(A/N Alright this is basically a story to fit in between chapters, I didn't want to rush into the Christmas break too soon. So...)

Ch. 15 Running Into People

"So you're saying we have to wait an entire day?" Ally proclaimed.

They were in Dumbledore's office; Ally and Sirius were seated across from the Headmaster. His hands were crossed and resting on the desk in front of him, and he wore an amused expression on his face. Ally couldn't, for the life of her, figure out what was so amusing about this. Especially after having had spells cast at her by the headmaster, who had thought, at first, that this was another Marauder joke.

"I'm afraid so... Professor Slughorn..." he indicated the tub of lard that was declined in a soft and cushy armchair in the corner. Slughorn was wearing a lime green, pin striped coat and orange overalls, "... has analyzed the potion that you and Miss Pierce—"

"Evans... I'm Pierce."

"So sorry, child." he amended, "That you and Miss Evans were exposed to. The potion was not powerful, a few hours and a good night sleep and it will wear off by morning."

The Headmaster smiled encouragingly.

"In the meantime I suggest you find Miss Pierce—"

"Evans."

"Evans... My, this is confusing," he rubbed his forehead, "I suggest you find Miss Evans and tell her about this - hopefully before she gets into trouble, because you will be blamed."

They all stood, except for Slughorn, who lazily rested on his chair.

"Thank you, Professor." Ally said and shook his hand.

"Thanks." Sirius said.

"I think I'll stay behind," Slughorn said jovially to the students, "I have a bit of business to take care of with our Headmaster. Nothing to important, time to stock our potions shelves again. Run along, now. You best be off to find your other half." he chuckled to himself, "Of all the things to happen..."

Ally walked past the Potion's master and exited the office. Just as she was about to travel down the stone steps she heard Dumbledore's voice behind her.

"I believe Lily enjoys visiting Hagrid's hut this time of year!"

Hagrid's hut was a small, wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of rather large galoshes were outside the front door. There was only one large room inside and an open fire on the right side, where a copper kettle was boiling tea.

Lily and Remus had seated themselves at a small round table in the center of the room. To the back of them was a large bed with a patchwork quilt atop it.

Lily had calmed down from her frenzy and was taking deep breaths now. Her cool, calm, and logical side took over and she was thinking of what to do next.

"Now," Hagrid said as he poured them a cup of tea, "When are you going to see Dumbledore?"

"Dumbledore?" Remus asked, taking a sip of his tea.

"Yeah, Dumbledore, who else? The greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had. Good man, Dumbledore, good man."

He went off mumbling to himself softly.

"Do you think he knows what to do? Does he know where Ally is? Can he fix us?"

Lily was thinking about stories she heard from seventh years, talking about being splinched while attempting to apparate. Maybe this isn't that different, maybe when Dumbledore tries to switch us back we get stuck in something else... like a teapot or a chair. What if my soul drifts forever?

"Yer lucky though, that potion could'er done somethin' much worse, Potions was never me best subject, I was much better at Care of Magical Creatures..."

"Oh..." Lily said despondently, she listened to Hagrid talk about his Hogwarts days fondly while she sipped her tea. Remus asked questions about Hagrid's past while Lily thought about what Dumbledore could do about their situation. She thought more about what Ally was doing at the moment. Hopefully she doesn't run into Potter anytime soon...

Ally raced down the labyrinthine halls of Hogwarts. Their footsteps echoing loudly on the cold stone floors, most of the students were in their common rooms, or at the library, waiting for dinner.

Ally and Sirius headed toward one of Hogwarts exits. Ally watched through the passing windows as she ran, the Quidditch pitch was deserted. Well no wonder, it's snowing. I hope I don't run into James again once he figures out there isn't Quidditch practice.

She thought too soon. Running up to her when she turned a corner was the great and terrible Potter himself, dressed in his wet red and gold Quidditch robes. He looked like he had been out in the snow too long.

"Hey," he panted and waved as he came up to the two, "There wasn't Quidditch practice,"

No, really?

"But I thought it would be a good idea to get some practicing in, while I was out there. That's just the kind of hard working guy I am." he winked at the presumed Lily, "So... why aren't you at the library, love?"

"Er—well... you see..." Ally faltered.

"She was with me!" Sirius butted in.
James looked between Lily and Sirius with suspicion, and then realization dawned on his face.

"You... you two—you lied to me!" he pointed at Sirius.

"What?" Sirius objected, clearly not getting what James was aiming at.

"You were... you were with Lily." his face mirrored horror, "And you—you were together!"

Oh, he's clearly getting at something.

"What? James I would never? Look, have you seen Al?"
"You lied to me—sent me away—to get her all for you! Poor Lily! I can't believe I thought you were my friend!"

"No! James you've got it all wrong..."

Ally tuned out the bickering friends. I don't have time for this... she thought. I need to find Lily! Or... me?

She ran further down the halls. She stopped momentarily to check her watch; a quarter of an hour had passed. Ally kept running, wishing desperately that Dumbledore will choose to renovate the castle and make it smaller.

She hurried down the entrance steps and in her rush, she slammed into another student.

"Sorry, sorry." she said, distracted. She bent down to help the student up.

While she helped him up, she got a better view of him. His skin was pallid and pale; he had an awkward demeanor and when he stood he looked somewhat stretched and stringy. His hair hung from his head in lank, long, greasy black strands. He straightened up with his books in his hands, revealing his face, which had a long hooked nose.

"Evans!" his face brightened slightly at the sight of her.

Okay... Lily must know him. Why would she know him...? It's got to be something from out of classes; I have everything with her except muggle studies... And I doubt a Slytherin would be caught dead in the muggle studies classroom.

She glanced at the Slytherin seal on his cloak while he was talking.

"—dueling club."

"Sorry, what?"

"Dueling club," he said again, "We have it again Thursday, not to mention Professor Arma will be out again, and she wants us to take charge."

Ally started down the stairs again, and to her surprise, the Slytherin followed.

"Alright, thanks for telling me." she said, trying to wrap up the conversation, even though this person seemed like the only half-way decent Slytherin she had ever seen. At least he wasn't trying to hex her.

"No problem, do you know what the homework was for Charms?"

"No sorry, I missed it. I was in a Potions accident, missed most of my classes."

"That's right..." he said quietly, "I heard about that, the gossip in this school is horrible. By this time tomorrow, the fifth year girls will have you turn into a toad."

She giggled at the image of a toad with red hair and green eyes.

"That would be something they would do."

I change my mind, this one's okay. Maybe when I get back my body I'll ask Lily about this dueling club.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Hagrid's hut."

"Oh," he responded, "I don't think I'll follow you, Hagrid and I have never gotten along, as you know."

I know something?

"Right, see you later!" she waved as he turned the corner and headed in the opposite direction.

As soon as he was out of sight and ear shot Ally broke in to a run. Before she got far (barely halfway down the hall), she was pulled back by a hand on her arm.

"Who is it now!" she said loudly, sounding annoyed.

"It's me of course! I just finished setting James straight, hope you don't mind, I told him you needed to talk to me about 'Ally', I can't remember exactly what I said. Just avoid him for awhile." Sirius pulled her along in the direction of Hagrid's hut. They walked onto the grounds, it was snowing lightly, "Why were you talking to greasy old Snivellus anyway?"

Ally saw his lip curl in disgust when he said the nickname.

"Snivellus? Who's he? What does that mean? You guys need to figure out some better nicknames. It's getting weird."

Sirius ignored her remark..

"Snape, Severus Snape... Snivellus. That greasy git I saw you wave goodbye to. Are you friends? Wait, you can't be friends, he thinks you're..."

He trailed off with a repulsing look on his face.

"Lily knows that guy? What is she doing with him? I'm going to talk to James about this. He won't like it one bit. We'll get him back, no doubt, me and James. What did he say to you, anyway?"

"Get him back? Why? And all we talked about was dueling club and Charms homework, he seemed nice."

"Nice... Nice! NICE! Are you kidding me? That guys evil! He's in Slytherin, Ally. Don't you get it? He's probably already a death eater like the rest of them, all greasy and slimy... You know, you shouldn't associate with Slytherins. They're dangerous and—and—and."

He seemed at a lost for words. Ally would have sympathized at any other moment, but she was still angry at him. It was another petty Slytherin versus Gryffindor dispute. The Gryffindors talked about being non-prejudiced and noble and courageous, the Slytherins hexed them back, then the Gryffindors started throwing curses...

It annoyed Ally to no end. As much as she liked the Gryffindor house, they were in no position to start preaching, especially when they shunned anyone in the Slytherin house. She didn't exactly think that the Slytherins were angels either; they were just as guilty as the Gryffindors. That possibly made her even madder. Just because they were in different houses didn't mean they had to be mortal enemies. I bet if they got past that, they could actually be friends...

"So you think he's evil..."

Sirius nodded his head vigorously.

"Because he's in Slytherin..."

"Exactly!" Sirius jumped, "You've got it! For a second there—I saw that Lily look on your face—well, it is Lily's face—I thought you were going to tell me I was being stupid!" he sighed in relief, "So you'll stay away from him right? You understand what I'm talking about?"

"Oh..." Ally pulled out a book from her book bag, "I understand."

WHACK.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WAS THAT FOR!"

WHACK.

Sirius backed away from Ally.

WHACK. She smacked him across the back of his head with her book again.

"I don't EVER want to hear you talk like that again!"

He looked at her incredulously with raised eyebrows; she sent him her most scary glare back and saw him sigh.

"Alright, okay...Sheesh! Sorry—didn't mean to offend you!"

He raised his hands in defeat and walked beside her in silence the rest of the way to Hagrid's hut. Had they been paying attention, they would have noticed two distant figures running up the stone.

Ally banged on the wooden door. She heard barking behind the door, then the loud, booming voice of Hagrid.

"Back—Fang, back."

A shaggy head peered around the corner of the door. Hagrid took one look at Ally and Sirius, then smiled and opened wide the door.

"'Ello there Mr. Black, and Miss Pierce!"

Ally and Sirius rushed in, stomped their shoes on the welcome mat to shake off any loose snow, and sat down next to the fire. Hagrid's large bloodhound, Fang, came lolling up to them, and wagged his tail when Sirius scratched behind his ears.

Ally looked around, never having been in Hagrid's hut before, and then turned back to the giant.

"You know who I am?" Ally asked.

"Course I do!" Hagrid said happily, while handing out tea cups. "Lily visited me earlier, with Mr. Lupin. I sent them to Dumbledore straight away, straight away."

"What! But—" Ally was at a loss for words.

Hagrid looked at her.

"But we were just there!" Ally burst out. "How long ago did you send them to Professor Dumbledore?'"

"Well, just 'bout a minute ago. "Yer want any cake?'

"No thank you, Hagrid!" Ally sprang from her seat, "We've got to go find them!" she pulled Sirius up and ran out onto the grounds, leaving Hagrid with a stupid expression on his face.

"Thank you for the tea!" Ally shouted back.

Hagrid grinned and went about tidying up his hut.

Lily and Remus were walking back from Dumbledore's office. After Dumbledore explained how Ally and Sirius had come to visit them earlier. It was rather humorous to walk into a conversation between Slughorn and Dumbledore.

"Just saying, so sorry, never really meant to take a sip."

"According to the crowd at Three Broomsticks, you took more than a sip."

Slughorn looked abashed and muttered silently.

"What was that?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement.
"The occasion seemed to call for a few drinks, never in a thousand years would I have dreamt of taking from your stocks Albus, but you know what it's like when your peers are pressuring you." he mumbled and shifted his large weight from foot to foot.

"Ah," Dumbledore said, smiling, and motioned for Ally and Remus to enter. "We have some guests.

Slughorn turned a beet red, from embarrassment or from anger, Lily couldn't tell. He retreated backwards and turned to leave the office.

"Oh, and Horace?" Dumbledore shouted out after him, "Please inform me the next time you plan on intercepting my Christmas mead and getting drunk."

Lily giggled at the memory of a shocked Slughorn. He really is a bit of a leech, isn't he? I had wondered where all the teachers were last Saturday... must have been partying.

"Laughing at Slughorn?" Remus said wisely.

"Well, you have to admit it was a bit satisfying to see him so flabbergasted."

"Yes," he said, grinning now, "I'll remember that forever."

Lily and Remus were walking further down into the castle, heading for the entrance. Imagine their shock when they heard that they had just missed Ally and Sirius while walking on the grounds.

"If we don't find them now, there's no reason to worry. We'll see them at dinner eventually, or we'll see them in the common room at night. I don't think too much damage has been—James?"

James was standing in the middle of the hall. Still in his Gryffindor quidditch robes, he had dried off slightly since being outside. Despite being wet down, his hair was sticking up at odd angles and was as messy as ever. Normally James had a confident look on his face, but today he traded it in for a humorously confused look. He was staring at the wall, trying to figure out exactly what Sirius had babbled to him before running off.

Lily was scowling at the sight of him. Oh, great, Potter; just what I need to top off the day. Remus shot her a pointed look and Lily forced down her bad attitude. That's right, Ally and James get along, I can't exactly start yelling at him for things he didn't do to me, he'll be even more confused than he looks now! She stopped scowling and scolded herself for being so childish.

"James?" Remus asked quietly.

James started and stared at them. Then he grinned.

"Hey," he sighed, "Am I glad to see you two!" he said cheerfully.

"What happened?" Lily spoke up, trying to act as Ally-like as possible. To her surprise he managed to complete his next sentence without any loves or darlings.

"Nothing much," Remus started to walk and Lily and James fell in next to him, "I ran into Lily and Sirius twice today, and both times they were acting extremely weird. Lily was looking for you." he said to Lily, "Wanted to talk to you about something important. I don't know what it was; they were really secretive about it."

Lily sighed in relief; He thinks I'm Ally, good.

"What happened the first time you saw them?"

"I don't really know..." he said, "First, I ran into Lily and she acted as if she was into me—"

Lily scoffed and James elbowed her.

"Don't even start, Pierce." he said jokingly, "Anyway, we ran into Sirius and he told me that we had quidditch practice and the captain wanted to talk to me, that's normally our code... turns out we didn't have practice."

"Of course you didn't!" Remus said, "It's snowing!"

"Yeah, I noticed." James replied sarcastically and flicked water onto him. "I thought Sirius was just sending me a message to meet him there. After that, I played around with the Quaffle for a while, waiting for him, he never came so I ran back in. When I got inside I ran into Lily and Sirius again. I guess they were off together... even though Lily had said she was going into the library, which means she lied. Why would she lie to me?"

"How do you know she didn't lie to you?" Remus said, "Suppose she did go to the library, then left."

"Possibly," he said and then continued, "They were just acting really weird, like they were hiding something. For a second there, I thought they had gone off to snog."

Lily snorted and smacked him across the head.

"Don't say that! I would never—"

"What Ally is trying to point out," Remus raised her eyebrows at her, "is that you shouldn't jump to conclusions, I'm sure Lily is perfectly innocent."

James rubbed his head and laughed while Lily glared at him.

"Relax, Al, I didn't mean to offend anyone."

"Yeah, sure you didn't." she said, mustering up all the Ally sarcasm within her.

He grinned and gave Lily a side hug. Lily blushed, (against her will, as she will say later to Remus) and James clapped Remus on the back.

"See you later in the common room, Moony!" he shouted while walking away, "And remember to find Lily!" he said as an after thought.

He disappeared around the corner and Lily and Remus continued walking.

"Did I just see you blush?" Remus inquired, grinning.

"No." Lily said stiffly and crossed her arms. "You did not." Lily flipped her hair to cover her red face.

"Sure." he said and rolled his eyes.

"You didn't."

"Next thing we know..."

"Remus!"

Sirius and Ally ran through Hogwarts halls, higher and higher up, heading toward the Headmaster's office.

"They better be there this time!" Ally panted, "This is getting irritating, missing them."

"I agree." Sirius said wholeheartedly and they continued the long climb. Not long after they reached the charms corridor, they ran into a now dry James.

"Hey guys!" he grinned at them and ruffled up his hair."Where're you going?"

"I need to find Ally." Ally said without hesitation. She looked imploringly at James, "Have you seen her?"

James will tell Lily anything. Hopefully he knows where they are.

"Yeah, I just passed her by, she was with Remus. They were heading down to the grounds, from the looks of it," he pointed down the hallway he had just come from, "You might want to hurry to find them, it's a big castle."

Ally and Sirius started down the hallway after shouting their thanks.

"I told them to look for you!" he yelled after them as they disappeared around the corner.

Remus and Lily were heading up the castle, after hearing from a stray Hufflepuff that Ally was recently seen climbing the stairs.

"This is getting ridiculous." Lily sighed, "We'll never find them."

As soon as she said that a black and red blur came raging down the stairs and nearly ran into them.

"Hey, watch it!" Remus shouted after them as Lily and he regained their footing.

Lily flipped her hair back and paused.

"Was that—?"

"Do you think—?"

Without thought they turned around and raced down the stairs.

"Ally!"

"Padfoot!"

Ally distinctly heard her name and turned around to be engulfed in a hug from Lily—er—her.

"Lily!" Ally shouted and returned the hug, "Where were you?"

"At Hagrid's!" she said, Ally recognized Remus behind her, he was talking to Sirius. "Then Dumbledore's, then we were heading down to the grounds, and then we headed back up after hearing from a Hufflepuff that they saw you near the astronomy tower."

"That's a lot of places! I take it... Dumbledore told you about sleeping it off."

"Yeah," Lily looked over at Remus talking to Sirius in hushed whispers.

"Come on," she pulled her over to the side of the hall.

Ally had to admit, it was a bit weird to be talking to her own self, a little awkward too. She had trouble not staring. It's like I have a twin, except, I don't look like her... that doesn't make sense. Oh well. Lily looked around, checking for listeners, and leaned in to whisper to Ally in an amused voice.

"You have to hear what we found out about Slughorn."

"What is it?" she whispered, catching on to her tone of voice.

"Well..." Lily told Ally about walking in on Dumbledore's and Slughorn's conversation.

"He did that!" Ally exclaimed, amused, "That's so funny!"

"It is not funny, it's disgusting," Lily crossed her arms, "He stole the Headmaster's mead and got drunk off of it, and in front of the entire teaching staff!"

"It's still funny," said Ally, giggling.

"So who did you run into?"

"Potter..."

Lily gasped.

"What did you do to him?"

"Hopefully not to much damage," Ally said sympathetically, and recounted her story to Lily.

When she finished Lily sighed and rolled her eyes.

"He'll never let me live that one down... you actually walked to the library with them?"

"Yeah," Ally winced, "I didn't know I was you at the time..."

"It's alright, but what about Severus? You mentioned him, too." Lily inquired.

"I only ran into him once, you have Thursday Dueling club... and..."

Ally screwed up her face in thought.

"He said something about a teacher being gone... Professor Ar... something."

"Arma, Professor Arma, he probably wants us to take over again, he does that."

Lily furrowed her brow and looked over at Remus and Sirius, who were laughing at something Remus had just said.

"You know, Sirius gave me the impression that he didn't like Severus much..."

"He doesn't'." Lily rolled her eyes and scowled, "It's just another little Slytherin and Gryffindor vendetta, ignore it, they'll grow up... one day."

"Hopefully,"

"Perhaps,"

"Probably not."

"No reason to be a pessimist."

"Sorry."

"It's all right," Lily replied, "Let's get out of here; go to the common room."

'Don't we have dinner?" Ally asked.

"Oh, yeah," Lily said, "Well... let's try to avoid talking to anyone. It might be disastrous."

They left the two Gryffindor boys in the hall without a word and headed for the great hall. Entering the hall Ally noticed nothing out of the ordinary. They sat in their normal seat, trying not to draw attention to themselves. Ally saw the Headmaster bent in conversation with the Slughorn. Slughorn looked to be apologizing and Ally had to shove a roll in her mouth to stifle her laughter.

"What is it?" Lily asked smiling.

Ally laughed and took the roll out of her mouth.

"Head table," she pointed.

Lily ducked her head after she looked and started to laugh. A few Hufflepuffs were looking at them strangely and they silenced themselves... with some difficulty.

"He needs to be taught a lesson..." Lily smiled.

"After break," Ally said, with realization dawning on her face, "We still need to figure Riddle out."

"After break, then..."

(A/N Sorry this came in soooo late. I went to go see a play my county was putting on, twas fun! Well, I'm going to go sleep now. Bye, and remember...

REVIEWING SAVES TREES!)