Rating:
PG
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
James Potter Lily Evans
Genres:
Action Romance
Era:
Multiple Eras
Stats:
Published: 06/07/2003
Updated: 01/08/2013
Words: 389,988
Chapters: 59
Hits: 80,010

Lily Evans: A History

Bethany

Story Summary:
A story of Lily's life from pre-Hogwarts to marrying James Potter. How she coped with growing up with Petunia to her friendship with the four boys that would change her life - and eventually the course of history - forever.

Chapter 23

Posted:
11/25/2003
Hits:
1,262
Author's Note:
Back by popular demand... ok, not demand, but popular nonetheless -- quotes from the story:

Lily Evans, A History
Chapter 23 - Life Goes On, Despite the Color of the Lake
By: Bethany
Rated: PG
-----------@
~*~*~*~*~

There was something to be said for a good night's sleep, Lily thought as she left the infirmary on the day that would mark her fourth, had she stayed put. With the book Kassie had brought her under her arm, and a smile on her face that spoke volumes, Lily headed towards Gryffindor Tower and the promise it held of a nice, hot shower. Classes had started not so very long ago, so Lily knew she had plenty of time in the bathroom by herself. Not that the hot water ever ran out in the castle the way it tended to at home. She wondered if it was a charm she could learn.

By the time she had showered, dressed and gotten her books together, the bell had rang signaling lunch. Lily descended all seven stair cases, stopping only briefly in the hall where she had last encountered James before her near fatal trip in the forest. If she closed her eyes, she could still hear his voice, see the yearning for understanding in his eyes....

"Stop it, Lily," she told herself firmly, ignoring the fact that talking to herself couldn't be a good sign. It was just so hard to ignore the fact that something was up with James lately. Something that he had hinted at, but she ignored almost as fiercely. Her thoughts eventually wondered about to when she was going to tell Kassie what had happened at Christmas. She knew it best to get it out in the open, and over with, but that knowledge didn't help her get a good string of words together. In fact, by the time she had sat at the Gryffindor table beside said black haired girl, she was as much as loss for words as she had been in the recent months.

"Hey!" Kassie exclaimed as Lily sat down, shoving her books under her seat and pulling the bowl of soup towards her. "I didn't know you were being released today. You should have said something."

"Sowwy," Lily replied through a mouthful of toast. She swallowed. "I didn't know until Madam Promfrey bustled me out. So, here I am. Do you have your notes for the last few days? I want to look them over before class."

"We've got Care of Magical Creatures," Kassie replied, as if there was no need to look over any notes for that class. "It's nothing fascinating. I think we're suppose to start something new today."

"Oh," Lily replied, looking down hearted. "We've finished Clabberts, then?"

Kassie nodded, pulling her bag out from under the table and fishing around in it. She threw a few pieces of crinkled parchment, five quills, two bottles of half full ink and a Witch Weekly magazine out before proclaiming, "Ah ha! Found it!" She handed Lily a roll of parchment that illustrated a Clabbert (a small, tree-dwelling creature that looked like a bad cross between a monkey and a frog and had no really purpose that Lily could remember) and began haphazardly stuffing everything back in her bag.

Lily wrinkled her nose in distaste. "How can you find anything in that?"

"What?" Kassie asked blankly, glancing at her bag. "Oh, it's easy! Just turn the bag over like this," she said, demonstrating. Lily had a bad feeling and slid her chair back just as everything came spilling out. "And see? Everything.... ah!"

"Everything ends up in my soup," Lily replied dully.

"What did you do that for?" Madison asked, her blonde curls bouncing slightly as she turned her head. She had been talking with Alexis, but both girls attentions was averted as two balls of parchment bounced onto their plates.

Kassie's face turned bright red. "Oops," she muttered, taking the pro-offered parchment from Madison and shoving it back in her bag. "Sorry about th--hey! There's my Transfiguration homework! I told Professor McGonagall I did it!"

Lily and Madison shared an exasperated look that Kassie missed as she crammed everything back in her bag. Lily doubted she would find her homework for her next class, either, and vowed to clean it out when her friend wasn't looking.

"Come on," Lily said, helping Kassie pick up her books. "We're going to be late for class."

After a seemingly endless walk to the edge of the forest (which Lily really had no inclination to set eyes on ever again) they found Professor Kettleburn checking the charms on a large glass box that held what appeared to be a pile of dead tree limbs. He looked up as the group assembled, and satisfied their entire class had shown up, motioned for them to come closer.

Professor Kettleburn smiled. "Who can tell me what we have here?"

There was a few blank stares, and even more confused ones. Lily was almost willing to bet that someone was about to say "wood" when Remus Lupin raised his hand. Kettleburn smiled, showing one missing tooth. "Ah, Mr. Lupin."

"They are Dugbogs," Remus supplied, causing a murmur of interest to break out in the small class. "They look like sticks of dead wood, but in fact have small paws and very sharp teeth."

"Thank you, Professor Lupin," Sirius said snidely and Remus shot him a warning look.

"Very good," Professor Kettleburn said, nodding. "Ten points to Gryffindor. Now, who can tell me what the Dugbogs are most known for? And perhaps, why I have them in this magically sealed tank?"

Again, no one moved to answer. Lily racked her brain, but came up with nothing. Kassie, standing beside her, was looking at Remus as if hoping he would suddenly turn and tell her the answer. Finally Remus raised his hand again. "Dugbog's favorite food is Mandrake. And I'd imagine the reason you have them magically sealed up is because Professor Sprout would be likely to kill us all if they got a hold of her crop of Mandrake."

Professor Kettleburn chuckled appreciatively. "That is certainly right, sonny. Certainly right. Ten more points to Gryffindor. Now, what I want us to do...."

*****

Sore and slightly bitten, the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students went back up to the castle after the end of class hoping that the next lesson would be spent on something less likely to bite. Like Flobberworms. Lily was nursing two stinging bites on her index finger and Kassie swore under her breath as she shook her own hand to try to rid it of the sting.

"Good thing we don't have to worry about being hurt at school or anything," Kassie muttered darkly. They followed a group of same year students into the common room and went up to their room to deposit their bags.

Madison, Alexis and Gabrielle, all still complaining about their bitten hands, left for the Great Hall and dinner. Kassie rummaged around for a few moments in her bag, looking for something, and Lily sat on her own bed next to Kassie's and took a deep breath. It was now or never. And as much as she would have preferred never, she knew that she had the perfect opportunity since they were alone. "Vernon Dursley, my sister's boyfr--fiancé tried to kiss me."

Predictably Kassie dropped her bag where he was, gasped and spun around to face Lily. The red head gave her a slight warning look, letting her know with the smallest of glances that if she interrupted, Lily may not be able to continue. Snapping her mouth shut, Kassie sat on the edge of her bed, watching Lily with wide eyes. "He followed me into the kitchen Christmas night and I, well, panicked, and hexed him. The ministry showed up, fixed it, Petunia and I fought... the usual. Only, my mother... she thought I did it on purpose." Lily gasped in a great deal of air and her vision spun for a moment. "By the time I spoke with my Mum, Petunia had convinced her that I had came onto Vernon and caused this."

Kassie sat, her mouth half opened in shock. And then suddenly, in a rush of anger that surprised Lily, Kassie jumped up. "I'll KILL him!" she hissed, grabbing her wand as if she were going to turn around and see Vernon behind her, ready for attack. "How dare he? How dare your sister? Your mother? How can they believe her?"

Lily felt half scared by Kassie's violent reaction, and half relieved by it. Her voice of reason won out in the end (though the small voice that kept yelling "Let her hex him!" was terribly convincing in it's argument) and she pushed her hands down on the dark haired girl's shoulders and made her sit. "Bloody bastard..." Kassie muttered darkly, her violet eyes narrowed to slits.

Lily nodded understandably and sat down again on her own bed, her hands in her lap. Both girls were silent for a stretch of time that neither seemed long nor short. Finally, Kassie asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Lily replied honestly, shaking her head a bit. "Try to talk to my Mum, I guess. Or my Dad. They have to see reason." She took another breath and plunged on. "I know Petunia knows the truth. But she's blind to it. I-I don't think she ever expected to get married. Not really. So she's turning a blind eye to whatever he does. But deep down, she knows."

"Christine always seemed so... so..."

"Level headed? Smart?" Lily provided helpfully. She shrugged, not knowing what to say. Her stomach gave an odd grumbled and Kassie and her both grinned, Lily thankful for the opportunity to change the subject. An unspoken agreement settled between the two friends, and Lily said, "I'm suppose I'm hungry. Do you think we should head down?"

"Definitely," Kassie grinned, getting up. Lily followed her, feeling much better about life in general now that she had gotten everything off her chest. In fact, she was almost willing to wager she would speak to James. Especially since she hadn't said a word to him since the kiss he had given her. Perhaps she would even get up the nerve to ask him about it.

"Potter, I'm astounded at you!"

Lily, not sure she had heard the angry voice correctly, shared a curious look with Kassie and peeked around the corner and into the Great Hall. McGonagall was leading James out by his ear, Sirius in tow. Both boys grinned at the girls as they passed. "Twenty points from Gryffindor! I don't see how your parents have meals at their homes if you insist on throwing food like a one year old!"

"Do you really think I'd start a food fight at my house?" James replied in a scandalized tone. "My Mum would kill me if the house elf didn't!"

"Then perhaps I should be sending Olivia an owl tonight!"

"Good going James," Sirius grumbled.

Or maybe, Lily thought as they tried to find a seat that wasn't covered in steak-and-kidney pudding, she wouldn't be talking to James very soon at all.

******

Time had a funny away about healing hearts, minds and pride. By the middle of June Lily once more slept through the night. She once more ate a healthy amount of food, and had the energy it took to really enjoy the rest of her third year. In fact, if truth be told, Lily could point out the connection between spilling her heart to her best friend and the last of her nightmares. It amazed her how much better she felt after having gotten all of her trapped emotions off her chest. Oddly enough she felt better as she remembered Kassie ranting and raving, threatening to turn Vernon into pond scum.

Lily sighed exasperatedly. The truth was that it was bothering her tremendously that her mother had believed Petunia over her. But she still stuck by her firm belief that it was only because she didn't go to her first. So Petunia's story had time to sink in, and make sense, in a twisted sort of way. She would just have to make her mother see the truth.

Of course that was hard to do since, after many tries, she couldn't put what she wanted to say in a letter. And of course, she couldn't directly speak with her mother, since she was currently sitting in the back of Transfiguration, mildly wondering if it would be worth the trouble to pretend to be sick long enough to get out of Divination. She really didn't want to go. The few odd visions (if one could call them that) she had about the little boy who looked remarkably like James had disappeared with her nightmares about Vernon. She felt odd about it; half of her wanted to know who he was, and why... why he had her eyes. And looked like James. There was a few possibilities, but they only lead her to believe the visions weren't real. Besides, she didn't even know if she wanted kids. And with James... she blushed madly. She was only thirteen. There was time to think about that years and years and then more years from now.

"Miss Evans, please demonstrate," Professor McGonagall called. Lily snapped out of her thoughts and groaned desperately as she noted everyone's eyes trained on her.

Beside her, Kassie scribbled something on a piece of parchment and showed it to her quickly. Lily didn't respond, only raised her wand and prayed she even said the incantation right. "Acrufolius!" To her left Kassie jumped up as the marble laying on the table in front of the girls grew a long tree branch that nearly poked her in the eye.

The class roared into laughter and Lily felt her face turn beet red. Professor McGonagall came over, a patient look on her face. She waved her wand and the branch disappeared. "The incantation, Evans, is Acrafoluis. Please try again."

Her face burning to the point she feared it would catch her robes on fire, Lily pointed her wand at the marble again and said, "Acrafoluis!" The marble turned into a small round piece of wood that looked remarkably like holly. Pleased, she grinned slightly.

Professor McGonagall went on to test someone else and Lily let out a breath she had been holding in. She glared across the room as James successfully turned his marble into a wooden stick and grinned at her.

"That wasn't so bad," Kassie tried to assure Lily as they headed back to Gryffindor tower to put their books away. "At least it turned wood."

"If I could have read your handwriting, I might have got it right the first time," Lily grumbled. "Chair," she said to the Fat Lady, who opened. Kassie smirked, as she always did, at their Prefect's latest choice of passwords. Lily grinned. "Now how many would think that as a password, anyway?"

"True," Peter suddenly piped up. He was standing off to the left, waiting for the girls to pass. "And it's easier to pronounce."

Remus let out a quiet laugh. "Because you couldn't get into the common room for the better half of last month?"

Peter grumbled something un-intelligible and the two left the common room while the portrait was still open. Kassie and Lily went on up to their rooms, both dreading the session with the Divination teacher that would follow dinner. Still, with nothing to stop them, and the likely hood that Lily could pull off being violently sick slim to none, they left the Great Hall and headed up to the North Tower.

They had barely made it to the area where the silver ladder should fall when someone came up behind them. Both stopped and turned to see Allana Longmire rushing up the steps, one hand on her chest. "Blimey," she panted, pushing a tight curl from her face. "How fast are you two, anyway?" She didn't wait for an answer, only plowed on. "Professor McGonagall said to tell you that you don't need to be here this afternoon. Professor Trelawney is out."

"Out?" Lily asked, giving a perplexed look over to Kassie. "Where?"

"Dunno," Allana replied, shrugging indifferently. "I only know what I was told."

Just a bit confused, but not enough so to question their good luck, Kassie and Lily followed Allana back down to the main castle. Lily was just about to follow Kassie back to their common room when suddenly Allana perked up again. "Oh, Lily. I wanted to ask you, because I heard you are top in the school... which is why I ended up coming after you for Professor McGonagall, because I was looking for you. But, anyway, could you help me with my charms homework? I can't get it, and, well. Could you?" She said all of this in one large breath, and then seemed to stop breathing while waiting for Lily to answer.

"Sure," Lily replied, smiling slightly.

"Oh no, I'm not doing extra work. Sorry kid," Kassie said, excusing herself as she backed up. "I'll be in the common room, Lil. When you're done."

Allana's clear blue eyes seemed to slightly droop. "You don't have to," she said a little unconvincingly.

Lily laughed, throwing Kassie a dirty look over her shoulder. "I don't mind, at all. Really," she added when Allana looked unsure. "Kassie, however, will most likely never be any help to anyone. So I figured she'd sod off."

Behind Lily, Kassie blew a raspberry that attracted the attention of Peeves the Poltergeist, who suddenly swooped down from the doorway to the entrance hall and chased Kassie, screaming, up the staircase. Lily watched for a moment, then turned back to Allana. "Ready?"

Lily followed the short blonde back to the Great Hall where her and a few of her friends were sitting at the Hufflepuff table, their books strewn over the polished wooden surfaces. Lily recognized a few of them, but Allana made introductions anyway. "This is Ashleigh Shipley, Sydney Rockwood, Willow Winthrop and Abigail Cantes. This is Lily Evans. And she is going to help with the latest torture assigned to us in what we kindly refer to as Charms." Allana gave them all an award winning smile and the tense group chuckled appreciatively as Lily joined them.

"What charm is it you're having trouble with?" Lily asked, leaning over to get a better view of the page Allana had her Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 open to.

"Reparo," Allana said moodily. "We spent all day in charms throwing things on the floor to break them. Only mine are still broken."

"My glass is together," Willow said. "But when you touch it..." To prove her point, she placed her finger on the edge of the glass and it shattered once more. Lily couldn't help but laugh a bit, causing the other girl to giggle, as well.

"Reparo!" Lily commanded, jabbing her wand towards the glass pieces. They jumped back together, looking most like the glass was breaking, only backwards. Willow grumbled. "You're not making the right wrist movement, it's more like this," Lily explained, jabbing her wand with a short stab at Allana's broken glass. "See? Here, you try it." Lily threw the glass down on the table, where it promptly broke again.

Willow jabbed her wand towards the glass pieces and cried, "Reparo!" The glass pieces moved into a pile, but remained broken. Willow sighed as the other girls giggled slightly. She jabbed her wand at the pieces once more, cried the incantation, and managed to nearly jab Lily in the eye. "Sorry! I'm so sorry!" she cried, pulling her wand back. "Are you ok?"

Lily, still looking startled, nodded her head. "Erm, perhaps I should move back a bit."

For what seemed like eternity, though it was closer to several hours, Lily worked with the five girls until each of them could successfully repair their glasses multiple times. By the time she returned to the Gryffindor Common room, followed by Abigail, who was the only Gryffindor in the group in the Great Hall, her wand arm was rather tired. Wanting nothing more than to go to bed, she passed through the common room in a haze and paid little attention to Morgana sitting on her bed as she dressed. The owl hooted in indignation.

"Oh, hey, Morgana," Lily said, pulling her bed clothes back. She petted her owl, and waited as she ruffled her feathers importantly and then glided out through the open window. A dead mouse lay in her wake. "Oh, great, a present."

"She likes you, obviously," Kassie grinned, yanking her bed curtains open so she could properly laugh at Lily. "She's been waiting on you for--evvver," she added in between a yawn. "What took so long?"

"Repairing charms," Lily offered, climbing onto her bed. "I'm glad it's Saturday, or I'd be dead tired tomorrow."

"But we have a big day tomorrow!" Kassie said, obviously much more awake now that she had someone to talk to. Lily groaned as Kassie sprinted over to her bed and sat on the foot of it. "Hogsmeade, then the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor game! You know Gryffindor is favored for the House Cup, right? If we beat Hufflepuff, we go on to play Ravenclaw in the finals!"

"James and Sirius have mentioned it a few hundred times, yes," Lily retorted, giving Kassie a hard shove. "Off my bed, I'm sleepy."

Kassie chattered a few more minutes, until she was being so thoroughly ignored that Lily actually fell asleep. Then she, too, climbed into her own bed and pulled the hangings around.

One tower over, in the third year Gryffindor boy dorms, four students were not being so quiet. In fact, they were being anything but. Mark Johnson had had enough. And in his final statement of the evening, he shut his curtains around his bed and placed a silencing charm on them. Remus raised an eyebrow. "He could have done that two hours ago and saved his self a lot of muttering under his breath."

"And saved me the trouble of having to be so loud to make him either leave or place the charm on," Sirius added. He gave a great sigh. "Now we can talk about what I've been wanting to." He heaved a large book out from under his bed and placed it between them.

"Powers You Didn't Know You Had, and What To Do With Them Now That You Know," Remus read from the cover and threw a quizzical look to his friends. "Sirius, are you sure that last explosion in Potions didn't do something to your head?"

"Of course I'm not sure," Sirius replied, flipping the book open and sending dust flying everywhere. Peter coughed violently and waved his hand in front of his face. "As a matter of fact, you can accredit my pure genius to getting this. It was in the restricted section."

"How'd you get it?" Peter asked skeptically. "Somehow I don't see McGonagall handing you a signed note letting you browse at your will."

"Ha, ha," Sirius muttered, still searching through the pages. "Actually, it was Professor Trelawney that gave me the note. I told her I had some strange dreams that I wanted to check about. And as long as I promised to let her know how that went, she gave me a note."

"You're mad," James muttered, shaking his head. "A genius, perhaps. But still barking mad."

"Thank you," Sirius grinned and continued flipping pages, sending large clouds of dust into his friend's faces. Peter sounded like he might hyperventilate any moment and Remus felt a sneeze lodge itself firmly in his sinuses. Sirius, paying no attention to any of them, stopped suddenly, pulling another three books out from under his bed. "By the way, picked up a bit of light reading for you three, as well."

Peter took on long look at the book before him that seemed to have a spine as thick as Hogwarts, A History. "Light?" he croaked.

Sirius dutifully ignored him as he handed out books to Remus and James. They both looked at him doubtfully. "Come on, just see what they have to say."

So they did. For nearly an hour all four boys silently studied their books, only stopping every now and then when they came upon something likely, then only to collapse into silence again. Sirius, studying more than most could claim to have seen him do, was actually jotting down notes on a spare bit of parchment as he went. James was reading at an amazingly fast speed, while Remus took in everything as he went, and Peter kept making small frightened noises at the prospect of changing his body into that of an animal. The pictures didn't look like it was something pleasant, even if they assured it was painless after the first couple of times. Sirius put his book away suddenly, pulling out another one that the other three boys had failed to notice.

After finding the page he was looking for, Sirius looked down at the book open in front of him and raised an eyebrow. "How are we suppose to do this?" he asked aloud to no one inpaticular.

"Do what?" Remus asked, looking up from his book, How to Undo What You Didn't Mean to Do.

James leaned over Sirius' shoulder and smirked. At Remus and now Peter's questioning gaze, he read aloud; "The first step to becoming an animagi is to find your inner animal. A wizard can not choose the animal he wants to be, but has to find what is in himself and bring it to surface."

"Come again?" Remus laughed.

"We have to find our inner animal," James said, then snorted. "That sounds easy enough."

"Maybe for you," Peter said, looking anxious once again. "I'm not an animal person."

"Sure you are," James said easily, turning his page without paying any attention. "You like Horace, don't you?"

"Are you saying I'll be an owl? What good would that be to Remus?" Peter asked. James looked flabbergasted. His mouth opened, closed, opened and closed once more just before he fell silent. Remus chuckled and went back to his book. All the while it seemed Sirius hadn't been paying attention to any of them. His eyes were shut and his face uplifted. Peter gave him a sidelong look. "What are you doing?"

"Searching for my inner animal," Sirius replied, his eyes still closed, though his eyes were moving behind the lids.

The three of them were silent, watching Sirius for a few more moments. Finally James asked; "Have you found it yet?"

"Do I look like an animal?" Sirius replied.

"Do I have to answer that?" James retorted.

Suddenly a very heavy, very dusty book went flying across the bed, straight at James.

*******

Finals came not too long there after. All the third year girls spent hours in the common room or library studying over notes and chapters they had done in class. They poured over old assignments, practiced charms, transfiguration, and in Lily and Kassie's case, crystal gazing. This didn't go over well with either of them, since both knew they had the Sight. And neither had yet to See something in the glass ball.

This also aggravated Professor Trelawney, who had returned from her mysterious trip (not too mysterious, since Sirius and James had eased-dropped on a conversation in the Staff Room and knew that Trelawney's mother had fallen ill) and was more determined than ever that Lily and Kassie should have visions. Kassie, of course, knew routine things; such as how many times Snape would fall victim to Sirius blowing his cauldron up in Potions. But as Sirius had made almost a pattern about this, Lily was pretty sure she could figure it out, as well.

The day of her final, Lily climbed the silver ladder and stood before the Professor with a mindedly bored expression on her face. The incense were lit around the room, filling the air with a thick, musty smell, and the candles were burning low so that her shadow was long across the floor. Professor Trelawney was sitting at her table at the front of the room, a crystal ball before her. "Come in, my dear. Look into the orb and tell me what you see."

Lily took a seat, looked into the orb, and seen nothing. Except maybe a white swirling mist, that always hovered in the magical balls. Trelawney made an impatient sound. "I-I see," Lily thought hard, staring into the white mist as she racked her brain for something - anything - that sounded plausible. "Eh, I see my mother. She is... in the greenhouse, with my father. They are working together on a plant."

"Is there anything happening? A magical plant? Attacking them, perhaps?"

Lily threw the lady a scornful look. "No. My parents are Muggles."

Professor Trelawney managed to turn her jerk of surprise into a misty laugh. "Of course, my dear. Of course. Very well, then, if you are done."

Lily, glad to be done nodded her head and quickly descended the ladder where most the class was waiting their turn. That next Saturday was perhaps one of the most exciting Quidditch game Lily could ever remember attending in her three years at Hogwarts. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor teams were both excellent and the game lasted three long hours, but was action packed none the less. Sirius proved himself a very worthy beater, actually debrooming one of the Ravenclaw players at one point. At the end of the game, when Patrick Mundame suddenly dove at the ground towards the Ravenclaw goal posts, Lily nearly bit her nails off as the Ravenclaw seeker came up fast on his tail. They struggled for a moment, then suddenly Patrick raised his arm and in his hand was the tiny, struggling snitch.

The Gryffindor stands went absolutely wild. As they spilled out onto the field, Lily felt herself being pulled along as they jumped up and down and screamed. The team accepted the large Quidditch House Cup and shortly after Sirius and James both announced a party in the common room.

It was a party unlike Lily had ever attended. Gryffindor hadn't won the house cup in a very long time. Even Professor McGonagall came in, laughing and talking with students as they went over every minute of the game season up to the point where they won tonight's game. It was so relaxing, so fun, that Lily had forgotten entirely about anything else. Forgotten about problems at home, or the fact that she would return home shortly to those problems. For a few precious hours, Lily felt so free that she never wanted it to end.

But all good things must come to an end. Or so someone had once said, and Lily wished they didn't have to be right so very often. At a little past midnight, Professor McGonagall returned to the Gryffindor Tower that she had left a few hours earlier, and instructed everyone to get some sleep. The Prefects started dishing out orders for clean up, and long before anyone really wanted to, they were up in their dorms for the night. Lily stared at the ceiling of her bed, wishing that the day wouldn't end. It only left her with forty-eight short hours before the dreaded train ride back to Loudon. Where she would be forced to face her parents, face her problems, and face her sister.

The next morning, Kassie seemed to have read her mind. "You can always come home with me," she said out of the clear blue, reaching over to take the last piece of toast off a plate. It magically reappeared full. "My Aunt Wanda isn't the nicest person in the world, but she isn't mean. She won't mind."

Lily gave her a sad smile over her own uneaten breakfast. "I wish I could. But nothing will get better if I don't go home and face it," she added wisely, sighing as she said so. For some reason the feeling that someone was watching her processed Lily and she glanced down to see James staring at her. She meet his eyes only briefly, though, and looked away. "I should pack, I suppose."

"Naw," Kassie muttered, taking a drink of orange juice to wash her food down with. "Let's go outside. It's a beautiful day and we can sit around and enjoy the sunshine and the fact that we have no school work." Her eyes twinkled. "Or, are you up for a mud fight?"

Lily laughed out loud, nearly choking on her tea as she did so. She coughed, her eyes watering. "No, no. I daresay I've had enough of mud fights to last me a while. But a stroll around the grounds sounds like a good enough excuse to procrastinate packing."

"Good," Kassie said brightly, standing up. Lily took a last drink, put her cup down and followed the black haired girl outside.

They weren't the only ones who weren't packing their stuff away. The grounds were full of students from every year, enjoying the sunshine and the clear blue skies. A large crowd had gathered around the lake, trying to probe the squid into coming to the surface, a game had broken out across the east end of the grounds of students who were racing flying stones with their wands, and several people could be seen flying broom sticks over the Quidditch field. It seemed perfect, to Lily. The perfect day scene of friendship and good times. Nowhere the eye could see would foretell the darkness that loomed over the wizarding world. Here, under the watchful eye of the professors and the magic of the Hogwarts castle, and it's Headmaster, things were good.

Lily and Kassie walked silently around the back side of the lake, Lily taking careful steps to avoid the Dark Forrest that loomed just across the way. As far as she was concerned, she never wanted to step foot there again. They made their way back up the grassy slopes and found Hagrid tending to a garden just back of his cottage. "Hi Lily! Kassie!" he waved, his boarhound turning and running up to them in an eager attempt to lick their faces.

"Hi Hagrid," Lily smiled, approaching. Hagrid had dirt under his large hands and a streak of dragon fertilizer smeared across his brow. He didn't seem to notice. "What are you doing?"

"Workin' on gettin' these plants ter growing. Can't start early enough on getting the vegetables a' goin'." He winked at them, wiping his hand across his beard and leaving a bit of dirt in it's wake. "Helpin' them along just a bit. Come have a look see."

Kassie and Lily followed the giant of a man back around to the back of his cottage where huge rolls of corn were planted, as well as carrots, potatoes and cabbages that looked like the size of basketballs. He beamed at them. "Beauty, ain't they?"

"Wow Hagrid, they're huge!" Kassie exclaimed, examining the stalks of corn that were at least six feet high. They were so many rows of them, Lily thought they could feed a small army. Or a castle full of students.

"How about coming in fer a cup o' tea? I was just about to make me a pot."

Lily and Kassie followed him in the cottage where they were relentlessly licked by Curly until both of them felt the overwhelming urge to shower. Finally he backed off at the call of Hagrid and they sat down to enjoy tea. They talked of Hagrid's garden, some "interesting" creatures that Hagrid fancied, though to Lily and Kassie it sounded more like monsters, and about their end of year tests. By the time they left, the sun had dropped considerably and Lily felt a pang of tension bite at her insides. Ignoring it fiercely, they started towards the castle, only to find a large group had gathered around the lake's edge, all talking excitedly.

"Wonder what's going on?" Kassie asked, turning that direction. Lily, shrugging, followed her. As soon as they were close enough, it was very evident as to what was going on. And there was no doubt in either of their minds who had done it. "Oh my goodness...." Kassie muttered, her eyes wide.

Lily giggled. The lake, so blue and serene only hours earlier, was a bright red and gold color now. One of the squid's tentacles had reached up out of the water, gold and red water dripping off of it. They looked around, and sure enough, standing just off to the left next to a crowd of admirers, stood James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. Lily and Kassie fought their way over just in time to hear Sirius proclaim; "Ha! You owe me five galleons!"

James, mumbling just low enough that his words couldn't be heard, dug in his pockets and produced five golden coins and shoved them in Sirius' waiting hands. Suddenly the commotion was broken by a voice hissing out across the grounds. "POTTER! BLACK! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

As if she had a little voice telling her where to be and whom to blame, Professor McGonagall came half jogging down the lawn, holding her tartan hat on her head as she went. She stared for a moment in complete and utter disbelief at the lake, and then to the four boys who were grinning.

"Do you think we can run from her?" Sirius asked in an off handed way.

"No," Remus answered earnestly, grinning none-the-less.

"You're right, of course," James said lowly. Then, more loudly, said, "Hi Professor!" in his most charming voice.

Their Head of House looked speechless. She finally drew close enough to them to reach out and strangle them, stared at the lake and shook her head in a defeated way. "Will it wear off?" she asked in a voice full of surrender.

"Yes," Remus answered promptly.

"Will it hurt anything in the lake?"

"Er, no," Remus replied.

Professor McGonagall took a deep breath as if to cleanse her lungs and shook her head slightly. "What good does anything I say do?" she muttered to herself, and to their complete shock, she turned and began walking away.

Sirius and James both looked scandalized. "Wait, Minerva! Aren't we getting detention?" Sirius asked, running to catch up with her.

"And exactly what good will it do?" the older woman asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'll win my galleons back," James muttered. Sirius jabbed him in the side with his elbow.

"But, we turned the lake red and gold, Professor," Sirius said in a rather good imitation of their Head of House. "We deserved to be punished."

Professor McGonagall turned, her face blank, but what looked slightly like a smile turning her lips up. "No, Mr. Black, I don't think so. You've won the detention war fair and square, so let Mr. Potter pay you. And mind you don't do any more gambling on these matters." Sirius and James' jaws dropped simultaneously. "That's seventy-two. More than enough to break the school record." And with those departing words, and smile and wink towards Kassie and Lily, Professor McGonagall headed back towards the castle, leaving James and Sirius both watching her, dumbstruck.

"How does she do that?" James finally said, blinking.

"I think I'm in love," Sirius said, then dashed off after Professor McGonagall.

Remus and Peter shook with laughter as Sirius yelled after their teacher and James made a gagging sound and bent over.

*******

There was a buzz of happy excitement the next day as everyone began repacking their trunks, checking under beds and in dressers for misplaced belongings and swapping summer plans with friends. Lily sat on her bed, her legs crossed under her, staring at Kassie's latest edition of Witch Weekly and purposefully ignoring the fact that none of her belongings were packed. She hadn't even opened her trunk. Kassie was packing her own trunk, but it was taking longer than usual because she kept stopping to talk with Kathleen and Gabrielle about their summer plans. They were going to America to spend a month with an aunt and uncle, and were extremely excited.

Lily felt indifferent to the happy talk around her. She had no summer plans, that didn't include wishing she was back at Hogwarts, and wasn't looking forward to going home at all. But it was getting late, and even Lily knew that she didn't want to rush around the next morning and pack. So with a resigned sigh, she put the magazine down (after finishing the article on Gladrags new line of dress robes) and opened her drawer. The first thing to catch her attention was a crushed piece of paper stuffed down in the corner. Knowing what it was, she pulled it open anyway, and re-read the short letter inside for possibly the umpteenth time.

Lily,

Yes, I will be picking you up at the train station this year. I
sincerely hope that things will get better between us. Perhaps we
should have a weekend, just us? I think we should have a long talk
about you know what and get things cleared.

See you soon.

All my love,
Mum


Lily crushed the letter back up in her palm and felt an urge to ignite it with her wand. Her mother had taken to referring to Christmas as "you know what" and still steadfastly believed Petunia. Though why, Lily wasn't sure. She hoped that if she agreed to the weekend with her mother in Loudon that they could sort things out. Lest Lily go mad.

Throwing the crushed parchment down on the floor, she opened her trunk and took our her wand. Having looked over a Standard Book of Spells, Grade 6 in the library, she had ran across some cleaning spells, as well as some spells that would help her get this done and over with. With a swish of her wand, and a cry of "Pack!" All of her clothing jumped from the dresser and landed, folded, into her trunk. With a satisfied grin of having done the spell right (after all, three weeks of practicing had just paid off nicely) Lily pointed her wand at Morgana's cage and said, "Scourgify!" All of the feathers and droppings disappeared.

Across the room she heard Kassie snort. "Well, don't bother helping us. We'll do things the Muggle way."

Lily grinned, plopping back on the bed and re-opening the magazine. "Ok," she said, and began flipping through to the page she had left off on.

Madison, who had been sitting on her own bed and watching with a smile, opened her trunk and pointed her wand to her clothing. "Pack!" she announced. All of her clothing went into her trunk, neatly folded. She smiled sheepishly at Kassie. "Sorry, I sort of came in on Lily practicing the spell and learned it."

Lily, laughing at the indignant look on Kassie's face, threw her magazine down and walked across to the other girls. She pointed her wand at the clothes laid out on Kassie's bed. "Twist your wrist like this," she instructed. Kassie did as she was told, watching Lily's wrist and hand movement like a cat watching a mouse. "Flip it like this quickly, and say the incantation."

"Pack!" Kassie said. All of her clothes folded themselves, and landed in a neat single pile on the floor where they promptly fell over. Kassie raised an eyebrow at them. "Well. That didn't go as planned. How long did it take you to learn it?"

"Three weeks," Lily muttered. "And I think myself rather good with charms. It's all in the wrist, though. See?" She practiced the movement again and Kassie tried to mimic.

After five more failed attempts, Kassie picked up her clothes and threw them in her trunk. "There."

Lily tried to fight back the grin, but didn't do a very good job of it. "Pack!" she said, waving her wand. All of the clothes jumped out of the trunk and landed on the bed. folded perfectly. She blinked. "Well, didn't say I had perfected it..."

"I just put those in there!" Kassie cried and shoved them all back in. It reminded Lily much of the way Kassie kept her school bag; everything stuffed in everywhere. Kassie done a final sweep of the room, threw a few more things in the trunk, and then her and Gabrielle both had to sit on it to keep it closed. Lily just shook her head at them as Kassie's finally proclaimed: "There! It's closed! Oh, I hope that don't pop open."

"Put a locking spell on it," Alexis recommended. "Or it will pop open, probably while you're walking in the Muggle train station. And wouldn't that look good? Spell books, cauldron and other wizarding items rolling around the platform?"

"You're absolutely right," Kassie amended. She faced Alexis. "Know a locking spell?"

"No," Alexis replied promptly, sitting on her own bed.

"Fat load of help you are," Kassie retorted and began flipping through Lily's copy of Standard Book of Spells looking for the incantation.

Several minutes and discussions on the best spell to keep Kassie's trunk closed, they managed it. Kassie wiped her hand across her forehead, looked around, blinked and then groaned loudly as she laid on her bed dramatically. "I packed everything. Including my dressing gown, clothes..."

"Oh no," Gabrielle mumbled, jumping off the trunk. "We're going to be late for the feast if we sit around here. We'll worry about it later?"

"When we're not so hungry," Kathleen ended helpfully and went towards the door where they could hear other year girls going down towards the Great Hall.


So with a groan of frustration, Kassie followed the rest of the Gryffindor's down seven stair cases to the Great Hall where the rest of the school was gathering. Lily and Kassie took seats among the rest of the third year girls and waited as everyone filed in as groups. Finally satisfied that everyone that was going to be present was here, Albus Dumbledore stood at the staff table and the room fell silent.

He wore light periwinkle robes with stars and moons flashing in the light of the thousands of candles suspended in mid-air. His long beard, as it always did, fell half way down his chest, and sober blue eyes looked across the room from behind half moon spectacles. "Good evening," he began. Lily felt a shiver of apprehension run down her spine. This was not normally how Dumbledore began his end of term speeches, and rarely did he have something good to say with such a stricken expression. "It is my unhappy duty to inform you that the Hogwarts Express will not run tomorrow morning."

--End Chapter 23.

*dodges expertly thrown pots and pans* I'm sorry! Honestly, I am! It's been forever since the last update. Life has caught up with me, and I just couldn't sit down and write. I'm sorry! And then a cliff hanger.... well, it's some... bad habbit, I have. I love cliff hangers. And I haven't had a good one in a few chapters. Or, at least, not in my opinion. So.... there you have it. Now, for the bad part: This is the last update for about three weeks (hopefully not longer). With the holidays and all, it's going to be hard to drag myself to the computer and write. I'm going out of town for Thanksgiving, plus my Brit-editor is going out of country; well, you get the idea. But never fear, I'll try to make the next chapter really long to make up for it. :)

Now, to answer questions brought up in reviews:

Quite a few people have asked if there is something going on between Kassie and Sirius. In this story, no. Now, I am planning on finishing this story, and then starting on an "alternate ending" for this story. And in that story, who knows :)

How much of the future will Lily see? I don't know. I'm seriously writing those parts as I go. I hadn't even planned on doing it, but it seems like such a good idea, I couldn't help myself. But as for how much she'll see, that remains to be.. well, seen. :D

How much of Harry's life will she know about? Same here. I have no idea. But I can tell you that she'll have a pretty good idea that she's having a boy before she ends up pregnant.

What will happen with her issues with Vernon? I can't say. Because that's giving away the next chapter. Sorry :)

Can I make Lily and James live? Actually, not in in this story. This story will end with Lily's death. BUT I plan on writing an "alternate ending" to this story, and they will live in that. :)

Does Dumbledore always carry around Sherbert Lemons? Why not? ;) This is Dumbledore we're talking about.

I've had someone ask about the quotes in the header on Schnoogle. I honestly didn't think anyone had missed them, but I'll put them back :)

Wow, thanks so much for all the reviews!! Huge thanks to my editors, everyone on the LilyUpdate group, and all who read and review. If you are interested in joining the mass emailing update group, send an email to [email protected] -- we had a ton of fun talking about all sorts of weird things (and, of course, they get all the scoop on the updates and how the chapters are coming along).

Please review and let me know your thoughts on the story. I try my best to answer all questions. Or you can email me: [email protected]

<3 Bethany
11.24.03