9

The walk back to the castle was slow; each one took their time, walking lazily down the road. The threat of curfew violation did not seem to bother anyone; instead they passed the excursion in silence - even Sirius. Well, almost. He had had one too many butter beers, and Lily listened to him ramble on and on to Remus about his ideas to engineer a faster broomstick. Arabella was observing the beautiful nature scene, and Alice lagged behind with James. Lily liked the feeling of the cold fall wind. She was not the least bit tired; finally she decided to take care of some necessary business that very evening.

At the entrance to the castle, Lily paused. As James walked past, she subtly touched his arm, causing him to turn immediately. Before Alice realized he was distracted and came to investigate, Lily whispered "Meet me in the common room after they're asleep."

James gave a subtle nod, an indication he understood. He turned around and rejoined the group. Lily followed.

*

Later, hearing the familiar breathing and sounds of her friends asleep, Lily crept out of the room. They had not been looking when she got into bed; she had left on a pair of jeans. She grabbed a sweater for later, and headed out the door.

Downstairs, he was waiting for her. He was holding the cloak.

"Where do you want to go?" asked James.

"It seems you're the expert on places to go in the castle at night, you choose. Somewhere there is no chance of us being interrupted," she replied.

"Alright," he replied, after a moment of thought. He stood, and motioned her to the portrait hole. Once there, he covered them both, and the door swung open. There was such silence in the castle that the simple noise of the door on its hinges seemed to echo and resonate in every hall. Lily felt it to be unbearably loud.

They walked slowly to be silent. Not only was there complete silence, but there was a stillness to everything around them, as if every object were waiting in the dark, frozen. James led Lily down what seemed to be the darkest, smallest corridors. There were many staircases, and Lily knew they were moving towards a tower. She guessed the west tower, a small structure used mostly now for storage. When it seemed they could get no farther, James led her into a room with a low, wooden beamed ceiling. From there, he unlatched a lock above them and pulled a trap door complete with sliding ladder down.

"It looks like the ladder to our attic," commented Lily.

James seemed to understand her comparison. He motioned her up the stairs first, and when they had both ascended, he pulled the door up and shut behind them. Lily pulled out her wand.

"Luminous," she whispered.

The room was somewhat small, but only because it's walls were lined with bookshelves, and in turn those were stocked with old books. There was a small dark wooden table, low to the ground, and several old chairs. The fabric appeared as if it used to be velvet, but had torn and matted in places with age. Lily figured the professors had tired of fixing them with magic, and opted for new furniture. Some of the books were out of date, some were extra copies of what Lily recognized was already in the library. Yes, this was just another storage space. Too small for a classroom, too far from the dormitories. She looked at James.

"Filch and the cat don't usually patrol this tower often," he explained, "and if they managed to get up here, I doubt he would remember the trap door, and that there is a storage attic up here. Plus no one can hear us. We're pretty safe."

Lily nodded, and went to the table. She managed to light several old, half used candles with magic, and sat in one of the chairs. James took a seat next to her.

Lily didn't bother to hesitate, she dove right in. She took two books out a bag she had brought. One was the small black book James recognized. The other was also somewhat familiar to him - it read "A History of Hogwarts."

Lily clasped her hands, leaned her elbows on her knees, and leaned forward, the candlelight playing dangerously on her features.

"James, I've been lying to you," she began. Staring him straight in the eye, she continued without emotion. "It's true that my parents have no magical powers. Neither did any of my grandparents, in fact, my family has been muggle for a long time. However, they haven't always been."

James was confused at this omission. It is true that after years of living without magic, it would only be natural for a family to acclimate themselves to a non-magical culture. But that had to be impossible - Lily being the only Evans in years to have magic in her veins - what happened to the rest of her family?

"Putting that aside for the moment," Lily continued, "I need you to look at this." With that she opened the book to one of the chapters discussing the founding members of the school. Griffyndor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin. Lily stopped on a portrait of Salazaar Slytherin, and pushed the book over the James.

"Look, James," she said. James took the volume; he had seen this portrait before, many times in his history classes. He studied the picture closely, noting nothing exceptional about it. He turned skeptically to Lily.

"What?" he asked.

"His hands, James," Lily said.

James looked at his hands. Sure enough, as had somehow managed to allude his attention before, Slytherin was holding something. A small black book. James caught on to Lily's implication. He laughed.

"Lily, seriously. You can't honestly think that this could be the same book. There must be thousands of small black books around, and this was so long ago. What makes you think this is the same, and how would you know that anyways?" James asked condescendingly.

With that sentence, he pushed the book and picture back towards Lily. Lily was viably irritated at his attitude, but held her patience, it seemed that she recognized what she was going to say would be difficult to accept.

"James, I told you my family wasn't always a muggle family. There aren't many left alive that even remember a time when their own grandparents practiced magic. It has all but died out. I had to dig James, I had to dig around to find out why I of all people ended up like this, with magic," Lily paused, and leaned back a bit in her chair.

"The only one I could find was my grandmother. She is very old, and she barely remembers the story as told to her by her older relatives. That and she was terrified, scared to talk about it, scared that I had even asked. But she did tell me bits and pieces - I know small parts of the story. It seems that long ago, when Slytherin was separating from Hogwarts and the other founders, there was a great deal of unrest in the world of magic. I know my family was a wizarding family, she told me that much. I also know that somehow, though I have no idea how or why, Slytherin stripped my family of all their powers. We were cursed, my grandmother said, she said the legend was that he brought his wrath down my ancestors and all those to come after, completely destroying the chance for us to use magic. At that point, my grandmother began to get tears in her eyes - she apologized for telling me the story, she claims that it's just a tale, a myth meant to scare. She almost refused to talk about it again, and answered only one more question - But anyways, I was skeptical, but the rest of my family either doesn't know about the world of magic, or lives in denial of it. How could she have known the names, the circumstances - how could she have made it up?"

"Wait, wait, wait Lily," interrupted James, "There is a problem with your story. If your family was cursed, then how is it that you have magical powers?"

Lily was silent for a moment, then whispered, "That was the only other question she would answer, before she was silent on the subject forever. I asked her just that, how was it then I'm a witch?"

Lily looked up at James, and spoke slowly. "Her face masked over in this kind of blunt horror. She looked absolutely terrified. All she would say was: 'You're not supposed to. It's supposed to be impossible, Lily. There's something wrong.' I didn't know what to think - then I let it go," she finished.

James got chills at the realization there was something wholly unnatural about Lily Evans. But then again, Lily seemed to know more, or have more to say than she was telling him. He sensed danger in her, but not necessarily towards himself. Still, he did not trust her.

Lily seemed to sense his uneasiness, and moved on to more business. "Anyways, you asked me how I know that this is Salazaar Slytherin's book. I saw Lucius Malfoy take it out of his trunk at the railways station at the beginning of term. For a split second I saw it in his hand. I immediately remembered the portrait, it flashed into my mind like a shot of lightning. And I knew. Just like I knew the sky is blue, James, I felt it. And I knew I had to get it, I had to take it from him. I had to know what was in it. Why would such an evil and powerful family entrust such a valuable possession to their son, who is going to Hogwarts?"

"Well that one is easy Lily. It's the last place the ministry will look. People's houses are getting searched; checks are everywhere, what with the suspicious activity going on. And isn't it clever to stick it right under the enemy's nose, where they wouldn't even think to search?" James added with a laugh. "But the thing I don't get is why you care. What do you have to do with the Malfoys, the Slytherins, with any of it? Where do you fit in?" he asked her.

"He knows who I am," she said in a low voice.

"What? Who are you talking about?" James said a bit too loudly.

"You know James. You know exactly who I mean," she replied, and James could see Lily did in fact know he was acutely aware of who she was referring to.

"They know, they know who I am, what I am, and what I'm not supposed to be," she said.

"How would you know that?"

Lily paused for a moment, and seemed deep in thought. Finally, she responded, "I've had dreams, I sense something horrible in them, but I don't know what it is. And I've been followed before, I can tell when someone is behind me. Sometimes, in large crowds, I feel eyes on me. You know, you can tell when someone is looking at you; you feel the weight of their stare. I feel many. I know I am being watched. I don't think they pose a threat right now but - "

"But what?" asked James.

"I think they're coming for me. Or they will eventually. I don't know why, I couldn't tell you why I have magic powers, or why I think a bunch of sinister villain types are observing me from afar, or how He knows who I am. All I know is that this is the book James, and I was supposed to get it. I need to know what's in it. I've heard before that everything happens for a reason - I have no idea about that or what I'm meant for, but this book it part of it," she finished.

Lily had left herself slightly vulnerable at the end of her story. James knew she was waiting to hear what he thought.

This was not what he expected, but that was irrelevant. He sensed no tone of deceit to make him wary of her motives, and if she gave no indication of evil, he could make no objections. She had her reasons, he had his. Anything to achieve an end - to find out what was in the book and use it against its owners. Besides, felt somehow that this much, this little bit she had told him, was the truth.

"Evans, what will you do when you unlock the book, and find out what's in it?"

Lily was silent. She did not answer.

"Well, Evans?"

"I told you I didn't have to answer all your questions. Besides, I've said enough for today," Lily said.

James didn't press her. Instead he followed her gaze to a candle on the table, burnt so low it was drowning its own flame.