What Was :: 5 ::

Mage tore into the living room, closely followed by Coraline. They were a moment late to see the figure at the window, but Lily's reaction had told them all they needed to know.

"Olivia, what happened?"

Lily was shaking like a leaf.

"I have to leave, they've found me - oh, I have to leave."

"Then we're coming too."

"No we're - " she looked at Marge, "Yes we are. I'll get our things."

"No, no there isn't time! Get your shoes."

Lily interrupted. "Listen, there's something I haven't told you yet. Promise me you'll understand and not be afraid."

Both of the women stopped mid sentence and stared at Lily. She brought out her wand.

"I'm a -"

It was at that moment that half the wall blasted away, covering them all with debris. Marge and Coraline screamed. Lily pushed them into the kitchen and shut the door. She whirled around, and saw a familiar face.

"The boss is angry. So I'm angry."

"Lucious." she said through her teeth. She raised her wand, furious. "I'm not coming with you."

"Fine, but then if you don't come to us, we come to you, and your two friends."

He smacked his lips. "They wont be around for long."

"GET OUT!" she screamed. "Expelliarmus!"

His wand flew out of his hands. She caught it and tossed it into the debris, raising her wand again. "Get out!"

Lucious raised his hand calmly, and curled his fingers slightly. The wand rose out of the rubble and back to his hand.

"If it's a duel you want, you can have it, Evans. But Lord Voldemort wants you unscathed, so I'm forced to be civil."

"Blasting away a wall is civil?"

Lucious shrugged.

"Sure."

Lily tried to keep her wand steady and look menacing. She couldn't. Not for very long, anyways.

"You just make it worse for everyone, you know. Your friends, your parents, James." he was ticking off the list on his fingers.

Lily felt a surge of adrenaline course through her body. Her wand became dead still. He saw it too.

"You're a sad, sorry piece of work, Evans. It's time you learned that."

Lily was about to throw hexes, but he was gone in a swish of his cloak. She dropped her wand.

"Damn it," she breathed, "Damn it!"

She pocketed her wand, and thrust aside a broken lamp to get to the kitchen door.

"Dont you come any clo - oh, it's you."

Lily's shaking fit came back again, and she slid to the floor.

"I'm so sorry, I've brought you into this and now -" Lily wiped madly at her eyes.

"Hush. We're not afraid, not at all."

"No, Olivia, no. W're right behind you."

"But, but you have to tell us everything."

Lily looked up at them, and saw only understanding. She breathed deeply to reassure herself, before closing the door.

"I'm, oh this will sound awful at a time like this, but, I'm a - a witch."

Marge and Coraline stared blankly at her. Coraline spoke.

"Travelling magician?"

"No, magic. Real magic. With a wand." at this she took out her own wand. Slightly battered, but in fine working condition.

They stared, not looking very convinced.

"Watch."

Lily opened the door, and allowed the women to see the wreck before them.

"Confinium Reparo!"

Marge and Coraline watched in silent amazement as the pieces of debris bounced back into the wall that had once stood there. The dust settled back in the cracks and crevices, and the overturned furniture flipped back into position. Lily turned anxiously to see the reactions of her entourage.

Marge shook her head in disbelief, and proptly ran out into the living room to investigate.

She could only stare at Lily in awe, before nodding in acceptance. Lily felt relieved.

The three of them jumped at the sound of the high pitched whistle of the kettle.

*

James sat in his apartment, staring out the window. Sirius came behind him.

"Coffee?"

James just shook his head.

"Tea?"

No answer.

"Can we talk?"

James came out of his trance.

"Sure."

Sirius sat in the chair across from James. It was starting to get dark outside.

"It's been two months. No leads. It's like she just dissapeared, right?"

James stared at him.

"Okay, so my point is, she may have disappeared, but did the paperwork?"

"What are you on about?" James said quietly.

"We've tried almost everything, so now it's time to be rebellious...again..."

"By breaking into the ministry?"

"If the information won't come to the wizard, the wizard goes to the information." Sirius said, quoting James from their sixth year at school.

James thought a moment, before he clued in. A smile crept onto his face.

"I'll get the cloak."

Sirius clapped his hands in excitement and sprang out of his chair after James.

*

Lily had led her friends out of town, after an in depth analysis of her witchcrafting abilities, and her real name. She had warned them, however, not to say a word of it in public places. They understood.

The trio was travelling lightly, with mainly money in their pockets, and small, light bags that Lily had magicked everything to fit into.

The older women led Lily to a train station, just on the outskirts of town.

"Next train leaves the station at five, that's less than an hour. I'll se if I can get tickets."

Coraline ran to a small booth, while Lily and Marge went to the bathrooms. Once they had gotten inside, Marge swung her bag onto the counter. Lily locked the door behind them, extracting her wand in the process.

She approached the mirror, looking herself over. Hair first. She waved her wand, and her red brown waves became a dark brown, curled mass. She pulled a hat over her head, feeling awkward already. Marge was doing the same, tucking every stand out of sight.

Next were her eyes. From emerald green, to almost black, she now didn't even recognize herself. She changed out of her dirty clothes, and removed a pair of jeans, sweater, and turtleneck from the bag. Magically altering them to fit her better. She turned to Marge, who was putting on makeup.

"Well?"

Marge did a doubletake.

"Good work, you don't look a thing like ... you..."

Lily smiled. There came a soft knock at the door. Lily went to open it, and Coraline slid in. She jumped at the sight of Lily.

"Is that you?"

"Yes. Did you get the tickets?"

"Mm-hmm, it'll be here in 20 minutes. There's a few other people waiting, six at most."

"How far are we travelling?" asked Marge, shuffling through her bag for a new dress.

"Not very far, about 2 hours on train."

Soon all three were dressed and ready, looking like a different group of people altogether. Each had their ticket, and they had made their plan.

Lily left first, making her way to the far end of the station, where she sat on a bench to wait. She put on a pair of sunglasses, and pretended to be staring off down the track, but was instead watching Marge exit the bathroom next. Coraline came last, just as the train pulled in. They looked like three separate passengers, which was their plan. Lily brought a hand out of her jacket pocket, and climbed into the train. It was very empty, and the others that had been waiting on the platform came wearily into the compartments. Lily made her way past them, inconspicuously checking each compartment for her companions.

She had found Coraline first.

"Could I sit here?" she asked, as a man passed behind her.

"Sure." Coraline said in a fake accent. Lily dropped into a seat, sliding the door closed. Marge came in, looking like she was trying not to laugh.

"Sure." she said, mimicking her friend.

"Shut up, its part of the act."

"Sure." Lily chorused, sending them all into laughter.

As the train eased out of the station, Lily settled back into her chair, looking silently out of the window as the others talked with each other.

'Hogwarts Express.' she thought. She turned to the two women, who were now bickering about a past gig. Lily excused herself from the compartment, saying she'd be back in a while.

Lily traced her finger along the dark wainscotting that ran the length of the train. She glanced at the passing scenery, watching as a few flakes of snow began to fall. Immediately, her mind flashed back to her sixth year.

***

"Come on, Arabella, it's snowing outside! Just for a walk - please?"

"Oh, fine," she said, giving up early. "But if I start sneezing come tomorrow..."

Lily dragged her friend out of the common room and onto the school grounds. There must have been at least 3 feet of snow already on the ground, and still more was falling. Lily wanted to go down to the quidditch pitch, and maybe sit in the stands. There was an excellent view of the school from there.

Arabella was trying to walk in Lily's footsteps, but gave up once she realized that no matter what, her robes would still have snow on them.

The pair had just made their way onto the pitch, when a snowball whipped straight by Lily's ear. She whirled around, but the snow made everything beyond two meters almost invisible. Arabella shrieked, and Lily turned to see that her friend had gotten a snowball right in the shoulder.

Arabella dropped to her knees, and Lily folowed suit.

"I'd bet a thousand to one that I could name the people behind this." she said.

Her friend whined, trying to brush the snow out of her hair.

"Come on, Bella, we need to fight fire with fire. Here, make a bunch of snowballs. Like this."

"Come on, Arabella, it's snowing outside Arabella, just for a walk Arabella..." she muttered, pounding mounds of snow into snowballs. Lily squinted, as another snowball came flying over her head. Another landed right in front of her, spraying her face with snow. She took one of the snowballs in her hand, and threw it as forcefully as she could in the oncoming direction.

The sun was beginning to come out. Her visibility was increasing. She thought she saw a black cloak a little to the right of her. She grabbed another snowball, and threw. Thanks to her talent as a chaser, it had god aim. She heard a muffled "Aurgh!" and a few laughs.

Now there was a bombardement of snowballs, landing all around her and Arabella.

The sun came out farther, and in only a few minutes, the snowfall had ceased.

"I knew it." she said. Lily turned to Arabella. "It's the marauders."

She picked up a snowball and threw it as hard as she could at the one with glasses. It hit him in the back of the neck. His friends stopped, and a low "ooooh" was heard. Lily smiled, and stood, holding something behind her back.

"Hold on a second," James Potter said to his friends. "Let me get this one."

James sprinted over to Lily, stopping just a few fet in front of her. She looked at him.

"Well, Evans, nice arm."

"I thought so."

"But, you see," he began, bending to pick up some snow. "I'd just like to return your gift, as it has no use to me."

He was just about to raise his head, when Lily answered

"And neither does this -" she finished, and slammed the snowball she had been holding - right into his face. He stumbled back, wiping his eyes and removing his glasses, which had gone askew. All of his friends were laughing. Lily waited until he was facing her again, before she walked away.

She felt a snowball hit her in the back of the head.

"That's it!" she yelled, and soon the six students were in an all out war. Arabella threw a few snowballs, one of them hitting Remus, one just bypassing Sirius. She was starting to get into this game.

James and Lily had soon forgotten their friends, and were just trying to defeat one another. Lily tripped, and fell back onto her rear. James laughed, menacingly tossing a snowball up and down in his right hand.

"Say it," he said.

Lily narrowed her eyes, and didn't say anything. She drummed her fingers on the snow.

"James Potter is the most wonderful, charming, intelligent, and perfect guy I know, and he won. Just say it, and I'll drop the snowball."

"Never."

"Okay fine, you asked for it." He raised the snowball, slightly behind his head.

"Drop it," came Arabella. James looked up, and found that his friends too had snow in their hands. The ball fell to the ground.

Sirius smiled, and then turned to hit Peter in the stomach. Peter tried to hit him back, but it hit Remus instead. Remus shrugged, and hit Arabella, who hit Sirius.

Meanwhile, Lily extended her hand to James. He grasped it, and Lily pulled him roughly down into the snow, catching him off guard.

He fell to her left, just inches away from her.

She laughed, as he moved to a seated position.

"Say it." she teased.

He sighed. "James Potter is the most wonderful, charming, intelligent and perfect guy I know, and he won."

Her jaw dropped momentarily. "You're such a prat."

"A wonderful, charming, intelligent -"

Lily shoved him.

"Hey,"

He got to his feet, and offered her his hand this time.

"Not likely." She stood on her own.

He sighed dramatically. "Truce?"

Lily looked at him. He looked serious enough.

"Tempoaray Truce." she said, shaking his still outstretched hand.

"Great! Truce over." his fingers clamped onto her hand, and he twirled her around, before dipping her.

Lily squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself for a fall. After nothing happened, she opened them slowly. James was looking straight at her. She found herself looking straight at James.

After a brief moment, he gave his infamous grin and said, "It's okay, Evans, I wouldn't have let you fall."

He stood up, and brought her with him. He let go of her hand. Lily's head was spinning like mad, she remembered.

"I'll give you to the count of ten." he said.

Lily bolted.

"Ten ... nine ... aw, hell. One!"

***

Lily found an empty compartment, and sat down, still lost in her own thoughts. She went from one memory to the next, and was close to drifting into sleep, when the train lurched to a halt.

Lily tumbled into the seat in front of her. She got up to look out the window. They were in a town, it looked deserted and almost torn apart. She rubbed her wrist, and sat back down on her seat.

"Would all passengers please proceed to the front of the train. All passenegers to the front of the train. Thank y-" and the power went out. It wasn't very dark outside, just bordering on a cloudy morning, although when Lily poked her head out the door, she could see a few dark patches where the windows separated. She saw a few passengers exiting their compartments, hobbling off towards the front of the train. She stepped out of her own, and followed them.

She was on the last car, and pretty much at the end of the throng of people. She slid open the door that separated the cars, and stepped through. Turning around to shut the door, she saw a man with dark skin wave her down.

'I guess I'm not the last one,' she thought, opening the door for him.

"Thank you, ma'am." he said. He was about the same age as she was, and he looked like a smart business man.

He did a double take of her face, and Lily didn't like the expression that came over him. She turned to walk down the hall, hoping that Marge and Coraline would come looking for her.

"Excuse me, but you just seem oddly familiar."

Lily increased her speed.

"I've never seen you before."

"Do you work for the ministry?"

"No, no I'm not in politics, sorry."

"Ah."

Lily wanted to run, but she had hit another door. Her hand slipped clumsily over the handle. He was right behind her now.

"Did you go to Hogwarts?" he asked slowly, in barely more than a whisper.

She looked over her shoulder. "N- no. I have no idea what school you're talking about." Why couldn't she grasp the handle?

A hand clasped around her left wrist, and Lily winced in pain. He swung her around to face him.

"Then how did you know it was a school?"

"Please, let go -"

"Hah. Not now Ms. Evans. You're not supposed to be here."

"Let go!" she screamed.

He pulled her down to the end of the train, while she tried desperately to untangle her wrist from his grip.

Again and again she screamed, but it was no matter to him.

Westley was going to be promoted for this.