Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me except the plot and a few characters here and there. If you've read the books then you ought to know what's mine and what isn't, so it's pointless for me to write this. However, I don't feel like being sued so here we are.

The Prince was written by Niccolo Machiavelli. I can't remember who said, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely", but it wasn't me. It was someone in the time of Louis XIV, but I don't think he said it.

A/N: Yea! I have finished their first two years. Now they're thirteen and while they won't be falling in love quite yet, romance may be starting in this chapter. I just won't say between who and who.

As an extra note: I have never been very good with description, that is to say, I am very quick to jump from one thing to another without spending time on details. I've had comments on that from my reviewers. My thing is the dialogue and so in this chapter I have tried to go in depth and make a lot of observations. It is quite long because of this. I hope you enjoy and please review!



Chapter 9: Of Crushes, Bunnies, and Bonding

Lily Potter walked into her son's bedroom. He was wide awake and stared at her with emerald green eyes that were so much like hers. Lily loved that Harry had her eyes. He looked like James in so many ways, but the eyes, the eyes were hers.

"Hello darling. Tonight I'm going to tell you the story of Lily's third year." She paused to yawn. "Oops, I guess mummy's a little tired. I hope that at least your daddy is sleeping. Anyway, it was one week until Lily went back to Hogwarts and she was counting the days...

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Another miserable summer. Unlike most children, Lily hated the summer and loved school. Of course there was a very good reason for this. Her name was Petunia.

Or at least that had been the reason Lily hated vacation before. That summer Petunia was busy with her boyfriend, a creepy, pig of a man, named Vernon Dursley. If Lily hadn't hated him so much she might have pitied him. So Petunia was occupied most of the summer and left Lily alone. For the first time in many summers, Petunia wasn't the reason that Lily was miserable.

It was the wretched, annoying voices. They weren't always controlling her, but the little voice would make strange suggestions on what she should eat, or what she should wear, but that's all they were, suggestions. It or they, never made her go through with the instructions, but just the constant presence was driving her insane.

Lily was sitting at her desk in her room trying to read her copy of the Daily Prophet. She had been getting it delivered all summer, but thus far there hadn't been any news of interest. Since the paper was delivered by owl, Lily had to promise her parents that the owls would come to her room only. The first paper had been delivered to the kitchen and the owl accidentally flew into Petunia's cereal.

Interesting, no?

'What are you talking about?' Lily thought irritably.

That article. The one on the front page.

'You mean... oh.'

You-Know-Who Strikes Again! Quite a flashy title. It says he killed a thousand muggles and muggleborns in just one day. Fascinating.

'That's not fascinating. That's sad. What's wrong with you?'

Me? Nothing. I simply lack compassion. Unlike you.

'What's that supposed to mean?'

Lily, you could be the most powerful witch since Rowena Ravenclaw if you wished to be. However, you suffer from having a conscience.

'There's nothing wrong with having morals.'

Have you ever read The Prince? It's a muggle book, but it was written by a man far ahead of his time. All witches and wizards with asirations to power read The Prince..

'No, I've never read The Prince. I don't have aspirations to power.'



The Prince tells us that if you want power you should do whatever it takes to get that power. It is better to be feared than loved.

'I suppose Voldemort follows that book to the letter.'

He does and that is why he is so powerful. You Lily, you could be just as great, perhaps even more so, but you are too soft.

'Who are you calling soft?' Lily said indignantly.

You, but it can be remedied. You have so much power, set it free.

'What are you talking about? I'm just an average witch. Maybe my grades are better than some, but I have no extra magic.'

You are wrong, Lily. Very wrong. You are strong. Absolute power, that's what's important.

'Haven't you ever read about Louis XIV? He was a great ruler of France. He had absolute power, but "absolute power corrupts absolutely".'

Apparently she had mystified the voice, for it left her alone for the rest of the day- leaving Lily to think about what it had said. Her, powerful? How? She was just a slightly above average witch. Nothing to write home about. Or was she something special? Was it possible?

Lily put down her copy of the Daily Prophet and collapsed on her bed. Maybe the only purpose of the annoying little voice was to drive her mad!

* * *

The sight of the scarlet steam engine was all Lily needed to uplift her spirits. She waved goodbye to her parents (Petunia had stayed home) and stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. She saw her friends and joined them in their compartment. Marie was late, and when she joined Lily and the Marauders she was out of breath.

"Hi everyone! How are you?"

Marie fell into conversation with Lily and they were joined shortly by Elizabeth. The boys discussed Quidditch and ways to torture Snape during the train ride. They came up with some very creative ideas. Lily, Marie, and Elizabeth were discussing their vacations and how horrible they had been. It seemed that everyone was trying to avoid the topic of Voldemort's latest massacre. Lily joined in the conversations willingly and never mentioned the voices.

A little more than halfway into the trip Lily had pulled out a muggle novel. She was deeply immersed in her book when James came over and sat down next to her.

"Hey Petals, how was vacation? Was Petunia particularly horrible?"

"Oh, hi James. No, she has a boyfriend now. He's quite a pig, but at least Petunia left me alone all summer."

"Why couldn't you come to my house this summer? I sent you a lot of invitations and you turned each one down."

Lily flushed. The only time the voice had exercised it's ability for mind control was to prevent her from seeing her friends.

"None of the times were convenient. I'm sorry, James."

"That's alright. At least we were able to owl each other. So are you trying out for the Quidditch team this year?"

"Ha, ha, very funny. That was an extremely bad joke, you should be ashamed of yourself," Lily scolded, teasingly.

"Oh I am. Very much so. Are you going to help us get Snape when we get to school?"

"What's the plan?"

"We're not sure which plan to go with. I suspect we'll use them all by the end of the year, but there are quite a few. What do you think? We paint him red and gold and tie him up in the entrance hall, or we go with the simple plan- we have you paint 'Severus Snape is a slimeball' in all the girls toilets."

"I don't know. The first is definitely more dramatic, but probably more difficult to pull off. The second is somewhat pedestrian, but effective. You choose. Either way I'll help."

"Great. I think we'll do both. I'll talk to the fellows and we'll arrange a time."

As he was about to move to another seat, Lily caught his sleeve. "James, have you done anymore research on the Animagus potion?"



"I don't think this is the best time to be having this conversation, but yes. The potion's hard enough, but the spell is tricky too. At the rate we're going I don't think that it will be ready until our fifth year and that's assuming we work at a specific rate."

Lily sucked in her breath. "Fifth year? But that's so far away. Poor Remus. I wish there was something else we could do."

James smiled. "We're doing all we can, Lil. It took us awhile to come up with this plan. We'd better stick to it."

"I guess you're right."

* * *

A few nights later Lily challenged Remus to another game of chess, which she was losing, as usual. Remus and Sirius were the chess champs of Gryffindor, and James wasn't too bad, but Lily was rotten.

"Remus, I don't mean to sound, um, mean, but you aren't playing with your usual skill. Is something on your mind?" Lily looked at her friend concernedly.

"What? Oh sorry, Lil. I was just thinking of something else. My mind wasn't on the game."

Lily looked over to where Remus had been staring. The only person over in that direction was Lily's friend, Elizabeth Peters. The only light was the light from her wand as she read. She was immersed in a book and her long blonde hair was falling over her face. Lily looked back at Remus and noted with a smile that he had the dreamy look in his eyes again.

"Would your mind happen to be on a very attractive blonde sitting right over there?" Lily asked, pointing in Elizabeth's direction.

Remus turned pink. "Of course not. Whatever gave you that idea?"

Lily smiled. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you've been staring at her for the past hour?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I have to go now. I'll see you later."

Remus practically ran out of the room leaving Lily with some very annoyed chess pieces. Lily smiled as she put away the game. So Remus liked Elizabeth. Now all she had to do was find out if Elizabeth like Remus. As Lily walked up to her dormitory she spotted James talking with some friends; she couldn't resist.

"James, I have to tell you something. It's big!"

"Petals! What is it?" James looked at her with a bemused smile.

"This is amazing! Remus likes Elizabeth!"

James scratched his head. "Tall, blonde Elizabeth? She's always so quiet."

"Maybe around you. Other than me, no one can get in a word edgewise between you and Sirius. I can't believe it. They would make such a cute pair!"

James looked at her mock-sternly. "Lily, don't meddle in other people's love lives. If they like each other then let them find out for themselves. Understood?"

Lily nodded, but she had no intention of obeying. When James turned away, Lily walked over to where Elizabeth was sitting.

"Hi, Beth."

Elizabeth looked up and smiled. "Hi, Lily. I was just reading this great muggle book and I suppose I was caught up in the story. Is there something you wanted to talk about?"

"I just wanted to talk. How are you?"

Elizabeth looked slightly confused. "I'm fine. I don't mean to be rude, or anything, but didn't we just have this kind of discussion?"

"Yes we did, but I just wanted to chat and Marie is off getting some sort of gossip. So, what's new?"

Elizabeth was willing to talk and they had a nice conversation. Then Elizabeth brought up an interesting subject.

"Um, Lily? Can I tell you something? I think that Remus was staring at me earlier."



There it was. And even though she had had every intention of telling Elizabeth about Remus' secret crush, Lily found that she couldn't betray a friend. Especially not Remus.

"Really? Maybe he likes you." That was safe because it was only a theory.

"You think so?"

"Lily!"

"Uh oh," Lily muttered under her breath as James came over.

"Didn't I tell you not to meddle in their lives?" he whispered fiercely in her ear.

"I wasn't!" Lily exclaimed indignantly.

"Oh." James appeared mollified. "Well then, are you going to come with us? Sirius, Remus, and Peter are waiting to fill the Slytherin common room with bunny rabbits. Are you in?"

"Bunny rabbits?" Lily repeated.

"Yeah. We were originally going to go with toads, but then we realized they're Slytherins. They probably like toads. It would be much better if it was bunnies."

"Where are you going to get a roomful of bunny rabbits?"

"We're going to transfigure them of course. The best part is, once there are a couple of them, they multiply!"

Lily tried to hide her laughter, but it was no use. "Transfiguration isn't my best subject you know."

"I know, but you're great in Charms and we might want to put up some jinxes or hexes. Besides, you're our friend!"

Five minutes later the five of them were on their way to the Slytherin common room under the invisibility cloak which Lily had magically expanded so that it now resembled a tablecloth and everyone fit under it. The long trek was in absolute silence. As Lily walked, sandwiched in between Remus and James, she felt uneasy. The halls were quiet and deserted and shadows danced on the walls. While the people in the portraits closest to Gryffindor Tower were all asleep, the portraits nearest the Slytherin Dungeons were wide awake and staring menacingly.

Lily had only been in these halls once before and it had been in daylight. Now, at night, she noticed what the paintings at this end of Hogwarts depicted. They all depicted horrible deaths, one was death by manticore- the victim had it's head ripped off. One had been thrown into what looked like a pot of boiling oil, another was being stabbed in the back, and yet another was having it's heart pulled out of it's chest.

It was the last portrait that caused Lily to stop dead in her tracks. The portrait showed a figure standing straight and tall opposite a demon (or so she thought at the time) holding the person's heart in it's hand. What was even more familiar about the painting was that unlike the other paintings the person in this one was not shrieking in pain.

Lily shuddered. What was Dumbledore thinking keeping paintings like these in the castle? And how had that particular scene been painted? As she was contemplating the questions, the human figure from the portrait looked at her and smiled, but never said a word. Lily backed away from it and straight into Peter who had been standing behind her.

"Lily?" James asked concernedly.

"Lil, are you alright?" Sirius chimed in.

"I, I," Lily took a moment to pull herself together. "I'm fine. Let's go. Those bunnies won't transfigure themselves."

The boys exchanged a look before following Lily down the corridor. They arrived in front of a damp musty wall. Lily looked around for a doorway, but she didn't see anything. Then Sirius spoke.

"I heard some wet-behind-the-ears first year say the password. Serpent!"

A door in the wall slid open revealing a damp and musty stone room. One by one they moved inside. Since this was Lily's first trip to their common room she took a good look around. There were rusty green lamps that hung from the ceiling. They gave off a cold sort of glow and reminded Lily of a darker version of the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz. Across the room was an ornately decorated fireplace, within which a blazing green fire crackled. Around the fireplace were high backed, green leather armchairs.

Lily shivered. The Slytherin common room was very drafty and wet. It must be terrible in the winter. Lily turned to James.



"What is it we're transfiguring into rabbits?"

"These," James said as he pulled out a bag of large cotton balls.

They set to work. James and Sirius had succeeded in setting five bunnies apiece loose, but the others only managed one each. They were about to pack up and leave after Sirius painted 'Slytherins are Daft!' on the wall with gold and scarlet paint when they heard a noise. Some one was coming into the common room. Hurriedly the five Gryffindors threw the cloak over themselves and stood absolutely still.

It was Severus Snape, but he wasn't alone. He was walking with fourth year, Lucius Malfoy. They were muttering in low tones when they saw what Sirius had written and a bunny had brushed past their legs. Snape only said one thing.

"Potter."

"Don't be foolish Snape. How could Gryffindors get in here? I don't know who did it, but I couldn't have been that twit or his muggle-loving friends."

Lily bristled at that last comment. She was ready to give that Lucius Malfoy a piece of her mind (a black eye, too) and she would have done so if Remus hadn't grabbed her arm and shaken his head. They were startled when Malfoy cried out.

"Look, there's a foot in the middle of the room!"

Their cover was blown. In the rush to hide Remus had left his foot uncovered and within three seconds Malfoy had crossed the room and whipped off the cloak.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

James Potter walked into his son's bedroom and immediately smiled. He had been listening at the doorway and was worried when the story stopped abruptly. There was nothing to worry about though, Lily was asleep in the rocking chair with Harry on her lap. However, while Lily was sleeping, Harry was not.

James scooped his son into his arms and placed an old blue and purple afghan over Lily. Then he took Harry into the living room and sat down on the couch.

"Well, I might as well finish the story. Harry do you want to hear the rest of the story?" Harry made noises, "Alright then. Lucius Malfoy had just discovered that there were Gryffindors in the room and it looked like they were going to be in big trouble...

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

James froze. They were going to be in so much trouble, they'd be in detention until seventh year. He glanced at Lily and saw that she was frozen in fear as well. They could get kicked out of school for being in another House's common room, especially what they were doing in it. Despite how James always fooled around, he wanted to be a prefect, maybe even Head Boy. He came from a long line of prefects.

"Now, I think that we should all go to Professor Dumbledore and sort this out. Don't you?" Lucius sneered at them and spared a contemptuous snort for Lily who he knew to be muggleborn.

Nobody moved, not even Snape. Finally Lucius spoke in his condescending way.

"Look, I don't plan on standing here all night, and things will be even worse for you if we wake up the rest of my housemates. Normally I would love to get the five of you in trouble, but if I wake up the rest of the Slytherins, I will get in trouble for being up at this hour. So let's go find the headmaster." Lucius gave the word headmaster a particularly sarcastic emphasis.

James wasn't worried about getting in trouble any more; all he saw was red. James had never fought with Snape before, that was Sirius' territory, but now he desperately wanted to beat up Lucius Malfoy. Trying to control himself, James looked at his other partners-in-crime and then at Snape.

Lily looked as if someone had just told her that the sky was really green. She was flushed and fearful at the same time. Sirius looked contemptuous of the two Slytherins, and like James his hands were itching to hurt one of them, but he also looked scared. His record was more stained then any of the others especially after the whole ordeal the year before. Peter was twitching as if he was going to make a run for it. James thought he saw something foreign in Peter's eyes. It looked like jealousy, but after a moment James thought he had imagined it. Remus was the calmest of the five. He seemed to be in another world and he had a thoughtful look on his face.

Snape was enigma. In the three years that James had known him, Snape never made sense, and, truthfully, James had never paid much attention to him. Aside from playing pranks on him, of course. Snape was looking at them with a mix of disgust and confusion. James thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him because he thought he saw a teensy bit of envy in Snape's eye.



Before James could say anything or move an inch, Albus Dumbledore appeared in the middle of the room. James tried to speak and make apologies, but Professor Dumbledore held his hand up for silence.

"Please, no one speak. I would like for all of you to come to my office and we will discuss this." As he spoke the headmaster's eyes roved the room from the gold and scarlet writing to the many bunnies hopping across the floor. James could have sworn that he saw Professor Dumbledore's mouth twitch in amusement. "Very well I have seen enough. Follow me, and please, no bickering."

In a straight line and in silence the seven Hogwarts students followed Professor Dumbledore up to his office where they all crowded around the claw-footed desk.

"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Snape, would you please explain what you were doing this evening when you discovered Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, Mr. Pettigrew, Mr. Lupin, and Miss Evans in your common room."

"We were having a private conversation, Professor, when we saw that our common room had been vandalized by these miscreants. I do hope you're going to punish them in a sufficient way."

"Thank you Mr. Malfoy, that will be enough. Is there anything you would like to say, Mr. Snape?" Dumbledore peered at the small sallow faced boy across from him. Snape just shook his head. "Very well. That will be all from you two. I need to speak with these five alone. Oh, and I'll send Mr. Filch to clean up the writing and the rabbits in your common room."

With one more nasty look, Lucius left the room followed by an oddly subdued Snape. Dumbledore watched them leave and turned his attention back to the five Gryffindors.

"I have to say that I am disappointed in you. There are passwords to the common rooms for a reason. The fact that you possibly caused a day's extra work for Mr. Filch is not in your favor."

The five friends exchanged glances and were about to protest when Dumbledore spoke again.

"However, since no one was hurt and it is in the nature of Slytherins and Gryffindors to be rivals, I will not expel you." They breathed a collective sigh of relief. "It will be twenty points from Gryffindor apiece and a unique punishment. I will not give you detention, rather I will pair each of you up with a Slytherin with whom you will spend three days. There will be special bonding charms placed on you so that you must spend the entire time together."

James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily were stunned. Not only did they lose one hundred points for Gryffindor, but they also had to spend mandatory time with Slytherins. This was turning into a nightmare and James decided to say something.

"With all due respect Professor, all we did was play a harmless prank. I know it was wrong, but don't you think the punishment is a little harsh?"

"James, I am sorry to have to do this, for I enjoy a joke as much as anyone, but you broke many school rules and snuck into another House's common room to vandalize it." James started to protest, but Professor Dumbledore stopped him. "The punishment should be even harsher, but I cling to the hope that we can turn rivals into friends. The punishment stands. I hope you will learn from it. Now, you may all return to your common room."

They filed out of Dumbledore's office with James bringing up the rear. As he was about to leave, Professor Dumbledore called him back.

"I know you believe the punishment to be unfair, James, but you did commit a misdemeanor and I have to punish you." Seeing James' crestfallen face he added. "I will not forbid you to play practical jokes. I only request that you keep them out of the Slytherin common room and only during daylight hours. Understood?"

James brightened and nodded. Waving good bye he raced down the moving staircase and out the door. Already he was planning his next prank.

* * *

Two days later the 'Gryffindor Five', as they were being called, were going to take their punishment. They felt as though they had been punished already. Most of Gryffindor wouldn't talk to them because of the lost points and they were being outcast from everything. James was having a terrible time on the Quidditch team and they lost a game because the Chasers weren't communicating. That certainly didn't help his popularity.

Marie and Elizabeth were the only girls from Gryffindor who were still speaking to Lily, but they weren't always sympathetic to her problems. Sirius and James were taking their exile from society the hardest because they were naturally social people. Peter and Remus suffered too, but Remus was usually quiet and aloof and Peter didn't have very good social graces.

James walked with Lily to the Great Hall where they were supposed to meet the Slytherins they'd be chained to for two days. They made small talk as they walked, but both were slightly relieved when they reached their destination. Going inside, James and Lily saw Peter, Remus and Sirius all waiting. They were looking apprehensively at the five Slytherins sitting at another table, all of whom were whispering and shooting dirty looks at the Gryffindors.

Dumbledore walked in behind Lily and James and motioned for them to take a seat. They sat and he spoke.



"Students. I would rather not call this a punishment, but a learning experience. Let us learn something from our partners so that we can work together. I am now going to pair you up and for the next three days you will be together, and what luck! Tomorrow is a Hogsmeade trip." The faces of the Gryffindor students fell. They had forgotten about Hogsmeade and now they had to spend the trip with Slytherins who didn't look very happy about the arrangement either. "Now then. Mr. Black, you will be paired with Mr. Lizama."

A skinny Slytherin who reminded James of a weasel, stepped forward and moved towards Sirius. Sirius swallowed hard and stood up. He tried to shake hands, but Lizama just looked at him.

"Miss Evans, you will be with Miss Delgado."

The only girl sitting with the Slytherins stood up and walked towards Lily. She had short, curly, dark brown hair and skin the color of caramel. She actually smiled when she shook hands with Lily and James thought the smile was genuine.

"Mr. Lupin, you are paired with Mr. Gregorio."

The Slytherin designated as Gregorio stood up and flexed his muscles. James recognized him from the Slytherin Quidditch team; he was as frightening on the ground as he was in the air. Remus stood up and acknowledged him with a nod.

"Mr. Pettigrew, your partner is Mr. Stransky."

Stransky was an average looking boy with no really obvious Slytherin qualities. He shook Peter's hand and nodded. Peter quivered, but was visibly relieved when Stransky shook hands.

"And finally, Mr. Potter, you are paired with Mr. Frost."

James stood up and took a good look at the boy he was paired with. Frost had light blond hair and seemed to be the opposite of James in every way. He had piercing blue eyes and a cold, tight-lipped smile. He recognized James' presence with a slight twist of his mouth.

"Hello Potter. I've heard quite a lot about you. Three days together, eh? I hope that you're buckled in because it's going to be a bumpy ride."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lily entered the livingroom just in time to hear that outrageous statement.

"James, he didn't say that and you know it. Stop feeding my son such rubbish. I had better finish the story."

"Excuse me darling, but you were sleeping and Harry wanted to hear more of the story. Please continue, if you feel I am doing so poorly."

Even though Lily knew he was being sarcastic, she took him up on his offer. "Fine." Lily sat down on the sofa and pulled Harry onto her lap. He squirmed for a moment and then settled in. "Alright, now Lily's partner couldn't have been more different from what she'd expected...

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Hogsmeade trip was nothing like Lily expected. She had expected to be miserable, not to have the time of her life. Raquel Delgado was a whirlwind of excitement and as nice as can be- something Lily never expected from a Slytherin.

They had started the day in Honeydukes, where Lily found that they liked all of the same candies, and they were now taking a midday break in the Three Broomsticks. Occasionally they had run into the other pairs of students, some of whom were not having as good a time as Lily and Raquel were. They collapsed in a booth after ordering their butterbeers and started talking about everything under the sun.

'How did you become part of this project?" Lily asked.

"All of us committed some sort of felony. I taught the House Elves to make flambe and set the kitchens on fire. It didn't help that I was supposed to be in Charms at the time."

"Raquel, if you don't mind me asking, why were you put in Slytherin? You seem so..."

"Nice?" Raquel laughed. She had a laugh like a bell, pure and sweet. "Not all Slytherins are nasty people obsessed with the Dark Arts. Just enough of them to give the rest of us a bad name. And of course it doesn't help our image that the most feared Dark Wizards of Britain were all in Slytherin. I think I was put there because I'm crafty, shrewd, and cunning. Those don't have to be bad qualities."

They chatted and were having a great time. Lily thought it was wonderful to be having a conversation with someone who wasn't upset with her because she lost some House points. Raquel was a great shopper too and they were going to Jocelyn's Designer Robes to buy clothes. Not all of the pairs were having a good time, however. Sirius and Philip Lizama had reached a truce- neither one of them spoke to the other. Peter and Edgar Stransky seemed to be having a decent time. They were seen near the Shrieking Shack with their heads bent together in conversation. James and Frost who's first name happened to be Robert (not to be confused with the poet) were arguing and insulting each other so loudly that they could be heard on the other end of Hogsmeade.

No one saw Remus or his partner Thorren Gregorio all morning. Then Remus walked into the Three Broomsticks followed by the large Quidditch player who was a trifle short on wits. Remus walked over to where Lily and Raquel were giggling and requested to talk to Lily. Alone. Of course, thanks to the bonding charms placed on them, when Lily stood up and followed Remus to a corner of the pub, Raquel and Thorren were pulled over as if by the force of a giant magnet.

"Oops," Raquel giggled. She promptly placed her hands over her ears and elbowed Thorren to do the same. Once it appeared that they couldn't hear, Remus spoke. As an extra precaution he spoke in a whisper.

"Lily, I can't take this anymore. I wanted to ask Elizabeth to walk around Hogsmeade with me-"

"Remus that's wonderful!" Lily squealed.

"Yeah, well, it would have been except now I have this two hundred and fifty pound Quidditch sloth strapped to my back. I can't wait until this is over. How do you stand yours?"

"It's not like they're our pets, Remus. Raquel is very nice. We can talk and she listens to me. Try to find common ground with your partner. It might make the time go by quicker."

"I doubt it. I'll see you later."

Remus left the pub and with a shrug in their direction Thorren left Raquel and Lily alone again. Before they went on to clothes shop, Lily couldn't help but ask one more question.

"Raquel, does it bother you that I'm muggleborn?"

Raquel thought for a moment; it was a somewhat tense moment. Then she looked at Lily and smiled. "Nope. Come on let's go, I hear Jocelyn's is having a sale. Then we have to go to that new joke store that just opened, what's it called? Oh, yeah, Zonko's."

Smiling at her bubbly personality, Lily slid out of the booth and stood up. "Let's go," she agreed.

* * *

Back at Hogwarts that evening the ten 'prisoners' rolled out their sleeping bags in an empty class room. The bonding spells that had been placed on them had been set for a specific time, three days. Until that time was up they had to do everything together- even sleep in the same room. For Raquel and Lily that wasn't a problem; it was like a sleep over. James and Robert weren't fighting anymore. They found a mutual interest- muggle baseball. It appeared that they both collected the cards- even though the pictures didn't move. Lily smiled when she heard that James liked baseball. It was odd, even for James. Sirius and Philip still weren't speaking, but they played exploding Snap together, somewhat reluctantly. Peter and Edgar had no problems with the sleeping arrangements. They chatted away like old friends. Remus was still having problems with his match. He laid out his sleeping bag as far from Thorren as the charm would allow.

Lily tried to get Remus to talk to Thorren, but it was no use. Things weren't helped when she received a visit from the annoying little voice.

Having fun?

'Actually, I am. Raquel is a lot of fun!'

So glad you're enjoying yourself. You do realize that you're having fun with a Slytherin, don't you?

'What's wrong with that?' Lily asked

Nothing. In fact it's wonderful. Maybe she can help you get in the right place. Slytherin's are the ones with all of the power, you know. Except your friend.

'What are you talking about? There's nothing wrong with Raquel.'

Only that she's powerless. Maybe she's after your power.

'Don't be ridiculous. Raquel's my friend, she'd never hurt me.'

Gryffindors and Slytherins are never friends. If she was really your friend, she would have told you she was muggleborn.

'Raquel is muggleborn? But I didn't think Slytherin accepted muggleborns.'



They don't- normally. Makes you wonder what she did to get in. It must have been bad.

'No. I don't care what you think. Raquel is not evil. She's not like the other Slytherins. There must be some other explanation.'

The voice said nothing. Lily lay in her blue sleeping bag and thought about Raquel. Would she have lied? Why would she lie? To get Lily's power? No, no, there was no special power. Lily had been right in the beginning. The voice was driving her batty!



A/N: I decided to end it there for now because this was getting so long. Ooh a cliffie, I hope you enjoyed! Please review!