Lily sighed and nibbled on a sugar quill, quickly becoming tired of Hogsmeade - not her usual emotion when she got to go out for the monthly trip. Today, though, she was beginning to wish she had simply slept in. The sky was overcast and Mary kept making faces as she experimented with different Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.

"UGHH! Grass," She explained, eyeing the next green bean suspiciously. "I think I'm going to stick to the red ones - usually they're cherry or strawberry, and the worst they get to be is blood." She made another face, and Lily shook her head - she was not adventurous enough with food to eat Every Flavor Beans, that was for sure - not even the red ones. Mary's face fell quickly, as she examined her best friend's face.

"What's bothering you, Lils?" She asked, carefully re-wrapping her beans and depositing the lot of them in her pocket. Lily shrugged noncommittally, unsure of why she was so down. She felt stressed about school and her future, upset about her family, confused about James, sadness at the idea of graduating, and an impending sense of doom about being let loose into the real world. The terrifying and cruel real world full of Rookwoods and Voldemorts. People were dying each and every day - both wizards and muggles. People were beginning to refer to Voldemort as "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," with rumors flying around that even uttering his name will bring death. Perhaps next it would be one of Lily's friends or family members, then what?

Not wishing to bring down the mood her friend was clearly enjoying, Lily shrugged lightly. "I have a bit of a headache, is all. I should have taken a potion for it but I thought it would get better in the fresh air." She didn't look at Mary's eyes, knowing her friend would spot her lie with ease if given the opportunity.

Before Mary could respond, however, there were several loud cracking noises, and a crashing, clanging cacophony of noise coming from the front of the store and outside the doors.

-:-

Remus pushed his butterbeer from one hand to another, listening to Sirius let off more steam about his brother. He wanted to tell him that he should talk to him instead of ranting about him constantly, but knew how well that particular sentiment would be received. Remus never was one to pass judgment on the choices of his friends when it came to these things, just as he seldom protested even some of their more malicious pranks. The truth was, Sirius, James and Peter all cared a lot about him, and went through a lot for him, in a way that no other person ever had before them. So, he chose not to criticize Sirius' choice of avoiding the source of the problem in favor of letting out his frustration to his mates. Remus took another sip of butterbeer, mostly in order to avoid speaking, but also because he was trying to think of what could have possibly made Regulus ask his brother for help after the pair hadn't spoken in almost two years. Perhaps he had wanted to reconcile?

"Maybe your mum'll kill him when he fails that class he was talking about," Peter remarked a little cheerfully, taking a sip from his own butterbeer. James snorted and shook his head.

"We need to think of a good prank to pull on him. That should make you feel better, right Pads?" Sirius smiled deviously, nodding. His eyes clouded over for a moment, and then lit up.

"Oh, I have the most perfect idea -"

CRACK!

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all snapped their heads to the source of the sound at the exact same moment. It was an unrecogniseable person - mostly unrecogniseable because of the mask obscuring his face. Remus flew from his booth, Sirius almost crawling over him in his haste to get to the Death Eaters. James whipped out his wand and flew out of his seat as well; what was going on?

-:-

Lily and Mary rushed out through the door of Honeydukes, wands gripped tightly in hands, curious to know what on earth had just happened. In the streets of Hogsmeade, student and citizen alike were running in frenzied patterns, and every few moments a black-cloaked individual with a masked face would fire a curse or hex; a few people fell in the street, only to be trampled over by the terrified mass of people. Lily and Mary exchanged a look that spoke volumes. Were they really being attacked by Death Eaters? So close to Hogwarts, where Dumbledore could come, at any moment? Where were all of the professors, anyway? Why wasn't this situation coming under control yet?

A third year hufflepuff fell to the ground, and a red streak flew past her hair. She screamed, scrambling up to her feet and continuing her headlong rush. Mary rushed over to her, and gently grabbed onto her arm. "Shush, you're okay, you're okay - look at me. What happened?"

Lily jogged over to them, unsure of what she should be doing. She decided that perhaps she should get all of the children to safety. That was the Head Girl's job, right? But where was safe, and how would she gather everyone to get them there? A shop-keeper came teetering out of his little shop, wand raised high, and pushed past a crowd of tourists, whipping a spell at a nearby Death Eater, who reciprocated. Lily turned to face Mary and the Hufflepuff, knowing they needed to do something, and quickly.

"Lily!" James was sprinting toward she and Mary, Sirius hot on his heels, and Remus and Peter not far behind. A Death Eater took aim at Sirius, but Remus sent an impendiment curse at him and began to duel, Peter staying to help him. James didn't slow down until he reached the three girls.

"We're being attacked by Death Eaters!" he shouted, mind-working furiously for a plan to get students to safety without getting killed. Surely a responsibility of being Head Boy was to look after the other students in a time like this. Mary rolled her eyes, still clutching the shoulder of the Hufflepuff girl.

"Well, yeah, I'd say so, Captain Obvious," She muttered. "What are we doing about it?" She was glancing periodically around to make sure they weren't being ambushed, as Lily found herself doing as well.

"We need to get the lower years away from here. All of the Hogwarts students, actually. And we need to hold them off, until the professors catch word of this. I heard that Dumbledore is away, but I know that Flitwick is here today -" His eyes clouded over again, deep in conflicted thought. "Mary, are you of age?" He had a plan. At least someone did. This thought reassured Lily as much as she could be reassured in this moment, and she listened intently.

Mary nodded slowly, unsure of where he could be possibly going with this. James grabbed her arm, and lifted his wand, nodding to the Hufflepuff girl who Mary was still clutching."Hold on to her! I have a safe place we can take the students." He spun and flicked his wand.

"But James," Mary protested, "You can't apparate into Hogwarts, and we're not supposed to le-" there was a loud crack, and the three were gone.

Sirius shook his head, and Lily felt her jaw literally drop. James had just broken so many school rules, she knew it. For one, he was leaving Hogsmeade, and going Merlin-Knows-Where, and with two other people, one of whom was underaged! What would Dumbledore and McGonagall say? She shook her head, thinking that at least no body parts remained behind. Lily turned to Sirius, eyes searching his expression questioningly, but spun around at a sudden voice.

"Well, well, well - if it isn't the white sheep of the Black family." A small, deranged cackle erupted from behind a white mask. Lily whirled around, raising her wand defensively. She didn't recognize the man's voice and couldn't see any part of him that could give away his identity. She wasn't sure what to do - should she curse him? Was that legal? It had to be - self defense, as it were. But then, he hadn't actually attacked them just yet. Technically.

"Lovely, innit?" Sirius gave the man a charming grin and lifted his wand lazily. Lily stood frozen beside him, unsure of what to do next. "You'd best be off, before I take care of your sorry arse. Or would you rather try and off me? Come on, show me what you've got!" Sirius took a step forward and raised his wand a little, the mocking smile not leaving his handsome face.

"Oh, your dear mother would be quite cross with me if I were to kill you just now. I doubt she would object to ridding the earth of that scum, though," The Death Eater gestured at Lily, who was flabbergasted. Nobody had ever called her scum! What a ludicrous thing coming from ... that! She took a deep breath, not sure of how to react. She'd never before been insulted by a pureblood supremacist death eater. Sirius beat her to the punch, though; perhaps he was more practiced.

"Touch a single hair on her pretty little head and I'll rip you limb from limb... starting with the delicate parts." He flashed the Death Eater another malevolent smile. Lily assumed that Sirius Black had no frontal lobes whatsoever. If he kept this up he'd lose the rest of his brain, too - and everything attached. She knew that she had to do something. It was better for her to take action, as the situation was clearly dire.

Before Sirius or the Death Eater could get a word out of his mouth, Lily flicked her wand, saying the first spell that leapt to mind - "Langlock!" If the Death Eater's tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth, he couldn't say a spell. Immediately afterward, Sirius shouted his own spells.

"Stupefy! Incarcerous!" The Death Eater dropped to his knees and then on his side, before being tied by the ropes from Sirius' wand. Lily looked away, under the pretense of seeing if any other attackers were coming, but really it was that the last spell still made her uncomfortable, remembering the feeling of being bound. Sirius didn't seem to notice her discomfort, or perhaps wrote it off as a normal feeling given the situation. "Wow, Lily - nice one! I've never heard of it, what exactly does it do?"

Lily bit her lip. Sirius hadn't heard of it because Sev had invented it a few years back. "It glues the tongue to the roof of the mouth - a friend of mine made it up." Sirius was clearly curious but cut himself short as another dark figure came running toward them, this time a woman.

"Lily - try and get the younger years to the Hog's Head! I got this one, don't worry!" He whirled around flamboyantly, sending a red slash of light toward the woman, who blocked it easily and sent her own spell back at him; Sirius ducked. The pair danced around one another and Lily caught the site of two younger years running from a side street toward a locked building - she wanted to worry about Sirius, and to help him, but she knew she had to go - it was her duty as Head Girl to keep the younger Hogwarts students safe. She hoped James and Mary were okay, and took one last glance at Sirius, who was now back to back with Remus and another boy she only knew by appearance - and took off toward the younger children to shepherd them over to the Hog's Head. She questioned how a shady establishment like the Hog's Head could possibly be safe, but Sirius had been wearing a look of absolute certainty as he spoke. Without another word, she ran off in the direction of the Hog's Head, scanning the streets for students.