A/N; Ta, your reviews
are what's keeping me writing.
I feel guilty, coz I want to
stop, but I can't, you know.
Obligations, gee. Well,
Well, uh...
Peace-ya-Jade
P.S Please forgive me, it gets even more confusing!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
It was a bleak morning for the Ministry of Magic, they had sent spies with
invisibility cloaks left, right and centre and still hadn't been able actually
spot Voldemort.
Wizards or witches certainly inhabited the mansion and they were performing magic.
There had only been one sighting of a human, a wizard with blond greying hair.
He was carrying a snake to what looked to be a greenhouse. The witch who had
spotted this, Madeline, was carrying an owl and had managed to record some
hard proof of inhabitants.
There was also an apparation to there by two people, one with very pale skin and white
blond hair and another with dark dazzling hair which was curled in bobby, perky ringlets,
it had only been a fleeting glimpse and hadn't been recorded.
It was suspicious and the Ministry were tackling with Muggles to get a warrant to search the place.
*
End of term was approaching fast, only a week to go now. James and Sirius
almost ran down to the Gryffindor House Post board, made of scarlet velvet
with gold edging.
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH SECOND RESERVES.
Seeker: Kim Wong. (Fourth Year)
Chasers:Michael Gresham (Third Year)
Matthew Byron (Fifth Year)
Kathleen Greene (Fifth Year)
Beaters: Arthur Weasley (Sixth Year)
Paul Piper (Fourth Year)
Keeper: Jude Long.(Third Year)
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH FIRST RESERVES.
Seeker: James Potter (First Year)
Chasers: Sirius Black (first Year)
Patrick Thomas (Third Year)
Eleanor Stevens (Fourth Year)
Beaters: Cate Cahoon (Fifth Year)
Jule Nimble (Fourth Year)
Keeper: Joel Smythe (Second Year)
Note: Only the team is able to train, or if reserves are called.
Training starts First Week of Second Term for the Team, when called.
'We made it!' Sirius yelled, over the moon. 'Gimme five man!'
They slapped hands, then headed back to the Gryffindor common room, up quiet corridors
they had never seen.
'Where are we?' said James.
'Dunno, open a door, not that one this one.' Sirius instructed.
'It's a room full of dolls, like a bedroom.' Described James, 'It has blue
walls, and lime green carpet,' he said, his voice raising slightly.
'Let me see!' said Sirius importantly, as if he could solve the whole thing.
James, of course, was tricking, it was really a lovely room, with a warm fire,
it was cosy and it reminded him of Hagrids hut.
Sirius stepped in, eyes wide and cautions, he was inching his wand out of his
cloak pocket.
In an instant he was thrown out of the room, and landed, opened out, splat on
the wall.
The door sealed up, and was back to being a corridor wall.
'Ow,' Sirius groaned, low and long.
'You shouldn't have gone in.' James laughed and scowled, looking down on his
hurt friend,he offered him a hand. Sirius, gratefully taking it, pulled
himself up and brushed himself off.
'I didn't know that!' he howled in defence.
'Okay, okay,' James put his hands up, as a motion of surrender, 'What do you
think it was anyway?'
'I don't know, would it have let you in?' Sirius looked bewildered. He held
his back and every time he inhaled, it looked as though it was done so
painfully. He flinched and gasped.
'We must get off to our last day of classes!' said James.
'Aah, freedom, tomorrow, tonight! We must do something in order to celebrate…'
'Yes, we'll plan later.' James nodded and pointed them in the right direction.
'So you and Lily still-er-together?' Sirius asked.
'Yes, we are, I'm meeting her in the common room, later.' He said nodding.
'Ooh, can I come?' Sirius queried.
'No, you may not. I'll be putting a silence spell on us anyway, just for a
little bit, so no one can over hear.' He said proudly, thinking back to the
thousands of spell books he looked in. It was in a charm book, Lily was using
it to research an essay that Professor Casein gave them.
'Ooh, why can't I join in?' he said, looking mock hurt.
James simply gave him a withering look.
*
Desolate, disheartening landscape surrounded them. They were in a world in
which they didn't belong. The trees, once alive and lush were now reduced to
bare, dry wood. The once resourceful river looked murky and grey.
The sky was dark and thunderous, stormy black clouds laced with white. A bolt of
lightning cracked its way across the sky, the clouds fluoresced purple. The
clouds hid the night from them, an eerie green light was drowning them,
soaking them, even though it was night.
More lightning, this time a delicate, less powerful bolt ran its way across the clouds.
There, a sole human there,not knowing that she had company, she looked across the dark purple sky.
She squinted into her viewfinder, hoping to catch a split second of lightning once more.
Her un-known company swanned silently towards her, cleverly hidden from view.
They approached her, no sound coming from their feet, a tall man, with
menacing scarlet eyes, wore a harsh expression.
He looked at her, wanting to touch her, but something held him back.
The photographer, a young strawberry-blonde coloured hair, nearly at the
small of her rigid and stiff back, was a girl from the town of Little Hangelton,
now living in what they called the Riddle House, had some information, not
realising it, that Voldemort didn't want out in the open and some data that
he needed to get stronger.
The young witch, by the name of Jean, was working for a muggle corporation, capturing
beautiful, sorrowful or inspiring moments by the means of film.
Xenia Snape teetered along, moving no more than an inch at a time, slowly made her way over to Jean.
She tapped Jean on the shoulder. Jean spun around, reaching into her jacket
and pulled out a wand.
When she saw who it was, she instantly desisted, not knowing one of her best friends was about to
betray her, selling her out to Voldemort.
'Jean! Your boss told me you were here! I apparated, I need to tell you
something, somewhere a little less, uh-loud.' She yelled, over the sounds of thunder.
'Okay, I'll finish up here then.' Jean nodded, looking around her.
Something cold touched her heart, as it often did when danger was near.
Xenia gave the others the signal to go, and they returned to Voldmorts secluded hideout.
Xenia helpfully dragged out the tripod case and started packing it up.
It was heavy and dusty, most likely from the arid conditions surrounding them.
She swiftly folded it up and slotted it into its official black case, zipped it up
and shouldered it, adjusting the strap twice because of her looming height over Jean.
'Ready?' Xenia asked, somewhat impatiently.
'Yes, where are we going?' wondered Jean loudly.
'Follow me.' Was all Xenia said. Xenia clapped twice over her free shoulder
and Jean followed a split second later.
They landed in a large grey and white room, with a table made up as a blanketless
bed, with only white, stained sheets on its padded, grey surface.
There were large, windows, with no glass in them.
The room had a high ceiling and a table next to the bed had two, steely looking
cases resting on its stained mahogany surface.
'Lay down, you look tired.' Xenia gestured the bed, looking motherly and kindly
towards Jean.
What false pretences sighed Xenia privately. Xenia stroked her former friends matted,
strawberry-blond hair and looked at her, almost patronizingly.
'What have you done Jean!' she exclaimed, her voice high and shrilly, looking
into her friends glasses and seeing a woman, jet-black hair, swooped back into
a large, elaborate twist. Glittering, aware black eyes, darting around and
rosy cheeks on her pale, white un-exposed skin looking back at her.
It was Xenia.
Her friend had bewitched herself to sleep.
Xenia thought quickly, scanning her mind for the counter-curse.
'Of course' murmured Xenia, all rage lost. 'Restus Desistis' she murmered,
wand pointing at her friends torso.
Jean woke up, head spinning.
'Lastos' Xenia murmured again, making her counter-curse last until she again reversed it.
Voldemort entered the room with a small snake wrapped between his fingers
and Dolpur by his side. Scarlet, harsh eyes bore down on Jean.
She screamed, she knew who he was. She trembled and begged for him to simply put a memory
curse on her, but that wouldn't do.
She asked, pleaded, for Veritaserum, not torture. But this was the mental
torture, she didn't realise it, but she was causing herself sever distress.
'Will you answer our questions free from lies?' Voldemort asked, a frosty look in his eyes.
'Yes, I swear it.' Jean panted.
'Fetch me some Veritaserum please. Make it snappy, and some water.'
'Here you are sir, how many drops in the water?' Dolpur asked.
'Five.' He sentenced.
'Five? Isn't that a little strong?' gasped Dolpur.
'Would you like to torture yourself?' snapped Voldemort.
'As you wish.' Dolpur obeyed, squeezing five drops of transparent liquid into
the goblet of water.
'What is your name?' asked Voldemort.
'Jean Oman.' She replied, looking blank, sitting up completely rigid and straight.
'Good. Who do you work for?' he inquired.
'The Ministry of Magic as a spy against Tom Riddle, otherwise known as Voldemort.
I also work as a Muggle photographer.' She replied no sooner had the question
had been expelled from his mouth.
'Where are your leads?' he snapped, getting more irritated by the second.
'We have reason to believe that Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, is hiding out in
a mansion in Fair Glen Valley.' She supplied promptly.
'Kill her, I have no other intentions for her now…' he snapped.
'As you wish, by what means?' said Dolpur.
'Any you please.' Said Voldemort, stomping out of the room.
*
'Muta Personaar' muttered James by the fire in the Gryffindor common room,
holding his wand above himself and Lily. The book had said that it takes two
or three minutes to take full effect and during this time, had to think about
the person they wished to communicate with.
James thought about Lily, Lily thought about James.
James was startled as a voice floated into his head;
'I wonder if it's working yet?'
James nodded prolifically at Lily, who had caught James's most recent thoughts.
'This is weird, different don't you think?' said Lily.
'Some sort of ESP, telepathy.' mused James.
'Yeah, so, what is so important that we need this spell for?' demanded Lily.
'Well, we have to plan our next move against Sirius and Remus and Peter, do
we tell them we have been playing them all along, or do we just sit back and
do nothing or do we do something even more disgusting?'
'Uh, I was thinking, we could sneak out, just to the common room with the
invisibility cloak on, and say we are going to the astronomy tower, together.'
'When, tonight?' James thought.
'Yeah,' cast Lily.
'Okay, once this wears off, you'll come with me, holding hands, rather, making
it look like we are holding hands, I'll get the invisibility cloak out and put
it in my robes pocket, and we'll say we are going now, or when we get to that
stage, and we'll sneak back in the common room, and spy on Sirius, Remus and
Peter. We'll have to go in when the next person does, because if you open the
door and no-one comes in, or goes out, it looks odd. '
'Okay, let's go.'
'We still have five more minutes though.' James thought, checking his watch.
'Alright.' Thought Lily.
'Okay, you open your mouth and see if you can talk, try and blush now, to
show them I said something corny.' James sent to Lily.
'Okay, I'll say, yes James, me too, okay?'
'Yes James, me too' the words met Sirius, Remus and Peters ears, much to their delight.
'Let's go.' James said, looking at Lily who was working hard at blushing.
Sirius was walking up to them.
'Where do you think you're going at this time of night!?' he said, with his
nose pinched, trying to scold them in a motherly way.
'To the astronomy tower, it's a clear night, and we will look at the stars.'
James said, dripping with charm. Lily didn't need any assistance to blush this
time; flushing purple.
'Ooh, James is taking ickle Lil' out on an excursion of passion.' Sirius bothered.
'Right. Whatever you reckon.' James nodded, slipping Lily's hand into his.
'Bye Bye, see you in the morning, no classes, so you can do it a few times if
you like!' Sirius called to their backs.
Once the door was shut and they were certainly out of earshot, they burst into delighted laughter.
Lily accidentally snorted, and that reeled them into more laughter.
Finally managing to get up the marble staircase to James's dormitory, he opened the door,
allowing Lily to go in first, then followed. Lily looked around, telling him the differences
between their dorms.
James searched and dug in his trunk for a little while, before finding what he was looking for.
A cloak, sheer and silvery. It shimmered in as the light ran over it.
James' hand was invisible underneath it.
He threw it over himself, doing a rough job of covering his tall body
and lifted up one side, gesturing verbally, for Lily to come and stand next
to him, under the cloak.
'When I was eight or so, my parents gave it to me. It was useful for watching
television in dads room. I would sneak in, and stand in the wardrobe, with
it an inch open. Later when he fell asleep, I would sneak out. I used to
think it was an invincibility cloak, not an invisibility cloak.' James chuckled
softly, remembering his previous years and wriggling so that his feet were
completely covered. 'Let's go.'
'So what are we going to do?' Lily asked, not sure of the details.
'We are going to enter the common room and sit behind the couch that Sirius,
Remus and Peter are sitting on and listen to what they say about us. We have
only been gone a few minutes, so they still should be gossiping.' James explained.
'Okay.' She said, thinking it over. 'Can I see you?' she asked. Lily had
her eyes clamped shut and her nose screwed up for no reason what so ever.
'Yeah! We can see each other, I mean we are right next to each other.' He said,
thinking why she didn't realise that they could see each other. They reached
the deep, carved wooden door that was the entry to the common room.
They heard a group of people walking towards the door behind them. They prepared themselves
to go quickly inside.
'-Let's go see what they are up to in the astronomy tower, would they have
gone to use the schools telescopes or would they have gone to collect their
own first?' said the voice of Remus from behind the door.
James thought quickly.
'Look like you are going down to your dormitory because we are getting our
telescopes, stop to talk to them, buy me some time. I'll meet you at the top
of this staircase.' He hissed into her ear, spraying some spit into it, but
she didn't mind.
She slipped herself from underneath the cloak and went up about ten or twelve feet.
James ran up the stairs, going two at a time. He got to the dormitory at top speed,
he could hear people waking up the stairs.
He bunched up the cloak and shoved it in the compartment where it belonged.
He was reaching in to look for his telescope when the door opened.
He licked his lips, making them look a little redder than usual.
'So, you didn't go straight to the astronomy tower, eh?' said Sirius with a
wink.
Peter giggled.
'No, we decided to ah…well we didn't decide, it more or less just happened,
Lily has just gone down to get her telescope, we decided to look at the stars
at the window in the corridor.' James mumbled, desperately trying to blush.
'Not to worry, just invite her in here for a game of confessions…' said Sirius,
on the verge of breaking a rib from trying to look serious.
'Yeah!" said Remus, brightening up.
'Uh oh' Peter whispered, immediately sobering up.
A knock came from the door.
'James?' a female voice called through the door.
'Yes Lily, come in, it's open.'
'Okay.' And the door opened with a soft creak, a cold draught immediately
entered the room.
'We are going to have a game of challenge or confess…' Sirius said cheerfully, inviting her onto James' bed, where they were all sitting.
'Who wants to go first?' Peter said, almost chewing his fingertip.
'I'll ask you, Lily' said Sirius, glee in his eyes.
'Okay, fire away then,' she said, more bravely and confident than she felt.
'Challenge or confess…?'
'Confess,'
'Oooh, okay, uh, er, what is the most boring subject at Hogwarts?' he asked.
'Herbology, or maybe flying.' Lily was torn between the two, she hated
Herbology and the evil Etropsun, but she loved flying class, it was boring
because they weren't able to do much more than fly around the grounds.
'I like flying!' said Peter.
'Yeah, it wasn't your question…' Sirius bored down a look at Peter from under his brow.
'Okay, I get to ask one of you know.' Lily said cheerfully, glancing at each
one surrounding her. Her green eyes finally settled on Remus, she formulated
a question in her mind.
'Challenge or confess, Remus?'
'Confess.'
'Okay, why did you give me that love potion?' she asked, caging Remus in.
If he gave the real reason Lily and James would be mad, if he gave them a lie,
Lily and James would be mad.
'For a few reasons' he said slowly, obviously thinking. 'Because you were wasting
your time denying that you didn't like each other.' He said, Lily caught James's
eye, and quickly blushed.
'Okay, now you ask someone something,' Lily instructed.
'Confess or challenge? Peter,' Remus asked.
'Ch-Challenge' he squeaked, quickly returning to his fingertip.
'What can Peter do?' Remus looked around at the group: Peter looking terrified,
Lily scowling, James thoughtful, Sirius formulating plans.
'He can go up to Etropsun and pull out his tongue and blow a big fat raspberry
in his face…or he could chase Peeves around, or he can turn all the toilet
seats different colours…' Sirius rattled on and on.
'He could go into the girls dormitory…' said Lily.
'And do?' asked Remus.
'He could fly, hover outside the window and knock on it…' said Lily, who
obviously hadn't thought about the rest of the dare.
'Yeah!' all except Peter and Lily exclaimed.
'Okay, we'll do that tomorrow, remember someone. Now Peter, ask James or me,something.'
'O-okay.' he quavered, looking from Sirius to James and back again. Sirius leaned over and
whispered something in Peter's ear. Peter giggled as Sirius leaned over to tell Remus.
'Confess or Challenge?' he asked in between great fits of giggles.
'Challenge.' James said, instantly regretting it.
'I dare you to-' he stopped, and started giggling, uncontrollably. Finally
after a few slaps from Sirius and Remus, he managed to control them again.
'-To kiss Lily, I'll time you.'
Lily and James looked at each other, had they
known that they were playing them or did they just want to see it again?
They looked reluctantly at each other, then to the people surrounding them.
'Okay' said Peter, more giggles, 'One, two, three' James and Lily took a deep
breath, looked at themselves, with deep panic. They leaned in, Lily shuffled
on her knees closer. Timidly they leaned in, there was no way to possibly fool
them so close. Their lips met, not moving, just kneeling there, with their
lips connected, shooting furious looks at whomever they could see.
Sirius grabbed both or their heads by the crown and started swaying them.
Sirius was enjoying this. He let of red sparks from his wand and drew them in a heart shape.
James, overcome by the feeling of finally kissing Lily, startedto become more
comfortable and he leaned in further, softly sliding his lips over hers.
They finally pulled apart, after what seemed like eternity, both blushing
furiously. Lily fiddled with her hair, un-able to look at James. James never
took his eyes of her, not even for a moment, and habitually tried to flatten
his hair. James tuned in to the conversation surrounding him.
'-forty six seconds…' Peter said, red cheeked and voice high.
'You have no reason to be blushing' James growled, his voice hoarse.
'Yeah Peter!' said Lily, chancing a look at James. James caught her furtive
glance, and instantly, Lily blushed deeper red.
'Do you wanna do it again, Jamsie Wamsie? Do you wanna give ickle Lily-poo
anover ickle smacker? Sirius teased, putting on a baby voice.
(how is it, when people talk to babies, they put on a baby voice???)
Sirius clamped Lily and James's heads together. Sirius suddenly gasped and
let go, nursing his shin. He scowled ferociously at Lily, who was giggling.
Peter was exploding, not able to breathe and his laughter so high and fast with
stubborn, wild giggles. Remus was chuckling, looking at the brilliant, purple
black bruise forming on Sirius' left leg.
Lily laughed, picked up her telescope, which was laying at the foot of James's
bed, dusted off her hat and let herself out, James followed, walking her out.
'Bye!' they called. James got up and walked her to her dorm.
'Sorry Lily, I shouldn't have chosen challenge…' he mumbled.
'It's okay' she said, eyes glinting in the pale light of the corridor, she
mustered up the courage to eye him, green eyes shining. She smiled, a coy
smile, it showed her dimples on that calm, glazed face.
'I better get going…' said James. Lily leaned in, pecking James on the cheek.
James looked surprised, pleased, even exited.
I never thought he liked me that much… thought Lily.
'I'm glad you chose challenge' she murmured to his disappearing back,
striding jauntily down the wooden boards up to the staircase. He looked back,
not expecting her to still be there, but she was. He smiled at her and waved,
placing his hands behind his head, he set off, up the staircase, to his own dormitory.
That night, while Sirius, Remus and Peter were all whispering about the events
of that night, hissing at each other their opinions of what happened, James
felt alone, completely alone, in a world full of everything to do with-
'Lily. Hmm…the boy has a weakness.'
Voldemort licked his lips and fiddled with his fingers, knotting them and plaiting them, entwining them together.
'Why exactly do you want him on your side?' asked Dolpur.
'So he isn't against me, I can't make it anymore explicit than that.'
'He is a simple boy? Have you seen something in the Rune prophecies about
him? An inquisitive Dolpur continued to ask questions.
'He is powerful, not scared of things, except for emotions, he wants to fight
me. If he does, and I do not win, I fear it would be the end of me. Once he
is older, even a few years older, he could become like that fool Dumbledore.
He is strong, he will fight. I must make him resist.'
'Why?' Dolpur looked blank, Voldemort, irritated, snapped;
'Did I not make it clear enough for you? He will be an auror with force
enough to finish me, he could be my down fall. If you don't understand that
by now, maybe you are worthless to me.' Voldemort fumed, his nostril slits
pinching in and out, with his, short annoyed breaths.
'Oh.'
are what's keeping me writing.
I feel guilty, coz I want to
stop, but I can't, you know.
Obligations, gee. Well,
Well, uh...
Peace-ya-Jade
P.S Please forgive me, it gets even more confusing!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
It was a bleak morning for the Ministry of Magic, they had sent spies with
invisibility cloaks left, right and centre and still hadn't been able actually
spot Voldemort.
Wizards or witches certainly inhabited the mansion and they were performing magic.
There had only been one sighting of a human, a wizard with blond greying hair.
He was carrying a snake to what looked to be a greenhouse. The witch who had
spotted this, Madeline, was carrying an owl and had managed to record some
hard proof of inhabitants.
There was also an apparation to there by two people, one with very pale skin and white
blond hair and another with dark dazzling hair which was curled in bobby, perky ringlets,
it had only been a fleeting glimpse and hadn't been recorded.
It was suspicious and the Ministry were tackling with Muggles to get a warrant to search the place.
*
End of term was approaching fast, only a week to go now. James and Sirius
almost ran down to the Gryffindor House Post board, made of scarlet velvet
with gold edging.
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH SECOND RESERVES.
Seeker: Kim Wong. (Fourth Year)
Chasers:Michael Gresham (Third Year)
Matthew Byron (Fifth Year)
Kathleen Greene (Fifth Year)
Beaters: Arthur Weasley (Sixth Year)
Paul Piper (Fourth Year)
Keeper: Jude Long.(Third Year)
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH FIRST RESERVES.
Seeker: James Potter (First Year)
Chasers: Sirius Black (first Year)
Patrick Thomas (Third Year)
Eleanor Stevens (Fourth Year)
Beaters: Cate Cahoon (Fifth Year)
Jule Nimble (Fourth Year)
Keeper: Joel Smythe (Second Year)
Note: Only the team is able to train, or if reserves are called.
Training starts First Week of Second Term for the Team, when called.
'We made it!' Sirius yelled, over the moon. 'Gimme five man!'
They slapped hands, then headed back to the Gryffindor common room, up quiet corridors
they had never seen.
'Where are we?' said James.
'Dunno, open a door, not that one this one.' Sirius instructed.
'It's a room full of dolls, like a bedroom.' Described James, 'It has blue
walls, and lime green carpet,' he said, his voice raising slightly.
'Let me see!' said Sirius importantly, as if he could solve the whole thing.
James, of course, was tricking, it was really a lovely room, with a warm fire,
it was cosy and it reminded him of Hagrids hut.
Sirius stepped in, eyes wide and cautions, he was inching his wand out of his
cloak pocket.
In an instant he was thrown out of the room, and landed, opened out, splat on
the wall.
The door sealed up, and was back to being a corridor wall.
'Ow,' Sirius groaned, low and long.
'You shouldn't have gone in.' James laughed and scowled, looking down on his
hurt friend,he offered him a hand. Sirius, gratefully taking it, pulled
himself up and brushed himself off.
'I didn't know that!' he howled in defence.
'Okay, okay,' James put his hands up, as a motion of surrender, 'What do you
think it was anyway?'
'I don't know, would it have let you in?' Sirius looked bewildered. He held
his back and every time he inhaled, it looked as though it was done so
painfully. He flinched and gasped.
'We must get off to our last day of classes!' said James.
'Aah, freedom, tomorrow, tonight! We must do something in order to celebrate…'
'Yes, we'll plan later.' James nodded and pointed them in the right direction.
'So you and Lily still-er-together?' Sirius asked.
'Yes, we are, I'm meeting her in the common room, later.' He said nodding.
'Ooh, can I come?' Sirius queried.
'No, you may not. I'll be putting a silence spell on us anyway, just for a
little bit, so no one can over hear.' He said proudly, thinking back to the
thousands of spell books he looked in. It was in a charm book, Lily was using
it to research an essay that Professor Casein gave them.
'Ooh, why can't I join in?' he said, looking mock hurt.
James simply gave him a withering look.
*
Desolate, disheartening landscape surrounded them. They were in a world in
which they didn't belong. The trees, once alive and lush were now reduced to
bare, dry wood. The once resourceful river looked murky and grey.
The sky was dark and thunderous, stormy black clouds laced with white. A bolt of
lightning cracked its way across the sky, the clouds fluoresced purple. The
clouds hid the night from them, an eerie green light was drowning them,
soaking them, even though it was night.
More lightning, this time a delicate, less powerful bolt ran its way across the clouds.
There, a sole human there,not knowing that she had company, she looked across the dark purple sky.
She squinted into her viewfinder, hoping to catch a split second of lightning once more.
Her un-known company swanned silently towards her, cleverly hidden from view.
They approached her, no sound coming from their feet, a tall man, with
menacing scarlet eyes, wore a harsh expression.
He looked at her, wanting to touch her, but something held him back.
The photographer, a young strawberry-blonde coloured hair, nearly at the
small of her rigid and stiff back, was a girl from the town of Little Hangelton,
now living in what they called the Riddle House, had some information, not
realising it, that Voldemort didn't want out in the open and some data that
he needed to get stronger.
The young witch, by the name of Jean, was working for a muggle corporation, capturing
beautiful, sorrowful or inspiring moments by the means of film.
Xenia Snape teetered along, moving no more than an inch at a time, slowly made her way over to Jean.
She tapped Jean on the shoulder. Jean spun around, reaching into her jacket
and pulled out a wand.
When she saw who it was, she instantly desisted, not knowing one of her best friends was about to
betray her, selling her out to Voldemort.
'Jean! Your boss told me you were here! I apparated, I need to tell you
something, somewhere a little less, uh-loud.' She yelled, over the sounds of thunder.
'Okay, I'll finish up here then.' Jean nodded, looking around her.
Something cold touched her heart, as it often did when danger was near.
Xenia gave the others the signal to go, and they returned to Voldmorts secluded hideout.
Xenia helpfully dragged out the tripod case and started packing it up.
It was heavy and dusty, most likely from the arid conditions surrounding them.
She swiftly folded it up and slotted it into its official black case, zipped it up
and shouldered it, adjusting the strap twice because of her looming height over Jean.
'Ready?' Xenia asked, somewhat impatiently.
'Yes, where are we going?' wondered Jean loudly.
'Follow me.' Was all Xenia said. Xenia clapped twice over her free shoulder
and Jean followed a split second later.
They landed in a large grey and white room, with a table made up as a blanketless
bed, with only white, stained sheets on its padded, grey surface.
There were large, windows, with no glass in them.
The room had a high ceiling and a table next to the bed had two, steely looking
cases resting on its stained mahogany surface.
'Lay down, you look tired.' Xenia gestured the bed, looking motherly and kindly
towards Jean.
What false pretences sighed Xenia privately. Xenia stroked her former friends matted,
strawberry-blond hair and looked at her, almost patronizingly.
'What have you done Jean!' she exclaimed, her voice high and shrilly, looking
into her friends glasses and seeing a woman, jet-black hair, swooped back into
a large, elaborate twist. Glittering, aware black eyes, darting around and
rosy cheeks on her pale, white un-exposed skin looking back at her.
It was Xenia.
Her friend had bewitched herself to sleep.
Xenia thought quickly, scanning her mind for the counter-curse.
'Of course' murmured Xenia, all rage lost. 'Restus Desistis' she murmered,
wand pointing at her friends torso.
Jean woke up, head spinning.
'Lastos' Xenia murmured again, making her counter-curse last until she again reversed it.
Voldemort entered the room with a small snake wrapped between his fingers
and Dolpur by his side. Scarlet, harsh eyes bore down on Jean.
She screamed, she knew who he was. She trembled and begged for him to simply put a memory
curse on her, but that wouldn't do.
She asked, pleaded, for Veritaserum, not torture. But this was the mental
torture, she didn't realise it, but she was causing herself sever distress.
'Will you answer our questions free from lies?' Voldemort asked, a frosty look in his eyes.
'Yes, I swear it.' Jean panted.
'Fetch me some Veritaserum please. Make it snappy, and some water.'
'Here you are sir, how many drops in the water?' Dolpur asked.
'Five.' He sentenced.
'Five? Isn't that a little strong?' gasped Dolpur.
'Would you like to torture yourself?' snapped Voldemort.
'As you wish.' Dolpur obeyed, squeezing five drops of transparent liquid into
the goblet of water.
'What is your name?' asked Voldemort.
'Jean Oman.' She replied, looking blank, sitting up completely rigid and straight.
'Good. Who do you work for?' he inquired.
'The Ministry of Magic as a spy against Tom Riddle, otherwise known as Voldemort.
I also work as a Muggle photographer.' She replied no sooner had the question
had been expelled from his mouth.
'Where are your leads?' he snapped, getting more irritated by the second.
'We have reason to believe that Voldemort, or Tom Riddle, is hiding out in
a mansion in Fair Glen Valley.' She supplied promptly.
'Kill her, I have no other intentions for her now…' he snapped.
'As you wish, by what means?' said Dolpur.
'Any you please.' Said Voldemort, stomping out of the room.
*
'Muta Personaar' muttered James by the fire in the Gryffindor common room,
holding his wand above himself and Lily. The book had said that it takes two
or three minutes to take full effect and during this time, had to think about
the person they wished to communicate with.
James thought about Lily, Lily thought about James.
James was startled as a voice floated into his head;
'I wonder if it's working yet?'
James nodded prolifically at Lily, who had caught James's most recent thoughts.
'This is weird, different don't you think?' said Lily.
'Some sort of ESP, telepathy.' mused James.
'Yeah, so, what is so important that we need this spell for?' demanded Lily.
'Well, we have to plan our next move against Sirius and Remus and Peter, do
we tell them we have been playing them all along, or do we just sit back and
do nothing or do we do something even more disgusting?'
'Uh, I was thinking, we could sneak out, just to the common room with the
invisibility cloak on, and say we are going to the astronomy tower, together.'
'When, tonight?' James thought.
'Yeah,' cast Lily.
'Okay, once this wears off, you'll come with me, holding hands, rather, making
it look like we are holding hands, I'll get the invisibility cloak out and put
it in my robes pocket, and we'll say we are going now, or when we get to that
stage, and we'll sneak back in the common room, and spy on Sirius, Remus and
Peter. We'll have to go in when the next person does, because if you open the
door and no-one comes in, or goes out, it looks odd. '
'Okay, let's go.'
'We still have five more minutes though.' James thought, checking his watch.
'Alright.' Thought Lily.
'Okay, you open your mouth and see if you can talk, try and blush now, to
show them I said something corny.' James sent to Lily.
'Okay, I'll say, yes James, me too, okay?'
'Yes James, me too' the words met Sirius, Remus and Peters ears, much to their delight.
'Let's go.' James said, looking at Lily who was working hard at blushing.
Sirius was walking up to them.
'Where do you think you're going at this time of night!?' he said, with his
nose pinched, trying to scold them in a motherly way.
'To the astronomy tower, it's a clear night, and we will look at the stars.'
James said, dripping with charm. Lily didn't need any assistance to blush this
time; flushing purple.
'Ooh, James is taking ickle Lil' out on an excursion of passion.' Sirius bothered.
'Right. Whatever you reckon.' James nodded, slipping Lily's hand into his.
'Bye Bye, see you in the morning, no classes, so you can do it a few times if
you like!' Sirius called to their backs.
Once the door was shut and they were certainly out of earshot, they burst into delighted laughter.
Lily accidentally snorted, and that reeled them into more laughter.
Finally managing to get up the marble staircase to James's dormitory, he opened the door,
allowing Lily to go in first, then followed. Lily looked around, telling him the differences
between their dorms.
James searched and dug in his trunk for a little while, before finding what he was looking for.
A cloak, sheer and silvery. It shimmered in as the light ran over it.
James' hand was invisible underneath it.
He threw it over himself, doing a rough job of covering his tall body
and lifted up one side, gesturing verbally, for Lily to come and stand next
to him, under the cloak.
'When I was eight or so, my parents gave it to me. It was useful for watching
television in dads room. I would sneak in, and stand in the wardrobe, with
it an inch open. Later when he fell asleep, I would sneak out. I used to
think it was an invincibility cloak, not an invisibility cloak.' James chuckled
softly, remembering his previous years and wriggling so that his feet were
completely covered. 'Let's go.'
'So what are we going to do?' Lily asked, not sure of the details.
'We are going to enter the common room and sit behind the couch that Sirius,
Remus and Peter are sitting on and listen to what they say about us. We have
only been gone a few minutes, so they still should be gossiping.' James explained.
'Okay.' She said, thinking it over. 'Can I see you?' she asked. Lily had
her eyes clamped shut and her nose screwed up for no reason what so ever.
'Yeah! We can see each other, I mean we are right next to each other.' He said,
thinking why she didn't realise that they could see each other. They reached
the deep, carved wooden door that was the entry to the common room.
They heard a group of people walking towards the door behind them. They prepared themselves
to go quickly inside.
'-Let's go see what they are up to in the astronomy tower, would they have
gone to use the schools telescopes or would they have gone to collect their
own first?' said the voice of Remus from behind the door.
James thought quickly.
'Look like you are going down to your dormitory because we are getting our
telescopes, stop to talk to them, buy me some time. I'll meet you at the top
of this staircase.' He hissed into her ear, spraying some spit into it, but
she didn't mind.
She slipped herself from underneath the cloak and went up about ten or twelve feet.
James ran up the stairs, going two at a time. He got to the dormitory at top speed,
he could hear people waking up the stairs.
He bunched up the cloak and shoved it in the compartment where it belonged.
He was reaching in to look for his telescope when the door opened.
He licked his lips, making them look a little redder than usual.
'So, you didn't go straight to the astronomy tower, eh?' said Sirius with a
wink.
Peter giggled.
'No, we decided to ah…well we didn't decide, it more or less just happened,
Lily has just gone down to get her telescope, we decided to look at the stars
at the window in the corridor.' James mumbled, desperately trying to blush.
'Not to worry, just invite her in here for a game of confessions…' said Sirius,
on the verge of breaking a rib from trying to look serious.
'Yeah!" said Remus, brightening up.
'Uh oh' Peter whispered, immediately sobering up.
A knock came from the door.
'James?' a female voice called through the door.
'Yes Lily, come in, it's open.'
'Okay.' And the door opened with a soft creak, a cold draught immediately
entered the room.
'We are going to have a game of challenge or confess…' Sirius said cheerfully, inviting her onto James' bed, where they were all sitting.
'Who wants to go first?' Peter said, almost chewing his fingertip.
'I'll ask you, Lily' said Sirius, glee in his eyes.
'Okay, fire away then,' she said, more bravely and confident than she felt.
'Challenge or confess…?'
'Confess,'
'Oooh, okay, uh, er, what is the most boring subject at Hogwarts?' he asked.
'Herbology, or maybe flying.' Lily was torn between the two, she hated
Herbology and the evil Etropsun, but she loved flying class, it was boring
because they weren't able to do much more than fly around the grounds.
'I like flying!' said Peter.
'Yeah, it wasn't your question…' Sirius bored down a look at Peter from under his brow.
'Okay, I get to ask one of you know.' Lily said cheerfully, glancing at each
one surrounding her. Her green eyes finally settled on Remus, she formulated
a question in her mind.
'Challenge or confess, Remus?'
'Confess.'
'Okay, why did you give me that love potion?' she asked, caging Remus in.
If he gave the real reason Lily and James would be mad, if he gave them a lie,
Lily and James would be mad.
'For a few reasons' he said slowly, obviously thinking. 'Because you were wasting
your time denying that you didn't like each other.' He said, Lily caught James's
eye, and quickly blushed.
'Okay, now you ask someone something,' Lily instructed.
'Confess or challenge? Peter,' Remus asked.
'Ch-Challenge' he squeaked, quickly returning to his fingertip.
'What can Peter do?' Remus looked around at the group: Peter looking terrified,
Lily scowling, James thoughtful, Sirius formulating plans.
'He can go up to Etropsun and pull out his tongue and blow a big fat raspberry
in his face…or he could chase Peeves around, or he can turn all the toilet
seats different colours…' Sirius rattled on and on.
'He could go into the girls dormitory…' said Lily.
'And do?' asked Remus.
'He could fly, hover outside the window and knock on it…' said Lily, who
obviously hadn't thought about the rest of the dare.
'Yeah!' all except Peter and Lily exclaimed.
'Okay, we'll do that tomorrow, remember someone. Now Peter, ask James or me,something.'
'O-okay.' he quavered, looking from Sirius to James and back again. Sirius leaned over and
whispered something in Peter's ear. Peter giggled as Sirius leaned over to tell Remus.
'Confess or Challenge?' he asked in between great fits of giggles.
'Challenge.' James said, instantly regretting it.
'I dare you to-' he stopped, and started giggling, uncontrollably. Finally
after a few slaps from Sirius and Remus, he managed to control them again.
'-To kiss Lily, I'll time you.'
Lily and James looked at each other, had they
known that they were playing them or did they just want to see it again?
They looked reluctantly at each other, then to the people surrounding them.
'Okay' said Peter, more giggles, 'One, two, three' James and Lily took a deep
breath, looked at themselves, with deep panic. They leaned in, Lily shuffled
on her knees closer. Timidly they leaned in, there was no way to possibly fool
them so close. Their lips met, not moving, just kneeling there, with their
lips connected, shooting furious looks at whomever they could see.
Sirius grabbed both or their heads by the crown and started swaying them.
Sirius was enjoying this. He let of red sparks from his wand and drew them in a heart shape.
James, overcome by the feeling of finally kissing Lily, startedto become more
comfortable and he leaned in further, softly sliding his lips over hers.
They finally pulled apart, after what seemed like eternity, both blushing
furiously. Lily fiddled with her hair, un-able to look at James. James never
took his eyes of her, not even for a moment, and habitually tried to flatten
his hair. James tuned in to the conversation surrounding him.
'-forty six seconds…' Peter said, red cheeked and voice high.
'You have no reason to be blushing' James growled, his voice hoarse.
'Yeah Peter!' said Lily, chancing a look at James. James caught her furtive
glance, and instantly, Lily blushed deeper red.
'Do you wanna do it again, Jamsie Wamsie? Do you wanna give ickle Lily-poo
anover ickle smacker? Sirius teased, putting on a baby voice.
(how is it, when people talk to babies, they put on a baby voice???)
Sirius clamped Lily and James's heads together. Sirius suddenly gasped and
let go, nursing his shin. He scowled ferociously at Lily, who was giggling.
Peter was exploding, not able to breathe and his laughter so high and fast with
stubborn, wild giggles. Remus was chuckling, looking at the brilliant, purple
black bruise forming on Sirius' left leg.
Lily laughed, picked up her telescope, which was laying at the foot of James's
bed, dusted off her hat and let herself out, James followed, walking her out.
'Bye!' they called. James got up and walked her to her dorm.
'Sorry Lily, I shouldn't have chosen challenge…' he mumbled.
'It's okay' she said, eyes glinting in the pale light of the corridor, she
mustered up the courage to eye him, green eyes shining. She smiled, a coy
smile, it showed her dimples on that calm, glazed face.
'I better get going…' said James. Lily leaned in, pecking James on the cheek.
James looked surprised, pleased, even exited.
I never thought he liked me that much… thought Lily.
'I'm glad you chose challenge' she murmured to his disappearing back,
striding jauntily down the wooden boards up to the staircase. He looked back,
not expecting her to still be there, but she was. He smiled at her and waved,
placing his hands behind his head, he set off, up the staircase, to his own dormitory.
That night, while Sirius, Remus and Peter were all whispering about the events
of that night, hissing at each other their opinions of what happened, James
felt alone, completely alone, in a world full of everything to do with-
'Lily. Hmm…the boy has a weakness.'
Voldemort licked his lips and fiddled with his fingers, knotting them and plaiting them, entwining them together.
'Why exactly do you want him on your side?' asked Dolpur.
'So he isn't against me, I can't make it anymore explicit than that.'
'He is a simple boy? Have you seen something in the Rune prophecies about
him? An inquisitive Dolpur continued to ask questions.
'He is powerful, not scared of things, except for emotions, he wants to fight
me. If he does, and I do not win, I fear it would be the end of me. Once he
is older, even a few years older, he could become like that fool Dumbledore.
He is strong, he will fight. I must make him resist.'
'Why?' Dolpur looked blank, Voldemort, irritated, snapped;
'Did I not make it clear enough for you? He will be an auror with force
enough to finish me, he could be my down fall. If you don't understand that
by now, maybe you are worthless to me.' Voldemort fumed, his nostril slits
pinching in and out, with his, short annoyed breaths.
'Oh.'