Disclaimer: I do not own Lily, I do not own James, I do not own anything but the plot and a few miscellaneous characters.

A/N: This is the end to the previous chapter which kind of left you wondering (if I did it right). So here are the answers to your questions-



Chapter 10: The Truth Can Kill You



When Lily woke the next morning she had resolved to speak to Raquel. If they were to be friends then they shouldn't have such secrets from each other. Lily sat up and looked to her side. Raquel was still asleep with her pillow over her head. Not wanting to disturb her, Lily took a look around at the other partners.

James and Robert were comparing baseball statistics, occasionally arguing over which player was better. Sirius and Philip appeared to be having an actual conversation and they were smiling as they talked. Peter and Edgar were still asleep, and they occasionally let out a loud snore. Remus was reading a book while his partner Thorren stared at the ceiling.

Lily wanted to get up and talk to her friends, but she knew that if she did then Raquel would just be pulled along with her. She'd have to wait until the 'project' was over. As though he could feel her gaze, James looked up and smiled at her. Robert in turn looked from James to Lily with a knowing smile on his face. Lily could feel herself blush and she turned away to see Raquel wake up.

"Good morning Lily."

Lily looked at the smiling, cheerful figure who was rubbing her eyes. "Good morning yourself. We have to talk."

Raquel looked at her. "Is something wrong?"

"Yes." That's all Lily said until they broke away from the rest of the group. When they were alone she attacked.

"Why didn't you tell me you were muggleborn?"

Raquel turned pale. "Shh! Not so loud. They don't know.

"What do you mean they don't know?"

"They don't know I'm a muggleborn Slytherin. And I'm not fully muggleborn- I'm half and half," Raquel added in an undertone.

"How could you possibly be put in Slytherin if one of your parents is a muggle? They hate muggleborns."

"I know," Raquel wailed. "Imagine having to live with those kind off people day after day. They're not all bad, but almost all of them have Death Eater parents and detest muggleborns, or mudbloods as they prefer to call us."

"Raquel, is there something you're not telling me?"

"Look, Lily, you're my friend and I think your about the only one who will understand me so I will explain." Raquel took a deep breath and quickly checked to make sure that no one was listening. "My mother was a Slytherin. I know already you're wondering, why would a Slytherin marry a muggle? Well, my mother was a rebellious teen. Her mother, my grandmother, hated muggles and forbade my mother to associate with them. My mother, of course, disobeyed, met my father and got married. This resulted in total ostracization from my grandparents.

"I came to school here at Hogwarts when it became apparent that I had my magical powers. I was Sorted into Slytherin and I don't know why. I'm beginning to think that perhaps I was meant to be a spy, but maybe it's just my mother's blood in my veins. I'm sorry I didn't tell you I'm muggleborn. I just didn't want it spread around."

Lily looked and saw that tears were streaming down Raquel's face. "Raquel, I would never betray a friend's confidence."

Raquel looked Lily in the eye. "Do you mean it? You think of me as your friend?"

"You think of me as your friend, don't you? We're friends. Slytherin and Gryffindor aside, we'll always be friends."

Raquel smiled brightly and hugged Lily. "You don't know how good that makes me feel."

"I'm glad too. Now today's our last day as siamese twins. What do you want to do? No classes today, but tomorrow..."



Neither of them wanted to say it. Tomorrow all of the pairs would have to go back to the Slytherin/Gryffindor rivalries. Even if they were friends, their other friends would be antagonistic towards members from opposite houses. Raquel and Lily could stay friends, but they couldn't spend much time together.

They started to play wizard chess. Raquel was almost as bad as Lily, so they had an interesting game. Sirius and Philip came over halfway through and started giving advice. Finally Lily won (it was very close) and the two sat around, trying to decide what to do next. James suggested a group game of Exploding Snap and all of the pairs joined in- except Remus and Thorren. Remus refused to play and if he wouldn't play then Thorren couldn't play either.

Lily wanted to talk with Remus privately and ask him what was the matter. He couldn't be ready to change, could he? Dumbledore would never put another student in danger like that. Lily quickly ran the days of the full moon through her mind. No, it wasn't full yet. Lily began to wonder if it had anything to do with Elizabeth, but was distracted when James' cards blew up in his face.

* * *

They met in a large stone room. Like most of his hideouts this one was illuminated by torchlight and it gave an eerie glow to the room. Two people met there, one still a boy, one barely a man. Although the room was cool the boy was sweating in fear. He shook every time he heard the rats rustle in the dark, but he would do anything not to show weakness just then. Every ounce of fear was repressed; if he gave in then the man would kill him.

There was no light other than torchlight, and the faces of the boy and the man were hidden in shadows. They spoke in low undertones, but there was a drastic difference in their voices.

"Well. Have you found her?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Good. It would not do to have her ruining my plans. She will be disposed of."

"I mean no disrespect, sir," the boy said haltingly, "but her mother-"

"Have you gone soft on me? Her mother is a fool, just as she is. She is a disgrace to me and I can not have her undermining my power. What about that boy you spoke of when last we met?"

Grateful for the change in topic, the boy continued in slightly more confident tones. "He needs convincing, my lord. He is weak, but he has the connections we desire. He would be a valuable asset."

"He is one of them, isn't he?" The man said the word 'them' in a harsh hiss. The boy across from him jumped and cowered.

"Yes, my lord. But he would be valuable. It may take time to convince him, but I believe I have won his confidence."

"Very well. Keep an eye on the girl. She is a blemish on our perfect record and I want her destroyed.

The boy bowed low and ran from the room down a set of passageways. The man remained behind for a little longer and talked to himself.

"She will be destroyed and her parents as well. Once I have her, nothing will stop me."

Over one hundred miles away, Lily Evans opened her eyes, rubbed her head, and thought, 'What a strange dream.'

* * *

The three days of punishment were over and everyone went back to their lives. Because of the experience, the Marauders and Lily agreed to aim their pranks only at certain Slytherins. That way none of their new 'friends' would be caught in a practical joke. At least not one of theirs.

Lily thought that once the project was over Remus would be his usual sweet self. He wasn't. He continued to brood and be aloof. Lily stopped trying to involve him in group activities since he seemed uninterested.

Lily and Raquel chatted in the hallways and they were the topic of much discussion. Especially since Voldemort was lurking, it was unusual to see a Gryffindor and a Slytherin being friends- especially a Slytherin being friends with a muggleborn. Of course no one knew Raquel's secret except Lily and Lily wasn't talking. While many of her friends, including Marie and Elizabeth, thought she was crazy for being Raquel's friend, Lily thought that Dumbledore was very pleased about it and he seemed to have an extra smile when he saw the two together.

The rest of the Gryffindors had finally forgiven 'the Gryffindor Five' thanks in large part to James' superb Quidditch skills. He managed to score twelve goals in the game against Slytherin regaining the points they had lost- plus a little bit extra.

Lily was chatting with Marie up in their dorm one day, a few weeks after the project, when Elizabeth came storming into the room.



"That Remus Lupin! What's wrong with him? I can't believe the way he's acting!"

Lily tried to hide her smile. "What do you mean, Beth?"

"I don't understand him at all! Ever since he was bonded to that horrible Slytherin he's been acting strangely. He won't talk to me any more."

Marie was having a harder time hiding her laughter. "Are you sure that he's acting strange? Maybe that's how he always acts," she said between giggles.

"That isn't how he was acting before! I don't know what I can do to get through to him!"

Lily and Marie burst into hysterical laughter. Elizabeth stopped her fuming to stare at them.

"What is so funny?"

"Nothing," Lily managed to gasp.

Elizabeth just stared at them for a moment. Then she smiled mischievously. "I have an idea. Leave him to me."

"We were planning to," Marie said, but it fell on deaf ears, for Elizabeth had already left the room.

According to James they were only alone ten minutes, but when they returned both were blushing slightly and holding hands. Remus was his old self again, and no one but Elizabeth knew what really happened.

* * *

A few months later Lily and James were taking a walk around the lake talking and joking and just doing the things that they always did. They stopped by some rocks to catch their breath, when Lily noticed something by the edge of the forest. It didn't seem to be moving. She caught James' attention and they walked over to investigate.

What Lily saw took her breath away and for a moment she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. But she recognized the curly dark brown hair and the caramel colored skin all too well.

"No!" Lily whispered. "No, it can't be!"

Raquel Delgado was sprawled out on the ground in front of Lily, her body lifeless. Her hazel eyes were wide open in an expression of shock, but the sparkle was gone. Raquel Delgado was dead at thirteen. Someone had used the killing curse and in her heart Lily knew there was no counter curse to that, but that didn't stop her mind from trying to come up with a solution.

"Lily," James said softly. She didn't respond. "Come on, Lil. We have to tell Dumbledore. There's nothing you can do for her; let's go inside."

Without a word, for she seemed incapable of speech, Lily followed James back to castle. James didn't want to leave Raquel's body exposed, so he picked her up and threw his invisibility cloak over her form.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lily Potter stopped the story abruptly. The pain of Raquel's death was still in her heart and tears poured down her face. Harry looked up at her quizzically, and James, seeing that Lily couldn't continue, brought Harry into his lap and continued in a soft voice.

"Raquel was dead, and unfortunately there was nothing anyone could do about it," James could see how much this hurt his wife, but he knew she wanted the story told so he continued, "James carried her body up to Dumbledore with Lily following meekly behind...

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

James had no idea what possessed him to pick up Raquel's body. She was heavy and cold, and James faltered with every step. Finally he tried a spell he had heard Madam Pomfrey use once. He placed Raquel on the stone floor.

"Mobilcorpus!" With that the body rose off the ground and hovered. James placed the invisibility cloak over Raquel's body (he didn't want to scare anybody) and moved her up to Dumbledore's office. Lily followed, but she still didn't talk. They climbed the stairs and James knocked on the oak door. There was no noise from inside the room, but the door creaked open.

Sitting at his claw-footed desk, examining a piece of parchment, was Professor Dumbledore. He looked up when Lily and James entered.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, what can I do for you?"



James hesitated. Lily was still in a state of shock, and he wasn't sure how to say what happened. He took the invisibility cloak off Raquel and looked at Dumbledore for a reaction.

"Lily and I were talking by the lake, sir, when she saw a figure by the forest. When we went to investigate we saw that it was Raquel Delgado and she was, she was dead, sir. I apologize for bringing her here, but I didn't know what else to do and as you can see, Lily is in shock."

At that moment Lily burst into tears and started convulsing as if she was having a seizure.

"No, not Raquel, no, no, it can't be true!" Lily sobbed.

Dumbledore looked concerned.

"Lily, please calm down. There was nothing you could do. I am afraid that Miss Delgado had been targeted for a long time."

James was confused. "What do you mean, professor?"

"I mean that as the only Slytherin to have a muggle parent, Raquel was a target for Lord Voldemort. He found her offensive, and I believe he thought she would be his downfall. As an added insult, he has killed her parents as well. I don't know if you were aware of this, but Miss Delgado's mother was once a follower of the Dark Arts. I believe that Voldemort felt it was an insult to his bloodline that a muggleborn girl became a Slytherin."

James fell silent and the only noise in the room was Lily's crying.

"James, please escort Lily either to the Hospital Wing or her dorm room, she needs to rest. There will be a ceremony for Miss Delgado tomorrow at dinner, I'm sure Lily will want to attend." Dumbledore paused for a moment as though he wasn't sure how to phrase his next sentence. "Although I am pleased with the results of every pair from the project, I must say that it was especially rewarding to see how those two girls became friends despite the rivalries of their respective Houses. I wish that all of my students could learn from them."

James nodded and left Dumbledore's office. He took Lily to the Hospital Wing where she could rest undisturbed; he knew that if she went back to her dorm she'd only be pestered by Marie. Once Madam Pomfrey was finished clucking over Lily like a mother hen, James left. Madam Pomfrey had assured him that Lily was fine, so he returned to Gryffindor tower. James took a look around the common room. Sirius was beating Peter at chess, Remus and Elizabeth were talking in whispers, and Marie was off somewhere, probably getting more gossip.

Since there was nothing else to do, James walked up to his dormitory. Tossing Sirius' stuffed penguin (A/N: doesn't Sirius just seem like the type who would have a weird stuffed animal? Maybe it's just me) off of his bed, James laid down and closed his eyes.

He thought about Raquel and Lily's reaction to her death. James hadn't known Raquel very well, he had been occupied with Robert Frost, but it was always sad when one so young lost her life. He just hoped that Lily would be alright.

* * *

The next morning James woke up and went to find Lily. Marie and Elizabeth informed him (between giggles) that Lily hadn't returned to the dorm room last night. Trying to ignore their laughter, James set off for the Hospital Wing where he last left her. Sure enough, she was still there, lying in one of the beds, just staring at the wall. Her eyes and nose were red from crying, and her red hair was in disarray.

Lily didn't smile when James entered the room, she just stared at him. After a minute in the doorway, James entered and sat on the edge of her bed.

"What do you want, James?"

"I came to see if you were alright and to take you to get some breakfast. How about it?"

Lily shook her head. "I don't think so, James. I can't believe she's dead. How could this have happened?"

James thought she might have started to cry, but Lily's eyes were dry. She sounded as though her entire world had fallen around her.

"I don't know Lil, but I have to say that I don't think this will be the end. We are going to lose people that we love and the only thing to do is make sure they know we care before it happens. Remember what you told Sirius, these are tough times we're facing, but no matter what happens, we will always have each other. I promise."

Lily looked at him. "But Raquel should have been part of that. I told her we would always be friends."

"And you will always be friends, she doesn't have to be alive for that to be true. Now come on, let's get some breakfast."

Lily smiled tentatively. "Oh, fine, let's go before Remus eats all of the sausage."

They walked down to the Great Hall without saying a word; they didn't have to, if there was one thing that could be said about Lily and James, it was that they understood one another.

It turned out that there were other things being said about Lily and James. When they entered the Great Hall together the students burst into excited chatter. Most of the Slytherins were baring identical smirks and other students kept giving them funny looks.

"What's going on?" Lily asked when they arrived at the Gryffindor table.

"Why didn't you two tell us? You're supposed to be our friends!" Sirius exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" James asked.

"The two of you, an item! It's all over school. Everyone's talking about it."

James groaned. Lily really didn't need this right now and he was sure it wouldn't be very good for him either. To his surprise when he looked at Lily he saw that she was laughing.

"Us? An item?" she managed to gasp out before returning to hysterical laughter.

"You mean you're not?" Remus asked with confusion.

"No. Of course not. We're just friends, just like always," James said.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter looked abashed. They made stumbling apologies and excused themselves from the table leaving James and Lily to deal with the hundreds of staring eyes.

"Do you want to get out of here?" James asked Lily.

She nodded, unable to speak through her laughter, and the two started for the doors. Before they reached it they were waylaid by Snape, Malfoy, and two of their friends.

"Isn't this cute?" Malfoy said as Snape sneered at them. "Potter and Evans, they're so adorable together."

"Just let us through, Malfoy. We're not an item. We're only friends and right now we're leaving. Move out of our way," Lily could handle teasing from her friends, but she hated it from people like Lucius Malfoy.

"Just a minute Evans-"

James had had enough. Without waiting for Malfoy to finish, he grabbed Lily's arm and forced his way through the gang of Slytherins. Ignoring the rude things people were saying, James and Lily made their way out towards the lake. Without realizing it, they went to where Lily found Raquel's body.

"James, calm down. This was bound to happen sooner or later. We just have to ignore it. I'm sure by tomorrow everyone will have moved on to something else."

James breathed in deeply. Lily was right; they just had to ignore it. He was about to say that when something caught his eye.

"What's that?" he asked instead.

Lily looked in the direction he was pointing.

"Oh, no, not again," Lily muttered.

"What is it?" James asked. Lily had her head in her hands.

"It's a wishing well."

James laughed. "That's it? A well? Well, let's go try this well."

"Well... okay, but whatever you do don't try to get two wishes for the price of one."

James looked at her quizzically and then laughed again. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Lily shook her head and they walked over to the wishing well. James read the sign and pulled out his lucky stone; he found it on the Quidditch game right before his first game. He dropped the stone into the well and thought about his wish for a moment.



"Okay, I have it. I wish for Gryffindor to win the house cup!"

Lily snorted. "You just wasted a perfectly good wish, James. Gryffindor would have won anyway!"

"Oh well. Now it's a sure thing."

They smiled at each other and walked back to Gryffindor tower.

* * *

Later that evening was the ceremony for Raquel. Lily was noticeably subdued, but she held back tears. James thought that Dumbledore's speech was very eloquent and it certainly made an impression on him.

"Raquel Delgado was an intelligent, caring, enthusiastic person. She was also a member of the Slytherin House and because of this some of you were quick to judge her. As many of you are aware a few months ago I set up a project pairing up students from the two Houses with the most rivalries. Raquel Delgado was a member of this project, and while I am proud of all of it's participants, I am extremely proud of Miss Delgado and her partner, Miss Evans. While the others learned to tolerate each other, these girls took it to another level. They became friends.

"I am very pleased that they overcame any prejudices to become friends and I am sure that Miss Evans is feeling the loss very much. I just wish that all of my students," Dumbledore looked at the Slytherin table and then at the Gryffindors, "could learn from them. Any death is a shame, but the death of this girl is a tragedy, for she could have helped us all.

"Raquel Delgado was murdered by Lord Voldemort. To some of you he is a 'bogeyman', a nightmare. I assure you he is real and dangerous. We must not overlook him nor what he does. Since Miss Delgado is no longer with us I have no qualms about revealing this: Miss Delgado was murdered because of what and who she was. She was half muggleborn. She was also a threat to Voldemort. She is now dead, and it is a great loss. Please remember her and what she achieved."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lily stopped crying. "I had forgotten how much I cared about Raquel. She had such spirit." Lily wiped her face with a tissue. "James, please let me finish. There's only a little bit left for this year and I'd like to tell it. There are also more voices."

James smiled. "That's fine. I only took over because you were, you know."

Lily smiled back. "Thank you. Alright, Harry, as soon as Dumbledore had finished his speech, Lily left the Great Hall ignoring all the eyes that watched her...

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

She went straight up to her room, her home away from home. Lying on her bed, she thought about the things Raquel said to her during those three fateful days.

Try this on Lily. Green is definitely your color!

I don't know Raquel, it's awfully expensive.

Tell you what, you can wear it a couple of times and then return it!

Lily smiled. Raquel was one of those people that you couldn't help but like. She had been so different from everybody else.

Ooh, I know, let's put some Dungbombs in McGonagall's desk!

I don't know...

Come on, Lily. It'll be fun!

Well...

Without realizing it Lily had started to cry again. Then she received an unpleasant visit.

I told you you were soft.

'Shut up!' she thought, 'I just lost a friend, I don't need you bothering me.'



It's your fault for getting close to her. I tried to warn you.

'Raquel was, is, my friend. I don't regret that.'

She had to go. She was a threat.

'Are you Voldemort?' Normally that question would have made her fearful, but Lily was too emotionally drained.

No. I would not want to be him. He is wrong, that girl wouldn't have been his downfall.

'You mean she died for nothing?'

No. She was a threat, but you will be his downfall.

Lily laughed. Of all the ridiculous things the voice had told her, that had to be the silliest. She didn't have time to dwell on that because the second her head toucher her pillow, Lily was fast asleep.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"So, what did you think, Harry? That was Lily and James' third year. Was that a good story?" Lily looked down at the little boy on her lap and saw that he was fast asleep.

Quietly Lily and James took Harry into his room and placed him in his crib. They covered him with a blanket and then retired to their bedroom.

"That was a good story, Petals." James let out a loud yawn.

"Thank you my dear. I love you."

"I love you too."

The story she was telling Harry (with some help from James) brought back so many memories, some good, and some not so good. Thinking about Raquel hurt, but it was good that Lily remembered her.

'These are tough times we're facing, but no matter what happens, we will always have each other. I promise.'