Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize…
A/N: Thanks a lot for all the reviews and to Ally Serenity for betaing this chapter

Chapter Thirteen

Lily slowly woke up. She cautiously opened her eyes and was blinded for a few seconds by the light. She blinked few times, and then looked around her. She was not in her quarters and apparently it was quite late in the morning. Then she recognized the room. She was the ancient bedroom of Bella's, in the castle.

She sat up, but winced a bit as the pain in her back came apparent again. In fact, her whole body was aching. Suddenly a voice startled her.

Lil? Are you awake?

Maris? Are you all right?

I am, but I was really worried, along with everyone else! We were afraid of what might have happened to you.

I'm sorry, I should not have done that, but I had to.

I know, but next time, let me stay with you, I do not want to be separated from you again.

Alright Maris… Thank you for everything.

No need Lil, no need at all.

"LILY! You're awake!"

Suddenly Lily found herself being firmly hugged by Bella.

"Oh! Bella, calm down, please, I'm alright." Said the red-haired rider.

Bella loosened her grip, then stood up and looked her deep in the eyes.

"Do. Not. Do. That. Ever. Again!" she said in a threatening tone.

Lily faked fear and hid her face in her hands. She muttered something.

"What is it?" asked a bemused Bella.

"All right, if I plan to get killed, I shall warn you beforehand. I Promise! Happy now?"

"Yes. Now come, everyone is waiting for us." Said Bella, while dragging her out of the room.

"Wait, I want to get dressed before! There is no way I would go down in nightclothes! By the way, how come I am wearing night-clothes?"

"I took care of it yesterday." Explained Bella.

Lily quickly dressed, and then the two friends went down where they met everybody.

Lily was hugged by everyone in the room, even James and Sirius.

"I do not know how to thank you, Lilyaris," said then the King.

"You need to do no such thing, your majesty," answered Lily, smiling. "I was more than willing to do it."

"Perhaps, but you deserve something, I will think about your reward."

Lily was about to protest, but Bella quickly silenced her.

They headed to the throne room where they were served their breakfast. When they were nearly done, Sirs Albus and Exer approached them.

"You have the day off. But tomorrow I expect you at sunrise in my quarters." said Sir Exer.

"Yes Sir!" chorused the five friends.

As they left, Lily turned to face the others.

"What are we going to do?"

They thought for a while, suddenly Sirius's face brightened.

"Eh! How about we pay a little visit to our dear, dear leader?"

"Very good idea, my dear Sirius." Exclaimed James.

"Lots of perspectives… How about we make sure he will remember us?" added Remus.

"Remus!" said Bella, "I did not expect that from you!"

"I am full of surprises…" said Remus with a big smile.

"You have really a bad influence on him," said Lily to James and Sirius who wore devilish grins. "But I like the idea; I have a few things against him, one of them being the fact he wanted to use Maris and Darais as flame-throwers…"

The boys stared at the girls, before laughing their heads off.

"And the fact he wanted us to do needlework and embroideries?" added Bella

At that the boys were rolling on the floor.

"Come Bella, they do not want to come." Said Lily, dragging Bella out.

At that, they stopped laughing and started chasing them.

Once they were out, they headed towards the army's quarters. While walking, they planned what they were going to do to Sir Cornelius.

"See, since we all know too well his 'fascinating' interest for ladies, why do we not…"

For the whole morning nobody saw them. Right after lunch, the group was seen walking to the private quarters, wide smiles on their faces.

In the middle of the afternoon, Sir Exer and Sir Albus called for an assembly. The five friends decided to put their plan in action. As soon as the whole army had gathered in the common place, Sir Albus, Sir Exer, Sir Cornelius, and the King arrived and climbed on the stage. James, Lily, Bella, Sirius, and Remus looked at each other, grinned and discreetly raised their wands. They had previously cast some rather interesting spells on Cornelius wardrobe.

As Sir Cornelius stepped forwards to speak, they muttered their spells. Loud laughs erupted. Nearly the whole army was laughing its head off. Unaware of what happened, Sir Cornelius looked around him, clueless. Sir Albus, managing to restrain himself from laughing handed him a small mirror. Sir Cornelius took a look in it. A high-pitched scream could be heard, causing the fighters to double of laughter.

Indeed the King's counselor had undergone a little 'transformation', to be more precise, a complete makeover: Instead of his rather expensive clothes, he was wearing a long silky and frilly hot pink dress. There were a lot of lace ribbons on it, making it looking like doll's dress. In fact, Sir Cornelius looked quite like a doll. In addition to the dress, he now had long curly blond hair put in two braids. The girls had taken care of the make up: Sir Cornelius had bright red lipstick and hot pink cheeks. Even his voice had been changed. He was now speaking in a high-pitched girly voice. Words in a shiny purple color started slowly to appear above his head.

"Say hello to Lady Cornelia, The most distinguished lady of the country." Then they faded and were slowly replace by others. "As you seem to greatly appreciate ladies' duties, we have decided to make your wish a reality and allow you to experiment the joys of being a lady. The effects will wear off in four days, and there is no counter-curse. Enjoy these days!"

Sir Cornelius dropped another scream and ran to his quarters, but due to the fact that he was not used to walk in high-heel slippers, he kept falling on the floor.

The army was roaring with laughter. After a few minutes, when everyone had calmed down and wiped their tears, Sir Albus stepped forward.

"After this very interesting show, if I may say so, and for which I congratulate the responsible, I sadly have some good and bad news. Let us start with the bad news so we may end on a happier note."

Silence fell on the crowds; everybody dreading what Sir Albus was about to say.

"Our spies have warned us that the Dark Lord is gathering his forces for another attack in about a week. What is worse is that they have managed to obtain the support of a big part of the giant community."

Gasps were heard in the mob.

"We have also discovered that the numbers of Death Eaters have increased a lot, along with the number of hydrias. We have also heard that he has attempted to breed a new kind of hydrias, bigger, stronger and more enduring, also able to completely melt into its environment. Until now these attempts had failed, but we cannot ignore the possibility of a success."

"Now for the good news." Said Sir Exer.

"As you may have heard we have managed to free Lilyaris, and I am happy to announce that she and Lady Bella will be put in charge of the training of the Lions, unless the wing refuses."

He was interrupted by loud cheering.

"Apparently they do not." said Sir Exer, smiling.

"Secondly, Sir Exer has taken the post of Sir Cornelius at the head of the army, and thirdly, there will be no training today, but tomorrow, I expect the hardest training!"

More cheers were heard. Then the crowd parted into several groups.

Lily turned to look at her friends.

"What do you want to do?" she asked.

"I know not; how about a ride with our horses, we have not done that for quite a long time." said Bella.

"Great idea!" exclaimed Lily. "Do you want to come?" she questioned the boys.

"With pleasure," they answered.

"Before we do so, we should warn Sir Albus and Sir Exer." Advised Remus.

"Alright, I will go, can you go fetch the horses while I do so?" Lily volunteered.

"Sure Lily." Replied Bella, before heading towards the stables.

Lily approached the two men.

"Excuse-me, but we just wanted to warn you that we are going for a ride in the forest."

"Alright Lily, by the way, congratulations for this little show, it was quite entertaining."

"Thank you! In any case, he deserved it."

Sir Albus stayed silent but his eyes were twinkling merrily.

"So have a good afternoon,"

"Thank you, sirs." answered Lily before leaving them.

She quickly caught up to her friends and saw that they were almost ready. A few minutes later, they left the army and headed towards the forest. Lily was overjoyed. Even in the winter, the forest was magnificent and she loved the feeling she got each time she mounted Angel who also seemed happy to go for a walk. Bella was smiling, amused by the expression on Lily's face. James approached her.

"Is she always like that when she rides?" he asked, pointing to Lily who was totally oblivious of everything.

"Worse," Bella stated simply.

Suddenly Lily snapped out of day-dream.

"Eh! What about a race to the big oak?"

"Sure Lily," answered the boys. She looked at Bella.

"Do not do your puppy eyes! I will, but only if you give us five seconds beforehand."

Lily nodded vigorously.

"Five seconds?" asked a puzzled Sirius.

"Oh right, I forgot you have not raced with Angel. Believe me, if you want to have a chance of winning, five seconds beforehand is the least to have."

"Really?" asked Sirius, doubtful.

"Trust me," replied Bella. "Ready?"

A chorus of "yes" answered her.

"Go!"

Bella, Remus, Sirius and James left at full speed. Lily restrained Angel, and slowly counted down to five. Then she let her mare go. As always, she was amazed by the speed of Angel. The mare seemed to float, her hooves barely touching the ground. Lily also had the advantage of knowing the forest very well and knew several short cuts. She was quickly able to see her friends, and urged Angel to accelerate. Obediently the mare increased her speed, apparently enjoying the race too. She caught up with Remus and Moon, out-rode him, and then Sirius and Clown. She knew she did not have a lot of time left to catch up with Bella, but she was aware of the fact that Flame had a tendency to slow down at the end of a race if pushed too hard at the first. She finally managed to outride her. Her last opponent was Devil. Even before the beginning, she knew that her real opponents were Flame and Devil. She noticed that even though there were still five hundred meters left, James was making Devil accelerate. Lily smiled a bit. James did not yet have the knack for horse races. She slowed Angel a bit to preserve her speed. One hundred meters before the oak, she let Angel reach her full speed. The mare accelerated savagely, willing to outride the stallion. In a few strides, she was nearly head to head with James. As she passed near him, Lily gave him a big smile before accelerating again.

Unsurprisingly, she won the race. Once she had stopped, which took her quite a bit, she hoisted herself off, walking back with Angel to the oak to let her recover. When she arrived, the others had arrived and were making their horses walk too.

"Next time I'll ask seven seconds!" said Bella laughing.

"That was truly amazing!" exclaimed Sirius!

"All the merit goes to Angel." Said Lily embracing her mare.

"And to her rider." Added James, smiling.

"If you say so, I cannot deny it, my Prince," said Lily teasingly.

"No you cannot!" replied Sirius.

The five friends walked a bit in the forest, letting their horses in a glade with a little brook. They had magically closed in the place to prevent them from running away or being attacked. They found a quiet place near a big tree. After conjuring some food, they lay in the grass and started to chat. They talked for several hours about everything. Even though Lily avoided most questions about her past, she willingly answered their questions about her year with Sir Albus. Bella knew her whole story, as she was one of the rare Lily totally trusted. The day was so peaceful it nearly became unreal. Bella was lying in the grass; and Lily was leaning on the oak, relaxed. James and Sirius were sitting on the grass, arguing about something, and Remus was laying next them, amused by his friends' behavior. Suddenly Sirius and James stood up, ran over to Bella and started tickling her.

"James! Sirius! Stop that! How old are you?"

The two friends looked at each other.

"Ten year-olds." They chorused before continuing tickling her.

"No, Stop it!" managed to say Bella. "Lily! Help!"

Lily stood up.

"And Lily is coming to save a lady in distress!"

She lunged at the boys, who had to stop tickle Bella in order to dodge her. But at that moment, Remus joined the boys. Lily and Bella looked at them with mock horror in their eyes.

"You are not going to harm to defenseless lady, my fair sirs?" Asked Bella, faking fear and battling her eyelashes.

"Three gentlemen like us would never harm a lady." replied Sirius with a grin and a bow.

The two girls sighed but suddenly the young men caught them and started again to tickle them.

"I thought… you would never … attack a lady!" protested Lily while laughing.

"But who said you were ladies?" replies James with a mischievous smile.

"You have a point," Bella managed to say.

The two girls looked at each other, nodded and suddenly Lily yelled "Stupefy!"

The three boys were immediately stunned.

Lily and Bella slowly got up and turned them around.

"Tsk tsk tsk," said Bella, "Never underestimate an opponent, particularly if one of them can do wandless magic." she added, grinning at Lily.

"My! Bella do you not think they need to be a bit lightened up?"

"You are right! I think some flowers will be perfect."

"Excellent, hmm But it is winter, there are no flowers here!"

Bella stared at Lily.

"Lily are you a witch or are you not?"

"Yes, of course."

"So conjure some flowers!"

"Oh yes! Let's see…."

When the girls were done, the three boys had each a flower crown, several necklaces and bracelets made of flowers, and flowers everywhere in their hair. There were all types of flowers: roses, lilies, daisies, lilac, violets, anemones, cornflowers, daffodils, primroses, and so forth….

"Perfect!"

"They look splendid!"

"In your own opinion, what do they think of it?"

"I do not know! Let us ask them! Enervate!"

The instant the boys were revived, they looked murderous towards the girls.

"One word," said James. "RUN!"

They chased each other for quite a long time before falling on the ground, out of breath.

"Truce?" asked Lily, handing her hand.

"Truce." answered James, shaking her hand.

They stayed there the whole afternoon.

Soon the night started to fall, and they mounted their horses and rode back to the castle. They had really enjoyed the day, as they had been able to be carefree, and had forgotten for a few hours the ever-present threat of Voldemort.

Once they arrived, they took care of their horses, and then headed towards the girls' quarters. They were only there for a few minutes when a page came.

"Your presence, along with those of Lilyaris, Lady Bella, Sir Sirius, and Sir Remus is requested by your father, my Prince," said the young boy, bowing before James.

The five friends looked at each other, expectantly, before heading towards the throne room.