Disclaimer: am soooo asleep am not certain whether their mine or not… some might be, *ducks flying lawsuits* okay, okay!!! I own nothing!
A/N: OMG!!!!! 100 reviews!!!! In the words of my beta "how. incredibly. groovy." *grin*. Ali told me amount of reviews I had and I didn't believe her! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially to Hanna for emailing me, that was so sweet of you *waves* :D . So am just back from a great trip to Amsterdam (it's in Holland, but since am British it's not far… well, 18 hrs on coach), but I won't be able to update again until Wednesday, as am going home and have no internet access *tear*.
Summary: we finally see some actual attempts to get Lily and James out of the cave… does anyone else think it'd be a good idea to leave them down longer, you know… just to see what happens? *grin*
CHAPTER 9
Lily and James stared at the crystal in shock. "It's glowing," Lily whispered in awe, causing the corner of James' mouth to quirk up,
"No, really!?" he exclaimed. Lily pretended to glare at him, elbowing him sharply in the side. Her frown melted into a grin, as James returned her nudge, hitting her arm and causing her hand to slip from its position on the crystal, back down to her side. "It's stopped," James said, staring at the crystal in confusion.
"It's Mister States-the-Obvious," Lily said her eyes twinkling.
"Hey," James said, pouting slightly, causing Lily to giggle. "Guess it is magical after all," he said fingering the crystal. Lily reached up to touch the crystal, causing it to blaze with light again.
She gasped, and stared incredulously at the gemstone in James' hand, "If we're both touching it, it emits light," she breathed, turning towards him a half grin forming. "It's our very own flashlight," she said smiling brightly, making James' heart stutter in its rhythm.
~*~*~*~*~
"Lily is stuck in a dank cave somewhere with James Potter and all you can do is make jokes!" Fee yelled. "They're probably in the pitch black somewhere, lying dead on the floor, being eaten alive by bats!"
"One," Sirius said, holding a finger up, "Lily is lucky to be stuck with James and not by herself," Fee started to say something, but Sirius silenced her by holding up another finger, "two, how can they be dead on the floor and be eaten alive at the same time?" he asked, an eyebrow raised sardonically.
"Oh-kay," Bella said, quickly stepping in between Fee and Sirius, when it looked like Fee was going to resort to violence. "Lets all calm down. We need a plan, not more people for the hospital wing."
~*~*~*~*~
James smiled back at her, trying to disguise the staccato beating of his heart. Lily turned to stare out over the river, shivering again. "You all right?" James inquired.
"Just a bit cold," Lily replied. "We need to try and get out of here," she added as her stomach rumbled,
"Why, you hungry?" James asked innocently, a huge grin spreading over his face, causing Lily to blush and duck her gaze. "Maybe we can do something with the port key?" James suggested.
"Without our wands we've got no chance," Lily said, sounding depressed.
"Cheer up," James said, dipping his head, and placing a finger under her chin, so he could meet her gaze. "The others will think of something."
"If they haven't spent the whole time arguing," Lily added grinning.
~*~*~*~*~
Fee, Bella and Sirius marched along the corridor towards the entrance hall,
"Why are we checking here?" Fee asked, sounding frustrated.
"Clues," Sirius replied patronisingly.
As Fee opened her mouth to retort, Bella snapped. "Shut up, both of you," she said glaring at them. "What the hell is the matter with you? Lily and James are trapped and you two are sniping at each other!" she said angrily. Fee and Sirius suddenly became very interested in the floor,
"Why haven't they just got themselves out of the cave?" Sirius asked, pretending to ignore Bella's outburst.
"That's why," Fee said darkly, pointing to two wands lying on the entrance hall floor.
"Why didn't we notice these before?" Bella asked, before adding. "Oh wait, maybe somebody was arguing too much to notice," she suggested pointedly.
"Bella, don't blame us, can we focus please: We have to get Lily and James out of the caves. Neither of them have their wands so their only chance is us." Fee said.
Smacking himself on the forehead, Sirius muttered: "They're doomed."
~*~*~*~*~
Lily's stomach grumbled again, closely followed by James', causing Lily to laugh.
Grinning, James said: "Why don't we talk or something to take our minds off all this," he said gesturing to their surroundings, whilst trying to keep the hope out of his voice,
"Ok," Lily said, smiling up at him.
James swallowed heavily. "Tell me about your family, I mean, I told you about my Dad," he suggested.
Lily sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair she started. "Well, there's my sister, Petunia…"
~*~*~*~*~
Sirius drummed his fingers on the bedside table in the girls' dormitory.
"Will you stop that?" Fee snapped. "We are trying to come up with a plan, and you're doing nothing to help!"
"If we could do something to the port key," Bella mused, ignoring Fee and Sirius' argument, "we could hopefully get them out."
"You mean like, reverse it?" Sirius asked in confusion.
Bella grinned at him. "Yes! If we can get it to work in the opposite way, it should bring them back to the entrance hall."
"Two problems," Fee said, "One, what if they're not touching it when we reverse it, or only one of them is? Two, we don't know how to reverse it."
"Miss Pessimism's up everybody, give her a round of applause," Sirius said sarcastically.
"I'm just pointing out the flaws in this plan. If we do manage to work out how to do this, we might just end up with the port key back here and then they're stuck in the cave with absolutely no magical items," Fee glowered at Sirius.
"What about 'Accio'," Bella suggested,
"What like 'Accio Lily and James', it's a bit dangerous isn't it?" Sirius said, looking worried. "Plus the spell probably isn't strong enough. Pity they can't apparate," Sirius continued morosely.
"You can't in Hogwarts," Bella and Fee retorted at once.
~*~*~*~*~
"I found it!" Fee exclaimed, causing Sirius and Bella to jump, pointing excitedly to a page in the spell book she was looking in. "Domus Redux, it's a spell to return somebody home."
"What if it sends them to their own homes?" Sirius asked
"Well, at least they'd be out of the cave," Bella said sighing. "How does it work?"
~*~*~*~*~
"My Mum and Dad are fine with me being a witch, but Peti won't even talk to me anymore. She looks at me like I've got the plague or something," Lily finished sadly.
"I'm sorry, Lily," James whispered, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. Lily looked up trying to smile, to show she was all right. As she raised her head James disappeared before her eyes.
Standing up in shock, she looked wildly around. "James!?" she cried out desperately.
~*~*~*~*~
He felt as though every molecule in his body was being torn apart, until finally, he landed on a hard surface, gasping air back into his lungs, looking up he saw Fee, Bella and Sirius staring at him in shock, "Are you alright?" Bella started timidly, anxiously looking over James' damp and disheveled appearance.
"Where's Lily?" James asked, struggling for breath.
"Domus Redux Lily Evans," Sirius, Fee and Bella cried, the ends of their wands touching. Ten seconds later, Lily landed heavily on the floor beside James.
"Lily?" James asked, shaking her arm. "She's unconscious," he said horrified.
