A/N: I've changed my mind and this chapter will be called VANDALISED SNOW instead. Thank you all for reading and reviewing!

---

VANDALISED SNOW

Lily anxiously fiddled with the ends of her hair. James was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't that much of an abnormal occurrence but she was nervous nonetheless. Concerned, Lily ventured into the outer courtyard where it was predominately concealed under a veil of darkness. The wide expanse that the outer 'yard defined was mostly hidden due to the contours of the peak upon which Hogwarts sat on; miniature hills and slopes that were perfect for tobogganing made her job just that little bit harder.

She slipped and slid down a slope further down wondering where the fighting sixth years were. They could be anywhere but if they were hexing or whatnot she was sure she'd be able to see the magic fly or at least hear the commotion.

Out of class dueling was not uncommon especially among the older years who were more eager to put their skills to the test, it was something that Prefects, Head Boy and Girl were always warned about. They were cautioned at every meeting that such situations should not be handled alone because flying spells had no eyes and it was unsurprisingly easy to get hurt when you arrive with the best intentions to stop a duel.

She was prepared for the worst, however, once her eyes had adjusted to the low light available, the limited view that she had showed her that the carpet of snow was pristine and untouched reporting to her that no one had been out here for hours. The ringing silence interrupted only by the soft wail of the wind confirmed this. There was not a single soul out here save for her own.

It had begun to snow again. Flakes of shimmering snow trickled down adding to the ankle high blanket already on the ground. Soon it would grow heavier and her trail of footsteps would be lost under the new fall.

Lily shivered. In her haste to come to James' aid she had chosen to go directly to the courtyard without detouring to get a coat, this only served to annoy her further. Lily angrily shook some snow from her lashes and continued to wait. Anger was good, it gave her a focus and it could mask the raging torrent of emotions that plagued her. If anything she couldn't believe that James had used such a low trick to get her attention. He had it now all right, and she was going to make him regret ever wanting her attention the second he turned up.

A faint crunch of snow being compacted under footfalls alerted her and she looked up. A tall silhouette was coming down the slight hill, sliding a little at times but otherwise making a steady descent. She couldn't quite see his face yet due to the glare from the castle lights but soon he would be on the same ground as she.

"Evans?"

Lily's heart and a little anger diminished as Sirius Black pulled back his hood and shook out his hair which fell perfectly into place as he did so.

"What are you doing out here without a cloak?" he asked with a frown. How long had it been since he had really looked at her? Looked at anyone properly for that matter? He couldn't recall her appearing small or…little, insignificant even. Be it the illusion of a person alone in a wide space or just his overactive thoughts he couldn't help but be infected by the loneliness that emanated from her.

Lily didn't answer straight away in her need to clarify whether she felt relieved that he wasn't James or sad. "You're going to crease your good looks if you frown like that." She said in the end, quite unable to hide her bitter tone completely. He only said what he thought was best for his friend; you're being unfair. She knew that but it was very hard not to be objective.

"Likewise." He said noting the subtle disappointment in her expression when she'd seen him. She'd been expecting James.

"Shouldn't you be back in bed?" Lily asked although her Head Girl questioning wasn't quite coming out as commanding as she would have wished.

"Likewise." Sirius replied a smile tugging onto his handsome face. He approached her steadily and shrugged out of his rich cloak and swung it onto her shoulders. Prongs is gonna kill me if she catches a cold because of this. He thought.

Lily tried to take it off. "I don't need it."

"Must you be antagonistic all the time? Chivalry isn't quite dead yet you know." He said and tied the neck fastening tightly.

She stood stiffly with steel interlocked into her spine incidentally showing every inch of her quiet dislike for him. Sirius took this all in with a begrudging kind of admiration and took his time finishing the knot on purpose.

Once the knot was made Lily took a step back thinking of ways to get rid of him. She couldn't justify putting any blame on Sirius for what happened nor could she find it in her heart to do so, but neither could she act completely indifferent to him yet. Moreover, she didn't need two mouths to argue back at her when she blasted James for his childishness and on top of that, she still wasn't quite sure how she might react to James. If she did have some sort of break down or ended up crying she did not want Sirius to witness it.

"I heard there was an illicit duel taking place here and it's not safe for students to be running around the grounds after dark. You know what's waiting outside."

"You're doing it."

Lily almost smiled. "But as Head Girl I have responsibility to make sure students are safe. Besides," she added on whim. "If anything were to happen to you I'd have a lot of upset girls on my hands."

"If anything were to happen to you I'd have a very upset friend on my hands." Sirius answered a little wondrously.

She scrunched up her nose and for once he perhaps glimpsed what James saw in her. Looking beyond the obvious that Lily Evans was an undeniably beautiful girl (he'd noticed that of course) there was something about his friend's infatuation that was always a foot or two out of his comprehension. For example, the lengths to which his friend went to, simply to please her endlessly amazed Sirius. But right now, in the midst of this verbal chasing Sirius thought that he finally understood James' addiction to Lily a little bit more.

There were things about her that drove the addiction, small things really; a collection of random factors about Lily as a person, but when many factors added up it was a pretty big deal. For one thing, she really did have stunning eyes and it wasn't because they were large and heavily lashed or a brilliant shade of green (although all this helped), but it was because the honesty, openness plus whatever emotion she was feeling at the time always shone through.

She was looking intently at him, her eyes bright and he could see…sadness…hurt. That alone was enough to make him want to take all that away and this, Sirius knew, was what James saw.

She was fantastically stubborn and headstrong (she had to be; who else would argue with her boyfriend over Snape?) as well as kind and calming… in her own infuriating way. A personal strength radiated from within, her presence was influential even if she did not intend it and all of this came from a simple, almost mundane girl who went under the guise of one of many, but was unlike any other.

With a jolt that Sirius did not appreciate, he hit a realization. She was just like James! Forgoing the appearance, gender and background their characteristics were complimentary prints of each other! Who was he kidding trying to tell James that she might not be right for him? They were perfect for each other. He couldn't believe that it had taken him so long to see what his best friend had seen from day one and it made him feel almost ashamed…

Lily crossed her arms, uncomfortable under his stare. "What is it with you tonight, can you not form your own words?"

To her surprise Sirius let out a laugh. "Prongs is right, when you get annoyed you do get prettier. No wonder he spends so much time winding you up."

"What do you want Sirius?" she demanded quietly.

Sirius held her gaze steady while he contemplated whether to answer her truthfully. He hadn't intended on speaking to Lily prior to the very bad Quidditch practice but now that it had occurred and James looked like he wasn't going to do anything, he knew he had to do something. Especially since the Cup was riding on it and now that he'd made the opportunity present itself, but suddenly he didn't know what to say thanks his newest discovery. Admittedly, he had come with a single-track mind of dragging Lily back to James, with the aid of memory charms if necessary (ones that would last at least until the Cup was sitting on McGonagall's shelf) but little had he expected to have to fix emotional calluses.

Having gotten this far he decided that the best approach was the direct approach. "I want you to end his misery." He told her flatly. Lily blinked and he ploughed on. "Quite frankly girls are a bit of a mystery to us and you above all confuse Prongs the most. He's damn right miserable at the moment and you…" he waved his hand at her not quite sure what he was pointing at. This, he decided, whatever 'this' was; was as close as he could manage to saying a fraction of what had crossed his mind earlier. "You're…acting so damn bloody normal…"

Lily would have taken pride in her I'm-all-right performance were she not so taken aback. She opened her mouth but she was speechless. She couldn't understand what he was trying to say but it sounded like he might have a go at her.

And I deserve it.

"I can't believe you're saying this…after everything that we've been through."

James. She thought sorrowfully. I'm sorry but this is for the best

He had the right to; she had hurt James. James would never admit it but his expression last night had said it all. Sirius being his best friend could see it as clear as day just as she could. She, Lily Evans had hurt James Potter. Her apparent indifference to it all was like adding oil to a fire and Sirius' anger on behalf of his friend and brought him here to confront her; little did he know that inside her heart she was slowly bleeding.

Sirius' next words turned her world upside down. "…But I can see you're not happy either. If you're upset about whatever you overheard then you can't have heard the whole thing. Yes I was an ass and I kinda did suggest that you guys break it up but if you're this upset I'm guessing you didn't hear the bit where Prongs swore that he'd stick by you… simply because you're you."

His tone changed considerably and Lily listened throughout with something stirring slowly inside. She wanted to be sick, she wanted to cry, she wanted to laugh but most of all she wanted to know. "But he said that being with me was 'hard'." Were her attention not so completely fixed on Sirius she might have flinched at having to say that tormenting word aloud.

Sirius could clearly imagine Lily standing outside their bedroom with her ear against the door. He could understand that how after hearing your boyfriend say something like that signaled for an appropriate time to leave which consequently led her to miss the vital part of the conversation. "Yea, but he also said that all the crap he's been through he'll gladly do a full replay because you were there with him."

This was too much of a revelation to Lily and it was…overwhelming. "Look, Sirius." She said shakily, her breaths coming out in puffs of condensation. She pressed her lips together not sure what it was she wanted to say but something occurred to her as the cold reminded her of where she was and why she was there. "You tricked me to come out here didn't you? You're the one who pretended that there was a duel taking place out here!"

He shrugged while surprised at the 360-degree turn in the conversation. "So what if I did? How else was going to get you to talk to me?"

"I can't believe I fell for such a dirty trick-"

Sirius suddenly reached out and his hand clamped onto her wrist causing her to jump.

"Shh!" he said sharply and lifted his nose up to the air. He clearly sensed that something was wrong. Wide-eyed Lily looked around them but she couldn't see nor hear anything. She was about to ask him when she heard movement. "There's someone out there. Human I think." He whispered in a low voice. Lily nodded and her eyes searched their surroundings sign for anything humanoid shaped. "Hello?" he called out his voice strangely muted in the snow heavy air.

She didn't know whether she was infected by his wary reaction or overreacting to nervousness, but she was taking no chances and pulled out her wand. Sirius continued to survey around them, his eyes darting from pole to pole. Whatever it was that he could smell or detect Lily couldn't sense it, but being an Animagus dog she guessed that he might have developed keener senses over time.

Nobody replied to Sirius' call. He took a step forward but Lily pulled him back. "We are going back to the castle." She told him firmly.

"Relax. It might be Prongs. Maybe he couldn't take it and turned up after all? Hey Prongs! We know you're out there! Lily says she won't be mad, come one out and maybe we can talk it out?"

Lily slapped his arm. "I never said that and I am still angry! You lied to trick me out here!"

"Shh…it's cold and I wanna go in and we can't leave the poor sod out here. OI Prongs! It's cold you know, quit messing around and let's go back in where it's warm-" He stopped himself and perked his ears up. Even Lily could hear the sound of slow movement. Something sounded like it was being dragged along the snow…something heavy…

Lily swallowed hard. "I don't think that's James." The sound continued. Snow crushed underfoot and the crunch of heavy pressure on ice.

"I said quit playing!" Sirius yelled and went ahead with Lily dragging behind him. He went up a mini snow drift and slid down-

"Bloody hell!" Sirius gasped staring at the vandalised snow and ice at his feet. They had practically fallen into a pool of ice commingled in…red…blood. A big red ice pool…in the centre of it all like a macabre exhibit lay a…Centaur.

"Shit!"

Centaurs were by no means meek creatures. The one that lay before them was fully-grown and both the human part and animal part displayed Herculean bulky muscles. Should a Centaur that size choose to greet those unfortunate with a hind kick, the powerful legs alone would secure a painful death.

It had to be more than bloody difficult to kill one of them but here one of them was…dead. The torso of the man carried a horrific wound. A cut that started from the neck extended to the underside of the horse-like body. The skin that lined the fatal wound curled up and out, with burnt edges like angry lips. The warm blood from the body had mixed into the snow turning into a bloody slush.

Lily had never been squeamish in her whole life but at that moment she had to look away from the sight as a handful of intestines slipped and slithered out onto the snow. Sirius instinctively put a hand on her shoulder for comfort although it was as much for his benefit as hers. Never in his life had he seen something so sickening, appalling, nauseating…so bloody.

There was no doubt about it that the poor guy was dead, who could survive wounds like that? But compelled to be one hundred percent certain Sirius hopped over on the ravaged snow not wanting to touch the bloody ice and leaned over to feel for a pulse. There was nothing but the skin was still warm. Blood continued to drip and leak out of the corpse…a recent killing…within the hour…maybe minutes…or even seconds…the fine hairs on his neck rose…

Shit!

He was by Lily's side in an instant. "We need to get out of here!" He grabbed her hand and began pulling her back up the hill even as alarms went off for all his senses-

---

A/N: Bit of a cliffie! The next chapter is called: I SPY, TRAP! Enjoy! xxx