Hello! I just thought I would let everyone know that I've decided to re-do the first few chapters as I don't think they gel well enough like I wanted them to :) Some things will be different like Lilian's first impression, as well as how others act towards her.
The shop was dark, dotted sparingly with candles that burned and flickered as their wicks grew too close to the melted wax that pooled at the bottoms. This was the third night in a week that the power had been cut off, probably due to the raging lightning storms that had been filling London's grey skies more often than not. A flash of white light lit up the corner of the store, adding to the warm glow of the flashlight that was balanced in Lilian's hand. Her unevenly chewed fingernails tapped restlessly on the wooden floor, creating a steady beat that matched to the tune playing in her head. She sat with her back pressed firmly to the cold wall, facing the old semi-glass door that served as the main entrance. The sign hanging from the mid-section was swung to say Open to the general public, not that anybody would come in now with the place currently lacking electricity. Lilian readjusted the flashlight in her grip, and balanced her book on her left knee so she could turn the page.
"Back again, Harry?" She read out, unable to help herself. Her voice was croaky from the hours spent inside the store with nobody to talk to. It was only after the clock hit five did she allow herself to step down from the cashier and give up on working completely. Tired eyes skimmed over the words, soaking them into her mind before going to the next page, "It does not do to dwell on dreams."
Another flash of light thundered outside, closer than before which disturbed her long enough to notice just how dark it was. Frowning, she placed the flashlight and book next to her on the dusty floor before rummaging through her bag. The feeling of cool metal in her palm was the only incentive she needed to pull out her phone to check the time.
"Fuck," Lilian breathed, "I'm late."
It didn't take long to lock up the store, mainly blowing out the dangerously used tealight candles that would need to be replaced soon. The doorknob was cold and sapped some of the warmth from her fingertips as she twisted it. The bite of outside made her flinch as the wind made desperate grabs at her throat and any other bare flesh it could find. Pulling up her hood, she squared her shoulders and locked the door, dropping the key down the front of her top so that it got caught in her bra. It was a crude way of keeping it safe, she knew, but there was space and who would suspect it?
The street was empty, save for the cats that insisted on giving her heart attacks every time she turned a corner. Thunder rumbled through the dark clouds, making her speed up slightly. It wasn't raining yet surprisingly, the weather deciding to just throw down lightning strikes instead of water. The electricity had been blown out for all of the remaining stores and shops in the general area, employees resorting to candles like her. The dark roads were lined with small, yellow lights. It would have made a rather good picture, Lilian mused, if it weren't for the ominous feeling that had managed to bleed into the ambiance. Another corner turned, she spotted the sign for the tube and hustled towards it.
The dark atmosphere still didn't leave when she scanned her card, the lack of people beginning to sink in. Usually there would be more than just one person in the whole station. It was a known fact in her group of friends and family that she didn't like the dark. Licking her lips, she wrapped an arm around herself for comfort. Her body shivered as a current of anxiety travelled through her veins, making her warily eye the area around her. The sound of metal rattling and scraping against itself reached her ears as the light from the tube spilled onto her form as it thundered passed her. Lilian waited for it to stop, before pressing the button and getting on. The eeriness hadn't melted from her completely as once again, there was nobody on the tube.
"Maybe, it's because of the storm?" She mused to herself nervously, taking a seat near the middle of the tube before it took off once more. Her stop was about two stops away, having promised to meet up with a friend at Charing Cross. The lights didn't begin to flicker until the first station. Sighing, Lilian dug around in her bag for the flashlight and was about to turn it on when it slipped from her grasp. She dived for it as it rolled and rattled, stopping in the middle of the carriage. Her fingers had barely made it around the grip when the tube was plunged into pure darkness.
"Oh god," Lilian felt the hair at the back of her neck stand up as well as the slight sheen of cold sweat that had broken out across her forehead. The comforting movement of going forward had halted, leaving her alone in the blackness, "Oh god no." The panic had seeped into her body now, making her limbs tremble as she went to switch her flashlight on. It made an audible fizzle and refused to work.
"No, no, no," She hissed under her breath, banging it against the metal flooring, "Please work, please work." She gave up after the fifth try, and tossed it aside hurriedly to try locate her phone in her bag. There was no service. A creak made her freeze, that familiar sweeping cold licked at her as she began hearing the ruffling of paper and the shuffle of shoes. Eyes wide, she gazed into the darkness to look for a figure. Her heart was in her throat, pounding loud and fearfully as the thought of someone walking up the tube to kill her popped into her mind. Pressing the back of her hand to her lips, she felt blindly behind her for the pole that usually was near the door. Whispers were making their way to her ears now, too soft to be recognisable yet too loud for her to be mistaken. The sounds were getting louder now, drowning out the whine that escaped her throat. Fingers wrapped tightly around the metal pole, she tried to drag herself up to her feet.
Lilian clenched her eyes closed, breathing in and out deeply to try calm the rising waves of terror to a manageable state. She could stay in dark spaces for the most part, as long as she knew there would be a way out of them eventually. Right now, she was stuck in the dark underground of London, with no service and a phone that refused to even turn on at this point. She could taste the bile at the back of her throat, burning into her tongue. There was static in the air now, prickling at her skin in a way that felt like sinking into water. It encased her, suffocated her, brought a new level of panic as she could feel herself on the verge of tears.
Lilian didn't know when it had happened, in fact looking back on it she never would. Like emerging from underwater, the noises exploded to life and swirled around her as a red tint soaked through her eyelids. The jostle of the tube was back and she was being shoved backwards as it moved. Snapping her eyes open, she expected to see the empty carriages.
"Are you alright, love?"
A yelp tore from her as she spun around to face a man. He was dressed in a suit, brown and speckled in colour like his hair. A grey handkerchief peeked from his chest pocket as he leaned down slightly to address her. Lilian felt her mouth dry up as she glanced around, doing a full circle to survey her environment. Eyes were glued to her form, some wide from what she could only ascertain as shock, and others in fear as their hosts angled themselves as far from her as they could.
People. There were people.
She watched with baited breath as shoes shuffled, and newspaper pages were turned. A numbing calmness stretched over then, smothering the hysteria that was bubbling to the surface. Her sight flickered back to the man currently staring at her like she was some form of wild bird. His hand was outstretched to take hers, almost like he was luring her into conversation with him. She probably would have taken his offer if she didn't catch the flash of a camera going off from next to him. Recoiling, she took a step back.
"Don't mind him, we just want a quick word," He tried to amend, eating up the distance she had tried to put between them, "That was quite a publicity stunt you pulled just there, I'm impressed."
"What?" Lilian could feel the tube door button pressing into her back as she held her hands up in an effort for some more space. There was something in his glint that looked malicious with a hidden intent.
"Come now girly, no need to be so afr-"
The tube came to a stop then and without thinking she spun and violently slammed her palm on the button, and ran onto the station platform, pushing through the throngs of people that were itching to get on the carriage. She heard the man shout again, something about an interview, before she broke into a sprint up the stairs. Nobody seemed too bothered by her haste, all moving subtly out of her way in the typical British manner. The first thing she noticed when she burst into the late-night air was the lack of thunder or lightning that had become so common in London. The people bustling behind her funnelled to her left and right, tutting. Finding it within herself to flush, Lilian took a few shaky steps so she was standing at the traffic lights.
A group of women passed her then, all giggly and gangly in their flared trousers and bright colours. Mouth dropping open briefly, she eyed then as they went down into the underground. She watched the other people swirling around her, their clothes as if they were a picture straight out of a history book. A giggle broke through her then, short-lived and definitely too high in pitch to be authentic. She barely noticed the rain that started to shower her at that moment.
"Girly!"
A look over her shoulder showed the familiar man had gotten off the tube and was making his way towards her. Lilian felt her adrenaline levels rising again as she turned on her heel and ran. His voice could still be made out as she made her way around a corner and down a familiar street. Light posts dotted the sides of the road, all illuminated except for a cluster that was just a further up ahead. The man was still on her tail, although a good twenty paces behind her. She needed a place populated enough, yet not as open as where she was before if she was going to call for help. Her breathing was uneven now, her heartbeat beating erratically as she scanned the buildings to her left.
"We just want a-!"
"Go away!" She yelled into the wind, still running. He shouted something in reply but Lilian was too far gone to even consider listening. Her eyes were on their second scan when the broken light posts suddenly turned on, casting a warm glow on the entrance to what she could only guess was a pub. Its sign waved at her, the words Leaky Cauldron niggling at the back of her mind. Stopping proved harder than she thought possible as she skidded on the wet pavement, her knees and hands taking a blunt onslaught of cement before she pushed herself up and grabbed onto the door handle. It didn't take much force to open, in fact it seemed like it swung open for her of its own free will as she hurriedly stepped inside.
The chatter from inside was shushed as she slammed the door, her back to it as she sunk down onto the warm wooden floorboards. She could hear the pounding of feet outside, the curse that was thrown out, and the sound of footsteps retreating back up the street. Lilian knew the people inside were staring, but as she felt the last bit of adrenaline leave her system she couldn't find it within herself to care. There was deathly silence and she supposed it was justified. She'd bled through her jeans, and had left two handprints on the door from the ripped-up flesh across her palm. Her hair was wet and stringy, sticking to her face.
Lilian looked up from her position on the ground, locking eyes with the owner who she would later know to be a man called Tom, "Can I have a table for one, please?"
It had taken three cups of tea and an impossible long trip to the bathroom to clean herself up before Lilian felt like asking questions. The overall atmosphere and aesthetic of the bar was definitely familiar, comforting in the strangest way with the plumes of smoke that would swirl from a stranger's lips before floating up to the wooden ceiling. Hands rubbing comforting circles on her thighs, Lilian smiled shyly at Tom who had come to bring another fresh pot of warm water. There was a selection of tea bags on the table he had ushered her to after her abrupt entrance, a quick method of getting her out of the paying customers.
"And you say these men were following you?" Tom asked, a frown marring his face as he eyed the shaken girl.
"Well," She paused to find the right words, "They ran after me from the station to just outside your bar. They were taking pictures of me and asking me to go and have a chat with them, I got scared and ran."
Sighing with understanding, he went to reajust a strap on his apron, "You really don't seem like you're from around, are you?"
"Actually yeah, I am," Lilian simpered, a shy smile gracing her lips that pressed to the rim of her mug for a sip, "Just not from these parts it would seem."
A nod and a hum came from the man who shifted his attention to the table, taking a cloth out from seemingly thin air to wipe down some of the wet spots. There was a spark of energy in the air here, she mused, it was warm and alive as the chatter filled the atmosphere once more. Lilian couldn't help but stare at the clothes and wonder if the long robes were a trademark fad for the end of summer. She never did understand fashion. They were definitely ugly, she thought as she eyed a particularly dowdy orange one a lady was wearing as she sweeped herself to the bar for another drink.
"I'd suppose you would go to Hogwarts then, yeah?"
Lilian snorted, reaching out for her tea cup that had been filled mysteriously, "Uh sure, what self respecting Londoner wouldn't?" The sarcasm lacing her words didn't seem to have much of an effect on the bartender who continued to wipe away at some invisible spill.
"I was a Hufflepuff myself," Tom leaned on his one arm that was pressed to the table, "Would've made Prefect if I had done better at Charms."
The amusement on the girl's face brightened at that, going for another sip of milky tea from her cup. She watched as the man suddenly got up and hurried off, coming back a minute later with a folded newspaper wedged in the crook of his elbow.
"Unfortunate about Professor Maridweather now, isn't it?" Tom opened the paper to the right page before sliding it on the table for Lilian to read. She made it to the title before her mind lagged, eyes caught and locked on the moving picture that had a man, seemingly saying something as cameras flashed in front of him, "Resigned after mysteriously falling down the Grand Staircase, I mean, how did he even manage it? One or two I can understand, but seven floors?"
The tea in her mouth had frozen along with her ability to function, the bartender too stuck in his musings to really notice the sudden fear and disbelief that had rendered his customer unresponsive. Placing her teacup on the saucer shakily, Lilian slid her hand beneath the newspaper bundle and drew it closer.
"Oh my god."
"Yeah, I know," Tom nodded, "Unbelievable the people they hire nowadays."
Lilian nodded robotically, feeling a wave of hysteria crawling up her neck that threatened to bubble over. She began riffling through the newspaper then, effectively putting a stop to the conversation. Tom had noticed the sudden stifle from her end and simply given a smile before moving to take the order of an orange-cloaked lady, loudly asking from a shot of whiskey. Fingers flying and running over the moving pictures, she scanned the titles as well as dates and could have screamed.
"August 26th, 1977," She breathed, a manic laugh escaping her, "No way. No fucking way."
Lilian could feel herself starting to panic, her mind already beginning to race through possible scenarios and theories on what was happening. It was unprobable that she had passed out in the tube, that much could be ruled out from the pain still radiating from her scraped up kneecaps. Was this someone's sick idea of a joke? Looking up, Lilian was just able to spot the woman being served brandish a long, wooden stick and wave it. A hat from across the room came zooming to her, floating seemingly in mid-air as it twired before settling itself on her head.
"I've gone mad."