11 days after the attack; Lily had been working on forgetting the lake ordeal. It was almost completely out of mind.

It had become the buzz of Hogwarts though, everyone whispered about the mysterious figure that had attacked an anonymous student. Lily spent almost all of her time with Des and Chase or Lysander. But she'd grown quiet. She no longer started long conversations and laughed as loud as a horn. James called it her empty days. Where she just walked around like a corpse with a heartbeat. She smiled sadly and hardly spoke, she didn't eat. She didn't live, she just, functioned. She did homework alone and slept soundly. She'd participate in class but other than that she was nowhere to be seen.

It had happened before, when she got back when she was six. Harry had done his best to explain to his sons that Lily was different, that she might act strange, that she may even think she was somewhere else.

A young witch with PTSD at age six, she was a freak.

It was Friday, one of the worst days of the month. Lily was tired and moody. She had deep circles under her eyes that looked like bruises and worst was her short temperedness. At breakfast Alice was sitting next to her.

"So your moms game is coming up" she said,

"So?" Lily said.

"Are you going to ask to go?" she asked.

"Why should I?" Lily said. Des and Alice shared a look.

Hugo, who sat across from Lily, suddenly turned harsh,

"She's your mother, she loves you, you love watching her play, if you were acting anything like normal Lily you'd already know these things!" Lily glared at him.

"What's your problem with me!?" she yelled.

Across the room Albus heard Lily yell. He dropped his head and it thunked onto the table. He repeated this action multiple times before he was sure his head was bruised.

On the other side of the room was Ravenclaw table where Rose leaned over to Lysander, Luis and Molly and said,

"At least she has emotion today".

The four nodded in agreement. Back at Hufflepuff table the argument was drawing attention.

"What are you talking about?" Hugo asked, Lily rolled her eyes and stood up,

"Ever since the lake you've been acting like I'm fragile. Well, SURPRISE! I'M NOT!" Lily screamed. Hugo stood up,

"You're the one that's been pushing everyone away. Maybe you wouldn't be so depressed all the time. All you do nowadays is mope around like the world is against you!"

Lily stomped her foot,

"All you're doing is causing more problems!" she screamed,

Hugo narrowed his eyes,

"Don't throw a hissy fit!" he paused, "I'm not the one with PROBLEMS!".

Lily stood silently for a few seconds, staring at Hugo with flat eyes. The hall was so quiet one could hear a quill drop. Lily's eyes finally swelled with tears.

"You're right" she said, "I shouldn't have pushed you away. But the only way I know how to cope is alone, that's how I had to did it for a whole year. That's how I still do it. And your right about the other thing too. I do have problems". Guilt dawned on Hugo's face,

"Lily I didn't mea-" he was cut off by Lily running from the great hall. The hall was silent again, Hugo was left in the middle of the room speechless. The silence was broken by a slow clap. James stood up from Gryffindor table and walked towards Luis.

"Congrats cuz," he said, "You just made this day ten times harder to get through that it normally is for her". James glared at Hugo and then quickly walked after Lily.

Rose was infuriated at her brother. From the Ravenclaw table she got up quickly, Albus followed her lead from Slytherin. Marching right up to her brother she said "Moron".

Hugo turned around and got a face full of grumpy sister fist,

"I am ashamed of you! But think yourself lucky!"

Then she ran from the hall after James.

"Are you going to hit me too?" Hugo asked Albus,

"No," he said, "But be glad Teddy wasn't here for that".

Hugo stared at Albus, who glared back,

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you'd be dead," Then Albus ran after Rose.

James, Albus and Rose looked for Lily for ages, but didn't find a thing. Des and Chase, on the other hand, knew exactly where she went. The two of them walked down to the lake and saw Lily throwing stones.

"It would be a lot more fun if you skipped them" Chase told her.

"How could he say that?!" Lily yelled, throwing another stone as far as she could. Des sighed, she walked up to Lily and threw her over her shoulder so Lily was upside down.

"We're all here or you" Des said.

"Whether you want us here or not we're going to stick around, some of us are going to be a bit confused as to why you transformed into a lump for a while but we're going to stick around until you turn back into smiley Lily. No matter how long it takes" Des jumped with Lily still on her shoulder.

"And we're also going to try to help you get better faster" Chase told her. Finally Lily started to giggle.

"Okay, okay! Put me down!" Des started walking towards the lake.

"No, don't put me down there!" Des laughed,

"Don't worry the waters warm and the squid is lonely!". Lily was submerged. When she surfaced she was laughing.

Lily, Des and Chase arrived to DA 30 minutes late and trailing water. The dark arts teacher was a man named Hubert Lawson, he freaked Lily out a bit. His bulging eyes that were such a light color it looked unnatural, his oily blonde hair stuck to his scalp and his lips were so thin he hardly had any. He stopped the whole class as the students filed in.

"Ms. Potter!" he yelled, Lily looked up at him as he marched towards her,

"Do you have an explanation as to why you made your classmates late?" Lily opened and closed her mouth at a loss for words.

"It was me Professor Lawson, we took a break down by the lake and I dropped Lily in, then when we tried to get her out we got wet too. We're really sorry" Des said.

The professor glared at her for a few moments before letting them take their seats and continuing his talk about what seemed to be phoenix's. Lily smiled, Fawkes the phoenix, Dumbledore's old pet, often stopped by the Potters house for food and to reincarnate himself. Lily loved him. DA had been the last class of the day, and now it was time for Lily to disappear.

"See you at dinner guys!" Chase said as he ran off to his common room. Lily felt guilty about not telling her friends, but she didn't trust them enough, she hadn't known them for that long either, 13 days she'd been at Hogwarts and someone had already tried to kill her. She made a promise to herself that the rest of her time was going to be fantastic.

But she would have to come up with an excuse someday.