Dum—dee—dum…thanks to all 4 people that replied…I'm probably going to change the rating.  What is it now, PG?  Well, it might go up.  Not to R or NC-17, just the little PG-13 one.  Maybe.  Does an occasional 'damn' matter in a PG rating?  I hope not.  Oh, well.  You'll live.  And if not, give me the date of the funeral and the name of your favorite flower, and I'll be sure to come.  Until then, here's a bit more. 

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James nodded. "She does."
"Oh, hush. I needed an 'Of course not, who could hate someone like you', not a 'She does'."
"Well, it's a bit pointless denying it. Especially since you got into that logic discussion and wiped the floor with her."
"Well, what can I say? I'm good at logic."
"I'm not going to dispute that."
"I know. Because you'll lose.'
"Oh, shut up."
Their conversations had usually gone like this, and it was fine with Lily, who preferred it over their fighting. Neither of the boys liked the fact that she was on good terms with the Slytherins, but they were living with her decision. For now.
They didn't exactly talk to Abigail much, saying that they didn't know her that well, even though Lily had tried to introduce them and get them talking several times. Secretly, Lily suspected that they didn't want to be around her that much because she wasn't blade-thin and a beauty queen, but she kept her opinions to herself.
Serverus had persuaded her to become a bit friendlier with Serena, and grudgingly, Lily had agreed. It worked; at least Serena wasn't clawing herself up and accusing Lily. She had helped her with her homework on several occasions, still, grudgingly, and only because Serverus practically implored her to do so. He was more afraid of the Minister of Magic than she was, and she really wished he wasn't. It would make her life so much easier, without having to practically scrape the shoes of someone she wanted to use as a boot-rack.
Finally, around eleven, they had their homework completed and were going up to bed. Lily was the last to leave, having more things to clean up. She finished rolling up her essays and calculations, when she cast a last look at the still roaring common room fire. She had to sit down; mainly because her legs failed her.
A familiar person was sitting in the flames, which had parted so as to form a chair for him. His messy black hair wasn't even singed by the flames touching him; neither were his robes.
"Tom—Voldemort? What—how—why?"
He smiled and stepped out. "Aren't you going to welcome me in?"
"It seems you did that yourself. How did you do that?"
"Magic."
"Well, duh. Why did you come here, of all places?"
"Making sure you were all right. You sorta faded away last time I saw you."
"I know. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor of the Hogwarts Express, with people slapping my cheeks."
"That's odd." He frowned. "I wonder what could have made that happen."
"I have no idea. I don't even know why or how I got to the Alendoren Cove. I started looking it up, but the library here is huge. The only thing I did was stare at Lucius."
"Lucius?"
"Malfoy. He goes here. In Slytherin, very rich, Quidditch team manager, don't think you'd know him.
"You think right. I don't. I think I used to know someone named Malfoy—oh, never mind. Doesn't matter. Anyway"—he flashed a conspiratorial grin at Lily—"you want to come back to Alendoren? Litharelen wants to talk to you."
"Why?"
"She had a large family reunion, and her parents invited several great-grand parents to come live with them, and she needs someone to talk to. She liked you. Coming?"
Lily cast a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure no one else was watching, then nodded.
"Of course."
He took her hand, lifted her into the fireplace, and, a moment later, they were standing in a fountain inside a beautiful, iridescent mansion. Lily stepped out towards a figure she saw sitting on a bench, but who jumped up as soon as she saw the arrival.
"Lily!"
"Litharelen!"
They raced towards each other and hugged. Lily only came up to Litharelen's chest, but they still felt like best friends meeting again after a long time.
"Oh, you don't know just how bored I've been!"
"I might. Tom told me a bit of what's happened here."
Litharelen laughed, a beautiful, musical, tinkling laugh. "He didn't tell you that I'm having to wait on them hand and foot, did he?"
"No, he didn't," Lily admitted. "That must stink."
"Oh, it does. Have something to eat?"
"Erm—do you have things that homo sapiens can eat?"
Litharelen laughed again. "Don't be ridiculous. Tom lives here, remember?"
"Oh, yeah, right. I'd be glad to."
"Come on, then. Tom, you hungry?"
"Um—not really, but I'll come."
They headed out of one of the many doorways framed in sculptures and inlaid with gold, ivory, and silver, and made for what Litharelen called the kitchen. When Lily reached it, it surpassed anything she'd ever seen in ways of a kitchen.
In the first place, instead of a stove, there was a large contraption based on a fountain that spouted water from the mouths of four statues. It had four long, thin pieces of iron placed at every corner that curled over the spout of water to form a ring, somewhat like a gas stove, only with hot water instead of fire.
In seven of the twelve fireplaces, kettles were hanging, and each of them emitted a different smell that Lily recognized from somewhere, yet couldn't pin down. The tiles of the floor were marble swirled with silver, and the counters were the same, though with iron snakes for handles. Overhead, three marvellous chandeliers hung, iron, though laced with silver and hung with crystal. Normally, such an addition would have made a room look ridiculous, but this enhanced it, throwing a warm, blue, iridescent glow over the whole room. Lily felt stunned.
"And I thought Hogwarts had a nice kitchen!"

Tom moved to a fountain placed in the center of the room, made in the same style as the chandeliers, except that from four snake-shaped hooks there hung four crystal pitchers. He took one off and dipped it into the spouting liquid.
He drank deeply, then passed the pitcher to Lily, who, a bit curious, took a small sip, then another, and another. It was almost as if she had become addicted to it.
The liquid had taken the appearance of molten silver, but it tasted something like all the good things she had ever had in her life all rolled together, forming something sweet, cool, refreshing, and intoxicating. Litharelen quickly reached over and took the pitch away from her.
"That's enough! The first time Tom had this, he had half a pitcher and walked around the rest of the day spitting out his deepest secrets!"
Lily quickly dried her mouth off. "I've had enough, thank you."
Litharelen laughed again. She set the pitcher down on the counter and closed her eyes, concentrating deeply. In a moment, she changed back into the almost-human she had been when Tom introduced them, with a flowing gown swishing around her body.
"There, much better. I feel so out of place when I'm the only one with a tail!"
Lily was the one to laugh now, but she stopped as soon as she heard an inhuman sound come form Tom's throat.
"Tom—"
"Shh!" Litharelen clamped her hand over Lily's mouth. "Don't wake him! He had the rest of the litaleter! If you wake him, people say he'll go insane!"
"Wouldn't take much, really."
They were interrupted by a harsh, creaky, high sound coming from Tom.
"Do you know, if I find that necklace, I'll have power over everyone on this wretched earth? It's true. I only have to find the one who wears it—they say he's at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts. My old school."
His head drooped onto his chest and he started to snore lightly, but then he snapped his head back up. "Wh—did I miss anything?"
Litharelen took the empty pitcher out of his hand. "Idiot. You'd think that you'd learn, after the last time."
"Last time what?"
"You had too much litaleter."
"Not again! What did I say this time?"
"Some mumbled junk about a necklace and that whoever has it is at Hogwarts. If those are your deepest secrets, you need to work on getting better ones." She sniffed, smiling.
The rest of the day passed nicely. It seemed that the time here was different; that they were a few hours ahead of Lily, so they were ready to get up when Lily was falling asleep standing. Sitting on a couch in what Litharelen called the living room, Tom and Lily were talking while Litharelen was bringing food to her great-grandparents.
"So, what was all that about a necklace?"
He looked a bit embarrassed. "I do need to stop drinking that stuff. Anyway, I read somewhere that the elf-nymphs made this one necklace of power once, and it gives long life and the power of no other mortal on earth. I thought that might be nice to have."
Lily breathed again. She had thought for a minute that he had been talking about her necklace, which she kept tucked under her robes, but she certainly didn't have the power over all mortals.
"So, the person that has this, he's at Hogwarts?"
"Or she. You know, if I were a supreme ruler, I'd make this world such a better place. It's frightening to think that it might be in the hands of a no-account, greedy, good-for-nothing spoiled child. He'd make the world simply serve him. I couldn't stand that." He shuddered.
Lily smiled. "Well, I'd do my best to find it for you. I think, from what I know of you, you'd make a pretty decent ruler."
Tom raised his eyebrows. "Thanks. But wouldn't you want all that power for yourself?"
"No. I'd be too tempted, and, anyway, I'd hate people bowing to me—and worse—be hounded by the press all the time."
He laughed. "You'd hate people bowing at your feet? Geez, you're strange!"
"Thank you. No, but really, I think I will do my best to find the necklace for you. Who knows, if I don't, the world may be run by a nasty, greedy someone like Serena." She shuddered.
"Serena?"
"A sort of Barbie doll in my dormitory with the personality of a wet mop."
"I see. That would be scary. We'd all be inventing new types of cosmetics for her to wear—aargh, I'm shuddering just thinking about it." He was, too.
Lily finally fell asleep on the sofa, covered with a blanked made of knotted silver strands, strangely light and comfortable.
About two hours later, she woke with a start. "Uh-oh."
Lily had remembered Hogwarts and that she was supposed to be there right now, and that people might be in a frenzy when they found out she was missing. Sliding out from under the blanket, she noiselessly made her way back to the fountain in the grand hall where she had first set foot in the house. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the fountain, and, before she could think, she was whirling back to Hogwarts in a whirling storm of fire and water.
The next thought she was capable of having was that she was standing in the common room fire. Feeling the flames lick at her robes, she jumped out quickly, beating out a few scorchers.
Lily glanced out the window, quickly. She noticed with a relief that it was still dark outside, but the moon was gone. Gathering her things, she started to make her way up to her dormitory, when a cough from behind her stopped her dead in her tracks.
She whirled around. "James Potter? What on earth are you doing here at—" she checked the clock—"five thirty in the morning?"
He quickly stashed a book behind his chair. "I might as well ask you that. What are you doing in the fire at five thirty in the morning?"
"I'll tell you if you'll let me see what you just hid."
"I'll let you go to bed."

"I'm not going to bed now. I'd oversleep terribly."
"Well, why were you going upstairs?"
"To put my things away and get a book, genius."
"Ah."
She vanished up the stairway and appeared a moment later with The Princess Bride. "I'm going to read, you may commence in your book." She opened it to the visit at Miracle Max's and buried herself in the nutty Max and Valerie, coming up very unwillingly at a "Lily?" from James.
"What?" she practically snapped.
"Oh—sorry."
"Never mind. What?"
He looked a bit nervous. "I'm not exactly sure how to say this."
"Try and see what happens."
"All right." He arranged himself in his armchair. "Lily, have you ever felt really inferior to someone you really liked? I mean really liked."
"I've felt inferior to my cat."
He was a bit taken aback. "You what?"
She shrugged. "My cat is in cat heaven. I will never go to cat heaven. Proceed."
"Oh." He looked at her sideways, as if doubting her sanity, but he did proceed. "I don't mean like that. I mean like—Do you have the faintest idea of what I'm trying to convey to you?"
"Yeah. I'm just making it hard for you."
"I noticed. Well, anyway, I guess I'm in that predicament, and I need your help."
"How?"
"I-well, there's someone I really do like, and I'm a bit scared to tell her."
"Go on."
"She's in third year…and I'm not sure exactly how to say this—"
"You know, Serena Potter sounds really stupid."
"What—" He turned brick red. "How did you know—I mean, where did you get that idea?"
"Instinct. And the fact that she's pretty and that you're a guy. Not that hard to combine. Oh, I'm forgetting that you're quite inferior to her. It takes a lot to be that, trust me."
"Don't insult her in front of me! You've already attacked her!"
"Calm down, Prince Not-So-Charming! I only mentioned an opinion. Is there anything else you want to say?"
His fist retreated like lightning and he sat on it. "Yeah."
"Well, then, shoot!"
"Erm…you're on pretty good terms with her, aren't you?"
"Pretty good. Not best friends, but then, who'd want to be friends with a wet mop?"
"Lily stop it. Are you talking to her?"
"Uh-huh. So what?"
"Well, I was just wondering…" His eyes roved all over the common room, making sure no one was hiding anywhere or listening, and he leaned back to check the stairways. Finally satisfied, he bent closer to Lily, who was running her finger through tousled hair.
"Do you think you could ask her what she thinks about me? I'd really like to know."
"Why?"
"You're being difficult again. STOP!"
"All right, all right. I'm warning you, though, I don't do very well at playing matchmaker."
"I don't care. Do your best, please. I'm begging you."
"What'll you give me?"
"You want payment?"
"Matchmakers in China got paid for doing this kind of stuff. What'll you give me?"
"Oh—I don't know—what do you want?"
Lily started to laugh at the sight of James willing to do anything. "I should really blackmail you for this, and your problem is, I'm the only girl here you can trust."
"How'd you know that?"
"Logic. And observation."
"You scare me sometimes. But really, what do I have to do?"
She shrugged. "I'm not going to be greedy, and, anyway, I'm in a generous mood. I'll question her for you, keep your secret, everything, on the condition that you stop accusing me of beating her up."
He raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you? Oh, well, if that's the best I'll get, then all right. Shake?"
"Shake," she agreed. They both stretched their hands forward, and the handshake ended in a sort of arm-wrestling contest, both of them laughing.
"All right, all right. I'm warning you, though, I don't do very well at playing matchmaker."
"I don't care. Do your best, please. I'm begging you."
"What'll you give me?"
"You want payment?"
"Matchmakers in China got paid for doing this kind of stuff. What'll you give me?"
"Oh—I don't know—what do you want?"
Lily started to laugh at the sight of James willing to do anything. "I should really blackmail you for this, and your problem is, I'm the only girl here you can trust."
"How'd you know that?"
"Logic. And observation."
"You scare me sometimes. But really, what do I have to do?"
She shrugged. "I'm not going to be greedy, and, anyway, I'm in a generous mood. I'll question her for you, keep your secret, everything, on the condition that you stop accusing me of beating her up."
He raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you? Oh, well, if that's the best I'll get, then all right. Shake?"
"Shake," she agreed. They both stretched their hands forward, and the handshake ended in a sort of arm-wrestling contest, both of them laughing.

Around six thirty, the common room was pretty well filled. Lily didn't see Serena anywhere, but she figured it would be best to tackle her while she was more or less alone in the dormitory. Thinking that over and giving James a nod, she sped up the stairs.
She slowed down a bit before she reached the bedroom, her breath coming and going like mad. She was running over a speech in her mind, but when she reached for the doorknob, she pulled back as if it had electrocuted her.
"Why don't I want to do this?"
She leaned against the wall. "He's my friend, I should help him out, I made him a promise, so what is wrong with me?" She reached for the doorknob again but pulled back, not wanting to go inside.
"I'm being stupid. Stupid; there's no other word for it. What in tarnation is wrong here? I promised James I'd help him out; why is there anything wrong with that?"
She sighed. Slumping down onto the floor, she brooded over things a bit.
"Honestly. Truly. I think-I think that's it. I just don't want my friend to become attached to someone I know is no good. I think that would explain it--"
She groaned. She had remembered a passage in The Princess Bride--and people don't look at other people the way the Countess looked at Westley because of their teeth!
"That isn't going to do me a bit of good. It's fiction. And he's perfectly entitled to make a fool of himself over Serena if he wants to--so why don't I want him to?
Over the next few days, Lily kept running over things in her mind that had to do with Serena; mainly opening speeches for the touchy subject. They all were lousy, and she finally decided to do what she usually did when pressed to say something: like the Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court said to do for prophesy: take out your brain and put it in a safe, cool place, then unship your jaw and the rest is prophecy. The best bet for her was to make the best she could of an advantageous conversation.
That occasion came sooner than she wanted it to.
They were in their dormitory only a week after Lily's conversation with James in the common room, alone, and Serena was in a generous mood and sharing chocolates her father had sent with her family's crest on them. It was a sort of study session; that is, they had their Potions books out, but they were chattering meanlessly, Lily attempting to hold in an enormous yawn that was resting on her tongue and threatening to pounce.
She was terribly bored with the conversation, which had to do with the ballet company that had sent Serena a catalog, and how the dance program she attended every summer was going to order these tap shoes and this costume, and at the end of every sentence she was adding 'right?' and Lily was getting fed up. She remembered her promise, though, and kept her mouth shut, even thought the speech she was listening to was terribly long and touched on every subject in the world, yet the result was just wind.
"So after that, Kenneth saw the costume he was going to be wearing, right? And it was the clingy kind that was in a sort of brown and gold and lavender color, so he really protested against that, because Monica was the heroine in that performance, right? And she was wearing this flowy blue costume that was sort of a cloak and sort of a skirt, but looked like watery silk, so he was so scared of looking stupid, right? So then he asked Julian to beg his mom to let him buy this other costume he saw in the magazine, because he was really hung up on Monica, right? And–Aah!"
She jumped up and started fishing the chocolates out of where they had fallen, right on her new robes, which Lily had had the foresight to tilt dangerously on the shelf.
"Serena, are you all right? Here, let me help you." Together, they managed to get the truffles back into the box and the smears off of Serena's robes. Lily wasted no time once they got re-settled on the bed.
"You know, Serena, you were talking about Kenneth and Monica? About how they were so hung up on each other? Well, were you ever in that spot?" She started using a bit of flattery that had to be wrenched out of her mouth bit by bit. "I mean, since you're so mature and–pretty, and since all the boys here are falling over themselves for you, I just wanted to know, and of course, if you didn't want it to, it wouldn't go any farther than this room, you know, harmless girl talk."
Serena was obviously pleased. She flung her sheet of blonde hair over her shoulders and leaned close to Lily, who was combatting wildly with herself to keep the smile pasted on her face and her nose from sneezing after smelling the strong mints Lily could tell Serena had been nibbling on.
"You've got to promise this won't go anywhere."
Lily leaned forward, too, nodding excitedly. "Why, I'm not the type of girl that goes around blurting secrets. You can tell me!"
Serena nodded, smiling conspiratorially all the while. "All right then. I–you promised?"
"I promise. Tell!"
"Well, then, you guess!"
"Guess?" Lily was a bit taken aback, and since she had no intention of blurting out James' name first, she pretended to think, then appeared shocked. "It's not any of the Slytherins, is it?"
Serena recoiled. "No–what makes you think of that? Gryffindor. Go on!"
Lily rested her head in her hands. "Um–er–is it a third year?"
Serena giggled. "Of course!"
Lily grinned back, though she was about to hurl when she thought of the flaky way she was acting. "Um–do I know him?"
"Yes. You know him."
"That narrows it down a bit…" Lily started to giggle madly. "Is it Remus?"
Serena sniffed loftily, a bit of her old self back. "Of course not."
"All right then. I don't think you'd like any of the Sutton family, they aren't exactly all that smart–and I know for a fact you don't like that odd Longbottom kid there–"
"Oh, really! Am I that good an actress every time I go around him?"
Lily looked intrigued. "Around who?"
"One of your good friends…" She let her sentence trail off suggestively.
Lily thought she'd have to run to the toilet to be sick after she was done with Serena, but she continued, gasping a bit for breath between giggles. "Sirius Black?"
Serena turned a bit pink. "That was last year. This is now. Come on, girl , think! James Potter, of course!"
Lily grinned even wider and joined Serena in the largest giggle attack she ever thought she could force herself to have.

"James? Why–why him?"
Serena tossed her head. "Oh, come on, cute, rich, witty, brilliant, Quidditch Chaser–what more could a girl want?"
Lily didn't say what she thought, namely: "Well, all that's not going to be enough if he's completely rude and heartless," but she dearly wanted to. She had to bite her tongue. That was when she found out that it was possible to bite one's tongue and giggle at the same time.
She left the room a half hour later, after making up some stuff about how she thought one of the Slytherins was cute and how he refused to notice her and she instantly regretted that because she got a load of advice from Serena, who was self-promoted to the position of expert. Lily leaned against the wall outside, feeling as if her stomach had been punched mercilessly. She fled when she saw Serena coming out of the door, then dashed back to her bed and spent the afternoon huddled on her bed, not moving an inch, not twitching a muscle, reproaching herself inside, and getting disgusted with herself for not letting her reason prevail. "It's almost like I have two souls inside of me, and one of them continually wants what I don't. And I have to beat that one down."
She got undressed later that evening, a bit resigned, a bit depressed, and a bit tired. Abigail noticed her somewhat stand-offish attitude when she came upstairs for bed and Lily was already undressed, but the only answer she got was: "I had to spend a morning giggling with Serena. I'm tired." Lily was relieved when Abigail accepted that and climbed into bed, as she was too weary for explanations.
It was a Monday night, but the time seemed to fly unnaturally to Friday afternoon. Halloween. And the night of Lily's detention with Professor Trelawney. Lily was not pleased.
Definitely not pleased. She got a note around five, reminding her to come to her Divination classroom at seven, the hour when the feast would be starting. Fussily saying goodbye to her friends, she tromped up the stairs to the tower at the time when they were leaving for the feast.
She was, as usual, exhausted when she reached the top with cramped muscles and wished for a long, hot bath. The only one she'd get in Professor Trelawney's room, she reminded herself gloomily, was a sort of sauna, what with all of the steam coming from the constant teapots and fires. But she was in for a surprise.
It was freezing in the tower room, almost as if there had never been a roaring fire in there since it was built. However, she clamped her teeth, pulled her robes tight around her, wished desperately that she had brought a cloak, and stepped inside.
Immediately, Professor Trelawney swooshed down on her, bearing a large tray about the size of the tables in the common room. She set it down in front of Lily, snapping at her. "You're late."
Lily didn't answer. She stood where she was, waiting for instructions and slowly turning to ice.
Professor Trelawney pointed to the tray, which held all of the incense ashes and tea leaves the students had used that week.
"Each of those have a different disposal method. Separate the similar ones and come to me for a list." She vanished behind a curtain.
Lily frowned. This was a bit stupid, she was thinking, not to mention pointless. Making up her mind to do this the easy way, she sat down beside the table and pulled out a new book on world religions: Theo's Reise. Fifteen minutes later, she stood up and stepped behind the curtain.
Trying to ignore the fact that her teachers nose was practically glued to a crystal ball, she cleared her throat loudly.
"Professor, you promised me a list–"
"Ah yes. Take it. Begone. You have disturbed my crystal gazing, which it should have been better you not interrupt. I have seen your figure, child, surrounded by evil, despair, even death, and…"
Lily heard the airy voice trail away as she left the room with a rather rude sniff. She regained the table and glanced at the roll of parchment.
For the tea leaves with the sign of the Sun, remove the sign of the Sun and drop each leaflet into the kettle, which must be containing boiling water, placed over blue, cold-producing flames coming from logs placed in a circle with a diameter of thirty centimeters. After fifteen minutes, stir for twelve seconds and leave off, leaving the handle at precisely thirty degrees west from your person…"

It went on and on like that. Lily got a bit fed up after the first few paragraphs and threw the parchment down, grumbling.
"Miserable old bat! It would be so much easier to dump everything into the stupid kettle at once and–wait, that's not such a bad idea!" Sneaking a glance over her shoulder to make sure she was unwatched, she took the contents of each saucer and dumped it into the kettle hanging over the fire. She stirred haphazardly for a few seconds, glanced into the mound of leaves, and wasn't even surprised this time.
"Tom Riddle, why are you doing this?"
His head, formed out of green and brown soaking wet leaves, cracked a wide smile. "Well, mainly to ask you where you went last time you were at Litharelen's. You just vanished."
"Oh, right." Lily racked her brain a bit. "I–I fell asleep and forgot that they'd miss me at Hogwarts, so I didn't think much after I remembered that at waking up. Are you mad?"
"I am perfectly sane. No, really, Lith and I just wondered. Want to come now?"
Lily shook her head. "Tom, I'm in detention. I have a teacher in the next room, and I'd better commit suicide on the spot rather than face the consequences of what she'd do to me. I really can't."
His eyes flashed a murderous red for one instant, and he reared himself up, causing Lily to veer all the way across the room, into a table, knocking it over, and finally landing in a heap. He stood up, rose out of the kettle, and started making his way across the floor to Lily, who was lying there petrified.
"I asked you to come. You would do well if you obeyed, seeing that–"
Lily gasped. He had vanished and was nothing more than a puddle of leaves and a bit of hot water on the floor. Puzzled, she turned around and saw Professor Trelawney, standing over her with an excited expression behind her glasses.
"Child, you most certainly saw something! Tell me what it was! You were talking to it, walking away–did you see you doom? Did you see a murderer–a beast–what did you see?" She was on her knees beside Lily, who was still a bit shocked. Shocked and frightened.
"Tell me, child, what did you see? Was it a person or a beast or a bird or a bat?