Lily Evans: A History

Chapter 28 - All's fair in love and pranks

"I understand completely. The students do need to learn more about unforgivable curses, and much sooner than seventh year. With all that is going on, I think children as young as fourth year should know. But, Albus, how would we get around the Ministry to do such things? They want the children in the dark about the worst that the Death Eaters are doing."

Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, leaned back and studied his current Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher with a very sober look. They had been discussing adding the unforgivable curses to the younger students' curriculum and while Professor Kittle agreed that it should be done, he didn't agree with actually doing it. "Edmund, I assure you that if the children had been rightfully taught in school about the dangers they would face upon leaving here that so many would still be alive after the Grindelwald war. Should we not learn from those mistakes and not let history repeat itself?"

"And, if you haven't noticed, Dumbledore is our Headmaster and we still listen to him over the Ministry." Altheria McClure added her (rather unwanted, and definitely unasked for) opinion from her seat on the other side of Professor Kittle. The Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor glared at her, but the Potions Master ignored him and smiled sweetly. "Could you pass the marmalade, please?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Dumbledore had noticed, a few moments before, a group of Slytherins approaching the Gryffindor table. This in itself was strange, since the two houses were known for not getting along. But even more strange was that only mere seconds after Bellatrix Black had had her say to whomever she was speaking, Kassandra Phillips had sprung up from her seat and exited the hall, followed very shortly by Lily Evans, James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.

"We will discuss the new second term curriculum at another time," Dumbledore said as he got to his feet. "I'm afraid there is a matter of the utmost urgency that needs my attention." And without giving either Professor a chance to reply, the old wizard moved gracefully away from the staff table and towards the double doors to the Great Hall.

Being Headmaster of a magical school had its perks. The castle had respect for its head, so therefore most trick steps, invisible walls and changing staircases didn't hinder the Headmaster's progress. Even more so, however, was a deep knowing of what was happening. It was almost as if the school was alive, leading its Headmaster to wherever the trouble spot was. So Dumbledore didn't question when he started up the staircases and suddenly they began moving towards the third floor corridor, rather than the fourth floor he had been heading to. After all, who better to know what was going on inside the castle, than the castle itself?

***********

Kassie Phillips knew without a shadow of a doubt that something was about to happen. She didn't need her Seer ability to know it, though every nerve prickled with warning. Her palm was sweaty around the handle of her wand that she clutched tightly. Her blood was racing through her veins, making her heart pound and her head ache slightly. Her senses seemed magnified and her footsteps sounded more like tiny explosions. She didn't know where she was headed, but without a doubt knew when she got there whom she would be facing. This is what happened when you stuck up for what you believed in. It was a fight her generation would be fighting for many years to come. But at the moment she was only worried about the here and now, and definitely not the bigger fish. Only the small, misguided ones.

"Kassie! Kassie, please wait!"

Kassie groaned as she turned. How she had hoped that Lily would have stayed in the Great Hall. Of course, had the circumstances been different, she would have followed Lily. But that was beside the point at the moment. Lily finally made it to where Kassie had paused to wait on her. She stopped, attempting to catch her breath, one hand held up. "What..." she gasped, blowing out a deep breath. She finally managed to calm her frantically beating heart. "Is going on?"

Kassie looked towards the dark end of the third floor corridor. "Pull your wand," she instructed sternly, squinting. Either panic was causing her to have delusions or Kassie just saw a shadow move. She wasn't taking a chance.

"Why are we pulling our wands?"

Kassie let out a squeak and spun around. Sirius was standing behind her, sober faced and watching the dark corridor. Coming up behind him were James, Peter and Remus, each with their own wands at the ready. Kassie felt half relieved not to be alone and half angry that they were putting their noses in her business. It was bad enough to worry about getting herself in trouble, let alone the five of them. "Look, I don't have time to explain--"

"No, you most certainly don't." The six Gryffindors turned just as Bellatrix Black, Rodolphus Lestrange, Emmaline Vance and Evan Rosier emerged from the shadows. "But allow me to give you a short version," Bellatrix drawled, smiling in a way that made her look a bit unhinged. Her dark eyes flashed to each of the Gryffindors in turn. "It seems Kassandra can't keep her wand in her own business. And we all know what happens when you make other people's business your own." The dark haired Slytherin tutted softly. "I warned you, didn't I? But you Gryffindors are all the same. So brave and foolish."

"Are you all talk, Bella?" Sirius suddenly asked, looking for all the world as if he was very bored. He checked his still watchless wrist. "I'd like to eat, so if you'd shut it and get on with--"

"IMPEDI--"

Two things happened at the sound of Bellatrix's curse. A red light shot out of her wand and behind the Gryffindors another light shot forward, this one silver. James grabbed Lily by the waist and threw both himself and Lily to the side just as Sirius grabbed Kassie while Remus and Peter both dived to get out of the way of the multicolored sparks that were flying everywhere as the two spells clashed above their heads. Lily turned her head and squinted behind them to see a tall figure silhouetted at the end of the corridor. When the sparks finally died down Lily felt a gush of relief well up in her throat as she recognized Albus Dumbledore.

The Headmaster looked livid. Perhaps not so much with anger, though, as the power radiating off him filled the air with his presence and his feeling towards what he had just witnessed. Without a doubt they all knew someone was in some deep trouble. "I want every student in this corridor in my office. Now."

No one in their right mind would have disagreed. James helped Lily to her feet and they followed the Headmaster down the corridor to the stone gargoyle that stood at the entrance to Dumbledore's office. As if she had telepathy, or a sixth sense that connected her to any problems in the castle (the Marauders bet their gallons on the latter), Professor McGonagall was standing in the circular office when they arrived. Dumbledore motioned for the Slytherins to have a seat while McGonagall ushered Lily, Kassie and the Marauders into a room adjoining the Headmaster's office.

"I want to know what happened." McGonagall looked very angry. Her lips were so thin it was as if they weren't there at all. If the Marauders thought she gave some death looks in class, it was child's play compared to the one on her face now. For a moment no one moved. Then, finally, Kassie stepped forward. "This is all my fault, Professor. Lily, Sirius and everyone," She motioned behind her. "Had no idea what was going on. They still don't," she finished quietly.

Perhaps it was the honesty so plainly written on Kassie's face, but some of the anger seemed to slip from the Transfiguration teacher's face. She studied them for a moment that Lily didn't think any of them dared to breathe. "Very well, the rest of you may go."

Lily really didn't want to go, but found there wasn't much she could do about it. At the moment crossing McGonagall may be the last thing she ever did. Reluctantly she followed the Marauders back down the circular staircase and to the Great Hall. Despite their earlier complaints about how hungry they had been, the Marauders ate surprisingly little. In fact, Lily was almost sure that no one except Peter ate more than two bites. Not feeling like sitting amongst the rest of the school while her thoughts were so full of worry, Lily got up to go to the common room to wait for Kassie. The Marauders followed.

Lily flopped down into an armchair in front of the fireplace and waved her wand to start a fire. As the flames threw off heat into the room, the redhead sighed deeply and looked over at the four boys all sitting around in various arm chairs or on sofas. "I wonder what will happen."

"I want to know what happened that started this," Sirius said, his voice low and very near a whisper. "That bloody cousin of mine is a right bitch, just like most of my family."

Lily had had no idea about any of this. She looked at Sirius questioningly, but he seemed to have decided he had said too much. James rolled his eyes. "You might say that Sirius and his parents were thrown out of the family."

"All because to be a Black meant that you were better than everyone," Sirius spat. "And if you didn't agree with that, then boom! Off the family tree you go. Good riddance, if you ask me."

After that charming statement the five of them lapsed into silence again. Lily found herself staring at the portrait hole, mentally willing Kassie to come back through it and explain this mess. What had Bellatrix been talking about? What had Kassie done that the Slytherins had warned her about? Lily's mind kept turning over possible situations, but none made sense. She feared it would make her go mad before long.

It was at least an hour before Kassie returned to the common room. As soon as her foot cracked the portrait, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were on their feet. By this time the common room was no longer empty, though, dinner having been over with for some time. James motioned for them to head up the staircase to the boys dorm, and Sirius charmed the door locked as soon as they were all in. Five sets of eyes turned expectantly to the black haired witch sitting on Sirius' bed.

"Yes, an explanation," Kassie muttered. She twisted her hands in front of her nervously. "I sort of accidentally walked in on Bellatrix threatening a first year in the hall this morning. She was rambling something about helping the Dark Lord purge the world of Mudbloods." Kassie jumped slightly as Sirius cracked his knuckles. "I-we argued a bit and she said she would get me back." Kassie shrugged, but her nonchalance was lost by the fact that she looked scared.

"Did you tell Dumbledore?" Remus asked.

Kassie nodded. "I think Bellatrix got in some pretty bad trouble, because he actually saw her throw a curse. I got a speech about going to a Professor with problems like this instead of trying to solve them myself." She sighed again and brushed away a black stand of hair from her face. "I'm a bit tired." The excuse was beguile, but no one moved to stop her. She looked around at them all uncertainly. "Thanks for trying to--well," she bit her lip and walked out the door. "Good night."

Kassie had barely shut the door and hadn't started down the staircase when it opened again. Expecting to see Lily, she turned only to find Sirius standing behind her looking uncertain as if whether he should be there or not. He ran his fingers through his short hair and took a step forward like he was waiting for her to hex him. Kassie looked away, trying to control her overwhelming urge to burst into tears. Now that it was all said and done, the fact was that no matter what Bellatrix had said, Kassie didn't feel very brave. In fact, her heart still pounded unpleasantly when she thought about the pure hatred reflected in Bellatrix's eyes. "I couldn't imagine hating someone just because of their blood," she said softly, still not looking at Sirius. "My Dad was a good man, even if he was a muggle."

"I know," Sirius replied, his voice just as low as hers. He slowly reached out, touching Kassie's arm gently. She jumped slightly, even though she knew he was there. He was always there, it seemed. Kassie turned and without a reason in her head, she buried her herself in his arms, letting a few of the tears in her eyes go. Sirius said nothing, only held her as tight as he dared.

"I was so scared," Kassie admitted, her face still buried in his robes. She didn't want to look at him, to see his reaction.

"You had every right to be."

"Gryffindors are supposed to be brave," Kassie replied, unsure why she was laying her heart out to Sirius Black of all people. But it seemed a moot point at the moment. He was here and even though he was never very serious, he did listen very well. And it felt nice to be comforted as opposed to the scorn Kassie felt she deserved for being in this mess.

"You stood up for what you believe in, Kassie, that's more bravery than a lot of wizards -- and witches -- have," Sirius assured her, squeezing her against his chest. He felt slightly bad for the small part of his mind that was thoroughly enjoying this. He'd never admit it to anyone, perhaps not even James, but it was more than teasing and a passing interest he felt for Kassie. And though he had resigned himself to the fact that she would never return his feelings, it didn't stop his heart from hammering when she was near. And at the moment he was lucky to be capable of coherent speech.

All too soon, though, Kassie realized exactly what she was doing and moved away, giving him a nervous smile as she wiped away a tear. "I'm sorry," she muttered, blushing feverishly. "You must think me mad."

"A little," Sirius replied, reaching out and wiping away another tear as it left her violet eye. Kassie swatted at his hand playfully and Sirius knew the moment had come and gone. Kassie excused herself, and feeling like he had just lost a bit of his sanity, Sirius watched her descend the stairs.

**********

Lily stared at her folded hands, thinking. It was so easy to forget the troubles the wizarding world was having. Especially when you're muggle born. But it never failed, right about the time things got quiet, something happened to remind them all that things were far from ok. But to think that students here at Hogwarts were actually in support of Voldemort... Lily felt a shiver run down her spine.

"Are you ok?" James asked. Lily had no idea when he had sat beside her; she had been too lost in her thoughts.

"I will be," she replied, exhaling deeply. How would he ever understand how she felt? Her home wasn't protected by wards or enchantments. If Voldemort was as serious about his stupid muggle blood ideas as it appeared he was (and according to Bellatrix he was "purging" the wizarding world) that put her family in harms' way. And the events of today had brought that thought home more than any other. She wondered if it was possible for the ministry to add wards to her home. She'd have to ask Dumbledore. If she was lucky, she still had time before she met Tim in the library. Lily glanced at her watch and noted with horror that she was supposed to have met him half an hour ago. "Oh! I was supposed to meet Tim. I'd better go."

Lily was on her feet and out the door before James could comprehend. Just as Lily left, Sirius was coming in the door. "Who's Tim?" James asked. Sirius stopped, turned on his heel and headed back out the door. "Sirius!" James yelled, jumping to his feet.

"This isn't going to be pretty," Remus noted wryly.

James returned a moment later, his wand trained on Sirius' back. The latter flopped down on the bed nearest him and attempted to contort his face into a mask of innocence. "Who is Tim?" James repeated.

Peter's face suddenly lit up. Remus pulled his wand, but before he could complete the silencing charm the short boy declared; "Hey, Sirius, isn't that Lily's boyfriend?"

Remus and Sirius both groaned and buried their faces in pillows as James yelped: "Her WHAT?!"

Peter looked stunned by James' reaction. Remus clipped him round the ear. "That was real smooth, mate," the werewolf hissed.

"Lily has a boyfriend?" James looked like he was going to be sick. He sat down--or, rather, fell down on his bed. "Since when? Who is he? How come I didn't know?"

"As far as I can tell, today, Tim Abbott and because you're not Lily's parents?" Sirius barely dodged James' pillow as he flew across the room, suspiciously close to Sirius' head. Sirius started to laugh at James' aim - or lack thereof - when a book came flying his direction, hitting him square in the chest. "Hey!"

"What are you grumbling about?" James muttered darkly. "I missed."

"Oh."

"Look, James, this isn't the end of the world. It isn't like she is going to marry him or anything," Remus pointed out logically, his wand still gripped in his hand in case he had to dodge any ill thrown books, pillows, or nightstands. "Look at Sirius, he hasn't a chance with Kassie and he's not moping about it."

"Not a good example," Sirius replied, raising an eyebrow.

Peter nodded as Remus thought about what he had said. "Err--well, the point is that this isn't the end of the world. They'll break up and you can step in."

"You make that sound so easy," James retorted, getting up. He slung the door open and jammed his hands in his pockets. "I'm going to go hit my head against a stone wall."

"Good idea," Peter said. Sirius and Remus both gave him incredible looks. "You'll forget all about---"

James shut the door behind him and Remus put his wand away while Peter tried to figure out why he suddenly couldn't speak. Sirius threw himself down on his bed and buried his face in his pillow. Life was way too complicated and that's all there was to it.

**********

It turns out that James didn't bash his head open on any stone walls, though it wasn't for a lack in trying. Unfortunately his night time strolling found him approaching the Gryffindor tower just in time to see Tim Bloody Abbott (James' new nickname for the Hufflepuff) kiss Lily on the cheek and her pleasantly flushed face that was a result of said kiss. Knowing that cursing the idiot wasn't an option (especially after his narrow escape from Bellatrix earlier in the day) James turned around and headed back towards the main part of the castle.

After a few weeks, James noted that night time strolls weren't helping him to find his 'inner animal'. The only thing it managed to do was bring up a lot of questions that he had been ignoring for quite some time now. Like why he felt the need to badly hex Tim Abbott just for breathing. He consoled himself with the thought that he was just looking out for Lily, as her friend. But since it's pretty much impossible to lie to yourself, the truth was lurking under the surface and decided to make itself known shortly after seeing Lily and Tim together.

So maybe he was a bit jealous. Wait, no lying to yourself. A lot jealous, then. And while he was on this soul searching mission, it occurred to him that he had felt this way towards Lily for a while. This way, being something more than friends. At first he was pretty sure it was good friend affection, and nothing more. That was until he realized that Sirius was a good friend, and he hadn't thought about snogging him lately. That thought about set him straight (and nearly made him sick) on what it was he was feeling for Lily. Something more than friends.

But this revelation didn't help matters any, which brought him back to square one. Lily was seeing someone else. A Hufflepuff, no less. Not that James had anything against Hufflepuffs, until about three weeks ago, anyway. Yes, three weeks had passed and yet Lily hadn't dumped Tim yet. And so it was impossible to heed Remus' advice on moving in. And what was even worse was that James was pretty sure that Lily only felt friendship towards him, which ruled out his "moving in" plans.

On a lighter front Bellatrix Black and her three friends that had confronted Kassie that day had been banned from all Hogsmeade visits for the rest of the school year, and, in all, had cost Slytherin house two hundred and fifty points. Which pretty much knocked them out of the running for the house cup, even if they managed to do a lot of brown nosing between now and the end of the year.

And as November rushed headlong into December, James found himself looking forward to the next Hogsmeade trip more than anything. He had toyed with the idea of getting insanely pissed, but it would be his luck that he would run straight into McGonagall in such a state and would find himself in more trouble than even Sirius' "puppy eye" look could get him out of. But nevertheless on the second Saturday of December, only a week before they left for Christmas holidays, James happily marched down the path towards Hogsmeade with his three best friends in tow. Snow lay on the ground everywhere, making the wizarding community look very festive as the students did their shopping.

"I've decided what I'm going to do about my problem," James suddenly announced as the foursome walked down High Street, looking in the shop windows. Sirius raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He had been complaining loudly about the state James had been in since Lily had started dating Tim Abbott, but this three hundred and sixty degree turn made him long for James to shut up. Tim had asked Lily to go with him to Hogsmeade that day and that had put James in a right state. But for whatever reasoning he had, today James had woken up in a chipper mood and the three boys were wondering if he had stopped for breath yet.

"And what would that be?" Remus asked, since it looked like no one else was going to and James was going to explode if he didn't tell.

James looked around as if making sure he wasn't going to be overheard and leaned towards his friends. "I'm going to prank Mr. Blond Hufflepuff."

Sirius gave a slight start. James had talked about cursing, killing and mauling the clueless Hufflepuff. But he had yet to say he was going to prank him. Without meaning to, Sirius grinned. After all, since James had been in this mood of his, pranks had been in short supply. No matter who it was directed at, Sirius was all for it. "What are we doing?" he asked eagerly.

"Heading to Zonko's for supplies," James said matter of factly, walking away. Sirius followed eagerly, and Remus, looking slightly alarmed at this sudden plan, tailed along behind Peter who was anxiously asking questions one after another.

*************

The Three Broomsticks was rather famous. The large pub, located in the only all wizarding community in Britain, usually had a pretty large clientele. From the rich and powerful wizards to the school kids that crowded it on certain Saturdays from the school. And Madam Rosmerta enjoyed her job, but none more so than when the students came in. They were always full of laughter, jokes and happiness that even Voldemort couldn't squash.

"Three butter beers, please," came a voice from Rosmerta's left. Even though she had been lost in thought, staring at all the students that crowded her pub, her wand flicked automatically and three butter beers came zooming towards the bar and slid across into a pair of male hands. "Three sickles," Rosmerta said, smiling. The blond boy in front of her flushed a bit and started digging in his robe pockets. There was a very pretty red head standing next to him, eyeing him as his face turned a bright red.

Suddenly a black haired girl behind them slapped her palm on the counter, leaving three sickles behind. The blonde opened his mouth, but the black haired girl shook her head sternly. "You get the next round, if not we'll be here all day while you goggle at Madam Rosmerta."

Rosmerta laughed as the red head hit the black haired girl on the arm. "Kassie!" she hissed. "That wasn't very nice!" By this point the blonde haired boy's face was so red that he resembled a tomato. "Tim wasn't goggling."

Kassie shrugged. "Truth hurts. Come on, then." As the three of them walked away and towards a booth, Rosmerta shook her head and gave her attention to another customer in front of her. Across the pub, Lily was having a hard time containing her laughter. Because she knew, as well as Kassie did, that Tim was goggling. But every boy in Hogwarts tended to do that, Lily didn't expect Tim to be any different. At least he didn't flirt with her as openly as James and Sirius did. They could put anyone to shame with their antics.

Kassie slid into the booth across from Lily and Tim and opened her butter beer, taking a drink and sighing. "Now that I'm properly warm again," she muttered pleasantly. "What do you two plan to do today?"

"I don't know," Lily replied since it looked like Tim wasn't going to. Sometimes Lily had the feeling that Tim wasn't sure what to make of Kassie just yet. So he usually stuck with staying extremely quiet when she was around. He was doing a marvellous job of pretending to be a wall flower at the moment. "We've already gone to a couple of shops. I have a few more presents to buy, then I'm done. It shouldn't take very long."

"Ooh! Presents? Do you have mine yet?" Kassie asked eagerly, reaching for the bag at Lily's feet.

"No," Lily replied evenly. "What makes you think I'd buy you anything?"

Kassie shrugged. "I don't know. It might have something to do with the huge box you have wrapped at my house. But I might be wrong."

"Ha, you're lying," Lily said, wagging her finger at Kassie.

"Ha, so are you. So what's in the bag?" the black haired witch replied eagerly, reaching once more for the bag at Lily's feet.

"Nothing you need to see," Lily told her, sliding out of the booth. Tim had finished his butter beer a few minutes before and was looking slightly bored. Lily wasn't sure why she felt obligated to make sure he was having a good time, since he had asked her to Hogsmeade. But she did. Even though she would really like to finish her shopping with Kassie. But Lily knew she couldn't invite Kassie to go with them, it would be rude. And since Tim didn't talk when her best friend was around, it would most likely ruin the rest of the day for him. It was moments like this that Lily wished she was dating a wizard that got on with her friends instead of turning mute when they were around. Merlin forbid they came across The Marauders, Tim might not talk for the rest of the week.

Tim, taking his queue from Lily, stood as well and put his cloak back on. Lily gave Kassie a one armed hug. "I'll see you a bit later, ok?"

"Sure," Kassie replied. As Lily and Tim went out of the pub, Kassie stared at her empty butter beer bottle and tried to fight off the fact that she was extremely jealous of this Tim character. It seemed like he was always around. If it wasn't for the fact that she shared a dorm and house with Lily, Kassie wasn't even sure she would see her anymore. But that wasn't fair; perhaps she, Kassie, was just jealous because she didn't have a boyfriend.

She dismissed that thought as soon as it arrived. She could date, if she wanted to. Well, not a huge selection. Sirius Black, maybe. If that counted as selection. Especially since the object of her thoughts was currently sitting at the bar with James Potter, saying something that was making Madam Rosmerta's laughter float across the loud room like music. Sighing, Kassie brought the butter beer bottle to her lips once more, just to make sure there was nothing else in it. She sat it down and had turned to move out of the booth when suddenly there was the sound of another bottle hitting the tabletop. Kassie spun her head to see Remus Lupin standing beside the table, two butter beers in front of him.

"Remus," Kassie exhaled deeply. "You scared me."

"Sorry," Remus replied quietly. "Here." He pushed the butter beer towards Kassie, who looked at it as if she hadn't ever seen a bottle of drink properly before. "You looked a bit lonely over here, and a bit empty," he added, throwing a glance down to the empty bottle she held in her hand.

"Oh. Thank you." Remus still stood beside the table while Kassie opened the bottle. "You can sit," Kassie said uncertainly since Remus was still standing. "It's not like I have a crowd of people over here waiting to talk to me, or anything. Or even one," she added under her breath.

Remus slid into the booth across from Kassie, opened his butter beer and took a sip of it. "We saw Lily and Tim when we came in."

Kassie shrugged. "They just left."

"So what are you doing for the rest of the day?" Remus asked conversationally, taking another drink.

Kassie eyed him for a moment. Why would he be over here, anyway? Didn't he have three other friends that he usually stayed attached to the hip of? Ugh, these dark thoughts were getting her nowhere. Kassie tried not to sound too extremely bitter when she replied; "Actually, I thought about heading back up to the castle. Do homework or something."

Remus didn't reply, only took another sip of his drink, eyeing Kassie over the rim of the bottle. He sat the bottle down, and leaned forward a bit. "You can always hang out with us," the werewolf suggested. "Well, I say we, but at the moment Peter, Sirius and James are testing out their flirting skills." He paused, thinking. "Well, Sirius and James are, at any rate."

Kassie cracked a smile at this. "And you aren't?"

Remus shrugged nonchalantly, grinning a bit. "I don't flirt," he replied simply.

"Well, since I've nothing better do to..."

"Let's not have to twist your arm," Remus laughed, finishing off his drink. "Come on, let's pull away the two Romeos from the bar."

It took Kassie a minute to realize what Remus said. She blinked and tilted her head. "Romeo? Isn't that from a Muggle story?"

Remus looked at Kassie, just to be sure she wasn't joking and a huge grin broke across his face. "A Shakespeare fan, are you?" Kassie nodded a bit, her face flushed. "I am, as well. But no, he was a wizard who made it big with the Muggles."

Kassie took a moment to register this information before laughing a bit. Remus put his arm around Kassie. "You need to read more." But she didn't hear his words. The second his skin touched her a chill ran down her spine and her head began aching a bit. Just then he pulled his arm away to slap Sirius on the back, and just as quickly as the feeling had come, it had gone. Kassie shook herself a bit. What had that meant?

*************

Timothy Nathaniel Abbott was having a horrible day. Probably the worst of his life, come to think about it. It had started out well enough; He had left his dormitory, had breakfast in the Great Hall with Lily, walked Lily to her first class (Care of Magical Creatures) and from that moment on it had been horrible. His bag had ripped, so that he was late for Charms. Then his ink spilled onto his books. And currently he was sitting in Transfiguration, holding a broken quill. And not only that, it was the third quill he had broken today.

Indeed, today just wasn't his day.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Tim determinedly headed towards the Great Hall for lunch. The rest of the Hufflepuff fifth years had gone ahead of him, most likely because as soon as he had left Professor McGonagall's office his bag had split. Again. And it had taken him about five minutes to mend the bag and gather up his books.

"Hi Tim," Lily said, falling into step beside him as they entered the Great Hall.

"Hey," Tim replied dryly, causing the red head to look up at him inquiringly. They sat down at the Hufflepuff table and began to dish out food.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked, pulling out a book and working on some of her History of Magic homework that was due next class. She had got caught up talking to Kassie the previous night in their dorm and hadn't finished the essay on the Leprechaun invasion of 1813.

Tim shrugged and took a deep drink from his class of pumpkin juice and promptly spat it out, all over his food, the table, and Lily's homework. "Uck, sorry!" Tim blurted, wiping his mouth on his sleeve and reaching for his wand.

A couple of Hufflepuffs and a few of the Ravenclaws at the next table laughed. Ignoring them, Lily pulled her wand, shaking her head. "It's ok," she said, cleaning up the mess with a wave of her wand. "Is there something wrong with it?"

"Yeah," Tim spat a bit, reaching for a glass of water. "It's bitter."

Lily testily put her glass to her lips, but the pumpkin juice was as sweet as ever. She shrugged. "Mine is fine."

Tim pushed his glass out of the way and made to tuck in. As he ate, he watched Lily do her homework and seriously considered heading back to his dorm and sleeping away the rest of the day. If he got up tomorrow morning and tried this again, perhaps it would be better. Obviously it wasn't meant for him to do anything right today. He busied himself with eating since Lily wasn't making for good company while working on her essay. His eyes landed on the Gryffindor table, and noticed that Peter Pettigrew seemed to be watching him. As soon as he looked again, though, he wondered if he had imagined it. Peter was deep in conversation with Sirius Black, next to him. Shrugging it off, Tim helped himself to some pudding. He put a bite in his mouth and promptly spat it out, this time a bit of it happened to land on Lily's face.

Lily gave him a look that clearly said she thought he was doing this on purpose. "What happened that time?" she asked, not nearly as sweetly as she had a moment ago when it had only been pumpkin juice, and not her face that received the brunt of it.

"It tastes like... I don't know. Mud?" Again he reached for his wand, but Lily had already cleaned most of the mess and wiped her face with a towel, eyeing him strangely. "Look, I'm really sorry," Tim apologized. "I've had the worst day. It's like there is someone cursing me at every turn. My bag split twice, my ink spilled onto my books, my quills broke. All of them," he added. The more he talked the more Lily's eyes seem to narrow. "What?" he asked.

"I'll be right back." And without a word of explanation, Lily got up and headed towards the Gryffindor table. As soon as she reached the end where the Marauders were sitting, all four of them fell quiet. "Hi," she greeted them sweetly, squeezing in next to Sirius.

"Hi Lily," James replied automatically. It would take someone who knew him to realize that his eyes had shifted just slightly.

Remus waved his wand and dried the roll of parchment he had been working on. "Did you finish the essay for Binns, Lily?" Remus asked. Lily knew that trying to talk to Remus was no good. No matter what anyone said, Remus could lie with such a straight face that she had no doubt he could fool even the Headmaster. The same could be said for Sirius; when he was really trying to lie..

She moved her gaze to Peter as she answered Remus. "No, actually. Tim accidentally spat his pudding and his pumpkin juice on it. In fact, he's had a rather bad day. Quills breaking, ink bottles busting, bag splitting..." Either Peter was clueless as to what she was hinting at, or was really good at playing dumb. Or both, she amended.

James, however, looked disgusted. "He must like you a lot, then," he said, not looking up from his plate that had suddenly become very interesting. Lily eyed him while he pushed his spoon around in his pudding. "I couldn't imagine spitting my food out at my girlfriend." His last word seemed strained and slightly bitter. But it wasn't his words that caught Lily's attention, it was the way Peter had suddenly snorted into his own pudding, sending small bits of it flying at Remus.

"I didn't find it so funny," Lily replied evenly. She stood up, and then leaned over the table. "And the four of you won't think it's too funny if you are behind it." And with those parting words she left the table. Just as she stalked up to the Hufflepuff table and rejoined Tim, Kassie slid into the seat next to Remus and grabbed a chip from his plate. "Problems, gentlemen?"

"Purely suicidal," James replied.

"Or homicidal," Sirius corrected. James nodded.

"I suggest you're a little more careful with your pranks. You didn't have to use them all in one day."

"Why would you think we had anything to do with Mr. Blond Hufflepuffs' problems?" James spat darkly.

Kassie rolled her eyes. "Please. You can't be serious."

"Try me," Sirius replied dryly.

"You know what I mean," she retorted, slapping Sirius on the shoulder. "That was trade mark Marauder if I've ever seen it. What I don't understand, though, is why you don't you do something that will make him look like an idiot in front of Lily." James' head lifted up a bit and looked at the dark haired witch as if seeing her for the first time. "You know, something that will humiliate him."

"Why are you suggesting this?" Sirius asked suddenly, looking at her with a frown.

Kassie shrugged and got up, taking another chip, this time from Sirius' plate. "Only because I talked to Lily last night and I'm convinced she is over this guy. Only she doesn't have the heart to break it off."

"How will us humiliating him help Lily break it off?" James asked, perhaps a bit too eagerly. Sirius kicked him under the table, but if James had noticed, he didn't show it.

"I don't know. But it seemed like a good idea." And with that Kassie walked off. Sirius watched her go, a grin lighting up his features. "We should make her a Marauder."

There was no reply, but suddenly Sirius found himself sitting at the Gryffindor table alone.

*********

"I want three feet of parchment for this essay and not an inch shorter!"

As the bell rang across the school grounds, Lily slowly began stuffing all of her belongings in her bag haphazardly, blowing out a frustrated sigh that caused her fringe to fly up away from her forehead. It was Thursday, the next to last day before the Chritmas Holiday, and McGonagall was assigning homework for the holiday. And not just homework, but three feet of parchment! It wasn't exactly how Lily wanted to spend her time away from school. Mentally, she was calclulating how long this essay would take, and see if she wanted to try to do it before leaving, or have it as an excuse to get away from Petunia while at home.

Outside of the transfiguration classroom Kassie was waiting for her, looking a bit impatient. Saying nothing, Lily fell in step beside her as they headed up to their dorms. "What's the rush?" Lily finally asked when Kassie nearly plowed into two second years on the way up the steps.

"Hungry," Kassie replied vaguely and sprinted up the final steps to the portriat of the Fat Lady. "Wittlesnap!" Kassie said, tapping her foot eagerly as the Fat Lady swung open. They climbed into the Common room and hurried upstairs to deposit their bags. In near record time they came back down the seven flights of stairs and into the Great Hall where dinner was just begining.

Lily looked around for a moment, didn't see Tim anywhere and followed Kassie to the Gryffindor table. As she sat next to Kassie, Alexis Wells looked up from her plate and blinked. "Hey Lily, didn't expect to see you over here eating with us."

Lily, not sure what to say to that statement, decided to say nothing and instead began dishing out food. Soon enough the room was full of students from every year, talking and laughing and discussing their plans for the holidays. But Lily didn't feel like discussing her plans. Though she had intended to stay at school for Christmas, her mother had said (in not so many words) that she would like her home and so home Lily would go. Though to say she wasn't looking forward to the trip was like saying that Sirius Black was a complete and utter angel. It was an outright lie.

"My mother's family is coming in from Ireland, and so...." Without meaning to, Lily blocked out Madison's voice as she continued on about her plans for Christmas. It seemed everyone had a nearly functional family to go home to. Kassie had her Aunt and siblings, James and Sirius had James' family, Peter had his Mum, Remus had... she blinked. Who did Remus have? And it occurred to her that self pity would get her nowhere. At least she still had parents to go home to.

Just about the time she decided to come out of her thoughts and join the conversation, Morgana arrived and landed so near her glass of pumpkin juice that she nearly knocked it over. Lily blinked, looked at her owl like she was crazy and blinked again. "It's an owl, Lily," Kassie explained slowly, as if to a child. "Delivers post. Probably your post, since she belongs to you."

"Ha, ha," Lily muttered. "I know what it is. But I sent her home, what is she doing here?"

"Delivering a letter, it would seem," Kassie retorted as Morgana held her leg out. She looked rather impatient and as soon as Lily pulled the letter off, she took a drink out of Lily's pumpkin juice and then took flight once more. Lily opened the unaddressed envelope and pulled out a single piece of notebook paper. What she read inside made her insides go numb.

--End Chapter 28.