A/N Omg! I was looking at my reviews and then I scrolled to the bottom and I found out that I had TWO PAGES. That makes me so happy! Well now I'll get to the story and the cliffhanger will be… uncliffed?
I tried to scream again but a hand was covering my mouth and I couldn't breathe. I struggled desperately when I felt something being thrown over me. Some sort of blanket…
Whoever had grabbed me was pulling me away as James stood up and looked around the hillside.
"Lily?" he called, worried, "LILY?"
I had to get to him. Why couldn't he see me? I was in clear view…
It was an invisibility cloak! That's what the person threw over me! I just had to get the cloak off of me…
"Lily?" James cried, looking around frantically.
Suddenly a spark of a desperate idea flickered on inside my head. I opened my mouth with some difficulty, seeing as there was a hand clamped tightly on it, and I bit the person's hand. Really hard. I chomped down so hard it made my teeth hurt.
"OY! OUCH!" yelled the person, pushing me to the ground. I threw the cloak off.
"JAMES!" I screamed. For a fleeting moment he turned and saw me before I disappeared. My captor stunned me and I couldn't move or speak at all as he threw the cloak on me and apparated out of sight.
Suddenly I was cold. So cold. I shivered and huddled up in a tight ball, my knees pressed to my body.
My head ached really badly and I was woozy from just becoming conscious.
I got to my feet wearily and shakily and looked around. I was in a very dark room with cold stone floors and a couple of rusting old shackles attached to the wall.
A heavy metal door stood menacingly at one end of the room. I walked over to it.
"Hello? Anybody out there? HELLO!" I yelled. I yelped and fell on the ground backwards, bracing my fall with my hands, as the door opened.
"Hello mudblood. We're here to "take care" of you," the familiarly slimy voice of Severus Snape said. A group of people behind him laughed maliciously.
Bellatrix, Narcissa, the Lestrange kid, and a couple others entered the room behind Snape.
"Now," Snape breathed evilly. Suddenly I felt the breath knocked right out of me as I flew back against the stone wall.
They began hurling heavy objects at me, crowding around in a menacing half circle. There was no way out. I was going to die right here, right now…
As they threw things at me a picture of James, searching the hillside and calling my name came to my mind. I had to stay alive. For him.
I whipped out my wand before they realized what was going on. I couldn't think of a spell in my sudden panic, so I just slapped in a semi circle, slamming each of them in the side of the face as hard as I could. They fell to the ground with a resounding thud and held their faces.
"It stings!" wailed Lestrange.
"Get up! Get her!" roared Snape as I ran as fast as I could past them and out the big door.
I was in Hogwarts! I realized this as I ran into the corridor. I had to find someone! Anyone!
I ran with all my might. With my sudden adrenaline rush I was able to stay ahead of Snape, but as he got closer I could almost feel his evil breath on the back of my neck…
I suddenly saw light! Up the stairs at the end of the corridor! I ran down the hall, Snape reached out for my cloak and…
I suddenly felt myself falling. Falling onto the cold stone floor. I felt a blow to my face as Snape caught me.
I was out of breath from running and it was just too much. My head was throbbing and my eyes were closing.
The blackness that engulfed me was a welcome change from the pain that surged through my body.
I felt someone holding me. Carrying me gently. Strong arms were wrapped around my shivering body.
The last thing I heard before I slipped into blackness was a whisper.
"Don't worry Lily. I've got you."
I woke up. This time I was warm. I was in a comfortable bed. I looked around and even in the darkness I could see I was in the hospital wing.
Beside me were the sleeping forms of everyone I loved.
James sat beside me in a chair, in a bloodstained tee shirt, his head resting on my shoulder.
Grace and Sirius were asleep with their back against the bed on the floor, holding hands.
Rebecca was asleep in the next bed over, even though she wasn't sick, and Remus was sleeping fitfully in a chair at the end of my bed.
I sat up in bed and James's head fell off of my shoulder.
"Whassit? Hello?" he mumbled sleepily.
"Lily!" his eyes lit up when he saw me.
"Hey. How long have I been asleep?" I asked quietly, careful not to wake anyone else up.
"Two days. We were so worried!" he cried.
"How'd you find me?" I asked.
"When you disappeared I ran home and checked… this," he took a blank piece of parchment out of his pocket, tapped it with his wand and mumbled a few words. Black lines began spidering out of the point where his wand had touched.
"The rest of the Marauders and I made it," he explained. I just looked at it in shock. That was really advanced magic!
"So anyway, I looked at it and it said you were in the underground dungeons. So I ran down there and found you on the ground. Snape was about to hex you, but he ran away when I found you. I carried you here. Apparently Snape and his friends are mini- deatheaters. No one can prove it, though, so they're still in the school. I'm really worried about you and we've been skipping classes to be with you for days," he said.
Tears came to my eyes. I reached up and kissed him.
That's how the others found us when they woke up.
"Well good morning!" Sirius laughed. James broke away, blushing.
"Lils! You're up!" Grace ran to hug me.
We spent hours catching up and hugging and it was just about then that I realized I couldn't care more about anyone then I did about my best friends around me. Even Sirius.
For the next couple of days I forced them to go to their classes and spent lonely days in the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey finally let me leave after three days of absolute boredom and I ran straight to the common rooms.
"Grace! Rebecca!" I ran up to them, sitting in the chair beside them.
The sky was gray and it was raining today as we sat at a table by the window.
"In all the excitement I forgot to ask! How were your dates?" Rebecca asked excitedly.
"A bit ruined by attempted murder," I shrugged. She and Grace burst into laughter.
"And yours?" Rebecca motioned toward Grace.
"Well… perfect," Grace summed it up.
FLASHBACK TO GRACE'S DATE
Grace waved goodbye to Lily and walked in silence with Sirius down to the lake. The sun was setting and orange sun dust was sprinkled through the air and all over the ground. That's how Grace always thought of the orange sunlight that shines in the evening. Sun dust.
The tension between Sirius and her was thick as they walked and Grace's throat hurt, as if all the words she wanted to say were caught and just wanted to get out.
"Sirius?" she suddenly whispered, her voice faint.
He looked to her in surprise and relief.
"I don't know what to say to you. Is that a bad sign?" she asked. He smiled.
"I think it might be a good sign that we're talking now," he said.
"Well it's going to be hard to keep talking if you don't think of something to talk about," Grace pointed out.
"We could talk about… school," he suggested. He was really trying. He hated school!
"That's boring," she insisted.
"Well what's interesting, if you're so smart?" he asked in a defiant, challenging voice. She met his challenge with a grin.
"This," she said simply. She wrapped her arms around him and he leaned in and…
"Yaaaaaaaa!" Sirius screamed as Grace dodged his face, whipped around and pushed him effortlessly into the lake.
"That's cold!" He laughed. He was laughing so hard that when he got up, dripping wet, he just fell back down again.
"Help me up!" he shivered. She leaned down and grasped his hand. He pulled her quickly down in the freezing water beside him,
"Rebecca's going to kill me! She picked out this outfit and did my hair and makeup and now it's ruined!" Grace yelled.
"You'll be all right," he assured her.
"But I don't know if you will," she warned as she dunked his head underwater.
END FLASHBACK
"That's so sweet!" I told her.
"THAT SHIRT WAS TWENTY FIVE GALLEONS!" Rebecca yelled.
We just laughed and enjoyed the fact that everything was back to normal.
Okay, I am writing this on Microsoft word (Or Micro word as I call it) and I fixed it up so it automatically replaces the word Claire with Grace. I'm such a technical genius.
One more chapter to go! Find out why Rebecca was crying! Yay!
