A/N: Hi everyone :) Sorry about the long time between the last chapter and this one… I forgot to do something very important… like send the chapter to my beta :P So in return, here's two chapters all at once! O_O awesome, right? Although there might be another gap before the next chapter… cause it ain't written yet :P

The next day was Saturday, and with only one week left of term, the workload on the sixth years had eased considerably. I therefore allowed myself a lie-in, as did most of the house, as the party of the previous night had continued into the early hours of the morning. I woke up to find my dormitory deserted, and glancing at the clock on the bedside table, I saw that it was half past eleven. It was a very long time since I had been last afforded the luxury of sleeping that late. I got dressed and headed down to the Common Room.

At first glance, the room seemed as empty as my dormitory had been, but on a closer inspection, two figures were visible over beside the fireplace. As I rubbed my still bleary eyes and they came into focus, I saw that the two people were James and Sirius. Sirius looked terrible; he was staring down at the floor, his eyes were slightly red, and the expression on his face was nothing short of murderous. James looked consoling but also angry. I wondered what on earth could have happened.

They looked up as I approached. James' expression softened as he saw me, and he greeted me with a wave; Sirius just looked back down at the floor again. I approached the two of them.

"What's up?" I asked, concerned. Whilst James and Sirius were not exactly my favourite people in the world, there was obviously something wrong, and after all, they were fellow Gryffindors.

Sirius continued his policy of attempting to bore a hole in the floor with his eyes, so James answered me, "He got a letter from his parents this morning. They say that if he doesn't change his… um… 'attitude,' he… he's not welcome in their house any more."

My mouth fell open in horror. The fact that Sirius' beliefs were, to say the least, at complete odds with those of the rest of his family was common knowledge throughout the school, especially since his brother Regulus had joined the school and immediately fallen in with the group of budding Death Eaters that held much notoriety in Hogwarts. Sirius had openly clashed with this group and his brother many times over the last four years, often violently, and it was hardly a secret that Sirius considered James, his best friend since arriving at Hogwarts, more of a brother than Regulus.

Despite all this, I found it nearly impossible to believe that anyone's parents would possibly care so little about their child that they could disown them at the tender age of sixteen. I genuinely felt sympathy for him.

"Sirius, that's… that's awful," I said in a sorrowful voice. He gave a derisive snort.

"I hate them. Their pure-blood fanaticism… it's insane! It doesn't mean anything. Having 'pure blood' doesn't make you a good person. Good people don't leave their own children with nowhere to go. What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

I did not answer; admittedly, I could not think of anything to say. James, however, looked at his best friend in surprise.

"Don't be stupid! You're staying with me!" he said, as though this should have been obvious. Sirius looked startled.

"I – what?" he said, finally looking up from the floor and into his best friend's face. "No – mate, seriously, I – I'm sure I can find somewhere…"

But James cut across him. "You're. Staying. With. Me." he said firmly. "No arguments."

Sirius was still looking shocked. "But… but what about your parents? Shouldn't you ask them first?"

"Mate, they love you," said James, waving a hand dismissively. "No problems there."

Sirius paused, then hugged James tightly. James patted him on the back and said, "Come on, let's go down to breakfast. Coming, Lily?"

"Um… guys, it's quarter to twelve. Breakfast finished over an hour ago," I said, feeling a little disappointed myself – I was actually rather hungry.

"Really?" asked James, and it was his turn to look surprised. But he recovered himself almost instantly: "Never mind then, we'll go down to the kitchens."

"You know how to get into the kitchens?" I said, torn between being disapproving and impressed. James laughed.

"Found them in first year, didn't we, Padfoot?"

"Oh, yeah," answered Sirius, who was now a great deal more animated. "The house-elves are dead helpful, too. Practically giving the food away, no questions asked." The two of them made to leave the Common Room.

I hesitated, almost in spite of myself. My prefect's instincts to obey the rules battled with the aching feeling in my stomach. My moment of indecision was not missed by James; he turned and said, "Come on, Lily; it's not as if it's the crime of the century. You coming?"

My stomach won.

"Sure," I said, grinning, and hastily followed them out into the corridor.

I followed the two Marauders downstairs, through many secret passages in all sorts of unlikely places: behind tapestries and statues, a few behind portraits like the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, and once, rather alarmingly, behind a solid wall. James and Sirius, walking slightly ahead of me, simply walked straight through the apparently substantial stone as if it were not there. I froze in shock before James stuck his head back out, said, "Should've warned you, sorry. Don't worry, it's perfectly alright," and pulled me through. I wondered how on earth they had found them all.

As James pulled open yet another tapestry and held it open for me to go in before him, I enquired, "Where are Remus and Peter, by the way?"

He chuckled before replying, "Probably still in the library. Remus being Remus, he insisted that they went to look over that new Transfiguration theory McGonagall went over last class. Peter didn't really get it."

"It was quite hard, to be fair. I had a huge headache at the end of that lesson," I said.

"Who didn't?" snorted Sirius bitterly. "Ridiculously hard, that was, and right at the end of term…"

But just then, as we were approaching the other end of the passage, Remus and Peter themselves came bursting through the tapestry, panting and out of breath.

"We'll be safe… in here…" gasped Remus, before spotting the three of us and saying, "Oh. Hello." Still winded, he lent against the wall, clutching at a stitch in his side.

"Um… what happened?" asked James, looking quite bemused.

"Regulus was in the library with a load of Death Eater buddies," said Peter, his voice even squeakier than usual to his lack of oxygen. "He was talking about the letter Sirius got this morning."

"And?" snarled Sirius, as Peter paused for breath.

"Well, they hadn't noticed that we were there, so we employed a few… interesting hexes from behind a bookshelf. Unfortunately, Snape was with them, and knew all the counter-curses for them. Then one of them spotted us, and as we left the library they followed us. The moment we were clear of the library they started running at us and firing all manner of spells… so we ran in here."

"Right," growled Sirius, and without further ado, he pulled open the tapestry.

"No!" I said, as the other three made to follow him. James, however, said, just before leaving the passage, "Trust me, it'll be good for him. Help him let off a bit of steam." Then he followed his friends through the exit. I hesitated, before dashing after him.

The Slytherins were grouped at the other end of the corridor. Regulus was already on the floor; I suspected Sirius had hexed him before they had noticed he was there. As I stepped out, both sides started firing spells at each other simultaneously, although none of the Slytherins seemed to notice my appearance. Their attention was concentrated solely on the Marauders, who were dodging spells and firing back their own with remarkable speed and agility. I surreptitiously fired spells of my own at the Slytherins, and soon we held the upper hand, despite the fact that we were outnumbered two to one.

Within minutes, half of the Slytherins were lying on the floor in various states on incapacitation. All four Marauders and I were still standing; in the noise and confusion, I was able to remain half-concealed in the tapestry while shooting spells at the Slytherins non-verbally. I felled two more of our opponents with successive spells, and a third fell just after at James' hands. Looking at the remaining combatants, I suddenly realised that among the group of budding Death Eaters was Severus. He shot a curse at James, who was aiming a spell at Rudolphus Lestrange, and did not see it coming.

I leapt out of the tapestry and yelled, "Protego!" James, having successfully hit Lestrange with a Stunning spell, turned in mild surprise. His astonishment, however, was nothing compared to Severus'.

"Lily!" he yelled, even as his only remaining ally fell at Sirius' hands. "What do you… what on earth are you doing with… them!" He spat out the last word, and I felt myself fill with rage. I did the only thing that made sense.

I hexed him.

Severus was lifted into the air and flew backwards into the wall. He slid down it and lay crumpled on the floor.

A/N: Read and review! Motivate me to write that next chapter!