Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: Thanks so much to everyon who reviewed! It's really appreciated.



Chapter 10, Part I

"No...that's not true!" Lily mumbled. "It's not them-they can't be-"

Charlotte and Edward had been both pure-bloods; Edward had been the Head of the Department of International Magical Co-operation and Charlotte had worked in the Improper Use of Magic Office. As far as Lily knew, neither of them had actively participated in the fight against Voldemort. So why had they been killed?

Tears sprung to her eyes. Probably just for fun, she thought.

"These bastards!" she screamed. "These sick bastards!"

She had to see Dorcas. She couldn't let her go alone through this. She skimmed over the article again, quickly finding what she was looking for.

"The survivors are currently being taken care of in St Mungo's Hospital."

Lily put on her sneakers as fast as she could, grabbed her wand and the little box with floo powder and ran down the stairs.

"Lily! What are you doing-"

"I can't explain now-"

Her father grabbed her arm and held her back. "What do you think you're doing? You're going nowhere-"

"Dad, I'll explain to you later-"

"You'll explain nothing!" he shouted. "You'll stay here! You're under house arrest, remember?"

Lily had no choice. She pointed her wand at him. "Let go off me, Dad, I'm serious."

He let go off her arm as though having received an electric shock. She threw him an apologizing glance. Grabbing a handful of floo powder, she said, "I'll explain everything later."

Throwing the powder in the fire, she yelled, "St Mungo's!"

XXX

Arriving at St Mungo's, Lily immediately ran to the welcomewitch's desk, getting curious stares because of her Muggle clothing.

"I need to see Dorcas Meadowes!" Lily panted.

"No, darling," the welcomewitch told her unfriendly, "you need to queue up like everyone else." She gestured to the people standing behind Lily.

"Please! It's an emergency! I'm her best friend, I need to see her at once!"

The woman rolled her eyes. "Fine, what happened to that Dorcas Meadowes?"

"Her parents were killed in last night's Death Eater attack and-"

"Sorry, you can't see her," the welcomewitch said. "Next!"

"Moment! Why can't I see her?"

"Security restrictions," the welcomewitch answered. "All survivors are on the fourth floor, Spell damage, but nobody except close family may visit them."

Lily snorted inwardly. It would take more than an unpleasant witch to stop her from seeing her best friend. She walked through the double doors into the narrow corridor, running up the stairs. Panting, she reached the fourth floor, but stopped dead when she saw all the people standing there. She frowned, walking towards them.

"What do you want, miss?" one of the asked as he saw her approaching.

"I'm here to see Dorcas Meadowes. Her parents were killed last night-"

"You can't see her, sorry," a woman said, frowning at Lily.

"But I need to see her! She's my best friend, I can't let her go through this alone!"

"We can't do anything, it's the security restrictions. I am sorry, but you cannot see her."

Lily was on the verge of tears, when a familiar voice said, "What's going on here?"

"Sirius!" Lily gasped.

"What's going on?"

"This young woman wants to see a friend whose parents were killed last night. But we mustn't let anyone in in case some Death Eater wants to finish what they started last night."

Sirius snorted. "Ever seen a Muggleborn Death Eater?"

"It doesn't matter if she is a Muggleborn or not! They could have kidnapped her and-"

"Lily," Sirius said impatiently, "tell me, why did I use to make fun of Dorcas?"

"Because she asked Remus to give her lessons in Arithmancy even though she wasn't taking Arithmancy at all."

Sirius grinned. "That's the real Lily Evans."

"Yes, but still-"

"What if I stay next to her all the time? Can she see her friend, then?"

"She still could attack her!"

Sirius groaned, snatched Lily's wand from her hands and pocketed it.

"There, happy now?"

The man and the woman looked as though they didn't know what to say. Finally, the woman said, "All right, but only for ten minutes."

"Oh, thank you!" Lily said, relieved. Sirius took her arm and dragged her through the double doors signposted "SPELL DAMAGE".

"What are you doing here, Sirius?" Lily asked while they walked through the long corridor.

"Most Aurors are out to look for the Death Eaters, and so they used Aurors-in-training to guard the survivors. I've been here since one a.m. I've just been replaced."

"Oh!" Lily said. "So I'm keeping you up? Sorry."

Sirius snorted. "Oh yeah, Lily, I have to stay up ten minutes longer! That's really much time! Lily, you nasty girl, how could you do that to me?"

Lily smiled slighty. Sirius stopped in front of one of the wards where two Aurors-in-training were standing guard.

"What are you still doing here, Sirius?" one of them asked.

"I'm just accompanying Miss Evans here to see Dorcas Meadowes," he answered. Before one of the Aurors could say anything, he added, "She's family."

The guards nodded and stepped aside. Lily and Sirius entered the Ward.

"Lily! Oh, Lily!"

Dorcas ran up to Lily and hugged her tightly.

"How did you come in here? The Aurors and Healers told us we weren't allowed to have visitors."

"With a little help," Lily smiled, pointing at Sirius, who grinned slightly.

"Oh," Dorcas said, a look of surprise on her face.

"I'm staying here," Sirius said. "If you have anything to talk about, do it quickly, because we only have ten minutes."

Dorcas pulled Lily over to her bed.

"How are you?" Lily whispered urgently. Dorcas shrugged, smiling bitterly. Then she clapped her hands over her face, sobbing.

"Oh, Dorcas," Lily said. "I'm so sorry..." She wrapped her arms around her friend.

"It was so horrible, Lily... I woke up in the middle of the night because it was so noisy downstairs. I tried to open the door, but it was locked. Probably Mum or Dad did it so I wouldn't get out and the Death Eaters wouldn't get into my room. I just heard the screaming downstairs... and then it was suddenly silent."

"Dorcas, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Lily said softly. Dorcas shook her head and went on, "Several minutes passed by, but still nobody came. Finally, I climbed out of the window. And then I saw this thing over our house and-and then I knew what had happened."

"Thing?" Lily asked.

"The Dark Mark," Dorcas choked out. "The Death Eaters were already away. They probably thought I wasn't home or something like that."

She lay her head on Lily's shoulder and cried. Lily only held her, not knowing what else to do.

After a few minutes, Sirius came over to them.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "But the ten minutes are over..."

Dorcas let go off Lily.

"I'll try to come again," Lily said quietly. "I promise."

"Bye, Lily," Dorcas sobbed.

Before Lily went out of the door, she threw one last glance at her best friend. She was lying on her bed miserably, staring at the ceiling.

Lily and Sirius walked down the corridor in silence, and it wasn't until they arrived at the staircase until Lily said anything.

"Thanks for bringing me to her, Sirius," she told him.

"You're welcome," he said.

Lily's eyes prickled. She blinked a few times, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to escape from her eyes.

"Are you all right?" he asked, concerned.

"Yeah," she said.

"You don't look it," he told her truthfully.

Tears spilled from her eyes. She wiped them away hastily, but new tears came. Suddenly she found herself in Sirius's arms, crying into his robes.

When she had calmed down a bit, he said, "Let's go to the Visitor's tearoom and have a cup of tea. You can tell me what is wrong then."

"I don't have any money with me," Lily replied. Sirius smiled slightly.

"What are dashingly handsome young wizards there for, if not to invite pretty young witches for tea?" he asked.

"Yes, but you've been up all night and morning. I don't want to keep you up any longer-"

"It's okay, Lily," he said. "I couldn't sleep anyway, not after all what happened."

XXX

When Lily took her cup full of hot tea, she suddenly realized how cold her hands were. She quickly took a sip.

"So, Lily," Sirius said, putting sugar in his tea, "what's the matter?"

"A lot, actually," she said, sighing heavily. "And everything seems to be connected with each other."

"How so?" Sirius asked, frowning.

"Sirius?" she said hesitantly. "Can I ask you something very personal?"

He nodded.

"Sirius, why did you ran away from home?" Upon seeing the look on his face, she quickly added, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to talk about it."

"No, no, it's okay," he told her, putting his head in his hands. "Lily... what do you know about the Black family?"

"Not really much," she answered, confused at this strange question. "Well, I know that the Blacks are an old and very rich pure-blood family... and most Blacks I've heard of are or were in Slytherin."

"All of them," Sirius said darkly. "All of them except me."

"But what's so bad about it? Not all Slytherins are mean," Lily said. She wanted to add something, but the look on Sirius's face made her shut up.

"It's not about that," he said. "The Black family is a pure-blood family, and proud of it. They think Muggle-borns are inferior, not worthy to know about magic and shouldn't be accepted into Hogwarts. I didn't agree with these ideas, and that made me the black sheep of the family. Oh yeah, and my cousin Andromeda as well. She was in Slytherin, though, and so it came as a real shock when she married a Muggle-born last summer," Sirius grinned evilly. "She never believed in that pure-blood rubbish either."

"So that's why you ran away from your family?"

"I ran away because I don't agree with them and their stupid pure-blood mania. And because I was sick of being beaten black and blue everytime I dared to voice an opinion different than theirs."

Lily quickly looked up at him. He was staring in his tea cup with an expression of anger mixed with sadness on his handsome face.

"But they must love you," Lily said in a desperate voice. "They can't hate you just because you didn't turn out how they wanted you to be-"

Sirius let out a mirthless laugh. "Lily, my mother sent me a Howler when she found out that I got sorted into Gryffindor. House of the Muggle-lovers and Mudbloods, she called it."

Lily shivered. "I'm sorry," she said.

There was a silence.

"You know what, Lily," Sirius said finally, "sometimes I wish I were like you. Sometimes I wish everyone was like you."

"What? Why?" she asked confused.

"Because you're so unbiased. You treat everyone equally, no matter who their family is. To you, it doesn't matter if the person wears a Gryffindor or a Slytherin crest on their robes. As long as they are friendly to you, you are friendly to them. I can't do that. I simply can't. As soon as I see the Slytherin crest, I am reminded of my family, my damn parents and their sick ideas. That's why the Slytherins make me so angry."

Lily simply stared at him. That wasn't the Sirius Black she knew. She had never seen him this serious.

"So, what about you? What's your problem?" he asked.

"I have a problem with my family, too," she told him. "I got in a horrible fight with my father last night, because I said some... things to my sister."

"Things?" he asked.

"Yeah. She's a muggle, you know. I guess that's what the whole argument was about. My family are muggles. I suppose they just don't understand me anymore."

"You mean you think that they don't understand our world?" Sirius said.

"Yes, that's it." Lily put her head in her hands.

"But you can't change that," he said. "And they are still your family even though they might not understand your new life."

"I know," Lily said frustrated. "And I'm trying to get along with my sister, I really am. But everytime I try to have a civil conversation with her, she just insults me. Sometimes-sometimes I think she hates me."

"But why?"

"Because in her eyes, I'm abnormal," Lily said. "Magic is abnormal for her. 'Freak' she calls me..."

"But then it's her fault," Sirius said.

"How do you mean that?"

"If she doesn't want anything to do with you, you can't change it," he told her. "I know it's hard, but you have to accept that she despises your life because she can't understand it. You tried to get along with her, and if she doesn't want to, you can't force her to. It's not your fault."

"But still I think it was wrong to say what I told her yesterday."

"What did you tell her?"

"That it annoys me how she always snoops around in other people's business. She doesn't like me, but she likes to know my business," Lily said, making a noise that could be either a laugh or a sob. "We got into a fight, and Dad was on her side."

"Oh, I know how you feel," Sirius said. "My parents were always on my brother's side."

Lily placed her chin on her hands and sighed.

"I don't know what to do anymore."

"Maybe you need some distance," Sirius suggested, "to...think about everything."

Lily nodded. That was convincing.


A/N: This is actually just the first part of a HUGE chapter, but school starts again on Monday, and I have to learn for a Chemistry and a French test, and so I thought I'd post this today-better a short chapter than nothing.

I know most people think that Andromeda was either in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw- I used to think so, too, until Slughorn told Harry in HBP that every Black except Sirius was in Slytherin.

You will notice that Lily and Sirius are slowly getting closer to each other. When Sirius first made an appearance in Chapter six, Lily didn't really dislike him, but she didn't exactly love him, either. Now they're getting along much better. I love Sirius, and I wanted him and Lily to be friends.

And finally, to everyone who also reads my story "After All These Years": It is slowly coming to an end, I think there won't be more than three or four chapters. The problem is, I'm kind of having Writer's Block at the moment. I mean, I have everything what's going to happen planned out, but I'm stuck-I just don't know how to write it. I hope you will understand that I don't want to write crappy chapters. I'm really trying to write.

Please review!