'I'm fine, I tell you already,' Lily coughed, the red blood still flowing from the corners of her mouth. She lay back in bed.
'Lily, I demand you tell me what's wrong!' Bec said sharply.
'T- the b- board,' Lily said weakly, still coughing uncontrollably. Sirius's attempt to make her happy by pulling faces made her gasp and coughed even more.
'What board?'
'M- mother…'
'What has your mother got to do with this? Lily, face the fact!!!' Hart said.
'U- Unogua…'
'What?!' Sirius said.
'Aunt Mie…' Lily whispered, before dropping in exhaustation.
'Lily!' Bec cried, fanning her younger cousin with her hand in fright.
'The said the board, her mom, Unogua and your mom. What does it mean?' James asked in puzzlement.
'Maybe she wants us to use the Unogua, get her mom or Professor Hart's mom,' Sirius suggested.
'Yeah. But who dared to play, pardon, I mean use that without Lily's supervision?' Bec said, shivering a little. The three of them exchanged glances. No one dared touch the board, after Lily said that it'll "Cost a life; cursed for life" will be the price of the game. So much for the game. Bec used it once, but that too was with Lily summoning her mother. Besides, the spirit was Bec's mother, so it is definitely impossible if Mie Hart wants to kill her own daughter in her own will. And Lily had once said that if an evil spirit is summoned, it mightn't go off like a cuddly kitty.
'Uh…' Sirius stammered.
'None of us could,' James gulped. 'Besides, I'm still afraid, in case I get an evil spirit. I played a number of pranks.'
'Um…' Bec said undecidedly. Something clicked in James's mind when he heard Lily's window being rapped by a sparrow.
'Owl post!! I get it! It's owl post! The letter! The letter we sent to Lily!' James cried so suddenly that both Bec and Sirius jumped out of their skins. 'The letter… it was replied…' James fumbled around his pockets for the letter with Bec's address in an unknown handwriting. Finding it, he triumphantly pulled it out.
'Oh, and we don't even know who this person it,' Sirius said sarcastically. 'Like you'd said earlier, Potter, it's not Lily's not Professor Hart's handwriting! It must be someone's! Your house-elf know how to write, Professor?' Sirius said, turning to Bec.
'Does she even look like she can write? House-elves don't write and that's a fact well known to everyone. Their fingers are too knobbly and long to even grip a – what do the muggles call it? – a marker pen or something!' James chided. He paused and gave it a thought. 'Maybe they can write, but it wouldn't be this nice! Probably just chicken scratching like yours, Sirius.'
'Very well said,' Sirius muttered. 'I am chicken scratching???'
'Right, so do you think…?' Bec said, leaving her sentence hung.
'I think a spirit must have sent that. Probably someone really close to the both of you. Lily's mother or yours. So it looks like we don't have to use the Unogua now – thank goodness!!!!! No life given or taken!. Have you got an owl, Bec?' James said.
'Who hasn't?' Bec replied. 'Crisium!!! Come here!'
A huge barn owl flew into Lily's room and landed on Bec's shoulder nimbly. The owl stared at them solemnly.
'What do we do now?' Bec said, quite unsure of the next step.
'Er… let's try this,' James said, pulling a parchment from the table and a quill. He filled in the ink and wrote:
Dear Lily,
What's wrong
with you?
James
'Huh? That's what you call a letter?' Sirius said blankly. James ignored his friend and inserted the letter into an envelope and sealed it.
'Crisium has to send this to Lily.'
'You heard that, Crisium,' Bec said, giving her owl a nod to approve it of going. The owl took the letter in its beak and flew around the room for quite some time, before landing at a space next to Lily. after a while, he flew back to Bec.
'Read what it says!' James urged. Still feeling stupid, Bec opened the envelope and unfolded the parchment. In the same cursive writing as the note James and Sirius had received, the letter read:
Help Lily. she
is in trouble. He is after her. They are here.
'What in the name of Merlin does this mean?' Bec exclaimed.
'Lily once said that in the Astral world (or Spiritual world, whatever) "He" is known as Hades – or something similar. I can't bother remembering, can I? – but I couldn't figure out who "they" are,' James said proudly, his pride mainly because of the fact that he got something out from Lily, unlike her cousin.
'So this means that this Hades-idiot is after her soul? Whatever for? I mean, he could take Snape's soul, for all I care!' Sirius said. 'Lily's way better than the Slytherins!'
'Let's see…' (James ignored Sirius) 'Lily's mother always asked him for help – I remember – because she feels she owes Lily something. And maybe this Hades is here to claim his trouble? Right? Or not?' James said in puzzlement. 'But anyway… let's just write and see what happens.'
Dear whomever it may concern (he wrote)
May we know who
you are, please? I'm James Potter, Lily's friend. How can we help Lily?
James
It was in just a couple of minutes when the reply came to him.
James,
I am glad you
are Lily's friend. I am Jie. Help Lily. The only way is to know her. Send an
empty box.
Jie
'What?! That's simply ridiculously ridiculous! No one knows Lily! I mean, we know her, but not the way Jie meant, I think. No, this is not happening!!!' Sirius exclaimed.
'Don't be stupid!' James chided. 'You're not going to die, moron!'
'I'm not a moron!' Sirius snapped. 'I came for holiday, not some silly game!'
'Sirius! We're in the presence of our host!' James gasped in whispers.
'Oops!'
'Aunt Jie… it's Lily's late mother,' Bec murmured. 'She's here, I guess.'
'Relax! About the knowing Lily thing, we'd probably make it between the three of us!' James said. 'We just need to piece things, right? Besides, we're quite close to her.'
'You know what, Potter?' Bec said, playfully patting James's mop of hair. 'I'm jealous of you. You know Lily more than I do now. And maybe you'd like to appoint yourself as her future husband?'
Sirius coughed. 'Pardon me? You want him as your sort-of brother in law???'
'Not really. I was only kidding.'
'Whatever. C'mon, let's just try it first!' James said, getting decidingly annoyed at where the conversation was turning, even in its friendly manner.
'Hang on. I have her "policy book" with me. Better get it ready first,' Sirius said, taking out his notebook.
'Send an empty box?' Bec frowned. 'I don't know if there's anything empty in this place, but it's worth a find.'
They hunted around for a box and finally finding one in Lily's cupboard shelf, the tied it to Crisium. Crisium flew straight to Lily without much hesitation and came back almost instantly. Bec unloaded the box.
'Seems that it's filled up,' Bec said, jingling it.
'Open it up!' Sirius said impatiently. Bec opened it, and gaped at its contents. There were at least a million – or billion or trillion – big jigsaw puzzle pieces in there, all scrambled up and coloured beautifully in classic colours.
'Merlin's magic! What are we supposed to do?' James exclaimed.
'Huh? You talking to me?' Sirius said dumbly.
'I think we'll hav eto just fix this puzzles. Isn't that what jigsaw puzzles are for? To be fixed?' Bec said, frowning a little. She picked up a piece. 'Look, this looks like a piece from Petunia's dress.' It was coloured in vivid acid green.
'Ugh!' Sirius said, making a face. 'She must be one of those girls who's colour blind or whose fashion taste is as bad as Snape's hair!' James sniggered.
'The only thing worse than Snape's hair is Snape himself,' James said. 'Anyway, where do we start?'
'Fix them?'
'Yes, of course, but HOW?'
'Fix them!' Sirius repeated.
'The question, Sirius Black, is how.'
'We piece them up,' Bec said. 'I know a bit of Lily's life, you know a bit, and he' – Bec stared at Sirius rather unconvincingly – 'Probably knew a bit of her life, though I'm sure it's a big no.'
'Yes, I feel so very honoured about knowing so very little about fraülein Evans,' Sirius said sarcastically.
'And I feel like I'm in a storybook. I've never encountered anything like this before,' James said.
'Because, kid, you're only twelve,' Bec said wisely in a I-know-everything-you-don't voice. 'Wait until you're at my age.
'How old are you?'
'What do you think?'
'30?'
'Yeah, I'm a grandmother,' Bec said sarcastically. 'I'm only 23.' She began fixing a picture of an ugly girl taking a chocolate bar from what looked like a younger version of Lily. if it weren't for the hair colour, James would've thought it was his sister Shirley in there. The resemblance was almost uncanny.
'Uh, I guess I'll do the part where Lily was shunned from her school friends, then,' James said blankly, racking his head for some idea on how to start. Thena gain, he'll just have to imagine them since he didn't know how they look like.
'What's this?' Sirius asked curiously, looking at the neatly stacked boes on the high shelf. Jigsaws can wait.
'That's Lily's. she wouldn't let anyone see – Sirius, what are you doing?!' Bec cried. Sirius had climbed up the desk and taken all the boxes down.
'Ssh! What's all these?' Sirius asked, opening the first box. Two boards lay in there with two other coins. One was a six-point-star and the other an eight-point-star.
'It's Dosta and Tresna!' James exclaimed.
'Boring. Next one…' The next one contained several albums of photos. Sirius opened them eagerly and the three of them leaned over to look. The pictures were made to move so that they tell a sort of silent story.
The first picture showed of a board. The Ouija board and a small pack of kindergarten kids gathering excitedly around it. Among them was an eager looking, flushed-faced Lily Evans. James saw how Lily worked the "fake" spirit and then the "real" one, with her Unogua at home.
The next "movie" showed Lily again. This time, a thin, blonde, sour-looking girl stoo behind her, menacingly pulling her hair tightly. Lily bit her lips tightly and refrained from sticking her tongue out at her sister.
The page flipped automatically, and a younger version of Rebecca Hart stood, trying to befriend Lily. When Lily haughtily turn away from her cousin's offer of friendship, Bec left the picture with a sigh. A boy entered in her place. He turned the water on Lily and drenched her from head to toe. Lily forcingly stopped herself from slapping him and the boy began taunting her (though no words come out of the moving pictures). The young girl clenched her tiny fists, mumbling words to herself to calm down. Finally he tied Lily to a nearby railtrack. Unable to control her anger any longer, Lily's witching powers took over her, punishing him by whacking him hard on his shins with a nearby twig. Bec came back to the scene, face white with shock when she saw Lily desperately freeing herself.
'That was when she finally listened to me. A bit. The boy must be a rodent! I'd never seen such cheek!' Bec scowled, fuming with rage.
'Must we really look into these?' James said uncomfortably. His mom has always said that it's rude to look at people's things without permission and personal photos does fall into such category.
'You want to fix that puzzle, right?' Sirius said, flipping the page over.
This time, it showed of Lily's parents's death. They were shot, and by the time they were rushed to the hospital, they were dead. Lily was staring stonily at everything, and Petunia was gaping wordlessly in shock before wailing and throwing tantrums in the hospital.
The page turned again. An elderly woman with a sour face like Petunia's (probably Lily's Aunt Kie, James said to himself) was taking care of the two orphans. Petunia was yelling for attention and messed the place. Lily was sitting stonily at the corner, playing her unogua.
'I really think this isn't right,' James said in a sick voice.
'Me too,' Bec agreed.
'You two aren't fun at all! C'mon! This'll be interesting!' Sirius said.
'You heard me, Sirius, and unless you want extra work, try me,' Bec warned, adopting her Professor voice. Sirius gulped. He kept the album back in place and turned to the third box. Inside, a card was placed in isolation, covered with pressed flowers and scented roses. Curious, Sirius opened it.
'It's Aunt Jie and Uncle John!' Bec exclaimed. 'Let's leave that alone.'
James opened the fourth box. In it were little shells of all shapes and sizes. Colourful beads scattered messily all over. A few paper cranes and some paper stars lay unarranged.
'Nope, nothing important here,' James said. bec turned to the fifth box. In it was various of books on Astronomy, both muggle and wizard type.
'She's obssessed with these,' Bec muttered. The three peered into the sixth and last box.
'Anyone wanna guess what's in there?' Sirius asked.
'No. best is just open it,' James said. they lifted the id and unearthed numerous books, all labeled with Lily's name.
'Her diaries! She'd be mad!' Bex exclaimed.
'It'll be nice to know what's in it,' Sirius said eagerly.
'Sirius, I suggest we leave that alone,' James said.
'It'll be interesting! After all that she'd gone through!' Sirius insisted.
'No! A diary is a personal thing, Sirius. It's enough we'd messed with the others,' James said firmly, closing the lid before Sirius could get one out. He whined.
'Watch it, Black. You'll get a detention. Either from me or the spirits,' Bec warned.
'Fine. You win,' Sirius said sulkily, turning to the millions of jigsaw pieces.
'There, I've finished a part on Lily in the birthday party,' Bec said, beaming at the small picture. She took out her wand and waved it over it picture, 'Stia!'
The jigsaw puzzles stuck firmly together and laid itself on the wall.
'This is hard… Hey Sirius, mind swapping?' James asked.
'Okay,' Sirius said as he and James exchanged places. James set to work on the one Sirius was working on. It looked like a sort of attic.
'I wonder though, why'd that boy come out of nowhere and bully Lily for no reason,' Bec said after some time. She was working on the picture where the blonde boy was teasing Lily.
'He's an idiot,' Sirius said. That was always his first comment on people who bully others for no apparent reason.
'You were one before, then,' James laughed, fixing his picture.
'Whatever.'
~**~
'Dinner ready, mistress,' Tibby said, entering Lily's room. Five finished pictures were standing against the wall. One on Lily finding the Unogua, another in a birthday party, another when the boy was teasing her, another when her friends in Epetons discovered the Unogua practise and a scence where the excited three-year-olds were playing the "Spirit of the coin" or "Ouija".
'It's getting late now. Why don't you boys stay over?' Bec suggested.
'That's if mom lets me,' they replied at once.
'Tibby?'
'Yes, mistress?'
'Can you send a message to Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Black concerning James and Sirius?' Bec said.
'Yes, mistress,' Tibby said, leaving at once.
'Come, I suggest we eat and camp in Lily's room,' Bec said tiredly, magicking three squishy sleeping bags for them. She waved her wand again and dinner appeared before them.
'Now you remind me that I'm starving,' Sirius said hungrily, quickly wolfing down a chicken.
~**~
AN: ta-da!!!!! I'd finished!!!!! And this took soooo long! *sigh* but I guess it'll be okay, since not many people like this one :) I don't like it that much, but Azaira likes it [she's my friend who pre-read this story but she never fixed my mistakes!] and she sorta got mad when she knew not many did :P anywayz, please review for me!!! And I might get the next one out the same time as I get the next chapter of The Marauding Five – Year Five out, if not earlier. If you want to read something, maybe you can check out the co-written story by me and Ginny :) cause we're almost finished!!!! Bye bye!!! Review for me, please!!! Pretty pretty please!!!!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but this story, Rebecca Hart, Tibby, the boxes and its contents, Crisium the Owl and whatever else you don't recognise as J.K.Rowling's. So there.
