It seemed as though the Great Hall as a whole breathed in a gasp at the sight of the gruesome headlines. Lily, who had been taking a sip of pumpkin juice, nearly choked as she leaned closer to Alice to examine the article that had caused such a reaction. The headline explained it all.
"Terror in Godric's Hollow: Potter family subject of attack".
Lily turned her head to the spot where moments ago James had been enjoying his breakfast, laughing and joking with his friends. Now he seemed to have disappeared, but it took only a second for her to locate him. It seemed every eye in the hall was no trained on him as he walked determinedly up to the faculty table. Lily could not remember ever seeing a student go up there, but James did not seem to be aware that he was crossing barriers; he had, understandably, only one thing on his mind. As he stopped in front of Dumbledore, the entire Hall fell silent, ears straining to hear details of the conversation, but their efforts proved useless. Professor McGonagall had wisely cast a charm, Lily wondered vaguely if it was of a similar breed to Severus' "Muffliato" charm, that kept them from hearing the conversation.
"When were you planning on telling me, Professor? Are my parents even still alive? Did you think it was best for me to find out like this in front of the whole bloody school?" James yelled, not caring who heard him.
"Potter," Professor McGonagall said in a warning tone. But Professor Dumbledore silenced her protests with a wave of his hand.
"It's quite all right, Minerva. James has every right to be upset. Unfortunately, Mr. Potter, I am afraid that at the moment your anger is quite misplaced. My dear boy, do you really think if your parents were dead I would have allowed you to sit with your friends enjoying a nice breakfast? I would have come to you straight away, in the middle of the night if necessary. I am afraid your mother and I underestimated the Daily Prophet. The attack on your parents' home occurred in the very late hours of the night; neither your mother nor I ever imagined that the Daily Prophet would have the story in time to run it for the morning edition. Your mother preferred that I let you sleep and apprise you of the situation this morning."
"I was on my way down to collect you and Mr. Black just as the paper arrived," Professor McGonagall added curtly.
"You mentioned my mother, but not my father? Is he okay? What happened, sir?"
"It seems Voldemort realized he could not get to your parents because of the strength of the security charms surrounding your home. He, himself, it would appear, based on the strength of the spell, lit the property around your parents' home ablaze with FiendFyre. He knew, as anyone who knows your parents would, that they would not simply stand by, while they were protected and watch as their neighbors both magical and muggle perished. Your mother contacted the ministry for backup, while your father made his way outside. He managed to successfully save the lives of all who were endangered. Unfortunately, Richard is not the young man he once was, his reflexes are not as quick, and he sustained serious injuries from the blaze. He probably would have died had it not been for your mother's quick thinking and assistance. He was transported immediately to St. Mungo's Spell Damage Ward, where your mother is currently with him. I believe Professor McGonagall has already made the arrangements for you and Sirius to set out for the hospital, if you are ready?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very well, Potter. Come with me." Professor McGonagall said as she made her way down to the Gryffindor table. Outside of the charm she had cast James was stunned by the roar of whispers that greeted him, it was like being inside of a beehive, the buzzing hurting his ears. He nodded at Professor McGonagall, a look she seemed to understand at once, as she allowed him to pass her, merely instructing him to wait for her and Mr. Black in her office. He nodded once more and then filed past her quickly and made his way out of the Great Hall.
Lily's eyes fell on Sirius, throughout the exchange between Dumbledore and James his eyes had never wavered from where James stood. Lily knew Sirius considered the Potter's to be family, certainly much more so than his own parents and brother; it was clear James would not be the only marauder devastated by the loss of Jillian and Richard Potter. Therefore, Lily was glad, though that didn't seem to rightly describe her emotion that Professor McGonagall did not forget about Sirius. She stopped by his side at the table.
"Sirius, are you awaiting a personal invitation to join us?"
"No, mam," Sirius said breathing a sigh of relief and rushed after James. Professor McGonagall hesitated, and Lily thought she knew why. McGonagall could not allow Remus and Peter to accompany James and Sirius without permission from their parents, yet somehow it seemed criminal to separate the Marauders at this critical moment. After a moment's pause McGonagall shook her head sadly.
"I'm sorry Remus, Peter, but you both know that I can't let you leave Hogwarts without approval from your parents. If you wish to go write to your parents at once, I will permit you to be late for my class. As soon as you receive word from your parents I will make the arrangements for you to join Potter and Black in London, but until then my hands are tied." She turned to leave, but was stopped by Peter.
"Professor," he squeaked. "Mr. and Mrs. Potter aren't…" he seemed unable to finish the thought. Remus stepped in for his friend, his voice also clearly shaken.
"Dead? Please Professor, say they're just injured."
"Richard is injured, quite severely, but Jillian was unharmed. Now I am afraid I must be going boys. I am sure that James or Sirius will write to you as soon as they know more."
Lily watched as Professor McGonagall made her way out of the Great Hall. She couldn't think right, or even be right. It was as if the sudden news about the attack on the Potters had brought all the feelings and emotions of her own parents' death screaming back to her. She felt as if she was falling into a deep dark whole, as if all the sound was muted, she could almost see the world, see herself, she supposed this was what an 'out of body' experience felt like. She heard Alice yell and cast a charm to slow Lily's fall backwards, was she passing out? She had never passed out before. She tried to tell Alice she was okay, but could not seem to make her mouth work properly. She saw Professor Dumbledore and Professor Slughorn quickly descend from the faculty table in order to help her. Again she tried to tell them not to worry about her, to go and help the Potters, she was not important, but no words formed. She saw Remus, Peter, Daphne, and Mary keeping the throngs of other Hogwarts' students at bay to allow Dumbledore and Slughorn a chance to examine Lily. Frank was holding Alice as she attempted to frantically recount the last few moments of her friends behavior, desperately trying to remember if her friend had mentioned not feeling well.
Lily was so frustrated she could scream, if she could have gotten her mouth to work. She could see how she must appear to all those attempting to help her. Her face was frozen in some sort of mask of pain, except for her eyes which were leaking tears, every few minutes she would jerk or shake as if she were having some sort of fit. She willed herself to snap out of it but she seemed to have lost all control of her body. She felt herself slowly being levitated onto a stretcher which then transported her up to the Hospital Wing.
"Now I can't let all of you in here," Madame Pomphrey said as the small crowd following Lily's stretcher filed into the Hospital Wing. "Only the Headmaster! The rest of you must wait outside!!" Professor Slughorn began ushering the group consisting of Remus, Peter, Frank, Alice, Daphne, and Mary out into the corridor, but Alice would not move. Her face had taken on the look of fury akin to a mother bear protecting her cub; she would not leave her best friend's side. The Hospital matron seemed to realize there was no point in trying to pry Alice from Lily's side, and began her tests on Lily to see what was wrong with her.
**
"Busy morning," Peter said as the teens sat down on the floor outside of the Hospital Wing, awaiting word of Lily's fate.
"Something isn't right," Daphne said.
"I'll say, I've never seen Lily have a fit like that. She's always so calm and collected." Mary said.
"I don't mean that. Well, I do, but not just that. I mean come on, the Potters get attacked and then Lily just drops de… drops…passes out like that! It's not normal. And I for one don't think we can just chalk it up to coincidence."
"I don't know Daphne, I mean the Potters are all the way in Godric's Hollow, and we don't know that there was anything unnatural about Lily's collapse. Maybe she just started feeling light headed and she fainted." Remus reasoned.
"She didn't faint," Alice said gravely as she stepped out of the Hospital Wing and into the corridor."
"Is she…" Frank asked, rising at once to stand by Alice's side.
"Asleep. Madame Pomphrey gave her something. She was poisoned. Apparently it wasn't supposed to work so fast, but Madame Pomphrey said that her increased stress after hearing about the attack on the Potters forced it into her bloodstream faster. It triggered in her some sort of emotional reaction, when she first came to she thought it was her parents, and not the Potters who had been attacked. That's why Pomphrey gave her something she was really out of it, crying upset."
"Who would want to poison Lily?" Frank asked bewildered.
"You don't think MacMillan would try do you," Peter asked.
"No, he may have been mad but he's still a pretty nice guy. Besides he's a Hufflepuff, it's not like they ever do anything that interesting." Mary said.
"Mature, Mary," Alice said dismissively.
"All I'm saying is that my money is on the Slytherins!" Mary responded.
"Snape!" Daphne and Peter both said simultaneously.
"I don't think Severus would hurt her," Remus said.
"He's hurt her before." Alice said venomously.
"Yeah he slashed her open at the QQS over the summer," Peter supplied.
"I know, but remember what James said about that day in Hogsmede?" Remus asked.
"Snape tried to save Lily," Frank answered slowly.
"Exactly. Severus is in love with Lily, I don't think he would ever intentionally hurt her." Remus said.
"He slashed her open!" Daphne exclaimed. She certainly was not Lily's biggest fan but the idea that a fellow student, a fellow Gryffindor, a girl she had shared a dormitory with for six years, had been poisoned was infuriating to her.
"Maybe because he knew that what Bellatrix or the others would do was worse," Frank reasoned.
"I'm with Daphne," Alice could not believe the words came out of her mouth. "The slimy git left her to die in that shop! If James, Andromeda, and Sirius hadn't found her she would have bled out! He's a Death Eater, how do we know that he wasn't trying to kill her. They're attacking muggleborns left and right."
**
"Which one of you miserable oafs did it?" Snape growled furiously.
"Sev, breath, we don't know it had anything to do with us." Augustus Rookwood said, trying to calm his friend.
"Why would we waste our time trying to hurt the mudblood?" Alecto Carrow said with a piglike squeal.
"Yeah, we weren't aimin' at her anyways," Amycus said with a giggle. Snape descended on the Carrows, looking very much like an overgrown bat.
"What do you mean? You blundering fools what did you do to Lily?"
"Relax, Snape." It was Regulus Black who had spoken from the shadows of the Slytherin Common Room. "It was never going to kill anybody. It's a simple poison my mother brew up to cause temporary paralysis and a short-lived emotional breakdown. It was supposed to be in my brother's pumpkin juice, but tweedle dee and tweedle dum over there slipped it into the wrong bloody cup."
"From now on any attempts of any wrong doing get cleared with me!" Snape yelled angrily.
"Ooh who died and made you king?" Alecto squealed.
"I am the highest ranking Death Eater in this school," Snape said in a low hiss to make sure he was not overheard. "The Dark Lord put me in charge of the three of you," he said motioning to the Carrows and Regulus, "if you wish to question his decision, by all means bring it up with him Alecto." Snape finished in his silkiest voice. "If Lily Evans does not pull through perfectly fine, if she has any lasting effects or damages of the slightest, all three of you WILL answer to ME. Now get out of my sight before I curse you all into oblivion."