Disclaimer: JKR legally owns all rights to Harry Potter. I legally own my story. My parents legally own my computer. I legally own my sweets, which are making me sick as I write this chapter!

Thanks to the following reviewers: blvd, Fairy-GYAKUTENNO-MEGAMI, Nimrodel Telcontar, starrysthestral, MoonylovesFlo, iyz, WhiteCamellia, Bethany Inc, life2me, X.Little.Black.Cat.X and Kilala-kat-ex.

A/N: Whew! My results were in yesterday! Check my bio page if you want to see them.

Chapter 20

Shaking in fear, Jenny stared at the black letter in front of her. Lily's heart went out to her friend.

'Not Jenny. She's the sweetest person in the world. She doesn't deserve this!'

"Jen?" Tash asked timidly. Jenny didn't respond. She was still staring at the letter in front of her, tears filling her bluey grey eyes.

"We're here for you Jen," Remus said quietly. "Open it."

With shuddering breaths, Jenny picked up the letter and opened envelope. Everyone at the Gryffindor table who hadn't received a letter was staring at the group. Jen pulled the parchment out of the envelope and studied the first three lines. She dropped it and raced out of the hall with her hands over her face.

"I'll go after her," Remus said, getting up and following her. Lily sighed and rubbed her head. James put his arms around her. Across the table, Sirius was seething at Bellatrix who was laughing hysterically at Jenny. Tash picked up the letter and began to read quietly.

"Dear Miss Tailby,

We regret to inform you that your aunt, uncle and cousins were victims of the attack on Cardiff this morning. At this most trying time, please accept our condolences.

Hoping you are well,

Paula Sinclair

Magical law enforcement squad

Tash dropped the letter and went miserably back to her toast. Suddenly feeling the need to be up and walking Lily hurried out of the hall with James on her tail.

"How could they?" she asked smashing her fist in to the wall of the entrance hall. "How could they do it! Kill innocent people just because they're not pureblood! It's horrible, it's cruel…it's…"

"It's evil I know," James put his arms around her again and hugged her tightly. Lily broke into tears.

"Who's going to be next? How many more people are going to die before someone can stop him!"

"I don't know," James said. "I don't know who is going to stop him, or how they will, but I know that until this is over we can't stop living."

He wiped the tears from her eyes. Lily gave him a weak smile.

"You're right. Sorry, I just can't help thinking…"

"Your parents will be fine," James assured her. "The ministry are going to be keeping an eye on all the students and their families, they can't possibly leave them unprotected after this."

"Guys." Lily and James looked up to see Tash and Sirius coming out of the hall. Tash still had toast and marmalade in one hand. Her other hand was holding onto Sirius to stop him charging back into the hall.

"Let me at her! I'll rip her to pieces…."

"You can't dear, cause I have to kill her first," Tash said. "You are more than welcome to destroy her corpse however! James would you help me control my boyfriend?" Heeding her word, James grabbed Sirius's other arm and they succeeded in dragging him up the stairs.

"Dumbledore said Hogsmeade is cancelled," Tash told them stuffing her toast into her mouth and spilling marmalade down her T-shirt.

"Great so what are we supposed to do all day?" Lily asked.

"Lils in case you have forgotten, its Valentines Day," Tash said swallowing. "We are supposed to be with our boyfriends today." Sirius stopped struggling.

"Aww! I was going to ask Prongs if he wanted to play Quidditch this morning!" he pouted and Tash rolled her eyes.

"Yes you can abandon me," she said.

"Really?" Sirius perked up.

"Yeah why not," Tash said. "I was going to plot a full-proof way to kill Bellatrix. Wonder if Hagrid will lend me a dragon…"

"Okay Tash, first of all Hagrid wouldn't be stupid enough to keep a dragon in his hut!" Lily scoffed. "And secondly, if you're going to kill her I want in as well!"

The tone of her voice made everyone stop.

"Lily did you just say you wanted to kill Bellatrix?" Tash asked. "What happened to 'not descending to their level'?"

"That was before they started making it painfully obvious that they don't care about how the families of their victims feel!" Lily raged remembering how Bellatrix had laughed at the students this morning.

"Lily Marie Evans I am shocked!" Tash said in mock amazement putting one hand over her heart in horror.

"Prongs you're having a bad effect on Tiger Lily, you should be ashamed of yourself!" Sirius said, thwacking James over the head.

"Yes that's not very Head Girl like is it?" came a malicious voice from the door.

"Speak of the bloody devil!" Tash said loudly turning around to face a sneering Bellatrix, who surprisingly was standing at the bottom of the stairs all alone.

"Lost your fan club Bellatrix?" Tash snarled at her. Sirius was all set to charge back down the stairs. Lily and James both seized his wrist.

"I told you, you would never leave this school alive," Bellatrix hissed. "And you would do well to remember that."

"Well I've got a message for your master Bellatrix," James said, letting go of Sirius's arm and striding down the stairs two at a time. "Tell him this. He can't hide forever. Sooner or later the ministry is going to get him. And when they do, you will be going down with him."

Bellatrix laughed and sauntered over to the corridor that led to the dungeons. Before she disappeared, Tash hurried down the stairs.

"And if the ministry don't get you Bellatrix," she yelled. "Then you can bet I sure as hell will!"

"I would love to see you try Mudblood," Bellatrix shot back over her should. Tash pulled out her wand and hit her with the most creative curse she could think of.

"Cantareus!"

Bellatrix immediately started to sing at the top of her voice.

"One for the road," Tash told her before disappearing up the stairs.

OOO

"I can't stand it! They're gone and I'm never going to see them again," Jenny sobbed into her pillow. Remus sat beside her offering what comfort he could, but nothing was going to ease Jenny's pain.

"I'm so sorry Jen," he said, stroking her head. "No one should have to go through that."

Jenny continued to cry for all she was worth. Remus sighed. It was probably a good thing she hadn't seen the Slytherin table before she left. Bellatrix had been sniggering at her as she had ran out of the hall. Remus had felt like killing her then and there.

The door of the dormitory opened and Lily and Tash crept in followed by James and Sirius. Tash was looking remarkably pleased with herself, until she saw Jenny again.

"Jenny," Lily sat beside her. Jenny looked up at her friends. Her eyes were red from crying and there were tears streaked down her face. She groaned and pulled them all into a big hug and for once, no one resisted.

"We're all here Jen," Lily told her. "No ones going anywhere. We all love you too much."

Jenny wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled at them all.

"Sorry," she said.

"You've got nothing to be sorry about," Tash said. "If anyone should be sorry, it's Bellatrix and co. God that was a sweet hex I put on her."

"What did you do?" Jen asked grabbing a tissue from her nightstand.

"Singing hex," Tash said. "She'll be like that all day." Jenny giggled slightly.

"I have to admit," Sirius said. "My girlfriend does have the greatest taste in music ever."

"What exactly is so great about 'I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts?" James asked. Remus and Jenny burst out laughing.

"What's not great about it?" Tash asked incredulously. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddle de de dee…"

OOO

"Come on guys!" Tash whined. "We're going to be late!"

"Probably," Jenny said, checking her hair in the mirror. Lily was sitting nervously on her bed, trying to straighten out non existent creases from her dress.

"Nothing wrong with being fashionably late," Crystel agreed. Tash groaned.

"But I don't want Sirius to think I've ditched him," she said.

"He wouldn't think that," Lily said getting up and double checking her wand which was tucked in her robes.

"Just because you're going steady with James doesn't mean that the rest of us have that type of commitment," Tash said.

"Okay," Jenny said, reapplying her lip-gloss and double checking her hair clip was in place. "And…done! Okay I'm ready!"

"Finally!"

They trekked downstairs. Crystel went ahead of them to meet her date from Ravenclaw. Near the bottom of the stairs stood the three boys.

"Who's going first?" Lily asked.

"Not it!" Tash shouted.

"Well since they've probably heard us after that," Jenny sighed. "I'll go first."

She went down the stairs and Lily grinned as she watched the boys faces. Remus looked as though he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"You look…amazing," he finally said.

"Thanks," Jenny smiled. Lily smiled too. Jenny did look brilliant. The pale green of her robe suited her very well. She'd left her hair down, but clipped the front part back with a butterfly clip.

Tash was giggling at the expression on Remus's face. Lily elbowed her in the stomach to shut her up. Tash stopped laughing and tucked a strand of hair out of her face. She too had left her hair down but she had curled earlier so it framed her face.

"You next," Lily urged her. Smiling, Tash stepped down the stairs. To Lily's amusement, Sirius's reaction was exactly the same as Remus's had been a second ago. He however controlled it quicker and grinned at Tash.

"Good evening my dear," Sirius said mocking courtesy. "It would seem my date has run off and left me. Would you be kind enough to accompany this humble soul downstairs?"

"Humble? Whatever," Tash said before continuing with the role play. "But since you asked so nicely and since you do look so devilishly handsome, of course I will accompany you." Sirius grinned and straightened up proudly at being called handsome. Tash found this too hilarious for words and burst into giggles.

"Where's Lily?" James asked, obviously worried that his date had changed her mind.

"Here," Lily said coming into view. James felt his breath disappear. Lily's robe was forest green which made her eyes stand out. Her long red hair was half tied back. Resting round her neck was the necklace he had given her for Christmas.

"You look beautiful," he smiled at her. Lily felt herself blush and smile back.

"Come on then," Sirius said. "Let's not wait for the grass to grow!"

"Who on Earth says that?" Tash asked looking at Sirius strangely.

"I heard some second year kid say it. I was trading him a chocolate frog card," Sirius said shrugging.

"Weird," Jenny agreed with Tash's nodding. They went down to the staircase, stopping on occasion to say hi to other people they knew. Finally they got down to the entrance hall, where people from other houses were waiting for their dates.

"I never realised how many people there were in the school," Lily said. "Guess it's

because we're not all wearing school robes."

James nodded in agreement. He did notice however, that many of the students who had been black letter victims were not around, presumably because of the death of their relatives. Jenny hadn't needed any persuading, partially because she had said that her aunt and uncle wouldn't have liked her to miss out on the last school ball she would be attending. Plus she had also added that she would be damned if she was going to let a bunch of 'sad-little-power-crazed-maniac-worshipping-idiots' ruin her life. Also partially since she wouldn't pass up the chance to wear her new green dress robes.

The Great Hall was softly lit by candles, which sat on each of the small circular tables that filled half of the room. The other half was set aside for dancing.

"Looks pretty," Jenny said. Lily nodded in agreement.

"Come on," James nodded at the tables. "I can't dance on an empty stomach."

"I wouldn't expect you to be able to dance on a full one," Tash said as they sat down. "I mean a stomach has got to be a pretty small space to dance on hasn't it!"

"Crap joke Tash," Jen said as they sat down. They were joined five minutes later by Crystel and her date, Jacob Williams.

"How the hell are we supposed to order?" Tash hissed to Lily, who shrugged and picked up her menu to study it.

"Mmm," Jenny muttered doing the same. "I feel like lasagne."

"You don't look like it," Remus said. At this point however, everyone's jaw dropped open as lasagne appeared in front of Jenny.

"What did I do?" Jenny asked.

"I guess you ordered," Remus said.

"I want to try!" Tash squeaked, now in kid-in-candy-store mode. "Roast chicken!" She cheered as her meal appeared.

"Don't get too excited," Lily said. She rolled her eyes as her words had no effect, and Sirius joined Tash in getting very excited about the food appearing and began ordering enough to feed everyone in Gryffindor.

"Honestly, they're mad," Lily muttered before ordering her food. James had already tucked into pork chops.

Whilst they were eating, the group surveyed everyone else in the room. Lily immediately spotted Bellatrix and Rudolphus at their table. They were both engaged in what looked like a serious conversation and Lily would have given all (okay maybe not all but a few) of her OWLs to have heard what they were saying.

Over at the teachers table, Dumbledore was gazing absently at his goblet. Lily was slightly concerned by the look in his eyes. The twinkle had gone. She had never thought of Dumbledore as old before, but he seemed to have aged terribly in the last few years. The strain of the war against Voldemort was showing.

"Hey guys," Jenny said suddenly getting everyone's attention. She was gazing around the table at all the occupants.

"Where is Peter? Was he coming tonight?"

"Don't think so," Sirius shrugged. "He's been really quiet the last few days. Barely been in the dorm at all."

"Odd," Jenny said.

"Not really," James said. "He seems to be living in the library right now."

"Wow! Guys!" Crystel abruptly changed the subject. "Check out that kid over there!"

She pointed to a fifth year boy with blonde hair and baby blue eyes. He was wearing lurid pink robes, the kind that made all the girls cringe. (A/N: see note at bottom of page!)

"What kind of guy wears pink robes at a Valentines ball!" Jenny asked.

"Jenny, what kind of guy wears pink robes at all!" Lily asked.

"Are we even sure it's a guy?" Tash queried squinting at the said person.

"Yeah I recognise him now," Crystel said grimly. "He asked me out a few days ago. He pulled this really cheesy grin which he obviously thought would work. I told him to go and practise flirting upstairs!"

"What's his name?" Tash asked.

Before Crystel could answer, Dumbledore stood up and announced the start of the dancing. Immediately people began flooding onto the dance floor. Lily glanced at Dumbledore again. The twinkle in his eyes had come back. Obviously the prospect of a party including dancing was very cheering. But to Lily he still looked much older than she had ever seen him.

"What's wrong?" James asked. They were all alone at their table. Everyone else had gone off to dance.

"Does Dumbledore look older to you?" she asked.

"Mmm, he does a bit," James said. "It must be terrible for him. Living through all this. Watching his students go through the loss of their families. You know he's the only wizard Voldemort fears."

"Really?" Lily asked. Now she thought about it, it did seem that Voldemort must fear something, and Dumbledore was a powerful wizard. Maybe that was why the school hadn't been attacked yet.

"Old, but still powerful," James said. Lily smiled. James always seemed to be able to read her mind.

"Come on," James got up and offered his hand. "Care to dance?"

"I would be honoured," Lily grinned at him and got up.

OOO

"Final song," the musician on stage announced. Many of the girls groaned wishing that the ball could last longer. Getting up from their seats the six Gryffindor friends took to the floor. It was a slow dance and many people were very tired. Lily just stood there and let James hold her. She felt safe in his arms.

"Oi!" Tash hissed from next to them. She and Sirius had stopped dancing and were watching the door in suspicion. Lily looked up from her comfortable place.

"What are they doing?" Sirius asked nodding his head at the end of the hall. Lily looked and to her surprise, saw many of the Slytherins heading out. Said Slytherins included Bellatrix, Rudolphus, Snape, Wilks, Avery and Sirius's brother Regulus.

"Where are they going?" Lily asked. James, Remus and Jenny were also giving full attention.

"Doesn't matter cause we're soon going to find out," Sirius said pulling out his wand. Tash did the same and both of them started making their way towards the door.

"Hold on a minute!" Lily called, but they were out of earshot. "They can't just go…"

She stopped as Jenny charged past muttering to herself, "I am so going to get Bellatrix!"

"Have they gone mad?" Lily asked.

"Probably," Remus said.

"Erm," James said. "Hate to be the one to say this but shouldn't we be going after them?"

"What? Go after three people who are charging blindly after a group of Death Eaters?" Lily asked before realising the sensibilities of her statement. "What the hell are we waiting for!"

A/N: Tiny cliffie. You just knew the Slytherins were going to do something suspicious! I'm sorry I skipped most of the ball but the chapter was getting a bit long. Leave me a review and if any of you can guess which kid they were talking about at dinner (think book two!)I will dedicate the next chapter to you!

See you all in two weeks! I'll post on September 4th.

Next chapter: Very disturbing news from the Slytherins, and (finally!) another prank!

May Stardust fall in your dreams!