Chapter Two: Decisions and Explanations

"What?!" Lily cried. It was one month after the wedding. Her and James's house was still being refurbished, so they had decided to move into a Muggle apartment not too far from the Leaky Cauldron. They wanted to stay as close to the wizarding world as possible.

Lily was standing at the small kitchen table, her chair thrown aside, looking posed to kill; James was standing a few feet away, looking positively mortified. He had never seen the angry side of Lily before. Sirius remained seated calmly at the table, his hands folded in a business-like manner.

"What?" Lily repeated in the same dangerous tone. She was glaring at Sirius, who was glaring right back at her, but still remained sitting at the table in the same poised position.

"Myself and James both think," Sirius said calmly, but still glaring coldly at Lily, who's hair had fallen out of its neat ponytail, "that it would be best if you put off your honeymoon to Paris for a while."

Lily's glare turned to James, who tried to straighten his face so he didn't look so frightened, but his attempt failed miserably. "You really think this, James?" Lily asked tearfully. Her gaze was still piercing.

"Albus never told you?" James queried. Lily's piercing gaze faltered. Instead of looking like a tiger poised to kill, she looked like a helpless little rabbit.

"Told me what?" Lily asked a bit fearfully.

"Sit," Sirius said to her.

She slowly pulled her had off of the table and slowly clasped her hands around the top of the chair and pulled it up to the table as James quickly sat down. Swiftly, eyes darting between James and Sirius, she sat down and asked again, slowly, "Told—me—what?"

"Well," Sirius began," You know most of the story, or tale, or whatever you would like to call it," he said, grinning comically. "Anyway...recently, Voldemort had been going around to Muggle-born wizard's houses and killing them," Lily nodded. "And their families too." She closed her eyes tightly and bit her lip. James, looking sadly at the helpless Lily, put a comforting arm around her. She leaned into his embrace resting her head on his shoulder. James whispered something to Lily that made her not slowly. She made a squeaking sound that made James whisper quietly, "I know, Lily, I know..." Sirius, knowing what it all was about, did not interrupt the couple. He simply leaned back in his chair and waited.

James kissed the top of Lily's head, and a fresh wave of tears erupted from Lily. She didn't tell Sirius to leave, all she did was cry. James hugged Lily tightly and looked up at Sirius, who nodded. Sirius slowly got up and walked around the edge of the table towards Lily. James somewhat lifted Lily into Sirius's arms, who hugged her tightly.

Lily looked up at Sirius, her emerald eyes glittering with tears. Sirius grinned at her and made Lily give him a watery smile as James said, "He knows, Lily. I told him before the wedding." She looked at James. "It was bugging me that I couldn't do anything about it, but I had to tell someone to relieve my worries." James drew a chair in midair with his wand so that Sirius could sit down with Lily.

Any other married guy would be extremely jealous and/or envious right now, James thought. Me? I'm just relieved. Because Lily had been sobbing like this for the past few nights (who was fearing for her family) and it was beginning to bug James.

Sirius began to talk again, "And you also know that the both of you have defeated Voldemort three times already," he said.

"Yes...I know all of this so far!" Lily managed to say.

"But you don't know this," James said. Lily's head shot over to James. Her hair had flown out from behind her ears and had hit Sirius right in the face. He was trying not to sneeze at all from the hair tickling his face. "We are one of Voldemort's largest threats. He has to get past us somehow in order for his plan to be put into action. It's us, sometimes Sirius, and Albus that have foiled his largest and most dangerous plans yet. We're his biggest target Lily. Us!" James looked at Lily, who's tears had fallen onto Sirius's arm and made a small puddle; her eyes wide with fear. "He's after us, Lily. And he won't stop until we're dead. He'll do anything he can to break us, make us vulnerable to his attacks. That's why I've sided with Sirius on this decision; we'll be extremely vulnerable to his attacks if we go on our honeymoon. Any means of wizarding transportation is being watched. We couldn't just sneak off, too many people would know our whereabouts. It would be even harder not to look suspicious if we were to travel like Muggles."

"I—agree—with your—decision," Lily said through sobbing hiccups. "Even if it means—to sacrifice something—that we wanted to do—so much. If it'll—keep us safe—I'll agree with you." She stopped and said clearly, "I do agree with you." She flung herself over to James and began to sob uncontrollably into his shoulder. James simply put his arms around her and stroked her hair.

After several more minutes, James carried the still sobbing Lily off into their bedroom and closed the door behind them. As James closed the door, there was a small tap at the main door. Sirius got up and looked out the peep-hole. It was Dumbledore. Although you can't see through to the inside, Dumbledore said, "I would guess that she has heard the news and taken it rather badly."

Sirius opened the door quickly and, while letting Dumbledore in, said, "How could you have guessed?"

"Oh, well," he gave a small smile, "As I was coming up to see if you two had told her yet, I could faintly hear someone yelling, rather angrily, 'What?!'. So naturally, I figured it was Lily. I hesitated to come up so you could tell her without me interfering."

"You heard it 'faintly'?" Sirius said, arching an eyebrow and grinning.

"Well, rather loudly, then," he replied. A few moments later, they heard a click of a doorknob, a door shutting, and footsteps echoing on the wooden floor.

"Professor Dumbledore!" James exclaimed quietly.

"Please, James," Dumbledore said, "you haven't the need to call me 'professor' for three years!"

"Sorry," James muttered, "it's a habit."

"Where is Lily?" Dumbledore asked him, observing him over his half-moon spectacles.

"She's calming herself down in the bedroom. I told her just to go to sleep, but she won't listen to me," James replied. "Watch. In a few minutes, she'll come out here in her green silk robe, her face will still be tearstained, and she'll sit down and talk to us for hours upon hours if you'll let her."

"You wanna bet?" Sirius asked him, grinning.

"How much you got?" James replied, grinning as well.

"Boys..." Dumbledore said warningly. "So you did tell her, right?"

"Yes." James said. "She didn't take it very well, but she did agree with us that we should put off our honeymoon. But—"He paused as he heard a doorknob click and they heard echoing footsteps once again.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Lily said, walking out with her face still tearstained and her maroon robe on. "What are you doing here?"

"She's not wearing her green robe, Ha!" Sirius whispered to James who grinned.

"I didn't know she had a maroon robe!" James whispered back to him.

"Just to see how you took the news," Dumbledore replied. "You don't look like you took it well."

"Well, it was a bit of a shock," she said as she sat down extremely close to James, who put a comforting arm around Lily. "But after James and I talked it over in the bedroom, and once I calmed down, I saw that he and Sirius were doing it out of their love for me." She smiled warmly at the two twenty-year-olds who were still bickering over their bet.

"I only asked you if you wanted to bet, and now you're telling me we never were betting?" Sirius whispered furiously.

"You said, 'you wanna bet?'. You never said, 'let's make a bet'." James whispered back, arm still around Lily.

"Betting?" Lily asked him, leaning into the 'secret' conversation. "What are we betting on?"

"Oh, nothing in particular, really," James said.

"Yeah, we, er," Sirius said. "We we're going to make a bet on whether Ireland will get into the Quidditch World Cup this year or not."

"Ah," Lily said, still eyeing them suspiciously.

"Well, if everything is settled," Dumbledore said, standing up. "then I must be on my way."

"Oh, please Professor!" Lily said, jumping up. "Can't you stay a bit longer? I can make you some tea, if you like."

"Oh, I'm afraid I must decline, Lily," Dumbledore replied. "I have many things to do. I must go and counsel the Minister of Magic. He has been undoubtedly making foolish mistakes in trying to stop Voldemort's reign of terror. If you've read the news," he added with a twinkle in his eye. "But for now, I must go. It will be safer for you three if I leave. Or, it will be safer for the entire world, just in case some Death Eater is lurking...outside the...door." He quickly pulled out his wand, pointed it at the door, and it flew open.

"Dumbledore!" The man in the cloak gasped. Lily, James, and Sirius all crowded around each other.

"What did you come here for Snape?" Dumbledore said in an almost hiss. The last word he said was hard to understand.

"Did he say 'snake' or 'Snape'?" Sirius whispered in a growl.

"I could've sworn he said 'shake'," Lily whispered back, also in a growl. "But if it is that horrid Snape, I will murder him in front of Dumbledore. That foul, evil, betrayer!"

"What?" James whispered to her. "How do you know he's a Death Eater?"

"Oh, I went out with him in sixth year," Lily whispered, ignoring the gawking look James was giving her. "He was so pitiful...and you two," she snarled, "always picking on him. It didn't help him at all. Ohhh, but when he told me he was a Death Eater, I told him I never wanted to see him again!!" Lily had regained her evil glare back.

James was still gawking at her, but snapped his attention back to the cloaked figure and Dumbledore.

"They're not safe here!" the man gasped.

"Why aren't they safe?" Dumbledore boomed. "Did someone find out?"

The cloaked figure nodded. "I don't know how, but they found out. I didn't tell them! I didn't even know where they were! I had to hunt down the wretched girl's parents to find out where they were!" Lily snarled and leaped forward, running towards the hooded man.

As swift as the night wind, she pulled off the man's cloak and uttered, "You!" Although the lights had gone out, the window was open, and moonlight flickered off of the man's long, greasy hair.

"Snivillus!" Sirius and James both snarled. Dumbledore put up a hand to stop James and Sirius from lunging like Lily had.

Lily was still poised to kill the man who was now wheezing. "What did they do to you?" Dumbledore asked.

"Freezing curse." Snape gasped, massaging his stomach. "Several of them all at once."

"Serves you right," snarled Lily. Snape's head shot up to look at Lily, who's glare made Snape shiver.

"Oh, Lily..." he muttered.

"Don't even think about it!" James snarled.

"Yeah!" Sirius piped in.

"I wouldn't take you back even if you weren't a betrayer! You hate me! You just called me a wretched girl!" Lily snarled at him.

"Better than mudblood," Snape said, standing up straight. Lily gasped. James took a menacing step forward. Dumbledore was the first to act or say anything.

"Severus, you know there's no need for that kind of language!!" he boomed.

"But you know I'm right!" Snape said, moving toward Lily, who walked away backwards, her expression mortifying.

"But you don't have to say it!!" Lily snarled at him. "I want you to get ou—"but her words were cut off. They heard echoing footsteps and yelling coming from downstairs.

"We need to leave!" Dumbledore whispered. He muttered, "Portus." And pointed his wand at a boot, which glowed. "Everyone grab on...yes, even you, Severus. This will take you into my office. Stay there, and do not leave. I will ward the Death Eater's off. One...Two..." All four of them grabbed on. James had a protective arm around Lily, who was standing between Snape and James. To Sirius's disgust, he had to be next to Snape. "Three!" Dumbledore let go of the boot as all four of the wizards felt the sensation of something tugging at their navels. The room began to spin and they all crashed onto the floor of Dumbledore's office...


Lily's glare (for all of you who have see Gackt's Oasis music video thingy) is kinda like his glare at the very beginning of it. You know the one that's like: 'You pissed me off. Now I'm gonna kill you!!!' And you just wanna scream at him, "WHAT DID I DO?!!!?? STOP GLARING AT ME!!!!"

Now anytime I hear that song, all I can think about is Gackt glaring evilly at me. It freaks me out. Heh. It's sort of funny, too.

Fic Related notes: If ya'll want to know, Sirius, James, and Lily are all twenty if you couldn't do the math from the last chapter where I said something along the lines of Petunia not speaking to her since she had gotten her letter nine years ago or something...yeah...

And I kinda made Lily out to seem psycho, but you'll know why soon enough!!!! MUUHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHHHHAAAA!!!!