Chapter 28: Finding Truth; Dancing in the Rain; Listening to Death's Call

A/N: I got some comments where people were like, "James didn't sleep with all those girls!" And you're right... but Lily doesn't know that yet. Don't worry they're not broken up nor shall they be anytime soon. That would completely ruin EVERYTHING.

New postings: All Or Nothing (One-shot); Bitter Sweet (One-shot); Because of Love (One-shot); Just One (One-shot). All of them are a different kind of fic I've never written so I'd really appreciate feedback! Thanks!

Disclaimer: Still don't own anything.

And: I know no author should make their life affect their writing. I mean, what's happening with me has never really effected my written. But as of late it has. I broke up with my boyfriend yesterday and pardon me if it starts showing in this story. I broke up with him, so obviously the only feeling I'm feeling is guilt; I'm not depressed... he just wasn't.... James.

Finding Truth; Dancing in the Rain; Listening to Death's Call


The common room was quiet. Like they didn't want to upset me; like they thought I'd bite their head off if anything went wrong or anyone made a noise. I stared at my Transfigurations homework about a week after we had gotten back. I'd received many messages from Mr. Crouch and Amos between now and when we had gotten back. Dumbledore had been in touch with me just yesterday. He's still deciding what he wants James and I to do for the Order; we have yet to discuss joining it with our friends.

"Lily?"

I looked up to find a sixth year Gryffindor named Marlene McKinnon (A/N: I am so sorry if I already mentioned her in this story where she was younger, older, graduated or in another house! So sorry!). She pulled her auburn hair out of her face, resting it on one shoulder as she sat down in the seat across from me.

"Hullo," I said heavily, pulling some notes towards me.

"Can I talk to you about James?"

"What?" I asked looking up.

"I know what happened... like everyone else of course," she said softly. "I know you two had a little tussle. Are you talking much now?"

I shrugged. "I really haven't been up to it. I have a weeks worth of assignments to catch up with. I'm sure James is the same—"

Marlene nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about what you accused him of."

"I only asked him about what I had heard," I replied earnestly; sure maybe it wasn't as simple as that, but it wasn't as though I'd made it up.

She nodded solemnly again. "I understand. But I know... I know who he's done it with."

My eyes went wide. "How—how do you know?"

"I can't explain," she replied pleadingly. "I just know—"

"How can I trust your word if you don't tell me how you know?"

"I know James has only been with thirty different girls; only fifteen of which being serious. He's only shagged six of those thirty... counting you of course."

"How do you know this?" I whispered.

Marlene blushed looking away. "I was his first."

I ran a hand through my hair, nodding slightly, though she couldn't see me. "But how do you know about all the girls?"

"I... I guess I was a pretty obsessive exgirlfriend," she said taking a piece of parchment out of her pocket.

I took it softly and opened it. My eyes skimmed it; every girl James had ever dated was on this piece of parchment. It said her name, her year, what year she was leaving, her age compared to his, her house, how serious their relationship was, what they had done, what she looked like in detail, and what she was (half blood, pure blood, etc.).

I looked up and met eyes with her. I surprised myself by what I said next. "Have you ever thought of fighting against Voldemort?"


"Professor she's brilliantly observant! Look at this piece of parchment! Don't mind what the subject is about," I added hastily passing him the parchment. "She was able to gather things about this lot of girls; things I don't even know! She knows what colour hair they have, when their birthday is, how serious their relationship is with someone! And she's done it undetected on thirty different girls!"

Dumbledore studied the paper. "Very impressive, yes. Does she want to fight against Voldemort?"

I nodded. "She told me she had thought about it. But she wasn't completely sure if she was able; being so young and not being interested in becoming an Auror."

Dumbledore handed me back the parchment. "I'll be in touch with her," he said solemnly, standing up. "You best get into class, Miss Evans. Ten points to Gryffindor, making up for the five you're going to lose when you walk in late for Potions."

I smiled at him, throwing my bag over my shoulder and nodded goodbye. I ran through the halls down to the dungeon two minutes after the last bell had rung. Like predicted I lost five points for being late, and after quickly apologizing I took the only seat available: by Slytherin's Severus Snape. As I sat down I saw James look over uncomfortably observant.

"With the partner you're sitting next to you will make a potion together, complete an essay together, and complete this work-table by filling in the right ingredients. Any questions?"

Severus' hand shot up in the air. "Do we have to work with partners?"

"Nobody wants to work with you anyway," said James rather loudly; I shot a look over at him, to which he shrugged.

"Yes, Mr. Snape. Five points from Gryffindor Mr. Potter, and get your feet off my tables or it'll be twenty," warned the professor.

James rolled his eyes, bringing his chair back down on all fours.

"Go on," ordered the professor sitting down at his desk.

I turned to look at Snape who already had half the work-table done. I looked over at my bag, taking out my notes from last class and setting them out on the table.

"I'll start on the essay," I said, taking out my ink and quill.

"No, you'll sit there making eyes and your boyfriend, Mudblood," said Snape coldly. "He's staring over here like I'm going to make a move on you or something."

I glared, pulling out some parchment. As I began to write I saw James staring our way from the corner of my eye. Snape finished the work-table, before standing up and getting the ingredients we would need. I stared at him as he mixed in the Potions in the correct order.

"What?" he ordered, stirring the potion as he looked at me. "Mudbloods, can't do anything right I swear."

I scowled as he leaned over and looked at what I had written, his face for a moment going soft. James was shooting looks our way as Snape moved closer.

"You forget the 'e' there," he said pointing to my parchment before turning back to our cauldron.

"Oh... thanks," I answered politely.

He looked over at me, his eyes looked like they were making sense of what was happening. "Learn to spell."

He clutched his left arm painfully before rubbing it with his right palm. I stared for a moment, then looked a couple rows in front of us to see another Slytherin, Avery, I believe, doing the exact same thing. I gave myself a mental note as my mind registered what that could mean.

"Are you all right?" I asked after a moment.

"Shut up," he said forcefully. "My arm just hurts."

I turned back to my essay feeling that something was wrong. Completely wrong... I could feel it; it was like a second sense now. I knew something was bad. I knew something was going to go wrong and I wanted nothing more than to talk about it. But I couldn't just talk to Snape about things from the Order. I can't just trust everyone.

I worked on the essay until the bell rang. Severus came back clearing the cauldron quite quickly. I followed the essay up and was about to tuck it into my bag, after all, it was more than three fours of the way completed. I reached out for it, only to find it wasn't there.

"I'll fix your part, then I'll do the rest," said Snape dully.

"Why can't I do?" I asked loudly, following him out of the chamber.

"Because, you're a Mudblood," he said.

I had half the mind to hex him but I decided on something else. "I may be a Mudblood, but I'm also Head Girl. Twenty points from Slytherin."

Snape shot a glare at me. "I'd say you're going to regret doing that by this time tomorrow, Mudblood."

My friends had just walked out of the classroom as Snape turned the corner, onto the grounds as quickly as he possibly could. I stared at his retreating back. Something important was going to happen; something bad was about to occur.

"Sorry for sticking you with him," said Dorcas coming to my right side, and walking besides me.

"What did he do?" asked James loudly, falling into step with him.

I shook my head before hearing another voice. "Lily can I talk to you?"

Marlene was standing at the end of the corridor, apparently looking for me. "Hello, 'Lene!"

"Hi, James," said Marlene lightly. "Good to see all of you again."

Scattered hellos amongst the group came next as I walked towards her. "I'll catch up with you later."

"Lily—"

"Yes, James?" I asked before turning to look at him.

He titled my chin up and kissed me. "I need to borrow you after 'Lene's done."

"Fine," I answer following Marlene onto the ground.

"Are you going to talk to James about the other day?" she asked.

I nodded. "I'll show him the parchment but I won't say any name—unless you want—"

"Oh... no! I just wanted to make sure you weren't going to," she said blushing then asked another question. "Have you talked to Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes, he'll be in touch," I said looking around. "He's very impressed with—what's that?!"

Marlene's eyes followed mine as we both looked over towards the Hogsmeade village. A group of around five people where wearing dark black cloaks talking, until a sixth one joined them, they all Apparated on the spot. My mind traveled to Snape in about a millisecond.

"We've got to go to Dumbledore's office!"

Marlene didn't question me, but we both took off up the stairs. We passed by James and the rest. They all seemed to be calling my name but I didn't answer. I looked behind me to find James running after me calling my name. When we reached Dumbledore's office I tried to get past the gargoyles.

"Chocolate frogs!" I yelled loudly, as they spread apart and we ran up the stairs knocking on his door frantically.

"Lily, what's going on!?"

"Professor Dumbledore," I panted, ignoring James. "We've got something important to tell you!"

"Sit down, sit down," he ordered quietly. "What's going on?"

"We were walking along the ground and we saw a group of men—or women, perhaps—in Hogsmeade, cloaked and what looked to be masked," I said quickly. "When a sixth one came they all Apparated away!"

"And?" asked Dumbledore calmly.

"And it was only seconds before that I had seen Snape running that way!"

"You think the two are connected?" James asked calmly.

I nodded. "And it was so strange, Professor. I was paired with Snape in Potions and in the middle of class he just started clutching his arm! I mean... he rubbed his left arm on the forearm to be exact."

"How's that strange?" asked James.

"I looked ahead a row or two and I saw Avery doing the same thing at the exact same time! And then twenty minutes later I see Snape run somewhere, where there are cloaked figures that end up Apparating away."

"Bloody hell," James in a hoarse voice. "Sorry Professor."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "Thank you for notifying me, Miss Evans, Miss McKinnon. Please excuse me as I talk to Miss McKinnon and then I'll contact other Order members."

James and I walked out of the classroom and James pulled me back down to the grounds. I followed him, taking his hand and feeling a little shaken up I'll admit.

"Why did he want to talk to Marlene?" he asked.

"Marlene's interested in joining the Order, and she's a skilled spy."

"What do you mean?" he asked laughing slightly.

"She's good at detecting information. She can be a good spy."

When we got to a comfortable spot James stopped walking and pulled me into a hug.

"I'm very proud of you for being so observant," he said softly.

"Thanks," I said with a muffled voice. "I have something to talk to you about."

"Me too."

"It's probably the same thing," I said looking up and James, then pulling out the parchment. "Is this true?" I asked quietly.

He let go of his hold on me, looking at the parchment and raising his eyebrows. His eyes flew over the parchment and he started biting his fingernail. I took his hand away from his mouth and he looked at up at me from the parchment.

"Where did you get this?" he asked quietly.

"An unknown source," I replied. "I can't say. But is it true?"

"That's remarkable," he said thoughtfully looking at the paper. "Someone knows a lot about my girlfriends."

"It's true?!"

"Well, yeah it's true—"

But I cut off his sentence squealing and I pulled him into a kiss jumping into his arms. He wrapped his arms around me like second nature and spun me around slightly in his arms. I broke apart and started hugging.

"Why were you so afraid to tell me?" I asked quietly.

"I don't know... I really didn't expect you to rejoice and kiss me like you did. Not that I mind or anything," he replied grinning.

"I always knew you dated a lot James," I said pulling him closer to me. "But I didn't know that out of thirty you'd only do it with six of them! And one of them is me!"

"Well... I don't just do it with them. My relationship had to be pretty damn serious. Snogging is one thing but... shagging... you know."

"How many of these five did you love?"

"I thought I loved Marlene," he replied. "I though I loved another one of these girls... and I know I love you."

"What about the other three?"

"Drunk."

"Oh, James," I said hitting him.

"But for the other girl that I thought I was in love with... I might have been slightly drunk for that one," he replied honestly. "You asked for the truth. And you're getting the truth."

"I thank you," I said leaning up to kiss him.

I looked up to see the sky cloudy. I laughed as it started to rain. "Let's go inside," said James.

I shook my head. "Let's dance in the rain," I laughed, grabbing his hand and pulling him around the grass, slipping and sliding as we went. We danced. He pulled me closer, laughing and kissing me as much as he pleased. I laughed and smile.

"Sirius wants to dance in the rain too," I said pointing towards Sirius who was running towards us. Our other friends waited under the thresholds of the castle. Sirius ran as fast as he could and when he came close enough he started talking.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"James, he's gone."

"What?" I asked, rubbing the water off my face. James arm dropped from around me a moment after Sirius clarified what he had been talking about.

"James... your dad... your dad's... de-dead. He's gone..."