The morning she was due to leave arrived quickly but, having slept through the night, Lily felt ready to face anything, which was just as well considering what was to come. After showering, making and eating some toast and sorting out her mess of a hair, Lily left her tiny flat with a small rucksack of clothes, a cat carrier with Sooty in and the Orb, proof that the previous night hadn't all been some kind of dream.

She got into her Mini Cooper and headed off, stopping at Dave's house for a moment first. She knocked on his door loudly.

"Wha…?" a messy-haired, blurry-eyed, barely able to talk Dave asked when he opened the door. Seeing who it was he straightened up slightly. "Bit early isn't it?"

Lily smiled apologetically. "Oh, you were sleeping, sorry."

Dave shook his head, "No, I just like walking around my house like this. Never mind that though, why are you here? Did something happen yesterday?"

Lily remembered the thick fog, choking her, making her unable to breathe and, unknowingly, took a deep breath. "No, everything went fine. In fact, it went so fine, that I'm going away for a couple of days to sort some stuff out and I was wondering…"

Dave eyed her curiously then saw the cat carrier. "No," he cut her off.

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?" she pulled a begging face.

Dave still shook his head.

"Why not?" she asked him, realising he wouldn't give in.

"Because I hate cats, I told you that when you bought her in sixth year, remember?"

"But she likes you, she won't try to scratch your eyes out like your Nan's cat did."

Dave still shook his head.

"I'll pay you," she offered.

"With what?" Dave asked, highly amused by this suggestion. "You can barely afford that cupboard you call a flat."

Lily considered this, he was right of course. "Ok…I'll cook you a meal."

"I've tasted your cooking," he said, lip twitching at the memory of Lily's sandwich cake that had tasted an awful lot like sardines.

Lily groaned, "One time, I misread the instructions. I've got better."

Dave still shook his head. "Where are you going anyway?"

"Um…Good question," Lily answered, realising Lee hadn't actually told her where they were going.

Dave looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"Well see, Lee wants me to help him help his wife, so I need to go wherever she is. Lee's going to give me directions as I go."

Dave looked at her blankly. "Who's Lee?" he asked.

"The spirit," Lily cried, like it was obvious. "And taking Sooty will slow us down. Please will you look after her?"

"And what if something happens?" Dave asked, ever the optimist. "What if you were to get lost, or Lee lied to you, or you crashed and were never seen again. He could even have been sent by…Lily, please. This is stupid. And if something happens I'll get stuck with a cat I don't even like."

Lily looked as though she were going to scream at him. "Fine, don't bother, I'll take him with us but I am going, Dave. And I'm going now." She began to walk away.

Dave, dressed only in a pair of boxer shorts, followed after her. "Lily, wait. I'll look after him but I really don't want you to do this."

"Why not?" Lily asked, though she knew the answer.

"Because you could get hurt, and I don't want that."

"Why not?" Lily asked again, wanting him to give her the real reason, it was about time some things were said.

"Because…Because you're my best friend," Dave said, stuttering his words.

Lily folded her arms crossly.

"Alright," Dave said, seeing the look in her eyes. "Because I'm completely in love with you and if something happened to you I wouldn't know what to do."

Lily gasped, not what she'd been expecting, and something about the sincerity around him made her realise he was telling the truth. She hugged him.

"Dave, I'm sorry. I don't feel the same, but I promise, when I get back, safe and well, I'll give it a try and we can go out somewhere, okay?"

Dave nodded, "Sure but Lily, make sure you do come back safe."

"I promise," Lily swore solemnly heading away, leaving Sooty in his cage beside Dave.

She got into the car and waved as she drove away, Dave watching after her even when the car was out of sight. Eventually he picked up the cage and carried it into the house. "I do hope she'll be okay," he told Sooty before closing the door, knowing that whatever happened on her trip, Lily would never come back from it wanting to fall in love with, or even date, him.

- - - - - - -

She'd been driving now for five hours and the excitement she'd felt at being on the road, heading to somewhere unknown and leaving things behind her, was slowly fading as reality kicked in. What was she doing? Did she honestly believe that some spirit was guiding her to help his wife to move on after his death? How stupid was she? She'd got top of her year at Hogwarts and yet here she was following the word of a dead man who'd appeared one day. For all she knew her mind had made Lee up as an escape from the real world. She could be losing it, about to end up anywhere, and all because she trusted a spirit she didn't even know was real!

"I'm real," Lee's voice sounded inside Lily's head, making her jump, she had forgot he could do that now he was in the Orb.

"But how do I know that?" Lily asked him as she switched lanes.

There was a moments silence and then Lee spoke again, "I guess you don't, you just have to trust me."

"Trust you?" Lily cried. "How am I meant to trust you? I don't know the first thing about you except that you're dead, and even then, I dreamed your death so it might not have actually happened."

"It did," Lee assured her. "I felt the car hit me, my bones break as I flew into the air and then landed. The feeling you get when every part of your body fills with blood is pure agony. It was real."

Lily was silent. "You could be making it up."

Lee sighed, "Turn right."

"Where are we going?"

"Turn right," Lee repeated, a slight annoyed tone in his voice. This was going to set them back but it would get her to trust him. He could always get them to set something else up later.

Lily grudgingly obliged; she didn't like being told what to do.

"Left at the next bend," Lee said, giving her directions until she pulled into a small town. "Go to the library," he told her.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she headed to the library, which wasn't that hard to find.

A large brown brick building in the centre of the town, the library loomed over everything around it. On a dark day Lily imagined it wouldn't be that inviting, it's shadows casting eerily on the ground already, and this was a sunny day.

"Giving you proof," Lee answered as Lily stepped through the threshold of the library.

"In a library?" she whispered to him.

"On the computer," he snapped, talking as though this was obvious, which evidently it wasn't.

"Alright, keep your hair on," Lily muttered, not noticing the odd looks she was getting from a librarian.

"Can I use a computer please?" she asked the librarian who had been giving her odd looks.

"Uh…do you have a library card?" she asked Lily somewhat nervously.

Lily frowned. "No, I'm just visiting but I really need to get to a computer."

"What about in your own town then? Do you have one for there?"

Lily shook her head sadly, she had always intended to get one but with one thing or another she had never really got around to it. Probably just as well since she didn't have time to read anyway but it certainly would have helped now if she had done.

"You must get on a computer," Lee urged her.

"I'm trying," Lily told him sternly.

The librarian looked at her, arms folded and eyebrow raised, curiosity lined her face making Lily smile embarrassedly.

"I'm trying to get one," Lily covered. "They haven't got around to processing it for me yet."

"Oh, well I suppose it won't hurt just this once."

Lily smiled at her.

"But I must ask a favour of you," the librarian continued, leading the way for Lily.

"Sure," Lily nodded.

"Don't talk. I noticed you doing so as you came in. It makes the others wary and when you're gone they'll move onto me, wondering why I let you in in the first place."

Lily half smiled, but she looked very apologetic. "Sorry, sometimes I think out loud, I don't even know when I'm doing it sometimes."

The woman nodded understandably, "I'm the same," she mentioned. "But this is a small town, people tend dislike those with weird habits why I remember a few years back…"

"Shut her up," Lee's voice spoke in Lily's mind.

"Um…I'm sorry," Lily interrupted her. "But I really need to use the computer."

"Oh, oh, of course," the librarian said, walking hurriedly to log Lily onto a computer. "There we go."

"Thanks," Lily said, sitting in the chair.

She waited until the librarian had gone before speaking again. "Now what?" she asked Lee.

"Type in; 'Lee Morris' and 'car accidents'."

Lily did as she was told, 236,000 results came up and a small groan came from Lily's lips.

"Is there any way to cut this down?" she asked him.

"You could try 'The Voice' too."

Lily did so, the results were cut dramatically. "That's better," she said, selecting the third result.

It was an on-line article written in The Voice; Lily noticed it was in the obituaries

This week we say goodbye to a dear friend, husband and colleague. Lee Morris, trainee-lawyer, was mowed just metres from his home in a horrific hit and run accident. Morris, whose wife and neighbours witnessed the accident, was 25 years old when the incident occurred.
The car to blame has been found but the driver cannot be found. He is described as being 6'2", with light brown hair and green eyes; he was wearing black jeans and a navy blue t-shirt. The police are urging people to get in touch if they see the suspect. "Obviously a crime like this affects us all," Detective Falmer says. "But the criminal must be found, and we can only do that with your help."
The incident occurred on 27th February 1984.

Lily looked at the picture beside it, long blonde hair and clear blue eyes. That was Lee all right.

"Okay," Lily said, closing the web page down. "So I believe you. That doesn't mean I trust you, you won't even tell me where I'm going."

"That isn't important," Lee's voice spoke to her.

"The hell it isn't!" Lily cried. "It's my money we're spending on petrol, my time you're taking up, my job I'm losing money from by not working."

Other people in the computer room were staring at her, and though she didn't really care at that moment, she could hardly blame them. Here she was, seemingly shouting at herself, in a public place, how could they not find that weird?

"Um…I think you better leave," the librarian was back and talking to Lily who didn't hear her, too busy listening to Lee.

"You will be more than compensated." He informed her.

"How? By the warm fuzzy feeling I'll get for helping you?"

"You will see."

"But I don't want to. God, I can't believe I'm saying this but I want to be back home, I want to be working, I want…"

"Quiet!" Lee roared inside Lily's head, making her clutch it in pain. "I do not care what you want, you agreed to help me, now you have to. But first you need to leave her, the librarian has already told you to."

Lily blinked back into the reality outside her head. All the computers lay forgotten as every person in the room stared open-mouthed and afraid of her. The librarian stood directly in front of her.

"Are you alright dear?"

Lily shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said to her. "I'm really sorry."

The librarian smiled. "No harm done, you only shattered a bit of silence and it was too quiet in here anyway. But really, you must get going, you still have far to go."

Lily frowned and looked at the librarian. "How do you…How could you possibly know that?"

The woman smiled secretly, leading Lily away from the computer room. "I know lot's of things," she informed Lily. "And I know that whatever's about to come will be a big challenge for you."

Lily didn't even notice getting there but soon she was stood at the entrance of the library.

"Good luck," the librarian said before closing the door to the library leaving Lily to stand out in the chilling shadows on her own.

"We must get moving, we are late," Lee told Lily.

Lily groaned but stormed to her car anyway. "I'm doing this and I'm going," she informed him before continuing quickly. "And I'm not doing it voluntarily, I'm doing it because I'm the only one who can."

"Fine," Lee said simply. "Go out of town and then head east."

Lily thought for a moment, "Don't we want to go west? We just came in east."

"I said east, now drive."

"Alright, fine," she snapped at him, fed up with this already and she'd only been at it half a day.

She drove, following his instructions until they reached a long, thin country road surrounded by lots and lots of trees. It was night by now and Lily didn't like driving in the dark at the best of times but especially not in somewhere like this.

"We need to stop," she said.

"No," Lee said. "We need to keep moving."

"But I don't like this, it feels like something's going to happen. Something bad."

Lee was silent.

"What is it?" she asked. "What's going to happen?"

Lee forced nervous laughter. "Nothing."

"Don't lie to me. I can handle silence, I can handle shouting, I can even handle misinformation and not being told where I'm going but please, don't lie to me."

"I'm not," Lee said.

Lily growled quietly. He was lying again. She grabbed his Orb off the dashboard and wound the window down, holding the Orb out of it.

"Tell me or I drop you, the Orb smashes and you'll have to find some other poor fool to do your work."

"Alright, alright, just let me back in."

Lily brought her arm in slowly. "Spill," she said the minute he was back in the car.

"I don't need to," Lee answered almost smugly. "You're about to find out."

"What?" Lily asked him, confusion lacing her voice.

"Look forward," Lee told her.

Lily did as she was told and screamed, slamming down on the breaks too hard. In front of her, stood scared in the middle of the lane, was a four-legged animal. To Lily it looked like a deer but bigger, and with antlers. What was it doing here? This wasn't a place they lived. She hoped it would move, prayed even, but it seemed paralysed and then, it was hit. Its body flew into the air and landed behind her car, which slowly pulled to a stop. Her scream filled the car and, as she opened the door, the lane. She ran to see how badly she had hurt it, expecting it to be dead with the pain she'd just caused it and gasped in shock. That was no antlered deer she'd knocked over, it was a man.