After Lily arrived back at Hogwarts, she4 dragged Rory and Sam straight to the library. She wasn't particularly fond of the place, but it was the best starting point she could think of.

"Aw, Lily," Rory whined. "Do we have to come back here so soon? I don't want to open a book until I have to." He sniffed. "Plus, this place smells weird."

"Yeah," Sam hopped up onto a table, his feet resting on the seat of a chair. "What are we doing here?"

"Because of this," Lily pulled the key out from under her shirt. She'd been wearing it nonstop, partly because she knew it'd make Teddy happy, partly because she thought it was the coolest thing ever, and partly because she hoped beyond hope that it'd help her in the search for the Erkling's motives.

"What's that?" Rory asked.

"That's not a Skeleton Key, is it?" Sam asked, and Lily nodded. "Blimey, Lily, those are really rare! Where'd you get one?"

"My cousin gave it to me as a gift," Lily replied, deciding the quickest way to explain Teddy was as extended family. "Do you know anything about them?"

"Not really, only that they are charmed to open certain locks," Sam said. "I only read about them a little."

"Well, you're about to read about them a whole lot more." said Lily.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Rory.

"I think that maybe, whatever that Erkling was looking for, could be related to a Skeleton Key. Probably not this one," said Lily. "Any Skeleton Key, really."

Rory looked skeptical.

"No, she could be right," said Sam. "Whatever it is, it's probably locked away. Skeleton Keys are rare, so it could easily be the thing to open the lock. It makes perfect sense that someone would send an Erkling to find something that hard to find."

Rory placed his chin in his hands. "And how exactly are we going to find this key?"

Lily looked at Sam, hoping he had an idea. She hadn't given much thought to actually finding the key.

"No idea," Sam ran a hand through his already messy hair. It almost always stuck up in the front, and at first Lily had thought he did it on purpose, but then she realized it was just a natural quirk in Sam's hair.

"We're doomed," said Rory.

"We are not doomed," Sam rolled his eyes.

Rory didn't reply. He looked weary. "We've barely even started and we've already hit a dead end. We're just going in circles."

"You're the one who wanted to do this anyway!" Lily shot back, sounding harsher than she'd meant to, but she was still annoyed all the same.

"Well, I thought I we'd be somewhere by now!" Rory crossed his arms in front of his chest defiantly.

"Calm down, Rory," said Sam. "Did you think this was going to be done in a day? Because that was unrealistic."

"Well, I was under the impression that we were going to find information that got us somewhere!" Rory said, not calming down.

"We don't even know if whatever we need to find even exists!" Lily threw her hands up in the air, fed up. "We don't have any idea what we're doing, we don't know what we're looking for, and we might never find it! This was your idea, remember?"

"Whatever." Rory didn't look back as he stalked off.

"He'll come around," said Sam, but he sounded as though he was trying to convince himself.

Over the course of the next few days, Lily and Sam spent a good deal of time together, for Rory tended to only spend time with them if required, instead choosing to bide his time with Conrad Weaver. If Rory was anything, he was stubborn, and Lily new from years of experience with stubborn boys that only time would heal the crack in their friendship.

Now, it's not to say that Rory disliked Sam and Lily, or vice versa. And it's not to say that either side was mortally wounded by the argument. Sam had been right, to some degree, much to his relief, along with Lily's. After two days of sulking and doing homework alone, Rory slowly came back to put the trio together again. He began sitting with them during class, during mealtimes, and in the common room. Neither Sam nor Lily nor Rory spoke of the argument, and it was understood between the three of them that all was forgiven.

Potions class was only bearable because Professor Slughorn was the teacher, and lenient as could be. But at least Lily could hold her own (with help from Rory, of course). Duncan Hutchinson couldn't boil water without something going awry.

"Cripes!" Duncan yelped as the sleeve of his robes caught fire. He clumsily began swatting the flame and finally smothered it out after a few failed attempts.

"Hutchinson, what on earth are you doing?" Professor Slughorn said, walking over quickly.

"Nothing, sir," Duncan attempted to hide the singed bit of robe, but Slughorn saw it anyway.

"Hutchinson, did you catch fire again?" said Slughorn.

"Yes, sir," Duncan said sheepishly.

"Really, you must be more careful!"

"I will be, sir."

Lily would have found herself slightly amused by the scene if it wasn't for Cepheus Malfoy smirking at them from across the room. Each table had room enough for four cauldrons, so Cepheus could easily pull faces at Sam, Lily, Rory, and Duncan at the same time.

Lily considered showing Cepheus a rude hand gesture, but she decided against it, not wanting to give him the satisfaction. And besides, she'd learned it when she'd seen James do it, and he'd gotten a lecture from her grandmother, something feared by all who knew Molly Weasley.

Lily turned up her nose, and turned back to her own potion, grinning at Sam from across the table.

"Thinks he's so cool," she said. "Look, he doesn't even notice Gaius nicking his Valerian sprigs!" Lily jerked her head the slightest bit toward the Slytherins. Ever since the beginning of the year, the Gryffindors and the Slytherins had claimed opposite sides of the room, hardly ever sharing workspaces unless it was necessary, such as the day Sam's chair broke, or required.

Sam grinned back. "Now they'll both do it wrong. Cepheus won't have enough Valerian and Gaius'll have too much."

"Why can't they just follow the directions like us?"

"'Cause they're stupid?"

"Nah, I don't think they're stupid."

Sam looked bewildered.

"Are you sticking up for them?"

"No, but they're definitely not stupid. I mean, to be stupid you have to have some brain. They have none at all."

Sam grinned at her. "Clever."

"I know." Lily grinned back.

And amazingly enough, Rory, who was possibly the most distractible person on the planet, hadn't even heard a word of this. In Potions, Rory went into the zone, as Lily called it, and was completely oblivious to anything and everything around him. Which was quite lucky, because usually he had the attention span of a fly.

After about a week of researching everything they could find about Skeleton Keys, the trio had all but given up. They'd skimmed all the books about charmed objects in the library, coming up with nothing other than what they already knew. Lily decided it was time to go for some outside help.

"Professor?" Lily stepped into her Transfiguration classroom.

"Lily, come in!" Professor Lanset smiled and beckoned her inside.

"Can I ask you a question?" Lily walked, slightly tentatively, into the room.

"Of course, of course!" Professor Lanset smiled warmly.

"I was wondering if you could tell me anything about Skeleton Keys," Lily said. "I already know the basic things, like how they're charmed and everything. That's not my question. What I want to know is, do we have any locks for a Skeleton Key at Hogwarts?" Lily decided to cut to the chase; she didn't know how else to put her question.

"Lily, why do you want to know that?" Professor Lanset laced her fingers together, peering over them at Lily.

"Just wondering," Lily replied, her cheeks turning slightly red. She hadn't considered the fact that the professor might ask why she was asking such a question, and she inwardly cursed herself.

"Well, in any case, no, Lily," the professor shook her head. "We don't have any Skeleton Keys or Locks here. They were extremely rare to begin with, and Hogwarts never had any use for them. Sorry to disappoint you."

"It's-" Lily began, but was cut off by a rumbling noise coming from Professor Lanset's office.

"That'll be the boggart. Now, it's getting late, you really should be getting up to bed, go on, don't want to get caught, do we?" Professor Lanset ushered her out of the classroom, and shut the door behind her.

"Well, that was different," Lily mused as she made her way back to the common room. It was barely seven at night, curfew wasn't until nine. "What had her in such a rush? Could it have been about the Skeleton Key? No, couldn't have. Must've been the boggart. But they've never caused Mum that much trouble…" Lily pondered this all the way up Gryffindor tower. Ultimately she came to the conclusion that the boggart was just a particularly nasty one to make sure the third years had been practicing their spells, and in case it escaped, since Lily had yet to learn the Riddikulus spell, Professor Lanset wanted her out of there.

"Well?" Sam asked as Lily sunk next to him onto the floor by the fire in common room. "How'd it go?"

"It didn't," Lily shook her head. "She said there were never any Skeleton Keys or Locks at Hogwarts because they were really rare and Hogwarts never needed them."

Rory groaned.

"Back to square one." Sam sighed.

"Where do we go from here?" asked Lily.

"No idea," Sam ran a hand through his hair.

After a moment, Lily spoke up again. "I hate to say this, but we're not getting anywhere. We keep figuring out we know absolutely nothing. I mean, when is it time to just throw in the towel?" As soon as Lily said this, she wished she hadn't. The idea of quitting, of truly giving up on something, left an acrid taste in her mouth. She wasn't a quitter, and she wasn't about to become one. And yet, she had just suggested the very idea.

"You want us to quit?" Sam's jaw dropped. "So what if we're not going anywhere! You can't quit like that, you can't! It's…it's…" he struggled for the word, but failed to come up with a suitable term.

"I know, I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated. I don't actually want to quit. I just wish we had a lead." Lily sighed.

"Me too," Sam said.

"Me three," Rory chimed in.

"Well, we'd better get one then," said Lily.

"Where? I doubt they have them waiting for us on our beds." Rory smirked.

"Again, no idea," Lily slumped down.

"Wait," Sam sat up straighter. "Wait a second. Why didn't I think of this before! Lily- do you remember that time Peeves sent you down the wrong corridor?"

Lily nodded, sitting up, too. "What about it?"

"Well," Sam began, his green ocean eyes aglow with newfound inspiration. "Do you remember about that trunk?"

Lily nodded, unsure of where this was headed.

"And do you remember what Peeves said about you after you came back from the corridor?"

Lily shook her head. "He sang a stupid song, but I don't remember what he said. Something about 'where it's hidden' and the corridor being 'forbidden'. I just assumed he was messing around with me. You don't think…?"

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," Sam said with a wave of his hand. "The song, the trunk, it all makes sense. Peeves would only lead you there if he thought it'd get you into trouble. It's forbidden because something about that trunk is dangerous."

Lily nodded for Sam to continue.

"And do you remember what Professor Lanset said when she was coming out of McGonagall's office, and we were waiting to go in?"

Lily shook her head. Rory looked equally confused.

"She said 'Cistas Animarum'." Sam said as though that explained everything.

"Which means?" Rory raised his eyebrows as if to say, 'go on, in English this time.'

"Well, I kept wondering where I'd heard that phrase before," Sam said. "And then I realized: it was on Lily's Chocolate Frog card."

"My…my Chocolate Frog card?" said Lily, trying to make sense of what Sam was saying. The information was coming quickly and seemed half together.

"Yeah, from the train." Sam nodded encouragingly.

Lily scrambled to her feet. "I'll be right back," she said, already running towards the stairs, her vermilion hair flying behind her like a shining fire. Her hands shaking with excitement, she hastily undid the lock on her trunk, and almost tore the lid right off, or so she felt. Lily dug around inside, feeling around socks and old books and letters and broken quills.

"Aha!" Lily said triumphantly, pulling out a small shoebox. Lifting the lid, she revealed her collection of Chocolate Frog cards.

Lily shifted through Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore and Hermione Granger and Harry Potter before seizing the desired card. She slammed the lid back onto the box and tossed it haphazardly back into the trunk.

Lily leapt down the stairs and landed in her spot next to Sam, breathing hard.

"See?" Sam took the card and handed it to Rory.

"I don't understand what this means, though," said Rory, taking the card and looking confused. He examined it, turning the sheet of cardboard over in his hands before handing back the card.

"Cistas Aminarum means Chest of Souls," said Sam. "Professor Lanset is the Guardian of Cistas Aminarum, meaning she's the Guardian of the Chest of Souls. Lily saw a chest up in a forbidden room in a hidden corridor."

"Merlin! So you think that Professor Lanset is guarding this Chest of Souls thing and that's what the Erkling was looking for?" Rory said, sitting on the edge of his seat.

"It makes sense," Sam nodded. "Doesn't it?"

"Too much sense," Lily said. "This is crazy. So Professor Lanset is guarding this thing from inside Hogwarts. I guess we were wrong about it being Dark Magic, though. It must just be pretty powerful."

"Pretty powerful?!" Rory exclaimed. "It's got to be bloody brilliant! It's called the Chest of Souls, for Merlin's sake!"

"Who wants it, do you think?" Sam asked, for the first time in this conversation not knowing something.

"I don't know," said Lily. "But whoever it is, they can't be good."