A/N: I'm pretty surprised at how fast I update too! The ideas just keep coming! Plus, you guys are really great with reviews so I can't get left behind!
Lily had never run so fast in her whole life. They had blindly thrown themselves ahead and for all they knew they could have circled back and ended up exactly where they had started. The Slytherin girl stopped and doubled over gasping for breath. Lily lent against a tree equally out of breath.
" She huffed. At least the rustling had stopped, now there was nothing except the sound of them struggling to regain their composure.
"Next...time...I'm...I'm...not...going anywhere...near you..." The girl straightened up. Lily wanted to say something back but reason argued with her anger and won. They were lost in the middle of the Forbidden Forest. The girl was as stuck as she was and like her, she was obviously upset. She wouldn't mind having a good rant herself but it wouldn't do either of them any good.
"In that case, when we get out you don't have to but for now you're stuck with me because you have no choice, unless you want to risk this trek solo." Lily said instead. Her statement must have struck sense in the girl because she dropped her attitude immediately.
"I know." If Lily was expecting an apology she would have been disappointed because she said nothing more. "I'm Lily Evans." Lily offered after a moment of silence between them. It was like the first day of school again except circumstance had wiped out the shyness in her when approaching strangers.
"Amiral...Rose Amiral." Lily nodded, the name sounded familiar but somehow she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"Right, Rose...Rosie." Lily started, automatically deciding on a nickname for her like she did everyone else. Rose frowned but didn't chase the matter. "Any ideas on how we could get out of here?"
"Would have said so already if I had."
Unperturbed Lily continued to voice her thoughts. "Hmmm. What spell could help us? A revealing charm on the flour trail? No, that's useless because I don't even know where the trail finished." She began to pace deep in thought. "If only we knew the general direction of the castle, we would go that way...we need...a compass!"
"A what?" Rosie asked looking at Lily as if she thought she was mad.
"Never mind, give me your wand." Rosie eyed Lily's outstretched hand suspiciously. It took a lot to trust someone with your wand and as far as Rosie was concerned Lily was still classed as "unknown grounds". Several times she had spotted this girl sleepwalking and the first time she almost lost her head to a tree and this time she was lost in the forest. Was it wise? Very slowly she plucked out her wand and gave it to her. Lily held the light wand out on her flat palm and said a quick charm that made the tip of the wand point North.
"Brilliant! It worked!"
Rosie did not see how it how the pointing wand had worked. It was just pointing into the darkness...unless it was pointing at Hogwarts! She started in that direction but Lily stopped her and pushed her towards right of the wand.
"We go this way.""But why? It points that way."
"That's because it's pointing North and we need to go East because this forest lays west of Hogwarts."
Rosie frowned, mentally trying to figure out the positioning when Lily suddenly lurched forward.
"Lily!" Rose had seen enough in her life and had enough sense to realise that something was very wrong. Lily was now on her arms and knees, her body convulsing like she was trying puke out her stomach. Nothing came out of her mouth but she continued to lurch.
"Don't you hear it?" A red faced Lily looked up at her when the need to be sick subsided.
"Hear what?" Rosie couldn't hear anything but her quickened breathing."Voices!" Lily's eyes widened and then rolled back before her body dropped to the ground.
"Rise to me! Draw your strength to me and I will give you...power!" Lily was still in the forest but there were whispers everywhere. So many people talking at once that she couldn't make out what was being said by whom. They were everywhere. Dark hooded people. Cloaked in shadows merging with darkness around her.
"Rise to me." Lily was drawn to that silky voice. It rang around her head, ricocheting around her skull until it found a niche where it embedded and sprouted roots. It grew, a grotesque growth that she no longer had control of.
"Rise to me...
Rosie jumped back as Lily slowly rose to her feet. Without hesitation Lily turned and walked steadily into the darkness. Left with no choice Rosie picked up her wand from the floor and followed. Saddened with dread, Rosie had seen the haunted expression before; Lily was not the first to have the blank expression and the unmistakable grey that had entered her eyes. With certainty, Rosie knew that that girl was no longer Lily.
"Lily!" James exclaimed but then realised his mistake immediately. The girl with the green eyes and red hair wasn't Lily at all, just someone with an uncanny resemblance. The girl smiled and slid into the water in front of him, her arms now looped around his neck.
"Shh..." she cooed while playfully tracing a finger up and down his neck. James shivered. As much as he hated to admit it something was very wrong, but the warm water was making it very hard to think and she was awfully...distracting.
Sirius was also having a similar problem with a girl that wouldn't stop giggling. He was never a fan of giggly girls but any notion he had of leaving was long since expelled. Oh boy, we are in trouble. He thought as she leaned in to kiss him.
Rosie followed silently. It was finally happening. She had been up patrolling Hogwarts ground ever since she had heard the rumours. Her heart pumped with excitement but she wished that she just wasn't so unprepared. Ahead, Lily had led them to a wide clearing that sloped up into a large mound with a flat cap. A crumbling piece of stone marked the mound for what it was. A grave. Not daring to go closer Rosie stayed at the base and watched. Wand at hand.
Lily placed both her hands flat on to the mossy ground, her unseeing eyes looking with intensity at the same spot. Goosebumps prickled Rosie's arms as the wind suddenly died down. She craned her neck to see better. The quietness was palpable but there was something stirring in the air-
-A kind of energy that she could almost taste in her mouth. With an unexpected rush the wind picked up again except it was no natural wind, it gushed out of the spot where Lily had her hands and continued to blow out in torrents. Rosie shielded her eyes with a hand and fought to keep them open from the tornado that was building in the clearing. She could just about make out a mass of red that was Lily's hair before a piercing scream also pierced the storm-
-Lily was screaming, a scream that conveyed utmost terror and pain-- Her hands were sinking into the hard dirt as if the ground didn't exist. She continued to scream as she went elbow deep. With a jolt her hands under the ground were scrabbling against something hard and slender. Her right hand closed around it and with an almighty effort she yanked both her hands back and she was released from the death grip and tumbling down the mound. Winded and scared she scrambled to her feet with Rosie's help.
"Who dares stumble in my grave?" a deep voice boomed. The sound reverberated up every tree and they felt it shake their very bones. The mound cracked and the ground shook. They stared in horror as the cracked earth lifted like gross lips and literally opened. Something shouldered its way out of the new hole, something more hideous than their wildest nightmare. It showered them with dirt and mud as it squeezed itself out. Larger than any grown man it had four claw like legs that were hardened and black. It's upper torso the colour of dead flesh was speckled with darker patches of fungi growth. Its massive head with beady eyes stared at them like burning coals. What caught Lily's eye was the flesh like ropes that curled around its muscular arms like snakes. The huge beast belched and expelled vile air over them and growled again. "You dare disturbed my slumber! Return it!"
Lily shook uncontrollably. She didn't know what it was. She had no idea what had happened. One minute she had made a compass and the next minute she was being sucked into the ground and now there was this...monster.
Rosie grabbed her wrist. "Run!"
A/N: AHHH!!! A touch irritated that this didn't come out quite how I had imagined it but still, here it is. I hope it's not too much of a disappointment and I apologise if it is. I can feel a real case of writer's block coming out even though I have ideas because I just don't know how to write them down. Just in case my story telling is a bit poo and I've left most of you guys scratching your heads; I need to explain that Lily is in fact being controlled sometimes but I can't tell you by whom and for what reason because it will ruin story for you. Rose is an interesting character because at this point it is unclear on what her intentions are, she is the real "unknown grounds". As for James and Sirius...well, they will realise soon enough that they are in a spot of bother as a result of a not too pleasant spell of temptation.
Next chapter is "Creatures of the Dark"