Chapter 8 ~ The Hunt
When Lily woke the next morning her friends had already left the dorm. Glancing at the clock (which was beaming You're late!! rather boldly) she dressed hurriedly and jogged down to get breakfast. When she got to the Great Hall Cecil waved her over to the table where all her friends were sitting. Remus and Peter were talking, next to them Evelyn was deep in discussion with Sirius, Laura—whoa! Lily did a double take. Sirius, deep in discussion? She supposed that Evelyn's personality balanced as well with Sirius as it did with Lily. It was still a sight to get used to, though. Moving on, across from Evelyn Laura held the rapt attention of James, Lily did a double take on that, too. Laura, in the nicest words, wasn't exactly practiced in the art of interesting conversation. When Lily was angry, however, she viewed it more along the lines of Laura is such an airhead. Looks like James has found a new girl, thought Lily glumly. Why else would he be talking with her? And really, they are sitting quite close to one another.
Lily dismissed the thought from her mind and returned to looking at the table. Cecil was watching over everything, not really in any of the conversations. Lily sat down next to her, James was on her other side.
"Cecil, how come you didn't wake me up?" Lily was a little perturbed that her friends had just left her. Cecil giggled, wondering how Lily could always be so contrary.
"You hardly slept last night, we wanted to give you a chance to rest."
"Were you planning on letting me rest all through my classes, too?"
"Oh really, Lily. You woke up, why be upset about it if it's already over?" Lily laughed, loudly enough to tear James away from Laura. His eyes widened when he saw Lily so happy.
"Lily, are you okay?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well—last night."
"Oh no, your advice helped me fine." Lily smiled a little awkwardly, wondering why James seemed quite this worried, and why he chose to be quite this worried in front of everyone and not in private.
"It did, how?"
"Yes your advice helped, I already thanked you, remember?"
"No…" James looked really confused now. "The letter from your parents."
"WHAT!!" The noise in the Great Hall lulled as the students wondered who had screamed. Some looks were strewn at Lily's section of Gryffindor table.
"Calm down, Lily," suggested Cecil as she placed a hand softly on her shoulder. Lily turned to Cecil and raised her eyebrows imploringly, almost asking permission to get angry. Cecil whispered something and Lily took a long, deep breath. She turned back to James and smiled rigidly. "Where did you find that out?" she hissed. Most people turned back to their own breakfast hearing no further outbreaks and Cecil sighed thankfully. James looked at Lily, shrugged, and answered simply, "Laura."
Lily tried her hardest not to jump up and yell at Laura. Her effort was in vain though, as Cecil did it for her.
"Laura, just because you want to impress James does NOT give you the right to blab Lily's secrets." Cecil glared at Laura, it had the same affect as Lily's glare had last night. All those who had turned back to their breakfast now watched raptly, intent on not missing anything else.
James looked extremely uncomfortable, so much if Lily hadn't been pissed as hell, she might have laughed. Lily didn't mind necessarily that James knew, but she was really mad that Laura would tell something she had asked her not too. "When someone asks you not to tell something, you don't," Cecil pressed. "Understand?"
Laura hung her head and her blonde hair fell over her shoulder and across her face. Damn her hair, Lily thought. "Of course. It just slipped," Laura said quietly. Lily would have given Laura a piece of her mind, but Cecil was already doing so well already.
"Friends don't tell other friend's secrets, Laura." Cecil said this quite a lot softer than she was talking before. They had drawn a fair-sized audience. Laura, noticing how many disapproving looks were directed at her, lost most of her courage. Lily felt a bit badly, she wouldn't wish Cecil's wrath on anybody, not even after what Laura did.
"The first time was an accident." She looked very meek now, embarrassment showed on her cheeks. For a moment she looked like a doll. Laura had fair skin, blond hair and blue eyes, the comical rose cheeks were all she needed to look like a tiny Muggle girl had purchased her.
"Oh and the sec—"
"What 'first time'?" Lily had been going along with the argument until now. She thought slipping about her parents letter was Laura's first offense, but if it was her second… "What is she talking about Cecil?" Lily whispered, and her voice caught in her throat. I will not cry. Cecil glared at Laura as she whispered, "She told James about our joke about him and the whole argument..."
Lily swore her blood was boiling. Why can't she keep her mouth shut! thought Lily vehemently. She clutched her hands and closed her eyes and let out a deep breath. When she opened her eyes she noticed a surprising number of eyes were focused directly at her. Lily needed to get away, no need for a repeat performance of last night.
To the amazement of everyone in the Great Hall, Lily got up very slowly and calmly walked out of the Great Hall. Questioning glances were thrown at Laura and Cecil, but after a few minutes, no one could tell anything significant had even taken place that morning.
***
Lily acted totally cordial to Laura the whole day. In response, Laura avoided Lily like she had a disease. Not that Lily minded. To her, Laura had just secured her status as the most idiotic person in the universe. And just to flirt with James, too. Lily was definitely bitter that she had been passed aside for a guy. Really.
Laura wasn't the only one avoiding someone, however. Lily was trying her best to stay away from James. She wasn't sure if she could be comfortable around him right away. She probably would have told him, but she would have liked to do it on her own terms. Plus, it really did seem like all her fights with her friends were about James, she just wanted to distance herself from him for awhile.
Lily entered the Common Room and began to work. With no preoccupations she finished her work relatively quickly. It was dark outside, but Lily wanted to go visit the lake. The lake, though inhabited by a giant squid, was really quite peaceful. She grabbed her cloak and wand and exited.
After only five minutes of winding and twisted corridors (a shifting staircase had sidetracked her) the door to outside was in sight. Suddenly, it opened by itself. Get with it Lily, she reassured herself, someone has to open the door. Then she realized, James! she thought excitedly, remembering his cloak, and then grimaced. She didn't really want to talk to him that much. But where could they be going? She wanted to follow them, but thought that would be like an invasion of his privacy.
I was going for a walk anyway, right? Lily began to debate with herself. If he caught me I could say I didn't know he was there, considering he is currently invisible. She crept after him slowly. As soon as she got outside she performed the Listening Charm. Being much better at it then Sirius, the charm was much more powerful.
Thousands of sounds rushed at her all at once. The sound of a cricket chirping scared her out of her wits. Then, from somewhere that must have been from deep in the Forbidden Forest, a growl magnified into a terrifying roar rendered her helpless on the ground. She screamed, and clamped her hands over her ears. She quickly toned down the charm.
Recovering from the dissonance, Lily slowly sat up. The charm was still relatively powerful, and as Lily listened, she had never felt more attuned to the night. Sounds of owl hoots, leaves rustling, and the clopping of hooves that made Lily wonder about the presence of centaurs in the woods. Among these natural sounds, something stood out.
"Didya hear that, Sirius? Didya? Didya?" A voice broke into Lily's spell very excitedly yet urgently. Lily knew that eager-to-please voice.
"Shut up, Peter!" That was Sirius. "You are making way too much noise. Someone might hear us." That was odd. Sirius acting…seriously? He certainly was going through a character change lately.
"What are you talking about? You are making so much more noise than I am."
"Be quiet, Peter."
"You can't just order me around you—"
"Both of you just shut up. Now! This cloak is too small to have a fight in." So that was why they were all together. Lily turned her charm almost completely off, she could track them easily now. She started to walk to walk in their direction, pretending to be taking a slightly roundabout path to the lake. Maybe she would get to visit it after all.
She listened to them chatter, then they said nothing for awhile. She followed them by the sounds of their footsteps when they didn't talk. She wondered what they were up to every other minute. Finally, she decided her efforts were fruitless and continued to the lake, she still wanted to think.
The full moon reflected beautifully on the crystal lake. It was humid that night even though it wasn't spring yet. She took off her shoes to dip her feet in the cool water. She walked back out to the field adjacent the lake and sat down. She was glad she had come here, it was the most peaceful place on the grounds, especially at night. Her mind was as clear as the night sky as dozens of thoughts tumbled through her head. Suddenly, someone tapped on her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.
"James! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed. She might have wondered why he was here alone when he had been with Sirius and Peter only fifteen minutes ago, but she was too surprised by seeing him.
"I could ask you the same thing," he said, chuckling. He seemed surprisingly out-of-breath.
"I was taking a walk."
"Well, so was I."
"What was so important you had to take a walk in your invisibility cloak?" Lily grinned. James looked disappointed.
"I knew Sirius and Peter's arguing would blow our cover. Were they that loud?"
"Actually, I used a Listening Charm on you guys," she admitted, ashamed. James looked worried for a moment, then his grin returned.
"Lily Evans, model Prefect, went spying late at night? What would that do to your record."
"Absolutely nothing," she replied confidently. "I don't need an Invisibility Cloak in order to not get caught." James didn't react to her slight joke on him, instead he looked a little nervous.
"Well, nobody is perfect. And Filch is probably lurking around. You should probably go back now, you know." Lily knew there was an ulterior motive behind this, he probably just wanted her out of the way.
"I can take care of myself. I'm a big girl now." Lily replied as she would to an overprotective mother, and she grinned for good measure.
"Well, some things… You shouldn't be near the Forbidden Forest at night. It's dangerous." His eyes darted back and forth. As she moved closer towards him and looked at him directly, she noticed tiny beads of sweat forming on his brow. His smile shuddered and his hands were antsy. He was not telling her the truth, she decided, and considering the trouble that untruthfulness had recently caused her, she was a little upset.
"James, it's not as if I'm standing less than a foot next to the edge of the lake, teetering over. What's the matter with you? I'm perfectly safe." Lily said this really calmly, it seemed as though she finally learned to keep her temper under control.
"Lily, you have to go back to the castle now!" He suddenly shouted, gripping her arm with his hand. Underneath his loud tone there was an urgency that frightened her.
"I'm staying here, James," she said quickly in response, her heart suddenly racing. "Don't think you can just order me around."
"It's for your own good," he said, quietly and yet forcefully, pressing every word into her. He was so close to her, and she could tell he was nervous.
"Why, exactly, must I go back up to the castle? If you give me a reason I'll leave."
"It's not safe." Lily was exasperated at James' roundabout talking.
"I am so sick of people lying to me, James. If you want to give me an honest answer—fine. But I am sitting right here until you do." She sat back down and moments later something scrambled over her still bare feet. She shrieked and prepared herself for a comment from James on how he was right about it being dangerous or something about how Lily just couldn't take it. But he was sitting on the ground almost thirty feet away, deep in thought.
Lily saw whatever had run over her feet shuffle towards James. It stopped right beside him. Then the oddest thing began to happen. The shadowy blob actually began to grow. Lily rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times. When they refocused Peter was standing right next to James. Lily gulped, grabbed her shoes, and began to run as fast as she could from the abnormality she had just seen. She heard James cursing Peter.
"You idiot, you transformed right in front of her!"
"It's not my fault," he whined back.
"Don't give me that, of course it is." Then he yelled, "LILY!!!! Lily come back. We have to talk about this!" Lily heard this and continued running, then slowed, maybe James deserved a chance. She found her voice that had been buried underneath all the screams she had wanted to let out, "Ok."
James came running up to her, "Lily, it's not what you think!"
"I think I just saw human transfiguration, what's wrong about that?"
"Are you sure, Lily? How could Peter have transfigured?" This was the second time in twenty-four hours that someone had tried to convince her she was seeing things and she wasn't about to put up with it.
"I don't know, I only know what I saw!"
"How much sleep did you get last night beca—"
"James!" Lily was indignant. "Don't try to convince me nothing happened. I don't know how, but something happened." At that moment Peter came walking up and Lily involuntarily took a step away from him. Peter whispered something to James and his eyes widened.
"Lily, get out of here." Seeing Lily's hesitation he added, "Right this instant." Lily, however, was firm in her stance.
"I refuse to leave until you tell me the truth!" James would have insisted again but somewhere from the darkness that was the extensive Quidditch fields a loud howl emitted. James looked terrified now.
"Lily, you have to leave, that sound you just heard, it's why you have to go, okay?" Lily froze, whether it was in fear, or in surprise, or in general wonder she couldn't tell.
"But, how?" she uttered. She saw it then, it emerged from the darkness with a huge black dog in tow. Not that the beast wasn't large itself. Hairy hide, long snout, and extremely sharp teeth combined on one animal was not a pretty picture. She saw the dog cut off the wolf, but it headed towards her. She took a few cautious steps backwards, be it that she was trying not to draw attention to herself or that her brain had frozen, she hardly moved. The wolf, however, clambered forwards at a surprisingly rapid pace.
"Lily, go now!" James yelled at her. Lily was snapped out of her fear and sprinted towards the castle. Her mind was too jammed full of panic to even consider a spell to move her to the castle. She just needed to concentrate on what was important—not collapsing from horror.
She cursed herself for even coming outside so late at night. She cursed herself for following James. She cursed herself for random things that didn't apply to her current situation at all. She rambled inside her own head. Suddenly she realized, What about James? she thought in apprehension. How can he be safe? She looked back, and saw James, but in a flash he was gone. His invisibility cloak, she remembered, and quickly faced forward again. She looked again a minute later, and a majestic-looking stag had joined in the race. She gasped. James…she realized. And there was that dog again, racing along after the wolf. It seemed as though she had a whole menagerie chasing after her. She yelled out to James, but the effort left her winded. And she soon regretted it, for the wolf gained.
The castle was so close, yet Lily knew her fate was sealed. This wolf could catch her before she got to the doors. It was probably only thirty paces away. More fright engulfed her, but through her horrid thoughts, a plan floated to the top.
Lily had been called eccentric, weird, and odd due to her somewhat strange personality. However, nobody would have thought she was crazy enough to fight a charging wolf head-on.
Though people may have found faults with her character nobody could make fun of her mental capacity, Lily was smart. She wasn't sacrificing herself, she was simply giving the wolf a fight. She fingered her wand, Mr. Ollivander said it was good for powerful Charms when she bought it, he had better be right. Please, let this work. She cleared her throat, pointed her wand then yelled, "Effracterum!"
The ground broke open in a gorge about twenty feet across and maybe seven feet deep, and as she turned to run she felt the ground rumble underneath her, as if something was not pleased. Lily's brow furrowed, confused, and when she glanced backwards she realized that the canyon was not really a canyon at all. It was much too small. The break did slow the animal down though, the wolf had to go around, not wanting to make the effort to jump. He could have made it across, Lily knew, he could have jumped it. Lily ran and ran as fast as she could, arms pumping, hair flying. She didn't even think to unhook her large, bulky cloak. One good charm and she might make it to the castle. One good charm. That was easier said than done.
She searched through her mental catalog of charms, discarding possibilities left and right. The wolf closed in and Lily was still without an idea. When he was only ten feet away Lily suddenly turned and bellowed, "Claudeorutilis!"
A flash of red-gold light sparked out of her wand as she fumbled to the ground. The beam hit the wolf on its left foreleg while it was mid-stride. When its colossal paw hit the ground it wavered. Then next moment it turned a brilliant shade of red. Lily didn't wait to see how the wolf was doing; she got up and made a breakaway. The wolf's progress should be severely slowed now; she had just hit him with an old hunting charm. It hobbled the animal so it could be tracked easily. The red color was so that the animal was easier to spot out in dark backgrounds, the common lurking places for such animals. The color should last for almost a week afterwards. Maybe they will be able to catch it and do away with if for good. The wolf howled behind her, his appetite whetted. If it doesn't do away with me first.
She turned to look, but the wolf still ambled on. She had no more ideas and she added an extra burst of speed to her gait. She heard the animal grumble behind her, Only thirty feet to go, come on Lily, you can do it! But, she was running a losing race, because the wolf was right behind her. She prayed to every animate an inanimate thing she knew that she would live.
If Lily hadn't of been praying she might have noticed that there was a small rock right in front of her, buried halfway into the ground. If she had been paying attention she might not have fallen over, skidding painfully on her side, her head and arm crashing painfully against the ground. If she had been paying attention, the beast might not have caught and claimed her, standing over her proudly, revering in its prey.
Its throbbing red leg was on her stomach, declaring her his property. Lily felt the hot breath of a snort come from his snout. And as if Lily hadn't learned her lesson, she closed her eyes and prayed some more. Once again Lily missed an important event because of her prayers. She missed it as the mysterious stag charged up to the wolf. She heard a loud yelp and her eyes shot open. The weight from her stomach was lifted and she inhaled a deep breath. She seemed to be able to feel each single rib, the dozen throbbing in unison. She made a vain effort to stand up, and ended up dragging herself across the grass to the door that was so close.
The stag she had seen before was having a large and showy tussle with the wolf, and winning. Then the dog came to join in, and she almost lost hope. But then… the dog started to help, and not the wolf, but the stag. Are they fighting over me? Are they deciding who will get to finish me off. The dog growled, the stag stamped it front hoof, and while the wolf looked so utterly defeated, it still glanced at her with a hungry look in its eyes. She only dragged herself across the ground all the more faster.
These animals seemed to be entrenched in a deep battle, but it appeared to be a battle of wits now, not brawn. The stag and dog placed themselves with their backs towards her, cutting off the wolf's path to her. She scrambled towards the door, realizing that a pair of hooves and a set of teeth comparable to the wolf's would not be a pleasant match either. As she fought to raise herself to the door, hands grappling with the handle, the wolf let out a ferocious howl, glared at her, and trotted away. That is not a normal wolf, she knew, These are not normal animals.
The dog barked loudly after it, displaying its bravado, and skipped around like it had all been one jovial walk in the park. Lily thought she might be sick, and indeed she did stop by the bathrooms on the way back to her dorm. But the dog seemed too smart, they had all seemed too smart to be real. She wondered why the stag and dog were taking their time with her. She jammed herself against the door with her small frame, a sob escaping in her despair. The stag stamped his hoof and the dog walked up to it. There they stood, snout to snout, as Lily sunk to the ground in forfeit. She opened her glazed eyes to look at the animals, and the dog trotted away. The stag looked her directly in the eyes and hung its head. Its going to charge me, she thought fearfully. The stag has won. But it merely turned and trotted away. Lily knew a miracle had taken place.
Painfully, she raised herself to the door and pulled her wand out from under her cloak, where she had stashed it. "Alohomora," she said quietly, and walked inside, her body ready to purge itself of the emotions she had absorbed that night.
* * *