AN: This is it. The last chapter... :O

Chapter Thirty-Three: A Final Explanation

James' heart was racing wildly as he raced down the corridor. The invisibility cloak had been forgotten in his haste and was probably in a heap on the floor back in the corridor outside the Defense classroom.

After all his theorizing, James had never truly believed that Seresin was up to something this awful. After everything he had gone through in his head, all the possibilities, this had never come up, not once. Seresin was making a poison. A lethal poison. And the odds of him making it just for fun were very slim.

He reached the gargoyles that guarded Dumbledore's office.

"It's an emergency!" James shouted at them. "Let me up!" They didn't move. "Urgh! Ice mice! Chocolate droobles! Blood lollies! Pumpkin Pasty! Bert-" But the gargoyles started to move, revealing a spiral staircase. James jumped on it just as it sprung into life.

When the stairs reached the headmaster's office door, James started banging his fists on it. "Professor Dumbledore! Professor Dumbledore!" This continued for about five minutes before the door opened quite suddenly and James fell into the room. He caught his balance and spun round to face the headmaster. Professor Dumbledore was dressed in a nightshirt that went down to his mid-calf and on his feet he wore fluffy, powder blue slippers. It wasn't until just now that James remembered that it was quite early in the morning.

"Are you alright?" Dumbledore asked, closing the office door and moving over to his desk. He waved his wand and conjured a chair for James. "Is someone hurt?" Dumbledore's voice wasn't angry or upset, but it had a certain edge to it. James thought he should start talking soon.

"No," James said, falling into the chair. "Nobody is hurt, everyone's alright." Dumbledore seemed to relax. Then he raised his eyebrows.

"I hope this is not a social visit then." He said. "If it is, I have to say that it is most inconveniently timed."

"No, Professor." James said, quickly. "I'm sorry to have woken you up, but this is important."

"I would hope so."

"It's about Professor Seresin," James paused for a moment. He had just realized how much trouble he was going to be in. He had broken into a classroom, after lights out, gone through a professor's private things and then spied on a professor.

"Now, James," Dumbledore said softly, leaning forward on his desk. "We've talked about this. I am keeping an eye on Professor Seresin, and he has not, since you last came to me, done anything at all peculiar or strange."

"I know you think that, Professor." James said. He had to decide quickly where he was going to start in the story and how much he was going to tell. "Earlier this week, he supervised Professor Slughorn's class because he Slughorn was ill, and I saw Professor Seresin taking bottles off Professor Slughorn's desk and putting them into his bag. So, I thought he was probably making a potion. I decided to look for the potion, so I waited till after lights out and I went down to the Defense classroom, I was going to check the office, but the door was locked.

Then Professor Seresin walked into the classroom and he has a cauldron with him and a book, and he unlocked the office door and started working on some potion."

"James," Dumbledore said, lifting his hand up. "Professors are allowed to make potions at whatever time they so desire."

"I know," James said. "But I thought he was up to no good, so I looked at the page he had his book opened to. He was making Velox Mors." James was about to tell Professor Dumbledore what Velox Mors did, but the look on the headmaster's face told James that he knew exactly what the potion did.

"James," Dumbledore said. "Are you certain?"

"Yes, Professor."

Dumbledore stood up and walked over to one of the portraits of old headmasters. "I need you to go and collect Professor Seresin for me, tell him that I need to speak with him immediately."

"Yes, of course." The old man said, before sliding out of his portrait.

Dumbledore did not sit back down in his chair but instead started pacing. He didn't say anything to James, nor did he look at him. James was starting to think that he had forgotten he was in the room when he stopped his pacing.

"I'm curious about something," He said, looking up at James.

"I know I broke a lot of rules," James said quickly, thinking that Dumbledore was going to question why he thought to take this matter into his own hands. "But I really did think he was up to something and no one seemed to be doing anything and I had to know. I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, James." Dumbledore said. "You did break a few rules, but I think I can overlook that."

"Oh."

"No, what I'm curious about is, how did you get into and out of the office without Professor Seresin seeing you?" James froze. It wouldn't be entirely awful for him to know that James possessed an invisibility cloak, he wouldn't take it away from him, would he? It was a family heirloom, and James' dad would be very angry if he had it confiscated.

James didn't need to answer though because there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." Dumbledore said, looking up at the door.

Professor Seresin walked into the room calmly and eyed James. He looked like he knew he had been caught and he had accepted it. James even detected some relief in the older man's eyes. He reached his hand into his pocket, still holding James' gaze.

"I believe this is yours." He said in an eerily calm voice, pulling James' invisibility cloak out of his pocket and handing the shimmering material over to him.

"Ah," Dumbledore smiled. "A cloak of invisibility. A most useful device."

James nodded and took the cloak out of Seresin's hands.

"Professor," Dumbledore said, turning his gaze to Seresin. "You are aware that the Velox Mors potion is illegal to brew."

And that's when James saw Professor Seresin, the stony faced, no nonsense teacher that he had met in the beginning of the year, break down sob like a child in front of the headmaster.

oOoOo

"What!" Sirius asked, spewing chunks of toast all over the table after James told the Marauders an abridged version of what had happened last night in Dumbledore's office. He had left out some things, like Seresin crying. He didn't think they needed to know that.

"You were right?" Remus asked, not hiding his complete bewilderment at all well.

"It was bound to happen eventually." James said, rolling his eyes.

"Why is Seresin still here then?" Peter asked, casting a shifty glance at the Defense Professor, who was indeed still here. He was sitting next to Dumbledore, looking a bit tired, but acting as though nothing unusual had transpired the night before.

"Dumbledore's promised to help him." James said. This statement was met with blank stares. "Oh, right." James set down his fork. "Seresin was planning on killing Dumbledore," He whispered, "But he didn't want to. He came to Hogwarts this year hoping to get away from the raiders. He wanted to distance himself from them, and being close to Dumbledore seemed like a pretty good way to do that. But then his son, Nigel got in over his head and Seresin had to talk to the raiders to get them to let Nigel go. They didn't listen to Seresin and ended up killing Nigel."

"Okay," Remus said. "We knew most of that."

"Well, he got involved in helping the raiders get rid of Dumbledore because they kidnapped his wife and said that unless he did what they told him to, they were going to kill her as well. Seresin didn't want to lose his whole family, so he went along with it. They've been keeping her captive since January. A raider would come and meet Seresin once a month to deliver a letter from her to let him know that she was still alive." James looked up at the staff table. "Dumbledore can't act like he knows though, and we can't tell anyone, because if it gets out that Dumbledore is helping Seresin, the raiders will kill his wife. So until Dumbledore finds out where Seresin's wife is and makes sure she's safe, everything has to continue on as if nothing has changed."

"So," Sirius crinkled his brow. "Seresin isn't a raider."

"No, he never was." James said. "But his son, Nigel was."

"Was he the one who tried to kill Turnbull?" Sirius asked.

"Yes." James said. "Seresin knew that Nigel was beyond help after that, but he didn't stop trying."

"But trying to help Nigel," Remus said, "That's what got him involved?"

"Yes."

"And now Dumbledore's going to help him?" Peter asked.

"Yes." James said. He knew that the whole situation was a lot to take in and Dumbledore's willingness to help and completely trust a man that had admitted he was going to attempt to kill him didn't make a whole lot of sense. But when James was sitting in the office earlier this morning, and listening to Seresin talking, he believed him too. And when Dumbledore promised to help him, it had all seemed completely appropriate. He didn't know how to make his friends understand. "He was forced into doing something he didn't want to do. He's a good man." James finally said.

"He was going to kill Dumbledore." Sirius said.

"I know." James sighed. "But he didn't." They were quite for a minute.

"Did you get in trouble?" Peter asked. "For sneaking out after lights out?"

"No." James said, glad for the change of subject. Trying to get them to understand everything was making his head spin. He hadn't slept at all last night. "But Dumbledore knows about the invisibility cloak now." He sighed. "So, we'll have to be more careful next year. I don't think my dad would like it to much if we got it confiscated."

"This is insane." Remus said. "You were right about, Seresin."

"I was, wasn't I?" James asked. "Well, it just goes to show you, I'm always right."

oOoOo

"I am so glad that exams are over." Mary sighed, falling back onto her bed. It was now mid-June. The girls were still completely unaware of their Defense professor's situation as James had remained true to him promise, for the most part, and refrained from telling anyone except the Marauders. As for the rest of the Hogwarts students, the only thing they had had worried about for the last month was exams. "I did completely terribly, but I can't find it in me to care."

"You did not do terribly." Lily laughed. "You did very well." After all the studying Lily had made them do, the worst that anyone got was an 'A' which Mary had received for her History of Magic exam.

"Okay, so I didn't do badly." Mary said. "And my dad will probably be pleasantly surprised with all my E's. I even managed and 'O' in Charms."

"Yes and we have Lily to thank for our wonderful marks." Savanna said, falling onto the bed next to Mary. "And to think, next year's exams are going to be even harder."

"Ugh!" Lily and Mary groaned.

"Savanna!" Mary said, grabbing a pillow and tossing it at the brunette's head. "Why would you say that?"

"I was just pointing it out." Savanna laughed. "Nothing can upset me right now. Not even thoughts of next year exams." Lily shook her head.

"Come on." She said, pulling both of her friends off Mary's bed. "Let's go outside. We've been locked in the castle for too long."

"No arguments here." Mary said. "We can go watch people mess around with the Womping Willow."

"Who's idea was it to see who can get the closest?" Lily asked. "It's stupid and someone is going to get hurt."

"Benjy Fenwick broke his arm yesterday after the Potions exam. He told Madam Pomfrey that he fell down the stairs though." Savanna said. "It is a stupid game, but it should be fun to watch."

"I was going to see if I could do it." Mary said, glaring at her friends. "It's not stupid."

"Savanna just said that someone broke their arm doing it, Mary." Lily said. "It is stupid."

"Benjy Fenwick is stupid, the game is not." Mary said. "People get hurt far worse in Quidditch, that's not stupid, is it?"

"Well, no." Lily said.

"See! I'm right."

"Running towards a tree, while its branches are trying to kill you is stupid." Savanna said. "But, it's your funeral. If you want to arrive brutally maimed and unrecognizable after being murdered by a tree, who am I to stop you?"

"Exactly." Mary said.

The girls walked down to the grounds and settled down under a large tree near the edge of the lake, a nice clear view of the Whomping Willow before them. Lily was sitting with her legs crossed, leaning against the trunk with her bag propped against her knees.

"Well," She sighed, turning briefly towards Mary. "Go ahead and try. But I'm not going to watch." She said pulling that morning's edition of the Daily Prophet out of her bag. She hadn't read it yet, the morning had been a bit hectic. The girls had spent breakfast listing Jupiter's moons and the placement of constellations in an attempt to cram for their Astronomy exam.

"You don't have to watch." Mary said, pushing herself off the ground and brushing off her skirt. "I'm sure the tale of my success will reach back to you before I do."

"Or the tale of your death." Savanna said. "Be careful, Mary."

"Yes, of course." Mary said, brusquely. "You have no faith in me." She said quietly. Then she marched off towards the tree. Savanna sighed.

"I'm going to miss her."

"She was a good friend, wasn't she?"

"A little odd at times, but overall, she was pretty great." Savanna shook her head and laughed. Then she noticed the Prophet that Lily had, still rolled up, in her hands. "You worried about what it says?"

"No." Lily said. "If anything happened, we would have heard by now." She unrolled the paper and read the headlines on the front page.

Dragon Fury's Song Reaches Number One Spot

Lily flipped to the next page without reading the article. Dragon Fury was a good band, and their song was catchy, she had heard it about one hundred times since last week when it had come out. All the radio stations were playing the song at least four times an hour, but Lily didn't think this accomplishment warranted the front page of the Daily Prophet. The front page was reserved for more important things. Speeches made by the Minister of Magic, new legislation that was set to go before the Wizengamot, news on the Aurors' efforts to capture the raiders, not for some wizard rock band's stupid love song that had reached the top of the charts.

The rest of the paper was just as aggravating as the front page. Lily was glad that there had been no attacks, no reported murders or missing persons, but she still wanted news on what was happening. She still wanted to be informed on what the Minister's plans were. But it seemed to Lily that no one ever talked about the raiders unless they were running for election, or an attack had just happened.

"Savanna?" Lily rolled the paper back up and pushed it into her bag. "Do you know anyone in the Ministry?" Savanna looked up from her notebook which she had been doodling in.

"No." She said. "Well, I've met Mary's dad before at platform 9 and ¾, but that was just in passing. I don't actually know him. Why?"

"I was just curious." Lily said. "It doesn't seem like they're doing anything, the ministry I mean."

"About what? The raids?" Savanna asked. Lily nodded. "I'm sure they are."

"Well, I wish they would tell us what they're doing." Lily said.

"That would be nice." Savanna said.

"Especially for me." Lily said. "I'm going home next week. Back to muggles and muggles and more muggles. There's no wizards to keep me informed on what's happening. I don't have an owl, so I can't order the Daily Prophet, you don't have an owl, Mary's not interested enough in politics to bother writing to me about them. I'll be stuck all summer without any news." She pushed her hair back and sighed. "I'll have Severus I suppose, but he doesn't like talking about the raids. I could always ask him if he gets the Prophet. I don't think he's object to letting me have it when he's done-"

"Lily," Savanna interrupted her, her face slightly pale. "I'm going home to muggles too." She said quietly.

Lily shook her head. "I know your mum is a muggle, but you'll have your dad. He's a wizard, he'll keep you informed." Savanna squirmed under Lily's gaze and started wringing her fingers anxiously and Lily suddenly felt very uncomfortable and she didn't know why.

"I'm going back to muggles." Savanna repeated. "I mean, my little sisters aren't muggles, but my mum is. And our neighbors and anyone who visits." She swallowed.

"But your dad, Savanna." Lily said. "He's a wizard."

"Yes, he is." Savanna said. "But I haven't seen him since I was eight years old."

"No," Lily said, stupidly contradicting Savanna. "You talk about him. He's a healer at St. Mungo's, he- he-" But now that Lily was thinking about it, that seemed to be the only thing Savanna had ever said about him.

"My dad was a healer." She said off-handedly.

"Was?"

"Is. I mean he is a healer."

That was months ago, when Professor Seresin had just come back to the school and had been injured. He had been lying about a toothache and Lily had asked Savanna how she knew.

"He was." Savanna shrugged. "I don't know where he is now, or what he's doing. It's just me, mum and the kids." She said. Lily didn't know what to say. "It's alright," Savanna said after a while. "I mean, it's not, but we're alright. Mum's got her restaurant and she's pretty used to spontaneous burst of magic by now. We're alright."

She looked at Savanna, who was still looking down at her hands, and edged closer to her. She put her arms around her and pulled her close, Savanna leaned into her and chuckled. "Really, Lily. I'm okay."

"I know." Lily said.

"Let's talk about something else. Are you doing anything special over the holidays?" Lily kept one arm linked through Savanna's as she pulled away and smiled.

"I'm supposed to visit my grandmother in Leyton. Other than that, I'll be at home. I'm not looking forward to either."

"You don't like your Grandmother?"

"We haven't been getting on lately." Lily sighed. "Tuney's been feeding her lies."

"Well, you should come visit me sometime." Savanna said. "Otherwise I've just got my sisters to keep me company, and as much as I love them…" She trailed off and Lily laughed.

"I would like that. I want to meet your sisters, and eat something your mum made that's fresh. That sounds heavenly."

Savanna laughed. "You and Mary have a weird obsession with my mum's cooking."

"Your mum's a good cook." Lily shrugged.

"Guess what I did!" Mary said, running up to the tree. Her face was flushed and she had a thin scratch along her right cheek.

"Kissed the giant squid?" Lily said.

"Ew." Mary said. "No. I touched the tree! I was the first one to do it!" She looked proud of herself. "And I've got a battle scar!"

"You've got a cut on your cheek." Savanna said.

"And some sort of brain malfunction as well." Lily laughed.

"Well done though, I suppose."

"Gee, thanks a ton."

oOoOo

"So is it easier at home?" Peter asked, as he slid into the seat next to Remus. The Marauders were settling into the last compartment on the Hogwarts Express. "The full moons I mean." Remus shook his head.

"It's easier here at school. Madam Pomfrey's here. My dad's pretty good at healing charms, but we don't have any potions at home."

"You could get some from St. Mungo's." James said, sliding the compartment door closed and flipping the latch down to lock it.

"Yes," Remus said, looking down at his feet. He hadn't felt this uncomfortable around his friends in a while. "But the potions are fairly expensive."

"Oh." James said, running a hand through his hair.

"Remus is a werewolf, that's awful." Sirius said. "But what would be really awful is if we didn't see each other all summer." James shoved him.

"I don't this that's worse." He said. But Remus was laughing so he let it go. "And I already told you that you are all coming over to my house in August for the Tornado's game."

"Yes, but that's on, what? August 11th? That would leave me stuck in my house for almost a whole month."

"Sirius," James sighed. "I already told you to come over whenever you want."

"No you didn't."

"Sirius, you can come over whenever you want."

"Thanks, mate!"

"What about me and Peter?" Remus asked.

"You two can come over too." James said. "I don't mind, and we've got room."

"Loads of room." Sirius said.

"I expect all of you to come over a lot, my house is dead boring when I'm home alone. Especially now that mum's working again."

"I'm not supposed to visit my cousins until the end of August."

"Same cousins as last year?" Remus asked.

"Nah, these cousins are in France. And one of them's starting school next year."

"They've got names?"

"I can't remember them." Peter shrugged. "I haven't seen them since I was four."

"I know all my cousins' names." James said. "But that's only because I was forced to memorise my entire family tree when I was seven."

"Me as well." Sirius said. "I also speak French."

"German." James said. "Some pure blood traditions are just odd."

"Like learning how to dance?" Sirius asked.

"Or how to properly hold a fork."

"It's like you two are from a different time." Remus said. "Did you both have to go to etiquette school?"

"The wizard equivalent." Sirius said. "Our parents, or relatives teach you though."

"No," James shook his head. "I actually went to classes with other kids. Coral Green, Benjy Fenwick, Yvette St. Richardson and Kyle Wilkes were in my class. It was at some old ladies' house. Kyle was a prat back then as well."

"Okay," Sirius said. "If you're from the noble house of Black and your parents look down upon everyone that isn't a Black, then you're taught at home."

The boys eventually got out exploding snap, making normal conversation a bit difficult. A few hours later they were interrupted by a knock on the door. James leaned back and lifted the latch letting Frank Longbottom and Eustace Green into the compartment.

"Frank. Eustace." Sirius said, without looking up from his hand. It was James' turn, but that didn't mean that Sirius was safe just yet. Suddenly there was a pop and Remus yelped, dropping his cards.

"I hate this game." He said, checking to make sure he still had both of his eyebrows.

"Tough luck, mate." Frank said. With the round finished, the boys put the cards away and got back into their seats. "What are you all doing this summer?"

"Visiting with family." Sirius said. "And each other."

"Going to as many Quidditch games as possible." James added. "Hopefully the world cup too."

"My dad's busy with the ministry, so I don't think I'm going to be as lucky." Frank said. "I'd love to go to the world cup."

"Owl me," James said. "I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind taking you along and he always takes off work for the world cup." Frank nodded. "But that's probably going to be my problem as well with other games. My parents are both pretty busy."

"Is it true your mum's running for head of the D.M.L.E?" Eustace asked.

"I'm not sure." James said. "That's what the Prophet's saying, but nobody has said anything to me. That doesn't really mean much though."

"We need a good head." Eustace said. "Fawley's heart is in the right place, but he's not getting anything done."

"That's what my dad was saying." Frank said.

"Isn't Moody head of the auror department?" Remus asked.

"Yes, but the head of the D.M.L.E has a lot of power over the auror department because the auror department is just a part of the D.M.L.E." Eustace explained.

"What is that?" Peter asked.

"The Department of Magical Law Enforcement." Frank said. "They control everything, the aurors, the hit wizards, obliviators and those blokes who make sure nobody messes around with muggle things. The only person they answer to is the Minister of Magic."

"I think my mum could do it." James said.

"Moody thinks so too." Frank said. "He said so, in yesterday's paper. He said if she's put in charge, things will get better a lot faster."

oOoOo

The train pulled up to the platform and Lily felt her stomach twist into knots. She hated that she felt this way about coming home. She was going to be here for the next two months, so she should feel somewhat excited about it. This was home, this was her family! She hugged Savanna and Mary goodbye, giving the former her phone number and making the latter promise to write. They left the compartment, but she dawdled a bit longer, slowly putting her things into her bag.

She looked out of the window and saw James and Sirius being greeted by an elderly couple. They look very happy to see both of them. The woman pulled them both into a hug and then kissed James' forehead.

She saw Mary run up to a younger wizard who picked her up and twirled her around. She assumed this was Mary's older brother.

Then she watched Savanna walk over to a group of small girls who were jumping around excitedly pointing at everything and looking completely in awe.

When she had watched almost everyone greet their family, she grabbed her trunk and started pulling it towards the door.

"Sorry," She said when she reached her own family. "My trunk opened and spilled."

"That's okay, dear." Her father said, pulling her into a hug.

"Where's Tuney?" She asked, looking around.

"She went over to a friend's house." Her mother said. "She's excited to see you but she wasn't feeling up to the long car ride." Lily smiled and nodded, but she knew that her mother was lying.

"Did you see that boy with the red trunk?" Her father asked as they started walking towards brick wall. "He had a plant with him, and it was singing!" Lily laughed at the look on her dad's face and hugged him again.

"I missed you." She said to both of her parents.

"We missed you too." Her mum said, running a hand through Lily's hair.

"It's good to be home." She said, and it almost wasn't a lie.

AN: In my notes for this chapter, I told myself to end on a happy note, and this is how it ended. It's not happy, but it's not completely not happy. You should all see the notes for this story. I actually referred to Dumbledore as Dman because most of it's written in short hand. My notes amuse me. I know that's sad.

This was the longest chapter of the entire story I think. I thought it was going to be long than it is, but I think it's alright like this. *shrugs*

Anyway, it's been fun. I'll be putting Year three up fairly soon. I've already got chapter one almost complete and you'll never guess who has the first line of dialog! But if you do guess right, I'll tell you. :)

Review! It's your last chance to tell me what you thought, and if you did take the time to read the entire story, thank you so much! Now tell me what you think, yeah?