Well, here's the next chapter. It's nearing the end too, and I'm gonna be very sad when its finished cus I love writing it! Hope you enjoy and please review! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.

Lily and James materialised outside the gates of Hogwarts, and what they saw caused them to gasp in shock. Part of the wall that ran around the castle grounds had been destroyed, and the stone was lying in a crumbled heap, scattered across the path. A huge, boat-like clog had been abandoned a little further away.

'What's happening?' Lily exclaimed in disbelief.

'Hogwarts has been attacked.' James said grimly, tightening his hold on his wand and beginning to pick his way over the rubble.

'But why?' Lily asked, following him. 'They wouldn't dare with Dumbledore still here.'

'They obviously have.'

'We have to help.' Lily's face was determined, as if she was expecting James to try and send her to safety again, but James merely nodded resignedly.

They scrambled through the hole in the wall and began to run up the path towards the twinkling lights of the castle. As they drew nearer, the light began to show odd lumps scattered all over the place.

'What are they?' Lily asked as they drew near to one.

She gasped as she realised what it was.

'James, oh my God, James, it's a person!'

James rushed over and turned the figure onto their back. He quickly checked the pulse, but he wasn't hopeful; the person was cold and pale. He was clearly dead. A white mask was lying next to the body.

'A Death Eater,' James said in disgust, standing up again. 'And good riddance.'

'But all these others...' Lily trailed off, a tear winding its way down her cheek.

'Lily, there's nothing we can do for them,' James said softly, leading her back to the path. 'We have to find out what's going on. We have to find Harry.'

Lily nodded, and allowed herself to be escorted along the path, but still looking at all the bodies scattered over the grass, wondering if any of their friends were among the victims.

'Harry!' a relieved voice shouted from behind them.

They both spun round towards the speaker, hearts racing at the mention of their son. It was Sirius.

'Padfoot!' James exclaimed, a hint of relief in his tone; he was glad his friend wasn't among the fallen.

'Padfoot, what's going on?' Lily cried, rushing towards him.

'P-Prongs?' Sirius's eyes were wide with shock, and he was as pale as if he'd seen a ghost. 'Lily?'

'Yeah, it's us, mate.' James said. 'Look, what's happened here?'

But Sirius just stared at them, looking from face to face with utter disbelief mingled with something else, a slight twinkle in his eye.

'It can't be!' Sirius breathed. He was shaking.

'What's wrong, Padfoot?' James asked, his smile fading slightly. 'What's going on here? We need to find Dumbledore, something's happened to Harry.'

'Sirius, your scaring me,' Lily laughed nervously. 'What's the matter?'

'You- your dead!' he exclaimed.

'Dead?' James's smile vanished to be replaced with a look of mingled confusion and concern for his friend.

'You died!' he whispered, and then clapped his hand to his forehead. 'I'm going mad,'

'Why?' Lily asked, reaching out and pulling his hand away from his face. 'We aren't dead. Feel this. We're real. Now please tell us what's going on!'

Sirius shook his head.

'I don't know what's happening.' He said. 'I don't know what's going on. This can't be real.'

'It is, mate.' James said, starting to sound slightly annoyed. 'Look, just tell us what is wrong!'

Sirius looked up, a tear forming in the corner of his eye.

'You died,' he said. 'Nearly fifteen years ago. Halloween, 1981. You- you were murdered.'

'It is Halloween, 1981!' James said. 'Well it was yesterday.'

But Sirius shook his head.

'No, mate. It's not. It's the summer of 1996.'

'But-' Lily stammered, unable to digest this piece of information.

'It is. Trust me.' Sirius said. 'I can't believe you're here.'

He threw his arms around James, tears spilling down his cheeks. Bemused, James hugged back, unsure of quite what to do.

'Harry.' Lily whispered. 'What happened to Harry?'

Sirius released James and turned to Lily, wiping his eyes.

'Dumbledore took him to live with Petunia,' he told her. 'He's fifteen now. He's here, at Hogwarts.'

Lily gasped. She couldn't believe it, but why would Sirius lie about something like this? He had a particular face that he wore when he was up to something, and this wasn't it. He seemed genuinely upset and astonished to see them.

Harry was fifteen. He had grown up without them, without knowing them. Their own son wouldn't know them.

'Why didn't you take him?' James asked gruffly. Evidently, he was having trouble accepting this too.

Sirius was silent for a moment, his air seemed wistful.

'I tried,' he said. 'And if I did, it might have changed everything. Hagrid took him,' he added in explanation. 'To Petunia, and I, well, I went after Peter.'

Lily gasped again and began to interrupt, but Sirius held up his hand to stop her.

'He murdered you! Betrayed you to Voldemort, what did you expect me to do? Sit down calmly with a cup of tea?' he said. 'No, I went after him, found him too. I cornered him in the middle of a street in broad daylight. I was going to kill him for killing you. I wanted to punish him, but the little swine blew the street up behind us, killing everyone in range. He transformed and escaped to a life in exile, and I was left behind. They convicted me of your murder, and I was sentenced to life in Azkaban.'

'Oh, Sirius!' Lily was in tears. James was silent, trying to take in what had happened to his best friend.

'But how are you here now? If they sentenced you for life?' Lily asked.

'I escaped,' he sighed, reliving it was painful. 'Two years ago. I've been on the run since then. Harry helped me escape the Ministry. He's a good kid,' he added to the pair of them. 'Really brave, you'd be proud of him, hell knows I am. He looks like you, Prongs. Exactly, but with Lily's eyes.'

'We missed him growing up,' Lily whispered. 'We missed everything. Where is he, is he here?'

Her eyes widened in horror, and darted back to the bundles lying about them. What if he was one of them?

'I don't know.' Sirius said, looking as concerned as her. Evidently the same thoughts were running through his head. 'Something happened. We were at the Ministry, there was a fight with the Death Eaters, I don't know why they were there; Harry and a few other kids were trying to fight them, but something happened, and I fell through some sort of arch, and when I hit the other side, everyone had gone. So I came here to find Dumbledore and see what's going on.'

'Harry was fighting Death Eaters?' James sounded horrified, mixed with a hint of pride.

'Yeah,' Sirius said. 'He's got a habit of getting himself into a bit of bother with them. Look, we really need to find Dumbledore. I'll tell you the rest on the way.'

He turned and made his way up to the castle, his dead friends following, hands clasped, tears falling freely down their faces.