After this we'll be jumping to quiditch tryouts and straight to Halloween from there, I didn't mean for this to be so dialogue heavy it just happened and if it got much longer it would have felt stilted so I hope its quality meets all your standards. As always, REVIEW!
After sifting through the wreckage that had been the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom Blaise, Hermione, and Lilly eventually found their blonde friend who was currently scowling at his badly tossled hair in a compact mirror. Even as they were nearly half way to the great hall Draco was still playing with it muttering oaths of a blood feud between Houses Malfoy and Lockhart, Lilly rolled her eyes at this and calmly ignored it until they were passing a lavatory. Grabbing the startled boys hand she dragged him in after her and was quickly followed by her other two friends, Draco looked about a second before asking in a very tired tone,
"Lilly...why are we in a girls lavatory?" Grinning she pushed him to one of the sinks and turned on the hot water, gesturing towards it she replied,
"Wash the gel out, now, I'll take care of the rest," he eyed her a moment then sighed, it was kind of amusing how he didn't even resist her orders anymore, Tom had been right pet Malfoy's were quite malleable. As he did as ordered she turned to her partner in crime,
"Hermione can I borrow one of your hair care potions and a comb?" Scowling she of the bushiest yet somehow tamed hair met her eyes and after a brief stare down broke contact when Lilly flashed her a brilliant smile.
"How do you know about that?" She muttered as she began digging into her school bag, Blaise let out a light chuckle at this,
"Your hair has a very distinct and quite pleasant aroma, my mother uses a similar product but I'm sure it's just as effective," sighing in defeat Hermione handed the bottle over to Lilly as Blaise offered a comb. Lilly stared down at it for a second and shook her head,
"Should I be surprised you carry that around, no no don't answer that, of course I shouldn't be," turning away from the smirking boy she approached Draco who was just pulling his head out of the sink. Throwing a few light drying charms at the sopping mess of hair she dipped the comb in the potion and began brushing it through her friends blonde locks he was scowling a bit but stopped as Lilly snapped out at him.
"Really Little Dragon I've seen the literal library of hair care spells Uncle Luc and Aunt Cissy keep in their room why don't you know any of them?" He let out a withering sigh and tried to drop his head but Lilly quickly grabbed his chin and jerked it straight again so she could continue her ministrations.
"Because they're family magic, Malfoy's are part ancient elven much like the Lovegood's and Abbot's, not enough to you know...matter but just the drop that's still in there lets us access some very old beauty magic. I'm not allowed to look at any of that until I come of age...or sneak it out, which is very difficult since Father and Mother can be..." Lilly quirked a brow at that,
"Terrifying?" He smiled fondly and nodded earning him another reproach for moving his head again,
"Quite," Hermione spoke up then,
"Never heard you mention Family Magic before, is this one of those things that muggle-borns are excluded from?" The two pure-bloods and half-blood turned to their friend but Blaise was quick to placate her,
"Actually it's one of the reasons people so look down on them, or rather they did when arranged marriages were still the norm since it meant they had nothing to offer magically. See family magics are what they sound like, magic that only the family gets to learn, in truth anyone can use it if they learn it, but the bloodline that created the spells has a better affinity for it. Plus, there's a desire to keep such exclusive magic secret, if for no other reason then to make your family appear more powerful." Lilly nodded quickly as she turned back to Draco earning her a squeak as she pulled the comb through a rather nasty knot of hair.
"Malfoy's are known for their beauty magic, Zabini's for their warding, Potter's for transfiguration, Black's have Dark Arts, Slytherin parsel magic which incidentally I'm seriously considering using on Lockhart, and it goes on like that. There's some pretty nasty magic bound to the tomes the spells are contained in so you can't share it with anyone but your spouse or other members of your family so we all tend to keep quiet about it so we don't accidentally curse ourselves." Finally finished she admired Draco's shoulder length hair a moment before Hermione spoke up again,
"Cute, looks untamed but still dignified, and...thanks for letting me know, but how did I get to read the Slytherin grimmoire you gave me for Yule if it was family magic?" Smirking she led the group out of the loo (secretly pleased that Moaning Myrtle hadn't made an appearance) as Draco replied,
"Does it look better then Diggory's? Err..and that was actually from the both of us, technically speaking Lilly and I are related however distantly but I'm not a parselmouth obviously, so she dictated the tome to me and I wrote it out for her. Trick my mother picked up, sometimes wizards just don't think of mundane ways to bypass magic, and it was win win for me really, I got to help you two out and learn some rather interesting spells." Throwing Draco a fond look Lilly shook her head slowly,
"You're just as vain as Uncle Luc, and yes you look better then Cedric, although I have a thing for longer hair so who knows I may be biased," turning away she hooked her arm through Hermione's and took lead of their little procession. Blaise gave Draco a knowing smirk at the blonde boys pleased smile as he spoke just loud enough for him to hear,
"She'll break your heart you realize?" Scowling again his silvery eyes slitted in annoyance as he muttered,
"I have no idea what you are referring to Zabini..." chuckling Blaise rolled his eyes as the girls pushed the Great Halls doors open,
"Right Draco...right..." upon entering the hall a blinding flash overtook the group and it was all they could do to not fall over as they all blinked rapidly, as this was happening a squeaky and very excited voice chirped out,
"Hi I'm Colin Creevey! The other Gryffindor's have told me so much about you! About how you survived when You-Know-Who tried to kill you, and how he disappeared and everything and how you've still got a lightning scar on your forehead and-" As he regained his vision Blaise tuned the camera totting boy out as he stepped to the side to observe Lilly, this ought to be good.
Lilly for her part was staring down the small first year with an incredulous look on her face, sure she was on incredibly good terms with a few of the Gryffindor students but for the most part she was under the assumption they hated her just as much as the rest of her house. Filing away this unexpected loyalty for later use she appraised the boy for a moment,
"I suppose he could make for a decent minion, if nothing else he could take a killing curse meant for me happily, thoughts?" Tom shrugged,
"I personally think being friendly with four Gryffindor's is more than enough but on that note cannon fodder is never really wasted in so long as the live up to their purpose," nodding in return she flashed a wide smile at the boy who looked unduly pleased at garnering that kind of response. Gryffindors, really.
"Hello Colin, enjoying Hogwarts so far?" Nodding enthusiastically he swept his free hand out gesturing to the open hall,
"It's amazing here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Professor McGonagall, mum was so happy I wasn't actually the spawn of Satan, which I'm pretty happy about as well come to think of it. I was really getting tired of her trying to drown me in holy water." Trying her best to not laugh when she should be horrified Lilly coughed lightly into her fist,
"Huh...think I may be more broken than I suspected," Tom snorted at that,
"You're a Dark Lady in training love sociopathic tendencies are part of the package, just play it cool and don't let anyone know you don't actually care and it'll all work out," not all that sure she was comfortable not caring about people she gave Colin her attention again.
"That's ...great... so look you're a bit of a shutter bug yes?" He nodded happily so she gestured to her friends who were all wearing mixtures of concern and amusement on their faces, "Well I only have a few pictures from last year and it kind of bothered me so how about we come to an arrangement. You take as many photo's of us as you like and in return I pay you for your services, trade off is I get to decide what enters circulation, that sound fair?" Suddenly serious Colin gave her an appraising look,
"Two sickles for group photos, one for singles, if you keep me on retainer at say, four galleons a week plus another three a month for supplies I can wave the nominal charges," at this he'd suddenly gained the attention of the bored looking Draco and Blaise as Hermione raised a brow and quirked a half smile. Lilly stared him down a moment before chuckling, turning to Draco she drawled,
"And that is why you never underestimate muggle-borns," Draco muttered something about figuring that out the first time he pissed Hermione off but it was largely ignored as she turned back to Colin and offered her hand. "Three galleons a week and two for supplies, oh and if I need you for a special occasion we can negotiate fees but we'll leave the baseline at five galleons per event, sound fair?" Colin eyed her a moment then grinned quickly taking her hand,
"Pleasure doing business with you!" As the small boy left them and approached the Gryffindor table she heard Ronald spit out,
"Why the hell were you talking to those slimy snakes Creevey, they're pure evil and hate muggle-borns like you!" Much to her surprise she heard the first year snap back,
"Shut it Weasely they're my clients and they can hate me as much as the want so long as they pay me, close your mouth when you eat, god..." Exchanging a look with Hermione who was openly grinning Tom spoke up contemplatively,
"On second thought...he may not be cannon fodder material after all..." After finishing lunch Lilly walked over to the Ravenclaw table and sat primly next to Luna who was talking amiably with Su Li who greeted her cheerfully,
"Hiya Lilly, how was your summer?" Shrugging a bit Lilly eyed Hedwig who was sleeping on top of Luna's head, the blonde seemed completely unpeterbed at this,
"It was great actually, got my wand made and got to see a bunch of bands across the continent and the colonies, oh and my godfather cleared out a nest of vampires and saved a girl from them, apparantly she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome though so she wasn't really thankful for it." Su nodded at this as she absently wrote out something on her notepad, most of the Ravenclaws had followed Hermione's example of carrying around the muggle item due to its compact nature though Su was the only one Lilly observed using a pen rather than quill.
"That happens sometimes depending on the type of vampire, the ones typically found here in Britain are a docile sort but they tend to be rather ugly so they don't live up to the romanticism of the books." Lilly nodded at that as Luna chirped out,
"The pretty sparkly ones are the weakest, they can walk around in sunlight but they shine so brightly that any competent archer can take them out, but they're really rather good at drawing in stupid weak willed girls," she shrugged lightly disturbing Hedwig enough to wake her, the owl blinked and noticed Lilly for the first time. Clacking her beak she hopped off Luna's head and onto Lilly's shoulder, lightly scratching her familiars head Lilly turned back to her friends,
"So I've got to ask, what's with Hedwig and you Luna?" She smiled happily at that as she finished her pudding before responding,
"Well I was excited about meeting you and I was talking to some of my housemates about what we discussed when some of the older girls began harassing me," Lilly's eyes narrowed at this but didn't say anything at the moment. She'd ask Helena for names later, Luna was hers, and no one, no one messed with what was hers, "And that's when Su here told them to back off, it was surprising, I thought perhaps she'd been suffering the affects of wrackspurts since no one has done that for me before but it made them leave me alone for a time." Su for her part looked up from her writing and quirked an eyebrow,
"Wrackspurts?" Lilly took lead at this,
"Don't worry they shouldn't bother you unless you've been summoning demons lately, you haven't been summoning demons have you?" Su gave her a tired look and shook her head,
"No no, mum wanted me to this summer, family tradition and all but after your horror story after the chess room it kind of lost its appeal honestly," nodding Lilly turned back to Luna who was currently staring at the ceiling, poking her shoulder the girl continued as if she'd never stopped speaking.
"I decided to go write daddy and tell him about you and when I got to the owlery the older girls had followed me, when one of them pushed me down your owl swooped in and attacked them, she was quite heroic," glancing to the owl in question Headwig looked rather pleased with herself as she nodded once. "After I woke this morning and left the common room she just flew to me and spent the rest of the day beside me, some of the professors were rather annoyed but Professor Snape seemed quite amused and didn't pick on me like he did the other Ravenclaws." Lilly had to resist snorting at that, ah the joys of nepotism,
"Well I'm glad Hedwig took it upon herself to protect my inves-friends, speaking of Professor Snape he wanted to meet with me so you two take care now," waving her goodbyes as Hedwig left her shoulder and reclaimed her spot on Luna's head Lilly soon found herself at her dads office, knocking on the door she waited a few moments before it unlocked. She was quite surprised to see that Professor McGonagall was also in attendence, closing the door she shifted from the relaxed posture of a girl who hadn't seen her dad in three months to that of a simple student, she was a bit nonplussed as McGonagall began laughing.
"You were not joking Severus, she slips the mask back on as if it was nothing," now more confused then she'd like to admit Lilly turned to her dad who just smiled knowingly...wait dad only smiled around her or when a Gryffindor did something to get themselves hurt...the hell was going on.
"Quite, she is after all my pride and joy," blushing at the complement but not losing sight of her goal the girl in question asked,
"What's going on Professor Snape?" To her shock McGonagall laughed,
"Are you always so formal with the man that raised you?" Eyes widening in horror Lilly rolled and took cover behind cabinet ejecting her mums wand from her wrist holster as she yelped,
"I'll supply cover fire while you try to stun her!" After a few moments she noticed no one else was moving, slowly moving her head to get the adults in view she saw they were both still in there seats looking bemused,
"I see you were not joking when you said she was trained by the Black sisters, I haven't seen that kind of dive since young Andromeda attended my classes," Snape nodded knowingly,
"She's quite the terror, both she and Hermione took to the 'Black Dance' well, it helped that they both were already attending traditional dance classes beforehand mind you," standing up and sticking the wand back into its holster Lilly rubbed the bridge of her nose as her voice ground out through gritted teeth.
"What. Is. Going. On?" Snape finally decided to quit teasing the girl as he gestured towards McGonagall,
"Lilly I'd like to introduce you to your Great-Grand Aunt," pausing Lilly felt her brain come to screeching halt, she couldn't help her automatic response, while she buried the trauma of her early childhood well it would always be part of her and so it was no great surprise when she coldly stated,
"If I had a magical relative why the fuck did I get sent to those goddamn muggles?" Ok, no points for eloquence today, thankfully for her both Professors looked sad and in McGonagall's case ashamed after she stated this, fidgeting the teacup in her hands the aged Deputy Headmistress sighed slowly before she replied.
"Lillith...you have to understand that during the last war the only hope anyone had was Albus Dumbledore, he was a hero of the last war and a beacon of light in the darkness, so when he said something was for the best we all believed him. I...I watched the Dursley's before he left you with them, and I argued adamantly that their own child shouldn't be left in their care, much less you. I...I gave up the argument quickly and hadn't thought about it once until the day I saw you leave the docks when you first came to school..." Lilly was about to snarl a rage laced retort when the more logical part of her mind shifted the older woman's words about, sighing she plopped ungracefully in the only open in chair.
"He obliviated you..." McGonagall nodded slowly,
"I'm sure he'd have tried it again when we all confronted him your first evening here but he would have had to incapacitate all four of his heads of house and that was simply not going to happen. Pamona and Filius are accomplished professional duelers while Severus and I are both war veterans, so he let the matter drop and we play acted obedience for the time being. I...did not act on the information I gained simply because I know that your current guardians will look out for you always..." She sighed and suddenly looked decades older than she really was, "I just hope you can forgive an old woman for not being strong enough to protect you..." Lilly remained silent for a few moments, she glanced over to her dad who gave her a knowing look and a very subtle nod. Mulling it over she came to a decision,
"Aunt Minerva, I...I forgive you even though it's not really your fault, you fell in the same web as everyone else, including my parents...so...if it's all the same I'd like to get to know you better," smiling and now openly crying the stern professor let out a light laugh,
"Please dear when we're alone call me Aunt Minnie, your father always did," feeling a warm tingle overtake her Lilly couldn't help but smile back,
"Ok...Aunt Minnie..."
Next chapter, Quiditch, Slytherin coming to Lilly for advice on how to kill Lockhart, and finally finding out what that weird feeling is, hope you enjoyed, as always REVIEW!
P.S. I hope you lot like what I did with Colin, it's going to be rather fun.