"What did McGonagall want with you?" Ariel asked that night at dinner. Lily hadn't returned to classes for the rest of the day, and she hadn't spoken all evening.

"Nothing," Lily lied. She wasn't going to say anything about it. Anything that happened at Hogwarts could be found out. Anything that was written down could be used as evidence. Even just talking was dangerous, because of things like the Pensieve. She couldn't even tell Cameron about it.

"Lily, come on, talk to me. It can't have been that bad."

"I found out more about what happened with our parents," Lily said. "Do you really want to go there?"

"I guess not," Ariel said. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," she said, aware that she was coming off cold. "I think I'm just going to go to bed."

"Night Lily," Ariel said sadly.

Lily got up from her spot at the table and wandered up to the Ravenclaw common room, the conversation from earlier in the day swirling around in her head.

"Your father's fifth year was after Lord Voldemort had returned. Of course, people in high up positions didn't believe him, mainly because they refused to believe somebody that terrifying could return. At the end of that year, Harry Potter, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood infiltrated the ministry's Department of Mysteries, where they found a prophecy about Harry and Lord Voldemort. It was the prophecy that made Voldemort go after your father."

"Professor, not trying to be rude, but what is your point?"

"I think you need to know as much as you can about your father's time at school. It might turn out to be useful to know when the time comes when you have to fulfil the prophecy."

"But, I don't want to fulfil the prophecy," Lily said. "It sounds dangerous."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, Miss Potter."

Lily slept fitfully that night, her brain coming up with a million different scenarios concerning the fulfilment of the prophecy. When she woke up in the morning, she was cold, weak and scared. She didn't want anything to do with Divination or the prophecy ever again. Wondering what to do, she pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote a letter to her brother in Australia.

James, she started it. And Kim.

I hear you two aren't coming back to England. I don't know why, but I'm sure it has something to do with Kim's wish to be near her brother. I respect your decision. But I can't help hating you just a little bit. This big thing has just happened at school, and I can't talk to Ariel or Cameron about it. I would love for you two to be nearby at this very time, but I know that's not going to happen. Hopefully they won't start searching the mail so that I can talk to you freely, but I think it's going to come. I hope it's later rather than sooner though.

James, I wrote to ask you what you know about dad's time at Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall thinks it could save me from making a really horrible decision. I know you probably don't know much, because I don't know that much, but anything you know could be really helpful. I won't say anymore here.

Kim, I sent your birthday present with this. My uncle George recommended it to me for you. It's a colour changing cloak, so don't wear it out in public unless it's an all wizarding town. I really miss the two of you, and I hope you change your mind and come back... soon.

Happy Birthday Kimmy.

Love, Lily.

Satisfied, Lily grabbed the present she'd wrapped for Kim out of her trunk and slipped the parchment in with the cloak, then put it back in her trunk. She'd sneak out this weekend and mail it in muggle post. She wasn't going to send an owl halfway across the world.

Down at breakfast, she remained quiet, as she didn't feel like talking to anybody. Cameron sat with her this morning, but she still didn't feel up to talking, and he could sense something was wrong. When he asked Ariel, she only said that she wasn't going to talk about it to anybody. By the end of breakfast, Lily had eaten exactly nothing.

"Liy," Cameron said. "You need to eat something. You practically slept through most of last year, which depleted your strength. Come on. Just one piece of toast?"

Lily, still opting not to talk, shook her head. She recalled all too well the parts of the previous year that she'd been awake for. And it wasn't very long. After Christmas, she'd been out of school for half a week after being hit in the head with a bludger, then she hadn't been able to write for another week, then she'd been unconscious for two weeks after she'd taken a sleeping potion with crushed rose petals in it, which she was allergic too, and spent a further two weeks away from school as per the healer's request. Finally, she had been unconscious for another week following a battle she'd had in the Forbidden Forest with some evil wizards that were after Kim.

"Cameron's right, Kim," Ariel said. "You should eat something."

Lily ignored the both of them and stalked off to her first class of the day, Defence Against the Dark Arts. When she arrived, she saw what was on each of the desks.

"Professor?" she asked timidly. She wasn't looking forward to the next year of school. Especially if it looked like Professor Wilson wouldn't let them use wands or magic.

Professor Wilson turned around and saw who it was, a look of disgust forming on her face.

"Why are we in a new seating plan?"

"I'll explain later," she said viciously. "Find your seat and wait for your classmates to arrive."

Wondering what was going on, Lily found her seat at the back of the third column of desks. Next to Ariel, but nowhere near Cameron.

When everybody had arrived, and found their seats, Professor Wilson turned to face the class. "As you may have noticed, I have changed your seating plan. Before, you sat with whoever you liked. Now, you are sitting according to blood status."

"Blood status?" Taria Smith asked. She was sitting in the middle column of desks.

"For example," Wilson continued as if Taria had said nothing, "Miss Umbridge is a pure-blood. As such, she is sitting in the pure-blood column."

"That's barbaric," Peter Rellis, a Slytherin, said. "You can't judge people's abilities according to their lineage."

"Oh yeah?" Wilson asked. "The most powerful wizards of all time have all been purebloods."

"If you're referring to Lord Voldemort," Lily said, "he was a half-blood. Perhaps you should get your facts straight before you start preaching to a class."

"Grindelwald?"

"Muggle-born, actually."

"Severus Snape?"

"He was a half-blood too," Lily snapped. "Are you done quizzing me, or would you like me to remind you that my aunt was a muggle-born and she kicked your arse when she was in her fifth year?"

"Don't be insolent, Miss Potter," Professor Wilson said. "Did you complete that essay that I assigned you?"

"Oh, did you only assign it to me? I didn't do it, and do you want to know why? Because I disagree completely with the idea it presented. Also, my hand was hurting."

"Detention, Miss Potter."

"Okay," Lily said. "Just as long as you don't get me to write lines. I'm planning on crushing my hand again, and if I do that I won't be able to write for a while."

"You'll be writing lines. In my sixth year, my Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher made all her detention students write lines. It was a very good way of getting a message drilled into somebody. Of course, I don't claim to be anywhere near as good a teacher as Professor Umbridge was, but I will try my best."

Lily went pale. She just had to mention Professor Umbridge, didn't she? As she tried to calm down, Professor Wilson went along with the class, and everybody else was taking notes.

"Are you okay, Lily?" Ariel asked.

"What do you think?" Lily replied stonily.

"She shouldn't have brought her up like that," Ariel said. "Trust me, I'm as angry about it as you are."

"I don't think you are, Ariel," Lily said. "I don't think you've ever had an unfogiveable curse placed on you. I don't think you've ever been ambushed by what should be a mental patient in the middle of Hogsmeade. I don't think you quite know exactly what's happened between your mother and me, so I'd stay out of it if I were you."

Ariel narrowed her eyes. "That hurt."

"I don't care," Lily said, picking up her bag. Standing up, she walked straight out of the classroom. Cameron made to follow her.

"Forget about it, Taylor," Ariel said from the other side of the classroom. "She's not in the mood to talk."

Professor Wilson turned around. "Where is Miss Potter? Miss Umbridge?"

"She left," Ariel said. "I don't know where she is, and frankly I don't care."

Lily was in the Prefect's bathroom. She ignored all the bells for the rest of the day, and it wasn't until dinner time when she realised that this was the second day in a row where she'd skipped all of her classes. She wasn't going to go down to dinner either. She felt guilty for snapping at Ariel earlier that day. She didn't want to apologise either. Everything that had happened the day before had made Lily bitter towards everybody. Being around people was dangerous.

Somebody entered the bathroom after dinner would have finished. Sitting down next to her on the side of the giant bath-tub, they waved a plate of food in front of her nose.

"You haven't eaten since breakfast yesterday," Cameron said. "You need food."

"I'm not hungry."

"Lily, if you don't eat anything, you'll faint, and then it'll be a repeat of last year. I don't want that to happen again. Come on, eat."

"I'm not hungry," Liy repeated. "And you can't make me eat. I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions."

"You've been an adult for a day," Cameron pointed out. "You're acting like you've been an adult for twenty years. What's wrong?"

"Do you think I'm essentially evil?"

"No, why would you even ask that?"

"No reason," she said, taking a slice of pizza off the plate and picking at it. He raised his eyebrows at her. "When McGonagall took me out of class yesterday, she told me that Professor Trelawney had made another prediction, that it concerned me. It said something about choosing to do good or evil to determine the future of the wizarding world. I'm just wondering why there would be any question about me choosing good."

"Maybe there'll be circumstances beyond your control?" Cameron asked. "Look, does it really matter? How about you just forget about this prophecy and we can all just get on with our lives. Otherwise, you'll think about it too much, and then you'll become a complete bitch to your friends. Oh wait, that already happened."

"Don't," Lily said. "I'm sorry I'm being a party pooper, but I don't think I can forget about it that easily. It has something to do with Wilson, and Wilson idolises Umbridge, which means that whatever happens, it's just going to circle right back around to me."

"Lily?" Cameron said, lifting her chin up. "Don't worry about it. Please, I hate seeing you like this, and so does Ariel. She feels horrible about what happened during class today, and I'm fairly sure she didn't do anything wrong. It won't bother you if you won't let it bother you."

"Fine," Lily said. "I'll forget about it. Or I'll try. But first, I have to go talk to Professor Flitwick."

Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter. Mega writer's block on this whole story, so it's taken me a while.

So, what does Lily have to go see Flitwick about? Find out next chapter!

Love Gabielle xx