A/N: Hey! I'm really sorry for the delay. It seems like a lot of authors are saying that now! My excuse is probably just like every other that you've read: Christmas shopping and finals! Oh, and what I want for Christmas are reviews! Lots of nice reviews! (**coughHINTcough**) Well, enjoy! And review!
The next night, Lily somehow found herself back in Dumbledore's office. She had made it through the whole day without making too big of a fool of herself. Lily had no clue how, though. It seemed to her that the day had floated by without her ever really taking part in it. She couldn't even remember what classes she had had that day!
"Professor?" Lily asked timidly, raising a hand to knock on the door.
"Come in, Miss Evans," a voice called from inside.
Lily stepped into the office, now taking the time to look around and appreciate it. On the walls were portraits of wizards and witches, all staring solemnly at her. There was a staircase leading up to a second story, which was covered in bookcases. But what really caught her eye was a magnificent bird. It's red and gold plumage shone as brightly as the sun. The bird in itself was gorgeous, perfect in every way.
"That is Fawkes. Fawkes is a phoenix. Beautiful, isn't he?" Professor Dumbledore's voice startled Lily out of her reverie. "But you aren't here to discuss Fawkes, are you? No, of course not. As a Tutela Iubar, you have special powers. The last was some 1,400 years ago, to protect the world against the evil of the Malus Conluvies, or People of Evil. Because of that, there is not much known of your powers. You can travel time, sense lies, sense evil, and do magic without your wand. Beyond that, we will have to discover. It was said that the Tutela Iubar of the Cimmerii time, the first ever Tutela Iubar, was able to tell the future. How true that is, we may never know. What we do know, however, is that a time of great darkness is upon us. You should begin training for Aurorship immediately. I will make the arrangements. Also, here is a book to help you train your powers. You can train in the room behind the portrait of Jinglewort the Just. The password is Fringle. If you have any questions, just write them in this book. I will be able to read them in my copy and write you an answer. I can also send you answers through it, so that nobody gets suspicious of your powers. Until the time of darkness is upon us, your powers must stay hidden to avoid mass panic as long as possible. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," Lily said, nodding.
"Well, then, you should be getting back to your common room before you are missed," Professor Dumbledore said, handing Lily two books.
"Thank you," Lily replied, walking out the door.
***
The next day was the day before the full moon. This meant that while Remus was in the hospital, Lily could sneak away to her room to train. Though she felt a little guilty about it, she realised that it was for the best.
When Lily finally found Jinglewort the Just, gave him the password, and entered into the room, she had already wasted half an hour. She hurriedly opened the red-covered book that read Tutela Iubar: The Story of My Life, by Genevieve Tristan, and found the chapter that read "Training to my full potential." Lily decided to practice stopping time, and maybe if she got the hang of it, she could go back in time to visit Remus with the boys. That way, they wouldn't be suspicious.
Lily read how Genevieve (but just call me Gen) trained this ability. Close your eyes. Imagine the room around you, frozen. It might help to throw an object into the air and imagine it frozen in the air the first few time you do it.
Lily threw a quill in the air, closed her eyes, and concentrated on time being frozen. Nothing. She tried again, and again. Finally, she threw the quill up into the air, and instead of trying to freeze the object, she tried to imagine a hand underneath the feather, holding it in place, stopping its fall. It slowed for a minute, before finally stopping. She unfroze time by imagining the hand moving aside to let the feather drop, and let out the breath she hadn't realised she had been holding. She smiled, and then began to concentrate on travelling through time. After half an hour, Lily felt that she could try to go and stay with Remus for a while.
Schlurp! Lily felt the odd sensation of moving backwards and forwards at the same time, as well as left and right. When the sensation ended, it was once again light outside. Oh no! I went too far back! Lily thought. Oh well. I'll just practice other things for about an hour.
The hour passed, and when it was finished, Lily could do a simple levitation charm without her wand, and felt quite proud of herself. She hurried to the hospital wing, where she figured she could meet up with Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter.
"Lily! Where've you been?" asked James.
"I forgot my quill in the dorm. I went back to get it," Lily explained, not meeting his eyes.
"Oh, I see," said Remus.
"Well, now that we're here, we might as well do homework. We have that Transfig. essay to do, you know," Lily said.
"Homework! But it's not due till after lunch tomorrow!" Sirius exclaimed.
"My point exactly," Lily said dryly.
"Yes! So we do it during lunch tomorrow!" James said, banging his hand down on the bedside table for emphasis.
"I see the point there," Lily said, with a smile.
The rest of the time was spent thinking up new pranks on Avery, Lestrange, and Rosier. Snape was left out when Lily requested it, knowing what would happen if she pranked him at school. Remus, Peter, and James gave her odd looks, but acquiesced.
***
When the guys were safely back in the Gryffindor common room, Lily went back to 'her' room. When she opened the other book, she found a message from Professor Dumbledore.
Miss Evans,
Please be in this room at 9:00 tomorrow night. The head of the Aurors, Mr. Beechman, would like to talk to you about training. Also, please send me progress reports, so I can help you with anything you need help or advice about.
Albus Dumbledore
P.S. I felt the time distortions this evening. Your coming along nicely!
Lily wrote back to him, telling of what she did that night, and that she thought the time travel might be useful to stop her friends from getting suspicious that she wasn't around that often anymore in the evening. She then went back to her dorm and fell into bed, exhausted.
***
The next day started out like every other day. The only thing that changed was the fact that Lily was scribbling madly during lunch instead of eating. Oh, and Lily had her meeting with the Auror head, Mr. Beechman.
"Hello, Miss. Evans. I'm Mr. Beechman," said a man with a blue cloak the said Vindicatio, Intego, Reservo, Adiutor on it.
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Beechman. Excuse me for asking, but what do the words on your cloak mean?" Lily replied politely.
"Ah! They are the levels of Aurors that we have. Vindicatio is the highest, Adiutor the lowest. They mean Defender, Protector, Saver, and Helper in Latin. Discipulus are the Aurors in training. It means Apprentice in Latin. When you make Aurorship, you will start as an Adiutor and work your way up," Mr. Beechman responded.
"So you really mean that I, an eleven year-old Muggle girl, can be an Auror? Just like that?" Lily asked in disbelief.
"No, not just like that. It will take training, probably by night for you. It will take dedication, and hard work. Are you willing to work for it?"
"Yes, I am. I want to help against this great time of darkness that is supposedly descending as we speak."
"Then come with me, and we can
get started."
***
The Auror training program was not for pansies, as Lily soon discovered. The first thing you were taught was to be on guard at all time, even when taking showers, or changing! The rooms were automated to shoot various hexes and curses at the occupants, and you had to learn how to identify where they were by the whoosh of air. Also, your wand stayed in a special cubby outside these rooms, used only in duelling, magic, and defence courses.
"If you get captured, you're not going to have your wand," explained Mr. Beechman. "That's why we try to train our Aurors to function without them."
The second thing in training was to take a shower and train. Simple, right? Not exactly. Spells were shot at you all around, and the only reason only three hit home was because Lily was so short, and a lot of luck. She emerged with green hair, with a yellow streak in it. She was laughing uncontrollably.
An Auror in training took the spells off for her. He introduced himself as Frank Longbottom. Frank then took her to the workout area, which was a huge obstacle course that you had to get through without magic.
"Your wand is in a box at the end. Pick it up and go through the next course. I'll be waiting when you finish," Frank explained.
Lily nodded resolutely and ran into the course. Kinda like the one at Muggle camp, Lily thought. Suddenly she ran into a dragon! Except for the dragons!
She dodged around it. The dragon flickered. "Hey! You're an illusion!"
The rest of the course wasn't so easy. By the time she got out, Lily was panting hard, and had multiple little cuts and bruises. She rested for a few minutes, then determinedly picked up her wand and half-ran, half-walked into the next course.
That one wasn't a walk in the park either. When Lily was finished, she had blood running down her face, her robes were torn, she had one arm too many, and her hair was green yet again. That was in addition to the cuts and bruises from course 1.
Sure enough, Frank was waiting outside. "Ooh. That looks like it hurts." He healed her cuts and bruises and took of the extra arm.
"Man! Killer course," Lily said wheezing.
"You did better than most. The average person doesn't make it out on their first try!" Frank said, encouragingly.
"Thanks."
***
"Well, Ms. Evans, you have what it takes to be an Auror. Congratulations. Not many make it in! By the time you are actually an Auror, you will be able to do both courses without harm, and without tiring. I will see you at midnight tomorrow. This is a portkey; it will activate at one minute to midnight, and when you say transportium. Good night, Miss Evans," Mr. Beechman said, smiling.
"Good night!" replied Lily. "Transportium!"
