Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
(A/N I hope you enjoy, Please review :) They make me happy. Thanks for reading!)
Chapter 4: What's the World Coming To?
On the Headmaster’s orders, Lily attended her afternoon classes. But for all the effort she gave, she may as well have stayed in the hospital wing. She couldn’t help wondering who would do such a thing. Unconsciously she made lists of all the people she thought capable of such malice. Unsurprisingly, Snape was one of the first persons she thought of. Hadn’t he been wandering the halls by himself just earlier that day? If James hadn’t been there, would she have been in the hospital wing instead of that poor girl, Darlene? Maybe she should have hit him with a curse... perhaps it would’ve prevented this all from happening...
“Miss Evans!” Lily’s gaze went sharply into focus on a stout woman who looked very put out.
“Sorry, what was that professor?” Lily asked politely, the picture of a perfect student, who was just a little hard of hearing.
“If you would take a look around, you would notice that every one of your classmates are working on the filitrius plants. Please, get out of your dreamworld and join a group!” Professor Sprout said impatiently.
Lily went a slight shade of red as she walked over to join a pair of Hufflepuff boys. She saw Remus motion for her to join his table (with James), but at the moment they were surrounded by giggling girls that Lily didn’t think she could handle. She shook her head, smiling in a way that made her look sincerely sorry she couldn’t join them.
Lily soon learned that if she were to ever daydream again in class, it’d better not be during a Herbology lesson. The filitrius plant had a habit of spraying people with a nasty liquid that smelt horrible, if they didn’t care for them in a certain way. What made them so popular, was that the liquid (which they so often sprayed Lily with) was the very same that filled the stones in the popular gobstones game. The Hufflepuff boys tried their best to help her, but soon gave her up as a lost cause.
Lily was so frustrated, that when the class was finally over she was one of the first people out of the greenhouse. Stomping her way up to the castle, she ignored the calls of ‘Wait up!’ from Stephanie, deciding that if she wanted to talk to her so badly she could run.
“What is wrong with you? Didn’t you hear me calling to you? Ew, what’s that smell?” Stephanie exclaimed, plugging her nose.
Lily’s eyes narrowed into slits. “I suppose you weren't victim of the filitrius plant’s spray back there.”
Stephanie started to laugh, but had the decency to try to cover it with a cough when she saw the anger in Lily’s emerald green eyes.
“Here, I’m sorry, let me help out,” Stephanie said and waved her wand. Instantly the rancid odor was replaced with the smell of a lavender perfume.
Lily sighed, relaxing somewhat. “Thanks,” she said, giving Stephanie an apologetic look. “I’ve just been really edgy since what happened at lunch.”
“I know, but come on Lily. No one would dare to attack you,” Stephanie said, her brown eyes wide and sympathetic.
Stephanie was a pureblood, and usually had difficulty understanding what kind of treatment Lily received as a Muggle-born. Raven was a little more understanding, having been with Lily a lot of the time when she was taunted. Raven herself was sometimes considered a Muggle-born, or as bad as. Her father was a half-blood wizard, but her mother was a Muggle.
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Lily muttered in response, but Stephanie didn’t seem to hear. They had entered the Great Hall and the noise from all the other students drowned out Lily’s comment. They found a spot and began eating, although not much in Lily’s case. She sat in silence, poking at her food, only rarely putting some in her mouth.
“Miss me?” came a cheerful voice, disturbing the silence in which Lily and Stephanie sat.
Lily smiled as Raven squeezed in beside her with a ‘Budge over, you’ to a Gryffindor first year, who hastily did as he was told. Usually Lily would have scolded Raven for scaring first years, but tonight she was so happy to see her best friend, that she didn’t care.
“You made it out alive!” Lily exclaimed. “Is the other in pieces?” she asked, referring to Sirius.
“To my great dismay, yes he is. Madam Pomfrey separated us before I could do any lasting damage,” Raven’s face looked so sincerely woebegone by this that Lily had to laugh.
“There will be other opportunities,” she said in a comforting type of voice. Stephanie raised her eyebrows at the two, but didn’t say anything. Smitten with a Marauder, Lily mused, how tragic.
Thinking of Marauders, Lily glanced down the Gryffindor table to look at the group of four. Sirius had obviously returned at the same time as Raven. They were all laughing merrily at something and Lily wondered what it was. A prank maybe?
Their laughter died down, and as it did, James looked down the table, catching Lily’s eye. She jerked her head away quickly, but not before she saw him wink at her.
He may not bully anyone anymore, but he’s still the same arrogant toe-rag he’s always been, Lily thought disgustedly. But as much as she thought ill of him, she couldn’t quite deny that her stomach had done an odd sort of flip-flop when he’d winked. She brushed it off as lack of food, and began to eat properly. Raven always had this effect on Lily. She could calm her down with just her presence and Lily loved that.
“So how were classes?” Raven asked with a cocky grin, seemingly pleased that she had gotten something out of being attached to Sirius for a few hours.
Lily shrugged. “The usual. You missed a bunch of NEWTs lectures and some homework, but nothing you can’t catch up on.”
“Assuming I was worried about that in the first place,” Raven said, smiling.
“Lily was sprayed from head to toe in an awful smelling liquid by the filitrius plant. She was a walking skunk,” Stephanie laughed, receiving a scowl from Lily.
“The filitrius plant?” Raven asked, looking a bit put out. “That’s the liquid that gobstones are filled with.” Raven had a slight passion for the game as well, Herbology was her best class.
“We’re continuing work with them next class,” Stephanie reassured Raven, who looked happier at this. The three girls got up from the table, having finished their meal. They laughed and talked amongst each other, and Darlene slipped from Lily’s mind. She felt carefree, like nothing could bring her down.
“Hey! Hey, Lily!” the familiar voice of James Potter called after her as she and her friends ascended one of the many staircases.
Lily let out a small frustrated sigh, that only Raven and Stephanie heard. “Yes?” she asked, turning to face him.
“Where are you going? You do know that we have a prefect meeting in about five minutes, right?” James questioned, frowning at her.
Lily’s eyes widened, she’d forgotten all about it. However, she didn’t want to admit it, so she quickly came up with a false explanation. “I know, I was just going to run up to my dorm to get something.”
“What could you possibly need?” James asked in a friendly way, but Lily immediately got defensive.
“Parchment,” she said a little icily. “I’ve run out.”
“I’ll lend you some,” James replied, shrugging. “So, are you coming or not?” he persisted when Lily didn’t move.
“Er, yeah. I’ll see you guys later,” she said to Raven and Stephanie and began walking in the opposite direction with James.
They walked in silence for a bit, Lily not particularly interested in striking up a conversation with him at the moment. Although, she did find it funny that she could go from having a great time with him that morning, to slightly detesting his presence now.
“You forgot, didn’t you?” he said, after giving her a searching look.
“No,” Lily said, a little too quickly and defensively. She grimaced inwardly, hating how she sounded so guilty.
James seemed to have caught onto it too, because he said in a friendly mocking sort of way, “Well, colour me pink. Lily Evans, forgetting such an important commitment. What is the world coming to?”
Lily smirked, and carefully pulled out her wand in a way that James wouldn’t notice. “I don’t think pink really suits you, James,” she gave him an innocent kind of smirk, “But if you insist.” With that she took aim and fired a spell at him. James’s cowboy outfit turned from tan to shocking pink within a matter of seconds.
He looked down at himself, his mouth agape. Looking back up at her, Lily saw his expression change from surprise, to slight horror and disbelief. “You didn’t,” was all he could manage.
Lily nodded and smiled smugly, “I did. Oh, here’s the room. Grindylow,” she said to the portrait guarding the entrance to the meeting room. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked him innocently. He gave her a look that said plainly that as long as he was pink, his answer was no.
“Big baby,” she said, flicking her wand so that his outfit was the normal tan colour.
He smirked, walking up to her. “Thank you Lily, my torturer and saviour,” he said in a playful mocking voice. Lily rolled her eyes at him before walking in, smiling. The room was furnished with big squishy couches and armchairs, that were currently occupied with Hogwarts’ prefects. There was a desk at the front of the room, and two imperial looking armchairs. Lily always thought the Head Boy and Girl looked a bit like a king and queen when seated there. She went over and sat down in one, wondering if one of the prefects thought the same of her. It was a little scary being up here, but at the same time she liked the authority. James settled in the armchair next to hers and the room fell silent.
Eerie, Lily thought, I feel like Professor McGonagall or something.
Lily gave James a side glance, but he didn’t seem like he was about to say anything. The one time I actually want to hear something come from that huge mouth of his and he stays silent, she thought disbelievingly.
“So, I’m assuming we’re all here,” she started, receiving small nods from her audience (excluding the Slytherins, and one Ravenclaw). “I recognize some of you from last year, but there are some new people here. Why don’t we take time to get acquainted before we actually discuss things?” she suggested. “I know it’s boring, but let’s just go around, saying our names. I’m Lily Evans,” she turned to James who caught on, and introduced himself. The introductions continued and Lily tried her best to memorize names and faces. She wondered how James was doing, at least she knew some people from the years before. The last person introduced themselves, and Lily felt that it had gone a little too quickly. In the hospital wing, Dumbledore had told James and Lily that they needed to tell the prefects about the ‘situation’ at Hogwarts. Lily, however, didn’t want to bring it up. Why couldn’t Dumbledore just address the entire school?
“So let’s get the obvious out of the way,” James said suddenly, startling Lily. “Rumors are going around the school. But I’m sure we all know stories can get exaggerated, so let’s have it. What’ve you heard?”
Lily was surprised at James’s bluntness. She looked around the room and saw people exchanging uneasy looks.
“There’s a cult going around killing off Muggle-borns,” said a timid Hufflepuff prefect. Lily looked over at her, trying to remember her name. Michele, or something like that she guessed.
“Not quite,” James said in a kind way that Lily hadn’t known he was capable of. “Fortunately, Lily and I were there, so what we’re about to tell you is reliable. Forget whatever you’ve heard up until now, alright?” Again, several people nodded.
“Why were you there?” Gary questioned skeptically, with a glare at Lily.
She gave him a look, that clearly belittled him. “We were visiting our friends in the hospital wing,” she replied in a normal voice, determined to show him that he didn’t affect her.
“What twit gets themselves in the hospital wing on the first day?” he demanded.
“Keep that up, and you’ll find out for yourself,” James threatened. Being notorious for his hexing abilities (no one forgot the Snape underwear incident), Gary made the wise decision of shutting up, instead of seeing if James would follow through.
“As we were saying...” Lily began to describe the incident, images flashing in her mind’s eye. James added details every time she accidentally left something out. When they had finished, the whole room was silent for about two seconds before they all erupted into angry speech.
“Who would do that?”
“That’s sick.”
“Is the girl dead?”
“Do you know who did it?”
“What’s going to happen now?”
Questions were fired at James and Lily. No matter how much they tried to hush people, it didn’t work. Finally, Lily lost her temper and bellowed in a dangerous voice much like Professor McGonagall’s, “Be quiet! Now!” The effect was instantaneous, people stopped mid-sentence, with their mouths still hanging open.
“We don’t know who did it. Doubtless, there will be an investigation made, but with all the attacks going on right now, we don’t know how soon it could be. However,” Lily said sharply, for people had begun to talk again, “students are currently threatened, so I’m sure it will be as soon as possible.”
“For now, though, we want you guys on the alert. Pay attention to your surroundings, we can’t stress that enough. If you see someone walk off alone, go with them, especially if they are in a younger grade. As long as the attackers are at large, houses, grudges, enemies... anything you have against someone doesn’t matter. It could be someone’s life on the line.”
Lily tried to picture James following Snape to insure his protection and couldn’t imagine it. Though, she didn’t think Snape was in any real danger, being a pure-blood who hated anything Muggle and obsessed with the dark arts. No, Snape didn’t have anything to fear.
“Are they just after Muggle-borns?” Elise questioned.
Lily felt uncomfortably aware of everyone looking at her. Being a well known Muggle-born, they wanted to see her reaction. She wasn’t going to show fear though, before James could answer, she did. “It would seem so at the moment, but we can’t make that assumption.”
“Why don’t we just chuck those lot out of the castle?” Gary asked coldly, gesturing to the Slytherins. Had they been dogs, their hackles would have been up and their teeth bared, as it was the looked furious. Gary didn’t seem to be able to take a hint though, “It’s bound to be someone from their house.”
“Gary, is it?” James said cooly, but didn’t wait for an answer. “I thought that would be obvious. The attackers aren’t necessarily all from one house, they could be scattered through out. Also, as unlikely as it may be, these could be attacks from outside. Death Eaters sneaking in. It’s improbable, but these people obviously have a very thorough knowledge of the Dark Arts. It wouldn’t take much to slip in, attack, and then slip back out.”
He speaks with such power, Lily thought. She never considered the possibility of Death Eaters entering the school from the outside. Her imagination began to go into action, thinking of ways to break into Hogwarts. During the day though? How would they? She snapped back into reality when another question was asked.
“Do we really have to patrol? With all this going on?” A fifth year asked nervously.
“All patrols are in pairs. You have your wands,” James said, some people did not look very reassured at this though.
“We could get a panic device of some sort,” Lily suggested. “A charmed object that will alert a professor or the Headmaster. The only problem is, it must only be used when you are sure. If you’re constantly pressing it... if a real attack were to happen, no one may believe you.”
All around the room, people were showing agreement. Even, to Lily’s surprise, the Slytherins and (a little reluctantly) Gary.
“We can talk to Professor Dumbledore about that next week,” James said, taking a note of it. “Anything else?” When no one responded he said, “Alright then, see you on Sunday.” People began to file out, some stayed behind to talk to Lily and James though. One of them being a seventh year female Slytherin prefect named Annabella.
“I appreciate you putting that Gary in his place,” she said to them, a smile on her face. Lily was so shocked that a Slytherin was actually being human to her. Especially Annabella, who’d always seemed to hate her.
“Gladly,” James said. He too, looked a bit taken aback that someone from such a rival house was talking to him sensibly.
“You’ve always been nice to me,” she continued, speaking to Lily. “Even when I was so horrible to you on our patrol together last year.”
Lily remembered, she referred to it as the patrol from hell whenever it came up. Every time Annabella had addressed her, she’d called her ‘Mudblood’ or ‘filth’. She cast a trip jinx on Lily, although at the time she had ruled it off as clumsiness.
“I’m sorry,” Annabella said when Lily didn’t respond. “This summer... well, I’ve had my eyes opened. I no longer think like I used to.” There were tears forming in Annabella’s silvery eyes, and Lily’s heart went out to her.
“It’s a hard time for everyone,” she said sympathetically, reaching out hesitantly to Annabella, afraid of rejection. Annabella, however, embraced Lily in a quick hug and wiped at her eyes.
“Well, I’d better be off,” she said, hurriedly, going red in the face. “I feel so embarrassed,” she cried suddenly, catching Lily and James off guard.
“It’s okay,” Lily said in a soothing voice, “you don’t have to be embarrassed. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, no, I’ll be on for hours and you don’t have that kind of time. No... no...” and she swept out of the room before James or Lily could stop her. They stared at each other for a few moments, amazed at what had just occurred, and unaware that they were the only ones left.
“You know we’re in desperate times when Slytherins start reaching out to Gryffindors,” James said quietly in a sad voice.
“What’s the world coming to?” Lily asked, and she began to shake.