Title: Life Goes On and People Grow Up

Author: Evil-Angel-911

Summery: Things have changed for both Lily and James. It's there 6th year and life has turned upside down. Will they make it through alone? Or will they get some help?

Disclaimer: I am not the genius that is JK Rowling. Any character you recognize is completely hers.

Chapter: 6 – Potions Partners

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(I haven't gotten many reviews but I really want to get to the first REALLY good part of this story. I swear it's coming!)

Lily laughed all the way into the common room. Many people hid a smile. Lily's smiles were contagious and so rare lately it was a reminder there is light in the dark. Lily scanned the common room quickly and let the smile slid away. Alice was probably in the library writing to Frank like she said she would be. She was lost, truly lost.

Alone. She was alone. Her greatest fear had become a reality. Soon she began to think, "Was I ever not alone. In a way maybe I was always alone. But then again am I ever really alone. I'm sure I'm not. Then how come I feel so cold and empty?" Lily sighed and walked slowly to the portrait to make her way to breakfast.

James watched her go from behind her. The face that used to be alight with laughter and joy had crashed down into a state of depression where nothing but pain and loneliness lay. He watched her go feeling her pain. He looked around the common room and noticed a lot were looking at her retreating back as well. James was about to go after her when he though better of it. They weren't exactly friends yet. She was vulnerable, that's the only reason she talked to him. He had to do something though.

He ran out the portrait and turned into a hidden passage down to the library. He entered through a back door and looked to find Alice sitting by herself scribbling on a piece of scrap paper. He pulled out her wand and levitated a piece of paper onto the table. She gasped and looked down at the paper below her. James wrote in midair and it appeared on the paper. Lily needs you! She's alone. That's all Alice needed. She took out her quill and wrote a quick response, gathered her things quickly and ran out of the library in search of Lily.

James ran over to the desk and picked up the paper. Thank you Lily's hero! Yours Alice. Lily's hero, he liked the sound of that. He took the paper and tucked it in his pocket before realizing he was in the library. He ran away out the back door away from this terrible place. The restricted section was the only livable area in the whole place. He quickly ran out the backdoor and was in the common room again in less than a minute.

As he opened the door he found Remus sitting by the fire place reading a book. He looked up at James and smiled. "Sirius and Peter already are down at breakfast." Remus said closing his book. "You know how those two are about food." James nodded and the two made there way to the great hall the normal way, in no particular rush to eat. "Where were you Prongs?"

"Don't make me relive the area!"

"Ahhh. The Library huh?"

"NOOOOO!!!!! Don't say the L word!"

"Sorry. If you hate it so much then why were you in there?"

"I was saving Lily."

Remus cast James a confused look but shrugged not pushing the subject. The two walked in a comfortable silence the rest of the way to the hall.

Alice rushed everywhere to find Lily and finally found her in the kitchens.

Lily sat at a small table in the corner of the kitchen surrounded by her favorite foods. She was looking straight up, as if she could see through the floor at all the smiling people, happy people, the people who didn't care! The people that didn't see, hear, touch, feel, LIVE it! She let her eyes lose focus from tears and tried to banish them away. She didn't need the house elves asking why "Miss Lily" is sad.

Alice slowly walked over to Lily's table and sat down. Lily turned her eyes away from the ceiling to look at Alice. Not a tear had fallen from her eyes, they were all still in her eyes so she couldn't see anymore, like at any moment they would just all fall at once.

"Lily you shouldn't be alone."

Lily looked at Alice's honest face. "But I can't be with them either." She said pointing up where you could hear the happy chatter of the Ravenclaw students who sat above this table. "Why did you come to find me?"

Alice looked Lily in the eye. "I'm not leaving you alone when you're like this."

"But what if I want to be alone?"

"It will only hurt you more!"

"How did you know I was alone?"

"That doesn't matter. You just were and so I'm glad I'm here! Leaving you alone would be leaving you to feast on your sorrow. Melissa and Kate wouldn't you to do this to yourself." Lily looked down knowing that was true. "What were they always telling you to do?"

"Live my life." Lily said lifting her eyes from the table. Silent tears were now leaking out of her eyes.

"They were smart girls Lily. Do what they told you to do! They would want you to move on. You can't wallow in their deaths forever! As hard as you try, you can't or you won't truly be living. You'll be wasting away, wasting your life, no better than the dementors kiss. You just need to find your patronus." Lily laughed at the horrible pun, wiping tears from her eyes. "No I'm serious! Live your life so they can finish theirs through you! They want you to be happy Lils. Just remember that."

Alice grabbed a slice of toast off the table and ate it. Lily smiled at Alice, regretting they had never been that close. "You're right Al."

"Aren't I always?"

"Almost always." Lily joked. Lily looked down at her watch in surprise. "Oh Merlin. We have to get to class Al!"

Alice looked at her watch also and nodded. The two walked to the staircase and parted. Lily went to the dungeons for Potions and Alice to north tower for her Divination lesson. Alice was very creative so she was able to keep the nutty professor happy with her odd predictions.

Lily made a quick pace to class and slid into an empty desk. She wondered who would be her partner now since Melissa was gone. Kate was a hopeless Potion brewer so she had not made it into the Newt course. She got her stuff out and ready keeping her eyes off the people coming in. Many people thought about sitting with her, she was an amazing student and a sure O but they didn't want to take Melissa's place.

Melissa hadn't been popular, just respected. She was smart and athletic so she could out wit and out play anyone who took her on. She was on the Gryffindor quidditch team as Chaser. When she first came to Hogwarts she was made fun of. She was a muggle born with unruly hair and a strong opinion and a bit of a show off. She had changed her life around. The Slytherins wouldn't even call her names to her face in fear. Not that people feared her, though Slytherins were a different story.

Professor Wilkes soon burst through the door. Lily was too busy smiling at Melissa's memory to realize someone had sat down next to her. She looked up in horror to see Severus Snape sitting next to her. Across the room, James was scowling like no tomorrow. Lily shrugged slightly knowing Snape was good in potions and so it would keep her grade up enough. Wilkes looked around the room eager to change seats around to make his students angry. It was his hobby to mess with his student's lives. "I will be switching you partners a bit. Lestrange and Black." Bellatrix stood to move to the desk. "No Mr. Black." Sirius stared at him in disbelief but all the same gathered his things and plopped down to Lestrange who did look too happy himself. Lily took Sirius' old seat and sat next to Peter who gave her a weak smile.

Truth be told, Peter didn't like Lily. She was all James ever talked about and that got really annoying. A lot of the time Prongs would be too busy with Lily to help him. He was a bit jealous but Lily got enough of that already for being pretty, smart, strong, clever, and all around perfect. The teacher looked at Lily and smiled at his least favorite student. He was a bit prejudice, though not to the extent of a death eater, he thought mudblood was an awful thing to call someone, but he was head of Slytherin house and a pureblood. He used to dislike Melissa most. She had spunk and could counter anything he said. If he said take a seat she would walk down to the other side of the room to sit with the person she wanted. Wilkes cast an eye around the room for Lily's nightmare of a partner. He saw that most of the male population had their eyes closed in prayer.

Snape's eyes were glancing regularly at Lily. She had respect from him since she had saved him last year, or at least tried. James eyes were glued on the desk. He was praying so hard that Professor Wilkes would remember how the two fought last year.

Wilkes eyes finally landed on a student. "Miss Evans," the boy population, even the Slytherins held their breathe in hope. "And Miss Bellatrix Black." Lily's heart dropped. Bellatrix was one, horrible at potions, and two, was VERY pure blood crazy. A wild smile lit Bellatrix's face as walked over to Lily's desk. Professor Wilkes had a smile on his face from his achievement of torture and continued pairing people off with their worst enemies.

Professor Wilkes was almost laughing by the time he was done. He had Potter with Snape, Evans with Miss B. Black, Pettigrew with Macnair, and Lupin with Miss N. Black. By the time he was done the 5 famous Gryffindors were in hell. "Well now, let's get started." He waved his wand at the board. "Your task is on the board, begin."

Lily looked over at Bellatrix who was looking at her. "Um…. I guess we should start."

"We?" said Bellatrix.

Lily rolled her eyes inside her head. "We're working on two separate potions for two separate grades. If you need my help you can ask for it but I'm not doing it for you."

Bellatrix sent her a death glare and walked to get her ingredients. "Accio Ingredients." Called Lily and all her ingredients flew to her causing many people to scowl because they were too stupid to think of doing that. Lily began cutting up her ingredients perfectly as Bellatrix sat down. She smiled over at Lily. "Help?" she said innocently.

Lily rolled her eyes at how naive people thought she was. She held up her knife in front of Bellatrix's nose causing her to jump. "Cut." Lily said simply. Turning back to her cutting she heard Bellatrix not so quietly murmur. "Mud blood."

Lily's knife stopped cutting. She turned to Bellatrix who wasn't even trying to look innocent by cutting her ingredients. She was smiling at Lily. It was a true Bellatrix Black thing. She smiled when she was thinking about ……… things. She smiled at Lily a lot through out the years. When she was teasing her or chasing her. Lily knew how to deal with it though. If she could face death eaters, she could face Bellatrix, though it was probably the same thing. "What did you say Miss Black?"

Bellatrix smiled. "I was just stating the fact that you don't deserve the right to hold a wand let alone go to Hogwarts." Lily smiled back at Bellatrix and returned to her cutting barely remaining calm. She really didn't like what Black just said.

"Well if I don't deserve to be here, you don't either because though your blood is pure, your magical talent, as far as your grades show anyway, is no better than a squib's." Lily said keeping her eyes on her newt's tail. She had said this rather loud so most of the potions class was staring at Lily and Bellatrix. No one had ever heard Lily be that mean or angry except with James. She had just said that to the most powerful and insane person in school. True, Bellatrix Black wasn't the best student, she did do pretty will in defense against the dark arts and was rumored to be a good dark arts student too. She could throw any hex in the book. Only reason she even passed charms was because of the hexes. Lily herself was good in every class. Top student in charms, second best in potions, Sirius was just a bit better, forth in defense, Remus was top closely followed by James then Snape, tenth in Transfiguration, her worst subject, Top student in Arithmancy, Second behind Sirius in Astronomy because he is a star, top in Herbology, and tied with James for top student in Care of Magical creatures. Lily was the smartest girl in school. All the Ravenclaws were really jealous.

Bellatrix had never felt so angry at Evans before in her life. Lily worked for the rest of the period ignoring the stares and glares she was receiving. She was determined to live her life. Finally to her relief her potion turned a deep red giving off a light pink smoke like it was supposed to. She put it into a flask, walked to the front of the room and handed over the Beatle Bay Potion to the Professor. Lily cleaned up quickly and watched as Bellatrix's potion gave off small blasts spraying green smile on the table. Lily decided it couldn't hurt. She held up a bit of dragon tail and gave it to Bellatrix. "Put two slices of this in. It should get you back to right before you added the Cornish Pixie wings." Bellatrix snatched the Dragon tail from Lily and pushed Lily back down into her chair. "You're welcome!" Lily whispered to herself.

Sirius watched Lily from across the room. (Ha. Not James, Sirius. I fooled you didn't I!) If he knew his cousin at all, which he hoped he didn't, she was brewing not only a potion but a plan of revenge. He watched as Lily relaxed in her chair. Like him, Lily had already completed the simple potion assigned. She cast an eye over at Sirius and saw him looking back. She sent him a smile and turned back to watching Bellatrix's potion misbehave. Sirius and everyone else in the school knew Lily could take care of herself but it didn't stop him from worrying himself into insanity about her. Lily was a danger to herself for a few reasons. She was a muggle born so there is a quarter of the school that is out to hurt her. She also just happened to be the prettiest girl in school, which Sirius could not deny, so all of the boys in Hogwarts were out to molest her, not including the marauders of coarse, though it had probably crossed James' and Sirius' minds once or twice. Then she had the best grades in school so that's every Ravenclaw out to kill her, either that or to worship her. Now the whole Voldemort thing was going on so Sirius felt it was his duty to become somewhat of a brother to her.

On the other side of the room James bottled his potion and brought it to the Professor. He caught Sirius' eye and both boys smiled. 'Ah First Prank of the year!' thought James in glee. He let his eyes go over to Lily and let his smile drop. It would not be good for her to be here for it. He looked back up at Sirius and shook his head nodding it towards Lily. Sirius nodded understanding and held up his mirror. James smiled and took out his own seeing Sirius' face in it.

"We'll do it in Divination on Snape okay?" said James.

"Yeah. That way we don't feel the wrath of Lilykins, the irritable." Both boys laughed and put their mirror back in their pockets.

Not a second too soon the bell rang for the end of class and the class all but ran out the door, away from Bellatrix's potion.

Lily walked quickly towards Care of Magical creatures, trying to put as much space between herself and Bellatrix. The marauders formed a line going across the whole hallway separating Lily from the rest of the class. 'This is going to be a long year!' Thought Sirius to himself as he blocked Avery from getting past the marauder wall causing Avery to fall to the floor. 'Hey this is actually quite fun.' Sirius thought to himself as he tripped Nott who was trying to pass as well. 'Maybe this long year can be fun.'

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I am SO sorry for how long this took. I was grounded off the computer for a time and I had writers block to boot but I made this chapter extra long so enjoy!

Melissa

Ps. I write faster if I get reviews :)