Good is an Illusion by AFootyFan
Chapter Notes: This chapter's longer, and a bit more happens. I'm hoping to stay off the topic of slinking cats for awhile, so, rest assured, there aren't any this time. I apologize in advance for the ending. Enjoy, and please review!
Lily awoke to the beeping of her over-excited Waker. Grasping her wand, eyes wide and breathing heavy from the unexpected noise, she silenced the creature. Only in bad times would Lily resort to summoning a Waker, because she was always punctual, always able to depend on her biological clock to rouse her. She had lost this trust when, one dizzy and hectic morning about a month ago, she had slept nearly until noon on a work day. Lily was now losing more and more sleep with every passing night, due to the ever growing work load that she took home with her.
She dismissed the Waker, which saluted her and vanished in a cloud of lavender scented smoke. A tiny scorch mark appeared where the being had been moments before, curving into the numbers “5:30”. She rubbed her eyes and cursed harshly under her breath as she caught sight of the fading numbers. Lily had set the Waker to four thirty, she had been certain to! There was no time to call the Waker back and confront it. She raced to her cabinet, pulling on random pieces of clothing, not caring (or knowing, in the dim light of her room) if they at all matched.
Hurrying past the petite kitchen to the door, she grimaced as the pains of hunger set in. Now she wished that she hadn’t skipped dinner the previous night, as well.
Once outside in the dusty hall, she looked right and left for any sign of a lurking Muggle, and Apparated to the Ministry. When she had first moved into the apartment, she had thought it a good idea to secure the place with Anti-Apparition spells, but now she knew them to be just a waste of time.
Her feet hit the hard marble floor of the Ministry atrium, and she sighed in relief. She wasn’t going to be late…
"Going to a funeral, Evans?” Lily didn’t have to face the voice to know who had spoken. A tall, handsome, and infuriating Elliot Adams stood before her, smirking as her eyed her clothing. She took a good look at her clothes for the first time since throwing them on in a frenzy only a few seconds before. Somehow, in the fleeting moments in her bedroom, she’d managed to pick out all black.
She met Adams’ eyes, smiling coldly. “Well, since you’re just begging for your own, I might oblige,” she informed him. He looked taken aback, and for good reason. Lily Evans was the quiet, good-natured girl who never blew up at anyone like that. She tilted her head, the smile now gone and replaced with a stony glare. “Not that I’d plan to attend,” and with that, she swept past him to the golden lift, a pit of guilt slowly forming in her stomach. He’d only been joking…
Perhaps it was the loss of sleep; perhaps it was her isolation from pretty much everyone around her, but Lily felt the lack of something essential draining her steadily, driving her insane. Why couldn't she just smile and nod at people? Why did she feel she had to ignore them all?
The button to her floor (the second: “Department of Magical Law Enforcement”) had already been pushed, and she cast her eyes around curiously to the other occupants of the lift.
She spotted the tall, dark-skinned man in the corner at once. “Morning, Kingsley,” he looked up from the memo he was reading and grinned. She doubted he had even noticed her attire, so perhaps it wasn’t so obvious after all. She waited patiently and witches and wizards got on and off the lift, until they had finally reached the second floor. Kingsley followed her off and they made their way to the Auror headquarters. They emmerged into a sea of cubicles and chatting witches and wizards. Lily let out her breath and found her own five square feet of the massive room. Three deposited letters and an owl awaited her on her desk. Upon her approach, the owl dropped its parcel and swooped into the air. A package? With an owl given orders not to leave it until she arrived? Lily eagerly ripped the brown packaging off the parcel. This could be her big break from the endless piles of paperwork- a field assignment!
A bundle of white clothing was revealed and Lily searched the fabrics desperately for a note. She found it tucked up a sleeve of the blouse.
“From Elliot. Not dead yet, Evans,” it read. Her excitement drained and she crumpled the tiny paper and threw it to the paper bin. As for the clothes, well, she had yet to decide how to destroy them. She pushed them to the side of her desk and began to read the memos, trying to think of anything but Adams.
The topmost was an official reminder that all Group B Aurors were to attend a training class the following night at eight o’clock. Lily placed it in the bin; she had already planned her evening around the class.
Next, she found the usual updates, consisting today of newspaper clippings and a few new photos. She scanned the pile quickly, and, finding nothing needing immediate action, pushed it to the side.
The last memo turned out to be a scrawled note from Alice Heart. Lily bit her lip, wondering if she should read it.
Alice was one of the sweetest people Lily had ever met. She was a beautiful, petite, with a friendly, rounded face and sparkling brown eyes. At Hogwarts, Alice had graduated two years ahead of Lily, so they had never really met until Lily had become an Auror. Now, Alice was one cubicle away and kinder than everyone else in Group B combined. These reasons were what caused Lily to hesitate. She did her best not to socialize with people at work, Alice especially. Lily had done everything but right out lie to Alice that she didn’t want to be friends, but Alice persevered. When Lily was silent, Alice would provide the conversation. Never had Lily met someone who tried so hard to keep others happy.
Lily desperately needed friends, she knew it, but, all the while, she didn’t want to endanger Alice… Before she could change her mind and burn the letter, Lily scanned the couple of words written in Alice’s untidy font.
"Lily- I heard about you and Adams this morning. Well done! Even he looked amused! See you in a few minutes? “Alice,” Lily read in her head. It didn’t really surprise her that Alice had already heard about the ‘encounter’ from a few minutes ago; news traveled very fast at the Ministry, which, in the time of an emergency, was what made the Ministry so efficient.
She smiled genuinely for the first time that day. Ignoring her previous rationalization, Lily came to a very important conclusion. Friendship was worth all of its risks. She was tired of cold-shouldering everyone, of detaching herself from every glimpse of a possible friendship. There was nothing she could do to bring her parents back- she would have to face that sooner or later. She chose sooner. Lily stood up, making her way determinedly to Alice Heart’s cubicle.
~
James could feel himself slipping slowly out of consciousness. No one could blame the poor fellow really, because he had gotten about two hours of sleep last night. An irksome cough was sounding from somewhere above him, growing more insistent with every passing minute. Whatever it was would have to wait; James awoke for no man...
All of a sudden, a burst of noise ripped through his relaxed ears. His head shot up off the desk, and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Woken up, have you?” Sirius stood leaning against the side of James’ cubicle, examining his nails with a bored expression. “Been here about fifteen minutes without you noticing… So I thought I might, you know, let my presence be known.” He fingered the thick volume on James’ desk that he had no doubt dropped to cause the noise.
James yawned. “Was wondering when you couldn’t take being ignored any longer….” Sirius grinned and grabbed James’ cheek, shaking it like grandparents always do. He then sat on the corner of James’ desk, crossing his legs suggestively so they rubbed against James’.
“So James, how are things?” He had put on a breathy low voice, batting his eyelashes.
“Sorry Sirius, I’d answer if I could hear you, but something appears to be wrong with my ears, can’t think what, though,” Sirius jumped off the desk, picking up the large book and using his thumb and pinkey to make the ‘call me’ gesture, blowing James a kiss.
After he and Sirius had ‘dueled’ last night, they and half of Group A had gone out for a late dinner. By the time he had crawled in to bed, his clock had read that it was half-past-three.
For the first time that day, James caught sight of a note that had been dropped on his desk:
“Let’s all follow Lily’s lead and wear black… It is, after all, Elliot’s funeral,” it said.
James eyed the name Lily. If only, he thought. This was just a Group B inside joke, given to him by accident. He binned it, and jumped as, for the second time that morning, a loud noise caught him off-guard.
“Oi, Prongs!”
“Yep, there goes the other ear. Swell job Sirius. I’m permanently deaf n”,”
“Did you get the note? About Lily and Elliot’s funeral?!?” Sirius was brandishing his copy of the memo in James’ face.
“Yeah, w”?”
“You do realize who ‘Lily’ is, don’t you?!?” Sirius was panting now. James looked at him, his brow furrowed.
“What are you”?”
“Lily EVANS!” He whispered harshly, tearing into the cubicle and shaking James violently by the shoulders. James went rigid, and Sirius stopped, stepping back and peering into his friend’s stunned face.
“Wait…” James said slowly, concentrating all his energies on processing what Sirius had said. A huge bubble was steadily rising in his chest. “Lily EVANS?!? Works here?” His hand flew to his hair for the first time since he had actually seen her. Sirius was saying something else, but James didn’t care anymore. He had to find her!
“She could be anywhere, Sirius! Where do I look?” he asked frantically, cutting his friend off. Sirius gave him an exasperated look.
“That’s what I’ve just been telling you, mate! She works in Group B somewhere,” he explained again. James’ eyes widened. GROUP B?!? She’s been across the room and he never knew?!? It didn’t matter. Time was of the essence, she was somewhere in this very room…
He did his very best not to sprint to the right side of the large room, but who was he kidding? Heads turned as he speed-walked across the split between the cubicles that signified the end of Group A and the start of Group B.
Now that he was there, James had no idea where to start. He veered right, picking his way through the cubicles and searching for any flash of red among the browns, blacks and the occasional blonde. Could she really be here? Was this all part of a sick joke Sirius was pulling on him?
A familiar face caught his eye. It was Frank Longbottom, an old friend of James’s that had been a year ahead of him at Hogwarts. “Hello Frank,” he said, ceasing his movements to look for Lily.
Frank smiled. “Decided to descend a letter in the alphabet?" he chuckled weakly at his own joke. "What’s up?”
“I’m looking for someone. Do you know a Lily Evans?” Frank’s face lit up.
“Doesn’t everyone? She’s in row H, cubicle # 16. Tell her I think what she said to Adams was brilliant, won’t you?” James nodded and set off for the coordinates Frank had given. H, 16… H, 16… He repeated the letter and number of her cubicle over and over, memorizing the rhythmic beat it made. The sign above him said he has currently in row M. He found his way to the narrow corridor that ran between each set of two cubicles and turned left. Never had he fully realized just how many cubicles there were in this place.
Lily was in one of them. James sped up, ignoring heads poking out over the low walls and glaring. He was going to see Lily Evans, the love of his life…
He tripped.
(A/N: I felt like I had to somehow spoil that moment, sorry if it’s completely ruined for you now… Ignore it if you want.)