AN: Dedicated to Hermitt, who enjoyed Lily's Black side ;) Review please! xx

Chapter Six: An Eye for an Eye

Lily's eyes narrowed as she scanned the classroom.

He's not here.

She couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or relieved. Annoyed, because Sirius was her partner, and this was meant to be a partner project. Relieved because she wasn't quite sure how to treat him after his unexpected words last night. He'd actually been… nice. Sort of. Maybe her cousin wasn't quite as Black as the rest of the family?

But then she remembered that night four years ago, and James Potter standing over her with her blood staining his hands, and dismissed the thought. That night had been all Sirius' fault. If he wasn't as cruel as the others he wouldn't have done it.

Lily forced the tiny voice inside her head that said you know you can be just as cruel as them to shut it and went up to Slughorn.

"Professor, my partner's not here."

"Yes, Mr Black is absent," Slughorn said ponderously. "You may work with Miss Bones and Miss Byron for today."

Lily nodded and turned to find them. As she did she paused, realising that there was another group of three in the classroom. Rotund Henry Partington – James Potter's partner – was working with another pair. She frowned. So Sirius and Potter were both absent? Something was decidedly odd about this.

"Lily!"

She snapped out of her contemplative rumination and went to where Amelia and Lucy were waving at her. She liked both of them well enough. They were the next pair along alphabetically and Amelia Bones was clever and law-abiding, a girl after Lily's own heart.

This Potions lesson certainly wouldn't be exploding in her face.

~#~#~

"It's very strange," Alice said as Lily dropped down onto the bench beside her.

The redhead grunted and reached for some mashed potatoes. "What is?"

"Look. None of the Marauders are there," Alice pointed. Despite herself Lily looked. It was true. The Slytherin table was more reserved than usual and there was a very noticeable gap where the Marauders were meant to sit.

"Potter and Black weren't in Potions this morning this either," Arabella joined in. "They've never missed a lunchtime before. You don't reckon there's… there's something wrong, do you?"

"Serves them right if there is," Lily said tartly. But she remembered her sister's wedding, held in three days' time. She'd already asked Dumbledore for permission. Cissy would be upset if their cousin didn't get to go.

She completely ignored the thought of James Potter.

"Hey, Alice, what are you doing?" she asked in alarm as Alice suddenly got up and started walking.

"To find out," the blonde said over her shoulder. Lily watched in quietly appreciative resignation as Alice tapped a Kylie Brown, who was sitting lower down the table. Of course her best friend would have seen that she was worried for Sirius and gone to find out. No, not exactly worried for him, she amended, just worried he would ruin Narcissa's big day.

Alice returned with the exasperated expression one associated with speaking to Kylie Brown.

"Really, I can't believe that slut," she said, throwing herself down. "I swear her boobs were falling out, her robes were that tight – isn't it some kind of Guinness World Record to have a tight robe? I mean, they were designed to be loose! And then for ages she refused to tell me – "

"Get to the point," Arabella interrupted, forking a mouthful of beans onto her plate.

"Oh, yeah. The point. Well, the long and short of it is, the rumour accepted as being most credible by the gossip-mongers of Hogwarts is that the Marauders are..." She paused dramatically. "Asleep."

Lily blinked. "What?"

"Apparently there was a party of some sort in the Slytherin common room last night. A variety of witnesses testify to having seen them arrive, excluding one Remus Lupin. It is the generally accepted consensus that for once in their lives their guts couldn't handle the booze and they're recuperating in bed," Alice clarified smugly.

Lily opened her mouth to say that she'd never had a hangover in her life and neither had her sisters since Black genes were a sufficient antidote to alcohol. That Sirius - or any of the Marauders, with their borderline alcoholic behaviour - had a hangover was absurd. She'd seen them drinking herself often enough and knew their inclination to partying.

That wasn't what was actually said. A horrifying thought had occurred to her.

"Alice - you don't think they threw this party because I got to be Seeker? That they're celebrating how easy it'll be for them to beat us?"

"Of course not," Alice said comfortingly. "I heard it was for Mulciber's seventeenth birthday." She had heard no such thing but wanted to assuage her best friend's doubts.

Lily heaved a sigh of relief. "Well, I have my first Quidditch practice tonight in any case," she said. "At seven. I'm damned glad McGonagall let me off those detentions."

"Yeah," Arabella said. "Come on now, we have Ancient Runes."

The two girls stood up, waving goodbye at Alice who had Care of Magical Creatures. As they skirted past the Slytherin table Lily glanced at it.

They all seemed to be immersed in conversation, but she had the uncomfortable feeling that some - if not all - of them had been looking at her.

~#~#~

"Alright, listen up!" Frank roared. "We ain't a load of girls here, is that clear?" He noticed the glares of the female members of the team and smiled guiltily. "What I meant to say is, we're no carpet for the Slytherins to walk all over. And now we have a new Seeker, who I'm sure will do spectacularly, and when the match rolls round in a couple of days we'll beat them into next week! That clear?"

"Crystal," the Quidditch team said dutifully.

Lily kicked off from the ground for her warm-up lap. She was wearing her official Gryffindor Quidditch team robes for the first time, after Frank had presented them to her last night. She admitted that the scarlet material clashed dreadfully with her ponytailed red hair but the gold edging made it more bearable.

For a moment the thought flashed into her head that the green Slytherin robes would have brought out her emerald eyes wonderfully. She snorted at the thought. Since when did she, Delilah Black, do anything for appearance alone? She wasn't Kylie Brown. With more speed than necessary she completed her lap and landed when she was done.

Frank lugged out the case filled with Quidditch balls. He tossed the Quaffle to Lisa Holmes, Darren Barker and John Limpet, the three Chasers. Will Spinnet and Harvey Neiman – the Beaters – held tightly onto the struggling Bludgers to stop them escaping. As Keeper he had no balls. Then it was Lily's turn.

She gazed at the tiny golden ball with reverence.

The Snitch was tiny, half the size of her fist, with a pair of fluttering golden wings. She stroked the cold metal in awe. It was so beautiful, but so cold. Far stronger than it looked. She had a flashback to second year when she had heard Rabastan Lestrange describe her sister Narcissa in much the same way. Lily and Cissy were like that; all ethereal beauty without – and a core of steel within. Bellatrix and Andromeda on the other hand were as stunningly brooding as they looked. She immediately erased the thought of her banished sister.

"Right, off!" Frank ordered. Immediately six broomsticks rose into the air. Not Lily's. As Seeker, the normal parts of the game didn't affect her. She had to concentrate solely on finding the Snitch, which she released and watched fly away jaggedly. It had a two-minute headstart.

Two minutes later Lily joined her teammates in the air and started looking for the Snitch.

It was about seven-thirty, and with the onset of winter the sky had darkened immensely. The only illumination came from the castle some way off and the few torches dotting the stadium. Lily shivered, wishing she had thought to wear a jacket underneath her robes.

She caught sight of a flash of gold and dived to see but it turned out to be the torchlight reflecting off Darren Barker's glasses. It was so dark that her teammates were little more than huddled red shapes. Lily was careful, navigating around them slowly as they threw the Quaffle to each other and tried to get it past Frank. To make things harder for the Chasers the Beaters were on the opposing side so they had Bludgers to dodge too.

None of that had any bearing on Lily's job. The Beaters would protect her from Bludgers and she didn't need to worry about the Quaffle.

After a good twenty minutes, when Lily's entire body was frozen and she was seriously considering conjuring up a pair of gloves, she saw it.

"Finally!"

Her fingers closed around the little golden ball and she let out a triumphant yell. In her elation she forgot to be careful of her surroundings.

Thwack!

There was the horrible sound of metal meeting wood and a dull snap. Lily tumbled off her broom and fell the twelve or so metres to the ground.

"Lily!"

The rest of the team landed ungracefully. Frank sprinted over.

"Are you alright?"

"Does it fucking look like I'm alright?" she rasped, the excruciating pain in her arm and dull throbbing generally covering her body making her snappy. Frank was used to injured people being rude and didn't take it personally.

"We need to get you to the Hospital Wing. Spinnet, Neiman, get her up."

"No!" Lily hissed. "Not Hospital Wing!"

"Yes, Hospital Wing. You took a bad fall, Lily. You need to have Madam Pomfrey see you right away."

"Not going there for third time in three days," she said stubbornly. Her pride wouldn't allow it. She tried to say something but a moan came out instead.

"Spinnet, Neiman, I said get her up!" Frank commanded. "And I'll be having a chat with you boys. It's your duty to protect your Seeker from Bludgers! If this had happened in a game – "

"I'll do it, Captain," a voice interrupted. Frank turned to whoever it was. Lily tried and failed to lift her head.

"My mum's a Healer," Lisa Holmes continued. "I reckon I could do it." She knelt beside Lily. Lisa was tall and thin, with brown hair scraped back into a plait and russet eyes. She took out her wand.

"Broken arm?"

"Think so," Lily groaned. She bit back a hiss as Lisa lifted her busted arm and tapped it with her wand.

They waited. The pain didn't seem to be decreasing. Spinnet and Neiman edged closer.

"Thank you!" Lily gasped, sitting up suddenly. A wave of dizziness overcame her but she ignored it and smiled widely at Lisa. "Thank you so much. I just didn't want to have to go to the Hospital Wing, and I have patrols tonight."

"No problem," Lisa said, helping Lily to her feet.

"Right," Frank said. "Practice is over, people. Same time tomorrow night. Remember, we have a match next week!"

They mumbled an assent and hobbled off to the showers.

~#~#~

"Shit!"

Lily stopped dead as she heard the expletive that most certainly had not come from her. Slowly, she turned around, her narrow-eyed gaze scanning the dark corridor behind her. She saw a flash of white for a moment – just a glimpse that was paler than the shadows that surrounded it – and walked closer.

Coincidence of coincidences, it had been by the statue of the one-eyed witch that Mrs Norris had been sitting by in her last patrol.

She could see nothing there. Everything was silent, and she had the oddest feeling that the world itself was holding its breath. She was inclined to brush it off as lack of sleep and continue when she abruptly remembered a crucial fact.

James Potter had an Invisibility Cloak.

Instantly she whirled to face the statue, wand out, and whispered, "Honumen revelio!"

The spell that revealed human presence flared and showed her the vague outline of a group of people crouched in front of the statue. She strode forward.

"Come out where I can see you, Potter. I know you're there."

Nothing happened for a moment, then there was a shimmer and she saw the four boys straighten up. Sirius Black rounded on Potter and exploded.

"What the hell, James? How does she know?"

Potter didn't answer, looking at Lily with his blank hazel eyes. She meanwhile was glaring at Remus Lupin.

"Ill, Lupin," she said. "Really? Because you seem plenty fine to me. Fine enough to be gallivanting off with your friends to God knows where."

A dull flush spread over his cheeks at the clear disgust in her tone.

"And you're meant to be Head Boy," she said. "Well, twenty points from Slytherin of course. What were you even doing here round this statue?"

There was a silence as they refused to answer. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Alright then, keep quiet if you want to. I'm off."

Just as she turned her back Potter spoke.

"Not going to rat about the Cloak, Black?"

She looked at his face, wiped so meticulously of anything that hinted at vulnerability, but she had a strange feeling that he was waiting anxiously for her reply. She hesitated as she tried to sort out her own emotions.

"Not this time, Potter," she said at last. "After all, I owe you one for the Sprout thing." She walked off without looking back at him.

As she slid into bed later on, it occurred to her that it was the first time they had spoken where she had left without wanting to throttle him.