The sun was rising above the mist that covered Hogwarts grounds. Behind the door in the Whomping willow, a Gryffindor fifth year sat curled up in the corner of the tattered room. Sirius sat across the room giving a pleading look to the other boy.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't think of what the consequences could be if I let Snape in." Sirius wrung his hands out of nervousness.

"What you did, is unforgivable. What if I had killed him? I could never forgive myself. I would never expect something like this from you. What if Dumbledore thinks I am too dangerous to attend Hogwarts anymore." Remus, the other boy, was so weak from last night that he had to stop talking to catch his breath. "If James hadn't got Snape out of this room, I might have killed him. And lucky you stayed with me last night, or I would have found a way to get out of this room."

There was a knock on the door and Dumbledore stepped in, followed by Snape. Remus dropped his head to his knees and Sirius stood up. His usually muscular body seemed somehow smaller, and he had dark circles around his eyes.

"Professor Dumbledore, Remus and James had no part in this. I did it all. I didn't think about it. I just thought Snape would get a bit of a shock." cried Sirius. Snape shot a menacing glare at Sirius.

"You thought locking me in a room with a werewolf would give me a bit of a shock?" spat Snape.

"Are you alright Remus?" Dumbledore's eyes had lost their usual spark.

"I'll be fine Professor, I'd just like to go to my room and rest a while if you wouldn't mind." Remus braced himself by putting his hand on the wall.

"Sirius, you'd better help him to his room and then report immediately to my office. The password is fiddlesticks. Severus and I will be waiting in my office for you." Dumbledore held the door open for Sirius, Remus and Snape and shut it on his way out.

James tossed and turned all night. He couldn't believe that on the day Lily needed him the most he eluded her. He needed someone to talk to. He couldn't talk to Lily because he would only upset her more. He was too furious with Sirius to even think about talking to him. Remus was probably too tired from last night to talk and James hadn't seen Peter since last night. Come to think of it, James couldn't remember seeing Peter since he opened the door of the Whomping Willow for Remus. James climbed out of bed, grabbed his robes and sulked down the stairs.

"I have to talk to Lily; I have to make her understand." He didn't mean to hurt her and he was going to do everything he could to make her forgive him.

He sat in the Gryffindor common room in one of the big fluffy chairs by the fireplace. "Incendio" James mumbled and a fire began to roar. He stared at the fire and had just dozed off when Remus and Sirius climbed through the opening behind the portrait of the fat lady.

"Remus, are you okay?" James quickly stood up.

Remus shook Sirius' hand off his shoulder and walked towards James. Sirius had a hurt look on his face but quietly passed by the two of them as he turned to go to Professor Dumbledore's Office.

"Dumbledore said I could be excused from classes today. I'm just going to bed. You should probably get ready for class." Remus had no expression on his face and no emotion when he spoke. James knew Remus was upset by last night, but James expected him to show a little more emotion.

James waited most of the morning for Lily to come down the stairs from her dorm room but she never came down. Most of the girls had come down from the dorms to go to their first class so he figured it would be safe to go up to the girl's dormitory and try to talk to Lily. He climbed the stairs and found the girl's dormitory completely empty.

"Lily must have crept by me while I was sleeping." James thought.

He gave one last look around the room before leaving and he noticed something dark brown, poking out from underneath Lily's pillow. James pulled the book out from underneath the pillow and opened it and read a few pages. There were pictures of a tall girl with the same red hair as Lily, but she was a few inches shorter and had brown eyes instead of green. There was a picture of her flying on a broomstick. They were wizarding pictures so the girl kept flying across the page. On the very bottom corner was a picture of the girl and another little girl with bright red hair and green eyes whispering to each other. The two girls would lean over and whisper to each other and then burst into giggles.

James had never met Lily's older sister, but he knew a lot about her. James turned the page and read the newspaper clippings:

Fifth Year missing from Hogwarts. Rose Evans, a fifth year student at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardry has reportedly been missing since the last week in October. Evans joins three other Hogwarts students to become missing during the past ten years. Search parties have been dispatched into the Forbidden Forest and surrounding towns, but no word on Evans' whereabouts.

Another clipping said:

One-year anniversary of young girl's disappearance. It's been almost a year and there is no sign of Rose Evan's. The ministry of Magic has only a few clues to what may have caused the disappearance of this young girl. Rose, born to Muggle parents, is one of only three magical people in the Evan's family, Ivy Evans (grandmother), and younger sister, Lily Evans.

The year before Lily and James started at Hogwarts, Rose was reported missing. Lily rarely talked about it to anyone, but she and James had discussed a few times over the years. James had planned last night for them to be together so he could help take her mind off of it.

"If it weren't for Sirius, Lily would not be avoiding me right now." James thought.

James gave up and grabbed his books for Transfiguration. He couldn't skip all his classes while waiting for Lily. When she was ready to talk to him, he'd be there for her.

When James got to class, the whole room was buzzing with students. It turned out that no one had seen Maggie or Peter all night. Neither of them had returned to their beds and both of them skipped their first class.

Sirius stopped Lily on the way out of their first class to tell what had happened the night before. Lily walked along the corridor to Transfiguration contemplating what Sirius had told her and how she had reacted last night. She tried to overcome her emotions and sort out her thoughts.

"So James had planned the night for us to be together but he had to make up for Sirius's mistake. How could I be so stupid?" Lily thought to herself.

Lily was hurt by the fact that James couldn't be there for her. She knew that saving Snape's life was much more important than keeping her company. She was so mad at herself for accusing James of forgetting about her. She had so many emotions attacking her at once that she couldn't sort them all out.

"James doesn't deserve to be treated this way. I should have given him the benefit of the doubt but at the first chance I got, I assumed he didn't care about me." She thought.

Lily walked past James without looking his way; she couldn't face him after how selfish she had acted last night. Her heart hurt to see him trying to make eye contact with her. She hated the way she felt.

James watched as Lily brushed right past him. He knew she was avoiding making eye contact with him. How can I make her understand? He watched as she placed her books on the desk in front of her seat before sitting down.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Venus stand up and walk towards Lily. He tried to get up and reach Lily first. He knew what Venus was going to do. At the exact moment that James tried to stand up, Torn and Piper, the Slytherins who sat behind him in class got into a fight over the chair next to the aisle, blocking James' way. James watched helplessly as Venus spoke to Lily. He watched as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. Tears began streaming down her face.

He pushed past Torn and Piper and rushed over to Lily and Venus. "-And I heard they're not even sending anyone to look for them." He caught Venus at the very end of her sentence.

"You- don't know what you're talking about!" James exploded. "Lily, I tried to get your attention, I didn't want you to find out this way."

Lily lost control of her emotions. The news of two of her friends both being missing came to her like a smack in the face. "I- can't-" and she stopped. She didn't want to talk. She needed to get away. She silently left her books along with James, Venus and the rest of the students in the classroom.

Lily spent the rest of the day in her four-poster bed in the girl's dormitory. She refused to talk to anyone- she couldn't. By the time the sun had gone down, Lily couldn't stand it anymore. She wiped her face off and crept downstairs. Just as she stepped in the common room, the clock sounded, letting her know it was 11:00. She saw James sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. He was sleeping, but he didn't have a peaceful look on his face. Lily quietly climbed in to the chair and sat on his lap. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

James woke up and put his arms around Lily. He missed her so much; it felt perfect to have her in his arms again. He didn't know how to act around her so he kissed her forehead and held her tightly.

"They'll find them won't they?" She whispered.