Ch. 3 - Welcome Home. again
It was almost thirty minutes later when Lily herself raced into the Common Room. She froze in her tracks to avoid nearly running into a small third year. Looking around she noticed that all of Gryffindor Tower had to be there, and as she listened, she knew why. Stray voices pressed through the crowd past her ears.
"Who is she?"
"Why is she here?"
"How did she get here?"
"I heard that she's a runaway from Azkaban."
"No way Tommy. She's way to cool to be from Azkaban."
"They say she came from through the Forbidden Forest and battled a dozen werewolves!"
"How come all of the sixth and seventh years know her?"
"Why was she late?"
"How could she just suddenly come back like that? Like it's not a big deal?"
As farfetched and exaggerated as some of these were, the last one was what caught Lily's attention. "I'm not sure either, Bret." Lily replied, near to tears.
Bret must have noticed, because his full attention turned to Lily. "Oh Lil. Please don't cry. She's been gone for years. Aren't you happy for her return?" Lily nodded dumbly as a single tear ran down her cheek. Bret quickly led her over to the nearest armchair that was at least partially secluded from the rest of the common room. Kneeling on one knee in front of her, her held her hands in one of his, and brushed away her tear with the other. "Then why so sad?" he asked sweetly.
"Because. B-Because I know that I can't ever let her stay here. Not anymore." Then, with one last look at Bret, Lily pushed her way through the thronging crowd towards the girls' dormitory staircase. She was nearly there, when none other then James Potter appeared in front of her with a large smile.
"Evans!" he said loudly. "So, I, uh, suppose what with Ashlyn being back and all that you're in a pretty good mood like the rest of us. Well other then Remus. He seemed sort of grumped out about the fact that she had returned, but let the boy be himself."
Lily didn't reply. Instead, she just nodded simply and continued to try and pass James.
"So I'll be taking that as a yes if you don't mind." He said slowly, noticing her odd and cruel less attitude towards him.
Once again, she said nothing.
He seemed to ponder something slowly as he watched her, before deciding on whatever it was he was thinking about. "So would you do me the honor of going out with me?"
Right then something clicked on in Lily's head. "Remus doesn't want her back?"
James seemed rather startled by this comment, but responded all the less. "Well not exactly that, but what about my question?"
"Why?" Lily hounded him. "Those two were as close as super glue. Almost as close as she and I."
"You mean Remus? Listen, he's just as happy as the rest of us to have her back, but something about him seemed off from the second Dumbledore said her name and he approached Gryffindor table." James answered.
"Oh, well, yeah, okay." She responded. Then there was a large applause as the portrait hole began to open up to allow to people to enter. Professor McGonagall and Ashlyn. She instantly turned to face James. "She'll want to see you and the rest of your dorm."
"Yeah, I suppose she will, won't she?" he laughed, before going off towards her. He easily created a rather wide path for himself, as was Sirius a few feet off to his right, and Bailey yet another few feet off in the same direction.
The only person other then her missing, was Remus, whom she quickly spotted not far from herself.
"Remus!" she called.
Remus looked all around him trying to find the source, before finally spotting Lily and waving her over. "So why aren't you in that large welcome home party?" he asked as she arrived by him.
"I should think I should be asking you that. For once lets be on good terms. From prefect t prefect." Lily replied.
Remus sighed. I suppose your right. Just this once though, okay?" He smiled as Lily nodded. "I guess I'm just afraid she'll run off again if I let her come back."
"You as well?" Lily asked. He nodded, and she just smiled. "So let me tell you something then. Ashlyn may have run off, and we may have missed her, but she's back now and has probably missed us as well. So what I'm saying is that you're never going to find out why she left or why she's back if you don't go over there and welcome her back like the rest of them."
"And if she were to run of again?" he asked.
Lily stayed silent for a few moments before deciding on how to reply. "She won't. She just. won't." she lied to him, feeling the horrible drops of guilt seep through her skin into her soul.
Remus smiled at her nonetheless, not seeming to notice how she had to force hers, and made his way quickly through the crowd toward Ashlyn. Lily watched as he lifted her up in a large hug, which she instantly returned as she laughed while wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, casing him to nearly drop as he laughed at her. Lily knew she had done the right thing even if she had to do the wrong thing to do it, and smiled to herself.
Lily stayed in her place in the common room, just taking her time watching her two best friends and their friends et reacquainted. A few times Lily watched as Ashlyn tried to come over to her, but she only got pulled right back down by everyone in the group. Lily watched as Bret excused himself from the group and walked over to her as quickly as possible, nearly tripping over an armchair and an ataman, so as to get to her before she could escape. Of course, it worked.
"Hey." He said.
"Hey, I guess." Lily replied.
Bret gave her a pointed look and Lily knew what was coming.
She began backing up and yelling before Bret even took one step forward. "Oh no! There is no way. Don't you dare!" she exclaimed with a laugh.
Bret came right at her and picked her up by the waist before carrying her over to the somewhat large group of friends sitting in a half circle around the fire grate. Bret sat her down on Bailey's right and his left, making her the second to last on her end of he line. Ashlyn had been placed in the dead center of the line and was heartily laughing at what Bret had done, her belongings from before scattered out around in front of her.
Almost immediately, Sirius picked up the conversation. "We've just finished including Ashlyn in on all the fun that's been going on since she decided to skip out on us!" he said brightly.
Ashlyn threw the nearest pillow at his head. "I did NOT skip out on you!" she exclaimed pointedly. "I merely took my chance at travel incase I never got another." She said, finishing off with a hint of pride in her voice.
Lily smiled meekly. She really had missed the two of them bickering off and on all the time.
"Travel!" Sirius exclaimed. "You skipped out on us, period, end of discussion."
"We'll settle this out without his royal pain in the ass, later, alright everyone?" she commented back at him, making sure he heard her nice and clear.
Everyone just nodded simply before someone, once again, picked up the conversation.
This time it was Adriana. "How did you get it?" she asked, indicating towards the pile of Ashlyn's belongings on the floor in front of them all.
Ashlyn's eyes lit up brightly with glee. "You mean my baby?"
Adriana laughed while the rest looked on in confusion. "If that is what you call it, then yes, your baby."
She quickly started searching through the pile and almost instantly pulled out the sheath from beneath everything else. She then stood up and with one quick movement, removed a rather long sword itself from the sheath, and held it out for them all to see. A nearly perfect blade, save for a few scratches here and there, glinted in the dieing embers of the fire. The hilt was made of pure silver, and designed, like most swords, to resemble a cross. The silver was flattened rather them made up with tiny hundreds of patterns, save for the sides of the hilt, which beheld some ancient type of a loop design. On both the top and bottom sides of the sword hilt, a blood red gemstone was placed at the end of each of the crosses arms. The same stone in fact, that Lily remembered Ashlyn choosing for her ring all those years ago. Then, as a final touch, on the top face (as the group presumed) of the swords hilt, the initials 'X. L. M.' were carved horizontally across. Then, on the bottom face (as the group once again presumed), the initials 'L. L. M.' were carved horizontally across the hilt just as the other initials had been. All fourteen of her audience members (including al of the sixth years and four seventh) stared in awe at the magnificent beauty before them.
"Right. Well her name is Jenova for starters." She began proudly since no one could comment.
After a few moments of silence, reality seemed to sink in for Lily. A photograph of a man about the age of forty appeared with his right hand resting on the shoulder of a young girl, eleven years of age. Resting across the girl's outstretched arms was a dazzling unique sword of silver. The older man, the girl's father, wore a grin of the strongest pride. The girl herself, wore a grin of the strongest satisfaction and self-pride, almost as dazzling as the sword. Inscribed under the photograph, was a small sentence explaining the picture above. 'Xander and Lunaya stand with the family sword only moments after Lunaya's training completion ceremony. -August 8th, 1974' Yet as quickly as the picture floated into her mind, it began to dissolve away but the memory of seeing it remained.
Lily snapped her view up and away from the magnificent sword towards Ashlyn's proud face. She was just looking into her eyes, when something else caught her view. James Potter suddenly jumped, but it seemed that it was only to the knowledge of Lily herself. She watched as his eyes widened as he took in some site from the sword, unknown to Lily herself. She let it pass for the time being, and returned her gaze away from his now shocked yet slightly angered face to look back at Ashlyn. Her young happy grin reminded her of the girl she had seen so many years ago. She had changed from before though, to say the least. Her green eyes had brightened. Her hair had grown out to become longer, softer, and a darker shade of golden dirty blonde. She had used to have still had her baby fat, but that had all disappeared for sure. She was taller then Lily had expected her to ever be, and she had definitely, by all standards, grown up to be a mature young lady. Not the goof off they had all expected. She was now one of the most slender girls in Lily's year, and one of the best looking, judging by the earlier actions emitted by the various Hogwarts males. And yet she had been happy with her life, at a school of magic, with her friends. With Lily, with Bailey, with Sirius, Remus, Willow, Jade, Kennedy, James. and then it hit her. Another picture of a photograph came into the view of Lily's mind.
Two men sat side by side in front of a large (obviously magic) tent, each man sitting in his own relaxing camping chair. They both looked extremely happy and Lily didn't need to be told twice that they were the greatest of friends. A third man was relaxing as well by the two happy companions. He seemed nearly just as happy as the other two, and to be great friends with one of the men, the blonde one. Their surroundings were that of a large forest with a deep blue river winding through the trees in the background. The men were in about their late thirties, but neither had lost their boyish grins. Their views though, were focused on three smaller objects standing not far off. The three objects were that of a young girl and two young boys, standing side-by-side in a line with the girl in the middle, and their arms swung over each other's shoulders. All three children were about the age of seven or eight, and they all looked so happy. The young girl, with green eyes, blonde hair, had a golden chain around her forehead with a pendent hanging down to her foreheads center. The chain went under the top half of her hair, which had been pulled back. Her smile was that of happiness as she stood on tiptoe to reach her friends height. She seemed to know both of the other children well. The boy on her right, with chocolate brown eyes that seemed to have the lightest trace of rings, sandy light brown hair, and a somewhat tall height, stood their smiling as well, but he didn't seem to be very aquatinted with the other boy whom stood two places to his left. This boy, with his untidy jet black hair, light hazel eyes, round yet thin framed glasses, and rather tall height, stood there, his smile as wide as ever, and he as well did not seem to know the boy two places to his right very well. This picture, too, had two short sentences inscribed underneath. 'Harold, Xander, and Seth sit watching Remus, Lunaya, and James bond together on their father son/daughter trip. This being the Lupin's first time coming, and Xander, Lunaya, James and Harold's third. -May 31st, 1972' Then, once again, the picture began to fade and Lily was left with yet another memory.
Lily looked around the group at all the people gathered in the group. There was herself, Bret, Bailey, Mandi and Katie and Orion and Tristian (all four of them seventh years), then Ashlyn herself, and then Tessa, Adriana, Raelene, Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus. She noticed that not only did James now look uneasy, but so did Remus. She decided to make nothing of it for the time being, and along with ignoring them; she ignored the memory's of the photographs she had remembered.
"Well this is amazingly wonderful, all of s around each other, but I would really prefer if Ashlyn and I went upstairs to bed." Lily announced.
Most of the group protested, but Bailey stood by her side. "Yes, come on everyone, we have all year to reunite. Time for bed I do believe."
Slowly and reluctantly, the group began to file away, but Bret hadn't had his complete say and he hung back because of it.
"Whoa, now what's all this crap 'bout making her leave again, and then all of a sudden being all happy once again?" he asked quickly, while pointing at a now confused Ashlyn.
"Forget it Bret. Maybe I'll explain it someday when you're older." Lily replied and with that, she, Bailey and Ashlyn carried Ashlyn's belongings up the girls dormitory stairs to their dorm room, where they placed it on the once again occupied bed, leaving Bret a ways down the stairs to play with his own thoughts.
The three other girls in their dorm quickly jumped right at them, edging Ashlyn to tell them about where she had been and why she had gone. Ashlyn simply explained that she was just too tired to talk and would explain everything to them on the upcoming Friday night, seven days away, and apparently far to long for the girls judging by their gaping expressions. Lily didn't complain though, she couldn't bring herself to it. Just like she couldn't bring herself to ask one simple question.
How could you come back? How, after all those secrets, stories, and lies?
It was almost thirty minutes later when Lily herself raced into the Common Room. She froze in her tracks to avoid nearly running into a small third year. Looking around she noticed that all of Gryffindor Tower had to be there, and as she listened, she knew why. Stray voices pressed through the crowd past her ears.
"Who is she?"
"Why is she here?"
"How did she get here?"
"I heard that she's a runaway from Azkaban."
"No way Tommy. She's way to cool to be from Azkaban."
"They say she came from through the Forbidden Forest and battled a dozen werewolves!"
"How come all of the sixth and seventh years know her?"
"Why was she late?"
"How could she just suddenly come back like that? Like it's not a big deal?"
As farfetched and exaggerated as some of these were, the last one was what caught Lily's attention. "I'm not sure either, Bret." Lily replied, near to tears.
Bret must have noticed, because his full attention turned to Lily. "Oh Lil. Please don't cry. She's been gone for years. Aren't you happy for her return?" Lily nodded dumbly as a single tear ran down her cheek. Bret quickly led her over to the nearest armchair that was at least partially secluded from the rest of the common room. Kneeling on one knee in front of her, her held her hands in one of his, and brushed away her tear with the other. "Then why so sad?" he asked sweetly.
"Because. B-Because I know that I can't ever let her stay here. Not anymore." Then, with one last look at Bret, Lily pushed her way through the thronging crowd towards the girls' dormitory staircase. She was nearly there, when none other then James Potter appeared in front of her with a large smile.
"Evans!" he said loudly. "So, I, uh, suppose what with Ashlyn being back and all that you're in a pretty good mood like the rest of us. Well other then Remus. He seemed sort of grumped out about the fact that she had returned, but let the boy be himself."
Lily didn't reply. Instead, she just nodded simply and continued to try and pass James.
"So I'll be taking that as a yes if you don't mind." He said slowly, noticing her odd and cruel less attitude towards him.
Once again, she said nothing.
He seemed to ponder something slowly as he watched her, before deciding on whatever it was he was thinking about. "So would you do me the honor of going out with me?"
Right then something clicked on in Lily's head. "Remus doesn't want her back?"
James seemed rather startled by this comment, but responded all the less. "Well not exactly that, but what about my question?"
"Why?" Lily hounded him. "Those two were as close as super glue. Almost as close as she and I."
"You mean Remus? Listen, he's just as happy as the rest of us to have her back, but something about him seemed off from the second Dumbledore said her name and he approached Gryffindor table." James answered.
"Oh, well, yeah, okay." She responded. Then there was a large applause as the portrait hole began to open up to allow to people to enter. Professor McGonagall and Ashlyn. She instantly turned to face James. "She'll want to see you and the rest of your dorm."
"Yeah, I suppose she will, won't she?" he laughed, before going off towards her. He easily created a rather wide path for himself, as was Sirius a few feet off to his right, and Bailey yet another few feet off in the same direction.
The only person other then her missing, was Remus, whom she quickly spotted not far from herself.
"Remus!" she called.
Remus looked all around him trying to find the source, before finally spotting Lily and waving her over. "So why aren't you in that large welcome home party?" he asked as she arrived by him.
"I should think I should be asking you that. For once lets be on good terms. From prefect t prefect." Lily replied.
Remus sighed. I suppose your right. Just this once though, okay?" He smiled as Lily nodded. "I guess I'm just afraid she'll run off again if I let her come back."
"You as well?" Lily asked. He nodded, and she just smiled. "So let me tell you something then. Ashlyn may have run off, and we may have missed her, but she's back now and has probably missed us as well. So what I'm saying is that you're never going to find out why she left or why she's back if you don't go over there and welcome her back like the rest of them."
"And if she were to run of again?" he asked.
Lily stayed silent for a few moments before deciding on how to reply. "She won't. She just. won't." she lied to him, feeling the horrible drops of guilt seep through her skin into her soul.
Remus smiled at her nonetheless, not seeming to notice how she had to force hers, and made his way quickly through the crowd toward Ashlyn. Lily watched as he lifted her up in a large hug, which she instantly returned as she laughed while wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his waist, casing him to nearly drop as he laughed at her. Lily knew she had done the right thing even if she had to do the wrong thing to do it, and smiled to herself.
Lily stayed in her place in the common room, just taking her time watching her two best friends and their friends et reacquainted. A few times Lily watched as Ashlyn tried to come over to her, but she only got pulled right back down by everyone in the group. Lily watched as Bret excused himself from the group and walked over to her as quickly as possible, nearly tripping over an armchair and an ataman, so as to get to her before she could escape. Of course, it worked.
"Hey." He said.
"Hey, I guess." Lily replied.
Bret gave her a pointed look and Lily knew what was coming.
She began backing up and yelling before Bret even took one step forward. "Oh no! There is no way. Don't you dare!" she exclaimed with a laugh.
Bret came right at her and picked her up by the waist before carrying her over to the somewhat large group of friends sitting in a half circle around the fire grate. Bret sat her down on Bailey's right and his left, making her the second to last on her end of he line. Ashlyn had been placed in the dead center of the line and was heartily laughing at what Bret had done, her belongings from before scattered out around in front of her.
Almost immediately, Sirius picked up the conversation. "We've just finished including Ashlyn in on all the fun that's been going on since she decided to skip out on us!" he said brightly.
Ashlyn threw the nearest pillow at his head. "I did NOT skip out on you!" she exclaimed pointedly. "I merely took my chance at travel incase I never got another." She said, finishing off with a hint of pride in her voice.
Lily smiled meekly. She really had missed the two of them bickering off and on all the time.
"Travel!" Sirius exclaimed. "You skipped out on us, period, end of discussion."
"We'll settle this out without his royal pain in the ass, later, alright everyone?" she commented back at him, making sure he heard her nice and clear.
Everyone just nodded simply before someone, once again, picked up the conversation.
This time it was Adriana. "How did you get it?" she asked, indicating towards the pile of Ashlyn's belongings on the floor in front of them all.
Ashlyn's eyes lit up brightly with glee. "You mean my baby?"
Adriana laughed while the rest looked on in confusion. "If that is what you call it, then yes, your baby."
She quickly started searching through the pile and almost instantly pulled out the sheath from beneath everything else. She then stood up and with one quick movement, removed a rather long sword itself from the sheath, and held it out for them all to see. A nearly perfect blade, save for a few scratches here and there, glinted in the dieing embers of the fire. The hilt was made of pure silver, and designed, like most swords, to resemble a cross. The silver was flattened rather them made up with tiny hundreds of patterns, save for the sides of the hilt, which beheld some ancient type of a loop design. On both the top and bottom sides of the sword hilt, a blood red gemstone was placed at the end of each of the crosses arms. The same stone in fact, that Lily remembered Ashlyn choosing for her ring all those years ago. Then, as a final touch, on the top face (as the group presumed) of the swords hilt, the initials 'X. L. M.' were carved horizontally across. Then, on the bottom face (as the group once again presumed), the initials 'L. L. M.' were carved horizontally across the hilt just as the other initials had been. All fourteen of her audience members (including al of the sixth years and four seventh) stared in awe at the magnificent beauty before them.
"Right. Well her name is Jenova for starters." She began proudly since no one could comment.
After a few moments of silence, reality seemed to sink in for Lily. A photograph of a man about the age of forty appeared with his right hand resting on the shoulder of a young girl, eleven years of age. Resting across the girl's outstretched arms was a dazzling unique sword of silver. The older man, the girl's father, wore a grin of the strongest pride. The girl herself, wore a grin of the strongest satisfaction and self-pride, almost as dazzling as the sword. Inscribed under the photograph, was a small sentence explaining the picture above. 'Xander and Lunaya stand with the family sword only moments after Lunaya's training completion ceremony. -August 8th, 1974' Yet as quickly as the picture floated into her mind, it began to dissolve away but the memory of seeing it remained.
Lily snapped her view up and away from the magnificent sword towards Ashlyn's proud face. She was just looking into her eyes, when something else caught her view. James Potter suddenly jumped, but it seemed that it was only to the knowledge of Lily herself. She watched as his eyes widened as he took in some site from the sword, unknown to Lily herself. She let it pass for the time being, and returned her gaze away from his now shocked yet slightly angered face to look back at Ashlyn. Her young happy grin reminded her of the girl she had seen so many years ago. She had changed from before though, to say the least. Her green eyes had brightened. Her hair had grown out to become longer, softer, and a darker shade of golden dirty blonde. She had used to have still had her baby fat, but that had all disappeared for sure. She was taller then Lily had expected her to ever be, and she had definitely, by all standards, grown up to be a mature young lady. Not the goof off they had all expected. She was now one of the most slender girls in Lily's year, and one of the best looking, judging by the earlier actions emitted by the various Hogwarts males. And yet she had been happy with her life, at a school of magic, with her friends. With Lily, with Bailey, with Sirius, Remus, Willow, Jade, Kennedy, James. and then it hit her. Another picture of a photograph came into the view of Lily's mind.
Two men sat side by side in front of a large (obviously magic) tent, each man sitting in his own relaxing camping chair. They both looked extremely happy and Lily didn't need to be told twice that they were the greatest of friends. A third man was relaxing as well by the two happy companions. He seemed nearly just as happy as the other two, and to be great friends with one of the men, the blonde one. Their surroundings were that of a large forest with a deep blue river winding through the trees in the background. The men were in about their late thirties, but neither had lost their boyish grins. Their views though, were focused on three smaller objects standing not far off. The three objects were that of a young girl and two young boys, standing side-by-side in a line with the girl in the middle, and their arms swung over each other's shoulders. All three children were about the age of seven or eight, and they all looked so happy. The young girl, with green eyes, blonde hair, had a golden chain around her forehead with a pendent hanging down to her foreheads center. The chain went under the top half of her hair, which had been pulled back. Her smile was that of happiness as she stood on tiptoe to reach her friends height. She seemed to know both of the other children well. The boy on her right, with chocolate brown eyes that seemed to have the lightest trace of rings, sandy light brown hair, and a somewhat tall height, stood their smiling as well, but he didn't seem to be very aquatinted with the other boy whom stood two places to his left. This boy, with his untidy jet black hair, light hazel eyes, round yet thin framed glasses, and rather tall height, stood there, his smile as wide as ever, and he as well did not seem to know the boy two places to his right very well. This picture, too, had two short sentences inscribed underneath. 'Harold, Xander, and Seth sit watching Remus, Lunaya, and James bond together on their father son/daughter trip. This being the Lupin's first time coming, and Xander, Lunaya, James and Harold's third. -May 31st, 1972' Then, once again, the picture began to fade and Lily was left with yet another memory.
Lily looked around the group at all the people gathered in the group. There was herself, Bret, Bailey, Mandi and Katie and Orion and Tristian (all four of them seventh years), then Ashlyn herself, and then Tessa, Adriana, Raelene, Sirius, James, Peter, and Remus. She noticed that not only did James now look uneasy, but so did Remus. She decided to make nothing of it for the time being, and along with ignoring them; she ignored the memory's of the photographs she had remembered.
"Well this is amazingly wonderful, all of s around each other, but I would really prefer if Ashlyn and I went upstairs to bed." Lily announced.
Most of the group protested, but Bailey stood by her side. "Yes, come on everyone, we have all year to reunite. Time for bed I do believe."
Slowly and reluctantly, the group began to file away, but Bret hadn't had his complete say and he hung back because of it.
"Whoa, now what's all this crap 'bout making her leave again, and then all of a sudden being all happy once again?" he asked quickly, while pointing at a now confused Ashlyn.
"Forget it Bret. Maybe I'll explain it someday when you're older." Lily replied and with that, she, Bailey and Ashlyn carried Ashlyn's belongings up the girls dormitory stairs to their dorm room, where they placed it on the once again occupied bed, leaving Bret a ways down the stairs to play with his own thoughts.
The three other girls in their dorm quickly jumped right at them, edging Ashlyn to tell them about where she had been and why she had gone. Ashlyn simply explained that she was just too tired to talk and would explain everything to them on the upcoming Friday night, seven days away, and apparently far to long for the girls judging by their gaping expressions. Lily didn't complain though, she couldn't bring herself to it. Just like she couldn't bring herself to ask one simple question.
How could you come back? How, after all those secrets, stories, and lies?