CHAPTER 12 "Revelation"

Christmas wasn't the happiest Lily ever had. It hung over all of them that it was the last Christmas with mother. In her weakened state, she made the effort and baked cookies and sweets, while Tuny and Lily were in charge of the food, and Mr. Evans did all the shopping. Lily put on her happy face, put some music on, and danced around, happy to get her mother laughing.

In the two weeks Lily was home, her mother had gotten weaker and thinner. She had realized how bad the situation was. The day before she had to take the train back to school, she had decided that she was no longer going.

"Mum, Dad," she said after they had finished eating, "I'm going to stay, I'm not going back to school. I'll stay here and help out."

"No you are not Lily," her mother said seriously, "School is not optional,"

"I'm sorry, Lily," her father said, "But I have to agree with your mother,"

"Lily, Hunny," she grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her close, "I'm finishing my life, but yours has just started."

"But I want to be with you," she said, her eyes filling up with tears.

"I will always be with you," she hugged Lily and they both cried.

The following day, Lily reluctantly packed her things and left to catch the Hogwarts Express. She had decided to write every single day, and if anything felt wrong she would ask to go home as Remus does.

"If anything happens, you'll tell me immediately," Lily said to her father with all the emotion she could build, "I haven't totally forgiven you for not letting me know sooner."

"I promise, Hunny," Mr. Evans gave Lily the last hug goodbye, "Love you,"

"Love you too, Dad," Lily's eyes filled with tears, "Take care of mum."

Lily got on the train just in time. The doors closed behind her and she looked back through the window and waved at her father. Lily was not convinced she was doing the right thing by going back to school.

"Lily!" it was Meredith, "Hi! I've been looking for you. Come over here," she guided Lily towards the compartment where Mary was waiting.

"Hi Lily," Mary stood up and gave her a hug, "How are you holding up?"

"As good as I can," Lily said and sat down, she had already let her friends know about her mother.

"Here, I got you some jelly slugs. I know you like them," said Mary and offered her a brown bag. Meredith sat next to Lily and stroked her hair sweetly.

"Thank you," Lily grabbed a handful, "Well, you know about my Christmas, how about you guys?"

"Mine was fine. Had a little fun with my grandparents inventing some stuff up," Mary said, "Only hope I remember everything I made up next time I see them."

"I know what you mean," Meredith laughed, "My cousins think I'm studying in a housewife girls-only school."

"Of course, you spent the year cooking and knitting," Lily laughed at the idea.

"Talking about housewives," Meredith's eyes twinkled, "Thomas wrote to me all the time. He invited me to share a compartment, but I said no. I wanted to be here for you, Lily."

"So your date was a success, then," Lily observed.

"Undoubtedly," Mary giggled.

Lily was happy her friends were there. She was able to take her mind off of everything and just enjoy their conversations. Mary shared all the gifts she had received and Meredith could only talk about all Mr. Thomas's greatest attributes. They arrived and Phyllida joined them for supper.

"How was Hogwarts Christmas, Phylli?" Meredith asked.

"You have no idea," Phyllida laughed, "It was actually really entertaining" she went into the details of how their fellow Gryffindor's tried and failed to steal the quidditch cup from Professor Slughorn's office. She finished the story with the message that was sent through Diggle.

"Small little Diggle from second year?" Meredith asked.

"Yes,"

"Poor little guy,"

"Don't call him little," Lily said. "He's older than us."

"And much much smaller," Meredith laughed.

Lily was a little anxious and was waiting for dinner to finally end. She had had an idea that gave her hope and was one of the reasons she didn't insist on staying home. When everyone started to leave, Lily turned the other way.

"I'll be back in a little while," she told her friends, " there is someone I need to talk to."

"Be careful," Mary said.

"I've got my wand," Lily smiled back, turned around, and walked quickly away until the point her calves burned a little. She held her wand ready for anything. Lily arrived at her destination with no inconvenience and the person she was looking for was sitting at her desk.

"Hello Madam Pomfrey," said Lily politely.

"Hello, anything I can do for you?" Madam Pomfrey didn't look up "Headache, stomach ache...?"

"No, I actually have a question for you," Madam Pomfrey finally looked up with an expression that made Lily know that she already knew what her question would be. So Lily dived in explaining her mother's situation and asking if there was any kind of magical way to fix her.

"Mis Evans, I wish I could have a different answer for you and every other student who has presented themselves to me with similar situations. Your mother is sick, I understand. But there is no cure to her illness, muggle, or magic."

Lily's eyes filled with tears. This had been her last hope, if Madam Pomfrey couldn't help, no one could. The Matron raised from her desk walked towards Lily and offered a warm hug. Lily cried, she cried as she had never let herself cry. Lily didn't know how long she had been there in the matron's arms, all she knew was that when she was all out of tears the healer led her towards Gryffindors portrait and handed her a potion.

"Thank you," Lily said.

"No problem, Mis Evans. You'll be able to sleep with that," she said and pointed to the pinkish potion.

Lily drank the potion, it had a soft sweet taste and was smooth to the throat. Lily walked up the stairs towards her dorm, everyone was asleep. She laid her head on her soft pillow and the last thing she remembered, before falling asleep, was her mother's beautiful smile.

Lily started her first winter term focusing all of her energy on her studies. She occupied her mind so she wouldn´t think and worry. As she had promised, she wrote home every single day, and every single day her mother wrote back. She would spend five minutes to every letter analyzing her mother's handwriting trying to guess how she was doing.

Saturday was Severus's birthday, he didn't like any kind of celebration, so they spent the day like they usually did, together. They went outside to walk in the snow.

"I got you a present, Sev," Lily handed him a small green package and smiled slightly.

"You didn't have to, you know that, Lily,"

"Yes, I did, and I did it anyway," she smiled and Severus smiled back. He opened his gift and was actually surprised, It was a pair of fingerless black gloves.

"I know you love black," she said, "Happy birthday Sev,"

"Thanks, Lily. It's not that I love black," Severus never liked acknowledging things he loved, "It's that black is the only color I don't hate."

"Which means you love black. If you don't hate it, you love it," Lily giggled.

"How's your mother doing?" he asked.

"She's hanging on. I hate not being able to be there with them," she said.

"But this is what she wants. She's always been proud of you being a witch,"

"Yes, I know," she sighed, "Common let's go, I'm freezing,"

They both turned around and headed back to the castle. Not many people were outside. You could only see the groundskeeper Hagrid shoveling away the snow. They entered the castle and Lily heard someone call her name.

"Evans!" it was Sandra Clay, the Hufflepuff.

"Hi, Clay!" she greeted, "See you later Sev,"

"Bye, Lily,"

"You can call me Lily if you let me call you Sandra," said Lily.

"Yes, sure. Thank you," together they walked towards a bench on the side and sat down.

"How are you doing, Sandra?" Lily asked politely.

"I'm doing a little better, still a little jumpy at some times. But it's getting easier as time goes by. How are you doing?"

"To be honest, not too good. My mother is sick and she doesn't have much time left," Lily fought the tears. She liked talking about it, she felt a little relief every time. It made her feel that she wasn't forgetting.

"I'm so sorry, Lily!" Sandra said and put her hand on Lily's, "There's nothing that could be done?"

"No," she looked down, "I've already talked to Madam Pomfrey, it's too late,"

"Must be awful,"

"I'm trying to accept it, but I haven't been successful as you can see," Lily half smiled, "So, enough about me, you were looking for me?"

"Yes, well, I'm.." she paused and looked around to check to see if there were any eavesdroppers, "I'm ready to talk about what happened. You see, I'm not the only one who's has been through something like this. There are other muggle-borns who have, like, 'lost a day'. But before any of that," she shook her head, "The day before I was found, I had Herbology. As I was leaving the greenhouse I remembered I had forgotten my scarf, so I went back, alone. Before I got to the classroom I got the strangest feeling. It was nothing good or bad, just strange. Then, suddenly, I was asked to go to the forbidden forest. Don't ask me why, but I went. I don't remember much after that, only a moment where I felt a lot of pain. It was more pain than I've felt in my whole life. That is when I realized something was wrong, and I finally had my own thoughts. So I ran, I ran as fast as I could," her eyes were full of tears by now, Lily didn't dare interrupt, "The spell broke after a while and I found myself deep in the forest, I wandered through the night, it was terrifying. I didn't think I was getting out of there alive. At first light, of course, I didn't sleep a wink, I wandered into a trail and I followed. That's when Hagrid finally found me."

"Sounds awful, Sandra!" Lily's heart was frozen in shock, she hadn't imagined something like this.

"It was," she sniffed softly, "They found all my stuff outside the greenhouse, even my wand."

"Do you remember anything that could help us find who did this?"

"It was like I was blind, blind to everything around me," Sandra said as she hugged herself. She looked around again and said in a low voice, "All I got was when I started to run I heard a voice, a boy's voice that said 'Professor, she's getting away!' "

"Professor?" Lily felt a cold chill down her back.

"Yes. That's why I haven't said anything about this to any teacher,"

"Well, of course!" Lily said and gave her a small hug, "You said there were others?"

"My best friend's boyfriend is a Ravenclaw muggle-born. She didn't see him one whole day, no one else in his house knew where he was either. When she finally found him the next day, he didn't know he had been gone. It was like that day hadn't existed to him."

"Oh, Sandra. Somethings up, and I don't like it at all!" Lily said worriedly, "And no one is doing anything about it."

"Keep your eyes open, Lily. We are not safe," Sandra said and got on her feet, "See you. Thanks for listening!"

"Take care, Sandra,"

A/N:

And bam, another chapter.

Hope you enjoy it.

Reviews are appreciated.

Saludos :)