A/N: apologies for slow update but I've been having some problems with FF, it seems that more often than not my log in page is unavailable. I have no idea why! It's taken me ages to get this chapter uploaded with any deletions! I also want to apologize for the state of this chapter, it is definitely not one of the better ones but I think it was needed to set up some major stuff that I promise will be much better! Oh, and guys...don't hate me for it but I've taken a lot of liberty...well enough of it although I do want to say that it is NOT and assumption in any way. It's just an idea that will answer a lot of questions later in this story.

- - -

Nothing could describe the immense relief that the group felt when they emerged from the edge of the forest an hour or two later. It was night time and although it felt like it was only earlier that night that they had entered the forest they knew that there was a high possibility that it was actually days after. For one thing, the moon was beginning to wane.

Sirius was no longer in his dog form but still he sniffed the crispy cold air. "Somehow the air inside the forest smells foul." He commented. Lily breathed in the cold chilliness but couldn't discern any notable difference. However she did notice that leaving the forest felt a lot like what she imagined leaving a prison would be like as she had suspected they had to ignore the majority of the arrows that they had drawn and rely on Sirius' nose instead. They covered Hogwarts grounds quickly and emerged inside via a hidden route that Lily hadn't known about.

"What have we here?" A low voice greeted them at the first corner they turned. James and Sirius knew who it was straight away. Two people stood midway up a fight of stairs, more specifically two Slytherins were standing there. Lily couldn't help but cast a discreet surreptitious at the hidden entrance to check that it was truly concealed.

"Hello to you too, Snivellus." Sirius chirped happily and flicked a glance at the blonde haired guy next to him.

Snape's eyes narrowed and he looked down his crooked nose at them. "What are you doing out of bed past your bed time?"

"Likewise, pal." James retorted. He was not taking to Snape's condescending tone very well and his patience wasn't at its best. Remus may not have the build of a boxer but he wasn't exactly feather light either. He was beginning to tire and he had to keep hitching him up further on his shoulder to keep himself balanced. His wounds were by no means life threatening but they were one hell of a sore sport all the same.

"With the Head Boy and Girl missing new members have been elected." Jacob said proudly in answer. Now that they had moved closer they could see a very shiny badge pinned on Snape's robes. It was not the Head Boy badge but it did support the letters 'THB' that stood for Temporary Head Boy. James could think of a few less nice things that the letters stood for. Snape must have been chosen to uphold the Head duties.

"Oh, so not you then?" James returned his composure relaxed and confident. "Temporary, that's not bad." Meanwhile Sirius was racking his brain over where he had seen the other Slytherin before and it took him a while before he remembered him. Rosie's boyfriend.

"Wicked! So Head Boy and Head Girl then!" he grinned as he allocated Jacob as the boy and Snape as the girl. He then mock shivered at the thought.

"Save your humor, Black. Why are you out at this time." Snape demanded again. Lily couldn't help but feel that Snape was not entirely clueless to their whereabouts. He was certainly suspicious of them.

Sirius looked up to the clock mounted up on the wall. "Relax, we're just on a way back. We're only one minute late, you can hardly penalize us for that." Snaped gave them a look that said he could do otherwise. "Besides, I was just coming back...from seeing Rosie." Sirius said with glee. He was deliberately hitting a sensitive and painful nerve. Jacob looked like was would jump on Sirius who was more than ready to fight back. He was already scratched up and another bruise or two wouldn't have made all that much of a difference. His wand hand twitched and he felt almost disappointed when Snape stopped Jacob.

"Quiet." Sanpe snapped. Jacob silenced immediately and James wondered what kind of power could stringy and thin Snape could have over the well built Jacob?

"Fine, so tell me Black, if you have just come back from seeing a girl then what about the other three." Snape drawled. By any standards that was not a reasonable excuse for Sirius to be out past the curfew but it seemed that Snape didn't care, which was fine with them. If he wanted to hear their made up excuses they could sit there all night and feed him all sorts of made up crap. He had to know that! Then why in the world was he wasting time holding questioning them?

Sirius sighed deeply and deliberately as if he was a poor soul left to explain an impossible concept to a stupid student. "It's called dating, Snape." He said gravely. "I know you'll never understand the concept but people date." Lily knew better than to deny Sirius's words and she hooked an arm through James' defiantly.

Snape's eyebrows twitched. "Turned into a Potter fan as well then? I thought you couldn't get any lower. I take it I was wrong."

"Last time I checked, whoever I dated was none of your concern." She said and smiled sweetly at him. Snape shifted uncomfortably, Lily noted with surprise that he actually looked away from her. A comment that Cerise had once made crossed her mind and before Lily could think twice she spoke again. "I could date you of course, but that would be wrong." She almost purred the end of her sentence. Unless she was seeing things Snape's cheeks colored ever so slightly. James silently gagged while Sirius had his hand pressed over his mouth to stop himself from bursting with laughter. What a revelation!

"What interesting dating patterns you have Mudblood, you take your hairy friend along?" Snape continued his face rapidly returning to its usual deathly pale. The minor exchange was lost upon Jacob but he nodded along anyway.

"Have you never seen a drunk person, Snivellus?" James responded in answer to his probing stare at Remus. If he wasn't required to hold Remus up with both his hands he would have pulled Lily further away from Snape; something about Snape's dark eyes unsettled him

"Poor guy is suffering from heart break because he's away from his love and has to resort to drinking, but I guess you would know all about that wouldn't you? Knowing there's someone you can't possibly have." Sirius picked up suggestively. Lily almost winced and felt bad for having started the subject. That was way below the belt but Snape looked like he was considering retreat and Sirius was quickly forgiven.

She seized on Snape's silence. "Anyhow, gentleman, if you please?" She started before Sirius could say any more. She moved forward and Snape flinched back as if afraid that she might touch him. "The Head Boy and Head Girl are back now. We'll deal with Black and Lupin accordingly." With that she brushed past him and the other automatically following. Snape lingered behind watching them leave the corners of his mouth was lifted in what might have been a smile. They could be as cocky as they wanted because he knew something that they didn't know and would never know until it's too late...

- - -

"I wonder what he's thinking, he looks ever so thoughtful." Cerise said dreamily. Feeling rather bored and sleepy in their History of Magic lessons Lily was confused at first until Cerise nodded her head towards James. He indeed did rather seem lost in his thoughts with his head propped up by a hand and his long legs spread out lazily under the desk. "It's got to be something really special or something, just look at his concentration!" Cerise continued.

Lily once again peered at the 'thoughtful' James. "Yeah," she agreed before continuing curtly "He's thinking about food." Ha said that she now tried to return her attention to class while her stomach growled.

Cerise smiled but said nothing, preferring to believe that he was lost in some kind of intellectual thought. "He's a lot cuter without his glasses." She observed. Lily reluctantly sneaked another look. He had taken his glasses off and was rubbing the bridge of his nose carefully.

"I thought you were into Sirius?" Lily asked as her friend openly stared at him from across the room.

"I am yes, but that doesn't stop me from looking at some one else!" she gave Lily a knowing wink. "Besides, there isn't much to look at the moment." She tilted her head in his direction to indicate what she meant.. Lily could just about see his head resting on the table past James and understood what she meant straight away. Having given up on the lesson completely he had lain his head down and looked like he was snoring softly with his mouth slightly open. How attractive Lily mused and she would have voiced it aloud but she knew that her sarcasm would be lost upon her bedazzled friend.

The end of class came and the students stood up, many stifling yawns and others were openly stretching. Sirius was one of the latter and James also gave a little stretch.

"Finally! Lunch! I've been dreaming about it since the start of the lesson!" he exclaimed.

Lily inwardly smiled as she heard this when she passed by. She headed straight for the library; lunch was not on her agenda that day nor had it been for the past week. If anything the disappearance of the hand made her more determined than ever to find out exactly what it was and what significance it may hold. Day after day she had spent hours poring over books hoping to come across anything that might shed some light.

As expected the library was empty and she went straight to her usual spot in a secluded area. Half an hour passed and Lily knew that today she would not make much progress. It seemed that she could come across nothing but spells for quick hands, invisible hands and even a dead hands spell that Lily had found interesting but were of no importance. With a sigh she closed the heavy book.

"Lily."

Lily jumped in her seat as Brent dropped onto a chair opposite her. "Brent!"

"Hey Miss. Jumpy." He greeted cheerfully.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked bluntly. "I mean...sorry that was rude of me... it's just that everyone is usually at lunch at this time." She half stammered.

Brent shrugged. "The attention was too much at the tables. I was feeling rather closed in." He swept a hand across the library. "This is the only place that a guy seems to get some sort of peace." He said sadly. "On the other hand I get to read up on a lot magic stuff. I'm surprised, some of it is can be rather interesting." He pulled out a large thick book and opened it up on the table. The pages were yellowed slightly but it was full of intricate hand drawn art and loopy writing. "My old man gave this to me." He explained. "He said that it would do me some good to read."

Lily reached out and turned the book so she could read the cover. "Mystical Beings." She read aloud.

"I guess it's quite interesting. A bunch of beings that are supposedly seen like gods by Muggles but are in fact just some powerful creatures that existed a long time ago. I guess you could say that they're now extinct."

Lily flicked through a few pages absentmindedly. Her hand froze over a particularly vibrant painted picture of a familiar creature.

"Protector of Sameth the Great..." Lily read. All of a sudden, not everything seemed to swim around in mystery any more.

- - -

Peter snorted into his juice as Sirius was once again acting out the evening of their return with a few additional touches of course. James was not as appreciative of Sirius' newfound interest in Snape and continued to brood.

Sirius slapped him heartily on the back. "You can't seriously feel threatened by him are you?"

"No!" James knew his friend well and Sirius was not the type to let something like this go until he had ridden it into the ground and then stamped on it some more after.

"Then everything is fine! I mean, if you were then I've seriously got to start thinking about turning you into a monk or something. Or at least convince you to devote yourself to religion." Sirius slapped his hand on the table highly excited. "The amount of hell I can put that poor excuse through..." he mused staring off into the distance.

This was precisely what James did not want because if it did it would inevitably involve Lily. "Padfoot-"

"Relax, Prongs! I swear that what ever it is I end up doing it won't involve Evans." Sirius looked almost sincere but James wasn't fooled although he did let it pass. "At least not directly anyway." He muttered mischievously as he stood up suddenly. It was not so much as getting away from James at the moment as seeing something that pricked his interest

Across from them in a corner of the hall's side entrance he could see two people engaged in a not so pretty conversation he decided as he neared them.

"You suspicious control freak!" Rosie yelled at Jacob. "I don't need you to tail me everywhere I go! I told you the truth and if you don't believe me then FINE!"

Jacob looked incensed. "But I asked Jackson and she said that you're always out of bed at night! She tells me that you even dream about him!" He pointed an accusing finger past her shoulder at Sirius.

"Me?" Sirius pointed a finger at himself in surprise.

More furious than before Jacob continued now shouting. "'Don't let him get me!'" he quoted in a girlish high-pitched voice. Now Sirius frowned, where had he heard that before?

Rosie visibly paled and she gritted her teeth while her hand trailed down to her wand.

"Look at you! You're losing sleep over this loser!" Jacob yelled in her face. Now that he mentioned it she did look kind of tired to Sirius. She had dark circles beneath her eyes...but that wasn't the point and he knew it was his turn to do something.

"Hey!" Sirius stepped forward and pulled Rosie back. "You do not raise your voice to her like that." He warned. Jacob raised his hand but before he even got to swing it he fell down to the floor howling. Sirius stood back and whistled in admiration as Jacob continued to cry out in agony. He made a note never to push Rosie too far because that was some impressive stinging hex.

"Are you happy now?! Now he's got me!" Rosie said venomously to Jacob and then stormed off.

Sirius watched her with a distinctive feeling that he may not be the 'him' in her dreams or the 'he'. It sure was a mind bender but then Sirius expected no less from a girl like Rosie. With a little nonchalant shrug he turned and walked back to the lunch table leaving Jacob to finish off his twitching in peace.

- - -

A/N: Just to say that not much happens in this chapter, it's kinda of like a chapter to fill in before some major stuff begins to happen. And I'm happy to say after some big and weirdo stuff that happens there will be a more pleasant chapter(s) where James will visit Lily at her parents home for the first and only time. It will also be the visit that Petunia meets that supposedly "awful Potter".

Not wasn't that revelation shocking??? I'm sure it will make the story...interesting...

Thank you guys for sticking by me!