Chapter 4 ~ Powers Unfolding
For the first time since she had been let out of the Infirmary weeks and weeks ago Lily threatened to fall asleep in class. The most boring class on earth: History of Magic, taught by the old, wrinkled, weathered Professor Binns. He sort of resembles a shirt left to sit in the washing machine too long, she thought in her half-conscious state. Was she honestly supposed to be able to pay attention to the Professor when there was freshly fallen snow outside, and only a few more hours left until the holiday break? Professor Binns was just rattling on about magic in the 5th century and some kook name Aladrius Mlafma that she could really care less about.
Her Greeblypuff gave a little yelp, or rather, an extremely loud an obnoxious yelp, as had become customary to it, drawing the attention of the Professor to it, and to it's owner's head resting on a desk. The Professor let out a dissatisfied sigh before continuing on with his discussion about some important discovery or another, his devotion to the useless discoveries of the past canceling out any care towards whether or not his students were paying attention. Seeing as Lily had learned this rather early on, being as attentive as she usually was, she just nestled her head back comfortably in her arms in her seat in the back of the classroom. She was unfavorably close to James and Sirius—sure troublemakers in any class, whether or not it was as boring as History of Magic.
There was a small poke on her forehead and Lily grumbled. "Lily," an annoying voice whispered, followed by another poke. "Lily," the voice taunted. She slowly cracked one eye open, only to witness Sirius' maniacal grin. "Is someone a little sleepy?" he asked sarcastically.
She didn't answer. He didn't deserve one.
She gladly left History of Magic that day, hurrying more than normal and got in early for Charms, her last class of the day. But even her new favorite class could do nothing to bring her out of her slump, even Professor Flitwick had to remind her to pay attention to her chagrin. And so she was very, very happy to retire to her room that afternoon, her friends to witness her collapse onto her bed only to promptly pick up a book and start to read.
"Lily, don't you ever not read?" asked Veronica playfully.
"Sure," she said nonchalantly while flipping the page. "When I sleep."
"Really? You sleep?" Eleanor added mischievously. Eleanor didn't take kindly to books. One of her textbooks had mysteriously appeared stuck to the ceiling of the Gryffindor common room. It wouldn't come down. She didn't particularly want it to.
"Of course I sleep," she reassured rather defensively for lack of anything better to say.
"Oh, don't be upset," Meagan called from her bed. "We just don't understand how you can read so much."
"I beginning not to see how either, what with you guys interrupting me all the time," Lily grumbled, not really upset at all.
"Ok, we get the drift, we'll shut up," Cara said. "Widdle Lilly-willy needs her west!" Cara said with a bounce on Lily's bed, Cara was an interminable bundle of energy.
"Cara!" Lily shrieked, giggling.
"What? Can't hear you!" Bounce… bounce…bounce, went her bed, Lily still giggling, her book now laying facedown on the floor.
"Ok, ok, I give up! I give up! Just stop!" Lily pleaded.
"Oi! Veronica, you think I should stop?" Veronica shook her head devilishly.
"Aileene, what do you think?" Cara asked to their other roommate who had been silent so far.
"Bounce harder, it'll be good for her," she said before rolling over on her bed and burying her face in her pillow. Lily wished she could have been in her place. But Cara obliged, and Lily bounced more than a good foot off her bed each time, being as small as she was.
But now she was also half-crippled with laughter, scrunched up in the fetal position while bouncing in the air. "Please…please…Cara, stop! Stop! Please—" And all of a sudden Lily was on the floor, and she had hit it hard.
"Oops," said Cara, racked with fake guilt. It might have fooled Lily, for her head was still half-implanted in the floor, but Cara started to laugh and the rest if her roommates were soon to join in. It was a few more seconds before Lily managed to utter a feeble, "Ouch."
"Wasn't that just a tad delayed, Lily?" Cara asked, now fully occupying Lily's bed.
"I can't exactly help it. I think you destroyed half of my brain cells," Lily said, looking the part, her eyes slightly out of focus and the rest of her body entirely limp.
"Well, I was just trying to get you to lighten up," Cara said, as innocently as she was, which is to say she was grinning like the devil.
"Well, you lightened me to two feet off my bed!" Lily joked, finally managing to pull herself off the ground.
"It's nice to know I've done my job," Cara grinned.
"For you, perhaps," Veronica interjected. "Lily doesn't seem too happy."
"I don't? Because really I am, I just happen to hide it very well." What was all bitterness before Hogwarts was slowly but surely transforming to amused sarcasm, and in situations like these, not few and far between in the first year girls' dorm, Lily's comments went to keep the dorm lively, though she hardly saw it that way. As much as she felt a part of something, she couldn't see it that way. She still couldn't trust. Almost eleven years of inner torment couldn't be erased that quickly.
"Ooooh, we can go down to dinner now," Aileene said, always a fan of Hogwarts dinner, with the fast metabolism that allowed her to eat as much as she wanted. She quickly jumped out of bed and opened the door. "Are you all coming?"
"I'll go," said Lily. "At least the day is over. And then we have holiday break, at last." For as much as she didn't want to admit it she still missed her home terribly. It was the only place that she had ever felt remotely safe. But now she was different, and her family was different, too, without her there. Before she had left her family chemistry had been simple at first glance, everyone getting along on top, Lily, for one, not getting along far, far underneath, but content nonetheless. Content because she knew nothing else, nothing better. But she didn't know that she was facing anything. And the next day she was to go home happy, not expecting anything at all.
And she was going to get the surprise of her life.
* * *
"Sirius! Would you get off me?" Lily practically screamed.
"What, everybody's comfy, right?" he asked. It was a bad, bad question. Lily, Veronica, Cara, Meagan, Aileene, and Eleanor were already squished like gum on a sidewalk in their small compartment on the Hogwarts Express. There was absolutely no free space left when they all finally managed to get comfortable. And then Sirius came in. He found only the smallest amount of free space, after completely dislocating all the girls, of course, and was in the process of wedging himself tightly in it. Lily was one of the fortunate to be right next to him. She was not happy. None of the other girls were quite happy either, except for Aileene, who was taking it all rather calmly. The fact was, Lily was pressed up against the wall and it was beginning to hurt. And so she wasn't exactly pleasant to be around, to say the least.
"Sirius Black! Would you please just get yourself out of my face, and out of this compartment!" she yelled, drawing all the noise from the rest of the compartment in her vocal chords and blasting in his face. Her friends looked on awed. Lily was pissed.
"Now why would I want to do that?" he asked.
"I don't know, would you rather spend the rest of the trip with me?" Lily threatened. She could tell that maybe even the girls were wishing they could leave now.
"Of course I would, that's why I came here in the first place," he answered back, grinning.
"Well, where's your little posse? You know, those other boys in your dorm. You're attached at the hip!" Lily quipped.
"James and I had a disagreement," he said shortly.
"Well, suck up your stupid pride and get back in there with him because we don't want you!" Aileene look like she was stifling a comment and the others just looked on, seeing how much longer Sirius would last.
"Now there's the old compassionate Lily! The one who was nice, and kind, and understanding. How have you been?" he tried once again joke his way out of the situation and into the compartment. Lily just tried again to get him to leave, adding another attempt to her rapid succession of failures.
"Oh, stuff it Sirius," she said, finally breaking down and grinning. "Just stay. Feeling in all my limbs will return soon, I hope." As soon as she said it the train lurched and Lily was thrown into the wall yet again. She pushed against the wall with all her might to get Sirius off of her. Soon they were settled again, though Lily had an odd tingling in her fingers. "Hey, Sirius, the snack cart is coming down the hall. If you go out now you can beat everyone else to it."
Sirius popped up. "Oh! I think I'll get some Chocolate Frogs, and some Bernie Botts—Susan will love those, and maybe a Pumpkin Pasty as well…" the list continued as his voice was cut off by the closing door.
"Lily," said Eleanor, "that was low."
"Yeah, you knew he couldn't resist sweets!" Meagan agreed. Cara nodded, stretching her neck, she was on Sirius' other side. Meagan, veronica, and Eleanor, luckily, each had a seat to themselves on the other side if the compartment.
"I don't think it was very fair, he was just in a fight with his best friend!" said Aileene rationally. "And if he came to us, well, just think, he's really must be looking for the last resort." Lily just sniggered, but the truth was, for whatever odd reason, she really had thought that the snack cart was down the hall. She had just…felt it somehow, in some way she could explain or comprehend. She just knew.
"Lily, really, you shouldn't laugh!" said Veronica, laughing herself.
"I wasn't laughing!" she said. "Okay, maybe I was. But I'm going to go find Sirius' little gang and find out what's up with them and Sirius. See you all later!" And Lily was out the door.
"Finally some peace and quiet!" said Cara, and they all stared. "What? What?"
"From you of all people," said Aileene.
"Well, we know that you're just pining away for Sirius while he out there tracking down the imaginary snack cart, but really Aileene—"The door banged open.
"Hey, guess what? I was the first one out there and I got just tons of snacks. Seeing as you were all so nice as to let me share your compartment, I'll share all this with you," Sirius entered, sweets and snacks dripping form his arms. The girls mouths were gaping a little, Well, Lily was just lucky, I suppose, they all thought, surprised.
"Hey, where's Lily gone to?" Sirius asked. Before Eleanor could open her mouth to lie for her friend Aileene accidentally answered him instead.
"She went to the boys' compartment to get the dish on the fight," she said, examining the bag of Bernie Botts. And Eleanor immediately thought that Aileene had made a mistake, but from the look on Sirius' face he seemed as cool as a cucumber. Too bad he wasn't.
"I just have to go to the bathroom and I'll be right back," he said, depositing his stuff on the seat. Cara just shoved it over and put her feet up and snuggled into a comfortable position, the other three girls having three seats as there was a closet on Cara's side, making it only have two seats. Thoroughly comfortable with the new situation Cara said, "Well then, all the more room for me!"
* * *
"Lily!" Sirius called down the hallway to her. He had found her even though she had gotten a head start. But he knew where the boys' compartment was, and she didn't, and so he had caught up.
Lily turned sharply when she heard Sirius' voice, she had to concentrate to find the boys' compartment. She knew it was close by, just a bit further now…but Sirius had broken her concentration.
"Sirius!" she hissed, trying to get him to shut up. She should have known better.
"What?" he exclaimed loudly. "I have rights to wander around the train just as much as you do." Was it a boy's purpose to be contrary, she thought sullenly, or just Sirius'? "What are doing here anyways?" he said again, even louder.
"I'm finding out what's keeping you in our compartment instead of with the boys where you belong!" Lily hissed, trying to be quiet.
"Oh, no need to be quiet, they're still three down," he added, waving his hand in the direction he had implied.
"Very funny, their compartment is right here," Lily said pointing to the door next to them. But the doors were very resistant to sound, the boys inside wouldn't be able to hear them anyway. The funny thing was Lily really hadn't been sure that that was the boys' compartment at all, not until she had said it anyway. And Sirius' faltering grin just added to her conviction.
"They've locked the door and you can't hear in. Plus, we aren't allowed to do magic over the holidays, you know that," he added grimly. Lily nodded too, but suddenly she heard James' voice drifting through the door.
"No Remus, we will not forgive him! He was the one who did this to you anyways!"
"I know how it is. He's just scared of me. I am a freak," he said sorrowfully. Lily frowned. Remus had always seemed so nice, yet she hardly knew him.
"Yeah, but we don't care!" Peter said helpfully.
"I know. But I'm just sick and tired of people hating me!" he suddenly lashed out.
"Remus, be quiet man," James hushed him and Lily crept closer to the door.
"You're never going to be able to hear them," Sirius said, vexed with her and vexed with himself.
"Shush! You're never going to get your friends back if you don't let me listen," she finished simply while Sirius just stared. She had missed part of the conversation while Sirius had interrupted her. She turned to listen again.
"We shouldn't be friends with him anymore," Peter offered.
"Yeah," James answered the same time Remus said, "No!" After a pause he continued. "Just give him a chance you guys. Maybe he'll come around." Another moment passed, two.
"Fine," came James' reluctant agreement. Peter agreed too. James continued, "When we see Sirius we'll allow him to explain himself and give him another chance."
"Fine," agreed Peter.
"You're in luck, Sirius. They are going to give you another chance, whatever it is that you did," Lily told him. Sirius sighed heavily, and on an impulse Lily turned to look at the lock on the door, they were just like the ones in her house, cheap and simple. Brandishing the key to the lock on her trunk she had kept in her pocket Lily slowly turned to picking the lock.
"Lily!" Sirius gaped at her in amazement. "What are you doing?"
"Getting you that chance," she replied, noticing inwardly that the boys talk had stopped.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" Lily paused in her work to give him a reproving look.
"Sirius, I have a sister," was the simple reply.
"Oh." Sirius obviously didn't understand. Shy or not, Lily and Petunia waged war at home. Lily had often taken use of her cherished journal key just for the purpose of breaking into her sister's room. With locks like these the key you used didn't really matter, she had learned from experience. The locked clicked. She opened the door and walked in.
They just stared at her.
"I took the liberty of breaking into your compartment because one of your little clan members took it upon himself to invade mine." Sirius grinned sheepishly, James snickered at Lily's upset face. "So, I've decided he's staying with you, bye!" before they worked out what she had said she quickly exited the compartment and made for her own, locking it.
Cara groaned when Lily made her move her feet. "Back so soon?" Cara asked, not at all pleased.
"Yes," Lily said, only wishing to enjoy the trip home. The sleep that followed was a sign of her exhaustion. She grumbled when the train finally stopped, but truly she was happy at the chance to see her parents again, and maybe even her sister too. She bounded off the train, grabbing her trunk and hauling it outside to meet her parents where they had agreed in a previous letter. People stared at her and she stated to notice how nobody came near her, odd in the usually crowded streets. Her old self-consciousness returned full throttle. She sat on her trunk, dejected, thoughts of abandonment and a Christmas alone haunted her.
It had only been ten minutes. Ten minutes out of Hogwarts and she was back to her old self. Ten minutes and all the self-confidence she had built up crumple to the floor.
"Oh dear Lord…" she heard from her side, and looked up.
"Mum!" she shouted and made her way to hug her. But she just backed away from Lily.
"Henry, Henry dear!" Lily's mum called, still backing away. Lily's father walked up just as the tears started prickling in her eyes. He stopped short when he saw his daughter.
"Lily, just get in the car," he ordered. "Quickly." She turned to pick up her bags but was stopped. "I'll get them. Maria, just take her to the car," he said forcefully. She was whimpering.
"Come on, Lily," she said quietly. She started to offer her hand but withdrew. Lily had started to cry now, and was attracting a scene.
"Maria, get her to go with you!" her father growled.
"Lily, please," her mother begged. In a burst of anger she walked right up to her mother and gripped her hand tightly. Her other yelped, strangled the inevitable other cries and pulled. Hard.
She was dragged to the car and hurriedly shut inside. Her parents argued outside the car. Lily was crying so badly that she only caught snippets of the conversation.
"we cant—"
"But no—"
"She's not! "
"our daughter—"
"the filthy magic—"
"she can't tell!"
"green with—"
Lily couldn't listen anymore. What's wrong? she thought desperately. They hate me now. Her parents returned to the car with strained smiles.
"Sorry, Lily. We were in a rush. We thought Petunia had a dance lesson," her dad said. But they could have told me that, she thought. They are lying to me.
"But then we remembered she didn't," her mother replied, looking at her dad forcefully. Lily just nodded.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.
But she didn't say a word about it or anything else the entire ride home. Neither did her parents. She just went up to her room, slamming the door, something she had never done before, and ran to her bathroom. She splashed water on her face, wanting herself to stop crying, to pretend it was all right. She cradled her face in her hands as she sat on the closed toilet seat. My family hates me, she thought passionately. I just wish I could go back.
She had longed to be home again, but when she got there it was all wrong! Had she changed so much that she would never fit in anywhere, stuck between the two worlds? Soon she became too depressed to even cry. She sat up, laughing at the thought of what she must look like. When she looked in the mirror she saw a lot worse than a pair of reddened eyes.
She gasped, realizing what had driven her parents away, realizing the cause of the disturbed looks she had received while she had waited. The most fear-ridden scream the Evans' had ever heard told them that their daughter had found out. She leaned into the mirror, touching her face, her arms, her hands. They were all the same, all filthy with the stain.
For she glowed, brilliantly yet dimly, with a ghostly bright green light.
She didn't know of the Killing Curse and she wasn't familiar with the color it produced. If she had been she might have wondered why that same color was infiltrating her body, the color of killing running her through and through.
* * *
Okay, I hoped you all liked this chapter. I'm going to cut this short for time constraints ;) This was rushed so I'm simply going to be asking for more reviews this time. 100 seems like a long shot but its only ten more than last time. And remember, I'm going into exams soon so I really cant help it f it's a day or two late. I might not even be checking ff.net, just to keep my mind on my schoolwork. Also I GOT SUPPORT SERVICES which means that I can tell if you read this, I get a hit count. So you have absolutely no excuse not to review! You heard me! Review! Oh, and if you want to see what I look like there is a rather bad picture of me on my profile. All notices on my fanfics will be up there, okay? So check back occasionally.
Okay, I came back to edit this and add in something about the lock picking. Let me just say that this is straight from my life, okay? The locks for my room and my sister's room (she is about two years older than me) can be picked with any key you might happen to have. And I fully believe that Lily would attack her sister because as much as she is shy, they are sisters. And me and my sister got along fine, but that didn't mean that I didn't break into her room all the time. Was I a horrible child? Possibly… ;)
Anyway, I just had to add that in, back to our regularly scheduled programming with: Thank-yous to reviewers!
Bon ~ I tried to make the Greeblypuff sound cute, I'm glad you think he is. Sort of like an overstuffed animated furbie ;) Thanks!
Britz ~ Thanks for reviewing again! I always look forward to your reviews, you know, they are the greatest. I've redone my profile, if you want to take a look, and I added a little something to your story link that I think you'll appreciate!
Cheekycharliebk ~ I'm glad you liked it! I don't have a younger sibling, but I am one so I know what a pain they can be. Thanks for reading my fic anyway.
Cquill13 ~ I just searched English-latin dictionary at yahoo to get one, there are a bunch. Thanks for all the amazing reviews!
Dynamte Rave ~ yes, you were the lucky number 65! Congrats, and congrats of your fic too, its awesome. Hope you like this chapter as well ;)
Hannah ~ lily's condition will be revealed later on. You still haven't been told what's going on yet, but little by little it will come out. Thanks so much for all the reviews!
Kaeera ~ Wow! Thanks for the reviews! Sadly, evelyn & co. wont be in this fic, I've just decided it to be that way. But her new friends, as you can see, are still quite a handful ;)
Le Chat Qui Garde le Lune ~ Thanks for your offer with the French, but I should be okay. I know enough to get me by ;) but boy I wish I had you sitting next to me in my French exam tht I have in two weeks, lol. Thanks again!
Lethal ~ Hm, what do I say to you ;) Did you read the note at the top of my profile yet? Lol, you got me working hard! I suppose next time I'll just have to ask for ore reviews ;) Toodles *grin*
Lupin2087 ~ I'm glad that you like this one as well! I will post to Lily's Problems as soon as I can, I promise! Thanks again ;)
MmmMmmGood ~ So, you like the idea of petunia being good? I have an idea for a fic that's really like that. I probably wont be posting that soon, though, I have my hands full ;) Thanks for the review!
Pampered Tigress ~ Thankyou! Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!!!!!! Lol *grin*
Parselmouth Majere ~ Wow, I cant believe you think this is like a book *beams* you are so nice! Thanks so much for the review, I'll get out chapter 17 for LP asap!
Psycheme ~ Yay! I'm glad you liked the idea of a back spasm. I thought that maybe it was just my twisted sense of humor that made me think it was funny, not that your sense of humor is twisted ;) j/k, thanks for the review!
Time Twins ~ I'm so glad you like her normal, that's what I was going for. However, she won't stay completely normal for long, but it will be interesting, I promise! Thanx!
Tokyo's Angel ~ Thanks so much for the reviews! I love it when people come back. Well this is sooner than I would have liked but I hope that you like it anyway.
Tsunami ~ I hoped that you liked this chapter as well! ^_^ (yay! I copied your little face you put in the review! Its so cute!)
Wolf of Solitude ~ No I haven't put in Lily's condition yet, but you'll find out soon enough! Thanks for the review!
Xaviera (and echo) ~ Your review cracked me up, I just loved it! It was a superb review ;)
Oh, and in case there are people who have read this fic and not my other, I just wanted to let you know that it is my policy to review you if you review me. I will put in the same amount of effort as you do, just to be fair. And currently (this is an add-on to the original posting, btw) it is January 9th, four days after I posted this, and there have been 52 hits from members and 13 reviews. Sound a little off to you? Well, it does to me too. So REVIEW everyone, and I will try asap to review you in return ;) Toodles!
