It was late November already, and the air was getting crisper by the day. Soon the Hogwarts grounds would be covered in layers of snow. The Gryffindor girls (and most of the students, to be honest) tried to make the most of the time they had left until this would happen. They spent many hours lying lazily by the lake or taking a walk around it, or even doing homework under their favorite trees.

One Tuesday afternoon when all of them somehow managed to not have class at the same time, they decided to go for a walk, even though it was clearly too cold out to be doing this. They bundled up in their cloaks and scarves and mittens, and headed out.

"Remember when we were first years…" Mary said as she kicked through a huge pile of leaves.

"Stop being so sentimental," Briseida complained. "Can we save that for the spring at least?"

Mary fell back into the pile. "But first year was so much fun."

"No future to worry about," Marlene added, throwing some leaves at Briseida.

"No boy problems," Elizabeth said.

"No war." Lily sat down in the leaves softly and starting pulling one to pieces with her pale fingers.

All of the girls were silent for a long, long moment.

"Speaking of boys, should I be looking for a date to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Marlene asked.

Mary leaned over and pulled a leaf out of her hair. "Can we not? Dates are stupid. Boys are stupid."

Mary's three-month relationship with Griffen Boyd had ended a month ago and she had since decided to swear off love.

"I second that," Lily said.

"I don't think I can get out of going with Marc. But I'll be with you all in spirit," Elizabeth said.

Mary made a face at her.

"Bri?"

"Well, erm, I actually have a date… with Henry MacDougal."

"What?" the other girls exclaimed.

Briseida flushed. "It's not like I like him or anything, but he asked me and I felt really bad saying no. It's just one date."

Mary shook her head. "I'm so disappointed in you."

Briseida flicked her wand and a stream of crumpled leaves shot at Mary. "Stop. It's not a big deal."

"I think you guys will be cute together," Beth said, sticking her tongue out at Mary.

There was some more leaf-fighting, and Lily lay back and watched her friends attack each other. As much as she hated sentimentality, too, and as much as she knew that leaving Hogwarts wouldn't mean she was leaving them, she was going to miss this.


After Elizabeth and Briseida left for their dates that Saturday (after Mary made a lot of snarky comments at them), the remaining three girls wandered around Hogsmeade as though there was going to be a new store there that they had never noticed in their last four years of exploring Hogsmeade. They went in and out of a couple stores. They bought a bit of candy at Honeydukes, though all of the girls knew that they had a candy supply stocked up in their room that was large enough to hold them over for the rest of the year.

After a bit, they found out that one of the seventh year Hufflepuffs had brought a picnic blanket and that most of their year was hanging out on or around it over near the Shrieking Shack, so they went over there to see what was going on.

It really did seem like the entire year was there. A bunch of Hufflepuffs were lying on the picnic blanket, right next to the big collection of food that had been set up. Ravenclaws were sitting in the shade talking. Martin Shelsher was sitting against the base of a large oak tree, playing his guitar. The Mauraders were standing off to one side, talking to some Hufflepuff girls, who were laughing at something that was evidently very funny. Briseida and her date Henry were hanging out by the side, and Lily even spotted a couple of the Slytherins who didn't have their noses up their asses.

There were some notable absences - those who had decided to stop associating with some of their classmates as the war had worsened, and those who had left Hogwarts with increasing frequency over the last few months. As Head Girl, Lily had a stronger sense of this. Four students in seventh year alone had not returned from summer holidays.

But Lily and her friends were not thinking about that as they walked through the group and greeted their classmates and friends.

"Hey, Lily," a voice said from behind her, and she turned to find that it was Benjamin Davis, a Ravenclaw who Lily had had a bit of a pathetic crush on third year. But she had gotten over that, and a year later her first kiss had been with his best friend, Neil.

"Oh, hey, Ben. How's your year been going so far?"

He smiled. "Other than losing to Gryffindor, pretty well." Ben was a Beater for Hufflepuff. He had had a pretty good game, as far as Lily remembered, but he usually wasn't the best Quidditch player on the field. "How about yours?"

Lily shrugged. "You know, busy. I can't believe it's our last year already."

"Right?" he said. He looked around. "Merlin, as much as I've wanted to get out of here sometimes, I'm really going to miss this place."

"You've wanted to get out of here?" Lily asked, surprised. She'd never heard anyone say that about Hogwarts.

Ben looked back at her. "I get kind of claustrophobic here sometimes. And I'm ready to be done with school, you know? I'm ready to actually get things done. Get a job, a family…" He gave a small shrug.

"Huh," Lily said, honestly interested. She had never felt trapped at Hogwarts. Maybe it was because she was a Muggle-born. Ben was a half-blood, so he didn't have to return to a home where he was stuck in a world that wasn't his. He had one Muggle parent, but at least he had his Mum and siblings who understood him.

And the danger factor. Lily hardly ever thought about a job anymore. Her chances of getting a job in the wizarding world had been severely slimmed by the prejudices and fears surrounding the world, and she could not get a job in the Muggle world – she would not be able to handle that. She couldn't spend more of her life hiding who she was.

No, Lily knew exactly what she would be doing once she graduated. No matter what she told McGonagall about wanting to brew potions for medical usage and such, she knew that, until this war was over, she was going to be fighting.

"We should hang out some time," Ben said, bringing her back to reality. "You know, before we graduate and never see each other again."

Lily laughed softly. "Yeah, definitely."

"Great. See you in Herbology."

Just as Ben turned away, Lily felt a slight tug at her scarf, and it began to unwind itself from around her neck. "Potter…" she groaned, and turned around to see that she was right. Her scarf had unwound itself completely and, in a flash of gold and red, was now flying towards James Potter, who stood there with a smirk on his face.

Lily sighed and walked over. "Hey, Potter. You cold?"

"No, I just wanted to talk to you," he replied, playing with her scarf.

Lily reached out and grabbed it back. "A normal person would have come up to me and said, 'Hi, Lily, how's your day going?'"

James shrugged.

"Alright, what do you want to talk about?"

"Davis," he said, jerking his chin towards Ben, who was now looking through the food for something to eat.

Lily laughed hardly. "Why?" But she really already knew why.

"I don't like him."

"Wow, that is surprising. James Potter doesn't like a boy that I was talking to."

James made a face. "He's kind of a flake."

"He was just talking to me about how he can't wait to get out of Hogwarts so that he can settle down and have a family," she replied.

"Did I say flake? I meant he was totally overbearing."

Lily snatched her scarf back and wrapped it around her neck. "Sure. Potter, I'm allowed to talk to boys, because we aren't dating, and even if we were, which we never will, I would still be able to talk to boys, because you don't control me. And don't even try and make me look like some kind of bad guy or slag or whatever, because I saw you over there flirting with Sameena not two minutes ago."

James raised an eyebrow. "Sameena? I was not flirting with Sameena." He laughed as though the idea was ridiculous.

"Might want to tell her that," Lily replied. Sameena Jadhav was one of the most universally liked and respected Hufflepuffs at Hogwarts, probably because she was quite beautiful, with gorgeous black hair and kind eyes. Lily had heard rumors that she had decided she wanted a real boyfriend, and that she had her eyes on James. So even if James truly had not considered it to be flirting, she probably had.

"But you were looking over at me?" James asked, waggling his eyebrows at her.

Lily swatted him lightly. "Oi, Remus!" she called, and Potter's whole crew turned around. "Where's Potter's leash? He's being bad again."

"For once it's not me who needs to be put on a leash," Sirius replied.

Remus simply shook his head, amused. "Come on, James."

James made a face at all of them and then walked back towards his friends, and Lily disappeared quickly into the crowd in search of her own, so that when James turned around, he couldn't find her.


It was insanity, it was busy every minute, it was too much homework to ever get any sleep, but Lily loved it. Hogwarts may not have been the oasis that it had once been, but it was still Lily's home.

But just after Lily had gotten back in to the swing of things, just as she was started to let herself go and really enjoy her final year at Hogwarts (with all the sentimentality that came with that), she began to realize something that brought the issue of "What happened with Potter that night?" right back in her face. There was no putting it off anymore. Lily had to deal with it immediately.

And there was only one way to find out exactly what had happened.


A/N: (I don't usually write A/N but I've noticed that isn't bolding things correctly... or at least they don't look bolded on my laptop)

Anyway, that was a fast update! I got really excited, so... Something big is coming up in the next chapter, so get excited!

As always, thanks for reading.

xoxo -writergal24