But I Do Love You by iheartyou
Disclaimer: Me = amateur writer who is a horrible person and leaves all her wonderful readers in suspense for two months before updating. J.K Rowling = fantabulous master writer who keeps her readers in suspense for two years... but delivers an entire book. Spot the difference.
(A/N Thank you so sososososososo much to everyone for all of your reviews!! They were really much appreciated and thanks for pestering me to get a move on, and encouraging me and everything ^_^ The only reason I didn't reply is because I felt really guilty for not updating... but I do love you all!! I hope you guys enjoy the chapter.. and I'm going London next week!!!! Hopefully that'll inspire me a lot for this story ^_^ Anyway... enjoy!)
Chapter 21: Warnings on a Dark Night
Lily was not having a good week. Try as she might, she couldn’t stay angry with James. But pride prevented her from making the first move back to reconciliation. Her stupid pride. She wished she could simply pluck it from her body and toss it away. As that was not possible, she was stuck with feeling hurt that James hadn’t trusted her abilities enough to let her fight beside him, and that he’d actually stunned her to prevent her from helping. A small part of her managed to regret that she hadn’t thought of stunning him first.
On top of her private war on her emotions, the professors of Hogwarts found it necessary to burden the seventh years with piles of assignments. It was a small blessing; when she was immersed in school work her thoughts were less prone to stray to James. She hadn’t faced him since the full moon, but would have to eventually due to their Head duties, plus they’d both received detentions on two nights a week for the month. Sirius had received the same sentence, but Raven could not be punished as she had technically had permission to be outside the castle boundaries. Luckily, no house points had been deducted since school hadn’t technically been in session. Otherwise there might have been some awkward explanations to give angry Gryffindors.
It had been hard enough to explain to Stephanie the events over the holidays, but once it had been managed, Lily’s friend oozed sympathy. It became her mission to spend any spare moment boosting her friends’ forlorn moods. For Raven’s mind seemed to be filled with thoughts of the marauders as well. Lily suspected one marauder in particular claimed most of those thoughts.
The first week of term had gone by and it was a particularly grey morning when Lily received an owl describing the details of the detention she would serve that night.
“Great,” she groaned, pushing her half-eaten breakfast of toast and bacon away. She rested her chin on her hand glumly, “Four hours spent in awkward silence with Black and Potter polishing armor... the muggle way,” she added with a grimace and glanced up and down the Gryffindor table, trying to spot James and Sirius to see if they too had gotten their letters, but the Marauders were no where to be seen.
With a sigh she slouched back in her seat. She hadn’t polished anything the muggle way for a long time, and she had begun to hope she’d never have to perform the arduous task again.
“Could be worse, you could be scrubbing toilets,” Steph said, trying for optimism. When Lily responded with a glare, the girl gave a helpless shrug and left for class. Raven slid over on the bench, filling Steph’s vacant spot.
“This could be a chance to make things up with him,” Raven suggested in a lowered tone, wary of the surrounding student body.
Lily contemplated being difficult and asking ‘Him who?’, but knew it wouldn’t phase Raven. Instead, she said, “I don’t know,” with a shrug of her shoulders. Reaching out with one hand to fiddle with her spoon, she elaborated in response to Raven’s arched brow, “I’m not sure it’s the best time.”
“In other words, you’re frightened,” Raven retorted, tucking a stray curl of dark brown hair behind her ear.
“No!” she squeaked. With a slight grimace she cleared her throat, “No,” she said more calmly, “I’m not frightened of him Why would I be?” She added with a nervous little laugh. Reaching down, she plucked her book-bag from the floor. Raven followed her as she made her way out of the Great Hall.
“Perhaps it isn’t him that scares you, but what he might say that does.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lily scoffed with a wave of her hand, “Nothing James Potter can do or say could possibly frighten me!”
“Fine, if that really is the case then listen to what he has to say. Merlin knows you want to,”and with that, Raven got up from the bench and headed off to her class, leaving Lily to sort out her troubles on her own.
~*~
After supper and mere minutes away the time of her detention, Lily still hadn’t made a concrete decision on what to do or how to act. During the day she’d been forced to dive into an empty classroom when she caught a glimpse of that familiar messy black hair. She’s chided herself for her actions afterwards; she was acting like the stereotypical silly girl and she hated that.
“Lily, I think it’s almost time, isn’t it?”
Raven was looking at her friend with concern, and Lily realized that she’d been pacing. The two girls sat in their dormitory where they’d decided to take refuge from the noisy common room, and where Lily could freak out in peace. Though it was on both their minds, they didn’t mention to one another that they were also avoiding the marauders. Two in particular. And now Lily couldn’t avoid them any longer.
“Yeah. Yeah it is,” Lily replied absent-mindedly to Raven.
“It’s going to be fine.”
Lily nodded, and tucked a stand of her red hair behind an ear. “I know. It will be. Everything will be fine!” she said in an overly bright voice. Lily strode over to the door and started down the stairs.
“Wait!” she heard Raven called, and a moment later Raven was at the top of the stairs, looking anxious and frowning. “Look, there’s been something I’ve been trying to remember about that night. There’s something missing. I remember Sirius coming... and then I remember the werewolf... but between that there’s a giant blank. It’s been nagging at me this entire time.”
Lily frowned, not following where Raven was going. She had to hurry, otherwise she’d be late, and Filch would use any excuse to give an extra detention. “And?” she prompted, for Raven had stopped. She was rubbing her forehead as though she had a fierce headache.
“I just remember there was a stag. A stag was fighting the werewolf. I never saw James until later, and he was walking away from the Shack... it just.... it doesn’t add up! I think that...”
But Lily, her mind spinning in turmoil already, didn’t get to hear the rest of what Raven had to say; Stephanie and Elise were climbing the stairs.
“What’re you talking about? Don’t you have detention?” Stephanie questioned, her brown eyes flashing from Lily to Raven and back again, suspiciously. Stephanie had been feeling slightly left out lately, and had resorted to befriending Elise. Considering she’d always claimed the girl annoyed her to no end, it was a clear signal to how rejected she felt. Lily resolved to be nicer to both girls after that night; after she dealt with her own pressing matters.
“I’m just leaving,” she replied with a smile, and skipped down the stairs, already forgetting that Raven had more to say.
The corridors were dark and empty; the firelight from torches cast eerie shadows on the wall. It was at times like these when Lily’s imagination took control of her, serving only to feed her fear. In her minds eyes she saw unconscious bodies with glittering green graffiti written across foreheads and on notes... It had been about two months since the last attack, and security had loosened slightly. It wasn’t required for students to walk in groups any longer, but Lily wished Raven had come along with her. Or even Stephanie... anyone really...
And it was just as she was rounding a corner that Lily say a flicker of black cloth out of the corner of her eye. She span wildly around, looking frantically, but there was nothing.
“You’re seeing things,” she muttered to herself, “just a trick of the light...”
Nevertheless, she quickened her pace and gripped her wand tightly in her robes pocket. She hadn’t been walking for longer than a minute when again, she saw the flicker. This time she didn’t spin; she kept going, trying to keep the cloth at the side of her vision. Sometimes it disappeared, but it was there and it was following her. When she reached the stairs, Lily turned swiftly, and drew her wand; the visible black cloth disappeared, but it didn’t matter. Lily’s wand was pressed against flesh.
“Show yourself, or I swear I’ll hex you until you don’t know north from south,” she said fiercely, her cheeks red with suppressed anxiety. Inside she was terrified; was it the attacker? Was she any match for him if it was? But in spite of her fear, her wand was steady.
There was a rustle of movement as her follower pulled off their invisibility cloak. “How’d you know I was there?” Annabella asked.
Lily ignored the question and fired one of her own; “Why are you following me?” She didn’t lower her wand from where it pointed directly at Annabella’s neck. She stood a few steps lower than the Slytherin prefect; otherwise her wand would be pointed between the other girl’s eyes.
Annabella rolled her silvery eyes and flipped her dark hair absently. “Tonight’s my patrol night, I saw you walking alone and decided to follow.”
“Why?” Lily still didn’t lower her wand. Annabella had been cruel to her on more occasions than she’d been kind. And she was a Slytherin; the animosity between those two houses went back through countless volumes of history.
The girl shrugged. “Out of curiosity... and I guess I wanted some company.”
“What’re you doing with an invisibility cloak?” Lily questioned, and lowered her wand to a less threatening position. She wasn’t sure why, but she found she believed Annabella didn’t mean her any harm.
“It was a Christmas present; I thought I’d try it out. Why, what did you think I was doing?”
“I er...” Lily’s wand fell to her side as she felt heat raise to her cheeks in slight embarrassment at her paranoia. “I dunno.... er... Sorry I freaked out on you.” She glanced at her watch and saw that she had two minutes to get to the trophy room. “I have to run, Annabella, I’m late.” She turned away from the girl, but Annabella followed.
“Late for what?”
It cost Lily a little bit to admit to Annabella where she was going, she had a reputation as Head Girl to uphold, but she told her. Annabella laughed a little, but not in a cruel way, and she didn’t make fun of her. Lily found herself warming up to the girl; she couldn’t forget the nights of misery Annabella had put her through during their past prefect patrols, but she was starting to accept that the girl had genuinely changed.
“Lily,” Annabella became serious as her laughter died. “I heard some things while I was at home... and in my common room too. They’re... well, they’re not good.”
“What is it?” Lily asked, concerned at the troubled look on Annabella’s face. The torchlight flickered on her pale features, making them appear almost smoky.
“They were about You-Know-Who. I think things are going to get worse. Dumbledore’s a threat to him, and that makes Hogwarts a threat.” They came to the entrance of the Trophy Room, and Lily hesitated before entering.
“Are you saying you think the attacks will start again?”
Annabella made a face, as though she weren’t sure what to say, or even sure of what she thought. Lily was about to prompt her more for an answer, but a hand grasped her shoulder, causing her to jump.
“Nice of you to finally show up, Evans,” Filch said nastily, “Don’t think just because you’re Head Girl that gives you the excuse to break rules and not suffer the punishment. What’re you doing?” His eyes narrowed into suspicious slits at Annabella, who shrugged and, with a nervous look at Lily, walked away.
Lily shook Filch’s hand off her, and stepped into the trophy room with Filch close behind, his raspy breath making her shudder.