The whole next day Lily and James were on cloud nine. Alice kept asking repeatedly what was wrong, afraid Lily was coming down with something. Finally, Alice broke down.
“Alright, Lily. Either you tell me what’s going on or I’m going to Madam Pomfrey,” she said finally, her voice coated with worry.
“What? Oh, well. It’s really nothing. It was just…last night…James and I were walking back from our meeting with Dumbledore and…” Lily blushed violently. Alice’s eyes widened.
“Oh…my…gosh…Lily did he kiss you?!” Lily laughed.
“Of course not!” she said reassuringly. Alice looked relieved. “I kissed him!” Alice nearly fell out of her chair.
~~
After classes James came up to her. And it was the best moment of Lily’s life. James Potter, the cool, confident guy, was blushing. The only problem was, when Lily tried to feel happy about his embarrassment, she had quite a bit of trouble. She smiled, she didn’t really care. She honestly didn’t care! She, Lily, didn’t want to ridicule James anymore. It just seemed so silly now. James grinned.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, watching the emotions play across her face. She smiled broadly.
“You,” she muttered. Alice coughed loudly behind them, causing them both to jump.
“Sorry to interrupt such a…tender moment…but I just wanted to let you know that everybody is listening to you.” Lily and James looked around, mortified. Then they burst out laughing, and Lily ran to eat with Alice.
“Thanks for telling us before we made a spectacle of ourselves, Alice,” said Lily sarcastically. Alice smiled.
“I didn’t realize it until you already had, so I figured I would just watch for a bit. It’s quite amusing.” Lily smacked her playfully on the shoulder, but then stopped as she glanced into the potion’s classroom. She did a double take, and grabbed Alice. They hid behind the statue of a rather ugly witch, and watched in horror. Their potion’s master, Mr. Klivank, was handing an odd looking potion to Severus Snape.
“How long will this work?” came a voice. Lily craned her neck and saw, to her horror, Jack Mallon. She almost gasped. He looked terrible! His face had matured, his close were too tight, and he looked at least twenty! Somehow…she knew it was far-fetched, but she thought he looked a little like Lord Voldemort. Lily shook her head; that was insane. Snape handed the potion over to Mallon.
“Well, it should keep you looking like Jack Mallon for about…a week. Right at this time, exactly a week from now, you should take another dose,” explained Klivank, “or you will start to see effects like this again, and it would be most unfortunate if these effects started happening in the middle of a class.”
“Thank you, Klivank, you have done well,” said Mallon.
“Pleased I could help, My Lord,” Klivank murmured. Mallon then stopped suddenly. He sniffed loudly in the air. Lily’s heart pounded. He knew she was there! He looked around the room they were in.
“Come on!” Lily whispered frantically to Alice. Alice followed quickly. They ran quickly down the hall and didn’t stop until they had run completely out of breath. “Did you get all of that?!” Lily practically wailed. Alice nodded frantically.
“Did you see how he looked? He looked twice his actual age!” Alice shrieked.
“No, didn’t you hear? He is taking a potion to make himself look like a student. So he actually IS twice the age we see him as,” Lily said, thinking madly.
“But…then…why would he want to be a student? And did you hear at the end?! Professor Klivank called him ‘My Lord’” Lily stopped. She remembered thinking he looked like Lord Voldemort, and then how silly it sounded. Was it really that silly? It certainly didn’t seem that silly now! She looked at Alice, who was shaking her head.
“You can’t possibly be thinking…no…it’s not possible!” Alice said, almost pleadingly.
“Think about it Alice. It would make sense. Jack Mallon is You-Know-Who!” Alice was looking terrified. But she had to admit, after what they just saw, it seemed possible. “We have to tell somebody,” Lily announced. Alice laughed.
“That would be interesting. ‘Excuse me Headmaster, I just wanted to tell you that one of the students is actually You-Know-Who taking a potion to make him look different,’” mocked Alice. Lily had to admit, it was far-fetched. Then she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. Lily’s heart leapt. Sure it was Mallon and Snape; she grabbed Alice’s robes and pulled her behind the wall. She crouched down, pulling Alice with her. She heard the footsteps getting closer and closer, her heart beating wildly. What if he caught her sitting here, hiding from him like an idiot? Then, Alice coughed right next to her. Lily closed her eyes tightly. What was that? That is only supposed to happen in really bad horror movies! Not now, when you’re hiding from a potential Lord Voldemort!
The footsteps stopped. Nothing happened for a long while, then “BOO!” Lily screamed, trying to back further into the wall. Alice fell over in terror, scrambling away from their attacker. Lily looked up to see James. Her heart was thumping wildly. He laughed, “Am I that bad a kisser? Do you really need to hide?” Then he saw their faces. He knelt down beside Lily, who was trying desperately to get her nerve back.
“Bloody hell, James! Did you have to do that?!” Lily yelled at him. James grinned, but then frowned in concern.
“Who were you hiding from?” he asked, helping Lily up. Lily started to explain when Sirius walked around the corner, grinning lazily.
“Thank you all so much for helping me up,” Alice grumbled from the ground, watching James help Lily up.
“You’re welcome, Alice. What’s up James?” Sirius asked, leaning against the wall.
“Well,” muttered Lily, “other than scaring the crap out of us…” but she was interrupted yet again by the arrival of Frank Longbottom. Alice’s eye’s lit up. Frank grinned at her, and moved to help her up from the ground.
“What’s going on?” Frank asked. Lily glared, and started to open her mouth, but stopped. She moved to look back down the corridor, making sure there would be no more interruptions. James stared at her.
“What? Just checking. Well, anyways. Alice and I were walking down to dinner just now, and we saw Mallon in the potion’s room with Professor Klivank and Snape.”
“Snivellus,” Sirius said in disgust. “Now I know this is bad news.”
“Yes, well Klivank was giving a potion to Mallon to make him look the way he does. When we saw him, he seemed to be turning into a whole different person. James…don’t laugh, I’m serious. But Alice and I think it’s…You-Know-Who.” A dead silence followed her announcement. Sirius barked out a laugh, but Frank and James looked at her in realization.
“I saw him taking a potion the other day, but didn't think it important enough to mention,” admitted James. Frank nodded.
“That explains why I saw him and Malfoy were talking about some sort of…club… in the library. They were talking about recruiting people for something. Maybe an…”
“Anti-Muggle movement,” finished Lily. “Almost like the Death-Eaters.” Alice nodded.
“Wait a second…You’re serious about this? You actually think Jack Mallon is Voldemort?!” They all nodded. Sirius laughed, and then shook his head. “Alright, so what do you plan on doing about it?” They all looked at each other.
“We need to tell somebody, somebody with authority. Somebody we can trust,” said Frank, thinking.
“Dumbledore,” said James. “We need to tell Dumbledore.” Lily nodded.
“Well, I think we would be able to think better on a full stomach, don’t you?” said Sirius. Everybody started laughing then, and they agreed to go to dinner. Everybody followed Sirius down to the Great Hall, and after a few minutes, Lily realized that James hadn’t spoken at all since they had left.
“James, are you alright? You’re awfully…James? Stop you guys, James isn’t with us!”
“Quiet, Potter, or I’ll curse you into oblivion,” said Mallon. “That’s right.” James glared daggers at the three boys who had their wands on him.”
“Now, we have a little job for you, Potter, and you’ll do it without a fuss,” whispered Malfoy.
“I won’t do anything for you. Curse me all you want, but I will never help your cause,” seethed James.
“Oh, I think you will. Once you listen to our…proposition,” Snape said, smiling evilly.
“There is nothing you can do that will sway me,” James said, shaking his head.
“Oh really? Last I remember, you seemed awfully fond of a certain red-head. What was her name again? Oh, yes…Lily Evans.” James’ face turned pale.
“Leave her out of this!” They all laughed.
“I thought that would change your mind, Potter. You will help us, then?” Mallon said, smiling menacingly. James glared, trying to think of another way out of this. He would never let them hurt Lily, this was the only way he could keep her safe....