Lily hadn't been paying attention in Charms class. And maybe she should have been; she was taking her O.W.L.s later that year, but it was hardly her fault if Professor Flitwick was nearly 150 years old, and his voice had reached a pitch so high that only the first years could understand him easily.
"Lily," Hugo hissed, tossing a ball of parchment at her, and Lily sat bolt upright in her chair, realizing that the Professor had just asked her a question. "Um. Yes?"
A few students giggled. Lily turned around in her seat, shooting a glare over her shoulder.
"Miss Potter," Flitwick squeaked. "I would appreciate it if you would, in future, pay half as much attention to the lesson as you do to your stories!"
"Yes, sir," Lily said, glancing down at the piece of parchment resting on her desk, wondering of it was worth saving, or if she should trash it.
"Keep it," Hugo muttered, and Lily realized with a jolt that he'd been reading over her shoulder. She shoved the parchment into her bag just as the bell rang.
"I'm gonna drop Charms next year," she exclaimed, following Hugo out of the classroom. "I hate it."
"You hate every class that isn't History of Magic," Hugo pointed out.
The sad thing was, he was right, but Lily refused to dignify the comment with a response. Instead, she said, "I hope they have treacle tart with dinner tonight."
Hugo shook his head. "We've got homework."
"Still not skipping dinner, Hugo." Lily reached the main staircase and hopped up onto the railing, sliding down the stairs and leaving her best friend at the top.
"Fifteen points from Gryffindor, kid."
Frank Longbottom standing at the bottom of the stairs, holding Lily's cousin Molly's hand and shaking his head in a mix of amusement and annoyance. Frank made a habit of waiting here, but Lily didn't always use the main staircase.
"Fuck off, Frank," Lily said kindly. "Hey, Molly."
"Hey, Lily," Molly said. She didn't wave; the hand that wasn't in Frank's was busy balancing her ever present sketchbook under one arm. "Where's Hugo?"
Lily shrugged. "He'll be here right-" she glanced behind her just as Hugo jumped the last few steps to the ground. "Now. See you guys." She grabbed Hugo's arm and dragged him after her to the Great Hall.
"Do you have to intentionally aggravate prefects?" Hugo asked.
"Please, he's my brother's friend. The most he's gonna do is dock twenty points," Lily pointed out. "Where're Kenzie and Jackie?"
"Quidditch," Hugo said, and Lily bared her teeth in a snarl. She hated Quidditch with a passion.
"It's literally the first fucking week back."
"Captain wanted to get an early start this year."
Lily dropped into her seat at the Gryffindor table. Hugo sat down next to her.
"Is this seat taken?"
Lily tipped her head back.
The girl resembled, if anyone, a blond Moaning Myrtle. Without glasses. And alive. And objectively more attractive, Lily thought, but it still didn't do anything for her.
"Nah," she said. The girl sat down on her other side.
Hugo, who was infinitely more polite than Lily was, leaned across her to greet the new girl. "I'm Hugo Granger-Weasley," he said.
"Psyche Greengrass," the girl said. Lily raised her eyebrows.
"You're related to Scorpius? I'm Lily."
Psyche blinked. "He's my cousin." She reached for a plate of green beans. "Second cousin, technically."
"He's my brother's boyfriend." Lily took a bite of chicken. "You guys talk much?"
"No," Psyche said quietly. "The Malfoys aren't my family's biggest fans."
"Oh yeah," Lily said thoughtfully. "Are you new? I've never seen you before. Transferring at the start of O.W.L. year- that sucks."
"My family just moved to London," Psyche said. "I was at Beuxbatons."
Lily leaned forward, suddenly interested. "You don't have an accent."
Psyche shrugged. "It was Ilvermorny before that. We move around a lot."
Lily wanted to ask why, but the look on Psyche's face declared the topic of conversation closed.
"Alright then," she said cheerfully. "Who wants to go make fun of the Quidditch team?"
o-o-o-o-o
Lily had already decided that she hated O.W.L.s, and she hadn't so much as begun to study for them.
It was three weeks into the term, and she was already swamped. Slughorn wanted sixteen inches of parchment on antidotes; Uncle Neville had set them a foot and a half long essay on the proper fertilizers to use on carnivorous plants, and she had a stupid dream diary to keep up with for Divination.
"I'm dropping this class," Jackie Goldstein said. His head was slumped against yet another essay; Lily was pretty sure it was one for DADA that had been due last week. "What do we even need DADA for these days, anyway?"
"You say to Harry Potter's daughter," Lily pointed out.
"Fair. I'm still not doing this goddamn-"
The door to the library slammed open.
"Shhh!" The librarian looked up over the top of a teetering stack of books, eyebrows scrunched together.
Kenzie Nott stood in the doorway, face red, breathing heavily.
Lily stood up. "Zi? What's going on?"
"I wasn't sure who else-" Kenzie gulped and doubled over. "There's a- There's a-"
Kenzie vomited on the library carpet.
"Oh, shit," Jackie said, running to wrap his arms around Kenzie. "Kenzie?"
Kenzie heaved and clutched on to Jackie like a lifeline. The librarian hurried out from behind the desk; Lily moved to help support Kenzie, never minding the mess.
"Kenzie? What happened?"
Kenzie grabbed on to Lily's robes. "Fifth floor bathroom- There's a body-"
Lily's limbs went numb.
A body.
"Are they okay?" she demanded, but Kenzie didn't seem able to answer any more questions.
"What's going on here?" the librarian snapped. "Why is there vomit all over my floor? Get to the hospital wing at once. I swear, no common sense…" He whipped out his wand and started casting cleaning spells on the floorboards.
"I'll take Kenzie," Jackie said. "You'd better tell someone about the… uh, the body."
"Right," Lily said. She touched Kenzie's shoulder once and left the room. She sprinted up the stairs to the fifth floor. Of course, she had no idea which bathroom Kenzie had meant; she'd been too distracted, down in the library, to figure out if Kenzie had been a boy at the time, or a girl, or both, or neither. Not that Lily had any qualms about checking the boy's bathroom. In fact, it was closer.
She barged in, not bothering to see if it was empty first. It wasn't; a first-year boy was washing his hands at the sink and yelped in surprise when he saw her.
"This is- this is- you're not a boy!" he sputtered.
"Just because you happen to be right this time," she snapped at him, "doesn't mean you can tell someone's gender just by looking at them. Seriously, kid. My friend said there was a body in one of the bathrooms up here, do you know which one?"
"N-no…"
Lily turned around and left without another word.
She tried the girl's bathroom next. She knew, as soon as she opened the door, that something was wrong.
There was no blood. No chunks of brain matter or bits of bone sticking to the walls. No final message painted on the mirrors. No screaming.
There were two younger girls, huddled together in the corner, practically right behind the door. And there was a pair of legs, the rest of the body out of sight, hidden in the shadows beneath the sinks.
Lily cursed Hogwarts' lack of electricity. She was going to have to move the body if she wanted to see who it was.
"We heard screaming," one of the girls said shakily. "Your friend went to get help."
"It's okay," Lily said, kneeling in front of the girls. "Did you see anything? What caused this?"
"No," the other girl sniffled.
"Do you know the way to the hospital wing?"
They nodded.
"Go there. Tell Madam Bones to give you each a calming drought. Maybe a potion for dreamless sleep."
The girls scurried out of the bathroom, and Lily turned to face the body.
She wasn't squeamish, not in the slightest. She'd grown up with two older brothers. But something about this felt… off. The skin was pale and slightly shriveled, like something had sucked it dry.
Lily grabbed the corpse's ankle and pulled.
The body was light- too light. Not warm at all, limbs already stiff. Whoever it was couldn't have been dead for longer than an hour or two- this bathroom was used by too many people- though Lily supposed someone could have just moved the body.
The face slid into the light. Lily almost threw up herself.
"Alice," she gasped, pressing her fingers into the side of Alice's throat. "Come on, Alice…"
She knew there was no point. Alice was dead.
The bathroom door slammed open.
"Lily? Madam Bones said your friend Kenzie found…"
Lily turned around. Psyche Greengrass was standing in the doorway.
"Oh," she said softly. "That's… oh."
"Psyche," Lily said. "Can you get Professor Longbottom?"
"That's his daughter, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Can you get him?"
Psyche nodded and backed out.
Lily leaned over Alice's body and let herself cry.
o-o-o-o-o
A few hours later, Lily was sitting cross-legged on the edge of her bed, staring a blank piece of parchment in the face.
Lily wouldn't go so far as to say writing cleared her mind, but it was definitely a distraction, if only because it was more frustrating than almost anything else. Today, it was like her hand was paralyzed.
Maybe she should go see Kenzie in the hospital wing. Jackie was there, but Lily hadn't wanted to interrupt. Jackie and Kenzie wanted to be alone, preferably in a time and place with no murders and a convenient broom closet. Lily wasn't blind.
The door swung open, creaking slightly on its hinges.
Lily didn't look up, but she felt the mattress dip around her as someone- or multiple someones- settled around her. She glanced over her shoulder.
Albus and Scorpius had climbed up onto the bed and sat down on either side of her. Scorpius immediately wrapped his arm around Lily, and Albus copied him a moment later.
"This sucks," Lily said.
"Epically," Scorpius agreed.
Lily leaned her head back against Albus' shoulder. "I'm gonna find them. Whoever did it."
"Okay." Albus didn't try to stop her; Lily hadn't thought he would.
"I didn't even know her that well," Lily said. "I mean, I saw her every day in the Common Room, we had classes together, we all spent Christmas at the Burrow, and I don't know the first thing about her. Her middle name. Her favorite color. What she wanted to do after Hogwarts."
"Her middle name was Augusta," Albus muttered. "I don't know about the rest."
Lily choked out a laugh. "That's horrible. Alice Augusta Longbottom."
Neither Scorpius nor Albus said anything, so Lily closed her eyes. "I'm gonna find them."
"I'll help."
"Me too." Albus' arm shifted behind her back, and Lily knew his hand was now resting against Scorpius' shoulder. "Someone has to keep you two from…"
He trailed off, but Lily finished the sentence in her head. Getting yourselves killed.
o-o-o-o-o
Unfortunately, Alice's body was long gone by the time Lily was feeling up to any serious investigating.
She did go to see Frank and Neville, who were sitting upstairs in Professor McGonagall's office with Hannah, Neville's ex-wife and Frank and Alice's mother. When she saw how upset they all were, she didn't have the heart to ask any real questions.
"It's no use," she complained, swinging herself over the back of the sofa in the Slytherin common room. "I can't think of anyone who would want to hurt Alice."
Scorpius jumped, splashing ink all over his potions essay. "Oh. Hi, Lily."
Albus tipped his head back to glare at his sister. "How did you even get in here?"
"Slytherin passwords are always things like pureblood or magical supremacy," Lily said. "It's fucking ridiculous. Slytherin needs to get with the times."
Albus snorted and rolled his eyes, not like he disagreed, but like he was an older brother who was used to his younger sister's impassioned speeches.
"Maybe it wasn't personal," Scorpius pointed out, using his wand too siphon the spilled ink off the essay and back into its bottle. "Maybe she saw something she shouldn't have."
"Then why leave the body?" Lily asked. Scorpius shrugged.
"Ran out of time, maybe? How long had Alice been dead when Kenzie found her?"
"I don't know," Lily groaned. "No one knows anything."
o-o-o-o-o
Almost a month later, Lily still hadn't found anything. All she'd managed to do was waste dozens of sheets of parchment on useless theories.
She woke up one next morning to someone shaking her shoulder. "Lily, wake up!"
Lily groaned and rolled over, yanking the covers over her head. "Whatd'ya want?"
"Professor Longbottom wants everyone in the Common Room."
Lily pealed open one eyelid. Psyche Greengrass was standing over her, blonde hair falling into her face. There was a hectic flush to her cheeks that Lily hadn't seen before.
Lily sat up and reached for her robes, folded neatly at the foot of her bed by house-elves. "Give me a minute."
Psyche nodded, absently scraping her hair out of her face. Lily tossed her a scrunchie. "Can you grab my sneakers? I left them under the bed."
o-o-o-o-o
Neville was standing at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room, his hands folded in front of him. The shadows under his eyes were dark grey and huge, and his shoulders were tense. Lily frowned in concern.
Jackie and Hugo were standing at the foot of the girls staircase, and they looked up when they saw Lily and Psyche. Kenzie was with them, pale but standing.
"Hey," Lily said. "What's going on?"
Jackie opened his mouth to reply, but just then, Neville raised his hand for quiet.
"The teachers of Hogwarts," Neville began, "Have never felt that keeping students in the dark is a good way to ensure your safety. There are people within the Ministry who do not want you to hear this. We have chosen to tell you anyway." Neville cleared his throat. "There has been another murder."
All around Lily, students began to mutter among themselves. Neville had to raise his voice to be heard.
"The student was a Hufflepuff fifth year. Rowan Finch."
On the other side of the room, someone began to sob. Clearly, they'd been close to Rowan.
"Rowan's body was found…" Neville trailed off, and for the first time, Lily saw tears in his eyes. "It was very similar to the death of my daughter. The Headmistress and I would like to encourage anyone who might know anything to come forward."
Neville turned to head out of the portrait hole. Lily grabbed Hugo's sleeve and dragged him after her. "Uncle Neville!"
Neville turned around, and tried to smile when he saw Lily and Hugo. "Hey. How are you guys holding up?"
Hugo frowned. "How are you?"
Neville shook his head. "Hanging in there."
Lily darted in and gave her uncle a brief hug. Hugo did the same, and Neville smiled at them, ruffling their hair the way he had done when they were kids. Then he pushed the Fat Lady's portrait aside and ducked out of the Common Room.
o-o-o-o-o
Lily sat in between Hugo and Jackie at the Gryffindor table. Kenzie sat on Jackie's other side, and on any other day, Lily would have commented on the fact that they were holding hands.
Lily had a piece of parchment in front of her, and she was making lists. On one side, everyone who might have had a grudge against Alice. On the other, everyone with a reason to hate Rowan. The problem was that there were very few names in either column, and none of them overlapped.
On the other side of the table, Psyche Greengrass was quiet, a hectic red flush across her cheekbones. She was playing with her food, pushing bits of egg and toast back and forth with a spoon.
"There's literally nothing," Lily said. "There's no reason for anyone to want to hurt either of them."
"Maybe it wasn't a revenge kill," Hugo said. "Maybe they knew something. Tying up loose ends."
"Maybe." Lily balled up her parchment and shoved it into the bottom of her bag. "Scorpius suggested the same thing, but I don't think so, somehow."
Hugo shoved the last bite of bacon into his mouth and stood up. "It's not your job to solve everything, you know."
Lily shrugged. "I know."
o-o-o-o-o
Lily spent the whole of Transfiguration thinking about it, but by the time the bell rang for break, she still didn't have any new theories. She followed her friends out into the courtyard, where the first snow of the year was dusting the cobblestones.
"I can't believe it's almost Christmas," Jackie said, blushing as Kenzie reached over to link their pinkie fingers together. Lily rolled her eyes.
"You guys are going to be sickening now, aren't you." She wasn't really paying attention.
Psyche lingered behind her, reading her notes over her shoulder. "I agree with you," she said softly. "Nothing happens at Hogwarts anymore. They have to have been revenge kills."
But the more Lily thought about it, the less likely that seemed.
o-o-o-o-o
The day before Christmas break started, Lily was walking down the corridor alone, on her way back to the Common Room. She was cutting it really close to curfew, but she'd been desperate to get as much homework done before the holiday as possible.
In the corridor up ahead, she heard sharp voices, and then Polly Chapman glided past, followed by two other girls, all with long hair and turned-up noses. Polly smirked at Lily and disappeared around the corner.
Up ahead, Harper Zabini was leaning against the wall, rifling through the contents of her bag. Lily stopped in front of her. "What did Polly want?"
"Oh, the usual. Calling me a boy, giving me shit for using the girl's restroom." Harper looked up, slung her bag over her shoulder, and shrugged.
Lily curled her hands into fists. "She's an asshole, and the next time I see her, I'm hexing her to kingdom come."
"By all means." Harper fell into step with Lily as she continued down the corridor. "How have you been?"
"Stressed out of my mind."
Harper laughed. "That's fifth year." They turned a corner and started toward the staircase. "I'll see you around. Don't be a-"
A shadow hurtled up the last few stairs and doubled over in the light of the nearest torch, hands on his knees, panting. It was Albus; Harper and Lily exchanged a glance, then hurried to his side.
"Al?" Lily put her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Albus looked up, and caught Lily's gaze. "McGonagall… is looking… for you." He coughed. "I've been searching… all over… the castle."
Lily frowned. "Why would McGonagall be looking for me?"
"There's been… another murder…" Albus shook his head and swallowed, hard. "She thinks… you did it."