Chapter Seven -  A Lily Point Of View.


Sirius tightly shut the door to the empty charms classroom and turned to face Remus and Peter.

"James has been acting really strange lately," he said, stating the obvious. "He hasn't played a prank since school started, he's shutting us out and devoting his life to Lily Evans AND he hasn't dated ANYBODY all YEAR! He hasn't even looked at a girl! We have to get the real James back!"

Yeah, Sirius. Real deep. But that's what all four (or three - we all know who's exempt) of the Marauders were truly like. They were shallow, they dated more girls than what was good for them, and went around thinking they were the top dogs in the school (which they were; but that's not the point). You can imagine the shock the Marauders got when James changed. He had become so deep. Remus and Peter nodded in agreement at Sirius' statement.

"We have to get the Lily girl away from him. She's BRAINWASHING him into LIKING her without even SPEAKING!"

"But how?" asked Peter. "How are we going to get her away from him?"

"Gather 'round, boys. The great Sirius Black has a plan."

**

James looked sadly at the girl down the end of his dorm. He wished he could make the pain go away for her, but it was hard when she wouldn't let him. To put it plainly, James felt sad and lonely. He had committed himself to spending everyday with an equally lonely girl who wasn't really much in the way of company. He could feel himself growing away from his friends, losing his popularity, He could imagine what they were saying about him, and he didn't like it. He wished life would just go back to the way it was. And you know what? If "operation Lily" succeeded, it would.

"Lily?" he tapped her on the shoulder gently. "It's time to go to class,"

**

"Today, as you know, we will be making truth potions. You will go in pairs, and at the end of the lesson one of you will test your potion." He waved his wand at the blackboard, and instantly the complicated instructions appeared.

James observed Lily carefully, watching her pour out exactly 50 mLs of snake venom. You know, I'd really like to get to know her, he thought. But how?

"Class, it is now time to test your potions. Please pour your solutions into your beakers and when I tell you, you may test it. Group number one: Severus and Lucius. Lucius, please take just one small drop of your potion." Lucius did so, and a glazed look came over his face (A/N: Mmmm.glazed doughnuts..).

"What is your full name?"

"Lucius Tulliens Dormeins Malfoy the seventeenth," he answered immediately, in a voice that suggested that he was on a drug of some sort.

"Correct. You may sit down. Take this," Snape took a small vial from Hardcastle and passed it to Lucius. Lucius drank and his normal sneer returned.

"Well done, boys, ten points to Slytherin. Group two: Lily Evans and James Potter. Lily, please take a sip," Hardcastle grinned cruelly. Lily recoiled in fear, looking like a frightened rabbit.

"She can't!" James said angrily. He knew what Hardcastle was trying to do. He was trying to con Lily into speaking when she wasn't ready. Worse still, he was trying to get her to reveal her innermost secrets. James' blood began to boil.

"And why not, Mr. Potter?" the Slytherins snickered, enjoying the show.

"You know she can't!"

"Are you questioning my authority?" Hardcastle's voice began to rise.

"Damn right I am!" You know you can't do that!"

"Evans is a student at this school and she will be treated just like any other. Now drink the potion." He commanded. Lily didn't move. She just looked at him.

"I said, DRINK THE POTION!!"

He was yelling now, and James just snapped. He grabbed the beaker and drank the whole thing. One drop is just enough for you to reveal facts about yourself when asked, but after drinking an entire beaker he started gabbling like there was no tomorrow.


"I'mfeelingreallydowncozmymumdiedandshewasrealllyclosetomeandilovedherverymuchandnowshesgoneandlilyseemssomuchlikeherandidon'twanthertogetherandenduplik emymumbecauseifeelsorrysorryforherbutshewon'ttalktomeandifeelstupidnowbecaus eithoughticouldmakeadifferencetoherlifeand-"

(Translation: I'm feeling really down coz my mum died and she was really close to me and I loved her so much and now she's gone and Lily seems so much like her and I don't want her to get hurt and die like my mum and I feel so sorry for her but she won't talk to me and I feel stupid now because I thought I could make a difference to her life but-"

"SILENCE!" roared Hardcastle, stalking up and literally forcing the contents of the vile down James' throat. The entire class was stunned. James had always been the perfect one, the guy everybody (except the Slytherins) loved, the one without a worry in the world, who had always kept his cool no matter what. For the entire potions class to find out that his mum had died and his feelings for Lily was a huge shock, especially to Lily, who just ran out of the classroom, clutching only her little green notebook.

"She's bewitched him," whispered Remus to Sirius. "He can't really feel for her. He can't feel her pain,"

"Do we go through with Operation Lily?" whispered Peter.

"Definitely," the whispered back.

**

James ran down the corridors to the Gryffindor common room, eyes darting from side to side, looking for Lily. He wasn't supposed to let her out of his sight. Only a day and he had failed. He'd lost any chance of getting to know what he had been sure was a beautiful person forever. He had poured his secrets out and now she was gone.

Panting, he reached the boy's (and girl) dorm, but I was empty. Exhausted, he went to his bed to sit down, but on his pillow was..the little green notebook.

He picked it up, and a piece of parchment slipped out the front. It said in neat cursive

Dear James,

After spending a little amount of time near you, I knew you were different. I knew you felt the pain that I carry with me everyday. In the potions lesson, I realized that I had to tell somebody what I feel. Writing in my notebook isn't enough. It will never take away the pain I feel. This is my life, James.

Lily.

Amazed, James slowly opened the little green notebook, and something else slipped out. It was a muggle newspaper article, titled "Acid Thrower Sentenced to Life in Prison".

David Evans of Carlisle, England was today given a life sentence from the Honorable Judge William Gregory for throwing concentrated acid in his daughter's face.

Lily Rose Evans, a happy eleven-year old, was baking cookies in the kitchen with her mother when Evans came in suddenly with a small bucket and aimed the contents at 35 year old Rose Evans, not realizing his daughter was in the room. The entire contents of the bucket landed on Lily's face, neck and shoulders, and only through quick action by the emergency ward doctors at St. Peter's were they able to stop the acid from soaking through the skull into the brain.

"Lily is a smart child, and lucky to have avoided brain damage. However, the emotional damage is far worse, and at the moment there are no possible means for us to properly graft skin back on to Lily's face. Unless plastic surgery research speeds up by light years, which, by the extreme lack of funding it looks like it won't, we will never be able to restore her face, neck and shoulders back to it's original state.

Mr. Evans claimed in court last week that he and his wife had had an "argument" over which boarding school Lily was to attend that year, and as a result, Evans blew up and left the house. Lily and her sister, Petunia, were consoled by her mother, who suggested they bake cookies while "daddy went out" were having much fun, apparently, until Petunia went to go to the toilet and Mr. Evans came in. He pleaded guilty to a judge and full jury and was sentenced today.

Lily is still at St. Peters but has been moved the he physiological ward where hopefully she will fully recover. She has not said a word since the action and testified in court with "yes" and "no" palm cards. The Opposition are shocked at this and have launched a new campaign in which there will be a law stating that children cannot testify for or against their parents.

Any well wishes to Lily or donations to the Lily Evans Foundation can be made by calling the
St. Peters Hospital.

Cover story by Ivy Kearney.


James did nothing but gape at the article, and the still picture beside it of a bright, happy girl on a muggle swing, grinning at the camera as a young, lean man pushed her. How could he do that to her? He thought. How could somebody wish Lily's fate upon somebody else? She lives through a horrible and terrifying experience, comes to the school that her father got a life sentence for nor wanting to, and on her first full day she gets beaten up, almost to death once more. How does she stay alive every day, having that weight upon her shoulders? He glanced at the note.

Writing in my notebook isn't enough. It will never take away the pain I feel.

James turned his eyes to the first page of the little green book and began to read.


Dear Diary,

September 1

I know why they've sent me here. They've sent me here to learn how to talk again. I wasn't making any progress at the hospital so they sent me here, to a magical school, like Mother wanted me to. She wanted me to be just like Great-Aunty Kaye, who went to a French wizarding school. She was a wonderful person; the best in the world. But I'll never be like her. Not after that day.

Father didn't want me to go. He wanted me to go to a boarding school that he knew and trusted, one that all his workmates' daughters went to. He got angry at Mother. Just over one little fight, my life got changed forever. The world I knew, the world I loved; fell apart. My mother is depressed. My father is in prison. For life. And my sister hates me, because she thinks it's all my fault. And for once, she's right. It is my fault.

I wish I had never been magic. I wish that I didn't want to be like Great- Aunty Kaye so much that I begged my parents to go. I just want to be normal. Just for once, I'd like to be happy. For one moment, that's all I ask. One moment, when my life feels like it used to be, not in a hospital, where there's no space even to breathe, not here, where everybody stares at me, looking into my soul, where I used to be. Only three years, but such a lot has happened. I wish so much to have my face fixed, to be treated like everybody else. But you can't take back time. That's what Doctor Shale says.

I got sorted into a house today. I got in Gryffindor, the bravest house. I don't know why, though. I've never been brave. I'm too cowardly to even speak, to say what I feel. "Get over it. Get a life!" one of the girls in my dorm just said. How, when I have nobody. You can never start completely from scratch. You have to have something. I have nothing. Nobody. Not even a pet, like a dog, that I can confide in. Nobody loves me. And I'm not sure that I can love anybody, either.

All the lights in my dormitory have been turned out, so it looks like I'll be going to sleep.

I wish I was a bird. I wish I could just fly away from everything.

Lily.

A/N: Yay! It was longer! Thanks for reading!