak out on a full moon! But why name yourself after a date? The other guy’s sounded like they could be about animals, but Remus’s clearly referred to the moon.

Could there be a reason they snuck out on the full moon? One of them could be a werewolf, I guess, but…

No, that actually made sense! Remus could be a werewolf, and the other guys were shepherding him around when he wasn’t really… himself. But they were putting themselves at major risk. Remus was harmless during the day, but on the full moon, well… He’s not something you’d want to run into in a dark alley.

I had a theory. And James was going to know about it… As soon as he get’s back from Quidditch Practice.

I am sorry it took forever to get this chapter up, but feedback is greatly appreciated!

"Look, Lily, can't we do this later?" James was attempting to edge around me and get to his room. "The ball's tonight..."
"Yeah, and that means our friends will be wanting to talk to us about it for days! This will be the last time we'll be on our own for days!"
James muttered something that was either "That's exactly right." or "There's always at night..."

I'd finally cornered James. It was the night of the Halloween Costume Ball, and ever since I'd yelled at James that day in the cave he'd made sure we were only together in class or with friends. He was as sweet as ever, but I really wanted to tell him what I'd come up with.
"James, just stand still for a couple minutes." I grabbed his shoulders and steered him over to the couch. "Or, for that matter, sit down. I don't really care either way."
"This is about the Marauders, isn't it?" James shifted uncomfortably on the cushion. "Look, Lily, If they found out you knew anything, they would be extremely-"
"I'm just going to tell you my theory." I said calmly, trying to make James listen. "And I'll tell you what. If it's totally off and you have no clue how I reached that conclusion, you can laugh your head off."

"Lily, I won't laugh." James said earnestly. But then he amended that statement with a small grin. "Well, I guess if you said we were those superheroes muggles obsess over, then I might laugh."
"Darn. There goes suggestion one." I said, and James chuckled. "Seriously, though, I don't think you guys were bitten by a mutant spider or whatever."
"Bitten by a mutant what?"
"Never mind."
"Ok, go ahead."

"It's about your nicknames." I could see James start when I mentioned it, so I figured I was on the right track. "And about when you sneak out." Again, I was rewarded when he shifted uncomfortably.
"What about our nicknames?" James said as innocently as any of the Marauders could muster. "And how do you know, apart from that night a few days ago, when we sneak out or not?"
"Jeff freaked out every time he woke up and you weren't there at the end of last year." I said simply.
"Remind me to hex him the next time I see him." James muttered darkly. I grinned in a small way.
"And I compared the dates with that night a couple days ago, and found out they all had one thing in common."
"Oh, yeah?" James said, feigning dumb. "And what's that?"

For a second, I wondered if I really wanted to know the Great Secret of the Marauders. They'd always liked secrets and kiddy games, but they'd grown up a lot this summer. I figured if the secret could really hurt someone or was just plain stupid, they would have told Dumbledore by now. Was ignorance really bliss, at least in this case?

No. For me, ignorance could never be bliss. I always wanted to know the truth, even now, when I doubted it was a wise move to try to learn the truth. Sighing, I breathed out the sentence I'd been afraid of uttering.
"They're all on the full moon."
"Freaky." James continued his act, but his darting eyes and sweating forehead sort of gave him away. "But what's that got to do with our nicknames?"
"Remus is Moony! Come on, James. I'm not an idiot."

"Lily, you've got to understand, if the other guys find out-"
"I'm right? Omigosh! But, James, if Remus is a werewolf, you guys could all be in real danger if you are around him when he's like that! I thought you and Sirius payed attention in Defense Against the Dark Arts, at least!"
"We do. And we're fine because-"
"No, you guys are absolutely not fine! If you really pay attention, you should know that a werewolf when transformed can kill you!" I shook my head. "What are you thinking?"
"We're fine, because-"
"No you're-"
"Lily!"

I sank back into my seat. I was right! Something had to be done! Remus was a great guy, and I was all for letting him stay at school, but having three teenage boys running around with him while he was... err, shall we say dangerous, sounded like a bad idea. But James started to explain everything to me, so I listened.

"He, Remus, that is, has always been a werewolf. Or, at least, he's been a werewolf since he started out school here. We figured it out pretty early, with him being absent all the time and stuff, but it took us until fifth year to finally get the thing we needed to have to help him."
"And that is?"
"Lily, if I tell you, you have to promise to not go to Dumbledore. We're not hurting anyone or anything, but it's sort of... well, sort of illegal."
"What did you do?" I said in wonder.
"We became unregistered animagi."

"Oh." I said in a stunned silence, finally realizing how they could be around a werewolf on the full moon. Of course an animal, or a group of animals, wouldn't really be appealing food to a werewolf. And, if their animagus forms were big enough, they could keep him in line if he caught sent of someone up at school. And, on top of all of that, I was kind of impressed. Becoming an animagi was way tricky, as far as I knew, and they'd accomplished it when they were fifteen! "What are you guys?"

"I'm a stag. Sirius is a big, black dog. Peter's a rat."
"Prongs. Padfoot. Wormtail." I said, trying to get it into my head that this was actually real. I was having a hard time doing that, for some strange reason. "Oh, wow."
"You cannot tell anyone." James said with the most conviction I'd ever heard a guy use.
"But what about Professor Dumbledore? I mean, I don't really care if you three feel like getting yourselves killed-" James smirked, but I continued. "But shouldn't the headmaster know if he enrolled a werewolf?"

"Sirius, Peter, and I all appreciate your concern." James teased. "But you don't have to worry about Dumbledore knew before Remus started going here. That's the reason the shrieking shack was build. They put Remus inside and locked it up tight, so-"
"So he couldn't hurt anyone, but still go to school here." I said in awe. "I'm only just beginning to understand two things about the Marauders."
"Only two?" James mocked. "Which ones?"
"The facts that you have an amazing friendship."
"And?"
"And the fact that you are all complete butt-heads!"

After smiling, his face darkened. "Seriously, though, you won't tell anyone?"
"No. It's Remus's thing, not mine. If he wants people to know about it, he can tell them. But, just as a suggestion, he might want to tell the others. We're all worried about you guys. Allison's under the impression you're doing something illegal." James look reminded me that, even though they had good reasoning, they were doing something illegal. "Well, illegal, dangerous, and mean."
"How about this; We'll drop hints that makes it sound like we're just doing some stupid friend-taunting thing?"
"As long as it makes them feel better, I don't care what you say. They just want to make sure you're ok."
"I'm slightly better than ok." He said hugging me.

I hugged back for a precious few moments, and then someone pounded on the portrait hole. I'd made sure none of my friends knew the password so that they couldn't walk in at times like this, so the banging was followed by "Lily, let us in! You said we could use your room for getting ready tonight!" I sat up straight, and then turned to James with a wince.
"You'd better go. This common room, my room, and the bathroom are all about to explode with girls, make-up, and clothes."
"Thanks for the warning." James said, getting up. He let in my friends and headed to a place with more sanity. I wished I could join him.



"Ok, you guys went shopping twice, obsessed over it for weeks, probably even dreamed about it, and you are still freaking out?" Hannah observed with a soft, deadly sarcasm. Hannah and I were confident that we could put on a dress and do each other's hair(no one else had seen the designs or the dresses to prevent unwanted changes) in a half-hour, and we were meeting the boys in two hours, so we were content to sit back and watch everything explode. And explode they did.
"Hannah, I'm serious! Which pair of earrings should I wear?" Pearl held up a pair of rose quartz studs and a pair of sliver hoops.
"The studs." Hannah said with a labored sigh.
"Thanks." Pearl breathed out. "You sure you don't want me to do your make-up?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure."

A greatly excepted distraction came in the form of an owl.
"Lils!" Ellie called from the window. "Jemina's got a letter for you!"
"Thanks, Ellie!" I said, walking over to my owl. I took the letter from her, gave her an owl snack, and let her go again. She was a smart bird; she could find her way to the owlery just fine.

The envelope was from my mother, but it actually had two letters in it; One of them was really from Mum, and the other was a joint (and very sloppy) letter from Lucy and Sarah.

Dear Lily,
You lucky girl! You get to plan your school's Halloween ball! Ours is being planned by the teachers and stuff!
Which means it's going to be way traditional, with felt bats and ghosts hanging from the ceiling and stuff! I wish our school had magic!
And Your costume sketch looks great! James sounds way cute-
He is, I met him-
So we hope you have a great time! Send us some of those way cool magic pictures of everyone and we'll send you boring ones of us!
I hope you have a great time! Write us and tell us what happens, especially if something special happens with him!
Love,

Lucy and Sarah

I laughed. Hannah, who had taken a break from the hysterics and was reading over my shoulder, smiled. I turned to my mother's letter, and Hannah left to let me read it alone.

Dear Lily,
Thank you for the photos of Hogwarts. The way they move is just amazing. Hogwarts is a really beautiful place. Thanks, too, for the portrait of your dad. Your friend Hannah is an amazing painter, and with the portrait in my room its like having your father back in the house again. He claims that you have a picture just like it in your room, and he can talk to both of us. I know he's not really your father, but he's sort of a piece of his soul, and that piece is better than nothing.

I hope you enjoy yourself at the ball. The pictures and costume ideas you sent me were just beautiful! You really need to take a picture of all of your friends, then send me it.

You must come home over the Holidays, and invite James over for Christmas Eve if you can.

Love you,
Mum.

I cried over a feeling that was somewhere between sadness and longing. Yes, I did have a portrait of Dad in my room now. Hannah had painted them and enchanted them so the image of Dad could move back and forth from my room and hers. They worked just like the portraits in the Headmaster's office, so it was just like having him back with us.

"What's up?" Hannah asked as I sat back down on the couch. I wasn't crying anymore, but my eyes were red and my cheeks were streaked with from the paths of my tears.
"Mum loved those portraits you painted." I whispered. "She's right; You're an amazing artist."
"It was no problem. I felt bad for her. She's all alone. I know she's got your Grandparents and stuff, but it's not the same."

"Only thirty three minutes left!" A distressed Alice screeched. I turned to Hannah and grinned.
"I think its time we got ourselves dressed up."
"Oh, gag me." Hannah made a face.



"Wow, Lily. That dress is amazing!" Ellie gushed. Involuntarily, I blushed. My face turned the color of the roses Hannah had braided in my hair to look like a crown. I twirled the silk of my red and gold skirt experimentally.
"You really think so?"
"I see why you wouldn't let us loose on that outfit." Alice observed with a grin. "We would've tried to glam it up, which would have totally ruined it."
"Thanks."

My friends eyes popped even further when they saw Hannah's dress. I attempted not to laugh at their stunned expressions.
"Hannah, you look-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know." Hannah said. She rolled her eyes in contempt. "You guys have never seen me with my hair down or with make-up on."
"Or, for that matter, in a skirt." I added helpfully.
"Thanks, Lily." She muttered out of the corner of her mouth. "Come on, you guys."

Hannah might have been in a foul mood over their reaction, but she really did look stunning. The black and red of her dress matched perfectly. She had one white lily tucked under her ear. She only had on a little eye shadow and a deep red shade of lipstick, but she did look way different.
"Sirius will think you fell from heaven." I murmured. We'd ended up at the back of the line again; we weren't in the hurry the other girls were.
"I don't care if he thinks I did. In fact, I would like him too. I just don't want the girls around here to get the idea that I like make-up. Tomorrow, it's back to a braid, hoodies, and jeans."
"If you live that long." I inserted optimistically.
"Granted." Hannah said with a shrug.

"There they are." Ellie said quietly, but with a smile. The boys were huddled by the entrance, looking up at us. Everyone of them was staring at one of us with a open mouth and bulging eyes.
"See? All of that worrying was pointless. They love us." I muttered to Hannah.
"All of that worrying was pointless anyway. If those guys love us in our uniforms, then they should love us in these costumes."
"But isn't the look on Sirius's face kind of gratifying?" Sirius was smiling so happily that it made Hannah grin too. She looked even more beautiful when she wasn't pouting.
"Kinda. What about the look on James's face?"

I hadn't paid really close attention to any of the boys except Sirius, and that was to cheer Hannah up. Now, I caught James's eye and smiled my own maniac grin. He was wearing a green shirt, baggy brown pants, and a darker green cape. His handsome face was somewhere between shock and happiness. I moved peacefully down the stairs, like an angel, but when I got to the bottom of the staircase, I threw myself at James and hugged him fiercely.

"Are you ready?" He asked me quietly as he stroked my long, loosely curled red hair. I think he meant ready to go into the Great Hall. But, for me, the question delved so much deeper. It meant was I ready for him, ready for Voldemort, ready for doing my part, ready for life. And the truest answer was that I didn't really know. But I was brave, so I knew I could keep going and do what's right, no matter what.

"Yes, I am. Come on, let's go." Holding James by the hand, I led the way into the great hall.



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