Disclaimer: Harry Potter, no matter how good-looking he and his mates are, is not my property. Damn.
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"I've got an idea!" cried Dorcas, snapping out of her insane laughter fit for a moment. She pulled Vanessa up off the sand. "Help me out here, Ness!"
The two of them ran back to where I had dumped the water bucket. They lifted it up and heaved it towards the rock on which Polly sat.
"Dorcas!" I cried, trying to stop her. "No! We just got that –"
But it was too late. They threw the bucket of water over Polly with a chorus of, "Snap out of it, Oxford!"
I crumpled into the sand as I watched the water drench Polly until she looked like a drowned rat. "Idiots," I said.
Polly's eyes widened as the cold water hit her and she toppled off the rock, headfirst into the sand. She got up again, covered in sandy mud. "What – What's going on?" she asked, whipping her head around so fast, I thought her neck was going to snap.
"Polly," I said, trying to maintain a calm voice. "It's okay. You're going to stay here with Dorcas and Vanessa" – I pointed at them to make sure she knew who they were – "and Emmeline and I are going to get some more water. Do you understand?"
Polly blinked a couple of times before nodding slowly.
"Good." I grabbed Emmeline's arm and the bucket that lay in the sand. "Let's go."
"Oh, but it's dark in there," Emmeline moaned as I pulled her towards the forest.
"Emmeline, what house are you in?" I asked in a tired voice.
"Gryffindor," she answered quietly.
"And what animal represents us?"
"A griffin."
Oh. That's right. "Um. Yeah. And, uh, what do griffins do?"
"Fly?" asked Emmeline, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion.
"Oh, whatever," I said, dragging her forcefully into the forest. "You're s'posed to be brave. That's what I was going for."
"Well, that didn't work too well then," said Emmeline scornfully.
"Shut up, at least it distracted you enough to get you in here," I said, continuing to pull her deeper and deeper into the forest.
"Oh damn," said Emmeline. "Where's my big stick when I need it?"
"What?" I said, beginning to turn around to face her when there was a hollering from above. "Oh, what now?" I said angrily, looking upwards.
There was some rustling from above and James (I could no longer call him Potter, since Potter wasn't quite as insane, nor was he the type to swing from vines that could barely hold him.) came swinging down. There was a loud snap and he fell in a heap just in front of us.
Emmeline cowered behind me. "Told you they'd gone insane," she whispered.
"What the hell are you doing, James?" I said, looking at him incredulously.
"Are you the King of Islands?" he asked as he scrambled to his feet with a messy salute. His robes were somewhat torn and he'd tied his socks into some kind of headband.
"Do I look like him?" I asked, tapping my foot.
"Not really," said James slowly, squinting at me through his lenses. I was surprised his glasses had kept together through this whole ordeal.
"Then no, I'm not the King of Islands. Can we please go past you now; I do want to get some water before it gets any darker."
James stepped aside and saluted us. "Proceed."
"Freak," I muttered as Emmeline and I walked past.
The two of us reached the small lake and I filled the woven bucket to the top. "This'll do," I said, lifting it with all my strength.
"Uh, Lily…" said Emmeline, tapping me on the shoulder. "Is it normal for someone to be pointing a very large stick at us and then running forwards?" she asked, her voice going squeaky as she reached the end of her sentence.
"Of course n –" I began and then I saw Lockhart. "Oh, Merlin!" I cried, grabbing Emmeline and pulling her to the ground with me.
Lockhart took a flying leap, in order to attack us better, but since we'd ducked, he flew straight over us and into the lake with a loud splash.
"Right," I said, grabbing the bucket with both hands. "We're getting out of here. Everyone's going insane."
Emmeline and I hurried out of the forest and back onto the beach.
Where a tall hut stood at the edge of the forest.
"Oh, cool!" cried Emmeline, running over to it.
Dorcas suddenly appeared on the roof, with grass between her teeth. She smoothed out the grass of the roof and looked down at Emmeline. She waved. "Hey y'all! What time did youse get back from that there forest, ay?"
"Oh God," I muttered, forgetting all about Merlin. Dorcas had somehow managed to fashion her robes into overalls and the grass in her mouth just completed the 'country bumpkin' look.
"Hey!" said Vanessa, who had finished weaving a large rectangle from palm fronds and waved at us. "Did you get some more water then?"
"Thank God you're normal," I said, dragging the water over to the hut.
"Oh, yeah, Dorcas has been like that for a little while now. She claimed she was channelling dead spirits or something," said Vanessa, dragging the rectangle up and placing it in front of the open doorway of the hut. She looked at it critically and grabbed some long leaves off the ground and tied to door into place. "Done!"
"Hooray!" said Dorcas, leaping down and beginning a small jig. "We gots ourselves a purdy li'l hut to stay the night!"
"I'm sorry, Dorcas," I said, bending down and picking up the stick Emmeline had been holding a while ago. "But I really must do this." I raised the stick above my head and hit Dorcas straight on the head.
"Lily!" cried Vanessa, her eyes wide. "You killed her!"
"I didn't kill her," I said, looking down at Dorcas lifeless body. "I just knocked her out for a while."
Vanessa's eyes didn't blink. She paused for a moment. "Lies," she hissed.
"Vanessa, honestly, I used to do this to Petunia all the time; she'll live, I swear!" I dropped the stick and took a couple of steps back.
Vanessa's eyes had narrowed to slits. She took a slow step forwards. "Lies," she hissed again.
I sighed, and swiftly bent down and picked the stick up again. "Sorry," I said simply, knocking her 'round the head.
Emmeline's jaw had dropped. "Great!" she said, throwing her hands up in the air. "Now you've killed two of our friends!"
"They're not dead!" I said. "How many times do I have to say it?"
Emmeline raised her eyebrows skeptically but she didn't say anything else. We left Vanessa's and Dorcas' bodies lying where they were and walked up the beach a little way.
"So, where do you think we can get some kind of food around here?" asked Emmeline, looking around. "Somehow I don't think this is the type of island to have a Honeydukes stashed away somewhere."
I smiled as I looked up at the palm trees swaying overhead. This place would be quite nice if it wasn't so… Deserted.
Suddenly there was a rustling of bushes on our left, inside the forest.
"What was that?" Emmeline asked fearfully, clutching at my arm.
"Uh…" I said, staring into the blackness. "It was probably just a bird or something."
"Lily," said Emmeline, suddenly looking straight into my face.
"What?"
"We haven't seen a bird, or any kind of animal for that matter, since we got here."
I blinked. "So, what was –"
"HELP!" a male's voice screamed and someone leapt out at us.
As seemed to be the norm since we had arrived on this damn island, I pulled Emmeline down as we both ducked.
"Oh, uh, sorry 'bout that," said a voice apologetically. Emmeline and I slowly got to our feet and turned around.
Remus stood there, his sandy hair covered in actual sand and he picked at the tattered sleeves of his robes nervously.
There was an awkward pause before…
"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!" screamed Emmeline, her eyes wide. "ARE YOU INSANE?"
"Emmeline," I said, patting her arm. "I think we've worked out that everyone is insane."
"Look, I'm sorry," said Remus. "Sirius was chasing me; he said I had to help him convince James that swimming for help was not an option."
"Right," I said, nodding along with his story. "Wait, what? James is swimming for help?"
Remus nodded sadly. "The main problem is that he can't swim."
"Oh, Merlin," I said, smacking my face with my palm. "Right," I said, looking back up at them again. "Let's go."
"Go where?" asked Emmeline nervously as I grabbed her wrist.
"Into the forest, where else? We're finding James."
"Wait… James? You actually wanna save that boy?" asked Emmeline incredulously.
"Emmeline, we should all stick together, you said that yourself. And if it means –"
"Lily," said Remus, turning to look at the forest.
"What?" I said, annoyed.
"Don't worry, Emmeline," said Remus. "They're coming out of the forest."
At that moment, James, Sirius, Peter and Lockhart came scurrying out the forest, James clearly in the lead.
"You can't talk me out of this!" cried James. "The King appeared to me in a vision and told me I have to do this!"
"James, the King doesn't exist! We were going mental at the time!" Sirius tried to explain. "YOU CAN'T SWIM!" he screamed as an afterthought.
"The King of Islands said I could," said James, shrugging off what was left of his robe leaving him in just his torn pants and no shirt. I should have looked away. But I couldn't.
"Prongs!" cried Peter, clearly just wanting to be part of the conversation. "Padfoot's right, you can't swim!"
"I refuse to listen to you republicans," said James defiantly, turning away from his best friends. "The King knows all. I must do this."
"He's not joking," said Sirius, watching him climb onto the rock that Polly had been perched on before. The tide has risen further and the water was deeper. "He's actually going to do it."
"He's not joking," I said quietly, as he stretched and jogged in the spot to ready himself. "He's actually going to do it."
And with that, James dived into the ocean.
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Hey again! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, even though it's awfully short. The next one should be longer.
Hope you are all having a nice day! Especially my cousin! Happy birthday once again!
