Author's Note

Greetings, my fellow Harry Potter lovers! Good day! Anyway, here's chapter 21! It's pretty long, and kind of sets up what is about to happen with the next segment of our story! Hope you enjoy!

In other news, I think I mentioned this last chapter, but I have pictures up for the main characters of this story, and some other miscellaneous pictures. Do check it out!

Please review, as always! We've finally passed the 50 review mark, which is totally super amazingly exciting! Eek! Let's see now... can we make it to 100? :D

So yeah, I'm done rambling! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, it means the world!

Read, enjoy, review! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own HP!

21. Mystery

"It's not so much that I don't want to be a healer," I mumbled, feeling my eyelids droop slightly from fatigue. Not to mention how cozy I was, sitting next to Lily (who had her nose deep in a book, completely oblivious to her surroundings) on the couch in front of the fire, Sirius's head on my lap as I played with his hair and occasionally tickled his nose with one of my quills (just to annoy him). An empty mug of cocoa, brought up to the common room by a few house elves who absolutely adored the marauders (apparently no one was immune to their charm), sat on the table beside me. "It's just that… I don't know. I can't picture myself doing anything other than being an auror."

"It's dangerous though," muttered Sirius, looking up at me with those big blue eyes that were now darkened with worry. "probably the most dangerous job at the ministry."

I frowned down at my boyfriend of just one week. "You want to be an auror as well, Sirius." I reminded him.

"Absolutely I do." he said, reaching up and stroking my cheek with his hand. "There's nothing I'd rather do than hunt down those bastards who are trying to hurt you."

"You don't think I'd like to do the same?" I asked, eyebrows raised. "I can hold my own. I'm not some defenseless little princess you know."

He chuckled at my rather severe expression and sat up suddenly, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer to him. "I know, Addy. I saw you duel Evans that first day of school. I haven't forgotten who I'm dealing with." I frowned at the memory of my duel with Lily in Defense Against the Dark Arts Class that fateful afternoon, as well as the fight with Sirius that had followed it.

"If I remember correctly…" I said, laying my head on his shoulder, still drowsy. "I almost hexed you into oblivion that day."

"Oh really?" he asked, grinning at me. "I thought you were just sunshine and rainbows." I rolled my eyes at him, but he just held me closer. "But really Addy, you have some of the top marks at Hogwarts, and I have no doubt that you could hex me into oblivion if you wanted to." he sighed, then ran a hand through his hair, "It's just me being protective. I don't know what I'd do if something ever happened to you."

"Nothing's going to happen to me." I said firmly, praying that it was true. "I've still got my weekly lessons with Dumbledore, and I've been studying some advanced defensive spells on my own."

My sessions with Dumbledore had been helping me tremendously. We had done a significant amount of dueling practice, not to mention lots of work with nonverbal spells. And everything that I had learned with the headmaster, I was teaching, as best I could, to Sirius and Lily, who were then passing it on to the other marauders. I wanted to be able to protect myself, but I would never forgive myself if something happened to one of my friends because of me.

Just then, Remus and James walked in, having finished serving detention with Professor McGonagall for a prank on the Slytherin sixth-years. Sirius had been able to dodge the bullet because he had been serving a detention during the time the prank was committed with Slughorn, having hexed some seventh-year who had, supposedly, called me "the hottest death-eater chick at Hogwarts."

Charming.

"Well," said James cheerfully, plopping himself down on the sofa between Lily and myself, arm wrapped ever so casually around Lily's shoulders. "Minnie sends her regards."

Lily finally looked up from her book, apparently startled to see James occupying the space next to her.

"Hi Lils," said James, smiling at her bashfully.

They were still in their awkward, not-quite-but-almost-a-couple phase, probably lengthened by Lily's impulsive kiss-attack from a week prior. But things, in my opinion, were progressing smoothly for the two. James, after recovering from last week's drama, had gone back to his traditional, flirtatious, affectionate courting method. Lily, to everyone's complete surprise and James's absolute joy, had finally completed the transition from being annoyed to the point of madness by every single thing the guy did, to being totally charmed, just as he had always hoped she would be.

"Hi yourself," she said back now, the book momentarily forgotten. "Pleasant time at detention?"

"Well, I must say, it was nothing compared to being here with you." he said, making her blush brilliantly.

Sirius rolled his eyes at this display of affection between our two best friends, and then said loudly to me, "Can't they just snog already and—"

"Shh!" I said, swatting him on the shoulder playfully. "That was us for about three months and they didn't complain!"

Sirius kept grumbling, but I ignored him, instead trying to turn the attention on to a safer subject. "Remus!" I said, noticing the blonde marauder sitting in one of the big leather chairs nearby, flipping interestedly through Lily's book. He looked up, eyebrows raised, when I said his name.

"How's Jeanette?" I asked, truly interested.

I felt like I had a bit of a connection to this girl that, up until a few days ago, I hadn't even known existed. But, after all, both our parents had been death eaters, and had known each other very well.

That being said, it sounded as though her parents had been different than my own. They had apparently put her into a foster home immediately, keeping her safely out of reach from the Dark Lord and his subjects. In the end, she had next to nothing to do with the life that my family and her parents lived.

I truly envied her.

But for whatever reason, I hesitated to tell anyone what I knew about Jeanette's parentage. It's not that I didn't trust Sirius or Remus or Lily to keep a secret, but I found myself keeping the information to myself. Was there really a need to say anything? It didn't seem like it, and the last thing I wanted to do was burden Jeanette with the truth that her parents had been servants of the Dark Lords, and were currently wasting away in Azkaban.

If it was me, I would want to live in complete, ignorant bliss, never knowing anything.

"She's good," said Remus now, smiling shyly. "We just ran into her actually, when we were coming back from Professor McGonagall's office. I think she and I are going to spend the day together next Saturday."

"Good job, Moony!" said Sirius, now stretching out again to lay his head back on my lap, lifting my left hand and placing it on top of his head so I could resume playing with his hair. "Still not a couple yet, though, are you?"

I rolled my eyes at Sirius as Remus answered, looking rather red. "No, it's casual right now. Just dating, getting to know each other."

"Huh, well I'm really happy for you Remus." I said, yawning for what seemed like the millionth time in the past ten minutes. My bed was calling me. "Lils," I said now, turning to my best friend, who was still wrapped up in deep, flirtatious conversation with a certain brown-haired, bespectacled boy. She seemed to almost break out of a trance when she heard her name, and glanced over at me, looking slightly annoyed. "Ready to go up?"

Sirius and James both looked rather put out as Lily, after a brief internal debate where she glanced between James and the staircase leading up to the girls dormitories multiple times, nodded, and stood.

"Night everybody," she said, then as an afterthought, "And goodnight, James."

James beamed as Sirius stood up, smiling down at me. "Goodnight, my dear," he said, kissing me softly.

"Night, Sirius," I said, hugging him tight, "Sweet dreams."

He winked at me, bending down slightly to whisper in my ear. "They'll be about you."

I blushed, looking around to make sure that no one else had heard. They all looked innocent enough, so I kissed Sirius one last time, removed myself from his embrace, and followed Lily up the stairs, smiling softly to myself as I went.

I collapsed onto my bed immediately, reveling in the softness of the bed sheets, and vowed to never stay up past midnight again. I was exhausted.

"Oh, Adeline," said Lily in her most maternal voice, pulling on my arm until I was in a sitting position, and then placing her hands on her hips authoritatively. "You can't go to bed in your school robes. Run and change."

I grumbled all the way to the bathroom door, cursing Lily for being so unbearably motherly. I was hardly able to keep my eyes open as I trudged through the doorway to the bathroom and fumbled with the light switch.

The sight that greeted my tired eyes was enough to get me feeling wide awake. My breath caught in my throat as I took in the scene in front of me.

The dark mark had been drawn largely, black and ominous, on the white tile wall of the bathroom. Under it were the words "we are watching".

I didn't scream. I didn't move a muscle. I just stood there, staring at the mark, this sign of evil that seemed to be haunting me like a vengeful ghost.

I can't say how long it was before Lily was suddenly behind me, probably wondering what was taking me so long when before I had been so eager for my bed and sleep.

"Oh," she said, sounding a little shaky as she took in the graffiti'd wall, and my reaction. Or lack thereof.

Finally I took my wand out from the pocket of my school robe and wordlessly removed the paint from the tiles. It came off easily, and I knew that whoever had done the act had not used magic.

"You didn't…" said Lily, now leaning against the sink, arms crossed and brow furrowed, "You didn't maybe want to… show Dumbledore? Or Sirius?"

"No," I said, no longer tired but somewhat disturbed, running a hand through my hair and surveying the now blank wall with concern. "they'll just worry, Sirius especially."

"You don't think you should report this? It's a dirty trick for someone to play, that's for sure."

"I don't think it was a trick," I said seriously. I went on when Lily opened her mouth to disagree. "Lily, who would know? Half the school already thinks I'm a death eater anyway. You and the marauders are the only people who know that the death eaters are actually after me. And the boys might be pranksters, but they would never pull something like this."

She thought about this for a second, and then nodded. "I suppose so. But who was it, then? It must have been a student. A death eater wouldn't be able to penetrate the school from the outside."

"I haven't the slightest idea," I said with a sigh. The exhaustion was returning, but for some reason, I wasn't as upset by this as I probably should have been. "But, it's hardly a secret that some of the Slytherin sixth years are death eaters, or soon to be. It could have been one of them." I wanted to bite my tongue as soon as the words were out of my mouth. One look at Lily was enough to know that I'd hit a sore spot.

"Sev." Lily mumbled, then sighed. "But I don't think he'd do something like this. He knows we're friends."

"Maybe. There's others, anyway. All those boys Snape hangs out with."

Lily seemed about to agree with me when a thought struck her. She looked at me, frowning, "It had to have been a girl, though." she said, brows furrowed. "To get up the staircase."

"Or someone who could break the enchantment." I said, shrugging.

"Perhaps," said Lily, but I could tell that she was thinking hard, probably already compiling a list of suspects in her head. After a moment she looked at me closely, concern gracing her features. "You okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I said, looking her in the eye. It was true. I didn't know why, but after the initial shock, I found that I was only slightly alarmed by the incident. It wasn't news to me, anyway. Of course they were watching.

And there was simply nothing I could do about it. There was no way I was leaving Hogwarts, and the only option I had was to work hard, so that hopefully I would be ready to face my enemies when the time came, and survive the encounter.