* * *
I'm not sure what James Potter did or said, but I haven't gotten any remarks (or Howlers) at all from Veronica at all, despite the fact that I've seen her around school several times in the past two weeks. Whatever he did must have worked. It's a major improvement, but then again I haven't gotten an apology, or my Renée back. Lily has been disappearing at night and during breaks, and I don't believe it's because she's talking to Professor Flitwick. I'm not Lily's boss, but she wasn't even there when Donald Finch asked me to the Noël Night yesterday morning, which bothered me quite a bit. I couldn't even find her for the next two hours. Quite frankly, I've been a bit lonely, though I don't think I will ever make another mistake with mandrakes, ever again.
I pick up "Making Mandrake Magic," "Keeping Your Cauldron Uncooked," "Different Delightfully Difficult Potions," and "Rare Restoratives," off of my bedside table. I might as well get rid of them, as not only have I memorized them all since Lily hasn't been around to distract me, but I have since passed my end of term test with flying colors. Professor Pugsley tried to fail me by saying that I was breathing on the potion ingredients while preparing them. The entire class actually ganged up on her, both Slytherin and Gryffindor, to say it was unfair. I was rather flattered.
I pick up my stack and walk down the spiral staircase. As I step out into the Common Room I see the portrait hole close with a flick of red hair. Lily! I drop my stack of books on the stairs and push my way through the Friday evening crowd to catch up with her.
I peer down the hallway out the portrait hole. I see Lily's back retreating along with Potter. Getting a sudden idea, I decide to follow them down the corridor. I keep about twenty feet behind them, tiptoeing as the pair crawl through holes and slid behind tapestries to get into passages I didn't even realized existed. Within two minutes, they are at the Entrance Hall. Potter opens a door and they go down stone steps. I peer through the doorway after them, and can see the light from the brightly lit corridor below. Potter reaches to touch something hanging on the stone wall, likely a painting. It is indeed a painting, and I can see it swing forward to admit Lily and Potter. Apparently, both live in a barn as the portrait hole fails to completely close behind them. I run down the stairs and peer into the room where Lily and Potter have entered. The room is vast, as vast as the Great Hall, even with four long tables. Unlike the Great Hall, the room is littered with pots and pans and cooking things, so this must be the kitchens. Lily and Potter are on the far end of the room, surrounded by short little creatures all with huge ears and eyes that are the size of a small ball, thus paying no attention to me. Each wears a tea towel like a toga, stamped with something that looks like the school crest. They must be house-elves. I did hear somewhere some time ago that house-elves do all the school's dirty work, but I've never seen one before, in Hogwarts or out.
Potter says something I don't catch, but it must be a request for food, because a horde of elves rush up to him with a huge platter of desserts, which Potter and Lily take. I watch, entranced as Potter converses with one house-elf. After some time, the elf bows, and Potter waves good-bye. He and Lily walk towards the hole, when I realize that I am going to be seen. I take a quick step back out of their view, and bump into something. I turn around to look at what I hit, but there is nothing anywhere, neither statue, nor soul, nor cat.
"Hey!" a voice hisses from nowhere. Still, I see nothing, but on instinct, I lunge at where I heard the voice. I hit something hard, and I hear a stifled cry.
"Stop it, or you'll be seen!" the disembodied voice says. My heart begins to pound.
"What in the-" I begin, but a large hand from out of nowhere clamps over my mouth. "mm-mmm" I try to say, but no words can come out of my mouth. I lick the hand, but instead of letting go, it rubs my salvia over my face.
I hear a rustling of parchment, and then some silvery material is draped over me, just as Lily and Potter should be able to be see me. Weirdly they don't react at all, but Lily makes a comment about having never gone to the kitchens before.
The hand is still clamped over my mouth. I twist around to take a look at what has hold of me. To my utter shock, it is none other than Black himself.
"You make a terrible spy," he growls so that only I can hear. "Rule number one: always leave yourself an out. Fat lot of fun it would have been if your best friend finds you followed her."
"And what are YOU doing here, Black?"
"Nothing." Hypocrite.
"How come they can't see us?"
"Because this is an Invisibility Cloak, James's actually," Black says. "Come on, they're going. You've got to walk with me to stay under it."
I must say, walking under a cloak, much less an actual invisibility cloak, with Sirius Black was a rather interesting experience. As both of us are seventeen and the size of adults, the cloak was somewhat tight around us, so I was forced to walk rather close with Black. He insists that it can fit four people, but that can't be. It would be completely horrible, but fortunately Black smells rather nice, so I don't actually mind. It's really very cozy near him.
We follow Lily and Potter through various secret passages and up into the towers of the school. Black makes me take off my boots and leave them behind a statue, because they make a noise when I step onto the marble floor. I realize that Black himself is wearing several pairs of sordid socks, and no shoes at all. He offers me an extra pair but I doubt his socks smell as nice as the rest of him, so I flatly refuse.
Finally, after twenty minutes of walking together with us secretly following, Lily and James stop and go into Professor Flitwick's classroom. Potter unlocks a cabinet and takes out some cushions, which I recognize as the ones that Flitwick uses to teach Banishing Charms to fourth years.
They sit down on the large window ledge with their cushions and a fire, while Black and I sit outside the classroom on the cold, hard floor in the drafty corridor, which is, as Black informed me, the closest we're getting to them and their fire. Apparently it is not safe to be in the same room as them, despite the fact that they can't see us. I hug my knees to keep warm as I watch Lily and Potter talk together.
"Pie?" Potter asks Lily.
"Mmm, sure," she says was a giggle. "Is this how you get the food for parties?"
"Mostly," Potter says, passing her a slice. I can feel Sirius Black holding his breath. "But the Honeydukes candies, I get them. at Honeydukes of course, erm- ahead of time." Black lets out his breath. I get the feeling that Potter isn't mentioning something.
"What would you do if you lose the match?" Lily asks almost immediately.
"I- well, that's never happened before. I guess I'd throw a party anyway, for the hell of it," Potter says.
"So you'd throw a party even if you lose?"
"Yep, but I don't lose," he says with an air of annoying superiority. He looks out the window. "Look at the stars tonight. Beautiful, huh?"
"Yeah," Lily says. She leans up towards Potter. "Did you know that centaurs use the stars to tell the future? I wonder what they say.."
"I hope they say that Voldemort isn't going to do anymore than he's done already," Potter says wistfully. "It's just terrible, all these killings, and .- and it tears open my heart every time I hear something else has happened. Remember that huge muggle killing in September? I knew one of the old muggle women killed. She was a neighbor of mine when I lived in London. A sweet old lady. She didn't deserve that. But they did it anyway." Potter's voice has a bitter edge to it.
"The weird thing is, that when I visited Diagon Alley after I got my letter, the wizarding world seemed to be a utopia. It doesn't seem that way anymore. Maybe it's that I'm growing up, and it's always been this way everywhere and I couldn't see it, or maybe I've just gotten the bad luck to live and die when I do. Either way, people are dying all around me, muggle and wizard alike. Since I've started reading the papers, I've heard more stories about killings, people being put under control and terror to last me a thousand years. What's worse, is the fact that I know that there are students in this school who support this completely. Some days, I don't know if I even want to BE a part of the wizarding world after I leave school. Powerful people are dying left and right, and I don't want to protect just myself by living far away in a deep, dark muggle corner with my mum, dad and sister. I don't want to just ring Rosalind every five years, to ask if the war is still going on, not really caring about it at all, as it doesn't concern me, because it does. But what can I even do? With the imperious curse, you can't even trust anyone. When I went to Hogsmeade in October, I got funny looks from strangers in the street. I don't know what they were thinking, but these people weren't the people I remember that first time in Diagon Ally." Lily looks as if she has tears in her eyes.
"I don't know what to think anymore either," Potter says softly. "At least at school, there are some constants." He leans up close against Lily, and she puts her arm around him.
Lily says something that I can't hear, likely romantic, because to my utter shock, she kisses him square on the lips.
"EW, gross!" I mutter.
"Never seen two people kiss before, Perry?" Black barks.
"What? Of course I have," I snap. "I've seen far worse in fact. It's just that.."
"One of the parties involved has your best friend's face," he finishes for me. I look at Sirius Black, startled. "I know what you mean. This is weird for me too. I've known James for the past twelve years, and I've never seen him like this before, not ever. He's been going scatterbrained on me all week, forgetting things and being late left and right. It's like something came over him, I guess it's . love."
"Or lust," I say, peering over at them. "They need a room."
"They HAVE a room," Black says. "Let's leave them to it. Besides I have work to do."
####
Author's note: That chapter was short, but I don't know when I can post (or write) again for at least the next week or so considering I am not allowed to do anything online (I'm sneaking to finish this right now) until my PILE of summer homework is done, at least in large doses. Then there's the whole matter of school and more piles of homework. I will try to get as much up as I can write or think of and maybe get to this damn dance!
PS bored? r/r another of my stories, they don't bite (except for the Lupin one)
I'm not sure what James Potter did or said, but I haven't gotten any remarks (or Howlers) at all from Veronica at all, despite the fact that I've seen her around school several times in the past two weeks. Whatever he did must have worked. It's a major improvement, but then again I haven't gotten an apology, or my Renée back. Lily has been disappearing at night and during breaks, and I don't believe it's because she's talking to Professor Flitwick. I'm not Lily's boss, but she wasn't even there when Donald Finch asked me to the Noël Night yesterday morning, which bothered me quite a bit. I couldn't even find her for the next two hours. Quite frankly, I've been a bit lonely, though I don't think I will ever make another mistake with mandrakes, ever again.
I pick up "Making Mandrake Magic," "Keeping Your Cauldron Uncooked," "Different Delightfully Difficult Potions," and "Rare Restoratives," off of my bedside table. I might as well get rid of them, as not only have I memorized them all since Lily hasn't been around to distract me, but I have since passed my end of term test with flying colors. Professor Pugsley tried to fail me by saying that I was breathing on the potion ingredients while preparing them. The entire class actually ganged up on her, both Slytherin and Gryffindor, to say it was unfair. I was rather flattered.
I pick up my stack and walk down the spiral staircase. As I step out into the Common Room I see the portrait hole close with a flick of red hair. Lily! I drop my stack of books on the stairs and push my way through the Friday evening crowd to catch up with her.
I peer down the hallway out the portrait hole. I see Lily's back retreating along with Potter. Getting a sudden idea, I decide to follow them down the corridor. I keep about twenty feet behind them, tiptoeing as the pair crawl through holes and slid behind tapestries to get into passages I didn't even realized existed. Within two minutes, they are at the Entrance Hall. Potter opens a door and they go down stone steps. I peer through the doorway after them, and can see the light from the brightly lit corridor below. Potter reaches to touch something hanging on the stone wall, likely a painting. It is indeed a painting, and I can see it swing forward to admit Lily and Potter. Apparently, both live in a barn as the portrait hole fails to completely close behind them. I run down the stairs and peer into the room where Lily and Potter have entered. The room is vast, as vast as the Great Hall, even with four long tables. Unlike the Great Hall, the room is littered with pots and pans and cooking things, so this must be the kitchens. Lily and Potter are on the far end of the room, surrounded by short little creatures all with huge ears and eyes that are the size of a small ball, thus paying no attention to me. Each wears a tea towel like a toga, stamped with something that looks like the school crest. They must be house-elves. I did hear somewhere some time ago that house-elves do all the school's dirty work, but I've never seen one before, in Hogwarts or out.
Potter says something I don't catch, but it must be a request for food, because a horde of elves rush up to him with a huge platter of desserts, which Potter and Lily take. I watch, entranced as Potter converses with one house-elf. After some time, the elf bows, and Potter waves good-bye. He and Lily walk towards the hole, when I realize that I am going to be seen. I take a quick step back out of their view, and bump into something. I turn around to look at what I hit, but there is nothing anywhere, neither statue, nor soul, nor cat.
"Hey!" a voice hisses from nowhere. Still, I see nothing, but on instinct, I lunge at where I heard the voice. I hit something hard, and I hear a stifled cry.
"Stop it, or you'll be seen!" the disembodied voice says. My heart begins to pound.
"What in the-" I begin, but a large hand from out of nowhere clamps over my mouth. "mm-mmm" I try to say, but no words can come out of my mouth. I lick the hand, but instead of letting go, it rubs my salvia over my face.
I hear a rustling of parchment, and then some silvery material is draped over me, just as Lily and Potter should be able to be see me. Weirdly they don't react at all, but Lily makes a comment about having never gone to the kitchens before.
The hand is still clamped over my mouth. I twist around to take a look at what has hold of me. To my utter shock, it is none other than Black himself.
"You make a terrible spy," he growls so that only I can hear. "Rule number one: always leave yourself an out. Fat lot of fun it would have been if your best friend finds you followed her."
"And what are YOU doing here, Black?"
"Nothing." Hypocrite.
"How come they can't see us?"
"Because this is an Invisibility Cloak, James's actually," Black says. "Come on, they're going. You've got to walk with me to stay under it."
I must say, walking under a cloak, much less an actual invisibility cloak, with Sirius Black was a rather interesting experience. As both of us are seventeen and the size of adults, the cloak was somewhat tight around us, so I was forced to walk rather close with Black. He insists that it can fit four people, but that can't be. It would be completely horrible, but fortunately Black smells rather nice, so I don't actually mind. It's really very cozy near him.
We follow Lily and Potter through various secret passages and up into the towers of the school. Black makes me take off my boots and leave them behind a statue, because they make a noise when I step onto the marble floor. I realize that Black himself is wearing several pairs of sordid socks, and no shoes at all. He offers me an extra pair but I doubt his socks smell as nice as the rest of him, so I flatly refuse.
Finally, after twenty minutes of walking together with us secretly following, Lily and James stop and go into Professor Flitwick's classroom. Potter unlocks a cabinet and takes out some cushions, which I recognize as the ones that Flitwick uses to teach Banishing Charms to fourth years.
They sit down on the large window ledge with their cushions and a fire, while Black and I sit outside the classroom on the cold, hard floor in the drafty corridor, which is, as Black informed me, the closest we're getting to them and their fire. Apparently it is not safe to be in the same room as them, despite the fact that they can't see us. I hug my knees to keep warm as I watch Lily and Potter talk together.
"Pie?" Potter asks Lily.
"Mmm, sure," she says was a giggle. "Is this how you get the food for parties?"
"Mostly," Potter says, passing her a slice. I can feel Sirius Black holding his breath. "But the Honeydukes candies, I get them. at Honeydukes of course, erm- ahead of time." Black lets out his breath. I get the feeling that Potter isn't mentioning something.
"What would you do if you lose the match?" Lily asks almost immediately.
"I- well, that's never happened before. I guess I'd throw a party anyway, for the hell of it," Potter says.
"So you'd throw a party even if you lose?"
"Yep, but I don't lose," he says with an air of annoying superiority. He looks out the window. "Look at the stars tonight. Beautiful, huh?"
"Yeah," Lily says. She leans up towards Potter. "Did you know that centaurs use the stars to tell the future? I wonder what they say.."
"I hope they say that Voldemort isn't going to do anymore than he's done already," Potter says wistfully. "It's just terrible, all these killings, and .- and it tears open my heart every time I hear something else has happened. Remember that huge muggle killing in September? I knew one of the old muggle women killed. She was a neighbor of mine when I lived in London. A sweet old lady. She didn't deserve that. But they did it anyway." Potter's voice has a bitter edge to it.
"The weird thing is, that when I visited Diagon Alley after I got my letter, the wizarding world seemed to be a utopia. It doesn't seem that way anymore. Maybe it's that I'm growing up, and it's always been this way everywhere and I couldn't see it, or maybe I've just gotten the bad luck to live and die when I do. Either way, people are dying all around me, muggle and wizard alike. Since I've started reading the papers, I've heard more stories about killings, people being put under control and terror to last me a thousand years. What's worse, is the fact that I know that there are students in this school who support this completely. Some days, I don't know if I even want to BE a part of the wizarding world after I leave school. Powerful people are dying left and right, and I don't want to protect just myself by living far away in a deep, dark muggle corner with my mum, dad and sister. I don't want to just ring Rosalind every five years, to ask if the war is still going on, not really caring about it at all, as it doesn't concern me, because it does. But what can I even do? With the imperious curse, you can't even trust anyone. When I went to Hogsmeade in October, I got funny looks from strangers in the street. I don't know what they were thinking, but these people weren't the people I remember that first time in Diagon Ally." Lily looks as if she has tears in her eyes.
"I don't know what to think anymore either," Potter says softly. "At least at school, there are some constants." He leans up close against Lily, and she puts her arm around him.
Lily says something that I can't hear, likely romantic, because to my utter shock, she kisses him square on the lips.
"EW, gross!" I mutter.
"Never seen two people kiss before, Perry?" Black barks.
"What? Of course I have," I snap. "I've seen far worse in fact. It's just that.."
"One of the parties involved has your best friend's face," he finishes for me. I look at Sirius Black, startled. "I know what you mean. This is weird for me too. I've known James for the past twelve years, and I've never seen him like this before, not ever. He's been going scatterbrained on me all week, forgetting things and being late left and right. It's like something came over him, I guess it's . love."
"Or lust," I say, peering over at them. "They need a room."
"They HAVE a room," Black says. "Let's leave them to it. Besides I have work to do."
####
Author's note: That chapter was short, but I don't know when I can post (or write) again for at least the next week or so considering I am not allowed to do anything online (I'm sneaking to finish this right now) until my PILE of summer homework is done, at least in large doses. Then there's the whole matter of school and more piles of homework. I will try to get as much up as I can write or think of and maybe get to this damn dance!
PS bored? r/r another of my stories, they don't bite (except for the Lupin one)
