Disclaimer: All the characters that you recognize belong to J. K. Rowling.
Author's Note: Thanks to Juicilyn, magicmilkypnay37, blvd, Miss Myrtle360, x0x-Mystique-x0x, i heart pink, dreamergirl86, MissMrprk, blaiselover, ilovedrew88, chickenspaz911, PruePotter, WhiteCamellia, †®©ÿ, Prongs76, Lis, Katie Pie, me, kkroonie, and trashcan for reviewing! You all are so incredible!
PruePotter Good question, the story will end at the end of Lily and James's seventh year. I honestly don't think I have enough ideas for this to last until their deaths! Or at least any good ideas and I don't want to ruin the whole thing by adding crappy ideas!
Prongs76: Wow, you and PruePotter had nearly the same question! So, I'll say once more, this will end at the end of seventh year, not their deaths. Sorry if that's not the answer you wanted to hear!
"I can't believe it," Lily complained as she looked at the schedule for the morning. It was her first day back to classes after the incident with Professor Rander, and the new potions teacher had arrived. She was the only person in the entire school who wasn't able to enjoy the days off from everyone's least favorite class.
"Potions," Scarlett said as she looked over Lily's shoulder. "I was just getting used to not going."
"I agree," Zoë remarked as she took a large bite of pancakes.
"Who do you think the new teacher is?" Scarlett asked as she looked up at the faculty table.
Lily followed her gaze; she saw Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and all the other usuals. But no one new was present. "Hmm, I guess we'll have to find out."
"I just hope whoever it is, is better than Rander," Zoë remarked.
"Well, considering Rander was a death eater, I highly doubt it'll be hard to get any worse. Unless Dumbledore is really off his rocker and hires You-Know-Who," Marissa said, finally looking up from her cereal and joining the conversation.
"No, you idiot, I meant work wise," Zoë retorted, "You know, Rander always gave a bitch load of work."
Before Marissa could say anything else, Lily jumped in and said, "Okay, knock it off you two. Let's just go to class."
Both girls huffed a little as they crossed their arms. Lily almost laughed when she noticed it. They looked exactly the same when they did so, which wasn't unusual considering they were identical twins. But it was funny that although they desperately tried to be different from each other, they were exactly the same in so many ways.
Lily was chatting away with Scarlett when the girls walked into class, she didn't even notice that James and the rest of the Marauders were already seated, or the new teacher standing at the front of the desk. That is, until she heard a familiar voice, "Miss Evans, I'm so thrilled to see that you've continued on with Potions."
Lily looked up and saw one of her favorite professors at Hogwarts, Professor Slughorn. "Professor!"
"Miss Evans, how are you?" he asked.
"Good, very good," she answered, and then asked, "And how are you?"
"Fine, fine, but Miss Evans, I heard about your incident with Rander," he said, adding a small gasp for a dramatic affect.
"Yes, it wasn't pleasant, but James Potter saved my life," Lily told him.
"I've heard," he answered.
"Anyways, what are you doing back so soon? I thought that you were supposed to be researching down in Brazil for another three years!" Lily asked.
"Well, I was. I was supposed to be there for a total of five years, but my sabbatical was cut short by three years. When the Headmaster told me of the incident, he got me thinking a lot. Of course, that was his plan all along, to get me thinking. So, anyway, I got to thinking about how much I missed the school and what a pleasure it was to teach such brilliant minds like yourself, so I decided to come back," Slughorn replied.
"And your research?" she asked.
"Well, let's just say that it wasn't going as planned," he informed her.
"How so?" she questioned.
"Well, I just couldn't get anything. The plant I need was so hard to find, not to mention that a researcher from France was there as well, taking it. So, it was hard to find, not to mention that some days were just too hot and the potion didn't function at that temperature. Basically, it was impossible to do under the circumstances," he honestly said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Professor," Lily told him.
"Not to worry, I'm back here now," he said with a bright and cheery smile. "And, I think it's time to catch up with my favorite students. What do you say you, me and our regular gang have tea in my office tonight?"
"Sounds wonderful," Lily told him, flashing him a smile as well.
"Well, I could just talk all day, Miss Evans, but looking at the clock, class starts now," he said, looking somewhat disappointed that he couldn't speak more with his star student any longer.
"Alright," Lily replied with a cheerful smile as she walked away from her professor and toward the desks.
She saw that Marissa and Gracie shared a lab bench, as did Zoë and Scarlett. She then saw that James and Remus sat next to each other, and in front of them were Sirius and Peter. She scanned the classroom and saw just one open seat. And that seat was next to Severus Snape.
She sighed as she took a seat next him. She hated when this happened. She hated not sitting next to her friends and winding up next to certain Slytherins that didn't catch her fancy.
"Ah, class, it feels so great to be back," Professor Slughorn told the class once everyone was seated. He then proceeded to give them today's assignment, which was to brew a counter-truth telling potion.
Lily, along with the rest of the class then gathered their ingredients and began to chop different herbs and creatures into many small pieces. As she began to stir her potion counterclockwise for fifteen strokes, she noticed that Snape took out a quill and was scribbling away at his book. He then began to stir his potion as well, and Lily watched in amazement as he did very different motions than the book directed. Instead of fifteen counterclockwise stokes, he did ten counterclockwise ones and then one clockwise stir. He did that once more, before continuing on with the potion.
"Why are you doing things differently than the book says to do?" she finally asked him. She couldn't stand to sit back and watch his genius work any longer.
He looked startled when he heard her voice, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. "Are, are you talking to me?"
"Yes," she replied, smiling brightly at him.
"It works better than the book," he mumbled.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Is my potion clear as water?" he smugly asked.
She glanced into his cauldron. She was amazed to see the results, it looked as if he'd poured a galleon of water in there instead of complicated ingredients.
"And what color is yours?" he asked once she looked up.
Lily then looked into her own cauldron. It looked murky, still a clear color, but certainly didn't look like fresh mineral water.
"That's how I know," he said, as if talking to someone of lesser intelligence than himself.
She didn't have time to say anything else though, because just then Slughorn walked up to their lab bench. He looked into Lily's cauldron and said, "Miss Evans, I must say, you're still as brilliant as ever."
"Thank you, sir," she replied with a smile on her face.
"Look at this, it's nearly perfect," Slughorn continued, "I say, Miss Evans, I wouldn't be surprised if you went into a profession dealing with Potions. You are a very witch."
"Thank you, sir," she said once again.
"I'm serious, with just one more attempt at this, I'd say you would have it mastered," he told her, boasting on and on about his favorite student's talents.
He then moved on and looked into Snape's cauldron, "Good work."
Lily looked shocked when Slughorn walked away. Snape's potion was perfect, and all he had to say was "Good work." And he looked at her potion, one that certainly wasn't as good as Snape's and wouldn't shut up about it.
"You look surprised," Snape commented, being somewhat decent toward her, which was a complete turn around from his usual attitude.
"That's all he has to say?"
"As per usual," Snape commented.
"But, but you're amazing at Potions," Lily said.
"But you're his favorite, so in his mind, you are far better at this bloody subject," he moodily stated.
"That's not right," she said.
"This is life, Evans, it's never fair, get used to it," he replied.
Lily only looked at him, unsure what to say next. She noticed that he stopped paying attention to her all together and went back to brewing his potion, she did the same. Questions still filled her mind though. Did Slughorn really pay no attention to the best potion brewer this school had seen in a long time, just because he was an oddball? Did Slughorn really prefer her work to his just because she was one of his favorite students?
Her thoughts were interrupted, however, when she heard a knock on the dungeon's door. The entire class looked up from their work and watched as a small second year delivered a note to their professor. The girl scrambled out of the room quickly, only saying a polite goodbye to Slughorn.
Slughorn then looked down at the note and he got a very confused look on his face as he read the letter over once more.
"Mister Potter," he finally said, "It appears that the Headmaster would like to see you in his office."
All eyes then turned on James, and he heard Remus mutter, "What did you do now?"
"I don't know," he whispered back to his friend. He then got up from his seat and walked toward the front of the classroom. Slughorn quickly told him the password and then James slowly walked out of the classroom.
As James made his way through the hallways, he couldn't help but wonder what Dumbledore needed to talk about, especially something so urgent that he needed to be pulled from class. Not that James was complaining about getting out of class, he cherished every opportunity he got to be excused from class.
He automatically thought of the worst: Dumbledore found out about the Marauders secret. He found out that James, Sirius, and Peter had the capability of becoming animals. And even more, he found out that the three of them transformed once a month to comfort Remus during his transformations. Not to mention the fact that he found out about them running wild at night, into the forest and through Hogsmeade. Yes, that was it for sure. Plus, he chose to ask them all about it separately.
James then shook his head, that wasn't possible. Dumbledore didn't know a thing about their secret lives. Besides, he wasn't the type to interrogate people by themselves, and he certainly wouldn't pull James out of class for this.
He tried to think of what else it could be, but couldn't muster up a single thought. James was certainly doing well in all his classes; he was prone to achieving top grades in all his classes and on his NEWTS. He hadn't done any major pranks recently. In fact, James hadn't done anything wrong lately.
James then realized that he was now standing outside of Dumbledore's office. He was about to find out what was so important that he needed to be excused from class.
As he climbed the staircase, he knew what it was. It was about Rander. Dumbledore was just checking in on him, making sure that he was still okay and not depressed about the situation. Yes, that's definitely what this was all about.
"James," Dumbledore said once he saw the Head Boy enter the room.
James studied him for a bit, trying to discover if his Rander theory was correct. But for some reason, he immediately knew that it wasn't right. Dumbledore didn't sound cheerful as usual. Instead he sounded sad, almost as if he were sorry for James.
"Please, sit down," the Headmaster said.
James sat down across from Dumbledore. He was a bit uneasy now, maybe his theory about Dumbledore knowing the Marauders secret was correct after all.
"James," he said once more.
"Professor," James said. He didn't sound fresh when he said it though, he sounded sincere, as he wanted to know what was on his professor's mind.
Dumbledore let out a heavy sigh, but it was easily seen that he was very tense. It almost looked as if he had to do something that he really didn't want to do.
"James, I wish I had good news to tell you this morning," Dumbledore began.
"But you don't," James said, stating the obvious.
"No, no I don't," he gloomily replied.
James could feel his heart rate increase. He was now very worried that something was dreadfully wrong, never mind his petty ideas. He just didn't know what it was, and wasn't sure that he wanted to know what it was.
"It's about your parents," Dumbledore finally said.
"What about them?" James carefully asked, panic was written all over his face.
"There was an attack, a death eater attack."
"No, no," James said as he slowly shook his head.
"I'm afraid so."
"But, but, they're okay, right?"
"James, they didn't make it," Dumbledore answered. "I'm sorry."
Author's Note 2: I hope you all enjoyed chapter 44! I'm so sorry that it's taken so long to update, but I have two good reasons. One, I was just at/ still am at a HUGE part of Love Affair, and I needed to write before all the ideas that were in my mind went away. And two, I was suffering from a small writer's block for this story. But it's gone now, I promise! Anyways, I hope you'll all review, I'd love to hear your feedback!