I'm really coming up with these chapters fast...six in a week.

Anyways I really want to thank everyone that reviewed and I welcome anyone else who wishes to add some contructive critisism to do so.

This chapter has a lot more James and Lily interaction.

Chapter six

"Lily! Lily wait up!"

Lily stopped walking and turned around to see Sirius Black racing towards her, a look of pure triumph in his eyes. Her heart leapt. Perhaps it had something do to with the Bridget mystery.

"Yes?" she asked eagerly.

Sirius didn't say anything, but passed her a crumpled up note he had been clutching in his hand.

Lily looked at the letter in her hands then back up at Sirius. "This is her letter? Bridget's I mean."

Sirius nodded. "Got it this morning. Been looking for you all day."

"You got it?"

"Yes, in the great hall. No need for a broomstick," Sirius said putting his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, right."

There was a small silence, neither of them moved until -

"Well?" Sirius inquired impatiently. "Aren't you going to open it?"

"I-" Lily hesitated, her hands tightening on the letter. She shook her head as if trying to clear out all of the negative thoughts inside it then replied. "Yes, of course." And with trembling fingers, she broke the seal and slowly opened up the parchment inside, Sirius watching her vigilantly.

"So?" he asked, "What does it say?"

"I think it's from her sister," Lily said, not looking up from the letter. "Dear Bridget," she read aloud, "I have never used owl mail before so I'm not sure whether or not this letter will reach you. The other one I sent you didn't seem to at any rate. Either that or you just didn't bother replying. But I need a response from you sooner or later and I'll keep trying and trying until I get one.

'I need to know what happened the Friday before you left for that magic school. Please, I know you were there and I know you know what happened. I can't deal with all this pressure myself, these lawyers are really scaring me.

'Did Valdemar or however you spell it, have something to do with it? And like I mentioned in the previous letter, I'm disgusted you wouldn't even stay to organize this mess out. I'm living with our great aunt for crying out loud! And you know how she much she hates me. But what choice do I have? Please, please come home!" Lily stopped reading and looked up at Sirius.

"What do you reckon?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"This doesn't really tell us too much..." Lily said disappointed. "I don't think we can solve it with this much information."

"What do you suggest? Keep watching the mail?" Sirius said taking the letter out of Lily's hands and examining it. "Her sister doesn't seem to know what's going on either. I think we can only find out from Bridget."

"And she's not talking..." Lily looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm, alright I've got a plan, but I'm not sure if it's going to work or not. Hand me the letter."

Sirius obeyed and passed the letter back to Lily who tapped it lightly with her wand, resealing the letter. "Ok, we can give her this and if, hopefully, she responds, we can just track the letter she sends out."

Sirius nodded. "Sure, that can be done."

"I'll give her the letter," Lily continued, "And you just keep watching her to see if she responds and if she does, go after the letter."

"Right."

"Well, anyways thanks for your help," Lily pocketed the letter. "And wish James good luck tomorrow for me."

"I didn't know you cared about the quidditch cup, or James for that matter," Sirius said, failing to suppress a grin.

Lily glowered at him, "No, I just thought I should because I know how much trouble you two are going through to try and help me and Amy, and I think Amy's already given plenty of thanks..."

"Well you could give me some more gold," Sirius said hopefully. "I'm running out of zonko's gags."

"Sorry, but I'm running out of gold," Lily smiled. "I'm sure I'll think of something. Not that something!" she added as Sirius, grinning wider than ever, started to say something.

Sirius laughed, "Worth a shot right?"

"I'm going to bed," Lily turned away and starting walking in the direction of the common room. "Goodnight!" she called over her shoulder.

"Goodnight!" he shouted back.

xxx

Lily ended up not have a good night at all. In fact, it could have even been called her worst night ever.

It started out like any other night at Hogwarts. Lily crawled into her bed and closed her eyes, hoping to fall asleep quickly so she'd be fresh and alert on the upcoming Sunday morning.

This worked fairly well as Lily managed to fall out of all conscious thought within a few minutes. But then the dream began.

It started out like the many dreams previous. Lily was wandering down a dirt road, heading towards the cup that she knew would bring her nothing, but hurt and hate; same old, same old. Only there was something different about this particular dream.

When the cup started chasing after her and the dirt road melted beneath her bare feet, Lily didn't wake up. She kept falling and falling, but her eyes didn't snap open to face reality. Of course the Lily in the dream didn't notice this oddity and simply let herself enjoy the plunge.

The landing, as she had already figured, didn't hurt at all and felt rather comfortable, as though she had landed on a bed of cotton balls. Lily then, for some odd reason felt like laughing when of course there really wasn't any reason to do so.

She had observed her surroundings and concluded that she was sitting in a field covered in brilliantly green grass, and with one other glace around she saw, with a burst of happiness, the cup was no where in sight.

Lily leapt onto her feet so she could enjoy running through the rolling hills to celebrate her victory against the cup. But before she could even take her first bound, she spotted Alice's toad, Froad. She knew she couldn't very well leave him sitting amidst the grass and had to catch him because if she didn't, Alice would be mad.

But when Lily reached out to grab the toad, he bounded off, hopping away with remarkable speed for a toad.

Lily tried running after him, but found she could only move really slowing, sprinting proved impossible. But nevertheless, Lily continued going after the toad in that annoyingly slow pace.

It was some time later when Lily realized her feet were now ice cold, despite the presence of a warm sun shining down upon her, high up in the blue sky.

Lily choose to ignore her frozen feet and continued going after Froad. She had stopped running and was now just walking; it seemed to work better as she was now going at a much faster pace. Feeling pleased that she was finally catching up to the toad, she started humming to herself, but her happiness soon faded as she came face to face with a large wall blocking her path.

With a sinking heart, Lily realized she had no wand and that going through the wall seemed like an impossible task.

But she didn't want Alice to be mad at her.

So she walked beside the wall for a few minutes looking for a door. She had found it in a matter of minutes and wrenched it open.

A dazzling winter wonderland stood before her and Lily took her eyes off the toad for a moment to gape at its beauty. The sparkling snow shone brilliantly under the sun and the white trees dazzled her senses.

It was so gorgeous that it took away the ice cold chill now engulfing Lily. It was a loud croak that brought her back to her senses and she turned back to Froad.

Then suddenly the toad vanished and was replace by a beautiful white stag.

Of course this being a dream, Lily didn't find it at all peculiar. She just started to shiver as the cold winds surrounded her.

The stag then tapped its hoof once in the snow, nodded at her, then started trotting away.

The stag was so beautiful Lily didn't want to take her eyes off it, so she shouted, "No wait!" and started walking after it. "Come back!"

On and on, she continued following the deer until she was plunged into completely darkness. "Help me!" Lily cried out, but she couldn't see the stag anymore. Nevertheless, she kept walking. Not stopping until she came almost face to face with two shining red eyes.

Lily suddenly screamed for something had just grabbed her from behind. She struggled and kept mumbling, "Let go..." but whatever had gotten a hold of her wouldn't let go and tightened its grip on her. "Please..." Lily gasped.

"Lily wake up..." the voice sounded like a distant echo.

"No, please...leave me alone..."

"Wake up..."

"Let me go..."

"Wake up Lily!"

And then the darkness of the dream was ripped away from her and she suddenly thudded into reality, semi consciously trusting her elbow with all the strength she could muster into her captor.

"Ow!"

Lily fell over backwards onto the thing that had grabbed her and didn't get up, panting heavily. It was just a dream... Wait...if it was just a dream then why wasn't she in her bed, safe and sound.

"Mph!"

Hearing the muffled sound Lily rolled off her captor and turned to face whoever it was.

"J - James?"

James sat up, brushing dirt off his jacket. "Ya."

Lily looked around at her surroundings. If she didn't know any better, she could have sworn she was in -

"Are...are we in the forbidden forest?"

James nodded, now rubbing his stomach where Lily had guessed her elbow had ended up.

Lily tried to retrace her memory, attempting to comprehend what had just happened. She had managed to get her hands on Bridget's mail, been disappointed she hadn't found anything revealing in it, went to bed early, fell asleep...had a weird dream...then ended up in the forest?

"What - "

"Happened?" James finished. "I was in my dormitory looking down on the grounds and saw you wandering about. I didn't think it was a smart thing for you to do, plus you were walking a bit strangely like you were drunk or something." He shrugged and continued. "So I came outside and arrived just in time to see you disappearing in the forest." James started to get up slowly. "So I came in after you and wandered for a bit until I finally caught up to you." He held out his hand for her to take.

Lily didn't see this gesture and got to her feet without his help, still trying to figure out what exactly had happened to her.

"You were sleepwalking," James said, watching her closely as she stared at the trees with a glazed look on her face.

"But - but I never sleepwalk," Lily broke out of her stupor. She turned to face him. "Never. I - " she paused, back in thought. "Well there's always a first time," she said indifferently.

"Mmm, ya well anyway, I think I'd be a good idea if we get out of here as soon as possible," James said, brushing more dirt off his pants as he spoke.

Lily nodded and reached inside her pyjama pockets, groping for her wand then realizing. "Shoot, I don't have my wand with me."

"Never mind that," James said just before muttering "Lumos" under his breath. "All we really need is light."

"Providing we don't run into any wild animals," Lily pointed out, curling her bare toes inward, attempting to warm them up.

"Relax," James reassured her, squinting in the dim light his want was giving off. "There isn't an inch of this forest I don't know. Trust me, I remember exactly where all of the dangerous creatures live around here."

"These dangerous animals can walk around to different parts of the forest," Lily said. "You know that right?"

"Well I'm sure they're all sleeping at home right now," James said while looking around at the many trees surrounding them, trying to gather his bearings.

Lily didn't say anything else. She didn't like the idea of being lost in the forbidden forest without her wand and with James as her only companion. The absence of her wand made her feel helpless and she couldn't shake off the feeling she guessed was that James had absolutely no idea where they were.

"Ah!" James cried after a few moments. "It's this way!" He pointed towards a thicket of trees.

Seeing as to how Lily had absolutely no idea where she was, she though she might as well take James's advice. It wasn't as though she had much of a choice. So, shivering madly, she followed James out of the small clearing they were in and into the mess of trees.

They walked in silence for a few moments. Well, actually it wasn't exactly silence seeing is how they were constantly walking on sticks which crackled loudly when snapped in two, as well as brushing noisily through the bushes. But they weren't saying anything to one another until finally, an ice cold Lily, managed to say:

"Thank you for following me out here James."

James didn't look behind himself at her, continuing his steady pace. "Don't worry about it. I just wanted to help. I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

Lily felt a little guilty about what she thought about next. The answer was no, she wouldn't have followed James into the forbidden forest. Mainly because it was a regular activity for James and she wouldn't have bothered herself to help the idiot walking into a forest that could have been his doom. She didn't say any of this out loud though. She instead chose to say:

"Er - yes, of course I would have."

James stopped so abruptly Lily bumped into him and fell over backwards, ending up hitting her back on a root protruding up from the ground.

"Did you hear that?" he whispered.

Lily was back on her feet, rubbing her now sore back. "Hear wha - "

Lily didn't have a chance to finish since James had suddenly clamped his hand over her mouth and hissed, "Shhh! Not so loud. I think something's out there."

"Well of course something's out there," Lily hissed back through James's fingers. "We're in the forbidden forest. We're bound to run into something sooner or later."

James didn't say anything, but continued looking through the trees trying to hear whatever it was that had just rustled in the bushes a few seconds previously. Lily jerked his hand away from her face.

The stood utterly still, barely breathing.

An owl suddenly hooted and Lily and James both nearly jumped out of there skins. James leaping back into Lily sending them both crashing to the ground.

"Just startled me," he apologized, smiling weakly while Lily massaged her foot; the one which James had accidently trodden on.

"Did you have to wear boots?" Lily winced.

"Quiet!" James whispered urgently.

He had heard more rustling. This time, so had Lily.

"I heard it," she said, forgetting to keep her voice down.

James pointed his wand at her threateningly, "Don't make me put a silencing charm on you."

"Sorry," Lily said as softly as she could.

The two of them sat on the hard ground a while longer, James still peering into the distance, Lily trying to control her shivering; which she knew was out of coldness, not fear.

Though after a while, she found it was too much and before James could stop her, she stood up and announced, "I'm freezing here and I'm pretty sure what you heard over there was just another owl." She pulled her hair out of her eyes before continuing. "And I think you actually have no idea where we are. Am I right?"

"No, I know exactly where - " he faltered. "Well no, I don't really know where we are. But if you just let me have a chance to wander a bit, I'm sure."

"I'm not wandering anymore," Lily said flatly, sticking out her right hand. "Can I have your wand for a second?"

James looked reluctant. "Why?"

"So I can use it as a compass so we can find north, getting a better idea of where we are, and where the castle is," Lily explained.

"Alright," James handed it to her and got up from the ground as well.

Lily took the wand and muttered the spell under her breath. Then the two of them watched as the wand spun around in her hand, finally ending up pointing at an oddly shaped boulder covered in moss.

"Alright!" Lily smiled triumphantly. "That's north."

"And which way is the castle?"

The grin slid off Lily's face. She looked at the wand dumbfounded for a few seconds before turning her expression into one of irritation. "Well I can't do everything. You're supposed to figure it out!"

James snatched his wand back. "Let's just admit we're lost and wander," he said. "Do you have any better suggestions?" he added when Lily glared up at him in annoyance.

"No," Lily admitted regretfully. "We can wander, I give up!"

"Alright. I think we should start heading this way," James pointed to the boulder that was apparently north.

Lily shrugged and walked after James in that direction.

"Oh and here," James tossed his cloak at her. "You look cold."

"Thanks," Lily murmured, very grateful, and put on the cloak.

"I'd give you my boots too, but I doubt they'd fit," he said climbing over the boulder and jumping down to the ground on the other side.

"Just as well," Lily told him, climbing on after him. "I wouldn't have wanted to stick my feet into those things anyway."

James laughed. "Fine, risk frostbite."

"Well if you really wanted to warm up my feet you'd just use your wand," Lily pointed out.

"Oh right," James grinned sheepishly. "I forgot about that." He walked over to her and knelt down next to her feet, wand out. "Hang on, let me try and remember the spell..."

"Take your time," Lily shivered.

"Ok, I've got it." James took her feet in his hands and, using a non-verbal spell, send a rush of warm air around them.

"Thanks," Lily said for the third time that night, suddenly feeling a rush of disgust towards herself for being so helpless.

"Alright," James said getting up. "Let's - "

He stopped talking for the trees in front of them had just shuddered violently and weren't stopping. They were moving too fiercely for the sudden disturbance to be caused by wind.

They watched in horror as a dark shape brushed its way through the grove. James gulped and Lily's breath was coming in steady gasps as the shadowy creature came into full view.

James swore under his breath and, not taking his eyes off the monster before them, said to Lily, "I think we may have a little problem."

Lily only nodded, wishing now more than ever, that she had her wand with her. Also some shoes; the twigs on the ground were really starting to hurt her feet and she guessed that a lack of shoes wouldn't be the best thing when trying to run from a giant spider.

First cliffhanger :)

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