8.

The next day, the girls were sitting in the Great Hall eating breakfast and discussing all the possible ways of getting the time turner, although Mary was the least enthusiastic.

"So how are you going to do it?" asked Tanya, a grave expression on her face. She obviously wasn't one to fancy doing anything too absurd and this was… well, about as absurd as it could get.

"Look, you don't have to go if you don't want to! I'm not forcing anybody to help me with this," said Keenyah.

"When did I say I didn't want to go!" replied Tanya, indignantly.

"Oh, am I to suppose the miserable expression on your face is your way of conveying that you are excited about this?"

One could not imagine a more sarcastic tone than one that was in Keenyah's voice as she said those words.

"Are you?" Trisha said to her, raising an eyebrow.

"W- what? That's not the point, the point is I can go on my own. I don't need your help."

The girls looked sceptical.

"I can! I'm a smart girl, I can manage it-"

"You do realize we're still going with you, right?

"Aw, thank-"

"Oh, shush!"

"Huh?"

"Just shut it!"

"What th-"

"Turn around."

"Wh- oh."

"Yeah."

Lily had now flopped herself down to the right of Keenyah, sparing the girls from hearing any more of Keenyah's rambling about her mind-boggling time turner scheme.

"How're you doing?" said Mary, though the bleakness in her voice could not be hidden.

It also seemed Lily had forgotten her previous pursuit of feigning unnecessary delight at any sight of them and resumed her tone of utter misery as she spoke to them.

"I'm doomed," she said gloomily.

"Well, hello and nice to see you again too," Trisha scolded her, looking insulted.

"I'm sorry, it's just… look at them!" replied Lily, glancing around the Great Hall at the various faces eyeing them with apprehension. "When will it blow over, for Pete sake!"

"When will you let it go?" whined Trisha, ignoring Keenyah's violent jab in the ribs. "I bet it'll blow over soon, so maybe you could just enjoy your life instead of letting some gossip ruin it for you."

Lily stared at Trisha in disbelief, but knew her friend had a point. It would make everybody a whole lot less depressed if she just stopped her pointless grieving over the injustice of life.

"I'm sorry," she apologized for the second time that day. "It's just so frustrating, everybody constantly on my back about what a btch I apparently am…"

"Well, it's like Trisha said – this'll blow over sooner than you can say 'sad'," said Tanya smartly, and glared at Keenyah knowingly, suddenly having found a reason for not using the time turner.

Keenyah rolled her eyes and turned to Lily.

"Do you think you can handle this?"

Lily looked at her friends and suddenly felt extremely stupid. Why had she let this get to her? She usually had stronger character than this. Plus, this wasn't really a big deal – just because everyone thought she was… well, nobody nice, didn't mean she actually was! How could she have been silly enough to make so much out of it? She almost wanted to laugh out at the imprudence with which she approached this situation; or gave up on the situation, one could say.

"You know what? I think I can; it's not big deal, now is it really?"

The girls heaved a sigh of relief and gave her a most grateful look, however all for different reasons.

"And it's not like you ever fancied Potter anyway, so this is like a piece of cake, isn't it?" said Trisha happily, shoving some oatmeal into her mouth.

Lily was drinking pumpkin juice as she said it, yet she still felt a lump in her throat – Trisha was right. She never liked or for the life of her, fancied James Potter. And she never would-

Hold it right there, a voice at the back of her mind told her, and she instantly knew she had been fooling herself. You fancy bloody Potter.

"Right, Lily?" Mary demanded, seeing Lily's incredulous expression at Trisha's previous point.

"Err…"

The pumpkin juice was leaking out of her mouth as Lily oddly decided to not swallow it.

"Lily!"

"Of course I don't!"

"You fancy Potter!" exclaimed Tanya in dismay at Lily who was looking as mortified as she should, with pumpkin juice leaking spilling down the bottom of her mouth before she could realize to gulp it down.

However, Lily was determined to make them believe the opposite. She gulped down the pathetic remainder of pumpkin juice and faced her friends, a resolute expression on her face.

"No! Never!" she spat violently, yet convincingly. "For the love of God, what are you four saying? Me and Potter? You're kidding, right?"

"Lily, you fancy him. We all knew you did when you agreed to go on that date with him," said Mary nonchalantly, having now digested the implicit confirmation that Lily did, in fact, have a thing for James.

"If you didn't fancy him, you would've never gone, you know!" added Trisha expertly.

Lily opened her mouth to retort, but was spared an argument when several hundred owls swooped in from the entrance to the Great Hall, dropping off mail for the students and staff of Hogwarts.

"Oh! Mum's written to me!" she said excitedly, grasping a letter addressed to her in her mother's flawless calligraphy.

"Hmm, she never writes to you, does she?" asked Keenyah, who never missed an opportunity to show she knew Lily the best.

Lily frowned and looked at Keenyah, concerned.

"You know, that is actually true. But it's only because Petunia doesn't want any owls flying around the place…"

"Well, open it! It's got to be pretty darn important if she wrote to you, hasn't it?!" Mary commanded fiercely.

"My darling Lily,

I was very concerned when I got your last letter-"

"Huh?"

"-I never thought you the type of girl to mistreat somebody like that. When have you gotten so bad? What did poor James ever do to you? Whenever him and his parents came 'round, he was always so nice to you! Now, what right have you got teasing him like that? You know, I think it's those friends of yours, they mustn't be a very good influence on you if you're going around bullying people now. And to think my daughter! MY daughter, would have the nerve to be as arrogant, conceited, inconsiderate and… foolish to taunt somebody over their feelings for her! Lily, I am not proud of you, and I sincerely hope you find yourself a different crowd to befriend, because frankly, I do not like what you must have become to even dare pull such a prank! Now, I only wish I knew how to make those Howlers you told me about. Anyway, write to me as soon as you get this letter. I am very disappointed indeed, Lily, very disappointed.

With love,

Your mother."

Four of the girls looked at each other in a mixture of confusion, anxiety and helplessness. The only one who seemed to have any idea what this was about, was Lily who was staring at the letter in disbelief.

"Lily, did you send your mother a letter about what happened?" inquired Tanya in astonishment.

Lily shook her head, her brows furrowing more and more with every second.

"Lily…"

Silence fell between them as she closed her eyes, shook her head vigorously, then opened her eyes and stood up from the table, an expression of uttermost rage painted on her face.

"Malfoy!" she growled viciously as glared at the back of a blonde boy sitting at the Slytherin table.

"Oh Lils, sit… please sit-" Mary was now feebly attempting to sit Lily back down, in fear of another stunt that would be sure to be the factor that makes Lily, once again, the talk of the school. "-it's probably not even-"

But Lily had already sat back down, a numb expression on her face. Who could have known one, simple, tiny letter would be causing this much havoc. Maybe Lily really should just forget it. She could always explain it to her mother, or say that it wasn't true, can't she?

"Lils, it's probably-"

"Don't," snapped Lily. "call me that."

"Okay," Keenyah replied quickly, shifting her gaze at anything but her friend.

"Bloody great. Now my mom thinks I'm a btch too.. that's the last thing I need!" vented Lily. "And see how she's telling me to get new friends! New bloody friends! I don't believe this.."

The girls averted their eyes from her and looked instead at their untouched food.

"Lily, you know what?"

Trisha was eyeing Lily with irritation clearly painted on her face.

"What?"

"You're a right drama queen, you know that?"

And with that she was off, to Lord knows where. Lily gasped in surprise, and her friends raised their eyebrows, however all not nearly as shocked by this statement as Lily. It had clearly been on their minds the last day or two, at the least.

"Am I a drama queen?" said Lily as she faced them.

"Oh, Lils… well, you could always tell them that you just lost the letter and nobody would think you a snob. It's that easy, really. You just- you just took it to a whole other level with this thing…" replied Mary timidly.

Lily eyes her friend, her eyebrows knit tightly together. Suddenly, she got up from the table

"How could I have been so…"

And after giving her friends one final, surprisingly grateful look, she got up from the table and walked away slowly.

OOO

James was watching the girls with curiosity, however, his insides were filling with shame each time he saw Lily, with that helpless, lost expression on her face. He knew she shouldn't have written to her mother, but it seemed like the easiest bit of revenge he could get. It was almost common knowledge that Lily was on very good terms with her mother, and was always striving to impress her. If anything were to devastate Lily, this would be it – her mother thinking she was a snob.

But James thought he'd feel accomplished after this. Truth is, he had been hating himself the moment he set foot out of the owlery the night before. He needed to fix this, yet he couldn't believe he was feeling so sympathetic towards the girl that had ruined his reputation completely.

"Have you considered that maybe she hadn't meant to get that letter out?" said Remus as they stared at their breakfast, both not feeling very hungry at all.

"I don't know.."

Honestly, James had considered this more than once. But it just felt so good to finally have a reason to not like Lily for a change. He had fancied her for so long, he had forgotten the feeling of being mad, angry at her. And he didn't want to go back to his foolish ways of trying desperately to woo her into fancying him… he felt ashamed that he liked being in this position of power so much, but he had never experienced it when it came to Evans.. and he quite liked being the one with the control in their relationship (or lack thereof, considering the current circumstances), for a change.

He was interrupted from his musings by the sound of hundreds of owls swooping into the Great Hall. His insides bubbled excitedly as he expected a letter to fall into his hand. Instead, all that came was today's Daily Prophet. No letter. No letter addressed to him by Benjamin Grey. No matter… he'd wait. That Grey would help him, and he knew it. Not after what James had found out about him.

OOO

She had heard a yelp just a minute or two before, and was now walking frantically through the corridor from where the voice in obvious need of help had come from. Hogwarts hadn't had an attack on a student in Lord knows how long, and with Keenyah as a prefect, it wasn't going to happen any time soon. She needed to find wherever it was that the yelp of fear had come from-

"Oh!"

Keenyah spun on her heel. She had just passed a split in the hall, and the voice seemed to be coming from the right hand corridor. Slowly, she tiptoed across the carpet, trying to make as less noise as possible..

"Please.." the voice pleaded. "I don't know-"

Keenyah felt herself panicking. Whoever that was attacking, or doing Lord knows what to the victim seemed to be the powerful one, as people did not plead to each other in most friendly circumstances.

"Who have you told?" came a gruff, violent-sounding voice from the same hallway, and Keenyah gasped in shock as she recognized it only too well.

"Nobody, I promise-"

"Who," repeated the voice, sounding more and more dangerous. "have you told?!"

"No-"

"Don't lie, Pettigrew."

Keenyah stopped dead in her tracks; this had to be the strangest, yet most interesting confrontation she had ever heard.

"I swear to God, I didn't know she was a-"

"What else could the mark bloody mean, you idiot?!"

"I didn't know… please, don't-"

"Have you any idea what this could do? My family, my… you're going to pay Pettigrew. You're going to-"

This was just getting interesting when Keenyah realize just how serious the gruff voice had sounded. She couldn't let him attack Pettigrew, for whatever reason. She was about to jump out into the hallway like a hero when she felt a hand cupping her mouth, breathing slowly getting harder. She tried to face whoever was seizing her, but she couldn't, the hand on her face was preventing her from moving in any direction. Slowly, she felt herself pass

"No!" she managed to yelp out, and the hand pressed tighter around her mouth.

Keenyah felt her body being guided out of the corridor… behind a door she had never seen before. She tried to wriggle out of the person's grip but it had been too hard. It seemed like the person was trying to hide the both of them, and the reasoning became obvious as Keenyah peeked through a crack in the door and saw a figure emerge from the hallway. She struggled to find the breath to gasp, but couldn't and after a moment or two, her knees gave way and she became too tired to struggle, letting her body fall into the hands of her seizer.