Lilly and Remus were following the yells, when suddenly—they stopped. They didn't hear anything for about ten minutes, then they heard a group laughing followed by an angry yell. Remus slowed and waited for Lilly to catch up with him. He slipped his arm behind her back, keeping his hand near her waist in a brotherly, protective way.

"Stay close to me," He whispered. "Lumos," He held his wand at arms-length in front of him. They walked down the dark hallway for a few minutes when Remus felt Lilly go stiff.

"Down here," She grabbed his hand and jerked him down another corridor, starting to feel scared. Lilly led Remus down corridors, turning every few minutes.

"Lilly—where are we—"Remus started to ask, but he was cut off by Lilly shushing him from in front. Lilly kept following the corridors, not knowing where she was going, but just knowing that James could be found if she followed these halls. She felt flashes of fear, hate, dread, disgust, and longing, although she didn't know why. All of a sudden, she stopped and fell to her knees.

"Lilly? Lilly!" Remus fell down beside her. She held her face in her hands and had tears running down her cheeks. "What's wrong? Lilly!" Remus picked her up off the floor and she straightened up, wiping her cheeks with her sleeves. Ducking down, she picked up her wand and started following the corridors again.

"I think I'm feeling what James is feeling. Somethings happened that's making him miserable. I saw a flash of a hand holding a wand over flames...I—I think somebody just burned his wand." Remus looked at her strangely, but didn't say anything. Soon, Lilly skidded to a halt outside a portrait hole.

"He's in there?" Remus whispered, coming up behind her. Lilly nodded. "That's Slytherins common room." Lilly nodded again.

"You know the password right?" She said quietly, "Since you're Head Boy." She seemed to snap out of her daze and grinned, "Wait a minute, I'm Head Girl. Ha!" She thought for a moment, then said "Cunning Candies".

The portrait hole swung open and Lilly and Remus stepped inside. They looked around the common room—empty. Loud moans came from upstairs, so they ran up the stairs and burst through a door at the end of the hall.

"WHAT THE!?" Lucius Malfoy leapt out of his chair as the door ripped open. Narcissa fell off his lap and scrambled over to the bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Lilly Evans walked towards Malfoy with her wand stuck out in front of her, her hand shaking slightly. Remus got Crabbe, Goyle, and Regulus backed against the opposite wall, threatening them with his wand.

"Please don't hurt me, you stupid Mudblood." Lucius grinned maliciously and walked towards her. It was almost as if he was challenging her—challenging her to do him harm. Lilly glared at Malfoy.

"Where's James?" She hissed; her eyes turned to slits and her hand was still shaking.

"L'y?!" Lilly snapped her head up from Lucius and looked towards a door that was half-open. James sat there, tied up, with a blue bandana stuffed in his mouth.

"JAMES!" Lilly, still grasping her wand, started to run past Malfoy to James, but he stepped in front of her before she could.

"Evans—Didn't your bitchy little Mudblood mother ever tell you not to trespass? That's what you're doing right now—trespassing." Lilly seethed with anger—she tried to control it, but she couldn't—she exploded.

"How DARE you call my mother a bitch OR a Mudblood! You dirty, rotten, piece of bloody slime!" Before anyone realized what she was doing, she pointed her wand at the ceiling and looked towards Malfoy. "Destructus," She muttered, and as she did, bits of the ceiling started sprinkling down onto the shoulders of the group. Remus muttered a spell that tied the five Slytherins together (including Narcissa) and ran towards the room James was in. Together, Lilly and Remus got James untied and ran out of the Slytherin dormitory, just as the ceiling collapsed.

"James? Are you alright? Did they hurt you? What happened? What did they do? Merlin, I was so worried!" Lilly cried as they finally sat down on the couch in the Gryffindor common room, dusty and scratched up, but otherwise whole. She threw her arms around James' neck and cried into his shirt. Remus noted that they needed some alone time, so he volunteered to go hang out with the rest of the gang in the hospital wing. James and Lilly sat, holding each other, for a long time, until Lilly pulled away slightly so she could look up into James' face. It was dusty, dirty, scratched, and bruised, but she still thought it was handsome. She reached her hand up and pushed his messy hair out of the way before sitting up and kissing him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" She said, looking him over again.

"Lilly, I'm fine." He said, rubbing her back reasurringly. "I'm just a little stiff is all..." Lilly sighed, relieved, and sat back against his chest.

"I'm so glad—when you didn't meet us this morning I was so worried. I—"

"Lilly—they burned my wand." Lilly sat up and looked up at James.

"They did? I thought so." She whispered as she put her arms around his and let him lean onto her shoulder. She felt insecure being the one reassuring him; usually it was the other way round.

"How could you know?" James said after a minute.

"I don't know—"Lilly whispered. "It was like—I was feeling your thoughts, it sounds strange, but that's how we found you, I followed the halls, navigating by feeling where you were." It did sound absurd, but it was the truth. She sighed.

"I wish this year wasn't so difficult. I wanted it to be nice—just us. Just—you know—this." She wrapped her arms tighter around his waist and nuzzled against his chest.

"Me too, Babe, that's all I ever wanted too." He said, kissing the top of her head, and smiling for the first time that day.