"Come on, Lily."
"No."
"Please?"
"Absolutely not."
"It would only be for a minute."
"I said no."
Sirius sighed. "Fine. I'll get Peter to do it." With that, he bounded off to the portrait of the Fat Lady to hopefully convince Peter to set off a Whirling Wheezy during Potions to get them out of a pop quiz (which Yunion had dropped hints about the day before, also mentioning that it would be a giant portion of their grade).
A Whirling Wheezy was something Sirius had invented a few years back. It looked like a normal quill for writing, but if you dipped it in ink, it would change into a firework. But it wasn't an ordinary firework. Once you set it off, it whirled around the room, shooting sparks everywhere. After about two minutes, the entire firework would explode, finally setting off an entire magnificent show of colors. The final colors weren't just colors, however. They were paint, and everyone within distance would get sprayed with it.
When asked by Remus why he named it a 'Whirling Wheezy', Sirius explained, "Well, it whirls around the room, and one time I set off the prototype when my Uncle Allen came over to dinner. It ended up exploding all over him, and he was laughing so hard he wheezed. He asked me what I named it, and it was the first thing that came to my mind."
Lily also sighed once Sirius was out of earshot. He asked her to set one off, since she had a clean record in that class and he and James would automatically be placed in detention. Lily sensibly asked, "If you're going to get detention anyway, then why not go ahead and do it?"
"Because," Sirius said exaspertley, "Yunion's capable of anything. She might slip some Truth Serum into out pumpkin juice during dinner--"
"Truth Serum?" Lily inquired.
With a look of dislike on his face, Sirius answered, "Truth Serum. It makes you tell the truth to whoever asks a question. One drop can have you spilling your deepest secrets. Trust me, I know the consequences." He paused for a moment, then continued, "Anyway, the look on her face when she saw that we didn't do it will be priceless. She'll have to take back the detention."
Lily laughed, "You expect her to do that?"
"Forget it," he smiled, then proceeded to beg her to let one loose. Lily point blank refused--she wasn't going to get a weeks' worth of detentions for it.
The portrait hole swung open. Lily glanced over, expecting to see a begging Sirius and a nervous Peter. Instead, she saw one of her roommates, Arabella Figg. With her long, blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes (not to mention a slim figure), she reminded Lily of a Muggle model that used to be on the covers of those magazines Petunia read all the time.
"Hi," Arabella said kindly. "You're Lily, right?"
"Yeah," Lily also smiled. "You're Arabella." She could easily put a name with that face: Arabella was one of the best people to work charms--she was right behind Lily.
Arabella waved her hand. "Please, call me Bell, or even Bella. Arabella is way too fancy."
The two proceeded to talk for an hour or two, including the interruptions of Sirius coming back in the common room and begging Bell to use a Whirling Weezy during Potions. To Lily and Sirius' suprise, she instantly agreed.
***
"Remus? How's your mom?" Lily asked a few days later. Her and Remus were sitting in the common room, doing homework. Or at least Remus was--Lily hadn't been feeling good for days now. She had no idea what caused it or how she came about with it, she just knew that she had constant headaches.
Remus glanced up. "What? Oh--she's fine now," he said hurriedly, as though he didn't want to talk about it.
"Okay," Lily said slowly, trying to figure out whether he was avoiding the subject because she really wasn't better, or if he just didn't want to remember her during the time she was sick. Not coming up with an answer, she sighed and walked up to her dormitory. She flopped on her bed and closed her eyes, trying to rid herself of an awful headache that just came about when she was thinking so critically.
"Lily? Lily, you feeling okay?" Bell's voice came closer as she approached. "My God, Lily!" she gasped.
Lily sat up. "What?"
"You look terrible!"
Laughing weakly, Lily said, "I'm just tired. But thanks for the compliment."
"No. You're going to Madam Pomfrey," Bell insisted.
"I'm fine!"
"Look at yourself in the mirror," Bell persisted. Lily took the hand held mirror Bell was offering her and hid her suprise: she really did look awful. Her hair was matted and tangled, her skin seemed to drop, and her eyes--they didn't even look like her own eyes anymore. They were a sickly, pale green.
"What happened to you, dear?" the mirror asked in horror. Lily groaned and, ignoring Bell's words of caution, went back down to the common room. Remus was still sitting at a table, fevertly working on his Defense Against the Dark Arts assignment. James and Sirius were there now, too, talking in low voices while making wild gestures in the air with their hands.
She sank into a chair. Remus looked up at her, looked down at his work, then did a double take. "You're sick," he said matter-of-factly. "Go to Madam Pomfrey."
"I'm fine!" Lily shouted for what seemed like the hundredth time. "I just need to sleep..."
"That's not good, because we have Potions in about ten minutes. Why weren't you at lunch, Lil?" James grinned a crooked grin, making Lily's heart flutter. She also gave a start when he called her "Lil".
"I wasn't hungry."
James's expression turned to concern. "Remus is right, you are sick. Please go to Madam Pomfrey, or Sirius and I will have to Body Bind you and take you there."
Lily threw up her hands. "Fine! I'll go to Madam Pomfrey!" She stormed out of the common room and walked the long walk down to the Hospital Wing. All too soon, in her opinion, was she at the wooden doors of the Wing. She hesitated for a moment, then raised her hand to knock. But her hand never made it, for at that moment, she heard voices coming from inside.
"Will he be alright, Poppy?" Lily recognized it as McGonagall's voice.
"Yes, the poor boy will be physically fine. Mentally, I'm not so sure." This was Madam Pomfrey's. "But he won't be the only one who faints when they receive the news." Her voice suddenly turned into a whisper. "He's getting more powerful?"
Lily's attention was sparked. Who were they talking about? Who was gaining power? "Yes, You-Know-Who is indeed growing. He's getting more and more followers each day. I don't know how we can hold him off much longer. Albus is working the best he can, as is the rest of the wizarding world."
"I can't believe the Death Eaters managed to kill twenty people in a single raid. It's a massacre, that is." Madam Pomfrey said hatefully. Twenty people killed! Lily thought frantically. Who is this You-Know-Who? Wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn't notice that she was leaning on the door too heavily. However, she did notice when the doors burst open and she was thrust to the ground.
"Er--" Lily started, seeing McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey stare at her, suprised. "I feel kind of off-color. Mind fixing me up?" she said lamely.
***
Fifteen minutes later, Lily was sitting in her desk in the cold Slytherin dungeons. Madam Pomfrey had hastily given her some Pepper Up Potion, and then sent her on her way. She had been five minutes late for Potions, and it cost Gryffindor five potions.
She still couldn't get the overheard conversation out of her mind. Who was this person, You-Know-Who? Why were they so afraid of him? How could he kill 20 people?
True to her word, Yunion was giving a pop quiz. "You will make a Nuquilla Potion. Look in your books for the ingredients. You have until the end of the period." she said, sneering unpleasantly at them all. Lily was outraged. How unfair! We have to make a potion we've never even heard of in one hour's time, and for a pop quiz! her mind screamed.
Behind her, Sirius nudged Bell. Bell, receiving the signal, took a brightly colored package from inside her cloak. Lily smiled. It was the Whirling Wheezy...looks like the prank would do some good, after all.
Yunion turned her back to the class and started walking back towards her desk. Bell hurriedly undid the string on the parcel and pulled out the firework. She whispered something, and a light came out of her wand--no, make that a fire. The wand was getting closer to the wick on the firework--closer--
BAM! The firework went off and shot into the sky. Blue, green, yellow, purple, red, white, black, orange--every color sparks you could name came bursting from the inside, and it whizzed around the room. It reminded Lily of the fireworks display she and her family once saw when they visited an aunt in America.
It continued to whiz around the room, and chaos insured. Yunion shouted herself hoarse ("GET BACK IN YOUR SEATS!"), students yelled in triumph and shock, girls shrieked and hid under the tables to avoid getting hit with them, and Bell, James, Peter, Remus, and Sirius just sat, laughing. Lily couldn't stand it--she started laughing, too.
Finally, the bright colors slowed down, and the firework hovered in midair. Everyone sighed in relief: as exciting as it was, their eyes were hurting from the brightness of it all. Then, in a single motion, the firework rocketed upwards. And then it exploded.
Dazzling colors went everywhere, spraying everyone. No one had black robes anymore, they were all different colors. It was very funny to see the normally bleak colors of the dungeon transformed into something that seemed to come out of a circus. After many shrieks and yells, everyone became silent. That is, except for the six friends. They were laughing hysterically, clutching their stomachs and almost falling out of their chairs.
Lily was the first to regain her composure. She wiped her eyes and turned to her friends. They stopped laughing soon afterwards, and grinned at her. Suddenly, their faces changed and became frozen in identical looks of horror. Slightly confused, Lily saw that their eyes were trained behind her. She turned and saw her worst nightmare.
Yunion was staring down at them, face beet-red with anger. She was so
furious she was trembling. "Well, well, well," she sneered. "Look what
we have here."
