A/N: Sorry took so long updating. I would have this sooner but my internet wasn't working, something about a volcano north of here. I think? Anyways, I would like to hear more from you guys, please review! Thanks.
And not to mention how crazy my life has been up until this week. Thank God for best friends. I wouldn't live without mine.
Lily finally gave in, and the news was all over the school in only a matter of hours. Nobody could believe their ears, until, that is, they saw it with their own eyes. "James and Lily?" some would say confused, others, "You would have never known she fancied him, the way she acted."
That morning at breakfast Effie couldn't keep her laughter under any sort of control. The blush that continually crept up Lily's cheeks was undeniably funny. Every time that someone made a comment, asked a question, or so much as looked over in the general direction of the new couple, Lily's face flushed. Of course, it could have been the unrelenting smile that played at the corners of James own mouth.
"So, Lily," Effie began, a smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, ready to turn into fits of laughter at any minute, "who asked whom?"
Lily dropped her head into her hands. James looked over at her, patting her leg in a calming gesture.
"I asked her." James replied, and Lily gave him a thankful look. A look that was interrupted as owls began to fly into the room, earning cheers from expectant students. Lily never got anything by owl, being a muggleborn and all. At least Effie was half, and one of her parents understood the means to write their daughter. Lost in though, Lily didn't realize James had been saying her name, not until she got a good elbowing in the ribs.
"Ouch! James, what was that-" Lily complained at him, but her cut her off.
"Lily." He pointed to the Daily Prophet in his hands.
'Little town in ruins after Dark Wizard kills 15 muggles. The wizard is known as Tom Riddle, and calls himself by the name of Voldermort. He has been terrorizing the muggle and wizard communities for over a year now, and his actions have escalated greatly during the last two weeks. More recent activities include the torture of a muggle boy, and the use of unforgivable curses on a wizard family known to be "muggle lovers". It has been reported that he is recruiting wizards to build an "army" of sorts. Wizards all over the country are being warned. This wizard will stop at nothing until the world is rid of muggles, and half breeds.'
Under the article there was a large moving picture of a street, and all the houses that once lined it, in ruins. Above the ruins, in the sky, was a mark; one Lily, nor the rest of them had ever seen, and definitely not something that any of them would likely ever forget either; a green skull and a serpent entwining it. She shivered, and looked at James he was furious. Lily knew that things were rapidly changing in the wizarding world, as did many others sitting in the Great Hall that morning. What started out as a cheerful morning, quickly became solemn as students passed around newspapers.
James was shaking with rage, silently sitting next to Lily as she read the article. She looked up at the rest of her school mates. Effie's smile had vanished, and Sirius looked about as livid as James. Peter looked a fright. He was shaking as well, but not in anger, he looked… scared. Lily wondered to herself what he had to worry about; he actually came from a pureblood family. She shook her head, trying to rid herself of such awful feelings, 'No,' she thought, 'we should all be scared, pureblood and muggle born alike.'
Of course, Remus just sat in silence; Remus, the most level headed, strongest person that Lily had ever known. She looked down at the newspaper in her hands again, wondering how a person could possibly do this. That's when she knew that she was going to do everything in her power to help stop this.
James couldn't eat after he finished reading about the muggle killings. It was a disgusting horrid business, killing people. He sat in a silent rage trying to calm down enough to not lash out at the people surrounding him. When he felt somewhat civil he looked over at Lily, and his heart melted at the sight of her studying everyone; his precious Lily, who cared more about everyone around her than she did herself. She looked back down at the newspaper, and he watched her emotions change from sadness to a very determined hard look. He knew that look, better than anyone else; it was the same look he got every time that Lily had rejected him. James knew that look, and seeing it on her face scared the hell out of him.
She stood up suddenly and very angrily, James reached out to stop her. "Lily? What are you doing?"
"James, I'm not going to sit around doing nothing. I'm going to class, where I can learn; then maybe one day somebody can kill this, this monster. I just can't sit around James. You've got to understand." And he did, too well. Instead of arguing, he stood up as well, and hugged her tightly, grabbed her hand, and followed her to class.
It wasn't so bad, however, they had double defense this morning.
"Welcome Class!" James cringed at the cheery voice that greeted them. He turned to Sirius.
"He obviously doesn't subscribe to the daily prophet." Sirius raised his eyebrows in concurrence.
Lily turned to James, "Shouldn't we tell him?"
James almost couldn't help but laugh. Of course she would be worried that he didn't know. Although, he had to giver her some credit, if Professor Diggle knew, he was being a complete arse. So he raised his hand.
"Yes Mr. Potter?" Professor Diggle asked.
"Have you read the Daily Prophet this morning?" James asked, tentatively.
"Mr. Potter, I don't follow you. What does that have to do with class?"
"Professor, I don't mean to be rude, but here," he thrust the newspaper towards his teacher, "read this." Thankfully Professor Diggle took the paper.
The whole class watched in anticipation as he read the paper, his face darkening as he read on. When he finished he handed the paper back, mumbling something about protective shields and useful spells.
"Well, class, seeing as you will be going out on your own in a relatively short time, maybe we should be more worried about what is out there, than your N.E.W.T.'s." A few students whooped, and a few sighed. Professor Diggle continued, "Today we will learn a few different shielding spells.
"The first spell is a spell that will create a barrier between you and minor jinxes, curses, and hexes. It will not stop an unforgivable curse. Though it does cause some spells to rebound at the caster. Now, the incantation is Protego, repeat after me: (Pro-TEY-go)"
The class repeated the spell a few times.
"Good, now, let us have a couple of volunteers, MacMillan, Alderton?" The two students rose and
"Now Mr. Alderton, I want you to use the Impedimenta jinx at Mr. MacMillan. So, come over here." He moved the boy to one side of the room. "Mr. MacMillian, you will block the jinx with a Protego shield. So, we will place you over here." Professor Diggle said, bringing the other boy opposite of his new adversary. "On the count of three, one, two, three!"
Trevor shouted loudly, "Impedimenta!" flinging said hex out at Davy, who carefully responded.
"Protego." He said, very calmly. A bubble like shield erupted from the tip of his wand, creating a barrier between him and the hex, which coincidentally bounced off the barrier and hit Trevor in the arm as he turned to escape it. Trevor instantaneously fell backwards.
"Wonderful!" Their Professor exclaimed. Now, I would like you all to pair up and give it a try."
The shield proved to be a simple and easy spell for Lily, who was an excellent DADA student, only second to charms.
In the midst of all the excitement, most everyone seemed to forget about the mornings events until they were dismissed for a 10 minute break. Lily, Effie, James, Sirius, and Remus ventured out into the hall to walk around for a bit.
"Well, that was most certainly an interesting lesson." Lily said, when nobody started talking immediately.
"Mhmm." Effie agreed. "Wonder what we are going to learn after break." She mused.
"My best guess, more protective spells and enchantments." Remus put in, striding alongside Effie, and they walked randomly through the hallways.
"I can't wait until lunch." Sirius grumbled, almost incoherently. "I'm starving."
"Maybe you should have eaten your breakfast then?" Lily joked at him.
"Ah, couldn't, not after… well, you know." At the mentioning of the attacks, James's grip on Lily's hand tightened and she rubbed his arm with her free hand. "I just don't get it." Sirius went on, "What's so great about pure blood? In the end you're one of two things, magic or muggle."
"Yeah well," James replied, "It doesn't seem to matter to some people." Lily gave Effie a helpless look and shrugged her shoulders.
"We should probably head back to class now guys." Effie said, smiling slightly at Lily. It was just such a dreary topic, and the two girls didn't want to mull over it any more than they really had to.
The second half of defense went quickly, as they learned a few more protective spell; mostly ones that you would use on houses, or living quarters. Lily found the days' lesson to be quite intriguing, and wished that they always had as hands on teaching as they did this day. Professor Diggle assigned them a 12 inch essay on spells they can use to protect and hide their living quarters, and then dismissed them to lunch.
The Great Hall was still quiet as the four walked in. Sirius ran ahead of them as soon as he saw food.
"I swear, that Black thinks with his stomach first and…" Effie trailed off, not finishing the thought; they all knew what she meant though. Remus laughed half heartedly.
Lily took a seat next to James, and Effie was on her other side. Remus sat down across from Lily, Peter and Sirius on either side of him. Lily looked at him appreciatively as she was thinking. He was the only one whose socks weren't knocked off when he found out that she had finally admitted her feelings about James. Instead, when she told him, he said it was about time she stopped being in denial. She chuckled lightly causing James to at her.
"Nothing James." She told him, smiling at his mouth full of food. "So I was thinking-" she ventured thinking back to the book she had been reading over and over since the term began, "We should do more to ready our selves before we graduate."
"Like what?" Sirius asked, bits of food falling unceremoniously out of his mouth.
"Like knowing what we are facing out there. Who we are going to be up against, and what kind of magic he uses."
"She's right you know… we should know this stuff." Remus said.
"Where exactly would we learn this stuff?" James asked Lily.
She smiled a devious little smile, and her eyes sparkled, "You know that book I've been reading?" She looked towards James, "'The History of the Darkest Arts, and Defensive Spelling against Them.'? The one I found in our common room?" He nodded his head, recounting the memory of her sitting in one of the two armchairs, legs pulled up to her chest, and a big old leather book perched on her knees. "Well, I think we could start from there, I've read about some really horrible things, things I'm sure that Voldermort knows of."
"I've got a 'SpellMaster's' book." Remus added, "I got it from my great great uncle last Christmas, he said it was rare, and many of the spells are unused today."
"Brilliant!" Sirius said, growing excited. "James and Peter and I, we can show you how to-" Before he could finish it James's hand was on his mouth.
"Later Sirius." He hissed.
"Right, sorry, got carried away." Sirius apologized.
"What are you guys on about? Seriously, you four have more secrets that I can keep up with." Effie whined, referring to the last time she had walked in on a conversation, something about a "furry little problem". She had brushed it off thinking they were talking about some sort of infestation of pocket pixies or ganglehoppers. She wasn't so sure that's what it was anymore.
Sirius smiled at her knowingly. "Don't worry. You will probably find out soon enough."
Changing the subject after seeing her friend's frustration, Lily asked, "So, we will meet at the Heads Common Room at 10?"
"10?" Peter asked, worried about curfew.
"Yes, 10, Peter, Lily and I have rounds tonight."
"Oh, right, so, 10 it is then."
"We will meet you outside the entrance. Follow us in when we get there." She hinted at the use of James invisibility cloak.
They finished lunch excitedly and headed to their next class, all in high spirits for the upcoming meeting.