A/N: I am so sorry folks! I was really busy all weekend and as I was getting ready for bed last night, I had a nagging feeling I was forgetting something. When I woke up this morning, I realized what it was. I forgot to post my update! Please forgive me! Hopefully the fact that this chapter is a little longer than most makes up for it!

September 11th, 1977

"YOU KISSED HIM?! ON THE MOUTH?!" screamed Marlene at breakfast the next morning while Lily and Dorcas begged her to quiet down. "Oh, sorry," said Marlene at a more reasonable volume when she'd processed why they were anxiously flapping their hands at her.

"Yes. And I may have told him we were…dating. Or at last that we had been on a date," said Lily, still not really sure what to make of all those facts.

"Wow," said Marlene. "I knew you fancied him, but blimey, you move quick. What made you do it?"

"I don't know! It was all so confusing. There was chocolate and mead and a wall and the sunset and he asked me how my dad was and he said we should take candy to Cindy and…Oh, my god, Cindy! I promised McGonagall we'd visit again this morning and see if she was talking yet," Lily looked around frantically, but James had not yet arrived in the Great Hall.

"Aw, he asked about your dad?" asked Dorcas at the same time Marlene asked, once again at an inappropriate volume—

"YOU DRANK MEAD?!"

"For heavens sake, Marlene, quit shouting about it. I'm Head Girl, do you want me to lose my title. Or get expelled?"

"Oh, Dumbledore loves you. He wouldn't expel you for one pint of mead. Detention maybe…" said Marlene.

"Actually, it was more of a tankard," said Lily sheepishly.

Marlene and Dorcas both looked impressed at her boldness.

"So you're dating James Potter…" Dorcas mused.

"And you're dating Benjy Fenwick…" retorted Lily. Dorcas blushed, but didn't deny it.

"And I'm going to die alone…" said Marlene dejectedly.

"Oh, you will not die alone!" promised Dorcas.

"Well, I'll graduate alone at least. Can't exactly go around snogging my fellow female classmates at Hogwarts, can I? I doubt that behavior was ever taken too kindly to, but especially not nowadays with those bigoted assholes lurking the halls," she jerked her thumb at the Slytherin table.

Lily and Dorcas wanted to comfort Marlene, but they knew she was probably right and so couldn't find anything to say. Lily was saved from the awkward silence by the arrival of James and his crew.

"I better go," said Lily, pushing herself away from Ravenclaw table where the three friends had been sharing breakfast and gossip together. "Got to be in McGonagall's office in an hour and have to head to the Hospital Wing first."

She walked over to Gryffindor table, and as she neared, a group of her fellow seventh-year girls sneered at her hostilely and began whispering in each other's ears. Bethany Jacobs was at the center of the pack, and was looking venomously at Lily. Guess news travels fast around here, she thought to herself. Clearly at least some portion of hers and James's antics from Friday night or Saturday had reached the rest of the House.

Maybe the whole school, she realized with dismay, as she felt an uncomfortable number of eyes pointing in her direction. No doubt Marlene's shouting hadn't helped things, but Lily was fairly certain people already had somewhat of an idea about what had happened even before she came to breakfast this morning. She almost didn't want to go up to James, because it would only feed the rumors, but she didn't really have a choice. Even if the relationship went nowhere, they still had to work together.

"Um, Potter," she began, because Bethany Jacobs had leaned over, an attentive expression on her face, clearly hoping to overhear their conversation.

He looked up at her, surprised and a little hurt by the use of his surname. "Evans?" he replied, following her lead. The apologetic look on Lily's face put most his worries at ease.

"McGonagall wanted us to check in on Cindy Hampton this morning. We should get to the Hospital Wing soon, because we have more Head duties coming up later today." She was trying to keep things as professional as possible.

"Okay," James agreed, throwing some eggs between a couple pieces of toast and wrapping his makeshift sandwich in a napkin for the road. He took one last sip of his coffee, and got up to follow Lily out of the Great Hall. Sirius and Peter were looking at her suspiciously, but Remus seemed to understand. He leaned over and subtlety pointed out Jacobs and her gang to his friends, and Sirius and Peter scowled at them. Not that they noticed, because the girls were all watching James and Lily leave the Great Hall together.

James also seemed to have suspected something was up, and instinctively kept a little more distance from Lily than he normally would have, even before she had kissed him. When they were safely up the stairs and around the corner, and James's sandwich had already been swallowed in four big bites, he finally broke the silence.

"Well, are you going to tell me what that was all about, Evans?"

"Sorry, it's just, I didn't want to act all couple-like in front of Bethany Jacobs and those other girls."

"So we're a couple then?" he asked slyly.

"No! Maybe…I don't know." Lily had been struggling with that question all night. She didn't quite know what she wanted or expected from James. Or what he wanted and expected from her. She suspected they should probably talk about it, but how do you talk about things with someone else that you don't even know how to express to yourself?

"Well, we could at least behave like friends while you work that one out, couldn't we?"

"I just didn't want to give her any more reason to hate me," said Lily.

"She hates you?" asked James looking affronted, as though it had never occurred to him that anyone could possibly hate Lily Evans.

"Well, maybe not hates me, but she's never been too fond of me. She's always had a crush on you, you see, and you were always too busy asking me out to notice her, so here we are. And I guess she already knows something's been going on between us, because she's been especially icy to me lately."

"She fancies me?" asked James, apparently he had been clueless about that information too.

"You know, for someone so smart, you really are daft sometimes. You have to know that half the girls at this school fancy you. Well maybe not quite half, I think Sirius has claimed the hearts of the majority," said Lily.

"So does that mean I'm never allowed to publicly show you affection again or a hoard of slighted girls will come for you in the night with pitchforks?" he asked, a little apprehension mixed in with the humor. He didn't want to make life difficult for her, but he also couldn't imagine never holding her or kissing her in front of people. It was about all he wanted to do at the moment, and he wasn't sure how long he could contain himself.

"James, I don't know! Quit asking me all these questions, I don't have answers for any of them at the moment."

They marched on in silence for a beat, but James couldn't stand it for long.

"Lily, can I ask you one more question?" They had reached the closed doors of the Hospital Wing.

"You mean beside the one you just did?" said Lily, borrowing his comeback from Friday night.

"Since nobody is around us at the moment, does that mean I can kiss you?"

Lily reddened. "Right now?"

"Well, I've only been waiting all morning to ask you. And as you yourself said, we can't do it in front of people…" He gestured to the empty corridor.

"I suppose that would be okay," said Lily, not quite able to look him in the eye.

He pulled her close by the waist and tilted her face up with his other hand. Their eyes locked for one brief, intense second, and then his mouth was on hers, kissing her much more deeply than she had kissed him the night before.

Lily gasped slightly, taken aback by the urgency of the kiss, but James only held her tighter, and she melted into his touch.

A light cough made them spring apart, and Madam Pomfrey was standing at the now open Hospital Wing door, watching them wryly. "You are here to visit Miss Hopkins, I presume?" she asked, tactfully not commenting on what she had just witnessed. Lily and James nodded, both flushed with excitement and embarrassment.

Cindy Hopkins was awake this time, and though she still looked quite pale, the scar that ran from her right shoulder, across her collarbone, and to just under her left armpit, peaking out from the armhole of her gown, had faded considerably since yesterday morning. She was propped up on a stack of pillows and finishing up her breakfast of fruit and toast. She smiled shyly as James and Lily approached.

"Hello, Cindy," said Lily taking a seat in a chair that had been drawn up beside the bed and taking the young girl's hand in her own. James stayed back, knowing Lily was much better at getting people to open up than he was.

"Hello, Head Girl Evans," said Cindy softly.

"You can call me Lily if you like," said Lily. "May I have a pear slice?"

Cindy relaxed visibly at the comfortable informality and happily pushed her plate toward Lily, who selected a piece of fruit and popped into her mouth. "Mmm, thank you."

"Sure," said Cindy.

James was feeling a little impatient. Pleasantries were nice and all, but weren't they here to ask her questions? He took a seat on the next bed, and Cindy looked over at him for the first time.

"Uh, hi Cindy," he said awkwardly.

"Hi," she said, her voice vanishing into a near whisper. Lily looked at James as if she expected him to do something else, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. She turned back to the patient.

"So you got sorted into Ravenclaw?" Lily asked. Cindy nodded. "Ravenclaw is a great house. One of my best friends is a Ravenclaw. Marlene McKinnon. Have you met her yet?"

"I've seen her. She plays Quidditch, right?"

"Yeah, do you like Quidditch?"

Cindy shrugged, and then winced at the pain the motion had caused her. Lily passed her the bottle of pain tonic that was sitting on the bedside table. She gratefully accepted and took a sip, relaxing once more.

"How have your classes been?" asked Lily. James suppressed a sigh. These were not the sort of questions McGonagall wanted them to be asking.

"Okay, I like charms the best. I was the first one to levitate my feather," said Cindy, getting a little louder with each word.

"Charms is my favorite too! James is more of a Transfiguration guy, aren't you James?"

James smiled and confirmed that he did indeed prefer Transfiguration, hoping his tone was at least half as encouraging as Lily's.

"How has everything else been going at school?" Lily asked, pressing ever closer to the heart of the matter.

"It's been…okay," said Cindy hesitantly. "I like my classes. And I think I've made a few friends."

Lily waited patiently for her to continue, munching on another pear slice to fill the silence.

Cindy swallowed and went on. "It was all going well, until they got me." James perked up, ready to ask who had gotten her, but Lily was casually arranging the bottles of potions and tonics on the table, an impassive look on her face.

"Yes," said Lily when all the bottles had been put in their in place, and she took Cindy's hands once more. "That shouldn't have happened to you. I'm sorry that it did." She was looking very earnestly into Cindy's eyes, which were beginning to water.

"It's okay," said Cindy. "It was kind of a relief. I kept waiting for them to get me like they said they would, and now they have, so I don't have to worry about it anymore."

"It's not okay," said Lily. "Students should never attack other students."

Cindy nodded.

"Do you…" James began uncertainly. He didn't want to interrupt this moment Lily and Cindy seemed to be sharing, but they did need some answers. "Do you know who it was?"

"Not exactly," said Cindy, less shyly than when she had addressed him before. "I never saw them. But I think it was one of the boys from the train."

James and Lily nodded to show her they were listening.

"I…I got a note. An owl woke me up. It said my mother had been injured, and I need to go to Professor Flitwick's office so he could arrange for me to go home to see her," she was crying quietly now, but continued her story, "so I packed a few things, and I started toward his office, but before I got there I heard some footsteps behind me and…" She choked on a sob, and couldn't go own.

Lily squeezed her hands and laid her head down on the girl's shoulder, letting her cry for a few moments. Cindy took a few shaky breaths, and began to speak again, quickly, as if she had to say it all in one breath, "and then I was bleeding and the steps were running away and I tried to call for help but I started to faint and then Professor McGonagall found me and took me here and they gave me a potion and," she took one huge rattling breath, "and that's all I remember."

Lily stroked her hair and offered her a tissue. Cindy thanked her, blowing her nose loudly. She had mostly stopped crying.

"Cindy, did you hear anything besides the footsteps? A spell or anything?"

"I…I don't think so. Just the footsteps. And some rustling maybe? Like insects. Or birds. But that might have just been the wind."

"Okay. And can I ask you one more thing?" Lily asked. Cindy nodded. "Have you seen the boys from the train around school? Did you learn their names?"

Cindy was quiet for a long while.

"It's okay if you don't want to answer. I know they're scary. They scare me too sometimes," she said. James gave her a demanding look. They really needed some names to be able to take any action. But Lily shook off his gaze. She gave Cindy a hug, and reached into her book bag for the bag of sweets they'd brought back from Honeydukes.

"James and I brought you some candy to help you feel better," she said setting the bag beside the now neatly ordered bottles.

"Be careful with those every flavored beans, though," said James with a smile, also getting up to go.

"Thanks," said Cindy, back to whisper.

They had just reached the doors when she called after them.

"I think his name is Rosier. The one who did the tail. And there were a few others. Avery, maybe. And…and…Mulciber. And one more whose name I don't know, but he hangs out with them sometimes. He has blond hair. And he's kind of tall."

"Wilkes?" suggested James quietly to Lily.

"Thank you, Cindy. Now that we know, we can make sure they don't come after you again," said Lily.

A few hours later found the two in McGonagall's office, both looking like they wanted to pull their own hair out. McGonagall had been pleased with the information they brought to her from Cindy, assured them she would notify them if their services were needed further, but otherwise, she and Dumbledore would handle matters from there. Then she had pulled out a large notebook labeled 'Halloween'.

Nearly three hours of planning and they had only made it through the budget, the menu, and decorations. They still needed to make a schedule for the Prefects set up, patrol, and clean up duties. And of course, "Entertainment!" said McGonagall, flipping to a new section in her notebook, "Last year was the banshee choir, of course, but I'm not sure the students enjoyed that very much." James and Lily each gave a shudder. "Right, I can see not. So do you have any proposals for this year?"

"Professor?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter?"

"Is there any way we could take this up next meeting? It just, Defense Club starts in thirty minutes, and we haven't eaten lunch yet."

McGonagall pursed her lips, but Lily smiled at him gratefully.

"Very well, Mr. Potter, we will continue this next time. But I caution you that many groups book up well in advance."

"Yes, Professor. I'll write to my father tonight and see if he has any connections. We've thrown quite a few parties, you see. He's worked with a lot of different acts."

McGonagall looked surprised that she hadn't thought of that herself. "Excellent idea, Mr. Potter. You and Miss Evans may go."

James and Lily had just enough time to shovel down a few mouthfuls of shepherd's pie before joining a small group of seventh years that were making their way to the spare classroom on the ninth floor that had been the designated meeting place for Professor Longbottom's new "Defense Club".

On the first day of class, the young Professor, who had delayed taking his oath as Auror by one year—despite having completed his training—to fill the position, had invited all his N.E.W.T. students who wished to engage in some extra practical application to participate in the club. He had warned them that it would often include more advanced-and sometimes more dangerous-work than standard class.

Nearly the whole class had taken him up on the offer, lining up on the way out to put down their names, and sign waivers. The big exception being, of course, the Slytherins. Only two had even stayed on to N.E.W.T Defense Against the Dark Arts, most seeming to have decided that they would do better practicing real Dark Arts on their own rather than waste any more of their time pretending they wanted to defend against it. Snape and Wilkes, however, had stayed on for the class but opted out of the extra Defense work.

So it was seven Gryffindors, six Ravenclaws, and five Hufflepuffs that made the trek up to the large open classroom. It was rounded, likely the top of tower, though Lily wasn't sure which one, and surrounded by small windows on all sides. It was a completely empty expanse of wooden floor and stone wall, save for the large and extremely dusty chandelier hanging from the center of the arched ceiling, and of course the man that had been waiting for them all to arrive.

Professor Longbottom was of average build, with dark brown hair, a kind face, and intelligent eyes. Lily remembered those eyes from when he had been a student here, the shrewd practicality with which he had surveyed problems as Head Boy. He cleared his throat. "Yes, hello everyone. Welcome to our first meeting of Defense Club. I'm glad you all found the classroom on time. I'd like to begin with a quick review of last week's lesson. Can anybody remind us of the three basic spells that are most commonly used in non-violent duels when the caster merely wants to evade their target? Yes, Miss Mendez?"

"Smokescreens, Shield Charms, and Knockback Jinxes," answered Anita, the Hufflepuff Prefect.

"Thank you, Miss Mendez. And are those spells generally considered active or reactive?"

"Reactive," answered Frederick Taylor, a Ravenclaw.

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Taylor. And which four spells do we add if the dueler wishes to evade or apprehend?"

Lily raised her hand and Professor Longbottom nodded at her. "Disarming, Stunning, Freezing, or any spells from the Binding family."

"Excellent, Miss Evans. And are those spells active or reactive? Mr. Lupin?"

"Active."

"Great. I'm glad you were all paying attention. A point each to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and two for Gryffindor. Now, am I correct in my understanding that you all learned the basics of nonverbal spells last year?"

The class nodded. Professor Gregory had spent almost a month on nonverbal spellwork. She had been a strict, but comprehensive professor, but she left after only one year for a high-ranking position in the Department of Magical Catastrophes.

"Good, so you should all be up to speed. Well, I have another element of alternative spellwork tactics I would like to introduce you to, but for today, I think we will just make sure we all have a firm grasp on these basics. So, we will be having a nonverbal dueling tournament today." There was an excited murmur among the group when he announced this.

Professor Longbottom, continued, elaborating on the guidelines for this tournament, "Although there are many other jinxes and hexes which can be of great use in non-violent dueling, we will be sticking only to those seven spells we just discussed, although you may use both full-body binds and rope binds, so you actually have eight options. To win your duel, you must prevent your partner from being able to retaliate for at least ten seconds. Twenty points will be awarded to the house of the winner, with ten and five each for second and third place."

The crowd visibly tensed at the prospect of this prize. This early in the year, before any Quidditch matches or major tests to bolster the numbers, the house race was low and tight, with only thirty total points separating Ravenclaw, who was currently in first place, from Hufflepuff, who was in last.

"We'll start by partnering within houses to help prevent against any one house dominating. Although one Hufflepuff will have to partner with a Gryffindor." Dorcas silently grabbed Lily's hand. She knew Benjy would want to partner with her, but she also knew they'd both be too polite to try anything stronger than a Knockback on each other, which wouldn't make for a very productive duel.

"One round knockouts. You lose and you're out. So now. Who's first?"

Frederick Taylor stepped forward eagerly, looking back at his housemates expectantly. They all looked at each other, and Marlene was just about to step forward when another girl, Emmeline Vance, did instead.

"Begin!" said Professor Longbottom. Taylor and Vance bowed and then stared at each other intensely for a good five seconds before there was a flash of red light from Taylor's wand, which Vance was just barely able to shield against in time. She fired back her own Stunning Spell, but Taylor was able to duck out of the way.

They continued back and forth like this for nearly five minutes before Vance finally landed a good Freezing Charm on Taylor. He stood there helplessly as Professor Longbottom began to count, "One…two…three." Just as Professor Longbottom got to nine, Taylor began to wiggle his fingers. Vance tensed, ready to block the spell that was surely coming, but his movement didn't quite come back quickly enough, and Professor Longbottom reached "Ten!" before he could get the spell off.

"Well done Miss Vance! You have moved on to the next round. Let's have some Gryffindors now." Sirius dragged Peter to the center of the room.

"Why do we have to go now?" asked Peter nervously.

"You said you wanted to get it over with. I thought I was helping," responded Sirius.

Peter gulped, but nodded. He had never fully mastered nonverbal spells.

"Ready?" asked Professor Longbottom. They nodded. "Begin!"

After the bow, Sirius instantly fired off a Disarming Charm. Peter managed to spin out of the way, however, that knocked him off balance, and Sirius took advantage of this, shooting off a Stunner. Peter panicked and yelled "Protego!" and the spell ricocheted on the thin but effective shield he'd conjured.

Professor Longbottom clicked his tongue. "I believe that disqualifies you, Mr. Pettigrew." Peter breathed a sigh of relief and shuffled back to the sidelines. Sirius looked very disappointed for a person who had just won. Clearly he didn't consider victory by disqualification a true victory.

"Poor Peter," whispered Dorcas.

"You know, James thought you and Peter would've been a good couple," responded Lily, suddenly remembering their conversation in Madam Puddifoot's.

"Why?" said Dorcas, looking a bit offended. "Because we're both short and fat?"

"You are not fat!" protested Marlene. "You are…pleasantly plump."

Dorcas rolled her eyes at Marlene. She was indeed short and squat, but she carried herself with such grace that Lily would have never thought to describe her such a way. Well-coordinated curves would have been closer to how Lily would define her stature. Dorcas, however, had never shied away from the word fat. She seemed to embrace it, in fact.

"No, that wasn't it. James said Peter needs someone gentle, like you," explained Lily.

"Oh…well, that was kind of nice of him, I guess."

"Hufflepuffs?" prompted Professor Longbottom. Dorcas became suddenly alert as Benjy and Anita came forward. Anita fought well, but Benjy took her out before too long. Then Marlene was victorious over her housemate Rosaline Lye.

The longest duel thus far came from James and Remus, who were nearly equal in their abilities. James was just a little quicker on the rebound, however, and eventually managed to get Remus with Stunning Spell. Professor Longbottom almost didn't get the cushions conjured in time to stop him from landing hard on the floor. James was clearly trying not to look too pleased with himself as a revived Remus shook his hand good-naturedly.

The Tarkington twins came next from Hufflepuff, and Tabitha managed to get the best of her brother Thomas. Then Eric van Winkle took on Ravenclaw Prefect Caradoc Dearborn, and was unsuccessful, because Dearborn was able to disarm him only a couple minutes into the battle. Next Bethany Jacobs and Marie Dubos took the stage. Lily had to try very hard not to laugh when Bethany fell flat on her face from a full-body bind. She almost regretted that Professor Longbottom had gotten the cushions there in time, but she scolded herself silently for being so mean.

Finally, it was hers and Dorcas's turn. "Don't go easy on me," warned Dorcas. Dorcas knew her friends thought she couldn't defend herself well, and she was getting sick of their coddling. Lily agreed, and took her stance. They bowed, and Lily waited, preferring to see Dorcas's strategy before taking action.

Dorcas began moving counter-clockwise, forcing Lily to do the same. She fired off a Freezing Charm that Lily blocked easily. She tends to wrinkle her eyebrows when she casts nonverbal spells, Lily realized. Recognizing this subtle tell, Lily easily evaded a few more spells from Dorcas. Dorcas appeared to be getting agitated that Lily wasn't firing back, so Lily sent a Body-bind, but Dorcas easily spun out of the way. Unlike Peter, she did not lose her balance, but rather used the force of her turn to hurl a Stunning Spell back at Lily. Lily shielded against it, but was knocked back several feet. Dorcas pushed forward, cornering her against the wall.

Lily had noticed, however, that Dorcas always readjusted her grip after a shield spell, giving her a small window to fire off another spell. If she timed it just right, the spell would hit just as the shield was falling and before Dorcas had readied herself for another one. Lily knew she had a faster recovery on Knockback jinxes, so she shot one of those off first. Dorcas did indeed shield against it, and Lily waited for Dorcas's hand to move in the minor adjustment. There it was. She fired off another full-body bind, and this time, she met her mark.

Dorcas landed softly on the cushions, and lay there rigidly as Professor Longbottom counted. When he reached ten, Lily lifted the curse. Dorcas shook her hand amiably. It had been a good match.

Emmeline Vance faced off with Sirius next, and it was quite the dramatic showdown. She cast a smoke screen right at the beginning of the duel that made the whole thing an obscure series of flashing lights and bangs. Every now and then, one of them would emerge, take a few deep breaths, and dive back in. Eventually, however, Sirius was able to tie her up in a rope bind that allowed him his first real victory. He looked much happier this time around.

Benjy and Marlene were next, and Dorcas once again clutched Lily's hand. This was sure to be a fierce match, and Lily wasn't sure whom Dorcas would be cheering for.

They did prove to be fairly evenly paired. At one point Benjy managed to immobilize Marlene, but unlike Frederick Taylor, Marlene was able to take advantage of that tiny bit of movement that came to her at the nine-second mark, and fired off spell before Professor Longbottom could say ten. Benjy, however, had been somewhat prepared to this, and stooped awkwardly to avoid the jinx hurtling toward his head. The duel didn't last quite as long as James and Remus's had, but it was easily the second longest. Marlene finally managed to catch Benjy off guard with a Freezing Charm that was strong enough to hold the whole ten seconds.

James and Tabitha faced off next, and Tabitha was really no match for him, but James was a gentleman about it. He let her get a few good jinxes in before taking her out with a well-aimed Body-bind. Caradoc and Marie both stepped forward, but rather than say 'Begin!', Professor Longbottom said "Actually, I think rather than give Miss Evans a 'by' this round we ought to do a three-person duel. It's a useful skill to practice, battling multiple targets who may or may not be working together. Last person standing, regardless of who takes out whom, will be the victor."

Lily stepped into the circle, racking her memory for how Caradoc and Marie had performed. Caradoc had seemed to favor evading over aggressing, and Marie relied heavily on the Knockback Jinx to get her partner into position. If she could subtly move Marie into position so that they were both moving in on Caradoc, he would wear himself out, and Lily was sure she could take Marie one on one.

For a little while, the plan worked. Lily occasionally fired a spell off at Marie so that she wouldn't get suspicious, but Lily had been able to slowly and subtly move them into a configuration where Caradoc was the more obvious target for the both of them. Caradoc was very quick with the ducking, dodging and shielding, but he was clearly getting fed-up with the two on one onslaught. He fired a Knockback jinx at Lily and she had to dive forward to miss it, ending up in the center of the group.

Marie and Caradoc both took aim, and Lily was trying to guess who would be able to get a spell off first and thus merit more of her attention when they both simultaneously sent out stunners. Lily hit the ground…and so did Caradoc and Marie, the latter two each stunned at the other's hands. Lily got back to her feet and dusted herself off.

Professor Longbottom laughed heartily, clearly impressed. James winked at her. "Very well. Despite not taking out either of her opponents, Miss Evans is indeed the winner of this match," said the professor when his laughter had died down and Caradoc and Marie had been revived by their housemates.

"Somehow we seemed to have ended up with three Gryffindors in the finals, although I suppose the numbers were in their favor from the start. Clearly the other houses would do well to take notes." There were some grumblings of favoritism, Professor Longbottom had been a Gryffindor after all, but nobody said this too loudly, because they all had clearly won their matches fair and square. "Well, to determine final rankings," he went on, ignoring the disgruntled looks, "the four finalists will face off altogether. The order in which they are taken out will be the final placements."

Sirius grinned wolfishly. James and Lily both glanced at each other anxiously. Marlene looked a little put off at being so outnumbered by Gryffindors, but her competitive spirit seemed to winning out, and she confidently stepped to the center of the room. The others followed suit and readied their stances.

"Begin!" said Professor Longbottom excitedly.

They all bowed and looked at each other tensely. Marlene was the first to act, firing off a smokescreen, clearly hoping to discourage her three opponents from being able to silently communicate and gang up on her.

"Not this again!" complained Sirius, angrily firing off a Freezing Charm into the dark. Lily hadn't been expecting it, and it clipped her on the shoulder, not completely immobilizing her, but making movement much more difficult. Luckily in the haze, nobody seemed to have noticed, but she prepared herself for a shield charm anyway.

Marlene seemed to have figured out where the spell came from, if not where it had landed, and shot off a binding curse in that direction, Sirius growled and sprang out of the way, landing loudly on the floorboards. He hadn't yet realized that his noisemaking was a liability.

Like Marlene, James had worked this out, and snuck up behind his best friend. He fired off a stunning spell, and Sirius whirled around, just barely blocking it, but this forced him to turn his back on both Lily and Marlene, and they each took advantage of this. Sirius heard the spells whizzing toward him and rolled out of the way of the ropes, which Marlene had fired, and right into Lily's Stunning Spell. He landed hard.

"Mr. Black is out at the hands of Miss Evans!" commentated Professor Longbottom. This seemed to remind Marlene and James that Lily existed and they both rounded on her. Lily didn't think she could pull off another two-for-one knockout, so she quickly fired a one two of Knockback jinxes. She hit James, but not Marlene, whose reflexes were too fast. She was successful, however, in forcing the threesome back into an equilateral formation.

The smoke was beginning to clear, and unlike Emmeline, Marlene didn't seem keen on re-upping the effect. Instead, she and Lily both turned on James and sent out a Freezing Charm and Stunning Spell respectively, but James dodged them both. So Marlene turned on Lily and sent out a stunner. Lily got her shield up quickly and watched the spell approach as if in slow motion. Just as it made contact with her shield she rotated her arm, sending the spell back off in the direction of James. He had not been expecting this, and fell back, not completely stunned, because the spell had lost some of its force on the rebound, but unable to move nonetheless. Lily quickly bound him up with ropes.

"Excellent use of targeted shielding by Miss Evans. She is proving herself to be quite the dueler," praised Professor Longbottom. "Five points to Gryffindor for Mr. Potter's third place finish. And the showdown between the final two ladies begins."

Marlene and Lily circled each other for a while. Lily watched Marlene for any tells like Dorcas had had. She had already noticed that Marlene seemed to step forward a little when she was casting active spells and back when she was casting reactive spells, but this could only help so much as the movement usually occurred just after the spell in question. Marlene seemed to be observing her with the same calculating gaze. Lily wondered what her own tells were.

Marlene finally acted, sending off a Body-bind curse, but Lily shielded it easily. She fired back with a Stunning Spell, which Marlene gracefully slid away from. She sent out another set of binding ropes, but Lily, with a little less elegance than her opponent, ducked out of the way. Marlene was able to fire off another Freezing Charm in the mean time, and Lily just barely managed to block it.

She was getting worn out, and Marlene seemed to have all the endurance in the world. There was another quick volley, and Lily almost got her with her own Freeze Charm, but Marlene was just too fast. Marlene fired back a Disarming Charm, and made contact, pulling Lily's wand from her hand. Lily tried to hold on tightly, but the wand was escaping her fingertips. It had just left her hand when Lily scrunched up her face, concentrating with all her might on bringing it back.

It worked.

The wand was almost halfway between Lily and Marlene when its progress slowed and reversed. It shot back to Lily's outstretched hand. The whole crowd gasped. Marlene looked at her in deep shock, and Lily easily managed to get her with a Stunning Spell.

"Well done, Miss Evans!" said Professor Longbottom. "And thank you for that little preview of next week's meeting when we will begin practicing wandless magic."

There was anxious murmur among the crowd—did he just say wandless magic.

Then slowly, a clap started. It was just James at first, but soon the rest of the Gryffindors had joined, even Bethany Jacobs, although she did look a bit annoyed. And then the Hufflepuffs. And finally the Ravenclaws, who seemed to be reluctantly accepting Marlene's defeat. Frederick Taylor, however, was not clapping, but rather protesting, "But she cheated! You said we could only use those eight spells! You didn't say we could use wandless magic!" Everyone else was simply too impressed to consider the potential validity of his claim.

Professor Longbottom awarded Ravenclaw their ten points, and Gryffindor twenty. Between her and James, it was enough to push Gryffindor into the lead by eight points, even after Marlene's were added to the formerly leading House.

James and Sirius picked up an unsuspecting Lily on their shoulders, all shame they had been feeling from their earlier knockouts forgotten, and began a chant of 'Evans! Evans!' as they lead the march out of the classroom. Lily objected loudly to both the chant and the carrying, but nobody seemed to care about her disapproval. They were too busy laughing or chanting or rehashing the matches amongst their friends.

James and Sirius didn't set Lily down until they were all the way in the Great Hall for dinner. Snape looked at them lethally from his seat at the Slytherin table as he savagely stabbed a piece of steak with his fork. Various people came over to congratulate Lily and express their admiration at her ability to do wandless magic. Even Marie gave her a warm hug and told her she had been brilliant, much to the dismay of Bethany Jacobs, who had merely shaken her hand and said "nice job".

Lily blushed furiously and thanked them all profusely, though all she really wanted was to eat some potatoes and go to bed. The dueling had thoroughly worn her out.

She was a bit excited too though. She had loved doing wandless magic before she found out underage witches weren't allowed to do magic out of school. And as she generally stuck to the 'no-magic outside of classes rule', too, so she hadn't even tried it again until her after seventeenth birthday when she had eagerly tried to make the petals of the roses Dorcas and Marlene had gotten her curl and unfurl the way she had been able to do when she was younger. But it hadn't worked, and she thought she had lost the ability entirely.

When she had finally consumed enough to justify heading up to bed, Lily made a quiet exit, hoping no more well-wishers would detain her again, especially now that the rest of the school had heard about her performance. She thought she had made a clean escape when she made it through the entrance hall and to the staircase that would lead to Gryffindor landing seemingly without notice. But she should have known there was always someone noticing her.

"What were the Terrible Twosome so giddy about earlier?" came a chilly voice from behind her. The 'Terrible Twosome' was what Snape had always called James and Sirius. It used to make her laugh.

Lily sighed, her hand almost on the banister, and turned around. "I won the dueling tournament in Defense Club," she explained, trying to keep the conversation simple and polite.

"Congratulations," he said, though his tone remained unchanged. Lily turned to leave again, when he said, a little more softly, "Do you think we could talk?" He hadn't asked her this question in almost six months. Lily had thought he'd given up entirely. She turned back around.

"I don't think so, Snape," she said, now it was she with the cool tone. "I've heard what you have to say, and unless you start making some drastically different choices in your life, I doubt we'll ever have anything to say to each other again."

Once again, she made to leave, but he reached out and grabbed her wrist, hard. Lily gasped a little at the pain it caused her. "Let me go," she said forcefully, trying to pull her arm away, but unable to do so.

"Hear me out," he pleaded, not loosening his grip.

"I believe she told you to let her go," came a new voice. Apparently James had also noted her departure. She wondered if he had just gotten there or if he had been watching them from the shadows.

Snape looked venomously at James, as if he wanted to say 'make me', but he dropped her wrist. Lily clutched it with her other hand. Snape whirled toward the dungeons, his cloak billowing behind him, and James rushed over to Lily.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked.

"Only a little," said Lily, but they could both see the little fingerprint bruises forming on her skin. "I bruise easily," she added quickly, because James looked like he was about to run after Snape to give him some bruises of his own. Instead he narrowed his eye at the retreating figure.

"Come on. I'll walk you up," he said offering his arm.

Lily took it, but said, "I would think after today you would know that I can protect myself."

"Of course I know that. But I also know you are too noble to go around cursing former friends, no matter how big of a prick they're being."

Lily couldn't argue with that logic. When they were safely inside the Gryffindor Common Room, James bid her goodnight. He looked as though he wanted to ask if he could kiss her again, but he seemed to sense that she was too emotionally exhausted to deal with another decision like that.

Lily was very grateful he hadn't asked. She made her way up the stairs to the seventh-year's room. Marie and Bethany were sitting on their friend Gabby's bed, chatting happily as they flipped through magazines. They hardly looked up when she entered, and for once, Lily was grateful for their cold shoulders.

As she laid back into her bed, she wondered when her life had become so complicated. When she first found out about Hogwarts, she could see her whole future spread out before her. She and Snape would be sorted into the same house and be best friends. Everybody would be nice to her, because she wouldn't be the weird one anymore, because they could all do magic. Maybe she would even get good grades, like she had in Muggle school. And then she would graduate and get some fabulous job finding hidden treasure or something equally as glamorous. And then she would meet a handsome foreign wizard and they would settle down together in some exotic locale. It would be like in the romantic movies her mum watched.

But her life was shaping up to be something very, very different from all that. And while it wasn't all bad—she thought fleetingly of James, —it certainly wasn't all good.

Even such troubled contemplations, however, were not enough to keep her from succumbing to sleep, as they normally would have. She really was unnaturally tired.