Disclaimer:  I do not own any characters, places, magic or anything to do with the world of Harry Potter that you recognise.

Knowing (Chapter 5)

The first full moon of the seventh year was roughly two weeks into the autumn term.  James forgot that he'd arranged a meeting with Lily to discuss plans for organising student social events, and Lily was left on her own.  She searched for James in the common room and some of the classrooms, but gave up eventually and sat in the head's common room reading a book. 

James returned to find Lily sound asleep on the sofa.  He whispered her name and shook her gently to try and wake her, but she carried on sleeping.  In the end, James gently lifted Lily up and carried her to her dorm, where he gently laid her down on the bed and pulled the covers over her.  He smiled at her peacefully sleeping face, and resisted the urge to touch her hair.  He bent down and gently kissed Lily's forehead before he left the room. 

Lily still hadn't revealed her secrets to anyone, although she did feel quite close to telling James.  Now that she'd got to know James properly she realised that he was actually a nice person.  Sure, he was still a little bit bigheaded, but you've got to have some confidence in yourself.  He was honest, loyal to his friends and he stood up for what he believed in.  The things that Lily admired most about him was that he didn't pretend to be something that he wasn't, he didn't pretend to like people that he hated, and he didn't lie just to make people feel good.

The months building up to the Christmas holidays were a long hard slog for the seventh year students.  Coursework and homework took up most of their evenings, and the weekends seemed non-existent compared with the lengthy schoolwork filled weekdays.  They were stretched to the limit; no teacher ever gave them a break.  Every minute of every day was working; class work, coursework, homework – when it came to revising most students felt as though their heads were going to explode under the pressure.  Lily spent a large portion of her small amount of free time with James.  This generally annoyed Ari, as it meant that she was nearer Sirius.  After the whole Andy incident Ari didn't hate Sirius as much as she had done before, but she still didn't like him.  Andy had taken to harassing Ari in the hallways, constantly telling her he'd made a huge mistake with Helena and asking her to go out with him again.

With Voldemort attacks getting more and more frequent, many students (particularly muggle borns) opted to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays.  James signed up – he could've gone home, but he felt that it was part of his head boy duties to stay as so many students were staying.  Lily also signed up – she had hated her so called home since the events of the last Easter holidays, and the summer holidays had been pure hell.  Nothing had happened – her parents had tried to talk to her, but Lily didn't want to hear their lies.  She didn't break down and cry about anything, her emotions remained pent up and she couldn't bring herself to even utter one word to her parents.  Lily had endured three long weeks of loneliness and hearing Petunia's constant bitching about her before going to stay at Ari's house for the rest of the holidays.

Sirius didn't want to spend Christmas alone at his flat, so he also signed up to stay at Hogwarts.  Ari's parents were working abroad over Christmas, so Ari signed up too.  Remus and Peter decided to go home.

Rumours about Ari were flying around the school, and she was trying to get the bottom of them.  When a certain one reached her she thought she knew whom the culprit was, and went to confront said culprit immediately.  She was pretty angry about the rumours, and approached the suspected culprit less than calmly.

"Lily – tell me why you did it."  Her voice seethed with her underlying anger, which she was struggling to control.

"Did what Ari?"  Lily had no idea what Ari was talking about.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"Err…no I don't.  Please explain yourself before accusing me."

Ari sounded each word out ultra slowly, as though Lily were Peter.  "Why.Did.You.Spread.Rumours.About.Me?"

"I didn't."  Lily knew she hadn't spread anything, or told anyone anything that Ari had told her in confidence and was, therefore, completely at a loss as to why Ari was blaming her.

Ari raised her voice and everyone in the Gryffindor common room turned to stare at them.  "YES YOU DID!  YOU WERE THE ONLY PERSON I TOLD AND NOW EVERYONE KNOWS!"

"I SWEAR I DIDN'T TELL ANYONE – WHY WOULD I DO THAT?!"

"IT MUST'VE BEEN YOU, YOU WERE THE ONLY PERSON I TOLD!"

"YOU REALLY THINK I'D TELL EVERYONE?  MAYBE SOMEONE OVERHEARD OR SOMETHING."

"STOP TRYING TO SHIFT THE BLAME LILY!"

"SHIFT THE BLAME?!  OBVIOUSLY I'M NOT GOING TO ADMIT TO SOMETHING THAT I HAVEN'T DONE!  DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT LITTLE OF ME?!"

"WHATEVER LILY.  YOU'RE A LIAR AND A BITCH."

Lily just stared at her so-called best friend in disbelief.  She had no right to shout at her when she didn't even have any evidence that Lily had committed any wrongdoing.  She attempted to stop the rush of emotions flowing through her and gave Ari the coldest look of hate that she could possibly muster.  When she finally spoke, her voice was deadly calm.

"If you believe that I'd do something like that and accuse me of things that I haven't done, then I don't want to know you.  Don't talk to me ever again." 

Lily's voice was dangerously low, and Ari couldn't muster a reply to Lily's statement.  To Ari it was obvious that Lily was lying, and also obvious that she wasn't going to admit to anything.  She couldn't trust Lily anymore.  She stood rooted to the spot and Lily took the chance to stride away from the argument first, keeping what little dignity she had left intact. 

A/N:  Thanks to everyone who gave me a review!  Find out what's up with Lily in the next chapter (there was sort of a hint at part of it in this chapter).  I'm not sure whether to split Lily telling James everything into two bits or not – it's probably going to be long enough for two chapters worth and there's sort of two parts to it, so I might split it (see how many reviews I get for the first half! Lol).

KrisKG: Chapter 4! Thanks! :D

Child-of-scorpio: Lol!  Yeah, sometimes I'd like to do that to my enemies too.  Thanks!

Missing him: Thanks!

Caitlin: Thanks! I would like to say that Ravenclaw is indeed a great house, but every house must have at least one idiot (Pettigrew is in Gryffindor!).  Yeah, I love Ravenclaw.  I generally get sorted into Ravenclaw, (sometimes Gryffindor) on sorting quizzes and Harry Potter sites! :o)

Sailor J-chan/DuoxHilde 4ever:  Thanks for the song review!  (How did the tune go? Lol)

Sanddeer:  I might put Remus into it more later on, but Peter?  Probably not, I know he's there and I'll mention him, but I'm not going to go into great detail about him because he doesn't deserve it.  (I hate Peter! loser!)  Thanks!

Karen:  Hahaha, you never hit me!  The other bit will be in the next chapter (or next two chapters).  Thanks for the split chapter idea! :o)

LJstagflower4e/Jctigerwolf4e: Thanks!

Please give me a review if you want to know what happened to Lily.

::loud, evil laugh::

Yeah!  It's the Easter holidays (two weeks off slave school!), so I might update soon if I have incentive!

Press the button and give me a comment!  V

Tanya*