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-SIX

River Of Blood

'I just found out who the heir of Slytherin is…I am a Parsletongue, but it wasn't me. It was someone I knew, someone I trusted, someone I sang Christmas carols with on Christmas day. But he tried to kill me during a Quidditch match. He's a murderer…'

I was horrified by what I knew, and walking numbly toward the Quidditch pitch with my broomstick in hand, hardly realising where I was going until I walked straight into Lily Evans.

"Hey, are you alright?" She asked me, looking concerned. "You look like a zombie, Em…"

"Jeez, thanks." I replied, some of my normal nature coming back as I retorted.

Lily smiled slightly. "Good luck in the Quidditch match today, Em."

I nodded, and then I gasped.

"What!?" She asked, startled.

"I left my pocket watch in the Gryffindor tower," I said, realising that wasn't around my neck. "I never go anywhere without it, and I never play Quidditch without it!" I was frantic. It was an obsession of mine.

Lily nodded. "I'll go and get it for you, you get to the pitch." She said, and turned and ran across the courtyard, her black robes swishing.

I watched her go, feeling my heart pounding, and then as I turned to go, I realised that I hadn't told Lily where to find it, and that she wouldn't know that it was in the boys dorm, where I had left it after visiting James to ask him if I could bail out of today's match (he said no).

I sighed and, leaving my broomstick leaning against a wall, I turned and ran up into the castle.

***

As soon as I set foot into the castle, I knew something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong…

The Basalisk…

I ran.

"Lily!" I called, heart pounding and stomach dissolved. "Lily!" If anything happened to Lily, it would be my fault. I was the one who had sent her back into the castle to get my pocket watch. She was muggle-born. She was a high risk factor.

Professor Ackerly might not have been able to stop Louis from setting the Basalisk free just one last time…

"Lily! Lily, where are you!?"

"Emma?"

"Sirius!" I gasped, because he and the other Marauders had just jumped out from behind a tapestry, James included.

"Em, we've been looking all over for you…" He began, but I cut him off because I had just heard it.

-"To kill…blood…fresh blood…FRESH BLOOD!"-

"The monster in the Chamber of Secrets is a Basalisk!" I shouted, my firm resolve wavering, and panic setting in. "And I'm a Parsletongue! I sent Lily up to the tower to get my watch and the Basalisk's on the hunt! We have to find her!!"

James' face went pale.

"Em," Remus had grasped my shoulders in his hands. "Are you sure?"

I gulped. "Positi…" The word died in my mouth.

-"Fresh blood…finally…YES! Now let me rip you apart!!"-

My heart lurched. "IT'S KILLED SOMEONE!!" I yelled, just as a scream echoed through the castle walls from above us, and was cut off by a loud, gurgling sound.

I took off running toward the staircase, with the Marauders behind me.

'Please not Lily, no not Lily!' I thought desperately, my entire body was numb as we reached the third floor, and we headed toward the corridor where the scream had come from.

We could hear the sound of people from above and below, people who had heard the scream also and were coming to investigate.

As we reached the corridor from where the scream had come from, our feet hit something cold and wet.

Looking down, we saw that it was water from a burst pipe…

And it was stained with blood.

My heart lurched as James let out a strangled cry, and I ran forward, toward the blood-stained heap lying against the blood-splattered wall.

My body was numb, my chest constricted in some kind of pain that I had never experienced before.