Disclaimer: I had this dream, well a nightmare really, that I wrote a story using Character's from Harry Potter and ended up in jail for copyright. You know why I was in jail in my nightmare? Because I do not own any of the Harry Potter character's that I write about, only the awesome J.K Rowling does.

DEDICATION: This chapter is dedicated to I'mSiriuslyAmazing (yes you are:), EllieMoon, Periwinkle Clemens, klsklskls, the Guest Reviewer, Money Ninja, SkylardAinkrad, MissAya1109, Filiandkiliislife, JadeZinniaMarchetta, Fulminate, FranAdams-DaughterofAchelois and MaatsProdigy for reviewing! Thanks a million you guys, your reviews make my day! :D

Chapter 6:

Lily stared dejectedly at the dark ceiling above her.

She had spent the better half of the night searching for her lost bracelet, before the sound of Filch's mutterings had chased her to bed.

The last thing she needed was another detention.

So now, she lay miserable in bed, pondering the many different ways she could have lost it.

It was no use. Lily could not for the life of her, figure out when or where her bracelet had disappeared.

The sooner I accept that it's gone, she told her self firmly, the sooner I will get some sleep.

The key was to think positive.

Or, she amended, the sooner I find it, the sooner I'll get some sleep.

It was always good to be positive.

Rolling over and checking the time again, Lily decided it was early enough to be out of bed, without getting into in any trouble.

"Going somewhere?"

Lily jumped, surprised as Rebecca's voice interrupted her progress towards the dormitory door.

Rebecca did not sound tired at all, or even surprised that Lily was up. As a matter of fact, Lily decided as she studied her friend's face, Rebecca did not look like she had gotten any more sleep then Lily had.

"You're awake?" Lily voiced her surprised.

"Looks like it," Rebecca replied, rolling her eyes, "Come on, let's get some breakfast," she said as she hopped out of bed and began to get ready.

"Actually, I was going to-"

"Look for your bracelet?" Rebecca finished with a knowing grin.

Lily suddenly perked up, if Rebecca knew her bracelet was missing, maybe it meant she had taken it as a joke!

"Have you seen it?" Lily asked eagerly.

"Of course not, or else you would have it by now."

Lily deflated, "then how come you know it's gone?"

"Well firstly you're not wearing it, and as you've worn it every day I've known you, that's like me seeing you without your nose. Second, it's hard not to notice, as you keep rubbing your wrist like a damned possessed person."

Lily sighed, not appreciating Rebecca's usual snark. "I'm going to keep looking, you go and eat your breakfast."

Rebecca quickly caught up to Lily as she reached the door, "I'm coming with you," she huffed.

"Besides," she continued, with sudden trepidation, "we need to talk about something."

Lily froze in place for a moment.

'We need to talk' was very possibly the worst three words known to mankind. Said words, in that order, almost never bode well for the hearer. And Lily was certain that she was no exception to this rule.

When Rebecca didn't elaborate, Lily continued out of the common room, warier than before.

"What's up?" she asked after they had been walking for a while.

"Maybe we should look for your bracelet first, you won't find it if you're distracted." Rebecca stalled.

Lily spun around and threw her a disbelieving look.

"Well now I'm definitely going to be distracted. So you may as well just tell me now." Lily retorted. Her curiosity was peeked and she didn't have the patients to wait to hear what Rebecca had to say until after she'd found her bracelet. Because if that were the case, then Lily didn't like the odds that she'd ever get to hear what was bothering her friend.

"It's nothing, I'll tell you later." Rebecca said, trying and failing to sound convincing.

"Tell me now."

"Don't worry about it Lily."

"Oh come on, you can't just tell me not to worry, you know that will make me worry more!" Lily complained.

"Fine," Rebecca conceded exasperated, "we'll talk now."

Then taking a deep audible breath, she rushed out,

"I'm leaving."

"What?" Lily snapped, "No, you're telling me what's going on, you agreed! That's not what I meant by 'talk' Rebecca and y-"

"You know it," Rebecca finished with a small smile, "Yeah I do, and it is what you meant."

Lily waited, uncomprehending.

"Lily, I'm leaving. I'm leaving Hogwarts."

This made sense to Lily.

Then it got confusing.

"No you're not." She laughed at the absurdity of the idea. Rebecca was ambitious, she wasn't about to drop out of school. Not unless she had some Bill Gates worthy idea's in mind anyway. Not Even then.

"Tell me what's really going on." She demanded, sick of Rebecca skirting around the topic.

"I'm trying Lily! I'm leaving Hogwarts! I'm leaving the country. This country. OUR country. England. Going away. Not going to be here anymore." She snapped.

Lily stared, suddenly realising Rebecca's lips weren't twitching. And this, was the first thing about this whole conversation that really began to alarm her.

Because Rebecca's lips always twitched when she was lying.

Warning bells began to go off in her mind.

Because Rebecca had to be lying.

Right?

"Lily?" Rebecca asked, concerned, "Please say something."

"No."

"Well that's something I guess," Rebecca remarked dryly.

"No. No. No." Lily continued, "No you're not."

"Lil-"

"I don't believe you."

"Yes you do." Rebecca said, uncharacteristically soft.

"No I don't!" Lily snapped back, stubborn as ever.

"Lily, what do you want me to say?"

Lily wanted Rebecca to tell her that she was joking about leaving and that she did in fact have her bracelet. Ideally.

Opening her mouth to tell Rebecca this, Lily suddenly realised something that cut her short.

She had been a bad friend.

Was she really thinking about her bracelet now, when this conversation was supposed to be about Rebecca? About Rebecca's problems, and not her's? Was she really about to make this about her?

Now that Lily was really thinking about it, she had been rather self-absorbed lately. How had she missed the warning signs? Not of course, warning sign of Rebecca's sudden departure, (because who could see that coming?), but warning signs that something was distracting her.

Hadn't Rebecca always noticed and voiced her concern when Lily was distracted?

Thinking back, Lily could see the signs now that something had been bothering her friend, she had not been sleeping well, and that owl-

"That letter you got a couple of days ago, the one you wouldn't tell me about, did it have something to do with this?" Lily asked, despite the circumstances, still curious as ever.

"Yeah," Rebecca replied quickly, the words rushing out eagerly, Lily supposed Rebecca was relieved she still had the ability to speak coherently. "It was my acceptance letter."

"Acceptance letter?" She questioned confused. So Rebecca wasn't being forced to drop out of school then. And here Lily's overactive imagination had been going into overdrive beginning to imagine every tragic situation, from evil parents, to forced marriages, to deportations.

But this was even worse.

'Acceptance letter' meant that Rebecca was choosing to leave England. To leave Hoqwarts. To leave her.

She was choosing.

And that meant that Lily couldn't save her.

Unless she could change her mind.

"It's done." Rebecca said firmly, like always, seeming to know exactly what Lily was about to say. "I'm sorry Lily, I really am but there are opportunities in politics that America has that England doesn't."

"America!? Rebecca you hate America, ever since that time they beat us in the Quidditch world cup. You swore you would never step foot in there!"

"Lily I don't even like quidditch! You were the one who said that!"

Lily paused.

"Right. I did. But that's not the point, you still agreed! We had a pact!"

"Lily, you know how important politics is to me now, and 'America's Academy of Wizarding Legislation', is the best in the field. If I graduate from the academy, I'll have opportunities that aren't available to Hogwarts graduates."

Not being able to argue with this Lily took another route.

"But the school year has already started, you can't just change schools mid-year when you're in NEWT year." She told her triumphantly.

"The Academy starts later than Hogwarts does."

"Oh," Lily said, crestfallen. She just wasn't a good enough person to not feel upset about her friend's success.

"When does school start then?" Lily questioned, wondering how long she had to convince her friend that she would hate America.

Rebecca hesitated, "tomorrow."

This was too much for Lily to handle.

"And you're telling me the day before you leave." She shouted, not caring about the angry reproaches from the portraits surrounding them.

"The day I leave actually," Rebecca answered bashfully, "I was up packing my bags last night while you were gone looking for your bracelet."

Lily felt another twinge of guilt, had she really been so preoccupied that she hadn't noticed her best friend's things had all been packed away?

"I'm sorry Lily, I know I should have told you sooner, but, I just didn't know how. You were so upset about the whole Mocha and Potter thing, I didn't want you to think I was abandoning you or anything." Rebecca gushed, sorrowfully.

Lily's stomach dropped. She had not considered this problem yet.

Rebecca had been Lily's comforting box of tissues through every bad thing that had happened to her while at this school, through every unfair punishment of Mocha's, who much to Lily's displeasure had been lasting against the Defence Against the Dark Arts curse for longer than most people (It was her third year teaching!).

Rebecca had been Lily's outlet, her person to rant to about every other student that teased her. She was her personal diary, minus the having to write and getting a sore hand part.

Lily was not going to replace Rebecca with a diary.

Which meant she had no one, no real friend like Rebecca anyway.

"It's okay," She sighed, "I'm happy for you."

And that's when Lily began to cry. And she felt terrible for every second of it.

"I'm sorry, Lily" Rebecca said again, guilty.

"No, I'm the one who should be sorry," Lily refuted her, "You've achieved something great and I'm spoiling that for you. I don't sound very happy do I?" Lily choked.

"I think I'd be insulted if you did."

And then they were laughing. And hugging. And crying. And before Lily knew it, she was helping Rebecca take her things to the Headmaster's office, where she could take the flu network home, so she could spend her last day before her new school starts with her family.

Professor Dumbledore had left the room to give them some privacy, to which Lily was grateful, as she blubbered out her final goodbyes, made Rebecca promise to write every day, and finally waived as Rebecca disappeared through the flu.

Lily headed back from the headmaster's office alone and tired. She had lost her bracelet, a night of sleep and now her best friend.

Lily was beginning to seriously contemplate the merits of giving herself the day off, before she lost anything else. But then, Lily realised unhappily, if she skipped classes, then she definitely would be losing something; house points, and very possibly her free time. Whatever was left of it anyway.

As Lily headed down the curved staircase leading to outside the headmaster's office, she halted when she suddenly heard what sounded like raised voices.

Ducking behind a statue near the bottom of the staircase, Lily unabashedly tuned into the argument.

"Absolutely not." That was Dumbledore.

"Dumbledore," The angry male voice was unfamiliar to Lily, "given the circumstances it is entirely reasonable."

"The parents-"

"The parents would understand Albus," A sweet woman's voice interrupted the Headmaster. "They all have children."

"Be that as it may Dawn, I cannot ask them to allow their child to participate in dark magic."

This sparked Lily's interest, now things were really getting juicy.

Someone wanted to perform dark magic on the students of Hogwarts? And they were actually bothering to ask the Headmaster for permission?

Surely they knew he would never agree.

Lily couldn't help herself, she peeked around the corner of the statue so she could have a front row view of the argument unfolding.

The man scoffed harshly, "Dark magic!? Absurd. It's merely a blood test!"

"Blood magic of any sort to most wizards is considered dark John, it will give you a bad name if you ask this of my students." Dumbledore reasoned.

"We don't care about our reputation Albus, you must understand this, please," The woman pleaded, her desperate voice causing Lily to shift restlessly.

"I'm sorry Dawn, John, but there just isn't enough grounds to base this on, at this point in time your daughter's presence in this school is pure speculation. I told you I've gone through the records of all the students, none have any record of being adopted."

"But Albus," The man, who Lily was beginning to suspect was John Eves, which made this conversation a whole lot more interesting, continued angrily, "You know she must be here! We have spoken to all those that we personally invited, she must have been one of Petunia's invites, or one of her friend's plus one's, she must attend a local wizarding school, Hogwarts is the best place to start looking."

"Then look away my dear John, but I will not allow my students to be involved in blood magic." Dumbledore's tone dripped finality.

"You know we can't prove anything without official tests." Mr Evans said irritated.

"Then muggle blood tests!" Mrs Eves interrupted desperately, "It can't be considered dark magic, if it's not magic."

Mr Eves, threw her a disbelieving look, "A muggle test!?

Dumbledore on the other hand wasn't so quick to discard the idea, he stroked his beard thoughtfully.

"I see no reason why the test itself should be prohibited." He conceded at last, "however, I cannot force anyone to take the test, I can, however, formally request that all seventh years consider the proposal and decide if they wish to voluntarily consent, as for any younger year levels, I can send letters home, explaining the situation to parents and ask for their approval."

Dawn Eves let out a relieved breath, "thank you Albus."

The Professor inclined his head in acknowledgement.

Mr Eves on the other hand was not so quick to support the idea, "I've heard about those muggle tests! They can take up to a month for the results to come back!"

"You have waited 16 years, surely a few more weeks will not hurt anyone?" Dumbledore intoned.

Mr Eves opened his mouth to retort, but before he could say anything, Mrs Eves cast him a quelling look, to which he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Perhaps we should discuss this further in my office, it should be empty by now," Lily heard the Professor suggest, leaving her with only a minute to panic, before they reached her hiding spot.

Lily quickly glanced at her wrist watch, it was 20 minutes into period 1. It was ridiculous, even when Lily didn't sleep, meaning sleeping in wasn't an option, she still couldn't manage to get to class in time.

Scanning her timetable to see which class she had first, Lily couldn't stop the groan that escaped her.

Of course.

Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Professor Mocha.

Because this day just had to keep getting better and better.

Before Lily could think about what she was doing, she darted out of her hiding spot, preparing to race to her morning class.

Lily slammed straight into a solid figure and gasped as she flew backwards. Before she could fall however, an arm darted out and caught her, saving her from landing in a heap on the ground.

Lily looked up to thank her saviour, but felt the words die on her lips.

A pare of emerald green eyes stared straight into her own identical pair of emerald green eyes.

And for a moment they just continued to stare at each other.

Lily, suddenly realising she was staring at a stranger, who was probably waiting for her to apologise or thank him, she immediately straightened and hurriedly apologized for bumping into him.

"Thanks for catching me," she mumbled, and ignoring his stunned expression she tore her arm out of his and started running towards her class, ignoring the growing feeling of foreboding gnawing at the pit of her stomach.

Why had Petunia's father stared at her like that?

Why had she stared at him?

It's not like they were the only two people in the world with green eyes or anything. So what if there's were similar?

Big deal. Lily firmly assured herself, before she allowed her imagination to run wild and start coming to ridiculous conclusions.

Pushing any and all thoughts of John Eves to the back of her mind, Lily focused on the staircase she was running down. The last thing she needed was to trip over. There was no way Professor Mocha was going to let her get away with that excuse again.

Lily reached the bottom of the staircase, and from there wasted no time in getting to class and arrived in record time. Taking a deep breath Lily opened the door with trepidation.

Lily cringed as the door creaked loudly and the class all turned their attention from Mocha to her.

Any hope that she could slip past Mocha unnoticed was now gone.

"Hi." She said awkwardly, approaching Mocha's desk.

The Professor answered by raising her eyebrows in stern disapproval.

"You're late Miss Evans," she said coolly.

"Yeah, listen Professor, I had some personal issues-"

"This is a professional learning environment Miss Evans, we don't involve personal matters with our learning."

"Right, but, my friend left unexpectedly and I had to say goodbye-"

"I am aware of Miss Brandee's departure from this school, but you've had days to say goodbye have you not?" She snapped in a carrying voice, causing whispering to erupt around the room.

Lily felt her face begin to heat up. No way was she going to admit to Mocha of all people, in front of the entire class, that her best friend had not told her she was leaving, until she was halfway out the door.

"I had to see her off." Lily insisted stubbornly.

"Nobody else did, do you believe you deserve special privileges that your classmates are exempt from Miss Evans?"

Lily sputtered furiously.

"Shall we ask the class what they think?" Mocha continued coldly, turning to address the class, "Well, does Miss Evans deserve special treatment?"

"No," The class echoed in unison, delighted at the entertaining turn the class had taken.

"Very well," Professor Mocha said curtly, turning back to Lily, "your classmates have decided Miss Evans that there is no excuse for tardiness in this class."

Lily ground her teeth, furious at the nasty way she was being treated.

"You may sit down now Miss Evans."

Lily snapped her head in Mocha's direction, confused, not daring to hope. Had she missed something? Was she not going to be punished? Had Mocha decided that humiliating a student was punishment enough?

Not likely. Lily decided, eyeing the Professor uncertainly as she began to head to her usual seat at the back of the room.

"Not there Miss Evans, I like to keep trouble makers where I can see them, you'll be sitting at the front under my new seating arrangement for people who can't follow the rules."

Lily quickly scanned the front row, there was one free desk, right between…

No.

Lily turned furiously back to Professor Mocha.

The batty old coot had planned this down to the 'T'. Because there was no way a seat, the only available seat, would conveniently be left between Potter and Black.

The Professor raised her eyes at Lily as though guessing her thoughts, "I did not make you come late to class Miss Evans."

No. She just saved her a seat.

Lily supposed that if she hadn't been late Mocha would have found another excuse to get her seated there eventually.

Her plan to ruin Lily's life with her little dobbing in the Marauder's scheme hadn't gotten Lily into as much trouble as she'd obviously hoped, and so now she was taking matters into her own hands.

Lily snarled under her breath, but did not budge from where she was standing.

"Sit down Miss Evans."

There was no way that Lily was sitting between Potter and Black.

"Now."

Lily dropped down into the seat. Some tones just couldn't be ignored.

Lily pulled out her parchment and ignored the grumbles coming from around the class. Obviously when they had voted in favour of her being punished, punishing Potter and Black, by putting Lily next to them, was evidently not what they had intended.

If there was one thing, and only one thing, Lily liked about Professor Mocha, it was that she didn't care about pissing people off. No matter who they were. Lily only wished that Mocha would settle with, "Pissing off" when it came to Lily, rather than aiming for "humiliating mortal peril".

Lily felt the icy stares of her two new seating companions on her, but determinedly kept her head down and focused on the parchment in front of her. Lily had heard that Potter and Petunia were now an official 'item.' Any temporary delusions that Lily may or may not have been entertaining about Potter's personality were now put to rest. Potter was undoubtedly an idiot. An idiot that she wanted nothing to do with, if she could help it anyway. Or rather if she could avoid it, she amended, throwing another resentful look Mocha's way.

"Now class, now that we have gone over the theory of the imperius curse, you can begin to try and throw it off. I want you to partner with the person next to you and attempt to take turns trying to use and throw it off. Now I don't expect any of you to be able to successfully cast the curse, but you should be able to throw off any attempts for it to be used on you, as such attempts should be relatively week. But just in case, you are to give no inappropriate instructions to the person you are cursing, any student who does will be facing serious penalties. You may Begin."

Lily groaned. Not only was she partnered with Potter, but she had also missed the first 20 minutes of class, where Mocha had presumably gone over the theory of the curse. She would have no idea how to defend her mind from it.

Lily turned with dread to face Potter, "So, I guess we're partners?" her tone came out questioning.

James nodded curtly, looking even more unhappy with the situation then she was, and stood up, motioning for her to do so as well, before he pushed their desk back to give them room to practice.

"Do you want to cast or block first?" He questioned tonelessly.

"Cast," Lily quickly told him, grateful for the option. She had every intention of putting off being cursed by an unforgiveable by James-freaking-Potter for as long as possible.

Lily took out her wand, while James stood relaxed, not looking in the least concerned that someone was about to use an unforgivable curse on him. Lily supposed he doubted she had the ability to curse him. Or maybe he just thought she wouldn'thave the nerve to do it.

Lily ground her teeth, ready to surprise the arrogant prat, while teaching him a thing or two about underestimating her.

"You need to say the enchantment," He reminded her, after a few moments.

"Right." Lily said embarrassed, realising she didn't know what the enchantment was, "I missed the theory part."

"I know," he said impatiently, "But didn't you do your homework?"

Lily flushed. There was homework? And Potter had done it?

"I'll take that as a 'no'," he said, rolling his eyes, reminding her painfully of Rebecca in that moment. Ignoring thoughts of her friend who should have been here, and who would have gone easy on her with this curse if she was here, Lily turned her attention back to what Potter was saying.

"I'll go first then instead, just pay attention to the pronunciation."

Then he pulled out his wand and gave her a moment to prepare herself for the upcoming onslaught.

"Imperio!" He uttered the words

Lily stood rigid, waiting for something to happen, a moment passed and when nothing continued to happen, she began to relax.

Poor judgement on her part.

A voice, suddenly eased it's way into her thoughts. Surprising her with its enticing quality.

Punch Sirius It instructed, no it suggested to her.

Yes. Punch Sirius, Lily agreed, that was not a bad idea.

Go on, punch him, It encouraged her, yes this was really a fantastic idea. Sirius deserved to be punched anyway, but where was he?

Punch him now. The voice repeated, more impatient this time, losing its soothing edge.

It was the impatient tone that brought Lily back to herself. She just couldn't stand being ordered around, it annoyed her pride enough for her to begin to question the instructions she was given.

No I won't punch Sirius. She decided firmly, coming back to her senses.

When Lily snapped out of James's hold on her mind, she was surprised to find Sirius staring down at her bemusedly and her fist raised in his direction.

Horrified, she dropped her arm and shot Potter an accusing look. If she had hit Black she would have been in a lot of trouble.

Contrite to her anger was a rare expression of approval on Mocha's face, who had been watching them. No doubt hoping to see Lily embarrass herself. It didn't escape her notice that Potter didn't seem to be in any trouble for his inappropriate imperius instructions.

"Well done Mr. Potter, that was a very impressive attempt for a beginner. 10 points to Gryffindor."

Impressive!? Lily scoffed.

Potter had almost successfully cast the imperius curse on his first try! If anything, it proved to Lily what a sketchy old psycho he really was.

"Oh and Miss Evans, no violence will be tolerated in my classroom in the future."

Lily stared in disbelief at the evil, unreasonable professor.

"Your lack of resistance against the imperius curse shows you either have an inclination to violence and therefore no will to fight the curse, or have come to my class unprepared, as usual."

Lily snarled under her breath, Mocha had told them this was a difficult area of study, yet she was blaming Lily for failing on her first try?

Lily ignored her and turned back to James, "You ready?" She snapped, not waiting to hear if he was, she uttered the curse and focused every inch of her will on wiping the smug grin off his face.

Stop smiling

She ordered him. He seemed to hear this, as his grin only widened, infuriating her further.

Stupid Potter. With his stupid smile. And his stupid talent.

Lily's grip on her wand tightened.

And his stupid friends. And his stupid hair.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

And his stupid dancing. And his stupid girlfriend.

His stupid, stupid girlfriend.

Stupid Petunia.

Stupid, stupid, STUPID PETUNIA!

It was just as Lily thought that last thought, that something very strange and inexplicable happened.

With a glazed look on his face, James Potter suddenly charged at Lily, and before she had time to register what was happening, he dropped his head to her level, placed his hands on her cheeks, and kissed her.

A/N

DUN DUN DUN, what do you think just happened?

And hey look! You see? Didn't I say I would update sooner? Actually, did I? I'm not really sure.

I bet you didn't believe me anyway.

Fair enough, considering my track record though…

Whatever. I'm proud of my update speed this time! I wrote this in one sitting, just now. Once I started writing I just couldn't stop. (I know the length is shorter, but I did say they would be, and it just felt right to stop the chapter there) Anyway, I guess my writer's block is really gone!

Anyway, sorry for booting Rebecca off the story, if that actually bugs anyone. She served her purpose. Now I wanna focus on the main characters. And both her and Ethan have just been taking up too much space in this story.

Anyway, please review! Tell me what you think! Pretty Please with cherries on top?