A/N: Thanks to my beta Anna!

3. Thestrals

(Seventh Year)

A dragonish face of nightmares; long, black manes; great leathery wings, and visible bones belonging to a skeletal body that should be hidden away by flesh.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. The eyes of those creatures were empty and white. These souls were dead.

Lily stood before them in her final year of Hogwarts, frozen under their haunting stare. In theory, if she stood perfectly still and quiet, perhaps the mysterious creatures wouldn't attack her with their powerful wings and dangerous looking hooves. Just when she thought the magical world couldn't get any stranger, she came back to Hogwarts and found unnerving creatures she'd never seen before, pulling carriages to the castle.

Perhaps she was just wary of them because they reminded her of horses, animals she'd never been particularly keen of. They didn't look particularly friendly, and she was afraid her classmates might be in danger.

"Lily! Lily, are you coming in the carriage or what?"

Her friends from inside one of the carriages had been calling her name for several minutes, beckoning for to her to hurry up and get in. They'd saved her a seat. She wanted to join them but moving seemed impossible, as if the beasts had cast done a non-verbal Petrification spell on her.

"What are those?" Lily asked with a gulp.

Her friends looked back at her blankly. "What are what?" one of them replied.

"What are those?" Lily pointed at one of the frightening creatures.

One of her friends stuck their head out of the carriage window, looked back and forth, searching for what Lily was pointing her finger at, and then eyed at her confusedly.

"What are you on about, Lily?"

"She's only been Head Girl for a few minutes and she's already gone mental!"

Her friends laughed in chorus. They fell silent when Lily didn't join in. Lily studied her friends; nobody else seemed to be bothered by the creatures, or even knew they existed. Perhaps she was hallucinating?

"Lily, are you okay?" one of them asked. "Do you feel ill? Come in the carriage so we can get you back to the castle and you can lie down—"

"No," she snapped. She softened at her friend's look of hurt. "No," she repeated, calmer. "I'm not going in the carriage until somebody tells me what that creature pulling it is—"

"I can tell you," a soft whisper tickled her ear. Lily jumped in surprise, grabbed for her wand in her pocket and stuck it at the throat of the person behind her. She withdrew her wand –slowly, mind you— upon discovery of who it was: James Potter rubbing his recently bruised throat.

"I don't want any of your nonsense this year, Potter," Lily warned him. She was practising one of her well-formed glares in his direction for him to take the hint and leave, when James said something that stunned her, so confidently asserting yet so quiet only he and Lily could hear.

"I can tell you about the beasts pulling those carriages."

He wore a look that she'd never seen before, a look that was sad. So she hadn't been hallucinating after all. James knew what she was on about. She wasn't going insane.

However, she would have chosen anyone but him to explain the beasts to her. Anyone but him to divulge knowledge of something she didn't know and wanted desperately to find out about.

"Want me to walk you to the castle?" he asked, offering his arm to link with. Lily looked at his arm dubiously; it had been a bold move of his.

"You want to know about the beasts, right?" And there was the Marauder Grin she knew too well. The grin said it all: take my arm or I won't tell you anything.

"Fine," Lily replied brusquely, accepting his arm.

"Er, Lily, what are you doing?" one of her friends asked, oggling at the spectacle that was James Potter and Lily Evans in arm and arm.

"It appears Potter has offered to walk me to the castle." Lily looked at James briefly; he gave a little smirk. "I've accepted. Change of scenery and all. I'll see you guys later."

Her friends seemed disturbed by the sight of the two of them together, but they didn't intrude, waving her goodbye. Lily's eyes followed the creatures with every step they took towards Hogwarts.

"Shall we?" James asked politely, gesturing for them to move forward.

"Cut to the chase, Potter." Lily started to walk at such a fast speed James struggled to keep in time, the redhead practically cutting the blood circulation in his arm. "What were those creatures back there?"

"Walk slower. And they're called Thestrals."

Lily stopped momentarily, repeating the creature's name in her mind. It sounded familiar but she knew nothing about them.

"Can you see them too?" she asked James.

James paused before answering with a quiet, measured, "No."

Lily noticed James had hesitated before he answered. She wondered if he was lying. She hoped he was lying. She'd been disappointed by his response. She wanted him to see them like she did, so they could share something.

James continued, and Lily listened closely, "When I was in fifth year, I was boarding one of the carriages and saw this kid getting upset. He said he could see things, things pulling the carriages. I laughed about it with Sirius - told him the kid was mental. But the kid seemed so convinced that they were real. When I got back to the castle, I tried looking them up, beasts only specific people could see, but otherwise invisible to others. Found out they were called Thestrals.

"They're said to be omens of evil. Very clever - brilliant set of fangs, keen sense of smell. They're drawn by the scent of blood." He stopped; Lily looked as though she was going to be sick. "Wouldn't want to bump into one of those in a dark alley, eh?"

"I agree with you there. Despite their fearsome impression, they are rather beautiful," Lily mused thoughtfully, watching the last Thestral pull a carriage in the distance. All of a sudden she remembered something odd.

"Why can I see them and others can't?"

James turned white. He avoided her eyes and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "Luck, I suppose," he responded feebly. "Well, we better hurry back." He started walking again but Lily stood her ground, unsatisfied with his answer.

"You're lying."

"What?"

"You're lying." Lily forbid him from moving by locking onto his arm. "Come on Potter, no need to lie to protect me. I can take it. Go on," she urged him. "Spit it out."

James took a deep breath and was gentle when he broke the news to Lily.

"You've witnessed and accepted a… death."

Lily sucked in a gasp at his words. Horrified, she untagled her arm from James and took a step backwards to distance herself from him.

"No-one's supposed to know about that," she murmured on the verge of tears.

"Lily," James started.

"I didn't even know them," she suddenly blurted out, looking awfully guilt-ridden. "I didn't even know who they were…"

"What happened?" James asked, closing the distance between them again.

"You know that Death Eater attack on Diagon Alley the other day?" Lily said in a shaky voice.

"Yes," James replied, not liking where this was headed.

"Well, I was there," Lily revealed. "I'd gone with my parents - Muggles, they are - to get my school books and equipment this year. Then… well, you know, that Dark Mark had come up. It was utter chaos, everyone was panicking and I'd got separated from my parents. I ended up lost in Knockturn Alley of all places.

"I heard voices following me so I turned down another alley and hid in the shadows. The voices came from a Death Eater chasing this wizard. I looked round the corner of the alley and saw them: the Death Eater had the wizard at his knees, sobbing. The Death Eater said…"

She stopped, her face of sorrow switching to one of fury at the memory.

"He said 'don't die on your knees like a coward now, stand so I can kill you and hear your body hit the ground'," she spat, shaking her head in resentment. "I watched the wizard try to stand, but he couldn't - he was shaking too much.

"I refused to keep quiet and watch the innocent man die. He reminded me of my father, for Merlin's sake. I shouted at the Death Eater to stop and came out of the alley, but it was too late. Saw green and heard his body hit the ground just like the Death Eater had said. He was going to kill me next since I exposed myself, but a Death Eater pal of his called from further up the alley and said they had to leave. It was a shame - I wouldn't have minded a duel with him."

James hated to say it...

"But you would have died."

He almost expected a slap from Lily, but she didn't look offended in the slightest.

"Probably," she agreed, astounding James. "Died standing, though."

James couldn't help but give Lily a proud smile at that.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Lily." James squeezed her arm.

"I'm sorry, too."

When James leant forward Lily thought he was actually going to dare to kiss her, but he'd only come closer to whisper something in her ear. He had the habit of doing that - whispering things in her ears that didn't need to be.

"Want to know a secret?"

"Hmm?" His face is too close, Lily thought.

"I can see the Thestrals, too."

She'd figured that, really.

"When I wish we had something in common so you'd get to know me better, I was hoping it would be an interest like Quidditch or stamp collecting," James kidded.

Lily managed a small smile.

"Shall we?" James offered his arm for her to take once again, waving his hand in the direction of the castle. Lily took it without any hesitation, finding herself clinging onto his arm more than anything. She had an ache to get to know James Potter more this year, and find out whom he had witnessed die so he could cling onto her arm in turn. Lily could tell James had changed. Perhaps death had changed him.

Perhaps death had changed her.