Author's Note:

Well, well, well, I know you must want to get reading so I'll be brief. I just want to say that I am so excited about this story. I can't believe how popular it is (makes me a little nervous) so thank you everyone who has been reviewing for me, it really comes in handy.

Ch. 7 The Truth

James crept up to the kitchen window of Lily's house. He had only apparated to her back yard. When he had pulled into the driveway he had seen a woman hiding in the shadows next to Lily's house. He didn't know who or why, but someone was in Lily's house and he couldn't just leave.

He looked through the window of Lily's kitchen and saw Lily reading the letters, tears slipping through the corners of her eyes. He wanted to comfort her but he needed to keep watching for the woman.

"Speak of the devil," he murmured to himself as the woman stepped into the kitchen as Lily headed up the stairs. He was about to say something but Lily turned around and saw the woman. She was a beautiful lady, James noticed, and she looked familiar, as though he had met her before.

"Hi, honey," the woman spoke in a kindly way that started James. He hadn't expected the woman to know Lily.

"Mom?" Lily asked. James eyes grew wide as he realized what he was spying on, but shouldn't Lily know her mother, why was she so shocked?

"Yes, it's me, sweetie," Leila Evans answered, smiling wistfully upon her young daughter and holding out her arms.

"Mom," Lily cried with conviction this time, running for the comfort of her mother's arms for the first time in her life, "Mom, I've needed you so much." What happened to this family? James found himself wondering.

Leila and Lily sunk to the floor together, tears of happiness streaming down both their cheeks. Leila held Lily tightly, clearly glad to be holding her beloved child, her most beloved child, once more. James felt like he should leave, but he couldn't make himself stand and walk away.

"Oh my dear, oh sweetie," Leila cooed to her daughter. "You don't know how much I've wanted to speak with you, how long I've been waiting to see you. I'm sorry if I scared you, but I have been the person following you. I saw you looking over your shoulder a few times. I'm afraid tonight my fears were confirmed." Leila held her daughter away from her so she could look into her eyes. She couldn't hide the truth any longer, it just came out, "Lily, you are not your father's child."

"What are you talking about, Mum?" Lily's voice was shaky. All thoughts of leaving were driven from James's head.

"Patrick Evans is not your father," Leila's expression was pained and fearful, "I'm so sorry sweetie."

"But, Mum, who, who'd you—how could—why?" Lily's eyes were frantically searching her mother's face, clearly hoping someone would yell, "Fooled you!" and end her fears.

"Oh Lily!" Leila cried, trying to hug her daughter again but Lily pushed her away, stood and walked away, staring at the wall. "Honey," Leila pleaded from the floor, "I told you I'm not a good person! I warned you I had something terrible to tell you."

"When?" Lily asked coldly, not turning to look at the shamed woman behind her, "How long?"

"Three years into the marriage, things started getting rocky. I don't know why," Leila shook her head, staring at her hands, "Your father—Patrick and I started fighting over nothing," Lily noticed her mother's stumble on the words.

"One night after a big fight I drove into the city, I was just sitting there on some park bench, crying. He sat down next to me; Gregory Black was his name, and he just talked to me. Oh Lily, I regret it so much now. I was only twenty-one and I was so depressed and vulnerable that night. That's the only night I ever saw him, I swear to you."

James gasped and then quickly covered him mouth. Lily voiced his concern, "Black, did you say?" Lily finally turned to face her mother, horror etched into her features. "His surname was Black?" Lily voice rose in pitch when her mother didn't answer right away.

"Yes, you must have heard of him," Leila's tearful face was desperate and pleading, "When you were born, it was a week over nine months since that night; I always thought you were Patrick's. I'm so sorry, honey." Lily just stared at her mother, no emotions on her face. "When ever I considered the possibility that you were not Patrick's daughter, I just pushed it to the back of my mind. When I left, honey, you have to understand, it had nothing to do with you. I didn't leave because of the shame that you weren't my husband's daughter; I didn't even know yet. I left because the guilt had become too much to bear. Every time I looked at your father I saw Gregory's face in my mind, I couldn't bear pretending I was a good wife any more. I made up a load of rubbish reasons for leaving, I never told him the truth. I wish I had; he wouldn't have killed himself if I'd told him. He would have hated me and lived; instead he loved me, blaming his own miserable self for my cowardly escape and died." Leila's voice had turned harsh and self scornful. She clearly hated every fiber of her own being.

Leila stopped for a moment and James found himself holding him breath. "Go on," Lily urged.

"He came to find me, Gregory did, seventeen years after that night," Leila finally stood but she was unable to support herself. She slouched into one of the kitchen chairs, "He told me that the anti-pregnancy charm he had put on me may not have worked. It was a ministry development, they discovered that the spell he used was particularly faulty." James was surprised at the amount of wizarding information Gregory had disclosed. Lily's muggle mum knew about the ministry? He still couldn't believe Gregory Black would lower himself, as he would have seen it, to the level of a muggle. "That's when I started following you. You acted so much like all the kids you worked with I thought there hadn't been any consequences of that night, but then you recognized that Potter boy. Still I prayed you had met him previously once or twice but then you went to tea at the Potter's. I kept still the slightest hope that I might escape the shame, the guilt," Leila shook her head. "I was going to tell you about my affair only when I wrote that letter, but then he disapparated right in front of you and I knew what you had to be; what you are." How the hell does she know about apparation? James wondered to himself, feeling like he was missing something. And how does she know my family is magical?

"Oh, Mum," Lily sat down in a chair across the table from her mother. Her shoulders slouched into a posture of defeat. Suddenly she sat up, "But Mum, how do you know so much about wizards. I doubt Mr. Black"—Lily flinched unconsciously at the name—"would have told you about the Ministry of Magic, or apparation, or just randomly started talking about the Potters. That just doesn't make sense."

Leila smiled weakly, "Ah, I knew you couldn't be so smart for nothing. You've stumbled upon yet another secret." Leila's face tensed, "I'm a squib. I was born without any magical powers to a pureblood family. I was a disgrace. Even worse was my decision to marry a muggle right out of high school." She sighed, "I already knew all about the wizarding world, I knew everything from the start." James gaped at the woman at the table. If she had been a witch she would have been in Gryffindor, it took nerves to go against the wishes of your entire family, and he knew specifically how stubborn pureblood families could be. "I left before you started showing any signs of power."

Lily remembered, "When I was eight and Petunia had a fever, I had to take care of her. She had me build a fire and I was so sweltering hot and so annoyed with her that I froze the flames. She passed out and when she woke up I told her the fever must have made her hallucinate. She believed me, luckily, or there would have been hell to pay."

Mrs. Evans smiled, imagining her daughters staring in disbelief at the icey flames. "I figured your temper was what gave you away."

Lily tried one last time to hold together all her previous beliefs, "But I could be Dad's daughter, couldn't I," she begged, clinging to the last strands of hope she had. "There are muggle born, or partially muggle born, witches and wizards."

"No honey, I'm sorry," Leila shook her head and looked away, too ashamed to look into her daughter's eyes, "You're the image of him. You have all his features, the only difference is your hair and your eyes." James had met Mr. Black once and had to agree, Lily did look surprisingly similar to him but he had never thought to make that comparison before.

Lily's eyes lost their last flicker of hope and she dropped her head to her hands; crying once again. Her mother reached across the table and grasped her hand and Lily didn't push her off. James backed away from the window, hating himself for what he had just watched, and what he was about to do. He crept into the woods, out of Lily's earshot and then disapparated with a crack.

Back in his brightly lit room James glanced around for his owl. Seeing him in his cage James nodded to himself and grabbed a scrap of paper, skipping the salutation.

Screw the goblins; I need you here now. I have some bad news, something you need to hear, but not from me. We're still in our summerhouse in Bath, Evans lives here and well, I don't have time to write everything now but it's important. You don't need the stupid internship; we can give you any money you need. Just get here, fast.

Prongs

"Sophocles," James called. The owl flew to him arm, "Bring this to Sirius and peck at his hand till he leaves," James commanded. Sophocles hooted acknowledgement, then swooped through the wide window. James watched as the owl flew into the lightening sky. James glanced at his clock; it read 4:56. He shook his head and fell back on his bed, falling instantly into a dreamless sleep with his clothes still on and the lights still gleaming.

A/N: I am the Queen of sneakiness! I know you all hate me, but now you know what was going on with Leila. I got a lot of good theories, but surprisingly no one thought of an affair. So, in case anyone hasn't figured this out yet, Lily is Sirius's half sister, weird, right? I bet you're all pretty excited for Sirius's appearance in the next chapter.

I think that the next chapter will be my last one. I want to know, so you guys want me to make a sequel to this one of them at Hogwarts, or should I leave it as is and just work on a new fic?