Disclaimer: You know the drill, having seen it in many other fanfics... nothing belongs to me, except for a few characters and the plot; the rest belongs to JKR, one of the people who reviewed, or a singer/band that I decided to 'borrow' the music from. (Though the music factor will be decided on how brain dead I manage to get while writing this chapter.) Or rather, from what my cousin told me to put in here; my name is Kira, it has a K and an R, but no J, and so I can't be mistaken for J.K. Rowling. I am not a professional writer, and do not get paid for anything I write (cuz I'm not professional.) Now, going on to my own stupidity, and not borrowing from my cousin. I may sing, but I am not a singer, so any songs I use are not my own (unless otherwise noted, which probably won't happen). So umm yea, that's the disclaimer.

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Chapter: An Unveiling of Sorts

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Another school year, another trip to Diagon Alley. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter (A/N: Yes, Peter, he is a part of the stories, like it or not the little twerp has to be involved) had agreed through a flurry of owls over the summer to meet there two weeks before school to get their school supplies. Normally they would wait until the week before school, but as everyone always went the week before, they wanted to go when it wouldn't be as crowded.

Lily arrived first, and had a pumpkin juice while she awaited the others to join her on this hot August day. It was only about 9:50 in the morning, but already the temperature had reached near 28 degrees Celsius. (about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.) She sat at a table near the fireplace and waited for the others to Floo in. it wasn't too long before Remus joined her. It wasn't all that surprising to them that they had to wait until near 10:15 for the other three to arrive. Punctuality had never been a strong point, or a priority, of the three tardy boys.

"Well then, let's be off. Shall we?" not waiting for an answer, Sirius took off, wanting the 'honor' of opening the passageway to the Alley. The remaining four shot looks of amusement at one another before heading off after Sirius. They had learned their lesson last year about letting him head off by himself without an adult to take the responsibility for his actions the hard way. It hadn't been pretty.

The thing about Sirius was that he would behave if there was an adult that he knew (such as one of the group's parents) in the vicinity, or if the rest of the group was there to keep him from misbehaving. If there wasn't a responsible adult or someone else to control him, all hell would break loose.

Luckily they caught up to him just as the wall was opening up into a doorway.

"Where to first?" Peter asked them. Now Peter wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but he had his moments. I mean, would he have been able to become an animagus if he didn't have some sort of intelligence locked into his head, which was covered by hair a shade of dirty blonde. I think not.

"Where else but to Gringotts, Pete? We need our money to get the supplies." James answered readily. They headed off to the bank, not even bothering to stop and gape at the warning etched into the white marble. Perhaps it was because they were trying to ignore Sirius dancing around, clapping his hands and singing a song about cart rides.

In addition to their usual list of supplies, each had a second list of additional supplies that they would need this year due to some extra studies they had added to their schedule this year. (By the way, they're in their sixth year. Over the summer Lily and James had worked out their differences and become friends to explain how they went from hate to friendship over the summer. Their parents meeting and becoming fast friends may have helped with that. Spending a lot of time and being forced to be nice to an enemy can do that to you sometimes.)

After an exhilarating ride on the carts down to each one's vault (A/N: each having a moderate amount considering that they are only teenagers.) Sirius took off towards Flourish and Botts, with the rest jogging after their hyper friend.

Once in Flourish and Botts, Sirius launched himself over to a stand that showed several muggle objects wand an explanation of how it worked. Sirius gasped at an earplug and proceeded to push the plug into his nose, much to the disgust and amusement of his friends.

"Your nose can't hear!" Remus tried reasoning with him, but Sirius would have none of it.

"How do you know? Boogers are people too!" surprisingly enough, no one could try to find a way to set Sirius straight on that one. They settled for convincing him to stop playing with the things on the stand and to get their supplies for the school year. Lily picked up a couple of books for her new studies. Advanced Essential Illusionism, Future Illusionary Research and The Invisible Arts were some of the things she grabbed. Remus grabbed a copy of Ancient Astrologer and Remedial International Medicine. Sirius looked at everyone while as if they were the crazy ones and couldn't understand why on earth James and Peter grabbed books entitled Modern Theoretical Studies and Laboratorial Custodial Engineering. They grabbed a book titled Unspeakable Illusionist and a copy of Invisible Arts for him and set off to pay for their books and head for the next store.

To make a long story short, they hit all their basic stores and got all of their supplies. The reasoning behind their additional book titles was that they had new class additions as they were starting to prepare for their N.E.W.T.s that would take place the following year (ever notice that a lot of people get the year that they take the N.E.W.T.s wrong just about all the time? I mean, O.W.L.s are fifth year, then N.E.W.T.s are seventh year…) When heading to Fortescue's for some ice cream, they ran into Arabella Figg, one of Lily's best friends. Arabella's long brown hair had been pulled into a long braid, reaching her mid back. Which was slowly coming undone. The only reason I mention this is that Sirius was planning on using a new prank he had bought on her hair.

"Lily!" She exclaimed with relief. "I'm, so happy to see you. I'm sorry about what happened. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Lily was more than a little perplexed at Arabella's question. Maybe she was hinting at Lily hanging around the Marauders, but she had sent her an owl explaining where she would be for the last two weeks of summer vacation. Her parents had sent her to go visit her cousins and aunt and uncle in the countryside for the last few weeks before school started up again.

"I take it you haven't heard then, oh Lily!" Arabella cried. "Don't you get the Daily Prophet?"

"No…"

"Lily, it was all in the news! Your parents were attacked by Voldemort" Arabella near whispered, thinking that if she said the news softly, Lily would take it better. Unfortunately her theory was wrong.

"What!" Lily hyperventilated and started crying. Where was she supposed to live now? What was she going to do? What about Petty? "My sister… is she…?"

"Petunia's okay, but she's probably more than a little upset right now."

"How could I have not found out?"

"Well, it happened 2 days ago, maybe you just haven't received word yet. If you need someone to stay with, you can always stay with my Aunt, and me I'm sure she wouldn't mind." Arabella said very gently. Lily looked as though her whole world had been shattered, which it did for her.

The boys just kind of looked at each other in shock. Voldemort hadn't murdered anyone yet, he'd just caused a lot of trouble with the Ministry. Why would he stoop to murdering? Especially a mostly muggle family.

"Wouldn't Lily have received and owl or something about her family though?" Remus asked Arabella who was hugging the now crying Lily. She shook her head no, and continued to try and comfort Lily.

"Come now Lily, let's get you something to calm yourself down," James said gently as he took her from Arabella. He brought her to Florean's ice cream shop and treated her to a brownie Sunday, which Lily just played with, not really eating. She had a tendency to lose her appetite when she was really upset. After watching her toy with the Sunday for a good half hour, Arabella told the boys that she was going to bring Lily to look for some robes. There had been rumors of a Yule Ball, and they should be prepared, just in case.

While walking to Madame Malkin's, Lily finally was able to take her eyes off of her feet and looked at Arabella.

"Why did he have to murder my family?" The paim in her voice nearly broke Arabella's heart.

"Because he's a miserable bugger who has nothing better to do other than cause pain to undeserving people. I'm sorry that I had to be the one to tell you about your family, Lily."

"I'd rather you than some dumb letter from the Ministry." She said bitterly. "I have to find out how Petunia's doing. Will you go with me to my home later?"

"Of course, Lily. Just tell me when." They reached Madame Malkin's and went inside. Lily hadn't gotten her school robes yet, so she approached the young seamstress and was measured for new robes. After they had been cut and put to the side, she and Arabella went off to search the racks for anything that might be suitable to wear to a ball. Lily had smiled a bit when Arabella came out of the dressing room wearing an atrocious lime green and neon yellow polka dotted robe. But she almost ran away in fright when Bella suggested that she get the bright pink robes because they would just go 'so wonderfully' with her hair.

They laughed and kidded around a bit, Lily coming out of her shock about finding out about her family. She had resolved to herself that she wouldn't bring any of her friends down by grieving in front of them, she would grieve with her family once she got back to their house and by herself. They had finally settled on a pair of scarlet robes for Arabella, and a pastel blue for Lily. After paying for their robes and heading back out onto the streets, they found the boys in the Quidditch Shop and dragged them away from the new line of brooms. (cough Nimbus cough.)

Heading out onto the street, they immediately noticed that something was amiss.

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A/N: so that's the whole of it.

An explanation: I know that Arabella Figg is a squib, but this isn't the same one. Bella was named after her aunt, coincidentally that aunt is the one she lived with. A little background information on how Bella came to be living with her aunt is that her mother passed away during childbirth and her father is unknown.

If you're wondering why the people aren't afraid to utter Voldemort's name, it's because he is at the beginning of his reign of terror. They won't be afraid to say his name for at least another year in my story.