Long Lost
DISCLAIMER: I most unfortunately do not own Harry Potter, its plot or any of its character's. All belongs to the wonderful J K Rowlings!
Chapter 1
Crack.
The tiny snap of a twig was heard as a young girl stood up in frustration. The wind tussled her red locks which she didn't bother to push back out of her face.
Kneeling down she picked up her book bag and made to leave. She took one final look at the scenery and smiled. The place wasn't grand, even for a nature strip; the grass was uneven and in need of a trim, the trees had broken branches hanging off them and leaves which were either dried out and brown, or half eaten by bugs.
But Lily Evans liked it; this place was the closest thing she had to home in this over the top, grand flashy school.
Lily felt a light water drop hit her face and looked up, the day had turned overcast. She began to raise her book bag to shield her from the rain, but then changed her mind. Shrugging, she slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way back to the castle at a slow content pace. As she neared Hogwarts she ignored the orderly flowers and perfectly trimmed grass that surrounded the school.
It was just too perfect.
Everything about Hogwarts was; everything from the food, to the classes to the students. It was all perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect.
How boring. Lily thought disdainfully as she trampled by the gardens and trudged through the mud.
By the time she made it through one of the many entrances to Hogwarts she was entirely drenched through and consequently shivering. Naturally she was regretting her decision to walk(march) through the rain.
Bloody flowers, just had to distract me long enough to get soaked. Huffing in annoyance, Lily sped down a corridor and only stopped once she had reached the end, before turning to walk down the next, she looked back to admire the trail of mud she had left behind her. Nodding, satisfied, she plucked out her wand from the pocket of her robes and performed a quick drying charm over herself.
Lily grinned as she imagined what majority of her class mates reactions would be to seeing a bit of dirty water on the floor. No worse than their usual reaction to me probably.
Suddenly realizing how much time she had wasted Lily began to run in the hopes of getting to her next class in time. Sprinting up two flights of stairs and skidding around a corner, she made it to the door of her transfiguration class within minutes.
One hand on the doorknob she paused and braced herself before turning it. Trying her best to be discreet Lily silently slipped into the class and closed the door with a click behind her. Looking around she was relieved to see, no one -none less professor McGonagoll- had noticed her.
Quiet as a mouse, she started to make her way over to where her best and only friend, Rebecca Brandee, sat.
With a startled squeak Lily found herself sprawled on the ground. Twisting around she found the corner of her cloak caught in the doorway.
Trying to reattain some dignity, Lily quickly jumped up and pulled her cloak out from the doorway.
So much for being discreet.
Face burning with embarrassment, Lily turned around and met the beedy eyed glare of professor McGonagoll.
"Nothing, I repeat nothing gives a student the right to come late to my class. Ten points from Gryffindor and I'll be seeing you at 8 sharp for a detention. Are we clear?" she asked sharply.
"Yes professor" Lily muttered, not daring to argue.
Professor McGonagoll resumed her lecture, so Lily assumed it was safe to take a seat. Plopping down next to Rebecca, Lily tossed down her books and groaned; she didn't have the time for a detention, she needed to study for her charms test.
Rebecca caught her best friend's eye and 'absentmindedly' twirled a strand of hair on her finger. Catching the hint Lily mouthed back "that bad?" and only received a grin in answer. Lily casually took a hair tie from around her wrist and did up her messy red locks into a simple bun.
Rebecca watched on in amusement and disbelief at her friend's lack of need for a mirror and had to choke back a laugh as a leaf fell to the desk, while she tried to tie up the mess that she called hair.
The two friends listened to McGonagoll's lecture on the importance of NEWT's for a while longer before getting bored and resigning themselves for a game of tick-tack-toe (a muggle game Lily had taught Rebecca.)
Lily was about to win her fourth match in a row when the door suddenly slammed open and ricocheted back off the wall, revealing a bored looking Sirius Black.
Sirius casually walked into the classroom and sat at the back of the room with his friends as if nothing had happened.
Lily spun around and watched professor McGonagoll, she processed how the professor's lips thinned and how her eyes narrowed. But still, hardly surprisingly, aside from throwing Sirius a stern look the professor did and said nothing, and returned to her lecture.
Grounding her teeth Lily put her final cross in the centre of the page and muttered "I win."
Rebecca first stared at the page her friend had pierced her quill so deeply in that it tore and then cautiously moved her gaze up to the friend in question, she took in her ferocious expression and cringed. She didn't want Lily doing anything stupid.
"Lils?" she whispered.
"She said nothing!" Lily hissed under her breath.
"I know Lily, but it's not like we can do anything about it! And complaining does us no good." Rebecca swiftly looked around hoping no one was eavesdropping.
Lily muttered something unintelligible under her breath as her thoughts were a snide of insults and complaints. Hadn't McGonagoll just said that nothing gave the student the right to come late to her class? Lily let out a snort, obviously that rule didn't apply to the 'marauders.'
The marauder's consisted of four boys who so cockily believed they were better than everyone else just because their parents were rich.
So what? Everyone at Hogwart's was rich, aside from Lily that is. In fact the school was so determined to gain a reputation for being an all elite college, they didn't even offer scholarships!
Lily had only gotten in because her parents were so determined towards seeing their only child succeed that they payed practically every cent they made towards her school fees every year.
Unable to dissuade her parents about making her attend Hogwarts, Lily got a part-time weekend job at Hogsmead so her family's bills and rent could get paid somehow.
In the beginning Lily was worried about having no time to work, but then she remembered the marauder's had a great amount of influence over Hogwart's due to their parent's sponsorship of the school and they always insisted on Hogsmead trips.
Obviously looking for an excuse to show off and spend more money in one trip then I would make in a year! Lily thought angrily, suppressing the urge to turn around and glare at the four ungrateful brats.
Lily felt someone kick her chair and turned around to meet Rebecca's nervous gaze. Lily realized that she had been glaring and quite openly so.
Looking around Lily desperately hoped no one had seen her obvious objection and disgust towards the marauder's, she didn't fancy becoming even more of a social outcast then she already was.
After a quick survey of the room she was relieved to see no one was looking her way. For the rest of the lesson Lily and Rebecca both remained silent, pretending to listen to McGonogall's lecture.
James Potter yawned as he walked through the door to transfiguration with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew on his heels; he briefly cast an uncaring eye around the class and noted by the lack of students that they were early.
An unusual occurrence. But this was transfiguration, the one subject James actually took some genuine interest in. He knew the professor would pass him in the subject, whether he deserved to pass or not, but still, he actually payed attention in transfiguration, so he felt he deserved those grades.
James, Peter and Remus took their usual seats at the back of the room and waited for the class to start. One by one students started filing in until eventually the class was almost entirely full.
"Good evening class" professor McGonogall said once everyone was seated.
"Today we will be beginning the theory of partial human transfiguration. You are now one week into your seventh year, if you think that we're going to be wasting time playing introductory games you are sadly mistaken. This year is your final year at the end of which you will be undertaking your NEWTs, nastily exhausting wizarding tests."
The entire class gave an internal grown as soon as the professor mentioned NEWTs. They had gotten the same repetitive lecture at least 20 times already. Each professor seemed to find the need to repeat the same boring NEWT lecture at least 5 times.
James zoned out of the next ten or so minutes of professor McGonogall's lecture. His eyes drifted around the room in boredom until finally resting on the door of the classroom where a figure caught his attention, she was a girl with jungle like red hair, a flushed face and dodo like wide eyes, who currently reminded James of a flamingo. He watched as the tackily dressed flamingo-girl, silently slipped into the classroom, casually closing the door on the hem of her cloak. The girl lifted her head and gave a quick scan of the room, apparently satisfied with her assessment she let out a muted sigh of relief.
James almost laughed knowing what was to come next and surely enough, a moment after the girl began to creep forward she let out a startled sound and fell flat on her face.
After that the girl had the audience of the entire class who were all laughing at her expense. Her beet red face really wasn't helping her much.
James almost laughed with them, but then held back, he wasn't raised to laugh with the crowd. So instead he settled for a disinterested frown and returned his attention to the front where professor McGonogall was angrily addressing the girl.
"Nothing, I repeat nothing gives a student the right to come late to my class. Ten points from Gryffindor and I'll be seeing you at 8 sharp for a detention. Are we clear?" she barked at the girl.
Great, the flamingo is in my house and she's losing points James thought in irritation, pondering over McGonogall's harshness to the flamingo-girl. It's not everyday teachers are too harsh on students from this school; they're too scared that they'll make influential enemies, or said enemies will find a way to get them sacked. Huh. So this girl mustn't be too wealthy then. James thought unsurprised, throwing a disgusted look at her filthy attire.
It was also very unsurprising that James did not know who this girl was. After six years he still didn't know half the girls in his year. He hardly deigned to speak to most people; he generally found them repetitive and boring.
James yawned and refocused his attention to the front of the class, wondering when his best mate, Sirius would show up, that's if he decided to show up.
"Are you finished with your dinner yet Lils?"
"Almost" Lily replied distractedly.
"Lily, you said the same thing 15 minutes ago! And you know I need to go to the library and study for that blasted DADA test!" Rebecca snapped.
"Did you just say DADA? Is it really that hard to say defence against the dark arts!?" Lily asked, smirking.
"Don't change the subject Lily, just hurry up and eat." Rebecca snapped back, glaring.
"Alright, alright but treacle tart is not something that should be rushed! The elves haven't served this dish of delectable goodness in ages!" Lily whined.
"3 days" Rebecca interjected. Lily didn't appear to hear her as she helped herself to a third serving of treacle tart.
"And besides," Rebecca continued, "I thought you were all about hunger strikes and whatnot on behalf of house elf rights."
"Who's changing the subject now?" Lily grumbled through a mouthful of tart.
"I'm just saying… I mean you do realize that slave labour went into that tart don't you?" Rebecca said, pressing the point. She was enjoying the opportunity to use Lily's words against her.
"Treacle tarts are NOT made through slave labour! They're made with love and affection. And I'm finished!" Lily declared springing up.
"Finally" Rebecca muttered.
"You know Bec, for a girl who claims to hate studying so much; you sure don't waste too much time procrastinating." Lily observed.
"Lily." Rebecca sighed, uncharacteristically serious, "This year isn't like last year, or the year before. It's time I got serious about my grades; the marks I get now will be what determine my future."
"Your future?" Lily echoed back in shock, this wasn't your typical Rebecca Brandee speech.
"Yes Lils, school is only one small step of the life long journey." She informed her philosophically.
"well yeah, but wasn't it you who always said that school didn't matter? Not for the rich anyway, that it was a mere part of the rich people cycle, an opportunity to play the field. And after that you just marry the person your parents deem suitable(wealthy) enough, so that you can both live happily ever after off your family fortune." Lily reminded her, shrugging.
"You forgot the part about maintaining the family fortune, but yes that is the general idea." Rebecca said rolling her eyes, aware that Lily loved any opportunity to imply that rich people were lazy mules that did nothing.
"Which brings me back to what I was getting at, I don't want to be a part of some endless cycle; I want to really be someone, my own person. I mean I know that last year, I was always saying that I wanted nothing more than fun out of life. But realistically, it's time to grow up. There's a war coming, I can feel it and I know you can too. How long do you think the wealthy will remain up top for? We're the ones 'you know who' is currently targeting, as we can provide him with more power and influence. Some of us will join him, others won't. And for those of us that won't join him, what do you think will happen to our power and influence? It all depends on how strong he is. And I will never join him and his medi-evil cult, so I'm bracing myself for a fall. But if I fall, I plan to leave my imprint on as many people as I can." Rebecca rushed this little speech all out in one breath; she appeared to have been holding these thoughts in for quite some time.
Lily stared at her best friend, amazed. It's not that she didn't agree with her, she just didn't expect Rebecca to have come to such a mature decisive decision like that so suddenly.
Feeling it was her duty as a best friend to lighten the mood, Lily suddenly grinned and raised her eye brows eagerly, "Well, you said you wanted to be someone… who'd you have in mind?" she asked with an evil grin.
"No way! We DO NOT have time for polyjuice potion! Not today anyway.." Rebecca said amused, before returning to her serious mood. "But to answer your question honestly, I want to be the minister, the minister for magic." Rebecca said the last sentence in a tone which might have uncharacteristically past as nervous. Which was really saying something, as Rebecca almost never got nervous.
Lily opened her mouth to begin her polyjuice potion argument, only to snap it shut a moment later when what her best friend had said finally registered.
"Are you serious? The minister for magic!?" Lily cried out.
"Yes." Rebecca replied, irritated at her friend's lack of support.
"Wow" breathed Lily "you sure are ambitious." She said studying her friend closely; she knew that Rebecca would fight for whatever she wanted once she was certain of what she wanted. Lily just wasn't sure if Rebecca was certain of what she wanted, war could influence people momentarily to want to fight, Lily just wondered if fighting ever got tiring, if eventually fighting makes people lose their will to fight at all. If they lose their passion and stop caring and start sitting back and waiting for the world to change, rather than fighting to change it yourself. Lily hoped Rebecca had it in her to fight for what she wanted, or there would be a lot of disappointment in her future.
"I guess only time can tell," She said quietly, before brightening up and continuing in a cheery tone, "Well we know one thing for sure, you and I won't be getting too far in politics if we don't get straight O's. So I suggest we get down to the library right this instant, the way I hear it, DADA essays don't write themselves."
"You and I won't get far in politics? And did you just say DADA, little miss queen of hypocrisy?" Rebecca inquired, as the two walked down a staircase.
Lily chose to ignore the second question and instead addressed the first. "Well I've given it a second of thought and have decided that politics can be a great way to get my views heard. Did you know that minster's hardly ever come up with their own ideas, in fact they have advisers and parties who come up with things for them and people who even right their speeches! So I've decided to become your future secretary, adviser and speech writer." Lily informed Rebecca with sudden humour. "You can be the face of my brilliant ideas, I don't mind, really; your face has always been more attractive than mine."
"Tell me something I don't already know. But all humour aside, are you serious about writing my speeches Lils? Coz I could do with an editor, editing MY ideas."
"Well duh, how else am I going to find the time to hang out with the all busy-and-important minister for magic? Besides I genuinely believe that MY ideas and ideals could do the magic world a lot of good." Lily replied as she and Rebecca turned down the corridor that led to the library.
"Oh I finally see where you're going with this Lils! You're going to get me to announce that all wizards are to sack their house elves aren't you?" Lily's sheepish expression was answer enough.
"Jeez Lils," Rebecca said rolling her eyes, "You know I want to be one of those ministers people actually like and respect, like crouch. I mean wizards AND house-elves' will hate me for a law like that."
Rebecca laughed at Lily's crestfallen expression, but then in an attempt to lift her spirits reminded her that things can always change in the future. "You never know what tomorrow holds."
"But for now, the only advice you will be giving is whether I should wear a blue, purple, green or black dress to the Halloween ball."
"The Halloween ball? But that's ages away! I mean the school year only started a week ago!" Lily exclaimed.
"Lily Halloween Is next month!" Rebecca said in shock.
"On the last day of the month, so it's practically two months away." Lily said unconcerned.
Rebecca merely rolled her eyes, "Still I can't decide whether I'm going to wear blue, purp-"
Rebecca was cut off by a snide, nasty laugh, just as she opened the door to the library.
A group of girls had chosen the same moment to prance out and push past Lily and Rebecca.
They spun around to see that the group had been none other than Betty Jeacle and Petunia Eves, followed by their horde of brainless minions.
Petunia seemed to be in the midst of retelling some 'hilarious' story.
It was so funny that she was the first person to laugh and it took a few seconds for her minions to join in, once it had occurred to them that they were supposed to be laughing.
Lily and Rebecca waited until the last of the group had rounded the corner, before exchanging equally disgusted looks. They then silently entered the library and made their way towards the back where they plunked themselves down between two quiet abandoned bookcases.
"I wonder what was soooo funny." Rebecca snorted under her breath, "I mean really, the herd of sheep sure seemed hysterical."
Lily laughed aloud at this, before remembering she was supposed to be quiet in the library.
"I will seriously never understand peoples obsession with Petunia, it's only because her parents own a fortune, because there is NO way anyone would be drawn to her personality." Lily said quietly, grimacing at the possibility of that.
"You said it sister," Rebecca said, nodding her head in agreement. "Let's not forget though, people are also very fascinated with her all-so-tragic family history, she really loves to lay that story on thick doesn't she?"
Lily and Rebecca had both heard Petunia's story more times than either of them cared to hear it.
"Oh that's right, Petunia and her long lost twin sister Lillian," Lily said in a sarcastically tragic voice.
Admittedly, the first time Lily had heard the story, she did think it was a tragedy. However, after spending six years, six long years, with Petunia Eves, Lily felt almost no guilt whatsoever in admitting she was slightly glad that Petunia's twin was missing. I mean really Lily thought one Eves is bad enough.
Lily and Rebecca both took out their text books and quills.
"That's one damn lucky girl though," Rebecca said, "escaping a sister like that."
"Lucky people aren't related to hags Bec," Lily reminded her grinning.
"Oh yeah, good point. I wonder if she's also a hag," Rebecca mused.
"I guess we'll never know, it's odd though, that her family are still frantically searching the world for her. I heard that they recently brought in a girl from France who had a birthmark similar to hers, only to find out she was a fraud." Lily informed Rebecca.
"Another one then? That brings the fraud telly to 27 now." Rebecca said highly amused.
"Why would anyone bother to fake being Lillian Eves?" Lily asked baffled.
Rebecca rolled her eyes, "Oh I don't know, I mean I don't think it's because her family owns a fortune and Lillian was supposed to inherit half of that fortune. Nope I think it must be because they want Petunia for a sister, yep that's definitely the reason." Rebecca said, sarcasm heavily lacing her tone.
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wits Beccy." Lily said glowering.
"After your last comment I seriously doubt your knowledge on wits," Rebecca retorted, laughing.
"But still," Lily said, deciding to ignore the jibe, "I know that Lillian is their daughter, but isn't 15 years a bit of a long time to search for a girl you hardly knew? Especially since- and I don't mean to be harsh by this- the girl's probably dead. A kidnapped kid hardly ever goes to a loving home; I mean what loving family would kidnap a kid!? And we know she wasn't a run away, she was hardly old enough to walk, let alone take off her seat belt. Which also raises the question, why was she in a car- a muggle contraption- in the first place?" The more Lily thought about it the more the Eve's history didn't make sense.
Rebecca snorted and rolled her eyes for what seemed like the gazillionth time that day.
"Well I understand your questioning on the car, apparently Mrs Eves has a brother who's a squib and married to a muggle, who is clueless about magic, or something along those lines and they were visiting, and getting there by car, so as not to petrify the muggle."
"And what about why they won't let Lillian go, or even hold a funeral for her, for that matter?" Lily cut in.
"I was getting there, Lily have you ever heard of a family clock?"
Lily frowned and shook her head.
"It's something that most wizarding families like to have; rather then numbers the clock has a number of options ranging from safe, to home, to school, to work, to travelling, to mortal peril. And the hands of the clock- and there's usually more than two- each have the faces of a family member. The hand which is Lillian's has apparently been constantly moving over the years, it gone from school, to travelling to work! But according to the Eves her hand has never once pointed at the home option, not once, since the night she disappeared. That's how they caught their trickiest fraud- I think it was fraud number 11- it was all over the prophet at the time. You wouldn't have seen it; it was a couple of years before you knew you were a witch Lily." Rebecca said, submerged in memories.
"What happened?" Lily asked, irritated that she was curious about the family of the girl she despised.
"the fraud's parents were obviously after the wealth and status of the Eves, so they brought in their nine year old daughter and claimed her to be Lillian. They said that after the car crash everything was beserk, the streets were filled with crowds, and right around the corner of the crash, where there is conveniently enough, an orphanage, they found a baby girl sitting on the doorstep, whom they supposedly fell in love with at once. They brought her inside the adoption centre and legally adopted her. Then years later they heard about the girl who went missing after the car crash and realized that their daughter 'Jenny' who matched the physical description, could be the Eves 'Lillian.' And then-"
"Wait, there's a floor in that story," Lily interrupted, "how could they just adopt the baby like that? If the baby had apparently just been left there?"
"Because Lily, people leave babies on the doorsteps of orphanages all the time. This was the fraud's story: when they came in, the people working there weren't familiar with the baby and automatically assumed they were giving it up. But when the couple told them that the baby was left on the doorstep, they were pretty much given the girl without much paper work involved at all, I mean really, how much paper work could there be on a child no one knows anything about?" Rebecca asked rhetorically.
"So how did they almost fool the Eves?" Lily asked, entirely consumed in the story.
"They hired private investigators; you know how the Eves' always say they have a few ways to tell the real Lillian from a fraud?"
Lily simply nodded.
"You've heard about her supposedly unique birthmark right? Only they never told anyone where it was or what it looked like."
Another nod.
"Well the little fraud Jenny shows up claiming to be Lillian and the first thing they ask is if she has any birthmarks and of course she says yes. So the Eves' check where the birthmark is supposed to be and guess what? The girl has the mark!" Rebecca exclaimed.
"How?" Lily asked shocked, "How did Jenny get the birthmark? And how did her parents even know what it looked li-" Oh Lily's eyes suddenly widened in understanding.
"Of course! The private investigators." She said answering her own question.
"But that still doesn't explain how Jenny got an exact replica of the birthmark."
"I'd roll my eyes Lils, if I weren't worried about them falling out from excessive use." Rebecca grumbled.
"Magic Lily! How hard is it to make a convincing tattoo!? Especially with the aid of magic?"
"What about blood tests though? Not even magic can fake those!" Lily exclaimed triumphantly, earning a glare from Madam Pince. "You would think that's the first thing they would do; run a blood test."
"Oh they did," Rebecca replied. "The frauds' bribed the healer in charge of the results," she said grimly.
"Huh. Not bad. So you said that they found out jenny was a fraud because of the clock…" Lily prompted Rebecca to finish the story.
"That's right, all those years Lillian's hand moved to almost every option, except home. And everyone has a home, whether it's a house, a mansion, a hut, a kennel or even the streets. So the Eves assumed that the reason why Lillian's hand was never home was because she was never truly home, with them, her family, her real home." Rebecca gushed.
"It's kind of sweet actually, so you can imagine after all the evidence they were given that their daughter was finally home, the Eves confusion when the clocks hand was pointing to travelling." Rebecca said, causing Lily to laugh.
"Guess the frauds' didn't think of everything then, few frauds ever do." Lily stated in amusement.
Rebecca twirled a quill in her hand and concluded the story.
"So then they made little Jenny do another blood test, but got a trusted friend of the family to do it, in the end they were only half surprized when the test proclaimed the girl to be Jenny Hastings and not Lillian Eves."
Lily sighed, she felt sorry for the little girl, Jenny. Between her and her parents she was the fraud most known the one known by name and she probably suffered a lot of criticism because of what her parents had done. And really she was just an innocent little girl who was doing as her parents told her too, parents who claimed not to be her parents… poor girl.
Lily suddenly caught a glimpse of the clock hanging over Madame Pince's oversized desk and jumped up cursing aloud.
"What!?" Rebecca cried, irritated over her newly spilt ink.
"The time!" Lily groaned, "I was meant to meet professor McGonangoll for my detention 45 minutes ago!" Lily wailed out horrified.
Rebecca grimaced in sympathy for her best friend.
"Not off to a good start this year, are you Lils?" Rebecca asked stifling a laugh.
Lily didn't bother to answer as she scooped up her unopened Defence Against The Dark Arts text book into her bag, slung it over her shoulder and bolted for the door, ignoring Madame Pince's shouts of indignation over her running in a library, which followed her as she flew out the door and down the hall.
AN:
YAY! I finished my first chapter! If you're reading this and interested in continuing to read my story, then please! I need some input! In case you haven't realized there wasn't much marauder action in this chapter and that's because I have no idea how I want to write James, I just can't decide on his personality! So some advice would be much appreciated:) Also, chapter length? I was thinking about keeping my chapters about this length, but if readers would prefer longer or shorter chapters, now's the time to say something! And of course, shorter chaps mean sooner updates, longer means later… Anyway! I've already started chapter two! And have a lot of ideas for this story! If you have any don't feel shy to share!:)