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Thanks to the following reviewers: sugur-huny-bun, blvd, Kates Master, Ceriadara, MoonylovesFlo, MicroChips, Alex202, maneatingbananas, life2me, ritergrl, pigs can fly, ilovedrew88, radical-rebel, Lady of the lads, monkeyboi, Tai Greywing, truelove38851, blade13hjp, LilyFlower28, Jazzmatazz, Harry Potter Mania andlostindreams1001.

A/N: Ugh! I just had a terrible day at school. On a better note though, I have plotted out the bit of the story I was stuck on. Thank you all for you funny thing you told me! I should have decided by the end of the week whether to start on faster updates. (Fred- Yes how often have we heard that before?) No I mean it! I will tell you all next week. I swear on my copy of the Half Blood Prince...in fact I swear on all my books including Random Scribblings. P.S. I've updated my bio page if anyone's interested!

Happy Daisies! Enjoy, mon petit vache...! Why the hell did I just say that? Note to self: Stop eating sugar before dinner! And stop watching 'Magical Trevor!'...(Muses roll eyes as Mei starts to sing) 'Everyone loves, Magical Trevor, cause the things that he does, are ever so clever, look at him now, diappearing the cow. Where is the cow, hidden right now...'

Chapter 25

Lily left the hospital wing after two days physically feeling back to normal. Mentally she felt destroyed, not just because she was suffering from nightmares of the attack. Tash had still not regained consciousness and her condition was not growing any more optimistic.

Sirius never left her side except for lessons. The evening before Lily left the hospital Madame Pomfrey had caught him sleeping by her side under James's invisibility cloak. He hadn't spoken properly to anyone since the attack.

Lily herself was wracked with guilt. She felt that it was her fault that Tash was not recovering. Her friend had taken the curse that was meant for her. She had sacrificed herself for her. And the worst part was that Lily felt useless. She hadn't been able to get rid of the Death Eaters. And now there was nothing she could do to help Tash.

News of the attack had spread quickly round the school and Lily found the stares of wonder from the lower years unbearable. James barely left her side, and Lily was glad for his presence to divert her attention from the rest of the student body. The Slytherins were by far the worst. Bellatrix was so cheerful it was unbelievable. Lily felt anger boil in her at the sight of her walking around the school with a satisfied smirk on her face. Jenny obviously felt the same as she ended up in detention with Ramton for hexing a group of second year Slytherins for gossiping about the attack.

The reaction from the teachers was what startled Lily the most. Most of the teachers took to walking around the corridors between lessons as though worried that the Death Eaters would suddenly appear again. Ramton was acting exactly like the rest of the Slytherins and was walking around with a (very creepy looking) smile plastered permanently to his face. Professor's Amie and Flitwick were extremely relieved to see Lily back in their classes and but were tactfully not mentioning the attack at all. Professor McGonagall on the other hand looked very grave every time she skipped Tash's name on the register. On one occasion Lily was sure she had seen their transfiguration professor brush away a tear.

The workload increased slowly as the days crept closer to April. Lily found herself struggling to keep up with her homework, and began to lose sleep due to nightmares. Jenny was in a similar state. When she wasn't wandering round looking like the walking dead she was pestering Lily to remember if she recognised any of the Death Eaters to which Lily would constantly reply with a negative answer.

"I keep telling you Jenny," Lily repeated the weekend after the attack. "They were all wearing black hoods and they were masked. I couldn't tell who they were."

"Did any of them speak?" Jenny asked. "Did you recognise anyone when they hexed you?"

"No!" Lily said getting annoyed. Reliving the attack was not something she was relishing.

"Sorry, just trying to help," Jenny said looking down at her book.

"No one can help right now," Lily said. "She's not waking up and Madame Pomfrey says its becoming unlikely that she will. And it's all my fault! That hex was meant for me! I should be up there!"

"Yeah and then where would we be?" Jenny snapped back. "You'd be up there instead of Tash. It would be the same thing just with you two in different places!"

"Stop it you two!" Remus interrupted. "Now isn't the time to argue! Our friend is in hospital and she wouldn't want you two fighting over whose fault it is!"

"We're grieving! We need someone to blame!" Jenny wailed.

"She's not dead," James reminded them.

"But she's not awake either!" Lily said, tears appearing in her eyes. Jenny sobbed into her hands.

"That's enough," Remus said handing Jenny a tissue.

"If you want to blame someone," James said putting his arms around Lily. "The best thing you can do is blame the Death Eaters who did this to her."

"When did you two become so wise?" Jenny asked wiping her eyes and hugging Lily in apology.

"When we started dating you," Remus said.

OOO

Two weeks after the attack, Lily was sitting at the breakfast table, restlessly picking at her food. Jenny was still sleeping and James and Remus had not appeared yet. Sirius was, no doubt up in the hospital wing. As it was the hall was mostly empty except for Professors Dumbledore, Amie and a few people at the Slytherin table who were sneering at Lily. Thinking of what Tash would have done in her situation, Lily sneered back as evilly as she could.

"Good morning Lily!" a bright and cheerful voice interrupted Lily and she turned blushing to see the headmaster smiling down at her.

"Morning Professor," Lily said trying to smile back at him. Dumbledore's trademark twinkle was dancing in his eyes.

"And how are we this fine day?" Dumbledore enquired.

"As well as can be expected," Lily muttered looking miserably at her toast.

"Don't give up Lily," Dumbledore said. "I don't think she's leaving us yet."

"Sorry Professor?" Lily asked, quite sure she had misheard the headmaster but Dumbledore was already drifting off back to the staff table. Lily shook her head and went back to her half eaten toast. Half an hour later, as the rest of the school trickled in, she had still not finished it. The post owls swooped in as Jenny wandered into the hall looking half-asleep.

"Hate my life," she muttered. "Peeves swooped into the dorm and started singing."

"What else is new?" Lily asked.

"He was singing a very bad version of 'build me up buttercup'," Jenny said quietly. Lily looked back at her plate trying to banish the memory of Tash singing at Christmas.

"I just had the strangest conversation with Dumbledore," she said. "He said…"

There was a bang in the hallway and the sound of several angry yells. Lily and Jenny bolted in to the entrance hall with about half of the school who ran out to see what was happening.

Snape was sitting in the middle of the floor nursing a very bloody nose. He was also glaring evilly at Sirius, who it seemed had surfaced from the hospital wing temporarily. He was screaming bloody murder, and James and Remus were holding him back.

"I SWEAR TO MERLIN, YOU SAY ANYTHING ABOUT TASH AGAIN AND YOU'LL BE LUCKY YOU STILL HAVE A HEAD YOU SLIMY LITTLE BA…"

"Mr Black control yourself!" McGonagall commanded. Snape got to his feet and swept off to the dungeons before anyone could stop him. James and Remus let go of Sirius, who was glaring at the door where Snape had just disappeared.

"Mr Black I'm afraid I'll have to dock twenty house points from Gryffindor," McGonagall looked sternly at him. "And you'll receive detention with me."

Sirius gave an uncaring shrug and disappeared off up the stairs heading in the direction of the hospital wing. Everyone watched with open mouths.

"Wow," Jenny muttered. Lily nodded in agreement as McGonagall shooed everyone back into the hall. Lily and Jen drifted back to the Gryffindor table followed by James and Remus.

"He is going to be in a lot of trouble when McGonagall finds him," Remus said.

"When?" Jenny asked. "It's not a case of when, I think it's obvious to everyone where he's gone. He's not going to be hard to find."

"What time is it?" Lily asked.

"Quarter to nine," Jenny said checking her watch.

"Maybe we should go and see them," Lily suggested. Nodding grimly, everyone got up from the table, trying to ignore the stares they were getting from people.

Their retreat to the hospital wing however was delayed as the group got to the first floor staircase. Blocking their way were Bellatrix, Rudolphus and Snape (who's nose had been cleaned up).

"Out of the way Bellatrix," Jenny snarled.

"Oh someone's not friendly," Bellatrix taunted. "Taking the mudbloods place for her whilst she's in hospital?"

"Shut your mouth!" Remus warned reaching for his wand. Lily did the same.

"Broken Snivillus?" James asked nodding at his nose.

"What do you think?" Snape spat.

"I think it has," James said with a satisfied smile. "I'll bet Voldemort will be very happy to hear you got beaten up by Sirius." The three Slytherins flinched.

"You dare to say the Dark Lords name?" Rudolphus hissed.

"Yeah we've got no problem say Voldemort's name," Remus said. "Can't see why the rest of the wizarding world is to be honest. He's only a sad power crazed maniac…"

"Shut up!" Bellatrix shrieked. "You shall not insult the Dark Lord! You will be begging for mercy from him before long!"

"You wish," Lily snarled pushing past them. Everyone followed.

"I hate her!" Jenny hissed.

"We all do Jenny," Remus consoled. "We all hate her, and the rest of them. They'll get what's coming to them in the end."

OOO

"I don't know why I did it. I just couldn't listen to him any more," Sirius sat on Tash's left side stroking her hand, spilling out everything that had just happened.

"Doubt Lily will be impressed that I hit another student. Or maybe she wouldn't care. She and Jenny have both been wandering around for the last two weeks like they don't know where they are. Bit like me actually. They miss you Tash. We all miss you."

Tears prickled his eyes as he stared at his girlfriends sleeping face.

"I miss you too Tash. A part of me's been dead these last few weeks cause you're not around. I only realised last night why I've been feeling this way. Why nothing else fills that dead space. It's because there is nothing else. I've only just realised I love you and it's too late to tell you."

He squeezed her hand and tears fell onto the sheets. Sirius buried his face next to them and cried quietly.

The bed covers twitched and there was a faint voice.

"Why are you crying?"

A/N: '...oh beans lots of beans, lots of beans, lots of beans, yeah. Everyone's loves, Magical Trev...OW! Don't poke me Fred! Oh right the chapters over. I know, I'll go and finish chapter 34 whilst you lot leave me a review!Pretty sparkly shiny please!

Next Chapter: Run up to the Easter holidays.

May Stardust fall in your dreams!