She thought her life was over – but fate gave her another chance, in a world of magic. Now, running around Hogwarts with James Potter and his friends, she's about to make choices that will change the future in ways she never thought possible…

Marauder's Phase

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

The Kiss

"Hey, no fair throwing snowballs!" I complained the next morning.

"All's fair in love and war!" Sirius barked, as he and Peter ganged up on me.

"Not fair!" I cried, hiding behind Lily as a torrent of snowballs came hurtling through the air. "Save me, Lily!"

"Knock it off you two!" Lily stated threateningly, but she was smiling.

Her new pet, whom she had christened Valencia, was growling at Peter, whom she did not like. Ha. If only they knew.

Before Lily, Petunia – yes, she'd decided to join us after all –, Valencia and I knew it, we were involved in a snowball fight with the boys.

Snowballs were flying in every which direction, most of them hitting Petunia on our side and Peter on their side, until we called a truce and made an army of snowmen. Sirius ran into the house, and came back two minutes later with an armful of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff scarves, and I have no idea where he'd gotten them from.

We dressed the snowmen, decorating them with rocks for eyes and carrots for noses, and then stood back to admire them.

"Perfectly perfect." Lily smiled.

James grinned at her.

Even Petunia seemed to be heaving a good time, that is until early in the evening, when the barn owl swooped in with a letter for Lily, which was from Molly, inviting her and us to go carolling with a bunch of students from Gryffindor in town.

"Alice and Serilda will be there too," Lily said to me, as Petunia flounced off to sulk somewhere. "As well as Louis, Arthur and Frank."

"Great," James said, grinning. "Shall we head off now then, Evans?"

Lily actually smiled at him. "Yes, let's." She agreed. She seemed to be determined not to mention the Petunia thing, and nobody else brought it up.

We went inside to tell Lily's parents where we were going (Petunia was nowhere in sight) and then headed toward town, to meet the others at a café called Tea Is Magic. Apparently it's a muggle café, but it's run by two witch sisters, who make all of the things in the kitchens by magic, you can pay in muggle money or in wizard money, and it's open 24/7. I couldn't wait to see it.

We walked like this: Lily and James in the front, talking about who was going to win the Quidditch World Cup and whether or not catching the snitch up your sleeve was considered intentional or not. Valencia walked beside Lily, her lion-like tail swishing back and forth as she trotted along happily. Every so often, she would streak ahead to pounce on unsuspecting beetles.

Remus, Sirius and I walked behind them, chatting about places we knew of that must have wizards and witches working there, like the post office and whatnot. Sirius, of course, was holding my hand, but Remus was walking so close next to me that it was alright. It may have been just me, but Remus and Sirius seemed…somewhat distant with each other.

Just a bit.

Peter trailed behind us, obviously keeping as far away from Valencia as he could. He didn't talk, he didn't do anything, he was just…there.

A bit annoying, really…

When we got to the café, everyone else was already there waiting for us, and we greeted each other enthusiastically. Well, Serilda wasn't particuarly happy to see me, but that much I had assumed. I just ignored her, and she me.

We were walking along the street by that stage, and came to a small house. I'd never been carolling before, but I was surprised at just how fun and easy everyone made it seem.

For muggles, we sang normal carols like Silent Night and Hark The Herald Angels Sing. For wizards and witches like us, we sang our world's versions of carols, including one that reminded me of The Twelve Days Of Christmas…

"…nine fiery dragons, eight fairies dancing, seven Kelpies swimming, six potions brewing, fiiiiive golden wands…four Hippogriffs, three Nifflers, two unicorns, and a snidget in an oak tree…"

By the time we'd gone round the whole neighbourhood, we were all laughing so hard that we were out of breath, and a light snow had begun to fall.

"Why would anyone even want nine dragons for Christmas?" James wanted to know.

"Hagrid would," I reminded him. "Heck, Hagrid would be happy with just one dragon, any time of the year!"

We laughed.

Arriving at Tea Is Magic, we all came in and one of the sisters, Brunilda, smiled at us. "Did you have fun carolling?" She asked us.

"Sure, sure," James said, grinning. "Except with The Twelve Days O…"

Brunilda laughed also. "Oh, I remember singing that one when I was a girl," She said, showing us to a large table and handing out some menus.

There was no one else in the café at this time, so Brunilda and her sister, Kloey, did everything by magic. We paid with sickles. Most of us ordered tea or hot chocolate. Remus and Arthur got coffees, Lily's hot chocolate had cinnamon sugar in it, and Molly's drink was iced.

When mine came out, I looked at Kloey, pointed to the menu and said: "Uh, it says here I'm supposed to get a peppermint with this."

I got two peppermints!

I should have known that something that was this amazing and fun could only last for so long.

As I glanced around the table, stopping to lock gazes with Remus for a moment, before watching Valencia lap up her strawberry milk and James attempt to hold Lily's hand for the umpteenth time that evening, I happened to glance out the window and see something…someone was watching us.

I jumped but, when I looked back, whoever it was had disappeared.

Or Disapperated. But I hadn't heard the crack that always follows Disapperation. The other sixth years and I knew all about it, since our tests were coming up and we all looked forward to them.

I began to feel unnerved.

I hadn't seen the person's face, which was always a bad feeling…

When we left the café, I was feeling positively apprehensive, sure that something was going to happen, and that it was going to be bad.

I was clinging onto Sirius' arm when it happened.

Valencia's fur suddenly stood on end, she hissed, and took off into the darkness.

"Valencia!" Lily cried.

"I'll get her, Evans!" James said, sprinting off in the cat's wake.

For some reason, the prospect of James running off into the darkness, alone, after Lily's cat, was possibly even more terrifying than anything else and, without a second thought, I said: "I'll go with him, wait here guys!" And hurried off into the darkness, despite Sirius and Remus calling me back.

As I ran through the darkness, toward a seemingly deserted playground, my heart began to pound horribly. What was going to happen?
When I found James, he had Valencia in his arms, and Valencia was growling at the stubborn-looking person standing with her arms crossed.

"Petunia!?" I exclaimed, coming to a stop beside James and clutching at the stitch in my side (as a human, athletic I ain't). "W-what are you doing here?" I hadn't meant to make it sound like I knew I'd said it, and her pale eyes (so unlike her sister's) narrowed. It was obvious that she'd been spying on us this entire time, but had been caught out by Lily's clever, magical cat. Valencia had her large yellow eyes trained on Petunia, and was growling softly as only cats can.

Petunia looked like she was about to say something but, just then, something happened that made the night go black around us.

I felt like I'd just swallowed a hunk of ice, and I knew the feeling well.

"Dementors!" James hissed from my left, as Petunia gave a frightened whimper – and then she screamed.

James and I reached for our wands at the same time, and both yelled: "Lumos!"

My heart seemed to stop.

Three Dementors were gliding toward us, tall and black-robed, some of the most horrible things in existence as far as I'm concerned. If they got me now…I would never see Sirius and Remus again.

One of them was directly in front of Petunia, and James and I reacted in the second it had taken for our wands to light up.

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!!" I concentrated on my most recent happiest memory, embarrassing as it was…there was no time for failure now. Sirius and Remus were counting on me…

The silvery stag burst forth from the end of James' wand, and something followed straight from mine but, just then, Petunia screamed again and I whirled around to face her.

The Dementor that she couldn't see had forced her to the ground, and was slowly lowering its hood.

My stomach turned over.

"Petunia!" I shouted, and something silvery, blue and white galloped past me, straight at the Dementor that was about to steal Petunia's soul. It lifted it up easily with something that was either horns or antlers, and tossed it aside.

I turned back to James, in time to see his Patronus do the same thing with the other two Dementors, driving them back until they gave up, and glided silently into the night sky, which refilled with stars the moment the Dementors had vanished.

My Patronus and James' Patronus disappeared as well, before I could get a proper look at mine, and we both lowered our wands, exchanging a horrified glance.

"Are you okay?" He asked me. He didn't have Valencia with him – the cat must've gone to get Lily or something.

I nodded wordlessly, and both of us turned around.

Petunia was still lying on the ground, shaking like mad, and both James and I went over to her.

"It's okay Petunia," I said soothingly, though my voice was shaking. "They're gone now…it's over…"

There were tears glistening down her face, and she was so pale and scared that I really did feel sorry for her, despite everything. "Wh-what was that?" I held her hand reassuringly. She was shaking like a leaf.

"Dementors," James said quietly, glancing around in the darkness, his wand still raised slightly. "They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban…"

"You can't see them because you're not a witch – you're very lucky." I informed her.

She just whimpered again and didn't reply, as we heard footsteps running towards us.

James and I both stood up, and raised our wands, looking into the darkness.

Valencia suddenly came bounding into view, yellow eyes luminous in the darkness, followed by our friends.

"Oh God," Lily cried, running toward us, her face the same colour as the snow around us. "Oh God!" She flung herself down to her sister's side and wrapped her arms around her, and both of them burst into tears.

As for me, my heart leapt up when I saw Sirius, and suddenly I found myself running toward him. "Oh Siri!" I cried, rushing into his arms, which he wrapped around me. I could feel that he was shaking.

"There were three of them," James was telling the others quietly, as Remus came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder, comfortingly.

"Yeah, we got four of them," Frank said. I noticed that most of us still had our wands out, as if we were afraid that the Dementors might come back for round two. "One of them went for Lily, but she drove it off with her doe Patronus. Then one went for Serilda, but Louis'…umm…snake Patronus somehow managed to sort it all out."

Huh? So Louis had a snake Patronus? Snakes were really small. What had the Patronus done, wrapped itself around the Dementor? That wouldn't have done much, unless it was an Anaconda.

"Then Remus and Sirius' wolf Patronuses sorted out the other two." Molly said, from her place by Arthur Weasley's side. "Then Valencia appeared, and we knew at once what must've happened…"

Lily had managed to get Petunia to stand up, and she said, in a shaking voice: "Tuney's just told me…about what happened," She let go of her sister, who wobbled for a moment but stayed standing upright. "James, Emma…thankyou so much…I can't…I can't tell you what this means to me…"

James looked embarrassed. "Ah, it was nothing, Evans…wait, did you just call me by my first name?"

Lily nodded. And then she threw her arms around James Potter and kissed him.

Too bad the Dementors didn't come back.

Because I think that James Potter would've been able to produce the world's best Patronus.

I was grinning. So was everybody else. Even Petunia smiled, a little.

The kiss was suddenly broken apart, however, by the arrival of six owls, all carrying letters from the Ministry of Magic, which all said the same thing: …has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Ministry representatives would be coming around at any minute to snap my wand, as well as the wands of Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Louis.

The six of us exchanged silent, horrified glanced, unable to believe what had just happened. My mind was reeling. Expelled? But why? We were saving our souls, and the soul of a helpless muggle as well! Why should we be expelled for human nature!?

These thoughts were interrupted by the sound of somebody calling to us.

"Don't just stand there!" And Kloey came running toward us, her face a mixture of tension and disbelief, her wand out and her eyes looking around quickly. "All of you, get back to the café! Brunilda's gone to the Ministry to straighten this all out! You'renot safe out here! Now get back to the café before the Dementors come back!" She ordered us.

Please let us not be expelled! I thought desperately. Please! I thought, as I struggled back to the café – struggling because Sirius was not letting go of me…

Or maybe I wasn't letting go of him…