The sunlight splintered through the window, creeping onto the floor of the girls dormitory and forcing itself into every nook and cranny, so that try as she might Lily could not fall back asleep. Grumbling about the possibility of murdering the sun she pushed back the covers, and padded into the bathroom. Upon closing the door and switching on the light (because of course the sun stayed only on her bed, not where she actually needed it), Lily came upon a crouched person, who jumped and squeaked at her presence. 'Mary?' she tried to hide her amusement as Mary, blushing, stood up straight and smoothed out the Daily Prophet of the day before. The one Dorcas didn't want her to read. 'Everything ok?' Shrugging, Mary showed her the headline. 'TWO MUGGLEBORN AURORS VANISH INTO THIN AIR' and Lily's stomach dropped. Taking a seat on the sink, she turned to Mary, the only other muggleborn part from Leila in their dorm. 'What happened?' In a quiet controlled voice, Mary detailed the events of the last few days, how this was just a few of the vast amounts of aurors who had disappeared. When she was finished, Lily was stunned into silence, and berated herself for dropping off the radar for the summer. As if reading her thoughts, Mary chewed her lip and admitted, 'I would rather have just not seen anything this summer, just to have one last summer that was carefree. Not full of,' she brandished the newspaper, 'This.' Lily traced patterns on her leg with her finger, trying and failing not to think of Severus, or of what happened to Mary, judging by Mary's stiff demeanour, she was remembering too what happened that night. Reaching out with her hand Lily wanted to reassure her, say anything really when the door opened again and Dorcas walked through. Quick as a flash, the prophet vanished and Lily, who had long known about Dorcas' worries about Mary reading the prophet too much and scaring herself, quickly went to shower.

After pouring them both orange juice, Marlene remarked, 'You were in the bathroom a long time, something bothering you?' Taking a sip Lily shook her head,

'Mary was reading the prophet, she was showing me.' Stifling a smile at the ridiculousness of Mary reading in secret in the bathroom, Marlen's tone was coloured with worry, 'Dorcas needs to face that she is dating a muggleborn. Her protecting Mary isn't going to make the problem go away.'

'She's scared though, sometimes I feel more scared than Mary.' Sighing, Marlene picked at her eggs, glancing over at the Ravenclaw table. Realisation crushed through Lily, 'I'm so sorry! I didn't even ask how yesterday went.' Looking up at her Marlene waved the apology away, then leaning in murmured, 'It didn't work.' Lily frowned,

'What do you mean, didn't work?'

' I was going to, and then when we sat down he started saying how happy he was to see me again, and then he gave me a present. He said he'd spent the whole summer going in and out of shops until he finally found me red liquorice wands, because they don't sell them here. How could I break up with him after that?' To emphasise the end of her despairing speech, Marlene let her head drop onto the table with a groan. Patting her hand sympathetically, Lily tried to shed some positive light onto the situation, 'I mean, it's not like you have to stay with him forever just because he got you a gift. This might even give you time to think about how you want to do it.'

'I'm not planning a bloody date Lils, I'm planning how to break his heart.'

'Well another option is to snog one of his friends and get him to do it for you.' The rapidity at which Marlene lifted her head from the table made Lily hasten to add, 'That was a JOKE.' Marlene huffed and stuck her tongue out, then turned red and retracted it at the figure who was walking towards them. Benjy Fenwick, with his easy smile and neat hair offered Lily a polite greeting, before turning to Marlene, 'Hey, walk you to class?' Biting her lip, Marlene agreed and with a meaningful squeeze of Lily's hand, left her at the table.

Not finished with her food yet and with no sign of the other seventh year girls, Lily summoned a book so that she could not eat breakfast completely on her own. Pride and Prejudice came flying to her, and she eagerly opened the well thumbed pages to where she had last left off. She was reading about Mr Darcy's slighting of Elizabeth's looks when black hair and an undone tie sat before her. 'Hullo dear.' Sirius Black. Snapping the book shut Lily all but threw it under the table, the cover an unfortunate image of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy in a passionate embrace. Not seeming to notice, Sirius leaned over and stole some of her bacon before she could stab him with her fork. Staring at the table, where a few moments his hand had been Siruius protested, 'Oi, I'm not Prongs. Please refrain from embedding such sharp pointed objects into my beautiful hand.'

'Keep your fingers off my food then,' Lily retorted and Sirius massaged his hand (though she hadn't even come close to touching it). 'Sharing is caring love, I was showing you the depth of our connection.' Lily snorted at that, to which Sirius responded with a gasp, causing three fifth years to look up and stare at him. Lily smiled reassuringly whilst Sirius flipped them off. Snatching his hand down Lily let out a small laugh, 'Don't be rude to them, they obviously like you.'

'Who can blame them?' Rolling her eyes Lily was about to comment before grinning, he beat her to it, 'Except you of course.' Leaning over he fondly booped her nose, ignoring her 'hey!'.

At that moment, Potter and Peter showed up, and noting their presence, Sirius whispered, 'Bye Lilikins.' As he got up from the bench and walked over to where his mates were, he added over his shoulder, 'Enjoy your Edwardian naughty book!' Lily buried her face in shame.

Herbology was the first class of the year, and Professor Gnargle started off by explaining about this being her last year, as she was going on an expedition to discover a whole new species of- Marlene dropped a plant pot on her foot by accident and Lily didn't hear the rest. After stretching out her toes and shooting a baleful glare at her friend, who just sheepishly grinned, Lily was busy trying to extract samples from the venomous tentacula. Marlene was helping, and by helping that meant she was more than happy to sit and write down the samples and leave Lily to do all the handling of the dangerous plant. Under normal circumstances, Lily would have minded, however she enjoyed the plant and the challenge of it, and it gave her time to stop thinking about the incident that happened over the summer, as a certain someone was always around to make sure she could never forget it. So lost in her task was Lily that it wasn't until a sharp burst of laughter rang out that she turned around, and even noticed what the Marauders had been doing at all. Marlene was staring at them, a gleam of amusement evident in her eye whilst Professor Gnargle tried and failed to look outraged. Remus was seated at his workspace, hiding a grin in his notes as Sirius and Potter charmed the spikes of the tentacula to sway to the beat of a tune they were humming. Potter, enjoying the show, waved his other arm like a conductor, and moved this way and that, turning around to grin. Rolling her eyes Lily caught sight of Mary, who was leaning on Dorcas' shoulder and laughing, and a soft glow lit in her heart. It was such a contrast to the somber and serious Mary of this morning, that she had to hide a smile herself; that is until the spikes came a little too close to Severus Snape, and one pierced through the piece of parchment he was scribbling on. All the warmth in Lily brittled and froze; it didn't matter how much they seemed to grow, they never changed. With this satisfying thought in her mind, (satisfying at least because it counteracted the scary revelation of the incident), Lily stripped off her gloves, finished with the experiment, and dropped beside Marlene. As she leaned over to peer at the notes they had so far, Marlene whispered, 'It was like that all summer.' Turning her head to see her fond gaze, Lily asked, 'Like what all summer?' Marlene McKinnon had been friends with the Potters since before she was born, such close friends in fact, that every summer her family and Potter's went to the summer cottage they collectively owned and spent the whole of the summer there. Marlene had grown up tottering after Potter, had learnt how to fly a broomstick after stealing Potter's stuffed pygmy puff and needing to run from him. There was little about him that she didn't know, and littler still that he would refuse to tell her should she ask. This summer had been no exception, however while Marlene's letters were usually full of Potter and Black's (who had been part of the holidays since their third year) capers, this year she had strangely refrained from mentioning his name. Instead she focused on the beaches and museums and her personal problems with the cute boy who kept winking at her; so it was with some curiosity that Lily listened to Marlene, finally opening up about them over the summer. Of course, Lily didn't care what they had been up to, she didn't care about any of them, how could she, when they were so immature and irritating? Still they were always amusing, and she never turned down a chance for amusement.

Marlene adjusted her goggles, 'They were getting into scrapes an excess amount, almost as if they were compensating for something.' Lily raised her eyebrows, 'I think,' here Marlene halted, before venturing carefully forward into what she was about to say, 'I think that they're afraid.' Frowning, Lily turned to look at them; Potter had made a few spikes dance a jig on Remus' arm, who finally laughed and swatted them away. Upon meeting his eye Lily flushed, remembering the events of the night before. Potter's smile slipped for a second, seemingly reminiscing as well. However he soon recovered himself, never one to hold a grudge, and offered her a nod and a very kind smile. Raising her eyes to the ceiling Lily smirked at his antics, to which Potter shrugged, and inclined his head in a small bow. Sirius nudged his shoulder and whispered something in his ear, and Potter responded with a maleficent grin. They both caused the spikes to converge in a swirling mass, raising the hairs on Lily's head. Then as one, they brought their wands down in shower of sparks and the spikes spelled out 'Happy Return to Hogwarts' before splitting apart, and floating neatly into the sample tubes, ready for inspection. The whole greenhouse erupted in applause and Lily was about to as well, albeit grudgingly, before black eyes invaded her green ones. Dropping her hands she lifted her chin, ignoring the churning darkness in her stomach, and turned back to her table, missing the way Potter's eyes narrowed at Severus Snape, unforgiving.

Filing out of herbology, Marlene grabbed Lily's arm and merrily tugged her along, until she reached a halt at the end of the greenhouse. 'Pants, I've forgotten my textbook.' Lily shot her a look, 'We'll be late for Charms.'

'Just wait for five seconds, I'll be right back.' Marlene didn't even need to wheedle, she knew Lily would wait for her despite her grumbling. As she skipped back, Lily leaned her head against a tree, and gazed at the scenery in front of her. Hogwarts was turning golden, lazily hovering between the greens of summer and the yellows, oranges and reds of autumn. A cool breeze playfully tugged the ends of her hair as the sun blinked and cast the world in a sedated hue. For a moment Lily just stayed there and let the world wash over her, her eyes tracing the arch a swallow made in the air. The inky black of the wings caused Lily's mind to wander, and two bespectacled hazel eyes knocked on her conscious. So generous and at peace was she feeling with the world, that she felt it time to unpack last summer, and what it meant for her now. What had changed as soon as James Potter had - 'Lily.' Disgust shrivelled the thought into a hardened knot, hidden away again in the depths of her mind. Swivelling to face the intruder Lily sighed a weary sigh. 'Why do you keep doing this? You know I have nothing to say to you.'

'This is urgent Lily.' His tone was clipped and low, his eyes greedily devouring her face until she set her jaw, ill at ease. 'What's so urgent then?' Swallowing heavily, Severus' eyes darted left and right before landing on her again, and with a hand carefully placed on his wand (which only heightened the tension in Lily's shoulders) he whispered, 'You need to be careful.' Jerking back Lily rolled her eyes, 'Thank you for the carefully detailed message Severus, I'll be sure to keep it in mind.'

'NO.' His eyes flashed, and for a moment Lily wondered if this was what he would look like as a Death Eater. Berating herself for such a stupid thought she shook it from her mind instantly. 'You need to stay away from...James Potter.' He spat out the words and Lily, feeling the blood rush to her face, opened her mouth to retort before he cut her off. 'This has nothing to do with me disliking him or not,' he hissed, 'They're watching you you know? Hanging around with someone like Potter is - well it's dangerous. He's already a threat to them, don't put yourself on their radar.' Crossing her arms Lily unconsciously spread her legs in a fighter's stance.

'And who is this 'them' Severus?' She already knew the answer, she just wanted to hear him say it, admit what they had both known for years now. Struggling to get out the words, he flushed deeply before moving away and muttering, 'It's a warning Lily, don't paint a target on your back.' She wanted to call after him, furious for letting him still affect her the way he did. Furious for letting him have the last word. Furious for him becoming a bigger and bigger part of what they both knew was prepared to kill people like her. How far they had come, she thought as she watched his black robes billowing around him like a bat's wings, from the lonely boy and naive girl who whispered together in forests, and dreamed of Hogwarts.

As Marlene rounded the corner she still had a frown on her face, and was staring after him. 'What's wrong love?' She asked quickly, grabbing her hand. Shaking herself from her reverie Lily just muttered, 'Nothing, it was Severus.' Marlene's eyes darkened, her grip tightening. 'Piece of shit.' She spat venomously. This cheered Lily up enormously, and laughing she pulled her friend with her to Charms.

'Ambrosia Flint with Narcissa Black.' Well great. With a mournful look at Elle, Ambrosia moved her bag to Narcissa's desk, who looked up and gave her a cool smile. Pushing back her sleeves, Ambrosia glanced over at the chalkboard, memorising Salvio hexia and the wand movement needed. She set her jaw in determination, after everything with her mother yesterday, Ambrosia needed a win, and being the first to figure out a spell was always a great way to lift her spirits. Turning back to her partner, Ambrosia nodded, and she and Narcissa got into position, that is, until Lucius cut between the two of them with a toss of his blond head. Without saying a word to either of them, he marched over to his partner, and said something in a low voice, to which she responded with a loud laugh. Daring to lift her eyes, Ambrosia noticed Narcissa biting her lip. Upon seeing her look, Narcissa suppressed a smile and took a seat on the desk, crossing her legs. 'He's been acting like this since last year. He keeps giving me strange looks.' An awkward silence ensued, as Ambrosia, all too familiar with Narcissa, didn't want to offend by laughing. However she decided the better of it and replied anyway, 'Perhaps he's in love with you.' To this Narcissa did laugh,

'I hope not.' Ambrosia snorted.

'You hope not?' Narcissa hid a red smile. Her eyes flitting to him for the slightest of seconds, she confirmed he wasn't listening. 'He's rather...ridiculous isn't he?' Ambrosia, biting the insides of her cheeks didn't respond. 'Besides,' Narcissa continued, 'Edwin has grown up a lot this year.'

'Has he?' Ambrosia replied absent-mindedly, 'I hadn't noticed.' To this Narcissa, (who, from her sly smile had clearly been digging) replied, 'I'm sure you hadn't.' Ambrosia, who was ignoring the looks directed at her from the left side of the room from said person, wasn't comfortable approaching this topic with her. 'I must say, he's rather adamant to get your attention.' Without turning around Ambrosia dropped her head, tracing the outline of her wand, 'My Mother would kill me.' Narcissa raised an eyebrow,

'It's a very promising family.'

'He's a very promising fool.' Narcissa tilted her head,

'Touche.' Haze crept over the floor, curling its fingers around the desks and stretching to cover books, parchment, anything in its way. 'Very good Miss Rosier.' Professor Buchanan praised, her eyes flicking towards Ambrosia for a second before returning to the spell. 'Five points to Slytherin.' Corisande, pushing aside her partner (Emmeline Dearborn, who scowled at her as her foot was stepped on) ran to Nicandro and jumped into his arms. Staggering backwards he just managed to catch himself and her, before she leaned up and kissed him. 'Are you alright?' Narcissa asked Ambrosia, who had been staring at the pair. Shocked, Ambrosia looked up, before she realised she was clenching her wand tightly, her knuckles turning white. Releasing her hold she asked her, 'Why wouldn't I be?' Narcissa shrugged, and went back to practicing. As Emmeline muttered something to her Ravenclaw friend, the whole class returned to normal, but Corisande stayed by Nicandro's side the entire lesson, holding one of his arms.

As the class filed out, Professor Buchanan called out, 'Miss Flint, a word please.' Shrugging at Elle's surprised look, Ambrosia waved goodbye to her before going back into the classroom, dodging Nicandro and Corisande as they walked out as one. Perching on one of the desks, at ease with her favourite teacher, Ambrosia waited for her to speak. Professor Buchanan pushed back a strand of her hair, before setting down her wand and leaning forward over her desk. 'First things first, how are you feeling Miss Flint?' Frowning slightly in confusion, Ambrosia replied,

'I'm ok, and you?' Professor Buchanan waved off the question,

'That's good, it's important to keep your chin up.' She moved to sit behind her desk and pulled up her sleeves. Trying to ignore the fact that she was late to Care of Magical Creatures, Ambrosia waited in silence for her to get to the point. 'The thing is Miss Flint, that it's your last year here.' A silence fell, and Ambrosia nodded quickly, wondering whether the confirmation was entirely necessary and feeling like an idiot when Professor Buchanan ignored it. 'And that means more than ever you have to be thinking about your future. I know-' Here she held up a hand to stop her, '-that you wish to work as an Exotic Symbol Analyst, and that you're quite fanatic about Ancient Runes and discovering new areas of magic. However,' here she paused and stared earnestly into Ambrosia's eyes. 'I think you should be an Auror.' Hesitancy pattered onto her shoulder, and peered at the Professor. 'An Auror?' Professor Buchanan nodded,

'These are changing times Miss Flint, as I'm sure you are well aware,' a pointed look followed this and Ambrosia found herself blushing uncomfortably. 'And it is imperative for all of us to do whatever we can to tip the scales.' Her mother her mother her mother was going to murder her. 'If I may speak candidly, you are my best student.' Warmth bloomed in her stomach; she didn't know that. 'If you hadn't been chatting away you would have gotten the spell before Miss Rosier. You have potential to do great things. I'd hate to see you waste it on...on the wrong choices. You are too smart to be swayed by other matters.' Professor Buchanan swallowed but never dropped her eyes from Ambrosia's face, 'Do you catch my meaning?' Blushing through the swirling mass of voices and emotions that tore through her, Ambrosia dropped off the table. 'I have to get to Care of Magical Creatures.' She muttered, and without looking back, she made her escape.

After apologising profusely to Professor Kettleburn, Ambrosia dropped her bags and stepped forward to help with the last unicorn. Elle was unfortunately not in this class, and they had an odd number, so she was working alone. Her unicorn was fairly tame however, and responded to her instantly, so that all Ambrosia really had to do was oversee its feeding, and then stroke its mane as it ate. It was during this task that Ambrosia, turning away from her classmates, began to think about what Professor Buchanan had said. She had obviously been referring to the Death Eaters. Dropping her head so her hair covered her face, Ambrosia allowed herself to feel the squirming mess that her stomach always became when they were mentioned. The Dark Lord had been collecting talk like a river collected rain, carving out new pathways, meeting with other streams along the way until it seemed there could be no conversation without him. And yet, everyone was afraid to directly mention him. At Hogwarts it was like a secret that connected them all, a sticky web that had already ensnared everyone, and was taking its time to reel them in. But it was invisible, and though everyone felt it no one mentioned it for fear of being the only one, for fear of seeming too extreme, or perhaps for fear of uncovering the extent of the web, and how many people it controlled. She tried not to think on it too much, it was enough to see the gleam in Malfoy's eye, the sneer in Snape's mouth as he spat 'mudblood' at the only friend he ever had, enough to watch Jake Constince, the 'mistake' as he kept his head down against the jeers, the whispers. It was enough to live around it, without having to worry about living in it, and actively taking part. She supposed that made her a coward, sitting on the fence, afraid to move a leg over for fear of her skirts ripping and falling. Her parents would call her a coward, but as it was they were occupied enough with getting her married to a rich pureblood without worrying whether or not their daughter would be joining the ranks of the Dark Lord as soon as she had graduated. It was only the first day, and already she couldn't escape it. But to be warned, to be cautioned by a teacher, a favourite teacher no less, to judge wisely and fight for the other side? The swirling in her stomach grew, and Ambrosia wincing, dropped the thought. It was too much, too much for the first day. Turning her mind to happier thoughts, she wondered when the first quidditch training would be, she had been meaning to bring up the new play she had been practicing before the season ended, she had spent all summer doing it and finally succeeded, and she was antsy to be on the pitch again to prove she could do it. Brushing the unicorn's mane more gently now, Ambrosia allowed herself to get lost in thoughts of quidditch and the new members they would need this year, before a hand tapped her on the shoulder, and she jumped in shock. Barely suppressing a smirk Nicandro asked her what she was thinking about, 'Why are you talking to me?' This did little in the way of discouraging him, dropping on the grass next to her he told her, 'I have a secret mission.' Ambrosia cut her eyes at him, unamused by the reference to when they were children. Nicandro held out his palms, 'You looked upset, so I came over.' Sighing, Ambrosia said,

'Well I'm fine.'

'Yeah the sigh really sold it.' Glaring at him she brushed the dirt off of her shoe,

'I don't have to explain myself to you.'

'No,' he agreed, his face close to hers, 'But I am curious, and I'm trying to be your friend.' She didn't know what it was about his eyes, they were the same shade of black as Snape's, and yet whereas his were cold and dank Nicandro's shone with an inky light, they reflected the night sky, boundless and infinite, and she was in danger of drowning in them the more she stared. They shone at her with a friendly light now, and she couldn't help but wonder how little she deserved it from him, who she had been so horrible to. 'Well I'm trying to work, and your presence is decreasing the possibility of that.' Leaning his head to the side to look at her, puffing a piece of hair out of his eyes he waited. She didn't respond. 'Nic,' Edwin called him over, his eyes wide and shrugging, Nicandro left. As he walked away Ambrosia felt the wave of regret that always came when she was unkind to him, but shoving it away, she turned back to her unicorn who was staring at her sadly.