"Well, no one has any clue what actually happened." Emily said, sliding into the seat next to me.

She'd just been eavesdropping on conversations all up and down the Hogwarts Express, but apparently no one had any insight into what had happened in our dorm room that made Dumbledore cancel all exams and release us for summer holidays.

"That's good, I guess." I said, leaning back in my seat, helping myself to Mary's supply of sweets.

"Yeah, but it still doesn't give us any idea who did it." Lisa said, pulling us all back into our glum moods.

We'd spent the past hour of the train ride discussing this, and so far we had nothing. I was contemplating asking James, he'd acted like he knew something last night. Well, more than we did, anyway.

"This is frustating! Who would do that?" I ask, through a mouthful of Chocolate Frog.

"Pure-bloods." He said.

I nearly fell out of my seat in shock. Where had he come from? Black, as usual, was behind him, and they sauntered into our compartment like they owned it, sitting down in the empty spots, Black even grabbing a Frog for himself.

I stared at James, flabbergasted.

"What?" I gasped. I was right, he did know something.

"Oh, come on. They're always plotting little pranks, the nasty Slytherins. No one else in the school is capable of doing something this evil." He spat the last word like a curse.

"Unless you have some reason to suspect it's not them?" He turned to me, one eyebrow raised.

I stared at him, unable to form any words. What he was saying made sense; too much sense. Who was the one person that (most likely) hated me? Who, if they'd seen the 'incident' between me and James would have been jealous? Who was also in Slytherin, and friends with people who were a) dangerous, b) hated me and c) acted like a gang? Oh, and who would definetely stoop as low as to sneak into the Gryffindor common room to spy on me?

Severus Snape. And he like Shakespearean plays, he'd told me so himself. Argh, I was so stupid! How could I not have seen it before? He was being influenced by those gits Avery and Mulciber, they were probably the masterminds of this scheme, and they would definetley hurt innocent people. They were, as James had said, evil. And Sev was mixed up in it!

I gasped, standing up. I forced past my friends, out of the compartment. I was heading down to the Slytherin comparment when he caught up with me.

"Evans! You can't just run off and attack them!" James grabbed my arm, spinning me back around.

"But they-they…they murdered her, James! And he's mixed up in that! All because I…" I trailed off, trying not to cry. I can't believe Sev was doing all this to get back at me. He was hurt that I'd shut him off. I could easily imagine him turning to his Slytherin cronies, and being swayed by them to do something like this. He could be spiteful when he wanted to be.

"Hey, you didn't force him to do this. He chose to befriend them. Hell, he was friends with them long before you starting ignoring him. He's a Slytherin, want else did you expect?"

I looked up at him, my eyes narrowing. He was so prejudiced!

"You just don't get it. You sound exactly like them. You're willing to believe they're behind all of this, without a shred of evidence." I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I have evidence." He replied quietly, looking at the floor.

My eyes widened, shocked.

"What?" I whispered. "How?"

"Never mind that. Just know that it was them sending you those quotes, and yes, Evans, I know there were more than you showed Dumbledore. I'm not thick, you know. Snape went along with it all, he wanted to see you suffer. Well, he mostly wanted to hurt me, by hurting you, but he wasn't complaining when you suffered."

"I don't believe it. He wouldn't murder someone." I said, avoiding looking at James. I had no idea how he knew all of this, but I didn't doubt its authenticity. The Marauders had amazing sources.

"He didn't." James said bluntly, his eyes trained to my face, which was resolutely looking away from him.

"He had nothing to do with that part. They wanted to scare you, simply because you're a Mudblood. I overheard them talking about it in their compartment earlier." He smiled at me slightly.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair.

"James, what on earth is happening? Why do they have to be so…so cruel?" I leant against the wall in defeat.

I couldn't argue with him, everything he was saying made sense.

"That piece of parchment said it. It's war." He said, his eyes losing their normal sparkle momentarily.

On that gloomy note, we headed back to the compartment. I didn't really want to ask more about this 'war'. I shoved it in the 'too disturbing/sad/violent/worrying/stressful' box in my mind, to be dealt with later. If he was right, all our lives were about to change.

"Hurry up, Lily! We're leaving!" My mum called up the stairs.

I rolled my eyes. I'd been home for exactly 30 minutes, and we were going out to dinner, for a 'family outing'. Wonderful. I hadn't even unpacked.

I grabbed my bag, not bothering to change out of the clothes I'd worn home from Hogwarts. I also grabbed my wand; thank god I was of age now and had passed my Apparition test. If this night became too much to handle, I'd just Apparate out of there. It felt good to have freedom, for once.

"Lily!" My mum called, sounding agitated.

Sighing, I made my way down the stairs, swinging around the banister at the bottom like I have for the past 17 years. Mum always says I'm going to break my neck doing that one day, but I never have.

"I'm here, Mum." I call, meeting her in the hall. She looks harassed, and I don't blame her. It's not everyday that Petunia agrees to come with us for a family dinner, nor does she bring a man with her, to meet the parents. This was most definetely a first.

She sheperds me to the car, and I jump in the back. It's only a few minutes drive to the local Italian resturant, and Mum spends most of it nervously glancing at her watch.

"We're going to be late." She muttered. "What will he think of us? We have to make a good impression, for Petunia's sake!"

She was stressing herself out over this. For all of my life she'd been like this, worried and stressed. My dad was the opposite, nothing ever fazed him. They complemented each other well.

We arrived, 5 minutes late, to my Mum's displeasure. She hurried inside, my Dad and I trailing after her. I rolled my eyes at her antics.

"It's good to have you home, Lily dear." My dad said, in a rare moment of compassion.

"Thanks, Dad." I said, unsure of what to do. Dad rarely said anything, so when he did, you know he meant it.

We approached our table, where Mum was greeting Petunia and her boyfriend. I hung back, letting Dad greet them first. Mum was blocking my view of the boyfriend, who was seated next to Petunia.

"Oh, Vernon, this is Lily." My mum said, turning and grabbing me by the shoulder, pulling me up to meet him.

I felt my mouth open rudely, and I tried my hardest to stop it, but I just couldn't. Vernon was too ridiculous! What an earth did my sister see in him? He was overweight, had a round, shiny face, and was already showing signs of balding, though he couldn't be over 23. My sister was the complete opposite. At 19, she was tall, with a thin blonde hair and a long neck. Her beady eyes narrowed as she saw my reaction.

I tried to redeem myself.

"Hi." I said quietly, sliding into my seat. My mother and father also took their seats, and we ordered our food.

"So, Vernon, what do you do for a living?" My mother asked conversationally, whilst Petunia glared at me.

I suppose that was a step up from her normal treatment, ignoring me completely.

"I just started working for Grunnings." He said, downing nearly half a glass of wine.

My eyes widened as I watched him, his face slowly getting redder. His hair was sticking to his forhead, which was gleaming under the cheap lighting. I honestly had no idea what Petunia saw in him.

"They make drills, don't they?" My mother asked again, trying to keep the conversation going.

She was alone with that effort. Dad was definetely not a conversationalist, and Petunia and I was too busy glaring at each other to even try.

Polite conversation was passed, mainly between Vernon and my mother, until our meals came, upon which we all ate in complete silence.

Once I'd finished, I got up and went to the bathroom. I couldn't take much more of the stifling atmosphere of this 'family outing'. Vernon was a pompous git, Petunia was being a stuck-up priss as usual, and my dad was slowly drinking himself into a stupor. Family is fun, isn't it?

I fixed my hair in the mirror, and settled my bag on my shoulder. As I was about to Apparate out of this warped version of a family, Petunia walks in.

"How dare you!" She exclaims, walking right up to me.

"What did I do?" I ask, the picture of innocence.

"Don't give me that, Lily, I saw the look on your face! Don't you dare judge him before you even know him!" She was practically screaming at me.

I'd never seen her get this worked up about a guy in my life. She must really have feelings for him, then.

"Petunina, what on earth do you see in him? He's pompous, boring, fat-"

She slapped me across the face, effectively shutting me up. I gasped at her.

"Don't talk about my boyfriend that way! Just because you're jealous you can't have a normal relationship-"

"What?" I cut in. "I am not!" I was steadily getting angrier. I had a lot of pent up anger at my sister from years of her ignoring me, and I was willing to let it all out.

"You don't know anything about me! You call me a freak, and ignore me. You're about as much of a sister as that doorknob is!" I was screaming at her now.

She glared at me, her eyes dangerously narrow.

"I'm leaving." I said, sticking my nose in the air. "And you can't stop me. Have a nice life with Vernon."

With that, I stormed past her, into the resturant. I muttered a hasty goodbye to my parents, who looked flabbergasted, but I didn't offer an explanation. No doubt they'd hear the entire thing from 'Tuney'.

I almost ran into the alleyway alongside the resturant, apparating to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Tom, give me a butterbeer." I said, pulling out my emergency supply of wizarding money. I turned around, going to find a table, but was stopped when I saw who else was spending their night in the Leaky Cauldron.

"Evans?"

You have got to be kidding me. I spend all year at school with him, and now he's showing up in my holidays too? For Merlin's sake, please let me have at least one Potter-free evening.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, staring at me over his own butterbeer.

I contemplated for a moment. It couldn't hurt to tell him the truth.

"Escaping a family dinner." I said honestly, cautiously sitting down opposite him.

"Why are you here? Alone? Where's Black?" The two of them were practically inseperable, so it was odd that James was here, by himself.

"Oh, he nicked off with some girl ten minutes ago. I was about to head home when you popped in." James grinned at me.

I sipped my butterbeer, smiling slightly back at him.

"Oh, Evans? I have a question." He asked, his lopsided grin wider now.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting.

"Will you go out with me?"

And there it was. The question again. He'd been asking me this for…about 3 years, and I said the same thing everytime.

"For the last time, Potter-"

This time, however, I didn't get to answer. A jet of red light cut me off.

I whirled around, pulling out my wand, James doing the same.

Avery and Mulciber were standing in the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron, grinning at us. They both raised their wands again, as did James and I.

"Stupefy!" The four of us said in unison.

The four jets of light collided, and rebounded in every direction. Tom ducked behind his bar,narrowly avoiding being hit by one. Another hit a table to my right, exploding it. The staircase behind James was similarly destroyed.

James walked up to stand beside me, and we squared off with our opponents, who were laughing manically.

"What the hell, Avery? You can't just walk in here and attack us!" James spat.

"Really Potter? Because what just happened says otherwise." Mulciber retorted, while Avery cackled on.

"Besides, she's fair game now. Mudblood." Avery sneered at me.

My fists curled up, and I raised my wand. James, however, beat me to it.

"Stupefy!" He said again, hitting Avery in the chest. Mulciber, however, was unharmed, and drew his wand on me, grinning at me evilly.

"Crucio." He hissed, and I collapsed on the floor, screaming.

"Lily?" He whispered, worry creasing his face, momentarily distracted from the duel.

I saw James look down at me, but then everything went black with pain. The last thing I saw was yet another jet of red light.