FOREVER

Year Six

Part Three

Subtitled: La Vie D'Autre

Lily shivered beneath her cloak and clung to it for added warmth.

"You okay?" James asked, smiling at her.

"Yeah it's just kind of cold down here." She said as she returned his smile as they continued towards Hogsmeade.

They walked in silence most of the way, neither daring to break it. This new found shyness made both of them rather uncomfortable but just as Lily was about to say something, they reached Hogsmeade. The village was as wonderful as she had remembered and even though she had lived in the wizarding world for six years, she never tired of seeing it in action. All around her hags, witches, wizards, warlocks and many, many more bustled about. She grinned in excitement at James who whole heartedly returned it.

"So…where do you want to go?" he asked and looked at her expectantly.

She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't really matter. What time do we have to meet Sirius and Anna?"

He glanced at his watch. "One." He said. "So we have about an hour."

"Where are we meeting them?" she asked as she tried to figure out where in the village they could go without being late.

James grinned wickedly. "The Shrieking Shack!" he said.

Her eyes grew wide. "Why?" she asked.

He shrugged. "You'll see." He said. "So, where to?" he asked and brushed a piece of jet black hair out of his eyes.

"Three Broomsticks?" she suggested after a moment. She shifted her weight uncomfortably. The initial excitement of Hogsmeade had worn off and the feeling was back again.

Noticing the look on her face, James frowned. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said, but she didn't look okay.

"Are you sure?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "We can go back if you don't want to be here." He said and gestured to the building they had come from.

She nodded. "No, no it's not that! It's just…it's really stupid." She said shaking her head.  "I don't know…do you ever get a feeling that…that something bad is going to happen?" she asked, her eyebrows knitted in thought.

"Yeah…" he admitted after a moment, remembering when his parents had died in his second year.

"Well I've got one of those. I just can't….I just can't shake it." She frowned.

"Do want to go back?" James asked again, concerned. He ran a hand through his already messy hair. This was not going as he had planned.

She pursed her lips and shook her head. "No, it'll be fine." She said. "I'm just being silly." She said and tried to smile brightly.

James couldn't help but note that her smile didn't reach her eyes.

                                                            *****

Lily giggled and took another gulp of her butterbeer. "I can not believe you bought that, James!" she said, rolling her eyes.  "Sirius is going to kill you!"

James grinned charmingly and his eyes flashed with anticipation. "Yeah, but it'll be worth it!" he chuckled as he held Sirius' 'surprise'. It was a matching thong and bra set (rather...erm…racy ones at that). Anna's birthday was coming up and Sirius had wanted James and Lily to go ahead to Hogsmeade to get her gift for him. He had meant for them to get her a book that she had been wanting. Which they did, as well. James pulled out the birthday card and with a great flourish wrote, "To my darling Anna. Maybe you model them later! – Sirius"

Lily burst out laughing. Her face had grown rather warm. "This is so bad." She said, shaking her head. "He's going to murder you in your sleep and then Anna will kill me too!" she said, finding that idea a little bit less entertaining.

"Yeah but won't be worth it when Anna slaps him in front of everybody?" he asked, mischievously. "Besides, its all in good fun!" he said. He put the card into the bag and with a whisper and a tap of his wand the present was in a box and wrapped with wrapping paper that had wizard pictures of Anna and Sirius together all over it.

Lily was just about to respond when the door to the three broomsticks shot open. She shivered and the foreboding feeling that she had kept at bay for so long, returned full blast.

"James, hadn't we better go meet them?" she asked as she glanced nervously at the men who had just walked into the pub.

James, so intent on his prank, didn't pick up on anything and glanced at his watch. "Oh you're right!" he cried and jumped up as he gathered his bags. In an hour they had done A LOT of damage. Lily gathered her things quickly and made a beeline for the door. She wanted out of there and she wanted out right then.

James had to jog to catch up with her. "Hey!" he said as he finally reached her. "What's the hurry? We won't be that late and even if we were, I doubt they would mind." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively,

She blushed and gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, I know, I just hate being late." She said, as she lied through her teeth. She breathed a sigh of relief as up ahead the Shrieking Shack came into view. She never thought she'd rather be in the Shrieking Shack than the Three Broomsticks. "So," she said as James muttered a few words and the boards flew off the door. "Any particular reason why we're meeting our friends in a haunted building?" she asked and tried to act unafraid. She was bad at it.

He smiled reassuringly at her. "You know it's not haunted, Lil." He said and started into the dark house. "Lumos." He whispered and a light appeared at the end of his wand.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yeah," She said. "I know." and followed him into the house. Above them she heard voices, and despite what she knew of the Shrieking Shack, she trembled.

They climbed the stairs, James first followed by Lily. James pushed open the door to find Anna and Sirius going at it.

"Ahem." James said as he cleared his throat.

Sirius detached himself from Anna. "Hello, Jamsie! Lily! You're here early." He said cheerfully.

"Did you have fun?" Anna asked, as she watched her friend for signs of how the date had gone. Lily did not look good. Her already pale face was sheet white and she was shaking. Anna's smile slowly fell. "Are you okay, Lily?" she asked, slightly horrified at the look of terror on her face.

James turned around and his eyes grew wide. "Lily? What's wrong?" he asked and put his arms around her just as her legs were about to give way.

Lily was shaking violently and her eyes had grown wide. Silent tears were pouring down her face. "What's the matter?" James asked, starting to get scared himself. She said nothing but burrowed in his arms as though to protect her.

James, Sirius and Anna exchanged worried glances.

"Make it stop!" she whispered into James' chest. He put his arms around her and held her. "Make it stop!" she started sobbing.

"Make what stop, baby? Tell me what's wrong!" James said urgently. He had never been so afraid in his entire life.

"The screaming." She whispered. "So much screaming."

James eyes grew wide at this. "What screaming, Lils?" he asked soothingly, but inside he was afraid for her. "Sweetie, there's no screaming!" he said but just as he said it, screaming filled the room. Anna and Sirius ran to the window.

"Jesus Christ!" Sirius cried and reached for his wand.

"Oh my god!" Anna gasped and gave a half-shriek.

"What?" James asked as Lily grew worse. "What is it?" he yelled, scared and unsure what to do. Lily was muttering now about pain.

"James you'd better take a look at this." Sirius said, unable to tear his eyes from the scene. Anna, on the other hand couldn't bring herself to look. She ran to Lily and took her from James so he could see.

"I've got her." She said. James glanced at her, reluctant to leave.

"What the hell?" Sirius cried in anger and James flew to the window. James' eyes grew wide at what he saw. In the street below, seven men in long capes with hoods covering their heads were marching in a row, wands drawn. Behind them lay a street full of murdered wizards, and witches. The one of the men pointed his wand up and a death mark was formed while the other six continued to kill everyone they saw. James eyes grew hard. This was his chance. He chance to get revenge, to make things right. He glanced and Lily's sobbing form and drew his wand.

"Where are you going?" Anna cried as Jamie started towards the door.

"I'm going to do something I should have done a long time ago." James said and flung open the door.

"Sirius stop him!" Anna cried as she watched in horror. Within seconds Sirius had turned, run and tackled James.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing James?" Sirius roared as he pinned the struggling James. Sirius was glad that he had grown over the summer and was now bigger than his friend.

"I'm going to take care of business." James said and almost wiggled out of Sirius grasp.

Sirius laughed bitterly and tightened his grip on James' shoulders. "Oh, I see. Yes, you getting killed will definitely help a lot of things."

James glared at him resentfully but stopped struggling. "I wasn't going to get killed." He muttered.

"Oh, right James, sure." Sirius said rolling his eyes. He loosened his grip on his friend though. "You were going to go out and face seven fully armed death eaters who had just taken out a whole street of qualified witches and wizards all by yourself and come out alive!"

"Well when you put it that way…" James said, a frown on his face. Suddenly Sirius jumped off of James and ran to the window.

"It's stopped." He said softly as he watched the sea of dead bodies.

James, his foolish crusade forgotten for a moment, went to the window. "Oh my god." He gasped, and shook his head.

"That." Sirius said pointing to the ground below. "Was almost you."

James glanced down at the nameless, faceless many and shivered. It wasn't a fate he had been dying to receive.

Behind them Lily gave a whimper and both boys turned to see Anna stoking Lily's hair and murmuring soothingly. Lily had calmed down a great deal. Occasionally she hiccupped but for the most part she was silent. Her body had stopped its shuddering and she lay motionless in Anna's lap. 

"How is she?" James asked.

Anna looked up. Her eyes shone from unshed tears and her lip was almost bleeding from being bitten so hard. "Better." She said.

James came over and took Lily in his arms. He held her limp form. She had passed out. "We have to get her back." He said and glanced nervously.

"Let's go the usual way, prongs." Sirius said, glancing at his friend meaningfully and jerking his head in the direction of the secret passage way to the Whomping Willow.

Sirius, as he helped a now crying Anna out, seemed the picture of strength, but then, nobody saw how badly his hands were shaking.

                                                            *****

                                                Earlier that day

"I'm bored!" Peter announced and ate yet another blood pop.

"Don't you have homework or something?" Roslyn snapped irritably. It was the tenth time he had said it in five minutes and she was trying to concentrate on a game of wizards chess. A game she was usually very good at but today was getting destroyed.

"Check." Remus announced as his queen smashed her knight.

"Damn." She muttered and tried to find away out. After all, it wasn't check mate…yet.

"I don't want to do homework." Peter said, scowling.

"So go flying." Remus said.

"I lent my broom out."

"Go to the kitchens."

"I'm not hungry."

"Take a nap."

"I'm not tired."

"Read a book."

"There isn't anything good to read."

"Borrow one of mine."

"I don't like yours."

"Take a walk."

"I don't want to."

"What DO you want to do, Peter?" Roslyn cried in frustration as just then another knight was taken.

He shrugged, not at all upset at her outburst. "I dunno." He said.

"Check!" Remus grinned.

"Ugh! I give up!" Roslyn cried and threw up her hands just as her king threw down his crown. "Here Peter, play chess." She said.

Peter smiled sweetly. "okay." He said and moved to take her spot.

Roslyn shook her head sadly. She had just been manipulated by Peter Pettigrew.

                                                                        *****

They decided to go straight to the headmaster's office. As it was Sunday afternoon, the halls were empty and James couldn't have been more grateful He didn't think he could explain an unconscious Lily and a sobbing Anna in passing to a teacher. Actually, James was so shocked himself, he really felt like doing nothing else but climbing under a bed and never coming out again. He didn't want to be strong. All he wanted was to forget everything he had seen. Sirius, as the reality had sunk it, was looking more and more terrified. His face was a rather unnatural shade of white. All color had been drained from his face. They walked  as fast as they could considering that James was carrying Lily and Sirius was dragging Anna.

 "Cotton Candy." James said and the door flew open.

Sirius looked at him questioningly.

"I was here yesterday for a prefect thing." He explained. James shifted Lily, who was becoming rather heavy and walked into the room.

Professors Avery, McGonagall and Binns were all gathered there for a staff meeting and they looked up in surprise as they walked into the room.

"Potter, Black, Fisher, Evans!" McGonagall said with a gasp. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Professor," James said urgently to Dumbledore. "We must speak with you! There's been an attack, in Hogsmeade!" at this Anna's sobs became heart wrenching.

The affect of this one sentence was instantaneous.

"What Potter?"

"My god!"

"How do you know?"

They all spoke at once and James, already distraught, scared and tired was near tears at all the yelling. His tired arms couldn't hold Lily any longer and he struggled so as not to drop her.  Sirius sat Anna down in the nearest chair and took Lily from his arms.

"Everyone calm down." Dumbledore said meaningfully. His face seemed calm but there was something else in Dumbledore's eye besides its resident twinkle. It was cold and dark and it made James want to cower. He turned to James and his manner became softer. "Go on, James." He said gently.

"Lily and I were in Hogsmeade," there were several raised eyebrows at this but everybody kept their silence. "and we stopped in the shrieking shack to meet up with Sirius and Anna but as soon as we got inside, Lily started getting really weird. She got really pale and was shaking all over. She kept talking about screaming and pain, except there weren't any. The place was silent." He spoke so quickly that everyone had to strain to understand him. He looked around for some sign to continue. Dumbledore nodded at him encouragingly. "As soon as we told her that there wasn't any screaming, we heard some from the street. We looked out the window and we saw….we saw…." He swallowed painfully and the memory.

"Yes Potter." McGonagall said kindly.

"We saw death eaters." He burst out. "They murdered everyone they saw in the street and then apparated away," his voice was thick with emotion and it took all his strength to keep from bursting into tears. "By then Lily had passed out and so we had to get back."

The second his mouth shut Dumbledore flew into action. "Minerva, send an owl to the ministry immediately."

McGonagall nodded and left the room almost before he finished speaking.

"Charles," he said to Avery. "Get Madame Pomfrey."

"Wouldn't it be better to take them to Poppy?" Professor Avery asked meekly as he glanced at a hysterical Anna and an unconscious Lily.

"No," Dumbledore said simply. Avery glanced at him one last time before walking briskly from the room.  "Please James, Sirius sit down." Dumbledore said and motioned to the chairs in front of him. He flicked his wand and Lily flew from Sirius' arms and levitated in the air next to him.

"I suppose we could have done that to begin with." James said dully as Sirius sat down heavily in between Anna and James.

"Yeah I guess so." Sirius said with even less feeling than James. He began to rub Anna's back.

As intense as it had all been, suddenly, as everything began to get taken care of, it was as though the life had been sucked out of them.

Suddenly and owl flew in and Dumbledore nimbly jumped up and grabbed it from the birds talons. He sat down and read through the paper. He pursed his lips.

"It seems," he said as he folded the parchment up. "that the ministry is aware already of what has happened this afternoon but doesn't wish to alarm anybody. In other words, we aren't to speak of it to anybody." Dumbledore sighed heavily.

"Professor?" James asked.

"After Madame Pomfrey comes and revives Lily and calms down Anna, I'd like to talk to you about what happened."

James nodded listlessly. He was so tired and so confused that he could hardly think, let alone form cognitive answers.

"Ah," Said Dumbledore. "Here she is now."

And sure enough the door to his study flew open and there stood Madame Pomfrey, as formidable as ever.

"What have you gone and done now, Black, Potter?" she said and walked vigorously to the girls. "tsk, tsk, tsk." She clucked disapprovingly. "A quidditch accident, I suppose." She said shaking her head darkly.

"No ma'am." Sirius said.

"Well than I'm sure it was something equally dangerous." She said and muttered something. Slowly, very slowly, Lily was lowered to the ground. Madam Pomfrey opened her mouth a little bit and poured a potion down her throat. Moments later, Lily's eyes fluttered open.

Before Lily could say anything, Madame Pomfrey moved onto Anna.

"Oh, and I suppose you weren't doing anything dangerous either?" Madame Pomfrey asked but before Anna could wail her answer Madame Pomfrey handed her a vile of some rather evil looking potion. Anna's hand was shaking so violently that the liquid almost didn't make it to her mouth but with Sirius' help, she was able to swallow the fluid. He steadied her hand as soon as the potion touched her lips she gave a great shudder and fell into Sirius' arms.

"HEY!" he cried. "You were supposed to calm her down, not knock her out!"

Madame Pomfrey put her hands on her hips. "Did you see the state she was in, Black?" she said. "There isn't enough calming potion in Britain." She shook her head again and started towards the door.

"Thank you, Poppy." Dumbledore said as she left muttering under her breath about foolish kids.

By this time Lily was fully awake and was sitting up. "Where…Where am I?" She asked, her hand to her head in confusion.

"Dumbledore's office." James said and helped her up and into the chair next to him. "How do you feel?"

"Okay." She said and stared about her, taking it all in. She stared at Anna. "What happened?" she asked incredulously.

"Madame Pomfrey knocked her out." Sirius said, pouting.

"Oh." Lily said. She paused for a moment. "Why are we here?" she asked.

"Ms. Fisher should come to any moment, Sirius and I'll explain everything in a moment Lily." Dumbledore said and watched Anna expectantly.

Sure enough, within seconds, Anna eyes flew open.

"Welcome back," Dumbledore said, smiling.

Anna nodded.

Dumbledore's smile slowly faded. "I know it's difficult, but I think you four deserve some kind of explanation about what happened today."

"What's there to explain?" James asked with a sigh. "Seven death eaters killed a street of wizards and witches. It's pretty self explanatory." He said.

Dumbledore tightened his lips. "The ministry doesn't want us telling the students this, but I suspect that it will all come out soon enough."

Sirius looked up in interest. "Professor?" he asked.

"You're all aware of Lord Voldemort and his activities, I suppose?"

They all nodded.

"Well I'm afraid that most of it you don't know. Nearly all of the incidents involving him never reach the Daily Prophet. He's been slowly gaining power for years now. The press likes to isolate the incidents they do get a hold of. If the public knew how bad it really was…well lets just say that the minister doesn't feel that now is the time to enlighten everybody. I was planning on informing you of the truth on graduation, but this does change things a bit." He tugged on his beard in thought. "The truth is that we don't know how to stop to stop him. Our Aurors have been disappearing all over Europe. Do you understand?" he asked.

The four teenagers, already so forgone with exhaustion, confusion and shock heard every word he said yet absorbed none of it. Even so, they all nodded.

"What happened today, was, undeniably a tragedy. However, everything about Voldemort will come out in due course. What happened today, for the sake of our Aurors who need to be able to work without the press being all over it, needs to be a secret. It's an awful, awful thing to live with, I know. The minister wants me to simply erase your memories as they are going to do to the survivors in Hogsmeade, but I believe you deserve…no need, to understand as much as you ever will. In the coming months, fear will grow, the world will change, and for everybody in this school, so will how they look at the world. It will be different for you four. Your perspective has already drastically changed. I wish I could just ask you to learn from today and move on…but after what you witnessed today, I wouldn't dare. I will ask you, however, to keep these events between the four of you." He paused and looked every student in the eye in turn. "Do you have any questions?"

Lily's head throbbed with a million questions all fighting to be asked. She put her hand to her pounding head. She couldn't deal with this, not anymore. All she wanted was to be out of there. "No."  she said.

Anna and James shook their heads.

"Me either." Sirius said quietly. He had so many issues with this whole thing that he couldn't even begin to start.

Dumbledore held each of there gazes a moment before speaking again. "Alright then," he said sighing. "You're dismissed. You're all excused from classes for the week. If you don't feel like staying in the dormitories, you may stay in the infirmary or anywhere else you find, that is suitable." They got up to leave. "Lily, I'd like to have a word with you."

Lily sat back down. She glanced back at James who looked at her questioningly.

"You may wait for her outside, James." Dumbledore said, the twinkle back in his eye. He nodded and followed Anna and Sirius out of the office. Dumbledore turned his attention to Lily. "So I understand, that you had la vie d'autre today."

Lily stared at him blankly. "La vie d'autre?" She asked.

Dumbledore side-stepped her question completely. "Today, Lily, before you passed out, what happened?"

Lily looked at him uncertainly for a moment. She took a deep breath and willed herself with all her might to relive what had happened. She shivered involuntarily and took another breath. "I followed James into the Shrieking Shack," She started. As she remembered, her face drained of any color she had gained since she woke up. Her hands became clammy and her breath labored. She stared unseeingly ahead of her. Lily's eyes blinked rapidly to stop her eyes from overflowing with unshed tears. "We had barely made it up the stairs when…when…all the screaming started." She said softly. "So much screaming." She whispered, shaking her head. "They were crying, crying for me to help them." She put head in her hands. "but I couldn't." she breathed. Goosebumps covered her arms at the memory. "Then all of the sudden I was in so much pain. It came and went in waves. It was awful at first, then it would fade away, and then start again just as awful. Then, all of the sudden, the pain was gone." She stopped and looked up at Dumbledore. "That's all I remember, professor."

Dumbledore nodded. "I see." He said. "Lily, I think, the best thing for you is to get some rest. I believe James, Sirius and Anna are waiting for you outside."

Lily nodded. She was about to ask again about la vie d'autre, but for the first time in her life, Lily was happier not knowing. She glanced back one last time at the professor before stepping out of his office and into the school.