I'm back again! I had over 30 hits by this morning! I honestly feel so happy! But I wish I did get a couple of reviews though, I get very insecure about my writings and it would be good to know what you all think of my story.

Here is chapter two. I'm having trouble thinking up names for the chapters. Though I'm sure I'll think of a song title for all of them soon enough!

I hope to write the next chapter in a couple of days, I'm seeing the girls who I've based Aurelia and Vivian on tomorrow and the day after but I'll hopefully get a chapter up by the weekend. I've never been so committed to a story!

Always, Eleanor x

Snape was on his feet again, and was stowing the OWL paper in his bag. As he left the shadows of the bushes and set off across the grass, Sirius and James stood up. The light hitting Remus' prefect badge suddenly grew dim, his eyes drawn back down towards his book, and a shadow cast him into darkness. Peter on the other hand, looked as though he were about to wet himself again, watching in growing anticipation and excitement as Sirius and James made their way towards Severus' retreating figure.

'All right, Snivellus?' said James loudly, grabbing the attention of fellow fifth year students, many of them staring shamelessly.

Snape reacted so fast that passerby's would be forgiven for thinking that James and Sirius instantly meant ATTACK! as far as Severus was concerned. He dropped his bag and spun around, drawing his wand when James swiftly shouted,

'Expelliarmus!'

Snape's wand flew from his hand, and he stood, defenceless, with a look of purest loathing on his face. Sirius, laughing, drew his wand, and lazily cried out,

'Impedimentia!' knocking Snape to the ground and momentarily stunning him.

Students from all around had stopped to watch, though one group still remained ignorant.

As Snape lay on the ground, unable to move, James and Sirius closed the gap between them, standing right over him in intimidation. Remus slumped from view and took advantage of the shade cast by the tree. Peter watched on hungrily, not taking care to hide the emotion from his eyes.

'How'd the exam go, Snivelly?' said James.

'I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment,' said Sirius viciously. 'There'll be smudge marks all over it and wont be able to read a single word.'

Snape was attempting to regain his footing, but the jinx was still keeping him firmly on the ground.

'You - wait, you - wait!' Snape breathed, spitting out each word.

'Wait for what, Snivelly? You to wipe your nose on us?'

The growing crowd laughed, spurring James and Sirius' confidence in the matter. Severus spat out groups of jinxes and profanities, though nothing happened, his wand still lay a few feet away from his hand.

'Wash out your mouth,' said James coldly.

'Scourgify!' Pink bubbled appeared in Snape's mouth, and he coughed and spluttered.

He was choking.

'LEAVE HIM ALONE!'

Lily had finally pushed through the crowd, Aurelia, Celeste and Vivian behind her, trying to pull her back.

'Stop it guys, I need to do this,' the trio let her go, understanding Lily at last.

Her hair was whipped around her face, parts flying in the faint breeze. Her eyes were bright and furious, sparking as if with electricity, her cloak was crushed and given to Vivian, revealing a crinkled white Oxford shirt and neat knee length skirt.

James thought she'd never looked so lovely. Too bad she was angry at him.

'All right, Evans?' said James, turning his voice from cold and vicious to pleasant, deeper and more mature. His hand shot up self consciously towards his hair, and Lily's frustration only grew further.

'Leave him alone,' Lily said quietly, her voice was calm, but with the effect of someone who was trying to restrain themselves from screaming. She eyed Sirius and James with dislike. 'What's he ever done to you?'

James and Sirius looked at each other briefly, then, glancing down at Snape spluttering on the dirt, replied, 'Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean.'

The crowd laughed louder, and the sound was unbearable to Lily, worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.

'You think you're funny, but you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter,' she said coldly.

'Leave him alone,' she repeated again.

'I will if you go out with me, Evans,' James interjected quickly, flashing a wide grin as if it would sway the decision.

'Go on, go out with me and I'll never lay a finger on old Snivelly again.'

In James and Sirius' distraction, they turned their backs to Severus, who was beginning to be freed from the effects of the Impediment Jinx. His hand crawled closer to his wand.

'I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,' said Lily, seeming immensely proud of herself.

James' smirk vanished, and for a second, Lily noticed something in his hazel eyes flicker, it was so quick however, that Lily hadn't even begun to think what it could mean. Severus' hand inched closer.

'Bad luck, Prongs,' said Sirius briskly, and both he and James turned back to look at Severus.

The crowd gasped.

'OI!' But it was too late; Snape had already gotten hold of his wand, pointed it right towards James's face, there was a flash of light, the sound of a slice cut through the atmosphere and blood splattered over his robes and onto the grass below him. James staggered backwards, and moved his slender arm to touch the spot, Snape hit his cheek, just below his eye. If Snape had aimed a fraction higher...

Sirius retaliated, roaring with anger and within another instant, Snape was dangling in the air as if suspended by a rope tied to his ankle, his robes flipped down, covering his face and revealing to the jeering crowd a pair of skinny, pallid legs and greying underpants.

Sirius, James and Peter roared with a new emotion, laughter.

Lily caught herself, trying to maintain her furious expression as the sight almost caused her to smile,

'Let him down!'

'Certainly,' said James, jerking his wand upwards to perform the counter-curse. Severus plunged to the ground, becoming a heap of robes upon the dirt. As he disentangled himself, Snape's eyes never looked so black, drawing his wand and he pointed it at James a second time, but Sirius interjected again, 'Petrificus Totalus!' and Severus keeled over, falling to the ground unable to brace himself as his face hit the dirt, unmoving.

Lily could not believe what she was seeing, she was a prefect, Severus was her friend, she had to defend him, she repeated for a final time, 'LEAVE HIM ALONE!'

Pulling out her wand, she directed it at the two boys who'd caused Severus so much pain over the years.

James and Sirius eyed her warily, her skills in charms and jinxes were exceptional, and the pair did not want to give her an excuse to use her abilities on them.

'Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you,' said James with a hint of worry in his eyes. Lily read this look very well. She made her final demand, knowing that James would oblige her.

'Take the curse off him.'

James, sighing deeply, turned to Snape and muttered the counter-curse, Sirius looked aghast at James. They never backed off when it came to Snivellus.

'There you go, you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus.'

Snape picked himself up, wiping his nose and mouth on the sleeve of his robes and anger practically burst forth from him,

'I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!'

The crowd was silent, all eyes turned to Lily.

She blinked.

Evans knew that this day was coming, for years now, ever since Sev had begun hanging out more with Avery, Macnair and Nott from Slytherin, the changes in him, to Lily, seemed as if he was unrecognisable. To her, there no longer was the boy who was tortured by his father at home. He wasn't the sweet young kid who told her about magic. She could see it in his eyes. Black, unfeeling, empty. He was dead to her now.

'Fine, I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.'

'APOLOGISE TO EVANS!' James roared, he too seemed deranged, as he pointed his wand at Snape.

Lily turned to face him cooly, her demeanour had changed completely, from her angry, defending stance to her graceful pose that was back in place, and she seemed untouchable.

'I don't want you to make him apologise,' she said softly, 'you're just as bad as he is.'

'What?' yelped James. 'I'd NEVER call you a - you-know-what!'

'Messing your hair because you think its cool to look like you've just got off a broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can - I'm surprised your broomstick can even get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.'

And with that, Lily turned on her heel towards her friends and the castle, pushing an outraged Vivian and Aurelia with the help of Celeste back towards the castle and into sanctuary.

The sun had disappeared.

'Let's get out of here, okay?' Lily's voice was soft as she addressed Celeste. She knew better than to pity Lily, so she just nodded and continued pulling Aurelia with them.

'OH, Let me at him, I swear he'll wish he'd never been born!' She was furious, 'How dare he say that to you? I know he's evil, Lily, but you were always his friend. He just-'

'I know,' Lily interrupted, she was pained to think of it. 'Let's just not talk about it here.'

'What is with her?' said James, trying and failing to make it seem like a throwaway question with no real importance to him.

'Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mate,' said Sirius quietly.

James looked furious with himself, 'Right,' He turned back to Severus. 'Right, who wants to see me take Snivelly's pants off?'

Vivian led the way, knowing exactly where to go. The quartet, being in different houses, had to find an alternative meeting place, as they could not use any one house common rooms. So they headed towards the library in silence, only the sound of their shoes clapping against the marble and stone floors gave any notice to them being there. Staircase after staircase they climbed until turning right at the end of a long corridor, the smell of old books filled their senses. The library had been their sanctuary since first year, and was where Lily and Aurelia first found Celeste and Vivian, who had been comforting a crying Celeste. Celeste was a muggle-born like Lily, though found it much harder to keep up the face of confidence against the Slytherins.

Their meeting place was a small alcove in the depths of the Hogwarts Library. The air was musky, and the books piling the stands around them had a thick layer of dust about them, the quartet knew, even back in first year, that they would not be disturbed or overheard. The light from outside ceased to shine, and Vivian used her wand to light one of the oil lamps taking hold on Lily's hand and pulling her into the unending depths. They found their alcove, and only when sitting down to make themselves comfortable, did Lily speak.

'I knew this was going to happen,' her voice broke.

Aurelia looked pained, 'Lil, you did your best, you tried to convince him not to talk to them, but really, they have all their classes together and live in the same dormitory, you couldn't really do much,' she looked to Celeste and Vivian for support. Vivian obliged.

'Look, Lily,' she began softly, 'I know this is hard, but I think you're better off without him, that spell he used on James was rotten. I've never seen a spell like that before...'

'He made them himself,' Lily's voice shook, 'I knew what was going to happen when he used that spell, he had promised me he would never use them when I found out about it, but he used it anyway...'

They were silent. Celeste spoke up.

'What will you do now?'

'He will definitely try to talk to you,' Aurelia interjected.

'I know he will,' Lily sighed resignedly, 'what am I supposed to say to him though? You've been my friend since before Hogwarts but I can't anymore, bye!' Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

'Just tell him anyone who calls you... that, can't obviously care for yo-'

A muffled scream met their ears, echoing down the long corridor and piercing their whispered voices like a knife. Their eyes bulged in alarm and they looked at each other.

Vivian stood up, 'What was that?' and rushing out of the alcove, she squinted into the darkness and set off. The remaining trio hurried, grabbing their bags and running out to follow Vivian. The oil lamp extinguished suddenly they were plunged into darkness. Celeste screamed as she rammed into a bookcase.

'What luck...' she mumbled, muttering Lumos! and getting up to rejoin her friends.

As they exited the library, they saw Madam Pomfrey holding up a young girl from Gryffindor. It was Mary Macdonald. Blood was dripping from around her stomach region and stained her pristine white shirt.

'Mary! Are you all right?' Lily's voice was high pitched and shocked as she rushed over to help Madam Pomfrey.

Aurelia and Vivian began interrogating the nurse as she headed towards the Hospital Wing.

'Look Miss Noel, Miss Calder, I'm afraid I'm rather busy at the moment, come back later if you wish to see Miss Macdonald. Oh thank you, Miss Evans but it's really not necessary, back to your dormitories immediately!' and she shuffled off with an unconscious Mary in her arms.

Celeste looked frightened. 'What could have happened to her?'

Lily rushed to her as her face paled more that it originally was - that was always a warning sign. 'Celeste, honey, it's okay, Mary's strong, you know her! She'll pull through, maybe she just fainted from the heat and hit her stomach on something sharp?'

Aurelia piped up, 'Yeah you're looking pale Cell, let's go get some dinner okay? Get some colour back into your cheeks,'

'Not that you had any colour to begin with!' laughed Vivian and Celeste chuckled slightly.

As they re-entered the Great Hall, they noticed the Gryffindor table to be closely knit in conversation.

'I'm going to go see if anyone from Hufflepuff knows what happened', and she walked unconfidently down to the table to the left of Gryffindor and taking a seat by Amelia Bones the Hufflepuff prefect.

'Good thinking on Celeste's part, I'll see if Olivier knows anything, goodness knows he gets more gossip than I do!' and Vivian skipped off cheerily towards Ravenclaw on the right of Gryffindor's table, leaving Aurelia and Lily to walk down to dinner. James, Remus, Sirius and Peter were in close conversation as Lily and Aurelia sat down, but James lifted his head as he noticed Lily.

'Look, James - J- James pay attention,' and Sirius following his gaze, groaned and slapped him across the face with a whack!

'OI!' Prong's eyes snapped back to Sirius and, rubbing his reddening cheek furiously, his eyes narrowed.

'Was that really necessary Padfoot?'

'Unfortunately for you, it wasn't, Prongs, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity,' grinned Sirius, flashing his straight white teeth.

Remus drew his head closer to them over the table, 'Guys, do you know who attacked Mary?'

'Macdonald?' Peter furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. 'What happened to her?'

'She was found unconscious by Madam Pomfrey as she made her way back from the staff room.'

Sirius looked grave, an odd occurrence for him, 'I head Poppy talking about it. Slytherins.' he growled darkly.

Little to their knowledge, a pair was in fact listening in on their conversation. Sirius caught her eye.

'Oi, you! Are you listening to us?' he mocked outrage, placing a hand dramatically over his heart.

Aurelia raised her eyebrow. 'I have a name, Black, I know remembering things can be difficult for you, but do try.' She grinned evilly back at him.

'Hey! I resent that!' Now Sirius looked genuinely shocked. 'James! Tell them I'm smart! Ja-ames!' Potter was too busy choking with laughter over his Pumpkin Juice.

Sirius turned to the others, 'Remus! Tell them will you! How I got so well on my last Charms essay!'

Remus smiled lopsidedly, 'Padfoot, you know full well that you copied my assignment and pretended that I cheated off you. So in essence, I in fact did well in that assignment.'

Sirius pouted and furrowed his eyebrows, 'What great friends I have.'

'Lily looked up from her plate of steaming Shepherd's pie, her favourite. 'Do you know who exactly in Slytherin was responsible? We saw Madam Pomfrey pulling Mary into the Hospital Wing and we didn't see anyone else around,' she looked at Aurelia for confirmation. 'It's true,' Aurelia said, 'No-one was there.'

'Of course not, Evans, the slimy buggers would have run off by the time Poppy got to her.'

Something clicked inside of Lily's mind, and she looked up at James to find him staring at her. She payed no attention and her eyes flickered to his cheek, a small cut that seemed to be weeks old was gleaming there, outlined by a red hand mark.

Cuts, blood, Mary Macdonald, promises, Sectumsempra...

It all flashed behind her eyes and she realised that she had forgotten to breathe. She took a giant gasp of air, the Marauders and Aurelia looked over at her in alarm.

'I know who it was,' Lily began to tremble all over, whether it be in shock, anger or for fear of crying she knew not.

Peter looked eagerly at Lily, 'Who was it?'

She looked at him briefly with glazed eyes, and said one word.

'Severus.'