Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except for the plot!

"I don't want to leave!" I whined, sitting on my bed, all of the contents of my closet and drawers spread around me."I know, but we kind of have to. These rooms are going to belong to someone else soon, and we probably shouldn't be here when the house elves arrive." I looked over to where James was sitting, propped up against the window, half his face in light, half in shadows. Like always I felt slightly breathless knowing that he was mine. His face scrunched up quickly as he caught me staring. "Stop looking at me! I always feel like there's something on my face when you do that."

"I can't help it," I said, laughing, "you're just so darn attractive." he laughed with me quietly.

"Can't blame you there." he said and stood up from the window, bathing himself in light. He walked over to me and took my hands in his. He lowered his voice to a sort of seductive purr. "We don't have to pack if you don't want."

I shivered and I could feel them running down my spine. Before he could lean in, I jumped out of his grasp. "Actually, we do have to pack, you were right the first time." He looked at me with exaggerated sadness and horror. "Oh hush." I said, and kissed him lightly on the cheek. I picked up my wand from where it had been laying on the bed and muttered a quick spell, making all of my belongings fold neatly into my trunk. Frowning, I flicked my wand again, trying to make the socks fold themselves, but all they did was give off a slight quiver. Annoyed, I slipped my wand back into my jeans.

"Come on, we're going to miss our last well, train ride I guess." I said, slipping my hand into his. I shrunk my trunk down to the perfect size and put it in my pocket. We walked down to the gates slowly, taking the long way and reminiscing the times we had, stopping to talk to the portraits, and even saying goodbye to the crazy knight Sir Cadogen.

There were students everywhere, some looking glum, some looking happy and excited. I looked around, savoring my last moment. There was no turning back now. I would never be returning to this place, my childhood. I would never be returning home.

Tears sprung into my eyes unexpectedly as I realized the truth at my last thought. I didn't know where home was. Anywhere with James yes, but I could never return home. Petunia belonged there now. Hogwarts was my true home, and I couldn't return. James, seeming to understand, said nothing, just stood there staring with me. We stayed like that for a few moments before he nudged me with his elbow. He nodded his head to where our group of friends was standing. We walked over to them, still not talking.

"I guess this is it then isn't?" said Sirius, breaking the silence. For once, even he seemed sad, closed off somehow and I realized this must have been his home too, maybe even more than mine.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Alice said, and with that, we all turned our backs and walked out the front doors, not knowing that half of us would never return.

We found a compartment easily enough, though we had to squeeze in slightly because there was so many people.

"Where's Peter?" Emma asked, looking around. We all turned slightly, and realized that Peter wasn't with us.

"Who knows. These days, he's never around. I don't know who he's hanging out with, but I guess they're cooler than us." Remus said with a smile and Sirius scoffed.

"How he thinks he can just dump us, we're the ones who made him coo-"

"Sirius, it doesn't matter." James said coolly, looking out the window. Something was going on in his head. I'd have to ask later.

"Exploding Snap anyone?" said Mary, breaking the tension. All of us agreed and spent most of the remainder of the trip laughing and talking, making plans to have a huge get together the next moment that we could.

All too soon the train was slowing, the scenery changing, being replaced by the huge platform, and then we were at a stop and people were unloading all around me, and I was frozen. James reached down for me and scooped me up, I still just stared at the window. I couldn't move. "I'm not ready." I whispered.

"We have to be." he said quietly and smoothed my hair back. It was only when I looked at his face, took a deep breath and cleared my head that I was ready to leave the compartment. But when we walked out of the train, I was greeted by chaos.

There were flashes of lights shooting from people's wands and I only had time to see several children lying on the ground, covered in blood with figures draped in robes standing over them before I heard a shout and was pushed to the ground roughly by James. I looked up when I heard Mary shout.

"Mum! Dad!" I saw her racing over to where her family was trying to get away from advancing death eaters. They must have been waiting for her to get off the train.

"Mary NO!" shouted Remus, but before he could do anything, I saw my best friend run to her family and through her arms out in front of them, trying to protect them, and saw a hooded death eater pull out his wand and raise it to her. She looked at him defiantly, no fear in her eyes, and then there was a flash of green light and she was falling, falling, falling, and I was screaming.

"MARY! NO!" tears were streaming down my face.

"Lils, she's gone. We can't help her, we have to get out of here." James said, lifting me to the ground. I pulled out my wand, wiped the tears away, concentrated on the task at hand.

"TRAVERS." Sirius bellowed, for the death eater that had just killed Mary hood had fallen off, revealing the man underneath. Sirius ran for him and they started dueling intently, colors clashing into each other as they both fought to pass each others defenses.

I turned to my right to see Remus battling two death eaters at once. Emma and Alice were both fighting their own also, only James and I appeared to have been left alone. But before I could even begin to wonder why that was, my world went black, and all I could see before falling was a pair of bright snakelike eyes staring down at me.

I came to Merlin knows how much later and I could tell I was sitting, and that I was bound by some spell because I couldn't move, nor could I talk. The room was dimly lit, and I could make out outlines of two bodies next to me. One was eerily covered in blood but the other was stirring. I caught sight of the moving one's face and sighed with relief, for it was James. When I looked to my right though, my breath caught in my throat. It was Michael, and he was dead. His shirt was off and etched into his skin, deep cuts were there and I could just make out the words. "Lily Evans." I shivered and began convulsing. Who would etch my name into Michael's skin? I prayed quietly that they had cut him after killing him, but I doubted it, saying as there was dried blood all around the cuts and that was what had most likely killed him.

I saw James take in Michael's appearance and I could see him gagging, muffled by whatever was blocking our speech. I managed to inch over to him, a mixture of rolling and scooting my body back and forth. When I got there, I leaned against him, only to find that I couldn't touch him. There seemed to be some sort of an invisible barrier between the two of us. And that was when the man walked into the room.

His body was normal enough, lanky and lean, maybe slightly too tall to be so thin. He was balding slightly, but you could tell he would have had very well kept hair. His eyes though were the scary part. They seemed to be radiating embers, a gold red color that made my hair stay on end.

"How sweet. The lovely pair trying to reach each other." the voice shook me down to my bones. I knew who he was obviously but I never expected his voice to be so chilling, like ice. "Now, why don't we look respectable?" he said and flicked his wand lazily. A table appeared with three chairs. I flew through the air and landed in the chair. My mouth was released and my bindings wrapped around the chair instead of myself. The same thing happened to James on my left.

The man, having to be Lord Voldemort, sat in a chair opposite of us. He pulled out our wands from his pockets and placed them in front of him, twirling them slightly. Revulsion curled in my stomach as I saw him handling my wand.

"Now that we're all situated. I set up this little plan today you see, because I have a, shall we say, business preposition for both of you." he said, his voice still soft yet cool as ice. I looked at James covertly out of the corner of my eye. "Oh, I almost forgot, congratulations. I heard you recently became engaged. And yet, risky thing to do at a time like this. But nevertheless, it does not have to be." James and I remained silent, staring at the man in front of us, never meeting his eyes.

"Now, what I wish to talk to you about is an offering. I would like to know if you are interested in joining my group efforts. You see, you are both immensely talented and I have been keeping notes from inside sources on you both for many years. And it seems that you two 'bonding' have made you both even more successful. So, what do you think?" He met my eyes for the first time that night and that shocked me even more than any of the events that had taken place. They were scarlet, like I had thought, and yet they were shaped exactly like a snakes and they chilled me down to my core.

James spoke first. "No. I don't accept. You killed my parents." I looked towards him, seeing how his voice was so clear and automatically felt calmer. But then, Voldemort smiled slightly and the pain hit.

I heard someone screaming and eventually realized it was myself. Every surface of my body was being burned alive, stabbed with knives, slowly cutting into, burned off, my bones turned to ashes, seconds turned into years, all I wanted was to die.

"STOP IT! STOP HURTING HER!" I heard, and then the pain stopped. I sat there, gasping for breath and realized I had just been subject to the Cruciatus Curse. James was sitting in his chair, tears pouring down his face, staring at me. "Are you all right?" he asked, but then another spell came over me and I was screaming again. The pain was overcoming me, everything was shifting and all there was, was pain. "STOP!" And it was finally over. I looked up, gasping again, crying with James.

"I'd rethink your answer if I were you Mr. Potter." Voldemort said calmly, still twirling our wands together.

"Don't hurt her!" James said, only staring at me, pleading with me to stay calm. I was shaking, my world was spinning.

"Now, Miss Evans, what would your answer be?" I looked up at him and my tears stopped. This was the man that had murdered my parents.

"I'll join you." I paused and could see the surprise in his face. It was then I knew that he had never expected us to say yes. James looked up shocked, sudden anger on his face. But then I continued, clearing my throat. "I'll join you, when hell freezes over you sick bastard." And then I did something really stupid. I spit on his face. He looked shocked and then stood up, wiping away the saliva.

"Wrong answer." he said, smiling. "You will be seeing me again soon, don't doubt that." And then he was gone and our wands were in front of us and our bonds were broken. I gasped in relief and looked down and there were angry red welts all over my body where the bonds had burned into my skin.

"James." I whimpered. He came over to me and pulled me into a shaky hug.

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. He won't ever touch you again. I'm so sorry." he whispered over and over again in my ear.

"James." I said again, my voice getting clearer. "We need to get Michael. His parents deserve to have his b-b-ody." he nodded against me and set me down carefully. He walked over to Michael and muttered a spell. I looked over and the cuts were gone, clear skin in it's wake. He almost looked like he was sleeping.

"Come on." James said, and helped me up. We grabbed our wands and James turned on the spot, still holding on to me and Michael. Then there was pressure on all sides and I felt like I was going through a too small tube, and I couldn't breathe but then it was over and I looked around at where I was. We were in a seemingly small flat and in the living room sitting on the couches were Sirius, Remus, Emma and Alice.

"LILY! JAMES!" they all shrieked our names and rushed over to us. They took one look at me pale appearance, the burns all over us and down to Michael and helped us hobble over to the couches.

"What bloody happened!" exclaimed Remus. "All I remember is Mary dy-dy well you know, and then I was dueling and you two were gone. The death eaters just all disappeared a few minutes afterwards and all around us were bloody people, dead people.. I" but he cut off there, putting his face in his hands.

James explained our nights events quickly, and Emma and Alice both burst into tears when they heard about the curse and Michael dying. Sirius looked like he was going to be sick when Michael was mentioned and Remus didn't remove his face from his hands. When he was done, Sirius left the room abruptly. He came back with a glass for everyone and filled it with a liquid that was faintly red.

"Firewhiskey." he said when I raised my eyebrows. I nodded quickly and took a sip, feeling the burn as it went down my throat.

"Sirius, do you have a blanket or something I can borrow?" I said, shivering. I could still feel the after effect of the curse on me.

"Oh bloody hell Lily. You should have said something sooner. Yeah, hold on." he said and left, returning quickly with a wooly blanket. I thanked him and wrapped it around myself, sharing it with James.

"I c-can't believe she's r-really gone." Emma said. She burst into tears and Sirius put an arm around her.

"It's my fault." Remus said, looking up for the first time. "She was right next to me. I could have grabbed her, but I was too scared."

"No, it isn't anyone's fault. Don't think like that. These things happen in a war. There's no point blaming it on anybody." James said, speaking for the second time that night. His voice seemed to emit a dangerous tone, and no one argued.

"Can we just crash here tonight Sirius?" Alice asked, voice shaking. He nodded and left the room once more, returning with more blankets and pillows. We all laid down on the ground, even Sirius and all of us knew the reason he wanted to stay out with us. I pushed myself up against James, needing to feel him next to me. And that's the way I finally fell asleep, to Sirius' soft snores, crying for my best friend.

A/N: I'M SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY IT'S BEEN SO LONG. school started back up again and that's just been horrendous, so much homework and i just lost track of time. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, not much romance just a ton of action. sorry about Mary, but its plot essential. I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!

Responses:

Loslotes: you are welcome (: thanks, even though he's so mean, Snape's one of my favorite characters. He'll be in this story more

Purple Painted Toenails: just getting reviews by you makes my day, you could say random words and i wouldn't care

roflshvuakomail: once again, love the name, and sorry i took so long, but i'm glad you liked it

jade2nightwing: well great! hope you enjoyed this one

ginnywillalwaysrock: wow, that was probably one of the greatest compliments i've ever recieved. thank you so much. people like you are the reason i love to write.

Please review and you'll get a shout out! i hope you enjoyed (:

Love Forever and Ever,

Tibby!