Have you ever wanted to just punch something really, really hard

Have you ever wanted to just punch something really, really hard? I just had a sudden urge to throw the keyboard out the window. Um, yeah. I haven't forgotten this story, I just haven't er- remembered it.

Lily Angel

Chapter 5

Hermione Granger sat in the Gryffindor Common room with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter, discussing Quidditch. Well, the boys were, and she was reading Intermediate Arithmancy. 'Hey, Harry.' Ron said suddenly, dropping his quill in thought.

'Mm?' Harry was half doing his Transfiguration homework, though half the answers were wrong, thanks to his concentration, or lack thereof.

'What d'you think of that Lillian girl?'

Harry rolled his eyes. 'You still thinking about her?'

Ron's ears went pink, but he shook his head defensively. 'No…I was just…wondering, I guess.'

Hermione snorted, while Harry tilted his face up to the ceiling, a puzzled expression on his face. 'I'm not really sure. I mean, she's nice enough...but don't you think it's a little weird the way Lupin went all white when he saw her and then Snape fainted? And Sirius was acting really weird the other day…'

'Sirius is always a little weird, Harry. I mean, he jokes about the weirdest things.'

'Hermione!' Ron scolded her. 'Mocking the great Snuffles!'

Hermione rolled her eyes, though Harry wasn't paying any attention to his (rather crazy) friends.

'Yeah…come on, we're going to find out what she's up to.'

'What?' Hermione looked up in surprise. 'But I have to finish this essay- it's due tomorrow-'

'Hermione.' Harry said patiently. 'You're already over twelve inches. I think you're allowed to stop sometime soon.'

Hermione sighed, rolled up the parchment and stood up reluctantly, while Ron eagerly shoved his essay to one side.

Harry, Ron and Hermione crept along the corridors until they reached the Ravenclaw common room- they knew where it was thanks to the marauders map. Harry glanced at the map and whispered the password to the suit of armour. It moved politely to the side. Harry turned and grinned at his friends, then slipped the invisibility cloak over them.

They crept up the stairs until they reached the sixth year girl's dorm, and the door was (thankfully) open. The three of them hid in a corner of the room, watching the two girls who were talking quietly.

The girl with the red hair was laughing prettily, giggling at something Cho Chang had said. She calmed down awfully quick when Cho changed the subject to Snape. Afterwards, Ron said he couldn't blame her, but Harry was sure there was something else in those green eyes…green eyes that looked just like his…

Harry sighed, confused and tired, unable to think properly. Though that could have been because Cho had just thrown back her head with laughter, the sunlight from the window shining on her hair.

He gulped and both girls looked at the corner in surprise. 'Is anyone there?'

They didn't answer, but (from many years of experience) Lily knew all about invisibility cloaks, and she leapt over to where they were hidden before Harry, Hermione and Ron had a chance to move or even duck. She ripped the cloak off them and poked Hermione in the eye in the process.

'Harry!' She gasped in surprise, and dropped the cloak. She whispered something, and Harry was sure he caught the word 'James's' somewhere in there.

She stared at him with big, emerald, round eyes, frozen to the spot. He looked so much like James…acted so much like James, and he'd never even met his father.

'Er- hi. Bye.' Ron had decided that that was enough staring, and he pulled his friends out the door, waving goodbye to the girls, both of who were shocked.

***

Harry, Ron and Hermione fell into some cushions in the common room, each lost in their own thoughts.

'Well,' Ron said after awhile, sighing. 'That worked well.'

'I have to finish my essay.' Was Hermione's reply, and Harry and Ron groaned. 'Well, I can't exactly finish off halfway through a sentence, can I?' She said indignantly, glaring at Harry, then Ron. Then she stomped off towards her homework, muttering about boys and green eyes…Harry thought that's what he heard, anyway…he stood up abruptly, said goodnight to Ron, and then hurried up to his dorm, sure there was something he needed to look at but he couldn't quite remember what.

Once up in his dorm, which was empty of people, he looked through his trunk, sure he'd work out whatever it was about Lillian Skye once he found- well, whatever it was. When he'd torn apart his trunk and found nothing, he looked in his bedside table, getting annoyed.

Pyjamas, junk, more junk, a mouldy apple- where the hell did that come from? And then, right at the bottom, there was his old photo album.

Harry sighed. He loved this book, but it made him sad to look through it, reminding him of what he didn't have.

But he opened it, and, on every page, Lillian Skye smiled up at him, waving, laughing, pulling silly faces.

His mother.

Now Harry was very confused.

***

Lily groaned, her head in her hands. Sirius smiled grimly, sitting comfortably on the edge of a table. Remus looked thoughtful. 'D'you think Harry knows?'

'Well, he isn't stupid.'

'Ah, yes. He does take after James, doesn't he?' Sirius teased.

'Sirius. This is important. Please shut your trap for a moment and concentrate, okay?

Sirius mumbled something, but then nodded meekly as Lily pointed her wand at him.

'What do you suggest we do?'

Hmm…we could put a memory charm on him, and then give you a face-lift…say, black hair and purple eyes, with a lovely big nose. How bout it, Sirius?' Remus looked deadly serious, and for a moment Lily looked quite worried.

'Are you…Moony? Or some horrible imposter?'

Remus laughed. 'I'm Moony. Maybe you could just tell Harry.'

Lily turned to Sirius. 'Sirius. Your ideas?'

'Wow, you must be pretty desperate. Asking meek, mild, little ole' Padfoot for advice-'

'Oh, shut up. You're crazy…I must be crazy, asking you…but I'm desperate.'

'Don't you want to tell Harry?' Remus asked, serious once more.

'Of course I do! More than anything…but how do you tell a fifteen-year-old boy that you're his mother when you look only about a year older than he does?'

'By going up to him-'

'If you don't shut the hell up, I will curse you.' Lily threatened. 'Understand?'

'Yes, Professor Potter.' Sirius saluted.

For a little while, the three of them sat in silence, then Sirius seemed to remember something he'd been putting off asking anyone for a very long time.

'Do you- know where Jo is?'

Lily looked quite surprised. 'I thought you two-'

Remus sighed, while Sirius looked at his hands. 'She disappeared, right after Sirius went to Azkaban and you and James died…we looked for her for ages. She disappeared.' Remus looked very sad for both his friends, they'd been a lot closer to Jo than he was.

Lily also looked confused. 'But- why- how?'

'I don't know. I think she kind of lost it, if you know what I mean. Her best friends were all either dead or in Azkaban.'

'How did you do it?' Lily whispered, and Sirius didn't make a stupid comment (for once in his life).

'I don't know,' Remus admitted. 'I just knew I had to keep going…I tried not to think about it.'

Lily stared at him, and for the first time she noticed how much grey there was in his brown hair.

'So. You'll talk to Harry?' Sirius asked.

Lily shrugged.

'I have a good idea of what to say!' He offered eagerly.

Lily moaned, and put her head in her hands. 'Oh, God.'

'Okay. Just go up o Harry, say 'Harry, I am your mother.'

'That was just so- so- touching. Any other ideas, anyone?'

I'm really sorry this took so long to get out. But the next part'll be up sooner, coz I know what I'm going to do. I hope the bit with Harry wasn't bad, I've never written a story with him in it before.

Nothing is mine, so sue me if you want, just don't expect to get anything.