CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

"April it's time to get up." Lilly called in.

April sat up quickly and reached around for her PJ top, "Umm just a minute." She shot a desperate look at Charlie who jumped into her wardrobe naked.

"Don't worry, I won't come in. Charlie can come out the cupboard now. I won't even let Jake into jump on you." Lilly laughed.

April smiled at Charlie and though is underwear at him. They got dressed, slowly, and made their way down stairs. Lilly had a big pot of porridge ready on the stove. She handed them over a bowl each.

April covered hers in chocolate spread and cream before taking a huge spoonful. Charlie laughed at her and wiped a bit of cream from the corner of her mouth.

"Get a room." Lilly joked rolling her eyes.

"Hey I've had to put up with you for years! It's my turn now." April said pulling her tongue out at her sister.

Damien came into the room and sat down next to his wife, "What are you wearing?" He asked looking her up and down.

April looked over to her sister and did notice she was dressed very strangely. She had on a long flowing skirt, not unusual but she was also wearing a very high necked jumper but clearly had a corset on underneath.

"Clothes." Lilly said scowling at him and giving him some porridge.

"Lilly, I didn't even know you had a jumper with a high neck, you hate them." April asked.

Lilly simply shrugged and smiled, "It's cold outside."

April looked outside at the bright sunshine and narrowed her eyes, she was clearly up to something but at that moment Charlie slide his spare hand up her leg causing all thoughts to leave her head rather quickly.

She glared playfully at him and they finished eating. Arriving at Hogwarts a little late meant that the place was already buzzing with excitement and people running into each other.

April floated over into the great hall to help with the ever growing number of inmates from both St Mungo's and Askaban. Lilly had strict instructions to stay away from there where the aurors were. The tension was growing between them. The aurors had made more than a few comments about it being no place for Lilly.

"Lilly are you OK?" Damien asked pulling her to the side.

She nodded, I'm fine, "You know how much you love me? And that sometimes I do silly things but they normally work out..."

Damien nodded, "Lilly what have you done?"

"I'm helping." She smiled. She took off her jumper to reveal a very low cut black corset with green ivy embroidered on it, but that wasn't what caught Damien's eye and made the blood drain from his face.

"Lilly...what have you done?" he whispered.

He looked down at the dark mark tattooed down her left breast, the bottom tucked under her corset.

"I kinda hoped you'd like it." She caught her bottom lip in her teeth.

"I...I sort of do...and it's certainly made me look at it...in a different way." His brain had had a few moments to process now and he was drawn to the large amount of cleavage she had on display, "But Lil, it's illegal. Very very illegal."

Lilly grinned, "Mission accomplished. It's not permanent, not yet anyway."

Damien shook his head and tried not to stare, he could see from the corner of his eye that other people were already beginning to stare and a wave of protectiveness washed over him.

Lilly gave him a small wave goodbye before heading inside. Damien reached out and caught her hand,

"Umm Lilly, I have to ask, how far down does that go down?"

"If you're lucky, you'll find out later." She grinned.

Lilly did her best not to burst out laughing as people stared as she walked past. April came floating up to her scowling.

"Lilly what have you done? Everyone is talking! Do you want to get tied up and arrested?" She snapped.

"I'm not going to answer that last one." Lilly grinned, "It's not permanent and look at what else isn't happening." Lilly pointed around them.

"What?" April snapped, not paying attention to the people around her.

"No one is scared." Lilly smiled.

April looked around her and sighed, Lilly was right. Normally when someone's dark mark showed, people flinched, they hid away and sleeves were quickly pulled down. Not one person with that mark had worn a short sleeved top even in the hottest weather.

She'd seen far more than one dark mark, covered in long deep scars from were the owners had tried to cut them out. It had only ever made them more clear. Voldemort had won in the end; he was gone but he was immortal. He was still torturing people over a decade after he'd died.

April smiled and shook her head, "If you get arrested I'm telling. But you're right, insane, bonkers, slightly psychotic but right." She hugged her sister and floated off back to her work shaking her head.

Lilly continued wandering around the building, everyone was staring but three days later no one cared, more than that for the first time she saw Lucius arrive in a short sleeved t-shirt; and no one cared. Her work was done although she did admit she would miss the tattoo slightly and there was a part of her that wanted to get it done permanently.

She wondered into the great hall and sat down next to April and Ginny. It was busy today, there was little work to be done now and painting the hall walls was by far the fun job that everyone came along to.

Alice and Frank were painting out a woods today, tiny bluebells made up a thick carpet with birds flying over head.

Three aurors waltzed into the hall and sat down, feet up on a couple of spare chairs. Lilly looked round and remembered two of them, she nudged April,

"Told you they'd turn up." She whispered.

"Who?" April asked not look round from where she was helping Ginny paint a waterfall.

"The two aurors we had a...disagreement with, in your office."

"Lilly that was literally years ago, they probably don't even remember it." April handed that paint brush to Molly and turned to face her sister, "Lilly for the love of the gods don't do anything stupid."

"I've put up with them so far." Lilly smiled and gave her sister a little half hug.

The aurors muttered to each other, it was a boring job at Hogwarts, they'd been demoted since last seeing April and her sister. They were fed up of working the bottom jobs, apparently supervising the construction of Hogwarts was a step up. It didn't feel like it.

"Malfoy!" One of them shouted as Jacob ran into join his family with a new pot of purple paint.

Jacob looked up and froze.

"Jacob come here." Zoe said pushing his slightly behind her.

"What do the big bad death eaters have something to fear?" The second auror asked laughing.

"Come on, just ignore them sweetie." Zoe whispered making sure she was between her children and the two men. Lucius sat down on the floor and put the paint brush down so it wouldn't show how much he was shaking. Narcissa and Andromeda sat down either side of him, protecting him from view.

The auror laughed nastily, "I was there you know, at the battle, took a shot at Voldemort myself. Killed at least twenty of your friends."

"Oh shut up!" Lilly voice rang out across the hall silencing a lot of people. Damien came over and put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged him off.

"Will you please just shut up?" She said walking up to the aura who also stood, kicking his chair over, "No one believes you. You're an idiot, you can't even come up with a half realistic lie."

"And what would you know? Trying to suck up to the scum." The second auror remarked pointing at the dark mark on her chest.

"A hell of a lot more than you clearly," Lilly spat, "How can you lie like that here, the blood screams here and you belittle them with stories! It's their blood that has brought you lies!"

The aurorr stepped forward into her face, "And what are you going to do about it? Stupid pathetic little muggle brat with a useless cripple sister." He pushed her back and she stumbled.

Charlie squeezed April's hand to comfort her. Harry, Ron and Hermione started walking across the hall to back Lilly up when the air grew still. They stopped in their tracks and clung to one another.

A cold wind came from somewhere and whipped around everyone, a crack of thunder broke across the sky.

April's hair blew back behind her, "You and your kind, cowards, are not welcome here. You are unworthy to walk in these halls, unworthy to be around such treasured souls. You will leave these walls now before your blood runs across the floor!" The voice came from the walls themselves, it echoed in every heart in the castle as the walls began to shake and the windows rattled.

The weather again darkened outside yet again and several lighting bolt flashed blindingly. Harry, Ron and Hermione grabbed on to each other and fell to the floor, they felt the words knocked around their heads, it sounded as Voldemort did, making the castle itself speak.

Lucius watched in horror at the unfolding events, he couldn't move as the aurors fell back, one of them falling over the knocked over chair. He felt faint and frozen to the spot.

Lilly seemed to fill the room, an icy coldness creeping into everyone and everything. Lucius watched as a single drop of blood crept down her face from the corner of her eye. It splashed on the floor, waking Lucius from his daze.

He stood up and made sure his children and grandchildren were protected before walking quickly over to her. He grabbed her roughly around the arms and threw her towards Damien.

"For the gods' sake, get her out of here!"

Damien snapped alert and caught his wife, he could feel her go limp in his arms as he spun on the spot and disapparated out the castle.

Everyone stopped for a few minutes, trying to get their breath back.

"What….you wont be able to hide her." The auror said standing back up shakily.

"Hide her from what?" Hermione asked walking over, "She did nothing wrong."

"She attacked an auror on official business and has a dark mark! She'll rot in Askaban." The aura spat.

"No she wont." Molly said walking forward, "You're going to leave, like she told you. You're not welcome here."

The aurors looked around and their faces fell, they were not wanted and not one person in that room would stick up for them.

They turned to leave without another word. A spell hit the leader from behind sending him crashing to the floor. He stood up quickly and spun round to where the spell came from, his nose streaming with blood.

He wiped it away with the back of his sleeve staring the two witches down before him. Narcissa and Andromeda remained perfectly calm. Narcissa blanked her face as she'd learnt to do so many many years before.

A spark of hope came with in the aurorr, until he looked down to see that Narcissa's wand was nowhere to be seen, only Andromeda held hers out. His heart fell, no one would believe that Andromeda Tonks, a war heroine to many, had attacked him, his career was over.

Harry smiled and looked over to Andromeda, she looked fierce, her hair a mess and eyes hard but she'd never looked less like her sister than she did to Harry then.

The auror stepped back and spun quickly on the spot with a pop.

The room was deathly still for a few minutes before people slowly started moving. Louise rushed over to Harry,

"Are you OK?" She said, pulling his face up in her hands.

He nodded slowly, "Where's Aria?" he crocked.

"I left her outside with Jake, trust me she's safe, he started gathering all the kids up when the weather turned and wouldn't let anyone close. I tried to come in but I couldn't get the door open. What happened?"

Harry shook his head.

Sarah had come over and her and Hermione huddled together, "He did that, I never thought I'd have to go through that again." Sarah whispered.

Hermione stroked her hair, "It's OK. It's OK."

"April….I…." Ron said standing up shakily.

April gave a weak smile, "We've only just got the building up, typical Lilly would be the one to nearly bring it down." She gave a little laugh and shook her head, "Are you all OK?"

They nodded,

"I didn't know she'd gotten so powerful." Ron said slowly, half afraid Lilly would still be listening some how.

"Neither did I," April admitted, "I'm really sorry."

"Don't be." Harry said giving her a hug, "It's not your fault."

"She only went off on him like that because of me, she's always been over protective. She's always been willing to...I'm just sorry that you had to get caught up in the back lash."

"I don't think we're going to be hearing from those aurors for a while." Ron noted, "Good bloody riddance."

"They deserved what they got and Lilly didn't actually hurt anyone."

April nodded. She smiled and looked around, everyone was helping each other and slowly getting back to work. For now at least the damage didn't seem to great.