Chapter Thirteen Caught
On Monday, there was less cheering than had been expected when the students were told that classes were canceled. Everyone was all too aware of the empty seats. People were advised to stay in their common rooms for the day and not wander on the grounds. All day, owls were flying to and fro, carrying messages to worrying parents. Doug's letter to his mom was nearly three times longer than usual. Becky spent most of the day with her father and Hagrid. Doug went up to his room, leaving Lily alone and not telling her what he was doing.
Lily, being left alone, didn't know what to do with herself. She wasn't allowed to wander on the grounds, yet she hated being stuck in the common room, where everything was silent and gloomy.
The spiders were all in Harry's office, trying to find out everything they could about the illness and how the cure was progressing.
Speaking of Harry, Lily and the others had never been able to make it to the library to find out why no one had told her he was her father. There had been too much to do between schoolwork, Halloween, luncheons with Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, and Hagrid to find the time to go.
Lily silently got out of her chair. Everyone else had gone to their rooms, preferring the privacy to the common room. She slid out of the portrait hole and noticed that the Fat Lady was nowhere to be seen, probably off visiting other paintings and listening to the rumors about what was happening.
Lily hoped the Lady would be back in time to let Lily in when she got back and set out for the library. The first thing she noticed was that all of the halls were empty. The paintings were full of landscapes but nothing else. The Tin Men were absent from their pedestals. Lily didn't even see Mrs. Norris or Mr. Filch anywhere.
When she reached the library, she was surprised to see that it was empty and that not even the librarian, Madam Pince, was there. She wandered over to a set of bookshelves and stared at them, not knowing where to begin. Well, everyone had told her that Harry was one of the greatest wizards of all time. Why not start with The Greatest Wizards and Witches of All Time? Lily pulled the large volume off the shelf and blew off the thin sheet of dust on it. Finding a table, she sat down and flipped back to the index.
"Potter, Harry," she muttered to herself. "Page 382-456. That's a lot of pages." Nevertheless, she flipped back to page 382 and started reading. She read about how Harry's parents- her grandparents- had been killed when Harry was one by an evil wizard named Voldemort, also called He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who. Harry had defeated Voldemort and sapped the evil wizard of all his strength through the power of his mother's love. After his parents were killed, Professor Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the time, and Professor McGonagall, both teachers at Hogwarts, and a man named Rubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper at Hogwarts, had all taken him to stay with his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley. The Dursleys had treated him awfully until he went to Hogwarts. There, he defeated Voldemort again with the help of Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, and found the Sorcerer's Stone. The second year, he had defeated the basilisk, who was working for a shadow, or memory, of Voldemort. The third year, he had helped get his godfather, Sirius Black, to safety and had come a step closer to finding out the truth about his parents. And so the list went on. Lily read until page 454, where she and James entered the story for the first time. They had been sent to the Dursleys' so as not to be found by Voldemort until they could defend themselves. Now, however, they were back at Hogwarts and receiving their education.
Lily checked the copryright date on the book. 1768. However, she had heard of books that changed themselves in order to keep up with the times. She figured that this must be one of them.
She spent the rest of the afternoon reading through Hermione and Ron's biographies. She didn't snap out of her phase until the clock on the wall screamed that it was time for dinner.
Lily put the book back on its shelf and raced to the Great Hall. She noticed that the teachers were all pale and had shadows under their eyes- all except for Malfoy, at least. If any of the teachers noticed the children, however, they gave no sign. They were all eating slowly and feebly.
Lily squeezed into the seat next to Doug and Becky.
"What's going on?" she asked them.
"Bad news," Becky replied sourly.
Doug sighed and began to give more details. "None of the teachers have no clue what's causing it. They've had to put everyone in the infirmary under a freeze-spell, or else they'll be dead before morning. The problem is, no one knows about a cure."
Lily nodded, thinking of Soup, and silently ate her spaghetti. As she ate, she thought that she would rather have Soup back than know why no one had told her about Harry being her father. She knew that, though. To protect her from Voldemort. Still, there had to be something she could do for Soup. She hated just sitting here doing nothing while he stayed frozen in the infirmary.
"I hate this," she finally said. The other two looked at her beseechingly. "I hate sitting here and doing nothing," she explained. "I mean, I know why no one told me Harry was my father. It was to protect me from Voldemort. So why can't I find out what's wrong with Soup?" She stared at her dinner coldly.
"Are you suggesting," Becky said as she bit into a roll, "that we try and find a cure ourselves?"
"I know. We probably won't be able to pull it off," Lily admitted.
"No, no. I think it's a great plan. We can find out everything we need to from the spiders, after all. I think we should at least try."
"Really?"
Doug nodded in agreement with Becky. "I think we should at least look into it. I mean, Soup is our friend, and I feel kind of guilty sitting here and doing nothing."
"So that settles it. Lily can be the brain power. I can pump Hagrid and my dad for information, and Doug can eat."
"Hey!" Doug shouted at her.
"What?"
* * *
Knowing that the adults would not approve and probably send them away, the trio didn't tell anyone what they were planning.
That night, they began their operations.
What else did they say? Lily asked Brownie again.
I'm telling you girl, that's all. They had a huge meeting today. All the Tin Men and paintings were there, too. No one had any ideas. But when everyone left, Harry, Hermione, and Ron said that Voldemort was behind this. Except this time, he may have actually won.
Lily repeated what Brownie had said to Doug and Becky.
"That's bad," Becky said. "Very bad."
Doug didn't say anything.
Thanks, Lily told Brownie.
Without a word, Brownie turned and walked back into the crack in the wall.
"Well?" Lily finally asked. "Where do we go from here?"
Doug shook his head and admitted, "I have no clue.
Becky, however, stared hard at a pillow behind Lily. "When there is no other place to start, always search the library," she said finally.
Doug groaned.
* * *
However, although they had the best intentions in the world, their schedule made no room for such things. Melissa McKenzie, seeing all the free time everyone had, was using it for extra Quidditch practice. Although they rarely let the snitch out of the box, Lily still had to go. Also, the job called for stealth and secrecy, so the trio would have to sneak to the library.
A few times, however, they did manage to get a few minutes to themselves. The bad thing was that as soon as they reached the library, they never had time to do anything, and they couldn't figure out where to look.
Finally, they came up with a plan to find out about illnesses first. Slowly, bit by bit through November and most of December, they worked their way through these, never finding anything to help Soup. Next, they checked up on curses and spells. Nothing. But they did find out one name that kept repeating itself everywhere they looked: Voldemort.
"If only we could look at one of the books in the restricted section," Lily dreamily muttered one day. "One time, I thought I saw something that looked like Voldemort's autobiography, but the book ran away before I could get a good look."
Doug shook his head. "Hate it when books decide to play tricks on you like that. One time, one of my mom's books crawled into my bed and bit me. Thought it was great fun, too."
Lily and Becky stared at him and then glanced at each other.
"Not even I'm allowed in there," Becky said. "Those books are really important. Harry said that he opened one when he wasn't supposed to, and it screamed its pages off- well, almost. It screamed really loudly, at least."
Lily sighed. "So that's that. We're stuck."
The others nodded grimly in agreement.
They didn't get a good break until Christmas.
* * *
Before they knew it, Lily was playing in her first Quidditch game against none other than Slytherin.
Becky and Doug, who were sitting in the stands next to Hagrid, Neville, Hermione, and Ron, watched as Harry climbed over to them. He looked grim.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.
"Malfoy. He waited until this morning to tell me that James is now a Beater for the Slytherin team."
"Isn't that cheating?" Doug asked. "I mean, shouldn't there be a twenty-four hour warning or something?"
Harry looked at him thoughtfully. "Yes. There should be a warning period. Then again, we should also have red cards in this game."
"What's a red card?" Becky asked.
While the others were explaining the muggle world to Becky, Lily pulled her scarlet robe over her head.
"Okay, people," Melissa said, swinging her broom over her shoulder. The rest of the team sat down expectantly. "It's a new year, a new trophy. We haven't won for two or three years, but this time things are different." Everyone looked at each other and then to Lily, who blushed fiercely.
"All I'm asking is that we go out there, and we win by a few hundred points," Melissa said slowly.
Kevin's jaw dropped. "That's all you're asking?"
Chris shrugged. "At least she didn't ask for a kiss from me like last year. Now that would have been impossible."
Melissa glared at them. "Enough of that. Come on. Let's go out there and-"
"Kick some slithering Slytherin butt!" shouted Peter Hamfrog, a boy who had grown up with muggle parents.
The others laughed.
* * *
The entire Gryffindor team recieved a surprise when they walked onto the field. Charlie Brunsley, the Slytherins' team captain, was beaming with pride as he waved to James, who was holding his broomstick and looking at them with an evil grin.
"This is our new Beater," he told the Gryffindors. "I believe you know him," he told Lily, sizing her up. Melissa and the twins moved slightly to stand in between Lily and Charlie.
"Why didn't you bring this up sooner?" Melissa asked angrily.
Charlie shrugged. "Didn't have to."
Professor Wood stepped in. "All right, guys. Game time. Mount your brooms, and when I blow the whistle, go."
Everyone mounted his or her broom. James gave Lily a meaningful look as Wood blew the whistle. Lily went straight up into the air, looking for any sign of the Snitch. James went looking for the nearest Bludger.
For a long time, not much happened. From listening to the commentator, Howard Smith (a Hufflepuff), Lily knew that the Gryffindors were ahead by nearly three hundred points. She had also noticed that the Slytherins were beginning to get a bit nasty.
The first time James had hit a Bludger, he had sent it straight at Lily's head. Just like the cherry bombs, she had dodged it easily and had even had time to say hello to Kevin, who had come speeding after it. The second time James hit a Bludger, she had said hello to Chris. Each time James hit a Bludger her way, she had a small conversation with one of the twins if they had time. Still, she was getting edgy. Neither she nor Andrew Flint, the Slytherin Seeker, had seen the Snitch the entire game. They passed each other in the air from time to time, and eventually Lily had managed to have the two of them on speaking terms, although they both made it perfectly clear that no matter what, they would each try to beat each other to the Snitch.
After an hour of flying around, chatting from time to time, and dodging Bludgers, Lily finally saw the Golden Snitch. She dived.
Almost frantic, Andrew tried to see what she was looking at. He dived also, but she was on a Lightyear 5000, not a Lightning 500 like Andrew. To her understanding, that make had come out years ago. She was almost there 200 feet away and quickly closing the gap. She fell 100 feet.
In a moment, the Snitch was flying away. Lily turned to chase after it and crashed into something. The wind knocked out of her, she started to slip off of her broom. Kevin and Chris finally floated over and helped her to climb back on. Blushing furiously, she thanked them and looked to see what she had crashed into. It was James, who was looking quite pleased with himself.
She looked to Andrew, hoping he hadn't reached the Snitch. He understood and grinned, showing her his hands. He pointed at James, shrugged, and flew away. She thanked the twins again, glared at James, and set off.
Howard Smith was having a field day with the commentary. "An obvious attempt to apparently slaughter-" Hermione glared at him. Immediately, he went on with the pure facts, although Lily heard him refer to the "open attempt to murder the Gryffindor Seeker" many more times throughout the game. She went back to floating above the stands and looking for a sign of the Snitch.
She was only slightly comforted by Harry, Ron, Hagrid, Neville, and the others booing the Slytherins. She was surprised to find that even the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws were doing the same.
Finally, she spotted it again. This time, she didn't dive for it, as she had before. She slowly circled above it and floated downwards. The Snitch was floating right by Professor Wood, an inch or two away from his head. She swooped down when she was about two feet away and gracefully reached for it. She felt another hit from the side and lost her grip on her broom. Luckily, she was only about ten feet above the ground. She fell and slowed down before hitting the ground thanks to a spell some generous soul had worked. She looked up at James, who was glaring at her. Lily grinned and showed him and Professor Wood her hand, in which was the Golden Snitch.
Before she knew it, someone had handed Lily her broom, and the entire Gryffindor team had landed and were cheering. Howard announced the score: Slytherin: 200, Gryffindor: 560.
"Party in the Gryffindor Common Room!" Melissa shouted.
Lily turned away, grinning, and was faced with Harry. He hugged her, and she instantly remembered that this was the first hug she had ever gotten from her father that she could remember.
"Good job," he said to her.
"Are you coming to the party?" she asked, slightly choked up. She turned away and coughed so he wouldn't notice.
He nodded. "Sure. I've got a few of my own Quidditch stories to tell, you know. Did Becky tell you about the time I caught the Snitch by swallowing it?"
Lily shook her head.
"Well, it was a match against Slytherin, much like this one, and..."
* * *
However, the Gryffindors' triumph over Slytherin did not help the search for a cure. It was nearly Christmas, and Lily, Doug, and Becky had been through almost every book in the library. The only books left were the ones in the restricted section.
"One of these days," Lily said, "we'll have to get in there."
Becky motioned to Madam Pince. "You're the brain. Figure out how to get rid of the teachers first, though. That's probably the best way to do things."
Lily's eyes lit up.
Becky sat up quickly. "Oh no." She hit Doug, who was looking at a Quidditch rule book, hard in the arm. "She's got that look."
"What look?" Doug asked, apparently seeing nothing in Lily's eyes that made him think of whatever Becky was thinking.
"The look that says she has a plan."
Doug thought and then looked at Lily. "Next week is Christmas, though. Can't it want until then?"
Lily pondered about this. "Might as well," she said with a shrug. "I've got the basic idea of what I want to do, but I have to figure out the first part."
Becky sighed in relief; Doug went back to reading his book. Lily started working on a paper for Charms.
None of them noticed that James had come into the library, looking for a book to do the same Charms report that Lily was working on. So the Gryffindors wanted to get into the restricted section of the library. Professor Malfoy would be glad to hear that.
* * *
Lily and the others had to wait until Christmas before any of them could do anything. A gift or two would make all the difference at Hogwarts...