Chapter 13

A/N: Hope you liked the last chapter and really hope you like this one too. Not sure where this one's going yet but we'll see.

Enjoy :)

The girls and I were at second breakfast. Remus sat slightly down the table frowning at a piece parchment the lay in front of him. Whatever was the issue he showed to Peter and Potter who were on either side of him. The three of them began pouring over the parchment. I watched the three of them for a moment before returning to my girlfriends' conversation.

'All I'm saying is that maybe you need to get over Longbottom.' Mary was saying.

'What do you mean? I am over him!' Alice spluttered turning red. She was met with three raised eyebrows. 'Well maybe not completely…'

'I'm thinking a new hair colour. What about blonde?' I suggested. Mary and Marlene nodded eagerly while Alice smiled slightly.

'Peroxide blonde!' Marlene almost shouted. Both Mary and Alice's eyes lit up. I groaned knowing what those expressions meant.

'MAKEOVERS!' The three of them shouted and I said the word too but not with nearly as much enthusiasm.

'Lily will you dye your hair too? I don't want to be the only one.' Alice asked a little anxiously.

'Yeah sur-' I was thinking of the dark brown hair I had had at the Masked Ball. Much less in your face and much less standing out in the crowd. Being more inconspicuous would be nice.

'No!' Mary cut in. 'Lily don't you dare do anything to that beautiful dark red! Alice, I'll dye mine. I really want to put some highlights in or something. What about ice blue highlights?' She held up a bunch of her pale blonde hair. I could have sworn Alice's expression looked a little disappointed but no one noticed and it was gone before I could be truly certain I'd seen it.

'Yesss! Can we put highlights in my hair? What goes with peroxide blonde?'

Luckily for me, the post owls arrived at that moment and spared me any more talk of makeovers. Three owls were carrying a huge black misshapen blob. On closer inspection, as the owls made a beeline for me, it was a binbag covering whatever was inside it – a precaution from the British weather. The owls placed the binbag in front of me and I hurried to fill a small bowl of cereal for them.

'Do you know who it's from?' asked Alice.

'No.' came my reply.

'Do you know what it is?' asked Mary.

'No.'

'Are you going to open it?' asked Marlene.

'No.'

I picked up my things and the binbag before making a hurried exit from the hall. Staggering slightly under the weight of the binbag mixed with my school bag I began heading back to the common room to dump off my mystery mail.

'Evans!' I jumped in surprise and promptly dropped all my things. The contents of the binbag spilled onto the floor. Out fell a large metal briefcase and a large hat box. The hat box too had opened and a load of light purple material had fallen on to the floor. I began scrambling around for my things. Evidently, Potter had followed me out of the Great Hall.

'I was going to ask what was in the binbag but I can see it all now.' Potter spotted something on the ground and stooped down to pick it up. 'What's this? A love note? Somehow I doubt that. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who could get past-.' He broke off reading the note he'd picked. His eyes began to flicker with anger.

'Get past what? My hair looking like a fire? My ugly face? The fact I've stepped inside a second-hand shop? My boring personality? Which one or is it all of them?' I asked calmly but there was venom in my voice as I struggled to remain civil and refrain from shouting at him. Potter smirked in a way that suggested his knowledge of what people thought of me was superior in every way. Anger still danced in his eyes for the briefest of moments but it vanished once he blinked. While he was distracted by his smirk, I grabbed the note and hurried off/

'Oi Evans! Go out with me next Hogsmeade weekend?' he shouted after me.

'No thank you, Potter.' I called over my shoulder and turned the corner as I reached the end of the Entrance Hall. Once out of sight, I put down my things and read the note in my hand to check it was actually for me.

A Note From Petunia Evans To Lily Evans

Freak,

This is the dress and you'd better make it fit around your fat self. You may normally look like a tramp but at my wedding don't you dare. Remember any freak business and you're out of my wedding.

I crumpled the note in my hand and chucked it into the binbag. Upon reaching the dormitory I shoved the stuff underneath my bed hoping to bury my curiosity underneath my bed with the rest of my stuff that hid there (basically nothing).

History of Magic was a boring affair. I had bewitched my quill to copy down what Professor Binns was saying and this gave me time to daydream about studying with Tom. Tom loved history and in particular History of Magic. I too felt it was interesting but it was ruined for me by Binns who was exceptionally boring. Perhaps it was we were both muggleborns and therefore had a yearning to learn more about our new world. Although I generally studied with Remus, it was to Tom I now went for studying History of Magic. He had a way of going through our class notes and making every name, date or any other key detail stick in my brain. Re-enactments were commonplace; to do this Tom would first draw some stickmen on a piece of parchment. Then he would cast a spell that made them come off the parchment and act out whatever scene he was describing. Tom wanted to be a History of Magic Professor when he left Hogwarts and I could easily see that happening.

I fiddled absentmindedly with my necklace. He would be an amazing Professor. The necklace snapped and brought me out of my daydreaming about Tom. Wait. And brought me out of my daydream about studying. Well, that and the fact that SOMEONE KEPT POKING MY SHOULDER!

'Lily!' hissed Alice's voice in my ear.

'What?' I whispered back.

'He's staring at you again.'

'Who?'

'Who d'ya think?' she replied irritably. 'Potter.'

'He is?'

'Yes.'

'Why don't you just ignore him?'

'It's really annoying me.'

'Can't you just tell him to stop if it's bothering you?'

'No. He's looking at you and not me.'

'Well then, just ignore him.'

'Liiiiily.' She whined. 'Tell him to stop.'

'Why don't you? You're the one with an issue with him staring.'

'So you like him staring?'

'No but I don't squirm around on my seat because Potter's looking at the side of the room I on.'

'Make him stop. Pleeeeeeeeeeese. It always makes me feel like I'm ruining the moment between you two.' I looked at her incredulously.

'Fine!' I whispered waspishly. 'If you'll shut up, I'll stop him.' Alice looked at me smugly. Picking my wand up from my desk I placed it on my lap and turned it discreetly to face Potter. Focusing carefully on a few well chosen words, I cast two spells without anyone noticing. A 'What the fuck?' was heard all around the classroom by everyone except Professor Binns who continued his lecture. Potter looked sheepishly at his desk.

I took an internal bow for the spells I had cast. Potter had just experienced an unknown force (well known if you were me) push his head so that it faced the front whilst at the same time hearing Professor McGonagall say: 'It's high time you concentrated on your studies Potter'.

I really hung out with Remus and Sirius too much. Actually, scratch that. I hung out with Remus and Sirius a lot but NOT too much. I brought my attention to Binns and remained in my listening to the teacher zone for the rest of the lesson.

Lunch in the Great Hall was extremely loud. The Marauders had let of some indoor fireworks and they were whizzing around for the whole duration of Hogwarts eating. I ate my soup quietly and stared at the broken necklace in my hand. I had worn it since the age of 5 but it had actually been given to me the day I was born. Now it was simply wrecked and despite all the fixing spells I tried on it, it remained that way. Giving up, I placed it into my robe pocket.

I turned my attention to Remus. He smiled at me from over the book he was reading. I was about to say something when a bunch of Hufflepuff girls walked passed. Bertha Jorkins was among them and said quite loudly:

'OMG! Sirius Black is such a sex god!'

Remus met my eyes and we both began sniggering. The girls continued on their way and once they were gone our sniggering turned into full on howls. Our mates looked at us as though we had mad cow disease.

'Is-isn't S-S-Sirius a v-virgin?' I gasped through my laughter. Remus could only nod as tears of mirth rolled down his face. When Sirius said he got lucky he meant he'd got with a girl but never as far as sex. Honestly, some girls at Hogwarts were extremely dumb. As we began clutching our sides, Sirius sat down next to me.

'The sex god has arrived.' I said smirking.

Potter spat out his pumpkin juice.

'Where'd you hear that?' Sirius asked seriously but there was amusement sparkling in his eyes.

'Honey, who said I heard anything?' I said flirtatiously. His eyes glanced at Potter and an evil smirk appeared on his face. He yawned pointedly and stretched his arms before looping one of them around my shoulder.

'But seriously, who told you that?' he whispered in my ear. Potter was turning red. Peter who had cottoned on was having an extremely prolonged coughing fit. Remus had hidden his face behind his book but I could see his shoulders shaking with laughter.

'Bertha Jorkins.' I whispered back. He guffawed from next to me.

'Prongs calm your tits.' He chortled as he looked at Potter's murderous expression. Why Potter looked so pissed I had no idea. Probably just pissed we were laughing at him.

The girls and I sat on our respective beds. Mary and Marlene were discussing the 7th year who Marlene was seeing. I wasn't really sure what their relationship was but they did act like a couple around each other. His name was Patrick Harris and he was in Gryffindor. Personality wise I had no idea seeing as I'd never spoken to him but he was good-looking.

'Alice, do you want me to dye your hair or are you doing it yourself?' Marlene asked and again I saw Alice looked a little disappointed. She glanced at me.

'Marls, I'll do Alice's hair. You'd better do Mary's cause I'm not as good.' I said watching Alice closely. Her face relaxed slightly. 'Come on Al, we'll use the bathroom.' Alice followed me and I shut the door behind us.

'Thanks Lily.' She said.

'Right, what's up?'

'I wanted your advice. Marlene and Mary just tell me not to cry about him because he's not worth it but I can't stop feeling like shit. Maybe they get over boys easily but I can't'

There were tears in her eyes as she said this.

'Listen Alice, it's okay to feel horrible. Marls and Mary are just trying to help but they're not the same as you. It's hard to get over someone you thought so highly of. It's even harder to realise that they weren't who you thought they were but someone much worse. They earned your trust and respect but lost it in a second without a single thought about you. It's hard to admit to yourself that someone if cruel or careless or mean but you can't just ignore the hurt they've caused. You've got to accept it. If you cry, then that's fine because you're admitting to yourself that it hurts. And every day that you understand your pain it gets a little less horrible so that one day you'll wake and realise you don't care about that person anymore.'

Alice cried silently as I began dying her hair. I worked in silence as she cried but when she had stopped I began speaking again.

'You've got to embrace the things about yourself that they were to stupid to see. Live life to the full and all that. Have fun but if you want to cry you shouldn't feel ashamed. Once we've done your hair the four of us can dress up and dance in the dorm. I'm pretty sure Marlene has a wizarding wireless.'

Later that night, when the Girls were asleep and their snuffling snores could be heard through the hangings of my four-poster bed, I lay thinking. The thought had been nagging me for a while but I had chosen to ignore it. Why had Longbottom done what he'd done? I had known him for 4 years and never once had he done anything malicious. Why now? And why to Alice? She'd never been a source of hurt for him and the same vice versa but something must have happened that I was unaware of. A piece of the story had to be missing whether on purpose or not. The situation didn't add up. What was I missing?

This whole problem was killing Alice on the inside and the issue was deeper than a disappointed crush. A rejection from a crush hurt but if the rejecter was a crush then it wouldn't make you still want to cry a month and a bit later. That kind of wound healed easily but this gash wasn't even close. Alice couldn't have been...? No she was too young for that. It was impossible. Or was it?

'Oh Frank Longbottom, what have you done?' I whispered into the darkness.

I shut my eyes and forced myself to imagine the scene of the Masked Ball from what Alice had described. I saw the Great Hall just as it had been on the night of Halloween. I saw the dancefloor in the centre of the hall and I saw Alice and Longbottom dancing together. They danced to a slow song by the Golden Snidgets and revolved on the spot, never once taking their eyes off the other's face. My imagination moved closer to them and the rest of the Great Hall was blurred out. The song ended and I could see Alice screwing up her courage to kiss Longbottom. In my mind, I saw him lean his head down towards hers as she leant up to kiss him. I knew he had returned her kiss willingly and that they had only broken apart for air. That happened next and after that I imagined where it went wrong. I heard Longbottom say 'We're great friends Alice and I would never want to ruin that. We've always been mates...' but unlike when I'd Alice describe the scene, Longbottom sounded like he still had loads more to say. I saw Alice slap him and it was then that my mind could imagine no more. I groaned in frustration but after a few more attempts rendering the same results I gave up.

I tried falling asleep but gave that up too after 10 minutes of moving around restlessly. My bare feet slid off my bed, followed swiftly by the rest of my body. I walked silently over to the window and looked out over the Hogwarts grounds. They were bathed in moonlight from the waxing gibbous moon. The lake was still and reflected the shape of the moon perfectly. Nothing disturbed the grounds. I turned away and returned to my bed to get a glass from my bedside table. The glass I intended to fill with water seemed not to be on my bedside table but was on the floor. I knelt down to pick it up. Turning to my side, I saw the bin bag of stuff that I'd hidden underneath my bed earlier. Curiosity got the better of me and I pulled it towards me. First, I took out the hat box. Then I picked up my wand and said 'Lumos' in order to have a better source of light than the moon. Inside was a beautiful bridesmaid dress. It was knee length and lilac in colour. The bodice had a white lace which sat on top of the strapless lilac top half. The lace melted off into the lilac skirt. The bottom half looked like the kind of skirt that swirled stunningly when the person wearing it spun around. A top the skirt half of the dress was a thin lilac muslin and around the waist was a satin lilac ribbon that was tied in a small bow at the back.

'Wow, Tuney.' I breathed. I opened my draw and pulled out a strapless bra which I put on underneath my vest top/pyjama top. Then I removed my vest top/pyjama top and slipped on the dress over my bra and pyjama shorts. Like a ghost I moved towards the wall length mirror that stood next to my wardrobe. I didn't look awful in it. In fact, it made me feel pretty which was a very rare occurrence. Truth be told, the dress was a little big but that could easily be fixed. Perhaps Tuney didn't hate me after all.

I returned to the hat box and changed back to how I was dressed before. I looked back at the box and noticed a pair of shoes. They were white satin pumps that seemed to sparkle slightly in the wand light. These pumps where the correct shoe size and I returned them carefully to the hat box. The hat box I then place in my wardrobe and turned back to my bed. Thinking I would throw away the bin bag before heading to bed, I picked it up and realised straight away that there was something else in the bin bag. I pulled out a large and heavy metal briefcase which I had completely forgotten about. The briefcase I placed on my bed and then sat opposite it. I watched it suspiciously for a moment before clicking the lid open.

Revealed was two velvet boxed, a brown paper package and an envelope. I picked up the envelope and prised apart the flap to get at the letter inside it. I pulled out the letter and adjusted the angle of my wand so that I could read it better.

A Letter From Martha Evans to Lily Evans

Dearest Lily,

I suppose that if your reading this then I died before seeing you again. I have a few things I want to tell you before you see the rest of this briefcase's contents and a few requests to make of you. I hope you read the whole of this.

Firstly, I want to tell you about my being Lady Cynthia Bowers of Seldeton. I told you who I really was but you being you never asked me any further then that. Your father is just the same in that sense. When I was around 16 years old my parents chose a husband for me. I never got on with my parents because they were so stuck in the old ways of how things were and when I said I disliked the man they chose they didn't listen. This man was around sixty years old and I positively hated him. This led to possibly one of the best decisions of my life and that decision was to run away. I simply got on a train one night and left. My destination was anywhere away from home and the train took me to Cokesworth. I arrived there with all of my possessions in my suitcase and went to the nearest pub to find a place to stay. On my way there, I met your dad on his way home. He was quite a dashing 16-year-old. I asked him for directions and when he found out I had no place to stay he insisted I stay at his home. I followed him which in most circumstances is not the wisest thing to do and I met your grandparents. They too were so kind to me and they let me sleep in the living room. The next day, they offered me work at their bakery and I accepted. I lived with the Evans and there I fell in love with your dad. We married when we were 20 and your grandma died soon after that. I then had Pet 5 years later and a few months after your granddad died. And then you came 3 years after that.

Your dad's parents were some of the nicest people I ever met and I know they would have loved to meet both you and Pet. From what I know, my parents are still alive and Lily I have a favour to ask of you. I can't go and see them but perhaps you can. When you go home for Christmas could you try and find them? Could you tell them I'm actually dead this time and that I'm sorry I never saw them before I died. We may not have ever seen eye to eye but I want them to know. I was their daughter and in my heart I hope that they do care a little for what happened to me. They'll still live in Seldeton and if they've passed away then my younger brother will live in the big house there.

Next I want to tell you about the larger of the velvet boxes. When I ran away from home I took with me all of my possessions. These included all of my jewellery. My original plan was to sell them to keep myself going but I got the job at the bakery so that plan never came true. Your father knows of this jewellery and we decided to split it between you and Pet. Each of you would receive your share on your wedding day. I'm sorry I can't give it to you that way anymore so I put your it in the larger of the two velvet boxes. It's a while yet until you marry Lily but Pet's marrying so soon. That leads me on to my second request. Could you give Pet her jewellery on her wedding day? I would ask the same of her for your wedding but as your only 15 I don't think it would be fair to hide you from it for so long and ask this request. Pet's jewellery is at home with your father but I want you to be the one to give it to her from me. She knows I have a wedding gift for her but that's all. Please do this for me Lily.

I also wish to write about Eileen. The two of us met when I was pregnant with you and she with Severus. I remember when you were born we hoped that our babies would become great friends. And so you did. Lily, I told you before that you would find someone who you would open up to and for a while I thought you had found that person in Severus. Eileen thought so too but when you went to Hogwarts and came back that Christmas I think we realised otherwise. The two of you were changing and I remember Eileen saying it was a shame because she would have loved you for a daughter-in-law. She cares about you a lot and if you should ever need another mother figure she will be more than willing. Eileen has been my best friend through everything since I gave birth to you and I have my next request of you. Can you give Eileen the package? It's a photo of the two of us as new mums. The photo-frame has a bracelet attached to it. This bracelet is one of two. They connected so that we could send small messages to one another using the large luck clover charm on it. I think it's one of the last pieces of magic she ever performed. We were such a giggly pair of best friends back then. Eileen still used magic secretly back then but Tobias found out one day and that's when he began behaving more violently towards her. I knew Eileen was a witch and when I found out you were one I was so happy. The package will hopefully be a small comfort to her.

The last thing I wanted to say is I love you so much. I love your dad and I love Pet too. But this is my letter to you and not to your dad or your sister. Lily you are so brave and as I write this I can see your face in front of me in my mind. You put on a brave face and act as though you aren't tired, as though you don't mind working so hard and as though there's nothing wrong but I know that that expression is a face you hide behind a lot. You can show weakness Lily and no-one will ever think any less of you. You act so much older that you should have to and I know you're most likely the mum of your group of friends. Lily make sure that you're looked after too because you look after everyone else but who's making sure you're alright. You're friends care about you but their concern isn't quite what I mean. My last request is that you realise how amazing you are and I hope you find someone who looks after you as much as you look after them.

Take care Lily and remember that I'm always there in your heart.

With all of my love,

Mum

Tears rolled down my face as I finished the lesson. Tuney's words rang in my head 'Mum's will is being announced in 30 days...'. It had been 30 days since Mum's funeral and I suddenly felt just as I had the day I saw her dead in St Mungos. My fingers trembled slightly as I opened the larger of the two velvet boxes. I had to quickly stifle a gasp which escaped me as the wand light revealed its contents. Inside was like a treasure chest. There were two gold bracelets that looked like branches curved into a loop, a headpiece that also looked like a branch but this time with leaves made of small emeralds, a pair of earrings with a clear crystal in each, a choker made of silver which entwined to form the complete shape and at the front was a dark blue sapphire, a silver necklace with a pendant of silver entwined metal that had diamonds engraved into it a pale blue sapphire at the centre, a gold ring with a complicated pattern and an emerald gem engraved in it, a silver ring with a silver cherry blossom on it and finally a pair of rose-gold earrings that were a blush pink gem in the centre and surrounded by small diamonds.

I closed the first velvet box carefully and opened the second, smaller one. Its contents was something that my tears return. Inside was my mum's cross necklace. It was a silver chain and attached to it was a cross that was engraved with diamonds and wrapped around the centre was a silver infinity symbol. It was breathtakingly beautiful. Carefully, I removed the necklace from the box and placed it around my neck. I moved the metal briefcase and it's contents into my wardrobe and lay back down on my bed. I tugged my plait as my mind flicked feverishly from the briefcase to my mum's letter to the bridesmaids dress and to Alice and Longbottom.

'Mum, I wish you were here.' I whispered as my thoughts pounced on the Alice situation. Something was missing and I needed to get all the pieces to fix the problem. I needed to make Alice feel better and I was sure that I could fix everything for her and Longbottom. It couldn't hurt to do some poking around could it?

Thanks for reading!

I hope you liked this chapter. I quite like this one but last chapter was definitely my favourite so far. Next chapter will probably have more on the full moon and the Frank/Alice situation.

Btw nothing could go wrong with Lily talking to her girlfriends' enemy could it? Might have Tom in the next chapter and maybe Snape. We shall see.

Please Review :)