Chapter 4
Lily rose from bed, not feeling tired in the least, collected up her clothes, showered and dressed, and headed downstairs. She found her father seated at the kitchen table, reading the newspaper. She spotted the headline. Two teen deaths; one believed homicide, the other suicide. So, she hadn't imagined it. Her father didn't acknowledge her entrance. She could hear a conversation taking place in the living room.
"I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not going to allow her to answer any questions right now. She's hardly talking at all. They were her two best friends; this is very hard on her." Mrs. Evans spoke.
"I understand that ma'am, but her information might give us a lead to where we can find more evidence. We want to do everything we can to insure that this doesn't happen again." A male voice sounded impatient.
"I know you're doing a lot of investigating, but now is not the time. The whole ordeal just took place a day ago. Lily's in no state to begin talking about it, and she won't be for a while. Besides, she's leaving town today for school." Mrs. Evans sounded annoyed. Lily, realizing the conversation was about her, tiptoed back upstairs.
From her bedroom window, she could see Chris's house. Now, there were two police cars parked in front. Without realizing it, Lily began to shake and tremble again, her head pounding. She felt so weak; she just needed to lie down…
"Lily. Lily!" Lily's eyes flickered open. A blurred vision of both of her parents slowly came into focus.
"Lily, you collapsed," said her father, frowning.
"How are you feeling, sweetie?" asked her mom. Lily moaned and closed her eyes. "Come on, I made you some breakfast. Up you go." Lily's mom slipped her arm around her daughter, and led her toward the kitchen. Lily sat down in front of a large plate of sausages, eggs, and toast. It smelled wonderful, but she could hardly eat a bite. It was hard enough work keeping the food on the fork long enough to get it to her mouth, because her hands were shaking so badly. She glanced at the clock on the wall, and noticed the time.
"We've got to leave soon," she said quietly.
"Oh, Lily, you can't possibly still be considering leaving for school today in your state. You don't look fit to be out of bed, much less at school," scolded her father.
"I want to go," said Lily, ignoring him.
"Maybe it would help her keep her mind off of it all if she could get away, Patrick," suggested Mrs. Evans. He didn't reply.
Lily left the table, having scarcely eaten a bite. Returning upstairs, she collected up her trunk and her owl, and pulled on her grey overcoat. She was so cold! She carefully rolled her trunk down the stairs, trying not to make too much noise.
"Lily! Keep that racket down! Don't you know some of us normal people are trying to get some sleep!" Petunia screeched from the top of the stairs. "Honestly, everyone has been hysteric about you and your little friends. I'll bet you really did get them killed!"
"That's not true!" bellowed Lily, letting go of her trunk, which rolled down the remaining stairs, crashing to a halt at the bottom. She chased after her sister, who, frozen in shock, made no attempt to defend herself as Lily knocked her to the ground, punching and kicking as she screamed.
"Lily!" Mrs. Evans' voice rang from downstairs. "Stop that right now!" She rushed to separate the two of them. Lily sobbed, and Petunia raged. A large bruise was already starting to form over her left eye, and her voice screeched endlessly about how Lily should be locked up for being a freak. Mrs. Evans led Lily back down the stairs, allowing her to cry on her shoulder.
"Can we leave now, mum?" Lily asked. Mrs. Evans sighed.
"Sure, we can," she said quietly. Lily said goodbye to her father, who was not pleased to find that she was still leaving. She didn't bother with Petunia, who had retreated to her bedroom to rant to herself about the injustice of her life.
Several minutes later, Lily was in the passenger seat of their car, Mrs. Evans behind the wheel, her trunk packed in the back seat.
"You're sure you still want to go to school?" Lily nodded. "Then we've got a train to catch," said Mrs. Evans with a bit of a smile, pressing down harder on the accelerator.
They reached the train station at 10:45. Lily unloaded her belongings and wheeled them to the platform.
"I want you to write as often as you can," said Mrs. Evans, squeezing Lily's hand. "And if you ever feel that you need to come home, don't hesitate to tell someone; I'm sure it can be arranged. Would you—would you like to come back for their funerals this weekend?" Lily shook her head. That would be too much for her. Mrs. Evans sighed. "You don't look well. Remember, it's okay to cry if you need to. Maybe there's someone you can talk to?" Lily nodded, without having any particular person in mind. "Good. Then I'll see you, dear." Lily hugged her mother tightly. "Oh, I miss you so much when you're away," sighed Mrs. Evans.
"I miss you too, Mum." Lily released her mother, and headed for the barrier. The train would be leaving soon. A second later, she vanished, leaving her troubles behind her.
The other side of the platform was crowded with witches and wizards of all ages, boarding the train, or bidding farewell to those who were. Lily immediately felt a bit of relief. Finally, something familiar. She noticed several people giving her odd glances, but she could imagine how her face must look from crying so much.
She boarded the train, and found a compartment that was nearly empty except for one occupant; a girl with short brown hair and large bug-like gray eyes. Lily didn't recognize her, though she looked to be about her age.
"Mind if I sit here?" asked Lily quietly.
"Not at all," replied the girl, in a thick French accent. "And you are?"
"Oh, I'm Lily Evans," said Lily, hoping the girl wouldn't continue to talk; she wasn't in the mood to start a conversation.
"My name is Camille Honnete. Nice to meet you." Lily couldn't help her curiosity.
"I don't believe I've seen you around before. What year are you?"
"I've just transferred from Beauxbatons this year. I'll be in sixth."
"Me too." Lily tried to force a smile.
"You look worried. Is something troubling you?" asked Camille, her large eyes looking at Lily as though she were some sort of museum artifact.
"No, no, I'm fine. Just tired," said Lily, hoping that would discontinue the conversation. Camille seemed content with her response, and pulled out a thick novel and a pair of wire-rimmed reading glasses. Lily closed her eyes.
"Lily. Lily!" Lily awoke to the sound of several voices calling her name.
"Hmm?" she muttered sleepily, trying to focus her eyes.
"Thanks for coming to talk to us, Lil. It's only been three months since we've seen you!" Lily blinked a few times, and realized that her closest Hogwarts friends were standing around her.
"Hi mates," she said tiredly.
"Such enthusiasm," said Rae, grinning.
"Are you okay, Lil?" asked Annica.
"I'm fine," Lily replied. "Rae, what did you do to your hair!" She exclaimed, noticing for the first time that her friend's once long black hair was now short, spiked, and highlighted red.
"Took you long enough to notice," said Annica.
"Do you like it?" asked Rae.
"Uh, yeah. It's really you, Rae," Lily replied. Rae had always been daring, and just a bit on the odd side, to say the least. Annica, on the other hand, looked the same as usual, tiny and meek with long white-blonde hair.
"Hi, Adrian, Caleb," said Lily to her other two friends who hadn't spoken. Adrian rubbed his eyes, which looked red, and pushed his long blond bangs away from his face. Caleb yawned and ran a hand through his wavy, reddish-brown hair.
"Hi," they mumbled.
"These two lazy blokes wouldn't do anything but sleep and have chocolate frog eating contests the whole train ride. We had to drag them back here," said Rae, hitting Adrian on the arm. Lily let out a small laugh. It felt so strange to laugh again, but it felt good, she concluded.
"Only about an hour until we get to school," said Annica.
"I can almost taste all the delicious food at the feast," said Caleb. "I'm starved!"
"You ate 127 chocolate frogs in the last two hours!" said Rae, shaking her head disapprovingly. Lily laughed again, and noticed that Camille had put her book away. She looked lonely.
"Everyone, this is Camille Honnete," she said. "She's come from Beauxbatons."
"Hi," Camille waved.
"And Camille, these are my friends Rae Berkeley, Annica Landeen, Adrian Kerr, and Caleb McFaye." The group exchanged greetings.
"Do you know what house you're being placed in yet, Camille?" asked Annica.
"Yes. I visited the Hogwarts last week and met Professor Dumbledore. He had me try on the sorting hat, and I'm in Gryffindor. Is that good?"
"Sure is," replied Rae. "Lily and I are in Gryffindor. Annica's in Ravenclaw, and Adrian and Caleb are in Hufflepuff. Mostly all of the houses are nice. You might want to be careful of a few Slytherins, but other than that everything's cool." Camille nodded.
"Well, I think we should get back to our compartment and change into our robes. We're going to be at school soon." Annica glanced at her watch.
"Yeah," agreed Adrian. "See you girls later."
"See ya," said Lily and Camille.