"Right," Dumbledore began, after they had all settled into his office and were all sitting down comfortably in his office, "Now, I will begin with Mr Malfoy."

Lucius raised his eyebrows at the professor in arrogance, "Yes professor?"

"You are suspended from Hogwarts for a week for not standing up for your fellow students against Lord Voldemort. You will remain in your dormitory for this time and you will not attempt to converse with any of your roommates."

"What?" James spat, leaping to his feet, "He's a Death Eater!"

"Calm yourself, Mr Potter," Dumbledore said. His blue eyes, normally full of happiness, were looking sad, "Hogwarts is safer than any life he will get outside of school."

"But he's-"

"That's enough!" Dumbledore said, louder now. He stood up and stared James down, his tall and imposing figure cowing the young man.

"Sorry, professor," James apologized, "But-"

Dumbledore gave him an exasperated look and he closed his mouth.

"You may leave now, Mr Malfoy," Dumbledore said, dismissing the young Malfoy with a wave of his hand. Lucius stood and left the room, throwing dirty looks at the young occupants of the room.

"Now, I assume you all have some questions about what has happened tonight-" Here they all nodded "-And in order to answer all of them, I will have to view someone's memory of the incident. Hopefully, If you will consent to it, Miss Evans…"

Lily gulped, but nodded, "How do you… er…"

"Extract the memory?" Dumbledore finished for her, smiling at her pleasantly, "Simple; you need to think about what happened, and then I will extract it from your mind."

A couple of minutes later, they had dived into Lily's memory of that afternoon. She was walking down a corridor, and the rest of them followed her.

"Oy!" Sirius shouted suddenly, pointing to a figure emerging from behind her, "Isn't that James?"

And indeed it was. James swooped out from behind Lily and pulled her into a classroom, saying, "Guess who?"

Sirius snorted, "That's so juvenile, Prongs."

"James!" the memory Lily giggled, before leaning forward to kiss him deeply and intensely.

"YOU'RE SEEING POTTER?" Melissa screeched disbelievingly at the non-memory Lily. Lily winced, "Yeah, well…"

"Why in Godric's name didn't you tell me?"

Lily shrugged, "Watch. Here comes Lucius."

All the teenagers, bar Lily and James, gasped and began booing when Lucius strode boldly into the classroom, before disarming them.

"Malfoy," the memory James said, folding his arms across his chest disparagingly.

"Potter and your mudblood whore," the memory Malfoy replied, smirking.

The group drew a collective gasp, "What a bas-" Mel began indignantly, furious at Lucius Malfoy for insulting her best friend. She was shushed by Sirius, who muttered, "Dumbledore."

The memory James replied by stating firmly that he was sure Malfoy was one of Voldemort's lot, and again the group gasped.

"Is he though, James?" Melissa asked, obviously deep in thought.

"Gosh, Mel!" Sirius scolded, wagging a finger at her, "All the Slytherins are Death Eaters! You're going soft!"

"Mr Black," Dumbledore said warningly.

"Sorry, professor," Sirius replied, but a moment or two later he was muttering to Melissa again.

Lucius rolled up his sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark, "You don't know how much of a mistake you just made, Potter," he threatened.

"Told you so!" Sirius crowed, "Death Eater!"

Dumbledore sighed in disappointment, obviously regretting his lax attitude around the budding Death Eaters in Slytherin.

Lily asked James what the mark was, and the group of teenagers watching the memory for the first time cracked. Melissa was leaning back, her mouth open wide as she made a shrill wailing noise that sounded remotely like a laugh. Lily didn't understand what her friends were doing, but she thought that they were doing all they could to stop the fear and darkness of their wandering thoughts settling in. Melissa's laugh was choked now, it was forced; her dark walnut eyes were flashing in a dark and disturbing way that Lily could not quite make out.

She could hear Sirius behind her, barking out an almost dog-like laugh. An appropriate irony, that even in his fear and hysteria, his laughter reflected his true animagus form. Even Peter was looking on edge, which was unusual for the boy. She, like all too many others, had speculated on why exactly he was a Marauder because he never really got involved in anything or with anyone around him. To her he had always seemed detached, but because he was a Marauder and the other three - James, Sirius and Remus - believed in him, she trusted him with her life.

Taking in the other's expressions, she was glad to look at James and see his open and honest face. She knew he had been through this once and he was strong enough to go through it again; the others hadn't, and that was why they were so frenzied. She did not know and wished she did not have to know if she was strong enough to last out the horrific memory of what had happened to them merely an hour ago. But she was going to have to find out, whether she liked it or not.

Lucius pressed the mark, but only Dumbledore was watching now. Sirius, Melissa and Peter were in the throes of their denial and hysteria, and Lily and James were watching each other intently, too focussed on each other and their deep connection that had been made secure by what had happened to be watching a memory they had already undergone once and had no desire to do so again.

As the James in the memory encompassed Lily with his arms, James hastened to do so. He knew, they both knew what was coming next in Lily's memory and he didn't want her to have to face revisiting Voldemort's entrance alone. As she turned her face to look at him again with her round and trusting green eyes, he felt a surge of love and affection for her. She felt like a child in his arms; but he knew she was no such thing. She was a beautiful and wise young woman, just as Voldemort had said. It felt clichéd even just to think it, but she was a woman and he a man, and he knew they had something special, something that would last forever.

The two lovers were jolted out of their momentary refuge in each other's arms when Melissa yelped.

"It's Voldemort!"

And indeed it was. As Voldemort strode into the room, he smirked lazily, "The young Potter boy. Well done Lucius - Lily Evans delivered and secured, with the Potter brat as an added bonus."

It was Sirius who broke the thunderstruck silence in the room by growling, "I am going to kill that bleeding bas-"

"What do you want with Lily?!" the memory James interrupted loudly. Looking at his memory, Lily could see that he had actually been much more afraid than he had let on. She supposed it was due to his Maraudering ways that he was able to portray such a confident exterior yet be completely terrified.

She heard Voldemort reply, and then she smiled - actually smiled - as she heard her daring reply.

"I'm not your darling."

Sirius gave a low whistle, "Damn… Lily Evans, you have a backbone!"

She glared witheringly back in response, before saying in a more serious tone, "This isn't a game Sirius."

It was a warning - they both knew it. He had crossed the line with that cheeky remark. It would have been okay at any other time, but too much had happened this time and none of it was good.

They both returned their attention to the memory; the memory James had just interrupted Voldemort with a witty retort. Again, Lily marvelled at the teenager's self-control. He was so brave, a complete Gryffindor.

"Manners, Potter," the man replied, his tone clearly showing who held the power, "Crucio!"

They all heard Dumbledore's sharp intake of breath as he heard the spell and as he saw one of his students, who he had thought were all so untouchable, fall to the floor in unmistakable pain.

Sirius wasn't looking light and carefree now as he had been before, she noticed. Even as Malfoy and Voldemort had insulted his friends, he had fought to keep his composure, but now he couldn't keep it in any longer.

Melissa screamed as her boyfriend fell to the floor with James, his shouts ringing out, echoing on the stone walls around them. She ran to him as he moaned and cried out in anguish at the loss of childhood and innocence and naivety.

"So Lily, I was wondering if you would like to join me?" Voldemort continued.

She watched herself respond, and felt vaguely proud of her feisty retorts. She would be smiling and laughing if the situation wasn't so dire.

"Then you are lost," Voldemort finished, looking disappointed. Lily was surprised; she hadn't noticed this look of defeat in his eyes when the scene had taken place. "Lucius, we shall go elsewhere."

And then, something very weird happened. If Lily had not already lived this, she would have ruled it impossible as she had always had it drilled into her that apparition and disapparition was prohibited at Hogwarts, inside the castle and on the grounds. Voldemort and Lucius used side-along apparition to apparate the four of them (and the group watching the memory followed also) into the Shrieking Shack.

"What just happened?" Melissa asked shakily, her eyes wide as she tried to comprehend the enormity of what had, in fact, just happened.

"This is not good news, students," Dumbledore said. He suddenly seemed much older than he probably actually was; he seemed to have acquired several frown lines in the last hour. "Voldemort has found a way past our apparition blocks."

They watched the rest of the memory in silence, each brooding over the momentous events that had occurred within the last hour. Eventually, Dumbledore dismissed them, saying that he would try to make sure that nothing like this ever happened again. But none of them missed the fact that he hadn't said he would make sure of it - he had only said that he would try. All of them had realized that this meant that the all-powerful Dumbledore they all looked to for answers, didn't always have them. Clearly Dumbledore was at a loss for what to do or how to do it.

They were walking back to their dorms in silence, when Lily discovered that she needed to use the bathroom. James was very worried to see her go, as after what had occurred he wanted her to be safe, but she went off to the Prefects Bathroom and the rest of them got to their dorms safely and headed off to bed.

Meanwhile, Lily was walking into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her with a sigh, and turned around. She let out a shocked gasp when she saw her friend sitting on the edge of the big bathtub with her sleeve pulled up and blood, bright and crimson, streaming down her arm.

"Kendra?" she said, not really wanting to believe it. After all the shocks that she'd had tonight, she didn't need another one.

She saw Kendra look up in panic, obviously fearful that someone had discovered her, "Oh," was all she managed to say when she saw Lily, wide eyed and shocked, standing in front of her.

"You're cutting yourself," Lily stated firmly, her initial denial well and truly over by now. Her friend needed help and she could give her that help. She was going to try.

"It was just one time…" Kendra protested in a small voice, her eyes giving her away.

"Really?" Lily replied calmly, meeting her eyes steadily.

Kendra stiffened, "Okay, more like the tenth time maybe."

"But why? I don't understand!" Lily asked. She had a feeling she knew exactly why, and she didn't like it.

"I hate my life, Lily," Kendra said, looking up at her friend, "I know it sounds overused, but I really don't see any point in life. Remus hates me and Chloe's dead. At least when I die I'll see her again," she finished bleakly.

Lily got a painful jolt when she looked at Kendra, really looked at her. She had grown thinner in the last few months and her ribs stuck rigidly out from her chest. Her face had become a very pale white and she had dark bags under her eyes. She looked really pitiful, thought Lily sadly.

"But Kendra, we love you!" Lily protested, "All of us - Me, Mel, Sirius, James, Peter… Merlin, Chloe loves you all the way from heaven! And Remus is being stubborn, you both are! Please promise me you'll stop and I won't tell McGonagall."

Kendra's eyes were overflowing with emotion now, and she could only nod in response.

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in absolutely AGES. Oops. I forgot blushes

Anyway, pretty intense chapter this, and last chapter. Don't worry though - it will get better! Everyone will be happy again soon enough.

I'm interested to hear what you lot think of this chapter, so please click that little button at the bottom of the page and review!!

Thanks,

xxx

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