Lily sat up a tree in a rather uncomfortable position, with Lissy the angel perched above her on a higher branch, talking rapidly

This is for Sarah, who kept me sane and makes me laugh,

Mariel, who writes fabulous poems,

And all you wonderful, wonderful reviewers who have asked for this last part and reviewed all the others

Lily Angel

Chapter 9

Lily sat up a tree in a rather uncomfortable position, with Lissy the angel perched above her on a higher branch, talking rapidly.

'Look, Lily. You've been here for ages- now, I know Cho's quite a difficult case and all…but I kind of need you in Paris, that is, if you can help Cho…'

'I don't know any French,' Lily said bluntly.

Lissy waved this aside. 'I think I know what Cho might need, okay? Oh, and Lily?'

'Mm hmm?'

'You would be able to say goodbye to Harry, you know,' Lissy said gently.

Lily nodded, a wave of sadness creeping over her. It would be like leaving Hogwarts all over again. And Harry…only while leaving Harry the first time wasn't that difficult a decision- she couldn't have let him cark it, after all, now she had to leave him again…at least she'd be able to explain herself, she reasoned, attempting to stay clam.

'Come on, don't be sad,' Lissy pleaded, suddenly appearing next to her, putting a long arm around Lily's cold shoulders comfortingly. 'Everyone has to leave sometime, it's the way everything works. It makes the time we have with people here even more special…'

'Yeah, I know,' Lily sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands hurriedly. 'I've been thinking of Harry too much…sorry.'

The smaller angel didn't answer; she was lost in thought her eyelids half closed and her small lips pressed together. Lily waited patiently, thinking about Cho with panic washing over her in small waves making her stomach ripple with nervously.

How long did she have? Cho was a great girl and Lily didn't want to let her down, but she didn't have long to find out her deepest darkest secrets that were hidden very, very well. Nothing was impossible, but even so, this was edging pretty close. Cho hardly showed that it hurt, and although Lily knew it did, her dark haired friend was an extremely good actress.

'Lissy, I'm going to bed. I'll see you soon, okay?'

Lissy nodded silently, her eyes now completely closed. It looked as though she was in a deep trance- Lissy called it meditation, but when Lily had tried it she had fallen asleep and knocked her head on a pointy rock. The odds of sitting on the grass and falling backwards onto a sharp rock were quite small, and yet Lily had managed to fall directly onto the sharpest pointiest rock on the entire flat plain of grass. If not the only sharp pointy rock.

Lily walked slowly up to the castle, ignoring the mosquitoes whining around her head, kicking a pebble along the ground in frustration. The pebble rolled into a little ditch and Lily glared at it for no particular reason. She stomped inside, the worry building up inside of her rapidly, like a sick feeling at the pit of her stomach, lurking around and waiting to be stirred up. The hallways were empty of people, and she made her way to the Ravenclaw common room without running into anyone. Once up in the dorm she collapsed onto her bed, dark swirls of thought and ideas flitting about her head, each idea worse than the one before.

Cho's snoring and Alexandra's thumb sucking sounds didn't help the sleep process, and after several hours of endless tossing and turning and cursing the sand man (although she wasn't entirely sure if the sand man actually existed) she finally drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

***

Sirius was beginning to feel rather sick. Jo, seeing that he was so incredibly thin, had decided to fill him up and she was being rather forceful in her attempt to 'get some meat on his bones.' Apart from being extremely stuffed and not able to eat another bite, the idea of having 'meat' on his bones wasn't exactly something to be pleased about, as far as he was concerned. He didn't want to be eaten, even if it was only a leg. For a brief moment he imagined Jo wearing a butcher's apron and an evil grin, holding a carving knife. The image Jo smiled broadly, revealing several gold teeth. As the Jo sprouted a moustache, he blinked, looking to the real Jo for some comfort. Food, obviously, was not too good for you in large doses.

She sat down cross-legged on the couch opposite him, concern showing in her eyes. 'Why on earth didn't you have a trial, then? That's what I want to know.' Her black hair, now cropped short, stuck out at odd directions in a failed attempt at a ponytail. Her dark eyes focused squarely on his, waiting for an answer.

Sirius shrugged. 'Does it really matter? They wouldn't even have cared either way- and besides! Wormtail wasn't even 'alive'' (Sirius made little bunny ears with his fingers) 'to be proven guilty. He set me up and I have to admit, he did a damn good job of it.' Sirius scowled. 'I'm going to find him and make sure he's put through the hell I was…hopefully a fully guarded cell, I'm sure he'd love it there.' His black eyes were dark and malicious- not at all like the cheerful sparkling pair Jo had once known, and it scared her. She knew he could be rash and stupid, but this was a completely different side to him she'd never properly seen before.

'Anyway, that's all behind us now. I'm far more interested in the future,' Sirius said, trying to start up a more lively conversation.

Jo glared at him. 'I care about what happened. You've had years to come to terms with it, I've had three days and frankly, I don't think that's long enough. What do you expect me to say, 'yep, well, you've been in Azkaban for 12 years and I thought you'd killed my best friends and I'd been in love with you, but yes, that's fine! I'm so happy! Let's just start from where we left off, okay'?'

Sirius opened his mouth, quickly searching his mind for something to add. 'Um. Yes?' He said meekly, looking out at her from under a few flyaway strands of hair.

'And apart from that,' Jo continued 'the future is connected with the past. Everything is, if you wanted to ignore the past, there'd be no reason for you to hunt down Pettigrew and trap him, rip him into tiny little pieces and then send them off to You-Know-Who in a neatly wrapped package, would there? And why do you call him Wormtail, he's more like an ugly pig.'

'He's an animagus,' Sirius said shortly, too tired (and full, his pants were beginning to feel rather tight) too go into it with further detail. Jo, however, thought differently and she made this obvious by gaping at him with her mouth wide open, her eyes huge and not blinking.

'Excuse me?'

'Are you going to close your mouth soon?' Sirius said, irritated. 'It's kind of disconcerting, trying to talk to someone who's displaying their tonsils to you like that.'

Jo scowled, but obediently shut her mouth.

'We became animagi- James, Peter, and me. In our fifth year- it took about three years to get it right, and when we did it took ages for Peter to understand. He was a rat- Wormtail, we called him. I was Padfoot- a big dog- and James was Prongs. The stag.' A faint smile appeared on Sirius's lips. 'He was always getting his antlers stuck…stupid herbivore,' he muttered, as if telling himself a familiar joke that hadn't been mentioned for years- which it hadn't.

'Did Lily know?' Jo whispered, shocked- partly because they'd managed to actually perform the spell without growing permanent antlers, but mainly because she'd never figured it out. And I stared at him for three full years during dinner and I never even guessed…she thought ruefully, wondering briefly if he'd ever grown fur while he was a human. He'd be all fluffy…

Sirius nodded. 'She helped us. She found the book we were using, she kind of guessed…'

Jo blinked herself out of a trance and stared at him.

'What?' Sirius asked when she hadn't said anything.

'Will you turn into dog now?'

'Right now?'

'No, next week. Yes, now!'

'Why?' Sirius lay back and ate a grape that had been lost for several weeks behind cushion. Jo grimaced, mentally making a note to train him in healthy foods. Being a dog hadn't done a lot for his common sense.

'I want proof,' Jo said, crossing her arms across her chest stubbornly.

'Proof? Why ever do you need proof?'

'Because- I…don't you think I deserve something?'

'I could give you a big kiss!' Sirius said brightly, sitting up, now completely alert.

'You breath smells like dead fish,' she answered flatly. 'Now turn into a dog.'

Sirius muttered something that sounded awfully like 'dead fish…hmph…how would she know what dead fish smell like anyway, that's what I'd like to know…'

'Just change already.'

'Fine, fine, but if I slobber big dead fishy drool all over your fingers, don't say I didn't warn you.'

There was a pop, and next to her stood a large, black dog with bedraggled hair. Jo grinned, and reached over to pat him- the top of his head was soft, like baby hair, and although it did smell like he'd been rolling around in a puddle- a funny wet smell- she buried her face in his fur.

They both sat there like that foe a long time, the clock ticking away in the background the sound at all (along with the occasional sigh of happiness from Padfoot) until Jo leapt up at the ringing of the doorbell. 'Sit, doggy,' she said, grinning in his direction.

Sirius growled, but he sat, eyeing Jo grumpily. Treating me like a pet…I oughta…

Jo came back into the room with Remus, who was smiling just as much as he had at their last meeting. 'Evening, Padfoot.'

Sirius reappeared sitting on the floor.

'You've got something on your mouth,' Remus pointed on his own face to where there was a long line of drool slowly making its way down Sirius's chin. 'Really, Sirius. Haven't you brushed your hair?'

Jo giggled, leaving poor Sirius to wonder what his hair looked like during the rest of the conversation.

Remus was just telling Jo about a third year who had accidentally grown himself a pair of elephant ears during one lesson, when they heard a shout coming from the general direction of the bathroom. 'JO!'

'Yes?'

Sirius stormed in. 'Exactly how many times did you flatten the hair on my head?'

'I wasn't counting,' she answered, looking up at him innocently.

He snorted and turned around to go out. 'I'm going to have to buy a hat. Moony, do you have any hats?'

Before Remus could answer, he left, in search of a suitable piece of headgear.

'So you're Moony,' Jo said simply, twisting a short strand of black hair around her finger, unsure of what to say next.

'Yeah.'

'Is it hard?' She asked, not needed to say any more.

'Nah…Severus- you know, Snape- fixes me a potion every month…'

'Oh.'

'How did you know?' He asked, curious.

'I guessed.' She said truthfully, and Remus nodded, wondering, for the hundredth billionth time in his life, how he had become so lucky as to come across friends like his.

***

'Cho, oh Cho, where for art thou oh Cho?'

Madame Pince's head snapped up and her eyes narrowed at the sound of this disruption. Even someone quoting Shakespeare (however badly and incorrectly) was not allowed to shout in the library, and apart from that she hadn't yelled at a single person all day. Her beady eyes scanned the library for her next victim.

Lillian Skye.

Well then, she thought, satisfied. I'll show this new girl what's what around Hogwarts.

Her fixed her most evil-frightening-librarian-stare on the tall student, waiting for her dark eyes to connect with the girl's green pair.

It took several seconds, as Lillian was searching all shelves for Cho Chang, without any luck. Finally, she turned around and came face to face with the Librarian from Hell.

'Keep your voice down,' the Librarian from Hell hissed, glaring at her, mustering up her most terrifying look.

Lillian nodded cheerfully and turned away.

Goodness! I must be losing my touch! Madame Pince raced over to her desk, shuffling through the piles of parchment for one particular spell.

'A ha!' She said, satisfied, pulling an old wrinkled piece of parchment out of the huge stack, smoothing it out with a simple ironing spell. At the top it was titled 'how to frighten off annoying students with a simple glare- works especially well on young children.' In red ink, probably meant to look like blood, although it took on more of a resemblance to runny tomato sauce.

Madame Pince scanned the writing, muttering 'maybe if I lowered my eyebrows a little more…yes…'

***

'Hey, Cho?'

Lily was looking in all the cubicles in the girl's toilets- except the ones that were occupied, of course. She knocked on one 'Cho?'

'Hey!'

'Oops, sorry…Cho?'

A loud sniffle came from the cubicle at the far end of the toilets, and Lily raced down to it, careful not to slip on the tiles. 'Cho?'

The person sniffed again, and then blew their nose loudly. 'Yeah?' Cho asked, her voice stuffy.

'Can I come in?'

Another sniffle.

'Please?'

The lock clicked open and a small head covered in black, tousled hair peered around the edge. 'Lillian?' She whispered, wiping her eyes hurriedly. Her lashes were wet, sticking together in strange clumps which made it look as though she had tried to apply mascara with a paintbrush. Cho's dark brown eyes were shiny with unshed tears, and she took a deep shuddering breath, then stepped out into the bathroom, rubbing her face with the front of her robes.

'What d'you want?' She muttered, refusing to look up and meet Lily's eyes.

'Oh. Um. You were missing, so I thought I'd come and find you. Yeah.'

Cho blinked. 'I only missed lunch,' she said pointedly.

'Oh…but lunch is very important! You must eat!' She started steering Cho out of the room. 'You'll get weak and collapse! You could drown!'

'Drown?' Cho said blankly, wondering if they had swimming lessons in the lake after lunch.

'-Er- yes! Drown! In, um, your cauldron!'

'Are you okay, Lillian?' Cho asked, glad to worry about her friend's insanity for once instead of her own.

'Oh, yes. I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about.'

That's what I'm worried about, Cho thought. Hopefully she's not too unstable

'This isn't the great hall,' Cho said suddenly.

'Mmm,' Lily said, distracted. 'Come on. Let's go up here.' She started climbing a ladder Cho had never noticed before- in fact, she could have sworn it wasn't there a few seconds ago.

'Where are we going?' Cho called, glancing up the ladder. A trap door was visible in the ceiling- once Lily reached it she pushed it up and hoisted herself in. 'Need a hand?' She said in a whisper.

Cho shook her head, but nevertheless, Lily pulled her up by the arms. She closed the trap door gently without a sound and then lit her wand.

Cho stared around her- it was a little like an attic, shadows dancing around beams in the roof and stone floors. Screeches from somewhere nearby told her they were near the owlery, along with the subtle stink of owl poo.

'What d'you want to talk about?' Cho said, feeling suddenly very empty.

'You.'

'Me? Why me? I'm sure you're far more interesting--'

'Why were you crying?' Lily asked gently, her green eyes staring straight into Cho's dark eyes, as if seeing something the pupils invisible to everyone else.

'I-- I…was sad…' Cho stammered, unsure of what to say. She tore her eyes away from the green pair boring into her skull.

'You know,' Lily said, in a conversational tone 'when I was fifteen my parents died.'

'Last year?' Cho said in disbelief.

'No- I mean, yeah…feels like a lot longer ago to me…but anyway- you have to get on with your life--I know people always say that, and that's because there's the only thing to say…you never get over it…you just have to get on with it.'

Cho's shoulders slumped. 'I-- I keep dreaming that Cedric comes back alive…that he's holding the cup…' Cho sniffled. 'And then I wake up and I remember and it all comes back.

'I'm scared,' she whispered, as if telling Lily a secret she hadn't told anyone, as it were a dark feeling she shouldn't feel and should keep it hidden deep inside. 'I don't want to die. If something like that can happen to him--'

Lily didn't say anything. She leant forward and hugged Cho tightly. 'He died bravely. He didn't die begging for mercy, he didn't die asking to be saved- he didn't die a hero but he didn't die a coward and I know he's happy in Heaven now.'

Cho nodded.

'So, you want lunch?'

Cho shrugged.

'You don't want to drown in your cauldron…'

Cho smiled shakily. 'No…'

'Well then. Let's go get some soup. And Cho?' She added, looking down at Cho, who was climbing slowly down the ladder.

'Mmm?'

'When you die, it isn't so bad.'

***

'Harry! Oh, God…Harry, maybe you shouldn't do that on a broomstick! You could fall! James, catch him!' Lily clasped her hands over her eyes, groaning loudly. She peeked out from under one finger and let out a loud moan. 'Haaaarry…'

Harry landed abruptly after a deep dive, grinning cheerfully, his hair windblown. James appeared on the ground right after his son, smiling at his wife with sparkling brown eyes.

'Yes, Lily dearest?'

She scowled at James and turned to Harry, swishing her hair in James's face. James whimpered loudly. 'She doesn't love me any more…'

'Oh, do shut up. Harry.'

Harry, pushing his black hair out of eyes in a mannerism of James's, looked up at her- he was still quite short for his age, even if he was growing (at about a cm a year it seemed to him sometimes. He was sure Ron would start banging his head on doorways sometimes in the near future while he didn't even have to duck. It could be depressing, though he supposed it was quite a bit less painful than the alternative.) Lily was sure Petunia had fed him scraps for the first eleven years of his life, but she hadn't liked to talk about it too much. It made her feel a little too murderous, and she didn't want to be responsible for killing Snape on account of her sister.

'Yeah?' He asked, and Lily could see herself reflected on the glass of his glasses. Before she could answer, though, Harry caught the sadness in her eyes, in the way she moved, and he sighed. 'When d'you have to leave?' He mumbled, examining his shoes. They needed a polish, not that he'd ever actually bother to polish them.

'Soon,' Lily whispered. James glanced at her and smiled, comforting her slightly. 'Next week, I think…I have to sort some things out with Cho still.'

Harry's cheeks reddened a bit and his eyes darted up briefly. 'What things?'

Lily held back a small laugh. 'Nothing that concerns you, Harry…darn…I might see you at dinner, okay?'

Harry nodded, then turned to James. 'Want to play Quidditch?'

His father nodded ecstatically, while Lily spun around, an expression of fury written across her face. 'You have POTIONS now, not Quidditch…James.' She said pointedly.

'Lily.'

She threw up her arms and walked back into the castle, shaking her head.

***

'Oi! Cho!'

Cho Chang spun around, her eyes clear and dark, no trace of tears evident. Lily hurried up to her, all her books clutched tightly at her side as she walked as fast as possible without dropping them in the afternoon rush. Lily hated having to fight the crowds to get to her next lesson.

'Yeah?'

Lily, panting, leaned against the wall, while Cho, with her dark hair pulled back neatly, watched her with concern.

'You aren't very fit, are you?'

Here I am, worried about her state of mind, while she's commenting on my fitness. I'm fifteen years out of practise, but I suppose that wouldn't come out too clearly in an argument…

'I guess not- but anyway-'

'Maybe you should exercise more,' Cho said earnestly.

'Mmm,' Lily said, her voice a little impatient. Cho, thinking of methods to make her friend athletic, didn't notice, and she continued. 'You could play Quidditch! Can you ride a broom-'

'Cho,' Lily said firmly, stopping her. 'I have to leave soon.'

Cho blinked. 'No Quidditch?'

'No, thank God.'

'Oh, darn, we need more girls…'

Lily, sensing that the topic of conversation could change to girls and Quidditch, hurried on. 'Well, the thing is, I wanted to say goodbye. And make sure you're okay and stuff.'

Cho turned a little red, remember the previous day. 'I'm okay,' she muttered. Realising Lily hadn't answered her; she looked up, a little smile on her face. 'Really. What you said helped…honestly.'

Lily looked deep into her friends eyes, and she noticed that those dark shadows that had once hovered in the corners of her eyes were now gone. They were clear and confident and while slightly unsure, Lily knew that you could never be entirely sure of life.

Suddenly, Cho flung her arms around Lily's neck and pulled her into a bone-breaking hug, crushing Lily's arms to her side. She didn't complain. There was something incredibly rewarding, heart warming, that made her feel proud, made her feel as though she had done a job that had once seemed impossible.

***

It was a dark, starry night, glittering as though God had tipped a sprinkle of fairy-dust across the clouds. The three people standing in the darkness of the shadows were silent, as if not entirely sure of what they wanted to say.

Saying goodbye is hard for everyone, but this was worse than any goodbyes any of them had ever experienced. Different to death, expected, but still just as hard.

Lily gulped loudly. It sounded very audible in the silence of the night, and she immediately wished she hadn't made a noise. Harry, returning to his habit of repeating his firebolt book over and over in his head, stood trying to remember page 23. He kept looking up at his parents, however, and the moment he saw Lily's beautiful face shining in the moonlight, and James leaning up against a tree with a thoughtful expression on his face, he wished he could have stolen Colin Creevey's camera and snapped a photo. He needed a photo.

Any photo.

One of them arguing, anything at all.

'Hang on a moment,' he said, breaking the silence, dashing back off to the castle.

Lily raised her eyebrows at James. The butterflies in her stomach went into a frenzy, and she wished more than anything else in the world at that moment that she could have stayed at Hogwarts forever, not have to wait until Harry died for her to see him again, wishing she could see him grow up and…

This was no time to get soppy.

Harry came back a little while later, carrying a camera, looking back over his shoulder. He dived behind a tree and indicated for his parents to do the same. Crouching behind a large rhododendron bush Lily looked at him questioningly.

He mouthed something that looked a little like 'holin heevey.'

'Pardon?' She hissed. She had no idea what Holin was, or who Holin was, and, judging by the look of panic written across her son's face, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know. Harry didn't answer-, which was lucky, since a young boy of around fourteen came jogging into the clearing at that moment, puffing, out of breath. His sandy hair was falling in his face and he was clutching a stitch in his side.

Harry, who didn't appear to be breathing in his desperate attempt for 'Holin' not to notice them, put his finger to his lips and indicated for Lily to do the same. She stared at him, then back at the boy. Surely he couldn't be so bad?

And so before Harry could do anything to stop her, she had stood up, smiling cheerfully as Holin.

'Hello…'

He jumped, spun around, and in the process of around five seconds his eyes went from small, to huge, to confused, to puzzled (unless puzzled and confused are the same things, so we'll say he was confused twice.)

'Oh! Hi! You're, um, Lillian, right? That Ravenclaw Harry's been hanging around with? He went to Hogsmeade with you, didn't he? Because last Thursday at lunch he was saying to Ron and that that he was…'

What is this guy, his person assistant?

'Um, yes.'

'Really? Wow, I mean, wow! Did he borrow my camera to take a photo of you? Oh, that's very sweet! I didn't know he had a girlfriend!'

That didn't sound quite right.

'How long have you been going out?'

Lily coughed. 'Pardon?'

'You know, seeing each other?'

Oh dear. Oh no.

'No, uh, no.' Lily shook her head frantically, babbling what she hoped would make him understand.

'No?'

'Oh, sorry, you want privacy, right?'

'Huh?'

'Sorry, sorry…ooh, I can't wait to tell my friends!' He turned and dashed away, his long black robes whipping up behind him, revealing extremely skinny legs.

Harry slowly rose up from behind the rhododendron bush, sighing loudly. 'Colin Creevey…'

'Harry. We have a problem.'

AAAACK! This wasn't very long! I am soooo sorry! This was going to be the last part, and I know just what's going to happen, but I HAD to post it, before someone leaps into their screen and hunts me with a sharp lead pencil. It hasn't even been beta read yet, because it's been so long and I had to post it today (I just did, for my own reasons) and so here we go. Sorry times five hundred billion trillion. Oh, and Padfoot/Mew? I CAN'T FIND YOUR NAME! AACK! I've been trying to beta read your story, but I can't find the other parts, so I have no idea what is going on! *sighs*

In the next part (which WILL be the last) we be touring the Eiffel Tower, we will discover Colin Creevey's gift of the gab (although we already knew about it, I'm just exaggerating) and if you review, you will get a lovely slice of chocolate cake. (Mudcake, peoples, not that dry crumbly stuff.)