Ok, again, this took forever. However, I do have a very good excuse. I had exams, finals, a conference to plan for, and I graduated. And as it is now summer, I will try to keep posts closer together.

This chapter was suppose to be all one chapter with 48 and 49 which is why they all kind of dragged. I was lazy when it came to writing, and I wanted to get something posted. So, imagine they are all one, very long chapter. And by long, I mean long. This is my longest chapter to date (15 document pages). But, at least now, we can all move on from here.

Enjoy!

XxXxX

Aly asked the nurse again the next morning, deciding that asking was much nicer than demanding, "Can I leave please?"

"I don't think so," Madame Pomfrey said as she covered her freshly cleaned wounds.

"Please. I'm fine enough to walk. And you clearly have enough going on without me here." Aly explained sweetly.

"When did you walk?" the nurse murmured as she wrote down Aly's hourly update for the headmaster.

"Last night."

"Where did you go?"

"I only got as far as the hallway before a prefect stopped me," Aly said sweetly.

"Then how was your bed empty last night?"

Aly choose to ignore this question, her patience wearing thin. "I want to leave."

Pomfrey stood and said, "No. Maybe tomorrow."

Aly scowled at this, but had to admit that the wing was much more bearable with the other students there. Plus, sitting without pain was welcomed. See, she thought, the moving around had proved to help.

She was happy to see Sirius arrive, and, to her surprise, James was with him. The two were chatting.

"Hey," Sirius greeted smiling. "You seen," he shook his head towards Lily's curtain, "today?"

This peaked James attention as he had taken to looking at the ceiling.

"No," Aly said starting hard at the curtain. "The nurse won't open it. Is she really that bad?" She directed the question to James. She knew he wouldn't sugar coat it.

He was starring hard at the curtain as well. He sent her a sideways glance that told her everything she needed to know. The curtain was closed, not to shield Aly, but to protect Lily.

"If she's that bad off, where is her stupid boyfriend?!" she exclaimed.

James shrugged and moved towards the nurse. She ushered him off. "I have check ups to do. You can wait a few moments."

The two boys leaned against Aly's bed and waited. Aly felt anxious. Lily's curtain was going to be opened.

As they waited, the headmaster entered with the Minister of Magic along with the headboy and headgirl. Sirius stiffened but moved in no other way. Logan sent Aly a smile, and she tried to return it, but was disrupted as the nurse pulled back the curtain on Lily's bed.

Aly strained to see her friend. Pomfrey noticed and quickly pulled it shut. Her head reappeared from within, "You two," she directed towards Sirius and James, "Come here."

They both moved quickly and disappeared behind the curtain. Aly felt even more frustrated.

Logan, seeing an opening, came over to her bed. "You're still here."

"Not by choice," she mumbled staring down the curtain.

"Who's back there? Behind the curtain."

"Lily."

"Lily?" His confusion pulled her away from her staring.

"Yah. You didn't know?"

"No."

"Amos didn't tell you?"

"Amos isn't talking to Lily."

"So? He must know...everyone knows."

"Yes, well..." Logan shrugged.

The two boys returned, both looking rather crestfallen. Sirius glared, and Logan announced, "I better get back." he added as an afterthought, "I'll let Amos know that Lily's here."

"Or don't," Aly told him offhandedly, "Whatever." She was waiting for Sirius' reaction. However, all he did was take a seat on the edge of her mattress.

XxXxX

"Where's Sirius?" a drowsy voice asked.

Aly, who was working a potions essay for Slughorn, looked up in surprise. She had plunged herself into her work when she had heard the curtain pulled back around her friend's bed.

When she didn't reply, Lily repeated her question. Aly shrugged and asked, "Where's Amos?"

Lily returned the shrug. "Why is Sirius ignoring you?"

"Avoiding," Aly corrected, and that was the extent of their conversation. However, Lily's words struck a cord.

Sirius had been ushered out of the hospital wing not long after he had sat down on her bed, his back to her. He had sent her a small wave on the way out. He hadn't returned since. Remus had come to see her. He never had much to say, but at least he had come. She needed to see Sirius.

"I need to leave," Aly told the nurse for the millionth time.

"Maybe tomorrow," Madame Pomfrey said.

"You said that yesterday and the day before that! I have schoolwork to do."

"You can do it from right where you are," Pomfrey scolded and walked away.

Aly scoffed and schemed. She formulated a plan. Remus had told her that Sirius had detention that evening with Stevens.

That evening she left the hospital wing as soon as the nurse finished her round of the room. She knew she wouldn't have much time. Pomfrey had taken to doing hourly rounds of her patients.

She was panting in pain as she finally found Sirius. He dropped his toothbrush when he saw her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked in shock.

"I came to see you," she said, sitting down very carefully. "What are you doing?"

He was covered in green gunk. Aly could guess that he was cleaning out old jars of potion ingredients, but she wanted to take the look of shock off of his face. It didn't leave though.

"Why are you down here?" he asked his shock quickly turning to anger.

Aly ignored him and focused on her breathing. She was really sick of her back hurting.

"Aly, I asked you a question," Sirius barked as he moved towards her.

"You're avoiding me."

He said nothing to this. He reached out to touch her, but pulled back as he saw the goo he had been cleaning was all over his hand. Aly, not seeing the goo, took it as a different type of gesture.

"I don't understand what's wrong," she said to her hands.

"Nothing's wrong," Sirius told her a little too quickly. Aly heaved as sigh, and stood, her back protesting.

"If that's all your going to give me then I'm leaving," she moved towards the door.

Sirius started to make a move to stop her as she came face to face with James. He looked as shocked as Sirius had.

"Sorry, Padfoot," he said bitterly, "Didn't realize you had company."

"He doesn't," Aly corrected and left the room. She looked over her shoulder and saw Sirius watching her. There was an emotion in his eyes she couldn't place. However, James was talking so animatedly to him, that Aly continued on, not wanting to disrupt.

She managed to slip back in bed without the nurse noticing her absence. She didn't argue when the nurse offered her a sleeping potion after her evening cleaning.

She woke in the middle of the night. She knew if she hadn't had the potion she wouldn't have fallen asleep at all. There was too much running through her mind.

She made a quick decision, got out of bed, and made her way over to Lily's bed. She hesitated, not sure if she wanted to wake her. She still wasn't really sure what Lily's actual ailments were. To her surprise, Lily's eyes opened.

Lily sat straight up in fright, and Aly jumped back.

"What in the name of Gryffindor are you doing?!" Lily asked, clutching her chest and breathing hard out of fright.

"Sorry," Aly said, her breathing irregular as well. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Well, then you shouldn't have been leaning over my bed staring at me, should you've?" Lily snapped with a glare.

Aly, feeling the sting of this lashing, shrugged and started back towards her bed. Half way back, standing in the aisle between their beds, she said, without turning, "James and Sirius made up."

She stood waiting for a response. After about 2 minutes, it came. "Really?"

Aly nodded.

"Before us?"

Aly turned and nodded again, with more animation this time.

"That's not allowed," Lily declared, crossing her arms.

Aly's mouth twitched into a small smile.

Lily seemed to be deep in thought as Aly swayed slightly from where she had stopped.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked, her forehead creasing.

"Fine," Aly said with a wave of her hand. However, she was not feeling alright. Again, right before her eyes, Lily aged. Aly's heart picked up in pace, and she moved forward to use the end of Lily's bed for support.

"You are not ok," Lily announced. "Let me get the nurse."

Lily carefully got out of bed, and Aly reached out and took her by the arm. "Don't. Please. She'll never let me leave if you do."

The two girls stared at each other in the dim moonlight.

"Fine," Lily said in a small voice. She gingerly got back in bed. Aly followed suit.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she heard Lily say. She smiled to herself and fell asleep.

XxXxX

"You seem to be healing up just fine," Madame Pomfrey told Lily the next afternoon.

Lily looked at her and said simply, "Aly is too."

The nurse seemed taken aback by this comment and sent a glare Aly's way as if she had instructed Lily to say such a thing. "Really?" Pomfrey said skeptically.

Aly's eyes were wide from surprise at Lily's comment and shrugged at this remark.

"Yes," Lily said more boldly. "She assisted me last night without any problems."

"Assisted?" Pomfrey turned on her like a angry hawk. "Why didn't you call upon me?"

"It's alright. I'm fine. Aly's fine. And we'd like to leave the wing now." The nurse blinked quickly at Lily as she said this with finality in her voice.

Slowly, she replied, "Alright…" but she turned quickly towards Aly and barked, "But you be back at six for another cleaning. If you miss just one, you'll be back in here til you're completely healed."

Aly nodded and jumped up in excitement.

The two girls left without a look back. "You didn't have to do that," Aly told Lily as they started down the hallway.

"I know," Lily said studying her hands. She paused for a long moment before asking, "So, can we be friends again?"

Aly's eyebrows moved. "Uh, I think so. Why couldn't we be?"

Lily stopped. "What if one friend doesn't like the other friend's boyfriend?"

"I've managed that this long. Why should things change now?" Aly said half joking.

Lily sent her a unsure look.

"Lily, we don't have to agree on everything. Especially when it comes to boys."

"So, we're friends that don't like each other's boyfriends?"

"No different than if we did," Aly replied. "Just no double dating."

Lily cracked a smile. Aly, thinking the conversation on the topic of boyfriends had ended started towards the common room again. However, as she took a second step, she heard Lily say quietly, "You didn't tell me." The hurt was etched into every word.

Aly turned, licked her lips, and replied, "It had just happened."

"No," Lily said, still sounding upset. "You had to have known you had feelings for him. Or, at least, vice versa."

Aly pondered this. She most certainly had. "Lily, you know I don't talk about things like this…"

Lily interrupted, "With me, you do."

This was true, Aly noted. "But Sirius is Sirius, and you know how he is."

Lily merely looked at her. Aly knew this wasn't going to be enough for her. "Fine," she surrendered and hung her head. "I didn't want to tell you." Lily opened her mouth to speak, but Aly wouldn't let her. "I know Sirius' reputation. Everyone does. And I thought, if you knew, that, I don't know, that maybe you'd look at me differently. Which you did by the way."

Lily huffed.

"Plus, I wanted to keep it secret. Keep it special. Keep it just for me. Nothing I ever do is just for me. Somehow everyone else always gets involved. It's lame, I know. But, yeah…" Aly trailed off. She felt weird admitting such a thing aloud.

"No," Lily said, uncrossing her arms, "I get it. But you still could've told me." A wicked smile crossed Lily's face, "Promise me you will next time."

"Ohh-hoo, you're so funny, Lily Evans," Aly said knocking her with her elbow.

The two set off towards the common room, chatting about insignificant things, avoiding the large topics that may alter their still fragile and healing friendship. The subject Aly had hoped to avoid finally appeared.

"So," Lily asked in her motherly tone, "Have you started studying for the O.W.L.s?"

"No," Aly said with an eye roll. "I don't need to study."

"Yes you do!" Lily shrieked.

"She's right, you know," the Fat Lady commented. Aly shot her a glance. "Good to see you both up and about," she added as she opened up without a password.

"That's not very safe," Lily mumbled as she followed Aly into the common room. Aly hardly heard her though. She was taking in the sights, the smells, and the feel of home.

"We're going to start right this instant," she heard Lily announce as she marched up the stairs. She didn't care enough to ask what they were going to start, but was sitting on a couch 10 minutes later as Lily quizzed her. She was still on that couch 2 hours later when the Marauders wandered in.

James lead the group in. He had swiped a goblet of pumpkin juice which proceeded to fall out of his hand as he spotted the two girls. As the goblet hit the carpet, Peter and Sirius, in that order, ran into him. Remus was the only one paying enough attention to not fall into the heap. Lily, who was busy flipping through her notes and rambling off questions to Aly, didn't even notice. Aly, however, who was slumped into the couch, wishing it would swallow her whole, did. She didn't make a move though. She had tried to earlier and had ended up stuck to the carpet by some strange webbing between her toes. Lily had removed it with a promise to return it if Aly moved.

The three boys who had fallen stood up and joined Remus in observing the two missing fixtures in the Gryffindor common room. The portrait hole creaked, and a sharp voice ordered, "Move along. Do not block the portrait hole entrance." Professor McGonagall usher the four boys off, but they only moved roughly 20 feet.

"Miss Dumbledore," she addressed Aly, a smile twitching on her face as she viewed the guard and the captive, "Your father would like to speak with you."

"Oh thank god!" Aly exclaimed as she jumped up. "Sorry, Lily," she said with a huge smile on her face. Never in her life had she been this happy to go see her father. Lily looked disappointed as Aly followed McGonagall, but yelled after, "We can work some more when you get back."

Aly followed McGonagall to her father's office.

"Did you talk to Aly?" she heard him ask as McGonagall walked through the door. "Did she put up a fight?"

"No," Aly replied sharply.

Dumbledore, who had his chair back facing them, turned with surprise on his face. "You're up and about?"

"Clearly."

Dumbledore turned to McGonagall looking peeved. "I thought we were suppose to meet later."

"I found her in the Gryffindor common room, sir," McGonagall told him as she followed him over to the window, in attempt to make the conversation more private. "So, I brought her here."

"But I'm not ready to discuss this with her," her father stated agitated.

"Well, when I found that she had been released from the hospital wing, I knew it was now or never. You can't control her when she's up and moving, Albus."

McGonagall turned and left. Aly watched her go feeling a sudden surge of more respect for her. She understood her, Aly, better than her own father.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Aly asked.

Dumbledore, who was deep in his own thoughts, looked at her in reregistered surprise. Aly had to admit, as she took a seat, she was being more civil than he was used to. He followed suit and looked at her from behind his desk.

"I was hoping to have my thoughts more in order before speaking to you on the matter…" he said half to her, half to himself. He looked at her, and Aly could tell that he was struggling.

"Just say it, dad," Aly told him. She was intrigued by what he wanted to discuss. Normally, only big things were given as much premeditated thought as he seemed to have wanted to give this.

He took a deep breath and told her, "The Estate of Alberto Gershom has been settled."

He stopped to, again, quickly organize his thoughts. Aly blinked at him. "Who's that?"

"He died a while ago, but, with such a large estate, and a greedy family, his estate has just now been taken care of."

"And why does this matter to me?" Aly asked, confused.

Dumbledore studied his long fingers as he said, "I wanted you to know because it will be the in paper tomorrow." He paused.

Aly was getting tired of his slow telling of the story and asked, "And?"

"And it will announce who is being left his entire estate."

Aly shook her head to show her misunderstanding.

"You are being left the estate."

Aly's jaw dropped. Dumbledore waited for her to regain herself.

"What? Why?" she finally asked.

"Gershom was your grandfather."

Aly nodded. His death was not a surprise. She had known about it from Sirius. "But why is he leaving me everything?"

Dumbledore smiled kindly and said, "You're the closest thing to family he has apparently. His wife's family has been rubbing up to him ever since he hit his 125th birthday. He apparently considered you the only real family he had. It may have also been to spite all of them, but either way, you're the heir."

Aly thought about that. Someone she had never met considered her his only family. It made her sad.

"Why didn't I ever know about him?" Aly asked.

Dumbledore looked taken aback by her question but supplied an answer. "After what he did to your mother, who never wanted to see him, I followed, what I assumed was, her wishes for you."

Aly showed her agreement on this discussion, but asked, "At some point shouldn't it have been my decision?"

"Perhaps," he shrugged, "But that's a moot point now, isn't it?"

Aly nodded. "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

Again, her father looked surprised. "Yes."

"Ok," she got up to leave. At the door, he stopped her. "Alyson, you amaze me."

"Why?" she looked at him.

With a small chuckle, he said, "You didn't even ask what you inherited." His chuckle turned into a laugh at which Aly smiled at.

XxXxX

The next day, the finalization of the estate made the front page. Apparently, her grandfather had been an extremely wealthy man leaving her a family compound, a beach home in South Africa, substantial stock in the ministry, an army of house elves, and one of the deep vaults of Gringotts. Everyone seemed to suddenly want to be Aly's friend. Aly, however, kept her real friends close to her all day. James, Sirius, and Peter had made a game out of keeping people away from Aly. However, James took any opportunity he had to make jabs at her himself (always out of Sirius' earshot, of course).

Sirius had taken to walking Fang while Aly had been in the hospital wing, but Aly had insisted she was up to doing it again. When she had found out that Hagrid wasn't back, she had originally worried. However, Sirius told her that Hagrid had made a few trips back to the hut since he left. When she asked him how he knew, he quickly changed the subject. Aly felt a little freaked out when she realized that it was probably Fang who had told him.

Aly had taken Fang for his evening walk that night, after her last cleaning of the day. There was a chill in the air so when she returned to the common room she pulled on the sweatshirt she usually slept in. She was sitting near the fire reading her Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment when Lily, James, and Sirius entered the common room.

"Aww, come on!" James groaned loudly.

Lily moved past the two boys and sat down next to Aly, pulling out her own book.

"What is this crap?!" James asked loudly.

"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Sirius asked examining his friend as if he had lost all of his senses.

"This is ridiculous!" He held out his hand in Aly's direction.

"What is your problem, Potter?" Lily barked.

"I've been quiet because I thought you were all being quiet,"

"We are," Sirius cut in with a harsh whisper realizing what he was talking about.

"She's sitting there wearing your sweatshirt!"

"Which you can borrow by the way," Sirius told her. She smiled at him and waved her hand at him which caused the sleeve to flap since it extended far over her wrist.

"She's got your figgin' name on her back!" James yelled, clearly exasperated by the small joke exchange. "She might as well be walking around screaming 'I'm dating Black!'"

The whole common room went silent. Lily dropped her book. The color left Aly's face. Sirius' face went red. Before Aly could regain her thoughts, she saw a fist fly. She jumped up and saw Sirius and James going at it. "Stop it!" she screamed.

Lily flew around the couch and pulled out her wand. With a flash of light the two boys separated. "10 points," she said angrily.

"What?"

"No!"

"Each!" she added. "Potter, go to the hospital wing." He stared hard at her. "Now! Or else I'll get you benched from the next quidditch game."

He turned, mumbling obscenities as he left.

"Black," Lily yelled at him, "Go clean up that lip of yours. Put some Wound-Cleaning Potion on it."

Sirius sent a look at Aly, and Lily turned to see where he was looking. She sent him a look telling him that she'd handle it, and he headed up the stairs.

Lily turned to the still silent common room, "Get back to what you were doing!"

The buzzing and shuffling started immediately. Lily came over beside Aly.

"Are you alright? You look like you're going to faint. Should I--"

"I'm fine," Aly said automatically. Her insides were frozen. It wasn't because James had outed her relationship with Sirius. It was because he had hurt his best friend. She heard Lily talking to her without hearing her. "I've gotta go take care of something." She left Lily midsentence.

She walked at a brisk pace to the hospital wing. James was sitting on the end of a bed with the purple Wound-Cleaning potion on that Lily had instructed Sirius to put on his lip. It was dark in the wing except for the one light lit next to the bed James was on.

When he saw Aly enter, James turned his head away from her.

She walked in as casual as possible. She took a seat on the edge of the bed across from him. "Boy am I sick of this place," she commented offhandedly.

He ignored her.

"I don't know why you're ignoring me," Aly said simply. "I mean, it's not like I hit you."

His head snapped around, angry glare already in place.

"I'm just saying. You're acting like I'm the one who hit you."

"You're the reason Sirius hit me," he said petulantly.

"No," Aly corrected, "You're the reason Sirius hit you. How could you?" He opened his mouth, but she continued, "Regardless of how you feel about me or me with Sirius, he's your best friend. You betrayed your best friend. Why would you do that? It was selfish and petty and low." She stood. "I didn't make you do anything. You made your own decisions, and now you have to live with those decisions."

She turned on her heel and left. Word of what had happened had apparently already spread beyond the common room because the Fat Lady asked her, "Black, eh?"

Aly merely said, "Chizpurfle."

She didn't see Lily so she went straight to the stairs. She heard whispers as she passed through the room.

Lily was sitting on Aly's bed waiting for her. She stood upon Aly's entry. She pulled the curtains closed that faced the door and directed Aly to sit on the other side with her. Aly sank onto the bed and looked at the make shift shield composed of the curtains.

"They heard," Lily whispered motioning towards Melanie and Mary. Aly felt terror and then relief all at once. She hadn't realized that having people know would scare her so much and was grateful that Lily had closed the curtains. She didn't need the staring eyes.

Lily was watching her face closely. "Are you ok?"

Aly nodded.

"You sure?"

Aly smiled and shook her head.

"Anything I can do?" she asked quietly.

Aly thought about that. Was there anything she could do? Was there anything anyone could do that help ease her? She knew the answer to that question. "No. Not you."

Lily nodded and nudged her with her shoulder. "You should go talk to the person who can help you then."

Not really knowing why she didn't want to at the moment, Aly changed the subject. "What's going on with you and Amos?"

"Nothing," Lily said with an eye roll.

"Are you broken up?" Aly asked looking at her.

Lily pulled herself up really high in preparation of her answer but shrunk as she said, "I think so."

"I'm sorry, Lils."

"No, you're not," she said, "But it's okay. I'll live. I've just been thrown off. I didn't see this coming and then, it just happened. Overnight." She looked so sad.

"Want to run to the kitchen and steal some pastries?" Aly suggested.

"Nah. If it's okay, I just want to go to bed," Lily said flexing her shoulders.

"You should go," Aly said motioning with her head.

"You should too," Lily said smiling and disappearing around her bed post.

Aly really thought about it for a moment but swung her legs up over the bed and pulled her other curtain shut.

She laid there for a very long time. Finally, she surrendered to the gnawing pain in her chest and made her way to Sirius.

She knocked on the door lightly, not sure if anyone else was in there with him.

The door cracked open, and it was Remus.

"Hey," she said quietly.

He smiled kindly. "He's laying down. He won't talk to anyone about it. Maybe you can get something out of him." He let her in, and he and Peter left.

"Hey," she said from the door.

He didn't move. He was stretched out on his bed, ankles crossed and arms behind his head.

"You ok?" She made her way over to him.

Still nothing.

"So, everyone knows."

He closed his eyes.

"And you punched your best friend in the face."

"He deserved it." It was a growl.

"I don't disagree," Aly said. Neither said anything. Aly's nerves were wrought and, as she waited for him to speak or move or do anything, she snapped. "Can you at least look at me?"

He opened his eyes and lifted his head slightly.

She felt her chest tighten and her breathing start to go ragged. And then the tears started.

He sat up immediately and wrapped his arms around her. "This and then my grandfather and you and punching and owls and everything it's all just and I, I can't and I don't know--" She had started to hyperventilate.

"Calm down," he said soothingly. "I know there's been a lot of things on your plate. Just try to calm down." His lips were in her hair. Her eyes were closed, but there were tears leaking out of them. Her shoulders were still rising and falling with her breathing. "We'll get through this. We will. I promise, baby." Aly heard what she thought was thickness of tears in his voice, but when she turned to see him there were none to be seen. She would've guessed that her hair was wet though.

"Are you okay?" she asked again, reaching up and placing her hand on his cheek.

"Yeah," he said not all that convincingly.

"Do you need anything?"

He looked at her, concern gleaming from her eyes. "No, Als. I'll be fine. Go to bed. We've got to handle all of this in the morning." He stood, put his hands on his hips, and announced, "For when trouble calls, I've got the balls!"

Aly laughed roughly at his random outburst, smacked him, and told him to shut up.