Lily Evans and the Lefay Torc
by ErtheChilde
"There are very few people who could claim ownership over this particular item. I am sure once you have a moment to examine it, you will realize why you are one of them and why it is of the utmost importance that you accept that."
– CHAPTER TEN – An Averse Agreement
"You were awake!" Persephone protested mournfully for what seemed to be the hundredth time as she and Lily descended from the girls' dormitories the next morning. "I heard you get up – your eyes were open and everything, and I asked if you were alright, and you said you were just going to the loo – you spoke to me!"
"I don't remember anything until waking up in the Great Hall," Lily answered truthfully. "So I guess Madam Cuthbert's Sleeping Draught worked to a certain point..."
'Too well in other ways,' she thought with a shiver. 'I won't be making myself that vulnerable ever again."
After returning to her bed, she had been unable to go back to sleep, too paranoid that she would end up outside the common room, and so when she was sure that Potter, Black and Lupin were no longer hanging about the common room, she had curled up in one of the squishy arm chairs in front of the fireplace, Cat-Sidhe watching her warily from the chair next to her. Lily's many entreaties to the stubborn animal to give her at least a hint as to what was happening to her were met with reproachful glances and the beast finally turning its back on her, tail straight up in dismissal; in the end she had decided to write the entire experience in the journal Severus had given her, including as much detail as possible in case she needed to come back and re-examine the incident.
When Persephone had come bounding down the stairs shortly after dawn that morning, very much in a state of panic, Lily had just finished putting the last details in print. She had quickly calmed the pale girl and then filled Persephone in on that night's adventures, carefully leaving out the apparition she had seen as well as the means by which Potter had snuck her out of the Great Hall.
Remembering Madam Cuthbert's admonition to check in with her, they stopped at the hospital wing, where under Persephone's disapproving gaze, Lily proceeded to tell an utterly outrageous lie about the effectiveness of the Sleeping Draught, and then assure the matron that she would indeed come see her the minute she felt the least bit unwell.
"That was a blatant lie, Lily," Persephone whispered angrily as turned the corner from the hospital wing. "Why didn't you tell her that it didn't work?"
"Because I don't think – oh no!" her argument trailed off into a hiss of dismay, and she pulled Persephone back around the corner.
"What –?" Persephone's question was cut off as Lily clapped her hand over her mouth, peaking around the bend carefully.
Peeves was up and about again, it seemed, determinedly tripping any student who walked through the hallway. She quickly jumped back as he looked up from laughing over stumbling Fifth Year.
"Come on, let's go the other way."
"But this is the shortest way to the Great Hall!"
"Yes, but I really don't want to be caught by Peeves after what happened last night," Lily grumbled, nudging Persephone in the opposite direction.
"Maybe you should just go back to the hospital wing," Persephone suggested innocently, and Lily rolled her eyes.
"This really isn't something spending time in the hospital wing is going to cure. I'll have to figure it out myself."
"Because, of course, a full grown and well-trained Healer will obviously have absolutely no ideas as to what it could be."
Lily glowered, and Persephone adopted a placating expression as she dropped that particular subject. Unfortunately, she took up another equally tense angle.
"But you will be telling Severus, right?"
The question was pointed, and voiced in such a tone that Lily knew her friend was intending to make good on her threat of spilling the proverbial beans if Lily decided to back out.
"Of course I'm going to tell him," Lily retorted, "I would have told him yesterday except he wasn't at supper, was he?"
Her friend looked slightly mollified. However, a moment later, her expression changed to a dubious one. "Do you think – well, do you think Potter might have had a point? It does sound a lot like the effects of an Imperius Curse."
Lily frowned at the idea that someone might be controlling her, and while the signs all seemed to point in that general direction, she knew that it was more likely something to do with the mysterious Torc that she kept encountering in her dreams. She massaged her neck reflexively, trying to feel the elusive sensation of metal around her collar, but nothing made itself known to her.
"Wouldn't I know if I was under that?" she wondered. "I'm not sure, I think I remember reading about that curse in one of Severus' mum's books, but it was a long time ago and I really wasn't that interested in it..."
"You would know," Persephone told her simply. "When you're under the Imperius curse, you go into a very calm trance, and you lose control over yourself. It's like all responsibility and anxiety is gone, and you're just...floating."
Lily stared at her friend in alarm. "Persephone...?"
Persephone seemed not to hear her, pushing on in her questioning, "Is that what it's like when you're sleep walking?"
"No," Lily said with difficulty, trying to fight off the curiosity at how Persephone knew the precise conditions of the Imperius Curse. "It's like going to sleep and waking up. There's nothing in the middle. Like when you go to sleep and don't dream."
She didn't mention that when she did sleep, it was a sleep fraught with night terrors.
"Hm," Persephone pondered for a second and then sighed, "Well, you could simply have been bewitched by someone then. Do you think that's possible?"
"No," Lily said thoughtfully, rapidly thinking up reasons that were both plausible and completely unrelated to what she really believed was behind the odd trances that she took after hours. "I'm always with you or Severus, aren't I? You both would have noticed if I suddenly came over odd or if someone bewitched me, I think. Besides, from what I've read, that strong a curse or spell would have to be cast either by one of the older students or a teacher, wouldn't it?"
"Maybe one did?" Persephone suggested, lowering her voice conspiratorially as they entered the great hall. "It would be right in line with the atmosphere around here, wouldn't it? I mean, you are Muggleborn."
"Yeah, but I haven't heard anyone else having peculiar trances like me," Lily replied. "Unless Mary's been acting odd too?"
"No more than usual," Persephone said reasonably, hiding a giggle. Their fellow Gryffindor was known to chat on for hours about Muggle bands and diligently wrote fan mail to her favourite singers, sometimes including locks of her own hair in the envelopes.
"So there you go," Lily said, studiously avoiding the whispers and gestures from Potter, who was chatting vociferously with his mates, and led Persephone to the Hufflepuff table, where Severus was already seated, a painful look of patience on his face as Caradoc chatted with him – or rather at him – about something or other. He perked up when he saw her, and raised his hand slightly in a wave, and then winced, as though in pain and returned to his seat.
'That's strange,' Lily thought with a frown.
It wasn't until she made it within feet of him that she noticed the reason for his wince. "Severus! What happened to your face!"
She hadn't noticed in the distance, as his hair covered his features most of the time, but as he had shifted to greet her, she had noticed the ugly purple bruise that greatly resembled a pattern of knuckles against Severus' temple and jaw-bone.
She reached out to examine it, but his cheeks flushed with dull colour and he jerked away. "It's nothing..."
"Nuffink my arse," Caradoc interrupted cheerfully. "'E's been fight, 'e 'as. Took on those two lumps, Crabbe and Goyle at the end o' Charms yesterday. 'E was out cold for some bit after that – I 'ad to carry 'im to 'ospital meself – but they was the worse off in th'end. What was it you hit 'em wif?"
"Ear Shrivelling Curse," Severus murmured quietly, and at Lily's outraged look, he added, "But I didn't do it proper, or anything – Goyle's ears just kind of turned parchment-thin and all and Crabbe ducked out of the way before I could get one off on him. Madam Cuthbert will have them fixed up in no time, I'm sure."
"Since when do you resort to fisticuffs?" Lily wanted to know, her hands on her hips.
"Since the curse missed Crabbe and he knocked my wand out of the way."
"That's not what I meant and you know it! Why were you fighting to begin with?"
"Hey, Snape!"
Two Slytherins First Years had passed by, and it took her a moment to place the names to their faces – despite having had Potions with the Slytherins for almost a month now, the only ones she was on a first name basis with were Severus and, occasionally, Marine Blundell – but eventually she remembered Oberon Avery and Milton Mulciber.
"Nice work on Goyle," Mulciber said with an unpleasant smile. "I heard Lucius Malfoy say Ear-Shrivelling Curses are N.E.W.T level at least."
"Think you could show us how you did that some time?" Avery added. His eyes fell on Lily, but other than a slight tightening of his lips, he didn't say anything to her.
Severus appeared surprised, and she couldn't help notice him straighten up at their praise.
"I'll consider it," he told them stiffly, "if I have the time. Unlike you two, I actually need to do my homework – my parents won't simply buy me better marks."
Mulciber looked like he was going to retort, but Avery snorted with what might have been laughter. "Touché."
His eyes lingered on Lily again, making her flush because they were filled with obvious contempt, and then he nodded gruffly at Severus, "See you later then."
When the two of them had disappeared, Lily turned to Severus, "You're not actually going to teach them how to do that curse, are you?"
"Probably not," he replied lazily. "They'd just find an excuse to use it on me."
"Why do you know how to use it in the first place?"
Severus coloured and murmured something unintelligible, and then cleared his throat. "Breakfast? The kippers are particularly good today."
"I'm sure they are," Lily said acidly, "You haven't answered my question. And why were you fighting?"
"It was nothing," Severus intoned stubbornly, and when Caradoc opened his mouth again, a sudden pained expression appeared on his face that made Lily sure that Severus had just trod on the other boy's foot.
"You're going to have to tell me at some point," she told him earnestly.
"Later – much later," he told her, and she was sure she heard him mutter under his breath, "Like never."
She glared, intending for him to know she wasn't going to forget in a hurry, but he had busied himself with a large plate of kippers and eggs – it never ceased to amaze her how much Severus was able to eat; but then, she doubted he had ever been in the position to eat whatever or as much as he wanted back home – and she and Persephone started as well. Lily was half annoyed to find that the kippers really were better than usual, and they chatted with Caradoc and his housemates until well after the owl post had arrived.
When Delonney Hedgekirk appeared in all her usual pomp, Severus abruptly stood up, his books in hand and said to Lily, "Best be off then, right? Slughorn's actually letting us make Boil-Cure Potions today – I can't wait, even if it is one we know already. I was getting tired of writing notes about ingredient properties and possible uses. And I was also thinking about the effect that using fangs from different species of snake might have on the potency..."
He trailed of, looking at her expectantly.
Lily opened her mouth to chide him for being rude, and quickly changed her mind. It occurred to her just then that she was just as hesitant to tell Severus what had happened to her as he was to keep whatever it was he was hiding a secret. And considering what she had to say...it was probably best to give Severus some leeway and keep him in a good mood. Persephone gave her a knowing and meaningful look, and she glared lightly in response.
"I suppose," she said quietly, replying to Severus' inquiry. "We never really considered species as a factor before, I guess."
But Severus had noticed her pause and the look Persephone was giving her. He glanced between Lily and Persephone with a good deal of suspicion. "What's going on?"
"I'll tell you in Potions," Lily assured, noticing that Delonney, Caradoc and some of the other Hufflepuffs were watching their interaction with interest. She remembered what had happened when Delonney had tried to include herself in their discussion the last time and didn't relish the idea of losing the hospitality of the Hufflepuffs during meal times if Severus decided to have a go at one of them.
Persephone caught her expression, and blurted out suddenly, "Delonney, is it true your sister Laverne is engaged to Amarillo Lestoat?"
Delonney's eyes widened in horror, and she hissed, "Where on earth did you hear such a horrible lie?"
"I read it in Witch Weekly," Persephone said, pretending not to notice the disgusted look on Marine's face or the sudden interest on the part of everyone else at the table. "Of course, it was in the rumours section, but –"
"Then it was just that," the Ravenclaw snapped, ruffled. "My sister would never marry a...a..."
"American?" one of the Hufflepuffs suggested helpfully.
"A vampire," Delonney replied haughtily, but this did nothing to dispel the sudden outbreak of excited talking as the Hufflepuffs rallied to ask her if her sister really knew Amarillo Lestoat, which brought on an entirely different round of questions and excited chatter.
Lily sent Persephone a grateful look and ushered Severus away from Delonney and the Hufflepuffs, all of whom were hanging onto her every word as she tried to put right the rumour Persephone had brought up. She was directing most of her annoyed diatribe at the pale girl, who nodded with a look of complete sympathy and apology, as though she really hadn't known that such a thing would upset the mousy-haired girl. Lily made a mental note to thank her friend profusely the next time she saw her.
She was suddenly extremely grateful that she had made friends with Persephone. In between worrying about the oddities that had begun to take up residence in her life and fighting through the ever increasing piles of school work, Lily as relieved to know that she had someone she could share that with. Severus was, of course, her best friend, but he was a boy, which meant there were some things he just didn't understand to begin with. He also lacked the requisite social know-how to calm a tense situation. For all of Persephone's shyness and aversion to attention, she had grown up in one of the elite pureblood families of Britain and as such had learned a certain amount of secrecy and manipulation from her cradle.
'On that note,' Lily thought with a frown, 'how is it that such a decent person was born into a family like the Malfoys?'
As much as they were friends, Lily refrained from asking such a question of Persephone, and dutifully pretended that she didn't notice the almost daily letters Persephone received from home, which made the girl's face tense with fresh hurt.
From everything Lily had learned about them, both from her other friends, and from what she had seen during the few run-ins she'd had with Lucius Malfoy, the family was one of the oldest and most powerful wizard clans in Britain next to the Blacks and the Greengrasses – and also one of the most mired in the Dark Arts. In the Daily Prophet, which she had begun to read since Severus began to have it delivered at breakfast in the morning, she noticed a worrying trend that many members of the Malfoy family were being questioned by the Ministry for suspected Dark activity or lending support to the mysterious movement calling themselves Death Eaters. These wizards were the followers of a man that the Prophet had begun to refer to in writing as You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named because of his growing power. He was supposedly responsible for many deaths throughout the United Kingdom, and it was on his order that many atrocities were being carried out. Every few mornings, the students of Hogwarts would look up at a cry from one of their fellows who received mail from home informing them of the death or disappearance of a loved one. Lily felt sorry for them, remembering what it had been like to lose her favourite aunt to disease, and knew it must have been ten times worse to have a family member murdered, or simply cease to exist.
"What's going on?" Severus demanded as they left the great hall, effectively interrupting her thoughts.
"I said I'd tell you in Potions –"
"Where we share a bench with Blundell?" he prompted. "Not to mention that people eavesdrop on us all the time hoping to pick up potions tips."
Lily grumbled. "We need a spell to keep people from doing that." She thought of what she had to tell him, and how she definitely didn't want everyone to know about it. "And not just to keep them from copying our homework."
"I'm working on it," Severus said simply. "I've been in the library trying to find a spell or a charm to do that, but the only one that comes close is a Silencing Charm, which won't really help us. Of course, I could be looking in the wrong place – you're the Charms prodigy, aren't you? You would probably recognize what we're looking for faster."
He said it in a mocking voice that anyone who didn't know him would have taken for an insult, but which Lily knew to be his manner of teasing.
"I'll help you look," she agreed, and he looked slightly mollified.
"So," he continued. "Tell me what you're being so secretive over."
Lily looked around surreptitiously to make sure no one was listening, which of course no one was, as every other student in the corridor was trying to get to their first classes that morning. She motioned Severus closer.
"Promise you won't get tetchy," she ordered as they wandered down toward the dungeons. Severus raised an eyebrow. "I mean in, Sev, you have to promise to at least wait until I've finished what I've got to say before you start on me."
He definitely looked suspicious now, but with an effort ground out, "Fine."
She knew that was the best she was going to get from him, and hurriedly went on, "It's happening again...you know...that thing?"
He raised an eyebrow, and again checking to make sure no one was watching, she mimed a walking motion with her fingers. Severus' eyebrows rose even higher, and he hissed at her as they entered the Potions class room,
"Again? When? Did you go see Madam Cuthbert – ?"
Lily held up a hand, lowering her voice again as other students began to come into the classroom, and began speaking quickly, trying to tell him everything as quickly as possible. She informed him of the nights she had woken up outside of her bed, and of Persephone finding out again – he made an annoyed noise, no doubt to demand why she hadn't told him – ("I was going to, Sev, but I wanted to see if the Sleeping Draught would work first. You promised you would be quiet while I told you!") – and of Madam Cuthbert's potion not working. She had reached the part when she awoke in the great hall when Slughorn entered the classroom, and she was forced to pause in her retelling as they finished some last minute notes and listened to his directions concerning actually brewing Boil-Cure Potions. During this time, Severus made an effort to be completely silent, but she know by the tension in his shoulders and the odd, upright way he was holding himself that he was anything but calm.
Once the professor gave them leave to begin their Potions, Severus was all ears once again.
"What happened after that?" he asked her as he crushed their snake fangs in the mortar. His earlier wish to improve the make-up of the potion seemed to have fled as he hung on to her every word.
"I was trying to figure out how to get back to Gryffindor Tower, when..." she trailed off, momentarily wondering what to say. She hadn't told Persephone about the odd figure she had seen, not knowing if it was possible. The spell placed upon her by Salazar Slytherin's enchanted self during her Sorting had kept her from telling her friends anything related to the Torc – but she wasn't sure that the apparition had anything to do with it. Cat-Sidhe had been watching her that morning when she had spoken to Persephone, but she was not here now. It suddenly seemed important that she tell someone, and Severus was the person she trusted most in the world.
With supreme effort, Lily managed to whisper, "I saw something."
Severus leaned closer under the guise of adding the powdered snake fangs to the cauldron. "What?"
"It was really dark...I'm not sure, but it was like...a spectre?"
Severus made an unimpressed face. "You saw a ghost? So what? We see them every day."
"No, it wasn't a ghost. It was solid – other than when it winked in and out of sight. Like it was Apparating."
"That's not possible. You can't Apparate in or out of Hogwarts – "
"I know Sev! I never said it was a person, I just said it was solid. It wasn't a ghost."
"And you're sure you weren't just hallucinating? Because you did only just wake up."
She remembered the feel of the cold cobblestones and the sharp air that had cleared the haze of sleep from her. "No. I was completely awake. And just in time, too."
She related the experience of the apparition disappearing completely and nearly being caught by Mrs. Norris, but faltered when it came time to talk about being rescued by Potter, Black and Lupin. She knew Severus would not be pleased, but she also wasn't sure how to explain about the Invisibility Cloak. Persephone had simply believed that she had run into the boys sneaking around and hadn't asked how they had gotten down there and out again without being noticed. But she knew Severus, suspicious by nature, would not buy that easily.
"I don't remember too much of what went on next, it happened really quickly," she lied. "I guess Potter and his friends had been sneaking around in the dark too – they caused a distraction somehow. Filch and the cat took off, and we all ran upstairs."
Severus froze in the middle of waving his wand over their cauldron, looking at her with shock, revulsion and the slightest bit of betrayal. "You mean to tell me...that you were running around after hours last night with Potter?"
"It wasn't by choice," Lily replied evasively, glad at least that he was focusing on who had helped her escape and not the manner in which they had. "I've no idea how they got there, just like I've no idea how I got there. But I'm not going to lie, Sev, it was a good thing they showed up when they did or I'd have been in loads of trouble."
"I'm sure," Severus snapped. "I'll just bet you're all the best of pals now. Did you tell your new friends about your sleep-walking? I'm sure they were so concerned about you. I bet they're in the back now, putting their heads together trying to help you, because of that stupid Gryffindor nobility I keep hearing all about."
Lily gaped.
"You're heating your cauldron too much, McKinnon," she heard Slughorn's voice in the background as she stared at Severus, momentarily too angry to come up with a reply.
"What are you on about?" she hissed when she finally could speak. "Did you even hear what you just said? It's utter rubbish!"
"No, what's utter rubbish is my getting in fights about you, while you're busy making friends with those arrogant gits the minute I'm not around," Severus spat, glaring.
Momentarily taken aback, Lily felt her annoyance ebb for a second. "Fights about me?"
Severus realized he had said something he shouldn't have, and then looked away quickly. "It's not important."
"Of course it's important!" Lily cried, and then lowered her voice as Marine glanced over at them from where she and Persephone were working. "You shouldn't be getting into fights, especially not about me!"
Severus looked as though he was struggling with something, and finally managed to ground out, "It wasn't just about you. They were – it was about – they were making fun of me. For being friends with you."
Lily blinked, and then an embarrassed anger took over when she realized what he was talking about. "Because I'm Muggleborn."
"It's none of their business," Severus grumbled. "And I told them as much, but then that prat Goyle called me a –" He clamped his mouth shut, looking utterly discomfited, and despite the tension in his posture, he was considering her doubtfully.
"What did he call you?"
Severus struggled with something, and then in a flat, defeated voice, he intoned, "He called me a Mudblood-lover. It's nothing."
'There's that word again,' she thought
"It obviously wasn't 'nothing' if you got into a fight about it – what's a Mudblood?"
"Lily..."
"If you don't tell me, I'll just ask someone else," Lily said in a steely voice, already turning to Persephone, who was bustling nervously around hers and Marine's potion, which was bubbling in a threatening way that at the back of her mind Lily knew shouldn't be happening.
"It's...it's an insult," Severus muttered needlessly, causing her to pause. "For people...for anyone who's got – you know – who's not a –"
"Whose parents are Muggles," Lily finished, feeling her heart sink. Severus wouldn't meet her gaze, and she realized with a pang that as much as he was trying to pretend the situation wasn't affecting him, his friendship with her was causing tension. And on some level, he was ashamed enough about her parentage to not want to be considered friendly to Muggleborns.
They didn't speak for several minutes ("Good Lord, Potter, are you aiming to strip flesh from bone?" Slughorn snapped in the background, "Remove that cauldron from the fire before the solution burns through it!") and when she could finally force herself to meet Severus gaze, he looked completely stricken.
"You told me it didn't mean anything," she told him sadly. "You said it had nothing to do with anything, and that I was just as good as a non-Muggleborn."
"It doesn't mean anything," he said quickly, sensing her hurt. "Not to me, you know that. But things are different in Slytherin. If they sense weakness, they pounce on it. I had to do something, or those gits would be on my back about it all of the time – worse, they might start going after you."
"And what makes you think I can't take care of myself?"
"I know you can take care of yourself," Severus groaned in exasperation. "One-on-one against some idiot Muggle girl with a hormone imbalance, yes. But when someone comes after you with magic, it's different. So now they know that if they mess with me, they'll be in for it."
"Or that they'll just get a rise out of you," Lily shot back. "You've got to ignore it."
"You don't ignore stuff like that."
Lily narrowed her eyes. "Stuff like what? Them saying I'm a Mudblood, or them saying you're a Mudblood lover?"
Severus winced and glared at her. "Both."
She noticed absently that the Boil-Cure Potion was boiling at a more rapid rate than it should have been, but Severus' next comment made her completely forget it.
"But maybe I shouldn't be making such a big deal of it," he drawled. "Considering you've become chums with Potter, why don't you let him stand up for you? I'm sure he's ready to jump in front of a curse for you after your midnight meeting."
"That's what you're really upset about, isn't it?" Lily snapped, blood rushing to her cheeks in anger. "You're not upset about getting in a fight with anyone – I bet you enjoyed cursing Goyle, just to prove a point! – but you're angry because I was wandering about last night with someone other than you! You'd probably be just as annoyed if it were Persephone."
"Of course not," Severus told her unconvincingly, glancing around. No one was paying attention to their argument, as everyone seemed absorbed in their potions, which were giving off a rather sweltering heat. Slughorn was hurrying to and fro, sounding agitated for some reason. "It's just that things are dodgy lately, even here at Hogwarts, and someone like you –
" – a Mudblood, right?"
"Stop saying that! I would never call you that!" he snapped." But yes, for a Muggleborn, it's probably not a good idea to wander around in the dark after hours. Not just because you can get points taken away or detention, but because you could get hurt."
His words and her knowledge that he was keeping something back from her, something she had her suspicions about, lit the spark of her temper which had been simmering under wraps ever since the argument with Severus had started. Back home she had always felt bad about getting angry at Severus, believing that if they fought he would stop talking to her and her only link to the wizarding world would be cut off – but here at Hogwarts, surrounded by that world, she felt an invisible support, and her anger was allowed free reign. Along with her fear at what had been happening to her, all of it rushed out in a steady stream of anger directed at Severus.
"I don't need you or anybody else to protect me from gossip!" she hissed. "People are going to say what they say whether I want them to or not, and I can't do anything about it! It's called freedom of speech, and it's been around awhile! I'm not worried about rumours or insults, Sev, I'm worried about bloody losing my mind and walking around at night like a zombie!" She inhaled angrily and kept going, "Don't you realize how absolutely terrifying it is not to wake up in your own bed? I don't care that it was Potter, Black and Lupin who got me out of there, at that point it didn't matter – and you should be happy that I didn't get in trouble, because Potter raised an interesting point that I could possibly have been Imperiused – which is horrifying in and of itself! And I only happened to tell Persephone about it first because I saw her first this morning – if you're going to get angry for petty reasons like me not telling you something within seconds of it happening, then I'm never going to tell you anything else again! So stop acting like an absolute prat about things we can't control and start using your brain again, because I need your help to –"
The rest of Lily's tirade was drowned out by a sudden roaring explosion and cries of alarm from the rest of class as every cauldron in the room suddenly boiled over, scorching hot liquid bursting in every direction. Lily felt someone grab her out of the way, and noticed a second later that Severus had pulled her out of the path of their own scalding potion, which sprayed all over where they had been standing and was currently eating through the tables and chairs. Several people cried out in pain as they were sprayed, vicious boils erupting on every bit of exposed skin, and Slughorn was shouting orders at everyone, hurrying through the classroom despite his bulk, vanishing potions left and right.
"Don't let it touch you!" he cried, harried, "Anyone who's been splashed, have one of your fellow students bring you up to the hospital wing. The rest of you, begin moving anything you can out of the path of the potion – and don't let it touch you!"
While Lily had escaped the spray, Marine hadn't been so lucky and was whimpering angrily as broils began to cover her entire face. Persephone murmured soothing encouragements to her as she started to lead her from the room, but the French girl shook her off and bolted from the room, hiding her face in her robes.
"She's rather attached to her looks, isn't she?" Severus remarked mildly, and Lily opened her mouth to retort, but was distracted as Potter and Black strolled past their workspace, laughing loudly and high-fiving each other as they left the classroom; Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew following along, the latter covered in broils and whining pitifully.
Lily glared furiously after them.
"What an irresponsible prank," she groused, deciding there was only one explanation for thirty-five cauldrons bubbling over simultaneously, and then sent Severus a rather dirty look. "D'you still think I'd want to be friends with the likes of them?"
"I guess not," Severus admitted reluctantly.
"They don't even care that people could have gotten hurt – just as many Gryffindors were there as Slytherins," Lily went on. "It was completely immature."
"We should report them to Slughorn," Severus replied, and Lily noticed that his tone had become less antagonistic to her, as though their united disapproval had effectively put an end to the quarrel.
"You could do that," Persephone said quietly, "Of course, you would have to essentially prove it was them. Did either of you actually see them do anything?"
Lily and Severus exchanged dark looks.
"Well...no," she admitted grudgingly.
"But look at how they were acting," Severus protested. "It was entirely obvious."
"Homo praesumitur bonus donec probetur malus," Persephone reminded them placidly, and when Severus looked confused, Lily translated, "'One is innocent until proven guilty.'"
Persephone blinked, surprised, "Er...yes. How did you know that?"
Lily opened her mouth to answer, and then frowned, not knowing what to say. She shrugged, muttering, "Must have read it somewhere," and quickly went on, "I highly doubt the word 'innocent' could ever have been or ever should be applied to James Potter. Or Sirius Black."
Persephone looked as though she didn't quite believer her, but didn't pursue the matter.
In the end, Slughorn allowed the First Years to leave, as despite his warnings, three other people ended up getting the botched potion sprayed on them and had to be helped off to the hospital wing by their friends. It would be another hour before lunch and Herbology afterward, and so Lily, Persephone and Severus decided to wander down by the courtyard. The weather was still relatively nice, and they all knew it would only be a matter of time before autumn turned dreary and lapsed into winter.
Lily leaned against one of the stone and mortar ramparts that surrounded the inner courtyard, listening to the sound of the fountain in the middle of the courtyard and enjoying the fresh air on her face. The breeze was crisp, and she felt a swell of homesickness. The letters she had gotten from home were all from her parents, telling her about the usual town news and of how everyone was. But no word from Petunia.
She sighed at the charm bracelet that she always wore, the last gift her sister had ever given her.
"What are you going to do?"
She jumped, having forgotten that Persephone and Severus were still there. It was he that had spoken, and he was considering her cautiously, as though waiting for her to get angry at him again. Although she knew that she had cause to do just that, she felt weary from her outburst, and didn't want to pursue their argument further. Instead she sighed and tried to force her mind back to the most pressing matter, that of her late night wanderings. What was she going to do about the compulsion to wander off at night, and the shadowed whispers in her mind about the Torc that she apparently bore?
She rubbed her neck again and groaned, "I have no idea – and before either of you suggests talking to a professor about it or going back for another go at a Sleeping Draught, the answer's no." They both looked about to protest, but she rounded on them. Checking to make sure they were completely alone in the courtyard, she continued, "I think someone – or something, I suppose – is trying to talk to me."
"What, this ghost of yours?" Severus asked with a grimace.
"What ghost?" Persephone asked.
Lily quickly filled her in, before adding, "And I already told you, it wasn't a ghost. I'm almost sure it was solid."
"'Almost' isn't a lot to go on."
"I know you don't want to hear it, Lily, but this sounds like serious Dark magic," Persephone said worriedly."It could be something relatively harmless, like someone wanting to cast Muggleborns in a bad light, but it could also be that you've been bewitched to do something particular." She looked upset. "Please, go see Professor Dumbledore. He's supposed to scare most Dark wizards, I'm sure he could stop it from happening."
"It's not something that Dumbledore can help with!" Lily cried passionately, fervently wishing Cat-Sidhe where there so that she could kick her. It would be so much easier to tell her friends why she knew Dumbledore wouldn't be able to help without the beast's curse keeper her from speaking. "Just..." She groaned, and caught Severus' worried gaze. "You trust me, right?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"I'm serious – if I couldn't tell you something but I asked you to trust me anyway, would you?"
Severus opened his mouth to reply, closed it, and then considered her for a long moment. Finally, he said quietly, "Yes."
Her heart beat happily at this revelation, and she considered the other girl. "Persephone? I know we haven't known each other long – "
"Of course I trust you," Persephone said brusquely. "But trusting someone doesn't mean anything if they've been Imperiused."
"I haven't been," Lily cried. "Don't you think when I went to Madam Cuthbert the first time and we told her what's been happening, she would have immediately thought of that?"
"Not necessarily," Severus murmured, and Lily groaned, considering Persephone.
"You already said how it would feel to be under a curse like that," she attempted, pleading, "and I told you nothing like that's happened. Please, just trust me when I say it's something else. I know it. I just need to know if I can count on your help or if I'm going to have to figure this out myself!"
Her friends appeared taken aback by her sudden fervour, and Severus was the first to speak up, his black eyes filled with worry. He had never seen her as upset before. "You know you don't even have to ask me, right? Of course I'm going to help you – but it's going to be a bit hard, what with you being a Gryffindor and me...not really being in a position to help you."
"Well, it's not like I'm going to ignore her if she starts wandering again," Persephone reminded him, bothered. "And we can easily get the other girls in the dorm in on it –"
"I don't want them to know –" Lily began, but Persephone waved this off.
"I don't propose we tell them everything. We'll just say that you've been hit by a rather hard bout of homesickness and that you've taken to sleep walking. I'm sure they've at least noticed that much already, Alice in particular seems pretty perceptive."
"And if they suggest another Sleeping Draught?"
"Tell them you've got an allergy and that Madam Cuthbert thinks the sleep-walking will end on its own," Severus suggested. "Which it will, once we figure it out."
"But what happens if I manage to get out again?" Lily asked. "I was lucky last time – " she ignored Severus' dark look, " – because I ended up in the Great Hall. What happens if I end up in some dark corridor on my own? I can't even remember most of the passages during the day, at night it's bound to be a hundred times worse. All the worse, if Peeves or Filch are lurking."
"We'll have to come up with some means of alerting myself of Persephone to come and get you," Severus mused. "That way, depending on who's closest, we could come find you and bring you back."
Persephone looked doubtful, and murmured, "We'd have to have some kind of communication that we always have on us."
Severus shrugged. "We could use a Protean Charm, I think –"
" – those are N.E.W.T level though – "
" – or a variation of a Protean Charm. Maybe research the Trace Charm as well," Severus was lost in thought. "And if we threw in a Four-Point-Spell..." He looked up, noticing that he had become a bit lost in thought and grinned wanly. "The crux is, I think I could figure out a way, with a bit of research. Most of it would be Charms, I think, which is where you'd come in."
"I could try," Lily said tentatively. "But Sev, most of those spells are N.E.W.T or higher. We've barely started – we haven't even done Hover Charms yet."
"If anyone could figure it out, you could," he told her encouragingly. When she continued to feel doubtful, he made an impatient noise. "Or we could go see Dumbledore. Which is still not a bad idea."
"It's probably the most prudent option," Persephone reminded them. "It's an awful lot of planning and research we're considering, when we could just go and – "
"We'll start researching today after classes," Lily said, effectively interrupting her friend and meeting Severus' determined gaze with her own. He looked strangely excited, and she knew that despite his misgivings about what they were doing, he was looking forward to possibly learning magic beyond what was being taught to their year. And if she had understood him correctly, he might even be contemplating creating a completely new spell...
"This stays between us," Lily said, looking at both in turn. "No talking about it to your housemates –" Severus rolled his eyes at her, intimating that he had never intended to, " – and no getting any of the professors involved – " she levelled her gaze at Persephone, who visibly struggled with something, and then nodded.
"But if it gets worse, Lily, or starts happening to other people, I will," her friend told her, determined. "Because it won't just be about you anymore then."
Lily opened her mouth to argue, and then shut it. "Alright. That's all right, I guess."
'But I'm pretty sure it won't happen to anyone else,' she thought grimly, and then shivered. 'This is utter madness. All of this...and I still haven't got the closest clue as to why we're doing it.'
But she knew something for sure and certain. This and anything related to the Torc, had to be kept secret. Cat-Sidhe's warning would not go unheeded.
This chapter took a bit longer then I thought it would, I had a bit of a block. Lily's reluctance to talk to Severus was born out of my frustration in having them come up with a convincing scene for them to discuss everything. I hope it made sense to you readers.
Also, apologies to my American readers (which happen to make up the vast majority, actually), but I thought I'd put a little humour in there at your expense. I figured it to be a rather British thing to do – and hey, as a Canadian I have a little bit of entitlement. It's not like you lot haven't made jokes about Canadians before, right? (Oh, get off your high horse, I know you have!) But it's all in good fun, so don't take it too seriously. A sign of character is being able to laugh at yourself :P
Shoutout to iloveflyingmotorbikes – I'm flattered that you think so, I do my best.
As usual, thank you everyone for your interest and
TBC