PART ONE – BEGINNINGS

Eternity

CHAPTER 7 – NO REGRETS

Tell me a story
Where we all change
And we'd live our lives together
And not estranged

I didn't lose my mind it was
Mine to give away
Couldn't stay to watch me cry
You didn't have the time
So I softly slip away...

No Regrets – Robbie Williams – I've Been Expecting You

* * *

Lily had to turn away before she fainted. Kally's body lay on the ground, hideously disfigured. Her legs were bloody and burned, and looked as thought they had been eaten away by something. Her black robes were ripped and her arms were completely blackened. Again, her arms looked as though they had been eaten away. Only her face was untouched.

Lily hadn't noticed, but James had slipped away and had fetched Dumbledore. The two now came into sight, Dumbledore looking extremely worried and James looking still incredibly pale.

Dumbledore kneeled over Kally's inert body, his fingers swiftly checking for a pulse.

He turned and shook his head. Lily knew there wouldn't be a pulse; she could tell.

* * *

It was ten o'clock. In the Gryffindor common room, there was no hubbub of chatter, students anxiously rushing to finish homework, or people laughing and joking. There was only silence.


Somber faces from eleven to seventeen years old filled the room. These people had not only lost a member of their house, but a friend.

It had been two hours since Kally's body had been discovered. Once Dumbledore was over the shock, he had ordered for her to be taken to the hospital wing and examined to find the cause of death. Emergency owls had been sent to specialists at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Injuries and Maladies. So far, they had no leads on what had happened.

* * *

For the next few days Lily and Jenine were fairly quiet and unresponsive. This was to be expected, as Kally had been their best friend.

Five days after her death, Dumbledore announced that there was to be a funeral held at a Muggle church in Nottingham, where Kally's parents lived. He also said that any friends of Kally's who wanted to show commiserations were welcome to attend.

Kally's parents had requested that no one wear black to the funeral. This seemed a strange thing to request; black was a somber color, meant for mourning.

All the people in the Gryffindor Sixth Year attended the funeral, as these had been the people closest to Kally... the people in her class.

The funeral lasted for quite some time, ending with the coffin being lowered into the ground. Lily threw into the grave a single bluebell, Kally's favorite flower, before the sexton began filling in the grave.

The Hogwarts students returned to school at eight o'clock that evening, ready for a sleep, only for Lily, Jenine, Remus, Sirius, Peter and James to be called to Dumbledore's office.

The six Gryffindor sixth years sat down in the round office, wondering why Dumbledore wanted to speak to them.

"I called you all here to tell you that St Mungo's has found out the cause of Kally's death. She was killed by the acidiomangi curse. You may have heard of this curse, as it is one of the worst possible methods of killing. A person who has had the acidiomangi curse performed upon them has their insides eaten away by an acidic like substance." Dumbledore paused to let his words sink in, then continued.

"Now, I don't know if you know this, but Kally was pregnant. Somebody put the acidiomangi curse on Kally to get rid of the unborn child. Not only did it do this, but it also began to dissipate Kally's body. A presumption made was that Kally tried to get rid of her baby herself, and so inflicted the acidiomangi curse upon herself. This, of course, is only a presumption."

There were a few minutes of silence, the teenagers obviously trying to absorb this information.

"I would like you to return to your dormitories now. You will return to lessons on Monday."

* * *

Lily didn't get to sleep that night until very late, and even then she kept waking up. She couldn't seem to rid her mind of the horrible image she had seen one week prior.

Eventually at four o' clock, she got up and took her blanket down to the common room. She figured that if she couldn't get to sleep in the dorm, she might be able to in the common room.

When she arrived in the common room, she was surprised to see someone already there.

"James?" she asked.

He turned around quickly, his face looking worried, but he relaxed when he saw it was only Lily.

"Can't get to sleep?" he asked.

Lily shook her head. "The image of her body lying on the ground keeps coming back to me."

"Same here," James said.

"I guess it's affecting us more because we found her body, hmm?" Lily asked, coming and seating herself next to James on the sofa.

"Yeah, I suppose."

Both of them were quiet for a bit, then James brought up something that he had obviously been pondering over for a while now.

"On the night of the ball, before we found Kally, you said you liked me. Do you really?"

Lily clearly hadn't been expecting this, but nodded in response.

"Yeah, I really do," she replied, and looped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

When they broke apart, Lily smiled at James.

"I've changed my mind," she said, "I don't like you."

James looked shocked. "You don't?"

"Nope. I don't like you. I love you."

"Well guess what? I love you too."

And they kissed again, this time though, it seemed to last for eternity.

Tell me a story
Where we all change
And we'd live our lives together
And not estranged

I didn't lose my mind it was
Mine to give away
Couldn't stay to watch me cry
You didn't have the time
So I softly slip away...

No Regrets – Robbie Williams – I've Been Expecting You

* * *

And so ends Part One of my Lily and James saga. This is not the end!! Far from it! This is only the beginning. As I said before, there will be two more parts, each with approximately the same number of chapters as this. Hopefully I'll get Chapter One of Part Two posted soon.