Friday 1st October 1976

Library, 17:00

Alice rolled up her scroll, feeling quite proud of herself. That was her Transfiguration essay all done and she actually completely understood what she was writing about this time. No copying sentences blindly from the textbooks and altering them slightly. Everything was understood. Was it Outstanding work? Probably not but it was definitely work done well. And there was nothing better than the feeling of a job well done Alice was finding.

Maybe she would even finish off her Charms homework while she was here. Keep that good feeling going. Her stomach, on the other hand, decided that a change of scenery was in order.

Huh. She looked up at the clock. It looked like it was time for dinner. She had really worked up an appetite.

Quickly tidying all her things away, she did just that. She would just bring her bag with her down to dinner and stash it under the table - she couldn't be bothered going the whole way back to Gryffindor Tower and then down to the Great Hall. Shocking, she knew, but at least she wasn't like some Ravenclaws who literally had a stack of textbooks next to them while eating dinner. That was just bad manners. Incredibly bad manners.

Her good mood, however, was ruined quite quickly. And unexpectedly.

It started with a rather loud giggle. Now, that normally wouldn't put her in a bad mood (even though it was rather uncouth to laugh so loudly) but what followed next certainly did.

"I always forget that you have a wicked sense of humour, Frank," a feminine voice said, followed by more giggling and a very familiar chuckle.

Alice frowned. That sounded an awful lot like flirting. Was that someone flirting with her Frank?

She walked quicker down the corridor to catch up with whoever was doing that nonsensical giggling. Her worst fears were confirmed. It was that Elsie one and Frank. Looking awfully close to one another.

Why were they walking together with none of their other friends around them? Why were they so close to each other? Were they flirting? All these thoughts rushed through Alice's head as she got closer and closer to them.

Eventually, despite her best efforts, she was spotted.

"Oh, hi, Alice!" Frank greeted happily.

"Hi Alice!" Elsie echoed with a wave. "Going down to dinner?"

There was no way she wanted to walk down with them and be some sort of awkward third wheel so she shook her head.

"I need to put my bag back up in the Tower," she replied, patting her bag and pointedly looking away from them.

"See you at dinner then," Frank said.

"Yes."

Well, she would see him and that was that. Not sit near him or anything. It wasn't like he sought out her company or anything so why should she seek out his? Okay, that was a bit ridiculous of her but her feelings were a bit hurt.

They all exchanged goodbyes and Alice walked as fast as it was polite to seeks leave the situation. She really didn't like feeling awkward.

"Did you see what happened to Beckett in Potions?" she heard Elsie asked Frank.

Alice walked a bit faster away.

Monday 4th October 1976

Potions Classroom, 13:00

"Oh, wow," James said as they entered the Potions classroom.

There was already a haze of steam filling it, along with the normal Potion-y smells that you got when twenty-odd people brewed a slightly different version of the same potion. This was because there were three potions already out. A clear one, a muddy one and a gold one. The whole room smelled amazing in James' opinion but, then again, it did remind him of his dad's Potion's Labs.

Professor Slughorn was standing behind the centre cauldron with a big smile on his face.

"Normally I do this at the very start of the year to welcome you to NEWT level potions but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was only able to get all of the supplies last month," Slughorn told then and then said something under his breath about "terrorists raiding potions supplies" and "destroying warehouses" before perking up again. "Can anyone tell me why I'm only showing you these now if I got the ingredients a month ago?"

Evans', Snape's and James' hands all shot into the air. Normally James didn't participate much in Potions because they just weren't that interesting to him but these potions were pretty cool and he was proud that he knew about them.

"Yes, Mr Potter?"

"I'm not too sure about the rest of them, sir, but I know that that muddy one is Polyjuice and it takes about a month to stew after a certain point so of you were missing ingredients for that you would have to wait."

Slughorn beamed at him. "You are absolutely correct, Mr Potter. Five points to Gryffindor." he then turned so he was addressing the class again. "And I do like to show these potions together. A bit of wow factor if you will. So, I had to wait."

He went onto explain each potion and James breathed deeply as Slughorn deliberately wafted the Amortensia across the room. Mmm. That was so good.

"Now, let's have a little competition, shall we," Slughorn said gleefully, rubbing his hands together. "Winner gets this little bottle of liquid luck."

That got them all talking. Twelve hours of luck? Just think what they could all do with that!

"Yes, yes, it's very exciting," he said, trying to get them all focused again. "But it won't be easy." That made all the noise stop as all their attention was focused back on them. "You see, I want to see who gets furthest along in brewing the Draught of Living Death."

That earned Slughorn several gasps which made him look very pleased with himself.

James didn't think he had ever seen a more focused class than this one. Then again, teachers didn't just casually offer up liquid luck! Of course, everyone wanted it. Especially him. He glanced over to Sirius. So did he. What was he doing? He better get cracking!

It had to be the fastest a class had ever gone - including Transfiguration. Before James knew it, Slughorn was calling for them to stop and he was walking around, peering into everyone's cauldrons. Of course, the man had been right, no one had finished. There just wasn't enough time in class.

Of course, Evans managed to snag it. James wasn't surprised at all. She was good at Potions. No, wait, that was him. She was gifted.

And she was currently and adorable shade of pleased pink as Slughorn presented her with the small vial.

Thursday 7th October 1976

Quidditch Pitch, 18:00

Sirius tried not to groan too loudly as his feet finally hit the ground. It had been a long, long practice and his arms felt like jelly. Speaking of jelly, McKinnon couldn't seem to get her legs to work because as soon as her feet hit the ground, her legs gave way from under her. Instinctively, Sirius offered her a hand, which she unsteadily took. She had a strong grip for someone so small.

"Owww," she complained as she tensed her arms. "Why do even my knees hurt?"

"You need to be careful not to clench your broom too hard between them," Sirius advised, speaking from experience.

That had been a rather embarrassing trip to Madam Pomfrey to get the splinters removed.

But even with all of his experience, Sirius found that his legs also ached. It had been a very intense practice. Sirius was pretty sure he was sweating from places he didn't know he could sweat. A nice long shower was definitely in order.

It was all James' fault. He had really pushed them today for no other reason than "it was good to be prepared". Hmpf. Now, James was always... enthusiastic about Quidditch. Passionate even. Obsessed might be a better word. But being Captain definitely made it ten times worse. Maybe even a hundred times and in Sirius opinion, that was in no way an exaggeration.

Don't get him wrong, James was a good captain. He was encouraging, made them work hard, explained things and did the same amount of work he demanded of others, if not more but he was... well, he was a bit much. Sirius felt like he was betraying him by even thinking of that.

The same drills were done over and over again, even though people performed them perfectly. He and McKinnon basically played tennis with the bludgers and Sirius didn't even want to know how many laps of the pitch Yaxley did. How that was supposed to help him find the snitch quicker, Sirius didn't know. But he knew better than to question James because he would basically get enough to fill book in response. And the diagrams, don't get him started on the diagrams. When did James get the time to draw so many? Now those were definitely verging on a book. And he expected them to memorise them all? There was no way that was going to happen.

"That was great, team," James was cheerfully telling them.

Sirius wasn't sure how he managed to be cheerful after such a strenuous practice but he was. Terrifyingly so. He didn't know whether to be annoyed or amazed at this fact. Also, did he really have to refer to them all as 'team'? It was so cheesy.

"If we keep this level of work up or more, we're a shoe in for the Cup!"

They all groaned at this level of effort now being the minimum. There was no way they were going to be able to keep that up. There just wasn't.

"Can I curse him?" McKinnon groaned, making Sirius bark with laughter.

"I don't think it would stop him," he confided.

McKinnon glanced over to a still gesticulating James and sighed. "You're probably right."

They both shared a chuckle as they stretched their limbs, trying to regain some form of normal motion. Sirius did not want to be wobbling across the grounds like some sort of frog if he could help it. Seriously, they did not need to stay in the air that long for a practice. Especially just repeating the same thing over and over again. It was hard on the muscles with those bats! Yes, Sirius knew that's how you built up muscles and he would be pretty happy to admit that when he was no longer in pain. Which probably wouldn't happen for a good week, if he was lucky.

James decided at that moment to come up behind them and clap them both on the shoulder, much to their discomfort.

"Make sure you eat plenty of protein for your strength, you too! Lots of red meat!"

And then he bounded off without even waiting for a response. He had the other Chasers in his sights now. Poor him.

"Do you think an impediment jinx would bring him back down to a normal speed?" McKinnon wondered out loud.

Friday 8th October 1976

Sixth Year Gryffindor Boys Dorm, 19:00

Sirius quite proudly strutted out of the bathroom, basically asking for a reaction. He had held back all day for this moment - hiding the package and even doing his change in the bathroom so no one saw what he had got.

Well, he got a reaction. Just not one that he wanted to really expected.

"Padfoot, what in the name of Merlin's balls is that?" Remus demanded, staring at his friend.

"Merlin's balls? Really?"

"Just answer the question!"

"You didn't ask a question!"

"I did! What is that?"

"That could mean so many different things! My hair! My shoes, my bed."

Remus gave him an unimpressed look.

"Your jacket. I'm obviously talking about your jacket."

"Oh yeah," Sirius said as if he had just realised what he was wearing and looked down at himself. "Do you like it?"

He liked it very much, obviously. It was quite snazzy, in his opinion.

Remus didn't answer him and instead turned to James.

"Why are you so surprised?" He asked James, who was also staring at Sirius in shock. "You wrote that he'd been staying with you all August!"

"I never saw this!" James indicated to his current apparel. "I didn't even know he had it!"

"How did you not know?"

"Obviously, he wasn't wearing it at home!"

Duh, because he hadn't got it at James'. He hadn't been able to do much of anything this summer, much to his consternation. And embarrassment. He had been a pretty terrible house guest in hindsight. Lying about in bed most of the time too.

Then again, he had been healing, as Mr and Mrs Potter kept telling him. He needed to rest for that to happen properly. And they had been right, once he had finally been allowed to get up and move about (which was still longer than je would have liked) he had been pretty okay. Easily tired but nothing hurt. Always a win in Sirius' book. But back to his jacket. His awesome jacket. That no one was realising how awesome it was. He would have to rectify that.

"Do you like it?" Sirius asked louder, arms outstretched and giving spinning around to give them the full effect of it.

"It's a ratty leather jacket."

"It's distressed," he corrected.

There was definitely a difference, no matter what their sceptical looks said. Distressed was far cooler, that much he knew. No self-respecting person went around in a brand-new looking jacket. It just wasn't done. Which is obviously why he got this one.

"Don't you already have a leather jacket?" Peter asked, scratching his head.

"Yes."

"Then why don't you wear that one?"

"Because this is in, now. You have to keep up with fashion, you know."

"Of course," Peter said with an eye roll.

"Where did you even get that? We haven't been anywhere?" James asked.

"My order finally came in in Hogsmeade," he said proudly.

"You ordered this specially?"

Seriously, why all the disbelief? If you couldn't find something you liked, you ordered it. It was as simple as that.

"Obviously."

And he was so pleased with it. It was even better than the photograph in the catalogue. And it fit him so well! And it was so comfy. And smelled amazing. And... it was just amazing, okay?

For some reason, none of his friends seemed to be as happy as he was. Didn't they realise how cool this was? Though, maybe that was pushing too much. None of his friends were exactly fashion icons were they. Remus loved those knit jumpers, James always dressed kind of smart casual and Peter didn't seem to have a style. Just whatever fit and sort of went together.

"Come on, don't any of you have something to say about it?" he complained.

He was expecting a much bigger response than this. Come on! It was a leather jacket!

"It's very you," James told him, patting him on the shoulder.

"Is it comfortable?" Peter asked, tilting his head to one side. "I never thought leather would be comfortable."

"Look, feel," Sirius urged him, holding out his arm for Peter to touch.

"Oh, it's soft," Peter said in amazement as he stroked Sirius' arm.

"See? It's so comfortable."

Leather just got a bad reputation. It was the perfect material, in his opinion.

"Cool."

At least someone was giving him an appropriate response. He gave Remus a baleful look.

"It's nice, okay?" Remus said impatiently. "Can we go eat now?"

"Wow, Remus wants to eat in the morning," James said with overexaggerated shock. "Better actually eat breakfast then."

Remus thumped him on the arm. "Prat."

"Says the one who doesn't eat breakfast," James retorted before running for the door before Remus could thump him again.

Sirius made as if to follow James but was stopped by Remus.

"You aren't going to wear that to breakfast, are you?"

"Of course!"

He had to show off his latest addition to his wardrobe after all.

"We have classes today."

"And?"

"You got in trouble before for wearing a leather jacket to class," Remus reminded him.

Sirius shook his head. "No, I nearly got in trouble. Remember? There's actually no rule against it."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there was one now," Remus muttered, shaking his head.

"We'll just have to see, won't we?"

Remus groaned at him but let him past. Good, because he was getting hungry.

Tuesday 12th October 1976

Gryffindor Table, Great Hall, 08:30

Lily sighed disconsolately. This is what she got when she came down late for breakfast - she was left alone with her thoughts. Not that it was her fault, not really. She had had an early morning meeting with Flitwick about putting her name down on the list of NEWT students who were available to provide Charms tutoring.

That had all been sorted out fairly quickly but Professor Flitwick did so like to talk. And he was fun to talk to but it made her late for breakfast. Which meant she was alone. And left with her aforementioned thoughts.

She didn't like those thoughts because of course they couldn't be of nice things. Why when you were all alone did your thoughts wander to the worst ones? Why couldn't she be thinking of Hallowe'en or Christmas? No, instead it had to be of Severus.

Severus Snape. Her ex-friend. Or was he really an ex-friend? Lily didn't know. Did he still want to be her friend?

She missed Severus' company; she really did. Sure, in recent years they hadn't been as close as they used to be but they had still been good friends. And not having him around felt weird. Wrong even. Even if they hadn't hung out, they had always talked to each other each day. Now that hadn't happened in months. Months.

Yes, this was self-inflicted and she could stop all this by just going up to him herself...

No, she had to stand firm. There were lines that people shouldn't cross and Severus hadn't just crossed it, he had completely destroyed the line. Yes, he had tried to take it back - he had apologised and it looked like he had meant it but, well, an apology wasn't enough, was it? Not for something like this. He was the one who had to figure out how to fix this, not her.

It was just... she still couldn't believe that he had even said something like that- even all these months later. Is that what he really thought of her? Of people like her? Was he being radicalised? Was that even the right word? Was he going to turn out dangerous like all those people that the Daily Prophet were always giving updates on? Was he going to break the law?

It was just all sorts of unbelievable. Her heart hurt even to think about such things happening to Severus. Could it happen to Severus?

All these questions and worries and she didn't know what to do. Didn't know if she could do something.

Friday 15th October 1976

Entrance Hall, 12:30

"You do so."

"I don't!"

"You do!"

"Shut up!"

Of course, Chryssie didn't shut up. She never did when it came to this. This being -

"You really do have a crush on Remus Lupin," Chryssie said with a headshake.

Tonks stomped her feet and crossed her arms, wanting Chryssie to just shut up! Sure, she had kind of, sort of, barely admitted to herself that she had a crush of Remus Lupin. And technically to Sirius ad well but that didn't mean she wanted the whole of bloody Hogwarts to know!

"Touchy, touchy."

"I'll give you touchy," Tonks threated, taking a step forward.

Chryssie just rolled her eyes.

"It's behaviour like this is why you didn't get the Prefect position, you know," she told her.

"As if I wanted to be a Prefect," Tonks snorted.

She really didn't. Tell people off for breaking the rules? No, thank you. She'd much rather be the one breaking the rules. So, she hadn't been disappointed when the badge didn't appear this summer. Relieved would be a better word, actually. Mum had been more disappointed than she was but then dad asked if she really wanted someone like Tonks in a position of authority and mum had promptly decided that she was pleased Tonks hadn't been picked. Tonks still wasn't sure whether or not she should be insulted at that quick change of heart...

"It sounds awfully boring," Chryssie agreed. "I'm glad I didn't get picked."

"Can you imagine first years trying to say our names?" Tonks giggled.

"I wouldn't even give them my full name."

"The names of Prefects are put up on the noticeboards," Tonks reminded her. "It would be funny to hear them try to pronounce them."

"Wait," Chryssie held up her hand. "You distracted me."

"From what?"

"From discussing your crush on a one Remus Lupin."

Tonks immediately felt everything go bright red in embarrassment. Stupid Metamorphmagus abilities.

"I told you to shut up about that."

She did not want to discuss it at all. No way.

"He's not even the most handsome one of the four," Chryssie scoffed.

"Excuse me?"

Remus was very handsome! Definitely more than all the other Marauders.

"Come on," her friend said. "I mean, he's good looking and all but he's not the most handsome."

"He is! Who do you think is the most handsome then?" Tonks demanded.

"Sirius," Chryssie responded promptly.

Tonks scrunched her nose off. "Ew, he's my cousin."

"He's still hot."

"Gross."

It was one thing seeing all the girls in the school fawn over him but it was another for her best friend to do that! Ew!

"Okay, okay, I get it," Chryssie said, laughing. "You think Remus Lupin is more handsome than your cousin."

"Very handsome," Tonks automatically corrected.

Chryssie raised an eyebrow, "Yet you don't have a crush on him?"

"Oh, shut up."

"You need to come up with a better response."

Tonks paid the sparky retort no mind as there was something far more important that just caught her attention. Remus and the rest of the Marauders were very quickly coming this way!

"Hi, Remus!"

Tonks had to wince at her too loud voice. Why did she have to be like that? Chryssie sniggered next to her. That earned her Ravenclaw friend an elbow to the gut.

"What, no greeting for us too?" Sirius asked, putting on an injured expression.

Tonks turned to look at her cousin, "Oh, yeah. Hi Sirius. James. Peter."

James and Peter burst out laughing at her deliberately unenthusiastic reply while Sirius pouted. She didn't know why, he literally asked for it, after all. The best thing, though, was that Remus was chuckling too! He found her funny!

"How's fifth yeah going for you?" Remus asked her.

Tonks pulled a face. "Busy."

"Sixth year doesn't get much better," James said.

Remus gave him a sceptical look. "Prongs, you haven't been doing any extra work than usual!"

James shrugged. "It hasn't gotten hard yet."

Remus rolled his eyes and turned back to her.

"Please tell me you put more effort into your work than these two."

Tonks quickly nodded. She did. This year. But that was because she was quickly realising how important this year was. Not that Remus had to know that.

"Not all of us get everything automatically," she said instead.

"See, Prongs and Padfoot?"

She flushed with pleasure. It was rather nice to be on the same side as Remus.

Tuesday 19th October 1976

Ravenclaw Common Room, 19:30

Kingsley sighed and took in sights of the Common Room from his upside-down position on the sofa. It gave him a rather interesting perspective but he wasn't focusing on that right now.

He really didn't know what he wanted to do. At all. Sure, he had had ideas but that's all they were, ideas. He didn't really feel like he wanted to commit to any of them.

"Of course, OWL year has been so easy for me, so far," Lockheart bragged to his group of adoring friends. Not that there was an awful lot of those anymore, a lot of people had twigged that he was a bit of a braggart. "The Professors were actually thinking of putting me in for my NEWTs, you know."

Kingsley couldn't help but snort at that. Out of all the things that Lockheart had said, that had to be the most ridiculous. There was no way anyone could jump straight to NEWTs. They really were nasty and exhausting. But Lockheart wasn't worth his time. What was worth his time was thinking about what he should be doing when he left Hogwarts. That wasn't too far away and everyone he knew seemed to have some idea of what they were going to be doing. There were just so many careers and jobs to choose from, how was be expected to pick one?

"You look like you're having an existential crisis," Callum said, sitting next to him and not commenting on his odd position - it wasn't exactly the weirdest thing happening in the Common Room.

"I am."

"Career choices again?" his friend asked in amusement.

It was okay for him; Callum knew what he wanted to do. Auror. He wanted to help protect people and fight dark wizards. His career choice was easy.

"How did you decide?" Kingsley asked helplessly, finally righting himself.

Wow. He swayed as all the blood rushed out of his head.

Callum looked thoughtful for a moment before responding, "I suppose you need to think what's important to you."

Kingsley groaned. That didn't help him at all.

Friday 22nd October 1976

Forbidden Forest, 15:45

"I think this is a bad idea," Remus said for what had to be the twelfth time since entering the forest. And they hadn't even got ten yards in yet! For good reason, because this was definitely a bad idea.

"Oh, you're probably the scariest thing in the forest right now," Sirius said dismissively.

Remus stopped to gaped at him.

"You do realise I am just as human as you when it's not the full moon?" he hissed.

And he did not like his chances against any of the creatures that were reported to be in here. No thank you.

"Well, then me or James can just transform and sort out whatever comes our way."

"You're a dog and a stag. Not a lion."

"A very intimidating dog and stag, isn't that right, Prongs?" Sirius called ahead to James.

"Hmm?" he said distractedly. "Yeah. Intimidating."

Sirius turned back to Remus. "See?"

Remus just gave him an unimpressed look.

"No." he then shouted so that James could hear. "Prongs, I think we should go back."

"Do we have to speak do loud?" Peter asked, anxiously looking around them.

He probably had a point. Who knew what would hear them in here?

"I just want to see if we can find that clearing again," James said. "It wasn't that far in, remember?"

"We did go around in circles for a bit, though," Peter reminded him and looked anxiously up at the sky. "And it's getting dark."

He was right. Although they had come here straight after their last class - not even putting their books away, the sky was getting darker by the minute. It was Autumn in Scotland, after all.

Why James even got it into his head to go looking for the clearing at all, never mind now instead of at the weekend but he did. And he couldn't be deterred when he got something like this in his head. It was like he got tunnel vision.

"It won't take long."

Remus tried not to groan. Those were always famous last words.

Monday 25th October 1976

Charms Classroom, 09:30

James couldn't help but watch Evans as she practiced the spell they were learning today, Aguamenti - the charm that produced water. Thank goodness for waterproofing charms or else they'd all be soaked. Between poor aim and deliberately aiming at each other (who said sixth years were responsible and respectable?) there was water everywhere. You had to be careful when walking across the classroom or else you'd slip.

Evans, of course, had got the charm right basically the first time. Flitwick had then got her practicing the intensity of the jet of water and her aim (she had managed to MacDonald in the back of the neck by accident, Merlin that girl could shriek).

"Mr Potter, if you could return your attention to the lesson," Flitwick said.

James gave the diminutive Professor a sheepish look.

"Yes, Professor."

"Please demonstrate the charm."

"Of course," James fumbled with his wand and hastily aimed it at the bucket they had all been provided with to aim into (not that a lot of them had managed to do that). "Aguamenti!"

Whoops, that was far too much power. A jet of water shot out of his wand and actually knocked several pictures off the wall before he managed to stop it.

"Maybe a little bit less attention on your classmates and more on your actual work," Flitwick said with a raised eyebrow.

Sunday 31st October 1976

Dungeons, 15:00

It had happened completely by chance and not in the way he had planned it (endlessly planned it) but it happened and Severus couldn't say that he was angry about it. He was pleased, actually. Very pleased.

You see, he had finally been able to approach Lily. She had been discussing something with an impressed looking Slughorn while Severus had had to pass them to get into the Potions Lab. It was as simple as putting his equipment down quickly, on what was now his bench pretty much, and nipping back outside and acting like he wanted to talk to Slughorn when Lily was done.

It had worked. She couldn't ignore him.

But now that he had her attention, he wasn't too sure what to say. It wasn't like je had the best track record for saying the right thing recently.

Come on, he had to say something. Anything would do.

"Um. Well done for winning the Felix felicis," Severus said awkwardly and then almost groaned at himself.

That had been almost a way back at the start of the month! But Lily was giving him a shy smile.

"Thanks. It looked like you almost got it yourself."

He nodded. That was true. He had been just behind her with his Draught of Living Death. He had been stupid and experimented with crushing beans instead of cutting them. He did get a lot more juice but had spilled a lot of it in his shock. Retrieving more beans cost him precious time and Lily shot ahead of him.

They both stood awkwardly in silence - apparently neither one of them wanting to leave. Why wouldn't Lily say something? Maybe it would be better if she didn't. Oh, but he didn't know what to say.

"You haven't been hanging around Mulciber or Avery anymore." Lily suddenly said.

Severus cleared his throat "No. I haven't."

She had noticed this? That was a good thing, wasn't it? That was a part of his proof that he was trying to do the right thing now. And those two definitely weren't the right thing. Further proof that he should have just listened to her last year.

"Good. They were starting to become really horrible."

They had. And their behaviour was getting worse. More bold.

"I was scared you were going to become horrible as well," she added.

His lips turned into a self-deprecating smile. Well, he had proved that, hadn't he?

"I don't want to," he said honestly.

Getting acceptance in Slytherin wasn't worth becoming what Avery and Mulciber were. Or losing Lily.

Suddenly, they were both talking over each other; Severus apologising again and Lily saying that she wanted them to be friends again. Somehow, they understood each other without pausing for a breath and they were left staring at each other again. Only this time the tension had left the air, a sense of relief replacing it.

"Want to stand next to me at Samhain?" he asked hopefully.

Lily smiled at him and nodded. "That would be lovely.

With that, they both walked out of the Dungeons. Together. It was a nice feeling.