A/N Ok, the (semi) interesting chapters are finally beginning! Hope you all like it. There's a bit of a cliffie here, cos I know how much you all love them. :D So, review, and I'll post the next part soon!!
~Stef
To Lily and James's chagrin, the rest of the school year passed really quickly. They became close friends, and both graduated from Hogwarts with the highest honours that summer. Lily had decided on her career path, she wanted to be in the Magical Discoveries Department, the department that dealt with anything in the wizarding world that hadn't been seen or dealt with before.
She put in an application, and was immediately accepted. It seemed that Dumbledore had put in a good word for her. The work was new, and ideal for Lily. She loved inventing new charms of her own and figuring out what different things were.
Meanwhile, James was trying to be an Auror. He wasn't enjoying it, which didn't really surprise Lily. James didn't like being told what to do by anyone, and regulations on beginning Aurors were very strict. Finally, Lily suggested that James join her department, and within a week he did.
Lily climbed the professional work ladder quickly, once the head of department found out that she was competent and hard working. Within a year she found herself in the place she had wanted right from the beginning. It was the overseer of discoveries. Basically, if anything really unusual was discovered, Lily and her partner would take control. They would also represent the department when the head of the department was busy. Her partner was an elderly witch; one who Lily later found out was a hundred and twelve. Not surprisingly, she retired in another two months, and Lily found James himself had been promoted to take her place.
So far, she hadn't been given any fieldwork in her new job, because large discoveries that couldn't be dealt with by others were rare. Then an island was discovered. She was summoned to a meeting one Thursday morning with regard to the island.
~*~*~
The Head of the Department of Magical Discoveries sat in a large chair at one end of the table. Lily sat in the chair next to him, and James in the chair on his other side. They were both waiting eagerly for him to start talking.
"An island has been discovered that muggles don't know anything about. It hasn't been seen on their radar, but it's located in the English Channel. When subjected to magical probing- nothing. Our magic didn't register it. We only found it recently when a wizard was flying over the area. He saw it, and said something to a friend working in the ministry. That, however, is beside the point. I would like the two of you to lead an expedition to this island, find out what you can of it, and map it. If there are any magical creatures that have yet to be discovered on this island, make a record of them. Scout around; find out its dangers and its recommendations. Can you do that?"
Lily nodded immediately, and saw James was doing the same. This was what she had been waiting for!
"If you can be ready by noon tomorrow, I would be appreciative. You will be taking four others from this office, and two Aurors with you, just in case. Any questions?"
"Who will the Aurors be?" James asked.
"Sirius Black and Rebecca Treble. Both new to the Auror office, but their department tells me they're reliable."
Lily smiled slightly. Reliable wasn't usually a word associated with Sirius Black. "What supplies will we have with us?" Lily asked.
"Your equipment will be seen to, don't worry. All you need to do is pack serviceable robes for a week or so, and settle any last minute details. Oh- you don't mind sharing a tent, do you? It's slightly above standard equipment, with two separate bedrooms."
Lily shook her head. "That's fine," she assured him, as James said,
"No worries."
The head of the department smiled at them. "I have full confidence in you. I know you'll do well."
Lily left the office glowing.
~*~*~
The next day, she was all set. A sturdy backpack held clothes, toiletries, and other necessities. She finished all of her paperwork by eleven, and at noon she was walking with James to the designated spot. The rest of the group was already there. Lily recognised Sirius, who grinned happily at her. The other Auror stood next to him, and Lily recognised her as the girl Sirius had been trying to win over for the last month. Rebecca was unusual in that she hadn't immediately melted at first sight of Sirius's charm.
The other four there were Amanda Matthews, a woman of thirty or so that had been in the expedition department for the last ten years. She had been offered promotions hundreds of times, but had turned them all down. Her husband, Michael Matthews was also there, and he worked in the department with his wife. The other two were Christine Leung and Henry Bildermann. Michael was the oldest, at thirty-four years old.
A tall woman that Lily realised was Michelle, second-in-command of the Department of Magical Discoveries, greeted James and Lily with a smile. She said, "It may be easier for you if you put your bags into the tent now. That way, if you have to walk a while, all you will be carrying is the tent."
Lily went into the open tent standing next to her. It didn't look big enough to hold more than two people, but once inside it revealed a spacious living room/kitchen/dining room, with three doors leading off. Lily went to the first and James to the second. She found a bed, a cupboard, and a bedside table with a lamp inside, and she put her bag at the foot of the bed. She found James coming out of the third door.
"The second was the bathroom," he told her with a grin, and then led the way to the door. Outside, the door was a tent-flap; one that Lily felt herself bending down to get through.
"Ready to go?" Michelle asked.
"Yes," Lily replied.
"Then we'll go. I've arranged for all of you to use a portkey to get there, but you can Apparate back this time next week. We'll arrange this place here for your arrival, at 12:00 noon next Friday. Right then, well, the portkey will activate in… thirty seconds. You'd better hold onto it. Good luck!"
Michelle handed James a silvery-coloured disk, and then stepped back as everyone crowded around it. She smiled, and then Lily felt the familiar pull that transported her through space.
"Wow," she murmured softly.
"You can say that again!" James said, equally as softly, standing next to her.
The island was obviously magical. Their group of eight was at the summit of a mountain. To the North lay a forest, thickly wooded. Beyond that was the ocean, calm in the clear daylight. To the East there were grassy plains. Further away, at the end of the plains, a sandy beach sloped gently down to the softly lapping waves of the ocean.
To the South, there was desert. The sand had been blown into softly rolling hills, and unlike to the North and East, there was no river winding its way through it. Lily turned to look West, and gasped. To the West, there was tundra. No grass grew on the frozen ground, and a glistening river wound its way through. Nothing moved in that section of the island.
"It's certainly magical," Lily told James. "No doubts there."
He smiled wryly, in agreement. Then he said, so everyone could hear him, "Let's set up camp. On the plains, do you think?"
Everyone agreed, so James nodded. "Right then. We'll Apparate to that spot there, over by the river."
Again, there was a murmur of assent, and Lily Apparated. It didn't work. She scowled and tried again, concentrating harder. Still nothing.
She looked around worriedly, and found that no-one else had moved either. They were all frowning.
"Lt's walk," Lily told the group. "We'll figure out the problem when we get there."
It took an hour to reach the bottom of the mountain. By that time, everyone was getting annoyed. Lily glanced at James, and he nodded at her and called a halt.
"Let's try Apparation again," he called out. "It may have been the mountain."
Once more, everyone tried and failed to Apparate. Lily held a quick conference with James.
"What are we going to do?" she asked crossly.
"How should I know?" James replied, equally irritated, although not apparently with her.
"Let's set up camp when we reach the river. They're all getting worried as well as pissed off, and that's not a good combination. Yeah?"
"Go for it." James told her.
"Okay," raising her voice, Lily addressed the group. "Something's wrong. We'll keep going, and set up camp when we reach the river. Got it?"
The river took another twenty minutes to reach. By that time, nobody was even remotely in a good mood. Even Sirius had a dark look on his face.
They all took out their wands to set up their tents, but the magic didn't work. Slightly scared now, the group set up the four tents manually. Lily and James finished their tent first, and Lily opened the portable campfire. She had to do it manually, but at least that worked. By that time, everyone had finished with his or her tent.
Lily called out, "Right, everyone!" When she had their attention, she continued, "We'll meet back here, around the fire, in thirty minutes."
There was a rush as everyone raced his tent-partner for the shower. Lily grinned and went into her own tent, which she shared with James. It was bigger than the tents the others had, with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room. James was coming out of the shower, wrapped in a long white towel.
"Meeting in half an hour," Lily told him, and he nodded. Then she took her own shower. Ten minutes later she joined him in the living room, feeling a lot better. "Heya, Fork!" she said light-heartedly, grinning.
He didn't seem to be in such a good mood, though. Scowling, he told her, "My wand doesn't work. I had to shave with a razor!"
All of the people on the expedition had muggle ways to do things in case they needed to go without magic at some point. Nobody, however, actually thought that they would have to use the muggle things on this mission.
"Try a spell," James urged Lily. "That hair-tying spell- or summon something from your bedroom."
"Okay…" Lily tried a spell to plait her hair. Nothing happened. She summoned her hairbrush from her room, but still nothing happened. "There is something seriously wrong," she told James.
"Tell me about it. What do we tell everyone else?"
"Tell them not to use any magic," Lily said promptly. "There has to be a reason why we can't use it.
James had a strange look on his face when he said, "I think there is one. This is the first obviously magical island to be found, isn't it?"
"Yes…" Lily said, looking at him.
"Remember the theory lessons?" James asked her rhetorically. "Magical humans, plants, and animals draw their magic from the air and the ground. The foundation of Hogwarts is mixed in with pyrite, or wizard's gold. That's how so many wizards and witches can perform magic at the same place… all magical buildings and main sites are built on pyrite so they don't drain their surroundings."
"And the Forbidden Forest only has a few really powerful magical plants and animals. Too many and they start drawing off their life forces," Lily said softly, remembering her lessons. "Or the life forces of the things around them."
"Witches and wizards have some natural power, because our wands store it for later use. What if the island is feeding off our power?"
"So whenever we try to do magic, the island draws it in. Swallows it up. Oh God!" The implication hit her like a ton of bricks. "We can't get off the island!"
James's face was grim. "Actually, we can. It will just take a long time. And a hell of a lot of sacrifices."
Lily looked at him curiously, and then at her watch. "Tell me later, we need to get to the meeting. Do you want to tell the group your idea?"
"No, not yet. But we can caution them to do everything the muggle way."
"Okay. Let's go."
They left, to join the gathering of people around the fire. The other six witches and wizards there looked very worried. Lily looked at James, silently asking him to address the group. When he nodded, she sat down, next to Sirius.
"You okay?" she asked him softly.
"We're not getting out of here, are we?" he asked.
"James has an idea. He said it would take a long time, but we ought to be out eventually." Lily told him.
Sirius grinned, looking himself again. "James always has ideas. Don't let him get too carried away. You weren't there for the 5th year incident… now that was scary!"
James stood up on the other side of the fire, and cleared his throat, unknowingly saving himself from Sirius giving Lily more blackmail material.
"As you've all no doubt noticed, we don't have any magic at the moment. Lily and I have some ideas as to why, but I think that can wait until the morning. Until then, please don't anybody use their magic at all. Don't even try to use it. We'll meet out here at seven-thirty tomorrow, okay?"
Everyone stood and went back to their tents, Lily and James included.
Once inside, Lily made hot chocolate while James went to get his book on magical theory. Then they both sat down.
James looked Lily in the eyes. "You're not going to like this idea at all. I don't like it at all. But it's the only thing I can think of, I swear. I've reviewed everything, every possibility, and… it is the only way."
Lily studied him for a moment. Then she said, "Tell me."