That makes me sad, I only got THREE reviews last chapter, I was really sad for a couple of seconds. Sigh. Technically I shouldn't post this unless I get two more reviews, but I'm not quite that mean….. STILL! Three? Anyway, because of my THREE reviews, this chapter is dedicated to DanielleHalford, Amarande Nyx Numen and accioizzy. YOU GUYS ROCK!

Chapter 24

A torrent of tears raced down her face. Gemma was perched on Lily's bed, rocking the other girl in her arms. Violent shivers convulsed across the red-heads body.

"I-I ca-a-n't believe he'd—Sev. Say that!"

"I know I know….."

"Why-? I was j-just trying to help."

"I understand. He wasn't worth it."

"Gemma…. I, I think I was in love with him."

This piece of information was new to Gemma. She froze before forcing herself to continue rocking. Lily. In Love. With Snape.

How could she have not seen that?

Of course Lily defended him then, Gemma didn't like him, but she knew several people who despised him…..

Lily chocked on her tears, struggling for breathe. Hyperventilating, she moved her arms to her ribs.

The door knob rattled. Adrian and Michelle. Damn. Lily's makeup had completely washed off, exposing Arameo in every sense. To be honest, it creped Gemma out slightly, a thin line like a show lace traced Lily's entire face and neck, she knew id Lily's shirt was lowered, she'd see the web there as well. The most unnerving thing about it though, was how a shot of fire would run the path of the tattoo every now and then. With Lily so upset, it seemed to happen more.

Gemma took out her wand and quickly covered up Lily's face as fast as possible, just in time for the door opening. Michelle's head came first, followed by her body and Adrian.

Lily was asleep next to Gemma. Tear still streaming constantly down her face, wincing, and wet.

"Is she ok?" Adrian whispered to not wake Lily, although Lily winced again with the sound of words.

"Ok as she can be at the moment." Gemma said, a sigh creeping into her tone

Michelle looked like she was about to cry, just looking at the empty mask on Lily's face.

"Tell us if you or Lils need ANYTHING. Ok?"

Gemma nodded, looking down at her friends face. She didn't look up, after a moment; she heard the door signaling Michelle and Adrian's departure. Gemma sighed and stood up, careful to watch Lily's reaction to her moving. She whimpered, looked slightly pained and clenched her fist, but didn't awake.

Gemma's jaw clenched. Those sick bastards. How could they break Lily like this? She thought of last year, where they had all laughed together, and James and Snape were only a second thought, even that. They had fun; they're biggest problems being the Transfiguration essay due on Thursday, whether not Sirius Black or Ty had noticed they're new haircut. They had thought they had so many problems, they had no idea. Life had been a nothing but a parade in comparison to now.

Gemma walked in to the bathroom and got a rag; she wet it with cold water and walked back to Lily's bed. Her face was covered in sweat, tears and blood from where Arameo's web had pierced her skin. Gemma took the rag and slowly mopped up Lily's face….

Lily's breathe quickened; her eyes swirled behind her closed eyelids. Her face contorted and grimaced constantly. She started screaming and Arameo glowed with enough heat to burn a hole straight through her shirt. Gemma's mouth dropped into an O of horror. What the hell was happening?

"Lily? Lily. What's wrong? Lily?" She knelt beside the rocking redhead and put her hand on her arm….

….When it happened.

Arameo sent his web slicing across Gemmas fingers, zaging up her arm.

It was like a thousand knives invading her veins. Millions of glass shards keeping her heart from pumping. Black dots crowded her vision until there was nothing but darkness. Her breath was sucked from her lungs. Sounds conquered her ears. Textures conquered her skin. Images conquered her brain. Sirens. Crawling. Blood. Avada Kedavra. Piercings. Cemeteries. Screams. Slaps. Scared.

Terrified,

Pain.

She wasn't getting numb fast enough.

She

Wasn't

Getting

Numb

She felt everything, every ounce of everything she'd ever want to forget. Somewhere, in the square centimeter of her mind that was still sane was screaming for her to let go. That square centimeter took over, Gemma wasn't aware how, but she ended up in a ball away from Lily's bed. She was clutching desperately to her hand. On inspection, she discovered that it had in fact been burnt… or something like that. There were several little dots that produced an uncomfortable prickling sensation. Gemma closed her eyes and leaned her head against the bed behind her. It was Michelle's. Or maybe Adrian's. Her head wasn't recovered from the screaming images it had just experienced. Speaking of what had just happened.

What the hell had just happened?

Lily had been withering, beginning to shake as Gemma had seen her do dozens of times before, right before she had started her attack. She looked at the clock, right on time.

But there was no way Lily went through that twice every single day. The fresh memory of the pain, the sounds, the images, were still ingrained and shooting at her scraps of sanity. She closed her eyes to slow her breathing, and then discovered that closed eyelids brought the images stronger. By the time Gemma wasn't hyperventilating the image of Lily's warm brown bed post was permanently sketched into her head. The gold carpet meeting the post, surrounded with Lily's black snow cap and her favorite book Where Your Fears Live. Gemma doubted she would ever forget the smallest thing like the curve of the "l" on the book cover.

"Gem?" Lily's voice startled and relieved her. Mainly startled. Her body was phlegmatic as she stood up to look at Lily. She took several pained, sluggish steps to the bed, where the redhead sat up gingerly to meet her. Lily regarded her with big green eyes.

"Are you ok?"

Gemma didn't answer; she was staring at Lily's chest.

"Gem?"

"Gem, what is it?"

She didn't respond, although now her eyes traveled along the path Arameo's web had marked.

"You're tattoo…. Arameo…" Fatigue made talking much harder; the words were slow and forced, clumsy, falling over one another.

"He-it, shank"

Lily looked at Gemma, trying to ditch the sardonic expression that was stealing her face.

"You don't believe me? Fine, look."

Lily did, and as she did, she gasped. It had shrunk, if that was the word for it, more like minimized. The web had completely retreated of her face and neck, now it didn't even reach her collar bone or the bottom of her rib cage.

She shot her shocked eyes back into Gemmas disbelieving brown ones. She swallowed.

"What the crap?" Gemma breathed.

"Want to know what else is weird?" Lily asked with a look of a deer caught in headlights.

"What?" she said even softer, not taking her eyes of Arameo.

"I feel way better than I have in months. Gemma, I can breathe."

The amazed clarity in Lily's voice was enough to set Gemma over the edge. Silent tears slipped passed her face.

Gemma slowly brought her face to her hand again, where the pinpricks were barely fading. Lily followed her gaze, and looked horrified.

"I did that." It wasn't a question. It was a confession

That seems to be a good place to stop. Cliff hanger too. Hehe. Once again I want to thank DanielleHalford, Amarande Nyx Numen and accioizzy. I really appreciate it. I'll get the next chapter posted as soon as I get a reasonable amount of reviews. Thanks!

~LIZIES~