Rating:
PG-13
House:
Schnoogle
Ships:
James Potter/Lily Evans
Characters:
James Potter Lily Evans
Genres:
Drama Romance
Era:
1970-1981 (Including Marauders at Hogwarts)
Spoilers:
Philosopher's Stone Chamber of Secrets Prizoner of Azkaban Goblet of Fire Order of the Phoenix
Stats:
Published: 07/21/2004
Updated: 06/15/2005
Words: 192,794
Chapters: 25
Hits: 69,299

Prelude to Destiny

AnotherDreamer

Story Summary:
They lived to defy Voldemort. They lived to enact vengeance. They lived in the shadow of better people. They lived to earn the respect of better people. Their story is more than the tragic beginning of the great victory over the Dark Lord. It weaves its way through heartbreaking love, games of magical tag, hours of learning animagi transformations, dates with the wrong sort of boy, and the bonds that death cannot break. This is the story of the people who will star in the footnotes of the great battles of Harry Potter- they who History deems unworthy of great attention and who worked diligently with Destiny to pave the path of the Boy Who Lived.

Chapter 15

Chapter Summary:
Now Lily is patrolling with Remus on the Full Moon and eating Udon with Gertrude the Slytherin in the kichens and everything in the world is changing, changing so quickly that Lily hadn't noticed.
Posted:
02/05/2005
Hits:
2,649


Chapter 15

The Very Long (Confusing) Conversation

"You look sort of disgusted," Lily commented, dipping her chopsticks into her udon noodles and trying to find another piece of chicken.

"I'm fine," Gertrude Wrightman replied, lifting her own chopsticks out of the bowl with only a single noodle on them. Lily watched with barely hidden mirth as the noodle unravelled and fell back into the bowl.

"Have you ever used chopsticks before?" Lily asked.

"On occasion," the Slytherin prefect replied, tediously wrapping another noodle only to have it fall again as she tried to lift it to her mouth.

"Did you eat anything on that occasion?" Lily placed her chopsticks against the edge of her bowl and grabbed her wand. "Accio fork."

The utensil flew across the kitchens and Lily felt a brief stab of fear as she realized the speeding sharp object was headed right for her. Just as she was contemplating ducking, a house-elf blinked into existence in front of Lily and grabbed the fork out of the air, then turned and handed it to Lily.

"Thank you," Lily said, smiling before turning to face Gertrude and hand her the fork. Gertrude, for her part, looked rather steadily at Lily, but made no move to take the fork.

"You thanked the house-elf," commented Gertrude.

"He stopped a speeding fork from stabbing me in the eye," Lily returned, holding out said fork for Gertrude to take.

"No, thank you," said the Slytherin shaking her head at the utensil, and holding up her chopsticks as if to prove she didn't need them. But when one of the sticks fell out of her hand and into her bowl, Lily smiled.

"Come on, Gertrude," Lily cajoled, waving the fork in front of Gertrude, "take the fork. You know you want to eat."

"It's not customary to eat udon with a fork."

"But it is efficient," Lily said.

"Will you use one?"

"No. I really like chopsticks."

"Then I will use them too."

"That's stupid," Lily accused, pointing the fork at the blonde girl. "I can use chopsticks and you can't, why not just use the fork?"

"Eating with different utensils would never happen at a proper dinner," Gertrude answered.

"Good thing we're sitting here in the kitchens and not at a proper dinner, then," Lily countered. Gertrude, giving Lily that ever-present calculating look, leaned across the little wooden table they shared and took the proffered fork.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," Lily replied, picking up her own chopsticks and scooping noodles into her mouth.

"Where did you learn to use chopsticks?" Gertrude asked, twirling noodles on her fork and taking a dainty bite.

"My dad loves Japanese food. I grew up on sushi and udon," Lily replied with a shrug.

"Sushi made in England?"

"Of course," Lily replied, taking a sip of her green tea and wincing when it burned her mouth. So she picked up her water and drank that to cool down her throat. "Where else would the sushi be made?"

"My father ordered sushi from a Japanese restaurant for dinner parties. The restaurant would Portkey over a sushi bar and chef," Gertrude explained, taking another bite of her food.

"That seems unnecessarily complicated," was Lily's only comment. Each time she had dinner with Gertrude, Lily learned more and more about the extravagant way the other girl lived. Not that Gertrude was blatant about it. Instead, she mentioned things like companies portkeying bars and people over for her father's parties in such a casual way that Lily honestly believed the girl thought nothing of it. Which, of course, made it much more ridiculous.

"So your father likes sushi too?" Lily asked.

"He likes serving it at parties," Gertrude corrected, and while Lily wasn't exactly sure why someone would want to serve something at a party that they didn't enjoy themselves, she accepted that Gertrude's family was a little off. Or maybe Lily was a little off. It hardly mattered.

"How're your patrols going?"

"They're going well, thank you," Gertrude said, nodding at Lily. "Though we caught a Slytherin last night."

"I hope you didn't take off too many points," Lily replied, smiling. Three weeks ago, before the sixth year prefects had received the extra patrols and before Lily and Gertrude made a point of eating dinner together twice a week for no more particular reason than that they had run into one another in the kitchens and enjoyed sharing a silent meal, Lily knew there was no way that Gertrude would have trusted her with this information.

"We gave him two detentions," Gertrude replied.

"What year?"

"Fourth." Lily shook her head. If there was one thing that Lily had learned about Gertrude Wrightman during these dinners, it was that the girl was fiercely proud- proud of her family, proud of her lifestyle, proud of her house. She considered a Slytherin student caught out of bed to be a disgrace and punished them much more harshly than she did other houses. Her prefect partner seemed to agree with her methods.

"Gertrude," Lily began a minute later, pushing her noodles in lazy circles in the bowl, "do you still think Gryffindor is splintered?"

"Pardon?" Gertrude replied, lifting her eyes from her soup to meet Lily's.

"Three weeks ago, after the Inquisition, you and I went on a walk and you called Gryffindor splintered."

"Yes?"

"Do you still think we're splintered?"

"Yes," Gertrude said, looking back down at her soup.

"I don't understand how," Lily said.

"Yes, you do." Gertrude picked up her fork and began to slowly eat. Lily, who found herself full and unable to eat anymore, was annoyed.

"No. I don't," protested Lily. "If I did, I wouldn't ask."

"Have you told Samantha about the Ball yet?" Gertrude asked, putting down her fork and picking up her Japanese-style stone tea cup with both hands.

"No," Lily said, letting her eyes drop to her soup. Surely the other girl wasn't implying that Lily was fracturing her house. She was protecting her friends. They didn't need to know about certain things.

"I met a woman once," Gertrude began, placing her cup back down on the table and pushing her plate away before folding her hands on the table, "who told me that you and I were tied together, our futures. I didn't believe her, though she was from an old family. At the time, I was disinclined to believe that we were in any way connected. But when I ran into you three weeks ago and found you to be exactly as I imagined, I thought we might have an mutually beneficial arrangement."

"What?" Lily asked. Gertrude's statement startled Lily into looking up at her and meeting her clear, almost see-through blue eyes as flashes of bright orange eyes and the image of a dog came to Lily.

"So I spoke with you about your house and made an agreement, because I believed you wouldn't tell anyone," Gertrude explained.

"Of course I wouldn't. I didn't," Lily readily assured her. It meant a lot to Lily to have that type of trust from Gertrude.

"There is no 'of course' about it," Gertrude countered. "Most people are not like you, Lily. Most people do not promise to keep secrets without thinking."

Lily almost wanted to protest and say of course most people were, but then she remembered spells flashing at her, she remembered Tracy telling Ian and James, she remembered Petunia reading her diary and reciting it to their parents at dinner.

"I know that," Lily said, "but I would hope you would know me well enough by now to know that with me, it is 'of course.' Of course I would never tell something you told me in confidence."

"It's not just that," Gertrude stated. "You'll keep every bit of this conversation a secret simply because you know I prefer that no one knows we meet."

"Well, yes, I will," Lily said. "But so what?"

"You have no idea how extraordinary that is to me," Gertrude said, "because you trust without thinking."

"Not anymore," Lily murmured, crossing her arms and leaning back.

"No. Not anymore," Gertrude acknowledged. "You don't even trust your own house anymore, not even your best friends to understand what you went through at the Ball."

"They can't understand," Lily protested, remembering the way that Sam didn't even want to speak Voldemort's name or laugh about Death Eaters. "They can't."

"Why?" Gertrude asked.

"They weren't there."

"Neither was I, yet you speak about it with me," Gertrude said. Well, okay, that was a valid point. Even Lily had to admit that. But did Gertrude really not see the differences in the situation?

"You aren't the same," Lily explained.

"Why not?"

"Because you-" Lily didn't know quite how to say it. She wanted to tell Gertrude that it during these meals Lily felt truly calm, like she didn't have to explain anything about the Ball. She never felt that way with Tracy or Sam. They always seemed to be pushing her.

"Because I'm what?" Gertrude pressed.

"You're not them," Lily offered, knowing as she said it that it was a weak thing to say. "You don't push me to talk about the Ball and so it's so much easier, because I know that you understand what happened without me having to explain it. They seem to want me to tell them some gruesome or heroic or tragic story. But it wasn't any of those things. It just was. And now it's over."

"It's not over. It's still happening."

"You don't think I know that?" Lily asked, incredulous. "I do. I know that other people are being attacked, that Voldemort is still out there hurting people, but I can't do anything about that right now, and so I am not going to become depressed and forget how to live. I'm not going to take it out on the Slytherins or stop laughing when one of my friends makes a joke. That would be letting him win."

"Mm-hm." Gertrude nodded.

"They don't understand that. Sam seems to be waiting for me to break down and Tracy can't even figure me out anymore." Lily shrugged. She hated explaining things. A lot.

"Why not just tell them?"

"Because they'd freak out."

"They're already worried about you all the time."

"Well. They ought to stop that. I didn't really go through anything-"

"You would say that!" Gertrude exclaimed, smiling a disbelieving smile and shaking her head. "You honestly believe all of that, don't you?"

"Believe what?"

"That you didn't go through anything."

"I didn't and I seriously wish that people would quit thinking I did!" Thoughts of Cordelia Crouch and Dumbledore and Sam and all of those well-wishers popped into Lily's mind.

"And here people are thinking you're an example because you've ignored your pain and pretended to be fine, when really you honestly believe that there was no pain, no hurt," Gertrude said. Lily remembered her chest pain and laying in that hospital bed.

"There was pain, Gertrude," Lily said, "but I suffered nothing compared to others."

"Who? The Prewetts?"

"How do you know about that?"

"I know a lot about what happened at the Ball, Lily," Gertrude said in quiet tones. "Only important figures and guests with Muggle-born or a Half-blood dates or heritage came. When the Death Eaters showed up, most people ran blindly from the attackers, but there were reports from both Death Eaters and guests of one lone girl standing up to them, casting a shield- the brightest form of the shield as if to draw attention away from others.

"They say she stood like an Amazon, like a queen, like one who might never fall, with her red hair and glowing green eyes. And when the spell hit her she flew backwards and crushed a table with the force of her fall, but she only lost her grip on her wand when it cracked in two in her hand. They say she later gave up a Wizard's Debt from one of the most influential people in the world and no one understands why. But I do.

"You would never want someone in your debt, never want someone to owe you anything. You gave up any right you had to a fortune or power or a secure job in the Ministry because your sense of honour would not let you force someone to obey you."

Gertrude met Lily stare and did not blink.

"Be humble with others. I know the truth," Gertrude said, steel echoing in her words.

"You don't know the truth," snapped Lily, speaking before she could think about the words. "You don't know what it was like to stand there when men appeared out of nowhere and started trying to kill me. You don't know what it was like to wake up unable to speak or even cry because of the pain in my chest and the fire in my throat. You don't know what it was like to not know if my friends were alive and be unable to ask. You certainly don't know what it was like looking at the Prewetts during the Inquisition, knowing what happened to their parents, knowing that by living I only make their pain worse and serve as a reminder of what they lost.

"And you have no idea what it was like to have a woman give me credit for saving her life. I didn't mean to do it. I'm not a hero. I was lucky a lot. To claim that I'm strong, that I deserved to live, that I was a hero, what does that say about the Prewetts? It would imply that they were weak, that they deserved to die, that they weren't heroes. But they were! When I was shaking with fear, they spoke to Voldemort. I'm just a student and Mr. Prewett was an Auror. They had children. Don't say I am a hero. They are the heroes. If I could die half as well as them, with my back straight as I faced down Voldemort, I would be proud of my death."

Lily, to her shame, heard a popping sound just in time to see a house-elf appear with a box of tissues held in his shaking hand. Lily was shocked to find herself needing those tissues to wipe the streaks of tears from her cheeks. Gertrude, across from her, smiled a small smile.

"Do you believe you should have died?"

"No," Lily said. "I just don't believe anyone should have died."

There was a pause, with Lily dapping her eyes and Gertrude looking on.

"Do you feel better now, having gotten all of that out?" Gertrude asked.

Lily leaned back in her seat and thinking about it for a moment, think about how she felt and how she would always feel about the Ball. It was something to move past. Something to remember but not to dwell on. She was not to blame, she knew that, but nor was she to move on without thought. The Ball had changed her.

"You know," Lily replied, "I think I do feel better." A sudden burst of laughter escaped her lips, followed by a stream of giggles and laughs, all chasing after one another and collapsing together inside a sound that might once have been a sob.

"You're very strange, Lily," Gertrude said, but she looked relieved almost, and Lily just felt light. She felt like she could just float away. She, though she hadn't realized it, had wanted to yell those words for a while. Actually having said them made everything seem a little bit brighter, even the odd orange and yellow tie-dye snuffbox. Now, at last, someone understood that she really wasn't a hero.

"Let's eat some fried ice cream," Lily offered, smiling.

"Yes. Let's," Gertrude said.

Together they sat at that little wooden table in the kitchens, under the Great Hall, and ate fried green tea ice cream. They sat as two friends, comfortable with silence, and finally comfortable with their thoughts. They sat, one with some of the weight (though certainly not all of it) lifted off her shoulders and the other sat, content, because of course she could trust this Gryffindor girl. For the first time in her life, Gertrude had a friend that looked out for her first, of course.

And for the first time in a long time, Lily felt neither irritated nor angry underneath her happiness. She was not angry that she would take a Transfiguration exam late or angry with body for aching occasionally. Instead, she was just happy and eating.

~*~*~

"Hey, Matt," Lily greeted as she walked down the stairs and into the entrance hall of the castle, surprised to find the head boy waiting for her instead of Remus.

"Hello, Lily," he replied, pushing himself away from the wall he had been leaning against.

"Why're you here?" she asked, coming closer.

"It's another full moon and I'm here to fill in for Remus who needed to visit his sick aunt," Matt replied.

"And I'm supposed to believe that means he's a werewolf?" Lily asked, crossing her arms and gently shaking her head.

"There seems to be some overwhelming evidence," Matt replied.

"Aw, shut it. You can't prove anything," Lily teased, smirking. Okay, maybe Remus was a werewolf and maybe that was supposed to be scary, but all Lily felt at that moment was relief that Remus was not beside her. Three weeks and two more silent patrols had passed since Remus had signed them up for the additional patrols, and Lily was going to implode if she had to walk through another four-hour shift with a silent partner. Matt, at least, was talkative.

"I'm not trying to prove anything. I just want to know what's happening with him," Matt clarified, beginning to walk toward the stairs.

"Why do you care?" Lily asked, turning to walk beside him and match his pace.

"Don't you want to know if you go to school with a werewolf?"

"Not particularly," Lily replied. What did it matter? "And if he is one, which I still doubt simply because, well, look at him, would that change him in your mind?"

"It seems important," Matt responded, not exactly answering the question.

"Why?" Lily asked, opening a door and peering into the room with her lumos spell. "I hated people asking me about the Ball, and that didn't even affect me. Can you imagine how much werewolves must hate being asked about their transformations?"

"The fact that he might be a werewolf doesn't scare you?"

"Does it scare you?" Lily asked as Matt opened a door and checked it.

"I'm not sure yet," Matt replied. "I want to understand."

"I don't. If he's a werewolf and he's managed the seemingly impossible task of hiding that from the rest of the students for six years, why should we care?" Lily asked, twirling her wand in her fingers, letting the light flash across the walls and floor. "He obviously hasn't bitten anyone or done anything really evil, right? He just manages to bore me to death on patrols, and that doesn't seem too bad in comparison."

"The threat he poses to your friends doesn't worry you?" Matt asked, shaking his head as he emerged from the room.

"I don't think you properly understand Muggles, Matt. To me, magic and vampires and werewolves are still something from storybooks, where little girls with red hoods are the heroines. Vampires and werewolves aren't exactly real to me," Lily extrapolated.

"But Voldemort is," Matt declared. Lily stopped twirling her wand.

"Yes," Lily said. "But I don't want to talk about that." Silence passed over the pair, a terse silence that Lily knew she had to break if it was to be broken at all.

"I had a good time in Hogsmeade with you and Christine," Lily began.

"Me too," Matt replied. "Do you often do that?"

"What? Cut class and go into town?" Lily asked. Matt nodded. "Well, if you want to know and if you promise not to tell anyone, I'll let you in on a secret."

"I promise."

"I never skiv off a class," Lily whispered, leaning in, "unless I've already gone to that lesson at a different time and talked with the professor about it."

"You're secretly a Ravenclaw," Matt whispered back, and Lily laughed. But at the sound of her laughter, one of the suits of amour moved. Lily, signalling for Matt to stay where he was and say nothing, crept up to the suit of armour, putting out the light of her wand and badge as she did so.

Behind the suit, crouched down as small as he possibly could be, was a small, shaking student. Lily had been planning on finding a fifth or sixth year, someone she could scare and tease, instead she found this little boy who couldn't have been more than a second year, obviously terrified.

"Are you all right?" Lily whispered, causing the boy to jump back, knock into the suit of armour, which subsequently hit Lily in the nose.

"Owwww!" Lily exclaimed, grabbing her nose as she fell on her butt. Pain shot through her chest. Damn those Death Eaters. Then Matt was beside her.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Lily muttered. No! There was a sharp pain in my chest and my nose hurts. A lot.

"Accio Hufflepuff," Matt said, standing. Apparently the boy was trying to run away, but with that spell, he was pulled back to toward the head boy. Even hurting, Lily was struck by the imposing face that Matt presented. He was a little over six feet tall and the Hufflepuff couldn't have been more than four feet.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," the boy said in a rush, looking near tears. Lily got up, still rubbing her sore nose, and walked over to the pair. Matt was talking to the boy about what could have happened to him, wandering the castle alone at night.

"What were you doing out here?" Lily asked, trying to ignore the throbbing in her nose. The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"Were you pulling a prank on the Ravenclaws?" Matt asked. Lily looked at him. He caught her questioning gaze and explained, "The Ravenclaw common room is nearby."

"Yeah, I know," Lily murmured. She had visited the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff houses (though she admitted it had been a long time before and if asked, she could not remember the ways back), she just couldn't imagine this little boy in front of her ever wanting to prank someone. How Matt came to that conclusion was beyond her too.

Lily was about to comment when a statue of a wizard walked forward out of its niche in the wall. Lily let out a soft exclamation, and found herself pointing her wand in that direction, prepared for anything but what came out. In fact, if it had been an attacking army, a bloodhound, or a Death Eater, Lily would have probably felt less surprise than she did when she saw a tiny brunette girl peering up and down the hallway. That's right, Lily remembered, it was the Ravenclaw entrance: the wizard statue. How had she forgotten? The small girl froze when she saw the three of them and tried to retreat back, but Matt's voice stopped her.

"Come here right now, Camilla Andrews." If the girl's downcast eyes and slumped shoulders hadn't been enough of an indication of her feelings, her shuffling footsteps sounded like guilt and repentance.

"You snuck out to meet a girl?" Lily whispered in shock to the boy. He nodded his head. "You can't be more than twelve! What were you going to do?"

He shrugged and Lily shook her head in shock as she could do little more than hope they would have walked around holding hands and feeling very adventurous for being out after hours. They were twelve! At twelve she had only just begun giggling with her friends about how cute boys were.

"Why were you out after curfew?" Matt asked the girl, who had finally reached them.

"I was supposed to meet Colten," she replied, eyes still not looking at Matt. Instead they swept over to the boy, who was obviously Colten, and looked even more guilt-filled. "Sorry about being late."

"S'okay," he muttered.

"You're twelve," Lily repeated, looking at them each in turn.

"I'm thirteen," Colten said, still muttering. The boy needed to learn how to annunciate.

"Lily! Matt!" The head boy and the prefect spun around and found Remus Lupin jogging up to them. Lily quickly turned back around to face the second years.

"Hold on, one second," she ordered before muttering lumos and directing the light of her wand on her approaching prefect partner.

"Remus?" Lily asked.

"Hey. I tried to get the early train out to visit my aunt, but I missed it. So I'm leaving in the morning. Thought I'd relieve Matt," Remus explained. Guess he's not a werewolf after all.

"You're catching a later train?" Matt asked, shock in his voice as he glanced out the window as if to make sure it was a full moon. Unfortunately, that window didn't have a clear view of the moon, but it hardly mattered. He knew the lunar cycle well enough.

"Yes," he replied, smiling - smiling a large, happy, excited smile. It looked utterly foreign on his face.

"You handle this and I'll take care of the little ones," Lily said to Matt before turning back to the children and seeing them now next to each other and holding hands. "Hey, you moved!"

The jumped apart and looked up at her with wide, scared eyes. Camilla's eyes darted to Matt and Lily watched the girl almost radiate her respect for him. Well, they were in the same house and Matt was head boy. It made sense that the girl would not want to have him think little of her.

"Do you two understand why it is not okay to be out after hours?" Lily asked. The two nodded their heads. "Then why'd you risk it?"

They didn't say anything, just glanced at each other, then at Lily, and then at Matt's back again. They didn't say a word. Lily sighed.

"What year are you in?"

"Second," they said together.

"All right. For being out after hours, I take triple your year. That means I'm taking six points from both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but I won't mention this to any professors and there won't be any detentions," Lily explained. They both looked visibly relieved.

"Thank you," Camilla said.

"Don't forget, if I catch you again, I add your year to those six points. Do you understand what that means?" Lily asked.

"It means you'll take eight points the next time, ten the next, twelve the next," Colten replied.

"Is there a maximum?" Camilla asked.

"A maximum?" Lily repeated, incredulous. "You're twelve! How many times do you plan on sneaking around after hours? Sleep. Grow. Study. In your common rooms."

"So there is no maximum?" Colten asked. Lily just started laughing.

"I leave here in a little over a year. You think you can hold off on the sneaking until after then?" Lily asked. By the look of them, no they couldn't. Lily sighed. "All right, we're walking you back to your common rooms. Say goodnight."

Lily turned around expecting to find the boys looking at her, knowing what was going on. Instead, she found an empty corridor. Looking left and right, shining her wand around, she could not help but stare in disbelief.

"They went left," said Camilla from behind her. Lily turned around and stared at her.

"I don't even have any words. What were they thinking?" Lily asked rhetorically. She shook her head to herself before collecting her thoughts. "I guess I'll be taking you back to your common room, then. Camilla, you first."

The young girl kissed Colten on the cheek and then ran back to the wizard's statue, presumably said the password, and disappeared inside the wall. Lily turned to Colten and smirked when she caught his stunned look.

"Come on, Romeo, let's take you to bed," Lily suggested, gently pushing him forward. "I'm hoping you know the way back to your common room. I certainly don't."

He nodded, and the oddly matched pair walked down the corridor, taking two rights and three sets of staircases.

"We seem to be nearing the Hospital Wing," Lily commented, stepping off the last stair delicately. She'd had to climb the stairs slowly because she remembered how much laboured breathing hurt her chest. Yes, her injury was a little over three weeks old and the pain had significantly lessened in that period of time, but she didn't want to risk it.

"Mm-hmm," he replied. Lily glanced at the boy out of the corner of her eye.

"You know," she said lightly, "you look entirely too happy for a boy who was just caught by a prefect."

"Camilla Andrews kissed me." Lily's smile grew. How adorable. Plus, that meant they weren't sneaking out for a snog. They were just cute twelve - no, thirteen - year olds out for a stroll. Aww.

"Does that mean you're dating?" she asked, trying to remember her second year and whether or not people dated back then. She seemed to remember a lot of hand holding, but nothing more. It felt like so long ago. She couldn't believe she was almost a seventh year.

"I dunno," he replied, still smiling. When Lily was a first and second year, she couldn't imagine being a seventh year. They were so old, so cool, so everything that she could ever want to be. Was that what she looked like to this boy?

"She's cute," Lily offered. The boy looked at her with horror. Okay. Maybe he didn't idolize Lily or her opinions.

"She's Camilla Andrews. The most popular girl in our year," he said. It was the most she'd heard out of him all night.

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't know," Lily replied. He looked mildly offended and as if he was about to respond with the sudden appearance of Argus Filch made them both jump.

"Ah!" exclaimed Lily, clutching her heart.

"What do we have here?" hissed the ugly, ugly man. "Two students out after hours?"

It took Lily a moment to realize her badge wasn't lit. She quickly touched her wand to it.

"I'm escorting this student back to his dorm," Lily explained, indicating Colten with a jerk of his head.

"You're on shift?" Filched asked, narrowing his eyes at her badge as though suspicious.

"Yes, sir," Lily replied, leaning forward and saying, "He'll be receiving a few minor curses before the end of the night, I assure you."

"Good. Good," Filch said, nodding in approval. Then he stepped to the left and Lily saw the person standing behind him: Will McGrath.

"I see you caught another unappreciative first year, sir," Lily said, eyes wide. Will looked almost ill.


"Yes. Yes. He was talking to Peeves." Lily's eyes locked with Filch.

"If you want, sir, I could take care of him as well," she offered, hoping he would accept. Otherwise Will was in for a detention and probably a large amount of lost points. Lily sincerely hoped that wouldn't be the case. She genuinely liked the boy, and no one deserved to clean the trophy room sans magic just for sneaking out at night.

"What's your name, prefect?"

"Lily Evans, sir."

"Evans, eh?" He narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air. "I've heard things about your punishments. The boy with the boils, especially."

"It was his second offence," Lily said.

"You'd make sure this one was properly punished too?" Filch asked. Lily knew that the caretaker would never have trusted a prefect with this responsibility. Fortunately, she had taken some students off his hands before and made sure they complained about their punishments where Filch could hear them.

"Yes, sir," Lily replied, nodding.

"You'll be sure he never breaks the rules again."

"He will understand."

"All right. There are a pair of fifth years in the astronomy tower that I want to catch." And pushing Will a little harder than he had to, Filch left in a flurry, disappearing behind a wall that Lily hadn't known could move. In his wake stood the pale faces Will and Colten.

"Why'd you have to get caught by that bugger?" Lily asked Will, gently putting her hand on his back, indicating that he ought to walk with them.

"I didn't mean to," Will complained. Lily looked at him, smiling, then at Colten. Both still looked pale.

"You okay, Colten?" asked Lily. He nodded his head, but looked no better. In fact, he looked terrified. "Are you sure?"

He nodded again. Silence enveloped the pair until Will finally broke it.

"Are you going to curse me?" he asked. Lily looked shocked, then laughed aloud.

"Of course not!"

"But you told Mr. Filch-" protested Coten.

"Mr. Filch is a mean, unfair man that would have put Will in detention for years. The fact that he gave him over to me because I told him I would beat him only proves that he is ridiculously angry," Lily replied. Both boys visibly relaxed.

"You lied?" Will asked. Of course the boy had to notice that little detail, didn't he?

"It's not something that I'm proud of. Nor do I condone it," Lily replied. "But how many points did he take off?"

"None. He said he wanted to put me in detention," Will replied. Lily nodded, doing some quick calculations.

"I think this is your fifth time caught out after hours, so that's seven points off Ravenclaw," Lily announced.

"Seven?" both boys exclaimed.

"Yes. Three for the triple-the-year first offence. Add four points for the subsequent offences. Seven."

"That's unfair," they both said.

"What are you, one mind two bodies?" Lily asked.

"If I'm caught out again, I'll lose eight points. This is his fifth offence and he only loses seven!" Colten said.

"I leave room for learning. Just be glad you aren't a seventh year," Lily replied.

"That's not right."

"Do you really think that a first year and a second year out after hours ought to be punished the same way?" Lily asked. "I personally think the second year ought to know better, as he's had a year to learn, just as a third year ought to know better than a second year and so on and so forth. Every year you are more aware, and the lesser points were like warnings. As you grow up you know the risk increases and so it is up to you to decide if it's worth it."

"The other prefects only take off five points each time!" Will said.

"That's stupid. You are much more aware of breaking the rule the second time than the first," Lily replied. Colten stopped moving. She looked at him questioningly.

"This is the entrance," he explained, indicating a large tapestry.

"Oh," Lily replied, a little shocked. She had completely forgotten.

As she started to remember, she considered the tapestry and couldn't help but wonder if all the entrances were different. The Ravenclaws had a statue, Hufflepuff had a tapestry. Gryffindor had a portrait. What did the Slytherins have?

"We'll be at the end of the hall, so we won't hear your password," Lily told Colten, "but I want to see you enter that common room and not come back out. If you're caught again tonight it'll be eight points."

"I know," he replied.

"And don't forget to complain about your beatings in front of Filch," Lily said, winking. The boy smiled at her. Lily nodded, placed a hand on Will shoulder and led the boy back in the direction they came from. Together they watched Colten walk into his common room and then they turned to head back to the Ravenclaw common room.

"Is this the unofficial younger-year-break-out-and-get-caught night?" Lily asked the first year.

"No," Will said, kicking the floor and shoving his hands in his pockets. "I was trying to convince Peeves to show me the way to the Slytherin dorms when he started yelling for Filch. He ratted me out."

"You made some very novice mistakes in your expedition," Lily said. "First, you approached Peeves. Second, you talked to him and expected an answer. Third, you didn't run away when he called for Filch. Four, you were caught."

"Why should I have run?"

"Because, little first year, the only thing Peeves likes more than getting students into trouble, is causing trouble for Filch. If you'd run, Peeves would never have helped Filch find you."

"Oh," said Will. Lily wrapped her arm around his shoulders.

"You have so much yet to learn."

"I have six more years to perfect everything."

"Six?" Lily asked. "Why don't you take a break next year and let me have a little calm."

"Take a year off?" Will exclaimed, stepping away from her with horror. "I'd fall so far behind that I couldn't catch back up."

"You sound like you're talking about school-"

"Lily!"

Lily and Will jumped. Without thinking about it, Lily pushed Will behind her and once more, Lily found her wand held in the defensive position. Until, of course, the pair managed to recognize Remus as the approaching figure.

"Hello," Lily greeted him, her wand lowering, though not all the way.

"Hey. Sorry. Matt wanted to talk, but when I returned you were gone. I figured you'd walked the Hufflepuff back to his dorm."

"Yes," she replied. "How do you know where the Hufflepuff dorm is?"

"I explore," he said, shrugging. His eyes locked on Will and he grinned. "I see you picked up another younger year."

"Well, you know, I'm addicted. I need one every few minutes," Lily quipped, glancing at Will.

"Where are you going?"

"She's going to curse me," Will replied happily.

"Or flog him, whichever he'll enjoy least," Lily added, smirking at Remus's confused look.

"Yes," Will agreed. "Or flogged.

"You should try looking sadder when saying that," Lily said, placing a hand on Will's back again and starting to walk toward his common room.

"Should I cry too?"

"I think that might be a bit over the top," Lily responded. Catching Remus's still-confused looked, she explained, "I found him with Filch."

"And?" Remus asked. Lily looked at him with confusion.

"And I told him the usual," Lily said, "that we'd beat him to within an inch of his life."

"Why?"

"So that we could take him off Filch's hands and treat him fairly," Lily said condescendingly. "Honestly, Remus, are you all right? How often have we done this before?"

"Oh- um- enough," Remus stuttered.

"I thought she was serious," Will piped up, distracting Lily from the confused Remus. At least he was stuttering, a vaguely recognizable action. Lily smiled at Will as Remus fell into step next to them.

"Were you punished at all?" Remus asked.

"I lost eight points," Will replied, pouting at the floor. Lily laughed.

"You should be glad it wasn't Matt that caught you," Lily said. Will's face paled again. "I was patrolling with him earlier."

"He'd have been so disappointed," Will said. Lily looked at him, shocked. That certainly wasn't the response she'd been expecting.

"You're Will McGrath?" Remus asked. Will nodded. "I know your sister. I'm Remus."

"Remus Lupin?" The boy's tone was almost reverential, all thoughts of his older brother's disappointment gone.

"Yes."

"You know James Potter, don't you?" Now the boy's tone was definitely reverential.

"Yes, I do." Remus could barely hide his amusement.

"He's a great chaser. And, I heard he organized the Halloween thing." Will's eyes were wide, like he was meeting a celebrity. Lily smiled. He was so adorable.

"He's done more than that," Lily answered, knowing Remus wouldn't. "Once, in our fourth year, he made over two hundred posters saying 'Marry me, Sirius' and posted them on every door and entry between the Gryffindor common room to the Great Hall, and in the Great Hall he and Remus here and a boy named Peter Pettigrew hung a banner all the way across the hall that said, 'Will you marry me, Sirius Black?'"

"All the way across?" asked Will is a quiet, amazed voice. Lily smiled and nodded. "It must have been huge!"

"It was," Lily said, "and they'd put charms on it so that no one but one of them could remove it, though I'm sure the professors could have done it if they'd wanted to. I think the faculty was secretly glad to see Sirius so embarrassed. It was like retribution for the way he acted in class."

"Why was he embarrassed?"

"That's the best part. Everyone pretended not to know who put up the signs, though we all knew it was his friends. All day, people were patting him on the back, congratulating him on the engagement, asking who the girl was."

"Did everyone laugh?" Will asked.

"For days," Lily said. Will laughed and Lily joined in. She glanced at Remus and saw him looking strangely at her, not laughing along.

"That's so funny," Will said, looking up at Remus then at Lily.

"And the next day Dumbledore sent him a congratulatory note, but politely asked for the banner to be brought down," Lily said. Will cracked up. "And his mother sent him a howler, screaming about how he'd disgraced the family and had probably just gotten the girl pregnant and needed to marry her. Everyone knew it was a prank, but his mother didn't. His face was so red at the end of that Howler. It was hilarious."

"Did you really do that?" Will asked Remus. Remus nodded.

"Sirius wasn't too happy about it. We'd done it on his birthday," Remus explained. Lily laughed at that.

"What a great gift!"

"As you can imagine, he got us back just as well," Remus said.

"What did he do?" Will asked. Lily saw the statue that marked the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorms and slowed her pace. The two boys did likewise.

"Maybe the next time you're caught out after hours, I'll tell you," Remus replied, winking.

"It'll cost the Ravenclaw house nine points," Lily said, "but it's your choice."

"I'll ask you during the day," Will decided.

"You're learning!" Lily exclaimed, mock-surprised.

"I'm learning to only sneak out when other prefects are patrolling. Ones that take five points each time," he protested.

"And?" Lily prompted.

"And when Filch isn't out."

"Or?"

"Or I could wait until you leave in a year and then reek havoc on the next set of prefects," Will finished.

"Exactly!" Lily gave Will a high five and then told him to head back to bed. The boy smiled, nodded at Remus, and then did as he was told and walked toward the statue. He'd been caught out of bed so often by Lily that he knew how to respond to her questions. He was lucky he was only a first year. A seventh year in his position would have lost forty-nine points for the fifth offence. Then again, a seventh year wouldn't have been caught.

"You know," Lily said, watching the stature move back into place and block the entrance, "I really like that kid."

"Yeah. He's a good kid." Lily looked at Remus, took him in, noticed the critical way he was looking at her, and she smiled.

"So what happened with the train?" Lily asked.

"Hm?" Remus replied, obviously back in his non-speaking mode.

"How did you miss the train to visit your aunt?" Lily pressed, her good mood keeping her from despairing at his reaction.

"I just missed it. I'll leave tomorrow."

"Guess that means you're not a werewolf," Lily quipped, walking down the corridor. He stumbled when he heard her last words and gave her a strange look.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"You've been talking to Matt," he accused.

"Matt's been talking to me," Lily corrected. Then she waved a hand in a dismissive gesture and said, "But that's not important. What is important is for you and I to have a serious discussion about these patrols."

"Talking about patrols is more important than discussing the fact that the head boy thinks I'm a monster?" Remus asked. Lily stopped and opened the door nearest to her, peering inside for a moment.

"He never thought you were a monster," Lily commented, shutting the door.

"He thought I was a werewolf, he just told me. Apologized, shook my hand and everything," Remus related. Lily looked at him with wide eyes.

"Really? That's great."

"He thought I was a monster and you think that's great?"

"Again with this monster business," Lily said, waiting for Remus to open the door to his left and check it. Instead, he stood and stared at her so she walked around him and checked the room herself. "He said werewolf, not monster."

"Is there a difference anymore?"

"Yes. Otherwise there wouldn't be two words." The room was clear. She shut the door and continued walking.

"So you didn't agree with him?"

"About you being a werewolf?" Lily asked. Remus nodded. "For a short while tonight, I almost bought the story, but then you showed up and proved us wrong, so don't worry about it."

"Right," he muttered. Lily walked past the next few corridors without bothering to look in any of the rooms. If there were any students in them, they probably heard the sounds of conversation and hid anyway. That seemed enough punishment for the moment.

"Now, back to the more important matter: patrols," Lily said, turning to face him as they walked. She had to shuffle sideways to keep up.

"What about them?" Remus asked.

"They're dreadfully boring," Lily said, turning to face straight again, "but I think I have a solution. As you have repeatedly turned down my offers to snog and be caught, which would have eliminated any future patrols and any danger of becoming one of McGonagall's favourite students, I had to think of other ways to occupy the long, boring hours."

"You've been thinking about this for a while, haven't you?" Remus asked.

"Well, you never speak during these things, so I have a good four hours to contemplate how to improve the situation every week," Lily commented, only just realizing how insulting that must have sounded when she saw the way his face dropped. She stopped walking and said, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean that how it sounded."

"Yes you did," he countered, stopping too.

"Well, I meant the bit about you not talking, but I didn't want to make it sound like it's your fault," Lily said.

"But it was my fault."

"No. It- Well- That doesn't matter. I've thought of a solution," Lily finished, beginning to walk and unwilling to hurt him with her words again.

"It seems to be working; I'm talking now," Remus replied, walking too.

"No. We haven't implemented it," Lily protested.

"But I'm talking."

"Well," Lily said You might stop at any moment.

"You think I'll stop, don't you?"

"Just a little," Lily confessed, turning them up a staircase on their left and grabbing the handrail to help her take the stairs more easily (ie. With less pain).

"All right, then. What's you idea?" Remus asked, holding the other railing as the staircase detached itself and swung to the left.

"Truth or dare," Lily answered, glad that the jerking motion of the stairs hadn't caused her more than a small pain in her chest.

"Truth or dare?" he repeated, sceptical.

"Yes, truth or dare," Lily responded. The staircase stopped moving and the pair walked up it and into the new corridor. "Do you know how to play it?"

"Nope," he said, putting his hands into the pockets of his robes.

"Well," Lily began, deciding to change the rules a tad, she explained, "You and I ask each other questions in turns, promising to reply honestly. If you don't want to reply, you have to do a dare - something the other person asks you to do which is neither dangerous nor will result in expulsion."

"Where's the fun in a game that can't lead to expulsion?" Remus asked, joking. Lily smiled and looked at him out of the corner of her eyes.

"Oh. This'll be fun. Trust me." He turned and looked at her smiling face, quirking an eyebrow, then shaking his head as if he couldn't quite believe the way she was acting.

"When do we start?" he asked, turning back to face the corridor.

"How about now?"

"Now is good," he replied. "You want to ask first?"

"Sure." Lily thought a moment, searching for an opening question that wouldn't scare him off but would invite conversation. Sure he seemed talkative so far, but with Remus, it took moments to bring him from talkative to silent.

"Can't think of a question?"

"No. I can. Hold on," Lily said. "Okay, how about this: what is the most number of points you have personally lost in a single night?"

"Hmmm." That critical eye was looking at her again, asking her the question that he dared not voice: are you trustworthy? Coming to whatever conclusion he did, he said, "Dare."

"Excuse me?"

"I don't really want to answer that question. I would rather take the physical challenge."

"Oh. Okay," Lily said, beginning to run think of dares. Then she stopped herself. "No. Wait. It is not okay. The whole point of this thing is to open a dialogue. You taking the dare for every question would undermine that. You only pick dare if you really don't want to answer."

"Fine," Remus said. "I once lost seventy-two points in an hour."

"What? How?" Lily exclaimed.

"I don't think so. I don't have to answer those," Remus said, shaking his head. "You're only allowed to ask one question. It's my turn now."

"You're right. Sorry," Lily said, annoyed that he had understood the rules so completely.

"Hmmm. Oh. Okay. Have you ever liked a Marauder?"

"A marauder?" Lily asked, confused. Was Remus asking if she had ever liked an intruder, a looter? What an odd, odd question.

"A Marauder," repeated Remus. Seeing her blank look, he looked surprised and said, "Sirius, James, Peter, and me."

"Oh," Lily replied, shocked. No entry questions for Remus, apparently. He just jumped right to the meat of the matter, asking about crushes.

"Have you?" he asked, a hint of hope in his voice that Lily was sure she was misinterpreting; Remus didn't like her.

"Um. Yes, I have," Lily answered, thinking of James and feeling that now-familiar pang of embarrassment and shame wash over her as she thought about it. She considered telling Remus the truth: I've been obsessed with one of those boys for years now. I'm really pathetic. Especially considering the fact that he is now dating one of my best friends. "You named yourselves?"

"What?" Remus asked. Not that Lily had spoken with Tracy about the situation.

"The Marauders. I'm assuming that that is what you call yourselves," Lily explained. In fact, Lily had completely avoided any mention of James with Tracy at all, changing the subject when she tried to talk about him, saying they didn't need to talk about it. That Lily understood.

"Oh," Remus said. "Sure. We named ourselves back in second year." And Tracy did keep trying to apologize to Lily, of all things.

"Why?" Lily asked automatically. Tracy could have just let it all go, could have admitted to dating James, told the whole school, but instead they continued to keep it quiet.

"Why what?" Sam had also tried to bring it up, but Lily explained that it wasn't something she wanted to talk about, not with anyone.

"Why in the world would you create a name for yourselves?" Lily asked, pulling her mind away from the circular thoughts in her mind and focusing on Remus.

"I don't know." Remus looked embarrassed and Lily felt badly.

"Sorry," Lily said quickly, catching his eye and smiling. "I didn't mean to sound hostile. I was just wondering."

"It's okay," he said, looking shocked. In fact, Lily noticed that Remus's emotions, when he was actually speaking with her, were prominently displayed on his face. "I understand."

"Oh. Good. Just didn't want you to think-" Lily stopped herself. "Never mind."

"All right," Remus said, then his smile grew and he asked, "Which one did you like, then?"

"I don't think so. Only one question, per turn." Lily smirked, grinned, and congratulated herself on her snappy comeback.

"It's my turn," Remus countered. "You asked, 'You named yourselves?'"

"And you answered with a question," Lily recalled.

"Then you asked, 'Why?', and I said, 'Why what?", and you asked why we named ourselves. Ha! Yours was the last question." Okay. So obviously he'd been paying more attention to the conversation than Lily.

"That was not a question," Lily retorted.

"It was a question."

"A clarifying question."

"But still a question. I don't remember the rules stating anything about qualifying the type of question."

"That's a loophole argument."

"That is brilliance."

"You're being ridiculous."

"Answer my question. Who, which of the four?" Remus pressed, smirking.

"Dare," Lily replied, crossing her arms and glaring. She'd kept this information from two of her best friends, did he really think she was about to tell him now? He was, after all, practically a stranger.

"Picking dare for every question would undermine the purpose of it," Remus said, repeating Lily's own words back at her as his smirk grew into a full smile.

"I'm not answering that. It's a trick question. If I say you, then you'll get one idea, and if I don't say you, your feelings will be hurt. It's a lose-lose answer for me. This one gets a dare."

"I think that's-"

"I'm taking the dare," Lily said, her tone left no room for argument. Even now that James knew, Lily had no desire to have the rest of the world know. At least James had had the grace not to come to the Wednesday night study sessions. Though, that didn't help the awkward class situations.

"No. No. I'll change my question, if that's okay with you," Remus offered, carefully not phrasing the comment as a question.

"That'd be all right," Lily replied, "but how about we start smaller, with get-to-know-you questions."

"I could do that," he said, nodding and putting his hands in his pocket as he obviously thought of a question to ask. He thought for a really long while. Just when Lily had thought he'd gone silent again, he asked, "What is your favourite ice cream flavour?"

"Oh," Lily exclaimed, excitement lighting up her face, "Every Muggle flavour, basically, but the general ones are the best: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. With chocolate sauce."

"Sounds good."

"It is," Lily said. She always imagined James would like ice cream- oh. Bad thought. Evil thought. Must expel and ignore and strike that thought from the record. "You should ask the house-elves for some the next time you're in the kitchens."

"That's right," Remus said, snapping his fingers as she opened another door. "You go to the kitchens too."

"Yep, and apparently I can get there faster than you," Lily teased, glancing around the room. "Have you used that passage yet?"

"No. I can't figure out how to open the wall at the end yet," he confessed. Lily laughed as she shut the door.

"That's why you need friends like mine," Lily said. "Tracy and Christine practically lived down there when we first found it. Tracy would try everything that Christine suggested and then modify some of it."

"Tracy wouldn't tell us how to open it," Remus muttered sourly. Lily smiled.

"Of course not! She spent weeks trying to figure it out. We were in second year, unable to even use the revealio charm."

"Then how did you know the wall could open?"

"We didn't," Lily said, shrugging, "but Christine refused to give up. She was convinced that a wall at the bottom of a staircase inside a wall couldn't be nothing. As usual, she was right, though not the way she had expected. She thought we'd find a room of gold."

"Instead, you found the kitchens."

"Exactly." Lily grinned at the memory. "She was so disappointed."

"I can imagine."

"So, my question now," Lily said. "Are you an only child?"

"Your rule is that we aren't allowed to ask big questions yet," Remus began, looking vaguely uncomfortable, "can my rule be that we can't ask about family or homes?"

"Of course," Lily replied immediately. Then she felt immensely stupid. Of course Remus wouldn't want to talk about his family! They were obviously a sickly group, struggling with various diseases. Oh, Lily felt stupid. "Sorry."

"No need to apologize," Remus said, smiling. "Ask a different question."

"All right," Lily said, thinking. "If you were to celebrate Halloween the Muggle way, what would you dress up as?"

"A pumpkin," he replied, smirking. Lily's eyes went wide and then narrowed. He was remembering her costume, obviously.

"Ha. Ha."

"I thought it was funny."

"You thought wrong."

And so, for the first time in two years full of patrols, Lily Evans and Remus Lupin chatted the night away. They spent the time checking doors for students, asking basic questions about the other person's background, learning basic information that they had somehow managed to avoid learning in the past five years. They walked under a full moon and blinking stars. They walked as three friends raced through the Forbidden Forrest, chasing each other. Lily and Remus walked and patrolled and learned with the ease of a friendship that hadn't existed before.

Occasionally Lily would look over at him and catch his eye, and the pair would laugh for a moment before asking each other another basic question ("What was your favourite Christmas gift this year?"). Walking into her dorm that night, Lily had a smile on her face as she was looking forward (for the first time in her life) to her next patrol.

~*~*~

"You look happy," Sam commented as soon as Lily walked into their dorm.

"Don't you ever sleep?" Lily replied, quickly marching over to her friend's bed and sitting on it, whispering to ensure that the other girls didn't wake up.

"No. I charge. Just plug me in a go." Sam smiled.

"You're secretly a Muggle. I knew it."

"Yep. I've been hiding it for years," Sam replied sarcastically.

"Not that well, obviously, since I caught on rather quickly," Lily scoffed.

"Sure. Just took you six years, but whatever."

"Is six years really that long a time? You're a good hider."

"Speaking of hiding things," Sam began. "When are you going to talk to Tracy?"

"That was not a smooth transition, Sam," Lily replied, deliberately ignoring the question.

"Well, when?"

"Why do you think I'm avoiding Tracy?"

"All right," Sam conceded, "you aren't exactly ignoring her, but you aren't going out of your way to talk to her either. For three weeks you've been this way, talking but not being friendly."

"Is there a difference?"

"You know there is."

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily said, catching Sam's intense gaze and matching it with one of her one.

"You sure?" Sam asked. Yes, Lily wanted to scream. Even if Lily did want to talk about it (which she did not), she was naturally an intensely private person.

"James and Tracy are dating," Lily said.

"What?"

"Shhh!" Lily silenced her friend, glancing around their dorm to make sure that Christine and Tracy hadn't heard. "I know, but you can't tell anyone. It's a secret."

"Then how did you find out?"

"James told me."

"James told you?" Sam repeated.

"Okay. He didn't tell me, but I guessed and his face gave him away," Lily explained.

"When?"

"A few weeks ago, during my astronomy study time."

"Why was he there?"

"He made a habit of coming to the library during that time too," Lily said.

"And you spoke to one another?"

"Not exactly."

"I'm confused."

"That's okay. All you have to know is that Tracy and James are going out and they don't want anyone to know. Oh. And that Tracy told James that I liked him."

"What?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"Nothing. I think she wanted to make sure I wasn't hurt by them dating."

"How did she know you liked him?"

"I don't know. She just did."

"And that's why you're not talking to her?"

"No. I just- I'm not trying to avoid her. I just feel so embarrassed," Lily explained, leaning back onto her friend's pillows.

"Why?"

"I don't know. He was just coming to study there because Tracy wanted to make sure I didn't feel badly about the two of them being together, and that whole time I thought he might just have been there because, maybe, he wanted to be around me," Lily said, closing her eyes as the entirety of her shame consumed her. "Which is such a stupid thought, because of course he didn't want to be around me. He thinks I'm a Muggle and left me for dead in a corridor-"

"What?" Sam asked. "Lily, you need to start explaining."

And so Lily sat up and explained. She told about her encounter with James on the train, how he said she wasn't really a part of the magical world, then about how he'd been the one she was chasing and the way he'd left her alone in the corridor.

"And that's how I finally realized he was together with Tracy," Lily concluded. "He apologized about that."

"He apologized to you?" Sam repeated. "And that was how you knew he was dating Tracy?"

"Yes," Lily said. "And he hasn't come back to the library since then, so I guess Tracy said he doesn't have to, and she just keeps trying to apologize to me about the whole mess, but I don't-"

"Tracy's trying to apologize?"

"Yes, about the whole dating thing. She should have just told me when she realized I liked him. That would have made this less embarrassing."

"I think you're wrong about this whole situation."

"Sure. That's why James can't even stand to look at me in class anymore," Lily replied sarcastically.

"No. Listen. We ought to talk to-"

"No one. Absolutely no one about this. Instead, I will talk with you about my fabulous patrol with Remus. He spoke the whole time, brought a pouch of juice for each of us too - one for me with raspberry juice and an apple one from himself, which I didn't even want to smell since I hate the smell of apples so much-"

"Lily. Stop."

"No," Lily said petulantly.

"You really ought to-"

"Go to bed. I agree. Good night, Sam," Lily finished, standing up and running across to her bed. As she changed out of her clothes and into her pyjamas, she had no way to know that Sam had crept over to Tracy's bed and found the beater wide awake. Lily had no way to know that the other girl had heard every bit of their conversation and had to literally physically restrain herself to keep from calling out in horror.

As Lily pulled her curtains shut around her four-poster, Lily could not have known that Tracy and Sam sat in a sound-proofed bed talking about her, exchanging over a year's worth of secrets and schemes. When Lily closed her eyes and let sleep overcome her, she did not realize that Sam was having a year's worth of suspicions confirmed and that Tracy's assumptions about Lily were falling apart.


Author notes: Hey there everyone. So this chapter is over thirty pages, almost double my normal chapters, so I hope that you all appreciate that. And appreciate that that means the next chapter may be a little while in coming.

I have a livejournal, which I'm thinking of using for update notifications and different things like that. The name is AnotherDreamer5 --> so it's http://www.livejournal.com/~anotherdreamer5/

Thanks for everything. I hope you enjoyed this, and you guessed how this patrol happens. I gave you a big hint in this one, but also in chapter one about where he stole some from. :)