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"I'll go first," Evan said, just shortly waiting for the affirmative nod of my father, before striding forward and pushing through the barrier.

"You next, girl. We're already late."

I nodded at once, moving forward, but never got far. Someone bumped into me, including their cart and it knocked me to the floor. As I looked up again, I saw that they boy had fallen as well – it was none other Peter Pettigrew, hurriedly scrambling to his feet again.

"S-Selene! S-so s-sorry – my dad's still p-parking the car..."

"Don't worry about it, Pete," I muttered, standing up again. "Could happen to anyone." Actually, I was pretty sure that things like that only happened to people like Peter.

I nodded at him again and then, squaring my shoulders, passed the barrier, closely followed by both my parents.

"What a horrible boy," my mother said, shaking her head. "He didn't even offer to help you up."

"He had a hard time getting up, himself," I muttered.

"Did he mention a car?" my father added. "A Muggle, then."

"He's not a Muggle, father."

He huffed in annoyance. "As good as."

I frowned at him. So they were now picking on half-bloods, too?

"Who are you talking about?"

Evan had appeared in front of us again; he had obviously already got rid of his trunk.

"What was his name, honey?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Horrible kid," Evan agreed at once. "Barely a wizard, too."

"See," my father said to me. "A Muggle."

Even the sight of the castle's familiar towers didn't soothe me this time. I wondered when they had gotten like this – this... racist... – or if they had in fact always been like this. And I simply hadn't realized it. Or hadn't minded it. Was it possible? That in all these years, I had been no better than them? And I wasn't better now. I was going to marry a Death Eater.

Said Death Eater had shortly stopped by at Callie's, Maia's and mine compartment to say hello, but had hurried off again to 'meet friends'. I knew this description by now. Evan had said exactly the same before. As I watched Reg take off, soon joining Avery and Snape, something snapped inside me. He was having secret meetings? Fine. I could do that at least as well.

For the second time that day, I collided with Peter; only this time, I did it entirely on purpose. He let out a shocked gasp and started to apologize, but I interrupted him at once.

"Quite all right, Peter." I quickly grabbed his hand, placing the parchment inside his palm. "I'll see you."

For three days, I spent an hour after curfew hiding in the secret passage down in the dungeons. On the first night, a Hufflepuff prefect found me on my way back, but seen as she was a fifth year, I managed to persuade her to not give me detention. In fact, she seemed thankful that I hadn't cursed her. Times like these, I absolutely loved being a Slytherin.

It was when I sat in the passage on the fourth day that I realized he wouldn't come. I had pushed Sirius and the others too far away – even when I changed my mind, they wouldn't want me to be their friend again. I had been too mean, too good in keeping my distance.

I scrambled to my feet, sighing. Fine, then. I moved towards the entrance to return to the common room, but as I had almost reached it, I bumped into something. I yelped, startled by the sudden barrier, as a voice exclaimed, "Ouch!" I took a step back, searching for the owner of that voice, when suddenly, the figure appeared out of thin air. James pulled of his cloak, one hand rubbing his shoulder.

"James!" I hissed. "You scared me-"

"Oh come on, I didn't force you to run into me-"

"I couldn't see you!"

"Your point?"

I opened my mouth to argue on, but decided to just drop it. "Why are you here?" I asked.

James sighed. "Sirius refused to come and get you."

"But-"

"We tried to convince him for the past three days. Today, I decided that he's a selfish dick and that I don't care what he thinks about this."

"So," I muttered, "He – he-"

"Oh, don't worry about him. He'll come around."

"He's mad at me."

"We're all mad at you."

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for further explanation.

"But we still miss you, so I came to get you. Come on."

"But Sirius-" I started again, only to get interrupted again.

"You come along now, or I'll stun you and drag you upstairs. Your choice."

Lily rushed towards me, hugging me. "I'm so glad..."

"It's all right – all right, Lily, let go of me..."

She finally stepped back, smiling broadly at me. "I knew you'd see sense."

"Well..."

Remus appeared next to her, grinning at me, too. "Good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too."

James returned from his dorm, were had put away the cloak, frowning slightly. "Where's Padfoot?"

"He grabbed the map and went outside. Couldn't stop him," Peter squeaked, earning a sigh from James.

"This is ridiculous."

"Nothing about me is ridiculous."

We all whirled around. Without us noticing, the portrait hole had opened and Sirius had stepped inside and now stood in the entrance to the common room, glaring at us.

"I told you not to bring her here."

"And I told you I would."

Sirius strode over to James. "Did you forget that her Death Eater friends nearly killed us the other day?"

"WHAT?" I exclaimed, looking frantically from one to the other. "What happened?"

"No," James answered. "I didn't forget. You know as well as I do that she's not a Death Eater."

"She's marrying one of them."

"Do you think I'm happy about it?"

Sirius gaze turned to me and I stepped in front of him.

"Do you think I want the rest of my life being friendly to people that I hate? Do you think I want to spend my life with your parents as my parents-in-law? Certainly not. But in contrast to you, I don't run away. I don't get to run away, because I need to save all of you. So quit complaining."

He eyed me uncertainly, eyes travelling from head to toe as he swallowed hard. "You hate my parents?"

I laughed bitterly. "Certainly. They're horrible."

And then, the hostility in his face vanished, as a grin spread on his face. "Good to have you back."

"So," I said as we had settled in front of the fireplace. "You mentioned nearly getting killed. What happened?"

"How was that exactly-"

"Started when we were bored in the holidays," James muttered.

"Yeah," Sirius said. "I own this motorcycle now-"

"Cool thing."

"Yes."

"So we decided to make a tour."

"Quick one."

"Just to test it-"

"And we kind of, sort of went a little too fast."

"Just a bit."

"Tiny bit," Sirius grinned. "So we got held up by these – how are they called?"

"Muggle version of Aurors," James offered.

"Police men," Peter said, smiling slightly.

"Right!" Sirius exclaimed. "So they stopped us."

"Wanted names-"

"So we gave them some-"

"And as we were just chatting nicely with them, these Death Eaters appeared-"

"On broomsticks, not very subtle-"

"Wait, wait," I said, "They just appeared there? What would they want with you?"

"Don't know either," James said. "But we threw the car of these ple-"

"Police men," Peter said.

"Right, of these guys at them."

"You threw a car at them?" I asked, horrified. "In public?"

"It was in self-defence!" Sirius said. "That makes it completely legal, right?"

"Right," James said. "So these Death Eater guys crashed into the car."

"Stupid of them."

"So we jumped onto the motorcycle again-"

"And took off. It flies really well," Sirius finished. "I'm rather proud of it."

I was silent for a while, trying to find the right words for this. "So you enchanted a motorcycle, got held up by Muggle Aurors, were attacked by Death Eaters, threw a car at them and took off on your flying motorcycle. In front of Muggles."

Sirius pretended to think about it for a while, before saying, "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up."

I shook my head, disbelieving. "Really, you two can't be left alone."