A/N: Boo! Surprise update! Don't own anything by the way, other than my mind. (And sometimes I don't think I even have control of it.)
It was an empty classroom that greeted him when Harry opened the door, the room for the supposed meeting of him and Lilith.
Except Lilith wasn't in the room, in fact when he checked earlier on the map she wasn't anywhere near the astronomy tower. Perturbed, Harry got several desks together, and with a bit of hesitation, pulled two chairs and put them along the side of the table side by side. He then sat down and waited for Lilith to enter their hideout.
Not a minute later, over 7 p.m. did Lilith enter. A bit of sweat on her brow as she softly catches her breath.
She then gave a small squeak as her eyes finally seemed to notice Harry's presence.
"Oh, you're already here!" Holding her mouth and red-faced from her involuntary gasp.
Harry simply raised his brow in mirth, "Yeah, what took you so long?" Of course, he had just entered the room seconds before she did but she didn't need to know that.
And he found her surprised squeak kinda cute.
She coughed into her fist and adjusted the lapels of her suit, "If you must know I had a bit of a run in with one of the Head Girls, a Slytherin I think. Well, I say run in but it was more of a close bump. It was a close call but I managed to make a quick detour and get here just in time." She explained whilst sitting beside him and putting her briefcase on the desk.
And the usual suspects came out as they prepared for a night of reconnaissance; quills, ink pots, parchments, the two thermo flasks, and… two medium sized boxes?
At Harry's questioning gaze she began explaining once again, "Well we can't just sustain ourselves with cookies and biscuits every time we work. It's unhealthy! That's why I made some sandwiches for us." And lo and behold, she opened the two boxes and inside was what appeared to be regular sandwiches, "Well, I say I made them but I asked the house elves in the kitchen to make some for us." She corrected sheepishly.
Harry took one of the sandwiches and took a bite. His mouth exploded with flavor of cheese, ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo.
"These are pretty good." Harry said contently and Lilith beamed at him.
"Well the house elves made them, and judging by the food we eat during breakfast, lunch, and dinner they don't slack off in the cooking department." She said whilst also taking one of
the sandwiches and taking a bite as well. A hum of satisfaction arose from her throat as she nibbled onto the sandwich and Harry looked on, admiring her as she slowly but surely ate her sandwich and took quick sips from her thermoflask.
Her eyes lit up as she remembered her bit of modification on the two thermos, "Oh! And before I forget. I managed to do a bit of tinkering in my spare time and managed to eliminate the aroma of anything that comes out of the thermos; and also, I might have added a new addition to the mix. Turn the lid to the right."
Harry obliged and as he took a careful sip out of the thermos, the taste of tea enveloped his tongue, but unlike last time, this was refreshingly cold.
Lilith grinned, "Tada! Managed to procure some iced tea for the both of us! I don't know about you but I kinda get tired drinking hot beverages everytime we do a stakeout." And Harry agreed with a nod of his head. This was a nice change of pace.
And the moment found them silently eating the sandwiches and drinking from the thermo flasks. If Harry didn't know any better, this might have counted as a… date.
A slight rush of blood found its way to his face as he tried to fight off the intrusive thought, 'No no, this isn't a date. We're just having a small break before we do our reconnaissance.' He thought to himself, 'Anyway, you're supposed to ask her out before you can even consider anything as a date.' He thought, mentally correcting himself.
After all was said and done, the two sandwiches were gone and into their stomachs. Lilith went immediately down to business.
"So, sorry for bumping into you yesterday; but I noticed you and Granger outside near the Great Lake, so I prepared the message hastily and that was the only way I figured I would have been able to get the message to you without tipping Granger off." Harry nodded but found himself asking Lilith, "Why didn't you just leave the note on my bed like you always do?"
Lilith shifted a bit on her seat but replied, "Because that… avenue wasn't available at the time. So I had to improvise."
The slight pause confused Harry a bit but chalked it up to nerves, "Well don't worry. Hermione didn't suspect anything and we got to the dorms without her even questioning who you were."
Lilith nodded gratefully and continued on with the agenda, "Well if I may, I'll need to look at your time table and cross-reference every free period we have and other times when we're both available so that we can proceed to the next phase of our reconnaissance."
Harry tilted his head to the side, "And that would be?"
Lilith gave a big grin, "Why, tailing the perp of course!" She announced with a flair of her hands.
A snort of amusement came out of Harry which he quickly covered up with a cough. Man, she was eccentric.
Lilith either didn't take notice or cared about his faux-pas snort, "This is the essence of being a private eye; tailing the perp, taking pictures of their misdeeds, taking notes of their habits and routine, where they eat, sleep, work, and even bathe!" The last word sent shivers down both their spines.
"Alright, maybe not the last part." Lilith retracted, gagging from the thought of Umbridge taking a sponge bath, "But the others are all game!"
Harry nodded and took out his time table from his backpack. Afterwards, a comfortable silence enveloped the room, with Lilith's quill hypnotic scratching lulling Harry ever so slightly to a state of rest.
But now wasn't the time to take a nap, he had to broach the subject of studying together. Maybe preface it with studying for the O.W.L.s? Or perhaps a one on one tutoring session on DADA, no that would be too obvious…
'Come on Harry, you've stood against Voldemort three separate times and survived. You can ask a girl to study together!' He thought. But the words wouldn't come out of his mouth.
Before long, Lilith finally released her quill from her hand and with a swish of her wand, produced another parchment out of thin air.
"Here you go Harry." Lilith said as the piece of parchment floated down into his hands. What was on it was a grid, a 7 x 10 table; similar to their own time tables but with a key difference: Each box with a time on it was either green or red.
Lilith waited patiently until Harry looked at her to begin clarifying, "As you can guess, each slot has a particular colour, either red or green. Now green represents that both of us are available to get together and tail Umbridge while red means, well the opposite. We'll need to coordinate accordingly every night we meet to make sure that we don't have any prior engagements."
Outwardly Harry nodded, a pensive look upon his face. Inside though he was reeling, 'I'll have an excuse to spend more time with her!' He mentally celebrated.
Unknowing of the boy's inner thoughts, Lilith continued, "We'll need to be careful, usually when I do this I stay a fair distance away from who I'm tailing but with your cloak and map we can follow her wherever! We just need to make sure that we leave no evidence of us tailing her." She crossed her arms and put her hand on her chin, "Stuff like footsteps can be silenced but we'll still leave physical evidence, so we'll need to be careful of puddles or leaves. I can get rid of any smells that emit from us." She listed off, but Harry's mind was on something else entirely.
'Wait, I can make this work! This might be my chance!' He quickly calmed himself down, afterwards clearing his throat to get the attention of the girl in front of him.
As Lilith's gaze turned towards him he started his gameplan, "Well I was just thinking, if we're going to be tailing Umbridge. What about we get together under the guise of studying, when in actuality we're keeping watch on her?"
He could see the gears in Lilith's brain start to turn after his suggestion, and after a few minutes - Though to Harry it felt like a millennium - Lilith nodded and said, "Hmm, that might work, just because we have an invisibility cloak doesn't mean we should use it exclusively. Things might go wrong and it's better for you to keep up appearances."
Lilith finally smiled at him, "Good thinking Harry! We'll probably have to do that when we're in a public space, if she ever enters a location where we're not supposed to be in we'll use the cloak." She happily concluded.
The butterflies in Harry's stomach intensified as he accepted the praise from her, "Thanks, but it was nothing special." Harry said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
Lilith shook her head in disagreement, "No, it was; but now's not the time for dilly dallying! Let us commence the reconnaissance!" She said with fiery passion.
Harry amusedly nodded along, opening the map and, ever so slightly, moving his chair closer to hers.
Score one on the board for Harry.
Turns out, Lilith's passionate declaration was all for nought, as Umbridge had no students coming in or out of her office for the past hour.
Harry spent most of his time observing Lilith. As after the thirty minute mark of doing absolutely nothing, she began doing origami out of parchment. The stiff and tough material wasn't really a good choice for precise folding but that didn't stop her from creating; frogs, cranes, rats, dogs, and currently was folding what looked to be a cow.
On Harry's part, he was working up the nerve to begin a conversation with her. Not only because he was interested in getting to know her intimately (the thought still reddening his cheeks) but to also inquire of several factors about her that confused him.
"So Lilith, why the suit?" Harry managed to finally ask.
Lilith's gaze swerved to him as she put her origami cow next to the other animals she had created, "Oh this? Well they do say to dress for the job; and what kind of private investigator would I be if I don't have my own suit?" She gingerly answered.
Harry hummed, "Well, I guess if you put it that way." He took a sip of hot chocolate to calm his nerves, and asked another question, "Does that mean your parents also wear suits?"
Lilith shook her head, "Nope" she said, popping the p, "Only my mother wears any kind of suit, and it's only when she has to go work. Don't know why though, it makes me look good and feel good!" She said, her head held high.
Harry nodded absentmindedly and agreed, "Yeah, it does." So her mother was a muggle huh? Not surprising, with her whole get-up and briefcase he should have assumed something like that.
Lilith's face however took on a red hue at Harry's offhand comment. She started self-consciously adjusting her suit jacket.
Harry of course noticed none of this, "Does that mean your father's a wizard and your mother's a muggle?" Harry inquired next. Thankfully for Lilith, she managed to get her face under control before he took notice of the way his words had affected her.
"Pretty much. My father actually met my mother in a muggle bar of all places. Apparently he wanted to stick it to his father - my grandfather - and decided to go to a muggle bar and mingle with what my grandfather called "The cattle." She said, her fingers air quoting the words "The cattle."
She picked up a new piece of parchment - bigger than the last one by a large margin - and began folding while continuing her story, "Anyways, according to my mother; despite the air of aristocracy he emitted, he hit it off with the regular patrons in the bar and pretty soon also became a regular as well. That led to my mother having to deal with my father on a regular basis; my mother was the daughter of the owner there so she helped at the bar." She clarified.
Harry listened, enraptured and asked, "Sounds like your father wasn't a regular pureblood." He said, thinking of Draco and the other purebloods. The thought of them actually knowing what a muggle bar is was laughable, let alone them actually talking with the muggles inside.
Lilith nodded affirmatively, "He wasn't. He was when he was growing up though, snooty-faced with an I'm-better-than-everyone attitude; till he met a couple of muggleborns and half-bloods in Hogwarts and suddenly his whole viewpoint shifted; he was taught at a young age that they were beneath him and yet they were doing better in everything than he was. That was when my father and grandfather's relationship soured and that led to me!" She concluded by opening her arms wide open, as if showing off her whole existence.
Harry chuckled, "So that led to you. How about the whole private eye thing then? You say your mother owns her own firm?"
Lilith's gaze turned to the ceiling as her brows squinted in concentration, "Yeah, I think it was after my parents got married." Her eyes returned to her origami sculpture as she resumed her tale of the creation of Moon's Eye, "It was after my mom introduced my father to muggle literature. My father was always an avid reader and having an increased selection of books only cemented his changed viewpoint of muggles. Of course he stuck to only factual books at first to learn the culture and history; biographies, history books, books about science, politics, economics, even saw him read some philosophical books once in a while. Though he usually ended those sessions with a glass of whiskey or two." She absentmindedly muttered to herself, before continuing on.
"Needless to say, even hardcore readers like my father will want to read something more fantastical. So he started with - now all-time favourite book of his - Murder on The Orient Express." Harry's face lit up as he remembered reading it after Dudley got interested at the title but subsequently threw it, stating it was "boring and too hard to read."
Lilith smiled, recognizing the look of recollection on his face, "Well, then he wanted to be a private investigator, both in the muggle and wizarding world. So he convinced my mom to work with him to build up a business. Mom of course was a bit hesitant but in the end she was convinced, and then they built it around father's last name: The Moon's Eye! My father would say he came up with the name but I knew my mother was the one who created it; father was always strangely bad at naming stuff."
She brought her finished origami piece next to the other animals, this one being a majestic dragon, towering over the other origami animals easily; and with grand wave of her wand over the several still paper dolls, Harry jumped as they started mechanically moving: The paper dog's tail wagging back and forth; the frog and rat chasing each other in circles; the crane flapping its wings slowly; but the most impressive was the dragon walking around, sniffing its surroundings.
At Harry's look of awe, Lilith giggled, "Well, that must be what it looked like after you showed me your map." She cheekily commented. Harry's glare was weakened with the look of wonder still in his eyes.
Lilith softly laughed, like little bells in Harry's ears, "One of the benefits of having a bored inventor surrounded with several pieces of paper on a daily basis, you start to look on how to create some kind of ebb on the monotony of paperwork. My father imbued several parchments with animation spells, and the bigger the parchment used the smoother the animated movement of the origami." Her soft observance of the several moving paper animals let Harry see a side of Lilith he had never seen before. A look of fondness that he wished she would one day let him experience as well.
"My father was always talented, it was my grandfather's fault that he never really challenged himself to develop himself further. Something he would never do to me according to him." Lilith stretched out her hand, the dragon slowly floating up and landing on her palm, "That's why I want to take over once I'm old enough. To experience the same thing my parents have."
Harry's heart suddenly took a turn as his head came up with a response. One that could potentially ruin or improve his relationship with the aspiring P.I.
'Well, time to prove my Gryffindor bravery.' Harry mentally said, bracing himself and his heart.
"You know, Hercule Peirot wasn't the only famous literary figure out there." He said, trying to sound nonchalant.
Lilith moved her body to face Harry forward, "Hm? What do you mean?"
Harry tried to keep his voice steady, "Erm, what I meant was, there's another celebrated figure in fictional stories that captured the heart of Britain. You know who I'm talking about?"
Lilith's eyes lowered as she contemplated his words - a respite from her gaze that he was both thankful and saddened by - before being raised up again with a light of comprehension, "Do you mean Sherlock Holmes?"
Harry gulped, "Yeah, and I think you remind me more of him than Hercule."
Lilith grinned, "Well thanks Harry, I guess it's kinda fitting for me to have a counterpart to my dad."
Harry nodded, 'Just a bit more' he thought inwardly.
"Uh huh, and well there's something that Sherlock has that Hercule doesn't." Harry said, his voice wobbling slightly with nervousness.
Lilith now sported a confused look, "Really? I mean they're both pretty smart and really cool."
Harry mentally sighed, "Well, one of them has a pretty well known assistant."
Her face now turned into one of realization, "Oh yeah! Watson right?" Lilith's mouth then turned into a frown, "Well then I can't be Sherlock, I don't have a Watson!
"I could be your Watson."
Silence enveloped the room at Harry's statement.
Harry would never forget the transformation of emotions that Lilith's face went through that evening.
A slight look of confusion, followed by a dawn of comprehension at his words, then a slight twitch of her ears as they start heating up along with the rest of her face. Then finally she hid her hands behind her face as she could no longer look at him without her face exploding in red. Not like he was faring any better, he could literally feel the heat emanating from his face.
It stayed like this for a couple of seconds, a tableau of teenage embarrassment.
Finally, after a few seconds of Harry mentally panicking that he messed up before he even started, Lilith looked at him between her fingers and let out in a small voice, "I… I'd like that. I'd like that very much."
If Harry's face wasn't burning, it was now scorching at the brown-haired girl's words. "Er… well, I guess this starts the beginning of our… professional relationship." He said, his voice rising at the end making it more of a question than a statement. His face reddened even more at the word "relationship."
"Um… Yeah! Yes! Absolutely!" Lilith nodded fervently, "Yes a professional relationship! Between two colleagues, who have very similar interests!" She took her hand and shoved it right in front of him, "I look forward to working with you!" She practically shouted, which he took with slight hesitation.
The warmth of her hand brought static along his body, making him shiver; and he wasn't the only one.
Two pairs of eyes met as the static ran along their body.
Then, a chime of a bell alerted them to what time it was.
"Oh no! We forgot about the curfew!" Lilith said nervously.
"Bollocks! Come on, I'll help you clean up."
Both of them stood up and moved away from each other to quickly clean up before being tugged near to each other.
They forgot their hands were intertwined.
And now they stood, face to face.
Harry could feel Lilith's heartbeat quickly ramping up at their close contact, and he bet she could feel the same as him.
Both of them quickly let go of their respective hands and started silently putting their equipment away, in silent awkwardness.
After finally being finished. Lilith stood in front of Harry, her hands clasped behind her back as she quietly said, "Er, I'll be going back to my dorm now."
Harry nodded, only to get another idea, but if things were as awkward now…
'To hell with it.'
"Want to go together under my cloak?" He asked, wincing in anticipation of her response.
Though history seemed to not have repeated itself, as she only nodded quietly, "Er yeah, that would be nice actually… Because it's after curfew and that's more punishable than being out late!" She said, amending her statement on the spot anxiously.
Harry nodded, then walked to the door and opened it slowly, surveying outside before taking his cloak and draping it over him, leaving a space for Lilith, who for the most part tensely meandered over and occupied the space left by Harry.
Slowly but surely they managed to get into rhythm of walking together, keeping an eye and ear out for any patrolling students or Filch and his demonic feline companion.
Though it was hard for Harry to even hear anything, on the account of the blood rushing to his ears due to their necessary close contact; and it was next to impossible to keep an eye out when someone he fancied was literally so close, his eyes glancing from time to time to the shorter - though not that short - girl next to him. Although she looked to have the same thought process as him as their eyes met a couple of times during their trip to the Ravenclaw Common Room.
At last, they finally arrived at the entrance of the Ravenclaw Common Room, whose entrance was guarded by a bronze door knocker, shaped like an eagle.
"Well, see you next meeting… partner." Lilith said, giving Harry a bright grin, adorned by two blushing cheeks.
Harry cleared his throat, stumped by the sudden barrage of cuteness in front of him, before replying softly, "Yeah."
Not one of them made a move to leave yet however, one waiting for the other to say something, so that this moment would never end. Though it had to.
With a slight hesitation, Lilith said her goodbyes, "Goodnight Harry." She said with a faint smile.
Harry's eyes took on a slight fondness as he replied back, "Goodnight Lilith."
As Harry turned back to trudge his way back to the Gryffindor common room. He suddenly had to brace in his steps as a force on his back caused him to step slightly forward, a pair of hands around his stomach.
But as quickly as it happened, shuffling of feet and a whispered answer later, he felt the presence of Lilith disappear.
And though it was in the middle of night, with the wind howling with shivering frost and unforgiving cold, he felt warmer than he had ever felt before.
A/N: Yeah, I'm not one for slow burns; more like pouring gasoline and lighting it up with a flamethrower. I hunger for reviews!