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 EIGHTY-THREE

The Betrayal

"There they are!!" Lily's voice echoed across the stable yard, as she came running out of the main office building to where Remus was leading Scottie and Leo up the driveway. I was leaning slightly forward on Leo's back, my good hand resting on his neck. I was exhausted.

"What happened!?" James was right behind Lily, but there was no sign of Sirius or the McWentworthington, as Remus lifted me down from Leo's back and held me in his arms. James and Lily exchanged a glance.

"She came off," Remus said, deliberately not saying if I was thrown or just fell. "Sprained her wrist and her ankle, grazed her hand and had to pull a pointy rock out the back of her head," Lily's eyes widened.

"But other than that I'm okay." I said, rolling my eyes. I looked around. "Where are..?"

"Emma!" Sirius came running toward me from the stables, followed by Cassie and Casey at a slightly slower pace. He reached us, and I watched the look on his face. It was unreadable. "Okay, what happened?"

Quietly Remus told the story again, and Sirius' eyes took on an unusually glazed look.

He reached over and took my good hand in his. "Are you alright, love?" He asked me.

I shook my head. "I just want to go home." I meant to England, and Sirius knew it.

He said: "We can't leave yet…not for a few days at least…" The McWentworthington's station wagon pulled into the driveway. "Cassie wants us to…"

"Then you stay here!" I snapped, yanking my hand free of his. "I couldn't care less anymore! I want to go back to England!" I was at breaking point, about to start screaming at him, and Remus must've realised it, because he immediately turned around and began carrying me toward the station wagon.

"Wait a minute…" Sirius began, somewhat angrily but Cassie interrupted him.

"She'll be fine," She positively purred, in a way that meant she couldn't care less. "Come on, you can sit next to me on the way home, and we can discuss what you're going to wear to the party."

Remus paused halfway through putting me in the station wagon, and I leaned over his shoulder. "For the what!?"

***

Sirius and I barely spoke two words to each other since the disastrous horseback ride. That was easy enough to do, since Cassie was devoting all her spare time to him, and I was devoting all of my spare time to getting better.

Lily and James, naturally, sensed that something was wrong, but seemed to be staying out of it, for the time being at least.

Remus, on the other hand, stuck to me like a shadow. I hadn't been able to get much sleep the first night and, since we couldn't brew any potions to help with the pain, Remus and I stayed up for most of the night, eating chocolate and reading books about medieval witch-burnings. Sometime around dawn I fell asleep, resting my head against Remus' chest and listening to the even sounds of his breathing.

When I woke up, I lifted my head to find him smiling at me.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked quietly.

For a moment, I was at a loss for words because of what he looked like in the early morning sunlight. Then I said: "Yeah, when I eventually got to sleep. Umm…I have to ask…did you sleep at all?"

He shook his head.

I smiled. "Next time it's my turn to stay up with you all night."

He laughed gently. "I won't let you do that. You need your sleep, Emmy."

"Will you let me eat chocolate for breakfast?"

"Yeah sure, why not?"

***

Later on that day, Lily and I were looking at a pile of cocktail dresses on the bed in a guest room. There were blue dresses, red dresses, pink dresses, green dresses, yellow dresses, black dresses, white dresses…ah, well, you get the basic idea. There were all sorts of dresses in all sorts of styles.

Lily's eyes were wide. "There must be at least two hundred dresses here…how will we ever get through them all?"

"Isn't there a spell for this sort of thing?" I wondered, glancing at my wand which was sitting on a comfy chair beside me.

I didn't expect there to be one. "Actually, there is!" Lily exclaimed, standing up. "Well, it's not actually a spell for it, more an idea…but watch! I tried it out one time in a shop in Hogsmeade, and it really works!" Lily was in a super good mood today. I think she was excited about the dance-ball-party…thing. She took out her wand. "Accio "Perfect Dress"!!"

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. That was the appropriate spell!?

But, as I watched, a particular dress zoomed into Lily's outstretched hands.

"See?" She grinned, holding the dress up to herself. "If it's here, then the spell will find it. Try it out."

I looked at the dress Lily held, and wondered if it would work for me too. The dress Lily held was an Emerald Camilla Silk Satin Cocktail Dress. She would look gorgeous in it, and I told her so.

She smiled. "Thanks Em – come on, why don't you give it a try? You can do Summoning Charms…"

I nodded. "Okay, let's see what fate picks out for me…Accio "Perfect Dress"!"

A few seconds passed and I wondered if the perfect dress did not exist for me. Maybe I didn't say it right…I was just about to try again, when the large pile of dresses seemed to shift and move, and then a dress zoomed out from the bottom of the pile and into my hands.

"Whoa…" I said, smiling happily. "Now let's see…oh wow! It's perfect!"

It was a Blue Shot Prom Dress. Was blue really my colour?

Well, we were about to find out!

***

That evening, the McWentworthington's house was alight with fairy lights and beautiful satin ribbon streamers. I guessed the McWentworthingtons were one of those 'throws a party every week' kind of families. Well, they certainly had the money and the house for it…not to mention the servants.

And their friends were…well, more families like them. Enough said.

Lily and I were both sitting in the living room, with glasses of sparkling water (eww) in our hands, and me with my foot propped up on a foot stool. I was wearing the dress, and the necklace Lily had gotten me my first Christmas at Hogwarts, but I had opted for no shoes, since my injured ankle was hurting me.

I felt so out of place, but I had Lily to talk to for the first ten minutes of the night.

Then people started coming into the living room, and people came over to talk to Lily and me.

"You must be the charming young girls Priscilla was talking about," A three hundred and ninety year old woman said (well, not really, but she looked ancient). "And what are your names again?"

"My name is Lily. This is Emma."

"Oh yes, I had a sister called Emma, and my daughter-in-law's name is Lily-Anne, but we call her Lily of course, she has a sister who had red hair, just like yours dear, she's dead now of course, had cancer, the poor dear…my goodness dear, what happened to your leg?" She peered at me.

"Horse riding accident." I replied.

"Oh, my brother was in a riding accident, a dreadfully dangerous activity, there's no sport more dangerous in my opinion, mind you I might be a little bit biased because Harold – my brother – was in a coma for four days, and is now a quadriplegic, he lives with my sister and her husband, they're taking care of him now, they live up in Darwin, they couldn't come to the party…oh, there's Gertrude, I must run along now girls, goodbye!"

Lily and I watched her go. No sooner had she gone, when James showed up. He was wearing a black suit with a red bow tie, and holding the hand of a young boy who couldn't have been more than two.

"Uh, Lils…oh wow, you looks beautiful by the way…" (Lily blushed). "Anyway, can you help me find this boy's parents? He can't talk very well yet…"

The little boy smiled up at us. "Ah-ma-ma-MA!!" He said cheerfully.

Lily smiled. "Sure," She stood up. "Will you be alright here, Ems?"

I nodded. "Oh, sure, I'll be fine and, hey, maybe our friend will come back and talk my ear off…"

Lily giggled, and then took the boy's other hand. She, the boy and James headed off into the growing crowd of people who looked like something from a fancy movie.

I sighed and settled back into my chair. I looked around. Where were Sirius and Remus? My crutches were leaned up against my chair. Maybe I could go and find them…

I was just about to, when Remus appeared at my side. He was wearing a black suit, and my heart seemed to stop as I looked up at him.

"You okay, Emmy?" He asked softly.

I smiled. "I am now." I replied truthfully, but really I was also wondering: 'WHERE is Sirius'?.

***

Remus and I wandered into the 'ball' room, me hobbling on my crutches and him with his hand just resting on my waist. The music from the actual live band was playing, and people were dancing.

"Emma..?"

"No." I said firmly. "I can't – don't – dance. Not now, not ever."

Sirius would've argued, and probably forced me to dance. But not Remus, and that was fine. I didn't expect it from him and, when I was with him, I enjoyed the way he didn't take charge. He was a real gentleman, and I liked that.

A lot.

"Look," I said, pointing. "Cake!" It was a triple-layer chocolate one, with dark chocolate and white chocolate shard and mouse filling and…

I stared at it hungrily.

Remus said, a little wistfully: "We probably have to wait for dessert…"

"They wouldn't have it there if they didn't want us to eat it now," I pointed out. "And look – these people over there have some."

Remus smiled. "Okay, cake it is then."

***

I was coming back from the bathroom by myself, an hour later, and I thought I heard something in the hallway. I stayed in the shadows, looking, and then what I saw made my heart stop.

Sirius and Cassie were standing, in the shaft of moonlight coming from the window. She had her arms around his neck and they were kissing.

My heart seemed to stop, and tears came to my eyes. Sirius…was kissing someone else?

He'd…he was doing exactly what I did with Remus, but…no, no! Sirius had only known Cassie for a few days, why was he kissing her!?

I'd known Remus for a lot longer, possibly even longer than I'd known Sirius, but this was different! Remus and I were Bonded, and this was just…an infatuated girl snogging MY boyfriend!

My Sirius…

But…Sirius was kissing her too…so, he wasn't entirely innocent…

Why? Why was he kissing her? Did he like her better than me?

Why!?

Anger and betrayal clouded my better judgement, and my own sense of guilt, and I turned on my heal and, throwing my crutches aside with a clatter, I ran down the hall, ignoring my sprained ankle that was screaming at me, and bursting into the room I had shared with Lily.

I began noisily collecting my things into my backpack, my precious items – my wand, my pocket watch with the stag on it, the enchanted wolf Remus had made for me, and the enchanted dog from…Sirius.

With a sob, I shouldered the backpack, and ran, taking a different route and arriving out the back, running past a group of stunned people, only to run straight into Lily, who was walking hand in hand with James.

"Emma!?" She cried, alarmed at my red eyes, sobs and pale face. She let go of James and took my shoulders. "What happened!?"

"He snogged her!!" My voice reverberated across the patio, so that noise from inside ceased. "Sirius kissed that bitch, Cassie!! He was making out with her!! Right there in the hallway!!" I was screaming now, tears tumbling down my face and landing on the patio wood. Both James and Lily were shocked. Their faces were identical masks of disbelief. "I knew he was annoyed with me over the past few days, BUT WHY DID HE KISS HER!!?? I TRUSTED HIM JAMES, I REALLY TRUSTED HIM!! I DON'T CARE ANYMORE, I'M GOING BACK TO ENGLAND!!!!" And I ran, ignoring the pain in my leg, and ran down the steps. My mind was racing, my heart was screaming – why Sirius, why?

No logic told me that this was the same thing that Remus and I had been doing. Because it wasn't.

Sirius…why?

I turned on the spot, and Disapperated, leaving the horrors of Perth city behind me.