Hi, and here you go, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I will do my best to bring you the next one sooner rather than later.

Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.

Please Read and Review.

The Hogsmeade late night curfew for the Seventh years is my own design. As we get further down the line it will be shown in detail why when Harry get's to Hogwarts such a thing does not happen (or does it?)

Also this chapter is dedicated in memory of Robbie Coltrane and his wonderful portrayal of Hagrid who was a character that nobody could find fault with. A lot of this was due to Robbie's playing of him and for that he will be sorely missed every time I hear the words 'Welcome to Diagon Ally'.

The Beginning Of The End

Chapter 7-Heart Of Darkness

Lily and James talk about their feelings inside the Head's chamber. Outside Marlene and Sirius do the same. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And Remus just wants to be normal. Mary thinks that she might help with that.

"I'm going to kill him" James said after he had finished pounding on the door for another thirty seconds. Lily who had slid down to the floor in a dejected position looked at him.

"Seriously I am going to kill him"

"Sirius?"

"No Lord Voldemort, yes Sirius"

"Your very comfortable saying the name" she commented. "Most people aren't"

"I am not most people" James said. For once he had not intended it to be cocky like he would have done the year before and perhaps it showed because she smiled another one of those dazzling smiles and he had to curl his hands into fists least he run them through his hair to check it was artfully styled in a way that made it look effortless when it was anything else.

"No your not" she said smiling. "James sit down seriously you'll do yourself damage pounding on the door like that"

James sat down next to her on the cold hard floor. He could have sat on the armchairs. So could she but they both sat on the floor for reasons beyond his comprehension.

It was very cold as well. They weren't supposed to be using this chamber today so the house elf's (no doubt in an attempt to keep fuel costs down) had not lit the fire. James sighed leaning back against the wall content to sit there in very awkward silence (after all what could he say?) when a thought popped into his head.

"Your very calm about this" he said turning to Lily. "Marlene is just as guilty if not more so"

"Oh I know" Lily said cheerfully. "And believe me when we are out of this mess I'm going to string her up by her hair and dangle her over the Astronomy tower but I intend to save every drop of my rage until that moment"

James blinked.

"Your kinda scary" he said truthfully.

Lily turned and flashed him another beautiful, brilliant, bright smile.

"Oh I know" she said sweetly.

James didn't shudder. He did fall a little bit more in love. Not that that helped things really, he'd known since he was fifteen that Lily Evans was gonna be the girl for him.

"So…" he said and then trailed off thinking that he sounded like a complete and utter idiot.

"So?" she asked turning to face him. He could see every little freckle that dotted her nose and cheeks.

"I just…Sirius is under the impression that we should talk and…I'm sorry"

"For?"

"Kissing you"

"Why?"

"Well…clearly you didn't like it"

"Who said that?"

James stared at her. She was perhaps without a shadow of a doubt one of the most frustrating people in creation. And seriously! What the hell was Dumbledore doing forcing them to have lessons in History of Magic when they could have been learning about how girl's brains worked.

The truly important stuff!

"You ran away!" he said trying to keep the incredulity out of his tone. "You bolted like…I don't know but you bolted and then you wouldn't look at me or speak to me"

Lily said nothing for a second.

"I…I was nervous…you see as far as kisses go that one was…well…my first. Well, my first real one."

And just like that James's brain short-circulated.

"Oh" he said like an idiot and then like an even bigger idiot he carried on.

"Was it good?"

Immediately he wanted to point his wand in his face and curse himself.

Lily on the other hand just smiled at him.

"Yes" she said blushing a little. "Yes it was very…uh…very good"

Very carefully he didn't break out into a song and dance—though it was close.

Really close.

"Lily" he said very careful that he shouldn't prod the good thing that was happening too carefully. "Eh…I hate to ruin the mood but…but what happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean…do we…are we…are we going to kiss more often?"

Oh great, that was just…he was supposed to be top of the class for the love off all that was Quidditch! And yet he couldn't articulately string together a sentence when talking to a pretty girl, he was the embodiment of every cliché in the book and if there was a generous and merciful wizard out there they'd put him out of his misery as soon as possible.

Had anyone mentioned James was a tad dramatic when he wanted to be?

"Well" Lily said as if she too was choosing every word carefully. "Well…I suppose…the next Hogsmeade visit is January and it's one where we can spend the evening in town. Only the seventh years"

"I know" James said because he did. Dumbledore did stuff like this before and after the main crunch of exams for the Seventh years. They had to be back by midnight, but it gave them some time outside of castle hours, eating in the Three Broomsticks etc. The residents of Hogsmeade liked it. James had been looking forwards to it. Now he had a feeling it was going to become the most important date in his calendar.

"Well…we could get a drink"

"Yes" he said snatching upon the idea with greedy, grasping hands. "Yes. Yes we can…I'd…er…I'd like that…very much"

Lily smiled.

"I'd like that too" was all she said. James leaned back against the wall breathing in and out like he had ran a race.

Unless he was mistaken (and he wasn't going to tell anyone unless he was) he had just asked or been asked on a date by Lily Evans.

Suddenly he was not so much as annoyed as Sirius as he was thrilled with him.

Man clearly knew what he was doing.

Sirius Black on the outside of the door did not know what he was doing. In fact he had no idea what he was doing but he knew that sitting this close to Marlene McKinnon was doing things to his heart that he was sure was not good for it.

"Marlene?"

"Mm?"

"I see they've not killed each other yet"

Marlene who had been sat twirling her wand around her fingers gave him a side eye look.

"The door is soundproof Sirius"

Oh.

Idiot.

Time to try something new.

"Marlene do you want to go out with me?"

"Huh?"

"With me. Out. For dinner. During that Hogsmeade night thing"

She stared at him as if he had confessed a long held desire to join the Death Eaters.

"Are you sure?"

"That's why I asked" he said and though he hadn't quite intended to she got a strange look on her face that he didn't know if he liked.

"Is this some sort of joke?" she asked slowly.

"No?" he said but to his utter embarrassment and confusion it seemed to come out as a question which was really not what he had intended.

"No" she said and then she scoffed. "So this isn't one of your plans? You find out how much I like you? How much I've always liked you and then suddenly you take me out on a date and then what? Pull some kind of prank?"

Wait…what?"

"Wait" he said feeling as if he was grasping at straws. "What? What do you mean always liked me?"

Marlene scoffed again this time getting to her feet and looking down at him and Sirius couldn't help but think that she looked stunning her blonde hair loose around her shoulders and her blue eyes flashing.

"Don't be a dick Black" she said finally and as soon as she spoke the fight seemed to go out of her and she shook her head looking defeated and a little sad and for all the gallons in Gringotts he would have gotten up and kissed that look off her face but for reasons beyond his own comprehension he couldn't seem to get to his feet. "Look…we can just…chalk this down to one of those things, forget It ever happened. If or when Lily ever comes out of that room tell her I'll be in the dorms"

And with that she turned on her heel and walked away leaving Sirius wondering just what the hell had happened and where the hell he had gone wrong.

Mary had been sat in the library re-reading the same paragraph over and over again. She hated this…since the attack last year she found it more and more difficult to keep her concentration on things. All she wanted to do was to go to sleep and wake up back in time before Nott and Avery had turned their wands on her.

"Heya Mary" came a voice to her left and she turned to see Remus. He had sat next to her working through a stack of potions notes and she had wanted to start working on Charms but she hadn't gotten past the first page.

"Yeah?" she said coughing a little so that she could bring herself back to the present instead of being stuck in the past.

"Do you want me to read over what you've written? Fresh eyes and all that?"

He was being so kind that she couldn't help but blink away tears. Remus to his credit didn't press her but his hand found hers under the desk and their fingers brushed against them.

"I want to be normal again" she said quietly. "I just…sorry…I just…I just want to be normal. I don't want to be scared anymore"

Remus said nothing for a second and then when Mary was sure that she had freaked him out with her confession, he spoke.

"I understand" he said quietly. "More than you think"

Mary was about to say that she knew that he understood but that would turn into a conversation about how she knew that and she didn't want to start that. She didn't want to tell him that she knew his secret because she knew that would terrify him even though he had nothing to worry about. At least not from her.

But it wasn't about her was it? It was about the wider world and it's preconceptions and it's judgement and it's prejudices insane and stupid as it was.

"Thanks" she said instead choosing to take the safest option and choose the safe thing to say. Everything about her now was safe.

Not that it would do much good.

And then a reckless thought—the first reckless thought she'd had in a while popped into her head.

It was insane, it was reckless and dangerous and damming and it could backfire massively and she could die of embarrassment and yet…yet she wanted to do it, she wanted to take the risk regardless of all the ways it could go wrong. For the first time in a long time she didn't want to run away scared.

"You wanna do something normal?" she asked quietly.

Remus put down his quill and turned to stare at her with a quizzical smile.

"What've got in mind?"

Mary looked around carefully seeing that they were alone and then she leaned forwards pressing her lips to his. For a second he was unresponsive beneath her but then his hands came up to cup her head and she felt his lips move.

It was her first kiss, she didn't know if it was his but she knew that this was her first kiss with this the most gentlest man in the world.

There was as banging noise of a book being slammed on the table and she pulled away. Remus grinned at her and she grinned back trying to stop herself from giggling like the seventeen year old she was.

For that moment, that one, long, wonderful moment everything was normal. It was Hogwarts, it was nearly Christmas, and the kids in the castle were having a normal a school year as possible. Yes the news was dire but there was a sense that inside the castle they were sheltered from it when the only thing that was consuming them was homework and kisses and presents for their parents.

Of course all of that was going to change, because the darkness outside the castle was soon to come crashing in through the doors, taking them by surprise, poisoning the heart of them until the battle lines were clearly drawn and everyone's future was mapped out in front of them.

But they didn't know it yet.

And that was all that mattered.

And the course of true love never did run smooth did it?

I will bring you the next chapter as soon as I can.

Next Chapter-It's Christmas and James returns home to see his mother and get's the shock of his life as some gentle truths are explained. (James's point of view in this chapter only)