A/N: Seems like a lot of people are still upset about the not updating thing. Well, I can't help that, but because this story is starting to get a little more interesting, I want to continue it. As for why I didn't update last weekend, although nobody reviewed so likely nobody noticed, I came down with the flu and was basically bedridden. Went to school on Monday, thought I was going to hurl, so the rest of the week I stayed at home with the usual coughs, stuffy nose, headache, muscle pains and hey, what flu doesn't involve fever. Still sick but decided I wanted to work on this. Unfortunately I can't use my moms laptop for awhile since she's doing something with it, otherwise I would have had a chapter last weekend. Don't forget to review.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. Never did, never will.

A Marauder's Tale

EilayAdnayVolieay

Chapter Nine: The Hidden Prophecy

"Professor," James replied suddenly, "you said that this... this prophecy involved seven students. But," James looked around once more as if to make sure, "there are only six of us here. I don't under—"

"One of the students was not at the dance, in fact in the hospital wing. Are there any... guesses... as to who this student is?" Dumbledore asked. He seemed, for the moment, to be more calm. Obviously he did not like telling these students that their destiny had been foretold before they were even born, but he was trying not to focus on the exact content of the prophecy. Or, more like, the possible content of the prophecy. He could not forget that he didn't even know what it said– perhaps it was too dangerous? But no matter— dangerous, or not, it was their destiny. It was the fate that awaited them.

"...Peter Pettigrew," Lily said finally. Dumbledore smiled, although it was obviously weak and mostly forced.

"Yes, Miss Evans." he replied finally. Megan looked at her astonished.

"How th e bloody hell did you guess that? There are a million students at this school," she said reasonably.

"Look at it this way, Megan. Coincidentally enough, Remus, Sirius and... and James, are friends. Close friends, actually. You, Ali, and I, are close friends as well. The only other close friend that wasn't here was their friend Peter. It was... it wasn't that difficult to guess. Professor, I do have a question. How can you possibly be sure that the prophecy involves us?" Lily asked.

"Now Miss Evans, unfortunately I cannot tell you exactly how I came to know it involved all of you. Although I admit it was a mistake not to tell you sooner, this is most definitely a piece of information I can't tell you. Let us leave it at, I did my research well. There is no mistake— the students this prophecy involves, is you."

"So what is it that's... in our destiny?" Remus asked. He had kept silent most of the time, never making eye contact with anyone else in the room. Now he was staring at Dumbledore dead on, awaiting an answer. Dumbledore stood up and walked over to the window nearest his desk. He was silent, and after several minutes, James cleared his throat.

"Professor?"

"I... I must apologize, Mr Lupin. For a moment there, I fell into my own world. Forgive me," he said quietly. "It is something I often do. Regarding the prophecy, I don't know what it says. Not even the slightest. No research that I've done has been able to uncover anything regarding what it says. I believe that truly, nobody knows. At least, nobody that's alive now. But all hope is not lost," Dumbledore replied softly. He grabbed a vial from his desk and stared at it, lifting it up to the light. "I believe that the memories will always live on." Sirius and James looked at each other, confused. Megan and Ali did the same thing. Remus stared at the ground, saying nothing, but Lily knew too well that Dumbledore often didn't make sense. He often spoke as though his life was based on riddles. In the end, most of what he said made sense— after you thought it over for awhile.

"So in other words, we have to find it?" Sirius asked. Dumbledore smiled.

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting it to be you to figure that out first, Mr Black. I was actually expecting Miss Evans or Mr Lupin to figure it out, considering how they so quickly figure things out in their classes. I hear of these things," Dumbledore added when Lily and Remus looked up at him. "Just because I don't teach, doesn't mean I don't talk with the teachers. For the moment, I have nothing further to tell you. You may ask questions still if you wish, but I don't know if I will have the answers to all of them. And Miss Evans? I will see about having your punishment removed. I know you were only saying that because you knew Mr Potter and Mr Black were innocent in this... prank... and thought it wrong for either of them to lose something when they did nothing to deserve it. A very noble thing you did," he added. "Unexpected, actually. I seem to recall last Christmas when you were screaming at the two of them because they— what was it again?" Dumbledore asked.

"Gave me a third arm and I believe I had scales— I don't want to even know what spell they used." she added. Dumbledore smiled, the first genuine smile he had made since they arrived.

"Good night," he said. That was his way of informing them that there was nothing further he had to say. He knew that they had no questions, because he had told them that there wouldn't be too many answers. They got up and left, but Sirius noticed in the mirror that Dumbledore had placed his wand to his head. A silvery fluid seemed to shoot out of his head into his wand, and was placed into an empty vial similar to the one he had been looking at before. When Dumbledore looked up, Sirius looked away from the mirror quickly and left with the others. He never said anything to them, not at all, until he was sure they were far enough from Dumbledore's office.

"Shove a sock in it for a moment, would you Winters?" Sirius asked. "Important thing to bring up. Lets go to the kitchens," Sirius added to James. He turned back to face the girls. "You too." he replied. They rolled their eyes and followed behind. James saw the painting and tickled the pear. The kitchen was soon revealed and they went inside. The house elves were busy cooking, and after asking the students if there was anything that they could get for them, they ignored the students entirely.

"Just what was so important that you had to tell us here, in the kitchen?" Megan asked, annoyed.

"Close your mouth a moment and maybe I'll be able to get part of it out," Sirius replied. Megan glared at him and crossed her arms. "Before I left, I saw in the mirror in Dumbledore's office— he had his wand up to his head, and a silvery liquid flowed out from his head into the wand. Then he put it in a vial. Any ideas as to what happened?" Sirius asked. He turned to Remus and Lily, assuming they would know.

"I haven't the slightest idea. Tell me, why was it that you decided this was some top secret knowledge that you had to share with us in the kitchen?" Lily asked.

"Because Dumbledore caught me looking in the mirror and immediately placed the vial in his pocket. It was as though he didn't want me to see," Sirius said. James stood up.

"If he didn't want us to know, maybe we should forget about it." he replied. He walked out.

"He also didn't want us to know that we had a prophecy to fulfill." Remus replied quietly. "Should we just forget about that?" James stopped walking and sighed.

"I don't know, Remus. There isn't a whole lot that makes sense right now, so what do you expect me to say? I mean, why us?" James asked.

"Maybe we're the only ones who can do it." Ali replied. Remus looked over at her, almost surprised to hear her speak. She was quiet mostly, and it was the first time she had spoken since she had asked him if he wanted to dance with her.

"How could we even know?" Megan said, irritated. "We don't even know what it is we're supposed to do." Lily stood up.

"Actually, we do." she said finally. The others looked at her confused.

"How do you figure, Evans?" Sirius asked. "We have no idea what this prophecy says, so how do we know what we're supposed to do?"

"Honestly its not that difficult, I would have thought even Peter could have figured it out, if he was here with us. Find the prophecy. It's the only thing we're sure we have to do at this point."

—

Over the next several weeks, the two groups didn't speak to each other much. Even Remus rarely spoke to them— it was as if they were afraid to be reminded that they had something to do. Lily wasn't sure if Remus, James, Sirius or Peter ever looked for the prophecy, but there was rarely a moment when she didn't. She often missed all of the meals and when she didn't, she was only there long enough to eat quickly and then was jetting off somewhere else. And it wasn't even the library she was going to! She was going all around the school, trying to see which place would be suitable to hide a prophecy. Of course, she knew that was pointless, because if Godric Gryffindor had wanted to hide the prophecy and have it kept hidden until the people it involved were at Hogwarts, he would have hidden it well. An even scarier thought hit Lily: What if someone had already found it, and it was no longer at the school? It could be kept at the Ministry, forever hidden away, never to be fulfilled. But that was silly, Lily reasoned with herself. After all, it was a quite famous prophecy, and surely there would have been some story on it in the Daily Prophet, anything! It was then that Lily decided that she couldn't keep looking on her own. She needed help, and not just Megan and Ali's help. They weren't the only ones that the prophecy involved.

It was finally the weekend again. Lily had made sure that all of her homework was done in advance and had even helped Ali and Megan with their's more than usual until it was complete. She had spoken to Remus, and knew he was doing the same with James, Sirius and Peter. Now was not the time to have homework that needed to be complete. Finally when she saw Remus enter the Common Room, she knew that James, Sirius and Peter must be done their work.

"All set," Remus replied. "Their just putting the books away, I told them that I'd bring back their homework and make sure they didn't somehow lose it like they did with that essay we had last week." He walked up to the boys dorm and shortly afterwards, Sirius and Peter entered alone into the Common Room and sat down on the couch, Peter laughing loudly at some joke Sirius had told him. Lily waited a few minutes, and seeing that it appeared as though James wasn't coming, told Ali and Megan she'd be back in a minute. Without even going to Sirius or Peter, she walked out of the Common Room and began heading towards the library. Perhaps James was still there... He better be, Lily thought to herself. We have things to discuss and he has to be there too! I wonder wher— Lily's thoughts were interrupted as her mouth was covered and she was dragged forcibly into an abandoned part of the hallway where there were no students. She was then turned around and shoved up against the wall. She tried to see who had grabbed her and saw Bellatrix.

"Well, well, well... I haven't seen you around lately. Perhaps it was because I myself was too busy, but that doesn't matter. I doubt you care about what I've been doing, and where I've been all this time." Bellatrix replied cooly. She had her wand shoved at Lily's neck, waiting for the opportunity to mutter an incantation.Where she have been all that time? Bellatrix... she was, gone? Why don't I remember that... I suppose I never really noticed her anywhere, unless she was glaring in my direction or having one of her confrontations like now. But she makes it sound as though she's been gone for so long... where was she?

"No, I didn't think you would care, although I'm sure you are a little curious on the matter. I don't know why he's interested in you," Bellatrix replied suddenly. She had a faraway look on her face, and didn't seem to notice Lily there. It was as though she were thinking out loud without realizing it. Who was "he" that Bellatrix was referring to? "Its not as though you've got any real power. Not the way I do, he told me as much. But yet he still wants you there, with him, face to face. Perhaps he wants to be the one to do it, I don't really know. Frankly, I don't care. What I do know is that you have something he wants— a certain piece of information. He seems to think you know— I don't think you know anything myself, but the excuse to torture you is too tempting and I can't pass it up. So tell me, Lily Evans... what does the prophecy say?" Bellatrix asked. Lily gasped. What did Bellatrix know about the prophecy? They had only found out themselves recently— had she known all along?

"I-I-I don't k-know," Lily said. She was gasping for air as Bellatrix's wand pushed deeper into her throat. The pain was coming, and soon Lily knew it would become unbearable. Bellatrix's eyes gleamed.

"Liar!" she whispered. "Filthy, pathetic, mudblood!" Lily's vision was becoming blurred— she hadn't been able to breathe for quite some time now, and she was certain that any minute she would pass out. Surely it had to be more than Bellatrix's wand pressing into her throat. It was then that Lily realized Bellatrix was using a non verbal spell on her. Lily gasped, trying to breathe. How could Bellatrix expect her to tell her anything? Even if she did know, if she couldn't breathe then certainly she couldn't talk either.

"I... c...ca... can't b... bre... breathe!" Lily finally managed to say. Bellatrix narrowed her eyes and smiled.

"Good." Lily could see in her eyes that she was using another non verbal spell. What would it be this time, Lily wondered. Her wand was out of the question, as Bellatrix had grabbed it as well. Lily could only hope that someone would come. Bellatrix didn't even bother to cover Lily's mouth now, because she knew that Lily couldn't even speak quietly to her, let alone scream for help. Even if she did scream, they were so far away from any student that she wasn't sure anyone would hear. At least, not until it was too late.

—

James signed out the book he had found on Godric Gryffindor. He hadn't bothered to tell Sirius, Remus or even Peter why he was staying behind a little later in the library. They had all refrained from talking about the prophecy since Dumbledore had told them about it, and he wanted to do his own research. Maybe he could find a clue about a place Godric Gryffindor liked in Hogwarts. He knew it was a long shot, but what else could he do? He had caught Lily once already pointlessly looking around Hogwarts, and he knew that she would never find it that way. Even if they all did a thorough search of the castle, he doubted that they would find it. After all, the rumor of the prophecy had been going around for years— surely when it had originally started, Hogwarts would have been searched, stripped down to the last brick until they had come to the conclusion that it didn't even exist.

Although he knew that it was out of character for him to be reading while walking through the halls, he couldn't help it. The book was actually extremely interesting, and he was shocked to see how much Godric Gryffindor had endured throughout his life. It was James' seventh year at Hogwarts and he had still managed to take a wrong turn. Once he realized this, he began to turn around to head back the right way and go to the Common Room, but heard the very faint sound of someone speaking. He listened more closely and heard,

"Liar!" she whispered. "Filthy, pathetic, mudblood!" He grew curious and began to walk further down the hall. Why had that voice sound so familiar? It had to be a Slytherin, James reasoned. They were the only ones who used the term "mudblood". It wasn't until he heard the small sound that came next that he was worried.

"I... c...ca... can't b... bre... breathe!"

"Lily!" James breathed. He ran around the corner and saw Lily shoved up against the wall, unconscious now, by Bellatrix. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at Bellatrix. He muttered a hex and Bellatrix passed out. He walked over to Lily, grabbed her wand from Bellatrix's other hand, and picked Lily up carefully. He didn't know what Bellatrix had wanted with her, but he had a feeling that more had happened then a regular feud between rival houses.

Madame Pomfrey was shocked to see Lily and quickly lead James over to one of the empty beds in the Hospital Wing.

"Oh poor thing!" she said. "What on earth happened to her, Mr Potter?" she asked. James set her down on the bed.

"I don't know. I do know that she was cornered by another student, and she said something very forced and barely understandable. She said that she couldn't breathe." James glanced down at Lily. Had she fallen into sleep after passing out? Or was she still unconscious?

"Cornered by who?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

"... I couldn't see the person," James lied. "They were hooded. I began to say an incantation, but they ran off. I know we aren't supposed to use magic in the halls," James said carefully, "but I didn't think the person would run off and leave Lily there the way they did." Madame Pomfrey appeared doubtful of James story but said nothing. If he didn't want to tell her, it was his problem. The only thing she cared about was that Lily was brought back to her usual self.

"Well, it seems as if she'll be fine, I think she's only been knocked out from lack of air. We'll leave her here for the night to be sure, but she'll probably be out tomorrow. Thank you for bringing her— again," Madame Pomfrey replied.

—

"Where could she be?" Megan asked. She was smacking her gum and she could tell it was annoying Sirius. She smacked it even louder. "I mean," she replied in between smacks, "she was only going to look for James. And you said he stayed in the library a little while longer. That," she smacked again, "would have been the first place Lily would look." Sirius glared at her but didn't say anything. He wasn't going to let her know that it was bothering him, the way she smacked her gum. He didn't know why it should, he did it all the time. Perhaps it was because it was her. Or maybe Remus was rubbing off on him— after all, his homework was done before midnight on Sunday. It just wasn't right.

James entered the Common Room and they looked up and glanced behind him. There was no sign of Lily. Remus was about to ask where Lily was when James sat down across from Sirius.

"You have to do something about your cousin," he said. Sirius looked confused.

"Which—?" Megan smacked her gum and Sirius glared at her. "Which cousin?" he finished.

"Bellatrix!" James cried. "She cornered Lily and it was just chance I happened to take the wrong turn into that hallway. I heard her calling Lily... a foul name, and then Lily gasping for air. She got knocked out and I had to take her to the hospital wing. I even had to lie and tell Madame Pomfrey that I didn't know who did it, because I used one of Snape's spells on her."

"Snape's spells?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, Snape has this potions book, right, and we found it one time when he left it behind in Potions class. He's got all these spells scribbled inside that aren't actual spells, but they all work. Every single one of them. What's more is that he has shortcuts in all the potions in the book, and we tried it once on a quicker but complex potion— and it worked out PERFECT. Even Pete could follow it," Sirius said. "I'm really sorry James, but what can I do? Bellatrix and I aren't cousins in the traditional family sense— we're tied most unfortunately by blood, but we hardly act as cousins. In both of our minds, neither of us considers the other as a cousin, for different reasons. What makes you think I can do anything?" Sirius asked. James shrugged.

"I don't know... but Megan, Ali? Maybe you shouldn't let her go off on her own. Bellatrix had her wand right at Lily's throat, and I take it she used a spell on her because there's no way that the wand would make her pass out just by poking at her. At least not at the pressure Bellatrix had jabbed it at her. Besides," he said thoughtfully, "I think its happened before, which means it can happen again."

"What makes you think its happened before?" Ali asked.

"Just a gut feeling," James lied. Yes, lied. He knew for a fact it had happened before— it was probably in their second year at Hogwarts when he had first noticed that Lily was quiet. He'd pulled numerous pranks on her, and she hadn't said a word. He finally followed her one day and saw Bellatrix confront her. Back then, it hadn't been as serious as it seemed to be now. Just a verbal threat, no real force. James hadn't done anything... he didn't know why, because even though at the time he hadn't liked Lily, he still knew that he should have helped her.

"James..." Sirius said suddenly. "You're carrying... a book?"

A/N: Well another semi-long chapter for you, hope you enjoyed, and this story I think will get a little more on the "mysterious" side over the next few chapters. Anyone have any idea who the "he" was that Bellatrix mentioned? I'm sure if you thought really hard, you could tell. Oh yeah, she's in the seventh year as well. I don't know if we've learned thus far in the series how old she was in comparison to James and Lily, but if we have I don't remember it so she's in it now. Don't forget to review!