THE UNLIKELIES
(or, four ordinary kids who accomplished the extraordinary)
PROLOGUE
"You certainly will drink all of your milk, and you will do it with a smile." When Mrs. Sally Lockhart said something like this to her son Gilderoy, it was not a plead nor an option- it was a demand.
"But, mum," whined the small boy. Not many people could resist his large deer eyes and thick, curly blond locks piled on his head in almost a comical fashion, but his mother had a certain immunity to his charm.
"No 'buts,'" said Sally firmly. She knew that he was a good boy at heart and would always obey, despite his resistance. "You're a good boy." She patted his shoulder and walked back into the kitchen.
Gilderoy looked around and, seeing his father reading a newspaper in a chair around the corner, who could probably see him in his peripheral vision, decided to not risk a trick and just drink it. Most little boys loved milk, but he had spent his whole life on a farm, and not just any farm, at that: a goat farm. Since they had their own goats, of course they wouldn't go out and buy any dairy. Yes, they had all the hairy cheese and yellow-brown goat butter they could possibly want.
After chugging down the milk (making a point of doing it clearly within his father's sight), he ran upstairs and hide before he could be forced to ingest more goat- produced dairy products. On the way, he noticed that the mail had come, and instead of the ordinary bills, there was an unusual, yellowish envelope on the doormat. One solitary envelope.
Funny, he thought. We don't usually get anything like this. He picked it up and examined it; on one side was a strange seal, with an eagle, badger, lion, and snake surrounding the letter "H." On the other side was:
Mr. G. Lockhart
23 Chayes St.
West Tangle
England
It intrigued him. No one ever addressed him as Mr., and he didn't have any friends besides his goats, Eliza and Mabel. He didn't even think he had any family but his older sister, Rosa, and she never, ever wrote. Finally, he gave up trying to think of who it might be from and made a tiny opening, stuck his finger in it, and ripped the whole thing open. Inside was a letter on parchment, in fancy lettering.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
Of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Gilderoy scratched his head. Surely this was a prank; someone at school had decided to make fun of him. He had always been a strange boy to everyone around him. This must have been some sort of sick joke to do with the time he told his friends that he could make his pencil do his arithmetic all by itself.
He was angry. This wasn't funny, this was just plain mean. He tore up the parchment and was going to walk away when he noticed that not just one paper fell to the ground, but two. He looked at one scrap. It read: "List of Su-". Gilderoy frowned. His curiosity got the better of him; he found all of the scraps and took them to his room to piece them together.
When he was done, the paper read all sorts of supplies, from strange-titled books to cauldrons and potion ingredients. He scratched his head and decided to ask his mother and father. They should know.
"Oh yes," nodded his mother. "That's not a joke, Gilderoy. My brother was a wizard. I suppose I never thought you could inherit it, but this means you did."
"What is that place, mum?"
"It's a castle somewhere secluded, where they teach all kinds of magic. I never went. My brother was a muggle-born- that means that he was born to non-magic parents. He went there in the fall and came back in the summer on a special train, with all sorts of stories; winged horses and ghosts and flying brooms!" she let out a short laugh much like a small dog's bark. "It would be best for you to go, dear," she added, noting his worried expression that hardly seemed to belong on such a small, youthful face.
"Humph," muttered his father, turning a page of the newspaper.
"All year long?" Gilderoy asked. He'd never been away from home for more than a few days.
"Yes," nodded Sally. "You'll love it, I am sure. I haven't spoken with your uncle in years, but… oh, I may have a number around here somewhere."
While her mother busied herself looking for her address book, Gilderoy read over the list again. You know, he thought, I've always kind of liked owls.
CHAPTER ONE
It was September 1, and a man standing at Platform 9 at King's Cross Station was very tired from all the working he'd been doing lately. He wasn't looking forward to working again today. Bleary-eyed, he turned around and saw a group of children, teenagers, with lots of bags. He barely blinked as each took their turn running, and one by one disappeared into the wall between Platforms 9 and 10. With an audible sigh, he reminded himself to make an appointment with his psychiatrist again. Once a week wasn't often enough.
At Platform Nine and Three-quarters, the very same children emerged from the wall before the Hogwarts train. The oldest of the four looked maybe 17; a cheery, petit girl the others addressed as Molly. She glanced around, happy to be coming back to school, and noticed a mass of blond hair in a window of the train. She wondered who that was, but it didn't really interest her that much. More interesting to her was the handsome (and somewhat awkward) redhead named Arthur.
The blond mass of hair was Gilderoy Lockhart: thirteen years old, still very cute, and still very overlooked. His cuteness was sad now; he still had big blue eyes but they were always looking down. His mouth full of straight white teeth was mostly closed because he was rarely expected to talk. The only flamboyant thing about him was his curly blonde hair. He sat in his compartment all alone, legs folded under him, which did nothing to hide how tall he was, eyes gazing out the window, as if there would be someone who would come sit with him or friendlily ask him how his summer was, which of course there was not.
He sadly watched person after person walk by the compartment, not even noticing him. Every year it was like this. He sat alone on the train, alone in his classes, alone at meals, alone in the Hufflepuff common room, alone on the train home. Every summer he came home to be alone at the goat farm, where his mother pumped him full of goat dairy, because, in her mind, he didn't get any at school and so needed a year's worth crammed into two months.
For a while, he sat all alone. There was a loud conversation going on a little bit down the car, a few boys and a girl, talking about houses and where they'd like to be sorted.
All of a sudden, a laughing group of boys shoved their way in and collapsed in his solitary compartment on the seat. They seemed to be a few of the boys in the loud conversation with the girl and the other boy earlier. "Can we sit here?" asked a breathless boy with messy black hair. Gilderoy, wide-eyed and tongue-tied, hastily nodded, clearing space off for the others.
With the black-haired boy were a tall, proud-looking boy, handsome and smiling; a smaller boy with light brown hair and old clothes; and a very timid one with a ratty face and a small, cheesy grin on it "Did you see the look on her face, Sirius?" howled the black-haired boy. "She was at a loss for words!"
"Yeah, that must be it, she must be in love with you. Mm-hm." The tall, handsome one, who Gilderoy presumed was Sirius, rolled his eyes.
"She's gorgeous," the first sighed. "Anyway." He eyed Gilderoy. "Who are you?"
"Uh..."
"Don't speak English, then, do you? French then?" Sirius joked, smiling broadly, a little bit intimidating. "Parlez-vous francais?"
"Give him a chance," the black-haired boy scolded.
"G-g-gilderoy," he forced out. "Lockhart."
"Nice to meet you," said Sirius, taking the pressure off Gilderoy.
"I'm James," the black-haired boy butted in. "James Potter. That's Sirius Black-" the boy waved and grinned- "that's Remus Lupin-" the poor-looking boy smiled- "and that's Peter Pettigrew." The rat-like boy hadn't spoken up yet. "We're first years. What about you?"
"Er… no, I'm a third year," said Gilderoy.
"Are you?" Sirius squinted. "You look young. What house are you in?"
"Hufflepuff," Gilderoy mumbled. He didn't know if he liked these boys. They were nice enough but very blunt and outright.
"I already know I'll be Gryffindor," said James. "Whole family has been. Are your parents magical?"
"No," said Gilderoy. "My mother's brother was a muggle-born."
"Where do you live?" asked Remus Lupin.
"Oh… I live on a farm called Satyr Acres."
"The goat farm?" asked Sirius incredulously. "Really?"
Oh, no, thought Gilderoy. "Uh, yes. Why?"
"I love goat butter!" Sirius said. The other boys hooted. "No, really! It's good!"
"Not if you're forced to eat it at every meal, and it's still got hair in it," blurted Gilderoy. Then he realized his mistake and slapped a hand over his mouth.
To his amazement, the boys fell over on each other in tears of laughter. "Too true!" howled James. Gilderoy smiled weakly. Apparently he'd said something right. "Gilderoy, you are a genius!"
"The ladies must love you!"
"Well…"
"Don't tell me you don't have a girlfriend!"
Gilderoy shook his head and looked at his feet as if they were fascinating, something he did often.
"You joker. No, really! Which one?"
"I don't… I don't really talk to people much."
"Really?" asked Peter, finally speaking up.
"He's just trying to play the 'shy boy' for the beautiful witches, isn't that right?"
"No," Gilderoy said firmly, trying desperately to end this conversation. "I'm just trying to get through school so I can get a job when I'm 17, okay?" He didn't mean to snap, but the whole compartment fell completely silent. At first it was a stunned silence, then an awkward one, and then it simply seemed that there was nothing more to say. Peter fidgeted a little, James gazed out the window with an expressionless face, Sirius and Remus Lupin looked down at their feet and sighed every now and then. Gilderoy sort of enjoyed the silence at first, but then, after the boys' constant chattering, it became the loudest silence he'd ever known.
"So… do any of you, uh, collect chocolate frog cards?" he asked, pronouncing each word slowly, half-regretting it as it came out. James snapped to attention, Sirius and Lupin looked up, Peter cocked his head.
"Sometimes my older brother did," said Sirius, "but I never have." The other boys shook their heads in reply to the question. "Do you?"
"Well, I did for a while, but then I couldn't find the last one that I needed," Gilderoy replied. He reached into his sack and pulled out a small box, which he opened to reveal hundreds of cards. "I still need Phineas McSlaughtern."
"Wow," said Lupin gazing into the box. "That's a lot. And you've only been at it for two years?"
"Yeah," he admitted. "I don't really talk to people, so I spent a lot of time getting these. But now I'm getting busier and just can't find that one."
"Phineas McSlaughtern, you say?" Sirius frowned. "Maybe I could ask Regulus about that. My brother," he explained.
"Thanks!" Gilderoy smiled, for once truly meaning it. Looking out the window, he could see the castle looming just over the hills.
Just then, a young girl with beautiful almond-shaped eyes and a very nice smile walked by, throwing a detesting glance toward James Potter. "My my," James murmured, automatically running his fingers through his messy hair, a coy smile seeping onto his face. "That's her, Gilderoy: the beautiful Lily Evans. And one day she'll be mine!"
"The day that she gets amnesia." Sirius rolled his eyes and patted James' back. "Don't set your hopes too high."
"And she's a feisty one too!" exclaimed James. "Did you hear that string of damnable words making their way out of those beautiful lips?"
"I don't think that it's quite a good thing that she did that, now, James," said Remus Lupin.
"Ah, that's nothing to the incredible James Potter!"
"What's most sad about this scene is, it's true," conceded Sirius, nodding. "When James wants something, he never lets go of the notion. And I have a feeling that this notion will last a long, long time." He smiled sadly and pointed out the window. "Hey, look, is that Hogwarts?"
Gilderoy clapped heartily with the other students as the old, worn-looking Sorting Hat was brought out. After being placed on a chair in front of the Great Hall, the nervous first-years whispering frantically, it opened up one of its rips and began to sing in a marvelously, hauntingly rich voice.
Every being that enters this castle
Must first be claimed anew
By friends and enemies alike,
Each house is well-to-do.
You plop me on and close your eyes
I'll read your very mind;
And I can place you where you go
To be with your own kind;
You could belong with Ravenclaw
The witty and the smart
Seeking wisdom, knowledge, to understand
And all are friends at heart.
You may end up in Hufflepuff
Whence always come true friends;
Patient, kind, and loving,
Will always make amends.
You may just be a Gryffindor,
Where always are the strong,
With courage, guts, and valor
You'll always move along;
And you could wind up as Slytherin,
Where the cunning always are,
With craftiness and wits
You'll for sure be a star.
So hurry up, and put me on
Your head, be it large or small
I'm smart and I shall place you well,
For I'm one-size-fits-all!
The Great Hall burst into applause once more, and the hat bowed to each table before falling still. First years were sorted through, one after another, each putting the hat on; after a few minutes, it would scream HUFFLEPUFF! or SLYTHERIN! or GRYFFINDOR! and sometimes RAVENCLAW! After a few minutes, Sirius Black stepped up to the chair and had the hat plopped right on his head. After half a minute, the hat blurted out, GRYFFINDOR! and Sirius frowned. He sauntered with his long-legged stride to the Gryffindor table, where everyone was cheering with pride.
After another while, Remus Lupin stepped up. The hat spent more time on him, Lupin cocking his head every now and then. Then the hat screamed out GRYFFINDOR! and Lupin ran to sit next to Sirius, who was cheering with the rest of the table.
Peter Pettigrew was up after a bit, and he sat down very nervously. The hat was on his head about ten seconds before, once again, deciding GRYFFINDOR! Sirius and Lupin didn't really clear a spot next to them, but Peter sat down with them anyway.
Right after Peter was James Potter, the ringleader of the little foursome. He confidently sat and let the hat on his head, where it sat no more than a second before screaming GRYFFINDOR! with decisive finality. Potter grinned and raised his arms, as if he had just won a race or contest, before sitting down on the other side of Sirius. Then a few more children were sorted, one of which was a very greasy-haired boy with a rather hooked nose and a very sad face, named Severus. Gilderoy sort of pitied him, but forgot about him once Dumbledore started his speech.
Gilderoy glanced at the few children who had joined Hufflepuff. There were a few scrawny boys as well as a very strange-looking one named Lovegood who was staring at him with a drilling pair of wide-set blue eyes. Then there were some nervously chattering girls.
After a mind-numbingly delicious feast, all of the students trudged back up the stairs to their respective common rooms. Walking by the Gryffindor group, he heard Sirius mutter: "No, I'm not sure why I was put into Gryffindor. Doesn't make much sense, with the whole family, does it?" He heard the other boys murmur in reply before taking another swinging staircase up to the portrait which held the doorway to the Hufflepuff common room.
The portrait of the old man with the hound dog by his side smiled gently as he trudged up. "A little late, there, aren't you Gilderoy?"
"Took a wrong turn," he admitted. "Uh… pumpernickel?"
"Go ahead," the man said, swinging open. The Hufflepuff common room was littered with students already enjoying the fireplace and chatting with old friends. He wished he had an old friend to chat with, but he never did. With Gilderoy Lockhart, it was always a very simple routine, day after day, and not one bit of it involved social activity.
CHAPTER TWO
It was a brisk fall day, only a few weeks after the sorting, and Gilderoy was walking, almost running across the grounds, just coming out of herbology. The trees were already dropping their leaves, which swirled around him in a tornado of orange and brown. He walked with his eyes focusing on the ground, as he always did, so much so that he ran right into a group of giggling girls, standing around, laughing and talking in loud voices.
"Oh, sorry! Are you okay? Let me help you!" One of the girls bent down and gathered some papers while he picked up his books and his quills. He looked up to realize who it was. It was a very beautiful girl, with long, curly black hair and deep blue eyes. Standing with her were two girls: one that he didn't know, with green eyes and long, straight blonde hair and a pinched face, and one he did know—Lily Evans. Wide-eyed, he stumbled to his feet and started babbling.
"Um, no, it's okay, my fault," he forced out, taking his papers from her and tucking them into his book. "Sorry about that." She really was quite beautiful, even for so young a girl. Her smile was wide and very white.
"Are you okay?" she asked, genuinely concerned. "We really shouldn't be standing here, though."
"Just a little winded. I mean, I'm fine. Well. Good," he babbled, not able to shut up. His brain seemed to be short circuited. Since when do I like girls? He thought. He almost asked her name—but then again, did head-butting someone merit that?
"Georgia Galloway," she declared, as if reading his thoughts. She stuck out a hand, and he stared at it for a few seconds before realizing he was to shake it. "And this is Linda Sloan and Lily Evans," she added. "And you are…?"
"I'm Gilderoy," he replied, shy, all of a sudden self conscious around such beautiful girls. "Lockhart."
"Ah," she nodded. "I've heard of you!"
"Have you?" he asked. What could she know about him?
"No, not at all, but it's good to meet you!" she winked and looked around. "Well, I have to go study some, at least. Potions is a whole lot harder than I thought!"
"Yeah, sure, well, nice meeting you too." He smiled and watched as she raised her eyebrows in an obscure gesture and turned, her black hair swishing around her shoulders, and trotting back up to the castle.
"He's cute!" he heard one exclaim, barely within earshot.
"And what a name!" suddenly Gilderoy found his face burning and his mind very muddled. This girl Georgia; she was interesting. And no girl had ever really talked to him. He eventually found his way to the common room and fell into a squashy chair by the fire. No, she wasn't interesting, he chided himself. She was gorgeous. All of a sudden, Gilderoy wanted something; not just seeking her, craving company itself.
Within the next week, Gilderoy saw Georgia only from a distance. Sometimes he saw her with Lily, but mostly she was with Linda Sloan. Both Georgia and Linda turned out to be in Hufflepuff too, and it seemed that Linda was Georgia's little cousin, being a first year, Georgia a second. Every now and then, he'd find his gaze locked on her, and she'd turn her head of black curls and wink, then turn back to whatever she was doing. He found it entrancing the way she managed to keep him wanting without starving him of attention. And on the next Tuesday after he first met her, he talked to her again.
"Georgia!" he called, sprinting down the deserted hallway, trying to catch up. She poked her gorgeous head around a corner and grinned at the sight of this blond boy, running at full speed right towards her. "You dropped your quill!" He had never been so glad to see one dropped in his life.
"Oh, Gilderoy, hi!" she cried. "Well, thanks! Don't know many fellows who'll follow me just to give me a cheap thing like this!" she was so blunt, he found his pale cheeks flushing again.
"Well… I… nothing. I mean, it was nothing. Quills are important." You dolt, he censured himself in his head. Quills are important? Nice going.
"That they are," she laughed. "So. You're what, third year?" he nodded. "Yeah, too bad I'm second. I'd ask you to go with me to Hogsmeade," she murmured.
"Hogs…Hogsmeade?" he sputtered, trying to keep his wits about him, and yet failing miserably. He gulped as she stepped in closer, now close enough to have her breath tickling his neck. She was only a little shorter than him, which was saying something, because he was so lanky.
"Yeah, I hear it's great!" she shifted her weight, putting all of her books on one hip, freeing one arm to reach around and stroke his back. Every time her fingers trailed across his shoulder blade, he felt his skin crawl, but he made no attempt to move. He was curious.
"I suppose," he mumbled as her eyes suddenly welled up. They began to get red and the edge of her bottom eyelid was brimming with tears. She bit her lip and then commenced sobbing. Caught off-guard (as most people are when a random acquaintance starts blubbering), Gilderoy put his bag down, took her books, put those down too, and did all he knew: hugged her, his arms tightly around her shoulders, as her delicate arms held tightly to his torso, and her wet face pressed into his neck. He wasn't quite sure if it was something he'd said or what, but she seemed at least a bit consoled.
"I'm so sorry," she murmured, sniffling a little, pulling back so she could look into his face. "It's just that… I'm so lonely here. You see, I transferred from a school in America. I moved there before I got the letter, and then I moved back this year, and I'm so out of place, and I only know my cousin, and she's such a bloody moron sometimes." She sniffed again and let out a weak chuckle. "Well, you have no idea what I'm talking about."
"Oh, no." he shook his head and wiped a tear off her cheek. "I know exactly what you mean. I have no friends and this is my third year. I'm glad I met you."
"And I just said hi to that Lily girl, since she's Linda's friend, but when I met you it made me feel like I knew someone here. And then I thought I liked you, but I'm probably just dreaming that too." She looked up expectantly into his eyes.
Good god, he thought. She's waiting for me to say something! "Er, well, no, you… like you. I mean me. I mean I like you."
She giggled. "See? You're so sweet and innocent."
Innocent, my foot, he thought, shuddering. He'd never be able to tell anyone just how guilty he was. He barely had time to digest this thought before she stood on tiptoe and put her beautiful lips right over his. His eyes went wide, but he didn't pull back; rather, he held her tighter, and then slowly closed his eyes, blocking out everything but the snogging.
Hearing a surprised shout from ahead, he allowed himself to look up, and with a yelp pulled back. There in front of him, right behind Georgia, was none other than James Potter, a huge grin on his face. Georgia pulled him in again, but when he resisted, she whirled around, her fingers still entangled in his. She yelped.
"Gilderoy, old boy! And you said you were shy!" James cried, laughing. "Well, I'll leave you to your business!" he winked and ran off, skidding around the corner. Gilderoy moaned.
"What's that about?" she asked, wide eyed. "Do you know him?"
"Uh, yeah," Gilderoy answered. "He's just this first-year who sat with his friends in my compartment and basically interviewed me." He rolled his eyes. "Would you like to continue?"
"Mmm, way ahead of you," she murmured, already leaning in.
By the next morning, just about everyone in the entire castle had heard how cute little Gilderoy Lockhart had been snogging the transfer student, Georgia Galloway. People were surprised that he existed outside of classes, and even more surprised that he'd made it a fair way with a new girl within a few weeks.
Of course, Gilderoy himself didn't know this. He woke up as normal, got dressed, and headed for the Great Hall for breakfast. But on his way to the table, several people he knew vaguely from classes and the common room thudded him heartily on the back and encouraged him, laughing. He was confused, until Linda Sloan slid into the seat next to him, began buttering a honey roll, and said: "Well, Lockhart, you've certainly got something for my cousin, doncha?" she grinned mischievously. Slowly the color drained from his face as he realized what had happened.
Suddenly James Potter caught his eye near one of the doors. Gilderoy stared as James saluted with a huge grin, and then darted through the people until he caught up with him.
"James!" he cried. "What've you done?"
"Gilderoy, old boy, you realize that until this morning, no one even knew you were born? Look at you now!"
"No, how it was before—I liked it that way, Potter," he growled.
"No," corrected Potter loftily. "You were used to it that way. Wait until you get a taste of existence—fame!"
"Why did you tell people?" asked Gilderoy. "You know, I didn't ask some snot-nosed little first-year to come in here and ruin my life." He himself was quite taken aback at the tone of this comment, and so was Potter. Neither of them spoke for a few seconds.
"Well," snarled Potter, narrowing his eyes, "you certainly seemed miserable before. Sorry for spicing your pitiful existence up." He tipped his chin up in a little jerk to acknowledge him and then stalked off.
Gilderoy breathed deeply and made a decision to do the best he could with his new "existence," as James called it. But had he been miserable before? Obviously people had thought so, but he'd never called the hollowness in his chest day after day "misery." He'd just taken each day as it came and put aside all emotions and thoughts. Now, looking back, he fostered the idea that perhaps he had been miserable.
"Oh, Gilderoy! There you are! I couldn't find you!" he looked up to see the gorgeous Georgia, running at him full speed, stopping with her face inches from his. "Did you hear, everyone thinks we're together, isn't that funny!" she laughed.
"Do you believe them?" he asked, drawing her in. He wanted to feel that strange, passionate feeling again that she'd given him last night.
"What do you mean, do I…" she trailed off and then grinned. "Oh!"
"Because I believe them," he added, this time becoming the initiator of the wonderful snogging session.
CHAPTER THREE
It was exactly one year later, and Gilderoy was sitting by the common room, waiting for Georgia to come back from Defense Against the Dark Arts. He had pretty much spent his time outside of class sleeping and studying in the squashy maroon chair by the fireplace, which was always lit. The only difference between now and past years was that every once in a while, people would actually acknowledge him. "Hey there, Lockhart!" they'd call, or "Lockhart! What's happening?" He hated to admit it, but James had been quite correct: having people know his name and even who he was could be very satisfactory.
"Hey!" a boy with shaggy brown hair and the largest nose he'd ever seen leaned on the back of the squashy chair and grinned. It was Jonathan Mannigault, the loud, obnoxious boy who'd started hanging out with Gilderoy once in a while since last year. "So, whatcha doing?"
Gilderoy smiled genuinely. "Hey, Jonny. Waiting for Georgia, you?"
"Avoiding doing the divination essay," admitted Jonny. He closed his eyes and began chanting: "I see… Lockhart… snogging the lovely Georgia Galloway…" he laughed out loud, as if he cracked himself up. "I mean really, are we supposed to get 'divine visions' on command? 'Cause I do all the time, and they all have to do with strangling a teacher!" he laughed loudly, in a way that, at the beginning of the year, attracted a lot of nervous first-years' glances, but now went almost unnoticed, dismissed as a regular sound in the common room. No one knew quite why Jonny was in Hufflepuff; he was a star keeper in quidditch, a very smart, logical person, and he often proved to be quite flaky. Despite all this, he was stuck in with the quiet, patient, all-around-good-natured Hufflepuffs.
"Hey, Jonathan," a new voice cooed from behind them. Gilderoy whirled around to see a short, red-haired girl with Jonny, with freckles splashed across her pale, ivory skin and a small, bewitching smile. "How's it going?" she leaned into him gently, flicking a red curl over her shoulder so it brushed his nose, which then twitched, hinting an oncoming sneeze.
"Call me Jonny." He raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you sure look good tonight," she drawled, winking.
"I'll meet you on the couch in a couple of minutes, babe," he murmured, an amused smile making its way across his face, right under his big nose. The girl stood twirled around and took skippy little strides to the couch by the window, her friends giggling as they watched.
"You see, my friend," said Jonny, sitting on the arm of Gilderoy's chair, "charming women is all about letting them come to you. Because the easy-to-get boys… well, they're simply there. Girls like to aspire to things, you know?"
"Yeah, well, I don't think I need to work on that right now."
"No, you certainly don't, you seem to have it down pat." Jonny grinned and tipped his head in the direction of the waiting girl. "Now, I've got to head on over there. Little Suzy, she's waiting for some Jonathan," he chuckled, and sauntered off to the red-haired girl, and they commenced snogging.
And Gildeory heard her mumble "My name's Deborah, not Suzy" in-between bouts of lip-nibbling, at which point Jonny didn't respond, seeming to be entirely consumed in the whole kissing thing.
Gilderoy smiled. After a long, rough day of "existence," Jonathan never failed to amuse him.
"And then—no, wait, get this!"
"What did he do?"
"Don't tell me!"
"He asked her to go with him! And then he fell, flat on his bum, right then and there!" Gilderoy heard loud crowing and giggling from the common room entrance. Turning around, knowing who it most likely would be, he recognized Linda, a girl named Telulah Solomon and Georgia, falling on each other in laughter
"Hey," said Georgia, running over. "Sorry to have you wait. Louis—you know Louis Strasburg—he tried to ask Jody on a date!" she cracked up. "Well, you know, I had to stay around and pick up the shards of his shattered heart."
"Ah," nodded Gilderoy.
"But otherwise, horrendous day. I mean, it's really too slow around here on holiday." she grinned and slid onto his lap, leaning back into his chest. Georgia and Gilderoy had been seeing each other continually since James had caught them snogging for the first time, and Gilderoy thoroughly enjoyed it. She always had a funny story or a little smile to uplift him a little at the end of the day. Her eyes were always sparkling with this confidence and joy, and, no matter how down he was, holding her hand, letting her snuggle into his chest, or just looking through her eyes into the fire that seemed to burn in her soul made him feel like he could take on anything.
"Certainly," he agreed. "Were you planning on going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"
"Well," she answered, after a long pause, "I was thinking of going with Lily, for some girl time. She's been a little out of it lately—that stupid James Potter is always giving her grief. Why, were you wanting to do something?"
"No, if you're going to do that, go ahead. Jonny and me, we're planning on checking out this thing we've heard, that there's a tunnel under the new Whomping Willow that leads to this haunted house in Hogsmeade. We tried to ask some other boys but they're all too freaked out; that house screams and shrieks something awful."
"That sounds really fun," said Georgia. "And I think that could be something she'd love to do, check that place out. Do you think that Lily and I could come?"
"Of course. But, I mean, does Lily really want to?"
Georgia lowered her voice to a whisper. "Secretly, she thinks that James and his little company hang out somewhere around there, around the Whomping Willow and that house—they're never very nervous around that tree or around the haunted house. She's long since suspected that there's some connection between the places and has been wanting to get some dirt on him lately. Why don't I go find her? She's probably in the library or something."
"Sure," said Gilderoy, shrugging, and they went out to find Lily Evans.
"Hey, Lily!" said Georgia in a loud whisper, catching sight of Lily at a table in a secluded area of the library.
"Hm?" Lily turned and, seeing Georgia, beckoned them over. "What's going on, Gee?"
"Gild's going to check out a 'tunnel' between the Whomping Willow and that haunted house with Jonathan. Want to come?"
"Oh, really?" Lily gasped happily, motioning for them to sit down on the chairs next to her. "You're actually going to go in? That sounds great! I'd love to!" Her eyes were wide and her whole face exited. "Gee, this is what Severus was saying. He…" She narrowed her eyes suddenly, perplexed, suspicious, but still kind. "But, you're one of their friends, aren't you, Lockhart?"
"Er…"
"James and his lot…" Lily cleared her throat uncomfortably. "Can't risk that, can we." She shook her head, all of a sudden tight-lipped.
"No, I'm not," Gilderoy said hastily, interested in what she had to say.
"Don't worry, Lily. Gild's a good secret-keeper," Georgia confirmed. "You were saying."
"Well… okay. If you say so. My friend Severus, he said that he'd been watching, and he thought that Remus Lupin was a werewolf. He's never around on full moons. The Whomping Willow was planted the year he came here. And that haunted house? He thinks it's nothing more than where Lupin goes on full moons, to transform, and the villagers say that all the screaming and howling is because it's haunted. And he's been watching the other three too, and he thinks they're catching on and they're learning to be with Lupin on those nights—they don't always, but every few months they'll be gone, too."
"How?" asked Gilderoy, very interested.
"Severus thinks they're learning to be Animagi," whispered Lily, her eyes bright.
"That's insane," laughed Jonny, hands in pockets, a plaid flannel scarf wrapped around his neck. "Kids, especially third years, aren't Animagi. The only one we know is McGonagall. Plus you have to be registered." Lily, Georgia, Gilderoy, and Jonny were on their way down to Hogsmeade.
"They aren't yet," Lily corrected, "but they will be soon enough. James, that monstrous pus-filled boil, is actually clever. They all are. Just you wait—"
"There it is," said Gilderoy, cutting in on Lily's little lecture. "That's the house they all say is haunted." They all stopped walking and looked up at the looming structure. For a few seconds, no one moved or said anything, standing in awed silence.
"Doesn't look too bad to me," admitted Georgia, opening the gate. It was actually pretty foreboding, at least Gilderoy thought it was. It was tall and dark against a blindingly bright sky. It looked pretty old, and there wasn't anyone around it.
"Are you kidding me?" cried Jonny, pushing past Georgia and scampering in his childlike way up the walk. "It looks like the creepiest, most ominous thing I've ever seen! Let's go. Come on!" Reluctantly, Gilderoy followed after Lily. She had begun a sort of nervous chatter thing, the kind that tended to severely annoy Gilderoy.
"It looks like the sort of house that would be haunted, doesn't it! Though I'm sure it's not, it's probably just the werewolf thing… after all, I mean, what really is haunted, since we're all magic here? How can anything be haunted… I mean, we have ghosts in our own castle, right, so how can it be anything else…"
"Lily!" Jonny hissed exasperatedly, twirling around on the front porch, his face inches from hers. "For the sake of all of our nerves, shut it!" Lily's eyes were big but her mouth stopped moving. She timidly stood there without moving a muscle, cheeks burning in Jonny's gaze. After a second of stunned silence in the shadow of the old house, Georgia turned the doorknob. With a seemingly generic creak and a little bit of effort, the door was heaved open. The musty darkness frightened Gilderoy just a little bit, but Jonny stepped in right away, taking a look around.
"Hey, look at this!" he called. Curiously, Georgia stepped in, and Lily followed, leaving Gilderoy to bring up the rear. Not wanting to be left alone, he quickly stepped inside. The wind pulled the door shut with a BANG. It took some blinking and a few minutes before his eyes were entirely adjusted to the darkness, but when they were, he was surprised.
He didn't actually know what he'd expected—something creepy, ghosts or maybe nothing at all. Instead there was a simple living room that looked as if it had been terrorized by a bunch of banshees. There was some wallpaper peeling off the walls that probably would have been rather pretty, but now had stains and rips that made it unsightly. There was normal living-room furniture, some of it covered with white sheets and some of it left uncovered, but scratched as if an unusually large feline had gotten hold of it while it was in a bad mood. There was indeed grayish hair all over the place, but of course Gilderoy didn't dare touch anything. The whole room had a dark, non-welcoming feel to it. He almost felt as if he didn't belong there, as if he was intruding on someone else's home, although it was obvious that no one had lived here for years.
Georgia whipped around and grabbed Gilderoy by the shoulders. "Look! Doesn't it look haunted? I'd almost believe that there's a real monster or something in here!" She gave a cute little shudder and pulled Gilderoy along through a hallway. At the end was a small kitchen, but the tiny wooden table was tipped on its side, and missing a few legs. The sink was rusted and filled with cobwebs, and the walls were so horrendously splintered that you really couldn't tell where the pantry was. Gilderoy watched Georgia lean down and pick up a little bit of old, broken china, making him very nervous.
Why had he agreed to go on this little expedition at all?
Pausing for a moment, he listened. He heard a lot of creaking and laughing as Jonny tromped up the stairs, and Lily's high-pitched, frightened squeal. He heard the wind outside the shack, a gentle whooshing sound, snow swirling up in torrents outside the window, his skin prickling at the slight draft. Draft, he thought. Why would there be a draft? Didn't I close the door?
He glanced around quickly, deer eyes wider than normal, the color draining from his face. "Oh, no…" grabbing Georgia roughly by the first part of her he could grasp (which happened to be her thick black braid), he threw them both up against a wall, putting a hand across her middle to keep her from moving. A bright light whooshed through the house with the force of the scarlet Hogwarts train going full speed. Gilderoy was blinded, and although he couldn't really see it, Georgia's own eyes were shut tight and her skin was pale as the Fat Friar.
After a few seconds of mind-numbing fear, the house was dark and quiet as ever. Gilderoy let go of Georgia and slid down the wall, face still scrunched up. Breathing hard next to him, Georgia opened her eyes and looked over at him.
"What was that? LILY!" she screamed, running up the stairs two steps at a time. "JONNY!"
"Georgia!" he heard Jonny gasp. "What was THAT?"
"I don't know! Where's Lily?"
"I don't know either!" Hearing this, Gilderoy sprinted upstairs and helped them open all the doors until they found Lily in a closet, trembling from pure fright.
"It locked me in the closet!" she cried. "I couldn't open the door! What was it?"
"Beats me," said Jonny. "Hey, you're smart, Gild, so what was that?"
Gilderoy was too distressed to answer.
Henry (wrote Gilderoy),
I know it's been a while—three years, in fact. I know that you most likely do not want to hear from me, but this is important. You don't have to doubt me when I say that I regret what happened. Things are starting to come back to haunt me, and I'm just getting to be normal, if you understand what I mean. Two of my friends and my girlfriend were there when it came through, and they almost died. I just want it to stop.
Gilderoy Lockhart
CHAPTER FOUR
After five days, Gilderoy still hadn't uttered a word. Georgia was extremely worried, as were Jonny and Lily, but no one dared tell what they'd been doing. They didn't know what would happen when school started again and Gilderoy was asked a question in class.
Every night, Jonny would lay in his bed in the Hufflepuff boys' dormitory and wonder what would happen and, if anyone found out, would he get kicked off he quidditch team?
Lily would usually be asleep on the Gryffindor common room couch by the fire, with a book on her lap; she'd have been trying to study away all thoughts of whatever had locked her in the closet.
Georgia would be fitfully sleeping in her dormitory after drinking a bit of the concoction Lily had made to help with her trauma-induced headaches.
And Gilderoy would be fast asleep in his own bed, having gone back to the non-responsive shell of a boy he'd been before his "existence."
Tonight, however, one of the four was not in her usual spot. Georgia Galloway was unable to sleep. Thoughts were ringing in her head. Every few minutes she'd roll over, her blankets rustling, mattress creaking, and flip the pillow to the cooler side. What if Gilderoy hadn't pushed her against the wall? Would she have been blown out the door, or broken her back on the counter?
What was it that was keeping Gilderoy so distant?
Georgia sighed and, sitting up, kicked her legs over the side of her bed. She held her face in her hands and shuddered. It could not go on like this; she couldn't have these thoughts bother her another night.
Suddenly, a small mumble from the next bed over made her freeze in her tracks.
"Flobberworms, gross," she heard Linda mutter in her sleep.
Gilderoy's eyelids opened slowly. Upon adjusting his eyes to the dark, he was startled to see Georgia kneeling by his bed. He blinked a few times but made no attempt to move.
"Gilderoy!" she hissed, putting a firm hand on his shoulder. Someone in the next bed over moved a little at this, so she hushed a bit. "Gild, sweet, come on. Meet me down in the common room."
Gilderoy sleepily trudged down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. There was Georgia, sitting in a silky green nightgown by the fireplace. She looked up at him and watched as he slowly made his way toward her and then sat down right next to her.
"What is going on?" she asked. "Tell me, Gilderoy."
Gilderoy heard her, loud and clear, and gulped, turning to look around.
"Gilderoy," she said sharply, pulling his head back to face her. "Please."
"Oh, Georgia," he whispered, and let himself fall into her.
"What is it?" she pleaded, surprised by his speech. "Just tell me. I'll keep it secret if I need to."
They both paused, but then Gilderoy relented.
"Georgia, you have to understand. This isn't just some little episode. I don't know what you can do.
"It was three years ago…"
"Let's go!" shouted a young Henry Lancaster. "Come on, Gilderoy!" The fifth year with golden brown hair and the grin that made the most unattainable witches blush called a small first year to him.
Gilderoy Lockhart, the young-looking first year, trotted over with a nervous smile. "Henry?"
"I've usually had first years keep look-out," Henry said with a wickedly charming smile. "But you, dear boy, definitely need some experience, first-hand. So you'll be coming at the head of the line, with me. I'll have little Quirrell here do the watch," he added, motioning to the small, trembling figure beside him.
"But first years can't go into Hogsmeade," protested Gilderoy, not quite sure that he wanted to go anymore.
"But you are not an ordinary first-year," answered Henry flatteringly. "I've chosen you, specially."
The group of boys walked on the path for a while, Gilderoy feeling more afraid than ever. He knew that first-years and second-years were not allowed to go to Hogsmeade, especially after curfew, but Henry had made this seem so ordinary. Of course Gildeory had agreed to help out with the little expedition. Only the most admired students at Hogwarts were allowed into Henry's group. His closest friend was William Browning, a Gryffindor prefect and star seeker in quidditch. Henry's long-time girlfriend was none other than Cassandra Trant, a very smart girl with cropped blond hair, full, red lips, and beautiful pale skin, who everyone thought was destined to be head girl. Will and Juliet were only two of the ten or so students in the exclusive club. Gilderoy had seen these older kids as brilliant, fun, and, overall, as idols.
Now he was officially frightened—it was not completely dark outside, the eerie glow of the sun still hovering around the horizon, and the shadows were stretched beyond recognition. Henry was right next to him, with Cassandra skipping a bit ahead to scout. Then they took a turn onto a narrower cobblestone street that looked as if it were a dead end. At the end was a grove of foreboding trees, large enough to swallow the group whole, ten times over. Cassandra stopped right outside it and waited for Henry and Gilderoy to catch up, the rest of the group tailing behind. Then Henry stepped in, pulling Gildeory right behind him. The darkness enveloped them.
Blinking rapidly, bodies of the rest of the group jostling about him to get into the small clearing in the grove, Gilderoy tried to focus on the setting around him. Eventually he could make out Henry with his famous smile, Cassandra with her figure fitting perfectly into Henry's, William leaning against a tree, looking solemn.
They were all staring at him.
Henry began to speak. "Okay, here we are."
"We are pledged to the fellowship of the forest…" the group began as a whole, and then began to recite Latin. Gilderoy was completely distressed. This was black magic, he was sure of it. He wanted out, but somehow he found himself in the center of the group.
"New member today," said Henry somewhat cordially. "Gilderoy Lockhart, first-year. A real winner." There was a murmur from the group, and then Cassandra spoke up.
"Shall we give him the oath?" asked Cassandra, in a strange, lispy voice. In the darkness, Gilderoy saw her pupils become nothing but slits and her orangey irises grow larger and darker. Red.
"Yes, we should," she answered herself in a sinister voice, grasping his forearm with force. "Lockhart. Look at me." He didn't want to, but somehow found himself looking into her transformed eyes anyway.
Her face was paler than normal, even yellowish. He hadn't noticed this side of her before.
"Let me go, please," he whispered, pulling away slightly, but afraid for his life.
"Oh, no, we can't," she said, holding tighter. His forearm began to burn. He screamed, thrashed, felt his whole shoulder pull apart. As the pain got to its worst, he kicked Cassandra in the back of her knee. She buckled and fell, but was back up almost immediately, shrieking, "GET HIM!" The others hesitated, frozen in shock, but not for long—once he caught sight of Henry's arms making their way for his legs to bring him down, he made off as fast as his spindly legs would carry him. "DON'T LET HIM GO!"
Before he knew it, his ankle was caught in a tree root and he fell on his face. William was on top of him within a split second, and he was trapped.
"Fool," snarled Cassandra, looking bonier than ever. "You don't even know who I am. You will soon." She put one foot on his back as he laid on the ground, staring at her feet, hyperventilating. "Lockhart, I am the daughter of most powerful force this world has ever known. I am Cassandra Trant, and that may not be a name you think is famous, but I know you've heard of my father." She let out an evil giggle. "Thomas Marvolo Riddle. He is Lord Voldermort."
Gilderoy's heart stopped.
"You see," Cassandra, said, sitting down cross-legged next to him on the prickly grass, "he met a woman, her name was Helen Trant. And Helen was beautiful, Lockhart. Not just beautiful, mind you. She was the face that launched one-thousand ships—Helen of Troy. Unlike tradition, however, the egg she was hatched from did not belong to any swan—it was that of a phoenix, contributing to beauty and immortality. Immortality was something that was—ah—appealing to Father. So she had me, and I have inherited some qualities of both parents." She spread her arms wide, grinning. "I don't age quite as much as normal women—actually, Lockhart, I'm really twenty-eight years old, and I didn't start here at Hogwarts until I was twenty-two. I'm quite gifted with good looks, and I have some special talents of my father. I can, in fact, transform into a snake. And I can speak parseltongue." She whispered a few lines of the snake language and then continued.
"So, Father figured that I would be an asset, even after my mother burst into flames, to be reborn in a few years. He made sure I ended up at Hogwarts, under my Mother's name—after all, having disowned his family, he had no name to give me. He wanted me to recruit the next generation of his group, the Death Eaters. And here we are, Mr. Lockhart." She smiled. "Are you up for it, or would you rather leave this world a poor, non-existent child?
Gilderoy took a moment to think. His shoulder was throbbing; he was sure it was dislocated and torn up. Thoughts screamed through his head. He wanted to get out more than anything, to escape back to the quiet of the common room.
"I take that as a yes," said Cassandra, not waiting for an answer. "Here we go—" she took his dislocated arm again, making his nerves scream with pain, and started to whisper in the snake language. Gilderoy felt a warm sensation creeping up his arm. He didn't have the strength to yell. He saw blackness seeping in at the edge of his vision. Not many ideas were left in his brain. Just before he fainted, he heard himself mutter something and saw a flash of bright green light. Juliet screamed and cursed, as did the others, and Gilderoy found himself wondering what he had done before he lost consciousness.
"Oh, no. My poor, sweet Gildeory," Georgia breathed, a tear running down her distressed face. He had his head in his hands and was full-out crying, shaking with every labored breath. "Oh, dear." She sat closer, their hips now touching, and rubbed his back. "You've been through so much. You poor thing."
"I'm so ashamed. I killed them, Georgia. Killed nine people, my first year." He was barely audible above the sobs. "Henry and I swore not to ever tell. He was ashamed of being a Young Death Eater, and so we just kept going, quietly taking each day without talking to anyone. He made it so no one found the bodies. What do I do, Gee? She wasn't dead for long. I kept seeing her places, a shadow-body. She spoke to me through other students' mouths, but I could never tell anyone.
"And that was her, at the Shrieking Shack, Gee, I can just feel it. She was coming to get me. She would have me, dead or alive."
"How do we appease her?" asked Georgia, knowing that that was exactly what he was thinking.
I really do wish that I knew, thought Gilderoy, closing his eyes, sinking into the oblivion of sleep in Georgia Galloway's trembling arms.
CHAPTER FIVE
"Jonny, I have to talk to you," hissed Lily, snatching the sleeve of his robes. Students poured through the hallways around them, not taking notice of the obnoxiously handsome boy and the tiny girl, like a fast river rushing around a moss-covered stone. "Hey, didn't you hear me? Stop!" Jonny whirled around. He was hungry, it was time for dinner.
"What, Lily? What could you possibly need now?"
"I need to talk to you about something," she whispered.
"Well, obviously." Jonny rolled his eyes. "Come on, let's go to the library, where it's quieter."
"Well," said Lily, once they had reached her table in the corner of the library, "It's about Gilderoy. Georgia says he talked to her, finally."
"And?" asked Jonny, uninterested. Of course he talked to her, she was his girlfriend.
"And he knows what that… that thing was, the other day. She says it's haunting him. Jonny, we have to help," she pleaded.
"No, no," Jonny replied firmly. "I don't need to get involved in this any more. I'm tired of this whole thing." Lily looked into his eyes with the saddest expression he'd ever seen her wear. "No," he repeated. She continued to stare. "Oh, Lils, you are so annoying. Did Georgia say what he'd told her?"
Lily broke into a wide smile. "A bit. Look at this," she added, pulling a book out of her bag and flipped through the pages. "Here, look." Jonny peered into the book. She had her finger on a picture of a young girl, a first year, with short blond hair and very pale skin. She was pretty, in a sinister way.
"So… who's that?"
"That," replied Lily, "Is Cassandra Trant. But she was not an ordinary student. She was the daughter of Helen Trant, also known as Helen of Troy."
"Okay," laughed Jonny. "That's enough. I don't buy this."
"No," said Lily, grabbing his wrist as he tried to get up. "You don't understand yet, keep listening." He, somewhat reluctantly, sat back down. "This girl was the daughter of Helen of Troy, who was immortal because she was hatched of a phoenix egg." She paused, as if she expected it to make much more sense now. Jonny just shook his head. "Can you think of someone who really loves immortality? You-know-who. So he and Helen had a baby, Cassandra."
"Impossible," declared Jonny. "You-know-who doesn't fall in love, much less have kids."
Lily shrugged and kept going. "I don't know, but that's what she told Gilderoy, and what her past might suggest. She aged twice as slow as anyone, which was probably due to her mother, but she had snake-like qualities, like her father. It seems strange that her father would let her come here, but it turns out, according to Gild, that she was to recruit the next generation of Death Eaters. He says she almost got him."
"This is insane," laughed Jonny. "Gilderoy has a screw loose and you have an overactive imagination, and Georgia… well, she's just too much infatuated with him to even see clearly. But I see, and what I see is that you guys are just crazy."
"No," whispered Lily. "It's so real, Jonny, it's not a joke. I'm not imagining things… or, I hope I'm not. I don't know." With a heavy sigh, she paused. "But there is one thing I think that I know for sure."
"And what would that be?" asked Jonny, already tired of this conversation. He was ready to get out of this crazy scenario and get on with his life, with quidditch and getting better grades and snogging.
"That I… fancy you," she sputtered, lowering her head. Jonny had to suppress a laugh.
"You fancy me," he chuckled, cocking his head. "You, a tiny girl with brains big enough for two people, fancy me?"
"You don't have to mock," she said, trying to keep her dignity. "I was only saying. Why don't you just leave now, and go back to whatever you were doing, and I'll just figure it out with Georgia and Gilderoy from now on."
"But, dear Lily," he answered, smiling, making no attempt to leave. "Haven't you noticed? I think you're amazing, if insane." He grinned, and leant down to kiss her. After a few seconds, she backed away, looking exited.
"You… what?" she asked confusedly, but her eyes were lit up as if his words had set a match to each almond-shaped emerald.
"Hush, Lily, lets keep this under wraps for now." He winked and stood. "Want to meet sometime with the others to talk about this stuff?"
"Yes, sure," she nodded enthusiastically. "Let's all meet here tomorrow during lunch."
Jonny stood, positively glowing, took his bag, and walked away, leaving Lily with a look of such confusion that it seemed out-of place on her face.
How had the conversation gone that way? Lily thought, packing up her stuff. I didn't even finish about Cassandra, and all of a sudden he kisses me?
I'll bet he was just trying to get me to shut it, she figured. Well, so be it then. At this thought, she sniffed and ran out of the library, eyes brimming with tears, and just about trampled a younger boy on her way out.
Three shelves down from where the table had been, a head poked around the corner. It was the face of Severus Snape, with a large nose, narrowed eyes, and a shiny coating of oil all over his face and hair. He was frowning and gritting his teeth as he watched Lily run out of the library, and then ducked back around the corner. He leant his head back and sank to the floor, eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched.
"I can't believe it," he whispered to himself. "All these years, before we were even ten, I've been standing by her. And now, all of a sudden, it's Jonathan Mannigault, shallow, incompetent, and completely unworthy." He took three deep breaths. "Okay, so she didn't like my friends. But this is absolutely unnecessary. Next thing you know, it will be Potter."
"What's going on, Snivellus?" He opened his eyes and turned slowly to see James Potter and company standing over him, wands in hand.
"Ah," breathed James, leaning back onto the sofa. "Long day, huh, fellas?"
"Yeah," agreed Sirius. "Torturing Snivellus, annoying teachers, torturing Snivellus. Why, doing all this work, we ought to get paid to go here!"
Peter laughed, but Remus frowned.
"Come on, James. Don't you think it was just a bit, ah, harsh to hang him up by his ankles again? It doesn't seem that fair to do it to him if he's not doing anything wrong."
"Are you kidding me?" laughed James. "He's doing wrong just by breathing this air here!" Once again, Peter laughed. Remus shot him a sharp look, which caused him to dip his head in shame and look to Sirius to see what he'd say.
"I think," Sirius said, all eyes on him, "that Severus Snape deserves most of the stuff we do to him, and it's not like anyone cares."
"No!" all four boys looked around to see Lily Evans standing there, eyes narrowed at them. "What did you do to him?"
"Didn't kill him, Evans, so don't worry your pretty face."
"You monster," she hissed at James. "You, you know how utterly cowardly you make yourself look? Like a lowly flea, like a termite, the bugs everyone detests…" she trailed off, seeing James' unchanged expression. "Don't look at me like that, either. Your little friends here follow you like you're a hero, someone to idolize, but I know better."
"Miss Evans, he was spying on you when we found him," said James calmly. All his friends were watching this silently, their gaze turning back and forth between the two as the statements were hurled.
"Was not," said Lily. "I don't believe a word you say."
"He was in the library by your back corner table, just after lunch, watching you run off from behind a bookcase, muttering something about you and Jonathan Mannigault." He smirked, knowing he'd struck a sweet spot.
"How much did you hear?" asked Lily, avoiding eye contact with the boys.
"Some," said James, tight-lipped.
"Tell me," growled Lily, feeling rather scared for her reputation.
"I heard that you cheated on little Severus, that you and Jonny had a little something going on."
Peter let out a nervous giggle, before quickly stifling it.
"Well, it's not true," said Lily briskly. "I never had a relationship with Sev or with Jonathan, so there." She paused. How much had Severus seen, and how much had James heard?
"Well, then, I bid you good night. If what you say is true, there's nothing more to discuss," James said, still calm. "Sweet dreams, dear Lily."
"Oh, Potter, someday I'll just…" James heard no more of Lily's raving as she tromped up the stairs to her dormitory, his friends all laughing uncontrollably.
"Whatever she does to us, it can't be as bad as what she's gonna do to Snivellus," roared Sirius, pounding the arm of the sofa.
"Sev!" Lily cried, running towards him. he was standing outside under a tree, shivering and watching the snowflakes flutter down from the cloudy sky.
"Lily," he said coldly, not turning to look at her.
"I don't know what all you saw—" she started.
"I saw you and Jonathan Mannigault sharing saliva," he said condescendingly, still not looking at her.
"You didn't see what you think you saw," she pleaded, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We were talking about something that Gild needed help with, and he just… leaned down and, er, snogged me, and left…" Come to think of it, it sounded rather weak.
"You didn't do anything about it," Severus mumbled.
"What would you expect me to do?"
"I would expect you to do something about it, Lily!" cried Severus, turning around finally. His eyes were wide and strangely passionate. "You are a fighter—I have never known you to put up with something you didn't like." He stopped his little outburst and looked her straight in the eye.
"So… you think I liked it," whispered Lily.
Severus looked away. Lily closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, exhaling every bit of air out of her lungs, and then continuing.
"Sev, I would never, ever do something because it would hurt you. But I'm not seeing you…" He was looking down at his feet, looking quite hurt. "I'm not seeing you, and I want to have a life. You have friends, and I don't necessarily agree with everything you do with them, and I have friends, and you don't always like them."
"I was the one who told you about this place," said Severus quietly.
"Yes, but things are just different now. I'm in Gryffindor, you're in Slytherin. We don't get a lot of time together, and that's just how it turned out."
"But Georgia and Lockhart and… Jonathan—" he spat the last one with contempt. "—they're all Hufflepuffs. How is that different?"
"Oh, dear." Lily put a hand on Severus' back and rubbed in small circles. "You'll always be my friend, Sev, but we're different, and things aren't always going to be how we want them to be."
He looked up into her face and sniffed. They both sighed and looked around before Lily sat down and hugged her knees to her chest. Severus looked around and then sat down next to her, close enough that their shoulders were touching, and shuddered.
"You cold?" he asked timidly. She had her head between her knees and her shoulders were shaking erratically. "Lily?"
"No." She bit her tongue and raised her head a bit. "I'm fine." But she scooted in closer to him and he put an arm around her.
"I don't mean to upset you," he told her quietly. "I didn't mean it…."
"It's so hard," she put in. Her voice was uneven and he could practically hear the lump in her throat. "I like him, I really do, but I don't want to upset people, especially you…" she swallowed. "Especially you."
"I know," Severus agreed, and at this, she leaned her head on his shoulder, which was now shaking. "You work so hard to please everybody, and you usually manage it,."
"I don't want to hurt you," she sobbed, trembling.
"Look, stop crying, please," he said uncomfortably. "I'm the one who should be in tears, not you, please don't cry…" She paid no heed and kept on crying. He didn't like this at all.
"OY!" shouted someone behind them. "YOU TWO!" Severus turned around. It was the crazy caretaker, Hagrid. Severus pulled Lily up and they stumbled up the hill back to the castle. Standing inside the door, before they dashed up the stairs to their respective dormitories, Severus took her shaking body by the shoulders and kissed her right on the lips. She struggled a bit, broke from his grasp, gulped, and ran away. Severus watched her tremblingly climb a staircase, three steps at a time, and disappear from sight, before he found that he himself was trembling, too.
That same night, Jonny sank deeper into his squashy chair and sighed audibly. Gilderoy was just looking out the dark window, catching fleeting glimpses of the occasional splash of the giant squid in the moonlit lake or the moon's glaring reflection in the ever-accumulating snow. Georgia was nearly asleep on her back on the floor, looking straight up at the ceiling with heavy-lidded eyes. None of the three spoke at all.
Jonny sighed again and shifted a bit, then turned back and looked at Gilderoy.
"What do you think she thinks of me?" he asked quite bluntly. Georgia's eyes had been just about to close, but at this they jerked open and she sat up hastily.
"Who?" she butted in. "Lily? Ooh, Jonny, you have a thing for Lily! How perfect!"
"She must think I'm such an idiot," he moaned.
"Did you kiss her? One of her firends told m she was in a terrible mood and bit her head off before she went to bed. I'll bet she thinks you were just playing around with her. You are in so much trouble with her if that's the case!"
"Oh, please," snarled Jonny. "For your information I think that she is beautiful and gorgeous and a perfect genius and would like very much to think that she has liked me in the past and I wasn't playing around with her, I was serious when I snogged her, so there."
Both Georgia and Gilderoy stared open-mouthed. Jonny groaned, closed his eyes, and turned around in the chair, face burning.
"Oh, hello," gasped the young girl. "Who are you?"
"Severus Snape," the boy replied, surprised to see anyone here in his back way to the dormitory that cut through the dungeons. "Who are you?" she had an eerie shine to her, as if she weren't quite real.
"Most of my friends call me Cassie," she told him quite honestly.
"I've never seen you before," Severus remarked, and squinted a bit at her, because the light that seemed to be cast on her now seemed to be emanating from her. Was he dreaming?
"I am a student, but I haven't been here in a while," she answered. "Oh, let's see, who might you know that I do. Er…. How about Michael MacDuffy? No?...Hm… oh, do you know a boy named Lockhart? Gilderoy, actually?"
Severus went pale.
CHAPTER SIX
Gilderoy,
Let's cut to the chase, shall we? I know that she was evil. But I loved her and still do, and it's positively cruel of you to write thinking that I will give some sort of bloody damn about your troubles when you ruined my life and killed everyone I ever cared for. In destroying records of them I had to destroy a lot of my own, and that made it so hard for me to get any sort of job. Right now I'm working for The Quibbler, run by that freak Xenophilius' father, Unus Lovegood. That's degrading enough without getting letters from you, all whiny about how killing all my friends is coming back and biting you in the arse.
Just leave me alone.
Henry
Gilderoy picked the letter up from his plate, the edge of it a little red and soggy from the jam on his toast, and opened it up. He was smiling and laughing with Jonny and Georgia, but the further into the letter he read, the less he smiled. The next thing he knew, Jonny was peering over his shoulder.
"What's that?" he asked. "Henry?"
Gilderoy got up abruptly and ran off, trying to talk to as little people as possible on his way out of the great hall. Once he was out the door, he sprinted full-speed around random corners and up strange staircases until he came to a place far enough removed. He then started scribbling on another piece of paper.
Henry
Just got your letter. I'm really, really sorry about what happened, okay? It definitely didn't make life any easier for me, either. She was going to KILL me or at least brand me with the dark mark, and who knows how that would have turned out. You yourself tricked me into coming; I didn't just go on a killing spree in cold blood. Actually I hardly knew what I was doing at the time; I was practically unconscious with pain. Anyway all I want to know is what do I do when she tries to KILL ME AND MY FRIENDS?
Gilderoy
The next message came the day after, and the owl dropped it into his orange juice (on purpose he thought). He pulled it out, dried it with a spell, and took it away to read it.
Gilderoy
My advice on what to do? It's quite simple really:
HOLD STILL WHILST SHE AIMS THE MURDER WEAPON.
Henry
Henry
Please, please try to understand. I came because you were the cool kids and I wanted to be like you guys. I freaked out because your girlfriend was trying to kill me or make me a follower of you-know-who. It was a natural reaction to the fact that my arm was practically on fire.
Are you still a Death Eater anyway?
Gilderoy
It was late in the afternoon. Lily, Jonny, and Georgia were laying by the lake, all looking at the sky. It was warmer than it should have been, but still chilly and rather windy. Wrapped up in bundles of sweaters, they lay on a blanket, watching the bright blue sky with the occasional gray cloud wandering its way along the vast expanse above them.
"Is that a threstal?" asked Jonny, his eyes fixed on a shadowy shape high above them. Lily looked over at him, his strong profile, and wondered if she'd ever kiss him again.
"Who knows," replied Georgia. "With Hagrid, it's impossible to tell what's going on." She caught Lily's eye, followed her gaze to Jonny, and then raised her eyebrows and winked. Lily blushed.
The other two kept talking.
Lily kept quiet. Her eyes were hardly open. She had been up until the wee hours of the morning, researching. She'd gone through Gilderoy's things and found the letters Henry had been sending him. The boy sounded quite hostile. Then again, he had a reason to be. She decided to look up any record of any of the kids who'd been killed. Obviously all records of the daughter of You-know-who and Helen of Troy hadn't been destroyed. She had found that one picture. Last night, she'd found some things about Henry, but only the year after the incident. Mostly he'd kept his head down. All she could find was a listing of Hufflepuff students, and something about him being an ex-quidditch player.
Her eyelids drooped as Georgia and Jonny stopped talking. Her breathing steadied. Next thing she knew, it was colder, it was starting to drizzle cold rain, and she knew she'd been asleep; for how long, she couldn't tell.
"Jonny!" she cried, almost blinded by the rain that was now pouring. "Georgia! Guys!" she stood up but tripped on the blanket. She could hear a faint yell but couldn't get her thoughts together. She put the blanket over her head and tried walking up the hill. When she'd walked a while but came to nothing, she turned around and yelled again.
"LILY!" someone screamed. She tried to tell where it was coming from, and guessed a few feet to her right.
Suddenly the rain let up and she could see. She saw Severus and Jonny, struggling and fighting. She screamed and ran at them, but they were too far away. In Severus' hand was a wand, hidden in his robe. She saw his mouth move and a flash of green light, but heard nothing. She didn't hear Jonny yelp, or Severus gasp, and she didn't hear herself scream, nearly loud enough to wake the dead… but, to her dismay, not quite.