A/N: My apologies in advance - I couldn't make this chapter funny.

Lord Voldemort walked down to the dungeons where Harry Potter and his Mudblood wench were imprisoned. It was silent. Good.

He opened the door to Potter's cell and his eyes widened imperceptibly. Three of his Death Eaters - Carnavon, Nott, Goyle - were here. Partly here. Many parts. Nott looked far more pale than normal, and Lord Voldemort realized he had been mostly drained of blood.

No sign of Potter.

Damn and blast!

Some vampire had killed his own people!

Come to think of it, what were his Death Eaters doing here in the first place? Had they disobeyed his express instructions not to harm Potter till Lord Voldemort had a chance to convince him to come to his side?

Evans...

Of course. The blasted mother whose charm had killed him thirteen years ago and was now a vampire. She must have escaped. He turned and proceeded to her cell and found a similar scene of carnage. Despite himself, he was impressed. How on earth did she break the Acromantula silk? The Impali vampires had assured him that would be sufficient to hold her. They had been wrong, apparently. He would have to remember more often that vampires kept secrets from each other.

He mentally rearranged his mental hit list so that Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore fell to the second and third position respectively. Lily Evans now ruled the roost.

His sharp mind had already processed the further implications. Evans had escaped and was probably on her way now to tell Dumbledore about the leak in his ranks. Which meant that...

He summoned Snape. He needed someone to wreak vengeance upon.

Albus Dumbledore listened to Hermione's frantic exclamations with a growing sense of horror. A number of small behavioural changes with his Deputy Headmistress, changes that had seemed innocuous at the time, suddenly meant something quite different.

He had immediately asked Fawkes to find McGonagall and the phoenix had done so. She was in her personal quarters - as a prisoner in a dimensional trunk. Her impersonator, the person who had given Potter's troupe a set of dubious Portkeys, had long fled.

Even worse, Snape had disappeared. The Potions Master's office had shown all the signs associated with a hurried response to being summoned by Voldemort.

Horrified, Dumbledore realized he had discussed Snape's reports from the Dark Lord in front of the spy impersonating McGonagall. Severus' cover was blown and the man was probably being tortured at that moment.

Crina wished she could spread her wings and fly around the mansion. But the corridors were too small for her ten foot wingspan. Where the hell were the Grangers? Was is possible that someone else had already rescued them? Snape might have, if he was around.

She suddenly remembered that she still had her charmed notebook. She backtracked to a large room she had seen and flew up to a dark corner of the high ceiling. She spread her wings and flew up, hovering. She took the notebook from her robes, wiped off some caked blood off her right hand, and began to write a brief note asking Hermione to see if her parents were safe since she could not find them in Voldemort's lair. She added a command that would cause the kids' notebooks to sound an alarm to read the message at once.

Daniela and Emmanuel Granger arrived, still in their armchairs, in the middle of what looked like a war zone. Their house was in complete ruins with burnt books and broken charred furniture littering the wreckage. Around them they could hear their neighbours crying and shouting and the blaring of sirens.

Emmanuel found he could move himself again, and promptly took off his shirt that he had retched on several times. He would have taken off his soiled trousers as well but a sense of public decency prevented that. He rushed to his distraught wife and held her tightly.

There was a crack, and they both turned sharply and backed away. It was an old white-bearded gentlemen that they guessed was Hermione's Headmaster from his Gandalfic appearance.

"Emmanuel and Daniel Granger?" he asked, his eyes full of concern. "My name is Albus Dumbledore. I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and am truly sorry for whatever you have witnessed this night. Hermione is very worried about you. She is safe at Hogwarts now, as is Harry Potter, and asked me to check on you. Will you come with me to Hogwarts?"

Mr Granger looked at him with a mixture of distrust, relief, and shock. His wife pushed her crying face further into his shoulder.

"Others will be coming to help," added Dumbledore, "but your safety is critical, and Hogwarts is the safest place to be."

"She's not going back there!" shouted Daniela suddenly.

The old man looked surprised and then nodded. "Very well," he said. "But she is at Hogwarts now and is waiting for you. Perhaps you could discuss this with her yourself?"

Emmanuel looked at his wife and nodded. The Headmaster nodded back gratefully and approached them to hold their hands and side-Apparate them away.

Professor Vanescu

My parents are safe at Hogwarts. Mr Lupin is still alive but it's very bad. Poppy has filled Harry with half the contents of her Potions cabinet and he's sleeping. He'll be fine though.

The Headmaster asks that you get to Hogwarts chop chop.

HJG

Lily read the note that her favourite teen witch had left behind. She hadn't pinned Hermione to be the kind of girl who said 'chop chop', let along wrote it down, and figured she must still be in shock.

Well, if the Grangers were not here any more, she might as well blow the mansion up... but there might be prisoners here. And it would be better, for intelligence purposes, to leave something more locatable behind.

She was had just fitted a few rooms with some of her favourite charmed devices when the screaming began.

Checking that her Disillusionment Charm had not worn off, she proceeded in the direction of the screams and then halted.

Lord Voldemort was there, along with a dozen other Death Eaters. They were taking turns to curse her former classmate and rival. Blood coated the floor liberally around him and she could see bits of gore, flesh, and skin scattered or hanging off his body.

There was no way she could get him out, not with Voldemort there. He would not survive this even if she did. She might have tried, once, but she had a family to return to, a family to remain safe for. She prepared a Portkey that would take him out.

"Avada Kedavra!"

She whispered the spell from where she hovered six feet off the ground in the corner of the large hall. It hit Snape and the man ceased his reflexive jerking and kickinfg. She felt the magical kickback of the spell mix with her regretful emotions of the loss of an old acquaintance.

Lily Evans would never again argue with Severus Snape about the correct dosage of belladonna in wolfsbane or about the need for abicus root in Felix Felicis. She respected Snape. And knew that he would have mercy killed her had their positions been reversed.

The last thing she saw as the Portkey took her out was the furious face of Lord Voldemort.

To: Sirius Annoius Black
Department of Magical Law Enforcement

From: James Mophedd Potter
Department of International Magical Cooperation

Just had word from Hogwarts. Harry and Moony in Hospital Ward. Both captured by You Know Who. Moony nearly dead by silver torture. Meet you at the Fountain in fifteen minutes and we'll go.

Blaise was having breakfast in the Great Hall when the Yule Eve edition of the Daily Prophet arrived. He had convinced Katie to go with him to the Ball the next day, once he had offered her copies of all his candid camera photographs and a signed Quaffle from the Holyhead Harpies Chasers (his older sister was an assistant Keeper coach for the Harpies).

Katie Bell made a good Slytherin, he reckoned. He hooked his left elbow in her right and continued to attack his scrambled eggs as if nothing had happened. She glared at him but didn't extract her arm.

"You must be kidding," said Terry to Neville. The two boys were sitting opposite them. "Cactus roots are useless when they're completely dry."

Longbottom shook his head vigorously. "They make great fertilizer for other cacti."

"That's a load of -"

Whatever Terry was going to say was cut short by Padma's loud cry as she stared at the newspaper. She turned it towards them so they could see the headline.

Vampires Attack Muggles! Ten killed!

Blaise glanced immediately to the Head Table. Professor Vanescu was absent. Come to think of it, there were a lot of empty seats there - no McGonagall, Snape, or Dumbledore.

"On the night of the twenty third of December," read Padma, "a group of vampires attacked a Muggle suburb of Durham..."

"Durham!" said Terry, looking over her shoulder. "Isn't that where Hermione lives?"

Blaise nodded. Padma was still reading.

" ... The Ministry has ordered an immediate crackdown on all vampires resident in Britain ..."

It was nine in the morning. Despite the time, Lily Evans was wide awake.

She sat in the Hospital Wing, between her best friend and son. Hermione was not there - the poor girl was with her parents in one of Hogwarts' many guest suites trying to convince them not to make her leave Britain.

Lily could understand the Grangers' reaction very well. They were moving to South Africa, where Daniela's brother lived, as soon as they could. And they wanted to take Hermione with them, far away from her magnet-for-danger boyfriend.

Said boyfriend had taken half a dozen Cruciati, but was recovering quickly. He was sitting up with her, looking at Remus while having a late breakfast of horrifically bland hospital food.

The werewolf had nearly died and was now covered with several painful silver burns. He was now lying on a bed but in a permanent state of levitation and warming charms a foot above it. Pomfrey did not know if he would survive the next full moon.

Lily had already sent off messages to members of Remus' pack, and they would be arriving the next day.

"What's Hermione going to do?" asked Harry. Lily took a deep breath - she'd wondered when this question would come up. Will she break up with me? Some questions couldn't be said aloud, for fear of an answer being said aloud as well.

"I don't think she'll let you go," replied Lily honestly.

"But what if they make her choose between her and me?" There was no question who 'they' were.

Lily sighed. She'd never spoken with her son about her own past, of the way her own family had treated her once they knew of her magical ability. "You know Hermione and I have many things in common, right Harry?" Her son nodded. "I had to make a similar choice - similar in some ways - when I was eleven." He stared at her, attention completely riveted.

She stood and paced, her wings coming out halfway and fanning her gently as they did when she was nervous.

"My parents and sister were Christians," she said. "They thought magic was, well, witchcraft. In the Muggle world, in the Muggle religion called Christianity that they had, that's very bad. They hated magic like Voldemort hates Muggles. Quite ironic really, given that their religious figures like Moses and Jesus were wizards. I had to run away from home when I got my Hogwarts letter. Magic made so much more sense to me than the tripe I'd grown up with till then. I never did go back - I stayed with friends and other family during the summer, and Hogwarts has scholarships for people like me who couldn't pay."

Harry's mouth was open. "But what about Gran?" he asked.

"My mother and I fully reconciled later," admitted Lily. "Especially after you two were born. Nothing than a pair of lively twins to bring out the grandmotherly instincts, you know? She had a falling out with father when I was sixteen when she found out he was having an affair or two. Some church elder he was, the bloody accountant. Anyhow, Mum and I began reconciling at my wedding. I hadn't expected her to turn up, but she did."

"Point is," she continued, "Hermione's a stubborn witch. She's not going to lose you over this. On the other hand, she loves her parents and will not want to hurt them. She'll work very hard to find a compromise."

There was silence for a while. Lily realized her wings were out and folded them away.

"I'd probably do the same if I was in their position," admitted Harry.

"So would I," replied Lily. "But not forever. You remember what the Headmaster said he saw in their minds about watching a Polyjuiced Hermione being raped, tortured, and killed."

The emphasis on the word 'Polyjuice' was clear. Minerva McGonagall - the real one - lay several beds from them, looking horribly gaunt and thin even by her prim standards. Pomfrey had had to work very hard to persuade her to not return to the feline form in which she had spent most of the past few months.

"I think I should break up with Hermione," said Harry in a small voice.

His mother whipped her head to look at him. "Do that and you'll be in great danger."

Harry gulped. "From who? She's in great danger from You Know Who because of me already!"

"You'll be in danger from me if you break up with her for this," hissed his mother, flapping her wings menacingly. She smiled, but Harry could tell she was not speaking completely in jest. "It's her decision, Harry. Be patient. Be supportive. If she has to go to Ulan Bator for a year or two or three to please her parents, I hope you wait for her."

There was a cough from the doorway. Harry and Lily turned round. Their faces hardened in unison as they saw the newcomers.

James Potter. Sirius Black. The other Marauders.

Harry could see that his mother wanted to leave and moved his hand to hold and squeeze hers.

"Ah," said Sirius hesitantly. "We came here to see Harry and Moony. Albus said Moony was - bad."

Lily avoided the temptation to mention that this was the first time they had talked to their friend in over two years. She stood up from where she had been sitting on the side of Harry's bed and spread her wings in her most menacing manner.

"Don't hurt my boys." Her voice was low and guttural. James looked ashen faced. Sirius nodded.

"I'll be back, Harry," she said in her regular voice, and her son smiled back at her. "Let me know if either of them causes trouble."

An hour passed.

"Lily."

She was standing outside, near the Hospital Wing. She recognized his voice and refused to turn around. But she spread her wings and flapped them, to rub in his face exactly what she was.

"I am sorry," said James Potter.

She said nothing.

"You have every right to be angry with me," he continued hesitantly. "I was wrong."

She said nothing.

"When you disappeared in Italy, I went mad, I think. Remus and Sirius took care of the twins. I searched for you everywhere. I learnt everything I could about killing vampires and even killed a few."

She said nothing.

"It's very difficult to get information on vampires, you know. Well, maybe you wouldn't know. Since you are one, and all that. Vampires don't seem to leave a lot of information around for non-vampires. I'd never heard about memory loss."

She turned around and looked at him. She was hovering a foot off the ground, though she did not realize it. Her ex-husband swallowed.

"I thought it was a hoax, a cruel hoax. And when you mentioned some things that only you would know, I thought you had abandoned us. Abandoned me."

She stared at him.

"Yes, I know, I know it was stupid. I didn't show Remus or Sirius the letters. Perhaps they would have convinced me of it. Moony would have, certainly."

Her wings waved a bit faster and she rose a foot.

"I moved on. It was hard, but Mary was very nice. Nothing like you, no challenge at all. Easy. I didn't have to think very hard. Never had to think, really. I still don't. She was happy to take care of Paul. I played with Paul a lot too. I kind of forgot about Harry."

"Forgot." One word, when said in a sufficiently low pitch, could cause goosebumps. At least it did for James Potter.

"I regret it every day," he added.

"What do you want, James Potter?" she asked. He winced. She said it in the same cold, biting tone that she had said his name for the first six years they had known each other. "Forgiveness? Me to pet you on the head and tell you not to worry and everything will be alright? Me to avoid separating your head from your body? I've done that seven times in the last twenty four hours, you know. It would have been eight, but the bastard's body separated at the torso."

"I - I - I don't know, Lily."

"You never changed in seventh year, did you? Always the attention seeker, the arrogant unthinking rich bumpkin. I'm glad you kept Harry from you, because he has somehow managed to avoid learning everything that made you a piece of worthless shit."

"Lily, I -"

"Yes?" she asked sweetly.

"I did love you."

"And now?"

"I don't know. I tried very hard to stop loving you. I don't know if I succeeded. I try not to think about it." He paused for a long minute, gazing elsewhere. "But it's not relevant, is it?"

"Not really, no."

Silence.

"What - what happened to Moony?" asked James.

A safe topic. They could both deal with safe topics. Now they were a vampire DADA instructor and a Ministry employee who was an old friend of a sick and dying werewolf.

"He was stripped naked and made to lie down on a silver floor. If he stood up they knocked him down again."

"Bastards."

"Dead bastards. One of the dead bastards tasted good, too."

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that." James gazed at his wife, the woman he had loved for a decade.

"Good thing you don't have to."

Silence. But she was calming down now, since she was standing on Terra Firma again and her wings had stopped moving by themselves. She folded them in.

"Is there anything Sirius or I can do for Moony?" asked James. "We've got contacts in the Ministry. If there are any restricted ingredients for any Potion you or Snape can brew, then we can get them."

Lily, for the first time, smiled. "His pack is coming in tomorrow. I'll let you know." She frowned again. "Speaking of Severus, he's dead."

James jerked his head up, staring at her. "What? How?"

"I killed him," she replied with a sigh. "Avada. He was being tortured by Voldemort and his lackeys. They must have been using spells to keep him alive at that point. I killed him and got out."

James swallowed but nodded in understanding. "I'm sure he's grateful."

"I think so," replied Lily. "I hope he can be happy now."

James could not think of anything that would make his hated childhood enemy happy. Mercifully, he said nothing about it.

They heard loud footsteps behind them.

"Hello Lily."

"Greetings, Black."

"It's Sirius," clarified the newcomer.

"When you can explain to me why you neglected one of your godsons for the other, then I'll call you that, Black."

"I see," said Sirius sheepishly. "Harry was very reserved, and..."

"Yes, yes," replied Lily impatiently. "So was Moony and yet you accepted him - then, at least. Harry's a Slytherin. Which makes him Dark. And you, a Light child of a Dark family, would absolutely detest a Dark child of a Light family. A brilliant display of all that separates Light from Dark, don't you think? You do realize that if I hadn't been Muggleborn I would have been in Slytherin? Not to mention that whole Boy Who Lived shit. Dumb dog." She glanced at James. "Stupid stag."

"But Evans, I - never mind." His apologetic posture changed to his more usual, professional one. "I've got news from the Ministry."

She looked sharply at him. News from the Ministry was rarely good. Especially when referred to in that tone of voice.

"You know vampires attacked the Grangers?" asked Sirius. Lily nodded. "Of course you did, seeing as you were there. Thing is, they also attacked the whole neighbourhood. Houses are in ruins, ten Muggles are dead, and four Muggle children are missing. The Ministry is Taking Action. All vampires in Britain must come in for registration."

"Registration?" she asked warily.

"That's what they're calling it," sighed Sirius Black. "It's a damn crock. Registration involves handing over samples of your blood and hair."

"WHAT?" she shouted. "Do you know what they can do to us with that?"

"Course I do. As I said, it's a crock. One of Umbridge's rules."

"Lily," said James hesitantly, "maybe you should leave the country. Till this is all over."

"All over?" she scoffed. "Not as long as Fudge is in office. Look, there are ways of getting around..."

"Shut up, Lily!" yipped Sirius. "Don't tell us! Plausible deniability and all that shit!"

"Sorry," she said sincerely. "Thanks," she added.

"Do you know who the vampires were?" asked Sirius.

Lily looked serious again. She began pacing, and her wings spread out again. "I didn't get a good look. But the ones that were torturing Remus were Impali. Maybe Caponetto, they've got similar uniforms. But the Caponetto leaders aren't stupid; they'd never join Voldemort. I can tell you they are not Leganu."

"That is new information for us," said James in full International Magical Cooperation Department mode. "Thanks. Do you think any of the other clans would help us fight the Impali?"

"With these new regulations? Are you kidding?"

James winced. "Yeah, yeah, Fudge is an idiot. Even by my standards."

"I can Turn him if you like," offered Lily.

"Don't," said James seriously. "Act of war and all that."

"What of this Umbridge person?" she asked. "Would he taste good?"

"It's a she," said James. "And no, I highly doubt that she'd taste good. But there are people under her who are worse than her, so eliminating her might not be the best thing to do."

"Albus told us that you fought off the other vampires," Sirius said suddenly. "We could do a public relations exercise with that, and make the plebs realize not all vampires are with You Know Who."

"Good luck getting the Daily Prophet to print that," muttered Crina.

The cat entered the Hospital Wing. It was white and brown, with somewhat longer hair than the average house cat. Locating Harry's bed, it jumped on to it and walked on him to lick his nose.

Harry sneezed. The cat jumped back hurriedly, failed to purchase adequate grip on Harry's bedsheets, and fell off the bed.

"Who's there?" he asked, sleepy but with his wand out.

The cat jumped on the bed again so he could see it. Then it jumped off and turned into a human.

"Hermione!" cried Harry. "When did you -"

"This morning!" she said, beaming. "Times of emotional distress can be ideal for removing the final blocks, you know. It says so in Sturgeon and McKenna."

"Come here," he said. She needed no further invitation, and the next few minutes were devoid of words. When they were done, he moved over in the bed so she could join him.

"How's Mr Lupin?" she asked.

"Still screwed up," he replied. "No change. James and Sirius Black turned up to see us. They're old friends of his, though they stopped talking to him when he followed mum to Romania when James turned his back on Mum when she returned to England after she got her memory back."

Hermione took a couple of seconds to parse the sentence. "And your mother?" she asked.

"They've been talking, I think. Didn't you see them when you came in? You might want to check if they're still alive. But we've got more important things to think about - we're still going to the Ball tomorrow, right?"

"Er," said Hermione. "About that. My parents want me to stay away from you."

"Oh," he said. "Well then."

"You idiot," she hissed. "If I was staying away from you I wouldn't be here, would I? I'm not leaving you, Harry! But we've got to find ways of getting around this!"

"You don't mean just the Ball, though."

"No," she agreed sadly. "Everything."

A/N: So. The mystery of Citrina is finally revealed, and we're only at the halfway point of the year. This fic is going on hiatus again. I've been writing and posting nearly a chapter a day for the past week so that I'd be able to leave it at a place where Citrina's impersonation of Minerva would be revealed. The story is now at a place rather like at the end of canon GoF, methinks. You know the future is bleak, hard, but not hopeless, and Harry and Hermione will remain together in spirit. You also know Lily Evans really is back.

If anyone wants to read a good fic in the meantime, try "Childish Things" by Chia the Cat. It's story 2219092 on ffdotnet, and actually has the characters post-OOTP behaving like children. The author knows how to write, both technically and plotwise, but the fic remains relatively unknown (certainly unreviewed). Perhaps this is changing now, considering I found it through a Portkey Rec. Go read and review her stuff - it's lekker.

If any reader wants to flame me for making Lily's parents chuck her out for religious reasons, do so. But bear in mind that I was a Christian - a Protestant (Presbyterian like) and later a Bible thumping evangelical - before I saw the light at seventeen and became an atheist. It would have been nice if I had been able to reconcile the religion I was brought up with and the ability to think for myself and criticize - just as some Christians and other religious friends I met later are able to do - but I was not. Pity.

If you're wondering how Sirius and James and Lily were able to have a civil conversation, bear in mind that it only turned civil once it turned professional. Oh, and I am aware that their middle names are not 'Annoy Us' and 'Mop Head'.

Statistics so far (17 October 2006): 25000 hits and 206 reviews on ffdotnet, 12000 hits and 86 reviews on Portkey. 50 C2s and 157 story alerts (and 47 author alerts) on ffdotnet. 1400 people read the last chapter on ffdotnet and Portkey combined in the two days it's been up, in the usual two to one ratio.