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"That is so cool." Said Dani, when they sat by the lake the next day. She, Lily and Ella had decided to spend some quality time without the boys, for one of the first times that year. They had concealed themselves behind some high cut shrubs near the edge of the lake, so that they could see Ella as a horse.
She smiled at her friend's reactions. Dani was quite vexed when she found out that the rest of the group knew a secret that she had not yet been let in on. However, Sirius had talked to her, and she seemed cheery enough. When she clapped and cheered so enthusiastically for the transformation, Lily realised that she was over it. She also realised that the time where the three of them kept secrets from each other was well and truly over, and she smiled at the thought. She didn't like the fact that the marauders arrival in their lives had pushed them apart.
"So, you're moving in with Remus hey?" Dani said, when they were lying down in the moist, thick grass that surrounded the lake, under the comforting shade of their favourite beech tree. Ella giggled.
"How weird does that sound?" she said, smiling up as the leaves cast a multitude of dappled light billowing across their faces. "Yeah. Not bad weird, just weird weird As in, 'I can't believe it' weird."
"I can believe it." Lily said, grinning. " I always knew that you two would end up together. Your perfect for each other." Ella murmured in content agreement, and Dani laughed. Her laughter, however, quickly subsided, and left a dull frown on her face. Looking sidewards, Lily noticed it.
"What's wrong Dan?" she asked. Ella rolled onto her stomach, and they faced their friend.
"I don't know, it's just, well, Sirius I guess. I love him and all, and I know that he's great, but can you seriously imagine us settling down and starting a family, or anything conventional like that? I mean, that's not real what I want anyway, but I don't know what he's even thinking about…already I'm his longest ever girl friend, and we've only been together since just before Christmas…"
"Just before Christmas?"
"Werewolf Ella."
"Ok, I'll drop it."
"I don't know. He gets pretty worked up over You Know Who…" Dani trailed off, "Did you hear about his brother?"
Ella shook her head, and Lily said nothing.
"He dropped out last week, he's joined the Death Eaters now."
There was a silence so tense that Lily felt she could have reached out and shattered it with the tip of her finger.
"I hope-" Dani hesitated before continuing, as though she didn't trust herself to talk, "I hope he doesn't get too involved. Is that selfish?"
"No. I feel the exact same about James." Said Lily bracingly, "But there's no stopping those two. I guess we'll just have to help them…"
A silent understanding rose between the girls on that February afternoon. No matter what happened from that moment on, they'd take care of each other…and the marauders.
Snape looked over across the Great Hall to where James Potter and Lily Evans were laughing, their heads together with their friends. He sat alone at the end of the Slytherin table, his black, hollow eyes narrowing in menacing jealousy.
He hated her for being so happy. He hatred her for tricking him. He hated her because he knew that she was the sole most important thing to James Potter.
It was past midnight. The whole castle seemed to be holding its breath in anticipation of the morning.
One young Slytherin, however, was not resting. He sat on his bed, shielded form his sleeping roommates by the heavy green curtains that surrounded his bed. His wand was out, and Snape's eyes flashed suddenly, as he muttered the incantation of a sinister curse.
Lily Evans sat bolt upright in her bed. She wasn't awake; her eyes flittered open and closed mysteriously as she stood, and made her way to the door of the dormitory, and seemed to float with an other-worldly grace out of the Griffindore Tower and down through the castle.
The tiny emerald on the necklace James had given Lily for Christmas grew hot, and seared a bright, ruby red. James Potter awoke with a start, his eyes snapping open, instantly alert.
James jumped out of bed, and ripped the covers of Sirius.
"Padfoot! Padfoot wake up now!" he hissed in his ear.
"Gobactosweep." Sirius muttered. James hit him over the head. Sirius was awake now…
"What the ruddy hell did you do that for?" he asked, sitting up in bed quickly, and rubbing the spot where James had hit him.
"I had to wake you up! Lily's in trouble! I need you're help!"
"I'm up!" Sirius said bracingly, and he jumped from his bed. James threw his invisibility cloak around the both of them, and they moved down and out of the common room at an alarming pace, James' heart beat racing, as the Emerald grew hotter and hotter around Lily's neck.
Snape had led her outside, his wand hovering in the air, as he sat on his bed, sneering, his brow covered in beads of sweat from concentration.
Lily walked across the lawn, and right over to the lake. She stepped onto the water. When her foot came in contact with the surface, however, her foot did not sink through it gracefully, but seemed to glide over the top of its inky black surface.
There is a cave around the edge of the lake that almost no one knows about. Up against the startling cliff face on which the school is perched, a secret series of crevices hides, the home of many mysterious creatures, and hidden secrets.
Snape knew about them though. Lily glided over the surface of the water and right into one of these caves, where she fell to the ground in a heap, and lay there, immobile. Snape smiled. She wouldn't wake for days.
James Potter and Sirius Black had made it to the edge of the lake.
"James, where are we going?" Sirius hissed at him under the cloak.
"I have no idea. To Lily."
"How do you know where she is?"
"I gave her a necklace for Christmas, and I put a spell on it do that I can tell when she's in trouble. " James said, smiling grimly. Sirius stared, proud. Prongs was not normally a dab hand at charms, and this was quite a feat.
"Well done. " he said, "But Padfoot, how can she be out there?" he said, gesturing madly at the black surface of the lake, his hand shaking at the thought. James looked down heartened.
"I have no idea. But the locket has been calling to me, sort of telling me where to go. I can't explain it, but she's alive, and she's out there, so I'm going out there too."
"Then I guess I'll come." Sirius said, "If you're sure that that's where she is?"
James nodded, and stepped out from under the cloak.
Sirius tried not to make a sound as James transformed. He was going to ask how they were going to get across the lake, but it seemed as though James had already given it a bit of thought…not rational thought mind you…
"James! It's February! Don't you realise how cold it's going to be?" James didn't say anything, just stepped into the water, which chilled his bones, but he continued without flinching, and was soon paddling through the icy water, a great Black dog swimming reluctantly behind him.
Sirius shivered, shaking his shaggy black fur out of his eyes and trying to stop his abnormally large teeth from chattering as he and James reached the middle of the lake. James then took an abrupt turn, and began to swim towards the castle, which towered above them, demoralizing, as though taunting their foolishness.
James tried to ignore the many limbs and scales that brushed his leg gentle as he and Sirius swam through the lake. He thought of Lily. What on earth had brought her out here in the middle of the night? Was it Voldermort? Or merely a student playing a prank. She could have been taken…or maybe she had just wandered out there on her own accord. James let out a grunt, feeling the icy chill of the water against his lightly furred skin…definitely not off her own accord…
Something in his brain was steering him back towards the cliff faces that rimmed the castle. That couldn't be good. What if she was lying at the foot of them? Or what if she was back inside the castle itself? James began to doubt his skills in charms.
Lily was still breathing, lightly, her hammered breaths coming vaguely in tapered stops and starts. Her eyes were clamped tightly shut, and her limbs were limp, lying at odd angles around her peaceful body, as she slept a dreamless sleep.
Snape was lying back down, staring with his jealous eyes open in looming ferocity. James Potter will wish that he had never messed with the Half-Blood Prince …
James swam faster, and Sirius was struggling to keep up with him, his frivolous dog paddle barely keeping up with James, whose long spindly legs propelled him through the water gracefully.
Is that a cave up ahead? Sirius thought, his eyes widening at the thought. He had never heard of a cave in the cliffs, but for the one that first years made their entrance into the school through each year. But this wasn't that sort of cave. And there were more of them, scattered all the way across the cliff faces. James had noticed them now, and was slightly vexed to realise that the charm was leading him to one of them; a cave that was situated almost near the centre of the cliffs, and was by far one of the smallest.
Sirius groaned. It was dark in there. No one knew where the giant squids slept…what if they were leading themselves into a horrible death trap. Or worse, what if this really was a death trap. What if someone had taken Lily to get at James? Sirius barked loudly, and James ignored him, and kept on swimming. Now that he was so close to Lily he couldn't bare it if she wasn't all right…or if he didn't get to her in time.
James barely hesitated when he reached the entrance of the cave, and Sirius was quick to follow, not wanting to loose sight of James in the dark. James' feet collided with the floor of the cave and he stood on his four legs, looking around the cave. He could see nothing.
James and Sirius transformed back into their human forms, panting heavily, and shivering uncontrollably. James lit his wand.
"Prongs, are you sure that this is such a-"
Sirius was cut short when the dim light issuing from James' wand fell upon a dark shape in the corner of the cave, lying still on the ground.
"Lily!" James cried out, and ran over to crouch beside her, Sirius close behind. The flaccid figure didn't stir. Lily's red hair was drenched in water and mud, and the side of her face was smeared with sand. James held onto her arm. Her body was stone cold.
"Lily! Lily wake up!" He tried desperately, feeling for a pulse and sighing in relief when he found one, the cold fist clenching his heart loosening its grip slightly.
"Lily?" he whispered. Sirius' face was stark white.
"Renerveate." James muttered, pointing his wand at her. Lily stirred a little, but didn't fully wake up. James lifted her into a sitting position, and stroked her hair. Lily's eyes opened a little.
"James?" she whispered, her head lolling around on her shoulders dangerously.
"It's ok, it's ok, we're here."
"Where are we?"
"Don't worry about that now. Shhh." James said, worried. Lily was shivering uncontrollably form the water that drenched her now, and her whole body was covered with goose bumps, her lips blue.
"How did I-"
"Don't worry Lil, we'll get you out of here, then we'll talk about it, ok?"
"But I-"
"Shhh."
Lily's head dropped onto James' shoulder, and he looked at Sirius hopelessly.
"How are we meant to get her back?" Sirius shrugged, looking down at James and Lily's hunched body.
"She's really cold." James said. "I don't think that we could get back with out making her worse."
"Why don't we sleep here tonight then?" Sirius suggested. He performed a warming spell on Lily, and then one on himself and James. Lily stopped shivering, but her face was a ghostly pale, and her eyes didn't open.
"Incendio" Sirius said forcibly, and flames shot out of his wand to produce a small fire on the floor of the cave. James held Lily, as she murmured uneasily, and Sirius conjured up three blankets and cushions.
James wrapped Lily up, and lay down beside her, placing her close to the fire.
Sirius caught the look on James' face as he stared at her, his terrified features flickering in the wavering firelight.
"She'll be ok you know." Sirius said, smiling encouragingly at his best friend.
"I know. Burt Padfoot, I have never been so terrified in my whole life. When I saw her there-"
"Nothing happened." Sirius said, with determined force. James gave his a small, sad smile, and reached out to grasp Lily's hand.
She squeezed it back, unconsciously, but that was all that James needed to fall into a light sleep.
A/N: sorry all, that the last couple haven't been that light and funny! I'll try and make it a little more enjoyable for the next chappie…wont be so heavy. I liked writing about the necklace though. Thanks for all my reviews! I love getting reviews, they make y day guys, they really do. So, if you've read this far then you obviously didn't hate it, and you obviously have a bit of time on your hands, so REVIEW IT! PLEASE? Ur all so awesome 4 not bailing on me! Hope that you all had a great Chrissie!
Luv Ella xXx