Lily Evans: A History

Chapter 33 - Wizards verus Witches
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"Ouch!"

"Shhh!"

"You stood on my foot!"

"I'm going to stick my foot up your--"

"Shush!"

"You shush!"

"Sirius!"

"James!"

"This thing isn't sound proof, you know!"

"Then stop talking!"

"Shhh!"

"Someone's coming!"

The shadow just to the left of the staircase leading to the girls dormitories in the Gryffindor common room came to a sudden quiet halt as footsteps rushed down the stone steps. Four boys peered out from behind an invisibility cloak as two sixth year Gryffindor girls came down the stairs, crossed the room and left through the portrait hole. For a moment no-one said anything, and then very suddenly Sirius shoved Peter and he went flailing out from under the cloak and landed hard on the stone floor.

"Sirius!"

"You were standing on my foot!"

Peter, grumbling, got up and glared at the seemingly empty space. And then, quite suddenly, Sirius came flying out from under the cloak, slammed into Peter, and both boys fell to the floor with an unpleasant, and painful sounding, thump!

"Remus!" Sirius hissed angrily, trying to get up and digging his elbow into Peter's stomach. "What the bloody--"

"You were standing on my foot!" Remus' voice growled, again from the seemingly empty space next to the girl's staircase.

James sighed, rubbing his thumb and forefinger along the bridge of his nose. He readjusted his round rimmed glasses and sighed again. "I--"

Remus stuck his hand over James' mouth. "Someone’s coming," he hissed. On the floor next to them, Sirius and Peter crawled very quickly (not to mention loudly) under the nearest table. Just then the faint sound of giggling came from the girl's staircase.

"I thought it was rather funny," Lily was saying. As she came into view, she pushed a stray piece of auburn hair from her face. Under the invisibility cloak James swallowed hard. "Did you see--"

Next to her, Kassie stuck her hand out to hush Lily, staring into the common room hard. As the two friends had descended the staircase, Kassie had had a fleeting vision of Sirius crawling around on the floor. As she stepped off the bottom most step, her gaze travelled across the floor and stopped at the table nearest them. If you studied the shadows hard enough you got a perfect view of what appeared to be Sirius Black's buttocks.

Kassie pointed, raising her eyebrows at the sight. Lily, who had been two steps behind her, stumbled to a halt and slapped her hand over her mouth just in time to stop a giggle from escaping. Kassie, her finger over her lips to keep Lily quiet, came up behind Sirius and pointed her wand to his backside.

Within seconds Sirius shot out from under the table, yelping and slapping his backside. Kassie and Lily broke out in laughter, Lily doubled over as she gasped for air. For several amusing moments, Sirius ran around the room, pointing his wand at his backside, trying to reverse the heating charm. After several failed attempts, he managed it. Rubbing his sore bottom, Sirius walked as gracefully as he could manage and turned to face his attacker. Five feet, four inches tall (and therefore five good inches shorter than Sirius) Kassandra Phillips stood, her wand still pointed at him, a smirk on her face that spoke volumes. Beside her, Lily was holding her sides trying to keep her laughter in.

"I'd like to know what that was for," Sirius said in his best haughty voice.

"Eavesdropping," Kassie replied immediately.

"That's it?"

Kassie twirled her wand between her fingers for a moment, tilting her head to the side in apparent thought. She pointed her wand at him for a second before tucking it back in her belt. "Well, it's more the fact that you are a prat, but since you wanted a reason..." Her voice trailed off in a small giggle before she turned foot and headed towards the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Don't be late for class, we'd hate for you to be accused of anything."

Her parting words still ringing in Sirius' ears, he watched with his mouth slightly open as she left the room. As soon as the portrait closed behind the two witches, James jerked the invisibility cloak off Remus and himself. No one spoke for a moment, and then, very dramatically, Sirius fell to his knees. "What a witch..."

"You, mate, are pathetic," James said with as much seriousness as he could muster. Tucking his cloak into his bag, he clipped Sirius round the ear as he passed.

The four boys remained lost in their own thoughts as they descended the stairs. As they reached the bottom, Remus finally broke the silence, saying what was most likely on all of their minds. "So, what did our little stunt teach us?"

"That Kassie is lethal with heating charms?" Sirius replied blankly, rubbing his bottom gingerly.

"That Sirius still screams like a girl?" Peter added, ducking Sirius' fist that swung out at him.

James readjusted his bag on his shoulder so that he could push the side door open. "We'll just have to figure out another way to find out if they were behind it, since eavesdropping doesn't seem to be something we can handle."

Care of Magical Creatures had already begun when they arrived. Professor Kettleburn raised an eyebrow at the four boys when they joined the class, but said nothing. James tried several times to catch Lily's eye, but she was either ignoring him very well, or had no idea he was trying to get her attention. Foregoing attempts to charm information from Lily, James decided that he should most likely be paying attention. The fire crabs they were studying looked like they could hurt if he didn't know what he was doing.

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

Care of Magical Creatures class was torture that day, as the fire crabs were especially cranky from being poked and prodded at by the previous class. Several of the Gryffindor fourth years were nursing minor burns and everyone else was complaining about narrow escapes of the same fate.

After several failed attempts at trying to get the girls to confess to switching crests on the school robes, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter spent the fifteen minutes before lunch trying everything they could think of to undo the switching spell so that by the time Professor McGonagall caught up with them, the crests were no longer switched. In fact, there weren't any house crests on the students’ robes at all.

"This isn't what I had in mind, gentlemen," McGonagall pointed out, glaring at each Marauder in turn.

Sirius cleared his throat. "It's not exactly what we had in mind, either, Professor."

"There’s still no way you'll believe we didn't do this, right?" Remus asked cautiously, ducking his head as if expecting to be physically struck by the glare their Head of House turned his way. "Never mind..." he muttered under his breath.

"Detention, every night this week. In the infirmary."

"What!"

"But, Professor--"

"No buts, gentlemen. It will be two weeks’ worth, with me, if I see another prank like this pulled again this year."

With those departing words, McGonagall turned on her heel and walked back to the staff table. Grumbling under his breath, Sirius turned to go back to the Gryffindor table just in time to see Kassie watching him, an oddly satisfying look on her face.

Instead of going to the table, Sirius walked past it and into the entry hall beyond. James, Remus and Peter followed him, not really surprised when he started into a fully-fledged rant as soon as he passed through the Great Hall's doors. "That's it! We are going to get them back, and we are going to get them back good!"

"Mate, we don't even know if they are behind--" Remus began, but was cut off by Sirius waving his hand in the air as if shooing away flies.

"I know they did, and that's all the proof I need. This means war."

Remus, James and Peter exchanged uneasy glances. When Sirius sounded like this, it could only mean bad things for someone. And somehow all three friends knew that it wouldn't be for the intended.

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

"Your end of year exams will take place next week. Please be sure to note that you will need to know all of the spells and dark creatures we have worked with this year, as well as a review of past ones. This is your last exam before O.W.L.s, I want to see everyone at their best," said Professor Kittle. His cane clinked on the floor as he made his way back to his desk and sat down. The bell rang and the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw fourth years gathered their books and headed out of the room. Usually the Marauders were the first to hit the door, after all, staying in class longer than necessary could ruin their reputation. But today it didn't look like they were ever going to get to leave. Just as they stood up, the bottom of Peter's bag ripped and all of his books, quills, ink and parchment went flying everywhere. Groaning, James, Sirius and Remus stayed to help him pick his stuff up.

When they arrived at Potions nearly five minutes late, it hadn't occurred to them at this point to suspect something. Peter's bag tore constantly; today's occurrence was nothing out of the ordinary. They took tables at the back of the room, hastily pulled out their Potion ingredients and began taking notes from the board.

Professor McClure paced back and forth in front of the classroom, an open book floating before her. "When the Potion is complete, it should be thick and black. If, for some reason it won't thicken, you may add two pinches of deff weed and stir counter clockwise for five additional minutes. If that doesn't thicken it up, I suggest you don't bother handing it in. At the end of class we will test the potion on some plants I borrowed from Professor Sprout. Any questions?"

No one said a word, so Professor McClure closed her book with a flick of her wand and sent it over to rest on her desk. The class began filling their cauldrons with different ingredients for the Plant Growing Potion. By the end of class, nearly everyone had finished when Professor McClure rang a small bell on the edge of her desk signalling everyone to ladle their potion into vials, label it, and hand it in.

One by one the class watched as Professor McClure dropped small amounts of the potion on a small plant and it nearly doubled in size almost immediately. When she got to Alexis and Madison's potion, however, their plant shrunk and withered up. "I'm assuming you meant for that to happen?" she asked them shrewdly, throwing the vial in the trash. "I want an essay on how to properly brew this potion, two feet, to be handed in to me on Monday."

Snape was up next, and as just about anyone in the class could have predicted, his plant not only grew, but it quadrupled in size. There was only a small amount of satisfaction on his face, however, and that left when Bellatrix Black's potion produced the same effect.

Kathleen and Gabrielle were up next, but Lily couldn't focus on what their potion was doing because she happened to be close enough to hear an argument at the back of the room. Taking a leisurely step back, she glanced sideways just in time to see Snape bearing over Bellatrix. "I know you didn't produce that potion," he snapped under his breath, throwing death glares at Bellatrix.

The black haired witch only smiled at him, but it wasn't a smile that was meant for any kind of innocence. Instead it made her look downright evil. "Come now, surely you don't mind helping out a fellow classmate."

Snape started to say something when he noticed Lily watching them. Narrowing his eyes, he glared at her and left the room, his school robes billowing out behind him as he went. Bellatrix rolled her eyes, gathered up the rest of her books and followed. Hastily Lily turned back to the front of the class just as McClure poured a small drop of her and Kassie's potion on a plant.

At first nothing happened and Lily felt her insides twist. She wasn't what even she would call good at potions, she did well to pass this class at all. But after working so hard on that potion, and doing everything by the book, ounce by ounce, if this didn't work she was sure she would loose all faith in her potions abilities.

Kassie sent her a sideways glance just as the plant in front of them doubled, tripled, and then quadrupled in size, turned bright pink and then blew up. Lily and Kassie both blanched, but managed to duck under the table and avoid flying twigs, stems and leaves. Under their table, they looked at each other, completely confused. "What do you suppose we did wrong?" Lily asked.

Kassie opened her mouth to reply that she hadn't the first clue, when suddenly another voice answered for her. "I would say it had something to do with adding lake water instead of distilled," James said helpfully. Both Kassie and Lily nearly fell over in surprise.

"Or, it could have been the baking powder, as opposed to crushed root of tuff weed," Sirius added.

"You little--" Kassie began, but didn't get the chance to finish. At that moment Lily tugged her arm and the two girls approached the front of the dungeon to face their Professor, knowing full well that blaming the Marauders wasn't an option.

"I'm not going to ask," Professor McClure snapped, moving her attention from the bright pieces of pink leaves lying on the floor to Kassie and Lily. "You are to hand in an essay to me, first thing on Monday morning, detailing how to properly brew this potion and--" She pounded her last words in so that Lily felt like she was screaming them, "All it's uses. Four feet, Monday morning. You may leave."

Kassie muttered angrily, throwing things in her bag left and right. Lily, however, was more concerned with concentrating on the front of the room where James and Sirius' potion was being tested next. As soon as she and Kassie gathered their belongings, they went to the back of the classroom, but didn't leave. Instead they leant against the back wall, crossed their arms, and watched what was about to unveil.

Seconds before McClure dropped the first spot of their potion on the plant, James happened a glance back to Lily and Kassie and felt his stomach turn over. The look on their faces was that of anticipation, and he turned around only just in time to watch the show.

Where once a tomato plant had been, there was now a ten foot tall plant that was currently shooting off sparks in several directions. With identical smirks of satisfaction on their faces, Kassie and Lily waved goodbye to Sirius and James and left the room.

"That was--was--" Kassie giggled, struggling for the proper wording.

"Bloody brilliant, if I do say so myself," Lily supplied, grinning so wide that her jaw was starting to ache. "What perfect payback. I think it's almost worth doing that essay just to see the looks on their faces when they realized that they weren't the only one messing up potions today."

"Indeed."

Kassie and Lily both stopped dead and swallowed. The voice behind them was most definitely not one of their fellow Gryffindors congratulating them on a well pulled prank. In fact, it didn't sound like a Gryffindor at all. More like a Slytherin. And at the moment, Lily would have settled for Bellatrix Black rather than the person standing behind her.

At the same moment both Kassie and Lily sighed, then turned to face Professor McClure. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was tapping her foot. Just behind her, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were grinning. "Ladies, and gentlemen, I believe we have some things to discuss."

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

Lily Evans had probably not ached this much before in her life, ever. There were muscles in her legs screaming in protest that she hadn't even known existed. Her arms felt as if they would collapse if she so much as lifted a quill, and her head was pounding unpleasantly.

The good thing?

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all in the same boat she was. Well, the same detention, anyway. It seemed that Professor McClure was just as smart as Lily had thought her to be on the first day they had been in her class. While dishing out detention to Kassie and Lily for the destruction of James and Sirius' potion, she also handed out the same sentence to the Marauders. The four of them, at once, started to protest, and McClure made it very clear that she wasn't born last night, knew that they were behind the pink plant, and that they would do the detention and essay.

All six of them had spent the five nights after that scrubbing every dungeon class room, used and unused, in the castle. Without magic. There were more than they cared to count. Her back screaming in protest, Lily straightened up and threw her rag down into a bucket of black, once soapy, water. Kassie was sitting against the far wall, her eyes closed and her right hand rubbing the muscles in her lower back. Lily glanced around the room to see if they were finished yet. James was finishing up his section, Remus was laying flat on the stone floor, looking for all the world as if he were dead, Peter was mopping his section with his eyes closed and Sirius was staring at Kassie.

Sighing loud and long, Lily flopped down on the floor next to Kassie and rubbed her palms over her face. "How about a truce?" she asked suddenly, breaking everyone out of their tired induced stupor. "All's fair, we're even, blah blah. What do you think?"

"I think we had to serve detention in the infirmary for something you two did," James retorted.

"Call it payback for everything you've ever done to us." Lily rolled her eyes, spreading her hands wide. "Look, you got us. We got you. I have to study for exams and I can't do it spending every night scrubbing classrooms. Truce or not?"

"I'm in," Remus said, sitting up, his face contorted in a painful expression as he did so. "I'd say we're pretty even."

Peter dropped his mop, the sound reverberating off the floor and jerking him awake. "What?"

"Truce?" said Lily.

"Ok," Peter obliged and slumped down on the floor and fell back asleep.

"James?" Lily asked in her sweetest voice. He was staring at her as if she had grown three heads, but when she spoke he grinned slightly. "If Sirius does."

"Well, I'm not," Sirius replied haltingly, standing up and dusting himself off in vain. The dust and dirt that had once been on the dungeon floor and walls was there to stay. Everyone stared at him in shock, but he seemed not to care. "I'm off to bed."

He stared at Kassie as he left, and as soon as the dungeon door slammed shut behind him, Kassie buried her face in her arms. Lily felt her temper rising as fast as if someone had lit her on fire. She yanked her wand out of her belt and started out the door, but was caught by Remus before she made it. "Let me go."

"Lily, I like you and all, but he's my best mate. I can't let you go jinxing him."

"Sure you can," Lily replied, her voice nothing but a growl. "Just let go and watch me."

"He'll get over it," said James, though rather unconvincingly. He shifted his weight from foot to foot as the uncomfortable silence grew. "Sirius is a little hurt right now, that's all. He'll come around." He glanced at Kassie uneasily, and when she didn't respond, he sighed. "Ok, ok. Kassie, what you said about his family got to him because it's the truth. His family is mostly that way, and he doesn't want anything to do with the lot of them because of it. But I know he'll come around."

Kassie looked up, and surprisingly there was no tear tracks on her face. Only a quiet determination. She got up, walked past everyone, jerked the dungeon door open and said, "Don't follow me," on her way out.

Lily watched her go before jerking her arm out of Remus' grip. He gave her a slightly apologetic look before shrugging. "Would you have let me go after Kassie if the tables had been turned?"

"Yes," Lily replied at once. "Because she would have beaten you."

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

By the time Kassie caught up to Sirius, he was in the Gryffindor Common room and had his foot on the first step to the boys dorms. When the portrait hole opened, he didn't turn around, only said, "Go away James."

"It's not James," Kassie replied in a voice that didn't sound like her own. If what she was feeling on the inside was to be reflected in her voice, it would probably be cracking and shaking. But instead her voice came out strong, if only a little low.

"I want to talk to you even less," Sirius shot back and took another step up.

"But I want to talk to you," Kassie insisted. She quickly crossed the room and reached out to touch Sirius' hand. He jerked it away from her, but she wouldn't give up so easily. Not this time. "Sirius, we need to talk. I've apologized and apologized for what I said. I need you to forgive me."

"Ok, you're forgiven, so go away," Sirius said, turning, but still not looking directly at her. The fact was that he knew if he looked in her eyes that he might forget his anger. And at the moment he wanted to keep it strong.

"Sirius, please." Kassie tried to catch his gaze, but it was no use. Instead she settled for talking to the side of his face. "I know what I said I shouldn't have. I was angry, though, and you know that sometimes you say things you don't mean to when you're angry."

No response. Kassie gave a frustrated sigh. "Sirius, please don't stay angry at me. I'm really sorry."

"I don't care," Sirius spat out, finally turning to face her. His eyes were blank and his demeanour cold. "Saying I'm sorry doesn't take it back, Kassie."

Despite her best attempts to keep it at bay, Kassie felt her anger and temper rise within her chest. Jerking herself away from him, she backed up, glaring. "I don't want your sarcasm. I want you to forgive me."

"I don't know what the big deal is, anyway!" Sirius suddenly flared, coming down the steps and advancing towards Kassie. "You come for forgiveness, I give it to you, and then you throw it in my face. Make up your mind, woman!"

"You want to know what the big deal is?" Kassie spat back, her hands on her hips and her eyes alight with anger. "I'll tell you, then. I've had it up to my ears with arguing with you! You walk around, throwing snide little remarks to me, knowing they hurt. Well I'll tell you right now, Sirius Black, you are not all that high and mighty!" Kassie took a step towards Sirius, who refused to back off an inch. "I know all about you. James told me, Sirius!"

The tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. Sirius' face turned an interesting colour of red and his fists clinched at his sides. Staring straight into Kassie's angry eyes, he growled in his throat. "That's just great. Just great. Some best friend I have. So he told you all about how I've been in love with you for years, did he? And I guess now you want to laugh in my face ab--"

Kassie's face had dropped the anger and took on the most surprised look Sirius could have ever claimed seeing on another person. Her jaw dropped, hanging slackly and she inhaled sharply. Sirius snapped his mouth shut. For what seemed an eternity, neither spoke. Then, finally, Kassie shut her mouth. "That's not what James told me."

"I gathered that much," Sirius croaked out. Mentally he was kicking himself very hard in the backside, but physically he still hadn't managed to move an inch other than push those four words out. He watched the witch in front of him with a fascinated fear as she blinked at him, staring at him with an intensity that made him want to do one of two things: Run or kiss her. Or both, he amended. Did she have to be so damned attractive? Especially when she was angry. Sirius had always loved making her angry so she would glare at him like she had been doing a moment ago.

"Perhaps we should, eh, talk about that, instead?" Kassie said weakly, feeling the urge to reach behind her for something to sit on before she fell down.

"I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you," Sirius croaked out. After finally finding the use of his legs again, he managed to slump into a near-by sofa and scrub the palms of his hands over his face roughly.

Kassie half sat and half fell into the seat beside him and turned sideways to look at him. "Sirius, I really am sorry about what I said."

"I know," Sirius muttered, trying to look anywhere but at her. It wasn't working. She was looking directly at him, with deep violet eyes that somehow made him want to stop breathing and yet breathe harder all at the same time. The feelings were getting so confused that if someone had come along at that precise moment and punched him in the gut, he doubted he would have known. The silence stretched for what seemed an eternity, but couldn't have been longer than thirty seconds at the most. Finally, seeing no other way out of the mess he had gotten himself into (actually, he would blame this on James when the first opportunity presented itself) Sirius Black did something he almost never did. Faced it head on.

"So, I guess, since you know now..." he blurted out, trying to hold the eye contact that she seemed to be struggling to break now. "And it looks like you're not going to forget unless I do a memory charm on you." Kassie moved as if going for her wand and Sirius threw his hands up. "I'm not going to! I was... just saying... Anyway. Well, what do you think?"

"Think?" Kassie repeated as if he were speaking a different language.

Sirius ran his hand through his hair in frustration before looking back up at her. "I mean--about us? Well, if there is an us, that is. I want, well, I don't know. I--" While Sirius stumbled around for the right words, which for once in his life seem to be beyond him, Kassie felt a smile tug at her lips.

"Sirius?"

"Eh?"

"Are you asking me out?"

There were many firsts happening today in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry today. And this happened to be one of them. For the first time in his life Sirius found himself blushing. His cheeks flushed with pink, which caused Kassie to giggle slightly while Sirius tried his best to overcome the heat in his face. "If I was," he finally managed, cursing himself inwardly for his behaviour. The number of times in his head he had asked Kassie out, this hadn't exactly been how it had played out. So much for plans. "What would you say?"

Kassie tilted her head a bit, studying Sirius closely. The clock on the mantel chimed the hour, causing both of them to jump slightly. Still the silence stretched, Sirius' heart pounding so hard in his chest he knew that Kassie could hear it. Finally she sighed and broke eye contact with him. Sirius felt his stomach jump somewhere up around his Adam's apple. "I don't know. I honestly never thought of you, not in that way, I mean."

Sirius knew for a fact that none of his daydreams of asking Kassie out had ended like this. They usually found the two of them snogging on the sofa until the early hours of the morning. But the last part was probably male hormones, he amended. "Oh, ok. I understand."

"No, Sirius, I don't mean--"

"It's ok, Kassie, I get it." Sirius stood up, trying to gather what little dignity he might have left after this conversation and take it, and himself, up to bed. "You don't have to explain."

"Sirius!" Kassie jumped up from the sofa, intent on following him, but by the time she made it to the stairs the door to his room was shutting. It felt like the door to her heart had just slammed, as well.

For a few minutes Kassie stared at the door, wondering if it would be worth the trouble to go pounding on it, waking every male Gryffindor in the tower up, just to explain to him what she meant. Suddenly, though, the sound of a door opening reached her ears. But Fate wasn't in her favour tonight, it was only the portrait hole and the voices of Lily, James, Remus and Peter drifted to her.

"Kassie? Everything ok?" Lily asked, stopping behind her and putting a hand on her best friend's shoulder. "Did he talk to you?"

"Yes," Kassie replied, not turning around. She side stepped to the girl's staircase and started up them. Lily threw a helpless look to James, Remus and Peter before bidding them good night and running up the stairs after Kassie.

By the time she got to their room, though, Kassie had jumped on her bed and closed the bed hangings. Lily sighed and went to get undressed. Kassie couldn't avoid her forever, and she didn't want to wake up the other four girls in the room.

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

Kassie finally did tell Lily about her conversation with Sirius. The girls were spending their last study free moments sitting on the side of the lake, enjoying the bright sunshine. They had spent the entire weekend studying, and had decided they deserved a much needed break before starting their end of year exams the next day. But after Kassie explained her dilemma with whether she should date Sirius or not, Lily suddenly felt that life was easier in the library studying Potions.

Kassie sighed and laid back on the grass, staring up at the fluffy white clouds that were floating lazily by. Lily, not sure what to say, decided to say nothing. But the question she had been dreading came tumbling out of Kassie's mouth no matter how many times Lily wished it away. "What do you think I should do?"

Lily gnawed on her bottom lip, looking around as if the answer would be written somewhere on the school grounds. Finally deciding it wasn't, she gave the best answer she could think of, knowing how Kassie would react. "I think you should do what you want. If you want to go out with him, then go out with him. If not, then tell him that you want to be friends and nothing more."

"You're so much help," Kassie said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Lily replied, grinning. Kassie rolled her eyes.

The conversation died then. If Kassie was still thinking about if she should go out with Sirius or not, she wasn't saying. In fact, she didn't say much of anything as the afternoon wore on. The most talking she did was to Hagrid, the groundskeeper, when they visited him for afternoon tea, but then the conversation revolved around their exams coming up the next day.

By the next morning Kassie looked like death warmed up. Lily supposed she hadn't slept much that night, because she had heard her tossing and turning about. Knowing Kassie as she did, she doubted the black haired witch would get much sleep at all until she decided one way or the other. In the mean time Lily and Alexis tugged her out of bed, practically shoved her in the shower, and threw her clothes in the bathroom after her. While the other four Gryffindor fourth year girls weren't exactly sure what was going on, they were all ready to help get Kassie through the exams.

When Kassie fell asleep in her plate at breakfast, Lily felt she could use all the help she could get.

Care of Magical Creatures couldn't have been better. Professor Kettleburn had laid out a walk-through exam where the students had to go to different stations, fill out questions about a creature at that station, and then move on to the next one. Lily kept a close eye on Kassie, and as far as she could see Kassie was doing well. As for herself, Lily found the exam ridiculously easy. She only hoped the rest turned out as well.

After lunch, the fourth year Gryffindor girls split up once more. Kassie, Lily and Madison headed towards the North Tower and Divination, while Kathleen and Alexis went to Muggle Studies with the Gryffindor boys. Gabrielle stayed in the Great Hall to study for the next day’s exams since she had a free period.

Lily didn't need her Seer ability to know that her Divination final would go horribly wrong. But if she could have used it to get a passing grade, she certainly would have tried. The class sat on the stone floor under the ceiling door, waiting for the silver ladder to appear and Professor Trelawney to call them up. Once more Lily wished her last name wasn't so near the front of the alphabet. When a whispering voice called down, "Lily Evans" the red-head felt like running away in the opposite direction.

Instead she managed to climb the silver ladder, only to find Trelawney sitting on a settee near the front of the room, a large crystal ball sitting on a table before her. "Approach."

Professor Trelawney had been strictly formal with Lily since she had expressed her true feelings about her visions. In fact, Lily could say with some certainty that this was the most the Professor had said to her since then. Chewing on her bottom lip nervously, Lily approached the crystal ball, sat down on the opposite side of the table and waited.

"Tell me what you see," Trelawney instructed.

Lily stared into the ball, throwing ideas around in her head about things she could make up to say. Nothing of any use was coming to her, and Trelawney seemed to be running short on patience. She clicked her tongue irritably and Lily rolled her eyes.

But when she looked back into the crystal, there was something. A house like the one she had seen somewhere before... but she couldn't place it. She drew closer, squinting. There were two people standing in the back garden, between them a small child was crawling through the grass. Lily squinted even more, her nose pressed against the crystal in a vain hope of seeing the image more clearly. A tall man with untidy black hair, with his back turned to Lily, scooped down and picked up a child. The same child that had been in her visions before...

"Well? What do you see?"

Lily snapped her head up, her heart jumping into her throat at the sound of Trelawney’s voice so close. Frantically Lily looked back into the crystal, but all she saw was white fog. Sighing, she glared up at her Professor. "There was a house, with two men standing in the back garden. One of them was holding a baby."

Trelawney jotted some notes down, set her quill aside and meet Lily's eyes squarely for the first time since Lily had insisted she wanted to drop the class. "Is that all?"

"Y-Yes," said Lily. She looked back into the crystal, wishing she could see more. The question of who this man and child was she kept having visions about was starting to worry her. Was it a family she was meant to save? If she kept losing the visions, then she wouldn't be able to.

Professor Trelawney stared at Lily for a moment, picked her quill up and marked a grade that made Lily's stomach drop. Visions or no, at that moment she hated the creepy old fraud. "I was telling the truth!"

"Ok, dear," Trelawney said, her voice sounding far more mistier than normal. "You may go."

Lily went down the ladder as fast as her legs would take her, picked up her bag that she had left with Kassie and stormed down the stairs. Kassie yelled after her, but Lily only replied that she would talk to her later.

Ten minutes later Lily found herself outside of Professor McGonagall's classroom. She knew that McGonagall had a free period at this time of day and she only hoped she was in her office. Determinedly she knocked on the door and waited.

"Come in."

Professor McGonagall was seated behind her desk, a stack of parchment in front of her, Anti-cheating quills beside her. Lily stepped uncertainly up to the desk, not at all sure that the idea that had seemed so good a few minutes ago would still hold up in front of her strict head of house. Reminding herself that McGonagall was a fair, yet strict woman, Lily pressed on. "Professor McGonagall, I would like to drop a subject."

McGonagall gently put her quill down, took off her square rimmed reading glasses and set them aside. "Which subject is that, Miss Evans?"

"Divination."

"Ah," said McGonagall, a look of dawning understanding on her features. "I see. Well, I won't hide from you that I have little respect for that area of magic and I can completely understand your desire to leave the class..."

Lily, whose heart had leapt, suddenly felt it plummet again. "But?"

"However, I'm afraid you can't. If you did so now, you would loose an O.W.L. I know that your grades are important to you. I would hate to see you loose an O.W.L. because of a, well, misunderstanding?"

Lily heard the question in her Professor's voice, but chose to ignore it. Instead she took to chewing on her bottom lip again, a habit she knew she would have to break. But not today. "What if I picked a different subject next year and studied really hard to get that O.W.L.?"

When McGonagall spoke, Lily could tell that she wanted to let Lily drop the class. But the fact was, it was out of her control. It didn't stop Lily from feeling very disappointed when it was confirmed. "I'm sorry, Miss Evans, but you cannot drop Divination next year. After O.W.L.s you will have to pick new subjects and you may drop it then. I'm sorry."

So that was it.

Feeling like she wanted to kick something really hard, Lily left the Transfiguration room just as the bell rang. Knowing she didn't have enough time to get all the way back up to the North Tower, she instead went on to the Common Room to meet up with Kassie again before dinner. When she got to the Gryffindor Common Room, Kassie was already waiting for her.

"How'd it go?"

"I'm going to die an early death, brought on by the fact that I could have Seen my future, but chose to close my inner eye," Kassie replied in a voice devoid of all feeling. She shook her head. "You?"

"I think I failed, which stinks, because I really saw something in that stupid crystal ball of hers. And she didn't believe me." Lily went on to explain about the vision of the man and baby again, but when they entered the Great Hall for dinner and Kassie's eyes fell on Sirius, Lily wasn't altogether sure her best friend was even listening to her anymore.

For his part, Sirius moved to the other end of the table and Kassie buried her head in her arms during the entire meal. At this rate Lily knew it was going to be a long rest of term.

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

The following days dragged by ruthlessly as Lily sat exam after exam. By Friday afternoon she was fairly sure she had done well in all the rest of her exams. Well, perhaps not as well in History of Magic, but then it was hard to stay awake during class, let alone during an exam.

With the exams behind them and nothing but free time and the promise of summer ahead, the school burst into a frenzy of activity. Happy students were spotted everywhere outside, enjoying the sun and the last few days with their friends before going home.

Lily, however, found that no matter how bright the sun was, she couldn't imagine what going home was going to be like. Her dread grew with each passing day. Not even her scores on her exams helped much (somehow she knew someone had tampered with her Divination grade). The night before the train would leave once more for King's Cross Station, Lily found herself seriously considering changing the bride's maid dress back to the way it had been. As soon as she mentioned this to Kassie, however, the black haired witch showed more liveliness than she had in days.

"No way!" Kassie all but yelled. "You are going to wear that dress, and be beautiful, no matter what! Petunia just wants to embarrass you." Kassie pulled the dress from Lily's grasp as if she were about to magic it back any moment. "In the long run Petunia will be thankful that you didn't stick out like a sore thumb. You'd ruin all the pictures if you were in that awful thing."

Kassie packed the dress back in Lily's trunk, locked it, and dragged Lily downstairs to the leaving feast.

Lily had had this feeling once before. The feeling that the more she wanted time to slow down, the faster it went. In no time at all everyone had finished dinner and dessert, Dumbledore had awarded the House Cup to Ravenclaw (Gryffindor second, Hufflepuff third, and Slytherin had came in fourth place because of all the points Bellatrix had lost at the beginning of the year), gave his end of year speech that included reminding students about not performing magic outside school, and sent everyone off to bed.

Kassie put on a good show of being all right for Lily's sake, even though Lily knew her to still be upset over her problems with Sirius. The six Gryffindor fourth year girls stayed up and talked through much of the night about their plans for the summer, trips, and dread over the following year's O.W.L.s. But Lily’s mind kept wandering back to the dress in her trunk. And what Petunia would do when she saw it.

It wasn't a happy thought.

--End Chapter 33.