The next morning, Lily woke up and it took her a while to remember what happened last night. She smiled as she thought about James professing his love for her. She was happy.
Then, Lily groaned as she remembered her brother's reaction to James courting her. Why did he have to be so obnoxious? She was a grown woman who could take care of herself, thank you very much.
Lily turned to the door as she heard it open. Rita walked through carrying a tray full of tantalizing breakfast foods.
"Miss Lily! I'm happy to see you decided to wake up today! Captain Potter told me that you would want a bit of a lie in, so I brought up a spot of breakfast," Rita said, placing the tray on a table in the corner.
Lily smiled at her and got out of bed. Rita handed her a floral embroidered house coat. After putting the robe like coat on, she walked over to the mahogany table with matching chair and sat down. She picked up the fork and eagerly ate the eggs and ham.
After she had finished, Lily picked out a burgundy petticoat with a floral patterned jacket that laced up in the front and had pleats coming off the waist in the back. After slipping on a white cap, she turned to face Rita with and inquisitive glance.
"Where did all of these clothes come from?" she asked, motioning to the full clothes press and her current outfit.
"Oh! Master Jack thought you needed more clothes, so he placed an order at the local dress shop as soon as you arrived. They weren't finished until last night, when they were brought to your room," Rita explained.
"Oh my, Captain Chevalier is quite generous, and he has excellent taste!" Lily exclaimed, examining the clothes.
In the mahogany clothes press there was an array of colors, styles, and cuts of dresses, gowns, and petticoats. There was a bright royal blue day dress that popped out as well as a honey gold silk. There were floral, striped, and dotted patterns. She saw various green colors that she liked and to her delight, none of the dresses were pink! She absolutely abhorred pink as it was Petunia's favorite color. It was clashed terribly with her hair.
"Where is the Captain?" she asked, turning to Rita.
"Which one?" Rita asked, her eyes sparkling in a teasing manner.
"Oh, you!" Lily exclaimed, "You know who I am asking for!"
"Captain Chevalier is in his study," Rita replied, still smirking slightly.
"Thank you, Rita!" Lily said, flying out of the door and heading towards Uncle Jack's study. The door flew open as Lily came in and threw herself at Uncle Jack, kissing both of his cheeks
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she exclaimed.
"Mate, I think you have something to worry about," Lily heard Sirius stage whisper to James. James hit him on the back of the head with a thwack.
"Miss Evans! To what do I owe this grand display of affection!?" Jack asked laughingly.
"Oh!" she said, stepping back and blushing. "I just wanted to thank you for the clothes that you had ordered for me. They are absolutely gorgeous."
"Think nothing of it, Miss Evans. It was my pleasure. A beautiful flower like you deserves to be adorned in the very best!" he replied, taking her hand and kissing it.
Lily looked around the room and noticed that Sirius and Remus were both sitting in the chairs. James was now standing by her and Paul was leaning against the mantle, not paying attention to the commotion going on around him, but he instead kept staring into the fire. Lily was pleased to see he didn't look happy.
"So, what were you doing before I interrupted?" Lily asked, linking arms with James. She looked up at him as he smiled down at her, his eyes shining with love.
"We were just looking through a book on Atlantis and discussing what we will need for the journey," Uncle Jack said.
"With out me?" she said, raising an eyebrow at James. She was pleased to see him gulp.
"Of course not, dear!" he said quickly. "We won't make any decisions without you. Isn't that right, men?" he said, looking at Sirius and Remus, who both quickly nodded their heads.
"Good. Now do you mind telling me what you have found in the book?" she asked.
"Sadly, not a lot," Remus answered, standing up. "You see," he continued, "when Atlantis 'sunk', for lack of a better word, all records of Atlantis disappeared as well over the ages. What was once fact, turned to myth as people passed it verbally."
"Then how do you know that the Legend of the Medallion is real?" she asked.
"Ah! That's what we said, too. Then, we learned of the Librarian of Atlantis."
"But wouldn't he have perished along with the people and the city?"
"No, because King Meltos knew of the city's upcoming doom. Therefore, he knew to send the Librarian away, along with a select few manuscripts showing where Atlantis' wealth and history is held. He obviously couldn't give him more because it would be oddly suspicious if a man had so many ancient texts. The king also feared of the man being persecuted for the knowledge he held as so many in history are."
"But he can't be alive! Atlantis sank thousands of years ago!" Lily exclaimed.
"Again, that's what we thought," James said, taking over for Remus. "However, then we thought, why would Meltos give a mortal man the key to the treasure? It didn't make since because he couldn't simply rely on the fact that the Librarian would pass down the manuscripts father to son. There is always a black sheep in the family that could put the wealth in danger or there was the possibility of the line dying out."
"So what did he do?"
"Do you remember what I told you about them being scientifically more advanced than us?"
"Yes," she replied.
"It is my belief that he is using a Philosopher's Stone of some sort. Of course the Atlanteans would know an extraordinary amount of alchemy! How do you think that they got that much gold?" James said. "So, then that leads us to who are the known alchemists, or successful alchemists in history?"
"Nicholas Flamel!" Lily said.
"Yes!" James said. Lily perked up in excitement. "But not quite."
"What do you mean by 'not quite'?" she asked exasperatedly.
"We thought of Flamel at first, as well," Remus said, picking the story up. "Then, we thought, why would someone as well known as Nicholas Flamel be the Librarian? Meltos wouldn't have wanted a man in the spotlight to be chosen. In addition, we realized Flamel was after the perishing of Atlantis."
"So, then who is the Librarian?"
"We then realized, it doesn't matter who the Librarian is!" Remus said, laughing.
"Doesn't matter!?" she asked, frustrated with them all.
"No," James said, "Because the manuscripts were stolen around 360 BC and copied by Plato. Plato then returned them to the Librarian. He didn't know they were stolen until after they were published by Plato in his works called Timaeus and Critias."
"So… what happened to the Librarian?" Lily asked.
"No one knows," Paul said, finally speaking. He turned away from the fire and looked at Lily. "Some say that he died, realizing that he had failed his mission. Others say he simply disappeared into history. It is… our personal belief that he went back to the treasure, to spend his life maintaining the lost library."
"What about the book with the instructions? Where is that?" she asked.
"Oh!" Sirius said, jumping up and smiling. "It is right here," he said, picking up a book on Jack's desk.
"You mean it's been there the whole time?" she asked, gaping at him.
"Well, yes," Sirius replied, grinning stupidly.
"Then what was the point of the history lesson?" she asked, looking at the men, frustrated.
"Lily, it's important to understand everything about our –er, mission, for lack of a better term. We want to be prepared for everything and anything," James said, "In addition, you were the one to insist on being left out of nothing," he finished, smirking.
"Ha ha, very funny. So can we please get on with our business?"
"Yes, of course," Uncle Jack said, grabbing the book out of Sirius' hands. Jack also grabbed a pair of reading glasses and opened the book.
"Ah yes, here it is," he said, placing the book on the desk.
Everyone crowded around it to catch a glimpse of the diagram. It looked exactly like the Medallion around Lily's neck, except each circle, which represented a pearl, held a number in it.
"I can only assume that it goes in number order," Jack said. "Miss Evans, if you would, can we please see the Medallion?"
"Oh, yes," she said, taking it out from under her clothing. She looked at it for a second and then back to the diagram. "How do we know which way it goes?" she asked.
"Do you see the circular shape at the top there?" Jack said, pointing to the diagram.
"Yes."
"I can only assume that is where the loop for the chain is held. Now, may I please hold it in order to press in the code?" he asked.
"Of course," she replied.
For the next thirty minutes, Jack worked on pressing in the pearls. Remus and Sirius went back to their chairs and Paul started pacing. Lily and James were both watching Uncle Jack anxiously.
Everyone looked up as they heard a soft click.
A/N: Sorry for the long wait! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and please review!