Chapter 25: Winds of Fury

May blew in with a fury, sending papers, and much to Sirius' delight, skirts, flying.

One blustery day, the girls and the Marauders sat at breakfast preparing for a Transfiguration quiz.

"Now, just jab your wand, Lilly, no like this . . just . . jab"

"I'm jabbing! I'm jabbing and nothing is happening!"

As the friends laughed at Lilly's attempts at jabbing, a letter dropped onto Lilly's toast, its black ribbon dipping into her porridge.

Deftly opening it with a butter knife, Lilly's eyes scanned the letter. The blood drained from her face.

"Lilly? Lilly!"

Carefully setting down the letter, Lilly stood and walked calmly out of the hall, with a confused James after, the others trailing after him.

Five minutes later, someone less expected followed them to the grounds.

Crouched beneath the sheltering branches of a birch tree, he watched the wind whip her fiery hair about as she sat numbly staring into the distance. He watched James wrap his arms around her as she broke down and sobbed in the crook of his arms. Tears slipped down her porcelain cheeks as James whispered words of solace.

"It's disgusting isn't it?"

Turning so quickly his neck cracked, he beheld the handsome girl that had encroached upon his semi-darkness.

"He shouldn't be sinking to that Mudblood's level."

"Well, not all of us realize that, Bella"

"Us?" An aristocratic eyebrow arched, a mad smile upon her lips.

"Them! Them." She smiled and faded into the black that was her namesake.

He wished it was him she cried to. Him whose arms held her tight. He despised James Potter. He despised his luck, his looks, his talent, but most of all, James Potter had the elusive and beautiful Lilly Evans and there was nothing Severus Snape could do about it.

Under the birch tree, James held Lilly tight as she sobbed, two words crystal clear amid the tear.

"Mum . . Daddy . ."

At the snapping of a twig, James lifted his head to regard his friends with a haggard expression. Mr. and Mrs. Evans, the kind parents who opened their home to him, mothered him, were dead.

Tears dripped slowly down the girls' faces as Sirius, Remus, and Frank stood solemnly behind them.

Emerald eyes soon recognized the girls' presence, fresh tears slipping down her cheeks. Rushing to each other, the girls stood together in a circle, arms about each other, comforting and grieving together simultaneously.

The wind beat against them as the boys formed an outer ring, a shield against the elements, heads bowed away from the wind, protecting the girls as best they could.

From a tower window, Dumbledore shook his head sadly and turned back to his penseive. There would be many more to come.