Lily Evans: A History

Chapter 51 - Comprimises
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It seemed as if someone had put everything into slow motion. Lily stepped back as Kassie opened the door and revealed her aunt standing in the doorway. Wanda wore a slight look of surprise on her face as she stared through the door, almost as if she had not expected anyone to answer the door and certainly not so quickly. Then she stepped forward and Kassie crossed her arms over her chest, immediately assuming a stance that made her look primed for a fight. Lily could barely see Kacy standing behind her sister, looking anxious and nearly in tears.

"Where is she?" Wanda demanded.

"She's here," Kassie replied evenly. Standing next to Lily, Sirius shifted his weight uneasily, glancing back and forth between his girlfriend and the woman in the doorway.

"Well, she's coming home with me. Kacy, let's go." Wanda turned, looking for all the world as though she expected Kacy to come along quietly. But Lily knew better, and she had only met Kacy on a handful of occasions. When no one moved, Wanda turned. "Kacy, come on NOW."

"No," came a small voice from behind Kassie. Kacy nervously pushed her dark hair behind her ear and stepped forward so that she was beside her sister. Lily felt as though every nerve in her body was waiting to tense up. Kacy swallowed. "I'm going to school with Kassie."

"Kassandra is in enough trouble without adding you to her problems," Wanda said coldly, turning on her heel and not looking at Kassie. Sirius' eyes narrowed.

Lily could feel herself growing angry. She was talking to Kacy like she was nothing but a pawn to be played against Kassie. But if Lily was angry, and judging by the look on Sirius' face, he was angry, it was nothing compared to Kassie. Lily could almost hear Kassie's teeth grinding together even though she was more than halfway across the room. "Trouble, Aunt Wanda? Trouble? I'm in no trouble. I won't cause you an ounce of trouble if you'd just leave Sirius be. He hasn't done anything to you, or me, or anyone! You are just as prejudiced against him as-- as Voldemort is to muggle borns!"

Wanda's face turned bright red as she turned back around to face her niece, her fists clenched at her sides. "Your father was a muggle and look what it got him! KILLED!"

"SIRIUS ISN'T A MUGGLE!" Kassie bellowed. "And neither am I, or Kacy! And as a witch, I would expect you to understand. An-and, wait--" Kassie's arms dropped to her sides and she tilted her head slightly in apparent confusion. "I thought Daddy died in an accident with a tractor?"

All of the angry flush that had been residing in Wanda's cheeks drained so quickly she looked faint. Sirius and Lily glanced back and forth between Wanda and Kassie as if they were watching a tennis match. Kacy suddenly moved closer to Kassie, looking very white, but very interested in the turn of events. Wanda swallowed. "He did," she whispered, her voice cracking at the end. "What I meant was your mother, she fell in love--"

"Sirius is a pureblood, not that it matters. They won't be coming after him--"

"You're a half blood, Miss High and Mighty. And you put his life in danger just by walking next to him."

Kassie opened her mouth, Lily stepped forward but Sirius beat them all. Within a half a second he was standing between Kassie and Wanda, the rage so evident on his face that it made Lily think twice before speaking. "That is enough," he said firmly, his blue eyes hard as ice and gazing straight at Wanda without blinking. "More than enough."

"Sirius--" Kassie began in a slightly pleading tone, but Sirius raised a hand and for once she fell silent.

"I don't think you will understand, Wanda, but let me try anyway. I will not go away until Kassie tells me to. And perhaps not even then. You are giving up a relationship with a wonderful girl because of some reason you have against my blood. Life is too short to cast away your family because of a petty disagreement." Sirius swallowed, pounding his words firmly into the minds of everyone in the room. "Do you know how close Kassie - all of us - came to death just a week ago? Did you know Kassie was in that attack on Diagon Alley?"

Wanda obviously didn't know. Her mouth hung slack and only when a flash of black hair ran across the room did she blink.

Jillian Phillips launched herself up into Kassie's arms, half laughing and half crying. "Kassie! Kassie! Why did you leave us? I missed you!"

Kassie pushed away every ounce of anger in her voice and hugged her youngest sister tightly. "I'm sorry Jill, there were some things I had to do. I have missed you, too, though."

It was obviously taking every bit of self control Wanda possessed to stay quiet in front of the smallest Phillips child. She forced a smile at Jillian when she turned around. "Jill, I thought I told you to stay in the car? Where are your brothers?"

"Right here," Blake said from the doorway. Next to him were Christopher and Hayden. Uninvited, they walked in. Wanda opened her mouth, but Blake cut her off. The three of them walked over to where Kassie was holding Jillian and even through all of the tension, Lily couldn't help but be amazed by the resemblance between the siblings. It was uncanny. "Mum always said that arguments should be handled as a family. We want to talk to Kassie, too."

Christopher, Hayden and Blake stood determinedly beside Kassie, Kacy and Jillian. Wanda sighed, defeated, in light of the six determined children and ran her hand through her hair. "What’s the solution, Kassie? I don't want him at my house. And your brothers and sisters obviously want you home. You tell me what can be done." She spread her hands wide. "I'm open to suggestions."

Jillian touched her forehead to Kassie's cheek, looking ready to burst into tears. Kassie hugged her tighter. "Kacy and I will come home." Wanda sighed but her niece wasn't finished. "However, I am still going to see Sirius. I'll go to his flat, James' house or here. But I will still see him. And I don't want you to lecture me; it will do you no good."

Kacy pulled away from Kassie, looking scared but determined to set down her wants as well. "I'm going to school this year." Wanda looked as if that was the last thing on her mind. She blinked stupidly at Kacy for a minute, then nodded.

The tension in the room was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Wanda motioned towards the still open door out into the night air. "Well, come along, then. It's past Jillian's bedtime."

Kassie put Jillian down and shooed her out the door, with Blake, Christopher and Hayden following. Kacy grabbed her trunk and looked at Kassie, who gave her an encouraging smile. Wanda turned and looked back. "I'll be along in a minute," Kassie stated flatly.

Wanda had no more crossed the threshold when Sirius turned to Kassie, worry evident on his face. Lily fell back into the shadows of the hall, not wanting to watch, but strangely attracted to the scene nonetheless. Wordlessly Kassie leaned her forehead on Sirius' chest and he put his hands on her shoulders, laying a soft kiss on top of her head. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he whispered.

"My brothers and sisters need me," Kassie muttered, clutching Sirius' shirt with both hands. She leaned her head back and looked at him. "It's only a few days and we can go back to school."

"I can't wait," Sirius replied before kissing her so softly that it looked as if his lips barely glazed hers. She sighed and turned away and practically ran up the stairs. Lily chewed on her lip, unsure of what to do or say. But nothing she could say would matter; there was no easy solution.

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Sirius was still sitting in Lily's living room when Christine and Daniel returned home. Only now Sirius was also accompanied by James, who was looking very unsure about what he was doing. He had expected, by all accounts, to spend the evening lazing about at Sirius' flat, the problem Kassie had flooed him about having been dealt with. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Far from it. Sirius was sporadically cursing Wanda, then falling silent. Lily had had very little time to think about her row with Will because of her company who hadn't decided to leave yet. Instead she sat with her legs drawn up, looking at James and Sirius, expecting them to do something.

"Damn that woman, if she says one more thing to make Kassie cry...." Sirius muttered, waving his hands about like he was strangling someone. "I won't need my wand."

Lily rolled her eyes; that wasn't the action she had quite in mind. The front door opening drew her attention away from whatever James said in response and Lily jumped up and went to see her parents coming in. Daniel wheeled himself down the hall, looking thoroughly exhausted. "Where have you been?!" Lily all but demanded.

Christine looked taken aback and the talking from the living room stopped abruptly. "We went to Petunia's for dinner. I left a note by the phone," her mother explained, clearly confused.

Lily glanced at the table where the phone was sitting and blushed. "Well, as I don't ever use it, I didn't think...."

Christine was paying no attention, though, she had just looked around the doorway and spotted Sirius and James. "Well. This is a lovely surprise! What brings you boys over this time of night? Where's Kassie?"

Lily rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "It's been a very long night for us, actually. Do you want to sit down and I'll make another pot of tea?"

"I think we’re going to head over to Sirius' place," James interrupted, standing. "Come on, mate. You can grumble at home just as well as you can here."

Sirius reluctantly got to his feet, but stopped short of the fireplace. "I'll be back tomorrow to work on my bike, Lily," Sirius said wearily. "If that's ok."

"Of course," Lily said, smiling kindly. Secretly she was glad they were leaving; this would give her time to brood over her row with Will. Then again, as they waved goodbye and flooed out of her house, she was thinking perhaps that wasn't such a good idea. Brilliant plans aside, though, Lily had a lot of explaining to do to her parents by the looks of it. She sighed and fell on the couch. "Well, it all started this morning, I think...."

By the time she finished, Lily felt mentally exhausted. She slouched back on the sofa, looking at her parents through half closed lids. "And that's when you came home. The rest, as they say, is history. I suspect the next few days will not be fun."

Daniel said very little, and quickly excused himself to go to bed. Christine watched her daughter for a few minutes, feeling oddly compelled to say something, though she was fairly sure it wouldn't help. Eventually she got up and walked over to sit beside Lily, patting her knee gently. "Are you going to write to Will, do you think?"

"Why should I?" Lily replied, peeking open her eyes and peering at her mother with green orbs that were full of resentment towards her boyfriend at the moment. "Just because he's jealous, without good cause, I might add..."

"Lily, you should probably try walking a mile in his shoes," Christine said wisely. "He knows more about how a boy's mind works than you do. He sees someone that likes his girlfriend: he's going to be jealous, honey. That's just the way it works. I do think perhaps he went a little too far, but sometimes we say things we don't mean when we're angry."

Lily opened her eyes fully, tilting her head to get a better view of her mother's profile. "Do you think I should apologise, then?"

Christine laughed. "Heavens, no! Did I not teach you anything? If you apologise first, he'll never let you live it down." Again Christine giggled and Lily found herself smiling without really understanding why. "Do you know how many weeks your father and I didn't speak because he is so very stubborn?"

Lily felt silly, but the question that came to mind spilled out of her lips before she could stop it, "What should I do, then?"

Christine, for reasons Lily couldn't exactly put her finger on, looked ecsatic that Lily had asked this question. What Lily didn't know, and probably never would, was that for the first time since her daughter had found out she was a witch, this was something she could give advice about. Something Lily had asked her, and the prospect, no matter what the subject entailed, was a beautiful thing to Christine Evans. "Forgive him, angel. When he finally comes around and realises he was wrong, forgive him." Christine wagged her finger playfully. "That doesn't mean that you are always right, though. If you are wrong, admit it. But we know that women are almost never wrong… so you won't need to practice this much." Christine laughed here and Lily felt herself collapse into a fit of giggles.

"Thanks Mum." Lily sat up, hugged her mother and let herself be held for just a moment. "I think I'm going to go up to bed. Good night."

"Goodnight sweetheart," Christine said, watching Lily walk out of the room. Her heart beat a little faster as she cut off the lights and followed; she felt lighter and happier because she had been able to help Lily. She only wished Petunia could have turned out more like her younger sister. And that thought made her feel guilty if only because of the truth of it.

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Lily couldn't have been happier when the first of September finally arrived and she was once again standing on the platform to board the Hogwarts Express. Young wizards and witches were running about everywhere, saying goodbye to family, making sure they had their pets in order and discussing the new year of school. Lily waved to people she knew, pulling her trunk behind her and carrying Bast's cage under her arm. Christine and Daniel had bade her goodbye on the muggle side of the platform, and feeling rather good about the beginning of her sixth year at Hogwarts, Lily boarded the train and began the search for her friends.

As it turned out, she didn't have to look far or for long. Not more than a few minutes after beginning her search she stumbled upon a very loud compartment and, grinning, pulled the door back.

Lily had half a notion of what she would find when entering the room; Kassie and Sirius being together was a given, Kacy was a good possibility, Remus and Madison sitting together and James and Peter doing... well, something, she was sure. Hopefully not planning mass destruction anytime soon. She noted that she was right about everything except Sirius and Kassie when she entered the compartment. They weren't just sitting together, they looked as though they were practicing to become a single being. Kassie was sitting on Sirius' lap and audience or not, they were kissing every few seconds and talking quietly amongst themselves. Lily rolled her eyes. "Missed each other in the past few days, have you?" she asked.

Kassie giggled and James threw a chocolate frog at them. "You don't remember?" he asked incredulously.

Lily racked her brain for some titbit of information that might have escaped her. Whilst she was doing so, her eyes rested upon another sight she hadn't expected to see.

Will.

Her eyes meet his and she felt as if she had stopped breathing. James cleared his throat. "We've all heard this several times before, but I'll enlighten Lily since she seems to be temporarily unable to ask for herself. As of today - actually, tonight - Sirius and Kassie have been disgusting us with their shameless show of public affection for exactly one year." James said all of this loudly, waving his hands about like he was a ringleader of a circus.

Lily finally managed to break eye contact with Will. "Oh! That's right! And given that this someone said this time last year that she had no intention of going out with Sirius, that's brilliant!"

Sirius raised an eyebrow and Kassie looked as if she could kill Lily. "Wasn't going to go out with me, eh?" he asked slyly, turning his head to look at Kassie. "Care to elaborate on that, my pet?"

Across from the couple, Kacy looked ready to be sick. She smiled at Lily when she noticed she was being watched and the redhead laughed to herself. The train jerked, blowing the horn a final time and Lily sat quickly so she wouldn't fall. "So, how are the other happy couples of our year doing?" Lily asked, pointedly looking at Remus and Madison. Madison blushed madly and Remus was grinning, but not at Lily. He was grinning at Madison. "Good, really good," Madison finally replied, brushing a blonde curl from her face and quickly searching the room for something else to look at.

"Oy, Wormtail, let's get going," James suddenly said, standing up. "You coming, Moony?"

Remus shook his head. "Not this time. Besides, I think you two have it covered."

James looked pleadingly at Sirius, but his best friend waved his hand at him without so much as looking his way. James muttered something under his breath and grabbed the back of Peter's collar. "Come on, then."

Lily watched them go, her mind already spinning into motion about what they could possibly be up to when they hadn't even got out of London yet. She had little time to dwell on this, though, since Will cleared his throat for her attention. "Er, can we go somewhere and talk for a minute?"

Lily nodded and stood up. Kassie broke herself away from her argument (well, more like playful bickering, truth be known) with Sirius to look at her best friend, but Lily just shook her head and followed Will out of the compartment. For several minutes Will looked for an empty room for them to talk in, but without success. The train was full. Instead they ended up at the very back of the train, near the toilets that Lily had cornered Kassie in exactly one year ago. Will looked out of the window at the passing scenery for a minute, the sun playing off his skin and making his already blonde hair shine brightly. "Look, Lily, I'm sorry about what I said to you." Lily opened her mouth to speak, but Will waved his hand then pushed his hair off his forehead. "I didn't have a right to say that. I was just being--"

Will searched for the right word and Lily smiled slightly. "Jealous?" she inserted helpfully.

Will's face flushed and he nodded. "Yeah, that. I'm sorry, really." He gave her a small puppy dog look. "Forgive me?"

Lily seemed to consider this for a moment. She tilted her head to the side and a smile played around her lips slightly. "Well, mind you, you'll have to work very hard to make this up to me..." she said playfully, gently easing her hands up his arms and to his shoulders. "And I would say starting now would be good."

Will smiled; not a playful smile, but a genuine look of relief flashed over his face. "I don't ever want to fight with you again. This has been the hardest three days ever. I prom--"

Lily sighed, a small frown line appearing between her eyes. "Will, don't make promises you can't keep," she said softly. "I forgive you now, and I probably will next time." Will kissed her softly and Lily added, "Depending on what you do."

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Lily knew that she wanted to remember this trip to school, the next to last before it would all be over. Alice Longbottom had told her once that it would be the most memorable year, with O.W.L.S. behind her, and a year of fun before starting the hard slog of studying for N.E.W.T.s, and then heading out into the real world. But, all in all it was a rather uneventful trip and seemed to go by in a flash. James and Peter had gone off to charm the shoelaces together of anyone who crossed their path; random students which seemed mostly to be Slytherins. It looked as though someone had put tripping jinxes all over the train. Students would be sitting and talking, then get up and instantly fall over.

Lily looked out over the lake as they travelled by horseless carriages up to the castle and recalled her first visit to these grounds. She had been scared to death, terrified that any second the giant squid would decide to forget his peaceful ways and lash out at her, dragging her to the bottom of the lake with him. Somewhere in the back of her mind it all still seemed unreal, like that first night sitting next to James and wishing hard that it wasn't a dream.

But it hadn't been. Five years later Lily was one of the top witches in her class, had friends for the first time in her life, and felt like she was returning home after an extended vacation. She was tempted to pick up her wand and make something levitate just because she could. There was such a freedom in being able to be herself here, something she no longer felt she could do at home. Perhaps it would all be different once she was of age, seventeen. Then she could do magic outside of school; then she could be a witch with her parents as well as at home. The thought excited her.

All the students gathered into the Great Hall for the customary welcoming feast. Lily's stomach growled irritably as they sat, making Will snigger and Kassie laugh right out. Lily felt like hitting them both, but refrained. Several minutes later Professor McGonagall lead the first years in. Kassie looked eagerly around the small crowd for Kacy and waved upon finding her. Kacy waved back nervously, her eyes wide with a mixture of nervousness and excitement. The sorting hat sang a variation of the song it had the first year Lily had attended school and been sorted herself. When it ended Professor McGonagall held up her roll of parchment.

"Abury, Lenora."

A short, skinny girl nervously parted ways with the girl she had been standing next to and approached the three legged stool. Lily felt sympathetic towards her. The first time she had laid eyes on the singing school hat she felt quite frightened herself. The young girl managed to get the hat on her head after nearly dropping it and after a moment the hat yelled "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The table next to the Gryffindors broke into applause as Lenora Abury joined them, looking rather relieved at the house she was placed in. From there the line dwindled slowly as students were placed in different houses. While the sorting hat was making its decision about "Pemons, Adrian" Kassie was muttering the alphabet under her breath and counting students. Lily cast her a questioning glance when suddenly McGonagall called forth, "Phillips, Kacy."

Kassie almost stood up, desperate to get a good view. Kacy nervously tucked her shoulder length black hair behind her ears and, chewing her lip, started forward. She picked the hat up off the stool, sat down and put it on her head. It nearly covered her entire head so that the only thing visible of her face was her top lip down. The seconds seem to last forever, Kassie was straining as though she might actually hear what the hat was saying. Finally the hat's brim opened, then shut again just as quickly. After only a second, though, it opened again and said, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Kassie looked like someone had set her robes on fire. She jumped up, whistling and clapping hard as Kacy took the hat off her head and rushed over to join the Gryffindor table. Lily cheered along with the rest of her year, a little too loud, so that there was a lot of muttering along the Gryffindor table, wondering whether the girl was related to one of them. It was easy to see, though, once Kacy sat down next to Kassie that they were sisters. Sirius patted Kacy on the head like a puppy, and said "Welcome, poppet."

Most of them laughed as Kacy turned several shades of red and looked as though she like nothing more than to disappear. Lily leaned down close to Kacy's ear; "Just give him a whack around the ears when he annoys you. Or jinx him. I'll show you some good ones."

Sirius raised an eyebrow and Lily and Kacy grinned at him innocently. Sirius gave Kassie his best pouting lip. "They're picking on me!"

Kassie regarded him like she would a particularly spoilt child, "You probably deserve it."

Sirius pouted for a minute, then leaned down and whispered something in Kassie's ear that made her blush very red. "I want to see Kacy to her room, first," she insisted.

"I can show her," Lily said, smiling innocently.

"What about the feast...?" Kassie added, almost as though she would rather the food not appear so she could leave.

"We'll eat," Sirius promised. "Come on."

Kassie nodded and Sirius grinned before making a big production of claiming he needed to go to the loo. Kassie waited until the food had appeared before she, too, slipped out of the room. Lily began adding food to her plate when suddenly a ghost appeared in the seat recently vacated by Kassie. Kacy let out a horrified squeak.

"Good evening Nick," Lily said without much surprise in her voice. After all, at Hogwarts it was rather normal to have ghosts appearing out of nowhere, a poltergeist pelting you with chalk and portraits saying hello as you passed.

"Good evening Miss Evans. And welcome," he added to Kacy, who looked nearly as white as Sir Nicolas. "I say, are you alright?"

Very slowly Kacy nodded. Gabrielle washed down her last mouthful of food with pumpkin juice and asked, "How was your summer, Nick?"

"Oh, well, the usual. I do look forward to the start of term, though, as it gets rather boring around here with only Peeves for entertainment. And that's not really entertainment so much as torture."

"How come Peeves never comes to the feast?" Kathleen asked, breaking herself away from her conversation with Madison and looking perplexed. "I don't think I've ever seen him in the Great Hall at all, actually."

"He isn't allowed in here, for obvious reasons," Nearly Headless Nick replied smartly, straightening himself up as he spoke. "One could imagine the chaos that would follow. No, I quite agree it's for the best. He's out of control."

"Does Dumbledore keep him out, then?" Lily asked. She hadn't ever paid much attention to the fact that Peeves stayed clear of the Great Hall until now.

"No, no. We hold ghost councils, of course, and Peeves is informed then to stay away from here. The Bloody Baron keeps him well in line, so there is no need to ask Dumbledore to step in, although I'm sure he would if we deemed it necessary."

"The Bloody Baron?" said Kacy in a small voice, her eyes wide. "Why do you call him that?"

"Because he's covered in blood," Nick replied patiently. "Though I don't know what happened, not sure any of the ghosts do. Of course we'd never ask," he added cheerfully. Kacy swallowed. "Well, I'll leave you to it."

"Bye Nick," Lily and Gabrielle said as Nick floated down the table to greet a pack of seventh years sitting at the end near the doors. Lily patted Kacy's hand reassuringly. "The ghosts don't hurt anyone, really. It feels dreadful if you accidentally walk through one, but that's all. And Peeves… well, just avoid him if you can."

Kacy nodded but looked sceptical.

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Sixth year wasn't nearly as different as Lily had expected it was going to be. After the welcoming feast on the first night, the sixth years were asked to stay behind (Kassie and Sirius miraculously appeared for this, then disappeared again) and to check to see what subjects they had qualified for. The next morning they were handed timetables the same as everyone else and went off to their first ever N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration lesson.

Kassie and Sirius were both nearly late to this lesson, since neither of them had made it to breakfast. Lily had tried unsuccessfully several times to wake her best friend up, but Kassie point blank refused to budge from her bed. Lily knew that she hadn't come in until the early hours of the morning and she looked every bit as tired when she stumbled into the classroom as she had when Lily had tried to wake her.

"And did you have a good night last night?" Lily asked in a hissed voice as Kassie slumped into the chair next to her, her hair still wet from the shower.

"HmmMmm," came Kassie's mumbled response from where she had her face buried in her arms on the desk.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat just as the bell rang signalling the beginning of class. Lily whispered a drying spell on Kassie's hair and then pulled her book, wand, parchment, ink and quill out. After a sideways glance at Kassie, she then pulled out everything Kassie would need for class and shoved her heel into Kassie's foot. "Ouch!" Kassie squeaked, sitting up. McGonagall glanced at her, but said nothing. Kassie glowered at Lily. "What was that for?"

"Wake up. You can sleep at lunch."

Professor McGonagall sent another look in their direction and shut the book in her hands loudly. "Welcome to N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration. If you are here today it means that you have successfully passed your Transfiguration O.W.L. and wish to pursue more involved levels of this branch of magic. This is by no means an easy subject. You will be required to work hard, you will be required to do your homework and if you do not do these things you will not be here. Most of the next few months will be spent on conjuring. We will start with small objects this year and then next year will work up to larger ones. After the Christmas holiday we will begin transfiguring large objects. Any questions?"

Not a hand raised, the class paying avid attention to every word uttered by Professor McGonagall. This was it, this was the magic that Lily had been waiting to learn for five years. She couldn't wait to start.

By the end of the lesson Lily was quite sure she wanted to go back to the fifth year and redo her O.W.L.s. Conjuring was nowhere near as easy as James made it look -- a point that made Lily want to hit him around the head with her book a fair few times. By the time they were finished with the first lesson Lily had only managed to cause a large black scorch mark on her desk. Kassie hadn't even got that far. Sirius had a white blob that resembled, if you looked at it from a certain angle with your eyes half closed, a cloth. Considering they were attempting to conjure handkerchiefs, this was quite a feat. Peter had nothing, Remus had a long piece of thread and James had gained Gryffindor twenty points for his handkerchief with antique French lace trim.

Lily dragged her feet as they made their way to History of Magic, sure that if every class had increased in difficulty the way Transfiguration had, that she would be in tears by the end of the day.

As it turned out, though, the day didn't go by half as badly as she expected. History of Magic was no less boring than the year before, and certainly not any harder… yet. Instead of Goblin Rebellions of the eighteen hundreds, they had worked up to this century and Lily was somewhat looking forward to studying the defeat of Grindelwald by Dumbledore in 1945.

After lunch, Lily, Kassie and Gabrielle were to attend their first ever Muggle Studies class with the Marauders. After dropping Divination the year before, Lily was very excited to come to this class and hopefully learn about Muggles as perceived by the eyes of wizards. She soon found out though, that this was the Marauder's playtime. Professor Terrance was a muggle born witch who had a special liking for the foursome and therefore let them get away with nearly anything they wanted to do. Today this was no more interesting than watching them attempt to light matches. But with the amount of chaos this caused, it warranted much anticipation for future lessons.

"Watch it!"

"Me?! Do you think that thing is a bloody wand?!" James shouted back as Sirius banished his lighted match at him and it promptly went out.

Sirius stared at the smoking tip of the match, grumbling under his breath. "No, because my fire charms don't go out so fast." The class around them laughed, then went back to trying to strike their own matches. Lily, of course, found this easy, but there were a few others in the class that were like her and hadn't taken the subject the year before, weren't muggle born and therefore had no idea what to do with it.

The days pretty much went by like the first. The classes were all very hard now, much more so than Lily would have thought this time the previous year. But Lily was more than up for the challenge. Peter was having a particularly hard time with it all, and each of the sixth year Gryffindors found themselves cornered by him in the common room more than once. Lily had got to the point where she avoided the common room in the afternoons. Not that she minded helping a friend, but Peter seemed like a hopeless case if she had ever seen one. She had taken to doing her homework in the library with Will, under the watchful eye of Madam Pince ensuring that none of her precious books were mistreated.

James started training for the Quidditch team only two weeks into the new school term. And he was a slave driver if Lily had ever seen one. It felt to Lily that she barely saw Will unless she went to the pitch, and even Kassie had been found complaining a fair few times about how little time she had with Sirius nowadays. Most afternoons Lily, Kassie and Kacy would drag themselves up to the pitch to watch training and hopefully catch a peek of their respective boyfriends going by on brooms.

It was easy to get lost in the bustle of everyday life now; there was much studying to be done, much fun to be had, and with it all life took on an almost monotonous outlook. But as Murphy's Law clearly stated (the subject of Muggle Studies class two weeks into the term), if something can go wrong - it will. And in the second week of October, it did.

Kassie had been very reluctant to speak of the incident in Diagon Alley. If anyone brought it up, she quickly changed the subject. According to reports in the Daily Prophet about the attack, no one was sure who had hurt who and as long as that stayed true then Kassie was at least out of trouble with the law and was only looking at living with herself about it. And she looked like she was doing a good job with it. She carefully avoided the subject, and shrugged off anyone's insistence that she speak about her feelings.

But if anyone inside Hogwarts could have got a reaction from Kassie, it would one of her two least favourite people. Incidentally enough, if Lily had tried to guess the person concerned, she would have plumped for Bellatrix Black. But instead it was Severus Snape.

Lily wasn't actually around for the confrontation, but was given a detailed report later. Kassie had been heading towards the Quidditch pitch to try and talk James out of yet another late training session when she rounded the corner and ran straight into Snape. Far from helping her up as she fell back, Snape smirked at her, his wand already drawn. "Well, well. Where's your bodyguard today, Phillips? Too busy strutting his stuff on the pitch to keep up with your comings and goings?"

"It's none of your business, actually," Kassie ground out, getting up and dusting off a streak of dust on the side of her robes. She kept her eyes on the Slytherin boy. It was common knowledge that Snape would curse the first person foolish enough to look away. "Now, if you'll let me by..."

Kassie tried to go on. Alone in a dark corridor with Severus Snape was the last place she wanted to be. Not that she didn't think she could protect herself. Far from it. But the last time she had found herself alone in close proximity to a Death Eater (and she was fairly sure Snape was one) she had killed him. And the thought made her hands start to shake even though her mind screamed for them not to.

"I've heard rumours, Phillips," Snape hissed as Kassie tried to pass. She stopped dead, her blood running cold. "You and that stupid boyfriend of yours walked away from a scene in which one of the Dark Lord's followers was found dead."

"Sirius hardly walked away," Kassie spat.

"True." Snape chuckled as if the situation was amusing. Kassie swallowed. "You do know you are as good as dead, right? It's bad enough that you are a mud-blood dating a pure blood - no matter how stupid that pure blood is." Snape twirled his wand around as if he were merely playing. Kassie found that there seem to be a catch in her throat, but she managed not to swallow too hard.

"Are you going to kill me, then? Or just talk about it?"

"Do I look stupid, girl?" Snape hissed.

"Yes, actually," Kassie replied matter of factly. She forced her spine tall when her knees were threatening to buckle any second. "If that's all the questions you have for me, I'll just be on my way."

Snape looked outraged and before Kassie knew what was happening, he had grabbed her arm and shoved her against the wall. "I'm warning you, mudblood, your day will come. I'll personally see to it."

Kassie was preparing herself to kick out at him as hard as she could when suddenly Snape was ripped backwards and slung across the corridor. He tripped over his robes, sprawling backwards and into the opposite wall. "What the hell do you think you are doing, Snape?!"

Sirius' form loomed over Snape, his wand at the ready and his entire body trembling with rage. Kassie clutched at her upper left arm where Snape had been holding her, her heart beating rapidly. Sirius jerked his wand up and Snape's body came off of the floor and into the air, slamming into the wall behind him with a painful sounding crunch. "I thought I told you to stay away from anyone I cared about, Snape? Was there some part of that which failed to penetrate through the grease on your head?"

"That damned mudblood killed my father! I'll get her, and you, and Potter--ALL OF YOU!"

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Sirius jerked his head to the right so quickly that Snape's body fell to the ground roughly. Professor McGonagall was hurrying down the hall and she looked as white as Nearly Headless Nick. "Black! Phillips! What are you doing? What is the meaning of this?"

Showing about as much grace as a drunk chipmunk, Snape got to his feet, slid on the edge of his robes and nearly broke his wand trying to hold on to the wall to get his balance. There was a small trickle of blood coming from a cut on his forehead and he was muttering quickly under his breath. McGonagall was shaking from head to foot, her mouth opening several times, but nothing coming out. Finally she managed to string together several words; "Go. Now. Headmaster. NOW!"

Sirius pocketed his wand, and giving one last smirk towards the Slytherin, stalked away and towards Professor Dumbledore's office. Kassie followed quick on his heels with Snape and McGonagall bringing up the rear. Several moments later the four of them reached the stone gargoyle that protected the hidden stairs to the Headmaster's office. Sirius, without pausing in his stride, said, "Acid pops."

The stone gargoyle jumped aside and the wall behind it parted to reveal a set of spiral stone stairs. McGonagall smirked slightly under her breath, urging Snape along after the two Gryffindors. Sirius walked into the Headmaster's office as if he was a common visitor (which, granted, he probably was) and took a seat behind the desk, leaning it back on it's hind legs. Professor Dumbledore was standing near a window and turned without much surprise on his face as the rest of them filed in. Sirius motioned for Kassie to take a seat next to him, leaving Snape standing in the doorway looking rather pallid and arrogant and Professor McGonagall looking angry.

"I take it we're not all gathered here for tea?" Professor Dumbledore began lightly, gently laying his hand on Fawkes' head as he passed to take a seat at his desk. He peered at Sirius over the rim of his glasses. "My, my Mister Black. I would have expected to see Mister Potter being brought in here by his ear for yet another fight with Mister Snape. To what do I owe the pleasure of this different arrangement?"

"Well, you see sir," Sirius began, finally sitting up and allowing the front two legs of his chair to hit the ground with a slight 'tap'. "I was looking for Kassie this afternoon when I found her being threatened at wand point by Snape. You could see how this might cause a problem."

Dumbledore's blue eyes flickered up to Kassie, then landed on Snape. "Do you deny such a thing, Severus?"

If Sirius found it strange that Dumbledore addressed Snape by his first name, he didn't show it. But Kassie found her attention focusing on the Headmaster's gaze. He seemed to be probing him for more information than what they were here for without appearing to be doing so. Kassie turned slightly in her chair just as Snape shook his head.

Professor McGonagall interjected in an exasperated tone, "That is still no reason for the resulting assault by Black, Albus. I daresay they both deserve punishment for their actions."

"I quite agree," Dumbledore said after several moments of weighed silence. "Severus shall join Poppy in the infirmary and attend to any duties she has this evening. Sirius, you can serve with Professor McClure tomorrow night." Sirius' face lost a bit of colour, but he gained it back quickly and nodded. "I do believe I heard her say something about a clean up needing to be done in dungeon number five."

Dumbledore clapped his hands together as to rid the office of the conversation and stood. "I hate to be a bad host, but I believe dinner is about to start and I have been looking forward to the steak and kidney pudding. I'll tell the appropriate teachers to expect you. Good day."

Snape quickly exited the room with a sweeping motion and sour face. Sirius stood, held his hand out to Kassie, waved at Professor Dumbledore and the couple left the office. Neither said anything until they reached the bottom of the winding staircase and were half way down the corridor. Then Kassie sighed heavily. "I'm sorry. If I hadn't been wandering about, this wouldn't have happened."

"This isn't your fault," Sirius said, his voice much harder than it had been in Dumbledore's office. He sounded much like he had when he had been talking to Snape earlier. Kassie looked at him for a moment, her heart beat growing faster, though she wasn't sure why. There was something in his voice.... something that caused the hairs on her arms to stand up. "You should be able to go anywhere in this castle without worrying about him. And I'll make sure of it."

The warning was there, but Kassie had no idea what it meant. And wouldn't for a few more days. By the time it was all said and done, however, more than her safety would be on the line.

--End Chapter 51.