Lily took her time getting ready the next morning. She didn't want to disturb James if he was still sleeping out on the couch. She wasn't sure when he and Emma were going to leave, but she knew she had to get to class quickly. As she collected all of her things, she hesitantly opened her door and made her way into the common room, hoping not to wake James. She was surprised to see Emma sitting on the couch, slightly dressed up in professional-looking, simple black robes with a bit of frills at the edge . She was reading until she heard the motion behind her. "Oh, good morning, Lily."

Lily stopped for a moment. "Morning, Emma. Are you two leaving early?"

Emma nodded and looked up at her. "We're meeting everyone just outside the Great Hall. James just went to get ready."

Something about Emma immediately struck her, now that she was seeing her up close for the first time,. "You have James' eyes."

Emma smiled slightly. "Yeah... Not many people notice. Both his mother and mine had hazel eyes."

"Like I told James yesterday, this shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry about your loss."

"I'm slowly getting used to it. James has been very supportive too. He's making it a lot easier on me."

Lily glanced at James' door with a small frown. "He's not the guy I thought he was."

Emma was watching Lily thoughtfully. She never thought she'd see the day, but she could have sworn she saw a spark of interest in James Potter from Lily Evans. This new information made her a little happier and encouraged her to find out for sure. Living with two of the biggest pranksters in the world made her a little more upfront than most. "You do know he's practically in love with you, right?"

Lily blushed brilliantly all across her face at Emma's question. "No, he's not. Umm, I better get to breakfast and what not. Can't be late."

Emma watched Lily literally run from the room to get away from her, or more likely, her suggestion. She smiled wickedly. Oh yeah, the redhead was beginning to like James. Now, the question was how she was going to get them together. Actually, it would probably just happen naturally. Regardless of what had happened to James' parents, she knew he liked Lily and would eventually ask her out again. Hopefully, the girl would have the courage to finally say yes. If she didn't, then Emma would have to step in. It was clear to nearly everyone else that they were meant to be.

Her thoughts were interrupted when James walked out of his room in black dress pants, a black button down shirt, and a black tie. He was carrying two black robes in his hand. "Wear your robes so soon, Em? I think you look nicer without it. Maybe you should just put it on before the funeral."

Emma shook her head. "I don't want to wear a fancy dress and attract too much attention to myself. I'd rather blend into the crowd at an event like this."

He nodded slightly. "That makes sense. Well, come on. We don't want to be late."

They walked out of the Heads' Dorm and made their way towards the Great Hall as Emma mentioned, "Lily left just before us."

James merely nodded absently, but made no effort to ask about the redhead.

Emma looked quite disheveled; did James not like her anymore or something? Well, being upfront with Lily got a reaction; perhaps James needed the same treatment. "She mentioned we have the same eyes."

That got his attention. "She did?"

Emma nodded and tried to hide her smile about how cute he sounded when he asked that question. His voice seemed a bit higher than usual. "She did."

James was quiet after that, but it didn't matter. Emma knew exactly what he was feeling, and words couldn't express his thoughts anyways. They were almost to the Great Hall, and the hallway was lined with about thirty others all dressed in black. Professor Dumbledore motioned for them to come over, so they made their way in front of him. James looked away from him, a tinge of anger resting on his face.

Lauren smiled at him. "Morning, Sir."

"Good morning." Dumbledore looked expectantly at James, but when he didn't say anything, he sighed. "Is there a particular reason you are not greeting me, James?"

James refused to look him in the eye and remained silent. When Lauren nudged him, he spoke up, "I'd rather not do this here, Sir."

Lauren looked confused. "What's going on?"

James laughed bitterly and spoke in an acrimonious tone. "Don't you think that Professor Dumbledore should have informed me about my parents' illness? Don't you think, as their only child, that I deserved to know about them having dragon pox? Don't you think I should have been warned that they would die anyways?"

Dumbledore calmly replied, "James, I am telling you, as I have many times before, that I didn't think you'd be able to handle the information."

He snorted. "I'm a legal adult, and you don't think I'd be able to handle it?!"

Dumbledore sighed. "James, I figured that it wouldn't hurt as much if I had told you when it happened. That way you wouldn't have mourned for months, only to mourn again for months when it actually happened."

He waved his arms wildly. "At least maybe I would have been prepared!"

Dumbledore smiled sadly, a forlorn look passing over his face. "James, nothing can ever prepare you for the loss of a loved one."

"I would've known what to expect. I would have been informed. I wouldn't have felt betrayed. Yes, that's exactly what I feel. Angry beyond belief and betrayed. Betrayed by one of the few men I thought I could count on."

Dumbledore shook his head. "We'll talk more later, James. It's getting late. Now, I have created Portkeys for everyone. You two will take the one with Sirius. It will take you to your room at Potter Manor, James. The others will be arriving at their respective houses. All of the guests will arrive about an hour from now, and then everything can begin. The order of events is the usual mingling, the toasts, and the formal proceedings outside in the Potter crypt. Tomorrow, you and Lauren will finish any other legal matters with the Ministry and with the Potter estate. Alright?"

James and Emma nodded, and he led her over to Sirius, who was holding a quill. "Good morning, Prongs. Good morning, Lovely Emma."

Emma smacked him. "Watch it, Black."

"Grab the portkey, Emma. Dumbledore is counting down." James said solemnly.

And just like that, the pure-blood funeral was about to begin.

Lily, after running from the Heads' Dorm and away from Emma, made her way down to the Great Hall. She passed a bunch of people dressed in black waiting out front. Most were Slytherins who eyed her disdainfully as she passed, although she did recognize Frank and Alice standing off to the side with a couple of others who looked rather nice. She was surprised to notice that all the students present were seventh years, with the exception of Narcissa and Regulus Black who were fifth years. She supposed it was also customary that only 'of age' pure-blood wizards and witches were to attend. Of course, the Blacks were an exception, requiring the whole family to be present. She quickly ducked inside and sat over by Dorcas and Aishu, who asked, "You're running late today, aren't you Lily?"

"Just a bit."

She grabbed some food and ate quickly. About ten minutes later, she and Aishu found themselves in Herbology. However, Lily was surprised to see both Remus and Peter in the class as well. "Remus, Peter, wouldn't you two be going to the funeral today?"

Remus looked up in surprise when Lily and Aishu sat across from them but frowned at her question. "James told us we wouldn't be welcome. I'm a half-blood. So is Peter. We were both with him all day yesterday so it's alright."

Lily watched Peter simply nod at Remus' words, but her mouth dropped open. "So you're saying that regardless of who the Potters know or associate with, the only people welcome at their funeral are those that are pure-blood? Not even if you would be there merely to support James?"

Remus responded, "Pretty much."

Lily was again appalled at this whole system. "That's ridiculous."

Aishu sighed. "Lily, you know James wouldn't have it this way if he could. I bet it will be different when our generation is the adults of our society. It's already sort of a dying tradition. The Potters were just very prominent within the Ministry, making it more of an obligation."

That was basically all she could get out of them before class started. Class that day was boring. They had to work in pairs and go find particularly helpful potion ingredients in the garden and just outside of the Forbidden Forest. It seemed to be a pointless exercise. The rest of the day was no better. That afternoon, she had Transfiguration and Ancient Runes. Both were also boring, although she felt she took excellent notes. In Transfiguration, she felt completely lost. She was thinking she might just have enough courage to let go of her pride and ask James for some help. Ancient Runes was just extensive translating now that they were in seventh year, which was not exactly as interesting as it had been in previous years when the Professor included amazing stories of history into her lessons.

By the time she had finished with dinner, she just wanted to be left alone to do something more entertaining or something she liked to do. Once she got back to the Heads' Dorm, she sat in the common room, enjoying the quiet. Lily wrote lengthy letters to her family, something she hadn't had too much time to do over the past month or so. She was going to read one of her library books on old charms when she noticed the Marauders' Map sitting amongst her stuff. Grabbing it curiously , she let her curiosity win in that moment and gently tapped her wand to it. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

The Map instantly came into view. She was astounded at the magic used to create the Map, although she wasn't exactly happy they had created it for mischief and mayhem. She was sure James and Sirius were behind the creation. While Remus was very intelligent, she believed he was more book intelligent than creative intelligent, so if anything, he probably had a hand in finding the spells that were used for the project, but that was it. Peter, on the other hand, just didn't have the magical caliber to create something like this on his own. She flipped through it carefully and eventually, she had looked everywhere. There were a ton of secret passageways within the castle that she had never in her wildest dreams known about. There were a select few secret passageways leading out of the castle as well, and she now knew where the kitchens were, although she would never admit to anyone she hadn't known where they were in the first place. However, something struck her as odd. She hadn't seen Remus or Peter on the Map anywhere. From what she had gathered from James, the Map showed everyone. She tapped her wand on the map. "I demand that you show me the location of the Marauders."

Nothing happened. Maybe it required more personal verification. "I, Lily Evans, demand that you show me the location of the Marauders."

Suddenly, the Map cleared and writing appeared in its place.

Mr. Prongs would like to congratulate the beautiful Ms. Evans for noticing the Map's defect when in the hands of a non-Marauder. Mr. Prongs knows that if anyone would have discovered it, Ms. Evans would. Mr. Prongs would also like to add that if Ms. Evans is in possession of the Map, it is most likely because Mr. Prongs had wanted her to feel safe and it was not intended for her to use to check up on the Marauders.

Mr. Padfoot would just like to say that Mr. Prongs is completely wrapped around Ms. Evans' finger, and they are not even dating yet.

Mr. Prongs would like to take this opportunity to call Mr. Padfoot a prat and a git.

Mr. Moony agrees with Mr. Prong's first sentiments (and second sentiments) and would like to apologize to Ms. Evans for the stupidity of his friends and say that the Marauders are not always up to trouble, so Ms. Evans shouldn't worry.

Mr. Wormtail agrees with Mr. Moony and bids Ms. Evans a good day.

Lily's face was somewhat scandalized at what was written, but at the same time, she couldn't help but smile at the commentary and how they must have poured their personality into the Map. The Marauders really didn't seem so bad after all.

She eventually used the Map during her nightly patrol that night and the next, although it cut down on the need for her to patrol at all. She could tell usually halfway through her patrol that everyone was in their dorms where they were supposed to be. She continued her nightly walk anyway, just in case Professor McGonagall came out to check on her. The one thing that struck her as funny was the fact that Professor Dumbledore, although he had told her he wouldn't be in the castle at all for the two days, was in his office, at least while she was doing her patrols. She assumed he just hadn't wanted to be bothered if anything were to come up.

Most of her classmates returned sometime on Tuesday and slowly filtered back into their classes. James, Sirius, and Emma returned late Tuesday night. Lily only knew this because she had heard James come into the Heads' common room when she was about to go to sleep in her room. She sighed. Hopefully, things would get back to normal and her brief stint about possibly liking James Potter would go away. It just wasn't something that was possible.