A/N: Sorry for not updating, I won't give you any excuses, but I will say that it was NOT me discontinuing this story— I stopped updating a lot of my older fanfictions, and just started to get back into it now since I'm giving my newer ones a bit of a break, considering I'd update them several times a DAY. Anyways, here's the newest chapter, I'll try and make it pretty good considering I really should have updated a little more often. Hopefully you'll forgive me... lol. R&R.

Disclaimer: As usual, Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.

A Marauder's Tale

EilayAdnayVolieay

Chapter Thirteen: The Christmas Holidays Part 3

For the few students that had remained at Hogwarts over the holidays, the news that Lily had finally agreed to go out with James flew around the school, and soon even those students at home with their families knew that they were going out. James received many letters from the girls of his fanclub, writing words of sorrow and despair at the fact that he had chosen Lily out of all the available girls who attended Hogwarts. Lily herself received hate mail from the very same girls, being told that James was only dating her because he hadn't yet. Lily ignored all of this however, and told herself that James had liked her too long for that to be the case— and if that is the case, I know enough spells to hex him until he begs for forgiveness, and until he decides to become a hermit who never dates again. Lily thought, amused.

Even though they were now dating, they didn't make out in public, especially around their friends— they didn't get disgustingly mushy and tell each other how much they cared for each other, after all, they were only going on one date that coming weekend, Lily had agreed to no more at the current time. Every now and then, when it came to searching for the prophecy and they decided to split up, Sirius and Megan would plot against Lily and James and make sure they were paired together— just so they had some privacy every now and then.

They had so far had no luck in finding the prophecy, and every time they asked Dumbledore about it, he said the same thing to them over and over— he couldn't help them any further because he was also in the dark about the whereabouts of the prophecy, and besides that, it was theirs to find.

So, they were all sitting in the common room, relaxing when they knew that they didn't have much time left to find the prophecy. It was their last year at Hogwarts, and if they didn't find it soon, they never would. Is it that big of a deal? Lily thought, staring into the flames in the fireplace. I mean, we don't even know what this prophecy says... we just know that it involves us. What if it's something stupid that we don't even have to do? But... Dumbledore wouldn't have mentioned it to us if it wasn't important. He might not know what it says word for word, but he must have some idea. Is he hiding something from us? And if he is... why? Lily sighed, deciding that it would be best if she didn't attempt to figure it out.

"We've been looking for the prophecy for over a week now," Megan replied gloomily. "And still— nothing! I'm beginning to think it doesn't even exist and that it's just some stupid test Dumbledore thought up." she added.

"Oh no, Dumbledore wouldn't do that!" Ali exclaimed. She turned away from her conversation with Remus and faced Megan. "You can't believe that," Megan looked up at her, and opened her mouth to speak but Sirius got there first.

"Dumbledore's mental... who knows what he'd do." Sirius mumbled. Megan glared at him for interrupting, but softened her expression and nodded in agreement.

"You know what he said last night at dinner, don't you? Try and tell me he's not mental," Megan added. Lily, James and Remus stayed silent in the conversation.

"Let's not focus on whether or not Dumbledore is mental, alright?" James replied quietly. They all turned to look at him, sure that he was going to continue. "Where haven't we searched for the prophecy?" he asked. Remus closed the book that he was reading and set it down.

"Well... it would be easier to say where we have searched. The common room, the Great Hall, Dumbledore's office, with his permission of course." Remus added.

"Don't forget the secret passageways," Sirius added.

"Or the classrooms." Lily spoke up. They all suddenly groaned in frustration. The school was so enormous, how could the possibly find it before the holidays were over? Soon, Christmas would be over, the students would have returned from their homes, and classes would start again. They'd be forced to focus on their homework and if they were spotted looking around everywhere, they probably would appear strange to the students and questions would be asked.

"Well... there's always the bathrooms," Lily suggested finally, after everyone had stopped speaking. "It's unlikely, but if we searched there it might give us time to think properly of where it could be hidden, and then we can cross it off of our places to look."

"I never realized how big this school was," Megan piped up. "Some of the hallways I didn't even know existed, and we're supposed to find a prophecy that's been hidden hundreds of years, that nobody's been able to find!" Sirius, James and Remus exchanged glances before sighing. Sirius ran up the stairs to the boys dormitory, leaving behind three very confused girls. Lily opened her mouth to speak, but James cut her off.

"You'll find out," he told her softly. Lily bit her lip and nodded, but every now and then she'd glance at the stairs to see if Sirius was coming.

Meanwhile, Sirius, who was upstairs searching for the Marauder's Map, swore under his breath. Where was it? He was sure that James had left it in his trunk, but it wasn't anywhere to be found. We just used it not that long ago when we went off with Remus... it SHOULD be here! Sirius lifted up shirt from the floor and saw the map underneath it. He grabbed it and took it downstairs, placing it on the table.

When he placed the blank piece of parchment on the table in front of them, the girls thought that he was barking mad. Why spend all of that time to search for a blank piece of parchment? If he needed it that bad, they'd have gladly gave him some.

"Sirius," Lily began, "What—?" Sirius held up his hand, showing that she should keep quiet. Pulling his wand out of his back pocket, he tapped the piece of parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he replied. Lily and Megan exchanged a glance and burst out laughing; even Ali managed an enormous smile.

"He's finally done it," Megan replied, shaking her head sadly.

"Done what?" Lily asked her.

"He's gone bloody mad." Megan exclaimed. Sirius glared at her and pretended to laugh.

"Haha, very funny Winters. I'm not bloody mad, look," Sirius shoved the parchment under her nose, and she gasped. On it was what appeared to be a map, with tons of dots all over the place— not as many as there would be had it not been the holidays, since there weren't as many students at the school.

"What is this?" Lily asked, taking a closer look. Ali slid to the edge of her seat and leaned over Lily to see it.

"Sirius, why did you bring that?" Remus asked.

"It might help us... we can see the entire school, so we'll know where we haven't searched." James replied slowly, catching on to what Sirius was doing. Sirius nodded and put the map back on the table.

"Exactly! Of course, it can't help us entirely..." he added. "It only has the places we know about marked here, and even after almost a full seven years here, we still don't know the entire school," Lily's head shot up.

"You mean to tell me that... the three of you... created this?" she asked. She seemed stunned. That's difficult magic... I don't even know if I could charm it like that... but... this must be breaking nearly all of the rules.

"Four of us, actually. Pete helped too, although he didn't do the spellwork— that was mostly courtesy of Remus here, we helped by telling him where everything was." James told them. Lily's gaze met his but they both quickly looked away. Lily cleared her throat.

"So... how long did it take to make this?" she asked, trying not to appear too interested— after all, she refused to break the rules unless absolutely necessary. Curiosity... wasn't breaking the rules... was it?

"Well you have to keep in mind that this school is enormous... it took most of our fourth year to start it, and over the years we added whatever we discovered to it. It wasn't until sixth year that Remus learned how to plot every student on here— nasty bit of spell work," James added.

"Well... you must be breaking almost all of the rules by having this, James!" Lily scolded. "How could you— ALL of you— live with that?" she demanded.

"...It's... only breaking the rules... if we get caught. And we won't. Don't worry about it, and besides, its lucky we have it." James told her. "Uh, listen... why don't Lily and I go— look in the library for something about Gryffindor? Megan and Ali can search the girls washrooms, and Sirius, you and Remus search the guys washrooms. At least, the best you can... maybe there'll be something in the walls. And meet us in the library when you're done," James added. Remus and Sirius exchanged an amused glance.

"So you and Lily will just be going to the library?" Remus replied quietly. James looked back at him confused and nodded.

"No... stopping near any broom closets to ah, snog the breath out of each other?" Sirius asked. Lily grabbed a pillow from the end of the couch and threw it at him.

"Oh shove off!" she told him. "Our only stop is the library, we can switch up the parties if you'd like. Perhaps you and Megan could go to the library and snog the breath out of each other." Lily retorted. Megan, at hearing this, turned to her, furious.

"As if I'd ever snog that pig!" she shouted. Sirius turned to her.

"You snogged that moron from Ravenclaw," Sirius accused. "What's the difference?" He suddenly realized what he had said, and appeared stunned by it. "I mean... well, just that..."

"You sounded almost... jealous... Padfoot. That's not like you!" James replied in awe. Sirius shrugged it off.

"Whatever. Come on, Remmy, let's go." Sirius replied, using his nickname for Remus. Remus got up and grinned at James before walking off. Megan and Ali waited until Sirius and Remus had gone through the portrait entrance.

"What was that all about?" Lily asked, as she and James walked towards the Common Room entrance. James shrugged.

"Who knows? Let's not focus on it. Come on, let's get to the library— they'll probably be spying on us first to see if we even go there, so we should hurry." Lily nodded and they walked to the library.

—

Dumbledore rummaged through the papers on his desk, searching for something. He didn't hear the gentle tapping on his window, but when a gust of wind blew them open— as well as blowing the papers off his desk— he noticed a wizard floating on a broomstick at his window.

"Dumbledore, it's been awhile." the mysterious man replied. Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, it has indeed. What brings you here, at this hour?" he asked. The man climbed in through the window and hopped off of his broom, leaning it against the castle wall inside of Dumbledore's office.

"I won't waste your time, Dumbledore, so let's get straight to the point, shall we? You have told, I hope, the students about the prophecy?" the man asked. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"No, I have not." he replied. "Nor do I intend to." This answer seemed to surprise the man, who jumped back, stunned.

"You must tell them! They need to know that they're involved— who knows what this prophecy..."

"Ah, you mean the seven students of which the prophecy involves? My mistake," Dumbledore replied gently. "Yes, they have been informed, and I assure you that even now they are searching for the prophecy." Dumbledore told him. The man looked back at him, clearly confused.

"But you said..."

"Ah, a simple case of misunderstanding! I had assumed you meant the entire student population at the school, which in that case, no, they have not been informed. Is that all you came here for? I'm rather busy at the moment, and this is not the greatest—"

"No, that is not all I'm here for. The news has just reached us... I'm terribly sorry, but the news of another murder has reached those of us at the Ministry. It will be in every newspaper across the world by tomorrow morning— by the end of the holidays, there won't be a soul who won't know." he added gravely. Dumbledore, who had been standing, hoping the unwanted visitor would leave, now sat down and poured two cups of brandy.

"Know what?" Dumbledore asked finally, handing the brandy to the man. The mysterious visitor took a sip of his brandy, before speaking again.

"That Lily Evan's parents were murdered tonight by You-Know-Who."

A/N: Uh oh... poor Lily has now become an orphan. Sorry, tried to bring the prophecy up a bit more in this chapter and hopefully I did enough for now, but I didn't really have any particular plans for this chapter so I just went with the flow this time. A bit of a short chapter but I do want to try to make updates a little more frequently than it has been, so hopefully you'll see another update from me soon. R&R.