Lily and James were sneaking around the school after hours, James was finally showing Lily how to use the map after two days of incessant begging. They had settled in an empty classroom sitting against a wall on the floor, the flames in a jar that James had conjured the only source of light and Lily was nestled in between James's legs, her head nestled comfortably on his shoulder,

"So, I guess I passed the trustworthy test?" Lily snatched the blank piece of paper off him and turned it over amazed at how this blank piece of ratty parchment would become a map of the school.

"It's more of a formality. I would've shown you anyways."

Lily looked at the parchment. "So how does it work then?"

"Say 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good'."

"Seriously?" Lily asked, raising an eyebrow at the parchment.

"Don't judge. Say it and tap the map with your wand."

Lily sighed and pulled her wand out, she tapped the front and said, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Immediately markings appeared on the page, drawing themselves into words and lines and Lily read "Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP". James sat quietly watching as Lily took in the scope of the map. She opened it up and found little dots with names on them in various areas. Madam Pince, the dreaded librarian, was seen prowling the library. Professor McGonagall was walking in a corridor nearby and Professor Dumbledore was sitting in an empty Great Hall. Lily searched the map further and saw her and James's dots sitting in the empty classroom. Lily tried to take in every crevice of the map but it was ultimately impossible. The map had every secret passage way and hallway and stairwell. It had passageways Lily had never even seen before.

"I – this is incredible!"

"You like it?"

"James, this is magnificent! You could make copies and sell them! They'd make a fortune."

"I've already got a fortune love. Besides if everyone had them, Filch would ban them."

"When was the last time anyone listened to Filch?" but before James could answer she saw that seven passages led out of the school, "Where do those go?"

"Hogsmeade."

"Really?" Lily asked looking at the map again, "Well I already know that the Whomping Willow leads to that weird house."

"Shrieking Shack," James corrected.

"That was the Shrieking Shack?"

"Yep, Dumbledore set it up."

"But the rumours!"

"Dumbledore helps them along, I believe. One time I heard him telling Professor Nittles that evil ghosts who wanted to take revenge on people were put in the house and weren't allowed out because of an enchantment Dumbledore put on the house himself. Of course no ghost would ever go in the house now. See the trick was you had to trick them into the house in the first place. You can't exactly grab a ghost."

"So where does the screaming and shouting come from? Remus?" Lily asked horrified.

"Yeah, less so since we became animagi but yeah."

"Oh, poor Remus!" Lily gushed, trying to imagine how much pain Remus must suffer through if it could make a village of people believe in evil ghosts trapped in a shack. "He shouldn't have to go through that at all."

"I know," James agreed, "Have you had enough fun with the map now?"

"Why? Do you want a kiss?"

"Hmm, maybe."

"How do you close it?"

James tapped his own wand to the parchment and said, "Mischief managed." The writing vanished and Lily tucked the parchment into her robe. "Hey, come on," James laughed. "Give it back."

Lily stood up and edged away from James. "Make me," she challenged.

"This isn't going to end well for you," James warned, a hint of a smile on his lips and Lily laughed as he slowly walked towards her, his eyes sparkling from the prospect of the game. Lily edged back, through the tables, until she hit a wall. James cornered her in and pressed his lips to her mouth, his hands on either side of her head. His lips attempted to distract Lily as his hand slowly slid down her side and it would've worked if Lily hadn't been anticipating it. She slapped his hand away from her robe pocket.

"Okay," James sighed, "I really didn't want to resort to this." Lily looked at him confused until his fingers were tickling her stomach like crazy. Lily shouted and laughed and tried to push James away but it was no use. James was much stronger than Lily.

"What! Is going on in here?"

James immediately stopped tickling Lily and they straightened themselves up. Lily's smile faded as she realised who it was, a dim ache of resentment in her took over. Of course, Snape had to be the one on duty tonight. She noticed how his hooked nose was scrunched up, as though revolted by the sight of her.

"Severus," Lily said stiffening up.

"I see you've joined with the riff raff. Lowered your standards, I see."

Lily grabbed James's arm to stop him from doing anything stupid and then turned to Snape. "Well according to you, I don't have any standards because I'm a filthy, little mudblood."

"You know, I never believed you would actually get with Potter but I guess you didn't hate him as much as you said you did."

"I never said I hated him!" Lily defended as James went a little rigid. She tightened her grip on his arm, her thumb rubbing circles — a gesture Snape's eyes seemed attracted to. "I said he was arrogant and immature."

"Right," he said lowly. "My mistake. I think that's twenty points from Gryffindor for being out of bed after curfew and another fifteen because you are Head Boy and Girl and should know better."

"Right. Well, we'll best be off."

Lily tugged James past Snape and out of the unused classroom and only stopped walking when they were well away from Snape.

"Here's the map," Lily said giving it to James who took it wordlessly, putting it in his own pocket. "James?" she asked. He looked vacant and distant and Lily couldn't help but ask, "You okay?"

"You hated me?"

Lily understood all at once and it hurt that he'd actually believed that. Lily never truly hated people. Sometimes she disliked people and thought they acted irrationally but she could never hate someone.

"No, I didn't like your behaviour. Like how you used to curse Snape and tease people for no reason."
"But he said…"

"James, Snape was just trying to annoy you, get under your skin. I promise. Half the time I'd agree with Snape just to get him to shut up about how much he hated you. I was sick of hearing about it and it came to a point where I used to think he was over exaggerating and I'd despise you for being annoying. You are genuinely a good person. You saved Snape from Remus in fifth year. You became an animagus to help your friend. You help Peter with his Transfiguration homework every night. When we're on patrol you never dock points, just tell students to get to bed. You are an exceedingly good person and I love you. I don't care anymore about back then. I care about now and right now you are the most caring bloke. In fact, you're kind of a dork."

James was silent for a moment, looking at Lily's pleading face before saying gruffly, "I'm not a dork," and Lily laughed as the tension lifted.

"I love you," Lily murmured and she pressed her lips to his for a moment before saying they should head back to the tower in case Snape came again.

—

Professor Slughorn was droning on about Polyjuice Potion and it sounded about as difficult to make as you'd expect a potion that can transform you into another person to be. Luckily, it was a group project but unluckily Michael Putley was assigned with their group of four when all the other groups had filled.

No one seemed to want to start the potion, afraid of screwing up and it was times like this that Ella missed Lily because had they not been fighting with Lily, Lily would have been in their group and she would've taken charge of the potion.

"I'll, er, go get the ingredients," Marlene offered, hopping off her stool and disappearing in the storage closet.

Putley was the next to move, placing a pewter cauldron onto the burner and setting a fire to the correct temperature underneath.

Ella avoided looking at him, pretending to read over the instructions once more in her textbook. She couldn't fathom why he was so pissy at her for, the way she saw it, she saved him from all of her baggage. So she'd let him kiss her and then turned him down, who cared? It wasn't like she'd pressed him up against a wall and accosted him. It was a peck on the lips not a huge romantic gesture or, to be crass, their virtues.

Marlene came back with a bunch of ingredients and Ella was grateful when Marlene shoved the knot grass at Ella and asked her to make sure the two bundles had the precise amount of grass in them. Ella meticulously counted each piece of grass in the bundles, double and even triple checking just so she could avoid talking. Marlene added the three measures of fluxweed (which was apparently plucked on a full moon, Ella could not tell you why that was important) and then added the two bundles of knotgrass. She let Alice stir it four times in a clockwise direction and wave her wand over it.

"And now we wait for eighty minutes," Alice announced, a small frown on her face. "Well this got dull very quickly."

As if hearing Alice's complaint, Slughorn said, "Whilst you wait for your potions to brew, you may start your essay on the properies of Polyjuice Potion. Remember to include the importance of the property and why the polyjuice potion requires it. Also add in advantages of why it is better to prepare ingredients yourselves rather than have them store bought. Yes, Miss Evans?"

Ella turned. "Aren't we using store bought ingredients now sir?"

"Right you are, my girl! But as we are pressed for time during the school year, we have to speed up the process a little by using store prepared ingredients. However, professional brewers recommend — as does your textbook — to prepare the ingredients on your own."

The class returned back to their potions, the entire class now waiting for the potion to brew. Ella pulled out a piece of parchment and started making notes from the textbook that would help her with her essay.

"No, Peter don't-"

A small explosion sounded — not uncommon for the potions classroom — and when Ella looked over Lily was fanning her hand over her eyes where thick, lumpy potion was splattered across her face and no doubt in her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Lily!" Peter cried.

Professor Slughorn sent Lily to the Hospital Wing with Potter as an escort and everyone else turned back to their work.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Adaline asked.

Ella shrugged. "I'm sure Pomfrey will fix her up."

"I thought you guys hated Evans now," Putley said.

"We're fighting, doesn't mean we hate her," Ella snapped.

"Pretty big fight — I heard you kicked her out of her own dorm."

"No one asked for your opinion, Putley."

"'Course, Dearborn."

Ella rolled her eyes and Marlene jumped in with a question about the potion to avert everyone's attention.

—

James was quite sour towards a very apologetic Peter for the next hour or so and he was quite unfocused for the rest of Potions. He couldn't help but keep thinking about Lily so he tried to occupy his mind by writing notes on the potion they were making. It worked to an extent.

"She'll be fine," Sirius said for the hundredth time.

"I know," James said, "But when I left her she said she couldn't see anything. All black."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Peter blustered again and James sick of hearing the apology snapped, "Peter, if you apologise one more time, I'll use a silencing charm on you. I know you didn't mean to and so does Lily. She'll be fine."

"Then why are you so worried for?" Peter asked and James sighed.

"I don't know, Wormtail. I just am."

"It's because James is a lovesick puppy who can't stand to be separated from his one true love."

Remus tried not to laugh but he failed and James stared at them unamused.

"Okay and that is the end of the lesson," Professor Slughorn announced. "Now, I remind you that one of your group members will need to come down to add an ingredient before next lesson. I will not keep track of this. This is up to you. You may store your cauldron in the storeroom," he said flicking a door on the right side of the room open with his wand, "And have fun at lunch."

James went to leave immediately but Snape was blocking the exit way.

"Can you move?" James asked hurriedly.

"Manners!" Snape snarled.

"Are you always as pretentious as a pure blood wrench?" James spat.

"You wouldn't be in a hurry if your stupid, fat friend could read instructions right!"

James pulled out his wand, "Apologise!" he demanded. Snape pulled out his wand too and aimed it between James's eyes and without hesitating muttered, "Sectumsempra."

James blocked it with his mind immediately and his face went white. Sectumsempra! He, the spell, it was Snape's. Snape attacked her.

"Until you learn to perform spells non-verbally I will always be one step ahead of you! Now get out of my way you snivelling idiot!"

James bolted all the way to the hospital wing and by the time he got there he was breathless. All that was whirling through James's mind was that Snape attacked her. He wanted to kill him. Snape did it. It wasn't a faceless person anymore. It was Snape.

"Who's there?" Lily said looking blankly into space.

"Lily, it's me James."

"Oh," she said leaning back into the pillows. "Are you okay?"

"I, um, am fine. Still can't see?"

"Madam Pomfrey gave me a potion to drink about fifteen minutes ago. Nothing's changed yet though. She said the potion takes twenty four hours to be completely done. So I'm staying over night."

James sat on the bed next to her and wrapped his arm around her holding her close because he needed it, to remind himself that Snape didn't succeed, to calm him down.

"I'll sneak out to visit you."

"Really?" Lily asked hopefully. James kissed her forehead and nodded. "Are you sure you're okay?"

James smiled even though she couldn't see it. Lily Evans always so intuitive just when you don't want her to be.

"I just, it sucks that you're gonna be stuck in here until tomorrow."

James didn't know why he couldn't tell her. He just couldn't. Perhaps he felt as though if he told her she'd become angry and upset and he didn't want to upset her. Besides she was blind, it's not like she could go up to Snape and hex him or something.

"You're lying. Your heart is beating a mile," Lily murmured. "Tell me what's wrong."

"It, it's Snape-"

"James, I told you not to worry about what he said. Are you still upset over that?"

"No-"

"Then what? Did he say something else to you?"

"I, he tried to curse me."

"You're not hurt are you?" Lily said worriedly.

"Can you let me finish?" James asked.

"Fine," Lily skulked.

"He cursed me."

"We've already established that."

"Lily," he warned.

"Sorry."

"So he cursed me and the spell. It was, 'sectumsempra'."

"That sounds, oh!" she said clapping a hand to her mouth. "But it can't be! You would've recognised him."

"He was wearing a mask, Lily."

"But it just can't be. I would've recognised his voice."

"Lily, no book in the library has that spell in it. Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore have never heard of the spell. It makes sense. Snape made it. Snape created the spell and he used it on muggle-borns with the intent to kill."

"But it just can't be him, James, it can't!"

"Why?"

"Because we were friends," she said and James felt something wet on his shirt and realised Lily had started crying. He hugged her closer, tighter and kissed her forehead.

"I know, Lily. I didn't want to upset you," James murmured.

"You didn't. He did."

"I love you, Marie."

"I love you, Jems."

"Jems?"

Lily shrugged, "My nickname for you. Only fair I get to call you something no one else does."

James smiled and kissed her forehead again. "I missed you in class."

"You didn't ruin the Potion did you?"

"No, I rather think Peter accomplished that. Remus fixed it up, I think and he went after our free period to add the bicorn."

"Good, good," Lily said with a small nod of approval. "I'm starving."

—

Adaline was startled to see Lily waiting for her outside the Arithmancy classroom on Wednesday afternoon. Adaline, who'd been warming up to the idea of making up with Lily for a while now, stopped whilst Marlene went on ahead without her.

"Lily," Adaline acknowledged. It was hard to know how she should be when she hadn't talked to Lily in so long.

"I need your help," Lily admitted. "I need you to come with me to talk to Severus."

Whatever Adaline had been expecting this had not been it. "Snape? Why?"

Lily jumped into a brief explanation on how James thought Snape was the one attacking muggle-borns in the school because he knew about the spell that Lily heard her attacker use. "I don't want to go on my own, but I will if I have to."

"All right," Adaline agreed. Maybe this was it, how they could put their pride aside and become friends again. "Let's go."

"He won't talk to me, not now that I've started … I have to ambush him."

Adaline snorted. "How do you plan to do that?" Snape was hardly ever alone, his posse of Death Eater friends seemed to be with him all the time nowadays.

"I have a plan," Lily assured her. "Just keep an eye out for me when I leave dinner tonight."

"I don't know, Lily," Adaline sighed. "Last week Mulciber hexed a fifth year so bad they were in the Hospital Wing for three days."

"Please, Della," Lily begged.

Adaline sighed again and nodded. "Oh, all right but if we get caught, I swear Lily, I'll kill you."

"If we get caught, James will kill me," she shuddered.

"You mean James doesn't know?"

A guilty look passed her face. "No, so our secret, yeah?"

"Our secret," Adaline repeated and Lily grinned.

"Thank you, Della."

Adaline smiled this time. She was glad that Lily came to her with this and happy that Lily knew she could count on Adaline to be there for her.

"I better catch up with Marly, but I'll see you later yeah?"

Lily nodded. "I'll see you later." She walked away and Thomas walked up to her, pecking her lips and sliding his hand in hers.

"Did my eyes deceive me or were you talking to Evans?"

"Yeah, she wants me to help her with something," Adaline told him.

"Oh?"

"Yeah," Adaline said and then she wondered if he minded that she couldn't tell him. "She asked me not to tell anyone."

Thomas nodded. "Oh," he said again, this time he sounded disappointed.

"It's a one time thing," she assured him. "And it's nothing really."

Thomas shrugged now. "If you say so. Wanna have a one on one Quidditch match?"

Adaline grinned, "Meet you in the entrance hall in fifteen?"

"Perfect," he agreed.

"First one there starts with the quaffle!" Adaline shouted as she ran down the corridor, Thomas running after her.

—

Lily found it odd not to tell James something. She felt dirty somehow as though she were doing something terrible. But she wasn't. Not really. She just wanted to talk to an old friend who her current boyfriend was archenemies with. It wasn't that bad. Not really. If anything Lily found out she was great at hiding things, James did not suspect a thing. No one did.

"Lily," James said that afternoon as they lay down under a holly tree. Lily was sitting up against the tree and James's head rested in her lap, "If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?"

"Travel, I guess," Lily said stroking his hair. "But with the war going on I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"What do you think happens when we die?"

Lily collected her thoughts for a moment before answering, "I think the last enemy that will be destroyed is death."

James looked up at her and asked, "That's a bit Death Eater like."

"No, not as in living forever, I mean as in living on after death. I believe there's life after death."

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."

Lily got chills when James said that and she bent down to kiss his lips, "You know, it's a fairly cold afternoon and we're sitting here talking about death when I'd rather be doing stuff to warm us up…"

"Race you to the dorm?" James asked and Lily laughed and they helped each other up before sprinting to the dorm where no clothes were necessary.

Later that night Lily and James were eating dinner in the Great Hall and something extraordinary happened. Adaline, all straight backed and a smile on her face, sat next to Lily and started asking questions about how James and Lily got together. Lily thought she might be pretending and wasn't eager to share a lot of information at first but James went about joking and charming her, they were all laughing within minutes.

Lily smiled from sheer happiness. For once, James was hanging out with her friend. Not that it was James's fault, it was theirs and Lily's, she had to admit. They all had the stubborn streak. But Lily was glad to finally talk to Adaline again after so many weeks. Lily found out that Adaline's parents went to the United States and that her brother sent her non-stop letters about his latest trip to Japan.

When the conversation had died out a little, Adaline excused herself from the table and Lily pecked James's kiss and ran after her.

"Adaline!" she called out and without warning Lily ran up to her and hugged her, maybe a little too tightly.

"Lily, can't breathe."

Lily released her and said, "Right."

"I missed you, too."

"You've no idea. I miss everyone so much. I miss being part of a group." They linked arms and started leading Adaline to the Entrance Courtyard where they'd be able to keep an eye out for Snape.

"You've gained status as an honorary Marauder."

"Honorary?" Lily asked raising an eyebrow as they sat on the edge of a fountain.
"Well, at least temporary."

"Do they still hate me?" Lily whispered.

"Oh, they don't hate you, Lily. They're just too stubborn to realise that you might've had a good reason for shutting them out those few weeks and once Marlene has a power speech about how we shouldn't stand for it…"

"She's such a hot head," Lily groaned.

"Can you tell me why…?"

"It's a long story."

"I feel like it has something to do with why James isn't being accused of murder anymore…" she hinted and Lily laughed and told her the whole story.

"You, you went in his head? You performed the memory surfing spell?"

"Did a pretty damn good job too. I was so scared I was going to cork his brain and the only people I could talk to it about were James and his friends because they were-"

"The only ones who knew."

"Yep."

"And that's why you were being distant. You had to practice and they helped you."

"Yep."

"And then you and James fell in love." Lily blushed. "Oh, you don't have to be embarrassed the whole school was buzzing when you two finally got together."

"Really?"

"You must've been in your love bubble. To distracted by him to notice. Marlene was quite annoyed at the hot topic gossip you'd managed to spruce up."

"How's, how is everyone?"

"Ella's worried about the NEWTs. It's like a whole new Ella. She's always got her nose in a book. Alice makes one of us duel with her every night so she can get better at it. And Marlene keeps reading books about healing from the library and tries to mend everything that happens to us. It's quite annoying."

"Aren't they going to get mad that you're talking to me?"

Adaline shook her head, "Alice asks about you all the time and Marlene pretends not to listen but she's listening and Ella, Ella just casually brings you up all the time. 'I wonder what we'd be doing if Lily was here' or 'I miss Lily, it's weird having a dorm of only four people'."

"Tell them that I miss them?" Lily asked and Adaline nodded. "Thank you, Adaline, for giving me a chance to explain. For not completely shutting me out."

"I've missed you."

Lily nodded and silence fell on them until Adaline asked, "So, Potter, is he a good kisser?" and Lily burst out laughing.

"Better than that ice cream lover," Lily teased and Adaline laughed. "So any new flames for Adaline Bennett?"

She blushed and Lily slapped her arm playfully and asked "Who?"

"Thomas and I are … official," Adaline blushed and Lily's mouth dropped.

"Merlin, Della, I can't even remember the last time you had a boyfriend."

"I don't know, it just sort of happened," she shrugged.

"We'll have to go on a double date soon," Lily mused and Adaline laughed.

"I think Potter would eat him alive."

"James isn't so bad," Lily defended with a blush in her cheeks.

"So you two finally happened."

"Yeah, I guess we did."

Adaline sat up straight, "Snape's leaving the hall."

"Let's go!"

Adaline and Lily followed Snape at a generous distance until they got him in a corridor that was empty. Adaline lifted her wand and suddenly the end of the corridor was blocked by vines so thick you'd think there was a forest behind them. Snape whipped around, wand in hand and Lily shouted, "Expelliarmus!" Snape's wand flew across the room and Lily caught it with ease.

"Hello Severus."

"What do you want?"

"I just want to ask you something."

"What?"

"Was it you that night in the Astronomy Tower? Did you try to kill me?"

Snape's eyes widen. "No! How could you think that? Just because I've chosen a side doesn't mean I would hurt you!"

"Because we use to be friends, right? But any other muggle-born is okay for you to kill or hurt. I'm sorry I find that hard to believe. The curse you hit James with was the same curse used on me. Dumbledore and McGonagall have never heard of the spell, which means someone created it and I remember you use to dabble around in that sort of thing! You use to read so many books on spell making."

"I didn't try to kill you, Lily and, and I'm not the only one who knows about that spell! I wrote it in my Potions textbook last year and it got stolen!"

"I find that hard to believe, Snape. You come near me or lay a wand on James again, I'll hex you so bad you'll need to go to St Mungo's … and you aren't to mention a word of this to James or else I'll put you on patrol every second night for a month."

Lily threw Snape's wand back at him, he fumbled but managed to catch it as Lily walked away and Adaline removed the vines from the end of the hallway.

As Lily and Adaline walked back to the Gryffindor common room they noticed the hallways and corridors were peculiarly quiet. Dinner had just finished there should still be people wandering around.

"Something's wrong," Lily murmured. She grabbed Adaline's hand and they sprinted back to the common room.

As soon as they climbed through the portrait hole James was snatching Lily up in a hug.

"James! What's wrong?"

"There's been another attack and you left and I thought it might be you again. I was so worried! Where were you?"

"Another attack?" Lily asked. "When?"

"We heard about it a few minutes after you left. India Paris found someone dead in the Boat Houses." Lily's heart sank a little. It wasn't Snape who was behind the attacks. Unless he wasn't working alone. I'm not the only one who knows about the spell. The words echoed.

"The person died?" Adaline asked appalled.

"This is bad," Lily stated with tears in her eyes. James hugged Lily again and kissed her temple.

"I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine," Lily promised. Adaline went off to find the girls and Lily and James went to the couches by the window where the rest of the Marauders were sitting.

"Glad to see you're alive, Lils," Sirius commented and Lily laughed. James stiffened and glared at Sirius. "Oh lighten up, just trying to lighten the mood."

"Think of a better joke," James snapped and then, "Like the dismal state of your hair."

"Better than yours," Sirius retorted.

The boys banter was disrupted by a sudden tapping on the window. The owl tapping the window was Beedle, Lily's owl and in that moment a gripping fear took over Lily's body.

James went over to the window and let Beedle in who immediately perched itself on Lily's shoulder. Lily's shaking hand grabbed the letter and knew immediately that it was from her parents. More specifically her mum's neat handwriting was sprawled across the page. Lily knew what the letter would say if she opened it. Lily opened the envelope, slipping her finger under the seal and pulled the letter out.

What Lily read confirmed her suspicions. She handed the letter to James and ran up to the dormitory. Strangely she was calm. She started packing her clothes into her trunk and she was half way finished when James knocked on the door and walked in.

"Lily?"

"I, uh, have to go talk to McGonagall to let her know I'll be going home for a week."

"Lily, slow down. You don't have to pack right now," he said grabbing her hand as she attempted to shove school books in her trunk. "Besides that's Peter's." James set Peter's textbook on the bedside table.

James and Lily sunk on the bed together, sitting side by side. "We'll go talk to McGonagall and she'll organise for the train to come tomorrow morning. You'll be home by nightfall."

"Will you come with me?" Lily asked. "I don't think I can do this on my own."

"Of course," James agreed and kissed Lily's cheek. "Whatever you need, love."

"He's not dead yet. Just hospitalised but they say he's only got a few days left … James, my dad's going to die."

Lily finally broke down crying and James comforted her for the rest of the night.

—

Lily had finally fallen asleep and they still hadn't spoken with McGonagall yet about leaving Hogwarts for a week. James slid off the bed and threw a blanket over Lily before heading down to the common room. He couldn't even begin to imagine how she felt but James vowed to do whatever he could to make it easier for her though nothing about this would be easier.

"How is she?" Remus asked.

"She's sleeping. She wants to go home tomorrow so I'm going to go talk to McGonagall now. I don't think she'll wake but just keep an eye on her."

"Of course," Sirius promised, clapping James on the shoulder.

"Do you want us to pack your trunks?" Peter asked.

"That'd be great," James agreed, "Don't worry too much on school stuff, just clothes."

James left the common room and went straight to Professor McGonagall's office. She was in there filling out paper work.

"Potter, is that you?"

James walked into her office and sat on the chair opposite her desk.

"Professor, sorry, I know we aren't supposed to be out of bed but it's Lily. She's just received news from her mother. Her father is fatally ill and he's in the hospital. Their healers say he's only got a few days left. We were hoping we could be excused from school to go back to her home for a week."

Professor McGonagall nodded, "Take two weeks, she'll need it. You'll be accompanying her?"

James nodded. "Very well then, the train will be at the station at ten a.m. Professor Ollivander will escort you there. Make sure your friends owl you any school work that you will miss so you don't fall too far behind."

"Of course. Thank you, Professor."

"Not to worry Potter. Now get back to your dormitory and stay there."

"Professor, may I ask who was killed?"

"It was Charlotte Blake. Second year in Hufflepuff. Don't spread the news too far Potter."

James nodded and walked back to the dormitory. Lily was still fast asleep and the boys had packed Lily's and his things away. James slid into bed but couldn't fall asleep. He remembered a simpler time where magic was everything good and wondrous. It could fix anything but now it had been proven that magic could do just as much bad as good and it could not in fact fix everything.

—

James woke Lily up at eight thirty and they went down to the Great Hall to have breakfast. James noticed that Lily was only nibbling at her food.

"We didn't talk to McGonagall last night," Lily stated numbly.

"I went when you fell asleep. Professor Ollivander is escorting us to the station at a quarter to ten. We're going to have the whole train to ourselves."

Under normal circumstances James would love the idea of being alone with Lily on a train for several hours but these were not normal circumstances and James was not use to seeing Lily so heartbroken.

"James," Lily said, "Are you sure you want to come? I mean, you do realise that you'll have to meet my parents and my sister."

"Nothing would make me happier than to meet your family," James assured her, kissing her hand. Lily managed a weak smile but James knew not to take it personally.

"We have to go pack," Lily started but James shook his head and said, "The boys packed for us whilst I spoke to McGonagall. Everything's been taken care of. We're spending two weeks at your place."

"Two?"

"McGonagall insisted."

"I should get her something to thank her."

James noticed that Lily had only eaten half her toast. "Aren't you going to finish it?" He asked pointing to her plate. Lily grabbed the toast and finished eating.

"What about our school work? Two weeks is a long time to be away," Lily said with a slight frown.

"The boys will send us any homework and we're both of age so we can practice spells at your place."

"Petunia is not going to like that idea."

"Your sister is a hag," James retorted. "It's your house, too. If you want to do magic you can."

Lily smiled and then frowned. Her dad was dying. "Let's go to the common room. I want to see what the boys packed for us."

Since they were now staying for two weeks, Lily added their textbooks into their trunks, much to James' dismay. To pass the time Lily and James played Exploding Snap in the common room and at ten thirty, Lily and James begun their trek, levitating their trunks in front of them, to the Entrance Hall. Professor Ollivander was waiting by the large wooden doors that led to the front courtyard.

"Evans, Potter," she greeted, "Just waiting for three more."

"Hi," Lily said, "Who else are we waiting for?"

"The Blake's are heading home today as well."

James nodded knowingly but Lily looked clueless so James quickly explained that it was the youngest Blake sibling who was killed the previous night.

"That's horrible!" Lily said outraged, in her grief she'd forgotten about the latest attack. "That poor family."

James agreed as they saw three very stony faced students walk towards them, the largest one levitating all three trunks. The Blake's were well talked about in Hogwarts because all four siblings were muggle-born and quite talented at that. The three boys were all on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. It was quite rare. The three boys were wearing black muggle clothes and wore their school robes open. All three had bloodshot, puffy eyes.

Lily nudged James to stop staring as Professor Ollivander led the five of them out of the school grounds. They all managed to squish onto one carriage and they were at the station with five minutes to spare. Ollivander quickly levitated all the luggage onto the train and bid farewell.

The Blake's were quiet and James didn't know what to say to them. He was grateful when Lily slid open a door to an empty compartment and said they should sit in there.

James and Lily settled themselves for the ride as the train started moving towards London. James sat by the window and Lily sat next to him leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Does your mum know about me yet?"

"Yeah, I told her I'm dating the arrogant toerag who actually isn't an arrogant toerag at all."

James smiled and nudged her. "What'd you say about me?"

"I told her that your nice, that you saved my life, that you gave me one of the first best dates ever and that you're dorky."

"I'm not a dork!"

"Of course not," Lily mused. "My sister is going to hate you."

James was a little offended and asked, "Why?"
"She hates magic. She calls Hogwarts a circus – a muggle festival where unusual people perform tricks," Lily explained.

"Look if she becomes unbearable I'll conjure up a horse to follow her around."

"James!"

"Fine, fine. I'll behave."

"Promise me, no magic when you're around Petunia."

"Do I have to?"

"James!"

"Fine. No magic around Petunia."

"Thank you."

"What's your mum's favourite flower?"

"Take a guess," Lily suggested.

"Lillies?"

"No actually. Her favourite flower would be sunflowers. Why?"

"Just asking."

"I'm hungry."

James digs into his robe pocket and unwraps two sandwiches. "I got them from the kitchens. Thought we might get hungry and doubted the Trolley Lady would be coming today."

"You've just thought of everything today, haven't you?"

"You think us Marauders would get away with half of the things we do if I didn't think of everything?"

Lily grabbed a sandwich and said, "I guess not."

Author's Note:

Hi Everyone, sorry for the late update but as I'm reading through my old chapters, there's a lot of things I want to change and I do have exams at the moment :/

Thanks for reading! Fav/Follow/Review! All is appreciated!

-Natalie xx