Hello! I'm going camping again this weekend, so you know what that means... :( They may or may not have wifi, but I don't know if I'll post anyways, because I need to catch up with myself. It shouldn't be too difficult, but I only have about three chapters written after this, and this is going to be a much longer story.

Enjoy this, though! ^^

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"That no good, traitorous, lying git!" Sirius growled when they were far enough away that they could stop running. Alice had left behind Bellatrix's wand-she had felt it was filled with an evil magic history.

"He's just afraid, Sirius," Lily said, wondering why it was she continued to defend the boy. He'd protested when she'd tried to set him free. He hardly deserved her sympathy anymore.

"Some Gryffindor," James spat.

Lily sighed. Remus was the most upset about all of this. Not only had Peter been his first friend when he'd began attending Hogwarts, but it had been his job to keep him under control while everyone else had been out enjoying themselves.

She touched his arm. He glanced at her and away. The horrible guilt and anguish in his eyes hurt Lily, and she felt tears prick in the back of her eyes.

"Are you okay, Lily?" James asked, tentatively wrapping an arm around her shoulder. She shivered. "Those ropes were so tight..."

Lily tried to nod. "I'm alright," she mumbled, her throat tight as she gently ran her finger over the cuts and rope burns on her arms, her stomach, her legs.

"Oh, guys, I'm so sorry we didn't come sooner!" Alice exclaimed. She was taking her failure to arrive on time very hard. She had already burst into tears three times and cursed herself several times to hell.

"Alice, it's alright," Lily said, trying to sound comforting around the lump in her throat. "No one got hurt."

"But that's a lie!" She cried. "You have those terrible rope burns, and look at the stings on James' arms, and Rodolphus and Snape! You were so scared when they hurt Snape!"

"What?" Lily snapped.

Alice cringed. "I'm sorry, I should have come in right away! I saw the whole thing!"

"No, what did you say about Snape?" Lily replied hastily.

"Just that you had this awful look on your face when Rodolphus punched him."

Lily shook her head. Everyone was staring at her. "What?" She demanded.

They looked away.

No one spoke until they got back to the castle, except for Alice's guilty moaning and Frank's futile attempts at calming her down.

Well, of course she'd looked upset! Lily thought angrily. Who didn't? They were tied with burning ropes, and she didn't like the sight of blood or pain, anyways! Who wouldn't have looked upset?

Even to herself she sounded defensive, but she just couldn't place her feelings.

She assumed it must have been betrayal. She'd really been hoping that Snape hadn't gone that far, as far as hurting someone to the point they may have died, as far as creating that necklace to control Peter, as far as stealing potions and using his amazing skills for evil. He was using every way to get around the law while still having the effects of the unforgivable curses.

It really hurt Lily. They had been such great friends. She couldn't understand why he was acting like this.

She briefly wondered how he was accepted. He was half-blood.

But, of course, she knew that he probably lied. And with his amazing skills in potion making and spell creating, he was a sure win with the other Slytherin Death Eaters.

She hoped that wasn't his goal, to serve the Dark Lord. She didn't know if she could take that much.

It was one thing to tell someone they weren't your friend, but it was another entirely to tell yourself you don't love them anymore, even if it was just the love of a great friendship.

It was hard to take, but Lily knew she would have to manage. For her friends, for her family, and for herself.

So she didn't think about Severus anymore, for the greater good.

She had all of her friends come to the Heads Commons and explained to them what was going on as she healed the burn marks on their arms and chests and legs and stomachs.

She was on her first patient, Mary, as she began.

"Guys, I don't think you should be so hard on Peter," she cautiously began.

Sirius' eye nearly bugged right out of his head. "You kidding me?" He exclaimed. "That lying-"

"Sirius, hear me out!" Lily screamed. "Just listen! I read about the necklace Snape made for Peter. It works for those who have been imperiused. It makes him completely unaware of what they're forcing him to do. Peter has no clue he's been doing such awful things for them."

Sirius shook his head. "But he stayed with them. He didn't even try to stop them from capturing us and hurting us. In fact, he lead us there. It was his idea to meet there in the first place."

"How do we know he wasn't under the imperius curse then, too, or the necklace?" Lily said, though she knew that wasn't right.

Sirius shook his head again.

She sighed. "I know. But you heard him! He's afraid. He said they hurt him. You've all felt crucio, you know how much it hurts. He's afraid of that, afraid they might do something worse. Bellatrix had no problem with the concept of killing us and he knew it."

"He's a Gryffindor, and a friend at that," Sirius growled. "I would have taken a thousand crucio's to keep you all safe."

"But how do you know unless you've been put in the position?" Lily said, grasping at straws by now. She finished with Mary and motioned for Sirius to take a seat. He removed his shirt and she ran her wand along the burns in his skin. The vanished as she went

He wiggled and laughed. "That tickles! And Lily, just stop defending him. He's no good Slytherin scum."

"But he's not!" Lily exclaimed. "He's a Gryffindor, just like us!"

"He hasn't been acting like it, Lily."

Lily looked to Remus, shocked. "Not you, too, Remus."

He wouldn't look at her. "Like you said, I just have the facts."

She sighed, frustrated. Her brow knitted together as she finished with Sirius. This wasn't right. They were friends, they needed to trust each other! Coward or not, they should have loved Peter anyways, despite that. It's not as if he had gotten them killed. And if it had come to that, she was sure he would have tried to prevent that from happening. Wouldn't he have?

She shook her head and brought up another subject.

"Bellatrix had the finished potion they'd stolen the ingredients for," she deadpanned.

James nodded. "It was gold."

"There are a lot of gold potions," Remus said, sighing as he took Sirius' spot, his turn to be healed.

Lily nodded. "I've narrowed it down to a few that I think would be valuable to them. They were talking about being a part of some important group, and this group is probably just something inside of Hogwarts, probably just some dumb thing to prepare them to join that Voldemort guy everyone's so afraid of. So they're probably going to pull some great prank with it to try to prove that they have control of the school."

"Good job, Lily," Sirius said, winking. "Thinking just like them."

She rolled her eyes. "I used to be friends with one. Anyways, something that could be useful is a certain potion that makes the drinker go bald. Another is it makes the drinker forget any of their problems, causing them to do ridiculous things until they remember themselves. And another would be a potion sort of like Veritiserum. They would be forced to answer any question asked of them, but only if phrased correctly."

"It could be any one of those," Alice groaned.

"I know," Lily grumbled. "And the worst part is I have no idea when they might use it. For all we know, they could be tricking the house elves into slipping it into all of our morning pumpkin juice."

Sirius shook his head. "I doubt it. If my guess is correct, they'll probably use it at one of the school gatherings."

"Slug club meeting?" Lily asked.

Remus shook his head. "Probably more like one of the seventh year balls you two are supposed to plan."

Lily's eyes went wide at the prospect of an entire seventh year class doing insane things until they remembered reasons they shouldn't.

"Exactly what I was thinking, Moony," Sirius said, nodding and patting his friend on the back as he switched places with Marlene.

"That'd be just awful," Marlene said. "They'd be ruining everyone's final year at Hogwarts."

Lily shook her head. "Well, we're the only ones that know. We'll have to put a stop to it. We'll have to make sure that everything is safe, especially James and I."

She got several looks, causing her to role her eyes. "Head duties."

Lily forced them all down to supper with threats of points being taken so that she could finish healing James and attempt healing herself.

James watched her struggle for a moment before placing a hand on hers to stop her.

He smiled before picking up his wand. Lily sighed gratefully, but was incredibly hesitant when it came to taking her shirt off, sitting in just her bra as he healed the deep burns in her stomach. She cursed herself for doing her arms on her own.

"She got you good, that evil witch," James hissed as he trailed his wand along Lily's soft, pale skin.

Lily nodded, her throat too dry for speech.

He glanced up at her, then cleared his throat. "I'm sorry our date was ruined," he mumbled.

Lily shook her head and willed the ability of speech. "Don't be. I had a great time with you."

He flashed her a grin as he finished. "Thanks, Lily."

She smiled back at him, and neither Head Boy nor Head Girl could bring themselves to look away.

And before she knew it, James had finally gotten to get his chance at what he'd wished to do earlier that day, when their date had been successful.

...

Yay! No time for a review, I gotta go, people are yelling at me. Just tune in, kay? And I haven't forgotten about you if I don't post!