a/n: ok, i am really excited about this chappy! hope you like it as much as i do!

chapter written by: pinocchio

Chapter eighteen.

James rolled over in his large bed sleepily, he opened his eyes just wide enough so that he could see the time on his alarm clock. It was 6:13am. It was way too early to be awake. He shut his eyes trying to go back to sleep, only to be disturbed by the sound of the door opening. Lily walked in wearing a dressing gown that was open, revealing a magenta lace camisole with matching shorts.

"Happy Valentines day." Lily said softly as she climbed into bed next to James, "Move over."

"Ok. Happy Valentines to you too!" James said as he moved over in the big bed, and kissed her lightly, "I like your pajama's."

"Thanks, I guess."

"It's too early." James said,

"I agree, but I couldn't sleep, so I came in here," she said, nestling into one of the many pillows and closing her eyes.

"Hey James!" a voice called from outside the door, "Guess what!"

It was Sirius, he burst through the door as Lily sat up and opened her eyes,

"I got a…ooh, what have we here?" he asked, with a raised eyebrow,

"Sirius, I just came in here. I couldn't sleep."

"I'm sure Lillers." He said sarcastically with a strange grin on his face, as he plopped down in an armchair,

"Sirius, don't be immature." Lily said, getting out of the bed and grabbing her dressing gown.

"Ooh, nice pajama's Lily. Bit revealing though." Sirius teased,

"Shut your face." Lily laughed, "What is wrong with my pj's? What? Is there a stain or something?"

"No." James said,

"Then what?"

"They're hot!" Sirius said,

"Oi! Padfoot!" James said,

"You rang?"

"That's my girlfriend, keep your grubby mitts away from her."

"I'm not putting my mitts anywhere near her Prongsie. I am merely pointing out that your girlfriend is hot."

"I am aware of that Padfoot." James said, getting annoyed.

"Also James? Don't use that expression, it's not like you live on the street."

"Whatever."

"Okay, then, I'm going to go." Sirius said, noticing the aggressive tone, he got up from his chair and walked towards the door.

"Hang on, didn't you need to tell James something?" Lily asked,

"Oh yeah, I got a new beauty spot!" he said, pointing to his collarbone,

"That's what you were so desperate to tell me?"

"Yeah! Isn't it cool?"

"Sirius, that is not a beauty spot, it's a mole; and it's not new, you've had it as long as I've known you."

"It is new, and it's not a mole!" he argued, and stormed out, and slammed the door behind him.

"He can be a strange one." Lily said,

"Yep." James laughed,

"Well, I'm going to sleep." Lily said, as she lay down and closed her eyes again, "Happy Valentines babe."

James kissed her on the forehead before lying down and going back to sleep.

Two hours later, Remus Lupin awoke; he was drenched in sweat. 'It was just a bad dream; it didn't happen again, it couldn't happen again,' he reassured himself, it was the same dream he had dreamt every year on this day for eight years now. He looked at his calendar, February the 14th. Valentines day, he hated this stupid holiday. It reminded him way too much of the 'incident.' He would buy people presents out of courtesy, but that didn't stop him from hating the holiday. He wondered why mistletoe had been put up, when it wasn't Christmas. The dream re-played itself in his mind, over and over again.

"Remus, honey? Can you take this water up to your grandmother please?" his mother asked. A nine-year-old Remus Lupin looked up at his mother, she was wearing her favourite outfit, because she had a date for Valentines Day later. It was a knee-length white dress, with polka dots of all different colors. She had a yellow belt around her waist and her brown hair was in a neat, typical 60's bob.

"Sure Mum, and then can you take me to James' house?" he asked.

"Yes sweetie, of course I can." She said, and handed him a jug of water.

Remus walked up the stairs of their big two-story home, towards his grandmother's room. When his parents had gotten divorced, his mum had taken the house, and his dad had taken most of their possessions. Remus had been too young to understand and he hadn't seen his dad in years. It was very quiet in the large house, so his grandmother had moved in. She was a tad bit dotty, but he loved his Nana very dearly.

"Nana?" he asked, looking over to the old lady who was sitting in an armchair by the window,

"Oh, hello dear. How are you?"

"I'm good."

"You must say I'm well, darling, not I'm good."

"Oh, I'm well." He corrected himself, "here's your water Nana."

"Thank-you, you may set it down on the table." Remus put the jug down and made for the door.

"No Remus, stay and talk to me for a few minutes." She asked,

"Okay Nana." He said, as he sat down in the armchair opposite her,

"How was school?"

"It was good."

"Did you learn anything new?"

"We learnt how to do long division. And I got an A+ on my geography assignment."

"Division? Geography? Why aren't they teaching you Charms? Or Transfiguration?" she asked,

"Because it's a muggle school?"

"Why are you going to a muggle school?"

"Because there are no wizarding schools for people under the age of eleven."

"Well, that's poppycock! I think they should. Tell your mother to write to Hogwarts and ask them to make a school for younger children."

"I will Nana. About Mum, do you think she has been rather…depressed lately?"

"No, of course not dear, your mother has a gorgeous son, she is very happy with her life. Off you go now dear. Go and do some quidditch practice or make some brownies!"

"Nana, I don't play quidditch, and anyway, I'm going over to James' house."

"James Potter?" she asked, Remus nodded, "Say hello to his mother for me, and thank her for the carrot cake she sent over, it was delicious."

"Okay, bye Nana." He said, as he gave her a hug.

Remus walked down the stairs and called out to his mother, "Mum? Come on let's go, I don't want to be late."

There was no answer; the house was silent.

"Mum?" he shouted,

No answer, Remus walked through the living room and into the kitchen, "Mum?" he asked, he walked around the counter to find a body, curled up on the floor, he knelt down beside her, her hair was splayed out over her face.

"Mum?" he asked frantically, "Mum?"

Her body was cold; he grabbed her hand and pulled her up against the counter, his heart beating rapidly. He noticed thin red scars across her wrist and up the inside of her arm. He moved the hair away from her face; her eyes rolled back into her head, "Mum! Wake up!" he felt for a pulse on the scarred wrists, there was nothing! A salty tear ran down his cheek, "MUM! No, mum, you can't leave me!"

He checked for a pulse again, there was nothing, it was too late; she was gone.

He knew she had been unhappy since his Dad left all those years before, but he never thought it would come to this. He had tried to cheer her up. Ever since she had died, he and his Nana had lived in that big old house by themselves, until they couldn't afford to live there anymore, then they had sold it and moved to something smaller.

He got out of his bed and had a shower, trying to think about something other than his dream, though it was hard. He got dressed and walked down to the Great Hall to eat breakfast, to find Ellie down there already, reading the Daily Prophet.

"Hey." She said, as she kissed him on the cheek,

"Hey, you're up early." He said,

"I know; I normally get up at about ten, or ten-thirty. But it's Valentines Day, I love this holiday."

"I don't."

"Why not?"

"I'll tell you later." He said, shutting the thought out of his mind, he tried to change the subject, "Why are you reading the Daily Prophet? I thought you hated that newspaper because they write stories about complete bullshit or something?"

"Oh yeah I do, but I heard a rumor that there was a breakthrough on my parents murder case, so I bought this off some first year so I could see if there was an article on it."

"And is there?"

"Yeah, I'll read it to you." She said;

BREAKTHROUGH ON THIRTEEN-YEAR MURDER CASE

Georgina Skeeter reports:

'A murder case that for thirteen years has been unsolved, may have finally been solved.

Thirteen years ago, top Aurors David and Prue Andrews said goodbye to their four-year-old daughter and left their Cornwall home to go to the office. Sadly, they never made it. They had decided to go the muggle way, by car. Three men attacked them, leaving them no chance for survival.'

At this point Ellie stopped and said, "My parents had a chance! They fought back; they wanted to live. Didn't they? They didn't want to die, right?"

"No of course not." He said, in the same way his Nana had said it to him.

Their bodies were lit on fire and burned to a crisp. For the last fourteen years, this murder has been under investigation. Aurors have studied it from every possible angle. Now, they have evidence, that maybe the Andrews staged the attack and killed themselves.

Editorial page 32.

"This article is complete frog shit! My parents didn't kill themselves. They weren't that stupid!" she shouted,

Remus looked at his feet, this was not a topic he liked talking about, especially on Valentines Day.

"Let's talk about something else."

"Oh yeah, okay, do you wanna tell me why you hate Valentines?"

Remus sighed; he knew he would have to tell her eventually, "okay…"

He told her the full story, from his parents divorce; right up until the dream he had the night before.

"Oh my god, Remus I'm so sorry. I feel like such a bitch for bringing it up." She said, embracing him tightly, not wanting to let go,

"It's okay."

"Remus?" she said, letting go

"Yeah?"

"I love you." She said,

"Um, thank you." He said unsurely.

"Thank-you?" Kat asked, she was shocked, they were sitting in the head's common room, talking about what had just happened between Ellie and Remus.

"Yep. Thank-you." Ellie nodded, "Not even 'back at ya' or whatever, just thank-you."

"You know something Ellie?" Emma said,

"Yeah?"

"It's not like you to get all worked up about something like this."

"I know, but thank-you? I mean, what the hell is that?"

"I know what you're going through." Lily said, her first boyfriend had done something similar

"No, what the hell is that?" Ellie asked,

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"What the hell is that box thing?" she said, pointing at a small velvet box sitting on the table next to one of the couches,

"It's a box." Emma said,

"Well-noted." Ellie said sarcastically, "I figured that it was a box, but what is it doing in here?"

"It looks like a ring-box." Lily said, Ellie got onto her knees and crawled over to the table and grabbed it, and flicked it open,

"There's a note," she said, "It's for you Kat."

She held it out for Kat, "Oh, Ellie, are you proposing to me?"

"No you idiot, take the box." Ellie said, Kat took the box from her,

"It's gorgeous." She said, slipping it onto her finger, it was a silver band with a deep red ruby set into it.

"It's a promise ring." Emma said, they all stared at her, "So I know a lot about rings? So what? I wanna get married one day."

"Ok… back to the ring." Kat said,

"Kat read the note." Lily said,

"Oh yeah, it says: A promise, another chance."

"What the?" Emma said,

"I'll bet it's from Sam." Ellie said,

"Well, maybe I won't be alone on Valentines after all!" Kat said happily, getting up from her couch,

"Where are you going?" Emma asked,

"To find Sam."

Kat rounded the corner, walking towards the Great Hall, she wasn't watching where she was going, when she bumped into someone and fell over.

"Oh, sorry. Here, let me help you up." Said a voice, Kat looked up, it was Sam,

"Hi. Um, thanks so much, it's gorgeous." She said, looking at the ring,

"Oh, it's okay." He said, his words were followed by a long silence, then he said, "Oh it's awkward, it's very awkward. I have to go."

Sam tried to walk away, but an invisible barrier blocked him, restraining him from leaving a certain area. Kat looked up to the ceiling.

"Mistletoe."

a/n: cliffie! hope you liked it! please review.

next chapter written by pretty.little.happy.princess.

from pinocchio.