DISCLAIMER: ALL HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and the respective publishing companies. I do own Jenn Parksen, Lori Wilson, and Monica Sinclair as well this twisted version of the plot. This is, of course, a simple Fan-Fiction that I have written in order to retain some semblance of sanity and dignity.
Chapter 4: Suspicion and Haste
After taking a moment to rearrange themselves so that they were circled around Jenn as she reopened the book, they picked up right where they had left off just a heartbeat before. They read only a few more lines before learning the name of Mrs. Dursley, upon hearing it Lily couldn't believe her own ears.
Lily frowned uncertainly and squinted her eyes a fraction before asking, "Did I just read what I think I read?" Her eyes narrowed further and her brow furrowed as her frown deepened "How could that be the wife's name?"
Jenn, a touch nervous herself, looked up and was startled to see her uneasiness reflected on Lily's face. "I don't think you read it wrong, Lily, it definitely reads Petunia. Why?" she countered, her voice rising slightly at the end betraying her nervousness.
"Lily, isn't that your sister's name?" Lori asked timidly
"Yes," Lily hissed furiously, anger mingling with her uncertainty as she tore her eyes away from the book and stared out at the room without really seeing it, "and this Dursley Woman sounds so very much like her, even her physical description is very close!"
"But Lily, How could your sister be in a book that's at least a hundred years old?" Jenn asked in a slightly calmer voice as her rational side kicked in.
"It could be, maybe..." Monica inserted quietly, "that all people named Petunia are real prats. Maybe it's a... a... requirement for being names Petunia!"
Everyone was silent for a moment watching to see how Lily took it then, when Lily broke out in a fit of giggles, everyone sighed with relief. "You're right; I'm just extra sensitive about things where she is concerned." Still chuckling, the girls turned back to the book and started reading again only to stop once more when they read of Mrs. Dursley's reaction to being questioned about her sister.
"Yes, just like my sister. Did I ever tell you guys what she said when I was leaving for the Hogwarts Express at the end of summer?" Lily asked.
"No, you didn't, what did she say?" Lori asked back.
"I was heading down the stairs and said goodbye to her politely and she replied 'Good Riddance freak'," Lily said quietly. "Nothing would make her happier than if I never stepped foot in the same house with her ever again. Sometimes, I even think she would prefer that I was dead."
Shocked by such bluntness from Lily about her sister it took a moment before any of the others replied.
"Does she really hate you that much?" Lori asked.
"Has she always hated you like that?" Jenn asked at the same time as Lori.
"Yes, she hates me with a burning passion. It's the only passion she has really, besides spying and gossiping about the neighbors. No, Jenn, we used to be best friends until I got my Hogwarts letter on my eleventh birthday. Petunia became bitter shortly after that and slowly started ignoring me. Every year she would get a little worse, until two years ago we had a huge row and Mum and Dad got involved. Since then, well, we haven't said much to each other and I try to be nice, but she refuses to be civil in return. It's like she can't remember all the times we played side by side."
"Maybe," said Jenn slowly, "she does remember and she's just jealous because you got the letter and she didn't."
Lily shrugged her shoulder and after a moment they all turned back to the book and began reading it once more. They didn't get much further down the page, though, to where the cat in the story was mentioned once more and Jenn snapped the book shut around her finger as her brow furrowed with frustration.
"Okay, what's with the stupid cat?" Jenn demanded of the book irrationally. "It's been mentioned three times now, and never enough information to understand the reasoning behind it."
"Jenn?"
"Yeah, Lori?"
"It's just a cat. In a story. Can you get over it? Or is it going to torment you indefinitely?"
Jenn sat fuming and glaring at Lori while Lily and Monica giggled quietly, hiding behind their hands. It was some time before she calmed down enough to set the book back down so they could continue reading the story. They read without interruption until the cat was mentioned again.
Jenn opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Lori who said:
"We know Jenn, fourth time the cat has been mentioned. I'll keep count for you!"
Jenn huffed a bit but turned her eyes back to the book, and they read on until…
"Yes that's five," Lori commented as Jenn opened her mouth to speak.
"And that was a wizard!" Monica cried.
"Really?" Lily asked a bit unsurely. "I thought it might have been a man-shaped flower that suddenly bloomed in the moonlight," Lily looked over at Monica innocently before the others burst into laughter.
"Lily," Lori laughed. "You are a nut!"
"Yes," Lily agreed. "But that means you are too. After all, I was normal until I met you."
At this point Jenn fell off the bed in a fit of laughter and the book went sliding down with her. Lori dove off the bed and quickly pounced on it before Jenn could pick it up and they both crawled back up onto the bed. Lori spent a moment finding the page they'd been reading before settling back beside the others and they began reading once more only to stop when they learned the name of the wizard who had appeared so suddenly, and unwelcomingly, in that ordinary town.
"Dumbledore?" Lily squeaked. "Professor Dumbledore was involved in this?"
"How, I mean he's so old now, how can he look and be that old back then?" Jenn wondered.
"How old is Professor Dumbledore anyway?" Monica asked
"I think he's around a hundred and thirty - hundred thirty five right now," Lori answered with a puzzled look.
"If this book was written in eighteen-ninety-eight like you were thinking Lily, that's over a hundred years ago," Jenn stated. "That would make him only in his late twenties. How is it he's so old in a book that is almost as old as him?" They were all looking quite confused for a moment.
Finally after several moments they turned back to the book and kept reading and managed to get though an entire paragraph before Jenn interrupted once more.
"Number six!" Jenn interrupted triumphantly. "See –"
She was cut off when Lily swung a pillow at her and smacked her in the face so that they could keep reading. That didn't last long because Jenn interrupted again at the end of yet another paragraph.
"Sev..." Jenn started, but was cut short when Monica sat on her and clamped her hand firmly over Jenn's mouth and nodded in Lori's direction. Monica kept her hand over Jenn's mouth as they read, but it didn't stop her from trying to interrupt once more. A muffled "efft" came from Jenn but was ignored by the others as they kept reading.
However, after the next line it was Lori who interrupted.
"Professor McGonagall?" Lori said in a stunned voice. "She's in this book? How can that be? She's younger then Dumbledore isn't she? And now that I think of it, we'd seen her animagus form back in third year and that was a pretty accurate description of her facial markings earlier in the chapter."
"Now wait a minute," Jenn cried after tearing Monica's hand from her mouth. "How is it possible that McGonagall looks exactly the same then as she does now!? Even if she was alive back when this book was written, she'd have been in diapers still!"
"And there is no way she would have been a professor and an animagus," Lori exclaimed, "even if she was a bit older and out of diapers. I mean, it takes years to learn how! And you have to be registered! We learned about that in our third year."
Lily didn't answer. Her eyes were focused entirely on the book. She had a strange twisted expression on her face, as though she had just discovered something and didn't really want to believe the truth. In a strangled voice she asked for Lori to give her back the book. As Lily sat staring at the book, her face went white as a sheet.
"Lily?" Monica asked softly. "Are you OK?"
The girls all turned and watched Lily with concern.
"Something... something just isn't right about this book. It... it scares me." she whispered barely loud enough for the other girls to hear.
"Didn't you get it from the library Lily?" Jenn asked.
"Yes," Lily replied, "I found it in there."
"Well –" Lori started to say, when Lily interrupted her.
"Madam Pince had snapped at me when I tired to put it back on the shelf. She said it didn't belong in her library."
Monica squeaked in fright and Jenn blanched at this. Lori seemed to be trembling as well.
"What if it's full of dark magic!?" cried Monica. "It could be sucking our souls into it as we read!"
None of the girls laughed or scoffed at this thought, in their world, it was entirely possible for such a thing to happen. Their teachers had warned them about just such things happening to witches and wizards who weren't careful. Very few books of dark magic had warning labels to discourage the innocent from falling into the traps they held inside. For a long time the girls just sat there watching the book.
After a time, when nothing happened, Lori spoke up, "Do you think we should throw it away?"
"I... I don't know," Lily answered. "We don't know for sure if it has dark magic in it. I mean it could. There's something weird about it to say the least. But if we throw it away we'll never know and... oh... I just don't know."
"I say we keep reading," Jenn asserted. "We've already gotten through at least half of the chapter. If it is dark magic then it's already done enough damage from the moment we started reading."
Monica went chalk white at this, but didn't protest. Lily absently nodded in agreement and tried to clear her throat.
"O-okay," she replied as her voice paused before turning back to the book and took a sip of her pumpkin juice. She was sweating now in addition to trembling, and she seemed to have lost all color. Her normally livid red hair, hung dull and lifeless around her face, and there was a desperate shadow that kept flickering in her eyes. The other three girls looked just as frightened, but they didn't seem to be affected as bad as Lily.
As they were getting ready to read more, Jenn shot Lori a significant look that seemed to say: If things get worse, we take the book and burn it.
They only managed to read a few sentences before Jenn was speaking once more. "Eleven years?" Jenn mused. "That's more then You-Know-Who of our age has been around. He's only been around seven, maybe eight years."
"I think you're right Jenn, but how does that help explain Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall?" Lori countered.
"The whole book is scary," Monica piped in.
"I don't completely understand it myself," Lily said quietly. "Something about it... seems... well, it doesn't seem right." The others nodded in agreement and waited for Lily to gather her thoughts before they continued reading. Once more they managed to read several paragraphs before they read something that terrified them all.
They all paused and stared at the book, growing steadily paler.
"Oh. My. God," breathed Jenn. "Who in their right mind would dare write about him and boast that he was gone? Who is this J.K. Rowling anyway?"
Lily just shook her head slowly and let the book fall out of her hands and onto the bed. Jenn carefully picked the book back up and opened it to where they left off, determined to find out what this was all about.
Several paragraphs later they stopped briefly once more when Lori muttered, "Good, we are finally getting to the point."
A bit further down the page Jenn gasped in shock. She kept glancing at Lily, then back at the book. Lily's stomach twisted in fear as she stared at what was written on the page in front of her
A few minutes passed as they just sat there, before Lily furiously grabbed the book from Jenn, rereading the last sentence several times before she slammed the book closed and sat fuming. The other girls just sat and stared, shocked by what they had just read.
Potter, it had to be Potter who wrote the book. Lily couldn't believe he would stoop so low as to plant a fake book for her to read in the library! No wonder Madam Pince had known it didn't belong in the library. That dirty, rotten, low-down, stinking, good for nothing jerk! She thought to herself. Suddenly she jumped up off the bed startling the other three girls.
"I am going to kill him," She snarled, "he's gone way too far this time." So saying, she stormed out of her dorm and down the stars to the Common Room. Stumbling to a stop on the last step, she took a deep breath and screeched: "POTTER! Where are you hiding you sneaking, pathetic dirt bag!?"
Everyone in the whole room went dead quiet, and stared at Lily fuming on the bottom steps. No one dared to meet her eyes as she searched the room for James Potter, nor did any of them feel brave enough to tell Lily that he wasn't in the Common Room either. She was just about to yell again, when the portrait opened and three of the Marauders tumbled in laughing and talking excitedly about something.
Three steps into the room they stopped and stared about, breathing hard with ridiculous smirks plastered on their faces, trying to figure out why no-one was moving or saying anything. It was a second later that Remus saw Lily standing on the bottom step in a complete fury. Slowly he reached out and grabbed James sleeve and gave it a tug.
"Huh? Wha…?" He started to ask when he noticed what… or rather… who Remus was looking at. His smirk was just starting to turn flirtatious when Lily stalked up to him and… SLAP… the sound of her open palm meeting his face like the crack of a whip cut through the room as she slapped him hard across the face.
"What th…?" He started to sputter, when Lily cut him off.
"How dare you! I never thought you would stoop so low as this! You think it's all some game, don't you!? What gave you the right?" she yelled at him, her whole face red with fury.
Over the banister of the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories, Jenn and Lori were leaning over with shocked expressions on their faces. Monica was standing just behind them with her hands over her mouth and wide startled eyes.
"Lily... Please..." James tried to talk to her. Then he tried to grab Lily's arm and lead her away from the other students, who were all staring avidly and hanging on every word, but she yanked it away from him. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all looking confused, startled, and outraged all at once.
"Don't you dare touch me!" Lily screeched. Backing up a step, she took a ragged breath and started ranting at James once more. "You think that everything is one huge joke, one of the Marauder's famous pranks, don't you?" Lily choked as tears formed in her eyes. "Toying with people's feelings, with my…" Here her voice broke on a sob "…feelings without a single thought as to how much it hurts!"
Wiping the back of her hand across her face to rid her eyes of tears she turned to go. James gently grabbed her arm again to try and turn her to face him, but she just tugged it free and whispered, "I hate you, James Potter."
Stunned, James just stood there watching her as she climbed back up the stairs to her dorm. Her three friends were just as shocked as the rest of the Gryffindors in the room below and stood rooted to the floor. As the rest of the students heard the door slam shut from upstairs, the portrait burst open from behind and everyone jumped as they whipped around to see who had come in.
A disheveled McGonagall, in her dressing gown, stomped into the room looking extremely angry. "Just what is going on in here?" McGonagall demanded as she scrutinized each student. Her eyes lingered on James face, where a bright, red hand print lingered – giving silent testimony of the strength behind Lily's slap. "Well? I'm waiting!"
James opened his mouth, looking like he was going to answer, when he closed it again. Sirius and Remus looked at each other uncomfortably then looked at James.
"If I don't get an explanation right this minute, I will start deducting House points for each person who is standing, or sitting, in this room. Is that clear?" McGonagall turned her stern gaze to fix each student in turn.
Bravely clearing his throat, Sirius made a bad attempt at an explanation, at the same time as Remus offered an explanation.
"Well, Mc... Professor McGonagall, Ma'am. We had just... um… well..."
"You see Professor we…"
They were both cut off when James spoke up. "Professor, it's my fault. I was over excited about our first Quidditch practice and I got carried away. I'm sorry, it'll not happen again."
Remus and Sirius looked at James with a half shocked expression. Peter squeaked from where he had been standing near the fireplace and made as if to hide behind another boy. No one else in the room made a single sound as they waited to see if McGonagall would see through the lie.
Professor McGonagall didn't say a word. She stared at James for a very long time, weighing what he had told her, all the time staring at the hand print that so brightly painted his face. Finally she spoke: "Very well, Potter, I expect you too keep your word. And…"
The Marauder's all shuddered at the wealth of meaning McGonagall's voice lent to the simple 'and' as she drew it out and fixed James with a stern stare. The four boys had learned long ago that nothing good ever followed that simple conjunction.
"And," she continued. "You will serve two detentions for disrupting the school this late at night. I expect to see you in my office first thing in the morning, at eight o'clock sharp."
James bowed his head in acknowledgment and stood quietly as Professor McGonagall turned and left the room.
There was a flurry of activity as all the students turned to each other and started whispering excitedly, shooting fleeting glances towards the three Marauders who still stood rooted to the spot frowning up the stars. Sirius tentatively reached out to James, who seemed lost, as he stood focusing up the stars where Lily had disappeared.
"James?" Remus asked softly. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just dandy." was all he said in response. Then he turned to address the Common Room. "I think it best if everyone headed up to bed now. If McGonagall returns, she will not be pleased to find us all hanging around here after she told us off. I also think it would be in our best interest if what really happened tonight didn't leave the Gryffindor Common Room. I, for one, would not like Slytherin to have anything to use against us."
With that James headed up the stairs without looking back. After giving each other a quick look, Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed quietly behind. The rest of the students quietly picked up their books and headed up stairs to bed.