Chapter 5 ~ Mysteries Abound

"Lily! Lily, dear, open up the bathroom door right now!" her father yelled from outside her bathroom. 

"Please, Lily, just open up," her mother pleaded as well.  "We know you're scared, but please don't lock us out here."  Lily wasn't about to open the door.  I can't believe they didn't want to tell me, she thought bitterly.  I can't believe they thought they could hide it.   She thought of how her skin had issued a green tint.  As if they really could hide it, she thought again.  I look like a side act in a freak show.

She looked in the mirror again.  Now she could see the ghostly green glow, but when she simply looked at herself she saw nothing.  But Mum and Dad saw it with no help, she thought.  What is going on?  How come they can see it and I can't?

"Lily," her father warned again.  "I'm going to have to open this door whether you like it or not."  It would be simple, she knew, to pick the lock on the door. Hadn't her years of practice been shown true on the train?  But her father struggled.  He was an only child, after all.

"Excuse me," said an unfamiliar voice.  "Picking locks is quite unnecessary."  But that tone of voice seemed so familiar, yet so out of place.  Some words were muffled by the bathroom door; they all seemed to be talking at once.  But her father's raised voice finally prevailed and Lily could follow the conversation again, and she did, listening intently.

"Who are you?  You can't just barge into someone else's house like this!  What are you—"

"Alohomora!" The door swung open slowly, revealing Lily sitting on the toilet seat and looking stunned.

"Professor McGonagall?" she asked dubiously.  She couldn't believe that the professor was standing right here, in her Muggle home.  Her parents looked confused as to who exactly this person was.  But there was no denying it; she just had to be Professor McGonagall. 

"What is wrong with Lily?" her mother asked. "Why is she… the way she is?"  She can't even say it, Lily thought resentfully.  She's scared of me, her daughter, she continued.

McGonagall sighed. "It's an unexpected side effect."  A side effect?  All this is is a side effect! She screamed inside her head.  I'm green for heaven's sake – Green!

"A side effect to what?" her father demanded, his mind much on the same track as Lily's

"It's really quite hard to explain, but—"

"Just say it."  McGonagall looked quite taken aback by Lily's parents' less than polite behavior.

"Albus!" she called all of a sudden.  "Albus, I know you can hear me!"  Lily was more confused than her parents.  How could the Headmaster hear her all the way over here?  And yet he popped right into the room, making her mother jump.

"Wha—What?  Who are you?" her mother uttered, completely startled out of her wits.   Lily couldn't exactly blame her.  She imagined that McGonagall had arrived in quite the same fashion.  Why she had arrived, however, and how she knew to be at Lily's house still remained a mystery.  And despite the ruckus that was stirring up Dumbledore proceeded undaunted.

"I am Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts.  I am sorry for dropping in unannounced but there is really a very urgent matter I need to discuss with your daughter," he said, still very calm and dignified.  Lily, however, couldn't help but be apprehensive about what was wrong with her.  What is he going to say? she wondered, tracing her hand with her finger. 

"What is wrong with me?" she asked meekly, still afraid of the answer.  "Am I going to be okay?"

"Yes, of course.  If you'll excuse us Mr. and Mrs. Evans, I really need to talk to Lily alone.  Professor, if you would please go and explain the situation to them."

"Albus, I'm not quite sure I myself understand."  But a second later she nodded as if she knew exactly what was happening.  I wish I understood that well, Lily thought.  But yet she still remained clueless.  Her parents left her room with some protest, but they balked under McGonagall's firm gaze exactly as the bravest Gryffindor did.

"But really—" her mother started.

"Is this necessary?" her father asked.  "She is our daughter." He was firm, his mouth set in a straight line.

"It is completely necessary." Her voice left no room for compromising.  "Now come along." She walked primly and dutifully out of the room.  Her parents followed confusedly.  Normally this might have amused Lily but under the circumstances she was in no mood to be even remotely happy.

"Um… Professor Dumbledore? What—what is going on?"  Dumbledore regarded her with warmth in his eyes, the once imposing figure seeming to melt around him.  Lily had never really talked to the Headmaster and being only ten, about to be eleven, she was almost as nervous about this as why she was, well, glowing.

"Ah, yes.  You are under special circumstances, Lily.  No doubt you are very confused about it all.  Shall I start at the beginning?"

"Yes, yes please."  Lily crossed her fingers.  Let me be okay, she begged in her mind.  Please, please, let me be okay.

"At the beginning of the year, Lily, you were in an odd condition, if I remember correctly."  Lily was surprised that he even knew about it, let alone remembered.  There are so many people at Hogwarts, but he actually knows about me, she thought in wonder.  "When you were in Potions the day you were sent to the Infirmary do you remember what happened?"

"It's … its hard for me to remember what happened to me before that day," she said slowly.  "It's all blurry, light I was just staring at a light bulb." 

"Ah yes, light bulbs are curious inventions, aren't they.  I must confess, when I first encountered them I was dizzy for hours."  Lily giggled.

"We were supposed to be making some sort of potion, I know.  I was working with Sirius."  She made face.

"Mr. Black certainly is a character, isn't he?"

"A character from a badly written comedy, that's for sure," she said bitterly before realizing it had come out of her mouth. "Oh!  Oh, I didn't mean that.  Really, really I didn't."

"No worries, Ms. Evans. Sometimes I quite agree.  Though we might not want to be telling Mr. Black that, I'm sure he'd like to keep the delusion that he was taken from a well written comedy," he said, chuckling.  Lily giggled again.  Dumbledore was closer to a real person than she had ever imagined.  He was like her grandfather; except for she didn't think Dumbledore wore dentures.  "Well, do you remember what you two were doing now?" he prompted again.

"I remember aqua, really, really bright aqua.  And it hurt.  I fell, I think, and I saw Professor Pravus's face over me."  She shrugged, embarrassed she remembered so little.  "I'm sorry."

"Apologizing is quite unnecessary.  I was simply testing to see some effects of the accident."  Lily didn't know how to reply to that.  There they go again with the side effects, she thought.  "The potion you were making, Lily, was a sense-enhancing potion.  It would take your weakest sense and sharpen it for about an hour.  In your case it would have been your eyes, normally."

"I remember that potion!  I've been studying it for our midterm exams."

"I have fond memories of the midterm exams myself."  Lily just raised her eyebrows.  "Actually I've been trying to do away with them; they just take up too much time you students could use to learn more.  But in this case it is helpful.  Tell me what you remember of the potion."

"It was called the La—Le—Leniamen potion.   The main ingredients were Acroayte, the Chaeucus plant, and some sort of flower, I think.  That's all I remember."

Dumbledore gave her an approving look.  "Very well done, Ms. Evans.  That potion, it was flung into your eyes.  It concentrated there, then spread.  It was taken through a different internal tract than it would have been if you had simply swallowed it.  No one could have expected it, but it magnified the potion's powers."

"But then why am I glowing?  I mean, they are connected, aren't they?  But how?" 

"In an effort to annul the potions effects we placed a long-lasting charm on you.  You probably haven't heard of the Killing Curse in Defense Against the Dark Arts yet."

"No, I don't know anything abut it."  Do I want to? she wondered.  Do I want something with the word killing in it to have to do with me?

"It's also called Avada Kedavra, it's a curse used only by powerful dark wizards that can kill instantly."  He better not kill me, Lily thought in a frantic moment of apprehension.  "It's also illegal."  Lily sighed in relief. "The spell that was used on you, Lily, was meant to be a slow-acting long-term spell that would exterminate the remnants of the potion's effects from your system." Lily nodded.  She hadn't much of a clue as to what he was saying.

"But still, I don't understand the glowing," she said.  I swear, it seems as though he's avoiding it, she thought. 

"Let me show you something, Lily.  It's a hologram of what would happen if Avada Kedavra was used on, let's say, a housefly.  Watch."  As he spoke a vortex of colors appeared before her before turning to a glossy white, then faded into the natural background of her room.  A fly appeared out of nowhere, then, suddenly, with a flash of green light, dropped and withered to the floor, motionless.

"Oh my…"  The fly disappeared and she remembered that it truly hadn't been killed.  The image played over and over in her head.  "Green," she whispered, comprehension dawning.  She looked at Dumbledore, both surprised and angry.  "You put a Killing Curse on me?  You—you were killing part of me, without telling me!"

"Lily, calm down, please and let me fully explain."

"Explain why you were killing me, of course.  Go ahead."  Just like you went ahead and put a spell on me, she seethed.

"It was for your benefit, there were simply precautions that had to be taken.  You would have been overpowered by the spell."

"I wasn't supposed to find out, was I?  You were planning on having the spell work out just fine and I wouldn't ever figure it out and things would go back to normal."

"It was the best option we had."

"You should have told me.  You should tell anyone before you do magic on them."  She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her chin defiantly.

"Now I do believe we should have told you.  But we must keep the spell on."

"How do I know it's not hurting me?" she asked, still doubtful and very much still hurting.  How could he do this to me? She wondered.  How could he just put a spell on me and think it wouldn't matter because I would never find out?

"I am sorry Lily.  I promise it won't hurt you.  It hasn't had any malingering affects yet, so none should come in the future.  Rest assured that you will be fine."  She eyed him.  She didn't think se could trust him.  Trust was a difficult concept for Lily, and he tread the line.  He had seemed so welcome, so nice just a few minutes ago.

"Well, fine then," she said boldly.  "You can go now; I don't need to know anything more."  Dumbledore looked hurt; he was more upset with himself than anything.  He wasn't used to making mistakes.  When he returned to Hogwarts Madam Pomfrey was waiting in his office.

"You said there wasn't going to be an accident, Albus."

"I know, I know."

"You could still remove it, couldn't you?  You could before."  He sighed.

"I probed her power while I was there, trying to sense it.  It's growing Poppy, it has resisted the spell. It would resist me, too."

"You—you can't take it off?"

"I'm afraid not."  He sat down in his chair and removed his glasses, massaging his temples.

"You could have done it before Albus.  I warned you, about this and not telling her!" she burst out.

"We will just have to accept what happens now, I'm afraid."

"This is just the beginning, now, you know.  You thought it would be a good experience for her, Albus.  You thought it wasn't a problem.  Sometimes other people don't take to adversity the way you do.  Not everyone is as brave as you, not everyone can manage under the circumstances that you do.  And this is a ten-year-old girl who has to handle what could send a grown wizard to St. Mungos.  You better start to understand that as wise as you are, you still have some things to learn."

"I still believe that it will make her a stronger person, Poppy.  I am sure of it."

"I don't doubt it either," she said more calmly.  "But at what cost?"

* * *

Lily sat in her room late on Christmas morning.  She had to stay home.  Her family was with their relatives.  Lily was at home. Her family was gone.  She was home.  Alone.  On Christmas.

"This bites."

"'You can't go, Lily, dear.  What would the rest of the family say?'" she said, mimicking her mother in an unflattering tone.  Petunia had been standing behind her, peeking through the door.  She was too scared out of her wits to even speak to Lily.  "'We'll come home just as soon as we can and we can open our family's presents here.  We'll just stay until lunch, then we'll be right home.'"

Lily gulped, fighting back tears.  Dumbledore ruined everything, she thought passionately.  He ruined Christmas, my one time to be home with my family.  He ruined it all.  She let her tears go and they streamed down her face.  A few minutes later she had wiped her tears and gotten out of bed, determined to make the best of it.  She looked outside.  "It's snowing," she said softly.  "A white Christmas."  Then, a few seconds later: "A white Christmas alone."

Perched on a tree outside the window was an owl.  She cracked open the window and let the bird inside to warm up.  He dropped off a present and soon more followed.  "At least some people remembered me," she said grumpily.

First was something from Meagan.  A small card telling of her break, hoping Lily had a good one as well.  She offered to talk if anything went wrong or Lily felt cut off from the wizard world.  Lily smiled; Meagan was just about the sweetest person she knew.  She always knew what to say, she never took sides.  She also helped to pacify Veronica.    Veronica had sent her a book of curses 'in case she ever needed to get even with anyone again,' as she said in the attached note.  Lily didn't think she would need it anytime soon but she was glad she had gotten the present. 

Eleanor, on the other hand, had gotten her a cute little vanity case.  Lily loved it immediately.  Aileene had sent a framed picture of all five roommates with Best Friends written underneath.  The picture moved and everyone was laughing and smiling.  It figures, Lily thought, that while I'm in a horrible mood here I am still happy with my friends, even as my picture self.  Lily was wary to open Cara's present, expecting something just as crazy as Cara herself.  But Cara had actually gotten Lily a book on the history of the wizarding world.  Flipping through it she wished more than anything to be back at Hogwarts.

I won't let Dumbledore spell me up and keep me home, she thought rebelliously.  She sighed.  "Oh, who am I kidding?  I can't do anything."  Opening up the vanity case Eleanor had gotten her she looked inside.  There was a mirror and place for jewelry, and… the mirror.

"I'm not green," she said, looking in it.  "I'm not green!"

She heard the front door open and immediately ran down the stairs to find her parents.  "Mom!  Dad!  Its gone, it really is!"  Pure shock was on their faces as Lily ran and gave them hugs.  Lily's mom brushed Lily's hair back off her face.  Her mom was crying, for some reason, and Lily knew that something was worng. Her eyes suddenly shone with saddened awareness.

"Lily, Lily dear, it's… it's not gone sweetie," her mother said softly, piteously.

"But I saw it," she spluttered.  "I mean, I saw it not there." Petunia ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door, Lily flinched.

"Coppertop, look," her father said, leading her over to the mirror in the hall.  And now she saw it, she was still the same bright green, she still had the same freakish glow.

"No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! It was gone, it wasn't there!" Her father tried to hug her but Lily pushed away.  She ran upstairs and slammed her door just as hard as Petunia had.  She flung herself on her bed and cried.  She didn't come out all day.  She didn't open any more presents, she simply sat and moped.  Eventually she talked, but for the rest of the holiday break she was simply depressed.  Her parents left her off at the train station, worried.  Her mom started to cry.

"Oh, Henry, I knew this magic wasn't a good idea.  Look at her."  But in a second she was gone, passing through the barrier.  She wouldn't see her parents for another five months. 

* * *

Lily walked apprehensively onto the train.  What will everyone say? She wondered.  What will they do?  She was so caught up she didn't notice someone walking up behind her. "Lily!" 

"Meagan!" she called, happy to see her friend.

"I was worried when you didn't owl back.  Is anything wrong?"

"Besides the obvious, you mean?" she said with a bitter laugh.  Meagan looked confused.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

"Did you not tell me something?" Meagan asked, just as confused as before.

"It's not something that needs to be told.  Just look at me!" Lily snapped, people looked over at her.  "I'm green!"  Meagan cocked an eyebrow.

"You certainly do have an odd way of saying hello, Lily.  But anyway, lets just get on the train."  Meagan turned and walked on, leaving a stunned Lily for a moment before she followed.  Can she not see? She wondered.  Everyone else has been able to see, she thought.  She followed Meagan into a compartment, a larger one then they had on the way out thankfully. 

They all squealed at seeing each other, happy to be back.  Lily stood still, astounded.

"Can any of you see it?" she asked quietly.  She got five very odd looks in return.

"Not this again, Lily," Meagan said.

"But I'm green!  I am," she said.  She should have been happy that they couldn't see, that she wasn't alienated here, too, but she wasn't.  She was upset.  Upset because as soon as she started to accept something it always seemed to go around and change.  And she was sick of it.

"There isn't anything green about you," said Eleanor.  "Except your eyes," she added as an afterthought.

"But I have brown eyes," Lily said slowly.

"No, no you really don't," Veronica assured her.  "They are very much green."

"I have always had brown eyes, I don't know what you are talking about," she said defiantly.  Aileene laughed and rummaged through her bag.

"Here, Lily," she said, handing her a mirror.  "Take a look."  Cara, who had been oddly silent, finally spoke up.

"I want to see too," she said while getting behind her to look over Lily's shoulder.  "Oh, my…  You guys, you have got to see this."  They let out a collective gasp.

"You really are green," Veronica said.

"Your eyes really are brown," Meagan added.

"I told you guys," Lily said, proceeding to retell the entire story.  Well, everything Dumbledore had told her at least.  It still felt like something was missing, something wasn't right.  Why did she look one way one minute and another way the next?

"But when I look right at you you are normal with green eyes," Eleanor said.

"Yeah," Cara added.  "Why should it make a difference?"

Why should it make a difference? Lily wondered.  She had a feeling she wasn't going to soon find out.

And she didn't.  Midterms passed.  And so did winter, too, and eventually spring.  She never talked to Dumbledore, he made no effort.  But a steady dislike for him grew and grew.  She came to resent him.  But it was a passing matter.  Her happiness returned after that frightful visit home and when the schoolyear was over she didn't know how she would ever make it through the summer.  She was to be stuck at home for three long months.  Abandoned with no magic, no friends, and no one who could relate.  I'll bore myself to death, she thought miserably.

But she had been wrong once about going home.  She was soon to be wrong again.

* * *

I know it's short, and I know it's a day late.  I really am sorry.  Exams went reasonably well.  Not too good in French but I got a 97 in English!  Yes well, writing is my life so I guess it was to be expected.  Who needs French anyway?  (Sorry Le Chat Qui Garde le Lune) Anyway, to make up for the lateness I will use slightly less reviews than last time until chapter 6.  How about 115? If not expect this on the 16th.  And I'll try to get it up on time.  Also, to Lily's Problems readers, I already have 6,000 words to chapter 19!  So it'll be nice and long to make up for the last chapter!

Thankyou to:

Ariana ~ Glad you liked the chapter.  Hope you think this one is just as good!

Arwen ~ I must be going crazy!  I cant believe that out of everyone you weren't on my thankyou section!  You deserve a zillion thanks :) I'm just being dumb.  Oh, and if you want you should join the Yahoo group I have linked to on my profile.  Please?  *puppydog eyes* You know you want to… It's not even mine, but Yasmin (the person who started it) said invite your friends, so I'm inviting you!  Well, anyway, I will talk to you soon, okay?

Britz ~ Hm, what to say, what to say.  You already know I luv ya till the ends of the earth ^_^  At least I hope you do.  Well, I will talk to you soon, I am going for actually replying quickly to all your emails from now on.  Yikes, um, I might need to work on it a bit, but it's the thought that counts right?  Well, enough rambling, ttfn.

Cquill13 ~ You can always put me on Author alert because now I have support services, but I will go on emailing you unless you tell me to stop.  And double sorry I didn't upload this sooner.  I wanted to but I got caught up in LP.  Ttyl :)

Dynamite Rave ~ Yay! Os glad you liked the fic.  Not much to say as I will probably talk to you on the message boards soon.  But until then hugz and kisses!

Hannah ~ Ok, so you asked where I get my ideas and I just really don't know.  I get one idea and others sort of follow along.  Sorry I cant explain it better than that but I guess there isn't an easy answer. 

JanusMelina ~ Yeah, I really am just 14.  Writing has always been a thing for me though.  I am glad you think that I write well, if you work with college students and think that I write well then that certainly is a compliment.  Thanks again.

Kaeera ~ Hey!  As always, loved the review, so cute! I think you accomplished inflating my ego anyway :)  And I'm sorry for the 6th grade falling-off-the-chair incident.  I would have died.  Ttyl!

Kranberries ~ again I just have to say sorry for taking so long until I reviewed your fic.  Sometimes I can get a little unorganized, I'm sorry.  I was shotting for making this different, so don't think just saying that isn't being articulate enough, its just perfect : ) 

LETHAL!!! ~ Hola, what's up?  I haven't talked to you in awhile… And congrats on getting SO many reviews on your fic!  If I had that many I would die.  Lucky you : )  Oh yeah, then there's also the fact that your fics rock, so I guess that explains it.  Toodles. (Sniggle Digger o_~)

Mademoiselle Gabrielle ~ Wow, I hope that Caps Lock means that you thought this was good.  And thanks so much for wishing me well on exams, that was really nice.  I'm happy with my grades, so everythings okay.  Glad you liked it!

Nats56 ~ Grr… I just HATE those little ¾ signs.  Some dashes show up like that and its hard to get them to go away.  I try and replace them but its hard to fix it all.  *sigh* oh well.  I'll get over it, I suppose. 

Parselmouth Majere ~ I'm so happy that you like this, I haven't gotten a 100% flame for this yet (one girl said she didn't like the way I wrote Lily, essentially saying she really didn't like this fic, but not exactly a flame) o I am glad you like it.  Xoxoxoxoxo for the review! 

Tokyo's angel ~ You always leave such sweet reviews!  I really look forward to them.  They aren't long or anything, but you always review and it really means a lot.  Thanks SO much, really, like times a billion – thank you!

Wolf Of Solitude ~ Eep!  SO sorry that I haven't exactly been online when I told you I was going to be.  I am better with email if you would rather just email me.  And some of your questions should be answered in this chapter… or are they?