A/N: A couple of things.

1: No Amy, it's not an AU. Would explain why not, but that'd spoil the story

2: It's their sixth year.

3: I will gladly change the title of chapter 9 if I get a better reason for it than "you should change the title."

4: The thing about students from more than two houses being in class together; I honestly thought that in "elective" subjects the mixed all four houses. My bad

5: I corrected a major error in chapter 3. I can't believe none of y'all have noticed *tutt tutt*… lol

That said;

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Chapter 10 – I'll be there

***

"And she hasn't come back, you say?"

 "No, headmaster."

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, his eyes searching Madam Pomfrey.

"Does her family know?" he asked.

"Yes," Pomfrey nodded. "It was them she went to visit. She never turned up there."

Dumbledore nodded. Pomfrey watched him expectantly, but it was long before he spoke.

"I do not think there is any need to alarm the students," he said at last. "We keep this as secret as we can. I will contact a friend at the Ministry, and have him instigate a search. You will take her position, Poppy. If the students ask any questions, please inform them that she is on holiday."

Pomfrey only nodded.

*

Lily sat curled up on the sofa, a blanket wrapped around her feet. The fireplace was empty. She hadn't bothered to light it. In her hand, she clutched the parchment envelope from Pomfrey. It had been tucked away in her robes for three days while she had tried not to think about it, but she couldn't ignore it any longer. She had to know.

But at the same time she was terrified. What if she was pregnant? She was only 16 after all, far too young to be a mother. She would have to end her studies. What would her parents say? What would Severus say? Lily was still angry with him but part of her was starting to forgive him, and she hated herself for it. 'I love him, the idiot,' she thought gloomily. Lily hadn't thought her life could get any worse after the unicorn, but after she and Severus had argued it had become unbearable. She knew he was jealous of James, and she could partly understand why. But how long would it take for him to trust her?

She played with the thought of not telling him, if it turned out she was pregnant, but she soon cast that aside. There was no way she could keep this a secret from him.

She jumped as the door creaked open. Severus looked surprised to see her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"You don't own the place, you know," Lily snapped.

"I know," he muttered. "I didn't mean it like that."

"No, you seem to say a lot of things you don't mean," Lily pointed out.

"I know," he sighed. "I'm so sorry about what I said, Lily."

"Took you long enough," she interrupted. She was not going to let him of the hook that easy.

"I've been trying to tell you for three days," he pointed out.

Lily didn't reply. She knew he was telling the truth; she had been avoiding him.

"What's that?" he asked, suddenly noticing the letter in her hand. "Has something happened?"

Lily shook her head, tucking the letter away.

"Lily, is something wrong?" he asked carefully.

"No, everything is fine," she tried to assure him, but the words came out strangely muffled.

He joined her on the sofa, but not before lighting the fire.

"I'm not going anywhere 'til you tell me what's wrong," he insisted.

Lily didn't reply, but Severus kept looking expectantly at her. She didn't return the gaze.

"Fine," he sighed at last, getting up. "I get it. You're still angry, and I can't say I blame you." He had almost reached the door when her voice stopped him:

"Severus, I think I'm pregnant."

He stopped dead, his hand halfway to the door-handle.

"What?" he managed, turning back.

"I think I'm pregnant," Lily repeated, avoiding his eye.

"But… but how?" he stuttered.

"That's kind of obvious, isn't it?" Lily muttered.

"But we've been so careful," he started again.

"Not careful enough," Lily sighed.

There was a long, awkward silence. Lily stared at the fireplace.

"Say something," she finally said, shaking him out of his thoughts.

"I'm just surprised," he said.

"Shocked, you mean?" Lily corrected him.

"No… well, yeah," he admitted. "But in a good way."

He walked over, kneeling in front of her. Lily looked up at him.

"We'll make it work, somehow," he whispered. "If you are… I love you, you know I do."

"I know," she nodded, tears welling up in her eyes. He pulled her close to him, and she sobbed silently against his shoulder.

"Lily, I'm sorry," he started.

"It's forgotten," she whispered. "You might be an idiot at times, but I still love you." He had to smile.

She pulled the letter out of her robes, handing it to him. He looked at it as if it was something sacred.

"The results?" he asked, and she nodded.

"You read it. I can't bear to."

He took it from her and opened it, his hands trembling. Lily watched as his eyes scanned the letter. Suddenly, they stopped, fixed on a spot on the page.

"Well?" she asked carefully. "Am I?"

He looked up at her, his mouth twitching into an odd, careful little smile.

"I am?" Lily asked, and he nodded. She leaned back, tears welling up in her eyes again, and he stopped smiling.

"I'll be here for you," he promised. "We'll make it work… somehow."

She looked up at him, smiling gratefully though her tears, and he returned the smile carefully.

*

Severus leaned back in one of the black leather chairs in the Slytherin common room. He had left Lily in the office. She said she wanted time to herself. He could use some too. Lily was… pregnant. The thought was still sinking in. He was going to be a father… Assuming she wanted to keep it of course. What if she didn't? Part of him felt sad at the idea that she wouldn't want it. But they were 16. Or, she was. He had turned 17 in February. But they were still far to young to become parents. He didn't even want to think of what his mother would say. She didn't know about Lily, and now he had to tell her she was going to be a grandmother… To the child of a mudblood. The very idea was laughable. She would turn him out. He would never be allowed to set foot in that house again. And his uncle… He would be furious.

'I'm getting ahead of myself again,' he thought. Until he knew if Lily was even going to keep the child, there was no point in him worrying. But he still couldn't help liking the thought. Him, Lily and a baby.

*

Lily touched the parchment with her quill again, but a moment later she removed it, leaving a spot of ink. She was trying to write her parents a letter, telling them about the baby, but she had no idea how to start it. It wasn't that they were going to get angry. She knew they wouldn't. That was the problem really. They were just going to be disappointed, and that was a million times worse. She was already a disappointment to them as it was. She had been for the past six years. Since the day she got her letter.

The memory of that day was still frozen in her mind. Her mother bringing her the funny looking letter, Lily opening it and reading it out loud. The colour draining slowly from her sister's face as Lily read. Her father had stopped eating, the toast halfway to his mouth. When she had finished, there had been a long silence, and then a sudden, loud crash as Rose Evans had dropped her tea. Lily, a witch? She couldn't be. There was no such thing as magic.

All her future plans had changed right there. Her father was a veterinarian, and Lily had been helping him at the clinic for as long as she could remember. Since Petunia's only dream seemed to be ending up as a housewife, it had always been assumed Lily would be the one to take over her dad's practice. And she wanted to, she loved animals. But the letter had changed all that. Suddenly a wide range of new career options had opened up to her. She could have turned Hogwarts down, but at eleven, that hadn't even been an option. Looking back, she almost wished she had.

Lily put the parchment away. She couldn't tell them. Not yet. They didn't even know about Severus. Was she going to dump both a boyfriend and a baby on them at the same time? No, that was too much all at once. The only one Lily could imagine would be pleased was Petunia, but for all the wrong reasons. Petunia enjoyed nothing more than seeing Lily fail, and she was sure to see this as the ultimate failure.

She checked her watch. A quarter past midnight. Her roommates were all asleep. Lily envied them. They didn't have any problems, unless you counted how to wear your hair a problem. Lily had never been close to the other three. They had been too different for that. And they were all purebloods, and even though it had never been said or hinted Lily got the feeling they looked down at her. She had been glad when she met Marianne. Marianne was halfblood, she couldn't care less about bloodlines. Whenever the subject came up, she would just shrug and say "We're all wizards here."

The moon shone through the window and onto Lily's pillow. It was full tonight. Lily walked over to the window and looked down at the grounds. Astonished, she saw a stag standing on the grass. It was alert, it's gaze turned to the doors. Lily watched as they opened, and someone who looked remarkably like Sirius (though she couldn't really tell from this high up) emerged. He looked quickly around, and disappeared into the bushes next to the entrance. Lily waited for him to come back, but he didn't. Suddenly something large and black jumped out of the bushes. It looked like a big, black dog. It joined the stag, and they set across the grounds towards the Whomping Willow. Lily watched in amazement as the tree, which had been swinging its branches fiercely, suddenly froze up. The dog ducked into the shadows of it, and disappeared. The stag looked around the grounds again. Then, slowly, it started transforming. Lily gasped loudly as it turned into a boy. He turned his head quickly, and the moon reflected in his glasses. There was no mistaking him, even from where Lily was standing. It was James Potter. She watched as James too ducked into the shadows of the Willow and out of sight.

Lily continued to watch the willow for what seemed like an eternity, but the two did not emerge. Should she fetch a teacher? What if they were in danger? Then she suddenly remembered what James had told her about Remus. She returned to her bed, closing the drapes to shut the moon out.

So James and Sirius were Animagi.

"Who knew," she muttered to herself. They had probably done it to be able to spend time with Remus. Werewolves weren't dangerous to other animals. But how had they gotten the Willow to freeze up? She knew about the knot, Severus had told her. But neither James nor Sirius had been close enough to press it when the tree had stiffened. Suddenly a line came to her. She had heard James say it a thousand times as a joke. "Peter, you little rat." Of course Peter was an Animagi too. A rat. He would be small enough to escape the branches, and press the little knot.

"You think you know somebody," she muttered to herself, turning over. She pulled the Pensieve out from underneath her bed, and added her latest discovery to it before she turned pulled her blanket over her head and fell asleep.

*

"EXAMS?"

"Yes, Mr. Black," McGonagall said. "Were you under the impression that you would not be getting any this year?" The class sniggered.

"I'll fail Potions," Sirius muttered. "Avery's got it in for me."

"Well, maybe if you if you spent more time paying attention and less time plotting to kill your classmates," Lily blurted out before she had time to think.

Sirius grinned, and was about to make a remark back when James kicked him under the desk.

"Shut up for once, Padfoot," he muttered, earning himself a confused look from Sirius.

"Well, I hope we're not catching unicorns for our Care of Magical Creatures exam," Lucius said, earning him sniggers from the Slytherins.

Lily went flushing red.

"Put a plug in it, Malfoy," Sirius spat. "Before I do."

"Don't bother," Lily whispered. "He's not worth it."

*

Suddenly the students found themselves buried in books, studying for the exams. Lily spent most her time in the library, where she could sneak off behind the shelves to be alone. She had found a corner far in the back of the muggle-section that where no one ever came, and there she sat, trying to keep her mind on her exams. But it kept straying off. She had to decide what to do soon. She knew she couldn't keep the baby. She wasn't even sure she wanted it. It was too soon. What did she know about being a parent?

"Lily, I need a word." She startled, looking up at James.

"Yes?"

"Not here," he said, and she followed him out of the library. The walked down the hall a bit before James started talking.

"I've been keeping and eye on you lately," he said carefully. "And you've not been yourself. I'm worried… is something the matter?"

Lily shook her head. "No, why would there be?"

"You've just seemed a bit… off," James said. "If something is wrong, you know you can talk to me."

"Nothing's the matter, James," Lily assured him. "I'm fine."

"Is it something to do with Snape?" he asked.

"What on earth would he have to do with anything?" Lily laughed, her heart skipping a beat.

"Lily, I know that you… and he." James stopped mid-sentence, looking expectantly at her.

"You've got a very vivid imagination, James," she smiled. "Could you imagine Severus Snape in a relationship with a mudblood?"

"If that mudblood is you; yes," James said, suddenly getting very interested in a spot on his shoe.

"Well, I assure you he isn't," Lily smiled, her cheeks going red.

"Lily, he's bad news," James started.

"Why does everyone tell me that?" Lily interrupted. "It's all I've been hearing for weeks now. I wish people would just butt out. I can be friends with whoever I like."

"Lily, his family has more dark wizards than all of England," James said. "Snape is."

"Not like that," Lily interrupted. "When have you ever taken the time to get to know him? You don't know what he's like. As far as you're concerned, he's just someone you and the guys can practice your pranks on."

"Lily, his father knew more dark arts than any wizard in the country," James said. "And Severus is no better."

"He is," Lily said coldly. "And he's a million times better than you, James."

She turned on her heel, and disappeared down the hall. James watched her turn the corner at the end of it. He sighed, and was about to head for the library again when a scream made him stop. It was followed by a terrible racket. 

"Lily," he said, hurrying after hear. He turned the corner, and stopped in front of the staircase.

Lily was lying on the ledge below it, her books scattered around her.

"Lily!" he shouted, hurrying down the stairs. He kneeled down next to her. "Lily, can you hear me?"

She didn't react.

"Lily!"

He shook her slightly, not sure if she was injured, or how injured she was.

"Lily, please," he whispered, stroking her cheek.

"James! What is going on?" McGonagall was standing at the top of the stairs.

"She fell," James started. "The stairs… she."

McGonagall hurried down to them, kneeling next to Lily.

"Miss Evans, can you hear me?"

Lily didn't stir.

"Miss Evans," McGonagall repeated in a harsher tone. "Lily, can you hear me?"

Lily still lay motionless.

"Go fetch Madam Pomfrey," McGonagall ordered. James didn't need to be told twice, and sped down the hall while McGonagall remained next to Lily's motionless body.

***

Sorry, I just had to do the cliffhanger.

Thanks again to all my reviewers.