Summary: Lily Evans has a charming and debonair boyfriend and great friends. But one summer, her life is turned upside down and she can't begin to imagine the ripple effect it'll cause on her life. Meanwhile, James Potter has always had eyes for only her but events cause him to make the heartbreaking decision of forgetting his unrequited love...

Author's Note:

freshie: Yay! I'm glad you see it that way!

AnjaliMalfoy: It's okay and I'm glad you liked this chapter! I'll read your piece too. Yeah, I'll give you a call. Wait, don't you still have my cell number?

OTHCharmedHPFreak: Hmmm…you should know that I'm not that nice to these characters. James and Lily will get together though – we all know that.

Skittles624: Wow, I can't even put into words how flattered am I! I'm so glad you liked it, and thank you SO much for that review! It totally made my day!

CrystalKisses: I'm glad you liked it and I know! Why? Why did she kill him off? I don't think you're strange – we're all strange to an extent.

Thanks to how could she for the review!

Author'sNote (2): Maybe I'm just sadistic, but this is probably my favorite chapter out of the fifteen I've written so far. When you read it, you'll probably think I'm weird, but the reason I like this chapter is because it's pretty important.

Author's Note (3): This chapter is in honor of Celina K2 and Celina Black (you'll see why soon enough).

Chapter Nine: The Night Goes On

"And I can't stand the pain.
And I can't make it go away.
No, I can't stand the pain.
How could this happen to me?
I made my mistakes
Got nowhere to run
The night goes on
As I'm fading away
I'm sick of this life
I just wanna scream,
How could this happen to me?"
-Simple Plan, Untitled

"Wake, Lily," says a voice – quiet and polite, but so chilling her blood turns to ice so surely that she can feel her arteries and capillaries expand.

Lily's in her bed, yet she knows she's dreaming. Everything has such a surreal feel to it. This isn't real, just the way Lucius didn't really try to…well, that was just a part of her dream. The Hogsmeade trip hasn't happened yet. When I awake, everything will be fine.

"Are you certain about that, Lily Evans?" the young man asks, towering over her bed.

There's now a mocking smile on his breathtakingly handsome face with the high cheekbones and pale skin and dark waves of hair.

Lily's hand gropes her bedside table for her wand. She doesn't know who he is, yet she has a feeling…

"Tom Marvolo Riddle," he says, by way of introduction. "Although you may know me as Lord Voldemort."

"I spit on you, my lord," she hisses, trying not to reveal to him the fear flooding through her heart.

His laugh holds a creepy edge reminiscent of his vile, high-pitched voice, and the hairs rise along her skin. Her hand stalls, and he reaches out suddenly, his venomous, long fingers brushing her shoulder, which promptly becomes numb, and then the feeling just seems to leave it. Her hand drops. How can dreams feel so real? Or is this real? It can't be! Voldemort doesn't look like this. How can he have gotten into the castle while Professor Dumbledore is still alive? What if he…no, it can't be…nobody can kill Professor Dumbledore; he's far too powerful.

"Yes, your dear Professor Dumbledore is still alive," Voldemort says. "As are all your other professors."

"Then you couldn't have gotten in here!" she tries to exclaim. 'Somebody help me, please. Amirah! Chelsea!'

"Do you think your friends can really help you against the most powerful wizard of all time?"

"You aren't," Lily manages to gasp. "Professor Dumbledore is."

He ignores her and once he seems certain she cannot move, the handsome, young Voldemort kneels on her bed.

"Malfoy was a fool," he says lightly. "I'll deal with him later. I can never put up with people failing."

His hands tear off her pajama pants and she screws her eyes shut and draws in a deep breath, unable to move, most of her muscles paralyzed. Her mind seems to be functioning properly, but she can't break away from him! What can he gain by doing this?

She hears his clothes rustling and feels his weight pressing onto her. Her heart quickens with fear, and yet none of her other muscles respond to her brain's silent plea to move and allow her to escape.

He thrusts himself into her, and her body is ready to split from the agonizing pain of her tissues being ripped as he ravages her, stripping her of the virginal purity associated with her namesake.

Then he's gone with a swish of his cloak and she lies silent, breathing heavily. In her dream, she lies there for hours until midnight perhaps…

A cramp-like pain seizes her abdomen and she grimaces and clutches at her stomach with a gasp. A strange feeling runs through hers stomach, almost as though she's lost control of her bladder. Liquid trickles out…amniotic fluid It's followed almost immediately by what seems to be blood. Lily cries out and feels her consciousness seeping out of her like this blood…

Lily awoke, feeling an ache in her abdomen and soreness in her nether regions and breasts, and numbness in her arms and legs the way she would have if she had just gotten an injection.

She moved her throbbing head to assess her surroundings. She seemed to be lying in the hospital wing, though how she had gotten there she couldn't say.

Madame Pomfrey bustled in and said briskly, "You're awake? Excellent. Here, take this."

Before Lily could react, she stuffed a foul-tasting potion into Lily's mouth. Lily gagged it down and coughed, her throat and nose burning.

"Wh-what happened?" she managed to gasp.

"You had a pretty bad temperature," she said, feeling Lily's forehead and then her pulse as if to make sure she was still alive. "Your friends got you down here. Good thing, too."

Lily looked to the other side of her bed to see Amirah and Chelsea sitting there quietly, their faces pallid.

"Even though you were mad at me?" Lily rasped, once Madame Pomfrey was out of earshot.

"Don't be silly, Lils," Chelsea reprimanded. "It was a silly little thing. I think your health takes precedence over any little argument we have."

The argument was anything but "little," but Lily was so unbelievably happy that her best friends were talking to her again that she didn't care.

"Oh, before we forget, you have a letter from Petunia," Amirah said, unfolding it and handing it to her.

Dear Lily,

I'm sorry I didn't write in so long! Then again, you haven't written in a while either. This isn't done, Lils! If we don't keep in touch now, what will happen when you graduate from school and I from the university? I don't even want to think about that possibility.

I'm still living here with Amanda. She's my friend, so it's fun being flatmates, but not nearly as much fun as it was living with you. Honestly. Archie asked me to move in with him, but I refused because it didn't feel right. Before you write back asking why, here's the reply:

We went to watch a very popular but rather boring new movie called Star Wars or something of the sort. It wasn't so bad, however, because I could spend my time admiring the very attractive Luke Skywalker (played by Mark Hamill).

The point is, I felt really guilty for letting him take me to a movie, but afterwards, I broke up with him. I don't think I care for him anymore, Lils. I suppose I just got used to having him as my boyfriend. I feel so free and yet empty now that he's gone.

What about you, Lily? How are things with you and Lucius? Write back soon or I'll have to come over and drag you out of that school of yours!

Love,
Petunia

Lily cast away the letter and shut her eyes, not wanting to think about Lucius for even a moment.

"Are you all right?" Amirah asked with concern.

"You were all right about Lucius," Lily said, "but he wasn't like that before, I swear!"

"We believe you, Lils," Chelsea said. "But please, let's not talk about him right now. Guess who has been here, refusing to leave your side?"

"Who?" she asked tiredly.

"James," Chelsea responded. "We practically had to drug him to force him to go and get some food."

"Wait, how long have I been here?" she asked, bewildered.

"About three-and-a-half days," replied Amirah.

"Three-and-a-half days?" Lily exclaimed, pushing herself up despite her numerous aches and pains. "Then what's the date?"

"Fourth November, nineteen seventy-seven," Chelsea said.

Lily groaned. "I've missed so much preparation for N.E.W.T.S! And my Head Girl and clinic head duties! What about those?"

"Relax, Lils, you're sick. You need to rest a little bit. If you don't, how can you get better?" Amirah questioned.

Lily shrugged.

The door the hospital wing flew open and James Potter swept in, his face ashen.

"You told me you would warn me!" he exclaimed to Amirah and Chelsea, enraged.

"Calm down, mate," said Sirius, alarmed, as he rushed in behind his friend, followed closely by Remus and Majed. Alice and Cerise came next, with Cerise dragging Trevor along. Peter and his girlfriend, Helga, brought up the rear.

"We wanted to let you eat in peace," Amirah explained, her tone soothing.

"Plus, we needed some time to talk to her too," Chelsea reminded him. "She's our friend too, remember?"

Lily looked away. It was sweet – and a little scary – of him to care this much about her, but it was far too soon. She couldn't bear the thought of something like what happened with Lucius happening again. It still felt so unreal after even three days – granted, she was unconscious most of that time. It just didn't seem possible that he could have turned out to be so cowardly and so horrible.

"Yeah, I guess," he said somewhat grudgingly. "How are you feeling, darlin'?"

"All right," she replied.

"Has her temperature dropped?" James asked, directing the question to Amirah and Chelsea.

They both nodded.

"She's really weak, though," Chelsea said.

"She looks weak," Sirius commented. "You hungry, Lils?"

"Not really," she lied. The truth was, she wasn't in the mood to eat.

"Come on," Cerise spoke up. "You'll kill yourself by not eating."

The door to the hospital wing opened, and all of them looked up. Professor Dumbledore walked in, not looking surprised at seeing so many people crowding around Lily's bed.

"How are you feeling, Miss Evans?" he asked.

"Much better," she responded.

He smiled. "I hope you wouldn't mind if I borrow Miss Gavankar and Miss Tamblyn," he said pleasantly.

"Not at all," she said.

Madame Pomfrey bustled in just then and gave a start.

"What are all of you doing? Miss Evans needs her rest. Out, out! All of you!"

"But – " James began.

"Why not let him stay?" Sirius asked. "He won't disturb her. He'll probably just watch her sleep."

"Actually, I sleep best alone," Lily said nervously and quickly. She probably wouldn't be able to sleep at all without him there. Imagine what it would be like if he were there. "Sorry. I'll talk to you when I wake up."

"All right," James said, seeming hurt.

Lily pretended she didn't notice and turned onto her right side, away from them, and watched out of the corner of her eye as they left, James very halfheartedly and Sirius crossly.

"What's her problem?" she thought she heard him say. "You saved her life, mate."

Had he told everyone in Hogwarts about that! But maybe not. Sirius and James were so close they were practically attached at the hip.

Professor Dumbledore strode swiftly to his office and both young ladies followed. Amirah had a slightly easier time, due to her longer legs, so Chelsea had to scurry very ungracefully to keep up.

"Chocolate Frog," said Professor Dumbledore, and a stone gargoyle sprung aside. Stairs spiraled up as the girls watched, shocked.

"Please don't tarry," he said, ushering them onto the spiraling stairs, which took them up to a door.

He opened the door and shut it behind them. Chelsea gazed around. So this was Professor Dumbledore's office – this odd place with the pictures on the wall and all those trinkets lying about. A beautiful phoenix swept through the air and landed on Professor Dumbledore's shoulder.

"Yes, my office is a bit eccentric, but I have rather eccentric taste," he said with a twinkle in his eye, as though he had known what she was thinking. Then, his tone becoming more serious, he continued, "I'm sure both of you know why I called you here."

As if to answer his own question, he carefully placed a basket on the table.

"What happened that night, professor?" Amirah asked quietly.

"I believe it was a Trust Spell and then a Dream Spell," Professor Dumbledore responded.

"Wouldn't she have known he was performing a spell?" inquired Chelsea.

He shook his head. "A Trust Spell is performed when someone tells a witch or wizard that she trusts him, and means it."

"I don't understand though," Chelsea said. "Where did she come from?"

She stood and peeled some of the cotton blankets away from the basket to reveal a beautiful baby face with strands of silky scarlet hair covering the top of her head.

"Lily wasn't pregnant," Chelsea continued. "It would have showed if she had been. Plus, she's told me so many times that the lily flower represents purity and that she will remain chaste until she gets married."

Chelsea blushed at the last part because it was so incredibly embarrassing to tell her headmaster about one of her best friend's thoughts about losing her virginity.

But Professor Dumbledore just nodded soberly and said, "Lily is a good girl. She's also an incredibly powerful witch. For this child to have been born in such a short amount of time, the father would have to be nonhuman, yet close enough that his impregnating her didn't kill her."

"Who do you think it was?" Amirah questioned. "Let's see. It had to be someone nonhuman, able to sneak into our dormitory at midnight, rape her and impregnate her in a way that caused her to give birth almost immediately, and then leave the school before anybody realized anything had happened. That narrows it down to…well…nobody."

"Actually, there is someone," he said grimly. "Voldemort."

Both ladies flinched, Amirah from a lifetime of hearing about him, and Chelsea from six years.

"Once again, how did he get in and out?" asked Amirah.

"That's where the Dream Spell," comes in," Professor Dumbledore responded. "If she invoked the Trust Spell, it would be so simple for him to enter her dream and come here and then leave the same way."

"So she thinks it's a dream?" said Chelsea, trying to sort it out in her mind.

"Yes, indeed," he said with a nod. "I don't want you to tell anybody about this, especially not Lily."

"How can we hide this from her?" Amirah asked skeptically as the child began to wail.

She joined Chelsea beside the baby and looked down. The baby girl yawned, stretching her little pink mouth and shifted her chubby dimpled arms before making a small mewling sound liked that of a kitten.

"How can such a pretty little thing be the spawn of Voldemort?" Amirah whispered.

"I know," Chelsea agreed.

"We will keep her here as the daughter of my niece, although I don't have a niece, therefore, I don't have a niece with a daughter," he explained. "When all of you leave Hogwarts, I would really like one of you to adopt her. Neither of you is obligated to, however, and if you don't, I'll find somebody else."

Chelsea exchanged glanced with Amirah. She really loved babies, but with her health situation – which she didn't like to think about, much less talk about – she didn't know if she would be able to care for that child. Plus it struck her as strange to keep Lily's own child a secret from Lily.

Amirah placed a long finger against the child's cheek and chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. For a moment, all three of them – four, including the baby – were silent.

"Ill adopt her," Amirah spoke up. "Once we get out of Hogwarts, I'll take care of her."

"You don't have to," Professor Dumbledore reminded her, "and you can always change your mind later."

Amirah shrugged. "I'm not going to change my mind, but all right."

"Excellent," Professor Dumbledore said. "Well, I believe I've kept you for part of your Charms lesson. Be sure to tell Professor Flitwick that you were talking to me."

"Professor, I think you're forgetting one little thing," Chelsea pointed out almost timidly. Amirah looked at her questioningly.

"Did I?" he asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"She doesn't have a name," Chelsea pointed out.

"Ah, you're right," Professor Dumbledore said with a smile. "Why don't you two decide on a name for her?"

Amirah and Chelsea exchanged glances and said simultaneously, "Celina."

"Celina," repeated the headmaster thoughtfully.

Chelsea looked down at Celina. Lily had always wanted her baby girl to be named that, and since this was Lily's child, despite having such a despicable father, it was only fitting that her name be kept "Celina."

"Oh, one more thing," Professor Dumbledore said suddenly, as they began to leave. Both stopped and whirled around. "I want to put you to in charge of planning the Winter Ball this year. That way you will be able to come and help care for her without it seeming suspicious."

"But won't Lily feel bad if she isn't in charge of it as well?" asked Chelsea, feeling even more awkward about the matter.

"She's Head Girl," Professor Dumbledore reminded her. "She has enough responsibility and enough to do, without even considering her schoolwork."

"That's true," conceded Amirah. She looked at Chelsea. "How about it, then?"

"Are we truly in charge of the Winter Ball?" Chelsea questioned.

"Indeed," the headmaster replied.

"All right then," she said finally.

"Be strong, Lily," says a woman's voice gently. "You must destroy her. It'll hurt you, but you must destroy her."

"Who?" Lily calls out, her voice reverberating impossibly around this wall-less, humid place. "Who should I destroy?"

"Look inside yourself, but past the love," the voice instructs. "Look to your need to do good."

"Please help me," Lily begs. "I don't know what you want me to do. I don't know who you want me to destroy."

"You're the twelfth daughter of the First," it continues. "She's the thirteenth."

"Are you talking about Petunia?" wonders Lily. "Petunia's older than me. She can't be the thirteenth."

"Beware the thirteenth, although she's of your blood. Destroy her."

"Destroy her," repeats Lily.

Sneak-peek Chapter Ten:

One furious sweep of his hand contacted with Malfoy Junior's cheek. Lucius fell to the ground with a yelp of pain.

"Your foolish son ruined my plans," hissed Voldemort at Malfoy Senior.

"I had no part in this scheme," Malfoy Senior said stolidly, fixing his master with an unblinking eye.