Chapter 3: Going to Visit His Mum
Lily and Charlie did eventually change the boys’ features back to their original state.
Lily was finding herself really very surprised at how friendly the boys could be when they weren’t performing their foolish antics. Sirius had started making sexual innuendos towards her, but everyone knew he was joking.
Wednesday night found Lily, Charlie, and the Marauders sitting at a round table in the common room just after dinner doing the Herbology homework due the next day. Just as they were going over the history of how Redwood trees came to grow as tall as they did (an engorgement charm out of control), Remus abruptly stood. Lily had noticed he’d been looking worse for the wear.
“I have to go,” he informed them. “See you later.”
But, as usual, Lily wanted to know why. “Where are you going?” she asked as he walked to the portrait hole.
Turning around, Remus glanced urgently out the window. “To… To visit my mum. She’s really sick and Dumbledore’s letting me go see her.”
Yeah, right, Lily thought. She was no moron. But, deciding to stay out of his business, she gave him the benefit of the doubt. She nodded her head slowly with her eyes narrowed, trying to let him know she didn’t believe him at all. Remus seemed to not take the hint though, because he scrambled from the common room.
Sighing as she turned back to her homework, Lily wondered if his friends could explain. She leaned forward and asked in a hushed voice, “So what is he really doing? Is he meeting a girl and doesn’t want me to get him in trouble? He couldn’t have honestly thought I would buy that lame ‘visiting my sick mother’ alibi.”
Sirius and James’ faces held a firm reserve, but Peter’s left eye started to twitch. None of them looked up from their books. Charlie had taken up interest and had leaned forward, too, her chocolate brown eyes darting from James to Sirius expectantly.
“What do you mean? Of course he’s going to visit his mum, what else?” Sirius said impassively.
“Dung. Why are you lying to us?” Charlie demanded quietly. “If this whole friendship thing is going to work out, we can’t be so secretive.”
“Who said anything about lying? Seriously, he’s going to visit his mum,” James insisted, burying his face in his book.
As Lily was preparing to retort, she caught sight of something out of the window next to their table. Someone was walking toward the Whomping Willow. Squinting, trying to see who it was through the darkness, she could make out a white matron’s uniform. But what would Madam Pomfrey be doing by the violent tree this late at night? Something wasn’t right with this picture.
“Erm… I’m going to go take a shower and head to bed,” Lily lied as she shut her book and shoved her notes into her schoolbag. She was going to get to the bottom of this. Charlie grunted, still scrutinizing the boys that were desperately avoiding eye contact.
Quickly dropping her bag off in her dormitory and grabbing her cloak, Lily made sure no one had seen her slip out of Gryffindor Tower. Jogging down the many staircases to the Entrance Hall, she was trying to be as deft as possible. She threw open the doors, covering the ground within ten feet in yellow light. When the doors shut though, Lily had to blink a few times to get her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She ran in the direction of the Whomping Willow.
When she had reached the tree, realization hit her. How in the world was she supposed to get past the defensive branches? Should she throw something at it? No, that would only infuriate it. She groped around in the pockets of her robes. Damn, she had forgotten to bring her wand in her haste to solve the mystery.
Just then, Lily heard rushed footsteps coming from the depths of the tree. Searching her surroundings wildly for something that would hide her so she wouldn’t get caught, she dove behind a nearby bush. Peeking through the frazzled twigs, she saw the Madam Pomfrey emerge from within the tree. But before she had fully emerged, she poked a root on the tree. It froze.
Lily was amazed that that’s all one had to do to make the tree come to a halt. She watched Madam Pomfrey climb out and bustle back up to the school. Not wanting to waste her chance, Lily darted from the bush over to the tree.
“Where --?” she asked herself as she looked for the passage the nurse had used to get into and out of the Whomping Willow. She was starting to panic that the tree would come back to life when she spotted a hole off to the side. She jumped in.
A rough dirt floor was her landing cushion. As Lily made to stand up, she bumped her head on the ceiling of the tunnel. It was dark and she couldn’t see the end of it. The logical part of her mind was telling her to go back, that it wasn’t safe, but the more curious, adventurous half was saying she should finish out her trek. Not one to pass up a good mystery, Lily gave in to the venturesome side.
The tunnel went on and on, but soon she could see thin lines of light from above and looked up. There was trap door. She pushed it open and pulled herself up. Upon entering a room, her nervousness increased ten-fold. Wooden chairs had chunks ripped out of them and the lone couch was slashed into sheds, stuffing coming out. The rotten floor had claw marks scratched into its surface and the windows were boarded up. Lily registered the fact that she was inside the Shrieking Shack. But as she scanned the room once more, she couldn’t help but think, Ghosts couldn’t do that.
Creak…
Ghosts couldn’t do that either.
Lily’s eyes doubled in size as she comprehended that something on the floor above had moved. In fact, if she listened closely, she could here a very low growl coming from way up yonder, also. Instinct kicked in and screamed for her to get out of there. She didn’t need further chiding to pay heed to sense.
As silently but quickly as she could, Lily slipped down through the trap door, failing to remember to close it, and retraced the path she had taken in the tunnel with fast-paced footsteps.
After a while though, the hair on the back of her neck tingled and an eerie shiver made its way down her spine as Lily’s intuition warned that she was not alone. This caused her to break into a run.
When she reached the end of the tunnel, she swore she could hear the Hallelujah chorus singing in the distance. Pulling herself out of the gap between roots, Lily ducked just in time to avoid a branch that had swung at her. The Whomping Willow had returned to its fierce state. Trying to figure out which root to prod, Lily’s ears pricked up and she felt her stomach take a low, burning dip into her abdomen as she heard an unmistakable gnarl behind her. Slowly turning her head around, a full-grown werewolf made its way into her line of vision.
She twisted back around hastily and started pounding on roots, her breathing rate frantically increased. Luckily, it didn’t take long for her fist to find the right root. The branches ceased their harsh slashes in the air and Lily bolted out of the tunnel entrance. She heard the werewolf follow her as she started sprinting for the castle.
All of a sudden she tripped and landed on her back on the ground. Just as she was picking herself up, the werewolf pounced and landed on top of her. It was skin and bones with hair sticking out of its flesh. Its lip was curled over large, sharp teeth. The claws attached to its paws were drawing vast amounts of blood from Lily’s shoulders as they dug into her, holding her down.
The werewolf cocked its head up and let out a long, high howl at the bright full moon shining down upon them. Just as it seemed like it was about to bite her, Lily gasped as a black blur leapt over her and onto the werewolf. The two beasts started brawling, rolling around on the dead grass and Lily saw that the black thing was actually a big, shaggy dog.
Unexpectedly, she felt something gently nudge her in the side. Turning her head, she came face to face with a stag, and a gorgeous one at that. It had hazel eyes and a slick coat of light brown fur. It nudged her again with a meaningful glance at the dog and werewolf. Lily slowly started to hoist herself up and sharply took a breath while squeezing her eyes shut at the almost unbearable pain in her shoulders.
When she was finally standing and about to make a break for the castle, something very heavy was thrown into her, forcefully smashing her back onto the ground. She screamed as a searing pain shot up her arm when a bone in her wrist split apart. The breath was getting knocked out of her over and over again by being pushed numerous times into the ground. On a very strong push, she felt a rib break as she was thrust into the dirt. Lily’s mind eventually realized that somehow the squabble between the dog and the werewolf had set itself atop her.
In a split second, Lily cried out in pain as something very sharp sliced her side. A moment later, the stag’s antlers flung the dog and werewolf off of her. The dog composed itself from the blow and aided the stag as they chased the werewolf into the Forbidden Forest.
Lily was clutching her side as blood oozed through her fingers. Tears of utmost agony spilling from her eyes, she gradually turned over onto her stomach and tried to crawl to the stairs that led into the school.
But only after a few steps, Lily collapsed to the ground. The gash in her side was bleeding too rapidly, and she was weakening. Flipping over onto her back, she could distantly hear footfalls coming closer. As the corners of her eyes faded into darkness, a voice that shook with fear and sounded miles away rang in her ears.
“Lily… Lily, can you hear me?”
Another voice, sounding worried and panting slightly, joined it, “Do you think that’s a bite from Moony or me?”
“I can’t tell. They both look so much alike. Lily, hold on, we’re taking you to the hospital.”
Lily went numb.