A/N: Shall we grovel? Much groveling is to be done, seeing as we haven't written for approximately FOUR MONTHS, something that we promised we'd never do again. But well, stuff happens. Stuff that we're sure you don't want to hear about, but if you actually do, then do not e-mail Ariana, e- mail Clara. She will be happy to give you the rundown of WHY exactly we haven't written in four months. claraseven@hotmail.com

Remember how we said we were going to write in the one who guessed the last word correctly? Well, that's what we're doing right now! You'll meet Aurelle Bobbins this chapter.

Without further ado, here's chapter 71. It's a meaty one :o)

Lily

Chapter 71

The post-win bliss was intense, but short-lived. It was hardly a day later when Lily and the four Marauders were summoned to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"I have heard-" Dumbledore began as soon as they were all seated.

"Oh, Lord," James muttered under his breath.

"Elric," Sirius whispered. "I'll kill him with my bare hands."

"I have heard that you five were in Hogsmeade this past Saturday. Is that true?"

They all nodded hesitantly.

"I see. Now." He paused and looked around at each of them. Instead of sounding punitive and angry, his tone was one of surprise and almost admiration. "How did you find yourselves in Hogsmeade without the permission of any teacher?"

Everyone looked towards Sirius, who had gone slightly pale. He cleared his throat. "Well, Headmaster, we were walking around looking for, erm, well, we were walking around, and then we just happened, quite by chance of course, to find a tunnel instead of the door to a classroom, and it led to Hogsmeade, so who were we to not take advantage of such an opportunity?"

Dumbledore's eyes sparkled in amusement. "One of your less believable lies, Mr. Black. May I hear the equally unbelievable truth? Mr. Lupin?"

Remus looked up as though startled from a sound sleep. "Me?"

"Yes, how did you get to Hogsmeade on Saturday?"

"We...um...er...we used a map."

"A map? What sort of map?"

Remus swallowed and looked to his comrades. "A special map?" he offered weakly.

"We made the map," James admitted.

Then Sirius spoke up, truthfully for once. "In our second year."

"It's a map of the Hogwarts grounds, and all the secret passageways." Lily said quietly.

Dumbledore's face was grim. "And you have been using this map since then?"

All of them nodded ashamedly, except Peter, who was looking out the window. He hadn't said a word the entire time.

"Mr. Pettigrew, where is this map right now?" Dumbledore said, prompting him gently.

Peter turned and looked at the headmaster, but gave him nothing except a blank stare.

"Where is the map?"

Another blank stare.

"It has to be confiscated," he said calmly. "Where is it?"

Everyone cringed at the word "confiscated," but Peter just shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know." It was a lie, and everyone knew it. James always carried the map; Sirius had too much random garbage in his pockets.

"I've got it, Professor Dumbledore," James said, drawing it out of his robes and handing it across the desk.

Dumbledore inspected it. With a hint of impatience in his voice, he turned it over and over. "It's blank."

"Now it is," Lily said.

Then, much to her surprise, Dumbledore smiled. "Ingenious. If you actually made this as second-years, I commend you highly. Yes, I know what you've done to this piece of parchment, it's obvious from what you've told me thus far. But I think you should know that I myself could not have done this until I had graduated Hogwarts."

Sirius and James smiled. "So, can we have it back?"

"You misunderstand. This is an ingenious article, but still an illegal article. No, the extent of my charity in this case will be to refrain from asking you the password, and to refrain from giving you detentions. But fifteen points will be taken from Gryffindor, and Mr. Filch will keep this map filed away in his office. I won't tell him what it is." He smiled at the map again. "Magnificent. Now go on, go down to dinner, all of you."

As they were leaving, Dumbledore called Lily's name. She paused and turned around in the doorway. "Yes?"

"We have determined where you'll be staying this summer."

Her heart skipped a beat. She had forgotten completely that she couldn't stay with James anymore. "Oh…where?"

"There is a family by the name of Bobbins. Their daughter is a Hufflepuff, a third-year. They live near the Potters, only about ten minutes' walk away."

"That's great!" Lily exclaimed.

"Yes, we took into account that you would want to be close to the Potters. James especially," he said with a sly grin.

Lily blushed. "Thank you, Professor."

"Good-night, Lily."

Lily and Juno sat at their table in the Divination room. Lynn Hartwith was smoothing her hair and chattering annoyingly to her friends. "I hear that the new teacher's a boy. A young boy. I mean, he's not old. Like he isn't as old as Dumbledore, I mean. I hope he's cute."

Juno growled. "If she doesn't stop talking soon, I swear I'll knock her teeth out!"

"Well, I mean, it wouldn't be the same if he were a bad teacher, obviously, but if he were cute, and a good teacher, that would be just the best. Professor Trombley was cute. And he was a good teacher. But the problem is that he was in love with Professor Lollio. That always seems to happen." Then she gasped. "What if this new professor is cute, young, a good teacher, and falls in love with....McGonagall??? That would be devastating! But at least he'd be cute."

"That does it!" Juno said tensely. She got up and pulled Lynn to her feet. "Listen. You would think that a potted plant was cute, providing that it was male. You're boy-crazy. You like ANY man that comes within ten feet of you. I guarantee that you'll think the new teacher is cute. Okay?"

Lynn narrowed her eyes coldly. "You act as though I haven't got any standards."

"That's because you don't." Juno sat back down. "Lily, do you have any earplugs?"

Before Lily could answer, the new teacher walked to the front of the room. Her chair was facing away from the desk, so she heard his voice first. "Hello, class. I'm Professor Montgomery."

There was something familiar about that voice. Familiar, but scary. She froze and looked down at the table.

"I look forward to teaching you. Perhaps I'll have a bit more staying power than your previous instructors."

The class laughed, but Lily couldn't shake the strange feeling in her gut. She slowly turned around.

"So many new faces," the voice said. "I like new faces."

The face that Lily saw when she turned around was anything but new.

"But some of you…I recognize some of you."

It was Perry Miffleby, and he was staring directly at her.

"James! Sirius!" Lily yelled, storming into the common room with Juno at her heels. "I…he's… have you seen…HA!" she was pacing jerkily, the words falling all over each other in her head.

Juno settled onto the arm of a chair that Remus was sitting in. "She's been like this since Divination. She hasn't finished a sentence yet."

"Lily, what's going on?" James said.

"Teacher! The…he's the…remember?"

Sirius looked intently at her. "I think someone hit her with a Babbling Charm."

"Take a deep breath and talk."

She breathed in slowly, and then let the words spill out. "The new Divination teacher is Perry Miffleby and I don't know why he's here but I think he might want to kill me or something."

"Someone else wants to kill you?" Peter observed. "Isn't this getting a little repetitive?"

You shouldn't talk, she wanted to say. "I don't know, he's just - he says his name is Professor Montgomery, but he's Perry Miffleby, I know it!" Then it hit her that Peter probably knew it, too. He had been so quiet lately. He hadn't done anything to her or anyone else since Amelia had been killed. That was a year and a half ago. There had to be something going on. Voldemort always had something up his sleeve.

"Are you sure it's him?" Sirius said.

"I don't know who else it could be!" She faltered. "Well, I guess I could just be imagining it."

James shuddered. "All the same, I don't like the idea of being near anyone who can trap me in a mirror if he wants to. We'll check it out tomorrow at breakfast."

Peter, Remus, and Juno stared in confusion. "Who's Perry Miffleby?"

"Long story, we'll get to it later. But for now, all you've got to know is that he's out for Lily's blood."

That alone raised a chill on Lily's arms. Peter yawned. "Who isn't?"

"Shut up, Peter!" she exploded.

Peter stopped mid-yawn and goggled at her. At first she didn't realize what she had done, but then her heart pounded in her ears. "Peter." she mumbled in shock.

"What?" he said nervously.

How could she say his name? The curse, the curse! Was it broken? She pointed at him and tried to say it again. "P…p…"

"Um, Lily?" Remus raised his eyebrows at her. "What are you doing?"

The name was swallowing itself back down her throat. It wasn't coming out again. The same old shadow that she remembered so well passed over his face. She had forgotten the effect the shadow had on her. Fear shot through her body. "Nothing. Never mind. But it's Perry Miffleby."

"How can we tell for sure?"

Suddenly, Kipper came flying (literally) into the common room as a very frightened-looking pair of overalls. "Board up the doors! Lock me into a room! Get me the Queen! Get me Scotland Yard! Get me a good stiff drink! HELP!!!!" The overalls leaped into Lily's arms like a damsel in distress. "HE'S HERE! PERRY TAPDANCING MIFFLEBY IS HERE!!!!"

"Tapdancing?" Lily said, bewildered.

"It's an expletive I made up," he explained, turning into a pogo stick and jumping in frantic circles. "He's here he's here he's here he's here!"

She stood with her hands on her hips and faced James and Sirius. "How's that for proof?"



Professor McGonagall stormed into the boys' dormitory. "Black. Front and center, if you please."

He rolled out of bed slowly. "Should I get my 'I-didn't-do-its' over with right now?"

"Skip them altogether. You have Bloister's Blizzard Bombs, correct?"

Sirius's jaw dropped. "Who told you?" he said indignantly.

"Never mind that," she snapped. "Bring them here now."

Sirius crouched down, muttering, and took a large blue-and-white package from under his bed. He hugged it to his chest. "Okay. They're here. Now go away please."

"Mr. Black, give them to me!"

"But…but we're in love," he said, kissing the package. "We had plans. Big plans for the future. We were going to get married and have a bunch of little explosions."

"NOW!"

"Okay, okay." Sirius shoved the bombs towards her.

She received them dubiously. "Are there any more?"

"No."

"I'm going to pretend I believe you." McGonagall turned on her heel and marched down the stairs.

"Stupid old witch," he muttered.

"Pretty much applies to every teacher here, Sirius," James yawned.

Lily did her best to never be alone now. Not with Professor 'Montgomery' walking the halls. It was easy - if nobody else would stay with her, then she could ask James. But one night, something went wrong.

She was up late in the common room doing her homework with Peter, Juno, and Remus. Peter was in an armchair near the portrait hole, Remus and Juno were on the couch next to Lily. They were concentrating more on each other than on their homework, though.

"You look so cute when you make a face like you don't know the answer," Juno said drippily.

"You're cuter when you're telling me what the answer is," Remus said every bit as drippily.

"Oh, please," Lily scoffed as they fell to kissing. "If I ever acted like that with James, you'd skin me alive," she said to the back of Juno's head. As she turned back to her homework, she suddenly noticed that her black bracelet was missing. She remembered it being on her wrist during Transfiguration, her last class of the day, so it was either in the corridors somewhere or in the Great Hall. "Juno, come on, I've got to go find my bracelet." No response. "Juno, please?"

Juno giggled as Remus kissed her neck. "Go alone, you'll be fine!" Then she went back to kissing her boyfriend.

"All right, all right." She made her way towards the portrait hole with her wand at the ready. She swung the portrait out and had one leg in the corridor when suddenly, she heard the one voice she didn't want to hear.

"I'll go with you, Lily."

Peter was right behind her. "Thanks," she said with disgust. The curse was getting patchy again. Her tone, but not her words could betray the truth.

"After all, you're not safe if Perry Miffleby is really here." They were alone now, and his voice was taunting again. "And he is, Lily. It's him. This plan has been in the works for almost a year."

"What plan?" Lily kept her eyes down, looking for her bracelet.

"This plan. The plan that's finally going to get you out of our way. It's very simple. We play Miffleby against you, give him the chance he's always wanted to get his vengeance, and two very important things happen. One," he held up one finger. "We get his undying loyalty. He'll never defect if we give him what he wants now. And two," he held up two fingers, then used both of them to tilt her face around so that she was looking him straight in the eye. "Two, we never have to deal with you again. Your big mouth, your stubbornness, your ugly little habit of sticking your nose where it doesn't belong -"

"My power," she said defiantly. "You-know-who is afraid of me, go on, say it."

"But you're even more afraid of him. Or else you'd say his name like you used to." Peter let her face go and smiled. She didn't move. "Go on, find your bracelet. An owl delivered it to you, didn't it?"

"How did you know that?"

"Didn't you ever wonder where it came from? What it was for? Lily, that bracelet has been helping us keep track of you, helping us keep you in trouble, for as long as you've worn it."

She froze, then whirled around and started walking back to the common room.

"And where do you think you're going?" he said, a menacing timbre in his voice. He grabbed her arm and pushed her against a wall.

"I'm not about to recover a bracelet that's keeping me linked with You-Know-Who!"

"Oh, yes you are. And if you don't, then I will. I'll give it back to you like a good friend, in front of everyone, so you can't very well refuse it."

"Not if I tell them what's going on! Not if I tell them that you…" she tried to force it loose. She was going to say it.

His hand went to her throat. "I'll kill you if you say it!"

"How will that look, Peter?" she gasped out. "You can't touch me. You- Know-Who's been stopping you, hasn't he? It'll mess up the plan." His grip loosened, but the fire remained in his watery blue eyes. "You just said that Miffleby wants to kill me, and that's how You-Know-Who is earning his loyalty. What if you kill me? Then You-Know-Who will lose Miffleby. He'll be angry, Wormtail. He'll kill you then."

"You…you…"

"Think about it! All this has happened - you're out of favor now. And it's all because you...you...you killed Chantel!" Lily's voice echoed throughout the corridor. Peter stumbled back as though the words had been a spell. "You killed her! I saw you do it!"

"You didn't! You can't!" He put his hands over his ears.

She kept saying it, louder and louder. "Peter, you killed Chantel! You killed Chantel! And then you put a curse on me to keep me quiet, then you kept attacking me, and you made You-Know-Who kill Amelia! You're a murderer! YOU KILLED CHANTEL, PETER!!!"

"SHUT UP!!" he roared, advancing on her with his wand. Then he hit her across the face, hard, and said the same words that he'd said so long ago when he had murdered Chantel in the common room. "You may know, but you'll never tell!"

Then, exactly like that fateful night, the world seemed to collapse, and leave her in blackness.

Footsteps woke her up. Footsteps, then a whispering voice. "Come here, Snape!"

Lily's cheek hurt where Peter had struck her. She opened her eyes warily, just in time to see a black robe disappear around the corner.

"What is it now?"

"You have detention tomorrow, do you not?"

Lily hastily looked for a place to hide. It was Perry's voice. But what was he doing talking to Severus Snape at this hour?

"Yes."

"You fool!"

"What? Just because I follow Lord Voldemort, do I have to be a model student?" There was a note of panic in his voice, as though he knew exactly what was wrong, but was trying to deny it.

"What do you have detention for?"

"For setting up a prank…"

"A prank."

"Yes, a prank, is that so terrible?"

"That prank was to be blamed on her."

"That's not true. This one wasn't for Evans, it was for Black."

"Then you're doubly a fool. You've lost sight of the goal, Snape. We are not interested in settling your schoolboy grudges. We are interested in eliminating her."

Lily almost wished they would say her name outright.

Miffleby continued. "Get it right this time. It's our last chance to be rid of her before the summer."

"I have just the idea. It will get rid of her, but it will be blamed on Black, and perhaps even Potter."

"Let us discuss it in the Chamber."

"Fine, fine, but listen, all I have to do is-"

Click. The door closed behind them as they entered a classroom. Lily was left completely clueless in the middle of the sentence. What was he planning? When was he going to do whatever it was he was going to do? And how could he frame Sirius for it?

She made her way quickly back to the dormitories and lay awake in bed. There was no way she was going to sleep that night, so she just let her thoughts chase each other around in circles, pausing only to try to say "Peter." Not once did it work.

Three days later, the Friday before exam week, there was a ball. There were obviously mixed opinions about the timing of it. Lily almost panicked and didn't go, because there was so much studying to be done. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were so excited they could have cried. "This is a well-deserved break," Remus explained as they entered the Great Hall.

"That's because you're lazy," Juno said with her customary 'I-know-everything-about-everyone' sort of tone.

"I'm not lazy, I just know what I deserve. At least they didn't schedule it for the Friday after the exams."

"What's so bad about that?" said Juno, adjusting her black-and-white dress robes. Nobody was sure, but rumor had it that she had a flask of butterbeer strapped to her thigh.

"Full moon," he said carelessly.

She looked at him inquisitively. Lily suddenly remembered, and apparently, so did Remus, that Juno did not know that he was a werewolf. "Well," he said, covering his tracks, "Everyone acts crazy during the full moon. And everyone acts crazy when they're at a ball. So…erm…too much crazy."

"Speaking of too much crazy," Lily said quickly, gesturing towards Sirius, who had just grabbed Vanessa LeFarge from her date and was dancing with her.

"What does he think he's doing?" James said.

"Egging Elric on. Vanessa complains to Elric, Elric tries to pound Sirius, Sirius has an excuse for making a mess of Elric. Very simple, really," Remus laughed.

Sirius kept glancing over at the Ravenclaw table, where Elric was talking loudly and without pausing for breath. At first, Vanessa had looked furious at him, but she'd cooled down somewhat, and was actually laughing at some of his obnoxious attempts to make her angry. Then, his actions became less incendiary and more flirtatious. It was a fascinating thing to see play out.

"Are you Lily Evans?"

Lily turned and saw a third-year girl in pink dress robes looking up at her with dark brown eyes. Her hair was the same color - dark brown curls falling to her shoulders, which the liberally cut dress robes revealed to be very tanned. "I'm Aurelle. Aurelle Bobbins. Dumbledore said that you're staying with my family this summer!"

"Oh, that's right, he told me about you." Lily shook her hand.

"He did? What did he say?"

"Nothing, just that you were a third-year Hufflepuff."

"Oh. Well, that's okay, then. We're going to have so much fun this summer. I'm a half-blood, you know. My mum's a Muggle. She's really good about wizards and things, though. She knew about my dad before they were even married, so that tells you something right there. Are you full-blood, or half-blood, or what?"

Lily smiled. Aurelle reminded her something of Amelia. "I'm Muggle-born, actually."

"Wow! That's great. You'll get along with my mum really well. I've got two little brothers, but they aren't old enough to go to Hogwarts yet." She seemed eager to impress Lily, or at least to dump all the information she could onto her. "I just thought you'd want to know who I am and all that. So, see you around!"

"'Bye!" Lily watched her float back to the Hufflepuff table. "She seems friendly, doesn't she?"

Peter laughed. "That's not friendly." He pointed out onto the dance floor, where Sirius and Vanessa were chatting amiably as they waltzed as if they had come to the dance together. Sirius's arm was all the way around her waist, holding her close enough to start a scandal. "That's friendly."

"Come on, Lil," James said, leading her onto the dance floor, "Let's investigate."

After a few dances where they were nowhere near Sirius and Vanessa, it was apparent that James didn't want to 'investigate' anything. "What's wrong?" Lily said.

"I…I'm going to miss you this summer, that's all."

"It's just ten minutes away." He was silent, abashed. Partially to make him feel better and partially because it was true, she added, "I'm going to miss you, too."

The music slowed down, and all the couples were dancing a little bit more closely. However, Sirius and Vanessa remained frighteningly close, even more so than before, if it was possible. This Lily saw over James's shoulder. Then, they turned around slowly with the song, and she saw Severus standing at the door of the Great Hall. His wand was pointed at one of the chairs at the Slytherin table, and he was saying something under his breath.

Several things happened in rapid succession. First, Professor 'Montgomery' strode gruffly to Vanessa and Sirius and pushed them apart. "That is no way for two Hogwarts students to-"

Then Elric interrupted him by materializing and shoving Sirius into the Slytherin table. "What do you think you're doing with my sister, Black?" he growled.

"Shut up, Elric, we were just-" Vanessa began.

Suddenly, there was an explosion. Crash! With a sound like ice breaking, Sirius, Elric, Vanessa, and Professor Miffleby were all thrown across the room, and a cold gust of wind filled the Great Hall. Snow and sleet and hail started flying everywhere. Lily just barely saw Snape run away. "James, did you-"

"SIRIUS!" James bellowed. "YOUR STUPID EXPLOSIVES!!!"

Professor McGonagall ran by, holding her hat tightly to her head. "Mr. Black, fifty points from Gryffindor! Detention, do you hear me? Detention!"

Ice rained down all around them as everyone, with the exception of Lily, Juno, James, Remus, Peter, and the teachers, ran for the doors. Then there was a shriek. "PROFESSOR MONTGOMERY, WAKE UP!!!"

As the wind calmed and the effects of the Bloister's Blizzard Bomb wore off, Lily saw the wreck that had come to be near the corner of the Slytherin table. Through a gentle flurry, she saw Sirius standing unsteadily, supported by Professor McGonagall, holding a bit of tablecloth to his head. The blood was already soaking through the fabric. Elric's robes were torn up, and there was ice caked on his carpetlike black hair. Vanessa was shaking Perry Miffleby, slapping him, yelling at him. "Wake up, Professor!" There was a stream of blood running from under his hairline, and he was quite pale.

Juno hurried over and took the hysterical Vanessa by the shoulders. "Come on, Vanessa," she mumbled.

Vanessa dissolved into sobs, hugging her rival. "He's dead! He's dead!"

"Shh, don't say that!" Juno held Vanessa's face away from where Perry was being examined by the other teachers.

Sirius stumbled forward and tried to calm Vanessa down. "It's okay-"

"That was your bomb!" she screamed. "You did that!"

"No!" Sirius slurred. His tongue wasn't working right after his flight across the room. "I didn't! D'you think I…"He trailed off and let McGonagall lead him out.

Peter looked furious. Remus looked shocked. James and Lily weren't sure how to look. She saw all the teachers giving Hagrid a wide berth as he proceeded wordlessly with Perry in his arms, Dumbledore close behind him.

"Professor, is he…"

"There was a time, Miss Evans, when I would have told a half-truth to spare your feelings. You are now old enough for me to be blunt and tell you that Professor Montgomery was killed in that explosion."


A/N: Hey, it's us again. Pretty interesting, eh? It would've been even more interesting, but ff.net for some reason wouldn't let all our "dot dot dots" through. Rather troublesome, that. We're dot dot dot psychos. Please review, and RIP Perry Miffleby. I mean, he was evil, but he still kinda deserves an RIP, right? No? Okay.