~*~ Everything ~*~

~I know I'm not too perfect

~Never did go quite to plan

~Wasn't tall, or pretty, or cool

~Never had the perfect man

~I know I didn't meet the expectations

~Definitely wasn't the greatest

~Sports never were my thing

~Didn't ace every single test

~And I know I can't have everything

~It's way too much for me to ask

~So I won't pretend that I'm wonderful

~I refuse to hide behind a mask

~So don't tell me I'm phenomenal

~Don't try to lie to my face

~I won't live a life of lies

~I already know I'm out of the race

~But I also know one other clue

~Won't forget my internal something

~I could never give up trying

~To be your everything, everything

'Lily...'

I sat up in bed. My eyes flew to my clock. Two thirty AM. What the hell? I rubbed my eyes and blinked. Who had been calling my name?

'Lily,' hissed a voice again, making me jump. 'Who's there?' I whispered.

'It's me, James.'

'James, what the hell? It's two fricking thirty in the morning!'

'I know,' said his annoyingly sing-song voice.

'Where are you?' I demanded, looking around.

'I'm under the cloak.'
I closed my eyes. I was supposed to be asleep. Why the hell was I sitting up in bed talking to an invisible someone I had only known for three days?

'What do you want?' I moaned groggily.

There was silence for a moment.

'I can't tell you yet.'

I groaned and lay back down, pulling the sheets back over me.

'No, Lily - wait. It's important.'

'James, tell me what it is or go away,' I mumbled through my pillow.

'Lily, please,' he begged. 'I'll tell you if you would just come with me.'

I hmmphed into my pillow and dragged myself out of bed.

'Can you wake Hilary and Bella?'

'Wait,' I commanded as I bent down to search for my slippers in the dark.

'Nice view.'

'James Potter, if you want me to come with you, you are not going the right way about it, I can assure you.'

'It was a compliment!'

'A perverse compliment!'

'A compliment all the same,' he protested.

'Why can't you wake the others up?' I asked, approaching Hilary's bed with a shield for a pillow.

'I thought she'd be less likely to attack you,' he said. 'Huh. So much for that,' I said, gently shaking Hilary. Her hand swung upward and whacked me in the face.

'Go away.'

'Hilary, wake up.'

Her eyes slowly opened.

'What the hell, Lily? What time is it?'

'Whine at your brother, not me.'

'JAMES POTTER!'

'Er, hi, Lav,' James said weakly.

'Where are you?' she demanded.

'Under the cloak. Now wake Bella.'

I walked over to Bella.

'Oi, Arabella!' I said loudly in her ear. She sat up quite normally, immediately awake, not a trace of sleepiness on her face.

'Hey, Lillers. What's up?'

'James wants us to go with him. Why, I do not know,' I said through gritted teeth.

Remus, Peter and Sirius were sitting in a group on the floor and on a lounge, apparently eating sweets and some kind of beverage. They also appeared to be playing chess.

'You brought us in here for chess?' Hilary asked disbelievingly.

'No, we brought you in here for strip chess!' Sirius grinned, locking the door behind us.

'What if we don't want to?' I asked.

'You have to,' Sirius said, pushing us over to where the boys were sitting.

'Relax, we're not playing strip chess,' James said, with a look at Sirius.

'Then what do you want?' Hilary growled.

'We wanted some female company,' Sirius said simply, shrugging. Hilary raised an eyebrow.

'I'm going back to bed.'

'No - wait!' Bella said quickly. Hilary and I looked at her, exasperated.

'It could be fun,' she pointed out.

'Until we sleep in and get up late for class tomorrow!' Hilary exclaimed.

'Well, I'm staying,' Bella said, plonking herself down next to Sirius. Sirius grinned and ruffled her hair, which was already tusselled from sleep.

'An excellent choice.'

James grabbed my wrists and pulled me over . 'You know you want to,' he said teasingly. I sighed.

'Fine! I give in! I'll stay,' I relented, throwing my hands up. James grinned and patted the lounge next to him. I sat down and pulled my knees up in front of me, hugging them and closing my eyes. Just because I was staying didn't mean I was playing.

'You're out voted, Lavinia my dear,' Remus grinned at Hilary. She rolled her eyes, but I saw the corners of her mouth twitch upwards when Remus smiled at her. She fancied him! 'Fine,' she snapped, pulling out her hair elastic to pull her hair back into a neater ponytail. 'But you are going to pay, James Potter.'

* * *

'Lily!'

No, it's not deja vu. Well, it probably is, but you know what I mean. It wasn't exactly the same. For example - it was only one o'clock, not two thirty. And it wasn't James Potter waking me up.

It was his revenge seeking sister.
'Hilary, go back to bed.'

'No. I'm awake now,' she huffed brightly, pulling the pillow off my face.

'Unfortunately,' I mumbled.

'I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.'

'You weren't supposed to.'

'Well I did.'

'I thought you were going to pretend you didn't?' I smirked, sitting up.

In actual fact, Hilary had never gone to sleep. She knew for sure that once she did, she had no chance of waking up. So she drank three cups of coffee, took some non-drowsy dispirin and placed a cup of ice on her bedside drawer. Along with a pile of magazines to keep her going through the night, she was pretty much set.

'What do you want to do?' I yawned.

'Wake up the boys.'

'They won't care,' I pointed out.

'Well, we'll just have to do it in a way that will make them care, won't we?' she asked, handing me a cup of ice. I took the freezing thing in my fingers, wriggling out of bed. Bella joined us.

'Come on. Lily can take Remus, and Bella, you can have Sirius - they're on the far left. I'll do Peter, if you want - but James is definitely mine.'

I nodded as we crept, tip-toed, into the second year boys dorm.

I approached Remus's bed. He was laying on his stomach. Taking advantage of this fact, I lifted his collar and tipped the ice down. He sat up immediately.

'What the hell ... ?'

I giggled as Sirius's howling started.

'Ooh... aah... hoo... hoo... cold, cold....'

Bella grinned and pushed Sirius back onto the bed and sat on his stomach to stop him from escaping.

'Shut up, Black. You'll wake up the others and spoil the fun.'

Sirius's face turned into a grin as he looked over to where Hilary was standing over a still sleeping Peter. I motioned for her to wait, and taped Peter's mouth before she woke him, so his yells wouldn't wake James. I stepped back, and Hilary slipped all of her ice down Peter's night shirt. His eyes ope wide and his shouts were muffled from under the tape. We all grinned, including Sirius and Remus, but then all eyes turned to Hilary as she approached James's bed.
'Hey, Hil,' Sirius said suddenly. Hilary stopped.

'Yeah?'

'I was, er, wondering if we could make some, um, adjustments, before you woke him up?' Hilary's eyes narrowed mischievously.

'Do your stuff.'

Sirius and Remus flew out of bed and walked over to James.

'Let's see, some pink hair...'

'Orange eyebrows...'

'Definitely needs green lips, don't you think...'

When they stepped back, James amazingly still sleeping peacefully, the resting boy in the bed now looked rather amused.

'Now for my part,' Hilary smirked, looking at me.'Aha,' she said. I looked at her suspiciously.

'Why me?'

'Because you do acting right? James also likes you and would be less likely to severely mutate you than say, me. And I think he likes you more than that...'

'James likes Tara,' Sirius, Remus, Bella and I said together. Hilary rolled her eyes.

'Just do it, Lily. Where's your sense of adventure? Or is what I'm about to do too naughty for our little good girl?' she teased, narrowing her yes. I rose to the bait.

'I can be very naughty when I want to.'

'Good.'

'Now what?'

'Come here, and I'll whisper it in your ear.'

Hilary whispered something in my ear.

'Now go whisper that in his ear.'

I went and sat on the edge of James's bed.

'Sit on him, Lily,' Hilary commanded.

'He'll wake up!' I hissed.

'No he won't,' Sirius assured me. Oh god. I shuffled over to straddle James's waist, then bent down to his ear.

'James, love,' I whispered.

'Mmm,' James mumbled sleepily, a smile playing on his lips.

'Do you wanna know a secret?' I murmured flirtatiously. 'Mmm?'

I leant even closer.

'Guess?'

'Lily?'

'Mmm-hmm. Do you know what my secret is?'

'Show me,' he murmured.

I heard everyone snort and turned around to glare.

'Kiss him, Lily,' Bella giggled.

'No way,' I laughed.

'Put a finger on his lips,' Remus suggested.

I did so. James smiled and kissed it, and I drew it back.

'I'm going to go now,' I said quietly.

'No, wait,' Hilary laughed. This is too entertaining. Ask him something.'

'James?'

'Mmm?'

'What were you dreaming about?'

'Bunny rabbits,' he mumbled, laughing.

'What do you think about Malfoy?'

'He's a bloody git that fell in a bottle of bleach.'

Hilary laughed a little too loudly, and James stirred, but I took no notice. This was too much fun.

'What does your underwear look like?'

'I can show you if you like,' James said more clearly, his eyes flicking open and a grin forming on his face.

Sugar! I almost fell over backwards. My cheeks reddened.

I made to get off, but he pulled me back down for a moment, my ear just near his mouth.

'They're blue,' he whispered, before letting me go. I quickly got up.

Sirius put on a girly tone.

'Ooh, Lily... don't tell me your secret, show me...' he teased. James grinned.

'Ooh, Bella, ooh Bella - oh no, don't go - come back - oh, yes... that's feeeeeeeeeeeels gooooooooood...' he taunted back.

Both Sirius's and Bella's cheeks turned slightly red.

'Thought so,' James smirked.

'James, dear brother, you spoilt the fun. We were going to wake you up with a cup of ice,' Hilary laughed. James sat up and stretched. He suddenly seemed to notice something interesting in the mirror across the room.

'What the hell! Sirius, Remus - have you been playing gay hairstylists again?' he whined, disbelievingly tugging at his pink hair.

'Yes,' we all chorused. He sighed.

'Don't give up your day jobs.'

'We won't,' Sirius assured him.

James laughed.

It was awhile before we got any sleep that night, too.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up entirely of my own accord. I was also very pleased at being able to do so. Especially considering it was a Saturday, which meant I could get a sleep in. And I did. I woke up just after nine thirty.

I climbed out and began to pull together an outfit so I could head to the shower. I quickly surveyed the room first. Bella was sitting on her bed, still in her pajamas, with her walkman, doing some homework. Toni appeared to be under her bed again. Hilary and Kelsey were sound asleep. I sighed and walked into the bathroom.

And nearly died of a heart attack.

Someone had evidently been in there, and had made a very large mess in the process. Yet it didn't quite seem accidental. Shampoo and hand cream was squirted all over the place. All of the towels and spare linen had been thrown in the bath, which was almost overflowing with water. Our make up had been emptied all over the floor. All in all, it wasn't a very pleasing sight.

'Bella?' I called.

'Yeah?' she answered, soon joining me in the bathroom. 'What's - Oh. My. God,' she said, taking in the mess. 'What the hell... ?'

'My thoughts exactly,' I breathed, still in disbelief.

'Oi! Hilary!' Bella hollered loudly, still gawking at what lay before her. We heard a lot of grumbling and cursing before Hilary shuffled in behind us.

'What?' she asked. She rubbed her eyes, and all of a sudden they opened wide. She swore very badly. 'What in hell?'

'Who would have done it?' I asked.

'Well, it wasn't any of us. And I don't think the other three would have done this, either,' Hilary thought out loud. 'The boys... ?'

'They wouldn't do something this drastic,' Bella defended.

'No, I don't think they would,' I agreed, stepping over the pile of make up to look around the corner.

It was my turn to use what seemed to be a very popular question that morning.

'What the hell?'

For written on the wall, in one of Bella's lipsticks, was a message.

This is only the beginning.

* * *

And the message was right. Over the next week, we had everything happen to us - from exploding of perfectly prepared potions to sabotaged assignments. And they kept happening. And they kept getting worse.

Two days after the bathroom episode, Hilary fractured her wrist after falling off a broom that had started bucking up during broomstick lessons.

The day after that, we had returned to our dormitory one night to find a cobra inside.

Three days later, I was called to the Hospital Wing. Bella had food poisoning.

The morning after, I received a note in the mail, with the letters cut out from newspapers and magazines. FeeD iT tHe FeAr...

Then it dawned on me. Malfoy. Snape. They were after me. Bella had come down with food poisoning after eating some cakes I had given her that I had received in the mail, and automatically assumed were from my mother. Hilary's broom had been sabotaged - but that broom had been intended for me. It was only by chance that I had flown a different broom that day - James had brought his and Sirius's brooms for us to fly on that day. As for the cobra - just about the whole school knew I was petrified of snakes. All of this stuff had been focused on me, yet by some strange luck I'd managed to avoid it. But it was hitting my friends instead.

At the time I began to realise this, I was nearing the end of a Transfiguration class. It was about five minutes before lunch. So as soon as class was over, I went straight out onto the grounds, not bothering to have lunch first. I needed to think, to get away from everything. There was one problem. Malfoy and his cronies seemed to have been coming back from Herbology, because, just my luck, I bumped right into none other than Lucius Malfoy himself.

A smile crept over his face.

'Oh, look. It's little mudblood Evans,' he sneered. I took a step back. Swallowing, but with a determined look on my face.

'Aren't you going to run away?' he taunted, advancing. I stood my ground.

'Why can't you just leave me alone?' I asked quietly.

'I've explained it to you before, Evans,' Malfoy snapped. 'Mudblood filth like you don't belong in this school. And it's people like me that fix that.' He shoved me, hard, back into a tree. I cringed when my back connected with the trunk. He aimed to punch me in the face, but I ducked just in time. Heart pounding, I scrambled away and began to run towards the castle, but he grabbed a hold of my robes and slammed me back against the wall.

'How dare you run away from me,' he said angrily, smashing his fist into my mouth. Ouch. I could taste the blood on my lips as he swung again, this time getting my eye. I kicked him hard in the shins before he could hit me again, and made to escape a second time, but he blocked my way and pushed me to the ground.

'Give up, Evans. Give up and go home,' he spat, kicking me. In the stomach, legs, head.

'Stop, please... please...' I pleaded, holding up my hands to shield my face. I crawled away from him, tried to raise myself, but he just kept pushing me back down.

'Go back to the mud you came from,' he sneered. After awhile he stopped, and I got up. I supposed he had wanted me to, because he'd tired of kicking me.

He came after me again, but I was ready that time. I kicked back, fought back, dodging and defending myself.

'Leave - me - alone - Malfoy,' I said through gritted teeth, elbowing him. He growled, and I kicked him swiftly in a place I supposed must have hurt, because he faltered for a minute. I took that as my cue to get away.

I didn't pay attention to where I was running. I just ran. 'If you tell anyone about this, Evans, I swear to god you will pay! You and your friends!' he yelled after me. And I was sure as hell he would. He would get back at me in every way possible.

When I was sure he wasn't following me, I slid down against the trunk of a tree to catch my breath, tears rolling down my cheeks. My shoulder felt bruised where he had grabbed me, and I was almost certain I had a black eye. My head was throbbing painfully, and I had dirt and blood all over my face. 'Geez, Lily. You'll have to be stronger than that if you want him to leave you alone,' I thought aloud to myself, massaging my shoulder. I cautiously lifted up my robes and a leg of my trousers. Nearly my entire right leg was covered in bruises. My chest ached with every breath.

'He probably broke a rib, you idiot,' I grumbled. I couldn't be bothered standing up, so I just sat there.

At some point, it started to rain. But I never got up. I couldn't. I didn't feel like me. I felt empty, and alone, and for the first real time in my life, slightly afraid. I didn't want to go back to the castle. I was too scared to face anyone right then.

Water began to run steadily down my face, and I attempted to wash some of the grime away as I stared blankly out over the lake. After what must have been hours, I heard someone calling my name, but I couldn't bring myself to respond. I was in some kind of trance.

'Lily! Lily?'

Footsteps, and leaves crunching underfoot.

'Lily? Oh gods, Lily! What happened to you?'

I looked up into the faces of James Potter and Sirius Black. Both were rather wet and muddy. But, I suppose, so was I.

I bit my lip and looked away, remembering what Malfoy had said.

'Lily? What happened? Who id this to you?' Sirius asked. I didn't answer. I felt James's eyes search my face, but I refused to look at him. His nostrils flared.

'Malfoy,' he spat, closing his eyes and clenching his fists. 'I swear I will kill that by-blow!' When he opened his eyes again, he took a few deep breaths, then crouched down next to me.

'Listen, Lily. You have to come up to the castle before you catch cold. And we'll need to take you to the Hospital Wing.'

I nodded.

'And you can tell Dumbledore what happened,' Sirius added. I looked sharply at James. 'James, I can't tell Dumbledore,' I said quickly.

'Why not? What did he say? He's threatened you, hasn't he?' Sirius growled.

'It's not the point, OK? It's not just me, it's my friends that he'll go after. And if I go and tell on him, he'll know I'm afraid, and that's exactly what he wants.'

'But by not telling you're giving him what he wants, Lily,' James said softly wrapping his cloak around me and pulling me to me feet.

'If it... if it happens again, maybe. But I can't tell anyone now,' I said firmly. 'What are we going to tell the matron?'

'I don't know. Make something up. But I'm not telling on Malfoy. It'll just cause more trouble.'

They both sighed and nodded, and we began walking slowly towards the castle, me limping and leaning on James for support. After a few minutes of silence, I began to cry again, letting out all the tears I had been trying to contain in front of Malfoy.

James looked surprised, and hugged me.

'Hey, Lily - ssh. What's wrong?' he asked softly.

'Everything,' I sniffed. 'Everything, James.'

'It's going to be alright, OK? You'll be fine as long as you have our friends,' Sirius said comfortingly, putting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded and gave a little laugh.

'I know. Thank you. But Malfoy's not going to give up.'

'Well he'll have to, Lily. Because you're not going anywhere,' James said firmly. 'Because as far as I'm concerned, Malfoy can go jump. We're going to give him a piece of mind, don't you worry.'

'Yeah,' Sirius laughed, trying to cheer me up. 'That is, of course, if we had a mind.' I laughed.

Where would I be without my friends?

~~*~~ Author's Note! ~~*~~

OK, hello everybody! I know a lot of you guys have been complaining about the dialogue being difficult to read. I'd just like you to know that it's not me, it's the site! All my speech is on a new line, but when I publish it comes out weird! In the past like, two, chapters, I think, I have tried double spacing between speech, paragraphs etc. Tell me if it works!

OK, my thank you's to all my reviewers, and answers to questions:

luv-jinxy : I know L&J are in the same year, I was just trying something different! As for the dialogue, see the author's note!

Rubberbandman : I'm glad you love it! Nice name, by the way.

Celine (cel_in2003@hotmail.com) : What a nice review! :)

Lizmaurder4eva : Yeah, I guess they were the spies! Chris is evil, but not in a Dark Arts sort of way. You will see in future chapters!

Clearbrook : I told my girl guide's leader that I have been officially awarded brownie points! (Actually, I left Girl Guides about three years ago but hey)

The Elfin Child : Lily's life is beginning to get very, well, 'depressing', I guess. It starts with Malfoy's bash up, but it gets worse. By the way, how's your head? Does hitting it on the sunset hurt? :P

Cinnamon : I most definitely will keep it up, even if you guys hate it! MUHAHAHAHA! *ahem* Excuse me, I'm on a sugar high.

Ella: I'm glad! Who wants to read a boring story?

Well, that's it for now! I'll try to post within the week! Keep reviewing, I'll love you if you do!

Sayonara,

Sezzie