Disclaimer: See first Chapter.
ALSO! For those of you wondering, yes I am actually the SAME author as GoldenWolf88. I just lost access to my GoldenWolf account. :)
Chapter Two: Mysteries Abound
Lily
Lily Evans had never really disliked anyone in her short eleven years. At least, she hadn't until she met James Potter. How could someone be so arrogant? He prattled on endlessly all through Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lily felt like ripping her hair out whenever he started to talk about some Quidditch game. What the heck was Quidditch anyway? "Evans? Evans? OI LILY!" exclaimed Breaux. Lily looked at her sheepishly. Loathing was very time consuming.
Later on, at dinner, Lily walked past James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter Pettigrew all talking conspiratorially in a corner of the Gryffindor table.
"What's up with them?" Lily asked Rei.
"I don't know, but it's highly suspicious and I suggest we spy." Rei grinned evilly.
Maggie shook her head and let out a good natured laugh. "Rei, you're a fireball." Rei looked slightly uncomfortable but then continued telling the girls about her spying plan.
Lily sighed and dug into her food. Minerva eventually showed up, and then introduced the other girls to Sean Sommers. He gave everyone a dazzling smile and said "Hello".
Rei and Lily caught each other's glance, and Rei pointed to Sean's eyes, then to the sky, and made a fake swoon, causing Lily to almost fall off her chair laughing. Lily looked up in shock when an a tall boy from Ravenclaw made his way over to the Gryffindor table and plopped down as if it was his house. She didn't think that people from other houses could switch tables. "Who are you?" asked Rei of the stranger; he had shaggy black hair, strong hands, and eyes the shade of the night sky.
"What? Maggie hasn't told you about me?" In a dramatic sweep, he put his hand over his heart and pretended to be devastated. "I'm John Flitwick," he said, after a few minutes. Lily looked at the tiny Professor Flitwick at the staff table and then back at John.
"As in Professor Flitwick?"
"My dad," smiled John. Maggie rolled her eyes.
"We have no idea how John got to be so tall. John, this is Lily and right beside her is Rei. Be nice."
"I'm always nice." Sean burst in, "You are not! You're a horrible excuse for a person!"
"You're just mad because I beat you in Quidditch last year."
"What the heck is Quidditch?" Lily demanded. She was tired of feeling like she was the last to know everything here. She vaguely remembered Severus mentioning something like that, but it was a long, long time ago. John and Sean immediately set off talking about teams and whatnot. Minerva, however, gave Lily a much simpler explanation.
"Wait. I have to learn to ride a broom? In front of people?" Lily groaned. "I hate heights!"
John smiled. "You'll be fine. Maggie and Minerva were both really nervous about it their first year -"
"And then they started 'borrowing' brooms to go flying at night," laughed Sean.
"DID NOT!" exclaimed both Maggie and Minerva. Lily laughed. She could really get used to this place. Most of the Gryffindors, at least Maggie and Minerva, had this sibling dynamic. They just all seemed so close. Her smile faded, thinking of Petunia. Would they ever be that close again?
Maggie
While Lily was worrying about her sister, Maggie was worry-free in Defense Against the Dark Arts. This class had always seemed to be her strong point and she loved it. Much like Minerva was with transfiguration, Maggie would read her Defense book for the fun of it. After gaining ten points for her House, Maggie was in a great mood leaving class. "Maggie! Minerva!" Rei Scorch ran up to them in the hallway. "Ok, so I overheard the guys talking in Charms today and they said something about 'let's do it tonight'. I'm going to listen in more closely next period and see if I can figure out what they're doing or where they're meeting. Keep ya posted!"
As she ran off in the other direction, Minerva turned to Maggie. "Maggie... we're not really going to go spy on them are we? I mean, Rei's the one with a crush on that Remus kid, so why do the rest of us have to go?"
"Well I suppose we could bow out. We do have that ridiculously long essay for Binns to write tonight." Truthfully, Maggie didn't want to go either.
"Ok, great!" Minerva cheered up at this. "Stalking around in bushes is not my idea of fun..."
Maggie nodded. She and Minerva had free period next, so they went to the library to write the dreaded essay for Professor Binns. After an hour, Maggie threw down her quill in a strange mix of disgust and accomplishment. "I am done!"
"How?" demanded Minerva.
"I am skilled in the art of turning rubbish into something that sounds good!" Maggie exclaimed. She saw Snape walk in, looking at bit lost. "Hey, Sev!" she said. He glanced over, as if expecting someone to hex him, but relaxed when he saw a familiar face. He walked over to Maggie and Minerva.
"Hello. What are you two up to?"
"Three foot essay," laughed Maggie. "What are you looking for?"
Snape said the name of a book in the restricted Defense Against the Dark Arts section, saying that Breaux mentioned it.
"That's in the restricted section. You can only get books from there if you have a note or if you're taking an advanced class... usually seventh year."
Severus stayed and talked for a while and then walked out, saying he had to run to Potions or else he would be late.
"Bye," Minerva said. "He seemed really nervous."
Maggie watched Snape walk out. "Lily told me that a bunch of the Slytherins are being rude to him for hanging around with her and Gryffindors in general. And some of the people in our house are as well. I don't see the big deal. He seems like a nice kid."
Minerva
Minerva went to bed that night thinking about what Maggie had said in the library. Why did there have to be the great rift between the Houses? Sure, Slytherin had turned out more dark wizards than any other house, but still, some of them were nice enough. However, these people must end up in Slytherin for a reason... after all, the Hat chose them. Minerva rolled over with the last thought of the night, that it would be very interesting to see which of her Slytherin schoolmates turned out to be dark wizards...
The next morning at breakfast Rei and Lily found Minerva, Maggie, and Selene and sat down with them. Rei, looking, disgruntled, said, "Well, I found out nothing..."
"We did see Professor Dumbledore and Professor Tenet overseeing some wizards planting a nasty looking tree in the distance though." said Lily, bemused. "Its branches were flailing around as if they were arms trying to hit someone!"
"Weird…" said Maggie. The other girls didn't know what it could be- they hadn't covered anything like that in Herbology. In Transfiguration that day, they were supposed to be turning beetles into flies. Minerva was doing it lazily by now and had a small colony around her, which she sneakily sent flying towards Selene and Maggie, just to annoy them. As the other two glared at her with malice, there was a knock on a door.
"Come in." said Professor McGonagall. Professor Breaux came in looking rather distressed and whispered urgently to McGonagall, whose face quickly became worried. She tried to mask it as she called Anita Anderson of Ravenclaw up to the front. Anita, suddenly alarmed, was ushered out of the room by Professor Breaux.
Minerva, Maggie, and Selene looked at each other. "Keep transfiguring your beetles. Most of you still need practice." said McGonagall with a forced smile.
"What was that all about?" asked Selene when they were leaving the class. "I don't know, but I know how we can find out." said Minerva. Living in the castle for the last four years since her mother was hired had its advantages. Minerva led the girls up to the teachers' staffroom. She slowly creaked the door open, and seeing no one inside, hurried the other girls into the rather cramped closet.
Leaving the door slightly open, they could see Professor Flitwick walk in with Minerva's mother. "... took her out of my class." McGonagall was saying.
"But why would they do that?" asked Flitwick.
"Well, Anita's father is apparently very high up in the Auror Department. They were going on a raid of Aspan Malfoy's manor and on the way there he and his party was attacked!"
"Was anyone else hurt?"
"Alastor Moody was fine, as always, but a few others were injured. Anderson and two of the attackers were the only ones killed."
The girls hiding in the closet gazed at each other in horror. Although this type of thing was becoming more common since the dark wizard calling himself Lord Voldemort had been rising to power since last year, it was the first time one of their own in Hogwarts had been affected so directly.
Maggie got very quiet as they walked back to class. She folded her arms tightly around herself, her expression dark. Minerva looked at her friend, and instantly knew what she was thinking. Maggie's mother was an Auror. So was Rei's, their new friend. As they walked back into class, Minerva's arm was slung over her friend's shoulders.
Rei
Rei Scorch was a girl that always knew what was going on. At the moment though, she felt completely in the dark. Four boys, named James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were up to something and she didn't know about it.
Maggie, Minerva and Selene had come to lunch looking very, very pale and worried, Maggie more so than the other two girls. When she asked what was wrong, all three made up some story about having a hard time in Transfiguration. Rei knew that it was a lie on Minerva's part. That girl never had trouble in Transfiguration. Then, there was Professor McGonagall and Professor Breaux. They were acting very strange as well, and in the hallway, she overheard the two talking about "increasing security". Something was going on at Hogwarts.
It was during Charms that Rei was pondering all of this and she swung her wand so hard in frustration that it collided with Lily's and blew up into a storm of confetti. "Oops." Lily, normally very studious and annoyed when something interrupted, starting laughing much to Rei's surprise. "Rei. I think... you have...glitter...up your nose..." she said in between giggles. Snape smiled when he looked over, glad to see his friend having a good time.
Professor Flitwick looked over and was about to come to them when Professor Dumbledore himself came inside. "Excuse me, Filius. Can I borrow you for a moment or two? John agreed to supervise your class. They are first years correct?"
"Oh, yes sir!" squeaked Flitwick, tumbling off his podium.
Dumbledore smiled at the first years. "Good. He should be able to handle it." Dumbledore turned to the children. "Don't explode anything up high. You'll ruin the ceiling," he said with a smile. "I would know." He winked and then he and Flitwick walked outside while John Flitwick and Sean Sommers came inside.
"Cool! Confetti!" exclaimed Sean, grabbing a handful and throwing at the other first years. The Slytherins looked at him in disgust. "All I got was soot on my first feather blowup!"
"That's because you're a prat," John replied. "You guys can practice while I'm in here. 'Wingardium Leviosa', right?"
"I keep exploding my feathers!" complained half the class, Rei included. Laughing, John replied. "You may just be a little...over-enthused. If you exaggerate your wand movements, you exaggerate how big you want the spell to be. Just a simple swish and flick, like my Dad has probably been trying to beat into you all period."
Rei then had a brilliant idea. "John, I need serious help!" As soon as John walked over, she pulled him down to her desk. "What's going on with the teachers?" she whispered. Lily's eyes flicked over and she moved a little closer, but other than that here was no sign that she was listening.
John shook his head. "I don't know the specifics..." "That's ok, just give me SOME kind of information. I don't like being out of the loop!" whispered Rei. John shifted his eyes to survey the other students before focusing on Rei again.
"Ok, look, all I heard was that there was some kind of fight between some of Voldemort's followers and some people from our side... Some Ministry people think they should increase security here because some parents have expressed concerns." he whispered very quickly. WHACK! Sean had come up and smacked John on the side of the head.
Sean hissed through clenched teeth, "You were not supposed to say anything! Just because we happened to overhear your dad talking to people doesn't mean we're supposed to know anything either!"
"I didn't tell her much... besides, it's not like we know much anyway."
Sean gave him a reproaching glance and went to help Snape with his technique. John followed, but not before warning Rei not to say anything to anyone. Rei left class feeling slightly better now that she knew as much as the two third-year boys... and more than she was supposed to in the first place.