AN: Weekly Friday updates are officially started ow ow! :) Haha thank you to anyone who read the last one and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Review, please! For the spells I used a Latin translator. They all basically mean slash, wound, incapacitate. Yeah…

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter Twenty Eight- The Cup

I stood up across from Lily and bowed nervously. Almost before I was standing straight again, she shot a nonverbal spell at me. It was spinning purple and I only had time to put up a hasty shield before it exploded in a shower of color. The force of her spell sent me stumbling backwards.

Next she shot three spells, one after the other hurtling at me. I ducked to avoid them before throwing a simple stunning spell at her.

"Is that all you can do?" She laughed vindictively. "Incendio!"

"Protego!"

"ICTUS! VULNUS! INHABILITARE!"

I ducked and shielded, and Lily was firmly on the offensive. Some of her spells weren't simple dueling spells, but meant to maim and kill an opponent. Finally Lily seemed to tire, leaving me an opening.

"Levicorpus," I thought desperately before she had a chance to send another spell at me. The distraction of the simple spell allowed me to transfigure her into something else entirely. "Muto flos!" I said quietly while she was trying to get herself down. Immediately she was transformed into a lily flower which was sitting peacefully on the ground.

Sirius, who had apparently won against James a while ago walked over. "Lily's not going to be happy when she's transformed back," He muttered to me.

"I know," I sighed. "It was a bit necessary though. She was basically trying to kill me." I tried to hold in the tears that were welling up in my eyes.

"It's alright love," He comforted. "She'll come around."

I looked at him. He really was handsome, I thought resignedly. I shook my head at him sadly, trying to get rid of any thoughts on his facial features. "I don't know if she will, Sirius. And that's the problem."


Lily continued ignoring me. After I changed her back into a human, and after I was yelled at by Darkwood for illegal use of human transfiguration, she glared at me and stalked over to where Alice and the rest of the girls were with a vindictive sneer. As a result of Lily's ostracism I spent most of my time in the company of Sirius doing completely random things.

The Tuesday after defense, we were sitting by the Lake when he suddenly said to me, "Hey! Ya want to swim?"

` It was the middle of September and Hogwarts was in Scotland. I snorted. "It's like 60 degrees out?"

He looked at me confused. "If it was 60 we'd be burnt to a crisp?"

"Oh damn thats fahrenheit. Umm wait a minute! I got this! Okay, 60 minus 32 thats uh 28. 28 times five is 140? Yeah okay 140 divided by 9 is about 15? Yeah it's like 15 degrees out!" He looked at me in amusement. "What?"

He shook his head, with a small smile on his face. "I'll cast a heating charm now c'monnn!" He whined.

"Fine," I groaned. "Only for like ten minutes though!"

"YAY!" He said loudly. He pulled his wand out and flicked in my direction. I squealed when my clothes were replaced by a bikini.

"SIRIUS!" I shrieked, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. Goosebumps were forming everywhere along my exposed skin. He rolled his eyes and flicked his wand again. I sighed in relief as a blast of warm air surrounded my body. "Thanks I guess. It's your fault I was cold in the first place!"

"Sorry love," He smirked before picking me up and tossing me into the lake.

"SIRIUS!"


I no longer ate lunch in the Great Hall, it was too depressing. I was glared at for being the person who tore the Marauders apart and I had to constantly dodge an angry stream of hexes. Finally I gave up and now sat in the kitchens every day. I reached a breaking point on the Friday after the lake incident when someone jinxed my hair off in the hallway between classes.

Tearing down the halls, I reached the mercifully empty seventh floor corridor and paced back and forth in front of the Room of Requirement thinking nothing beyond I need to get away, please let me get away, I can't stand it anymore. What I asked the room provided and when I finally ripped the doors open I was greeted by an unfamiliar sight.

The room was empty except for a single table in the middle of the room. The walls were a kind of sterile looking grey and the floor was made of shiny marble, or some kind of stone that made large echoing sounds when I walked across it towards the pedestal. Upon the table stood a small wooden cup, unadorned but for the single ring of sparkling emeralds around the top.

Feeling an inexplicable pull towards the wooden cup, I inched forward until I realized I was standing about 10 centimeters from the table and was staring straight down at the chalice. It was empty inside except for a small piece of yellowed parchment, clearly ancient, inscribed in some sort of runes. For some reason, the runes greatly unsettled me. Whereas before I had felt at peace staring at the unadorned cup, I now felt a great sense of disease creeping up on me. Giving on last unsettled glance at the cup, I turned backwards towards where the door was.

Except… the door was gone.

It was as though the room wanted me to do something and wouldn't let me out until I did whatever my unwanted task was. Turning back towards the cup, I unsurely reached my hand in and tried to take the parchment out. When my hand had brushed against the parchment though, a burning sensation rushed through my fingers and branded the back of my hand. Startled, I drew my fingers back quickly and stared at my hand.

Tattooed on my wrist were the words He who she loves shall perish in sprawling calligraphy. I pointed my wand at the words and shrieked hysterically aguamenti! desperately trying to wash the words off the back of my hand, with a growing sense of urgency.

I turned and sprinted out of the strange room afterwards, hardly noticing that the door had reappeared. For the first time in weeks I ran up into the sixth year girls dormitory and banged through the bathroom ignoring the startled yells of the rooms occupants. Locking myself into the bathroom with a charm that a simple Alohomora would never be able to open I stared at my distraught expression in the mirror. Over the past few weeks of being ignored by my best friends in this era I had lost a startling amount of weight. I hadn't been skinny to begin with, a bit on the chubby side if I was being honest, but now I was at the point that Lily was, which was quite skinny. There were permanent looking dark half moons etched under my eyes and my cheek bones protruded in a shocking way. My hair, which I hadn't bothered with in weeks, had frizzed up to previously unheard of heights and my eyes had a haunted look to them which could probably be attributed to my experience in the room of requirement.

Altogether I looked broken.

Slowly I brought my wrist up so that the tattoo was reflected in the mirror. I cringed when I saw it, then turned on the faucet and shoved my entire arm under. Vigorously rubbing it with someones soap, I ignored the outraged pounding on the bathroom door.

"Why won't it come off," I moaned, though I thought I knew the answer.

Whatever the room had done, it was not going away. What was the cup thing anyways? It had Slytherin's gemstones, but that was irrelevant because I somehow knew that any cup of his would be made of silver anyways. Whose was it? And why had it appeared for me?

I shook my thoughts off and scrubbed hard one last time at the tattoo on my left wrist. All I had succeeded in doing was turning the skin an angry red, which made the inky darkness stand out more.

Giving up, I stormed back out of the bathroom and out of the door through the dormitory and sank into a chair in the common room, desperately pulling the sleeve over my wrist. As I was walking out of the dorm I recognized Marlene's voice saying "What's up with her?"

An angry sob tore its way through my throat.

The portrait hole opened and my eyes snapped towards it, tears rolling down my cheeks. James Potter stepped through and, when he recognized me, looked uncomfortable. Looking like he was warring with himself, he turned and slowly walked over towards me.

"Look, um, Hayley," He began nervously. "I'm, uh, sorry for ignoring you and fighting with Sirius," He managed to get out after a few awkward pauses.

I gave a watery smile at him. "S'okay Jamey-boy, we all make mistakes. I made one and then you returned the favor, it's all good."

James' smile turned less awkward and more natural. "Listen, to make it up to you, I was thinking that you, me and Sirius should pull a prank on the school?" His voice cracked upwards at the end of the statement making it sound like a question.

"Sure James," I replied, my tears slowing. "Just… not right now, okay? Can we do it tomorrow? I have a lot going on," I grabbed me left wrist nervously, hoping he wouldn't notice.

"Sure," He replied sounding confused. He turned to leave but before he was completely gone I stopped him. "Have you apologized to Sirius?" I queried.

"Not yet…"

"You really should. He's really torn up about this entire situation though he hides it well."

"I will then," James replied looking thoughtful. "You're a good friend to him, you know?"

I blushed. "Not really," I said bashfully though a small smile crept its way onto my cheeks.

"Have a nice day then!" James exclaimed before turning back up the boys stairs and bounding up them two at a time.

At least Sirius was going to be having a nice day.

AN: Review please :) Tell me if you're wondering what in the world that cup is!