Author's note: I'm alive! Hehe... Sorry it took so long to update... I had to sort out a load of GCSE stuff at school, then it took ages to write, then my beta wouldn't beta... And on top of all of that, my internet suddenly decided it had had enough. So yeah. All in all, not the best time for fanfiction. But it's here now, and it's gaining a plot! Haha :) Anywho... please read and review, and I'll update chapter nine asap :P Hehe :P
Lily walked slowly along the corridor. She stared around her, absorbing her surroundings, and attempting to memorise them. She knew for a fact that she would fail.
Having returned the Cloak and Map to her older brother, much to her chagrin, she was completely and utterly lost. She honestly didn't have a clue where Filch's office was, and it was already 7 o'clock.
Great, she thought. My first detention, and I'm late.
Lily suddenly saw someone walking in the opposite direction. Upon closer inspection, she saw it was Scorpius Malfoy.
"Oi! Scorp!" Lily shouted at the blonde boy, jogging up to him. He raised his eyebrow at her, but couldn't disguise the look of apprehension on his pointed face.
"Yes?" he asked. "If it's concerning pies, I'm leaving."
"Well…" said Lily, looking up at him, plastering a look of innocence across her heart-shaped face. I hate being short, Lily thought to herself, irritated. She laughed out loud, however, when Scorpius narrowed his eyes and walked off.
"Alright, Scorp, I'm kidding," she called after him, jogging up to him again. He stopped and turned, sighing exasperatedly.
"Fine. What is it?" he asked.
"Do you know where Filch's office is?" she asked. Scorpius smirked slightly.
"Oh yeah, detention," he said, the smirk never leaving his pale face. He checked his watch, and the smirk grew. "And you're five minutes late already – tut tut Miss Potter." Lily raised her eyebrow. His expression lost some of its amusement. "Alright," he said, sighing. "It's on the floor below. Go down the stairs through that corridor, turn left, and it's the second door on the right."
Lily smiled. "Why thank you, kind Mr Malfoy. I shall see you soon – maybe I'll have a pie with me," she said, and saw Scorpius visibly pale before she skipped off, smirking to herself. She only had to mention the word 'pie', and Scorpius was wrapped around her finger.
As Lily hurried to Filch's office a floor down, she couldn't help but wonder at the size of the castle. Arriving at the correct door, Lily knocked, and almost fell forwards as the door opened immediately.
"You're late." Argus Filch stood in the doorway. His grey hair still had a few streaks of brown in it, and it hung lank around the bald patch in the middle to his shoulders. A disgusted expression twisted his features into a grimace as he looked down at Lily. Lily scowled in return – Filch was shorter than many of the students, yet he was still at least eight inches taller than she was. Being short was uncomfortable at Hogwarts – the average height for the older students was around five foot seven.
"In," directed Filch, his scratchy, hoarse voice harsh. Lily walked past him, into the office. It was small, over-filled with filing cabinets and a small desk covered in parchment and small cards. Filch limped past Lily around his desk.
"Revolting behaviour," he was mumbling as he scribbled on a fresh card. "Crime… knocking two fourth years unconscious and incapacitating a third… Suggested punishment… a weeks worth of detentions in the forest, working with Hagrid… that should do it…"
"Um, Mr Filch?" Lily said tentatively. She had been told many tales of how Filch was fighting ferociously for the 'old punishments' to be reinstated. From what she had heard, the 'old punishments' involved hanging children by their thumbs in the dungeons. "Does that mean I should, I don't know, uh go to Hagrid's instead of coming here every evening, then?" she asked innocently.
Filch ignored her. "You go down to Hagrid's hut now," he said grabbing Lily's shoulder and thrusting her out into the corridor. "He will tell you what to do."
The office door slammed in Lily's face.
"That was friendly," she said to herself, before turning around and attempting to find the stairs.
After wandering aimlessly for a good fifteen minutes, Lily finally found the main door, gently pushing it open. The cool evening air washed over her face, and she breathed in the scent. She loved the outdoors. Seeing Hagrid's hut, she jogged down the steps towards it.
Hagrid was standing outside his door, a large crossbow in his dustbin-lid hands.
"Abou' time!" he said, as he saw the redhead approach. "I've been standin' 'ere for twen'y minu'es!" He looked very indignant, grey streaks in his tangled dark hair. Lily smiled innocently.
"I got lost – it's a very big school, you know." Hagrid's expression softened, and he started walking towards the Forest.
"Alrigh'. Bu' yer do realise yer weren't supposed ter see me before Friday, so havin' detention already ain' gonna make yer Mum happy," said Hagrid, as Lily jogged after him.
"Yeah, I know. But Grandma and Grandpa always say that I'm too much like Dad's dad for my own good – apparently Dad's parents were in third or fourth year or something when Grandma left," said Lily, jogging to keep up with Hagrid's long strides. He laughed and nodded in agreement.
"That's defin'ly true," he said, smiling.
They walked around the back of the hut, past the pumpkin patch and onwards into the trees.
"Hey, Hagrid," said Lily, after they walked for about ten minutes. "What are we actually doing?" The trees were massive, black beams pointing up into the still quite light sky. The forest floor was full of branches and bushes, seeming to wait to snag on to her robes and trip her up. Hagrid was easily stepping over them, but Lily had to jump. Not that she minded – it was fun not just walking across a plain field for once. Besides, forests were, quite frankly, brilliant. There weren't really any in Dover, it was all fields and sea, but when she went somewhere where there were some, Lily loved them.
"Yeh know, I'm not tha' sure," said Hagrid, faltering slightly, and Lily caught up with him. "I didn' really ge' a lot o' time ter decide what ter do with yer. So, er, I guess…" Hagrid trailed off, his enormous wiry mane of silver-grey hair the lightest point in the darkness inside the forest. The light from the setting sun didn't seem to penetrate this far into the trees, leaving darkness all around them.
He kept leading Lily, though, on into the trees, into the shadows. Lily wasn't scared. Not a lot scared Lily. She knew for a fact that there was nothing to fear from the dark. There was nothing to fear from heights. There was nothing to fear from spiders – though she had yet to encounter any Acromantula. Snakes weren't scary, and often had very interesting things to say. There was no Basilisk, there was no monster hiding in the wardrobe or under the bed. And even if there was – if it hadn't attacked her yet, why should it now? She scrutinised the trees around her curiously, wondering if there were any interesting snakes she could talk to in them. Or cats. Though normally cats just babbled on about being hungry or just never said anything at all. For such elegant creatures, they really weren't very bright.
"Righ'," Hagrid said suddenly, coming to a complete standstill. "Jus', uh, go pick some leaves, I guess." Lily raised her eyebrow. Hagrid shifted uncomfortably. "I don' really know what ter do with yer, yeh see?" he said. Lily smiled, and turned to the trees.
"You know, it would probably be more interesting if what you did do was tell me about all the stuff that lives here, while I, uh, pick leaves," she said, making air quotes as she said 'pick leaves'. Hagrid looked jubilant that she wanted to know about the creatures.
"Alrigh'," he said joyfully, directing Lily to a plant Professor Flibbin might need, and began talking his way through his animals. She was fascinated as she listened about the unicorns, the Bowtruckles, the Thestrals and the Acromantula. Her dad had never really gone into much detail about everything he had faced in the Forest; probably because it was one of the places he had done his greatest deeds, and he was ridiculously modest. Lily was so enthralled in Hagrid's explanation of the mostly unknown life of the centaurs that she failed to notice the chugging sounds of an engine until a bright light flashed straight into her eyes. Hagrid stopped talking immediately, and raised his crossbow. Lily looked around him curiously, and almost burst out laughing as she saw what had emitted the light.
It was a very dirty, clearly very old, very battered Ford Anglia.
"Hagrid," said Lily slowly, stifling her giggles with her hand. "Why is there a car in the Forest?" Hagrid relaxed when he recognised it, and sighed heavily.
"That, Lily Potter, is a long story," he said. Lily just looked at him, her expression seeming to say 'I have time.'
"Oh dear Merlin, we'd better get yer back up ter the castle," he said suddenly, realising how dark the sky had got. His explanations had been particularly long-winded.
"Oh. Well, can you tell me why this car is here tomorrow then?"
And that's exactly what he did. Lily's detentions that week were pleasantly recreational, not really being much of a punishment, and more about story telling from Hagrid. By the end of the week, Professor Flibbin absolutely loved her, having received an enormous pile of various important ingredients for his potions, and Lily had about as much knowledge of her father's doings as he did, and apparently knew about as much about some of the magical creatures in the forest as many fourth years. Hagrid got very excited when describing his various pets, including a rather large three-headed dog named Fluffy, who was apparently still alive somewhere in the forest. Lily wasn't really bothered by the detentions, and perfectly happy spending time in the forest. She was genuinely enjoying her time there, especially when the old Ford Anglia was seen trundling around between the trees. She was amazed by how much her father had actually done, especially at such a young age.
Her mother, on the other hand, was not particularly pleased by Lily's little excursion in the Great Hall. Ginny Weasley was forced to send a Howler to her daughter, something she knew she would have to do right from the start; but never that soon. She hadn't needed to send one to James for at least a week. When the red envelope had arrived at Gryffindor table at breakfast, only James found it amusing – the rest of the entire hall was looking slightly pitying. All except for Sienna, Pennie and Gerald, of course. Harry sent a disappointed letter to his only daughter, stressing that she shouldn't knock out strangers, however rude they were being. It was not something that should be done. The thing Lily found most funny, however, was the reaction of her Uncle George – in his reply to her letter, which she had eventually sent, having finally found the Owlery, he congratulated her on getting a detention on her first day of lessons; he and his late twin brother, Fred, were the only ones they knew who had matched that record.
The first few weeks of school were not particularly difficult to Lily. Jazz was always the first to master any spells or do her homework; as it turned out, she was a complete perfectionist and slightly worrying in the amount of time she spent doing work. Leo became gradually louder and louder as the days went by, attracting a little too much attention from teachers – but somehow he always managed to get the work done. Lily and Finn were also managing to stay on top of all of their assignments with relative ease – Cyrus appeared amazed that none of them had become Ravenclaws. Astra, on the other hand, refused to speak to Lily. It hadn't been much of a bother for the first few days, but soon it became apparent that Astra was actually deliberately avoiding her. And Lily didn't appreciate it one bit.
She chose to confront Astra about it – there was no such thing to her as leaving something be. Lily had such a short temper anyway, letting her simmer was probably the most stupid idea there was. So, after another Potions lesson with relatively odd conversations with Finn and the most depressingly infuriating praise she was constantly receiving from Professor Flibbin ever since she had returned from her detentions with piles of useful leaves, Lily cornered Astra outside the dungeons.
"Hey! Astra!" she shouted, muttering that she would catch up with Finn, Jazz and Leo, all of whom had become close friends of hers. Astra hesitated for a moment, her back stiffening, before she began walking again, faster than before. Lily glowered for a moment before running out in front of the blonde girl. Again, Astra stopped in her tracks, her blue and violet eyes widening behind her glasses, before attempting to duck her way around Lily.
"Oi! You're not getting away from me that fast, Thomas," said Lily harshly, grabbing on to the back of Astra's robes. Astra looked terrified, and other students were giving the pair very strange looks as Lily clung on to the black fabric with murder in her eyes. Though having murder in her eyes was not an uncommon occurrence for Lily, to people who didn't really know her, such as the struggling Astra, it was a truly terrifying sight. Lily was getting frustrated. Very frustrated. It was early October, and she had been going for the past few weeks without any idea what was making Astra so uncomfortable. In lessons, the blonde girl would keep her head down, speaking little, but never to Lily; in corridors, as soon as she caught a glimpse of the blonde head belonging to Astra Thomas, Lily would see that blonde head walking quickly away from the noticeable red of her own; even at meals – if Astra was there when Lily entered the Great Hall, five minutes later, Astra would be gone.
Suddenly, Astra stopped moving. She stood straight, upright, and turned to face Lily's angry brown gaze with nervous defiance in her eyes. Lily looked up the few inches between their heights in slight surprise; it had appeared at first that Astra had the same eccentric personality as her mother, Lily's namesake. But this quiet, nervous side was actually scaring her – the normally unscarable. It didn't seem right.
"Right," said Lily firmly. "I need to know something." Astra's worried gaze became slightly more worried. From her eyes, everything seemed slightly… well, worrying. It was impossible for Lily to see it herself, but her eyes, in that one Potions lesson a month ago, had actually changed colour.
And Astra knew, through all the stories she had read, all of the legends and myths, that colour-changing eyes in an eleven-year-old witch only meant one thing.
And it terrified the pants off her.
But her gaze didn't drop. She didn't dare. The only person Astra had told of her suspicions was her brother, but for some reason, Cyrus didn't care. Cyrus wasn't bothered by the fact that there was a girl in his year who was possibly one of the most famous, yet unmentioned, awed, yet feared beyond belief beings there was in the wizarding world. That, more than anything, scared Astra Thomas.
"Astra, I want to know why you are avoiding me," said the redhead suddenly, a firm, commanding tone that Astra involuntarily flinched at. Lily's eyes narrowed, and Astra saw them flicker for a moment. For a second they were just black orbs.
"I- I don't know what you mean," the young girl stuttered, knowing as she spoke that Lily would not believe the lie. Astra had never been a good liar. Again, Lily's eyes flickered to black for a moment, and Astra flinched once more.
"You know perfectly well what I mean, Thomas," snapped Lily, jabbing an accusing finger into Astra's face. Astra looked around her, but there was no one. Everyone had gone to dinner. "You know what I mean inordinately well, and I will not rest until I have a decent answer," Lily spat. Again, Astra winced. She cursed herself silently – why was it that people like that always terrified her? But still, she said nothing. Lily folded her arms and tapped a foot. Her eyes were glaring at Astra, who could not help but notice the darkness that enveloped them every so often. It was incredibly unnerving.
But still, Astra uttered no response.
Heaving a heavy, exasperated sigh, Lily stood up straight.
"Fine," she said shortly, and stepped back. "Fine, tell me nothing. Give me no reason at all why someone who I thought I could be friends with has just turned their back and keeps running away from me." Astra winced. 'Running away' was harsh. Lily turned to go, but after only a few paces down the empty corridor, she turned back.
"Oh, and believe me, I will find out."
And Astra did believe her.
Well, that's what you get, she thought to herself bitterly, watching the shorter girl's retreating back. One thing you can trust a Sorceress with; finding something out.
"Hey Lils," said Finn as Lily sat heavily opposite him. "What was the Astra interrogation about?" Jazz raised her eyebrow as Lily groaned and sagged in her seat.
"Ugh," said Lily, a scowl coming over her pale, lightly freckled features. "She won't tell me what I've done. I mean, after pointedly avoiding me for the last month, without me having any idea why, don't you think it would be decent to actually tell me?" Leo looked up briefly from the mountain of food on his plate – on which Lily counted at least six chicken drumsticks and five sausages – to give Lily a pitiful look. Lily threw an apple at him. She couldn't stand pity. Leo shrugged, and returned to his food with slightly worrying vigour. Lily smirked – if he hadn't been distracted by the food in front of him, he would have cried out in pain, and glared at her reproachfully for being hit in the nose by an apple. It had happened many times in the four or so weeks she had known him; for some reason, although being one of her best friends, Lily found many things annoying about Leo – and Finn, for that matter. But he got fewer apples in the face, and more books. It seemed ever since the first break Lily had placed in his nose, it had created a strange resistance to her.
"How is it possible for you to eat that much?" asked Jazz suddenly, and Lily looked round to see the Japanese girl with a revolted, yet still curious, expression on her face. She looked to Lily for support, but Finn raised his eyebrow in amusement as Lily just shrugged, uttering a nonchalant noise as she piled her plate with almost twice as much food as was on Leo's.
"Oh dear Merlin," said Jazz sadly, flopping her head on to her arms at the two first years. Finn just sat, repressing laughter as he watched the two eleven year olds practically inhale their food, as well as the Japanese one sighing heavily with her head on her arms.
His self-restraint finally failed, and he let out a shout of laughter at the completely unchanged scene in front of him. The reactions just made him laugh more: Leo stared at him, bewildered, before shrugging and returning once again to his food; Jazz glared at him with intensity rivalling that of Lily Potter when angry – which was saying something – until she ducked under the table and pulled a book out of her bag, and buried her nose in it; Lily didn't look up, and threw the plate next to her at him. It hit him like a discus, and he just laughed more.
And so the normal routine for their dinners was set. Lily and Leo would constantly over-eat, Jazz would hit her head against her arms, occasionally pretending to kill herself with a fork, and Finn would get a plate thrown at his head. However, Lily couldn't help but ponder over the reasons for Astra's distancing. It was driving her utterly insane; she couldn't stand not knowing why she was being ignored. It wasn't until just under two weeks later, on the fifteenth of October, that she had even the slightest clue why.
Lily was sat in the Gryffindor common room, ridiculously early in the morning, just staring into the gradually lightening sky. She had had a bad night's sleep; the dream she hadn't for a month haunted her – but the more she tried to cling to the specifics, the more they slipped through her fingers. It was that birdsong – that terrifying, haunting, creepy birdsong. The echoes reverberated in her head, and had done since four in the morning; when the vision had scared her awake.
It was raining. The patter of the raindrops against the high window she was staring out of soothed her as she sat, curled and warm, in one of the big, squashy armchairs by the fireplace now filled with nothing but ashes. But even now, hours later, she was still not rid entirely of the memory.
…Pitter patter…
The noise was so soothing to her… It made the birds seem further away… Jim jumped on to her lap, currently black and purple, and she idly scratched his ears as he purred loudly… Lily smiled slightly as she felt her eyelids getting heavier…
…Patter pitter…
Her eyelids were so heavy…
As Lily drifted into a deep slumber, early that Thursday morning, the dream returned to her. Again, she was alone, curled on the ground, trying to stop hearing the birdsong that was repeating over and over in her mind. It was cutting through her like a knife, attacking every fibre of her being and every thought in her mind with incredible strength and agony. If someone had seen her, they would probably have noticed the cold sweat that was breaking out all over her body, and the way her eyes darted under her eyelids. But she didn't know that – the only thought that was in her mind was the fear, the pure unadulterated terror that coursed through her veins. All she wanted was to get it out, was for the fear to leave…
It was seven in the morning. Leo woke with a huge grin plastered on his face, before he had even opened his shining grey eyes. And, to the horror of his dorm-mates, he proceeded to jump up and down on his bed, shouting as loudly and as joyfully as he could.
"IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I'M TWELVE! IN YOUR FACE, ELEVEN YEAR OLD MINIONS!" he yelled, pointing at Henry, Ivan and Finn in turn as they all sat up in shock and glared at him.
"IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, IT'S MY BIRTHDAY, IT'S MY-"
"IT'S GOING TO BE YOUR LAST DAY IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP!" roared the voice of an extremely angry Russian 'eleven year old minion'. Leo was so surprised at Ivan's outburst that he actually did shut up, sitting down on his bed slowly. But then, he suddenly registered the large pile of presents on his bed, and immediately started tearing the wrapping paper off them. He was soon completely submerged in paper.
"No WAY!" Leo yelled suddenly, ten minutes later, completely oblivious to his friends having got up and started putting their uniform on as he burst out of the pile of coloured paper and scared Henry so much, he fell over backwards, yelling at the top of his voice. Leo completely ignored Henry, holding up the new Nimbus 3000 above his head. It had only been released the previous week, and although it still wasn't as fast as the Firebolt that had been around for the last twenty or so years, it was the next best thing. Completely ignoring his friends, he jumped on the broom and flew straight out of the dormitory door after Finn, who was just leaving. If Leo hadn't been so excited, he probably would have been hurt at the lack of response his friends had on his birthday. As it happened, he was so excited, he completely forgot that the walls went round with the spiralling stairs. And he flew straight into them – falling off the broom and rolling down the stairs right in front of Finn.
He tumbled down the entire flight of stairs, but hardly even noticed the fall. Finn stood, utterly shell-shocked as Leo stood back up and jumped right back on his broom, following after him.
"Oi! Leo!" he called, tying his tie as he walked after his friend. "You do realise you just fell down the entire flight of stairs, then got up again, don't you?" Finn was very confused – he normally went down and sat in the common room in the mornings to wait for Leo and the girls, always seeming to be the first dressed, and he also knew that Leo was the last to get up – like Lily, apparently – but what was really bewildering him was the simple fact that Leo didn't actually care that he had just fallen down the stairs. Simply because he had a broom.
"Yeah, I know!" shouted Leo gleefully from somewhere near the ceiling of the common room. Finn gazed at him incredulously. He was in complete shock over the sudden change in Leo. It was already clear that the now twelve year old wore his heart on his sleeve, but this was just taking his excitement to new levels. Finn sighed, and sat down on one of the chairs, shoving the sleeping cat that belonged to Lily off the book he had left there the night before. Jim mewed indignantly, his fur becoming a venomous orange, and stalked off to sleep under the chair opposite him.
And that's when he saw Lily on the chair.
He looked around for a moment to make sure that there was actually no one else in the common room, and turned back to the sleeping Lily, bemused.
Alright… Today is just weird, he thought to himself.
But then he heard her.
It was just a whisper, but it was pained and quiet.
"No."
Finn had always been observant – quite possibly too much so – but if there was one thing he knew from his many younger cousins, they never cried quietly. No one, not a single person, ever cried out in pain, sorrow, loss, anything, quietly. Not unless it was just too much.
Finn flinched as he remembered when it had been too much for him.
"Mummy? Where's Daddy?" a four year old Finn Moore had looked at his mother expectantly. He had noticed recently that his dad hadn't come home. And that in itself was observant – his father had always left for work before he woke, and come home after he went to bed. But his dad hadn't come home at all for at least a week.
He watched Janet Moore take a deep shuddering breath as she paused in washing the dishes.
"He's gone for a little while," she said, and Finn could easily hear the note of sorrow in her voice that a regular four-year-old would have missed.
"But… He hasn't been here for a long time yet…" he had said, confused. But his mother had refused to give him a straight answer. That was the problem with Janet Lancaster – she had never tried to give him a proper answer, however much he begged for it, if she thought it would hurt him. So he had learnt to listen.
Over the next few weeks, he had noticed something. His father was not seen even once, but his mother was going out in suits a lot more, leaving him with the babysitter. When she held him, there were no rings on her hands. And when he went to pick up the post one day, it wasn't addressed to Janet Moore any more. It was addressed to Janet Lancaster.
"Mummy," he had said carefully that day. "Mummy, you're not married to Daddy any more, are you?" But he knew the answer before it came.
He looked carefully at Lily. Her whole body was trembling, so slightly that it was almost impossible to see. But he could. And he could see the way she was covered in a sheen of sweat as she lay, curled in the chair. And he saw the way her eyes moved, flicked in different directions under her eyelids.
"Make it end…"
He frowned at her sleeping form, concerned, and was about to reach over to shake her awake, take her out of the nightmare, when he didn't need to any more.
"Hey, this ceiling is so clean!" called Leo from above them. "I wonder how they do it- WAAAAH!" He shouted loudly as he lost concentration, and fell straight out of the air. And landed right on top of Lily.
She screamed piercingly as she was jolted awake, causing Leo to yell, and fall off the chair. Jim yowled and streaked across the floor, a black and green blur, to hide under a table across the room. Lily looked scared, and stared, wide-eyed at the blonde boy in his pyjamas on the floor. Finn was surprised – she wasn't being herself. Normally, he knew she would jump up, kick Leo in places that should never be kicked, and then storm off. But this Lily – she was shying away from him, curling tighter in the chair. Her eyes were hidden from him by a curtain of dark red hair that fell before them as she turned away. This Lily scared him.
"Lils?" he said uncertainly, looking at her, concern in his eyes. He flinched as she turned to face him sharply, and her face showed utter terror. He was scared for her. She looked away from him, just as quickly, as Leo remained on the floor, groaning. Lily pressed herself against the back of the chair, looking for all the world like a caged cat being taken to the vets.
"Lily, look at me," he said quietly. She flinched, turning her head further away from him. "Lily," he repeated. "Lily, look at me."
Slowly, she turned to face him. Finn looked into her eyes, and he was shocked, and scared out of his mind. He had come to know Lily as a confident, strong girl, and the incredible fear and vulnerability he saw in her eyes changed his whole view of her. But he didn't even have time to comprehend what he was seeing of her emotions, because something else he saw shocked him above all else.
Her warm, happy dark brown eyes weren't brown.
They were ice blue.
Suddenly, Leo seemed to recover. He jumped up from the ground, and picked up his broom from where it had landed next to him.
"Hey Lils! Look what I got today!" he shouted happily, completely oblivious. Lily's eyes snapped towards him, and she even managed a small smile before he suddenly changed tack.
"Hey… Lily, why are your eyes blue?" Lily frowned, the blue in her eyes fading slightly – but it was definitely still there.
"What do you mean my eyes are blue?" she asked slowly, confusion plain on her face. She was slowly calming down; Finn could see her stop trembling, and become visibly less pale, but she remained hunched over in her position on the chair. Almost as soon as Finn noticed, however, she jumped up, and sprinted up the stairs.
"What did I do?" asked Leo, completely baffled. Finn just shrugged.
"Just go get dressed," he said, sighing. Leo needed no telling twice – a first – and bounded back up the stairs to his dormitory, a huge grin plastered across his face once more.
Finn sighed once more, but picked up his book as usual, and read, pushing worries about Lily's odd behaviour and eyes to the back of his mind. He didn't need to worry – she was strong enough to sort herself out.
