Emerald Eyes

Disclaimer: Everything you know is JKs, the rest is mine. Sadly.
Previously

"ANSWER ME!"

"Yes..."

"Yes my Lord." The voice corrected.

"Yes my Lord."

The "Lord" stopped the Cruciatus curse, and Peter lay panting on the ground, with the most immense headache you could ever imagine penetrating in his mind.

This boy knew what to do, he slowly got to his knees and bowed down to the cloaked figure.

"Lord Voldemort, I am forever in your service."

Chapter Nine: Settling Back Down

"Evans, wake up." James whispered in her ear, and she immediately woke up, panting for breath ridiculously. Her eyes were wide and her hands shook violently, but obviously James, who was looking down at her, didn't notice.

"You sleep too much, has anyone ever told you that?"

"No, but thanks…" She said meekly propping herself up, calming down slightly.

"Is it another nightmare?" James asked silently, not quite sure if he was close enough to ask her that and get a response.

Lily nodded, "Another one."

"What was it about?" James sat next to her on the couch timidly.

"There was a-" She caught her tongue in mid sentence, and had to bite her lip to keep it from spilling. She would have spilled it, had the dream not been about Peter. Peter? Peter Petrigrew? The plump, shy, tag-along boy? It must have been, the voice, the height, …and the shape.

With deep regret, she spoke, "I…can't say." Lily felt absolutely horrible, James had been so nice to her lately, and she had started to trust him. She sighed sadly and looked at him regretting.

At first, James looked rather hurt, his shoulders dropped and his face fell, but was quick to recover, "Its okay, I shouldn't have asked." Deciding on looking away, he left Lily feeling horrible.

"I'm sorry James, I would tell you if it had been any other normal nightmare!" Lily looked at him and her sentence ended in a whisper, which made a shiver go down James' spine. He quickly looked at her penetrating green eyes, and detected raging fear swimming around the green pools. Lily stared back; in hopes that if she did he'd detect that she was serious.

The silence was broken by footsteps returning from Dumbledore's private office.

"If you have any more requests, Miss Leah, feel free to ask. Now, I think you should get back to your room, I'm sure you'll see Lily there." Dumbledore smiled warmly as Leah gave her thanks and winked at Lily as she walked out the door.

"Professor, if it's alright with you, I also have some business I'd like to talk to you about." James said, standing up.

"Me too." Lily said quickly, standing up as well and surprising herself. Oh God, what was she going to tell him now?

James looked back at Lily and then to Dumbledore, he had a faint idea of what she might say.

Dumbledore looked pleased that he was being called upon and smiled, "Alright, I'll see both of you after I meet with you about the Heads meeting. Come this way, please."

The Head boy and girl followed him to his second office, which if possible, was more amazing that the last. It had a silver, swirling pensive located at the side of the room, and a brilliant phoenix perched by the window.

Lily stared at the phoenix wide-eyed, the feathers gracefully cascaded downwards, a trail of elegance and pride in its eyes. The color of blood red and the golden sweat of the sun, it was the most magnificent animal Lily had ever seen. The phoenix was looking around at the guests, and squawked a greeting.

"Wonderful pets, Phoenixes." Dumbledore commented as he spotted her staring. Lily quickly looked at him, caught by surprise, and smiled nervously. Joining James at the desk, they waited patiently for Dumbledore to begin.

"First things first," Dumbledore sat himself across from them, "Lily, you might be wondering why you were chosen as Head Girl, when you weren't chosen as Prefect."

Lily nodded at him, and he continued.

"I realized in this school, there is no one quite like you. Now, don't get me wrong, last year's prefects were incredibly intelligent, but none of them really possessed the kind of character you show. You have more than just intelligence, Lily, and it took me a while for it to come to mind. And when it did, I always thought of you as one to pass off responsibility, and we certainly could not have that. But again, I think I was wrong." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and then he continued, " And I thought you and James would get along and if you worked together could accomplish many productive things."

Taken by surprise, Lily looked at him in shock, but managed a, "Thank you, sir."

Dumbledore nodded and gave her a smile, before addressing them both, "As you know, you will both get your own rooms now, apart from the Gryffindor Common Room. However, we know it's your last year and your friends are most important, so you can go back any time, and there is a specially hallway which leads you to the Gryffindor Common room, its hard to miss. Lily, your password is 'Aries', the door is located behind the statue of a marble horse. You can change it at any moment, feel free to. James, your password is 'Hypogriff', and your door is located behind a painting of a knight. Go ahead and change it, as well, any time you want. I'll have one of the elves show you where the room is."

"Obviously, you will have many more responsibilities than you did last year. You must direct each Prefect Meeting, set up schedules for monitoring the halls, plan balls and parties, do the decorating, and all the work in-between. I am sure you two will be able to get it done and do a good job on it, but may I remind you to work together. I know you're not the best of friends, but please stay on civil terms with each other."

"I will leave the Prefect Meeting schedule up to you, but remember there must be at least two a month. Do you have any questions? I don't think I have to tell you not to miss-use your power…"

"No, we understand." Lily said, speaking for James as he nodded.

"Alright then," Dumbledore smiled, "I wish you good luck in your tasks, I'm sure you two will work hard. I'll see you, James, on the business you wanted to talk to me about. Lily, I'll let you know when you can come in."

Taking this as her cue to leave, she got up and walked out into the first office. This time she was determined to keep herself awake, and wandered around the room picking at all the extraordinary items laid out around the room. She even pulled out a few books and skimmed through them, even if they subjects were incredibly boring to her. As long as she didn't go to sleep…

About three minutes later, James walked out with his hands in his pockets, looking relieved, and told Lily that Dumbledore was ready for her.

"Thanks." Lily said before going into his office. All the anxiety and worry flooded back to her, and her heart pounded somewhat irregularly as she entered his room. What would she say? While she felt like spilling everything, like she had to Leah, something told her not to tell him everything.

She sat down, and all the anxiety and stress floated off as she saw Dumbledore. She felt safe around him, as if nothing wrong could possibly happen to her while he had his eyes on her.

"So, you said you wanted to talk to me. Is there something concerning you, anything you would like to know?" He clasped his arms together and rested them on his marble desk.

"Yeah…" Lily fidgeted uncomfortably, not really knowing how to say it. With Leah she wasn't ever really worried about if it made sense or not, just as long as she vaguely understood what was happening. Just to get her feelings out.

"I've been having these dreams. They're really odd, they seem real. It's also been basically about the same thing, in a way. The same kind of atmosphere. Like in one dream I was murdered, another dream I saw familiar looking people and horrible things happen to them, and the last one someone joined Lord Voldemort or something like that."

Dumbledore nodded, showing he understood.

"I've just been wondering why I've had them, it seems real, and it's not something you usually dream about. If they meant something." She then shrugged and sighed, "I'm sorry, this sounds really stupid now. I should go, I'm sorry for waiting your time-"

Dumbledore stuck out his hand, telling her to stop moving, and she sat back down on the chair.

"It does not sound stupid, at all. I fully understand, and I think I have an explanation."

At this, she raised an eyebrow and began to listen intently.

"Sometimes," he started, "magic can have more power than the owner expects it. It becomes one with the person, like a double, or a force. It does not know right or wrong, but it knows. Usually, when this person is very in tune with what is happening, dreams can warn you and tell you about the future. Sometimes it can be another person showing you this, but that is very rare."

Lily nodded, and now wished she had never asked. Was it all real? No, it couldn't be. Absolutely not, there was no way in HELL.

"Is everything true?" She found herself asking absently.

"No, not all the time. Sometimes only half, sometimes hardly any of it, because its telling you by the form of dream. Therefore your mind is still thinking and twisting things."

Lily set out a sigh of relief and was now content on all she had learned.

Dumbledore paused a moment before looking at her intently, "Is there something else you'd like to tell me?"

A thousand things raced through Lily's minds that she could tell him: Sirius' death, his appearance, Harry. Instead, she kept silent.

"No sir, nothing."

(A/N: Like mother like son…or something like that)

So Dumbledore smiled warmly, stood up, and walked over to her. "Thank you Miss Evans for coming here to talk to me. I appreciate it, and you have given me something to think about."

"Thank you Professor for listening to me," she said rather timidly.

He nodded, and Lily knew it meant she had to leave now. She stood up, gave a little wave, and walked through the two offices and out of his office. Her mind was contemplating everything he had said, wondering what could have possibly been real and what was just her imagination, if anything. Harry, the boy, he must have been real. Sirius' death was absolutely astonishing, out of the ordinary, and not the way she would have imagined it. That must have been her mind twisting something up, as Dumbledore had said.

She was so deep in her thought, that as she passed the gargoyles, when a small pink house elf appeared in front of her and tapped her leg, she jumped back slightly in shock.

"I am sorry, Miss Evans, for bothering you." The house elf quickly apologized, feeling extremely guilty now.

"Oh, its fine! My fault really, no need to apologies." Lily brushed it off and smiled.

The house elf gave an appreciating smile, and continued, "The Headmaster send me up here to Miss Evans to take her to her room."

Lily noticed the house elf was wearing a rather dirty but nonetheless decent looking cloth over its bare, dry skin. Its ears were larger than its head, and the eyes were big and watery, showing every detail of any hint of emotion to enter its mind. Guessing by the voice, Lily decided it was a female and upon calling it 'Miss'.

"Thank you Miss." Lily grinned, as the house elf stared at her in astonishment.

"F-Follow me!" She squealed with delight and quickly hopped around, and proceeded by weaving in and out of the tables of the Great Hall (which was now being cleaned up by other house elves).

She felt rather tall, hopping through the bunch of busy working house elves, and had to walk slightly faster than normal pace to keep up with the breathless running elf.

They entered a door, went through a hallway, turned right, and where they would have gone straight to the Gryffindor Common Room, they turned to the right and continued down a narrower hallway. Trying to memorize where they were going by the landmarks, she took in every detail of the splendid castle. From the golden legs of the chairs, to the glinting crystals adorning silver polished frames. Statues, portraits, number of knights in armor stood in their place along the walls, where they would remain forever, no matter how old the castle got. It wasn't all a mystery to Lily; she had been through more of the castle than most students usually explored in. She soon realized she was walking in the hallway that was the home to the mirror with the obnoxious attitude. What she didn't know was that it was a long, long hallway that was the end and meeting points of smaller pathways.

Smiling that she had figured out another piece to the mystery of how this castle worked, she hurried up a little so that she was walking next to the running elf. The elf came to a complete stop and turned to face a large, marble statue of a magnificent horse. In a squeaky voice, the elf spoke the password, 'Aries'.

Still at awe at the fine details of the marble horse, she was overcome when it glided over to the left slowly on command. It revealed a hole in the ground, big enough to fit your hand in comfortably, but small enough to not stick out if ever left un-opened.

Swiftly, the elf reached her skinny hand into the hole, gripped something firmly, and tugged backwards. She stepped off to the side as a plank of the wall lowered itself down quickly. It revealed thick, wooden steps leading upwards and connecting onto a larger set of stairs. The elf bowed is head and pointed inside.

"Thank you," Lily said, and made her way up the stairs as she heard footsteps scurrying away against the floor. If she had judged her accommodations on the stairs, she would have guessed it was a smelly attic with termites, moths, and crusty sofas. But don't judge a book by its cover: as she reached the end of the steps, she was greeted with two railings on either side of her. A gold and red bed lay in front of her with a red canopy overhead. To either side lay neatly two sofas, and, if possible, twice as comfortable as the normal sofas in the Common Room. A pale, fluffy, creamy white carpet covered the ground. To her right were all her clothes, already hung efficiently on hangers, and then two mirrors next to it. Then to the left was a mini-library, with space where some of her own books had been placed. A small beanbag chair was positioned in the middle of the small library, and a desk lay next to it with papers and quills all ready to go. What made her smile was her hawk, who got her own little corner in the room.

She loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. Perfect, perfect, perfect. She was just about to go jump on the bed, when James opened a door she hadn't noticed before.

"I see you like it! Don't these rooms rock?" He said enthusiastically as he looked around her room.

"You know they do! And why are our rooms connected?" She then said hesitantly and got off the bed to go see how this all worked.

James shrugged, "We can get back and forth through the door, but both sides have to be un-locked. And we share one bathroom, but we have separate doors for that."

Lily sighed and patted his shoulder, "Lovely, we get to share a bathroom."

James laughed and was about to turn away when he remembered something.

"Oh…have you seen the surprise?" He asked knowingly.

"Uh, what?" Lily asked, very confused.

"SURPRISE!" The heavy force of Leah flinging herself on top of her back knocked down Lily.

"Dear God, I would give you a hug and ask you what the hell you're doing here, but my back cant handle it." Lily mumbled while on the floor.

"Well…." Leah started happily, "I GET TO STAY IN A ROOM NEXT TO YOURS!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Lily shot up straight off the ground, and her blown out back magically mending itself.

"YES!" Leah screeched, and James, still watching, rolled his eyes.

"HOLY SHIT!" Lily gave her a hug then asked, "How?"

"I asked Dumbledore if I could stay in a room next to you or something, because I'm a lonely girl with no other friends who was had orders not to go near some certain girls even if THEY attacked me first!" Leah said fiercely while maintaining a fake grin on her face.

"That's great!" Lily grinned at the perfection of it all: her best friend "living" right next to her.

"I know! Oh, Lils, have you seen the rest of the place?" Leah asked, turning to her.

"No."

"Neither have I." James added, as he had been watching the reunion the whole time.

Leah looked up at him and then to Lily, "I'll give you guys a tour, starting with James' room."

So, they stood up, left down Lily's stairs, and began the tour from in front of James' portrait. James' room was basically the same layout; except it was already decorated with more things and he had about a billion more belongings. A few Quiditch posters were already tacked up on his wall, and his trunk with personal belongings was over-flowing with notes and plans for devious pranks. They took a door, which was located by the bed, which led into the bathroom. Large and impeccably clean, there was two of everything. A thin, almost see-through silky maroon curtain that could be moved back and forth divided it. The toilet flusher was golden, and to Lily's amusement, had the owner's name carved in delicately into it. That was the same for the sink handles, bathtub faucets, and shower tiles, ECT. Where the curtain clashed against the wall, yet another door stood there, waiting to be opened.

Behind that, was their small Common Room. Since it was for only two people (three in this case), it was just big enough to be cozy. It, too, had a few sofas, a large desk, a fireplace, and two doors leading to each person's room. Then, a door with golden lining stood directly in front of them. Leah opened it and came down, Lily and James curiously following behind her. They lowered themselves down the wooden stairs, which were obviously old but in good shape. It was a musty smell, but not disgusting. It was a short hallway, consisting of two doors on either side and one at the end of the hallway.

"What's this?" James asked, looking around the small room.

"Basically it takes you anywhere in the castle you need to go." Leah explained, "Each door leads to each common room, and that one right there," Leah pointed to the one on the far end, "is the door to my room. So Lils, you're going to have to walk quite some way to get to it." She smiled and continued.

"The rest of the doors lead to the common rooms. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw," she said while pointing to their corresponding door. It was rather obvious which one was which, as there was a gold plaque with the houses name inscribed into it.

A mischievous smile spread to his face and plans that could only be formed by a Marauder sparked in his mind.

"Sorry James, you can't get through the door unless you're part of that house." Leah smirked and Lily laughed at him, as he straightened his grin to an innocent look.

"Dumb ass, we know what you were thinking." Lily rolled her eyes and gave the innocent looking James a "nice try" pat on the back.

"Come on, come on! I want to see you room!" Lily turned around pushed Leah forward, who opened her door reluctantly. She wasn't too sure she wanted James in her room, for some odd reason.

Leah, too, was already accommodated and had about as much stuff as James did. You could tell very obviously that she loved Freddy Mercury and that music ruled her life. Her schoolbooks where at the other end of the room, also piled high.

"Very nice!" Lily said looking around, impressed.

"Yep," Leah clapped her hands together, "not as fancy as your guys' rooms, but great for me!" She grinned happily and looked at them.

"So are the Head Boy and Girl satisfied with their tour?" She asked sweetly.

"Very, dearest Leah." Lily winked and laughed.

"Now," Leah said, "If you don't mind, I'll be getting my pajamas on. So, if you guys would please go out?" She shooed them out of the door and shot a smile as she closed the door.

Lily and James, with no intention of getting ready for bed, sat down on the sofa of their common room leisurely, relaxing after the busy day they had.

"Wanna know what's sad?" Lily asked James thoughtfully.

"What?"

"When this day is over, that's one less day we have of Hogwarts. Soon it'll be over…" Lily sighed and rested her head on her arms.

"Don't think of it that way, think of it as one more day we've had at Hogwarts." James tried; he really didn't not want to think about life after Hogwarts. So he shook it off, knowing as long as it wasn't now he had to face it, it was fine.

Lily smiled at him for his consideration, "You're right, thanks. But anyway, we should still make it a great day. Want to go to the Common Room? I'm sure everyone is still up."

James eagerly agreed and, after letting Leah know where they were going, left quickly to join the rest of their friends.

The door led them right in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, and disappeared behind them once it was closed. It was incredibly confusing, but Lily was certain she would get used to it after she used that method of getting around the castle. They approached the Fat Lady, and James was getting ready to say the password out of habit but then realized: he didn't know the password.

Their meeting had taken them so long that they had missed the part where they told their houses their passwords; therefore they had missed it, too.

"Umm...Evans, do you know the password?" James said, now feeling very stupid.

Lily was about to insult his stupidity when she remembered that, she, too, had not the dimmest idea of what the password could even be!

"Uh, no." She finally spoke, her tone calm and intelligent. The intelligent tone made up for the fact she was the Head Girl and she didn't know the password.

"We're smart." James admitted sarcastically and sighed in exasperation.

"Excuse me, Fat Lady?" Lily spoke up to the portrait. Usually, calling anyone a Fat Lady was a horrible way to get the password, but in this case, it was the only way Lily could think of addressing her.

The Fat Lady, obviously annoyed that they had chosen that specific name for her, rolled her eyes and asked, "What do you want?"

"Well, as you may know, we're the Head Boy and Girl," she pointed to James and herself then continued, "And you see, we were discussing personal business with Professor Dumbledore, therefore we missed what the opening password was to the Common Room.

The Fat Lady began to smile, and tried to muffle down a roar of laughter by pressing her large hands over her mouth. "Oh, My. I see! Well, there's nothing I can do for you I'm afraid."

Lily's mouth opened in shock, "But we're the Heads! Please let us in! We don't even know how to change the password! Dumbledore forgot to explain it to us!" She pleaded.

She chuckled again, "I'm sorry, there is nothing I can do! And, that was Professor McGonogall's job, not Dumbledore's! After she dropped off the kids here, she ran back quickly to who knows what! She was in such a hurry though! My friend in the corridor to your right, she told me that-"

"Hey guys!" A voice from behind them greeted, interrupting The Fat Lady's informative gossip. "Weird passage, ay?" Leah said as the door disappeared behind her.

"Yeah! I'm sure we'll get used to it though." Lily added. Then James, itching to get in, quickly cut in. "Leah, what's the password?"

Leah began to chuckle and said through her wide grin, "Oh the Irony!"

"Is that the password?" James asked eagerly.

Leah shook her head, "No, stupid. It's Fiddlegus Fungus." They raised their eyebrows. "Don't ask." She stated as The Fat Lady gladly opened her doors to them.

As they stepped over, they were greeted by the site of familiar faces, plus a few new ones, all gathered in one room, laughing and joking and saying hello after a summer of being apart. There were some people on the couches; some gathered around tables, some in the corners of the room, some on the stairs, some in front of the fire. Scattered around like stars, the air was damp in joy and chatter.

"I'll never grow sick of this," Lily whispered to James and Leah, who both nodded. They were walking forward slowly, to find out where their friends lay.

"Hey James! You guys!" It was Sirius, waving his hand franticly in a sea of bodies…mostly girls, all around him. James' smile lit up and he walked coolly over to them. Leah and Lily exchanged glances.

"Should we go over there?" Leah asked hesitantly. Really, their only friends or acquaintances were the Marauders.

Lily shrugged, "Lets just go, something interesting might happen. We'll never know."

They walked up together to the crowd who was talking together excitedly, or rather; James was talking to the crowd of girls who were listening excitedly.

The seating arrangement was like this: There were two couches, forming an L, and then a table in front of them. Sirius and James (who was given space as soon as he had come) were in the middle of one of the couches, with their feet posted on top of the table. Remus was seated comfortably on the floor next to them, and Peter sitting on left arm of the sofa. The rest of the space was filled up with seven girls. Five were seventh years, one was a sixth year, and one was a fifth year.

James was currently talking about his summer when Lily and Leah approached them. Remus, Sirius, and James (who was still talking) waved at them. The girls just looked up, some in shock, some in disgust. Ignoring them, they both sat on the floor by Remus, Leah leaning closer to him.

"Hello there girls!" Sirius grinned at Leah and Lily and poked Lily's head with his foot.

"Oww Sirius!" Lily said playfully, turning around to look at him and slapping his foot.

"Girls, say hello." James ordered to the other girls, who were staring at them.

"Hello…" They said in unison, reluctant, only done because James had asked them to.

James seemed pleased with this, and quickly leaned forward to ask Remus something, "Hey, Rem, are you-"

He stopped mid-sentence and began to grin like a wild dog when he noticed Remus had no clue what was going on, as he was busy kissing Leah, who seemed incredibly content.

"Oh yeah! Get your girl Moony!" Sirius shouted playfully at his friend, who stopped what he was doing, smirked, turned around quickly and smacked Sirius upside the head.

Leah was laughing silently, her cheeks red and biting her lips.

"Nice one, Leah." Lily winked at her friend, who laughed and looked away in embarrassment. Oh, how Lil adored making fun of her friends.

Remus returned to his position on the floor, with a funny smile on his face, biting his tongue. Leah wiped a strand of brown hair from her face, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

"So," Amy said, looking down at Leah with her cat eyes, "how long have you two been dating?" She asked curiously and tossed her hair over her shoulder. She raised eyebrows and looked down at the couple in a snobby manner. All the girls nodded their heads, eager for some gossip.

Leah looked un-certain, rather hesitant, as she spoke, "Well…"

She looked over at Remus, who shrugged, "For about two weeks?"

Content with that answer, Amy let out a sigh of relief, "Oh good! Not that long! I thought you guys were like-"

She stopped her sentence when she realized The Marauders, Lily, and Leah were waiting for her to finish the sentence expectantly.

"Oh," she beamed a fake smile, "never minds, and congratulations." She didn't look happy for them, in fact she looked away and pursed her lips together.

There was a bit of tension in the air, and there was an awkward silence, where people gave each other glances, not sure of what to say. Finally, one of the girls began to talk excitedly about her summer break, and everyone except Remus, Leah, and Lily were listening. Lily was not listening due to the fact she found nothing interesting in what this stranger to her did last summer. Leah and Remus weren't interested because they were squeezing each other's hands, wishing they were alone.

Halfway through her detailed explanation of the girl's vacation, Remus leaned over and whispered something into Leah's ear. She grinned mischievously at him and nodded. His eyes began to sparkle, as did hers. Lily was the only person watching them as Remus and Leah stood up, still holding hands and began to walk away. Leah patted Lily's head as she left, running off with Remus through the crowds of people and out the portrait hole to do who-knows-what.

Lily rolled her eyes at the two lovebirds and then, to her disappointment, realized she was alone. She was alone with the chattering girls who never shut up, and two boys who, although nice, were acting like total jerks at the moment. So she sighed and laid her head back, and decided upon making it the best she could.

After a few minutes of hearing the girls talk, she couldn't take it anymore. She flipped around to face them and, in the nicest voice she could manage, said, "Ok, can we PLEASE do something else? I'm dying of boredom here, please, anything at all!"

James looked up at her as if he had just remembered she was there, "Well, why don't you and Leah go do something?"

Lily sighed desperately and pointed to where Leah and Remus had been sitting before, "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but they ran off a while ago!"

Everyone turned to look at their empty spots, and for some reason was surprised that they would just leave them like that! Lily snorted, "They were bored, so they left. Now I'm bored, and I don't have any place to go! So can we play exploding snap or something?"

All the girls shook their heads; while Lily could tell Sirius and James wanted desperately to play, too. She looked at them and raised her eyebrows in a way that said, 'Are you coming, or not?'

Sirius, who could not control himself for a Sickle, stood up (making the girls leaning on him stumble forward) and followed Lily to another table. They looked back at James, who was standing there shocked, all alone now. Peter was torn in the decision of going with Sirius or staying with James.

"Thank you so much for doing something, Lils!" Sirius whispered to her as they walked away to a table, "They were killing me, I swear…"

He let out a sigh of relief and sat across from Lily as she began to deal the cards. "Ah, you're welcome. Why won't James come though? Seems like he could use some saving."

Sirius shrugged, "No clue, but I'm sure he'll end up here sooner or later."

Lily nodded, "I would have expected one of the girls to drag you back to keep you from going!"

"To tell you the truth, so did I, but sometimes they're not that obsessive. And plus, being the first day back to school and all, they just need to catch up with each other." Sirius began to shuffle through his cards, when James came running up to them, panting desperately.

"C-c-can I play?" He said through gasping breaths.

Lily looked at him suspiciously, "Fine. But next time, if you don't come when I ask you to, you're not playing."

James nodded an approval as Lily pulled up a wooden chair for him, and he sat on it gratefully.

"So, what stopped you from coming here in the first place?" Lily asked as she, for the second time, dealt out the cards.

James shrugged as he took his cards in to his hands, "I was shocked that Sirius left, I mean, him, turning down the opportunity to be surrounded by hot girls. It took me a moment to recover and then realize I didn't want to be surrounded by them, either."

"What about Peter?" Sirius asked curiously, noticing their pudgy friend was not tagging along.

James shrugged, "He said he had something to take care of, then he left through the portrait hole. That sort of caught me by surprise, too."

As she was shuffling through the cards, Lily tried to hide the look of un-comfortableness and slight anxiety as they talked about Peter. Normally, she would shake it off. A little odd, yes, but shake it off. But after the dream, everything she thought about Peter was suspicious and uncomfortable.

Lily nodded and looked at him strangely, "Right, whatever. Anyway, lets just play already!"

A lot of time passed, as people began to head upstairs, clearing out the crowded room. The fire began to burn lower and lower, until it was just barley there. After five rounds of this game, Lily and James slammed their cards on the table, giving up.

"You win Sirius!" James surrendered and tossed him a Galleon, which he fetched from the bottom of his pocket. Lily gave up a Galleon as well, and Sirius took it eagerly and stored it away in his pocket.

"It's been lovely doing business with you two." He smiled innocently, and Lily and James shot him a mock smile.

"You only won the bet because I messed up that one time. Other than that, I would have won!" James defended himself playfully, as Sirius hit him on the arm.

"God, what time is it?" Lily asked curiously, leaning back on her chair and yawning.

"Eleven PM," said a voice form behind them. They turned around to see Remus and Leah walking and in hand back to them.

"Where have you two been?" Sirius asked with a sparkle in his eye, and a knowing glace Remus' Hogwarts tie, that was loose and un-done.

"Eww Sirius, nothing happened like that!" Leah shot him a playful glare.

"Hey!" He raised his arms defensively, "I never said anything!"

"They just took a stroll…" Lily defended them and then cracked a smile, "and made out."

Leah opened her mouth as slapped Lily upside the head.

James laughed and then said, "Well, as much as I hate leaving you two lovebirds, we should start heading up soon enough, we have classes tomorrow."

Remus groaned, "No! God…they should give us more time to settle in."

"Agreed," Lily sighed. "But I guess there's nothing we can do about it. Anyway, I'm going to go get ready for bed, I'll see you guys later."

"Same here, I'll be back soon." James agreed, and they both sat up and retreated out the portrait hole and down their hallway to the Head's Dormitory.

"Today was a good day, I guess," Lily said, after a moment. "Coming back to Hogwarts and all, just getting settled again. It feels good."

James nodded his head as they strolled down the hall, "Yeah, I guess it was. Hogwarts always feels good. In the middle of the year, we really don't think how much we're going to miss the long detentions and droning lessons until we're gone."

"We take too many things for granted." Lily added as they arrived at her marble horse.

"Oh, can I just go in through your room?" James asked as he did a double take. "I'm too lazy, and it's quicker."

"Sure. The password is 'Aries'." She spoke to the horse, which moved to the side. She reached inside the whole, pulled the rope, and the staircase lowered itself.

James, obviously impressed by the look on his face, said, "That is so much cooler than mine! You just have to give my knight the password, he says some crap, and the portrait moves and you crawl through and up some stairs. Not that fun, really."

They climbed quickly up the stairs and arrived in Lily's room. She escorted him to his door, and when he was safely on the other side, she shut and locked the door. Taking her time, Lily walked over to her large wardrobe, picked out some random pajamas, and threw them on. As she was brushing down her wild hair when there was a knock on the door. Curious why James would be knocking, she scurried to the door and opened it. Instead of James looking back at her, and his room behind him, Leah was standing there with the Living Room behind her.

"Huh?" Lily said, incredibly confused. This door led to James's room, not the living room!

"What?" Leah asked curiously.

"Never minds" Lily gave up trying to figure Hogwarts out, it was just to incredibly confusing.

Leah shrugged, "Whatever. Anyway, are you going to go to bed yet?"

Lily shook her head, "Not yet. Have the rest of the guys gone up to sleep?"

"Yeah, they began to head up when I left."

"Well, just because I'm a dork, I'm going to go say goodnight to them!" Lily announced happily.

Leah shook her head, "Whatever suits you. Right now I'm really tired, so I'm going to go to bed. See ya tomorrow."

Lily winked, "Later. G'night darling."

Leah waved her hand goodbye as she walked out of Lily's room, closing the door shut behind her.

Turning around on her heel, she walked down the stairs, letting her hand travel gently down the railing. Coming forth into the hallway, she looked around to make sure no one was traveling down the hallways. She walked down the hallway boldly, feeling a sense of importance now that she was Head Girl.

"Me? As Head Girl? I would have never guessed." Lily thought as she approached the common room. In fact, surprises had been springing out at her ever since she got that first letter from Hogwarts. First, she would have never guessed she even had potential for anything other than a C grade average. After the Hogwarts Letter however, and her first month, Lily's confidence rose, and she got A's and B's in all her magical classes. Then, Leah and Remus. Her friends, the most important thing to her. Looking back on all they had been through, it gave Lily yet another surge of importance when she thought that if it hadn't been for her, Leah would probably not have lived this long. And Remus, well, without Remus Lily would be a wreck, and probably never have met Leah. If her friends were taken away from her, that was the one thing that would drive her crazy. If they took away her belongings, her education, even her music if they must, but as long as she had her friends, any doubt of the future was comforted by the fact that they would always be there.

She smiled affectionately at just the feeling as she gave the password and climbed through the portrait and into the all-too-familiar common room. There was a group of fourth years talking in quick whispers in the corner, and they looked up quickly as she came in, but seeing who it was returned to their chatter. Taking no notice, Lily darted up the winding stairs and up to the fourth floor (which held the seven year boys' dormitory) and knocked on the door that clearly read "The Marauders Lair" in scraggly handwriting on a piece of old, worn, parchment. Lily smiled slightly, they would never change. Four signatures in scraggly writing below it read 'JameS, SIRIUS, PeTer, and Remus.' Then, in neater, slightly more mature handwriting 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs'

Not waiting for an answer, Lily threw open the door and walked inside, letting in a load of un-wanted light into the dark room. There were three bodies occupying the four beds, and only the one in the center sat up and spun around to look at their intruder. Lily, slamming the door behind her, hopped onto Remus' bed like a rabbit, and shook him awake, although that wasn't needed.

"What?" Remus groaned, slightly pissed his sleep had been disturbed.

"Just came to say good night!" Lily defended herself, and looked at the other beds, "Is Sirius asleep?"

"Yeah, fell asleep as soon as he landed on the bed." Remus chuckled.

"What about Peter?" Lily asked, trying to hide her hesitant voice.

"Asleep." Remus said, not noticing.

"Oh. Well, in that case," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "I have something to tell you."

Although no one could see, Remus raised an eyebrow and propped himself up and asked curiously, "What?"

Lily took a deep sigh, "Well, you know the dream I had at your house?"

Remus nodded.

"I had another one. Two more in fact." Lily found things spilling out of her mouth, even if she knew that the person who had contaminated her dream was lying in the bed next to Remus'.

"What happened in them? Are you okay?" His voice was marked with curiosity and worry.

She began to explain about the first dream, in more detail, and stopped at the part where Sirius was about to die.

"So anyway," Lily remembered what happened next in the dream. "Are you sure Sirius is asleep?"

Remus picked up a shoe and beamed it at Sirius' back, who only groaned and budged slightly, "Yep."

Lily leaned closer and whispered, "Remus, I saw Sirius die."

That was enough to send shivers riding up and down Remus' spine. Sirius…his best friend…someone witnessed his death? He looked at Lily through the darkness.

"Are you sure?" He double-checked.

"One hundred percent sure, Rem. I hated it." Her voice quivered for a moment, but she sucked it back. "And then the kid started running towards him, and you grabbed him and told him there was nothing we could to do save him."

Her voice was so low, the whisper so hushed, Remus' eyes widened and he shifted uneasily. HIM?

"I'm sorry…I shouldn't have told you." Lily looked away.

"No, its fine." Remus said quickly, "Is that all that happened?"

Lily shook her head, "No, that was only one dream. The other one, the other one…. it was shorter. But it was so weird, sort of hard to explain. Well, actually, its incredibly simple, I just don't want to say it."

"Come on!" Remus coaxed.

"Are you sure?"

"YES!" He let his voice go slightly above a whisper.

Lily was about to tell him every detail, every single one, down to Peter being the one who did it all, but then, like she had kept something from Dumbledore, to her deepest regret, she kept something from Remus.

"I don't know who it was," Lily stated clearly before beginning, and gave a nervous glance to Peter's bed, listening to his breathing for a few moments. Too bad she didn't listen longer, she would have noticed it was not as deep, and not rhythmic. In the bed next to her, a liar, a traitor, lay listening to them and their every word.

"So, this person approached this torn down building in a black cloak. There was only one light, at the very top. So, this guy goes up the stairs and through the door. Its all torn down, old, abandoned, the usual kind of buildings that happen in nightmares. Except upstairs, there was this dark figure. The guy enters, and the dark hooded figure walks down. The boy addresses him as Lord Voldemort and bows down to him. Voldemort then, to make sure he was loyal, I guess, began to torture him with the Unforgivable Curses. Then, still, the boy somehow manages to gather the strength to bow down to him and pledges his service to him. It was sort of freaky, sort of weird."

Saying it out loud felt very strange, and Lily began to feel like a fool.

Remus raised an eyebrow, "That is certainly random."

"It sounds like it, doesn't it? But I think they're connected in some way…" Lily trailed off into their own thoughts for a few moments, sitting in the silence.

"Well," Remus said finally, "if you're going to get any sleep tonight, you better go."

Lily nodded, "Yeah, I think I'll go now. Thanks for listening, I don't know why, I just feel like I need to tell people." Lily gave him a warm, BROTHERLY, hug, which he returned.

"Tell me if something like this happens again." He told her, and she nodded as she slipped away, gave a little wave, and exited through the door.

He fell backwards onto the springy mattress, and the room returned to silence once again, and Remus eventually fell away into his dreams. All that time, however, one person lay there, watching the still darkness, aware of everything that was happening and being said. The dream, the last one, seemed all too familiar to him. So familiar, it reminded him of the event that had taken place just last Tuesday, and the newly branded tattoo engraved into his arm.

She knew. Lily knew the things she wasn't supposed to know. What else Lily was aware of, Peter couldn't guess. However, he did know one thing she didn't. Soon, Lord Voldemort, his master, would be delighted in hearing this story, and be even more delighted to do something about it.


Holy shit, eleven pages! YEEAH! Hehe, anyway, thank you all SO MUCH for the reviews! You all make my day! I hope you liked this chapter, it took me forever to make it decent. I go over it about seven hundred times before I post it, so that's why its not that quickly put up. Anyway, okay, the time setting for them. Tell me if this makes sense, I'm going to make them pretty young, all right? Here's a time line: