Hurrah! Next chapter is here! Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, you guys rock!!! Hope you like!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. And no, Harry Potter doesn't own me. Happy?

The next afternoon found Lily making her way down to lunch, accompanied by a swelling pack of girls. Several of them were her fellow Gryffindor sixth years, but not all. Many of their number were Ravenclaws, or Hufflepuffs. Forth years and seventh years. Fifth years and sixth years like Lily. Smart girls and funny girls. Shy girls and snobby girls. Calm girls and energetic girls. But all of them chattering girls, giggling and gossiping to their hearts content. The farther they went, the larger their number became, like a cyclone, gaining momentum as it swirled along. Lily silently walked among them, like the calm eye of a raging storm. At least, she seemed calm. No one noticed that her jaw was set, or that she was gripping her bag a little hard. The rest of the girls were too intent on their loud conversations to notice that Lily, instead of talking with them, was staring fixedly ahead, as though determined not to crack.

Noise, she fumed, that all it is, useless noise. And in truth, these girls weren't talking about much worthwhile. The frivolous chatter rose and fell, ebbed and flowed, roared and screeched and whined. Yet the girls walked and talked on. Would it hurt them to stop for one minute? Couldn't they give it a rest? The noise echoed and reverberated within Lily's scull, making her ears ring. It pressed down upon her like the weight of the entire world, smothering her every protest. She felt as if she were choking, drowning in the fathomless depths of the endless noise surrounding her. Would it ever stop… what's that they're saying?

Lily caught snatches of the conversations around her, and the shear stupidity of what she heard made her want to scream. What did it matter who Jeremy Spats was dating next, and did they have to go over every single detail of Sherry Chandler's latest Hogsmeade outfit again? She almost yelled at them, almost told them to use their memory's for something other then the latest Witch Weekly article, but she bit her tongue. It would do no good to start a shouting match in the middle of the halls. And besides, these were her friends, right? Well, some of these girls could be her sisters (real sisters, not like Petunia), but others- well, she suspected they were the ones who were spreading rumors about things she did in broom closets on weekends. But even so, now was not the time, not the place to vent her anger. She was a prefect, she would hold her tongue…

It took all of Lily's self control to reach the Great Hall without exploding. A sharp ach was now throbbing between her eyes, and her fingernails had embedded themselves in the strap of her bag. But the sounds of hoards of students beginning their lunches didn't help much. The world, it seemed, had no sympathy for Lily. The sharp clatter of cutlery against plates, combined with the din of a hundred student's conversations was enough to make her eyes water. Her vision swam, and she could barely seat herself at the Gryffindor table. Screwing up her eyes against the noise, she grabbed a sandwich, trying to eat as quickly as possible so she could leave that wretched hall. Loud, squishy chewing sounds echoed within her own head, and she threw down her sandwich, disgusted. Would her own body torment her? She swallowed hard, burying her face in her hands, but even the dark, cool sanctuary of her palms provided no escape from the relentless, pitiless noise that bounced off the high stone walls of the hall. She covered her ears, but the sound seemed to channel into her temples and hammer behind her eyes.

Her friends didn't seem to notice her distress. They carried on their conversation as if nothing was wrong, as if they couldn't hear the deafening, earsplitting noise. Maybe, thought Lily, if I could just focus in on this one noise, the rest will die away. And so she honed in on her friends conversation, biting her lip as the tones of their voices made her head throb.

"I'm telling you," said a fifth year named Lisa, "he promised he'd go out with her."

"You mean she said he promised he'd go out with her," corrected Megan, Lily's fellow sixth year.

"Yeah," Becky, a seventh year, agreed, "he rarely goes out with her type, and she's always making up stories like that."

"Yeah, but all the same," Lisa plowed on, "if he did go out with her-"

Lily fought back a scream at the pointlessness of it all, and the point on her forehead gave a particularly painful throb. She couldn't bear it for another moment, she snatched up her sandwich, clambered off the bench and, claiming she'd left something in Binns' classroom, she nearly sprinted out of the Great Hall.

Lily didn't stop till she reached the relative quiet of a corridor a few floors above, where the talking of students was just a distant rumble. She collapsed against the wall, her arms shaking; there was a stiff pain in her side, and her breath came in searing gasps. She sank to the floor, her heart forming a dent in her ribcage. But all the pain was worth it; she was away from the merciless noise. When she finally managed to get her breathing under control she made to stand up, intending to head to the absolute quiet of the library, but when she got her feet under herself, her knees buckled and she clutched at the wall for support. Head pounding, she sank back down the wall, feeling all the muscles in her neck tense up. The whole corridor seemed fogy, and the light streaming from the window opposite her made her wince. She closed her eyes. This didn't make sense. She knew she had never been much of a runner, but it had just been a couple of flights of stairs! Surely she should be able to make it this far with out collapsing. What was wrong with-?

But quiet shuffling sounds interrupted her thoughts. Footsteps. Someone was heading down the corridor that connected with hers. Opening her eyes, she decided this really wasn't a state she wanted anyone of the general student body to find her in. Franticly scanning the still fuzzy corridor, she spotted a broom cupboard several feet away. Well, it wasn't the most glamorous of hiding places, but it would have to do. She crawled hastily into the broom cupboard, dragging her things with her, and crammed herself inside, stuffing the door shut.

'Not the most glamorous', didn't really do this hole justice. It was dark, and dank, and dusty. The walls had curtains of cobwebs, and spider nests hung in every corner. The place looked as if it hadn't properly held supplies for a hundred years. The one remaining broom was propped up against the wall, a strange fungus eating away at its bristles. Lily jumped as something scratched her leg, but was relived (and disgusted) to find she was sitting on some rags that, by the feel of them, were made of horsehair. Lily took a deep breath, trying to settle her still swimming head, but ended up choking back a gag. The musty air was thick with the scent of something long dead, which seemed to be emanating from a large, ancient feather duster. Needless to say, she scooted as far from this as possible, warily avoiding any other potentially foul things. Trying not to shudder at her surroundings, Lily heard the footsteps come closer, and noticed that they were accompanied by more blasted voices. But these sounded hushed, and urgent.

Curiosity overwhelmed her, and, ignoring her still searing head, she pressed her ear to the door, straining to make out words within the voices.

"…let Evans take it?"

"Had to. McGonagall was set to patrol that corridor any minute. And there was no getting past Evans. You should have seen her. Bloody mad."

"How can we get the cloak and the map back?"

"Well, Remus knows the patrol schedule, so he can make sure Evans is out of the way, then all we have to-"

"There's nothing for it, Padfoot."

She knew that voice… Potter.

"Aw, come on Prongs! You're not giving up?"

"Pads, I hate it when you whine like that, and so what if I am?"

"Prongs, it's your cloak she's taken! Are you really going to let her get away with that? And this is Evans were talking about! We can get our stuff back, and prank her so hard she'll wish she'd never taken it in the first place! Two Snitches for one Bludger, if you will. You owe it to Moony to get the cloak, and you owe it to all of us to help get the map back."

"I don't owe you anything."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I- just shut up, will you?"

"You know, I think we ought to go visit Moony before lunch. He might be able to make you see sense."

"Sirius, I-"

"NO! We have to go to lunch, I've been starving since Charms!"

"Wormtail, Charms is right after breakfast."

"Exactly!"

"Honestly Wormtail, can you stop thinking about your stomach for one moment? This is a matter of Prongs' volatile mental health!"

…

"What did you say, Padfoot?"

"I said your head seems a little twisted up-"

"Twisted up?"

"Um, Padfoot? Don't you think we should go to lunch now?"

"Yeah, I reckon we should. Let's see if mad little Prongsy can keep up."

And Lily peaked around the door of the closet, just in time to see James' heels disappearing around the corner. Laughter and shouts of, "Come back here, you mangy animals!" faded as the running footsteps died away.

Lily shrank back into the shadows of the cupboard, thinking. Cloak. Map. Cloak. They had been talking about her and the incident last night, about how she had taken their things. Well, she had the cloak. But a map? What was that about? The way they spoke about this map and the cloak, it made it all seem so…important. Lily had thought these things were just throwaway items, some pranking stuff and a junky old gag cloak. That cloak… they had spoken as if it belonged to all of them, but Black had said it belonged to Potter. Why would they all want that thing? What was so special about it? And if they really wanted it back, why didn't they just go to McGonagall? After all, Lily didn't really have any right to keep a student's personal items. She could confiscate things, yes, but only if they were obviously dangerous in some way…

The realization hit Lily, and a fierce, self-satisfied grin stretched her mouth. It would be just like Potter to hide dangerous methods of causing mass panic in a seemingly innocent, yet garish cloak. What powers did that glittering garment hold? What could it possibly do?

Curiosity began to take hold of Lily again. She had to know what that cloak was, she just had to. She grasped the closet doorframe, and hoisted herself to her feet. The pain in her forehead seemed not to like being ignored, and it gave a particularly painful throb. Lily clutched her head, eyes rolling, but her curiosity was too much. Pain was not going to get in her way now. She quickly picked up her things, stumbled out of the old cupboard, and hobbled off to Gryffindor tower, making her way as best she could.

It seemed to take ages for Lily to reach Gryffindor tower, but by the time she arrived in her dormitory, the pain in her head had lessened just slightly, and her vision was clearer. She exhaled as she entered the (mostly) neat tower room she had lived in for the past five school years. It was as familiar as ever, Kathy's pop music posters peeling off the walls, Tracy's lacy underwear thrown here and there, Megan's towering piles of prestigiously stacked magazines, bottles of Lily's own lotion piled next to her bed, and the flowery scent of Sarah's newest perfume wafting over all.

Lily crossed quickly over to her trunk, threw her bag down behind her bed, flung open the lid of the trunk, and quickly extracted James' cloak. She examined it closely for a few moments, but she found nothing out of the ordinary. The cloak sat in her hands, shimmering up at her as her breathing finally slowed. It seemed a perfectly harmless article of clothing, and not all that bad to look at either. The material almost glowed with an iridescence that shown on her skin. What she had first taken for a garish sheen, she now saw as a reflective quality. She thought if she had the proper lighting, she would probably be able to see herself in this fabric. The reflected light from the cloak bounced off the windows of the tower, bedecking the bedposts and coverlets with incandescent rainbows. The garment slipped and slid over her hands like water, light and fluid. She wondered what it would feel like to have that soft, flowing feeling covering her whole body. Perhaps like bathing in light? Or, swimming in a sea of shining glass? Lily couldn't take it. She had to know. She flung the cloak about her shoulders, drawing up the hood. She rejoiced for a moment in just watching the rainbows dance over the walls as the cloak swung about her. But then, the shining lights were gone. The walls were suddenly as dim and bare as they had been when she entered the dormitory. She had barely registered this, when she heard voices carrying up the staircase.

"-know she must have gone in here. Where else would she have gone? She didn't come back to the Great Hall."

Lily was about to whip off Potter's cloak (the very last thing she wanted her classmates to see her in was this garish piece of work), but she was too late. The door had already burst open. Lily froze, waiting for the torrent of laughter-

"Lily?" Megan called, "Lily, are you in here?"

Lily had almost let out a degraded, 'yes' when her heart skipped a beat. Megan and Kathy were staring around the room, as if waiting for her to jump out of a corner. But she was standing right in front of them.

"Lily?" Megan called again, crossing to the bathroom and peering inside.

"Maybe she was in the library?" Kathy suggested.

"No, I looked in there before I ran into you. Lorring was sitting at one of the tables in the front, she would never have made it past him without Marcus attempting rape."

"Wouldn't put it past him," said Kathy darkly, "but maybe she went in there before him, and then found herself cornered?"

"Doubt it. Lorring wasn't at lunch." Megan emerged from the bathroom; "He was probably in the library the whole time. But you never know, she might have been able to slip past him."

"We should check." Kathy looked worried.

Megan rolled her eyes, "Wherever she is, she's fine! Come on, the library is as good a guess as any."

And the two trouped out of the room, without so much as a glance at Lily, who was still standing mere feet from them. The dormitory door slammed shut.

Slowly, Lily pulled off the cloak. Sitting down on her trunk, she held it carefully in her lap, looking it over once more with something akin to awe. This, was an invisibility cloak, she should have know that. She had studied about them, of course. She had done extra background reading during their study of methods of becoming invisible last month in Transfiguration. She'd even gotten full marks on her essay, Invisibility: a dying art. But, thought Lily with a chuckle, not much can compare to having tales of swarthy buccaneer-wizards and their trusty invisibility cloaks told to you when you were a child. None of her textbooks had mentioned how beautiful an invisibility cloak was, how beams of light leapt and twirled within it, how it's glow warmed your very heart. She was sure wizarding fairy tales would be full of that sort of thing. It was at times like these that her muggle parentage and her true ongoing ignorance of the wizarding world hit her hard. Muggle ideas and misconceptions still resided in the back of her brain. She had been living in this fantastical world for roughly five years, and she still couldn't recognize a simple invisibility cloak. But still, she consoled herself, they are really rare, how was I supposed to have seen one before? I wonder how Potter-

POTTER! Potter had an invisibility cloak?!?! How in Merlin's name had he gotten such a thing? Who would be stupid enough to give Potter an invisibility cloak? So this, this was Potter's big secret. This was how he skulked around the castle by night, getting everything he wanted. He and his stupid friends- his friends! She had heard them talking, they had mentioned the cloak (well, she understood that now), and Potter owing the rest of them something, which he denied, and something about going to visit Moony after lunch. Moony…Moony… she had picked up on their stupid little nicknames long ago, but which one was Moony again…

Ah yes. Remus. So they were going to visit Remus. Visit him where? He was at home with his mother, and the rest of them couldn't leave school, so… could he be back all ready? If that was the case, and they were going to visit him, it would have to mean…

Hospital Wing.

She was about to bolt to the door, when she stopped. What was she doing? Why was she suddenly so interested in the affairs of Potter and company?

I'm a prefect. Potter has an invisibility cloak and is doing who knows what with it. But I can't turn him in for owning the thing. I have to find out what he's been doing and put a stop to it.

She snatched up the cloak and tossed it about her shoulders. But as she moved swiftly from her dormitory, she couldn't shake the question hanging in her head.

But, why do I hate him so?

I realize that Lily is starting to seem like a real jerk, but fear not. Lily's going through a rather hard time right now, and some things are not as they seem…. (ooooooooowwwwhhhhhhhhh!!) So give Lily a brake for now, things are going to change soon.

I'm shocking myself with the length of these chapters. Happy as I am that I've done so much writing, I cannot guarantee the chapters will continue to be this long.

As for when the next chapter is coming, you guys are going to have to give me a little bit of time. I promise to hurry and to try not to obsess over the little things.

I LOVE reviews!!!! Hearing from you wonderful readers urges me on as I'm writing. SO HIT THAT LITTLE BLUE BUTTEN!!!!!