New Developments of Sorts

Lily and James slowly walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast one morning in March. The weather was absolutely horrid. The snow was nothing but slush, and rain droplets the size of galleons came with a force strong enough to cancel Herbology.

When they arrived, both of the Head Students noticed the whole hall was abuzz about something. Looking at each other with complete confusion, they quickly rushed to their friends, who were huddling over something they couldn't see.

Once Lily saw it, she gasped. On the front page of the Daily Prophet, there was a picture of five dead with a blaring headline of "Family of Five Brutally Murdered, Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Suspected". Lily quickly scanned the article.

March 13th, 1978, Aurors find a family of five brutally murdered in their family home. The suspected time of murder was March 12th. John Burke, father, had no suspected actions in the resistance movement against Voldemort. Kathleen, mother, also had no actions in the resistance, but her muggle-born status may have been involved. Two sons, Greg (ten years of age) and Nicolas (seven years of age) along with their sister, Hannah (four years of age) were murdered along with their parents. If there is any information regarding their deaths, contact Auror Moody (Head Auror) or Bartemius Crouch (Head of International Affairs). Rewards are awarded.

Lily felt light-headed. Five completely innocent people have been murdered, especially those three children. For what? Having a muggle-born mother? For being half-blood?

Lily couldn't take it. She felt so sick, so light-headed. She let go of James's hand and left the Great Hall, feeling several pairs of eyes follow her. Tears forming at the edges of Lily's eyes obscured her vision. She didn't care; she knew where she was headed.

.:.

James stood in shock. Sure, they had been murders and attacks quite a lot recently, but this had to be considered the worst. A family not even associated with the Order had been murdered, brutally and along with their equally innocent children. The oldest boy, Greg, would have been heading to Hogwarts the next year, but his opportunity of even learning any sort of magic had been taken away viciously from him.

He felt Lily let go of his hand and walk away, dazed. He felt like he should go after her, but he felt rooted to the spot. He would find her once she calmed down a little bit.

Alice stood up to go after her friend, but James stopped her, "Let her take in a bit." Alice nodded but still looked at her friend's back sadly.

James looked around to see that Mary and Sirius had been missing from the normal group, as well as Peter also. Frank and Alice were sharing a silent conversation, and Remus sat at the table, staring at the paper sadly. James had no doubts that Remus felt horrible as well. His status at a werewolf, if fully exposed, would be a worse affiliation than being a muggle-born.

James pulled out the Marauder's Map and pointed his wand at it. He barely whispered the words, and the ink began to spread like a spider weaving its web. He quickly looked at the Head's dormitory, to see Lily's dot not there. He glanced through the Gryffindor Common Room, the library and all of the girl's bathrooms; Lily wasn't anywhere.

He looked through all of the classrooms and found Sirius's and Mary's dot both on the Astronomy Tower and in awful close proximity. He frowned at that. Once he found the dot labeled Lily Evans, he exhaled relieved. She was in one of her favorite short-cuts, the one he showed her on the first day of school this year. Her dot stayed stationary, and James closed the map, mumbling the words quietly.

"You okay, Moony?"

Remus snapped out of his daze and looked at James, "I'm fine, Prongs."

James nodded; he knew he wasn't fine, but Remus didn't like to express much emotion, especially in front a crowd of people. "I'll be here for you, mate," James said, clasping his shoulder.

"Thanks, James," Remus said passively, and he went back to staring at the cold food on his plate.

James stood up, leaving to meet where he saw Lily's dot last.

.:.

Lily looked out the window, completely deflated. Her tears ran down her cheeks without care. She knew the war was getting bad, but this bad? She wanted to be a Healer; she wanted a family; she wanted to grow old without worry.

Her innocent mind had always told her that she wouldn't have to worry about the war because it had to be over by the time she graduated. The horrid weather matched her mood quite well. She heard familiar footsteps approach her. She knew it was James.

James Potter. Her boyfriend. A pure-blood. Like the late John Burke. Who was murdered for having a muggle-born wife. Her boyfriend.

James said nothing but instead hugged her from behind around the waist. She wanted to crumble into his embrace, but instead she turned to face him. If James was surprised by the amount of tears on Lily's face, he didn't show it. He kissed her forehead.

"James?" Lily asked shakily.

"Mhm?"

Lily whispered, "I don't think I can do this anymore."
He scrunched his eyebrows, "Do what?"

She inhaled slowly, "This." She motioned between them.

"Us? Are you breaking up with me?" James's voice didn't get angry, but he still frightened Lily.

Lily looked down at her feet so she didn't need to make eye contact with him, "We had a good run, didn't we? Nearly four months, right?"

"Why are you doing this, Lily?"

When she didn't answer or look at him, he lightly titled her face towards his, "Is this because of what's in the paper?"

She began silently crying again, "I can't do this to you, James. I'm endangering you just by dating you. The world's not safe for us."

James stood a moment in shocked silence, "What do you mean you're endangering me? Because you're a muggle-born, and I'm a pure-blood? What does that have to do with anything? Sirius Black is my best friend, and his family is heavily related to the Dark Arts. My other best friend is Remus Lupin, who happens to be a werewolf and a half-blood. My father and mother were famous in the Ministry when they worked. My father still does interviews from time to time. Not even to mention myself, who has played several pranks on the soon-to-be Death Eaters. I'm planning on joining the resistance and becoming an Auror."

Lily said nothing for moments. She listened to James and lost control of her tears. Once James finished, he looked at her expectantly, and when she didn't say anything, James began to panic.

"These four months have flown by because of you, Lils. I love waking up and seeing your face, brushing our teeth together, eating breakfast together, sitting next to you in all of our classes we have, studying together, even though I'm just distracting you most of the time. I love your tiny little freckles across your face, your beautiful red hair and your eyes that know exactly what I'm thinking, no matter how hard I try to hide things. I love you, Lily Evans, despite we're in the middle of war."

Lily finally looked up at him, with tears in her eyes, "What if I get us killed?"

"I'd rather be dead with you than alive without you," James said, cradling her face.

"I wanted to be a Healer. I wanted to have kids. I wanted to grow old."

"You still can. We've just have to end this war, first," James said, much more relaxed that she no longer wanted to break it off with him.

Lily stayed quiet for a couple a moments before speaking, "Thanks a lot, James. I love you too."

.:.

Sirius, after reading the Daily Prophet this morning, wandered around the castle. Herbology was the first class of the day, and it had been cancelled, due to the severe weather. He found himself in the Astronomy Tower, when he saw another figure sitting on the ground, with their knees brought close to them. He recognized the figure as none other Mary McDonald.

Instead of turning the opposite direction and pretending like he never even saw her, like he probably should have, he sat next to her. She held her head in her hands, "What do you want, Black?"

Sirius shrugged, but he realized that she wasn't looking at him, "I don't know. Company, I guess."

"What's good my company?" Mary asked agitated, and she looked ahead.

Sirius shrugged, "Better than none."

"How? You should properly hate me," Mary said, making eye contact.

"I don't though," Sirius shrugged. "I should, but I don't."

An awkward silence settled between them, "I'm not going to snog you, no matter how long you stay out here with me."

Sirius sighed, "That's good. I didn't want you to."

"What?"

"I don't want you to snog me, as I'm officially over you," Sirius said without emotion.

Mary raised her eyebrows, "Really?"
"Yeah," Sirius said.

"That's…" she paused, "good."

"Yeah," Sirius repeated. "Why aren't you with Corner?"

Mary waved her hand dismissively, "He's off somewhere with his friends."

"He didn't ask you how you felt?" Sirius asked incredulously.

Mary shrugged, "I'm not too upset, actually. Neither is he, I imagine." She paused, unsure of whether to speak her mind, "We're planning on leaving England after graduation."

Sirius looked at her, surprised, "Leaving England? Why?"

"I don't want to suffer through my life because of this goddamn war, and neither does he," Mary said simply.

"Where are you going then?"
Mary shrugged, "France possibly, or maybe America or Australia. We're not too sure yet."

"So you're just leaving all of your friends and family here to fend for themselves? I didn't know you became so shallow, McDonald," Sirius said bitterly. With that, he stood up left her.

A/N: Someone requested drama, and there you have it! I'm apparently ending with forty-three chapters, but I want a nice number, like forty-five. So give me ideas! This fic is almost two years old, what? Summer's almost here, what?

Anyways, a lovely thank-you and cookie for:

Karoolis, AnnaxStoney, Sparkle Ninja27, Loslote, pinkdude64 and . You are all too wonderful for me!

And D- (since I can't message you) Thanks a bunch! All night? Really? I'm glad you liked it so much!