A/N: Thanks to all of you who read/reviewed/added this story to your alerts and/or favorites/added me as a favorite author and/or author alert. It means so, so much, and I appreciate it with all my heart! Enjoy!

Chapter Four: Death Eaters and Mudbloods

Lily was playing with a small child. His messy raven hair complimented his beautiful, almond shaped emerald eyes. They were exactly like his mothers, but Lily thought they were ten times prettier than hers. She wrapped her arms around her child, and she heard him mutter "Mama" against her hair. He was starting to say his first few words.

The scene changed, and she was running madly, the small boy nestled into her arms. A voice she knew, a voice she loved, yelled "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" She bit back a sob, and ran into the little yellow nursery. She placed the child-Harry- into the crib, and the scene changed again…

He looks like James, she thought. Woods were all around them, and she felt…different. Her eyes took in his face hungrily, and he was nervous, almost sad. "Stay close to me." He said quietly…

"Lily! Wake up! It's time to get breakfast." A distant voice called. Lily's eyes opened, and she felt hollow, almost empty at her now awoken state. She was having a dream that she didn't want to leave, but she couldn't remember the dream exactly. All she remembered was the baby, and her intense longing to help him. He needed her. He asked, "Stay close to me." The thought made her want to cry.

"Lily? Wake up! C'mon! Dorea and I have both had our showers, it's your turn." Alice called. She pulled Lily's curtains apart. "Lily? Are you okay? You're looking peaky."

Lily sat up. "I'm okay… Just tired."

Alice didn't look convinced. "Oh, okay, Lily… Well, when you're finished we'll go get breakfast."

Lily nodded and pulled her legs to her chest. She rested her forehead against her knees and took deep breaths. The few fragments of the dream flittered through her head. She had no idea what they meant, but they saddened her to not remember them. After a few minutes thought, she shook her head and got up to take her shower. Mary and Colette, the other girls in their dorm, were already gone.

Her morning routine was easy: quick shower, hair drying spell, teeth brushed, swipe of mascara, lip balm, robes, shoes, and out the dormitory. Today she pinned her hair half up and slipped on her simple white trainers before linking arms and heading to breakfast with her two best friends.

They chose a spot on the Gryffindor table a few seats down from the Marauders. They were already shoveling food into their mouths and grunting to one another every few bites.

"They're like cavemen." Alice muttered. Dorea grinned.

"Yeah, well, they're men." She said before she started pouring drinks for all. Lily looked around the great hall while Alice, the mother-like friend of the three, placed food on their plates. It didn't take Lily long to spot Severus at the Slytherin table. He looked up at the precise moment she did, and his smoldering black gaze burned into her emerald one. She looked away.

'Remember, he called you Mudblood in front of everyone. He's not the same Sev anymore.' She thought sadly. Regardless of who he had become and what he had done, she still missed him. He taught her about the magical world, he told her she was a witch. But he was a Death Eater now, Lily reminded herself, and their friendship was finished.

"Eat up, Lily. We have Transfiguration first." Dorea said. Lily did as she was told and hurriedly finished her breakfast before quickly washing it down with pumpkin juice.

"It's the first day of our last year. Weird, isn't it?" she said after a moment or so. Both girls paused.

"Yeah… it is." Dorea said. "I had almost forgotten."

"Me too. It seemed so normal, you know? I didn't even think about it being the first day of our last year. It's so routine now." Alice said, pulling her fingers through her curly brown locks. "It's sad."

Both Lily and Dorea nodded, each absorbed in their own thoughts.

"Excuse me, Alice, but can I escort you to class?" someone said. All three girls were snapped out of their reveries by Frank Longbottom's voice. Alice erupted into giggles.

"Of course!" she said, jumping up with her bag. She and Frank left the Great Hall, hands linked with their heads close together.

"They're adorable." Lily sighed happily.

"Yeah they are, but I but you anything that 'May I escort you to class?' actually means, 'Hey Alice, can I snog your brains out before we have to go to Transfiguration?'" Dorea said. Lily laughed.

"C'mon, let's go. Maybe we can get a seat that is nowhere near the Marauders and nowhere near McGonagall." Lily said.

--

The day had been going well, Lily thought. All of her classes were challenging, yet fun, and she still had one or two free periods each day to take time to relax or do her homework. There had been no mishaps, except for when Peter Pettigrew blew up a frog in Potions, and all four of the Marauders were behaving somewhat well.

"It's amazing you didn't get a detention for that frog incident, Pete." Lily heard Remus say at dinner.

"I know! He didn't even realize that Padfoot had shoved a fire cracker in it!" Peter said loudly. Lily rolled her eyes as James laughed and Remus tried not to.

"That's disgusting." Dorea muttered. "Ana Prewett got it in her hair." All three girls shuddered. Lily picked up a stray Daily Prophet and skimmed through the headlines. One especially caught her eye:

Five Muggleborns Killed

Yesterday morning five Muggleborns were found tortured and murdered at a small cottage in Surrey. The victims are Pippa Bard, Jonathon Thomas, Edwina Harker, Charlus Adams, and Whilimina Murphy. There are no suspects at this time, but it is believed to be the work of known Death Eaters Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, and Alecto Carrow. The Dark Mark was found over the cottage where the victims were staying. Sources tell us that the five were in hiding from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. No funeral service dates have been released.

Lily sighed and pointed the headline out to her friends.

"Remember Whilimina? She was Head Girl when we were in third year. She was so nice." She said. Alice and Dorea both read the article. Alice sniffed and turned the paper over.

"It's getting worse every day." She said. "Can't the ministry do something about it all?"

"They're trying." Said Dorea, "Voldemort is just trying harder."

"Potter's dad must be so stressed right now." Alice said, "Being the minister and all. It must be frustrating to not be able to stop this war."

Lily was startled. "James's dad is the Minister of Magic?!" Alice and Dorea looked like she had grown two more heads.

"How in the world did you not know that?" Dorea asked.

"I just didn't. I never really gave much thought to Aldaric Potter being James Potter's father." Lily said. "I try NOT to think of anything relating to James."

Dorea raised an eyebrow. "Since when has he been called James?" she asked. Alice grinned madly as Lily's face went blood red.

"Well, he is Head Boy, you know… It's only fitting that I call him by this first name…" Lily mumbled. Alice giggled and Dorea kept her eyebrow raised.

"Sure, love, whatever you say." She said. Suddenly, a devilish grin crossed her face and she took a deep breath. Lily knew whatever was coming was going to be bad… "LILY EVANS LOOOOOOOOOVES-"

"DOREA ANTOINETTE ABBOTT, I WILL BLOODY KILL YOU IF YOU FINISH THAT SENTENCE!" Lily screamed. Dorea snapped her mouth shut and grinned wickedly. Everyone in the Great Hall had gone silent and had their eyes glued to the three girls.

"You could never kill me, babe. What would you do without me?" Dorea blew a kiss at her. Lily was seething.

"Totally. Not. Funny." Lily said. "I do not love him. I don't even bloody like him!"

"But you will. It'll be just like Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth!" said Dorea.

"Oh, how romantic!" Alice sighed. Lily rolled her eyes as her friends.

"No way in hell will that ever happen." She said, turning back to her dinner. Dorea sighed.

"You'll always love me, right Lils?" she said after a moment or two.

Lily cut her eyes at her. "Of course, Dorea. Why would I not?" she said in a deadly calm voice.

"Oh, nothing, nothing…" Dorea said nonchalantly, waving her hand in the air. "It's just nice to confirm that every now and again."

Lily watched her for a moment or two before returning back to her paper and her dinner. Dorea turned to Alice and winked.

"Oh no…" Alice muttered. Dorea took another deep breath.

"LILY EVANS WOULD LIKE EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT SHE LUSTS AFTER PETER PETTIGREW'S BODY!" Dorea yelled.

"Run, run now!" Alice said to Dorea. The hall had gone silent again.

Lily slowly put down her paper. Her face had gone purple and she looked ready to kill.

"All in good fun, eh, Lily?" Dorea said. Lily started shaking. "Um…"

Suddenly, Lily let out a high-pitched scream before standing up abruptly.

"RUN, DOREA! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" Alice cried. Dorea screamed too and took off running out of the Great Hall with Lily on her heels. For a few minutes, the whole Hall listened to Lily and Dorea's screams fading away before they continued their regular conversations. Alice sighed and finished her dinner before she went to sit by Frank, who was sitting with none other than the Marauder's themselves.

"What in the world was that about, Alice?" Frank asked his girlfriend. Alice smiled as she sat down beside him and took a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"Oh, you know, girlish teasing and whatnot. Bit of comical relief, if you will." Alice said as though this was a perfectly acceptable answer. All the Marauders and Frank stared at her.

"That was girlish teasing?" Remus said. "That was traumatic."

"That was hilarious!" Sirius said. "I'll have to talk to Dorea about that later."

Alice rolled her eyes.

"Teasing? Oh… I thought it could be the truth." Peter said. He looked a little sad. James shook his head and stood up.

"I'm going to head back to the common room, guys. I'll see you later." He said before walking out of the hall. A few girls whispered and giggled as he walked by, but James no longer noticed or reveled in the attention he got from girls. The only girl's attention he wanted was the one he couldn't seem to get a positive way. He sighed as he walked down the corridors of Hogwarts, lost in his thoughts. It seemed like only yesterday that he had noticed that the pretty red-headed girl on the Hogwarts Express. Time was slowly running out.

"Hey, James! James!" someone called. James turned around to see Amelia Weaver, a pretty brown haired Ravenclaw running up to him.

"Oh, hi Amelia." James said, giving her his typical crooked smile.

Amelia flashed him a bright smile. "Hi. How was your summer?"

"Um, it was good. How was yours?" James politely asked. He had no clue why Amelia was asking him all of this. Besides a few interactions in class, and now in Prefect's meetings (Amelia was Ravenclaw's Prefect) they had never really spoken.

"It was really good. I went to France with my parents. It was wonderful; I think you would have liked it a lot." Amelia said. She was smiling so widely James was afraid her face would get stuck in that position.

"That's good. I'm glad you had fun." He said.

"Aw, that's sweet of you, James!" Amelia said, giggling.

"Um… yeah. Well, I have to go. I'll see you later." James said.

"Alright. See you at the Prefect's meeting Friday!" Amelia waved at James as he continued his way to the common room. 'That was weird…' he thought.

Suddenly, a short, purple-haired girl rounded a corner in front of him, grumbling to herself.

"Dorea?!" James said once he noticed who it was. Dorea scowled at him.

"She turned my hair purple…" she growled. "She claims it won't go back to normal for months."

"She turned my hair green in fourth year, remember? It didn't change for two months. There wasn't any spell Sirius and I could find to change it back."

"Remus couldn't help you?" Dorea said, rubbing at her own tendrils.

"He could, I'm sure, but he wouldn't. I had made fun on Snape pretty badly and Remus said I deserved it." James said.

"Great. Two months of purple hair, just what I needed." Dorea groaned. "Anyway, how was your summer, Potter?"

"It was good." James said. The two of them walked together to the Common Room, "Kind of boring. Sirius and I eventually ran out of pranks to pull on the house elves and my family, and there's only so much Quiditch two blokes can play. What about yours?"

"It was good. Lily was over a lot. Her sister is engaged so she did everything that she could to get away from wedding planning and the fat whale of a fiancé her sister has. I think she was trying to get away from Snape as well. He lives only a few streets away from her, and she doesn't want anything to do with him anymore."

James scowled at the mention of Snape. He hated that gits name being in the same sentence as his beauty Lily's. "He's still trying to be friends with her, is he?"

Dorea nodded. "He thinks Lily will forgive him, but Lily refuses to. He's gone too far with his little Death Eater hobby, and after what he called her, you know, it's impossible for her to think of even trying to accept his apologies." she said. James felt quite proud of Lily for not giving in to Snape's pleas.

"Good. He doesn't deserve her. He's not worth the air he breathes." James said proudly. Dorea nodded again.

"You're right, but, Potter, you have to understand that it's hard for her to hate him. He was her best friend for years, he told her about Hogwarts. When he called her what he did, it broke her heart. She cried for days."

James's jaw clenched and his hate for Severus Snape grew even deeper. Finally the two came to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Password?" she asked.

"Fortitudo." James and Dorea said together. The Fat Lady nodded before swinging open to allow passage to the Gryffindor Common Room. A few students were back from dinner already and sitting around, either doing homework or talking with friends. There were one or two first years that were sitting by themselves or talking to their new friends, but everyone seemed at ease already. Dorea waved goodbye to James and went up to the staircases to her dormitory. James suspected she was going to try and change her back to its normal color. James made his way to his dormitory, unbuttoning the first few buttons on his shirt. He grinned as he entered the room he shared with his friends: Sirius had already started decorating it in his typical Sirius fashion.

All of the beds in the room had decorations of the aura of the man who slept there. At Sirius's bed, posters of bikini clad Muggle girls adorned the walls, and a few moving posters of pretty witches were winking down at James, their short and low-cut robes extremely noticeable. There were a few Quiditch posters and all of the bedding was messed up. The trunk at the foot of his bed was open and it looked as though an animal had dug through it. At Remus's bed, the bedding was neatly tucked in with a few books sitting on top and at the bedside table, a few more books and a bar of chocolate sat. Peter's bed came next. The bedding was messed up as well and a pair of socks were sticking out of his trunk. Next came James's bed, adorned with Quditch posters and books, his stolen Snitch, his wrinkled bedding and his trunk that had a highly polished and well maintained broom on it.

James flopped down onto his bed and looked over at the bedside table. A small picture frame was there, a moving picture of Lily in it. Sirius had taken it last year at Christmas when Lily wasn't looking, and James had gotten into the habit of looking at it before he went to bed every night. She was laughing with Alice at the fire, her eyes twinkling and her hair framed around her face beautifully. She'd probably kill him if she knew he had it.

James sighed and looked up at the crimson material of his canopy. He was losing hope that he would ever be more to Lily than an annoyance. She obviously hated the fact that he was Head Boy, and he wanted nothing more than for her to count on and have trust in him. Although he didn't originally want the position of Head Boy, he was going to fully take advantage of it now. He would prove to Lily that he was worth the position, and maybe earn her trust along the way.

James's eyes drifted closed, and he was swept away to sleep…

Later…

Lily looked at her watch and sighed. James had five minutes before he was late for patrols. Her foot tapped impatiently had the worn carpeting of the Gryffindor common room.

"Oh, Lily, relax. He'll be here on time. He's probably goofing around with Black." Alice placed her dainty hand on Lily's slender one.

"He shouldn't be goofing around! He's the bloody Head Boy, Alice." Lily grumbled before she sat down in an arm chair. Alice rolled her eyes.

"He's a 17 year old boy, Lils, why can't he goof off? And besides, you turned Dorea's hair PURPLE this afternoon." Alice said. Lily squirmed.

"So…?" She said. Alice grinned.

"Teenagers will be teenagers, love, especially teenage boys." Alice yawned and stood up from where she was doing her homework. "I'm off to bed, Lily. See you in the morning."

Lily hugged her friend goodnight and resumed the tapping of her foot. Three minutes before James was late…

Suddenly, a yell erupted from the boy's dormitories, and the door to James's room flew open and James got pushed out by Remus.

"Go! You have a few moments before you're late, and you don't want Lily to be angry!" she heard Remus scold James.

Lily grinned at Remus but quickly hid it as James came grumbling into the Common Room. He looked as though he had just woken up.

"Hi, Lily…" he muttered as he ran his fingers through his hair.

"Hello, James." She said stiffly. "Come on, we need to get a move on."

James nodded and followed Lily out of the tower. The two of them strolled around the corridors in silence, until Lily suggested they split up. At first James was reluctant to leave Lily by herself, but he figured not to press the issue. He watched Lily walk away before he started down the corridor where the Charm's classrooms were. He heard a few giggles and had to shoo some snogging fifth years back to their dormitories. His walk continued for a while until he realized something: he had the Marauder's Map on him. He could just go to the exact places where students out of bed were. How could he be so stupid?

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." He said to the paper. Black ink spread across the large parchment, revealing Hogwarts and her inhabitants. There was only one or two people left wandering the halls, and within a few moments he had found them and told them to go bed. He took another look at the map, searching for Lily's name. She was walking along the third floor by herself, but another person was quickly approaching her: Severus Snape.

James was torn. He didn't know whether or not to go to Lily and make sure she was going to be okay, or to just continue on with his scan of the castle. Lily was a tough girl, he knew she could take care of herself, but that didn't reduce his want to go and help…

Meanwhile…

Lily was happily finishing her first ever tour of the castle as the Head Girl. She had to shoo off only a few students, and was almost ready to turn back and make her way to her dormitory. Her soft, warm bed was calling to her. Just as she was about to turn around, soft but quick footsteps approached her. She pulled her wand out, just in case, and came face to face with Severus Snape as he rounded a corner. Her magnificent eyes narrowed at him, and he gave a sheepish smile.

"Go to bed, Snape, before I take points." She warned. Her wand was raised and she took a few steps back. His dark eyes glinted.

"Please talk to me, Lily…" he pleaded. "I need to explain everything!"

"There's nothing to explain here except the reason why you're out of bed!" Lily growled.

"I needed to speak to you and knew I'd find you around here." Severus said. He took a step closer to Lily and she backed away. Snape sighed. "Where's Potter?"

"He's…around." Lily said. "Go to bed."

Snape's eyes narrowed. "Potter probably tricked the Head Master into giving him the Head Boy position." He spit out.

"No, Severus, he probably didn't. He's not a dirty Slytherin who tricks and bribes." Lily said. "Go back to your Death Eater thugs, Snivellus."

"I miss you, Lily…" he mumbled and Lily felt her heart break.

"Death Eater's don't miss Mudbloods."

His face darkened. Heavy footsteps filled the corridor, and James rounded the corner, slightly out of breath. He glared at Snape and pulled out his wand.

"Out of bed, are you, Snivellus? Five points from Slytherin." James sneered. Severus pulled his wand out, and the two men faced each other.

"You think you can take points away from me just because you've somehow managed to become Head Boy? Don't make me laugh."

"Fifteen points from Slytherin!" Lily said as she stepped in between the two. She pointed her wand in Severus's face. "Go to bed, Snivellus, before I take fifty points away."

Snape scowled, but said nothing else as he turned on his heel and moved quickly down the hallway. James didn't put his wand back down until the sound of the Slytherin's footsteps finally faded away. He looked over to Lily, and was shocked to see tears streaking down her face and her shoulders shaking. To see the tears in her eyes and her suppressed sobs made him want to kill Snape and comfort her all at the same time.

"Lily…" James said. He placed a hand on her shoulder, but her shoulders tensed.

"Leave me alone." She said before turning away from him and striding down the corridor.

"Lily! Wait!" James called. In a few strides he had caught up with her, but when he grabbed her wrist she pulled roughly away from him.

"What do you not understand of leave me alone?" she snapped. "You just made that situation ten times worse."

James blinked. "I was only trying to help you, Lily." He said coldly.

"You didn't help, Potter. You never do. Leave me the hell alone!" Lily said before she turned on her heel and raced to the Gryffindor Tower. James's heart shattered, but he didn't follow her. They had only been at school for two days and he had already ruined the small fragment of a friendship he had with her. James swore loudly before making his way to the Tower.

--

Hey everyone! Thanks to all of you who have read/reviewed/favorite/subscribed. It means the world to me and I truly do appreciate it.

This chapter is kind of a filler, I know and I'm sorry. I tried adding some fun stuff, but don't worry! Exciting things are on the way!

Please review! It makes me sooo happy.

Love always,

Dorian K.