Our Seventh Year

Lily had managed to keep Melinda off her back, because she knew if she told her, everyone would know before she would get the chance to tell James. With her luck the wrong story would be told, and feelings would get hurt.

Earlier she had changed into warmer clothes and grabbed her thicker cloak to walk the halls, about five minutes to nine Lily walked into the just outside Gryffindor tower and waited for James to arrive.

James checked the time, excused himself, and dashed up to his room to change. It was exactly nine when he emerged from the portrait to find Lily leaning against a wall watching the stairs move.

“Hey love,” James said a bit skittishly as he approached her. Even though she had told him he had done nothing wrong he still spent the whole time celebrating thinking of things he had done that could of offended her.

“Hello,” Lily said smiling at him as she pushed off of the wall, reaching her hand out to his. She could tell that he was still worried he had done something. “Relax.”

Smirking a bit, James led her down the stairs, and he could not take it anymore. “So what happened? What has been bothering you?”

She sighed as they made it to an empty corridor and began to talk, “before this goes anywhere, I know it is going to sound like I have done something, but I did not, nothing happened.” Even as she said that, Lily could feel James tense up a bit and stare at it.

“Alright…” he said more concerned now, at least if he had done something, he could probably fix it.

“During the game, I had left to go to the restroom. When I walked back out…Severus was there.” She stopped to glance up at him, she could tell he was relieved since he knew she would not do anything with Severus, but could tell he was aggravated, not with her but with him. She decided she would deal with anger after the story, since it was just going to get worse as she went on.

“He claimed he wanted to talk to me, that he had messed up. First thing off I told him to leave me alone, and I went to walk away but he followed. The last thing I wanted was for you to see while playing the game and get angry, so I listened, but I let him know I was unhappy about it,” Lily searched his face. He was listening, but knew he was already plotting ways to kill Severus.

“Severus tried to explain to me why he had called me what he did. Basically saying you picked on him so often that if I stood up for him, you would use that against him as well, and the only flaw that he could pick out, though now he says it isn’t a flaw, is that I am a muggle born.”

James could not believe what he was hearing, Severus was trying to explain himself to her for the third time, and he just did not get it. Now he had to worry about Lily being cornered not only in a hall alone, but anywhere, even in public.

“Then I asked him why he was so…obsessed, with me. I told him it is obvious I am with you, and that I have no interest in him at all.” Lily paused knowing this was going to throw James for a loop. “He said that I was the only person who was nice to him, and listened. That I was the most beautiful girl that he had met. I had heard enough then, I felt awful, as if I was doing something wrong, even though I wasn’t. So I moved to walk off..”

James stopped in the hall now and faced her, “and…”

Lily took a deep breath, and stared down at the floor hard, as if she was examining the tiles themselves, “he tried to kiss me.”

“Fucking prat! I’ll kill ‘em,” James said loudly as he looked down at Lily. She was his girlfriend, no one else’s, and no one would do something like that without being told off, not even his best mate Sirius. “What did you do?” James suddenly asked, remembering he had not heard the whole thing.

Lily looked back up at him now, “I turned my head and he caught me right behind the ear. My first reaction was to smack him, so I did and I told him to leave me, and you alone. Then I walked off.”

He shook his head in disbelief not at Lily, but because of the whole situation. Severus would just not give up for anything. What would Lily of done if he had tried something like last time, she was too small to fight him off.

“Did he ever do this to you before? Like before we started dating?” James asked her. She shook her head no, and he could tell she felt horrible for what had happened.

“It’s not your fault love,” James added before moving on, “he just wants what he cannot have, and of course it is you.”

“Please James, don’t do anything I have already taken care of it, please,” Lily said staring up at him.

“I have to, obviously he has not gotten it through his head after you told him no the first two times, he probably will not get it now,” James argued back.

“And look what happened last time James! He could have killed you! Just let it lie,” Lily persisted.

James sighed, not wanting to upset her more then she was already. “Fine, but if I catch him doing it again, or if he does it again, I will say something, I am not going to let this go on, it’s too dangerous.”

Lily nodded, and they continued down the hall. They walked in silence for a while, and she could tell James was still angry, and probably would be for the rest of the night, but if it was reversed, Lily would probably react the same way.

“McGonagall said we need to keep an eye on the astronomy tower, the others have been catching people up there left and right,” James said quietly breaking the silence.

“Yeah I heard about that. Apparently Jackie, you know the Ravenclaw head of house,” Lily said when James gave her a puzzled look then nodded when he figured out who she was. “Walked upon two fifth years being a bit…frisky shall we say up there.”

James just laughed, “I bet that was a moment killer.”

“And awkward as well,” Lily said smirking. “Jackie told me that they have detention for a month, and their houses both lost fifty points.”

The stairs up to the astronomy tower were worn down smooth from constant treading on, which caused an issue when it rained. They made it to the top of the stairs and pushed open the creaky door, then looked around. No one was around, so Lily collapsed on a bench.

“Looks like rain,” James said looking up at the clouds as he took a seat next to her.

“So no one will have an excuse when they come up the stairs claiming they have homework to do,” she replied smirking as he met her gaze.

The night was pretty quiet, and they spent most of it in the astronomy tower, talking about anything they could think of. Around midnight rain began to fall lightly, but Lily made no move to leave.

James held Lily’s hand lightly, turning his face toward the sky when he thought he felt a few rain drops. He was right, he removed the glasses from his face and wiped the few splashes of water onto his cloak.

“Let’s head in shall we?” James asked her as the rain began to fall harder and the wind whipped. At her nod, he stood up, then helped her up as well. Descending the stairs they spotted Flitch’s cat sitting at the bottom staring at them suspiciously with her blood red eyes. Mewing she flicked her tail and ran off, probably to find her master.

“She always makes you feel like you’re doing something wrong,” Lily said as she watched the cat scamper off down the hall.

“She has caught Sirius and me plenty of times, even as Head Boy Flitch still sends her to follow me,” James said with a roll of his eyes

Just around the corner Lily heard a small tap, as if a door were closing. Raising an eyebrow at James they walked around to find the source of the noise. They found it.

There was an empty classroom and they caught the light of a wand right as it went out. James went first and opened the door, his wand out incase they attempted to protest, and Lily followed in behind.

The room was pitch black, and Lily could hear laughter, it was silent and muffled, and it almost had a menacing tone. She glanced over at James, though she could barely make out his outline, the only way she could tell it was him was by the shine of his glasses.

“Come on out,” James called as he looked around the room. He was walking carefully, but still managed to hit a desk with his shin. Cursing under his breath, he decided they were not listening and lit the room himself with the wand.

Light flooded a room to show there were about ten people in the room in the far corner, all dressed in black robes with their hoods on their heads glaring at the two of them. “Oi, hoods off,” Lily said looking at the group. She recognized most of them instantly, Bellatrix, Regulus, Narcissa, Lucious, Severus, and Rosier. The rest were unknown to her, being younger, and from different houses, and there was one person in the very back with their head hung low.

“You cannot tell us what to do, least of all you” Regulus hissed glaring at her. “You are nothing.”

James eyes narrowed, “I don’t think your brother would like the tone you are taking Reggie,” he taunted, and watched the boy instantly retreat backwards. Even if the group did not fear Sirius, his younger brother always did.

“Who Sirius? We can take care of him, as well as you,” Lucious said maliciously causing the rest of the group to laugh.

James just rolled his eyes at the group, fighting with them would just fuel the fire, and he was not dumb either, him and Lily were outmatched five to one. “Out into the hall, the lot of you,” James said and they complied.

Lily quickly sent a message to McGonagall, and they all stood in wait. This was definitely awkward, she could feel the death glares upon her more than James since she was as they called her a mudblood, an undesirable. The only person who was not staring daggers at her was Severus, who was just staring at her.

Hearing footsteps, James met McGonagall down the hall, as well as Filtch. Before they were in earshot of the group James explained everything that had happened.

“Everyone back to their rooms, each of you lose five points for your house, and if you are caught out again tonight you will be spending the next week with Filtch doing as he bids. I expect all of you in my office tomorrow after class for detention,” McGonagall snapped. She was highly aggravated having to be pulled out of her sleep.

The group disbursed, and McGonagall sent Lily and James to bed, letting them off the last half hour of duty, claiming now that she was up, she would not be able to get back to sleep.

“I wonder what that was all about,” Lily said as they waited for the stairs to change back so they could head up to Gryffindor tower. Slytherins were always a bit odd and nasty, but this was particularly strange.

James shrugged, he had an idea about what was going on, Sirius had told him stories, and he had seen many things happen throughout his lifetime. Lily had little to no idea though; she was born and raised a muggle.

“You know don’t you?” Lily asked him as they climbed up the stairs.

“Yes,” James said saying the password to let them into the tower. “Let’s talk about it when we are in private okay?”
 
Once in their room, James disappeared to change, and Lily did the same. She pulled on a pair of light green pajama pants, and a pink tank top before returning to the common room to find James in grey pants and his undershirt.

James patted the spot next to her, and when she sat down he placed an arm around her pulling her close to him. He had tried to think about where to begin, she of course knew about Voldemort, and how he was a great wizard trying to take over the wizarding world, but that was all they taught in class. James had learned from his parents and from Sirius.

“Lily, you know who Voldemort is obviously,” James said looking at her and she shook her head and waited for him to go on.

“Well, he has a group of followers as we all know. Things are starting to get worse, that group we came upon, all of their parents are followers and supporters of him, though it is not a proven fact. I know you don’t get much news, though no one does really now a days, but over the summer many people went missing,” James said quietly. It had affected his family deeply, one of his aunts a known fighter for muggle’s rights was found dead in her house.

“They are followers of him, they are all trying to become Death Eaters,” James said staring down at her. “They believe that the only true wizards are purebloods, and muggles are nothing.”

Lily nodded she had heard most of this before, “many people think that true wizards are only pureblood,” she replied.

“Yes, but they have taken it a step further. They are killing anyone who believes that, and many mixed bloods have gone missing,” James replied staring at her. “That is why I do not trust Snape, he is in that group. He was getting way to close to you; I didn’t want him to hurt you.”

Lily’s eyes widened a bit as she stared at him, “so all of those people want me dead?” She asked James. “Even Sirius’ brother? Does Sirius know?”

“They want everyone dead except for ‘purebloods’. And Sirius does know, his parents are followers that is why he ran away and stays with me over most holidays.”

Lily had heard this all of this before, but she never really listened. She believed it was just a rumor, like everything else going around the school. They were basically like a muggle gang. She was not a dumb girl, and now that this knowledge had been brought to light, everything was starting to make sense.

“Isn’t anyone going to stop them?” Lily asked James.

He just shook his head slightly, “anyone who stands in their way is killed. My aunt was murdered over this summer because she is for muggle’s rights.”

Lily gasped slightly, “I’m so sorry James. So I am in danger, as well as my family.”

“Yes, but not right away. People are beginning to rally to fight against him, but eventually if he wins anyone who is a muggle, mix blood, or people that help muggles and mixed bloods will be killed, so I am in that pool.” James said rubbing her arm slightly.

“That is why I am going to be an Auror, I want to fight. I can’t let them keep killing innocent people,” James said quietly looking at her. “My parents are part of the anti-Voldemort movement, and I plan to help once I am out of school.”

Lily just nodded, ever since she was young she knew that she wanted to be a doctor, and when she started Hogwarts she changed to healer. McGonagall always said she would excel in being a healer, but she would also be perfect as an Auror, and now she knew why she said that.

“How do you join?” Lily asked sitting up to stare at him. There was no way she was going to sit down and take what was happening lightly.

“Lily no, you are a main target, they would kill you before they killed me,” James said looking at her. Suddenly, he regretted telling her any of this.

“James, I am not going to sit around and wait for them to show up and kill my family and me,” Lily said staring at him. “I want to help in any way.”

“We both have to be out of school first, and we will go from there love,” James said smiling at her determination before kissing her lightly.

Lily let out a yawn, even though her mind was racing with everything that had happened that day.

“Come on, let’s get to bed,” James said extending his hand out to her. Lily nodded, getting up off the couch with him and following him to his room, shutting the door behind her lightly.

James pulled down the sheets for her, and once she crawled into bed, he followed behind, extinguishing the light with a flick of his wand, then pulled her close to him. Even if their relationship was a giant whirlwind, it felt so natural to be around her.