Hey, I'm back!

I know I've left everyone hanging for several months now and there's no really good excuse except that I got really caught up in college. It's my first year and all that so it's been somewhat interesting. But I've gotten into a swing now and the urge to write is back so without further ado…

Together Forever

By

Luckyducky

Chapter VII

Changes

After the Christmas break, things at Hogwarts sped up rather quickly. Professors began gearing up for the O.W.L.s at the end of the year and the students were starting to feel the pressure. Courtesy of Remus, the Marauders were often seen in the previously untouched library. They were not the only ones, however. Many of the students at Hogwarts who had never visited the library very often were now making a habit of practically living in it.

For Lily, especially, the days went by quicker and quicker. While the rest of the student body at Hogwarts had been trained for their first four years for what would be on the O.W.L. exam, Lily was not sure if her previous schooling would match up correctly. However, rather than study with her Marauder friends for the exams, she chose, instead, to study with Sue.Despite her deep friendship with James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, she knew their atrociousstudyhabits.

"Sue, can we give it a rest for tonight? I feel that if I study for another minute, my head will positively explode." Lily rested her head on the table and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Sure, Lily. Let's call it a night. I'm wiped out."

Sue closed the books strewn across the table and helped Lily to her feet. Staggering, they made their way back to Gryffindor tower. They had spent almost every evening in the library for the past few weeks so it felt good to quit early for one evening.

"Sue, do you think that the O.W.L.s will be very hard?"

"Well, they're supposed to be hard, but I don't think they'll pose any trouble for you. You know as well as I do that you're smart enough to take the N.E.W.T.s already."

Lily shoved her, laughing. "Yeah right. The only thing I'd do is make a fool of myself," she said as she flopped down on her bed.

Yawning, Lily changed into her pajamas and pulled the bed curtains up. Tomorrow was Saturday and she planned on sleeping as late as possible, which in actuality wasn't that late at all because of the early Quidditch match. There was no way she'd be able to miss tomorrow's game. It was Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, first game of the season, and there was no way Remus, Sirius, or Peter would let her sleep in.

As Lily lay in her bed drifting off to sleep, she tilted her head back to look at the wall behind her bed. Upon arriving back at Hogwarts after the holidays, one of the first things she'd done is to place the picture James had given her on the wall with a sticking charm. Now, she gazed at the picture fondly, cherishing her prankster friends. They, along with Sue, had helped her to adapt to Hogwarts so easily that she now felt like she had been here forever.

Lily gave the picture a quick smile and rolled over, drifting off to sleep.

Through the haze created by her dreams, Lily was under the impression that someone or something was calling her name. But that wasn't right. It wasn't so much hearing as it was sensing her name. Like when you're standing in a dark corridor and you feel someone watching you.

"Lily…"

It was soft, so soft it was almost undetectable. Although she was asleep, she could feel her resting body shiver as a chill ran down her spine. She was in a most uncomfortable state – the one between sleeping and waking. She was surrounded by a fog created by her sleeping mind, yet was aware of her body lying on the bed.

In her dream, she turned struggling to see through the fog. The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere. There was no way to pinpoint its location. She stumbled forward a couple of steps, unsure of where she was walking.

"Lily…"

She frowned in her dream as she felt her sleeping body break out in a sweat. Gradually she became restless. The sweat under her arms, on her forehead, and on her chest was quickly becoming cold, giving her more chills. Her hands clenched and her dream self could feel the clamminess of her palms.

"Lily."

The dream Lily jumped and turned around. This time the voice had come from directly behind her. She touched the side of her face. She could still feel the breath from the voice lingering on her neck. Being basically blinded by the fog, she stumbled backwards in fear, not willing to turn her back to the voice. Her heart racing, she whipped her head back and forth, frantically searching for the source of her fear.

"Coming closer…so much closer…"

Her sleeping body twitched, affected by her dream self's increasing fear. Her dream self, panicked by her lack of vision, turned and began running blindly. Suddenly a tall figure in black materialized in the fog. Not being able to stop in time, Lily slammed into it. Hands that burned gripped her forearms, holding her against her will.

She struggled violently, but couldn't break the hands hold on her. The sudden heat burned at her and she fought to breathe. Taking in air, she felt as if her lungs were on fire. It hurt so much. All she wanted to do was give in.

"So close!"

Lily jerked awake, her arms flailing wildly. Slowly the fear left her mind as light poured into her eyes and she recognized the inside of her bed curtains. She could hear water running and remembered Sue, figuring that it was most likely her getting ready. Then the Quidditch match leaked into her mind. With her heartbeat slowing, Lily opened her curtains and sat on the edge of her bed, looking up when Sue opened the bathroom door.

"Well good morning, you lazy bum. I was going to wake you up if you weren't awake by the time I got out of the shower. It's still pretty early, but I figured you'd appreciate not feeling rushed to get ready."

Lily gazed at Sue, seemingly fascinated by her.

"Lily, I know I'm gorgeous and everything so you have every right to stare, but you're kind of freaking me out. Is everything ok?"

Lily returned her gaze to the floor. She wanted to talk about her dream. It had been different – so unlike her other nightmares. Usually they were just reruns of her past, but this one had been so incredibly real. She could still feel the strength of the hands on her arms. But, holding onto this dream was like holding smoke. The more she thought about, the less she could remember. Gradually the lingering sense of panic left her, the chilled sweat evaporated, and the vividness of the scepter in the fog disappeared from her memory.

"Lily? Sweetie, are you okay?"

Discouraged, Lily looked up into her concerned friend's face and smiled reassuringly. "Yes. I'm fine." She got up, grabbing an outfit for the match. "Just had an interesting dream."

As the hot water in the shower soothed her, she noticed her upper arms. On each arm there was a set of bruises. Four lines curiously shaped like a set of fingers. However, by this time, Lily could remember nothing of her dream, and wondered instead who on earth had grabbed her so hard the day before.

"Ravenclaw doesn't stand a chance!" Sirius yelled excitedly in the middle of the Hogwarts foyer. "There's no way we can lose, not with the team Kingsley's put together this year!"

"Padfoot, I think we heard you the first time," Peter said, digging at his ear. "You've only been yelling it since the break of dawn this morning."

"Yeah, and I've only been yelling it because it's true!"

"Oh, and what makes you so sure that Gryffindor has it in them?"

Sirius turned around slowly towards the voice. "Is that the obnoxiously sleazy voice of a Slytherin I hear? Why yes, it is! Fancy that."

"Is there something that you need Evan?" Remus, who had previously been silent, politely asked.

Evan Rosier, a sixth year Slytherin, looked at Remus loathingly. "Why, I just heard your house-traitor friend here bragging and thought I'd take him off his high horse. I distinctly remember your idiot friend Potter making a complete fool out of himself last year. Shame. I myself would never blow a match because I was too busy showing off for a girlfriend."

Sirius' face turned a violent shade of red, but when he opened his mouth nothing came out. Confused, Remus looked around for the source of the spell when he saw Lily coming down the stairs with Sue. Sue had her wand arm outstretched and said quietly, "I don't believe whatever he was going to say would be very productive."

Remus and Peter smiled up at her, but Sirius continued mouthing off at Evan and the two Slytherins that stood behind him. As Lily and Sue reached the bottom of the stairs and came up to stand by the three Marauders, Evan suddenly seemed to take notice of them. He smirked at Lily and looked her up and down before doing the same to Sue.

"Hey Evans, Walker. How 'bout you come sit with us today. Maybe we can slip out a little early and go hang out."

Although Lily had heard stories of Evan Rosier and his group of friends, she couldn't help admiring him. He had the bad boy image down perfect and was definitely not hard on the eyes. If it weren't for the stories, she would be inclined to second-guess her original opinion of the Slytherin house and run off with him. She'd heard he was an amazing kisser.

"Rosier, the offer's very tempting but I'm going to have to decline. What with the whole house grudge thing going on, I'm not sure people would look at us with approval."

He casually shrugged his shoulders and grinned seductively, "Maybe some other time then."

"I'm sure she's counting down the minutes until the next time you two meet," Peter muttered.

Quickly, the charming persona Evan had been previously oozing was replaced with a cold, hard stare at the shorter boy. "You might want to watch yourself, rat." And with that, Evan and his cronies walked away.

Once the Slytherins were out of sight, Sue removed the muting spell on Sirius. Immediately he began attacking her with questions about why on earth she would do such a thing.

"I could have taken them hands down!" and so on and so forth…

Trying to ignore Sirius and Sue, the group began walking to the Quidditch field. The day had turned out perfect for a Quidditch match – not too hot and not too cold. Lily, though, had not noticed the beautiful day. Her mind was trying to recall the name of one of the boys with Evan Rosier. Although it hadn't been for a very long period of time, he had stared at her for longer than necessary.

Noticing the thoughtful look in her eyes, Peter spoke up. "What 'cha thinking about, Lils?"

"Do you remember the name of that one guy with Rosier? He was standing on the left… I can't remember his name…"

"Snivellus?" Peter asked, his brow scrunched up as to why she'd be asking about him.

Lily snapped her fingers. "That's it! Thanks Wormtail." Hearing 'Snivellus' had helped her to remember his real name – Severus Snape. Satisfied, she walked ahead to catch up with Remus. Behind her, Peter just stared at her back.

Upon reaching the field, they slowly climbed to the top of one of the towers. Surrounded by Gryffindors, one couldn't help being pumped up by all the energy. The game sped along rather quickly, both teams scoring often. James played superbly, no doubt due to missing it so much for the previous six months. Before they knew it, the score was tied at one hundred, but there had been no sign of the snitch.

The game continued on with the Gryffindor team gaining a slight edge, when all of a sudden the Gryffindor seeker, his name escaped Lily, dove. The chasers were forgotten as the crowd began cheering on the seekers. The Ravenclaw seeker, coming from another direction, caught up with the Gryffindor seeker, and it was a neck-in-neck race for the snitch. After what seemed like several minutes, but was only mere seconds in reality, the Gryffindor seeker rose from their plummet, fist raised triumphantly.

The stands around Lily exploded in cheering. Gryffindor house had won the first Quidditch game of the season, and what a start it was! Slytherin was going to be hard pressed to catch up to them this season.

As they made their way down the stands with the rest of their housemates, Lily paused. "Guys, I think I'll wait here for James to get out and meet up with you later."

"All right, Lils," Sirius called back.

"See you later, Lily!" yelled Sue.

Lily watched her friends walk away and then casually made her way to the locker rooms and leaned against the wall to wait. Relaxed due to the comfortable day, Lily didn't notice another presence at first until it spoke.

"Good game wasn't it?"

She jumped at the unexpected voice before noticing Severus Snape from earlier, otherwise known as Snivellus. "Yeah it was."

They stood there in awkward silence, neither of them saying anything for several minutes. Lily took this time to study Snape. James and Sirius were always so insistently picking on this boy, yet she couldn't tell exactly what attracted their attention. Sure he had a Slytherin air about him, but it was nowhere near as pronounced as Evan or Malfoy. Compared to them, he was actually kind of cute and innocent looking.

As the wind blew a harder gust, Lily's scarf unwrapped from around her neck and almost blew away. If it hadn't been for her quick reflexes, she would have undoubtedly lost it. Thankfully, she grabbed it in the nick of time. When she looked back at Snape, though, he was gazing fixatedly at her chest.

Lily's face blushed horribly at the area of his attention and she felt her anger rising before he commented, "That's a very nice necklace, Lily."

Gradually her anger fell and she began fingering her Christmas present. "Thank you, Severus. It was a Christmas present."

"Who from?" he asked, looking back up at her.

Meeting his eyes, she replied, "I'm not sure. There wasn't a name."

And then, as suddenly as he had appeared he had turned and was calling over his shoulder. "Well, I guess I'll see you around, Lily. Nice talking to you."

"You too. See you later."

As Snape walked away, Lily could have sworn she saw a small blush creep up his cheeks and the back of his neck, but had no idea what it would be from.

"Hey there, Lils!"

Snape forgotten, Lily turned around to face a fresh-out-of-the-shower James. "Awesome game, Prongs! You did fantastic."

"It wasn't just James, Evans. Please don't give him compliments, it just makes him have an even bigger head," James' Quidditch team captain Kingsley called out. "Soon he wont be able to find a broom that will be able to lift his big head off the ground."

"Ha ha ha. Very funny," James joked back.

"You know I'm just kidding man. I couldn't ask for a better chaser."

"Like I said," Lily continued, "great game."

"Thanks," James replied sheepishly. Suddenly, his eyes seemed attracted to her left arm. Her sleeve had rose up when she caught her scarf, revealing the bruises.

"Lily, where did you get those bruises?" he frowned at her.

She struggled to find the words to reassure him. "I just stumbled the other day and bumped into the wall. It's no big deal," she said nonchalantly.

James looked at her skeptically, obviously not believing her, but not willing to upset her by continuing the subject. "Alright then, what do you say we go get something to eat? I'm starved."

"Alright, let's go fat-butt. Or is it fat-head," she said slyly.

"Hey!" James cried indignantly.

"I'm just kidding James. Come on."

Over second half of February strange happenings began to occur. More and more often Lily found herself talking to Severus Snape. It began with him appearing outside her classes just to say hi, and soon it developed into him walking her to her next class. Their occasional comments developed into full-blown conversations – ones Lily enjoyed having. In the beginning, Lily hadn't paid any mind to her newfound friendship. It wasn't until Sue brought it to her attention that she realized people were worried.

"Hey Lily, can I talk to you about something?"

Lily looked up from studying her Transfiguration notes, "Sure."

"I… I've just noticed you hanging out with that Slytherin boy a lot lately. Are you two dating or something?"

Lily burst out laughing, "Sue, that's ridiculous. We're just friends, nothing more. Besides, you'd be the first to know if I had a boyfriend, you should know that."

Sue wrung her hands, "I know, Lils; its just, people have been talking. It's not right for you to be hanging around with a Slytherin, especially one so close to Malfoy and that whole group. Everyone thinks that he's only talking to you because they have a plan or something."

Lily rolled her eyes, "I think that I could take care of myself if they tried anything, not that they will."

"But Lily you know everyone in that group is into dark magic. Mary McDonald said just the other day that she saw the dark mark on one of their arms. If they really are serving You-Know-Who then I think they could take one little hot-tempered redhead, don't you?"

And then, for reasons unknown to herself, Lily got mad. "What do you know, Sue? You don't even know anything about Severus! He's not into all that dark magic crap. He never brings up anything about his friends or the Dark Lord. The only things we talk about are normal everyday conversations – nothing bad. If you're not going to believe me then why don't you just go gossip with everyone else!"

Ignoring her friend's shocked stare, Lily slammed her notebook closed and stormed to her bed.

"Lily… Lily, please!"

She walked forward and placed her hand on Lily's upper arm, but Lily shrugged it off.

"You know I didn't mean anything bad. Lily, please listen to me!"

"Save it!"

"I just want you to be careful. I don't want you to get…"

"I said drop it!" Lily yelled at her as she jerked her bed curtains closed and placed a muting spell around her bed. If Sue were saying anything now, she wouldn't be able to hear it. Fuming, Lily rolled over onto her side and glanced at her picture. No one else had said anything to her. Sue must be imagining things, she concluded.

End Chapter VII

R&R

Luckyducky