1Chapter Twelve: Getting to Nuotiamo

Thanks for all the reviews you guys! I'm finally over a hundred! WOOH!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Okay, I think that's it." Lily snapped the buckle to her trunk and straightened a fold in her robe. She took a deep breath. Today was the day that she and James were traveling to the foreign school of Nuotiamo, in Rome, Italy.

"I've never been to Italy." Lily had said, folding Dumbledore's letter and sticking it in her pocket. James nodded his agreement.

"Nor I."

Well, they wouldn't be saying that for long.

"Lily!" a voice yelled from below, in the common room Lily guessed. "What!" she answered back. "You're going to be late!" She recognized the voice as Aphrodite's. Lily's heart skipped a beat.

This was it!

She waved her wand at her bulging trunk and said, as calmly as she could as excitement bubbled inside her, "Locomotor trunk." It followed weightlessly behind her as she skipped down the stairs. What she did not expect was the whole common room to erupt with applause as she, along with James on his staircase, entered the common room. She instantly blushed a deep crimson, enough to give her hair a run for its money, but sighed in relief when she felt James' warm hand envelop hers and wave to everyone with the other one. She did the same, but more shyly. "Come on!" Jenny urged, she laughed as she skipped to the other side of the room to the portrait hole. "Come on!" She said more forcefully and her, Lily, James, Remus, Aphrodite, and Sirius ran through the halls, laughing, until they reached the great hall and were amazed to see the entire school there, applauding them as the Gryffindor's had done in the tower. Again, Lily was embarrassed, but nonetheless grinned to the whole of Hogwarts. When she turned to her right, she met two legs balanced on Sirius' shoulders. James was trying to quiet done everyone to make some sort of announcement.

"Everybody! Everybody quiet! SHUT UP YOU LOT, I'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY! Thanks, now, you know that me and Lily are going to Rome, Italy, and that about ten more of you are going to other schools to participate in the I.W.D.G.—"

"I.E.M.C. James."

"Right, thanks Lils, I meant I.E.M.C. Well, I just wanted to say," and here he paused, surveying the crowd with a smirk, "WE'RE GOING TO KICK SOME INTERNATIONAL BUM!" The whole hall erupted into screams and cheers and many people broke out into song of "Hoggy, Woggy, Hogwarts" and hundreds of people clapped Lily and James on the back. Finally, as the two stood before the great oak doors, Lily turned to Aphrodite and Jenny and gave them each a long hug.

"I'm going to miss you more then you think. We're going to be gone for a whole month!"

"Don't worry about it Lils–Oh, Lily, don't cry Lily, you're going to make a scene...Oh merlin!" Aphrodite screamed as she hugged Lily and the two girls burst into tears. The boys regarded them incredulously. Jenny simultaneously smacked each one in the back of the head.

"Can't you see they're having a moment, you gits?"

"Sorry Jen..." they mumbled together with bowed heads and could not see her badly concealed smirk.

"Bye Remus, Bye Sirius." Lily said, giving each a kiss on the cheek. "Bye Lily." They replied.

"Bye Lily..." Jenny said, hugging Lily again and could not help getting tears in her eyes but was neglected of saying anymore as Hogwarts forced the two seventeen year olds out the doors and down to the gates in front of the school. What they saw scared Lily quite a bit.

"Brooms? We're flying all the way to Italy on BROOMS! James, you were going to be the only one—James, I don't do brooms, you know that, I hate heights–!"

"Goodbye Ms. Evans, Goodbye Mr. Potter—" Dumbledore, unceremoniously, shoved the two forward and everyone gasped as James disappeared at the grasp of the brooms handle. Lily, unfortunately, ran headfirst into her hovering broomstick and disappeared with a POP and an "OUCH!"

Darkness, whirling, colors speeding up and mixing; no idea, lost, disoriented shapes flying by, faces, memories, snap-shots, remembering, memories not her own, of people she had never seen before, images unable to fathom in the blink of an eye. It was like whirling through a vortex of pensieves. Lily experienced all this in the nanosecond of confusion before she fell on her back and sucked in a painful almost irretrievable gasp of breath that she had never been more appreciative for in her life.

"I take it your landing didn't go too well, seeing as you're just lying there on the floor." Why did she have to be humiliated in front of James all the time...?

"Thank you. You always seem to cheer me up." she smiled at his bark-like laugh and realized his sarcasm wasn't really what cheered her up. (That was sarcasm if you didn't catch it...oy, you people...)

Lily regarded the room with badly concealed curiosity and stared in awe at her surroundings. It was a circular room and about ten feet in diameter and was covered with hundreds of plush, cushioned pillows of all shapes, sizes, and colors and a tassel secured in a knot on each corner. There was three windows, each covered in a draping curtain of the deepest royal violet that contrasted mystically with the scarlet walls to create a sort of gypsy feeling. All and all, the room was extremely cozy and private but Lily did not know how on earth she had gotten there.

"James...were those brooms portkeys?" Lily asked tentatively, picking up a pillow and surveying it with interest. "I think these are made out of silk..." she muttered absently to herself.

"Maybe...but we don't usually use expensive items like brooms for portkeys. Usually old junk. Why don't we check the window?" He made his way across the room, the task made more difficult then thought considering the copious amounts of pillows blocking his way, but eventually he made a trail and pulled back the curtain. Light streamed into the room and Lily raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Lils you might want to take a look." She could not see his face and desperately wished she could at that moment. When she looked out the window herself she screamed. Fluffy wisps of white passed by and through holes in the clouds Lily could catch glimpses of cities and hillsides. She snorted in disbelief and shook her head, a maniacal smile on her face nonetheless.

"I knew it was too good to be true..." she laughed ruefully, "James how are we even here? Where is here?" Then suddenly, in the east corner of the room, the wall rippled to show the aged face of a man they knew only too well.

"Professor! Where are we? How are you—?"

"It's perfectly all right Ms. Evans." came Dumbledore's smooth voice that sounded almost like it was a recording. "As I'm sure you were wondering, the brooms were not in fact portkeys but they will be used as you near the end of your journey. By performing an extremely difficult and complex amount of magic Professor McGonagall and I were able to produce this means of safe transportation. As you appear right now, you would look to the normal eye like just a pair of unoccupied, moving brooms, were you not cloaked in an invisible shield. As you near Nuotiamo in Rome, however, you will say this: Commuti alle scope. You then will be transported to the brooms and fly the rest of the way to the entrance of Nuotiamo on the brooms. Hogwarts is well known for its spectacular Quidditch teams, hence the brooms, to symbolize our school. Well, that's it so have fun; you will arrive at Nuotiamo by nightfall as scheduled. Oh, and James–" Dumbledore paused as James regarded him curiously, "Your mother says don't do anything stupid and your father says congratulations." He ignored James' open mouth and red cheeks; Lily noticed the all-too-familiar twinkle in his eye. It caused her to smile and she said, in between snorts and giggles "Goodbye Professor. Tell everyone that me and...James say hello." She raised a skeptical eyebrow at James' embarrassed sputtering at his mother's "insolence" as he worded it. She smacked him on the back of the head and he came out of his muttering, "Bye Dumbledore." The image of the old face wavered and the wall syphoned back into the red wall. Lily clapped her hands together awkwardly. "So...how shall we occupy ourselves?" She asked. He grinned mischievously. He lightly pushed her down on some pillows and attacked her mouth with her, laying his body on top of hers and causing her to giggle at his antics. They snogged for a full twenty minutes before getting tired and laying down in the middle of the floor, James opening the curtains with his wand so that the two could watch the clouds pass by as they reached noon-time. "I'm hungry." Lily stated after she had dozed off in his arms. Her stomach did in fact growl at that very moment. Late afternoon rays of sunlight filtered the room and lit it up in a sort of afternoon glow.

"Oh yeah...wonder where the food is in this place..." James groaned and lifted himself off the floor. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head. He blindly started tapping on walls until, finally, he found a small hidden compartment full of fruits. Well...more he found it accidentally.

"Lily...I don't think there is any food here—AHH!" He had leaned against the wall in resignation and had apparently bumped into a small square sized piece of wall that popped out and held many arrays of different colored delectable fruits. Lily's eyes sparkled hungrily.

"Bon Apatite?" James stated dubiously and laughed out loud as Lily dove into the fruits like there was no tomorrow.

"Comf twi fum..." Lily said, blushed, then swallowed. "Come and try some." she repeated, less inarticulate.

"If there is anything left." he said amused, smirking at her as she threw a pillow at his head that he easily dodged.

"Stupid Quidditch..." she muttered dramatically in mock disdain. For the next few hours they just talked until, as the last rays of sunlight reached them through the still open window, a sudden beeping sounded from somewhere.

"James, what is that?" Lily sounded a bit anxious.

"Maybe that's the sign that we're supposed to say those magic words."

"Yes, I think your right."

"Well here goes, at the same time I think—"

They paused for about a second before commanding, loud and clear,

"Commuti alle scope!" The familiar swishing feeling from before came again and lily, not quite prepared for it, instantly felt a headache explode on the side of her head. She screwed her eyes shut against the pain and light and she materialized lightly onto one of the brooms. Never again am I opening my eyes during one of those... escapades, Lily thought for lack of a better word. But the second she had landed on her broom and the wind lashed at her face like a whip the headache dematerialized. But then came along her fear of heights.

"Ahhh...James! I don't like this at all!" James maneuvered closer to her and put his arm reassuringly around her waist. Her mood lightened a bit.

"It's okay Lils, really it is. Just don't think about it. Look, I can see a patch of green between those two clouds."

"James, I do want to get to solid ground as soon as I can, but I'm not tilting this broom one bit. I'll fall off!"

"No you wont." He said firmly and in a no-nonsense way. "You don't have to become completely vertical or anything, just slowly dip forward, the broom will follow your demand. Here, would you like to hold my hand to feel better—" the blood circulation was cut off of his right fingers a nanosecond afterwards. "Lils–Lily! I can't feel my spleen with the way your squeezing my hand like that! Okay, that's better, don't want to ruin our soon-to-be magnifico performance!" He bellowed into the wind and sent her a wink.

"Wow James that made no sense at all."

"I'm just talented like that, sono di destra?"

"I'm impressed; you've been practicing. At least...I think you have. I don't know a bloody thing of Italian."

"Well...I guess I could—Wait! I think that's it! Lily, look down about Northwest, you see–? There, a bit–" He pointed out a building that took Lily's breath away. As James had said, to the Northwest atop a grand and fertile green hill was a huge building in the shape of a tear drop but had a hollow center where about twenty feet of land was shaded and filled with sand that traveled all the way around the inside center; next to the sand however, which filled the rest of the inside space, was a clear and crystal blue lake.

"Oh, Merlin..." Lily mumbled, absorbing the closely positioned sunlight and the view of the extraordinary Italian school. "Its...It's—"

"Ah man...I forgot to pack my bathing suit!" Lily shook her head at her companion. "Did you bring yours Lils?"

"No, but I'm sure they'll have an extra suit or two."

"Or ten, since I'm sure nobody else brought one." They both laughed. "Shall I land first or you?" James asked after both their laughter had died down.

"Um...I think I should, in fear of just jumping from here so I don't have to endure these winds at this height. I don't know how you can enjoy being suspended a hundred feet above ground going at fifty miles per hour depending on a stick for your safety and support from hurtling to your gruesome death."

"Lily..." James said, like a mother reassuring her child mockingly, "For your information, we are one hundred and fifty feet above the ground." Lily turned a faint shade of green. "Lily, your skin matches your eyes now!"

"Now you are starting to sound like Sirius."

"Nah, Padfoot's vocabulary isn't as advanced as what I just produced there."

"You mean 'your' and 'now?" She replied with a smirk.

"Just land Miss Snob or I shall be forced to join you on your broom and kiss you off." He said in a deep, seductive voice and wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Don't you dare!" She squealed as he launched his broom in her direction and she swivelled out of harm. "And now you're really starting to sound like Sirius!" She leaned forward on her broom so that it obeyed her unspoken command to collect speed. Her robes billowed around her and for the first time she noticed an enormous crowd of people below her, seemingly at the entrance of the school. "James!" she bellowed behind her into the wind and heard his shout back "Yeah?" "We have company!" She shouted, not really needing to as he appeared at her side. "Wow...she's cute!" He yelled at her over the rush of wind in his ears. She rolled her eyes, regretting it as the wind hit the white of her eyes and caused them to water; she blinked and replied, in an equally loud voice, "James, you cant even see her face!" "Yes I can." He said back and gave her a loving look. She punched him playfully.

"How is it you can fly a hundred feet off the ground and be charming at the same time?"

"I'm just talented like that." He shrugged with a lopsided smile that made her stomach flutter at how adorable he looked.

"Oh, James, you will be the death of me..."

"That's what my mum says all the time. Now, lets make our entrance as impressive as possible."

"I think I'll just ride side-saddle and land gracefully. You go do a flip or something." she said nonchalantly waving her hand.

"As you wish." He whispered, but she heard him nonetheless. He zoomed away and made a spectacular dive, awing the crowd below them into applause. Again, Lily rode her eyes and put on a dazzling smile and she flipped her right leg over and landed onto a stone circle in the middle of the grassy lawn, stepping lightly to the ground as if she were a feather. James circled her twice before jumping off his broom and throwing a hand around Lily's shoulders, throwing on his suave lop-sided grin. They walked over to the crowd and in the front stood a man who looked to be middle-aged but gave the air of a young spirited man, with curly black hair and a handsome face. He eagerly made his way over to them and put a hand out for both to shake.

"Hello a, My name is a Palo Donatelli and I am a the headmaster of a the school here called Nuotiamo. Welcome! What are your names?"

"Hello Headmaster Donatelli. Made name is James Potter and this is Lily Evans." Said James before Lily could utter a word. She however added, "We come from the British school of Hogwarts. We are very eager to meet everybody, including your students and other delegates." Her voice was formal and she realized this a second later, giggling at herself. "I'm sorry if I sound a bit rehearsed because, well, I am!" This caused the headmaster to laugh.

"I'm a sure we will be getting along a." he said, his booming, contagious laugh causing Lily to smile. "Come a, meet everyone!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I'm SO sorry its taken so long to update but I've been mucho busy with school and church and family and GAH! So, I hope you like this chapter! It will be LOADS of fun writing Italian accents, I even have to talk with an Italian accent for a skit at school so, yeah I bet you're all just LAUGHING your freaking white socks off at me and...um...well, okay I'm just gonna stop typing since I have a donut waiting for me.

CIAO!

Denierure