Chapter 12

(A/N) Thanks for the reviews, as always. Today's my Birthday! Yay! (Sorry about the personal announcement.)

Disclaimer: J.K. owns everything you recognize.

*~*~*~*~*

The next few weeks passed uneventfully, with a few trips to Madame Pomfrey, due to two certain rivals who shall remain nameless. (*cough* James and Lily *cough*). Soon, everyone was wrapped up in the frenzy of last minute shopping for the ball, that Lily had very little time to ponder upon what she had heard in Dumbledore's mind, and James and the other Marauders had other things to… preoccupy them.

*~*~*~*~*

"No. Absolutely not. I refuse to do this," Lily said, folding her arms.

"You, m'dear, don't have a choice in the matter," James answered.

"As if. Who is the blackmailer, and who is the blackmailee?

"What's that?"

"Never mind."

"Anyway, come on."

"This is how you treat all your dates, Potter?"

"No. Please note, you aren't my date. Now move it, Evans."

Lily stayed rooted on the spot. "I can't see you, Potter, but that won't stop me from giving you oh so many injuries."

"Really?" Lily was disgusted to sound a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Let go of me now, or else I'll scream."

"No one will hear you. They're all at Hogsmeade. Which, by the way, is where we're going."

Lily finally relented and allowed her (invisible) 'kidnapper' to lead her to the one-eyed witch.

"Potter! Kindly allow me to at least go in myself."

"Okay. Touchy."

"I am not touchy."

James grinned. "High-strung, then."

"You-you- person!"

James grinned again. "Not too big on insults today, are you Evans?" he asked, slipping off the invisibility cloak.

"I-I-"

"Now, you are going to go help us out, as the Marauders need help, and then Sirius will owe me ten galleons, for actually agreeing to fetch you here."

Lily glared at him. "No, I'm not. I am going to go into there, and then I'm going to-"

"Evans, just shut up, will you?"

*~*~*~*~*

Quite a while later, when Lily had joined her friends at a shop for clothes, she found herself wondering if she would have been better off with the Marauders. She had a reason to believe that they, at least, wouldn't have bored her to death with the talk of clothes and hair.

Evelyn and Bella had insisted bringing- correction, dragging her to all the shops that sold trendy dress robes. Their method was to give her no choice in the matter. Similar to James' method of getting her into Hogsmeade. Bella had also chosen to get a dress to go along with it.

"Why would I need a dress with a dress robe?" Lily asked blankly.

"Well, you know, tie-on dress robes are all the rage in France nowadays."

Upon the still blank expression Lily wore, Bella added hastily, "Alright, perhaps you don't. Anyway, see, you wear this underneath, and this tied over, and this is-"

Lily brushed off her friend, who was sporting a few dresses and tie-on robes with an open front on her arms.

"No, really, Bella, I'm fine this way. I'll just go dressed in muggle wear."

Bella and Evelyn looked horrified, positively horrified. "Muggle wear? Lily, darling, are you absolutely mad, or is it just a momentary lapse of sanity?"

"Is there really anything wrong with wearing muggle wear?" Lily asked, shielding her eyes against the bright sun as they walked out the shop.

"Well- It's just that… Oh, Lily, you'll be the only one!" Evelyn exclaimed.

"Relax. The two of you sound like your pet dog just died. It'll be fine to don muggle clothing. You two do it," Lily answered.

"Sure, on casual days. But this is the Ball, Lily," Bella said exasperatingly.

"So?"

"Even on casual days, you don't dress casually," Evelyn pointed out.

Lily glanced at the school uniform she was wearing. A dark navy blue skirt, a white blouse, a sleeveless V-neck sweater (vest, whatever) with the Hogwarts crest embroidered on it over the blouse, and white knee-high socks.

"What's wrong with wearing the school uniform? Isn't that what it's for? You know, wearing?" she asked, crossing the street with her friends over to the Three Broomsticks.

"It's just that… Well, you seem so…"

"So what?"

"I don't know… School-girly," Evelyn said, at the same time Bella said, "Preppy."

Lily laughed at her friends. "Oh, it'll be fine, no one'll have a problem with me wearing muggle clothes to the Ball. I'll bet you anything that they won't even notice what I'm wearing."

"Still, you really don't mean you want to stick out so much, do you?"

"I like individuality," Lily said simply, swilling around her Butterbeer.

"But- fine. We'll try and see if Dumbledore'll allow it to be a muggle-clothed Ball, for once. The things we do for friendship," Evelyn sighed.

"Whatever," Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm going… um, somewhere."

"Where? Let's go," Bella got up.

"No! I'm, uh, meeting… someone." That wasn't entirely a lie.

"Who? A date?"

"Uh… Yeah," Lily nodded, rushing outside before her friends could bombard her with more questions.

*~*~*~*~*

"Where did they ask me to go?" Lily muttered to herself.

"The Shrieking Shack," James answered.

"Tha- Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, who'd you think it was?"

Lily shrugged, following the sound of James' footsteps.

"Do you want me to help you or not?" she hissed, trying not to appear suspicious as Snape's eyes followed her.

"Okay, okay."

"Can't you take off that cloak? People are starting to think that I'm talking to myself.

"Dissaparate. You've done it before," James' reply came, somewhere to her right.

"I wasn't. It was the shifting of my particles. Substitution apparation, you could call it."

"Whatever. Do that."

"But-"

"Just do it."

"Fine." Lily closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. Then, she was gone.

*~*~*~*~*

"Shhh! Someone's coming! What's the password?"

Lily frowned at the door. "How about 'I've been studying hexes an awful lot lately, and I have powers beyond my control'?"

"Let her in, Peter. It's just Lily," Sirius said.

"Hi," she greeted curtly, as the door swung open and she was admitted in. "Now, remind me why I'm here."

"James, take off the cloak," Remus instructed wearily.

James did as ordered. "Show her."

Lily frowned. "Show me what?"

James 'popped', and in his place was a stag.

"We introduce Mr. Prongs," Sirius said grandly. "Now show her our problem, Prongsie-boy."

The stag snorted, blowing out of its nostrils, then pushed Sirius with his antlers.

"Okay, I won't call you that. Just go."

James- or Prongs, rather, gave another 'pop'. Instead of, James, it was half of him, his head with antlers, his two human feet, with two of his stag feet in the back.

"The way we figure it, he's going to be stuck like that, sooner or later. It lasts longer every time, you see, and we're afraid that it may start on us, too. Can you fix it? Any particular charm…?" Sirius asked quickly, as James suddenly turned back to normal.

"No," Lily snapped. "I told you that it was dangerous. I recommend telling teachers or Madame Pomfrey."

"You're sure?" Remus asked hopefully.

"Well, there is one, but McGonagall would have my head on a platter if she caught wind of it."

"Please?" Peter asked pitifully.

"It's illegal," Lily replied.

"Come on!"

"Please help us!"

"It's for the good of us all, you know!"

"Please!"

In this brief second, Lily made direct eye contact with James.

"Evans, what did you see?"

She shruddered for a second. "Nothing. I saw nothing."

"What're you talking about?" Sirius asked.

James was looking at her oddly. "You heard that?"

"Heard what?" Lily lied.

"Never mind. Just do the spell, okay?"

Lily sighed. "Returnis Optionalisus."

"See? Now that wasn't so hard," James said.

"Yeah, whatever."

James looked at her oddly again, and, once more, making direct eye contact.

Lily gasped and clutched her side, as her vision blurred and she saw something else. She couldn't breath, it was suffocating her…

A sudden flash of green brought a piercing scream, cruel laughter, and a… rat.

Lily squeezed her eyes shut. Thus, breaking the direct gaze. Gasping for air, she inhaled.

"Evans, you alright?"

"Perfectly fine," she managed to pant.

All four boys were staring at her. "What?" she asked in a breathy voice "You look like someone died."

"You were shaking like mad, and you didn't seem to be able to breath," Sirius sad worriedly.

"I wasn't," she mumbled.

James continued to look at her strangely.

'She could go into trances, during which she couldn't breath… She could see into the immediate future…' Lily remembered Dumbledore saying.

"Potter?"

"Yeah?"

"Stay away from green lights," Lily said, moving out the door, carefully avoiding anyone's gaze.

*~*~*~*~*

(A/N) Ugh. I only covered three scenes. Oh well. To come is what I had last time, as I didn't really fulfill those…