Potters, a History

Chapter 7. Invitation and Revelation

James ascended the stairs to Gryffindor Tower with a heavy heart. He was thinking about Lily again - but what else was new, he'd been thinking about her non-stop since that evening in the library. Lily had been right, of course. He hated what he had done to his relationship with Remus, and now of course he dearly regretted going after Lily when he did. He really should have waited for Remus to break it off with her... why hadn't he been able to help himself? Usually he was quite in control of his feelings, of his actions. He wasn't like Sirius, never had been one to fly off the handle or impulsively snog girls in the middle of the corridors. He'd always been proud of his even temper. It was something he'd inherited from his father, this ability to keep his cool, assess the situation at hand fairly first, and act only once he had made a good judgment. It wasn't that he wouldn't fight to defend his honour - hadn't he proved that in enough duels with Snape? - just that he always weighed the consequences of his decisions very carefully beforehand. Except when it came to Lily.

What had even happened that night? They'd been working on his Muggle Studies essay, that much he did remember. And she had said something really funny... or he had said something funny... he sighed. It was no use. The whole thing was kind of a blur, the conversation part of it anyway. He had just been reveling in the proximity of her the entire time. The delicious smell that she always seemed to have - probably a clever little charm she had invented to make her always smell faintly of vanilla and apples and almonds. And then, compounding the problem, the light from the fire they were studying by bounced off her curls, making them shine as though from within. In fact, he thought her hair looked as though it desperately wanted him to touch it. And who knew, perhaps she had created a charm for that purpose as well.

But even this, he would ordinarily have been able to resist. It was her laugh that put him over the edge - yes, he probably had said something highly amusing about electricity or telephones or some other Muggle thing he knew next to nothing about. Her extraordinary emerald eyes had been sparkling, and her skin seemed all lit up. He vaguely remembered tapping her nose. "Did you know, you have a freckle, just there? And there, and there, and there..." Her breath had caught, and their eyes had met - and that was all the assessment he needed to do of that situation.

It was just a soft kiss at first, almost a question, his lips barely brushing hers. She had returned it with another, just as soft, just as sweet. He'd moved his hand up to her cheek, then plunging it into her hair, stroking the silky tresses from underneath. A thrill shot through his body; he'd been dreaming of doing that for quite some time, and her hair felt as perfect between his fingers as he could ever have imagined. The kiss deepened - she tasted vaguely of mint, probably from the Peppermint Toads they had been eating - and James felt that every ounce of his being was now concentrated in his mouth. He had pulled her closer with the hand that wasn't still tangled up in her hair, cupping her waist gently... and then she'd laced her fingers around the back of his neck, drawing still closer to him. She slowly lowered herself to the floor, on her back, pulling him on top of her, and they'd laid there for what felt like an eternity, motionless except for their tongues, exploring each other's mouths.

It had been the perfect first kiss, James thought, not rushed or frantic, but sweet, tender, gentle. It was a perfect expression of everything he felt about her, and although he had certainly snogged a few girls before, he had never known that two people could communicate so deeply just by touch. He felt as though the rest of the world had melted away, as though time had stopped and nothing existed but the two of them. His mind had been completely blank, he realised. He'd been so focused on the kiss that he hadn't bothered to think a single coherent thought. But Lily had.

James snapped out of his daydream, smile fading from his face, as he remembered what she had said to break their kiss. He quickly realised that he'd been standing in front of the Fat Lady for several minutes now.

"Are you going to give me the password, dearie, or just stand there looking like your owl's just been run over by the Knight Bus?" He usually came up with some clever retort when the portrait made fun of him - it had almost become a joke between him and the Fat Lady - but tonight he was in no mood.

"Oh. No, I guess I'll go in." But he stopped short of giving her the password.

The Fat Lady sighed. "I'm sorry dear, shouldn't have made fun of you, not just now. You've got it bad, haven't you? Who is it - that girl with the green eyes? You two always did look at each other that way."

Neither was James in the mood to deny anything. "Yeah. But we've had a talk not too long ago, seems she can't decide whether she likes me or not."

The woman in the portrait gave him a sympathetic look. "Oh, I'd not worry too much, Mister Potter. She doesn't seem any happier about it than you do. Every day this week, she's come by looking like her owl's just been run over by the Knight Bus. Or didn't I just say that?"

He smiled halfheartedly, only slightly cheered by this bit of news. "You did. It's okay. Anyway, I'd better get going, I have some Arithmancy to finish up with. Lion's Den." The Fat Lady swung open, clucking after him as he climbed through the portrait.

Sirius greeted him as he entered the Gryffindor common room. "Oi, James! Get your bloomin' arse over here, we need a fourth for Exploding Snap!" He was sitting in the middle of the common room with John Doe (yes that was his real name, thank you very much) and Andrew Fox, two other sixth years who always seemed up for a good time. Needless to say, they spent more time with Sirius than with James, but at the moment James felt that he could use a good game of Exploding Snap. Oh well, he thought, not particularly resignedly. Arithmancy can wait. A great cheer came up from the three boisterous Gryffindors as James headed over to join them, and, had he been aware of this kind of thing, he would have noticed his face splitting into the first genuine grin he'd had since he and Lily had "decided" not to see each other.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lily had practically locked herself up in her room, furious with herself for having forgotten the homework that was due for Advanced Herbology tomorrow. Honestly, Lily, she'd thought to herself. You would be done this and three other assignments if you hadn't been spending so much time agonising over Remus and James. She flipped pages angrily, searching for the proper method of re-potting prepubescent Mandrakes, then stopped to calm herself, realising that she would get much more accomplished if she only stopped to enjoy what she was doing.

And Lily did enjoy Herbology. She loved the obscurity of some of the things she'd been learning - there were so many different plants, all with slightly different properties, scents, colours... the sheer task of memorizing it all seemed to Lily a delicious challenge. That was why, even though the rest of her friends dropped Herbology in the fifth year (when it had become optional), she had stuck with it. Besides the intellectual challenge, she had figured that continuing with it would help her in other classes, as well. She was right. More than once, some esoteric plant that she'd read about had unexpectedly popped up on a Potions exam; or was a main diet of some animal they'd been learning about in Care of Magical Creatures. Knowing all its properties allowed her to keep the highest marks in her class, and had earned her plenty of points for Gryffindor, besides. She was glad that she had taken the more advanced courses for more personal reasons, too; while researching for a recent presentation on the magical plants of Eastern Europe, she'd come across several that she thought might help Remus.

She sprawled out on her bed, book open in front of her. It was an informal study session, by her standards, but she managed to absorb plenty nonetheless. She was interrupted by a soft rap on one of her bed posters.

"Hallo? Lily?" It was Violet Brown, a fifth year Gryffindor who, Lily knew from her cheering at Quidditch matches, revered the Gryffindor seeker - James - as though he was a god.

"Oh, hi Violet." Lily replied. The smaller girl didn't say anything right away, and Lily gave her a bemused look. "Can I help you with something?"

"Um..." she looked down at her feet awkwardly. "Well, I heard you and James broke up. Is that true?"

At this Lily became slightly exasperated. "Sort of. It's a little complicated. I suppose you're wondering if he's free for you to have a go at him?"

"Actually, no," she answered, a bit startled at Lily's forceful reaction. "I just thought that, if I had just broken up with someone, I'd want to talk to someone about it. And I know your closest friends are Sirius and Remus and Peter, but I thought that maybe, since they're boys, you wouldn't want to talk with them about it, so much."

Lily's face burned. "Oh, I am such an arse... I'm sorry, Violet. I'm not normally one to snap at people, but you were the fourth girl to come up to me asking that today, and so I just assumed..."

Violet chuckled at her. "It's okay, I can see how that might be frustrating." She cocked her head at her for a minute, smiling kindheartedly. "Did you want to talk? Girlfriends can be good for something, after all..."

And that was how Lily found herself pouring her heart out to a girl she only knew in passing. "... so, I was really happy with Remus, you know, things were going well... it sounds weird but we never actually called ourselves boyfriend and girlfriend, we were just kind of together. But I was okay with that, really. It was nice, not having to define it, we didn't have to argue about where it was going or anything... but then I was helping James with his Muggle Studies homework two weekends ago and he said something really funny, and I hardly knew what was happening and then all of the sudden," she giggled here, she couldn't help it. "All of the sudden, we were just rolling around on the floor, snogging each other's brains out! So I freaked out, and he ended up going and sending Remus down, and then..."

She stopped midsentence, realising what she had almost just said. How could she explain the situation? "And then Remus kind of broke up with me. It's complicated, though... he doesn't think we should see each other because... well, he's sick a lot."

Violet looked outraged. "And I hope you told him that's not a reason?"

"Well, I did, but it's from this... kind of dangerous disease." She bit her lip. "The thing is, if we were together, there's a chance that I could catch it from him, and I would always have it for the rest of my life. I could even die from it."

Now Violet looked shocked. "Remus has a... he has... like, syphilis or something?" she spluttered. She just could not believe that the shy, sweet Gryffindor would be carrying that kind of disease.

"Oh, nonono," Lily answered hastily. "It's not like that. But it kind of presents the same problems."

Violet accepted this. She sensed that there was more to it that Lily wasn't telling her, but who was she to be pressing the issue? They had barely known each other before she had come by, and she was already spilling out her deepest secrets. "Okay, so you and Remus broke up. Then what?"

"Well, then I was going to just go up and go to bed, but James came back down."

"Ooh... did he have his invisibility cloak?"

"How did you know?" Lily was genuinely puzzled, but then she realised that James was something of a legend in Gryffindor house for his midnight escapades with the rest of the Marauders.

"I'll take that as a yes..."

She blushed furiously. "Well... I don't need to tell you the rest except that there was more snogging involved... anyway, things from there seemed to be going great. But then the other day, Remus didn't show up to Potions and I got very worried, so I went looking for him."

"Oh, Lily." She clapped a hand to her mouth. "You didn't snog him again, did you?"

"No, even though I wanted to. He was being so sweet, and it just got me all confused... and I don't know which one of them I like more. So I told James that I didn't want to come between the two of them, or lead them on, and so we kind of broke up not too long ago... so now I don't have either of them." She pouted, allowing herself a moment of self-pity.

Violet snapped her out of it rather quickly. "Oh you poor dear, can't decide which smart, charming, handsome Gryffindor sixth-year you'd rather tumble with. Would that we all had that problem..."

Lily threw a pillow at her, laughing. Violet had been right. Talking to another girl about the situation made her feel loads better, even if it hadn't changed a thing. The two new chums continued talking late into the night, mostly about the boys of Hogwarts ("You think Snape is sexy?!" Lily shrieked), but about other things, too. She was glad that, as a prefect, she got her own little room, because she was certain that her roommates would not have appreciated the noise they were making.

Aside from getting all her feelings about Remus and James off of her chest, she found out they had a lot in common - Violet's boyfriend, Donald, was a reserve Bludger on the Gryffindor team, and they shared the same favourite subject (Charms) and candy (Fizzing Whizbees). What was more, Violet, like Lily, was not a pureblood. Her mother was a Muggle who, like Lily's parents, delighted in the wizarding world, her brother was a wizard, and had recently graduated from Hogwarts, but her sister was a Muggle. The two girls wound up trading horror stories about jealous elder sisters whose lives were more boring than either could imagine.

"Petunia..." Lily was practically rolling on the floor laughing. "Petunia... she works at a company... that sells drills! Can you imagine? Drills!! And... her boyfriend is the mail clerk there... the way she tells it though, mail clerks apparently run the place..." Violet snickered. "No, no, wait, there's more. She fetches him coffee every three seconds just so she can simper over him! Honestly, it's disgusting... I guess it wouldn't be so bad if she could just conjure up a cup, but nooo, she goes all the way across the building to pour it!" She paused to wipe a tear from her eye. "I guess it isn't enough, though, because she's always complaining that Vernon - that's his actual name, Vernon Dursley - doesn't pay enough attention to her. I offered to whip her up a love potion but she wouldn't have it. She thought I was out to poison him or something. As if I cared so much about making her miserable that I would try to kill off her boyfriends! But now every time I send an owl home about a boy I'm seeing, she thinks I've bewitched him."

Violet, too, had tears of laughter streaming down her face. "I know! The Muggle boy down the street had a thing for me this summer, and I swear, Daisy thought I'd slipped something in their milk every morning to make him lust after me! She doesn't seem to realise that if I had, his mum, dad, and little sisters would have a crush on me too..."

Lily glanced down at her watch and was immediately sorry she had. The message: "It's way past your bedtime, young lady!" could not be ignored. She sighed, stomach aching from laughing so hard. "Oh, I really should be getting to bed, I've got a history quiz first thing tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by, though... I feel loads better. Actually, I don't think I've laughed that hard since Sirius hexed Snape at breakfast last year. D'you remember that? He turned his head into a bowling ball! It must have taken Miss Pomfrey an hour to get it back to its normal shape, and even then he still had little dents in his cheek from where the finger-holes used to be ..." she smiled at the memory.

Violet grinned. "Well, I thought you looked like you could use a friend of the female variety. Come see me if you get any news on the James or Remus front!" She gave a little wave and bounced downstairs to the fifth years' floor.

Lily buried herself under her cosy comforter. Very soon, she was sound asleep, a grin on her face and a warm, happy feeling in her stomach.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sirius, Peter, and Lily were beginning to get dizzy as they wound their way up the soaring spiral staircase to the Astronomy Tower.

"Ugh. I'm glad Astronomy meets before lunch," Sirius said, face almost green.

Lily giggled. "I just wish we didn't have it with the Slytherins, after this staircase, I don't need anything to make me feel more nauseous."

Peter laughed, in a way that made him sound as though he was seven years old. Lily thought that was the best thing about it. "Yeah. You guys won't make me sit next to Frieda Bulstrode, again, will you?" In their fourth year, on a dare, he had agreed to be magically "attached" to the rather unkempt Slytherin girl for a day, unable to stay more than five feet away from her at any time between breakfast and curfew. As this was one of the few Marauders jokes that he had truly been a part of, even though he had been the target of it, he brought it up every time he could.

"No, no, you can sit with us, Peter." Lily said as she wrenched open the door to the tower. Most of the Slytherins were already there; Lily was quite annoyed to see that Snape had taken the seat that she usually sat in. She glared at him as she took the chair next to his. Sirius and Peter took two empty desks halfway across the room from her. Almost as soon as they had sat down, Peter leaned over to ask Sirius whether he had gotten all the answers for last night's assignment.

"Do your own homework, you lazy git!" Sirius frowned. Though he was normally easygoing, he drew the line at this; he worked far too hard for his marks to let anyone copy off him. He was especially frustrated when Peter attempted it, since he was not a splendid wizard, and, in Sirius's opinion, never would be unless he worked a little harder at it. He snorted. "You'll never learn anything if you don't."

Peter looked slightly put out. "I did do the homework, I just wanted to check it with yours," he whined. He pulled a ragged-looking piece of parchment out of his bag. Lily craned her neck to see it, and had to stifle a snicker as she mentally compared his rather sloppy, incomplete lunar phase map with her own, and Sirius's. She didn't want to look down on him, and she knew he had tried, but honestly...

"It looks like what Professor Estrella was asking for," she interrupted, sensing that Sirius was about to lose his temper. He did this with almost alarming frequency, particularly where Peter was concerned.

She was saved from having to do any further mediation when Professor Estrella swept into the room, her robes glittering. Most of the students, Lily and Sirius included, felt that Professor Estrella was the best dressed professor at Hogwarts - her robes reflected the subject she taught, and were always patterned after some beautiful star cluster or breathtaking supernova.

"Ah, good morning, students. Before class starts today, I'd like you all to bring your homework to the front of the class - ah, very nice Miss Evans, Mr. Black." She also offered congratulations on a job well done to Snape, who smirked at the Gryffindors. She surveyed the rest of the offerings, trying to come up with something positive to say about every one. "Beautiful penmanship, Mr. Pettigrew." Lily avoided looking at Sirius at all costs, knowing full well that she would burst into laughter if she did.

The next half hour of the lesson passed uneventfully, Professor Estrella's mellifluous voice keeping them enraptured as she described what would happen to a wizard who passed through a black hole. "Many Muggles are particularly interested in this phenomenon, as they think it could be the key to time travel..."

But as Professor Estrella went over the intricacies of the gravity effect a sixth time (at Peter's request, naturally), Lily noticed that Snape was not paying particularly close attention. She watched as he nudged Diana Pucey, a coldly pretty, and rather coldhearted, girl who was sitting on his left. He whispered something to her and gestured to the lunar calendar on the wall next to them. Diana cocked her head, squinted at the calendar, and then looked as though she was realising something.

Lily bit her tongue as hard as she could to keep herself from doing something drastic. She couldn't very well hex Snape in the middle of Astronomy, could she? She looked over at Sirius, who too was studying Snape. She whispered a quick wandless charm that she'd been practicing, to catch his attention. He turned his head to her. He knows, she mouthed.

I know he knows, came the reply, also mouthed.

She wanted to ask how he knew, but decided that could wait. She shrugged her shoulders slightly, casting him a look that said, What do you think we should do?

A sly grin came over his face. Lily doubted that he would do anything too attention-grabbing in Astronomy; it was his favourite class, so it was unlikely he would want to spoil Professor Estrella's good estimation of him. But with that look... oh no, he was pulling his wand out of his bag. He gave her a look, and Lily was unsure of whether to interpret it as, create a distraction so I can get away with this, or check out this clever little curse, or both.

Either way, she didn't have time before she saw him muttering something in Snape's general direction. But nothing seemed to happen. She gave him a quizzical look, but he just kept grinning. Tongue tying charm, he mouthed.

And he couldn't have done it at a better time. Professor Estrella noticed that Snape's concentration had been wandering, and quickly called on him. "Mr. Snape, would you care to explain to the rest of the class the difference between black holes and quasars?"

Snape, however, seemed to be at a loss for words. "Well... um.... uh... um..." His normally white skin flushed pink, and he shot a furious look at Lily, who held her hands up as if to say, I didn't do a thing...

"Mr. Black, please enlighten us." Sirius launched into a well-thought out discourse on quasars, which lasted well until it was time for class to be dismissed. Professor Estrella had to cut him off so none of her students would be late for their other classes.

As Sirius and Lily were gathering their things (Peter had decided to run ahead and save them seats with James at lunch), Snape approached them, glaring daggers at the pair. "Ummmmmm...." he said, managing to convey his rage in one syllable.

Lily couldn't choke back her laughter. "Very articulate, Severus," she giggled, and he stormed away, still fuming. Sirius joined her with a great guffaw.

"That was priceless," she said to him. "The look on his face... when he realised he couldn't say anything but 'ummmm.'" She shook her head as they walked down the steps. "One thing I don't understand though... how did you know that he knew, about Remus, I mean? He told me he'd found out while working on the potions."

"What?" Sirius asked, another devious grin appearing on his face. "That lying prat! Although I suppose he wouldn't want to tell you about the Whomping Willow..."

"No..." she said slowly. "But from the look on your face, I think I want to hear about it..." So Sirius, with accompanying hand gestures and uncannily accurate voices for each of his friends (and Snape), explained to Lily what had happened last year, when he suggested that Snape follow them through the Whomping Willow to the Shrieking Shack.

Lily, though truly impressed that they'd been able to become Animagi ("How ever did you manage it?"), was far from thrilled by the general idea of the prank. "Sirius, were you off your rocker? He could have been killed! You all would've been expelled!"

He looked down, ashamed. "Yeah, I know. A bit stupid of me, really... lucky for Snape that James is as much of a thoughtful do-gooder as you."

"What? Why?" Lily was perplexed. "Wasn't he in on it?"

"Oh, no, no. He got wind of it, transformed back into his human form, saved Snape, and then gave me the talking-to of my life. Honestly, Lily, a Howler's got nothing on James when he's mad... Dumbledore was upset too, but he wasn't too hard on me as there was no harm done. He made Snape promise under penalty of detention with Filch for the rest of his term here not to tell a soul."

She grinned, imagining Filch's delight at having a student to torture every night for three years. Then she changed the subject.

"I wonder what's for lunch..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Peter Pettigrew had spent most of the evening in the library, unable to make head or tails of his Transfiguration assignment. Usually James helped him with that subject, but he hadn't been able to find him. So Peter hadn't wanted to bother him. At any rate, he was walking back to Gryffindor Tower when he accidentally ran into some seventh year Slytherins - Lior Nott and his best friend, Willie Macnair. He had tried his best not to annoy them, since he was absolutely terrified of Nott, but the two were not known as bullies for nothing.

"Well, well, Macnair, what do we have here?"

"Looks like a pathetic Squib of a Gryffindor to me, running back to his common room. What do you think, Lior?"

"I'd say you're spot on, Willie. Good job." He paused for a moment. "Excuse me, what was your last name again? Pitiful?"

"Pettigrew, sir," Peter squeaked. He felt ashamed. Why had he been sorted into Gryffindor at all? He never felt brave. Well, for once in his life, he was going to be. "And... and... I'd thank you to not make fun of it!"

Nott ignored his attempt at salvaging some dignity, purring, "Pettigrew, yes, that's it." He sniffed. "Isn't that a very old wizarding family? Not a fine specimen they've sent to Hogwarts, is it?"

Peter looked confused for a moment, then realised he'd just been insulted. "I'm as fine a wizard as you, Macnair."

Neither of the Slytherins even tried to suppress their cruel laughter. Macnair turned to Nott. "Lior, I know we usually only torture the Mudbloods, but why don't we make an exception just this once? I mean, personally, I think the Squibs are just as bad. Bringing down the name of purebloods with their ineptitude and all that." Nott nodded his agreement, and the two of them had whipped out their wands. He'd been struck with the Curse of the Bogies, a Jelly Legs Jinx, and the Furnunculus Curse, before he'd even had time to think. Several other darker, more advanced, and much more painful curses followed.

Severus Snape had been on his way up from Cinna's office when he heard the cries. At first he brushed it off, but then he heard Macnair taunting, "Yes, come now, tell us what a pathetic excuse for a pureblood you are, Pettigrew. Yes, tell us you're a Squib..." He changed direction promptly. Macnair had to know that he couldn't get away with this kind of thing.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Snape hissed. "You should know better than this, Nott, and you too, Macnair. You'll lose points from Slytherin if you're caught doing something like this." Peter couldn't be sure, but something about the way he had emphasized the words made him think he was worried about more than losing points. "Honestly, as if you had nothing better to do."

Macnair and Nott slunk away, presumably to harass a more acceptable target, muttering something about Snape always sticking his hooked nose where it didn't belong. Meanwhile, Snape performed a rather hasty countercurse, which nevertheless made Peter feel a thousand times better. Although he had intervened on his behalf, Peter still got the feeling that Snape didn't like him very much.

"You know, Pettigrew, they were right. You are fairly pathetic. It's like you can't do anything for yourself - always have to hide behind Potter. It's disgusting, really." He glared at him for a moment, and Peter shrunk under his gaze. But then the look on Snape's face changed, as though he were having a brilliant idea. "You know, if you're so desperate for protection, there are..." He stopped for a moment, as though considering how to word what he wanted to say. "Well, there are more powerful people around to have on your side. Who knows, perhaps there's even someone who could give you a little power of your own." Peter was shocked. What was he saying? Was this an outright invitation to join... to become...? Were they really that bold?

Snape saw his mouth hanging open and wondered if he hadn't made a mistake. But no, he had to go through with his impulsive plot. There was too much that could be gained from this, and he realised that Pettigrew was too weak to resist him, if properly threatened. "If you're interested, some of us are meeting in the Charms classroom tomorrow night. But don't breathe a word to anyone else. Whether you show or not." He couldn't decide if that was intimidating enough, so he went a bit further. "But then, I don't think you're stupid enough to tattle on us. You must realise that if you cross us, not even Potty and his perfect little friends could help you." He gave a sinister chuckle. "I don't think even Dumbledore could save you."

Peter's mouth was still agape as Snape turned on his heel and disappeared down the corridor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

In the Gryffindor common room, Lily Evans gave a yelp of pain.

"What's wrong?" James asked, looking up from the Care of Magical Creatures assignment they'd been working on together. Remus, seated across the room, looked up as well.

"Nothing, nothing," she said. "Just a headache."

"Another one?" James looked at her over the top of his glasses, clearly alarmed.

She shrugged. "You know I get stress headaches on occasion."

He knew this was true, but from the grimace on her face, he also knew this was no ordinary headache. Her skin looked paler than usual, too. Something told James that he couldn't let her play this off as though it were nothing. "Sorry, Evvie, but stress headaches do not make you cry out in pain, and this is the third one this week. We're going to see Pomfrey."

Lily protested weakly. "James, we've got to finish this assignment..." But he had already taken her by the arm. Remus debated following them - he was worried about Lily, after all - but he had an awful lot of homework, and he knew that James would take good care of her. A little pang of jealousy flickered through his stomach. Even though Lily had told him that they were not together, he knew that James still cared for her deeply, and to his way of thinking, this meant that it was only a matter of time before they were together. He had all but given up.

When they reached the hospital wing, Pomfrey began clucking about Lily like a mother hen. "I'll get you a nice Headache Banishing potion. It will be gone in a flash," she said. Lily drank it, but nothing changed.

She shook her head. "Sorry, nothing happened. It still hurts." Pomfrey went to fetch several others for her - but none of them worked.

She sighed, looking concerned. "Have you been getting a lot of these recently, Miss Evans?"

Lily hesitated for a moment. "Sort of. It was pretty infrequent at first, but I've been getting more of them recently."

"I see. Have you been sleeping well?"

"I think so. I mean, I don't remember not sleeping well. Although some people have been telling me that I look like hell in the morning, like I haven't slept at all." She remembered what Sirius had said the other day at breakfast. She paused. "Actually..." she felt stupid saying this, but realised she should tell the nurse everything she could. "I always wake up feeling like I've had a rather unpleasant dream that I can't remember."

Pomfrey frowned more deeply. "I think you'd better see Dumbledore. Stay here and I'll get him."

Lily and James shot each other confused looks. "Dumbledore?" Lily said. "It's just a headache! Why does the headmaster need to be involved?"

James's face was ashen. "I think... maybe... Pomfrey thinks your headaches mean something."

"Yes, they mean my head hurts," she replied, irritably.

"No," he whispered. "Maybe they mean something is happening."

"Like what? As far as I know, they haven't been connected with anything. I think I'd have noticed if they had."

A rather worried look came over his face. "Lily, I think it might be something bad... something to do with Voldemort and his wizards."

"Don't be daft," Lily said dismissively. "What, do you think I have some Death Eater alarm system in my head?"

"Maybe," he said.

She rolled her eyes at him. "James, really, how would that even be possible?"

"I don't know," he answered, obviously shaken. "But I just thought of it. D'you remember, the day before I found out he'd killed my mum and dad - you had a headache. And the day they tried to attack Dumbledore, you had one then, too."

"That could just be a coincidence. I'm sure there've been loads of times that I've had headaches and nothing happened to do with him. And probably loads of times that they've attacked people and I haven't got a headache."

"Well, maybe it's just when something is going to affect people that are close to you. I don't know. It's just an idea. You've got to admit these aren't like ordinary headaches."

She nodded glumly. "They hurt too much to be stress headaches." She looked at him and gasped.

"What?"

"I've just gotten the strangest feeling of déjà vu..." she squinted at him. "The way you looked at me just now. I feel like... like I've had a dream about this, or something." He grinned at her. "Not that kind of dream, you prat! Maybe you're right... I remember feeling like I had to warn you about something. Doesn't do much good if I can't remember what, though."

If it was possible, James looked even more apprehensive. "Well, guess I just better be on the lookout for Voldemort, then." He tried to laugh, but failed miserably.

Albus Dumbledore strode into the hospital wing, his long auburn hair flowing behind his long velvet robes. Lily was not surprised to see tinges of gray lurking in his hair that had not been there before - his beard was already almost entirely a glittering white.

"Miss Evans," he said to her, seriously. "Miss Pomfrey tells me that you've been having headaches and strange dreams. Please explain as much as you can."

As Lily finished what little explanations she had to offer, Dumbledore stroked his long beard, a worried look on his face. "Yes, I was afraid this might happen. I told Poppy to keep an eye on you." Lily's jaw dropped. "I know it may come as quite a surprise to you, but when it your name down for Hogwarts, the Selecting Quill also indicated that you have some extrasensory powers. It seems that you can sense when something is going to happen to you, or someone you love."

James shot her a look that said, I told you so, but in the least smarmy way possible.

"I'm afraid," Dumbledore continued, "that there isn't much we can do just now, as your powers are not yet mature. But the choice of how to use them is up to you. You may work with Professor Cassandra on developing them, you may leave them as they are. It is also possible that we could use a spell to remove them entirely. It would be complicated, it is not impossible, at least at this point in time. If, however, you choose to develop them - there is nothing that could be done to remove them thereafter."

Lily stopped for only the shortest of moments to consider this. "Professor Dumbledore - if I could sense evil - and that's what I'm doing right?" He nodded, and she continued. "I could be a tremendous help, you know, against Voldemort. Of course I want to develop my powers." She added, shyly, "I've been thinking of becoming an Auror, having some precognitive powers could only be helpful in that profession."

He smiled wryly. "Are you certain you want to go through with this, child? The power to anticipate the future does not necessarily give us the power to change it." His face suddenly looked much older, and Lily got the feeling that he was speaking from experience. "It may become a terrible burden."

She thrust her chin out, resolutely, almost defiantly. "I don't care." She added hurriedly, "With all due respect, of course, Professor. But if I can save even one innocent person from Voldemort - I have to." She shuddered. "The things they do... they're terrible." She remembered the horrible look on James's face when he found out that his parents had been killed.

Dumbledore sighed, but the twinkle in his eyes told Lily that he was pleased with her decision. He turned to address James. "I suppose it has not escaped your attention that Miss Evans has been dreaming about you, Mr. Potter?"

James's eyes sparkled momentarily (and Lily's cheeks blossomed into a bright red), but he answered Dumbledore seriously. "Yes. Should I be worried about this?"

"I'm not sure that you should be worried right this moment," Dumbledore replied. "However - we have much reason to believe that Voldemort may be after you in particular." James looked alarmed, but not particularly surprised. "You are safe while you are at Hogwarts, you needn't be worried right now. But, as the descendant of Salazar Slytherin, Voldemort has a vested interest in ensuring your death. I suppose your parents told you that you are directly descended from both Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw?"

James nodded solemnly. Lily knew she should be shocked, as this was obviously important news, but she felt deep down that she had already known this about James.

"Not long after this school was founded, a prophecy was made, stating that when Slytherin's last heir came to power, only one descended from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would be able to defeat him," Dumbledore said. "If I remember correctly, the prophecy caused great turmoil at the time - a rather bloody war ensued, Slytherin's descendants tried to kill every witch and wizard that was in any way related to either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. But many escaped, including the one witch who the Slytherins should have been most worried about escaped. Of course, only a very few wizards knew she was related to them. I am referring, of course, to the daughter that the two had out of wedlock. It was horrible embarrassment to the Ravenclaw family, they sent Rowena to a Muggle nunnery, where the child was born and subsequently raised."

Lily looked at James, stunned. "Hogwarts, A History doesn't mention anything about that," she whispered to him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You think I knew?" he asked, incredulously. "My parents only told me that the Potters were descended from the both of them, not that the founder of the clan had been an illegitimate child!"

Dumbledore had stopped speaking, and was looking amusedly between the two of them. "May I continue?" They looked ashamed. "At any rate, the child got her Hogwarts letter, of course... one can only imagine the pain Rowena and Godric felt, not being able to tell her she was their child. She went on to be a great witch... I believe she spent some time in Egypt."

"Cleopatra was the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor?" Lily asked, her eyes wider than James had ever seen them.

Dumbledore chuckled. "No, Miss Evans, though the two were close friends. At any rate, she had several children with several different wizards - all of them became quite powerful - and James is descended from one of her children. There are other witches and wizards who share the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw lineage, but James is by far the strongest of them all."

James looked quite pleased with himself, until he realised that this also meant he was most likely to be killed out of all of them. "Fabulous," he muttered.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled merrily. "Well, I think I have given you two enough to digest for one evening. You might as well go back to your dormitory and finish working on that Care of Magical Creatures assignment. Would you care for a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, though, before you go? I find the combination of chocolate and peanut butter to be a wonderful stimulant for the mind."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Severus Snape lay awake in bed, wondering whether he had done the right thing by asking Peter Pettigrew to come to a Death Eaters Youth Auxilliary meeting. How could it hurt? he asked himself. You know Peter is too frightened of you to say anything to Potter, or anyone else, for that matter... and who knows? Perhaps the idea appeals to him.

He had realised early on that it would be advantageous to have a Gryffindor on his side, letting him know the goings on in the light side of the castle. As Voldemort's chief mole at Hogwarts, he'd been frustrated so far about the difficulty of getting good information. Many of his fellow Slytherins already supported the cause, so he wasn't getting much of anything new there, and he was not much trusted by students from the other three houses, nowadays. He was being nowhere as helpful as he might, and it was driving him mad. But now, he thought, he had found a way to get more reliable, more useful, news.

He had hoped that having Lily Evans working with him on lycanthropy cures might allow him the insight that he wanted, that if he could earn her trust, somehow, she would tell him how the others were dealing with the rise of the Dark Side. Annoyingly enough, though, the normally animated Gryffindor was constantly guarded around him. She trusted him about as far as she could throw him, but he knew that this was his own fault. He berated himself for the way he had acted during their first meeting, giving away far too much by insulting her Muggle heritage. It hadn't helped that she'd gotten the better of him, on that and several other occasions; he had a hard time controlling his temper around her, and every time she defeated him, his anger grew and their enmity became stronger. He had anticipated being able to work around it, still hoping to insinuate himself into her confidence through their constant proximity and shared goal, but somehow working together made him hate her even more. He realised that she was as skilled in Potions as he was, and much more creative about it, too. He had already known that she was rather better in several other subjects. Somewhere in the back of his head, deep in that place where one thinks things much against one's will, he felt that she was proving him, proving Voldemort, even proving Salazar Slytherin, wrong. Lily Evans, Mudblood extraordinaire, was the most talented witch Hogwarts had seen in a while, and she didn't have a drop of pure blood in her veins. And for this he hated her, more than anything.

This was saying something, as Snape hated a lot of people, and a lot of things. He hated Sirius Black for making his life so miserable. He hated Remus Lupin for having more friends than he did, despite the fact that he was a werewolf. He hated James Potter for being every professor's favorite student, for being every young witch's dream date, for being everyone's idea of the perfect boy wizard. He hated most of the other Slytherins, for being insufferably stupid. Some days, it seemed that he hated the sky for being blue. But he hated Lily for being better than him, when everything he believed dictated that he and every other pureblooded wizard should be spelling circles around her.

He seethed inwardly and told himself to calm down. He had beaten her this time, hadn't he? Even if she didn't know it yet... he had finally found a way of extracting all the information she had to give, of slithering his way into her inner circle. A thoroughly evil smile spread across his face. Yes, Peter would allow him to dispense to Voldemort all the precious communications between Dumbledore's golden children. He would uncover the deepest secrets of those who would certainly join the fight against him the second they graduated. He would learn of their plans, learn of their weaknesses, learn everything there was to know that could be used against them. With the information that Peter would give him, Snape would gift-wrap the precious Marauders and deliver them to Voldemort himself. And he was sure that for this, not only would he have a satisfying revenge against the troublesome Miss Evans, but he would be rewarded beyond his wildest dreams.