Disclaimer: Not mine.

The Wind Through My Hair

Lily marched back in silence with Remus to the portrait hole. It wasn't like she was keeping quiet on purpose-- Lily just could not speak without screaming some foul thing about James. It was that one time she trusted him; she had made a deal, thinking it was fair, and yet, she had been fooled by James Potter, once again. She now remembered why she had disliked him so much. And what angered her the most? The fact that all the while, he did not look guilty once. James had been so flawlessly carefree the entire time, it made Lily wonder if he even gave a damn.

I did his laundry for that little prat, she thought venomously, as she recalled how he said one of the marauders did all their laundry for the week, and they all alternated. Yeah right, she thought.

She almost shouted the password when they got to the portrait hole, and stomped through. The fire crackled merrily, but it was far from what Lily felt.

"Hey Lils!" said a voice from her left. Sirius, Peter, and James were all lounging around in the common room by the fire, waiting for them. James was the one who had said hello. Lily paused and closed her eyes, perhaps wishing it was not them at that moment, and she could simply go up to her dorm and sleep peacefully, then wake up to find it was some weird dream.

"Er...Oy, Lils?" James said again. Remus grimaced and made frantic waving motions to stop talking to her. He had drawn enough information to realize what Sirius and James had actually done. He shook his head, but only Sirius and Peter noticed him. Lily turned slowly toward them and gave them a death glare.

She gritted her teeth and almost growled, "Don't call me Lils." There was a long silence as they all looked at her warily.

"What's...wrong?" asked Peter, his large blue eyes looking more watery than usual.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? James, I cannot believe you tricked me! I cannot believe you told me their was rules and there aren't, and we made a deal and it wasn't fair, and I did your laundry!" she said in a rather long breath.

"What? I didn't make up that those rules...well, okay, so I made up a few of those rules after a while, and got a little out of hand, but that laundry one was real! I swear!" said James, earnestly.

"Er...what about laundry? What has Laundry got to do with this?" asked Remus.

"James told her about how we alternate with the laundry," said Sirius.

"Oh that's a rule? We've got rules to begin with?" asked Remus.

"You see? Remus says there's no rules!" said Lily.

"We have got rules, we just don't usually call them rules...you know, like not telling people our secrets, and blabbing, and no pranks on girls the other likes, and you know, all that...well, most of that stuff I kept telling you about," said James.

"Oh, those are rules? Well, I knew we weren't supposed to do those things, but I mean...that's really a given, isn't it?" Remus said.

"See, there are rules, just not...that's just not what they...well...they're not rules, they're just...there." said Peter. He looked very confused and mixed up. Another long silence followed this statement. Lily felt really silly.

"Oh. Well then...sorry...about that. You know..." said Lily, nodding and swinging her arms back and forth, in an effort to prevent them from hanging limply at her sides. Anything to make her look, or feel, less like an idiot would do. Lily shrugged embarrassedly and turned to leave. She walked two steps toward the girls' staircase, until she heard him again. "Hey, Lily?" James, of course.

She turned around, still feeling extremely stupid. "Yes?"

"Aren't you going to hang around? We won't be leaving for a while, and it'll be er...fun, I suppose," James said.

"Well...I'd love to, but you know we've got class--"

"Oh, shut up. Class is nothing. You've already got straight A's. What will a couple hours of lost sleep do?" asked Sirius.

Lily looked at them and smiled slightly. They seemed to have forgotten the fight. Lily dwelled on things much longer than normal people would, and took things a lot harder, too. The Marauders weren't normal either though, and, instead of more uptight, they were less so than normal people would be. And Lily was right; they had forgotten the fight already.

"Sure," Lily said, decidedly. It couldn't be that bad. She could get to know them better. And besides-- She had to see what rules James had made up.

________________________________________________

Lily skipped down the stairs, two at a time, quite jovially. Diana and Sarah glanced at each other and gave questioning looks. Lily was rarely this openly happy, and the reason for her being that way was almost always obvious. This was one of those times when the reason was not quite as visible. When they had asked her what was up with her, all her response was, "I can't be happy just for fun anymore?" Puzzling, indeed.

The truth was, she hadn't had such a good laugh or conversation than last night. Sirius and James were quite the pair, Remus was really very deep, and Peter wasn't so bad. The rest of the Marauders were actually very nice to Peter, and included him in everything they said. Lily was surprised, because that was contrary to popular belief. However, Lily still could sense some sort of melancholy feeling from Peter, despite all of his laughing and joking. And no matter what, he always seemed nervous.

Lily giggled as she recalled a topic from last night. She had been giggling randomly all morning, without explanation, and she hadn't noticed her friends were really confused. Lily practically skipped into the Great Hall and plopped down right next to Peter and James.

"Morning, old chaps! Feeling ready for a new day? I sure am!" she responded without letting them answer. Not that they would've anyways. Remus was reading the Wizard's Daily newspaper, Sirius was completely absorbed and set on eating his food faster than he could fly a broomstick, Peter was reading his letter, and James...actually was listening to her. She gave him a pleasant smile and reached for a biscuit.

She looked up though when she heard distant flapping. A few observant people bobbed their heads up to see a black feathered owl with a few white feathers here and there flying into the Great Hall with a plain beige envelope clutched in it's claws. A few more people looked up when their friends nudged them, and soon, more than a few were watching it's flight into the hall.

"Gee, I hope it's not mine!" Alice frantically whispered and clutched onto her boyfriend's sleeve.

"Wow..." said Ehren Polopski.

Many solemn murmurs could be heard throughout the hall, and finally the letter was dropped from above onto Lily's lap. The owl did not swoop down, or wait for a tip or a little nibble of food. It hardly even glanced at Lily. It simply gracefully flew in, went right above Lily, dropped the letter from high above, and left. It seemed most of the great hall had its eyes on Lily, and everyone around her at her table was deeply concerned. James nudged her lightly. "Open it." Lily shrugged her shoulders. She didn't understand why people were making such a big deal. Owls came in long after the flock of letter-delivering owls came in all the time. She picked up the letter and tore off the black wax seal. She pulled out a letter inside, just as plain beige as the envelope, and opened up the folds. It was written in neat, typewriter font.

Dear Miss Lily Evans:

In the recent events of a Deatheater attack on a small muggle neighborhood in Little Whinging, Surrey, many muggle families and homes were destroyed. It has come to our attention that Mr. and Mrs. Richard Evans were among those harmed in this unexpected and violent act on April the first. We send our most deep condolences, and hope you will get over this tragic loss with time.

Sincerely,

The Ministry of Magic

Janice Walker, Head Auror

Lily stared at the letter, her mouth slowly opening. It was slightly open now in disbelief, and her eyes were wider than saucers. She closed her mouth and clenched her teeth, and her eyebrows furrowed. She had a pained look on her face. Why had this letter come so late? It was nearly a week and a half after April 1st, and she was their daughter. The letter seemed so fake. Everything was typed, and there wasn't even a real signature at the bottom. Everything was plain, paper was beige parchment, and the ink was smudgy black typewriter ink. Lily shook her head and folded the letter up, placing it on the table and taking her fork to eat. Everyone was giving her odd looks. She lifted the fork to her mouth, a bit of egg on the end, and almost put it in. She stopped.

Lily slowly placed the fork down on the table and looked down in her lap. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were among those harmed in this unexpected and violent act on April the first. The line flashed into her mind, and random sentences from that horrid letter zoomed through her head. They were gone. Something told Lily that that letter was just not fake. Gone. They were gone. Her mother...and father. Her birthday was this summer, how were they to celebrate it? How could they die? She was almost finished with school. How could they miss out on her graduation?

She stopped again. No, they wouldn't just miss out on her birthday and graduation. Lily suddenly realized that they were no longer there. "I've got to..." Lily said as she abruptly pushed her chair out and almost tripped in her hasty exit. She did not even get to say her excuse for leaving, and her voice cracked slightly. She left all her school things behind and simply walked briskly out, the heels of her shoes sounding much louder than they should've. The hall was simply silent, and Lily pushed open the doors and ran. Just...ran.

A/N: Hey, yes, major mood change of this chapter. I hadn't originally planned for her parents' deaths this early, but my grandmother recently died, so I thought it might be a appropriate if I wrote this now. I hope you liked it.