Authors Note: Here you go. This chap has a mix of everything, friends, James, Dumbledore...an excellent blend if you ask me! haha. Okay, so read and review, and thanks to Sarah rilnmvnz Taylor Katie Silverwolf130492 Who all reviewed my last chappie! READ AND REVIEW!! haha.

Chapter 47

Powerful Powers

The next morning at breakfast Lily recieved an owl. She had not been expecting it, and when it landed on her eggs she figured that there must have been some mistake. She untied the letter from the owls leg, and saw her name on the envelope. It had been a while since she had recieved any mail, so she just sat holding the envelope for a while. She studied the handwriting, and there seemed to be something vaguley familiar about it, although she could not quite place it.

Finally she tore open the letter and read. She quickly scanned the note and looked for the signature. Dumbledore, of course. So he had decided to contact her after all these weeks without word. She re-read the note. He wanted to meet with her this evening. Talk about short notice. Lily snorted and glanced up at the staff table, Dumbledore was not watching, he was apparently absorbed in convorsation with professor Inkbeat. Lily ripped up the letter and put it on top of her half eaten breakfast. She had somehow lost her appetite. The note reminded her of how Dumbledore had taken her powers, hospitalized her, ad then not sent word to her for weeks, leaving her to struggle with sizeably diminished amounts of power. Right before her OWLs too. Anyone would be more than a little irked.

After her classes Lily plodded the well known path to Dumbledore's office. She knocked on the Gargoyle, realizing that she did not know the password. She stood there a few moments, and was about to leave, smugly satisfied that she, and not Dumbledore, would have the last word. Just as she was at the point of turning around, Dumbledore appeared before her, opening the door and revealing the spiral staircase.

"Lily, welcome. Follow me please." Dumbledore said, as if nothing had ever happened. As if Lily had not ignored his request that she come back as soon as she was feeling well. As if he had not taken the majority of her powers right before the OWLs.

They entered his office and he motioned Lily into a seat across from his desk. She sat, as did he.

"Lily, I have sorted out your powers, they are no longer as tangled as they were before, which will make it easy for you to become an accomplished Legilimens. When I return these powers to you you may feel some warm or tingling sensations whenever you preform magic, and everything will come easier to you now that you are at your full strength." He said, putting his palms together and drumming his fingures against eachother.

"With all due respect, professor, I don't know if I want my powers back. I haven't been having funny dreams, my magic has been just fine, and the OWLs are coming up soon. This is my entire future. I don't want to jepordize my preformance on these exams. Perhaps you can return my powers to me after the exams are over." She said, somewhat sharply. They were both smiling and holding eye contact, while all the while a fierce battle of wills was going on.

"I'm afraid that that is out of the question, Lily. With Voldemort gathering strength and supporters, we need your powers now more than ever. The minister of magic is refusing to believe me when I tell him that a dark force is gathering, and that it will soon be strong enough to take over both magical and muggle worlds. I need you to be able to tell me what he is doing, to read his toughts and know his plans. it will take a lot of practice and power, both of which I am confident that you can supply." He said, his voice calm, but his eyes hard.

"If it is my powers that are so important to you and the fate of the world, why don't you take them for yourself?" Lily demanded. For the first time Dumbledore looked down. Lily thought she saw a faint blush creep p his cheeks. However dim it was, she could still see it. What was he embarassed about?

"I must confess to you Lily, I tried." Lily gasped, how could he have dared to take her powers from her? Ignoring her noise, Dumbledore continued. "Your powers would not come to me, and when I finally forced them, they would not work for me. You are the only one who can handle your powers, and you have no choice. The world is counting on your ability to locate the dark lord." Lily looked away. She was not eager to preform this task, although it appeared that she did not have much say in the matter. He put his hands over her head, and was on the point of reciting the incantation that would transfer her unruly powers to her, when she stopped him.

"Wait, professor. Will I pass out again?" She asked, slightly worried. She was proud of her powers for having rebelled against Dumbledore, but what if he was wrong and they rebeled against her too?

"Of course not Lily." He then said the spell before she could protest further. Lily felt the tingling sensation Dumbledore had warned her of, followed by a sudden rush of power. She wanted to preform a spell, she wanted to run and jump and scream. She rose from her seat quickly, knocking over the chair, and ran from Dumbledore's office, down the spiral staircase, and out of the hall before Dumbledore even rose a fingure in protest.

Lily spent the next few days practicing the necessary spells for the OWLs and trying to grow accustomed to her new powers. By the day of the exams she felt confident. The written examinations passed uneventfully enough. She knew all the answers and finished her essays with time to read over most of them. She felt most confident in potions, and somewhat confident in defense against the dark arts, she knew that she had at least scrapped a passing grade.

The practical examination too went smoothly enough. Sure, it might have been better if she had been a little less vigorous with her levitation spell. The book she had been using had flown up to the roof and broken a high window, shattering the glass and showering them all with the remains of the window. She had had to repair it with her wand, and even from that great distance the spell worked, much to Lily and the examiners pleasure. Lily felt very smug over the memory of it. It might have been a little over the top when the spider she was enlarging grew to the size of a small horse. She had shrunken it back to normal easily enough, however, and at the end of it, her examiner smiled encouragingly and wrote something on his paper. Lily convinced herself that he would not have smiled like that if it had been bad news.

She made all her potions perfectly, and felt confident that she had gotten at least one O. When all of the exams finally ended, Lily was walking outside to enjoy the sunshine and relax. She had told Holly that she would meet her under their favorite tree by the lake. Perhaps they would even go swimming, Lily could hear splashes in the distance.

The halls were very quiet and dark, exams were finsihed for the fifth years, but the seventh years were still sitting their NEWTs. Lily shivered slightly as she thought of the day when she would have to take that exam.

As Lily neared the entrance hall she heard footsteps and voices approaching her. She did not know why, she was doing nothing wrong, but for some reason she did not want to be seen. She dodged in to a nearby door and listened at the door, peering around a crack between the door and the wall.

The voices were low and murmered, so she had to listen very carefully in order to hear anything, and even then she could hear only a few words. She recognized one of the voices as Dumbledore, but the other was unknown to her. She held her breath, knowing that if she were found eavesdropping she would be in trouble. She had no reason to be in this classroom.

"Lily Evans..." That had been Dumbledore speaking. They were discussing her. Why? Had she done something wrong? Had she failed all of her exams? Lily pressed her ear even harder to the door.

"Allowance..." Again that had ben Dumbledore, if only these walls weren't so thick.

"Powers..." What could he mean? Who was he talking to? Now that Lily knew they were discussing her, she did not want to risk being seen.

"Of course..." That voice was older, maybe one of the examiners.

"You are..." It was a man. He was probabally shorter than Dumbledore as his footsteps were quicker. He clearly needed to walk faster in order to keep up with Dumbledors longer strides. This, however, was not very eliminating as Dumbledore was extremely tall.

"Exams...Lily..."

What could they mean? Allowance? Powers? Exams? Was Dumbledore asking that they should make allowance for her as she had just gotten her power back? Had he told everyone about her? Was that safe? Especially with the current Voldemort situation, Lily would have thought that Dumbledore would have wanted to keep her a secret.

By now the voices had faded and the footsteps were distant. Lily risked peeing around the door, she could see no one. Swiftly, so as to avoid being seen, Lily walked out into the hall and started down the corridor, acting as though she had never hidden in an empty classroom in order to listen to what was clearly a private convorsation between the headmaster and some other old, short, man.

Lily exited the practically deserted Hogwarts building and went down to the lake to meet up with Holly. Lily decided against saying anything to her friends about the bits of convorsation she had heard. She didn't want to ruin the wonderful afternoon without exams with conspiracy theories. Besides, it would also require explaining to them about her dreams, her powers, and Voldemort.

Lily sat down and talked about the exams, her summer plans (which included nothing) and just lazed in the sun with Holly, Caroline, and Janette. They could see Alice a little ways away, but none of them mentioned her, professor Longbottom, or anything to do with her. They were all thinking about it, and they were all looking over at her, but they all ignored it and chatted about other things.

"I miss her." Carolin burst out suddenly.

"Who?" Holly asked coldly, as if they did not all knowexactly who Caroline was refering to.

"Alice." Caroline said, looking imploringly towards Holly, trying to get her to thaw towards Alice.

"Alice who? I don't know anyone by that name." Holly said, again clodly, although her eyes flitted towards where she was sitting laughing with her friends and surrounded by a few sixth year boys.

"Yes, you do. Alice our best friend Alice." Caroline persisted.

"I have no friend by that name." Holly said, coldly still.

"Yes you do Holly, stop it. I think we should appologize. I miss her. And I can tell she's not happy." Caroline said, looking over to Alice.

"Why shouldn't she be happy? She has her boyfriend, she has her friends, she has everything she wanted." Holly said, turning her back on her former friend.

"So you admit she exists?" Janette asked quickly.

"Holly, she's not happy and I'm going to make up with her whether or not you will." Caroline said, still looking at Alice.

"Lily?" Holly asked desparately, looking to her for support. "Lily, you rememebr how she treated you don't you?" Holly asked, trying to find an ally. "Don't you bring me into this! I am not chosing sides." Lily said firmly, crossing her arms.

"Okay, so majority rules, we make up." Caroline announced.

"Fine, but I won't be her friend." Holly said firmly, turning up her nose.

No one made any move towards Alice in order to reconcile with her. No one really knew what to say in order to ask forgiveness. From where they stood, they had done nothing wrong. And while they were willing to accept an apology, they were not willing to offer one themselves.

"Just be nice to her, won't you?" Caroline asked eagerly, entreating Holly.

"Fine." Holly relinquished. They all knew that she missed Alice as much as any of them, but she was more proud than the rest as well. Now that they had decided to be friends again, however, no one knew what to do, or how to go about becoming friends with her again.

They had a week before it would be time to leave, and nothing to occupy their time. They wandered around the grounds, played exploding snap, wizard chess, and gobstones.

Lily and James were constantly together, talking about everything from the exams to the rise of Voldemort. She told him about her powers, her dreams, and the convorsation she had overheard, even though she had yet to tell her girl friends. James and her were inseparable, and they had finally managed to put aside their past relationships and become friends. He was her main confidant, and she was his. He confided in her about his fear that he would not do well on his exams, he told her about Sirius's relationship with his parents, he talked about his and Sirius's long standing rivalry with everything, but how they loved eachother like brothers all the same. James told her that sometimes he felt irritated that his father liked Sirius more than him, and Lily consoled him, telling him that his father probabally felt bad for Sirius, having gone all those years without a real father, and was trying to make up for that for him.

In the last week of school, Lily and James spent more time talking than they had spent in the past years combined. Even when they were with their other friends, they were always laughing together, sitting next to eachother, and playing chess as a team. The other members of their circle exchanged looks every time Lily giggled or flicked her hair. Sirius snorted and chortled every time James's ears tinged pink, and every time he was seen looking at Lily, his eyes filled with longing and desire.

Everyone was sad when the week came to an end, and it came time to pack and prepare for the train ride home, back to the real world. Lily finished her packing before the feast, telling herself that it was so she could spend her last night with her friends, and yet knowing she was doing it because she wanted to spend time with James.

Holly and Janette had not yet packed, and Caroline had already told them that she and Ben were going to spend their last night at Hogwarts together, and that they obviously couldn't do that in either common room. They were apparently going to go for a moonlit stroll by the lake, everyone had sniggered when they heard this and Sirius had voiced what they had all been thinking when he teased Caroline about going for a moonlit snog more likely. Caroline blushed prettily and did not reply, causing them to laugh louder.

At the feast, Lily sat next to James and Holly. Alice was diagonally across from them, and Holly kept looking at her, trying to determine whether or not she was unhappy, as Caroline had claimed. If she was, she did not show it. The only signs of unhappieness were the circles under her eyes, and the almost inperceptable droop in her shoulders. Her smile rarely faltered, and she laughed just as prettily as she always had.

James did not notice her, however, as he had eyes only for Lily, but Alice certainly noticed him and Lily sitting next to eachother, engrossed in convorsation, and pouted noticably, as Holly proudly reported later. Upon hearing that Lily merely laughed and waved it away, although everyone noticed her blush, much as she tried to hide it. That night she and James had the common room to themselves, and the played eachother in wizard chess. A month ago, James would have tried to kiss her, but now both of them were more wary of their growing friendship. Lily went up to bed early that night, in order to wake up on time the next morning. She did not know what to feel, she was happy and sad at the same time. She was glad to have James to talk to, as he was a much better listener than most of ter friends, and always offered an alternate view of every situation, while at the same time taking her side on every issue. He was not affraid to argue with her, but they did not row about it. They discussed and debated, and Lily was glad to have him. She was sad, however, that talking was all they ever did. She felt her old feelings towards him creeping up on her when she least expcted or wanted them to. She was not over eager to leave Hogwarts, but she wanted to see her family too.

Authors note: I hope you liked it! Review because the next chapter is the last, and I'll hold out on you until you review...mwahahahaha. Anyway, tell me what you think, and bear in mind that I'll want suggestions on wha you want to happen next, what she'll get on her OWLs, and some ideas for pranks...I'll let you work out why I want the last one. wink