Catching the Golden Snitch

Sunshine

~*~Author's Note~*~  Sorry about the wait for the last two chapters, but someone decided not finish a certain chapter for, like, four months.  Now, I'm not going to mention any names and tell you it was Evie Who, but just so you know these are coming out as quickly as I can get them.  So anyway, if anyone decided to skip chapter nine, here is a brief overview:  Christmas came and Sirius decided it would be cool to seduce Lily, but she obviously didn't and used her quick wit to escape a very uncompromising situation.

CHAPTER TEN:  THE SECRET ROOM

            Lily flew into the vacant common room, hair dishevelled, skirt crooked, and panting heavily.  She looked frantically behind her, and then around the common room.  Her eyes fell upon an overstuffed crimson armchair by the fire, and the content figure it held.  He looked up as she entered and gave her a bemused look when she realised his presence.  She raced over to the chair and crouched behind it, straightening her skirt.

            "James, you've got to help me," she panted in a panicked voice.  The chair's occupant looked around at her, this time with a hint of concern.

            "What's up?"

            "Please, just take me somewhere he can't find me," she pleaded, eyes on the portrait hole.

            "What?  Who?"  But after seeing the look on her face he grabbed her hand and headed out towards the rest of the castle.

            Up one corridor and down another; climbing two, three staircases, only to fly back down a third; it was all a messy blur in Lily's head.  She felt sick, but she tried not to notice.  At last they stopped in the middle of a secret passageway concealed by a tapestry of a snowy landscape from another world.  James came to an abrupt halt and started to count the bricks in the wall.

            "Seven up…   twelve over…   What's the word again…?   Blast…   fortificacius ajarus!"  The wall parted to reveal a small room containing four or five chairs.  Lily rushed in before the walls rejoined and ran to the farthest chair.  She stared at him, and he at her, both with expressions of fear mingled with confusion.  For a moment or two her heavy breathing slowed down a bit, but then returned as wet sobs.  James stood awkwardly against the wall, not entirely sure what to do because he wasn't entirely sure what had happened.  In the end he decided to sit in the chair next to Lily's and wait until she was ready to talk.  He sat there and waited for twenty minutes, wishing he had brought his Muggle Studies essay so he'd have something to do, when her tears finally subsided.  He glanced up from his hands to look at her.  She stared at wall ahead of her, silent tears still streaming down her face.  He was about to give up on her ever saying anything when she began.

            "He… he… he tried… he tried to…  Oh, I don't…  I just don't know…" she stuttered through a fresh wave of tears.  "I…  I thought… but then he… and I… and I ran…  But why…?  He was so… and I thought that… that he was…"

            James couldn't decipher what she was saying, but it didn't sound good.  He felt his face grow warm with an emotion he couldn't quite place.  Anger, or perhaps he was being defensive?  Whatever it was it stirred him to ask a string of questions.

            "Who's he?  What did he do?  Did he hurt you?  Where were you?  Have you tell anyone else?  Have you told Dumbledore?"

            Lily's eyes swelled with fear as he mentioned telling Dumbledore.  How could she have possibly thought of telling James?  He'll probably tell Dumbledore!  What if everyone found out?  She stood up from the chair, her knees shaking violently.

            "I… have to go to the, um… hospital wing," she feebly excused herself.  She turned around and ran off through the parting wall.  James ran after her, but by the time he had reached the end of the passageway Lily was nowhere in sight.  He heaved a deep sigh.  Maybe Sirius would know what this was all about.

*A/N*  I'll try to get the next one out as soon as possible, but it probably wont be until Mid Fall break… October 20th, I think.  Please review!  Next chapter: updates on Erin, James, Lily, Sirius, Venus, and Davey!  Review, review, review!!!  : )