The fight, or whatever it was, with Severus had a bigger effect on me than I had thought, or even hoped. I had just sat through the remainder of the classes without thinking much and the worst thing was that I couldn't even talk to Mary, or anyone else, about it. They would see it as another occasion to try to alienate me from Severus and I wasn't sure if I should want that. After all, he had been my first magical friend, the one who had told me all about this world. I felt like I owed him this. Although we didn't share the same beliefs on this particular point, I didn't think I could live with myself if I broke off all contact with him.

The next morning, of course, the Daily Prophet came with new attacks, but before I could so much as glance at Mary's paper, I heard my name being called. Looking up, I saw Professor McGonagall standing in front of me.

"Miss Evans, could you follow me, please?" she asked. Knowing it was more of an announcement than a real question, I nodded and silently followed her. I didn't want to think about what could be wrong, but something had to be the matter. During weeks like this, you weren't told to follow the Head of your House for nothing.

"Please take a seat, Miss Evans," a voice I didn't know told me as I entered McGonagall's office. I obeyed almost automatically and only then I saw who had addressed me. A middle-aged man looked at me with piercing eyes and I felt slightly intimidated.

Professor McGonagall closed the doors moments later, and I noticed that Professor Dumbledore was there too. The anxious feeling I had had before seemed to only grow bigger every second.

The strange wizard behind McGonagall's desk continued to watch me with his piercing eyes and I shifted slightly. I hated not knowing what was going on, and now even more, since I was probably the only person in the room who didn't know it.

"Now, Alastor," Dumbledore said, addressing the stranger, "why don't you tell Lily here what is going on?"

The strange man, who's name obviously was Alastor, didn't turn to look at Dumbledore, but instead, one of his eyes (which, as I took a better look at it, didn't seem like a real human eye at all) curtly flicked towards the Headmaster. Then, both eyes were back at me again. "Miss Evans – I suspect you will have an idea of why you're here, am I correct?" he asked.

"Yes – sir, I think I do," I replied shakily. I suddenly wasn't so sure if I really wanted to know which horrible fate my family had suffered.

"Well then, Miss Evans – my name is Alastor Moody, and I am an Auror. I'm sorry to inform you that your family has been attacked early this morning."

I gasped loudly – this was exactly what I had been afraid for. Unable to speak, I just looked from Moody to McGonagall to Dumbledore, but it was Moody who spoke again. "It's not in the Prophet, in case you were wondering. It happened after the Prophet was already printed. Anyway – the reason why we are telling you this only now is because we have been busy securing your family until a short time ago."

I blinked a couple of times. "What – what do you mean, securing – " I couldn't say much else, but they seemed to have understood me all the same.

"Your family was lucky, Miss Evans, for there happened to be a few Aurors some blocks away. They were at the scene before the Death Eaters could do too much damage. Those cowards fled. The entire department has been working on the case for the past few hours."

I felt as if a large weight fell from my shoulders. "So – they're alive?" I asked incredulously.

"They are, Miss Evans," Moody confirmed. "A little shocked, but alive. You don't happen to have any idea why Death Eaters were so keen on attacking your family, do you?"

My heart sank as I thought about my talk with Severus the day before. Surely he hadn't been ordered to do so? And when I refused to join, he didn't tell You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters, right? I didn't want to believe that the attack on my family had anything to do with Severus, I almost wanted it to be just a random attack, but what were the odds of that?

"Lily, it's important that you tell us what you think – anything could be important for the investigation," Dumbledore pressed.

I quietly shook my head, looking down at my hands. "No, I have no idea, sir," I answered, only half lying.

Moody looked like he would want to interrogate me a little more, but he didn't. I suspected that Dumbledore and McGonagall had sent him some looks from behind me.

"Well then, Miss Evans, then I think you may be excused," McGonagall said nervously. "Or was there anything else, Alastor?"

"No," Moody grumbled. "That was all. Oh, Miss Evans – I suggest that you don't immediately mail your parents. They might expect you to do that and they would just have to follow your owl to find your family again. Although they're better protected now, it wouldn't be smart to risk that. They will contact you when it is safe."

I nodded numbly and got up from my chair. Making my way towards the door, I glanced at my two Professors for one more time. Dumbledore sent me an encouraging smile and I knew that there was no way that I couldn't tell my friends. Even if it would never be in the Daily Prophet (of which I wasn't even sure), they surely knew that something was probably wrong the moment I was called away.

And indeed, as soon as I entered the classroom, all eyes were turned to me. Professor Flitwick, who had probably been filled in on what happened already, gave me a small smile but didn't say anything. When I sat down, whispers broke out and they didn't cease until class was over, annoyingly enough.

I walked back towards the common room as quickly as I could (I had a free period next) but I knew I couldn't escape my friends. As I plopped down on a couch, Mary immediately ambushed me together with our two other friends and dorm mates, Marlene McKinnon and Alina Rodgers.

"Lily! What happened? What did McGonagall want? Did something happen to your parents? Are you alright?" Mary started rapidly firing off questions at me.

"Mary, let the girl speak," Marlene told her, pulling Mary away from me so I could breathe a little again.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Potter and his friends lounging nearby, probably trying to overhear. "Let's go to our dorm," I mumbled to my friends, beckoning them upstairs.

"Well," Alina said as we were all seated, "tell us what happened, Lily. Considering the fact that you came to class, it won't be anything too bad, right?"

"No, you're right," I replied softly. I then told them what Moody had told me. In the end, I found myself crying anyway, although of course my parents and sister were still alive. They all huddled together on my bed for a group hug and we spent the rest of the day (approximately twelve hours, I guess) just talking and eating lots and lots of chocolate. Exactly what I needed, so to say.