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-1Missing Dreams

Chapter 7

James quietly slipped into Lily's room later that night and grinned as he saw her curled in the middle of the bed, the pillows bunched up around her. She looked so peaceful and innocent laying there. Granted, she was innocent, but not in all aspects of life.

Thinking about that, he frowned as he kicked off his shoes and sat them next to the door, knowing that if he left them in he middle of the room she would have his head, and walked over to the bed, shedding his cloak and throwing it towards a chair that was in the middle of the room as he did so. Grabbing a hold of the comforter, James slipped under it and grabbed Lily's warm supple body and pulled her close to his body.

"Welcome back," she mumbled as she laid her head on his shoulder and got comfortable, having woken up as he rearranged her body.

"Go back to sleep, there's still a few hours left until class," he yawned as he drew his hands through the hair that was spread across the pillow next to them.

"Okay," she mumbled as she shifted slightly, her leg slipping between his so that she could better position her body.

James waited until her breathing settled into a slow, even rhythm, showing that she was asleep again before he grinned. It was still a shock to him when he realized that he really had Lily Evans in his arms and she wasn't pushing him away. Ever since he saw her that first day this is what he had wanted. Well, not her in his arms - that came later when he hit puberty, but he had wanted to be able to spend time with her without worrying that she was going to hate him and hex him.

And now that it was happening, he couldn't help but want more. This was the girl for him. Some people just knew when they found that person, and James was lucky enough to not have to search for her. He had found her on the train to school when he was just eleven years old. The only thing was that he had to make her realize that there was no one else for her besides him.

The only problem was, he had to do something about Malfoy, and he couldn't let her do it by herself. Yet in helping her, he was going to piss her off. She had forbidden him and his friends to help her, but how were they supposed to stand around and watch how Malfoy treated her, taunted her, letting her know that he really was one of the ones there, but not giving her enough to really convict him. Letting her know that he was one of the ones responsible for killing her parents. For that alone he deserved to get the worst fate that Merlin could give him.

And he was going to help Lily take them down one by one. And for hurting her, Malfoy was going to get the worst of it.

"I need to help you," he sighed as he took his glasses off, placed them on the nightstand and tried to fall asleep.

It was going to be a long day tomorrow considering that it was now two in the morning and they had a full schedule of classes.

0c0c0c

Sixteen year old Lily Evans was sitting on the edge of her bed as she read her letter from Hogwarts. She had done it. After all of her hard work she had made it to Head Girl. This is what she had been working for the past seven years. This is why she worked herself so hard, spent so much of her time studying and ignoring people who wanted to be friends with her. She gave it all up so that she could learn. And finally, her hard work had paid off. In the form of a shiny golden badge with the Hogwarts crest on it.

"Lily, honey," her mother gasped in her soft melodic voice as she ran into the room, her auburn hair in disarray as she stopped in the doorway, looking around the room in alarm. "What's wrong?"

"What happened?" her father demanded as he appeared right behind her mother, his green eyes peering around her mother's small frame looking for some unknown harm.

Blushing, Lily laughed. She must have made a noise - a rather loud one considering that her parents room was down the hall and on the opposite side of hers, and woke them up on accident. "I made Head Girl," she told them happily as she held up the small badge that had fallen onto her white comforter when she had opened up her normal school book list that she had received moments ago.

"Oh, baby!" her mom squealed happily, sounding as if she was Lily's age as she rushed into the room to embrace her youngest daughter tightly in her arms. "I knew that you could do it! You could have done it without all of the work that you've done these past years too."

"We knew you could do it, Kiddo," her father grinned as he came in and sat on the bed watching as his girls hugged. As soon as her mother had let her go, Lily grinned down at her dad and crawled onto his lap and hugged him. Laying her head on his shoulder, she inhaled his woodsy scent and grinned.

She had always been one of those typical Daddy's Little Girls who received everything that they ever wanted as long as they talked to their dad, and even now, being so close to turning seventeen she would still crawl up in her dad's lap and cuddle. Even being as close to her mother as she was, Lily would always have an extra special place in her heart for her dad. Most likely because they were so much alike in personality, they were closer than most sixteen year olds were with their parents. Especially females with their fathers.

"We need to celebrate," Sophia Evans decided as she rubbed her small hands together, her wedding ring glinting in the soft morning light that was coming through the open windows, letting the soft sea breeze into the room.

"We do, it's not every day that our little girl gets something so big," Daniel agreed as he lightly kissed to top of Lily's head.

"You guys don't need to do anything for me," Lily protested as she lifted her head and looked from her father to her mother. "Seriously. We don't need to do anything."

"We're doing something," Sophia told her daughter, looking into eyes that were identical to hers. Lily was the exact replica of her. From the deep auburn hair, to the pale Irish skin - amazingly without the red-head curse of freckles, to the small, lithe frame.

"Mom," Lily groaned, knowing that 'doing something' meant having a huge and embarrassing celebration at her mother's restaurant, and attention from people that knew of her, which is not something that Lily liked. She wasn't necessarily a 'people person' as most would call it, and extra attention made her a little nervous. It was almost as if they were just waiting for her to make a mistake so that they could laugh at her.

"No arguing, Tigerlily," Daniel told her with a poke in her side, causing her to giggle.

"Don't!" Lily laughed as her father poked her again. She had always been extremely ticklish much to her regret. It was one of the few weaknesses that she had, and thankfully not many knew about it.

"Daddy!" she squealed as he started to tickle her, her mother's laughter sounding out as Lily tried to get out of her father's arms. Trying to get to any place that was safe.

Sophia simply shook her head as she watched her husband and daughter battle it out. This was a daily occupancy when Lily was home, and she missed it the days that she was away at school.

0c0c0c

Lily blinked slowly as she woke up and the dream started to fade. Or more accurately, the memory started to fade. This was the first night since the night that they had been murdered that she had a peaceful dream.

Lily looked around the still dark room and smiled as she shifted her head on James' chest. She didn't mind being up at four a.m. from a good dream. It's the bad dreams that got to her.

Sighing, Lily closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep, wanting her dream to continue, but instead her mind went to the potion that she was brewing that was going to be part of the downfall of Malfoy. She had another month until it was done, but it was slowly coming along. She was going to need to get James and his friends to find a way to make sure that Malfoy consumed it however. She just hoped that they would be able to wait until it was done because this was not something that she wanted public knowledge, and she wasn't so sure if she trusted Peter. For some reason he reminded her of a rat.

There was nothing more that she wanted than Malfoy to spend the rest of his days rotting in hell. However, she couldn't take it on her conscious if she simply killed him. She had the power and the skills to easily do it with one simple spell, but that would be on her mind all the time; it would make her no better than he was. That was something that she didn't think that she would be able to live with herself for. She had something much better in mind for him. She had the downfall of everything that he cherished in life in mind. His looks, his power, and the very magic that he held so dear.

What she was brewing was a potion that had only been used once in the history of magic. She was brewing a potion that would drain the drinkers power from their body, and you would never be able to regain that power again. Malfoy was going to become the very thing that he hated in life, and there was nothing that he could do about it. He was going to become a squid. A muggle with knowledge of the magical world.

"Why are you up?" James asked softly as he threaded his fingers through her sleep tangled hair, causing her to snap out of her thoughts.

"Dream, thinking," Lily yawned as she reached down and pulled the blue blanket up to her chin, the damp breeze that was seeping through the old castle walls causing her to shiver.

"Want to talk about it?" he yawned silently.

"It was a memory more like," Lily told him as she absently drew lines and figures on his chest, not noticing the tension that ran through his body at her ministrations. "It was the day that I found out that I had made Head Girl. They were so happy for me," she said with a soft smile as she thought back onto the day.

"They were the type of parents to brag about their children's accomplishments, and it was always so embarrassing to be around when they did so. But it was one of those days that you end up taking for granted until you lose it. I used to always sit in my Dad's lap like I was a little girl still, and I had been - I'd always been Daddy's little girl, no matter how old I was. He started to tickle me and we ended up talking my mum into cooking pancakes for breakfast. Later that night we ended up at my mum's restaurant and the whole place congratulated me, and the next day I woke up to this necklace on my pillow," Lily smiled through the tears that were shinning on her eyes, refusing to let them fall over such a happy memory. She was done crying over what couldn't be. She wanted to remember what was, and the happiness that was with those moments.

Lifting her hand to the necklace that she hadn't taken off since the day she received it, Lily rubbed her finger over the diamond lily and laughed. She had always found it funny that people automatically thought that she liked lilies simply because that was her name. Truth was it wasn't even close to being her favorite flower. Or her parents. It was simply a name that was passed down in the Evans family.

"What was your parent's reaction to your badge?" Lily asked him, looking up at him, squinting so that she could see him better.

"They thought that it was a joke," he snorted. "My mother almost died of shock when they figured out that it was real. I was too busy staring at it like it was going to jump up and curse me while my Dad was grinning at me for upholding the family tradition."

"Are you close?"

James finally opened his eyes and looked down at Lily. "I am to my mum, but I don't really see my Dad around the house enough to be overly close to him."

"Oh, James," Lily cried reaching up and cupping his cheek. "I'm sorry."

"We're close, I know that he's there for me, but it just seems like unless I tell him that I need him, he isn't there," James shrugged, not wanting her to think badly of his father.

"That must be hard, I'm sorry," Lily said softly, her green eyes no longer shinning with tears as she shifted so that she could see him better.

"It's not so bad; I understand that he's busy."

Finally getting the clue that James didn't like to talk about his father much, Lily nodded her head and placed it back on his shoulder. "Have you ever considered following his footsteps?"

"Not really," James shrugged. "I actually want to be an auror."

"Do you really?" Lily asked him, surprised. "But James, that's so dangerous!"

"I know my mum has already gone through this with me. But honestly Lils, I need to help defend all of these people from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. If I can help even a few people from having their families ripped apart it would all be with it."

"You know, sometimes you really surprise me," Lily admitted as she shook her head in amazement. Who would have ever thought that prankster extraordinaire James Potter would be able to make such a rational decision about something in life.

"Good, it keeps you on your feet. Try to get a couple more hours of sleep," James told her softly as he shut his eyes again and rubbed her arm as he let the serenity that encompassed him from having her in his arms lull him back into sleep.

0c0c0c0c

"Who can tell me the correction spell for - Mr. Black if you do not stop making faces at me behind my back you will be scrubbing all of the floors in the potion rooms clean!" Professor Pint, the Charms professor snapped as he turned around from the blackboard, almost tipping over as the stack of books that he was standing on almost tipped over.

"But those weren't at you Pint," Sirius protested as he straightened up from the slouch that he had been in, once again sitting in the front row of the class thanks to Lily. He would have never been caught if he was in the back row. Not that he really minded detention, but he had a date this weekend with Molly Simmons, and that was a date that he did not want to miss!

"Regardless Mr. Black," the small, slightly cubby professor snapped in his squeaky, high pitched voice as he straightened his black toupee that didn't even fit on the top of his overly large head. "They are a distraction."

"So is your tupe," James snorted from next to Sirius, causing Sirius to bite back a bark of laughter.

"James!" Lily hissed from beside him as she swatted him on his arm. Hard.

"Ow!" James hissed back as he looked over at his offended girlfriend, his eyes narrowed in confusion. "What did I do?"

'Don't talk about him that way!" she scolded.

"Are you finished interrupting me?" Professor Pint asked the three students with a raised eyebrow, though you couldn't tell that they were raised seeing as he always pushed his toupee so far down on his forehead that his eyebrows were already vanished under his fake hairline.

"But I wasn't!" Sirius protested with a glare as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair.

"I'm going to take that as a yes, Mr. Black and if it happens again, that detention will have your name on it, am I understood?"

"Yes," he huffed. Waiting for the teacher to turn carefully back around towards the black board, Sirius leaned on the desk and looked at Lily. "You're going down Evans."

Lily looked up from the notes that she was taking and raised one delicately structured eyebrow at him. "Am I?" she whispered as to not attract the already irate professor's attention.

"You're going down," he promised for a second time, causing James to smack him upside the head.

"You're not touching her," James told his best friend with a scowl.

"If I get a detention, yes I will," Sirius swore with narrowed eyes.

"Then stop talking you idiot and you won't get one," Lily snapped irritably.

Sirius opened his mouth to reply but thought better of it at the last moment.

James looked over at his girlfriend and smiled. Contrary to popular belief Lily and Sirius actually got along in some weird way. Sure they fought with each other every chance that they had, but they also had a sense of understanding in regards to each other. It was almost as if they were brother and sister.

"Pay attention and stop looking at me like that," Lily hissed as she lightly elbowed James in the ribs to get him to pay attention to the teacher.

Still smiling, James picked up his quill so that he could copy down Lily's notes. Not that she knew what he was doing of course. And it was not as if he could figure out what in the world her notes meant, but at least he was trying!

After what seemed like an eternity class was over.

"I'm starving!" James whined as they walked out of the class room before everyone else. That was one of the compromises that they had made Lily accept. No staying after the bell to talk to professors.

"I'm going outside for a little bit," Lily told him as she tried to take her book bag from his shoulder.

"We can stop and get a plate of food. You don't need to be skipping meals," James told her with a frown. "We'll take it all outside and sit by the lake.

"I'm not hungry," Lily protested as she was still trying to reach for her bag that was on the opposite shoulder than she was on, which made it a little hard to walk as she was half twisted in the opposite direction than her feet were in.

"Lilybean looks like a pretzel," Sirius laughed.

"Shut up, Black," Lily snapped as she stopped trying to reach for the bag that James was not going to give her. "At least I can make myself into a pretzel."

"Can you really?" Sirius asked with a twinkle in his brown eyes as he looked from Lily to James as they entered the Great Hall.

"Yeah, I used to be able to at least," she shrugged as they walked over to their table, ignoring all of the looks that she was getting from the female population still. You would think that they would simply learn to let it go.

"Hey James," one of the said girls drawled as she approached them.

"Hey, Clorissa," James smiled as he picked up a late off of the table and started filling it full of food for Lily, knowing that she wouldn't eat enough if he let her do it.

"So I heard that you guys were going to Hogsemeade this weekend and I was wondering if you wanted to go have some fun?" she asked with a smirk, letting James know exactly what it was that she was talking about.

"No he doesn't, he's already going with someone," Lily snapped at the raven-haired Hufflepuff. For being the loyal house there were some girls who were such sluts.

"Oh, you, I suppose?" she laughed, her hazel eyes flashing at Lily.

"Yes, actually he is going with me. His girlfriend."

James looked from one girl to the other, then his friends with a pleading look.

"Do you honestly think that you'll last?" Clorissa laughed. "Be serious, all James want's is in your pants."

"That is not true!" James finally said as he jumped into the conversation.

"Whatever, let me know if you need some … release," she grinned as she turned around and walked back towards her table.

"Lily," James said as he quickly turned around to face the now pissed off Lily. "I don't - it's not even like that with us."

"You know what James, she's right. Why don't you go have fun with some other girl," Lily sighed as she picked up an apple and walked away from him. She would get her books later.

For once, James didn't follow her. And she wasn't so sure how she felt about that. The one time that he didn't follow her is when she told him to go out with another girl, yet on the other hand, all she really wanted to do was think by herself. Ever since the beginning of the year, everywhere she went, they all went. They would probably all even accompany her in the restroom if they could.

And for someone who had never really hung out with many people at school it was hard for her to adjust to. Usually she did what she wanted without anyone following her around or distracting her or anything else.

"Hey, Lily!" someone shouted from behind a tree, causing Lily to snap out of her thoughts and search lawns.

"Hey, Severus," she sighed. Just what she wanted someone to talk to.

"I wanted to ask you, are you really dating Potter?"

Lily looked into the eyes of her friend and sighed. She hated men. She hated everything to do with them. They were complicated, they were idiots, and she could do without them. "We've been over this before, Sev, yes I am."

"Why, Lily, what does he have that I don't?" he demanded irritably.

"Sev, I told you long ago that I'm not attracted to you like that. You're my friend, that's it."

"But what about that kiss?" he asked her.

Lily closed her eyes and wished for patience, of which she did not have a lot to begin with. "That was to prove something to myself. I'm sorry that I used you, but you were the first person that I saw."

"You did it to prove to Potter didn't you?"

"Yes."

"I see," was all that he said as he turned walked past her, his robes billowing out behind him as he returned to the castle.

Sighing, Lily walked over to the trunk of the tree and sat with her back against it. "I'm really beginning to give up," she muttered to herself as she leaned her head against the bark and closed her eyes from the view that was in front of her.

At this moment she couldn't help but think that her life would be easier if she didn't have anyone in it.

"Maybe that's what I should do. I have enough on my mind as it is," she yawned as she started to fall asleep.

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