Disclaimer: See chapter one

Searching on the Beach

When Dani got home from the Potters that night, she quickly ran the five blocks to Sarah Summers (the third person in the inseparable trio) house. Sarah was in Gryffindor as well and loved to sing, write songs, etc... she was also on the Quidditch team, a chaser, and the only reason that Lily ever showed up at those things. She was a pureblood and lives with her parents Jennie and Anthony Summers. She also had to younger siblings, her little brother Anthony and little sister Rebecca, they were twins and would be starting Hogwarts in the fall. Dani seriously hoped that she was home, half the time she was gone in the summer because she was so sick of her dad, they never seemed to get along.

Dani rang the doorbell, hurry up Sarah! Hurry! She rang it again, beginning to get impatient. A pretty teenage girl with brown hair and hazel eyes opened the door. She was rather thin and short, but had a small tan. On her shoulder was her black owl, Jack.

"Hey Dani! What's up?! Are you all right? It looks like you've just seen someone die!"

"Lily! She was – Potter – some guy – hurt her bad – won't wake up – healers can't – she's just –" Dani gasped, starting to hyperventilate.

"Whoa! Slow down. I didn't get all of what you said." Sarah beckoned her in, "Come on in, why don't you go up to my room, I'll meet you there, I just need to tell mum that you're here."

Dani walked in and began the familiar trek to Sarah's room while Sarah went to go find her mom. When Sarah came back she had a tray full of cookies and a couple cans of soda. "Alright Dani! You should come more often! I told my mom you were here and she gave me all these goodies! You want any?"

Dani didn't answer, she just sat there blank, her face extremely white. "Dani? What's wrong? I heard only a fragment of what you said on the porch, you said it really fast, something about Lily and Potter?"

Dani looked at her friend and nodded, "Lily somehow wound up at the Potters house, she didn't even spend one day there when some guy that no one knows goes to her room and hurts her real bad. Then she fainted and he left. But now she won't wake up! The healers can't even wake her! She's just lying there like a corpse except that she is breathing. I was just there, she was supposed to stay at my place for a while because my dad was gone and she didn't want to stay at the Potters for obvious reasons. She was late so I went over there and they told me the whole story."

There was a long silence broken by a loud pecking on the window. Sarah got up and opened it allowing a snowy white owl to come into the room. It flew directly over to Dani, who untied the letter and then it flew off right away. Sarah shut the window and sat back down on the bed grabbing a cookie. "Who's it from?"

Dani gulped, "Potter."

"Well open it! Maybe Lily woke up!" Dani nodded and opened the letter. The more she read the whiter her face got finally she collapsed into tears and handed the letter to Sarah who read what was scrawled messily onto it.

Dani,

As you might have already guessed, this is about Lily. The healers can't do a thing so they said that if she didn't wake up by tomorrow to owl them, so well yeah. We had to eat dinner so we all had to leave. Dani, I don't know what happened! I ate my dinner as fast as I could! In under 5 minutes! But I guess that it wasn't fast enough. She's gone! Lily is gone! The bed was empty and she is no where in the house! Help me Dani! Is she with you or Sarah? Did she go back home? Please ask around! We need to find her!

James

P.S. Show this to Sarah...

Sarah looked at Dani in complete shock. When Sarah managed to speak she said, "We have to tell James that she isn't here. Dani, stay here at my house for a while. I'll tell my parents what happened. They'll let you stay here, and if my dad says no, to bad. We need get in touch with the ministry."

When Sarah got up and went to find her mom, Dani followed. She didn't want to be left alone with her thoughts. Lily, her best friend was missing. The Potters had left her, they left her alone! It was their fault entirely.

The next day was a blur. Dani and Sarah had gone to Dani's house and gotten her stuff. Then the Potters came to talk to Dani and Sarah about exactly what they had found (not much) and also to talk to the ministry. The ministry was going to put some ad in the Daily Prophet about Lily being missing, and guarantied them that they would find her. Of course, they only did this after a very stern look from Mr. Potter.

Sarah felt almost the same as Dani did but because she wasn't as close to Lily, having met Lily only the year before not as much. She could tell that Dani didn't really know what was going non. Whenever someone asked Dani a question, she would have to be nudged to get a response.

They both went to bed that Thursday (same night that Lily was thinking about her new friends) disgruntled and sad. They were wishing with everything that this was all a dream and that Lily was alright and would still be going to Hogwarts with them this coming year. It was only June 23rd so they had about two months to find her, although the ministry was already telling them to prepare for the worst and to "accept the facts and get over what happened". If Sarah didn't know any better, she would have thought that the ministry was behind Lily's disappearance and that they wanted her gone... but that couldn't be, could it?

Lily woke up to a five-gallon bucket of ice cold water poured on her head. "Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!" She cried, "Who was that!!??"

"Aww Lily! Don't be so hard on poor ickle Isaac," Kevin started.

"He just wanted to get you up and wet and ready to go!" Matt finished.

"Go where?" Lily asked through a mouthful of yawns.

"Swimming of course! Don't you remember?" Isaac looked concerned.

Lily groaned and glanced at the clock, "It's six o'clock in the MORNING! Can't we just wait till later? It's too early!"

"But we like to watch the sun rise, besides, the earlier we start the longer we can play!"

"Fine, Fine. Now leave!"

"What? Aren't you coming?" They all looked confused, Kevin looked even a little disappointed.

"Yes, I am. I need to get dressed in my swimming suit yet though if you hadn't noticed. You guys are dressed but I am still in my pajamas, or rather my original clothes that have become my pajamas."

The boys grudgingly left the room muttering about "Girls, can't live with them, can't live without them." Lily sighed. They were SO much like the Marauders. Lily looked at the suits that Mrs. Anderson had bought her. One was a green bikini (no way was Lily ever going to wear that!), a red one piece (clashed WAY to much with her hair so another no) and a royal blue tankini with Hawaiian looking flowers on them. Seeing as it was the only choice left she quickly slipped into it, found a matching cover-up grabbed a towel and opened the door. Isaac, Matt, and Kevin all jumped up as soon as they saw the doorknob turn. Then they lead the way down to the beach. They spent all morning swimming and running across the beach.

Lily had the most fun she that she could remember in a long time. They were all allowing Lily to bond with their group and they were getting along great, especially Lily and Kevin. But all great things must come to an end.

Late into the morning, Isaac convinced Matt to help him pull Lily underwater. This resulted in a broken ankle, a mad Lily, and a protective Kevin. Kevin was FURIOUS with Matt and Isaac because Lily's ankle had been broken (even though with magical potions it could be fixed in less than two hours) and started to chase them around the beach trying to prove a point. But as soon as they had seen his murderous face they had raced up to the house. Lily sat watching them all in amusement, her pain long forgotten. Kevin eventually gave up and picked Lily up to bring her back to her room.

"Thank you Kevin, that was really nice of you." (Lily)

"No problem, I'll be right back. I'm going to talk to Sandi to get you something to fix up your ankle. Don't go anywhere."

"Alright! Don't worry."

Kevin left, his head swarming with thoughts, "I am so stupid! I just met this girl a day ago and I am already having this HUGE crush on her! Well I understand SOME of it because well, she IS hot. But I just don't get it. I wonder if she would think I was dumb if I asked her out..."

Kevin was able to get a potion rather easily from Mrs. Anderson with no questions asked. She was used to one of the 'Jusketeers' breaking a bone so she handed it right off.

On the way back to Lily's room he finally decided what to do. He was going to ask Lily, the worst thing that she could do is say no, right? He didn't want her to laugh though or to say no. He was very nervous.

When Kevin walked nervously into the room Lily looked up and smiled. Now that's a good sign Kevin thought. He gave her the potion and Lily drank it quite quickly. There was an awkward silence for a while before,

"Lily I-"

"Kevin is-"

"You go first!" They both quickly said.

Lily laughed, "no really, you go first Kevin."

"Um, alright. Lily, I know that we haven't know each other for a very long time, actually it was a very SHORT time, and I know that we won't see each other as often as we like at school because we are in different houses, but well, I was um kinda wondering..."

"Yes?" Lily had no idea what he was asking her.

"I was wondering, will you go out with me?"

Lily was shocked. She didn't know what to say. No one besides Potter had ever asked her that before, she figured that she was just, well, unlikable. But here, this really cute boy that she had only just met asked her out! She had planned on asking him if there was anything going on between them because well, he had acted kind of weird in chasing Isaac and Matt for just a simple broken ankle. She could tell that Kevin was very nervous, he wouldn't even look her in the eye. Lily looked up and smiled, "Sure I will Kevin!"

"Really? You will?"

"Yup."

The two sat in Lily's room for a few more hours waiting for her ankle to heal, then at five o'clock they went down to dinner, hand in hand (well actually Kevin was supporting her a little because of her weak ankle...). Matt and Isaac were already there but Mr. and Mrs. Anderson were still in the kitchen. They both looked up, Isaac smiled and greeted them happily saying, "I knew it! It was only a matter of time." But Matt just looked at them, his face as white as a ghost's.

"Are you ok Matt?" Lily asked when she sat down next to him with Kevin on the other side, "You look awful. Are you sick?"

Matt shook his head, "Oh, I'm fine. Don't mind me at all, I get like that sometimes."

Lily started to protest but the whiteness had quickly faded away and a bright smile emerged. Maybe he's right, but he sure looked fine before he saw me standing at the door with Kevin. Maybe he just feels bad about me getting hurt.

Lily and her new friends were getting along great. They spent the next month basically lounging around, pranking each other, swimming, pranking each other, and in Lily and Kevin's case, taking long walks on the beach at sunset. Yet while Lily was having fun, she forgot all about her other friends. Of course she remembered their NAMES but she forgot to write to them. She didn't think about any of them at all! She did however mail (snail post office mail way) Dani and let her know where she was and that she was ok but she didn't hear anything back and figured that Dani had gone on some vacation with her dad.

Dani and Sarah however were a mess, they were beginning to think that the ministry was right. Lily had to be dead. No one had seen or heard from her at all. The missing article that went in the Prophet was no good either. The Prophet was only delivered to the witches and wizards in London (and of course those who special order it a.k.a. Hogwarts students, etc...), there was a totally different paper, Wizard Wonders, for anything on the outskirts.

James too was a mess. Everyday when he woke up, he would walk absentmindedly to Lily's room to look for something to help Lily. The first time he did this, he had found a clue that supposedly helped the Ministry. On the headboard of the bed there was some blood. The DNA had not matched any of the Potters, Sirius, or any of Lily's visitors (a.k.a. the healers and Dani) when she was there. So it was either Lily's or her abductors. Yet the ministry didn't do anymore tests to see if it matched anything that they had. Every one had lost hope and seemed to believe that they would never see Lily again.

Dani's dad had to go back to the base again for a month getting back about the first of August, and Sarah's parents decided to try to patch up their relationship by going on a cruise. So they both had to stay with the Potters for a while. They didn't like the idea at first but decided that maybe the four of them (Dani, Sarah, James, and Sirius) could find something to help Lily out. Unfortunately nothing was found, except that a friendship between them was after all possible...

A big thanks to max32190, Elfobsession2931, and xxxGREENBAYxxx! I think that is the most amount of reviews i have gotten in one day! Thank you all SO much!

I am sure several of you are wondering how she got on the beach... that gets explained much MUCH later. But i will tell you one thing, it has to do with ... ...... ........!!!!

The next chapter will be either about getting the Hogwarts letters OR that AND Diagon Alley. You will have to tell me your opinion ok? :D