Chapter 10-

Lily didn't sleep all night. She could hear Hermione sobbing into her pillow for what seemed like hours. Lily couldn't think of anything to say to comfort her. She knew Hermione was dreading the dawn. Lily was too, and she felt so bad for Harry, Hermione and poor Neville, who got roped into their scheming plan. What would happen when the rest of Gryffindor found out what those three had done?

At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points the next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than yesterday? And then the story started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, him and a couple of other stupid first years.

From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated, And Lily got some of that hate too; Some people thought she had been involved, and the other people though ill of her for sticking by her brother. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup. Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him. Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!"

Only Lily and Ron stuck by him

"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."

"They've never lost a hundred and fifty points in one go, though, have they?" said Harry miserably.

"Well - no," Ron admitted.

"Don't worry about it Harry, losing the house cup is better than losing our Game Keeper." Ron nodded agreeably with her.

It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Lily swore to herself not to meddle in things that weren't her business from now on. She'd had it with sneaking around and spying. She felt so ashamed of herself that she went to Wood and offered to resign from the Quidditch team. Harry did the same.

"Resign?" Wood thundered. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?"

But even Quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to Harry, or even Lily, during practice, and if they had to speak about them, they called him "the Seeker." and Lily "The Chaser."

Hermione and Neville were suffering, too. They didn't have as bad a time as Harry or Lily, because they weren't as well-known, but nobody would speak to them, either. Hermione had stopped drawing attention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence.

Lily was almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the studying she had to do kept her mind off her and Harry's misery. Her, Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept to themselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions...

Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, Lily's new resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern her was put to an unexpected test. Walking back from the library on his own one afternoon, She and Harry heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As the Potter Twins drew closer, they heard Quirrell's voice.

"No - no - not again, please -"

It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Lily and Harry moved closer.

"All right - all right -" they heard Quirrell sob.

Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; Lily didn't think Quirrell had even noticed them. They waited until Quirrell's footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom. It was empty, but a door stood ajar at the other end. Harry was already half-way towards it.

All the same, she'd have gambled twelve Sorcerer's Stones that Harry was thinking Snape had just left the room, and from what they'd had just heard, Snape would be walking with a new spring in his step - Quirrell seemed to have given in at last.

Lily managed to drag Harry back to the library, where Hermione was testing Ron on Astronomy. Harry told them what he'd heard, however, Lily stayed silent. Despite all she had said for Snape, this was oddly fishy...

"Snape's done it, then!" said Ron. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell -"

"There's still Fluffy, though," said Hermione.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?"

The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron's eyes, but Hermione answered before Harry could.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."

"But we've got no proof!" said Harry. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor-And don't say you still believe it's Quirrell, Lily- who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn't.

"If we just do a bit of poking around -"

"No," Jumped in Lily flatly, "we've done enough poking around-And yes, I'll admit it, it does seem to point to Snape now, doesn't it?' Lily was already regretting saying that.

'Ha! See, you finally admitted it! Just because you're Snape's favourite doesn't mean you have to defend him.' Ron burst out.

Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. "It's got nothing to do with Snape playing favourites with me just because I look like my dead mother.' She said hotly.

Ron and Hermione looked taken aback, and Harry looked like he had wanted to cut in, but decided to keep his mouth shut. Wise decision, thought Lily.

She pulled a map of Jupiter towards her and started to learn the names of its moons.

The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Hermione, and Neville at the breakfast table. They were all the same:

Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.

Professor McGonagall

Lily and the others had forgotten about the detentions the three had to do in the favour over the points they'd lost. She half expected Hermione to complain that this was a whole night of studying lost, but she didn't say a word. Lily knew, that Like Harry, she felt they deserved what they'd got.

At eleven o'clock, Harry, Hermione and Neville headed out to meet Filch, who would be taking them down to Hagrids, to do only Merlin knew what.

Lily and Ron had opted to play a few games of chess to pass time. "I don't get it.' Said Ron aloud in a sudden.

Lily started, and blinked in an owlish manner.

"Get what?' she frowned.

"Why Snape would want the stone, That's what. I mean, sure, being immortal and being filthy rich, but... There had to be another reason for wanting it. And don't even mention Quirrell, because like Snape, why would he want that stone so desperately, not that I'm saying I believe you about Quirrell now."

Lily frowned. Ron had a point, why would either Snape or Quirrell, want that blasted stone so badly.

'I dunno Ron, but I don't want to become even more involved with this. First it was fluffy, and then that dragon, that you got bitten by, remember? What could possibly be next?" She asked. Ron opened his mouth, but shut it straight away.

Lily knew that Ron knew she had a point, what was going to be next, and how much more dangerous was it going to be?

Time passed, and Lily and Ron soon found themselves falling asleep slowly. Just as Lily was starting to drift off, a searing pain, worse than any others, in her forehead, more specifically her scar, made her jerk away. 'Argh!' She clapped a hand to her head. The pain was like white-hot fire in her scar.

'Lily! What's wrong?' Ron had become wide-awake, and was hesitating whether or not to come near her. The pain in her scar kept on getting worse though. Just as she felt she was going to pass out from the amount of pain, it stopped. Abruptly, As soon as it had started it. When Lily got her breath back, she spoke.

"My scar. It felt like it was on fire.'

'Bloody Hell! Your scar, it's bleeding.' Ron's eyes had become fully wide now at the side of Lily's scar, which was red and inflamed, like she had just gotten it.

A droplet of blood trickled down Lily's face.

'We should tell McGonagall-" "No, that won't do any good, we should wait til the others get back." And somehow, Lily's words had remained final.

Ron had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return, thought Lily had remain wide awake as she stared into the glowing embers of the fire. He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Lily roughly shook him awake when Harry and Hermione returned. In a matter of seconds, though, he was wide-eyed as Harry began to tell him and Hermione what had happened in the forest.

"My scar!' Lily blurted out. Harry looked at her strangely.

"When we were waiting for you earlier, it was like it was on fire, and it bled too." Lily explained.
'That's what mine felt like, like I was gonna pass out.' Lily nodded in agreement.

"Snape wants the stone for Voldemort... and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."

"Stop saying the name!" said Ron in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them.

He and Lily did share a look now, Whether it was Snape or Quirrell out for the stone, they both knew now why they wanted it so badly.

Harry wasn't listening on the otherhand.

"Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so... Bane was furious... he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort's coming back... Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me... I suppose that's written in the stars as well."

"Will you stop saying the name!" Ron hissed. Lily punched him on the arm. 'Toughen up.' she glared at him. Ron winced and looked away.

"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone," Harry went on feverishly, "then Voldemort will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy."

'You?' Lily asked hotly. Why did Harry always seem to forget about her, and Ron and Hermione.

Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort.

"Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."

The sky had turned light before they stopped talking. They went to bed exhausted, their throats sore. But the night's surprises weren't over.

When Lily pulled back her sheets, there was the invisibility cloak, with a note pinned on top:

Just in case.

Lily smiled widely, and lay back down on her bed, the feeling of exhaustion taking over her mind and clouding her thoughts.