A Change of Heart

Bye Dr. Jekyll, Hello Mr. Hyde

Lily frowned in confusion. If indeed someone has survived the attack it had to have been Susan. But, why would Voldemort be upset at failing to kill someone who wasn't even a threat to him? As a matter of fact, the way the death eaters had mentioned it, it sounded as though they had bigger plans for Susan.

She continued to tell Hannah about what they had heard from the Death Eaters, their decision to not tell Dumbledore about what they had heard, along with the details of what they had gathered about the teachers. Hannah just took it all in, listening to what her friend had been thinking over the past weeks.

"We're still waiting on some background information from Professors Ammit and Shiva. Alice was going to owl us when she found out. Remus was supposed to owl her but with everything that's happened since... well since our previous meeting, I don't expect we'll hear anything back from her anytime soon," Lily said, disappointed at the lack of information. "And well... Sarah's parents. I don't understand what's going on... when I talked to professor Dumbledore, I was sure it was all connected. It just has to be. I just don't know how! It doesn't make any sense! Why would Voldemort want to harm the Bones in the first place?"

"That's everyone's question Lils. The truth is no one has any idea," Hannah said dejectedly. "Didn't Professor Dumbledore tell you anything?"

"Nothing useful. Why would he? As far as he knows, I'm just worried about Sarah. He doesn't know that we saw the Death Eaters at all," Lily supplied.

"How come you haven't gone to Dumbledore with this?! Lily, you're Head Girl! You should know better than attempt something like this by yourself. What if the Death Eater finds out you guys know? What do you think he's going to do to you?" Hannah said, looking at her friend, shocked at her odd behavior. "This isn't like you Lily!"

"I did want to go to Dumbledore, but James and Sirius said that we have no proof. It's our word against a teacher's Hannah! They were right!" Lily said, explaining herself.

"He has to know Lily! You have to tell him, I mean, we're only students, we're not even real full-grown wizards! What do we know about Death Eaters!? I know the boys told you that you have no proof, but... wouldn't he believe you?" Hannah asked confused.

"I'm not sure he would. It's a very serious accusation. I'm not sure we have enough to back it up," she said thoughtfully.

"What about Sarah? You said she connected to all of this. I mean, nothing has happened to her, not physically anyways. I don't know; I'm not sure if it all fits. What happened to her family isn't exactly out of the ordinary lately. Loads of families are being attacked," Hannah rationalized.

Lily looked at Sarah and shook her head helplessly. She couldn't explain it. Not by means of words. There was something telling her to look further, almost like an instinct telling her that if she only found that one key of information she would link it together. She gazed out of the window thoughtfully, repeating the many events that had happened since nearly the beginning of the term that might tell her what she needed to know.

"Lily!" Hannah's voice called out.

As though snapped out of her thoughts Lily looked up and met Hannah's confused and tired eyes. Being kept in the dark and having had almost no sleep in the last two nights, had apparently caught up with her friend.

"What exactly did Sarah see? What was it she saw?" Hannah asked, now that she had gotten Lily's attention.

"She saw the attack on her parents. She just didn't realize it was them," Lily said, sitting next to Hannah.

"She didn't know it was them? What did she know? What did she see exactly?" Hannah asked puzzled.

"Well, she said it was all a mess. She was really very desperate when she saw it. She was a nervous wreck, but she was sure about once thing, she knew it was someone close to her," Lily said sadly. "She had told me about the visions just a few days before, when I had caught her with some boy over by the dungeons."

"It's odd... everything. I mean, she seemed so preoccupied with boys, you know?" Hannah said considerately.

"You know, she told me that the reason why she had tried keeping herself so busy, trying to... well, tried to have as much as fun as she could, was because she needed a distraction from her visions. They showed her things she couldn't really understand... Death Eaters and well, Voldemort. All this time, I believed Sarah was the most carefree between the three of us, perhaps even in all of Gryffindor Tower, but she was just bidding her time until she grew up. She must've somehow felt it looming on top of her," Lily said, sympathy evident in her voice.

"This isn't fair..." Hannah whispered. "Why does it have to be this way? Why must we loose everyone we care for? What's going to happen to Susan now? Those wretched visions will kill Sarah's spirit. I mean, I don't suppose they'll show her sunshine and daisies, not in the times we're living, not until Vol-well, you know who, is gone."

"I don't understand how he can be so--well so evil! I mean, there has to be a reason why he kills, doesn't there?" Lily said exasperated.

"Vol--You-Know-Who doesn't have a reason to Kill, he just does Lily," Hannah said, a sad look on her face.

"There has to be something we can do Hannah! It can't be possible that whilst our best friend is suffering somewhere, by herself, in this castle, we're just sitting here, doing nothing! Sarah probably thinks it's her fault. If I know her, she's probably thinking there was something she could've done," Lily said desperately. "We need to prove to her that she's wrong."

"How do you propose we do that?" Hannah asked doubtfully.

"Well, first I suppose we could find out what happened that night at the Bones. What those Death Eaters wanted exactly!" Lily said suddenly.

"It's clear what they wanted; they wanted Sarah's family dead. Well at least her parents and Susan," Hannah replied.

"I don't think that's all. There has to be more to it than that. There just has to be," Lily said, thinking out loud. "We can ask James for help..."

"How'd he get involved in this conversation? Get his help with what?" Hannah asked, suddenly confused.

"Well, the only witness we know is Susan, we can find out through her," Lily said, getting up from her spot on the bed. She began pacing up and down before Hannah.

"And how do you propose we talk to Susan about that? It's cruel Lily, we can't ask her about the night her parents died," Hannah rationalized yet again.

"Well, not talk per se... but see, James knows this spell, to get into a person's dream..." Lily started hesitantly.

"Is it complicated?" Hannah asked apprehensively.

"We didn't get into too many details, but it seemed complicated..."

***

James sat in the common room, his mind processing everything that had been going on. It was impossible how things had become so complicated. Death eater attacks had become common during the last year; Voldemort choosing people he considered to be troublesome to get them out of the way. But no matter how common it had become, it was still horribly frightening to get mail, particularly after the attack on Sarah's parents. They represented no know threat to Voldemort, yet they had been targeted and now they were gone.

That was one concern, but he was still worried about the death eater infiltrated in the school... and Sirius. There was still Sirius. He was acting suspicious, so unlike the adventurous and clever friend he knew. Lily had noticed it and was concerned. As a matter of fact, she was clearly terrified at the idea that Sirius was hiding something, especially when everything was looking as bleak as it had during the last couple of weeks. There was more to her concern however, and he knew it. It had become a consequence of them spending so much time together. He had gotten quite skilled at deciphering her emotions and white lies. Between tutoring and death eater suspicion meetings, he was getting to know her in a deeper level than he ever thought possible.

They were friends. That's more than he could have possibly said about any girl he had ever been involved with. He realized though, that this was much harder than it looked. He continuously had to keep his feelings in check. Every time he saw her smile from an idea, her soft voice when she expressed concern, her sad eyes when there was something wrong, drew him into her so much more.

He was shook out of his thoughts at the noise of someone falling from the stairs coming from the boys' dormitories.

"Move out of the way!" a voice he recognized as Sirius barked out as he came down the stairs.

"What's going on?" he called, as Sirius rushed across the common room and walked through the portrait hole. Sirius ignored him and walked swiftly. James ran out behind him until he caught up with his friend.

"Sirius, where the bloody hell are you going in such a hurry?" James asked, confused by Sirius' odd behavior.

"I have things to do Potter, not all of us can sit around and do nothing!" he snapped back at James.

"Nothing? I've been waiting for you! You were supposed to tell me what you found out about Professor Ammit, remember?" he responded angrily.

"What about Professor Ammit?" Sirius replied in a whispered and threatening voice.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" James replied, surprised at Sirius's tone.

Sirius's eyes changed glint for a second before he pushed James against a wall. "What about Ammit, eh Potter? You should stop sticking your nose where it doesn't belong!"

"Sirius! What are you doing?" Lily yelled, as she rushed over to the boys.

By then people had started to gather around both boys. Lily tried pulling Sirius off of James, but his grip on him was strong. Finally Lily managed to pull him off, only to trip, making the two of them, fall flat on the floor. James slumped to the ground short of air; while Remus and Hannah rushed to their friends worriedly. Sirius was disoriented for a moment before he looked at Lily. She looked at him apprehensively and scooted towards him.

She leaned over to him, checking him for any wounds. He still looked rather confused as she felt a wound in the back of his neck.

"Sirius? Sirius, are you okay?" she asked concerned.

He looked at her almost perplexed; a blank look soon covered his face. He looked rather helpless but winced when she felt the wound up. She looked over at James who was still rubbing his neck, still feeling a little short of air from Sirius's grip.

"What's wrong with him?" James asked, upon seeing Lily's worried expression.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. He was something on his neck," she said trying to make him sit up, only to find his body to completely limp. She turned to look at Remus and Hannah. "Help me get him up."

The crowd of people had gotten quite closer as they saw interestedly as the three attempted to lift Sirius to a sitting position. Lily pulled Sirius head onto her shoulder and pulled his hair to the side. She could now feel a scab on his neck and unable to actually see it, looked at Remus and Hannah.

"Well, what is it?"

***

"I'm not quite sure I've ever seen anything quite like this. It looks like some sort of... bug bite," Madam Pomfrey said, examining Sirius neck. "But no bug bite I've ever seen before."

"Well, it's not poisonous is it?" Lily asked concerned.

"I'm no sure to be honest. I think I'm going to have to call professor Kettleburn, perhaps professor sprout, I'm sure they'll have an idea of what bit him. I'll have to ask that he not have any visitors meanwhile, it might be contagious, we can't be sure," she said, shooing James, Lily, Remus, and Hannah from the infirmary.

James knew Lily was beyond herself with worry. There was nothing he could think of to make her feel better. And there was one question plaguing his mind.

"I wonder if that bite mark has had anything to do with how he's been acting lately," he said, accidentally thinking out loud.

"What?" Lily asked, turning to face him preoccupied.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I was just thinking out loud," he said, looking apologetically at her.

"What do you think is wrong? And why where you two fighting? What was going on?" Lily said, glancing nervously between James and the room that led to Sirius.

"Well, I'm not sure. He looked at me so coldly, like he didn't know me... like if I were some kind of threat. I didn't recognize him and if I didn't know better, I would say he didn't recognize me either," he said thoughtfully.

"That's just insane James! You two have known each other all your lives! You must've said something to make him upset!" she replied hotly.

"I didn't! He came rushing down the stairs and he pushed a 3^rd year out of the way! I was supposed to talk to him and get info he had gathered from Professor Ammit. As soon as I asked him about it, he pushed me against the wall!" James explained.

"That doesn't sound like Sirius," Remus replied thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I mean Sirius would do that! Especially not to you!" Lily said accusingly.

"I know Lily. That's why I was thinking; maybe something happened to him, something having to do with that bite. I mean, Madam Pomfrey doesn't know what it is. We don't even know how long he's had it," he said, trying to think of the moment when Sirius had first started acting so oddly.

"We would've--" Lily started.

"We have Lily. He has been acting weird for a while now. You know that," he said gently.

"He forgets a lot of things very suddenly..." Remus said, contributing to James theory.

Lily shook her head in disagreement.

"You can't be serious! He's had a lot on his mind. Anyone would forget things," she said, trying to keep the worry from her voice. "We have to wait until Madam Pomfrey tells us what's wrong, Stop assuming."

"I'm not, but you have to admit that there's something wrong with Sirius and right now, well, that bite mark is the only thing that seems to be wrong with him," James said, trying to reach Lily.

"But you can't be sure. We don't know anything for sure," Lily replied adamantly.

"It's just a theory Lily," Hannah said, lending a supporting hand to her friend.

"I know one thing for sure," James started, while meeting Lily's eyes. "That wasn't my best friend who pinned me to the wall tonight."