Authors Note: Mkay (totally Sarah's by the by), here is the long awaited chapter, I'm going away soon, later this morning in fact. I have the next chapter written, formatted, everything, all that is stopping it from being posted is your refusal to review...so read fast and give me something to work with here!

Chapter 32

Back to Normal Life, Sort of

Caroline and Lily arrived back at Hogwarts at 6:30, just in time to change before dinner.

They went upstairs and found Holly, Alice, and Janette waiting for them. They hugged and

thanked eachother for the presents they had given eachother. Lily and Caroline changed into thir

robes and made their way downstairs, Lily with her arm around Holly, chatting to her about

Sirius and James.

"So what exacty did he say?" Questioned Holly for the fourth time in five minutes as they

walked down the stairs.

"When?" Lily asked, pretending not to know exactly wha Holly was talking to in order to

egg her on.

"When you asked him who had dumped who." Asked Holly.

"Oh, I don't know what he said exactly, but it was something along the lines of 'what makes

you think anyone dumped anyone?'" Said Lily. "And Holly, why didn't you tell me Sirius and you

were still together?"

"I don't know, I assumed you knew."

"That's a lie. Why didn't you tell?"

"Cause I didn't think it was important."

"No Holly, the truth. Were you scared? Were you embarassed? Why didn't you say

anything? Ususally you blabber on about your boyfrinds until you dump them, but you didn't say

a single word about Sirius."

"Yeah, well, I thought he was cheating on me, so I didn't want to spread around that we

were dating and then have it turn out someone else was too, okay?"

"Yeah. Fine." Said Lily, knowing Holly was lying.

"So what about you and James?" Asked Holly, making an obvios effort to change the

subject.

"What about us? There isn't even an us. We kissed, and I told him I wouldn't date him.

Nothing there," Lily said, although she was finguring the dainty silver snowflake that she still

wore around her neck "But Oh my god, I have got to tell you about Vernon, and Remus." They

chatted on about more comfortable subjects than Sirius and James. They sat down in the great

hall and continued chatting about Remus until Sirius sat down next to Holly.

"Hey baby, whats up? How was your Christmas? Did you get my present?" Asked Sirius,

putting his arm around Holly.

"Yes I did, you are so cute. Did you get mine? I have the second part I mentioned here."

Holly whispered, kissing him. Lily rolled her eyes and turned to Janette, but it wasn't Janette.

Nicky was sitting there, staring at her.

"Hey. Had a good Christmas?" She asked cheerily.

"Yeah. You?"

"Excellent. I stayed with Caroline, it's a blur of parties." She hadn't meant that to come out

in a bragging way, she had just been making convorsation, but from the look on his face he had

taken it the wrong way.

"Great. I've got to go say hi to some other people. See you around." Lily siged, turning to

Janette for real now. "So, Janette, what do you think is going on with Professor Longbottom?

He was at a bunch of parties, alone everytime, and every time I asked, he told me he as waiting

for his fiance, but I never saw her. What do you think is going on there?"

"I didn't even know he was engaged." Janette said, looking up at the staff table.

"I know! I hadn't either. But the wierd thing was is that at the Ruperts party I asked him

about it and he said he was weaiting for her, and that she was probabally late. Later on, I heard

him telling someone else that she couldn't make it that night, but he hadn't said anything about

that to me earlier."

"Wierd. Ooo, what do you think is going on? I think either he's not really engaged, she's

cheating on him, or she dumped him. Either way, they're not going to last. Hmmm, intrigue..."

That day, during divination, Lily discovered that all of the dreams she had recorded in her

dream diary for the past month had come true. She had had a dream one night about having

pouridge for breakfast, and the next day pouridge had been served, things like that. Most of

them were stupid, but some of them, such as the one she had had at the beginning of the year

about James going off with that girl and Serverus chasing her, were slightly more creepy.

She showed the book of dreams to her professor, who told her that he would talk to

professor Dumbledore about this, and asked to keep the journal. The next day he approached

her again with the dream diary, looking thrilled.

"Ms. Evans, I believe that you are a true seer, and Dumbledore himself agrees, he would

like to meet with you once a week to give you special attention. If you have any more dreams,

make sure to write them down and tell me about them. This is so exciting, you are the first since

Tom Riddle.." He rambled on to himself as he marched off down the corridor, waving his arms

in the air. Lily found Caroline and told her what Dumbledore had said.

"Really? Do you think that it's possible? Have you dreamt about me lately, what do you see

happening between me and Ben?" She asked excitedly.

"No, I haven't had any dreams at all lately, but I didn't want to tell him that, he seemed so

excited." Lily said, suddenly nervous.

"Who, Dumbledore? I doubt he'd care."

"No, professor Rallel. Come on, stay with it. I'm supposed to meet with him tonight. What

will I do?"

"Who, professor Rallel?"

"No, Dumbledore, come on Caroline." Said Lily impatiently.

"I told you wha I think, I'm sure Dumbledore won't care. Don't sweat it, come to lunch with

me and we can ask the others, okay?" Lily's last period flew by, and all too soon she was

walking down the corridor to Professor Dumbledore's office. She found the gargoyles, but

realized she did not know that password. Just as Lily was debating leaving and using this as her

excuse, the statues sprang to life and moved apart.

"Ah, there you are Ms. Evans. I was wondering where you had gotten to." Said professor

Dumbledore.

"I'm sorry sir, I was here on time, but I didn't know the password." Lily told him, looking

into his pale blue eyes that pierced right threw her.

"Oh yes, my mistake of course, the password is Marshmallow, a muggle sweet that I

happen to be quite partial to. Sometimes they even melt them in fires and smother them in

chocolate, have you ever had one before, living as a muggle most of your life?" Lily of course

knew all about s'mores and marshmallows, but chose not to mention this to Dumbledore, she did

not want to ruin his fun or get him off on a tangent regarding muggle passtimes and sweets.

"Come into my office with me, please." He said, turning and asending the spiral staircase, Lily

behind him. Lily had never been to professor Dumbledore's office before, and did not know

anyone who had, so she did not know what to expect. She entered the round room, covered in

portraits of old headmasters and head mistresses, all of them were staring at her just as

Dumbledore was now. "Lily, if what professor Rallel thinks turns out to be true, that is a

wonderful and rare gift. The sight, especially the kind you might posses, it a valuable and

dangerous power."

"I'm sorry sir, but how is it dangerous exactly? I do it in my sleep, nothing can hurt me while

I sleep." Lily said, wondering what he meant by dangerous, pah, how could her bed be

dangerous?

"Well you see, if someone discovered this power of yours, they could manipulate it to their

own benefit, if they were to gain access to your mind they would not only know the future, but

they could also change what you see and potentially, if they were strong enough, change the

future." Lily got goosebumps at the sound of his voice, a chill went down her spine as he told her

how this had happend to people in the past. "What I am going to work on with you is called

occlumency, I will gain access to your mind, and you will try to prevent it with your will power.

It will be hard at first, but eventually it will become easier until you have a permanent shield up

around your sub consious." Lily nodded, drawing out her wand and preparing for him to enter

her thoughts. "I will go easy on you at first, to let you practice, on three, one, two three.

Legilimens." He said. Nothing happend, Lily waited for him to enter her thoughts, but he never

came. Dumbledore looked at her, confused. "Alright, apparently you have some natural ability

already, I will try a harder form. Legilimens." He said, but still nothing happened. Now he

looked impressed. "You are very gifted, I am a very skilled legilimens, and I will try my hardest

version, I applogise in advance if this hurts. Legilimens." This time Lily felt a slight jolt, as if

something had collided with a glass wall outside her mind. "Apparently you are as skilled as I am

and we can move on to more advanced steps. I will teach you how to control the comings and

goings of these dreams, I will teach you how to enter other peoples minds, I will teach you

everything you need to know about being a legilimens."

And so they practiced. At the end of an hour, Lily could successfully penatrate

Dumbledores outermost layer of thought. He looked at her in awe as images of Dumbledore

running through fields and streams with a boy who must have been his older brother. She

watched as he cuddled in front of the fire with his mother reading story books, and played catch

with his father.

"That is quite enough for tonight," declared Dumbledore, thowing her out of his mind for the

fourth time. "You are much more naturally skilled than anyone I have ever met before, you will

do great things Lily Evans. Come back here right after classes tomarrow for more practice,"

after a moments thought he changed his mind, "no, come here during, I believe this is correct,

History of Magic. You have that first yes?" He said.

Lily, glad to be getting out of this class, told him she did and left his office, exhausted, yet

pleased. She arrived at the common room and collapsed onto the couch, not even having

enough energy to go to her bedroom. A few hours later, she half noticed someone putting a

blanket over her. She cracked one eye and saw Nicky leaning over her, feeling her temperature.

"She's fine, just tired. Everyone out of the common room, Lily needs sleep." He said loudly.

Lily rolled over facing into the couch and closing her eyes again. he was so nice, although if it

had been James he would have lain down with her. Lily sighed, falling into a dreamless sleep.

Now that Christmas break was over, the real crunch began. All of the fifth year teachers

were piling on the homework, the only teacher who gave her a break was Professor Rallel.

What with her practices with Dumbledore, and the mountains of homework she was getting, she

had no time for Nicky. She stayed up until midnight as it was, and weekends were devoted to

catching up with all the homework she hadn't had time to complete.

The good news was that she was making huge leaps in her lessons with Dumbledore. By

her second lesson she could sucessfully break though his barriers every time. On one such effort

she saw images that disturbed her quite a lot. Dumbledore was walking down a hallway she had

never seen before, it looked at though it were underground, as she came to the end of the

hallway she saw Remus standing there. Just as she tried to approach him to say hello he started

to transform, his nose enlongated, fur sprouted from his nose, he went down onto his four legs.

Lily shrieked, breaking her connection to Dumbledores mind.

"Is, is Remus a warewolf?" Lily asked of professor Dumbledore.

"Yes, he is. But do not say anything about this to anyone Ms. Evans, no one knows. Swear

to me you will not say a word."

"I swear." How could she refuse? When had Remus become a warewolf? Why hadn't he

told anyone? Well, she knew the answer to that question. Did James know? Where did he go,

was this why he went home every month for his grandmother and mom and sick cousin and

such? And what should Lily do about it?