Disclaimer: No, nothing has changed, I STILL don't own Harry Potter, and I'm STILL not J.K. Rowling…poobah.

AN: I liked the whole, POV so I'm going to stick with that for a while, and if I don't like it, I'll change it. This is like a trial run or something…

~Lily~

We stayed in the hospital wing all night watching Kari. Sarah nodded off about two and Liz fell asleep later, don't know exactly when, but I heard her soft snores. I was the only one left up. I knew Kari would be mad if she found out that I stayed up all night for her. She hated it when people sacrificed for themselves for her. She is a very proud person. But, back to that night. I was wondering why, of all people, Sirius Black brought her in. Him and his pig headed friends, the 'Mauraders', self named, were, well pig headed. Except Remus. Me and Kari started to really get to know him during the past week. He was a real deep guy. One of the only deep guys I knew, or actually know that I think about it…probably the only one. Oops, sorry, Michael. I'm still not used to having him as a 'boyfriend' so to speak. Sure, we kiss, but I personally think that we're to young to be considered anything beyond 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. Dating, well going to Hogsmeade wasn't the same. When I told Kari about how I felt, she nodded quite enthusiastically and agreed. We usually agree on things like that. It's kinda weird actually. You know how little kids usually don't agree on anything and argue about sharing? Well, me and Kari have known each other since…well…forever, and we never have once gotten seriously mad at each other. There have been times, like on the train last year; I still shudder when I think about the look in her eyes. She looked so lost, alone, sad, angry, all of that in one. Her eyes usually don't show emotion. She's good at that. Hiding emotions, unlike me. Her icy blue eyes usually have some sorrow in them, but that's not showing her emotions, she's always like that. Her eyes showed her emotion tonight. They changed from icy, to dark and soulful, and so sad. Then, there are my eyes. Livid green, that show the slightest bit of emotional change within me. Even if its from happy, to happier. Kari loves my eyes, I just roll them and she goes, "Not anymore." She always makes me laugh. She's the 'strong one.' That's how I describe her. She is strong for her mom, and her sister, Sam, and for me. She's been through hard times, but she's always so, steadfast. She's started going, well, depressed lately. I know its cause of her dad. He's awful. That dumb episode over the summer is just an example of what he does. He makes me sick, but now he's going to be locked up for a while. At least until we're out of Hogwarts.

Now I'm rambling on. It's almost seven in the morning. I've gotten no sleep, and my bloody hand hurts. Literally and…not…literally…

"Lil?" Sarah's sleepy voice asked, and broke into a tremendous yawn.

"Yes?" I asked, my voice croaking.

"Were you up all night?"

"Yeah, thinking. As soon as Kari's up, I'll go to sleep." I stood up, stretched, then sat back down.

"I want to get something to eat, but I don't want to leave." Sarah said glancing at Kari.

"Yeah, me too."

"Ahh! Liz, don't do that!" I jumped at the sound of her voice. I had thought she was asleep.

Liz grinned sleepily. "That was priceless."

"Argh, I could hit you, but my hand is kind of occupied right now."

"Aww, poor Lily."

"Shut up." I muttered.

"Ladies! Looking quite fabulous I might add. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

"Potter. Shut. Up." I paused between each word. Obviously he's pulling our legs cause we look like crap. Our hair is messed up and our robes are disheveled. Not to mention there are bags beginning to form under my eyes. I looked in the mirror, and it confirmed what I thought about my appearance.

"Has she woken up yet?" Sirius asked softly. He was looking at Kari with a worried expression.

Hold it. Rewind. Sirius Black has a serious look on his face. I almost dropped my jaw in surprise, but luckily, I caught myself as Michael and Jason walked in.

"Hey Michael!" I got up and walked to him, kissing his cheek. Was that jealousy in Potter's face? "Jason, she hasn't woken up yet." I added softly.

He didn't say anything, but sat next to her on her bed and started to play with her hair softly. It was rather sweet, but I knew that if Kari knew, she would kill him first for doing it, then me for letting him.

Michael sat down, and pulled me onto his lap. Remus was giving me a weird look. I'll ask him about that later.

"What really happened?"

"Huh?" I looked at Jason oddly.

"What happened to Kari?"

"I don't want to talk about it. She'll tell you. It's not my place."

"Whas going on?" a groggy voice came from the bed.

"Kari, you're awake!"

"Yeah, unfortunately. If being dead is like that, kill me now."

"No." Jason came into our conversation firmly.

She looked at him confused, then seemed to remember something. I think I understood. She was used to me being there after something bad happened, not anyone else.

"Good, you're awake. As soon as you take this potion, you're free to go." Madame Pomfrey came up.

I looked at Kari and saw something in her I had never seen before, it was fear, she was never afraid, why was she now?

~Karina~

I awoke to voices around me.

"Whas going on?" I managed to ask.

The room came into focus and I saw where I was, and remembered what had happened the night before.

"Kari, you're awake!"

"Yeah, unfortunately. If being dead is like that, kill me now."

"No."

I looked up at the new voice. Jason, he's a Ravenclaw, but why is he here? Then it clicked. I almost smacked myself. Boyfriend. Except, we were only the little kid 'boyfriend and girlfriend' because we were too young. Lily knew this too. We were going to talk about that, and then all the drama with Hogsmeade and my dad… No. Stop right now. Don't get scared. He's going to be locked up for a long time, the muggle official said so. But still, for an idiot, he's kind of smart, what if gets out…

I took the damn potion that evil nurse Madame Pomfrey gave me, and sent me away. All the guys left under her command, and I was glad. It was just me and Lily, Liz, and Sarah. They only people I wanted to see.

As we walked down to the Great Hall there was one of those understanding silences. Suddenly, I heard some sobbing, from a door to my right.

"Who's that?" I asked through the door.

No one answered.

Lily opened the door, and we walked in.

"Who are you?" said the girl on the floor.

"I'm Sarah Finch." Sarah said soothingly and bent down to the girl. "That's Elizabeth Hwin, Lily Evans, and Karina Karr." she pointed us all out.

"Callie Avery." she muttered looking at us. She looked kind of scared, like we were going to whip out our wands and hex her or something, but then I realized, she was a Slytherin. That's why she thought that. She was sister of that god forsaken Seth Avery. (AN: No matter how hard I scoured the books, I could not find Avery's name, so if you know his real name, please inform me so I can correct it.) Him and his bunch of cronies were known to hurl curses at Lily and me in the halls. She didn't seem so bad though, just a little scared. She looked at me, clearly afraid that I would curse her to oblivion, when I smiled. I even surprised myself with that one.

"Nice to meet you. Don't look so shocked."

"B-but I thought you hated Slytherins?" she spluttered.

"Only the ass wipes in there, but I hate all ass wipes, doesn't matter what house they are in."

"Just so you know, I'm not like them," she said rather bluntly. Oh I liked her. Blunt, the missing piece in our friendship puzzle.

"Come eat with us." Liz smiled.

"Alright Elizabeth." she got up rather shyly.

"Call me Liz, and if I might ask, why were you crying?"

"Stupid letter from my even stupider parents."

"Well, don't think about them, cause you are officially welcome with us." Sarah smiled, and linked arms with her. Callie looked shocked. I glanced at Lily. She caught my eyes and they twinkled knowingly. Something passed between us then, and I knew it was going to be a beautiful friendship.

~Callie~

That stupid bitch. She's psychotic! What was Black thinking? 'The Dark Lord" what rubbish. Her and that Rodolphus Lestrange with their wacky ideas. Letting my damn mother know. Oh, this will really make her mad. I'm now friends with everyone BUT a Slytherin. They're really great too.

"So, want to sit at the Gryffindor table with us?" Karina asked.

I looked at the Slytherin table, and all the evil glares I was getting, especially from Bellatrix, she loathed Lily and Karina. I said loudly, so they could all hear, "I would love to sit with you."

We walked over to the table, and sat down. Lily looked over her shoulder and cracked up. Karina followed with Sarah and Liz coming on quick. I looked over at them and started laughing too. Karina was the first to stop. She didn't seem the happiest person. I looked at her and she almost seemed sad, but she looked at me and gave me a smile. I realized the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"So Callie, tell us about yourself." Sarah said, grabbing some toast and putting jam on it.

"Well, all the obvious things, I'm a Slytherin, third year, stuck with a load of nutters…" I left off.

"Isn't that the God given truth." Lily said smiling and pulling a bowl of cereal closer to her. I reached out and grabbed some bacon.

"So is that your food of choice?" Karina asked smiling, biting into her doughnut.

"What?"

"Well, its like this, I have this obsession with doughnuts, I eat them every morning, and if I don't I drive the world nuts; Lily has to eat her bowl of cereal or she goes of the wall bonkers," Karina smiled at Lily, " Sarah HAS to have her toast, and Liz, well, if Liz doesn't get her English muffin, she is murderous."

I glanced at Liz who had just taken a huge bite of an English muffin, and Lily, who had just finished her second bowl of cereal, smiling, I nodded, "Bacon is my food of choice."

~Sirius~

"Breakfast!" Remus said smiling, after digging into his overcrowded plate.

"Sorry to break it to you mate, but you have it bad for breakfast." James said, laughing at Remus and his plate.

"I agree, no one sits with us any more cause you scare them off." Peter said, watching with an amazed look at all the food Remus stuffed down.

Incoherent mumbling from Remus made James and Peter start laughing.

"Sirius, what's wrong?" James asked, starting on his eggs.

I didn't answer; I couldn't get Karina out of my mind. That awful look of helplessness she had about her last night as I carried her. Not that I didn't like carrying her, but, it was eerie. I had never seen her look any other way than cool, calm, and collected. At least, she was like that normally, then me or James, or both would do something, and she would go berserk, but she had never looked like she needed help. She never asked for it, never even accepted it.

"Did you ever get the full story of what happened last night?" James asked no one in particular.

"I'll tell you what happened! That bitch totally wrecked our dorm! I told her the truth about what everyone in the school thinks of her, then, she had the NERVE to call me petty and judgmental!" Gina called from a couple of seats down.

Everyone fell quiet, and looked down at the table at Karina. I wanted to know what Karina would do too; Gina had no right to call her a bitch.

"Well, if your NOT petty and judgmental, you sure do have a mighty good impression of one." Karina said coolly.

"Watch it Mudblood! You shouldn't speak to your superiors that way." came a cold voice. I turned around, and saw Avery glaring at her as though she were a piece of garbage. I could almost feel my blood boiling.

"Don't say that word to her." I growled standing up.

"Have a soft spot for a Mudblood do you cuz?" a high smooth voice said, the voice of my much hated cousin Bellatrix. I winced at the use of that word.

"Does it bother you so much Black?" the greaseball Snivellus said from behind Bellatrix."

"Back off Snivellus." James snarled standing up next to me, his hand edged towards his wand.

"Callie, go back to our table." Avery said to someone sitting near Karina and her friends.

"No, I will not Avery." the voice said coolly.

"Callie, what are you doing here?" Rodolphus Lestrange, my demented cousin's demented infatuation asked in his cold voice.

"Sitting with my friends, if you could understand the concept of that word."

"If you ever want to be accepted into the Dark Lord's waiting arms, I would advise you to go back to our table, and not associate yourself with such lowly mudbloods." Bellatrix replied, her voice getting higher and louder in anger.

"I don't want to have anything to do with Voldemort." Callie replied calmly going back to her breakfast as though the conversation were over.

"Sister, go back to our table and we will forgive this… whatever you wish to call it."

"No, I believe I've said it enough, and as far as I'm concerned, you're not my brother."

All the Slytherins looked at Callie venomously, then Lestrange hissed, "You will pay for your crimes." And they walked back to their table, the girls watching them all the way.

"Apparently they hit a nerve." Remus said slowly. "I wonder why Callie is sitting with them. Do you really think she's decided she doesn't like the Slytherins?"

"I don't know, but she never did seem as into all the…odd things the other Slytherins were in, like, oh say Snivellus." James said, glancing down the table.

I looked too and saw that the girls were in deep discussion. Karina didn't seem whole heartedly into it if you ask me, and then she glanced at me. Our eyes met, and for the first time, Karina Karr, in my opinion, the prettiest girl in Hogwarts, genuinely smiled at me, but instead of it warming me, it made me sad to see even her smile wasn't devoid of sadness.

~Lily~

As soon as the Slytherins left, I turned to look at Callie.

"What are you going to do now? They're going to hate you for 'fraternizing with the enemy' so to say." I whispered, glancing at the Slytherin table. They all had identical sour looks on their faces.

"I don't know what to do now. Obviously I'm in deep shit though, and I just met you today." Callie sighed. "The things I get myself into."

"You and me both!" I said, accompanied by my three other friends. We all nervously giggled.

"AHH!"

"What is it Kari?" I asked alarmed.

"JASON! Don't EVER do that again!"

"No promises are being made, but I'll try to restrain myself."

"Hey Lily Flower." Michael said from behind me. I smiled at the little nickname he gave me.

"Hello love." Oh crap, I'm beginning to sound like Karina.

"Hey, that's what I say!" Kari said. Oh no, she noticed. I'm never going to hear the end of this. I looked up to see Kari smiling, but it had even less of the warmth it used to hold. She was slipping farther into the darkness. Or at least, that's what I referred to it as.

"What are we doing today?" I asked, trying to distract myself from my thoughts.

"I think the girls should have the day together. You know, getting to know the new girl." Kari suggested, picking up fifth doughnut.

"I like that idea." Sarah said smiling.

"Sounds peachy." Liz said, smiling at me. Damnit, she noticed me copying Kari's words too.

"Lovely. Where do we want to go?" Kari asked, swallowing the rest of her doughnut and picking up yet another one.

"We could lock ourselves in our dorm? I know some locking charms no one will be able to break unless they read more charm books than I do."

"That's improbable Lil, so I think it's a good idea."

"Don't you mean impossible?" Callie asked.

"No, anything is possible."

"Alright, well I like that idea, I can get away from my damn House. And talk of Voldemort. Personally I am sick of hearing about him."

"Well that settles it. Boys, you're going to have to find something else to do with your time, because us girls are going to go and enjoy ourselves. But, before we go, I have to say hello to my guy." Liz said, blushing as she finished. I almost started laughing, but decided that I didn't want karma to catch up with me. She walked down and stood next to Remus, kissed his cheek, and flushing, came back down to us.

"I'm ready to go."

"I vote we go to the kitchens to get food before we go to the dorm." Sarah said standing up.

"I second that!" I exclaimed, kissing Michael and standing up.

"Let's go." Kari stood up too and kissed Jason. "See you later."

With all of us standing, we started walking out when Sarah screamed, "I'LL RACE YOU!" and ran off. I took her up on that and started running too, with Kari, Callie, and Liz following.

~Karina~

"Wayfarers." I said to the Fat Lady and walked in to the common room. There weren't a lot of people in it.

"Follow me to the dorm of doom." Lily rolled her eyes.

We walked up the stairs and plopped onto the beds.

"The charm is on the door. No one can get in unless we let them." Lily smiled proudly.

"Sounds good to me, I don't want those other roommates coming in and screeching about some speck of dirt I can't see and don't really care about." I sighed looking towards the door. No regrets. I don't regret anything I have ever done.

Maybe we should start. a voice said in the back of my head.

No.

Admit it, you regret turning dad in. Mom is going to be pissed. She loves dad to death.

I'll stay with Lily then. I am not going to put up with dad anymore.

Your choice.

Thank you for seeing it my way.

"…so when I told them I didn't want to be a Death Eater, they freaked out and sent me a letter telling me how disappointed they are of me. That's why I was so upset. But it doesn't matter anymore." Callie finished.

"What are you going to do now? I mean, you're in danger around the Slytherins now." Sarah asked, taking a bite out of an éclair.

"I don't know. Maybe I can talk to Dumbledore," she said rather dejectedly.

"That's a great idea!" Liz exclaimed.

"What can he do?"

"He could…I dunno, but you won't know until you ask."

"Yeah, but still…"

"But nothing, let's go now!"

Liz stood up and pulled Callie up next to her.

"Are you sure this will work?" Sarah asked unsurely.

"No, but what's life without the risks?"

"Remus made you too chipper." I grumbled standing up.

"Hold it, do we even know where Dumbledore's office is?" Lily, the all knowing and sensible one asked. She looked over at me and winked. Then I understood, she wants to make them sweat first.

"Ummm…"

"Erg…"

'Hmmm…"

"No…"

"Well, maybe we should ask someone."

"Lil, shut it. Maybe we can ask McGonagall?" I asked, she gave me a small smile, I winked back.

"Or Flitwick." Liz suggested.

"I hope it works."

"Me too Sarah." Callie said a little nervously.

~Callie~

Damn Slytherins. Damn dark wizards. What I want to know, is what provokes a wizard to become 'dark'? It's all bullshit to me.

"You look deep in thought. What about?

"Oh, yeah, just thinking about damn dark wizards. What about you Karina?"

"Call me Kari. And I was thinking of how totally screwed my life is."

"What's so screwed up about it?"

"Eh, family issues. Screwy family." Her eyes seemed to cloud up when she said that, but she looked away before I could be positive.

"What can be worse than a family of dark wizards that want you to be one too?" I asked, meaning it to be sarcasm, but my sarcasm is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean always. I had never seen such a look, and I'm from Slytherin.

"Don't talk about what you don't know." she snapped, and walked ahead.

Oh great. New friend already mad at me. This is wonderful. Except, that was sarcasm.

"Don't worry about it. She's had an extremely bad few weeks." Lily said soothingly, walking ahead to Kari. I didn't hear what Lily said, but it must have done something because about thirty seconds later, Kari was apologizing. That was a first. No one has ever apologized to me. At least, I mean, they usually aren't sincere about it.

"It's alright." I said rather breathless. Man I sound like a dork.

We walked on in silence for awhile. When I realized, I didn't know where we were headed.

"Where are we going?" I asked uncertainly.

"Well, Liz, being the Ravenclaw that she is, had this idea, that when students wander around the school aimlessly, they get caught by a teacher, and that's exactly who we want to find, a teacher." Sarah explained, still looking a little confused herself.

Liz then did something rather random in my opinion, she walked down a corridor, then deciding against something, walked back to us, then decided to do the thing she originally intended or something, then I heard her gasp. On instinct, I pulled out my wand and rushed forward.

"What is it?"

"A door. It wasn't there before." Liz said pointing at a door.

"Well, open it." Sarah said, staring at the door.

"You do it." Liz said, obviously still kind of shocked.

"Oh I'll do it." Lily said and went up to the door, looking at it carefully and drawing her wand, she opened it and gasped.

Kari pulling out her wand quickly hurried to her side and she sucked in a breath.

"Oh my."

"I know."

"Kari, Lil, what is it?" Liz asked nervously.

"You have to see this." Kari replied, walking in.

Liz cautiously approached the room, and I saw her eyes widen in surprise. She turned to face me and Sarah, and beckoned us forward. Sarah made eye contact with me, raised her eyebrows and we both headed towards the door.

"Wow…" I breathed.

"Its great." Sarah said behind me.

It was a room, a huge room, with five beds, each adorned with our own house colors.

"What is this place?" Liz asked going to the Ravenclaw bed, and flopping herself down on it.

"I dunno, I've never heard of it before…" Lily wandered to on of the Gryffindor beds. "What's this?"

"What?" Kari walked towards her, and looked at the object in her hand. It was a book labeled, All you need to know about the Room of Requirement.

There was no author.

"The Room of Requirement? I guess that's this place." Sarah went over to a table surrounded by armchairs.

"It looks almost like our common rooms and dorms mixed." Liz said, looking around apprehensively.

"Your common rooms look like this?" I asked confused. Ours was much less cozy.

"Well yeah, doesn't the Slytherin common room look like this?" Sarah looked up confused.

"Well no, it's more dank and not as comforting."

"That doesn't sound pleasant."

"It isn't really."

"Liz, what were you thinking of when you were walking past the wall?" Lily asked suddenly.

"Well, I was thinking that I hoped we could find a place for Callie to sleep and maybe us too so she would be safe from her dorm mates."

"Well, that explains it then, this room becomes whatever you really need, like, in our case, we wanted a place for Callie to be safe to sleep, with us too, so this nice place showed up. To get here you have to walk past that wall three times thinking about what you want the room to become."

"Dude, do you realize the possibilities with this room! We can sleep here, get to classes early, not have to worry about other damn dorm mates!"

"Yeah I like that idea Callie!" Sarah smiled.

"Wait, we can just move in here, people would notice, plus, what if other people know about it, our stuff would be stolen, I think we should only come here in emergencies." Kari said thinking things through.

"She's right, I think we should only use this place for sleeping in emergencies, but for other purposes, I think this could be my favorite place in the castle." Liz's mouth curled into a lopsided grin.

"Well, as long as we are in agreement." Lily smiled, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"I knew this would be the start of a beautiful friendship." Kari said slyly.

"I see wonderful sleepovers and girl talk in a certain room in the future…" Sarah said in a mock mysterious tone.

We all laughed and I knew that I didn't need my family if I had friends like them.