AN: Ok, this is it. This is the right way to go about this story! Hoorah! Now, I do hope you enjoy the rewrite of In Tenebris, I decided to start it before the school is attacked, it makes so much more sense and feels better. Thank you for reading, I hope those reading my previous one will find this one easily. Any reviews are always welcome, I hope this version will flow much better than the other one.

In Tenebris

Lily entered the Great Hall, her bag slung over one shoulder as she rummaged around in her pocket searching for her favourite quill as her friend Mary stood by her side. She felt something tug at her sleeve and looked up, opened her mouth to speak but she noticed that Mary was gazing at something further down, probably at one of the house tables. Lily frowned and followed her friend's gaze, what she saw made her freeze. A large, round bellied pig was speeding towards her, squealing like a fire engine. She grabbed Mary and pulled her out of its path as it flew past, leaving a brief, stunned silence in its wake. Then, as if someone had given some silent cue, the whole room burst into hysterics. "What in god's name was that?" Lily exclaimed.

"What do you think?" Mary replied tersely, lifting her hand and pointing. Lily saw James Potter and Sirius Black stood on the Gryffindor table, holding each other and crying with laughter. "When will they grow up?" Mary muttered, rolling her eyes and taking Lily's arm, together they moved through the small crowds of people making their own ways to their respective tables and took seats as far away from Potter and his friends as possible. Lily couldn't resist looking up and over at James as he sat down beside Sirius and began talking animatedly to Remus who was grinning. It was breakfast time and the golden plates were filled with sausages, bread rolls, bacon, steaming pots of porridge and various other mouth watering foods. Mary talked as she filled her own plate, along with Lily's. "You know Gemma Royal, from Hufflepuff? Well, apparently she asked Black out the last week of term last year and he blew her off, saying that he had more important things to do than date vapid bimbos. Can you believe the cheek? He's always so rude to everyone, I wonder how he's even as popular as he is? He's such a dick."

"Mm." Lily muttered, picking up her spoon and starting to eat the porridge and jam before her.

"And Potter, ugh, he's so arrogant I really don't see what anyone sees in him either. I mean, yeah, ok, he's good at Quidditch and all but he's not even that good looking, especially not compared to Black. I heard that he's also shot down just about every girl who's asked him out, always with that stupid grin. Anyone would think that he and Black were dating or something."

"Yeah." Lily looked over to see Potter ruffling Black's hair, laughing so loudly nearly the whole table was watching.

"I mean, last year they got more detentions between them than the whole school put together and Potter went around bragging about it as if he'd been made prefect. They're so stupid and annoying, I really hope they get it together this year because we've got OWLS to study for and I'm not having my chances ruined by those two idiots."

"They're not as bad as Mulciber and those others." Lily said thoughtfully and Mary sent her a quizzical look. "Well, I mean, they're just a bit stupid, not plain evil."

Mary considered this for a moment before sighing in resignation. "I suppose you're right. On that note, why are you even still friends with that Snape boy? Haven't you ditched him already?"

Lily flushed a little and glanced over at the Slytherin table where Snape was picking at his food while his friends chatted around him, she frowned and shook her head, moving her eyes back to her bowl. Suddenly she didn't feel quite as hungry any more. "He's always been nice to me." She said quietly.

Mary shook her head pityingly. "One day you're going to regret your friendship with him, he's trouble. Worse trouble than Potter and his cronies. Trust me, Lil's, he's going to end up in a bad place." She lay delicate stress on the word 'bad', lifting an eyebrow meaningfully and Lily understood what she meant. Snape was still hanging around with Mulciber and Avery and many others who were openly determined to end up Death Eaters, she was constantly trying to get him to change, hinting that perhaps he would be better off without those friends but he seemed afraid to lose them, as if he was convinced that they were the only people (excluding Lily herself) who would ever like him. She sighed heavily, pushing her bowl away and looking up at the ceiling as there was a flutter of wings and a mass of different owls flew down towards their tables. A large tawny landed before Lily and she tore off the letter, she recognised her mother's writing and smiled before tucking the letter into her pocket to read later. Mary was still gazing up at the ceiling, despite the fact that most of the owls had already delivered their various burdens. "That's odd…" She said softly, frowning in confusion.

Lily followed her gaze and looked back at her. "What is?"

"Where are the Owls that usually deliver the Prophet? I haven't received mine."

Lily glanced around, noticing that many other students were baffled at the lack of newspapers. She saw Remus leaning towards James, frowning as he whispered something, all the boys glanced up towards the teachers table where, for the first time, Lily noticed that Dumbledore and McGonagall were missing. "Where are the teachers?" She asked her friend who shrugged.

"Maybe there's some important business to attend to?"

"Hmm…maybe." Lily replied uncertainly, somehow the lack of teachers at the head table made her feel as if a lead weight had dropped into her stomach. It seemed that Potter and his friends had also noticed the absence of their headmaster. She watched Peter glancing around nervously, Sirius looked up, towards the entrance to the hall and tugged James' sleeve, he lifted a hand and pointed. Lily followed his gaze and saw McGonagall striding towards the teachers table, her face pale and her mouth set into a stern line. She made her way over to where Sprout and Flitwick, leaning forward and whispering something to them that made them both go as white as a sheet. Flitwick said something and Sprout swallowed hard, her eyes scanning the hall and Lily was unable to ignore the look of fear in her eyes. "Something's happening." Lily breathed, feeling that lead weight drop lower. Her breakfast wasn't sitting well in her stomach and she wished she hadn't eaten anything. "Mary, I think something really bad is happening." She reached out and clutched her friends hand, they turned to look at each other, both of them beginning to feel the same terror that seemed to be slowly spreading through the hall as more and more people noticed.

The notable absence of Daily Prophet post owls had made Sirius feel decidedly uneasy, it only got worse when he noticed the teachers moving back and forth, whispering amongst themselves and casting nervous glances around at the students. During their first lesson of Transfiguration Sirius noticed that McGonagall was uncharacteristically distracted, she complimented Peter vaguely on his racoon cushion, despite the fact that it was still trying to drag itself across his table in a last bid to escape. She spent her time muttering absently to herself and casting the window dark, ominous looks as if it was going to leap up and bite her head off. Their lesson was continuously interrupted by other staff members, they came in, cast wary looks around at the students before striding over to McGonagall and sharing a hurried, whispered conversation with her. Occasionally Sirius caught brief snatches of words like; '…the perimeter?' or 'Protective charms…' he was starting to feel as if there was something dangerous happening and the teachers were trying to avoid causing outright panic.

"What's going on do you reckon?" He asked James as once again their lesson had been interrupted by their Astronomy teacher.

James frowned at the teachers back, licking his lips nervously before returning his eyes down to his un-transfigured racoon that was sat in his lap preening itself happily. He petted it's ears absently before speaking. "I don't know but I don't think it's a good idea to lose sight of our wands today, do you?"

"No…no I guess not." Sirius replied, reaching down and allowing his fingers to brush James', they clasped briefly, Sirius feeling James' reassurance through the brief touch like a bolt of electricity. He squeezed back, returning the feeling.

Remus looked over at his friends worried faces, he chewed his lip and sat down heavily. No one seemed to be in much of a mood today and McGonagall finally took pity on them, she stood up and cleared her throat loudly, everyone froze and looked at her intently. "Classes have been disbanded today, please leave in an orderly fashion and return to your dorms. Prefects, please go and report to your Heads of House. Everyone else, do not leave your dormitory's, for anything. Do you understand me?"

"Yes Professor." The class muttered as the Prefects stood up, Remus cast a wide eyed look at James and Sirius who could only shrug helplessly in response. The class began to file out, Sirius finding himself squashed up against James' side with Peter behind him. They moved as quickly as they could into the hall way and found it blocked by several other classes, all of them headed in different directions. McGonagall came out and began trying to order the mass blockage, they heard the squeaky voice of Professor Flitwick trying to help but were unable to see him over the throng.

"I don't like this." Sirius muttered, looking around at other pale, worried faces. "I don't like this at all."

"Neither do I, Siri, neither do I." James replied tightly, glancing behind him and sharing a look with Peter who was sweating with fear.

"Hey! Hey, Professor?! Professor, what's going on?"

"Nothing to concern yourself with Mr. Harper, just return to your House and stay there until given permission." McGonagall continued to deflect questions and, when her back was turned, James lifted an eyebrow at Sirius who returned the expression, ducking in one fluid motion the second James took out his invisibility cloak. They disappeared and only Peter noticed, he groaned inwardly, hoping that they wouldn't get themselves into too much trouble.

As soon as James and Sirius were out of the crush of people, they steered themselves towards a tapestry, behind which they knew a secret passage way lay. They slipped behind it, barely stirring the fabric before pausing and looking at each other. "So, where to?" James asked, smirking a little.

"The Teacher's lounge, it's where they'll be meeting to discuss whatever's going on." Sirius said firmly and together they moved off in the direction of the lounge.

They reached the ground floor using little known passage ways to ease their progress as many corridors were still jam packed, when they found the staff room they stopped outside it, listening with everything they had. The stone Gargoyles were looking around every time either one of them made some noise, they couldn't see them and they couldn't understand where the soft sounds of shifting robes was coming from. Finally the door opened a crack and they heard voices from within, Sirius and James crept closer, listening eagerly.

"…Albus has already confirmed it, Horace. There's no doubt that it's happened." Professor Sprout was saying in a sad, tired voice.

"Indeed, I heard it myself as he was speaking to Minerva. It's the worst case scenario, we can do nothing about the Ministry, that is now far beyond our help, but we can still attempt to protect the school as best we can." Their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher said quietly, his soft Scottish accent making whatever they were talking about seem far more serious than Sirius and James had first assumed.

"Yes, the students are our first priority. For now, all we can do is stay here and strengthen the defences. He Who Must Not Be Named will not dare to attack whilst Albus is in charge." Sprouts voice betrayed her bold statement by shaking a little.

"No…no of course not, I was just thinking that perhaps it would wise to have some kind of contingency plan in place? You know, in case things get a little more…dangerous, than we first expected?" Slughorn sounded terrified, his voice shaking worse than Sprouts.

"They say that Minister Bagnold is dead? Is it true? I can't imagine that they Ministry has fallen so rapidly."

"I'm afraid that there's no doubt that the Ministry has fallen." Sprout whispered, her voice catching and shaking, she gave a loud sniff before seeming to pull herself together again. "They've murdered all those who tried to stop them and put even more to death when they discovered that they were Muggleborn. It's bad. Very, very bad."

James turned to look at Sirius, his face completely white, his hazel eyes wide and sparkling behind his glasses. Sirius' eyes were narrowed, his lips slightly parted in shock. Neither of them could bring themselves to speak, so they slipped away, leaving the sobbing Hufflepuff Head of House behind with her fellow teachers.